Seminar 11.

Theory

1. Which types of word-groups are there in English and Ukrainian? What is the semantic
loading of genuine syntactically free word-groups?

The word-group in both contrasted languages consists of two or more

grammatically connected notional parts of speech expressing some content.
Word-groups in English and Ukrainian may be: 1) syntactically free
combinations of words like to learn much, to learn hard, to learn quickly, to
learn well, to learn there/here, etc. or 2) idiomatically bound (constant)
collocations, i. e. unchanged for the given sense word-combinations as to
have dinner/supper, to take measures, to throw light, Hobson's choice, etc.
Free word-groups or word-combinations exist alongside of prepositional
phrases which are often considered even to be of the same nature as the
idiomatic word-groups [7]. Genuine syntactically free word-groups, unlike
prepositional phrases, are used to name actions (quick reading), objects (a
new hat), state of objects (the house ablaze), number or quantity (two thirds,
the first three); also they may give characteristics of an action (singing well,
going quickly, arriving first — новий капелюх, йому/Миколі страшно, дві
третіх, перші три, швидко йти, гарно читати).

2. What common features are observed in both contrasted languages from the structural
aspect? Characterize two structural types of word-groups: simple or elementary and
structurally more complicated free word-groups.
Common features are also observed in the structural forms of word-groups
in the contrasted languages. They are:
Simple or elementary word-groups which consist of two immediate
components /ICs/ connected with the help of one grammatical means
(synthetic or analytical): this book — these books, to see her; to read well; nice
flowers; cotton yarn, people of rank; ця книжка — ці книжки, бачити її;
гарно читати, дуже добре, зайти у фойє, вийти з метро.
Equally common in English and Ukrainian are word-groups of complicated
structure and grammatical form, i. e. with two ways of grammatical
connection of their ICs or expressing different grammatical relations, eg:
writing and reading letters (co-ordinate and analytical forms of connection),
these books and magazines (synthetic and co-ordinate connection), to see
Mike driving a car (analytical and predicative) — ці книжки та журнали,
застати двері зачиненими, бачити когось у метро, носити кімоно
останньої моди.
2. There are also structurally more complicated free word-groups in both
languages, eg: those long sentences for you to analyze and translate — ті
 довгі речення тобі для аналізу й перекладу. In this English word-group and
its Ukrainian semantic equivalent one can identify different grammatical
relations: a) attributive (those long sentences) and predicative (sentences for
you to analyze). Besides, the ways of syntactic connection are different:
subordination with synthetic agreement in the initial part (those long
sentences) and co-ordination (to read and analyze) in the second part of the
word-group. In the Ukrainian equivalent word-group there is no secondary
predication available in the English variant
3. What is syndetic and asyndetic connection? In what types of word-groups is such
connection found?
Hence, there is no mostly qualitative and quantitative correlation between
the means of grammatical connection of different constituents in English vs.
Ukrainian free word-groups. Since present-day English is mainly analytical by
its structure, the predominant means of its grammatical connection in word-
groups are naturally analytical. They are syndetic (prepositional) and
asyndetic (syntactic placement). These two forms of analytical connection
are very often of equal semantic relevance, as a result of which they are
often interchangeable, as in the following substantival word-groups:

Syndetic connection Asyndetic connection

books/or home reading home-reading books
production of sugar cane sugar cane production
books at the institute library the institute library books

Syndetic and asyndetic connection, as will be shown further, is observed in

verbal, adjectival, numerical, pronominal, adverbial and statival word-groups,
eg: to read books, to see well, red from anger, he himself, we all, four of the
workers, well enough, afraid to read, afraid of that, ashamed to speak, etc.
Hence, the word-groups, traditionally objective by their syntactic relation
like to ask Pete/somebody, reading books, to receive four/five, to invite all,
good for all, etc. have in English an analytical form of connection, whereas
these same word-groups in Ukrainian have a synthetic or analytico-synthetic
connection: запитувати Петра/когось, читання книжок, одержати
четвірку, добре для Петра/для мене, зайти першим, думати про
старих і малих, просити до столу.

4. What is syndetic government? In what types of word-groups is analytical and syndetic

government observed?
Synthetic government in English can be observed only in verbal word-groups
having the following structural patterns: 1) the Vmf + Iobj or 2) Ving+ Iobj
with the pronoun in the objective case form, eg: to see him (her, them,
whom), seeing him (her, them, etc.). The analytical and synthetic
government is observed in all other kinds of English word-groups with these
 same objective case pronouns, eg: reference to him them, four of them, none
of whom, much for me, depend on her, afraid of them/us.

5. Where is syndetic agreement used?

As to synthetic agreement/concord, its use is restricted in present-day
English, as was mentioned, to six patterns of substantival word-groups, in
which adjuncts are the demonstrative pronouns this/that -these/those, such
a/such + Nsing. — Nplur.: this/that book — these/those books, such a
case/such cases; many a girl — many girls (of this age).

6. What is the functional loading of numerals in English and Ukrainian word-groups?

Cardinal numerals functioning as adjuncts in English substantival word-groups are only in
lexical agreement (unlike Ukrainian) with their head nouns, eg: one book, twenty one
books; one boy - one girl, one deer/ sheep — two deer/sheep. It is not so in Ukrainian
where cardinal numerals may have number, gender and case distinctions (synthetic
agreement). Cf. один хлопець - одна дівчина, десятьох хлопців -десятьом
хлопям/дівчатам, etc. The same syntactic connection is also inherent in ofher Ukrainian
notional parts of speech (nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns and participles), which,
when used as adjuncts, mostly agree with the head-word in number, case and gender
(though not without exceptions), eg: рання весна — ранньої весни — ранній весні —
ранньою весною; ранні весни — ранніх весен; один день — одного дня; два дні — дві
ночі; працюючий апарат — працююча зміна, працююче колесо.
7. Is synthetic government predominant in Ukrainian? Prove the idea.
No less striking is also the presentation of synthetic or analytic and synthetic
government in the contrasted languages, these ways of connection are
predominant in Ukrainian. This is because in English only some personal
pronouns have the objective case form (cf. to see me, her, them, him, us),
whereas in Ukrainian almost all nominal parts of speech are declinable, i.e.
can be governed. Eg: бачити Петра/Марію, знати першого/другу,
перев'язувати пораненого, задоволений чорним/обома, двома, etc.

8. What means of connection are predominant in Ukrainian and English? What pattern of
word-groups is common in both languages?
It goes without saying that amorphous components in any language can be
connected with the help of analytical means only (both syndetically and
asyndetically). Since in English the analytical way of connection prevails in all
kinds of word-groups and in Ukrainian — the synthetic means of connection
is predominant, their role and correlation can not be the same, as can be
seen from the following table of comparison:

Type of syntactic connection In English In Ukrainian

1 . Synthetic (agreement and much less common absolutely
government) dominant
 2. Analytical connection (syndetic and absolutely much less
asyndetic) dominant common

9. What types of word-groups have extended or expanded complements?

The Ukrainian language is far from devoid of analytical (syndetic and
asyndetic) connection either. Cf. брати таксі, носити кімоно, бути в
галіфе/у фойє для глядачів. Common in both languages are also the V + D
pattern word-groups with syntactic juxtaposition (analytical connection) of
components, eg:

In English In Ukrainian
to come soon, to learn well, going quickly, скоро прийти, добре вчитися, йдучи
going home, take slowly/ go there, make швидко/йдучи додому, заходити туди/
sure, etc. зайшовши туди, вийти звідти.
Verbal and substantival word-groups with extended or expanded
complements and adjuncts often have an analytical asyndetic connection in
both languages as well, eg:

In English In Ukrainian
/not/ to distinguish A from Z, to feel lonely and не знати ні бе, ні ме; почуватися одиноко і
desperate, to love Shevchenko the painter, the розгублено, любити кіно, фільм "Живі й
film "They chose freedom". мертві", телепередача "Екран для малят".

10. Do patterns having asyndetic connection of components in substantival word-groups

pertain to English?
Pertaining to English only are substantival word-groups of the NN, NNN, etc.
patterns having asyndetic connection of components. For example: cotton
yarn, cotton yarn production, cotton yarn production figures; Kyiv street
traffic, Kyiv street traffic violations, the university library books readers, etc.
No such asyndetically connected noun word-groups are available in
Ukrainian, of course.

Both languages have combinations of a noun with its attribute, a verb with
an object, an adverb with the headword expressed by a verb, an adjective, or
another adverb. At the same time, there are some differences in the
structure of attributive phrases.

11.What is the noun phrase? What are the morphological characteristics of adjuncts in noun
phrases?
In Noun phrases the attributive complements may be in pre-position or in
postposition to the noun head. Their way of connection is analytical in
English and synthetic in Ukrainian, though not without exceptions.
 The noun phrase is the main construction, which can appear as the subject,
object, or complement of a clause. It consists essentially of a noun or noun like
word, which is the most important constituent of the phrase: a fat cat, the
horses in the stable, the poor, ten Chinese. Sometimes the noun appears alone
or accompanied by one or more other constituents, some of which are
themselves fairly complex syntactic units in their own right. As a result, noun
phrases are more varied in their construction than any other kind of phrase in
English.
In Ukrainian, the adjunct of the phrase is frequently expressed by an adjective.
In the same cases, many English phrases are made up of two nouns. One of the
reasons for that is the fact that there are fewer relative adjectives in English.
Therefore, when the kernel and the adjunct denote two connected objects
(e.g. the thing and the material it is made from; the factory and the product
made by it, etc.) the English-speaking person uses a noun as an attribute, e.g.
silver spoon = срібна ложка; sugar industry = цукрова промисловість.
Sometimes it is difficult to determine whether the adjunct in such phrases is a
noun or an adjective. Lack of grammatical markers of the parts of speech
makes English similar to the isolating languages. Sometimes it is difficult to say
whether such combinations are phrases or compound words: e.g. schoolboy,
schoolteacher, school building. In these cases, English has some features of
incorporating languages, which don’t have a borderline between the word and
the phrase. Noun + noun phrases are also used in English if the adjunct
denotes a period of time: e.g. a two hours’ trip=двухчасова подорож and a
quality of the person denoted by the headword, e.g. a woman of
sense=розумна жінка
Some types of phrases can be found only in one of the languages. In English,
the adjunct of an attributive phrase can be expressed by a passive infinitive:
e.g. a letter to be sent. This type of phrase is non-existent in Ukrainian. The
idea is rendered by a subordinate clause: e.g. лист, який треба
відправити.
In Ukrainian, the adjunct of an attributive phrase can be expressed by an
adverb, e.g. погляд з під очей; капелюх набік. This type of phrase is non-
existent in English. The idea is rendered by lexical semantics: e.g. a scowl at
somebody, with one’s hat on one side.

12. What is the verb phrase? What structural types of verb phrases are common for both
languages? What are the morphological characteristics of complements? Where is the
allomorphism observed?
Verb Phrase is also characterised in English and Ukrainian by some
isomorphic and allomorphic features. The structural types of verb phrases
are common for the languages:
1) with simple objective or adverbial complements;
 2) with extended or expanded complements;
3) with simple or extended objective and adverbial complements.
In both languages one can find verb phrases with pre-posed and postposed
complements.
Simple verb phrases with a transitive verb as a head-word contain nouns,
adjectives, numerals or adverbs as subordinate elements, e.g.: to like books, to
receive four, to love her, to prefer blue (to red), to love it to be asleep; любити
книжки, отримати четвірку, кохати її, любити синє, щиро любити,
почуватися краще, etc.
Prepositions are found both in English and Ukrainian verb phrases, e.g.: to
speak of somebody, to divide by two; говорити про когось, ділити на два
(на двоє).
Ukrainian has no equivalents, however, for the combinations of a verb with a
gerund. Such phrases as to sit reading, to like reading are characteristic of the
English language; while it is only in Ukrainian that we find the combination of a
verb with an adverbial participle, e.g.: читати, стоячи; іти, співаючи;
співаючи, іти. The adverbial participle is usually rendered into English by
means of the participle. It should be pointed out, however, that unlike English,
most of Ukrainian complements and adverbial adjuncts have no fixed position
in the word-group, e.g.: слухати музику – музику слухати, гарно співати –
співати гарно.
Allomorphism is observed in the nature of some complements (gerundial,
infinitival, participial) which often form predicative complexes in English
verbal word-groups, e.g.: to wait for them to come (Verb plus For-to-
Infinitive Construction); to rely on Bob’s reading the article (Verb plus
Gerundial Construction); to see the boy playing tennis (Verb plus Participial
Construction).

13.What is an adjective phrase? What are the morphological characteristics of adjuncts? Is

the position of elements of adjective phrases important in both languages?
Adjective Phrase. Due to the restricted combinability of different notionals
with the adjectival head, this paradigmatic class of word-groups has a much
smaller number (and varieties) of structural models. The most productive
and usual in English and Ukrainian are the following simple and extended
models with different dependent components.
Allomorphic, і. е. pertaining to English only are adjectival word-groups with
gerundial complements, for instance: worth reading (being read); worth
reading the book; proud of Pete/ him being decorated, proud of his having
been invited.
Apart from the non-existence of gerundial complements, Ukrainian adjectival
word-groups are characterised by some other features of their own. Among
these, for example, is the free location of most of adjectival and complements
 adjuncts which is absolutely impossible in English. Ex.: дуже добра –добра
дуже; радий чути –чути радий; значно молодший за мене –за мене
значно молодший, добрий до всіх - до всіх добрий.
Nevertheless, it is impossible to change the order or position of any immediate
constituent as in the word-groups like багато молодший, ніж вона but not
ніж вона, багато молодший, though the pattern can not be considered
completely ungrammatical for a predominantly synthetic language, like
Ukrainian either.
Ukrainian head adjectives, however, express the morphological categories of
number, case and gender, which is impossible in English. E.g.: гарний зовні,
гарна зовні, гарні зовні; гарної/гарній зовні, гарною зовні; добрий/добрим
до всіх; рідна/рідної для нас, etc.
The English and the Ukrainian languages differ significantly in the means of
expressing syntactical connections in a phrase. In Ukrainian all the three ways
of connection are used. In English, the use of government and agreement is
restricted to the phrases with pronouns: e.g. to see him; these books. In most
cases the elements of the phrase are combined by contact.
The position of the elements is by far more important in English than in
Ukrainian because of the lack of grammar markers. In Ukrainian, a change of
position can signal of a change of style: e.g. зелений дуб - дуб зелений
In English, the kernel and the adjunct of the phrase are identified by their
position, e.g. Glass window = скляне вікно; Window glass= віконне скло.
In some types of phrase, the position of the elements differs in Ukrainian and
English. In English attributive phrases; the adjunct expressed by a noun in the
possessive case is always in preposition to the headword: e.g. my father’s
house. In the corresponding Ukrainian phrases, the adjunct expressed by a
noun in the genitive is usually in postposition, e.g. Будинок батька.
In English attributive phrases denoting objects in numerical order, the
adjunct expressed by a cardinal numeral is in postposition to the kernel
expressed by a noun, e.g. Room 15. In the corresponding Ukrainian phrases,
the adjunct expressed by an ordinal numeral is in preposition to the
headword, e.g. п’ятнадцята кімната. In adverbial phrases, the adjunct
expressed by an adverb is in postposition to the verb in English and in
preposition to the verb in Ukrainian, e.g. гарно працювати = to work hard.

Practice

Task 1. Determine the type of the following word-groups: noun, verbal, adjective,
adverbial. Comment on the structural components: kernel, adjunct, complement. Divide
the word-groups listed below into three sets: coordinate, subordinate, predicative:
a thesis and an abstract (noun, syndetic, coordinate, populative kind of connection, n + prep
+ n2); a highway transportation system ( noun, asyndetic, kernel, subordinate connection,
n1+n2+n3(head)), to move quickly (verb phrase, asydetic, adjoinment, subordination, verb
inf+ adv), the country’s social and economic landscape (noun, syndetic, and the agreement
between the first and the second agent; land scape is a kernel; subordinate is observed; N1
adj1+ conj+ adj2+ N(head)) , very well ( an adverbial phrase, asydetic, adjoinment; well is a
kernel, very is a complement; adv+ adv(kernel)) , fond of plants (adj phrase, syndetic,
subordinate; fond is a kernel, plants is an agent), glad to see ( verbal phrase, asyndetic,
subordinate, glad is a complement, to see is a kernel, adv + v inf), time to go, her debating
(verbal phrase, asyndetic, predicative; debating is a kernel, her is a complement),
прочитати телеграму, голосно і весело сміятися, шумлять лани, вибір твору, питання
праці й умов, бажання знати, аналізувати уголос, Ахілесова п’ята, перейти Рубікон,
скринька Пандори.

Task 2. State the type of subordination (agreement, government, adjoinment) in the

following word-groups:

To stare at them - adjoinment, depends on me - adjoinment, a black list - agreement, his

answer - government, speak loudly - agreement, those people - government; літній ранок -
agreement, підготовка до іспиту, зручно для всіх - government, радісна звістка -
agreement, мої уявлення - government, завершити вчасно - agreement.

Task 3. Arrange subordinate word-groups listed below into the following sets: a)
attributive, b) objective, c) adverbial:
lovely face - adverbial, to write a novel - attributive, a teacher’s desk - objective, to come in
time - adverbial, to meet her - attributive, написати роман - attributive, стіл вчителя -
objective, початок травня - objective, прийти вчасно - adverbial, зустріти її - attributive.

Task 4. State the types of the following Ukrainian word-groups and translate them into
English:
студент першого курсу – asyndetic; first-year student, зустріти з радісною усмішкою –
syndetic; meet with a happy smile, лекція на наукову тему – syndetic; lecture on a
scientific topic, жити душа в душу – syndetic; live soul to soul, хочу відпочити дома –
syndetic; want to rest at home, дуже цікаве питання – asyndetic; very interesting question,
гордий за тебе – syndetic; proud of you, де-хто з учнів – syndetic; some of the students.

Task 5. Identify the type of the following word-groups and comment on the kind of
connection between the elements (syndetic or asyndetic). Draw the patterns.

Their optical properties – asyndetic, to scatter light – asyndetic, the number of surface
atoms - syndetic, nanotechnology promises – asyndetic, charge capacity – asyndetic,
business asserts and processes – syndetic, pre-selected combinations of biometric
modalities – syndetic, without using big data – syndetic, with technologies and tactics being
widely implemented – syndetic, biometric identity management – asyndetic, погрози
співробітникам – asyndetic, безпека при користуванні інформаційними технологіями –
syndetic, сфальсифікувати дані – asyndetic, шахрайство у сфері охорони здоров’я –
syndetic.

Task 6. Choose the appropriate answer to the following statements:

1.The head-word of the noun phrase is:
a) pronoun;
b) noun;
c) verb;
d) adverb.
2.The secondary predication word-groups contain:
a) subject and predicate;
b) predicative complexes;
c) noun and adjective;
d) subject and object.

3. Word-groups can be:

a) simple and compound;
b) extended and non-extended;
c) simple and complex;
d) compound and complex.
4. The verb phrase consists of the kernel and the compement expreseed by:
a. participle;
b. adverb;
c. preposition;
d. interjection.
5. What type of the word-group “page 33”?
a. noun;
b. verb;
c. adjective.
6. Which word-group has an extended complement?
a. to maintain and upgrade the system;
b. to lack in speed and dependability;
c. transportation from a shipper to a consignee;
d. less-than-carload shipments of freight.