English Morphology from а Theoretical Perspective

Nominal Categories Ellie (Elissaveta) Boyadzhieva, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Linguistics, Head of the English Department at the Philological Faculty, South - West - University of Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria.

The volume elaborates on the nominal categories in Modern English from the perspective of the general theory of language. It is a result of the author`s year experience in lecturing on English morphology to students majoring in English Philology and Applied Linguistics at various Bulgarian universities.

The analysis of the linguistic phenomena discussed in the book is based on data from written and oral language and is aimed twofold: first, to provide theoretical knowledge about how English works on s systemic level, on the one hand, and to give duidelines on how English Functions in real - life situations, on the other. The investigation follows several basic principles that reflect the author`s conviction of how language facts should be described without hindering its natural development, namely: First, a grammar description should discuss language facts from thee general theoretical perspectives simultaneously: linguistic, cognitive, and social. These three perspectives help avoid the imposition of prescriptive rules, but are rather meant to serve as guidelines to the native speakers natural grammatical choices.

Second, what is put at stake are the prescriptive rules of which English grammars and textbooks abound in, which means that formulating rules constituting "good" or "prestigious" English is intentionally brought to a minimum; instead, priority is given to introducing the generally established modern usage.
Third, the description is based on a corpus of authentic and attested data displaying the "real" grammar the speakers and writers of English actually use. Therefore, along with examples quoted after reputable grammars, there are many more illustrations of native - speakers written and oral production from everyday natural communication.
The basic aim of the study is, while elaborating on language data, to bring to the fore questions rather than to give pre - construed answers, since the approach used poses substantial challenges to the traditional views of grammar and leads to results that to not pretend to be conclusive or peremptory. This is one of the pursued goals implied by the basic idea of synchronic analyses ad descriptions of otherwise constantly changing language at a certain stage of its development.