- SYNTAX WORD-GROUP THEORY
- 1. According to the type of syntagmatic relations w
- 2. According to the number of the constituents
- 4. According to their nominative value
- Classification of Sentences
- Communicative Classification of Sentences
- SIMPLE SENTENCE The simple sentence is a sentence in which only one predicative line is expressed.1. According to their structure
- 2. According to the type of the subject
- 3. According to the type of the predicate
- 5. According to the presence of secondary parts
- Compound Nominal Predicate
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MORPHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE ADVERBAdverbs vary in their structure. There are simple, derived, compound, and composite adverbs (Fig. 94).  Fig. 94 Simple adverbs are rather few, and nearly all of them display functional semantics, mostly of pronominal character. In derived adverbs the most common suffix is -ly, by means of which new adverbs are coined from adjectives and participles. The characteristic adverbial prefix is a-. Among the adverbs there are also peculiar composite formations and phrasal formations of prepositional, conjunctional and other types. Compound adverbs are formed of two stems. Composite phrasal adverbs consist of two or more word-forms. Some authors include in the word-building sets of adverbs also formations of the type from outside, till now, before then, etc. The only pattern of morphological change for adverbs is the degrees of comparison. The three grades are called positive, comparative, and superlative degrees (Fig. 95).  Fig. 95 Adverbs that are identical in form with adjectives take inflections following the same spelling and phonetic rules as for adjectives. Several adverbs ending in -ly (quickly, loudly) form comparatives according to the same pattern, dropping their adverb-forming suffix. These adverbs acquired the form in -ly only recently and retained the older forms of the comparative and superlative. However most disyllabic adverbs in -ly and all polysyllabic ones form the comparative and superlative analytically, by means of more and most. There is a small group of adverbs with comparatives and superlatives formed from different stems (suppletive forms) (Fig. 96).   Forms Analitical (most disyllabic adverbs in -ly and all polysyllabic adverbs) e.g. wisely-more wisely-most wisely Synthetical (adverbs that are identical in form with adjectives) e.g. early-earlier-earliest  Suppletive e.g. well-better-best Fig. 96 SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF THE ADVERB. In accord with their categorial meaning, adverbs are characterised by a combinability with verbs, adjectives and words of adverbial nature (Fig. 97). The functions of adverbs in these combinations consist in expressing different adverbial modifiers. Adverbs can also refer to whole situations; in this function they are considered under the heading of situation-“determinants”. Adverbs can also combine with nouns acquiring in such cases a very peculiar adverbial-attributive function, essentially in post-position, but in some cases also in pre-position. Some adverbs are restricted in their combinability whereas others may modify different words.  Fig. 97 Adverbs may function as adverbial modifiers of manner, place, time, degree to a finite or non-finite form of the verb. Adverbs may also function as adverbial modifiers to an adjective or another adverb. Usually the modifying adverb is an intensifier. There are some adverbs which may modify nouns or words of nominal character, functioning as attributes (Fig. 98).  Fig. 98 SYNTAX WORD-GROUP THEORY There are a lot of definitions concerning the word-group. The most adequate one seems to be the following: the word-group is a combination of at least two notional words which do not constitute the sentence but are syntactically connected. According to some other scholars (the majority of Western scholars and professors B.Ilyish and V.Burlakova – in Russia), a combination of a notional word with a function word (may be treated as a word-group as well. General characteristics of the word-group are: 1) As a naming unit it differs from a compound word because the number of constituents in a word-group corresponds to the number of different denotates. 2) Each component of the word-group can undergo grammatical changes without destroying the identity of the whole unit. 3) A word-group is a dependent syntactic unit, it is not a communicative unit and has no intonation of its own. Word-groups can be classified on the basis of several principles. 1. According to the type of syntagmatic relations word-groups can be coordinative, subordinate, predicative (Fig. 99). Coordinative word-groupings are based on the relations of independence between the constituents. Coordination may be symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric coordination is characterized by complete interchangeability of its elements. Asymmetric coordination occurs when the position of elements is fixed. According to the presence or absence of connectors coordinative word-groupings may be syndetic when the connection is realised with the help of conjunctions and asyndetic when the connection is realised without the help of conjunctions (Fig. 100). According to the type of conjunctions forms of connection within coordinative word-groupings may be copulative, disjunctive and adversative (Fig. 101). Fig. 99   Fig. 100  Fig. 101 Subordinate word-groups are based on the relations of dependence between the constituents. This presupposes the existence of a governing element which is called the “head”, “kernel”, “kernel element”, or “headword” and the dependent element which is called the “adjunct”, “adjunct-word”, “expansion”. Subordination may be of three different kinds – adverbial, objective and attributive (Fig. 99). Forms of subordination may also be different – agreement, government, adjoinment and enclosure (Fig. 102). According to the type of the headword subordinate word-groups fall into nominal, verbal, adjectival, adverbial, statival (Fig. 103). According to the syntactic function of the adjunct subordinate word-groups fall into attributive, object and adverbial (Fig. 104).  Fig. 102  Fig. 103  Fig. 104 According to the position of the adjunct subordinate word-groupings are classed into word-groupings with prepositive adjunct, with mitpositive adjunct, with postpositive adjunct and frame structures (Fig. 105).  Fig. 105 Predicative word combinations are distinguished on the basis of secondary predication (Fig. 99). Like sentences, predicative word-groups are binary in their structure but actually differ essentially in their organization. The sentence is an independent communicative unit based on primary predication while the predicative word-group is a dependent syntactic unit that makes up a part of the sentence. The predicative word-group consists of a nominal element (noun, pronoun) and a non-finite form of the verb. There are Gerundial, Infinitive and Participial word-groups (complexes) in the English language. 2. According to the number of the constituents word-groups can be binary and multiple (Fig. 106).  Fig. 106
 Fig. 107 4. According to their nominative value one should distinguish between syntagmatic groupings of notional words alone, syntagmatic groupings of notional words with functional words, and syntagmatic groupings of functional words alone (Fig. 108). Fig. 108  Combinations of a notional word with a functional word are equivalent to separate words by their nominative function. These combinations are called “formative”. Syntagmatic groupings of functional words are essentially analogous to separate functional words. They are used as connectors and specifiers of notional elements of various status. These combinations are called “functional”. Different combinations of notional words are called “notional” phrases. They have a clearly pronounced self-dependent nominative destination. They denote complex phenomena and their properties in their inter-connections, including dynamic interconnections (semi-predicative combinations). Groupings of notional words fall into two opposite types by their grammatical and semantic properties. Groupings of the first type are constituted by words related to one another on an equal rank, so that, for a case of a two-word combination, neither of them serves as a modifier of the other. Depending on this feature, these combinations can be called “equipotent”. Groupings of the second type are formed by words which are syntactically unequal in the sense that, for a case of a two-word combination, one of them plays the role of a modifier of the other. Due to this feature, combinations of the latter type can be called “dominational”. Equipotent connection in groupings of notional words is realised either with the help of conjunctions (syndetically), or without the help of conjunctions (asyndetically). If the constituents of the combinations form logically consecutive connections they are classed as coordinative. There exist equipotent connections of a non-consecutive type, by which a sequential element, although equal to the foregoing element by its formal introduction is unequal to it as to the character of nomination. The latter type of equipotent connections is classed as “cumulative”. Cumulative connection in writing is usually signalled by some intermediary punctuation stop, such as a comma or a hyphen. Dominational connection is effected in such a way that one of the constituents of the combination is principal (dominating) and the other is subordinate (dominated). The two basic types of dominational connection are bilateral (reciprocal, two-way) domination and monolateral (one-way) domination. Bilateral domination is realised in predicative connection of words, while monolateral domination is realised in completive connection of words. The predicative connection of words, uniting the subject and the predicate, builds up the basis of the sentence. The completive, one-way connection of words (monolateral domination) is considered as subordinative on ground that the outer syntactic status of the whole combination is determined by the head-word. All the completive connections fall into two main divisions: objective connections and qualifying connections (Fig. 109).  Fig. 109 Objective connections reflect the relation of the object to the process. By their form these connections are subdivided into non-prepositional (word-order, the objective form of the adjunct substantive) and prepositional, while from the semantico-syntactic point of view they are classed as direct (the immediate transition of the action to the object) and indirect or oblique (the indirect relation of the object to the process). Qualifying completive connections are divided into attributive and adverbial. Both are expressed in English by word-order and prepositions. Attributive connection unites a substance with its attribute expressed by an adjective or a noun. Adverbial connection is subdivided into primary and secondary. The primary adverbial connection is established between the verb and its adverbial modifiers of various standings. The secondary adverbial connection is established between the non-verbal kernel expressing a quality and its adverbial modifiers of various standings SENTENCE: GENERAL The sentence is the main object of syntax as part of the grammatical theory. The sentence is the central syntactic construction used as the minimal communicative unit that has its primary predication, actualises a definite structural scheme and possesses definite intonation characteristics. The most essential features of the sentence as a linguistic unit are a) its structural characteristics – subject-predicate relations (primary predication), and b) its semantic characteristics – it refers to some fact in the objective reality. The sentence is characterised by its specific category of predication which establishes the relation of the named phenomena to actual life. The general semantic category of modality is also defined by linguists as exposing the connection between the named objects and surrounding reality. But modality is not specifically confined to the sentence. This is a broader category revealed both in the grammatical elements of language and its lexical, purely nominative elements. The centre of predication in a sentence of verbal type (which is the predominant type of sentence-structure in English) is a finite verb. The finite verb expresses essential predicative meanings by its categorial forms, first of all, the categories of tense and mood. The sentence is intonationally delimited. Intonation separates one sentence from another in the continual flow of uttered segments and, together with various segmental means of expression, participates in rendering essential communicative-predicative meanings (such as, for instance, the syntactic meaning of interrogation in distinction to the meaning of declaration). The role of intonation is especially important for sentences which have more than one predicative centre, in particular more than one finite verb. Special intonation contours, including pauses, represent the given speech sequence in the first case as one compound sentence, in the second case as two different sentences. Classification of Sentences According to the number of predicative lines sentences are classified into simple, composite and semi-composite (Fig. 110). The difference between the simple sentence and the composite sentence lies in the fact that the former contains only one subject-predicate unit and the latter more than one. Subject-predicate units that form composite sentences are called clauses. Thus, the simple sentence is built up by one predicative line, while the composite sentence is built up by two or more predicative lines. The difference between the compound and complex sentence lies in the relations between the clauses that constitute them.  Fig. 110 Communicative Classification of Sentences The sentence is a communicative unit, therefore the primary classification of sentences must be based on the communicative principle. This principle is formulated in traditional grammar as the “purpose of communication”. From the viewpoint of their role in the process of communication sentences are divided into three cardinal sentence-types: the declarative sentence, the imperative sentence, the interrogative sentence (Fig. 111). These types are usually applied to simple sentences. In a complex sentence the communicative type depends upon that of the main clause. In a compound sentence, coordinate clauses may as well belong to different communicative types. A declarative sentence contains a statement which gives the reader or the listener some information about various events, activities or attitudes, thoughts and feelings. Statements form the bulk of monological speech, and the greater part of conversation. A statement may be positive (affirmative) or negative. Grammatically, statements are characterized by the subject-predicate structure with the direct order of words. Statements usually have a falling tone; they are marked by a pause in speaking and by a full stop in writing. In conversation, statements are often structurally incomplete, especially when they serve as a response to a question asking for some information, and the response conveys the most important idea. Thanks to their structure and lexical content, declarative sentences are communicatively polyfunctional.  Fig. 111 The imperative sentence expresses inducement, commandswhich convey the desire of the speaker to make someone, generally the listener, perform an action. Besides commands proper, imperative sentences may express prohibition, a request, an invitation, a warning, persuasion, etc., depending on the situation, context, wording, or intonation. Interrogative sentences contain questions. Their communicative function consists in asking for information. They belong to the sphere of conversation and only occasionally occur in monological speech. Alongside of the three cardinal communicative sentence-types, another type of sentences is recognised in the theory of syntax, namely, the so-called exclamatory sentence. In modern linguistics it has been demonstrated that exclamatory sentences do not possess any complete set of qualities that could place them on one and the same level with the three cardinal communicative types of sentences. SIMPLE SENTENCE The simple sentence is a sentence in which only one predicative line is expressed. 1. According to their structure all simple sentences of English should be divided into two-member (two-axis) constructions and one-member (one-axis)constructions (Fig. 112). One-member and two-member sentences are distinguished by the number of principal parts (positions) they contain: two-member sentences have two main parts – the subject and the predicate, while one-member sentences have only one principal part, which is neither the subject nor the predicate.  Fig. 112 One-member sentences in English are of two types: nominal sentences and verbal sentences. Nominal sentences are those in which the principal part is expressed by a noun. They state the existence of the things expressed by them. They are typical of descriptions. Verbal sentences are those in which the principal part is expressed by a non-finite form of the verb, either an infinitive or a gerund. Infinitive and gerundial one-member sentences are mostly used to describe different emotional perceptions of reality. Two-member (two-axis) constructions can be complete and incomplete. They are distinguished by the presence or absence of word-forms in the principal positions of two-member sentences. In a complete sentence both the principal positions are filled with word-forms. In an incomplete (elliptical) sentence one or both of the main positions are not filled, but can be easily supplied as it is clear from the context what is missing. Elliptical sentences are typical of conversational English. There exist several types of elliptical sentences (Fig. 113). Fig. 113  Fig. 114  The semantic classification of simple sentences should be effected at least on the three bases: first, on the basis of the subject categorial meanings; second, on the basis of the predicate categorial meanings; third, on the basis of the subject-object relation. 2. According to the type of the subject simple sentences are divided into personal and impersonal (Fig. 114). The further division of the personal sentences is into human and non-human; human — into definite and indefinite; non-human — into animate and inanimate. The further essential division of impersonal sentences is into factual and perceptional. The differences in subject categorial meanings are sustained by the obvious differences in subject-predicate combinability. 3. According to the type of the predicate simple sentences are divided into process-featuring (“verbal”) and, in the broad sense, substance-featuring (including substance as such and substantive quality — “nominal”) (Fig. 115). Among the process-featuring sentences actional and statal ones are to be discriminated. Among the substance-featuring sentences factual and perceptional ones are to be discriminated.  Fig. 115 4. According to the type of the subject-object relation simple sentences should be divided into subjective, objective and neutral or “potentially” objective, capable of implying both the transitive action of the syntactic person and the syntactic person’s intransitive characteristic (Fig. 116).  Fig. 116 5. According to the presence of secondary parts simple sentences should be divided into unextended (unexpanded) and extended (expanded) (Fig. 117).  Fig. 117 An unextended sentence contains two main positions of the basic pattern, that of the subject and the predicate. An extended sentence may contain various optional elements (including attributes, certain kinds of prepositional objects and adverbial modifiers). SENTENCE PARTS Every sentence can be divided into certain components which are called parts of the sentence (Fig. 118).  Fig. 118 Parts of the sentence are usually classified into principal and secondary. The principal parts of the sentence are subject and the predicate. The subject is a person-modifier of the predicate. The predicate is a process-modifier of the subject-person. They constitute the backbone of the sentence. The secondary parts of the sentence are the object, the attribute, the adverbial modifier. The secondary parts of the sentence modify the principal parts or each other.The object is a substance-modifier of a processual part. The attribute is a quality-modifier of a substantive part. The adverbial is a quality-modifier of a processual part or the whole of the sentence. Besides these two kinds of sentence components there are so-called independent elements, that is, elements standing outside the structure of the sentence, and therefore of lesser importance. The independent elements the parenthetical enclosure, the addressing enclosure, the interjectional enclosure. The parenthetical enclosure is a detached speaker-bound modifier of any sentence-part or the whole of the sentence. The addressing enclosure (address) is a substantive modifier of the destination of the sentence and hence, from its angle, a modifier of the sentence as a whole. The interjectional enclosure is a speaker-bound emotional modifier of the sentence. PRINCIPLE SENTENCE PARTSSUBJECTEnglish sentence but the one-member and the imperative one must have a subject. The subject is one of the two principal parts of the sentence. The subject can be expressed in different ways (Fig. 119). From the point of view of its grammatical value the subject may be either notional or formal (Fig. 120). The notional subject denotes or (points out a person or a non-person, that is, various kinds of concrete things, substances, abstract notions or happening. The formal subject neither denotes nor points out any person or non-person and is only a structural element of the sentence filling the position of the subject. Thus a formal subject functions only as a position-filler. In English there are two such position-fillers: it and there. The formal subject expressed by it is found in two patterns of sentences: those with impersonal it and those with introductory it. The formal subject it is impersonal when it is used in sentences describing various states of nature, things in general, characteristics of the environment, or denoting time, distance, other measurements. The formal subject it is introductory (anticipatory) if it introduces the notional subject expressed by an infinitive, a gerund, an infinitive/gerundial phrase, a predicative complex, or a clause. The sentence thus contains two subjects: the formal (introductory) subject it and the notional subject, which follows the predicate. The difference between the two structural types lies in that the pattern with the introductory subject accentuates the idea expressed by the notional subject, whereas the pattern without it accentuates the idea expressed in the predicate. Sentences with a notional subject introduced by there express the existence or coming into existence of a person or non-person denoted by the subject. Such sentences may be called existential sentences or sentences of presentation. They are employed where the subject presents some new idea or the most important piece of information.  Fig. 119  Fig. 120 PREDICATEThe predicate is the second principal part of the sentence and its organizing centre, as the object and nearly all adverbial modifiers are connected with, and dependent on, it. The predicate may be considered from the semantic or from the structural point of view. Fig. 121  Structurally the predicate in English expressed by a finite verb agrees with the subject in number and person. The only exception to this rule is a compound modal and a simple nominal predicate, the latter having no verb form at all. According to the meaning of its components, the predicate may denote an action, a state, a quality, or an attitude to some action or state ascribed to the subject. These different meanings find their expression in the structure of the predicate and the lexical meaning of its constituents. From the structural point of view there are two main types of predicate: the simple predicate and the compound predicate (Fig. 121). Both these types may be either nominal or verbal, which gives four sub-groups: simple verbal, simple nominal, compound verbal, compound nominal. Compound verbal predicates may be further classified into phasal, modal and of double orientation Compound nominal predicates may be classified into nominal proper and double nominal. The simple predicate can be of two types: verbal and nominal. The simple verbal predicate can be expressed in two ways (Fig. 122). |
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Fig. 127
