25. Structural modals of sentence analyses. Distributional modal. Ic-modal

The sentence is a structural, semantic and communicative unity. Accordingly it has syntactic, semantic and logico-communicative structures. These are not homogenous and three is no direct correspondence between there elements. As there are different levels and corresponding structures, so there’s different models of analysis.

(Parsing ( to parse—to divide grammatically relevant parts and to describe them grammatically).

Methods of structural linguistics are based on the notions of position, co-occurrence and substitution.

Position, or environment, is the immediate neighborhood of the element;

Co-occurrence means that the words of one class permit or require the occurrence of words of another class;

The total set of environment of a certain element is its distribution. The term distribution denotes the occurrence of an element relative to other element. Elements may be in:

• Non-contrastive distribution ( the same position, no difference in meaning, variants of the same element-hoof-hooves);

• Contrastive distribution (the same position but different meaning- She is charming-She is charmed);

• Complementary distribution ( mutual exclusiveness of pairs of forms in the certain environment; the same meaning, different position; variants of the same element- cows-oxen)

So, there can be the following models of sentence analysis:

A Pre-functional level :

• The distributional model;

• The immediate constituents model;

• The transformational model;

B Functional level:

4. Syntactic level- the modal of the members of the sentence (syntactic features);

5. Semantic level – case grammar – the modal of the sentence as the preposition structure ( semantic structure);

6. Communicative level – sentences as a unit of speech- FSP – functional sentence perspective- the logico – communicative structure;

Pre-functional (the level of combinability)

Members of the sentence are discussed in terms of words and word groups irrespectively to their functions in the sentence;

The distributional modal was worked out by Fries The structure of English”. The structure of the sentence is described as a sequence of words of this-or-that part of speech reference used in this-or-that form. It was used to identify parts of speech: 4 main positions in the sentence. –4 classes of words( The old man saw a black dog there)

D 3 1a 2d D 3 1b 4

Ch. Fries draws a distinction between two kinds of meaning: lexical and structural. The term 'lexical meaning' is assigned to the dictionary definitions of words; 'structural meaning' - to those signals that show grammatical function. Lexical meanings in grammar, he writes, are redundant; structural meanings are fundamental and necessary.

Then he spoke to me. 4 l^a 2-d F l^b, where 4 is a word of Class 4 (traditionally - an adverb); l^a and l^b are words of Class 1 (traditionally - nouns), having different referents; 2-d is a word of Class 2 (traditionally - a verb) in a past tense form; F is a word of Group F (traditionally - a preposition).

Plus point of the theory: it shows the structure of the sentence as a distribution of different classes of words in a speech line.

Weak points:

1. just a linear sequence (He regards the sentence as a linear sequence of words with no reference to their participation in the realization of predication. The linear model can generate only the simplest sentence structures:

The police shot the man in the red cap.

The police shot the man in the right arm. A l^a 2-d A l^b F A 3 I^е

According to Ch. Fries, these sentences are built on the same model (A I^a 2-d A l^bF A3 I^е). However, even at first sight it is evident that the sentences are not identical: the first means that the police shot a man who had a red cap on; the second - that the police injured the man's right arm.);

2) so, doesn’t show the difference between “in the red cap” and “ in the right arm”;

3) no information about actual syntactical relations of words (the linear distributional model wholly disregards the functional nature of the singled out sentence components. And it must be taken into consideration because the sentence is a communicative syntactic unit.).

This drawback is overcome in another scheme of analysis called the "model of immediate constituents" (contractedly, the "IC-model").

It worked out by the representatives of descriptive grammar. It is

• Based on a binary principle.

It consists in dividing the whole of the sentence into two groups: that of the subject and that of the predicate, which, in their turn, are divided into their sub-group constituents according to the successive subordinative order of the latter. So, it shows the whole structure of the sentence as made up by binary immediate constituents.

• Shows the hierarchy of the members of the sentence.

The IC-model explicitly exposes the binary hierarchical principle of subordinative connections.

• IC-are words and word groups.

• UC-ultimate constituents –words

• IC-model describes a sentence as a diagramme or as an IC-derivation tree.

Old man and children often stay alone ( IC derivation tree)

S

Noun phrase (NP) Verb Phrase (VP)

(AN)Old man and children often stay alone

NP N(ultimate) Adv VP

Old man children often stay alone

Adj N V Adj

Thus, structured by the IC-model, the cited sentence on the upper level of analysis is looked upon as a united whole (the accepted symbol S); on the next lower level it is divided into two maximal constituents — the subject noun-phrase (NP-subj) and the predicate verb-phrase (VP-pred); on the next lower level the subject noun-phrase is divided into the determiner (det) and the rest of the phrase to which it semantically refers (NP), while the predicate noun-phrase is divided into the adverbial (DP, in this case simply D) and the rest of the verb-phrase to which it semantically refers; the next level-stages of analysis include the division of the first noun-phrase into its adjective- attribute constituent (AP, in this case A) and the noun constituent (N), and correspondingly, the division of the verb-phrase into its verb constituent (V or Vf — finite verb) and Adverbial one.

The described model of immediate constituents has two basic versions. The first is known as the "analytical IC-diagram", the second, as the "IC-derivation tree". The analytical IC-diagram commonly shows the groupings of sentence constituents by means of vertical and horizontal lines. The IC-derivation tree shows the groupings of sentence constituents by means of branching nodes: the nodes symbolize phrase-categories as unities, while the branches mark their division into constituents of the corresponding subcategorial standings.

Plus points of this modal -shows the hierarchy of the members of the sentence and actual syntactical relations between words, so, it shows the difference between sentences having the same DM.( it shows the syntactic relations and the linear order of elements).

Dependency grammar (DG) also presents the generation of a sentence in the form of a sentence tree, but the dependency tree (DT) is constructed on a different principle from the derivation tree in immediate constituents grammar. The derivation tree does not draw a distinction between governors and dependents. In the dependency tree, according to D.G. Hayes, the relation between every pair of minimal syntactic units, by which words are meant, is that of direct dependency. Cf:

ICG DG

large glasses I (L.E. Reeve) Large glasses

(L.E. Reeve)

The thing that raises doubts here is the validity of regarding the verb as the only root of all dependency trees, e.g.:

Jack spoke loudly (W. Golding)

spoke

Jack loudly

The verb does play an important role in realizing predication, the main structural characteristic of the sentence, because the predicative meanings of modality and tense find their expression in the verb.

But in addition to modality and tense, predication comprises person characteristics. In inflected languages, the verb admits of person distinctions. So, in inflected languages the verb can be looked upon as syntactically central unit.