20. Predicativity. Primary and secondary predication

The communicative function of the sentence distinguishes it from phrases and words, which have only one function-naming.

1. The doctor’s arrival;

2. The doctor arrived;

These 2 structures name the same event, but (1) is not correlated with the situation of speech and doesn’t convey information about the reality or the time of the event.

2 is correlated with the situation of speech and shows that the event took place in the past.

So, the correlation of the thought expressed in the sentence with the situation of speech is called predicativity. It’s property of the sentence. It’s a sort of syntactic relations exciting between the Subject and the Predicate.

It’s consisted by 3 components:

• Modality – the category of Mood }

• Time – the category of Tense} Predicate Verb

• Person- the category of Person }

The boy has laughed out loudly.

The predicative category of person (first, second, third) finds its expression either in the inflection of the verbal component (e.g. the inflection -s signals the third person singular in the present indefinite) or in the nominal component. When the nominal component is expressed by a personal pronoun, it serves as a lexical exponent of the predicative category of person. When the nominal component is expressed by a noun or a pronoun that does not distinguish persons, they serve as onomaseological exponents of the third person, common to the class of things [E. Krivchenko].

The predicative categories of objective modality and tense find their expression in the verbal component of predication. According to G.A. Zolotova, there are two types of objective modality: real and non-real. Objective modality is expressed by means of the category of mood. The indicative mood renders the meaning of real modality, eg.:

I'm waiting, Mrs. Page (A. Cronin).

The imperative mood and the conjunctive mood realize the meaning of non-real modality, e.g.: Shut the door! (J. Irving).

/ would have seen him. There's not a soul in sight (W. Faulkner).

In the case of real modality, tense characteristics are relevant, too[A.I. Smirnitsky]. Cf: / want to talk to you (M. Brand) - present tense. He lit the gas and sat down (Th. Dreiser) - past tense. I'll call you tomorrow (B. Gutcheon) - future tense.

Since the predicative category of person in analytical English generally finds its expression not in the verbal, but in the nominal component, most English clauses contain a subject and a predicate.

The person component of predicativity is also expressed by the subject. Thus the predicativity is expressed by the subject- predicate group or predication. Predication constitutes the basic structure of the sentence. So, the Predicate Verb is the main means of expressing predicativity.

Predicativity is also expressed by intonation, which is the essential feature of the sentence as a unit of speech. It should be also noted that some scholars use only term- predication (S-P group) - to denote both the relation of the sentence to reality and means of its expression.

So, in some sentences it’s presented undivided:

• These are one-member sentences ( Night)

One-member sentences are typical of inflected languages. In analytical languages, one-member sentences are few. In English, imperative sentences and imperative 'sentence representatives' are surely one-member, e.g.:

Wait a moment (A.M. Burrage). Please don't say anything else (J. Parsons).

Imperative sentences and imperative 'sentence representatives' generally address the command or request to the second person. The fixed nature of person characteristic makes the use of a special exponent of person redundant, although sometimes it does appear in the form of the personal pronoun you. In these cases, imperative sentences become two-member. Cf:

You try to eat something (W. Faulkner). You let me run this! (W. Faulkner).

• In most sentences it’s presented as a divided structure- a S-P group. These are two-member sentences.

A sentence can contain a primary and secondary predication.

I saw her dancing.

The group her dancing is the secondary predication, as it resembles the S-P group, or the primary predication, structurally and semantically: it consists of two main components, nominal and verbal features, and names an event or situation. But it can’t be correlated with reality directly and cannot constitute an independent unit of communication, as verbals have no category of mood, tense and person. The secondary predication is related to the situation of speech indirectly, through the primary predication.