24. Syntactic structure of the clause (simple sentence). The modal of the members of the sentence

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.

In order to state general rules of sentence construction it is necessary to refer to smaller units. The process of analyzing sentences into their parts, or constituents, is known as parsing.

The syntactic structure of the sentence can be analyzed at two levels: pre-functional (constituents arc words and word-groups) and functional (constituents are parts of the sentence).

Functional level:

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

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

3. 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;

Parts of the sentence are notional sentence constituents which are in certain syntactic relations to other constituents or to the sentence as a whole. Accordingly we distinguish between principal parts of the sentence, constituting the predication, or the basic structure of the sentence, and secondary parts of the sentence, extending, or expanding the basic structure.

Parts of the sentence are notional constituents as they name elements of events or situations denoted by the sentence: actions or states, different participants and circumstances. The formal properties of parts of the sentence are the type of syntactic relations and the morphological expression.

Bloch named the division of the sentence into notional parts can be just so called — the "nominative division". Alongside of the nominative division of the sentence, the idea of the so-called "actual division" of the sentence has been put forward in theoretical linguistics. The purpose of the actual division of the sentence, called also the "functional sentence perspective", is to reveal the correlative significance of the sentence parts from the point of view of their actual informative role in an utterance. The main components of the actual division of the sentence are the theme and the rheme.

In The following sentences the correlation between the nominative and actual divisions is the reverse: the theme is expressed by the predicate or its part, while the rheme is rendered by the subject: hrough the open window came the purr of an approaching motor car.

The actual division of the sentence finds its full expression only in a concrete context of speech, therefore it is sometimes referred to as the "contextual" division of the sentence. This can be illustrated by the following example: Mary is fond of poetry.

In the cited sentence, if we approach it as a stylistically neutral construction devoid of any specific connotations, the theme is expressed by the subject, and the rheme, by the predicate. This kind of actual division is "direct". On the other hand, a certain context may be built around the given sentence in the conditions of which the order of actual division will be changed into the reverse: the subject will turn into the expose of the rheme, while the predicate, accordingly, into the expose of the theme. Cf.: "Isn't it surprising that Tim is so fond of poetry?" — "But you are wrong. Mary is fond of poetry, not Tim."

The actual division in which the rheme is expressed by the subject is to be referred to as "inverted".

So, the formal properties of parts of the sentence are:

• The type of syntactic relations, there syntactic functions-subj, predicate etc.

• Their functions;

Members can be divided into:

• Principal-constituting predication: the Subj. and the Predicate. They make up the basic sentences. Principal parts of the sentence are interdependent. The subject is the structural centre of the sentence — the predicate agrees with the subject in person and number. The predicate is the semantic and communicative centre of the sentence.

• Secondary – objects, adv, attributes, modifiers, noun- and verb-adjuncts. They extend the basic structure; they are modifiers of the principle parts;

Members of the sentence depending on syntactic properties of the predicative verb (valency):

• Obligatory for the syntactic completeness of the sentence- the principle parts of the sentence and some secondary ( complements, some obj and adv-modifiers);

• Optional

Structurally parts of the sentence may be of, three types: simple, expressed by words and phrases; compound, consisting of the structural and notional part (compound verbal and nominal predicate, subject with the introductory it and there); complex, expressed by secondary predications (typical of secondary parts of the sentence).

The Subj and the Predicator complements and obj are nuclear components and obligatory constituencies of a clause. Their appearance and properties are predetermined by the verb, which serves as a predicator. Other constituencies are circumstances ( time, place, manner) and attributes ( characteristics of the participants). They are optional.

As there is no direct correspondence between units of different levels of sentence structure and as grammatical phenomena have fuzzy boundaries which often overlap, there are difficulties in distinguishing between certain parts of the .sentence:

1. / want to leave (object or part of the predicate?)

2. Features of her mother and father were blended in her face

(adverbial modifier or prepositional object?)

Besides the three "traditional" secondary parts, two more are singled out: the apposition and the objective predicative {They painted the door green). Objective predicative is со-referential with the object, subjective predicative is со-referential with the .subject (The door is green). Both types are denoted by the term complement. This term may be also used to denote all verb adjuncts.

Non-obligatory members are mainly adverbs of varies character, adjuncts are optional circumstances attending the process expressed by the clause.

There are also elements, which exist outside the sentence:

• Disjuncts- express evaluation of what is being said (Obviously, he was wrong);

• Conjuncts –indicate the logical connection between what was said before and being said now ( He was wrong and so he kept silent.);

(! Conjuncts is not the same as conjunctions)

Pribitok stated the fact, that Secondary parts of the sentence are said to depend on principal parts. It would be well and good if the notion of dependence figured only in the opposition of principal and secondary parts. However, many linguists are of opinion that the predicate also depends on the subject. If the predicate does depend on the subject, then it is not clear why they refer it to principal, not to secondary parts of the sentence.

What is more, it is very difficult to differentiate secondary- parts of the sentence on the basis of the traditional model of parts of the sentence.

But the main drawback of the traditional model of parts of the sentence, according to G.G. Potcheptsov, lies in the fact that, although the so-called parts of the sentence are singled out on the basis of the sentence, linguists generally study them irrespective of the sentence, taking into consideration only the mutual relations of these or those parts. In other words, the study of parts of the sentence is displaced into the sphere of word combination.