- •The Subject Matter of Grammar
- •The Evolution of English Grammars
- •The XX th Century Linguistic Schools
- •Prague Linguistic School (Functional Linguistics)
- •American Descriptive Linguistics
- •Transformational and Transformational Generative Grammar
- •Semantic Syntax
- •Methods of Linguistic Analysis
- •Parsing (Traditional Syntactic Analysis)
- •The Oppositional Method
- •The Distributional method
- •The ic Method (method of immediate constituents)
- •The Transformational Method
- •The Method of Deep and Surface Structures
- •The Functional Sentence Perspective Method (fsp)
- •The Componential Method
- •The Contextual Method
- •The Levels of Language
- •The Morphological Structure of me
- •The Classifications of Morphemes
- •Paradigmatics and Syntagmatics
- •The Asymmetry of a Linguistic Sign
- •Parts of Speech Classifications of Parts of Speech.
- •Notionals and Functionals
- •Heterogeneity
- •Field and Periphery
- •Subcategorization
- •Onomaseological approach
- •The Noun The General Properties of a Noun
- •The Category of Gender.
- •The Category of Number
- •The Category of Case
- •Debated Problems within the Category of Case
- •Genitive Constructions (n’s n)
- •The Article Debated Problems
- •The Functions of Articles in a Sentence
- •The Verb The General Properties of a Verb
- •The Category of Tense
- •Classifications of Tenses
- •The Future Tense
- •The Present Tense
- •The Past Tense
- •The Future-in-the-Past Tense
- •The Category of Aspect
- •The Category of Time Relation (or Correlation)
- •The Category of Voice
- •The Category of Mood
- •The Indicative Mood
- •The Imperative Mood
- •The Subjunctive Mood
- •Points of Similarities with the Finites
- •Points of Differences with the Finites
- •Debated Problems within The Verbals
- •The Functions of Non-Finites
- •Types of Syntax
- •The theory of the phrase
- •Devices of Connecting Words in a Phrase
- •Debated Problems within the Theory of the Phrase
- •Classifications of Phrases
- •The theory of the simple sentence
- •The Definition of a Sentence
- •Syntactic Modelling of the Sentence
- •Semantic Modelling of the Sentence
- •The Notion of a Syntactic Paradigm
- •Structural Classification of Simple Sentences
- •Predicative Constructions Within a simple sentence we distinguish primary and secondary (independent/ dependent) elements, the structural nucleus and its adjuncts.
- •Syntactic Processes
- •The Principal Parts of a Simple Sentence
- •The Secondary Parts of a Simple Sentence
- •An Object
- •An Adverbial Modifier
- •An Attribute
- •Debated Problems within a Simple Sentence
- •A composite sentence
- •A Compound Sentence
- •I. The General Notion of a Complex Sentence.
- •2. The Status of the Subordinate Clause.
- •3.1. Classifications of Subordinate Clauses.
- •3.2. Types of Subordinate Clauses.
- •4. Connections between the Principal and the Subordinate Clause.
- •5. Neutralization between Subordination and Coordination.
- •6. The Character of the Subordinating Conjunction
- •7. Levels of Subordination
- •Syntactic Processes in the Complex Sentence.
- •9. Communicative Dynamism within a Composite Sentence( Compound and Complex) and a Supra-phrasal Unit.
Debated Problems within a Simple Sentence
1. Debated is the status of a simple sentence with expansion. 1.1. Expanded are the simple sentences with homogeneous parts. Any member of the sentence can be homogeneous (The beauty of the lakes, the forests, and the stretches of the tranquil blue skies gently took the army out of Alessandro. M.Helprin. He came awake with a jerk, turned towards the window and almost screamed. St. King). 1.2. Expanded are the simple sentences with infinitival, gerundial and participial phrases( There are other businesses to attend to => There are other businesses which can be attended to). 1.3. Expanded are the simple sentences with infinitival, gerundial and participial predicative constructions which function as complex parts of a sentence {(I want it to be spring (an objective with an infinitive construction). Riding side by side, the night was beautiful ( an absolute participial construction). Judging by his appearance, he is a second-rate actor(an absolute participial construction)}. A sentence with homogeneous parts is analysed as a simple sentence with one explicit predicative tie and two or more implicit predicative ties. Some scholars find it to be a compound sentence. A sentence carrying phrases and constructions with non-finites is considered to be a complex sentence with an abridged clause. B.A.Ilyish finds the structures with homogeneous elements, apposition, detachment and predicative constructions with non-finites, nouns, adjectives, statives to be transitional sentences between mono- and polypredicative structures.
2. Debated is the status of a sentence with syncretical elements( Her life was gone and done with. His hands are cut and bleeding (are is an auxiliary for perfect and continuous tenses).
3. There are no rigid criteria of distinguishing between secondary parts of the simple sentence: between an attribute and a prepositional object ( The sound of the door opening made him start). In traditional linguistics nounal constructions with the preposition of after a noun are considered to be prepositional objects; between a prepositional object and an adverbial modifier ( After many snows I was home again); between an attribute and an adverbial modifier( She is not a girl to marry).
O.Jespersen distinguished secondary parts into secondaries and tertiaries. A. Peshkovsky divided members of the sentence into those which are governed and those which are not governed. The theory of secondary parts has many weaknesses, hence structuralists discard traditional parsing into primaries and secondaries and resort to the IC method, distributional and transformational methods when analyzing non-included utterances (simple sentences).
4. Debated is the nature of the formations of the type His attachments may be said to have ended. It is not clear whether it is a complex subject expressed by the nominanative with the infinitive construction or a modal predicate of double orientation.
5. Debated are the character and the functional status of infinitival structures in such sentences as Common people to talk about him! B.A. Ilyish treated it as a two-member sentence with an infinitive functioning as a simple infinitival predicate. But it contradicts the generally established belief that a predicate should be expressed by a finite form of the verb.
6. Debated is the status of the sentence opening with conjunctions or conjunctive phrases (Silly little fool trying to flatter me. As if I don’t know that). The nature of the opening element and of the whole sentence is debated. B.A.Ilyish holds that it is an emancipated clause turning into an independent simple sentence. The opening element is no longer a conjunction. Acquiring some additional semantic meaning, it becomes an interjection.