- •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.
7. Levels of Subordination
There are two basic types of subordination: parallel and consecutive. In parallel subordination sub-clauses refer to one and the same principal clause. (However hard he was working, whatever was happening, he never forgot me). Consecutive subordination presents a hierarchy of clausal levels. In this hierarchy one subordinate clause is commonly subordinated to another (I’ve no idea [1] why she said [2] she couldn’t call on us at the time [3] I had suggested).
Syntactic Processes in the Complex Sentence.
To the universally recognized processes within a complex sentence there refer contamination, parcellation and emancipation. In contamination two syntactic and semantic relations are fused, which results in contaminated (mixed) clauses {This man looked as if he were suffering (J.Galsworthy). The clause underlined can be analyzed as a contamination of a predicative and an adverbial clause of unreal comparison. Parcellation consists in separating a sub-clause from the principal clause to rhematize (and emphasize) it (But princess Dragomiroff says that she married an Englishman. Whose name she cannot remember (A. Christie). Emancipation consists in a sub-clause turning into an independent sentence with a connective turning into an adverbial element (Supposing he comes? That he should have come to that! If only he were here today!).
9. Communicative Dynamism within a Composite Sentence( Compound and Complex) and a Supra-phrasal Unit.
In a compound sentence both parts are communicatively equal if they are connected by copulative and adversative coordination. If they are connected by causative and consecutive coordination, the second coordinative clause becomes rhematic (Come to Venice early in the morning and you will see a city bathed in a sea of light).
In a complex sentence the principal clause dominates sub-clauses structurally, but communicatively it is insignificant. It is a sheer introducer of sub-clauses, it expresses modality and general assessment of the information carried by a sub-clause (I returned, and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, neither yet the bread to the wise, nor yet the riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to the men of skill, but time and chance happenth to them all (Ecclesiastes). Placed in the final position sub-clauses are usually rhematic. In a complex sentence with a complement sub-clause it is the main clause which is rhematic (It is her bright joy that surprised me).A parcellated sub-clause becomes rhematized (See parcellation). In a complex sentence based on specification it is the second part which is rhematic (Life is very mixed, sir: it is not all poetry and it is not all gaiety (B.Shaw).
Within a supra-phrasal unit sentences, constituting it, are connected by different means of cohesion: coordination, subordination, specification, reiteration of all kind, anaphoric pronouns, ellipsis, the definite article, a peculiar distribution of tenses, etc. Here we distinguish two communicative parts: the topic and the comment. The topic strives to the beginning. The comment comes last carrying either new or most important information (He is the kind of young man who does everything well. He is good at games, an excellent shot, a good amateur actor and can tell a first-rate story (A. Christie).