- •Теоретическая грамматика английского языка
- •Introduction
- •§ 381. Within a sentence, the word or combination of words that contains the meanings of predicativity may be called the predication.
- •§ 384. The main parts of the sentence are those whose function it is to make the predication. They are the subject and the predicate of the sentence.
- •§ 389. In the sentence Birds fly, as we have seen, the syntactical and the lexical meanings of the subject and the predicate go together. But English has a system of devices to separate them.
- •§391. Let us now consider the grammatical word-morphemes do, does, did in sentences like Does she ever smile? We do not know him, etc.
- •§393. Every predication can be either positive or negative.
- •§ 396. As defined (§ 3), when studying the structure of a unit, we find out its components, mostly units of the next lower level, their arrangement and their functions as parts of the unit.
- •§ 399. Some analogy can be drawn between the structure of a word and the structure of a sentence.
- •§ 401. Depending on their relation to the members of the predication the words of a sentence usually fall into two groups — the group of the subject and the group of the predicate 1.
- •§ 403. Sentences with only one predication are called simple sentences. Those with more than one predication have usually no general name 1. We shall call them composite sentences.
- •§ 409. Not all interrogative sentences are syntactical opposites of declarative sentences.
- •§ 411. The sentences below form opposemes of some syntactical category.
- •§ 415. Let us compare the following pairs of sentences:
- •I'll see him I shall see him
- •It's raining It is raining
- •§ 418. We find no predication in the second sentence of the following dialogue.
- •§ 419. The sentence-words yes and no are regularly used as adjuncts of some head-sentences.
- •§ 421. The traditional classification of the parts of the sentence is open to criticism from the point of view of consistency.
- •§ 425. The subject of a simple sentence can be a word, a syntactical word-morpheme or a complex.
- •§ 426. We may speak of a secondary subject within a complex. In the following sentence it is the noun head.
- •§ 429. If we compare the subject in English with that of Russian we shall find a considerable difference between them.
- •§ 430. The predicate is the member of a predication containing the mood and tense (or only mood) components of predicativity.
- •§ 431. The predicate can be a word or a syntactical word-morpheme. When it is a notional word, it "is not only the structural but the notional predicate as well.
- •Objective Complements (Objects)
- •§ 448. Like other parts of a simple sentence (clause), objective complements may be expressed by complexes and are then called complex objects.
- •Adverbial Complements (Adverbials)
- •§ 454. Below are some specimens of quantitative adverbial complements.
- •§455. Circumstantial adverbials, or as a. I. Smirnitsky calls them, adverbials of situation, comprise:
- •§ 457. As follows from the string of examples given above, in simple sentences adverbial complements are usually adverbs, nouns (mostly with prepositions), verbids and verbid complexes.
- •§458. Comparing English adverbials with those in Russian one can see that despite some common features (meaning, types), they are in a number of points different.
- •§ 459. Attributes are secondary parts of the sentence serving to modify nouns or noun-equivalents in whatever functions they are used in the sentence.
- •§ 460. Attributes are formally indicated only by the position they occupy, save the demonstrative pronouns this, these, that, those which, besides, agree in number with the word they modify.
- •§469. Connectives are linking-words considered as a secondary part of the sentence. They are mostly prepositions and conjunctions.
- •§ 472. The articles resemble particles in being semi-notional and in functioning as specifiers. But they specify only one part of speech, nouns. In this they resemble attributes.
- •§ 473. Parenthetical elements are peculiar parts of the sentence.
- •§ 474. In accordance with their meanings parenthetical elements fall into four major groups:
- •§ 475. In a simple sentence parenthetical elements may be expressed by individual words (modal words, adverbs, nouns) and word-combinations of different nature.
- •§ 476. In most cases parenthetical elements are connected in sense with the sentence as a whole, that is why they have no fixed position in the sentence.
- •I. The Position of the Subject and the Predicate in the Sentence
- •§ 477. We have already dwelt upon the fact that in Modern English syntactical relations of words in the sentence are very often indicated by the position the words occupy in the sentence.
- •II. The Position of the Object
- •§ 479. The direct object is usually placed after the verb unless the indirect object precedes it.
- •§ 480. Sometimes the object is pushed to the front of the sentence. It occurs:
- •§ 482. The indirect object cannot be used in the sentence without the direct object. The indirect object is regularly put before the direct object as in That gave me a new idea.
- •§ 483. In most cases they follow the direct object, though for stylistic purposes, I. E. For emphasis and expressiveness, they may be placed at the head of the sentence.
- •§ 487. The position of an attribute depends both on the head-word and on the attribute. If the head-word is a pronoun, the attribute is, as a rule, postpositive.
- •§ 488. In postposition attributes often acquire what we might call a 'semi-predicative' connotation.
- •§ 489. If there are two or more prepositive attributes to one and the same noun their order is dependent upon a number of factors which appear to be semantic and stylistic rather than grammatical.
- •§ 491. As to the position of the other parts of the sentence, see the combinability of the corresponding parts of speech.
- •§ 497. The compound sentence usually describes events in their natural order, reflecting the march of events spoken of in the sequence of clauses.2
- •§ 498. The principal clauses of complex sentences are usually not classified, though their meanings are not neutral with regard to the meanings of the subordinate clauses.
- •§ 502. Subordinate clauses are connected with the principal clause by conjunctions, conjunctive and relative pronouns or asyndetically.
- •§ 506. The mood of the predicate verb of a subordinate clause depends on the principal clause to a greater extent than its tense.
- •§ 507. The subject clause is the only one used in the function of a primary part of the sentence.
- •§ 519. A variety of attributive clauses is the appositive clause, which formally differs from an attributive clause in being introduced by a conjunction (that, if, whether).
- •§ 520. Extension clauses are postpositive adjuncts of adjectives, adverbs and adlinks.
- •§ 521. Most authors who do not regard parenthetical elements as parts of the sentence treat It is past ten, 1 think as a simple sentence. We do not find this view convincing.
- •§ 522. In most cases parenthetical clauses are introduced asyndetically, though now and again the conjunctions as, if, etc. Are used.
- •§ 523. Sometimes subordination and coordination may be combined within one sentence, in which case we may have compound-complex and complex-compound sentences.
- •§ 524. Among the composite sentences of English and other languages we find a peculiar type differing from the rest.
- •§ 525. There is no agreement as to the syntactical nature of a sentence like He said, "I love you".
- •§ 526. Let us compare the two sentences:
- •§ 527. The introductory part of direct speech may precede the quotation, follow it, or be inserted in it.
- •§ 528. The so-called 'indirect speech' does not differ grammatically from the conventional types of sentences.
- •§ 529. The "rules for changing from direct into indirect speech" found in most English grammars are rules for reducing two predicative centres to one — that of the author.
- •Conclusion
- •§ 535. The syntactical system of a language is, as a rule, closely connected with its morphological system. The structure of the sentence and the structure of the word are interdependent.
- •§ 537. The role of grammatical word-morphemes is even greater in English syntax than in morphology.
- •§ 539. It is owing to most of the features described above that Modern English is spoken of as an analytical language.
§ 409. Not all interrogative sentences are syntactical opposites of declarative sentences.
The meaning of 'interrogation' in 'special questions' (otherwise called Wh-questions) is expressed either lexically 1 (when the subject or its attribute in a statement are replaced by the interrogative pronouns who, what, which or whose) or lexico-syntactically (when some other part of a statement is replaced by some interrogative pronoun). In either case they are not opposites of the corresponding statements because they differ lexically. Compare:
A .
She was thinking about you. (Shaw).
Who was thinking about you?
Sweetie's thoughts were far from me. (Ib.).
Whose thoughts were far from me?
T he horrible thought will break my heart. (Ib.)
What thought will break my heart?
B .
T he cat is on the tiles. (Ib.)
W here is the cat?
M y son has become a thief. (Ib.)
What has my son become?
S he returned my love. (Ib.)
What did she return?
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1 "The expression Who came signals a question, not because of a different arrangement, but solely because the signal of question is in the word who as a word". (Ch. C. Fries, op. cit).
§ 410. The alternative question Are you going out or do you prefer to stay at home? is a compound sentence containing two coordinated interrogative clauses each of which is the syntactical opposite of a declarative clause. Only the intonation of the second clause is not interrogative.
Note. In cases like Are you going out or not? Are you going to Moscow or to Leningrad? the part following the conjunction or may be regarded as representing a clause similar to the preceding one in everything but the appended words and the intonation.
Disjunctive questions are peculiar complex sentences the principal clause being a statement and the subordinate clause the syntactical opposite of its predication with regard to two categories, 'presentation' and 'information.' (See next §.)
You don't smoke, do you? She is beautiful, isn't she?
§ 411. The sentences below form opposemes of some syntactical category.
Open the door. Don't open the door.
It is raining. It is not raining. (It isn'training.)
Do you like it? Don't you like it?
You know. You don't know.
In these opposemes meanings of 'affirmation' and 'negation' are the particular meanings of some syntactical category. It is difficult to find a name for such a general category covering statements, questions and orders. Seeing that in modern science the components of a 'yes-no' system are used as units of information, we shall call the category under discussion the category of information.
The meaning of 'affirmative' information is expressed by a zero form, and the meaning of 'negative' information by means of the predicate negation, the syntactical word-morpheme not (n't) placed after the syntactical (part of the) predicate.
§412. As already noted (§393), the negative word-morpheme not (n't) expresses full negation, as distinct from the partial negation of such negative words as not, no, never, nothing, etc. In most cases full negation excludes the necessity of partial negation in English, and vice versa. Hence the well-known assertion: "In English two negatives in the same construction are not used as in Russian: He does not come so early. or: He never comes so early. Compare with the Russian:
Он никогда не приходит так рано."
The difficulty is only in defining what is meant by "the same construction". It is not a sentence, because there can be two (or more) negatives in a composite sentence.
E. g. I с a n' t understand why he d i d n' t come yesterday.
It isn't even a simple sentence, for there may be a negative word attached to some verbid in the sentence, besides the negation connected with the predicate verb.
E. g. Would it not be better not to tell your father? (London).
The corresponding rule can, probably, be worded thus: In English two negatives are not used in the same verbal construction. A verbal construction is a verb with all the 'non-verbs' attached.
§ 413. Not every sentence containing a negation is the syntactical opposite of an affirmative sentence. There was nobody in the room is not the opposite of There was somebody in the room. Here the difference is in the lexical meaning of somebody and nobody. Similarly in There is a book on the table, and There is no book on the table the difference is lexical (no versus a). Only a sentence containing the predicate negation, the syntactical word-morpheme not (n't), can be the 'negative' member of an 'information' opposeme, because (like any grammatical word-morpheme) not (n' t) adds no lexical meaning.
§ 414. With regard to the category of information English sentences divide into those that have opposites of the category and those which have not. Since 'negative information' is expressed in English only by means of the predicate negation, all the sentences that have no predicates are outside the category. Rain. No rain. are not members of a syntactical opposeme. They only resemble the corresponding members and may be said to possess lexico-grammatical meanings of 'affirmative' and 'negative' information. In exclamatory sentences the category of information is mostly neutralized. The member of neutralization usually resembles that of 'affirmation'. What a lovely day! But often it takes the form of the member of 'negation'. Isn't it marvellous!