English faculty

The syntactic structure of the sentence can be analysed at 2 levels: pre-functional (constituents are words and word-groups) and functional (constituents are parts of 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.

Parts of the sentence:

1) principal parts of the sentence - the predication (the basic structure of the sentence),

2) secondary parts of the sentence extend or expand the basic structure.

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

Principal parts of the sentence are interdependent. The subject is 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 parts of the sentence are modifiers of principal and other secondary parts: attributes are noun-adjuncts, objects and adverbial modifiers are primarily verb adjuncts. Besides the three “traditional” secondary parts, two more are singled out: the apposition and the objective predicative.

Accordingly to the structure parts of the sentence:

1) simple expressed by words and phrases;

2) compound, consisting of the structural and notional part (compound verbal and nominal predicate, subject with the introductory it and there);

3) complex, expressed by secondary predications (typical of secondary parts of the sentence).

The model of parts of the sentence shows the basic relations of notional sentence constituents. It does not show the linear order of constituents.

23. Structural models of sentence analysis. Distributional model and types of distribution. IC-model

Methods of of structural linguistics are based on the notions of position, co-occurrence and substitution (substitutability).

The total set of environments of a certain element is its distribution. The term distribution denotes the occurrence of an element relative to other elements. Elements may be in:

1) non-contrastive distribution (the same position, no difference in meaning; variants of the same element): hoofs - hooves;

2) contrastive distribution (the same position, different meanings): She is charming. She is charmed.

3) complementary distribution (mutual exclusiveness of pairs of forms in a certain environment; the same meaning, different positions; variants of the same element): cows - oxen.

The distributional model (Ch. Fries) shows the linear order of sentence constituents. The syntactic structure of the sentence is presented as a sequence of positional classes of words. Showing the linear order of classes of words the model does not show the syntactic relations of sentence constituents. It does not show the ambiguity of sentence.

This drawback is overcome by the IC-model. A sentence is a structured string of words, grouped into phrases. So sentence constituents are words and word-groups. The basic principle for grouping words into phrases (endo- or exocentric) is cohesion, or the possibility to substitute one word for the whole group without destroying the sentence structure. The sentence is built by 2 immediate constituents: NP+VP, each of which may have constituents of its own. Constituents which cannot be further divided are called ultimate (UC). The IС model exists in 2 main versions: the analytical model and the derivation tree. The analytical model divides the sentence into IC-s and UC-s. The derivation tree shows the syntactic dependence of sentence constituents.

So the IC-model shows both the syntactic relations and the linear order of elements.

24. Transformational model of sentence analysis. Types of transformation

Different sentence types are structurally and semantically related. So the syntactic structure of a given sentence may be described by making these relations explicit. Sentences, in which all constituents are obligatory, are called basic structures (= elementary sentences = kernel sentences). Linguists single out from 2 to 7 kernel sentences: 1) NV 2) NVN 3) NVPrepN 4) N is N 5) N is A 6) N is Adv. 7) N is PrepN. The structure of all other sentences is a result of certain transformations of kernel structures. This analysis, showing derivational relations of sentences, is called transformational (N. Chomsky). TM is based on IC-model and it goes further showing semantic and syntactic relations of different sentence types. TM describes paradigmatic relations of basic and derived structures, or the relations of syntactic derivation. Kernel sentences, which serve as the base for deriving other structures, are called deep (= underlying structures), opposed to surface structures of derived sentence types (= transforms). So both the deep and the surface structure belong to the syntactic level of analysis.

Transformations may be subdivided into intramodel = single-base (changing the kernel structure) and two-base (combining 2 structures).

Single-base transformations:

1) modifying the kernel structure: She is working hard. > She is not working hard

2) changing the kernel structure: (2) She is working hard. > Her working hard. > Her hard work.

Some basic types of intramodel transformations:

1) substitution, deletion: Have you seen him? > Seen him?;

2) permutation or movement: He is here. > Is he here?;

3) nominalization: He arrived > His arrival;

4) two-base transformations:

- embedding: know that he has come,

- word-sharing: saw him cross the street.

TM shows that sentences with different surface structures paraphrase, because they are derived from the same deep structure: He arrived > his arrival > for him to arrive > his arriving.

TM shows that some sentences are ambiguous, because they derive from distinct deep structures: Flying planes can be dangerous. > 1. Planes are dangerous. 2. Flying is dangerous. So TM is an effective method of deciding grammatical ambiguity.

A grammar which operates using TM is a transformational grammar (TG). In TG the IC-analysis is supplemented with rules for transforming one sentence into another. TG became an extremely influental type of generative grammatical theory, also called generative grammar.

25. Semantic structure of the sentence (Ch. Fillmore)

Generative semantics. Case Grammar.

In Case Grammar deep (underlying) structure is semantic and surface structure is syntactic. Deep structure has 2 main constituents:

1) modality (features of mood, tense, aspect, negation, relating to the sentence as a whole);

2) proposition (a tenseless set of relationships): “S > M + Pr”.

The proposition is constituted by the semantic predicate (the central element) and some nominal elements, called arguments or participants: “P > V + N₁ + N₂ + N₃ …” The proposition is a reflection of situations and events of the outside world. The semantic predicate determines the number of arguments, or opens up places for arguments. Accordingly we may distinguish

- one-place predicates (She sang),

- two-place predicates (She broke the dish) and so on.

Arguments are in different semantic relations to the predicate. These relations are called semantic roles or deep cases (P+V+C₁+C₂+C₃...). The choice of semantic roles depends on the nature of the predicate.

W. Chafe divides predicates into

1) states

2) non-states (events):

- actions

- processes:

1. The wood is dry. - state

2. She sang. (What did she do?) - action

3. The wood dried. (What happened?) - process.

Semantic roles (deep cases) are judgements about the events.

The most general roles are agent (doer of the action) and patient (affected by the action or state). Actions are accompanied by agents and states. Processes - by patients. Predicates, denoting both actions and processes - by agents and patients: She broke the dish.

The original set of deep cases includes 6 cases (by Ch. Fillmore): agentive, objective, beneficiary, instrument, locative, factitive. E.g.: 1. He dug the ground. (Objective). 2. He dug a hole. (Factitive). Sentences (1) and (2) have the same surface structure, but different deep structure.

On the other hand different syntactic structures may refer to the same deep structure:

1. John opened the door with the key.

2. The door was opened by John.

3. John used the key to open the door.

4. The key opened the door.

26. Communicative structure of the sentence

Communicative structure of the sentence refers to the way the speaker structures the information, the way he identifies the relative importance of utterance parts. Usually the utterance consists of 2 parts:

- the topic of discussion: something about which a statement is made (theme = topic)

- the new information, which adds most to the process of communication (rheme = comment).

Some sentences contain only the rheme, they are monorhematic: It is getting dark. In the majority of sentences the constituents are either rhematic or thematic. There are also transitional elements. Sentences containing the theme and the rheme are called dirhematic.

Thematic elements are indicated by the definite article, loose parenthesis, detached parts of the sentence; rhematic elements - by the indefinite article, particles, negations, emphatic constructions. But in the majority of sentences the rheme is also placed at the end, which is achieved by changing the syntactic structure of the sentence.

Means of preserving the progressive information structure:

1) passive transformations,

2) the use of conversives,

3) the use of the personal subject and the nominal predicate.

Means of making the subject rhematic:

1) the constructions there is/there are, it is necessary,

2) inversion.

Thematic elements contribute little to the meaning of the utterance as they reflect what has already been communicated: they have the lowest degree of communicative dynamism (CD). Rhematic elements, containing new information which advances the communicative process have the highest degree of CD.

27. Functions of word order in English and types of inversion

Words in an English sentence are arranged in a certain order, which is fixed for every type of the sentence, and is therefore meaningful. Modern English is characterized by a rigid word-order in accordance with which the subject of declarative sentences, as a rule, precedes the predicate. This is the so-called direct order of words.

The most common pattern for the arrangement of the main parts in a declarative sentence is Subject - Predicate - (Object), which is called direct word order.

An unusual position of any part of the sentence may be treated as inversion in the broad sense of the word. There is 2 structural types of inversion: full (predicate + subject) and partial (auxiliary verb (operator) + subject + notional part).

The main functions of word order.

1. Grammatical function expresses grammatical relations. Peter saw John.

Cases of inversion:

Full inversion marks the second part of a sentence of proportional agreement (not obligatory). The more he thought of it, the less clear was the matter.

Partial inversion is used

- to distinguish types of sentences: questions, exclamations or imperative sentences having the form of a negative question. Is it really true? Don't you do it!

- to indicate subordination in conditional and concessive clauses introduced asyndetically. Were she asked, she would say.

2. Communicative function indicates information focus (end-focus)

Cases of inversion:

Full inversion is used

- after introductory there. There was a girt whom he loved, there goes our bus.

- after fronted adverbial expressions of place (direction). Here comes Edward.

Partial inversion is used

- after so, neither, nor in a “second clause”, or “short response”. He's hungry. - So am I.

- after as, than, so. She was well-read as were most of her friends.

3. Emphatic function makes part of the sentence prominent by placing the rheme before the theme.

Cases of inversion:

Full inversion is used

- after fronted postpositions (adverbs or prepositions). I stopped the car and up walked a policeman.

- after fronted predicatives. Tall and graceful was Ann.

Partial inversion is used

- after fronted negative and/or restrictive adverbs or expressions: hardly, seldom, rarefy, little, never, expression with only. Only after we met her, did we realize how clever she was.

- after adverbs, adverbial phrases or clauses (often of manner). Well do I remember the day.

- after as, than, so: So shocked was he that he hardly said a word.

- after fronted objects, especially Not /No + Object. Not a single word did she say.

28. Principles of classification of simple sentences

Definitions. Logical: A sentence is a proposition expressed by words. A proposition is the semantic invariant of all the members of modal and communicative paradigms of sentences and their transforms. But besides sentences which contain propositions there are interrogative and negative sentences. Speech is emotional. There is no one to one relationship. Then a sentence can be grammatically correct, but from the point of view of logic it won't be correct, true to life (Water is a gas). Laws of thinking are universal but there are many languages. Grammar and Logic don't coincide.

Structural: A sentence is a subject-predicate structure. Grammatical subject can only be defined in terms of the sentence. Moreover the grammatical subject often does not indicate what we are “talking about” (The birds have eaten all the fruit. It is getting cold). Besides, this definition leaves out verbless sentences. There are one-member sentences. They are non-sentences? Conclusion - a sentence is a structural scheme.

Phonological: A sentence is a flow of speech between 2 pauses. But speech is made up of incomplete, interrupted, unfinished, or even quite chaotic sentences. Speech is made up of utterances but utterances seldom correspond to sentences.

Thus, it is more preferable to describe a sentence than to define it. The main peculiar features of the sentence are:

- integrity,

- syntactic independence,

- grammatical completeness,

- semantic completeness,

- communicative completeness,

- communicative functioning,

- predicativity,

- modality,

- intonational completeness.

Principles of classification of simple sentences. According to the purpose of the utterance: declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory. Prof. Ilyish: before dividing sentences into 3 classes we should divide them into emotional and non-emotional and within emotional we can establish 4 classes.

As to their structure:

1) simple (sentence with only one predication);

2) composite (sentence with more than one predication):

- compound (composite sentence with coordinated clauses);

- (composite sentence containing subordinated clauses);

3) two-member (sentence with full predicate) and one- member

4) extended (sentence containing some words besides the predication), unextended (sentence containing only subject and predicate) and contracted (sentence with several subjects to one predicate or several predicates to one subject);

5) elliptical (incomplete)

As to their cathegories.

According to the grammatical (syntactical) cathegory of presentation: statement, question.

According to the cathegory of information: affirmation, negation.

According to the cathegory of expressiveness: emphatic, non-emphatic.

29. Compound sentence. Logico-semantic relations between clauses

Coordinate clauses are units of equivalent syntactic status. Each of them has the force of an independent statement (proposition).

Main types of logico-semantic relations between coordinate clauses are copulative, adversative, disjunctive, causative, consecutive. They can be also found between simple sentences. This has given cause to some scholars to deny the existence of a compound sentence as a special structural type and treat it as a sequence of simple sentences. This idea is usually rejected, as a compound sentence is a semantic, grammatical and intonational unity. Each coordinate clause functions as part of this unity.

As coordination reflects the logical sequence of thought, the order of coordinate clauses is usually fixed: He came at 5 and we had dinner together.

The opening clause is most independent structurally, the following clauses may be to a certain extent dependent on the first clause - they may be elliptical, may contain anaphoric pronouns, etc.

Coordinating conjunctions and meanings rendered by them are described in Practical Grammar.

30. Complex sentence. Structural and functional classification

The classification of complex sentences is usually based on the classification of subordinate clauses. Subordinate clauses are classified either on analogy with classes of words (structural classification) or on analogy with parts of the sentence (functional classification).

Structural classification. Clauses are subdivided into

- noun clauses (substantive clauses),

- adjective clauses,

- adverb clauses, etc.

But as words of the same class may perform different syntactic functions, the functional classification seems preferable. A subordinate clause can occupy any position but that of the predicate (though it may fill in the position of the predicative). There is no complete similarity between parts of the sentence and subordinate clauses. Especially this is the case with adverbial clauses.

There is a correlation between structural and functional classifications.

Accordingly to the type of clausal connection (close or loose, obligatory or optional) complex sentences may be:

The classification of complex sentences may be also based on the type of clausal connection, which may be close or loose, obligatory or optional.

Sentences with obligatory clausal connection:

1) Sentences with Subject and Predicative clauses. The subordinate clause occupies a syntactic position in the predication. It is fused, or merged with the principal clause, which is incomplete semantically and structurally: What you say is true.

2) Sentences with Object clauses. The subordinate clause is obligatory due to the obligetory valency of the predicate verb in the main clause.

3) Sentences in which there are correlative elements in both main and subordinate clauses (hardly... when; as... as; the more... the more): He was so tired, that...

Some attributive and adverbial clauses are loosely connected with the main clause and may be optional.

Composite sentences may include a number of coordinate and subordinate clauses.

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