Major components of the noun-head phrase 3 page

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 600.

Assignments for practice:

1. Pick up abstracts from fiction, academic conversation and news and find out examples of various structural types of phrases. Comment on their discourse functions. 2. Sort out your examples of phrases according to the following groups: 2.1. subordinate - coordinate; 2.2.endocentric- exocentric; 2.3. progressive - regressive. 2.4. noun-, verb-, adverb-, adjective-, prepositional-, numeral- phrases

Suggestions for further readings:

1. Quirk R., Greenbaum S., Leech G., Svartvik J. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. - Ldn and N.Y. Longman, 1985. - 1779 p.

2. English syntax A Grammar for English Language Professionals Roderick A. Jacobs Oxford University Press 1995.

3. Woods E. Introducing Grammar.-London, 1995 H.Zwicky A., Kantor R.N. A Survey of Syntax // Language Development, Grammar and semantics. – Arlington, 1980.

5.3. Grammar of sentence

1. SENTENCE AS A SYNTACTIC UNIT. The kernel concept in syntax is the concept of the sentence, since it is an ultimate product of language. Sentence tops the hierarchy “morpheme-word-sentence element-sentence”, since it performs communicative function, while other elements do not. Though this term appears in all syntactic research work, its concept seems to be very variable and vague. It covers elements of very different nature, and a complex, undifferentiated concept like this leads to much confusion. To cope with this unsatisfactory situation the concept of the term “sentence” three different basic concepts should be distinguished: (1) sentence as a singular and individual speech event, or the utterance event; (2) sentence as one of all the possible different minimal communicative units, or the utterance; (3) sentence as an abstract structure or configuration, i.e. as a pattern of distinctive features. The set of such patterns represents a subsystem of the overall grammatical system of the given language, or the sentence-pattern.A great majority of utterances represents manifestations of a small set of sentence patterns. Such utterances may be called sentences.A sentence is an expression of a thought or feeling by means of a word or words used in such form and manner as to convey the meaning intended. The term sentence covers more or less ground according to the meaning given to it. It is often defined by grammarians as being any complete and independent communication. A sentence is a communication of words, conveying a sense of completeness and containing at least one independent verb with its subject. A definition of a sentence to which few or no exceptions саn be taken has yet to be constructed, description is preferable to definition: the sentence consists of a number of standardized patterns that have been agreed upon by the users of a language, and that for English, a noun-verb or actor-action sequence such as Dogs bark is the simplest concrete form of such a pattern, liable to all sorts of extension and amplification. According to Bloomfield “Each sentence is an independent linguistic form, not included by virtue of any grammatical construction in any larger linguistic form”. In classical scientific grammar a sentence is considered as a word or group of words capable of expressing a complete thought or meaning. Whether or not a given word or group of words is capable of doing this in any one language depends on the way in which that language constructs its sentences – that is, on their form. A sentence is, therefore, a word or group of words whose form makes us expect it to express a full meaning. It depends on the context whether or not any one sentence expresses a complete meaning. A sentence is not only a logical but a phonetic unity. A continuous discourse from a phonetic point of view consists of a succession of sounds divided into a breath-groups by the pauses required for taking breath.

Like other meaningful language units, sentence has a form, since it is a composite sign and its form consists of a set of signs positioned in a certain order. On the basis of formal properties we can treat I like reading books as a sentence and *Readings I books like as a string of words which do not make any sense. The sentence form includes formal properties of components - sentence parts, their order and number. English sentence is under fairly strict constraints on word order. Typically the subject is followed by a verb and then its object. For this reason, English is called an S-V-O (Subject-Verb-Object) language. However even in English this word-order is not entirely rigid. The sentence Mary showed John the picture has an indirect object (IO). John intervenes before the object to produce the order of S-V-IO-O. A sentence such as The man who lives next to my sister collects antique cars also disrupts the typical S-V-O order in English. It interposes the center-embedded relative clause who lives next to my sister between the subject and the verb and object, which produces discontinuity in the S-V-O pattern. Furthermore, sentences such as John clumsily opened the саn and John opened the саn clumsily саn have similar meaning even if their word orders differ from one another. Implicit expectation that words follow a conventional order in English aids a listener immensely in arriving at a rapid and accurate interpretation of many sentences. Typical word order patterns are used as a comprehension strategy in English. But if word order deviates from the norm, problems in interpretation or differences in emphasis саn arise. For instance, the active sentence The tornado transported Dorothy has a focus different from its almost synonymous passive, Dorothy was transported by the tornado. One of the characteristic features of any sentence is intonational arrangement. Intonation patterns are special for different communicative types of sentences. For instance, intonation patterns of declarative sentences are different from intonation patterns of imperative sentences. Thus, intonation patterns are important for sentence intonation, since they add to structural and grammatical organization of sentences. Phonetic arrangement of a sentence is also important, since it may provide neutralization of grammatical features. For instance, declarative sentences, pronounced with a certain intonation, may acquire interrogative meaning: You do not like it? They are still here?

The sentence is a broad notion that covers various sentence constructions - from one-word to complex. Unlike word or phrase, sentence denotes a situation correlated with the real world., i.e. it presents a phenomenon as a fact of reality, for instance: It is a good idea. It would be nice. Winter. Spring is coming. It was too late. As a communicative unit, sentence has certain time perspective (present, past, future), mood (the phenomenon is presented as real or unreal). As a meaningful construction sentence should be characterized in terms of the three aspects of any meaningful language unit: structure, meaning and function. To put it another way, sentence can be classified according to the following criteria: structural (simple – composite); semantic (declarative – interrogative – imperative); functional or pragmatic (directive, assertive, declarative, comissive, questitive, requestive, menassive, constative, performative) sentences. There exist many more than three hundred – definitions of the sentence, but none of them is generally accepted. Of these, two definitions have been most often used in grammar books: a) a sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought (notional approach); b) a sentence is a group of words that contains an unsubordinated subject and predicate (formal approach).

The first of these, a 'notional' definition, fails because it is wholly subjective. There is no objective standard by which to judge the completeness of a thought. Completeness is, in fact, very relative. It depends largely on the-purpose of the speaker or writer as well as on the context, linguistic or situational. On the other hand, the second definition 'is not more than half truth, for it rules out all verbless sentences, which may be just as complete and independent as the verb sentences: Beautiful day! Taxi! Good. A full sentence may range from a single word (Stop! Go! Coffee? Yes?) to an indeterminate length. In the majority of ;ases people actually experience no difficulty in separating one sentence from another in their native tongue. This is reflected in writing, where the graphic form of each sentence is separated by punctuation marks (./?) from its neighbours.

It is much more difficult to identify sentences in natural spoken conversation. Words like and are frequently used, making it difficult for a grammarian to work out where one sentence ends and the next begins [Hatch, 1992: 243]: When I was 18 I got pregnant and + it was with a + a boy I'd been going with a + a year and a half an:: we decided to get married + + an:: I went home lo tell my parents + and my dad said, "No, it will send your mother over the edge."

In situations where we have to speak spontaneously, there is no time to plan far ahead, to work out where the 'full stops' ought to go. Spoken sentences therefore have a very different kind of structure from written sentences. Interactive talk is often clausal or phrasal in structure. In polished writing, the organization is sentential. The following general points apply to any English sentence.

1. Though a sentence contains words, it is not merely a group of words, but something integral, a structural unity built in accordance with one of the syntactical patterns existing in a given language. It is constructed according lo a system of rules, known by all the adult mother-tongue speakers of the language. A sentence formed in this way is said to be grammatical: I told you so. Come in. Where have you been? The following sentences are ungrammatical: *What and why did he go?

2. All the sounds of a sentence are united by typical intonation. Our intonation conveys information about our emotions (anger, surprise, etc.) as well as about grammar.

3. All the meanings are interlaced according to some pattern to make one communication. The sentence is a minimal unit of communication distinguished by conlextually relevant communicative purpose (imparting of thoughts, opinions, or information).

4. The sentence is the basic unit of communication distinguished from all other units by its predicativity.

Predicativity is understood in linguistics as the relation of the sentence to the situation of speech. It includes relations to the act of speech, to the speaker, and to reality (as viewed by the speaker). The act of speech is the event with which all other events mentioned in the sentence are correlated in time. This correlation is fixed in English and other languages grammatically in the category of tense and lexically in such words as now, yesterday, tomorrow, etc. The speaker is the person with whom other persons and things mentioned in the sentence are correlated. This correlation is fixed grammatically in the category of person of the verb and lexico-grammatically in such words as I, you, she, they, student, river, etc. Reality is either accepted as the speaker sees it, or an attempt is made to change it, or some unreality is fancied. Cf.: The door is shut. Shut the door. I wish the door were shut. The attitude towards reality is fixed grammatically in the category of mood and lexically or lexico-grammatically in words like must, may, probably. Predicativity is an essential a part of the content of the sentence as intonation is of its form. The sentence as a predicative unit of language verbalizes human thought and represents lingually the main predicative form of thought, i.e. the proposition. Within a sentence, the word or combination of words that contains the meanings of predicativity may be called predication. The main parts of the sentence are those whose function it is to make the predication. They are the subject and the predicate.

In the sentence He mused over it for a minute the predication is he mused. He indicates the person, mused - the tense and mood components of predicativity Thus the sentence has predicativity plainly expressed by a positive two-member predication. In the sentence Tell me something there is a one-word predication tell containing the mood component of predicativity. The person component is only implied. The situation generally makes it so obvious who the second person subject of imperatives is, that its expression is the exception rather than the rule. The simplest relation to the situation of speech can be found in sentences like Rain which when pronounced with proper intonation merely states the phenomenon observed. The noun rain, like any noun, is associated with the third person. The present tense and the indicative mood are implied. In Tea! the imperative intonation expresses the difference in the modal component of predicativity. From the structural point of view the sentence is the immediate integral unit of speech built up of words according to a definite syntactic pattern and distinguished by a contextually relevant communicative purpose. A syntactic pattern is usually defined as an abstract theoretical scheme which reflects the structure of a syntactic unit, i.e. its components and the syntactic links between them [Mukhin 1980:4]. One of the disputable syntactic problems, as was noted, for instance, by Budagov, Moskalska, is distinguishing syntactic patterns from their variants, which is important for objective classification of syntactic phenomena.

Most grammarians are agreed that the features distinguishing different syntactic patterns are more essential that those distinguishing the variants of the same pattern. But so far there is no unanimity as to the criterion for differentiating between essential and inessential features.

Any coherent connection of words having an informative destination is effected within the framework of the sentence. Therefore, the sentence is the main object of syntax as part of the grammatical theory. The sentence, being composed of words, may in certain cases include only one word of various lexico-grammatical standing: Summer. Congratulations. Away! Why! Certainly!

The actual existence of one-word sentences, however, does not contradict the general idea of the sentence as a special syntactic combination of words, the same as the notion of one-element set in mathematics does not contradict the general idea of the set as a combination of certain elements. Moreover, this fact cannot lead even to the inference that under some circumstances the sentence and the word may wholly coincide: a word-sentence as a unit of the text is radically different from a word-lexeme as a unit of lexicon, the differentiation being inherent in the respective places occupied by the sentence and the word in the hierarchy of language levels. While the word is a component element of the word-stock and as such is a nominative unit of language, the sentence, linguistically, is a predicative utterance-unit. It means that the sentence not only names some referents with the help of its word-constituents, but also, first, presents these referents as making up a certain situation, or, more specifically, a situational event, and second, reflects the connection between the nominal denotation of the event on the one hand, and objective reality on the other, showing the time of the event, its being real or unreal, desirable or undesirable, necessary or unnecessary, etc. For example: I am satisfied, the experiment has succeeded. I would have been satisfied if the experiment had succeeded. The experiment seems to have succeeded – why then am I not satisfied.

Thus, even one uninflected word making up a sentence is thereby turned into an utterance-unit expressing the said semantic complex through its concrete contextual and con-situational connections. By way of example, compare the different connections of the word-sentence "night" in the following passages: 1) Night. Night and the boundless sea, under the eternal star-eyes shining with promise. Was it a dream of freedom coming true? 2) Night? Oh no. No night for me until I have worked through the case. 3) Night. It pays all the day's debts. No cause for worry now, I tell you. Whereas the utterance "night" in the first of the given passages refers the event to the plane of reminiscences, the "night" of the second passage presents a question in argument connected with the situation wherein the interlocutors are immediately involved, while the latter passage features its "night" in the form of a proposition of reason in the flow of admonitions.

It follows from this that there is another difference between the sentence and the word. Namely, unlike the word, the sentence does not exist in the system of language as a ready-made unit with the exception of a limited number of utterances of phraseological citation, it is created by the speaker in the course of communication. Stressing this fact, linguists point out that the sentence, as different from the word, is not a unit of language proper; it is a chunk of text built up as a result of speech-making process, out of different units of language, first of all words, which are immediate means for making up contextually bound sentences, i. e. complete units of speech.

Being a unit of speech, the sentence isintonationally delimited. Intonation separates one sentence from another in the continual flow of uttered segments and, together with various segmental means of expression, participates in rendering essential communicative-predicative meanings (such as, for instance, the syntactic meaning of interrogation in distinction to the meaning of declaration). The role of intonation as a delimiting factor is especially important for sentences which have more than one predicative centre, in particular more than one finite verb: The class was over, the noisy children the corridors. The class was over. The noisy children filled corridors.

Special intonation contours, including pauses, represent the given speech sequence in the first case as one compound sentence, in the second case as two different sentences (though, certainly, connected both logically and syntactically).

On the other hand, as we have stated elsewhere, the system of language proper taken separately, and the immediate functioning of this system in the process of intercourse, i.e. speech proper, present an actual unity and should be looked upon as the two sides of one dialectically complicated substance – the human language in the broad sense of the term. Within the framework of this unity the sentence itself, as a unit of communication, also presents the two different sides, inseparably connected with each other. Namely, within each sentence as an immediate speech element of the communication process, definite standard syntactico-semantic features are revealed which make up a typical model, a generalized pattern repeated in an indefinite number of actual utterances. This complicated predicative pattern does enter the system of language. It exists on its own level in the hierarchy of lingual segmental units in the capacity of a "linguistic sentence" and as such is studied by grammatical theory. Thus, the sentence is characterized by its specific category of predication which establishes the relation of the named phenomena to actual life. The general semantic category of modality is also defined by linguists as exposing the connection between the named objects and surrounding reality. However, modality, as different from predication, is not specifically confined to the sentence. This is a broader category revealed both in the grammatical elements of language and its lexical, purely nominative elements. In this sense, every word expressing a definite correlation between the named substance and objective reality should be recognized as modal. Here belong such lexemes of full notional standing as "probability", "desirability", "necessity" and the like, together with all the derivationally relevant words making up the corresponding series of the lexical paradigm of nomination; here belong semi-functional words and phrases of probability and existential evaluation, such as perhaps, may be, by all means, etc.; here belong further, word-particles of specifying modal semantics, such as just, even, would-be, etc.; here belong, finally, modal verbs expressing a broad range of modal meanings.

2. SENTENCE ELEMENTS.Sentence elements are interrelated with parts of speech, since the content expressed by sentence parts corresponds to lexical categorical meanings of parts of speech. For example, subjects and objects are expressed by nouns and pronouns; predicates - by verbs, etc. However parts of sentence and parts of speech are not similar, since a sentence element is formed by interaction of words with other units. By contrast, According to A.I. Smirnitskiy, the function of a sentence element is determined by the content of relations formed between words in the sentence. The content is determined by relations between meanings of words and meanings of syntactic means. For instance, the subject has the content of “thingness”, the attribute - “quality”, the adverbial - “circumstance” etc. The relation between sentence elements and parts of speech results from the distinction between speech and language. Sentence elements produced in speech are inseparable from parts of speech, though not identical with them, since in speech they are formed in interaction with other units.

Thus, the system of sentence members correlates with the system of parts of speech only to a certain extend, since structural and semantic nature of some morphological classes presuppose polyfunctioning in syntax. For instance, noun may express subject, object, attribute and nominal part of compound predicate.

It is traditionally considered that there are two essential or principal elements in every sentence - the subject and the predicate: Bird sings. The subject is that which is spoken of. The predicate is that which is said of the subject. The subject and the predicateare considered interdependent. They make the predication and thus constitute the backbone of the sentence. Without them the sentence would not exist at all, whereas all other parts may or may not be there. In a normal sentence both subject and predicate are present, but sometimes the one or the other or both may be absent and yet the sentence may be a complete expression of thought. Secondary parts of the sentence- object, compliment, attribute, adverbial modifier, apposition, predicative -modify the main parts of the sentence or each other. Besides these two kinds of sentence components there are independent elements,i.e. elements standing outside the structure of the sentence, and therefore of lesser importance. The independent elements are parenthesesand direct address - vocatives.

The secondary elements of the sentence are classified according to the syntactic relations between sentence elements. Oppositional relations between the principal and secondary parts of the sentence are quite evident. The principal elements are the core of the communicative unit, the secondary are related to the predicative core as a whole.

2.1. Principal sentence elements. The subjectdenotes the thing whose action or characteristic is expressed by the predicate. The subject of the sentence has a close general relation to “what is being discussed”, the “theme” of the sentence, with the normal implication that something new (the predicate) is being said about a “subject”. Subjects can refer to something that is identified, described, classified, or located, implying something that performs an action, or is affected by action, or something involved in an occurrence of some sort. The subject performs two syntactic functions: categorical and relating.The categorical function of the subject lies in that it names the thing or person whose property is indicated by the predicate. The relating function of the subject presupposes that the subject is the starting element in consecutive syntagmatic development of the sentence. For instance, the subject is the left-hand surrounding to the predicate, and right-hand surrounding to the object. The compulsory two-member structure of the English sentence makes the subject an essential sentence constituent. The subject determines concord. It determines the form of the predicate: I go - S/HeIt goes - They go.

In terms of content or its grammatical value, the subject саn be definite or notional, if denotes a person or a non-person, a concrete object, process, quality and indefinite or formal, if denotes some indefinite person, a state of things or a certain situation. It is used only as structural element filling the linear position of the subject. There are two such position-fillers: it and there: She is a good student. He knows all about it. The audience laughs. Thereare some books for reading. It is a good idea.

The formal subject is impersonal when it is used in sentences describing various states of nature, or things in general, or characteristics of the environment, or denoting time, distance, or their measurements: It's spring. It is cold today. It's freezing. The formal or empty subject it is introductory (anticipatory)if it produces the notional subject expressed by an infinitive, a gerund, infinitival or gerundial phrase, a predicative complex, or a clause: It's impossible to deny this. It was no good coming there again. It would be wonderful for you to stay with us. It did not occur to her that the idea was his. Sentences with introductory It can be transformed into sentences with the notional subject in its usual position: It was impossible to deny this. - To deny this was impossible.

Sentences with introductory it must be distinguished from certain patterns of sentences with impersonal it: a) sentences with the predicate expressed by seem, appear, happen, turn out followed by an object clause (It seemed that he did not know the place - *That he did not know the place seemed, b) sentences with predicative adjectives preceded by too and followed by an infinitive used as an adverbial modifier of result (It was too late to start ?*To start was too late); c) sentences with the predicative expressed by the noun time allowed by an infinitive used as an attribute (It was time to take their departure 2 *To take their departure was time). Sentences with introductory it must also be distinguished from certain patterns with the notional subject it, where the latter back to a noun previously mentioned, as in Her voice was untrained but it was pleasant to listen to.

The formal subject there introduces a notional subject in existential sentences (which express the existence of a person or person denoted by the subject). The notional subject introduced by there is expressed by a noun or noun phrase, noun-pronouns, a gerund or a gerundial phrase, a clause: There was silence for a moment. There came the priest. There was nothing to do. There was no discussion anymore. There did not appear to be anything of vital importance. It should be noted that in many sentences the subject and the doer of the action are by no means in full correspondence: Thisroom sleeps three men. Suchbooks sell readily. The subject may be expressed by different parts of speech: nouns in the common case ( Knowledge is power), personal pronouns in the nominative case (She is beautiful), other noun-pronouns (Nothing can be done about it), numerals (Five cannot be divided by two), an infinitive (To forgive is to understand), a gerund (Seeing is believing). It may be expressed by a phrase (Two of them were Germen), predicative complex (His walking out of the room was unexpect(ed), or a clause (What girls want is just a wedding ring).

In contrast with the subject, the predicate tends to be a more complex and heterogeneous unit. The predicate саn be composed of several different structures. The common definition of the predicate in terms of modern linguistics is that it is a more or less complex structure with the verb or verb-phrase at its core. As the second principal part of the sentence and its organizing centre (the object and nearly all adverbial modifiers are connected with and depend on it) the predicate denotes the action, state, or property of the thing expressed by the subject.

Due to its categorical nature, the predicate is related to the subject, since the categorical, i.e. predicate function of the predicate is to expresses a predicate property of the thing or the person named by the subject: They left for London. The predicate also performs the relating function, since it appears a link between the subject and the right-hand element - the object and the adverbial modifier: Tom speaks English well.