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Grammatical category and its characteristic features.



Grammatical category and its characteristic features.

M.Y. Blokh defines the grammatical category as " a system of expressing a generalized grammatical meaning by means of paradigmatic correlation of grammatical forms". It’s a unity of form & mean-g. 1)The general notion on which a gram. category grounds is gram. mean-g. 2)The forms united into a grammatical category possess a common general meaning that gives a name to the category and each form possesses its own specific meaning that presents a specification of the general meaning and differentiates the form from the other form/forms within the category. The forms lives - lived - will live are united on the basis of the common general grammatical meaning of tense and constitute the grammatical category of tense. Within this category each form has its own specific meaning of tense: present, past and future. 3) gram. categories don’t nominate objects or units of lang., instead they express relations between lang. units. The grammatical category of tense presents a specific lingual expression of objective time, the grammatical category of case presents various relations between the action and its participants, the grammatical category of number in nouns reflects the quantitative relations between homogeneous objects of reality, the grammatical category of mood presents the relations between the action and reality as they are presented by the speaker etc. Such grammatical categories may also be called inherent (неотъемлемый, присущий). 4) Conceptual (понятийные) grammatical categories are universal, they exist in most of the languages though their volume and their scope may vary considerably in various languages. Gram. cat-s represent lang. realization of universal cat-s of human thinking. That’s why gram. cat-s typical of a particular lang. are unique. The grammatical category of number is the most universal grammatical category, all speech communities have linguistic means of encoding number, though these means differ greatly in different languages. 5) A grammatical category is constituted on the basis of contrastive grammatical forms which share a certain grammatical meaning correlated to some general concept (time, number) and differ in more concrete meanings within the scope of the same concept. Such contrastive grammatical forms are called oppositions and all grammatical categories are based on oppositions. The method of oppositional analysis was introduced by Trubetskoy. Now the method of oppositional analysis is widely used in lexicology and grammar.

 



Non-objective:

A. predicative (become a teacher, tired, to be, turn red)

B. adverbial types ( to leave, stay, go, act)

2. objective:

a. monocomplemantive (buy, take, forget, look at, cost, belong)

b. bicomplementive (pay, hand, show, to teach, excuse)

B. UNCOMPLEMENTIVE ( холостяк)which fall into:

  1. personal ( He is sleeping - есть лицо кто совершает действие)

       2. impersonal ones ( rain, snow, drizzle)

The words which are obligatory after complementive verbs are called complements, and words which are optional are called supplements. Both may be of three types (supplements and complement) – objective, predicative and adverbial types. For example –

objective complement – I bought a new BOOK.

Objective supplement – I bought a book FOR YOU.

Predicative complement – she may be a good TEACHER. It became DARK.

Predicative supplement – The night air DARK and DREARY.

Adverbial supplement – I see a house IN THE DISTANCE.

Adverbial complement – she is behaving like a child. He went to London.

Among the objective complementive verbs they distinguish two classes of verbs: transitive (переходные) and intransitive ones. Transitive verbs take non-prepositional objects – for example to see a house, to read a book, etc. Intransitive verbs take prepositional objects – to think of smth, to listen to smth, insist on smth, surprised at, busy with/in.

Non-finite forms of the verb also have the same features as the finite ones and can be complementive, uncomplementive and so on.

 

5) The finite forms of the verb make up a very complex and intricate system; its intricacy is caused by the fact that they are directly connected with the structure of the sentence, the finite verb functioning as its predication center.

The morphological study of the English finite verb includes the study of its categories, those of person, number, aspect, voice and mood.

Person and number are treated by scholars as closely related categories. In their treatment two approaches are contrasted: traditional and modern.

In accord with traditional approach to these two categories, scholars point out to the existence in English of three persons and two numbers.

In modern linguistic works on the problem it is also stressed that the categories of person and nmber are closely interwoven in English and should be considered together, At the same time it is particularly emphasized that these categories are specific because they don’t convey the inherently “verbal” semantics. It means that the categories of person and number have a “reflective” character: the personal and numerical semantics in the finite verb is the reflection in the verb lexeme of the personal and numerical semantics of the subject referent.

The semantic and formal analysis of the person-number forms of the verb shows that in the strictly categorical sense one should speak of personal pronouns set consisting of six different forms of blended person-number nature – three in the singular and three in the plural.

The intermixed character of the numerical and personal forms of the finite forms of the verb finds its expression both at the formal and functional levels of analysis in different subsystems of verbs. The peculiarity of expressing person-number distinctions in the English verb lies in the deficiency of the finite regular verb for there exists the only positive person number mark of the finite regular verb – the morpheme of the third person singular. The deficient system cannot and does not exist in the language by itself: in fact, the verbal person-number system only backs up the person-number system of the subject. Due to it the combination and strict correlation of the English finite verb with the subject is obligatory not only syntactically but also categorically.

 

6). The category of tense in ME

While the existence of the aspect category in English is a disputed matter, the tense category is universally recognized. This category denotes the relation of the action either to the moment of speaking or to some definite moment in the past or future (it expresses the relations between the time of the action and the time of the utterance). So the three main divisions of time are represented in the English verbal system by the three tenses. Each of them may appear in the common and in the continuous aspect. Thus we get 6 tense-aspect forms. Besides these 6, however, there are 2 more, namely, the future-in-the-past and the future-contin.-in-the-past. These forms are used chiefly in the subordinate clauses depending on the main clause having its predicate verb in one of the past tenses: ex. It meant for him that even death wouldn’t part them.

The time of the action can be expressed lexically with the help of such wds and combinations as yesterday, next week, a year ago, at half past seven, on the fifth of May, in 1980, etc. All grammarians believe that the English lang. has the present tense (it denotes actions taken place at the moment of speaking. It may denote very prolong & timeless actions: ex. I hear a noise. I’m writing a lecture. The Earth moves round the Sun.; it may be used for past actions- historical or dramatic present- ex. Yesterday I entered the room and who do you think I see? It can express future actions (planned): ex. The train leaves at 5 tomorrow.; in complex sent-s the present tense is bound or structurally dependent: a) adv. clauses of time, condition, concession… when, if, whenever; b) certain types of object clauses after the expressions to see to smth, to take care, to make sure: ex. I’ll make sure he comes on time.) The mean-g of the past tense (by Barhudarov): “it denotes an action, which is prior to the moment of speaking & that is not correlated with the moment of speaking. Non-past tense denotes actions which are outside the past tense sphere. The present & past tense forms create an opposition: take- took- is/was taking. Within this opposition the past tense form is the marker member. It’s marked by the suffixes in reg. verbs & in speech the suffix is represented by a number of allomorphs [t, d, id]. In irregular verbs it’s represented by dif. morphologically conditioned allomorphs – sing/sang.” The future tense (pr. Smirnitskiy, Ilyish) this tense form is analytical. It’s made up by the auxiliary verb shall/will & the inf. Which is the lex. part. Many grammarians even now believe that English has 2 tenses only- the present & the past (Jesperson, Shtelling, Barhudarov), and shall/will+ inf. Should be treated as a modal combination. However it doesn’t mean that the future actions can’t be expressed at all (it can be expressed by a number of other lex., gram. & contextual means).

 


6а) THE CATEGORY OF TENSE.

The category of tense is a verbal category which expresses the relation of the action expressed by the form of the verb to the moment of speech. This category reflects the philosophic (objective) category of time. Tense is a grammatical category and time is a philosophic one. They usually distinguish three tenses in English:

- The Past

- The Present

- The Future

The present tense is the unmarked member of the opposition. The past tense in marked by the inflection –ED. The future tense is expressed analytically with the help of auxiliary verbs SHALL, WILL in combination with the vary infinitive. But in modern English especially in American English there is a tendency to use WILL in all the persons. But the existence of the future tense presents a disputable in linguistics. The well-known Danish linguist Otto Jespersen treats the verbs SHALL and WILL in the forms of the future tense as modal verbs and consequently they build up compound verbal\nominal modal predicates, but not the analytical form of the future tense. Some Russian linguists also support this view point, for ex: Prof. Slusareva treats the forms of the future tense as the forms of the futurative mood. Professor Barchudarov gives the following arguments against treating the combination SHALL, WILL +infinitive as the form of the future tense:

1. SHALL and WILL are included into the class of modal verbs together with the verbs CAN, MUST, OUGHT.

2. The verbs SHALL and WILL don’t always convey the meaning of future actions. And on the other hand future actions can be expressed by some other constructions. For ex: this will be my friend – это и есть мой друг. Мама уже наверно пришла домой –mother will have come home already. Мой брат все время дерзит мне – My brother will always talk against me. У меня ручка никак не пишет – pen won’t write.

3. The combination SHALL WILL +infinitive is not an analytical form because it is not built up by the discontinuous morpheme. For ex: BE writING, WILL write0

4. Since SHALL and WILL are used in the form of the past tense SHOULD and WOULD to express future in the past, they can’t possibly express future actions because one and the same form can’t express two tenses at once: the past and the future.

But in spite of these arguments we can’t altogether deny the existence of the future tense.

1. In modern English WILL is used in all the persons and in oral speech it is contracted to the form –‘LL, which completely lacks any modal meaning. 

2. If the verb WILL wear a modal verb with the meaning WANT, then the following sentences would sound absurd. For ex : Peter. You will be punished for your behavior – Петя, ты хочешь быть наказанным. I’ve lost my key. I will have to go to my father’s working place and have his key – я хочу быть вынужденным пойти к отцу ….. мне придется …

3. The verb WILL as many other auxiliary verbs used to be a modal verb with its lexical meaning WANT. It can be even more lexicalized when it is used with marked infinitives. For ex: I myself will to do it – я хочу сделать это. You must have will to loose her – ты наверняка пожелал потерять ее. It is also used in the meaning –передать в наследство – for ex: He willed most of his property to his son- он завещал …. Thus all the auxiliary words used to be notional words. For ex: the definite article THE used to be THIS, article A – ONE.

The presence of the future in the past made some grammarians namely professor Irten’eva divide the system of tenses into two subsystems:

- tenses centering in the past (past perfect, past perfect continuous, simple past, future in the past)

- tenses centering in the present ( present perfect, present perfect continuous, simple present and the future);

As we see the forms of perfect and perfect continuous aspects are treated as tense forms. Old British grammarians also treated the perfect, continuous, perfect continuous as tense forms. For ex: the British grammarian Henry Sweet divided the system of tenses into two subsystems:

1. the indefinite tense, expressed by the indefinite forms.

2. the definite tense, which include continuous, perfect and perfect continuous forms.

Haymovich and Ragovskaya treat the forms of future as the forms of the category of posteriority. And some linguists treat the forms of the future in the past as the form of the category of taxis, which establishes the order of events within a certain period of time presented in a sentence\utterance. Bloch distinguishes absolutive time characteristics and non-absolutive (relative) time characteristics of actions. Absolutive time includes the past and the present time which are given in language as the past tense and the present tense. The non-absolute time includes the future of the past and the future of the present, which are expressed accordingly by the forms of the future tense. So, he distinguishes two categories, opposed to each other – the category of the primary time, which is the absolutive expression of time; and the category of prospective time, which is purely relative and that is why it expresses the non-absolutive time.

The category of the primary time which is the absolutive expression of time, is expressed by the two tense forms those of the past and present tenses. But the future actions can be expressed not only grammatically but also by the forms of absolutive tenses. All of them build up a certain system which can be presented in the form of a functional semantic feature.


 

THE FUNCTIONAL SEMANTIC FIELD OF FUTURITY.

 

 

Otto Jespersen.

1. Before past time – past perfect, past perfect continuous.

2. past time -

3. after past time – future in the past, continuous

 

1. Before present time

2. Present time

3. After present time.

 

1. Before the future time

2. Future time

3. After future time – he will going to do smth

 

7) The category of voice

The category of voice (which is found both with finite and non-finite forms) is one of the most formal grammatical categories, because this category doesn’t refer to any fragment of reality, doesn’t reflect any fragment of reality – it’s a way of describing a certain fragment of reality. The category of voice deals with the participants of a happening (doer, action, object) and how they are represented in the sentence (subject, predicate, object). The Active Voice shows that the grammatical subject of the sentence or the subjectival is the doer of the action, denoted by the verb, the Passive Voice shows that the subject or the subjectival is an object of the action. The frequency of occurrence of the English Passive Voice is very great, greater than in Russian. One of the reasons is that the number of verbs capable of forming the Passive Voice is greater in English than in Russian. In many languages: PV – transitive verbs, in English: PV – any object verb. In some cases the lex. character of the verb the subj. of the active construction can’t be regarded as the doer of the action. These cases are: ex. He lost his father in the war.; he broke his leg. Disagreement btw the gram. form of the verb and the lex. mean-g of the verb. Due to the lex. mean-g of the V the semantics of the construction becomes passive. In fact the subj. is not the doer, but the sufferer. Some grammarians treat these constructions as active due to the gram. form.

Opposition: active – passive. Passive – marked -> pattern “be + II participle”, active –unmarked

Forms of Fut.Cont, Present Perf.Cont, Past Perf.Cont, Future Perf.Cont – no parallel forms in passive.

Any other voices??? -> doubts and controversy

- the reflexive voice (eq.He dressed himself) – the agent and the object of the action simultaneously;

- the reciprocal voice (They greeted each other) – not 1 person; action aimed at the other member of the same group;

- the middle voice (The door opened) – the form of the v is act, but the meaning is passive.

The active voice has a number of mean-gs: active, passive, middle, reflective, reciprocal.

Pr. Ilyish “ Eng. Has several voices. The classif-n is based on mean-g only.

Pr. Barhudarov calls the active voice non-passive.

The idea of the Passive voice is expressed not only by means of “to be + P2”, but by means of “get”, “come”, “go” + P2 and “get” + passive infinitive (ingressive meaning - He got involved; He got to be respected).

The existence of various means of expressing voice distinctions makes it possible to consider voice as a functional-semantic category with the grammatical category of voice as its center and other means of expressing voice as a periphery.

 


7а) THE CATEGORY OF VOICE.

The category of voice is a complicated phenomena and that is why we can find a different definitions of this category such as:

1. It expresses the relations between the subject of the action and the action itself.

2. It expresses the relation between the subject and the object of the action.

3. It shows whether the subject characterized by the verb is the doer of the action or its object.

4. It expresses the centrifugality (центробежность) of the centrypitality (центростремительность)of the action expressed by the verb.

The most acceptable modern definition is that by professor Cholodovych. It arouses the following:

-the category of voice is a regular expression by the form of the verb of the correlation between the units of syntactic and semantic levels. Example:

 

The category of voice is often treated is a model category since the speaker chooses between the semantic subject or the semantic object to characterize them by the same action. When he chooses for his description the semantic subject he puts it him as the subject of the sentence as the theme and semantic object is given as the syntactic object of the sentence and as the rheme. In this case he uses the active form of the verb, but when the speaker would like to describe the semantic object from the view point of the same action he puts it\him as the syntactic subject and the semantic subject is put as the syntactic object of the sentence. But in this case he changes the form of the verb into a passive one to avoid the ambiguity of the sentence.

 

 

 

Thus there are two generally accepted voices in English. The active voice is the unmarked member of the opposition and the passive voice is the marked member. It is expressed by the analytical construction BE+Participle II. The passive voice can be used only to transitive words in Russian. In transitive ones can’t be used in the passive voice. (in Russian) –example – студент думает об экзаменах-студентом думается о экзаменах. But in English intransitive verbs can also be used in the form of a passive voice. For ex: it is thought much of. Even non-complementive non-objective verbs can be used in the passive voice. Ex: the bird hasn’t been slept in. To sleep – isn’t complementative verb. My hat has been sat on – на мою шляпу сели. В комнате долго не жили – the room hasn’t been lived in for many months.

 The auxiliary verb BE can be substituted for by the verb GET to avoid the ambiguity of the construction BE+Participle II. Ex: to get wounded, to get broken. BE + Participle II can express not only passive meaning but it is also treated as the form of the compound nominal predicate. For ex: To be seated, to be mistaken, the chair is broken. When my wound is healed, I will get to the front again. The passive voice expresses actions but compound nominal predicates express states after actions. In German they have two forms of the passive voice. The passive of the action built up by the form – Werden+Partizip II – Ich wurde geborn. And the passive of the state built up by auxiliary verb SEIN + Partizip II. By the analogy of the german language some English grammarians suggest treating the form of the compound nominal predicate as the form of the passive of the state by conjunction. There are verbs in English which can’t be passivized – to have, to belong, to cost, etc. I have a house – the house is had by me. There are special language means which help us to distinguish the passive voice from the compound nominal predicate:

1. The preposition BY indicating the doer of the action

2. Adverbial modifiers of time and place

3. The forms of the continuous and perfect aspects.

Example: The snow was piled high by the wind. – the snow was piled high by the door. The chair was broken – the chair was broken last week. The form BE+ Participle II can express one more categorical meaning that of the perfect aspect. Ex: He is come. The boy is returned. The man is gone. I’m just finished.

Strange as it may seen, not all the active forms of the verb express active meanings. Example: He received a letter. He has a tooth ache. He took a severe painting. The book sells well. Besides the active and passive voices some linguists used to distinguish the following voices in English:

1. The reflexive voice – He dressed himself.

2. The reciprocal voice – The greeted each other. They hasted each other.

3. The middle voice – neither active nor passive- The door opened. The food eat well.

But not all the grammarians agree with this view point. And they bring the following arguments against treating the reflexive and reciprocal constructions as analytical forms of the category of voice:

1. In cases like “He washed himself” it is not the verb that is reflexive, but the pronoun himself used as a direct object.

2. The words ‘washed’ and ‘himself’ - are words belonging to different lexemes which have different lexical and grammatical meanings and which have different syntactical functions those of the predicate and the object of a sentence.

3. If such a construction is an analytical word form it is necessary to admit that a verb has categories of gender, of person, non-person and the categories of number and person are expressed twice. Example: he washed himself – of gender. The categories of person – He washes himself. We wash ourselves. But one and the same category is never expressed twice in grammatical forms.

4. A number of verbs can express the reflexive and reciprocal meanings without the corresponding pronouns. – example – he washed and dressed before breakfast.

 

The similar arguments can be given against the reciprocal voice. As for the middle voice there are no grounds for distinguishing it as a grammatical category since it hasn’t got any forms of its expressions. Example – книга хорошо читается –the book reads well. The shirt washes well –рубашка хорошо стирается. 

 

The meaning of the passive voice can be expressed not only by the form of the passive voice, but by some other non-grammatical means. All of them build up a system which can be represented as the functional semantic field of passivity. The nucleus of the field includes the form BE+Participle II. Then the lexico-grammatical periphery includes such constructions as to get wounded, take a painting, receive a blow, get a scolding. The nthe lexico-syntactic periphery includes such free word-combinations as to win recognition, to fall under suspicion, to be under observation, undergo examination, suffer a defeat etc. The lexical periphery includes the following verbs – to have in the meaning to get, to receive, to see, to bear, to hear, for ex: to have one’s leg wounded. To have a trouble. To have somebody searching one’s pocket.

 The usage of the passive form is more frequent in English than in Russian since English has got a developed system of cases. In Russian –дом строится, дом строят, книга читается, книгу читают. – it should be noted that Englishmen don’t always use the grammatical form of the passive voice. The often resort to non-grammatical, that is peripheral means of expressing the passive meaning. Ex: его вдруг заподозрили в краже – He fell under suspicion. ( he began to be suspected - не то)

 


 

8) The category of ASPECT in modern English

Aspect – a gram.category which characterizes the way in which the action expressed by the verb is carries out.

In Russian – 2 aspects: imperfective (несов.), perfective (сов.)

Imperfective expresses an action or a state without indicating a limit beyond which this act/state can not continue - eq. я читал; Perfective denotes actions that have a limit beyond which this action can’t continue: eq. я прочитал книгу. In Russian aspect is a gram.cat. As each aspect has a certain meaning and form to express this meaning. There are certain markers of each aspect – eq. делать-сделать.

As the Eng.language grammarians of the past didn’t find aspective distinction of the v., instead they spoke about 4 groups of tenses: indefinite, continuous, perfect, perfect-continuous

The majority of grammarians believe the Eng.verb has aspect. They admit that this gram.category may be expressed:

lexically aspect is expressed by the lex.character of the v. The verb falls into 2 groups:

terminative: apply a limit beyond which the action can’t continue (to break, to open);

non-terminative: the action may go on indefinitely (to love, to sit).

Most English verbs are polysemantic and may be terminative in one meaning and non-terminative in another. It’s never shown formally. There is no marker of belonging to this aspect. The meaning is clear from the context.

grammatically an opposition of corresponding forms (take – be taken)

common – the form of the common aspect isn’t marked;

continuous – is marked by the discont.morpheme be + ing.

The terms used to describe aspect are not stable (progressive - perfective; generic – temporally)

The difference bw the aspect forms isn’t temporal. The tense is the same with both forms.

The cont.aspect has a specific meaning – it’s used for incomplete actions that are in progress at the moment under consideration or at a certain period: eq He was studying at 5 o’clock.

The common aspect shows the action in a general way, may denote a complete/incomplete action but the form doesn’t state it.

Prof.Barhudarov: common aspect = non-continuous.

Common aspect may denote:

1)a momentary action (eq she dropped the plate)

2)a recurrent/repeated action (eq.I get up at 7 o’clock every day)

3)an action occupying a long period of time (eq.he lived in St.-Pb from 1940 to 1965)

4)an action of unlimited duration (eq.The Volga flows into the Caspian Sea)

 

 

8а) Aspect – a gram.category which characterizes the way in which the action expressed by the verb is carries out.

 

Grammatical aspective meanings form a variable grammatical category which is traditionally associated with the opposition of continuous and non-continuous forms of the verb. Yet, one can find a great divergence of opinions on the problem of the English aspect. The difference lies in the interpretation of the categorical semantics of the oppositional members – continuous and indefinite forms: the categorical meaning of the continuous form if usually defined as the meaning if duration, while the interpretation of the categorical semantics of the indefinite forms causes controversy,

(as ivanove thinks the indefinite form may be interpreted as having no aspective meaning )(vorontsova) as a form having a vague content (smirnitsky) as a form stressing the fact of the performance of the action. In modern linguistics smirnitsky’s interpretation of the categorical semantics of the indefinite firm is widely accepted.

In theoretical grammar the interpretation of perfect\ non-perfect verb forms also refers to disputable question. Some linguists interpret the opposition of perfect\non-perfect forms as aspective – jespresen, ivanova, vorontsove; others as the opposition of tense forms – sweet, curme, Korsakov. Smirnitsky was the first to prove that perfect and non-perfect make up a special, self-sufficient, category which ha called the category of time correlation; this viewpoint is shared now by a vast majority of linguists.

Developing smirnitsky’s views on the categorical semantics of perfect\non-perfect forms, we can come to the conclusion that in English there exist two aspective categories: the category of development, which is based on the opposition of continuous and non-continuous forms, and the category of retrospective coordination which is based on the opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms.

The perfect form has a mixed categorical meaning: it expresses both retrospective time coordination of the process and the connection of the prior action with a time-limit reflected in a subsequent event. The recognition of the two aspect categories also enables one to give a sound interpretation to the perfect continuous forms: they must be treated as forms having marks in both the aspect categories.

 The opposition of continuous and non-continuous forms can neutralized. Besides, in the category of development verbs which are usually not used in continuous forms can be subjected to the process of reverse transposition: were you wanting my help?

As for the opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms, it can undergo only the process of neutralization, transposition being alien to it.

 


8б) Verbal categories.

1.The Category of aspect

This category used to raise a lot of disputes among grammarians. This term came into Germanic languages from Slavonic ones where they distinguish the category of aspect represented by the opposition of the interminative (несовершенный) and terminative (совершенный) aspects. According to the old definition the category of aspect expresses the way the action takes place or the aspects of the action. Old Russian grammarians used to distinguish a lot of aspects such as

- начинательный вид –побежать.

-завершительный вид, т.е. -прибежать

-одноразовый вид – подпрыгнуть

-ограничительный вид – послать погулять

- дуративный вид – спать, лежать, стоять.

-дистрибутивный вид – захаживать, почитывать

All this aspects are expressed by means of affixation. This affixes are treated by the majority of grammarians as derivational morphemes, word-building ones. And they have nothing to do, they said, with grammar. By the analogy of Russian language old British grammarians, George Curme, Henry Poutsma, Otto Gesperson, distinguish the following aspects in English:

In the inchoative aspect (начинательный вид) expressed by such verbs as to begin, to start, to commence, to initiate;

Durative aspect – (дуративный вид) – expressed by to continue, proceed, keep on doing smth, to be doing smth etc.;

The terminative aspect – (терминативный) – expressed to cease, finish, end, terminate, graduate,;

Momentary aspect – expressed by to glance, to jump, to give a shudder, to give a cry etc.

As we see both in Russian and in English they mentioned about the aspective meanings are mostly expressed lexically and by meanings of word-building affixes. But a grammatical category must be expressed by grammatical forms, that is by means of abstract synthetic and analytical morphemes. This was one of the reasons why the Swedish linguist Segued Agreel suggested separating semantic categories from grammatical ones. And he suggested calling all those meanings expressed by verbs and with the help of word-building affixes the semantic category of the manner of action. Later on by the analogy of the Russian aspects that is совершенный и несовершенный виды, British grammarians made an attempt two aspects in English – the interminative, and terminative. This opposition was built by two classes of verbs, those of unlimitive and limitive ones. BUT the meanings of limitevens and unlimitiveness are included in the semantic structures of verbs, they are not expressed grammatically, -example – to live, spend, love, hate, have, etc.

Limitive verbs have a meaning of a boarderline beyond which the action can not be continued. – to come, break, fall – if we say – he came home late. The action expressed by the verb COME is finished as soon as the person approaches the house. This was one of the reasons why the german linguist Max Deutschbein suggested calling this category built up on the opposition of the classes of limitive and unlimitive verbs, the lexico-grammatical category of the aspective character of the verb.

Among Russian grammarian there is no a unanimous approach to the category of (совершенный и несовершенный вид). Melaslavsky, for one, considers that the category of aspect in Russian is not a grammatical one either, since the meanings of terminative and inteminative aspects are included in the semantic structures of verbs or they are expressed with the help of word-building affixes. Modern British and Russian grammarians distinguish two indisputable aspects in English – the indefinite aspect (the unmarked member of the opposition), and the continuous aspect (the marked member of the opposition) which is expressed analytically with the help of a discontinuous morpheme be+ing, but the aspective states of the indefinite form is not clearly expressed. According to professor Ivanova it is very difficult to find out whether the indefinite forms belong to aspect or tense forms. There are two more forms in the system of English verbs – the perfect and the perfect continuous forms. There are different approaches to them among grammarians:

The perfect forms are aspect forms. This view point is supported by professor Voronzova, Zonanshine, Deutschbein. Voronzova calls this aspect the transmissive aspect (преемственный). Since they express the effects of actions which have taken place before the moment of speech or certain moments in the past and future. Smirnitzky, the famous soviet linguist, treated the perfect forms as neither tense, nor aspect forms. He called this category the category of time relation. But later on this term was changed into the category of time correlation. This view point is still supported by many grammarians in our country namely by Bloch but he calls it the category of retrospective coordination. According to him Smirnitzky underestimated the aspective nature of perfect forms. Old grammarians such as Henry Sweet, Otto Gesperson and many others used to treat the perfect forms as tense forms. H.Sweet included them into the class of definite tenses. The well-known and famous linguist Achmanova and her followers Alexandrova, Komova, treat the perfect forms as the forms of the category of taxes, that is the category which establishes the order of events within a certain period of time, that is the proceedings of actions to some other actions. Especially in sense the past perfect forms. Some grammarians Joose treat the perfect forms as the forms of the category of phase. But in the majority of modern British and American books perfect forms are treated as aspect forms, thus the generic category of aspect in English is represented by the opposition of four specific categories, those of the indefinite, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous ones. Thus the term aspect is applied in English to pure grammatical forms and is treated as a grammatical one, but the term aspectuality includes both the grammatical category of aspect, the lexico-grammatical category of the aspective character of the verb, which is build up by the classes of unlimitive and limitive verbs, and at last it includes the semantic category of the manner of action, which is represented by the lexico-semantic groupings of inchoative, durative, momentary, terminative etc. verbs. This system can be presented as a kind of a system called the functional-semantic field of aspectivity.

                         

 

 

We can altogether deny that the perfect forms perform two functions in English. They express the category of aspect, showing the consequences and the results actions expressed by perfect forms. They also express the category of taxes showing that one of the actions in the past or the future proceeds another action. For example –taxes - he approached to the house where he had been brought up ten years before.

Aspective meaning – he told me he had divorced his wife and was homeless now.

Besides the aspect forms express one more category - the category of evidentuality, which divides the aspective forms into two opposed classes and forms, those of expressing indefinite actions, (expressed by the indefinite form), and those expressing definite actions ( expressed by continuous, perfect and perfect continuous forms.)








THE CATEGORY OF MOOD

The category of mood in the present English verb has given rise to so many discussions and has been treated in so many ways, that it seems hardly possible to arrive at any more or less acceptable conclusion. The only points in the sphere of mood which haven’t been disputed are the following: 1) there is a category of mood in Modern English ( Mood- is the grammatical category of the verb, which expresses the relation of the action denoted by the verb to reality from the speaker’s point of view); 2) there are at least 2 moods in the modern English verb, one of which is the indicative. (The indicative mood is the basic mood of the verb. Morphologically it’s the most developed system including all the categories of the verb. Semantically it’s a fact mood. It serves to present an action as a fact of reality. It’s the most objective of all the moods. It conveys minimum personal attitude to the fact: Ex. Water consists of oxygen.)

2 groups of Moods (generally):

the real or fact Moods

the unreal, non-fact, oblique Moods.

The Indicative Mood is the only real mood in the English language. It represents an action as a real fact. The forms of the Ind. Mood are the tense-aspect forms of the verb.

There are 2 non-fact Moods in English: the Imperative Mood (represents an action as a command, urging, request. It’s a direct expression of one’s will. It’s much more ‘subjective’ than the ind. Mood. It’s modal mean-g is very strong & distinct: ex. Someone make an offer and quick! ) and the Subjunctive Mood (it represents an action as a non-fact, as smth imaginary, desirable, problematic, contrary to reality: ex. I wish he were here now.)The hypothetic desirable in the form of advice, request, recommendation, order and so on. There is another point of view on the imperative Mood: (we don’t mark the action as real or unreal! ) – Stelling (Штелинг) considers the Imperative form Mood the grammatical idiom.

The Subjunctive Mood represents an action as unreal: 2 degrees of reality: not quite real (Present, Future), quite unreal (for the Past).

Some linguists think that the past indefinite and the Past Perfect used to denote an unreal action are not mood forms at all, but tense forms.

The classification system of moods presented by A.I.Smirnitsky. It appears to be the most consistent because it is meaning-oriented and it also takes into consideration the difference between an analytical form and a free syntactic combination. His system of moods includes six moods: the Indicative, the Imperative, Subjunctive I, Subjunctive II, the Conditional Mood and the Suppositional mood.

 


 

11) The Gerund

 THE PLAN:

general characteristics of the g.;


Forms of the Participle

There are two participles in English — participle I (present or –ing participle) and participle II (past or ‑ ed participle). The forms of participle I coincide with those of the gerund:

а) the simple (indefinite) active: reading;

b) the simple (indefinite) passive: being read;

с) the perfect active: having read;

d) the perfect passive: having been read.

Participle I perfect (both active and passive) is used when it is necessary to emphasize that the action expressed by the participle precedes the one expressed by the finite verb. Participle I perfect is mostly used to express temporal and causal relationships. Participle II of most verbs has only one form. If the verb is regular, we add ‑ ed (-d) to the infinitive: workworked. Functions of the Participles

Attribute

In this function we find both participle I indefinite (active or passive) and participle II.

Participle I as an attribute can modify nouns and some pronouns:

Those working have no time for that.

It can be used both in pre-position (when it precedes the noun) or in post-position (when it follows it). In pre-position, participle I is usually used singly:

She could not stand the blinding lights.

Participle I with accompanying words is widely used in post-position instead of an attributive clause:

People coming to see her could not believe their eyes. (= People who came...)

John, fishing next to Mike, caught a big fish. (= John, who was fishing...)

.

Adverbial Modifier

Participle I perfect is sometimes used in this function in written English when it is necessary to emphasize that the action expressed by the participle precedes the action expressed by the finite verb: Having finished his breakfast, he rushed out of the room.

On the whole, participle I indefinite is preferred when two actions take place at the same time: Walking past the shop, he noticed his reflection in the shop window, and also when one action follows the other: Leaping out of bed, he dressed very quickly.

Participle I as an adverbial modifier of time can be preceded by the conjunctions when and while.

Predicative

Both participle I (infinitive) and participle II can be used as predicatives:

The idea itself was disturbing.

She was disappointed.

Parenthesis

Both participle I and participle II are used in parenthetical expressions: frankly / generally speaking, judging by appearances, stated/put bluntly.

Without participle to

Functions of the Inf

Inf. constructions

        (A) Objective-with-the-Infinitive

        (B) Subjective Inf. Constr

        (C) The For-to-Infinitive Construction

Inf. has a double nature – nominal and verbal (Inf. Developed from the verbal noun which became verbalized but retained some nominal properties.

1. The nominal character of the Inf. Is manifested in its syntactic functions. The Inf. Can be used: as the subject - To go on like this was dangerous.

                As an object I have never learnt to read or to write.

2. The verbal characteristics are as follows: (a) The Inf. Of transitive verbs can take a direct object – he began to feel some curiosity . (b) The Inf. can be modified by an adverb – He cannot write so quickly . (c) The Inf. has tense and aspect distinctions. The Inf. of transitive verbs has also voice distinctions.

Tense and aspect distinctions. The Indefinite Inf. expresses an action simultaneous with the action expressed by the finite verb, so it may refer to the present, past or future. I am/was/will be very glad to meet you.

The Continuous Inf. also expresses an action simultaneous with the action expressed by the finite verb, but it is an action in progress (tense and aspect). They happened to be standing there.

The Perfect Inf. denotes an action prior to the action expressed by the Inf. – I’m glad to have seen you!

After such verbs as to mean, to expect, to intend, to hope used in Past Indefinite, the Perfect Inf. shows that the hope or intention was not carried out. – I meant to have gone there. The same meaning can be conveyed by past perfect of the finite verb followed by the indefinite infinitive – I had meant to go there.

The Perfect Continuous Inf. denotes an action, which lasted a certain time before the action of the finite verb (tense and aspect) – For about ten days we seemed to have been living on nothing but cold meat.

Voice distinctions. The Inf. of transitive verbs has special forms for the Active and Passive voice: It is so glorious to love and to be loved. 

In the sentences with the construction There is the inf. of some verbs can be active or passive without any change in the meaning: There’s no time to lose (to be lost).

Without participle to: 1 After auxiliary verbs (I don’t understand the meaning). 2 After modal verbs (except ought) (one must love what one has). 3 After sense perception verbs (I felt my heart jump ), 4 After to let (Let us be the best friends in the world). 5 After to make and to have (заставлять) (What makes you think so? ). 6 after to know (= to see) (I have often known a change of medicine work wonders). 7 After to bid (I bowed and waited thinking she would bid me take a seat). 8 After expressions had better, would rather, would sooner, cannot but, nothing but, cannot choose but. (I cannot think but so). 9 Special type of sent. beginning with why (Why not come and talk to her? )

Functions of the Inf. The Inf. can be used in different syntactic functions. 

Subject. It is useless to discuss the question (introductory it, infinitive phrase).

Predicative. My intention is to get into parliament

Part of a predicate: The house of Mrs. Betsy was not easy to find .

Part of a compound verbal predicate. With modal verbs: The train was to leave at midnight. With verbs, denoting beginning, duration & end: Before daylight it started to dazzle .

Object: Leila had learned to dance at school.

              I found it impossible to leave (intr. It).   

Part of a complex object: I never saw you act this way before.

Attribute: She is not a woman to suffer in silence. I’ve got my family to look after (obligation). That is a nice book to read before going to bed (idea of purpose).

Adverbial modifier:

purpose (sometimes introduced by in order, as so): Laws were not made to be broken .

Result: I was too busy to see anyone .

Comparison (manner): She moved her hand as if to stop him.

Attendant circumstances: She was driven away never to return again.

Parenthesis: to cut a long story short, to say the least of it…

Inf. constructions.

 Objective-with-the-Infinitive construction is a construction in which the infinitive is in predicate relation to a noun in the common case or a pronoun in the object case. Function in the sent. is a complex obj.

Used after a group of verbs: sense perception (I heard him sing), mental activity (We expect her to marry Ben), verbs of declaring (The surgeon pronounced the wound to be a slight one), wish and intention (I want you to come), feeling and emotion (I hate you to talk like this), order and permission (I ordered his carriage to be ready by 5), compulsion (The noise caused her to awake).

Subjective Inf. Constr. The inf. is in predicate relation to a noun in the common case or a pronoun in the nominative case. One part is a subject, another - part of a compound verbal predicate.

Used after a group of verbs: sense perception (he was heard to laugh), mental activity (He was thought to be honest and kindly), with to make (he was made to eat the porridge), to say and to report (Clouds are said to be the marks of bed weather).  

Used after a group of words: to be likely/ to be sure/ to be certain (He is sure to marry her).

The For-to-Infinitive Construction. The inf. is in predicate relation to a noun or pronoun preceded the preposition for.

Functions in the sent.

Subj.: For me to ask would be a problem.

Predicate: That was for him to find out.

Complex object: He waited for her to speak.

Attribute: The best thing for you to do is to go away.

Adv. Mod. (purpose: He stepped aside for me to pass), (result: That was a great temptation for me to resist).

 


 

13) Тhe Participle


Forms of the Participle

There are two participles in English — participle I (present or –ing participle) and participle II (past or ‑ ed participle). The forms of participle I coincide with those of the gerund:

Participle II of irregular verbs is their " third" form. It should be noted that some irregular verbs have two different forms of participle II. Some verbs have different participle forms for verbal and adjectival use: drunk/drunken, shaved/shaven, shrunk/ shrunken, sunk/sunken.

Paratactic phrases

(free relations between elements) e.g. Yes, please.

e.g. We, the people, …

Hypotactic phrases (interdependence of elements)

endocentric- subordinative e.g. fresh milk, coordinative e.g. some pens and pencils

exocentric – predicative e.g. for him to do,       prepositional e.g. at sunrise

according to the type of connection: subordinative, coordinative and predicative phrases (subordination, coordination, predicative relation)

Subordination:

1) agreement (concord) – e.g. this book – these books; Flying planes can be dangerous (Flying planes is/are dangerous);

2) government – e.g. seeing her, Peter’s book;

3) adjoinment – e.g. reading fast;

4) enclosure – e.g. giving her a present, a nice dress.

a). According to the type of the head word, nucleus: noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, pronominal and adjectival phrases.

b). According to the syntactic function of the adjunct: attributive (cold weather), object (writing letters), adverbial phrases (very interesting).

c). According to the position of the adjunct: with prepositive adjunct (cold weather), with postpositive adjunct (money to spend), with mitpositive adjunct (did not know), frame structures (as good as).

Coordinative phrases:

- according to presence or absence of connectors (syndetic and asyndetic);

- according to the type of conjunctions (with copulative connection pens and pencils; with disjunctive connection just but strict; with adversative connection now or never)

according to the number of constituents: binary (cold weather) and multiple (a girl with blue eyes)

 

20)

 


 

Under the net – Functional + Notional

From behind – Functional + Functional

Should do it – Functional + Notional

Very clearly – Notional +Notional, dominational, monolateral, qualifying, adverbial, secondary

A sensation of relief – Notional + Notional, dominational, monolateral, qualifying, attributive( post positive, close, expressed by prepositional phrase)

Rich in minerals – Notional + Notional, dominational, monolateral, objective, indirect

To laugh merrily – Notional + Notional, dominational, monolateral, qualifying, adverbial, primary.

The car gone – Notional +notional, dominational, bilateral, partially predicative,

Men, women, children – Notional +Notioanl, equipotent, consequitive coordination.

Giant of a man – Notional + Notional, dominational, monolateral, qualifying, attributive, reversed epithet.

Wise old – Notional + Notional, equipotent, cumulative

His first good (novel) – Notional + notional, equipotent, cumulative

Some other people – the same

To Open the door – Notional + Notional, dominational, monolateral, objective, direct

 

21)

Syntactical Relations between the Components of Phrase

They may be divided into 3 groups: 1) agreement; 2) government; 3) adjoinment. Agreement is a means of syntactical relationship between words which implies that the use of one form necessitates the use of the other.

1) an adjunct word agrees in number with its headword (a noun) E.g. this (that) book – these (those) books.

2) a singular subject requires a predicate in the singular, a plural subject requires the predicate in the plural. E.g. I am a student. There are 2 books on the table. But in Modern English there is sometimes a conflict between form and meaning, in these cases the predicate doesn’t agree with the subject. My family are early risers. My family is small.

Government is a means of connecting words consisting in the use of a certain case form of the adjunct required by its headword.

1) The use of the objective case of personal pronouns and of the pronoun ‘who’ when they are subordinate to a verb or follow a preposition: e.g. I saw him (her, them). Whom did u see there?

2) We also find government between the headnoun and the attributive adjunct noun. E.g. The boy’s mother; the student’s answer.

Adjoinment is such a way of connecting words when they are joined to one another without any specail forms by only their position and combinability. It is found in the following cases:

1) Adverbs are joined to the verb. E.g. they walked slowly.

2) Adjectives, participles, pronouns (when used as attributes) are joined to their head-nouns. E.g. a small room.

3) Adverbs are joined to adjectives or other adverbs: very interesting, very well.

 

 

22) . Classification of sentences based of their structure.

The structural aspect of the sentence deals with the structural organization of the sentence, it reveals the mechanisms of deriving sentences and structural types of sentences.

According to their structure sentences are classified into simple (monopredicative structures) and composite (polypredicative structures) which are further subdivided into complex (based on subordination) and compound (based on coordination). Clauses within the structure of a composite sentence may be connected with the help of formal markers (conjunctions and connectives: relative pronouns and relative adverbs - syndetically) and without any formal markers -asyndetically. Thus we should differentiate between two structural varieties of composite sentences: syndetic and asyndetic types.

Though the difference between the complex and compound sentences is based on the two different types of semantic relations: subordination and coordination, the borderline between complex and compound sentences is not always hard and fast. Sentences may have formal markers of subordination but the semantic relations between the clauses appear to be more coordinate than subordinate. Thus, the meaning of subordination is largely weakened in attributive continuative clauses introduced by the relative pronoun 'which', e.g. She said 'no' which was exactly what I had expected to hear. The relations between the two clauses are closer to coordinate, as we can replace the subordinate connective ''which' by the coordinate conjunction 'and' without changing essentially the meaning of the sentence. Another example of weakened subordination is observed in sentences introduced by the conjunction 'whereas'. E.g. She was very tall whereas her husband hardly reached her shoulder. The meaning of this formally complex sentence can be rendered by a compound sentence: She was very tall and her husband hardly reached her shoulder.

Besides there are also peripheral types: semicomplex and semicompound sentences which contain structures of secondary predication: infinitival, participial and gerundial constructions, absolute constructions with or without a participle and structures with the so-called double predicate. E.g. There is so much work to be done — There is so much work that has to be done.

 

 


 

22б) Classification of sentences based on their communicative function

Aspects of the sentence:

- the structural aspect – the form of the sentence, the way words are organized into it

- the semantic aspect – the meaning of the sent.

- the actual aspect – determines which part of the sent conveys the most imp.info

- the pragmatic aspect – the use of the sent.as a unit of communication: a statement, a question, an order, a request, a promise

Types of communication:

declarative, interrogative, imperative (incl.emotional) and exclamatory

Declarative – the subj precedes the verb

Interrogative – aux.v in front of the subj.special w-order, very few modal words – modal w-s expressing full certainty (certainly, surely…) can’t appear in a sent, expressing a question

Semi-interrogative sent-s – “oh, you’ve seen him? ”

Imperative – no gram.subj, the v – in the imperative mood; modal words, expressing possibility (perhaps, maybe) are incompatible with orders and requests

The notion of exclamatory sent-s and their relation to the other 3 types presents some difficulty: every sent, whether narrative, interrogative or imperative, may be exclamatory, i.e. it may convey the speaker’s feelings and be characterized by emphatic intonation and by an exclamation mark

Eq. But he can’t do anything to you! What can he possibly do to you! Scarlett, spare me!

Purely exclamatory sentence: “Oh, for God’s sake, Henry! ”

The structure of a certain sent.may be used for other communicative purposes than those that are characteristics of the sent-s of this class

eq. Yes/No questions – You will speak to him? – declarative

Rhetorical questions – Is that the reason for despair? (of course not)

 





Simple Sentence (SS)

1.1 Definition. A sentence is a unit of speech whose grammatical structure conforms to the laws of the language and which serves as the chief means of conveying a thought. A sentence is not only a means of communicating something about reality but a means of showing the speaker’s attitude to it.

1.2 Classification. The classification of SS is based on two principles:

(A) according to the purpose of the utterance;

(B) according to the structure.

 According to the purpose of the utterance we distinguish 4 kinds of sentences:

The declarative sentence states a fact in the affirmative or negative form. In DS the subject precedes the predicate (pronounced with falling intonation) (!: English predicate can have only one negation).

He does not go anywhere.

The interrogative sentence asks a question. It is formed by means of inversion (unless subject is an interrogative word: Who is in the room? – no inversion).

There are 4 kinds of questions:

(a) General questions requiring the answer yes or no and spoken with a rising intonation. They are formed by placing part of the predicative (auxiliary or modal verb) before the subject.

Do you like art? Can you speak English?

Astonishment: Haven’t you seen him yet?

Rhetoric questions: Can you commit a whole country to their own prisons?

Special q. beginning with an interrogative word (falling intonation)

Where do you live? (order of words is as in Gen. question)

Who lives in this room? (Who – is a subject, order of words is as that of a statement)

(b) Alternative questions, indicating choice (1. rising intonation 2. falling):

Do you live in town or in the country?

(d) Disjunctive questions requiring the answer yes or no and consisting of an affirmative statement followed by a negative question, or a negative statement followed by an affirmative question (1. Falling 2. Rising intonation)

You speak English, don’t you?

An Imperative sentence serves to induce a person to do smth, so it expresses a command (falling tone: Come to the blackboard! ), a request or invitation (rising tone: Open the door, please! ).

An exclamatory sentence expresses some kind of emotion or feeling. It often begins with the words what and how, it is always in the declarative form (no inversion) (falling intonation: What a lovely day it is! How wonderful! )

  According to their structure SS are divided into two-member and one-member sentences. A two-member sentence is complete when it has a subject and a predicate.

Fleur had easily established immediate contact with an architect.

A two-member sentence is incomplete when one of the principal parts or both of them are missing, but can be easily understood from the context. Such sentences are called elliptical: What were we doing? Drinking.

A one-member sentence has only one member, which is neither subject nor predicate. This does not mean that the other member is missing, for the one member makes the sense complete. Used in descriptions and in emotional speech.

 If the main part of a one member sentence is expressed by a noun, the sentence is called nominal. The noun may be modified by attributes.

Dusk – of the summer night.

The main part of a one member sentence is often expressed by an infinitive.

To die out there – lonely, waiting them, waiting home.

 

SS can be unextended (consisting only of the primary or principal parts) and extended (consisting of the subject, a predicate and one or more secondary parts: objects, attributes or adverbial modifiers). 1) Birds fly. 2) This big girl is a student. (attr)

Purpose of utterance

 

 

                                              SS


  Declarative                   Interrogative                   Imperative

                                               (questions)

 

Affirmative Negative  General Special Alternative Disjunctive   Command Request  

 

Structure

 

                                            SS

                            (unextended/extended)

     
 


          Two-member                            One-member

 

Complete            Incomplete        Nominal          Infinitive

                            (elliptical)


23Б) According to their structures simple sentences fall into:

Two member

One member

sentences.

Two member sentences consist of both the principal parts of the sentence. (subject and predicate) A one member sentence consists of only one of the principal parts. Ilysh writes that one member sentences should not be confused with two member sentences with either the subject or predicate or both of them omitted. Such sentences are called incomplete two member sentences or elliptical sentences, the missing parts of which can be restored from the previous context.

One member sentences fall into: nominal types (the spring of 1945, night of ) and verbal types. The verbal types fall into finite verb types (take it, come here); infinitible types (to be away from here, oh, to be with her); participial types (broken! Left alone).

Elliptical sentences are more characteristic of dialogue speech. For ex. – Who was the 1st to come? – Peter. When did you arrive? – Yesterday.

Elliptical sentence can also be used in monologue speech. For ex: I didn’t watch the film. Don’t like it.

Professor Bloch doesn’t agree with a division of simple sentence into one member and into elliptical ones. According to him one member sentences can also be restored from the context. For ex: Night (it was night), why not go there (why should we go there). He suggests dividing simple sentences into two axis and one axis sentences.

One axis sentences in their turn fall into:

Free one axis sentences including contextually restorable elliptical sentences;

Fixed one axis sentences which fall into the following types:

1. naming sentences – for ex: night. Spring!

2. excuses – for ex: pardon, sorry.

3.greetings - farewell - – for ex: Hi, evening, morning.

4. assertions and negations – for ex: no

5. causative constructions – for ex: come on, get away.

According to Ilysh the unexpanded sentence consists of only the subject and the predicate. The expanded simple sentence includes some optional parts of the sentence that is the suplementative modifiers, which don’t constitute a predicative expansion of a sentence.

For ex _ unexpanded simple – the boy is sleeping. I bought a book. She became a teacher.

Expanded ones - I bought a book for you. The night came dark and dreary. (predicative supplements) (adverbial) – I saw a house in the distance.

According to paradigmatic characteristics they distinguish elementary sentences which have the following synonyms – base sentence, cornel sentences – the elementary and cornel sentence is a two member unexpanded sentences. They also distinguish trans forms – different communicative and structural types of the sentences built up of elementary or cornel sentences.

 

 


23с) STRUCTURAL TYPES OF THE SIMPLE SENTENCE

According to their structures simple sentences fall into:

1. Two member

2. One member

sentences.

Two member sentences consist of both the principal parts of the sentence. (subject and predicate) A one member sentence consists of only one of the principal parts. Ilysh writes that one member sentences should not be confused with two member sentences with either the subject or predicate or both of them omitted. Such sentences are called incomplete two member sentences or elliptical sentences, the missing parts of which can be restored from the previous context.

One member sentences fall into: nominal types (the spring of 1945, night of ) and verbal types. The verbal types fall into finite verb types (take it, come here); infinitible types (to be away from here, oh, to be with her); participial types (broken! Left alone).

 Elliptical sentences are more characteristic of dialogue speech. For ex. – Who was the 1st to come? – Peter. When did you arrive? – Yesterday.

Elliptical sentence can also be used in monologue speech. For ex: I didn’t watch the film. Don’t like it.

 

Professor Bloch doesn’t agree with a division of simple sentence into one member and into elliptical ones. According to him one member sentences can also be restored from the context. For ex: Night (it was night), why not go there (why should we go there). He suggests dividing simple sentences into two axis and one axis sentences.

One axis sentences in their turn fall into:

- Free one axis sentences including contextually restorable elliptical sentences;

- Fixed one axis sentences which fall into the following types:

1. naming sentences – for ex: night. Spring!

2. excuses – for ex: pardon, sorry.

3.greetings - farewell - – for ex: Hi, evening, morning.

4. assertions and negations – for ex: no

5. causative constructions – for ex: come on, get away.

 

There is one more – semantic classification of sentences. It is based on the categorical semantics of the subject, the categorical semantics of the predicate and on the subject-object relations.

1. According to the categorical semantics of the subject simple sentences fall into personal and impersonal ones. Personal sentences fall into: human, non-human. Human sentences fall into definite and indefinite ones. For ex: the students are taking exams. Non-human falls into animate and inanimate ones. Impersonal sentences fall into factual (it rains, it’s five o’clock)and perceptional (it smells of onion) sentences.

2. According to the categorical semantics of the predicate the simple sentences fall into: process featuring (verbal) and substance featuring (nominal). The process featuring fall into actional (they are playing tennis) and statal sentences (we like theoretical grammar). Substance featuring sentences fall into: factual ones (the sea is rough) and perceptional (the place seems quite).

3. According to the subject-object relations the sentences fall into 3 subtypes: subjective sentence (john lives in London), objective sentence (John likes apples), potentially object sentences (neutral) ( John reads a lot).

 

 





The Predicate

The predicate is the second principal part of the sentence which expresses an action, state, or quality of the person or thing denoted by the subject. It is grammatically dependent on the subject. According to the structure and the meanings of the predicate we distinguish 2 main types of predicate: the simple predicate and the compound predicate.

The Simple Predicate

It is expressed by a finite verb in a simple or a compound tense form. There is a special kind of simple predicate expressed by a phraseological unit (to get rid, to take care, to pay attention, to have awash, to lose sight…) – phraseological predicate : the 1st component –the finite verb has lot its concrete meaning to a great extent and forms one unit with the N, consequently the N cannot be treated as an object to the verb.

· The man gave a violent start.

We distinguish 2 types of phraseological predicates:

1) word combinations of the following type to have a smoke, to have a run, to take a look, to give a laugh, to make a move, to give a push (finite verb + N formed from a verb (V) and mostly used with the indefinite article).

· He had a smoke.

2) word combinations of the following type to get rid, to get hold, to make use, to take care, to lose sight, to make fun, to pay attention, to change one’s mind… (the 2nd component of these combinations is in most cases an abstract N used without any article.)

· You were making fun of mother just now.

  The Compound Predicate

It consists of 2 parts: a finite verb + some part of speech (N, ProN, Adj., Verbal). It can be nominal or verbal.

Mixed types of predicate

(containing 3 elements)

1) the compound modal nominal predicate

· Don’t think I mean to be unkind.

2) the compound aspect nominal predicate

· The grey house had ceased to be the house for the family.

3) the compound modal aspect predicate

· He ought to stop doing nothing and criticizing everybody.

 

25А)  The predicate as the main means of expressing predication. Types of predicates.

The Predicate is the part of the sentence which expresses a predicative feature attributed to the subject of the sentence. Like the subject, the predicate also carries out a triple function in the sentence: structural, semantic and communicative. Its structural function consists in establishing the syntactic relations with the subject and other parts of the sentence. The semantic function of the predicate finds its expression in attributing certain features to the subject. Its communicative function is manifested in the fact that through the predicate and the expression of predication the sentence becomes a minimal unit of communication. The predicate is 'the structural and semantic centre of the sentence’. In the structure of a simple, two-member sentence the predicate usually carries out the function of the rheme, He disappeared. According to the form of expression predicates are divided into verbal and nominal: The moon rose. The moon was pale. There exists a phraseological predicate (presents a combination of such verbs as have, get, give, take and a verbal noun (give a look, take a bath, have a smoke). From the grammatical point of view the most important characteristic of this type of predicate is not so much its phraseological but its analytical character (all analytical structures are characterized by idiomaticity of their components). The verb expresses the grammatical meaning and the verbal noun expresses a lexical meaning. The two formal types of the predicate correspond to the two main semantic types: process predicate which expresses the action, the state or the existence of the subject and qualification predicate which expresses the quality (property) of the subject. The process predicate can be further subdivided into several types in accordance with the semantic types of verbs: existential (There was a tavern in the town), statal (He slept), locative (The elephant lives in India), relational (He had a small ranch) and actional (The car broke down). The qualification predicate has three subtypes: identifying (So you are the man we have been looking for), classifying (My friend is a student) and characterizing (My wife is a bit of an actress. He was too German).Structurally the predicate may be divided into simple and compound. We said good- bye - a simple verbal predicate; It was a lovely place -simple nominal predicate. The predicate is compounded by the introduction of modal or aspective components. We started saying good-bye - a compound verbal predicate; It must be a lovely place - a compound nominal predicate.

 



The subject

The subject is the principal part of a two-member sentence which is grammatically independent of the other parts of the sentence and on which the second principal part (the predicate) is dependent. The subject denotes a living being, a thing or an idea. It can be expressed by:

1) a noun ( N) in the common case

· The waiter brought my tea.

Occasionally a N in the possessive case is used as the subject:

· Ada’s is a noble heart.

2) a pronoun – personal, demonstrative, defining, indefinite, negative, possessive, interrogative.

· Everyone was silent for a minute.

· Who tore this book?

The subject is often expressed by the indefinite pronoun one or the personal pronouns they, you, we, which refer not to any particular person or thing but to people in general:

· Life is beastly short. One wants to live forever./…. Хочется жить вечно.

· They say he’s clever./ Говорят, ….

3) A substantivized adjective or participle:

· The wounded were taken good care of.

4) a numeral (cardinal or ordinal):

· The two were quite unable to do anything.

5) an infinitive, an infinitive phrase or construction;

· To live is to work.

6) a gerund, a gerundial phrase or construction:

· Lying doesn’t go well with me.

7) Any part of speech used as quotation:

· On is a preposition.

8) a group of words which is one part of the sentence:

· The needle and thread is lost.

When it is a notional subject the pronoun it has the following meanings:

1) The personal it - It stands for a definite thing or some abstract idea

· The door opened. It was opened by a little girl.

2) the demonstrative it - It points out some person or thing expressed by a predicate, or it refers to the thought contained in the preceding statement

· It is John.

· It was a large room with a great window.

As a formal subject it has the following meanings:

1) the impersonal it is used –

a) to denote natural phenomenon (state of weather, etc.) or that which characterizes the environment:

· It is cold in winter.

The state of weather can be also expressed by meant of there is construction. In such sentences the N introduced by there is is the subject:

· There was a heavy frost last night.

b) to denote time and distance:

· it is 5 minutes past 6.

· It is along way from the station.

2) the introductory/anticipatory it introduces the real subject:

· It ’s no use disguising facts.

3) The emphatic it is used for emphasis:

· It was he who won the race.


26а) The subject. Means of expressing the subject.

The subject is the independent member of a two-member predication, containing the person component of predicativity. The subject is generally defined as a word or a group of words denoting the thing we speak about. The subject of a simple sentence can be a word, a syntactical word-morpheme or a complex. As a word it can belong to different parts of speech, but it is mostly a noun or a pronoun. A word used as a subject combines the lexical meaning with the structural meaning of “person”. So it is at the same time the structural and the notional subject. We may speak of a secondary subject within a complex. The syntactical word-morphemes there and it may also function as secondary subjects (It being cold, we put on our coats. I knew of there being no one to help them). The analysis of sentences like He was seen to enter the house, is a point at issue. Traditionally the infinitive is said to form part of the complex subject (He…to enter). Ilyish maintains that though satisfactory from the logical point of view, this interpretation seems to be artificial grammatically, this splitting of the subject being alien to English. He suggests that only HE should be treated as a subject, whereas was sees to enter represents a peculiar type of compound predicate. Some grammarians (Smirnitsky, Ganshina) speak of definite-personal, indefinite-personal, impersonal sentences, but it is a semantical classification of subjects, not sentences. If we compare the subject in English with that of Russian we shall find a considerable difference between them. In Russian the subject is characterized by a distinct morphological feature – the nominative case, in English it is indicated by the position it occupies in the sentence. In Russian the subject is much less obligatory as a part of the sentence than in English. In English the subject may be a syntactical word-morpheme, a gerund, or a complex, which is alien to Russian.  

 

 


The Object

The O. is a part of the complementation of a verb, a verbal or an adjective within verb, verbal (non-finite) or adjective phrases. It refers to a person or thing, or a state of affairs which is affected or produced by, or is related to the action or state expressed by the predicate of a sentence. There may be 2 objects in one simple sentence: Mary sent Jane a letter. The pronoun it can be used as a formal object (expressed by an infinitive or gerundial phrase) extraposed to the end of the sentence: I don’t like it to be treated like this. The O. may be represented by a single word, a phrase, a predicative construction or a subordinate clause.

Parts of speech: a noun, a pronoun, a numeral, a substantivized adjective or participle (the wounded), an infinitive, a gerund, a predicative construction (non-finite clauses) – They insisted on my answering him, a quotation – She exclaimed “My God”. In a complex sentence, a subordinate clause may serve as an O. to a verb in the main clause – I didn’t know where they lived.

Kinds of O:

1. The direct O. is used after transitive verbs and denotes a person or a thing wholly involved and/or directly affected by the action of a transitive verb: She saw me and smiled. The d.O. may complement monotransitive phrasal verb with the adverb preceding or following it: Ray gave up his work. Come on, I’ll show you around.

2. The indirect O. is the first complement of the distransitive verb. The second noun phrase complementing the verb functions as direct object: Give me a chance! Sometimes the i.O. is used alone to complement the verb: Shall I tell hem? The i.O. is related to a prepositional phrase introduced by to, for, of: He bought a dress for her.

3. The prepositional O. is a nominal phrase introduced by a preposition which serves as part of the complementation of the prepositional verb or an adjective with a “fixed” preposition: The value of liberty depends on other values. Ditransitive prepositional verbs are complemented by a direct object and by a prepositional phrase, which follows it: She blamed herself for saying it.

 

The Attribute

The A. is a secondary part of the sentence which constitutes part of a noun phrase, modifies its head and denotes a quality of a person or a thing. It may be represented by a single word, a phrase, or a subordinate clause; it may precede or follow the word it modifies.

Parts of speech: an adjective, a pronoun (my, these), a numeral, a noun, a participle – a sleeping baby, a gerund – sleeping tablets, an infinitive – a book for you to read, an adverb – the room above, prepositional phrases – jokes of your brother’s. Attributive clauses used as postmodifiers transform the whole sentence into a complex one: I’ll never forget the day when we first met.

 

28а) The Attribute

  Attribute is a dependent element of a nominative phrase that denotes an

attributive quality of an object expressed by a noun. It is a secondary part of the

sentence modifying a part of the sentence expressed by a noun, a substantival

pronoun, a cardinal numeral, and any substantivised word, and characterizing the

thing named by these words as to its quality or property.

  According to the position relative to the head word, attributes can be

prepositive and postpositive. The position of an attribute with respect to its head

word depends partly on the morphological peculiarities of the attribute itself, and

partly on stylistic factors.

  Apposition has been often regarded as a special kind of attribute, and

sometimes as a secondary part of a sentence distinct from an attribute. Apposition

is a word or phrase referring to a part of the sentence expressed by a noun, and

explaining and specifying its meaning by giving it another name. Appositions are

usually expressed by nouns.

 



The Adverbial modifier

The A.m. is a secondary part of the sentence which modifies a verb, an adjective or an adverb. A.m. denote the time, place, cause and manner of the action or process expressed by the verb. When modifying an adjective, the A.m. characterizes quality or quantity of a state denoted by the adjective. The A.m. may be expressed by a single word (an adverb), a phrase consisting of two or more words (prep.phrase), or a clause (modifies the whole clause it relates to, characterizing the latter denotes – He was ten when I saw him first.)

A.m.can be placed at the beginning, in the middle or, most typically, at the end of the sentence. Adverbials denoting indefinite time (usually, never, recently) and degree (almost, completely, only) – a medial position. They follow (modal) auxiliaries or the first of two auxiliaries in any complex verb group: No one could quite understand it. Interrogative sentences – after the subject: What have you finally decided? Modal words (Perhaps, etc) – at the beginning or in the middle. Enough – after the word it modifies. When more that one adverbial comes in the sentence, first – an A.m. of place and time.

Semantic types of AM

1. The A.m. of place and direction may be expressed by a prep.phrase, an adverb, an adverbial phrase or a clause.

2. The A.m. of time may be expressed by a noun (tomorrow), a prep.phrase (before the war), a partII preceded by when/while (When refused…), a participle or a part.phrase (Take care crossing the street), a gerund with a prep. or a ger.phrase and clauses of place (You won’t recognize the house when you come next time)

3. The A.m. of condition is expressed by a noun or a pronoun preceded by the prepositions and conjunctions but for, except for, in case, by a participle or an adjective with the conjunctions if, unless(if necessary, …), by a gerundial phrase introduced by the prep. without, by an adv.clause of condition.

4. The A.m. of concession is introduced by the preps despite, for all, in spite of, with all and the conjunction though.

5. The A.m.of cause (reason) may be expressed by a prep.phrase: He couldn’t speak for tears. Because of, due to, on account of, owing to, thanks to…, by a clause or by a participial phrase: Wishing to say sth he jumped from the chair.

6. The A.m. of purpose is rendered by a single infinitive, an inf.phrase (He stood up to say goodbye), an inf.construction, a nominal or ger, phrase with the prep. for (They came for lunch. He did it for making me angry) or a clause of purpose.

7. The A.m. of result (consequence) is expressed by an infinitive, an inf.phrase or an inf.construction which refers to an adjective or an adverb preceded by such adverbs of degree as too, enough (You are clever enough not to do it), or the conjunction  so…as (She is not so foolish as to do anything wrong).

8. The A.m. of manner is expressed by adverbs or prep.phrases introduced by the preps by, by means of, with, without or with the help of. + part.phrases (She ran fast, without looking back), absolute constructions (She entered, her eyes sad) and clauses.

9. The A.m. of attendant circumstances is rendered by a participial (He was sitting smoking cigarettes), gerundial (She entered without looking at him) or infinitive phrase or by an absolute construction (I hurried away, her pale face still in my eyes). Don’t confuse №8, since №9 denotes an action or a state which is relatively independent of the action of the main verb. When expressed by an infinitive phrase, the modifier denotes an action which is neither the result nor the purpose of the action denoted by the main verb. (He opened the door to see that all had gone – Он открыл дверь и увидел, что все ушли.)

10. The A.m. of degree and measure is expressed by an adverb or a prep.phrase. intensifier adverbs (nearly, almost, rather, really) denote a point along a scale of intensity to which the action or property has been fulfilled: It’s rather chilly outside.

11. The A.m. of comparison is expressed by adjective or participle phrases introduced by the conjunction as, as if, as though. Adverbials of comparison may also be expressed by noun phrases introduced with than or as. These adverbials are preceded by comparatives – Some jobs are more difficult than others.

12. The A.m. of exclusion and substitution is expressed by nouns or nominal phrases introduced with the preps apart from, but, but for, except, instead and transfers the meaning of exception to the idea expressed by the rest of the sentence. Everybody was present but Jane.

 


 

30) Composite sentences as polypredicative constructions. Types and means of connection between parts of composite sentences.

Main features of the sentence:

1) expresses predication => is called a predicative unit. It’s the main characteristic of the sentence. The sentence reflects connection between the denoted situational event & reality, shows whether the action is real or unreal, desirable or not + expresses the time of the action.

2) nominates a situation or a situational event => can be called a nominative unit (but it’s not main feature – word’s feature).

3) can be called a communicative unit as it carries this/that communicative intention which determines the communicative type of the sentence. Traditional grammar defines the S. : it’s a word or a group of words capable of expressing a complete thought. Modern linguistics (e.g. semantic syntax) The S is a word or a group of words that nominate a situational event, express predication, and carry a communicative intention

The problem of the composite sent.: how to define it, how to know it from simple sentence. (1) the simple sent. is monopredicative, => has only 1 predicative line (center). The predicative line includes the subject + predicate. (2) the composite sent. is polypredicative => more than 1 predicative lines or centers, reflects 2 or more situational events, and each predicative center makes up a clause of its own.

Semi-composite sent. How to distinguish? “He waved his hand and went away”. – the S nominates 2 situational events but we can’t find 2 predicative centers in it as there is 1 subject & 1 clause => semi-composite (Blokh’s term) are intermediate between simple & composite.

Main features of the composite sentence: 1) a polypredicative unit, 2) is characterized by a communicative wholeness => has 1 communicative intention (смысл, значение), 3) is characterized by intonational wholeness, all are interconnected, 4) characteristic of literary written style, rarely used in oral speech, in conversations.

Types of composite sentences: Acc. to the type of connection of clauses we can distinguish between complex & compound sentences. In compound sent-s the type of connection of clauses is coordination- сочинит. (i.e. syntactically the clauses are of equal rank). In complex sent-s the type of connection of clauses is subordination- подчинит. & clauses are of unequal rank (principal and subordinate).

The means of combining clauses: syndetic (союзн.) & asyndetic (бессоюзн.). Syndetic => conj-s, relative pron-s (who, which), relative adv-s (where, how, when, why), phrases (as long as, in order that). Asyndetic => there are no connectives between the clauses. Some grammarians say, “the zero connector”.

Classification of subord. clauses: 2 approaches:

(1) shows correlation of clauses with parts of the sentence => a) the subject clause, b) the predicative, c) object, d) adverbial, e) attributive.

(2) correlates clauses with parts of speech & distinguishes: a) substantive clause – corresponding to subj., predic. & object clauses, b) adverbial clauses, c) adjectival clauses – corresponding to attribute clause. These 2 classifications correlate!

 


30а) THE COMPOSITE SENTENCES

The composite sentence is built up of two or more predicative lines. It is a poly predicative construction and expresses several elementary situations united into one sentence. Each clause in a composite sentence corresponds to a separate sentence as a part of a contextual sequence. In other words the composite sentence is a structural and semantic unity of two or more syntactic constructions each of which has its predicative centre, that is the predicative line. This unity is built up on a certain syntactic connection and is used in speech communication as a unit equal to a simple sentence.

For ex: I didn’t go there, because I was afraid of the dog. – I was afraid of the dog so I didn’t go there.

When sentences unite into a composite sentence, they come into certain types of grammatical relationships those of coordination and subordination. Sentence clauses in a composite sentence can be joined by special function words or without them. The 1st type of sentences is called the syndetic sentence and the 2nd one is asyndetic one.



The compound sentence

It is a composite sentence built up on the principal of coordination which can be expressed either syndetically by means of coordinating formative words, which are often called coordinators or asyndetically without any coordinators. In this case they speak of zero coordinators. Semantically the clauses connected coordinatively can express different relations such as copulative, adversative, disjunctive, causal, consequential. The same relations can be traced between separate sentences which build up a contextual text. This was one of the reasons why some grammarians namely L.L.Iophic deny the existence of compound sentences as a kind of a composite sentence. But as a matter of fact there is a difference between the compound sentence and the corresponding textual sequence of independent sentences. In compound sentences the cause and effect relations are more clearly expressed.

  For ex: 1. Jane liked John, but Peter hated him. 2. Each of the stuck to their view points, so that caused a lot of quarrels between them.

The formative words linking the parts of a compound sentence fall into three types:

1. Coordinative conjunctions such as – and, but, or, yet and for;

2. Conjunctive adverbs such as – consequently, further more, hence, however, moreover, nevertheless, therefore, etc;

3. Fixed prepositional phrases such as – at least, as a result, after a while, in addition, in contrast, in the next place, on the other hand, for example, etc.;

The first part of the compound sentence is called THE LEADING CLAUSE and the second part is called THE SEQUENTIAL CLAUSE.  

TYPES OF RELATIONS

1. Copulative relations are expressed by copulative coordinators which connect two clauses and their meanings, the second clause indicating an addition of equal importance, an advance in time or space or intensification.

(And, both…and, equally.and, alike…and, at once…and, neither …more, not…nor)

2. Disjunctive relations are expressed by disjunctive coordinators which connect two clauses but disconnect their meaning, the meaning of the 2nd clause excluding that in the first. ( or, or...either, either…or, otherwise, else, or…else)

3. Adversative relations are expressed by coordinators which connect two clauses but contrast their meanings (but, but then, only, still, yet, and yet, however, on the other hand, again, on the contrary, )

4. Causal relations are expressed by the only coordinator “for”, which connects two clauses and adds an independent proposition explaining the preceding statement.

5. Consequential relations (elative, inferential) are expressed by coordinators which connect two clauses and introduce a conclusion, consequence, result.

(namely, therefore, on that count, consequently, accordingly, so, then, hence)

6. Explanatory relations are expressed by coordinators which connect two clauses and introduce and explanation or a particularization. (namely, that is to say, or, such as, as, like, for example, for instance, let us say, say)

British grammarians treat the sequential clauses introduced by such coordinators appositions or appositive clauses. For ex: Out teacher namely Mr.Brown has postponed his lesson.

Pr.Bloch distinguishes marked and unmarked connections in compound sentences. Asyndetic compound sentences built up with the help of zero coordinators and by the copulative conjunction “and” express unmarked connections and such sentences can be called unmarked compound sentences. Marked connections are expressed syndetically with the help of the rest of coordinators excluding the conjunction “and”.

The principal clause is incomplete in sentences with the subject and predicative subordinate clauses. For ex:

1. Why you went there was a mystery to me.

2. his arrival was just what they have expected.

Complex sentences with subject and predicative clauses are called MERGER complex sentences and the principal are called MERGER principal clauses. The complex sentences with a deployment of subordinate clauses in the functions of secondary parts of the sentence such as object, attribute, adverbial clauses are called NON-MERGER complex sentences. The principal clause can be an invalid one when the complex sentence includes both the subject and the predicative subordinate clauses.

For ex: why he went there is what surprises me. The principal clause is the only link verb IS. Why he went there is subject clause, what surprises me – predicative.

THE OBJECT CLAUSE

It denotes an object situation of the process expressed by the verbal constituent of the principal clause. For ex: They will accept with grace whatever he may offer.

I demand that you should take it.

He says the train won’t come.

The General Description

The Chart

An attributive clause is a dependent clause that serves as attribute to a noun or pronoun in the main clause (with one exception to be pointed out below); the noun or pronoun thus qualified is termed the antecedent: • Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined.

 

On the basis of their semantic and syntactic relationship with the antecedent, attributive clauses are divided into two major classes: appositive (or appositional) and relative clauses.

1.Attributive Appositive Clauses

AAC are also termed content clauses because they disclose the semantic content, or the meaning of the antecedent: • / agree with the old saying that fortune favours the brave.

Attributive appositive clauses are joined syndetically, by means of conjunction that, other subordinators (e. g. whether and why) are very rare.

Because an attributive appositive clause is closely connected with its antecedent, it is not set off by a comma in writing, nor is it pronounced as separate tone group in speaking.

The antecedent of an attributive appositive clause is most typically countable abstract noun:

Advice, belief, decision, demand, fact, hope, idea, opinion, promise, saying, suggestion.

 There was little hope that the climbers would be found alive.

Another group of frequently used antecedents to appositive clauses includes such uncountable abstract nouns as news, information and knowledge:

Have you heard the news that the border has been closed?

The antecedents question and problem are followed by an AAC with the preposition of:

The question of whether we should demand a payment for our services was not even discussed.

The use of a plural antecedent is rare:

The colonel gave orders that he was not to be disturbed.

2.Attributive Relative Clauses

ARC are so called because they are joined with the help of relative pronouns or adverbs. Their function is to qualify the antecedent:

· The dean saw all the students who had received poor grades.

Attributive relative clauses are chiefly introduced with the help of subordinators who, whom, whose, that, which, whose, when, where, and why. They can also be joined asyndetically. Occasionally, we find attributive relative clauses joined by means of as and (such.. ) as:

• The question as it is put by the author admits of no real answer.

The ARC can be divided into two groups: limiting and non-limiting.

2.1Attributive Relative Limiting Clauses

ARLC are also called defining, restrictive, or essential. They limit the semantics of the antecedent; they are essential to the meaning and structure of the sentence and could not be eliminated:

• I can't stand people who are cruel to animals (But not (? ) I can’t stand people).

Because ARLC are closely connected with the main clause, they are not set off by a comma in writing, nor are they pronounced as a separate lone group in speaking.

ARLC qualifying a personal antecedent are joined by means of the subordinators (relative pronouns) who, whom, whose, and that: He is the sort of man that/who never lies.

ARLC qualifying a non-personal antecedent are joined by means of the subordinators that, which, whose / of which, when, where: She retired to the town where she had spent her youth.

There are a few cases where that is preferred to which:

1) when the antecedent is an indefinite pronoun:

The governor promised to do all that lay in his power to help the flood victims;

2) when the antecedent is qualified by an ordinal numeral:

The 1st church that was built in the city became very popular;

3) when the antecedent is qualified by a superlative adjective:

• “Hamlet" is perhaps the most profound tragedy that has ever been written in the English language;

4) when the limiting clause has a compound nominal predicate:

'Doom' is a computer game that has become popular all over the world.

 

2.1.1Attributive Relative Limiting Particularizing Clauses

ARLPC restrict the meaning of the antecedent by establishing a reference to a particular person or thing (or a particular group of persons or things). Their antecedent is accompanied by the particularizing definite article or the demonstrative pronoun that/those:

The girl I told you about is my next door neighbour.

Occasionally, the antecedent is modified by the pronoun such, and the

2.1.2Attributive Relative Limiting Classifying Clauses

ARLCC restrict the meaning of the antecedent by establishing a reference to a certain class or category of persons or things. Their antecedent is accompanied by the classifying indefinite article (the zero article with non-count nouns or nouns in the plural) or an indefinite determiner (such as some, any, no): She lectured on a topic I know very little about.

ARLCC typically qualify pronouns; the meaning of nouns is rather vague and often needs to be limited in context: Is there anything / could do to help out ?

 2.2Attributive Relative Non-Limiting Clauses

ARNC are also called non-defining, non-restrictive or non-essential. They do not restrict the meaning of the antecedent; but provide some additional info about a person or thing denoted by the antecedent. They aren’t essential to the structure of the sentence and could be left out:

In my class there are only advanced students, most of whom are from Eastern Europe.

Non-limiting clauses are loosely connected with the main clause; they are set off by commas (or sometimes by parentheses) in writing and pronounced as a separate tone group in speaking.

Non-limiting clauses are always joined syndetically, by means of relate pronouns and adverbs.

ARNC can be further subdivided into descriptive and continuative, depending on the structural type of the antecedent.

2.2.1Attributive Relative Non-Limiting Descriptive Clauses

ARNDC provide a description of the antecedent. An antecedent is a proper noun, a 'unique’ noun, or a noun (group) made definite by the context or situation:

She introduced me to her husband, who struck me as a very shrewd man.

• The Mississippi River, which flows south from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, is the major commercial river in the US.

The use of the indefinite or zero article with the antecedent of a ARNDC is also possible:

Rice, which is grown in many countries, is a staple food throve out much of the world.

The subordinator can be preceded by a quantifier or a superlative:

• / bought a dozen eggs, two of which were bad.

• I bought a dozen eggs, the smallest of which /of which the smallest was bad.

The importance of punctuating descriptive clauses can be illustrated by the following examples:

• (a) The hikers who knew about the avalanche took another road.

• (b) The hikers, who knew about the avalanche, took another road.

Sentence (a), which contains a ARLPC, implies that only some of the hikers took another road, but there were presumably others who did not.

Sentence (b), which contains a ARNDC, implies that all the hikers knew about the avalanche and therefore took another road.

 

2.2.2Attributive Relative Non-Limiting Continuative Clauses

The antecedent of the ARNCC is not just a noun or pronoun, but the whole main clause. They are added as an afterthought and continue, as it were, the idea expressed in the main clause:

Julia refused, which was unwise (= 'and that was unwise').

Continuative clauses are joined syndetically, by means of the subordinator which.

Sometimes a continuative clause opens with a combination of a preposition, the pronoun which, and a noun like case or event, which is a very general word for a situation:

· I was reprimanded by the boss,  at which point I gave her notice.

The following chart summarizes our outline of attributive clauses:

Attributive clauses

 

appositive                                                                  relative

                                                                                                                              

                                                                 limiting                            non-limiting

                                                                                                                                       

                           particularizing            classifying   descriptive  continuative

 



THE PLAN

Nominal clause

Subject clause

Predicative clause

Object clause

Subject, predicative and object clauses are referred as nominal clauses because their counterparts in the SS are expressed by nominal parts of speech.

Subject clause is a kind of dependent clause that serves as subject to the predicate of the main clause: That she was still there was a surprise for me.

SC can be to the end of the sentence and the introductory it takes the initial subject position, in this case a subordinate clause is regarded as an extraposed subject of the sentence: It was a surprise or me that she was still there.

The introductory it is often used to move a longer subject clause to final position. Some adjectives are often found in the main clause as predicatives to the formal it:

The Compound Sentence

Plan:

1. Compound s. – an outline;

2. Asyndetic Compound Sentences;

3. Syndetic compound sentences;

 a. C.s. with disjunctive coord.

 b. C.s. with adversative coord.

 c. C.s. with causative-consecutive coordination

 d. C.s. with copulative coordination.

 

A c.s. is a multiple sentence of two or more clauses coordinated with each other. Clauses combined by means of coordination are regarded as independent^ they are linked in such a way that there is no hierarchy in the syntactic relationship$ they have the same syntactic status. Two clauses are coordinated if they are connected by a conjunct or a coordinator/ Coordinated clauses are sometimes called “conjoins” Coordination can be asyndatic or syndatic. Grammar books differ greatly in their treatment of coordinators. Clausal coordinators are regarded as those linking elements which do not allow other linking words before them. Coordinators are to be distinguished from conjuncts (therefore, otherwise, also, then).

Asyndetic Compound Sentences:

In a.c.s. coordinators are absent. 1. Two or more clauses can be made into one s. without a coordinator being used. The result is a.c.s. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. It is natural that asyndetically joined coordinate clauses should convey related ideas. Grammatically, these relations might not be expressed explicitly: the speaker or writer has them in mind when producing an utterance and listener deduces them from the semantic context, intonation contour and some structural features of the coordinated clauses. More often the relation between a. joined coordinate clauses is shown with the help of conjunctive adverbs or conjuncts (however, yet, thus, so, besides). They want to be slim, of course, yet after months of dieting failure they might think it was time to stop. 2. In writing, asyndetically joined coordinate clauses are separated by a semicolon (; ), colon (: ) or a dash (-). The semicolon is perhaps most frequently used. The colon is mainly used to set off a clause that explains or elaborates the statement expressed in the first clause. The dash is especially common in informal writing; it can be used in the same way as the colon. A comma can be used in a.s. if the clauses are very short or the ideas expressed are closely related: I came, I saw, I conquered. 3. If both a.c. are negative in meaning and the second clause opens with still less, much less or even less, this second clause has inverted word order, similar to the interrogative sentence inversion She doesn’t even like him; much less does she want to marry him. 4. A.s. are found in a number of proverbs Two is a company; three is none/ a crowd.

Syndetic compound sentences:

In s.c.c. the type of coordination is expressed explicitly by means of coordinators, coordinating conjunctions and, but, for, so that The lights went out, the curtain went up and the show began. The peculiarity of and and or is that they can link more than two clauses. Coordinators can be divided into one-member, or simple (and, but) and multi-member (either…or).

Coordinators and conjuncts in a compound sentence express four logical types of coordination: copulative, disjunctive, adversative and causative-consecutive.

Grammatical category and its characteristic features.

M.Y. Blokh defines the grammatical category as " a system of expressing a generalized grammatical meaning by means of paradigmatic correlation of grammatical forms". It’s a unity of form & mean-g. 1)The general notion on which a gram. category grounds is gram. mean-g. 2)The forms united into a grammatical category possess a common general meaning that gives a name to the category and each form possesses its own specific meaning that presents a specification of the general meaning and differentiates the form from the other form/forms within the category. The forms lives - lived - will live are united on the basis of the common general grammatical meaning of tense and constitute the grammatical category of tense. Within this category each form has its own specific meaning of tense: present, past and future. 3) gram. categories don’t nominate objects or units of lang., instead they express relations between lang. units. The grammatical category of tense presents a specific lingual expression of objective time, the grammatical category of case presents various relations between the action and its participants, the grammatical category of number in nouns reflects the quantitative relations between homogeneous objects of reality, the grammatical category of mood presents the relations between the action and reality as they are presented by the speaker etc. Such grammatical categories may also be called inherent (неотъемлемый, присущий). 4) Conceptual (понятийные) grammatical categories are universal, they exist in most of the languages though their volume and their scope may vary considerably in various languages. Gram. cat-s represent lang. realization of universal cat-s of human thinking. That’s why gram. cat-s typical of a particular lang. are unique. The grammatical category of number is the most universal grammatical category, all speech communities have linguistic means of encoding number, though these means differ greatly in different languages. 5) A grammatical category is constituted on the basis of contrastive grammatical forms which share a certain grammatical meaning correlated to some general concept (time, number) and differ in more concrete meanings within the scope of the same concept. Such contrastive grammatical forms are called oppositions and all grammatical categories are based on oppositions. The method of oppositional analysis was introduced by Trubetskoy. Now the method of oppositional analysis is widely used in lexicology and grammar.

 


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