Intonation

Word order

Coordinate conjunctions

Accordingly coordinate phrases are subdivided into the following subclasses:

1. syndetic phrases, which fall into 2 subclasses:

a. Simple phrases with continuous conjunctions (and, but, or, as well as, along with)
E.g. She refused everything but a piece of bread.

b. Correlative phrases with discontinuous conjunctions (both and, either or, neither nor, not only but)

2. Asyndetic coordinate phrases fall into 2 subclasses.

a. Copulative – when conjunctions can be inserted between the immediate constituents.
E.g. He was hot (and) hungry (and) tired.

b. Appositive phrases. Immediate constituents of appositive phrases refer to the same person or object, that’s why they do not allow insertion of any construction.
E.g. king Lear, grammarian Blumkins.

Predicative phrases consist of 2 parts: subjectival and predicatival.

E.g. subjectival predicatival

She didn’t expect meto come up to her.
The relations between subjectival and predicatival are similar to those of the subject and the predicate, but predicatival can never be expressed by a finite verb. That’s why predicative phrases can’t function as independent units. The person or thing expressed by the subject of the sentence and the subjectival are different.

All predicative phrases are subdivided into bound and absolute.

Bound predicative phrases are grammatically connected with the verb predicate of the sentence. These phrases are not isolated. They function as extended adjuncts. They may be expressed by the following constructions:

1. Objective with the infinitive.
E.g. Nobody saw him leave the room.

2. Objective participial construction.
E.g. Nobody saw him leaving the house.

3. Subjective infinitive construction.
E.g. He is known to have been a talented writer.

4. Subjective participial construction.
E.g. They were heard quarrelling.

5. For + to infinitive construction.
E.g. For me to go back would be to admit I was afraid.

6. Gerundial and half-gerundial construction.
E.g. Barbara(‘s) coming tonight meant a lot.

Independent absolute predicative phrase may be expressed by nominative absolute construction:

E.g. She began to go downstairs, the boy following her.

And prepositional absolute constructions:

E.g. He stood there, with his mouth open.

Sentence is the main object of syntax as a part of the grammatical theory. The sentence is the integral unit of speech, consisting of words and distinguished by a certain communicative purpose.

According to Kaushanskaya, a sentence is a unit of speech whose grammatical structure conforms to the laws of language and which serves as the chief means of conveying the thought. A sentence is not only a means of communicating something about reality, but also a means of showing the speaker attitude to it. It usually expresses a complete thought. Besides, every sentence has certain intonation. The central predication in a sentence of a verbal type is a finite verb. The finite verb expresses an essential predicative meaning by means of grammatical category of tense and mood. In the predicative semantics are included such syntactic meanings as purposes of communication, decoration, interrogation, inducement, modal probability, affirmation and negation. The sentence performs 2 important functions: nominative (substance-naming) and predicative (reality evaluating).

There are some definitions of the sentence.

Blokh: Sentence is a construction which in a given utterance is not a par of any larger construction.

Barkhudarov: Sentence is a linguistic construction with a subjective predicative structure.

Pacheptsov: Sentence is a minimal syntactic structure used in speech acts and which has characterizing features, the main of which are predication and structure scheme or model.

Classification of sentences

Sentences may be classified:

1. according to the type of classification: interrogative, declarative, imperative.

2. according to the emotional colouring: neutral, emotionally coloured, exclamatory.

3. according to the character of predicative relations: affirmative, negative.

4. according to the number of the main parts: two-member sentences, verbless two-member sentences, one-member sentences.

5. according to the structural completeness: complete, incomplete.

6. according to the character of the subject.

7. according to the number of predicative units: simple, composite. Composite are subdivided into compound and complex. There are also semi-compound and semi-complex sentences.

There are 3 communicative sentence types: declarative, imperative, interrogative.

Declarative sentences are in the affirmative or negative form. Interrogative sentences ask a question. There are 4 kinds of questions:

1. General

2. Special

3. Alternative

4. Disjunctive

An imperative sentence is used to induce a person to do something. It expresses a command, invitation, request etc.

Besides, we can speak about so called exclamatory sentences, but this type of sentences doesn’t possess qualities that could place them on the same level with 3 communicative types. Each of the 3 communicative types can be represented in 2 variants: neutral (non-exclamatory) and exclamatory.

E.g. It was a long story!

Why did you come?!

Try to speak sensibly!

According to Ilyish, there may be purely exclamatory sentences, which usually don’t belong to any of these types.

E.g. What a strange man!

Such a sunny day!

According to the number of main parts, sentences may be 2-member and 1-member. A 2-member sentence has 2 main members: a subject and a predicate. It may be complete or incomplete. If it is complete, it has both a subject and a predicate. A sentence is incomplete when one of the principle parts or both of them are missing, but can be easily understood from the context. Such sentences are called elliptical and are mainly used in dialogs, in colloquial speech, newspapers headings and advertisements.

E.g. – What did you do?

- Filled them.

Nowadays some linguists take a broader view on ellipsis. They think that a sentence is elliptical if any part of the sentence is missing (primary or secondary), and one of those is Barkhudarov.

E.g. – When does she come back?

- The day after tomorrow.

According to Barkhudarov, elliptical sentences are divided into syntagmatically and paradigmatically restored.

Syntagmatically restored sentences are those in which the missing parts are restored from the context or situation. They may be built of different parts of the sentence.

1. Of the predicate or some part of it.
E.g. – What happened?
- Dropt them.

2. Of the subject.
E.g. – Who was late?
- Ellis.

3. Of the object.
E.g. – Have you seen them?
- Him.

4. Of the adverbial modifier.
E.g. – Where are they staying?
- In the house.

Paradigmatically restored sentences are such in which the missing part is restored on analogy with existing 2-member complete sentences.

E.g. – Married? (Are you…)
- Widower, sir. (I am a…)

Besides there exist one-member sentences, which consist only of one member, which is neither the subject nor the predicate, but the sentence has a certain model, intonation and predicativity. One-member sentences are used in descriptions and in emotional speech. The central part of the sentence can be expressed by nouns, numerals, adjectives, adverbs, non-finite forms of the verb, so they fall into 4 structural classes.

1. Nominal.
E.g. Evening of the same day.

2. Adjectival.
E.g. How horrible!

3. Adverbial.
E.g. In the doorway of the house.

4. Verbal.
E.g. Living in such a way!

Semantics of obligatory syntactic positions

The list of elementary sentence structures shows that our traditional division of the parts of the sentence into primary and secondary should be revised, because not only the primary parts are obligatory. The secondary parts of the sentence are not always optional as their name can suggest. They can be subdivided into obligatory and optional. The obligatory secondary parts are those the omission of which turns the sentence structurally and semantically incomplete, so the object is an obligatory secondary part.

As for the adverbial modifier, it has different properties depending on the subclass of the verb.

The attribute is usually looked upon as optional, but in some sentences it is obligatory.

E.g. A girl with green eyes passionately looked at him.

A structure of the sentence includes the following obligatory syntactic positions:

1. Subject

2. Predicate

3. Direct object

4. Indirect object

5. Prepositional object

6. Adverbial modifier of time and place

The primary semantic functions of the obligatory syntactic positions

The most typical function of the subject is agentive. It is the animate being causing the happening denoted by the verb.

E.g. The girl opened the window.

The most typical function of the direct object is affected, which shows an affected participant (animate or inanimate) which doesn’t cause the happening denoted by the verb, but which is directly involved in the happening in some or other way.

E.g. All of them criticized the prime minister.

The most typical function of the indirect object is recipient, which means that a recipient is an animate participant which is passively implicated by the happening or state.

E.g. I have found you the book.

The most typical function of the prepositional object is instrument, which is usually inanimate thing which causes an event.

E.g. She cut her finger with a knife.

The most typical function of the adverbial modifier of time is temporal.

The most typical function of the adverbial modifier of place is locative.

Secondary semantic functions of the obligatory syntactic positions

The subject can be affected, recipient, temporal, locative, instrument and empty.

E.g. Jack broke his leg. – affected

I was given the text book. – recipient

The summer of 1999 was chilly. – temporal

The path was swarming with ants. – locative

It often rains in autumn. – empty

Direct object can be locative.

E.g. The boy climbed the tree.

Indirect object can be affected.

E.g. I paid her a visit.

I gave the door a couple of kicks.

Prepositional object can be recipient and agentive.

E.g. The librarian gave the book to him. – recipient.

He was given the book by the librarian. – agentive.

The textual function of a sentence (functional sentence perspective)

The most important notion related to the textual function of the sentence is text or discourse. Text is a specifically arranged totality of sentences, united by certain relation of communicative semantic and structural types. Grammarians agree to the lower border line of the text, it is one sentence, but the upper border line of the text hasn’t been established yet. It may be a paragraph, a chapter, a story etc. Linguists usually investigate a complex syntactic unit. It is a group of sentences united by autonomous sense, common communicative intention and certain structural relation. The textual function of the sentence relates to the way the sentences are organized as messages. One principle of sentence organization was developed by the Prague school of linguistics. It was FSP. In the study of textual functions of a sentence there’ve been several theories. The greatest contributions were made by Firbus and Mathesius.

In studying FSP we deal with the problem of dividing a sentence into 2 sections. The first is the starting point (the known, the theme, topic), and the second is new information (the unknown, the rheme, comment).

The position of the utterance, which is the known, expresses the starting point of communication, whereas the new contains new information. The known is usually the subject or the subject group of the sentence, and the unknown is usually the predicate group. The most important semantic element, which is a part of the new, is called the centre of communication. The difference between theme and rheme is found in different degrees of dynamism. Theme is static, rheme is dynamic.

E.g. theme rheme

The girl has come.

center

In such utterances the grammatical division coincides with the actual division of the sentence, and this sequence is called objective. In contradiction there is also the subjective sequence, when the rheme precedes the theme. We actually start with a new piece of information to show the expressive attitude of the speaker.

E.g. rheme theme

The girl has come

In connected speech the centre of communication of one utterance may become the starting point of the utterance that follows.

E.g. theme rheme theme rheme

The horse belonged to a tall sharp-faced woman. The woman knew a lot about racing.

Means of making the center of communication

Linguistic means used by the speaker to express FSP are as follows:

1. Prosodic means, such as variation in pitch, loudness, pausation.

2. Pragmatic means: words and constructions which are used to indicate the relationship between the utterance and the participants of the speech act.

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