The Attribute

THE SECONDARY PARTS OF THE SENTENCE

His || things there The transformational model of the sentence is, in fact, the extension of the linguistic notion of derivation to the syntactic level, which presupposes setting off the so-called basic or "kernel" structures and their transforms, i. e. sentence-structures derived from the basic ones according to the transformational rules.

All

His things || there left

Brother left || all

The secondary parts of the sentence are classified according to the syntactic relations between sentence elements. These relations differ in character.

Oppositional relations between the principal and secondary parts of the sentence are quite evident. The former are the core of the communicative unit, the latter develop the core as being a) immediately related to some of the sentence-elements or b) related to the predicative core as a whole.

The closest bond is commonly observed in attributive relationships. Attributive adjuncts expand sentence-elements rather than the sentence itself.

His possessive instinct, subtler, less formal, more elastic since the War, kept all misgivings underground. (Galsworthy)

The second type of non-predicative bond, the completive one, is more loose. It develops the sentence in another way. In this type of bond the secondary parts relate, to the predicative core as a whole.

The same number of the unemployed, winter and summer, in storm or calm, in good times or bad, held this melancholy midnight rendezvous at Fleishmann's bread box. (Dreiser)

The completive bond can expand the sentence indefinitely.

The copulative bond connects syntactically equivalent sentence elements.

With the money he earned he bought novels, dictionaries and maps browsed through the threepenny boxes in the basement of a secondhand bookshop downtown. (Sillitoe)

In actual speech various types of syntactic bond can actualise various types of syntactic meaning. Thus, for instance, both process and qualitative relationship can find their expression in:

(a) the attributive bond an easy task;

playing boys;

(b) the completive bond I found the task;

I found the boys playing;

(c) the predicative bond The task was easy;

The boys were playing.

The qualificative relationship can be actualised by the attributive bond. The paradigm of these linguistic means is rather manifold. We find here:

1) adjectives: the new house; a valuable thing;

2) nouns in the Possessive Case: my brother's book;

3) noun-adjunct groups (N + N): world peace, spring time;

4) prepositional noun-groups: the daughter of my friend;

5) pronouns (possessive, demonstrative, indefinite): my joy, such flowers, every morning, a friend of his, little time;

6) infinitives and infinitival groups: an example to follow, a thing to do;

7) gerunds and participles: (a) walking distance, swimming suit;

(b) a smiling face, a singing bird;

8) numerals: two friends, the first task;

9) words of the category of state: faces alight with happiness;

10) idiomatic phrases: a love of a child, a jewel of a nature, etc.

If an adjective is modified by several adverbs the latter are generally placed as follows: adverbs of degree and qualitative adverbs stand first and next come modal adverbs, adverbs denoting purpose, time and place, e. g.:

usually intentionally very active 3 2 1 A

politically and socially 4

It comes quite natural that the collocability of adverbs with adjectives is conditioned by the semantic peculiarities of both. Some adverbs of degree, for instance, are freely employed with all qualitative adjectives (absolutely, almost, extremely, quite, etc.), others are contextually restricted in their use. Thus, for instance, the adverb seriously will generally modify adjectives denoting physical or mental state, the adverb vaguely (—not clearly expressed) goes patterning with adjectives associated with physical or mental perception.

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