One-member sentences

The grammatical organisation of one-member sentences has its own traits. Such patterns should naturally be distinguished from two-member sentences with either the subject or the predicate omitted as the case is with ellipsis in sentence-structure.

Synsemantic in character, one-member sentences cover a wide and most varied range of meanings. The context, linguistic or situational, is generally explicit enough to make the grammatical content of the sentence clear.

One-member sentences have no separate subject and predicate but one "main" only instead.

It seems reasonable to make distinction between a) nominal or "naming" sentences and b) infinitival sentences.

Nominal sentences name a person or thing. They are fairly common in direct address, m so-called "word-representations" used to call up the image of the object in the mind of the readers or the person spoken to.

Examples, easily multiplied, are the following:

"Have you noticed Box I — the lady in white satin with the green lace shawl?"

"Yes". Berenice raised her glasses.

"Mrs, Frank Algernon Cowperwood, the wife of the Chicago millionaire. (Dreiser)

The modal meaning of appraisal in one-member sentences is to a considerable extent connected with the use of noun determiners, the definite article, in particular. Both the article and the demonstrative pronoun have here special connotation. Consider the following examples:

The restless, inhuman, and yet so human, angry sadness of the creature's eyes! (Galsworthy)

That fellow Wagner had ruined everything; no melody left, not any voices to sing it. Ah! the wonderful singers! (Galsworthy)

"That woman!" said Soames. (Galsworthy)

Here again, like in many other cases, the subtle shares of modal force and emotional colouring are made clear by the context, linguistic or situational.

The attribute is often expressed by the of -phrase, e. g.:

Would Mr. Mont convince him? Tony was sharp! Her head drooped. The unfairness of it all! Some had everything to their hand, like that pretty wife of Mr. Mont's. (Galsworthy)

Don't talk to me about the country. The doctor said I was to go there for six weeks last summer. It nearly killed me, I give you my word. The noise of it! (Maugham)

She could think of him now with indifference. She loved him no longer. Oh, the relief and the sense of humiliation! (Maugham)

Oh, the shame of this day! You'll be comin' home with me now. (Dreiser)

If the head-word is a concrete noun the latter is very often used without attributive adjuncts. Sentences of this type are fairly common.

"What a picture", cried the ladies". "Oh, the ducks! Oh, the lambs! Oh, the sweets! Oh, the pets!" (Mansfield)

Such emotionally coloured sentences are often used with interjections or some other words introducing or concluding the direct speech.

Useless for young Roger to say, "Old cat!" — for Euphemia to hold up her hands and cry: "Oh! those three!" and break into her silent laugh with the squeak at the end. (Galsworthy)

Nominal sentences may follow one another in immediate succession, thus making up a string of co-ordinated nominal sentences, as for instance:

... A blue suit, a velour hat, some brown shoes, three pairs of socks with two holes in them, four shirts only a little grayed at the cuffs, two black-and-white ties, six collars, not two new, some handkerchiefs, two vests beautifully thick, two pairs of pants, and brown overcoat with a belt and just two or three nice little stains. (Galsworthy)

Analogous syntactic structures may be traced in Russian and Ukrainian. Compare the following:

Москва... Как много в этом звуке для сердца русского слилось... (Пушкин)

Вечерние сумерки. Крупный мокрый снег лениво кружится около только что зажженных фонарей. (Чехов)

Взяв друг друга за руки, мы с минуту стояли молча. Хорошая минута. (Горький)

Перед окном рабочий чертежный стол. Радио. Экран. Три, четыре книги. (Маяковский)

Гострий струмінь морозного повітря... осяяні в домах вікна... чиїсь голоси... дзвінки звощика... стережись! І він опинився у глухій, безлюдній вулиці. (Коцюбинський)

Степи і степи... Безлісний, трагічно беззахисний край, переповнений надміром сонця і світла. (Гончар)

In Grammar books one-member sentences are often referred to as elliptical, with some items "understood" or "felt as missing". This, however, must be taken with much reservation, since it is not always possible to supply the missing part from the immediate syntactic environment, and there is insufficient justification for taking ellipsis into account.

Nominal sentences may be coordinated and make up a composite structure with the implication of various adverbial relations, causal or resultative, in particular, signalled by the context, situational of linguistic, the lexical meaning of words, in particular, e. g.:

Ah! Well! Another long heartache in the world — Poor Dinny! (Galsworthy)

Modal meanings are known to be expressed by structural elements of different linguistic levels. Indicating some kind of attitude of the speaker concerning the reality of what is expressed in predication, modality is, in fact, a regular structural feature of any sentence.

The same is true of one-member sentences. In these terms we distinguish:

(a) "Classical" nominal sentences naming an object of reality, asserting or denying its being. This is the same kind of modality as we find in two member verbal sentences when predication is expressed by the verb-form of the Indicative Mood. Compare the following for illustration:

"A black night", master.

Cf. It is a black night.

The two sentence-patterns given above are grammatically synonymous: the former is a verbless one-member sentence, the latter a two-member one. We cannot fail to see that both assert a real fact.

Further examples follow:

And Soames held out his hand. A distracted squeeze, a heavy sigh, and soon after sounds from the young man's motor cycle called up vision of flying dust and broken bones. (Galsworthy)

A distant flash, a low rumble, and large drops of rain spattered on the thatch above him. (Galsworthy)

What a life! What a life! was her one thought. (Dreiser)

"My wife, Professor". (Galsworthy)

She remembered Sir Lawrence's words: "Were there not, my dear? Most valuable fellows!" (Galsworthy)

(b) One-member sentences expressing command — stylistic alternatives of the Imperative Mood:

"Silence woman!" said Mr. Kenwigs, fiercely..."I won't be silent", returned the nurse. "Be silent yourself, you wretch". (Dreiser)

The two sentences (Silence! = Be silent!) are identical in their grammatical content but differ in style and emphatic value. Consider also the following example: "Silence there, will you!" says the beadle. (Dickens) The addition of will you in the last example intensifies the meaning of a categorical command as implied by the nominal sentence.

(c) One-member wish-sentences.

The emotional colouring of such wish sentences can be intensified by interjections, e. g.:

Oh, the fine clothes, the handsome homes, the watches, rings, pins that some boys sported; the dandies many youths of years were. (Dreiser)

(d) One-member sentences of hypothetical modality:

The anomalous and unprotected nature of a room where one was nut known. The look of it. Subsequent explanation to her mother and sister maybe. (Dreiser)

Dizzily, I lauded my knuckless once more again on Gavin's buttons. Dazzling, lights, shouts, rockets, in the sky... Heley's comet, perhaps! (Cronin)

A scandal! A possible scandal! (Galsworthy)

John... heard a car drive up. The lawyers again about some nonsense. (Galsworthy)

(e) One-member conditional sentences. Condition and consequence are contracted to each other, the former is expressed by a nominal one- member sentence and the latter by a two-member one. Reality or irreality will be indicated by the mood in which the verb of the two-member sentence is used in the given context.

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