An object of syntactic studies

SENTENCE AS

1. Major features of the sentence as a syntactic unit.
2. Syntactic structure of the sentence as an object of linguistic studies.

v Principal and secondary parts of the sentence: sentence parsing;

v Immediate constituents of the sentence: IC analysis;

v Oppositional analysis;

v Constructional analysis.

1. The utterance. Informative structure of the utterance.
2. Basic notions of pragmatic linguistics.
3. Speech act theory. Direct and indirect speech acts. Types of speech acts.
4. Discourse analysis as the study of language in use:

v Maxims of politeness;

v Implicatures of discourse;

v Implicatures and indirectness;

v Textual deictic markers.

1. Major features of the sentence as a syntactic unit

The survey of the approaches to the definition of the sentence as a syntactic unit testifies to the fact that it still remains a challenging object of studies due to a combination of lingual and extra lingual features, and a variety of logical, psychological, and philosophical aspects characterizing the sentence. Nevertheless when it comes to its basic peculiarities grammarians are agreed on a number of fundamental characteristics. On the whole, the sentence is understood as the central syntactic construction used as a minimal communicative unit that has its primary predication, actualises a certain structural scheme and is characterised by a corresponding intonation contour. However this definition does not address the debatable question whether the sentence may only be referred to language or both to language and speech. This definition works only in case the difference between the sentence and the utterance is not taken into account. But there are scholars who insist on the distinction between the sentence and the utterance because the sentence is an abstract theoretical entity defined within the theory of grammar whereas the utterance is its actual use. In other words, the problem boils down to the distinction between the sentence described as a unit of language and the utterance defined as a unit of speech.

Taken as a sign the sentence is characterized by (a) its structural features, i.e. subject-predicate relations (primary predication), (b) its semantic features, which refers to the way it presents objective reality, and (c) its pragmatic potential which is understood within the sign theory as a relation to the user.

One of the essential issues in the description of the sentence as a lingual unit is its relation to objective reality it is supposedly designed to reflect. The reflection of objective reality presupposes two major processes. First, it is conceptualized, i.e. it gets its mental representation by means of concepts, frames, schemata or scenarios. Then these packages of knowledge get their verbal representation. Thus, mental (cognitive) entity finds its lingual embodiment. The thought formed in response to some stimulus springs in human mind in the form of a proposition. Proposition is one of the fundamental notions of syntactic theory. In plain terms, propositions may be interpreted as the content of the thought[78]. As a notion, a proposition is defined as the semantic invariant of the thought devoid of any modal or communicative charge [ЛЭС 1990: 401]. In other words, it is ‘a claim which can, at least in principle, be determined either true or false’, or still in other words it is ‘a claim that a certain state of affairs does or does not exist [Kroeger 2006: 53]. It implies the establishment of predicative relations between the elements of the situational event as it is reflected in human mind. That enables linguists to state that a proposition of the clause is made up by the subject and finite together. It can be affirmed, denied, questioned, and negotiated be speakers in other ways (wished about, hoped for, demanded, etc.) [The Linguistics Encyclopedia 1995: 143]. The element of meaning which identifies the property or relationship is called the predicate:

E.g.: John is hungry.

Mary snores.

John loves Mary.

Mary is slapping John.

The individuals (or participants) of whom the property or relationship is claimed to be true (John and Mary) are called arguments. Basic predicative meanings of the typical English sentence are expressed by the finite verb that is immediately connected with the subject of the sentence (primary predication).

To sum it up, the sentence is a unit of the syntactic level of language, it is characterized by predicativity which is a lingual representation of proposition understood as a predicative thought.

1. Syntactic structure of the sentence as an object of linguistic studies

v Principal and secondary parts of the sentence:sentence parsing

Members (parts) of the sentence as a syntactic unit are considered to be functions of the reflection of a situational event [Блох 2008: 293]. The parts of the sentence are subject, predicate, object, adverbial modifier, attribute, parenthesis, addressing enclosure. All these parts of the sentence are arranged in a certain hierarchical order revealing the basic logical-grammatical connections of the constituents of the sentence. Sentence parsing shows essential features of this hierarchy, with the subject and the predicate being the principal elements of the scheme and the rest performing secondary syntactic roles.

The drawback of this type of syntactic analysis is that it fails to present the linear order of the constituents of the sentence while exposing the subordination ranks of the parts of the sentence.

v Immediate constituents of the sentence: IC analysis

To grasp the real structure of the English sentence, one must understand not only words that occur but also the principles of their arrangement. Each language has its own way of structural grouping. English has a dichotomous phrase structure, which means that the phrase in English can always be divided into two elements (constituents) until we get down to the ultimate word-level of the sentence. Thus, all groups of words are arranged in levels. The name given by linguists to this type of relationship is immediate constituents.

Thus, one way of analyzing a sentence is to cut it to its immediate constituents, that is, to single out different levels of meaning (see Lecture 1).

It is obvious that dividing a sentence into ICs does not provide much information. Nevertheless, it can sometimes prove useful if the ambiguity of certain constructions is accounted for. A classic example is the phrase old men and women which can be interpreted in two different ways. Ambiguity of this kind is referred to as syntactic ambiguity. By providing IC analysis we can make the two meanings clear:

E.g.: (old (men and women)) ÷ ((old men) and women)

v Oppositional analysis

The oppositional method in syntax means correlating different sentence types: they possess common features and differential features. Differential features serve the basis for analysis.

E.g.: two member sentence ÷ one member sentence (John worked ÷ John! Work!), affirmative sentence ÷ negative sentence (I speak English ÷ I don’t speak English.).

v Constructional analysis

According to the constructional approach, not only the subject and the predicate but also all the necessary constituents of primary predication constitute the main parts because they are constructionally significant. Therefore, the secondary parts of the sentence may be as salient and indispensable as the main ones. If we omit the object and the adverbial modifier in the following sentences they will become grammatically and semantically incomplete: Bill closed the door; She behaved well.

The structural sentence types are formed on the basis of kernel sentences (basic structures). There may be three main types of propositional kernels: N V, N is A, N is N. O.V. Alexandrova and T.A. Komova single out another set of main structural types in English

1) Subject + (transitive) verb + (direct) object (SVO)

2) Subject + (linking) verb + (subject) complement (SVC)

3) Subject + (intransitive) verb (SV) [Alexandrova, Komova 1998: 168].

However, if obligatory valency of the verbs is taken into account the group will become larger including up to 8 kernels.

E.g.: N1 V N2 N3: John gave Ann the book,

N1 V N2: I see a house.

Moreover, optional elements may be introduced into the main structural types. These are adverbials which main function is to specify information: e.g. This is a purely personal matter. Obviously, the best source of news is other people. Sometimes adverbials may become obligatory and form adverbial complements.

E.g. He is in the library at the moment.

Another element which may be introduced into the sentence structure is the indirect object.

The kernel sentences form the basis for syntactic derivation. Syntactic derivation is responsible for producing more complex sentences.

Syntactic processes may be internal and external. Internal syntactic processes involve no changes in the structure of the parts of the sentence. They occur within one and the same part of the sentence (subject, etc.). External syntactic processes are those that cause new relations within a syntactic unit and lead to appearance of a new part of the sentence.

The internal syntactic processes are:

• Expansion: The phone was ringing and ringing.
• Compression: They were laughing and singing.
• Complication (a syntactic unit becomes complicated): I have seen it – I could have seen it.
• Contamination (two parts of the sentence are joined together – e.g. double predicate): The moon rose red.
• Replacement – the use of the words that have a generalized meaning: one, do, etc, I’d like to take this one.
• Representation – a part of the syntactic unit represents the whole syntactic unit: Would you like to come along? I’d love to.
• Ellipsis – Where are you going? To the movies.

The external syntactic processes are:

• Extension - a nice dress – a nice cotton dress.

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