Seminars in theoretical grammar semester VIII

Seminar V

SYNTAX OF THE PHRASE.

SYNTAGMATIC CONNECTIONS OF WORDS.

1. Syntax as a part of grammar. Syntactic theory in Soviet and Western linguistics. The phrase and the sentence as basic syntactical units. Syntax of the phrase as ‘minor syntax’ in relation to syntax of the sentence as ‘major syntax’.

2. The phrase as a polynominative lingual unit. The phrase in the hierarchy of language units. The problem of definition of the phrase. Notional, formative and functional phrases.

3. The correlation of the phrase and the word, of the phrase and the sentence. Free and set phrases.

4. Correlation between the meaning of a word combination and the meaning of its components.

5. Valency and combinability (obligatory and optional).

6. Syntactic connections.

• Equipotent and dominational connections between the phrase constituents. Syndetic and asyndetic connections.

• Equipotent consecutive (coordinative proper) and cumulative equipotent phrase.

• Dominational consecutive (subordinative proper) and dominational cumulative phrase. The kernel and the adjunct of a subodinative phrase.

• The problem of bilateral dominational connections in predicative combinations of words (of a subject and a predicate).

7. Syntactic relations. Grammatical relations observed in N+N structures.

8. The classification of phrases according to part-of-speech, functional (nominative classification of phrases) and positional criteria.

Key terms:

phrase, word-combination, syntagmatic groupings of words, polynominative lingual unit, polydenoteme (monodenoteme), ‘minor syntax’, ‘major syntax’, notional phrase, formative phrase, functional phrase, equipotent (paratactic) and dominational (hypotactic) connections, consecutive equipotent (coordinative proper) and cumulative equipotent connections, dominational consecutive (subordinative proper) and dominational cumulative connections, kernel (kernel element, key word, head word), adjunct (adjunct word, expansion), monolateral (one-way) domination, bilateral (reciprocal, two-way) domination, agreement, government (prepositional and non-prepositional), adjoining, enclosure, interdependence, regressive and progressive phrases

Practical assignments:

1. Define the properties of word-groupings on the lines of different classifications.

to fully understand; is seriously ill; for us to expect; claimed the land; young, nonchalant, charming; a cat licking milk; rather doubtful; the train moved; can come, supposedly; cakes and ale; a stifling weather; projected onto the token; the world beyond; really amazing; laughed a little; familiar noise; to feel foolish; a man, having no scruples; pleased, or almost so; enthusiastic but not cultured; sanity and rationality; extremely tempting; time-tables, books, maps, and what not.

Seminars in theoretical grammar semester VIII

Seminar VI

SYNTAX OF THE SENTENCE.

1. The sentence as the main unit of syntax.

• The sentence as a communicative unit. Predication as a fundamental distinguishing feature of the sentence. Nominative aspect of the sentence in correlation with its predicative aspect. Predication as syntactic modality. The means of expressing predication.

• Intonational arrangement of the sentence.

• The sentence in the system of language: the notion of sentence pattern (its generalized syntactic model).

• Nominative aspect in the correlation of the sentence and the word, of the sentence and the phrase; nominalization of the sentence.