27. The simple sentence

Before we proceed with our study of sentence structure it will be well to consider the relation between the two notions of sentence and clause. Among different types of sentences treated in a syntactic investigation it is naturally the simple sentence that comes first. It is with specimens of simple sentences that we study such categories as parts of the sentence, main and secondary; homogeneous members, word order, etc. It is also with specimens of simple sentences that we illustrate such notions as declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences, as two-member and one-member sentences, and so forth. As long as we limit ourselves to the study of simple sentences, the notion of "clause" need not occur at all.

When, however, we come to composite sentences (that is, sentences consisting of two or more clauses), we have to deal with the notions of main clause, head clause, and subordinate clause. Everything we said about the simple sentence will also hold good for clauses: a clause also has its parts (main and secondary), it can also be a two-member or a one-member clause; a main clause at least must also be either declarative, interrogative, imperative, or exclamatory, etc. We will consider these questions in due course.

So then we will take it for granted that whatever is said about a simple sentence will also apply to an independent clause within a composite sentence. For instance, whatever we say about word order in a simple sentence will also apply to word order in an independent clause within a composite sentence, etc.

TYPES OF SIMPLE SENTENCES. MAIN PARTS OF A SENTENCE

It has been usual to classify sentences into two-member and one-member sentences.

This distinction is based on a difference in the so-called main parts of a sentence. In a sentence like Helen sighed (B. MACAULAY) there obviously are two main parts: Helen, which denotes the doer of the action and is called (grammatical) subject, and sighed, which denotes the action performed by the subject and is called (grammatical) predicate. Sentences having this basic structure, to denote the doer of the action and another word (or phrase) to denote the action, are termed two-member sentences. However, there are sentences which do not contain two such separate parts; in these sentences there is only one main part: the other main part is not there and it could not even be supplied, at least not without a violent change in the structure of the sentence. Examples of such sentences, which are accordingly termed one-member sentences, are the following: Fire! Come on! or the opening sentence of "An American Tragedy": Dusk — of a summer night. (DREISER)

One-member sentences should be kept apart from two-member sentences with either the subject or the predicate omitted.

28. Substantivisation of Adjectives. Adjectivisation of Nouns.

Gen. features: 1) mean-g- expresses property; 2) form-invariable. some form degrees of comparison (long, longer, longest); 3) funct. a) proceed or follow nouns (times immemorial) ; combine with a preceding advjective (very large); can be followed by the phrase “preposition + n-n” (free from danger); occasionally follow a verb (married young). b) in the sent. it can be an attribute or a predicative (is large); an objective predicative (painted the door green).

Adjectives can be substantivised, i. e. become nouns. What criteria should be applied to find out if an Adj. is substantivised or not? is a substantivised adjective a noun, or is it not? 1^st we should recollect the characteristic features of N in English and see if a S. Adj. has acquired them. The features of noun in English are: (1) ability to form a plural, (2) possessive case, (3) to be modified by an adjective, (4) the function of subject or object in a sentence. E.g. the words native, relative possess all these features (e. g. the natives of Australia, a young native, etc.). These words are nouns in such cases. Indeed we need not call such words substantivised adjectives. But the word rich differs from the word native in some important points: (1) it does not form a plural, (2) it cannot be used in the singular and with the indefinite article, (3) it has no possessive form. It will be right to say that it is only partly substantivised. The word stands somewhere between an Adj and a N. The same may be said of the poor, the English, the Chinese, also the wounded, the accused. Sometimes the result of S-n is an abstract N: Her mind was focused on the invisible. Nouns of this type certainly have no plural form.

Adjectivisation of nouns. In Modern English a noun may stand before another noun & modify it. (e.g. stone wall). Is the first component is a noun or is it adjectivised? There are some views. 1- it is a N, 2 - it is an adjective, 3 - it is neither a noun nor an adjective but a separate part of speech. The criteria of degrees of comparison is useless there, as many adjectives don’t form the degrees of comparison.

1. Has the first element number distinctions? The1 element usually appears only in one number form, e. g. stone wall, not stones wall. It is possible to argue that the first element is a noun, which appears there in a definite number form. This proof is inconclusive. (2) Is it able in the cases when it denotes a human being to have a possessive form? The phrase the Einstein theory can take the possessive form; the phrase Einstein's theory is quite possible, and occurs in actual texts. (3) Does it denote a substance or a property? We might say that it denotes a substance but this substance only serves to characterise the property of the thing.Thus, no perfectly objective result can be gained in such cases.