Problematic questions:

1. Here the main question is: «How the scientists of different periods (Classical Scientific, Structural and Transformational Grammars) treated approach to the simple sentence?»

2. What is pragmatic syntax and how can it replenish the traditional one?

3. What is the semi-composite sentence and how can we divide it into semi-compound and semi-complex?

4. What do we call the compliments of a verb and can we subdivide them into several groups correlated with the subclasses of verbs?

5. How should we call and define different types of complex sentence, taking into account all the peculiarities of its constituents?

Bibliography list (practical grammars of English)

1. М.Я. Блох, А.Я. Лебедева, В.С. Денисова «Практикум по английскому языку: грамматика. Сборник упражнений». – М.: Астрель: АСТ, 2005. – 238 с.

This book is designed for students, majoring in English study. The book consists of 2 parts: morphology and syntax. The exercises range from those focusing on grammatical categories, grammatical class divisions and subdivisions to those concentrating on communicative semantics, relations between the parts of the sentence, i.e. agreement of the predicate with the subject, etc. In other words, the exercises here focus on aspects of the word and aspects of the sentence. Special attention is paid to the grammatical constructions of the real speech, but nevertheless, the most of examples are taken from classical literature.

Beginning with the drills devoted to the noun (part: morphology) and its categories: number, case and article (training exercises are given here as tightly connected with the theme noun), the authors give exercises on adjective , numeral, pronoun, adverb and verb. The big theme verb is divided into subthemes such as: tense, voice, mood, modal verbs and verbals. Verbals in their turn consist of the infinitive, syntactical complexes with the infinitive, gerund and participles I and II. So we can see that here there are no exercises concerning aspect and retrospective coordination.

In the second part – syntax – the exercises are grouped according to the themes: expanded and unexpanded parts of sentences (especially elliptical and one-member sentences), word order, communicative types of sentences. Special attention is paid to the parts of the sentence: subject, predicate, object, attribute, apposition (as a part of the attribute theme) and adverbial modifier. The authors also give exercises on the detached and homogeneous parts of the sentence. Then we can find two chapters about the complicated sentences (this is how these grammarians call composite sentences). The authors point out on blend and phase complication. The two types of the composite (complicated) sentences – compound and complex – are presented here as the last separate chapters.

2. D. Biber, S. Johansson, G. Leech, S. Conrad, E. Finegan «Longman grammar of spoken and written English». – Longman: Pearson Education LTD, 2000. – 613 c.

In the preface to this book we read: «For anyone planning corpus-based grammatical study, of any language on earth the LGSWE will rapidly establish itself as indispensable». First of all it’s necessary to say that in this book all the information is up-to-date. Moreover, the specific nature of the book is explained due to the fact that here we see the examples of the everyday use of English, i.e. English in its natural environment. As we know, practically all the books are full of examples from the classical literature (see above). It’s not bad, by the way, but nevertheless, sometimes they are bookish. And here we see another approach to examples on each theme. Moreover, this book, being a typical American, presupposes doing these drills not only individually, but also in team. In many chapters we can see comparative tables with the examples of this or that theme in comparison of American and British English.

In the section A which is an introductory part of the book there are general concepts of grammar: quantitative findings, varieties of English, etc.

In section B (description and distribution) the nature of grammatical units is explained. In the chapter «Word and phrase grammar» the characteristics of the word are listed and there are surveys of lexical, function words and inserts. As well as words the phrases are specified here. In the chapter «Clause grammar» major clause elements and patterns are given. The clauses are classified into finite and non-finite, dependent and independent.

Section C (key word classes and their phrases) is devoted to noun, pronoun, verb, adjective and adverb. Verbs are divided into lexical singe-word and multi-word, primary and copular. Variation in the verb phrase is regarded, namely: tense, aspect, voice, modality.

Section D (more complex structures) dwells upon complex noun phrases, complements and adverbials. Complements are divided into that-clause, wh-clause, ing-clause, infinitive clause and post-predicate clause.

Section E (Grammar in a wider perspective). In the chapter «Word order and related syntactic choices» the authors focus on word order itself, existential there, new terms are introduced: dislocation, clefting. «The grammatical marking of stance»: major grammatical devices used to express stance and major semantic distinctions conveyed by stance markers. In the end of the book we can find information concerning lexical expressions in speech and writing (lexical bundles, idiomatic phrases) and grammar in conversation (the constructional principles of spoken grammar).