- •§ 2. From the point of view of their structure, sentences can be:
- •The simple sentence
- •Elliptical (incomplete) sentences
- •The Structural Types of Sentence
- •Communicative types of sentences
- •Declarative sentences
- •Interrogative sentences
- •§ 14. Pronominal questions are often used as short responses. They usually consist of (a) a question word or (b) a question word followed by a preposition.
- •Imperative sentences
- •§ 19 In the case of first person plural and third person singular and plural subjects, the imperative let is followed by a personal pronoun in the objective case.
- •§ 20. The imperative of some verbs may acquire interjectional force. Thus the forms listen, look (here), see (here) (Am.) - are used to attract attention.
- •Verbless Commands
- •§ 21. Commands are sometimes expressed without an imperative verb as in:
- •Exclamatory sentences
- •§ 22. The main distinctive feature of this communicative type of sentence is a specific intonation; structurally it is variable.
- •§ 23. There are utterances which do not constitute sentences (non-sentence utterances). They are:
- •The subject
- •§ 41. The subject is expressed by:
- •§ 42. From the point of view of its grammatical value the subject may be either notional or formal.
- •§ 43. The notional subject denotes or points out a person or non-person, that is, various kinds of concrete things, substances, abstract notions or happening.
- •§ 44. The formal subject expressed by it is found in two patterns of sentences: those with impersonal it and those with introductory it.
- •Grammatical types of subject
- •The predicate
- •§ 46. The predicate is the second main part of the sentence and its organizing centre, as the object and nearly all adverbial modifiers are connected with, and dependent on, it.
- •Structural classification of the predicate
- •The simple predicate The simple verbal predicate
- •§ 48. The simple verbal predicate is expressed by:
- •The simple nominal predicate
- •The compound predicate
- •§ 50. The compound predicate consists of two parts: the notional and the structural. The structural part comes first and is followed by the notional part.
- •The compound verbal predicate
- •The compound nominal predicate
- •§ 55. Among the class of link verbs we may distinguish:
- •§ 56. The predicative can be expressed by:
- •§ 57. The three most typical semantic characteristics of a predicative are: identification, classification and characterization.
- •Mixed types of compound predicate
- •§ 59. Compound predicates can combine elements of different types. Thus we have:
- •The composite sentence
- •The scheme of the above compound-complex sentence
- •The scheme of a complex sentence with homogeneous clauses
- •The compound sentence
- •§ 140. Copulative coordination implies that the information conveyed by coordinate clauses is in some way similar.
- •§ 142. Disjunctive coordination implies a choice between two mutually exclusive alternatives. The disjunctive conjunctions are or, either... Or, the conjunctive adverbs are else (or else), otherwise.
- •The complex sentence
- •Formal indicators of subordination (connectors)
- •Functional classification of subordinate clauses
- •§ 151. Complex sentences with subject clauses may be of two patterns:
- •§ 153. Predicative clauses may occur as parts of two structurally different kinds of sentences:
- •It seems that there is no cure. (a predicative clause) It seems evident that there is no cure. (a subject clause, the predicate 'seem evident' is complete)
- •§ 155. Like objects in a simple sentence, object clauses may vary in their relation to the principal clause and in the way they are attached to, the word they refer to or depend on.
- •§ 158. Attributive clauses fall into two types, depending on the degree of connection and the relation they bear to the antecedent:
- •§ 160. Attributive clauses may be joined to the main clause without a relative word, that is, asyndetically. They are called contact clauses.
- •§ 164. According to their semantics we distinguish adverbial clauses of place, time, manner, comparison, condition, concession, purpose, cause, result.
- •§ 166. An adverbial clause of time characterizes the action expressed in the main clause from the temporal point of view. The action may be expressed by a finite or non-finite form of the verb.
- •I. Adverbial clauses of manner may modify the predicate of the main clause by attributing some quality to it.
- •II. They may refer to attributes or predicatives characterizing a state or quality of a person or non-person.
- •III. They may refer to an adverbial modifier, giving additional information or explanation concerning it.
- •§ 168. Adverbial clauses of comparison characterize the action expressed by the predicate in the main clause by comparing it with some real or hypothetical circumstance or action.
- •§ 169. Adverbial clauses of this type contain some condition (cither real or unreal) which makes the action in the main clause possible.
- •§ 170. Depending on the relation between the subordinate and the main clauses and on the use of tense and mood forms, complex sentences with conditional clauses may be subdivided into three types:
- •In the main clause In the subordinate clause
- •In the main clause In the subordinate clause
- •§ 171. A complex sentence with a conditional clause may be built on clauses of both type II and III, thus forming a mixed type of conditional relationship. For instance:
- •§ 174. Adverbial clauses of cause (or causative clauses) express the reason, cause, or motivation of the action expressed in the main clause or of its content as a whole.
- •§ 175. An adverbial clause of result denotes some consequence or result of the action expressed in the main clause. It may be introduced by the conjunction so that, or simply that.
- •§ 176. In complex sentences of this type it is impossible to differentiate which of the clauses is the main one and which is subordinate. We shall consider two patterns of such sentences.
- •Pseudo-complex sentences
- •§ 180. These sentences in their turn fall into three patterns, in all of which the form of the complex sentence is used to emphasize some part of the sentence.
- •Appended clauses (повторы с уточнением)
- •Absolute (or indendent) subordinate clauses
- •§ 182. Subordinate clauses may be used absolutely as independent exclamatory sentences. They may have the form of a conditional or comparative clause.
- •Parenthetical clauses (parentheses)
- •§ 183. A parenthetical clause (parenthesis) interrupts another sentence with which it is either not connected syntactically or is only loosely connected with separate parts of the sentence.
The subject
§ 40. Every English sentence but the one-member and the imperative one must have a subject. The subject is one of the two main parts of the sentence. The most important feature of the subject in English is that in declarative sentences it normally comes immediately before the predicate, whereas in questions its position is immediate1у after an operator. It means that in English sentences any word or words which occur in these positions are to be treated as the subject of the sentence.
The subject determines the form of the verbal part of the predicate! regards its number and person.
Ways of expressing the subject
§ 41. The subject is expressed by:
1. A noun in the common case (including substantivized adjectives and participles) or a nominal phrase with a noun.
The fog is thinning.
Science is not omnipotent.
The blue of the sky deepened visibly.
The dying must be left in peace.
From Marlow up to Sonning is even fairer yet.
Four and three is seven.
A great number of trees were felled.
Occasionally a noun in the genitive case is the subject. This may be if a noun denotes someone's place of business or residence, as in:
The grocer's was full.
It may be the result of ellipsis as in:
Jim's was a narrow escape. (= Jim's escape was a narrow one)
The latter type of subject is rather emphatic.
2. A personal pronoun in the nominative case.
I shall do the best I can.
She is very beautiful,
3. Any other noun-pronoun.
Nothing can be done about it.
This is the last straw.
Hers was the final judgement.
One learns by experience.
Who told you this?
4. A numeral (either cardinal or ordinal) or a nominal phrase with a numeral.
Seven cannot be divided by two.
Two of them were left in the camp.
The third was a young man with a dog.
5. An infinitive or an infinitive phrase.
To understand is to forgive.
To deny the past is to deny the future.
6. A gerund or a gerundial phrase.
Talking mends no holes.
Working/or someone keeps a woman calm and contented.
7. An infinitive or a gerundial predicative complex.
For her to fall asleep in broad daylight was not at all usual.
If is walking out of the room in the very middle of the argument was quite unexpected.
8. Any word or words used as quotations.
"And" is a conjunction.
The "how" and the "why" of things never seems to occur to children.
His "How do you do" never sounds cordial enough.
"The War of the Worlds" was first published in 1898.
9. A clause (then called a subject clause), which makes the whole sentence a complex one.
What girls of her sort want is just a wedding ring.
This kind of subject is treated in full in § 147-148.
Grammatical classification of the subject
§ 42. From the point of view of its grammatical value the subject may be either notional or formal.
The notional subject denotes or (if expressed by a pronoun) points out a person or a non-person.
The formal subject neither denotes nor points out any person or non-person and is only a structural element of the sentence filling the position of the subject. Thus a formal subject functions only as a position-filler. In English there are two such position-fillers: it and there.
The notional subject