III. Do the following assignments

Ex. 1. Define the kinds of attributive clauses. Translate them into Ukrainian.

1. What we are interested in, as author and reader, is the fact that publishing in England is now an integral part of business. (Fox)

2. He took after his blond father, who had been a painter. (Murdoch)

3. He was suddenly reminded of the crumpled money he had snatched from the table and burned in the sink. (Caldwell)

4. Georgie, who is now twenty-six, had been an undergraduate at Cambridge, where she had taken a degree in economics. (Murdoch)

5. I hardly know why I came to the conclusion that you don’t consider it an altogether fortunate attachment. (Pinero)

6. He walked to the window and stood there looking at the winter night, that had finally come upon them. (Caldwell)

7. I went upstairs to lie down and fell into the most profound and peaceful sleep, that I had experienced for a long time.

8. Rosa had the feeling that she was both recognized and expected. (Murdoch).

Ex. 2. Consider the following complex sentences with attributive clauses. Comment on their structure and meaning. Translate them into Ukrainian.

1. Will you show me the new books you’ve bought?

2. The flat they lived in was not very imposing, but it was quiet and well located.

3. There is no reason why you couldn’t come round with the others.

4. The photo showed a face that was pretty commonplace.

5. Fascinated we watched the sunset, whose molten gold was slowly spreading over the silent sea.

6. She held the pencil that was freshly sharpened and ready to go.

7. And you have assumed this from a mere fact that I called up Mr. Connoly?

8. I was introduced to Mr. Wren, whom I found clever and sympathetic.

9. The strain, under which she was labouring, showed itself in the red patches on her cheeks.

10. He who needs help will be wise to find him who can give it.

11. That was the hotel where they accommodated the coming participants of the congress.

12. We who are perfect outsiders should have been duly warned about the idiosyncrasies of which the professor was referring in his yesterday’s lecture.

13. The day when I met Linda, as you see her on this picture, will never fade from my memory.

Seminars 5-6 The Principal Parts of the Sentence

I. Questions for discussion.

1. General characteristic of the principal and secondary parts of the sentence.

2. Grammatical c1ssification of the subject:

1. the notional subject and the way it is expressed in English

2. the formal subject and the way it is expressed in English

3. The predicate. Structural classification of the predicate:

a) the simple verbal predicate;

b) the simple nominal predicate;

c) the compound verbal predicate;

d) the compound nominal predicate;

e) the double predicate.

4. Agreement of the predicate with the subject.

II. The material to be read for the seminar

Traditionally the subject and the predicate are regarded as the principal parts of the sentence and attribute, object, adverbial modifier and apposition as the secondary parts of the sentence. The opposition principal-secondary is justified by the difference in their function – the subject and the predicate make the predication and constitute the structural and semantic basis of the sentence, the secondary parts serve to expand it by being added to the words of predication in accordance with their combinability. The subject is grammatically independent of any other part of the sentence. The subject denotes the thing (in the widest sense of the word) characterized by the predicate as to its action, state or quality. The subject is the independent member of a two-member predication, containing the person component of predicativity. It can denote a living being, a lifeless thing or an idea.

The subject in English can be treated from different points of view and classified into different subgroups.

1. Grammatical classification of the subject. From the point of view of their grammatical value subjects can be divided into notional and formal. The notional subject denotes a person or non-person and is expressed by a noun in the common case, by a pronoun, by a numeral, by a substantivized adjective or participle, by an infinitive or an infinitive phrase, by a gerund or gerundial phrase, by any other word when it is substantivized, by a syntactical word-combination.

From the point of view of its structure the notional subject can be:

1. simple (expressed by a noun, pronoun, adjective, numeral, infinitive, gerund;

2. phrasal (expressed by a phrase: e.g. a lot of students, cousin Peter);

3. clausal (expressed by a whole clause);

4. complex (expressed by an infinitival, gerundial or participal complex).

In Modern English there are two main types of notional subject that stand in opposition to each other in terms of content. From the point of view of their content subjects can be classified into definite and indefinite. Definite subjects denote a concrete person, thing, process. Indefinite subjects denote:

a) an indefinite group of people,

b) any person,

e) people in general.

Such subjects have a vague and general meaning and are expressed by the pronouns you, we, they, one: 1. You must be careful while crossing the street. 2. One must do one’s duty with the sense of responsibility. 3. They say this film is worth seeing.

The formal subject is of two kinds: the subject it and the subject there. The formal subject expressed by “it” is found in two patterns of sentences: with impersonal “it” (in impersonal sentences where it does not indicate any person or thing and is purely a grammatical formal subject: 1. It’s winter. 2. It’s cold. 3. It is raining.) and the formal subject “it” is anticipatory if it introduces the notional subject expressed by an infinitive or gerund: 1. It is interesting to learn English. 2. It is no use speaking about this incident now.

Sentences with the formal subject “there”, which introduces a notional subject, are called existential as they serve to assert or deny the existence of something. In such sentences the predicate verb is usually the verb to be; occasionally some other verbs are found, such as to live, to occur, to come etc., which, similiarly to the verb to be, indicate “to exist” or have the meaning of “to come into existence”. Thus the sentences of this kind have two subjects – the formal subject “there” and the notional subject which is expressed by a noun, pronoun, gerund: 1. There were many flowers in the garden. 2. There was nobody in the room. 3. There was no arguing that evening.

The predicate is the second principal part of the sentence which expresses an action, state or quality of a person or non-person denoted by the subject. It agrees with the subject in person and number and has a definite grammatical structure: 1) simple, that is, expressed by one word-form (synthetic or analytical) and 2) compound (expressed by more than one word-form of verbal or non-verbal nature).Thus today there are the following predicates in English:

1. The simple nominal predicate, expressed by a noun, an adjective or a verbal, shows the incompatability of the idea expressed by the subject and the idea expressed by the predicate. As N.A.Kobrina points out, “there is an implied negation in the meaning of the simple nominal predicate”: 1. Peter, a lawyer! 2. My suggestions absurd! 3. He lying!

2. The simple verbal predicate expresses an action performed (active voice) or suffered (passive voice) by the subject, and it usually has synthetic or analytical forms: 1. He listens to the radio every day. 2. They will spend their holidays at the seaside.

3. The compound nominal predicate denotes a certain state or quality of the subject. It consists of a predicative, expressed by a noun, pronoun, numeral, adjective, adverb, infinitive, gerund or participle, and a link verb to be or to become, to grow, to turn, to remain, to keep, to look, to appear, to seem, to sound, to smell: 1. The weather was cold. 2. He grew red. 3. Peter remained silent. 4. The milk tasted sour. 4. Lena looked sad.

4. The compound verbal predicate consists of two parts: notional and semi-auxiliary. The notional part, expressed by and infinitive or gerund, denotes the action performed or suffered by the subject. The semi-auxiliary part comprises a modal verb or a finite verb which imparts by its lexical meaning a modal or aspective character to the action demoted by the infinitive or the gerund. The compound verbal predicate is of two types: the compound verbal aspective predicate (1. She began to write poems last year. 2. He kept asking her difficult questions) and the compound verbal modal predicate, which shows whether the action expressed by an infinitive is looked upon as possible, impossible, obligatory, necessary or desirable. It consists of a modal part and an infinitive and denotes the attitude of a person or non-person, expressed by the subject, to the action. The semi-auxiliary part is expressed by a modal verb (must, can, should and so on) or a modal expression (to be able, to be allowed, to be willing): 1. You must study well. 2. Lena can run quickly. 3. They were able to cope with a difficult task in time.

5. The double predicate presents the crossing of two predicates – the simple verbal predicate and the compound nominal predicate: He lived a coachman at Mrs. Reed’s place. Thus in this sentence we have a double predicate which consists of a simple verbal predicate and a compound nominal predicate: He lived a coachman Mrs. Reed’s place = He was a coachman when he lived at Mrs. Reed’s place.

The predicate always agrees with the subject in person and number – a singular noun-subject requires a singular verb-predicate, a plural noun-subject requires a plural verb-predicate.