23. Структура простого предложения.
Definition of the sentence:
The ancient. Sentence is a group of words expressing a complete thought. But the thing is there are 2 kinds of word-group:
- the fire was burning
- the burning fire
It is difficult to understand which of them is the sentence and which expresses a complete thought. This definition is not linguistic. It’s logical. It’s not strict and precise enough.
Sentence – is a group of words having a subject and a predicate. This definition is linguistic but it’s not precise again (Happy Birthday! Have a look!).
Леонард Блумфилд: each sentence is an independent linguistic form, not included by value of any gram.construction in any larger linguistic form. On the whole it is correct and gives the opportunity to draw a line between 2 kinds of word groups.
In many cases it DOES help to distinguish a sentence from a non-sentential group of words.
BUT there are some drawbacks:
It is negative
According to it the level of the sentence is thought to be the highest level and the sentence is the highest linguistic form. Nowadays we have supra-prozemic level as a basic unit or the levels of the text and discourse.
THUS, a sentence is a smallest unit of speech expressing a more or less complete thought having a defined grammatical form and intonation of how the statement is connected with reality.
This one points out 4 features:
The semantic completeness
The definiteness of its gram.form
Of its intonation
Its ability to express the connection between the statement and reality.
According to their structure SS are divided into 2-member and 1-member sentences.
2-member sentence is complete when it has a subject and a predicate. When one is missing – elliptical. What were we doing? –Drinking
1-member sentence has only 1 member, which is either subject or predicate. This does not mean that the other member is missing, for the one member makes the sense complete. Used in descriptions and in emotional speech.
(If the main part of a one member sentence is expressed by a noun, the sentence is called nominal. The noun may be modified by attributes.
Dusk – of the summer night.
The main part of a one member sentence is often expressed by an infinitive.
To die out there – lonely, waiting them, waiting home.)
SS can be
unextended (consisting only of the primary or principal parts). Birds fly.
extended (consisting of the subject, a predicate and one or more secondary parts: objects, attributes or adverbial modifiers). This big girl is a student.
In lexicology we used to deal with semes as components of the word semantic structure.
In grammar there’s a certain role of complex elements such as a word combination, a phrase, sentence, a paragraph, etc. Each element has a structure of its own, that is interconnected with other levels of the linguistic system.
There are two axes of relations – syntagmatic and paradigmatic.
The English scholar defines the structure of a linguistic unit as such: it is a syntagmatic framework of interrelated elements, paradigmatically established in systems of classes.
From this aspect the structure of the sentence may be understood as a sequence of interrelated elements, paradigmatically established in various parts of the sentence.
There’s the question about the criteria that can prove to be a reliable basis for establishing parts of the sentence.
Смирницкий – 2 criteria:
The kind of a syntactic relation between the parts of the sentence. There are 4 kinds of syntactic relations.
The relations between the doer and the action. (The president arrives. The president’s arrival).
Between the action and its object (They delivered the mail. The mail’s delivery).
Between the action and its circumstances (delivered in the morning. The morning delivery).
Between a person and a property (the scenery was beautiful. The beautiful scenery).
The criterion alone isn’t sufficient, because one and the same kind of relation is reflected both in different parts of the sentence and the components of the phrase.
The character of the syntactic bond between the parts of the sentence.
The predicative syntactic bond. It makes a sentence and is found between the subject and the predicate.
The non-predicative syntactic bond, which is subdivided:
Complimentary – between the predicate and the object and the predicate and the adverbial modifier.
Attributive – forms an attributive word combination as a part of the sentence.
The main parts of the sentence are those that take part in expressing predicativity which makes a sentence. Predicativity - relation of what has been said about objects and phenomena of real life. But sometimes a sentence cannot exist without some secondary parts. (Не went. He struck. No object ->incorrect.)
Another approach: in order to differentiate between those parts that are indispensable for the structure of the sentence and those that can be omitted it’s possible to devide them into 2 groups:
Basic (the subject + the predicate + something else)
Optional – which a sentence may have or not.
The basis of difference between the basic and optional parts is their ability to form the semantic syntactic minimum of the sentence/
But it is better to rely on predicativity – thus there are main parts and secondary parts.
The principal parts of the sentence: the subject & the predicate.
The subject sometimes defined as a word or a group of words that denote a person or the thing spoken of in the sentence. But it’s not complete and old.
Ильиш said that the definition must contain at least 3 items:
The meaning of this or that part of the sentence
Its syntactic relations with other parts of speech
Its morphological manifestation.
The Subject is one of the 2 main parts of sentence, it denotes the thing whose action or characteristics is expressed by the predicate and it’s not dependent on any other part of the sentence.
It can be expressed by different parts of speech. The most frequent – a noun in the common case, a demonstrative pronoun occasionally, a substantivized adjective, a numeral, infinitive and a gerund.
BUT
Pr. Блох: it’s not fully independent part of the sentence – the thing is between the subject and the predicate those don’t exist without each other. The subject is the person modifier of a predicate.
Classification.
Бархударов divided subjects into 2 groups:
A simple subject that consists of one part but not one word.
A compound subject that consists of 2 parts, one of them is purely structural (anticipatory “it”, introductory “there”) and the other is notional.
The Predicate.
Ильиш: The predicate is one of two main parts of the sentence, it denotes the action or property of the thing denoted by the subject. It’s not dependent on any other parts of speech.
BUT
Pr. Блох: it’s not fully independent part of the sentence – the thing is between the subject and the predicate those don’t exist without each other. The predicate is the process modifier of a subject.
Classification.