1. Direct word order

Word order in English is of much greater importance than in Russian. Due to the wealth of inflexions word order in Russian is rather free as the inflexions show the function of each word in a sentence. As English words have hardly any inflexions and their relation to each other is shown by their place in the sentence and not by their form, word order in English is fixed. We cannot change the position of different parts of the sentence at will, especially that of the subject and the object. Changing its place in a sentence, the English word, as a rule, changes its syntactic functions, thus changing the meaning of the sentence:

The parents punished the boy. The boy punished the parents.

Due to the absence of case distinctions word order is practically the only means of distinguishing between the subject and the direct object.

The direct word order in English is as [Каушанская, 2006]:

1. the subject;

2. the predicate;

3. objects;

4. adverbial modifier.

The pattern has the following form [Kobrina, 1999]:

S ubject - Predicate -

Indirect object - Direct object Direct object - Prepositional object

The birds have come.

Ann has seen this film.

The boy gave me no answer.

The boy gave no answer to me.

Inversion occurs when the predicate is placed before the subject.

We distinguish full inversion (when the predicate precedes the subject, as in Here comes the lady of the house) and partial inversion (when only part of the predicate precedes the subject, as in Happy may you be!). Some grammarians also distinguish double inversion (when parts of the predicate are placed separately before the subject, as in Hanging on the wall was a picture) [Kobrina, 1999].

2. Inverted word order

The order of words in which the subject is placed after the predicate is called inverted order or inversion:

e.g. Haven’t you any family?

Certain types of sentences require the inverted order of words. Inversion is used to distinguish between the communicative types of sentences [Kobrina, 1999]. These are:

a) General questions, polite requests and in tag questions.

Is it really true?

Won’t you have a cup of tea?

You are glad to see me, aren’t you?

b) Pronominal questions (special questions), except questions to the subject and its attribute, where direct word order is used.

What are the police after?

c) There-sentences with the introductory non-­local there, followed by one of the verbs denoting existence, movement, or change of the situation:

There has been an accident.

There is nothing in it.

There appeared an ugly face over the fence.

d) Exclamatory sentences expressing wish, despair, indignation, or other strong emotions.

Long live the king!

e) Exclamatory sentences which are negative in form but positive in meaning.

Have I not watched them! (= I have watched them.)

Wouldn’t that be fun! (= It would be fun.)

f) Negative imperative sentences.

Don’t you do it.

Lecture 12.

The compound sentence and the complex sentence

THE COMPOSITE SENTENCE

The composite sentence is a sentence consisting of two or more clauses. In its structure a clause is similar to a simple sentence, but unlike a simple sentence it forms part of a bigger syntactical unit.

Within a composite sentence clauses may be joined by means of coordination or subordination, thus forming a compound or a complex sentence respectively.

Coordination is a way of linking grammatical elements to make them equal in rank.

Subordination is a way of linking grammatical elements that makes one of them dependent upon the other (or they are mutually dependent):

The door of Henry’s lunch-room opened, and two men came in.

I have come to you, because I know from reading your accounts that you are Mr Sherlock Holme’s most intimate acquaintance.