29. Word order

Words in an English sentence are arranged in a certain order, which is fixed for every type of the sentence, and is therefore meaningful. Modern English is characterized by a rigid word-order in accordance with which the subject of declarative sentences, as a rule, precedes the predicate. This is the so-called direct order of words.

The most common pattern for the arrangement of the main parts in a declarative sentence is Subject - Predicate - (Object), which is called direct word order.

An unusual position of any part of the sentence may be treated as inversion in the broad sense of the word. There is 2 structural types of inversion: full (predicate + subject) and partial (auxiliary verb (operator) + subject + notional part).

Functions of WORD ORDER

1. Grammatical:

(1) distinguishing between declarative and

interrogative clauses;

(2) expressing syntactic relations in a clause:

• differentiating between S and O_d:

My brother (S) saw your sister (O_d).

• differentiating between O_i and O_d:

I showed my friend (O_i) that singer (O_d).

• expressing attributive relations:

People here rise early. VS People rise early here.

I found an interesting book. VS

I found the book interesting.

2. Communicative:

• distinguishing between the Given Theme (front position) and the New Rheme (final position) – objective word order;

• linking sentences in a text.

3. Emphatic:

subjective word order – the New precedes the Given (marked Theme bearing the information focus):

Very ill he looked. (C_s—T_N)

Such fine clothes they wore. (O—T_N)

30. Grammatical aspect of the TEXT

In modern linguistics text is considered to be the main unit of linguistic analysis. There used to be a lots of disagreements on the statement of text – whether it is a unit of speech or language. Most agree it is a unit of both. Text is an ordered sequence of sentences combined of various types of logical, lexical and grammatical cohesion conveying structurally organized info. Text is a product of oral and written speech. Galperin recognizes the existence only of written text. TEXT CATEGORIES. The main text category is its integrity or wholeness. It’s realized in the form of semantic, structural and communicative integrity, which correspond to content, form and function. CONTENT/SEMANTIC INTEGRITY. Content is info of the whole of the text. All info is structurally organized into a hierarchy of themes: microthemes, combined into macro themes. STRUCTURE. The arrangement of the text content into a hierarchy of themes determines the structural organization of the text. From the point of view of structure, the text falls into SPUs – the main structural text units. SPU comprises a number of sentences, occasionally there can be 1 sentence, which forms a semantic, structural and communicative unity. SPU – semantic unity, characterized by a common theme. It’s a communicative unity – it possesses a common communicative intention, it’s a structural unity because all the sentences are structurally interdependent. SPUs can differ in their significance: predicative and relative SPUs. Predicative contain more important info, while relative – less important info. Rather large text can be analyzed in terms of hierarchy of SPUs, since there is a hierarchy of themes. There are micro SPUs containing micro themes, and macro SPUs made up of micro SPUs. There are SPU of different order. COMMUNICATIVE INTEGRITY (to inform, to urge). 1) Can be analyzed in terms of hierarchy of communicative intention, which can vary in smaller units, can be super imposed on each other. There is always one communicative intention which dominates. 2) Can be analyzed in terms of functional perspective which is related to the actual division of the sentence but applied to the text level. It carries out text segmentation into themes and rhemes. Маскальская has done this analysis «Грамматика текста». She established that themes and rhemes form strings of different shapes, classified into models. There are 3 such models: linear topical progression T1 – R1 > T2 – R2 > T3 – R3 : a string with a common theme T1 – R1 > T1 – R2 : a number of subordinate theme and rheme segments dependant on the main theme

TEXT INFO – the sphere of stylistic analysis. 3 kinds of info: content-factual, content-conceptual, superlinear or implied. COHESION – necessary property of any text which differentiates it from disconnected utterances. There are various means of text cohesion: syntactic, semantic, stylistic. GALPERIN classifies them into a following way: 1) traditional grammar connectives - conj., pronouns, participial clauses; 2) logical connectives – the use of adverbs (soon, ago); 3) associative cohesion – retrospection, allusion; 5) compositional means – the use of digressions (автор.отступления); 6) stylistic means – repetition; 7) rhythmic means – used in poetry: meter and rhythm. BLOCH: gram.connectives. 1) Conjunction-like connectives – coordinative, subordinative conjunctions and adverbial and parenthetical sentence connectors such as: yet, then, however, moreover. 2) Substitutional connection – use of substitutes: pronouns. CONTINUUM / time and space continuum. It is a continuous series of facts and actions progressing in terms of time and space. Lexical and gram.means of expressing time and space continuum: the use of tense forms and perfect forms. TEXT MODALITY. 2 types: objective – characterizes the content as real or unreal, expressed by gram.means such as the category of mood: subjective – expresses the attitude of the speaker to the content of the text, expressed by structural and stylistic means. RETROSPECTION and PROSPECTION (means of text cohesion). Retrospection refers the reader to the preceding events, prospection – to the following events. INTEGRATION is related to cohesion too, but it’s a broader and more physiological notion. COMPLITION. The author fulfills his/her idea, which is completely expressed, the message is brought home to the reader.