5. Predication as a fundamental distinguishing feature of the sentence.

The definition of the category of predication is similar to the definition of the category of modality, which also shows a connection between the named objects and actual reality. However, modality is a broader category, revealed not only in grammar, but in the language; for example, various modal meanings are expressed by modal verbs (can, may, must), by word-particles of specifying modal semantics (just, even, would-be), by semi-functional modal words and phrases of subjective evaluation (perhaps, unfortunately, by all means) and by other lexical units. Predication can be defined as syntactic modality, expressed by the sentence.

The center of predication in the sentence is the finite form of the verb, the predicate: it is through the finite verb’s categorial forms of tense, mood, and voice that the main predicative meanings are expressed. L. Tesnière (Люсьєн Теньєр), who introduced the term “valency” in linguistics, described the verbal predicate as the core around which the whole sentence structure is organized according to the valencies of the predicate verb. He subdivided all verbal complements and supplements into so-called “actants”, elements that identify the participants in the process, and “circonstants”, or elements that identify the circumstances of the process [1].

Besides the predicate, other elements of the sentence also help express predication: for example, word order, various functional words and, in oral speech, intonation. In addition to verbal time and mood evaluation, the predicative meanings of the sentence include the purpose of communication (declaration – interrogation – inducement), affirmation and negation and other meanings.

To some extent, the nomination of situational events can be realized by expanded nominal phrases. Between the sentence and the substantive phrase of situational semantics direct transformations are possible. The transformation of a sentence into a nominal phrase is known as “nominalization”: His father arrived unexpectedly - his father’s unexpected arrival, the unexpected arriving of his father. When a sentence is transformed into a substantive phrase, or “nominalized”, it loses its processual-predicative character. This, first, supports once again the idea that the content of the sentence is a unity of two mutually complementary aspects: of the nominative aspect and the predicative aspect; and, second, this specifies the definition of predication: predication should be interpreted not simply as referring the content of the sentence to reality, but as referring the nominative content of the sentence to reality.

[1] L. Tesnière metaphorically described the predicate as a “small drama”, in which the participants are “the actors”.

6. The notion of actual division of the sentence

Besides the nominative aspect of the semantics of the sentence, which reflects the situation named with its various components, the sentence expresses predicative semantics, which reflects various relations between the nominative content of the sentence and reality. One of the first attempts to analyze linguistically the communicative semantics of the sentence was undertaken by the scholars of the Prague Lingistic Circle at the beginning of the 20th century. The Czech linguist Vilém Mathesius was the first to describe the informative value of different parts of the sentence in the actual process of communication, making the informative perspective of an utterance and showing which component of the situation is informationally more important from the point of view of the speaker. This linguistic theory is known as the functional analysis of the sentence, the communicative analysis, the actual division analysis, or the informative perspective analysis.

The main components of the actual division of a sentence are the theme and the rheme. The theme (originally called “the basis” by V. Mathesius) is the starting point of communication, a thing or a phenomenon about which something is reported in the sentence; it usually contains some old, “already known” information. The rheme (originally called “the nucleus” by V. Mathesius) is the informative part of the sentence, its contextually relevant communicative center, the “peak” of communication; it usually contains some new information. The rheme is the obligatory informative component of a sentence, there may be sentences which include only the rheme; the theme is optional.

The theory of actual division of the sentence is connected with the logical analysis of the proposition. The principal parts of the proposition are the logical subject and the logical predicate; these two parts correlate with the theme and the rheme of the sentence respectively. Logical analysis deals with the process of thinking and the actual division reveals the corresponding lingual means in the process of communication [1].

The logical subject and the logical predicate, like the theme and the rheme, may or may not coincide with the subject and the predicate of the sentence. When the actual division of the sentence reflects the natural flow of thinking directed from the starting point of communication to its semantic core, from the logical subject to the logical predicate, then the theme precedes the rheme and this type of actual division is called “direct”, “unspecialized”, or “unmarked”. In English, with its fixed word order, direct actual division means that the theme coincides with the subject in the syntactic structure of the sentence, while the rheme coincides with the predicate of the sentence, as in Charlie is late. - Charlie (theme) is late (rheme). In some sentences, the rheme may be expressed by the subject and it may precede the theme, which is expressed by the predicate, e.g.: Who is late today? – Charlie (rheme) is late (theme). This type of actual division is called “inverted”, “reverse”, “specialized”, or “marked”. The last example shows that actual division of the sentence finds its full expression only in a concrete context of speech.

The connection between word order and actual division has been described above: direct actual division usually means that the theme coincides with the subject in the syntactic structure of the sentence, while the rheme coincides with the predicate. Inverted word order can indicate inverted actual division, though the correlation is not obligatory. For example: There was a box. Inside the box was a microphone; the adverbial modifier of place at the beginning of the sentence expresses the theme, while the subject at the end of the utterance is the rheme; the word order in this sentence is inverted, though its actual division is direct. Reversed order of actual division, i.e. the positioning of the rheme at the beginning of the sentence, is connected with emphatic speech, e.g.: Off you go! What a nice little girl she is!

Constructions with the introducer ‘there’ identify the subject of the sentence as the rheme, while the theme (usually it is an adverbial modifier of place) is shifted to the end of the utterance, e.g.: There is a book on the table. The actual division of such sentences is reverse without any emotive connotations expressed. Cf.: The book is on the table; in this sentence both the word order and the actual division are direct: the subject is the theme of the sentence.

Emphatic identification of the rheme expressed by various nominative parts of the sentence (except for the predicate) is achieved by constructions with the anticipatory ‘it’, e.g.: It is Charlie who is late; It was back in 1895 that Popov invented radio.

The opposed nominative parts of the sentence are marked as rhematic in sentences with contrastive complexes, e.g.: Charlie, not John, is absent today.

Articles and other determiners, in accord with their either identifying or generalizing semantics, are used to identify the informative part “already known“, the theme (definite determiners) or the “not yet known” information, the rheme (indefinite determiners). E.g.: The man (theme) appeared unexpectedly. – A man (rheme) appeared. But this correlation is not obligatory, because the theme is not always the information already known; it may be something about which certain information is given, so, the indefinite article may be used with the theme too, e.g.: A voice called Mary.

Various intensifying particles, such as only, just, merely, namely, at least, rather than, even, precisely, etc., identify the nominative part of the sentence before which they are used as the rheme, e.g.: Only Charlie is late today. Similar is the function of the intensifying auxiliary verb ‘do’, which turns the predicate into the rheme of the sentence, while the rest of the predicate group is turned into the transition or even the theme, e.g.: I did help your sister (cf.: I helped your sister).

The major lingual means of actual division of the sentence is intonation, especially the stress which identifies the rheme; it is traditionally defined as “logical accent” or “rhematic accent”. Intonation is universal and inseparable from the other means of actual division described above, especially from word-order patterns: in cases of direct actual division the logical stress is focused on the last notional word in the sentence in the predicate group, identifying it as the informative center of the sentence; in cases of reverse actual division, the logical stress may indicate the rheme at the beginning of the utterance, e.g.: Charlie (theme) is late (logical accent, rheme). - Charlie (logical accent, rheme) is late (theme). In written speech the logical accent is represented by all the other rheme-identifying lingual means, which indicate its position directly or indirectly. They can be technically supported by special graphical means of rheme-identification, such as italics, bold type, underlinings, etc.

[1] The proponents of the psychological approach in linguistics (H. Paul, F. F. Fortunatov and others) also distinguish “the psychological subject” and “the psychological predicate”.