5.Translate into English. Are the verb forms equal? What is preferable in formal and informal speech?

Он взглянул на часы, как будто торопился. Если бы были какие-то новости, мы бы с тобой связались. Мне бы очень хотелось, чтобы мой сын поступил в университет. Если бы не внезапная болезнь, он бы мог принять участие в соревнованиях. Жаль, что она так рано ушла. Если бы я был на твоем месте, я бы сказал правду. Если бы только сейчас не шел дождь. Я покажу тебе дорогу, чтобы ты не заблудился. Мы предложили, чтобы резолюция была обсуждена по пунктам. Желательно, чтобы конференция была перенесена на следующую неделю. Странно, что они не говорят сейчас по-английски. Было бы глупо с твоей стороны отказаться от этого предложения. Если бы он вел машину осторожнее, несчастного случая не произошло бы. Она обращалась с ним так, как будто он был ребенком. Хорошо, что мы взяли такси; иначе мы бы опоздали на поезд.

Revision tasks for self-control

What does the grammatical category of mood express?

What actions do categorial forms of Indicative, Imperative, Subjunctive represent?

Give account of synthetical and analytical forms expressing unreality in English.

What features of the context are important for the use of the Subjunctive mood? Do verb forms in the Subjunctive show time relationships?

Is ‘unreality’ semantically varied in English? Outline its semantic domain.

TOPIC 4: Syntactic Domain of Grammar

4.1. General remarks on syntactic problems

Morphology is focused on the grammatical form of a word with its categorial features as a part of speech. However, the word itself cannot function alone in a discourse. Being changed grammatically, word-forms are syntagmatically arranged in order to make up a word-phrase and ultimately a sentence as a communicative unit having a certain communicative purpose in a text. Hence, grammatical studies are enlarged by syntax branched as Minor Syntax studying a word-phrase, and Hyper Syntax studying a sentence and a text. Syntactic research is relevant to a number of issues, among them: syntactic connections (relations) and means of their expression in a phrase and a sentence; forms of predication specifying sentence as a predicative syntactic unit; classifying classes of different syntactic units (word-phrase, sentence, text). The syntactic aspect of English presented in terms of the given problems characterizes respectively the syntactic constants of the syntactic level: syntactic relations; syntactic connections; syntactic means; syntactic units; predication or predicative centre.

4.2. Syntagmatic connections in word-groups: types of syntactic relations

Syntactic relations constitute a universal feature and are realized depending on the level of a word-phrase and a sentence. Word-forms having grammatical distinctions form various syntagmatic groupings based on dominational and equipotent connection. Domination is constructed in such a way that finds its realization in the two types: one-way domination and two-way domination. In the one-way domination one constituent is principal, dominating, called a head-word, the other is subordinate, dominated, called an adjunct-word. This structure forms syntactic relations of subordination which falls into the two main divisions: objective subordinate connections; qualifying subordinate connections. The first unites the process with the object – direct (e.g. visit a friend, make a call, attended the conference, answer a question) or indirect (e.g. gave him a gift, will write a letter to a friend, explained the rule to me, brings books for the sister).

Qualifying connections are of attributive and adverbial type. Attributive connections unite a thing with its attribute either restrictive (e.g. an interesting story, a pretty girl, an exciting trip) or non-restrictive (e.g. a young woman, a ten-dollar-note, a wooden box, a blue colour). Adverbial connection is established between the process and its modifiers or adverbial modifiers such as time, place, manner, intensity, result, reason (e.g. is held tomorrow, arrived at the airport, sings beautifully, terribly interesting, too young to smoke, delayed because of the weather). So subordinate relations build up word-groups as secondary parts of the sentence which are otherwise called complements represented by attributes as noun complements, object and adverbial modifiers as verb complements.

The bilateral or two-way domination creates a predicative connection of words occupying the position of subject and predicate by forming predicative syntactic relations, which occur between the process including action, state, feeling and its subject either personal or impersonal (e.g. he is running, they live, we have admired, it rained, it is interesting). Thus predicative relations make up the predication consisting of the principal parts of sentence: subject and predicate and are of the subtypes: Primary Predicative Relations and Secondary Predicative Relations. Primary predication finds its realization in the position of subject and predicate in two-member sentences. Secondary predicative relations are formed by verbals inside infinitival, participial and gerundial complexes: e.g. the nominative absolute participle construction (e.g. We could not go on with the work all the figures being checked. I had to ask for further details, some particulars missing); the objective and subjective with the infinitive/participle constructions (e.g. I want him to study Arts. He is reported to have made a speech at the conference. I saw her crying. They were heard laughing); gerundial complexes (e.g. We insisted on taking the exam on Monday. Can we rely on your assistant’s doing it? It’s no use their complaining about it.)

The third syntagmatic grouping of words is constituted by word-forms related to one another on an equal rank, making up so called equipotent or coordinative combinations. It means that domination is missing and words occupy syntactically equal positions which are expressed either syndetically with conjunctions, prepositions, or asyndetically with punctuation, word order, intonation: e.g. kept silent and listened; met but had no talk; playing, chatting, laughing.

Subordinate, predicative, coordinate syntactic relations determine distinguishing three types of word-phrases: subordinate phrases as binary structures in which one of its constituents is syntactically the leading element originating such subordinate relations as objective, attributive and adverbial modifying; subject and predicate, being explicit or implicit, are united by predicative relations which form predicative phrases; coordinate syntactic relations build up together immediate constituents of coordinate phrases consisting of two or more syntactically equivalent homogeneous elements.