13.The structure of the simple sentence in English.

Sentence is the integral unit of speech, consisting of words and distinguished by a certain communicative purpose .

The sentence is a structural and semantic unity and unit which names a real life situation and communicates a definite message.

Sentences may be classified according to the number of predicative units: simple, composite.

Simple sentences are monopredicative syntactic constructions, formed by only one predicative line, while composite sentences are polypredicative syntactic construction, formed by two or more predicative lines , each with a subject and a predicate of its own.

The most basic type of sentence is the simple sentence, which contains only one clause. A simple sentence can be as short as one word: Run!

Usually, however, the sentence has a subject as well as a predicate and both the subject and the predicate may have modifiers. All of the following are simple sentences, because each contains only one clause:

Examples:

I am running.

This simple sentence has one independent clause which contains one subject, I, and one predicate, running.

The girl ran into her bedroom.

This simple sentence has one independent clause which contains one subject, girl, and one predicate, ran into her bedroom. This example is distinct from the previous in that its verb phrase consists of more than one word.

In the backyard, the dog barked and howled at the cat.

This simple sentence has one independent clause which contains one subject, dog, and one predicate, barked and howled at the cat. This predicate has two verbs, known as a compound

predicate: barked and howled. This compound verb should not be confused with a compound sentence. In the backyard and at the cat are prepositional phrases.

As you can see, a simple sentence can be quite long -- it is a mistake to think that you can tell a simple sentence from a compound sentence or a complex sentence simply by its length.

The most natural sentence structure is the simple sentence: it is the first kind which children learn to speak, and it remains by far the most common sentence in the spoken language of people of all ages. In written work, simple sentences can be very effective for grabbing a reader's attention or for summing up an argument, but you have to use them with care: too many simple sentences can make your writing seem childish.

When you do use simple sentences, you should add transitional phrases to connect them to the surrounding sentences.

20. Comments on units of language and their levels .

Language is a system of units which are usually divided into segmental and super-segmental units.

Segmental units include phonemes syllables, morphemes, words, phrases and sentences.

Super-segmental units don't exist by themselves. They are actualized together with segmental units.Super-segmental units include accent, intonation patterns, patterns of word order and pauses.

There are the following linguistic units: phoneme, morpheme, word, word-group, sentences, text. The basic linguistic unit is a word. Main units of grammar are a word and a sentence. A word may be divided into morphemes, a sentence may be divided into phrases(word-groups). A morpheme, a word, a phrase and a sentence are units of different levels of language structure. A unit of a higher level consists of one or more units of a lower level.

Taking into consideration segmental units any language may be represented as a hierarchy of levels. A level can be defined as a subsystem of language which present a totality of homogeneous units and a set of rules regulating their use and classification. Language structure consist of three main domains: phonetics, lexicon and grammar which are subdivided and form such levels:

1. Phonemic (phonological)

2. Мorphemic and Lexemic (morphological)

3. Phrasemic and sentential (syntactical)

4. Suprasentential (supersyntactical/ text).

The 1-th level is formed by phonemes, the smallest material lingual elements. The phoneme has no meaning. Its function is purely differential: it differentiates morphemes and words. Ex.: bad – bed

The basic unit of the morphemic level is the morpheme. The morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of language. It is built up by phonemes, so that shortest morpheme includes only one phoneme. The morpheme expresses abstract, significative meanings, which are used as constituents for the formation of more concrete, nominative meanings of words.

The third level in the hierarchy is the level of words, or lexemic level. The word, as different from the morphemes, is a directly naming (nominative) unit of language: it names things and their relations. Since words are built up by morphemes, the shortest words consist of one explicit morpheme. Ex.: man, will, but, etc.

The next higher level is the level of phrases (word groups), or phrasemic level. To phrases belong combinations of two or more notional words. These combinations, like separating words, having a nominative function. Like words phrases are naming units, but unlike words they name more complicated phenomena. Ex.: a picturesque village; to start with a jerk.

Above the phrasemic level lays the level of sentence, or proposemes level. The sentence is the smallest communicative unit of the language. We can express our thoughts only with the help of sentences. Naming a certain situation, the sentence expresses predication, i.e. shows the relation of the denoted event to reality. It shows whether this event is real or unreal, desirable or obligatory, stated as a truth or asked about, etc.

In this sense, as different from the word and the phrase, the sentence is a predicative unit.

The sentence is not the highest unit of language in the hierarchy of levels. There is still another one the level of sentence - groups, supra- proposemic level. It is a combination of separate sentences forming a textual unity. The minimal text consists of at least 2 sentences which are thematically connected with each other.