Синтаксис английского языка от слова к тексту = A Students’ Guide to English Syntax from Word to Discourse. Учебное пособие

A general outline of syntax

Syntactic meaning is the way in which separate word meanings are combined to produce meaningful word-groups and sentences.

Green ideas sleep furiously. This sentence is quite correct grammatically, however it makes no sense as it lacks syntactic meaning.

Syntactic form is the pattern of the unit.

John hit the man – N1 + V + N2.

Syntactic function is the function of a unit on the basis of which it is included to a larger unit: in the word-group a smart student the word ‘smart’ is in subordinate attributive relations to the head element. In traditional terms it is used to denote syntactic function of a unit within the sentence (subject, predicate, etc.).

Syntactic position is the place of a syntactic element which determines its relationship with the other elements of the same unit. The order of constituents in syntactic units is of great importance in analytical languages. Cf. to go back, his broad back, a back street, to back smb.

Syntactic relations are syntagmatic relations observed between syntactic units. They can be of three types – coordination (relations of independence), subordination (relations of dependence) and predication (relations of interdependence).

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CHAPTER I

SIMPLE SENTENCE AS A MONOPREDICATIVE

CONSTRUCTION

1.1. STRUCTURAL TYPES OF A SIMPLE SENTENCE

A sentence is a unit of the language,which serves as the chief means of conveying a thought or an idea in the process of communication. A sentence does not only name a situational event, but also establishes a certain connection between this situation and objective reality (i.e. expresses predication) and shows the speaker’s attitude to it (i.e. expresses modality).

The simple sentence is a monopredicative construction: it has only one predicative line (the combination of the subject and the predicate).

This combination can be of three main types:

1.One subject + one predicate: We are students of the faculty of foreign languages.

2.One subject + several predicates: At the lesson we do exercises, read texts and discuss them all together.

3.Several subjects + one predicate: The professor and her students are having a grammar lesson now.

The classification of simple sentences is based on two principles:

1)according to the purpose of the utterance (see 1.3); 2) according to the structure.

According to their structure simple sentences are classified on different grounds:

I. According to the presence of the principal parts they are divided into two-member and one-member sentences.

A two-member sentence has two principal parts – both the subject and the predicate.

e.g. Mary laughed heartily at the joke.

A two-member sentence may be complete or incomplete. It is complete when it has the subject and the predicate.

e.g. John is clever.

It is incomplete when one of the principal parts or both of them are missing, but can be easily understood and restored from the context. Such sentences are called elliptical.

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Chapter I. Simple sentence as a monopredicative construction

e.g. Don’t know anything about it. Who lives there? – Jack.

Ellipsis usually occurs in replies, consequently, it is a typical feature of conversation and informal speech.

A one-member sentence is a sentence having only one principal part which is either the subject or the predicate.

They are subdivided into three main groups:

1.Nominal (only the subject is present): Silence. Summer. Midnight.

2.Verbal (the predicate in the imperative mood is present): Come here! Listen to me attentively, kids!

3.Miscellaneous group which includes conversational formulas, greetings, farewells, formulas of politeness, interjections, yes/no sentences, etc.: Cheers! Oh my! Only to think of it!

II. Simple sentences, both two-member and one-member, can be unextended and extended. A sentence consisting only of the primary or principal parts is called an unextended sentence.

e.g. I am a student. They laughed.

An extended sentence is a sentence consisting of the subject, the predicate and one or more secondary parts (objects, attributes, or adverbial modifiers).

e.g. A far-away star sparkled brilliantly in the velvety sky like a tiny diamond.

NB! Also such aspect of the sentence should be considered important as the presence or absence of negation. From this point of view simple sentences are either affirmative or negative.

There are several ways of expressing negation which will be considered in the following chapter.

1.2. WAYS OF EXPRESSING NEGATION

Negation is a language universal, found in all known languages. The function of negation is fairly straight-forward: it negates parts of the sentence or the entire sentence.

Formally we distinguish absolute negation (used alone) from syntactic negation (related to a statement).

The absolute negation is expressed by no (contrasted with yes) which constitute a special group of functional words: they are two alternative answers to general questions.

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Ю. М. СЕРГЕЕВА, И. О. СЫРЕСИНА. СИНТАКСИС АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА: ОТ СЛОВА К ТЕКСТУ

YULIA SERGEEVA, IRINA SYRESINA. A STUDENTS’ GUIDE TO ENGLISH SYNTAX: FROM WORD TO DISCOURSE

No sometimes constitutes the whole of the responsive utterance (hence the name “absolute” negative), but genuinely absolute occurrences are not numerous. They appear in situations where the negative answer is abrupt, decisive and final:

e.g. Are we at the top? No. Are we going to the top? No!

(The second speaker is obviously annoyed by the first speaker’s questions).

In most cases no serves to introduce a fuller response, expanding and supporting a negative sentence:

e.g. No, said Tom. That would not be a good plan.

Followed by affirmative statement no expresses contrast: e.g. Hallo, Piglet! he said. I thought you were out.

No, said Piglet, it’s you who were out.

NB! In the above stated examples No is a one-member sentence from the miscellaneous group.

Syntactic negation can bear upon a separate word within a sentence (constituent or local negation) or a sentence on the whole (sentential negation). An affirmative sentence can be made negative by applying various morphological and lexical means.

The most common way is the addition of a particle “not” to an auxiliary verb, a link verb, or a modal verb:

e.g. I haven’t read this book yet.

You are not a student of the State University of Education, are you? The question cannot be solved without being considered from

different points of view.

NB! Negation can be applied not just to the whole verb phrases or sentences, but also to specific elements within sentences: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs and phrases with them. In English we generally place not before the negated element, as in the following examples:

I witnessed not a debate, but a war.

In not many years will Christmas fall on Sunday. They live not far from here.

Not all of the students take part in extracurricular activities.

Negative pronouns are frequently used for this purpose. They are noun substitutes nobody, no one, none, nothing and adjective substitute no.

e.g. There were no newspapers left in the news-stand by one o’clock.

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Chapter I. Simple sentence as a monopredicative construction

Nobody came to the house for several days. None of my friends live near us.

You make a sentence negative by using the following negative adverbs: nowhere, never, in no way, by no means.

e.g. This rare book is nowhere to be found.

Other exponents of negation are negative conjunctions nor, neither, neither … nor:

e.g. He didn’t greet me in the hallway. Nor did he cast a glance in my direction.

Being too small the child can neither read nor write.

Preposition without is another marker of negation: e.g. Jane left the shop without buying anything.

For expressing negation we can also use a number of negative affixes: a) prefixes: un-, dis-, in-, il-, a-, non-, mis-; b) suffix: -less.

NB! You are not to multiply the exponents of negation.When two (or more) expressions of negation are used in the same sentence,the negative element is used only once, with the first word capable of having it:

e.g.: No one has taken any notice of my absence. Nothing ever happens.

Never before has anyone done me such a favour. He never comes to any harm.

I suppose that is not any good either.

One more point needs to be mentioned in connection with sentence negation, namely the existence of semi-negative sentences or sentences with hidden negation. They are sentences that lack any of the above mentioned explicit exponents of negation, hence they are formally affirmative. But their semantics appears to be covertly negative, which can be proved by some simple transformations:

e.g. There is hardly anything difficult about this topic.– There is nothing difficult about this topic. At least, I don’t think there is anything difficult about this topic.

Our son is too young to live all by himself.– Our son is still young and as a result he cannot live all by himself.

Agnes was absent from class yesterday.– Agnes was not present in class yesterday. She didn’t come to school yesterday.

Jake has failed his grammar exam for the second time in a row! – Jake has not passed his grammar exam with a satisfactory grade again.

Still all those sentences are formally affirmative and thus they should be classified as such.

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Ю. М. СЕРГЕЕВА, И. О. СЫРЕСИНА. СИНТАКСИС АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА: ОТ СЛОВА К ТЕКСТУ

YULIA SERGEEVA, IRINA SYRESINA. A STUDENTS’ GUIDE TO ENGLISH SYNTAX: FROM WORD TO DISCOURSE

The case of double negation means that two negative exponents used in one statement express affirmation and can in fact be replaced by another word of synonymous meaning but positive in form.

e.g. It is not as uncomfortable as I expected it to be.– It turned out to be quite comfortable.

She cannot pass a shop without buying something.– She always comes into a shop to buy something.

However, the “positive” reading of the sentence is only on the semantic level; syntactically we are still dealing with a negative sentence, as is seen by applying tag questions:

It is not as uncomfortable as I expected it to be, is it?

She cannot pass a shop without buying something, can she?

1.3.FUNCTIONAL TYPES OF A SIMPLE SENTENCE

1.3.1.Pragmatic approach to lingual studies. The theory of speech acts

Speaking a language is engaging in a rule-governed form of behavior. To put it more briskly, talking is performing acts according to rules.

John Searle

The term “pragmatics” was first introduced by Charles Morris (1901–1979), an American semiotician and philosopher, who contrasts pragmatics with syntax and semantics. He claims that syntax is the study of the grammatical relations of linguistic units to one another, semantics is the study of the relation of linguistic units to the objects they denote, while pragmatics is the study of the relation of linguistic units to people who communicate.

Every utterance combines a propositional component (objective part) with the pragmatic component (subjective part). An utterance with the same propositional content may have different pragmatic components which reflect communicative intentions of the speaker. For instance, the sentence It is cold here can be interpreted in several ways: (a) just mentioning of the fact; (b) explanation of the current situation; (c) excuse; (d) inducement to do something about it; (e) regret.

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Chapter I. Simple sentence as a monopredicative construction

According to the communicative intention sentences may be classified into different pragmatic types, i.e. constatives, directives, questions, performatives, promises and menaces. The speaker and the hearer share knowledge of how to identify and classify a sentence as a particular type according to some constitutive syntactic and pragmatic rules and situational context.

Consequently, we use the language as an instrument for our purposes producing different speech acts. Speech acts are things people do through language – prohibiting, apologizing, congratulating, menacing, instructing, explaining something, etc.

The term “speech act” was coined by a British philosopher John Langshaw Austin (1911–1960), the leading proponent of the theory of speech acts. His ideas of language were set out in a series of lectures which he gave at Oxford and later at Harvard and then published under the title “How to do Things with Words” (1955).

Austin pointed out that we use language to do things as well as to assert things, hence some utterances are not statements or questions but actions. He reached this conclusion through an analysis of what he termed performative verbs. Let us consider the following sentences:

I pronounce you man and wife.

I apologize for interrupting your conversation. I bet you 10 dollars it will rain tonight.

The peculiar thing about these sentences is that they are not used to describe (or constate) things, but rather to perform a certain action and to change the situation. That is why Austin termed them as performatives and contrasted them to statements (constatives). Thus by pronouncing a performative utterance the speaker is performing an action.

The performative utterances, however, can really change things only under certain circumstances required for their success which Austin specified as felicity conditions. Only a priest (or a person with corresponding power) can make a couple a husband and a wife. Besides, it must be done before witnesses and the couple getting married must sign the register. If anything goes wrong in connection with the performative utterance it is, as he puts it, infelicitous or unhappy rather than false.

According to J.L. Austin performatives may be explicit and implicit as in the sentences:

I apologize.– I shall be there tomorrow.

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Ю. М. СЕРГЕЕВА, И. О. СЫРЕСИНА. СИНТАКСИС АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА: ОТ СЛОВА К ТЕКСТУ

YULIA SERGEEVA, IRINA SYRESINA. A STUDENTS’ GUIDE TO ENGLISH SYNTAX: FROM WORD TO DISCOURSE

The receiver will have no doubts concerning the first utterance (it is a crystal clear apology), but they will have understandable doubts about the second one (whether it is a promise, or a threat, or a plea, etc).

In the theory of speech acts attention is especially focused on the fact that by producing an utterance people may perform three related acts:

a)locutionary act is the act of saying something, producing a meaningful linguistic expression, uttering a sentence. If you have difficulty with actually forming a meaningful utterance (because you are a foreigner or tongue-tied) then you might fail to produce a locutionary act: it often happens when we learn a foreign language;

b)illocutionary act is an act performed in saying something, when we form an utterance with a definite communicative intention or illocutionary force. Illocutionary acts consist characteristically in uttering words in sentences in certain contexts, under certain conditions and with certain intentions.Making an assertion, giving an order, promising to do something are typical illocutionary acts;

c)perlocutionary acts are performed by saying something, they demonstrate consequences or effects such utterances have on the actions, thoughts, or beliefs, etc. of hearers. For example, by arguing you may persuade or convince someone, by warning them you may scare or alarm them, by making a request you may get them to do something. The italicized expressions above denote perlocutionary acts. The reverse situation develops in the same way: if anyone complains It’s cold here, you close the window; if they give you a present, you say Great! and hug them tightly.

The speech acts theory was further developed by an American philosopher John Searle (b. 1932) who proposed a detailed classification of speech acts. It includes five major classes of speech acts: declarations, representatives, expressives, directives and commissives:

a)Declarations are words that change the world (S causes X): e.g. I take this man as my lawfully wedded husband. I name this ship

the Queen Elisabeth. You’re fired.

b)Representatives make words fit the world (S believes X):

e.g. You are students of this University. It is a warm sunny day. Jane is taller than her sister.

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Chapter I. Simple sentence as a monopredicative construction

c)Expressives are statements of pleasure, joy, sorrow, etc. (S feels X):

e.g. I’m really sorry. Congratulations! Goodness gracious!

d)Directives make the world fit words, they are commands, orders, suggestions, pleas, requests (S wants X):

e.g. Stay quiet! Why not go out tonight? Another cup of tea, please.

e)Commissives are promises, threats, pledges, all that we intend to do (S intends X):

e.g. I’ll be back! You shall get it!

Of special interest here is the problem of indirect speech acts – cases in which one speech act is performed indirectly, by way of performing another. Such utterances contain two illocutionary forces, with one of them dominating.

e.g. Can you pass me the salt?

Though the sentence is interrogative, it is conventionally used to mark a request – we cannot just answer “yes” or “no”.

In our everyday activities we use indirect speech acts rather willingly because it is the best way to influence people, to get what we want and to be polite at the same time.

Another classification of speech acts is based on purely linguistic principles. The main criterion for pragmatic classification of utterances is the way of expressing communicative intention that will be viewed in detail in the following chapter.

1.3.2. Cardinal and intermediary communicative types of sentences

According to the purpose of the utterance we distinguish three cardinal types of sentences.

1. The declarative sentence.

A declarative sentence states a fact in the affirmative or negative form. The main structural feature of the declarative sentence is direct word order (the subject precedes the predicate).

e.g. We were at home last weekend. The Earth goes round the Sun.

2. The interrogative sentence.

An interrogative sentence asks for information in the affirmative or negative form. Its typical feature is inversion, i.e. the predicate (or part of it) is used before the subject. There are four kinds of questions:

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Ю. М. СЕРГЕЕВА, И. О. СЫРЕСИНА. СИНТАКСИС АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА: ОТ СЛОВА К ТЕКСТУ

YULIA SERGEEVA, IRINA SYRESINA. A STUDENTS’ GUIDE TO ENGLISH SYNTAX: FROM WORD TO DISCOURSE

a)general questions, e.g. Is Mary a doctor? Don’t you know it?

b)special questions, e.g. When did you arrive? Why hasn’t he come in time?

c)alternative questions, e.g. Which do you prefer, tea or coffee? Is it because of the lack of time or the lack of money?

d)disjunctive questions, e.g. You speak French, don’t you? He doesn’t study here, does he?

3. The imperative sentence.

An imperative sentence serves to induce a person to do something, so it expresses a command, a request, an invitation, etc. Its main structural feature is the lack of the subject.

Sit down. Open your textbooks.

NB! The exclamatory sentence does not make a separate communicative type as it has no purpose of communication of its own. An exclamatory sentence expresses some kind of emotion or feeling, it is expressive and not neutral.

So, all three above mentioned communicative types of sentences exist in two forms: neutral and exclamatory.

e.g. She told us a funny story.– What a funny story she told us! Who is this man talking to the Dean? – Who is there in my car driving

away?!!

Help me move a wardrobe, could you? – Help! Help! A person is drowning!

In certain contextual conditions sentences of one communicative type can acquire the features of another communicative type, thus forming intermediary predicative constructions distinguished by mixed communicative features. The transfer of formal and functional features from one communicative type to another can be observed in correlations of all three cardinal types, i. e. statement – question, statement – inducement, and questioninducement.

The sentences which occupy an intermediary position between cardinal communicative sentence types are as follows:

1. declarative-interrogative

2. declarative-imperative

3. interrogative-declarative

4. interrogativeimperative

5. imperative-declarative

6. imperative-interrogative

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