- •Теоретическая грамматика английского языка
- •Introduction
- •§ 381. Within a sentence, the word or combination of words that contains the meanings of predicativity may be called the predication.
- •§ 384. The main parts of the sentence are those whose function it is to make the predication. They are the subject and the predicate of the sentence.
- •§ 389. In the sentence Birds fly, as we have seen, the syntactical and the lexical meanings of the subject and the predicate go together. But English has a system of devices to separate them.
- •§391. Let us now consider the grammatical word-morphemes do, does, did in sentences like Does she ever smile? We do not know him, etc.
- •§393. Every predication can be either positive or negative.
- •§ 396. As defined (§ 3), when studying the structure of a unit, we find out its components, mostly units of the next lower level, their arrangement and their functions as parts of the unit.
- •§ 399. Some analogy can be drawn between the structure of a word and the structure of a sentence.
- •§ 401. Depending on their relation to the members of the predication the words of a sentence usually fall into two groups — the group of the subject and the group of the predicate 1.
- •§ 403. Sentences with only one predication are called simple sentences. Those with more than one predication have usually no general name 1. We shall call them composite sentences.
- •§ 409. Not all interrogative sentences are syntactical opposites of declarative sentences.
- •§ 411. The sentences below form opposemes of some syntactical category.
- •§ 415. Let us compare the following pairs of sentences:
- •I'll see him I shall see him
- •It's raining It is raining
- •§ 418. We find no predication in the second sentence of the following dialogue.
- •§ 419. The sentence-words yes and no are regularly used as adjuncts of some head-sentences.
- •§ 421. The traditional classification of the parts of the sentence is open to criticism from the point of view of consistency.
- •§ 425. The subject of a simple sentence can be a word, a syntactical word-morpheme or a complex.
- •§ 426. We may speak of a secondary subject within a complex. In the following sentence it is the noun head.
- •§ 429. If we compare the subject in English with that of Russian we shall find a considerable difference between them.
- •§ 430. The predicate is the member of a predication containing the mood and tense (or only mood) components of predicativity.
- •§ 431. The predicate can be a word or a syntactical word-morpheme. When it is a notional word, it "is not only the structural but the notional predicate as well.
- •Objective Complements (Objects)
- •§ 448. Like other parts of a simple sentence (clause), objective complements may be expressed by complexes and are then called complex objects.
- •Adverbial Complements (Adverbials)
- •§ 454. Below are some specimens of quantitative adverbial complements.
- •§455. Circumstantial adverbials, or as a. I. Smirnitsky calls them, adverbials of situation, comprise:
- •§ 457. As follows from the string of examples given above, in simple sentences adverbial complements are usually adverbs, nouns (mostly with prepositions), verbids and verbid complexes.
- •§458. Comparing English adverbials with those in Russian one can see that despite some common features (meaning, types), they are in a number of points different.
- •§ 459. Attributes are secondary parts of the sentence serving to modify nouns or noun-equivalents in whatever functions they are used in the sentence.
- •§ 460. Attributes are formally indicated only by the position they occupy, save the demonstrative pronouns this, these, that, those which, besides, agree in number with the word they modify.
- •§469. Connectives are linking-words considered as a secondary part of the sentence. They are mostly prepositions and conjunctions.
- •§ 472. The articles resemble particles in being semi-notional and in functioning as specifiers. But they specify only one part of speech, nouns. In this they resemble attributes.
- •§ 473. Parenthetical elements are peculiar parts of the sentence.
- •§ 474. In accordance with their meanings parenthetical elements fall into four major groups:
- •§ 475. In a simple sentence parenthetical elements may be expressed by individual words (modal words, adverbs, nouns) and word-combinations of different nature.
- •§ 476. In most cases parenthetical elements are connected in sense with the sentence as a whole, that is why they have no fixed position in the sentence.
- •I. The Position of the Subject and the Predicate in the Sentence
- •§ 477. We have already dwelt upon the fact that in Modern English syntactical relations of words in the sentence are very often indicated by the position the words occupy in the sentence.
- •II. The Position of the Object
- •§ 479. The direct object is usually placed after the verb unless the indirect object precedes it.
- •§ 480. Sometimes the object is pushed to the front of the sentence. It occurs:
- •§ 482. The indirect object cannot be used in the sentence without the direct object. The indirect object is regularly put before the direct object as in That gave me a new idea.
- •§ 483. In most cases they follow the direct object, though for stylistic purposes, I. E. For emphasis and expressiveness, they may be placed at the head of the sentence.
- •§ 487. The position of an attribute depends both on the head-word and on the attribute. If the head-word is a pronoun, the attribute is, as a rule, postpositive.
- •§ 488. In postposition attributes often acquire what we might call a 'semi-predicative' connotation.
- •§ 489. If there are two or more prepositive attributes to one and the same noun their order is dependent upon a number of factors which appear to be semantic and stylistic rather than grammatical.
- •§ 491. As to the position of the other parts of the sentence, see the combinability of the corresponding parts of speech.
- •§ 497. The compound sentence usually describes events in their natural order, reflecting the march of events spoken of in the sequence of clauses.2
- •§ 498. The principal clauses of complex sentences are usually not classified, though their meanings are not neutral with regard to the meanings of the subordinate clauses.
- •§ 502. Subordinate clauses are connected with the principal clause by conjunctions, conjunctive and relative pronouns or asyndetically.
- •§ 506. The mood of the predicate verb of a subordinate clause depends on the principal clause to a greater extent than its tense.
- •§ 507. The subject clause is the only one used in the function of a primary part of the sentence.
- •§ 519. A variety of attributive clauses is the appositive clause, which formally differs from an attributive clause in being introduced by a conjunction (that, if, whether).
- •§ 520. Extension clauses are postpositive adjuncts of adjectives, adverbs and adlinks.
- •§ 521. Most authors who do not regard parenthetical elements as parts of the sentence treat It is past ten, 1 think as a simple sentence. We do not find this view convincing.
- •§ 522. In most cases parenthetical clauses are introduced asyndetically, though now and again the conjunctions as, if, etc. Are used.
- •§ 523. Sometimes subordination and coordination may be combined within one sentence, in which case we may have compound-complex and complex-compound sentences.
- •§ 524. Among the composite sentences of English and other languages we find a peculiar type differing from the rest.
- •§ 525. There is no agreement as to the syntactical nature of a sentence like He said, "I love you".
- •§ 526. Let us compare the two sentences:
- •§ 527. The introductory part of direct speech may precede the quotation, follow it, or be inserted in it.
- •§ 528. The so-called 'indirect speech' does not differ grammatically from the conventional types of sentences.
- •§ 529. The "rules for changing from direct into indirect speech" found in most English grammars are rules for reducing two predicative centres to one — that of the author.
- •Conclusion
- •§ 535. The syntactical system of a language is, as a rule, closely connected with its morphological system. The structure of the sentence and the structure of the word are interdependent.
- •§ 537. The role of grammatical word-morphemes is even greater in English syntax than in morphology.
- •§ 539. It is owing to most of the features described above that Modern English is spoken of as an analytical language.
§ 430. The predicate is the member of a predication containing the mood and tense (or only mood) components of predicativity.
E. g. This dictionary employs a pronunciation that i s easy to learn. (Thorndike). I was thinking that Dinny has probably had no lunch. (Galsworthy). I s h о и l d hate to make you cry. (Ib.).
§ 431. The predicate can be a word or a syntactical word-morpheme. When it is a notional word, it "is not only the structural but the notional predicate as well.
E. g. A picture often shows the meaning of a word more clearly than a description. (Witty).
When the predicate is a semi-notional verb or a syntactical word-morpheme, it is only a structural predicate and is usually connected with a notional word which makes the notional predicate.
E.g. He was strong enough for that. (Galsworthy). We can assist our oppressed brothers in South Africa in their struggle for freedom. (Daily Worker). Does anyone know of that but me? (Galsworthy).
Syntactically strong, assist and know are complements to the corresponding verbs.
Similarly, if we agree with A. I. Smirnitsky that have in I have friends is a semi-notional verb, we may consider friends as the notional predicate. But syntactically friends is a complement to the verb have.
§ 432. As we have seen, predicates may be divided morphologically into words and word-morphemes, and semantically into notional, semi-notional and lexically empty (structural).
§ 433. What is traditionally called a predicate is really the combination of the structural and the notional predicate. If we had a name for the combination, that would enable us to make the traditional analysis. Let us then call the combination a communicative predicate. We may say then that communicative predicates are in accordance with their structure divided into 'simple' (consisting of one word) and 'compound' (of more than one word). According to their morphological composition they are divided into 'verbal' (must see, is to believe) and 'nominal' (is a sudent, became angry). As we see, the latter division depends on the complements as well as the division into process and qualifying predicates, which will be discussed in the corresponding chapter (§ 438).
§ 434. When comparing the predicates in English and in Russian, we must first of all note the absence of syntactical word-morphemes used as predicates and the scarcity of morphological word-morphemes in Russian. So the division into structural and notional (parts of) predicates is not so essential in Russian as it is in English.
Secondly, there are many more sentences without finite verbs in Russian than in English. Он студент. Она больна. Ему холодно. Кому ехать?
Thirdly, a Russian predication contains a predicate without a subject much more often than in English. (See § 429).
SECONDARY PARTS
Complements
§ 435. The verb in the sentence forms the greatest number of word-combinations. The adjuncts of all these combinations are united by the term complements1. But the complements of a verb are so numerous and variegated that it is feasible to subdivide them into several groups correlated with the subclasses of verbs. As we know, verbs divide into notional, semi-notional and structural ones. We shall call the abjuncts of the latter two groups predicative complements (predicatives). Notional verbs are subdivided into objective and subjective. The common abjuncts of both groups will be termed adverbial complements (adverbials), those of objective verbs alone — objective complements (objects).
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1 We find a similar use of the term 'complement', though based on the idea of completeness, in Тhe Sentence and Its Parts by R, Long, Chicago, 1961: "In John likes noise there is no minimal completeness without the complement noise or some similarly used word or multiword unit. In John makes people angry minimal completeness, with makes meaning what it does, requires the two complements people and angry. In Harriet is in New York minimal completeness, with be meaning what it does, requires some such complement as in New York."
Predicative Complements (Predicatives)
§ 436. Predicative complements are mostly adjuncts of semi-notional verbs (both finite and non-finite) and syntactical word-morphemes. When attached to finite verbs they are at the same time notional predicates. They serve to indicate some state, property or action characterizing the person or thing denoted by the subject (primary or secondary), or sometimes presented in a general way, not attached to any definite person or thing.
E. g. The cheek was pink and round and smooth. (Galsworthy).
Nobody is t о know anything. (Ib.)
We can't kidnap him. (Ib.).
Did you wish for notes, Madam? (Ib.)
He won't dare move, being a new judge. (Ib.).
To be h a p p у is to be и s e f и l.
§ 437. In simple sentences either words, or combinations of words, among them complexes, may be used as predicatives. The words may belong to different parts of speech: nouns, adlinks, adjectives, pronouns, numerals, verbs (participles, gerunds, infinitives), etc.
He became a pilot. His favourite pastime is fishing. He is i n d e s p a i r. This is f о r you to decide. You must leave at once.
§ 438. In accordance with their semantics predicatives fall into a) process predicatives and b) qualifying predicatives.
a) Dinny, you must come to us. (Galsworthy). He does not know this. He ought to have apologized.
b) Tom is a n g r у (afraid, at a loss). Mary has become a teacher. He turned pale.
§ 439. Sometimes the two types may be combined in cases like You ought to look serious.
§ 440. As already noted (§ 195), one of the characteristic features of English is the ever increasing number of notional link-verbs alongside of semi-notional ones. Their complements are much alike and are all called predicative complements.
The sun rose red. (Cf. The sun was red.)
He lay awake. (Cf. He was awake.)
§ 441. There is a point where predicatives and attributes cross. It is in sentences like Make your mind easy. (Galsworthy). The adjective easy is connected with the verb make (which makes it a complement) and with the noun mind (which makes it an attribute). Thus it might be called an 'attributive complement'. But most grammarians regard it of primary importance that the noun mind is the object of the verb make and that the sentence above is correlated with a sentence like Your mind is easy. They call easy a predicative in both sentences. In the first case it is named 'objective' predicative, in the second 'subjective' predicative. We have no objection to this analysis. Both types of predicatives may also occur with verbids, e. g. To fancy yourself 'just' is simply to addle.
§ 442. When comparing English and Russian predicative complements one must bear in mind the following:
a) In Russian the 'present tense' link-verb есть is not, as a rule, used. The sentence then contains a zero structural predicate and a positive notional predicate, as in Он с т y-д e н т (высокий, весел, влюблен, в восторге, etc.)
The problem arises then whether студент, высокий, etc. may be regarded as predicative complements to a zero link-verb.
b) There being no gerunds and no complexes in Russian, they cannot, naturally, be used as predicatives.
c) In Russian the grammatical combinability of the subject and the predicative plays a much greater role than in English.