Sentence Patterns. Models of sentence analysis (distributional, IC-model, transformational model, theme-rheme model, parts of sentence model, Reed-Kellogg model).
The distributional model
The distributional model was offered by the American linguist Charles Freez in his work “The structure of English”. According to this pattern the sentence is defined as a certain succession of words belonging to certain sets (parts of speech) and used in certain forms.
The old man saw a black dog.
1a 2d 1b
D3 he - D3 he/she/it
where: D – determiner of the noun
3 – adjective
1 – noun singular, m
he
2d – verb in Past Tense
-
- noun singular, m,f,n
he,she,it
4 – adverb
a, b – marks above 1 point out that given nouns have different denotates, i.e. objects.
Freez’s pattern makes it possible to express the sentence structure from the point of view of distribution of certain forms of certain parts of speech in speech chain.
The fault of this model is that it reveals the succession of words, but not the real syntactic ties between the words. That is why in terms of Freez’s pattern it is sometimes impossible to distinguish even rather simple constructions, which have different syntactic relations, but have the same formular in distributional pattern:
The police shot the man in the red cap. and The police shot the man in the right arm.
D 1a 2 – d D 1b f D 3 1a
+ + he F it
Distributional model is used in the IC model.
The model of immediate constituents
The model of immediate constituents (IC-model) is based on the group-parsing (разбор) of the sentence. The concept of immediate constituents (ICs) is important both in morphology and syntax. An immediate constituent is a group of linguistic elements which functions as a unit in some larger whole.
A basic sentence pattern consists first of all of a subject and a predicate. These are called the immediate constituents of the sentence. They are constituents in the sense that they constitute, or make up, the sentence. They are immediate in the sense that they act immediately on one another: the whole meaning of the one applies to the whole meaning of the other.
The model consists in dividing the whole of the sentence into two groups: that of the subject and that of the predicate, which, in their turn, are divided into their sub-group constituents according to their successive subordinative order. The IC-model shows the structure of the sentence as made up by binary immediate constituents. As for equipotent (coordinative) connections, they are non-binary and included in the analysis as inner subdivisions of subordinative connections. The subject of a basic sentence is a noun cluster and the predicate is a verb cluster, we can therefore say that the immediate constituents (ICs) of a sentence are a noun cluster and a verb cluster. Each of the ICs of the sentence can in turn be divided to get ICs at the next lower level. For example, the noun cluster of a sentence may consist of a determiner plus a noun. In this case, the construction may be cut between the determiner and the noun, e. g. the girl. The ICs of this noun cluster are the and girl. The verb cluster of the sentence may be a verb plus a noun cluster (played the piano). This cluster can be cut into ICs as follows: played the piano
THE
det |
SMALL A |
LADY N |
LISTENED V |
TO prep |
ME NP-pro |
ATTENTIVELY
D |
NP-obj |
||||||
NP |
VP |
|||||
NP-subj |
VP-pred |
|||||
S – sentence
NP-subj – subject noun-phrase, VP-pred – predicate verb-phrase
net – determiner
NP – noun-phrase
D (DP) – adverbial (phrase)
VP – verb-phrase
AP (A) – adjective-attribute constituent
N – noun constituent
V, Vf – finite verb
NP-obj – object noun-phrase
prep – preposition
The process of syntactic IC-analysis continues until the word-level is reached, the ultimate constituents of the sentence.
This model has 2 versions: the analytical IC-diagram and the IC-derivation tree, which shows the grouping of sentence constituents.
S
NP VP
det NP VP D
A N V VP
prp N-pro
When analysing sentences, we expose two types of subordinative relations: obligatory relations, i.e. such as are indispensable for the existence of the syntactic unit as such, and optional relations, which may or may not be represented in the syntactic unit. This is explained by the syntactic valency (combining power of the word). The attribute small and the adverbial attentively are the optional parts of the sentence. Without them all the positions in the structure are obligatory from the point of view of the valency of the verb (transitive). This structure is elementary sentence, which has only principle parts and complementive modifiers, and doesn’t have any supplementive modifiers. Elementary sentence can be extended without adding new predicative positions, then it will still be extended, but simple sentence. Since all the parts of the elementary sentence are obligatory, each sentence can be reduced to one or more elementary sentences: The tall trees by the island shore were shaking violently in the gusty wind. The sentence can be reduced to The trees were shaking., as the verb is intransitive.
The model of immediate constituents includes another model, the distributional model.
The transformational model. Transformation is transition from one pattern of certain notional parts to another pattern of the same notional parts. Some sentence patterns are base patterns, others are their transforms. A question can be described as transformationally produced from a statement, a negation – from an affirmation.
You are fond of sport. - Are you fond of sport?
You are fond of sport. – You are not fond of sport.
Why are the directions of transition given in this way and not vice versa? Because the ordinary affirmative statement presents a positive expression of the fact, free of the speaker’s appraisals. It carries the propositional content, the cognitive content of the utterance. Proposition is the reflection of a state-of-affairs and consists of reference and predication. Reference is the denotation of a thing, person or idea. Predication assigns o property or relation to the denotated thing, person, idea. Similarly, a composite sentence can be presented as dirived from two or more simple sentences: He turned to the waiter. + The waiter stood in the doorway. – He turned to the waiter who stood in the doorway. These transformational relations can be interpreted as regular derivation stages comparable to categorial form-making processes in morphology and word-building. The initial basic elements of syntactic derivation are called kernel sentences. Structurally in coincides with elementary sentences, described in IC-model. But the pattern of the kernel sentence is the base of a paradigmatic derivation in the corresponding sentence pattern series. Syntactic derivation is paradigmatic production of more complex pattern construction out of kernel pattern constructions as structural bases. I saw him come. It is produced from the two kernel sentences: I saw him + He came.
S + S S
N-subj VP N-subj V N-subj VP
V N-obj V NP-obj
N V-inf
The derivation of genuine sentences lying on the surface of speech out of kernel sentences lying in the “deep base” of speech can be analysed as a set of elementary transformational steps or procedures:
1. Morphological arrangement of the sentence, morphological changes expressing syntactically relevant categories, above all, the predicative categories of the finite verb: tense, aspect, voice, mood.
In paradigmatic syntax, such units as He has arrived, He has not arrived, Has he arrived, He will arrive, He will not arrive, Will he arrive, etc., are treated as different forms of the same sentence, just as arrives, has arrived, will arrive etc., are different forms of the same verb. We may call this view of the sentence the paradigmatic view.
Now from the point of view of communication, He has arrived and He has not arrived are different sentences since they convey different information (indeed, the meaning of the one flatly contradicts that of the other).
2. functional expansion – procedures including various uses of functional words. From the syntactic point of view these words are transformers of syntactic construction in the same sense as the categorial morphemes (wordchanging) are transformers of morphological constructions:
He understood my request. – He seemed to understand my request.
Now they consider the suggestion. – Now they do consider the suggestion.
3. substitution by personal pronouns, demonstrative, indefinite pronouns, substitute combinations of half-notional words.
The pupils ran out of the classroom. – They ran out of the classroom.
I want another pen, please. – I want another one, please.
4. Deletion, elimination of some elements of the sentence in various contextual conditions. As a result of deletion the corresponding reduced (elliptical) constructions are produced.
Would you like a cup of tea? – A cup of tea?
It’s a pleasure! – Pleasure!
5. Positional arrangement – changes of the word order into reverse patterns, questions and inversion: In ran Jim with an excited cry.
6. Intonational arrangement, application of various functional tones and accents. This arrangement is represented in written and typed speech by punctuation marks, the use of italics and underlining.
We must go. – We must go? We? Must go??
You care nothing about what I feel. – You care nothing about what I feel!
Clausalization, phrasalization
The transformational model is different form other models, as it not just an analytical pattern, but a generative one.