Тема: «Членение предложения»

I. Краткая аннотация

Данные методические рекомендации предназначены для студентов 3 курса факультета иностранных языков при организации КСР по теме «Членение предложений ». Комплекс заданий, направленный на достижение поставленных целей и задач КСР, разработан в соответствии с учебной программой по дисциплине «Функциональная грамматика».

Цель — совершенствование иноязычных навыков членения предложений .

Задачи:

• углубить теоретические знания студентов по теме;

• развивать логическое мышление, память, воображение студентов;

• сформировать способность студентов применять усвоенные знания в практических целях.

II. Тематический план

3 курс, 6 семестр

III. Список основной литературы:

1. Блох, М.Я. Практикум по английскому языку: Грамматика. Сборник упражнений: учеб. пособие для вузов / М.Я. Блох, А.Я. Лебедева, В.С. Денисова. – М.: Астрель: АСТ, 2000. — 240 с.

2. Каушанская, В. Л. Практическая грамматика английского языка/В.Л. Каушанская. – Мн.: Высшая школа, 1973. – I часть, стр.135

3. Французова, В. О. Морфология : Сб. упражнений по практической грамматике англ. яз. для студентов учреждений, обеспечивающих получение высш. образования по специальности «Соврем. иностр. яз.» / Сост. В. О. Французова. — 2-е изд., испр. — Мн. : Лексис, 2003. — 276 с.

Список дополнительной литературы:

1. Крылова, И. П. Сборник упражнений по грамматике английского языка: учебное пособие для институтов и факультетов иностранных языков/И.П. Крылова. – 3-е изд., испр. – М.: Книжный дом «Университет», 1999. – 432 с.

2. Clarke, S. Macmillian English Grammar in Context [Kit]: essential/ Simon Clarke. – [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008]. – 208p.

3. Oxenden, C. New English File [Text]: upper-intermediate Student’s Book/ Clive Oxenden, Christina Latham-Koenig with Brian Brennan. - [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008]. – 160 p.

4. Prodromou, L. Grammar & Vocabulary for First Certificate with key/ L. Prodromou — Pearson Education Limited, 1999.

5. Thomson, A. J., Martinet A.V. A Practical English Grammar/ A.J. Thomson, A.V. Martinet. - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. – 140 p.

IV. Информационный блок

Topic & Focus

Two closely related and in some ways opposite aspects of a sentence are topic and focus. They each need a more detailed write-up of their own; this one is only an overview of their relationship. Roughly, the topic is the already known information that the sentence is about, and the focus is the new information that is being said about it. In other words, topic - what the sentence is about, focus - what is being said about the topic.

In linguistics, the topic (or theme) is the part of the proposition that is being talked about (predicated). Once stated, the topic is therefore "old news", i. e. the things already mentioned and understood. For example, the topic is emphasized like this in the following sentences:

The dog bit the little girl.

The little girl was bitten by the dog.

It was the little girl that the dog bit.

The little girl, the dog bit her.

The topic is also called theme, and the predicate that gives information on the topic is also called rheme. A distinction must be made between the sentence-level topic and the discourse-level topic. Suppose we are talking about Mike's house:

Mike's house was so comfortable and warm! He really didn't want to leave, but he couldn't afford the rent, you know. And it had such a nice garden in the back!

In the example, the discourse-level topic is established in the first sentence: it is Mike's house. In the following sentence, a new "local" topic is established on the sentence level: he (Mike). But the discourse-level topic is still Mike's house, which is why the last comment does not seem out of place.

But there are numerous overlapping distinctions here, and people use the words in various ways.

There are several ways they can be marked: by intonation, by overt material such as the words 'as for' or 'it is' or by syntactic means such as fronting; or a combination of these.

Taken in isolation, a sentence like 'John was eating peanuts' said in a neutral way would probably have fairly equal stress on subject and object: 'JOHN was eating PEAnuts'. This is also how you'd read the sentence if it was the opening of a story. It introduces John, it's about him, and it's telling you what he's doing. But if part of the material was already known (the topic), the unknown material would get focused intonation by being given the main stress. This happens in answers to questions, for example:

Who was eating peanuts? - JOHN was eating peanuts.

What was John eating? - John was eating PEAnuts.

Сapital letters are used here to indicate a normal intonation, not an emphatic one. There is no reason to suppose there is any particular emphasis on the stressed element. Contrast with:

Mary was eating peanuts. No, JOHN was eating peanuts.

John was eating walnuts. No, John was eating PEAnuts.

Here we have the same distribution of focus and topic, but contrastive emphasis in addition. Whether emphatic or not, one element is new and has focus, and the rest of the sentence is given, and is the topic. We can't always neatly divide them between new and given like this: the introductory or isolated sentence 'John was eating peanuts' has no particular focus, and if we don't know who John is, it's all new.

1. One grammatical marker of a similar distinction is the choice of definite 'the' or indefinite 'a'. As an introductory element, something is definite if it's already known.

A farmer was leading a donkey. The donkey stopped and the farmer urged it on.

Here we could say the first sentence introduces a new topic with 'a', and the second carries it on with 'the'. But which is the topic, farmer or donkey? It could be either. In speech there might be a difference in intonation that told you which was going to be the topic; in writing you need to see how the story unfolds:

A farmer was leading a donkey. It stopped and the farmer urged it on.

A farmer was leading a donkey. He urged the donkey on when it stopped.

Definiteness doesn't have to be derived from a previous mention. Any of the following could be the opening sentence of a story, and they give different discourse effects as to what you are supposed to take as given, or background, and what you should focus on as foreground:

A man was climbing the garden wall.

The man was labouring to climb the garden wall.

The man climbing the garden wall paused half way up.

2. Another grammatical device to indicate topic and focus is placement of the prominent element in other than its usual place: either at the front or at the end. Fronting is common. In English essentially the same construction can be used for both focus and topicalization, and the difference is in stress both on the fronted prominence and in subsequent material.

The professor, she hasn't read this BOOK yet.

This book, I haven't READ it yet.

This book I haven't READ yet, but I'm going to soon.

The topic might or might not be bracketed off with comma intonation; if it is, it is likely there is a resumptive pronoun ('she' and 'it' in the examples) in the usual place for the constituent. This phrasing looks a bit odd in isolated example sentences, at least in English: but in real speech and text it does happen.

When the stress is contrastive on the prominent element, it gives focus to it. In example sentences it's clearer if I add a contrasting clause after it:

THIS book I haven't read.

THIS book I haven't read, as I was busy with the OTHER one.

There is a roughly iconic principle that familiar material tends to appear early in the sentence, and new material after it. With no indication to the contrary, we would probably understand it that way. But focus fronting overrides this.

3. Another way of bringing material forward is by changing the grammatical relationship between the actants: object becomes subject when you use the passive voice. But focus and topic are intricately entangled: the passive can be used for either effect.

No-one has read this book.

THIS book hasn't been read by anyone.

This book hasn't been read by ANyone.

4. Another strategy is to form a cleft sentence or pseudo-cleft sentence:

It is this book that I haven't read.

What I haven't read is this book.

These syntactic rearrangements or special forms normally carry a corresponding intonation; but note that intonation can always be used to mark focus elsewhere:

It is this book that Í haven't read.

What I haven't read is this book.

This book hasn't been read by anyone.

The topic and the focus are concepts commonly found in human languages. Topics are old information, which you have already talked about in a conversation. Focuses are new information, which is often the key of an answer to a question.

Let's think about topics and focuses in English. Compare the following two conversations:

1. A: What did you see yesterday?

B: Yesterday I saw Akira.

2. A: When did you see the movie?

B: I saw the movie yesterday.

The underlined letters indicate topics, which are information backgrounds of the conversation. The italic letters indicate focuses, which are either important new information or requests for it. You can sometimes say only a focus, so you can just say "Akira." at 1-B, and "Yesterday." at 2-B.

The examples below show selecting topics.

3. A: I saw a movie a week ago, and I saw another one yesterday.

B: What did you see yesterday?

4. A: I saw a movie and went shopping yesterday.

B: What did you see?

Underlined letters indicate selected topics. At 3-B, the speaker chooses yesterday in 3-A, not a week ago, as information background of the conversation. At 4-B, the speaker chooses saw a movie in 4-A, not went shopping.

Focuses always have a stress, and selected topics often have too. A topic should appear before a focus in plain sentences in English if possible. So it is not good to say "Yesterday I saw the movie." at 2-B.

However, there is still no agreement about the definition of theme (/ rheme) in a sentence. Some authors try to determine the theme and rheme by means of the information value for the discourse of the various parts of the sentence. According to this theory, the theme is what is known/ given in the text, and the rheme is the unknown/ new. Others assess the theme and rheme according to the contribution of parts of the sentence to the (further) development of a discourse. If the contribution is slight, then the relevant part of the sentence is described as the theme, and if it is considerable, it is called the rheme. Grammatical, lexical and contextual factors work together here to allow the contribution of a part of a sentence towards the development of the discourse to be established.

In the following examples, the underlined parts of the sentence are theme.

The duke has given my aunt that teapot.

That teapot the duke has given to my aunt.

Very carefully she put him back on his feet again.

In linguistics, the topic (or theme) is the thing being predicated (talked about), and the comment (or rheme) is the thing being said about the topic.

In grammar a predicate is one of the two constituent parts of a sentence. It is the rest of the sentence apart from the subject. For instance, in the sentence "All good things come to an end" the "come to an end" is the predicate, whereas the subject is "all good things."