Theory of english grammar

2. Communicative function indicates information focus (end-focus)

Cases of inversion:

Full inversion is used

• after introductory there. There was a girt whom he loved, there goes our bus.
• after fronted adverbial expressions of place (direction). Here comes Edward.

Partial inversion is used

• after so , neither, nor in a “second clause”, or “short response”. He's hungry. - So am I.
• after as, than, so. She was well-read as were most of her friends.

3. Emphatic function makes part of the sentence prominent by placing the rheme before the theme.

Cases of inversion:

Full inversion is used

• after fronted postpositions (adverbs or prepositions). I stopped the car and up walked a policeman.
• after fronted predicatives. Tall and graceful was Ann.

Partial inversion is used

• after fronted negative and/or restrictive adverbs or expressions: hardly, seldom, rarefy, little, never, expression with only. Only after we met her, did we realize how clever she was.
• after adverbs, adverbial phrases or clauses (often of manner). Well do I remember the day.
• after as, than, so: So shocked was he that he hardly said a word.
• after fronted objects, especially Not /No + Object. Not a single word did she say.

 

 

28. Principles of classification of simple sentences.

Definitions. Logical: A sentence is a proposition expressed by words. A proposition is the semantic invariant of all the members of modal and communicative paradigms of sentences and their transforms. But besides sentences which contain propositions there are interrogative and negative sentences. Speech is emotional. There is no one to one relationship. Then a sentence can be grammatically correct, but from the point of view of logic it won’t be correct, true to life (Water is a gas). Laws of thinking are universal but there are many languages. Grammar and Logic don’t coincide.

Structural: A sentence is a subject-predicate structure. Grammatical subject can only be defined in terms of the sentence. Moreover the grammatical subject often does not indicate what we are “talking about” (The birds have eaten all the fruit. It is getting cold). Besides, this definition leaves out verbless sentences. There are one-member sentences. They are non-sentences? Conclusion – a sentence is a structural scheme.

Phonological: A sentence is a flow of speech between 2 pauses. But speech is made up of incomplete, interrupted, unfinished, or even quite chaotic sentences. Speech is made up of utterances but utterances seldom correspond to sentences.

Thus, it is more preferable to describe a sentence than to define it. The main peculiar features of the sentence are:

- integrity,

- syntactic independence,

- grammatical completeness,

- semantic completeness,

- communicative completeness,

- communicative functioning,

- predicativity,

- modality,

- intonational completeness.

Principles of classification of simple sentences. According to the purpose of the utterance: declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory. Prof. Ilyish: before dividing sentences into 3 classes we should divide them into emotional and non-emotional and within emotional we can establish 4 classes.

As to their structure:

1) simple (sentence with only one predication);

2) composite (sentence with more than one predication):

- compound (composite sentence with coordinated clauses);

- (composite sentence containing subordinated clauses);

3) two-member (sentence with full predicate) and one- member

4) extended (sentence containing some words besides the predication), unextended (sentence containing only subject and predicate) and contracted (sentence with several subjects to one predicate or several predicates to one subject);

5) elliptical (incomplete)

As to their cathegories.

According to the grammatical (syntactical) cathegory of presentation: statement, question.

According to the cathegory of information: affirmation, negation.

According to the cathegory of expressiveness: emphatic, non-emphatic.

 

 

29. Compound sentence. Logico-semantic relations between clauses.

Coordinate clauses are units of equivalent syntactic status. Each of them has the force of an independent statement (proposition).

Main types of logico-semantic relations between coordinate clauses are copulative, adversative, disjunctive, causative, consecutive. They can be also found between simple sentences. This has given cause to some scholars to deny the existence of a compound sentence as a special structural type and treat it as a sequence of simple sentences. This idea is usually rejected, as a compound sentence is a semantic, grammatical and intonational unity. Each coordinate clause functions as part of this unity.

As coordination reflects the logical sequence of thought, the order of coordinate clauses is usually fixed: He came at 5 and we had dinner together.

The opening clause is most independent structurally, the following clauses may be to a certain extent dependent on the first clause - they may be elliptical, may contain anaphoric pronouns, etc.

Coordinating conjunctions and meanings rendered by them are described in Practical Grammar.

 

 

30. Complex sentence. Structural and functional classification.

The classification of complex sentences is usually based on the classification of subordinate clauses. Subordinate clauses are classified either on analogy with classes of words (structural classification) or on analogy with parts of the sentence (functional classification).

Structural classification. Clauses are subdivided into

- noun clauses (substantive clauses),

- adjective clauses,

- adverb clauses, etc.

But as words of the same class may perform different syntactic functions, the functional classification seems preferable. A subordinate clause can occupy any position but that of the predicate (though it may fill in the position of the predicative). There is no complete similarity between parts of the sentence and subordinate clauses. Especially this is the case with adverbial clauses.

There is a correlation between structural and functional classifications.

Accordingly to the type of clausal connection (close or loose, obligatory or optional) complex sentences may be:

The classification of complex sentences may be also based on the type of clausal connection, which may be close or loose, obligatory or optional.

Sentences with obligatory clausal connection:

1) Sentences with Subject and Predicative clauses. The subordinate clause occupies a syntactic position in the predication. It is fused, or merged with the principal clause, which is incomplete semantically and structurally: What you say is true.

2) Sentences with Object clauses. The subordinate clause is obligatory due to the obligetory valency of the predicate verb in the main clause.

3) Sentences in which there are correlative elements in both main and subordinate clauses (hardly... when; as... as; the more... the more): He was so tired, that...

Some attributive and adverbial clauses are loosely connected with the main clause and may be optional.

Composite sentences may include a number of coordinate and subordinate clauses.