THE SENTENCE 1 General characteristics 2 Predicativity Predication

THE SENTENCE 1 General characteristics 2 Predicativity. Predication. Secondary predication 3 Communicative classification of sentences 4 Structural classification of sentences Рекомендуется к использованию при изучении дисциплины «Теоретическая грамматика английского языка Составитель: Познякова Т. М.

The sentence is one of the largest and most complicated unit of language and at the same time it is the smallest unit of speech, or the smallest utterance. Сoncrete sentences belong to speech, patterns / structures, according to which they are built, belong to language. The sentence has two basic meaningful functions: naming and communicative The sentence is a structural, semantic and communicative unity.

Accordingly, the sentence has three main aspects: syntactic (structural), semantic and logico-communicative. The syntactic structure can be analyzed at two levels: pre-functional – sentence constituents are words and word-groups functional – sentence constituents are parts of the sentence. There is no direct correspondence between these two levels, e. g. Tom wrote a letter N V N (pre functional analysis), S P O (functional analysis) Ann had a shower. N V N S P

The semantic structure of the sentence is a reflection of a certain situation or event, which includes a process/action as its dynamic center and semantic arguments (roles) which are defined by the verb.

Types of semantic roles (arguments) the doer Tom wrote a letter to Ann. the object Tom sent letter to Ann. the addressee, Tom wrote a letter to Ann. the instrument The key opened the door. the factitive Nick painted a cat. the nominative Her eyes sparkled. certain circumstances and conditions of its realization, e. g. location, condition etc. They arrived in Moscow from London. • •

• The semantic structure of the sentence (DEEP structure) does not depend on the syntactic structure (SURFACE structure). • He cut the tree down with a saw. • The tree was cut down by him.

From the logico communicative point of view the utterance (as a unit of communication) consists of two parts: the topic for discussion – the information already known the THEME and the RHEME the new information about the topic. This type of sentence analysis is called The actual sentence division, or the Functional sentence perspective (FSP).

By actual division (FSP analysis) we mean dividing a sentence into two sections, one of which contains the starting point of the message — "the theme", and the other — the new information for which the sentence has been spoken or written — "the rheme". Other terms: "psychological subject" and "psychological predicate", "lexical subject" and "lexical predicate", "semantic subject" and "semantic predicate".

(а) Девушка выглянула из окна. (b) Из окна выглянула девушка. Т ---- R (a) The girl looked out of the window. T ------- R (b) A girl looked out of the window. R ---- T • It is an ill (R) bird that fouls its own nest (T). • Shut the window, please (R), Tom (T). • Who (zero R) shut the window (T)? – Tom (R) did. • Only he (R) could show you this (T). • There was a forestry (R) near the village (T).

Communication is the expression of a direct thought. There is a system of coordinates to fix the position and direction of a thought in speech: a) the act of speech, b) the speaker, c) reality. • The act of speech is the event with which other events are correlated in time. It is expressed by the verb category of tense and adverbial modifiers of time. • The speaker is the person with whom other speakers are correlated. He is fixed by the verbal category of person and a noun or a pronoun performing the function of the subject. • Reality is accepted as the speaker sees it. It is expressed by the category of mood, and modal words (perhaps, probably may be etc. ).

Predicativity Is the correlation of the thought expressed in the utterance with the situation of speech. His arrival , he arrived. Predicativity has three main components: modality, time and person. Predicativity is expressed by the SUBJECT PREDICATE GROUP, or PREDICATION. • A sentence may contain primary and secondary predication. • The secondary predication is related to the situation of speech indirectly, through the primary predication.

e. g. I heard someone singing. The group “someone singing” is the secondary predication as it resembles the subject predicate group, or the primary predication, structurally and semantically: it consists of two main components (nominal and verbal), it names an event or situation, but it can not be correlated with the reality directly and can not constitute an independent unit of communication as verbals have no categories of mood, tense and person.

Sentences can be classified as • A unit of communication • As a structural unit

Communicative classification of sentences • According to the purpose of communication sentences are subdivided into • Declarative statements • interrogative requests for information • imperative inducements (побуждение к действию) • exclamatory ? ? ?

Exclamatory sentences are marked by specific intonation patterns word order and special constructions with functional auxiliary words render high emotional intensity of the utterance.

“Purely exclamatory sentences” My God!; Goodness gracious!; What nice weather!

An utterance can be analyzed not only from the point of view of the speaker’s intensions, but also from the point of view and the effect of the utterance on the interlocutor. The aspect, which deals with the meaning of the utterance in a particular context, is called pragmatics. Pragmatics is also a branch of linguistics.

Classification of utterances on the basis of responses they elicit (Ch. Fries ) Communicative utterances . followed by oral responses (greetings, calls, questions, etc. ); • followed by action responses (requests or commands); • utterances which elicit signals of attention to further conversation (statements); Non communicative utterances, which are not directed to any interlocutor in particular and presuppose no response (e. g. , interjectional outcries).

“Theory of speech acts” (теория речевых актов) by J. L. Austin pragmatic (i. e. pertaining to the participants and the circumstances of the particular speech act) types • Performatives utterances by which the speaker explicitly performs a certain act, e. g. : I surrender; I pronounce you husband wife; • constatives (representatives) - by which the speaker states something, e. g. : I am a teacher; promissives (commissives), e. g. : I will help you; - expressives, e. g. : How very sad!; - menacives, e. g. : I’ll kill you!, - directives, e. g. : Get out!; - requestives, e. g. : Bring the chalk, please; etc. ‘I’ll be watching you!’ under different communicative circumstances may be either a constative, a promissive or even a menacive.

Structural classification of sentences • According to the number of predicative lines (predications/ subject predicate groups) we distinguish between simple, composite and semi-composite sentences

The simple (monopredicative )sentence • Two-member (S+P) • one-member (contains either the subject or the predicate) • elliptical (some members are omitted and can be easily restored) • Extended • Unextended

The composite (polypredicative) sentence According to the type of relations between the clauses • Compound (clauses are coordinated) • Complex (clauses are subordinated) According to the type of clause connection • Syndetic • Asyndetic

The Compound sentence • is based on the principle of coordination of predications (clauses). • all clauses are coordinated, together with their predications. • The clauses are often regarded as independent. • The connection between clauses can be syndetic and asyndetic

Complex sentence is based on subordination of predicative lines (clauses). a clause is mostly subordinated not to the whole principal clause but to some word in it, which may be regarded as its head word. I know where he lives I know the place where he lives The important thing is where he lives The connection between clauses can be syndetic and asyndetic

Types of clauses in the complex sentence • Semantic classification (clauses of time, place, manner etc. ) • Functional - subordinate clauses are classified on the analogy of parts of the simple sen tence into subject, predicative, object, attributive, and adverbial. • Categorial - subordinate clauses are divided into four generalized types: clauses of primary nominal posi tions, clauses of secondary nominal positions, clauses of adverbial positions, clauses of parenthetical positions.

Semi-composite sentences describe more than one event of objective reality but contain primary and secondary predications. E. g. We saw them crossing the street. (we saw – primary predication, them crossing – secondary. According to the type of relations between the semi clause and the main clause semi-complex is based on coordinative connection semi-compound is base on subbordinative connection e. g. They took a 6 o’clock train and got home quite late.