Билет 7 The simple sentence as a monopredicative unit.

Билет 13 I.Composite sentence as a polypredicative unit.

The composite sentence is a general term for all types of sentences with more than one predicative line. Composite sentence in which clauses are subordinated to one another is called a complex sentence. Composite sentence with coordinated clauses is termed as a compound sentence.The composite sentence in general is formed by 2 or more predicative lines as different from the simple sentence. Composite sentence is a polypredicative construction which reflects 2 or more elementary situations making up a unity. Each predicative unit in a composite sentence makes up a clause. This clause corresponds to a separate sentence but is not equivalent to it. Let’s consider the following sentence: When she entered the hall the party was in full swing. It includes 2 clauses which correspond to the following sentences: She entered the hall. The party was in full swing.

The logical difference between the composite sentence and the sequence of simple sentences is in the purpose of communication. The independent sentences are utterances each expressing an event of self-sufficient significance. The communicative purpose of the sentence discussed is to inform of the fact that “the party was in full swing” and is destroyed in a sequence of simple sentences. Thus, we see that the composite sentence, as a particular structural unit of language is remarkable for its own purely semantic merits, it exposes the genuine logic of events making up a situational unity. The fact proves the unity of the 2 predicative units within the composite sentence. The composite sentence including no more than 2 predicative lines is called elementary. Composite sentence displays 2 principal types of clause connection: hypotaxis – that of subordination and parataxis – that of coordination. It’s remarkable that the initial rise of hypotaxis and parataxis as forms of composite sentences can be traced back to the early stages of language development, i.e. to the times when the language had no writing. The illustrations of the said syntactic relations are contained, for example, in the old English epic “Beowulf”, dated from the VII c. A.D. Subordination is revealed between clauses of unequal rank, one of them being dominated by the other. From the structural point of view it means that one clause, the dominated or subordinate one, is in a notional position of the other clause (which is a principal one). It means that a subordinate clause refers to one notional constituent (expressed by a word or a phrase) in a principal clause. From the communicative point of view a subordinate clause renders the information which is additional to that of the principal clause. Coordination is observed between the syntactically equal sentences, e.g.:Soon he left the house and I followed him. Ranking of clauses into equal or unequal comes from their relation to one another. A sequential clause in a composite sentence with coordination refers to the whole of the leading clause. It is due to this fact that the position of a coordinate clause is rigidly fixed in all cases. As for the composite sentences with subordination a subordinate clause usually refers to one notional constituent in a principal clause, e.g.: I would never believe the silly fact that he had been under her influence. There are two general ways of combining clauses into a sentence. They are syndetic (conjunctional) and asyndetic (non-conjunctional). According to the traditional point of view all composite sentences are classed into compound sentences and complex sentences, syndetic or asyndetic type of clause connection being specifically displayed with both classes. Consider the following examples: compound sent. As. The day was hot, we felt exhausted. Syn. I was extremely disappointed, but she never noticed it complex sent. with attributive clause: as. That was a fantastic show (which) I remembered forever. with objective clauses: We realized at once (that) it was a strong argument. with p redicative clauses: The news is (that) she did leave the city.

Билет 7 The simple sentence as a monopredicative unit.

The sentence as a main syntactic unit performs the function of predication. The basic predicative meanings are expressed by the finite verb which is connected with the subject of the sentence. This predicative connection is referred to as the predicative line of the sentence. Depending on their predicative complexity, sentences can feature one predicative line or several predicative lines, respectively sentences can be “monopredicative” and “polypredicative”. Under this distinction the simple sentence is a sentence in which only one predicative line is expressed, e.g.: We have much in common. It is raining. In respect of predication a proper simple sentence should be distinguished from a semi-composite sentence (traditional term) or complementational sentence (J.R. Taylor’s term) and clause-conflational sentence (L.Talmy’s term), (conflation – соединение, объединение). Semi-composite sentence can include, for example, homogeneous sentence-parts: either subjects or predicates, which represent polypredicative structures, e.g.: 1) My brother and I were absolutely happy that time. 2) The cousin greeted me and offered a cup of tea.It is quite evident that the sentences express two different predicative lines: in the first one the two subjects form separate predicative connections and in the second one the two predicates are separately connected with the subject. Semi-composite sentences, as well as complementational sentences, can also include a clause which functions as the subject or the object of the verb, e.g.: 1) I saw them break into the house. 2) To finish it in time was impossible. Clause-conflational sentences, as termed by L.Talmy, are syntactic units which are based on clause fusion. They represent conceptual complex and therefore possess polypredicative structures, though on the formal syntactic level appear as simple sentences. Such like structures are probably based on a higher degree of conceptual integration between parts of an event complex, as compared to semi-composite or complementational sentences, e.g.: 1) The leaves withered away. 2) He whistled his way out of the restaurant. 3) These cars are expensive to repair.Representation of polypredication is conditioned by interaction of lexical semantics of sentence elements and a particular type of syntactic construction. Thus, we may state, that a proper simple sentence, or a single-clause sentence, to put it more exactly, is a monopredicative unit, as distinguished from composite and semi-composite sentences (complementational and clause-conflational sentneces in terms of cognitive approach).

 

 

Билет 8. Constituent structure of the simple sentence: sentence parsing and the IC-model analysis (model of immediate constituents).

Traditionally the investigation of structure of the simple sentence and its constituents is performed in terms of sentence-parsing. Sentence-parsing scheme presupposes that a sentence is organized as a system of function-expressing positions. The content of the functions reflects a situational event. The function-expressing positions are viewed as parts of the simple sentence, which are subject, predicate, object, adverbial, attribute, parenthetical enclosure (вводная часть), addressing enclosure and interjectional enclosure. The parts are arranged in a hierarchy, all of them perform some modifying role. Thus, the subject is a person-modifier of the predicate; the predicate, (or rather the predicative part of the sent.) is a process-modifier of the subject; the object is a substance-modifier of the predicate (actional or non-actional (processual or statal) – e.g. Rose was behind panting her gratitude); the adverbial is a quality-modifier of the predicate or rather that of the processual part; the attribute is a quality-modifier of a substantive part; the parenthetical enclosure is a speaker-bound modifier of any

sentence-part; the addressing enclosure (address) is a substantive modifier of the

destination of the sentence; the interjectional enclosure is a speaker-bound emotional modifier of the sentence.

Analyzing the sentence-constituents in terms of syntagmatic connection we may distinguish two types of functional positions: obligatory and optional. The obligatory positions make up a syntactic unit as such. As for the optional positions they are not necessary represented in the sentence. The pattern of obligatory syntactic positions is determined by the valency of the verb-predicate. In the sentence “The small boy looked at him with surprise.” This pattern will be expressed by the string “The boy looked at him”. The attribute “small” and the adverbial “with surprise” are the optional parts of the sentence. The sentence all the positions of which are obligatory is called an “elementary sentence” or “unexpended sentence”, and it may include not only the principal parts of the sentence (the subject or the predicate) but also secondary parts, the object, for example. The sentence which includes not only the obligatory parts but also some optional parts (supplementive modifiers, such as an attribute or adverbial modifier) is called the expanded simple sentence. The sentence-parsing scheme exposes the subordination ranks of the parts of the sentence, but it fails to present their genuine linear order in speech. This weak point of the sentence-parsing scheme is overcome in another scheme of analysis called the “model of immediate constituents” (IC-model). The IC-model consists in dividing the whole sentence into 2 groups: that of the subject and that of the predicate, which are further divided according to the successive subordinative order of the sub-groups constituents. E.g., the sentence “The small boy looked at him with surprise” 1. NP-subj. VP-pred. 2. Det. NP VP ADV 3. A N V NP obj.4. Prp. Pron.

The IC-analysis continues until the word-level of the sentence is reached. The IC- representation of the sentence exposes both the subordination ranks of the sentence-parts and their linear order in speech.

It’s important to point out that all verb predicates are not identical, as there are different types of verbs, denoting them. We can distinguish between transitive (to raise) and intransitive (to rise) verbs, between verbs, denoting action (to make), state (to be), or relation (to have, to belong), between causative (to cause, to force, to order) and noncausative (to look) verbs. Different types of verbs open different positions for actants or, in other words, different types of verbs have different valency. The semantic meaning of the verb determines its ability (or inability) to combine with different types of actants. This can be described from the point of view of semantic interpretation of the sentence.

The semantic interpretation of the sentence and its structure is now commonly given in terms of semantic cases or semantic functions of actants. This type of semantic description, called “case grammar”. According to this viewpoint the semantic case is the type of semantic relations, occurring between the verb predicate and its actants: Agentive is the case of the typically animate instigator of the action identified by the verb, e.g.: He broke the window. The window was broken by him. Instrumental is the case of the inanimate force or object causally involved in the action or state identified by the verb, e.g.: The hammer broke the widow. He broke the window with the hammer.Dative is the case of the animate being affected by the state or action identified by the verb or nominative part of the predicative, e.g.: He believed that he was right. We encouraged him to go there. The failure was obvious to him. Factitive is the case of the object or result from the action or state identified by the verb, or understood as a part of the meaning of the verb, e.g.: I waved a salute. I thought up a plan. I Xeroxed up three copies of his letter. Locative is the case which identifies the location or spatial orientation of the state or action identified by the verb or nominative part of the predicative, e.g.: Here is noisy. It is noisy here. Objective, the semantically most neutral case, the case of anything representable by a noun. It represents a thing which is affected by the action or state identified by the verb, e.g.: I Xeroxed his letter. His letter was Xeroxed by me.