Билет 11 I. Actual division of the sentence and means of expressing it.

One of the basic characteristic features of the sentence is its communicative and informative sufficiency. It means that every sentence should convey some new information in the process of communication. The interpretation of the sentence from this point of view requires the division of the sentence into two parts. One of them contains the starting point of communication or that already known to the listeners and the other part conveys new information or that not yet known to the listeners and for the sake of which the sentence is constructed. This interpretation of the sentence has been termed the actual division of the sentence or the functional sentence perspective. The idea of actual division of the sentence has first been put forward by W. Mathesius. He termed the starting point of communication the “basis” and the new information the “nucleus”. Recently there came into common use a new pair of terms. They are the “theme” and the “rheme”. The theme denotes the starting point of communication, it is an object or phenomenon about which something is reported. The rheme expresses the information reported, e.g.: Their visit to the Blacks was quiet promising. “Their visit to the Blacks” is the “theme”, the rest part is the “rheme”.

The theme and the rheme of the sentence may or may not coincide with the subject and the predicate respectively. The actual division in which the “theme” is expressed by the subject and the “rheme” - by the predicate is called “direct”. Due to a certain context the order of actual division can be changed into the reverse one, in which the rheme is expressed by the subject, while the predicate exposes the theme. This kind of actual division is “inverted”, compare:

a) This old photo wakes up my memories. – a case of “direct” actual division.

b) From behind the corner there appeared a smart car. – “inverted” actual division.

There are several formal means of expressing distinction between the theme and the rheme: With the word – order patterns the rheme is placed towards the end of the sentence, while the theme is positioned at the beginning of it, when it is necessary, the inversion is used, e.g.: 1. Jane stood in the center of the large hall. 2. In the center of the large hall stood Jane. Constructions with introducers, such as the there-patterns and it-patterns, help to identify the subject of the sentence (or maybe any other part of the sentence within the it-pattern) as its rheme, e.g.:

3. There came a loud sound (rh.). 4. It was him (rh.) who made the party a party.

Determiners, among them the articles, used as means of forming certain patterns of actual division, divide their functions so that the definite determiners serve as identifiers of the theme while the indefinite determiners serve as identifiers of the rheme, e.g.:5. The man came up to me. 6. A man came up to me.

Intensifying particles identify the rheme, e.g:7. Even she has done it come.

8. He is being so kind. 9. Only then did he realize the situation.

Syntactic patterns of contrastive complexes, based on some sort of antithesis, are employed to make explicative the inner contrast inherent in the actual division 10. This is a real story, not a fiction.

Intonation presents itself a universal means of expressing the actual division of a sentence in all types of contexts and known as logical accent. It is inseparable from the other rheme-identifying means mentioned above.

The thematic reduction of responses in dialogue speech serves to identify the rheme of the sentence. In these cases the rheme is placed in isolation, e.g.:

11. - Where did you see her last time? - London.

Thus, we may conclude that the actual division of the sentence is closely connected with the context of communication and enters the predicative aspect of the sentence. It meets the same function, which is to relate the nominative content of the sentence to reality.

 

 

Билет 12 IV. Communicative types of sentences in Modern English.

The three cardinal communicative types are strictly opposed to one another in Modern English by their meaning and form. Each sentence type is distinguished by the specific word-order and intonation, by the absence or presence of the interrogative pronouns or forms of the verb-predicate.

Thus, the declarative sentence expresses a statement, either affirmative or negative. It is built up around the direct word-order pattern, e.g.: He knew him pretty well. The imperative sentence expresses inducement, either affirmative or negative. It urges the listener, in the form of request or command, to perform or not to perform a certain action, e.g.: Let’s do it right away!The structure of the imperative sentence is characterized by the lack of the subject and by the imperative mood form of the verb-predicate. The interrogative sentence expresses a question and is naturally connected with the listener, e.g.: - Are you all right?

- Yes, thank you. Structurally the interrogative sentence is characterized by the reverse word-order pattern, the use of interrogative pronoun and interrogative forms of verb-predicate.

Alongside of the 3 cardinal communicative types there are also 6 intermediary subtypes distinguished by mixed communicative features. The intermediary communicative types may be identified between all the three cardinal communicative correlations – statement-question, statement-inducement, inducement-question. They have grown as a result of the transference of certain characteristic features from one communicative type of sentence to another.

The first one in the classification is interrogative-declarative, i.e. declarative by its form and interrogative by its meaning, e.g.: I’d like to know what you are going to do under the circumstances.

The intermediary subtypes usually render some connotations, such as, insistency in asking for information, a request for permission to perform an action, etc.

The second subtype is declarative-interrogative, i.e. interrogative by its form and declarative by its meaning – the so-called rhetorical questions, is best seen in proverbs and maxims, e.g.: Can a leopard change his spots?

The next subtype is imperative-declarative, i.e. inducement expressed in the form of a declarative sentence. It is regularly achieved: - by means of constructions with modal verbs, e.g.: You must take care of him. You can’t see her; -by interaction of grammatical elements of the sentence with its lexical elements, e.g.: I guess you’ll excuse me if I say what I have to say. You will then let me have a look at his picture. Declarative-imperative, i.e. imperative constructions used to express a declarative meaning, a characteristic feature of proverbs, e.g.: Live and learn. Don’t put it off till tomorrow if you can do it today. Imperative-interrogative, inducement in the form of a question, is employed in order to convey such additional shades of meaning as request, invitation, suggestion, softening of a command, e.g.: - Why don’t you help him out of the car? - Would you like to go for a walk? Interrogative-imperative sentenceinduces the listener not to action but to speech, e.g.: Please tell me what the right number is.

It should be noted that all cardinal and intermediary communicative sentences types are typical of Modern English and therefore should be reflected in practical teaching of English.