Main parts of sentence and their types.

The Sentence. Classification of sentences according to communicative types. According to communicative types, sentences can be declarative, interrogative and imperative. 1) We communicate something in declarative sentences. As for their structure, the subject precedes the predicate. As for the intonation, they are always pronounced with a fall. For example, “We have many books.”2) In interrogative sentences we ask a person of something. There are several types of interrogative sentences – special, general, disjunctive, alternative. Special questions are always pronounced with the falling tone, for example, ‘What are you writing down?’. General questions are pronounced with the rising tone and the word order is always inverted. For example, ‘Is it snowing?’. Disjunctive questions have a peculiar intonation pattern: the 1^st part is pronounced with a fall, the 2^nd part either with a fall or rise. When the 2^nd part is pronounced with the fall, no answer is expected (‘Tom is absent, isn’t he.’). Alternative questions are pronounced with the rise in the 1^st part and a fall in the 2^nd part – “Is it black or white?”. 3) In imperative sentences we induce a person to fulfill an action. For example, ‘Take this book!’

All the basic sentences consist, first of all, of two immediate constituents: subject and predicate.

In the basic sentence patterns subjects are rather simple, consisting of either a single noun, a noun with its determiner or a pronoun. They can grow much more complicated: nouns can be modified in quite a variety of ways and other syntactic structures can be made subjects in place of nouns or its equivalents.

The subject is one of the two main parts of the sentence. (1) It denotes the thingwhose action or characteristic is expressed by the predicate. (2) It is not dependent on any other part of the sentence. (3) It may be expressed by different parts of speech, the most frequent ones being: a noun in the common case – “Dinner will be ready in a few minutes.”, a personal pronoun in the nominative case – “He can tell stories.”, an indefinite pronoun – “Somebody is singing outdoors.”, a substantivised adjective – “the English are used to their climate.”, a numeral – “Two by two is four.” -, an infinitive – “To see you is always a pleasure.”, and a gerund – “Flying is the fastest means of transportation.”. It may also be expressed by a phrase. Being out in a boat on the river makes you feel happy. For you to go there would mean doing what you must. His having been in business failed all the affair.

The subject is the thing with which the predicate is connected.

Though there is no formal indication of the common case of noun in English, we still should state that the subject can be expressed only by the noun in the common case. The case can be determined by substitution of the noun by the corresponding form of the pronoun: “Men make laws.” The subject is the noun, substituted by the pronoun in the nominative case “they”. In some types of sentence patterns Modern English relies on the word-order arrangement alone. In The hunter killed the bear variation in the order of sentence elements will give us a different subject. English syntax is well known as primarily characterised by "subject — verb — complement" order.

It will be noted, however, that in a good many sentences of this type the subject and the doer of the action are by no means in full correspondence, e.g.: This room sleeps three men, or Such books sell readily.

In cases of inversion it is often the agreement in number with a predicate (which has an evident finite form – is, are, was, were, has) or the lexical relations in the collocation that can help define a subject in the sentence. Formally, the subject is the word that selects the form of the verb.

It is not the form of the subject that the predicate corresponds to in number, but its numerical semantics. When the subject is singular in form, but has the meaning of multitude, the predicate takes the plural form. And, vice versa, when the subject is a coordination of several nouns, united by one meaning, the predicate is in the singular: The staff were very sympathetic about it. (A. J. Cronin); The bread and cheese was presently brought in and distributed [...] (C. Brontë). The choice of the person of the predicate in cases when the person of the subject is not clear in form, is made according to the personal meaning which it has: 'Then it's not your wife who left you; it's you w h o'v e left your wife. (S. Maugham)

Meaning relationships are varied. Subjects can refer to something that is identified, described and classified or located; they may imply something that performs an action, or is affected by action or, say, something involved in an occurrence of some sort. The are classified as

1) The name of the personal subject of the sentence (agent) – The pilot changed his tactics.,

2) Impersonal force (natural force) – The lightning struck the tree.,

3) the object of the action (patient) – The road will be reconstructed.

4) the person, for whom the action is performed (beneficiary) - He had his hair cut.

5) the described object (nominative) - His face looked surprised.,

6) the feature of the person or thing (attributive) – The colour of her cheeks deepened. 7) various modifiers of the action (time, place, etc.) The morning saw them approaching the airport.

In Modern English there are two main types of subject that stand in contrast as opposed to each other in terms of content: the definite subject and the indefinite subject.

Definite subjects denote a thing that can be clearly defined: a concrete object, process, quality, etc., e. g.:

•> (a) Fleur smiled, (b) To defend our Fatherland is our sacred duty, (c) Playing tennis is a pleasure, (d) Her prudence surprised me.

Indefinite subjects denote some indefinite person, a state of thingsor a certain situation, e. g.:

(a) They say. (b) You never can tell, (c) One cannot be too careful, (d) It is rather cold, (e) It was easy to do so.

Languages differ in the forms which they have adopted to express this meaning. In English indefinite subjects have always their formal expression.

Sentences of this type will be found in French: (a) On dit. (b) II fait froid.

Similarly in German: (a) Man sagt. (b) Es ist halt.

In Russian the indefinite subject is expressed by one-member sentences:

Говорят, что погода изменится. Можно предположить, что экспедиция уже закончила свою работу.

Things are specifically different in cases when it and there(here) are used in subject positions as representatives of words or longer units which embody the real content of the subject but are postponed.

It was easy to do so. There are a few mistakes in your paper. There were no seats at all. Here comes the most important period.

It and there (here) in such syntactic structures are generally called anticipatory or introductory subjects.

Introductory it is used with the following models: It (be, look, get, grow) strange, necessary, easy) to V, to VP, to be Part, A (It was strange to be hated., truthful), for N/NP to V/VP, Ving (It’s no use telling him about it.), relative clause It is most pleasant that she has already come.

There in such patterns is often referred to as a function word, and this is not devoid of some logical foundation. It is pronounced with weak or tertiary stress, which distinguishes it from the adverb there having primary or secondary stress. There is sometimes called a temporary subject filling the subject position in place of the true subject, which follows the verb. This interpretation seems to have been borne out by the fact that the verb frequently shows concord with the following noun, as in: There is a botanical garden in our town. There were only three of us.

There comes his joy.

introductory, anticipatory – формальное подлежащее, представляющее логическое подлежащее

2. inversion – инверсия, нестандартное расположение членов предложения

3. agent – агенс, совершающий действие

4. patient – пациенс – объект, на который направлено действие

5. beneficiary - - бенефициарий, объект, для которого совершается действие

6. natural force – природное явление

7.nominative – номинатив, объект описания

. Predicate

In terms of modern linguistics, the predicate is defined as the 1C of the sentence presented by a finite-form of the verb, if even in its zero-alternant. (elliptical sentences)

Besides the function of predication the predicate also has the linking function, of linking semantically the subject with the right side of the verbal surrounding – the object and the adverbial.

Various criteria of classifying different kind of predicate have been set up by grammarians. The common definition of the predicate in terms of modern linguistics is that it is a more or less complex structure with the verb or verb-phrase at its core. This is perfectly reasonable and in point of fact agrees with the advice of traditional grammars to identify a predicate by looking for the verb. The sentence, indeed, almost always exists for the sake of expressing by means of a verb, an action, state or being. The verb which is always in key position is the heart of the matter and certain qualities of the verb in any language determine important elements in the structural meaning of the predicate. To begin with, the predicate may be composed of a word, a phrase or an entire clause. When it is a notional word (including analytical forms), it is naturally not only structural but the notional predicate as well. It is simple predicate.

If it is made up of more than one word it is called compound. In terms of complementation, predicates are classified into verbal (time presses, birds fly, the moon rose, etc.) and nominal (is happy, felt strong, got cool, grew old). \

The two types of predicates in active syntax may be diagrammed as follows:

A. Verbal Predicate Simple Tastes differ.

Compound One must do one's duty.

B. Nominal Predicate

Simple What a beautiful picture!

Compound The picture was beautiful. He may be angry with me.

Another type of sentence with a simple nominal predicate is that in which the predicative comes first, the subject next, and no link verb is either used or possible. Such sentences seem to occur chiefly in colloquial style, for instance: "Splendid game, cricket," remarked Mr Barbecue-Smith heartily to no one in particular; "so thoroughly English" This is a sentence with a simple nominal predicate. There is inversion, no article with the predicative noun, and the style is very colloquial. The phrase representing the rheme comes first, and after it comes the word representing the theme. That it is the theme is made quite clear by the preceding context.