Сметанина М.Н. - Лекция 4 по Теор. грамматике | Текст песни

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Lecture 4
13. Syntax as a Part of Grammar

Morphology and syntax represent two different layers of grammatical abstraction. The domain of morphology is the paradigmatics of the word. The domain of syntax is the syntagmatics of the word. These layers are not absolutely independent of one another. There is constant overlapping between them. In some instances it is almost impossible to draw a line of demarcation between a word and a phrase.
Syntax studies the combination of words into phrases and sentences. It is concerned with the description and modelling of phrases and sentences taken isolatedly and in discourse.
Syntax is understood as a certain level of language structure and as a certain branch of linguistics studying this level. There are several types of basic units of syntax. A word is the lowest ultimate non-predicative unit. A phrase is a non-predicative unit consisting of at least two words. A sentence is a predicative unit (Predication is a relation between the subject and the predicate). Sentences may be monopredicative and polypredicative. Sentences are usually joined into larger structures – supra-phrasal units. (сверхфразовое единство). It is a structural semantic entity supported by rhythm and intonation. It is based on cohesion. There are different devices of cohesion: logico-semantic ties of cause,
consequence, result, condition, varieties of repetition on all linguistic levels.

14. Word-group
The disputed questions connected with the theory of the phrase are:
1. The problem of the definition;
2. The question of predicativity;
3. The problem of classification.
According to the Russian linguistic tradition a phrase is a linguistic unit which consists of at least two notional words.
Western linguists hold that every combination of two or more words constitute a phrase: notional and notional; notional and functional; functional and functional.
The Russian and Soviet scholars hold that only a sentence comprises predication. A word-combination is more like a word, as it names actions (jump merrily, things (poor John), qualities (very beautiful).
Scholars use different terns to designate a group of words: a phrase, a word-combination, a word-group. The prevalent term is the phrase, though all the remaining terms are quite appropriate.
Traditionally the following devices for connecting the words within a phrase are known:
agreement
governing
adjoinment
enclosure
Agreement is the combination of the subordinated and subordinating words by means of the morphological categories they share. Agreement is to be found in synthetic languages where nouns and adjectives agree in number, gender and case. Agreement in English is practically reduced to nothing. There are only two examples of agreement: this book – these books; that book – those books.
Govement is such a mode of connecting words when an adjunct assumes a certain form under the influence of the head element. Govement in English is to be found among
verbs and pronouns: see him;
noun in the Possessive case and noun in the Common case: my father’s garden.
Adjoinment is such a mode of connecting words where an adjunct is merely joined to the head element without any inflexion. The components of a phrase based on adjoinment neither agree nor govern each other. The parts of the phrase should be semantically compartible.
Enclosure consists in enclosing a word-combination or a sentence within a phrase. E.g. It is a death-and-life question with us. It was an easy go-as-you-
please existence. Enclosure or incorporation is growing in English but in Russian it is very rare.

15. Classification of sentences based on their communicative function

There are various approaches to the classification of sentences:
according to the purpose of communication;
according to their structure.
According to the purpose of communication sentences are traditionally divided into:
Declarative,
imperative,
Interrogative.
The declarative sentence expresses a statement, either affirmative or negative. A declarative sentence is used when the speaker wants to communicate something to the person addressed. E.g. The dark days are drawing to an end(affirmative). She did not answer at once (negative).
The purpose of an imperative sentence is to induce the person addressed to fulfil a certain action. This may be done in the form of a command or a request.
Imperative sentences have the verb in the imperative mood. E.g. Have a good sleep and think it over.
The interrogative sentence expresses a question, i.e. a request for information. There are the following types of interrogative sentences:
general questions – Do you understand it now?
special questions – What have you told him?
alternative questions – Will the meeting start at five or at six?
disjunctive questions – You don’t think we have lost our way, do you?
An attempt to revise the traditional communicative classification was made by the American scholar Charles Fries. He classified sentences according to the responses they elicit. Fries defined the sentence as a “minimum free utterance”. In fact he analyzed not sentences but utterances which he collected from the tape-recorded dialogues. He classed them into two groups: “situation utterances” and “response utterances”.
Situation utterances were further divided into:
utterances that are regularly followed by oral response only (greetings, calls, questions);
utterances that are regularly eliciting action responses (requests or commands);
utterances that are regularly eliciting conventional signals of attention.
These are statements.
All other types of utterances Fries named “non-communicative” types: exclamations of surprise, pain, disgust, anger, laughter etc.

16. Classification of sentences based on their structure. Simple sentences

According to their structure sentences are traditionally classified into simple and composite.
The sentence is the immediate integral unit of speech built up of words according to a definite syntactic pattern and distinguished by a contextually relevant communicative purpose. This definition belongs to Blokh but it is necessary to mention that out of more than 300 definitions none is adequate.
A simple sentence is a monopredicative structure. Simple sentences are subdivided into two member and one member.
There are several varieties of one member sentences:
One member nominative sentence: “Women!” “Ночь. Улица. Фонарь. Аптека”.
Infinitival verbal one member sentences: “To think of it!”
Participial verbal one member sentences: “Arrested!”
Infinitival sentences possess their own paradigms:
To love her!
To have loved her!
To be loving her! etc.
Infinitival sentences are usually used for stylistic purposes.
Two member simple sentences may be expanded (having other members besides the subject and predicate) and unexpanded (consisting only of the subject and predicate).
A sentence is based on predication which expresses process, state or quality existing in time. The complexity of a sentence is closely connected with the number of predicative lines. Usually we distinguish primary and secondary predication, the former expressed by the finite form of the verb, the latter – by the non-finites or a noun, or an adjective, or a stative:
I found him to have gone.
I found him sleeping.
I found him changed.
I found him clever.
Expanded simple sentences may have a number of deep structures underlying the surface structure: E.g. “The flowers stood white and desolate” →”The flowers stood”. “The flowers were white and desolate”

17. Classification of sentences based on their structure. Composite sentences

The composite sentence is subdivided into two types: the compound sentence and the complex sentence. Both are polypredicative structures.
The present day tendency is that the compound sentence consists of two or more co-clauses which constitute a syntactical, semantic and communicative whole and are built up on coodination. Clauses are said to be independent of each other. But it is not really so, because when separated, the clauses lose much of their meaning. E.g. Come to Venus early in the morning and you will see a city bathed in a sea of light.
Clauses can be joined asyndetically: Stars were sparkling out there over the river; the sky frostly clear and black.
The most widely used is the conjunction “and” which is polyfunctional. It joins clauses presenting details of one whole: The dew fell and the flowers closed.
The conjunctions “or” and “but” are also polyfunctional: And now I mustn’t talk any more or I shall have to sit up with this all night. I set meat and water beside him (the wolf) but he paid no heed.
A complex sentence is a polypredicative structure built up on the principle of subordination which varies from a clause to a very loose connection with many gradations in between.
The constituents of the complex sentenc