General Structure of the Simple Sentence
| Simple Sentence | ||||
| Two-member | One-member | |||
| Complete | Incomplete | Extended | Non-extended | |
| Extended | Non-extended | |||
Sentences are classified into the following types in accordance with the following principles:
1. As for the purpose of utterance:
1) Narrative (Affirmative (утвердительные), Negative (отрицательные)):
All people are created equal.
There are no Jagoes in the world.
2) Interrogative (вопросительные): Do you believe in Man?
3) Exclamatory (восклицательные): Life is life!
4) Imperative (побудительные): Be yourself.
2. As for the meaning / significance of the Subject:
1) Personal: People develop through their mistakes.
2) Impersonal: It is nice world.
3) Indefinitely Personal: There is love in the world.
3. As for the presence of the Main Members:
1) One-member: Night. Summer night.
2) Two-member: Man lives.
4. As for the completeness of the Members:
1) Complete: He is a man now.
2) Incomplete / Elliptical: Has become a man.
5. As for the presence of the Secondary Members:
1) Extended: Life is full of black and white sides.
2) Non-extended: Life is mine.
7.3. Semantics of the Sentence. Relevant Model.
Words denote objects, things, phenomena and the Sentence denotes events.
Semantic units of the Sentence which are the language correspondences of the elements of an event are called Semantic Roles(tab. 8.2).
Table 8.2
Correspondence of Semantic Roles and their syntactic realisation
| Semantic Role (reference to Reality) | Meaning | Syntactic correspondence (Linguistic expression of events of Reality) |
| Agent | An animated object which deliberately, purposefully commits an action | 1. Subject 2. Direct Object |
| Patience | Any object (whether animated or unanimated) an action is directed to | 1. Direct Object 2. Subject |
| Factitive | The result of an action | 1. Direct Object 2. Subject |
| Benefactive | An object for the sake of which an action is committed | 1. Indirect Object 2. Subject |
| Instrument | An instrument an action is committed | Indirect Object |
| Means | How an action is committed | Adverbial Modifier |
| Locative | Where an action is committed | Adverbial Modifier |
For example:
1. Agent.
1). The man has brought a good news (Subject).
2). The news was brought by the man (Object).
2. Patience.
The man has brought a good news (Object).
The news was brought by the man (Subject).
3. Factitive.
The man has wrote a book of poems (Object).
A book of poems was wrote by the man (Subject).
4. Benefactive.
She gave him reasonable advice (Indirect Object).
He was given reasonable advice.
5. Instrument.
He wrote the letter with a pen (Indirect Object).
6. Means.
He wrote the letter thoughtfully (Adverbial Modifier).
7. Locative.
He wrote the letter in the hotel (Adverbial Modifier).
Semantic Roles in this or that way refer to an action (activity, state, existence). The Action is presented and emphasized. If there is no action, there is no cognitive intention to present it in utterance. Thus, Semantic Roles ground the Role Structure of the Verb. It includes all the possible relations (semantic maximum of the Verb) of a concrete verb with other possible components.
For example:
The Role Structure of the verb to show will include the following Semantic Roles:
Main: Agent (Who?), Patience (What?), Benefactive (To whom?); Subordinate: Instrument (Whit what?), Means (How?), Locative (Where?).
He quickly showed her a wound on his left shoulder with the help of his right hand.
He (Agent) quickly (Means) showed her (Benefactive) a wound (Patience) on his left shoulder (Locative) with the help of his right hand (Instrument).
Schematically it (Role Structure) will be presented in the following way:
show [ – Agent, Benefactive, Patience]
In accordance with an event of Reality which is presented in utterance there is an appropriate selection of Semantic Roles of the Verb, which creates a definite Semantic Configuration of a sentence. In the basis of the Sentence there is a certain Semantic Configuration (an organization of a number of semantic roles and the meaning of an action). Semantic Configuration presents semantic minimum of the Sentence.
For example:
The Semantic Configuration of the following sentence will include the following Semantic Roles:
The man cut glass with a diamond.
The man (Agent) cut glass (Patience) with a diamond (Instrument).
Schematically it (Semantic Configuration) will be presented in the following way:
{cut, Agent, Patience, Instrument}
PRACTICE I
Task 1: join the given language elements thus to form sуntagmatic and paradigmatic relations between or among them.
Has been cleaning, meaning, an, has been peeled, beauty, they, girl, potato, he, meaningful, slowly, cleaned, she, the, is peeling, oranges, flat, quickly, we, definitely, to clean, orange, teenager, a, fresh, boy, adult, means, beautiful, have been peeled
For example:
The words ‘boy’, ‘girl’, ‘teenager’, ‘adult’ form a paradigmatic class of nouns that name people of different age and sex.
The words ‘means’, ‘meaning’, ‘meaningful’, ‘meant’ create a paradigm of forms of the word ‘mean’.
The combination ‘an adult meant potato’ form syntagmatic relations of the mentioned words.
Task 2:characterize the given in the task №1 language elements as for their Grammar Meanings, Forms and Categories.
For example:
Has been peeled: can be characterized with:
a) the Grammar Meaning of the Verb (it expresses an action);
b) the Grammar Form of the Present Perfect Simple (have+been+V3), 3rd Person Singular (has), Active Voice (be+V3);
c) the Grammar Categories of the Tense (Present from the choice of Past, Present and Future), Aspect (Perfect Simple from the choice of Simple, Continuous, Perfect Simple and Perfect Continuous) and Voice (Passive from the choice of Active and Passive).
TEST I (teacher’s copy)
The task:match an item from the left column with its explanation given in the right one.
| The Subject of Theoretical Grammar | |||
| Grammar elements | refer to morphemes, words, word-combinations and sentences | ||
| Grammar structure | implies relations and connections among grammar elements or inner organization of the language grammar system | ||
| The subject of English Theoretical Grammar | refers to the study of the English Language grammar organization as a system parts of which are mutually connected with definite relations of different types of complexity (complication, complicacy) | ||
| The main task of Theoretical Grammar | is an adequate systematic (methodic) description of language facts and also their theoretical interpretation | ||
| Practical Grammar | prescribes definite rules for the use of a language (gives instruction for the use of language data, teaches how to speak and write) | ||
| Theoretical Grammar | analyzes language data, interprets them, expound the data but does not give instructions as for the use of them | ||
| Kinds of Theoretical Grammar | |||
| Distributive Grammar | studies relations among syntagmatic elements | ||
| Transformative Grammar | concentrates its attention at the relations among grammar forms | ||
| Logical Grammar | emphasizes connections between grammar categories and categories of thinking | ||
| Situated Grammar | researches relations of signs and non-language objects that are marked with language categories and grammar forms | ||
| Psychological Grammar | brings its attention to the influence of psychology on the use of grammar forms | ||
| Structural (Formal) Theoretical grammar | includes Distributive and Transforming Grammar | ||
| Semantic Theoretical grammar | includes Logical, Psychological and Situated Grammar | ||
| Static method | gives a way to makelanguage facts be brought to light and classified | ||
| Dynamic method | searches how one language facts transfer into other and one grammar forms appear from others | ||
| Main grammar notions. Sintagmatic and paradigmatic relations | |||
| Syntagmatic relations | refer to the ones of contiguity | ||
| Paradigmatic relations | refer to the ones of similarity | ||
| Adjacent language elements | can not replace each other for they belong to the different grammar categories | ||
| Paradigmatic language elements | unite language elements that can replace each other for they belong to a class of elements that has a general similarity. | ||
| Grammar categories | |||
| Grammar Meaning | is a generalized or abstract propriety of a class of words and unites big groups of classes of words | ||
| Grammar Form | refers to a material expression of Grammar Meaning (expression of inflexion) | ||
| Grammar Category | presents a peculiar reflection of reality and cannot include less than two opposite or properly correlated Grammar Forms | ||
| General characteristics of the contemporary English language system | |||
| Synthetic Language | Grammar relations of words are expressed by the forms of these very words. A meaningful word alters and presents its new forms to express grammar relations. | ||
| Analytical Language | A meaningful word is not able to alter. For that other words are used – auxiliaries. They help to express grammar relations or combine words in phrases or sentences. Peculiarity: auxiliary element (auxiliary verb) does not have a lexical meaning; notional verb does have that. | ||
| Eight general characteristics of English | 1) Auxiliaries; 2) Scarcity of flexible forms; 3) Homonymy; 4) Absence of Grammatical Agreement of a noun and an adjective that attributes the noun; 5) Use of the Noun in the Common Case as a prepositional attribute; 6) Formal double complete predicative center; 7) Wide use of the assistant words; 8) Wide development of secondary predicative combinations; 9) Direct word order. | ||
TEST I (S)
The task:match an item from the left column with its explanation given in the right one.
| The Subject of Theoretical Grammar | |||
| Grammar elements | A analyzes language data, interprets them, expound the data but does not give instructions as for the use of them | ||
| Grammar structure | B scribes definite rules for the use of a language (gives instruction for the use of language data, teaches how to speak and write) | ||
| The subject of English Theoretical Grammar | C is an adequate systematic (methodic) description of language facts and also their theoretical interpretation | ||
| The main task of Theoretical Grammar | D implies relations and connections among grammar elements or inner organization of the language grammar system | ||
| Practical Grammar | E refers to the study of the English Language grammar organization as a system parts of which are mutually connected with definite relations of different types of complexity (complication, complicacy) | ||
| Theoretical Grammar | F refer to morphemes, words, word-combinations and sentences | ||
| Kinds of Theoretical Grammar | |||
| Distributive Grammar | G researches relations of signs and non-language objects that are marked with language categories and grammar forms | ||
| Transformative Grammar | H brings its attention to the influence of psychology on the use of grammar forms | ||
| Logical Grammar | I concentrates its attention at the relations among grammar forms | ||
| Situated Grammar | J gives a way to makelanguage facts be brought to light and classified | ||
| Psychological Grammar | K searches how one language facts transfer into other and one grammar forms appear from others | ||
| Structural (Formal) Theoretical grammar | L emphasizes connections between grammar categories and categories of thinking | ||
| Semantic Theoretical grammar | M studies relations among syntagmatic elements | ||
| Static method | N includes Logical, Psychological and Situated Grammar | ||
| Dynamic method | O includes Distributive and Transforming Grammar | ||
| Main grammar notions. Syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations | |||
| Syntagmatic relations | P unite language elements that can replace each other for they belong to a class of elements that has a general similarity. | ||
| Paradigmatic relations | Q can not replace each other for they belong to the different grammar categories | ||
| Adjacent language elements | S refer to the ones of similarity | ||
| Paradigmatic language elements | T refer to the ones of contiguity | ||
| Grammar categories | |||
| Grammar Meaning | U presents a peculiar reflection of reality and cannot include less than two opposite or properly correlated Grammar Forms | ||
| Grammar Form | V is a generalized or abstract propriety of a class of words and unites big groups of classes of words | ||
| Grammar Category | W refrers to a material expression of Grammar Meaning (expression of inflexion) | ||
| General characteristics of the contemporary English language system | |||
| Synthetic Language | X Grammar relations of words are expressed by the forms of these very words. A meaningful word alters and presents its new forms to express grammar relations. | ||
| Analytical Language | Y A meaningful word is not able to alter. For that other words are used – auxiliaries. They help to express grammar relations or combine words in phrases or sentences. Peculiarity: auxiliary element (auxiliary verb) does not have a lexical meaning; notional verb does have that. | ||
| Eight general characteristics of English | Z 1) ________________________________________________; 2) ________________________________________________; 3) ________________________________________________; 4) ________________________________________________; 5) ________________________________________________; 6) ________________________________________________; 7) ________________________________________________; 8) ________________________________________________; 9) ________________________________________________. | ||
PRACTICE I
Main grammar notions