Parts of a sentence

Parts of a sentence are traditionally divided into principal (subject and predicate) and secondary (object, adverbial modifier, attribute). It is through the relations between the subject and the predicate that predicativity (the main feature of any sentence) is expressed.

Both principal and secondary parts of a sentence may be expressed at different structural levels of a syntactic system which forms a hierarchy. This hierarchy of levels may be compared to a multi-storeyed pyramid in which the top point is a complete sentence and lower storeys are occupied by syntactic units of lower status. E.g.:

(5) Sentence level: I see ( a principal clause)

(4) Clause level: I see that she is running (an object clause);

(3) Predicative construction level: I see her running (a complex object);

(2) Phrase (word-group) level: I see my sister (an object expressed by a noun-phrase)

(1) Word level: I see her (an object expressed by a word).

All parts of a sentence may be expressed at a word level (1), phrase (word-group) level (2), predicative construction level (3) and clause level (4).

Thus there are simple (levels 1 and 2) subjects, predicatives, objects, adverbial modifiers and attributes, complex (level 3) subjects, predicatives, objects, adverbial modifiers and attributes; and (level 4) subject, predicative, object, adverbial and attributive clauses.

§ Parts of a sentence expressed at levels 1, 2 and 3 make up simple sentences with only one unit of finite predication.

§ Sentences having their parts expressed by clauses (level 4) are complex because they contain more than one unit of finite predication.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-19