Problems of Implicit Predication

Formal subordinative relations in composite sentences are sometimes weakened and the second part of the sentence comes to function as an optional element, not necessarily needed to complete the meaning of the first.

Such borderline cases between subordination and coordination will be found, for instance, in syntactic structures with if- clauses which give rather some additional information about the event involved than the condition under which the action is performed. A few typical examples are:

She was pretty, too, if my recollection of her face and person are correct.

In upper and middle classes we're doing it all the time and blinking the moral side, if there is one. (Galsworthy)

That's still the American who counts, especially if you lump in the Dutch and Scandinavians stock Americans like this fellow Hallorsen. (Galsworthy)

If she made a mistake she has paid for it, if ever a woman did. (Doyle)

Related to this are syntactic structures with implicit predication.

The absence of the direct logical relationship between the explicit parts of the composite sentence can suggest the omission of a certain predicative unit in its surface structure. The formal organisation of such a sentence does not reflect the actual syntactic relations of its parts.

In spoken English and literary prose such compression in sentence-structure is fairly common.

A few typical examples are:

..."It's just a crazy old thing," she said. ' I just slip it on sometimes when I don't care what I look like."

"But it looks wonderful on you, if you know what I mean," pursued Mrs. McKee.

"If Chaster could only get you in that pose I think he could make something of it". (Fitzgerald)

...James and the other eight children of "Superior Dosset", of whom there are still five alive, may be said to have represented Victorian England, with its principles of trade and individualism at five per cent and your money back — if you know what that means. (Galsworthy)

...And if it is any satisfaction to you, we are not formally engaged. (Galsworthy)

The predicative unit to which the if- clause would be logically attached is not formally expressed and remains in deep-sense structure:

"...And if it is any satisfaction to you, I can tell you that we are not formally engaged."

Linguistic studies of recent times have made it obvious that the interdependence of the clauses in parataxis is not absolute.

The logical connection of the co-ordinated clauses makes it clear that apparently independent clauses are often not absolutely independent, and one of them implicitly stands in some grammatical relation to the other.

Take, for instance, clauses co-ordinated by the disjunctive or in such composite sentences as:

— ...Are those yours, Mary?

— I don't wear such things... Stop or I'll tell the missis on you. Out half the night. (Joyce) (Stop, if you don't, I'll tell...)

..."Go out. Leave this house, or I'll do you an injury". That fellow to talk of injuries! (Galsworthy) Leave this house! If you don't I'll...)

FINAL REMARKS ON SUBORDINATION

The synsemantic character and overlapping relations observed in va rious types of composite sentences bear immediate relevance to their lexico-grammatical organisation, the potential valency of connectives introducing sub-clauses, in particular. Conjunctions, adverbs and conjunctive phrases perform contained syntactic functions of a remarkable variety of types.

That is well known, for instance, as a clause-marker introducing subject, object, predicative, attributive clauses and adverbial sub-clauses of purpose; in adverbial clauses of result, time, condition and concession that is fairly common as correlated with other pronominal or adverbial words: so... that, for all that, now that, but that.

The use of that is common in emphatic patterns with it is... that.

It is to be noted that the traditional classification of conjunctions into coordinative and subordinative must be taken with some points of reservation. Instances are not few when clauses introduced by subordinative connectives and clauses to which they are joined are equal in their functional level. This is the case, for instance, with descriptive attributive clauses or, say, clauses introduced by the coordinative conjunction for that very often functions as absolutely synonymous with the subordinative because.

In some patterns with the subordinative conjunction though the opposition between hypotaxis and parataxis comes to be neutralised. The conjunction though can introduce independent sentences. Terminal punctuation and initial capital letters will make it clear in the written language.

The potential meaning of a given category is, in fact, the sum of the common parts of its actual meanings in various contexts of use. An attempt to identify some potential meaning without considering all the actual occurrences of the category will be futile.

Certain specialised parts of actual meanings are not covered by a potential meaning statement, although in characterising the distributional value of a given category these parts are just as significant as the more general components.

It is also important to remember that not all the general potential meaning of a category will be relevant in each occurrence.

This, however, must be taken with much reservation, for indeed it is hardly possible to make potential meaning statements that would apply to each occurrence of a certain category. The meaningful segmentations may vary from sentence to sentence.

A distinction that is relevant to one occurrence of the pattern may sometimes have no bearing at all on another use.

Borderline cases will be found in clauses introduced by the conjunctive word while used in some contexts with the implication of contrast rather than temporal relations.

Difficulties of grammatical analysis sometimes arise in sentences with the coordinative conjunctions yet and so.

Variation in the functional level of clauses introduced by such connectives is always signalled by the lexico-grammatical organisation of the whole sentence, the meaning of the connective word itself, in particular. What may sometimes be ambiguous in the written language is made clear in spoken language by the terminal pauses of intonation which will always show how the components of the utterance group themselves in each context.

ASYNDETON

There is another type of syntactic addition which gets along without any connection at all. Clauses juxtaposed in this way are not attached to one another in any grammatical way, they simply abut against each other, they make contact but are not connected. Grammar books differ in identifying the linguistic essence of such syntactic structures. According to the traditional angle of view, they are classified in most languages into compound and complex sentences.

A different approach is found in N. S. Pospelov's ¹ treatments of asyndeton in Russian syntax where asyndetic sentences are viewed as a special syntactic category with no immediate relevance to subordination or coordination.

¹ H. С. Поспелов. О грамматической природе и принципах классификации бессоюзных сложных предложений. «Вопросы синтаксиса современного русского языка». 1956, pp. 338—345.

This angle of view has been taken also in other books and work-papers on this specialised topic. ¹

The multiplicity of ways in which asyndetic sentences are formed in many if not all languages gives, however, every reason to say that sentence-patterns of this type in all the variety of their lexico-grammatical organisation can hardly be adequately described on the whole as irrelevant to subordination and coordination.

Our survey of asyndeton in Modern English with its own semantic traits and features of syntactic arrangement gives sufficient evidence to point out that in some types of asyndetic composite sentences subordinate relations are quite prominent.

The first to be mentioned here are patterns with the attributive clauses, sometimes referred to as "contact-clauses", because what characterises them is the close contact between the antecedent and the clause, e. g.:

You don't care about them! They're not the gimcrack things you and your friends like, but they cost me seventy pounds!" (Galsworthy)

It's a pretty large thing I'm going on to and I'll need a lot of clever medical advice. (Cronin)

That the criterion of subordination is relevant to asyndetic sentences may well be illustrated by object and conditional clauses. Examples are:

He knew there were important ideas working in the other man's mind. (Cronin)

Old Jolyon said he would wait... (Galsworthy)

I'm afraid there's no doubt about it. (Galsworthy)

Had I been a mere clod, neither would I have desired to write nor would you have desired me for a husband. (London)

Observe also the following examples of asyndeton where the close contact between two clauses is suggestive of causal relations:

Timothy was very poorly, he had had a lot of trouble with the chimney sweep in his bedroom; the stupid man had let the soot down the chimney. (Galsworthy)

" Why, yes", she answered, as the music stopped, trying to keep an even tone to her voice. She was glad they were walking toward a chair. (Dreiser)

In other types of asyndetic composite sentences the meaning of result or consequence is quite prominent, e. g.:

Warmth, softness, light, a sweet scent, all those things so familiar to her she never even thought about them, she watched that other receive. (Mansfield)

She had put on so much weight he would scarcely recognise her. (Cronin)

Asyndetic sentences are fairly common after the introductory it is, e. g.:

¹ See: Грамматика русского языка, т. 2, ч. 2, 1954, pp. 382—384. Л. П. Зайцева. Типы бессоюзных сложных предложений в современном английском языке. Автореферат канд. дисс, Л., 1955.

It is an apple she wants, not a pear.

A similar case is found in patterns like: What is this I hear?

As can be seen from the above examples the semantic relations between clauses are signalled only by the lexical meaning of the words making up the sentence. And this is one more example to illustrate the interaction between vocabulary and syntax which must never be overlooked in grammatical analysis.

A word will be said about asyndetic sentences in which the relative pronoun as a subject can be dispensed with (the so-called "apokoinou" principle).

"There's a gentleman downstairs wishes to see the lady", said Alderson. "It's her father, I think", he added quietly. (Dreiser)

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