Actual Division of the Sentence

Alongside of the grammatical (sнntactic) division of the sentence into parts naming the basic elements (i.e. the Subject, the Predicate, the Object, the Attribute, the Adverbial Modifier) there exists the so-called Actual Division of the Sentence. It has been recently put forward in theoretical linguistics. The purpose of the ADS is to reveal the significance of the sentence parts from the point of view of their actual informative role in an utterance. In other words, the ADS characterizes the parts of the sentence from the point of view the semantic contribution they make to the total information conveyed by the sentence. The ADS exposes its informative perspective. The main components of the ADS are: the theme and the rheme.

The theme expresses the starting point of communication, i.e. it denotes an object about which smth is reported. The rheme expresses the central informative part of the communication, i.e. the communication center of the sentence.

The theme may or may not coincide with the subject-group of the sentence. The rheme may or may not coincide with the predicate group of the sentence. Ex.: They bicycled together last summer. The elm trees were just beginning to turn green.

The following sentences in which the correlation between the nominative and ADS is reverse. Ex.: Down the frozen river came a sledge drawn by dogs. There was a parking area in the middle of the big square.

The ADS is fully expressed only in a concrete context of speech. That why it is sometimes referred to as the contextual division of the S. Ex.: Driffield accompanied Mrs. Traffold to the door. Taken in isolation, presents an example of the so-called direct ADS: its subject coincides with the theme, and its predicate - with the rheme.

If put into a certain context the sentence may change its direct ADS into the inverted one: the subject expresses the rheme, and the predicate - the theme:

Ex.: Is it true that Gasper Gibbons accompanied her to the door? - Nothing of the kind: Driffield accompanied Mrs. Traffold to the door, not Gibbons.

The identification of the rheme is the main problem since any utterance is produced for the sake of conveying to the listener the meaningful content expressed by the rheme.

The formal means of expressing the distinction between the theme and the rheme are represented by the following structural elements of language:

(a) Special word order (inversion) Ex.: On the right was a small public park with a fountain.

(b) Special intonation contours (rhematic accent). Ex.: Go in. I'll tell Ted, you are here.

(c) Constructions with introducers Ex.: It was Bosinney, who first noticed her. There was no real misunderstanding between Eric and Haviland.

(d) Syntactic patterns of contrastive complexes Ex.: Providing information, not thinking is what computers are capable of.

(e) Constructions with articles and other determiners Ex.[ The boy took us to the physics classroom. vs A boy took us to the physics classroom ] [ This map will do. vs Any map will do ].

(f) Constructions with intensifying particles, when the context may help us to identify the rheme. Ex.: Marry has planted the flowers. I hope Mother has already planted the flowers. I am sure Mary has already planted the flowers.

Language is a mean of expressing thoughts. Reflecting a situation of reality in a sentence the speaker modifies it by his thinking. The ADS is rather important when we translate from English. The matter is that in Russian sentences in written speech the rheme is usually placed at the end of the sentence. But in English we can't follow it because we have a strict word order.

Ex.: It is they who are good students. The vase was broken. A vase was broken. Only the plate was broken.

ADS as a mean of logical stress:

Ex.: Only I spoken to John during the lunch-hour yesterday. Even Mary could manage to do it.

As a means of expressing thoughts sentences actualize judgments about situations reality. The judgment as a category of logic also has its own structure. It includes 2 components: the subject and the predicate of the judgment.

The subject of the judgment is the subject matter or theme of the thought.

The subject-predicate structure of the judgment is reflected in the ADV.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20