XXVI. Sentence and phrase as the main objects of syntax

Syntax treats phrases and sentences. The phrase is a combination of two or more words which is a grammatical unit but is not an analytical form of a word.

The sentence is the immediate integral unit of speech built up of words according to definite syntactic pattern and distinguished by a contextually relevant communicative purpose (functional difference). The difference between the phrase and the sentence is fundamental: the phrase is a nominative unit (значимая единица), denoting a complex referent (phenomenon of reality), which can be a concrete thing, an action, a quality, or a whole situation (a picturesque village, to start with a joke, extremely difficult, the unexpected arrival of the chief). The phrase is further analyzable into its component elements with various relations between them. They (syntactic relations) will be one of the objects of our study of syntax. Phrases can be of a stable type and of free type. The stable phrases or phraseological units form the phraseological part of the lexicon, and are studied by the phraseological division of lexicology. Free phrases are built up in the process of speech on the existing productive models, which are another object of our study of syntax. Phrases are used as a notional part of the sentence (subject, object, predicate, attribute, adverbial modifier, parenthesis). So, above the word in the lingual hierarchy are notional parts of the sentence, which can be formed by phrases, or by separate notional words.

The difference between a phrase and a sentence is a fundamental one. A phrase is a means of naming some phenomena or processes, just as a word is. Each component of a phrase can undergo grammatical changes in accordance with grammatical categories represented in it, without destroying the identity of the phrase. For instance, in the phrase write letters the first component can change according to the verbal categories of tense, mood, etc., and the second component according to the category of number. Thus, writes a letter, has written a letter, would have written letters, etc., are grammatical modifications of one phrase.

With a sentence, things are entirely different. A sentence is a unit with every word having its definite form. A change in the form of one or more words would produce a new sentence. It must also be borne in mind that a phrase as such has no intonation, just as a word has none. Intonation is one of the most important features of a sentence, which distinguish it from a phrase.

The sentence is a unit of predication (difference in form) which shows the relation of the process, described as action, to reality (difference in meaning). When we transform the sentence so, that it loses the predication, we get a phrase: Yesterday I received a present from my sister. – My yesterday’s receiving a present from my sister. So, the sentence as a lingual unit performs not one, but two essential functions: substance-naming, or nominative function; and reality-evaluating, or predicative function.

Predication is relation of the utterance to reality as the base of the sentence. Grammar means of expressing predication are the categories of finite forms of verbs (tense, person, mood).

Each sentence as the immediate speech element has some standard syntactico-semantic features which make up a typical model, a generalized pattern repeated in an indefinite number of actual utterances. Those sentence structure patterns are one more object of our study of syntax.

But the sentence is not the highest unit of the language in the hierarchy of levels. Above is the level of super-sentenial constructions, which are formed by separate sentences united into topical groupings. These sentence-groups are distinguished by its micro-topical part of the continual text. In the printed text they coincide with paragraphs.

Glossary of lingustic terms:

1. nominative unit – значимая единица

2.complex reference – обозначение сложного объекта

3. communicative purpose – цель общения

4.phrase - словосочетания

5.stable phrase – устойчивое словосочетание

6. lingual hierarchy – языковая иерархия

7.super-sentenial constuction – сверхфразовое единство

8.paragraph – абзац

Additional reading:

1. стр. 171-172

2. стр. 100-104

3. –

4. стр. 247 – 248

5. стр. 245 – 247

Practical tasks:

13. Transform the following phrases into sentences:

- sanity and rationality of her behaviour,

- the existence of gypsy curses,

- a man, paying no attention

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14