Glossary of lingustic terms

1. base pattern – основная модель

2. transform – результат трансформации

3. propositional, cognitive content – пропозиционное, когнитивное содержание, содержание высказывания

4. kernel - ядерный,

5. paradigmatic – парадигматический, система форм структурной схемы простого предложения. Парадигматика рассматривает единицы языка как совокупности структурных удиниц, связанных отношениями противопоставления, но сопоставляемых друг с другом.

6. clausalization – создание придаточных предложений

7.phrasalization – превращение придаточных предложений в словосочетания с тем же значением

Additional reading:

1. –

2. стр. 209-230

3. стр. 194-208

4. стр. 303-313

5.стр. 337-357

Practical tasks:

18. Build up the transformational model of the sentences:

The girl grew up to become quite a beauty.

We stayed a bit longer and enjoyed it.
XXXIX. Principle parts of sentence. Subject

All the basic sentences consist, first of all, of two immediate constituents: subject and predicate.

In the basic sentence patterns subjects are rather simple, consisting of either a single noun, a noun with its determiner or a pronoun. They can grow much more complicated: nouns can be modified in quite a variety of ways and other syntactic structures can be made subjects in place of nouns or its equivalents.

The subject is one of the two main parts of the sentence. (1) It denotes the thingwhose action or characteristic is expressed by the predicate. (2) It is not dependent on any other part of the sentence. (3) It may be expressed by different parts of speech, the most frequent ones being: a noun in the common case – “Dinner will be ready in a few minutes.”, a personal pronoun in the nominative case – “He can tell stories.”, an indefinite pronoun – “Somebody is singing outdoors.”, a substantivised adjective – “the English are used to their climate.”, a numeral – “Two by two is four.” -, an infinitive – “To see you is always a pleasure.”, and a gerund – “Flying is the fastest means of transportation.”. It may also be expressed by a phrase. Being out in a boat on the river makes you feel happy. For you to go there would mean doing what you must. His having been in business failed all the affair.

The subject is the thing with which the predicate is connected.

Though there is no formal indication of the common case of noun in English, we still should state that the subject can be expressed only by the noun in the common case. The case can be determined by substitution of the noun by the corresponding form of the pronoun: “Men make laws.” The subject is the noun, substituted by the pronoun in the nominative case “they”. In some types of sentence patterns Modern English relies on the word-order arrangement alone. In The hunter killed the bear variation in the order of sentence elements will give us a different subject. English syntax is well known as primarily characterised by "subject — verb — complement" order.

It will be noted, however, that in a good many sentences of this type the subject and the doer of the action are by no means in full correspondence, e.g.: This room sleeps three men, or Such books sell readily.

In cases of inversion it is often the agreement in number with a predicate (which has an evident finite form – is, are, was, were, has) or the lexical relations in the collocation that can help define a subject in the sentence. Formally, the subject is the word that selects the form of the verb.

It is not the form of the subject that the predicate corresponds to in number, but its numerical semantics. When the subject is singular in form, but has the meaning of multitude, the predicate takes the plural form. And, vice versa, when the subject is a coordination of several nouns, united by one meaning, the predicate is in the singular: The staff were very sympathetic about it. (A. J. Cronin); The bread and cheese was presently brought in and distributed [...] (C. Brontë). The choice of the person of the predicate in cases when the person of the subject is not clear in form, is made according to the personal meaning which it has: 'Then it's not your wife who left you; it's you w h o'v e left your wife. (S. Maugham)

Meaning relationships are varied. Subjects can refer to something that is identified, described and classified or located; they may imply something that performs an action, or is affected by action or, say, something involved in an occurrence of some sort. The are classified as

1) The name of the personal subject of the sentence (agent) – The pilot changed his tactics.,

2) Impersonal force (natural force) – The lightning struck the tree.,

3) the object of the action (patient) – The road will be reconstructed.

4) the person, for whom the action is performed (beneficiary) - He had his hair cut.

5) the described object (nominative) - His face looked surprised.,

6) the feature of the person or thing (attributive) – The colour of her cheeks deepened. 7) various modifiers of the action (time, place, etc.) The morning saw them approaching the airport.

In Modern English there are two main types of subject that stand in contrast as opposed to each other in terms of content: the definite subject and the indefinite subject.

Definite subjects denote a thing that can be clearly defined: a concrete object, process, quality, etc., e. g.:

•> (a) Fleur smiled, (b) To defend our Fatherland is our sacred duty, (c) Playing tennis is a pleasure, (d) Her prudence surprised me.

Indefinite subjects denote some indefinite person, a state of thingsor a certain situation, e. g.:

(a) They say. (b) You never can tell, (c) One cannot be too careful, (d) It is rather cold, (e) It was easy to do so.

Languages differ in the forms which they have adopted to express this meaning. In English indefinite subjects have always their formal expression.

Sentences of this type will be found in French: (a) On dit. (b) II fait froid.

Similarly in German: (a) Man sagt. (b) Es ist halt.

In Russian the indefinite subject is expressed by one-member sentences:

Говорят, что погода изменится. Можно предположить, что экспедиция уже закончила свою работу.

Things are specifically different in cases when it and there(here) are used in subject positions as representatives of words or longer units which embody the real content of the subject but are postponed.

It was easy to do so. There are a few mistakes in your paper. There were no seats at all. Here comes the most important period.

It and there (here) in such syntactic structures are generally called anticipatory or introductory subjects.

Introductory it is used with the following models: It (be, look, get, grow) strange, necessary, easy) to V, to VP, to be Part, A (It was strange to be hated., truthful), for N/NP to V/VP, Ving (It’s no use telling him about it.), relative clause It is most pleasant that she has already come.

There in such patterns is often referred to as a function word, and this is not devoid of some logical foundation. It is pronounced with weak or tertiary stress, which distinguishes it from the adverb there having primary or secondary stress. There is sometimes called a temporary subject filling the subject position in place of the true subject, which follows the verb. This interpretation seems to have been borne out by the fact that the verb frequently shows concord with the following noun, as in: There is a botanical garden in our town. There were only three of us.

There comes his joy.

Glossary of linguistic terms:

1. introductory, anticipatory – формальное подлежащее, представляющее логическое подлежащее

2. inversion – инверсия, нестандартное расположение членов предложения

3. agent – агенс, совершающий действие

4. patient – пациенс – объект, на который направлено действие

5. beneficiary - - бенефициарий, объект, для которого совершается действие

6. natural force – природное явление

7.nominative – номинатив, объект описания

Additional reading:

1. стр. 198-200

2. стр. 190-192

3. –

4. –

5. стр. 317-319

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