English Sentence Structure and Phrase Types: A Comprehensive Analysis
1. English Phrases
Every phrase is a combination of at least two words, which enter into certain relations, but these relations do not comprise a grammatical form. Structuralists Bloomfield and Hockett divide phrases into two definite types: endocentric phrases and exocentric phrases. This distinction, which is made on the basis of their respective distributional properties, defines the whole sum of every linguistic environment in which a certain element of the language can appear. Because of this, in endocentric phrases, there is distributional equivalence, which means that the whole phrase can be represented by one of its elements, the so-called head of the phrase. The endocentric phrase and the head of this phrase have one and the same syntactic function in a sentence. However, in exocentric phrases, there exists complementary distribution between the phrase and its constituents. In this case, the phrase differs from its elements on a syntactic level. None of the constituents of the phrase can replace it.
Endocentric phrases are classified into two other groups: subordinate and coordinate phrases. Subordinate phrases are composed of a head and an attribute, and they can be noun phrases (NP) or verb phrases (VP) with intransitive verbs. According to the position of the head (H) and its attributes (A), the phrases fall into four types: AH (big house), HA (house at the beach), AHA (last man to come), HAH (must always help). Coordinate phrases are divided into: additive (mother and father), alternative (cat or dog), other (neither brother nor sister), appositive (uncle John, doctor Brown).
Exocentric phrases fall into three groups: directive, connective, and predicative. All of them have a binary structure. However, directive phrases are subdivided into objective phrases with types 1, 2, 3, 4: type 1 (verb + object: read a book), type 2 (verb + nexus (non-finite VP): stop crying), type 3 (verb + clause: made her cry), and type 4 (verb + two objects: give him the keys); prepositional phrases (preposition + NP: in the box); and conjunctive phrases (conjunction + clause: after he goes). All these directive phrases have a director and an axis. In the first case, the objective phrases, the director is a transitive verb and the axis is an object to this verb. With the prepositional phrases, the director is the preposition and the NP is the axis. The conjunction is the director and the clause is the axis with the conjunctive phrase. The second big group is of the connective phrases. They consist of a link verb and a complement: e.g., in beautiful; is a student. Last but not least are predicative phrases, which are equational, transitive, and intransitive. They depend on the verb of the sentence.
2. The Sentence: Definition, Characteristic Features, Classification
There are different ideas of what exactly the sentence is. However, the traditional definition of the sentence is that it is the smallest linguistic unit, which expresses a complete thought and it has a definite grammatical form. The sentence has the following characteristic features. The first one is predicativity, which is the main structural feature of the sentence. It corresponds to an act of thinking, in which the subject of thought combines predicatively with its characteristics and this results in a thought. Grammatically, it is expressed by the tense, person, and modality. For example: The water is clear.; The weather must have been great. The second one is modality, which is a semantic feature of the sentence. Modality refers to the relation between a statement and reality. Usually, it is expressed through modal words and expressions. The sentence is intonationally delimited. The intonation, which can be either rising or falling, is a major difference between sentences and the words and phrases outside the sentence. The next one is the binary structure; the sentence has main and secondary parts. The last one is the information structure of the sentence. This feature divides the sentence into theme and rheme, or topic and comment. The old information in the sentence is the theme, and the new one is the rheme.
Sentences are classified according to several principles. According to the types of communication, there are four types: declarative sentences (they give information and state facts: e.g., The weather is cold.); interrogative sentences (they ask for some kind of information: e.g., How old are you? Do you like cats?); imperative sentences (they give commands or requests: e.g., Don’t smoke in the house.); and exclamatory sentences (which express strong feelings by making an exclamation: e.g., She absolutely loves this song!). According to the sentence structure, they are simple and composite. The simple sentence contains only one subject-predicate group, while the composite one contains more than one subject-predicate group. The simple sentences can be extended (with main and secondary parts) and unextended (only with main parts of the sentence). The composite sentences fall into compound (with two or more independent clauses or sentences, which are joined by means of coordination) and complex (with one independent clause and at least one dependent or the so-called subordinate clause). And the last criterion is the number of the main parts. On one hand, we have one-member sentences (e.g., Fire!), which don’t have another main part and it could not be supplied. On the other hand, we have two-member sentences, which have a word or phrase which denotes the doer of the action and another word or phrase to denote the action (e.g., Tom smiled.).
3. The Simple Sentence: Basic Patterns of Sentence Structure
A simple sentence is a sentence with only one independent clause. It contains one subject-predicate group, but it can be extended with other parts of the sentence: an object (O), a complement (C), and an adverbial (A). Depending on the verb and its complementation, there are eight basic syntactic types of the sentence. Verbs fall into stative and dynamic, which can be either intensive or extensive. If they take a subject complement (Cs), they are always intensive. Stative extensive verbs are transitive, or monotransitive, because they take only a direct object (Od). Dynamic extensive verbs are also transitive, but they can be mono-, ditransitive, or complex transitive, which means that the verbs take a direct (Od), indirect object (Oi; Oprep), and object complement (Co). Dynamic extensive verbs can also be intransitive.
The eight basic patterns of the sentence are:
- S + stative intensive V + A of place: He is in Sofia.
- S + stative intensive V + Cs: He is a teacher.
- S + stative extensive transitive V + Od: She heard the explosion.
- S + dynamic intensive V + Cs: She became angry.
- S + dynamic extensive monotransitive V + Od: She ate an apple.
- S + dynamic extensive ditransitive V + Oi + Od: He gave her a present.
- S + dynamic extensive complex transitive V + Od + Co: He referred to him as a chairman.
- S + dynamic extensive intransitive V: She came.
All these patterns can be expanded by the addition of optional adverbials of time, place, or process.
Besides these eight basic patterns, there are four additional:
- S + stative extensive ditransitive V: He owes me lots of money.
- S + stative extensive complex transitive V: She thinks him a fool.
- S + dynamic extensive transitive V + obligatory Am of place: She put the book on the table.
- S + dynamic extensive intransitive V + obligatory Am (any): She is living temporarily in London.
4. The Main Parts of the Sentence: The Subject
A subject is one of the main parts of the sentence which is independent from the others. It determines a concord with the predicate. In inflectional languages, the subject is in the nominative case. It denotes the thing in the widest sense of the word. The subject is characterized by the predicate in terms of its action, state, or quality. For instance, The car stopped. (shows an action); The dog is lying on the floor. (expresses a state); and The ring is gold. (a quality).
On a morphological level, the subject is presented in eight different ways. The first one is when the subject is a noun (e.g., The girl is beautiful.). Then, it is used a pronoun as a subject (She is beautiful.). Numerals also have this function (Three were shocked.; The second was an old lady.). Substantivized adjectives and participles with articles also play the role of the subject. For example, The rich are unhappy.; The enslaved had an awful life. It follows an infinitive or an infinitive phrase (To go for a walk is wonderful.). A gerund and a gerundial phrase can also be subjects (Seeing is understanding.). Of course, any word which is substantivized can function as a subject (“In” is a preposition.). Last but not least, every clause, no matter if it is subject, infinitive, or subordinate one, can be used as a subject. For example, That she is amazing is clear.; Who you don’t like is not my business.
However, the pronoun it can be used as a subject in different ways. When the subject is a clause and it is pushed at the end of the sentence, the anticipatory it takes the empty position in the beginning. Usually, after it follows verbs like be and seem. For example, It is clear that she is amazing. We use impersonal it to express natural phenomena like, It was a lovely summer evening.; with expressions of time (It is 10 o’clock.); and with expressions of distance (It is a four-hour drive to Berlin.). The demonstrative it is used as a subject when it points out a person or a thing, which in the sentence is realized as a subject complement.
In the English language, there is also a so-called pseudo-subject there. It is used in existential sentences, which have a real subject, but in a later position. The pseudo-subject has no meaning. It is used with verbs of existence, appearance, and motion, such as to be, appear, seem, come, etc. For instance, There came a stranger to the town.
The subject is also classified on a semantic level. This classification of the subject is based on the general semantic roles of the sentence. According to it, we can distinguish seven different types of subjects. The first one is the agent or agentive subject that expresses the doer of the action and it denotes an animate entity (John came.). The instrumental subject is inanimate and it causes the event (The key opened the door.). The affected one is in a state or suffers (He is lying.). The recipient subject possesses something (She has a car.). The locative one designates a place or a state (Plovdiv is rainy today.). The temporal subject denotes the time. Usually, it is expressed by an adverbial of time or NP (Today is sunny.). The last comes the eventive subject that means an event (The examination is tomorrow.).
5. The Predicate and the Predicative
The predicate is the second main part of the sentence and it denotes an action, a state, or a quality of the thing expressed by the subject. In certain cases, it agrees with the subject in person, number, and tense.
According to the structure of the predicates, we distinguish two types: simple and compound. According to their morphological realization, they are verbal and nominal. Depending on these two criteria, there are the following types of predicates. A simple verbal predicate consists of only one verb form which can be in any of the tenses and in active and passive voice (e.g., He reads a book every evening.; The window was broken.). A simple nominal predicate contains only a nominal phrase which is a noun or an adjective. It is used without any verb (e.g., A lovely day!). A simple phraseological predicate contains a verb of high frequency, which lost its original meaning. After this verb, we always have an indefinite noun, which is also called a verbal noun. This noun is not an object to the verb. This type of predicate expresses a momentary action. Such examples are Give a smile!, Take a look!, Pay attention!, etc.
A compound verbal predicate is a combination of two separate verb forms. The first has a more general meaning, either modal or aspective, and the second carries the lexical meaning of the predicate. Due to these criteria, we divide compound verbal predicate into compound verbal modal predicate and compound verbal aspective predicate. The first type, compound verbal modal predicate, the first verb carries the grammatical categories of person, number, and tense, and the second, the lexical meaning, it specifies the action. This type of combination is between a modal verb and an infinitive (can go, must come); to be as a modal and infinitive (they are to come); have as a modal and infinitive (we have to go); a full lexical verb with modal meaning and infinitive or gerund (want to go, can’t help doing). In the second type, compound verbal aspective predicate the first verb is with a general meaning. It denotes the beginning, the duration, or the end of the action. The second verb is a full one in infinitive or gerund. For instance, He began to work.; She started laughing. The next type of predicate is a compound nominal predicate that consists of a link verb and a subject complement. The subject complement is used to characterize or identify the subject. We distinguish some different link verbs. They are of being (be, sound, seem: He is a student., That sounds nice.); of passing into a new state (become, grow, turn: He became a student.); of remaining (remain, stay, keep: She stayed calm.); of seeming or appearing (seem, appear, look: He seemed tired.). Some of the link verbs lost their lexical meaning when they became link verbs. But sometimes this doesn’t happen and in these cases, we have a double predicate (She married young., He died young.).
Summarizing all the predicate types mentioned above, we can say that there are also mixed types of predicates: compound modal nominal predicate, compound aspective nominal predicate, compound aspective modal predicate.
The predicative is an element of the predicate of a sentence which supplements the subject or object by means of the verb.
We distinguish three types of predicative according to their degree of connection to the link verb: true, supplementary, and extrapositional one. The strongest connection between the link verb and the predicative is with the true predicatives. They cannot be dropped without destroying the grammaticality of the sentence or changing the meaning of the link verb. Such verbs are be and fall. For instance, He is a teacher. Supplementary predicatives are double ones. They don’t have a really strong connection with the link verbs. Due to this, if we drop the predicative, the meaning of the sentence doesn’t change. For example, He died young. and He died. (the result is the same). Extrapositional predicatives have a really weak connection with the link verb. They are detached from the link verb by another part of a sentence or of a comma. For instance, She reached her goal, exhausted but happy.
According to the meaning of the predicatives, they are divided into predicatives of being and of becoming. The first group indicates a permanent quality of the subject (He is a father.). The second group indicates a new quality of the subject (Mary became a doctor.).
6. Subject-Predicate Agreement
Agreement or concord is a relationship between two grammatical elements. If one of these elements has a certain feature, then the other must have it too. The most significant kind of agreement in English is the concord in number between the subject and verb. Due to this, we differ three types of concord: grammatical, notional, and proximity.
The grammatical concord is the most important one. The rule stipulates that a singular subject requires a singular verb. For example, The dog is barking., The windows were open. In this case, the plurality is based on the grammatical marker “s”.
The notional concord is based on our idea, not on the basis of the grammatical marker for number. This subject may formally be in the plural, but the verb will be in the singular. The opposite is also possible. For instance, Linguistics is hard.; Measles is a disease. In these cases, “s” is no longer a marker for plurality. Notional concord is also applied with collective nouns such as family, government, crowd, etc. These nouns can be used either in singular or plural. However, it will have a slight difference in the meaning. When we use a collective noun with a verb in the plural, we mean all its members. On the other hand, when this collective noun is used with a verb in the singular, we consider it as one whole entity, as a single thing. For example, The public was enormous. and The public were enormous. Both are possible but they have different meanings.
The last type of concord is proximity. It refers to agreement between the verb and the noun or pronoun, which is closest to it, and not between the subject noun when we have a phrasal subject. For example, No one but his friends support him. This type of agreement is used mostly in everyday English.
Part of the subjects arises some difficulties. When the subject is coordinate, it consists of two or more nouns, which are connected with conjunction, we have appositional and non-appositional coordination. The appositional one is used when the first and the second noun refer to the same entity or person and we have a verb in the singular. The non-appositional, the two nouns refer to separate entities and the verb in this case is in the plural. For instance, Jim and Tom are coming. (here we have non-appositional coordination). However, in the sentence The headmaster and my very best friend are/is coming., there is ambiguity, because we cannot be sure whether the person is one or they are two separate people.
There are also some troubles with the disjunctive coordination either/or. The number of the verb depends on the number of the nouns. If both nouns are in the singular, then the verb is also in the singular (e.g., Either the woman or her husband is coming.). If both nouns are in the plural, then the verb is in the plural, too (e.g., Either the children or the dogs broke the vase.). However, if one of the nouns is in the singular and the other is in the plural, then we apply proximity; whichever noun is closest, it determines the number of the verb. For instance, Either my friends or I am going out tonight.; Either I or my friends are going out tonight.
We can use both singular and plural with coordinated abstract nouns (e.g., Your fairness and kindness are/is amazing.). The usage of some, any, and none depends on the type of the noun. When we have a countable noun, we have a plural verb. For example, Some books were lost. However, with an uncountable noun, we use a verb in the singular (e.g., Some coffee is spilled on the table.). When we use either and neither without coordination, the verb is in the singular. For instance, The relatives have come and either is welcome.
7. The Secondary Parts of the Sentence: The Object
Objects are secondary parts of the sentence. They refer to a finite verb, which is the main predicate in the sentence. Objects complete, restrict, or modify in any other way the meaning of the verb. However, they can also refer to a non-finite verb (infinitive, gerund, or participle) in any of their functions in the sentence.
Morphologically the object is realized in seven different ways. The first one is with a proper or common noun (Tom bought a new house.). Then it can be a pronoun (He met her at school.). The numerals have also this function (They found the three at the airport.). It follows the substantive adjectives (She hates the rich.). The infinitives and infinitive phrases also have this function (She promised to come to the party.). Gerund and gerundial phrases (She started laughing.). And the last one is the objective clause (I want to know what you are doing here.).
Syntactically objects are divided into two main groups: direct and indirect objects. Which one we should use depends on the type of the verb. However, ditransitive verbs receive two objects. If there is an indirect object in the sentence, there must also have a direct one. The prepositional and complex objects are neither direct nor indirect.
A direct object expresses something directly involved in the verbal action. It falls into the following semantic types. The most popular one is the affected direct object which indicates a participant in the action that is affected by it. It can denote both an animate and inanimate entity (e.g., He criticized his son.; Tom broke the glass.). The effected direct object is the result of the verbal action. It shows something which exists because of the verbal action. For instance, He painted a picture. Locative direct objects are realized by nouns that denote places (e.g., She cleaned the room.). Cognate direct objects are connected with the verb. Both have one and the same root (She is singing a song.; He died a heroic death.). The last direct objects are of existence and measure. They are realized by phrases which express some kind of measure. They are not typical objects. For example, The dress cost 25 pounds.; He ran a mile.
An indirect object denotes the person towards whom the action of the verb is perspectivized. This person has the semantic role of the recipient in the sentence. For instance, She gave him a book. If the indirect object is inanimate, it is one of the types mentioned above, but as an indirect one, not a direct. For example, She gave the table a strong push. In this case, in contrast to the previous example, the table is also an indirect object, but an affected one.
Prepositional objects are morphologically realized by a prepositional phrase. Indirect objects can easily become a prepositional one (e.g., She gave a book to him.). Nevertheless, some verbs always require a prepositional object. Such verbs are look at, listen to, etc. These prepositional objects can be confused with adverbial modifiers. For instance, I finished the task with my friend. (prepositional object), but I finished the task with great enthusiasm. (adverbial modifier).
The complex object consists of two parts: the first is a noun, a noun phrase, or a pronoun as an object and the second is an infinitive, both bare and “to”, a gerund, or a present or past participle. For example, I saw her coming.; I hate him asking so many questions.
8. The Attribute; Apposition
The attribute is a secondary part of the sentence which modifies and characterizes the noun in terms of quality or property. This noun is called the antecedent. The antecedent can have any syntactic function in the sentence, such as subject, object, adverbial, etc., which means that the attribute can be found anywhere in the sentence and it is the least fixed secondary part. The syntactic relation between the attribute and antecedent is intensive.
There are two types of attributes according to their position to the antecedent: prepositive and postpositive. Prepositive attributes are placed before the antecedent, e.g., an interesting book, a new house; while the postpositive attributes are after their antecedent: a book on syntax, time in memorial, blood royal.
According to the meaning of the attributes, they may be restrictive and non-restrictive. This depends on the context. Restrictive attributes single out one object or person from a group of similar objects or people. They identify it/him as unique. For example, His ambitious friend works hard. The non-restrictive attribute only adds additional information to the antecedent. For instance, His beloved father is coming today.
Morphologically prepositive attributes are realized by an adjective (his wonderful wife); present participle (his crumbling cottage); past participle (his beloved mother); noun (her coffee table); adverbial phrase (her near house); and a clause (his pop-down-for-the-weekend house).
Postpositive attributes are also realized by different parts of the speech. They are represented by a present participle phrase or clause (the dog barking next door); past participle phrase or clause (the car repaired today); infinitive phrase or clause (the next plane to arrive); prepositional phrase (the road to Sofia); single adjective (blood royal); adjectives with prefix a- (the house ablaze); adjectives with suffix –ble (darkness impenetrable); adjective phrases (a room large enough); and a subordinate clause (the man, who came yesterday).
The apposition is also a secondary part of the sentence. This is a syntactic relationship between sentence units, which are on the same level. The two elements, which are found in apposition, are called appositives. They have an intensive relation and are correferential.
The apposition can be defined in three ways. It can be full or partial, strict or weak, and restrictive or non-restrictive. When we have full apposition, the two appositives have the same syntactic function in the sentence and if we drop one of these elements, the idea will remain the same (e.g., Brown, my boss, is on the phone.). While when we have partial apposition, the appositives have different syntactic functions in the sentence, we can omit only the apposition if we want to have a correct sentence (e.g., Peter, at that time a young doctor, was very happy.).
With strict apposition, we use only noun units, which belong to one and the same syntactic class (e.g., Football, his greatest ambition in life.). With weak apposition, the appositives are from different syntactic classes (e.g., Playing football, his greatest ambition in life.).
When we have restrictive apposition, the second appositive serves to identify or define the person or object, denoted by the first appositive, while with non-restrictive, the second appositive simply states something about the first one. The restrictive apposition is found in the following forms. The first appositive is with a definite article and more general in meaning and the second is more specific and in most cases is a proper name (e.g., the singer Tom Johns). The second form is when the first appositive is a proper name, again more specific, and the second one is with the definite article and more general (e.g., Tom Johns the singer). The last one is when the first appositive is more general and there is no article before it, and the second one is a proper name (e.g., singer Tom Johns). Some geographical names are found in apposition: Mount Everest, the Black Sea, New York City. But the names of some rivers can be found either in apposition or in attribute. For example, the river Thames (apposition), but the Thames river (attribute).
The semantic relations in a non-restrictive apposition are equivalence, attribution, inclusion, and substitution. The equivalence is also subdivided into appellation (when both NPs are definite and the second is a proper name, e.g., The company manager, Mr. Brown); identification (the first NP is indefinite and the second, a proper name, e.g., a company manager, Mr. Brown); designation (the second appositive is less specific, e.g., Mr. Brown, the company manager); and reformation (the second appositive rewords the first one, e.g., Occultists, in other words, eye-doctors). We have attribution when the second appositive asserts, qualifies, or characterizes the first one. The second can be represented with a relative sentence. For instance, The house, a large and beautiful building. The inclusion is subdivided into two types: exemplification, when we may insert “for example”, “for instance” (e.g., they visited several cities, for example, Berlin and Dresden); and particularization, when we may insert phrases such as “in particular”, “especially”, etc., e.g., The children love animals in the zoo, especially the lions. The last type of non-restrictive apposition is substitution. It can be either anticipatory identification or postponed identification. In the first case, the NP is situated initially and it appears again later in the sentence, but represented by a noun (e.g., Your wife Mary, I saw her yesterday.). In the second case, the first appositive is a pronoun and later in the sentence appears the NP, e.g., It was horrible, that play.
9. The Adverbial Modifier
The adverbial modifier is a secondary part of the sentence, which refers mainly to the predicate verb or to the whole sentence. Occasionally, it modifies an adjective or an adverb. It characterizes an action or property in terms of its quality or intensity. It also indicates the way an action takes place. The adverbial modifier is classified on a semantic basis according to its meaning. Due to this, there are adverbial modifiers of place and direction (They are going to London.); of time and frequency (At 2 o’clock yesterday I met her.); of manner (They were waiting patiently.); of degree (I love you very much.); of cause and reason (The plane didn’t arrive on time because of the weather.); of a purpose, which is realized by infinitive of purpose (On his way home he stopped to buy milk.); of a result, again expressed by an infinitive, but with negative implication (She was too fond of the child to leave it.); of condition (In case of your absence, I will leave him out.); of concession (Despite his ignorance, he was promoted.); of comparison (He looked as if startled.); of subsequent events (She turned to see him.); and of exclusion and substitution (No one knows what happened but he.).
Morphologically adverbial modifiers are expressed in several different ways. The first is with adverbs (They visit this city very often.). Then, with a noun phrase (Last week he visited me.). It follows a prepositional phrase (I am staying at a new hotel.). Adverbial clauses, which are also subordinate ones, can also be adverbial modifiers (When they saw the result, they were shocked.). The absolute constructions, which are a participle with its own subject, also express adverbial modifiers (The children playing in the garden, their mothers were free for shopping.). Infinitive phrases also represent adverbial modifiers (He studied hard to take the exam.). The last way through which adverbial modifiers can be expressed is with a noun (She waited an hour before went on.).
Every adverbial modifier refers to some part of the sentence. Depending on this we have a head word of the adverbial modifier. This special word can be the verb (I strongly advise you to go.); the adjective (He was extremely happy.); the adverb (She feels very well here.); or the whole sentence. In the last case, the adverbial modifier is separated by a comma (Usually, they dinner out twice a week.).
Adverbial modifiers are divided into two groups according to their integration within the sentence or clause. The first group is of the integrated adverbial modifiers or so-called adjuncts. They refer to some part of the sentence: verb, adjective, and adverb. For example, I personally went to the meeting. However, the peripheral adverbial modifiers or so-called disjuncts or conjuncts refer to the sentence as a whole. The first subtype of this group is a disjunct. It gives a comment from the speaker to the whole sentence. For instance, Personally, I don’t like her. The other subtype, the conjunct, has a connective function with something which is already mentioned (All in all, I had an amazing day.). The disjunct and conjuncts are always separated by a comma.
10. English Word Order
The word order is the horizontal, sequsacious agreement of the words, which is discussed from two different perspectives – functional and formal. The functional is determined by the general principles, which are not specifically linguistic. The formal perspective concerns the structure of the sentence or how actually the words follow one another. It is more formal and according to this principle, English is SVO language.
The first two general principles are adjacency and precedence. They are closely connected with each other and work together. The adjacency between two words is important for the correct syntactic interpretation. While for the principle of precedence is important which word comes first and which follows. For example, garden flower and flower garden, in the first case the attribute is garden, but in the second – flower. Due to this, the meaning of these two phrases is different. Next is the heavier elements principle according to which the longer phrases or the so-called heavier elements tend to be placed toward the end of the sentence. This principle is found in extra position of the subject. For instance, It is obvious that he is unhappy. Then follows the principle of the rhythm and emphasis, after which longer phrases appear at the end of the sentence – e.g. It’s okay, said the old lady with a dog. Another principle, which is important for the English word order, is the topicalisation. This means that elements, which are secondary parts of the sentence, but they are the topic of the discussion, tend to come first in the sentence – in initial position. For example, She received a letter. That letter she opened today. In natural speech the normal communicative order is theme and rheme. The last principle, which is very strong in English and which is connected with the formal perspective, is the grammatical one. It determines the syntactic positions in the sentence. For instance, both sentences – The hunter killed the tiger. and The tiger killed the hunter. – are correct, but they have totally different meaning.
The word order is connected to the inversion. It can be either direct or inverted. According to the communicative word order, we have direct, when the theme comes first and the rheme second, and inverted – when it is opposite – the first is the rheme and then it comes the theme. According to the structure or the grammatical word order, again it is direct and inverted. The direct one is when the subject is first and it follows the predicate verb, and the inverted one – the predicate verb is in initial position and then is the subject.
There are several types of inversion. The first one is full, when the whole predicate is placed before the subject. We have full inversion with verbs to be, to have, and verbs of motion – e.g. Came frightful days of cold and frost.; Are you coming? Partial inversion appears when only a part of the predicate, usually an auxiliary verb, moves before the subject – Do you eat fish?; the next type of inversion is functional. It indicates that the sentence is not declarative. It is used in questions, optative sentences, and conditional sentences which begin with should, have, and were. For instance, Long live the Queen!, Should you go there, tell me! Then we have dislocational inversion, which involves shifting of a secondary part of the sentence to initial position. Its purpose is to emphasize or to achieve cohesion in the text. It is not always necessary this dislocation to involve an inversion.
There is a dislocation of the subject – There arrived a stranger in the town. It follows a dislocation of the verb– Followed complete silence. With the dislocation of the object we can have or not an inversion. We have an inversion when the object has a negative or limiting modifier. For example Little knowledge does she have on this topic. With demonstrative pronouns, with some, other, some other, one, and the other, and exclamatory sentence – we don’t use inversion – A fine house you have! Some thing I can do, other I cannot. With the dislocation of the predicative we have again cases with and without inversion. We have an inversion when the predicative is with a negative or limiting modifier and classes with “as” – Very fine is the poem that he wrote. We don’t have an inversion when the predicative is used to connect clauses, when it is a pronoun, and in the exclamatory sentences – They said he is amazing. That he certainly is. The literary dislocation of the predicative involves an inversion – Red is my favourite colour. We also have a dislocation of the adverbial modifier, when there is an inversion. The inversion appears then we have an adverbial modifier with a negative or limiting meaning and it is moved to first position; when it indicates frequency, and when it is expressed by demonstrative adverbs of manner like thus and so. For example, Often have I visited them.; Thus shall we spend the better part of the day.
There are some other cases of inversion, too. We have dislocation inversion when the statement is repeated with a substantive verb – Neither do I. We have dislocation and inversion with transitive verbs of existence and motion in a combination with longer adverbials, or with colloquial usage with adverbials of time and place. For instance, Here is Tom! There is an inversion with dislocation of the postfix of the phrasal verbs – e.g. Out went the girl. But when the subject is a pronoun there is no inversion – Out she went! When the subject is longer there is also an inversion – “I am afraid”, said the old man with tears in eyes. Depending on the context many of the types of dislocation may be subject focusing inversion.
11. The Composite Compound Sentence
The composite sentence is a sentence which contains more than one clause and more than one Subject-Predicate group. The compound sentence is a type of composite one, whose constituent clauses have equal syntactic rights. This means that none of the sentence is below the other in syntactic rank. They are coordinated.
Independent clauses are joined together into a compound sentence by the means of special linking words which are coordinators. This manner of joining clauses is called syndetic. The coordinators are divided into four groups: coordinating conjunctions – and, but, or, yet, for; conjunctive adverbs – furthermore, hence, however, moreover, therefore; fixed prepositional phrases – at least, as a result, in addition, in contrast, for example; and correlatives – either…or, neither…nor, not only… but also.
According to the coordinator there are different types of coordination. The first one is copulative coordination, which uses the coordinators: and, not, neither…nor, both…and, at once…and, etc. Both clauses and their meaning are connected and the statement in one of the clauses just adds to the statement in the other. For example, She is driving a car and she is listening to music. The disjunctive coordination suggests choice between the statements expressed in both sentences. The used coordinators are or, else, either…or, otherwise – You can come with us or you can stay at home. The causative-consecutive coordination is expressed by the coordinators for, so, then, for that reason, therefore, etc. They introduce clauses which denote cause, consequence, result, or conclusion – The house was dirty, so she cleaned it. The adversative coordination is observed with clauses with contrasting meanings. The used coordinators are: but, while, still, yet, however, on the contrary. For example, It was December yet there was no snow. The last basic type of coordination is explanatory. The coordinators, which express it, are: that is, namely, such as, let us say. For instance, She knows German, that is to say, she speaks it fluently.
12. The Composite Complex Sentence
The composite sentence is a sentence which contains at least two clauses and two Subject-Predicate groups. The complex sentence is a type of the composite one, whose constituent clauses don’t have equal syntactic rights. This means that one of these clauses is the principal one to which the other is joined as a subordinate. The subordinate clause is dependent on the main clause in the sense that it makes a part of the main clause.
We can distinguish two types of complex sentences- one-member and two-member complex sentences. To the first type – one-member complex sentences – belong subordinate clauses which express the missing subject or object in the main clause. For example, What’s done cannot be undone.; He knows that she is very clever. To such sentences also belong sub-clauses that extend some part of the main clause – This is the place I want to visit. The two-member complex sentences include sub-clauses of cause or reason, purpose and time, conditional and concessive sub-clauses. For instance, It was so interesting that everyone listened speechless.
Subordinate clauses can be placed in three different positions in the sentence – initial, medial, and final. For instance, If you want, we can go out tonight.; We can go out, if you want, tonight.; We can go out tonight if you want. There are three types of inclusion relation between the constituents of the complex sentence, according to the position of the subordination. The first one is left branching, which is limited to one degree of embedding. Because of this, we can have only two sub-clauses in the beginning of the sentence – e.g. That if you could you would help me is of small comfort. The next subordination is medial branching or nesting. It hampers comprehension, which is really difficult with self-embedding – e.g. This is the house that the cheese that the mouse ate lay in. The last type of subordination, which is mostly used, is right branching, or final subordination. – e.g. She remembered that it was a song that she had heard in the disco.
We can classify the subordinate clauses on two principles – on the parts of speech and on the parts of the sentence. According to the first principle, we distinguish noun clauses, adjective clauses, adverb clauses. According to the second one, they are subject clauses, predicative clauses, object clauses, attribute clauses, adverbial clauses.