Seminar 4

Constituent Structure of the Sentence. Syntactic Processes

Required Reading

1. Блох М. Я. Теоретическая грамматика английского языка. (Ch. XXIV, p. 261 – 272)

2. Иванова И.П., Бурлакова В.В., Почепцов Г.Г. Теоретическая грамматика современного английского языка. (3.2.1. – 3.2.2.8, с. 183 – 230)

3. Ilyish B. The Structure of Modern English. (Ch. XXVI – XXIX, p. 198 – 237)

Points to discuss

1. The traditional scheme of sentence parsing.

2. The main sentence parts: the subject and the predicate, their types.

3. The secondary sentence parts: attribute, object, adverbial modifier.

4. The structural scheme of the sentence. The elementary sentence.

5. Syntactic processes.

Questions for discussion

1. What criteria is the description of sentence parts based on? What principle underlies the division of sentence parts into main and secondary?

2. Comment on the status of the subject and the predicate.

3. What types of predicates can be singled out?

4. List the existent classifications of the object.

5. Comment on the order of prepositive attributes.

6. What is the structural scheme of the sentence? What is the elementary sentence?

7. Characterize the following syntactic processes: expansion, compression, specification, complication, contamination, adjunction, inclusion, isolation, substitution, representation and ellipsis. Give examples.

Practice Assignment

I. State the type of the predicate in the following sentences:

1. Mr. Dursley stopped dead. (J. K. Rowling)

2. It just gave him a stern look. (J. K. Rowling)

3. In 1915 Horace Tarbox was thirteen years old. (F. S. Fitzgerald)

4. The two young people were having tea together. (E. Waugh)

5. Winston’s entrails seemed to grow cold. (G. Orwell)

6. For the first time in her life she had been danced tired. (F. S. Fitzgerald)

7. Priscilla’s gay and gadding existence had come to an abrupt end. (A. Huxley)

8. They were of no importance. (J. Cheever)

9. But he really must find that word. (A. Huxley)

10.O’Donnell was inclined to be more critical. (A. Hailey)

II. State the means of expressing the subject in the following sentences:

1. None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window. (J. K. Rowling)

2. Everything about her was manly. (A. Huxley)

3. To face the worst and have it over was better. (J. Galsworthy)

4. Was this normal cat behavior? (J. K. Rowling)

5. There was a crisis. (A. Huxley)

6. All subsequent crimes against the Party, all treacheries, acts of sabotage, heresies, deviations, sprang directly out of his teaching. G. Orwell)

7. To tell it is to live through it all again. (O. Wilde)

8. Hers was not a face to command instant attention or recognition. (A. Christie)

9. Sleeping was her latest discovery. (K. Mansfield)

10.It’s no good your flying in a temper. (W. S. Maugham)

III. State the type of objects in the following sentences.

1. The war of 1914 gave him his final chance. (W. S. Maugham)

2. The brilliance was not diminished by their injuries. (J. Cheever)

3. Bernice raised the brows in question. (F. S. Fitzgerald)

4. The barn-door and the jaw were separated by a line strait as a nail. (F. S. Fitzgerald)

5. He gave the cross a stiff nod. (J. Cheever)

6. He would ravish her and cut her throat at the moment of climax. (G. Orwell)

7. James took another chair by the table, and leaned his head on his hand. (J. Galsworthy)

8. Old Jolyon raised his head and nodded. (J. Galsworthy)

9. O’Donnell was introducing Pearson to Hilton. (A. Hailey)

10.They stared at each other across the breakfast-table for a moment. (F. S. Fitzgerald)

IV. State what syntactic processes are observed in the following sentences. Reconstruct the corresponding elementary sentences.

1. The hat had obviously been worn as a practical joke! He himself was a connoisseur of such.
(J. Galsworthy)

2. They found him tiresome and ridiculous. (W. S. Maugham)

3. Timothy, indeed, was seldom seen. (J. Galsworthy)

4. That makes the pathologist’s work difficult. Usually. (A. Hailey)

5. I badly wanted a cigarette, but did not like to light one. (W. S. Maugham)

6. It is a product of greed, avarice, hate, revenge, or perhaps fear. (E. S. Gardner)

7. Larry seated himself at the writing-table and began to count. (W. S. Maugham)

8. Isabel, a little scared, took hold of my hand. (W. S. Maugham)

9. You must retrieve the stone for me. Immediately. Tonight. (D. Brown)

10.The autopsy-room doors swung open. (A. Hailey)