POSITION OF THE OBJECT, THE ATTRIBUTE, THE ADVERBIAL MODIFIERS

The usual position of the object in declarative is after the predicate. However, in exclamatory sentences the direct object may occupy the first place (What a nice car you've bought!). The inversion is caused only in poetry, high prose and negative exclamatory sentences. The I takes place when the object is expressed by word groups with "not a, many a". The back position of the object is when it's separated from the predicate by some secondary part of the sentence (She took out of the bag something really nice).

The usual place of the attribute expressed by an adjective, noun, pronoun, or participle is before the word it modifies (What strange people you are). With some attributes the order in which they follow each other is more or less fixed. Attributes denoting age, colour, material, and nationality come next to the noun modified: various-age-colour-material-nationality-the noun (pleasant young blue suede Mexican shoes). The attribute appears in post-positionin the following cases: 1) Most adjectives in –able and –ible, especially when the noun is preceded by the adjective "only" or an adjective in the superlative degree (the only thing possible); 2) In some stock phrases: "wealth untold, from times immemorial, a poet laureate, generations unborn, court martial, sum total, four years running, the first person singular (plural)"; 3) The adjectives "proper, present" (All the students present were congratulated); 4) Attributes expressed by cardinal numerals denoting the place of the object in a series (no article is used) (page six); 5) After indefinite and negative pronouns(Nothing strange was noticed); 6) Attributes expressed by prepositional phrases (A picture of big value).

An adverbial modifierusually stands either before the predicate or after the direct object. It's not: 1) An AM of time is generally placed either at the beginning or at the end of the sentence (On Tuesday we went out; We'll be back tomorrow), AM expressed by the adverbs "now, then" can be placed in nearly any position; 2) An AM of placegenerally stands either at the beginning or at the end of the sentence (There he stood; A light was shining in the house), an AM of place sometimes comes between the predicate and the prepositional object (He ran out of the hut holding smth in his hands), it generally precedes the AM of time and purpose; 3) An AM of frequencyas a rule precedes verb in a simple tense form but follows the verb "to be" and all the modal verbs, in a compound tense form it follows the first auxiliary (No one ever liked him), "sometimes, generally" may be placed either before or after the verb, in interrogative sentences AM of frequency come immediately after the subject (Does she often visit you?); 4) An AM of manneris usually placed after the predicate if the verb is intransitive, and after the direct object if the verb is transitive (Yes, he said impatiently; She took the flower smiling), it generally stands between the predicate-verb and the prepositional indirect object (She turned slowly to the window), in compound tense forms an AM of manner expressed by an adverb generally comes after the last auxiliary (The students were suddenly invited into the room); 5) An AM of degreealways precedes the predicate (I completely agree with you), if the verb is in a compound tense-form it follows the first auxiliary (He has absolutely forgotten about it), an AM of degree expressed by the adverb "enough" generally follows the adjective it modifies, but may follow or precede a noun (He is wise enough to do it; I have enough time).

THE SUBJECT

The Sis the principal part of a two-member sentence which is grammatically independent of the other parts of the sentence and on which the second principal part (the predicate) is dependent. It can denote a living being, a lifeless thing or an idea.

The ways of expressing the S: 1) A noun in the common case (The sun is shining); 2) A pronoun(personal, demonstrative, defining, indefinite, negative, possessive, interrogative) (Everyone is sitting), sometimes the pronouns "one, they, you, we" refer to people in general – in such cases an impersonal sentence is used in Russian; 3) A substantivized adjectiveor participle(The injured were taken to hospital); 4) A numeral(cardinal, ordinal) (The two were happy); 5) An infinitive,an infinitive phrase or construction(To work is a necessity); 6) A gerund,a gerundial phrase or construction (Studying is a must); 7) Any part of speech used as a quotation(Yes is the word I want to hear from her); 8) A syntactically indivisible group (Fish and chips is the most famous English dish); 9) A quotation group (And what does Mr.Know-It-All recommend?).

"IT" AS THE SUBJECT OF THE SENTENCE

When "It" as a subject represents a living being or a thing it's a notional subject, when it performs a purely grammatical function it's a formal object.

When a NS "It": 1) Denotes definite thing or an abstract idea (the personal "it") (Here's the door. It can be opened); 2) Points out some person or thing expressed by a predicative noun (the demonstrative "it") (It is Mary).

When a FO "It": 1) Denotes natural phenomena (weather, etc.) or characterizes the environment (It is raining) or denotes time and distance (It is nine already) (the impersonal "it"); 2) Introduces the real subject (the introductoryor anticipatory "it") (It's no use crying); 3) Used for emphasis (the emphatic "it") (It was John who did it).

THE PREDICATE

The Pis the second principal part of the sentence which expresses an action, state, or quality of the person or thing denoted by the S. Grammatically dependent upon the S. The simple Pis expressed by a finite verb in a simple or a compound tense form. Generally denotes an action. The compound Pconsists of 2 parts: a finite verb and some other part of speech. The second component is the significant part.

The compound nominal Pdenotes the state or quality of the person or thing expressed by the subject (He is tired), or the class of persons or things to which this person or thing belongs (She is a doctor). The CNP consists of a link verb and a predicative (the nominal part of the predicate). The link verb(a verb of incomplete predication) expresses the verbal categories of person, number, tense, aspect, mood, sometimes voice. Most link verbs have partly lost their original concrete meaning (especially "to be") except the following: "to appear, to get, to grow, to continue, to feel, to keep, to look, to turn, to hold, to prove, to loom, to rank, to remain, to run, to seem, to smell, to taste, to fall, to stand, to go, to work". All the LV are divided into: 1) LV of being and remaining ("to be, to look, to seem, etc."); 2) LV of becoming ("to become, to get, to run, etc."). The predicative can be expressed by: 1) A noun in the common (sometimes possessive) case (She was a pretty child); 2) An adjective (He's very nice); 3) A pronoun (personal, possessive, negative, interrogative, reflexive, indefinite, defining) (It's me); 4) A word of the category of state (He's afraid); 5) A numeral (cardinal & ordinal) (I'm only 22); 6) A prepositional phrase (The rule was beyond my understanding); 7) An infinitive, infinitive phrase or construction (My first thought was to embrace her); 8) A gerund, gerundial phrase or construction (I like playing chess); 9) Participle 2 or, seldom, adjectivized Participle 1 (He was surprised); 10) An adverb (It was absolutely enough). The Objective Predicativeexpresses the state or quality of the person or thing denoted by the object and is generally expressed by a noun, an adjective, a word denoting state, or a prepositional phrase (He painted the wall white). It doesn't form part of the P, so the P is simple.

A phraseological P is a P expressed by a phraseological unit. They can be: 1) A momentaneous action expressed by a finite verb which has a great extent lost its concrete meaning and a noun formed from a verb and mostly used with a definite article (to give a push, to have a smoke); 2) Combinations the second component of which in most cases is an abstract noun used without any article (to get rid, to take care).

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 2177