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THE FOR-TO-INFINITIVE CONSTRUCTION

The SIC (sometimes called the Nominative-with-the-Infinitive Construction) is a construction in which the I is in predicate relation to a noun in the common case or a pronoun in the nominative case. It doesn't serve as one part of the sentence: one part has the function of the Subject and the other forms Part of a compound verbal predicate (He's been advised to rest). In Russian неопределенно-личное предложение is used.

The SIC is used with the verbs in the Passive Voice: 1) denoting sense perception ("to hear, to see, etc.") (She was heard to approach the door), a process is expressed by the P1 Indefinite Active (She was heard approaching the door); 2) denoting mental activity("to think, to consider, to know, to expect, to believe, to suppose") (He is believed to have left for London); 3) "to make" (He was made to sit down); 4) "to say, to report"(She is said to be the nicest person in the world). The SIC is used with the word-groups "to be likely, to be sure, to be certain" (She is sure to call before ten), which is rendered in Russian by a simple sentence with a modal word. It's also used with the pairs of synonyms "to seem-to appear, to happen-to chance, to prove-to turn out" (She appeared to be listening).

The FTICis a construction in which the I is in predicate relation to a noun or a pronoun preceded by the preposition "for". In Russian a subordinate clause or an I is used.

The functions of the FTIC: Subject(often with the introductory "It") (It's a shame for a man like you to act this way); Predicative(It was for me to find out); Complex object(I waited for her to call); Attribute(There's nothing for you to do but give it up); Adverbial modifier of purpose(He moved away for me to see the picture)and result(He spoke loudly for me to hear).

With the expressions "to be sorry, to be glad" the I is used only if the subject of the sentence represents at the same time the doer of the action expressed by the I (I'm glad to have seen her at last). In other cases a clause is used with these expressions (I'm glad that you have seen her at last).

 

 

SYNTAX

THE WORD ORDER

As English words almost don't have any inflexions and their relation to each other is shown by their place in the sentence, word order in English is fixed. So due to the absence of case distinctions word order is practically the only means of distinguishing between the subject and the direct object.

Direct word order: 1. The Subject; 2. The Predicate; 3. Objects; 4. Adverbial modifiers.

Inverted word order (inversion) is the order of words in which the subject is placed after the predicate. Type of sentences that require the inverted order of words: 1) Interrogative sentences have only partial inversion as only part of the predicate (the auxiliary or modal verb) is placed before the subject (When did you see it?), the whole predicate is placed before the subject when it's expressed by the verbs "to be, to have" (Have you any complains?); 2) Sentences introduced by "there"(There is nothing strange about that);3) Compound sentences, their second part beginning with "so, neither"(I am going home, so are you);4) Simple exclamatory sentences expressing wish(Be it so!).



Inversion also acquires a stylistic function. It occurs when: 1) An adverbial modifier opens the sentence a) and the subject often has a lengthy modifier (In an armchair, a black shiny leather armchair, was sitting a man), b) and it carries a negative meaning (So little did we know then), c) and it expressed by the adverbs "so, thus, now, then, etc." (no inversion if the subject is a pronoun) (Thus ends my prophecy), d) AM of manner expressed by adverbs (Peacefully and silently did we sleep that night), e) preceded by "so" (So frankly did he speak to us); 2) The emphatic particle "only", the adverbs "hardly, scarcely (with the conjunction "when")", the adverb "no sooner (with "than")" or the conjunction "nor" opens the sentence. If there is inversion the auxiliary "do" must be used if the predicate doesn't contain an auxiliary or a modal verb (Only once did I meet him); 3) The word "here"implying some demonstrative force (Here comes the bus); 4) Postpositions denoting direction like "in, out, down, away, up, etc." (with nouns only) (Down goes the player!); 5) An object or an adverbial modifier expressed by a word-group with "not a, many a" (Many a time did he see it); 6) A predicative expressed by an adjective or by a noun modified by an adjective or by the pronoun "such" (Such is life); 7) In conditional clauses introduced without any conjunction when the predicate is expressed by "was, were, had, could, should" (I'll be here, should any emergency arise).


Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1145


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