The word order in the English sentence (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).

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1566