Lecture 1 Fundamentals of grammar

The structural scheme of the sentence is a sentence structure minimal
by its composition and simplest by grammatical and semantic structure. A
construction built according to a structural scheme and realizing all of its
components is called an elementary sentence. Prof. Pocheptsov lists some
structural schemes for verbal sentences and examples of corresponding elementary
sentences:
Structural schemes Elementary sentences
Subject – predicate expressed by a verb of nondirected
action (Active Voice)
Pages rustle. (S. Bedford)
Subject – predicate expressed by a verb of nonprepositional-
object directivity (Active Voice)
– direct object
Моr was enjoying the port.
(I. Murdoch)
Subject – predicate expressed by a verb
requiring two non-prepositional objects: object
of addressee and object of patient (Active
voice) – non-prepositional object of addressee
– non-prepositional object of patient
'I've taught him that.' (J. Galsworthy)
Subject – predicate expressed by a verb of
spatial directivity (Active Voice) – adverbial
modifier of place
The Judge is in the chair. (S. Bedford)
Subject – predicate expressed by a verb of
temporal directivity (Active Voice) – adverbial
modifier of time
That was long ago. (P. Abrahams)
Subject – predicate expressed by a verb of nonprepositional
object directivity (Passive Voice)
They had been seized. (H.G. Wells)
The set of structural schemes specific to every language is the initial basis
for building actual sentences as facts of speech.
One point that should be mentioned here is the status of passive sentences.
The question is whether they should be included into the set of structural schemes
as active sentences or whether they should be regarded as secondary constructions
built on the basis of active sentences. As it has been shown by psycholinguistic
experiments, passive sentences do not appear in actual speech as results of
transforming active sentences. Besides that, there are some passive sentences that
do not have corresponding active sentences (eg. I was born in France.). Therefore,
a passive sentence is not a derivative of an active one but an independent
syntactical phenomenon.
The total number of structural schemes in a language is a few dozens of
units.