Lecture 1 Fundamentals of grammar

5. Syntactic Processes
The relations between an elementary sentence and a sentence whose
composition goes beyond the limits of an elementary one can be presented as
expansion of the elementary sentence into “complete” or, on the opposite,
curtailment of the latter to elementary. Such an interpretation of relations between
elementary and “complete” sentences allows interpreting the elementary sentence
as non-expanded and the sentence the structure of which is restricted by
components determined by the structural scheme as an expanded sentence.
Expansion of an elementary sentence is a result of work of syntactic
processes. The basic syntactic processes include: expansion, complication,
development, adjunction and inclusion.
Expansion (расширение) consists in adding of some syntactic units to
another unit. The added elements have the same syntactic status as the expanded
element. The simplest type of expansion is repetition of some element in a
syntagmatic chain.
e.g. Good, good boy. I walked and walked.
Compression goes together with expansion. A construction is compressed
when some part common for the elements of expansion remains unexpanded.
e.g. I was about to spit into his face, slam the door behind me and walk away.
Elements of expansion can be connected by relations of two different types:
1) additive;
2) specificative.
Addition (аддиция) takes place when each element of expansion relates to
others as both semantically and syntactically independent unit. (e.g. She cried
bitterly and with despair.)
Specification (спецификация) can be observed when one syntactic unit
semantically develops the other, makes it more specific. (e.g. I’ll give you a call tomorrow, after 5 p.m.)
Specificatively related units are connected both semantically and
syntactically not only with the head word but also with the preceding element of
specification.
Complication is a syntactic process that consists in transforming the
structure of a syntactic unit from simple to complex. The complicacy of structure
presupposes a mutual syntactic dependence of the unit’s constituents.
e.g. She cried. She began to cry.
Most often, the process affects the predicate and the object.
Complication of the predicate. The following three types of complication are
singled out according to the morphological appurtenance of the complicating
element:
1) active-verbal complication (e.g. I have to go);
2) passive-verbal complication (e.g. He is expected to come);
3) adjectival complication (e.g. He is unlikely to come).
In the first two types the complicating element is a verb either in the active
or in the passive form respectively, in the third type – an adjective, a participle or a
category of state word with a copula-verb.
Complication of the object. Complication of the direct object is possible
after verbs of certain semantics. It consists in adding an infinitive, a participle, an
adjective, or a prepositional group to a noun or a pronoun performing the function
of the object. The object and the complicating element stand in the relations of
secondary predication.
e.g. I found him attractive. She considered me a fool.
Complication of other sentence members expressed by nominal parts of
speech is also possible, but it is not so widely spread.
e.g. complication of the subject: There is someone hiding in the kitchen.
complication of the predicative: It was him standing in the dark.