Lecture 1 Fundamentals of grammar

Sentences with secondary predication.
Every sentence has predication, without it there would be no sentence. In a
usual two-member sentence the predication is between the subject and the
predicate. There are also sentences that contain one more predication, which can be
termed secondary predication.
In English there are several ways of expressing secondary predication:
1) the complex object (e.g. I saw you take it.) The syntactic function of the
group you take (or of its elements) can be considered either a complex object (in
this case the group is treated is a single syntactic unit) or an object and an objective
predicative. The choice between the two interpretations remains arbitrary. There is
no universal approach.
O. Jespersen has proposed the term "nexus" for every predicative grouping
of words, no matter by what grammatical means it is realised. He distinguishes
between a "junction", which is not a predicative group of words (e. g. reading man)
and "nexus", which is one (e. g. the man reads).l) If this term is adopted, we may
say that in the sentence I saw him run there are two nexuses: the primary one I
saw, and the secondary him run. In a similar way, in the sentence I found him ill,
the primary nexus would be I found, and the secondary him ill.
2) the absolute construction.
The absolute construction expresses attending circumstances — something
that happens alongside of the main action. This secondary action may be the cause
of the main action, or its condition, etc., but these relations are not indicated by any
grammatical means.
The absolute construction is, as we have seen, basically a feature of literary
style and unfit for colloquial speech. Only a few more or less settled formulas such
as weather permitting may be found in ordinary conversation. Otherwise colloquial speech practically always has subordinate clauses where literary style may have absolute constructions.