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Playing, children?-Are you playing children?
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Literature:
1.Blokh M.Y. A course in Theoretical English grammar.M.,1983
2.Irtenyeva N.F.,Barsova O.M.,Blokh M.Y.,Shapkin A.P. A Theoretical English grammar (syntax) M.,1979
3.Ilyish B.A. The structure of modern English L.1971
4.Linda Thomas Beginning syntax.Oxford UX and CambridgeUSA,1993
5.Бархударов Л.С. Структура простого предложения современного английского языка М., 2002
6.Ganshina M., Rasilivskaya N., English grammar, M., 1958
Lecture N 9
Theme: The Main Parts of a Sentence
Problems for discussion:
The subject and the Predicate are the Main Parts of the Sentence
The definition of the subject
The definition of the predicate
Types of Predicate
The classification of predicate is based on the structure (simple and compound)/
The classification of predicate is based on the morphological characteristics (verbal and nominal).
1. In grammatical theory it is common to distinguish between main and secondary parts of a sentence.
In starting to study parts of the sentence in modern English, we will begin by analyzing the principles on which this classification is based.
There are two generally recognized main parts of the sentence- the subject and the predicate. As to the secondary parts, their number varies slightly. Among them we usually find the object (with its subdivisions), the attribute, and the adverbial modifier.
The reason for calling the subject and the predicate the main parts of the sentence and distinguishing them from all other parts which are treated as secondary is roughly this. The subject and the predicate between them constitute the backbone of the sentence without them the sentence would not exist at all, where as all other parts of the sentence may or may not be there, and if they are there, they serve to define or modify either the subject or the predicate, or each other.
A linguistic experiment to prove the correctness of this view would be to take a sentence containing a subject, a predicate and a number of secondary. Parts and to show that any of secondary parts might be remover without the sentence being destroyed, where as if either the subject or the predicate were removed there would be no sentence lift: its “backbone” would be broken. This experiment would probably succored and prove the point in a vast majority of cases. Therefore we will stick to the division of sentence parts into main and secondary, taking the subject and the predicate to be main parts and all the others to be secondary. 2. In trying to give a definition to the subject, we shall have to include in it general points and specific points connected with the structure of Modern English.
If we formulate the structure of the definition of the subject it contains the following items: a) the meaning of the subject i.e. its relation to the thought expressed in the sentence, b) its syntactical relations in the sentence; c) its morphological realization: here a list of morphological ways of realizing the subject must be given.
The definition of the subject would be like this.
The subject is one of the two main parts of the sentence.
a) It denotes the thing (human beings, abstract notions, etc) whose action or characteristic is expressed by the predicate. B) it is not dependent on any other part of the sentence. C) It may be expressed by different parts of speech, the most frequent ones being: a noun in the common
case, a personal pronoun in the nominative case, a demonstrative pronoun occasionally, a substantivized adjective, a numeral, an infinitive, and a gerund. The subject may also be expressed by a phrase.
In discussing problems of the subject, we must mention the argument that has been going on for some time about sentences of the following type: It gave Hermione a sudden convulsive sensation of pleasure, to see these rich colours under the candlelight (Lawrence). Two views have been put forward concerning such sentences. The first view is, that the pronoun It at the beginning of the sentence is the formal subject, and the real subject is the infinitive (in this case, to see).
The second view is, that It is the subject of the sentence, and the infinitive (to see) an apposition to it. However the second view seems preferable, as the division of subjects into formal and real ones seems hard to justify in general syntactical theory.
3. The definition of the subject given hero includes mention of the predicate.
The predicate is one of the two main parts of the sentence.
It denotes the action or property of the thing expressed by the subject. B) It is not dependent on any other part of the sentence. C) Ways of expressing the predicate are varied and their structure will be considered under the heading of types of predicate. Here it will to say that among them are: a finite verb from and variety of phrases, for instance, phrases of the following patterns:” finite verb +infinitive”, “link verb+noun”, “link verb+ adjective”, link verb+ preposition +noun”, etc. The predicate is sometimes claimed that the predicate agrees in number with the subject: when the subject is in the singular, the predicate is bound to be in singular; when the subject is in the plural, the predicate is bound to be in the plural. However, this statement is very doubtful. This is especially confirmed by the sentence like. My family are early risers; The crew consists of twenty men( командасостоитиздвадцатичеловек); The crew were standing on deck ( командастояланапалубе); All is clear(всеясно); all were of the same opinion( всебылиодногомнения);
Where the plural number in the link verb shows the plurality of the acting persons, though the subject noun is in the singular.
4.The predicate is the backbone of the sentence. It serves to assert some thing about the subject denoting either an action performed or undergone by the subject or the state in which the subject is.
The predicate may be classified in two ways, one of which is based on their structure (simple and compound) and the other on their morphological characteristics (verbal and nominal).
If we take the structural classification as the basic one we obtain (get) the following types:
simple predicate will be: 1)verbal 2)nominal
compound predicate will be:1)verbal 2)nominal
If we take the morphological classification as the basic one the result would be the following:
a) verbal predicate will be 1)simple 2)compound
b) nominal predicate will be 1) simple 2) compound
The ultimate result is of course the same in both cases.
the simple verbal predicate which denotes an activity performed (or suffered) by the object is expressed by a finite verb (in a simple or compound form).
E.g. She reads well. I have been working since the morning. The Moon was shining brightly. They lit a fire on the edge of a wood (light-lit-lighted зажигать)
The simple Verbal Predicate.
The simple verbal predicate which denotes an activity performed (or suffered) by the object is expressed by a finite verb (in a simple or compound form):
The compound nominal Predicate denotes a certain state or quality of the subject it is a qualifying predicate: He is a student. She is young
The Compound nominal predicate consists of a predicative and link verb. The significant part of the compound predicate is the predicative expressed by on noun (or a noun equivalent) or by an adjective. The predicative serves to characterize the subject. The link verb has no independent meaning, its function is to connect the subject with the predicative and to express all the grammatical categories of the finite verb that is: person, number, mood, aspect, tense and voice.
There are three kinds of compound nominal predicates
1) The compound nominal predicate of being. The most typical link- verb of that type is the verb “to be”, but there are also some other verbs of this kind, such as; to feel, to look, to smell, to taste. The day was sunny she looked happy. Her voice sounded calm. The rain felt against our faces. 2) The compound nominal predicate becoming. The verb “to become” is the most typical link- verb of this kind. Some other verbs are also used as link-verbs of becoming: to grow, to eget, to turn: He became a teacher. The leaves turned gold.
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