Theoretical Grammar

1. The subject of theoretical grammar and its difference from practical grammar.
The following course of theoretical grammar serves to describe the grammatical structure of the English language as a system where all parts are interconnected. The difference between theoretical and practical grammar lies in the fact that practical grammar prescribes certain rules of usage and teaches to speak (or write) correctly whereas theoretical grammar presents facts of language, while analyzing them, and gives no prescriptions.
Unlike school grammar, theoretical grammar does not always produce a ready-made decision. In language there are a number of phenomena interpreted differently by different linguists. To a great extent, these differences are due to the fact that there exist various directions in linguistics, each having its own method of analysis and, therefore, its own approach to the matter. But sometimes these differences arise because some facts of language are difficult to analyze, and in this case the only thing to offer is a possible way to solve the problem, instead of giving a final solution. It is due to this circumstance that there are different theories of the same language phenomenon, which is not the case with practical grammar.
2. 2. A level can be defined as a subsystem of language which presents a totality of homogeneous units and a set of rules regulating their use and classification (ЛЭС 1990, 539). Language structure consists of three main domains: phonetics, lexicon and grammar which are further subdivided and form six levels: phonemic, morphemic, lexemic, phrasemic, sentential, or proposemic and suprasentential, or dictemic.

9.
12. Article is a determining unit of a specific nature accompanying the noun in communicative collocation.
A(n)/the form a separate group or class characterized by: * the lexico-grammatical meaning of definiteness/indefiniteness;
The lexical meaning of a(n) in ME is a very weak reminder of its original meaning (one), though it is not used with “plural” nouns. The lexical meaning of the in ME is a pale shadow of its original demonstrative meaning а the meaning of articles abstracts form the meaning of oneness in a(n) and demonstrative meaning in the.
The names of the articles (definite/indefinite) denote the nearest approach to this lexico-grammatical meaning (definiteness/indefiniteness). * the right-hand combinability with nouns; * the function of noun specifiers.
Status of the article in Modern English.
??? Is the article a word or a morpheme?
The article is usually a separate unit which may be divided from its noun by other words, chiefly adjectives. However, in certain languages the article may also be a morpheme attached to the noun as a kind of suffix (in Bulgarian, Rumanian, Swedish).
If we interpret the article as a morpheme, the idea of a zero article would make no difficulty. If we take the article as a word, the idea of a ‘zero word’ would entail (cause) some difficulty (zero form). The notion ‘zero article’ is only possible if the article is not a word.
2 views: 1. the article is a word and the collocation “article + noun” is a phrase. 2. the article is a form element in the system of the noun. It is a morpheme or an auxiliary word, the phrase “article + noun” is a morphological formation. Meanings:
The definite article: * -an object is singled out from all objects of the same class * -the whole class of objects, as distinct from other classes, is referred to.
Another view: * The dog has come home./The dog is a domestic animal. -> the meaning of the definite article is the same in both sentences, and their difference proceeds from the peculiarities of the predicatives and the words expressing them.
Number of articles.
??? How many articles are there in English?
There are only 2 material articles, the and a(n).+ “zero” article -> there are 3 articles.
The idea of a zero article takes its origin in the notion ‘zero morpheme’.
Absence or omission of the article?
??? How the 3rd variant of the article is to be treated?
Traditional grammar: “omission of the article”, which is inadequate since there is not the slightest reason to believe that the article in such cases was ever omitted.
“Absence of the article” а “meaningful absence of the article” а “zero article” и there are 3 articles.
The category of article determination.
Blokh:
The semantic purpose of the article is to specify the nounal referent, to define it in the most general way, without any explicitly expressed contrasts.
In the absence of a determiner, the use of the article with the noun is quite obligatory, in so far as the cases of non-use of the article are subject to no less definite rules than the use of it.
??? Is article a purely auxiliary element of a special grammatical form of the noun which functions as a component of a definite morphological category, or is it a separate word, i.e. a lexical unit in the determiner word set, if of a more abstract meaning than other determiners.
??? Can “article + noun” be a form of the noun?
If we agree that the group “article + noun” is an analytical form of the verb we shall have to set up a grammatical category in the noun which is expresses by one or the other article or by its absence. That category might be called DETERMINATION. In this case we could also find a “zero article”.If we stick to the view that the group is a peculiar type of phrase, no “zero article” is possible.
The role of articles in actual division of the sentence.
The door opened and the young man came in./The door opened and a young man came in.
In the 2nd case we can see that the central point of the sentence is a young man, which is new (-> the person who came in proved to be a young man). While in the 1st sentence the central point is that he came in. The central point corresponds to the semantic predicate, or the RHEME. -> the indefinite article expresses what is new, and the definite article expresses what is known already, or at least what is not presented as new.
13.тетрадь.
17. There is one more category in the English verb in which the concept of time finds its grammatical expression. It is the category of time correlation which deals not with the relation between the action and the moment of communication, but with the temporal correlation of actions. The grammatical category of time correlation is constituted by the opposition of perfect and non- perfect forms. The marked member of the opposition ‘Perfect :: Non-perfect’ is built with the help of a discontinuous morpheme ‘have ----- ed’ in which the second element has a lot of variants. The semantic marker, i.e. the meaning of the Perfect form includes two interrelated components: priority (or precedence) and correlation to another action or point of time in the present, past or future.

28 THE STRUCTURAL ASPECT OF THE SENTENCE

1. Classification of sentences according to their structure.
2. The notions of valency, structural minimum and the elementary sentence.
3. The syntactic processes of extending and compressing the elementary sentence.

1. The sentence as we stated above possesses three main aspects: structural (it says how the sentence is built, semantic (it says what the sentence is about), and communicative (it says what for the sentence was pronounced and what is most important information it contains). The structural aspect of the sentence deals with the structural organization of the sentence, it reveals the mechanisms of deriving sentences and structural types of sentences. According to their structure sentences are classified into simple
(monopredicative structures) and composite (polypredicative structures) which are further subdivided into complex (based on subordination) and compound
(based on coordination). Clauses within the structure of a composite sentence may be connected with the help of formal markers (conjunctions and connectives: relative pronouns and relative adverbs - syndetically) and without any formal markers - asyndetically. 2.
.
The minimum structure of the sentence which includes the predicate and the obligatory parts of the sentence forms the structural minimum, or the structural scheme of the sentence. The structural scheme of the sentence belongs to the level of the language. The sentence based on this structural scheme is called the elementary sentence and it serves as the instrument of the syntactic analysis. A set of structural schemes specific of a language constitutes the

syntactic basis of the language which serves for building up all the innumerous sentences as units of speech. Here are some of the most typical structural schemes of sentences in English: 1. N - V intr. - The plane disappeared. 2. N - V trans. - Obj direct - I like bananas. 3. N - V trans. - Obj. indirect - Obj. direct - I bought myself a present. 4. N - V intr. - Adv. Mod. of place - He lives in France. 5. N - V trans. - Obj. direct - Adv. mod. of manner - He treated the boy cruelly. 6. N - V intrans. - Adv. mod. of manner/ comp. - She behaved like an angel . The number of these structural schemes is limited for every language and constitutes its syntactic base. All the variety of sentences that occur in speech appear as the result of various modifications of the elementary sentence. These modifications may either extend or compress the elementary sentence. There are several processes of extending and compressing the elementary sentence and they may form various combinations. The most important processes of extending the elementary sentence, according to G.Pocheptsov are the following: extension, expansion, compounding, contamination, detachment and parcellation. 29. THE COMMUNICATIVE ASPECT OF THE SENTENCE AND ITS ACTUAL DIVISION

1. Classification of sentences according to the purpose of communication
2. The problem of exclamatory sentences.
3. Transposition on the level of communicative types of sentences.
4. The actual division of the sentence. The central notions of the actual division: the theme and the rheme. Dirhemic and monorhemic utterances.

1. From the point of view of its role in discourse the sentence is defined as a minimum unit of communication. Every sentence is uttered with a certain communicative aim: either to share information with the listener, or to ask for information, or to induce the listener to some action. According to their communicative aim sentences are divided into three types: declarative, interrogative and imperative. As a rule one communicative type differs from another not only in the purpose of communication, but also in structure, intonation and the listener’s response. 2. In some grammar books, mostly in practical grammar manuals the authors point out one more communicative type - exclamatory sentences.
However, a closer look at the exclamatory sentences shows that they can hardly be placed on the same level with the three communicative types because they differ in their communicative status. If the function of the declarative sentence is to give information, the function of interrogative sentences is to ask for information, the function of imperative sentences is to induce the speaker to an action, the function of exclamatory sentences is just to express the speaker’s emotions and that shows very clearly their difference from the three communicative types. The emotive charge, expressed by exclamatory sentences presents an additional feature that may accompany the communicative types. So each communicative type of the sentence may be exclamatory and non- exclamatory, e.g.
Non-exclamatory: Exclamatory:
It was a silly mistake. What a silly mistake it was!
Why did you keep it back from me? Why on earth did you keep it back from me?!
Try to speak sensibly. Do try to speak sensibly! 3. The analysis of communicative types of sentences from the aspect of syntactic structures in which the communicative aims are realized reveals a fundamental parallelism between a communicative function and a syntactic structure. Yet this parallelism is not absolute and in the process of real communication each of the communicative types of sentences may carry out secondary communicative functions, i.e. be transposed into the sphere of other communicative types. D. Bolinger is absolutely right in supposing that grammatical functions probably started as social (communicative L.K.) functions thousands of years ago, but as societies grew more complex the simple social functions became diversified and the old forms had to be adopted for new purposes [Bolinger 1975, 157]. As a result we have questions that do not really ask, statements that do not really assert, imperatives that do not really command, that is we observe the use of one communicative type of sentences in the

function of another communicative type, i.e. we observe the phenomenon of transposition on the level of communicative types of sentences. The dynamic character of relations between a communicative type of sentence and its ability to actualize both its primary and its secondary communicative functions is presented in the following scheme where the straight lines correspond to the primary functions and the dotted lines - to the secondary functions:
Communicative function Type of sentence

1. Statement Declarative sentence 2. Question Interrogative sentence 3. Inducement Imperative sentence Inducement Imperative sentence The phenomenon of transposition on the level of communicative types of sentences can be correlated to the theory of speech acts where it is described in terms of direct and indirect speech acts ( for more detail see: [Серль 1986]) 4. In the process of communication one and the same sentence may be used for making different utterances. Thus the sentence William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon may produce three utterances. If it is used as an answer to the question “Where was William Shakespeare born?” it is pronounced with the logical stress on the adverbial modifier or the other parts of the sentence may be deleted. If it is used as an answer to a question “Did
William Shakespeare live all his life in London?” it is pronounced with the logical stress on the predicate, or the particle only is introduced before the predicate. And finally, if it is used as an answer to a question “Who was born in
Stratford-upon-Avon?” it has the logical stress on the subject and the other parts of the sentence may be deleted. These utterances, though identical in their syntactic and semantic structures and their communicative functions (all of them are declarative) carry out different functions in the process of communication.
They differ in their informative value. This aspect in the sentence analysis is known as the actual division, or the functional perspective of the sentence.

30. It is well known fact that the notional parts of the sentence form together the nominative meaning of the sentence. The division of the sentence into notional parts can be called the nominative division a long side of nominative division. The idea of the actual division has been put forward in theoretical linguistics. Its purpose is to reveal the correlative significance of the sentence parts from the point of view of their actual informative role in an utterance.
The main components of the actual division are the “theme” and the “rheme”.
Theme expresses the starting point of the communication.
Rheme expresses the basic informative part of the communication.
Between the theme and the rheme are positioned intermediary parts of the actual division. The theme may or may not coincide with the subject of the sentence. The rheme with a predicate. The actual division finds its full expression only in a concrete context of speech. If it is stylistically neutral construction the theme is the subject and the rheme is the predicate and this kind of actual division is direct. The actual division in which the rheme is expressed by the subject is inverted.
The means of expressing the rheme : 1. Lexical meanings – particles (only,even) 2. Logical stress- 3. Change of syntactic structure (It was he who did it) 4. Passive voice. Means of expressing theme 1. Definite article. 2. Word order.
The actual division is an active means of expressing functional meaning.
И.Ф.Вардуаль: Division which presents the ‘basic item’ and the ‘nucleus of the message’, ‘theme’ and ‘rheme’, ‘given’ and ‘new’ was called by V.Mathesius “the actual division of the sentence” as distinguished from its “formal division”. Actual division is the result of the influence of context and situation.
Intonation is a very important means of actual division.

31.
SOME GENERAL POINTS
The term ''word order” is a singularly unhappy one, as it is based on a confusion of two distinct levels of language structure: the level of phrases and that of the sentence. To approach this problem from a viewpoint doing justice to modern linguistic theory, we should carefully distinguish between two sets of phenomena: the order of words within' a phrase and the order of parts of the sentence within a sentence. Here we are again confronted with the problem of the attribute: if the attribute is a secondary part of the sentence, its place falls under the heading "order of the parts of the sentence”; if, on the other hand the attribute is part, not of a sentence, but of a phrase, its place with reference to its head word must be considered within" the theory of the phrase and its parts. Since this question has not been settled yet, we may consider the place of the attribute in this chapter.
All other questions ought to be discussed under the heading "order of sentence parts", but as it is hardly possible to introduce-a change and to dismiss a term so firmly established, we will keep the term "word order", bearing in mind that it is quite conventional: what we shall discuss is the order of the parts of the sentence.
SUBJECT AND PREDICATE
The first question in this sphere is that of the relative position of subject and predicate. Although there are obviously only two possible variants of their mutual position ("subject + predicate", "predicate + subject"), this question has given rise to many discussions and different opinions have been expressed in the matter.
In the light of these discussions we can now state that the main problem is this- should one of the two possible orders be taken to be the general norm of a Modern English sentence, so that all cases" of the opposite order come to be regarded as deviations from it or should the normal order be stated for every type of sentence- in particular ?.
If we take the first view, we shall say that the normal order in English is "subject -f- predicate", and every case of the order_ "predicate 4-subject" is to be considered as a deviation, that is, as an inversion. This has been the common view put forward in most grammars until recently.
If we take the second view we will, in the first place, distinguish between declarative and interrogative sentences. The normal order in declarative sentences with of course be "subject + predicate", but the normal order in interrogative sentences will be “predicate + subject”. Speaking of interrogative sentences, therefore, we will not say that there is any inversion in these sentences!
Accordingly it is preferable to distinguish between two sets of phenomena: (1) normal order, which may be either the order "subject + predicate", as in most declarative sentences, or "predicate + subject» as in most interrogative and in some declarative sentences, and (2) inverted order, or inversion, which may be the order "predicate + subject" in a special type of declarative sentence, or "subject -j- predicate" in a special type of sentence characterized in general by the order "predicate -I- subject" (the latter is a very rare phenomenon indeed!
Up to now we have to some extent simplified the actual facts of the Modern English language. It is time now to point out the special cases which do not come under the general headings so far mentioned.
For one thing, there is a type of declarative sentence in which the order "predicate + subject" is normal. These are sentences stating the existence or the appearance of something in a certain place. The most widely known type of such sentences is the one beginning with the words There is ... (we take the two words there and is as constituting together the predicate of the sentence). Examples of such sentences are too well known to need illustration here. Besides the type There is ..., there are also sentences beginning with the words There came ..., as There came a thunderstorm; There appeared ..., and others of the same kind, and also sentences without there, beginning with an adverbial modifier, mostly denoting place, and followed by the predicate and the subject. The verbs most usually found in such sentences are, sit, stand, that is verbs indicating the position of a body in space. For instance: On the terrace stood a knot of distinguished visitors. (HUXLEY) In one corner sat the band and, obedient to its scraping and blowing, two or three hundred dancers trampled across the dry ground, wearing away the ground with their booted feet. (Idem) Something of the same kind is found in the following sentence, where the predicate verb is come: From below, in the house, came the thin wasp-like buzzing of an alarum-clock. (Idem) Cf. also the following sentence: On the corner, waiting for a bus, had stood a young woman, and just as he was about to pass she had dropped a coin, which rolled on the sidewalk before him. (BUECHNER) This example differs from the preceding ones in two points: in the first place, the predicate verb is in the past perfect, and secondly, between the adverbial modifier of place (on the corner) there is a participle phrase (waiting for a bus), which is probably best taken as an adverbial modifier of attendant circumstances, and which is in any case a secondary part of the sentence.
In the following sentence the order "predicate + subject" is sufficiently accounted for by the fact that there are two adverbial modifiers of place at the opening of the sentence. However, there is an additional factor here which is working in the same direction, namely the particle only singling out the adverbial modifiers and making them represent, partly at least, the rheme of the sentence.
Only here and there among the neo-gothic buildings was there a lighted window, the sound of a voice, a shout or, in the distance, the noise of lonely .footsteps on a stone path. (BUECHNER) Thus’ it appears that we have here normal order for this type of sentence, reinforced by the influence of only, which would have caused the order "predicate + subject" in any case.
Word order is influenced by an initial only even if the rest of the main clause is separated from it by a considerable amount of intervening words, as in the following sentence: Only when, after a few minutes, he (the monkey) ceased spinning and simply crouched in the pale light, bouncing softly up and down, his fingers digging into the carpet, his tail curled out stiff, did he start to speak to them. (BUECHNER) The particle only here serves to single out the adverbial clause of time beginning with the words when, after a few minutes, and, with the dependent participle constructions, running down to the words 'curled out stiff. In the sentence we also find the characteristic feature of many absolute constructions (compare p. 270): the subject of the absolute construction is a noun denoting a part of the body of the being whose name is the subject of the sentence (in this particular case it is not the actual name of the being but the pronoun he replacing it).
A much rarer type of inversion is found in the following sentence: Many were the inquiries she was eager to make of Miss Tilney: but so active were her thoughts, that when these inquiries were answered, she was hardly more assured than before of Northanger Abbey having been a richly endowed convent at the time of the Reformation... (J. AUSTE N) The position of the predicative in each of the two first clauses is distinctly emphatic, and the inversion is here a sign of an emotional colouring, which, in a larger context, appears to be ironic.
Among interrogative sentences a well-known special type are sentences having an interrogative pronoun either as subject or as attribute to the subject; we might say, in a generalizing way, having an interrogative pronoun within the subject group, as in the following examples: What is your business with me this morning? (SHAW) Who in this house would dare be seen speaking to you ever again? (Idem) Oh, who would be likely to see us anyhow at this time of night? (DREISER) In the way of word order, then, such sentences correspond to declarative sentences. Inversion, that is, the order "predicate + subject", in such sentences appears to be entirely out of the question.
32. 1. The composite sentence is a polypredicative syntactic unit composed from two or more clauses (analogous in their syntactic structures to simple sentences) which constitute a syntactic, semantic and communicative whole. A composite sentence is built on the basis of simple sentences, but it is not a mere combination of simple sentences, but a qualitatively new syntactic unit of a higher syntactic sublevel. Simple sentences united into the structure of a composite sentence have a special name in English - they are called clauses. Being a qualitatively new syntactic unit the composite sentence is characterized by certain structural, semantic and communicative peculiarities. From the structural point of view the composite sentence is characterized by the presence of two or more primary predicative lines. It is a polypredicative structure whereas the simple sentence is a monopredicative structure. From the semantic point of view the difference between the simple and the composite sentence lies in the fact that the simple sentence denotes one situation of reality (unless it contains implicit predication) and thus has one underlying semantic structure whereas the composite sentence denotes two or more situations of reality and expresses various relations between them which reflects various types of logical relations between events of reality perceived and conceptualized by our mind. 2. According to the basic semantic difference in the relations between clauses, that of coordination/subordination the composite sentence is divided into two types: the compound sentence based on coordinative semantic relations between the clauses, and the complex sentence based on the semantic relations of subordination. Coordination reflects the most general types of logical relations between situations and events: conjunction, disjunction, juxtaposition, cause and consequence. Subordination reflects various relations of dependence between events: condition, result, cause etc. As a rule, the principal clause presents the main event and the subordinate clause - the dependent event which explains or modifies the main event. The meaning of coordination/subordination is manifested by special words - the conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs and pronouns which carry a double function: 1) they connect the clauses into one whole; 2) they specify the type of semantic relations between the clauses.

33. The compound sentence is a syntactic unit which consists of two or more clauses joined together on the basis of coordinate relations. Coordination reflects equal relations between two or more thoughts integrating them into one syntactic whole. Though the sentences name two or more events of reality which are not subordinated to one another, yet when they are joined together and make up a compound sentence they partially lose their independent status and become clauses. The first sentence becomes the “leader clause” and the others are “sequential clauses”. The leader clause is structurally more independent whereas the successive clauses are more dependent which is manifested by the fact that they may contain anaphoric elements, substitutes and they may be elliptical In general the semantic elaboration of coordination is less elaborate then subordination. Traditionally scholars point out four types of semantic relations between the clauses of compound sentences which are marked by the prototypical conjunctions: 1) copulative (the conjunction and), adversative (but), disjunctive (or), causative-consecutive (for, therefore, so). THE COMPLEX SENTENCE 1. As we have already pointed out in the previous chapter the complex sentence is a polypredicative syntactic structure built on the basis of two or more simple sentences. The relations between the components of the complex sentence are based on the principle of subordination which reflects the logical relations of dependence between the events of reality established by the speaker. These relations of dependence include characterization and specification, condition, concession, cause, time and they lie at the basis of different types of subordinate clauses. As a rule, the principal clause presents the main event and the subordinate clauses - the depending events, subordinated to the main one. It should be stressed that the choice is always made by the speaker and is conditioned by his/her communicative intention and his/her own vision and interpretation of events. Therefore, two identical events of reality may be presented differently by different speakers and even by one and the same speaker depending on what kind of logical relations they establish between them. The relations of subordination are expressed by the conjunctions and conjunctive words (pronouns and adverbs), asyndetically, by the order of clauses: with the exception of some adverbial clauses the principal clause usually precedes the subordinate one. Subordination also finds manifestation on the morphological level (sequence of tenses and the use of special forms of the mood in certain types of subordinate clauses). We shall follow the functional approach to the classification of subordinate clauses because it enables to take into consideration both the formal (the syntactic role of the subordinate clause in the structure of the principal clause) and the semantic properties (the semantic relations between the principal and the subordinate clauses). 34. The following types of subordinate clauses are usually differentiated based on the semantic relations between the principal and the subordinate clause: 1. Subject and Predicate Clauses: A subject clause may contain either a statement or a question. In the former case it is preceded by that: in the latter it is introduced by the same words as interrogative object clauses. e.g. That she wants to help us is beyond any doubt. When he is coming has not been decided yet. Commoner that the patterns with the initial that are sentences introduced by it, with the that-clause in end-position. e.g. It is clear that he will never agree to it. 2. Object Clauses: The simplest case of such clauses are patterns in which a sub-clause can be replaced by a noun which could be then an object in a simple sentence. e.g. I know what she wants. You can take whatever you like. 3. Attributive Clauses Like attributive adjuncts in a simple sentence, attributive clauses qualify the thing denoted by its head word through some actions, state or situation in which the thing is involved. It has been customary to make distinction between two types of attributive sub-clauses: restrictive and continuative or amplifying clauses ("defining" and "non-defining") This division is however too absolute to cover all patterns. Restrictive clauses are subordinate in meaning to the clause containing the antecedent; continuative clauses are more independent: their contents might often be expressed by an independent statement giving some additional information about the antecedent that is already sufficiently defined. Continuative clauses may be omitted without affecting the precise understanding of the sentence as a whole. This is marked by a different intonation, and by a clear break preceding the continuative clause, no such break separating a restrictive clause from its antecedent. The presence or absence of such a pause is indicated in writing and in print by the presence or absence of a comma before as well as after the sub-clause. 4. Clauses of Cause:

Clauses of cause are usually introduced by the conjunctions because, since, and as and indicate purely causal relations. e.g. I had to go home since it was getting dark. As we have just bought a new house, we cannot afford a new car. I did not arrive on time because I had missed my bus. 5. Clauses of Place: Clauses of place do not offer any difficulties of grammatical analysis; they are generally introduced by the relative adverb where or by the phrase from where, to where, etc. e.g.: He went to the cafй where he hoped to find his friend. 6. Temporal Clauses: Temporal clauses can be used to denote two simultaneous actions or states, one action preceding or following the other, etc. e.g. When we finished our lunch, we left. 7. Clauses of Condition: Conditional sentences can express either a real condition ("open condition") or an unreal condition: If you ask him he will help you (real condition) If you asked him, he would help you (unreal condition) 8. Clauses of Result: Clauses of result or consequence are characterized by two patterns: - clauses introduced by the conjunction that correlated with the pronoun such or the adverb so in the main clause; - clauses introduced by the phrasal connective so that. e.g. Suddenly she felt so relieved that she could not help crying. 9. Clauses of Purpose: Clauses expressing purpose are known to be introduced by the conjunction that or lest and by the phrase in order that. e.g. I avoided mentioning the subject lest he be offended. 10. Clauses of Concession: The following types of concessive clauses are clauses that give information about the circumstances despite or against which what is said in the principal clause is carried out: e.g. I went to the party, though I did not feel like it. 11. Clauses of Manner and Comparison: Sub-clauses of manner and comparison characterize the action of the principal clause by comparing it to some other action. e.g. She was nursing the flower, as a mother nurses her child. 35. Syntax of the text is one of the youngest branches of grammar. The sentence and the phrase, as a constituent of the sentence, have been traditional objects of study in linguistics in general and of grammar in particular for centuries, starting with ancient linguistics.
The linguistic description of the text is as follows: it is a speech sequence of lingual units interconnected semantically (topically) and syntactically (structurally); in other words, it isa coherent stretch of speech, characterized by semantic and syntactic unity. Topical (semantic) unity and semantico-syntactic cohesion[1] are the basic differential features (categories) of the text.
On the basis of the communicative direction of their component sentences, sentence sequences in speech are divided intomonologue sequences and dialogue sequences. In a monologue, sentences are directed from one interlocutor (participant of communication) to another: from a speaker to a listener, or from an author to a reader, e.g.:Once upon a time there lived a beautiful princess. She had many suitors from far countries. In a dialogue, the sentences are directed from one interlocutor to another in turn, to meet one another, e.g.: “Who is absent today?” – “John.” “What’s the matter with him?” – “He is ill.” Traditionally, a monologue sequence of sentences united by a common topic is identified as the basic textual unit; it is called a “supra-phrasal unity” (the term of L. A. Bulakhovsky) or a “complex syntactic unity” (the term of N. S. Pospelov); a two-directed sequence of sentences is sometimes called a “dialogue unity”.
Cumulation in sentence sequences may be of two types: prospective (cataphoric) cumulation and retrospective (anaphoric) cumulation. Prospective or cataphoric cumulation presupposes the use of connective elements which relate the sentence in which they are used, to the sentence which follows. In other words, prospective connective elements make the preceding or leading sentence semantically incomplete. Retrospective or anaphoric cumulation presupposes the use of connective elements relating the sentence in which they are used to the one that precedes it. In other words, retrospective (anaphoric) connectors make the sequential sentence dependent on the leading sentence of the sequence. E.g.: She was taken aback.
According to the connective means used, cumulation is divided into two types:conjunctive and correlative. Conjunctive cumulation is achieved by functional or semi-functional conjunction-like words and word combinations: pure conjunctions (coordinative or subordinative),adverbial connectors, such as however, thus, yet, then, etc., or parenthetical connectors, such as firstly, secondly, on the one hand, on the other hand. Correlative cumulation is achieved by a pair of elements, one of which, the “succeedent”, refers to the other, the “antecedent”. Correlative cumulation may be either prospective or retrospective. Correlative cumulation can be divided into substitutional connection and representative connection. Substitutional correlation is based on the use of various substitutes, for example, pronouns, e.g.:I saw a girl. She looked very much upset;
In oral text, dictemes are delimitedintonationally:
There are some syntactic constructions intermediary between the sentence and the sequence of sentences. The first one is known as parcellation: in a parcellated construction, the two parts are separated by a finalizing sentence tone in oral speech and by a full stop in written speech, but they relate to each other as parts of one and the same sentence, e.g.: I am always shy. With you.
Dictemes and paragraphs are connected within the framework of larger elements of texts in various groupings, each of them being characterized by semantic (topical) unity and syntactic cohesion.