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Lecture 15
The Sentence.
1.1. The Sentence: Definition and Study Approaches.
The sentence is a unit of speech built up of words according to a definite syntactic pattern and distinguished by a contextually relevant communicative purpose.
The most essential features of the sentence are:
1) it is a predicative unit (it (1) presents the referents as making up a certain situation/event, and (2) reflects the connection between the nominal denotation of the event on the one hand, and objective reality on the other).
2) it is intonationally delimited.
3) it is characterised by a definite standard syntactic-semantic features.
4) it possesses syntactic modality.
5) it has a nominative function (substance namimg).
The sentence can be analyzed on the basis of various approaches:
The oppositional method in syntax means correlating different sentence types: they possess common features and differential features. Differential features serve the basis for analysis (two member sentence – one member sentence (John worked –John! Work!)
According to the constructional approach, not only the subject and the predicate but also all the necessary constituents of primary predication constitute the main parts because they are constructionally significant. Therefore, the secondary parts of the sentence are sometimes as necessary and important as the main ones.
1.2. Predication and Modality
The sentence is characterised by its specific category of predication. Predication establishes the relation of the named phenomena to actual life.
The general semantic category of modality is also defined by linguists as exposing the connection between the named objects and surrounding reality. However, modality, as different from predication, is not specifically confined to the sentence; this is a broader category revealed both in the grammatical elements of language and its lexical, purely nominative elements. Thus every word expressing a definite correlation between the named substance and objective reality should be recognised as modal namely:
Predication proper embodies not any kind of modality, but only syntactic modality as the fundamental distinguishing feature of the sentence. It is the feature of predication, fully and explicitly expressed by a contextually relevant grammatical complex, that identifies the sentence in distinction to any other combination of words having a situational referent.
The centre of predication in a sentence of verbal type (the predominant type of sentence-structure in English) is a finite verb. The finite verb expresses essential predicative meanings by its categorial forms (primarily the categories of tense and mood). However predication is effected not only by the forms of the finite verb, but also by all the other forms and elements of the sentence establishing the connection between the named objects and reality (intonation, word order, different functional words). Besides the purely verbal categories, in the predicative semantics are included such syntactic sentence meanings as purposes of communication (declaration —interrogation —inducement), modal probability, affirmation and negation.
1.3. Actual Division of the Sentence (J. Mathesius): General Notion
Taken together the notional parts of the sentence referring to the basic elements of the reflected situation form the nominative meaning of the sentence. The division of the sentence into notional parts can be called the nominative division (grammatical division/syntactic division).
Alongside of the nominative division of the sentence, the idea of the actual division of the sentence has been put forward in theoretical linguistics. The purpose of the actual division of the sentence (the functional sentence perspective) is to reveal the correlative significance of the sentence parts from the point of view of their actual informative role in an utterance, i.e. from the point of view of the semantic contribution they make to the total information conveyed by the sentence in the context of connected speech. Thus the actual division of the sentence exposes its informative perspective.
The main components of the actual division of the sentence are the theme and the rheme.
The theme expresses the starting point of the communication, it denotes an object or a phenomenon about which something is reported.
The rheme expresses the basic informative part of the communication, its contextually relevant centre.
Between the theme and the rheme are positioned transitional parts of the actual division of various degrees of informative value (these parts are sometimes called transition).
The theme of the actual division of the sentence may or may not coincide with the subject of the sentence. The rheme of the actual division may or may not coincide with the predicate of the sentence (either with the whole predicate group or its part, such as the predicative, the object, the adverbial):
Thus, in the following sentences of various emotional character the theme is expressed by the subject, while the rheme is expressed by the predicate:
I. The theme is expressed by the subject
Max bounded forward. (the rheme coincides with the whole predicate group)
Again Charlie is being too clever! (the adverbial introducer again is a transitional element, the rheme is expressed by the rest of the predicate group, the main part of the rheme/the peak of informative perspective is rendered by the intensified predicative too clever).
Her advice can't be of any help to us. (the addressee object to us is transitional, the informative peak is expressed by the predicative of any help)
In the following sentences the correlation between the nominative and actual divisions is the reverse:
II. The theme is expressed by the predicate or its part, the rheme is rendered by the subject:
Through the open window came the purr of an approaching motor car.
Who is coming late but John!
There is a difference of opinion between the parties.
The actual division of the sentence finds its full expression only in a concrete context of speech (the contextual division of the sentence):
Mary is fond of poetry (if we approach it as a stylistically neutral construction devoid of any specific connotations, the theme is expressed by the subject, and the rheme, by the predicate) –direct actual division (the rheme is expressed by the predicate)
Isn't it surprising that Tim is so fond of poetry? –But you are wrong. Mary is fond of poetry. (the subject is the rheme, the predicate is the exposer of the theme) –inverted actual division (the rheme is expressed by the subject).
1.4. The rheme making devices.
The formal means of expressing the distinction between the theme and the rheme are (1) word-order patterns, (2) intonation contours, (3) constructions with introducers, (4) syntactic patterns of contrastive complexes, (5) constructions with articles and other determiners, (6) constructions with intensifying particles.
(1) The difference between the actual division of sentences signalled by the difference in their word-order patterns can be illustrated by transformations:
I.
The winner of the competition stood on the platform in the middle of the hall.–On the platform in the middle of the hall stood the winner of the competition.
Fred didn't notice the flying balloon. – The one who didn't notice the flying balloon was Fred.
Helen should be the first to receive her diploma. – The first to receive her diploma should be Helen.
In all the examples the rheme (expressed either by the subject or by an element of the predicate group) is placed towards the end of the sentence, while the theme is positioned at the beginning of it.
II.
It was unbelievable to all of them. – Utterly unbelievable it was to all of them.
Now you are speaking magic words, Nancy. – Magic words you are speaking now, Nancy.
You look so well! – How well you look!
In the given examples the rheme is positioned at the beginning of the sentence (emotive connotation)
(3) Among constructions with introducers, the there-pattern provides for the rhematic identification of the subject without emotive connotations:
A loud hoot came from the railroad. – There came a loud hoot from the railroad.
Emphatic discrimination of the rheme expressed by various parts of the sentence is achieved by constructions with the anticipatory it:
She had just escaped something simply awful. – It was something simply awful that she had just escaped.
(4) Syntactic patterns of contrastive complexes are used to expose the rheme of the utterance in cases when special accuracy of distinction is needed. This is explained by the fact that the actual division as such is always based on some sort of antithesis (contraposition), which in an ordinary speech remains implicit:
The costume is meant not for your cousin, but for you. –The costume, not the frock, is meant for you, my dear.
The strain told not so much on my visitor than on myself.–The strain of the situation, not the relaxation of it, was what surprised me.
(5) Definite determiners can serve as identifiers of the theme while the indefinite determiners serve as identifiers of the rheme:
The man walked up and down the platform. – A man walked up and down the platform.
The whole book was devoted to the description of a tiny island on the Pacific. –A whole book is needed to describe that tiny island on the Pacific.
I'm sure Nora's knitting needles will suit you. – I'm sure any knitting needles will suit you.
(6) Intensifying particles identify the rheme, commonly giving emotional colouring to the whole of the utterance:
Mr. Stores had a part in the general debate. –Even Mr. Stores had a part in the general debate.
Then he sat down in one of the armchairs. – Only then did he sit down in one of the armchairs.
We were impressed by what we heard and saw. – We were so impressed by what we heard and saw.
(2) Intonation as a means of realising the actual division, might not be confined to oral speech only. It is a universal means of expressing the actual division in all types and varieties of lingual contexts. This universal rheme-identifying function of intonation is described in terms of logical accent (rhematic accent). It is inseparable from the other rheme-identifying means described above, especially from the word-order patterns. Moreover, all such means in written texts in fact represent the logical accent, i.e. they indicate its position either directly or indirectly.
There is a strict distinguish between the elements immediately placed under the phonetical/technical stress, and the sentence segments which are identified as the informative centre of communication proper. Not only notional, but functional units as well can be phrasally stressed in an utterance, which in modern printed texts is shown by special graphical ways of identification, such as italics, bold type:
I can't bring along someone who isn't invited. –But I am invited!
Moreover, being a highly intelligent young woman, she'd be careful not to be the only one affected.
Not only phonetically stressed word-units are rhematically marked out. Functional elements cannot express any self-dependent nomination; they make up units of nomination together with the notional elements of utterances whose meanings they specify. Thus, the phrasal phonetical stress, technically making prominent some functional element identifies as rhematic the corresponding notional part (knot) of the utterance as a whole. These notional parts are real members of the opposition theme —rheme, not their functional constituents taken separately.
The actual division makes up part of syntactic predication. One of the most important manifestations of the immediate contextual relevance of the actual division is the regular deletion (ellipsis) of the thematic parts of utterances in dialogue speech:
You've got the letters? – In my bag.
How did you receive him? – Coldly.