Lecture 15

Lecture 15
THE COMPOSITE SENTENCE: TYPOLOGY

COMPOUND SENTENCE

Traditional grammar: the compound sentence is a composite sentence built on the principles of coordination, and clauses are completely independent of each other.

Modern grammar: the independence is not complete: 1. the order is fixed, 2. interdependent use of tenses.

Coordination: syndetic, asyndetic.

Semantic relations in a compound sentence:

- copulative (and, nor, either)
- adversative (but, yet, still, however)
- disjunctive (or, else)
- causal (for, so, therefore)

COMPLEX SENTENCE is a polypredicativeconstruction with interconnected clauses built on the principles of subordination.

Subordination: syndetic, asyndetic (I think there's somenthing wrong)

Principles of classification of subordinate clauses:

- functional (syntactic) - as a part of simple sentence:
object clause
attributive clause
adverbial clause

- categorial (morphological):
noun clauses
adjective clauses
adverbial clauses

OBJECT CLAUSES

Description of a situation: I'll do anything - I'll do whatever you want.

Object (report) clauses presenting chunks of speech and mental activity processes
- introduced by the verbs to say, to ask, to think, to question (reported, or indirect speech)

ATTRIBUTIVE CLAUSES

Descriptive: At last we found a place where we could make a fire
- syndetic: I met a girl who told me she's a dancer
- asyndetic: I met a pretty girl I've never seen before
Restrictive: The place where we could make a fire was not a lucky one
- syndetic: The woman who owns the cabin will come in autumn
- asyndetic: The men you met outside the gate was toll, was he not?

ADVERBIAL CLAUSE - perform the same function in the complex sentence that the adverbial modifier performs in the simple sentence

Barchudarov & Stelling: 9 types of them: time, place, cause, result, purpose, condition, concession, exception, manner, comparison.

Modern: 8 of them (except for exception, which is treated as a case of concession)

TYPES OF ADVERBIAL CLAUSES (Bloch)
- time and place (place is rare, prefer naming the place directly)
- manner and comparison
- circumstantial (condition, cause, result, concession, purpose)
- parenthetical or insertive clauses

COMPOSITE SENTENCES WITH INTERDEPENDENT CLAUSES

- subject clauses: What we as nation want is not words but deeds
- predicative clauses: He lloks as if he has gone slightly gaga
- complex balance: What I need is that you call a doctor

COMPOSITE SENTENCES WITH APPOSITION CLAUSES

I had a feeling you'd grown to hate me.
She owned me some explanation of what happened to her.
(discloses the meaning of the precedent clause)

Classes of appositive antecedents (Bloch):
- nounal (fact, idea, news, information, time)
- pronounal (all, that, smth, nothing)
- anticipatory 'it': It's extraordinary that we have met

CUMULATIVE CLAUSES

- continuative descriptive clauses (who, which): blah-blah, which is a great satisfaction
- pseudo-temporal clauses (which, while): To each child approval means love, while disapproval means hate
- pseudo-causal clauses (for): We never see Henry these days, for for he has grown fat and lazy
- parenthetical or insertive clauses (if, though, as): blah-blah, as I have already mentioned

THE USE OF TENSES IN COMPOSITE SENTENCES

absolute - viewed from the moment of speech
relative - simulaneity, priority, or posteriority

SEQUENCE OF TENSES
- object clauses
- adverbial clauses of purpose
- appositive clauses
- clauses with anticipatory 'it'
- predicative clauses