В.А.Яцко

English Syntax

for Russian Speaking Students

Абакан 2002

ББК 81.2Англ

Я 936

Печатается по рекомендации Методического совета Хакасского государственного университета им. Н.Ф.Катанова

Рецензент:

д-р Дж. Бернхардт (Государственный департамент США)

  кфилн, доц. В.Р.Щербик

Яцко В.А.

Я 936

Английский синтаксис для русскоязычных студентов. Учебное пособие – Абакан: Издательство Хакасского государственного университета им. Н.Ф.Катанова, 2002. – 86 c.

В учебном пособии описываются основные синтаксические структуры английского языка: части предложения, типы сложных предложений, порядок слов. Приводятся упражнения, направленные на развитие навыков синтаксического анализа и использования синтаксических конструкций в речи. Особое внимание уделяется различию между английскими и русскими синтаксическими структурами.

Для студентов и преподавателей филологических факультетов.

© Яцко В.А., автор, 2002

Preface

This textbook is aimed at describing main English syntactic structures and developing skills of syntactic analysis. Grammar material is divided into topics studied by third year students at the faculties of foreign languages: parts of the sentence (subject, predicate, object, adverbial modifier, and attribute), types of sentences distinguished according to their function in discourse and structure, types of composite sentences, word order. Each topic includes explanatory notes and exercises. In the explanatory notes distinctions of syntactic structures are described, and rules of their use in speech are given. The textbook has three types of exercises: 1) exercises on transformation of syntactic structures. These exercises can be done orally in class. When making up the exercises the author tried to take into consideration connections between grammar and other linguistic disciplines studied in the third year, practice of speech in the first turn; 2) exercises on analysis and translation of syntactic structures. These exercises can be given for home assignments. They have models of analysis, which allow for correct parsing of sentences. In some small topics (the parenthesis, types of sentences) there is no division of exercises into two types; 3) exercises aimed at the use of syntactic structures in coherent texts (the texts are given in the Appendix).

The third year students are supposed to know and to have studied, some pieces of the accidence and syntax, such as modal verbs, non finite forms of the verb, tense forms of the verb, mood, indirect speech, that is why they are not dealt with in the textbook.

This textbook differs from existing textbooks in English grammar (see bibliography) in two respects. 1) Special emphasis is made on differences between English and Russian syntactic structures, which is important for correcting typical grammar mistakes made by Russian speaking students studying English as a foreign language. 2) Though it has some theory in explanatory notes, the book is in no sense theoretical, being aimed at developing skills of syntactic analysis, therefore some disputable theoretical issues are not touched upon. The author hopes he has succeeded in reaching the appropriate balance between theory and practice.

Table of contents

1. PARTS OF THE SENTENCE 5

1.1. The subject 5

1.2. The predicate 11

1.3. Agreement of the predicate with the subject 21

1.4. The object 27

1.5. The attribute 33

1.6. The adverbial modifier 38

1.7. The parenthesis 46

2. WORD ORDER 49

3. TYPES OF SENTENCES 54

3.1. The compound sentence 56

3.2. The complex sentence 60

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 75

APPENDIX 76

The syntax is a branch of grammar which studies: 1) phrases, 2) parts of the sentence, 2) types of sentences distinguished according to their structure and function in discourse.

1. PARTS OF THE SENTENCE

Parts of the sentence are traditionally divided into principal parts, secondary parts and independent elements. The principal parts of the sentence are the subject and the predicate; the secondary parts – the attribute, the object, and the adverbial modifier; the independent elements – the interjection, the direct address, and the parenthesis.

1. THE SUBJECT

Explanatory notes.

The subject is the principal part of the sentence, which is grammatically independent of the other parts of the sentence. It can denote an abstract idea, a person, animate or inanimate object, whose action or characteristic is expressed by the predicate. When studying the subject one should memorize by what parts of speech it can be realized in a sentence. Special attention should be paid to the following differences between English and Russian.

1). Russian sentences, having no subject, are usually rendered into English by means of the sentences with the subject expressed by indefinite pronouns or pronoun it. Чтобы получить хорошую оценку, нужно посещать все занятия. To get a good mark one must attend all lessons. Темнеет. It’s getting dark (impersonal pronoun it); Было трудно сдать экзамен. It was difficult to pass the exam (introductory pronoun it). Russian speaking students being inclined to translate it by это, it is important to understand that different types of it are rendered into Russian differently.

2). Russian complex sentences with то, что subject clauses are rendered into English by simple sentences with gerundial constructions. E.g. То, что учитель ставил плохие оценки, было несправедливым. The teacher’s giving bad marks was unjust. In formal style the same idea is expressed by the subject nominal clauses. Cf.: That the teacher gave bad marks was unjust (such examples are treated in detail below, see 3.2.).

N	The subject can be realized by	Example	Translation, peculiarity
1	noun (class, abstract, proper, nouns of material)	The books are on the shelf There are books on the shelf	The subject comes after the predicate expressed by there(here) + be. There can be also used as adverbial modifier, cf.: There was our aim
2	infinitive	a) To study grammar is difficult b) It’s difficult to study grammar	Infinitive can be a part of the subject, the second part being introductory it
3	gerund and gerun-dial constructions	a) Singing is my hobby b) His getting a bad mark surprised everybody	Пение (петь) – моё хобби То, что он получил пло- хую оценку всех удивило
4	pronoun
a	personal	We partook of a stilted dinner	Me, us, them, him, her are personal pronouns in the objective case
b	demonstrative	That complicates matters	Это осложняет дело Demonstrative pronouns are used instead of the whole previous sentence or several sentences
c	negative	nothing, non, nobody, no one
d	indefinite	some, something, somebody someone, one. One can’t help admiring this masterpiece.	Нельзя не восхищаться этим шедевром. Personal pronouns can be used as indefinite, cf.: We can't live 2000 years
e	interrogative	Who is absent?	To state the function of interrogative pronouns is possible by the answer. Cf.: What did he get?-He got a letter
f	defining	all, each, every, everybody, both, either, other, another. All is well that ends well
5	substantivized adjective, participle, or numeral	The poor stay poor, the rich get rich	In Russian there are more substantivized participles than in English; they are rendered into English by phrases, cf.: влюблённые – people in love
6	A non prepositional or prepositional phrase	There is a lot of truth in your words After nine is a good time to ring	A non prepositional phrase used as a subject denotes an indefinite number or amount
7	numeral	One of the students came up to sk a question
8	pronoun it
a	notional	Such a lovely dress. It looks especially lovely on you.	Notional it is used instead of a word in the previous sentence or the whole previous sentence, being translated either by a personal pronoun or by это
b	impersonal	It is cold. It’s a long way to Tipperary	Impersonal it denotes natural phenomena, time, and distance
c	introductory	It’s difficult to pass this exam. It’s no good cheating at the exam	Introductory it is used with the infinitive or gerund, which is a part of the subject
d	emphatic	It is you who I mean	Именно тебя я имею в виду. In Russian translation special words именно, только are used. Emphatic it is followed by a link verb and relative pronoun
e	demonstrative	It is John. It’s a rose	The speaker names an object. In Russian это is used