Parts of the Sentence

3. Parts of the Sentence

Traditionally the subject and the predicate are regarded as the primary or principal parts of the sentence and the attribute, the object and the adverbial modifier – as the secondary parts of the sentence. This opposition primary – secondary is justified by the difference in function. While the subject and the predicate make the predication and thus constitute the sentence, the secondary parts serve to expand it by being added to the words of the predication in accordance with their combinability as words. Thus the sentence combines syntactical and morphological relations, which, in our opinion, it is necessary to discriminate more rigorously than it is usually done.

The traditional classification of the parts of the sentence is open to criticism from the point of view of consistency.

The name attribute really shows the subordinate nature of the part of the sentence it denotes. The double term adverbial modifier shows not only the secondary character of the corresponding part of the sentence (modifier), but also refers to a certain part of speech (adverbial). The term object does not indicate subordination, it only refers to the content.

Many words of a sentence, such as prepositions, conjunctions, articles, particles, parenthetical words, are traditionally – not considered as parts of the sentence, even as tertiary ones But as we know, the parts of a unit are units of the next lower level, in our case words. The function of each word in the sentence is its relation to the other words and to the sentence as a whole. So each word is as much a part of the sentence as each morpheme is a part of the word (its root, prefix, inflexion, etc.)

The infinitive to find in the sentence Your task is to find it is regarded as a part of the predicate and is named predicative. The same infinitive in the sentence Jane is to find it is also considered as a part of the predicate, but it is not called 'predicative'. It has no name at all, as well as the infinitives in We ought to find it., We cannot find it, etc.

When a noun or an adjective is attached to a finite link-verb it is called a 'predicative' (He is a, teacher), but when it is attached to a overbid link-verb (To be a teacher is my dream), it has no name. With objects it is different. The noun letter is an object both in He writes a letter and in He wants-to write a letter.

Many of these inconsistencies can be done away with if we discriminate between the syntactical and the morphological relations within the sentence.

As already noted, only the words containing the structural meanings of predicativity are regarded as the structural subject and predicate. The chief criterion for the division of all the other words of a sentence into parts of the sentence is their combinability. Thus combinability is the property that correlates parts of speech and parts of the sentence as well as the functions of notional and semi-notional words.

Those notional words in a sentence which are adjuncts of certain head-words will be divided in accordance with their head-words into attributes, complements and extensions.

Those semi-notional words which serve to connect two words or clauses (prepositions, conjunctions) will be regarded as a separate part of the sentence, connectives.

Those semi-notional words that are used to specify various words or word combinations (articles, particles) will be called specifies.

Finally, words in a sentence, with zero connections, referring to the sentence and known as parenthetical elements, are a distinct part of the sentence.

The Subject

The subject is the independent member of a two-member predication, containing the person component of predicativity. Both members of the predication he sleeps contain the meaning of 'person'. But in sleeps this meaning depends on that of he and is due to grammatical combinability. This accounts for the fact that sleeps cannot make a sentence alone, though it contains all the components of predicativity. Sleeps likewise depends on he as far as the meaning of 'number' is concerned. The meanings of 'person' and 'number' in h? are lexico-grammatical and independent.

The subject is generally defined as a word or a group of words denoting the thing we speak about. This traditional definition is logical rather than grammatical. In the sentence This pretty girl is my sister's friend the definition can be applied to the whole group This pretty girl, to say nothing of the fact that «the thing we speak about» is so vague that it practically covers any part of the sentence expressing substantives.

The subject of a simple sentence can be a word, a syntactical word-morpheme or a complex.

As a word it can belong to different parts of speech, but it is mostly a noun or a pro-noun.

E.g. Fame is the thirst of youth. (Byron).

Nothing endures but personal qualities. (Whitman). To see is to believe.

A word used as a subject combines the lexical meaning with the structural meaning of 'person'. So it is at the same time the structural and the notional subject.

The syntactical word-morphemes there and it are only structural subjects because as word-morphemes they have no lexical meaning. But they are usually correlated with some words or complexes in the sentence which are regarded as notional subjects. In such cases it and there are also called anticipatory or introductory subjects.

In There is somebody in the room the notional subject is somebody. In It requires no small talents to be a bore (Scott) the notional subject is to be a bore. In It is raining there is no notional subject and it is not anticipatory. In It is necessary for him to come the notional subject is the complex for him to come. But a complex may also be used as the only subject.

E.g. For him to come would be fatal.

We may speak of a secondary subject within a complex. In the following sentence it is the noun head.

Several thousand people went to see the headless statue ~ yesterday before it was removed for a new head to be cast from the original plaster moulds. (Daily Worker).

The syntactical word-morphemes there and it may also function as secondary subjects.

It being cold, we put on our coats. I knew of there being no one to help him.

The analysis of sentences like He was seen to enter the house is a point at issue. Traditionally the infinitive is said to form part of the 'complex subject' (He…to enter). B.A. Ilyish maintains that though satisfactory from the logical point of view, this interpretation seems to be artificial grammatically, this splitting of the subject being alien to English. Accordingly B.A. Ilyish suggests that only he should be treated as the subject of the sentence, whereas was seen to enter represents a peculiar type of compound predicate.

The traditional analysis, however, seems preferable, for it admits of treating the sentence as a passive transform of They saw him enter the house with the 'complex object' him enter becoming a 'complex subject' he… to enter. As to the splitting of the subject, it is another device to bring the structural parts of the subject and predicate together (he was), which is so typical of English.

Some authors as, for example, A. Smirnitsky, M. Ganshina, and N. Vasilevskaya speak of definite-personal, indefinite-personal and impersonal sentences in Modern English. We see no syntactical ground whatever for this classification since definite-personal, indefinite-personal, etc. sentences have no structural peculiarities typical of these classes. It is a semantical classification of subjects, not sentences.

If we compare the subject in English with that of Russian we shall find a considerable difference between them.

1. In Modern Russian the subject is as a rule characterized by a distinct morphological feature – the nominative case, whereas in English it is for the most part (unless it is expressed by a personal pronoun or the pronoun who in the nominative case) indicated by the position it occupies in the sentence.

2. In Modern Russian the subject is much less obligatory as a part of the sentence than in English. One-member sentences are numerous and of various types, among them sentences like nude flume. In English a finite verb (barring the 'imperative mood' finites) does not, as a rule, make a sentence without a subject.