Lecture 1 The Subject Matter of Grammar

Lecture 1

The Subject Matter of Grammar

 

Grammar - is the study of the structure of human language.

Grammar studies the formal properties of words and sentences. It cosists of morphology and syntax. Morphology describes how words are structured and formed, how their constituents (morphemes) are classified and combined. Syntax describes how words are arranged and combined into phrases and sentences, how phrases and sentences are classified and combined into larger structures.

The Evolution of English Grammars

Prescriptive Normative grammars prescribed and proscribed. They prohibited wrong, improper constructions and forms. They set up (postulated)… 1891 can be counted as the beginning of the classical scientific grammar,… The epoch of these scholars is now called Traditional grammar.

The Asymmetry of a Linguistic Sign

Polysemy: to speculate - 1. to think over the idea without having reliable facts; 2. to sell smth hoping to receive more. Homonymy: 1.Catholic - referring to Catholic church; learned, knowledgeable.… Ambiguity: He left the car with the girl ( We can put several questions to the element underlined: Whom did he leave…

American Descriptive Linguistics

Its main representatives are Leonard Bloomfield (the head), Charles Fries, Zelic Harris, Charles Hockett, etc. They rejected the traditional techniques of linguistic analysis. They studied the non-alphabetical incorporative languages of Indian tribes which differ considerably from Indo-European languages. These linguists offered new procedures of description (arrangement, position, co-occurrence of linguistic elements) without resorting to meaning. Hence this school is called, at times, Behaviorist Structural Grammar (L. Bloomfield). According to behaviorists, language is just a form of behavior. Linguistics should focus on linguistic performance, it should study the behavior, distribution, arrangement, co-occurrence, structural characteristics of elements disregarding their meaning.

Transformational and Transformational Generative Grammar

Transformational grammar (Zelic Harris, Charles Hockett) distinguishes kernels and transformational rules for expansion and rearrangement of… Transformational Generative Grammar is primarily associated with the name of… Harris and Chomsky developed ideas of transformation in different contexts and for different purposes. For Harris…

Semantic Syntax

Semantic syntax describes sentences in terms of propositions, semantic structures (= deep structures), predicates and arguments. Relations between… I open the door is a proposition. It’s semantic structure is as follows : the… The present day trend is textual linguistics and intertextual linguistics. They describe discourse, its generation and…

Methods of Linguistic Analysis

Modern grammar operates with a whole inventory of methods.

 

Parsing (Traditional Syntactic Analysis)

Parsing means dividing a sentence into the main and secondary parts by putting questions. This long-standing procedure proves at times inadequate (powerless, ineffective). Putting questions to the sentence People hate unreasonably we receive the following analysis Who? – people (the subject),What do they do? – hate {the predicate}, How? - unreasonably (an adverbial modifier of manner). Very often, in the structures carrying ambiguous parts or elements of ambiguous reference we can put more than one question to one and the same element. In the sentence He left the car with the girl. We can put 3 questions to the element underlined ( Whom did he leave the car with? What car did he leave? How did he leave the car?

The Oppositional Method

The oppositional method is based on discrepancy, antinomy or objective contrasts which are to be distinguished in objective reality between… Things contrasted to each other always have something in common, they are… Things of opposite nature seem to depend on one another

The Distributional method

Distribution is the total of all the environments in which an element can occur; all occurrences can be symbolized. The distribution of the verb to… There are a number of postulates here to be observed: if two or more distributional formulas are identical their meanings are identical;

The Transformational Method

The transformational method rearranges syntactic structures keeping their meanings unchanged. Its postulates are : if two or more structures are… This method has a broad sphere of application. We can clarify relations… Transformational method is more powerful as it reveals hidden implicit relations between the constituents of a…

The Method of Deep and Surface Structures

The sphere of the application of the method is as large as that of the transformational method. One surface structure can be analyzed in terms of… With the help of it we can analyze 1. Identical structures, feeling their… The Functional Sentence Perspective Method (FSP)

The Componential Method

A semantic component is the smallest indivisible unit of sense comparable to elementary particles in physics. The content of the word “bachelor” can… The Componential analysis is not quite adequate by itself and should be…

The Contextual Method

A context is an immediate environment of a linguistic unit, which actualizes, semantizes, desemantizes, hypersemantizes or disambiguates it.… Scholars distinguish different types of context: extralinguistic (situational)… Making use of the contextual analysis, we are to take into consideration semantic agreement / disagreement of semantic…

The Morphological Structure of ME

English is prevalently analytical. Grammatical relations are expressed by such auxiliaries as shall, will, do, have, should, would, more, most.… Isolation in English is expressed by the formation of phrases on the model NN… Synthesis is extremely important in English. Historically English had a synthetical structure. There were external and…

The Classifications of Morphemes

Morphemes are classified according to different criteria. According to meaning, morphemes are divided into lexical, grammatical and… The morphemic model of an English word is prefix – root – suffix –…  

Paradigmatics and Syntagmatics

sentences (I have a car-I had a car, I shall have a car-Do you have a car- I don’t have a car-my having a car-for me to have a car, etc.). The domain of syntax is the syntagmatics of a word. A syntagm is a linear… In a paradigm words are in paradigmatic relations, they have paradigmatic meanings which are constant, invariable,…

Classifications of Parts of Speech.

At present there exist different lines of approach: traditional, functional (Prague linguistic school), descriptive (American descriptive… Traditionalists rely upon meaning as the essential criterion. This criterion… Prague linguistic school called parts of speech as bundles of morphologically relevant features and described words in…

Notionals and Functionals

Notionals are open classes, indefinitely extendable. It’s impossible to inventory all the nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. It is transposition… Functionals are closed classes, we cannot invent new prepositions and…

Heterogeneity

Though a greater homogeneity was achieved by Ch. Fries’s classification as compared with traditional classifications, his classes of words are still…

Field and Periphery

Some scholars hold that major parts of speech have a field-like structure with the nucleus and the periphery. The nucleus embraces constituents with regular features, that is, notional words with full paradigms ( the plural form, the singular form, the genitive case form, the categorical forms of tense, aspect, correlation, voice, mood, etc). The periphery comprises deviated words, having defective paradigms.

Subcategorization

The trend among linguists is towards subdivision of major parts of speech. By the method of oppositions and the componential analysis classes of words are divided into binary groups. Nouns are divided into concrete / concrete/abstract, animate / inanimate, countable / uncountable, human / nonhuman, person / nonperson, male/female,etc. Verbs indicate actions, processes, states; each of these classes can be divided into binary groups: concrete / abstract actions, processes, states). By subcategorizing words we can improve the Distributional analysis (He reminds me of his father (напоминает отца). He reminds me of his party (напоминает о партии). These are homonymous structures. Semantically they are different, as father is an animate noun (Na), while party is an inanimate noun (Nā).

Onomaseological approach

Onomaseology is concerned with the problems of nomination. This approach is based on the nominative peculiarities of words. Nominatively, words are divided into the following classes. Identifying words (names) are those which refer to objects or qualities they name. Characterizing ( predicate, qualifying) words are adjectives, adverbs, verbs. They have no reference, they are dependent on identifying words. On the syntagmatic level they develop the meanings of emotiveness, expressiveness, intensiveness, evaluation. Deictic words (pronouns and adverbs) are used anaphorically, they represent something. Technical words ( functionals) are prepositions and conjunctions, they are semantically empty.

The Noun

The General Properties of a Noun

Nouns constitute the most open class. They have the meaning of thingness as they denote substances, beings, phenomena, abstract concepts. Words of other classes can be easily nominalized (substantivized), even functional words can be nominalized for the given occasion (There are too many ifs and buts in your answer). Analytical forms can also be substantivized ( There are too many might-have-beens). Nouns are declinable words: they have inflexions of number and case. They function diversely, even as attributes( He is a space pilot).

The Category of Gender.

In OE gender was a morphological category. In present day English it is a purely lexico-semantic category, as there are no grammatical means to… Gender, expressed by gender-sensitive pronouns he, she, it, divides the class… Traditionally some nouns are referred to as feminine: ships, cars, seas, oceans, the names of countries and cities(…

The Category of Number

Nouns are divided into countables and uncountables. Countable nouns have several ways of building the plural form. The morpheme of plurality… The division of nouns into singularia tantum and pluralia tantum is justified… The distinction into countables and uncountables is relative in English. Countables, contextually, can turn into…

The Category of Case

Under the category of case we understand the change of form of a noun to denote its grammatical relations to other parts of communication.

The number of cases varies in different languages { two in English (common and Genitive), 7 (including the Vocative case) in Russian). It depends upon the morphological structure of the language and its development.

In Old English cases corresponded to the syntactical positions of nouns. The Nominative represented a subject or a predicative, the Accusative represented direct object, the Dative stood for a indirect object, the Genitive stood for an attribute, the Vocative denoted a direct address. In the course of time the number of cases got reduced , the inflexions died out, and the relations of nouns to other parts of communication came to be expressed by word order, prepositions and two cases – the Common and the Genitive.

Debated Problems within the Category of Case

Genitive Constructions (N’s N) There are a number of genitive constructions in English which are classified… All these synthetic Genitives can be replaced by analytical Genitives as there is semantic and structural similarity…

The Article

Debated Problems

 

The Functions of Articles in a Sentence

The indefinite article develops the following functions in a sentence (simple, composite), a supra-phrasal structure, larger discourse: 1. The classifying function (It is a table). 2. The descriptive function (with any kind of nouns) ( The was a coolness in the woods and a twilight. D. H.…

Lecture 3

 

The Verb

The General Properties of a Verb

The verb can be described in terms of the field theory. It has a field-like structure with a nucleus and a periphery. Its nucleus carries the… We find among verbs those with post-positions ( to put off, to get off, etc.).…

The Category of Tense

Tense is a grammatical expression of objective distinctions of time into the past, present and future. The existence of this category is undebated in all Indo-European languages, but within the category there are some debated problems:1.the number of tenses; 2.the existence of the Future Tense; 3. the syntagmatic meanings of the past tenses; 4.the nature of the Future-in- the Past.

Classifications of Tenses

The writer of a popular manual in practical grammar prof. Kaushanskaya distinguished 16 tenses. Her practical scheme of tenses is based on O.… The classifications embracing 3 tenses were advanced by Profs. Smirnitsky,…

The Future Tense

According to N.A.Kobrina, B.A.Ilyish, E.A.Korneeva, the English Tense system is represented by the opposition The Past : the Present : the Future.… M.Y.Blokh distinguishes newer categories within the Future. On the basis of…

The Present Tense

The Past Tense

It seems to be semantically simpler as it merely refers to something that happened in the past. According to Otto Jespersen’s theory of the imaginative use of tenses, the Past or the before Past conveys, under certain conditions, hypothetical actions, unreality, impossibility (I wish you did it. I wish You had done it yesterday. He looks as if he had never been here). O.Espersen did not distinguish the Subjunctive Mood (neither Subjuncive I nor Subjunctive II).

The Future-in-the-Past Tense

There’s no agreement as to the place the forms should/would + infinitive occupy in the system of the English language. Often, these forms are placed outside the morphological categories. Prof. Smirnitsky finds them to be an expression of the Conditional mood. Prof. Ivanova put forward the idea of two temporal centres: the centre of the Present and that of the Past. The Future-in-the-Past is a dependent future belonging to the past. According to prof. Khaimovich should/would are the manifestations of the category of posteriority which is based on the oppositions shall : should, will : would. M.Y. Blokh distinguishes the category of prospective posteriority. He distinguishes two Futures: the Future-of-the-Present and the Future-of-the-Past . According to prof. Plotkin, the Future-in-the-Past is the 4 -th member of the tense paradigm in modern English.

The Category of Aspect

The following problems are open to discussion here:1. Some scholars don’t recognize the existence of this category in English. They hold that… Professors Smirnitsky, Barkhudarov, Ilyish, Khlebnikova find aspect to be a… The semantic content of continuous forms comes to be rather complex. We can distinguish in it the paradigmatic…

The Category of Voice

1.Voice is treated as a syntactic category (H. Paul, A. Potebnya), as a morphologico-syntactic category as it denotes the syntactic relation of an… 2. It is hard to say what is to be paid attention to, meanings or forms.… 3. Under transitivity we understand the potential capacity of a verb to demand an object. The nature of transitivity…

The Indicative Mood

Semantically it is the most objective mood, morphologically it is most developed.

The Imperative Mood

This mood expresses order, command, a stimulus. It is the least developed mood resembling in form Sujunctive I and the infinitive. Hence, some scholars do not recognize its existence.Though it is undeveloped as compared with Russian, we encounter very peculiar forms in syntagmatics { Have done it by the time he comes ( the perfect form of the imperative). Be always searching for new sensations (the continuous form of the imperative)}. It can become polysemantic and develop the meanings of condition or concession. Make me do these things and you would destroy me (J.London) can be transformed into If you make me do these things, you will destroy me.

The Subjunctive Mood

In English The Subjunctive has long been in a state of decay as compared with other European languages. The simple Subjunctive (Subjunctive I) is… The difference between the Indicative mood and the Subjunctive mood has… According to Eric Partridge, the Subjunctive is not an extinct (вымирающий) mood. It is a living mood to be found in…

Points of Similarities with the Finites

2. They all have the categories of correlation and voice, the infinitive has one more verbal category, that of aspect (to be writing, to have… 3. The non-finites, like the finites, are seldom used singly, without…

Points of Differences with the Finites

2. The verbals lack the categories of person, number, tense and mood. Still an infinitive can imply, in some contexts, some modality, which is…   Participle II differs from the rest of the verbals. It has no forms (passive and perfect) as the meanings of passivity…

Debated Problems within The Verbals

1. The existing terms Present Participle and Past Participle are not satisfactory as the finites do not denote time absolutely. On the analogy with the German Partizip I and Partizip II the terms Participle I and Participle II were proposed. The term “half-gerund” is unscientific (I insist upon John doing it in time. I insist upon them doing it in time).

2. Sometimes a gerund and a participle I are hard to distinguish {(I saw mother reading a book(a participle). I remember mother reading a book (a gerund)}. It is reasonable to consider them as an ing-form, the difference between the gerund and the participle being neutralized. The difference between a gerund and a verbal noun can also be neutralized (People told me about your smoking).

The Functions of Non-Finites

The finites perform the function of a simple verbal predicate. The non-finites can perform different functions in the sentence (predicative, subject, object, attribute, adverbial modifier). They can occur isolatedly, in phrases {There are things to marvel at (an infinitive phrase functions as an attribute), in predicative constructions which function as complex subjects, predicatives, objects, attributes, adverbial modifiers ( I made him do it. He was seen to be crossing the street.). Some functions of non-finites can be syncretical and ambiguous {I got places to go and things to do (an attribute and an adverbial modifier of purpose).

So, all the forms of the verb are divided oppositionally into Finites and Non-finites, which differ structurally, semantically and functionally.

 

 

Materials for Lecture 4

SYNTAX

The domain of morphology is the paradigmatics of words; the domain of syntax is the syntagmatics of words, phrases and sentences, their arrangement, combinability and functioning.

Syntax studies how words are combined into phrases and simple sentences, how simple sentences are combined into compound and complex sentences and how supraphrasal units and texts are organized and generated.

Types of Syntax

Syntactic theories ignore individual and stylistic differences; they ignore variations of discourse, syntactical variations at any historical…

THE THEORY OF THE PHRASE

To know how a sentence is constructed we are to see how its constituents are built and classified. Theoretical syntax describes free word-combinations of the type ( a beautiful girl, ladies and gentlemen, run quickly, on account of etc.). Here the elements are separable, whereas in a phraseological unit, especially in an idiom (to smell a rat ) the globality of nomination reigns supreme over the formal separability of units.

There exist various terms to name a group of words (a word group, a word combination, a cluster of words, a syntagmatic grouping, a phrase, etc.). Russian linguists prefer to use the term “word combination”, Western linguists resort to the term “phrase”. The constituents of a phrase are the head element, the modified one, the governing element; an adjunct, a modifier, the governed element ( in the phrase “a beautiful girl” a girl is the head, while “beautiful” is an adjunct).

Devices of Connecting Words in a Phrase

Agreement consists in combining a head and its adjunct by means of morphological categories they both share. The adjunct assumes the grammatical… In English agreement is practically non-existent, we find it only in this book… On the level of a simple sentence we find formal agreement (he goes).

Debated Problems within the Theory of the Phrase

Most scholars hold that every combination of two or more words which is a grammatical unit constitutes a phrase: hot weather, very hot, at least, on… We can distinguish phrases comprising notional and functional words (N+N… There are phrases equivalent to prepositions, these are prepositional phrases( instead of). There are also…

THE THEORY OF THE SIMPLE SENTENCE

Sentential syntax is to be understood as a language component of our internal grammar, which allows us to generate, process and recognize… Though new revolutionary methods of parsing (грамматический разбор) have swept… The present day sentential syntax takes advantage of basic achievements of traditionalists, structuralists,…

The Definition of a Sentence

All attempts at presenting a definition that would satisfy all scholars have proved to be fruitless. Scholars have failed to achieve a generally… There exist logical, psychological, structural, phonetical, graphical… According to S. Porter, a sentence is a minimum complete utterance, a structure, it’s analysed into morphemes, words,…

Syntactic Modelling of the Sentence

The notion of a basic structure is termed variously: a skeleton, a model, a naked sentence, the nucleus of a sentence, a pattern, an elementary… The number of basic structures varies from one linguistic school to another.… It all depends upon the criteria, scholars proceed from, to minimise basic structures. Descriptivists proceed from…

Semantic Modelling of the Sentence

W.Chafe distinguishes propositions according to the character of the verb: He broke a vase (with an actional semantic structure), The wood is dry… According to W. Chafe, the total human conceptual universe is dichotomized…

The Notion of a Syntactic Paradigm

In the syntactical sphere we can see phrase-transforms and clause-transforms of kernels. Kernels can be changed into phrases by the transformational… Paradigmatic structuring of connections and dependencies penetrated from…

Structural Classification of Simple Sentences

A simple sentence is a monopredicative unit having only one explicitly predicative line which is formally expressed by a subject and a predicate.… There are morphological varieties of one-member sentences:1. nominal (nounal… These are examples of written language. Speech is incredibly subtler than writing. Authors try to reproduce sentences…

General Properties of a Simple (Two-Member Expanded) Sentence

 

Within a simple sentence we distinguish primary and secondary (independent/ dependent) elements, the structural nucleus and its adjuncts.

Syntactic Ties

Within a simple sentence we also distinguish the subordinating tie which is an expression of dependence of an adjunct on the head{ I was proud of… These are immediate explicit syntactic ties. Along with them there exist… Predicative Constructions

Within a simple sentence we distinguish primary and secondary (independent/ dependent) elements, the structural nucleus and its adjuncts.

In a predicative construction we can distinguish a secondary subject and a secondary predicate. A secondary subject can be expressed by a noun in… Predicative constructions with an infinitive are: 1.The Accusative (Objective) with the Infinitive construction (I saw him cross the street. I heard him sing. I want…

Syntactic Processes

Completion consists in adding subjective and objective complements to complete the meanings of transitive verbs of incomplete predication and… Ellipsis consists in omitting a principal or a subordinate element or both… O. Jespersen was against the ellipsomania of those grammarians which speak of ellipsis in season and out of season as…

The Principal Parts of a Simple Sentence

The subject denotes something that is spoken about. It is subdivided into a group subject (expanded), a complex subject (expressed by a predicative… The predicate denotes an action, state or property of the thing expressed by… Predicates are classified into simple and compound ones.

The Secondary Parts of a Simple Sentence

The secondary parts of a simple sentence can be indispensable or facultative for the structural and semantic completeness of the sentence. Secondary parts are divided into objects, attributes and adverbial modifiers.

An Object

According to their semantic roles objects are divided by professors Burlakova, Ivanova and Pocheptsov into the object of the object ( I read the…

An Adverbial Modifier

It a secondary or a tertiary of the sentence, it is verb- and adverb- oriented. It is not determined by the semantic meaning of the verb. Types of adverbial modifiers are determined by semantic varieties or semantic types of adverbs.We distinguish adverbial modifiers of manner, measure, cause, attendant circumstances, time, exception, direction, place, comparison (real/unreal), concession (real/unreal/problematic). It can be facultative and indispensable( He broke the thing gently. They took the boy to the theatre.) Complex adverbial modifiers are expressed by predicative constructions{ He entered the room, the dogfollowing him (a nominative absolute participial construction). He entered the room, with his dog following him (a prepositional participial construction)

An Attribute

An attribute is a noun- oriented secondary or tertiary part of a sentence. It doesn’t enter the structural scheme of the sentence. Very often it facultative and can be easily omitted (A beautiful girl entered a spacious room). It can be used in pre-position and post-position. Its position is determined by its semantics. Attributes giving more concrete character to a noun are placed nearer to it than those giving general assessment (An attractive small girl). It can be complex, when it is expressed by a predicative construction (This is a book for you to read). An attribute very often merely decorates a sentence, but there are instances when without it a noun is communicatively empty (She has blue eyes), which makes it obligatory.

Debated Problems within a Simple Sentence

2. Debated is the status of a sentence with syncretical elements( Her life was gone and done with. His hands are cut and bleeding (are is an… 3. There are no rigid criteria of distinguishing between secondary parts of… O.Jespersen distinguished secondary parts into secondaries and tertiaries. A. Peshkovsky divided members of the…

A COMPOSITE SENTENCE

The trichotomic classification remains the prevalent scheme of the structural classifications of sentences in all linguistic schools (the simple… A composite sentence is a polypredicative structure based on coordination… Composite sentences based on coordination are called compound sentences, while sentences based on subordination are…

A Compound Sentence

1. general notion of coordination and types of coordination; 2. the semantic volume of the coordinating conjunctions and, but, or, for; 3. the stylistic importance of parataxis.

I. The General Notion of a Complex Sentence.

A complex sentence is a polypredicative unit built up on the principle of subordination. which varies from a close to a very loose connection with many gradations in between. The constituents of the complex sentence are traditionally called clauses. Transformationalists advanced the term “included structures” as the syntactically dependent part of the complex sentence is included (embedded) into the independent (non-included) structure.

The complex sentence of minimal composition includes two clauses – a principal clause and a subordinate clause. The two are interconnected, the very existence of either of them is supported by the existence of the other. Sub-clauses can adjoin the main clause or they can be embedded (included) into the main clause (We have engineered toys and gadgets wedon’t understand and technological terrors we may not be able to control (St. King).

The Status of the Subordinate Clause.

Classifications of Subordinate Clauses.

Types of Subordinate Clauses.

There are some varieties of object clauses: object clauses proper and speech- rendering object clauses (B. A.Ilyish called them clauses of indirect… Attributive clauses perform the function of an attribute. There are different… Adverbial clauses constitute a vast field of syntax. They have semantic and structural peculiarities. The traditional…

Connections between the Principal and the Subordinate Clause.

Neutralization between Subordination and Coordination.

The Character of the Subordinating Conjunction

Most of the subordinating conjunctions and conjunctive pronouns and adverbs are polyfunctional as they introduce various kind of sub-clauses. (I remember the house where Iwas born). Normally the conjunctive adverb where introduces a spatial adverbial clause. Here where I was born is an attributive subordinate clause.

Most polyfunctional is the conjunction that which can introduce a great variety of sub-clauses : (an object clause) I know that he will never do that; (a subject clause) That this should be so cut her to the quick; (a predicative clause) What surprises me is that he never expected it; (a complement clause) It is the vastness of Russia that fascinates the traveler;(a clause of consequence) So great was her grief that shestood dumb, etc. We see that the conjunction does not determine the character of the clause.

Levels of Subordination

There are two basic types of subordination: parallel and consecutive. In parallel subordination sub-clauses refer to one and the same principal clause. (However hard he was working, whatever was happening, he never forgot me). Consecutive subordination presents a hierarchy of clausal levels. In this hierarchy one subordinate clause is commonly subordinated to another (I’ve no idea [1] why she said [2]she couldn’t call on us at the time [3]I had suggested).

Syntactic Processes in the Complex Sentence.

To the universally recognized processes within a complex sentence there refer contamination, parcellation andemancipation. In contamination two syntactic and semantic relations are fused, which results in contaminated (mixed) clauses {This man looked as if hewere suffering (J.Galsworthy). The clause underlined can be analyzed as a contamination of a predicative and an adverbial clause of unreal comparison. Parcellation consists in separating a sub-clause from the principal clause to rhematize (and emphasize) it (But princess Dragomiroff says that she married an Englishman. Whose name she cannot remember (A. Christie). Emancipation consists in a sub-clause turning into an independent sentence with a connective turning into an adverbial element (Supposing he comes? That he should have come to that! If only he were here today!).

Communicative Dynamism within a Composite Sentence( Compound and Complex) and a Supra-phrasal Unit.

In a complex sentence the principal clause dominates sub-clauses structurally, but communicatively it is insignificant. It is a sheer introducer of… Within a supra-phrasal unit sentences, constituting it, are connected by…