§ 403. Sentences with only one predication are called simple sentences. Those with more than one predication have usually no general name 3. We shall call them composite sentences.
In a composite sentence each predication together with the words attached is called a clause.
Composite sentences with coordinated clauses are compound sentences.
She's a very faithful creature and I trust her. (Cronin).
Composite sentences containing subordinated clauses are complex sentences.
// / let this chance slip, I'm a fool. (Cronin).
In a complex sentence we distinguish the principalclause (I'm a fool) and the subordinateclause (If I let this chance slip) or clauses.
1 See A. Martinet A Functional View of Language Oxford, 1962,
p. 52: "If in a phrase such as with a smile, smile is considered the centre
of the phrase . . a is centripetal . with centrifugal: a is connected with
the rest of the sentence only through smile, which it helps to specify,
with connects smile with the rest of the sentence^.
2 In his book Connectives of English speech f Fernald deals chiefly
with prepositions and conjunctions
3 Sometimes they are called periods, but as the opposite of simple
sentences the term does not seem to fit H Poutsma names them compo
site sentences, a term we adopt heie.
We may also differentiate compound-complex(He seems a decent chap, and he thinks Ferse at the moment is as sane as himself. Galsworthy), and complex-compound(When that long holocaust of sincerity was over and the bride had gone, she subsided into a chair. Galsworthy) sentences.
There may be several degrees of subordination in a complex sentence.^,
It was almost nine o'clock before he reached the club, where he found Lord Henry sitting alone. (Wilde).
The clause where he found Lord Henry sitting alone is subordinated to the subordinate clause before he reached the. club and is therefore of the second degree of subordination.
§ 404. The clauses of a composite sentence may be joined with the help of connective words (syndetically)or directly, without connectives (asyndetically).
E. g. We consent to be in the hands of men- in order that they may be in ours. (Galsworthy). You're modern, Fleur; I'm mediaeval. (Ib.).
§ 405. A simple sentence or a clause containing some words besides the predication is called extended. An unextend-edsentence (clause) contains no other parts but the subject and the predicate.
A sentence (clause) with several subjects to one predicate or several predicates to one subject is called a contracted one.
E. g. Diana crossed to the window and stood there with her back to Dinny. (Ib.).
§ 406. The dominating type of sentence (clause), with full predication, i. e. containing both the subject and the predicate, is called a two-member sentence (clause). All other types are usually called one-member sentences (clauses). Here are some examples of one-member sentences.
Put your money on Old Maid. (Galsworthy).
A cup of teal
Thanks.
These sentences are representatives of certain types that are established in the language system alongside of the two-
member type. They are not speech modifications of some other type of sentence, as the so-called 'elliptical' sentences are (see § 418).
B. As to Their Categories
§ 407. The sentences He is a student — Is he a student? form a syntactical opposeme. Their forms differ >only in the type of intonation and the relative position of the members of the predication. The only difference in meaning is that between 'declaration' and 'interrogation'. These two meanings can be regarded as the manifestations of the general meaning of a grammatical (syntactical) category which has no name yet. The category shows whether the sentence is presented as a statement or as a question. Let us call it the category of presentation. Like any grammatical category this is a system of opposemes whose members differ in form to express only (and all) the particular manifestations of the general meaning of the category (§ 23).
The meaning of 'declaration' is expressed by a falling tone and by placing the subject before the predicate. The meaning of interrogation is expressed by a rising tone and by placing the structural (part of the) predicate before the subject.
Are you alluding to me? (Shaw). Shall I announce hini? (lb.). Is there no higher power than that? (Ib.). Do you call poverty a crime? (Ib.).
In the last example a special syntactical predicate, the syntactical word-morpheme do is introduced and placed before the subject.
§ 408. With regard to the category of 'presentation' English sentences divide into those that have 'presentation' opposites and those which have not. Imperative and exclamatory sentences mostly belong to the latter subclass-'In these sentences the opposeme of 'presentation' is neutralized. The member of neutralization (see § 43) usually resembles that of 'statement' (Go to the blackboard. Let us begin. Lookout!) But often it takes the form of the 'interrogation' member (Would you mind holding your tongue? (Hornby). Pass the salt, will you? Isn't she a beauty/) or an 'intermediate' form (How pretty she is!)
§ 409. Not all interrogative sentences are syntactical opposites of declarative sentences.
The meaning of 'interrogation' in 'special questions' (otherwise called W/z-questions) is expressed either lexically : (when the subject or its attribute in a statement are replaced by the interrogative pronouns who, what, which or whose) or lexico-syntactically (when some other part of a statement is replaced by some interrogative pronoun). In either case they are not opposites of the corresponding statements because they differ lexically. Compare:
She Who
was thinking about you. (Shaw). was thinking about you?
Sweetie's Whose
thoughts were far from me. (Ib.). thoughts were far from me?
The horrible What
thought will break my heart. (Ib.) thought will break my heart?
B.
| is | The cat the cat? | is | on | the | tiles. | (Ib.) | |
| Where |
My son has become a thief. (Ib.)
has my son become?
She returned my love. (Ib.)
What didshe return?
§ 410. The alternative question Are you going out or do you prefer to stay at home? is a compound sentence containing two coordinated interrogative clauses each of which is the syntactical opposite of a declarative clause. Only the intonation of the second clause is not interrogative.
Note. In cases like Are you going out or not? Are you. going to Moscow or to Leningrad?
1 "The expression Who came signals a question, not because of a different arrangement, but solely because the signal of question is in the \or I alto as a word". (Ch. C. Fries, op cit ).
the part following the conjunction or may be regarded as representing a clause similar to the preceding one in everything but the appended words and the intonation.
Disjunctive questions are peculiar complex sentences the principal clause being a statement and the subordinate clause the syntactical opposite of its«predication with regard to two categories, 'presentation' and 'information.' (See next §.)
You don't smoke, do you? She is beautiful, isn't she?
§ 411. The sentences below form opposemes of some syntactical category.
Open the door. It is raining.
Do you like it? You know.
Don't open the door.
It is not raining. (It isn't
raining.)
Don't you like it?
You don't know.
In these opposemes meanings of 'affirmation' and 'negation' are the particular meanings of some syntactical category. It is difficult to find a name for such a general category covering statements, questions and orders. Seeing that in modern science the components of a 'yes-no' system are used as units of information, 1 we shall call the category under discussion the category of information.
The meaning of 'affirmative' information is expressed by a zero form, and the meaning of 'negative' information' by means of the predicate negation, the syntactical word-morpheme not (n't) placed after the syntactical (part of the) predicate.
§412. As already noted (§393), thenegativeword-morp^me not (n't) expresses full negation, as distinct from the partial negation of such negative words as not, no, never, nothing, etc. In most cases full negation excludes the necessity of partial negation in English, and vice versa. Hence the well-known assertion: "In English two negatives in the same construction are not used as in Russian: He does not come so
P 2H
1 See, for instance, «Íîâîå â ëèíãâèñòèêå», âûïóñê III, Ì., 1963, 539.
early, or: He never comes so early. Compare with the Russian:
Îí íèêîãäà íå ïðèõîäèò òàê ðàíî." '
The difficulty is only in defining what is meant by "the same construction". It is not a sentence, because there can be two (or more) negatives in a composite sentence.
E. g. / ñ a n' t understand why he d i d n' t come yesterday.
It isn't even a simple sentence, for there may be a negative word attached to some verbid in the sentence, besides the negation connected with the predicate verb.
E. g. Would it not be better not to tell your father? (London) 2.
The corresponding rule can, probably, be worded thus: In English two negatives are not used in the same verbal construction. A verbal construction is a verb with all the 'non-verbs' attached.
§ 413. Not every sentence containing a negation is the syntactical opposite of an affirmative sentence. There was nobody in the room is not the opposite of There was somebody in the room. Here the difference is in the lexical meaning of somebody and nobody. Similarly in There is a book on the table, and There is no book on the table the difference is lexical (no versus a). Only a sentence containing the predicate negation, the syntactical word-morpheme not (n't), can be the 'negative' member of an 'information' opposeme, because (like any grammatical word-morpheme) not (n't) adds no lexical meaning.
s
§414. With regard to the'category of information English sentences divide into those that have opposites of the category and those which have not. Since 'negative information' is expressed in English only by means of the predicate negation, all the sentences that have no predicates are outside the category. Rain. No rain, are not members of a syntactical opposeme. They only resemble the corresponding members and may be
1 M. Ganshina and N. Vasilevskaya, op. cit., p. 266.
2 Ë. Ñ. Áàðõóäàðîâ, Ä. À. Øòåëèíã, op. cit., p.284.
said to possess lexico-grammatical.meanings of 'affirmative' and 'negative' information. In exclamatory sentences the category of information is mostly neutralized. The member of neutralization usually resembles that of 'affirmation'. What a lovely day! But often it takes the form of the member of 'negation'. Isn't it marvellous!
§ 415. Let us compare the following pairs of sentences:
Come Do come -
He came He did come
I'll see him I shall see him
It's raining ft is raining
The sentences above can be regarded as opposemes of the category of expressiveness. The two particular meanings are those of 'emphatic' and 'non-emphatic' expressiveness.
'Non-emphatic' expressiveness has a zero form, whereas 'emphasis' is expressed by a strong accent on a word-morpheme (morphological or syntactical). In sentences like He did come a special syntactical word-morpheme is placed before the notional verb to receive the stress.,1.