Introduction. Syntax is 1 a system of rules and means of creating

Participles are the most widely used types of predicative element in the
absolute construction. The subject part of an absolute construction is som
etimes represented by a noun or phrase.
The absolute construction expresses what is usually called accompanying
circumstances – something that happens alongside of the main action. This
secondary action may be the cause of the main action, or its condition, but these
relations are not indicated by any grammatical means. The position of the
absolute construction before or after the main body of the sentence gives only
a partial clue to its concrete meaning. Thus, for example, if the construction
denotes some secondary action which accompanies the main one without being
either its cause or its condition, it always follows the main body of the sentence;
if the construction indicates the cause, or condition, or time of the main action,
it can come both before and after the main body of the sentence.
Thus the grammatical factor plays only a subordinate part in determining
the sense relations between the absolute construction and the main body of the
sentence.
The stylistic colouring of this construction should also be noted. It is quite
in this respect from the constructions with the objective predicative, which may
occur in any sort of style. The absolute construction is, as we have seen,
basically a feature of literary style and unfit for colloquial speech. Only a few
more or less settled formulas such as weather permitting may be found in
ordinary conversation. Otherwise colloquial speech practically always has
subordinate clauses where literary style may have absolute constructions.
The construction can have no participle, then the predicative relation of
the other word to the noun or pronoun within the construction is made clear
by the context:
He stood in a patch, his hands behind him, his face in shadow.
Phrases, or word combinations are built according to certain patterns,
which are filled by different lexical material in speech.
The phrase is a combination of two or more notional words on the basis of
some syntactic connection, performing a nominative function, i.e. its function is
to name a subject, phenomenon, process, action.
One of the main features of the phrase is a syntactic connection between
its parts.
A word-combination formed on the basis of a subordinate connection can
be characterized by the following interrelated features: 1) character of
syntactic relations – attributive, objective, adverbial, 2) way of expressing
syntactic relations – agreement, government, adjoining, 3) position of the
subordinate word in relation to the core word - preposition or postposition.
Combination of these properties, regarded as a system, can lie in the basis
of the definition of the word-combination as a unit of contrasted analysis.
The word-combination is regarded to as a two-(sometimes three-)
component pattern, performing a nominative function, arranged on the basis of
subordinate connection with stable combination of syntactic relations,
expressed morphologically or by means of the word order.
Types of connection within the word-group.
Agreement. Two words are said to agree in their grammatical forms
when the form of a dependent word is determined by the form of a head word.
In English head word and dependent words usually agree in number and
sometimes case:
I bought books at Mr.Smith’s, the bookseller’s.
The repetition of the inflection of a head word in its adjunct word is called
concord.
Still in most cases in English there is no concord: green trees, the trees
became green.
In highly inflected concord-languages such as Russian, dependent
words agree in number, gender and case, if the head-word is a noun and adjunct
words are adjectives and pronouns.
Government. When a word assumes a certain grammatical form through
being associated with another word, the modified word is said to be governed
by the other one, and the governing word is said to govern the grammatical
form in question. Thus, in a day’s work, day’s is covered by work, and work itself
is said to govern the genitive case. So also in I see him, him is governed by the
verb and the verb is said to govern the objective case of the personal pronoun
he.
Issues for discussion
1. The object of syntactic studies. Give isomorphic syntactic features of
English and Russian.
2. Characterize the main syntactic units from the point of view of their
structure. Explain the difference between the phrase and the sentence.
3. Characterize the main kinds of phrases. Describe the type of phrase,
widely used and well-developed in both languages?
4. Give definitions of the phrases of coordination, phrases of subordination
and predicative phrases.
5. Explain the notion of secondary predication in English.
6. Give characteristics of the types of connection within the phrase.
2. SENTENCE
The sentence is one of the main syntactic units opposed in this system to
the word (or word-form) and phrase by the form, meaning and function. In the
broad sense of the word, the sentence is an utterance (an extended syntactic
structure or even a single word), which can be considered to be an informative
massage to be perceived by ear or eye.
Sentence is a communicative unit, built according to the definite
grammatical (syntactic) pattern, which exists in the language in different forms
and modifications, performing its communicative functions and having
intonation of its own. It is probably the most familiar of all grammatical terms.
We are introduced to it in our early school years, if not before, and it quickly
becomes part of our linguistic awareness. We imagine we speak in sentences,
and we teach children to write in them, making sure that they put in all the
periods. It might therefore be thought that sentences are easy things to identify
and define.
Traditionally, the sentence is defined as ‘a complete expression of a single
thought’. Unfortunately, this notional approach is too vague to be much help.
There are many sentences which seem to express a single thought, but which
are not complete, by traditional standards:
Lovely day! Taxi! Tennis?
There are some other sentences which are complete, but express more
than one thought:
For his birthday, Ben wants a bike, a computer game, and a visit to the theme
park.
The formal approach to grammar by contrast, tries to avoid these kinds of
difficulty by describing the way in which sentences are contrasted – the
patterns of words they contain.
Sentences are constructed according to a system of rules, known by all the
adult mother-tongue speakers of the language and summarized in grammars. A
sentence formed in this way is said to be grammatical.
Sentences are the largest structural constructions to which the grammar
rules apply. This means that before we can satisfactorily carry out the task of
identifying sentences, we need to know something about grammatical analysis.
Once we have worked our way through a good English grammar, we know what
the possible sentences are, because the grammar has told us.
The sentence is approached from different angles, i.e. from the viewpoint
of logic or meaning, of phonetic criteria or style, and of grammar.
The principle property of the sentence differentiating it from all the other
language units is its predicativity, i.e. reference to speech situation; it means that
the sentence is a piece of communication, completing an idea by itself.
The study of the sentence belongs to Major Syntax, which studies linguistic
units of communicative value. Major Syntax focuses on the rules according to
which words or word-combinations are actualized in speech, i.e. used as parts
of predicative units, units of communication integrated into a given situation
and expressing the purposeful intention of the speaker in the form of sentences.
In terms of meaning, the sentence is defined as the expression of a
complete thought. But this sounds disputable because completeness is rather
relative and depends largely on the purpose of the speaker or writer, as well as
on the context, both linguistic and situational.
The problem of classification of sentences is a highly complicated one, and
we will first consider the question of the principles of classification, and of the
notions on which it can be based.
From the viewpoint of their role in the process of communication
sentences are divided into four types, grammatically marked: declarative,
interrogative, imperative, exclamatory sentences. These types differ in the
aim of communication and express statements, questions, commands and
exclamations respectively. These types are usually applied to simple
sentences. In a complex sentence the communicative type depends upon that
of the main clause.
Dickens was born in 1812.
Come and sit down!
What do we do next?
Ти завжди так робиш?
Павло вже приніс те, що обіцяв?
A declarative sentence contains a statement which gives the reader or the
listener some information about various events, activities or attitudes, thoughts
and feelings. Statements form the bulk of monological speech, and the greater