Modern English Grammar

words of the category of state are also used as ordinary attributes in post-position or emphatic attributes. In the latter case they may take is also based on a certain grammatical pattern but it is intended for nomination (naming an action directed at the object and the object itself).

It is to be noted, however, that in certain contexts and speech situation the latter may also function as a unit carrying information.

Consider the following: I (1) The student is writing; (2) There is a book on the table; (3) It is cold. II. I'll not go anywhere; (4) Only with you; When are you going to leave? (5) Tomorrow morning. Which way are you going? (6) -- To the left. How is he? (7) -- Up to the mark. (8) To know what was on her mind!

The above given syntactic structures marked by (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8) carry the necessary information and all have a communicative value. It should be clear, however, that the two types of syntactic structures differ essentially in their purely grammatical status.

The structural patterns underlying sentences (1), (2) and (3) exist in the language as system and are always intended for communication; those in (4), (5), (6), (7) and (8) are not specially intended for information and may function as such only in certain contexts, linguistic or situational (4, 5), in a dependent part of a dialogue (5, 6, 7) or say, in a composite sentence (8), etc.

Word-combinations are constructed according to the rules of a given language and function very much in the same way as the ultimate unit -- the word.

The concept of the word combination was first suggested by V. V. Vіnogradov¹ who defined it as "a free equivalent of a phraseological unit", the latter, in its turn was viewed as "a free equivalent of a word". The word-combination and the word are thus assumed to be functionally identical. This can be shown by comparing, for instance, the verb to decide and the word-combination to take a decision; to glance and to cast a glance, etc.

Major Syntax studies linguistic units of communicative value. In Major Syntax we are concerned with the rules according to which words and word-combinations are actualised 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. This division makes distinction combining words to form non-predicative (nominative) complex units, on the one hand, and combining words to express predication, on the other.

In terms of meaning, the sentence is traditionally defined as the expression of a complete thought. But this seems to be open to thought and discussion because completeness is, in fact, very relative and depends largely on the purpose of the speaker or writer as well as on the context, linguistic or situational.

Logical definitions of the sentence predominated in the preceding periods of the development of the syntactic theory. The concepts of structural grammar are based on grammatical and phonetic criteria. Its authors develop the principles suggested by L. Bloomfield -- the concept of endocentric and exocentric phrases as sentence elements and the immediate constituents analysis.

The principle of transformational grammar is that the whole grammar of a language constitutes a definition of the sentence.

The traditional definition is that a sentence is a group of words expressing a complete thought is to-day often criticised on the ground that a sentence is sometimes one word and that the thought is not always complete but largely depends on the meaning of preceding sentences.

Some recent writers have attempted to make "utterance" do the work of the classical term "sentence". But this does not seem fully justified because the two terms belong to different planes, one historical and the other linguistic.

The dissatisfaction with the term seems to result from the fact that accurate studies of syntax distinguishing what is grammatically self-contained in writing, and what are the corresponding structures in actual speech, have not yet been made. This deserves special systematic description.

Sentence-patterning in English has been described proceeding from different angles of view. Thus, for instance, the concept of the relational framework of language has led to the study of the inner syntactic relationships in the sentence which seems most promising in the investigation of the depth of syntactic perspective.

Structural (descriptive) linguistics endeavours to present the syntactic aspect of language in terms of a tabulated survey of sentence patterns and the rules of developing and extending these patterns. The notion of the structural pattern is worked out with relevance to a simple monopredicative sentence.

Most grammarians hold the view that language is a system of interdependent units in which the value of each unit results solely from the simultaneous presence of the others. Distinction is reasonably made between syntagmatic and paradigmatic or associative relations.

In actual speech syntagmatic relations will be observed between linguistic units of different levels, e. g. phonemes and morphemes within a word, between words in phrase structure and sentence, between phrases in sentences, or, say, between the parts of composite sentences, etc.

The question naturally arises about the relation of predicativity to the grammatical organisation of the sentence. Grammarians are not agreed at this point. The sentence is sometimes viewed only as a speech event with no relevance to its grammatical organisation and distribution at all. On the communicative level any part of the utterance may function as predicate. This view is most emphatically stated by E. Benveniste ¹.

A sentence may consist of one or more words.

Examples of one-word sentences are such exclamations as Thanks! Good!, Fire!, Rain!, Look!, Quick!, Steady!, Mother!.

Other, not necessarily exclamatory examples are: Yes.-- No. Perhaps. -- Certainly.-- Incredible.-- Tired?, Rain?, What? (= What did you say?)

One-word sentences are, as a rule, synsemantic. The necessary idea is made clear by a particular situation, a statement made or a question asked in mother sentence.

Cf. Why don't you dance? -- Dance? I never do.

A simple sentence has its own system of formal means to express objective modal meanings and time relations concerning the reality or irreality of what is expressed in predication. The reflection of objective reality in a sentence is always clear of purpose.

Modality and syntactic time relevance cannot be thought of in isolation. The two categories are inseparable and present, in fact, a regular structural feature of any sentence.

Distinction must naturally be made between the morphological categories of time and "syntactic time relevance". The former are expressed by means of grammatical morphemes, the latter as a category of the sentence-level has its own formal means: special structural sentence-patterns and verb-forms made to serve syntactic purposes.

In different contexts of their use verb-forms can be functionally re-evaluated, e. g. present tense-forms can be used with past or future time relevance, as in: I'm not coming back to England. Bless you always Jon. (Galsworthy) She is playing Chopin tomorrow.

The category of "syntactic" mood can be expressed by: a) the structural sentence-pattern itself; b) the notional verb in a given structure of predication; c) verbless sentence-patterns; d) functional re-evaluation of the verb-forms of the Indicative and Imperative Mood; e) functional re-evaluation of some types of sub-clauses.

The theory of the functional sentence perspective worked out by the Prague School of linguistics has led in recent times to the concept of three stages of syntactic abstraction where the sentence is viewed as: 1) a single speech event; 2) a syntactic structure made up of the syntactic elements with no relevance to situational contexts and belonging only to grammar; 3) an utterance in its functional sentence perspective.

On the third level of analysis we examine the communicative sentence dynamics. The utterance is divided here into two sections, one of them, the "theme" contains what is the starting point of the statement, and the other, the "rheme" carries the new information for whose sake the sentence has been uttered or written.

In morphology we identify the grammatical meanings and forms proceeding from its system of formal oppositions around which the grammatical system of the language is to a large extent built up. And so it is with syntactic categories where the grammatical abstraction makes it possible to distinguish oppositional relations on different levels of linguistic analysis.

Oppositional relations on the sentence level are most obvious in the following:

Peter plays Does Peter play? Peter, play!

Peter plays Peter does not play.

Peter plays Peter will (must, may) play.

Correlation between Peter plays and Peter does not play gives the opposition affirmation:: negation.

The correlative group Peter plays -- Peter must (may) play or Peter seems to play gives the opposition indicative:: potential.

As a matter of fact, each sentence is the crossing point of the given oppositions:

Peter plays narrative (neither interrogative sentence nor imperative) affirmative (not negative) sentence indicative (not suppositional)

In these terms, we distinguish the following types of sentences: declarative, interrogative, imperative.

1) Declarative sentences assert or deny something.

A wind had cleared the mist, the autumn leaves were rustling and the stars were shining.

2) Interrogative sentences ask a question. They may be subdivided into:

a) sentences requiring to express a certain thought, to confirm or negate what has been asked by the speaker.

"Do you like that?" -- "No".

"Isn't it jolly?" she cried, and John answered: "Rather". (Galsworthy)

b) sentences requiring additional information about the thing asked. Such sentences show what information is required, and may refer to any part of the sentence, e. g.:

"Why did you go together?" pursued Soames. (Galsworthy)

"Look here" he said, "what's the meaning of it?" (Galsworthy)

3) Imperative sentences express requests which in different contexts range from categorical order to command and entreaties. The necessary meaning is generally signalled by the context and intonation:

Come up tomorrow morning!

Imperative Modality may also be expressed by:

1) Subjunctive forms in wish-sentences, calls, toasts, etc. Success attend you! May our country flourish and prosper!

2) Verb-forms of the Indicative Mood in transposition: "We¹ re going after buff in the morning", he told her. "I'm coming", she said.

"Mo, you're not."

"Oh, yes, I am. Mayn't I, Francis?"

"We'll put on another show for you tomorrow".Francis Macomber said. "You are not coming", Wilson said. (Hemingway) (You are not coming = Don't come = Don't you come) ...Oh, the shame of this day! The shame of this day! You'll be comin' home with me now.

... We're not out of this place yet. He's not. You'll come home with me now. (Dreiser)

Nouns and noun-phrases, e. g.: Silence! Attention! Fire! (= Open fire!)

Modal phrases, e. g.:

He shall come with no delay.

5) Adverbs and adverbial phrases, as in: Forward! Forward!

It seems beyond question that a study of syntagmatic relations must be based on the valency analysis aimed at giving comprehensive rules for combining words into sentences. The identification of the necessary lexical or structural meaning of the word is often based on its corresponding distribution. Language patterns must be observed in their internal composition inasmuch as it correlates with different kinds of usage. In other words, a distinction should be made, between what might be called lexical collocation and what some linguists call, or used to call, grammatical collocation, for which another name is 'colligation'.

In grammatical collocation or colligation, which is always a matter of structure, only certain types of morphemes habitually find themselves in some environments and are definitely excluded from others; as, for instance, am is found in close association with I or he, she, it -- with present tense ending with -s or -es (in the written medium) or the pronominal determiner that -- with singular nouns, those -- with plural nouns, and so on.

Grammatical collocation of this sort restricts the choice of words very rigorously. Lexical collocation restricts the choice in more or less the same way but not so rigidly, since it does allow transgression of the rule for various stylistic purposes. Contexts have a way of making a grammatical form convey different structural meanings including sometimes the exact opposite of what is ordinary intended.

In linguistic studies we generally distinguish: grammatical or word-changing, lexical, or derivational, and phonemic paradigms.

Thus, for instance, the paradigm in the declension of the noun друг in Russian will give a set of such word-forms as: друг, друга, другу, друга, другом, о друге.

The paradigm of the English noun girl is girl > girls, girl's, girls'.

A morphological paradigm is a set of word-forms of one lexeme: case -- number -- in nouns, tense -- aspect -- in verbs. The paradigm of the verb work is presented by the following word-forms: work -- works, worked, will work, is working, was working, will be working, has worked, had worked, will have worked, has been working, had been working, will have been working.

From the kernel word love a number of derivative words can be generated by means of certain well known rules telling us what morphemes must be added and to what kernel they must be added (V or N):

love (N) love (V)

lovely (A) lover (N)

loveliness (N) loving (A) lovingly (D)

loveless (A) lovable (A)

beloved (A)

Similarly:

live (V) live [laiv] (A)

liveable (A) lively (A)

liveliness (N) liven (V)

The multiplicity of ways in which words may be combined in actual usage can reasonably be interpreted in terms of syntactic paradigms. One word-form can perform the function of different sentence-elements, and one sentence-element can be morphologically and lexically expressed by different linguistic signs.

Linguistically the meaning of a sentence-element is naturally to be understood through relations with the content of the other sentence-elements. As such it is always relative in its character and is not actualised in isolation.

Syntactic relations make up a cluster of oppositions in various items of syntactic hierarchy. And there seems to be a regular system behind them.

The study of syntax in these terms is most helpful and can cast much light on the nature and functioning of language.

As a matter of fact, the paradigmatic and syntagmatic concepts of language go as far back as N. V. Krushevsky's statements about the relational framework of language built up on similarity and differentiation of sentence elements.

This approach to the study of syntax becomes increasingly useful for insight into the structure and functioning of any language.

PROBLEMS OF SENTENCE-PARADIGM

Problems of syntactic paradigmatics figure quite prominently in linguistic studies of recent years. Accurate studies of sentence paradigms in the theory of English structure have not yet been made and much remains to be done before complete data in this part of English syntax are available.

A major linguistic interest is presented by the treatment of the problem in modern Russian Syntax.

By "sentence-paradigm" we mean the system of its forms.

Thus, for instance, the paradigm of a simple kernel sentence may be identified in terms of modal and time relations as expressed by its major patterns.

D. Worth makes distinction between inflectional and derivational syntactic paradigms, which is not devoid of logical foundations.

The simplest case of an inflectional paradigm may be illustrated by variations of one category in a given pattern, e. g. the category of number and person in the subject and in the object; the category of mood, tense, number, person in the predicate, and sometimes in both subject and predicate. By way of illustration:

The distribution of these forms is known to be governed by a type of correlation with the subject called concord. Concord may be defined as the complementary distribution of linguistic forms having the same syntactic function in systematic correlation with other formally distinct forms with which they are syntactically linked.

Concord is certainly not so prominent in the structure of English as it is in some other languages, but it occasionally becomes important in dealing with persons of verbs. Thus, for instance, the third-singular person is used whenever a simple verb in the head-verb is a predicate whose subject is one of the following:

a noun for which he, she, or it may be substituted;

one of the pronouns he, she or it;

the demonstrative pronouns: this or that;

a structure of modification of which one of the above is head;

any other part of speech beside a noun, or a structure of modification or complementation with such part of speech as head or verbal element, e. g.: Too much knowledge makes the head bold. Playing with fire is dangerous;

one of certain special predication structures: the included clause and the infinitival clause, e. g.: What you say is true. To see is to believe;

a structure of coordination in which the coordinator is or, nor, (n)either... (n)or, or not (only)... but (also) and in which the last coordinate element belongs to (1) -- (6) above; also one of certain other special structures of coordination ¹.

On this level of analysis the starting point must naturally be the simplest two-member declarative sentence with the subject in the singular and the predicate expressed by the verb-form of the Present Tense (Common Aspect), Indicative Mood, Active Voice.

The given pattern may be transformed into: a) an attributive adjunct and b) a structure of secondary predication.

(a) the playing of the child the child's play

the play of the child The child plays

the playing child

the child's playing

(b) for the child to play the child playing with the child playing

The sentence is a complex syntactic unit and as such it can enter a number of syntactic paradigms build up on similarity and differentiation of the sentences. All the syntactic paradigms of the sentence make up its "hyperparadigm".¹

Problems of sentence-patterning have received increasing attention in syntactic studies of recent years.

Important treatments have been made with a view to describe the syntactic system of a language as a closed inventory of the basic structural sentence-patterns and give a survey of the regularities in their possible expansion and reduction.

With the diversity of view-points within descriptive linguistics it is not surprising that grammarians differ in their assumptions and methods of such analysis. For the most part there is a considerable variation in defining the principal types of sentences as finite in number.

In the words of H. Stageberg, for instance, there are basically 9 major types of sentences; J. Hook, E. Mathews in Modern American Grammar and Usage give basically only five major patterns which over ninety per cent of present-day sentences follow. The five patterns described in this grammar are determined only by the position of the major components of a sentence. If the position of one of major components is altered, the sentence follows a minor, rather than a major pattern.

The five major patterns are:

Major Pattern I: Subject and Verb

Women applauded.

Major Pattern II: Subject -- Verb -- Object

We ate hamburgers.

Major Pattern III: Subject --Verb -- Predicate Nominative

Husbands are nice.

Major Pattern IV: Subject -- Verb -- Predicate Adjective

Helen is beautiful.

Major Pattern V: Expletive -- Verb -- Predicate Adjective -- Subject There were traitors in their midst. It is easy to swim. It remained for me to concur. It's (or there's) no use crying over spilled milk.

All the above given structural patterns may naturally be expanded by adding to either the subject or the verb other words called 'modifiers':

Addition of one-word modifiers:

Several women applauded politely.

Addition of phrase modifiers:

The women standing in the aisles applauded with vigour.

Addition of dependent clauses in the complex sentence:

The women who were standing in the aisles applauded when the presiding officer asked for more chairs.

Duplication of the pattern -- the compound sentence:

Women applauded and men grinned.

Duplication plus dependent clause -- the compound-complex sentence:

When the presiding officer asked for more chairs many women in the aisles applauded and several men grinned sleepishly.

In Whitehall's Structural Essentials of English¹ the principal types of sentences are shown as based on a more limited number of types of word-groups referred to as sentence situations.

The simplest form of the sentence -- that which consists simply of subject and of verb or verb-group predicate goes here by the name

Sentence Situation I:

He cried.

Boys yell.

What he had attempted had failed.

All the good men were fighting.

To sing such song as this could help.

Sentence Situation II (V -- Complement):

The matter slipped his memory. It was raining cats and dogs.

Sentence Situation III -- a sentence with two complements:

The reporter gave the lady a present.

Tom Sawyer painted the fence white.

We found the house broken down.

The captain had wanted his aide to examine the matter.

In transformational grammar kernel sentences are also given with a different degree of generalisation: 7 types of kernel sentences in L. S. Harris' Co-occurrence and Transformation in Linguistic Structure and 3 types -- in B. Hathaway's Transformational Syntax.

There are basically six major structural patterns well identified in terms of sentence elements, their function and position, in «Структурный синтаксис английского языка» edited by L. L. Iofik:

SP: The bird sings.

SPc Comp_s: He is a boy/young.

SPO₁: The hunter killed the bear.

SPO₂O₁ Albert gave him a book.

SPO₁Comp₀: He painted the door white.

There PS: There is a book on the table.

More extensive and accurate is the tabulated survey of different types of kernel sentences given by G. G. Pocheptsov¹.

Based on certain assumptions about the kinds of processes that exist in language and the manner in which they correlate this survey presents a major linguistic interest.

It should be clear, however that the description of English structures that has been and is being developed by different scholars in accordance with the new approaches and "dimensions" of language cannot be regarded as a closed fixed system. There is an enormous amount to be learned concerning the nature of language in general and the structure of English in particular.

That the basic patterns of English sentences fall into a limited number of types and can be classified according to the form of the predicate seems to have been first pointed out by С. Т. О n і о n s ² at the beginning of this century. In his tabulated survey he gives five basic patterns, each taking its characteristic form from the structure of the predicate:

First Form of the Predicate

	Subject	Predicate
	Day	dawns.
	The shades	of night were falling.
	Second Form of the Predicate
Subject		Predicate
	(verb +	predicative adjective or predicative noun or predicative pronoun)
Croesus	was	rich or a king.
Thought	is	free.
Seeing	is	believing.
The meeting	stands	adjourned.
We are	getting	ready.

Third Form of the Predicate

Subject Predicate Object Many hands make light work. Nobody wishes to know.

Fourth Form of the Predicate

Subject Predicate

(verb + two objects) We taught the dog tricks.

1 ask you this question.

Fifth Form of the Predicate

Subject Predicate

(verb + object + predicative adjective or predicative noun)

They elected him consul.

He thought himself a happy man.

The thought drove him mad.

Linguistic research in syntactic paradigmatics is still in its beginning.

There is no lack of promising directions for further study along these lines.

It seems beyond question that language patterns must be observed in their internal composition inasmuch as it correlates with different kinds of usage. The relational framework of language is built up on similarity and contrasts of its structural elements.

The asymmetric dualism of the linguistic sign, which is most obvious in functional morphology, merits consideration in syntactic structures.

An adequate description of sentence patterns must account for various important relations between sentences and types:of their construction.

Some overtly parallel sentences are identical at their face value but differ in their sense-structure.

Thus, for instance, the basic pattern S > V_inf can sometimes be understood in a certain way parallel to other sentences of a different structure, e. g.:

He paints a) act of painting;

b) quality, occupation. Syn. He is a painter;

She sews a) act of sewing;

b) quality, occupation. Syn. She is a sewer;

He drinks a) act of drinking;

b) quality. Syn. He is a drinker;

He limps a) Syn. He walks lamely;

b) He is lame.

Some sentences differ in their formal structure but are similar in meaning.

The possibility to express one and the same meaning by overtly different sentence-patterns may be illustrated by numerous examples. Cf.:

The lake teems with fish. (a) The lake is alive with fish.

He could not sleep. (b) He felt wakeful.

The play did not take. (c) The play was not a success.

I have plenty of time. (d) I'm in plenty of time.

A heavy rain was falling. (e) It was pelting down.

He is running a temperature. (f) He has a temperature.

It is relevant to observe that the sources of synonymy in sentence-structure are syntactic processes of different linguistic status. Synonyms are known to be generated by syntactic transformations based primarily or significant changes in the grammatical structure of the sentence, such as, for instance, nominality of various types, compression of subclauses, in particular.

Another source of synonymity must be sought in various transpositions of syntactic structures leading to their functional re-evaluation, as, for instance, "nexus of deprecation", rhetorical questions or the use of pseudo-subclauses of condition as independent units of communication, e. g.:

If only I knew about! Syn. I'd like to know about it. Carrie, if you're not a wonder! Syn. Carrie, you are a wonder!

or, say, transpositions of comparative subclauses where they are also used as independent units of communicative value, e. g.:

As if I ever told him about it! Syn. I never told him about it.

Not less characteristic are transpositions of declarative sentences into the sphere of imperative modality, which is often accompanied by morphological transpositions of tense-forms.

Cf. Come home with me now! Syn. You'll come with me now!

You'll be coming home with me now!

There are also many other facts about sentence-patterning that need research in syntax.

A major point of interest is presented by "periphrasis" involving primarily the change of the lexical status of the sentence.

Lexico-grammatical periphrasis lies, in fact, beyond the central concern of paradigmatics in syntax.

In "periphrastic" syntax we find it reasonable to make distinction between:

1) lexical convertibility intended to convey the necessary logical stress in a given utterance:

You have given me your cold.

I have caught your cold.

He lost his courage.

Courage deserted him.

He lent them money.

They borrowed money from him.

He subsided into sleep.

Sleep took him in its embrace.

2) lexico-grammatical periphrasis based on semantic and functional similarity between adjectives and verbs in patterns like the following:

I like music. I'm fond of music.

I regret it. I'm sorry about it.

He knows it. He is aware of it.

3) lexico-grammatical periphrasis by nominalisation:

He lost his nerves. He was all nerves.

4) the use of phrasal verbs adapted to style and purpose in each case (aspect or voice modifications, in particular):

He was asleep = He gave himself up to steep. We supported him = He found our support.

5) lexical periphrasis based on lexical synonymy of verbs in the structure of predication, e. g.:

He shared his secret with me. He let me into his secret.

Lexico-grammatical periphrasis by phrasal verbs of various types is a floodgate of synonyms in sentence-patterning. This nominal tendency is decidedly on the increase in present-day English.

Variations in the structure of the predicate producing subtle shades of objective and subjective distinctions make up a regular system and present a rather complicated subject which linguists have by no means fully investigated. This insight into sentence-patterning helps to coordinate and deepen the student's grasp of the language.

Chapter X THE SIMPLE SENTENCE

THE PRINCIPAL PARTS OF THE SENTENCE

Parts of the sentence are a syntactic category constituted by the organic interaction of different linguistic units in speech.

It is important to observe that the division into parts of speech and the division into parts of the sentence are organically related. This does not call for much to explain. The part of speech classification is known to be based not only on the morphological and word-making characteristics of words but their semantic and syntactic features as well. The latter are particularly important for such parts of speech as have no morphological distinctions at all. A word (or a phrase) as a part of sentence may enter into various relations with the other parts of a given sentence. These mutual relationships are sometimes very complicated as being conditioned by different factors: lexical, morphological and syntactic proper.

Important observations in the theory of the parts of the sentence based on the interrelation of types of syntactic bond and types of syntactic content were made by A. I. Smirnitsky¹. A part of the sentence is defined as a typical combination of the given type of syntactic content and the given type of syntactic bond as regularly reproduced in speech. Different types of syntactic bond form a hierarchy where distinction should be made between predicative bond and non-predicative bond. On the level of the sentence elements this results in the opposition of principal parts and secondary parts.

The predicative bond constitutes the sentence itself.

The parts of the sentence which are connected by means of the predicative bond are principal parts. These are the core of the communicative unit. The non-predicative bond comprises attributive, completive and copulative relations.

Subject-predicate structure gives the sentence its relative independence and the possibility to function as a complete piece of communication. This, however, must be taken with some points of reservation because a sentence may be included in some larger syntactic unit and may thus weaken or loose its independence functioning as part of a larger utterance.

Using the terms "subject" and "predicate" we must naturally make distinction between the content of the parts of the sentence and their linguistic expression, і. e.: a) the words as used in a given sentence and b) the thing meant, which are part of the extralinguistic reality.

The distinction made at this point in Russian terminology between "подлежащее" -- "сказуемое" and "субъект" -- "предикат" seems perfectly reasonable. The two concepts must be kept apart to mean a) the words involved and b) the content expressed, respectively.

The subject is thus the thing meant with which the predicate is connected.

All the basic sentences consist, first of all, of two immediate constituents: subject and predicate.

In the basic sentence patterns subjects are rather simple, consisting of either a single noun, a noun with its determiner or a pronoun. They can naturally grow much more complicated: nouns can be modified in quite a variety of ways and other syntactic structures can be made subjects in place of nouns or its equivalents.

Meaning relationships are naturally varied. Subjects can refer to something that is identified, described and classified or located; they may imply something that performs an action, or is affected by action or, say, something involved in an occurrence of some sort.

The semantic content of the term "subject" can be made clear only if we examine the significant contrastive features of sentence patterning as operating to form a complete utterance.

In Modern English there are two main types of subject that stand in contrast as opposed to each other in terms of content: the definite subject and the indefinite subject.

Definite subjects denote a thing-meant that can be clearly defined: a concrete object, process, quality, etc., e. g.:

(a) Fleur smiled. (b) To defend our Fatherland is our sacred duty. (c) Playing tennis is a pleasure. (d) Her prudence surprised me.

Indefinite subjects denote some indefinite person, a state of things or a certain situation, e. g.:

(a) They say. (b) You never can tell. (c) One cannot be too careful. (d) It is rather cold. (e) It was easy to do so.

Languages differ in the forms which they have adopted to express this meaning. In English indefinite subjects have always their formal expression.

Sentences of this type will be found in French: (a) On dit. (b) Il fait froid.

Similarly in German: (a) Man sagt. (b) Es ist kalt.

In Russian and Ukrainian the indefinite subject is expressed by one-member sentences:

Говорят, что погода изменится. Можно предположить, что экспедиция уже закончила свою работу.

In some types of sentence patterns Modern English relies on the word-order arrangement alone. In The hunter killed the bear variation in the order of sentence elements will give us a different subject. English syntax is well known as primarily characterised by "subject -- verb -- complement" order.

It will be noted, however, that in a good many sentences of this type the subject and the doer of the action are by no means in full correspondence, e. g.: This room sleeps three men, or Such books sell readily.

It comes quite natural that a subject combines the lexical meaning with the structural meaning of "person".

Things are specifically different in cases when it and there are used in-subject positions as representatives of words or longer units which embody the real content of the subject but are postponed.

It is most pleasant that she has already come. It was easy to do so. There are a few mistakes in your paper. There were no seats at all.

It and there in such syntactic structures are generally called anticipatory or introductory subjects.

There in such patterns is often referred to as a function word, and this is not devoid of some logical foundation. It is pronounced with weak or tertiary stress, which distinguishes it from the adverb there pronounced (ehr, eh) and having primary or secondary stress. There is sometimes called a temporary subject filling the subject position in place of the true subject, which follows the verb. This interpretation seems to have been borne out by the fact that the verb frequently shows concord with the following noun, as in: