Modern English Grammar

...His case was different from that of the ordinary Englishman as chalk from cheese. But whatever his case, he was not a man to live with. (Galsworthy)

Concessive relations overlapping with alternative meaning find their linguistic expression in syntactic patterns with functional transpositions of the Imperative Mood forms, e. g.:

Say what you may (might) I shall have my own way.

Try what you will (would) there is no helping here.

Say what one will, to take the love of a man like Cowperwood away from a woman like Aileen was to leave her high and dry on land, as a fish out of its native element... (Dreiser)

Economise as he would, the earnings from hack-work did not balance expenses. (London)

Attention must also be drawn to the use of verb-forms in concessive sub-clauses, which naturally vary depending on the context. The Indicative Mood is fairly common in all types of clauses implying concession, Present and Past tense-forms, in particular. The Subjunctive Mood is common in complex sentences with hypothetical concession.

Concessive clauses may be included by the conjunction while which in such patterns comes to function parallel with though (although).

While he was yet in unspeakable agonies, the dwarf renewed their conversation. (Dickens)

Concessive relations may also be expressed by such patterns with verbless predicatives as:

How could you behave like that, and your mother present there? (> though your mother was present there).

Moist as was his brow, tremble as did his hand once after the nameless fright, he was still flushed with fumes of liquor. (Dreiser)

Intensity and emphasis can also be produced by inversion in such patterns as:

Wait as he did, however, Carrie did not come. (Dreiser)

Clauses of Manner and Comparison

Sub-clauses of manner and comparison characterise the action of the principal clause by comparing it to some other action. Patterns of this sort are synsemantic in their value. Sometimes the implication of comparison seems quite prominent, in other cases the clause is clearly one of manner.

The meaning of comparison makes itself quite evident in cases like the following:

You can lead men, I am sure, and there is no reason why you should not succeed at anything you set your hand to, just as you have succeeded in grammar. (London)

It followed inevitably upon the work, as the night follows upon the day. (London)

She was not exactly as daring as she seemed, but she loved to give that impression. (Dreiser)

In patterns like She did it as best as she could the implication of comparison is hardly felt at all.

The conjunction as has a wide and varied range of structural meanings. It is often used to introduce sub-clauses of time and cause, and it is only the context that makes the necessary meaning clear.

Further examples of sub-clauses of comparison are:

His father's face, dusky red, twitching as if he were going to cry, and words baking out that seemed rent from him by some spasm in his soul. (Galsworthy)

And all that passed seemed to pass as though his own power of thinking or doing had gone to sleep. (Galsworthy)

OVERLAPPING RELATIONSHIPS AND SYNSEMANTICS IN HYPOTAXIS

A word must be said about the synsemantic character of various types of hypotaxis which in many cases have mixed or overlapping meaning. In some of these instances there is only a suggestion of the secondary meaning, in others it is fairly prominent.

The complexity of sub-clauses, their synsemantic character and overlapping relations observed in various patterns of subordination bear immediate relevance to such questions as the lexico-grammatical organisation of the sentence, implicit predication and the potential valency of connectives introducing sub-clauses.

Overlapping relationship in adverbial clauses merits special consideration. Instances are not few when clauses introduced by subordinative connectives and clauses to which they are joined seem to be equal in their functional level.

It is always important to remember that not all the general potential meaning of a given category will be relevant in each occurrence. A distinction that is relevant to one occurrence of the pattern can sometimes have no bearing at all on another use. Examples to illustrate the statement are numerous. Thus, for instance, a conditional element can be suggestive of the secondary causal meaning e. g.:

"If that's what the President wants," said Garlock, "well, of course, I have no objection". (Baily)

..."And real reason, Mr. President?"

"Yes, damn it I need to plan some strategy and if I'm going to do it, I need to think for a change". (Baily)

"What shall I make my check for?" pursued Monsieur Profond. "Five hundred" said Soames shortly; "but I don't want you to take it if you don't care for it more than that". (Galsworthy)

A good example to illustrate overlapping relations of condition and cause will be found in Bain's Higher English Grammar, from the fable, where the ant says to the grasshopper, "It you sang in summer, dance in winter". The conjunction if has here the force of a reason, the condition being a realised fact. If you sang = since you sang or as you sang.

Causal relations are fairly prominent when the condition under which the action is performed precedes the action which results from it.

If you have already made such arrangements I cannot interfere.

If he'd had the brass to stay in England after committing such a bare-faced forgery, he would have the brass to come here again and see what more he could get. (Galsworthy)

The thing I did not like was not being able to see her two whole weeks, but if it was for her good I was prepared to put up with that. (Curme)

It was a mistake she was making,... but if she was determined on it, what could he do about it? (Curme)

If you are not in love, of course there's no more to be said.(Galsworthy)

It is of interest to note that composite sentences with overlapping relations cf condition and cause are generally characterised by the indicative modality of the sub-clause. Predication in the principal clause can be of different modal force (indicative, oblique or imperative).

If Soames had faith, it was in what he called" English common sense"-- or the power to have things, if not one way then another. (Galsworthy)

And here are a few typical examples of sentence patterns with sub-clauses of condition used to intensify the relations of cause:

And if Brian even felt distrust for that sympathetic organisation it was only because all big names seemed like devil's threats to hold his soul in thrall. (Sillitoe)

In other cases if-clauses have a prominent suggestion of the meaning of concession, e. g.:

She would hold Tara, if she had to break the back of every person of it. (Mitchell)

If Old Jolyon saw, he took no notice. (Galsworthy)

They had come at a good bat up the slope and were a little out of breath: if they had anything to say they did not say it, but marched in the early awkwardness of breakfasted morning under the songs of the larks. (Galsworthy)

If Bosinney was conscious of her trouble, he made no sign. (Galsworthy)

A conditional sub-clause introduced by the conjunction if is sometimes suggestive of adversative relations, e. g.:

The senior senator from California was not a particularly striking figure, but he successfully conveyed the impression of being a man who expected to dominate a gathering and usually did. If he was a bit heavy across the midriff, that gave him a certain advantage over men of less ample bulk. If his gestures were a trifle broad, his voice a shade too strong for ordinary conversation, these characteristics seemed appropriate enough in a man more used to being listened to than listening. (Baily)

TRANSPOSITIONS AND FUNCTIONAL RE-EVALUATION OF SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES

Observations on the contextual use of various sentence-patterns furnish numerous examples of re-interpretation of syntactic structures by which we mean stylistic transpositions resulting in neutralisation of primary grammatical meaning. The asymmetric dualism of the linguistic sign¹ appears to be natural and is fairly common at different levels of language.

The linguistic mechanism, prosodic features in particular, work naturally in many ways to prevent ambiguity in such patterns of grammatical structure.

Expressive re-evaluation of sentences can be connected with shifts of their syntactic content.

Such is the use of the so-called pseudo-subclauses of comparison, time and condition which in transposition function as independent units of communication. A few typical examples are:

As if I ever told him about it!

Syn. I never told him about it.

Higgins: As if I ever stop thinking about the girl and her confounded vowels and consonants. (Shaw)

Cf. syn. I never stop thinking...

Cf. "Я не писал Вам писем..." "Ну-да", хохотала девица. "Как-буд-то я не знаю Вашего почерка". (Чехов)

"As if it wasn't trouble enough hatching the eggs", said the Pigeon, "but I must be on the lookout for serpents night and day." (Garroll)

"Me, indeed!"--cried the Mouse who was trembling down to the end of his tail.

"As if I would talk on such a subject!" (Carroll)

Examples of pseudo-subclauses of condition functioning as independent units are:

"Well, if you aren't a wonder," Drouet was saying, complacently, squeezing Carrie's arm. "You are the dandiest little girl on earth." (Dreiser)

If there isn't Captain Donnithorne a-coming into the yard! (Eliot) -- here the direct and the indirect negations cancel each other, the result being positive (he is coming).

A special case of functional re-evaluation of sub-clauses of condition will be found in "wish-sentences":

That wasn't what he had meant to say. If only he knew more, if only he could make others feel that vision, make them understand how they were duped into hatred under the guise of loyalty and duty. (Aldington)

If only Fleur and he had met on some desert island without a past -- and Nature for their house! (Galsworthy)

In sentence-patterns of this type the idea of the principal clause seems to be suppressed, but they occur so often that at last we hardly think of what is left out, the remaining part becomes a regular idiomatic expression which we must recognise as a complete sentence, an independent unit of communication.

Even without any continuation the if-clause is taken at more than its face-value and becomes to speaker or hearer alike, a complete expression of wish.

Like in some other types of sentence-patterning such contextual variations are not specifically English and may be traced in many languages.

Compare analogous developments in Russian and Ukrainian:

Ax, кабы зимою цветы расцветали!

Как бы мы любили, да не разлюбляли. (А. Толстой)

Ой, якби зимою квіти розквітали!

Sub-clauses of time are syntactically re-evaluated in patterns like the following:

Oh, when she plays!

Problems of Implicit Predication

Formal subordinative relations in composite sentences are sometimes weakened and the second part of the sentence comes to function as an optional element, not necessarily needed to complete the meaning of the first.

Such borderline cases between subordination and coordination will be found, for instance, in syntactic structures with if-clauses which give rather some additional information about the event involved than the condition under which the action is performed. A few typical examples are:

She was pretty, too, if my recollection of her face and person are correct.

In upper and middle classes we're doing it all the time and blinking the moral side, if there is one. (Galsworthy)

That's still the American who counts, especially if you lump in the Dutch and Scandinavians stock Americans like this fellow Hallorsen. (Galsworthy)

If she made a mistake she has paid for it, if ever a woman did. (Doyle)

Related to this are syntactic structures with implicit predication.

The absence of the direct logical relationship between the explicit parts of the composite sentence can suggest the omission of a certain predicative unit in its surface structure. The formal organisation of such a sentence does not reflect the actual syntactic relations of its parts.

In spoken English and literary prose such compression in sentence-structure is fairly common.

A few typical examples are:

..."It's just a crazy old thing," she said. ' I just slip it on sometimes when I don't care what I look like."

"But it looks wonderful on you, if you know what I mean," pursued Mrs. McKee.

"If Chaster could only get you in that pose I think he could make something of it". (Fitzgerald)

...James and the other eight children of "Superior Dosset", of whom there are still five alive, may be said to have represented Victorian England, with its principles of trade and individualism at five per cent and your money back -- if you know what that means. (Galsworthy)

...And if it is any satisfaction to you, we are not formally engaged. (Galsworthy)

The predicative unit to which the if-clause would be logically attached is not formally expressed and remains in deep-sense structure:

"...And if it is any satisfaction to you, I can tell you that we are not formally engaged."

Linguistic studies of recent times have made it obvious that the interdependence of the clauses in parataxis is not absolute.

The logical connection of the co-ordinated clauses makes it clear that apparently independent clauses are often not absolutely independent, and one of them implicitly stands in some grammatical relation to the other.

Take, for instance, clauses co-ordinated by the disjunctive or in such composite sentences as:

...Are those yours, Mary?

I don't wear such things... Stop or I'll tell the missis on you. Out half the night. (Joyce) (Stop, if you don't, I'll tell...)

..."Go out. Leave this house, or I'll do you an injury". That fellow to talk of injuries! (Galsworthy) Leave this house! If you don't I'll...)

FINAL REMARKS ON SUBORDINATION

The synsemantic character and overlapping relations observed in va rious types of composite sentences bear immediate relevance to their lexico-grammatical organisation, the potential valency of connectives introducing sub-clauses, in particular. Conjunctions, adverbs and conjunctive phrases perform contained syntactic functions of a remarkable variety of types.

That is well known, for instance, as a clause-marker introducing subject, object, predicative, attributive clauses and adverbial sub-clauses of purpose; in adverbial clauses of result, time, condition and concession that is fairly common as correlated with other pronominal or adverbial words: so ... that, for all that, now that, but that.

The use of that is common in emphatic patterns with it is ... that.

It is to be noted that the traditional classification of conjunctions into coordinative and subordinative must be taken with some points of reservation. Instances are not few when clauses introduced by subordinative connectives and clauses to which they are joined are equal in their functional level. This is the case, for instance, with descriptive attributive clauses or, say, clauses introduced by the coordinative conjunction for that very often functions as absolutely synonymous with the subordinative because.

In some patterns with the subordinative conjunction though the opposition between hypotaxis and parataxis comes to be neutralised. The conjunction though can introduce independent sentences. Terminal punctuation and initial capital letters will make it clear in the written language.

The potential meaning of a given category is, in fact, the sum of the common parts of its actual meanings in various contexts of use. An attempt to identify some potential meaning without considering all the actual occurrences of the category will be futile.

Certain specialised parts of actual meanings are not covered by a potential meaning statement, although in characterising the distributional value of a given category these parts are just as significant as the more general components.

It is also important to remember that not all the general potential meaning of a category will be relevant in each occurrence.

This, however, must be taken with much reservation, for indeed it is hardly possible to make potential meaning statements that would apply to each occurrence of a certain category. The meaningful segmentations may vary from sentence to sentence.

A distinction that is relevant to one occurrence of the pattern may sometimes have no bearing at all on another use.

Borderline cases will be found in clauses introduced by the conjunctive word while used in some contexts with the implication of contrast rather than temporal relations.

Difficulties of grammatical analysis sometimes arise in sentences with the coordinative conjunctions yet and so.

Variation in the functional level of clauses introduced by such connectives is always signalled by the lexico-grammatical organisation of the whole sentence, the meaning of the connective word itself, in particular. What may sometimes be ambiguous in the written language is made clear in spoken language by the terminal pauses of intonation which will always show how the components of the utterance group themselves in each context.

ASYNDETON

There is another type of syntactic addition which gets along without any connection at all. Clauses juxtaposed in this way are not attached to one another in any grammatical way, they simply abut against each other, they make contact but are not connected. Grammar books differ in identifying the linguistic essence of such syntactic structures. According to the traditional angle of view, they are classified in most languages into compound and complex sentences.

A different approach is found in N. S. Pospelov's ¹ treatments of asyndeton in Russian syntax where asyndetic sentences are viewed as a special syntactic category with no immediate relevance to subordination or coordination.

This angle of view has been taken also in other books and work-papers on this specialised topic. ¹

The multiplicity of ways in which asyndetic sentences are formed in many if not all languages gives, however, every reason to say that sentence-patterns of this type in all the variety of their lexico-grammatical organisation can hardly be adequately described on the whole as irrelevant to subordination and coordination.

Our survey of asyndeton in Modern English with its own semantic traits and features of syntactic arrangement gives sufficient evidence to point out that in some types of asyndetic composite sentences subordinate relations are quite prominent.

The first to be mentioned here are patterns with the attributive clauses, sometimes referred to as "contact-clauses", because what characterises them is the close contact between the antecedent and the clause, e. g.:

You don't care about them! They're not the gimcrack things you and your friends like, but they cost me seventy pounds!" (Galsworthy)

It's a pretty large thing I'm going on to and I'll need a lot of clever medical advice. (Cronin)

That the criterion of subordination is relevant to asyndetic sentences may well be illustrated by object and conditional clauses. Examples are:

He knew there were important ideas working in the other man's mind. (Cronin)

Old Jolyon said he would wait ... (Galsworthy)

I'm afraid there's no doubt about it. (Galsworthy)

Had I been a mere clod, neither would I have desired to write nor would you have desired me for a husband. (London)

Observe also the following examples of asyndeton where the close contact between two clauses is suggestive of causal relations:

Timothy was very poorly, he had had a lot of trouble with the chimney sweep in his bedroom; the stupid man had let the soot down the chimney. (Galsworthy)

" Why, yes", she answered, as the music stopped, trying to keep an even tone to her voice. She was glad they were walking toward a chair. (Dreiser)

In other types of asyndetic composite sentences the meaning of result or consequence is quite prominent, e. g.:

Warmth, softness, light, a sweet scent, all those things so familiar to her she never even thought about them, she watched that other receive. (Mansfield)

She had put on so much weight he would scarcely recognise her. (Cronin)

Asyndetic sentences are fairly common after the introductory it is, e. g.:

It is an apple she wants, not a pear.

A similar case is found in patterns like: What is this I hear?

As can be seen from the above examples the semantic relations between clauses are signalled only by the lexical meaning of the words making up the sentence. And this is one more example to illustrate the interaction between vocabulary and syntax which must never be overlooked in grammatical analysis.

A word will be said about asyndetic sentences in which the relative pronoun as a subject can be dispensed with (the so-called "apokoinou" principle).

"There's a gentleman downstairs wishes to see the lady", said Alderson. "It's her father, I think", he added quietly. (Dreiser)

REPRESENTED SPEECH

Represented speech is a common device in narrative writing. Syntactic structures with represented speech differ in their grammatical organisation and stylistic value.

Intended to express the character's feelings and thoughts, psychological traits or mental state of mind through the writer's narration, they are most expressive and affective.

Represented speech (free reported speech) does not give the speaker's exact words as they were uttered. In quotation marks, it does not report the speakers words from the author's point of view either as the case is in indirect speech. Reporting an utterance indirectly by back-shifting the verb it omits the reporting clauses which are conventional signals of indirect speech.

There are two points to remember about the grammatical organisation of such syntactic structures:

the use of the tenses, the future-in-the-past in independent sentences, in particular, which is distinct from the direct speech, and the use of personal pronouns;

the use of exclamatory nominal sentences as distinct from indirect speech.

Represented speech is fairly common in 20th century literary prose. With some writers it has developed into a special manner of style. Structures of this type are skilfully used by creative writers. The use of free indirect speech for describing "interior monologue" has become a very widespread, if not standard practice in the fiction of the 20th century. In Galsworthy's novels, for instance, they are so effective and add so much to the artistic value of his writings that merit special consideration. They are always "in character", well befitting the personality and social standing of the character. We find here interrogative, vocative sentences, rhetoric questions; structures of this kind are not infrequently introduced into various dialogues, where the direct and indirect speech are used alongside with represented speech. Translation from one form to another lends variety to narration.

Examine the following extracts from J. Galsworthy to see how skilfully these stylistic resources of syntax serve his pen:

"Bonsoir, monsieur!" How softly she had said it. To know what was in her mind! The French -- they were like cats -- one could tell nothing! But -- how pretty! What a perfect young thing to hold in one's arms! What a mother for his heir! And he thought, with a smile, of his family and their surprise at a French wife, ana their curiosity, and of the way he would play with it and buffet it -- confound them! The poplars sighed in the darkness; an owl hooted. Shadows deepened in the water. "I will and must be free", he thought. "I won't hang about any longer. I'll go and see Irene. If you want things done, do them yourself. I must live again -- live and move and have my being." And in echo to that queer biblicality church-bells chimed the call to evening prayer.

Few things are so subjective as the use of represented speech. By a skilful use of its various patterns the writer is able to imply with emotive shades of meaning his own attitude concerning the person spoken to or of.

NOMINALITY IN ENGLISH SENTENCE-STRUCTURE

Nounal-verbal contrast, viewed in terms of functional interaction of these two major classes of words, is an interesting object of linguistic investigation in any language.

Noun and verbs are organically related and constantly aiding to and supporting each other in communication. Nominality must naturally be distinguished differently in different languages. English shares this feature with a number of tongues, but its development has led to such significant idiosyncratic traits as merit special attention.

In present-day English the tendency to compactness through nominality is brought into particular prominence.

The variety of grammatical forms in nominalisation may be well illustrated by the following:

the extensive use of one-member sentences;

the use of infinitival sentences as independent units of communicative value;

the frequency value of noun-adjunct groups (premodification of nouns by nouns);

compression of different types of subclauses by nominalisation (gerundive, infinitival, participial nominals and absolute nominal phrases). This makes it possible to do without a subclause which would be otherwise necessary.

different types of sentence patterning in syntactic structures introducing the direct speech.

Nominality of this latter type presents a special linguistic interest as relevant to some obvious "peripheral" changes in present-day English syntax and its stylistic aspects.

Syntactic compression is obviously relevant to such problems of modern linguistics as semantic aspects of syntax, the problem of implicit predication and flexibility in syntactic hierarchy. The trend to activising compression leads to laconism and lends variety to speech.

Semantic interpretation of syntactic structures, problems of implicit predication, surface and deep sense structure are still in a rudimentary stage of investigation. The two aspects of syntactic description -- "semantic syntax" and "syntax of surface structures" -- are organically related to each other but none should be brought to the front at the expense of the other.

In terms of content there are homonymous structural patterns of sentences, i. e. patterns identical in their grammatical organisation and different in terms of content. And on the other hand, one semantic sentence pattern may be expressed by different formal sentence patterns.

Involving vocabulary in studying syntax helps to distinguish the semantic markers which signal the necessary meaning in each case.

Ambiguity is commonly narrowed down by the context, linguistic or situational. There are also cases when it is resolved on a span larger than a sentence.

Implicit predication in composite sentences is often suggested by the violation of direct logical relationships between the explicit parts of the sentence. This is the case, for instance, in syntactic structures with annexation, sentences with overlapping adverbial relations, syntactic structures introducing direct speech.

In compression by nominalisation a sentence dispenses with a sub-clause which results in closer cohesion of its elements and greater con-density of the whole sentence structure.

This relative compactness of the English sentence and the use of various condensers as its synonymic alternatives is one of many syntactic features that shows the analytical character of Modern English.

Synonymic correlation of sub-clauses and their nominal condensers merits attention in terms of grammatical aspects of style.

Nominals functioning as synonymic alternatives of verbal sub-clauses are in most cases well adapted to their purpose in different spheres of application.

It will be helpful to distinguish between one-member and two-member structures of the secondary predication:

Participle I	She came in and sat down at her place, feeling exceedingly watched. (Dreiser)	He stood in the road, with the sun shining on him. (Hemingway)
Participle II	Wholly depressed he started for Thirteenth Street. (Dreiser)	His rifle fell by him and lay there with one of the man's fingers twisted through the trigger guard (Hemingway)
Infinitive	Brian laughed to think of it. (Sillitoe)	Drouet was waiting for Carrie to come back. (Dreiser)
Gerund	He wound up by saying he would think it over, and came away. (Dreiser)

Absolute Back in the hut, he

Phrase switched the tuning dial

from its allotted wavelength to find some music, hoping no plane would choose to send and SOS while he wasn't listening. (Sillitoe)

The nominal tendency merits consideration in the use of prepositional phrases.

The multiplicity of ways in which such phrases may be combined in actual usage permits a very large numbers of patterns to be built in present-day English. On different linguistic occasions a prepositional nominal phrase can perform different functions, secondary predication, in particular.

A remarkable range of uses will be observed in nominal phrases with the preposition with.

With (AS. with, against, towards, opposite).

In general, with renotes a relation of proximity, contiguity, or association. In various applications with-phrases may indicate: 1) opposition, being equivalent to against, as to fight with the enemy; 2) association of a reciprocal kind or by way of participation in an action or transaction, as to talk with friends; 3) association in the way of comparison, equality or sameness, as in on equal terms with another; 4) association as object of attention or concern, as in patient with children; 5) association by way of alliance, assistance or harmony, as on friendly terms with all nations; 6) association in respect of sphere; hence in the estimation, sight or opinion of, e. g.: their arguments had weight with him; 7) causal connection, as in to perish with hunger; eyes dim with tears; 8) attendance by way of manner, purpose, result, condition, etc.; 9) association by way of possession, care, or attribute, e. g.: to arrive with good news; 10) association by way of addition, as in he came with his students; 11) association in the way of simultaneity, as in change with years; 12) separation.

Examine the following sentences when the nominal phrase is used with the implication of various adverbial meanings in secondary predication:

The country was still living on its capital. With the collapse of the carrying trade and European markets, they were importing food they couldn't afford to pay for...

With shipping idle, concerns making a loss all over the place, and the unemployed in swarms, it was a pretty pair of shoes! Even insurance must suffer before long... (Galsworthy)

Unconsciously she had assumed a modern attitude, with one leg twisted in and out of the other, with her chin on one bent wrist, her other arm across her chest, and its hand hugging her elbow. (Galsworthy)

His rifle fell by him and lay therewith one of the man's fingers twisted through the trigger guard, his wrist bent forward. (Hemingway)

Some grammarians emphasise that nominality: a) helps impersonality and offers advantage to scientific English; b) that it is easier to write and c) that it is thus natural for those who are more concerned with what they say than with how they say it ¹. The latter statement is however open to doubt and questioning.

It would be wrong to say that nominality is a simple substitution. It is also not a variable which can itself vary without causing variation in the other significant factors of style.

Numerous examples can show that nominal structures are often most affective, colourful and well adapted to their purpose in pictorial or otherwise emphatic style. They are less vivid and dynamic than verbal sentences, yet still graceful and strong.

Compare the following:

Birds were singing. Birds were in varied song.

Apple-trees were blooming. Apple-trees were in fullest bloom.

He thought deeply. He was in deep thought.

She was all trembling. She was all in a tremble,

She was all fluttering. She was all in a flutter.

The pool, formed by the damming of a rock, had a sandy bottom; and the big apple tree, lowest in the orchard, grew so close that its boughs almost overhung the water; it was in leaf, and all but in flower -- its crimson buds just bursting. (Galsworthy)

His cousin June -- and coming straight to his recess! She sat down beside him, deep in thought, took out a tablet and made a pencil note. (Galsworthy)

She was all in a tremble of excitement and opposition as she spoke. (Dreiser)

...Roses on the veranda were still in bloom, and the hedges evergreen... (Galsworthy)

He crossed the floor and looked through the farther window at the water slow-flowing past the lilies. Birds were in varied song... (Galsworthy)

A word will be said, in passing, about transpositions of English nouns into adjectives where they are ready to do another duty. We mean rendering the idea of quality through the relationship of one object to the other:

a) the so-called "genitivus qualitatis", synonymous with adjectives proper and often used to obtain expressive nuances for special stylistic purposes in pictorial languages, e. g.:

Fleur sat down; she felt weak in the legs. The ice seemed suddenly of an appalling thinness -- the water appallingly cold. (Galsworthy)

b) nominal phrases N + I_self -- a stylistic alternative of the absolute superlative degree (so-called "elative"), e. g.:

Mr. Pickwick is kindness itself.

You are patience itself = You are most patient. She was prudence itself = She was most prudent.

Phrases of this sort are more forceful and expressive than the respecitive adjective in the superlative degree. Such structures of predication are good evidence of the fact that quality in some cases can be expressed more effectively by a noun than an adjective. c) noun-phrases all + N:

She is all patience, you're all activity. She is all goodness (Cf. She is very good). He is all nerves. (Cf. He is very nervous).

Direct speech is often introduced by nominal phrases of different types. The preference for such compactness is now commonplace.

A few typical examples of such compactness where predication with verbs of saying is implicit are:

"Come on, my lad, let's have you down". And again: "Are you goin' to get down or aren't you?"

"I'll fall" -- his arms bare and the neck slippy with sweat.

"No you won't". (Sillitoe)

(...he said, his arms bare and the neck slippy with sweat)

..."What's your name, love?" A straight answer, as if she didn't mind telling him: "Edna". (Sillitoe)

"Hey up, kid," -- only a glance. (Sillitoe)

(he took a glance and said)

..."Shall we go along here" -- pointing to where the footpath forked, through a meadow and up the hill. (Sillitoe)

(...she said pointing to...)

And here are a few examples of nominal sentences with the absolute use of verbal nouns (nornina actionis or nomina acti) transformed into independent sentences of communicative value, in patterns like the following:

One smile, and she stopped arguing.

A cry, or had she dreamed it? (Galsworthy)

One push, and he was standing inside, breathless, wiping his feet. (Sillitoe)

The tendency to word predication nominally rather than verbally is decidedly on the increase in present-day English. This outstanding feature characterises the modern English sentence as a whole.

A sentence dispenses with a sub-clause which undoubtedly results in closer cohesion of its elements; such cohesion is equivalent to a greater condensity of the whole sentence structure grouped around one single nexus of subject and predicate. The relations of at least some sentence elements to this central nexus are often of rather complex character.

The student of English as a foreign language finds many difficulties in mastering the peculiarities of various types of compression in sentence structure different from practice in other languages.

The difference between the synthetic and analytical grammatical structure is well known to be reflected in syntax. The position of the words in the sentence is grammaticalised to a much higher degree in analytical than in synthetic languages. But the highly fixed word-order is not the only syntactic feature that shows the analytical character of Modern English. This is also reflected in the relative compactness of the Modern

English sentence and the use of various condensers as its synonymic alternatives.

The idiomatic character of compactness in the grammatical organisation of the English sentence is different from practice in other languages.

GRAMMAR AND STYLE

With the expansion of linguistic interest into style problems grammatical studies in our day have taken on new vitality.

Analysing the language from the viewpoint of the information it carries we cannot restrict the notion of information to the cognitive aspect of language. Connotative aspects and emotional overtones are also important semantic components of linguistic units at different levels.

Grammatical forms play a vital role in our ability to lend variety to speech, to give "colour" to the subject or evaluate it, to convey the information more emotionally, to give it affective overtones.

Style in language is a system of organically related linguistic means which serve a definite purpose of communication.

In highly developed languages one and the same idea may be differently expressed in different consituations. On various occasions a speaker makes an intentional use of some linguistic forms to give emphasis to what is emphatic, to make what is striking and important strike the eye and mind of the reader. This purpose may be attained in many different ways.

The stylistic range of Russian and Ukrainian is wide and ultimately the gradations are infinite. And so it is with English. When we are putting words together, we have to see that they are congruous with the expectations at some point on this scale and that they are arranged according to the conventions of collocation with reference to the same point on the scale.

Intensity and emphasis may be obtained in different ways.

There are expressive means in any language established by right of long use at different levels: phonetic, morphological, lexical, phraseological and syntactic.

Expressive nuances may be obtained, for instance, by prosody alone, by interjections and particles of emphatic precision or, say, by word-making, etc.

The selection of such linguistic devices is a factor of great significance in the act of communication. Phonetic means are most effective. By prosody we express subtle nuances of meaning that perhaps no other means can attain. Pitch, melody and stress, pausation, drawling out certain syllables, whispering and many other ways of using the voice are much stronger than any other means of intensifying the utterance, to convey emotions or to kindle emotions in others.

On the morphological level expressivity is often attained by effective transpositions of grammatical forms the stylistic value of which can hardly be overestimated.

The problems of style in grammar are still in a rudimentary stage of investigation. Recent linguistic studies have contributed significantly to the exploration of grammatical aspects of style but much still remains to be done to give the inventory of grammatical forms with relevance to their connotation and expressive value.

In any speech event the structure of the utterance naturally depends on the prevalent denotative function, but the participation of the other factors must be taken into consideration as well.

The components of grammatical meaning that do not belong to the denotation of the grammatical form can reasonably be covered by the general term of connotation. As a matter of fact, stylistic differentiation in the whole variety of any language belongs in its lexical and grammatical results to the category connotation. ¹ The variety of expressive features that may be incorporated in language, whether written or spoken, is manifestly enormous.

On the connotative level, we may distinguish, at least to a workable degree, the components of the grammatical meaning that add some contrastive value to the primary denotative value of the word-form. We mean intensity of meaning, expressivity, subjective modal force or emotional colouring.

The validity of the connotative analysis makes itself quite evident. And this is based not only on theoretical considerations, but also on practical ones.

It would be therefore a mistake to deny the constitutive value of "stylistic" grammar as part of functional stylistics, whose important goal is to deeply inquire into the grammatical aspects of style and describe those characteristic stylistic traits of language that lie in the field of grammar. These are most skillfully mastered by creative writers but often disregarded, if not absolutely ignored, by grammarians.

Examining the organisation of the text along the syntagmatic axis we cannot avoid consideration of the selection in the distribution of its linguistic elements.

Great writers possess an intuitive mastery of the rules that are obligatory within the tradition of language but they have always selective way and can manipulate these rules in accordance with their own artistic intentions and surpass the limits prescribed by tradition. J. Galsworthy, for instance, uses grammatical imagery in his "Forsyte Saga" so masterly that some of its pages are, indeed, difficult to place in "prose -- poetry" dichotomy.

In terms of grammatical aspects of style, we find it reasonable to distinguish between inherent and adherent expressivity of grammatical forms.

Grammatical forms with inherent expressive value are stylistically marked units of grammar. In English morphology they are few in number.

The first to be mentioned here are the emphatic forms of the Present and Past Indefinite with do and did and the emphatic forms of the Imperative Mood with the auxiliary do.

There are also variant forms of the Past tense with emphasis laid on negation which are also stylistically marked: he saw not = he did not see; he knew not = he did not know. Examples are:

They passed from his view into the next room, and Soames continued to regard the "Future Town", but saw it not. A little smile snarled up his tips.

... The tune died and was renewed, and died again, and still Soames sat in the shadow, waiting for he knew not what. (Galsworthy)

...and on the gleaming river every fallen leaf that drifted down carried a moonbeam; while, above, the trees stayed, quiet measured and illumined, quiet as the very sky, for the wind stirred not. (Galsworthy)

The same is true negative forms of the Imperative Mood without the auxiliary do.

No use to rave! Worse than no use -- far; would only make him ill, and he would want all his strength. For what? For sitting still; for doing nothing; for waiting to see! Venus! Touch not the goddess -- the hot, the jealous one with the lost dark eyes! He had touched her in the past, and she had answered with a blow. Touch her not! (Galsworthy)

Cf. Touch her not -- Do not touch her! = Don't touch her!).

There are also archaic forms in the conjugation of the English verb belonging to the high style only, e. g. -th for the third person singular, Present Indicative: endeth, liveth, knoweth, saith, doth, hath, etc.

...The moon's hiding, now, behind on of the elms, and the evening star shining... It's a night far from our time, far even from our world. Not an owl hooting, but the honeysuckle still sweet. And so, my most dear, here endeth the tale! (Galsworthy)

The same is true of the forms in -st for the second person singular of both the Present and the Past Indicative, e. g,: livest, knowest, sayst, dost, livedst, knewest, saidst, didst, hadst, etc. and the forms shalt, wilt, art wert (or wast) of the verbs shall, will, be used with the personal pronoun thou.

A certain number of verbs have alternative archaic forms differing from the ordinary ones by a distinct solemn colouring of elevated style, e. g.: spake, for spoke (Past tense of the verb speak); throve for thrived (Past tense of the verb thrive).

The selection of linguistic means is a factor of great significance in the act of communication.

From the stylistic point of view, some grammatical forms are neutral, others are not. There are forms which have a noticeable stylistic colouring and will produce an inappropriate effect when used outside their sphere of stylistic usage. There are also a few nouns which have alternative archaic plural forms, e. g. brethren (differing from brother not in stylistic colouring alone) or, say, cow, with its alternative archaic plural form kine used with a poetic tinge.

A far greater interest attaches to grammatical forms with adherent expressivity i. e. forms which are endowed with expressive functions only in special contexts of their use.

This question naturally involves many others, such as, for instance, functional transpositions of grammatical forms leading to their functional re-evaluation, suspension of oppositions and contextual synonymy in grammar.

It is interesting to note, in passing, that not all grammatical forms are equally endowed with expressive functions to be performed in different contexts. Some of them are less dynamic in their use, others possess quite a peculiar mobility and are particularly suitable for use in emotional contexts with various subtle shades of expressive meaning.

Transpositions in grammar like those in the vocabulary lead the way to ever more dynamic and pictorial means of expression, they are rather regular in the structure of any language. Closely related to the oppositions in pairs of grammatical forms they have their own system and peculiarities in the grammar of different parts of speech.

It can be said with little fear of exaggeration that due to functional transpositions the stylistic range of grammar in most developed modern languages is surprisingly wide. We know well the full richness and the emotive dynamic force of Russian and Ukrainian grammatical forms concerned with the subjective emotional use of different parts of speech.

And so it is with English. It has a very definite and complex grammar with its own set of devices for handling the word-stock, with its own stylistic traits and idiosyncrasies widely current to serve different purposes in the act of communication. In transpositions on its morphological level we may find not only its own structural peculiarities but a fair number of universal features traced in other languages.

From this point of view the connotative value of grammatical forms as developed in different contexts of their subjective use is a source of constant interest.

Here are a few graphic examples to illustrate the fact that on the connotative level a grammatical form may take on special subjective shades of meaning, stylistically different from its primary denotative content:

"We Americans agree. But may be not our Senate." ' 'That Senate of yours", muttered Hubert, "seems to be a pretty hard proposition." (Galsworthy)

"That dog of yours is spoiling the garden. I shouldn't keep the dog, if I were you." (Galsworthy)

- That face of hers, whose eyes for a moment were off guard, was dark with some deep -- he couldn't tell. (Galsworthy)

The context is always sufficiently explicit to reveal the emotive use of the partitive genitive which in patterns with the demonstratives this or that may develop connotative meanings denoting different emotions: scorn, contempt, indignation, admiration, delight, approval, etc.