The Simple Sentence. Parts of the Sentence

Traditionally the subject and the predicate are regarded as the primary or principal parts of the sentence and the attribute, the object and the adverbial modifier – as the secondary parts of the sentence. This opposition primary – secondary is justified by the difference in function. While the subject and the predicate make the predication and thus constitute the sentence, the secondary parts serve to expand it by being added to the words of the predication in accordance with their combinability as words. Thus the sentence combines syntactical or morphological relations.

So the chief criterion for the division of all words of a sentence into parts of the sentence is their combinability. Thus combinability is the property that correlates parts of speech and parts of the sentence as well as the functions of notional and semi-notional words.

Those notional words in a sentence which are adjuncts of certain head-words will be divided in accordance with their head-words into attributes, complements and extensions.

Those semi-notional words which serve to connect two words or clauses (prepositions, conjunctions) will be regarded as a separate part of the sentence, connectives.

Those semi-notional words that are used to specify various words or word combinations (articles, particles) will be called specifiers. Finally, words in a sentence, with zero connections, referring to the sentence as a whole and known as parenthetical elements, are a distinct part of the sentence.

The subject is the independent member of a two-member predication, containing the person component of predicativity. Both members of the predication he sleeps contain the meaning of “person”. But in sleeps this meaning depends on that of he and is due to grammatical combinability. This accounts for the fact that sleeps cannot make a sentence alone, though it contains all the components of predicativity. The subject is usually defined as a word or a group of words denoting the thing we speak about. This traditional definition is rather logical than grammatical.

In Ukrainian the subject is most frequently expressed by the nominative case of the noun or personal pronoun. Other parts of speech can be used in the function of the subject only when they are substantivized.

In English the nominative case is pertaining only to personal and some interrogative or relative pronouns. This nominative case is more specialized than the corresponding form of the noun in Ukrainian. Subjectless sentences (apart from imperative sentences) are practically not used in the English sentence. The peculiarity of the English language is the existence of the formal subject alongside the notional one. In English the formal subject it is widely used in sentences with predicates that have the following meaning:

1) With the simple or compound predicate that points out towards the nature phenomenon: It was cold. Було холодно.

2) With the compound predicate that has modal or evaluating meaning: It was difficult. It was evident. Було важко. Було очевидно.

3) With the compound predicate pointing out towards the time or space: It was nine. It was five miles to the town. Була дев’ята година. До міста було п’ятьмиль.

4 ) with the simple predicate, expressed by the passive form of the verb, which points towards the fact that the content of the sentence is some general idea: It is said … Кажуть …

In English the subject may be a syntactical word-morpheme, a gerund or a complex, which is naturally alien to Ukrainian.

The predicate is the member of a predication containing the mood and tense (or only mood) components of predicativity. E.g.: I would hate to make you cry. The predicate can be a word or a syntactical word-morpheme (in English – does, will).

The simple predicate of the English sentence includes as well predicates expressed by the verb with the postpositive attachment of the type stand up, as well as idiomatic word combinations, which have the meaning of the common verbal lexeme, e.g.: give way – поступатися, take courage – зважитися, have a smoke – покурити etc. In connection with this the analytical expression of the predicate is still more widespread in English.

When comparing the predicates in English and in Ukrainian, we must first of all note the absence of syntactical word-morphemes used as predicates and the scarcity of word-morphemes in Ukrainian. So the division into structural and notional (parts of) predicates is not as essential in Ukrainian as it is in English. Secondly, there are many more sentences without finite verbs in Ukrainian than in English, e.g.: Він студент. Вона красуня.

The compound nominal predicate (складений iменний присудок). The peculiarity of all eastern-Slavonic languages, including Ukrainian, is the fact that they mostly do not use the linking verb бути in the present tense: Скромність – його характерна риса. In English the linking verb be is never omitted since it is caused by the necessity of finishing the sentence structurally.

According to their meaning Ukrainian linking verbs are subdivided into such main groups:

1) Linking verbs showing the availability of a certain characteristic or state or the name of some object: бути, значити, зватися, називатися;

2) Linking verbs showing that the object characteristic is the process of formation and is new to it: стати, ставати, робитися, зробитися, опинитися;

3) Linking verbs showing the preservation of the previous state: лишатися, зостатися;

4) Linking verbs showing the characteristic feature as unreal or ascribed: здаватися, вважатися, уявлятися.

The classification of English linking verbs is in many ways similar to the mentioned Ukrainian one.

The compound verbal predicate (складений дієслівний присудок). This type of compound predicate also consists of two parts: the auxiliary part expressed by the verb in the personal form and the notional part expressed by the infinitive (sometimes gerund) of another verb rendering the action of the subject.

3) nominal-verbal modal predicate: I am obliged to do my best. Необхідно рушати вперед.

In both contrasted languages there can be distinguished the following types of objects: 1) according to the type of connection with a verb or some other governing word – prepositional object and non-prepositional object (прийменниковий та безприйменниковий додатки); 2) according to the grammatical meaning – direct and indirect objects (прямий та непрямий додатки).

In Ukrainian the direct object is as a rule expressed by the form of the accusative case of the noun, pronoun or some other substantivized part of speech. It is used without a preposition and depends directly on the transitive verb. The peculiarity of the Ukrainian language is the fact that in negative sentences the direct object can be expressed in the form of the genitive case, for example: Він не читав газет.

In English the direct object can be expressed by the noun only in the common case or the pronoun in the objective case. It is one of the subtypes of non-prepositional objects. The direct object always occupies a certain position in the sentence. If there are no other objects besides it, the direct object is, as a rule, situated immediately after the verb. The English direct object reveals such a peculiarity that it can be complex. The complex object of such a type is as a rule expressed by the predicative construction with the infinitive, for example: I saw him go home (Я бачив, як він пішов додому).

In Ukrainian the indirect object is used in the form of any indirect case either with the preposition or without it (except the accusative case without the preposition, which serves to express the direct object): Електростанція буде нам посилати енергію по проводах.

In English the indirect object does not differ formally from the direct object: both of them are expressed by the form of the common case (in pronouns – by the objective case). the indirect object is used only in a three-member word-group, that is at the obligatory presence of the direct object and it is necessarily positioned before the direct object: I give him a letter.

In Ukrainian there are distinguished two types of attributes – agreed and non-agreed (узгоджені та неузгоджені означення). This is the main difference of the Ukrainian attribute from the English one, which is altogether not agreed with a word it modifies (the only exception are the attributes expressed with the help of demonstrative pronouns this and that, which are agreed with the word they modify in number, compare: this book – these books).

The agreed attribute can be expressed by an adjective, a participle, a pronoun, an ordinal numeral, as well as by a detached participial construction. With the modified word it is agreed in case and in number, and in singular – as well in gender, for example: у рідну країну, малий хлопець, чудна дівчинка.

The function of the non-agreed attribute is most often performed by a noun (хата без дверей, люди доброї волі ), a pronoun of the third person with the possessive meaning (його зошит, її посмішка), an infinitive (бажання вчитися, вміння любити), an adverb (читання вголос, кохання всупереч), a participle (відповідь сидячи, байдики лежачи).

The attribute in the English language is expressed mostly by the same parts of speech as in Ukrainian. The characteristic feature of the English language in this respect is the possibility to use a noun in the common case in the function of an attribute: a stone house (кам’яний будинок).

According to their meaning adverbial modifiers are subdivided into many types, which are basically similar in English and in Ukrainian. These are adverbial modifiers of: place (місця), time (часу), manner (способу дії), measure and degree (ступеня й міри), reason (причини), purpose (мети), result (наслідку), condition (умови), concession (допусту). Besides in English there is one more type of adverbial modifier – the adverbial modifier of attending circumstances (обставина супровідних умов).

The main peculiarity of the English language as compared with Ukrainian is the availability of complex adverbial modifiers, expressed with the help of predicative constructions. Here belong:

a) The adverbial modifier of attending circumstances, expressed by the participial construction with the preposition with: We saw a thick forest, with the red sun hanging low over it.

b) The detached adverbial modifier of reason, time or attending circumstances, expressed with the help of the so called “absolute participial construction”: The lesson being over, I decided to speak to the professor.

In both contrasted languages parts of the sentence are of similar types. But one of the peculiarities of the English syntax is the existence of the so called “complex” parts of the sentence. Each part of the modern English sentence can be simple or complex. The simple part of the sentence can be expressed not only by a separate word but also by a group of words that make up the lexical and grammatical unity. Unlike this the complex part of the sentence (e.g., the Complex Subject, the Complex Object) are always the combination of two parts of the sentence, one of which points towards the person or the object, and the second – towards the action preformed by this person or object. Thus two members of the sentence that enter this complex are in predicate relations. Compare: I hate him to go away. Our arrival having been noted, we had a lot of guests.

Most frequently complex parts of the English sentence are expressed by predicative word combinations with non-finite forms of the verb, performing the syntactic function of the secondary predicate. According to its meaning such a complex part of the sentence can be compared with a subordinate sentence or a simple sentence. In Ukrainian there are no similar complex parts of the sentence and similar relations are rendered with the help of subordinate sentences.

Thus, the mentioned complex parts of the English sentence are usually expressed with the help of predicative word groups, known in traditional grammars as:

1) Complex Object (with the Infinitive, Participle I, Participle II, Gerund, non-Verbal), e.g.:

2) Complex Subject (with the Infinitive, Participle I, Participle II, non-Verbal), e.g.:

4) Absolute Constructions/Prepositional Constructions (with Participle I, Participle II, Infinitive, non-Verbal), e.g.:

Since these constructions are never used independently, entering the sentence which already has its predication center, the subject-like and the predicate-like constituents of these constructions obtain the status of secondary ones, and therefore are called the “secondary subject” and the “secondary predicate”. As a result, the mentioned predicative word-groups can be called – structures of secondary predication (структури вторинної предикації – СВП).

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