Semantic syntax

• Meaning of a sentence relates to an abstract event which includes one or several participants. A participant is typically a thing or person represented by the noun. E.g. The boy is sleeping (one participant). The boy is reading a book (two participants). The boy has sent a letter to his sister (three participants).

• In the mind, events are represented propositionally. Proposition (Ukr. пропозиція) is a mental structure constituted by the logical subject and the logical predicate. The logical subject (Ukr. суб’єкт) is a target concept. The logical predicate (Ukr. предикат) is the property assigned to the target at the moment of thinking and speaking. E.g. CAT (logical subject) is BLACK (logical predicate). CAT (logical subject) SLEEPS (logical predicate). Proposition, which exists in our thought, is manifested in language through predication, i.e. the linguistic subject and predicate. Proposition as a mental structure is a compulsory element of the meaning of a sentence.

• Another compulsory element of the meaning of a sentence is objective modality. Objective modality links the described event and the speaker. It shows the place-and-time of the event with regard to the place-and time of the speaker. It also shows the speaker’s perception of the event as a real or an unreal one. Objective modality is manifested in language by tenses and moods of the verb (the predicate). E.g. Peter finished school last year (the speaker is HERE-NOW, the event is THERE-THEN, in the past; the event is real). I shouldn’t have done it (the event is unreal).

Along with objective modality, the meaning of a sentence can comprise subjective modality which is an optional component of meaning. Subjective modality shows the speaker’s states of mind related to the event. These states are manifested by the words can, must, may, want, do not want, like, dislike, believe, doubt, probably, sure, etc. E.g. She will sure come. She may come. I doubt she will come.

• If the event represented by a sentence has two and more participants, they acquire semantic roles (deep semantic cases) that demonstrate the relations between these participants – persons and things). The most typical roles are the Agent, a doer of the action, the Patient, a person or thing acted upon, the Instrument, a thing with the help of which the action is performed, the Addressee, a person to whom the action is addressed, the Causative, a thing or person that cause the action, and the Factitive, a thing that results from the action. Some classifications also distinguish the Locative, place of the action, and Temporative, time of the action. E.g.

Yesterday, Peter opened the box with a knife and sent the content to Jane who was in London.

TEMP AGENT PATIENT INSTR PATIENT ADDR. LOCAT

Semantic cases are not equivalent to the cases of nouns. They are also not equivalent to the parts of a sentence. The syntactic structure of a sentence may change, while the semantic roles remain intact. E.g.

The box was opened by Peter. The knife opened the box. The content of the box was sent to Jane.

PATIENT AGENT INSTR PATIENT PATIENT ADDR

• When a sentence is used in speech, it acquires the information structure. Information structure comprises two main constituents: the topic and the comment. The topic is the given information, which has already been supplied by the previous context. The comment, or rheme, or information focus, is the new information, which has not been previously supplied, and which is therefore more important. The rheme is made more salient via phonetic and syntactic media. The new information may be distinguished by stress and intonation. It can also be represented with particular syntactic structures. E.g. It was Peter who helped me.