28. Basic syntactic notions: syntactic units, syntactic relations, syntactic connections.

Syntactic unit is a combination that has at least constituents. The basic syntactic units are: a word-group/phrase, a clause, a sentence, a text.

Syntactic relations are syntagmatic relations observed between syntactic units. Syntactic units can go into 3 types of syntactic relations.

Coordination (SR1) – syntagmatic relations of independence. SR1 can be observed on the phrase, sentence and text levels. Coordination may be symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric coordination is characterized by complete interchangeability of its elements – pens and pencils. Asymmetric coordination occurs when the position of elements is fixed: ladies and gentlemen. Forms of connection within SR1 may be copulative (you and me), disjunctive (you or me), adversative (strict but just) and causative-consecutive (sentence and text level only).

Subordination (SR2) – syntagmatic relations of dependence. SR2 are established between the constituents of different linguistic rank. They are observed on the phrase and sentence level. Subordination may be of three different kinds – adverbial (to speak slowly), objective (to see a house) and attributive (a beautiful flower). Forms of subordination may also be different – agreement (this book – these books), government (help us), adjournment (the use of modifying particles just, only, even, etc.) and enclosure (the use of modal words and their equivalents really, after all, etc.).

Predication (SR3) – syntagmatic relations of interdependence. Predication may be of two kinds – primary (sentence level) and secondary (phrase level). Primary predication is observed between the subject and the predicate of the sentence while secondary predication is observed between non-finite forms of the verb and nominal elements (I watched them arguing (between them and arguing))

29. The phrase and the problem of its definition. The main distinctive features of the phrase as compared with those of the word and the sentence.

One problem concerning the phrase is the absence of a universal term. Before the 20th century the word “phrase” was used to denote this linguistic phenomenon, however, it was dismissed by H. Sweet who considered it too vague.

There appeared new terms, such as “word group” and “word cluster”. Later L. Bloomfield restored the past status of “phrase”, and currently this term is widely used by American linguists.

Another problem is connected with the definition of the phrase. Despite the fact that the phrase, along with the sentence, is a basic unit of syntax, there is no universally accepted definition of the phrase. Some scholars define the phrase as a combination of at least two notional words which do not constitute the sentence but are syntactically connected. However, the majority of Western linguists and Russian researchers Prof. B. Ilyish and V. Burlakova believe that a combination of a notional word with a functional word can be treated as a phrase as well, that is they term “phrase” every combination of two or more words, which is a grammatical unit but is not an analytical form of some word. The problem is disputable since the role of functional words is to denote some abstract relations and they are devoid of nominative power. On the other hand, such combinations are syntactically bound and they should belong somewhere.

Despite all the controversies regarding the essence and nature of the phrase, the most adequate interpretation seems to be as follows: the phrase is any syntactically organized group including either notional words (happy life, very nice, to ignore the comment), or both notional and functional words (on the table, in the bag, under the tree) connected with any of the existent types of syntactic connection. The phrase is a linear language unit that can be either a part of the sentence, or a separate sentence thus acquiring not only intonation coloring and corresponding phrase stress, but also communicative orientation. Thus, the phrase can be defined as a syntactically organized group of words of any morphological composition based on any type of syntactic connection.

The difference between the phrase and the sentence is fundamental: the phrase is a nominative unit which fulfils the function of polynomination denoting a complex referent (phenomenon of reality) analyzable into its component elements together with various relations between them; the sentence is a unit of predication which, naming a certain situational event, shows the relation of the denoted event towards reality.

General characteristics of the phrase are:

1) A phrase is a means of naming some phenomena or processes, just as a word is. As a naming unit it differs from a compound word because the number of constituents in a word-group corresponds to the number of different denotates (a black bird – a blackbird; a loud speaker – a loudspeaker).

2) Each component of the word-group can undergo grammatical changes without destroying the identity of the whole unit: to see a house - to see houses – saw houses (grammatical modifications of one phrase).

A sentence is a unit with every word having its definite form. A change in the form of one or more words would produce a new sentence.

4. A word-group is a dependent syntactic unit, it is not a communicative unit and has no intonation of its own. Intonation is one of the most important features of a sentence, which distinguishes it from a phrase.