47) The hierarchical structure of the sentence. Immediate Constituents analysis.

Another approach to the analysis of language as a kind of system, language can be looked upon as a hierarchy of levels: Level of text, it's the main linguistic unit. Phrasemic level (Phrases are word combinations, they nominate complex phenomena) Leximic level (Words are nominative units, because they nominate things and phenomena. They are built up by morphemes.)Morphemic level (Morphemes are the smallest meaningful units built up by phonemes or one phoneme.) Phonemic level (Phonemes are meaningless units, their function is differential.) 2 levels are central: words level and sentence level. They are studied by morphology and syntax. Thus, morphology deals with morphemic structure and combinability, classification of words. Syntax - with sentences. Each language has its own way of structural grouping. English has dichotomous phrase structure, which means that the phrase in English can always be divided into two elements (constituents) until we get down to the single word. All groups of words are arranged in levels. The name given by linguists to these different levels of relationship is immediate constituents. Thus, one way of analyzing a sentence is to cut it to its immediate constituents, that is, to single out different levels of meaning. It is obvious that dividing a sentence into ICs does not provide much information. Nevertheless, it can sometimes prove useful if we want to account for the ambiguity of certain constructions. A classic example is the phrase old men and women which can be interpreted in two different ways. Ambiguity of this kind is referred to as syntactic ambiguity. By providing IC analysis we can make the two meanings clear.

48) The paradigm of a simple sentence. Kernel and derived sentences. Syntactic processes.

In order to speak about sentence patterns opposed in syntactic paradigms in accord with their differential features, it is necessary to single out the initial basic element of syntactic derivation, the “sentence-root”, which undergoes various transformations and serves as the basis for identifying syntactic categorial oppositions. This element is known under different names: “the basic syntactic pattern”, “the elementary sentence model”, “the base sentence”, or “the kernel sentence”. Structurally, the kernel sentence coincides with the elementary sentence, organized by the obligatory valencies of the predicate verb, e.g.:Mary put the book on the table. The derivation of genuine sentences in “surface” speech out of kernel sentences in “deep” speech can be analyzed as a process consisting of elementary transformational steps, or syntactic derivational procedures. These include: morphological arrangement of the sentence parts expressing syntactically relevant categories, primarily the morphological changes of the finite form of the verb performing the function of the predicate (tense, aspect, voice, and mood), e.g.: Mary put the book on the table à Mary would have put the book on the table…; the use of functional words (functional expansion), which transform syntactic constructions the same way grammatical morphemes transform words, e.g.:Mary put the book on the table. à Did Mary put the book on the table?; the process ofsubstitution, including the use of personal, demonstrative and indefinite pronouns and of various substitutive half-notional words, e.g.:Mary put the book on the table. à Mary put it on the table; deletion, i.e. elimination of some elements in various contextual conditions, e.g.: Put the book on the table!; the process ofpositional arrangement, involving changes of the word order, e.g.: Mary put the book on the table. à On the table Mary put the book; the process of intonational arrangement, i.e. application of various functional tones and accents, e.g.: Mary put the book on the table.à Mary put the book on the table?(!)