8. The problem of the sentence analysis. Major types of the sentence analysis.
Actual Division of the Sentence in fact exposes its informative perspective. The main components of the Actual Division are ‘theme’ and ‘rheme’. The ‘theme’ expresses the standing point of the communication. It denotes an object or phenomenon about which something is reported. The ‘rheme’ expresses the basic informative part of the communication, its contextually relevant center. Between the ‘theme’ and ‘rheme’ are positioned intermediary transitional parts of the Actual Division of various informative value (transition).
e.g. Mary is fond of poetry.
The theme the rheme
“Direct division is the rheme which is expressed by the ‘inverted”.
Actual Division means to divide the informative parts of the communication into those ‘already known’ by the listener and those ‘not yet known’ by him/her.
Actual Division is based on a purely semantic factor while traditional communicative classifications of sentences by Ch. Fries, Otto Jesperson and others are based ‘formally grammatical’ and ‘purely syntactic’ parameters.
Gillian Brown and George Gule consider ‘theme’ as main character/topic entity of communication p.134. We encounter uses of the term ‘theme’ quite different from the formally constrained category. E.g. (following Halliday, 1967) which we use to refer to the left-most constituent in the sentence or clause. We find ‘theme’ used sometimes to refer to the grammatical subjects of a series of sentences, Katz (1986 p.26) states “The notion of a sentence topic is that of the ‘common theme’ of the
previous sentences in the communication, the topic carried from
sentence to sentence as the subject of their prediction.”
Goldman (1974 p. 71) wrote: “By thematisation we mean the communication (discourse-D.Sh.) process by which a ‘referent’ comes to be developed as the central subject of the communication (discourse).”
Perfetti and Goldman performed a series of experiments (1974) in which they demonstrated the effect on the recall of sentences occurring in a text of using a ‘prompt word’ referring to the theme referent, as opposed to using a ‘prompt word’ referring to a non-thematised referent. They were able to show that a thematised referent occurring as syntactic subject was better prompt for the sentence recall. A new approach to the Actual Division makes it possible and pave way through the maze of terminological complexities. If we follow a method suggested by Danes (1974) and represent the structure of the complex sentence as follows:
Jack goes up the beanstalk again,
he comes to the giant’s house,
he sees the giant’s wife.
Themes Rhemes
We shouldn’t speak of any transition points (Block). The conclusion is the left-most part of the discourse is the ‘theme’-topic entry, the right part is rheme. Traditional approach states the following means of expressing the distinction between the ‘theme’ and ‘rheme’.
They are as following:
word order
intonation contours
introducers
articles and other determiners
Intensifying particles
‘Rheme’ is introduced with:
Emphatic patterns (it, there)
Contrastive elements such as:
a) not for you but
b)
c)
d) articles (the –as the identifier of the ‘theme’
a, an-as the identifier of the ‘rheme’)
3. Intensifying particles: even, so, only then etc.
Although we have stated that Thematic- Rhematic structure play an important role in the proper descriptive of a variety of grammatical phenomena we have not yet addressed ourselves to the question of how we can correlate the ‘thematic-rhematic’ structure of a sentence with its syntactic constituent structure.
The bases of the Transformational analysis is acquiring a finite set of rules which generate (i.e. tell you how to form, pronounce, and interpret) an infinite set of sentences. The linguistic competence of the fluent native speaker is to devise a ‘finite set of rules which are capable of specifying how to form, interpret, and pronounce an ‘infinite’ set of well-formed sentences.’ We can point out Andrew Radford’s new text-book “Transformational Grammar” which is a new insight to the Transformations. It argues that the existing models of syntax are not adequate to handle certain characteristic constructions in order to provide a principled new account of the syntax structure we need to posit an additional level of structure ‘D-structure’ (Deep structure) S-structure (surface-structure). These levels of structure are inter-related by a set of movement rules known technically as ‘TRANSFORMATIONS’. We shall look at the arguments in favour of positing a number of transformational rules they are as following:
Transformational procedures:
1. includes steps of ‘morphological arrangement’
e.g. John+start John starts. John will be starting.
2. Various uses of functional words.
e.g. He understood my request He seemed to understand my request.
3. substitution: The pupils ran out of the class-rooms
They ran out of the class-room.
deletion: elimination of some elements.
Would you like a cup of tea?
positional arrangement:
permutation- changes of word order into reverse patterns:
The man is here.
Is the man here?
intonational arrangement- application of various functional tones and accents.
|
We must go? |
We must go! |
We
must go.
I want to end the with an argument relating to structural ambiguity. No, don’t groan-this one is quite straightforward. Consider the noun phrase below:
An English teacher.
This is ambiguous in a fairly obvious way between the two interpretations represented below:
someone who teaches English
someone who teaches, and who is English.
Prove the source of ambiguity addressing the parameters of Transformational Analysis.
9.General characteristics of Text. Principal types of texts.Text connective means (grammatical and lexical)
The term ‘discourse analysis’ has come to be used with a wide range of meanings which cover a wide range of activities. Thus it is used to describe activities in different fields of disciplines as in sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, philosophical linguistics, scholars working in these different disciplines tend to concentrate on different aspects of Discourse
What is` Text?
According to Gillian Brown and George Yule «text» is the verbal record of a communicative event a number of authors have been concerned to provide a tighter, more formal account of how speakers of English come to identify a text (e.g. Halliday & Hasan (1976) and others , address the full format of L.10). We tried to follow the account provided by Halliday and Hasan (1976). Since we think this is the most comprehensive treatment of the subject.
What is `Cohesion`?
According to Halliday and Hasan whether a set of sentences do or do not constitute a text depends on cohesive relationships within and between the sentences which create `texture` a text has texture and this is what distinguishes it from something that is not a «text». The texture is provided by the cohesive RELATION. (For detailed treatment address the full text of Lecture 10).
Halliday and Hasan have outlined a «taxonomy» of types of cohesion. (for the interpretation of the term «taxonomy» address the «Glossary» by D.Sh.).
The taxonomy of types of explicit markers of conjunctive relations is the following.
a) additive: and, or, furthermore, in addition.
b) adversative : but, however, on the other hand, nevertheless.
c) causal: so, consequently, for this reason.
d) temporal: then, after that, an hour later, finally, at last.
Although the sequential nature of the events is only explicitly pointed we should recognize that the underlying semantic relation has actually the cohesive power (D.Sh.)
The topics as «reference», «co-reference», «substitution», «ellipsis» and lexical «relationships» are discussed in the lecture.
Exophoric, endophoric, anaphoric cataphoric relations play a great role in ‘cohesion’ (look forward for their interpretation).
Types of co-reference relation
a. exophora: Look at that (that _____________)
b. endophora:
1. anaphoric – Look at the sun. It’s going down quickly.
2. cataphoric – It’s going down quickly, the sun.
In the anaphoric relation it refers back to the sun in the cataphoric relation it refers forwards to the sun. So it is necessary for a «text» to reveal at least some of the features of cohesion. “A `text` has texture and this is what distinguishes it from something which is not a text and cohesive ties between sentences stand out more clearly because they are the ONLY source of texture.
Types of Texts
Written «Texts» Spoken «Texts»
From the point of view of production, it is clear that spoken and written language make somewhat different demands on the language producer.
Characteristics of original text
Characteristics of the original text describe qualitatively the style of the text. This is partly a subjective dimension, but can also be more objectively described with diligent analysis of the original text. It is also a relative dimension, since it can only be measured against other texts. Thus it is dependent on text type for instance. At least until now there exist no quantitative universal norms or standards for characteristics of text. Typically the original text can be characterized as being:
repetitive
idiomatic
terminology-rich
terminology-poor
Repetitiveness means that the text contains more repetitions of individual terms or words, phrases, sentences, and even full paragraphs than usual. It may mean word-for-word repetition or similarities in constructions used in the text. Thus repetitiveness may also imply that word order or the structure of sentences is more consistent than usual. Typically, repetitive text is encountered in technical text types.
Idiomatic is in many respects the opposite of repetitive. Basically idiomaticity means the use of the expressive possibilities of the language to the fullest in the text. It may imply a large variance of words or the use of rare words and colourful idioms. This may lead to the use of many different terms for basically the same concept for the sake of nuances. Idiomaticity may also imply greater variance of sentence structure and other constructions than usual. Typically, idiomatic text is encountered in literature and advertising.
Terminology-rich means that the text contains more specific terminology than usual. Specific terminology is understood here as words and phrases being used only within a specific field or having meanings deviant from general vocabulary. Thus understanding terminology-rich text requires knowledge of the specific field in question. Typically, terminology-rich text is encountered in scientific text of any kind and technical text.
Terminology-poor is not exactly the opposite of terminology-rich. It can be understood to mean that the text simply uses only general vocabulary and thus should be understood by anyone with good general knowledge of the language. Terminology-poor can also be understood to imply that the language lacks necessary standard terms in some specific field and thus has to use alternative expressions or constructions. This may lead to long and awkward sentences which may contain ambiguity or lack exactness.
Text is the unit of the highest (supersyntactic) level. It can be defined as a sequence of sentences connected logically and semantically which convey a complete message. The text is a language unit and it manifests itself in speech as discourse. Textlinguistics is concerned with the analysis of formal and structural features of the text. Textual basic integrative properties can be described with the help of the notions of coherence (цілісність), cohesion (формальна складність) and deixis.
Text types vs text forms
Text types are general semantic-functional
concepts and are not to be confused with
text forms (advertisements, editorials,
sermons, shopping lists, poems, telephone
books, novels, etc.)
Narrative texts have to do with real-world events and time.They may be fictional (fairy tales, novels) or non-fictional (newspaper report).They are characterised by a sequencing of events expressed by dynamic verbs and by adverbials such as “and then”, “first”, “second”, “third”Example: First we packed our bags and then we called a taxi. After that we... etc.
Descriptive texts are concerned with the location of persons and things in space.They will tell us what lies to the right or left, in the background or foreground, or they will provide background information which, perhaps, sets the stage for narration.It is immaterial whether a description is more technical-objective or more impressionistic-subjective. State or positional verbs plus adverbial expressions are employed in descriptionsExamples: 1)The operation panel is located on the right-hand side at the rear; 2)New Orleans lies on the Mississippi.
Directive texts are concerned with concrete future activity. Central to these texts are imperatives (Hand me the paper) or forms which substitute for them, such as polite questions (Would you hand me the paper?) or suggestive remarks (I wonder what the paper says about the weather).
Expository texts identify and characterize phenomena.They include text forms such as definitions, explications, summaries and many types of essay.