Secondary parts of the sentence
The Object.
The object is closely related to the predicate and it usually completes the idea expressed by the subject-predicate unit or adds some more information to the whole sense of the sentence: He closed the door. / The team consisted of five designers./ I was very proud of it. / Everybody is afraid of dying. / I don’t know what to do.
The object can be expressed by:
· A noun in the common case: I saw the boys two hours ago.
· A substantivized adjective or participle: The nurses were clad in grey. First of all they attended to the wounded.
· Pronouns of various kinds: I saw them near the house. I couldn’t find my car, but I saw hers round the corner. He says he did not know that. I don’t know anybody here.
· A numeral: At last he found three of them high up in the hills.
· A gerund or a gerundial phrase: He insists on coming. He hates being taken care of.
· An infinitive or an infinitive phrase: He decided to stop. She was glad to be walking by his side.
· Various predicative complexes: She felt the child trembling all over. I want it done at once. Everything depends on your coming in time.
· A subordinate clause: I don’t know what it was. He thought of what he was to say to all of them.
There are three types of objects:
1. direct which is non-prepositional and usually follows transitive verbs: I wrote a poem. He promised to concentrate on the idea. She likes arguing.
2. indirect (prepositional and non-prepositional): He gave the kid two dollars. She didn’t tell anything to anyone. She is not happy about her new friend.
3. cognate, whichis generally expressed by nouns derived from the governing verb
or semantically related to it: The child smiled the smile and laughed the laugh of
contentment. ( to live a happy life; to smile a sad smile; to laugh a bitter laugh; to
die an awful death; to fight a terrible fight, to sleep a long sleep, to dream a
horrible dream etc.: They fought a good fight. / She died a dreadful death. / They
lived a happy life. )
|
|
|
The attribute.
The attribute is a secondary part of the sentence which characterizes person or non-person expressed by a noun or another nominal part of speech. The headword that is characterized by an attribute can be in the function of the subject, predicative, object or adverbial modifier: The first volume is missing. / It was a fresh, fine morning. / He was staring at the falling snow. / He wore a large straw hat. / I received a letter from my younger brother.
The attribute can be expressed by:
1. an adjective: This big girl is very lazy.
2. a pronoun: He extended his hand to me.
3. a numeral: Three vacant seats were behind him.
4. a noun in the possessive case: Rip’s only friend in the house was his dog Wolf.
|
|
|
5. an adjectivised noun: The rain drops rattled on the leaves.
6. an adverb: The house over there is a school.
7. a prepositional phrase: The letter from her sister reassured her.
8. an infinitive or an infinitive construction: It was the wrong thing to do. This is an English article for you to translate.
9. a gerund or a gerundial construction: We were facing the problem of crossing the river. The thought of having it copied again and again set him into a sad mood.
10. participles I / II or a participial phrase: We sat in the growing darkness. A broken chair stood against the wall. I was dazzled by the snow glittering on the tree tops.
11. a quotation group: I don’t like his “don’t-talk-to-me-or-I’ll-contradict-to-you” air.
The attribute may either precede or follow the headword: The bright blue sky. / I have bought the book mentioned by you. / My brother’s book. / A book of my brother’s.
The Adverbial Modifiers
An adverbial characterizes the process denoted by the verb from the viewpoint of situation, quality or quantity.
Semantically adverbial modifiers are classified as adverbials:
1. of time: We shall try it tomorrow.
2. of frequency: We often see each other.
3. of place: She went there. We came from the cinema.
4. of manner: The boy walked slowly towards the house.
5. of attending circumstances: He sleeps with the window open. They went forward under a heavy rain.
6. of degree and measure: It is rather good. / I quite understand you. / It weighs a pound.
7. of purpose: He lay down to rest. / I came to see you off.
8. of cause: He was exhausted from want of sleep.
9. of condition: But for his kindness, she would never have been able to make a success.
10. of comparison: She is as beautiful as a flower. / When she heard her husband’s name, her face contracted as though in pain.
Word Order
The words in an English sentence are arranged in a certain order, which is generally fixed for every type of the sentence and therefore meaningful. The position of the word inside the sentence corresponds to its function in it. As a rule, the first position is taken by the subject, the second – by the predicate, the third -- by the object, the fourth – by the adverbial modifier. So the ideal succession of the parts of the sentence is as follows: Subject + predicate + object + adverbial modifier: Shereada bookslowly. The moon was shining brightly over the calm sea. He left the city last night. He sat down upon the grassy bank alone.
|
|
|
But this ideal word order can be broken for some specific purposes (emphatic, communicative, linking). Thus the adverbial modifiers, particularly of time and place, can be found before the subject - predicate unit: Tomorrow at 5 o’clock I’ll be flying to Greece. / Right near the house there was the central park of the town.
Sometimes the object can be placed before the main members of the sentence for grammatical or emphatic-communicative purposes: What wonderfully blue eyes you have, Earnest! / Passage after passage did he explore. / A fearful voyage I had with such a monster in the vessel./ Of his love he would tell her nothing. / To Martin the future did not seem so dim.
Sometimes the predicate or its part can precede the subject. This sort of word order is called inversion. We distinguish full inversion (when the predicate precedes the subject: Here comes the lady of the house. Hanging on the wall was a picture. ) or partial inversion ( when only part of the predicate precedes the subject: Happy may you be!)
In some cases inversion may be taken as a normal order of words in sentences of specific grammatical and communicative value:
· in general questions: Is it really true?
· In requests: Won’t you have a cup of tea?
· In special questions: What are the police after? What are you doing tonight?
· In ‘there’-sentences: There has been an accident. There occurred a sudden revolution in public taste.
· In ‘here’-sentences: Here is another example.
· In exclamatory sentences: Come what may! Wouldn’t that be fun! May you never feel what I then felt! Long live our Queen! Mind you what I say!
There are a lot of cases when a word is placed in an unusual position for emphatic or stylistic purposes in order to make it more prominent and thus attract the readers’ or the listeners’ attention to it. For example:
|
|
|
1. Through the open window came the sounds of a plane.
2. In rushed the children. (but: In they rushed).
3. No sooner had we reached home than it began pouring. (hardly, scarcely)
4. Never has she sung so beautifully. / Nowhere was the fighting so fierce as in that sky upon Stalingrad.
5. -- I have finished my work. – So have I. / -- She got up at 6. – So did everybody. / -- He hasn’t done it. – Neither has she. / -- I am not pleased with his work -- No more am I.
6. Now comes our stop. / Seldom have I seen such wonderful flowers. / Only then did they notice the blood trickling from his arm. / Only once did he meet his match in tennis. / Here comes my brother John.
7. Little did I then know the meaning of war and what I was in reality. / Terrible as was the storm we continued our way. / So loudly did he speak, everybody could hear him. / Sweet was that evening. / Great was his influence.
8. So it’s you that have disgraced the family. /It was on father’s suggestion that he went to law college.
Дата добавления: 2019-02-12; просмотров: 2186; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!