The concept of the sentence
There are two preliminary remarks one can make: the first, not an entirely frivolous one, is that in attempting to discuss in this section ‘the concept of the sentence ’, one is in fact unavoidably talking about the material that is actually being used in the section to describe the nature and construction of sentences – one is using an extensive collection of sentences, samples of actual sentences, in a continuous stream of discourse, to attempt to arrive at a view of the nature of ‘the sentence’. This is a striking example of the self-reflexive property of language, to which reference has been made on several occasions earlier. Secondly, in talking about ‘the sentence’, we have to some extent already assumed that we know how to recognize a sentence, what is a sentence and what is not a sentence; but there is a vital distinction to be drawn between a theoretical sentence (an isolated sentence where the material content is of no particular importance) which grammarians and philosophers take as the starting point for their theories and the actual sentence; the sentence as spoken or written in completely specific circumstances, against a fully determined background or context (both linguistic and experiential context); the distinction being drawn is analogous to that between the complex action as a theoretical programme, a sequence of movements, and the complex action as actually realized in a real material environment or the distinction between the isolated sample ‘visual scene’ and the real visual scene, perceived and interpreted as part of perceptual and other experience. Where our true interest lies is not in the theoretical but in the actual, realized sentence, which gains its effect from the interpenetration of the syntactic and semantic features in fact present in the utterance; it is only for an actual sentence that one can explain how its form and content are functionally determined, not simply in a general way but by its use in completely specific circumstances. Whilst sample, theoretical, sentences may or may not appear to be meaningful, may or may not appear to be true (and a great deal of philosophical discussion has revolved round these issues), the actual sentence, in one way or another, is effective, alters the situation in which it is uttered. The purpose of the actual sentence is to have meaning and to be applicable to the real world.
(Allott R. “The Natural Origin of Language: The Structural Inter-Relation of Language, Visual Perception and Action”)
Exercise 3.
The following excerpt contains a variety of expressions pointing to the scholar’s classificatory actions over the analyzed material. Group these expressions (given in italics) under the headings: (a) nouns and nominal phrases; (b) verbs and verbal phrases. Suggest Russian equivalents to the expressions and comment on stylistic similarities and differences that the process of translation has involved.
Дата добавления: 2016-01-03; просмотров: 17; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!