6. THE OBJECT

I. DEFINITION

The O is a secondary part of the sentence denoting participants in some way affected or involved in the verbal action; it is substantival constituent which goes with transitive verbs, e.g. John read a book.
O are constituents “tied” to the verbal predicate whereas C refer to some constituent in the sentence /usually S or O/ as a complementation.

II. TYPES OF OBJECTS
Traditionally O are subdivided into direct and indirect O depending on their relation /involvement/ to the verbal action.

1. The Od – this is the only O with monotransitive verbs, e.g.: to break, to kill, to read, to drink, to know: break the window, know this picture.

2. The Oi is the second O /along with Od/ taken by ditransitive verbs like: to give, to send, to show,

 e.g.: The boy gave the girl an apple.

 FEATURES OF Oi:
1. It comes before Od; the only exception is when Od is a pronoun, 

cf. I gave him the book – I gave it him.

2. The Oi cannot stand alone – it must go together with Od, e.g.:* He gave the girl /could be mixed with Od/.

3. The Oi is always animate, while Od could be animate or not. 

The animacy of Oi is the cause why it has greater importance for the verbal action and has priority /closer to the verb/ in the word order of the clause. This is due to the so called “androcentric” tendency in language according to which animate constituents are more important and more closely related to the verbal centre /hub/ - this explains why Oi precedes Od.

4. Oi can paraphrase into a prepositional O with TO, e.g.: He gave the girl an apple- He gave an apple to the girl. In this case the animate constituent is placed at the end because of another tendency in language for “heavier, larger” constituents to be placed towards the end of the expression.

The variety of Oi is the so called benefactive O denoting the participant for whose benefit something is done. The difference from Oi is made evident in the paraphrase – Oi paraphrases with TO, while Obe paraphrases with FOR, cf. He gave the boy a toy /a toy to the boy/. He called the girl a taxi /a taxi for the girl/.

5. Any O /including Oi/ in English may correspond to a S in a passive sentence, e.g.: He sent his mother a letter.- His mother was sent a letter /Oi- S/. – A letter was sent to his mother /Od-S, Oi- Oprep/.

N.B. The Oi is non-prepositional; there is no such thing as a prepositional Oi! There is a small group of verbs in English which take two Objects but the distinction between Oi and Od in this group is to large extent neutralized. Some examples: to envy sb sth, to forgive sb sth, to ask sb a question, to strike sb a blow, e.g.: She envied him /O1/ the car/O2/.O1 looks like Oi because it comes first and it is animate. However it is not Oi because: 1. it can stand alone without Od, 2. unlike Oi, O1 above cannot paraphrase as a Oprep with TO, e.g.: *She envied the car to him. For these reasons cases like that are treated as verbs with two Od. 

III. SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF OBJECTS

1. The Od can have the following semantic roles:
1.1. Affected participant – directly affected by the verbal action, e.g.: John broke the radio.
1.2. Effected participant – denotes a participant/thing which results from, is created by, comes into existence by virtue of the verbal action, e.g.: John invented the radio. To write a letter, to paint a picture, to build a house etc.

N.B. Only affected objects can logically serve as an answer to the question “What did X do to Y? cf. What did John do to the radio?- He broke it /affected/, *He invented it /effected/.

1.3. Locative O – this type usually results from prepositional adverbial modifiers where the preposition is dropped, e.g.: He passed the house /by the house/. He traveled the whole world. This is the house I live. He swam /across/ the river. They walked /along/ the streets. The horse jumped /over/ the fence.

1.4. Cognate O – from the same or similar root as the verb, e.g.: to sing a song, to dream a dream, to fight a fight to live a miserable life, to die a happy death, to run a race, to act a part.

2.The Oi has only one major semantic role, that of recipient and it is normally animate, e.g.: They sent the teacher a postcard.
Exception: in phraseological expressions Oi may be different, e.i. not recipient and not animate, e.g.: I gave the car /Oi af/ a wash /Od ef/.= I washed the car. She paid me /Oi af/ a visit /Od ef/ = She visited me.
However expressions like these may also be interpreted as simple phraseological predicates where the O is incorporated in the predicate phrase /give a wash = wash/.

IV. MORPHOLOGICAL REALIZATION

Morphologically O fall into two major types:

1. Non-prepositional – Oi and Od.

2. Prepositional O has a preposition and it should be differentiated from the prepositional adverbial modifier, cf. He waited for the girl/ for the bus/ for Godot – Oprep. I waited at the corner/ in bed/ on the roof – adverbial modifier.

In the case of Oprep the preposition is determined /governated/ by the verb. In the prepositional adverbial modifier the preposition is determined by the semantic of the adverbial modifier, not by the verb.

3. In addition there is also Ocomplex which is made up of two constituents:

3.1. Od + Co: She made him a hero.

3.2. Non-finite structure /nexus/: I saw him run /nexus Ocom with infinitive/. I saw him running /nexus Ocom with –ing form/. I saw him ruined /nexus Ocom with past participle/.

4. Finally, there is a mixed type of Ocom with the ‘for…to…’ construction(prepositional complex object).Eg: They waited for the lecture to be over.

Prep+nexus Ocom+inf to be
The ‘for…to…’ construction indicates the subject of the infinitive 
when it is different from the main subject.

With link emphasis:
e.g.They waited for the lecture to be over and over it was.
…and over it was.
e.g.She wanted to marry him and marry him she did. 

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4. THE PREDICATE

I. DEFINITION

P is the second main constituent of the sentence which along with the S makes up the predicative bond. It predicates features and characteristics of the S and is in concord with it. It is in most cases a verb form and may take Objects and Complements,

e.g. He had given the girl an apple.

HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE TH SOUND

III. MORPHOLOGICAL REALIZATION

The function S can be realized by:

1. a NP
2. a finite clause
3. a non-finite clause
4. anticipatory IT + finite/nonfinite clause
5. unstressed THERE in existential sentences
6. a prepositional phrase

II. TYPES OF SUBJECT

/according to their semantic function, i.e. the possible semantic roles of the syntactic function/

1. AGENT Sag – denotes participant who is voluntary intentional doer of the verbal action,

e.g.: The boy broke the window.

2. FORCE Sfo – denotes a natural or mechanical force which involuntarily causes an event or action to happen, 

e.g.: The wind broke the window. The avalanche destroyed the house.

TOMORROW

3. THE SUBJECT

I. DEFINITION

The subject is one of the two main parts of the sentence which together with the predicate constitutes the binary predicative bond. Predicative bond between the S /the thing subjected to description/ on the one hand and the P which predicates / “says” / sth about the S on the other hand is the structural backbone of the sentence. To define S we need to take into account the following points:

ENGLISH CLAUSE STRUCTURE

OBLIGATORY CLAUSE NUCLEUS						e.g.
S-V	Stative	Intensive			A place	1			A time
					Cs	2		A place
		Extensive /transitive/		Monotrans.	Od	3
				Ditrans.	Oi+Od	4
				Complex Transitive	Ocomplex	5
	Dynamic	Intensive			Cs	6	A manner /process/
		Extensive	Intrasitive			7
			Transitive	Monotrans.	Od	8
				Ditrans.	Oi+Od	9
				Complex Transitive	Ocomplex	10

EXAMPLES: 

2. CLAUSE STRUCTURE IN ENGLISH

One clause is one simple sentence, i.e. one S – P /Subject – Predicate/ group.

I. CLAUSAL CONSTITUENTS

The English clause is made up of five major constituents: S V O C A / Subject - Verb/ Predicate – Object – Complement – Adverbial modifier /. The main parts are the S and V /traditionally marked by V/. O and C are secondary sentence constituents closely associated with the V, while A is more peripheral.

Most current linguistic theories are verbo-centric, i.e. the V is taken as central hub/ pivot/ of the expression determining the whole pattern of the clause. Thus the type of V determines the type of clause pattern.

V. TYPES OF SENTENCES

Principles of classification: there are two principles used for the classification of sentences.

1. The first principle is according to TYPES OF COMMUNICATION. Applying that principle we obtain a classification into declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences.

1.1.Declarative sentences assert or deny something, E.g.: A wind had cleared the mist, the autumn leaves were rustling and the stars were shining.

1.2. Interrogative sentences ask a question: Do you like this?

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IV. ADDITIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SENTENCES

1. THE SENTENCE IS UNIQUE AMONG LINGUISTIC UNITS

The sentence is unique among other linguistic units: unlike words and phrases sentences don't exist as prefabricated units (the sentence doesn’t exist in the system of language as a ready-made unit); there is no 'vocabulary list of sentences', sentences are created every time a new in the act of communication following certain sentence patterns. Therefore the sentence, unlike the word, is not a unit of language proper; it is a chunk of text built up as a result of speech-making process, out of different units of language, first of all words, which are the immediate constituents of contextually bound sentences.

III. MAJOR FEATURES OF THE SENTENCE

1. PREDICATIVITY 

In the sentence is a syntactic category that is the means of expressing a thought. Predicativity has nothing to do with the relation between the sentence and reality. Predicativity is a structural feature of the sentence and is the backbone of human thinking and linguistic statements. Simply, it means 'saying sth about sth ' ; it comprises relation of dependence between two members - one member which is what the statement is about, which is subjected to description (the subject) and another member which predicates sth about the Subject, which describes the Subject, ascribes features and characteristics to the Subject.
E.g: The sky is blue.
'the sky' is what the sentence is about (Subject) and 'is blue' is the Predicate characterizing the Subject. Predicativity is binary relation(S-P); The Subject and the Predicate are correlative notions - a Subject functions only in correlation to a certain Predicate and vice versa.

The predicate relation is different from the attributive relation - only the former expresses a thought, statement, whereas the latter is like a label of some entity or phenomenon.
cf. nice house - attributive expression, 'label' of some house;
The house is / could be / must have been nice. - predicative relation, expresses a thought / statement about the house.

According to Reformatskiy, predicativity is the main relation in the sentence; it is the nucleus, the basis of communication. The predicative relation corresponds to an act of thinking. In this act the subject of thought combines predicatively with its characteristics. This act of combining a subject with a predicate /two notions/ results in a thought. In the real world objects and their features are not separated, which can be illustrated with the so-called attributive word combinations like: blue sky, white clouds. Human reasoning singles out the separate components of reality and then relates them to each other predicatively as a subject and predicate,

E.g.: The sky is blue. The clouds are white.

II. DEFINITION OF THE SENTENCE

A satisfactory definition of the sentence is very difficult to give. Many definitions have been suggested by grammarians but it is very unlikely that there will ever be a ‘best’ definition that will satisfy everybody. It is difficult to draw the line between what constitutes a sentence and what doesn’t. The study of grammar has always focused on the sentence as the maximal unit of analysis, the tip of the pyramid of the hierarchy of linguistic units.

1. THE SENTENCE – DEFINITION, FEATURES AND TYPES

 I. INTRODUCTION

Syntax is a major branch of linguistics which along with morphology deals with the description of the structure / grammar / of linguistic expressions. 

Morphology / from Old Greek – “the study of form”/ deals with the paradigms of forms of linguistic units, e.g. the forms that tell aspect, mood etc. of a verbal lexeme. Syntax / from Old Greek – “putting together”/ deals with the combinations of linguistic units /syntagmatic relations/ into larger structures – phrases and sentences. The main unit of study in syntax, however, is the sentence, while phrases are on the borderline between morphology and syntax.

Because the sentence is essential for syntactic analysis, it is very important to give a definition of this linguistic unit.