Б. А. Ильиш строй современного английского языка Учебник

248 Word Order

Particles

If a particle belongs to a noun connected with a preposition, the particle will, as often as not, come between the preposition and the noun (this would be absolutely impossible in Russian). Here are a few examples of this use: The younger, Leander, was above all young, it seemed to him, charmingly, crashingly so, with only a slightly greater than usual grace... (BUECHNER) She could not help thinking as the young man disappeared into the other room for ice, of the earlier evening at Tristram's apartment, also lit by only one lamp and with something of the same vague sense of anticipation in the dark air. (Idem) In this latter sentence it would perhaps be possible to put the particle before the preposition, that is, to write, ... lit only by one lamp. However the original text appears to be somehow more expressive than the altered one here proposed. As to the former example, the corresponding change, that is, the variant crashingly so, only with a slightly greater than usual grace, would imply a considerable change of meaning in the sentence; in the original text, only clearly refers to slightly (even though it is separated from the adverb slightly by the indefinite article), and only slightly forms a definite sense unit. In the variant only with a slightly greater than usual grace the connections of the particle are quite different: it would here mean that the only remark necessary to make the description exact is the one about the slightly greater grace. Thus the particle only would here acquire a kind of connecting power, bringing it close to a conjunction. As will have been seen from these two examples, much will depend on the concrete grammatical and lexical context in which the particle and its head word appear.

Sometimes a particle refers to the word or phrase immediately preceding it. This can only happen if the particle stands at the end of the sentence or at least at the end of a section of the sentence marked by a pause in oral speech and by a comma or other punctuation mark in writing. This usage seems to be restricted to more or less official style, e. g. This book is for advanced students only.

Sometimes, however, a particle comes before the predicate or between two elements of the predicate, while it refers to some secondary part of the sentence standing further ahead. In these cases, then, the position of the particle is determined, not by its semantic ties, but by the structure of the sentence (it is joined on to the predicate whatever its semantic ties may be). Examples of such usage are numerous enough, e. g. He only arrived at three o'clock. The semantic connection obviously is not only arrived but only at three o'clock (not earlier). Generally speaking, the particle might refer to the word arrived, and then the sense would be 'at three o'clock he only arrived, and he did not do anything else at

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the time'. Now, though this sense is conceivable, it is certainly much less natural or probable than the sense 'he arrived only at three o'clock, not earlier', and so a reader is much more likely to take the written sentence in this latter way. A similar analysis might be given of other examples of this type. Other particles do not seem to be used in this way.

On the whole, the problem of word order proves to be a highly complex one, requiring great care and subtlety in the handling. As far as we can see now, different factors have something to do with determining the place of one part of a sentence or another. It is the scholar's task to unravel this complex by weighing the influences exercised by each factor, and their mutual relations. It is possible, for instance, that two factors work in the same direction — and then the result can only be one. It is also possible that different factors work in different directions, and then one of them will take the upper hand. This manifests itself, among other things, in the fact that grammatical order may limit the possibilities of functional sentence perspective. In this case some other means has to be found to render the intended meaning as clearly as possible.

Chapter XXXI

ONE-MEMBER SENTENCES AND ELLIPTICAL SENTENCES

We have agreed to term one-member sentences those sentences which have no separate subject and predicate but one main part only instead (see p. 190).

Among these there is the type of sentence whose main part is a noun (or a substantivised part of speech), the meaning of the sentence being that the thing denoted by the noun exists in a certain place or at a certain time. Such sentences are frequent, for example, in stage directions of plays. A few examples from modern authors will suffice: Night. A lady's bed-chamber in Bulgaria, in a small town near the Dragoman Pass, late in November in the year 1885. (SHAW) The sixth of March, 1886. (Idem) The landing dock of the Cunard Line. (FITCH) Living room in the house of Philip Phillimore. (L. MITCHELL)

Compare also the following passage from a modern novel: No birds singing in the dawn. A light wind making the palm trees sway their necks with a faint dry formal clicking. The wonderful hushing of rain on Mareotis. (DURRELL) Such sentences bear a strong resemblance to two-member sentences having a present participle for their predicate, which we have considered on p. 202 ff. It is the context that will show to which of the two types the sentence belongs. In some cases the difference between them may be vague or even completely neutralised.

There are some more types of one-member clauses and sentences. Let us consider a few examples of the less common varieties. And what if he had seen them embracing in the moonlight? (HUXLEY) The main clause, if it is to be taken separately, contains only the words and what...? It is clear, however, that the sentence And what?, if at all possible, would have a meaning entirely different from that of the sentence as it stands in Huxley's text. Be that as it may, the clause and what is clearly a one-member clause.

A different kind of one-member clause is seen in the following compound sentence: A good leap, and perhaps one might clear the narrow terrace and so crash down yet another thirty feet to the sunbaked ground below. (HUXLEY) The first clause in its conciseness is very effective. These are the thoughts of a young man standing on a hill and looking down a steep ravine. The meaning is of course equivalent to that of a sentence like It would be enough to make a good leap, etc. But the first clause as it stands in the text is certainly a one-member clause, as every addition to it would entirely change its structure.

A special semantic type of one-member clauses is characterised by the following structure: "predicative + adjective expressing emotional assessment + noun or clause expressing what is assessed

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by the adjective", for instance, Strange how different she had become — a strange new quiescence. (LAWRENCE) The main clause might of course have been a two-member one: It was strange how different she had become... but this variant would be stylistically very different from the original. It is also evident that this type of sentence is limited to a very small number of adjective predicatives.

Imperative sentences with no subject of the action mentioned are also to be classed among one-member sentences, e. g. Get away from me! (M. MITCHELL) Fear not, fair lady! (Idem) "Don't tell him anything," she cried rapidly. (Idem)

It would not, however, be correct to say that imperative sentences must necessarily have this structure. Occasionally, in emotional speech, they may have a subject, that is, they belong to the two-member type, as in the following instance: Don't you dare touch me! (Idem)

INFINITIVE SENTENCES

Besides the types of sentence considered so far, which are more or less universally recognised, there are some types which are often passed over in silence, but which deserve special attention.

We will here dwell on a type of sentence belonging to this category, namely, infinitive sentences.

The infinitive sentence is a one-member sentence with an infinitive as its main part. Infinitive sentences may, as far as we can judge now, be of two kinds. One type is represented by a sentence, always exclamatory, in which the infinitive, with the particle to, stands at the beginning of the sentence, and the general meaning of the sentence is strong feeling on the part of the speaker, who either wishes the thing expressed in the sentence to happen, or else is en-raptured by the fact that it is happening already. Let us first give a famous example from a poem by Robert Browning: Oh, to be in England, I Now that April's there, I And whoever wakes in England / Sees, some morning, unaware, / That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf / Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, / While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough / In England, now! The sentence is of course a complex one but the point is that the main clause is of the type we have just described. The exclamatory character is a necessary part of its characteristic.

Infinitive sentences are very common in represented speech (compare below, p. 333), for instance: To be alive! To have youth and the world before one. To think of the eyes and the smile of some youth of the region who by the merest chance had passed her and looked and who might never look again, but who, nevertheless, in so doing, had stirred her young soul to dreams. (DREISER) Compare also the two last sentences of the following extract: These were

252 One-Member Sentences and Elliptical Sentences

thrilling words, and wound up Catherine's feelings to the highest point of ecstasy. Her grateful and gratified heart could hardly restrain its expressions within the language of tolerable calmness. To receive so flattering an invitation! To have her company so warmly solicited! (J. AUSTEN) These are obviously one-member infinitive sentences, exclamatory ones, expressing the heroine's feelings, which have been briefly characterised in the preceding two sentences by the author.

Another type of infinitive sentence is an interrogative sentence beginning with the adverb why followed by an infinitive without the particle to, and sometimes preceded by the particle not, e. g. Why not give your friend the same pleasure? ("Times", quoted by Poutsma) It would not be right to treat such sentences as elliptical, with the auxiliary verb and the pronoun you as subject omitted. We can, of course, replace the sentence just quoted by the sentence Why should you not give your friend the same pleasure?, but this would annihilate the original sentence and put an entirely different one in its place: the sentence resulting from such a change would be a two-member sentence, with a definite subject, and with the infinitive made into a component of an interrogative (or negative-interrogative) finite verb form. The interrogative adverb why appears to be a necessary element in the structure of this type of infinitive sentence.

So it seems evident that types of infinitive sentences have their peculiar characteristics: one of them is always exclamatory, and the other always interrogative. This of course shows that the sphere of infinitive sentences is a very restricted one. ¹

ELLIPTICAL SENTENCES

By "elliptical sentences" we mean sentences with one or more of their parts left out, which can be unambiguously inferred from the context. We will apply this term to any sentence of this kind, no matter what part or parts of it have been left out.

The main sphere of elliptical sentences is of course dialogue: it is here that one or more parts of a sentence are left out because they are either to be supplied from the preceding sentence (belonging to another speaker) or may be easily dispensed with. We take a few examples of elliptical sentences from contemporary dramatic

¹ In Russian types of infinitive sentences are much more varied. While two of them correspond to the two types of English infinitive sentences (e.g., Подумать только! Почему не сказать ему сразу?), other types of Russian infinitive sentences find nothing to correspond to them in English. Among these various types we may mention sentences of a modal character, implying that something either must or cannot be done, e.g., Быть беде! Вам не успеть, Здесь ее пройти, etc.

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works: Charlie. Have you asked her yet? Captain Jinks. Not often enough. (FITCH) It is clear here that the answer means: 'I have, but not often enough'. Aurelia. And by the way, before I forget it, I hope you'll come to supper to-night — here. Will you? After the opera. Captain Jinks. Delighted! (Idem) It is also clear here that Aurelia's second sentence means: 'Will you come to supper to-night?' and that the captain's answer means: 'I shall be delighted to come'. Whatever is understood from the preceding context is omitted, and only the words containing the rheme are actually pronounced. The same is found, for example, in the following bit of dialogue: Matthew. Why, my dear — you have a very sad expression! Cynthia. Why not? Matthew. I feel as if I were of no use in the world when 1 see sadness on a young face. Only sinners should feel sad. You have committed no sin! Cynthia. Yes, I have! (L. MITCHELL) Cynthia's first sentence obviously means: 'Why should I not have a sad expression?' and her second, 'Yes, I have committed a sin!' Similarly, in other cases everything but the words representing the rheme may be omitted.

Elliptical sentences or clauses can of course also occur outside dialogue. <sup>1

1</sup> The use of elliptical sentences linked to the phenomena of representation and substitution, which will be dealt with on p. 51 ff.

Chapter XXXII

TRANSITION FROM SIMPLE TO COMPOSITE SENTENCES

Though the notions of simple sentence and composite sentence seem to be well defined and distinctly opposed to each other, this does not mean that there are no transitional elements between them. As in so many other cases, in the sphere of sentence types we find a considerable number of phenomena which, though not exactly transgressing the limits of the simple sentence, do not quite fit into it, and show some peculiarities which justify our treating them as transitional between the simple and the composite sentence.

Of these, we will consider the following syntactical phenomena: (1) sentences with homogeneous parts (sometimes also termed "contracted sentences"). (2) sentences with a dependent appendix, and (3) sentences with secondary predication. Different as they are in many respects, these phenomena are alike in that they gradually get out of the limits of the simple sentence and approach the composite sentence (some of them the compound, others the complex sentence).

SENTENCES WITH HOMOGENEOUS PARTS

By homogeneous parts of a sentence we mean parts of the same category (two or more subjects, two or more predicates, two or more objects, etc.), standing in the same relation to other parts of the sentence (for homogeneous secondary parts we should say: standing in the same relation to the same head word). According to the older terminology, such sentences used to be termed "contracted sentences", as if they had been "contracted" put of two or more simple sentences. For example, the sentence I met my relatives and friends would be said to have been "contracted" out of two sentences: I met my relatives, and I met my friends. This treatment does not seem to be justified, as it introduces a sort of historical element, implying the origin of such sentences, which is both doubtful and completely irrelevant for the study of these sentences as they exist in the modern language. ¹

This category of sentences covers a wider variety of phenomena. Some types of sentences with homogeneous parts quite clearly fit into the general type of simple sentences. This is the case, for instance, with sentences having two or more homogeneous objects to one predicate, e. g. Its literary equipment consists of a single fixed shelf stocked with old paper-covered novels, broken-backed, coffee-stained, torn and thumbed; and a couple of little hanging shelves

¹ However, this treatment has been recently revived on new grounds, for example, by L. Tesnièere in his book Eléments de syntaxe structurale, p. 325,

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with a few gifts on them ... (SHAW) The same can be said about sentences having two or more homogeneous adverbial modifiers to one predicate: / only came to thank you and return the coat you lent me. (Idem) And this is also true of sentences having two or more homogeneous attributes to one head word — even if we take an attribute to be a secondary part of a sentence on the same level as objects and adverbial modifiers. ' If, on the other hand, we take an attribute to be a part of phrase, rather than of a sentence, the presence of homogeneous attributes is still more irrelevant for the general character of the sentence.

However, the number of homogeneous parts in a sentence can be much larger than that. We will not here give examples of the gradual growth of a sentence due to accumulation of homogeneous parts but we will at once proceed to sentences in which only the subject keeps, as it were, the sentence together: it is the case when there are two verbal predicates, and each predicate has its objects, adverbial modifiers, attributes to nouns functioning as objects, etc.: Louka makes way proudly for her, and then goes into the house. (SHAW) Madame Michel put down her netting and surveyed him sharply over her glasses. (R. MAGAULAY) Compare also: She caught the thoughtful, withdrawn, disengaged look that rested on the girl and boy: and, glancing back at the girl, saw an expression in the sullen grey eyes that perplexed her. (Idem)

The reason why we cannot call this sentence compound is that it has only one subject and thus cannot be separated into two clauses. If we repeat the subject before the second predicate we shall get a compound sentence consisting of two clauses and identical in meaning with the original sentence with homogeneous parts. Thus the sentence Scarlett stood in her apple-green "second-day" dress in the parlor of Twelve Oaks amid the blaze of hundreds of candles, jostled by the same throng as the night before, and saw the plain little face of Melanie Hamilton glow into beauty... (M. MITCHELL) cannot be described as a compound one because it has only one subject, but it cannot very well be described as a simple sentence either, as its unity depends on that subject alone while the predicates are different and each of them is accompanied by a set of secondary parts. So it will be safe to say that it stands somewhere between simple and compound sentences.

SENTENCES WITH A DEPENDENT APPENDIX

Under this head we will consider some phenomena which clearly overstep the limits of the simple 'sentence and tend towards the complex sentence, but which lack an essential feature of a complex

¹ Compare above, p. 222 ff.

256 Transition from Simple to Composite Sentences

sentence. Some of these phenomena are common to English, Russian, and other languages, while some of them are typical of English alone.

In the first place, there are the phrases consisting of the conjunction than and a noun, pronoun, or phrase following an adjective or adverb in the comparative degree, as in these sentences: ...I've known many ladies who were prettier than you... (M. MITCHELL) Come cheer up: it takes less courage to climb down than to face capture: remember that. (SHAW) It would always be possible to expand this appendix into a clause by adding the required form of the verb be (or do, or, in some cases, can, etc.) Thus, for instance, the first of the above sentences can be expanded into I've known many ladies who were prettier than you are . . . and the second into . . . it takes less courage to climb down than it does to face capture. After this change we get a clause introduced by the conjunction than and the sentence is a complex one. But that should not make us think that in the original text the verb be or do has been "omitted". There is no ground whatever for such a view. The sentences have to be taken for what they are, and classified among those intermediate between a simple and a complex sentence.

Very similar to these are the sentences containing an adjective or adverb, which may be preceded by the adverb as, and an additional part consisting of the conjunction as and some other word (an adjective, a noun, or an adverb), as in the following examples: His expression had been as bland and clear as the day without. (BUECHNER) The conduct of a widow must be twice as circumspect as that of a matron. (M. MITCHELL) In each case a finite verb might be added at the end (either be, or do, or have, or can, etc.), and then the sentence would become a complex one. But this is irrelevant for the syntactical characteristic of the original sentences, as given above. They contain something which does not fit into the pattern of a simple sentence, yet at the same time they lack something that is necessary to make the sentence complex. So it is most natural to say that they occupy an intermediate position between the two.

Now we shall consider the type of sentence containing a phrase which is introduced by a subordinating conjunction: Tristram had stood about picking up letters, arranging things, as Chough preparing with some difficulty just the situation he wanted. (BUECHNER) The subordinate part as though preparing is here clearly distinguished from the secondary parts expressed by participle phrases, picking up letters and arranging things. Catherine, though a little disappointed, had too much good nature to make any opposition, and, the others rising up, Isabella had only time to press her friend's hand and say, "Good-bye, my dear love," before they hurried off. (J. AUSTEN) It seems much better to say that the phrase though

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a little disappointed is a subordinate part than to suppose that it is a subordinate clause, with the subject she and the link verb was ''omitted". As it is, the phrase had best be described as a loose attribute to the subject of the sentence. Compare: Such a compliment recalled all Catherine's consciousness, and silenced her directly; and, though pointedly applied to by the General for her choice of the prevailing colour of the paper and hangings, nothing like an opinion on the subject could be drawn from her. (J. AUSTEN) There are some few cases of a subordinating conjunction being used in a simple sentence, thus introducing no subordinate clause of any kind. It may be used to introduce a second homogeneous part: With these feelings, she rather dreaded than sought for the first view of that well-known spire which would announce her within twenty miles from home. (J. AUSTEN)

Sometimes a secondary part of a sentence is added on to it, connected with the main body of the sentence by a co-ordinating conjunction, although there is not in the main body any part that could in any sense be considered to be homogeneous with the part thus added. Here is an example of this kind of sentence: Denis tried to escape, but in vain. (HUXLEY) It is probably best not to suppose that anything has been "omitted" in this sentence and may be sup-plied. The sentence Denis tried to escape, but it was in vain, and possible other variants would be grammatically entirely different from the actual text.

The co-ordinating conjunction makes it difficult to term such phrases loose secondary parts of the sentence: it gives them something of a separate status. As in all preceding instances, each of the sentences might be made into a compound sentence by adding a noun or pronoun, and a link verb: Denis tried to escape, but it was in vain. The sentence thus obtained is compound, but it must not be taken as a starting point in the syntactical study of the original sentence, as given above, which is intermediate between a simple and a composite sentence.

Sentences containing a part thus introduced by a subordinating or co-ordinating conjunction are best classed as sentences with a dependent appendix.

SECONDARY PREDICATION

Another syntactical phenomenon which is best, considered under this heading of transition to the composite sentence is based on what is very aptly termed "secondary predication". Before starting to discuss the syntactical phenomena involved, we shall therefore have to explain briefly what is meant by secondary predication.

In every sentence there is bound to be predication, without which there would be no sentence. In a usual two-member sentence the

9 Б. А. Ильиш

258 Transition from Simple to Composite Sentences

predication is between the subject and the predicate. In most sentences this is the only predication they contain. However, there are also sentences which contain one more predication, which is not between the subject and the predicate of the sentence. This predication may conveniently be termed secondary predication. ¹

In Modern English there are several ways of expressing secondary predication. One of them is what is frequently termed the complex object, as seen in the sentences, I saw him run, We heard them sing, The public watched the team play, I want you to come to-morrow, We expect you to visit us, etc. Let us take the first of these sentences for closer examination. The primary predication in this sentence is between the subject I and the predicate saw. I is the doer of the action expressed by the predicate verb. But in this sentence there is one more predication, that between him and run: the verb run expresses the action performed by him. This predication is obviously a secondary one: him is not the subject of a sentence or a clause, and run is not its predicate. The same can be said about all the sentences given above.

On the syntactic function of the group him run (or of its elements) views vary. The main difference is between those who think that him run is a syntactic unit, and those who think that him is one part of the sentence, and run another. If the phrase is taken as a syntactic unit, it is very natural to call it a complex object: it stands in an object relation to the predicate verb saw and consists of two elements.

If, on the other hand, the phrase him run is not considered to be a syntactic unit, its first element is the object, and its second element is conveniently termed the objective predicative.

The choice between the two interpretations remains arbitrary and neither of them can be proved to be the only right one. In favour of the view that the phrase is a syntactical unit, a semantic reason can be put forward. In some cases the two elements of the phrase cannot be separated without changing the meaning of the sentence. This is true, for instance, of sentences with the verb hate. Let us take as an example the sentence, I hate you to go, which means much the same as I hate the idea of your going, or The idea of your going is most unpleasant to me. Now, if we separate the two elements of the phrase, that is, if we stop after its first element: I hate you . . . , the sense is completely changed. This shortened version expresses hatred for "you" which the original full version certainly did not imply.

¹ The Russian equivalent of the term "secondary predication" was introduced by Prof. G. Vorontsova in her excellent paper. See Г. Н. Воронцова, Вторичная предикативность в английском языке. Иностранные языки в школе, 1950, № 6.

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H. Sweet, discussing these phenomena, referred to the sentence / like boys to be quiet, which, as he pointed out, does not imply even the slightest liking for boys. ^!

In other cases, that is, with other verbs, the separation of the two elements may not bring about a change in the meaning of the sentence. Thus, if we look at our example / saw him run, and if we stop after him: I saw him, this does not contradict the meaning of the original sentence: I saw him run implies that / saw him.

Another case in which the two elements of the phrase cannot be separated is found when the verb expresses some idea like order or request and the second element of the phrase is a passive infinitive. With the sentence He ordered the man to be summoned we cannot possibly stop after man.

There is no doubt, therefore, that with some verbs (arid some nouns, for that matter) the two elements of the phrase following the predicate verb cannot be separated. It is, however, not certain that this is a proof of the syntactic unity of the phrase. This is again one of the phenomena which concern the mutual relation of the semantic and syntactic aspects of the language. The choice between the two possibilities: complex object or object and objective predicative remains largely a matter of arbitrary decision. If we make up our mind in favour of the second alternative, and state in each case two separate parts of the sentence, this will add to our list of secondary parts one more item: the objective predicative. The objective predicative need not be an infinitive: it may be a participle (I saw him running, We heard them singing), an adjective (I found him ill. They thought him dead), a stative (I found him asleep), sometimes an adverb, and a prepositional phrase. The sentence I found him there admits of two different interpretations. One of them, which seems to be the more usual, takes the sentence as an equivalent of the sentence There I found him: the adverb there is then an adverbial modifier belonging to the verb find. The other interpretation would make the sentence equivalent to the sentence I found that he was there. In this latter case the adverb there does not show where the action of finding took place, and it is not an adverbial modifier belonging to the predicate verb found. It is part of the secondary predication group him there and has then to be taken as an objective predicative: I found him there is syntactically the same as I found him ill, or I found him asleep.

The choice between the two alternatives evidently depends on factors lying outside grammar. From a strictly grammatical viewpoint it can be said that the difference between an adverbial modifier and an objective predicative is here neutralised.

¹ H. Sweet, A New English Grammar, Part I, § 124. 9*