In a sentence we distinguish the principal parts, secondary parts and independent elements.

    The principal parts of a sentence are the subject and the predicate. The secondary parts are the attribute, the object and the adverbial modifier.

    The subject is the principal part of a two-member sentence which is grammatically independent of the other parts of the sentence and on which the second principal part is grammatically dependent. The subject can denote a living being, a lifeless thing or an idea. The subject can be expressed by a single word or a group of words: a noun in the common case; a pronoun – personal, demonstrative, defining, indefinite, negative, possessive, interrogative; a substantivized adjective or participle; a numeral; an infinitive phrase or construction; a gerund, a gerundial phrase or construction; any part of speech used as a quotation; a group of words which is one part of the sentence, i.e. a syntactically indivisible group; a quotation group.

    The predicate is the second principal part of the sentence which expresses an action, state or quality of the person or thing denoted by the subject. As a rule the predicate contains a finite verb which may express tense, mood, voice, aspect, and sometimes person and number. According to the structure and the meaning of the predicate we distinguish 2 main types: the simple predicate and the compound predicate.

    The simple predicate is represented by a finite verb in a simple or a compound tense form, sometimes by a phraseological unit (to get rid of, to take care, to pay attention, etc.); word combinations (to change one’s mind).

    The compound predicate usually consists of a seminotional verb and a notional part, presented by either nominal or verbal part of speech. It can be divided into two groups: nominal and verbal. The compound nominal predicate denotes the state or quality of a person or a thing expressed by the subject or the class of persons or things to which this person or thing belongs. (link verb+ predicate). If a seminotional verb is a modal one and a notional part is expressed by infinitive or an infinitival phrase we deal with the modal compound verbal predicate: EX: He can do it himself. I have to go there.

Mixed types of predicate: 1) the compound modal nominal predicate- Don’t think I mean be unkind;

2) the compound aspect nominal predicate- I began to feel rather hungry.

3) The compound modal aspect predicate- I had to begin living.

In the English language the predicate agrees with the subject in person and number. Agreement implies that the use of one form necessitates the use of the other.

There are 12 rules of agreement of the predicate with the subject:

1. The predicate is used in the plural when there are two or more homogeneous subjects connected by the conjunction and or asyndentically (If the subjects are infinitives, predicate has singular form).

1. When the predicate – verb precedes a number of subjects it is often in the singular.

2. When two homogeneous subjects in the singular are connected by the conjunctions not only…but (also), neither…nor, either…or, or, nor the predicate is usually in the singular. 

3. When 2 subjects in the singular are connected by the conjunction as well as the predicate is in the singular.

4. If a subject expressed by a noun is modified by two or more attributes connected by and, the predicate is in the singular when one person, thing or idea is meant.

5. If the subject is expressed by a defining, indefinite or negative pronoun, the predicate is in the singular.

6. If the subject is expressed by an interrogative pronoun the predicate is usually in the singular.

7. If the subject is expressed by a relative pronoun the predicate agrees with its antecedent.

8. If the subject is expressed by the emphatic it the predicate is in the singular no matter what follows.

9. If the subject is expressed by a noun in the plural which is the title of a book, or name of a newspaper or magazine, the predicate is in the singular.

10. If the subject is expressed by a noun in the plural denoting time, measure or distance, the predicate is in the singular when the noun represents the amount or mass as a whole.

11. If the subject is expressed by a collective noun denoting a group or collection of similar individuals taken as a whole, the predicate is in the singular.

The secondary parts of the sentence.

1) OBJECT (completes or restricts the meaning of a verb or an adjective, a word denoting state, noun)

Direct object after transitive verbs, it denotes a person or thing directly affected by the action of the verb

Indirect object denotes a living being to whom the action of the verb is directed

2) ATTRIBUTE (qualifies a noun, a pronoun, or any other part of speech that has a nominal character)

3) ADVERBIAL MODIFIER (modifies a verb, an adjective or an adverb)

1) of time

2) of frequency

3) of place and direction

4) of manner

5) of attendant circumstances

6) of degree and measure

7) of cause

8) of result (consequence)

9) of condition

10) of comparison

11) of concession

12) of purpose

4) DETACHED (loose) parts of the sentence – are those which assume a certain grammatical and semantic independence.

Loose connection may be due to the position of these words, the way they are expressed, their meaning, or the speaker’s desire to make them prominent. In spoken language detached parts of the sentence are marked by intonation, pauses and special stress; in written language they are generally separated by commas or dashes.

Dumb with amazement, they crossed the room. She does not change – except her hair.

5) INDEPENDENT ELEMENTS OF THE SENTENCE – words or word-groups which are not grammatically dependent on any part of the sentence. They are:

interjections (ah, oh, hurrah, eh, hallo, goodness gracious, good havens);

direct address (sweet child);

parenthesis (to be sure, anyway).

IC –Model of the sentence

Building up the “model of immediate constituents” is a particular kind of analysis which consists in dividing the sentence into two groups: the subject group and the predicate group, which in their turn, are divided into their subgroup constituents according to the successive subordinative order of the constituents. The main advantage of the IC-model is that it exposes the binary hierarchical principle of subordinative connection. The widely used version of the IC-model is the “IC – derivation tree”. It shows the groupings of sentence constituents by means of branching nodes: the nodes symbolize phrase-categories as unities, while the branches mark their division into constituents.

Thus, syntactic signals have a meaning of their own independent of the meaning of the notional words. This can be illustrated by the following sentence with nonsensical words.

References

1. Blokh M.Y. A Course in Theoretical English Grammar. – M., 2000. – p.229-236, 261-272

2. Ilyish B.A. The structure of Modern English. – L., 1971. –Ch.26-29, 31

3. Бархударов Л.С. Структура простого предложения современного английского языка. - М., 1982

4. Долинина И.Б. Системный анализ предложения. – М., 1977

5. Смирницкйи А.И. Синтаксис английского языка. – М., 1957.