Строй современного английского языка
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| The Attribute 228
s entence with its parts, i. e. it stands on the phrase level, being an attribute to the noun century. The same reasoning and the same choice would of course apply to the phrase as a literary art. The two possible views of its syntactic function would be these: (1) as a(n) art is a part of the sentence, namely a predicative; literary is another part, namely an attribute, standing syntactically on the same level with it; (2) as a literary art as a whole is a part of the sentence, namely, a predicative; literary is part of the predicative, and thus not a separate part of the sentence: it is part of the phrase, namely an attribute to the noun art, and stands on a lower level than the sentence and its parts: it stands on the phrase level. To give another example, let us take the sentence In the rich brown atmosphere peculiar to back rooms in the mansion of a Forsyte, the Rembrandtesque effect of his great head, with its white hair, against the cushion of his high-backed seat, was spoiled by the moustache, which imparted a somewhat military look to his face. (GALSWORTHY) We will consider the following phrases: in the rich brown atmosphere; the Rembrandtesque effect; of his great head; with its white hair; a somewhat military look: With all of these the following two ways of analysis are possible: (1) in the atmosphere is an adverbial modifier of place, rich and brown are attributes — secondary parts of the sentence, on the same level as the adverbial modifier; the effect is the subject of the sentence, Rembrandtesque is an attribute — a secondary part of the sentence; with hair is an object, its and white are attributes; a look is an object, military an attribute, somewhat an adverbial modifier of degree, the last two being separate secondary parts and outside the object; (2) in the rich brown atmosphere is an adverbial modifier of place, rich and brown are parts of the phrase and, being attributes, stand on a lower level than secondary parts of the sentence; the Rembrandtesque effect is the subject of the sentence; Rembrandtesque, the attribute, is part of the phrase, not of the sentence as such; with its white hair is an object; white, the attribute, a part of the phrase; a somewhat military look is an object, military and somewhat are parts of the phrase, not of the sentence as such, military being an attribute to the noun look. 1 There obviously is much to be said in favour of the view that the attribute in each case is a part of a phrase, rather than of the sentence. For one thing, it should be noted that in some cases the attribute cannot be left out without making the text grammatically incorrect. For instance, if we leave out the attributes his and great in the phrase of his great head, we shall get the impossible 1 The function of the adverb somewhat and of other words in a similar position requires special discussion. See below, p. 224. 224 Secondary Parts in Detail e xpression the effect of head. Then, in some cases, though the omission of an attribute would not make the construction wrong, it would deprive it of any reasonable sense, as in the end of our example, which would then run like this: . . .the moustache, which imparted a look to his face. Against this latter point it may be argued that this is a semantic consideration which should have no influence on syntactic analysis, so that the point seems to remain doubtful. The first point seems more compelling, because it is strictly grammatical: the sentence without the attribute in question proves to be syntactically impossible. Speaking more generally, the very fact that an attribute often comes within a part of the sentence (whether a main or a secondary one), for example, between the article and the noun to which the article belongs, and that in a number of cases it cannot be "extracted" without damaging the grammatical structure of the sentence, speaks strongly in favour of the view that the attribute stands on a lower level than the usual parts of the sentence (including the secondary ones) and that it should be considered a part of a phrase, not of a sentence. This view also gives the structure of the sentence a deeper perspective, as it opens up a syntactical sphere beyond that of parts of the sentence. However, this view of the attribute also entails difficulties. To illustrate these, we may turn to the sentence from Galsworthy's "Man of Property" which we have just been considering. The end of the sentence runs like this: .. .which imparted a somewhat military look to his face. If we agree that the attribute military is not a separate part of the sentence but makes part of the phrase object whose centre is the noun look, this has its consequences for the adverb somewhat, which modifies the adjective military. If military is not a separate part of the sentence, somewhat obviously cannot be one either, as it is syntactically subordinate to a word which itself is not a part of the sentence. This leads to the conclusion that somewhat also makes part of the phrase of which look is the centre, and has to be treated accordingly. On the other hand, somewhat would seem to perform in this sentence a function similar to that which it performs in a sentence like His look was somewhat military, where military is the predicative, and somewhat an adverbial modifier belonging to it, and in this much a secondary part of the sentence. The functions of the word somewhat in the two sentences, though similar as far as its relation to its head word military is concerned, are different, according as the word military itself is a predicative or an attribute. It would seem to follow from this that a kind of double syntactic analysis is necessary. This question is a very difficult one indeed and a satisfactory solution has not so far been found. |