Строй современного английского языка
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| Chapter XXX
WORD ORDER SOME GENERAL POINTS
SUBJECT AND PREDICATE The first question in this sphere is that of the relative position of subject and predicate. Although there are obviously only two possible variants of their mutual position ("subject + predicate", "predicate + subject"), this question has given rise to many discussions and different opinions have been expressed in the matter. In the light of these discussions we can now state that the main problem is this: should one of the two possible orders be taken to be the general norm of a Modern English sentence, so that all cases of the opposite order come to be regarded as deviations from it, or should the normal order be stated for every type of sentence in particular? If we take the first view, we shall say that the normal order in English is "subject 4- predicate", and every case of the order "predicate + subject" is to be considered as a deviation, that is, as an inversion. This has been the common view put forward in most grammars until recently. If we take the second view we will, in the first place, distinguish between declarative and interrogative sentences. The normal order in declarative sentences will of course be "subject + predicate", but the normal order in interrogative sentences will be "pre- Subject and Predicate 289 d icate + subject". Speaking of interrogative sentences, therefore, we will not say that there is any inversion in these sentences. We will take the second view, which has recently been very convincingly advanced in several special papers. 1 This is justified by the following simple considerations. If we take, for instance, the sentence, Only at sunset did I leave the house (GISSING, quoted by Poutsma), in which part of the predicate (the auxiliary verb do) comes before the subject, we have every reason to say that this order in a declarative sentence is due to the particle only coming at its beginning. If it were not for the particle, there would be the order "subject + predicate", which is the normal one in a declarative sentence: At sunset I left the house. The use of the particle, which gives special prominence to the adverbial modifier at sunset, to which it belongs, has caused the change of the usual declarative order, that is, it has caused an inversion. On the other hand, if we take an interrogative sentence like the following: When did he leave the house? we cannot say that the order "predicate + subject" (to be more exact, "part of the predicate + subject") is due to any special word being used in it. Even if we exclude the adverbial modifier when, which is essential for the meaning of the sentence, we shall get the sentence Did he leave the house? The order cannot be changed without the sentence ceasing to be interrogative and becoming declarative. The order "predicate + subject" is essential for the interrogative character of the sentence.2 Accordingly it is preferable to distinguish between two sets of phenomena: (1) normal order, which may be either the order "subject + predicate", as in most declarative sentences, or "predicate + subject", as in most interrogative and in some declarative sentences, and (2) inverted order, or inversion, which may be the order "predicate + subject" in a special type of declarative sentence, or "subject + predicate" in a special type of sentence characterised in general by the order "predicate + subject" (the latter is a very rare phenomenon indeed). Up to now we have to some extent simplified the actual facts of the Modern English language. It is time now to point out the special cases which do not come under the general headings so far mentioned. For one thing, there is a type of declarative sentence in which the order "predicate + subject" is normal. These are sentences stating the existence or the appearance of something in a certain place. The most widely known type of such sentences is the one 1 See M. B. Лазаркевич, Порядок слов в современном английском языке, Автореферат канд. дисс., 1961. 2 We leave aside interrogative sentences of the type Who has come? What has happened?, where the order is "subject + predicate". (See p. 241.) 240 Word Order b eginning with the words There is ... (we take the two words there and is as constituting together the predicate of the sentence). Examples of such sentences are too well known to need illustration here. Besides the type There is ..., there are also sentences beginning with the words There came .. ., as There came a thunderstorm; There appeared . .., and others of the same kind, and also sentences without there, beginning with an adverbial modifier, mostly denoting place, and followed by the predicate and the subject. The verbs most usually found in such sentences are, sit, stand, that is verbs indicating the position of a body in space. For instance: On the terrace stood a knot of distinguished visitors. (HUXLEY) In one corner sat the band and, obedient to its scraping and blowing, two or three hundred dancers trampled across the dry ground, wearing away the ground with their booted feet. (Idem) Something of the same kind is found in the following sentence, where the predicate verb is come: From below, in the house, came the thin wasp-like buzzing of an alarum-clock. (Idem) Cf. also the following sentence: On the corner, waiting for a bus, had stood a young woman, and just as he was about to pass she had dropped a coin which rolled on the sidewalk before him. (BUECHNER) This example differs from the preceding ones in two points: in the first place, the predicate verb is in the past perfect, and secondly, between the adverbial modifier of place (on the corner) there is a participle phrase (waiting for a bus), which is probably best taken as an adverbial modifier of attendant circumstances, and which is in any case a secondary part of the sentence. In the following sentence the order "predicate + subject" is sufficiently accounted for by the fact that there are two adverbial modifiers of place at the opening of the sentence. However, there is an additional factor here which is working in the same direction, namely the particle only singling out the adverbial modifiers and making them represent, partly at least, the rheme of the sentence Download 1.77 Mb. Share with your friends:
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