Exercise 11. State the syntactic function of the Gerund.

1. It’s no use doing things by halves. 2. She kept eyeing Henry with interest. 3. He didn’t feel like talking to anyone now. 4. I could not help thinking of the island in this anatomical way. 5. After pausing for breath she announced, “I have some excellent news.” 6. She explained this to them by saying she was busy. 7. She asked her one or two questions. Kitty answered them without knowing what they meant. 8. The land was the one thing in the world worth fighting for. 9. After a moment, everyone started talking again. 10. Jennie was busy all next day preparing for a cocktail-party. 11. She waited a minute or two before speaking. 12. Julie expressed horror at the very thought of going out into the cold. 13. I could not answer for coughing. 14. House-keeping with Lidia worked quite well. 15. “A mule would be useful for crossing the mountain,” I observed.

Exercise 12. Use the Gerund from the following list as:

a) subject

continuing, going, riding, keeping, finding

1. Robinson thought at the time that … a journal would be an occupation for my mind. 2. My brother always said that … is the best exercise. 3. I’m afraid it’s no use … this discussion. 4. It’s no use … over old ground. 5. … him there surprised me greatly.

b) direct object

sitting, opening, hearing, being, doing

1. I remember … her complain to Joe. 2. The box was stoutly made and resisted …. 3. I intend … it tomorrow. 4. Would you mind … over here? 5. Now I had resolved, if possible, to avoid … alone with any of these men, these strangers.

c) prepositional object

shaking, stopping, calling, getting, drinking, missing, dealing, being, saying, twisting

1. She was afraid of … Miller in the crowd. 2. He was fond of …: “The superstition of today is the science of yesterday.” 3. Thank you for …. 4. On the way home Sally insisted on … in front of our college. 5. I am assure you I am quite capable of … with the matter. 6. After that, of course, I had difficulty in … off Tom Wells. 7. I am sick and tired of … tea without milk. 8. Surely that prevents the day from … ordinary. 9. They were certainly clever at … one’s remarks.

d) attribute

eating, coming, getting, reading, going, greeting, discussing

1. The surgery opened at five-thirty, and I made a point of … along there quite promptly. 2. The only way of … to the dance was on our bicycles. 3. They talked and laughed and shouted, and there was the clatter of knives and forks, and strange sounds of …. 4. Philip had few friends. His habit of … isolated him. 5. He could not bear the thought of … his situation. 6. There were cries of … from a dozen voices and they moved toward her. 7. Philip could never tell lies without embarrassment, and he was scarlet when he finished his explanation for not ….

E) adverbial modifier of time

hearing, answering, leaving, passing, looking, reading, racing

1. She looked at the paper, after … out this question. 2. Before …, the little old lady grasped his arm. 3. He spent those nights after … at his mother’s house in Green Street. 4. He found an endless excitement in … at their faces and … them speak. 5. Tom considered before …. 6. She seemed excited on … this. 7. Poirot had looked up at the staircase in …, and shook his head in a dissatisfied manner.

F) adverbial modifier of manner, attending circumstances or cause

noticing, having, disguising, bringing, answering, working, coughing, laughing, breaking

1. Cindy glanced up, then away, without …. 2. Lize was able to make her own living by … at a factory. 3. Eventually Selvyn couldn’t laugh properly without … trouble? 5. Was he trying to escape by … himself? 6. Major Pennymann went on without … her interruption. 7. We might be fined for … the Press along, George. 8. You might run all my life by … your promise.

G) part of a compound verbal predicate

pacing, shaking, saying, looking, reproducing, eating, chatting, knitting

1. Teddy Lloyd continued … Jean Brodie in his paintings. 2. He began … the words aloud to himself. 3. They went on … their dinner. 4. The old man stopped … her fist and stick. 5. Sandy kept … ahead, Mary tried to keep up with her. 6. Anson Harris had ceased … out and was flying on instruments alone. 7. Two weeks old this child was, and the lady had just finished … her a pram-cover in stripes of white and blue. 8. The twins started … about their school life.

 

Unit 3

Parts of the sentence

Learning objectives:

Define subject, predicate, object, attribute, adverbial modifiers, parenthetical enclosure, addressing enclosure, interjectional enclosure

Explain how to parse subject, predicate, object, attribute, adverbial modifiers

Analyze types of the subject, the types of the predicate, the types of the object

Key point:

Subject, its definition, types and its parsing; predicate, its definition, types and its parsing; object, its definition, types and its parsing; attribute, its definition and parsing; different types of adverbial modifiers and their parsing

There are 5 traditional parts of the sentence: 2 principal (main) and 3 secondary. The main parts of the sentence are subject and predicate. They express predicativity without which sentence can’t exist. The secondary parts of the sentence are attribute, object, adverbial modifier. They speak about object.

According to Blokh M.Y. the nominative parts of the simple sentence are subject, predicate, adverbial, attribute, object, parenthetical enclosure, addressing enclosure; a special, semi-notional position is occupied by an interjectional enclosure. The parts are arranged hierarchy, wherein all of them perform some modifying role.

The subject is a person-modifier of the predicate. The predicate is a process-modifier of the subject-person. The object is a substance-modifier of a processual part of the whole of the sentence (as expressing an inherent in the reflected event). The attribute is a quality-modifier of a substantive part. The parenthetical enclosure is a detached speaker-bound modifier of any sentence-part or the whole of the sentence. The addressing enclosure (address) is a substantive modifier of the destination of the sentence and hence, from its angle, a modifier of the sentence as a whole. The interjectional enclosure is a speaker-bound emotional modifier of the sentence.

The semantic classification of simple sentences should be effected at least on the three bases: first, on the basis of the subject categorical meanings; the second, on the basis of the predicate categorical meanings; third, on the basis of the subject-object relations.

The Subject

 

Reflecting the categories of the subject, simple sentences are divided into personal and impersonal. The further division of the personal sentences is into human and non-human; non-human – into antimate and inantimate. The further essential division of impersonal sentences is into factual (It rains. It’s five o’clock) and perceptional (It smells of hay here).

Personal	Impersonal
human	non-human	factual	perceptional
antimate	inantimate

The subject can be expressed by:

1. a noun (The steamer has arrived. The meeting is over.)

2. a pronoun (He works at a factory. Someone wants to speak to you.)

3. an infinitive (To swim is pleasant.)

4. a gerund (Smoking is not allowed.)

5. a numeral (Three were absent from the lecture.)

6. any other word or word combination, used in the function of the subject (“Had” is the past tense of the verb “to have”.)

7. an adjective (Dark blue is not your colour.)

The differences in subject categorical meanings are sustained by the obvious differences in subject – predicate combinability.

 

The Predicate

Reflecting the categories of the predicate, simple sentences are divided into process featuring (“verbals”) and, in the broad sense, substance featuring (including substance as such and substantive quality – “nominal”). Among the process featuring sentences actional and statal ones are to be discriminated (The window is opening – The window is glistening in the sun): among the substance featuring sentences factual and perceptional ones are to be discriminated (The sea is rough – The place seems quiet).

 

Process featuring (verbal)	Substance featuring
actional	statal	factual	perceptional

 

Finally, reflecting the subject – object relation, simple sentences should be divided into s ubjective (John lives in London), objective (John reads a book) and neutral or “potentially” objective (John reads), capable of implying both the transitive action of the syntactic person and the syntactic person’s intransitive characteristic.

The Predicate can be Simple and Compound. The further essential division of the Compound Predicate is into Nominal and Verbal.

 

The Predicate
The Simple Predicate	The Compound Predicate
The Compound Verbal Predicate	The Compound Nominal Predicate

 

The Simple Predicate is expressed by any verb, used in any time, voice and mood.

- She works at a factory.

- He is reading.

- They will return.

- The goods were loaded by means of cranes.

The Compound Nominal Predicative is expressed by a link-verb to be combined with the nominal part. The Nominal Part of the predicative can be expressed by:

1. a noun (I am a student. They are workers.)

2. a pronoun (It is she. The book is yours.)

3. a noun and a pronoun with a preposition (The room is in disorder.)

4. an adjective and an adverb (The morning was warm.)

5. an infinitive (Your duty is to help them immediately.)

6. a gerund (His greatest pleasure was traveling.)

Except the verb to be there are other verbs that can be used as link-verbs: to become, to grow, to get, to turn, to seem, to look, etc. (He became a doctor. It grew warmer. He is getting old. She turned pale. He looks ill.)

The Compound Verbal Predicate is the combination of the verb and an Infinitive or a Gerund.

The Compound Verbal Predicate is expressed by:

1. The combination of the modal verbs with the Infinitive. (He may return soon. You must read this book.)

2. The combination of such verbs as to begin, to continue, to finish, to like, to want, to intend, to try, to avoid, to hope, to promise, etc. with the Infinitive. (She began to translate the article. He wants to help me.)

3. The combination of an adjective with an Infinitive or a Gerund.(I am glad to see you. He is ready to help her. The book is worth reading.)

The Object

The Object is a secondary part of a sentence that shows an object and answers the questions whom? what? to whom? by whom? about what?

The object can be Direct, Indirect, Prepositional.

The Direct Object answers the questions whom? or what? and can be expressed by:

1. a noun (I have bought a book. This plant produces tractors.)

2. a pronoun (I met him yesterday. I didn’t see anybody there.)

3. a numeral (I have read both books. I like the first better than the second.)

4. an infinitive (He asked me to do it.)

5. a gerund (I remember reading about it before.)

The Indirect Object answers the question to whom? (He gave the boy a book. I showed him the letter.)

The Prepositional Object answers the questions to whom? by whom? about what? and can be expressed by:

1. a noun with the preposition (We spoke about our work. He lives with his parents.)

2. a pronoun with the preposition.(He spoke to me yesterday. I agree with you.)

3. a gerund with the preposition (I am fond of reading.)

The Attribute

The Attribute is a secondary part of a sentence that define the quality of a subject and answers the questions what? what kind of? whose? which? how much? how many?. It can be expressed by:

1. an adjective (I received an important letter yesterday.)

2. an adverb (He bought some illustrated magazines. The rising sun was hidden by the clouds.)

3. participle construction (The student speaking to the teacher is my brother. They sent us a list of goods sold at the auction.)

4. a numeral (Two thousand tons of sugar were loaded on the S.S. “Minsk” yesterday.)

5. a pronoun (Some magazines are lying on the table. This is my book.)

6. a noun in the common case (The town library is closed on Sundays.)

7. a noun in the possessive case (The teacher corrected the student’s mistakes.)

8. a noun with a preposition (The leg of the table is broken.)

9. an infinitive (He had a great desire to travel.)

10. a gerund with a preposition (They discussed different methods of teaching foreign languages.)

Adverbial Modifiers

The Adverbial Modifier is a secondary part of a sentence that defines how and in what circumstances an action takes place. The Adverbial Modifier can be:

1. Adverbial Modifier of Time (She will come soon).

2. Adverbial Modifier of Place (I found him in the garden).

3. Adverbial Modifier of Manner and comparison (He spoke slowly).

4. Adverbial Modifier of Cause (I came back because of the rain).

5. Adverbial Modifier of Purpose (I have come to discuss the matter).

6. Adverbial Modifier of Result (I haven’t smiled at his joke, it is too rude to be funny).

7. Adverbial Modifier of Attendant circumstances (He sat at the table reading a newspaper).

8. Adverbial Modifier of Concession (No matter how late he comes I will wait for him).

9. Adverbial Modifier of Condition (If it isn’t our meeting, I’ll never learn about their marriage).

The Adverbial Modifier can be expressed by:

1. an adverb (The meeting was held yesterday. He quickly opened the door and ran out of the room.)

2. a noun with a preposition (He spent his vacation in the South. He was in the Soviet Army during the war.)

3. a participle I (He stood on the deck counting the cases. While reading the book I came across a number of interesting expressions.)

4. an infinitive (He is clever enough to understand it.)

5. a gerund with a preposition (He locked the door before leaving the office.)

Test questions:

1. What are the main and secondary parts of the sentence?

2. What is the subject? What are its types? What is it expressed by? Examples.

3. What is the predicate? What are its types? Examples.

4. What is the simple predicate and what is it expressed by? Examples.

5. What is the compound nominal predicate and what is it expressed by? Examples.

6. What is the compound verbal predicate and what is it expressed by? Examples.

7. What is the object? What are its types? What is it expressed by? Examples.

8. What is the attribute? What is it expressed by? Examples.

9. What is the adverbial modifier? What are its types? What are they expressed by? Examples.