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Sentences with a dependent appendix
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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 sentence.
1 Compare above, p. 222 ff.
256 TRANSITION FROM SIMPLE TO COMPOSITE SENTENCES
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... arid 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 though 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 loo 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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Secondary Predication 257
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.
9 Б. А. Ильиш
258 TRANSITION FROM SIMPLE TO COMPOSITE SENTENCES
In every sentence there is bound to be predication, without which there would be no sentence. In a usual two-member sentence the 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. !
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.
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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 "y°u'\ 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.
SECONDARY PREDICATION 259
H. Sweet, discussing these phenomena, referred to the sentence I 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 I 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 I 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.
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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*
260 TRANSITION FROM SIMPLE TO COMPOSITE SENTENCES
This type of secondary predication brings the sentence closer to a composite one.
0. Jespersen has proposed the term "nexus" for every predicative grouping of words, no matter by what grammatical means it is realised. He distinguishes between a "junction", which is not a predicative group of words (e. g. reading man) and "nexus", which is one (e. g. the man reads). l If this term is adopted, we may say that in the sentence I saw him run there are two nexuses: the primary one I saw, and the secondary him run. In a similar way, in the sentence I found him ill, the primary 'nexus would be I found, arid the secondary him ill.
THE ABSOLUTE CONSTRUCTION
Another type of secondary predication may be seen in the so-called absolute construction. This appears, for instance, in the following example: Only when his eyes at last met her own... was he reassured that for her what had happened had simply happened. She was prepared, the situation already falling gracefully into place about her, to consider it} incredibly enough he thought, as no more than that. (BUECHNER) Here the phrase the situation already falling gracefully into place about her constitutes an absolute construction. 2 The absolute construction is of course a case of secondary predication, or, in Jespersen's terminology, a nexus. The participle falling, which denotes an action performed by the thing denoted by the noun situation, is not a predicate, and situation is not the subject either of a sentence or of a clause. This is evidence that the predication contained in the phrase is a secondary one.
Participles seem to be the most widely used types of predicative element in the absolute construction. We find them, for example, in the following sentences. The preliminary greetings spoken, Denis found an empty chair between Gombauld and Jenny and sat down. (HUXLEY) Off the table leapt the monkey, the tails of his jacket flying out behind him and his silk hat knocked askew as he landed
1 See 0. Jespersen, The Philosophy of Grammar, p. 97, 114 ff.; 0. Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar, Part III, p. 203 ff. However, Jespersen used the term "nexus" in so wide a sense that, with him, it even penetrated into the sphere of lexicology: thus, he would call the noun arrival a nexus substantive on the ground that, for example, the phrase the doctor's arrival was in some general way analogous to the sentence the doctor arrived. Of course we will not accept this wide interpretation of the term and we will use it only in a syntactical sense, as a name for a predicative relation between two words or phrases.
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2 The term "absolute" is here used in the original sense of the Latin absolutus, that is, 'absolved', 'free', 'independent', and it has nothing to do with the meaning of the word which is the opposite of 'relative'. The term is clearly a conventional one.
THE ABSOLUTE CONSTRUCTION 261
and leapt again to a streak of light that sprawled in widening, crisscrossed perspective on the floor in the center of the room so that Emma and Bone had to turn about in their chairs to see him spin around and around there making no sound. (BUECHNER) The subject part of an absolute construction is sometimes represented by a noun or phrase denoting some part of the body or dress (here it is the dress) of the being denoted by the subject of the sentence. In this particular case it is the tails of his jacket and his silk hat, his referring to the monkey. This example has its peculiarity, however: the two absolute constructions have a subordinate clause attached to them, which in its turn has a subordinate clause of the second-degree (a clause of result) depending on it.
The absolute construction expresses what is usually called accompanying circumstances — something that happens alongside of the main action. This secondary action may be the cause of the main action, or its condition, etc., but these relations are not indicated by any grammatical means. The position of the absolute construction before or after the main body of the sentence gives only a partial clue to its concrete meaning. Thus, for example, if the construction denotes some secondary action which accompanies the main one without being either its cause or its condition, it always follows the main body of the sentence; if the construction indicates the cause, or condition, or time of the main action, it can come both before and after the main body of the sentence.
Thus the grammatical factor plays only a subordinate part in determining the sense relations between the absolute construction and the main body of the sentence.
The stylistic colouring of the absolute construction should also be noted. It is quite different in this respect from the constructions with the objective predicative, which may occur in any sort of style. The absolute construction is, as we have seen, basically a feature of literary style and unfit for colloquial speech. Only a few more or less settled formulas such as weather permitting may be found in ordinary conversation. Otherwise colloquial speech practically always has subordinate clauses where literary style may have absolute constructions.
A participle is by no means a necessary component of an absolute construction. The construction can also consist of a noun and some other word or phrase, whose predicative relation to the noun is made clear by the context. Here are a few examples: Bone stood in a patch of sunlight on the gray carpet, his hands behind him, his face in shadow. (BUECHNER) This example is characteristic in so far as the subject of the sentence is a noun denoting a human being, the predicate group tells of his position in space, and the subjects of the two absolute constructions are nouns denoting parts of his body (his hands and his face), while the predicative parts of the constructions describe
262 Transition from Simple to Composite Sentences
the position of these parts (behind him and in the shadow]. Breakfast over, Denis repaired to the terrace, and, sitting there, raised the enormous bulwark of the Times against the possible assaults of Mr Scogan. (HUXLEY) And here now he was beside Elizabeth the memory of this encounter rich within him to bolster and pad, but sad in that it was presently and precisely incommunicable. (BUECHNER) This absolute construction is somewhat more developed than usual, there are two predicatives in it (rich... but sad), and a subordinate clause attached to the latter predicative (sad). It might be possible to argue that in each of these sentences the participle being "is "omitted", so that we have-here an elliptical participial absolute construction after all. But if we firmly adhere to the principle that nothing ought to be considered omitted unless there is overwhelming evidence that this is: really so, we shall recognize the absolute construction without participle as a construction in its own right, existing alongside of the participle construction.
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In the following sentence there are two absolute constructions:one at the beginning, and the other at the end of the sentence: Her golden arm stretched out, she pointed with a golden finger, and as usual Bone's eyes followed her direction and stopped at the bronze lady standing unclothed in the fountain before them, in her arms a shallow bowl from which water trickled. (BUECHNER)
An absolute construction may be found in narrative style where is does not produce the impression of high-flown language, but is decidedly uncolloquial in character. Here are some examples from modern novels: She had hoped that the war being over, life would gradually resume its old face. (M. MITCHELL) Though this is a kind of indirect speech rendering the heroine's thoughts, it is fairly certain that her thoughts did not run like this: The war being over, life will gradually resume its old face. This is far too literary to have been in the mind of a person thinking silently, or even talking in an informal atmosphere. In the author's rendering of her thoughts, however, the absolute construction is perfectly all right. In a few minutes she returned, her eyes shining, her hair still damp.. (SNOW) This again is normal narrative style. The semantic connections" between the absolute constructions and the main body of the sentence are different in the two sentences, and they become clear from the lexical meanings of the words, and partly also from the position which the absolute construction occupies in the sentence. Thus, in our first example the absolute construction the war being over clearly has a temporal connection with the main body of the sentence, and in our second example it is evident, both from the lexical meanings of the words involved and from the position of the two absolute constructions after the main body of the sentence, that the relation is that usually called "accompanying circumstances".
The Absolute Construction 263
In the following sentence both a parenthesis and an absolute construction come between the subject group and the predicate. The entire question of whom one loved, he continued, Emma looking up from her work for the first time as she listened, seemed to him of relative unimportance. (BUECHNER) It should also be noted that there is a subordinate clause (of) whom one loved belonging to the subject group, and another subordinate clause, as she listened, belonging to the absolute construction, so that the number of elements separating the predicate of the main clause (seemed to be...) from its subject (the... question) is quite considerable. However, no misunderstanding can arise here, though there are three finite verb forms (loved, continued, and listened) intervening between the subject question and its predicate seemed... This is due to the fact that each of these three finite verb forms is closely connected with Its own subject (in every case a pronoun immediately preceding it), namely, one loved, he continued, she listened. Besides, it should be noted that neither loved nor listened would have made any sense in connection with the subject question, and as to the verb continued, it might be connected with the subject question only if the verb were followed by an infinitive of appropriate meaning, e. g. the question continued to worry him. As it is, continued here means ^continued to speak', which can only be connected with a subject representing a human being.
One more remark about the absolute construction is necessary here. It concerns the semantic ties between the absolute construction and the rest of the sentence. For example, we can say that in the sentence She had hoped that the war being over, life would gradually resume its old face the relations between the construction and the rest of the sentence are causal: we can say that the absolute construction is here a loose adverbial modifier of cause. On the other hand, in the sentence Weather permitting, we shall start on an excursion the relations between the construction and the rest of the sentence are those of condition, and the absolute construction may be said to be a loose adverbial modifier of condition. But now the question is, how do we know that it is cause in one example, and condition in the other? This is not expressed by any grammatical means.and it only follows from the lexical meanings of the words and the general meaning of the sentence. What is expressed by grammatical means is merely the subordinate position of the absolute construction. All the rest lies outside the sphere of grammar.
Such, then, are the syntactical phenomena which occupy a place somewhere between the simple and the composite sentence and which may therefore be considered as a kind of stepping stone from. the one to the other.
Now we proceed to study the various kinds of composite sentences.
RAYEVSKAYA
(a) Не lost his courage.
(b) Courage deserted him.
(a) He lent them money.
(b) They borrowed money from him.
(a) He subsided into sleep.
(b) Sleep took him in its embrace.
2) lexico-grammatical periphrasis based on semantic and functional similarity between adjectives and verbs in patterns like the following:
I like music. I’т fond of music.
I regret it. I’т sorry about it.
He knows it. He is aware of it.
3) lexico-grammatical periphrasis by nominalisation:
He lost his nerves. He was all nerves.
4) the use of phrasal verbs adapted to style and purpose in each case (aspect or voice modifications, in particular):
He was asleep = He gave himself up to sleep. We supported him = He found our support.
5) lexical periphrasis based on lexical synonymy of verbs in the structure of predication, e. g.:
He shared his secret with me. He let me into his secret.
Lexico-grammatical periphrasis by phrasal verbs of various types is a floodgate of synonyms in sentence-patterning. This nominal tendency is decidedly on the increase in present-day English.
Variations in the structure of the predicate producing subtle shades of objective and subjective distinctions make up a regular system and present a rather complicated subject which linguists have by no means fully investigated. This insight into sentence-patterning helps to coordinate and deepen the student's grasp of the language.
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