Download A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF NONCANONICAL WORD ORDER

LITHUANIAN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES
FACULTY OF PHILOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH PHILOLOGY
.
INA ŠIMKIENĖ
A FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF NONCANONICAL WORD
ORDER PATTERNS IN CARSON McCULLERS‘ SHORT
STORIES
MA Paper
Academic Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eglė Petronienė
Vilnius, 2014
LIETUVOS EDUKOLOGIJOS UNIVERSITETAS
FILOLOGIJOS FAKULTETAS
ANGLŲ FILOLOGIJOS KATEDRA
ŽODŽIŲ TVARKOS MODELIŲ ĮVAIRAVIMO ATVEJAI
ANGLŲ KALBOJE: CARSON McCULLERS APSAKYMŲ
SINTAKSINĖ ANALIZĖ
Magistro darbas
Humanitariniai mokslai, filologija (04H)
Magistro darbo autorė Ina Šimkienė
Patvirtinu, kad darbas atliktas
savarankiškai, naudojant tik darbe
nurodytus šaltinius
___________________________
(Parašas, data)
Vadovas doc. dr. Eglė Petronienė
___________________________
(Parašas, data)
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CONTENTS
ABSTRACT ..........................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................................5
1. A THREE-LEVEL APPROACH TO SYNTAX ...........................................................8
1.1 Semantic Structure of the Sentence ................................................................8
1.2 Communicative Structure of the Sentence .....................................................15
1.2.1 Given and New information ...........................................................15
1.2.2 Theme and Rheme ..........................................................................16
1.3 Grammatical Structure of the Sentence ..........................................................18
2. NONCANONICAL WORD ORDER ...........................................................................22
2.1 Preposing ........................................................................................................24
2.2 Postposing .......................................................................................................25
2.2 Inversion ..........................................................................................................27
3. A COMMUNICATIVE ANALYSIS OF NONCANONICAL DECLARATIVE
SENTENCES IN CARSON McCULLER’S SHORT STORIES.........................................28
3.1 Data and Methods of Research ........................................................................28
3.2 Results and Discussions ...................................................................................29
3.2.1 Analysis of Main Clauses – Sentences with Participant Themes........30
3.2.2 Analysis of Main Clauses – Sentences with Circumstance Themes....46
CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................55
SUMMARY .........................................................................................................................56
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................58
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ABSTRACT
In communication, a language user is naturally disposed to proceed from what is known to,
or shared by, both the speaker/writer and hearer/reader and end with the information that is the
most important. Such a disposition complies with the requirements of Functional Sentence
Perspective (FSP), but it also makes a language user “transform” the basic word order. The present
work took a functional approach to language study to explore the syntactic potential of English to
produce various sentence patterns by carrying out a communicative (functional) analysis of Carson
McCullers’ short stories. The analysis showed that one of the main causes of noncanonical
ordering of sentence elements is thematization by means of Preposing. The preposed elements
were semantically diverse, though the frequency of occurrence of different process type sentences
varied. The results of the analysis led to the conclusion that syntactic movement is determined by
the semantic, syntactic and contextual restrictions. Syntactically, the peripheral elements of the
sentence exhibited a higher flexibility than the core sentence elements. Semantic and syntactic
unity of the sentence elements were interfered when the preposed sentence elements expressed
information recoverable from a very short retrievability span, which revealed the significant role of
the context in syntactical movements. Preposing and the resulting sentence patterns seem to be
used for particular discourse functions: to enhance the coherence, to support the dynamic
development of ideas, to strengthen emotion or the importance of described entities.
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INTRODUCTION
The present paper takes a functional approach to language study to explore the syntactic
potential of English by carrying out a communicative analysis of Carson McCullers’ short stories.
A communicative, or functional, analysis of a text deals with a complex interaction of syntax,
semantics and pragmatics. Accordingly, the production of a sentence is seen as a multifaceted
process taking place at the semantic, syntactic and communicative level. The semantic level is
accountable for the semantic structure of the sentence which is a combination of semantic
functions. The syntactic level structures the semantic components into a sentence pattern, or a
clause. The communicative level turns a clause into a text sentence, or a contextualized clause.
The focus is given on the sentence and its organization at the communicative level as it is at this
level that a language can reveal its syntactic behavior. The matter of the fact is that the functional
basis of any syntactic pattern is formed by the perspective in which some extra-linguistic reality is
to be conveyed.
The Problem Statement
In communication, a language user is naturally disposed to proceed from what is known to,
or shared by, both the speaker/writer and hearer/reader and end with the information that is the
most important. Such a disposition makes a language user transform the grammatical word order
pattern, i.e. comply with the requirements of the Functional Sentence Perspective. Synthetic
languages display a greater susceptibility to the said requirements than analytic languages;
however, this difference seems to be unduly misinterpreted when it comes to translation from a
synthetical to analytic language. For example, translations from Lithuanian into English are not
always marked regarding the means of FSP. As a result, part of the translation does not seem
adequate from the communicative point of view. That is why noncanonical word order patterns of
analytic languages, like English, need more extensive investigation to show the syntactic potential
of the language to produce sentence patterns other than basic. The questions arise: what are the
contextual restrictions (familiar, unfamiliar, or homogenious information) on the use of
noncanonical word order patterns? What are linguistic (structural peculiarities of the language)
constraints? Are the identified word order patterns process-specific?
The Significance of the Research
The study makes a contribution to the development of the Systemic Functional Grammar
(SFG). Although it evolved in early 1970s and has successfully developed into theories of
Amsterdam Functional Grammar, Role and Reference Grammar and Cardiff Grammar, none of the
founders and followers of the theories (Dik, Van Valin, Fawcett and others) accept either
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explanation as a satisfactory description of the complex phenomenon that a human language is.
Every attempt at a functional analysis of a text extends and refines the existing descriptions of
language to a greater or lesser extent. This investigation provides the insight into the syntactic
behaviour of the language; it reveals that in the English language the elements within the sentence
can be organized either according to the grammatical principle of word order (congruent ways of
realization; typical sentence patterns) or in accordance with the communicative principle (often
non-congruent ways of realization; non-typical sentence patterns).
From the practical viewpoint, it is beneficial to the English language learners and teachers to
view how a native speaker organizes the sentences (to learn the variety of syntactic patterns) and
what contexts (linguistic and extralinguistic) determine noncanonical word order. In term of
translation, translators, for example, doing translation from Lithuanian into English tend to follow
the SVO pattern to maintain fluency, grammatical accuracy and stylistic acceptability; however,
syntactic variation could help them to ensure accuracy in transferring the original meaning.
Therefore, more extensive communicative analyses of original English texts prove useful as they
uncover a variety of individual syntactic patterns and their functional distributions in English.
The Aim of the Research
The aim of the present study is to give a comprehensive account of the choice of the sentence
patterns – OSV, ASV, AVS and VAS –used in Carson McCullers’s short stories.
The Objectives of the Research
To achieve the purpose the following objectives are set:
- to determine the semantic and syntactic features of the sentence patterns under
investigation;
- to determine the relationship of the sentence patterns under investigation and their contexts;
- to give a statistical evaluation of the use of the sentence patterns under investigation.
The Research Methods
In order to answer the research questions and fulfill the aim, two approaches qualitative and
quantitative were used in the research. Firstly, declarative sentences reflecting noncanonical
sentence patterns were identified in the short stories ‘The Ballad of the Sad Cafe’ by Carson
McCullers and selected for the analysis. Secondly, the semantic structure of the selected sentences
was analyzed by employing the descriptive analytical method. Then, the semantic elements were
evaluated from the point of view of Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP). The syntactic level was
also involved in identifying the communicative structure of the sentence. Afterwards, the
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contextual peculiarities which conditioned the noncanonical word order patterns were established.
Finally, the data was examined quantitatively and summarized in statistical terms.
The Scope of the Research
The object of the study is a text sentence based on a finite clause. Sentences were selected
from the short stories ‘The Ballad of the Sad Cafe’ by Carson McCullers with the focus on the first
sentence element that performed a syntactic function other than Subject. Although the sentences
were selected according to their syntactic constructions, the analysis is meaning-based and focuses
on the communicative level of the sentence. 649 English sentences were submitted for the analysis.
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1. A THREE-LEVEL APPROACH TO SYNTAX
The primary belief of functionalists is that any element of the language exists as it has a
function to fulfill, or rather a number of functions to fulfil. When in 1950s Daneš and Dokulil came
to a combined scheme of form, meaning and use, they succeeded to develop an integrated approach
to language function and its structure, the aspects that had been unduly separated in linguistic
investigations. According to Daneš (1964 as referred to by Valeika & Buitkienė 2006, 8), much
confusion in the discussions of syntactic problems could be avoided if elements and rules of three
levels were acknowledged as inherently interrelated: 1) the grammatical sentence pattern (GSP); 2)
the semantic sentence pattern (SSP); 3) the communicative sentence pattern (CSP). The
grammatical structure is rooted in semantic structure as well as in the act of communication. The
semantic and grammatical sentence structure is made to function in a definite kind of perspective to
fulfil a certain communicative purpose. Firbas (1974) sees the sentence is a three-fold unit of
communication in which the GSP is characterized as having a number of syntactic functions; SSP
is the system of semantic functions realized by the constituents of the sentence such as Participants,
Processes and Circumstances, and CSP is the system of informational-pragmatic units realized by
the clause constituents, i.e. Theme and Rheme. The sentence operates effectively as a
communicative unit at the three levels at a time.
The production of the sentence involves semantic, syntactic and communicative levels. As
pointed out by Valeika & Buitkienė (2006), the first two levels are non-communicative; the third is
communicative. The function of non-communicative level is to generate the meaning of the
sentence and give it a predicative form. The structure produced so has only the form of the
sentence; it is not a text sentence yet, it is solely a clause. In order to function as a communicative
unit, it must contain a modality component, i.e. it must express the speaker’s attitude towards the
situation being described as well as his or her communicative intention (ibid. 9). The interactive
relationship of the levels is characterized by Daneš as a “gradation of relative proximity to the
global function” (Daneš 1971, 127).
The following sections will briefly describe each sentence structure separately.
1.1 Semantic Structure of the Sentence
The semantic structure of the sentence represents a pattern of human experience,
conceptualized as a situation type. Generally, human experience consists of different processes, so
a sentence can be said to function as the representation of a Process (Halliday 1990, 101). Each
situation consists of the Process, the Participants of the Process, the Attribute ascribed to the
Participants and the Circumstances associated with the Process and constitutes the semantic
structure of the sentence. The most significant component is the Process, congruently realized by a
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verb which can be an ‘action’ such as ‘playing’ or ‘kissing’, a mental state such as ‘knowing’ or
‘loving’, a meteorological phenomenon such as ‘rain’, ‘sleet’, ‘snow’, a process of ‘saying‘ or
‘existing‘.
Every Process functions as the pivotal element of a situation – the name for the unit at the
level of meaning that is equivalent to the clause at the level of form. Moreover, the Process
determines the number of Participants and their semantic roles. The salient participants can be one,
two or three. Although human participants are the most common among semantic roles, the
animals, things and abstractions are also ascribed to the term ‘participant’. According to Halliday
(1990, 112), the functions assumed by the participants in any clause are determined by the type of
process that is involved. The Attributes ascribed to Participants either identify or characterize the
entity, or state its location in space and time. (Downing & Locke 2006, 124) The circumstantial
roles associated with the Process include spatial and temporal, manner, cause, purpose, condition,
concession, accompaniment and role functions. As noted by Valeika (1998, 15), the circumstances
are often optional in the semantic structure; however, they can be inherent to the situation.
The number of Process types provided in linguistic literature diverges. For example, Halliday
(1990) in his model differentiated three main types of processes and three intermediate Processes
which share some common features. He classifies processes into Material, Behavioural, Mental,
Verbal, Relational and Existential Processes. Valeika’s (2006) classification of Processes is similar
to one of Halliday’s except the fact that he distinguishes a group of processes called Happening
Processes which include Behavioural Processes. He does not differentiate the process types into the
main and secondary but regards them as distinct. Downing & Locke (2006) closely follow Halliday
and distinguish three main types of the Processes such as Material, Mental and Relational and
three subsidiary types of processes that are Behavioural, Verbal and Existential. Thompson (2004)
distinguishes Material, Mental, Relational and Verbal Processes as the central ones and
Behavioural and Existential Processes as less central types. To quote Thompson “Each of these
shares some of the characteristics of the major types, and it is in fact possible to see them as
subcategories rather than as groups on a par with the four main types” (2004, 103). The present
analysis is based on Processes that are explicated one by one further below.
Material Processes
Material Processes or doing processes are causative processes carried out by the participant
named Agent only or in relation to other participants such as the Affected, the Effected, the
Recipient and the Beneficiary. The Agent is not a unified term among linguists. For example,
Halliday (1990) uses the term Actor which is equated with ‘logical subject’ and carries the meaning
‘the one that does the deed’. Thompson (2004) uses the same term Actor which is identified with
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‘doer’. As pointed out by Cruse (1973 as referred to by Valeika 1998, 20), agentivity includes the
following elements: volition, effectuation, initiation and force. One or more of these components
may be not present, which is frequently the case with non-human Agents. Some linguists
distinguish between animate and inanimate Agents. Quirk (Quirk, Greenbaum et.al. 1995, 745)
distinguishes the agentive participant Force as the one whose power cannot be intentional and
controllable“. Like in example (1) The volcano erupted.
In the Material Processes the action either extends to another participant, the Goal, as in (2)
Edwar was sawing wood, or it extends no further than the Agent itself, as in (3) The unhappiness
disappeared. The term Goal stands for ‘directed at’. This term is not unified either. Halliday (1990,
109) uses the Patient, “meaning one that ‘suffers’ or ‘undergoes’ the process”. Downing & Locke
(2006) use the term Affected and Valeika (1998, 2006) uses the term Affected Patient for the same
function, both implying the entities which are affected by the process. For example, (4) Ted kicked
the ball. (Valeika & Buitkienė 2006, 35)
Another participant that is included into the semantic structure of Material Processes is the
Effected Patient. It denotes an entity that is brought into being. (Valeika 1998, 31). According to
Halliday (1990, 104), the process when something is produced is called ‘creative’ and the
participant that is created as a result of the process is called Goal. Thompson (2004) distinguishes
between two Goals, one that brings Goals into existence he calls ‘creative‘, the other ‘transformative‘ - that are ‘done to’ Goals. Consider the examples taken from Thompson (2004,
91):
(5) I’ve just made the Christmas puddings. (‘creative’ Goal)
(6) My mum never eats Christmas pudding. (‘transformative’ Goal).
Apart from the above mentioned participants, material processes may include the Recipient
and/or the Beneficiary. The Recipient is a central participant to whom the process is directed and
who receives the ‘goods’, permission or information. The Beneficiary is the optional, not inherent,
participant for whom some service is done. Compare the two examples:
(7) Ed gave the cat a tin of tuna.
(8) Mother baked a pie for me. (Downing & Locke 2006)
Lastly, the Circumstances associated with Material Processes are optional components in the
semantic structure of the clause. They generally provide additional information about the situation
described in the clause – they are used to restrict the Process (Valeika & Buitkienė 2006, 45).
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Happening processes
As has been mentioned before, Valeika distinguishes Happening Processes. They include
what Halliday calls Behavioural. To quote Halliday (1990, 128), “the Behaver is typically a
conscious being, like the Senser; but the Process functions more like one of ‘doing‘“. Thompson
(2004) distinguishes Behavioural Processes which he calls intermediate between Mental and
Material Processes. Typically, Behavioural Processes have only one participant, the human called
Bahaver. Downing & Locke (2006) ascribe Happening Processes to the Material Processes and
characterize them as Involuntary Processes of Happening as the participant is neither controlling
nor initiating the action. In fact, such Processes as cough, yawn, blink, collapse or grow involve
both physiological and psychological behaviour. The Participant of such a Process is an active
performer and an affected patient. According to Valeika (1998), Behavioural Processes make part
of the so-called Happening Processes which also comprise Meteorological Processes and
Resultative Causative Processes expressed by ergative verbs (for instance, burn, break, cook, melt,
wave, etc.) which involve inanimate Participants. Happening Processes are processes which answer
a question what happened to the participant. These processes involve only one participant called
the Affected which neither controls nor initiates the action. Consider the examples given by the
above mentioned scholars. For instance:
(9) The boy laughed.
(10) The woman collapsed.
(11) The roof collapsed.
(12) A pie is baking.
(13) Glass breaks easily.
(14) It is raining (Valeika & Buitkienė 2006, 65).
Like Material Processes, Happening Processes can be restricted by different types of
Circumstances.
Mental Processes
Mental Processes related to the internal world of mind form a viable semantic category.
They are expressed by verbs which refer to mental processes of thinking, imagining, wanting,
seeing, etc. To quote Matthiessen & Halliday (1997, 11), “a mental clause construes sensing –
perception, cognition, intention, and emotion“. According to Valeika (2006), Mental Processes are
carried out by a participant which perceives or senses and is called the Recipient Experiencer.
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Downing & Locke (2006) call this participant the Experiencer as it is affected by the Process.
Generally, it is human, but may also be an animal or a personified object, for example:
(15) The rider heard a noise.
(16) The horse sensed danger.
(17) We used to have a car that didn’t like cold weather. (ibid. 140)
Halliday (1990) and Thompson (2004) refer to the same participant as Senser. Senser is the
conscious being the one who senses. As Halliday points out (1990, 114), any object, animate and
inanimate can be conscious and serve as a Senser.
Another participant in a Mental Process is Phenomenon. It denotes the entity that is perceived
or sensed. It may express both concrete and abstract entities. For instance,
(18) James heard a noise in the kitchen. (Valeika & Buitkienė 2006, 69).
Mental Processes are classified into three categories: Processes of Perception (see, hear, feel,
observe and notice); Processes of Cognition (know, understand); Processes of Affection (love, like,
fear).
In Mental Processes, like in the two described above, Circumstances are optional elements.
Verbal Processes
Verbal Processes are processes of saying or communicating and are expressed by verbs such
as say, tell, ask, announce, inform, declare, suggest, etc. They involve three participants: The
Sayer, the Verbiage and the Recipient. Generally, the Sayer is a human, but messages can be
conveyed by other types of the Sayer. To quote Halliday (1990, 135), “The Sayer can be anything
which puts out a communicative signal”. For example,
(19) He said to have had an accident. (Valeika 1998, 51).
The example implies that the Sayer can be anything that conveys information to the
Recipient. The Recipient or Addressee (Lock 1996, 116) is a participant to whom the saying is
addressed and is typically a human e.g. I explained to her what it meant. The Verbiage or Saying as
called by Lock (Lock 1996, 116) is the message conveyed e.g. The note says that dogs are not
allowed. In certain cases, the Verbal Process may be directed at rather than addressed to another
participant. This participant is labeled Target e.g. The report criticizes Lilly’s quality-control
procedures.
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Verbal Processes can be restricted by Circumstances.
Relational Processes
Relational Processes express the concept of being something, having something or being
somewhere. Eggins (2004, 239); Downing & Locke (2006, 144), note that the category of
Relational Processes covers various ways in which being can be expressed in English clauses. For
example:
(20) (a) Mont Blanc is popular with climbers.(Attribution)
(b) Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in Europe. (Identification)
(c) Mont Blanc is in the Alps. (Circumstance: location)
(d) Those gloves are yours. (Possession) (Downing & Locke 2006, 145).
As pointed out by Valeika (1998, 55), Relational Processes are classified into three types:
1.
Attributive ‘ X is A‘
e.g. Mary is beautiful.
2.
Possessive ‘ X has A‘ e.g. Mary has a daughter.
3.
Circumstantial ‘ X is at A‘ (‘at‘ stands for any preposition) e.g. Mary is in
the room.
Attributive Processes are realized by the linking verbs of being and remaining (e.g. be,
appear, get, grow, seem, mean, define, represent, etc.) and becoming (e.g. become, get, grow, etc.)
through which the Attribute is linked to its Carrier. The participant in Relational Processes which
represents an entity is called the Carrier. Another participant which characterizes or identifies the
entity is called the Attribute. The function of the processes is to relate the Attribute to its Carrier.
In ‘characterizing ‘type of sentence, the entity (the Carrier) owns some quality (the Attribute)
ascribed to it. For instance, She is a pretty child. In ‘identifying‘ type of sentence, the Carrier has
an identity ascribed to it. For example, John is the captain.
It is worth mentioning that the ‘characterizing ‘type of construction is not reversible as it
does not allow a Subject–Complement change. The form of the clause as a pretty child is she
sounds slightly uncommon or mannered, whereas ‘identifying‘ clauses are reversible, i.e. they can
form passives.
The semantic structure of Possessive Processes consists of the Carrier (possessor) + Process
+ Attribute (possessed). For example: The stag has antlers.
Eggins (2004, 247) also observes that “Possessive Processes encode meanings of ownership
and possession between clausal participants“. The concept of possession can be expressed either by
the Attribute, as in That book is mine, or by the process itself, as in I have a book. Apart from this,
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the category of ‘possessing ‘contains the notions of not possessing (lack, need), of being worthy to
possess (deserve), and the abstract relations of inclusion, exclusion and containment.
The semantic structure of Circumstantial Relational Processes is comprised of three
elements: the Carrier + Circumstantial Process + Circumstance. The Circumstantial constituents
are compulsory in the sentence as they inherent to the situation. Other Circumstances, such as
manner, cause, contingency, etc., are optional semantic elements.
Existential Processes
Existential Processes are Processes of being or existing. The function of Existential Processes
is to state the existence, or coming into existence, of an entity called the Existent in a given
location. The only obligatory participant, the Existent, which in English typically follows there
is/there are sequence, can be either human or non-human, countable and uncountable. “In
principle, there can ‘exist ‘any kind of phenomenon that can be constructed as a ‘thing‘: person,
object, institution, abstraction; but also any action or event.” Halliday (1990, 142).
Existential Processes can be easily identified as the structure involves the use of the word
there. There, in Existential Processes has no representational meaning, i.e. it does not refer to a
location, thus it is neither a participant nor a circumstance. However, “it has both a syntactic
function as Subject and a textual function as ‘presentative element’Valeika & Buitkienė (2006, 91).
Existential Processes are generally expressed by the verb be or synonyms such as exist, arise,
occur, appear, remain, etc. For example:
(21) There was snow on the ground.
(22) There remain many problems. (ibid. p. 91)
To sum up, the semantic structure of the sentence expresses a situation of an external world
as a Process involving Participants and accompanied by Circumstances. The analysis of the present
study is based on the classification of Processes proposed by Valeika (1998), supplemented with
some reasonable assumptions about the semantic functions later by Valeika & Buitkienė (2006).
The said classification demonstrates a well-established organization of all the semantic components
and their relationships. The present work also tests its validity.
The following chapter of the paper presents the communicative structure of the sentence.
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1.2 Communicative Structure of the Sentence
1.2.1 Given and New Information
To quote Halliday (1990, 275), “Information is a process of interaction between what is
already known or predictable and what is new or unpredictable. Hence, the sentence expresses two
types of information: Given and New”. The notions have been defined and investigated for decades
(Halliday (1990), Daneš (1974), Mathesius (1975), Firbas (1992), and others); however, there is no
strong consensus among linguists on what information is relevant to a functional analysis of texts.
Given information is generally defined as the information shared by the speaker/writer and
hearer/reader as it has been mentioned before, and/or inferable from the discourse or extralinguistic
context, and/or it is a common knowledge of the interlocutors. According to Halliday (1990, 109),
“Given or known information is derivable or recoverable from the context“. That implies that
information is recoverable when it has been mentioned before, although non-recoverable
information does not always mean that the item under consideration has not appeared before. The
question arises what span of text allows or hinders retrievability, or what is a retrievability span.
The retrievability span is considered to be short. Its shortness is det determined by the constant
influx of new, irretrievable information into the act of communication. New/unfamiliar information
opens up new retrievability spans, while those inefficiantly maintained are annihilated. According
to Svoboda (1981, 88), the retrievability span within the preceding context is that of seven clauses.
That is, after the element has occurred in the text for the last time, it remains retrievable for the
span of seven clauses. The results of other analyses (Hajičova and Vrbova 1982, Fox 1983, Givón,
1983, and Sun and Givón 1985, Firbas 1995) show even shorter stretches of text – from two to
three clauses.
New information is commonly viewed as not shared between the speaker/writer and
hearer/reader. It is the information known by the speaker/writer only. It may be part of the
hearer‘s/reader‘s knowledge, but is interpreted as new as it has not been mentioned before, and/or
is not recoverable from the preceding context and/or does not belong to the common ground.
Consider example (23) (a) and (b) that illustrate how New and Given information is realized
within the frame of the sentence.
(23) (a) In the film, a man and a woman were trying to wash a cat.
(b) The man was holding the cat while the woman poured water on it. (Valeika &
Buitkienė 2006, 136):
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In sentence (a) the Given information is about the film if the sentence answers the question
What was happening in the film? New information is represented by a man and a woman trying to
wash a cat. In sentence (b) the Given information is the man, the cat and the woman.
There is a cross-linguistic tendency to place New information towards the end of the
information unit (Tomlin 1986). The tendency to organize Given information before New
information in a sentence is displayed in a number of linguistic investigations (Daneš 1974,
Mathesius 1975, Halliday 1990, Ghadessy 1995, Firbas 1992, Miller 1997 among others). In the
English language, Given information is, as a rule, definite as definite articles generally mark
familiar, pressuposed information. As Leech & Svartvik (1994, 197) state, ‘Given‘information is
like definite meaning, and there is indeed a strong connection between Given information and
definitness“. Definitness can be viewed as the surface realization of Given information which is
indicated not only by the definite articles but their substitutes, deictic expressions, proper nouns,
ordinal numerals, the superlative degree adjectives, certain forms of the verb, and context
(Huddlestone & Pullum 2002). In the cases when New information comes before Given, a reader
“must hold the new information in abeyance while waiting for the given information and searching
for its antecedent. This increases the load on memory and makes comprehension less than optimal“
(Clark & Haviland 1977, 13 as referred to by Miller 1997, 218).
In communication, Given and New information performs certain communicative functions:
thematic and rhematic. According to Halliday (1990, 39) Theme and Rheme combine to constitute
a message.
1.2.2 Theme and Rheme
The previous section focused on types of information. This section is concerned with textual
functions and contextualization of sentences. Looking at the clause from the textual perspective,
the sentence accomodates two functions Theme and Rheme. Thus, in the sentence Hiragana
represents the 46 basic sounds of the Japanese language, the theme is Hiragana. The rest of the
sentence is the Rheme, i.e. what the sentence says about Hiragana. (Paltridge 2011, 145).
According to Mathesius, the entity about which something is stated in the sentence is the Theme. It
is known or at least obvious in the given situation and serves as ‘the point of departure of the
sentence ‘from which the speaker proceeds. The Rheme is what the speaker or the writer states
about the Theme. It is the core of the sentence (Mathesius 1975, 81). Theme is related to Given
information (something known) while Rheme to New information (something stated about what is
known).
Halliday provides a considerable account of Theme in English in his works. According to
Halliday (1990, 38), “The Theme is the element which serves as the point of departure of the
16
message“. The remainder of the message, the part in which Theme is developed is called the
Rheme. This definition of the Theme as a functional unit has been accepted by many linguists, such
as Thompson (2004), Downing & Locke (2006), Eggins (2004), Lock (1996), Valeika (2001),
Miller (1997), Butler (2003). For instance, Downing & Locke (2006, 223) suggests that “Theme
and Rheme are two components which together make up the organizational construct that is the
thematic structure of the clause. The Theme comes first and is identified as the first constituent in
the clause. What follows is the Rheme“. According to Thompson (2004, 143), the Theme is the
starting point of the message and the first constituent of the clause. All the rest of the clause is
simply labeled the Rheme.
Not all linguists, however, acknowledge the Theme-Rheme division of the sentence. In
Cardiff Grammar model a sentence consists of the various types of Theme and the ‘post-Theme
‘part of the clause is not labeled at all. Fawcett (2008, 115) argues that labeling the clause elements
as “the Rheme gives the misleading impression that there is a clause element with this name“. The
function of Rheme has been much less investigated but it could hardly be seen as non-existent.
In the English language, thematic status is expressed by position in sequence. The Theme can
be established as the first constituent in the clause which provides certain frame for the
interpretation of the rest of the message, i.e. it states what the clause is about or to quote Halliday
(1990, 39) “it is what the clause is going to be about“. The Theme is claimed to be present in the
sentence as it is an inherent quality of any contextualized sentence (Halliday (1990); Leech &
Svartvik (1994) and many others). In many languages the Theme is linked with sentence-initial
position, i.e. the initial element of the sentence is treated as the Theme of the sentence (Tomlin
1986).
The sentence can also have more than one thematic element. Such being the case, the Theme
of the sentence manifests itself as a structure (Petronienė 2007). Thematic sentence elements differ
in a degree they contribute towards the development of communication. To follow Firbas (1995),
the elements participating in this development, carry a certain degree of Communicative Dynamism
(CD). “Communicative Dynamism is an inherent property of communication which manifests itself
in constant development towards the accomplishment of a communicative goal. There is a
tendency in languages to arrange the elements within a sentence with a gradual rise in CD” (ibid. p.
7). As for the communicative level or the level of information structure, the sentence starts with the
least dynamic, i.e. thematic (contextually dependent) elements and ends with the most dynamic, i.e.
rhematic (contextually independent) elements. Thematic elements are viewed as conveying
information retrievable while rhematic elements are viewed as conveying information irretrievable
from the immediately relevant prior context. The property ‘immediately relevant’ is assigned to the
information the writer/speaker uses for the expression of further communication and thus separates
17
it from the information given in the entire preceding verbal and situational context (Firbas 1995,
21-40).
To summarize, from the communicative viewpoint, the sentence consists of two functions the
Theme and the Rheme where the prior tends to be realized by the initial position while the latter is
realized by non-initial position in the sentence. The Theme is defined as the ‘jumping-off point‘or
‘a point of departure‘, while the Rheme is the part of the message which presents the most
important information.
1.3 Grammatical Structure of the Sentence
The previous chapters were concerned with semantic and communicative levels, or
experiential and textual meanings. This chapter focuses on the syntactic level, or the analysis of the
sentence from the interpersonal perspective.
As Systemic Functional Grammar takes a functional approach to language, the units and
constituents of syntax are matched as closely as possible to the units and elements of semantics.
Clause elements denote particular semantic participants in a communicative situation. The main
verb typically expresses the process and the participants are generally expressed in the Subject and
in the Complement. Circumstances are realized as Adjuncts. Hence, semantic roles are ascribed
certain grammatical functions. Consider the example below:
Cl
S
We
O
shall
M
simmerr
C
A
them
gently
Cl = Clause S = Subject O = Operator M = Main Verb C = Complement A = Adjunct
(Fawcett 2008, 58)
From the traditional point of view, the clause consists of two main parts, Subject (S) and
Predicate (P). The other parts of the sentence such as Complement(C), Adjunct (A), and the
Enclosure are considered to be “the secondary parts of the clause“ (Valeika & Buitkienė 2006,
100). The Subject is an obligatory element of the clause which is a complement restricter of the
18
Predicate (ibid. 103). In English, the Subject realizes the semantic roles such as Agent, Affected
Patient, Effected Patient, Recipient Experiencer, Sayer, Carrier and Existent. As pointed out by
Halliday (1990, 144), in Modern English all participants can take on the Subject function.
Typically, the Subject is a noun phrase or a nominal clause which occurs before the verb in
declarative clauses. According to Downing & Locke (2006, 35), semantically and
communicatively, the Subject encodes the main participant the plane/Tom in the situation
represented by the clause and carries the function of Theme, i.e. it typically refers to information
that is regarded by the speaker as Given. The Predicate can be comprised of the Predicator,
realised by a verbal group as in 24 (a) below, or the Predicator together with some other elements
as in 24 (b). Consider:
Subject
Predicator
(a) The plane
landed
(b) Tom
disappeared
Adjunct
suddenly after the concert.
(ibid. p. 35)
Semantically and communicatively, the Subject encodes the main participant the plane/ Tom
in the situation represented by the clause. If it answers the question What did the plane do? it also
carries the function of Theme, i.e. it refers to Given information. The Predicate can be comprised
of the Predicator realised by a verbal group as in 24(a), or the Predicator together with some other
elements as in 24(b).
Syntactically, the Subject and the Predicator1 are considered to be the main functional
categories of the clause as it is the most informative parts of the clause. The category of Adjunct as
the example (b) illustrates is optional in the clause as it can be omitted without affecting the
acceptability of the clause.
Another central element of the clause is the Predicate which is expressed by the verb in its
synthetic and analytic form. To quote Valeika & Buitkienė (2006, 105), “It is the pivot upon which
all other constituents of the clause depend and by which they are determined“. Semantically, the
Predicate is realized through the Processes such as Material, Mental, Happening, Verbal,
Relational or Existential. Predicates can be verbal and nominal. Compare:
25(a) John works in a hospital. vs. (b) John is a worker (Valeika & Buitkienė 2006, 105).
1
The term predicator is used to refer to the verbal element in Subject-Verb-Object constructions, that is, SubjectPredicator-Object. This avoids the confusion of using a verb to refer to both a form and a function.
19
In example (a) works is a verbal Predicate while in (b) a worker is a nominal Predicate. The
Predicate can consist entirely of the Predicator, realized by a verbal group, or the Predicator
followed by other elements that complete the meaning (Downing & Locke 2006, 35). The two
major functional categories which appear in post-verbal position are the Object and the
Complement. For example (26) (a) and (b):
Subject
(a) The students
Subject
(b) Jo
Predicator
Object
carried
backpacks.
Predicator
Complement
is
a student.
(ibid. p. 35)
In both examples, without the categories of Object and Complement the sentences would be
considered incomplete both semantically and syntactically. Similar to the Subject, the Object
(direct and indirect) is typically a noun phrase or a nominal clause. The Object normally follows
the Subject and Verb, in the cases then both types of Object are present the indirect object normally
preceding the direct object (Quirk et.al. 1995, 726). For instance, I gave him [Oi] my address [Od].
The Object of the active clause may become the Subject of the passive clause e.g. We have finished
the work [Od] vs. The work [S] has been finished. Semantically, the Objects encode the key
participants in the event other than Subject. According to Quirk et.al. (1995, 727), the direct Object
refers to an entity that is affected by the action denoted in the clause e.g. Norman smashed a
window in his father‘s car [Od]. Whereas the indirect Object attributes an animate being and takes
the role of the Recipient e.g. We gave the baby a bath [Oi].
Another significant constituent of the clause is Complement which consists of a word or a
group of words expressed by nouns, pronouns or adjectives. Generally, Complements complete the
meaning of the predicate of a sentence. There are two main types of Complement: The Subject
Complement (Cs) as in 27 (a) and the Object Complement (Co) as in 27 (b):
Subject
Predicator
Subject
Direct Object
Object Complement
Complement
(a)That map
was
(b) They
made
useful.
Ken Brown
President.
(ibid. p. 35)
20
The Subject Complement is related to the Subject where the verb is copular while the Object
Complement is related to the direct Object. In the clause, the Subject Complement typically takes
the position after the Subject and the Verb while the Object Complement goes after the direct
Object. In contrast to the Object, the Complement cannot be turned into the Subject of a passive
clause as there is no corresponding passive clause for the SVC type while with the SVOC type, the
direct Object can become the Subject of a passive clause e.g. His friends call him Ted [Co] vs. He
is called Ted by his friends [Cs] (Quirk et.al. 1995, 729). At the semantic level, the Subject
Complement and Object Complement realize such roles as the Affected, the Effected Patient, the
Recipient the Beneficiary, the Verbiage or the Phenomenon.
The clause may accommodate several types of Adjuncts (A). It is generally an adverb phrase
(often enough), prepositional phrase (in the back garden), or adverbial clause (I bought the tickets
with some reservations) though occasionally it may be a noun phrase (Sunday lunch time). The
Adjuncts can appear in several positions in the clause. Expressing optional elements, Adjuncts often
take place the sentence position determined by the sentence perspective. Exceptions are when
Adjuncts express obligatory Circumstances. Indeed, Adjuncts can be used in the front or at the end
of the clause or take an intermediate position. Consider example (28) (a), (b) and (c):
(a)
In Britain alone is selective state education reviled. (Fronted position)
(b)
They broke the window on purpose. (End-position)
(c)
We need to design with you an innovative approach. (Intermediate
position) (Parrott 2000, 262; 276; 281)
According to Downing & Locke (2006), the Adjuncts can be divided into three classes:
Circumstantial Adjuncts are employed to provide the setting for the situation expressed in
the clause, which define place, time and/or manner e.g. The new liner ‘Queen Elizabeth II‘sails
tomorrow from Southampton.
Stance Adjuncts refer to the speaker‘s point of view or evaluation towards the content of the
clause. Stance Adjuncts are expressed by modal words such as indeed, truly, in fact, obvioulsly,
perhaps, etc. E.g. Obvoiusly, he‘ll rely on you even more now.
Connective Adjuncts have a function to join two clauses or parts of clauses, showing the
semantic relation between them e.g. The hotel was rather noisy. On the other hand, it wasn‘t
expensive.
To sum up, a clause consists of two major elements the Subject and the Predicate while the
other parts such as Object, Complement, Adjunct are secondary. In ordering sentence elements,
21
secondary elements follow the main ones resulting in the basic grammatical word order
S+V+O/C+A.
2. NONCANONICAL WORD ORDER
Word order is a system constituted by the mutual relations of word-order principles such as
the principle of grammatical function, the principle of coherence of members, the principle of FSP,
the principle of emphasis and the principle of sentence rhythm (Mathesius 1975). The principle of
grammatical function and the principle of coherence of members can be merged into one and called
the grammatical principle which manifests itself in that the position of the elements in the sentence
is determined by its syntactic function S+V+O. According to the principle of FSP, the elements of
the sentence are organized in a Th-Tr-Rh2 sequence. On the one hand, English is considered to be
little susceptible to the requirements of FSP and more frequently organized by the grammatical
principle (Greenberg 1966, Mathesius 1975, Halliday 1995 and others). On the other hand, in
English sentence elements can be arranged in a Th-Tr-Rh sequence which does not coincide with
the sequence S+V+O. Words can be re-arranged into orders that deviate from syntactic patterns
regarded as basic (Firbas 1992, 122). Word order that deviates from the grammatical pattern is
called marked word order or noncanonical word order as it fulfills an additional communicative
goal that cannot be served by the conventional/canonical word order called unmarked.
Noncanonical syntactic options are determined by different contexts depending on what the
speaker/writer wants to emphasize. Clause elements may be put in an unusual position not only to
put emphasis but to achieve cohesion, contrast or some stylistic effect. Different contexts may
require arranging elements of the clause in different places; to put it another way, these contexts
determine that elements from unmarked position appear in the marked position of the clause.
Biber et.al.( 2002), Quirk et.al.(1995), Leech & Svartvik (1994) distinguish six main
grammatical constructions to account for a noncanonical constituent placement in an English
clause: Fronting, Inversion of Subjects and Verbs, Existential there clauses, Dislocation, Clefting,
and Variations in the Ordering of Objects. Birner & Ward (1998) recognize three main classes of
English constructions which manipulate the word order in the clause: Preposing, Postposing and
Argument Reversal.
Before describing the constructions, it is necessary to review the discourse functions of their
choices. There are four significant discourse factors that help to understand the grammatical
choices which influence word order: Information flow, Focus and Emphasis, Contrast and Weight
(Biber et.al. 2002, 398).
2
Theme-Transition-Rheme sequence
22
Information flow is considered with the communicative structure of the clause i.e. how the
information is presented in the clause. Typically, the ordering of information starts with given and
proceeds to New information. As far as the text is concerned, the ordering of Given-New
information makes a major contribution to the cohesion of the text. Ordinarily, the Given
information is related to the preceding clause while the New information is most important in a
message and is frequently taken up in the following discourse. Thus, from the point of view of the
theory of information, the text can be viewed as a sequence of Given and New information units
(Valeika & Buitkienė 2006, 140). This particular ordering of information when the clause starts
with something familiar helps the recipients understand the text better.
To quote Leech & Svartvik “A sentence is generally more effective (especially in <writing>)
if the main point is saved up to the end“ (1994, 199). Nevertheless, there can be another focus in
the clause placed at the beginning. Such sentences start with an element other than the Subject that
is they have marked word order. As a result, the clause gains a double focus. For example:
(29) Inside the house Mr Summers found a family of cats shut in the bathroom (Biber et.al.
2002, 399).
Here are two points of focus: first - the Adjunct inside the house and the second - the Adjunct
in the bathroom.
(30) Very strange his eyes looked (Leech & Svartvik 1994, 200).
The third factor which has an influence on the word order is Contrast. Contrast manifests
itself in showing the difference between two elements. The focused part is highlighted to
demonstrate the contrast. Consider example (31):
(31) It’s not the bikers– it’s the other vehicle that’s on the road (Biber et.al. 2002, 399).
Here the focus is on the other vehicle which is contrasted with the bikers.
Another discourse factor is weight or ‘heavy NP shift’ whose function is to move ‘heavier’
(long and complex elements) parts of the sentence towards the end. The long and complex
elements placed in the end position facilitate the hearer/reader to grasp the message effortlessly.
Hawkins (1994, 111) claims that “the major determinant of word order variation, and indeed of all
word order, is syntactic weight”. For instance:
(32) My home was that wasteland of derelict buildings behind the morgue (ibid. p. 111).
23
Example (32) illustrates the principle of end-weight as a long Complement (the underlined
part of the sentence) follows a Subject my home and a verb was.
To sum up, the discourse factors information flow, focus and emphasis, contrast or weight
affect the choice of particular sentence patterns and make a clause better fit its context and play
important roles in certain word order phenomena. The following sections prove that, besides
discourse functions, “context and information status are crucial to the felicity of the noncanonical
word-order constructions” (Birner & Ward 1998, 26).
2.1 Preposing
The speakers of English are accomodated with a wide range of noncanonical syntactic means
to express a given proposition. The speaker chooses to express the utterance in marked or
noncanonical/unmarked syntactic constructions to structure information in discourse. In this paper
three major classes of noncanonical constituent placement will be discussed: 1) Preposing 2)
Postposing 3) Inversion. This section of the paper deals with Preposing constructions.
To quote Birner & Ward (1998, 3) Preposing constructions in English are “those in which
some argument of the verb appears to the left of its canonical position, typically but not always
sentence-initially, leaving its canonical position empty“. This goes to say that lexically governed
phrasal constituents such as NP, VP, PP, and AP
3
occur in the sentence initial position or a
canonically postverbal phrasal constituent occurs in preverbal position. Consider a few examples
taken from Birner & Ward 1998:
(33) I work on the 6th floor of a building. I know some of the elevator riders well. Others I
have only that nodding acquaintance with and some are total strangers.
(34) Today‘s tapes may still be cheerful, but cheap they are not.
(35) In a basket, I put your clothes (ibid. p. 235).
As noted by Horn (1986) (referred to by Birner & Ward 1998), leftward movement in general
serves to prepose thematic or familiar information, whereas rightward movement serves to
postpose nonthematic or unfamiliar information. Preposing constructions require the preposed
constituents to represent given or old information while postposing constructions tend to introduce
new information. The information conveyed by the preposed constituent is linked to the prior
discourse in such semantic relations as type/subtype, entity/attribute, part/whole, identity, etc., that
can be defined as partially ordered (set) relationship ( Birner & Ward 1998, 223)
3
NP – Noun Phrase, VP – Verb Phrase, PP –Prepositional Phrase, AP – Adjectival Phrase
24
According to the research of many scholars (Halliday 1967, Gundel 1974, Langacker 1974,
Leech & Svartvik 1994) Preposing is closely related to thematization. Typically, the Theme marks
Given information and links the statement with the preceding context. Consider example (36) taken
from Birner (2004, 3):
(36) They have a great big tank in the kitchen, and in the tank are sitting all these pots.
In the tank is the Theme. The status of information focus receives all these pots. As noted
earlier, thematization contains a salient linking relation that connects the preposed constituent and
the preceding discourse. Besides this primary textual function, Themes serve other discourse
functions too. As this issue has not been extensively studied, an attempt is made in the present
work to recognize and identify the different meanings that noncanonical patterns resulting from
Preposing create in the text.
To sum up, Preposing occurs when canonicaly postverbal elements are placed in preverbal
position. The shifting results in noncanonical sentence patterns. The preposed constituents
commonly designate Given information and serve as a link to the prior discourse. Its early
positioning in the sentence facilitates discourse processing but that is not the only function that
such placement helps to fulfil. The analysis presents a probable explanation of noncanonical
patterns from the point of view of textual, semantic and grammatical functions.
2.2 Postposing
While Preposing constructions require to start the sentence with Given information,
Postposing constructions, in contrast, stipulates its marked constituent to denote information that is
new, either to the hearer as in existential-there sentences or to the discourse as in presentationalthere sentences and places unfamiliar information late in the sentence ( Birner 2004, 49). The term
Postposing implies any construction in which a lexically governed phrasal constituent is placed to
the right of its canonical position, frequently in sentence final position, leaving its canonical
position either empty or occupied by an expletive (Birner & Ward 1998, 5). As it has been
mentioned before, there are two pivotal Postposing constructions: existential-there and
presentational-there insertion (ibid. p. 97). Birner & Ward (1998) argue that in existential-there
sentences the NP in postverbal position represents information that is hearer-new4. Consider the
examples:
4
Hearer-new is information is information that the speaker does not believe to be known to the hearer.
25
(37) “There is a warm relationship, a great respect and trust“ between [United Air Lines]‘s
chairman, Stephan M.Wolf, and Sir Colin Marshall, British Air‘s chief executive officer, according
to a person familiar with both sides. (ibid. p. 102)
The construction there+V+S in (37) is considered to be felicitous if a warm relationship is
unfamiliar information to the reader. If it represents information which is familiar to the hearer, the
use of existential-there construction will be infelicitous. For instance,
(38) I have some interesting news for you. At todays‘s press conference there was President
Clinton (ibid. p. 102).
In example (38) the existential-there is considered to be unacceptable. If the Existent
introduces information which is familiar to the hearer, it is not felicitous to occupy the postverbal
position in existential-there sentences.
Existential-there sentences differ from presentational-there sentences in their structure and
the discourse status. In presentational-there sentences, the Existent is both hearer-new and
discourse-new5. For example,
(39) After they have travelled on the weeks and weeks past more bays and headlands and
rivers and villages than Shasta could remember, there came a moonlit night when they started
their journey at evening, having slept during day (ibid. p.107).
In example (39), the verb come is prototypical in presentational-there sentences. The
construction is used to introduce discourse-new information which means that the moonlight night
has not been evoked in the prior discourse. The example illustrates the statement that
presentational-there sentences contain the information which is hearer-new as well as discoursenew. However, in contrast to existential-there, presentational-there sentences which contain
hearer-old information (but discourse-new) are regarded as felicitous. Consider the following:
(40) Suddenly there ran out of the woods the man we had seen at the picnic (Birner & Ward
1998, 109).
In sum, existential and presentational-there sentences share the same feature as they both
require that postposed constituents represent unfamiliar information; however, this unfamiliarity is
5
Discourse-new information is information which has not been evoked in the current discourse.
26
diverse: existential-there requires this NP to express hearer-new information, whereas
presentational-there is to be only discourse-new, “regardless of its status within the hearer‘s
knowledge store“ (Birner 2004, 51). This is well evident in the analysis. However, the focus in this
work is placed on thematization as the cause of syntactic transformations of the basic word order
pattern. That is why rhematic elements are commented on only as much as they are relevant to
explain the use of thematized information.
2.3 Inversion
The term inversion denotes a clause in which the logical subject appears in postverbal
position while some other, canonically postverbal, constituent appears in clause-initial position
(Birner & Ward 1998, 156). Similar definitions concerning inversion are found in the works of
Biber et.al. (2002), Leech & Svartvik (1994), Quirk et.al. (1995) and others. According to the
scholars, there are two main types of inversion: subject-verb inversion or full inversion (example
41(a) and (b) below) when the Subject is preceded by the entire verb phrase and Subject-Operator
inversion or partial inversion (example 42 (a) and (b) below) when the Subject is preceded only by
the Operator rather than by the main verb or full verb phrase. For example,
(41) a. Especially remarkable was her oval face.
b. In a distant grave lies his beloved body (Quirk et.al. 1995. p. 1380).
(42) a. On no account must he strain.
b. So badly was he affected that he had to be taught to speak again (Biber et.al. (2002,
406).
According to Biber et.al. (2002), Quirk et.al. (1995), Leech & Stvartvik (1994), inversion
serves for cohesion of a text, information flow or placement of focus. Birner (1994) argues that
inversion serves information-packaging function, where comparatively familiar information is
introduced before relatively unfamiliar logical subject. To quote Birner & Ward (1998, 165),
“Felicitous inversion in English is crucially dependent on the ‘discourse-familiarity‘of the
information presented by the preposed and postposed constituents, where the degree of discoursefamiliarity is determined by the presence or absence of a link to prior discourse and recency of
mention within discourse“.
Inverted sentence patterns are analysed from the textual, semantic and grammatical point of
view as noncanonical word order patterns. Although the focus is laid on thematization as the main
cause of noncanonicity, the inverted sentence elements are described with due regard to the effects
brought forth by rhematizing the information too.
27
3. A COMMUNICATIVE ANALYSIS OF NONCANONICAL DECLARATIVE
SENTENCES IN CARSON McCULLER’S SHORT STORIES
3.1 Data and methods of research
The study aims to examine English noncanonical declarative sentences in Carson McCullers‘
short stories “The Ballad of the Sad Cafe“.
The object of the study is a text sentence based on a finite clause6. Non-finite clauses are
treated as units within finite clauses. Subordinate finite clauses are also viewed as part of main
finite clauses. The main clause serves as the linguistic resource for expressing a communicative
situation, or in other words, for describing a Process, the Participant(s) the situation involves, and
the attendant Circumstances. A typical realization of the Process in focus is the main verb of the
finite clause. Participants are realized by noun phrases or non-finite clauses or subordinate finite
clauses. Circumstances are typically expressed by noun, adverb or prepositional phrases, non-finite
clauses or subordinate finite clauses.
In the course of the data collection, it was discovered that out of 3626 clauses 649 were based
on noncanonical sentence pattern (non-SVOA). Such being the case, 649 English sentences were
submitted for the analysis. Chart 1 below shows the distribution of SVOA and non-SVOA sentences.
Non-SVOA;
17,89%
SVOA;
82,11%
Figure 1. Distribution of SVOA and non-SVOA word order sentences
As can be seen from the chart, the majority of clauses – 82.11% - manifested the basic word
order of English SVOA and 17.89% of the data clause structures had one or more sentence
The term “clause” is used to define a unit of language. The term “sentence” is used to define a unit of
communication if the context and additional descriptive words do not modify the meaning respectively.
6
28
elements marked by a shift in position. Evidently, SVOA is unmarked, canonical and prototypical,
but not the only word order pattern used in English. As noted before, (1) the research begins with
the analysis of the semantic structure of the selected sentences by evaluating the semantic elements
from the point of view of FSP. Noncanonical positions of sentence elements are accounted for with
reference to (2) their information status and (3) their syntagmatic relations with other sentence
elements. Afterwards, (4) the discourse functions of the noncanonical word order patterns are
identified. Finally, (5) the data is evaluated quantitatively; the frequency and distribution of
analyzed patterns are presented in the pie-charts, bar charts and graphs.
The results of the analysis lead to interesting and reasonable conclusions. Noncanonical
constructions in English are those which do not exhibit the SVOA word order. Ajuncts are added to
extend the basic word order pattern SVO with the purpose to reflect a complete picture of the
analyzed syntactic patterns. Although being syntactically flexible, some Circumstances do not have
the freedom to occur in all various positions of the clause. That is why a degree of (non)canonicity
is proposed as a concept to be referred to in the analysis. It helped to account for the choice of
particular sentence patterns in the English texts under investigation.
3.2 Results and discussions
As indicated above, 649 out of 3626 sentences were organized in a noncanonical way. The
semantic analysis of the selected sentences revealed that the noncanonical word order patterns
occured in sentences of five process types: Material, Happening, Mental, Relational and
Existential.
The bar chart below shows the occurence of patterns under investigation by Process type.
Happening process
Mental process
Relational process
Existential process
24
56
74
200
295
Material process
Figure 2. The occurence of patterns under investigation by Process type
29
As can be seen from the bar chart, Material Processes seem to be realized by the greatest
variety of patterns, while Happening Processes appear to be mainly expressed by the basic
sentence pattern used in English. However, a more thorough investigation is needed to support or
re-consider this working observation.
The data in the pie chart below reflects the distribution of Process types in the analysed
sentences converted into per cent.
4%
9%
11%
45%
Happening process
Mental process
Relational process
31%
Existential process
Material process
Figure 3. The distribution of Processes submitted for the analysis
Two Processes Material and Existential prevail in the majority of the noncanonical word
order sentences. In other words, the sentences structured according to the communicative principle
complied with transformations other than Subjectivization most readily when processes of doing
and existing were described. By comparison, Material and Existential Process type noncanonical
sentences made 76% of the sentences under investigation, and only 24% was shared by other
Process type noncanonical sentences.
3.2.1 Analysis of Main Clauses – Sentences with Participant Themes
As mentioned earlier, the semantic structure of the sentence is composed of the Participants,
the Process, (the Attributes) and the Circumstances. Participants are entities such as persons,
objects or abstractions which employ the roles of Agents, Effected and Affected Patients,
Recipients, Beneficiaries, Experiencers, Phenomena, Carriers, Attributes, Existents at the semantic
structure level. The semantic roles taken by Participants depend on the type of Process they take
part in, or rather on the verb denoting the Process and its valency. The verb plays a crucial role in
30
the sentence as it is the semantic, communicative and syntactic core of the sentence. The semantic
properties of the verb are related to its combinability with other elements. All the elements in the
sentence are structured due to the peculiarities of the verb, though the verb can be of obligatory and
optional valency. The sentence is considered semantically incomplete without obligatory
constituents, whereas omission of optional constituents does not hinder understanding of the
sentence meaning. Obligatory semantic components are Participants inherent to the Process, while
optional semantic components are, as a rule, Circumstances non-inherent to the Process.
In terms of FSP, any Participant, apart from the Existent, can express the role of the Theme
and function on its own or form a part of the thematic structure, i.e. perform the function of Theme
Proper or serve to extend the Theme. Theme is usually Given, i.e. thematic information is
recoverable from the immediately preceding text or from a non-immediately preceding text or it
could be recoverable from the context of shared environment. From the functional viewpoint, a
semantic and grammatical sentence structure can function only in context as without context the
semantic and grammatical structure do not perform any communicative function. Generally,
according to the requirements of FSP or the communicative principle, the Theme precedes the
Rheme in a sentence, thus thematic Participants occur in sentence-initial position. The present
analysis attempts to reveal the syntactic potential of English by estimating its susceptibility to the
communicative principle via Preposing as an alternative to the more common transformation of
Subjectivization. Preposing results in noncanonical word order which is the focus of the research.
PREPOSING THEMATIC INFORMATION IN MATERIAL PROCESS SENTENCES
In the description of Material Process situations, the writer used a variety of sentence
patterns. Although SVOA dominated, other orderings occurred with some frequency too. ASVO
pattern was used to thematize a Circumstance. Often being optional, peripheral elements,
Circumstances are movable and can easily take sentence initial position. However, some forms do
not always have such freedom, so preposed Circumstances were included in the analysis to fully
account for the shifts in the basic word order in the texts under investigation. If assigned the
syntactic function of the Object, sentence elements are canonically postverbal. OSV(A) pattern was
less frequent but no less important in effecting coherence and dynamic text flow. In OSV(A)
sentences, the Objects varied semantically. The pattern was employed to thematize the Affected
Participant (Extent), the Recipient, the Source, the Range.
The pie chart below shows the frequency distribution of the sentences with thematic
Participants of Material Process. The obviously low frequency of the pattern points to the
resilience of the analytic language to interfering with the syntactic unity of the Verb and its Object.
However, the pattern does not seem to be used randomly and makes an intrinsic part of the
authentic English language.
31
Material Process
3%
Sentences based
on OSV(A)
Other
97%
Figure 4. The distribution of the Material Process sentences based on OSV(A).
Consider a few examples below:
(1)
[Miss Amelia had made red curtains for the windows,] and from a salesman
who passed through the town she bought a great bunch of paper roses.
(2)
[Once in a great while she might carefully warn a patient never to eat fried
watermelon or some such dish it had never occurred to the person to eat in the first place.
She told to one-half of her patients that they were going to die outright,] and to the
remaining half she recommended cures so far-fetched and agonizing that no one in his
right mind would consider them for a moment.
(3)
[On autumn afternoons they sat on the back steps chopping sugar cane.]The
glaring summer days they spent back in the swamp where the water cypress is a deep
black green, where beneath the tangled swamp trees there is a drowsy gloom. [When the
path leads through a bog or a stretch of blackened water see Miss Amelia bend down to let
Cousin Lymon scramble on her back -- and see her wading forward]
(4)
[Cousin Lymon had a very peculiar accomplishment, which he used
whenever he wished to ingratiate himself with someone. He would stand very still, and with
just a little concentration, he could wiggle his large pale ears with marvelous quickness
and ease.] This trick he always used when he wanted to get something special out of Miss
Amelia.
(5)
[He returned with presents—an opal ring, a pink enamel doreen of the sort
which was then in fashion, a silver bracelet with two hearts on it, and a box of candy which
cost two dollars and a half. Miss Amelia looked over these fine gifts and opened the box of
32
candy, for she was hungry.] The rest of the presents she judged shrewdly for a moment to
sum up their value, then she put them in the counter for sale.
In sentence (1), the Source from a salesman who passed through the town is assigned the
function of Object and is canonically expected to be postverbal. Besides, it is lexically governed (to
buy sth FROM sb.) However, to function as Theme it is placed in sentence-initial position. Such
ordering of the sentence elements obviously serves to relate two Processes performed by one
Participant and thus effects direct linkage. The Source can be shifted to the beginning of the
sentence without changing its syntactic function because it conveys a notion recoverable from the
context. It is seen as recoverable from the shared environment or the reader’s common knowledge
and thus refers to the familiar notion belonging to the environment of the local community.
Sentence (2) has the Recipient to the remaining half placed in sentence-initial position. It
retains the function as Object, though it is lexically governed (to recommend sth TO sb.). Such
thematization is effected due to the co-referent in the preceding sentence. The Recipient functions
as a link to the immediately preceding text. From the viewpoint of discourse purpose, the pattern
serves to express ‘contrastive newness’ (cf. to one-half of her patients).
Example (3) shows that the Range the glaring summer days is allotted the function of Object
and is placed early in the sentence, even though it is lexically governed (to spend TIME/A DAY
at/in sth.). The Range is Given as it is recoverable from the preceding sentence. As for the
communicative intentions of the writer, the Range is thematized in order to express ‘contrastive
newness’ (cf. on autumn afternoons).
In sentence (4) the Affected Patient this trick is Given and retrievable from the prior
discourse. Thus, it carries the lowest degree of CD and functions as the Theme of the sentence. It
represents discourse-old information and serves as a link to the prior discourse. The element this
trick is co-referential with a detailed description of the character’s behavior in the preceding
sentence. The discourse purpose could be viewed as the writer’s intention to greatly enhance the
importance of the character’s role.
In example (5) the initial position of the thematized Participant is also determined by the
context. Although it is lexically governed (to judge sb/sth BY/ON sth), it occupies preverbal
position instead of its legitimate postverbal position. The Affected Patient the rest of the presents
can be preposed as it represents discourse-old information recoverable from the immediately
relevant context, thus it is Given. The retrievability span is quite short as the elements presents and
gifts were mentioned in the preceding sentences. From the point of view of discourse purpose, the
pattern helps to expresses the character’s curious feelings about the object, in this case presents.
Shifted to the beginning, the Participant at Object seems to receive special prominence.
33
In sum, the communicative analysis of the noncanonical Material Process sentences shows
that fairly high non-canonicity is effected by the thematization of Material Process Participants.
Even being lexically and syntactically governed, they appear in sentence-initial position. Such a
grammatical constraint seems to be possible to remove when the Participants at Object are contextdependent and their retrievability span is one clause. Thematized Participants were contextdependent entities, i.e. they had a co-referent in the preceding text, or more exactly, in the
preceding sentence. Contextual familiarity appears to be prerequisite to Preposing.
PREPOSING THEMATIC INFORMATION IN MENTAL PROCESS SENTENCES
Mental Processes involve two Participants: The Recipient Experiencer who perceives or
senses and the Phenomenon which is perceived or sensed. Feelings and abilities can also be
expressed with the help of the Range. Circumstances can be added to describe the background
against which Mental Processes take place.
The communicative analysis of Mental Process sentences shows that 8 out of 56 were
structured OSV(A). The Recipient Experiencer or the Phenomenon or the Range was thematized
and placed in sentence initial position as Object. The pie chart below shows the distribution of the
sentences with thematic Objects in Mental Process sentences.
Mental Process
14%
Sentences based
on OSV(A)
Other
86%
Figure 4. The distribution of the Mental Process sentences based on OSV(A).
Mental Processes involve two Participants: The Recipient Experiencer who perceives or
senses and the Phenomenon which is perceived or sensed. Feelings and abilities can also be
expressed with the help of the Range. Circumstances can be added to describe the background
against which Mental Processes take place.
34
The communicative analysis of Mental Process sentences shows that 8 out of 56 were
structured OSV(A). The Recipient Experiencer or the Phenomenon or the Range was thematized
and placed in sentence initial position as Object. The pie chart below shows the distribution of the
sentences with thematic Objects in Mental Process sentences. Consider the following examples:
(6)
[In addition to the store she operated a still three miles back in the swamp,
and ran out the best liquor in the county.<…> Often she spent whole nights back in her
shed in the swamp, dressed in overalls and gum boots, silently guarding the low fire of the
still.] With all things which could be made by the hands Miss Amelia prospered.
(7)
[It was not even proper snuff which he was taking, but a mixture of sugar
and cocoa.] This he took, though, as snuff, pocketing a little wad of it beneath his lower
lip...
(8)
[To begin with she had no patience with any traveling;] those who had
made the trip to Atlanta or traveled fifty miles from home to see the ocean -- those
restless people she despised.
(9)
[And those who were expecting some drama at her entrance were
disappointed. <…> Her gray, crossed eyes glanced over to the place where the hunchback
was sitting, and for a moment lingered there.]The rest of the crowd in her store she
regarded with only a peaceable surprise.
(10)
[And there were at the time several young girls who were clean-haired and
soft-eyed, with tender sweet little buttocks and charming ways.]These gentle young girls
he degraded and shamed.
In (6) the Range Participant with all things which could be made by the hands functions as
the Theme. The preceding text describes things that the character did to make a living, e.g. She ran
out the best liquor in the county. It can be assumed that the thematized Participant refers to the
referents introduced in the prior discourse. In fact, the relevant context lasts for ten clauses, and so
does the retrievability span. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the preceding sentence is also part
of the retrievability span, so it is evident that the preposed Participant is kept familiar within a very
short Given context. When preposed, it establishes a close textual link with what precedes and
enhances the prominence of the character’s capabilities.
Example (7) demonstrates that the Theme this refers to the referent a mixture of sugar and
cocoa in the preceding sentence, i.e. the link this is related to its co-referent (a mixture of sugar and
cocoa) via an identity relation. The Phenomenon this is Given and context dependent as it is
35
retrievable from the immediately relevant context, i.e. from the preceding sentence. In terms of the
discourse purpose, such ordering has the effect of strong emotion on the part of the character.
Consider also the structurally complex Phenomenon Participant in (8): its thematization by
means of Preposing brings about a noticeable strong effect on the mood in the text. Being lexically
governed (dispise sb/sth) and structurally complex as it is, this sentence element is determined to
be used postverbally. Its Preposing exerts high non-canonicity and thus helps to express a distinct
feeling the character has about the given entity (people). Such ordering of sentence elements also
serves to relate two Processes performed by one Participant and in this way it effects direct linkage.
The preposed Participant is Given and recoverable form the preceding sentence.
In sentence (9), the Phenomenon the rest of the crowd in her store serves as a link to the
preceding text and functions as the Theme. It expresses Given information retrievable form the
prior discourse. The Phenomenon syntactically functions as the Object and, although it is
structurally governed (regard sb/sth as sth), it is chosen as the point of departure for the message to
express ‘contrastive newness’ to the hunchback as “another part of the crowd”. Non-canonicity
here also produces destructive effect on the mood and emphasizes complex emotions of the main
character.
In example (10) the Phenomenon these gentle young girls is Given and context dependent as
it is retrievable from the immediately relevant context, i.e. from the preceding sentence. There is a
linking relation between the preposed constituent these gentle young girls and its co-referent
several young girls. At the syntactic level, it functions as an Object and as the Theme at the
communicative level of the sentence. Despite the fact that the verb ‘degrade‘ governs (degrade
sb/sth) the Phenomenon at Object, the latter occupies the preverbal position. The syntactic disunity
of the Verb and its Object and the resulting ordering expresses a fairly strong emotion of the
character about the given entity (girls).
Several generalizations can be made on the basis of the analysis presented so far. Firstly,
English being an analytic language meets the requirements of Functional Sentence Perspective by
employing the syntactic transformation of Preposing. Then, the preposed sentence element at
Object is semantically diverse: Recipient, Affected Patient, Source, Range and Phenomenon. Next,
their Preposing and thus thematization is enabled by high degree of contextual familiarity
(recoverable from the preceding clause) and particular discourse purposes. From the
communicative point of view, such patterns are used to indicate a particular linkage of the clause to
the neighbouring clauses in the text, or to build up strength of emotion, or to contrast important
entities/ ideas.
36
PREPOSING THEMATIC INFORMATION IN RELATIONAL PROCESS SENTENCES
As it was mentioned earlier, Relational Process involves two-participants. One of the
Participants which represents an entity is called the Carrier. Another participant which
characterizes or identifies the entity is called Attribute. The function of the Relational Process is to
relate the Carrier to the Attribute (or Identifier or Circumstance), thus it carries less meaning than
do Material and Mental Processes. Relational Process is expressed by verbs of being.
In the present study 73 noncanonical Relational Process sentences were identified. 3 out of
73 were observed following the OSV pattern and 1 case following CVS and 2 cases CSV
noncanonical patterns. In Relational Process sentences with the Recipient Experiencer are most
frequently used as the Themes. In order to differentiate between the Participant Recipient
Experiencer of the Mental Process and that of the Relational Process, the latter will be termed
Experiencer. The thematic participants underwent the syntactic transformation of Preposing and
performed the function of the Object and the Complement.
The pie chart below shows the distribution of the sentences with thematic Objects and
Complements in Relational Process.
Relational Process
3%1%
Sentences based on
OSV(A)
4%
Sentences based on
CSV
Sentences based on
CVS
Other
92%
Figure 5. The distribution of the Relational Process sentences based on OSV(A), CSV and
CVS
In the analyzed stories the Experiencer expressed Given and context-dependent information.
It was a human, though, it can also be a personified inanimate entity; however, there were not such
sentences in the analyzed text. Consider the following examples:
(11)
[After the long hot summer the first cool days had a clean bright sweetness.
Goldenrod grew along the dusty roads, and the sugar cane was ripe and purple. <…>
37
Boys hunted foxes in the pinewoods, winter quilts were aired out on the wash lines, and
sweet potatoes bedded in the ground with straw against the colder months to come. For
Miss Amelia Evans this was a time of great activity. [She was at work from dawn until
sundown. She made a new and bigger condenser for her still, and in one week ran off
enough liquor to souse the whole county.]
(12)
[This trick he always used when he wanted to get something special out of
Miss Amelia,] and to her it was irresistible.
(13)
[Most people were humble and glad about this marvel; they spoke in hushed
voices and said "thank you" and "please" more than was necessary. A few weak characters,
of course, were demoralized and got drunk -- but they were not numerous.] To everyone
this was an occasion.
In example (11), the Experiencer is Given as it denotes the familiar notion in the discourse. It
is definite and carries a low degree of CD. The thematized Participant, as can be seen from the
example, is fully retrievable from the preceding verbal context. As far as the discourse function is
concerned, the Experiencer occupies the early position in the sentence due to the choice of the
writer to express a fairly strong ‘affective’ feeling about the character.
In sentence (12), the Experiencer occupies sentence-initial position to perform the linking
function of the Theme. At the syntactic level it is allotted the function of the Prepositional Object
which is lexically governed as it requires the preposition ‘to’ (irresistible to). Also, it expresses
Given and context-dependent information recoverable from the preceding sentence. Two processes
are linked via a semantic relation of identity; the Participant to her has its co-referent Miss Amelia
in the preceding sentence. From the point of view of the discourse purpose, it serves to express a
close logical relationship to the prior proposition and to greatly emphasize the prominence of a
Participant.
In sentence (13), the preposed constituent to everyone relates to the co-referent most people
via the part/whole semantic relation as in the prior discourse most people, a few weak characters
represent a part and to everyone represents the whole. From the point of view of discourse purpose,
the Experiencer was thematized to expresses the ‘contrastive newness’ (cf. a few weak characters).
Syntactically the Objects were chosen as Themes to express the Performer’s strong feeling about
the person or to greatly enhance the prominence of the Experiencer.
As previously noted, the Attribute can also be assigned the function of the Complement at the
syntactic level and to fulfill the role of the Theme, it is shifted to the beginning of the sentence
which follows the C+S+V pattern. Consider the following example:
38
(14)
[As she jerked off her mittens she saw that her fingers were twitching to the
motion of the fugue she had practiced that morning.<…> That morning, after she had
practiced from six until eight , her dad had made her sit down at the table with the family
for breakfast.<…> Her hands, still twitching unconsciously to the motions of the fugue,
closed over her bony knees.] Tired, she was. [And with a circling, sinking away feeling like
the one that often came to her just before she dropped off to sleep on the nights when she
had overpractised. Like those weary half-dreams that buzzed and carried her out into their
own whirling space.]
The word order in (14) is profoundly marked as the syntactic and semantic unity of the verb
be and its Complement makes “an immutable whole” (Tomlin 1986). The context-dependent
character of the Attribute tired, though, makes it eligible to function as Theme and take sentenceinitial position. The thematized Participant is not explicitly presented in the immediately preceding
context, like in the previous examples, but it is inferable from the wider context, linguistic and
situational, preceding and following. In this case, the communicative principle of word order
obviously worked counter to the grammatical principle which resulted in a strong emotional effect.
It is believed that such an effect was what the writer had aimed at.
Consider one more Relational Process noncanonical sentence:
(15)
To MR. BROOK, the head of the music department at Ryder College, was
due all the credit for getting Madame Zilensky on the faculty. [The college considered itself
fortunate; her reputation was impressive, both as a composer and as a pedagogue.]
This example illustrates an obvious counteracting of the two word order principles:
communicative and grammatical. Despite the tight syntactic and semantic bond in the speech
pattern credit is due to sb, the Compliment is decomposed to thematize one element. As it is the
text-initial sentence, the following context seems to be the only textual support for the meaning of
the sentence. However, the noncanonical order triggers the presupposed preceding context which is
assumed to be: “Let’s talk about Mr. Brook who is the head of the music department at Ryder
College.” The Preposing here determines the contextual status of the Possessor and enhances the
prominence of the Participant role.
In sum, the communicative analysis of Relational Process sentences shows that the
thematization of the Participants of Relational Process resulted in noncanonical word order in
relatively few cases. This can be explained with reference to the strong semantic and syntactic
unity of the main verb and its Compliment and the natural disposition of the language user to think
39
of a Participant first and then say what Process he/she is involved in or what quality could be
ascribed to him/her. The shifts in the word order of the analyzed sentences seem to perform very
distinct discourse functions: the resulting patterns enhanced the strength of the emotion in the
general mood created in the texts as well as contributed to the realization of the writer’s affective
attitude towards the content of the texts.
ANALYSIS OF EXISTENTIAL PROCESS SENTENCES
As noted before, Existential Processes are the Processes of being or existing. The function of
Existential Processes is to state the existence, or coming into existence, of an entity called the
Existent in a given location, i.e. it serves a presentative function of introducing an entity into the
discourse. The research shows that 168 out of 200 Existential Process sentences exhibited the
syntactic structures: (1) ‘dummy’ there + V+ S (89 sentences) (2) ’dummy’ there +V +S+A (14
sentences) , (3) A+ ’dummy there’+ V+S+(A) (43 sentences) and (4) (A)+’dummy
there’+V+A+S+(A) (14 sentences). The structural Subject there enables the notional Existent
Subject to take sentence-final position, the legitimate position of the Rheme.
The pie chart below shows the distribution of the above mentioned constructions in the
Existential Process.
Existential Process
8%
Sentences based on
‘dummy’ there + V+ S
5%
Sentences based on
‘dummy’ there + V+ S+A
26%
Sentences based on A+
’dummy' there+ V+S+(A)
53%
Sentences based on
(A)+’dummy'
there+V+A+S+(A)
8%
Figure 6. The distribution of the Existential Process sentences based on noncanonical
patterns
Consider the examples with ‘dummy’ there + V+ S construction:
(16)
[Emily had laid the children's supper on the uncovered porcelain table.] There
were two plates with the remains of cream-of-wheat and eggs and silver mugs that had
40
held milk. [There was also a platter of cinnamon toast, untouched except for one toothmarked bite.]
(17)
Down by the creek the square brick factory was yellow with light, and there
was the faint, steady hum of the looms. [It was such a night when it is good to hear from
faraway, across the dark fields, the slow song of a Negro on his way to make love.]
(18)
[Ferris recognized his birthday date.]The candles blew out lingeringly and
there was the smell of burning wax. [Ferris was thirty-eight years old.]
The sentence element there is not a Participant here since it does not have a lexical meaning
and serves as introductory. At the syntactic level, it represents a grammatical Subject and is placed
before the verb which makes the pattern look canonical. Two plates and silver mugs in (16), the
faint, steady hum of the looms in (17) and the smell of burning wax in (18) are called ‘logical
subjects’ and are the true Participants. When they are placed at the end of the sentence, the Subject
position is filled with a semantically empty element there.
The given sentences have no Circumstance of Location explicitly realized. However, the
Location in each situation is easily inferable from the given context: two plates and silver mugs are
presented “on the table”; the faint, steady hum of the looms is heard “in the factory”; the smell of
burning wax is felt in one character’s “home”. These Locations are the thematic background which
is not realized on the surface structure of the sentences (Petronienė 2007).
(19)
[He had a very large head, with deep-set blue eyes and a sharp little mouth.
At the moment his pale skin was yellowed by dust]. His face was both soft and sassy and
there were lavendar shadows beneath his eyes. [He carried a lopsided old suitcase which
was tied with a rope].
(20)
[Then with assurance, only to confirm himself, he tilted back his head and
took in the halo of faces around him with one long, circling stare.]There was a half-filled
sack of guano on the left side of the store, and when he had found his bearings in this way,
the hunchback sat down upon it.
(21)
[She opened the door and walked in with her slow, gangling swagger.]
There was a streak of ink on one side of her nose, and she had knotted the red
handkerchief about her neck.
The Given Locations are realized by Adjuncts in sentence-final positions. Although they
perform the function of Theme, the grammatical principle works counter to the communicative
principle of word order and determines their postverbal position in the sentences.
41
When preposed, however, the Circumstances establish a clear link to the preceding text and
effect coherence as well as a smooth text flow. For example,
(22)
[The building looks completely deserted.] Nevertheless, on the second floor
there is one window which is not boarded; [sometimes in the late afternoon when the heat
is at its worst a hand will slowly open the shutter and a face will look down on the town.]
(23)
[These August afternoons -- when your shift is finished there is absolutely
nothing to do; you might as well walk down to the Forks Falls Road and listen to the chain
gang.] However, here in this very town there was once a cafe. [And this old boarded-up
house was unlike any other place for many miles around.]
(24)
[In the face of the most dangerous and extraordinary treatment she did not
hesitate, and no disease was so terrible but what she would undertake to cure it.] In this
there was one exception. [If a patient came with a female complaint she could do nothing.]
The sentences are noncanonical but the ordering is in compliance with the text flow and
theme-rheme perspective. A different effect is felt when Circumstances other than Location are
placed at the beginning of the sentence, but such cases are described in the following chapter. In
this part of the work only Location is considered as it is an inherent element for the Existential
Process and it determines a noncanonical order of words in line with the effect of postposed
rhematized Existent.
A different degree of non-canonicity is reached when the Location is placed in the postverbal
position in the sentence; however, it precedes the notional Subject. Consider the examples below:
(25)
[Where Miss Amelia stood, the light from the chinks of the stove cast a glow,
so that her brown, long face was somewhat brightened. She seemed to be looking inward.]
There was in her expression pain, perplexity, and uncertain joy. [Her lips were not so
firmly set as usual, and she swallowed often.]
(26)
[Cousin Lymon was with her always, traipsing along behind her coat-tails,
and when she watched him her face had a bright, soft look, and when she spoke his name]
there lingered in her voice the undertone of love.
(27)
[He must come to an immediate understanding with her. Otherwise,] there
would exist in the department a situation which could become most problematical.
(28)
[By bedtime the dull, hard anger was like a weight upon his chest and his
feet dragged as he climbed the stairs. <…> Little by little, mysteriously,] there came in
him a change.
42
(29)
[So she had kept the child around the premises all day, giving him licorice
and frequent doses of the Kroup Kure, and toward evening she tied a napkin around his
neck and let him eat his fill of the dinner.] Now as he sat at the table his head wobbled
slowly from side to side and sometimes as he breathed there came from him a little wornout grunt.
The given patterns obviously perform the function of emotional colouring. Moreover, the
emotions receive additional emphasis in comparison to their more common equivalents: “In her
expression there was pain perplexity, and uncertain joy..”, “In her voice there lingered the
undertone of love.” etc. Such ordering modifies there-constructions and seems to give pause before
presenting specific emotions. The Circumstances are Given and context-dependent as the
information is recoverable from the immediately preceding sentences. Given the listing of emotions
and their complexity of combination, it seems especially important for the writer to highlight the
emotions themselves rather than their location.
As seen from the given examples, existential constructions may contain verbs other than ‘be’.
The research data count 11 such instances. When used in Existential sentences, verbs lose their
dynamic quality and function as presentational. The resulting patterns are called presentational
patterns. The chart below shows the distribution of presentational and existential patterns.
5%
Presentational
pattern
Existential
pattern
95%
Figure 7. The distribution of Existential and Presentational patterns
The so-called presentational English verbs often appear in existential constructions without a
“dummy” there. Such cases were observed in the analyzed texts too. Consider:
43
(30)
[A spinner who has thought only of the loom, the dinner pail, the bed, and
then the loom again -- this spinner might drink some on a Sunday and come across a marsh
lily. And in his palm he might hold this flower, examining the golden dainty cup,] and in
him suddenly might come sweetness keen as pain. [A weaver might look up suddenly and
see for the first time the cold, weird radiance of midnight January sky, and a deep fright at
his own smallness stop his heart.]
(31)
[The cafe was already open and Miss Amelia had just finished a period of
work in her office. All the eight tables were occupied] and from the mechanical piano
came a jingling tune.
(32)
[All the tables in the dining room were occupied. There was a party at the
banquet table in the center, and green-white August moths had found their way in from the
night and fluttered about the clear candle flames. <…>] From the main street outside
came the echoes of holiday hysteria. [They claim that in August Saratoga is the wealthiest
town per capita in the world.]
A functional difference between the presence and the absence of there is reflected in the
analyzed sentences. An interesting coinsidence seems to happen that the pattern without there
contains the movement verb come. On the one hand, it could be so because of the relatively limited
data drawn for the analysis; on the other hand, the verb come is instigated by the Circumstance
which expresses the meaning of direction rather than a point in location. In the given situations the
Circumstances seem to presuppose the occurrence of an entity. The pattern A + V + S involves
inclusion in a sequence and presents an entity onto the scene with some emotional charge. It is
important to notice that the Circumstances are contextually bound.
When the presentational pattern contains the verb be, it seems to convey a visual impact on
the reader. The Given Circumstance and the existential verb present an entity without “preparation”
which the pattern with there implies. Consider:
(33)
[It was a fierce and sickly tale the town built up that day.] In it were all the
things which cause the heart to shiver -- a hunchback, a midnight burial in the swamp, the
dragging of Miss Amelia through the streets of the town on the way to prison, the squabbles
over what would happen to her property -- all told in hushed voices and repeated with
some fresh and weird detail.]
(34)
[Now the door to the store was open. Inside it was bright and natural-
looking.] To the left was the counter where slabs of white meat, rock candy, and tobacco
were kept. Behind this were shelves of salted white meat and meal.
44
(35)
[It was there Miss Amelia transacted all business.] On the desk was a
carefully covered typewriter which she knew how to run, but used only for the most
important documents. In the drawers were literally thousands of papers, all filed
according to the alphabet.
(36)
[Mr. Brook met Madame Zilensky at the Westbridge station a week before
the beginning of the fall semester. <…>] With Madame Zilensky were three children,
boys between ages of ten and six, all blond, blank-eyed, and beautiful.
In the given sentences, the Circumstance takes the initial position as the Theme. It expresses
context-dependent information recoverable from the immediately preceding text, more precisely,
from the preceding sentence. The verb which follows the thematic Circumstance is closely
semantically related as they both function to locate the entity and present it onto the scene.
The chart below demonstrates the distribution of existential and presentational sentences
with +there and –there pattern.
Sentences (+there)
Sentences (-there)
16%
84%
Figure 8. The distribution of Existential sentences in terms of pattern types
As can be seen from the chart above, the sentences incorporating inversions with ‘dummy’
there comprise 84% of the existential sentences, while inversions without there were employed
only in 16% of sentences expressing existence.
To summarize the results of the analysis of the Existential Process sentences, existence was
expressed by noncanonical word order patterns. Transformations were caused by the rhematic
character of the Existent and inherent Givenness of the Circumstance of Location. The latter
formed the thematic background of the existential sentence. The preposed Circumstances of
45
Location served to establish a close link of the sentences with the preceding text and to create a
distinct mood by strengthening the emotional colouring.
3.2.2 Analysis of Main Clauses – Sentences with Circumstance Themes
The primary and congruent realization of the Circumstance is the Adjunct that serves to
expand the sentence and can be included into a proposition as a matter of choice, i.e. its
existence or non-existence depends on the speaker’s/writer’s communicative goals.
Circumstances can be expressed by nominal or prepositional groups, non-finite clauses or
subordinate finite clauses. In this study, the focus is taken on Adjuncts denoted by prepositional
groups which are placed early in the sentence. They are thematized Adjuncts and they become
the first element of the event that the Addressee encounters as he/she reads the text-sentence.
The reason why this priority is assigned to the Adjunct depends on the writer as he/she chooses
which element of the sentence should function as the Theme.
There are four reasons why Adjuncts are thematized most frequently: scene-setting,
dramatic effect, evaluation and logical relationship (Fawcet 2008). The analyzed data revealed
that in Material, Happening, Mental, Relational, and Existential Processes. The Circumstances
were thematized more often in comparison with the thematization of Participants in the same
Processes. The Circumstances served as the departing point of the message. They expressed
known information for both speaker and listener, i.e. they were Given and context-dependent.
The current study focuses on the Circumstances expressed by prepositional phrases as they
appeared in a large number of the sentences with thematized Circumstances and performed a
particular discourse function. Being optional in the realization of Processes and flexible
syntactically, the Circumstances at Adjunct were expected to appear at the beginning of the
sentences. However, it was also evident that not all Circumstances have complete freedom to
take any position in the sentence. The Preposing of the Circumstances exhibited different
degrees on non-canonicity in ordering sentence elements.
In the course of the quantitative analysis, it was discovered that the prevailing thematized
Circumstances in all Processes were those of Time, Location and Manner. See the diagram below:
46
141
79
75
74
31
13
3
3
2
2
1
1
Figure 8. The disposition of preposed Circumstances
The minority of thematized Circumstances was comprised of Concession, Cause, Condition,
Purpose, Degree and Measure prepositional phrases.
1%
3% 1%
1% 0%
0%
Time-PP
0%
Time-NP
7%
33%
17%
Location-PP
Manner-PP
Frequency-NP
Concession
18%
19%
Direction-PP
Condition-PP
Cause-PP
Purpose-PP
Degree-PP
Measure-PP
Figure 9. The disposition of Preposed Circumstances
It can be seen from the diagram 8 and chart 9 that 144 sentences (33%) started with
prepositional Time Circumstances, 75 sentences (18%) had prepositional Location Circumstances
in sentence initial position and 74 sentences (17%) were structured with initially positioned
prepositional Manner Circumstances. The said Circumstances were thematized and placed before
the Subject. Consider the examples of prepositional Time Circumstances:
47
(37)
On fine autumn days, she ground sorghum, and the syrup from her vats
was dark golden and delicately flavored. [She built the brick privy behind her store in only
two weeks and was skilled in carpentering.]
(38)
[She possessed great imagination and used hundreds of different cures.]In
the face of the most dangerous and extraordinary treatment she did not hesitate, and no
disease was so terrible but what she would undertake to cure it.
(39)
[The old man still held the collar of the boy's jacket; he was trembling and
his face was earnest and bright and wild.] For six years now I have gone around by
myself and built up my science.
As illustrated in the examples above, the sentence-initial Time Circumstances receive
prominence but do not affect the basic order of main sentence elements. The thematic
Circumstances do not have their co-referents in the preceding context. They take sentence initial
position to mark the transition from one process to another and to some extent emphasize the time.
Being optional, Time Circumstances do not necessarily have to be context-dependent to be chosen
to function as Themes and take sentence initial position. In sentences (37), (38) and (39) the
preposed Time Circumstances served a function of scene setting.
The Circumstances of Location functioned differently. The Circumstances referred to some
place mentioned in the preceding text. They established anaphoric relations to their co-referents.
Such Circumstances expressed Given information as they were retrievable from the prior discourse.
Being context-dependent, they were easily thematized to perform the function of scene-setting.
Consider the following examples:
(40)
[He did not wear trousers such as ordinary men are meant to wear, but a
pair of tight-fitting little knee-length breeches.] On his skinny legs he wore the stockings
and his shoes were of a special kind, being queerly shaped, laced up over the ankles.
(41)
[A spinner who has thought only of the loom, the dinner pail, the bed, and
then the loom again -- this spinner might drink some on a Sunday and come across a marsh
lily.] And in his palm he might hold this flower, examining the golden dainty cup, [and in
him suddenly might come a sweetness keen as pain.]
In (40) and (41), the Location Circumstances on his skinny legs and in his palm do not have
explicit referents in the preceding text but are recoverable from the preceding context. His skinny
legs and his palm represent familiar information as they refer to the parts of the character’s body,
thus this information is Given. To perform the function of the Theme they are placed in sentence-
48
initial position. As the thematized Circumstances of Location, however, they not only set the scene
but also receive prominence. The pattern they are used in canonically requires postverbal use: to
hold sth in one’s palm or to wear sth on one’s legs. Two more examples below demonstrate a
similar emphasis, while the Circumstances do not explicitly create a strong contextual bond:
(42)
[He had chopped off the tails of squirrels in the pinewoods just to please his fancy,]
and in his left hip pocket he carried forbidden marijuana weed to tempt those who were
discouraged and drawn toward death.
(43)
[When the last note had stopped vibrating, he closed the book and deliberately got
up from the chair. He was moving his lower jaw from side to side] -- and between his open
lips she could glimpse the pink healthy lane to his throat and his strong, smoke-yellowed
teeth.
The Circumstances which are shifted towards the beginning of the sentence function as
Themes. They serve to locate the events in place. Besides their main discourse function of linking,
the Circumstances receive emphasis and give pause before the meaning of the sentence is
completed. Such effect is produced due to the change in the canonical word order of the given
patterns: to carry sth in one’s pocket or to see one’s teeth between one’s lips.
The Circumstances of Manner were realized by nominal and prepositional phrases. Nominal
phrases at Adjunct typically take the position between the Subject and the Predicate in the
sentence, while prepositional Adjuncts tend to appear at the end of the sentence. Shifted to the
beginning, the Circumstances of Manner did not affect the order of the main sentence elements but
they changed the order of thought and the dynamics in the flow of information in the text.
Consider:
(44)
[His youth was being frittered by a drunkard's waste, his very manhood
subtly undermined. And the children, once the immunity of incomprehension passed -- what
would it be like in a year or so?] With his elbows on the table, he ate his food brutishly,
untasting.
(45)
[He regarded each person steadily at his own eye-level, which was about
belt line for an ordinary man.] Then with shrewd deliberation he examined each man's
lower regions -- from the waist to the sole of the shoe.
(46)
[Miss Amelia crossed the porch with two slow, gangling strides. She went
down the steps and stood looking thoughtfully at the stranger.] Gingerly, with one long
brown forefinger, she touched the hump on his back.
49
Unlike Circumstances of Location, Circumstances of Manner are often context-independent.
They serve to restrict the Process which, as a rule, initiates the Rheme. Shifted to the beginning of
the sentence, the Circumstance of Manner at Adjunct received emphasis but did not completely
attract the focus. The sentences remained perspectived towards the entity expressed by the final
element in the sentence – as is illustrated in (44), to the other Manner Circumstances of the
situation, and in (45) to the Circumstance of Location. In sentence (46), the preposed
Circumstances of Manner highlight the emotions and create a particular mood but do not reverse
the perspective of the sentence. On the contrary, they give pause to form the emotional background
and then guide the reader to the focus. Such discourse purposes make it possible to modify the
pattern SVOA, although the function of Adjunct is conflated with context-independent information
and lexically governed language units. Separated from the Process by the agentive Participant
constituent in the sentence, the Circumstance of Manner gingerly, with one long brown finger,
loosens its relationship to the Process and establishes a close semantic relationship with the
thematic Agent.
Although Preposing of other types of Circumstances was less frequent, it was worth
analyzing and comparing the selected data. Let’s consider the example below:
(47)
[Two whole shelves were crowded with bottles and various paraphernalia.
Against the wall was a bench where the patients sat. She could sew up a wound with a
burnt needle so that it would not turn green.] For burns she had a cool, sweet syrup.
Sentence (47) illustrates the thematization of the Circumstance of Purpose, i.e. it is shifted to
the sentence initial position. The typical position of such Adjuncts is at the end of the sentence
following the Object. In comparison to the canonical ordering She had a cool, sweet syrup for
burns, the preposed Circumstance of Purpose is given prominence. However, being contextually
bound, it does not attract the focus. On the contrary, it establishes a link to the preceding context
and facilitates the dynamic development of the text.
In (48) below the Circumstance of Direction is thematized.
(48)
[It had grown late.] The red winter sun was setting, and to the west the sky
was deep gold and crimson. [Ragged chimney swifts flew to their nests; lamps were
lighted. Now and then there was the smell of smoke, and the warm rich odor of the
barbecue slowly cooking in the pit behind the cafe.]
50
Structurally, Adjuncts of Direction are less tend to take an initial position in an unemphatic
sentence. This can be accounted for the reason that Adjuncts of Direction as compared to Adjuncts
of place, time, reason, etc. are compulsory or structurally indispensible elements of the sentence.
However, the example (48) demonstrates that Circumstances of Direction were shifted to the
preverbal position to set a scene and to express a logical relationship with the earlier proposition,
so that the logical relationship between the current clause and the preceding sentence is clear to the
addressee.
The Circumstances of Concession were thematized by means of Preposing in 13 clauses. The
resulting patterns can be accounted for by the writer’s desire to render the text more cohesive. The
Circumstances of Concession at Adjunct established anaphoric relations to their co-referents in the
preceding text. Preposing was felicitous as the Circumstances expressed Given information. The
retrievability span was short, i.e. the information was retrievable from the preceding sentence.
Consider the following examples:
(49)
[She would have been rich as a congressman if it were not for her one great
failing, and that was her passion for lawsuits and the courts. She would involve herself in
long and bitter litigation over just a trifle. It was said that if Miss Amelia so much as
stumbled over a rock in the road she would glance around instinctively as though looking
for something to sue about it.] Aside from these lawsuits she lived a steady life and every
day was very much like the day that had gone before.
(50)
[Now the names of the men of the group there on[Now the names of the men
of the group there on that evening were as follows: Hasty Malone, Robert Calvert Hale,
Merlie Ryan, Reverend T. M. Willin, Rosser Cline, Rip Wellborn, Henry Ford Crimp, and
Horace Wells.] Except for Reverend Willin, they are all alike in many ways as has been
said -- all having taken pleasure from something or other, all having wept and suffered
in some way, most of them tractable unless exasperated.
(51)
[The name Marvin Marcy was unknown to him, but it tantalized him as did
any mention of subjects which others knew about and of which he was ignorant --such as
any reference to the old sawmill that had been torn down before he came, or a chance word
about poor Morris Finestein, or the recollection of any event that had occurred before his
time.] Aside from this inborn curiosity, the hunchback took a great interest in robbers
and crimes of all varieties.
Sentences (49), (50) and (51) clearly show that Concession is semantically peripheral to the
Process. Neither semantic, nor syntactic unity seems to be interfered. However, the preposing of
51
this type of Circumstances added a dramatic effect to the described events. The stylistic function
which the resulting pattern performs is evident.
Consider one more example with the preposed Circumstance which illustrates the two
discourse functions performed by the resulting pattern:
(52)
[To begin with she had no patience with any traveling; those who had made the trip
to Atlanta or traveled fifty miles from home to see the ocean -- those restless people she
despised. Going to Atlanta does no credit to him. He has been to the penitentiary, said the
hunchback, miserable with longing. How are you going to argue against such envies as
these?] In her perplexity Miss Amelia did not herself sound any too sure of what she was
saying. [Been to the penitentiary, Cousin Lymon? Why, a trip like that is no travel to brag
about. During these weeks Miss Amelia was closely watched by everyone. She went about
absent-mindedly, her face remote as though she had lapsed into one of her gripe trances.]
The Circumstance of Cause in (52) is not Given explicitly but it is inferable from the context
of two preceding paragraphs: “But why? Miss Amelia would ask, staring at him with her crossed,
gray eyes, and her fists closed tight.”, “Miss Amelia would shake her head and her face was dark
and hardened.” Expressed by a prepositional Adjunct, the Circumstance sets an emotional
background to the message and by taking sentence initial position, it highlights the character’s
inner state. The shift to the beginning of the sentence is structurally acceptable as Circumstances of
Cause are optional and lexically independent in the sentence. Some degree of canonicity is
reached; however, as the preposed sentence element gives pause before the whole message is
completed and thus adds an emotional charge to the text.
In sum, Circumstances do not make part of the core of the clause. They are peripheral,
optional elements which make them syntactically more movable and flexible than the main
elements of the clause. However, as mentioned earlier, Circumstances do not appear in the
sentences randomly. The present analysis showed that in a number of cases their position in the
sentence was vital in completion of the meaning or in performing a particular discourse function of
the whole syntactic pattern. It is also true that a certain percentage of the sentences had
Circumstances at the beginning of the sentence to naturally present familiar information before a
relatively unfamiliar one. In regard to the Circumstance expressed by sentence initial Adjuncts it
was observed that the analysed patterns evoked various degrees of non-canonicity. A further
research is needed to establish correlations between Preposing of Circumstances and noncanonical
effects it exerts.
52
Summing up the analysis of the noncanonical word order patterns used in Carson McCullers’
short stories, it remains to evaluate the data statistically. The patterns with preposed Circumstances
outnumber the instances of preposed Participants. The semantic and syntactic unity of the verb and
its object or compliment prevents syntactic movement. However, the analysis shows that instances
of using such noncanonical word order patterns made it possible to produce a variety of discourse
functions.
The pie chart below shows the percentage of the thematized Participants as well as the
thematized Circumstances in the Processes presented in the thesis.
4%
Sentences with
Participants as
Themes
Sentences with
Circumstances as
Themes
96%
Figure 10. The distribution of the sentences with Participants and Circumstances as Themes
The chart below shows the the distribution of noncanonical word order patterns submitted for
the analysis.
3%
23%
Sentences based on
O+S+V+(A)
12%
Sentences based on
A+V+S+(A)
Sentences based on
A+S+V+(A)
2%
Sentences basen on
(A)+V+A+S+(A)
Other
60%
Figure 11. The distribution of sentences based on OSV, AVS, ASV and VAS
53
As can be seen from the pie chart above, the principal noncanonical word order pattern was
ASV as it comprises 60%. It was selected as noncanonical when Adverbials expressed
Circumstances dependent on verb valency. Such cases were characteristic of Material and
Relational Processes. The other patterns were AVS (12 %), OSV (3%) and VAS (2%). The
noncanonical word order pattern OSV was used to realize Material, Relational, and Mental
Processes. AVS and VAS were typical of Existential Process sentences.
54
CONCLUSIONS
The linguistic evidence drawn from the communicative analysis of noncanonical declarative
sentences allows us to make the following conclusions:
1. Noncanonical word order patterns are used in the realization of different Processes.
However, the frequency of occurrence of such patterns with regard to Processes varied. A large
number of Existential Process type sentences can be explained with reference to the functional
peculiarities of the components of the Process: the Existent Subject tends to take sentence final
position to function as Rheme, while inherently thematic Location can appear at the beginning of
the sentence. Few instances of noncanonical word order in the realization of Happening or no
instances of Verbal Processes point to the valency characteristics of the verbs used to express such
Processes.
2. One of the causes of noncanonical ordering of sentence elements is thematization by
means of Preposing. The preposed elements are semantically diverse. However, different types of
Circumstances outnumber Participant types. This can be explained by the difference in their
semantic and syntactic functions. The Participant Objects are semantically and syntactically more
tightly bound to the main verb of Process than the Circumstantial Adjuncts are
3. The syntactic unity of the main verb and its Object can be interfered when the Object
expresses information of high familiarity. Givenness was inferred from a very short retrievability
span – in most cases it was one clause long.
4. Preposed Circumstances vary in the degree of noncanonicity they evoke. Degrees cannot
be estimated by artificially created measurement but can be recognized when comparing structural
peculiarities of Circumstances, their semantic involvement in the Process and their contextual
boundness.
5. Patterns with preposed Participants at Object are used to mark the strength of emotion,
contrast and a shift of the mood in the text.
6. Patterns with preposed Circumstances are used to provide direct linkage with a preceding
text, to provide circumstantial framework or to support a dynamic development of the text.
Due to the scope of the research data, the conclusions cannot be viewed as final. Further
research can include more authors, various genres and different methods, for example, a contrastive
analysis of English and other languages.
55
SANTRAUKA
Pagal sakinio aktualiosios skaidos (AS) teoriją konkrečiame kontekste vieni sakinio
elementai komunikaciniu požiūriu yra svarbesni negu kiti. Kalbos vartotojas yra natūraliai linkęs
sakinį pradėti nuo to, kas žinoma jam kaip kalbėtojui ar rašytojui ir jo klausytojui ar skaitytojui ir
baigti sakinį informacija, kuri yra svarbiausia. Tokia nuostata verčia kalbos vartotoją transformuoti
vadinamą gramatinį sakinio modelį Veiksnys+Tarinys+Papildinys. Kitaip tariant, komunikacijos
procese sintaksinio lygmens uždavinys yra „rasti“ tinkamą sakinio modelį ir jį aktualizuoti.
Šiame darbe yra tiriamos anglų kalbos sintaksinės galios sudaryti įvairias sintaksines
struktūras, kurios geriausiai gali atspindėti sakinio turinį ir komunikacinį tikslą. Tiriamajai
medžiagai pasirinkti amerikiečių rašytojos Carson McCaullers apsakymai.
Pagrindinis tyrimo objektas – teksto sakinys, kurio žodžių tvarka yra kita negu gramatinio
sakinio modelio Veiksnys+Tarinys+Papildinys. Tiriamąją medžiagą sudaro 649 tokie sakiniai.
Palyginus su pradinės analizės medžiaga (3626 sakiniai), aiškiai matyti tirinėjamos kalbos tipas ir
ypatybė sakinį sudaryti, remiantis gramatiniu žodžių tvarkos principu. Tačiau ir nedidelis atrinktų
sakinių procentas parodė, kaip gali kisti tipinė įprasta anglų kalbos sakinio žodžių tvarka.
Kominikacinę funkcinę sakinių analizę sudarė keli etapai. Pirmiausia sakiniai buvo aprašomi
semantiškai. Sakinio semantinė struktūra įvertinama AS požiūriu. Komunikacinė sakinio struktūra
buvo siejama su sintaksine struktūra. Sintaksinė struktūra rodė, kaip realizuojamas sakinio turinys,
tačiau jo konkretų modelį suprantama lemė komunikacinė sakinio intensija. Pastebėta, kad tiriamų
sakinių žodžių tvarką dažniausiai lėmė teminami semantiniai elementai, iškeliant juos į sakinio
pradžią, arba kitaip tariant, atliekant temos preposiciją (angl. Preposing).
Nagrinėjant
Egzistencinius sakinius buvo atsižvelgta į sakinio elementų nukėlimą į sakinio pabaigą, tačiau
reminimo proceso įtaka žodžių tvarkai sakinyje šiame darbe tiriama nebuvo.
Tyrimas parodė, kad teminimas, iškeliant sintaksinį vienetą į sakinio pradžią, vyksta aprašant
įvairius semantinius procesus. Tačiau ‚transformuotas‘ gramatinis sakinio modelis dažniausiai
buvo pasirinktas, išreiškiant Egzistencinius ir Darybinius procesus, ir labai retai – Įvykio ir
Verbalinius procesus. Manytina, kad tam didelės įtakos turėjo vartojamų veiksmažodžių
valentingumo savybės.
Anglų kalboje įprastinė Papildinio vieta sakinyje yra po Tarinio. Po Tarinio įpastai eina ir
dauguma Adjunktų. Teminant Dalyvius ir/arba Aplinkybes, jie buvo iškeliami į sakinio pradžią,
nekeičiant jų vyraujančio sintaksinio vaidmens, t.y. sakiniai buvo sudaromi pradedant Papildiniu
arba Adjunktu. Statistiškai Papildiniu pradėtų sakinių tiriamojoje medžiagoje buvo mažiau (4%)
negu Adjunktu (96%). Daroma išvada, kad žodžių tvarkos įvairavimą smarkiai riboja kalbos
polinkis pagrečiui vartoti Tarinį ir jo Papildinį. Šis sintaksinis ryšys yra tiesioginis ir sunkiai
56
pertraukiamas. Visgi, Papildinys poziciškai buvo atskiriamas nuo Tarinio, sąlygojant kalbinės
situacijos ir stilistinių motyvų. Tokiu atveju Papildinio funkciją atliekantis elementas išreiškė
informaciją, žinomą iš ankstesnio teksto, tiksliau, iš prieš tai einančio sakinio. Taigi, Papildinio
iškėlimas į sakinio pradžią smarkiai sąlygojamas glaudaus kontekstinio ryšio.
Į sakinio pradžią iškelti Adjunktai taip pat išreiškė žinomą informaciją, tačiau jų ryšys su
ankstesniu tekstu buvo nevienodas. Todėl galima teigti, kad Aplinkybių raiškai kontekstas nebuvo
toks aktualus kaip Dalyvių. Aplinkybė yra periferinis sakinio elementas. Jos funkcija yra tikslinti
Procesą arba tai, kas išreiškiama sakinio branduoliu. Šiuo atžvilgiu Aplinkybės sintaksinis ryšys su
kitais elementais yra netiesioginis ir leidžia Adjunktams užimti įvairias pozicijas sakinyje. Tačiau
kaip parodė tyrimas, Aplinkybių raiška nėra visiškai laisva. Manytina, reikėtų skirti vadinamus
„pereinamuosius“ atvejus, kai sakinio pradžioje išreikšta Aplinkybė atlieka ne tik jungiamąją
funkciją, bet ir sukuria stilistinių atspalvių. Įprastinėse kalbinėse situacijose tokios Aplinkybės būtų
išreiškiamos Adjunktu, einančiu po Tarinio.
Tiriant žodžių tvarkos įvairavimo atvejus, buvo siekiama įvertinti ir diskursinį žodžių tvarkos
modelių vaidmenį. Tyrimas parodė, kad įprasta žodžių tvarka yra keičiama, siekiant ne tik teksto
rišlumo, bet ir dinamiško minčių dėstymo, kontrastinės raiškos ir emocinio spalvingumo.
Šio darbo rėmuose tiriamosios medžiagos apimtis leidžia daryti preliminarias išvadas.
Tikslinga būtų tęsti komunikacinę analizę, įtraukiant tekstus, sudarytus įvairių angliakalbių autorių.
Išsamesniam žodžių tvarkos modelių aprašymui padėtų žanrų įvairovė, taip pat ir gretinamojo
pobūdžio komunikacinės tekstų analizės.
57
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Downing, A. 1991. An Alternative approach to theme: A systemic functional
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