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sentence. The reciprocal nature of this connection consists in the fact that the subject dominates the predicate
determining the person of predication, while the predicate dominates the subject, determining the event of
predication, i.e. ascribing to the predicative person some action, or state, or quality. This difference in meaning
between the elements of predication, underlying the mutually opposite directions of domination, explains the
seeming paradox of the notion of reciprocal domination, exposing its dialectic essence. Both directions of
domination in a predicative group can be demonstrated by a formal test.
The domination of the subject over the predicate is exposed by the reflective character of the verbal
category of person and also the verbal category of number which is closely connected with the former.
The English grammatical forms of explicit subject-verb agreement (concord) are very scarce (the inflexion
marking the third person singular present, and some special forms of the verb be). Still, these scarce forms are
dynamically correlated with the other, grammatically non-agreed forms. Cf.: he went - he goes - -I went -I go.
But apart from the grammatical forms of agreement, the predicative person is directly reflected upon the
verb-predicate as such; the very semantics of the person determines the subject reference of the predicative
event (action, state, quality). Thus, the subject unconditionally dominates over the predicate by its specific
substantive categories in both agreed, and non-agreed forms of predicative connection.
As for the predicate dominating the subject in its own sphere of grammatical functions, this fact is dearly
demonstrated by the correlation of the sentence and the corresponding noun-phrase. Namely, the transformation
of the sentence into the noun-phrase places the predicate in the position of the head-word, and the subject, in
the position of the adjunct. Cf.:
The train arrived. >The arrival of the train.
Alongside fully predicative groupings of the subject and the finite verb-predicate, there exist in language
partially predicative groupings formed by a combination of a non-finite verbal form (verbid) with a substantive
element. Such are infinitival, gerundial, and participial constructions.
The predicative person is expressed in the infinitival construction by the prepositional for-phrase, in the
gerundial construction by the possessive or objective form of the substantive, in the participial construction by
the nominative (common) form of the substantive. Cf:.
The pupil understands his mistake >for the pupil to understand his mistake> the pupil's) understanding his
mistake > the pupil understanding his mistake.
In the cited semi-predicative (or potentially-predicative) combinations the "event "-expressing element is
devoid of the formal agreement with the "person"-expressing element, but the two directions of domination
remain valid by virtue of the very predicative nature of the syntactic connection in question (although presented
in an incomplete form).
Thus, among the syntagmatic connections of the reciprocal domination the two basic subtypes are
distinguished: first, complete predicative connections, second, incomplete predicative connections (semi-
predicative, potentially-predicative connections).
§ 6. The completive, one-way connection of words (monolateral domination) is considered as subordinative
on the ground that the outer syntactic status of the whole combination is determined by the kernel element
(head-word). Cf:.
She would be reduced to a nervous wreck. >She would be reduced to a wreck. > She would be reduced.
That woman was astonishingly beautiful. >That woman was beautiful.
In the cited examples the head-word can simply be isolated through the deletion of the adjunct, the
remaining construction being structurally complete, though schematic. In other cases, the headword cannot be
directly isolated, and its representative nature is to be exposed, for instance, by diagnostic questions. Cf.:
Larry greeted the girl heartily. > Whom did Larry greet? > How did Larry greet the girl?
The questions help demonstrate that the verb is presupposed as the kernel in its lines of connections, i.e.
objective and adverbial ones.
All the completive connections fall into two main divisions: objective connections and qualifying
connections.
Objective connections reflect the relation of the object to the process and are characterized as, on the whole,
very close. By their form these connections are subdivided into non-prepositional (word-order, the objective
form of the adjunct substantive) and prepositional, while from the semantico-syntactic point of view they are