 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
117
"I can't bring along someone who isn't invited."- "But I am invited!" said Miss Casement (I. Murdoch).
Moreover, being a
highly intelligent young woman, she'd be careful not to be the only one affected (A.
Christie).
However, it would be utterly incorrect to think that in such instances only those word-units are logically, i.e.
rhematically, marked out as are stressed phonetically. As a matter of fact, functional elements cannot express
any self-dependent nomination; they do not exist by themselves, but make up units of nomination together with
the notional elements of utterances whose meanings they specify. Thus, the phrasal phonetical stress,
technically making prominent some functional element, thereby identifies as rhematic the corresponding
notional part ("knot") of the utterance as a whole. It is such notional parts that are real members of the
opposition "theme - rheme", not their functional constituents taken separately. As for the said functional
constituents themselves, these only set up specific semantic bases on which the relevant rhematic antitheses are
built up.
§ 6. The actual division, since it is effected upon the already produced nominative sentence base providing
for its contextually relevant manifestation, enters the predicative aspect of the sentence. It makes up part of
syntactic predication, because it strictly meets the functional purpose of predication as such, which is to relate
the nominative content of the sentence to reality (see. Ch. XXI). This predicative role of the actual division
shows that its contextual relevance is not reduced to that of a passive, concomitant factor of expression. On the
contrary, the actual division is an active means of expressing functional meanings, and, being organically
connected with the context, it is not so much context-governed as it is context-governing: in fact, it does build
up concrete contexts out of constructional sentence-models chosen to reflect different situations and events.
One of the most important manifestations of the immediate contextual relevance of the actual division is the
regular deletion (ellipsis) of the thematic parts of utterances in dialogue speech. By this syntactic process, the
rheme of the utterance or its most informative part (peak of informative perspective) is placed in isolation,
thereby being graphically presented to the listener. Cf.:
"You've got the letters?"-
"In my bag" (G.W. Target). "How did you receive him?"-
"Coldly" (J.
Galsworthy).
In other words, the thematic reduction of sentences in the context, resulting in a constructional economy of
speech, performs an informative function in parallel with the logical accent: it serves to accurately identify the
rheme of the utterance.
C H A P T E R XXIII
COMMUNICATIVE TYPES OF SENTENCES
§ 1. The sentence is a communicative unit, therefore the primary classification of sentences must be based
on the communicative principle. This principle is formulated in traditional grammar as the "purpose of
communication".
The purpose of communication, by definition, refers to the sentence as a whole, and the structural features
connected with the expression of this sentential function belong to the fundamental, constitutive qualities of the
sentence as a lingual unit.
In accord with the purpose of communication three cardinal sentence-types have long been recognized in
linguistic tradition: first, the declarative sentence; second, the imperative (inducive) sentence; third, the
interrogative sentence. These communicative sentence-types stand in strict opposition to one another, and their
inner properties of form and meaning are immediately correlated with the corresponding features of the
listener's responses.
Thus, the declarative sentence expresses a statement, either affirmative or negative, and as such stands in
systemic syntagmatic correlation with the listener's responding signals of attention, of appraisal (including
agreement or disagreement), of fellow-feeling. Cf.:
"I think," he said, "that Mr. Desert should be asked to give us his reasons for publishing that poem." - "Hear,
hear!" said the K.C. (J. Galsworthy). "We live very quietly here, indeed we do; my niece here will tell you the
same." - "Oh, come, I'm not such a fool as that," answered the squire (D. du Maurier).
The imperative sentence expresses inducement, either affirmative or negative. That is, it urges the listener,
in the form of request or command, to perform or not to perform a certain action. As such, the imperative
sentence is situationally connected with the corresponding "action response" (Ch. Fries), and lingualiy is
systemically correlated with a verbal response showing that the inducement is either complied with, or else
rejected. Cf:.