王萍
(河南交通职业技术学院人文社科系河南郑州450005)
中图分类号：H31文献标识码：A文章编号：41-1413（2011）11-0000-01
abstract
RecentlyLinguisticsinEnglishdevelopquickly,soitisveryimportantforthestudy
Thepapermainlystudiesthestructureofsentencestructure,sentencebysubject,themainverb,object,etc..Inthecourseofthestudy,comprisingmoreclearlyhowthewords,thewordsofwhatconstitutesasentence,thesentenceofwhatconstitutesacomplexsentence.SimpleEnglishsentence,thesentenceisthemostcommonandcomplexsentences,themostimportantofthetwogroups,thelinksbetweenresearchpapersandthemaincontentisdefinedbythearticle,sothatwecanunderstandthem.Second,thecompositionofthesentence,wemustpaymoreattentiontosomeofthemistakesindailylifeeasier.Ialsosummarizedanumberofarticlesthathelpusremoveillnesses.Finally,thetextoftheideologicalthemefinalized
Keyword:infinitivephrase,verbphrase,simplesentence,complexsentence
Englishsentencestructure
Ⅰ．Sentencestructure
Sentencesaremadeupofparticularelementswhichareorderedinparticularways.Theresourceslistedbelowexplainsomeofthebasicrulesthatdeterminetheuseofthedifferentelementsinconstructingsentences.Theresourcesalsogiveyouopportunitiestopracticeusingtherulestoconstructcorrectsentencesyourself.
ⅰ.Asentenceneedsamainverb.
ⅱ.Theindependentclausesinthesentenceneedtobejoinedbyaconjunction.
ⅲ.Acommaalonecannotjointwoindependentclausesinasentence.
Ⅱ．Inthissection,weshalllookatthewayinwhichwordsarecombinedtogethertoformphrases,phrasesarecombinedtogethertoformclauses,andclausesarecombinedtogethertoformcomplexsentences.
Ittellsusisthattheoverallphrasehelpyouisverbphrase(vp),andthatitcomprisetheverbhelpandthepronominaldeterminer(d)youisthecomplement(orobject)oftheverbhelp.Theoperationbywhichthetwowordsarecombinedtogetheriscalledmerger.
Althoughwehaveusedthetraditionallabeledbracketingtechniquetorepresentthestructureoftheverbphrasehelpyouin(4),analternativewayofrepresentingthestructureofphrasesisintermsofalabeledtreediagramsuchas(5)below(whichisabitlikeafamilytreediagramalbeitforasmallfamily):
VP
||
VD
||
Helpyou
Thetreediagramin(5)isentirelyequivalenttothelabeledbracketingin(4),inthesensethattwoprovideuswithpreciselythesameinformationaboutthestructureofthephrasehelpyou:so,(5)-like(4)-tellsusthathelpisaverb,youisa(pronominal)determiner,andhelpyouisaverbphrase.Thedifferencesbetweenalabeledbracketinglike(4)andatreediagramlike(5)arepurelynotational:eachcategoryisrepresentedbyasinglenodeinatreediagram,butbyapairofbracketsinalabeledbracketing.
Wemightgeneralizeourdiscussionof(5)inaninterestingwayatthispointandhypothesizethatphrasesareformedinessentiallythesamewayasthephrasein(5),namelybymerging(i.e.combining)twocategoriestogethertoformalargercategory.Inthecaseof(5),theresultingphraseisformedbymergeringtwowords.However,notallphrasescontainjusttwowords-asweseeifwelookatthestructureofB’sutterancein(6)below:
(6)SPEAKERSA:What’syourmainaim?
SPEARKERB:Tohelpyou
Thephrasein(60wouldseemtobeformedbymergingtheinfinitiveparticletowiththeverbhelpyou.What’stheheadoftheresultingphrasetohelpyou?Areasonableguesswouldbethattheheadistheinfinitiveparticleto,sothattheresultingstring(i.e.sequenceofwords)tohelpyouisaninfinitivephrase.Thisbeingso,we’dexpecttofindthatinfinitivephraseshaveadifferentdistributionfromverbphrasesandindeedthisdoesseemtobethecase,assentencessuchas(7)and(8)belowillustrate:
(7)[wepoliticians]aretryingtobetterourselves
Here,thesubject/specifierofareisthebracketedDP(determinerphrase)wepoliticians,anditistheheadwordofthisphrase(i.e.thedeterminerwe)whichisfirstpersonnominativeplural.In(16),thesubjectexpressionisWe,therequirementforaretohaveasecondpersonorpluralnominativesubjectisclearlymetin(16).Moregenerally,thecomplement-featureofaworddescribeitscomplement-selectionproperties,andineffectsay”requiresasitscomplementanexpressionwhoseheadwordcarriesthehead-feature[…]”;andthespecifier-featuresofawordineffectsay”requiresasitssubjectanexpressionwhoseheadwordcarriesthehead-feature[…].”
Thehead-featuresofinfinitivaltoindicatethatitisaninfinitiveparticle;itsspecifier-featuresallowittobeusedwithoutanyovertspecifier/subject;anditscomplement-featuresindicatethatitselectsacomplementheadedbyaverbinits(uninflected)infinitiveform.SincethecomplementoftohereistheVPhelpyouandthisisheadedbytheinfinitivalverbformhelp,thecomplement-selectionrequirementsoftoaremethere.
Let’sassumethatthesyntacticstructuresgenerated(i.e.produced)bymergingpairsofcategoriestogetherareusedasthebasisforcomputingtwotypesofstructuralrepresentationforasentence:arepresentationofitsphoneticform(apf-representation),andarepresentationofitslogicalform(anLF-representation).Insimpleterms,thePF-representationofasentencetellsushowitispronounced,anditsLF-representationdescribeslinguisticaspectsofitsmeaning,Let’susfurthersupposethatsomegrammaticalfeaturesareinterpretable(atLF)byvirtureofhavingsemanticcontent,whereasothersareuninterpretable(atLF)byvirtureofhavingnosemanticcontent,andthatLF-representationsmaycontainonly(semantically)interpretablefeatures.
Ourdiscussionofbindinghereprovidescrucialevidenceinsupportofthesuppumptionthatsentenceshavethekindofsyntacticstructurerepresentedbytreediagramslike(7)and(8).Thereasonisthattherestrictiononbindingdescribedin(10)isonewhichcruciallyinvolvesthestructurerelationc-commandandthisrelationisdefinedintermsoftherelativestructuralpositionsoccupiedbytheanaphoranditsantecedent.Thefactthatrestrictionsonthebindingofanaphorscanbegivenastraightforwardcharacterizationinstructuraltermsprovidesstrongsupportforourclaimthatsentenceshaveahierarchicalconstituentstructure.
Ⅲ.SomeavoidableproblemswithSentenceStructure
ⅰ.KeepingSentencesClear
ⅱ.MisplacedAdjectiveClausescanbeconfusing.
ⅲ.Recognizingdanglingwordgroups
ⅳ.ParallelConstruction
ⅴ.Avoiding"IsWhen"and"IsWhere"problems.
ⅵ.Ambiguouspronouns
ⅶ.IncorrectOmission
ⅷ.Faultycomparisons
ⅸ.RemovingDeadwood.
Bibliography
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作者：王萍，女，河南交通职业技术学院人文社科系教师。