Ministry of higher and secondary education of the republic of uzbekistan karakalpak state university

Lecture #10
Theme: The order of the Parts of the Sentence
Problems for discussion:

1. 
   The order of words within a phrase
   
2. 
   The order of parts of sentence within a sentence
   
3. 
   Inverted order of words or inversion
   

1. 
   Full inversion
   
2. 
   Partial inversion
   
3. 
   Inversion required by the grammatical structure of a giver type of a sentence
   
4. 
   Inversion is the resnet of emphasis
   

4. 
   The position of the subject and Predicate in the sentence
   
5. 
   The position of the object in the sentence
   
6. 
   The position of an attribute as a part of the sentence
   
7. 
   The position of adverbial modifiers in the sentence
   

1. 
   In inflected languages, such as the Russian, Karakalpak, case inflexions serve to indicate the various syntactical functions of nouns in the sentence. The nominative case is the case of the subject, the accusative case is the case of the direct object. The English language has lost almost all case inflexions and the form of the common case of the noun no longer discriminates its syntactical function, as a result of the disappearance of case forms, modern English has developed a rather fixed and rigid word order to indicate the various syntactical functions of the word in the sentence. In a declarative sentence the subject precedes verb, example, he left last night; The moon was shining brightly;
   
2. 
   To illustrate this we shall try to change the first place and he subject In the third place, the meaning of the sentence will change altogether because the object, being placed at the head of the sentence, becomes the subject and the subject, being placed of term the predicate, becomes the object, example, The little boy sent to the next shop.
   

In Karakalpak such changes of word order are in most cases possible, example, Lola kishkene balani arjag’indag’I du’kang’a jiberdi. Arjag’indag’I du’kang’a kishkene balani lola jiberdi.
Because of the absence of case distinctions word order is practically the only means of distinguishing between the subject and the direct object.
The above sentence may serve as an example of direct word order in an English declarative sentence: the subject + the predicate+ the object+ the adverbial modifier.

3. 
   Sometimes the usual order of the predicate verb is changed: the predicate verb is placed before that is changed: the predicate verb is placed before the subject. Such word order is called inversion or inverted order of words.
   

When inversion takes place either the whole predicate verb is put before the subject is called full inversion for example. In rushed the children.
Through the open window came the sounds of a plane. When only the auxiliary or modal verb is put before the subject such inversion is called partial inversion, for example, no sooner had we reached home than it began pouring. Have you ever visited that place?
Inversion may be required by the grammatical structure of a given type of sentence. In interrogative sentences the finite verb must, as a rule, precede the subject: Is he at home? Has she come?
The same word order is obligatory for a subordinate clause of unreal condition when the conjunction if is omitted:
Had I time, I should gladly lo, were he not so busy. He would help us.
Inversion may be the result of emphasis. When some word in the sentence is put in a prominent position to make it emphatic, the structure of the sentence may required an inverted order of subject and predicate verb, for example: never has she sung so beautifully. Out rushed the children.

4. 
   When we discuss the problem of the order of the parts of the sentence the first question in this sphere is that of the relative position of subject and predicate. There are only two possible variants of their mutual position (subject + predicate, predicate + subject). This question has given rise to many discussions and different opinions have been expressed in the matter.
   

In the light of these discussions we can now state that the main problem is this: should one of the two possible orders be taken to be the general norm of a modern English sentence, so that all cases of the opposite order come to be regarded as deviations from it, or should the normal order be stated for every type of sentence in particular?
If we take the first view, we shall say that the normal order in English is “subject + predicate”, and every case of the order “predicate + subject” is to be considered as a deviation, that is, as an inversion. This has been the common view put forward in most grammars until recently.
If we take the second view, in the first place, distinguish between declarative and interrogative sentences. The normal order in declarative sentences will of course be “subject + predicate”, but the normal order in interrogative sentences will be “predicate + subject”. Speaking of interrogative sentences, therefore, we will not say that there is any inversion in these sentences.
We will take the second view, which has recently been very convincingly advanced in several special papers. This is justified by the following simple considerations. If we take, for example, the sentence only at sunset did I leave the house, in which part of the predicate (the auxiliary verb do) comes before the subject, we have every reason to say that this order in a declarative sentence is due to the particle only coming at the beginning of the sentence. If it were not for the particle there would be the order “subject + predicate”, which is the normal order in a declarative sentence, example, At sunset I left the house. The use of the particle, which gives special prominence to the adverbial modifier at sunset, to which it belongs, has caused the change of the usual declarative order, hand, if we take an interrogative sentence like the following: When did he leave the house? Here we cannot say that the order “to be more exact, part of the “predicate + subject” is due to any special word being used in it. Even if we exclude the adverbial modifier when, which is essential for the meaning of the sentence, we shall get the sentence Did he leave the house? The order cannot be changed without the sentence ceasing to be interrogative and becoming declarative.

There is a type of declarative sentence in which the order “predicate + subject” is normal. There are sentences stating the existence or the appearance of something in a certain place. The most widely known type of such sentences is the one beginning with words There is (are), There came, There appear, and others of the same kind and also sentences without there, beginning with an adverbial modifier, mostly denoting place, and followed by the predicate and the subject. The verbs most usually found in such sentences are, sit, stand, that is verbs indicating the position of a body in space.

For example: there came a thunderstorm; on the terrace stood a knot of distinguished visitors; on the corner, waiting for a bus, has stood a young woman.
The term “inversion” has sometimes been used to denote an unusual position of a secondary part of the sentence, that is, of an object, or an adverbial modifier. That is undesirable, since it might lead to misunderstandings and seriously hamper study of word order. It is illustrated in the following two sentences: This he knew very well. A pretty did we build for ourselves.
In these two sentences the object stands at the beginning, which is not its usual place. After this, in the first sentence, come the subject and predicate in their normal order for a declarative sentence, where as in the second sentence the predicate comes before the subject. It is natural to say that in the first sentence this is no inversion. While in the second sentence there is one, inversion. Now, if we were to use the term “inversion” for every case of the object occupying an unusual place, we have to say that in the first sentence also there is inversion, which would certainly lead to confusion. We will therefore not apply the term “inversion” to a secondary part of the sentence.
It is well known that the usual place of the object is after the predicate, and if there are two objects in a sentence, their order is fixed. If they are, both non prepositional, the indirect object comes first and the direct object comes next: she gave him an interesting book to read; she bought him a tog on his birthday.
If one of them (the objects) is prepositional it comes after the non-prepositional: I sent him to his mother.
The tendency to place the object immediately after the predicate verb should not be taken as an absolute law: some other part of the sentence of ten does come in between the predicate verb and its object.
The position of adverbial modifiers in the sentence is comparatively freer than that of other parts. However, there is some difference here between types of modifiers. They come between the subject and the predicate. Occasionally and adverbial modifier of frequency will appear at the beginning of the sentence. On the other hand, an adverbial modifier of another type appears between subject and predicate: Catherine for a few moments, was motionless with horror.
The more usual position of the adverbial modifiers of time and place is outside the group “subject + predicate + object”, that is, either before or after it. Which of the two variants is actually used depends on a variety factors: “only think, we crossed in thirteen days. It takes your breath away”. “We will cross in less than ten days yet!”.