The adjective. Types of adj. Degrees of comparison

29 One-member and elliptical sentence.
The subject-group and the predicate-group of the sentence are its two constitutive "members", or, to choose a somewhat more specific term, its "axes" (in the Russian grammatical tradition - составы пред­ложения). According as both members are present in the composition of the sentence or only one of them, sentences are classed into "two-member" and "one-member" ones.
Scholars point out that "genuine" one-member sentences are char­acterized not only as expressing one member in their outer structure; in addition, as an essential feature, they do not imply the other member on the contextual lines. In other words, in accord with this view, elliptical sentences in which the subject or the predicate is contextually omitted, are analysed as "two-member" sentences.
We cannot accept the cited approach because, in our opinion, it is based on an inadequate presupposition that in the system of language there is a strictly defined, "absolute" demarcation line between the two types of constructions. In reality, though, each one-member sentence, however pure it might appear from the point of view of non-association with an ellipsis, still, on closer observation, does expose traits of this association
For instance, the sentence ''Come оп!” exemplifying one of the clas­sical one-member sentence varieties, implies a situational person (per­sons) stimulated to perform an action, i.e. the subject of the event. Similarly, the construction "All right!” rendering agreement on the part of the speaker, is a representative unit standing for a normal two-member utterance in its contextual-bound implication plane, otherwise it would be senseless.
All simple sentences of English should be divided into two-axis con­structions and one-axis constructions.
In a two-axis sentence, the subject axis and the predicate axis are directly and explicitly expressed in the outer structure. This concerns all the three cardinal communicative types of sentences. E.g.: The books come out of the experiences. What has been happening here? You better go back to bed.
In a one-axis sentence only one axis or its part is explicitly expressed, the other one being non-presented in the outer structure of the sen­tence.
The response utterance is a one-axis sentence with the predicate-axis expressed (partially, by its predicative unit) and the subject-axis (together with the link-verb of the predicate) implied.
"I thought he might have said something to you about it." - "Not a word."
The response utterance is a one-axis sentence with the predicate-axis partially expressed (by the object) and the subject-axis together with the verbal part of the predicate-axis implied.
"Glad to see you after all these years!"
The sentence is a one-axis unit with the predicate-axis expressed and the subject-axis implied as a form of familiarity.
All the cited examples belong to "elliptical" types of utterances in so far as they possess quite definite "vacant" positions or zero-positions capable of being supplied with the corresponding fillers implicit in the situational contexts. Since the restoration of the absent axis in such sen­tences is, so to speak, "free of avail", we class them as "free" one-axis sentences. The term "elliptical" one-axis sentences can also be used, though it is not very lucky here; indeed, "ellipsis" as a sentence-curtail­ing process can in principle affect both two-axis and one-axis sentences, so the term might be misleading.
Alongside the demonstrated free one-axis sentences, i.e. sentences with a direct contextual axis-implication, there are one-axis sentences without a contextual implication of this kind; in other words, their absent axis can­not be restored with the same ease and, above all, semantic accuracy.
One-axis sentences form minor set within the general system of English sentence patterns, they all are related to two-axis sentences either by direct of by indirect association.