The Classification of Words

particles follow it, as in the case of too. Here are a few illus­trations of the combinability of the particle only.
By George, if she о n I y knew that two men were talk­ing about her like this! (Shaw).
A sestertius is о n l у w о г t h a loaf of bread. (Ib.).
You look only f i f t у in it. (Ib.).
Is it nothing to you what wicked thing you do if о n I y you do it like a gentleman? (Ib.).
§ 377. Like most particles not can be used with different classes of words or clauses (not he, not the student, not beauti­ful, not forty, not yesterday, not to see, not seeing, not when he comes).
The peculiarity of not (n't) as a predicate negation in don't, can't, won't, etc. will be described in 'Syntax', § 393.
SYNTAX
INTRODUCTION
§ 378. The basic unit of syntax is the sentence. There exist many definitions of the sentence, but none of them is generally accepted ¹. But in the majority of cases people actually ex­perience no difficulty in separating one sentence from anoth­er in their native tongue. This is reflected in writing, where the-graphic form of each sentence is separated by punctuation marks (.!?) from its neighbours.
Though a sentence contains words, it is not merely a group of wdrds (or other units), but something integral, a structural unity built in accordance with one of the patterns existing m a given language. All the sounds of a sentence are united by typical intonation. All the meanings are interlaced accord­ing to some pattern to make one communication.
§ 379. A communication is a directed thought. Much in the same way as the position of a point or the direction of a line in space is fixed with the help of a system of coordinates, there exists a system of coordinates to fix the position or direction of a thought in speech. Naturally, only phenomena
¹ See C. Fries, op. cit., ch. II 'What is a sentence?' Here is another brief survey of the problem in Form in Modern English by Brown D. W., Brown С. В., Bailey D., New York, 1958, p. 29: "A wholly satisfactory answer to the question 'What is a sentence?' is yet ts be formulated, although hundreds of attempts have been made. Of these, two have been most often used in grammar books: (1) A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought and (2) A sentence is a group of words that contains an unsubordinated subject and predicate. The first of these, a 'notional' definition, fails because it is wholly subjective and begs the question.' There is no objective standard by which to judge the completeness of a thought, and ultimately we are reduced to the circular assertion that 'a complete thought is a thought that is complete'. On the other hand, the second definition is not more than half truth, for it rules out all verbless sentences, which, as we have already noted, may be just as 'complete' and independent as the verb sentences."
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present at every act of speech can serve as the axes of coordi­nates. They are: a) the act of speech, b) the speaker (or writer), c) reality (as viewed by the speaker).
If taken in their concrete significance, these phenomena are variables because they change with every act of speech. But if taken in a general way, they are constants because they are always there whenever there is language communication. As constants they are fixed in the language, as variables they function in speech.
§ 380. The act of speech is the event with which all other events mentioned in the sentence are correlated in time. This correlation is fixed in English and other languages grammati­cally, in the category of tense and lexically in such words as now, yesterday, to-morrow, etc.
The speaker is the person with whom other persons and things mentioned in the sentence are correlated. This corre­lation is fixed grammatically in the category of person of the verb and lexico-grammatically in such words as /, you, he, she, it, they, student, river, etc. (see § 148).
Reality is either accepted as the speaker sees it, or an attempt is made to change it, or some irreality is fancied. Cf. The door is s/iut. Shut the door. If the door were'shut .. The attitude towards reality is fixed grammatically in the cate­gory of mood and lexically or lexico-grammatically in words like must, may, probably, etc.
The three relations — to the act of speech, to the speaker and to reality —can be summarized as the relation to the situation of speech. Now the relation of the thought of a sen­tence to the situation of speech is called predicati-vity. This is the name of the system of coordinates directing the thought of a sentence and distinguishing a sentence from any group of words. Predicativity is as essential a part of the content of the sentence as intonation is of its form. The sentence can thus be defined as a communication unit made up of words (and word-morphemes) in conformity with their combinability and structurally united by intonation and predicativity.
Hence intonation may be regarded as the structural form and predicativity as the structural meaning of the sentence.
§ 381. Within a sentence, the word or combination of words that contains the meanings of predicativity may be called the predication.
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In the sentence He mused over it for a minute (Conan Doyle) the predication is he mused. He indicates the person, mused — the tense and mood components of predicativity.
In the sentence Tell me something there is a rne-word pre­dication tell containing the mood component of predica­tivity. The person component is only implied ¹. As we know (§ 249), imperative mood grammemes have the lexico-gram-matical meaning of 'second person'.
§ 382. The simplest relation to the situation of speech can be found in a sentence like Rain which when pronounced with proper intonation merely states the phenomenon observed. Does a sentence like this contain the relations to the act of speech, the speaker and reality? Yes, it does. First of all, the noun rain, like any noun, is associated with the third person (§ 148). As for the meanings of mood and tense, the following is to be taken into consideration.
As we know, the general meanings of tense, ,mood contain three particular meanings each: present — past — future (tense), indicative — imperative — subjunctive (mood). Two of these meanings are usually more specific than the third. The two specific tenses are the past and the future. The two specific moods are the imperative and the subjunctive. Now, when there are no positive indications of any tense of mood the sentence is understood to contain the least specific of those meanings.² In the sentence Rain the present tense and the indicative mood are implied. Cf. the Russian Жара. Позд­но. Он студент, etc.
In the sentence Teal the imperative intonation expresses •the difference in the modal component of predicativity.
Thus, Rain. Tea! are sentences both as to their forms (intonation) and their meanings (predicativity). They are living patterns in the English language because many sen­tences of the same type can be formed. The lexical meaning of Rain is irrelevant (cf. Snow, Hail, Fog) when we regard the sentence as a language model, but it is relevant when the sentence is used in actual speech.
¹ "The situation generally makes it so obvious who the second person
subject of imperatives is, that its expression is the exception rather
than the rule" (A Martinet, op cit , p 59)
² They correspond to the centre or zero point of the system of
coordinates.
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