Introduction

 

The given annual project is dedicated to the linguistic problem - ‘The Subject: Ways of Expressing It in the Sentence’.

The main goal of the work is to identify the main features of the subject in the sentence, basing on the theoretical and scientific works of Russian, English, American, Moldovan and Romanian authors, and examine the subject and its features in the works of American and English fiction.

The objectives of the thesis, in their turn, represent ascending steps to the main goal of the project:

1.  to define the notion of the subject;

2. to present the classification of the subject according to the theoretical sources of the examined works of the linguists.

3.  to present the ways the subject is expressed in the sentence.

4. to identify the subject features and the ways it is expressed in the works of the investigated American and English fiction.

5. to compare the means the subject is expressed in fiction in the works of such writers as: ‘The Book of Grotesque’ by Sherwood Anderson, ‘The Magic Barrel’ by Bernard Malamud, ‘The Last Leaf’, ‘The Gift of the Magi’ by O. Henry, ‘The Man with the Scar’, ‘The Door of Opportunity’, ‘A Friend in Need’ by W.S. Maugham.

Actuality of the work maintains the basic functions of the subject in the sentence as one of the main constituents and its continual study due to this fact. That is a linguistic phenomenon having been introduced into education on different educative levels starting from the simplest definitions in primary school and reaching gradually deep theoretical interpretations of the subject in the institutions of higher education.

The annual project is based mainly on the scientific sources of English and Russian linguists, such as:

Quirk, S. Greenbaum, G. Leech, J. Svartvik, Richard Gardiner, Timothy Cobb, Geoffrey Leech, as for the Russian grammarians: V. L. Kaushanskaya, I. P. Krylova, M. A. Ganshina, N.M. Vasilevskaya, Б. А. Ильин.

Besides, the works of the Romanian scholars – Andrey Bahtaş and Leon Levitchi, and others.

Thus, Chapter One of the present project embodies three points:

1.  The definitions of the subject;

2.  Classification of the subject (from structural and functional points of view);

3.  Ways of expressing the subject;

In English grammar the subject (along with the predicate) is researched by a number of linguists and philologists. It is defined in different interpretations, but still the entire variants base on one common backbone of the notion:

The subject (abbreviated sub. or su.) is one of the two main constituents of a clause or a simple sentence, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle. It is the main part of a two-member sentence which is grammatically independent of the other parts of the sentence and on which the predicate is grammatically dependent.

The subject is sometimes said to be the relatively familiar element, to which the predicate is added as something new, ‘The utterer throws into his subject all that he knows the receiver is already willing to grant him, and to this he adds in the predicate what constitutes the new information to be conveyed by the sentence…’ [4, 154]

Besides, the following features of the subject are maintained in most definitions of the studied linguists:

a) the subject is normally a noun or a clause with nominal function;

b) the subject occurs before the verb phrase in declarative clauses, and immediately after the operator in questions;

c) the subject has number and person concord, where applicable, with the verb phrase.

The classifications of the subject are presented according to the role and structure of the subject in the sentence.

Ways of expressing the subject vary in conformity with the parts of speech and constructions it is presented by.

Chapter Two is the practical part of the given work on the basis of the studied fiction, such as:

1. American fiction: ‘The Book of Grotesque’ by Sherwood Anderson, ‘The Magic Barrel’ by Bernard Malamud;

‘The Gift of the Magi’, ‘The Last Leaf’ by O. Henry;

2. English fiction: ‘The Man with the Scar’, ‘The Door of Opportunity’, ‘A Friend in Need’ by W.S. Maugham.

The practical part is aimed at investigation of the subject features in the works of American and English fiction and fulfillment of the comparative analysis in the given works of two different cultures – American and English.

The results of the executed practical work demonstrating common and contrasting ways of expressing the subject in British and American fiction are evidenced in conclusion of the project.

subject sentence

1.Chapter One. The Subject: Ways of Expressing It in the Sentence

 

1.1 Definitions of the Subject

 

The notion of the Subject in the grammatical theory of the English language can be presented very briefly and clearly: it is the main part of a two-member sentence which is grammatically independent of the other parts of the sentence and on which the predicate is grammatically dependent. [8, 67]

The reason for calling the subject and the predicate the main parts of the sentence and distinguishing them from all the other parts which are treated as secondary, is roughly this. The subject and the predicate between them constitute the backbone of the sentence: without them the sentence would not exist at all, whereas all the other parts may or may not be there, and if they are there, they serve to define or modify either the subject, or the predicate, or each other. ............