Introduction
Thegiven annual project is dedicated to the linguistic problem - 'The Subject: Waysof Expressing It in the Sentence '.
Themain goal of the work is to identify the main featuresof the subject in the sentence, basing on the theoretical and scientific works ofRussian, English, American, Moldovan and Romanian authors, and examine the subjectand its features in the works of American and English fiction.
Theobjectives of the thesis, in their turn, representascending 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 sourcesof the examined works of the linguists.
3.to present the ways the
subject is expressedin the sentence.
4.to identify the subject features and the ways it is expressed in the works of theinvestigated American and English fiction.
5.to compare the means the subject is expressed in fiction in the works of such writersas: 'The Book of Grotesque' by Sherwood Anderson, 'The Magic Barrel' by BernardMalamud, 'The Last Leaf', 'The Gift of the Magi' by O. Henry, 'The Man with theScar ',' The Door of Opportunity ',' A Friend in Need 'by WS Maugham.
Actuality of the work maintains the basic functionsof the subject in the sentence as one of the main constituents and its continualstudy due to this fact. That is a linguistic phenomenon having been introduced intoeducation on different educative levels starting from the simplest definitions inprimary school and reaching gradually deep theoretical interpretations of the subjectin the institutions of higher education.
Theannual project is based mainly on the scientific sources of English and Russianlinguists, 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.Ільїн.
Besides,the works of the Romanian scholars - Andrey BahtaЕџ and Leon Levitchi, and others.
Thus, Chapter One of the present projectembodies three points:
1.The definitions of the subject;
2.Classification of the subject (from structuraland functional points of view);
3.Ways of expressing the subject;
InEnglish grammar the subject (along with the predicate) is researched by a numberof linguists and philologists. It is defined in different interpretations, but stillthe 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, accordingto a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle. It is the main part of a two-membersentence which is grammatically independent of the other parts of the sentence andon which the predicate is grammatically dependent.
The subject is sometimes said to be the relativelyfamiliar element, to which the predicate is added as something new, 'The uttererthrows into his subject all that he knows the receiver is already willing to granthim, and to this he adds in the predicate what constitutes the new information tobe conveyed by the sentence ... '[4, 154]
Besides, the following features of the subjectare maintained in most definitions of the studied linguists:
a) the subject is normally a noun or a clausewith nominal function;
b) the subject occurs before the verb phrasein 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 presentedaccording to the role and structure of the subject in the sentence.
Ways of expressing the subject vary in conformitywith the parts of speech and constructions it is presented by.
Chapter Two is the practical part of thegiven 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;
'TheGift of the Magi ',' The Last Leaf 'by O. Henry;
2.English fiction: 'The Man with the Scar', 'The Door of Opportunity', 'A Friend inNeed 'by W.S. Maugham.
Thepractical part is aimed at investigation of the subject features in the works ofAmerican and English fiction and fulfillment of the comparative analysis in thegiven works of two different cultures - American and English.
Theresults of the executed practical work demonstrating common and contrasting waysof expressing the subject in British and American fiction are evidenced in conclusionof the project.
subject sentence
1.ChapterOne. The Subject: Ways of Expressing It in the Sentence
1.1Definitions of the Subject
Thenotion of the Subject in the grammatical theory of the English language can be presentedvery briefly and clearly: it is the main part of a two-member sentence which isgrammatically independent of the other parts of the sentence and on which the predicateis grammatically dependent. [8, 67]
Thereason for calling the subject and the predicate the main parts of the sentenceand distinguishing them from all the other parts which are treated as secondary,is roughly this. The subject and the predicate between them constitute the backboneof the sentence: without them the sentence would not exist at all, whereas all theother parts may or may not be there, and if they are there, they serve to defineor modify either the subject, or the predicate, or each other. [10, 205]
Alinguistic experiment to prove the correctness of this view would be to take a sentencecontaining the subject, a predicate, and a number of secondary parts, and to showthat any of the secondary parts might be removed without the sentence being destroyed,whereas if either the subject or the predicate were removed there would be no sentenceleft: its 'backbone' would be broken. This experiment would probably succeed andprove the point in a vast majority of cases.
Thequestion now arises: what criteria do we practically apply when we say that a word(Or, sometimes, a phrase) is the subject of a sentence? [10, 206]
Thegrammatical phenomenon of the subject in English has been examined by a number oflinguists, philologists and grammatical experts both of English and foreign originin different epochs. This notion is defined in various interpretations; still thecommon backbone is identified in all of them. Let's retrace this 'common thread',kept in all the definitions of the subject.
SidneyGreenbaum in 'The Oxford English Grammar' notes that the subject of a sentence isthe constituent that normally comes before the verb in a declarative sentence andchanges position with the operator in an interrogative sentence. It is applicable,the verb agrees in number and person with the subject (I am ready): the subject'I' is first person singular and so is 'am' [2,305]
PaulRoberts in 'Understanding Grammar' presents the subject as the element stressedor the new element added to the discourse end in complexities that are interestingphilosophically but useless grammatically. The beginner's device to find the subjectis first to find the verb and then ask 'who?' or 'what' before it. When the subjectis very specific (eg a proper name), we may even invert the normal word orderwithout befuddling out listeners. [6, 405]
Somebrief definitions of the subject are presented by Richard Gardiner and Timothy Cobbin 'Today's English Grammar' from one side, and by Geoffrey Leech in 'An AZ ofEnglish Grammar and Usage 'from the other side.
In'Today's English Grammar' the authors state that the word indicating the personor...
