Basic Syntactic Notions

Syntactic unit is always a combination that has at least two constituents: a word-
group, a clause, a sentence or a text.
Their main features are:
1.made of the lower level units(Syntactical units are hierarchical-the units of a lower level serve the building material for the units of a higher level);
2. can be of either communicative (sentences and texts) or non-communicative nature (word-groups and clauses).

3. Syntactic Units are of two-fold nature (are a unities of form and content)
SU= syntactic meaning + syntactic form
Syntactic Form
Both the sentence and the phrase enter the system of language by their syntactic patterns. Traditionally there are 4 main types of syntactic patterns:
1Predicative(subject+predicate)
2Objective(verb+object)
3Attributive(attribute+noun)
4Adverbial(verb/adverb/adjective+adverbial modifier)
Syntactic form may also be described as the distributional formula of the unit (pattern).
John hits the ball---N1+V+N2
Syntactic Meaning - is the way in which separate word-meanings are combined to produce meaningful word-groups and sentences
Green ideas sleep furiously.
This grammatically correct sentence lacks syntactic meaning
Difference in syntactic meaning
A man bit a dog vs A dog bit a man

Syntactic relations are syntagmatic relations observed between syntactic units.
They can be of three types:
Coordination
Subordination
Predication

Coordination –syntagmatic relations of
independence which can be observed on the phrase, sentence and text levels
Types
1. Symmetric coordination is characterized by complete interchangeability of its elements –pens and pencils.
2. Asymmetric coordination occurs when the position of elements is fixed: ladies and gentlemen.

Subordination–syntagmatic relations of dependence which are established between the constituents of different linguistic ranks. It is observed on the phrase and sentence level).
Subordination may be of three different types:
1. adverbial (to speak slowly),
2. objective(to see a house)
3.attributive(a beautiful flower).

Forms of subordination may also be different
Agreement(this book – these books )
Government (help us)
Adjournment(the use of modifying particles just, only, even, etc.)
enclosure/«вложение»(the use of modal words and their equivalents really, after all, etc.).

Predication is a syntagmatic relations of interdependence
.
It may be of 2 kinds:
1. Primary (sentence level)
2.Secondary(phrasal level)
Primary predication is observed between the subject and the predicate of the sentence while secondary predication is observed between non-finite forms of the verb and nominal elements within the sentence.
Secondary predication serves the basis for gerundial, infinitive and participial word-groups(predicative complexes)

In Modern English there are several ways of expressing secondary predication. One of them is what is frequently termed the complex object: I saw him run, We heard them sing. Secondary predication in this sentence is between the verb run and the pronoun him: the verb run expressed the action performed by him.
The objective predicative can be expressed by an infinitive, a participle (I saw him running), an adjective (I found him ill), sometimes an adverb, and a prepositional phrase.
Another type of secondary predication may be seen in the so-called absolute construction. This appears, for instance, in the following example. The preliminary greetings spoken, Denis found an empty chair between John and Jenny and sat down.