The attribute

Prepositive attributes precede the noun they modify. E.g.: I saw a dangerous insect.

Postpositive attributes follow the noun they modify. E.g.: The book published in English is going to be translated. I saw an insect that was crawling towards me.

3) By what linguistic means can UNDETACHED attributes in POSTPOSITION be expressed?

Undetached attributes in postposition are expressed by:

- adverbs: Moscow today; to link himself now with himself then

- adjectives borrowed from Latin or French: court martial; from the time immemoria l; blood royal

- statives: ran to him with her eyes alight; a small boy fond of sweets (the stative with a dependent object)

- infinitives: good clothes to wear

- participles: soldiers killed that night (participle II with the dependent adverbial modifier of time);

- prepositional phrases: the authority on under-water erosion

- attributive clauses: the man whom I saw at your place yesterday

4) What are the two grammatical meanings simultaneously expressed by a DETACHED attribute?

The detached attribute conveys both ATTRIBUTIVE meaning and ADVERBIAL shades of meaning. These adverbial shades of meaning are the meanings of condition, cause, and concession. For example:

Evans was the usual English public-school boy, amazingly ignorant and yet decent and good humored.

Her flat, though not half so smart and modern as Felix’s, was in some way even grander (concession).

Carrie looked about her, very much disturbed and quite sure that she didn’t want to work here.

Contrary to undetached attributes, the detached ones may refer to personal pronouns and relative pronouns.

Sometimes it is IMPOSSIBLE to differentiate between a detached attribute and an adverbial modifier, especially when we have participle I or participle II. For example: They went on and on, constantly passing cross-trenches, completely lost, probably returning on their footsteps. The suggested classification:

- ‘ constantly passing cross-trenches ’ is an adverbial modifier;

- ‘ completely lost ’ is a detached attribute;

- ‘ probably returning on their footsteps ’ is an adverbial modifier.

М.Я. Блох stresses that, unlike the present participle, the past participle has no adverbial features and can’t be used in the positions characteristic of the adverb. The cases, which are considered by В.Л. Каушанская and others to be the cases of the adverbial use, are considered by him to be the cases of syntactical compression of the constructions in which not adverbial but ADJECTIVAL relations are expressed.

For example, the sentence Called up by the conservative minority, the convention failed to pass a satisfactory resolution is derived from The convention, which was called up by the conservative minority, failed to pass a satisfactory resolution.

Another example: The sentence Though welcomed heartily by his host, Frederick felt at once that something was wrong is derived from Though he was welcomed heartily by his host, Frederick felt at once that something was wrong or Frederick, who was welcomed heartily by his host, felt at once that something was wrong.

The TEXT.

1) What are the basic intrinsic characteristics of the text?

The basic intrinsic characteristics of the text are:

1) semantic (topical) unity [цельность];

2) semantico-syntactic cohesion [связность].

The semantic (topical) unity is realized mainly through the usage of LEXEMES, through the lexical meanings of words used in the sentences. How do we understand that two or more sentences are devoted to the same topic? We understand it when we see that the lexemes, first of all NOUNS, relate to the same topic. In other words, such lexemes are components of the same semantic field. For example, if we speak about war, we may use such lexemes as: war, battle, enemy, attack, weapon, to shoot, to fire, etc.

The semantico-syntactic cohesion is realized mainly through the usage of conjunctions, pronouns, articles and other grammatical means.

2) What is a CUMULEME?

A minimal cumuleme is made up by TWO sentences which are characterized by:

- semantic (topical) unity [цельность];

- semantico-syntactic cohesion [связность].

Unlike an occurseme, a cumuleme is “one-direction”. It means that both sentences come FROM THE SAME speaker.

3) What is an OCCURSEME?

A minimal occurseme is made up by TWO sentences which are characterized by:

- semantic (topical) unity [цельность];

- semantico-syntactic cohesion [связность].

Unlike a cumuleme, an occurseme, is “two-direction”. It means that the first FIRST sentence comes from ONE speaker, and the SECOND sentence comes from THE OTHER speaker. The second sentence is a REACTION (response) to the first sentence, for example, an answer to a question. E.g.:

- Would you like a cup of coffee?

- I would like a cup of tea.

3) Correlate a MONOLOGUE and a DIALOGUE, on the one hand, and a CUMULEME and an OCCURSEME, on the other hand.

A MONOLOGUE is such a type of text in which sentences come from ONE speaker. That is why a monologue can be represented as a sequence of CUMULEMES.

A DIALOGUE is such a type of text in which sentences come from TWO speakers. That is why a dialogue can be represented as a sequence of OCCURSEMES.

4) Can sentences coming from TWO speakers make up a CUMULEME?

Yes. There may be two sentences, first coming from the first speaker, the second coming from the second speaker (the addressee), which are ONE-direction (not two-direction). It happens when the second speaker does NOT suggest any NEW idea (for example, does NOT answer a question), but (s)he CONTINUES the line of thought of the first speaker. (S)he DEVELOPS the thought suggested by the first speaker. E.g.:

- Let us go out-of-town, we can relax there.

- And have a swim in the river.

- And barbecue meat.

5) Can we come across an OCCURSEME within a MONOLOGUE?

Yes. It happens in case of the so called “inner dialogue”, when the speaker talks to herself\ himself, for example, asks herself\ himself questions and answers them.