A Grammar of the English Language. Грамматика английского языка. A grammar of the english language

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§ 14. The Objective Predicative.

Besides the predicative referring to the subject, another type of predicative referring to the object can be found in English. It is generally called the Objective Predicative. It expresses the state or quality of the person or thing denoted by the object and is generally expressed by a noun, an adjective, a word denoting state, or a prepositional phrase.
He appointed Bush secretary in his stead. (Swift)

Lord and Lady Masham... left him alone with them. (Swift)

In a few minutes I came to myself and he carried me safe to my little nurse.

(Swift)

They painted the door green.
The Objective Predicative does not form part of the predicate, in this case the predicate is simple.
§ 15. The compound verbal predicate.

The compound verbal predicate can be divided into two types according to the meaning of the finite verb:

(1) the compound verbal modal predicate;

(2) the compound verbal aspect predicate.^1
1 It should be borne in mind that by ‘aspect’ we do not mean here the verbal category of aspect but the lexical meaning of certain verbs as denoting the beginning, the duration and the cessation of the action.
§ 16. The compound verbal modal predicate shows whether the action expressed by a non-finite form of the verb is considered as possible, impossible, obligatory, necessary, desirable, etc. These shades of meaning are expressed by the first component of the predicate.

The compound verbal modal predicate may consist of the following components:

1. A modal verb and an infinitive.

Here belong the combinations of such verbs as can, may, must, should, would, ought, dare, need with an infinitive.
You can prove everything and nothing. (London)

His aunt would not give him the photograph. (Hardy)
2. Modal expressions: to be + Infinitive, to have + Infinitive.
The loudspeaker operation was to take place in С. Company’s sector. (Heym)

I have to work for my living. (Jerome)
3. A verb with a modal meaning² and an infinitive or a gerund. Here belong such verbs as to hope, to expect, to intend, to attempt, to try, to endeavour, to long, to wish, to want, to desire, etc.
² Verbs with a modal meaning should not be confused with modal verbs as such, which in the English language form a special group of defective verbs (see Chapter VII, Modal Verbs)
He wanted to throw himself into the whirlpool of Paris. (Heym)

We intend going to Switzerland, and climbing Mount Blanc. (Ch. Bronte)

Of course she longs to have a ball in her honour. (Du Maurier)

Certainly I don’t mean to take advantage of my position. (Wilson)

Harris tried to open the tin with a pocket knife and broke the knife and cut

himself badly. (Jerome)
4. Modal expressions and an infinitive.

They are synonymous with modal verbs or verbs with a modal meaning. Here belong the combinations of such expessions as to be able, to be obliged, to be bound, to be willing, to be anxious, to be capable, to be going with an infinitive.
Baring had been obliged to forego making friends. (Wilson)

I am going to leave Paris. (Heym)

We are most anxious to cooperate. (Heym)
5. Verbs and expressions used in the predicate of sentences containing the Subjective Infinitive Construction (Nominative-with-the-Infinitive Construction).

These words and expressions show the attitude of the speaker towards the person or thing expressed by the subject.
A ship — the Vestris — is reported to be arriving at Joppa. (Douglas)

Сообщают, что корабль “Вестрис“ должен вскоре прибыть в Яффу.

About 4,000 port workers are believed to be on strike. (DailyWorker)

Предполагается, что бастует около четырех тысяч портовых рабочих.

Naturally all this had some chilling discouraging effect on him, but he

appeared not to hold it against her. (Wescott)

Естественно, что все это расхолаживало и обескураживало его, но он,

по-видимому, на нее за это не сердился.

Never mind who told me. I happen to know his car was seen here yesterday

afternoon. (DuMaurier)

Неважно, кто мне сказал. Просто я знаю, что его машину видели здесь

вчера днем.

Just at this moment you seem to be having difficulty with your left hand.

(Wilson)

Как раз сейчас у вас, кажется, что-то не в порядке с левой рукой.
§ 17. The compound verbal aspect predicate.

The compound verbal aspect predicate expresses the beginning, repetition, duration, or cessation of the action expressed by the non-finite form of the verb. It consists of such verbs as to begin, to start, to commence, to fall, to set about, to go on, to keep on, to proceed, to continue, to stop, to give up, to finish, to cease, to come and an infinitive or a gerund.

Here also belong would and used + Infinitive, which denote a repeated action in the past.
Elaine, this ill-advised behaviour of yours is beginning to have results.

(Erskine)

That view had come to give him a feeling of ease and happiness. (Lindsay)

His bones ceased to ache. (Lindsay)

She had stopped asking Yates about the time. (Heym)

Meanwhile armored infantry continued to feel its way in a northerly

direction. (Heym)

I kept glancing at her through the rest of the play. (Braine)

I used to write poetry myself when I was his age. (Herbert)

I lived with a man once who used to make me mad that way. He would loll on the sofa and watch me doing things by the hour. (Jerome)
§ 18. Mixed types of predicate.

Besides the compound nominal predicate, the compound verbal modal predicate and the compound verbal aspect predicate, there is a type of predicate in which we have elements of two types of predicates. Such predicates contain three components.

Thus we have:

1. The compound modal nominal predicate.
The nephew was to be the means of introduction. (Da Maurier)

He greatly longed to be the next heir himself. (De la Roche)

Don’t think I mean to be unkind. (Du Maurier)
2. The compound aspect nominal predicate.
The grey house had ceased to be a house for family life. (Buck)

It was like coming ashore after a channel crossing I began to feel rather

hungry. (Du Maurier)

I was glad that the doctor had been Chinese, and not American. I continued

to be glad for that. (Buck)
3. The compound modal aspect predicate.
And all the while he felt the presence of Pat and had to keep on resisting the

impulse to turn round. (Lindsay)

Something happened nearly a year ago that altered my whole life. I had to

begin living all over again. (Du Maurier)

He ought to stop doing nothing and criticizing everybody. (Lindsay)
AGREEMENT OF THE PREDICATE WITH THE SUBJECT
§ 19. In the English language the predicate agrees with the subject in person and number.

Agreement implies that the use of one form necessitates the use of the other, for example: a singular subject requires a predicate in the singular, a plural subject requires a predicate in the plural.
The house was alive with soft, quick steps and running voices. (Mansfield)

This evening there was no bright sunset; west and east were one cloud... (Ch.

Bronte)
But in Modern English there is often a conflict between form and meaning; in these cases the predicate does not agree with the subject.
The Durham family were at breakfast, father, mother and seven children.

(O’Conor)

“Great Expectations” was written by Dickens in 1860.

He further intimated that the United States was so interested in its own

internal affairs that it would not be drawn into the question. (Graves)
In Modern English, with its few inflexions, agreement of the predicate with the subject is restricted to the present tense apart from the verb to be. The verb to be is an exception because it agrees with the subject not only in the present but in the past tense as well.
I am serious myself... (Lindsay)

We are men and women who respect ourselves and love our families!

(Burke)

And Joseph was there with me. (Abrahams)

All the blinds were pulled down at the hall and rectory. (Thackeray)
§ 20. The following rules of agreement of the predicate with the subject should be observed:

1. The predicate is used in the plural when there are two or more homogeneous subjects connected by the conjunction and or asyndetically.
Her father and mother... wereobviously haunted and harassed.

(Galsworthy)

The top of a low black cabinet, the old oak table, the chairs in tawny leather,

were littered with the children’s toys, books, and garden garments. (Eliot)
If two or more homogeneous subjects are expressed by infinitives the predicate is in the singular.
To labour in peace, and devote her labour and her life to her poor son,

was all the widow sought. (Dickens)

To leave the quiet court, to gain the Strand, to hail a belated hansom was

the work of a moment.(Thurston)
2. When the predicate-verb precedes a number of subjects it is often in the singular, especially if the sentence begins with here or there.
And here was a man, was experience and culture. (Galsworthy)

Besides the chair at the writing-table there is an easy-chair at the medicine

table, and a chair at each side of the dressing table. (Shaw)

The wind drove down the rain and everywhere there was standing water and

mud. (Hemingway)
If the subjects are of different number the predicate agrees with the subject that stands first.
There wasmuch traffic at night and many mules on the roads with boxes of

ammunition on each of their pack saddles. (Hemingway)
3. When two homogeneous subjects in the singular are connected by the conjunctions not only... but (also), neither... nor, either ... or, or, nor, the predicate is usually in the singular.
There was neither heroic swift defeat nor heroic swift victory. (Wells)

Not only the anchor of hope, but the footing of fortitude was gone at least

for a moment. (Ch. Bronte)
If the subjects are of different person or number, the predicate agrees with the one next to it.
Neither I nor my sister is to blame.

Neither your sister nor you are to blame.
4. When two subjects in the singular are connected by the conjunction as well as the predicate is in the singular.
Activity as well as cell structure is an essential condition of life. (Young)
If the subjects are of different person or number, the predicate agrees with the subject that stands first.
The Volga as well as its affluents is very picturesque.
5. If a subject expressed by a noun is modified by two or more attributes connected by and, the predicate is in the singular when one person, thing, or idea is meant.
The complete and beautiful quiet was almost the quiet from beyond the

grave. (Stone)

Here a new social and political consciousness was in the making.

(Abrahams)
If two or more persons, things, or ideas are meant the predicate is in the plural.
Classical and light music have both their admirers.

The red and the white rose are both beautiful.

The red and white roses are both beautiful.
The above examples show that, in this case, the subject expressed by an abstract noun stands in the singular; with class nouns we either repeat the article and put the noun in the singular or use the article once and put the noun in the plural.
6. If the subject is expressed by a defining, indefinite, or negative pronoun (each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, somebody, someone, something, nobody, no one, nothing, neither, etc.), the predicate is in the singular.
In turn each of these four brothers was very different from the other, yet they,

too, were alike. (Galsworthy)

Everybody was glad to see Martin back. (London)

There was something in her silence which disconcerted him. (Galsworthy)

Nobody was at home — Soames in London, Annette at a garden party. (Galsworthy)

There was nothing to attract attention or excite alarm in this. (Dickens)
7.If the subject is expressed by an interrogative pronoun (who, what) the predicate is usually in the singular.
“Who is to apply to her for permission?” I asked. (Collins)

Tom called: “Hold! Who comes here into Sherwood Forest without my pass?”

(Twain)

What wasthere in him that could make him feel that shameful impulse in

Regan’s office? (Wilson)
If the question refers to more than one person the predicate may be used in the plural.
Who were to be the subjects of their piracies was a matter that did not occur

to him. (Twain)
8. If the subject is expressed by a relative pronoun (who, which, that) the predicate agrees with its antecedent.
Mrs. Gowan, who was engaged in needlework, put her work aside in a

covered basket, and rose a little hurriedly. (Dickens)

Near them were the old people who were watching the dancing. (Abrahams)

She (Lillian) looked at his handsome face, which was turned to hers, with

childlike simplicity. (Dreiser)

This gentleman told me of two recent events in his life, which were of some

importance and which had not previously reached my ears. (Collins)
9. If the subject is expressed by the emphatic it the predicate is in the singular no matter what follows.
Foreigners say that it isonly English girls who can thus be trusted to travel

alone... (Ch. Bronte)
10. If the subject is expressed by a noun in the plural which is the title of a book, or the name of a newspaper or magazine, the predicate is usually in the singular.
“The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club” was written when Dickens

was twenty-four years of age.
11. If the subject is expressed-by a noun in the plural denoting time, measure, or distance, the predicate is in the singular when the noun represents the amount or mass as a whole.
Four hundred miles was a huge distance when a man was no longer young

and had no means. (Maltz)

Three dollars is the sumlaid aside for all other purposes and pleasures.

(Dreiser)

Twenty-one years is a longish time, lad, but memory is longer and deeper

and stronger than time. (Farnol)
12. If the subject is expressed by a collective noun denoting a group or collection of similar individuals taken as a whole (mankind, humanity, etc,) the predicate-verb is in the singular.
He consoled himself with the idea that perhaps humanity was better than he

thought. (Dreiser)

“Well, what is mankind, then, Mrs. Jenkins?” I asked her. “Mankind is all of

us,”Mrs. Jenkins said, “you and me and everybody you can think of all over

the world. That is mankind.” (Llewellyn)
If the subject is expressed by a noun of multitude, i. e. a collective noun denoting the individuals of the group taken separately (people — люди, infantry, cavalry, gentry, clergy, police, cattle, poultry, jury, etc.) the predicate-verb is as a rule in the plural.
The weather was warm, and the people were sitting at their doors. (Dickens)

“I belong to a church that is older and better than the English Church,” Mr.

Holt said... “in our church the clergy do not marry.”(Thackeray)

The police are all over the place. (Kennedy)

At the present time, too many commercial cattle are bred with no particular

end in view. (Garner)

As experimental animals poultry have their excellent points. (Hagedeorn)
With collective nouns (family, committee, crew, army, board, chorus, government, party, team, company, band, etc.) as subject the predicate is either in the singular or in the plural; this depends on what is uppermost in the mind, the idea of oneness or plurality.
...the branch committee was meeting in the room of a textile trade union.

(Lindsay)

...I am glad to tell you, Doctor Manson... that the committee have decided by

a majority to ask you to remain. (Cronin)

The company was then complete, twenty-one in all. (Galsworthy)

“One of them might have slipped into the hall, in the confusion, when the

dinner company were going away,”says Mr. Franklin. (Collins)

The Board was again full... (Galsworthy)

The board were sitting in solemn conclave, when Mr. Bumble rushed into the

room in great excitement... (Dickens)

Michael followed with the Upshires and Aubrey Green, whom he had

encountered in the hall. The party was complete.(Galsworthy)

The meal over, the party were freeto run and play in the meadows. (Ch.

Bronte)

...the band was beginning to playa selection from the music of Grieg.

(Hichens)

When we came to the house we found that the band had arrived and were

standing about in the hall. (Du Maurier)