- Transformational Generative Syntax deals with a sentence from the point of view of its deep structure. Was introduced by an American scholar Z. Harris. The main point of this syntax is that the endless variety of sentences can be reduced to a definite number of kernels by means of transformation. The most typical kernel sentences of English are:
- N V – Mary plays
- N to be Adj – mary is beautiful
- N to be N – Mary is a girl
- N V N – John hits Bob
- N V N N – John gave Bob a book
- Constructional Syntax
Was introduced by prof. G. Pocheptsov. It deals with the constructional significance or insignificance of a part of a sentence for the whole syntactic unit.
- Communicative Syntax.
Is concerned with the analyses of utterances from the point of their communicative value and informative structure. It deals with “the actual division of the sentence” or the com.perspective, that is with theme and rheme. The theme is smth that is already known while the rheme represents new information. (F.e. Who is at home – John is at home(theme)::Where is John – John is at home(rheme))
