SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS  OF SELECTED PHENOMENA

1 And as I leave, I can’t help but wonder whether Nyamhuu’s one-year-old daughter will grow up singing the Mongolian songs that brought such life to the mountains we rode through, or whether she’ll grow up lip-synching with whoever happens to be the latest incarnation of Britney Spears.

--- Hodges, Glenn. “Mongolian Crossing.“  National Geographic October 2003: 120

• A jak odcházím, musím přemýšlet o tom, zda Nyamhouova jednoroční dcera bude vyrůstat a zpívat si Monogolské písně, které přinášely takový život do hor, kterými jsme projížděli, anebo zda bude vyrůstat a pobrukovat si písně s tím, kdo bude zrovna poslední inkarnací Britney Spears.

• complex compound sentence with 9 clauses   (the participial constructions are regarded here as non-finite clauses in accordance with the British tradition)
• as I leave – adverbial temporal clause
• I can’t help but wonder – main clause
• whether Nyamhuu’s one-year-old daughter will grow up – nominal object clause
• singing the Mongolian songs – non-finite clause, adverbial clause of manner
• that brought such life to the mountains – adjectival relative non-restrictive clause
• we rode through – relative restrictive clause, asyndetically conjoined
• or whether she’ll grow up – nominal object clause
• lipsynching with – non-finite adverbial clause of manner
• whoever happens to be the latest incarnation of Britney Spears – nominal relative clause realising the prepositional object, rare instance where the nominal relative clause denotes a person

2 So it will be interesting to see what happens with a gizmo many technology-watchers predict will end on people’s desktops in the future, the digital fabricator – or “fabber”.

---Achenbach, Joel: “Technophobia?“  National Geographic July 2003: 12

• Takže bude zajímavé sledovat, co se stane s věcičkou, o které mnozí technologové předvídají, že skončí v budoucnosti na stolech lidí, a digitálním fabrikátorem – neboli fabberem.
• discontinuity between the two appositives a gizmo and the digital fabricator which realise the prepositional object
• the use of discontinuity in this sentence helps to reconcile the grammatical word order and the FSP, allowing the prepositional object stand both at its regular position immediately after the verb and at the same time finally in the sentence: the digital fabricator is the rheme proper

3 And to Witt, a man of power, Corde was a fool.

--- Bellow, Saul. The Dean’s December. New York: Penguin, 1998.  p. 178

• A pro Witta, mocného muže, byl Corde blázen.
• fronting of the prepositional object realised by two appositives, thus putting it in the place of theme in the sentence
• the rheme is the subject complement ‘a fool’

4 Not to submit them for approval was out of question, unheard of, dangerous to the last degree – wild!

--- Bellow, Saul. ibid p. 187

• Nepředložit je ke schválení bylo vyloučené, neslýchané a nanejvýš nebezpečné – bláznivé!
• present active infinitive, negative
• syntactic function of the infinitive: subject
• this sentence illustrates the less frequent use of infinitive in the function of subject without extraposition ( the construction with anticipatory it)

5 Nor, to tell the whole truth, did Corde altogether blame him for it.

--- Bellow, Saul. ibid p. 179

• A ani, abych řekl celou pravdu, ho za to Corde úplně nevinil.
• the inversion of the subject and the auxiliary verb is triggered by the fronted negation
• to tell the whole truth – infinitive in the syntactic function of a non-integrated adverbial, truth-value (content) disjunct

6 Urban life, which seems to have begun in the Tigris and Euphrates Valleys at least 6,000 years ago, is one of the world’s oldest inventions.

--- Swerdlow, Joel. “Global Culture.“ National Geographic August 1999: 5

• Městský život, který, jak se zdá, začal v údolí Eufratu a Tigridu nejméně před 6 000 lety, je jedním z nejstarších světových vynálezů.

• subject raising in the structure urban life ... seems to have begun
• the underlying structure is: it seems that urban life begun → urban life is the subject of begun, not of seems, the subject of the subordinate clause was transformed into the subject of the main clause

7 Inventors always imagine technology being put to a high-minded, serious use, but people often end up exploiting it for their personal needs, even – egad – their amusement.

--- Achenbach, Joel: “Technophobia?“  National Geographic July 2003: 3

• Vynálezci si vždy představují šlechetné, seriózní využití technologie, ale lidé ji nakonec často využívají pro své osobní potřeby, nebo dokonce pro zábavu.

• being put – present passive participle, syntactic function: object complement
• exploiting – present active gerund, syntactic function: object

8  Directly beneath the Japanese airstrip, an entire city had waited for over 3,000 years  to be rediscovered.

--- Hessler, Peter. “The New Story of China’s Ancient Past.“  National Geographic July 2003: 62

• to be rediscovered – present passive infinitive
• function of the infinitive: temporal function
• formally similar to infinitive of purpose but the inanimate subject does not allow such interpretation

9 Politeness is manifested not only in the content of conversation, but also in the way conversation is managed and structured by its participants.

---  Leech, G.N.(1983). Principles of Pragmatics. Harlow: Longman. p. 139

• Zdvořilost se projevuje nejen v obsahu konverzace, ale také ve způsobu, jakým je konverzace vedena a strukturována účastníky.
• local negation with the foculiser only, so the meaning of the proposition is ‘it is manifested in the content of conversation, but not only there’

10 In [45], it is the pessimistic judgement that the meeting was badly attended that is thus mitigated.

---  Leech, G.N.(1983). Principles of Pragmatics. Harlow: Longman. p. 148

• Ve [45] je to pesimistické hodnocení, že na schůzi přišlo málo lidí, co je takto oslabeno.
• it-cleft sentence: fronting of the subject
• the function of it-cleft: to signal the focus of information unambiguously in the sentence
• the underlying structure: ‘the pessimistic judgement that the meeting was badly attended is thus mitigated‘
• the sentence illustrates the formal similarity of it-cletfs with relative clauses, here ‘that the meeting was badly attended’