DETACHMENT

When placed in a certain syntactic position, a sentence component may seem formally independent of the word it refers to. Such compo­nents of sentence structure are called "detached":

There was a nice girl there, I liked her name, Linda.

Brian came into the room, very much flushed and rather unsteady inhis gait.

Classification. Any secondary part of the sentence may become de­tached:

Smither should choose it for her at the stores - nice and dappled. (attribute)

They put him under laughing-gas one year, poor lad, (apposition)

Talent Mr. Micawber has, capital Fr. Micawber has not. (direct object)

It was indeed, to Forsyte eyes, an odd house, (indirect object)

Gordon was stubbornly crawling to the place of his destination inch by inch - like a caterpillar, (adverbial modifier).

Communicative function. Detachment results in logical emphasis of the components of sentence structure. Compare:

Вже почалось, мабуть, майбутнє. Оце, либонь, воює почалось.. (parenthetic modal words)

Поміж: людьми, як кажуть, добре й нам. (parenthetic clause)

А у натовпі був і він, Пилип, (apposition)

Щодня, щогодини бомбардую думками образ твій, Сфінксе, (address)-

До колоса, до цар-колоса Данило мав незмінний трепет душі..- (indirect object)

Сади, омиті музикою згадок, ковтають пил міжселищних доріг. (attribute)

Там, за небокраєм, там, за горою - ти на синім морозі гориш» (adverbial modifier)

The second, somewhat smaller, group of syntactical SDs deals not so much with specificities of the arrangement as with the completeness of sentence-structure. The most prominent place here belongs to ellipsis, or deliberate omission of at least one member of the sentence, as in the famous quotation from Macbeth: What! all my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop?

An elliptical sentence is such a syntactic structure in which there is no subject, or predicate, or both. The main parts of elliptical sentences are omitted by the speaker intentionally in cases when they are semantically re re­dundant. For example:

- Where did you go?

- To the disco.

Elliptical sentences can not be viewed as stylistic devices in direct intercourse because they are devoid of suprasegmental information. Ellipsis becomes expressive when used in literature as a means of imitating real speech. Ellipsis makes speech dynamic, informative and unofficial.

Communicative functions. Ellipsis saves the speaker from needless ef­fort, spares his time, reduces redundancy of speech. Elliptical structures may also reveal such speakers' emotions as excitement, impatience, delight, etc. As a stylistic device, ellipsis is an effective means of protagonists' portrayal.

More examples:

- Hullo! Who are you?

- The staff.

- Where are the others?

- At the front

Вгорі - темне непривітне небо, долі - холодна мокра земля, і більш нічого.

Скільки тобі вчитися в училищі? - Два роки.

Note. It is essential to differentiate between elliptical sentences and one-member structures. The problem is that they may look completely hom­onymous out of context. For example, the isolated sentence "Dark night" can be treated both as one-member (non-elliptical) or two-member elliptical struc­ture. What is what becomes clear only in speech. If a text begins with the sequence of sentences "Dark night. Strong wind. Loneliness", they are obviously one-member, having neither subject nor predicate. But if the im­plied subject and predicate can be easily and unambiguously restored in con­text, we deal with a two-member elliptical sentence. Thus, the sentence "At the front" of the above given example is two-member, elliptical, and extend­ed, its subject they and its predicate are being implied.

In contemporary prose ellipsis is mainly used in dialogue where it is consciously employed by the author to reflect the natural omissions characterizing oral colloquial speech. Often ellipsis is met close to dialogue, in author's introductory remarks commenting the speech of the characters. Elliptical remarks in prose resemble stage directions in drama. Both save only the most vital information letting out those bits of it which can be easily reassembled from the situation. It is the situational nature of our everyday speech which heavily relies on both speakers' awareness of the conditions and details of the communication act that promotes normative colloquial omissions. Imitation of these oral colloquial norms is created by the author through ellipsis, with the main function of achieving the authenticity and plausibility of fictitious dialogue.

Ellipsis is the basis of the so-called telegraphic style, in which connectives and redundant words are left out. In the early twenties British railways had an inscription over luggage racks in the carriages: "The use of this rack for heavy and bulky packages involves risk of injury to passengers and is prohibited." Forty years later it was reduced to the elliptical: "For light articles only." The same progress from full completed messages to clipped phrases was made in drivers' directions: "Please drive slowly" "Drive slowly" "Slow".

The biggest contributors to the telegraphic style are one-member sentences, i.e. sentences consisting only of a nominal group, which is semantically and communicatively self-sufficient. Isolated verbs, proceeding from the ontological features of a verb as a part of speech, cannot be considered one-member sentences as they always rely on the context for their semantic fulfilment and are thus heavily ellipticized sentences. In creative prose one-member sentences are mostly used in descriptions (of nature, interior, appearance, etc.), where they produce the effect of a detailed but laconic picture foregrounding its main components; and as the background of dialogue, mentioning the emotions, attitudes, moods of the speakers.

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