The secondary

parts of the
sentence
 The secondary parts of the sentence
(the object, attribute, adverbial modifier,
apposition) serve to modify the principal
parts or one another.
Classification of the secondary parts is
based both on grammatical and semantic
criteria.
The object modifies a verb, adjective or a noun
(e.g.: to write a letter, beautiful of face, a ray of
hope).

The attribute is also a secondary part of the

sentence modifying a noun or a noun-pronoun and
denoting its property, an adverbial modifier modifies
a verb or a noun (to speak slowly, very difficult).
 The object is a secondary part of the
sentence which completes or restricts
the meaning of a verb or an adjective
or a stative:
e.g., I am happy to meet you.. She is
afraid of walking alone in the evening

The object in English can be expressed

by the following parts of speech: a noun
in the common case, a pronoun in the
objective case, demonstrative, indefinite,
reflexive pronouns, a numeral and also
by an infinitive, gerund, a clause and
various predicative complexes.
According to their structure objects in English are subdivided
into

1) a simple object, which is expressed by a single word-form

(e.g., 1. She often reads English newspapers. 2. We like to travel),

2) a phrasal object, which is expressed by a phrase

(e.g., 1. They’ve bought a lot of books. 2. Yesterday we met

Professor Brown),

3) a clausal object, which is expressed by a clause

(e.g., 1. I wonder if they will come in time. 2. Do you know

where Jack lives?),

4) a complex object, which is expressed by a predicative

complex

(e.g., 1. We expected him to tell her the truth. 2. I watched them

crossing the street).
 From the point of view of their value and grammatical peculiarities three kinds
of objects can be distinguished in English:

1. A direct object is an object that follows a transitive

verb and completes or restricts its meaning.
e. g., She turned her head and saw me. 2. He took a candle
and lighted it. 2. An indirect object is an object which denotes the person towards
whom the action of the finite verb is directed:
e. g., He offered us his help. 2. We sent them a telegram yesterday.
The indirect object has a fixed position in the sentence – it precedes
the direct object:
e. g., Den gave her the towel. 2. He handed her the paper.
3. A cognate object is an object similar in meaning to the verb of the
same root:
e. g., She sighed a sigh of satisfaction. 2. He slept the sleep of one
who had spent a night in a car.
The cognate object occupies a place intermediate between an object
and an adverbial modifier, expressing rather adverbial than objective
relations:
e. g., He laughed a hearty laugh. – He laughed heartily. 2. She lived a
happy life. – She lived happily.
 The Adverbial Modifier

The term ‘adverbial modifier’ cannot be said to be a very lucky one, as it is apt to convey erroneous
(wrong, incorrect) ideas about the essence of this secondary part. They have nothing to do with adverbs
and they modify not only verbs.

There are several ways of classifying adverbial modifiers:

1. According to their meaning – not a grammatical classification. However, it may acquire some
grammatical significance.

2. According to their morphological peculiarities – according to the parts of speech and to the phrase
patterns. It has also something to do with word order and stands in a certain relation to the
classification according to meaning. adverb, preposition + noun, a noun without a preposition,
infinitive or an infinitive phrase

3. According to the type of their head-word – is the syntactic classification proper. The meaning of the
word (phrase) acting as modifier should be compatible with the meaning of the head-word.
 The Adverbial modifier:

1) of place and direction e. g. He found

himself in a lonely street. The procession
moved slowly towards the embankment. He'll
be here tomorrow.

2) of time and frequency e. g. I'll phone you at

six o'clock. He seldom spoke with such
frankness.

3) of manner e. g. She was crying bitterly. He

GR E
came here by taxi. She opened the drawer with EN
difficulty. He walked very fast.

4) of attending circumstances e. g. It is very

romantic to take a stroll by moonlight. I don't
feel like going out in this weather.
5) of purpose e. g. I did my best to prevent her
from making this fatal mistake.

6) of cause e. g. Our flight was delayed owing to

the storm. We talked in whispers for fear of
disturbing our parents.

7) of comparison 1 e. g. She sat still like a

statue. He was as ugly as a monkey.

8) of consequence e. g. He is clever enough to

understand it. She was too tired to go for a drive.

9) of concession e. g. Whatever the reason, she

should have come. Though tired, he agreed to
accompany us.
 The attribute

The problem of the

attribute. The attribute is a
secondary part of the
sentence modifying a part of
the sentence expressed by a
noun, a substantivized
pronoun, a cardinal numeral,
and any substantivized
word, and characterizing the
thing named by these words
as to its quality or property.
The attribute can either precede or follow the
noun it modifies. Accordingly, we use terms
prepositive and postpositive attribute. The position
of an attribute with respect to its head-word
depends partly on the morphological peculiarities
of the attribute itself, and partly on stylistic factors.

The size of the prepositive attributive phrase can

be large in ME. Whatever is included between the
article and the noun, is apprehended as an attribute.
An attribute can be either in pre-position or in
post-position to the word it modifies.

- What did she do with herself... in that little hole?

As a result of the loss of inflexions, the attribute in

English, as distinct from Ukrainian , does not agree
with the word it modifies in number, case, or
gender. It may be expressed by almost any part of
speech
 Ways of expressing the attribute
1. An adjective (the most common
way of expressing an attribute).
e.g., 1.This big girl is very lazy.
2.I am speaking about the big girl, not
the little one. 2. A pronoun (possessive, defining, demonstrative, interrogative, relative).
e.g., 1.His shrewd, steady eyes had lost none of their clear shining
2.I looked at her — at her, and at none other, from that moment.3.James
once went down to see for himself what sort of place this was that they had
3. A numeral (cardinal or ordinal). come from. 4.In that great London, what time had they to be sentimental?
e.g., In his final examinations he won
six distinctions
4. A noun:(a) In the common case. One of the marked features of the English
language is the wide use of nouns in the common case as attributes in pre-
position; in Ukrainian nouns are never used as attributes in pre-position.
e.g., I recognized him as Dougal Todd, the village painter and carpenter. Я
узнал Дугала Тодда, местного деревенского маляра и плотника.
b) In the genitive case. This kind of attribute is generally used in pre-
position.
e.g., Her father's nerves would never stand the disclosure.
 The same construction may be used with
possessive pronouns in their absolute
form: a friend of mine; that pretty sister
of his.
5. A prepositional phrase.
e.g., To think that a man of his abilities would stoop to such a horrible trick as that.
Here it should be mentioned that the treatment of these prepositional phrases in
English syntax is different from their treatment in Ukrainian syntax where most of
them are regarded as prepositional objects.
e.g., The letter from her sister reassured her.Письмо от сестры успокоило ее.
Very often in translating English of-
phrases into Ukrainian nouns in the
genitive case without any preposition are
used; they are mostly regarded as objects.
the captain of the ship — капитан
корабля 6. An adverb:(a) In pre-position. In Ukrainian, an attribute cannot be
expressed by an adverb in pre-position. Consequently, in translating these
sentences into Russian we use adjectives
e.g., In the light of after events one cannot but sympathize with them.
В свете последующих событий им нельзя не сочувствовать.
(b)Inpost-position.
e.g., A voice inside said, “Come in.” - Голос из комнаты сказал: «Войдите!»
 7. Participles I and II or a participial phrase. The
participle in the function of an attribute can be used in pre-
position and in post-position. In the latter case it is mostly
used with accompanying words.
-On the opposite side of the road to the site of the destroyed
church is a fine avenue of old trees.
8. A prepositional phrase or a prepositional
construction with a gerund.
e.g., Sally hated the idea of borrowing and
living on credit
9. An infinitive, an infinitive phrase, or an infinitive
construction. The infinitive as an attribute is always used in
post-position.
e.g., They must have more companionship, more opportunity to
broaden their life
10. Quotation groups. These are generally rendered in
Ukrainian by means of the conjunction как будто, точно and a
clause which stands in post-position.
e.g., I don’t Jike his “don’t-talk-to-me-or-I’ll-contradict-you”
air. - Мне не нравится то, что у него такой вид, как будто он
хочет сказать: «Не разговаривайте со мной, а то я буду вам
перечить».
 Apposition – a word or a phrase referring to a part of
the sentence expressed by a noun, and giving some other
designation to the person or thing named by that noun,
e.g. For a moment, Melanie thought how nice Captain
Butler was.

Parenthesis – words and phrases which have no

syntactical ties with the sentence, and express the
speaker’s attitude towards what he says, a general
assessment of the statement, or an indication of its
sources, its connection with other statements, or with a
wider context in speech.

Extensions – adjuncts of adjectives, adverbs and adlinks

in a sentence. They differ from complements and
attributes in being usually modifiers of modifiers, or
tertiaries (Jespersen),
e.g., The creature’s eyes were alight with a somber frenzy.
Connectives – linking-words considered as a
secondary part of the sentence. They are
mostly prepositions and conjunctions,
e.g., She played and sang to him.
They usually connect 2 words both or neither
of which might be regarded as their head-
words. The words they connect belong to
various parts of speech.

Specifiers – not adjuncts of definite parts of

speech like complements, attributes or
extensions. They do not link any part of the
sentence like connectives. They are not
parenthetical elements. So they make a
distinct secondary part of the sentence. The
name just indicates the function,
e.g., I was only brilliant once.