At school, the study of the Russian language begins with acquaintance with letters and sounds, and then proceeds to get acquainted with parts of speech and sentence members. Students learn to compose phrases and related text on their own. They learn what links exist between words in a sentence, how it is built, and most importantly, they learn to parse a sentence into members. But in the early stages, difficulties may arise.
Therefore, in this article we will analyze how to parse the proposal by members, and find out what pitfalls may occur in this case.
Word order in a sentence
First you need to find out in what order the words are put when constructing a sentence. You can swap the sentence members in Russian, rearrange them, but the meaning will still be preserved. This phenomenon is called free word order. For example, for a Russian, the phrases “I went for bread” and “I went for bread” will sound equally clear.
However, it is worth paying attention to the members who are the main ones. If the subject is first, and the predicate is behind it, then the word order is traditionally considered direct. If the predicate comes first, and the subject follows, then this technique is called inversion. But some clearly fixed word order does not exist.
How do parts of speech relate to sentence members?
To determine the type of the used part of speech allow auxiliary questions.
For example, a noun denotes an object and answers the question “Who? What?”, An adjective indicates a sign of an object, and the question “What?” Helps to see it in a sentence. This question can be changed depending on the number and kind of adjective. The verb denotes an action, therefore, the questions "What to do / do?" Help to see it in the sentence. etc.
Different members can be expressed in different parts of speech. For example, the subject is most often played by nouns or pronouns. The verb usually occurs in the predicate role, but other members of the sentence can also play the same role. Adjectives usually act as definitions, nouns as additions, circumstances are usually expressed in adverbs. But it is worth remembering that these are not the only possible options.
Identification of the main members
In the proposal there are main members, as well as secondary ones. So how to parse a proposal by member? First you need to find those that are important. It is subject and predicate.
In the proposal, you can highlight the main character or the main subject in question. Usually this is the subject. In order to identify it accurately, you can ask the question’s member “Who?”, Used for animated objects, and “What?” for the inanimate.
The predicate indicates the action performed by the subject, or its state. Answers the question "What is doing?" if it’s about the present tense, “What did you do?” if it’s the past tense, and “What will do?” if it’s the future tense.
Let’s try to find out which word is subject, and which fulfills the role of the predicate in the following sentence:
I'm going to the pharmacy today.
We ask questions to the members of the proposal: "Who will go to the pharmacy?" The answer is "I." So the pronoun "I" is subject. I am "What am I doing?" The answer is "going." That is, the verb "going" is a predicate. Moreover, it is worth noting that on the letter the subject will be marked with one line, and the predicate with two.
And what else is in the proposal?
The second step in understanding how to parse a sentence by member is to determine the role that all other words that are not the main members play.
In addition to the main ones, there are also secondary members: definition, circumstance and addition.
To find out which of them each word refers to, it is necessary to ask auxiliary questions from the subject and predicate.
The definition answers the question "Which? Which?" etc. Case questions help to see the addition, and circumstances indicate the place of events, time, etc. Typically, a circumstance answers questions such as "How much? How? Where? Where? How? When?"
Let's try to completely parse the following sentence:
Today I will watch a very interesting film with a friend.
"Who will look?" - I. The pronoun "I" is subject. I "What will I do?" - I'll see. The verb "I'll see" is predicate. Those. Now it is known who performs the main action (s), and what action is performed (see).
Next, you need to select questions for all other words. Today answers the question "when?". "I'll see when?" - Today.
This circumstance is expressed by an adverb. "I'll see with whom?" - with friend. This word answers the case question, therefore, is the complement of a pronounced noun.
"I'll see what?" - film.
"Film" also answers the case question and is a complement. The film "What?" - interesting.
This is a question of definition, therefore, “interesting” is a definition expressed by an adjective. The film is interesting "how, how much?" - very interesting. “Very” is a circumstance expressed by an adverb.
In order to better understand how to parse a proposal by members, it is worthwhile to independently perform several similar analyzes.