1(2)2016+.pdf


Semantic and Structural 
Characteristics of Impersonal 

Sentences with Introductory “it ”

Language learners face the monumental task ofacquiring new vocabulary, syntactic patterns and
phonology, as well as the indispensability of developing
discourse competence. Without the knowledge of discourse
structure and sociocultural patterns of the target language, the
strategies acquired as part of their first language development
may be inappropriate for the second language setting and may
lead to communicative difficulties and misunderstandings.
Therefore, one of the goals of second language teaching is to
expose learners to different discourse patterns in different
texts and interactions. We should more closely examine the
patterns of language use in the classroom and the effect these

established patterns have on the learning process.
The problem is how to analyze these patterns. One of the approaches of speech

pattern analysis is dynamic semantics.
In recent decades semantic theory has been marked by a continuing shift from a static

view of meaning to a dynamic one. Dynamic semantics is a shift from sentence
semantics to discourse semantics. The analysis moves from isolated sentences to larger
units of discourse and text. The present theory (dynamic semantics) has developed as a
modification of dynamic logic and treats the meaning of a sentence as the relation
between its “input” and “output” referential links.

The increasing interest in extending semantic analyses from isolated sentences to
larger units of discourse has forced the intensive study of speech patterns.

We should consider sentences of the type
It is important to go. (1)
It is important that he is coming/he come. (2)
The main goal of this article is to reveal the structural and meaningful peculiarities

of sentences of the type It is … that ….where that introduces an embedded noun-clause
and the extraposed it is is followed by an adjective. 

It is commonly acknowledged that the existence of personal and impersonal models
is the result of different psychological perceptions of the outer world. Being built on the
general model “subject- predicate-object”(S-P-O), English impersonal sentences,
including it as a pseudo-personal subject, have the following grammatical peculiarities:
1. contrary to the definite-personal subject, it has no indication towards any concretely

12

Armenian Folia Anglistika Linguistics

Anahit Hovhannisian