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PART I: AN INTRODUCTION TO SYNTAX
1. LINGUISTICS, GRAMMAR AND SYNTAX
1.1. LINGUISTICS
1.2. GRAMMAR
A description of the structure of a language and the way in which linguistic units
such as words and phrases are combined to produce clauses/sentences in the language.
It usually takes into account the meanings and the functions these sentences have in the
overall system of the language. It may or may not include the description of the sounds
of a language (in traditional grammar).
A set of rules and a lexicon which describes the knowledge (competence) which a
speaker has of her or his language (in generative transformational grammar).
1.3. SYNTAX
Syntax is the study of how words combine to form phrases, clauses, sentences
and the rules which govern the formation of phrases, clauses and sentences.
The term of grammar is used is used in a number of different senses. Here are
some kinds of grammars mentioned:
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2.1. MENTAL GRAMMAR
Mental grammar is the grammar which is used to refer to the rules and principles
native speakers use in producing and understanding their language. These rules and
principles are almost all acquired in childhood and are in the heads of native speakers.
No one knows the precise forms a mental grammar takes because it cannot be directly
observed. What can be observed is the output of a mental grammar – the utterances
that speakers use and recognize as sentences of their language.
2.2. PRESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR
T-G grammar tries to show, with a system of rules, the knowledge which a native
speaker uses in forming grammatical setences. A person’s internalized grammar of a
language is called competence. This means a person’s ability to create and understand
sentences, including sentences they have never heard before and also a person’s
knowledge of what are or what are not sentences of a particular language.
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For example, a speaker of English would recognize ‘I want to go home’ as an
English sentence but would not accept a sentence such as ‘I want going home’ although
all the words in it are English words.
The relationship of the four components to one another can be seen in the
simplified diagram below:
SEMANTIC BASE
COMPONENT COMPONENT
SEMANTIC TRANSFORMATIONAL
INTERPRETATION COMPONENT
PHONOLOGICAL
COMPONENT
Figure 1
Accordding to T-G grammar, the linguist studies sentence structures and different
components such as Base Component, Transformational Component, Phonological
Component and Semantic Component.
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Note:
The Social function of language serves to establish and maintain social relation
between people. For example, the utterance ‘Will that be all, sir?’ used by a waiter in a
restaurant signals a particular social relationship between the waiter and the guest. The
waiter puts the guest in a higher role relationship.
3. STRUCTURE
3.1. THE ANALYSIS OF SENTENCE STRUCTURE
There are so many types of analysis: the Parsing analysis, the Graphic analysis,
the Slot and Filter, the Base and Modifier, the Quirk’s technique, the IC analysis, PS
rules, the TG analysis,... Here are some methods of analysis:
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1. To parse a verbal, we must tell: from what verb it is derived, its form, its
voice, its use.
Ex:
We must aim to increase exports: ‘to increase’ from the verb ‘increase’, simple
infinitive, active, adverbial to modify ‘aim’.
Her house needs to be redecorated: ‘to be decorated’ from the verb ‘redecorate’,
simple infinitive, passive, object of ‘need’.
I saw her singing at her work: ‘singing’ from the verb ‘sing’, present participle,
active, used as the complement of ‘her’.
Tom is fond of dancing: ‘dancing’ from the vern ‘dance’, gerund, active, the
complement of preposition ‘of’.
2. To parse a verb, we must show: what kind of verb it is, its voice, its mood,
its tense, its number and person, its agreement.
Ex:
He has proved his case to my satisfaction: ‘has proved’ transitive verb, active,
indicative mood, present perfect tense, singular number, third person, in agreement
with the subject ‘He’.
There was a table and two chairs in the study room: ‘was’ intransitive verb,
active, indicative, simple past tense, singular number, third person, in agreement with
the subject ‘table’.
3. To parse a noun, we must show: what kind of noun it is, its number and
person, its function.
Ex:
The woman is nursing the baby at her breast: ‘woman’ common noun, singular
number, subject of ‘is nursing’.
4. To parse a pronoun, we must show: what kind of pronoun it is, its number
and person, its function.
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Ex:
You may do what you like: ‘you’ personal pronoun, plural number, second
person, subject of ‘may do’; ‘what’ double relative pronoun, singular number, object of
‘like’
5. To parse an adjective, we must show: what kind of adjective it is, its use.
Ex:
The lazy boy is lying in a comfortable sofa: ‘lazy’ adjective of quality, used
attributively to qualify ‘boy’; ‘comfortable’ adjective of quality, used attributively to
qualify ‘sofa’.
6. To parse an adverb, we must tell: what kind of adverb it is, its use.
Ex:
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(5) SVOO I make coffee
I will make everyone some fresh coffe. will, (for) everyone fresh
some
(6) SVOC She imagined him taller
She imagined him much taller than that. much, than that.
(7) SVOA Bill has shirt.
(Nonfinite)
To
err
(1) To err is human. is human
See- is believe-
Help-
him is task
my
(Compound sentences)
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(5) I told him this but he didn’t believe me. I told this
(to) him.
he came
If there is a sentence modifier, the IC’s of the whole sentence are the sentence
modifier as one and the sentence pattern as the other.
13. Usually / the boys in the family milked the goats in the morning.
For example, the constituent structure of the sentence: Her father bought a car
can be shown as:
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1. Domino Box
Figure 2
2. Immediate Constituent Cut
Figure 3
3. Labeled Brackets
S → NP VP
VP → V NP
NP → Det N
5. Tree Diagram
NP VP
NP
Det N V Det N
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3.1.4. Phrase structure rules
For example, the rule: S → NP VP means that a sentence (S) can be analysed
(rewritten) as consisting of a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP).
The rule: VP → V NP means that a verb phrase can be rewritten as simply a verb
or as a verb (V) and a noun phrase (NP).
The lexicon gives information about the class that a word belongs to, N for nouns,
V for Verbs, and information about the grammatical structure with which the word may
occur. For example, the English verb ‘sleep’ cannot have an object after it. The simplified
table below shows the rules and lexicon which are necessary to form the basic sentence
structure ‘The baby slept’.
Table 1
This simplified diagram shows the basic DEEP STRUCTURE for the sentence ‘The
baby slept’.
NP VP
Det N VS
Figure 5
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Sentences are not formed by stringing words together like beads on a necklace.
Rather; sentences have hierarchical structures consisting of groups of words that may
themselves consist of smaller groups, and so on. This section will focus on the internal
structure of syntactic units built around Ns, Vs, As and Ps, with an emphasis on the
organizational properties that they have in common. Such units are called PHRASES.
Heads – Phrases are built around a ‘skeleton’ consisting of two levels, as depicted
below. (The symbol P in the upper level stands for ‘phrase’)
NP VP AP PP -Phrase level
N V A P -Word level
Each level of phrase structure can be thought of as a sort of ‘hook’ (like a hook on
a pole) to which elements of different types can be attached.
The lowest level is reserved for the word around which the phrase is built – an N
in the case of NPs, a V in the case of VPs, and so on. This element is called the head of
the phrase. As the following examples show, it is possible to have a phrase in which only
the head position is filled. (The material in parentheses provides a context in which
these one-word phrases might occur.)
NP VP
N V
AP PP
A P
Although phrases can consist of just one word, they often contain other elements
as well. For example:
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a. [NP the books]
b. [VP will eat]
c. [AP quite certain]
d. [PP almost in]
In addition to the head (the underlined element), each of these phrases includes
a second word that has a special semantic and syntactic role.
Specifiers – These words (determiners such as ‘the’, auxiliaries such as ‘will’, and
degree words such as ‘quite’ or ‘almost’) are said to function as specifiers. Semantically,
specifiers help to make more precise the meaning of the head. Hence, the Det ‘the’ in
(a) indicates that the speaker has in mind specific books, the Aux ‘will’ in (b) indicates a
future event, and the Deg words ‘quite’ and ‘almost’ in (c), (d) indicate the degree to
which a particular property or relation is manifested.
NP VP AP PP
The syntactic category of the specifier differs depending on the category of the
head. As the examples in Figure 8 show, determiners serve as the specifiers of Ns,
auxiliaries as the specifiers of Vs, and degree words as the specifiers of As and (some)
Ps.
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Table 2: Some specifiers
Put another way, a positional property of nouns is that they can appear with a
determiner specifier, a positional property of verbs is that they can appear with an
auxiliary specifier, and so forth. This is an example of how the word combinarorial
properties can help one to identify its category.
* the destroy
* will destruction
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Complements are attached to the right of the head in English (but to the left in
many other languages). Figure 9 illustrates the structure of a VP and a PP consisting of a
specifier, a head, and a complement.
VP PP
NP NP
a. b.
Still more complex phrases are illustrated in Figure 10. Here, the NP and AP each
consists of a specifier, a head, and a PP complement. This PP in turn consists of a P head
and an NP complement composed of a determiner and an N head. (The triangle over the
NPs in these examples indicates that in order to save space we do not depict their
internal structure.)
NP AP
PP PP
Det N P NP Deg A P NP
the books about the war quite certain about the answer
a. b.
The rules – How does the grammar ensure that specifiers, heads, and
complements occupy the appropriate positions in phrase structure? The arrangement of
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the elements that make up a phrase is regulated by a special type of grammatical
mechanism called a PHRASE STRUCTURE RULE. The following phrase structure rules
stipulate the position of specifiers, heads, and complements in the various types of
phrases that we have been considering. (The arrow can be read as ‘consists of’ or
‘branches into’. The three dots in each rule indicate that other complement options are
available; these will be discussed in section – Complement Option.)
a. NP → (Det) N (PP)...
b. VP → (Aux) V (NP)...
c. AP → (Deg) A (PP)...
d. PP → (Deg) P (NP)...
The first of these rules states that an NP can consist of a determiner, an N head,
and a PP complement (as in Figure 10a); the second rule captures the fact that a VP can
be composed of an auxiliary, a V, and an NP complement (as in Figure 9a); and so on.
As the parentheses in our rules indicate, both specifiers and complements are
optional. Thus, in accordance what we have already seen, a phrase may consit of a
specifier, a head, and a complement; a head and a complement; a specifier and a head;
or just a head (see Figure 11).
Generalizing the rules by now, you will have noticed that there are very obvious
structural similarities among NPs, VPs, Aps, and PPs. In all four phrase types, the
specifier is attached at the top level to the left of the head while the complement is
attached to the right. These similarities can be summarized with the help of the
template in Figure 12, in which X stands for N, V, A, or P.
VP PP
Aux V NP P NP
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NP VP
Det N V
Figure 11: Some phrase types (only the head is present in all patterns)
XP
Specifier X Complement
Head
Because the symbol X stands for N, V, A, or P, this rule is an abbreviation for the
four separate phrase structure rules given above, and this rule is more abstract than the
four more specific rules that were initially proposed since it makes use of the special
symbol X. However, it is also more economic and is able to express the structural
properties shared by the four different phrase types. For these reasons, rules
formulated in terms of the X notation are widely used in contemporary syntactic
analysis.
Sentences – Traditionally, the largest unit of syntactic analysis is the sentence (S).
it is formed by combining an NP and a VP in accordance with the XP rule (The NP that
combines with the VP in this way is called the subject.)
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S
NP VP
NP
Each phrase in Figure 13 complies with the previous given rules. Thus, the S
consists of a subject NP and a VP (consistent with the S rule). In accordance with the XP
rule, the NP consists of a specifier (the Det a) and an N head. For its part, the VP consists
of a specifier (the Aux may), a verb head (discover), and a complement NP (often called
a direct object). The internal structure of this NP is likewise consistent with the XP rule
since it is composed of a determiner specifier (the) and an N head (answer).
The S rule S → NP VP
The XP rule XP → (Specifier) X (Complement)
Thus far in this part, we have been concentrating on phrases that consist of
specifiers, heads, and complements. However, human language contains other types of
syntactic patterns as well. For example, some phrases – called coordinate structures –
are formed by joining two or more elements of the same type with the help of a
conjunction such as ‘and’ or ‘or’.
Coordinate structures:
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b. [N hamburgers] or [N hotdogs]
A good book
He slept soundly.
Tests for Phrase Structure (Advanced) – According to the syntactic analysis being
presented here, the words that make up a sentence form intermediate structural units
called phrases. How do linguists using this approach to syntax determine which words
should be grouped together into phrases? The existence of the syntactic units, or
constituents, that make up tree structures can be independently verified with the help
of special tests. Although we cannot consider all of these tests here, it is possible to give
some examples.
1. The Substitution test – Evidence that NPs are syntactic units comes from the
fact that they can often be replaced by a single word such as the pronoun ‘the’ or ‘it’.
This is illustrated in the following, where ‘they’ replaces the NP ‘the citizens’.
The substitution test also confirms that a PP such as ‘at the corner’ is a unit since
it can be replaced by a single word in sentences such as:
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They stopped [PP at the corner] and we stopped there too. (there = at the
corner)
2. The Movement test – A second indication that ‘at the corner’ forms a
constituent is that it can be moved as a single unit to a different position within the
sentence.
They stopped [PP at the corner+ → *PP at the corner], they stopped.
‘at the corner’ in the sentence can be moved from a position after the verb to the
beginning of the sentence.
3. The Coordination test – Finally, we can conclude that a group of words for a
constituent if it can be joined to another group of words by a conjunction such as ‘and’
or ‘or’. (This is labelled the Coordination test since patterns built around a conjunction
are called coordinate structures; see section – SOME EXTECSIONS). Thus we know that
the VP ‘will sweep the floor’ in: Harry [VP will sweep the floor] and [VP will make the
beds+ is a constituent because it can be joined to ‘will make the bed’ by the conjunction
‘and’.
XP
X’
Specifier X Complement
Head
Figure 14: The phrase structure template (revised)
According to this viewpoint, then, all phrases have been the tri-level structures
shown below, in which the head and its complement form an X’-level constituent and
the specifier is attached at the higher XP level. (These examples illustrate the internal
structure of a ‘W and an NP only, but Aps and PPs have a parallel structure.)
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VP NP
V’ N’
Aux V NP Det N PP
The existence of X’ categories can be verified with the help of the same sort of
syntactic tests discussed in the previous section. Consider, for example, the V in the
phrase ‘will study the problem’ in figure 15a. As the following sentence shows, this unit
can be replaced by ‘do so’ and should therefore be a constituent according to the
substitution test.
The students will [V study the problem] and their parents may do so too.
Now consider the N’: ‘book about the war’ in Figure 15b. As the next sentence
shows, this unit can be replaced by the element ‘one’.
Tha fact that ‘one’ on replace ‘book about the war’ in this manner confirms that it
is a syntactic unit, consistent with the structure in Figure 15b.
XP → (Specifier) X’
The X’ rule:
X’ → X (Complement)
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The first of these rules stipulates that XP categories such as NP and VP consist of
an optional specifier (a determiner, an auxiliary, and so forth) and an X’. The second rule
then states that an X’ (it can be an N’, a V’ or whatever) consists of a head – X, and any
complements. Taken together, these two rules form the three-level structures
illustrated in Figure 15, as desired.
Because three level structures take up a considerable amount of space and can
be tedious to draw, it is common practice to eliminate the intermediate level of phrase
structure rules it is absolutely essential to the point being discussed. Since none of the
phenomena that we will be discussing requires an intermediate level of phrase
structure, we will not make further use of it here. In order to do more advanced
syntactic analysis, though, you will need to be familiar with the X’ level.
3.1.5. TG Analysis
1 S → NP VP S: sentence
2 VP → {V NP} NP: noun phrase
{P Aux V PP} VP: verb phrase
3 V → VS {Past} PP: prepositional phrase
{en} PAux: passive auxiliary
4 P Aux → be Past VS: verb stem
5 PP → by NP VS past: verb stem & simple past tense
6 NP → Det N VS en: verb stem & past participle
NS: noun stem
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Tree diagram
NP VP
V NP
Figure 16a
Det N VS Det N
NP VP
Paux V PP
NP Figure 16b
Det N Aux VS P Det N
The simple rules outlined in 3.1.4. can form a very wide variety phrases and
sentences. Much of this variety stems from the fact that human language allows many
different complement options. For example, in addition to the structures considered in
3.1.4., in which each head took at most one complement, there are also structures in
which a head takes two (or more) complements. The verb ‘put’ is a case in point. As the
following examples show, it requires both an NP complement and a PP complement.
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The VP ‘put the book on the shelf’ has the structure depicted in Figure 16, in
which the VP consists of the head ‘put’ and its two complements – the NP ‘the book’ and
the PP ‘on the shelf’.
VP
V NP PP
XP → (Specifier) X (Complement)
This rule also expresses the simple but important fact that complements
(however many there are) occur to the right of the head in English.
complement: NP
Table 5 illustrates some of the more common complement options for verbs in
English. The subscripted prepositions indicate the subtype of PP complement, where
this is relevant. Loc (location) stands for any preposition expressing a location (such as
‘near’, ‘on’, ‘under’).
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Table 5: Some examples of verb complements
According to this table, the verbs in the first line (‘vanish’, ‘arrive’, and ‘die’) can
occur without any complement, those in the second line occur with an NP complement,
and so on.
A word can belong to more than one subcategory. The verb ‘eat’, for example,
can occur either with or without an NP complement and therefore belongs to both of
the first two subcategories in our table.
21. After getting home, they ate (the sandwiches).
However, not all verbs exhibit this flexibility. Although ‘devour’ is similar in
meaning to ‘eat’, it requires an explicitly stated complement NP and therefore belongs
only to the second subcategory in our table:
22. a) ‘devour’ without a complement
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S
NP VP S
NP NP VP
a. b.
Thanks to subcategorization, then, heads occur only in tree structures where they
have compatible complement phrases.
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Table 8: Some examples of preposition complements
Here again subcategorization ensures that particular heads can appear in tree
structures only if there is an appropriate type of complement. Thus, the adjective
‘curious’ can occur with an ‘about PP’, but the adjective ‘fond’ cannot.
AP AP
PP PP
NP NP
A P Det N A P Det N
Figure 18: Subcategorization permits ‘curious’, but not ‘fond’, to take an ‘about
PP’ as complement.
23. [The psychic knows [that/ whether/ if the contestant will win]].
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CP
NP VP
C Det N Aux V
Although Cs are non-lexical categories, they fit into structures parallel to those
found with lexical categories. Thus, the head (C) and its complement (S) together make
up an XP category (CP). In section TRANSFORMATIONS, we will see that there is even a
type of element that can occur in the specifier position under CP.
When a CP occurs in a sentence such as [The psychic knows [that/ whether/ if the
contestant will win++, in which it serves as complement of the verb ‘know’, the entire
sentence has the structure in Figure 20.
NP VP
CP
NP VP
Of course, not all verb can take a CP complement. The following table provides
examples of some of the verbs that are commonly found with a complement of this
type.
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Table 9: Some verbs permitting CP complements
NP VP
CP
NP VP
Det N V C Det N V CP
Figure 21: Syntactic structure for a sentence with more than one embedded CP
This structure is made possible by the fact that each CP complementt can contain
a verb that itself permits a complement CP. Hence the topmost clause contains the verb
‘think’, whose complement clause contains the verb ‘say’, whose clausal complement
contains ‘report’, and so on.
Complement of N Complement of A
NP AP
N CP A CP
proof that Eric will leave certain that Eric will leave 29
Complement of P
PP
P CP
Table 10 gives examples of some other adjectives, nouns, and prepositions that
can take CP complements.
Although structures of this sort are common in English and other languages, we
will restrict our attention in the remainder of this part to embedded clauses that are
complements of Vs.
3.3. TRANSFORMATIONS
Although phrase structure rules interact with the set of complement options
permitted by individual heads to form a very wide range of patterns, there are syntactic
phenomena that they cannot describe in an entirely satisfactory way. This section
considers two such phenomena and discusses the changes that must be made in order
to accommodate them.
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The structures are called yes-no questions because the expected response is
usual ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
These sentences have an auxiliary verb to the left of the subject rather than the
specifier position of the VP, our phrase structure rules place the auxiliary in the
appropriate position, (not in the example above) as in:
How does the word order found in the former sentences come about?
The question structures that we are considering are built in two steps. The first
step, the usual phrase structure rules are used to form a structure in which the Aux
occupies its normal position within the VP. This allows us to express the fact that even in
question structures it functions as a specifier making more precise the meaning of the
verb.
S
NP VP
Det N Aux V
The boy will leave
Inversion applies to the structure depicted in figure 23, yielding the sentence:
with the auxiliary verb to the left of the subject NP – the position appropriate for
a question structure. (The arrow shows the movement brought about by inversion. For
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now, we will not try to draw a tree diagram for structures that have undergone a
treansformation.)
The transformational analysis has at least two advantages. First, we do not have
to say that there are two types of auxiliary verbs in English: those that occur at the
beginning of the sentence and those that occur next to the verb as its specifier. Rather,
we can say that an auxiliaries function as specifiers of the verb, consistent with the
simple analysis in section 1.3.1. Those sentences that have an auxiliary verb to the left of
the subject simply undergo an ‘extra’ process – the Inversion transformation that moves
the auxiliary from its position within the VP in order to signal a question.
Deep structure and Surface structure – The preceding examples show that at
least some sentences must be analyzed with the help of two distinct rule systems –
phrase structure rules, which determine the internal structure of phrasal categories, and
transformations, which can modify these tree structures by moving an element from
one position to another. If we think about this in terms of the architecture of sentence
structure, the transformational analysis is claiming that there are two levels of syntactic
structure. The first, called deep structure, is formed by the phrase structure rules in
accordance with the head’s subcategorization properties. As we will see in the chapter
on semantics, deep structure plays a special role in the interpretation of sentences.
The second level of syntactic structure corresponds to the final syntactic form of
the sentence. Called surface structure, it results from applying whatever
transformations are appropriate for the sentence in question.
The deep structure for both the sentence ‘The boy will leave’ and the
corresponding question structure ‘Will the boy leave?’ is given in Figure 24.
S
Figure 24: The deep structure for the
NP VP
question ‘Will the boy leave?’ and the
statement ‘The boy will leave.’
Det N Aux V
The boy will leave
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The surface structure for the question pattern is then formed by applying the
inversion transformation, yielding:
In contrast, the statement pattern ‘The boy will leave’ has a surface structure
(final syntactic form) that looks just like its deep structure since no transformations
apply.
The following diagram depicts the organization of the syntactic component of the
grammar as it has just been outlined.
Phrase structure rules
SURFACE STRUCTURE
Do the deep structure associated with a and b resemble the surface form of
these sentences or are they quite different? Within the system of syntactic analysis we
are using, the sentences have the deep structures illustrated in Figure 26. (We treat the
‘Wh’ words ‘Who’ and ‘What’ as simple nouns and ‘Which’ as a determiner.)
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S
S NP VP
NP VP PP
NP NP
The man should fit which car The child can sit on what
a. b.
Figure 26: Deep structures for two Wh-questions
34
By applying Wh-movement and inversion to the deep structure in Figure 26a, we
can form the desired question structure.
Application of the same two transformations to the deep structure in Figure 26b
yields the Wh-question in:
NP VP
PP
NP
Det N Aux V P N
We have already seen that we can form the sentence ‘What can the child sit on?’
by fronting the Wh-word ‘what’ and applying inversion. However, this is not the only
sentence that can be formed from this deep structure. By treating the PP on ‘what’ as a
Wh-phrase and moving it to the front of the sentence, it is possible to form the slightly
different sentence in:
32. On what can the child - sit - ?
35
We see, then, that by allowing Wh-movement to apply to either an NP or a PP
that contains a Wh-word, it is possible to form two distinct grammatical sentences from
the same deep structure.
In this position does the auxiliary verb ‘land’ when it is moved by Inversion to the
left of the subject? If we assume that sentences such as ‘Will the boy leave?’ are simple
Ss, no position is available for the fronted auxiliary to the left of the subject since the S
rule (S → NP VP) says that an S should consist just of an NP and a VP.
Another look at Inversion: This problem can be solved if we assume that all Ss
occur within larger CPs, as depicted in Figure 28.
CP
C S
NP VP
Det N Aux V
By adopting this structure, we take the position that all Ss occur within a CP,
whether they are embedded or not. It may help to think of the CP category as a ‘shell’
that forms an outer layer of structure around an S. When embedded within a larger
sentence, the CP can contain an overt complementizer such as ‘that’ or ‘whether’.
Elsewhere, the C position in the CP shell is present but is simply left empty.
It is into this empty position that the auxiliary verb is moved in yes-no questions.
Thus, the Inversion transformation can be reformulated as follows:
34. Inversion
Move Aux to C
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According to this proposal, then, the sentence ‘Will the boy leave?’ is formed by
applying the inversion transformation to the Deep structure in Figure 28 above to give
the Surface structure in Figure 29.
CP
C S
NP VP
Why do we attach a moved Aux to the C position rather than some other part of
sentence structure? The answer lies in the embedded CPs in sentences such as the
following:
The underlined elements in these CPs are complementizers and therefore occur
in the C position. Assuming that there can be only one element in each position in a tree
structure, there should be no room for the moved Aux under the C label in the
embedded CPs in ‘Inversion – Move Aux to C’. We therefore predict that Inversion
should not be able to apply in these cases. The ungrammaticality of the sentences
following shows that this is not correct.
36. Inversion in embedded CPs that include complementizers:
37
Interestingly, the acceptability of Inversion in embedded CPs improves quite
dramatically when there is no complementizer (and the C position is therefore open to
receive the moved Aux).
Although some speakers prefer not to apply inversion in embedded clauses at all
(especially in formal speech), most speakers of English find the sentences above to be
much more natural than those in ‘Inversion in embedded CPs that include
complementizers’. This is just what we would expect if inversion must move the Aux to
an empty C position, as required by our analysis.
We have already seen that the transformation of Wh-movement moves the Wh-
phrase to the beginning of the sentence, to the left even of the fronted Aux, but we
have not attempted to determine its precise place in the tree structure.
Given that the moved Aux is located in the C position (see above), it seems
reasonable to conclude that the fronted Wh-phrase is in the specifier position of CP (this
being the only position to the left of the C). Certainly, we know that this position is
available to receive the moved Wh-phrase because there is no class of words that serves
as specifier of C, this position will always be empty in deep structure prior to the
application of Wh-movement.
We therefore reformulate the Wh-movement transformation as follows.
The sentence ‘Which car should the man fix?’ can now be analyzed in step the
first of which involves formation of the deep structure depicted in Figure 29. Consistent
with our earlier assumption, the S here occurs within a CP shell.
CP
C S
NP VP
NP
Figure 29: Deep structure for ‘Which car should the mman fix?’
Wh-movement and inversion then apply to this deep structur, yielding the
surface structure in Figure 30. Note that the Aux has moved to the C position and the
Wh-phrase to the specifier position within CP.
CP
C S
NP NP VP
39
Constraints on Transformations (advanced) – Interestingly, there are certain
contexts in which transformations are unable to operate. As a [reliminary illustration of
this, consider the following two pairs of sentences:
In the first example, the Wh-word is extracted from a complement phrase and
the result is acceptable. In 41, in contrast, the Wh-word is extracted from the subject
NP. The ungrammatically of the resulting sentence suggests that it is not possible to
move an element out of a subject phrase. We can express this fact by formulating the
following constraint on transformations.
Subject NPs are not the only type of island found in English. As the following
examples show, it is also possible to remove a Wh-word from a coordinate structure.
(The coordinate structure is placed in brackets; as outlined in detail in section 1.3.5.
‘SOME EXTENTIONS (advanced)’, a coordinate structure is a phrase in which a word
such as ‘and’ or ‘or’ joins together categories of the same type.)
43. a) The author might write [a story or a poem].
40
We can account for these facts by formulating the following constraint:
There are many different types of islands in language, and a good deal of current
research focuses on how they should be described, what properties they have in
common, and how they differ from language to language. However, most of this work is
too complex to discuss in an introductory book.
Now that we have considered the basic rule systems used by the syntactic
component of the grammar in human language, it is possible to broaden out treatment
of English syntax by briefly examining a number of additional strutural patterns. We
focus in this section on three such patterns coordinate structures, modifier
constructions, and relative clauses.
70. Coordination of Ss
[S The man entered the building] and [S the woman waited in the car].
Second, a category at any level (a head or an entire XP) can be coordinated. The
preceding examples illustrate coordination of XPs; following are examples involving
word-level categories.
72. a) Coordination of N
b) Coordination of P
[P up] and [P down] the stairs
c) Coordination of V
Third, coordinated categories must be of the same type. Thus, the coordinated
categories are of both NPs in 66, VPs in 67, and so on. As 73 shows, coordination of
different category types generally gives a quite unnatural result.
73. a) Coordination of an NP and a PP
Finally, the category type of the coordinate phrase is identical to the category
type of the elements being conjoined. Hence, if VPs are coordinated, the coordinate
structure is a VP; if NPs are coordinated, the coordinate structure is an NP; and so on.
VP NP
VP VP NP NP
How does the grammar form coordinate structures? one possibility is that there
is a separate rule for each coordinate structure. For categories of the N-type, for
example, the following two rules could be formulated. (The * symbol indicates that one
42
or more categories can occur to the left of the conjunction as in example 71; Con =
conjunction).
b) N → N* Con N
75. a) VP → VP Con VP
b) V → V* Con V
Similar rules can be devised for other categories (S, AP, PP, and so on) as well, but
you can probably see that the result will be a rather long list of new rules.
Xn → Xn * Con Xn
The symbol Xn in this rule stands for a category at any structural level, indicating
that either an X or an XP can be coordinated. As before, the asterisk (*) indicates that
one or more categories can occur to the left of the conjunction. Thus, we can not only
form structures such as ‘a man and a boy’ in which just two elements are coordinated,
but also structures such as ‘a man, a boy, a cat, a dog and a hamster’, in which a much
larger number of items undergoes coordination. By adding just one more rule to the
grammar, then, we can form a very broad range of coordination structures.
Modifiers – Thus far, our treatment of phrase structure has ignored modifiers, a
class of elements that encode optionally expressible properties of heads. Although all
lexical categories can have modifiers, we will focus here on the types of categories that
can modify Ns and Vs.
Adjective phrases (APs) make up the single most commonly used class of
modifiers in English. As the following examples show, APs serve as modifiers of Ns. (This
is not the only function of Aps; they can also function as complements of verbs such as
‘become’ and ‘seem’, as in ‘He became/ seemed [very angry+’; see Table 5).
The most common modifiers of Vs are adverb phrases (AdvPs) and PPs that
describe manner or time.
As these examples show, English modifiers vary in terms of their position with
respect to the head. Thus, Aps precede the N while PPs follow the verb. Many AdvPs can
occur either before or after the verb that they modify, as the first examples in 78
illustrate.
Modifier Position
AP Precedes the head
PP Follows the head
AdvP Precedes or follows the head
A rule for Modifiers – How do modifiers fit into phrase structure? For the
purpose of this introduction to syntax, we will attach modifiers at the XP level of phrase
structure, as depicted below.
NP VP
AP AdvP
44
In order to account for the placement of modifiers, we must expand our original
XP rule so that it allows the various options shown in 80.
This rule allows a modifier to occur before the head (as in Figure 34a) and/or
after it (see Figure 34b). Where there is a complement, a modifier that occurs after the
head will normally occur to the right of the complement as well. This is illustrated in
Figure 35.
VP
NP AdvP
Figure 35: A phrase in which both the complement and the modifier occur after
the head (the modifier occurs after the complement)
In this example, the XP rule gives a phrase consisting of a head (the verb
‘accept’), a complement (the NP ‘the news’), and a modifier (the AdvP ‘very calmly) – in
that order.
The bracketed phrases in 81 are relative clauses, CP-sized modifiers that provide
information about the N head to their left. In sentence 81a, for example, the relative
clause helps identify the man by indicating that he is the person criticized by Bob.
Like other modifiers, relative clauses occur within the same phrase as the head
that they modify. Thus, the bracketed relative clause in 81a should br part of the NP
headed by the N ‘man’. This can be verified with the help of the substitution test
illustrated in 82, which shows that the sequence ‘the man who Bob criticized’ is a
syntactic unit since it can be replaced by the pronoun ‘him’.
45
82. Sue knows the man [who Bob criticized _ ] and I know him too.
The first step in the formation of the relative clause in 81a involves the deep
structure in Figure 36. Here, the Wh-word ‘who’ occurs as complement of the verb
‘criticize’ since it corresponds to the person who is criticized. (The relative clause itself is
in the usual position for a post-head modifier; see the preceding section).
The next step involves the application of the Wh-movement rule (as outlined in
section – TRANSFORMATIONS) to give the structure in Figure 37. (Recall that Wh-
phrases move to the specifier position under CP.) Notice that no new transformations
are required to form relative clause structures such as these. Rather, relative clauses can
be formed with the help of the same Wh-movement transformation that is
independently required for Wh-questions.
CP
Figure 36: Deep structure of a relative
C S clause structure
NP VP
NP
CP
C S
NP VP
NP
N V Det N N V N
46
CP
C S
NP VP
NP
CP
C S
NP NP VP
N V Det N N N V NP
Figure 37: Surface structure of a relative clause: the Wh-phrase has moved to the
specifier position within CP
Now consider a relative clause structure in which the Wh-word originals in the
subject position.
83. Sue knows the man [who criticized Bob].
Here ‘who’ corresponds to the person who does the criticizing, not the person
who gets criticized, as in the previous example. The deep structure for this sentence
therefore corresponds to Figure 38, in which the Wh-word appears in the subject
position.
47
CP
C S
NP VP
NP
CP
C S
NP VP
N V Det N N V N
Like other Wh-words, the ‘who’ here subsequently moves to the specifier
position within CP even though the actual order of the words in the sentence does not
change as a result of this movement.
Word order – The order in which words n=may occur in a phrase, clause or
sentence. For example, the past participle in English occurs after the auxiliary.
95. He has given me the book.
The position of a word in a sentence often signals its function. Thus in the
sentence:
The position of ‘dog’ shows that it is the SUBJECT, and the position of ‘meat’
shows that it is the OBJECT. In some languages, including English, a change from the
usual word order may often be used to emphasize or contrast.
48
Prosodic patterns – Sounds characteristics which affect whole sequences of
syllables. They may involve, for instance, the relative loudness or duration of syllables,
changes in the pitch of a speaker’s voice and the choice of pitch level.
Function words – Function words are words which have little meaning on their
own, but which show grammatical relationships in and between sentences (grammatical
meaning). Conjunctions, prepositions, determiners are function words.
Function words are also called form words, empty words, functors, grammatical
words, structure words.
Inflections – The other device which changes the forms of words in the utterance
is called inflections. Thus, inflection is the process of adding an affix to a word or
changing it in some other way according to the rules of the grammar of a language. For
example, in English, verbs are inflected for 3rd person singular: I work, He works and for
past tense: I worked. Most nouns may be inflected for plural: horse – horses, flower –
flowers, man – men,...
The first step involves assigning each word to the appropriate category, as
depicted in Figure 39.
P Det N
Then, working from right to left, the XP levels are added above each N, V, A or P.
Thus, we first add an NP label above the N door. There is clearly no complement here,
but there is a specifier (the determiner the), which can be attached at the NP level in
accordance with the XP rule.
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NP
P Det. N
Next, we carry out the same procedure for the P near, adding the required PP
level.
PP
NP
P Det. N
The NP to the right of the P clearly functions as its complement (since it names
the location entailed by the meaning of near). This element is therefore attached at the
PP level in accordance with the XP rule, giving the complete structure depicted in Figure
42.
PP
NP
P Det. N
Consider now how we proceed in the case of a complete sentence such as ‘The
apple might hit the man’. Assignment of each word to the appropriate category gives
the structure depicted in Figure 43.
Det N Aux V Det N
Working from right to left, it is easy to see that the noun ‘man’ heads an NP that
contains a specifier but no complement.
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NP
NP
Det N Aux V Det N
As specifier, the auxiliary ‘might’ clearly atttaches to the VP. But what of the NP
‘the man’? It occurs to the right of the V and names an entity entailed by the meaning of
‘hit’ (the person who is hit). As such, it is the complement of the V and must also be
attached to the VP in accordance with the XP rule.
VP
NP
Det N Aux V Det N
Finally, we can form the phrase built around the N ‘apple’ and combine this NP
with the already formed VP in accordance with the S rule (S → NP VP). This yields the
complete sentence illustrated in Figure 46.
NP VP
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Transformations – As explained in section 1.3.3, the syntactic analysis of some
sentences involves transformations in addition to the usual phrase structures rules.
Recognizing that one of the transformations used in this chapter has applied is relatively
simple: if a sentence contains an auxiliary verb to the left of the subject, then Inversion
has applied; if it begins with a wh-word, then Wh-movement has applied. In the
sentence ‘What has the customer purchased?’ then, both of the transformations have
applied.
In order to determine the deep structure, we must ‘return’ the auxiliary verb to
its position within the specifier of VP and we must determine the position from which
the Wh-word has been removed. Since the Wh-word in the sentence ‘What has the
customer purchased?’ asks about the complement of the verb (the thing that is
purchased), we place ‘what’ in the verbal complement position in deep structure. This
gives the deep structure depicted in Figure 47 consistent with the phrase structure rules
we have been discussing.
NP VP
NP
Det N Aux V N
Figure 48: Deep structure for What has the customer purchased
If you are using the more detailed system outlined in section 1.3.3, the deep
structure will be slightly more complex. As depicted below, it must also include a CP
category, so that there will be empty positions to which the auxiliary and the Wh-word
can be moved.
CP
C S
NP VP
NP
Det N Aux V N
The customer has purchased what
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The auxiliary ‘has’ then moves to the C position (inversion) and ‘what’ to the
specifier position under CP (Wh-movement), yielding the complete surface structure
depicted in Figure 49.
CP
C S
NP NP VP
Figure 49: The Surface structure: the Wh-phrase has moved to the specifier
position within CP and the Aux has moved to the C position
53
CONTENTS
Page
VERBS .....................................................................................................................
Morphological classification ...............................................................
i. SIMPLE VERBS..................................................................................
ii. COMPOUND VERBS .........................................................................
iii. DERIVED VERBS ...............................................................................
iv. PHRASAL VERBS ...............................................................................
v. PREPOSITIONAL VERBS....................................................................
vi. PHRASAL PREPOSITIONAL VERBS ....................................................
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ii. VERB ASPECTS .................................................................................
iii. MOODS ............................................................................................
iv. VOICES .............................................................................................
ADJECTIVES ............................................................................................................
Syntactic functions of Adjectives ...................................................
i. ATTRIBUTIVE....................................................................................
ii. PREDICATIVE....................................................................................
iii. POSTPOSITIVE..................................................................................
iv. VERBLESS ADJECTIVE CLAUSE .........................................................
v. AN EXCLAMATION ...........................................................................
vi. THE HEAD OF A NOUN PHRASE .......................................................
ADVERBS ................................................................................................................
CONJUNCTIONS .....................................................................................................
DEGREES ................................................................................................................
55
2. SOME PROPERTIES OF SENTENCE STRUCTURE..........................................
2.1. LINEARITY ...................................................................................................
2.2. HIERARCHY .................................................................................................
2.3. CATEGORIALITY ..........................................................................................
SUMMARY .............................................................................................................
56
PART II: CATEGORIES AND PROPERTIES OF SENTENCE
STRUCTURE
1. WORD-LEVEL CATEGORIES
A fundamental fact about words in all human languages is that they can be
grouped together into a relatively small number of classes, called syntactic categories
(also called part of speech). This classification reflects a variety of factors, including the
type of meaning that words express, the type of affixes that they take, and the type of
structures in which they can occur.
Syntactic categories are generally divided into two broad groups: lexical
categories and non-lexical categories.
Some examples of the word-level categories that are most central to the study of
syntax.
The four most studied syntactic categories are noun (N), verb (V), adjective (A)
and preposition (P). These elements, which are often called lexical categories, play a
very important role in sentence formation. A fifth and less studied category consists of
adverbs (Adv), most of which derived from adjective. Their number increases all the
time.
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NOUNS
1. SIMPLE NOUNS: consists of one root morpheme: ring, house, ice, word,...
The endings -ER, -MENT and -ATION can be added to many verbs to form nouns;
and -ITY and -NESS can be added to many adjectives to form nouns like this.
drive Driver
fasten fastener
-ER
open opener
teach teacher
amaze amazement
develop development
-MENT
pay payment
retire retirement
admire admiration
associate association
-ATION
examine examination
organize organization
cruel cruelty
odd -ITY oddity
pure -TY purity
stupid stupidity
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dark darkness
deaf deafness
-NESS
happy happiness
kind kindness
Semantically, nouns can be grouped into six main classes in the following
diagram:
NOUNS
PROPER COMMON
COUNT NON-COUNT
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1. Proper nouns can stand alone (Fred is here/I like London/Today is
Tuesday), whereas only certain common nouns can stand alone (Chess is
fun).
2. Proper nouns do not usually allow a plural (*Londons/*Freds), whereas
common nouns do (books/legs).
3. Proper nouns are not usually used with determiners, whereas common
nouns are (the music, some trees, a pen).
Count nouns refer to individual, countable entities, such as books, eggs, horses...
Non-count nouns refer to an undifferentiated mass or notion such as butter, music,
advice... Non-count nouns are also known as mass nouns.
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Natural phenomena: weather, dew, fog, hail, heat, humidity, lightning,
rain, sleet, snow, thunder, wind, darkness, light, sunshine, electricity, fire,
gravity,...
VERBS
In English, the verb is a word which occurs as part of the predicate of a sentence,
carries markers of grammatical categories such as TENSE (past, present), ASPECT
(concerns the manner in which the verbal action is experienced or regraded –
progressive, perfect), PERSON, NUMBER, MOOD (indicative, imperative, subjunctive),
VOICE (active, passive) and refers to an action or state.
3. DERIVED VERBS:
Formation of derived verbs:
Prefix + Verb: belie (be- + lie), coexist (co- + exist), de-emphasize (de- +
emphasize),...
Prefix + Adjective: enrich (en- + rich), enable (en- + able), enlarge (en- +
large),...
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Latin prefix + Latin root: abduct (ab- + -duct), concede (con- + -cede), occur
(oc- + -cur), recede (re- + -cede),...
4. PHRASAL VERBS
(Verb + Adverbial Particle)
Many imperatives have the pattern of group A: look out, go on, wake up, get
up, come in, sit down, stand up, shut up, go away, conme on, watch out,...
Group B: VERBS WITH AN OBJECT: bring up, cross out, find out, fix up, give
away, give back, give up, fill in, fill out, leave out, make up, find out, look
up/down, put off, put out, show round, see off, take over, turn down, turn on,
turn off, keep up,...
She’s bringing up the three children. (rearing)
Note:
If the object is a NP, you can move the adverb after it:
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(She brought the three children up.)
Have you looked up these words in the dictionary? ~ Yes, I looked them up
last night.
Have they put off the meeting? (posponed) ~ Yes, they’ve put it off until
next month.
Has the army taken over the airport? ~ No, they haven’t taken it over yet.
The verb is a common English verb: ask, come, get, keep, make, set, be, fall, give,
let, put, take, break, find, go, look, run, turn,...
The adverb is usually an adverb of place: about, around, by, in out, under, across,
away, down, off, over, up, along, back, forward, on, through,...
5. PREPOSITIONAL VERBS:
(Verb + Preposition)
Prepositional verbs do not follow the same grammatical rules as Phrasal verbs:
prepositional verbs need a following NP and they can’t stand alone. You can’t move the
object: NP including single N or pronoun before the preposition:
The dog went for the postman. (not *The dog went for)
63
We have scarcely have enough to live on.
Some Prepositional verbs: add to, agree with, aim at, allow for, apply for,
approve of, ask for, attend to, believe in, belong to, call for/on, care for, consent to,
complain about, deal with, decide on, hope for, wish for, pray for, insist on, listen to, live
on, look at, look for, look after, object to, pay for, refer to, rely on, run for, stand for, take
after/to,...
Note:
He ran down his own wife. (= criticized her)
Some phrasal prepositional verbs: catch up with (overtake), cut down on (reduce),
stand up for (defend), keep up with (complete with one’s neighbours socially, esp. By
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buying the same new expensive things that they buy), run away with (take/carry off
secretly or illegally), get away with (do sth wrong without being caught or punished).
Semantically, verbs can be classified: lexical and auxiliary verbs, regular and
irregular verbs, transitive and intransitive verbs, stative and dynamic verbs, intensive
and extensive verbs.
Words such as admit, build, choose, write... are lexical verbs. The primary verbs
have, be and do behave both like lexical verbs and auxiliaries. Lexical verbs have the
following characteristics:
Syntactically, lexical verbs occur as the head or main verb of verb phrases: has
written, will be writing. Verbs phrases serve as the centre of clauses.
AUXILIARY VERBS
Primary auxiliaries and modal auxiliaries are used to build up complex verb
phrases and cannot occur alone unless a lexical verb is recoverable from the context.
The reject do-insertion when used with not or in questions.
There are three Primary auxiliaries: be, have and do. They have inflections like
lexical verbs, but are regularly unstressed and often appear in writing as contracted
forms such as: ‘s, ‘re, ‘ve.
Main verb use: They are happy./ She has a dog./ They do sums.
Auxiliary verb use: They’re going./ She’s seen it./ Do they go?
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Modal auxiliaries express a range of judgements about the likelihood of events.
These functions only as auxiliary verbs. There are nine central modal auxiliary verbs:
can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would.
They differ from other verbs, both lexical verbs and primary verbs, like the
primary auxiliaries, such as ‘d for would. The modal auxiliaries express a wide range of
meaning, having to do with concepts such as ABILITY, POSSIBILITY, PERMISSION,
PREDICTION, ADVISABILITY, NECESSITY and OBLIGATION.
ABILITY
PREDICTION
ADVISABILITY
You should start at once.
NECESSITY
OBLIGATION
The verbs dare (to), need (to), ought to and used to are on the borderline
between auxiliaries and lexical verbs, and can be regarded as MARGINAL AUXILIARIES.
In addition, there are multi-word verbs which are related in meaning to the
modal auxiliaries, such as have to, (had) better, would rather, (have) got to, be about, to
66
be able to, be supposed to, be going to. These expressions, together with the MARGINAL
AUXILIARIES, can be referred to as SEMI-MODALS/AUXILIARIES.
The form of a regular verb can be predicted by rules. An irregular verb is one
where some of the forms are unpredicted. There are thousands of regular verbs, but
less than 300 irregular ones.
REGULAR VERBS
Regular verbs are verbs formed by adding -ed in their past form and past-
participle form. Regular full verbs appears in 4 forms, each of which perform a different
role in the clause:
iii. The –ING participle form – formed by adding –ING to the base (often with
a spelling change): visiting, begging, panicking, trafficking, creating,...
iv. The –ED form (the past form and the -ED participle form) – formed by
adding –ED to the base form. In speech, the pronunciation of the –ED varies depending
on the preceding sounds.
/-t/ /-d/ /-ɪd/
An irregular verb is one where some of the forms are unpredictable. Irregular
verbs make their –S form and –ING participle form in the same way as regular verbs. But
they have either an unpredictable past tense or unpredictable –ED participle form, or
both. Many irregular verbs appears in five forms:
TRANSITIVE VERBS
There are three kinds of transitive verbs: mono-transitive verbs, ditransitive verbs
and complex transitive verbs.
68
Mono-transitive verbs require only one object in sentence pattern SVO with nine
verb patterns (see verbs patterns 8 – 16) or require only one object and one adjunct in
sentence pattern SVOA with two verb patterns (see verb patterns 17 – 18).
1) Noun phrase
Veronica is reading a fairy story.
2) That clause
The employers announced that the dispute had been settled.
The students haven’t learn which tutors they can rely on/which tutor to
rely on.
Bill discovered who he had to give the money to/who to give the money to.
4) To-infinitive clause
69
Jill hates her husband/John/him coming home late.
1) Prepositional phrase
The teacher referred the class to a passage in the textbook.
Ditransitive verbs require two objects in sentence pattern SVOO with eight verb
patterns (see patterns 19 – 26).
Complex transitive verbs require one object and one complement in sentence
pattern SVOC with six verb patterns (see verb patterns 27 – 32).
INTRANSITIVE VERBS
Intransitive verbs are in sentence patterns SV or SVA with five verb patterns (see
verb patterns 1 – 5), and linking verbs are in sentence pattern SVC with two verb
patterns (see verb patterns 6 – 7).
iv. STATIVE vs. DYNAMIC VERBS
STATIVE VERBS
70
Listen! Can you hear something?
DYNAMIC VERBS
A verb which can be used in the progressive aspect is known as dynamic verb, for
example: boil, read, wear, speak, eat, rain, run, grow, get,... as in:
There are different types of verb corresponding closely to the different types of
object, complement and adjunct.
Sentences have intensive verbs in the structural patterns:
And all other sentences have extensive verbs in the structural patterns:
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Do you understand the question?
They ate the meat (hungrily) (in the nut) (that night).
He had given the girl an apple.
John carefully searched the room.
They make him the chairman every year.
One of the most important functions of the verb is to indicate the time at which
an action takes place. The term tense is traditionally used to refer to the way the verb
changes its endings to express this meaning.
Languages have different numbers of tenses: past, present and future time in
various way. English has two tense forms: PRESENT and PAST.
The present tense uses the base form of the verb, which changes only in the 3 rd
person singular, where there is an –s ending: I/ You/ We/ They go; He/ She/ It goes.
The past tense is formed by adding –ed to the base, in regular verb. There are
several past tense forms: I walked; I ran; I came; I went; I was,...
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The usage changes the meaning of the word ‘tense’ so that it no longer refers
only to the use of verb endings.
There is no perfect tense ending in English, but there is PERFECTIVE ASPECT that
is constructed by using the auxiliary verb HAVE. It occurs in two forms: THE PRESENT
PERFECT and THE PAST PERFECT.
The usage changes the meaning of the word ‘tense’ so that the perfect tense no
longer refers only to the use of verb endings: He has/ had built a dog house.
In American English, there is a tendency to use the past tense instead of the
present perfective:
American British
Did you ever see ‘Lear’? Have you ever seen ‘Lear’?
You told me already. You have told me alreardy.
Did you come home yet? Have you come home yet?
Different kinds of adverbial are associated with the past tense and the present
perfective:
VERB ASPECTS
Aspects refer to how the time of action of the verb is regarded, such as whether
it is complete, in progress or showing duration. There are two types of aspectual
contrast: THE PERFECTIVE and THE PROGRESSIVE.
Progressive aspect occurs in two forms:
2) The past perfective also expresses ‘anterior time’, but referring to the past
tense:
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I was sorry that I had missed seeing John.
Specific events, states and habitual actions can all be expressed using the
perfective aspect:
Progressive aspect: BE can be used along with the –ing form of the main verb to
express an event at a given time. This is the progressive aspect. It is used with both
tenses (present and past) and with both perfective aspects (present perfective and past
perfective). As a result, we have: THE PRESENT PROGRESSIVE, THE PAST PROGRESSIVE,
THE PRESENT PERFECT PROGRESSIVE and THE PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE.
With the progressive, the usual implication is that the activity is taking place over
a limited period and is not necessarily complete:
Specific events, states and habitual actions can all be expressed using the
progressive:
MOODS
Finite verbs can be grouped into three broad types, based on the kind of general
meaning they convey. These types, known as moods, show whether a clause is
expressing a factual, non-factual or directive meaning.
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The Indicative mood is used for stating or questioning matters of a factual kind.
Most verbs (verb phrases) are in the indicative mood:
(The Subjunctive mood expresses a hope that John will pay on time.)
If only I had been here yesterday, the accident would never have
happened!
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I wishes I were a bird.
VOICES
The action expressed by the clause can be viewed in either of two ways: THE
ACTIVE and PASSIVE VOICE.
ACTIVE
Subject Verb phrase Object
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The GET-passive does not usually have an agent. We are more likely to hear: ‘I
was hurt on the car/ by the car.’ but ‘I got hurt on the car’ rather than ‘I got hurt by the
car.’
A transitive verb can appear either as active or passive, but there are some
exceptions:
Mary saw herself in the mirror. (not * Herself was seen in the mirror
by Mary.)
ADJECTIVES
Most adjectives can be both attributive and predicative, but some are either
attributive only or predicative only.
1) ATTRIBUTIVE
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little Laura Davies, the wretched Paul, the late John C. Drennan
The adjectives poor, lucky and silly are somewhat more common modifying
personal pronouns than other adjectives:
Lucky you!
Oh of course – silly me.
Attributive only
‘An old friend’ (one who has been a friend for a long period of time) does not
necessarily imply that ‘the person is old’, so that we cannot relate ‘my old friend’ to ‘my
friend is old’. ‘Old’ refers to the friendship and does not characterize the person. In that
use, ‘old’ is attributive only.
Some more examples: an utter fool, utter folly, a close friend, a strong opponent,
his entire salary, the very end, a great supporter, you poor man, my dear lady, that
wretched woman, an outright lie, his chief excuse, a certain winter, pure fabrication, a
real hero, the main reason, the only occasion, the same student, a fast car, a fast road,
criminal law, an atomic scientist, a medical school,...
Other group of peripheral adjectives can be related to adverbials:
Adjectives Adverbials
My former friend. He was formerly my friend.
2) PREDICATIVE
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SUBJECTIVE COMPLEMENT
She seems quite nice really.
OBJECTIVE COMPLEMENT
He didn’t find her amusing, and she found him quite disastrously dull.
She had considered it infinitely vulgar and debased.
Many of the most frequent predicative adjectives typically occur witha phrasal
complement or clausal complement.
Powerful earphones are also available [to him]. (PP as Ca)
‘You look good enough *to eat+,’ he said. (to-infinitive clause as Ca)
or a non-finite clause:
Driving a bus isn’t easy.
playing so hard
Predicative only
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A larger group comprises adjecitves that can or must take complement: afraid
(that, of, about), conscious (that, of), fond (of), loath (to),...
3. POST-POSITIVE
Adjectives can sometimes be postpositive. i.e. they can sometimes follow the
item they modify. A postposed adjective can usually be regarded as a reduced relative
clause:
Postposition is obligatory for a few adjectives, which have a different sense when
they occur attributively or predicatively. The most common are probably elect and
proper.
The president elect. The city of London proper.
Four-course meals that last four hours are marathons for everyone
concerned.
The people involved were not found.
He said the only details available, apart from a death certificate, had come
from Mr. Garrod’s family.
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Finally, when the modifying adjective phrase is heavy (usually containing an
adjectival complement), the adjective phrase will often follow its head noun:
It’s lounge not much bigger than the one we’ve got now.
He drew from the high soprano instrument sounds totally different from
what we think of as saxophone tone.
In some of these cases, the head noun is both premodified and postmodified:
Others:
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Postposition is normally possible:
Some adjectives can serve as the head of a noun phrase: the innocent, the blind,
the deaf, the sick, the old, the young, the dead, the mentally ill, the handicapped, the
injured, the unemployed, the beautiful (singular), the good (singular),...
Why he was at Pangolin with the lazy and the lame, the fat, the indifferent,
the leaning and the halt.
I think the contrast between the very rich and the very poor in the country
is disgusting.
There are afew suffixes which typically signal that a word is an adjective:
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SUFFIXES VERB/NOUN EXAMPLES
-able V Washable
-al N musical
-ed N ragged
-esque N romannesque
-ful N hopeful
-ic N heroic
-ish N foolish
-ive V effective
-less N restless
-like N childlike
-ly N friendly
-ous N desirous
-some N bothersome
-worth N praiseworthy
-y N sandy
Stative adjectives cannot be used with the progressive aspect or with imperative:
He is tall. (not * He’s being tall or * Be tall!)
In contrast, we can use dynamic adjectives with the progressive aspect and with
imperative: He’s being careful and Be careful!
Stative adjectives include old, young, new, small, short, beautiful, fine, lovely,
vivid, dirty, clean, fresh, useful, plain,...
Most adjectives are gradable, that is to say, can be modified by adverbs which
convey the degree of intensity of the adjective. Gradability includes comparison:
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Some adjectives are non-gradable, principally ‘technical adjectives’ like atomic,
hydrochloric,... and adjectives denoting provenance like a British ship, a Parisian dress,...
Adjectives that characterize the referent of the noun directly are termed
inherent, those that do not are termed non-inherent. Some non-inherent adjectives
occur both attributively and predicatively, for example: ‘a new student’ and ‘a new
friend’ are non-inherent, though the former can be ‘That student is new’ but not ‘My
friend is new’. Most adjectives are inherent, and it is especially uncommon for dynamic
adjectives to be other than inherent; an exception is ‘wooden’ in ‘The actor is being
wooden’, which is both dynamic and non-inherent.
Semantic sets have been proposed to account for the usual order of adjectives
and for their co-occurrence:
The preposition is a word which typically goes before a noun or a noun phrase,
expresses a relationship of meaning between two parts of a sentence, most often
showing how two parts are related on space or time.
There are two kinds of prepositions: simple and complex prepositions.
Simple prepositions consist of only one word: about, across, after, before, behind,
by, down, during, for, from, in, inside, into, of, off, on, onto, out, over, round, since, than,
through, to, towards, under, up, with,...
Complex prepositions consist of more than one word:
Two words: ahead of, apart from, because of, close to, due to, except for,
instead of, near to, such as, as for, but for, aside from, out of, regardless
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of, according to, as to, owing to, thanks to, previous to, along with,
together with,...
Three words: as far as, by means of, in accordance with, in addition to, in
front of, in spite of, in terms of, on behalf of, with reference to, in exchange
for, in return for, as distinct from, by way of, for lack of, in case of, on
account of, on top of, in contrast to, in relation to, in contact with,...
Many word forms are prepositions and adverbs as well. A list of common
preposition adverbs: about, above, across, after, along, around, before, between,
behind, beyond, by, down, in, inside, near, on, opposite, outside, over, past, under, up,
within, without,...
ADVERBS
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Many of the most common adverbs are not related to adjectives at all.
They include prepositional adverbs such as in, about, so, too, there, here, as, quite, very,
now.
1. SIMPLE ADVERBS – single words: well, too, rather, quite, soon, here; fast,
long (can be adjective); down, round (can be used as preposition); today, tomorrow (can
be used as noun); already, indeed (originated as compound).
Semantically, adverbs can be classified into many kinds: MANNER, PLACE, TIME,
DEGREE, FREQUENCY, LIKING, COMMENT and ATTITUDE, ADDING and LIMITING,
VIEWPOINT, LENGTH OF TIME,...
1.2. NON-LEXICAL CATEGORIES
DETERMINERS: are used to narrow down the reference of a noun. The most
important are: the definite article, the indefinite article, demonstrative adjectives,
possessive adjectives, quantifiers: the/ a/ an; this/ that; these/ those; my, no, what, any/
some, enough, each, every; either/ neither,...
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AUXILIARIES: be, have, do, can/ could, may/ might, will/ would, shall/ should,
must,...
A potential source of confusion in the area of word classification stem from the
fact that some forms are ambiguous in terms of their category.
Meaning – One criterion involves meaning. Nouns, for instance, typically name
entities such as individuals (Hurry, Sue) and objects (book, desk). Verbs, on the other
hand, characteristically designate actions (run, jump), sensations (feel, hurt) and states
(be, remain). In the example above, the noun comb refers to an object whereas the verb
comb denotes action.
The meanings associated with nouns and verbs can be elaborated in various
ways. The typical function of an adjective, for instance, is to designate a property or
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attribute that is applicable to the types of entities denoted by nouns. Thus, when we say
That tall building, we are attributing the property ‘tall’ to the building designated by the
noun.
In a parallel way, adverbs typically denote properties and attributes that can be
applied to the actions designated by verbs. In the following sentences, for example, the
adverb ‘quickly’ indicates the manner of Janet’s leaving and the adverb ‘early’ specifies
its time:
Janet left quickly Janet left early.
Unfortunately, a word’s meaning does not always provide a clear indication of its
category membership. For example, there are ‘abstract’ nouns such as difficulty, truth
and likelihood, which do not name entities in the strict sense. Moreover, even though
words that name actions lend to be verbs, some action-naming words can also be used
as nouns (push and shove are nouns in give sb a push/shove). Matters are further
complicated by the fact that in some cases, words with very similar meanings belong to
different categories. For instance, the words like and fond are very similar in meaning
(as in Mice like/ are fond of cheese), yet ‘like’ is a verb and ‘fond’ an adjective.
Inflection – Most linguists believe that meaning is only one of several criteria that
enter into determining a word’s category. A second criterion, compatibility with various
types of inflectional affixes marized in:
Although helpful, inflection does not always provide the information needed to
determine a word’s category. In English, for example, not all adjectives can take the
comparative and superlative affixes (* intelligenter, * intelligentest) and some nouns do
not normally take the plural suffix (* moistures, * braveries). A third – and more reliable
– criterion for determining a word’s category involves the type of elements with which it
can combine to form larger utterances.
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necessarily produced in a time sequence. To understand the internal organization of
sentences and the distribution the units forming them, we must consider three major
properties of sentence structure: LINEAR, HIERARCHY and CATEGORIALITY.
2.1. LINEARITY
Words are written (or spoken) and heard (or read) in a time sequence from early
to later. A sequence of words of a sentence must be in a string to ensure the meaning.
Ex: The cat/ scratched/ the dog.
S V O
‘the’ precedes ‘cat’ and ‘cat’ precedes ‘scratched’ and so on. These words are not
randomly arranged but are combined in a specific way to form meaning. The meaning
cannot reach if the word order fails. This order, moreover, shows the relation of
function, i.e. this is order: Subject + Verb + Object (SVO for short). The order changes,
the meaning changes. For example: The dog scratched the cat or changing the order of
words in a sentence results in an ungrammatical string. For example: Cat the dog the
scratched.
Some languages may have SVO order whereas some others may have the SOV
(Turkish), VSO (Welsh), VOS (Philippine),... The order of constituents of a sentence can
be used as the syntactic criterion to classify the language.
2.2. HIERARCHY
The words of a sentence are also arranged hierarchically, i.e. they are grouped
together with a function in a sentence. For example: the and cat function as a group in
some sense, the and dog also function as a group. Scratched and the dog also function
as a group. A string of words that constitutes such a unit is called a constituent. Thus,
the + cat is a constituen; the + dog is a constituent. Scratched + the + dog in turn is
constituent. The entire string the + cat + scratched + the + dog can be considered a
constituent, since it constitutes a special kind of unit, a sentence. This string can be
broken down into two smaller constituents: the + cat and scratched + the + dog and the
latter has the subconstituents: scratched and the + dog. Finally, each individual word is a
constituent...
In this tree structure, the + cat, scratched and the + dog are shown to be unit,
since the members of each part are attached to intersecting branches. By the same
toke, the entire sentence is a higher-level unit composed of the subparts the + cat, and
scratched + the + dog. Scratched + the, on the other hand, does not form a unit: the
branch leading from scratched and the one leading from the do not intersect.
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S
NP VP S
NP
The cat scratched the dog The cat scratched the dog
CORRECT INCORRECT
Similarly, the + cat + scratched is shown not be a constituent, since the branch
leading from the + cat fails to intersect with the branch leading from scratched, whereas
scratched + the + dog is shown to be a constituent. There are three levels of
constituents in this sentence, sentence level, phrase level, word level. At the bottom of
the tree are individual words. In addition to revealing the linear order of the words and
other structural parts of the sentence, a constituent structure tree has hierarchical
structure.
2.3. CATEGORIALITY
A Descriptive Grammar must differentiate between items that are the same and
those that are different. Words, and the larger constituents belong to a set of distinct
categories, each with its special characteristics. This is the third general property of
sentence structure, categoriality.
Det N V Det N
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The ambiguity of certain sentences can be explained with reference to their tree
structure. For example, the sentence ‘Steve or Sam and Bob will come’ can be
interpreted in either of two ways:
Another example of this type of structural ambiguity is little girl’s bike. As (little
girl’s) bike, it is the bike of a little girl. As little (girl’s bike), it is a girl’s bike that is little.
Or consider The policeman killed the woman with a gun, which is also structurally
ambiguous. The policeman killed (the woman with a gun) means that the woman was
armed, while The policeman killed (the woman) with a gun has another interpretation.
SUMMARY
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different constituent structure tree. In addition to these properties of linear and
hierarchy, sentences have the property of categoriality. The words of sentences fall into
lexical categories, with each category (and subcatigory) having its special properties and
distribution. Moreover, there are higher-level phrasal categories that function as
sentence constituents and which include one or more lexical forms. Phrasal categories
are organized around a lexical head. The lexical category to which the head belongs
determines the phrasal category.
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CONTENTS
Page
1. DEFINITION ............................................................................................
2. TYPES ....................................................................................................
2.1. NOUN PHRASES.................................................................................
2.1.1. Definition.....................................................................................
2.1.2. Classification ................................................................................
The Basic Noun Phrase ............................................................................
Multipliers ............................................................................
Fractions ...............................................................................
Articles ..........................................................................................
Demonstrative adjectives .............................................................
Wh-det ..........................................................................................
Quantifiers ....................................................................................
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Cardinal numerals .........................................................................
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Subject .....................................................................................................
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2.3.3. Position of Prepositional phrases in the sentence ..........................
Pre-modifier(s) .........................................................................................
The head ..................................................................................................
Pre-modifier in NP ...................................................................................
Post-modifier in NP ..................................................................................
Exclamations ............................................................................................
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Noun phrases or Noun phrase heads ......................................................
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PART III: PHRASES
1. DEFINITION
2. TYPES
1. A noun phrase.
2. A verb phrase.
3. A prepositional phrase.
4. An adjective phrase.
5. An adverb phrase.
6. A S’ genetive phrase.
7. A numeral phrase.
It is useful to call the main word THE HEAD, and the words which can be added to
it MODIFIERS (PRE-MODIFIERS and POST-MODIFIERS).
2.1.2. Classification
Structurally, NPs can be classified into two kinds: the basic NP and the complex
NP.
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Ex: the girl... (basic NP)
The basic Noun phrase has the head only or the head with the determiner. It can
be presented in the table below:
DETERMINERS HEAD
Pre-determiners Central-determiners Post-determiners
(1) (2)
All The four races
All those Other guys
Both those problems
twice/ double the Size
her First marriage
half the size
The many/ few occasions
The last two years
the/ those other two fellows
The complex Noun phrases are those with their heavy modification (pre-
modification and post-modification). They can be presented in:
PRE-MODIFICATION POST-MODIFICATION
HEAD
Determiner(s) Pre-modifier(s) Post-modifier(s)
Pre- Central- Post-
det Det Det
My Tall tree
A very small nice chick
The Currant buns in the shop
All The New books that I shall need
A big green bus parked outside
An approved course
training
A Directional response to injury, trauma tropism
The book in the desk in the office of
the...
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Here are phrase constituent structure trees of complex noun phrases:
NP NP
AP AP AP
Det A N Det Deg A A N
PP NP
NP AP AP Ed Cl
In detail, the following is the table of the terms used in the constituents of English
NOUN PHRASE STRUCTURE:
Post-
Pre-modification
modification
Head
Determiners Pre- Post-modifiers
Pre-det Central-det Post-det modifiers
1. Quantity 1. Articles 1. Cardinal 1. Adjective 1. Nouns 1. Prepositional
words 2. Demonstrative numerals Phrases 2. Adjective phrases
- Pronouns adjectives 2. Ordinal 2. Noun phrases form & Verb- 2. Noun phrases
- Multipliers 3. Possessive numerals 3. Numeral form used as 3. Adverb phrases
- Fractions adjectives 3. General phrases nouns 4. Adjective
- A set of 4. Gentitive numerals 4. Prepositional 3. Pronouns phrases
quantifiers phrases 4. A very phrases - Personal 5. Appositive NPs
2. Exclamation 5. Wh-det limited set 5. Verb forms (- - possessive 6. Comparative
words 6. A set of of ing form, -ed - indefinite constructions
quantifiers quantifiers form) used as - demonstrative 7. Clauses
adjectives (finite/infinite)
6. Adverbial 8. Variety of post-
phrases modification in
7. Clauses NPs
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2.1.1. The constituents of the Noun phrase
No matter how complex a NP is, it can be analysed into one or more of these four
constituents: determiner(s), pre-modifier(s), head and post-modifier(s).
2.1.1.1. The determiner: This appears before the noun. It decides what kind
of noun is in the phrase. There are three kinds of determiners by structure: pre-
determiners, central determiners and post-determiners.
2.1.1.1.1. Pre-determiners: Words which can be used before the central
determiners are konown as pre-determiners. Nearly all of these pre-determiners
express notions of quantity – quantity words, such as pronouns, multipliers, fractions, a
set of quantifiers, and the others are exclamation words.
1. Quantity words
Pronouns: all (of)/ all (the), both (of)/ both (the), half (of)/ half (the/a/my), none
(of), each (of), some (of), most (of), one (of), many (of), much (of).
All/ both/ half... can be followed by of in which case they are also analysed as
pronouns: All the cats (All of the cats).
All/ both/ half alone (without a following N) can be used as pronouns:
The restrictive words (restricters) include such adverbs: just, only, even, merely,
particularly, especially,...and can modify the noun head alone:
And the restricters can precede the pre-modifier, restricting its meaning to some
extent:
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just half the quantity
A set of quantifiers (consisting of a noun plus of): a lot of, lots of, a bit of, a/the
majority of, a number/numbers of, a great deal of, a plenty of, a mass/ mass of, a
quantity/ quantities of, a couple of, a dozen of, dozens of, thousands of,...
2. Exclamation words
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some/any some cups some fun
enough enough cups enough fun
Type 3 Yes No Yes
this/that that cup that fun
Type 4 No Yes No
these/ those these cup
Type 4 Yes No No
a(n) a cup
each, every each cup
(n)either either cup
mary’s car
Possessive common nouns appear between the determiner and the head noun:
the summer’s red roses
6. Quantifiers: all (books), no, each, every, most, (n)either, enough, several,
some, any, many, much/ more/ most, few, little,...
his every wish
2.1.1.1.3. Post-determiners
Post determiners in noun phrases can be:
1. Cardinal numerals: one, two, three, four,...
the last three pickles
3. General numerals: last (year), next (week), other, another, same, former,
latter.
the last three pickles
the same idea
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4. A very limited set of quantifiers: (a) few, (a) little, (the) whole, (the) other,
(the) first, (the) last, (the) many, (the) few, (the) other two, (the) four
(race), (the) single
2.1.1.2. Pre-modifier(s)
Pre-modifiers in noun phrases can be:
1. Adjective phrases
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this large university dorm
a five-minute test
4. Prepositional phrases
6. Adverbial pharses
Some uninflected adverbs do appear in the post-determiner:
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the away games/ the then president
nearly everything
7. Clauses
pay-as-you-earn tax
do-it-yourself store
This is the obligatory item, around which any other constituent cluster. The head
controls the concord with other parts of the sentence.
A personal pronoun
He is at work.
A possessive pronoun
Your hat is red and mine is white.
An indefinite pronoun
A demonstrative pronoun
I like this. These are brand-new washing machines.
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The Chinese are more numerous than the Welsh.
Any words appearing after the head noun within the noun phrase are said to
post-modify the noun. Post-modifiers can be:
1. Prepositional phrases
the car in the garage/ two years before the war
2. Noun phrases
4. Adverb phrases
5. Adjective phrases
Post-modifying adjectives are usually found with indefinite pronouns as head:
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time immemorial/ proof positive
Adjective phrases normally occur after the noun head when they are not alone
but are modified:
Adjective phrases normally occur after the noun head when there are more than
one adjective employed:
6. Appositive NPs
7. Comparative constructions
After five years of decline, wedding in France showed a 2.2 % upturn last
year, with 6,000 more couples exchanging rings in 1988 than in the previous
year, the national statistics office said. He also claims the carrier costs less and
take up less space than most paper carriers.
Moreover, the Japanese government, now the world’s largest aid donor, is
pumping far more assistance into the region than the U.S. is.
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8. Clauses
Finite clauses
a man who was running away...
Non-finite clauses
a tile falling from a roof/ the girl resembling Joan...
the film to see/ the next train to arrive/ the good play to stay in...
Noun phrases may have a wide range of syntactic roles. (1) to (11) are the typical
nominal roles.
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1. Subject
Two women had come in and she asked them to wait, giving them
magazines to look at.
2. Direct object
3. Indirect object
At primary school he had been allowed to make her birthday card.
4. Prepositional object
5. Complement of preposition
6. Subject complement
Well, his son Charlie was a great mate of our Rob’s.
7. Object complement
No, I know but they’ll probably christen her Victoria.
8. Adverbial
K walked all day and slep the night in a eucalyptus grove with the wind.
9. Pre-modifier of noun
The economic growth figures have already been marginally trimmed in the
last month.
10. Apposition
He and the club’s solicitor and director, Maurice Watkins, sat either side
of...
11. Pre-modifier in adjective or adverb phrase
He spent the next few days among the sequoias on Mount Tamalpais,
running a dozen miles every morning among trees two hundred and fifty
feet tall and twenty-two-centuries old.
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The story broke all night, but two weeks earlier than planned.
The verb head contains one lexical verb or a primary verb known as the main
verb or accompanied by one or more auxiliary verbs.
The auxiliaries specify the way in which the action, state or process denoted by
the main verb is to be interpreted. In addition, the first auxiliary has the special role of
operator. The main verb is underlined in the following examples:
was walking/ had been making/ can see/ should have said
These verb phrases are all finite VP, i.e. specified for number, person, tense and
mood: the s-form, the past form, and some uses of the base form.
There are three non-finite forms of the verb: THE –ING PARTICIPLE, THE –ED
FORM and THE BASE FORM.
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Verb head structure:
VERB HEAD
AUXILIARY/ AUXILIARIES MAIN VERB
opened
The door was opened
has been opened
must have been opened
should have been opened
The simple VP contains only one head verb (i.e. a lexical verb or a primary
verb) without auxiliary:
She does morning exercise regularly.
The complex verb head contains only one head verb with any auxiliaries:
Guy is coming today.
And the lexical verb is always the last item in the verb head. Auxiliary verbs
combine with other verbs in the four patterns ( modal, perfective, progressive
and passive) in the complex verb head.
Note:
The auxiliary verbs combine with other verbs in four patterns in finite VP:
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A verb head may have up to four auxiliaries following in a strict order in the
complex verb head in finite VP:
The complete set of complex verb phrase for one main verb play in finite VP:
VP VP
NP NP
VP
NP PP
NP
All adverbial except those which function as sentence modifiers are part of a verb
phrase, these dverbials are also called complements of verbs.
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v. –ing clause adverbials
More than one modifiers (also complements) can easily be found in English verb
phrase:
Her little boy begged unsuccessfully for a cookie.
The only syntactic role of finite verb phrases is to serve as a central clause
element. Non-finite verb phrases have the same role in non-finite clauses marked by
brackets in the following examples:
Many verb forms may have role characteristic of nouns and adjectives. Such uses
are limited to participle forms (ending in –ed or –ing), originally so called because they
participate in more than one word class. In these cases, verb forms tend to acquire the
characteristics of nouns and adjectives. Compare: building and house (nouns), exciting
and dramatic (adjectives), tired and weary (adjectives).
Discontinuous verb phrases: Unlike the other phrase types, verb phrases
are often discontinuous. This frequently occurs in clauses with subject-operator
inversion, i.e. subject-operator inversion chiefly occur in independent interrogative
clauses, where it is completely regular:
Who’s calling?
Is it Thursday today?
Do you want one or two?
And not-negation:
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You can do this but you can’t do that.
In addition, adverbials are frequently placed between the elements of the verb
phrases:
You know the English will always have gardens wherever they find
themselves.
Like adverbs, PP express many different meanings, such as: place, time, reason,
purpose,...
We must discuss the matter in private. (PP)
And like adverbs, PP are often optional parts of a sentence, we can omit them if
we like.
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
PREPOSITION NOUN PHRASE
on the telephone
I called her
at six o’clock
from a town in northern France
for dinner
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PP
NP
PP PP
NP NP
P Det N P Det N P A N
on the telephone from a town in Northern France
Do it for me.
Preposition + -ing clause
He is interested in swimming.
Preposition + adverb
From here, the road is very rough.
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She got on. (adverb)
Front position
On Friday, the Prime Minister will make a press statement.
Middle position
This year’s figure, to everyone’s surprise, show a loss of $500 million.
End position
The castle is closed for urgent repairs.
[the direct result [of [ the continuing loss [ of [ yet another typical feature [
of [the English countryside. ]]]]]]]
Components drawings carry instructions [ on where they are used and from
what they are made].
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5. Prepositional phrases as complements of prepositions are chiefly found in
expressions of direction.
6. Prepositional phrases are further used in connection with prepositional
verbs and other types of complex verbs: look at, talk about, listen to, build into, buid on,
draw into, keep to, leave off, let into,...
7. Extended prepositional pharses: Prepositional phrases can be preceded by
adverbial particles and other modifying elements. The modifier may be a specification of
the relationship expressed by the preposition or an expression of degree.
back to the fifties / exactly at noon / considerably to the right
As soon as Unoka understood [what] his friend was driving at, he burst out
laughing.
[What more] could a child ask for?
Was she really going to clear everything out of here? [For] what?
[For] whom?
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2.3.5. The syntactic roles of Prepositional phrases
Prepositional phrases vary with respect to how closely they are connected with
surrounding structures. They can function as: adverbials on the Clause level, pre-
modifiers in NPs, post-modifiers in NPs, complements of adjectives, pre-modifiers of
adverbs or sentence modifiers:
The train arrived at two o’clock. (When did the train arrive?)
Most adverbials are optional, but a small number of verbs require an adverbial to
complete their meaning – clause type: SVA, SVOA. These verbs are: put, live, goes, last,
lie, keep,...
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It may be difficult to decide whether a prepositional phrase following a noun is a
post-modifier of the noun or an adverbial in the clause:
Ten tourists were injured yesterday when they jumped off a chair lift to
escape a brush fire on Mount Solaro in the Mediterranean island of Capri.
4. Complement of adjectives
The plant is equally susceptible to drought during this period.
5. Post-modifier of adverbs
Later in the afternoon, the sun was not so bright, and the sky was not so
blue.
6. Sentence modifiers
At times, I overslept.
The prepositional phrase has a specific meaning named space (= location and
direction), time (= point of time and extent of time), topic, purpose, similarity,
instrument, accompaniment.
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towards the town / from HCM to Hanoi (direction)
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ADJECTIVE PHRASE
PRE-MODIFIER(S) ADJECTIVE POST-MODIFIER(S)
sad
It is full of holes
Almost impossible
Too easy
Much colder than last winter
AP
PP
AP NP
1. Pre-modifier(s)
2. The Head
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Attributive adjectives modify nominal expressions, preceding the head noun or
pronoun. In most cases, they modify common nouns, as in the following examples:
Here are the most common attributive adjectives according to the following
items:
DESCRIPTORS – SIZE/AMOUNT: big, little, long, small, great, high, low, large,...
DESCRIPTORS – TIME: new, old, young,...
That’s right.
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She had considered [it] infinitely vulgar and debased.
Many of the most frequent predicative adjectives typically occur with a phrasal
complement or clausal complement of their own, such as prepositional phrase, to-
infinitive clause or that-clause.
I am sure the warm affinities between Scots and Jews arise out of
appreciation of herrings.
3. Post-modifier(s)
(also called complement(s))
The post modifier can be: prepositional phrase, an infinite clause or that-clause.
A prepositional phrase
An infinitive clause
You are rather wise to sell that old car.
Adjective phrase pattern: ADJECTIVE + TO INFINITIVE: able to, content to, free to,
sure to, afraid to, delighted to, glad to, surprised to,...
That-clause
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Adjective phrase pattern: ADJECTIVE + THAT-CLAUSE: clear that, essential that,
important that, likely that, obvious that,...
1. Pre-modifier in NP
One of the most important ways of achieving this is by the regular and
thorough implementation...
He writes catchy tunes with lavish pop hooks and huge slices of melody.
That touch brave little old fellow Wells had had prophetic visions after all.
2. Post-modifier in NP
Four-course meals that last four hours are marathons for everyone
concerned.
He said the only details available, apart from a death certificate, had come
from Mr. Garrod’s family.
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When the modifying adjective phrase is heavy, the adjective phrase often follow
its head noun.
It’s a lounge not much bigger than the one we’ve got now.
He drew from the high soprano instrument sounds totally different from
what we think of as saxophone tone.
In some of these cases, the head noun is both pre-modified and post-modified by
adjective phrases.
The fans became restless and the soccer grapevine was alive with names of
likely successors to Mr. Stringer.
4. Object complement
He considered [it] more dangerous than any horse he had ever ridden.
He did not find [her] amusing, and she found [him] quite disastrously dull.
Pragmatism makes [it] somewhat harder [to predict what courts will do].
5. Clause linker
6. Detached predicatives
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(syntactically free modifiers of a noun phrase)
The detached predicative adjective phrases with any complements typically occur
in sentence-initial position.
Green, bronze and golden, [it] flowed through weeds and rushes.
In fiction:
Ridiculous! / Irrelevant! / Stupendous! / Good gracious!
Miraculous! / Glorious! / Marvelous!
In headliness and captions in news writing:
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Blinding! / Hair-raising! / Alive!
Some adjective phrases can serve as noun phrases or the head of a noun phrase.
But in politics the unlikely can happen.
These people may be the real working poor, the elderly, the very young,
the unemployed or the transient.
2.5. ADVERB PHRASES
2.5.1. Definition
fast / horribly
fortunately enough
somewhat fleetingly
ADVERB PHRASE
PRE-MODIFIER(S) ADVERB POST-MODIFIER(S)
regularly
He comes here quite often
much later
less willingly than he used to
as quickly as possible
130
AdvP
CP
AdvP S
Deg Adv Deg Adv C NP VP
quite often less willingly than he used to
Adverb phrases function in a clause in three different ways: adjunct, conjunct and
disjunct.
Adjunct function:
131
Conjunct function:
The conjunct serves to link one clause or one sentence to another. The linkers are
conjunctive adverbs: accordingly, subsequently, actually, consequently, similarly,
incidentally, therefore, thereupon, whereas, wherever, nevertheless, otherwise,
furthermore, anyway, instead, besides, however, moreover, secondly, altogether, more
precisely, incidentally, alternatively, meanwhile,...
Last night’s storm damaged the power lines. Consequently, the town was
without electricity for several hours.
Disjunct function:
Disjuncts are adverbials which play a superior role to the other elements in the
clause. They act as if they were outside the clause, giving the speaker chance to
comment on what is taking place inside it. There are two types: style disjunct and
content disjunct.
Style disjunct convey the speaker’s comment about the style or form of what is
being said. They express the condition under which the listener should interpret the
accompanying sentence: candidly, confidently, absolutely, briefly, literally, bluntly,
honestly, frankly, personally, generally, doubtlessly,...
Content disjunct make an observation about the truth of the clause or a value
judgement about its content: fortunately, reluctantly, admittedly, indeed, most likely,
curiously, annoyingly, thankfully, kindly, morally, regrettably, sadly, happily, of course,...
Hopefully, sales will improve.
Reluctantly, we walk home.
Note:
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The borderline between modifiers and adverbials is not always clear:
Every night he drove to work in his ’35 Ford, punched the clock exactly on
time, and sat down at the roll-top desk.
5. Complement of preposition
Genitive phrases are structured like noun phrases, except for the addition of a
genetic suffix:
The suffix makes a relation between two noun phrases in much the same way as
a preposition. Compare:
the car’s performance
the performance of the car
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S-genitive and of-phrases
The government’s denial of the need for the draft directive is a clear breach
of the welfare principle enshrined in the UN convention.
These numbers are built up by juxtaposition of simple numerals, except that and
is udually inserted between hundred/ thousand/ million and numbers below 100. The
following are examples of complex numbers from conversation:
A hundred and seventy-two <172>. That’s quite high isn’t it?
Before hundred, thousand and million, the determiner a is usually used instead of
one.
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2.7.2. Types of Numeral expressions
Clock time
It’s a quarter past six (or fifteen minutes past six) <6.15>
Dates
On the fourth of July two thousand and nineteen <4 July, 2019>
Currency
It costs forty four pound ninety nine <£44.99>
Mathematical expressions
Two point nine eight times four to the power of two:
(2.98 x 42) or (2.98 x 4)2
2.7.3. Approximate numbers
About elevenish.
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300 odd (slightly over 300)
Coordination tags
I think they paid him out – thirty thousand or something like that (thirty
thousand or so)
Coordination of phrases
Parts of phrases can also be coordinated. Both heads and modifiers can be
coordinated in noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases and adverb phrases:
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CONTENTS
Page
1. DEFINITION ............................................................................................
2. CLASSIFICATION .....................................................................................
2.1. BY STRUCTURES ................................................................................
2.1.1. Finite clauses ..........................................................................
2.1.2. Non-finite clauses ....................................................................
2.1.2.1. To-infinitive clauses ...........................................................
2.1.2.2. Bare infinitive clauses ........................................................
2.1.2.3. Verb-ing clauses.................................................................
2.1.2.4. Ed-participle clauses ..........................................................
2.1.3. Verbless clauses ......................................................................
2.1.3.1. Verbless main clauses........................................................
2.1.3.2. Verbless subordinate clauses ............................................
2.1.3.3. Verbless nominal clauses ..................................................
2.2. BY RELATIONSHIP ..............................................................................
2.2.1. Independent clauses ................................................................
2.2.2. Dependent clauses ..................................................................
2.2.2.1. Subordinate clauses ..........................................................
2.2.2.2. Embedded clauses .............................................................
2.2.2.3. Relative clauses .................................................................
2.3. BY FUNCTIONS ..................................................................................
2.3.1. Adjectival clauses ....................................................................
2.3.2. Nominal clauses ......................................................................
2.3.2.1. Nominal That-clauses ........................................................
2.3.2.2. Nominal zero That-clauses ................................................
2.3.2.3. Nominal Yes/No Interrogative clauses ..............................
2.3.2.4. Nominal Wh-Interrogative clauses....................................
2.3.2.5. Nominal Relative clauses ...................................................
2.3.2.6. Nominal –ing clauses .........................................................
(also called gerund clauses)
2.3.2.7. Nominal to-infinitive clauses .............................................
2.3.2.8. Nominal Bare infinitive clauses .........................................
2.3.2.9. Nominal Verbless clauses ..................................................
2.3.3. Adverbial clauses ....................................................................
2.3.3.1. Adverbial clauses as Adjuncts ...........................................
2.3.3.2. Adverbial clauses as Conjuncts .........................................
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2.3.3.3. Adverbial clauses as Disjuncts ...........................................
2.3.3.4. Comment clauses ..............................................................
138
PART IV: CLAUSES
1. DEFINITION
A clause is a group of words which forms a grammatical unit and which contains a
subject (i.e. can be understood) or no subject and a verb (i.e. a finite or non-finite V). A
clause forms a sentence (i.e. a simple sentence), part of a sentence and often functions
as a noun (nominal clause), an adverb (adverbial clause), or part of a phrase and often
functions as an djective (relative clause).
Ex:
I don’t feel sorry for George. All his problems are entirely his own fault.
(simple sentence)
I haven’t seen Harry for ages. I wonder what happed to him. (part of the
sentence – finite clause – nominal clause)
By the time he comes, we will already have left. (part of the sentence –
finite clause – adverbial clause)
The boy playing the piano is Ben. (part of noun phrase ‘the boy’ – non-
finite clause – relative clause)
He was very relieved to find out that he had passed the exam. (part of
adjective phrase ‘very relieved’ – non-finite clause)
2. CLASSIFICATION
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2.1.1. Finite clauses
A non-finite clause is a clause without a finite verb. In a non-finite clause, the first
verb form is either an infinitive form with TO (TO-INFINITIVE) or without TO (BARE
INFINITIVE) or an –ing form (V-ING) or a past participle form (V-ED).
We hadn’t anything to sit on. (= We hadn’t anything that we could sit on.)
After verb to be: What they have done is (to) mend the water pipe.
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She sat at her desk writing a letter. sit
I stood there wondering what to do next. stand + expression of place + -ing
He is lying in bed reading a novel. lie
When I walked into my office, I found find + (pro)noun + -ing
George using my telephone. catch + (pro)noun + -ing
When I walked into my office, I caught a
thief looking through my desk drawers. * Both find and catch in the examples mean
discover. Catch expresses anger or
displeasure.
Convinced that she could never learn to play the piano, Ann stopped taking
the lessons.
Accused of dishonesty by the media, the Minister decided to resign.
The man injured in the accident was taken to the hospital.
Everybody out!
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An apology: Sorry about the mistake.
Tired and hungry after a long journey, the climbers decided to take a rest.
Totally surprised by his proposal of marriage, Carol could not find the
words to reply.
2.1.3.3. Verbless nominal clauses
Fast cars in cities is really wise. (= Having fast cars in cities is really wise.)
An independent clause is a clause that does not depend on another clause and
may be linked to another independent clause to form a compound sentence or to
another dependent clause to form a complex sentence:
143
A sentence must have at least a main clause. A sentence that has only one main
clause is called a simple sentence. It can be one of these types: statements, questions,
imperatives and exclamations.
Statements: are sentences in which the subject is present and generally comes
before the verb:
I like ice-cream.
Michael didn’t like sweet things.
Questions: are sentences which are marked in one or more of these ways:
- The operator is placed immediately before the subject:
Will you speak to the boss today?
Imperatives: We use the basic form of the verb to form imperatives. Imperatives
can be impolite. We use imperatives for giving ORDERS, COMMANDS, and also for
making OFFERS, SUGGESTIONS, INVITATIONS, A REQUEST, or giving INSTRUCTIONS/
DIRECTIONS,...:
Have a cigarette.
Enjoy youself!
Relax!
Have fun.
Exclamations: are sentences which usually begin with ‘what’ or ‘how’, sometimes
with ‘such’ or ‘so’ without an inversion of subject and operator and normally end with
144
an exclamation mark. We use exclamations to express our feelings or emotions about
something:
Wonderful!
Fantastic!
Oh hell!
Bloody hell!
Blast!
Oh God!
Oh! (a surprise)
My goodness!
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My God!
Good heavens!
Good God!
2.2.2. Dependent clauses
Subordinate clauses, clauses with subordinators are classified by the role they
have in the main clause, named ADVERBIAL CLAUSES, COMMENT CLAUSES. Also,
subordinate clauses are classified by the kind of verb phrase they contain, named:
FINITE CLAUSE, NON-FINITE CLAUSE and VERBLESS CLAUSE.
Exhausted by the long hours of work, she decided to have some days off.
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An embedded clause is a dependent clause functioning as the argument of a
predicate.
It can occur as a S or O... of the clauses; that is, like NP, it can be argument of a
predicate, it is an argument clause. This kind of clause has been embedded inside a
larger clause. That’s why it is called an embedded clause. Those clauses containing
embedded clauses are called container clauses or matrix clauses:
Differ from embedded clauses in that they are not argument of a predicate,
subordinate clauses are thus not used as Subjects or Objects:
Subordinate clauses:
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In order to avoid the police purpose
As many as Jane had comparison
Taller than Jane was comparison
(Al)though they refused contrast
Even though they were rich contrast
Despite (my) hating eggs contrast
So/ (that) it was a success result
So/ such...that we had another cup result
If Sam had read it condition
... ... ...
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Now that the semester is finished, I’m going to rest a few days and then
take a trip.
Lacking the necessary qualifications, he was not considered for the job.
...
Embedded clauses:
Ex:
1. Nominal That clauses
149
3. Nominal Yes/No Interrogative clauses
(Nominal clauses begin with ‘whether’ or ‘if’)
150
She can go wherever she wants to go.
151
The child would be happier if he had someone to play with.
Ex:
He thanked the woman who helped him.
The police found out the suitcases stolen yesterday in that shop.
152
There are fireworks displays held on November 5th each year.
The coffee, which had been boiling for long time, lasted rancid.
2.3. BY FUNCTIONS
There are four broad categories of Dependent clauses: Adjectival clauses (Adj),
Nominal clauses (N), Adverbial clauses (Adv) and Comment clauses (Adv).
The last person to leave the room must turn off the lights.
Sentence modifier
The elevator is out of order, which is too bad.
He shut the car door on his necktie, which was stupid of him.
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Apposition
Love means that you never have to say you’re sorry. (Cs)
It was not known whether there was gold left in the mine. (S after it)
I don’t care if/ whether your car breaks down or not. (Od)
The question is whether he has signed the contract. (Cs)
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We are concerned about whether or not he is telling the the truth. (Cp)
The debate about whether it is better to fix exchange rates or let currencies
float is one of the longest running in economics. (Cp)
Your proposal begs the question whether a change is needed at all. (App)
My original question, why he did it all, has not been answered. (App)
The problem is not who will go, but who will stay. (Cs)
The nominal relative clausesis much closer to NP status than other nominal
clauses. It can normally be paraphrased by a NP containing a post-modifying relative.
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Home is where your friends and your family are. (Cs)
Adjectives: aware (of), certain (of/about), conscious (of), curious (about), sure
(of/about), worried about, confused about, interested in,...
Nouns: an inquiry, difficulty over, an effect on, an expert on, an influence on, a
report on/about, a research into: There was a discussion about when we should leave.
How, when, what, who, which, why,... in Wh-interrogative clausess are called
Interrogative pronouns.
There are two kinds of nominal –ing clauses: gerund and present participle
clauses (not commonly used).
156
Telling lies is wrong. (S)
For her to clean the house every day is absolutely necessary. (S)
It will make him happy to see his children again. (S after It)
The goal is to prepare children for school and help them do better in the
classroom. (Cs)
The axtra money helped John to be independent. (Co)
I am afraid to ask her how long she had been there. (Ca)
Road and the Falls Road in the past two years. (Cn)
157
Our decision to oppose the scheme was the right one. (App)
A little group of people had gathered by Mrs. Millings to watch the police
activities on the foreshore. (Adjunct)
To succeed again they will have to improve their fitness and concentration.
(Adjunct)
Note:
158
V code Cn-t in (SVOdCo): to press, to force, to help, to declare,...
These clauses seem more popular, especially they occur frequently with the
verbs: be, make, let, have, help:
These clauses are mirror kinds of nominal clauses; in other words, they are
seldom used in writing:
159
Seeing that the weather has improved, we shall enjoy the game.
If you treat her kindly, (then) she’ll do everything for you. (condition)
They left the door open in order for me to hear the baby.
We planted many shrubs, so that the garden soon looked beautiful. (Rst.)
Please do it exactly as I instructed. (manner/ comparison)
John writes more clearly than his brother does.
Tom drives as carefully as his father does.
The more he though about it, the less he liked it. (proport. & pref.)
2.3.3.2. Adverbial clauses as Conjuncts: are not part of the basic structure
of a sentence. They show what is said in the sentence containing the conjunct
connects with what is said in another sentence or sentences.
160
They are getting married, and what’s more they are setting up in business
together.
What’s more, most cities just drop it in straight off the beach: rate indeed
are the places like Cannes and Tel Aviv which pipe it even half a mile off
shore.
161
Comment clauses express a wide range of meanings, such as the following:
Tentativeness: I think, I assume, I suppose, I’m told, they say, it’s rumoured, it
seems,...
Certainty: I know, I’m sure, it transpires, I must say, I’ve no doubt, it’s true,...
Specific emotional attitude: I’m glad to say, I’m afraid, I hope, Heaven knows,...
Asking for attention: You know, you see, mind you, you must admit, as you my
have heard,...
By structures, the comment clause can be a finite clause or a non-finite clause:
CONTENTS
Page
162
Part V: SENTENCES
1. DEFINITION ............................................................................................
2. CLASSIFICATION .....................................................................................
2.1. BY PURPOSE ......................................................................................
2.1.1. Declarative sentences (Statements) ...............................................
2.1.2. Interrogative sentences (Questions) ..............................................
2.1.3. Exclamatory sentences (Exclamation) ............................................
2.1.4. Imperative sentences ......................................................................
2.2. BY STRUCTURE ..................................................................................
2.2.1. Simple sentences .............................................................................
2.2.2. Compound sentences ......................................................................
2.2.3. Complex sentences .........................................................................
2.2.4. Compound – Complex sentences ....................................................
3. SENTENCE ELEMENTS .............................................................................
3.1. THE SUBJECT .....................................................................................
3.2. THE OBJECT .......................................................................................
3.2.1. Direct object (Od) ............................................................................
3.2.2. Indirect object (Oi) ..........................................................................
3.3. THE COMPLEMENT ............................................................................
3.3.1. A Subject complement (Cs) .............................................................
3.3.2. An Object complement (Co) ............................................................
3.4. THE ADVERBIAL .................................................................................
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PART V: SENTENCES
1. DEFINITION
There are many sentences which seem to express a single thought, but which are
not complete:
Beautiful days! Nice one, Cyril! Taxi!
There are many sentences which are complete but express more than one
thought:
For his birthday, Freddy wants a bike, a robot, a car, and a visit to the
cinema.
2. CLASSIFICATION
Sentences are generally classified in two ways: one by purpose and one by
structure.
2.1. BY PURPOSE
2.1.1. Declarative sentences (Statements)
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The child ate his dinner.
In a declarative sentence, the subject and predicate have normal word order.
2.1.2. Interrogative sentences (Questions)
In an interrogative sentence, the subjecct and auxiliary verbs are often reversed.
The sentence ends with a question mark (or interrogation point) in writing. In the
spoken language most Yes/No question end with a rise in pitch; most interrogative-word
questions end with a fall in pitch.
Did the child eat his dinner?
Have you spoken to the owners?
And ‘ellipsis’ is common: the speaker may leave out an auxiliary verb (and
sometimes a pronoun as well) at the beginning of a question.
(Are) You coming tonight?
166
2. How/ so + adjective/ adverb:
167
orders, making suggestions and encouraging people to do things. Note the following
points:
1. The imperative does not usually have a subject, but it can be used one (a
noun or pronoun) if it is necessary to make it clear who is being spoken to:
Mary come here; the rest of you stay – where you are.
Nobody move.
Relax, everybody.
Do sit down.
Do forgive me – I didn’t mean to interrupt.
Don’t worry.
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Don’t be late
9. After imperatives, the question tags are ‘will you?’, ‘won’t you?’, ‘would
you?’, ‘can you?’, ‘can’t you?’ and ‘couldn’t you?’:
Give me a hand, will you?
10. There is a special way of using the imperative (followed by and...) in which
it is similar to an If-clause.
Walk down our street any day and you’ll see kids playing football.
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2.2. BY STRUCTURE
By structure, sentences are divided into four different sentence types: simple
sentences, complex sentences, compound sentences and compound-complex sentences.
This classification is based on the number and kind of clauses within a sentence.
2.2.1. Simple sentences
A simple sentence is one independent clause. Like an adult person, it can ‘live’
alone:
Simple sentences can be grouped into two main types, on the basis of whether
they are formed in a regular or irregular way. Regular sentences are often referred to as
major, irregular sentences as minor.
Major sentences are in the vast majority:
NP VP
PP
NP NP
N V Det N P N
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S
NP VP
PP
NP NP
Minor sentences use abnormal patterns which cannot be clearly analysed into a
sequence of clause elements, as major setence can. There are only a few minor
sentence types, but instances of each type are frequently used in everyday conversation
and when convesations are represented in fiction. Here are some minor sentence types:
171
1. With a SEMICOLON alone:
Part of the search party went to the right, the rest went to the left.
2. With a COORDINATOR (and, so, but, yet, for, or, nor):
He is a small boy but he is very strong.
The girl did all the shopping and cooking, for her mother was in
hospital.
CP
C S
CP CP CP
C S C S C S
NP VP NP VP NP VP
E E He came E he saw E he conquered
172
CP
C S
CP CP
C S S
NP VP NP VP
NP AP
N V Det A N C N V Deg A
E E He is a small boy but he is very strong
CP
C S
CP CP
C S S
NP VP NP VP
NP PP
N NP
173
Men who are not married are called bachelors. (relative clause)
That they are very rich means nothing to me. (embedded clause)
CP
C S
NP VP
CP
S
NP VP
N V Adv C N V
CP
C S
NP VP
NP CP
S
NP VP
NP
N V N C N V N
174
S
NP VP
CP NP
N C S Aux V N
Men who are not married are called bachelors
S
CP VP
NP PP
NP
C S V N P N
That they are very rich means nothing to me
- After graduating from high school, I wanted to travel, but I had to work in
my family’s business.
- The word root multi, which means many, comes from Latin, and the word
root poly, which also means many, comes from Greek.
- Although women could own property, they could not vote, nor could they
be elected to public offices.
- The idea that he was going away, that he would never see him again,
made us very sad and we forgot all his punishment and blows with the
ruler.
3. SENTENCE ELEMENTS
Every language has sentences that include elements to form the construction of
sentence. It means that it is necessary to refer to smaller units than the sentence itself,
so we must distinguish what smaller units are. All sentences are made up out of
elements, each expressing a particular kind of meaning. There are just five types of
175
sentence elements : S (Subject), O (Object), C (Complement), A (Adverbial), V/VP (Verb
phrase).
The subject can be a noun phrase (including single noun and pronoun) or a
clause:
I like snails. That intrigues me.
That plants need water in order to grow is true.
Object elements usually follow the subject and verb in a clause (Rediscover E.
Gram). Objects identify who or what has been directly affected by the action of the verb
either directly or indirectly. Two types of object can be distinguished: direct and indirect
object. The object can be a noun phrase (including single noun and pronoun) or a
clause.
3.2.1. Direct object (Od)
The direct object typically refers to some person or thing directly affected by the
action expressed by the verb:
176
I want to see whoever to be happy.
Note:
The indirect object typically refers to an animate being that is the recipient of the
action. In these cases, a direct object is usually present in the clause as well:
Some friends of ours found my cat in the woods. (= My cat was found in
the woods.)
3.3.1. A subject Complement (Cs) usually follows the subject and verb.
177
The verb is most often a form of be (is, was,...) but it may also be one of several
other verbs that are able to link the complement meaning with the subject meaning.
These are called copular (or linking verbs):
Some copular verbs with complements: appear (happy), feel (annoyed), grow
(tired), remain (silent), seem (a fool), turn (cold), sound (ill, just the man...),...
Jeffrey sounds just the man we’re looking for.
He is furious to hear about that. (= To hear about that makes him furious./
It makes him furious to hear about that.)
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3.3.2. An Object complement (Co)
The objective complement follows the direct object, and its meaning relates to
that element. The basic identity between them is shown in parenthesis:
Adverbials usually add information about the situation, such as the time of an
action, or its frequency. An adverbial functions like an adverb which describes or adds to
the meaning of a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a sentence, and which answers
such question as How? Where? Or When?
We can see that in English, many adverbs have an –ly ending, for example:
careful-ly, slow-ly, local-ly,... The adverbial is an extremely complex area of English
grammar.
They can generally be added more or less independent of the type of verb.
Most adverbials are optional in the clause structure, but a small number of
verbs require an adverbial to complete their meaning (see the clause types
SVA and SVOA). These verbs include the following:
By prepositional phrases:
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They are characteristically realized by noun phrases including single nouns:
...To conclude, the industry has spent huge sums of money modernizing its
equipment.
They are more mobile than the other clause elements, often occupying a
variety of positions in the clause.
Their positions are determined to a larger extent by textual and pragmatic
factors than the positions of other clause elements, which are more
determined by syntax. Adverbials can be used in several possible positions
within the clause (though most commonly at the end).
Unlike the other clause elements, more than one adverbial may co-occur
in the same clause.
Adverbials are more heterogeneous than the other clause elements. They
are realized by a wide range of forms and express a wide range of
meanings:
Space adverbials, including the notions of position, direction (to and
from), and distance. They usually answer the question ‘Where?’.
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Time adverbials, including the notions of position, duration, frequency,
and the relationship between one time and another. They usually
answer the question ‘When?’.
Process adverbials, expressing the notions of manner, means,
instrument, and agent. They usually answer the question ‘How?’.
Respect adverbials, expressing the notion of being concerned with the
adverbials answer the question ‘with respect to what?’.
Contingency adverbials including such notions a cause, reason,
purpose, result, condition, and concession. Many of these adverbials
relate to the question ‘Why?’ or ‘With what result?’.
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The weight of bureaucracy still hang a trifle heavy. Nevertheless, the
review represents substantial progress.
3.4.1. Adjuncts
Adjuncts are adverbials which are part of the basic structure of the clause or
sentence in which it occurs, and modifies the verb. There are adjuncts of time, place,
concession, reason, purpose, process,...
Place: distance, direction or position:
I had to go a long way to put the camp behind me.
You know, I think you van fix it by pulling the prongs out a little bit.
(diminishers)
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Conjuncts are not part of the basic structure of a clause or sentence. They show
how what is said in another sentence or sentences.
Enumerative: first, second, third, firstly, secondly, thirdly, one, two, three, a, b, c,
for one thing, for another, for a start, to begin with, to start with, in the first place, in the
second place, next, then, finally, last, lastly,...
Summative: then, all in all, in all, in conclusion, to conclude, to sum up,...
Apposition: namely, in other words, for example, for instance, that is, that is to
say,...
3.4.3. Disjuncts
Disjuncts are adverbials which show the speakers’ attitude to or the speakers’
evaluation of what is said in the rest of the sentence.
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Group A: speakers’ comment on the extent to which he believes that what he is
saying is true: subjective view on the truth: admittedly, certainly, definitely, indeed,
surely, undoubtedly, unquestionably, undeniably,...; some degree of doubt: quite, likely,
maybe, perhaps, possibly, reportedly, supposedly,...; objective evidence: clearly,
evidently, obviously, planly, apparently,...; reality or lack of reality: actually, really,
apparently, ideally, nominally, superficially, technically, theoretically, officially, basically,
essentially, fundamentally,...
Note:
Compare:
(a) You know, there’s no money to be made out of recycling.
The function of ‘You know’ to underline the truth of the statement: ‘There’s no
money...’ (comment clause)
This example is ambiguous; it either means ‘You are aware that...’ or it is identical
in meaning to the (a). The first interpretation corresponds to a structure with an
embedded nominal clause (that-clause).
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4.1.1. Agentive subject
It is clear that John is the person doing the action of opening, so John is called
AGENTIVE which is the animate being instigating of causing the happening denoted by
the verb.
From the above examples, we can come to a conclusion that the agent of a
sentence must be an animate being deliberately carrying out the action described.
4.1.2. Instrumental subject
With intransitive verbs, subject also frequently has the AFFECTED ROLE. We will
consider the affected role of subject in two following sentences:
The RECIPIENT ROLE is with the verbs such as have, own, possess, benefit
(from),...
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Mr. Smith has bought his son a radio. (So ‘the son’ has/ owns the radio.)
The perceptual verbs see and hear also require a recipient subject:
The other perceptual verbs: taste, smell, feel have both an AGENTIVE meaning
and a RECIPIENT meaning:
London is foggy.
My tent sleeps four people.
4.1.6. Temporal subject
The subject has the TEMPORAL FUNCTION of designating the time:
Tomorrow is Sunday.
The real subject stands after the verb BE and has an EXISTENTIAL ROLE expressing
the existence or location of person, animals, things or ideas:
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A subject may lack semantic content altogether, and consists only of the
meaningless ‘prop’ word It:
The direct object consists of five semantic roles: AFFECTED, EFFECTED, LOCATIVE,
EXISTENTIAL and AGENTIVE:
4.2.1.1. Affected direct object
The most typical function of the direct object is that of affected participant. The
participant (animate ot inanimate) which does not cause the happening denoted by the
verb, but is directly involved in some other way, so we call it an affected object; for
instance:
I’ve broken a plate.
Verbs: have, take require agentive subjects and affected direct object.
4.2.1.2. Effected direct object
The direct object is also called a COGNATE EFFECTED OBJECT when it repeats
pertially or wholly the meaning of the verb, for instance:
He sang a song.
Tom smiles a handsome smile.
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4.2.1.3. Locative direct object
The role location is played by any expression referring to the place where the
action described by a sentence takes place. For example:
The AGENTIVE DIRECT OBJECT itself performs the action of verb instead of the
subject, for example:
188
Ruth knitted Bryan a sweater.
There is only one exception to the rule that the indirect object has the role of
recipient: this is when give (or sometimes related verbs like: pay, own) has an ‘effected’
object as direct object and an ‘affected’ object as indirect object:
I gave the door three kicks. (I kicked the door three times.)
I paid her a visit. (I visited her.)
These sentences, as the paraphrase make clear, are equivalent to sentences with
a direct object as ‘affected’ object.
As we know, the complement includes the subject complement and the objective
complement. Their function is the attributive of subject or object.
The Subjective complement has two semantic roles: a CURRENT ATTRIBUTIVE (if
the verbs are stative ones) and a RESULTING ATTRIBUTIVE (if the verbs are dynamic
ones).
Similar to the semantic roles of the Subjective complement, the role of the
Objective complement is that of attributive of the object.
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The Object complement can be current attributive:
Adcerbs can be divided into at least ten semantic roles such as: LOCATIVE,
TEMPORAL, MANNER, RECIPIENT, INSTRUMENTALS, AGENTIVE, REASONABLE, and
ADVERB OF SOURCE and OF PURPOSE.
Adverbs which express locative meaning are locative ones. These are examples of
the use of locative adverbs:
He is still at school.
Adverbs that express the time are temporal ones. Following are examples of the
use of the temporal adverb:
190
He repaired the house like an expert.
When for is followed by noun phrases denoting persons or animals, the meaning
of that prepositional phrase functioning as an adverb is rather one of ‘intended
recipient’; for example:
191
The crops have been ruined by frost. (Frost has ruined the crops.)
Reasonable adverbs are adverbs expressing either the material cause or the
psychological cause (motive) for a happening:
Because of the drought, the price of bread was high that year.
Reasonable adverbs answer the question ‘Why...?’. However, let us consider the
following sentence:
He died of hunger.
In fact, most sentences can be analyzed into one of only seven basic sentence
patterns. Each pattern consists of one, two, three, four or five elements. It is noted that
S stands for subject, V for verb, O for object, Oi for indirect object, Od for direct object,
C for complement, A for adverbial, N for noun.
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5.1. BASIC SIMPLE SENTENCE PATTERNS
4. SVO: S V monotransitive O
Somebody caught the ball.
5. SVOO: S V ditransitive O O
The patterns SV, SVA, SVOO can be expanded by the addition of various optional
adverbs:
S V (A) (A)
(A) S V (A) A
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In American most students are now on vacation.
SVOO: S (A) V O O
The transformation of THERE + BE + NOUN PHRASE may occur with all the
sentence patterns (i.e. simple sentences or complex sentences).
Foreign learners of English often have great difficulty in deciding which sentence
patterns a verb can be used in. They may know that
194
‘I like to help him’ and ‘I like helping him’
are both correct but be unaware that with the verb ‘dislike’ only the second verb
pattern is possible:
A verb can have more than one meaning with different verb patterns, for
example: appear [La, Ln, it] gives the impression of being or doing something/ seem:
There are several basic sentence patterns but there are thirty two verb patterns
with matching codes. The codes are designed to suggest to the learners the parts of
speech, for example Tn-Pr: ‘COMPLEX TRANSITIVE VERB + NOUN PHRASE +
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE’ indicates the structural elements (i.e. V, O, C, A) which the
patterns contain. Therefore, the structural level (i.e. verb codes and verb patterns) is
very important for teachers and more advanced learners because it enables to
distinguish between sentences which are superficially the same. For example:
195
She/ liked/ him to play the piano. (Tnt – SVO)
We learn how to use a language not by the abstractions of grammar but mainly
by practice in the patterns which are the living substances of the language. The most
important of these are the verb patterns. They are important because they determine
which words or phrases are used after the verbs. If the learners spend a few hours
studying these verb patterns, they will be able to avoid many common mistakes.
In this pattern, the verb is not followed by an object, adjunct: optional adverbs of
time, manner, result.
Some verbs can be used in this pattern and the [Tn] pattern without a change of
subject or verb meaning.
Some verbs can be used in this pattern (with and linking two nouns as the
subject) and in a corresponding pattern [lpr] (with with following the verb).
Oil and water don’t mix. [l] Oil doesn’t mix with water. [lpr]
Here is a list of verbs which are normally used in this verb pattern: ache, arrive,
cease, collapse, cough, arise, cry, decay, depart, die, disappear, drop, crackle, exist, fall,
occur, rise, work, sleep, speak, vanish, wave,...
2. [lp]
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Subject Intransitive verb Adjunct
Adverbial particle
After some verbs, the particle cannot be removed without changing the meaning
of the verb or producing nonsense:
* The tiger has got. (incorrect)
A list of intransitive verbs with particles used in this pattern: back away, balance
out, bear up, boil over, camp out, change down, cloud over, club together, come apart,
come around, die out, fall back, fall behind, forge ahead, gat about, grow up, hold on,
make off, mell away, seize up, simmer down,...
3. [lpr]
rely on/ upon sb/ sth (to do sth): You can’t rely on Martin to help.
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Some verbs used in this pattern can be made passive: The importance of exports
was referred to (by the minister).
After some verbs, the prepositional phrase cannot be removed: tend, call, care,
insist, contend, crowd, contribute, snoop,...
After some other verbs the PP can be removed freely: grow, land, flow, go, grub,
guess, guest, break, mourn, aim, sigh, move, settle, signal, interfere, interlink, interlock,
intermarry, interlace,...
4. [ln/ pr]
A list of some verbs: cost, last, extend, measure, sleep, walk, stay, jump, travel,
rise, throw, thunder, tramp, sell, take, run, contain,...
5. [lt]
Verbs used in this pattern: scheme, tand, wonder, yearn, ache, study, seem, grow,
turn, seek, make, get, appear, remain, operate, come, proceed, conspire, rush, start,
stay, go, labour, contract, dare, agree, long, live, care, condescend, hesitate, wait,
wake,...
6. [La]
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The lesson was interesting.
The damage appears (to be) serious.
The soup tasted delicious.
The beach looked deserted.
The game became more interesting.
The actors got ready.
The milk went sour.
The cinemas remained open all week.
To go further was impossible.
To give time to the project became more difficult.
Verbs used: turn, smell, taste, keep, become, come, grow, go, appear, seem,
prove, get, die, fall, sound, make, feel, look, lie, remain, run, wear, wax, marry, stay,...
7. [Ln]
Verbs used: seem, become, feel, constitute, represent, composite, form, prove,
make, sound, be, appear, turn, remain, look, die, go, live, act,...
8. [Tn]
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Subject Mono-transitive verb Direct object
Noun phrase/ pronoun
A list of verbs which take a reflexive pronoun as their object when you refer to a
person: apply, compose, distance, enjoy, excel, exert, express, strain,...
9. [Tf]
A list of verbs used: admit, advise, affirm, agree, assert, certify, command,
contend, consider, confirm, doubt, deny, denote, desire, discover, know, establish,
exclaim, explain, hear, indicate, infer, insist, imagine, intend, intimate, learn, notice,
object, observe,...
10. [Tw]
The class doesn't know what time it has to be in school/ what time to
be in school.
The students haven’t learnt which tutors they can rely on/ which tutors to
rely on.
Bill discovered who he had to give the money to/ who to give
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the money to.
We hadn’t decided what we ought to do next/ what to do next.
Some verbs used in this pattern can be made passive – the construction with IT:
It hadn’t been decided (by us) what we ought to do next/ what to do next.
A list of verbs used: accept, acknowledge, announce, arrange, ask, believe, check,
contribute, convey, describe, determine, discuss, estimate, express, feel, forecast,
foretell, grasp, guess, ear, inquire, investigate, look, learn, mention, mistake, observe,...
11. [Tt]
Verbs used in this pattern: affect, arrange, attempt, bear, bother, conclude,
contribute, dare, decline, demand, deserve, dread, endure, except, fail, fear, guarantee,
hate, hope, intend, know, learn, love, manage, mean, offer, omit, remember,...
12. [Tg]
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I remembered posting your letters.
The children will still need looking after.
After need, require and want, the ing-form of the verb can be replaced by the
passive to-inf.
This shirt needs washing. = This shirt needs to be washed.
The children will still need looking after. = The children will still need to be
looked after.
Verbs used: admit, adore, anticipate, avoid, bear, begin, chance, deny, detest,
dislike, enjoy, escape, fancy, forbade, forgive, hate, imagine, involve, mean, mind,
miss,...
13. [Tnt]
Verbs used: adapt, believe, brief, decay, deny, estimate, expect, guess, hate,
imagine, intend, prefer, show, suspect, want,...
14. [Tsg]
202
Verbs used: anticipate, contemplate, detest, dislike, dispute, endure, escape,
excuse, can’t face, fancy, forgive, hate, hinder, imagine, involve, like, love, mention, mind
(= object to), miss, pardon, prevent, resent, resist, understand, can’t bear, can’t help,
can’t stand,...
15. [Tn-part]
The rescuers felt John losing his grip of the rope. [Tn-part]
The rescuers felt John lose his grip of the rope. [Tni]
Verbs used: most verbs in this pattern are ‘perception’: see, hear, feel, watch,
notice, overhear, observe,... which are also used in [Tni].
16. [Tni]
All the verbs used in this pattern are verbs of perception. They are: watch, hear,
see, feel, notice, everhear, observe,... All are also used in the [Tng] pattern. Except for
watch and notice, verbs in this pattern can be made passive and bare infinitive becomes
to-infinitive.
The porter heard someone slam the door.
203
Someone was heard to slam the door (by the porter).
17. [Tn-pr]
After some verbs, the preposition phrase cannot be removed without producing
nonsense:
‘refer’ [Tn-pr]
The visiting speaker thanked the chairman for his kind remarks. [Tn-pr]
Verbs used: acquaint, add, admire, affix, allow, alternate, associate, base, beg,
bet, blind, blame, book, crash, clear, compress, concern, conclude, confess, confirm,
confuse, convey, decorate, deduce, defer, defend, delete, derive, develop, direct, instruct,
interchange, intersect, imprison, impress, gesture, graduate, group, grow, find, file, fire,
fix, flood, focus, force, match, mean, measure, misdirect, keep, learn, lay, put,
introduce,...
18. [Tn-p]
After some verbs, the practice cannot be removed without changing the meaning
of the verb or producing nonsense.
Bill has a blue shirt on.
When the direct object is a pronoun, it precedes the particle, but when it is a
short noun phrase or a noun, it can usually either precede or follow the particle:
Verbs used: hire, kick, collect, connect, cover, crash, curl, cut, dance, deal,
dissolve, double, drag, eat, empty, fan, entice, enter, move, measure, mix, muffle, nick,
link, limber, lift, fly, flip, finish, flatten, fuse, fan, firm, key, lap, knot, knit, hoard, deal,
crash, kill,...
19. [Dn-n]
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A gallantry medal was awarded the pilot (by the queen). (the Oi becomes
the S in passive is rare.)
Verbs used in this pattern: afford, allow, ask, award, bake, begrudge, bet, bring,
built, call, cash, charge, confide, cook, design, do, earn, envy, extend, fax, fill, forward,
forgive, gain, give, grant, grill, hand, intend, leave, lend, loan, mean, mail, mix, offer,
order, overcharge,...
20. [Dn-pr]
In this pattern, the indirect object is placed at the end. It consists of ‘to’ or ‘for’
and a noun phrase.
Verbs used: accord, afford, ask, bake, bring, build, call, confess, cut, deal,
describe, detail, do, explain, express, extend, fax, fetch, gain, hand, guarantee, indicate,
intimate, leave, lend, lean, ail, mention, mix, notify, obtain, offer, order, pour, teach,
own,...
21. [Dn-f]
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Subject Ditransitive Indirect object Direct object
That clause
verb
Colleagues told Paul that the job wouldn’t be easy.
The manager informed the audience that the show had been cancelled.
Police warned drivers that the road was icy.
We persuaded the survivors that they weren’t in any danger.
This pattern has an indirect object without ‘to’ and a direct object consisting of a
That-clause (Cf Tf). The indirect object refers to the person addressed by the subject.
Some verbs in this pattern can be made passive, with the indirect object of the
active pattern becoming the subject of the passive one:
Colleagues told Paul that the job wouldn’t be easy.
Paul was told (by colleagues) that the job wouldn’t be easy.
Verbs used: advise, announce, assure, bet, convey, convince, declare, forewarn,
grant, inform, notify, persuade, tell, warn,...
22. [Dpr-f]
This pattern has an indirect object with ‘to’ an indirect object consisting of That-
clause. The indirect object refers to the person addressed by the subject.
Some verbs in this pattern can be made passive. The construction with ‘It’:
It was explained to customers (by the garage) that the spare parts had not
been delivered.
Exceptions are shown in dictionary entries, thus: [Dpr-f no passive]
207
Verbs used: affirm, complain, confess, confide, disclose, explain, gesture, hint,
indicate, intimate, mention, recommend,...
23. [Dn-w]
In this pattern, the direct object is a finite or non-finite clause beginning with
‘wh-element’, which can be a pronoun (who(m), whose, which, what), a determiner +
noun (which road, what time,...), an adverb (when, how, where, why), or the
construction of if/ whether.
Some verbs used in this pattern can be made passive.
Verbs used: advise, ask, instruct, show, teach, remind,...
24. [Dpr-w]
Some verbs in this pattern can be made passive – the construction with ‘it’.
It was explained to the staff how they should handle complaints/ how to
handle complaints.
Verbs used: explain, indicate, intimate, mention,...
25. [Dn-t]
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His teacher advised him to take up the piano.
The court forbade the father to see his chidren.
John and Mary encouraged Simon to stay.
Verbs used: advise, ask, authorize, danger, bid, bother, caution, challenge,
command, conjure, dare, defy, detail, direct, encourage, implore, instruct, invite, order,
permit, recommend, request, sign, teach, warm, summon,...
26. [Dpr-t]
27. [Cn-a]
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Verbs used: acknowledge, adjudge, call, certify, consider, count, declare,
denounce, distemper, dye, file, find, force, guarantee, make, elect, hold, leave, imagine,
have, own,...
28. [Cn-n]
Verbs used: acclaim, advance, appoint, call, consider, create, declare, define,
elect, grade, hold, make, name, nickname, own,...
29. [Cn-n/a]
In this pattern, the object complement tell us how the direct object is regarded,
judged,...or what he, she or it is chosen to act or serve as.
Verbs used: accept, acclaim, address, appoint, assign, certify, confirm, construct,
describe, empty, enlist, groom, induct, intend, interpret, mean, mention, name,
nominate, identify, recognize, regard,...
30. [Cn-t]
210
Subject Complex-transitive Direct object Object complement
to-inf. clause
verb
The reporter pressed her to answer his question.
The thief forced Jane to hand over the money.
The extra money helped John to be independent.
An official declared the place to be free of infection.
Verbs used: appoint, charge, condition, elect, educate, empty, enable, force,
invite, persuade, possess, preset, press, prove, push, take, train, trouble, urge, wish,...
31. [Cn-g]
The object complement tells us what the object is made to do or to kept doing.
Only the verbs shown in the table are used in this pattern.
Except for have and start, the verbs can be made passive.
The policeman got the traffic moving.
32. [Cn-i]
Only the verbs shown in the table are used in this pattern.
The verbs ‘make’ and ‘help’ can be made passive, but when they are, they are
followed by a to-infinitive as in pattern [Cn-t].
CONTENTS
Page
PART V: AMBIGUITY
1. STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY .......................................................................
2. LEXICAL AMBIGUITY ...............................................................................
3. METAPHORICAL AMBIGUITY ...................................................................
212
Some concrete cases of STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY in English ..............................
213
2. The cooked lamb is too hot for someone to eat it.
1. STRUCTURAL AMBIGUITY
Ex: You can have peas and beans or carrots with the set meal.
Which can mean either:
2. LEXICAL AMBIGUITY
Any ambiguity resulting from the ambiguity of word is the LEXICAL AMBIGUITY.
A word or phrase is lexically ambiguous when that word or that phrase has two
or more synonyms that are not themselves synonyms of each other.
3. METAPHORICAL AMBIGUITY
214
Structural ambiguity in written English may rise in NOUN PHRASES,
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES, NON-FINITE CLAUSES, ADVERBS and ADVERBIAL CLAUSES,
ADJECTIVE PHRASES or ADJECTIVE CLAUSES.
Learners wonder which of the following meanings is the idea the writer wants to
express:
(1a) Jones won the award for painting portraits of students.
When there are more than one noun used as pre-modifiers of the head noun,
there may rise ambiduity.
2. Adjective + Noun as Premodifiers + Head noun
215
(4) a short haired fox terrier:
The more noun phrases standing after an adjective in a noun phrase, the more
ambiguous and more complicated the noun phrase is.
(5) a new Moscow bus student travel officer
216
5. S’ Genitive and of Genitive
(13a) men who worked hard and women who worked hard
217
(18a) They called a homehelper for Susan.
(20) The workers and managers in the factory just do not get on.(2)
(21) his request to his superior for money at the end of the month (2)
(22a) I like the picture of him who sits in the push chair.
The prepositional phrase ‘at noon’ functioning as an adjunct modify the action
expressed by the verb phrase ‘said’ or ‘will be’.
(23a) At noon he said he will be there.
(24) England almost certainly failed to qualify for the World Cup Final in
Spain next summer, for the third successive time, following their defeat last
night:
(24a) England almost certainly failed for the third successive time to qualify
for the World Cup Final in Spain next summer, following their defeat last
night.
(24b) England has qualified twice and they will not qualify for the third
time for the World Cup Final in Spain next summer, following the defeat
last night.
218
(25) He hit the boy with a stick:
(31a) He ran over the dog which was crossing the the road.
(31b) He ran over the dog when he was crossing the road.
(He might left the house with his plate in his hand.)
(He had had his dinner, then he rushed out of the house.)
(32b) After he had had his dinner, he rushed out of the house.
(33) Having eaten so much, he became sleepy:
(33a) Because he had eaten too much, he became sleepy.
(33b) After he had eaten too much, he became sleepy.
A present participle clause which may function as an adverbial clause may have
different meanings such as: time, cause, manner, result,...
219
(34) Smoking grass can be nauseating:
(34a) Putting grass in a pipe and smoking it can make you nauseating.
(38b) Charles didn’t listen to any other sorts of music but pop music.
(38c) Charles didn’t watch pop music, just listened to this type of music.
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(40b) Sailors drink rum on many occasions.
(41) His leaving the country immediately made the police suspicious of him:
(41a) That he immediately left the country made the police suspicious of
him.
(41b) That he left the country made the police suspicious of him
immediately.
5. Adverbs before To Infinitive clause
(48) Red, white, and blue flags were flying from every balcony:
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(48a) Red flags, white flags, and blue flags were flying from every balcony.
(48b) Tricolour (red, white and blue) flags were flying from every balcony.
2. Adjectives or Participles
(49) They were relieved:
(49a) They were (very) relieved to find her at home.
(49b) They were relieved (by the next group of sentries.)
(52b) They were too far away for someone to see them.
(53) The dean wrote to the parents of the students who had helped with
the annual carnival.
The adjective clause ‘who had helped with the annual carnival’ modifies either
‘the parents’ or ‘the students’
(54) The life of an actress that the public sees does look glamorous:
(54a) The actress ‘s life which the public sees does lokk glamorous.
(54b) The actress whom the public sees has the life which does look
glamorous.
5. Other types
222
(55) There is a nice restaurant located in front of the commercial district
which is crowded every night:
(56) He saw the rake lying against the trunk stuffed with leaves from his
last raking:
223