Lecture no.

1, Sentence Syntax, III

Lecture no. 1

SYNTAX. SENTENCE VS. CLAUSE.

TYPES OF CLAUSES. TYPES OF SENTENCES.
THE COMPOUND SENTENCE

1. Definitions

Syntax can be defined as a branch of grammar which determines the relevant component parts of a
sentence and describes these parts from a grammatical point of view.
The component parts of a sentence are also known as constituents and their description from a
grammatical point of view involves stating what grammatical category the respective constituent is
and what grammatical function it has.
Rephrase the definition of syntax using the defintions in the second row of the above table.
Syntax is a branch of grammar which determines .......... ............... ............... ..........
......... ...................... ...................... ....................... ....................... .......................... ..........

The traditional hierarchy of sentence constituents is shown in the following diagram:

SENTENCE → CLAUSE → PHRASE → WORD → MORPHEME

Sentence1 can be defined as a set of words expressing a statement, a question, an order, or an

affective attitude, usually containing a subject and a verb.
In written English, sentences are marked by capital letter at the beginning and by full stop/period
(.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark/exclamation point (!) at the end.

Clause refers to a group of words that includes a subject and a verb and which forms a sentence
or part of a sentence.

For illustration of the above, let us consider the following sentence:

The student prepared a hamburger and then he ate it in a rush.

A. This sentence consists of two coordinate clauses joined together by the coordinator and.

The student prepared a hamburger 1| and then he ate it in a rush. 2|

The first clause is: The student prepared a hamburger and the second is: and then he ate it in
a rush.

B. The first clause consists of two phrases, The student and prepared a hamburger, and the
second consists of two phrases, he and ate it in a rush. The student, he are noun phrases, while
prepared a hamburger and ate it in a rush are verb phrases.

C. Now each phrase is made up of words. The student is made up of two words, the and
student, the phrase prepared a hamburger consists of three words, of which the last two, a hamburger,
form another noun phrase. The phrase ate it in a rush is made up of five words, the last three words in
a rush constituting by itself a noun phrase, as well as it.

1
The English word „sentence” can both refer to the Romanian „frază” and „propoziţie independentă”, since in
English there is no specific word for „frază” .
Lecture no. 1, Sentence Syntax, III

D. The sentence consists of thirteen words, including the coordinator and. Each word consists
of one or two morphemes: the, student, a, hamburger, and, then, it, in, rush are one-morpheme words,
whereas prepared and ate are two-morpheme words. Thus, the, student, hamburger etc. are full words
and morphemes at the same time, while the two morphemes of prepared and ate are prepare and -ed,
and, respectively, eat and -ed.

2. Types of Clauses

According to grammatical dependence, clauses are divided into four categories:

Type of Clause Definition
1. Independent Clauses contain a subject and a verb and express a complete thought in context and
meaning; they are part of a compound sentence.
2. Main / Principal / are the elements of first rank in a complex sentence, that is they have in
Head Clauses their subordination both secondary/subordinate clauses and governing
clauses, in case the latter are present.
3. Governing Clauses are subordinated to the main clause(s) in a complex sentence but they also
govern a subordinate clause.
4. Dependent Clauses are indispensable parts of a complex sentence and do not express a complete
or Subordinate / thought. They can make sense on their own but they are dependent on the
Secondary Clauses rest of the sentence for context and meaning. Dependent clauses often begin
with a subordinating conjunction or relative pronoun that makes the clause
unable to stand alone.

Examples:

A. “The red light was gone, 1| the shudder was gone, 2| and his gaze, 3| which had come back to the boat for
a moment, 4| travelled away again. 3|”
(Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend)
This sentence consists of three independent clauses:
 clause no. 1: The red light was gone
 clause no. 2: the shudder was gone
 clause no. 3: and his gaze … travelled away again.
joined by a comma and, respectively, by a comma followed by the conjunction and;

and of one dependent (subordinate/secondary) clause:

 clause no. 4: which had come back to the boat for a moment

B. “The figures in this boat were those of a strong man with ragged grizzled hair and a sun-browned face,
and a dark girl of nineteen or twenty, sufficiently like him to be recognizable as his daughter.”
(Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend)
This sentence is made up of one single independent clause.

C. He said 1| that he would call me 2| when he came home. 3|

This sentence is made up of three clauses:
 clause no. 1 : He said = is a main / principal / head clause, which has in its subordination another
clause (clause no. 2)
 clause no 2: that he would call me = is a governing clause, since it is subordinated to the main clause
(clause no. 1) but it also governs a subordinate clause (clause no. 3)
 clause no. 3: when he came home = is a secondary clause subordinated to clause no. 2
Lecture no. 1, Sentence Syntax, III

3. Types of Sentences
A. According to content, which refers to the purpose / intention / attitude of the speaker or writer,
sentences are divided into four types:

1. Declarative
2. Interrogative
3. Imperative
4. Exclamatory

B. According to form, we distinguish

1. sentences destined for utterance and

2. sentences destined for writing.

C. According to structure, sentences are divided into four types:

1. Simple consists of one independent clause and expresses a complete thought.

SentenceHe laughed.
She ate an apple.
They are sleeping.
I bought a book.
2. Compound consists of two or more independent clauses which discharge the same function and
Sentence are connected between them with the help of coordinating conjunctions (such as
for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so, preceded or not by a comma) or without any
coordinating conjunction (sometimes joined together by semicolon). In Romanian it
corresponds to “frază (compusă) prin coordonare”.
I like an apple but my brother likes a mango.
I helped him and he became happy.
He failed two times yet he is not disappointed.
I asked him a question; he replied correctly.
3. Complex consists of one or more main/principal clauses and one or more subordinate clauses
Sentence joined by subordinating conjunctions (because, although, since, when, unless etc)
or relative pronouns (that, who, which etc). In Romanian it corresponds to “frază
(compusă) prin subordonare”.
I met the boy who had helped me.
She is wearing a shirt which looks nice.
You can’t pass the test unless you study for it.
A comma is used when the complex sentence begins with the subordinate clause.
He is playing well although he is ill.
Although he is ill, he is playing well.
4. Compound- consists of at least two independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.
Complex He went to college and I went to a market where I bought a book.
Sentence In this sentence, there are two main coordinated clauses (independent clauses) “he
went to college” and “I went to a market”, and one dependent clause “where I
bought a book”.
☻ The sentence “When he comes back and if he is not exhausted after the trip, I will tell
him the whole truth about his father.” is a complex sentence, not a compound-
complex one because it consists of only one main, independent clause, “I will tell
him the truth about his father.”

Practice
Lecture no. 1, Sentence Syntax, III

a. Divide the texts into sentences, and the sentences into clauses. Then identify the types of
sentences and the types of clauses.
b. Translate the texts into Romanian, trying to preserve the original sentence-clause patterns.

A. Everything about the Veneerings was spick and span new. All their furniture was new, all their friends
were new, all their servants were new, their plate was new, their carriage was new, their harness was new, their
horses were new, their pictures were new, they themselves were new, they were as newly married as was lawfully
compatible with their having a bran-new baby, and if they had set up a great-grandfather, he would have come
home in matting from the Pantechnicon, without a scratch upon him, French polished to the crown of his head.
(Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend)

 spick and span = neat and clean [Ro: curat lună, ca scos din cutie, nou-nouţ]
 matting = rough woven material for making mats; a dull lusterless surface (as on gilding, metalwork, or
satin)
 pantechnicon (Pantechnicon van) = BrE a furniture removal van drawn by horses and used by the British
company “The Pantechnicon” for delivering and collecting furniture which its customers wished to store.

B. I believe it was on that very evening that I ventured on another invasion of Wildfell Hall. From the time
of our party, which was upwards of a week ago, I had been making daily efforts to meet its mistress in her walks;
[…] and, taking from the book-case an old volume that I thought she might be interested in, though, from its
unsightly and somewhat dilapidated condition, I had not yet ventured to offer it for perusal, I hastened away…
(Ann Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall)
 unsightly = not pleasing to the sight, not pleasant to look at [Ro: neplăcut, dezgustător, dizgraţios]
 dilapidated = old and in very bad condition [Ro: uzat, dărăpănat, în ruină, ponosit, ros]
 perusal = reading something, especially in a careful way [Ro: lectură atentă]

4. The Compound Sentence; Coordination

Definition
The compound sentence consists of two or more independent coordinated clauses. Coordination (or
conjoining) grammatically connects two or more clauses of equal rank. The common conjunctions -
and, but, for, or, nor, yet, and so - are structural words that join the elements of a coordinate structure
(they are also called coordinators).
In a compound sentence, the clauses connected by coordination can be either main / independent
clauses, or subordinated depending on the same word / phrase / clause.

Types of Coordination
A. According to the nature of the coordinator (coordinating word), there are three types of
coordination:
1. asyndetic coordination without a The wind roared, the lightning flashed, the clouds
coordination coordinator raced across the sky.
2. syndetic (binary) coordination with one His arms were wet and dirty, and he washed them
coordination coordinator over the side.
3. polysyndetic coordination with repetead Lizzie took her right hand from the scull it held,
(multiple) coordination coordinators and touched her lips with it, and for a moment
held it out lovingly towards him.

B. According to the logical relations between the clauses forming a compound

sentence, coordination can be subdivided into: copulative, disjunctive, adversative,
consecutive, causative.
Lecture no. 1, Sentence Syntax, III

1. Copulative Coordination
Copulative coordinators are placed at
the beginning of the clause they
coordinate and cannot be preceded by
other conjunctions.
when coordination connects two or more associated, linked clauses.
 conjunctions and; as well as
 correlatives: both … and, not only … but also; neither … nor
 the negative adverbs neither/nor

AND – comma and ellipsis

§ The conjunction and can be preceded by a comma. His arms were wet and dirty, and he washed them
over the side.
§ The conjunction and can connect two or more He climbed up the tree, picked an apple and ate it
clauses, in the latter case the conjunctions being used, hungrily.
in most cases, to introduce only the last clause.
§ If the conjunction and coordinates two or more He climbed up the tree, (he) picked an apple and
clauses having the same subject, the subject usually (he) ate it hungrily.
appears only once, in the first clause.
§ If the predicates of the coordinated clauses have the I’ve been waiting and (I’ve been) wondering
same auxiliary, the auxiliary may be omitted once with where you are.
the subject.

AND – uses and various meanings

The conjunction and indicates that there is some relation between the contents of the linked
clauses. The relation can generally be made explicit by the addition of an adverbial, as indicated in
parentheses in the examples:

(a) The event in the second clause is
chronologically sequent to that in the first
(b) The event in the second clause is a
consequence or result of the event in the first
(c) The second clause introduces a contrast
(d) The first clause has concessive force
(e) The first clause is a condition of the first
(f) The second clause makes a point similar to
the first
(g) The second clause is a 'pure' addition to
the first
(h) The second clause adds an appended
comment on, or explanation of, the first
I washed the dishes and (then) I dried them.
He heard an explosion and he (therefore) phoned the
police.
Peter is secretive and (in contrast) David is open.
She tried hard and (yet) she failed.
Give me some money and (then) I'll do the shopping.
A trade agreement should be no problem, and
(similarly) a cultural exchange could be easily
arranged.
He has long hair and (also) he often wears jeans.
They disliked John - and that's not surprising in view
of his behaviour. There's only one thing to do now -
and that's to apologize.

Correlatives
both … used to connect two clauses
… and which have the same subject.
within a clause, used to connect
two subjects which have the
same predicate
not only… can be used emphatically: not
… but only in initial position triggers
also the subject - auxiliary inversion.
He both speaks and writes two foreign langauges.
Both Peter and Ann have participated in the
Olympics.
Not only did he read the whole poem, but he also
translated part of it.
☻ Non-emphatic construction: He not only read the whole
poem, but he also translated part of it.
Lecture no. 1, Sentence Syntax, III

neither… coordinates two negative She didn’t eat and she didn’t drink. → She neither ate
… nor* sentences (originally connected nor drank anything.
by and); in colloquial speech Neither he nor his wife have arrived. - colloquial
concord is made in the plural Neither he nor his wife has arrived – literary use.
* Nor/neither is used to coordinate two or more sentences to a negative sentence; it requires subject-
predicate inversion and can be preceded by the conjunction and: He did not come to the symposium,
(and) neither/nor did he send in his paper.

2. Disjunctive  when coordination connects two or

Coordination more clauses which exclude one
another in most cases;
 usually set between two alternatives, Shall we go for a walk or shall we
the favourite alternative being placed in watch TV?
initial position;
 when connecting three or more clauses, You may either read a book, watch
the reciprocal exclusion is not so TV or listen to the radio.
obvious;
 sometimes, can have inclusive, not You can boil an egg, (or) you can
exclusive function. make some sandwiches, or you can
do both.
disjunctive  conjunctions: or, else, or else, otherwise,
coordinators  correlatives: either … or; neither … nor.
3. Adversative  when coordination connects two or more
Coordination clauses which are opposed but do not
exclude themselves;
 the two adversative clauses cannot change He is elderly but (he) (is) energetic.
place without affecting the meaning of the He is energetic but (he) (is) elderly.
compound sentence;
adversative conjunction but
coordinators
4. Consecutive  introduces an inference, conclusion, result The supermarket was closed, so I
Coordination of the previous part went away.
I forgot to return the best seller,
hence his displeasure.
consecutive  conjunctions: so, therefore, hence, thus
coordinators  adverbs: then, consequently, accordingly

5. Causal /  adds an independent clause which explains The days were short for it was
Explanatory the preceding statement October.
Coordination  the causative meaning is not as strong as in They left in a hurry for it was
the subordinated clause expressing cause already late.
causal / conjunction: for
explanatory
coordinators