Name : Ayu Wandira

Sid : 1313094
Subject: English Syntax (SUMMARY)

An Introduction to English Syntax

Phrases combine to produce clauses. They combine in different orders, and the links
between them are marked in various ways that will be discussed in Chapter 9. Some clauses have
special markers such as do, does, did for YES–NO INTERROGATIVES or conjunctions such as although,
if and that. The above differences are said to reflect different constructions; phrases are
constructed or put together in different ways to enable speakers and writers to signal differences
in meaning. The various syntactic constructions in a given language form a system. Every phrase
contains a head and possibly, but not necessarily, one or more modifiers. Each clause has a head,
the verb. There are two types of modifiers, namely complements and adjuncts.
Many collocation restrictions apply to heads and complements (but also to phrases other
than complements). Heads and complements are typically adjacent; where a head has two or
more complements, adjuncts typically come before or after the sequence of head and
complements. The different classes of words – for example nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs,
prepositions – were traditionally defined by what they denoted people, places and things (nouns),
actions (verbs) and properties (adjectives). This definition is inadequate, although meaning still
has an important part to play. Reliable definitions are based on formal criteria morphological and
syntactic. Once formal criteria have been set up, the connection between word classes and
meaning can be studied. This bears not just on what a given word or class of words refers to but
also on what speakers and writers do with it refer, predicate or assert, modify.
In fact, lexical items can be seen as playing an important and even controlling role. For
instance, blame requires a noun phrase to its right, Emma blamed Harriet, and while it does not
require a prepositional phrase it allows one and requires the preposition to be for Emma blamed
Harriet for the mistake. Some verbs, such as disappear, exclude any noun phrase to their right;
witness. Other verbs exclude entire constructions; resemble excludes the passive, and *Your
friend is resembled by my brother is unacceptable. Particular verbs require particular types of
noun to their left or right; faint requires an animate noun to its left. Verbs are said to select
particular types of noun and to impose selection restrictions. Verbs can be divided into
subcategories with respect to the number and type of phrases they require, exclude or allow. The
phenomenon is known as sub categorization, and verbs are said to sub categorize for particular
types of constituents.
Three major types of subordinate clause are recognized: complement clauses, relative
clauses and adverbial clauses. Complement clauses modify either verbs or nouns, can function as
subject or object in a clause and have as their compliment that or zero. Relative clauses modify
nouns and have as their complement a WH word or that or zero.
Relative clauses differ further from complement clauses in that, this also applies to
relative clauses introduced by that or zero. Adverbial clauses modify other clauses. Rules of
thumb based largely on modification help to pick out the different types of clause.
The traditional distinction between clause and sentence is important. A main clause
combines with one or more subordinate clauses to form a sentence. Where different clauses
occur in sentences can be described, as can where phrases occur inside clauses. Where sentences
occur in texts cannot be described except very loosely. Sentences can be regarded as a low-level
unit of discourse. Main clauses allow a very wide range of syntactic constructions and all the
distinctions of aspect, tense and mood. In contrast, subordinate clauses allow a smaller range of
syntactic constructions and fewer distinctions of aspect, tense and mood. There is a hierarchy of
subordinate clauses. Complement clauses are least subordinate, relative and adverbial clauses are
most subordinate. What were traditionally regarded as infinitive and gerund phrases are now
treated as clauses on the ground that they express propositions and, like finite clauses, consist of
a verb plus complements and adjuncts. Three major relationships hold between verbs and their
complement nouns (and noun phrases) – subject, direct object and oblique object. There are
languages in which the concept of subject cannot be easily applied, but in many languages one
noun, the grammatical subject, is closely linked to the verb in a clause. The subject noun and the
verb are linked in number (in English) and in person and number in other languages. Since these
are very difficult to distinguish from directional phrases, the notion of indirect object has been
abandoned in favor of oblique object but has been kept for the construction with three noun
phrases, as in Emma gave Harriet advice.
Many languages have devices which signal which words belong together as head and
modifiers; that is, they signal syntactic linkage. Two types of devices are recognized, namely
agreement and government. Agreement was applied to examples in which a head and its
modifier were both marked for some property. In many languages, the head noun in a noun
phrase and the adjectives that modify it all carry markings for case and number, while the subject
noun in a clause and the verb both carry markings for person and number. Government was
applied in two types of devices are recognized, namely agreement and government. Agreement
was applied to examples in which a head and its modifier were both marked for some property.
In many languages, the head noun in a noun phrase and the adjectives that modify it all carry
markings for case and number, while the subject noun in a clause and the verb both carry
markings for person and number.
Participant roles play a useful part in the analysis of the syntax and interpretation of
various constructions. Typical roles are Agent, Patient, Instrument, Place, Goal and Source. Two
distinctions are fundamental. One is between roles and role-players, as in the recognition that the
prototype or best central example of a player in the Agent role is a human being using his or her
own energy and acting of their own volition. A peripheral example is an inanimate column
without volition and not using energy. The second distinction is between the very general roles
and the information contributed by individual lexical verbs to the meaning of a clause. Roles do
not connect up directly with the world but with the ways in which the speakers of languages
conceive of and present situations in the world. The chapter title ‘Grammar and semantics’
reflects the central idea that certain distinctions in the grammars of languages (including the
grammar of English) signal important distinctions of meaning. Case has to do with how
languages signal the relationships between the verb and the nouns in a clause. In many
languages, nouns consist of a central stem to which case endings (case suffixes) are added.
Gender has to do with the different classes of noun in a given language. In English, nouns divide
into classes based largely on natural gender; that is, the gender class a noun belongs to is
connected with whether the related pronoun is he, she or it. Mood has to do with the modes in
which speakers and writers can present situations. They can make statement, ask questions or
issue commands with respect to a situation.
Aspect and tense have to do with situations and time. Aspect, as in wrote vs was writing,
signals whether an situation is presented as completed or as ongoing, i.e. as having reached its
boundary in time or as occupying a period of time. Voice also relates to situations, not to time
but to which participants in a situation are presented to the hearer/reader and which participants
are presented as central.