GRAMMAR

TEXT GRAMMAR
SYNTAX
LESSON I
➢The Sentence.
➢Definition of the sentence.
➢Types of questions in interrogative
sentences.
 ❏A sentence is a group of words
so connected grammatically as
to express a complete thought.
Sentences are classified according to:

➢The manner in which the thought is

expressed

➢The structure of the sentence.

dEPENDING ON THE MANNER IN WHICH THE THOUGHT IS
EXPRESSED, THERE ARE THE FOLLOWING KINDS OF
SENTENCES:

❏ DECLARATIVE - WHEN MAKING A STATEMENT OR AN ASSERTION.

➢ He loves the most beautiful girl with long GOLDEN hair.

❏ iNTERROGATIVE - WHEN ASKING A QUESTION

➢ How many new black coats do you want to buy?

❏ IMPERATIVE - WHEN GIVING A COMMAND OR MAKING A REQUEST

➢ Open the window, will you? Let's go.

❏ EXCLAMATORY - WHEN MAKING AN EXCLAMATION.

➢ What a shame! How beautiful a girl she is! She envies you
so!
CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO THE STRUCTURE
❏SIMPLE SENTENCE - CONTAINS ONLY ONE FINITE VERB,
IT HAS ONE PREDICATE:
The performer sang about social revolution. Mobile phone
location tracking is causing the divorce rate to increase.

❏COMPOUND SENTENCE - CONSISTS OF TWO OR MORE

INDEPENDENT SENTENCES GRAMMATICALLY
COORDINATED:

When Emma arrived yesterday she saw William in the living room and Bill in the kitchen
which was full of steam and she heard the sound of the running dishwasher.
THE COMPLEX SENTENCE CONTAINS ONE INDEPENDENT
ELEMENT - A PRINCIPAL CLAUSE AND ONE OR MORE
DEPENDENT ELEMENTS - SUBORDINATED CLAUSES.
 Clauses
A CLAUSE IS A PART OF A LONGER SENTENCE WITH
ITS OWN SUBJECT AND PREDICATE.

CLAUSES MAY BE:

➢COORDINATE OR INDEPENDENT

➢SUBORDINATE OR DEPENDENT

THE RAIN HAS BEEN VERY HEAVY, THEREFORE THE

ROADS ARE MUDDY.

I WILL NOT DO IT, NOR CONSIDER IT.

INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES
POSITIVE: Does JACK read American novels?

NEGATIVE: Can't he read this book himself?

POLAR Q./QUESTION TAGS: JOHN doesn't read

novels, does he?
Wh QUESTION: Who can read this book BY
himself?
ECHO QUESTION: HIS NAME IS JOHN WHAT?
Syntagmatic relations:

❏ Subject (related to Predicate) John arrived.

❏ Predicate (related to Subject) Bill slept.

❏ Object (related to Verb or Preposition) (to)

see/ about MarY

❏ Adverbial (related to Verb) (to) arrive

late/in the afternoon

❏ Attribute (related to Noun) big Ben, brother

of mine

❏ Complement (related to both Verb and

 Scope of verbal/sentential complementation

Apart from its Complements (Objects), the

Predicate is often modified with respect to
other parameters: Manner, Time, Space etc.

a) He runs quickly. He does not speak naturally.

b) Naturally, he can speak English

c) He will not perhaps speak.

d) Certainly, he speaks English.

Scope of verbal/sentential complementation
a. COMPLEMENTS are closest to the Verb, they are
internal the minimal VP.

i) The students [read books ].

ii) I want to [see Jill].

b. ADJUNCTS are adjoined inside VP (they are

external V+Complement).

i) The students [VP read books every day].

ii) I want to [VP see Jill on the picture].
C) DISJUNCTS take scope over the whole
sentence/proposition.

i) Naturally, he will help you.

ii) Of course, he is extremely polite

d. CONJUNCTS are not related to VP, they modify

(= take scope over) some other sentence
member).

i) He did it [AdvP very well ].

ii) He is [AdvP extremely polite ].

 EXERCISE:
● Mary reads novels.

● Johanna would run away with the sailor.

● Mr. Todd had been shaving the customers with a

real enthusiasm.

● Jane was allowed to look at those pictures.

● My parents are not looking forward to his

arrival.

● Didn't he take courage, at last?

● Some people take a shower twice a day.

LABELS
Determiner phrases (DPs) and preposition
phrases (PPs).

phrases associated with the verb (VPs), with

adjectives (APs)

noun phrases – (NPs), inflectional phrases – (IPs),

and degree adverb phrases – (DegPs)
 Immediate constituents analysis.
Immediate Constituent Analysis
Structuralist model. The scheme/tree is able to capture a) categorial labels b) syntactic relations
RECOMMENDED SOURCES:
1. Podoliuc T. Essential Grammar for Senior
Students. Part II. Chişinău: ULIM, 2003.

2.Camenev Z. Difficulties in Teaching/Learning

English Grammar. Chişinău: Tipografia Centrală,
2006.

3.AN INTERACTIVE GUIDE TO LINGUISTICS FOR NATURAL

LANGUAGE PROCESSING

4.PRACTICE ON POINTS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR

5.BASIC ENGLISH SYNTAX WITH EXERCISES

 Ways of expressing the subject
➢NOUN: PETS ARE OUR FRIENDS

➢PRONOUN: wHO HAS DONE THAT?

➢ADJECTIVE OR PARTICIPLE: bLUE SUITS YOU THE BEST.

THE DYING AND THE WOUNDED ARE GIVEN IMMEDIATE
HELP.

➢NUMERAL. FIVE IS MORE THAN FOUR.

➢INFINITIVE: TO HEAR IS ONE THING TO SEE IS ANOTHER.

➢GERUND: WALKING STRENGTHENS THE BODY.

➢A group of words: Three added to five is eight.

 Elliptical Sentences
Elliptical sentences are the ones in which one essential part to form the sentence
is omitted. Ellipsis is used:

 Freely and naturally in colloquial speech: [-What are you doing! –Digging for
apples. Want a neck shaved as well? I can but I won’t.]

 It is frequent in poetry: [Sweet to the morning traveler the song amid the sky]

 It characteristic for the newspaper headlines: [Admits of Killing Crippled

Mother]
 One-Member or Nominal Sentences
There are sentences in which the predicate is neither expressed nor implied.
These may consist of one word: Thieves! Fire!

Or they might contain attributes: Snow-clad mountains; A starlit sky.

Such nominal sentences are used as a stylistic device in poetry:

A hurry of hoofs in a village street. A shape in the moonlight. A bulk in the dark.
Use of pronouns: IT, ONE, THEY, WE, YOU
 Demonstrative IT - is close in meaning to this: Who is it? It is Claire. I hear a terrible
noise, it is the children amusing themselves. It points out a person or thing that is
presented rather vaguely at first, but is later identified by a predicative noun.

 Impersonal IT - does not represent any definite person or thing expressed or

understood. Found:

 With verbs expressing states of the weather (impersonal verbs): It snowed heavily
yesterday. It is freezing. It is raining.

 In sentences containing adjectives that describe the temperature or the weather

generally: It is cold today. It is a brilliant sun shining.

 In sentences expressing time and distance: It is nine o’clock. How far is is to the
station? It is January. It is winter now.
Use of pronouns: IT, ONE, THEY, WE, YOU
 Introductory or anticipatory IT. The pronoun IT is often used as an introductory or
formal subject, because although it is a subject in form, it only introduces the real
subject which follows it. The real subject may be an infinitive or a gerund:

It is pleasant to lie in the sun; instead of To lie in the sun is pleasant. It is much better
to go home. It is hard work keeping the child quiet.

 Introductory emphatic IT. One of the ways to emphasize the subject or another part
of a sentence is the use of the introductory emphatic IT. Instead of saying:

We came home at 5 o’clock. Peter did it. In emphatic constructions it is said:

It was not until 5 o’clock that we came. It was Peter who did it. It is just the thing I
wanted.
Use of pronouns: IT, ONE, THEY, WE, YOU
 The pronouns one, they, you, we having the same general or indefinite force are
used as indefinite subjects: It seems to be very cold today. So they say. Asa long as
one is young in spirit one easily acquires new friends. We don’t like to be laughed
at.

In this sentence they is used when the speaker is excluded, one – when the speaker is
included.

 The editorial we used by members of the editorial staff, by writers and reviewers of
books:

As we have said before, the influx of French words into the English language was
especially great in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
 CLASSIFICATION OF SUBJECTS
 Compound subject - referring to one person or thing:

My friend and adviser is away. The needle and thread is lost. A cup and saucer stands
here. A coach and four horses was at the door.

 Coordinated subjects - A coach and four horses were sold at once. The bread and
the butter are on the table.
 TYPES OF PREDICATES
 Simple predicate - expressed by a finite verb,
intransitive or transitive, in a simple
/compound tense-form. The snow covers the
garden. Shoes are made of leather.

 Compound / nominal predicate - consists of a

finite verb of incomplete predication: link-
verb (a copula) which does not by itsel make
a complete sense and a predicative (nominal
part) which completes the meaning of the
link verb. He is famous.
 copulas
➢To be - the oldest and most common copulas,
devoid of concrete meaning of its own,
performing a grammatical function: I am
ready. She will be out tomorrow.
➢Intransitive verbs.

➢Copulas: seem, appear, remain, keep, rest, feel:

feel wretched; his words sounded harsh
➢ Become and its equivalents: grow, get, turn
out, go, run, fall: fell ill; go mad
➢Double predicate: consists of a modal verb,
denoting, obligation, possibility, volition and
an infinitive expressing the significant part of
the predication.

He should not smoke here. I cannot help

laughing. We are going to see a new film.
 predicatives
The predicative, the significant part of a
compound predicate denotes:

➢What the subject is, was, will be, or may

become: his brother is an engineer.

➢The state in which the subject is, was, or

may be: dinner will be ready.
 Predicatives are expressed by:

➢A noun, pronoun: this idea is not mine.

➢Adjective, participle, numeral: rest assured;

it was necessary.

➢noun/pronoun with preposition: although

this book is of great interest, it is not to
my taste.

➢Infinitive, or ip: to unite is to win.

➢Gerund or gp: seeing is believing.

➢Adverb: she is early today. They are away.

 The object
Expressed by:

➢Noun: have you read the paper?

➢Pronoun: have you seen him?

➢Substantivized adjectives or participles:

the surgeon examined the wounded.

➢Infinitive or IP: he promised to come.

➢Gerund or GP: he enjoys skating.

Forms of object:
➢Non-prepositional: the man chased the
bear.

➢Prepositional: he should apologize to her

at once. He spoke to us on the subject.

➢Direct object (transitive verb): many

women drive cars.

➢Indirect object: they gave the worker a

reward.
 Attribute
The attribute to the subject or object, in fact to
any noun. Expressed by:
➢ Adjective: a little box.

➢ Pronoun: our work. This question.

➢ Numeral: three good books.

➢ Participle: approaching hurricane, reloaded computer.

➢ Noun, pronoun in apposition: we, people of the world.

➢ Noun in possessive case: father’s promise.

➢ Noun with preposition: the houses of our fathers

➢ Noun in attributive function: well water; artillery fire, food

economy.
 NOMINAL CLAUSES
Like a noun, a nominal clause names a person, place, thing, or idea. A nominal clause may
function in a sentence as any of the following: subject ; subjective complement ; appositive ; object
of preposition ; direct object ; indirect object

Nominal clauses may begin with interrogatives:

who ; whom ; what ; which ; whoever ; whomever ; whatever ;when ; where ;how ; why
An interrogative beginning a nominal clause has a function within the nominal clause.

Each of the following examples illustrates

 a nominal clause

the function of the nominal clause within the sentence

the function of the interrogative within the nominal clause

Nominal clause as subject in sentence
Nominal clause as subjective complement
Nominal clause as object of preposition
Nominal clause as direct object
Nominal clause as indirect object
Nominal clause as retained object
Nominal clauses may also begin with expletives
that whether if

An expletive beginning a nominal clause has no function within the nominal

clause. Nominal clause beginning with expletive that
Nominal clause beginning with expletive whether
Nominal clause beginning with expletive if
 RELATIVE CLAUSES
Relative clauses are clauses starting with the relative pronouns who*, that, which,
whose, where, when. They are most often used to define or identify the noun that
precedes them. Here are some examples:

Do you know the girl who started in grade 7 last week?

Can I have the pencil that I gave you this morning?

A notebook is a computer which can be carried around.

I won't eat in a restaurant whose cooks smoke.

I want to live in a place where there is lots to do.

Yesterday was a day when everything went wrong!

 Defining Relative Clauses
Defining relative clauses (also called identifying relative clauses or restrictive
relative clauses) give detailed information defining a general term or expression.
Defining relative clauses are not put in commas.

Imagine, Tom is in a room with five girls. One girl is talking to Tom and you ask
somebody whether he knows this girl. Here the relative clause defines which of
the five girls you mean.

Do you know the girl who is talking to Tom?

Defining relative clauses are often used in definitions.

A seaman is someone who works on a ship.

Object pronouns in defining relative clauses can be dropped.

The boy (who/whom) we met yesterday is very nice.

 Non-Defining Relative Clauses
Non-defining relative clauses (also called non-identifying relative clauses or non-
restrictive relative clauses) give additional information on something, but do not
define it. Non-defining relative clauses are put in commas.

Imagine, Tom is in a room with only one girl. The two are talking to each other and
you ask somebody whether he knows this girl. Here the relative clause is non-defining
because in this situation it is obvious which girl you mean.

Do you know the girl, who is talking to Tom?

Note: In non-defining relative clauses, who/which may not be replaced with that.

Object pronouns in non-defining relative clauses must be used.

Jim, who/whom we met yesterday, is very nice.

 PASSIVIZATION
Passivization is a process typical for structural (direct) Objects. Elements which
can passivize are syntactic/structural Objects of the Verb:

(a) Benjamin wrote/saw/bought/discussed some books.

(b) The books were written/seen/bought/discussed by Benjamin.
 FUNCTION OF PASSIVIZATION
Results of passivization: semantic/pragmatic + formal. Passivization changes the formal realization
of the semantic valency: It results in either : a) demoting (retrograding) the Agent (deagentization),
or b) rhematization of the Agent.

Demoting the Subject/Agent of the active Verb = Deagentization

The book was written. - 1) Patient becomes Subject/=Theme; 2) Agent disappears

Agent is: General: a) It is believed...

b) It can't be explained.

Author: c) As has been stated before...

d) This was studied in detail.

Hidden: e) The team was beaten.

None: f) The house was searched.

g) The two forms are distributed equally.

Focusing on the Agent which becomes 'by-' Adjunct
The book was written by Magik. 1) Patient becomes Subject/= Theme,

2) Predicate remains neutral

3) Agent is clause final/= Rheme

The realization of the Subject of the active sentence depends also on its semantic role. True

Agents are canonically realized with the Preposition by.

a) The phenomenon was first demonstrated by John Brown (=Agent)

b) I was impressed by his discipline (=Agent?)

c) The metal was flattened by the machine (=Instrument?)

d) The door was opened by/with a key.

EXERCISE
In the following couples of sentences find elements expressing

(i) sentence functions (i.e. Subject - V - Object ) and

(ii) semantic roles (i.e. Agent - Verb - Patient)

a) Everybody saw Emily. Emily was seen (by everybody).

b) The hunter killed a rabbit. The rabbit was killed (by a hunter).

(c) Mary feeds her dog. The dog is fed (by Mary.)
a) They gave a book to me. . A book was given me.

b) They gave me a book. I was given a book.

c) They bought a hat for me. .A hat was bought for me.

d) They bought me a hat. *I was bought a hat

Some 'direct Object' passive structures are also acceptable without the Preposition to.

a) They offered a woman the job A woman was offered the job.

b) They offered the job to a woman ?The job was offered a woman.

c) They fixed the guests a lunch The guests were finally fixed a lunch.

d) They fixed a lunch to the guests ?A lunch was finally fixed the guests.
EXERCISE
Passivize the underlined 'Objects' and watch what happens with the capitalized Prepositions.

a) He blamed [the teacher][FOR his failure].

PASS: ......................................................................................................................

b) He blamed [his failure][ON his teacher].

PASS: ......................................................................................................................

c) Adam entrusted [a task] [TO Mary].

PASS: ......................................................................................................................

d) Adam entrusted [Mary] [WITH this task].

PASS: ......................................................................................................................
a) Jessica writes articles for the newspaper.

b) William will be helping you tomorrow.

c) Mary was not allowed to go to the cinema yesterday.

d) His brother is looking for a girlfriend.

e) Marilyn will take advantage of her father's money.

f) He was looking at the picture.

g) I have been looking forward to your visit.

h) He sleeps in his bed.

i) Jane has got a new friend.

 NEGATION: KINDS OF NEGATION
 Semantic Negation:

Opposites (=pairs of words which are distinct in at least one feature) are part of each natural language.
The phenomena possibly reflects some psychological property of a human brain (the ability to see the
facts as contrastive or in binary opposition)

a) good vs. bad; b) day vs. night; c) friend vs. enemy; d) mother vs. father

 Partial Negation (Lexical, phrasal)

The first stage of grammaticalization of negation. Some specialized grammatical morpheme (affix) is
used to negate a unit: a) a word (e.g. un-, in-, dis, -less, -free);

b) a phrase (not)
a) Lexical negation

2) a) im+possible, un+easy, dis+proportionate, non+sense; coffein+free, speech+less

b) It is il-logical. (not a negative clause, X = Y)

Scales of positive – grammatical negation – opposite

3) a) true – untrue – false; b) easy – uneasy – difficult

b) Phrasal Negation

The particle not negates the whole phrase (usually some existing sentence member)

4) a) He prepared the dinner in the living room, not in the kitchen.

b) Mary not her little sister will drive the car today.

c) I want to read novels not to study vocabulary.

Sentence negation

CLAUSAL NEGATION (propositional, 'grammatical') negates the clause, i.e. the whole
proposition. In English it is done by a particle not added to the Mod/Aux or by a
negative polarity item with a scope over the Predicate.

a) Mary will not help you. (particle not)

b) Mary will never help you. (negative quantifier in ADV)

c) Nobody can do it for you. (negative quantifier in SUBJ)

d) I met nobody in the park. (negative quantifier in OBJ)

e) I gave the book to nobody. (partial negation?)

f) I met Jessica never / nowhere. (partial negation?)

Partial (lexical and phrasal) negation can combine with the clausal negation.

6) a) It is impossible. (positive clause)

b) It is not possible. (negative clause)

c) It is not impossible. (negative clause (positive meaning))

7) a) I was allowed not to come. (positive clause)

b) I was not allowed to come. (negative clause)

c) I was not allowed not to come. (negative clause (positive meaning))

Scalar reading of lexical negation vs. opposites.

(a) It is true. It is not true. It is false.

(b) It is easy. It is not easy. It is difficult.

(c) He is tall. He is not tall. He is short.

(d) She is beautiful. She is not beautiful. She is ugly.

INTENSIFICATION:

... at all, no X whatever, not one ...

a) He is not big at all.

b) I have no money whatever.

c) Norbert has not a single friend.

 The form and number of negative operators
A negative sentence can contain more negative operators (constituents denoting empty
sets). In fact any sentence member can be a negative operator. Compare the following
examples:

a) Peter did not give the book to Mary.

b) Peter did not give any/*no-thing to Mary.

c) Peter did not give any/*no-thing to any/*no-body.

d) No-body gave any/*no-thing to any/*no-body.

e) *No-body did not give ...

THE SCOPE OF NEGATION
In English it is usually a simple clause. The following examples show that the scope is
not enlarged to other clause in a complex/compound sentences.

1) See the interpretation (negative vs. arbitrary) of any

a) Main-Subord. Bonnie cannot see anything [ when anything covers his eyes.

= free choice / * negative

b) Subord.-Main Though we did not ask anybody [ any people can come.

= free choice / * negative

c) Main-Main I did not bring anything but [ you can take any of those.

= free choice / * negative

Enlarging the scope of NEG (NEG-Transportation/Transfer)
In complex sentences containing Verbs of 'think' type in the main clause, the
negation can be transported/transferred to the initial main clause.

3) a) I think he will not come.

b) I do not think he will come.

NEG Transportation: The shift/move of NEG from the embedded clause to the main
clause, the interpretation does not change in (a) and (b), but formally, the scope of
the negation covers both main and subordinate clauses in (b).

5) a) I think [[ that Mary will NOT help any-body/*some-body /*no-body at all.

b) I do NOT think [[ that Mary will help any-body/*some- body /*no- body at all.
Negative Adverbs / Partial Negation
Apart from negative Adverb never, which creates "full" clausal negation, there are Adverbs in
English, which constitute so called "partial" clausal negation: e.g. hardly, scarcely, barely, rarely,
seldom, little, few…

a) He often knows nothing. ... positive pattern

b) He never knows anything / *nothing. ... negative pattern

c) He knows hardly/barely anything / *nothing. ... negative pattern

8) a) He often knows all, doesn't he /*does he. ... positive pattern

b) He never knows, does he / *doesn't he.. ... negative pattern

c) He knows hardly/barely all, does he/ *does he? ... negative pattern

9) a) Often I will help you. / *Often will I help you. ... positive pattern

b) *Never I will help you. / Never will I help you ... negative pattern.

c) *Hardly I will help you. / Hardly will I help you. ... negative pattern