english syntax by to minh thanh
TRANSCRIPT
ÑAÏI HOÏC QUOÁC GIA THAØNH PHOÁ HOÀ CHÍ MINH TRÖÔØNG ÑAÏI HOÏC KHOA HOÏC XAÕ HOÄI & NHAÂN VAÊN
Toâ Minh Thanh
TAØI LIEÄU OÂN THI
TUYEÅN SINH SAU ÑAÏI HOÏC CHUYEÂN NGAØNH Giaûng daïy tieáng Anh
(Taùi baûn laàn thöù nhaát, coù chænh söûa)
NHAØ XUAÁT BAÛN ÑAÏI HOÏC QUOÁC GIA TP HOÀ CHÍ MINH – 2008
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CONTENTS
Content ................................................................................................................................ i Preface.............................................................................................................................. vii Outline for revision............................................................................................................ ix Table of notational symbols ........................................................................................... xii Section one: WORD CLASSES 1 Parts of speech, word classes and grammatical categories ............................... 1
2 Classification of word classes ......................................................................... 2 2.1 Major classes vs. minor classes ................................................................... 2
2.2 English major classes ................................................................................... 3
2.2.1 English form classes ...................................................................... 4
2.2.2 English positional classes .............................................................. 6
2.3 English minor classes ................................................................................. 10
2.4 Word-class exercises ............................................................................... 10
2.4.1 Exercises for form classes........................................................... 10
2.4.2 Exercises for positional classes ................................................... 12
Section two: TYPES of PHRASES, CLAUSES and SENTENCES 3 Phrases vs. clauses............................................................................................... 15 4 Adjective phrases vs. adverb phrases ............................................................... 15 5 Attributive vs. predicative adjectives/adjective phrases .................................. 17 6 Noun phrases vs. verb phrases ........................................................................... 18
7 The N-bar (N’) as a level of NP-structure that is intermediate between the phrasal (NP) level and the lexical (N) level ................................ 20
8 Types of pre-nominal modifiers........................................................................... 21
8.1 Determiners .............................................................................................. 21
8.2 Quanyifying adjectives ............................................................................. 23
8.3 Adjective phrases ..................................................................................... 26
8.4 Pre-modifying nouns .................................................................................. 27
8.5 Possessive common nouns ......................................................................... 28
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8.6 Verb participles ........................................................................................ 29
8.7 Gerunds ..................................................................................................... 30
8.8 Restricters ................................................................................................ 31 9 Types of post-nominal modifiers ......................................................................... 32
9.1 Prepositional phrases ................................................................................. 32
9.2 Adjective phrases ...................................................................................... 33
9.3 Participial phrases ..................................................................................... 35
9.4 Infinitive phrases ...................................................................................... 35
9.5 Subordinate adjective clauses .................................................................. 36 10 Noun complements vs. optional post-nominal modifiers .................................. 36
11 Classification of English verbs/verb phrases ................................................... 38 11.1 Intensive verbs/verb phrases ................................................................. 39 11.2 Complex transitive verbs/verb phrases .................................................. 40 11.3 Ditransitive verbs/verb phrases ............................................................. 43 11.4 Monotransitive verbs/verb phrases ........................................................ 47 11.5 Prepositional verbs/verb phrases ........................................................... 51
11.5.1 Monotransitive Prepositional verbs/verb phrases ................... 51 11.5.2 Ditransitive Prepositional verbs/verb phrases ........................ 53
11.6 Intransitive verbs/verb phrases ............................................................. 55 11.7 Summary of the classification of English verbs/verb phrases ............. 57 11.8 Troublesome verbs ................................................................................... 59
12 Types of clause links .......................................................................................... 61 13 Types of clauses ................................................................................................. 62
13.1 Finite clauses vs. non-finite clauses ........................................................ 62 13.2 Independent clauses vs. dependent clauses ........................................... 63 13.3 Subordinate clauses vs. embedded clauses ............................................ 64
14 Covert subjects vs. overt subjects .................................................................. 66 15 Types of finite dependent clauses .................................................................... 67
15.1 Nonimal clauses ........................................................................................ 67 15.2 Relative clauses ........................................................................................ 67
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15.3 Adverbial clauses ..................................................................................... 68 15.4 Reporting clauses ..................................................................................... 68 15.5 Comment clauses ...................................................................................... 68
16 Types of non-finite clauses .............................................................................. 69
16.1 Infinitive non-finite clauses .................................................................... 69 16.2 Gerund non-finite clauses ........................................................................ 69 16.3 Participial non-finite clauses ................................................................... 70 16.4 Verbless clauses ....................................................................................... 71
17 Classification of sentences according to their structures ............................. 71 17.1 Simple sentences ...................................................................................... 71 17.2 Compound sentences ................................................................................ 72 17.3 Complex sentences ................................................................................... 72
17.3.1 Embedded nominal clauses .............................................................. 73 17.3.1.1 As the subject ...................................................................... 73 17.3.1.2 As the direct object/the predicator complement ............ 78 17.3.1.3 As the indirect object ........................................................ 89 17.3.1.4 As the subject(ive) complement .......................................... 90 17.3.1.5 As the object(ive) complement ........................................... 91 17.3.1.6 As the complement of a preposition .................................... 94
17.3.2 Subordinate/embedded adjectival clauses .................................... 95 17.3.3 Subordinate/embedded adverbial clauses ..................................... 96
17.4 Compound-Complex sentences ................................................................. 97
Section three: GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS 18 Structure .......................................................................................................... 99
19 Endocentric structures vs. exocentric structures ...................................... 99 20 Types of syntactic structures ........................................................................ 100
20.1 Structures of modification ................................................................... 100 20.2 Structures of complementation ............................................................ 101 20.3 Structures of coordination .................................................................... 101 20.4 Structures of predication ..................................................................... 103
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21 Constructions vs. constituents ........................................................................ 104 22 Immediate constituents vs. ultimate constituents ........................................ 104 23 Immediate constituents of a sentence ........................................................... 105 24 Intervening level of organization between word and sentence ..................... 106 25 Modifiers vs. complements ............................................................................... 106 26 Types of adjective complements ...................................................................... 108 27 Pre-adjectival modifiers vs. post-adjectival modifiers ................................. 108
28 Adjective complements vs. optional post-adjectival modifiers .................... 109 29 Classification of English adjectives according to their post-modifiers ............ 111 30 Types of adverbial adjuncts ............................................................................. 112 31 Noun phrase analyses ....................................................................................... 123 32 Mis-diagraming.................................................................................................. 125 33 Structural ambiguity in English noun phrases ................................................. 126
33.1 Define a structurally ambiguous noun phrase .......................................... 126 33.2 Explain structurally ambiguous noun phrases ........................................... 128 33.3 Disambiguate structurally ambiguous noun phrases................................. 134 33.4 Account for structurally non-ambiguous noun phrases ........................... 138
34 Verb phrase analyses .................................................................................. 140
34.1 Noun phrases as the sP/sC of an intensive verb or as the dO of a monotransitive verb ............................................................................. 140
34.2 NP direct objects of a monotransitive verb or NP adverbial adjuncts of an intransitive verb.............................................................. 141
34.3 Prepositional phrases as the sP/sC of an intensive verb or as the optional adverbial adjunct of any verb ............................................ 142
34.4 IntransVAC vs. intransV—Adv .............................................................. 143 34.5 MonotransVAC—NP vs. intransV—PP .................................................... 144 34.6 MonotransVAC—NP vs. monotrans-prepV—prepO ............................... 146
35 Sentence analyses ....................................................................................... 147
35.1 Identify the syntactic function of a PP ................................................... 147 35.2 Decide whether a PP is part of the complementation of a
ditransitive verb ..................................................................................... 148
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35.3 Explain the difference between two sentences ...................................... 151 35.4 Re-analyse sentence pairs, using tree-diagrams .................................. 154
36 Structural ambiguity in English verb phrases ................................................ 157 37 Phrase structure............................................................................................... 162
37.1 Definition ................................................................................................. 162 37.2 How to determine phrase structure? ..................................................... 162
37.2.1 Substitution .............................................................................. 162 37.2.2 Conjoinability ............................................................................. 165 37.2.3 Movement .................................................................................. 166 37.2.4 Checking the antecedent for a pro-form ................................ 167
37.3 Phrase structure exercises .................................................................... 167 38 Phrase structure rules ..................................................................................... 170 39 Surface structures vs. deep structures ......................................................... 172 40 Signals of syntactic structures ....................................................................... 174
40.1 Word order .............................................................................................. 174 40.2 Function words ......................................................................................... 174 40.3 Inflection ................................................................................................. 175 40.4 Derivational contrast .............................................................................. 176 40.5 Prosody .................................................................................................... 176
41 What is syntax? ............................................................................................... 177
Section four: SAMPLE TESTS IN ENGLISH LINGUISTICS ................................178
Bibliography ...................................................................................................197
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LÔØI NOÙI ÑAÀU
Thöïc teá laø khoâng phaûi saùch ngoân ngöõ cuûa taùc giaû ngöôøi nöôùc ngoaøi naøo cuõng ñaùp öùng ñuùng vaø ñuû noäi dung oân taäp thi tuyeån sinh sau ñaïi hoïc chuyeân ngaønh Giaûng daïy tieáng Anh (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) theo quy ñònh cuûa Tröôøng Ñaïi hoïc Khoa hoïc Xaõ hoäi vaø Nhaân vaên, thuoäc Ñaïi hoïc Quoác gia Thaønh phoá Hoà Chí Minh. Taøi lieäu naøy ra ñôøi nhaèm ñaùp öùng nhu caàu oân taäp thi tuyeån sinh sau ñaïi hoïc cho moân Ngöõ hoïc trong chuyeân ngaønh neâu treân.
Ñeå giuùp caùc ñoái töôïng döï thi laøm quen vaø chuaån bò toát cho kyø thi cuûa mình, taøi lieäu naøy (1) bao goàm nhöõng troïng ñieåm theo ñuùng qui ñònh veà noäi dung oân taäp cuûa Ñeà cöông oân taäp Cuù phaùp cho kyø thi tuyeån sinh sau ñaïi hoïc chuyeân ngaønh Giaûng daïy tieáng Anh vaø (2) ñöôïc trình baøy thaønh boán phaàn: Phaàn 1: Caùc töø loaïi (Word Classes) Phaàn 2: Caùc loaïi ngöõ, cuù vaø caâu (Types of phrases, clauses and sentences) Phaàn 3: Caùc moái quan heä ngöõ phaùp (Grammatical relations)
Phaàn 4: Moät soá ñeà thi vaø ñaùp aùn ñaõ thöïc teá ñöôïc duøng trong caùc kyø thi gaàn ñaây.
Taøi lieäu naøy cuõng coù theå naèm trong thö muïc saùch tham khaûo giuùp sinh vieân heä taïi chöùc vaø heä chính quy baèng 1 vaø baèng 2 cuûa chuyeân ngaønh Ngöõ vaên Anh hoïc thaønh coâng moân Syntax trong chöông trình chính khoùa cuûa caùc heä ñaøo taïo ñaïi hoïc naøy. Ngoaøi ra, caùc hoïc vieân cao hoïc chuyeân ngaønh Giaûng daïy tieáng Anh vaø caùc thaày coâ cuûa khoùa Boài döôõng giaùo vieân taïi Tröôøng Ñaïi hoïc Khoa hoïc Xaõ hoäi vaø Nhaân vaên, thuoäc Ñaïi hoïc Quoác gia Thaønh phoá Hoà Chí Minh cuõng coù theå tham khaûo taøi lieäu naøy khi theo hoïc moân Linguistics PG trong chöông trình chính khoùa cuûa caû hai heä ñaøo taïo sau ñaïi hoïc naøy.
Raát mong taøi lieäu naøy seõ giuùp caùc ñoái töôïng döï thi töï oân luyeän toát hôn duø coù ñieàu kieän hay khoâng theå tröïc tieáp theo hoïc caùc lôùp luyeän thi taïi tröôøng.
Thaønh phoá Hoà Chí Minh, ngaøy 20 thaùng 1 naêm 2005.
Toâ Minh Thanh
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Ñaïi Hoïc Quoác Gia Tp. Hoà Chí Minh TRÖÔØNG ÑAÏI HOÏC KHOA HOÏC XAÕ HOÄI & NHAÂN VAÊN
ÑEÀ CÖÔNG OÂN TAÄP THI TUYEÅN SINH CAO HOÏC
Moân Cô sôû: LINGUISTICS
(cho chuyeân ngaønh Giaûng daïy tieáng Anh)
1. Linguistics (a) Semantics
- The expression of meaning in English at the word and sentence level; - The relations of different kinds of meaning; - Meaning shifts or words; - Use of language in social interaction.
(b) Syntax - Word classes; - Grammatical relations; - Types of phrases, clauses & sentences.
2. Academic Writing Write an essay of 250 - 300 words on an issue of second language teaching and learning.
REFERENCES Fromkin V. et al (1988) An Introduction to Language.
Sydney: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Hurdford, J. R. & Heasley, B. (1984) Semantics. A Course Book. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jordan, R.R. (1990) Academic Writing Course. Collins ELT. A Division of Harper Collins Publishers.
Kaplan, J.P. (1989) English Grammar. Principles and Facts. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.
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SEMANTICS
GUIDELINES FOR REVIEW I. Semantic Properties and Semantic Fields
II. Reference and Sense
III. Denotation and Connotation
IV. Taxonomy—Hypernyms and Hyponyms
V. Multiple Senses of Lexical Items * Primary Sense * Secondary Senses (polysemy)
* Figurative Senses (metaphors, similes, metonymy, synecdoche, euphemism, hyperbole, litotes, alliteration, assonance, consonance)
VI. Synonymy vs. Antonymy
VII. Homonyms (homophones and homograph), acronyms, anomaly
VIII. Speech Acts
Propositions-Utterances-Sentences
Performative sentences
Presuppositions and Implicatures
Felicity conditions
Speech events
Deixis (time, place, person)
Pragmatic meaning
Maxims of conversation
Maxims of politeness
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ENGLISH SYNTAX Introduction • Syntax: “the study of how words combine to
form sentences and the rules which govern the information of sentences” (Richards, Platt & Weber)
• Traditional grammar — Structural grammar — Transformational grammar
Five signals of syntactic structures: Word order, Prosody, Function words, Inflections, and Derivational contrast (Francis, 1958: 234)
Word classes: open ad closed classes • Open classes: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives,
Adverbs (Jackson, 1980) • Closed classes: Pronouns, Numerals,
Determiners, Prepositions, Conjunctions (Jackson, 1980)
• Chapters 1 & 2 in Jackson (1980)
• Chapter 5 in Francis (1958) • “The Grammar of English” by
Heatherington, in Clar et al (1981: 329-42)
• What do native speakers know about their language? by Jacbs and Rosenbaum, in Clark et al (1981: 343-49)
IC’s in Syntax Four basic types of syntactic structures:
modification, predication, complementation, and coordination (Francis, 1958)
Endocentric and exocentric constructions (Bloomfield, 1933; Nida, 1966)
• Chapter 6 in Francis (1958) • Chapter 6 in Fromkin et al
(1990) • Chapter 1in Nida (1996) • John Lyons (translated
version) pp. 368-70 Noun phrases Types of modifiers in noun phrases • Premodification: identifier, numeral/quantifier,
adjective, noun modifier • Postmodification: relative clauses, non-finite
clauses, prepositional phrases
Chapter 3 in Jackson (1980)
Verb phrases: tense, aspect, mood, voice Chapter 4 in Jackson (1980) Adjective phrases, adverb phrases, and prepositional phrases
Chapter 5 in Jackson (1980)
Clauses • Structures and types • Dependent clauses
Chapter 6 & 7 in Jackson (1980)
Phrase structure rules & Transformational rules Chapter 5 in Fromkin et al (1990)
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NOTATIONAL SYMBOLS Most of the symbols used in this text follow conventions, but since conventions
vary, the following list indicates the meanings assigned to them here. A = adjective Adv = (general) adverb ART = article AP = adjective phrase AdvP = adverb phrase C = complement ComN = compound noun Comp = complementizer complex = complex transitive verb Conj = conjunction Co-P = a coordination of Prepositions Co-PP = a coordinate Prepositional phrase Co-NP = a coordinate noun phrase Co-AP = a coordinate adjective phrase DEG = degree adverb DEM = demonstrative DET = determiner dO = direct object ditrans = ditransitive verb ditrans-prep = ditransitive prepositional verb EmACl = embedded adjective clause EmAdvCl = embedded adverbial clause EXCLAMATORY DET = exclamatory determiner [E] = empty/covert/zero/implicit subject H = the head headN = the head noun headPRO = the head pronoun headPropN = the head proper noun headA = the head adjective headGer = the head gerund IC = immediate constituent InfP = infinitive phrase intens = intensive verb intrans = intransitive verb intransVAC = intransitive verb-adverbial composite
iO = indirect object M = modifier ModN = pre-modifying noun monotrans = monotransitive verb monotrans-prep = monotransitive prepositional verb monotransVAC = monotransitive verb-adverbial composite N = noun N’ = N-bar nC = noun complement NP = noun phrase NUM = numeral/number opA = optional adverbial adjunct obA = obligatory adverbial adjunct oC = object(ive) complement oP = object-predicative POST-MOD = post-modifier POST-DET = post-determiner PRE-MOD = pre-modifier PRE-DET = pre-determiner PRO = pronoun PropN = proper noun Poss = possessive PossA = possessive adjective PossPropN = possessive proper noun PossCommN = possessive common noun PossMarker = possessive marker PossNP = possessive noun phrase predC = predicator complement P = preposition prep = prepositional verb prepO = prepositional object prepC = complement of a preposition PP = prepositional phrase PartP = participial phrase Q = quantifier QA = quantifying adjective RESTRIC = restricter S = sentence
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S’= S-bar sC = subject(ive) complement sP = subject-predicative SubACl = subordinate adjective clause SubAdvCl = subordinate adverbial clause VP = verb phrase Vgrp = verb group V-Part = verb participle V-Ger = gerund
Prt = adverbial particle VAC = verb-adverbial composite * = unaccepted form ? = doubtfully acceptable form [ ] = embedded unit / = or φ = unfilled ⇒ = one-way dependence ⇔ = two-way dependence
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SECTION 1: WORD CLASSES
1 Parts of speech, word classes and grammatical categories1
“The traditional term ‘parts of speech’ is puzzling; it’s not clear why kinds of words — really, classes of words — would be ‘parts’ of speech any more than, say, phonemes, allophones, morphemes, allomorphs, or even phrases or sentences. In fact, instead of ‘parts of speech,’ linguists usually employ the terms ‘word class’ or ‘grammatical category.’ The term ‘grammatical category’ is a useful one, since it captures an important aspect of a ‘part of speech,’ namely, that all tokens of a particular part of speech share important grammatical characteristics that other parts of speech lack. The term ‘word class,’ however, is valuable in its simplicity and is certainly an improvement over ‘part of speech’.” [Kaplan, 1989: 105]
1 “The syntactic categories of words and groups of words are revealed by
the way they pattern in sentences. If you didn’t have knowledge of these syntactic categories, you would be unable to form grammatical sentences or distinguish between grammatical and ungrammatical sentences.” [Fromkin et al, 1988: 214] For example, the child belong to a family that includes the police officer, your neighbour, this yellow cat, he, and countless others. Each member of this family can be substituted for the child without affecting the grammaticality of the sentence, although the meanings of course would change.
“A family of expressions that can substitute for one another without loss of grammaticality is called a syntactic category.” [Fromkin and Rodman, 1993: 79]
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2 Classification of word classes 2.1 Major classes vs. minor classes: Kaplan, [1989: 106] divides word
classes into two main groups—major and minor. major classes minor classes
1. The major classes — nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs — have a great many members, e.g. a hundred thousand nouns.
1. The minor classes — pronouns, numerals, determiners, prepositions, conjunctions, and so on — have few members. It’s easy to list all the articles of English: a, an, and the. There are maybe 70 prepositions and approximately a dozen subordinate conjunctions: when, since, because, after, before, while, although, as, etc.
2. Major class words tend to have referential meanings, since they involve, or allow, reference to actual things, actions, events, or properties, e.g. “Horse means that kind of animals.” uttered while pointing to a horse.
2. Minor class words tend not to have referential meanings. That is their meanings are not easily specified by means of a neat definition, e.g. how would you define the or of? In other words, “the open classes bear the greatest load in terms of meaning, in the sense of refrence to things in the world while the function of closed classes is oriented more towards internal linguistic relationships.” [Jackson, 1980: 7]
3. Major classes are receptive to new members. As a result, major classes are also called open classes [Jackson, 1980: 7]. Originating in slang or casual contexts are the following new nouns, verbs, and adjectives (new adverbs are harder to come up with): teflon, yuppie, nerd (nouns); scam, boot up, book (verbs); rad, gnardly, killer, tubular, (adjectives).
3. Minor classes are not receptive to new members; they are closed. It’s unlikely you can think of any last new slangy article, conjunction, pronoun, or preposition you’ve learned.
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2.2 English major classes: In defining major/open classes, Stageberg [1965: 191-219] presents a double-track classification, one by form and the other by position2. 2 1. House and Harman [1965] also classifies major/open classes according to their meaning.
“According to the meaning they represent, nouns may be divided into several classes: common or proper, concrete or abstract, collective, individual, mass, material, etc.” [House and Harman, 1965: 22]
“When classified as to meaning, adjectives are descriptive or definitive, some of each class having definite and some indefinite application.” [House and Harman, 1965: 73]
2. Fromkin et al [1988, 214-215] present three types of criteria to define major/open classes:
- Form: The class of a word may be apparent from its form. Certain inflectional and derivational morphemes are associated with certain word classes.
- Function: The class of words may be indicated by the way it functions in a phrase or sentence. For example, in the sentence
He will not score any more runs unless he runs faster. The first runs is recognized as a noun and the second as a verb because of
their function. - Meaning: Some words are commonly classified according to their semantic
type, such as abstract nouns (truth, kindness, beauty) and stative verbs (be, appear, resemble).
Unfortunately meaning is not a reliable guide because there are many words which belong to more than one word class (kick, love, drink), but those whose meaning remains essentially the same. Meaning is therefore best regarded as a secondary criterion, to be used to check the purely grammatical criteria of form and function.
3. Kaplan [1989:108] points out that one problem with the traditional definition of noun and verb since it is meaning-based (a noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing; a verb is a word that names an action or state), it ought to be universal — valid in all languages, that is. But concepts that are encoded linguistically as nouns in one language may be encoded as verbs or adjectives in others. In English, for example, we normally say I’m hungry, using an adjective to describe how we feel; but in Spanish one says tengo hambre — literally, “I have hunger”, using a noun, hambre, to describe the same feeling.
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Stageberg’s four form classes are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Each form-class has its correlative position class, which will be later labelled as nominals, verbals, adjectivals, or adverbials.
2.2.1 English form classes 2.2.1.1 Nouns
Noun are identified as nouns by two aspects of form, their inflectional morphemes, and their derivational morphemes.
2.2.1.1.1 The two noun inflectional suffixes in English are:
The noun plural morpheme {–S1}: book–s, apple–s, box–es, etc.
The noun possessive morpheme {–S2}: man–’s, girl–’s, students–’, Alice–’s, etc.
2.2.1.1.2 Nouns are identified not only by inflectional morphemes but also by noun-forming derivational suffixes added to verbs, adjectives, nouns, and bound forms: accept → acceptance, big → bigness, book → booklet, dent- → dentist, etc.
2.2.1.2 Verbs Verbs are identified as verbs by two aspects of form, their
inflectional morphemes, and their derivational morphemes. 2.2.1.2.1 The four verb inflectional suffixes in English are:
The verb third person singular present tense morpheme {–S3}: walk–s, find–s, mix–es, etc.
The verb present participle morpheme {–ing1}: play–ing, typ(e)–ing, dig(g)–ing, etc.
The verb past simple morpheme {–D1}: flow–ed, work–ed, creat(e)–ed, drank, broke, thought, show–ed, etc.
The verb past participle morpheme {–D2}: flow–ed, work–ed, creat(e)–ed, drunk, broken, thought, show–n, etc.
2.2.1.2.2 Verbs are identified not only by inflectional morphemes but also by verb-forming derivational affixes added to nouns or adjectives: knowledge → acknowledge, bath → bathe, ripe → ripen, large → enlarge, etc.
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2.2.1.3 Adjectives Adjectives are identified as adjectives by two aspects of form, their
inflectional morphemes, and their derivational morphemes.
2.2.1.3.1 The two adjective inflectional suffixes in English are:
The adjective comparative morpheme {–er1}:
small–er, saf(e)–er, thinn–er, etc.
The adjective superlative morpheme {–est1}:
small–est, saf(e)–est, thinn–est, etc.
2.2.1.3.2 Adjectives are identified not only by inflectional morphemes but also by adjective-forming derivational suffixes3 added to nouns or verbs: athlete → athletic, child → childish, collect → collective, read → readable, etc.
In short, “a word which is inflected with –er and –est and which is capable of forming adverbs with –ly and/or nouns with –ness is called an adjective.” [Stageberg, 1965: 202]
Or, “an adjective will be any word which has one or more of the following positive attributes:
i. it can occur between Article and Noun. ii. it can occur in the slot (Art) N is _____. iii. it can occur before (or contains) –er and –est, or after more and most.
and in addition has all of the following negative attributes. i. it cannot occur with a plural. ii. it cannot occur with a possessive. iii. it cannot occur in the slot (Art) N _____Verb.” [Kaplan, 1989: 116]
3 There is a group of about seventy-five, mostly of two syllables, which begin with
the prefix a-: afoot, aground, awake, agape, aloud, afresh, alert, adroit, etc. “These are uninflected words (UW’s) because they take no inflectional endings. Although they do have the prefix a- in common, it seems unwise to label them formally as either adjectives or adverbs since positionally they appear in both adjectival and adverbial slots.” [Stageberg, 1965: 206]
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2.2.1.3.4 Adverbs 2.2.1.3.4.1 The two adverb inflectional suffixes in English are:
The adverb comparative morpheme {–er1}: fast–er, hard–er, etc.
The adverb superlative morpheme {–est 1}: fast–est, hard–est, etc.
2.2.1.3.4.2 Adverbs are identified not only by inflectional morphemes but also by the adverb-forming derivational suffix {–ly1}4 added to adjectives: just → justly, beautiful→ beautifully, etc.
2.2.2 English positional classes According to Stageberg [1965: 196-219], the four positional classes
in English are the nominal, the verbal, the adjectival and the adverbial.
2.2.2.1 “Any word, whatever its form-class (noun, verb, comparable, pronoun, uninflected word) will be tabbed a nominal if it occupies one of the seven noun positions” [Stageberg,1965:196] listed below:
1. The position of the subject: - Upstairs IS the safest hiding place.
4 “In the word-stock of English there are many uninflected words often employed
in the adverbial positions: 1. Uninflected words used both as adverbials and prepositions: above, about, after, around, before, behind, below, down, in, inside, on, out, outside, since, to, under, up. 2. “-ward” series, with optional –s: afterward, backward, downward, forward, homeward, inward, northward, outward, upward, windward.
3. “Here” series: here, herein, hereby, heretofore, hereafter. 4. “There” series: there, therein, thereby, theretofore, thereafter. 5. “-where” series: anywhere, everywhere, somewhere, nowhere. 6. “-ways” series: crossways, sideways; also, anyway. 7. “-time” series: meantime, sometime, anytime, sometimes. 8. Miscellaneous: today, tonight, tomorrow, yesterday, now, then, seldom, still,
yet, already, meanwhile, also, too, never, not, forth, thus, sidelong, headlong, maybe, perhaps, instead, indeed, henceforth, piecemeal, nevertheless, downstairs, indoors, outdoors, offhand, overseas, unawares, besides, furthermore, always.” [Stageberg, 1965:215]
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- For Glenda to steal the diamond WOULD BE a shame. 2. The position of the direct object:
I HATE telling lies. I WANT to think critically.
3. The position of the indirect object: She GAVE whomever she met different offers. She GAVE nobody a hand shake.
4. The position of the retained object: We WERE GIVEN the thinnest.
5. The position of the subject(ive) complement: This book IS hers. My favorite pastime IS swimming.
6. The position of the object(ive) complement: You’VE MADE me what I am. They NAMED the little dog Neky.
7. The position of the complement of a preposition: He IS interested in nothing.
The elevator has been used for many years without being repaired.
2.2.2.2 “Verbals are those forms that occupy the verb positions … They come after the opening noun or noun phrase … There are four verbals in
She must have been loafing last week and two in
I should leave the house in ten minutes. Also, any verb form taking a subject or a complement (OV, SC,
or Adj) or modified by an adverbial is a verbal, regardless of its position. 1. Becoming angry, she broke the dish. 2. Being a minister, Prentice spoke softly. 3. After having eaten the turnips, Prentice tried to look satisfied. 4. The light having gone out, we lighted candles.
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5. Giving to the poor is a Christian virtue.” [Stageberg, 1965: 201] 2.2.2.3 “Adjectivals, like nominals, occupy certain
characteristic sentence positions.” [Stageberg, 1965: 206] 1. The position between the determiner and the noun:
That joyful/college/laughing/recommended freshman is bright. 2. The position right after the noun:
The fellow waving drives a convertible. 3. The position right after an intensive verb: He always remains quiet. 4. The position right after the direct object of a complex transitive
verb: The management considered him competent.
“In other positions let us say that any adjective or adjective substitute is an adjectival, unless it is in a nominal or adverbial slot”. [Stageberg, 1965: 210]
Angry and upset, the applicant slammed the door.
2.2.2.4 Adverbials are the word groups as well as the single words that occupy the adverb positions and perform the adverb functions. Common adverbial positions are:
2.2.2.4.1 Initial position: The adverbial is in the first position in the clause with or without juncture, occurring before the subject or other obligatory elements of the clause: (1)a. Really, you SHOULD KNOW better.
b. Now it IS time to go. c. With a sharp ax you CAN DO wonder. d. By using a little red here, you CAN BALANCE your colors. e. Unless you FOLLOW the printed directions,
the set WILL NOT FIT properly together.
2.2.2.4.2 Medial position: This includes all positions between obligatory initial and final clausal elements. Several more specific positions can be distinguished:
Between the subject and the beginning of the verb phrase:
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(2)a. She actually EXPECTS to marry him. b. Mary in her own way WAS a darling. c. The environment secretary yesterday MOVED
to mitigate the effects of the inland revenue revaluation.
After THE MODAL/FIRST AUXILIARY VERB and before THE LEXICAL VERB: (2)d. He WOULD seldom MAKE effort.
e. You MAY in this way BE of great assistance. f. Carrie HAD often DREAMED about coming back. g. The utilization of computers IS not of course LIMITED to business.
After THE LEXICAL VERB but preceding other obligatory elements of the clause. (2)h. It IS still three weeks away.
i. It IS no longer a casino. j. He IS always/at any event happy. k. He IS certainly/without doubt an expert. l. She IS cleverly with her clients.
2.2.2.4.3 Final position: Sentence-finally, the adverbial can be placed:
After THE LEXICAL VERB, especially after AN INTRANSITIVE ONE. (2)m. He LIVES independently/in the fast lane.
n. He DIED last night. o. He DROVE recklessly/with abandon.
After all obligatory elements, i.e. the indirect object, the direct object, the subjective complement, or the objective complement, of THE LEXICAL VERB (though it may not be the last element if there are other final adverbials in the same clause): (3)a. Tom WAS a doctor for many years.
b. Tom WILL PLAY football tomorrow. c. Tom SENT a telegraph to his wife yesterday morning. d. Tom PUT his watch where he can find it in the dark. e. Tom BELIEVED the man crazy after questioning him.
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2.3 English minor classes: Jackson’s [1980: 9-11] minor/closed classes consist of pronouns that
“have to main function of substituting for nouns, once a noun has been mentioned in a particular text”; numerals that “are of two kinds: ordinal and cardinal”; determiners that “are used with nouns and have the function of defining the reference of the noun in some way”; prepositions the chief function of which is “relating a noun phrase to another unit”; and conjunctions that “are of two kinds: co-ordinating conjunctions, such as and, or, but, which join two items on an equal footing; and subordinating conjunctions, such as when, if, why, whether, because, since, which subordinate one item to another in some way.”
Fromkin et al [1980: 9-11] add to minor/closed classes the form class called “auxiliaries”, which includes English helping verbs (be, have, do) and the modals (can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, must). However, these authors only identify one subtype of Jackson’s determinrers namely “articles” as a minor/closed class, completely ignoring the other subtypes such as possessives, demonstratives, and quantifiers.
And Stageberg [1965] says nothing concerning minor/closed classes.
2.4 Word-class exercises: 2.4.1 Exercises for form classes
EXERCISE 1: Review the derivational adverb-forming suffix {-ly1} and the derivational adjective-forming suffix {-ly2}. Then place a check after each word that qualifies as an adverb.
1. swiftly 6. richly 2. homely 7. neatly {-ly1} 3. softly 8. yearly 4. costly {-ly2} 9. beastly 5. deftly 10. sourly
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EXERCISE 2: Identify the italicized -ly as either the derivational adverb-forming suffix {-ly1} or the derivational adverb-forming suffix {-ly2}. Complete the table.
1. The witness testified falsely. {-ly1} 2. Gilbert has a deadly wit. 3. Prudence always behaves with a maidenly demeanor. {-ly2} 4. He tiptoed softly into the room. 5. Jimmy received a weekly allowance. 6. The dear old lady has a heavenly disposition. 7. He spoke quietly to her grandson. 8. What a timely suggestion! 9. What an unmannerly helot! 10. It was a cowardly act. EXERCISE 3: In the blank place a V to identify the italicized inflectional
verb present participle morpheme {-ing1} and an A to identify the italicized derivational class-changing adjective-forming morpheme {-ing3}5. Complete the table.
1. It was a charming spot. {-ing3} 2. It was located by a sweetly babbling brook. {-ing1} 3. It was exciting to watch the fight. 4. From the bridge we can watch the running water. 5. That barking dog keeps everyone awake. 6. He told a convincing tale. 7. The shining sun gilded the forest floor. 8. A refreshing shower poured down. 9. The attorney made a moving appeal. 10. What an obliging fellow he is !
5 Notice the derivational class-changing noun-forming morpheme {-ing2} in
teaching, a meeting, droppings, etc.
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EXERCISE 4: In the blank place a V to identify the italicized inflectional verb past participle morpheme {-D2} and an A to identify the italicized derivational class-changing adjective-forming morpheme {-D3}6. Complete the table.
1. You should read the printed statement. {-D2} 2. Mary became a devoted mother. {-D3} 3. This is a complicated question. 4. His chosen bride had lived in India. 5. He bought a stolen picture. 6. The invited guests all came. 7. He had a reserved seat. 8. The skipper was a reserved (= quiet) man. 9. A celebrated painter visited the campus. 10. A worried look crossed his face.
2.4.2 Exercises for positional classes EXERCISE 5: The nominal word groups are italicized. In the blank, give their
syntactic function in the sentence. Complete the table. 1. They heard what we said. direct object 2. What you do is your own business. subject 3. That was what I thought too. 4. You must do the best with what you have. 5. Jack made whoever came there the same offer. 6. We will name the baby whatever his grandmother wishes. 7. We thought of paying cash. 8. I’ll take whichever is the most durable. 9. Betty forgot to bring the coffee. 10. George postponed mailing the letter. 11. I enjoyed the company of my favourite aunt from Leeds. 12. Where we are going has not been decided. 13. We found what we wanted. 14. That she is beautiful is evident to all. 6 Notice that {-D1} is the inflectional verb past tense morpheme.
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EXERCISE 6: The adverbial word groups are italicized. In the blank, give their syntactic function in the sentence. Complete the table.
1. I’ll dress while you shave. adjunct of time 2. Our guide split the log with care. 3. He might under the circumstances agree the job. 4. When the coffee is ready, blow the whistle. 5. Chewing his tobacco meditatively, Ed studied
the blackening sky.
6. A hungry trout rose to the surface. 7. By that time the fish were no longer biting. 8. To find the camp, just follow the creek downstream. adjunct of purpose 9. From the hilltop you can see the sawmill. 10. Jake hunts to make a living. 11. You must hold the knife this way. EXERCISE 7: The adjectivals, either individual words or word groups, are
italicized. Underline the words they modify.
1. One person alone heard the message. 2. Those coeds cheering are only sophomores. 3. The surface, shining and smooth, reflected the sunshine. 4. We started our trip homeward. 5. Her demeanor, excessively prim, annoyed the guests. 6. The two swans floating were black. 7. The conversation afterward was light. 8. This will be a day to remember. 9. The chap sitting in the cubicle is Mary’s friend. 10. This is not the size I ordered. 11. The drugstore on the corner sells Times. 12. Our guests came on the week when I was housecleaning. 13. A girl spoiled by her mother is not a good roommate. 14. Just choose a time convenient to yourself. 15. She was a sight to behold. 16. Have you finished the book I lent you? 17. Who is the head of the club?
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EXERCISE 8: In the blank identify the italicized word(s) by nominal, verbal, adjectival or adverbial. Complete the table.
1. Last Monday was a holiday. nominal
2. The Monday washing is on the line. adjectival
3. Mrs. Reed always washes Mondays. adverbial
4. Won’t you come in?
5. The outs were angry with the ins.
6. They stomped upstairs.
7. They slept in the upstairs room.
8. One can see the airport from upstairs.
9. Jack was wrestling with his math.
10. The wrestling roommates were exhausted.
11. Jennifer found wrestling exciting.
12. They came in wrestling.
13. The student movie is presented weekly.
14. The student movie is a weekly occurrence
15. His way is the best.
16. He had it his way.
17. The mechanic ran the engine full speed.
18. By this means he burned down the carbon.
19. He raised the hood because the engine was hot.
20. They found the cabin just what they wanted.
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SECTION 2: TYPES of PHRASES, CLAUSES and SENTENCES
3 Phrases vs. clauses 3.1 “Sequences of words that can function as constituents in the
structure of sentences are called PHRASES.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 14] For example, ‘the woman in that 1978 Lincoln Continental’ is a phrase
because it can be the subject in (1) and the direct object in (2): (1) The woman in that 1978 Lincoln Continental
IS possibly WANTED by the police. (2) DO you SEE the woman in that 1978 Lincoln Continental?
“Phrases form not only SYNTACTIC UNITS (constituents in the structural form of sentences) but also SEMANTIC UNITS. By this I mean that they form identifiable parts of the MEANING of sentences; they form coherent units of sense.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 18]
3.2 CLAUSES are “constructions with one phrase constituent, typically a noun phrase that bears the subject relation, and another constituent, the verb phrase, bearing the predicate relation [Jacobs, 1995: 49].”
For example, ‘the woman in that 1978 Lincoln Continental’ cannot be a clause because it lacks a verb phrase while ‘You must follow the woman in
that 1978 Lincoln Continental’ is. Note also that the phrasal constituent bearing the subject
relation is not always obligatory, e.g. in the case of imperative sentences, and that the phrasal constituent bearing the predicate relation may be finite or non-finite.
_________________
4 Adjective phrases vs. adverb phrases 4.1 As far as its internal structure is concerned, a typical ADJECTIVE
PHRASE (AP, for short) has as its head an adjective. The HEAD ADJECTIVE
(headA, for short) may optionally be pre-modified: rather dubious, somewhat noisy, quite acceptable, too modest, very colorful, really demanding, extremely subtle, terribly sorry, awfully slow, fairly good, highly recommended, moderately easy, amazingly warm, beautifully cool, annoyingly simple, disgustingly rich, incredibly polite, extraordinarily
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rude, theoretically untenable, oddly inconclusive, diabolically tinted, immediately recognizable, horribly burnt, etc.
An ADJECTIVE (A, for short) is the minimal form of an AP; indeed many adjective phrases occur in the minimal form:
very enthusiastic → enthusiastic. The head adjective may be pre-modified by:
degree adverbs, which are also called intensifying adverbs, (DEG, for short; –ly or without –ly adverbs which specify the degree of the attribute expressed by the adjective): very, highly, extremely, terribly, awfully, completely, much, quite, so, too, rather, somewhat, hardly, fairly, moderately, partially, slightly, increasingly, incredibly, etc.
general adverbs, which are also called non-intensifying adverbs, (Adv, for short; –ly adverbs which typically have other adverbial functions as well): frankly, potentially, enthusiastically, immediately, annoyingly, oddly, disgustingly, amazingly, suspiciously, awkwardly, beautifully, etc.
AP AP
DEG headA Adv headA
very enthusiastic beautifully cool
4.2 As far as its internal structure is concerned, a typical ADVERB PHRASE (AdvP, for short) has as its head an adverb. An ADVERB (Adv, for short) is the minimal form of an AdvP; indeed many adverb phrases occur in the minimal form: very enthusiastically → enthusiastically.
An adverb may, however, be pre-modified; though post-modification is not found in all adverb phrases. The only kind of pre-modifier occurring in adverb phrases is another adverb, usually of the same restricted set of adverbs of degree, which are also called intensifying adverbs, as found in the pre-modification of adjective phrases, e.g. very quickly, quite wonderfully, somewhat fleetingly, and extremely faithfully.
However, as with adjectives, other adverbs may function as pre-modifiers in adverb phrases, e.g. amazingly well, understandably badly, horribly fast, incredibly gracefully. This kind of modifying adverbs
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appears to be either directly (amazingly) or indirectly (horribly) an expression of personal evaluation. AdvP AdvP
DEG headAdv Adv headAdv
very enthusiastically understandably badly _________________
5 Attributive vs. predicative adjectives/adjective phrases
5.1 Adjectives or adjective phrases have two uses or functions: the attributive function and the predicative function.
“The attributive function is when adjectives or adjective phrases are found in the pre-modification of a noun phrase, as for example in an interesting story, a somewhat anxious mother…
The predicative function of an adjective phrase is its occurrence after a ‘copula’ such as be, seem, sound, feel; for example, Naomi IS anxious about Jim’s health, Jim SEEMS concerned that Naomi WILL WORRY too much.” [Jackson, 1980: 24-25]
5.2 When an adjective or adjective phrase is functioning attributively, it may not, in any case, be followed by a post-modifier. That is to say, adjective phrases containing post-modifiers may function only predicatively:
(1)a. *She IS a somewhat anxious about his son’s health mother.
b. She IS somewhat anxious about his son’s health.
5.3 There is a small set of adjectives restricted to predicative position and called ‘predicative adjectives’ and likewise a small set restricted to attributive position and called ‘attributive adjectives’.
ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES PREDICATIVE ADJECTIVES (2)a. The main reason IS his laziness. (3)a. *The reason IS main.
b. He’S a mere youth. b. *This youth IS mere. c. *He IS a faint patient. c. He FEELS faint. d. *This IS an asleep boy. d. The boy IS asleep.
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But the vast majority of adjectives may function either attributively or predicatively:
ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES PREDICATIVE ADJECTIVES (4)a. The charming girl ATTRACTS his attention. (4)b. The girl IS charming. (5)a. She’S a lonely wife. (5)b. I sometimes FEEL lonely.
_________________
6 Noun phrases vs. verb phrases
6.1 A NOUN PHRASE (NP, for short) in English consists of a nominal head (normally a noun or a pronoun) with or without the modifiers that accompany it, before or after. NP1
NP2 AP DET N’1 Relative Clause AP1 N’2 ART A AP2 N’3 ModN headN
(1) the blue cotton shirt that I BORROWED from my brother
In the noun phrase marked (1), shirt constitutes the head; the, blue and cotton belong to the pre-modification; and that I borrowed from my brother is the post-modification.
The word blue is called a modifier because it describes ‘the shirt’: it limits by excluding other colours and it adds to the plain meaning of ‘shirt’.
A modifier may sometimes be separated from the head by intervening words, like the relative clause in the following NP: (2) a butterfly in the garden which WAS FLUTTERING among the flowers.
When there is nothing else in the noun phrase, nouns or pronouns are also complete noun phrases, like ‘cabbages’ and ‘Aiken’ in the two following sentences which are marked (3)a-b: (3)a. The truck WAS LOADED with cabbages.
b. They FLEW down to Aiken, South Carolina.
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6.2 The one constituent that a VERB PHRASE (VP, for short) must contain is the VERB GROUP (Vgrp, for short) [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 78]. The Vgrp, in its turn, contains one lexical verb and “may have up to four auxiliary verbs, besides the negative word not:
may not have been being interrogated.” [Jackson, 1980: 18]
The verb phrase in English consists of a Vgrp and all the words and word groups which belong with the Vgrp and cluster around it. The Vgrp itself is called the head, and the other words and word groups are the modifiers and/or the complements of the head.
The modifier is the generic term for all the adverbial adjuncts that optionally provide circumstantial information about the action, the process, the event, etc. talked about in the clause in which they occur. Soundly optionally describes the manner in which the baby sleeps and beside a stream optionally describes the place at which Phil had lost his leather wallet; the two adverbial adjuncts can be omitted without disturbing the proposition of the two following sentences, which are marked (4)a-b:
(4)a. The baby WAS SLEEPING (soundly). b. Phil HAD LOST his leather wallet (beside a stream).
The relation between the Vgrp (was sleeping or had lost his leather wallet) and the adverbial adjunct (soundly or beside a stream) is one of modification: there is a one-way dependency between the Vgrp (as head) and the adverbial adjunct (as modifier). Thus, the use of the Vgrp without any adverbial adjunct is grammatically acceptable.
The complement is the generic term for all the completers of the verb [Stageberg, 1965: 165], which are usually known as the direct object, the indirect object, the subjective complement, the objective complement, and also the predicator complement [Downing and Locke, 1992: 55-56].
There exist functional relations between the Vgrp and other constituents that appear in the basic VP. In Phil had lost his leather wallet,
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had lost is the Vgrp. The relation between the Vgrp (had lost) and the NP (his leather wallet) is one of complementation: there is a two-way dependency between the Vgrp (as head) and the NP (as complement). The use of had lost without a following NP is ungrammatical, and so is the use of the NP without had lost.
“Some verbs require an adverbial without which the proposition is in complete”. [Biber et al, 1999: 143] The adverbial adjunct of place in (5)a is not optional but obligatory. In other words, the relation between the Vgrp (was lying) and the adverbial adjunct (on his back) is one of complementation: there is a two-way dependency between the Vgrp (as head) and the adverbial adjunct (as complement). The use of was lying without any adverbial adjunct of place is ungrammatical. (5)a. The baby WAS LYING on his back. b. *The baby WAS LYING.
In the VP had lost his leather wallet beside a stream, had lost is the Vgrp, his leather wallet is the complement and beside a stream is the modifier of the Vgrp.
S NP VP1
PropN VP2 adverb phrase [optional Adjunct of Location]
Vgrp NP [transitive] [direct object] PP
(6) Phil HAD LOST his leather wallet beside a stream. _________________
7 The N-bar (N’) as level of NP-structure that is intermediate between the phrasal (NP) level and the lexical (N) level
Since the one may substitute for the lonely man, we have shown that lonely man is indeed a constituent, one that is a sister of the determiner on the tree-diagram. Clearly, lonely man is not a full noun phrase, since it needs a determiner; but neither is it a single noun — an intermediate category
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is needed, one higher than noun and lower than noun phrase. We will show it here as N’, and call it ‘the N-bar.’ NP
DET N’ AP N A
the lonely man _________________
8 Types of pre-nominal modifiers The noun head in a noun phrase can be pre-modified by:
8.1 DETERMINERS (DET, for short): Articles, demonstratives and possessives are mutually exclusive
in English: only one of them can occur in any noun phrase.
8.1.1 Below are the determiners that may be preceded by one of the pre-determiners (PRE-DET, for short), which are all, both and half [Stageberg, 1965: 235]:
articles: the and a/an; possessives: her, his, its, their, your, John’s, the book’s, etc.; demonstratives: this, that, these, and those.
NP1 NP1 NP1
PRE-DET NP2 PRE-DET NP2 PRE-DET NP2 DET N’ DET N’1 DET N’1 ART headN PossA AP N’2 PossPropN AP N’2
all the men A headN A headN
(1)a. both my studious roommates half Harry’s new books
(1)b. (1)c.
8.1.2 There are determiners that are not preceded by pre-determiners [Stageberg, 1965: 239]. Some of these determiners are
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called QUANTIFIERS (Q, for short): some, any, no, each, enough, either, neither and another, the others are often known as interrogative or exclamatory determiners: what (a/an)1, which2 and whose3. NP NP NP DET N’ DET N’ DET N’
Q headN INTERROG. DET headN EXCLAM. DET headN
(2)a. some mistakes (2)b. which platform (2)c. what a view
8.1.3 A POSSESSIVE (Poss, for short) can consist of either a possessive adjective (my, your, his, her, etc.), or a possessive proper noun (John’s, Alice’s, Doris’s, etc.), or a full NP + −’s, which is called THE POSSESSIVE MARKER (PossMarker, for short). 1 what /w4t/ (det.) = the thing(s) which, the person or people who:
What money I have will be yours when I die. I spent what little time with my family. What family and friends I still have live a broad.
what /w4t/ (exclamatory det., used in making exclamations): What awful weather we’re having! What beautiful flowers! What a (lovely) view!
what /w4t/ (interrogative det., used to ask sb to specify one or more things, places, people, etc. from an indefinite number):
Guess what famous writer said this. I asked her what experience she has had. What books have you got to read on the subjects? What woman are you thinking of?
2 which /w1t∫/ (interrogative determiner, used to ask sb to specify one or more things, places, people, etc. from a limited number):
Which way is quicker — by bus or by train? Ask him which platform the London train leaves from.
which /w1t∫/ (interrogative pronoun) = which person or thing: Which is your favourite subject? Here are the recently published books. Tell me which are worth reading. The twins are so much alike that I can’t tell which is which.
3 whose /hu:z/ (interrogative determiner/interrogative pronoun) = of whom: Whose (house) is that? I wonder whose (book) this is.
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NP1
NP DET N’1 DET N’ PossNP headN1 PossA/PossPropN headN NP2 PossMarker
(3)a. his/John’s cover DET N’2
ART headN2
(3)b. the book ‘s cover 8.1.4 The determiner position may be UNFILLED (φ, for short). Although
the noun phrases marked (4)a-b contain just one word, they should still be analyzed as having a DET + N’ structure:
NP NP DET N’ DET N’ HeadN headN
(4)a. φ essays (4)b. φ smoke
(a plural countable noun) (an uncountable noun)
The two reasons for this ‘unfilled determiner’ analysis are: These NPs could take a determiner: the smoke, my essays. The unfilled determiner in these NPs has an effect on their
interpretation. An unfilled determiner gives these NPs an indefinite and more general interpretation. The NP marked (4)b is indefinite and more general than the definite NP the smoke. It is also more general than the indefinite NP some smoke.
8.2 QUANTIFYING ADJECTIVES (QA, for short) are expressions of indefinite quantity. Burton-Roberts [1997: 161] includes among the pre-modifiers in the N-bar the quantifying adjectives much, many, few and little.
8.2.1 Quantifying adjectives share some important features with adjectives:
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Like adjectives, they co-occur with and follow determiners: those many books, the little butter that I have, some few successes, etc., including an unfilled determiner: φ many books, φ much garlic, etc.
Like adjectives, they are gradable: VERY many books, TOO much garlic, SO few ideas, VERY little tact, where they are modified by A DEGREE ADVERB.
NP NP
DET N’1 DET N’1
Q/DEM/ART AP N’2 AP N’2 QA headN DEG QA headN
(5)a. some few successes (5)b. φ SO few ideas a’. those many books b’. φ TOO much garlic a’’. the little butter b’’. φ VERY many books a’’’.φ much garlic b’’’.φ VERY little tact
8.2.2 A WORD-GROUP QUANTIFYING ADJECTIVE like plenty of, a lot of, lots of, a great/good deal of, a (small, large, great, considerable, etc.) amount of, considerable numbers of, etc., which may include FRACTIONAL NUMERALS: one-third of, two-thirds of, three-fifths of, etc., may be the only pre-modifier in an NP:
NP
DET N’1
AP N’2
QA headN
(6)a. φ a small amount of people
b. φ considerable numbers of war victims c. φ a great/good deal of money/trouble d. φ one-third of time e. φ three-fifths of students
8.3 NUMBERS or NUMERALS (NUM, for short) are expressions of definite quantity. They are of two kinds:
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CARDINAL NUMERALS: one, two, three, ... , and ninety-nine. ORDINAL NUMERALS: first, second, third, fourth, ..., and last.
8.3.1 Numerals “should be treated as quantifying adjectives” within the N-bar, “since they follow DET, including unfilled DET” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 161].
NP NP
DET N’1 DET N’1 AP N’2 ART AP N’2 DEG QA headN NUM headN
(7)a. φ VERY many mistakes (7)b. the one mistake
8.3.2 More than one expressions of quantity may occur in a noun phrase, though there are a restricted number of possible combinations. “Favorite sequences are ordinal number (especially ‘first’ and ‘last’) + indefinite quantifier, e.g. the first few hours; ordinal + cardinal, e.g. the second five days; indefinite quantifier + cardinal number (especially round number), e.g. several thousand people, many score4 of ants.” [Jackson, 1980: 13]
8.3.3 Stageberg [1965: 240-241] includes numerals to his list of POST-DETs: “This is an untidy class. Not all post-determiners follow all determiners, but each one follows at least one determiner. And within the group, there are complicated orders of precedence. For example, ordinals usually precede cardinals, as in the first three students, this order may be reversed, as in the two first prizes … The whole jungle of determiners and post-determiners is a terra incognita that has not been mapped out with complete success. For our purpose it will suffice to recognize the class as a whole without exploring its internal complications.”
4 score [C., pl. unchanged] set or group of twenty: a score of people, three score and ten
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NP NP DET N’1 DET N’1
ART AP1 N’2 ART AP1 N’2
NUM1 AP2 N’3 NUM1 AP2 N’3 [ordinal] [cardinal] NUM2 headN NUM2 headN [cardinal] [ordinal] (8)a. the first three students (8)b. the two first prizes
8.3.4 Adjective phrases with numerals as heads always precede other Adjective phrases in the N-bar:
NP NP
DET N’1 DET N’1
ART AP1 N’2 DEM AP1 N’2
NUM1 AP2 N’3 NUM AP2 N’3 [ordinal] [cardinal] NUM2 AP3 headN1 A headComN
[cardinal] ModComN
A headN2 (9)b. these two aimless playfellows
(9)a. the last three red cabbage pickles
8.4 ADJECTIVE PHRASES (AP, for short):
A typical attributive adjective phrase has as its head an adjective. The HEAD ADJECTIVE (headA, for short) may optionally be pre-modified either by a degree adverb (DEG, for short), which are also called intensifying adverbs [Jackson, 1980: 25], as in (10)c, or by a general adverb (Adv, for short), which are also called a non-intensifying adverb, as in (10)d. One adjective phrase as in (10)b and two or more adjective phrases as in (10)a in the minimal form may all function attributively.
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NP NP DET N’1 DET N’1 Q AP1 N’2 DEM AP1 N’2 A1 AP2 N’3 NUM AP2 N’3 A2 AP3 N’4 DEG headA AP3 N’4
V-part headN A headN
Some large greasy uneaten fritters those two very charming atomic scientists
(10)a. (10)c.
NP1 NP1 PRE-DET NP2 PRE-DET NP2
DET N’1 DET N’1 EXCLAMATORY DET AP N’2 AP N’2 A headN Adv headA headN
φ WHAT A lovely view φ φ beautifully cool weather (10)b. (10)d.
8.5 PRE-MODIFYING NOUNS (ModN, for short): 8.5.1 “Nouns themselves may act as pre-modifiers of head nouns. The
relationship between a head noun and a pre-modifying noun is much closer than that between a head and any other pre-modifier. The combination of modifier noun and head noun is referred to as A COMPOUND NOUN (ComN, for short) and is not treated as a phrasal constituent at all, but as a compound word. Notice, for example, that in a sequence of modifiers that includes a noun modifier, it is the noun modifier that must appear last — it cannot be separated from the head noun.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 163]
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NP NP DET N’1 DET N’1
Q AP N’2 PossPropN AP N’2 A ComN NUM ComN ModN headN ModN headN (11)a. some expensive roof maintenance (11)b. George’s two wool neckties
8.5.2 It is not unusual for more than one modifying noun to occur in a noun phrase. “A complication arises from the fact that noun modifiers can themselves be modified.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 163]
NP NP DET N’ DET N’1
ART headComN1 ART AP N’2
ModNP ModN1 headComN2 DET N’3 headComN2
headComN1
ModN2 headN ModN1 headN1 ModN2 headN2
(12)a. the child safety harness (12)b. the φ child poverty action group
8.5.3 “The modifying noun does not accept post-modification” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 164]. Thus the NP marked (13) is grammatically incorrect: (13) *some [Japanese print after Kunisada] collectors
8.6 POSSESSIVE COMMON NOUNS (PossCommN, for short): According to Stageberg [1965: 238], “the possessive of common
nouns can occur anywhere between the determiner and the head noun.” Thus (14)a-b and (15)a-b are all accepted:
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NP NP
DET N’1 DET N’1 ART AP1 N’2 ART AP1 N’2
AP N’3 A AP2 N’3 PossCommN
A headN PossCommN headN
(14)a. the summer’s red roses (14)b. the red summer’s roses
Note that (14)a-b both mean ‘the roses which are red and which bloom in summer’. Similarly, (15)a means ‘the garden roses which bloom in summer’ while (15)b means ‘the garden roses which are red and which bloom in summer’. NP NP
DET N’1 DET N’1
ART AP N’2 ART AP1 N’2
AP2 N’3
PossCommN headComN PossCommN A headComN
ModN headN ModN headN
(15)a. the summer’s garden roses (15)b. the summer’s red garden roses
8.7 VERB PARTICIPLES (V-Part, for short): The active present participle and the passive past participle may appear as pre-modifiers within the N-bar.
NP NP
DET N’1 DET N’1
DEM AP N’2 ART AP N’2
V-Part headN DEG headA headN
(16)a. those departed guests (16)b. a quite unexpected ending
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ACTIVE PRESENT PARTICIPLES5 PASSIVE PAST PARTICIPLES
the preceding statement a broken heart melting snow sliced cake falling leaves photocopied materials those leaping/dropping clicks these departed guests
8.8 GERUNDS (V-Ger, for short) may also appear as pre-modifiers within the N bar, but they should be carefully distinguished from active present participles:
ACTIVE PRESENT PARTICIPLES GERUNDS living organisms living rooms the sleeping guard the sleeping car a drinking horse drinking water
The combination of gerund and head noun is also referred to as A COMPOUND NOUN. The compound noun sleeping car should be dominated in ComN as in (17)b:
NP NP DET N’1 DET N’
ART AP N’2 ART ComN V-Part headN V-Ger headN
(17)a. the sleeping guard (17)b. the sleeping car
5 Note that:
Certain true adjectives look very much like verb participles: tiring, tired, (un)interesting, (un)interested, bored, boring, devoted, relieved, unexpected, surprising, charming, demanding, pleasing, etc. However, since they are gradable (i.e. they can be modified by degree adverbs) they are easily distinguished from verb participles: rather pleasing, very interesting, quite unexpected, extremely devoted, etc.
Since the present and past participles are verbal rather than adjectival, they are not gradable: *the very leering manager, *a slightly forgotten valley, *rather sliced cake, etc. They may, however, be modified by general adverbs: in the rapidly congealing gravy, rapidly modifies congealing resulting in ‘rapidly congealing’, which is an AP.
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8.9 RESTRICTERS (RESTRIC, for short): are really a small number of adverbs with or without −ly like just, only, even, quite, especially, merely, and particularly [Stageberg, 1956: 242] which can:
modify the head noun alone — just girls, even water, especially candy, etc.;
precede the pre-determiner and/or the determiner, modifying the whole noun phrase and simultaneously restricting its meaning to some extent—only ten short minutes, just college girls, just romantic college girls, just another romantic college girl, especially all our guests, even the empty box, just some white athletic socks, particularly her spotted kitten, quite a few6 people, quite a lot of wine, quite some7 car, quite a party, etc.
NP1 NP1 NP1
RESTRIC NP2 RESTRIC NP2 RESTRIC NP2 DET N’ DET N’ DET N’ headN headN headN
(18)a. just φ girls (18)b. even φ water (18)c. especially φ candy
NP1 NP1 RESTRIC NP2 RESTRIC NP2
PRE-DET NP3 DET N’1 DET N’ PossA AP N’2 PossA headN V-Part headN
(19)a. especially all our guests (19)b. particularly her spotted kitten _________________
6 ‘Quite a few’ or ‘quite a lot (of)’ both means ‘a considerable number or amount (of)’. 7 ‘Quite some’ or ‘quite a’ is used to indicate that a person or thing is unusual.
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9 Types of post-nominal modifiers
POST-MODIFIERS (POST-MOD, for short) in an NP are the categories that follow the head noun and modify it in some way.
9.1 PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES (PP, for short) are common post-nominal modifiers: (1)a. an expedition to the pub (1)b. the man in the iron mask
9.1.1 Using tree-diagrams to re-draw the two above-mentioned
upsidedown-T diagrams, we have (1)a’-b’: NP1
NP1 NP2 AP
NP2 AP DET1 N’1 PP
DET1 N’1 PP ART1 headN1 P NP3
ART1 headN1 P NP3 DET2 N’2
DET2 N’2 ART2 ComN ART2 headN2 ModN headN2
(1)a’. an expedition to the pub (1)b’. the man in the iron mask
Accepting this way of analysis, I strongly believe that the PP post-modifier in the two NPs marked (1)a’-b’ can easily be omitted without interfering with the rest of the NPs, which is in fact a well-formed NP by itself: ‘an expedition’ or ‘the man’.
9.1.2 When a given NP includes both a pre-modifying AP and a post-modifying PP, the pre-modifying AP belongs to the N-bar of the given NP
but the post-modifying PP does not:
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NP1 NP1
NP2 AP1 NP2 AP1 DET N’1 PP DET N’1 PP
ART AP2 N’2 P NP3 PossPropN AP2 N’2 P NP3
A headN PropN A headN
the nuclear scientist from Germany Larry’s neat summary of the argument
(2) (3)
9.1.3 As a post-modifier, a PP may sometimes be reduced to an adverb: NP1 NP1
NP2 AP NP2 AP
DET N’1 PP DET N’1 Adv ART headN P NP3 ART headN
(4)a. the time before this one (4)a’. the time before
b. the morning after the wedding b’. the morning after c. the bus behind our car c’. the bus behind d. the room above us d’. the room above
9.2 ADJECTIVE PHRASES
9.2.1 “A few adjectives (including present, absent, responsible and visible) may pre-modify or post-modify the head noun... To a greater or lesser extent, a difference in meaning is associated with the difference of position.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 171] Post-modifying APs does not belong to the N-bar though pre-modifying APs does.
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NP NP1
DET N’1 NP2 AP
ART AP N’2 DET N’ A A headN ART headN
(5)a. the present members (5)a’. the members present b. the responsible men b’. the men responsible
c. the visible stars c’. the stars visible
9.2.2 There is a circumstance when the post-modifying AP itself contains material following the headA, as in (6)a-b:
NP1 NP1
NP2 AP NP2 AP
DET N’ headA AdvP DET N’ headA AdvP ART headN ART headN
(6)a. the chef responsible for the sauces (6)b. a tree safe to climb up
9.2.3 There is another circumstance when the post-modifying AP itself contains material preceding the headA, as in (7)a-b: NP1
NP2 AP
DET N’1 Adv headA
ART headN
(7)a. the mailman, exuberantly happy, [whistled merrily] NP1
NP2 AP DET N’ DEG headA ART headN
(7)b. [he had never seen] a woman more lovely
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9.2.4 There is still another circumstance when the post-modifying AP itself contains two or more adjective heads linked by a coordinate conjunction, as in (8)a-b:
NP1 NP2 AP
DET N’ headA1 Conj headA2
ART headN
(8)a. the mailman, tired and wet, [trudged along in the rain]
b. a woman, old and gaunt, [stood at the door] 9.3 PARTICIPIAL PHRASES (PartP, for short):
Participial phrases can be subdivided into two sub-categories: participial phrases with −ing as in (9)a-b and participial phrases with −ed as in (9)c-d:
NP1 NP1
NP2 AP NP2 AP
DET N’ PartP DET N’ PartP ART headN V-part AdvP ART headN V-part AdvP
PP InfP
the car coming down the road the man expected to arrive at any moment (9)a. (9)b.
9.4 INFINITIVE PHRASES (InfP, for short): An Infinitive phrase can play the role of an adjective, post-modifying
an NP. NP1 NP1 NP2 AP NP2 AP DET N’ InfP DET N’ InfP ART headN ART headN
(10)a. the man to answer this question (10)b. a scheme to win Kathy’s heart
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9.5 SUBORDINATE ADJECTIVE CLAUSES (SubACl, for short)
The adjective phrases in (6)a-b, (7)a-b and (8)a-b, the participial phrases in (9)a-b, and the infinitive phrases in (10)a-b are often regarded as the reductions of the following subordinate adjective clauses, either restrictive or non-restrictive:
NP1 NP2 SubACl [POST-M]
DET N’
ART headN
(6)a’. the chef that is responsible for the sauces (6)b’. a tree which is safe to climb up
(7)a’. the mailman, who was exuberantly happy,
(8)a’. the mailman, who was tired and wet,
(9)a’. the car that is coming down the road
(9)b’. the man who is expected to arrive at any moment (10)a’. the man whom you should ask about this question
(10)a’’. the man who should answer this question
“One striking fact about these different kinds of phrasal/clausal post-modification emerging from our discussions is the degree of explicitness associated with each of them. As one passes from relative clauses to prepositional phrases, so one finds a gradation from most to least explicit; cf the cow which is standing in the meadow, the cow standing in the meadow, the cow in the meadow.” [Jackson, 1980: 16]
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10 Noun complements vs. optional post-nominal modifiers
10.1 A noun-complement (nC, for short) is A PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE (PP, for short), as in (1)a-c, or AN EMBEDDED ADJECTIVE CLAUSE (EmACl, for short), as in (2)a-c, that follows a noun phrase the head of which is an abstract noun such as fact, belief, rumour, story, news, etc: “A noun-complement is also known as a contentive, so called because the complement
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clause (or phrase) normally specifies the content of its head noun.” [Jacobs, 1995: 100]
NP1
NP2 AP [nC]
DET N’ PP ART headN
(1)a. her belief in God
b. the rumour of an impending merger c. the news of where she is staying
NP1
NP2 EmACl [nC]
DET N’ ART headN
(2)a. this belief that the company WAS NOT making a profit b. the rumour that Ed’s wife FALLS in love with his brother c. the news that the enemy WERE near
10.2 Compare (3)a with (3)b: (3)a. the story that Eleanor HAD MET with the senator b. the story that Eleanor had given to the senator
As a noun complement, that Eleanor had met with the senator in (3)a completes the meaning of ‘the story’: it tells us what ‘the story’ is about. ‘That Eleanor had given to the senator’ in (3)b does not supply the content of the story. Instead, it functions as a modifier identifying the story.
The same phenomenon can be found in (4)a-b and (5)a-b: (4)a. the fact that rain MAY FALL in deserts [IS NOT unknown]
b. [I DISAGREE with] the fact on which your argument IS BASED. (5)a. the news of her marriage [HAS just BEEN ANNOUNCED]
b. the news on the notice-board [IS completely IGNORED]
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Note that SUBORDINATE ADJECTIVE CLAUSES (SubACl, for short), either restrictive or non-restrictive, are not noun complements; they are optional post-nominal modifiers (POST-M, for short) in the noun phrases marked (6)a-h: NP1
NP2 SubACl [POST-M]
DET N’ ART headN
(6)a. the chef that is responsible for the sauces b. a tree which is safe to climbed up c. the mailman, who was exuberantly happy, d. the mailman, who was tired and wet, e. the car that is coming down the road f. the man who is expected to arrive at any moment g. the man whom you should ask about this question h. the man who should answer this question
Note also that there is a two-way dependency of complement and head noun (3-5)a and a one-way dependency of modifier and head noun in (3-5)b and in (6)a-h. Thus, it is crucial to distinguish post-nominal modifiers from complements:
“When a head DEMANDS a further expression…, that other (OBLIGATORY) expression is said to COMPLEMENT the head… Complements typically follow their heads in English. Modifiers, by contrast, can precede or follow their head …” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 43]
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11 Classification of English verbs/verb phrases
“Verbs are sub-categorised according to what other elements must appear with them in the VP. In other words, they are sub-categorised in terms of their COMPLEMENTATION types (in terms of what complement they must take.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 80]
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There are six main categories of English verbs: monotransitive, intransitive, ditransitive, intensive, complex transitive, and prepositional. The six categories of English verbs result in six types of English verb phrases.
11.1 INTENSIVE (intens, for short) verbs/verb phrases
11.1.1 Intensive verbs “require a single complement, which can take the form of an Adjective Phrase, or a Noun Phrase, or a Prepositional Phrase … As the most central example of the intensive sub-category of verb, be is called ‘the copula’.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 85] Other intensive verbs are: become, seem, appear, prove, turn, get, remain, look, taste, feel, smell, sound, etc. In these following diagrams, THE VERB GROUP (Vgrp, for short) IS CAPITALISED for better identification and a triangle notation shall be used to represent the structure of the Vgrp since it is not analyzed here.
S NP VP
PropN Vgrp AP/NP/PP [sP/sC] [intens]
(1)a. Ed IS rather extravagant. (AP) b. Tom WAS an auctioneer. (NP) c. Oscar SHOULD BE in the engine room. (PP)
11.1.2 The complement of an intensive verb group functions (more specifically) as a SUBJECT-PREDICATIVE (sP, for short), which is also called a SUBJECT(IVE) COMPLEMENT (sC, for short). “When a verb is complemented just by an AP (Vgrp+AP), it is certain that this is the case of an intensive verb + an sP, because [intensive] is the only sub-category of verb that can take just an AP complement.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 85]
11.1.3 Realisations of the subject(ive) complement: Downing and Locke [1992: 51-52] subcategorize the subject(ive)
complements according to their syntactic realizations and the semantic meanings they provide to complement the subject.
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(i) Attributive Subject(ive) Complements AP Mountaineering CAN PROVE very dangerous indeed. She IS twenty-two years old. NP John IS a very lucky man. Two brothers ARE pilots.
(ii) Identifying Subject(ive) Complements NP The Robinsons ARE our next-door neighbors.
Finite clause Ken’s belief IS that things CAN’T GET any worse. He HAS BECOME what he always WANTED to be.
Non-finite clause The only thing I did WAS [E] TELL him to go away. My advice IS [E] TO WITHDRAW. The best plan IS for you TO GO by train.
What I don’t enjoy IS [E] STANDING in queues. What most people prefer IS others DOING the work.
(iii) Circumstantial Subject(ive) Complements NP The exam IS next Tuesday. AdvP The amusement park IS over there.
PP The manager IS in a good mood. Finite clause This IS how you SHOULD DO it.
11.1.4 No passive counterpart of (1)a-c has ever been found in English.
11.2 COMPLEX TRANSITIVE (complex, for short) verbs/verb phrases The complex transitive verb “take two elements: a direct object
(NP) and an object-predicative.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 88] 11.2.1 Obviously, “the predicative in a complex transitive VP
characterises (attributives a property to) the direct object, not the subject, hence the name ‘object-predicative’.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 89] The object predicative (oP, for short), which is also called the object(ive)
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complement (oC, for short) are in italic while the dOs are underlined in the following examples:
S NP VP
Vgrp NP[dO] AP/NP/PP/non-finite Cl [oP/oC] [complex]
(2) a. The teacher MADE the lesson extremely interesting. (AP) b. Beth IS MAKING Stella her spokesperson. (NP) c. Party members REGARDED him as the only possible candidate. (PP)
d. The policeman GOT the traffic [E] moving. (non-finite Cl) e. An official HAS DECLAIRED the place [E] to be free from infection.
(non-finite cl)
11.2.2 Realisations of the object(ive) complement: Downing and Locke [1992: 54-55] subcategorise the object(ive)
complement according to their syntactic realisations and the semantic meanings they provide to complement the object.
(i) Attributive Object(tive) Complements AP She DYED her hair blond. The government’s imports policy HAS MADE the farmers furious. I IMAGINED him a bit older/much taller than that.
Indefinite NP DOES he CONSIDER himself a genius? Fellow sportsmen REGARD him a world class player.
PP They DON’T ACCEPT him as honest. They previously CONSIDERED this painting as worthless.
Non-finite clause We BELIEVED him [E] to be honest. We CONSIDER this [E] to be very important.
Finite clause DYE your hair whatever color you LIKE.
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(ii) Identifying Object(tive) Complements Definite NP CAN you IMAGINE yourself the owner of a luxury yacht?
They ELECTED her Miss Universe.
Finite clause Our supporters’ enthusiasm HAS MADE the club what it IS today.
Note that some verbs require their adjectival and nominal object(ive) complements to be introduced by as; the complements are then
analysed as Prepositional Object(tive) Complements. With other verbs, this is optional:
as + AP The police DIDN’T ACCEPT the story as genuine. I REGARD your suggestion as worthy of consideration.
as + NP Doctors RECOGNISE Johnson as a leading authority. I CONSIDER you as my best friend.
(iii) Circumstantial Object(tive) Complements PP The burglar LEFT the house in a mess. We FOUND the Dean in a good mood. CONSIDER yourself under arrest. Non-finite clause
−ing He KEPT us [E] waiting. as + −ing I REGARD that as [E] asking for the impossible. −ed She LEFT me [E] stunned.
The authorities ORDERED hundreds of demonstrators [E] placed under house arrest.
11.2.3 Relationship between the direct object and its object(ive) complement:
There is a special semantic relationship between the two NPs following the verb. “The second noun phrase after the verb is semantically a predicate that is about the noun phrase before it. This semantic relationship is often close to, but not identical with, that between the subject of a clause with be, the copular verb, and the predicate noun phrase following the
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copular verb.” [Jacobs, 1995: 59] That is the reason why the second NP in (3)a-b is called an Object-Predicative or an Object(ive) Complement: (3)a. We DECLARE Frank Wilson the winner.
(cf. Frank Wilson IS the winner.) b. The club ELECTED Mr. Jones membership secretary.
(cf. Mr. Jones WAS the membership secretary of the club.)
This explains why it is often possible to insert to be or as in front of the NP or AP constituent being the attributive or identifying object(tive) complement: (4)a. The court CONSIDERED Smith to be a trustworthy witness.
b. The club WON’T APPOINT a teenager as the committee treasurer. c. The extra money HELPED John to be independent. d. We REGARD your action as criminal.
11.2.4 Many complex transitive verbs can be made passive. The direct object of an active verb became the subject of the same verb in the passive:
S NP VP1 VP2 PP [opA of Agent]
Vgrp [oP/oC] [complex]
(2)a’. The lesson WAS MADE extremely interesting (by the teacher). b’. Stella IS BEING MADE Beth’s spokesperson. c’. He WAS REGARDED as the only possible candidate (by party members). d’. The traffic WAS GOT moving (by the policeman). e’. The place HAS BEEN DECLARED to be free from infection
(by an official). 11.3 DITRANSITIVE (ditrans, for short) verbs/verb phrases
11.3.1 A ditransitive verb is “one which requires two NPs as its complementation [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 83].” A few examples of ditransitive verbs are give, send, and buy.
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11.3.2 In (5)a-c, the first complement NP, which is in italic, functions as the INDIRCT OBJECT (iO, for short) of the ditransitive verb. The second complement NP, which is underlined, functions as the DIRECT OBJECT (dO, for short) of the ditransitive verb. The indirect object NP in (5)a-c corresponds to a PP in a position following the direct object in (5)a’-c’. The PPs that correspond in this way with indirect objects are always introduced by to or for: S S
NP VP NP VP Pro Vgrp NP[iO] NP [dO] Pro Vgrp NP[dO] PP[iO] [ditrans] [ditrans]
(5)a.They GAVE Steven a prize. (5)a’.They GAVE a prize to Steven. b. I ’LL BUY you some toys. b’. I ’LL BUY some toys for you. c. Ed HAS SAVED me a place. c’. Ed HAS SAVED a place for me.
Note that with ditransitives, a PP follows the direct object NP as in (5)a’-c’ is part of the complementation of the verb. With monotransitives, however, when a PP follows the direct object NP as in (8)a, it is only an optional modifier.
11.3.3 “The Prepositional Object (prepO, for short) contains to when the participant is Recipient and for when it is Beneficiary and this difference is determined by the verb.
Verbs which take Recipient Indirect Objects and alternative to prepOs are typically verbs of transferring goods, services or information from one person to another. They include:
give grant hand leave offer owe pass promise read send show teach throw write
We are offering our clients a unique opportunity. (… to our clients)
He owes several people money. (…to several people) I handed Jennifer the pile of letters. (…to Jennifer) He teaches medical students English. (…to medical students) Do you send your neighbours Christmas cards? (…to your neighbours)
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Verbs which take Beneficiary Indirect Objects, with alternative for constructions, are verbs which carry out an action on someone’s behalf. They include:
book bring build buy cash cut fetch find get keep leave make pour reserve save spare write
Book me a seat on the night train. (… for me) Would you cash me these traveler checks? (…for me) She cut the boy some slices of ham. (…for the boy) I’ve kept you a place in the front row. (…for you) He got us a very good discount. (…for us) She made all the family a good paella. (…for all the family)
Certain verbs such as bring, read and write admit either to or for as alternatives, depending on the interpretation. With to as in bring it to me, read it to me, write it to me, I receive the thing, either physically or mentally. With for as in bring it for me, read it for me, write it for me, the thing is brought, read or written on my behalf.” [Downing and Locke, 1992: 87]
11.3.4 Structures with a ditransitive verb + its iO Recipient + its dO like (5)a admit two passives while those with a ditransitive verb + its iO Beneficiary + its dO like (5)b admit only one passive because “Beneficiary Objects do not easily become Subject in a passive clause, although this restrictive is not absolute” [Downing and Locke, 1992: 47]:
(5)a’’. A prize WAS GIVEN to Steven. b’’. Some toys WILL BE BOUGHT for you.
c’’. A place HAS BEEN SAVED for me. (5)a’’’. Steven WAS GIVEN a prize.
b’’’. *You WILL BE BOUGHT some toys. c’’’. ?I HAVE BEEN SAVED a place.
11.3.5 A number of ditransitive verbs take a Direct Object + a Predicator Complement. “Usually only the Object constituent can become Subject in a passive clause… Both Direct and Indirect Objects share this potential.” [Downing and Locke, 1992: 88] The following underlined items in (6)a-b meet this requirement to be called an Object; however, they
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do not fulfil the second criterion for Indirect Objects, that of substitution by a phrase with to or for as in (6)a’-b’. We will therefore call them Direct Objects:
(6)a. We’LL ALLOW everybody a ten minute break. b. The shop assistant CHARGED me too much for the toothpaste.
(6)c. Everybody WILL BE ALLOWED a ten minute break. d. I WAS CHARGED too much for the toothpaste.
(6)e.*We WILL ALLOW a ten minute break to everybody. f.*The shop assistant CHARGED too much to me for the toothpaste.
Neither the word group in bold in (6)a-b are Indirect Objects because they “cannot become Subject in a passive clause and there is no prepositional alternative to the Object.” [Downing and Lock, 1992: 89]
(6)g. *A ten minute break WILL BE ALLOWED to everybody. h. *Too much WAS CHARGED to me for the toothpaste.
(6)i. *We WILL ALLOW everybody to a ten minute break. j. *The shop assistant CHARGED me to too much for the toothpaste.
Downing and Locke [1992: 55-56, 88-92] call these obligatory constituents that are not classed as Objects ‘Predicator Complements’ (predC, for short). Below are the verbs which take a Direct Object followed by a Predicator Complement: allow, ask, bet, charge, cost, deny, forgive, grudge, wish, refuse and ‘empty’ uses of give. It is clear that these verbs are not passivised. A few more examples are given below for further consolidation:
S NP VP Vgrp NP[dO] NP[predC] [ditrans]
(7)a. He WISHED me a happy day. b. He GAVE the door a push.
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c. [Let]’s ASK someone the way. d. The bank HAS REFUSED me a loan. e. They GRUDGED him his pocket money.
(7)a’. *He WISHED a happy day to me. b’. *He GAVE a push to the door.
c’. *Let’s ASK the way to someone. d’. *The bank HAS REFUSED a loan to me. e’. *They GRUDGED his pocket money to him.
(7)a’’. *A happy day WAS WISHED to me. b’’. *A push WAS GIVEN to the door. c’’. * The way IS ASKED to someone. d’’. *A loan HAS BEEN REFUSED to me. e’’. *His pocket money WAS GRUDGED to him.
11.4 MONOTRANSITIVE (monotrans, for short) verbs/verb phrases
11.4.1 A monotransitive verb “requires a single Noun Phrase to complement it … The NP that complements a transitive verb is said to function as its DIRECT OBJECT (dO, for short) … Since the Vgrp and the NP are in functional relationship, the NP needs to be represented as a sister of the Vgrp (and therefore as a daughter of the VP).” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 82]
S
NP VP Vgrp NP[dO] [monotrans]
(8)a. The police HAVE IDENTIFIED the victim. b. I USED TO SPEND all my money.
c. The frost HAS KILLED off the bud.
11.4.2 “The semantic role realised by the Direct Object can be realised by the Subject in a passive clause … After passivisation, the meaning remains unchanged.” [Downing and Locke, 1992: 41-42] A noun phrase is a typical realization of the subject of a passive monotransitive verb which may be post-modified by AN OPTIONAL ADVERBIAL ADJUNCT (opA, for short) of Agent:
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S NP VP
VP AdvP [opA of Agent] Vgrp [monotrans] PP
(8)a’. The victim HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED by the police.
b’. All my money USED TO BE SPENT (by me). c’. The bud HAS BEEN KILLED off (by the frost).
11.4.3 In some cases, a monotransitive verb must be complemented by an obligatory adjunct (obA, for short). In (9)a-h, for example, the NP subject refers to “a doer of something” must be [+animate] and [+human] and the action done with intention must be expressed by a monotransitive verb which is [+dynamic], [+active] and [+affecting]: (9)a. He JUMPED the horse over the fence (obA of Path).
b. The sergeant MARCHED the soldiers along the road (obA of Path). c. I’LL WALK you home (obA of Terminus). d. You COULD BRING it to the kitchen (obA of Terminus). e. I always GET off /LEAVE the bus at 42nd street (obA of Location). f. Liza HAS BEEN PUTTING the liquor under the bed (obA of Location). g. She PLACED the baby on the blanket (obA of Location). h. He PUT his arms around me (obA of Location)
and WALKED me away (obA of Direction). Note that in his argument, which is an optional adverbial adjunct
of Location, can be easily removed from (10): (10) He HAS JUMPED several steps (in his argument).
However, the removal of over the fence and along the road from (9)a-b is impossible because these PPs are two obligatory adverbial adjuncts of Path:
(9)a’. *He JUMPED the horse. b’. *The sergeant MARCHED the soldiers.
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The same result will be found out with (9)c-d, (9)e-g and (9)h when they respectively lose their obligatory adverbial adjunct of Terminus, Location or Direction:
(9)c’. *I’LL WALK you. d’. *You COULD BRING it. e’. *I always GET off /LEAVE the bus. f’. *Liza HAS BEEN PUTTING the liquor. g’. *She PLACED the baby. h’. *He [PUT his arms around me and] WALKED me. As an obligatory adverbial adjunct of Terminus in (11)a, home
can neither be moved out of its fixed position at the end of this English sentence, i.e. after the direct object ‘you’ of the monotransitive verb WALK. That’s why (11)b-c are not grammatically correct: (11)a. I’LL WALK you home.
b. *I home WILL WALK you. c. *I’LL home WALK you.
As an optional adverbial adjunct of Time in (12)a-c, soon is free to move to other typically adverbial positions within a sentence:
at the end of the sentence, i.e. after the complement (the direct object, the indirect object, the subjective complement, or the objective complement) of the lexical verb; after the NP subject; and after the auxiliary verb or the first auxiliary verb:
(12)a. I’LL SEE you soon. b. I soon WILL SEE you. c. I’LL soon SEE you.
The above illustrations prove that although it is not always easy to distinguish obligatory adverbial adjuncts from optional adverbial adjuncts, this can successfully be done with some care.
11.4.4 “Certain verbs take an obligatory complement but do not passivise or, if they do, the same relationship is not maintained.” [Downing and Locke, 1992: 55-56] This obligatory complement is called PREDICATOR COMPLEMENT (predC, for short), which does not fulfill the criteria used to define the two types of objects (i.e. the direct object and the
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indirect object) and the two types of complements (i.e. the subject(ive) complement and the object(ive) complement. The predC follows one of the following subcategories of monotransitive verb:
(i) RELATIONAL VERBS: have, possess, lack, suit, contain and fit (13)a. We HAVE plenty of time.
b. I DON’T POSSESS any valuables. c. His argument LACKS force. d. WILL 5 o’clock SUIT you? e. This jar CONTAINS nails. f. These gloves DON’T FIT me. (13)a’.*Plenty of time IS HAD. b’. *No valuables ARE POSSESSED. c’. *Force IS LACKED by his argument. d’. *WILL you BE SUITED by 5 o’clock? e’. *Nails ARE CONTAINED in this jar. f’. *I AM NOT FITTED by these gloves.
(ii) VERBS OF MEASUREMENT: measure, cost, take and weigh
(13)g. The window MEASURED 1m by 2m. h. Each ticket COSTS two dollars. i. This suitcase WEIGHS 20 kilos. j. The flight to Tokyo TOOK 21 hours. (13)g’. *1m by 2m WAS MEASURED by the window. h’. *Two dollars ARE COST by each ticket. i’. *20 kilos ARE WEIGHED by this suitcase. j’. *21 hours WERE TAKEN by the flight to Tokyo.
(iii) VERBS OF EQUAL RECIPROCITY: marry and resemble (13)k. Sam MARRIED Susan last May.
l. Joe RESEMBLES his father. (13)k’.*Susan WAS MARRIED by Sam last May. l’.*His father IS RESEMBLED by Joe.
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(iv) VERBS completed by means of a finite or non-finite clause which cannot be replaced by a noun phrase or by the pronoun ‘it’: complain, wonder, fancy, bother, wish, etc. (13)m. He COMPLAINS that he is never consulted about anything.
n. I WONDER if you would like to join us for tea. o. Don’t BOTHER [E] to clear away the dishes. p. FANCY [E] getting into a panic over a silly thing like that.
(13)m’. *That he is never consulted about anything IS COMPLAINED.
n’. *If you would like to join us for tea IS WONDERED. o’. *[E] to clear away the dishes IS NOT BOTHERED. p’. *[E] Getting into a panic over a silly thing like that
IS FANCIED. Note that:
The sentences beginning with a star (*) are all grammatically incorrect. “The reason for non-passivisation in examples such as these is that the
relationships expressed by these verbs are by nature not extensive. Verbs of possession and non-possession (lack), of suitability, resemblance and measure are essentially processes of being. And the semantic structure shows that the nominals which follow them cannot be considered as Direct Objects.” [Downing and Locke, 1992: 56]
11.5 PREPOSITIONAL (prep, for short) verbs/verb phrases “Glance, reply, refer, and look are examples of PREPOSITIONAL
VERBS—they must be complemented by a Prepositional Phrase [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 90].” The PP that complements a prepositional Vgrp is called A PREPOSITIONAL OBJECT (prepO, for short). Take glance, for example: (14)a. *Max GLANCED.
b. *Max GLANCED the falling acrobat. 11.5.1 MONOTRANSITIVE PREPOSITIONAL (monotrans-prep, for
short) verbs/verb phrases
11.5.1.1 “Prepositional verbs are counted as monotransitive (i.e. what follows the verb is a Prepositional Object) if (a) their cohesion is such that without the preposition the verb is either meaningless (e.g. account
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for) or has a different meaning (e.g. allow, allow for); and (b) if the verb can passivise with the completive of the preposition at Subject (The loss can’t be accounted for). In addition, such verbs can typically answer a question beginning with what or wh(om) (What/Who must I see to?). A short list of some common verbs of this kind is given below. Many verbs, such as think or hear, admit more than one preposition with a slight difference of meaning: account bank admit talk aim call consent about allow for on to think hope count keep long rely resort
think believe get deal hear of in at reckon with” dispose break hint reason
[Downing and Locke, 1992: 75-76] S
NP VP
Vgrp PP[prepO] [monotrans-prep]
(15)a. Max GLANCED at the falling acrobat. b. He WOULD never RESORT to cheating. c. You ARE HINTING at me? d. I DON’T BELIEVE in him. e. Linda IS THINKING of/about changing her job.
f. She HAS DISPOSED of her art treasures. g. You CAN’T RELY on Kevin. h. The minister REFERED to the importance of exports. i. The organizers HADN’T RECKONED with a strike. j. The manager IS DEALING with a critical client. k. The Prime Minister CAN’T ACCOUNT for the loss of votes.
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11.5.1.2 Some of the verbs in this case can be made passive. The noun or noun phrase following the preposition in the active pattern becomes the subject of the passive one:
S NP VP
Vgrp P [monotrans-prep]
(15)f’. Her art treasures HAVE BEEN DISPOSED of.
g’. Kevin CAN’T BE RELIED on. h’. The importance of exports WAS REFERED to i’. A strike HADN’T BEEN RECKONED with j’. A critical client IS BEING DEALT with k’. The loss of votes CAN’T BE ACCOUNTED for
11.5.2 DITRANSITIVE PREPOSITIONAL (ditrans-prep, for short) verbs/verb phrases
11.5.2.1 Some prepositional verbs are ditransitive, i.e. what follow the verb are a dO noun phrase and a prepO prepositional phrase. The direct object “is affected in some way by the action” and the prepositional object “may be an entity, an abstraction or a situation” [Downing and Locke, 1992: 89]. S
NP VP Vgrp NP[dO] PP [prepO] [ditrans-prep]
(16)a. They BLAMED the fire on the gardener. b. They BLAMED the gardener for fire. c. That firm SUPPLIES the university with paper. d. He CONVINCED the jury of his innocence. e. The government SHOULD INFORM the public of the consequences. f. I WILL INTRODUCE you to my friends. g. I CONGRATULATED Janet on her success.
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h. It REMINDS me of Italy. i. They ROBBED her of her watch and jewels.
11.5.2.2 The subject and the direct object of the verb may refer to the same person, in which case a reflexive pronoun is used. (16)k. Why DON’T you HELP yourself to wine?
l. He CONVINCED himself of the rightness of his actions. 11.5.2.3 Note that both the NP direct object and the PP
prepositional object are obligatory in this case and that the ditransitive prepositional verb is frequently used in the passive, with the dO constituent becoming the subject in the passive clause:
S NP VP Vgrp PP [prepO] [ditrans-prep]
(16)a’. The fire WAS BLAMED on the gardener. b’. The gardener WAS BLAMED for fire. c’. The university IS SUPPLIED with paper. d’. The jury WAS CONVINCED of his innocence. e’. She WAS ROBBED of her watch and jewels. f’. The public SHOULD BE INFORMED of the consequences. g’. You WILL BE INTRODUCED to my friends. h’. Janet WAS CONGRATULATED on her success. i’. I AM REMINDED of Italy.
11.5.2.4 Some of the verbs taking this construction are listed here according to preposition [Downing and Locke, 1992: 89]:
for from of to with on in blame pervert accuse confine charge blame interest thank protect convict help compare compliment convince introduce supply congratulate deprive refer remind sentence rob treat
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11.6 INTRANSITIVE (intrans, for short) verbs/verb phrases 11.6.1 An intransitive verb “does not require any further constituent as
sister in the VP” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 83]. In other words, “verbs used intransitively don’t take objects.” [Jacobs, 1995: 247]
S S NP VP NP VP
Vgrp Vgrp [intrans] [intrans]
(17)a. Phil SUNBATHED. (17)i. We ’RE GOING TO EAT out. b. The ball ROLLED. j. Phil HAS SHOWN off. c. The door WON’T OPEN. k. My children HAVE GROWN up. d. Lightning FLASHED. l. That old man DOES CARRY on. e. The Bengal tiger DIED. m. Her father PASSED away. f. Nobody APPEARED. n. Nobody TURNED up. g. A tourist COLLAPSED. o. A tourist FELL down. h. One of the tires EXPLODED. p. One of the tires BLEW out.
11.6.2 An intransitive verb is frequently modified by one or more
optional adverbial adjuncts (opA, for short). Adjuncts “provide circumstantial information about the action, process or event talked about in the clause in which they occur. Circumstantial information includes information about the place, time, manner, etc. of the action, process or event.” [Jackson, 1980: 25] They commonly are in form of adverbs or adverb phrases, prepositional phrases, infinitive phrases, participial phrases and subordinate clauses. S S NP VP1 NP VP1
PropN VP2 AdvP AdvP VP2
[opA of Location] [opA of Manner] Vgrp Vgrp [intrans] PP Adv [intrans]
(18)a. Phil SUNBATHED beside a stream. (18)b. A tourist suddenly COLLAPSED.
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11.6.3 Adverbial adjuncts are usually CIRCUMSTANTS or NON-INHERENT ROLES [Halliday, 1970: 150], i.e. they optionally occur in a large number of VPs; they can be omitted without disturbing the grammaticality of the whole VPs that include them. However, they are ACTANTS or INHERENT ROLES, i.e. their occurrence is obligatory in other VPs, when they accompany a number of verbs:
(i) INTRANSITIVE VERBS of movement , in many cases together the manner of moving, such as race, creep, slip, slide, flow, steal, walk, stroll, trudge, run, plunge, swim, fly, sail, ride, etc. typically require an obligatory adverbial adjunct of Location, Source, Direction, Terminus or Path [Biber et al, 1999: 143]; [Downing and Locke, 1992: 56]:
(19)a. A veiled moon RODE in the high heavens (Location). b. A large policeman WAS WALKING round the corner (Path). c. An old man STROLLED towards the bar (Direction). d. We STOLE out of the lecture-room (Source). e. The students RACED across the campus (Path). f. The boys TRUDGED up the steep path (Direction). g. The ship SAILED out of the harbor (Source). h. I’LL SLIP into something more comfortable (Terminus).
(ii) INTRANSITIVE VERBS of position or existence such as stand, live, hang, stretch, etc. typically require an adverbial adjunct of Location [Downing and Locke, 1992: 74]. (20)a. The National Theater STANDS near the river (Location).
b. Your rain coat IS HANGING in the hall (Location). c. Her paintings HANG in the National Gallery (Location). d. A vast plain STRETCHES below the castle (Location). e. The book IS still SITTING on my shelf (Location). f. There EXISTS a king in Sweden (Location). g. One of the biggest men I’d ever seen WAS LYING
on the beach (Location). h. The baby WAS LYING on his front (Location ⇒ Manner).
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(iii) INTRANSITIVE VERBS of occurrence such as break out, pick up, take place, emerge, arise, ascend, follow, etc. typically require an adverbial adjunct of Location, Source, Extent in Time, Point of Time, Manner or Role: (21)a. The market PICKS up in the spring (Point of Time).
b. A desperate hope AROSE somewhere deep inside her (Location). c. No new evidence EMERGED during the enquiry (Extent in Time). d. The funeral TOOK PLACE on 24 April at 3pm (Point of Time). e. The mist ASCENDED from the valley below (Source). f. Rioting BROKE up between rival groups of fans (Location). g. He EMERGED as leader at the age of thirty (Manner or Desguise). h. [I don’t see] how that FOLLOWS (Manner).
11.6.4 Two obligatory adverbial adjuncts may co-occur in a VP of this type, usually an obligatory adjunct of Terminus following one of Direction: (22)a. The diver PLUNGED down (Direction)
to the bottom of the sea (Terminus). b. The frightened villagers RAN out (Direction) into the field (Terminus). c. The fully recovered whale SWAM out (Direction)
to the open sea (Terminus).
An obligatory adjunct of Path sometimes precedes one of Terminus: (22)d. The Thames FLOWS through London (Path)
to the North Sea (Terminus).
11.7 Summary of the classification of English verbs/verb phrases: INTENSIVE [intens]:
SVsP/sC: The reason WAS simple. (attributive) Mary IS the most beautiful girl. (identifying) The truck drivers ARE on strike. (circumstantial)
subject — Vgrp — subject predicative/subject(ive) complement S [intens] sP/sC
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COMPLEX TRANSITIVE [complex]: SVdOoP/oC:
HOLD your hand tight. He CALLED her an angel. I PREFER it with water. He MADE the team what it is today. subject—Vgrp—direct object—object predicative/object(ive) complement S [complex] dO oP/oC
DITRANSITIVE [ditrans]: a. SVdOiO: I ‘LL ORDER a taxi for you.
subject — Vgrp — direct object — to/for indirect object S [ditrans] dO iO
b. SViOdO: I GAVE Esther a present. subject — Vgrp — indirect object — direct object
S [ditrans] iO dO
c. SVdOpredC: It COST John an effort. subject — Vgrp — direct object — predicator complement
S [ditrans] dO predC
MONOTRANSITIVE [monotrans]: a. SVdO: I ’VE SEEN that film. I RAN across a former school friend.
subject — Vgrp — direct object S [trans] dO
b. SVdOobA: You COULD BRING it to the kitchen. subject—Vgrp—direct object—obligatory adjunct S [monotrans] dO obA of Terminus
c. SVpredC: The window MEASURED 1m by 2m. Sam MARRIED Susan (last May).
subject—Vgrp—predicator complement—(opA of Time) S [trans] predC
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PREPOSITIONAL [prep]: a. MONOTRANSITIVE PREPOSITIONAL [monotrans-prep]:
SVprepO: Max GLANCED at the falling acrobat. subject — Vgrp — prepositional object
S [montrans-prep] prepO
b. DITRANSITIVE PREPOSITIONAL [ditrans-prep]: SVdOprepO:They BLAMED the fire on the gardener. He REMINDED her of the time.
subject—Vgrp—direct object—prepositional object S [ditrans-prep] dO prepO
INTRANSITIVE [intrans]: a. SV: He TURNED UP (= appeared). He IS LYING (= is telling lies). subject—Vgrp
S [intrans]
b. SVobA: He IS LYING in a hammock. subject — Vgrp — obligatory adjunct
S [intrans] obA of Location 11.8 Troublesome verbs
A verb can belong to various sub-categories, making it rather difficult to identify its major functions in English sentences. Feel, stretch, erupt, stay, sound, appear and make are among these troublesome verbs: (23)a. The trumpet SOUNDED. (sounded = gave out a sound or sounds) S Vgrp [intrans]
b. The doctor SOUNDED the patient’s chest. (sounded sth = tested sth) S Vgrp dO
[monotrans] c. She SOUNDED just the person we need for the job. opA of Degree of Certainty S Vgrp sP/sC
[intens] (sounded = gave a specific impression when heard that she is just …)
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(24)a. The water FEELS warm. S Vgrp sP/sC
[intens] (feels warm = is warm, is in a specified physical state referred to as warm)
b. I COULD FEEL the tension in the room. S Vgrp dO [monotrans] (feel sth = be aware of sth, experience sth)
(25)a. The long summer holiday STRETCHED ahead of them.
S Vgrp obA of Location [intrans]
(stretched = spread out over an area or a period of time)
b. The pullover STRETCHED after I had worn it a few times. S Vgrp opt Adjunct of Time
[intrans] (stretched = was elastic, became longer, wider, etc. without breaking)
(26)a. Violence HAS ERUPTED on the street. S Vgrp obA of Location [intrans] (has erupted = has broken out suddenly and violently)
b. The demonstration ERUPTED into violence. S Vgrp prepO [monotrans-prep] (erupted = suddenly changed)
(27)a. I HAVE TO APPEAR in court on a charge of drunken driving. S Vgrp obA of Location opA of Reason [intrans] (appear = arrive/ present myself publicly and formally at the court)
b. The street APPEARED deserted. S Vgrp sP/sC
[intens] (appeared deserted = seemed (to be) or gave the impression of being deserted)
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(28)a. The doctor CAN only STAY the progress of this disease. opA of Manner
S Vgrp dO [monotrans] (stay = delay, make (sth) slower)
b. They STAYED friends for years. (stayed = remained) S Vgrp sP/sC opA of Extent in Time
[intens]
(29)a. I ’LL MAKE some tea. b. I ’LL MAKE a pizza for you. S Vgrp dO S Vgrp dO iO
[monotrans] [ditrans] (make sth [for sb] = prepare sth [for sb])
c. I ’LL MAKE the question easy. S Vgrp dO oP/oC
[complex] (make the question easy = cause the question to become easy)
d. They MAKE a good couple. S Vgrp sP/sC [intens]
(make = are or become) _________________
12 Types of clause links
Clauses can be linked to each other in a variety of ways. Among the principal types of structural links are coordinators as in (1)a-b,
subordinators as in (2)a-b, wh- words as in (3)a-b, and complementizers as in (4)a-c. There may be no clause link at all as in (5):
(1)a. The doctor WAS tired, and he just SAID nothing.
b. I LIKE you very much, but I DON’T LOVE you.
(2)a. He WAS SCREAMING because he HAD TO GO home.
b. Since nobody WAS there, I LEFT for home too.
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(3)a. They HAD no idea what it WAS.
b. The two people who FOUND it ARE EXPECTED to receive the value of the brooch.
(4)a. For Sharon’s car TO BREAK down WOULD BE unfortunate.
b. The police REPORTED that Sharon’s car HAD BROKEN down. c. That the problem IS immense IS obvious.
(5) I KNOW. I SAW it this morning. It’S really smart, ISn’t it? _________________
13 Types of clauses 13.1 Finite clauses vs. non-finite clauses
The distinction between finite and non-finite clauses depends on the form of the verb chosen: “If the speaker wishes to express tense, person or number, a ‘finite’ form of the verb is chosen, such as eats, locked, went and the clause is then called a finite clause.” [Downing and Locke, 1992: 11]
All of THE FOLLOWING VERB FORMS, which are capitalized, and therefore the following clauses, are finite:
(1) She BROKE the dish. (2) He HAS GONE. (3) It IS unnecessary.
Accordingly, if the verb form does not express this type of information about the verbal ‘process’, the verbs and the clauses are classed as ‘non-finite’. In the following non-finite clauses, THE NON-FINITE VERB FORMS
are capitalized and italicized: (4)a. For Sandra TO DELAY her graduation IS unnecessary. (to-infinitive)
b. I LET him DO it by himself. (bare infinitive) c. Mary DOESN’T TOLERATE Anna CHATTING with the construction workers.(active present participle) d. He LEFT me STUNNED. (passive past participle) e. The light HAVING GONE out, we LIGHTED candles.
(active perfect participle)
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Briefly, “a non-finite clause is a clause with a non-finite (tenseless) Verb group. MAIN clauses are always finite. So non-finite clauses can only be SUBORDINATE.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 250]
13.2 Independent clauses vs. dependent clauses A necessary distinction is that between INDEPENDENT CLAUSES, which
are also called MAIN CLAUSES, and DEPENDENT CLAUSES (which can be subdivided into EMBEDDED CLAUSES and SUBORDINATE CLAUSES).
13.2.1 INDEPENDENT CLAUSES “A clause that can stand alone as a sentence is called a main clause or
sometimes an independent clause. The latter designation is often used when the clause is the only one in its sentence.” [Jacobs, 1995: 65]
An independent clause “does not depend on another clause, although it may be linked to another independent clause, or to a dependent clause” [Richards, Platt and Weber, 1987: 77]: (1) Sharon’s car HAD BROKEN down, and this ASTONISHED the mechanic.
(2) Sharon’s car HAD BROKEN down before she ARRIVED at the airport. An independent clause can be used on its own:
(3) Sharon’s car HAD BROKEN down. (4) This ASTONISHED the mechanic. (5) Sharon ARRIVED at the airport.
13.2.2 DEPENDENT CLAUSES “Dependent clauses, on the other hand, do not stand on their own as
sentences.” [Jacobs, 1995: 65] A dependent clause is “a clause which must be used with
another clause to form a complete grammatical construction. It depends on the other clause and is subordinate to it” [Richards, Platt and Weber, 1987: 77]: (6) For Sharon’s car TO BREAK down WOULD BE unfortunate.
(7) The police REPORTED that Sharon’s car HAD BROKEN down. (8) They MISSED the flight because Sharon’s car HAD BROKEN down.
Note that for and that in (6-7) “have little or no special meaning of
their own, and they are referred to as complementizers” while because in
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(8) “has a specific meaning, one something like ‘the reasons is’. Introducers such as because, although, and since, all of which have quite specific meanings, are subordinators.
Complementizers and subordinators are associated with two distinct kinds of dependent clauses: EMBEDDED CLAUSES and SUBORDINATE CLAUSES. Both kinds of clauses have a special slot before the subject, one in which the complementizers and subordinators occur. This slot, known as the COMP slot (after ‘complementizer’), turns out to be a very important one.” [Jacobs, 1995: 65-66]
Note also that dependent clauses can be either finite as in (7-8) or non-finite as in (6). Independent clauses can only be finite like (3-5).
13.3 Subordinate clauses vs. embedded clauses
According to Jacobs [1995: 66-69], the following difference between embedded and subordinate clauses is an important one.
13.3.1 “If embedded clauses are omitted from a sentence containing them, the sentence is usually ungrammatical. This is because embedded clauses are arguments of a higher predicate, very often the subjects or objects of their container clauses. Any finite sentence that loses its subject or object argument becomes ungrammatical. So the embedded clauses are indispensable for grammaticality.” [Jacobs, 1995: 68]
S
NP VP S’[embedded finite clause] Vgrp NP [dO] [monotrans]
COMP S DET N’ ART headN
(1) That Sharon’s car HAD BROKEN down ASTONISHED the mechanic.
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S
NP VP
DET N’ Vgrp NP [dO] [monotrans]
ART headN S’[embedded finite clause] COMP S
(2) The police REPORTED that Sharon’s car HAD BROKEN down.
13.3.2 “Subordinate clauses, clauses with subordinators in the COMP slot, differ from embedded clauses in that they are not required arguments of a predicate. They are thus not used as subjects or objects” [Jacobs, 1995: 65]. Subordinate clauses are adjuncts which can be omitted without making their sentence ungrammatical. “Just as adverbs and prepositional phrases can be omitted, so can subordinate clauses.” [Jacobs, 1995: 68] (3)a. The family returned to the villa after Sharon’s car HAD BROKEN down.
(4)a. Pavlova found the children where Sharon’s car HAD BROKEN down.
(5)a. Lord Aston only used his Rolls Royce if Sharon’ car BROKE down.
Note that “non-finite subordinate clauses often lack an overt subordinator” [Jacobs, 1995: 67]. S
NP VP1
PropN VP2 AdvP
[optional Adjunct of Purpose]
S’ [non-finite subordinate clause] Vgrp NP[dO]
[monotrans] Comp S NP VP
(6) She LOCKED the door so as [E] TO PREVENT any more intrusions. (7) She LOCKED the door φ [E] TO PREVENT any more intrusions.
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Also note that the sentences marked (3-5)a are well-formed even without their subordinate clauses, resulting in (3-5)b:
(3)b. The family RETURNED to the villa. (4)b. Pavlova FOUND the children. (5)b. Lord Aston only USED his Rolls Royce.
_________________
14 Covert subjects vs. overt subjects 14.1 All of the non-finite clauses in (1)a-e have an overt subject.
(1)a. For Sandra TO DELAY her graduation IS unnecessary. (to-infinitive) b. I LET him DO it by himself. (bare infinitive) c. Mary DOESN’T TOLERATE Anna CHATTING with the construction workers.
(active present participle) d. He LEFT me STUNNED. (passive past participle) e. The light HAVING GONE out, we LIGHTED candles.
(active perfect participle) 14.2 However, “non-finite clauses frequently lack an overt subject”
[Burton-Roberts, 1997: 250]. Consider the italicized non-finite clauses in (2)a-d. They lack an overt subject and their non-finite verbs (to avoid, chatting, pushing, and battered) are tenseless: (2)a. Beth LEFT early so as [E] TO AVOID the police.
b. Anna ENJOYS [E] CHATTING with the construction workers. c. [E] PUSHING him aside, Carol JUMPED onto the platform. d. [E] BATTERED by the heavy storm,
the ship LIMPED into Southampton harbour.
A subject is always understood in the non-finite clauses. The symbol [E] (for empty, covert, zero, or implicit) is used to mark where a subject might occur if the grammar allows it. In (2)a-d, English speakers understand Beth, Anna, Carol and the ship respectively to be the subject of the four non-finite clauses ‘[E]TO AVOID the police’, ‘[E] CHATTING with the construction workers’, ‘[E] PUSHING him aside’ and ‘[E] BATTERED by the heavy storm’. Such understood though not physically present subjects are referred to as covert subjects.
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“Covert subjects are cognitively real, that is, real in the English speaker’s consciousness, despite the lack of words standing for them.” [Jacobs, 1995: 72]
Although the non-finite clauses in (2)c-d “seem like modifiers of the noun phrase following them, both their position and their function show that they are not. They are non-finite subordinate clauses marking a perspective. Sometimes, a more explicit marking of perspective appears:
After [E] BEING BATTERED by the heavy storm, the ship LIMPED into Southampton harbour.” [Jacobs, 1995: 72]
_________________
15 Types of finite dependent clauses
“A finite dependent clause contains a verb phrase which is marked for tense or modality. There is regularly a subject except under conditions of ellipsis. Finite dependent clauses are regularly marked by a clause link…” [Biber et al, 1999: 193]
Finite dependent clauses may be either subordinate or embedded. Below are some common finite dependent clauses.
15.1 Nominal clauses A nominal clause can be the subject, the direct object, the indirect
object, the retained object, the subjective complement, the objective complement or the complement of a preposition in an English sentence: (1)a. That rain MAY FALL in deserts IS true.
b. They BELIEVE that the minimum wage COULD THREATEN their jobs. c. She GIVES whomever she MEETS a warm greeting. d. I AM always GIVEN whatever IS the cheapest. e. My question IS whether (or not) you WILL PAY for such a loss. f. We HAVE MADE them what they ARE.
g. We’D LIKE to work with whom we CONSIDER the best.
15.2 Relative clauses A relative clause, also called an adjectival clause, is
characteristically a post-modifier in a noun phrase. “It is introduced by a
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wh-word, which has a grammatical role in the relative clause in addition to its linking function” [Biber et al, 1999: 195]. Relative clauses may be either restrictive as in (2)a or non-restrictive as in (2)b. (2)a. We HAVE 30 men who ARE WORKING from 6am to 11pm.
b. He WANTED the public not to approach the men, who ARE armed and dangerous.
15.3 Adverbial clauses “Adverbial clauses are used as adverbials in the main clause,
generally as circumstance adverbials… they are optional and have some freedom of positioning; both initial and final placement are common. Adverbial clauses are regularly marked by a subordinator indicating the relationship to the main clause”. [Biber et al, 1999: 194] (3)a. Most ions ARE colorless, although some HAVE distinct colors.
b. If you ARE in a hurry, you CAN LEAVE.
15.4 Reporting clauses A reporting clause, which “accompanies direct reports of somebody’s
speech or thought”, “may be placed in initial, medial, or final position” [Biber et al, 1999: 196]: (4)a. They SAID, “Yes, sir,” and saluted.
b. “Please come too,” she BEGGED. c. “Everything,” he SAID, “is snafu.”
15.5 Comment clauses “Comment clauses are similar in structure to reporting clauses: they
are loosely connected to the main clause, they normally lack explicit link, and they are usually short and can appear in a variety of position… They are usually in the present rather than the past tense, first or second rather than third person, and comment on a thought rather than the delivery of a wording” [Biber et al, 1999: 197]: (5)a. MIND you, he was probably still as sound as a bell.
b. The conclusion, it SEEMS, is intolerable. c. It’s a nice approach, I THINK.
_________________
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16 Types of non-finite clauses “Non-finite clauses are regularly dependent. They are more
compact and less explicit than finite clauses; they are not marked for tense and modality, and they frequently lack an explicit subject and subordinator.” [Biber et al, 1999: 198]
Below are some main types of non-finite clauses, each containing a different type of verb phrase:
16.1 Infinitive non-finite clauses 16.1.1 An infinitive non-finite clause can play the role of a nominal
to be: • the subject: [E]TO DENY that gift IS to deny God’s will. • the extra-posed subject: It IS NOT easy [E]TO MAINTAIN a friendship. • the direct object: I HATE [E]TO SEE that. • the subjective complement: My goal now IS [E]TO LOOK to the future.
16.1.2 An infinitive non-finite clause can play the role of an adverbial to be:
• the adjunct of purpose: [E]TO SUCCEED again they WILL HAVE to improve their fitness.
• the adjective complement: That old man IS a bit afraid [E]TO GO into hospital.
16.1.3 An infinitive non-finite clause can play the role of an adjectival to be:
• the post-nominal modifier: He IS the third man [E]TO BE MURDERED right on this corner.
• the objective complement: Some of these issues dropped out of Marx’s later works because
he CONSIDERED them [E]TO HAVE BEEN satisfactorily dealt with.
16.2 Gerund non-finite clauses can only play the role of a nominal to be: • the subject: [E] HAVING a fever IS unpleasant.
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• The extra-posed subject: There are only around five tons of newsprints left and
it’S very difficult [E] GETTING supplies into Sarajevo. • the direct object: I STARTED [E]THINKING about Christmas. • the subjective complement: The real problem IS
[E] GETTING something done about the cheap imports. • the complement of a preposition: I EARN my living by [E]TEACHING.
16.3 Participial non-finite clauses 16.3.1 A Participial non-finite clause, which is an –ING clause, can
play the role of an adjectival to be the post-nominal modifier: There WERE two cars [E] COMING down the road.
16.3.2 A Participial non-finite clause, which is an –ING clause, can play the role of an adverbial to be:
• the circumstance adjunct: He STOOD on the veranda, [E] LISTENING to the wind.
• the adjective complement: It MIGHT BE worth [E] GIVING him a bell to let him know what’s happening.
16.3.3 A participial non-finite clause, which is an –ED clause, can play the role of a nominal to be the direct object: God, you’ve gone mad with the sugar in yours. DO you WANT itTOPPED up?
16.3.4 A participial non-finite clause, which is an –ED clause, can play the role of an adverbial to be:
• the circumstantial adjunct: When [E]TOLD by the police how badly injured his victims were
he SAID: “Good, I hope they die.” • the adjective complement: That old man IS a bit afraid
[E]TO GO into hospital. 16.3.5 A participial non-finite clause, which is an –ED clause, can
play the role of an adjectival to be the post-nominal modifier: There WASN’T a scrap of evidence to link him with the body [E] FOUND on the Thames at low tide.
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16.4 Verbless clauses Among non-finite clauses may also be verbless clauses such as:
- She HAD also BEEN TAUGHT, when in difficulty, to think of a good life to imitate.
- Although not a classic, this 90-minute video IS worth watching. _________________
17 Classification of sentences according to their structure “In many traditional grammars three major sentence types are
distinguished. A simple sentence consists of a single clause that stands alone as it own sentence. In a coordinate sentence (called “compound” in traditional grammars), two or more clauses are joined by a conjunction in a coordinate relationship. A complex sentence combines two (or more) clauses in such a way that one clause functions as a grammatical part of the other one.” [Finegan, 1994: 122]
17.1 The following are a number of typical examples of simple sentences. S NP VP
(1)a. Tom DISAPPEARED. b. He CREPT into a cave. c. My father IS GOING TO BUY a car. d. The flight to Tokyo TOOK 21 hours. e. You CAN RELY on Gina. f. Ed HAD GIVEN her a ring. g. We WILL ALLOW everyone a ten-minute break. h. Albert HAS MADE Susan angry. i. Susan IS unhappy.
Each of the above sentences contains a VP. The VP contains a Vgrp. The Vgrp can consist of a single word (as in disappear, crept, took, and is) or of more than one word (as in is going to buy, can rely, had given, will allow, and has made). “In English and in many other languages, the central element in a clause is the verb; each clause — and therefore each simple sentence — contains just one verb.” [Finegan, 1994: 119]
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17.2 The following are a number of typical examples of compound sentences.
S3 S1 Conj S2 NP1 VP1 NP2 VP2
(2)a. Karen ASSEMBLED the new grill and Joe COOKED the hot dogs. b. She IS rich and famous but I DON’T FIND her talented. c. You SHOULD TRY to work hard or you ’LL GET fired. d. Roses ARE red but violets ARE blue.
Each of the above sentences consists of “two clauses joined by a word such as and, but, or or, which are called coordinating conjunctions, or simply conjunctions … The clauses in a coordinate sentence hold equal status. Neither clause is part of the other clause, and each could stand by itself as an independent sentence.” [Finegan, 1994: 119]
It is necessary to confirm that in the above examples and, but, or or does not form a constituent with either of the clauses it conjoins.
Last but not least, co-ordinate constructions are not limited to two items of equal value:
S5
S1 Conj S2 Conj S3 Conj S4
(2)e. Roses ARE red but violets ARE blue and sugar IS sweet and so ARE you.
17.3. The following are a number of typical examples of complex sentences. (3)a. If you WASH the sweater, it WILL STRETCH.
b. An aquarium IS a place in which fish IS KEPT.
c. While he WAS SITTING in his chair, he HEARD a noise
which SEEMED TO COME from a distance.
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d. Although I DID NOT WANT to leave my bed, the wind BLEW so strong that I WAS at last COMPELLED to get up to shut the window.
“Unlike coordinate sentences, which contain clauses of equal status, complex sentences contain clauses of unequal status. In the complex sentence we have been examining, one clause is subordinate to another clause and function as a grammatical part of that clause. We call the subordinate clause an embedded clause and the clause into which it is embedded a matrix clause. Every subordinate clause is by definition embedded in a matrix clause, in which it serves in a grammatical function such as subject, direct object, or adverbial.” [Finegan, 1994: 122]
“Complex sentences contain sentences inside them … Embedded clauses typically … function as subjects and direct objects and as sentence-adverbial phrases.” [Kaplan, 1989: 267]
17.3.1 EMBEDDED NOMINAL CLAUSES (EmNCl, for short): 17.3.1.1 The subject can be realised by either a finite clause or a
non-finite clause. “Constituents functioning as subjects are always analysed as NPs” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 197], so we shall analyse any clausal subject as dominated by NP.
17.3.1.1.1 Subject finite clauses can be that-clauses or Wh-clauses, i.e. finite clauses preceded by either the introductory word that or the subordinate conjunction what, where, when, why, who, how, etc. This construction “is generally used in formal written English” [Stanley, 1989: 2]:
S1
NP1 VP1 S’[finite clause]
Comp S2
NP2 VP2
(4)a. That the problems ARE immense IS obvious.
b. That rain MAY FALL in deserts IS true.
c. That Einstein IS a great scientist IS understandable.
d. That he FAILED to turn up SURPRISED nobody.
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e. That Columbus WAS an Italian IS sometimes DISPUTED.
f. That the computer revolution IS in its infancy frequently ESCAPES comment. (5)a. Whether it IS CAUSED by rain or wind IS unknown.
b. How they MANAGED to survive IS a mystery.
c. When it WAS DONE SEEMS quite obvious to me.
d. Where he GOES IS no business of yours.
e. Why the library WAS CLOSED for months WAS NOT EXPLAINED.
f. What he SAID SHOCKED me.
g. When I GO DEPENDS on when the train leaves.
17.3.1.1.2 When the introductory expression ‘the fact that’ replaces the introductory word ‘that’ as in (4)a-f, the EmNCl is syntactically
changed to a finite adjectival that-clause being the obligatory complement of the NP ‘the fact’:
S1 NP1 VP1
NP S’[finite that-clause]
DET N’ Comp S2 ART headN NP2 VP2
(4)a’. The fact that the problems ARE immense IS obvious.
b’. The fact that rain MAY FALL in deserts IS true. c’. The fact that Einstein IS a great scientist IS understandable. d’. The fact that he FAILED to turn up SURPRISED nobody. e’. The fact that Columbus WAS an Italian IS sometimes DISPUTED. f’. The fact that the computer revolution IS in its infancy
frequently ESCAPES comment.
17.3.1.1.3 Subject non-finite clauses “are of two types, depending on the VG (verbal group) they contain: to-infinitive, which can be introduced by a Wh-word, and −ing clauses. ‘Bare’ infinitive clauses (without to) occur as Subject only in equative (Wh-cleft) sentences:
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[E]8TO TAKE such a risk WAS rather foolish. (to-inf. clause)
Where [E] TO LEAVE the dog IS the problem. (Wh− + to-inf. clause)
[E] RUN for President IS what he may do. (bare inf. clause)
[E] HAVING TO GO back for the tickets WAS a nuisance. (−ing clause)
To-infinitive and −ing clauses at Subject can have their own Subject; bare infinitive clauses cannot. A to-infinitive clause with its own Subject must be introduced by for:
S1 NP1 VP1
S’ [non-finite clause] Vgrp AP/NP[sP/sC] [intens]
Comp S2
NP2 VP2
For everyone TO ESCAPE WAS practically impossible. φ Sam HAVING TO GO back for the tickets WAS a nuisance.
The Pronominal Subject of an −ing clause can be in the possessive or the objective case. The objective form is the less formal:
Him/His HAVING TO GO back for the tickets WAS a nuisance.
Of all embedded clauses, only that-clauses introduced by the fact, finite nominal relative clauses and non-finite −ing clauses are sufficiently nominal to be able to invert with the operator in interrogative clauses:
DID what he SAID SHOCK you? WAS Sam HAVING TO GO back for the tickets a nuisance?
8 Note that [E] is the symbol to stand for the empty/covert/zero/implicit subject in
non-finites clauses.
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*WAS TO TAKE such a risk rather foolish? *DID that he FAILED to turn up SURPRISE everybody?
DID the fact that he FAILED to turn up SURPRISE everybody?” [Downing and Locke, 1992: 34-35]
17.3.1.1.4 “Examples such as that he failed to turn up surprised nobody and for everyone to escape was practically impossible have as an alternative structure the following:
It surprised nobody that he failed to turn up. It was practically impossible for everyone to escape.
in which the finite or non-finite clause realizing the Subject is said to be extraposed, that is, placed after the Complement or Object. The initial Subject position is filled, obligatorily, by the pronoun it (usually called ‘anticipatory it’), acting as a kind of a substitute for the ‘postponed’ Subject. It is commonly used in both speech and writing, especially when the Subject is longer than the Complement and is better placed at the end of the sentence, in accordance with the information and stylistic principle of ‘end-weight’9.” [Downing and Locke, 1992: 35]
In other words, “the extraposed subject has a clausal subject displaced to the end of the sentence and explicit it in the normal subject position, dominated directly by NP.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 198]
9 “In any clause, elements are frequently of different size and complexity, or weight …
There is a preferred distribution of elements in the clause in accordance with the weight called the principle of end-weight: the tendency for long and complex elements to be placed towards the end of a clause [Biber et al, 1999: 898].” Compare:
(1) I FOUND the man guilty. (2) I FOUND guilty the man who has scars on his cheeks.
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S1 NP1 VP1 NP1bis [real subject] [anticipatory subject] S’[finite clause] Vgrp AP/NP[sP/sC] Comp S2 PRO [intens] NP2 VP2
(4)a’’. It IS obvious that the problems ARE immense.
b’’. It IS true that rain MAY FALL in deserts.
(5)a’. It IS unknown whether it IS CAUSED by rain or wind.
b’. It IS a mystery how they MANAGED to survive.
(6)a. It IS a pity (that) you ARE LEAVING the company.
b. It IS a bore when people CAN’T MAKE UP their minds.
c. It IS no concern of mine when she DOES outside working hours. d. It IS time φ he STOPPED fooling around.
Note that the subjective complement of the copular verb be is, quite often, realised by an NP, as in (6)a-d. Also note that embedded clausal subjects can be extraposed from various sentence structures, with (S + be + sP/sC) the most common: (7)a. [E] TO SEE such poverty MAKES one sad.
a’. It MAKES one sad [E] TO SEE such poverty. (S + complex transV + dO + oP/oC)
b. Where you SIT DOESN’T MATTER.
b’. It DOESN’T MATTER where you SIT . (S+ intranV)
c. (The fact) that the number-plate HAD BEEN CHANGED STRUCK me.
c’. It STRUCK me that the number-plate HAD BEEN CHANGED. (S + monotransV + dO)
d. (The fact) that you ARE LEAVING the company SHOULDN’T COME as a surprise.
d’. It SHOULDN’T COME as a surprise (that) you ARE LEAVING the company. (S + intensV + sP/sC)
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17.3.1.2 The direct object (dO, for short) or the predicator complement (predC, for short)10 can also be realised by either a finite clause or a non-finite clause:
17.3.1.2.1 The dO/predC finite clause of a monotransitive verb can be a that-clause or a Wh-clause. “Since clausal functioning objects in active sentences can become subject NPs in the passive, I shall analyse them as being dominated by a NP node, just like the clausal subjects.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 200]
S’ Comp S1
NP1 VP1
Vgrp NP[dO/predC] [monotrans] S’[finite clause] Comp S2 NP2 VP2
(8)a. DO you UNDERSTAND why I DO that? b. HAVE you DONE what I HAVE TOLD you? c. φ He DID NOT SEE where I HAD GONE. d. φ They DID NOT REALISE how we DO it. e. φ I DON’T KNOW if/whether he HAS DONE it yet. f. φ The class DOESN’T KNOW what time it HAS TO BE in school. g. φ Bill DISCOVERD who he HAD TO GIVE the money to. h. φ The students HAVEN’T LEARNT which tutor they CAN RELY on. i. φ The authorities CLAIM that everything possible HAS BEEN DONE. j. φ They FEAR that there MAY BE no survivor. k. φ Peter DENIED that he HAD LEFT the light on all night. l. φ We REALISED that he WAS just under great strain. m. φ Officials ARGUE that their public image IS unfair.
10 Also see 6.2, 11.3.5, 11.4 and Downing and Locke [1992: 55-56] for further consideration.
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Again, passivisation can be used to test whether or not an embedded finite clause is a dO: (9)a. Most people RECOGNISE that some form of taxation IS necessary.
b. That some form of taxation IS necessary IS RECOGNISED by most people.
c. It IS RECOGNISED by most people that some form of taxation IS necessary.
(10)a. Nobody KNOWS whether it IS CAUSED by rain or wind.
b. Whether it IS CAUSED by rain or wind IS NOT KNOWN/IS unknown.
c. It IS NOT KNOWN/IS unknown whether it IS CAUSED by rain or wind.
For the passive construction with that-clauses, the semantically empty pronoun it may be required with “a verb of low communicative dynamism like say” [Downing and Locke, 1992: 43]: (11)a. They SAY that he IS MOVING to New York.
b. It IS SAID that he IS MOVING to New York.
17.3.1.2.2 The dO/predC non-finite clause of a monotransitive verb can be a Wh-clause:
S1 NP1 VP1
Vgrp NP[dO/predC] [monotrans] S’[non-finite clause]
Comp S2 NP2 VP2
(8)k’. The class DOESN’T KNOW what time [E]TO BE in school. g’. Bill DISCOVERD who [E]TO GIVE the money to. h’. The students HAVEN’T LEARNT which tutor [E]TO RELY on.
The passive construction with the semantically empty pronoun it is also preferred with that-clauses, either finite or non-finite:
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(12)a. We HADN’T DECIDED what we OUGHT TO DO next. what [E] TO DO next. b. It HADN’T BEEN DECIDED what we OUGHT TO DO next. what [E] TO DO next.
17.3.1.2.3 The dO/predC non-finite clause of a monotransitive verb in this case is a to-infinitive or an –ing form with a covert subject which is the same as the subject of the main clause:
S1 NP1 VP1
Vgrp NP[dO/predC] [monotrans] S’[non-finite clause]
Comp S2
NP2 VP2
(13)a. Bill LIKES φ [E] TO ARRIVE early for meetings. b. The laboratories FAILED φ [E] TO PRODUCE useful results. c. Jane WANTS φ [E] TO FINISH the job by tomorrow. d. Peter EXPECTS φ [E] TO BE PROMOTED soon. e. The janitor REFUSED φ [E] TO LOCK the door.
(14)a. Peter ENJOYS φ [E] PLAYING football. b. Fred STARTED φ [E] ARGUING. c. This airline WILL FINISH φ [E] OPERATING next year. d. I CAN’T HELP φ [E] THINKING he must be crazy. e. The laboratories CEASED φ [E] PRODUCING useful results.
Note that: Many dO/predC embedded clauses occur with either the to-
infinitive or the –ing form without changing their lexical meaning: (15)a. Many Londoners PREFER φ [E] TO TRAVEL/TRAVELLING by train.
b. Mary HATES φ [E] TO DRIVE/DRIVING in the rush hour c. Tom LOVES φ [E] TO DO/DOING the housework. d. He DOESN’T BOTHER φ [E] TO CHANGE/CHANGING the sheets.
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After remember and forget, the contrast between the to-infinitive or the –ing form corresponds to a difference of meaning: (13)f. I REMEMBERED [E] TO POST your letters.
(= I didn’t forget to post them.) (14)f. I REMEMBERED [E] POSTING your letters.
(= I recalled having posted them.)
After need, require and want; the –ing form of the verb can be replaced by the passive to-infinitive: (13)g. The children still NEED [E] TO BE LOOKED after. (14)g. The children still NEED [E] LOOKING after.
The verbs in this case cannot be made passive: (13)f’. *[E]TO POST your letters WAS REMEMBERED (by me). (14)f’. *[E] POSTING your letters WAS REMEMBERED (by me). (13)g’. *[E]TO BE LOOKED after IS still NEEDED (by the children). (14)g’. *[E] LOOKING after IS still NEEDED (by the children).
17.3.1.2.4 The dO/predC non-finite clause of a monotransitive verb in this case is a to-infinitive or an –ing clause with an overt/explicit subject of its own:
S1 NP1 VP1
Vgrp NP[dO/predC] [monotrans] S’[non-finite clause]
Comp S2 NP2 VP2
(16)a. Tony PREFERS φ his wife/her TO DO the house work. b. The boss LIKED φ the staff/them TO ARRIVE early for work. c. Julia HATES φ her husband/him TO LOSE his temper. d.The teacher WANTS φ her class/them TO FINISH the job by Friday.
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(17)a. I DON’T LIKE φ him/John INTERUPTING all the time. b. Jill HATES φ him/her COMING home late. c. We ANTICIPATED φ her/Mary(‘s) TAKING over the business. d. The employers RESENTED φ the staff(‘s)/their BEING CONSULTED.
Note that the overt subject of the non-finite clause must be an object
personal pronoun (e.g. him, her, and them), a noun phrase (e.g. the staff) or a possessive (e.g. Mary’s, their, and her) and that the verbs in (17)e cannot normally be made passive while some of the verbs in (16)e can:
(16)e. I EXPECT the parcel TO ARRIVE tomorrow. e’. The parcel IS EXPECTED TO ARRIVE tomorrow.
(17)e. I DISLIKE us/our WORKING late at night. e’. *Our WORKING late at night IS DISLIKED (by us).
Also note that many dO/predC embedded clauses occur with an overt subject of their own; otherwise their cover subject is the same as that of the main clause:
(18) a. The villagers WANT φ the soldiers TO LEAVE immediately. a’. The villagers WANT φ [E] TO LEAVE immediately. b. I DON’T MIND φ [E] WAITING a few minutes. b’. I DON’T MIND φ me WAITING a few minutes. c. He HATES φ [E] TO TELL/TELLING lies. c’. He HATES φ people TO TELL/TELLING lies.
17.3.1.2.5 The dO/predC non-finite clause of a monotransitive
verb in this case is an –ing clause with an overt subject of its own. Most of the verbs in this case are verbs of ‘perception’. Of these, see, hear, feel, watch, notice, overhear and observe also allow their dO/predC non-finite clause to take a bare infinitive after its overt subject:
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S1 NP1 VP1
Vgrp NP[dO/predC] [monotrans] S’ [non-finite clause]
Comp S2 NP2 VP2
(19)a. We WATCHED φ the men DESTROY(ING) the furniture.
b. The porter HEARD φ someone SLAM(MING) the door. c. The children SAW φ the cat STEAL(ING) the meat. d. He NOTICED φ a child ENTER(ING) the court. e. The rescuers FELT φ John LOS(ING) his grip of the rope.
Note that: The verbs in (19)a-e can be made passive:
(19)b’. Someone WAS HEARD SLAMMING/TO SLAM the door (by the porter). c’. The cat WAS SEEN STEALING/TO STEAL the meat (by the children).
The overt subject of the non-finite clause must be a noun (e.g. John), a noun phrase (e.g. the cat) or an indefinite pronoun (e.g. someone).
The bare infinitive in ‘the rescuers felt John lose his grip of rope’ implies that John fully lost his hold of the rope while the rescuers were in contact with him. The –ing form in the rescuers felt John losing his grip of rope does not imply that.
Unfortunately, not all the dO finite or non-finite clause of the active monotransitive verbs in the cases that have been presented so far can become passive. “With many verbs which do not passivise, the predication is completed by means of a finite or non-finite clause. When this cannot be replaced by a Nominal Group or by it, we classify it as Predicator Complement” [Downing and Locke [1992: 56], abbreviated as predC.
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17.3.1.2.6 Many ditransitive verbs of communicating (assure, inform, tell, notify, etc.) and of causing someone to think or believe or know something (convince, persuade, remind, teach, etc.), and the performative verbs such as bet, promise, and warn can take a dO finite that-clause after an iO pronoun or noun phrase.
S1
NP1 VP1
Vgrp NP[iO] NP[dO] [ditrans]
S’[finite that-clause]
Comp S2 NP2 VP2
(20)a. The teacher ASSURED us that she IS in no danger. b. I BET you that no one WILL ACCEPT the offer. c. He finally CONVINCED the jury that he WAS TELLING the truth.
d. The police NOTIFIED my friend that his car HAD BEEN FOUND.
e. They PERSUADED me that the plan WAS feasible.
f. [E ] REMIND your father that we HAVE visitors tonight. g. Experience HAS TAUGHT them that a back-up copy IS essential. h. No one HAS ever TOLD me that I AM beautiful.
17.3.1.2.7 Advise, ask, remind, show, teach, and tell are some common ditransitive verbs which introduce indirect interrogatives. Most of these can take a dO Wh-finite or non-finite clause after an iO pronoun or noun phrase. Remind is commonly used with a non-finite.
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S1 NP1 VP1 Vgrp NP[iO] NP[dO] [ditrans] S’[(non-)finite clause] Comp S2
NP2 VP2
(21)a. I ‘LL ASK someone who(m) we CAN GIVE it to.
who(m) [E] TO GIVE it to. b. φ TELL me how I CAN SWITCH it on.
how [E] TO SWITCH it on.
c. No one CAN ADVISE you what you SHOULD DO.
what [E] TO DO.
d. φ REMIND me when [E] TO SWITCH it off.
e. Tom WILL SHOW you where you CAN SEND it.
51.3.1.2.8 Indirect commands, requests and other directives are introduced by the following ditransitive verbs: advise, allow, ask, beg, challenge, enable, encourage, forbid, force, get, help, lead, order, persuade, tell, trust, and urge. The direct object of a ditransitive verb in this case is a to-infinitive non-finite clause with a covert subject which has the same reference with the indirect object:
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S1
NP1 VP1 Vgrp NP[iO] NP[dO] [ditrans] S’[non-finite clause] Comp S2
NP2 VP2
(22)a. TELL the children φ [E] TO KEEP quiet! b. He URGED his friend φ [E] TO GIVE UP drug. c. An unexpected clue LED the police φ [E] TO SUSPECT a kidnap. d. He TOLD us φ [E] TO STAY. e. She ‘LL probably ASK you φ [E] TO LEND her some money. f. I CHALLENGE you φ [E] TO DISPROVE my argument. g. This law WILL ENABLE elderly people φ [E] TO CLAIM higher position.
Note that “the indirect object refers to the person or people addressed by the subject” [Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 1992: xxviii] and that some ditransitive verbs in three following cases can be made passive, with the indirect object of an active verb becoming the subject of the passive one. Again, the dO (non-)finite clause can never become the subject of the passive clause:
(20)i. Colleagues TOLD Paul that the job WOULDN’T BE easy.
i’. Paul WAS TOLD (by colleagues) that the job WOULDN’T BE easy.
i’’. *That the job WOULDN’T BE easy WAS TOLD (Paul by colleagues).
(21)f. The instructor TAUGHT the dancers how they SHOULD BREATHE.
how [E] TO BREATHE.
f’. The dancers WERE TAUGHT how they SHOULD BREATHE.
how [E] TO BREATHE.
f’’. * How they SHOULD BREATHE WAS TAUGHT to the dancers.
*How [E] TO BREATHE
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(22)h. He ADVISED her [E] TO SEE a doctor. h’. She WAS ADVISED to see a doctor (by him). h’’. *[E] TO SEE a doctor WAS ADVISED (by him).
17.3.1.2.9 Below are a number of ditransitive verbs that take an iO to-prepositional phrase first and later a dO which is a that-clause, a finite or non-finite Wh-clause, or a non-finite clause containing or consisting of a to-infinitive: confess, explain, point out, prove, indicate, signal, acknowledge, admit, announce, declare, mention, propose, recommend, remark, report, state, and suggest.
S1 NP1 VP1 Vgrp PP[iO] NP[dO] [ditrans]
S’[finite that-clause] Comp S2
NP2 VP2
(23)a. He CONFESSED to me that he WAS extremely alarmed. b. I POINTED out to John that few people WOULD AGREE.
c. He SIGNALED to us that he WOULD KEEP quiet. d. The employers ANNOUNCED to journalists that the dispute HAD BEEN SETTLED. e. The consultant RECOMMENDED to the employers that new salary scales SHOULD BE INTRODUCED. f. We CAN’T PROVE to the commission that the effects ARE NOT harmful.
g. The garage EXPLAINED to customers that the spare parts HAD NOT BEEN DELIVERD.
(24)a. He EXPLAINED to the staff how they SHOULD HANDLE complaints. how [E] TO HANDLE complaints.
b. You SHOULD INDICATE to the staff where they ARE TO ASSEMBLE. where [E] TO ASSEMBLE.
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(25)a. He GESTURED to the students φ [E] TO STAND UP. b. Fred SIGNALLED to the waiter φ [E] TO BRING another chair. c. Stephen SHOUTED to the chairman φ [E] TO LET someone else speak. d. A policeman MOTIONED to us φ [E] TO MOVE to the side of the road.
Note that: The iO prepositional phrases in (23)a-f and (24)a-b refer to the
person or people addressed by the subject while the iO prepositional phrases in (25)a-d refer to the person or people to whom the subject is calling or signalling.
The Recipient indirect objects of these verbs can never become the subject in a corresponding passive clause. Neither can their that-clause direct objects: (23)h. Sir Humphrey EXPLAINED to the Minister that delays MIGHT BE fatal.
h’. *The Minister WAS EXPLAINED that delays MIGHT BE fatal. h’’. *That delays MIGHT BE fatal WAS EXPLAINED to the Minister.
If a passive is required, some verbs allow an alternative structure with the semantically empty pronoun it and an extraposed that-clause subject:
(23)h’’’. It WAS EXPLAINED to the Minister that delays MIGHT BE fatal.
Below are two more examples to re-support the passive construction with it. (23)g’. It WAS EXPLAINED to customers (by the garage)
that the spare parts HAD NOT BEEN DELIVERD. (23)a’. It WAS EXPLAINED to the staff how they SHOULD HANDLE complaints. how [E] TO HANDLE complaints.
The sentences marked (25)a-d have no passive counterparts at all.
17.3.1.2.10 When the direct object of a complex transitive verb is realised by a finite or non-finite clause, the semantically empty pronoun it is also necessary as an anticipatory Direct Object before the oP/oC adjective (phrase) in the Vgrp.
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S1
NP1 VP1
Vgrp PRO AP[oP/oC] NP[dO] [complex]
[anticipatory dO] S’[(non-)finite clause] PRO A
Comp S2
NP2 VP2
(26)a. I FIND it strange that he REFUSES to come. b. I CONSIDERS it unlikely that the money WILL BE REFUNDED. c. She MIGHT REGARD it insulting for you TO LEAVE now. d. You MUST FIND it flattering φ [E] HAVING so many fans.
17.3.1.3 The indirect object can also be realised by either a finite clause or non-finite clause:
17.3.1.3.1 Both Recipient and Beneficiary indirect objects can be realised by finite Wh-clauses:
(27)a. LEND whoever CALLS the bicycle pump in the shed.
b. SAVE whoever COMES the trouble of ringing.
c. GIVE whatever you THINK best priority.
d. She GAVE whomever she MET a warm greeting.
e. Jack MADE whoever CAME there the same offer.
17.3.1.3.2 Recipient indirect objects can also be realised by non-finite −ing clauses:
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S1 NP1 VP1
PRO Vgrp NP[iO] NP[dO]
[ditrans] S’[non-finite −ing clause] Comp S2 NP2 VP2
(28)a. I ’M GIVING φ [E] READING magazines much less time. b. He DID NOT GIVE φ [E] FINDING the cat a second thought.
17.3.1.4 The subject(ive) complement can also be realised by a finite clause, as in (29)a-e, or a non-finite clause, as in (30)a-e.
Stageberg [1965: 198] believes that “word groups as well as individual words can be nominals, and they occupy the usual noun positions.” The sP/sC (non)finite clauses in italic and bold in the sentences marked (29)a-e are nominals as far as Stageberg’s belief is concerned, and that’s why it is possible to analyse them as being dominated by a NP node, just like the clausal subjects and direct objects considered earlier.
However, Burton-Roberts [1997: 202] argues that “with clausal subject-predicatives, there is no motivation for having the clausal dominated by NP. We have already allowed that a range of categories can function as subject-predicatives (NP, AP, and PP), so there is no reason not to allow that S can as well”. Burton-Roberts’ argument is accepted to make the following tree-diagrams a bit simpler:
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S1
NP1 VP1
Vgrp S’[(non-)finite clause]
[intens] [sP/sC] Comp S2
NP2 VP2
(29)a. That WAS what I THOUGHT too. b. She BECAME what she HAD HOPED. c. She HAS BECOME what she always WANTED TO BE. d. This IS how you SHOULD DO it. e. Ken’s belief IS that things CAN’T GET any worse.
(30) a. The best plan IS for you TO GO by train. b. What most people prefer IS φ others DOING the work. c. The only thing I did WAS φ [E] TELL him to go away. d. My advice IS φ [E] WITHDRAW. e. What I don’t enjoy IS φ [E] STANDING in queues.
17.3.1.5. The object(ive) complement can also be realised by a finite Wh-clause, a non-finite bare or to-infinitive clause, or a non-finite −ing or −ed clause:
17.3.1.5.1 The object(ive) complement in (31)a-e is a finite Wh-clause which “describes a feature or quality of the direct object” [Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 1992: xxv].
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S1
NP1 VP1
Vgrp NP[dO] S’[finite WH-clause]
[complex] [oP/oC] Comp S2 NP2 VP2
(31)a. You MADE me what I AM. b. They MADE him what he HAD always WANTED [E] to be. c. We WILL NAME the baby whatever his grandfather WISHES. d. DYE your hair whatever colour you LIKE! e. Our enthusiasm HAS MADE the club what it IS today.
17.3.1.5.2 The objective complement in (32)a-g is the −ing form of the verb, either alone (e.g. thinking) or as part of a larger clause (e.g. playing in the garden). It tells us “what the object is made to do or is kept doing [Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 1992: xxvi].” S1
NP1 VP1
Vgrp NP[dO] S’[non-finite −ing or −ed clause]
[complex] [oP/oC] Comp S2 NP2 VP2
(32)a. The driver KEPT the engine φ [E] RUNNING. b. This remark SET everyone φ [E] THINKING. c. The look on Bill’s face HAD me φ [E] TREMBLING with fear. d. The policeman GOT the traffic φ [E ] MOVING. e. The smoke STARTED her φ [E ] COUGHING. f. The authorities ORDERED
hundreds of demonstrators φ [E] PLACED under the house arrest. g. We LEFT the children φ [E] WATCHING TV in the living room.
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17.3.1.5.3 The objective complement in (33)a-g is the bare infinitive, either alone (e.g. work) or as part of a larger clause (e.g. play in the road). It tells us what the direct object “is made or allowed to do [Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 1992: xxvi].” The causative verbs have, let and make take a bare infinitive. With help either a to-infinitive or a bare infinitive is possible:
S1 NP1 VP1
Vgrp NP[dO] S’[non-finite bare infinitive clause]
[complex] [oP/oC] Comp S2 NP2 VP2
(33)a. His tutor MADE him φ [E] WORK. b. They MADE the prisoners φ [E] STAND against the wall. c. Stephen HELPED us φ [E] (TO) ORGANISE the party. d. Mother WON’T LET children φ [E] PLAY in the road. e. They WON’T LET you φ [E] VISIT the patient yet. f. We HAD Jane φ [E] RUN through the procedure again. g. I ’LL HAVE my secretary φ [E] MAKE you a reservation.
17.3.1.5.4 The objective complement in (42)a-d is a to-infinitive, either alone (e.g. to give up) or as part of a larger clause (e.g. to answer his questions). It tells us what the direct object “is made or helped to do or be.” [Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 1992: xxvi]
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S1
NP1 VP1
Vgrp NP[dO] S’[non-finite to-infinitive clause]
[complex] [oP/oC] Comp S2 NP2 VP2
(34)a. The situation FORCED me φ [E] TO GIVE UP.
b. The reporter PRESSED her φ [E] TO ANSWER his questions.
c. The extra money HELPED John φ [E] TO BE independent.
d. An official DECLARED the place φ [E] TO BE free from infection.
Note that: Only a small number of complex transitive verbs; usually those
mentioned in (31)a-e, (32)a-h, (33)a-g and (34)a-d; are used in this case.
Only a few verbs in this case can be made passive. The direct object of an active verb becomes the subject of the same verb in the passive: (31)c’. The baby WILL BE NAMED whatever his grandfather WISHES.
(32)d’. The traffic WAS GOT MOVING (by the policeman).
(33)a’. He WAS MADE TO WORK (by his tutor). (34)d’. The place WAS DECLARED TO BE free from infection (by an official).
17.3.1.6 The complement of a preposition (cPrep, for short) can also be realised by a finite Wh-clause, a non-finite to-infinitive clause or an −ing clause:
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PP
P S’[(non-)finite clause] [cPrep] Comp S NP VP
(35)a. CAN you SEE from where you SIT? b. You MUST DO the best with what you HAVE. d. I strongly OBJECT to what you ’VE just SAID. e. It all DEPENDS on where you GO. g. He HAS no idea of how it SHOULD BE DONE. f. We HAVE RECEIVED no news as yet of when the boat LEAVES. c. The party WILL HAVE TO DRAW from whatever sources it CAN. h. They ARE all ARGUING about how much [E] TO CHARGE admittance.
(36)a. I THOUGHT of φ [E] PAYING cash. b. You CAN COUNT on φ Jane TO HELP make the sandwiches. c. I BELIEVE in φ [E] GETTING things done as quickly as possible.
17.3.2 SUBORDINATE/EMBEDDED ADJECTIVAL CLAUSES (SubACl/ EmACl, for short):
An adjective clause which appear inside an NP can be either optional, and thus subordinate, as in (37)b-c and (38)d-e, or obligatory, and thus embedded, as in (37)a and (38)a-c:
S1 NP1 VP1 NP2 S’[finite clause]
DET N’ Comp S2
ART headN NP2 VP2
(37)a. The news that the enemy WERE near ALARMED everybody. b. The boy φ who WAS SLEEPING WAS DREAMING. c. The place where I first MET my husband IS NOT far from here.
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NP1
NP2 S’[finite clause]
DET N’ Comp S
ART headN NP VP
(38)a. No one CAN DENY the fact that fire BURNS. b. He CAME to me in the belief that I COULD HELP him. c. I HEARD a rumour that he IS LEAVING. d. I’LL never FORGET the day when I first ENTERED the university.
e. That’s the reason why she HAS REFISED his invitation.
17.3.3 SUBORDINATE/EMBEDDED ADVERBIAL CLAUSES (SubAdvCl/EmAdvCl, for short):
17.3.3.1 In the form of a finite Wh-clause, a non-finite to-infinitive clause, or an adverbial clause can be used to complement or modify a head adjective, i.e. to be an adjective complement/post-modifier: S1
NP1 VP1
Vgrp AP[sP/sC] [intens] headA S’[(non-)finite clause] Comp S2 NP2 VP2
(39)a. They WERE hopeful (that the weather WOULD CHANGE).
b. Andrew SEEMED angry (that the dog HAD NOT BEEN FED).
c. John IS doubtful (if he CAN PASS the test). d. She IS indifferent (whether you COME or not). e. Leon WAS happy (that Sara WON the race).
f. Leon WAS aware that Sara WON the race. (40)a. φ FEEL free (φ [E] TO ASK QUESTIONS)!
b. Jack APPEARED eager (φ [E] TO SEE her).
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c. The tree IS safe (φ [E] TO CLIMB up). d. Elephants ARE NOT easy φ [E] TO LASSO.
17.3.3.2 Adverbial clauses can be used to complement or modify A HEAD VERB:
S1
NP1 VP1 PRO VP2 AdvP1 VP3 AdvP2 S’[finite clause] Vgrp Adv Comp S2 [intrans] NP2 VP4
(41) I HAVE BEEN WORKING here since I GRADUATED from my university.
17.4 Compound-complex sentences contain “two or more main clauses and one or more subordinate clauses”. [Warriner, Whitten and Griffith, 1958: 82] (42)a. Sally SAID she SAW a ghost and Dan BELIEVED her.
b. I DID NOT WANT to leave my bed but the wind BLEW so strong that I WAS at last COMPELLED to get up to shut the window.
c. Since I HAD SEEN him the day before, I KNEW that he WAS happy, but I DID NOT GUESS that he WOULD GIVE up his plans.
S4
S3 Conj S2
NP3 VP3 NP2 VP2
PropN Vgrp NP[dO] PropN Vgrp NP[dO] [trans] [trans]
S’[finite clause] PRO Comp S1
NP1 VP1
(42)a. Sally SAID φ she SAW a ghost and Dan BELIEVED her.
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S4
S3 Conj S2 NP3 VP3 NP2 VP2
I DID NOT WANT to leave my bed but the wind BLEW so strong (42)b. S’
[finite that-clause] Comp S1
NP1 VP1
that I WAS at last COMPELLED to get up to shut the window.
In conclusion, “in the complete IC analysis of a sentence we cut the sentence into two parts or IC’c, then cut each of these two again into two, and so on until we have only individual words remaining as parts” [Stageberg, 1965: 263].
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SECTION 3: GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS 18 Structure
“The concept of STRUCTURE is essential in distinguishing between the strings of words that are well-formed expressions in the language and those that are not.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 8] To show how things can be analyzed into their constituent parts in this text, we use TREE-DIAGRAMS — the trees that are upside-down:
S NP VP DET N’ Vgrp AP[sP/sC] [intens] DEM headN A
These concepts are basic.
This does not prevent us from having a quick look at some other common types of diagrams:
Fries’ diagrams (also called UPSIDEDOWN-T DIAGRAMS) in Stageberg [1965] and Barsova et al [1969]: These concepts are basic
Candelabra’s diagrams in Barsova et al [1969]: these concepts are basic
Reed and Kellogg’s diagrams in House and Harman [1965]: concepts are
these basic
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19 Endocentric structures vs. exocentric structures 19.1 ENDOCENTRIC STRUCTURE
Phrases like the NOUN PHRASE (NP, for short) their rather dubious jokes are said to be ENDOCENTRIC. “An endocentric construction may be
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substituted for as a whole by one of its constituent units; e.g. a noun may stand for the whole noun phrase, c.f. big African lions roaming in the jungle — lions.” [Jackson, 1980: 26]
19.2 EXOCENTRIC STRUCTURE
Phrases like the PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE (PP, for short) beside a stream are said to be EXOCENTRIC. There is a TWO-WAY DEPENDENCE (⇔, for short) between beside and a stream as a whole: both of the two constituents must occur to form the PP beside a stream; “one of them cannot stand for the whole phrase” [Jackson, 1980: 26].
However, the PP beside a stream can also be considered
ENDOCENTRIC: “Although beside and a stream are both needed to express the spatial orientation in this case, it is the word beside that is giving the phrase as a whole its locational character. So beside is the head of the phrase.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 43] If the PREPOSITION (P, for short) beside is the HEAD (H, for short) of the prepositional phrase beside a stream then a stream is functioning as COMPLEMENT (C, for short) to that head: (H) beside ⇔ a stream (C).
“Each phrase must have a head. A noun phrase has a noun as head, a verb phrase has a verb as head, a prepositional phrase a preposition as head, and an adjective phrase an adjective as head.” [Jacobs, 1995: 51]
Briefly, the STRUCTURES of MODIFICATION, COMPLEMENTATION, and CO-ORDINATION are all endocentric whereas THE STRUCTURE OF
PREDICATION is exocentric. As to a prepositional phrase, it may be regarded either as an exocentric structure or as an endocentric structure.
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20 Types of syntactic structures
20.1 STRUCTURE OF MODIFICATION There is a one-way dependence (⇒, for short) in the STRUCTURE of
MODIFICATION. In the phrase their rather dubious jokes, rather is dependent on dubious, in the sense that it is only present because dubious is. If we are to omit dubious, rather will be left without a function, and the
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omission would result in an ill-formed string (*their rather jokes). Notice, however, that dubious is in no way dependent on rather. We can omit rather and still be left with a perfectly good phrase (their dubious jokes).
And rather dubious as a whole is dependent on jokes but not vice-versa. Rather dubious (the modifier of the phrase) could be omitted (giving their jokes), but jokes (the head of the phrase) could not (*their rather dubious).
(modifier) rather ⇒ dubious (head) (modifier) rather dubious ⇒ jokes (head) (modifier) their ⇒ rather dubious jokes (head)
Thus, ‘their rather dubious jokes’ is a typical example of the STRUCTURE OF MODIFICATION.
20.2 STRUCTURE OF COMPLEMENTATION There is a two-way dependence (⇔, for short) in the STRUCTURE of
COMPLEMENTATION. Both the monotransitive verb saw and the noun phrase many things must occur to form the verb phrase saw many things: saw is its head and many things is the complement of that head:
(head) saw ⇔ many things (complement)
Since one of the two constituents cannot stand for the whole verb phrase as a unit, ‘saw many things’ is a typical example of the STRUCTURE
of COMPLEMENTATION.
20.3 STRUCTURE OF COORDINATION “Max and Adrian is a COORDINATE NOUN PHRASE (Co-NP, for short),
with Max and Adrian coordinated by and. Co-ordinate NPs have as many heads as there are nouns coordinated in them. Other COORDINATORS are but and or.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 67]
In Stageberg’s opinion [1965: 273], the coordinator “is set off as a separate element and does not belong to either IC”:
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Co-NP Co-NP
NP1 Conj NP2 NP1 NP2 Conj NP3
N1 N2 N1 N2 N3
(1)a. Max and Adrian (1)b. sandwiches, relish, and coffee
Stuffy and hot is a COORDINATE ADJECTIVE PHRASE (Co-AP, for short), with stuffy and hot coordinated by and. This Co-AP can be pre-modified by too, which is a DEGREE ADVERB (DEG, for short) as in (2)a. Stuffy and too hot is another Co-AP, with stuffy and too hot coordinated by and. In this case, too only pre-modifies the ADJECTIVE (A, for short) hot as in (2)c. Describe the internal structure of the phrase marked (2)b. In what way(s) is it different from that of (2)a?
AP Co-AP Co-AP DEG Co-AP AP1 Conj AP2 AP1 Conj AP2 A1 Conj A2 DEG A A A DEG A
(2)a. too stuffy and hot (2)b.too stuffy and hot (2)c. stuffy and too hot
The prepositional phrase up and down the stairs contain a CO-
ORDINATION OF PREPOSITIONS (Co-P, for short), with up and down coordinated by and as in (3)a. In the foundation and under the rafters is a COORDINATE PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE (Co-PP, for short), with in the foundation and under the rafters coordinated by and as in (3)b.
PP Co-PP
Co-P NP PP1 Conj PP2
P1 Conj P2 the stairs P1 NP1 P2 NP2
(3)a. up and down (3)b. in the foundation and under the rafters
Two important points to notice about the co-ordinations marked (1)a-b, (2)a-c and (3)a-b are that “the mother and the sisters of the
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coordinator (and in this case) all have the same category label” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 71] and that “the parts joined by Coordinate Conjunctions ought usually to be of exactly equal value” [Campbell, 1962: 5]. All these co-ordinations are typical examples of the STRUCTURE of COORDINATION.
20.4 STRUCTURE OF PREDICATION
Wherever possible, a SENTENCE (S, for short) should be divided into the fewest possible parts, i.e. into two: a NOUN PHRASE (NP, for short) and a VERB PHRASE (VP, for short).
S
NP (subject) VP (predicate)
(4)a. Ducks paddled. b. The ducks are paddling away. c. Those gigantic ducks were paddling away furiously. d. The mouth-watering duck on the table won’t be paddling away again. e. The ones over there must have paddled for a while. f. Those on the left have been paddling noisily. g. Mine kept on paddling quickly. h. These did paddle. i. They did.
The sentences (4)a-i have all been divided into two constituents; the first is traditionally said to function as SUBJECT, and the second as PREDICATE. “One way of thinking of these functions is to think of the subject as being used to mention something and the predicate as used to say something true or false about the subject.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 31]
While the noun phrase and the verb phrase of the sentences marked (4)a-i display the STRUCTURE of MODIFICATION, the very sentences are typical examples of the STRUCTURE of PREDICATION.
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21 Constructions vs. constituents 21.1 A construction is any significant group of words (or morphemes):
old man, lives there, the man who lives there, has gone, to his son’s house, has gone to his son’s house, the old man who lives there has gone to his son’s house, etc.
But there has is not, since the two words have no direct connection. Neither is man since this word contains only one word (and also one morpheme). On a syntactic level lives is not a construction; but on a morphological level it is a construction consisting of two morphemes, live and −s.
21.2 A constituent is any word or construction (or morpheme) which enters into some larger construction. Thus, each of the words in the sentence ‘The old man who lives there has gone to his son’s house.’ is a constituent. So are the two constructions old man and the old man who lives there.
However, there has or man who is not a constituent. Neither is the sentence as a whole since there is no larger construction of which it is a part.
Briefly, all but the smallest constituents are constructions and all but the largest constructions are constituents. In syntax, the smallest constituents are words, and the largest constructions are sentences.
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22 Immediate constituents vs. ultimate constituents
22.1 An IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENT (an IC, for short) is one of the two constituents of which any given construction is directly formed. In other words, “each of the two parts into which any structure is divided” [Stageberg, 1965: 263] is called an IMMEDIATE CONSTITUENT.
The IC’s of a given construction are its constituents on the next lower level:
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the old man who lives there | has gone to his son’s house
the old man | who lives there has gone | to his son’s house the | old man who | lives there has | gone to | his son’s house
old | man lives | there his son’s | house his son | ’s his | son 22.2 ULTIMATE CONSTITUENTS are the smallest constituents of
which a given construction is composed. If the ultimate constituents of a word are “the unit morphemes
of which it is composed” [Stageberg, 1965: 98] then the ultimate constituents of a sentence are the individual words (or the possessive morpheme in some cases) of which it is composed.
There are thirteen ultimate constituents in the old man who lives there has gone to his son’s house: the, old, man, who, lives, there, has, gone, to, his, son,’s and house.
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23 Immediate constituents of a sentence Using the diagram marked (1) as an illustration, one may say “yes” to
the question “Are words the immediate constituents of the sentence that contains them?”
S
(1) Old Sam sunbathed beside a stream.
Compare the diagram marked (1) with the diagrams marked (2) and (3): S
*(2) Stream old Sam sunbathed beside a.
S
*(3) Sunbathed old beside stream a Sam.
The diagram marked (1) fails to give any explanation of why the words that occur in (1) form a well-formed English sentence, and why those that occur in (2) and (3) do not.
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“The arrangement of words in a sentence is largely determined by the fact that the words are not immediate constituents of the sentences, but belong with other words to form groups which have their own specifiable position in the structure of the sentence. In short, while sentences CONTAIN words, they don’t CONSIST (just of) words.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 11-12]
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24 Intervening level of organization between word and sentence The fact that words do not pattern directly into sentences
implies that there are some intervening levels of organization between word and sentence. They are usually called phrase, and clause [Jackson, 1980: 4].
The sentence marked (1) consists of two phrases: a noun phrase as the subject and a verb phrase as the predicate.
(1) My bother was an outstanding student.
The sentence marked (2) consists of two independent clauses that are coordinately linked by the conjunction ‘but’:
(2) My bother was an outstanding student, but I was not. _________________
25 Modifiers vs. complements 25.1“A modifier is a subordinate element in an endocentric
structure. It is a word or a word group that affects the meaning of a headword in that it describes, limits, intensifies and/or adds to the meaning of the head. In the noun cluster the blue shirt, for example, the word blue describes the shirt; it limits by excluding other colours; and it adds to the plain meaning of shirt.
Modifiers may appear before or after the heads they modify, and sometimes they are separated from the head by intervening words” [Stageberg, 1965: 230-231]:
a butterfly in the garden which was fluttering among the flowers
25.2 The term complement may be used to refer to various linguistic notions. Richards, Platt and Weber [1985] and Jacobs [1995] share something in
common in reference to the term complement when the former [1985: 52]
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states that a complement is “that part of the sentence which follows the verb and which thus completes the sentence” and the latter [1995: 59] believes that “a complement is the phrase following the predicate and linked very closely to it; it is the constituent that ‘completes’ the predicate. However, these authors differ in what they consider as complements.
The complements according to Richards, Platt and Weber [1985:52] are: subject complement: the complement linked to a subject by be or
an intensive verb: She IS a doctor. object complement, i.e. the complement linked to an object:
We MADE her the chairperson. adjective complement, i.e. the complement linked to an adjective:
I’M glad that you can come. complement of a preposition, i.e. the complement linked to a preposition:
They ARGUED about what to do.” In addition to subject and object complements [1995: 58-60] and
adjective and prepositional complements [1995: 99], Jacobs also presents noun complements [1995: 99-101]: “Many nouns … takes complement clauses or complement prepositional phrases:
the story that Eleanor had met with the senator the news of her marriage.”
Unlike Jacobs [1995] and Richards, Platt and Weber [1985], Stageberg’s [1965: 165] complements also cover direct and indirect objects: “The complements is the generic term for the completers of the verb, which we shall later learn to know as direct object, indirect object, object complement, and subject complement (with its subclasses of predicative noun, predicative pronoun, and predicative adjective.”
Later in his textbook, Stageberg [1965: 275] presents “the complement of the adjectival” but says nothing concerning either noun complements or complements of a preposition.
_________________
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26 Types of adjective complements An adjectival complement completes the meaning of the adjective
head in a predicative adjective phrase. There are various kinds of complements in a predicative adjective phrase:
A prepositional phrase: averse, free and tantamount must take as its complement a prepositional phrase:
(1)a. I’M NOT averse to a cup of tea. b. ARE you free from all responsibilities? c. Her remarks WERE tantamount to slander.
A non-finite to-infinitive clause: Loath must take as its complement a non-finite to-infinitive clause:
(2) They WERE loath [E]TO LEAVE this district. A finite dependent clause: Aware must take as its complement a finite
dependent clause1: (3)a. He IS aware that very few jobs ARE available.
b. I don’t think you ’RE aware how much this MEANS to me. _________________
27 Pre-adjectival modifiers vs. post-adjectival modifiers An attributive adjective can only take an optional pre-modifier
while a predicative adjective may optionally be pre-modified and optionally or obligatorily post-modified.
27.1 The pre-modifier in an adjective phrase, either attributive or predicative, may only be an adverb:
(1)a. It IS a very exciting film. b. This film IS very exciting.
27.2 Predicative adjectives, not attributive adjectives, may take post-modifiers:
(2)a. *She IS a somewhat anxious about his son’s health mother. b. She IS somewhat anxious about his son’s health.
1Aware can also take as its complement a prepositional phrase:
He WAS aware of a creaking noise.
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27.3 There are various kinds of post-modifiers in a predicative adjective phrase:
A prepositional phrase: (3)a. My roommate BECAME tired of studying.
b. The dean WAS NOT angry with me. c. I’M worried about your study.
A non-finite to-infinitive clause: (4)a. Jack APPEARED eager [E] TO SEE her.
b. We WERE reluctant [E] TO LEAVE. c. Jane WAS delighted [E] TO RECEIVE the gift.
A finite dependent clause: (5)a. I’M glad that it IS over.
b. She IS indifferent whether you COME or not. _________________
28 Adjective complements vs. optional post-adjectival modifiers 28.1 For most predicative adjectives, post-modification is optional.
In other words, an adjective phrase functioning predicatively does not always obligatorily contain a certain kind of post-modifier. Anxious and devoted, for example, can occur with or without post-modification: (1)a. Mrs Green IS devoted.
b. Mrs Green IS really devoted. c. Mrs Green IS really devoted to her daughter.
(2)a. He IS anxious. b. He IS (very) anxious. c. He IS (very) anxious about his wife’s health. d. He IS (very) anxious [E] TO PLEASE everybody. e. He IS (very) anxious that no one SHOULD ACCUSE him of laziness.
28.2 For other predicative adjectives, however, post-modification is obligatory.
Averse, free and tantamount are always followed by a prepositional phrase:
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(3)a. I’M NOT averse to a cup of tea. b. ARE you free from all responsibilities? c. Her remarks WERE tantamount to slander.
Loath is always followed by a non-finite to-infinitive clause: (4) They WERE loath [E] TO LEAVE this district.
Aware must take as its complement either a prepositional phrase or a finite dependent clause: (5)a. He WAS aware of a creaking noise.
b. He IS aware that very few jobs ARE available. c. I don’t think you’RE aware how much this MEANS to me.
Afraid must take as its complement either a prepositional phrase or a finite dependent clause beginning with the subordinator “that”: (6)a. She WAS afraid of what MIGHT HAPPEN
if Edward turned round and saw her. b. She WAS afraid of losing customers. c. She WAS afraid that he MIGHT LOSE customers.
The obligatory post-adjectival modifier should be called THE
COMPLEMENT of the head adjective in a predicative adjective phrase to be distinguished from any possible optional post-adjectival modifier of the head adjective.
An adjective may be both pre-modified and post-modified. Pre-adjectival modifiers are always optional whereas post-adjectival modifiers may be either optional or obligatory. The combination of an adjective and its optional post-modifier is an example of THE STRUCTURE
OF MODIFICATION whereas the combination of an adjective and its obligatory complement displays THE STRUCTURE OF COMPLEMENTATION.
Thus, it is crucial to observe what follows the head adjective in a predicative adjective phrase and to determine whether it is A COMPLEMENT or A MODIFIER.
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29 Classification of English adjectives according to their post-modifiers We may give a affirmative answer to the above question because
English adjectives vary in the kinds of post-modifiers that are possible after them:
29.1 Many adjectives do not allow any post-modifier (though they may take a pre-modifier): big, blue, astute, sudden, tall, criminal, etc.:
(1)a. This IS another really big problem. b. This problem IS really big. (2)a. She HAS blue eyes.
b. Her eyes ARE blue. (3)a. It’S a criminal waste of public money.
b. Their actions ARE criminal.
29.2 Some adjectives allow one or more kinds of optional post-modifiers: Interesting may take only an infinitive (phrase):
(4) His book IS interesting to read.
Attentive allows only a prepositional phrase: (5) The audience WAS attentive tothe speaker.
Safe allows either a prepositional phrase or an infinitive phrase: (6)a. This toy IS safe for children.
b. This tree IS safe to climb up.
Anxious, however, take all three kinds of post-modifiers: (7)a. He IS very anxious about his wife’s health,
b. He IS very anxious to please everybody, c. He IS very anxious that no one should accuse him of laziness.
29.3 Some adjectives require one or more kinds of oblibatory post-modifiers, which are also known as adjectives complements:
Fond and tantamount must take as its complement a prepositional phrase:
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(8)a. I’M fond of swimming.
b. Her remarks WERE tantamount to slander.
Loath must take as its complement a non-finite to-infinitive clause: (9) They WERE loath [E] TO LEAVE this district.
Aware must take as its complement either a prepositional phrase or a finite dependent clause:
(10)a. He WAS aware of a creaking noise. b. He IS aware that very few jobs ARE available.
c. [I don’t think] you’RE aware how much this MEANS to me.
Afraid must take as its complement either a prepositional phrase or a finite dependent clause beginning with the subordinator “that”:
(11)a. She WAS afraid of losing customers. b. She WAS afraid that he MIGHT LOSE customers. c. She WAS afraid of what MIGHT HAPPEN
if Edward turned round and saw her. _________________
30 Types of adverbial adjuncts 30.1 All VPs are optionally modified by one or more adverbial adjuncts
which “provide circumstantial information about the action, process or event talked about in the clause in which they occur. Circumstantial information includes information about the place, time, manner, etc. of the action, process or event” [Jackson, 1980: 25]. Being adverbials, adjuncts are frequently in form of adverbs or adverb phrases, prepositional phrases, infinitive phrases, participial phrases and subordinate finite clauses.
30.2 Adverbial adjuncts can be sub-categorised according to the meanings they express. Note that the adverbial adjunct in question is underlined and the Vgrp IS CAPITALISED for better identification and that only INTRANSITIVE VERBS are employed to simplify the following analysis a bit:
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30.2.1 Adverbial adjuncts of Time have four subcategories within them: Adverbial adjuncts of Point of Time tell when an event takes place,
answering the question ‘When?’ or ‘At what time?’: (1)a. My father WORKS at night.
b. We’LL BE FLYING over France at eight thirty tonight. c. I’LL COME some time/next week. d. They ARRIVED the next day/at a quarter past nine.
Adverbial adjuncts of Duration or Extent in Time describe how long an event lasts, answering the question ‘How long?’: (2)a. I’D LIKE TO GO for a week in silence.
b. The two drivers MUST STAY until the police get there. c. He WORKS hard from morning till night. d. The bell RANG all day long. e. It LASTED years. f. I’VE BEEN WORKING here since 1981/since I graduated from my
university.
Adverbial adjuncts of Frequency describe how often an event occurs, answering the question ‘How often?’ or ‘How many times?’: (3)a. He COMES home late from time to time.
b. We MEET twice a week and EAT OUT every Friday evening. c. The roof LEAKS whenever it rains. d. The electrician always/usually/often/sometimes/rarely/never
WORKS overtime.
Adverbial adjuncts of Temporal relationship convey the temporal relationship between two events or states, answering the question ‘When? (4)a. After this the conversation SANK for a while into mere sociability.
b. They HAD ARRIVED before the meeting started.
30.2.2 Adverbial adjuncts of Place (also called Space) have six subcategories within them:
Adverbial adjuncts of Location or Position describe the very place in, on or at which an action occurs, answering the question ‘Where?’: (5)a. They STOMPED upstairs.
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b. My sister and her boyfriend MET at a dance. c. I CAN hardly STUDY at home. d. A Panamanian passenger bus LAY in a ditch. e. He always HIDES where I can never reach.
Adverbial adjuncts of Distance or Extent in Space include both general description of distance and specific measurements of an action, answering the question ‘How far?’: (6)a. I CAN’T WALK much farther.
b. We RAN no more than two blocks. c. I’LL JOG as far as I can. d. You SHOULD NOT GO too near/too close. e. They’VE WALKED for seven miles.
Adverbial adjuncts of Direction give a general orientation or the direction of an action, answering the question ‘In what direction?’: (7)a. A visitor CAME in.
b. A tiger HAS GOT out. c. We ARE FLYING due north. d. Opinion IS SHIFTING in favour of the new scheme.
Adverbial adjuncts of Terminus describe the direction of an action towards a destination, answering the question ‘Where?’: (8)a. The director HAS COME home.
b. She GOES to the church to take a few pictures. c. He JUMPED onto the ground/into the air. d. They GO where(ever) they are told.
Adverbial adjuncts of Source describe the direction of an action from a point of origin, answering the question ‘From which?’ ‘From where?’ or ‘From whom?’: (9)a. She GRADUATED from Cambridge with a degree in law.
b. He BORROWED freely from other writers. c. He JUMPED off the roof. d. He’S COME straight back from the construction site.
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Adverbial adjuncts of Path describe the pathway of an action, answering the question ‘By/Through/Along/Via/By way of which?’: (10)a. They ARE TRAVELING to France by way of London.
b. You CAN GO from London to Washington via New York. c. He JUMPED out of the window/over the wall. d. A lot of vehicles TRAVEL along the street. e. The train WHISTLED past (the village). f. We CAME by country roads, not by the motor road. g. The burglar GOT in through the window and ESCAPED through the
back door.
30.2.3 Adverbial adjuncts of Manner describe the way in which something is done, answering the question ‘How?’ or ‘By what way?’: (11)a. The gears WORK very smoothly.
b. She CAME in gently/in a gentle way. c. He JUMPED this way. d. I LINGERED on purpose. e. He BEHAVES quite strangely/in a very strange way/as if he is
going to be attacked.
30.2.4 Adverbial adjuncts of Behalf or Guise answer the question ‘Who for?’, ‘Instead of whom?’, ‘On behalf of whom?’, ‘What as?’ or ‘What into?’: (12)a. I COME here as a friend.
b. Tom CAME instead of Paul. c. He SET out poor/as a pauper. d. He CAME back rich/a rich man/as a millionaire. e. Mavis LEFT the house a smiling, confident woman.
30.2.5 Adverbial adjuncts of Comparison compare the manner of a state or action relative to another, answering the question ‘How?’ (13)a. Our coach LEFT earlier than it should have done.
b. This M.C. SPEAKS more fluently than accurately. c. He DID as much as he could.
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d. The students CAN’T TRANSLATE as well as their professor does. e. You MUST TRANSLATE as accurately as possible. f. The lip CURLED like a snail’s foot.
30.2.6 Adverbial adjuncts of Accompaniment lie along the continuum from clearly conveying manner to encompassing more ambiguous meanings. They usually answer the question ‘With/Without whom?’, ‘With/Without what?’ or ‘And who/what else?’: (14)a. I WENT to the ball with the handsome Prince Igor.
b. I LEFT with someone else. c. He’S COMING downstairs with two sleeping bags over the top of
his head.
The adverbial adjuncts in (14)a-b show physical accompaniment. Though they are not always obviously answers to a ‘How?’ question, they can be replaced by the opposite adverbial adjuncts of Manner such as independently or by myself and thus fit the manner category most clearly. In some sense, the adverbial adjunct in (14)c conveys information about the Manner of ‘coming downstairs’, but the precise semantic relationship between this adverbial adjunct and the rest of the clause is difficult to define. Below some more adverbial adjuncts of Accompaniment: (14)d. I CAN’T LIVE without you.
e. I’VE COME out without any money. f. Tom CAME as well as Paul.
30.2.7 Adverbial adjuncts of Means tell the means by which an activity or state was accomplished, answering the question ‘How?’ or ‘By what means?’: (15)a. Mrs. Brown never TRAVELS by air.
b. They GOT over to that deserted village on foot/on horseback. c. I GO to work by bus. d. He GOT here by running all the way from home.
30.2.8 Adverbial adjuncts of Instrument describe the item used to undertake a task, answering the question ‘With/Without what?’:
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(16)a. The prisoner ESCAPED with only a razor blade. b. I CAN hardly STUDY without an up-to-date dictionary. c. She frequently WRITES in pencil. d. You SHOULD NOT READ by artificial light. e. They usually PAY in cash, not by check. f. She often SEWS with cotton thread.
30.2.9 Adverbial adjuncts of Cause and of Reason both answer the question ‘Why?’ Traditionally, cause has been associate with a relatively objective statement, as in (17)a-c, while reason has implied a more subjective assessment, as in (17)d-e: (17)a. He [was buried under bricks, and] DIED of head injures.
b. We MISSED the plane through being held up on the motorway. c. The old man WALKED slowly because of his bad legs/
because his legs are bad. d. I WENT there because I was told. e. I’VE BEEN WAITING here as I know you’ll certainly come and pick
me up.
In the majority of cases, however, it is difficult to judge the level of objectivity and thus to discern between cause and reason, as with the following examples: (17)f. The plan FELL down because it proved to be expensive.
g. He THRIVES on positive criticism.
30.2.10 Adverbial adjuncts of Contingency, like adverbial adjuncts of Cause, also answer the question ‘Why’. However, it is necessary to note that adverbial adjuncts of Cause “give as a reason of something which is happening, has happened, or will happen” while adverbial adjuncts of Contingency “give as a reason of something which might have happened, or which may happen” [Campbell, 1962: 59]. The first is certain, the second is only possible or probable, as shown in (18)a-d: (18)a. They DECIDED to retreat at once
for fear (that)/lest they should be cut from the main force. b. You SHOULD LEAVE immediately in case of fire.
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c. You HAD BETTER NOT SKI in case the weather is really bad. d. We STARTED early for fear of a possible traffic jam.
30.2.11 Adverbial adjuncts of Purpose answer the question ‘What for?’ or ‘For what purpose?’: (19)a. I’VE GOT TO WRITE to report what I’ve been doing so far.
b. She just WORKS for her own account. c. He’S GONE on business, not for pleasure. d. I JOG for the sake of my health. e. The ground crew even CRAWLED into the un-pressurised luggage
compartments so as not to be left behind. f. They always WALK
so that/in order that they may/might get plenty of exercise.
Purpose is also closely related to reason, it is possible, for example, to paraphrase (19)a as ‘The reason I’ve got to write IS to report what I’ve been doing so far.’
30.2.12 Adverbial adjuncts of Result: “In Purpose Sentences something is done deliberately in order to bring
about a certain result. The Subordinate Clause often has MAY or MIGHT. In Result Sentences something happens by chance and brings about a certain result. The Subordinate Clause never has MAY or MIGHT.” [Campbell,1962: 58] (20)a. He DRANK so much that he’s got stomachache.
b. My father SMOKED so heavily that he got lung cancer. c. He JUMPED so high that he easily crossed the barrier. d. The third couple DANCED so beautifully that all the examiners
awarded them the maximal point.
30.2.13 Adverbial adjuncts of Concession express material that runs counter to the proposition of the rest of the clause or, in the case of adverbial adjuncts realized as clauses, counter to the proposition in the main clause: (21)a. He DOESN’T SUCCEED however hard he tries.
b. She FAILS however much she does.
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c. They KEPT on swimming (even) though/in spite of the fact that the weather was bad. despite/in spite of the bad weather.
d. [1700 miners have been out for seven months and,] despite intimidation, no one HAS GONE back to work.
30.2.14 Adverbial adjuncts of Condition express the conditions which hold on the proposition of the main clause, including both positive and negative conditions. They usually answer the question ‘Under what condition(s)?’: (22)a. These people CANNOT OPERATE unless they receive support.
b. You MAY LEAVE right now provided that you work overtime tomorrow.
c. We CAN PLAY as long as it doesn’t rain. d. You CAN LEAVE, if necessary. e. And if you were in the mood we COULD at least GO.
30.2.15 Adverbial adjuncts of Degree or Extent tell the extent to
which a proposition holds, answering the question ‘How much?’, ‘How many?’ ‘To what degree?’ or ‘To which extent?’: (23)a. [The government had predicted that] rateable values WOULD RISE
by about seven times. b. The land tenure system VARIES slightly from place to place.
c. He POINTED very obviously at the woman in the fur coat. d. He CAN hardly HAVE ARRIVED yet.
e. The girl SLIPPED and almost FELL. f. She’S GETTING on a bit now.
g. I HAD TO AGREE partially/completely/to a certain extent. h. I quite AGREE/UNDERSTAND. i. I CAN’T AGREE more.
30.2.16 Adverbial adjuncts of Addition or Restriction
Adverbial adjuncts of Addition (also called additive adjuncts) show that a current proposition is being added to a previous one:
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(24)a. She also PLAYS well. b. I DID, too. c. I DIDN’T, either.
It is important to note that unlike conjuncts, adverbial adjuncts of Addition “do not serve primarily to link units of discourse. Rather, their primary purpose is to show that one bit of propositional content is being added to a previously mentioned idea or entity”. [Biber et all, 1999: 779]
Adverbial adjuncts of Restriction (also called restrictive adjuncts) emphasize that the proposition is true in a way which expressly excludes some other possibilities: (24)d. I’M only JOKING.
e. Well, they just FELL behind, you know. A feature shared by adjuncts of Additive and those of Restrictive
is that, unlike many other adverbials, they often cannot be moved without affecting their meaning in the clause. The position of the adverbial is important in determining what element of the clause is the focus of the addition or restriction. Thus, the following pairs of sentences are not equivalent. Only the adverbs in (25)a-b are adjuncts; the adverb in (25)a’ is a disjunct while that in (25)b’ is a conjunct: (25)a. A heart born especially for me, Jackie USED TO TEASE.
a’. Especially a heart born for me, Jackie USED TO TEASE. b. Mr. Arce Gomez also HAS a human rights reputation. b’. Also Mr. Arce Gomez HAS a human rights reputation.
30.3 Note that adverbial adjuncts may precede and/or follow the Vgrp of the VP: S S NP VP1 NP VP1
PropN VP2 AdvP AdvP VP2
[opA of Location] [opA of Manner] Vgrp Vgrp [intrans] PP Adv [intrans]
(26)a. Phil SUNBATHED beside a stream. (26)b. A tourist suddenly COLLAPSED.
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30.4 Also note that two or more adverbial adjuncts of different types may occur together, following a variety of orders: (27)a. He TRAVELS a lot (Degree)
from and to Hanoi (Source and Terminus). b. She WROTE quickly (Manner) in order to finish in time (Purpose). c. The cat CREPT silently (Manner) towards the bird (Direction). d. I WANT TO GO somewhere slightly more exotic (Terminus)
for a change (Purpose). e. He WILL certainly (Degree) DIE
if you don’t call a doctor (Condition). S
NP VP1 PRO AdvP1 VP2 [opA of Frequency] VP3 AdvP2 [opA of Point of Time] VP4 AdvP3 DEG headAdv [opA of Terminus ⇒ Purpose] PP
Vgrp [intrans] PP
(27)f. She hardly ever GOES to bed before midnight.
30.5 An obligatory adverbial adjunct can sometimes be left out provided that there is enough contextual support. The missing adverbial adjunct is supplied in < > in the examples below: (28)a. [The two patients WERE also RELEASED from Guy’s yesterday
afternoon.] One REMAINED <in hospital> for an exploratory operation on a shoulder injury.
b. “Why HAVE I BEEN here?” he wanted to say. “How long DO I HAVE TO STAY <here>?”
30.6 An optional adverbial adjunct may follow an obligatory
adverbial adjunct. In (29)a-f there exists an adverbial obligatory adjunct of Place (i.e. either of Location, Terminus, Path, Direction or of Source):
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(29) a. We HAVE LIVED here (Location) for ten years (Extent in Time). b. We WENT to Rome (Terminus) by Milan and Florence (Path). c. A van carrying farm workers RAN off a foggy rural road (Source)
and PLUNGED into a murky canal (Terminus) today (Point of Time). d. He’S COMING downstairs (Direction)
with two sleeping bags over the top of his head (Accompaniment). e. She SLID over the questions (Path)
without answering them (Manner). f. Daddy CAME home (Terminus) from work (Source)
earlier than usual (Manner).
30.7 Quite often, only one obligatory adverbial adjunct is enough to make the meaning conveyed by the VP of a given sentence complete. In some cases, however, both adverbial adjuncts in the VP are obligatory: (30)a. The project WOULD GO forwards (Direction) as planned (Manner).
b. The project WOULD GO forwards (Direction). c. The project WOULD GO as planned (Manner).
(31)a. The jumbo jet FLEW up (Direction) into the open air (Terminus). b. The jumbo jet FLEW up (Direction). c’. The jumbo jet FLEW into the open air (Terminus).
It is not always easy to tell whether an adverbial adjunct is obligatory or optional. However, this distinction is crucial as far as the meaning expressed by the whole VP in which the adjunct occur is concerned.
30.8 The above illustrations indicate that a number of nouns or noun phrases can, and sometimes must, appear without prepositions when they are the adverbial adjuncts of Time, of Place or even of Manner in VPs. Among these nouns/noun phrases are Tuesday; the next day; last night; next week; the day before yesterday; yesterday afternoon; all the time; every Friday evening; some time; home; there; here; then; this way; a bit; a lot; a pauper; a rich man; a smiling, confident woman; etc. Jacobs [1995: 26] believes that “this characteristic is a relic marked by special case suffixes rather than prepositions”. In addition, adjectives like rich or poor can also be the adverbial adjunct of Manner or of Guise.
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S S NP1 VP1 NP VP1 PRO VP2 AdvP PRO VP2 AdvP Vgrp NP2 Vgrp AP [intrans] [intrans] A
(32)a. I ’LL COME some time. b. I ’LL COME next week. (33)a. He SET out poor.
c. He JUMPED this way. b. He CAME back rich. _________________
31 Noun phrase analyses Using a tree-diagram to give a complete analysis for each of the
following NPs means not using any triangle notation. (1) much evening enjoyment (3) a much more expensive trip (2) a much harder job (4) much more white sand
(5) [That was] much the best meal I’ve ever tasted ANSWER:
1. In much evening enjoyment, much2 is a quantifying adjective meaning ‘a large amount or quantity (of sth)’, pre-modifying the N’2 evening enjoyment, which is in fact a compound noun. In this case, the determiner position is unfilled. NP NP
DET N’1 DET N’1 AP N’2 ART AP N’2 QA ComN DEG headComparA headN
ModN headN
(2) a much harder job (1) φ much evening enjoyment
2 much /m∧t∫/ (quantifying adj., used with uncountable nouns; esp. with negative an
interrogative verbs or after very, as, how, so, too) = a large amount or quantity (of sth): I haven’t got much money. There’s never very much news on Sundays. Take as much time as you like. How much petrol do you need?
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2. In a much harder job, much3 is a degree adverb meaning ‘to a great extent or degree’, pre-modifying THE COMPARATIVE ADJECTIVE (ComparA, for short) harder. Much harder, in its turn, is an adjective phrase, pre-modifying the N’2 job, which is in fact the head of the whole noun phrase.
3. In a much more expensive trip, more is a comparative degree adverb, pre-modifying the positive adjective expensive. Since “degree adverbs cannot themselves be modified” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 65], much cannot be another degree adverb, pre-modifying the very comparative degree adverb more. That is why much should be considered a degree adverb pre-modifying the comparative adjective phrase more expensive. Much more expensive, in its turn, is another adjective phrase, pre-modifying the N’2 trip, which is in fact the head of the whole noun phrase.
NP NP DET N’1 DET N’1 ART AP N’2 AP1 N’2 DEG1 headAP headN DEG headComparA AP2 headN DEG2 headA A (4)φ much more white sand
(3) a much more expensive trip
4. In much more white sand, much is a degree adverb, pre-modifying more, which is the comparative form of the quantifying adjective much in this case. The adjective phrase much more then pre-modifies the N’2 white sand, the head noun of which is uncountable.
5. In much the best meal I’ve ever tasted, much is an adverb of degree, pre-modifying the superlative the best. The subordinate
3 much /m∧t∫/ (adv., used with comparatives and superlatives) = to a great extent or degree:
much louder; much more confidently; She’s much better today; My favourite is usually much the most expensive; I would never willingly go anywhere by boat, much less go on a cruise.
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adjective clause I’ve ever tasted post-modifies the NP2 much the best meal. NP1
NP2 SubACl RESTRIC NP3
DET N’1 ART AP N’2 SuperA headN
much the best meal I ’ve ever tasted
32 Mis-diagraming
What’s wrong with the two following diagrams? NP NP DET N’1 DET N’1 ART AP N’2 ART AP N’2 QA headN QA headN
(1)a. a few men (1)b. a little butter ANSWER:
“The indefinite article a can only determine constituents that have a singular count noun as head; it cannot determine plural count nouns (*a men) or mass nouns (*a butter). This is why a few and a little must be treated as constituents, as phrasal determiners.” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 180]
NP NP DET N’ DET N’ Q headN Q headN
(2)a. a few (= some) men (2)b. a little (= some) butter
_________________
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33. Structural ambiguity in English noun phrases
33.1 Define a STRUCTURALLY AMBIGUOUS noun phrase.
A noun phrase is considered as STRUCTURALLY AMBIGUOUS when its structure permits more than one interpretation.
33.1.1 Some Japanese print collectors is structurally ambiguous. It
means either some Japanese collectors of prints in (1)a or some collectors of Japanese prints in (1)b:
NP NP
DET N’1 DET N’1
Q AP N’2 Q AP1 N’2
ModNP A headComN headN1
DET N’3 ModN headN
AP2 N’4
(1)a. some Japanese print collectors A headN2
(Japanese modifies (1)b. some φ Japanese print collectors the compound noun print collectors.) (Japanese modifies the noun print.)
33.1.2 The old Rumanian history teacher can be interpreted in three different ways:
(2)a. ‘the old teacher of history who comes from Rumania’ NP
DET N’1
ART AP1 N’2
A1 AP2 N’3
A2 headComN
ModN headN
the old Rumanian history teacher
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(2)b. ‘the teacher of old Rumanian history’ NP
DET N’1
ART AP1 N’2 ModNP
DET N’3 headN1
AP2 N’4
A1 AP3 N’5
A2 headN2 the φ old Rumanian history teacher
(2)c. ‘the teacher of Rumanian history who is old’
NP DET N’1 ART AP1 N’2 A1 AP2 N’3 ModNP DET N’4 AP3 N’5 headN1
A2 headN2
the old φ Rumanian history teacher
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33.1.3 More exciting ideas can be interpreted in two different ways: (3)a. ‘more ideas that are exciting’(3)b. ‘ideas that are more exciting’ NP NP
DET N’1 DET N’1 AP1 N’2 AP N’2 AP2 N’3 QA DEG headA headN [ComparA] A headN [ComparAdv] φ more exciting ideas φ MORE exciting ideas
More is the comparative form of the quantifying adjective many which
modifies the N’2 exciting ideas
More is a comparative degree adverb which modifies the adjective exciting
_________________
33.2 Explain STRUCTURALLY AMBIGUOUS noun phrases. 33.2.1 A small arms factory is STRUCTURALLY AMBIGUOUS because
this noun phrase can be interpreted in two different ways:
(1)a. ‘an arms factory that is small’: The adjective small pre-modifies the compound noun (ComN, for short) arms factory meaning ‘factory in which weapons like guns, rifles, explosives, etc. are manufactured’. This compound noun is composed of the modifying noun (ModN, for short) arms and the head noun (headN, for short) factory.
(1)b. ‘a factory for small arms’: Small arms, which is a compound noun meaning ‘weapons light enough to be carried in the hands’, pre-modifies the head noun factory. This compound noun is composed of the adjective (A, for short) small and the head noun (headN, for short) arms:
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NP NP DET N’1 DET N’1 ART AP N’2 ART AP N’2 ModNP A headComN DET N’3
headComN headN
ModN headN A headN (1)a. a small arms factory (1)b. a φ small arms factory
33.2.2 An old girl’s bicycle is STRUCTURALLY AMBIGUOUS because this noun phrase can be interpreted in two different ways:
(2)a. ‘a girl’s bicycle that is old’ The adjective old pre-modifies the head noun bicycle. So does the
possessive common noun (PossCommN, for short) girl’s. (2)b. ‘a bicycle for an old girl’
Thus, old is an adjective pre-modifying girl, which is the head noun of the possessive noun phrase (PossNP, for short) an old girl’s. NP NP1
DET N’1 DET1 N’1 ART AP1 N’2 PossNP headN1 A AP2 N’3 NP2 PossMarker PossCommN headN DET2 N’2
(2)a. an old girl’s bicycle ART AP N’3 A headN
(2)b. an old girl ’s bicycle
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33.2.3 ‘The world women’s congress’ can be interpreted as ‘the women’s congress of the world’ as in (3)a or ‘the congress of world women’ as in (3)b. NP1
NP DET1 N’1 DET N’1 PossNP headN1 ART AP1 N’2 NP2 PossMarker
ModN AP2 N’3 DET2 N’2 PossCommN headN ART headComN
(3)a. the world women’s congress ModN headN2
(3)b. the world women ’s congress
33.2.4 A nice man’s fur coat can be interpreted as ‘a man’s fur coat that is nice’ as in (4)a or ‘a fur coat of a nice man’ as in (4)b.
NP NP1
DET N’1 DET1 N’1 ART AP1 N’2 PossNP headComN A AP2 N’3 NP2 PossMarker ModN headN1 PossCommN headComN DET2 N’2 ModN headN ART AP N’3 A headN2
(4)a. a nice man’s fur coat (4)b. a nice man ’s fur coat
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33.2.5 ‘A large woman’s garment’ can be interpreted as ‘a woman’s garment that is large’ as in (5)a or ‘a garment for a large woman’ as in (5)b. NP1
NP DET1 N’1 DET N’1 PossNP headN1 ART AP1 N’2 NP2 PossMarker A AP2 N’3 DET N’2 PossCommN headN ART AP N’3
(5)a. a large woman’s garment A headN2
(5)b. a large woman ’s garment
33.2.6 An advanced learner’s dictionary can be interpreted as ‘an advanced dictionary for learners’ as in (6)a or ‘a dictionary for an advanced learner’ as in (6)b: NP1
NP DET1 N’1 DET N’1 PossNP headN1 ART AP1 N’2 NP2 PossMarker A AP2 N’3 DET N’2 PossCommN headN AP N’3
(6)a. an advanced learner’s dictionary A headN2
(6)b. an advanced learner ’s dictionary
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33.2.7 ‘A camel’s hair brush4’ can be interpreted as ‘an implement with bristles used to brush, scrub, clean or tidy a camel’s hair’ as in (7)a or ‘an act of brushing, scrubbing, cleaning or tidying the hair of a camel’ as in (7)b.
NP NP DET N’1 DET1 N’1 ART AP N’2 ART AP N’2
ModNP
PossCommN headComN DET2 N’3 headN1 ModN headN PossCommN headN2
(7)a. a camel’s hair brush (7)b. a φ camel’s hair brush
33.2.8 ‘That greasy kid stuff’ can be interpreted as ‘that kid stuff which is greasy’ as in (8)a or ‘that stuff for greasy kids’ as in (8)b. NP NP
DET N’1 DET1 N’1 DEM AP N’2 DEM AP N’2 A headComN ModNP headN ModN headN DET2 N’3 AP N’4
(8)a. that greasy kid stuff A headN (8)b. that φ greasy kid stuff
4 brush 1. [C] implement with bristles of hair, wire, nylon, etc. in a block of wood, etc.
and used for scrubbing, sweeping, cleaning, painting, tidying the hair, etc.: a clothes- brush, a tooth-brush, a paint-brush, a hair-brush.
2. [singular] act of brushing: give one’s clothes, hair, shoes, teeth, wool coat, etc. a good brush.
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33.2.9 ‘The basic book service’ can be interpreted as ‘the book service that is basic’ as in (9)a or ‘the service for basic books’ as in (9)b. NP NP
DET N’1 DET1 N’1 ART AP N’2 ART AP N’2 A ComN ModNP headN ModN headN DET2 N’3 AP N’4
(9)a. the basic book service A headN (9)b. the φ basic book service
32.2.10 ‘A foreign language teacher’ can be interpreted as ‘a language teacher who is foreign’ as in (10)a or ‘a teacher of a foreign language’ as in (10)b.
NP NP DET N’1 DET N’1 ART AP N’2 ART AP N’2 A ComN ModNP headN ModN headN DET N’3 AP N’4
(10)a. a foreign language teacher A headN (10)b. a φ foreign language teacher
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33.2.11 ‘An old car enthusiast’ can be interpreted as ‘a car enthusiast who is old’ as in (11)a or ‘an enthusiast about old cars’ as in (11)b.
NP NP DET N’1 DET1 N’1 ART AP N’2 ART AP N’2 A ComN ModNP headN ModN headN DET2 N’3
AP N’4 (11)a. an old car enthusiast A headN (11)b. an φ old car enthusiast
33.2.12 ‘More ferocious curries’ can be interpreted as ‘more curries that are ferocious’ as in (12)a or ‘curries that are more ferocious’ as in (12)b.
NP NP DET N’1 DET N’1
AP1 N’2 AP N’2 AP2 N’3 QA DEG headA headN [ComparA] A headN [ComparAdv] (12)a. φ more ferocious curries (12)b. φ MORE ferocious curries
More is the comparative form of the quantifying adjective many which
modifies the N’2 ferocious curries
More is a comparative degree adverb which modifies the adjective ferocious
33.3 Disambiguate STRUCTURALLY AMBIGUOUS noun phrases.
When two or more modifying word groups occur after a head noun, there is danger of structural ambiguity.
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“Our English grammatical system provides us with at least five common means of avoiding such ambiguities:
1. Gender signals: The dog on the porch with (its, his) battered look. 2. Person-thing signals: The young calf of the boy
(who, which) was standing near the gate. 3. Number signals: The rooms of the house which (were, was) dirty. 4. Position: A dispute at the courthouse on drinking. 5. Co-ordination: A second-hand car that he later traded for a motorcycle
and that he loved to tinker with.” [Stageberg, 1965: 167-168]
NP1 NP2 AP1
DET1 N’1 PP1 headN1 P1 NP3
ART1 NP4 AP2
DET2 N’2 PP2 ART2 headN2 P2 NP5
(1)a. the dog on the porch with its battered look
NP1
NP2 AP1
NP3 AP2 PP1
DET N’ PP2 ART headN
(1)b. the dog on the porch with his battered look
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NP1
NP2 AP1
DET N’1 PP ART AP2 N’2 P NP3 A headN1 NP4 SubACl
DET N’1 ART headN2 (2)a. the young calf of the boy who was standing near the gate NP1
NP2 AP1
NP3 AP2 SubACl
DET1 N’1 PP ART1 AP N’2
A headN1
(2)b. the young calf of the boy which was standing near the gate NP1
NP2 SubACl
NP3 AP
DET N’ PP ART headN
(3)a. the rooms of the house which were dirty
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NP NP2 AP
DET1 N’ PP
ART1 headN1 P NP3 NP4 SubACl
DET2 N’ ART2 headN2
(3)b. the rooms of the house which was dirty NP1 NP2 AP1
NP3 AP2 PP1
DET N’ PP2 ART headN
(4)a. a dispute at the courthouse on drinking (4)b. a dispute on drinking at the courthouse
NP1 NP2 AP
DET N’ PP1
ART headN P NP2 headGer AdvP PP2
(4)b’. a dispute on drinking at the courthouse
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NP1
NP2 SubACl1 DET N’1 AP N’2
ComA headN SubACl2 Conj SubACl3
(5)a. a second-hand car that he later traded for a motorcycle and that he loved to tinker with which he later traded for a motorcycle and which he loved to tinker with
NP1
NP2 SubACl DET N’1 ART AP N’2 ComA headN
(5)b. a second-hand car that he later traded for a motorcycle which he loved to tinker with
PP
P NP1
NP2 SubACl DET N’1 ART headN
(6) [that he later traded] for a motorcycle which he loved to tinker with
33.4. Account for STRUCTURALLY NON-AMBIGUOUS noun phrases. Are the following noun phrases STRUCTURALLY NON-AMBIGUOUS? If not, how do you account for this?
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(1) young car salesmen (2) second-hand car salesmen (3) some beautiful print collectors
ANSWER: The three noun phrases young car salesmen, second-hand car
salesmen and some beautiful print collectors are not STRUCTURALLY
AMBIGUOUS. In other words, there is only one way to explain them:
1. young car salesmen: Since people, but not things, can be described as ‘young’, young must modify a constituent of which salesmen is the head. It cannot modify car and hence cannot form a constituent with car. The natural structural analysis of this noun phrase, then, is:
NP
DET N’1
AP N’2 headComN1 A ModN headComN2
φ young car salesmen
2. second-hand car salesmen: Things, but not people, can be ‘second-hand’, so second-hand must modify (and hence form a constituent with) car, rather than any constituent having salesmen as its head. The natural structural analysis of this noun phrase, then, is:
NP DET N’1 AP N’2 ModNP headComN DET N’3
AP N’4
A headN
φ φ second-hand car salesmen
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3. ‘Some beautiful print collectors’ is better interpreted as ‘some beautiful collectors of prints’ and not as ‘some collectors of beautiful prints’; that is, “for me at least, print, when acting as a pre-modifier itself, does not accept beautiful as a modifier” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 164].
NP DET N’1 Q AP N’2 A headComN ModN headN
some beautiful print collectors _________________
34 Verb phrase analyses 34.1 Noun phrases as the sP/sC of an intensive verb
or as the dO of a monotransitive verb When a verb is complemented by an NP, you will have to decide
whether [Vgrp + NP] is an example of a monotransitive Vgrp + its dO or an example of an intensive Vgrp + its sP/sC. Compare (1) with the following (2):
S S NP VP NP VP
PropN Vgrp NP[dO] PropN Vgrp NP[sP/sC] [monotrans] [intens]
(1) Tom SPOTTED an auctioneer. (2) Tom WAS an auctioneer.
The nature of spotting in (1) leads to a relation between two individuals (or, participants), a spotter (the subject) and a spottee (the direct object). That is what makes spotted in (1) a monotransitive verb.
In (2) only one individual is mentioned (by means of the subject Tom). The rest of the sentence (the VP) is used to characterize the subject. If (2) expresses a relation, it is the relation between an individual and a property: the sentence expresses the ideas that Tom has the property of being an auctioneer.
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APs only ever identify properties. “NPs, by contrast, can be used both to identify properties and to refer to individuals. This is why an NP can function both as predicative (complementing an intensive verb) and as direct object (complementing a monotransitive verb).” [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 87]
34.2 NP direct objects of a monotransitive verb or NP adverbial adjuncts of an intransitive verb
Since not all verbs followed by an NP are monotransitive, it is crucial to distinguish an NP direct object of a monotransitive verb from an NP adverbial adjunct of an intransitive verb. Consider the two following sentences:
S S NP1 VP NP1 VP1 headN Vgrp NP2[dO] PRO VP2 AdvP [monotrans] [opA of Point ofTime]
Vgrp [intrans] NP2
(1)a. Lightning STRUCK the oak tree. (2)a. They ARRIVED the next day.
One useful way to test whether or not a sentence really contains a monotransitive verb plus its NP direct object is to see if it has a passive counterpart. Compare:
(1)b. The oak tree WAS STRUCK by lightning. (2)b. *The next day WAS ARRIVED by them.
‘The oak tree’ can be the subject of the passive sentence (1)b; therefore, ‘struck’ is monotransitive. ‘The next day’ cannot be the subject of the passive sentence (2)b; it must be an optional adverbial adjunct of Point of Time modifying ‘arrive’, which is an intransitive verb.
In addition, “adjuncts are more freely moved than required constituents” [Jacobs, 1995: 55]. Thus, as an optional adverbial adjunct of ‘arrive’, ‘the next day’ can easily be shifted to the front of (2)c:
(2)c. The next day they ARRIVED. However, (1)c does not sound English:
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(1)c *The oak tree lightning STRUCK. Also as an optional adverbial adjunct of ‘arrive’, ‘the next day’
can easily be removed from (2)d: (2)d. They ARRIVED.
Such an omission will result in the ungrammaticality of (1)d: (1)d. *Lightning STRUCK.
This proves that the oak tree is a complement of ‘struck’. It is the direct object of ‘struck’, to be precise.
34.3 Prepositional phrases as the sP/sC of an intensive verb or as the optional adverbial adjunct of any verb
“PPs should only be treated as part of the necessary complementation of an intensive verb (i.e. as subject-predicatives) if they cannot be omitted”. [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 88]
So, in the engine room in (1) is a sP/sC since (2) is not a complete sentence (even though the missing element might be understood in context): S S NP VP NP VP
PropN Vgrp PP [sP/sC] PropN Vgrp [intens] [intens]
(1) Oscar SHOULD BE in the engine room. (2) *Oscar SHOULD BE.
However, beside a stream in (3) is only an optional adverbial adjunct of Location of the intransitive verb ‘sunbathed’ since (4) is still a complete English sentence:
S S
NP VP1 NP VP1
PropN VP2 AdvP PropN Vgrp
[opA of Location] [intrans] Vgrp
[intrans] PP (4) Phil SUNBATHED.
(3) Phil SUNBATHED beside a stream.
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34.4 IntransVAC vs. intransV—Adv
Distinguish an intransitive verb-adverbial composite (intransVAC, for short), which is also called an intransitive phrasal verb, from a combination of an intransitive head verb and its adverbial adjunct (intransV—Adv): 1 He TURNED up. intransVAC meaning ‘appeared’ 2 He CLIMED up. intransV—Adv 3 The two friends WALKED out. intransV—Adv 4 The two friends FELL out. intransVAC meaning ‘quarreled’ 5 He DOES CARRY on,
doesn’t he?intransVAC meaning ‘behave strangely’ or ‘argue, quarrel or complain noisily’
6 After drinking rapidly and heavily,
he suddenly PASSED on.
intransVAC meaning ‘fainted’ or ‘lost consciousness’
7 They TURNED back. intransV—Adv 8 She SAT down. intransV—Adv 9 SLOW up a bit,
or you make yourself ill.intransVAC meaning
‘work more energetically’10 After a month
their food supplies GIVE out.intransVAC meaning ‘come to an end’
11 That foreign student WILL MAKE out.
intransVAC meaning ‘will survive’
12 Why DON’T you MAKE up? intransVAC meaning ‘put powder, lipstick, greasepaint, etc. on your face
to make it more attractive’13 If you are so sleepy,
why DON’T you TURN in?intransVAC meaning ‘go to bed’
14 Williard WENT in. intransV—Adv 15 She STOOD up. intransV—Adv 16 She SHUT up. intransVAC meaning ‘stopped talking’ 17 She WAS LOOKING up a new
word as I entered the room. intransVAC meaning ‘was searching for (a new word) in a dictionary’
18 She LOOKED up from her book as I entered the room.
intransV—Adv
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34.5 MonotransVAC —NP vs. IntransV—PP
34.5.1 How to distinguish a monotransVAC—NP from an intransV—PP? ANSWER:
Only the adverbial particle (Prt, for short) of a monotransVAC can move over its NP direct object:
(1)a. She CALLED up her husband. b. She CALLED her husband up.
Indeed, when the direct object is a pronoun, the adverbial particle must appear after it:
(2)a. She CALLED him up. b.*She CALLED up him.
The preposition in a PP can never move to a position following its complement. So, particle movement provides a very reliable test for distinguishing between a monotransVAC—NP and an intransV—PP:
‘[He] SHOUTED out the answer’ or ‘[He] SHOUTED the answer/it out’ is a monotransVAC—NP meaning ‘[He] gave the answer in a loud voice’.
‘[He] LOOKED out the window’ is an intransV—PP meaning ‘[He] TURNED his eyes in a certain direction to see (sb/sth) through the window’; thus ‘*[He] LOOKED the window out’ is ungrammatical.
‘[He] SAW through her little game’ or ‘[He] SAW her little game/it through’ is a monotransVAC—NP meaning ‘[He] WAS NOT DECEIVED by the trick she had tried to play on him’.
‘[He] SAW through her disguise’ is an intransV—PP meaning ‘[He] SAW through the thing she was wearing for disguise’; thus ‘*[He] SAW her disguise through’ is ungrammatical.
Note also that while is ambiguous, is not: ‘He LOOKED up the street’ can be either an intransV—PP meaning
‘[He] TURNED his eyes in a certain direction to see (sb/sth) up the street’ or a monotransVAC—NP meaning ‘[He] SEARCHED for the street in a map, a guide book, etc.’
‘He LOOKED the street up’ is only a monotransVAC—NP meaning ‘[He] SEARCHED for the street in a map, a guide book, etc.
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34.5.2 Distinguish a combination of a transitive verb-adverbial composite (also called a transitive phrasal verb) and its NP direct object (monotransVAC —NP, for short) from that of an intransitive verb and its PP adverbial adjunct (intransV—PP, for short):
1 He TURNED down the offer. monotransVAC meaning ‘rejected’
2 He TURNED down the driveway. intransV—PP
3 You MUST TURN in your kit before you leave the army.
monotransVAC meaning ‘must return’
4 He TURNED in the street. intransV—PP
5 We CALLED up the plumber. monotransVAC meaning ‘telephoned’
6 Mother CALLED up the stairs. intransV—PP
7 Frank CALLED down his son. monotransVAC meaning ‘reprimanded’
8 He CALLED down the mountain. intransV—PP
9 They RAN in a circle. intransV—PP 10 They RAN in the criminal. monotransVAC meaning ‘arrested (the
criminal) and took (him) to the police station’
11 He BROKE in his new car. monotransVAC meaning ‘trained’
12 She dropped the plate, and it BROKE in two.
intransV—PP
13 The wind BLEW (softly) down the valley.
intransV—PP
14 The wind BLEW down the tree. monotransVAC meaning ‘caused (the tree) to fall down’
15 Jean RAN (quickly) up the hill. intransV—PP
16 Jane RAN up a bill. monotransVAC meaning ‘allowed (a bill) to accumulate’
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17 Dr. Holmes ARRIVED at the following conclusion.
monotransVAC meaning ‘reached’
18 When did you ARRIVED at the airport?
intransV—PP
19
His normally placid dog TURNED on him
and bit him on the leg.
monotransVAC meaning ‘attacked (him) suddenly and unexpectedly’
20 WILL you TURN on the light in this room?
monotransVAC meaning ‘cause (the light) to start functioning’
21 I RAN into an old school friend at the supermarket this morning.
monotransVAC meaning ‘met (him/her) by chance’
22 The bus went out of control and RAN (straight) into a shop front.
intransV—PP
23 She LOOKED (straight) through me.
monotransVAC meaning ‘deliberately ignored (me) whom she could see clearly’
24 I LOOKED through a key hole but saw nobody in the house.
intransV—PP
25 The police ARE LOOKING into his disappearance.
monotransVAC meaning
‘are investigating’26 I LOOKED into the box
but saw nothing there.intransV—PP
34.6 MonotransVAC—NP vs. monotrans-prepV—prepO
Distinguish a monotransitive verb-adverbial composite (monotransVAC, for short) from a combination of a monotransitive prepositional head verb and its prepositional object (monotrans-prepV—prepO, for short):
1 A nice young woman WAITED upon me in Macy’s yesterday.
a monotransVAC meaning ‘served’
2 We’VE BEEN WAITING for you here for half an hour.
monotrans-prepV—prepO
3 The doctor LOOKED at my badly swollen ankle.
a monotransVAC meaning ‘examined’
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4 LOOK at the blackboard, please. monotrans-prepV—prepO
5 She SMILED/GRINNED/STARED/ GLANCED/SQUINTED/SHOUTED at me.
monotrans-prepV—prepO
6 We LAUGHED at Jane when she said that she believed in ghosts.
a monotransVAC meaning ‘mocked or ridiculed (sb)’
7 The secretary APOLOGIZED to her boss for her being late for work.
monotrans-prepV—prepO
8 What DOES that article REFER to? monotrans-prepV—prepO 9 DO you OBJECT to what I’ve just said? monotrans-prepV—prepO 10 WOULD you please LISTEN to me? monotrans-prepV—prepO
_________________
35 Sentence analyses 35.1 Identify the syntactic function of a prepositional phrase.
S NP VP
PropN Vgrp PP [prepO]
[monotrans-prep]
(1)a. Max GLANCED at the falling acrobat. Subject + a monotrans-prepositional verb + a PP prepositional object S NP VP
PropN Vgrp PP[sP/sC] [intens]
(1)b. Oscar SHOULD BE in the engine room.
Subject + an intensive verb + a PP subjective complement
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S NP VP1
PropN VP2 AdvP
[opA of Location] Vgrp [intrans] PP
(2)a. Phil SUNBATHED beside a stream. Subject + an intransitive verb + an optional PP adverbial adjunct S NP VP1
Vgrp AdvP
[intrans] [obA of Location] PP
(2)b. The National Theatre STANDS near the river. Subject + an intransitive verb + an obligatory PP adverbial adjunct
35.2 Decide whether a prepositional phrase is part of the complementation of a ditransitive verb:
(1) Holden IS WRITING letters to Africa. (2) Holden IS WRITING letters to the White House. (3) Max TOOK the hyena to the station. (4) Max LENT his hyena to the Dramatic Society.
(5) William BAKED a cake for Mary. (6) William BAKED a cake for Christmas.
(7) She IS SAVING a place for Sophie. (8) She IS SAVING the money for a new car.
ANSWER: 35.2.1 A prepositional phrase (PP, for short) is counted as part of the
complementation of a ditransitive verb only if it corresponds to a NP functioning as an indirect object. Consider (1’) and (2’):
(1’) Holden IS WRITING Africa letters. (2’) Holden IS WRITING the White House letters.
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(1’) is not a reasonable paraphrase of (1), but (2’) is a reasonable paraphrase of (2). Therefore, the PP in (2) is part of the complementation of the verb write, which must be subcategorised as [ditrans] in this sentence:
S
NP1 VP PropN Vgrp NP2[dO] PP[iO] [ditrans]
(2) Holden IS WRITING letters to the White House.
In (1), on the other hand, write is a monotransitive verb, complemented the dO noun phrase letters to Africa:
S NP1 VP PropN Vgrp NP2[dO] [monotrans] NP3 AP DET N’1 PP headN
(1) Holden IS WRITING φ letters to Africa.
35.2.2 Considering (3’) *Max bring the station the hyena, we see that (3’) is not a reasonable paraphrase of (3). Therefore, the PP to the station is the obligatory adverbial adjunct of Terminus of ‘bring’, which is a monotransitive verb: S
NP1 VP PropN Vgrp NP2[dO] PP [monotrans] [obA of Terminus]
(3) Max BRING the hyena to the station.
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Consider (4’) Max lent the Dramatic Society his hyena. (4’) is a reasonable paraphrase of (4). So the PP to the Dramatic Society is the iO of bring, which is a ditransitive verb.
S
NP1 VP PropN Vgrp NP2[dO] PP[iO] [ditrans]
(4) Max LENT his hyena to the Dramatic Society.
35.2.3 Notice that it is only NPs denoting animate things (or things that could be interpreted as being animate) that can be indirect objects.
Mary is a person; therefore, for Mary in (5) is the iO of the ditransitive verb bake:
(5) William BAKED a cake for Mary. S Vgrp dO iO
[ditrans] Christmas is not a person. It is a festival; therefore, for Christmas in (6)
is not the iO the ditransitive verb bake; it is in fact the optional adverbial adjunct of Purpose of the monotransitive verb bake:
(6) William BAKED a cake for Christmas. S Vgrp dO opA of Purpose [monotrans]
However, the moment you interpret Christmas as a person rather than a festival, William baked Christmas a cake sounds as perfectly grammatical as William baked Mary a cake. In other words, for Christmas can also be considered the iO of the ditransitive verb bake as the result of the personification of Christmas:
S NP VP PropN Vgrp NP[dO] PP[iO] [ditrans]
(5) William BAKED a cake for Mary. (6) William BAKED a cake for Christmas.
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35.2.4 Sophie is a person; therefore, for Sophie in (7) is the iO of the ditransitive verb is saving:
(7) She IS SAVING a place for Sophie. S Vgrp dO iO
[ditrans] A new car is not a person. It is a non-living thing; therefore, for a new
car in (8) is not the iO of the ditransitive verb is saving; it is in fact the optional adverbial adjunct of Purpose of the monotransitive verb is saving:
(8) She IS SAVING the money for a new car. S Vgrp dO opA of Purpose
[monotrans]
35.3 Explain the difference between two sentences.
(1)a. The meeting LASTED three hours. b. The meeting LASTED for three hours.
(2)a. The seafront EXTENDS four miles. b. The seafront EXTENDS for four miles.
(3)a. He CALLED her an angel. b. He CALLED her a taxi.
(4)a. I ’LL MAKE you First Secretary. b. I ’LL MAKE you an omelette.
(5)a. The two friends FELL out. b. The two friends WALKED out. (6)a. The samovar BROKE. b. Anna BROKE the samovar.
(7)a. Ed WILL MAKE Liz a good wife. b. Ed WILL MAKE Liz lots of money. (8)a. The burglar LEFT the house in a mess.
b. The burglar LEFT the house in a few minutes. ANSWER:
The following pairs of sentences differ from each another in the internal structure of their verb phrases:
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35.3.1 Verbs of measurement like last or extend link to a noun phrase or a prepositional phrase which indicates ‘extent’ (e.g. how much the subject costs, what it measures, how long it lasts, etc.).
The verb in (1)a and (2)a is monotransitive: (1)a. The meeting LASTED three hours. (2)a. The seafront EXTENDS four miles.
Subject Vgrp NP [monotrans] [predicator complement]
The verb in (1)b and (2)b is intransitive: (1)b. The meeting LASTED for three hours. (2)b. The seafront EXTENDS for four miles.
Subject Vgrp PP [intrans] [obA of Extent in Time or Space]
35.3.2 Call and make in (3)a and (4)a are complex transitive verbs: (3)a. He CALLED her an angel. (4)a. I ’LL MAE you First Secretary
S Vgrp dO oP/oC [complex]
Call and make in (3)b and (4)b are ditransitive verbs: (3)b. He CALLED her a taxi. (4)b. I ’LL MA you an omelette.
S Vgrp iO dO [ditrans]
35.3.3 Fell out in (5)a is an intransitive VERB-ADVERBIAL COMPOSITE (intransVAC, for short) [Stageberg, 1965: 220] /an intransitive phrasal verb meaning ‘quarreled’. This intransVAC consists of the lexical verb fell and the adverbial particle out.
Walked out in (5)b is a combination of walked, which is an intransitive head verb, and out, which is the adverbial adjunct of Direction of the verb.
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S S NP VP NP VP1
DET N’1 Vgrp DET N’1 VP2 AdvP [intransVAC] [opA of Direction] ART QA N’2 AR QA N’2 Vgrp [intrans] Adv NUM headN NUM headN
(5)a. The two friends FELL out. (5)b. The two friends WALKED out.
35.3.4 Broke in (6)a is an intransitive verb meaning ‘separated into two or more parts as a result of force or strain (but not by cutting)’.
Broke in (6)b is a monotransitive verb meaning ‘caused (the samovar) to break’.
S S NP VP NP1 VP DET N’ Vgrp PropN Vgrp NP2[dO] [intrans] [monotrans] ART headN
(6)a. The samovar BROKE. (6)b. Anna BROKE the samovar.
35.3.5 Will make in (7)a is a complex transitive verb meaning ‘will cause (Liz) to be/become’. A good wife is the object(ive) complement of the direct object Liz.
Will make in (7)b is a ditransitive verb meaning ‘will provide (Liz) with’. Lots of money is the direct object while Liz is the indirect object, both complementing the verb. S S NP1 VP NP1 VP PropN Vgrp NP2[dO] NP3[oC] PropN Vgrp NP2[iO] NP3[dO] [complex] [ditrans]
(7)a. Ed WILL MAKE Liz a good wife. (7)b. Ed WILL MAKE Liz lots of money.
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35.3.6 Left in (8)a is a complex transitive verb meaning ‘caused or allowed (the house) to remain in a certain condition’, and in a mess is the object(ive) complement (oC) of the direct object (dO) the house.
Left in (8)b is a monotransitive verb meaning ‘went away from (the house)’, and in a few minutes is an adverbial adjunct of Point of Time of the head verb.
S NP1 VP
Vgrp NP2[dO] PP[oP/oC] [complex]
(8)a. The burglar LEFT the house in a mess. S
NP1 VP1
VP2 AdvP
[opA of Time] Vgrp NP2[dO] [monotrans] PP
(8)b. The burglar LEFT the house in a few minutes. Note that there exists an intensive relationship linking the dO and its
oC. This can be tested by a paraphrase with be: ‘The house WAS in a mess’. No such relationship can be found between the house and in a few minutes: ‘*The house WAS in a few minutes’.
35.4 Re-analyse sentence pairs, using tree-diagrams. The following pairs of sentences differ from each other in the internal
structure of their verb phrases:
(1)a. He TASTED the strange meat with great care. S + monotrans headV + NP/dO + PP/adjunct of Manner
(1)b. The meat TASTED salty and spicy. S + intensive headV + AP/subject(ive) complement (sC)
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(2)a. His favorite pastime IS swimming. S + intensive headV + NP/(sC)
(2)b. He LIKES swimming in his leisure time. S + monotrans headV + NP/dO + PP/adjunct of Time (3)a. We WERE reluctant to leave. S + intensive headV + AP/(sC)
(3)b. We WERE reluctant, to tell the truth. S + intensive headV + AP/sC + disjunct 5/sentence modifier
(4)a. My brother STAYED an outstanding student S + intensive headV + NP/sC
(4)b. The government STAYED the execution. S + monotrans headV + NP/Do
Note that as an intensive verb, stayed means ‘remained’; as a monotransitive verb, stayed means ‘delayed (something)’. (5)a. She TURNED red at the thought.
S + intensive headV + A/sC + PP/adjunct of Cause (5)b. She TURNED right (≠ “left”) at the corner. S + intrans headV + Adv/obA of Direction + PP/ adjunct of Location
(5)b’. She TURNED right (= “exactly”) at the corner. S + intrans headV + Adv + PP/adjunct of Location
Note that as an intensive verb, turned means ‘became’ or ‘got’; as a intransitive verb, turned means ‘went round something’. (6)a. He RETURNED a slightly different umbrella. S + monotrans headV + NP/dO
5 A disjunct refers to “the expression of the speaker’s stance or attitude to what he is
saying” [Jackson, 1980: 26]: Frankly, I can’t see George doing the job either.
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(6)b. He RETURNED home several hours later. S + intrans headV + Adv/adjunct of Terminus + AdvP/adjunct of Time
Note that as a monotransitive verb, returned means ‘give, bring, send (sb, sth) back’; as an intransitive verb, returned means ‘came or went back to a place’.
(7)a. Mark GOT a scheme to win Kathy’s heart. S + monotrans headV + NP/dO
(7)b. Mark GOT a job to earn money for his holiday. S + monotrans headV + NP/dO + InfP/adjunct of Purpose (8)a. I RAN across my old friend. S + monotransVAC/monotrans inseparable phrasal headV NP/dO
(8)b. I RAN across a field. S + intrans headV + PP/adjunct of Path (9)a. LEAVE the door open. complex trans headV + NP/dO +A/oC
(9)b. LEAVE the cooking to me. ditrans headV + NP/dO + PP/iO (10)a. Several women MOVED to help her. S + intrans headV + InfP/adjunct of Purpose
(10)b. Several women OFFERED to help her. S + monotrans headV + InfP/dO (11)a. We ASKED some questions.
S + monotrans headV NP/dO
(11)b. We ASKED three times. S + intrans headV + NP/adjunct of Frequency
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(12)a. I LOVED her the instant I saw her. S + monotrans headV + pronoun/dO + NP/adjunct of Time
(12)b. I GAVE her the ticket she asked. S + ditrans headV + pronoun/iO + NP/dO (13)a. I never HOLD that man my friend. S + Adv + complex headV + NP/dO + NP/object(ive) complement (oC) adjunct of Frequency
(13)b. My brain CAN’T HOLD so much information. S + monotrans headV + NP/dO
Note that as a complex transitive verb, hold means ‘regard’ or ‘consider’; as a monotransitive verb, hold means ‘contain’.
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36 Structural ambiguity in English verb phrases Re-explain the structural ambiguity of each of the given verb
phrases, using tree-diagrams.
1. [He] considered the applicant hard. This verb phrase is structurally ambiguous because:
(1)a. hard is an adverb meaning ‘carefully’ or ‘with care’, being an optional adverbial adjunct of manner of the monotransitive verb considered, which means ‘thought about’ or ‘took into account’:
He CONSIDERED the applicant hard. S + monotrans headV + NP/dO + adjunct of Manner
(1)b. hard is an adjective meaning ‘difficult to be accepted’, being the object predicative (oP)/the objective complement (oC) of the dO noun phrase ‘the applicant’. Both the dO and its oP/oC follow the complex transitive verb considered meaning ‘regarded’:
He CONSIDERED the applicant hard. S + complex trans headV + NP/dO + adjective/oP or oC
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2. [He] watched the hunters with binoculars. This verb phrase is structurally ambiguous because:
(2)a. With binoculars is a PP, an adjectival post-modifier of the NP the hunters:
He WATCHED the hunters with binoculars.
S + monotrans headV + NP/dO
(2)b. With binoculars is a PP, an optional adverbial adjunct of means of watched, which is a monotransitive verb:
He WATCHED the hunters with binoculars.
S + monotrans headV + NP/dO + adjunct of Means
3. [The car] coasted into the garage with lights on.
This verb phrase is structurally ambiguous because:
(3)a. With lights on is a PP, an adjectival post-modifier of the NP the garage. The NP the garage with lights on, in its turn, is the complement of the preposition into, resulting in the PP into the garage with lights on. This PP is an optional adverbial adjunct of terminus of the intransitive verb coasted, which means ‘move, esp. downhill (in a car, on a bicycle, etc.) without using power’:
The car COASTED into the garage with lights on. S + intrans headV + PP/adjunct of Terminus
(3)b. With lights on is a PP, an optional adverbial adjunct of manner of the intransitive verb coasted. And into the garage is another PP, an optional adverbial adjunct of terminus of coasted: The car COASTED into the garage with lights on. S + intrans headV + PP/adjunct of Terminus + PP/adjunct of Manner 4. [They] are moving sidewalks.
This verb phrase is structurally ambiguous because:
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(4)a. Moving is the present participle of the verb move, a verbal, part of the finite verb are moving:
They ARE MOVING sidewalks. S + monotrans headV + Compound Noun/dO
(4)b. Moving is the present participle (V-part, for short) of the verb move, an adjectival pre-modifier of the compound noun sidewalks: They ARE moving sidewalks. S + intensive headV + V-part/adjectival pre-modifier + Compound Noun/dO 5. [The witch] turned on the stove.
This verb phrase is structurally ambiguous because:
(5)a. On the stove is a PP, an optional adverbial adjunct of location of the intransitive verb turned, which means ‘move so that a different side faces outwards or upwards’:
The witch TURNED on the stove. S + intrans headV + PP/adjunct of Location
(5)b. Turned on is a monotransitive VAC meaning ‘caused (the stove) to start functioning’: The witch TURNED on the stove. S + monotransVAC + NP/dO
6. [She] decided on the train.
This verb phrase is structurally ambiguous because: (6)a. On the train is a PP, a (obligatory) prepositional object
(prepO, for short) of the monotransitive prepositional verb decided meaning ‘chose, selected’ or ‘took, accepted’. Thus, the whole sentence may mean: ‘She selected to travel by train.’
She DECIDED on the train.
S + monotrans-prep headV + PP/prepO
(6)b. On the train is a PP, an (optional) adverbial adjunct of location of the intransitive verb decided, which means ‘made up her mind’.
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Thus, the whole sentence may mean: ‘She made up her mind (while she was travelling) on the train.’
She DECIDED on the train.
S + intrans headV + PP/adjunct of Location 7. He runs the office and deals with critical clients well.
This verb phrase is structurally ambiguous because:
(7)a. Well is an adverb, an (optional) adverbial adjunct of manner of the verb phrase deals with critical clients.
With critical clients is a (obligatory) prepositional object (prepO, for short) of the monotransitive prepositional verb deals: He runs the office and DEALS with critical clients well. S + monotrans prepositional headV PP/prepO adjunct of Manner
(7)b. Well is an adverb, an (optional) adverbial adjunct of manner of the structure of co-ordination which consists of two VPs: runs the office and deals with critical clients. These two VPs are linked by the co-ordinate conjunction and:
He RUNS the office and DEALS with critical clients well. S + VP1 + co-ordinate conjunction + VP2 Adv/adjunct of Manner 8. [The teacher] stood drinking in the moonlight.
This verb phrase is structurally ambiguous because:
(8)a. Drink in (the moonlight) is a monotransitive VAC meaning ‘observe (the moonlight) with pleasure’.
The participial phrase (PartP, for short) drinking in the moonlight is an obligatory adverbial adjunct of manner of the intransitive verb stood:
The teacher STOOD drinking in the moonlight. S + intrans headV + PartP/adjunct of Manner
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(8)b. The PP in the moonlight is an optional adverbial adjunct of location of drinking, which is the present/progressive participle of the intransitive verb drink.
The participial phrase drinking in the moonlight is an obligatory adverbial adjunct of manner of the intransitive verb stood:
The teacher STOOD drinking in the moonlight. S + intrans headV + PartP/adjunct of Manner 9. [Max] found Ed an amusing companion.
This verb phrase is structurally ambiguous because:
(9)a. Found is a ditransitive verb:
S + ditransV + iO + dO = S + ditransV + dO + iO Max FOUND Ed an amusing companion. = Max FOUND an amusing companion for Ed.
(9)b. Found is a complex transitive verb:
Max FOUND Ed an amusing companion. S + complex transV + dO + oP/oC
10. [The members] only were allowed to buy beer.
This verb phrase is structurally ambiguous because it may or may not contain the adverb only:
(10)a. Only is an adverb; and it plays the role of a restricter to emphasize the NP the members:
The members only WERE ALLOWED to buy beer. NP/Subject + VP/Predicate
b. Only is an adverb; and it plays the role of an optional adverbial adjunct of degree or extent which is used to emphasize the VP were allowed to buy beer:
The members only WERE ALLOWED to buy beer. NP/Subject + VP/Predicate
The above illustrations prove that the adjectival post-nominal position coincides with the adverbial pre-verbal position.
________________
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37 Phrase structure 37.1 Definition:
“Phrase structure is the division of a sentence into parts, and the division of those parts into subparts.” [Kaplan, 1989: 191] For instance, the sentence Our French teachers have just left for France can be first divided into two parts as follows:
S
Our French teachers have just left for France.
It’s usually easy to split a sentence into two parts. The left part normally functions as subject, the right part as predicate. Within the subject and the predicate, though, the division isn’t always so straightforward. In the above sentence, for example, there are two possibilities for dividing up the NP subject our French teachers:
(1) Our French teachers may mean ‘our teachers, who come from France’. French in this case is an adjective of nationality meaning ‘of or concerning France’. It pre-modifies the head noun teachers, resulting in the noun phrase French teachers.
(2) Our French teachers may mean ‘our teachers whose subject is French’. French in this case is a noun meaning ‘the language spoken in France’. It is one of the two free bases which are combined together to form the compound noun French teachers.
NP NP
DET N’1 DET N’
PossA AP N’2 PossA headComN A headN ModN headN
(1) our French teachers (2) our French teachers
37.2 How to determine phrase structure? 37.2.1 Apply the SUBSTITUTION criterion: “One approach to
determining phrase structure is a substitution test: whatever you can
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substitute a single word for, preserving grammaticality, is a ‘chunk’, a phrase [Kaplan, 1989: 191].”
37.2.1.1 Substitution usually supports the intuitive division of a whole sentence into subject and predicate.
Sentence
Subject Predicate A white horse cantered eagerly around the coral Substituting Max burped gives: A white horse burped, You snored Max cantered eagerly around the coral, I laughed I cantered eagerly around the coral, They dozed They snored, etc.
Substitution produces sentences like Max cantered eagerly around the coral, I cantered eagerly around the coral, a white horse burped, they snored, etc. Since these are grammatical, the division of the sentence into two parts a white horse and cantered eagerly around the coral is supported.
37.2.1.2 Suppose we believed the sequence horse cantered eagerly was a phrase, a ‘chunk’ of the sentence. We should search in vain for a substitution for it that would preserve grammaticality:
A white horse cantered eagerly around the coral
letter *A white letter around the coral, existed *A white existed around the coral, Substituting of gives: *A white of around the coral, clearly *A white clearly around the coral, green *A white green around the coral, etc.
Because the results of substituting are not grammatical sentences, horse cantered eagerly is not a phrase.
37.2.1.3 It is also useful to extend the substitution criterion a bit further, first, by substituting not just a single word, but a word sequence for
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another word sequence, and second, by examining mutual substitution possibilities in a range of environments. “The idea is that word sequences which are mutually substitutable in a given environment are likely to be phrases; and if they are mutually substitutable in different environments they are even more likely to be phrases [Kaplan, 1989: 193].”
Suppose we suspect the underlined word sequences in the following sentences are phrases: (1)a. The puppy scratched at the screen door. (2)a. I want that little striped kitten. (3)a. Little Susie yawned. (4)a. I really like swimming in the reservoir.
In the context of (4)a, these four underlined word sequences are mutually substitutable. (4)b. I really like the puppy.
c. I really like that little striped kitten. d. I really like Little Susie.
In the context of (1)a, (2)a, and (3)a; the puppy, that little striped kitten, and Little Susie are mutually substitutable: (1)b. That little striped kitten scratched at the screen door.
c. Little Susie scratched at the screen door. (2)b. I want the puppy.
c. I want Little Susie. (3)b. The puppy yawned.
c. That little striped kitten yawned.
In these contexts we cannot place swimming in the reservoir: (1)d. *Swimming in the reservoir scratched at the screen door. (2)d. *I want swimming in the reservoir. (3)d. *Swimming in the reservoir yawned.
In other contexts, however, swimming in the reservoir is mutually substitutable with other candidate phrases:
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(5)a. The puppy can really be fun. b. That little striped kitten can really be fun. c. Little Susie can really be fun. d. Swimming in the reservoir can really be fun.
(6)a. I just love that little striped kitten. b. I just love Little Susie. c. I just love swimming in the reservoir.
(7)a. What the puppy means to me is a good time. b. What that little striped kitten means to me is a good time. c. What Little Susie means to me is a good time. d. What swimming in the reservoir means to me is a good time.
Therefore, we can tentatively conclude that all four of these candidate phrases are in fact phrases.
37.2.2 Apply the CONJOINABILITY criterion: “Phrases are conjoined with and [Kaplan, 1989: 194].” All the conjoined word sequences are phrases: (8)a. Max left and Stella stayed. (2 conjoined clauses)
b. King Arthur and Queen Guinevere both lustre after gold. (2 conjoined NPs)
c. Mark runs the office and deals with clients. (2 conjoined VPs)
d. A very large and kind of scary dog is barking next door. (2 conjoined APs)
But non-phrases cannot be conjoined: (9) *The boy ran into the and girl dashed out of the schoolyard.
The reason why this example is ungrammatical is that boy ran into the and girl dashed out of the are not phrases.
“The way to apply the conjoinability test is to try to conjoin a suspected phrase with one containing different words, but what seems to
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be the same internal structure. For instance, if you suspect (as you should) that in the sentence Max devoured the sweet jam the word sequence the sweet jam is a phrase, you should try to conjoin it with something similar, like the stale toast: On the table is the sweet jam and the stale toast. This is a grammatical sentence, so you conclude, tentatively, that the sweet jam is a phrase.” [Kaplan, 1989: 195]
37.2.3 Apply the MOVEMENT criterion: “Any sequence of words that moves as a unit, linguists have reasoned, is a unit [Kaplan, 1989: 196].” For instance, in Max bought some great toys for Alison’s four-year-old daughter, the word sequence some great toys and Alison’s four-year-old daughter can both be switched: (10)a. Max BOUGHT some great toys for Alison’s four-year-old daughter.
b. Max BOUGHT Alison’s four-year-old daughter some great toys.
Both movements indicate “phrase-hood” [Kaplan, 1989: 196]. The movements in (10a-b) result in the deletion of for while those in (11)a-b result in the addition of was and by: (11)a. A moron BURNED that old house.
b. That old house WAS BURNED by a moron.
Although the movements in the following examples show neither deletion nor addition, they identify certain word sequences as phrases: (12)a. Jane BOUGHT a new leather handbag.
b. A new leather handbag IS what Jane BOUGHT.
(13)a. That Max loves blue cheese dressing IS surprising to no one. b. It IS surprising to no one that Max loves blue cheese dressing.
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(14)a. Ed CRIED when Sally left. b. When Sally left, Ed CRIED.
(15)a. She said he would wash the dishes, and he DID WASH the dishes. b. She said he would wash the dishes, and WASH the dishes he DID.
37.2.4 Check whether or not a sequence of words is THE ANTECEDENT
for A PRO-FORM: “Pronouns, pro-verb phrases, pro-sentences, pro-prepositional phrases,
and pro-adjective phrases all take phrases as antecedents, not non-phrase strings of words. In the following examples, the underlined sequences of words (all phrases) are the antecedents for the understood pro-forms” [Kaplan, 1989: 198]: (16)a. Pronoun: The old men stopped because they were tired. b. Pro-verb phrase: Jeff asked Sandy to dance before Peter could do so. c. Pro-sentence: Smith now plays the horses,
and it doesn’t surprise me one bit. d. Pro-prepositional phrase: We put the bugs in the jar
and left them there overnight. e. Pro-adjective phrase: Lavern is really obese but she didn’t become so
until after she inherited all the money. “When we can find evidence from more than one criterion, the case for
a particular sequence being a phrase is obviously strengthened.” [Kaplan, 1989: 196]
37.3 Phrase structure exercises Which criterion (substitution, conjoinability, movement or
checking the antecedent for a Pro-form) can satisfactorily discover the phrase structure of a white horse? Support your choice. ANSWER:
37.3.1 In a white horse, if we can find a single word to substitute for a white, then we are justified in calling a white a phrase. For a white we can
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substitute the, my, this, one, in each case preserving grammatically: the horse, my horse, this horse and one horse.
(1) a white horse
the the horse Substituting: my gives: my horse this this horse one one horse
On the basis of this, we can divide the phrase like this: a white — horse.
However, for white horse, we can also find grammatical substitutes: piano, horse, tree, man, soul: a piano, a horse, a tree, a man, a soul.
(2) a white horse
piano a piano horse a horse Substituting: tree gives: a tree man a man soul a soul
On the basis of this, we can divide the phrase like this: a — white horse. Unfortunately, substitution fails to tell us which of the two groupings, either (1) or (2), is correct.
37.3.2 How helpful is conjoinability in helping us decide on the phrase structure of a white horse? Unfortunately, not very. Both a white and white horse are conjoinable with similar sequence:
(3)a. A6 white horse and gray pony7 WERE DELIVERED yesterday. b. A white and a gray horse8 WERE DELIVERED yesterday.
6 Since ‘a white horse’ and ‘a gray pony’ have exactly the same internal structure, the
repeated indefinite article ‘a/an’ is acceptably omitted in the second noun phrase, i.e. after the co-ordinate conjunction ‘and’.
7 pony /‘p6ån1/ (noun) a small type of horse 8 Since ‘a white horse’ and ‘a gray horse’ have exactly the same internal structure, the
shared head noun of these two noun phrases , which is ‘horse’, is acceptably omitted in the first.
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Therefore, as with the substitutability criterion, according to the conjoinability criterion both a white and white horse are constituents. But they can’t both be, since they overlap.
37.3.3 Can the movement criterion determine the phrase structure of a white horse?
Look at the movement pattern shown below: (4)a. Though he IS a careful typist, he still makes mistakes.
b. Careful typist though he IS, he still makes mistakes.
(5)a. Though she WAS a fast finisher, she didn’t win all her races. b. Fast finisher though she WAS, she didn’t win all her races.
Significantly, this pattern applies to white horse, but not to a white: (6)a. Though he IS a white horse, he will fit in with the rest of the herd.
b. White horse though he IS, he will fit in with the rest of the herd.
(7)a. Though he IS a white horse, he will fit in with the rest of the herd. b. *A white though he IS horse, he will fit in with the rest of the herd.
Since the result of the movement in (6)a-b is grammatical, but that in (7)a-b is ungrammatical, it seems reasonable to conclude that the phrase structure of a white horse is a — white horse; it is not a white — horse.
NP *NP DET N’1 ART AP N’2 ART A headN
A headN a white horse a white horse
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37.3.4 There is a so-called ‘pronoun’ one that can refer to white horse as an antecedent, if not in a white horse, at least in the identity structured the white horse:
(8) I want the white horse by the gate, not the one in the stall.
On the basis of movement and being an antecedent for a pro-form, then, we can be fairly confident about assigning the phrase structure a —white horse to the phrase a white horse.
________________ 38 Phrase structure rules
38.1 Phrase-structure Rules “specify the constituency of syntactic categories in the language.
For example, in English a Noun Phrase (NP) can be an Article (Art) followed by a Noun (N) … The Phrase Structure Rule which makes this explicit can be stated as:
NP → Art N This rule conveys two facts:
(a) A Noun Phrase can be an Article followed by a Noun. (b) An Article followed by a Noun is a Noun Phrase. … Phrase-structure Rules make explicit speakers’ knowledge of the order
of words and the grouping of words into syntactic categories.” [Fromkin and Rodman, 1993: 87-88]
38.2 The following Phrase Structure Rules are part of the grammar of English:
38.2.1 Phrase-structure Rules for rewriting Noun Phrases: 1. NP → N (NP consists of N) 2. NP → DET N (NP consists of DET + N) 3. NP → DET A N (NP consists of DET + A + N) 4. NP → DET A N PP (NP consists of DET + A + N + PP)
These four rules can be collapsed into a single rule if we place parentheses around optional elements (that is, around elements that need not be present). Notice that the only constituent required in each NP rewrite rule
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is N: the other constituents — DET, A, and PP — are optional and must be placed in parentheses. The abbreviated rule looks like this:
5. NP → (DET) (A) N (PP)
Because DET, A, and PP are optional, we can rewrite NP not only as in 1, 2, 3, and 4 above, but also in other ways, including 6 and 7.
6. NP → A N 7. NP → DET N PP
38.2.2 Phrase-structure Rules for rewriting Sentences and Verb Phrases: To capture the fact that sentences and clauses have two basic
constituent parts, we formulate the following phrase structure: 8. S → NP VP
Having seen various expansion of NP, we turn now to the internal structure of VP to explore its expansion and the rewrite rules necessary to accommodate them:
9. VP → V: Lou won. 10. VP → V NP: Lou won a bicycle. 11. VP → V NP (S): Lou warned [the cook] [that he must wash the celery]. 12. VP → V (NP) (PP) (S): Lou warned [the cook] [on Monday]
[that he must wash the celery]. 13. VP → V (S): The indictment charged [that Lou embezzled funds]. 14. VP → V PP: Lou flew to Miami. 15. VP → V NP PP: Lou won the bike in a contest. 16. VP → V PP S: Lou denied in court that he flew to Miami.
38.2.3 Phrase-structure Rules for rewriting Prepositional Phrases: Other well-form English sentences indicate that a PP consists of a
preposition and that all prepositions take complements and their complements are always nominals [Stageberg, 1965: 196-199]. In other words, a preposition is always dominated by a PP and always has a nominal complement as a following sister:
17. PP → PREP NP
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38.2.4 We have now arrived at the following phrase-structure rules for English:
S → NP VP NP → (DET) (A) N (PP) VP → V (NP) (PP) (S) PP → PREP NP
________________ 39 Surface structures vs. deep structures
“Each sentence is considered to have two levels of structure: the deep structure and the surface structure. The surface structure is generally the syntactic structure of the sentence which a person speaks, hears, reads or writes, e.g. the passive sentence
The newspaper was not delivered today.
The deep structure is much more abstract and is considered to be in the speaker’s, writer’s or reader’s mind. The deep structure for the above sentence would be something like:
(NEGATIVE) someone (PAST TENSE) deliver the newspaper today (PASSIVE)
The items in brackets are not lexical items but grammatical concepts which shape the final form of the sentence. Rules which describe deep structure (phrase-structure rules) are in the first part of the grammar (BASE COMPONENT). Rules which transform these structures (transformational rules) are the second part of the grammar (TRANSFOMATIONAL COMPONENT).” [Richards, Platt and Weber, 1987: 74]
Thus, we postulate two levels of sentence structure in the sentence John loves Richard more than Martha. “The level that is represented by the linear string of morphemes and words as uttered or written is called a surface structure … The other level of structure is an abstract level underlying the surface structure. Structure at this level is called deep structure or underlying structure.
“From an underlying structure, a surface structure is generated by application of a series of syntactic processes called transformational rules, or transformations.” [Finegan, 1994: 141-142]
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The phrase-structure rules we proposed earlier would actually generate a deep structure. Then the syntactic processes — the transformations — would operate on the deep structure generated by the phrase-structure rules to produce a surface structure. We can represent the situation schematically as follows:
PHRASE-STRUCTURE RULES ↓
Deep structure ↓
TRANSFORMATIONAL RULES ↓
Surface structure
Let’s consider the two following examples:
Ex1. PHRASE-STRUCTURE RULES: S → NP VP
NP → PropN
↓ VP → V NP AdvP Deep structure: John LOVES Richard more than he LOVES Martha. ↓
THE OMISSION TRANSFORMATIONAL RULE: Omit the repeated subject he and the repeated verb loves.
↓ Surface structure: John LOVES Richard more than Martha.
Ex2. PHRASE-STRUCTURE RULES: S → NP VP
NP → PropN
↓ VP → V NP AdvP Deep structure: John LOVES Richard more than Martha LOVES Richard.
↓ THE OMISSION TRANSFORMATIONAL RULE:
Omit the repeated verb loves and the repeated direct object Richard. ↓ Surface structure: John LOVES Richard more than Martha.
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The two above examples prove that two different deep structures may share the same surface structure as a result of the application of a certain transformational rule. Note also that a sentence is structurally ambiguous when its only surface structure is derived from two or more different deep structures.
________________ 40 Signals of syntactic structures
There exist five signals of syntactic structures: word order, function words, inflections, derivational contrast, and prosody.
40.1. Word order /‘w3:d ,0:d6/ is “the arrangement of words in a
sentence. Languages often differ in their word order ... In English, the position of a word in a sentence often signals its function. Thus, in the sentence: Dogs eat meat. The position of dogs 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, eg:
That cheese I really don’t like. where the object is shifted to the beginning.”
[Richards, Platt and Webber, 1987: 313]
40.2. Function words /‘f∧7k∫6n ,w3:dz/ are “words which have little meaning on their own, but which show grammatical relationships in and between sentences (grammatical meaning). Conjunctions, prepositions, articles, e.g. and, to, the, are function words.” [Richards, Platt and Webber, 1987: 61]
A preposition is a word that shows the relation between a noun or a pronoun and other words in a sentence.
I walked to the house the book by him around the house for him through the house about him
In the above examples, prepositions make great differences in meaning when they link the house with walked, and him with the book.
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Co-AP Co-NP
AP1 Conj AP2 NP1 NP2 Conj NP3
A1 A2 N1 N2 N3
(1)a. stupid but persevering (1)b. sandwiches, relish, and coffee
‘Stupid but persevering’ is a CO-ORDINATE ADJECTIVE PHRASE with stupid and persevering coordinated by but.
‘Sandwiches, relish, and coffee’ is a CO-ORDINATE NOUN PHRASE
with sandwiches, relish, and coffee coordinated by and.
40.3. Inflection “Inflection is the change, or modification, in the form of a word to
indicate a change in its meaning.” [House and Harman, 1965: 15]
“Inflection refers to the way English makes related forms of words of the same ‘part of speech,’ such as plurals and possessives of nouns and past tenses of verbs.” [Kaplan, 1989: 28]
“Almost all English nouns have two forms: the plain form used in the constructions like ‘a book’ or ‘the book’ and the inflected form which is formed by adding inflectional suffixes to the plain form. The plain form and its three inflected forms together make up a four-form inflectional noun paradigm, which is a set of relative forms of a noun. Not all nouns have three inflected forms:
one plain form (= the stem)
three inflected forms (= the stem + inflectional suffixes)
mother (singular noun) mothers (plural noun) mother’s (singular-possessive noun) mothers’ (plural-possessive noun)
The inflections of a verb are more complicated than those of a noun. The inflectional paradigm of an irregular verb has four inflected forms: breaks, breaking, broke, and broken.” [Toâ Minh Thanh, 2003: 45]
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40.4. Derivational contrast /,der1‘ve1∫nl ‘k4ntrast/ is Derivation is “the formation of new words by adding affixes to
other words or morphemes. For example, the noun insanity is derived from the adjective sane by addition of the negative prefix in− and the noun-forming suffix −ity.” [Richards, Platt and Weber, 1987: 77]
The verb flirt, the noun flirtation, the adjective flirtatious, and the adverb flirtatiously can be identified thanks to such derivational contrast.
40.5. Prosody /‘pr4s6d1/ is “a collective term for variation in loudness, pitch and speech rhythm” [Richards, Platt and Webber, 1987: 233]
Different degrees of stress are used for emphasis. A stressed syllable can be given greater stress by increasing its length, its loudness and/or by raising its pitch more. In the following examples, the responses are stated at different levels of stress: stress for emphasis greater stress for emphasis
How was the ship? It was huge. It was HUGE! Was it a bad storm? It was terrible. It was TERrible! How was the sunset? It was awesome. It was AWEsome!
“Rhythm is a pattern in timing. We can see rhythm patterns in many things, such as in dancing, in music, and in speech. The rhythm of speech is based on the timing of sound segments. In English, these segments are the word syllables.” [Lujan, 2004: 4.1]
The uneven timing in STRESSED SYLLABLES and in unstressed syllables gives English speech its characteristic rhythm:
- I’d LIKE to TAKE my DOG for a WALK. - It isn’t MEREly eNOUGH. - They DID it ALL by themSELVES.
Function words are normally unstressed and therefore are often spoken with the same timing as unstressed syllables. In the following dialogue, and is spoken reduced or stressed, resulting in variations of the English rhythm:
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Would you like soup or salad? _ I’d like soup and salad. What kind of dressing? _ Oil and vinegar. What to drink? _ Coffee with cream and sugar. And for dessert, we have cake or ice cream.
_ I’ll take cake and ice cream. ________________
41 What is syntax? • Syntax is “a term used for the study of the rules governing the way words
are combined to form SENTENCES." [Finch, 2000: 77]
• Syntax is “the study of how words combine to form sentences and the rules which govern the information of sentences” [Richards, Platt and Weber, 1987: 285]
• Cuù phaùp laø caáp ñoä duy nhaát cuûa ngoân ngöõ tröïc tieáp lieân heä vôùi vieäc bieåu ñaït tö töôûng vaø caâu laø phöông tieän hình thaønh vaø dieãn ñaït tröïc tieáp moät tö duy troïn veïn. [Cao Xuaân Haïo, 1991: 24]
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SECTION 4: SAMPLE TESTS IN ENGLISH LINGUISTICS
TRÖÔØNG ÑH KHXH&NV COÄNG HOØA XAÕ HOÄI CHUÛ NGHÓA VIEÄT NAM HOÄI ÑOÀNG TUYEÅN SINH SÑH 2000 Ñoäc laäp - Töï do - Haïnh phuùc TRÖÔØNG ÑH KHXH&NV ********** **********
ÑEÀ THI TUYEÅN SINH SAU ÑAÏI HOÏC CHUYEÂN NGAØNH PHÖÔNG PHAÙP GIAÛNG DAÏY TIEÁNG ANH
Moân thi: LINGUISTICS Thôøi gian: 180 phuùt
PART I. SYNTAX 1. a. What is a “descriptive grammar”? How is it different from a
“prescriptive grammar”? b. Explain “deep structure” and surface structure”. Give an example from
English in which two deep structures are realized by only one surface structure.
2. Determine the form (N, V, Adj, Adv, or Uninflected Words – UW), position (Nominal, Verbal, Adjectival, adverbial), and syntactic function (Subj, DirObj, IndirObj, PrepObj, V, SubjComp, Mod) of the underlined word in each of the following sentences. Ex: Max was struck by lightning.
Form: V – Position: Nominal – Function: PrepObj (i) She gave him an encouraging smile. (ii) I am too frightened to move. (iii) They visited him in the summer. (iv) Self-confidence is the key factor in getting yourself a good job. (v) She works in a language center.
3. Determine whether the underlined parts in the following sentences are constituents by using any of the following tests: substitution, coordination, and movement. If you decide that something is NOT a constituent, you need to identity what the constituent is by underlying it.
Ex: She sharpened the pencil with a knife. Not a constituent (you also need to say what test you have used to make your decision). There are in fact two constituents here: She sharpened the pencil with a knife.
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(i) The boy turned down the radio. (ii) They ran quickly down the road. (iii) Everyone charged with a crime deserves a fair trial. (iv) The roaring crowd drowned out the candidate. (v) I climbed out of bed and jumped into the shower.
PART II. SEMANTICS 1. a. What are primitive elements? Identify semantic properties of the
following words: democracy, maid, ruler, plod, water-lily, gull, ewe, soul
b. Give presuppositions to the following sentences: 1. I lost my grammar book on the way home yesterday. 2. It took us two day to come back from Hanoi by train.
2. a. Identify the difference between SYNONYMY and POLYSEMY. Give examples to illustrate.
b. Interpret the meaning of the following sentences and then identify the kinds of figurative language used:
1. The conversation back-fired suddenly. 2. He tries to sing his praises to the skies.
3. Give situations, interpret the meaning and then classify the following sentences into different kinds of speech acts:
1. The meeting is over! 2. Hurry up, we are going to have a final exam. 3. I call her “My Little Cat” and she seems happy. 4. How are you?
PART III. WRITING
Write a short essay of about 300 - 350 words on either topic. 1. Should all errors made by foreign language learners be corrected at
any cost? 2. Games can help to learn a foreign language.
********************************************************* Thí sinh khoâng söû duïng taøi lieäu.
Giaùm thò khoâng giaûi thích gì theâm.
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ANSWER KEY 1. a/ A descriptive grammar describes how a language is actually spoken or
written. A prescriptive grammar to lay down rules about how people ought to speak and write rather than how they actually do. (1/2 point)
b/ The deep structure is the propositional core of a sentence, and the surface structure is the way it appears in an actual sentence.
An example of two deep structures realized by only one surface structure: They feed her dog biscuits.
(or any other structurally ambiguous sentence). (1 point)
2. (i) She gave him an encouraging smile. → Verb, Adjectival, Mod (ii) I am too frightened to move. → Verb, Adjectival, SubjCom
(iii) They visited him in the summer. → Verb, Verbal, Predicator (iv) Self-confidence is the key factor in getting yourself a good job.
→ Noun, Adjectival, Mod (v) She works in a language center. → Noun, Adjectival, Mod (1 point)
3. (i) The boy turned down the radio. → not a constituent, as the underlined part of the sentence cannot be moved as a whole (The radio was turned down). The constituent here is the radio.
(ii) They ran quickly down the road. → a constituent because it can be moved as a whole (Down the road they ran quickly.)
(iii) Everyone charged with a crime deserves a fair trial. → not a constituent because the underlined part of the sentence cannot be substituted by one word (eg charged with it). The constituent is a crime.
(iv) The roaring crowd drowned out the candidate. → not a constituent (The candidate was drowned out…)
(vi) I climbed out of bed and jumped into the shower. → not a constituent (Out of bed I climbed and into the shower I jumped).
Writing (3 points) - Form (spelling, punctuation, grammar) - Usage of English - Ideas, organization of ideas - Persuasiveness and effectiveness
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ÑH QUOÁC GIA TP HOÀ CHÍ MINH COÄNG HOØA XAÕ HOÄI CHUÛ NGHÓA VIEÄT NAM TRÖÔØNG ÑH KH XAÕ HOÄI & NHAÂN VAÊN Ñoäc laäp - Töï do - Haïnh phuùc __________ _________
TUYEÅN SINH CAO HOÏC NGAØNH PHÖÔNG PHAÙP GIAÛNG DAÏY TIEÁNG ANH (TESOL)
MOÂN THI: NGÖÕ HOÏC THÔØI GIAN: 180 PHUÙT
PART ONE: SYNTAX 1. Do you or don’t you agree with the following statement by Kaplan (1989: 267): “Embedded sentences typically function as subjects and direct objects and as sentence-adverbial phrases.” Give examples to support your answer.
2. What do you know about the post-modification in English adjective phrases? Give three appropriate examples to illustrate your presentation.
3. How do sentences in each of the following pairs differ from each other? (3a) I will see you the day before you go. (3b) I will give you the information before you go.
(3c) Several women moved to help her. (3d) Several women offered to help her.
4. Explain the structural ambiguity of the phrase and the sentence given below, using tree diagrams: (4a) the motor boat of the man that would not start
(4b) Fred said that he would pay me on Thursday.
PART TWO: SEMANTICS 1. What are semantic features? Consider the following table and give the semantic features to each of the given words.
English Vietnamese Chinese anh huynh
brother ñeä
em muoäi
sibling sister
chò tyû
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2. Distinguish true synonymy from partial synonymy? Give two examples to illustrate each.
3. Identify the presupposition(s) in the following sentences: (3a) I’ve been dreaming of having a house of my own. (3b) If they hadn’t waited until the last minute, they would have passed
the exam.
4. Interpret the following sentences and identify the figure(s) of speech employed.
(4a) Her beloved father was laid to rest in this cemetery.
(4b) Don’t live in such a sea of doubt.
5. For each of the following utterances, provide two situations so that one utterance performs two different speech acts. Interpret the utterances and identify the speech acts performed in the light of the situations you provide.
(5a) Why don’t you live with your parents? (5b) You’re home early.
PART THREE: WRITING Write a short essay of about 300-350 words on either topic.
1. How can you help your students to enlarge their vocabulary? 2. Is it true that one who is good at English grammar can write well in English?
Ghi chuù: Caùn boä coi thi khoâng giaûi thích gì theâm.
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ANSWER KEYS Part one: Syntax (30 ñieåm = 3/10) (6 ñieåm) 1. Students are supposed to answer positively with a few examples like: Embedded sentences functioning as subjects: (2 ñieåm)
That Mary swallowed a gold fish grossed everyone out. It grossed everyone out that Mary swallowed a gold fish. Where we are going has not been decided.
Embedded sentences functioning as objects: (2 ñieåm) Jack made whoever came here the same offer. (IO) They found what they wanted. (DO) We will name the baby whatever his grandmother wishes. (OC)
Embedded sentences functioning as sentence-adverbial phrases: (2 ñieåm) Julia laughed when Max snored. when Max snored, Julia laughed.
(10 ñieåm) 2. 2.1. Many adjectives do not allow any kind of post-modification: big, blue, sudden, tall, astute, etc. (2 ñieåm)
2.2. For most English adjectives, post-modification is optional; for a few, however, it is obligatory. Aware, for example, cannot occur without its adjective complement: * He was aware. He was aware of a creaking noise. (2 ñieåm)
2.3. There are three kinds of post-modifier or complement: (3 ñieåm) - a prepositional phrase: He is very anxious about Jim’s health. - an infinitive phrase: He is very anxious to please everybody. - a that-clause: He is very anxious that no one should excuse him of laziness.
2.4. Not all adjectives allow all the three above-mentioned kinds of complement. Some allow only one or two of them. Interesting, for example, may take only an infinitive phrase: this book is very interesting to read; safe allows either a prepositional phrase or an infinitive clause (but not a that-clause): this toy is safe for children, this tree is not safe to climb up. (3 ñieåm)
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(8 ñieåm) 3. verb Head pronoun noun phrase/adverbial
simple transitive verb direct object adjunct of time of “will see” (3a) I will see you the day before you go.
(2 ñieåm)
verb Head pronoun noun phrase subordinate clause/adverbial double transitive verb IO DO adjunct of time of “will give” (3b) I will give you the information before you go.
(2 ñieåm)
verb Head infinitive phrase/adverbial intransitive verb adjunct of purpose
(3c) Several women moved to help her. (2 ñieåm)
verb Head infinitive phrase simple transitive verb nominal/DO
(3d) Several women offered to help her. (2 ñieåm)
(Note that tree diagrams are equally acceptable here.)
(6 ñieåm) 4. (4a) “the man’s motor boat which would not start” vs. “the man who would not start” (3 ñieåm) (4b) “Fred said on Thursday that he would pay me.” vs. “Fred said that it is on Thursday that he would pay me.” (3 ñieåm)
(Note that tree diagrams must be used in this question. Any explaination without its acommpanying illustrating diagram(s) is not acceptable.
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Part two: Semantics (30 ñieåm = 3/10)
(6 ñieåm) 1. Semantics features are the smallest units of meaning in a word. The meaning of a word may be described as a combination of its smallest units of meaning _ its semantic features.
a. Sibling has only one semantic feature: [+born by the same parents]. b. Brother and sister both have two semantic features: [+born by the same parents] and [±male] c. Anh and chò both have three semantic features: [+born by the same
parents], [±male] and [+older]. d. Em has only two semantic features: [+born by the same parents] and
[+younger]. e. Huynh, ñeä, muoäi and tyû all have three semantic features: [+born by the
same parents], [±male] and [±older].
(6 ñieåm) 2. True synonymy vs. Partial synonymy 2.1. TRUE SYNONYMY is a sense relation in which TWO OR MORE WORDS/
VARIOUS WORDS are written and pronounced differently but have the same meaning.
E.g.: - The two English verbs hide and conceal are synonyms; they both
mean “keep sb/sth from being seen or known about”. - The four English nouns kind, type, sort and variety are synonyms;
they all refer to “a group having similar characteristics”.
2.2. PARTIAL SYNONYMY is a sense relation in which a polysemous word shares one of its meanings with another word.
For example, one meaning of deep is synonymous with profound: You have my deep/profound sympathy.
Similarly, one meaning of broad is synonymous with wide: The river is very broad/wide at this point.
(6 ñieåm) 3. Presuppositions (3a) I haven’t had/onwed/possessed any house (yet). (3b) They waited until the last minute (and thus they failed the exam).
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(6 ñieåm) 4. Figures of speech (4a) Her beloved father was laid to rest in this cemetery.
“Was laid to rest” is an expression of euphemism meaning “was buried”.
(4b) Don’t live in such a sea of doubt. - “Live in a sea of doubt” is an overstatement/an expression of hyperbole
meaning “be too suspicious”.
- “Doubt” is implicitly compared to “a sea”, both being characteristic of their immeasurability. This is a metaphor.
(6 ñieåm) 5. Speech Acts Answers to the questions in this part vary depending on the situations
provided by the student. If there is no situation provided, there will certainly no mark counted.)
Part three: Writing (40 ñieåm = 4/10) Noäi dung yù töôûng: 10 ñieåm
Boácuïc/daøn yù: 10 ñieåm Lieân keát trong vaø giöõa caùc ñoaïn vaên: 10 ñieåm Ngöõ phaùp/voán töø: 10 ñieåm
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ÑAÏI HOÏC QUOÁC GIA TP. HOÀ CHÍ MINH Tröôøng Ñaïi Hoïc Khoa hoïc Xaõ hoäi vaø Nhaân vaên
HOÄI ÑOÀNG TUYEÅN SINH SAU ÑAÏI HOÏC NAÊM 2003
ÑEÀ THI TUYEÅN SINH SAU ÑAÏI HOÏC Moân cô sôû: LINGUISTICS Thôøi gian laøm baøi: 180 phuùt
I. Semantics: Part 1: Why is it said that sense and reference are two aspects of the
meaning of a word? Which of the two is the aspect of meaning that first come to the mind of a child who is exposed to his/her native language at an early stage (say, from the age of 8 months to the age of 15 months)?
Part 2: What is the connotation of a word? Identify three possible (positive or negative) connotations of the word titanic.
Part 3: Read the following sentence carefully and answer the questions. English is spoken in more parts of the world than in any other language by more people than any other tongue except Chinese.
1. Is there any instance of synonymy in the above sentence? 2. What is the sense relation between the terms English, language, and
Chinese in the above sentence? 3. Like many other words in English, tongue is a polysemous word,
which can lead to lexical ambiguity when it is used in a certain utterance. Is the word tongue in the above sentence an instance of ambiguity?
4. What is the figure of speech expressed through the use of tongue in the above sentence?
Part 4: Identify the speech acts performed in the following underlined utterances.
1. A. Hey, buddy! There’s a big hole in front of our classroom! B. Thanks.
2. A. You know what I found on he first day of my new school year? There’s a big hole in front of our classroom. B. Really?
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3. A. Oh, my God! There’s a big hole in front of our classroom! B. It’s not unusual around here.
II. Syntax: Part 1: Make a complete IC analysis of the following sentence by using an
upside-down-T diagram (e.g. she smile happily)
Research into the health effects of air pollution is going.
Part 2: What are the syntactic functions typical of a noun phrase? Illustrate your answer with examples.
Part 3: Compare and contrast the following underlined phrases. 1. She is very beautiful. 2. She is of great beauty.
Part 4: What are the types of verbs that do not allow passive transformation? Part 5: How many types of noun clauses are there? Give an example for each
type. III. Academic writing:
“The goal of teachers who uses the Communicative Approach is to have students become communicatively competent. While this has been the stated goal of many of the other methods, in the Communicative approach the notion of what it takes to be communicatively competent is much expanded.” State the reason why you are for/against the above idea.
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ÑAÙP AÙN MOÂN CÔ SÔÛ: LINGUISTICS
I. Semantics (10 points): Part 1 (3 points):
1.1 It is said that sense and reference are two aspects of the meaning of a word because the meaning of a word comes to our mind sometimes as sense (0.3 points) and sometimes as reference (0.3 points).
The meaning of a word that comes to our mind can be established as the intra-linguistic relationship between the word (in question) and another word or other words that are semantically equivalent to the word in question (0.3 point). This is called sense. (0.3 point)
sense (meaning)
word semantically equivalent word(s)
The meaning of a word that comes to our mind can also be established as the extra-linguistic relationship between the word (in question) and its referent(s) (i.e. the thing(s) in the real world the word in question refers to) (0.3 point). This is called reference. (0.3 point)
1.2 The aspect of meaning that first comes to mind of a child who is exposed to his/her native language at such an early stage (from the age of 8 months to the age of 15 months) is reference (0.3 points). The reason is that there is only one way for an adult/caretaker/babysitter to communicative with a child of this age, which is to point to specific referents of word whenever using that word talking to the child (e.g. point at a teddy bear when saying “bear” to the child) (0.3 points)
Part 2 (1.5 points): The connotation of a word is the association(s) that a word has over and
above its denotation (0.3 points). A word like titanic (whose denotation is [+huge] (0.3 points) may have such connotations as [+romance/romantic] (0.3 points), [+ship] (0.3 points). [+sacrifice/sacrificial] (0.3 points), etc.
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Part 3 (3.5 points): 1. There is an instance of synonymy in the above sentence (0.25 points).
The synonymy found here are language and tongue (0.25 points). 2. The sense relation between these word is hyponymy (0.25 points)
because the superordinate term (or hypernym) language (0.25 points) can be English (a hyponym) (0.25 points), Chinese (anther hyponym) (0.25 points), etc.
language
English Chinese … … … … (0.25 points)
The classification of language into English, Chinese, etc. is often referred to as taxonomy (0.25 points).
3. The word tongue in the above sentence is not an instance of ambiguity (0.25 points) because the context “English is spoken … by more people than any other tongue …” is clear that tongue here can only be interpreted as a synonym of language (0.25 points).
4. The figure of speech found in the use of tongue in the above sentence is metonymy (0.25 points) because tongue, which is associated with language (0.25 points), especially spoken language, is substituted for language (0.25 points). However, native speakers of English use the word tongue with this sense so naturally that many of them are unaware that that this is an instance of metonymy (0.25 points).
Part 4 (2 points): 1. In this utterance, the speaker performs an illocutionary act of
warning (0.4 points). This speech act is a directive (0.4 points).
2. In this utterance, the speaker performs an illustration act of stating/reporting a fact (0.2 points). This speech act is a representative (0.4 points).
3. In this utterance, the speaker performs an illocutionary act of exclaiming (0.2 points). This speech act is an expressive (0.4 points).
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II. Syntax (10 points): Part 1 (2 points): Research into the health effects of air pollution is going.
Notes: According to functional grammar, such a preposition phrase as of air pollution is regarding as an endocentric structure (of which the head is the preposition) and can be diagrammed as follows.
of air pollution
Part 2 (3 points): The syntactic function typical of a noun phrase are subjects
of a verb (0.3 points), object of a verb (direct object, in direct object) (0.3 points), object of a preposition (0.3 points), and complement (subject complement, object complement) (0.3 points).
E.g. My dog is sleeping. (subject of is) (0.3 points)
I gave the little boy a toy. (IO) (DO) (0.6 points)
He’s fond of Chinese tea. (object of the prep. of) (0.3 points)
She is a counsellor. (subject complement) (0.3 points)
I consider him my archenemy. (object complement) (0.3 points) Part 3 (1 point):
The two phrases are both adjectivals (0.2 points), “very beautiful” being an adjective phrase (0.2 points) and “of great beauty” a prepositional phrase (0.2 points). Although they are almost the same in meaning (0.2 points), “of great beauty” is a much more formal structure than is “very beautiful”.
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Part 4 (2 points): Verbs that do not allow passive transformation are of two main types
(0.2 points): all intransitive verbs (0.3 points) including linking verbs (0.3 points) and some transitive verbs, especially verbs of state (0.3 points). E.g. Active Passive He worked very hard. (0.3 points) (intransitive verb)
He was a marketeer. (0.3 points) (linking verb/copula)
He has two sister. (0.3 points) (transitive verb of state) Part 5 (2 points):
There are three types of noun clause (0.2 points): that-clause (i.e. a noun clause beginning with that (0.2 points), whether/if-clause (i.e. a noun clause beginning with whether/if) (0.3 points), and (W)H-clause (i.e. a noun clause beginning with W)H-word) (0.3 points). E.g. He said that he would come. (0.3 points) She wanted to know whether he could come. (0.3 points) She asked me who would come. (0.3 points)
III. Academic writing (10 points): Trong baøi caàn neâu baät moät soá yù sau:
1. Communicative competence involved being able to use the language appropriate to given context.
2. Students need knowledge of linguistic forms, meanings, and functions. 3. Students need to know that many different form can be used to perform
a function and also that a single form can often serve a variety of functions.
4. Students must be able to choose from among these different forms the most appropriate form, given the social context and the roles of the interlocutors.
5. Students must also be able to manage the process of negotiating meaning with their interlocutors.
Chuù yù caùch tính ñieåm: Ñieåm toaøn baøi = ñieåm Semantics + ñieåm Syntax + ñieåm Writing
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ÑAÏI HOÏC QUOÁC GIA TP HOÀ CHÍ MINH COÄNG HOØA XAÕ HOÄI CHUÛ NGHÓA VIEÄT NAM TRÖÔØNG ÑH KHXH&NV Ñoäc laäp - Töï do - Haïnh phuùc ********** **********
MOÂN THI CÔ SÔÛ: LINGUISTICS CHUYEÂN NGAØNH PHÖÔNG PHAÙP GIAÛNG DAÏY TIEÁNG ANH
THÔØI GIAN LAØM BAØI: 180 PHUÙT
PART I. SYNTAX 1. What is the difference between descriptivism and prescriptivism.
2. The following sentence is structurally ambiguous. Paraphrase the sentence in two different ways and draw tree diagrams to show the ambiguity involved.
He killed the robber with a knife.
3. Explain the difference between the following underlined structures, which are apparently similar.
a. I never accept the idea that public housing can’t be beautiful. I can’t understand the idea that he has been toying with.
b. He turned off the motorway at Lancaster. He turned off the light in the living room.
PART II. SEMANTICS 1. a. What are proforms? Give two examples to illustrate. b. Identify the presuppositions in the following sentences:
1. Where did you buy the motorbike? 2. You are late for the meeting again.
2. Interpret the meaning of the following sentences and then identify the kinds of figurative language used.
a. Don’t substitute the good for the best. b. The man is a demon of energy.
3. Provide situations, interpret the meaning and then classify the following utterances into different kinds of speech acts.
a. We are going to be in the rainy season! b. What time is it according to your watch? c. We always call him “Jack of all the trades.”
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PART III. WRITING Write an essay of about 250 - 300 words on either topics: 1. English has played an important part in providing employment
opportunity for many people in Vietnam. 2. Advantages and disadvantages in teaching English to adults learners
in the current situation in Vietnam.
ÑAÙP AÙN MOÂN THI CÔ SÔÛ: LINGUISTICS
PART I. SYNTAX (3m) 1. The differences between descriptism and prescriptivism: (1m)
Prescriptivism
Descriptism
1 To prescribe rules for the “correct” use of the language (often irrespective of how the language is actually used by native speakers of that language)
To describe the language as it is actually used by native speakers of that language
2 Subjective; speculative in nature
Objective; empirical; data-based
3 Examples (or “evidence”) are often contrived or made up
Use of naturally-occurring language data as evidence
2. “He killed the robber with a knife.” is structurally ambiguous: (1m) a. He used a knife to kill the robber.
S
NP VP V NP PP
Pro. Art. N Prep. NP Art. N
He killed the robber with a knife.
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b. He killed the robber who was carrying a knife. S
NP VP V NP Art NP N PP
Prep. NP Pro. Art. N
He killed the robber with a knife.
3. The differences between the following underlined structures: (1m) a. I never accept the idea that public housing can’t be beautiful.
“That public housing can’t be beautiful” is a noun clause functioning as an appositive (of the noun phrase “the idea”).
→ “That public housing can’t be beautiful” = “the idea”
I can’t understand the idea that he has been toying with.
“That he has been toying with” is a adjective/relative clause functioning as a post-modifier of the noun phrase “the idea”.
→ “the idea” “that he has been toying with”
b. He turned off the motorway at Lancaster.
“Off the motorway” is a prepositional phrase modifying the intransitive verb “turned” and indicating direction/location.
He turned off the motorway at Lancaster.
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He turned off the light in the living room. “The light in the living room” is a noun phrase functioning as the direct object of the phrasal verb “turned off”.
He turned off the light in the living room.
PART II. SEMANTICS (3m) 1a. What are PROFORMS? Give two examples to illustrate. (0.5m)
Definition: Proforms are forms which can serve as replacements for different elements in sentence. (1/4m)
1). A: I hope you can come. B: I hope so. (So replaces that I can come.) (1/8m) 2). A: I like green tea. B: We do too. (Do replaces like green tea.) (1/8m)
1b. Identify PRESUPPOSITIONS in the following sentences: (0.5m)
1. Where did you buy the motorbike? (You bought the motorbike.) (1/4m) 2. You are late for the meeting again. (You were late before.) (1/4m)
2. Interpret the meaning of the following sentences and then identify the kinds of FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE used. (0.5m) a. Don’t substitute the good for the bad. … the good and the bad in this context means good work and bad work. This is metonymy. (1/4m)
b. The man is a demon of energy. …a demon of energy in this context means the man is very energetic/ full of energy/ very active. This is metaphor. (1/4m)
3. SPEECH ACTS (1.5m) Marking the answers according to the situations provided by the candidates. (no situation: no marking)
PART III. WRITING (4m) Content: 1m Grammar: 1m Organisation: 1m Language use: 1m