Transcript THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH - Dipartimento di Lingue e Letterature

THE GRAMMAR OF
ENGLISH
CHAPTER 3
WHAT IS “GRAMMAR”?
Different meanings:
•
•
•
•
•
ETYMOLOGICALLY LINKED TO “WRITTEN
LETTERS”, BUT GRADUALLY HAS ACQUIRED A
WIDER MEANING
IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE OF HOW LANGUAGE
WORKS
EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE OF HOW LANGUAGE
WORKS
THE RULES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF CORRECT
LANGUAGE
DIFFERENT TYPES OF GRAMMAR:
PEDAGOGICAL/NORMATIVE, DESCRIPTIVE,
THEORETICAL (e.g. Halliday’s systemic grammar)
WHAT IS “GRAMMAR” MADE OF?

Grammar=
language

The central core of
grammar=

Phonology
Morphology
Word-formation
Syntax
Lexis and phraseology
Semantics
Text and discourse
Punctuation

morphology
inflectional (and
derivational, see
Chapter 4)
syntax








MORPHOLOGY
THE STUDY OF THE
INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF
WORDS
e.g. the plural –s inflection for
nouns and the –ed inflection for
verbs
SYNTAX
THE WAY IN WHICH WORDS COMBINE
TO FORM LARGER UNITS OF
MEANING
e.g. phrases, clauses, sentences
Example: word order in a noun phrase or in
statements and questions
e.g. She is a beautiful girl
NOT She is a girl beautiful
IN PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH…
limited presence of inflectional morphology
compared to Old English (and other
languages such as Italian or German)
and
greater importance of syntax and word order
in signalling grammatical relations
GRAMMATICAL UNITS
TEXT
SENTENCE (frase complessa)
CLAUSE (frase semplice
/principale o subordinata)
PHRASE ( *not frase but
sintagma/gruppo)
WORD
MORPHEME
What is a MORPHEME?
Unhappy
Cats
un-happy
cat-s
A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning or grammatical
function




Lexical e.g. pen, book
Functional or grammatical e.g. if, the
free: can stand alone as a word e.g. basket, woman
bound: cannot stand alone and must be linked to another
morpheme (called base or root) e.g. -ly, un-, -able, -ee
MORPHEMES and MORPHS
Played
Unhelpful
WORDS
play-ed
un-help-ful
MORPHS
(concrete)
PLAY+ past
negative+HELP+ adjective
MORPHEMES
(abstract)
ALLOMORPHS
-ed
the morph that indicates past tense can be
realised phonetically in different ways
(allomorphs) depending on the phonological
context:
e.g.
Raised [d]
looked [t]
decided [Id]
TWO BRANCHES OF
MORPHOLOGY
INFLECTIONAL : DEALS WITH CHANGES
THAT HAVE GRAMMATICAL MEANING
e.g. –est signalling the superlative of adjectives
DERIVATIONAL: DEALS WITH THE PROCESS
OF NEW WORD FORMATION
e.g. un-happ(y)i-ness (see Chapter 4)
WHAT IS A WORD?
Mary’s brother-in-law lost his
identity card during the
week-end
How many words are there in
this clause?
HOW MANY ‘WORDS’ ARE
THERE IN THIS SENTENCE?
I asked him to list all his
books, but instead of listing
them all, he listed only his
favourite book
20 or 14 or a number in
between?
IT DEPENDS ON THE CRITERIA OF
“WORDHOOD” USED
Phonological : a word is preceded and
followed by pauses
 Orthographic : a word is preceded and
followed by spaces or punctuation marks
 Prosodic : a word takes one main stress
 Internal integrity : a word is an indivisible
unit
 Semantic : a word has a single meaning

Word/word forms/lexemes
List/listing/listed = 3 word forms of the
LEXEME TO LIST
Book/books = 2 word forms of the
LEXEME BOOK
He/him = two word forms of the
LEXEME HE
WORDS IN DICTIONARIES
ENTRY: an independent lexical unit in
alphabetical order
HEADWORD: the main word of the entry
LEMMA: the canonical form, e.g. the singular
for nouns
Words are traditionally grouped into
WORD CLASSES
OR
PARTS OF SPEECH
HOW MANY AND WHAT ARE
THEY?
NOUNS
VERBS
( LEXICAL vs. AUXILIARY VERBS)
ADJECTIVES
ADVERBS
ARTICLES or DETERMINERS
PRONOUNS
CONJUNCTIONS
PREPOSITIONS
INTERJECTIONS/INSERTS e.g. oh, yes, right
OPEN AND CLOSED CLASSES


open-class words  lexical or content
words: wide and open membership; mixed
etymological origin ; 4 classes: nouns,
(lexical) verbs, adjectives, adverbs
closed-class words  grammatical or
function words: limited membership and
high frequency of use; short; usually of
Germanic origin; 5 classes: pronouns,
determiners, auxiliaries, prepositions,
conjunctions
MULTIPLE CLASS MEMBERSHIP



the same word form may belong to more than
one word class
e.g.
fast (adj.), fast (adv.), fast (n.)
park (n.), to park (v.)
can (n.), can (aux.)
only the co-text, i.e. the surroundings of the
word, allows the reader/listener to understand
the difference
word stress helps disambiguation
e.g. rebel (n.) [], rebel (v.)
NOUNS
Open class with a naming function




common (city, house) or proper (London,
Mary, the White House)
Concrete (bread) or abstract (love)
Countable (book/books) and uncountable or
mass (milk, furniture, information)
may take the ‘s genitive case (genitivo
sassone)
VERBS: lexical and auxiliary verbs
open class denoting actions or states


lexical /main / full verbs
e.g. I like English
He walked to school
auxiliary verbs (or auxiliaries) are added to lexical
verbs for various purposes
e.g. I could go faster. (modality)
John is going nowhere. (progressive aspect)
Do you go to school? (question)
I do love him! (emphasis)
LEXICAL VERBS

dynamic: referring to physical processes= allow
the progressive form
e.g. to play, to walk, to drink

Stative/state : referring to states and conditions =
do not allow the progressive form
e.g. to know, to love, to believe
Some can be both , e.g. to feel
ADJECTIVES
Open-class with a descriptive function


attributive function, before a noun
e.g. the extraordinary boy
predicative function, after copular verbs (to be, to seem, to
appear) e.g. John is tall
some adjectives are only used in either attributive or
predicative function
e.g. the child is afraid (predicative)
*the afraid child but the freightened child
e.g. the main task (attributive)
*the task is main but the task is crucial /
important
GRADABILITY OF ADJECTIVES


most adjectives are gradable
it is possible to indicate to what extent the quality
referred to by an adjective applies by using
intensifiers
e.g. lucky
very lucky extremely lucky
 some adjectives are not gradable
e.g
huge *extremely huge
unique *very unique
ADVERBS
A very heterogeneous class
Fortunately, today the dog has eaten his food very quietly outside
comment when
how / how /where



…provide information about how, when, and
where
…allow the speaker to comment on the whole
utterance
…express degree with adjectives or other
adverbs
Subclasses of adverbs
•
Circumstance adverbs or adjuncts: give additional information
about an element of the sentence
e.g. The surgeon completed the operation carefully
•
Stance adverbs or disjuncts: provide a comment on the
sentence
e.g. Frankly, I should have told her what happened
•
Linking adverbs or conjuncts: connect one sentence or part of a
sentence to another
e.g. She wasn’t free to go to New York at Christmas and
besides she couldn’t afford it.
CONJUNCTIONS
… join linguistic elements

coordinating conjunctions, or coordinators
e.g. and, but, or

subordinating conjunctions, or subordinators
- simple, e.g. because, although, when
- complex, e.g. as far as, in order to
PREPOSITIONS
show the relationship between two items
 typically followed by a noun phrase with which
they form a Prepositional Phrase (PP)
e.g. the dog ran under the table
 simple: single word
e.g. under, over, at, on
 complex: more than one word
according to, on behalf of, with regard to

DETERMINERS
Function words used before a noun to indicate
definiteness or indefiniteness, quantity, possession
e.g. all these sugary cookies filled with jam and cream
The main subclasses are :
 Articles (indefinite and definite): a, an, the
 demonstratives: this, that, these, those
 possessives: my, your, his, her, their, our, its etc.
 quantifiers: all, few, many, several, some, every,
each, any, etc.
 cardinal numbers: one, two, fifty, etc.
 ordinal numbers: first, second, third, etc.
PRONOUNS
closed class of words which replace words thus avoiding repetitions
e.g. Michelle was offered an exciting new job and she decided to take it
Main subclasses :
 personal pronouns

e.g. They love football (subject) She loves them (object)
 possessive pronouns

e.g. This book is mine
 Demonstrative pronouns

e.g. This is my friend Tom
 reflexive pronouns

e.g. She hurt herself
 interrogative pronouns

e.g. Whose car is this?
 relative pronouns

e.g. This is the car which/that I want to buy
AUXILIARIES
A closed class of verbs which accompany lexical verbs
Two subclasses:

primary auxiliaries
have, be, do
e.g. Liz is looking for a job, Do you speak English? She has
studied a lot

modal auxiliaries (modality)
can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must,
e.g. I must go now! Would you like a cup of coffee?
WH-WORDS
A frequently used expression to refer to function words
beginning with wh-:

adverbs (interrogative, relative, exclamative)
e.g. When did you call her?

pronouns (interrogative, relative, exclamative)
e.g. Whose car is that?

determiners (interrogative, relative, exclamative)
e.g. Which book did you choose?
NUMERALS

cardinal, e.g. one, two, three, etc.

ordinal, e.g. first, second, third, etc.
numerals may function as nouns
e.g. The Magnificent Seven
PDE REGULAR INFLECTIONS








NOUNS
NOUNS
- s plural,
-’s possessive or genitive
case
VERBS
- s 3rd pers. sing.
VERBS
- ed past tense,
VERBS
- ed past participle
VERBS
-ing -ing form, gerund
ADJECTIVES -er comparative
ADJECTIVES -est superlative
NUMBER in English NOUNS



Most nouns add -s
e.g. girls, toys, cars
some nouns add -es
e.g. tomatoes, branches, knives
the pronunciation of the inflectional ending -s/-es depends
on the phonetic context, i.e. there are three allomorphs of the
plural morpheme -s
e.g. cakes = /s/ (preceded by the voiceless consonant /k/)
beans = /z/ (preceded by the voiced consonant /n/)
judges= /iz/

some nouns have irregular plural endings
e.g. children, teeth, mice, oxen, curricula, sheep (see p. 131)

uncountable nouns:
e.g. evidence, advice, equipment, information
POSSESSIVE CASE IN ENGLISH NOUNS
The ‘s genitive versus the of-form.
Synthetic versus analytic option
SAY WHETHER THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLES ARE ALL ACCEPTABLE
AND DISCUSS THE RULE OF THE ‘s GENITIVE versus THE “OF
FORM”

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

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
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
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


John’s car is fast
the car of John is fast
the students’ protest is still going on
the protest of the students is still going on
the car of the friend who is visiting me was stolen last night
The friend who is visiting me’s car was stolen last night
yesterday’s newspaper
the newspaper of yesterday
the journey’s end
The end of the journey
The legs of the table
the table’s legs
‘S or of GENITIVE







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



John’s car is fast
NO the car of John is fast
the students’ protest is still going on
the protest of the students is still going on
the car of the friend who is visiting me was stolen last
night
NO The friend who is visiting me’s car was stolen last
night
yesterday’s newspaper
NO the newspaper of yesterday
the journey’s end
The end of the journey
The legs of the table
NO the table’s legs
VERB INFLECTIONS
MOST ENGLISH VERBS ARE REGULAR AND HAVE A PARADIGM OF 5 WORD
FORMS and 4 VERB INFLECTIONS
e.g. Love/loves/loved/loved/loving
THERE IS A SMALLER NUMBER OF VERY FREQUENTLY USED IRREGULAR VERBS
e.g. put, put, put
lose, lost, lost
take, took, taken
speak, spoke, spoken
go, went, gone
AUXILIARIES ARE VERY IRREGULAR, e.g. The verb to be has forms that differ from one
another , e.g. am, are, is, was, were, been ( PROCESS OF SUPPLETION)
MOST MODAL VERBS DO NOT INFLECT AND HAVE ONLY TWO FORMS, e.g. may,
might, can, could
GRADABILITY OF ADJECTIVES
AND ADVERBS

Synthetic comparison:
-er ending
-est ending

(comparative) e.g. warmer
(superlative) e.g. finest
versus
phraseological/analytic comparison (for polysyllabic
words)
more and most e.g. more/ most interesting
more quickly

irregular comparison (process of suppletion)
e.g. good better best; little, less, least; much, more, most;
well, better, best; bad, worse, worst
PRONOUN INFLECTION
Pronouns, and personal pronouns in
particular, have retained a certain
degree of inflection in PDE.
e.g. personal pronouns express
NUMBER, GENDER and CASE
often through suppletive forms
I-me; we-us, you-you, he-him, she-her, it-it, theythem
PHRASE ( SINTAGMA/GRUPPO)
a unit of syntax made up of one or
more words
 it contains an obligatory head and
optional modifiers
The black labrador (NP) was chewing
(VP) a juicy bone (NP) very noisily
(AdvP)

TYPES OF PHRASES
NOUN PHRASE (NP) my friend Paul / Tom
VERB PHRASE (VP) is/ is laughing
ADJECTIVE PHRASE (AdjP) very tall/ absolutely brilliant
ADVERB PHRASE (AdvP) quietly, never
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE (PP) in the garden/ on
Monday

except for prepositional phrases (PP) phrases can be
constituted by a single lexical item

all phrases can be extended by pre-modification or postmodification
TYPES OF NOUN PHRASES
determiner
-
pre-modifier
-
HEAD
post-modifier
John
-
suitcase
-
my
leather (n.)
a
large, old, blue suitcase
(size, age,
colour)
with wheels
MORE NOUN PHRASES
det.
pre-modifier
HEAD
postmodifier
The
London
experience
-
London’s
churches
-
London
I know
The
-
AMBIGUITY in NPs
The French history teacher
the (det.) French (pre-mod.) history (pre-mod.)
teacher (head)

[the] [French] [history teacher]
(the teacher of history is French)
[the] [French history] [teacher]
(the teacher teaches French history)
tree diagram
The French history teacher : the teacher of history is French
NP
det.
Pre-mod.:Adj
head:NP
mod:N + head :N
The
French
history teacher
tree diagram
The French history teacher = the teacher teaches French history
NP
det.
Pre-mod.:NP
Head:N
Pre-mod:Adj. Head:N
The
French history
teacher
COMPLEX POST-MODIFICATION

The proposal for a new building which the
committee put forward last week
-for a new building (PP)
-which the committee put forward last week
(relative clause)
TREE DIAGRAM
“An interesting government report about air
pollution”
NP
Det. Mod.(adj.) Mod.(N.)
Head:N
Post-Mod:PP
Head:Prep C :NP
Mod.:N Head:N
An interesting government report about air
pollution
FREQUENCY OF NPs IN
ENGLISH

PRE-MODIFICATION IS MORE
COMMON THAN POSTMODIFICATION IN ALL REGISTERS

COMPLEX PRE- AND POSTMODIFICATION IS TYPICAL OF
SOME REGISTERS SUCH AS
WRITTEN ACADEMIC PROSE AND
NEWSPAPER HEADLINES
ENGLISH/ITALIAN NPs
Translate these noun phrases into Italian and notice the differences
between the two languages
The Los Angeles Police Department
Il Dipartimento di Polizia di Los Angeles
2. Air pollution
L’inquinamento dell’aria/atmosferico
3. The Birmingham train
Il treno per/da /di (?) Birmingham
4. The proposal of a national curriculum
La proposta di un curricolo nazionale
5. The country’s leading expert on youth culture
Il maggior esperto del paese sulla cultura giovanile /Il
maggior esperto di cultura giovanile del paese
1.
Italian versus English NPs
English favours premodification (to the left of
the head). NPs are concise and at times
ambiguous
Italian favours postmodification (to the right
of the head) and the use of prepositional
phrases. NPs are longer and more explicit
VERB PHRASEs : finite/ non-finite

finite verbs or VPs: marked by tense
e.g. John plays the guitar
I enjoyed the concert

non-finite verbs or VPs: not marked by tense, person
or number
e.g. To arrive on time was their objective
She traveled accompanied by her father
She broke her leg while skiing
VERB PHRASES:
TENSE versus TIME

TENSE: property allowing the verb to differentiate
between present and past TIME
e.g. Jane likes music / Jane liked music

Unlike in Italian, there is no morphologically
marked form to express future time in English (but
a range of forms such as will/shall+ infinitive,
going to, simple present, present progressive etc.
see 148-149)
VERB PHRASE : ASPECT
Property allowing the verb to give information about the
state or the action
 Progressive ( or continuous) : the action is in progress at
the time of utterance
Sarah is helping her sister

perfect: the action is complete, that is it occurred at an
earlier time and continues to the time of utterance or is
relevant to it
Sarah has helped her sister when she was in her teens

perfect+progressive: ( often called ‘duration form’) stresses
continuity in the past and includes the time of utterance
Sarah has been helping her sister since she was 12
Translate into Italian and identify the main
differences between the two languages
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Sarah helps her sister every Thursday
Sara aiuta sua sorella tutti i giovedì
Lately Sarah is helping her sister a lot
Ultimamente Sara sta aiutando/aiuta molto sua sorella
Sarah has helped her sister to recover from her illness
Sara ha aiutato sua sorella a riprendersi dalla malattia
Sarah helped her sister one year ago when she was ill
Sara ha aiutato/aiutò sua sorella un anno fa quando era
malata
Sarah has been helping her sister since last May
Sara sta aiutando/aiuta/sua sorella dal maggio scorso.
Translate from Italian into
English
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Sono andata a Londra molte volte
I have been to London several times
Vivo a Londra
I live in London
Vado a Londra ogni anno
I go to London every year
Vivo a Londra da 5 anni e continua a piacermi molto
I have been living in London for 5 years and I still enjoy it a lot
Ho vissuto a Londra per 5 anni prima di tornare in Italia
I lived in London for 5 years before coming back to Italy
Vivevo a Londra quando ho incontrato John
I was living in London when I met John
VERB PHRASE : VOICE

The singer performed the song
The song was performed by the singer

NP1+VP+ NP2  NP2 +be+VPed+ by+NP1



The singer was performing the song
The song was being performed by the singer
FUNCTIONS OF THE PASSIVE

the agent is unknown or irrelevant
Mr Constable has been murdered

the focus is on the process to convey objectivity,
especially in academic prose
The results of the tests have been checked several
times

to disclaim responsibility
He is said to be a womanizer
More frequent in scientific writing and in the Press
MODAL VERBS AND MODALITY
MODALS ARE FREQUENTLY USED IN
ENGLISH AND BELONG TO THE
GERMANIC CORE OF THE LANGUAGE.
THEY EXPRESS A WIDE RANGE OF
MEANINGS referring either to actions
controlled by humans ( DEONTIC
MODALITY) or to the levels of certainty of an
event (EPISTEMIC MODALITY). The same
modals can express different meanings. The
same meanings can be expressed in different
ways.
THE MAIN MEANINGS OF
MODAL VERBS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
PERMISSION e.g. Can I go to the loo? Could I borrow
your notes? (Am I allowed to ask a question?)
ABILITY e.g. I can ski, (I know how to do it)
POSSIBILITY e.g. She may be ill . She might be ill
(Perhaps she is ill)
OBLIGATION e.g. You must stop talking. You should
pay attention, You have to do it. This needs to be done
LOGICAL NECESSITY e.g. She must be ill (She is very
likely to be ill)
VOLITION e.g. I’ll do it for you
PREDICTION e.g. It will rain tomorrow
WHAT ABOUT MODAL VERBS
IN ITALIAN?
Translate the following expressions into English:
Devi smettere di fumare
You must stop smoking
Dovresti smettere di fumare
You should stop smoking
Posso fumare?
Can I smoke ? May I smoke?
Potrei fumare?
Could I smoke? Might I smoke?
Domani può piovere
It may rain tomorrow
Domani potrebbe piovere
It might rain tomorrow
Domani pioverà
It will rain tomorrow
Sa sciare molto bene
She can ski very well
Sapeva sciare bene quando era giovane
She could /was able to /ski very well when she was young
In Italian there are the verbs potere, sapere e dovere
Some modal expressions are expressed in Italian through the conditional mood or the future tense, which do not exist as
morphologically marked forms in English
OTHER PHRASES
 ADJECTIVE
PHRASE
e.g. Beautiful/ (really) beautiful
 ADVERB PHRASE
 e.g. Slowly/ (fairly) slowly
 PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
 at University / at (Turin)
University ( see pp. 153-158)
Analysis of prepositional phrases
in the classroom
In ( Head: prep) + the classrom (C: NP)
near Rome
Near ( Head: prep) + Rome (C : NP)
HOW CAN A CLAUSE BE ANALYSED?
First into Subject + predicate
John ( what is talked about) is English (what is
said about the topic)
Then into the 5 main functional elements of the
clause:
S (Subject),
V (Verb or Verb Phrase or Predicator ),
O (Object) complemento oggetto
C (Complement) predicato nominale, del soggetto o
dell’oggetto
A (Adverbial) vari tipi di complementi . They are
often optional.
WORD ORDER in PDE






•



Translate the following clauses into English:
Seguiranno alcuni esempi
Some examples will follow
Nel capitolo 3 verrà presentata la grammatica
Grammar will be presented in Chapter 3
Giovanni parla molto bene l’italiano /l’italiano molto bene
John speaks Italian very well
Odio stirare
I hate ironing
Piove forte da molte ore
It’s been raining heavily for many hours
C’è un gatto in giardino
There is a cat in the garden
CONCLUSION:
The unmarked word order in English in SVO, while in Italian this order can vary to a
certain extent
The subject is compulsory in English , and not in Italian. If there is no subject, a
‘dummy’ (empty) subject will be used (it/there).
THE VERB
…IS THE CENTRAL PART OF THE
CLAUSE SINCE IT DETERMINES THE
OTHER ELEMENTS (e.g. verb
complementation or valency)
She was laughing
She was playing the piano
She was very beautiful
She gave him a kiss
She made him happy
one-place verb
two-place verb
two-place verb
three-place verb
three-place verb
CLAUSE ELEMENTS
S
V
O
The black
labrador
(NP)
has bitten
(VP)
Mr
Allington
(NP)
C
He (NP) put (VP) the keys
(NP)
Sue (NP) is feeling
(VP)
A
in his bag
(AdvP)
very
sleepy
(AdjP)
S
V
O
C
A
It (dummy
subject)
is going to
rain (VP)
Armstrong
(NP)
became
(VP)
Chris (NP)
made (VP) Sara (NP) really angry yesterday
(AdjP)
(AdvP)
What I don’t
understand
(clause)
is (VP)
the first
man on the
moon (NP)
Why you
lied to me
( clause)
S+V+Oi+Od
S
V
Oi
Od
(Indirect (Direct
Object) Object)
me
a kiss
She
gave
She
gave
her sister a glass of
wine
She
gave
Od
Oi
a glass of to her
wine
sister
SV (intransitive verb). No complementation
The black labrador was barking
clause
S:NP
det. mod.(adj.)
the
black
P:VP
head (n.)
labrador
aux.
head (v.)
was barking
SVOd (monotransitive)
Andrew bought a sports car
clause
S:NP
P:VP
V
head (n.)
head (v.)
Andrew
bought
Od:NP
det. mod. (n..) head (n.)
a sports car
SVOd (monotransitive)
Andrew bought a sports car
clause
S:NP
P:VP
V
head (n.)
head (v.)
Andrew
bought
Od:NP
det. mod. (adj.) head (n.)
a sports car
SVA (+ an obligatory Adverbial)
The taxi is waiting outside
clause
S:NP
P:VP
V
det.
The
head (n.)
taxi
A:AdvP
aux. head (v.)
head (adv.)
is waiting
outside
SVCs (copular verb)
The weather has turned very nasty
clause
S:NP
P:VP
V
det.
The
head (n.)
aux. head(v.)
weather
has turned
C:AdjP
mod.(adv.) head(adj.)
very
nasty
Copular verbs

be, feel, seem, appear, look, remain, stay,
become, sound, taste
e.g. I am / feel rather tired (C: AdjP)
She became a nurse (C:NP)
You look extremely happy (C:AdjP)
Mary appeared in good health (C:PP)
That is what I mean (C: clause)
SVOiOd (di-transitive)
Gill told her child a bedtime story
clause
S:NP
P:VP
V
head(n.)
Gill
head(v.)
told
Oi:NP
Od:NP
det. head(n.) det. mod.(n.) h(n.)
her child
a
bedtime story
Di-transitive verbs

Give, tell, bring, buy, show
e.g. John showed me (Oi) his new car (Od)
They bought him (Oi) a new racket (Od)
Tell us (Oi) the truth (Od)
SVOdCo (complex transitive)
The judges declared Jackie the winner
clause
S:NP
P:VP
V
det. head (n.)
head (v.)
The judges
declared
O:NP
Co:NP
head(n.)
det. h(n.)
Jackie
the winner
SVOdA
Terry put the rubbish in the dustbin
clause
S:NP
P:VP
V
head (n.)
O:NP
head(v.) det. h(n.)
A:PP
h (prep)
C:NP
det. h(n.)
Terry
put
the rubbish
in
the dustbin
Adverbial

Optional elements added to the obligatory
elements of the clause
Circumstance adverbial: additional information
e.g. The taxi is waiting outside
 Stance adverbial: speaker’s feeling / attitude
e.g. Hopefully I will pass all my exams in June
 Linking adverbial
e.g. In conclusion, all’s well that ends well.

Obligatory adverbial

Adverbials that are required to complete the
meaning of the verb

E.g. Sally put the bread on the table (obligatory
Adverbial)
vs. Sally cut the bread on the table (optional
Adverbial)
Verbs: put, last, live
Adverbials vs. complements






John was very quiet (C)
John was in bed (A)
They are in good health (C)
They are in the garden (A)
You should stay sober (C)
You should stay here (A)
Complements describe or characterize the S (or O)
Adverbials typically express place or direction.
TO SUM-UP THE CLAUSE
ELEMENTS : S/V/O/C/A
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
S+V
The baby is crying
S+V+A
The concert lasted three hours
S+V+Od
She is playing tennis
S+V+Od+A
She put the rubbish in the dustbin
S+V+Cs
She is Indian
S+V+Oi+Od
He gave her a kiss
S+V+ Od+Co
They elected her dean of the faculty
MAIN AND SUBORDINATE
CLAUSES
1.
2.
3.
4.




Mary had been waiting for more than an hour
Suddenly, she stood up and went out
She said that she was not feeling well because the air in the room was
stuffy
She wanted to get some fresh air
a main clause always contains a finite verb and typically contains an overt
subject
a subordinate clause cannot stand alone and needs to be attached to a freestanding clause
a non-finite clause is always subordinate
simple clauses consist of a clause, compound clauses consist of two
coordinate clauses, complex clauses consist of a main and one or more
subordinate clauses.
TYPES of CLAUSES
TYPICAL FUNCTIONS OF CLAUSE TYPES
FORM
declarative
interrogative
imperative
exclamative
FUNCTION
statement
question
directive
exclamation
She’s wearing a new dress.
Is she wearing a new dress?
Buy yourself a new dress!
What a lovely dress she’s wearing!
DECLARATIVE CLAUSES


declarative clauses are normally used to
make statements
declarative clauses typically have an overt
subject, a verb element and any necessary
verb complementation and may also have
optional adverbials
Philip will visit his dentist in London today
INTERROGATIVE CLAUSES






yes-no questions: Are you happy?
wh- questions:
Where do you live?
Question-tag : She’s Australian, isn’t she?
She doesn’t love him, does she?
So, you have changed your mind,
have you/haven’t you?
the interrogative structure implies a subject-operator inversion
any auxiliary which is used to make interrogative sentences is labelled
operator (be, have, do)
Questions tags may have contrastive or constant polarity ( p. 166)
MARKED SENTENCE
STRUCTURES
This book, I really liked it
EMPHASIS IN SPEECH
Terry plays jazz piano for fun.
It is Terry who plays jazz piano for fun.
It’s jazz piano that Terry plays for fun
It’s for fun that Terry plays jazz piano
It-CLEFT
I would like a book for my birthday
What I would like for my birthday is a book
WH-CLEFT
CLEFTING
 to highlight a particular element of the sentence
 the focussed element is introduced by a dummy Subject
and followed by a relative clause
SENTENCE
I agreed to go with them (main clause) although I
wasn’t really happy with the idea. (subordinate
clause)
the largest unit of syntactic structure
 a sentence must consist of at least one clause
(main clause)
 in writing, a sentence starts with a capital
letter and ends with a full stop
 in speech sentences are not always complete

TYPES OF SUBORDINATE
CLAUSES
1.
NOMINAL I just hope (that) they will
2.
RELATIVE The man who is sitting next to
3.
ADVERBIAL Call me as soon as you get
4.
he could see better (purpose). Even
though I am tired (concession), I’ll do it.
4. COMPARATIVE This hotel is not so nice
understand
Tom is John
home (time) because I have to talk to you
(reason) .The boy stood on the box so that
as I expected
TYPES OF RELATIVE CLAUSES
IN WHAT WAYS DO THE FOLLOWING RELATIVE CLAUSES DIFFER? WHICH
RELATIVE PRONOUNS CAN BE USED IN EACH CONTEXT?
This is the best hotel (that, which, who, whom, whose, zero pronoun) I
was able to find
This hotel, (which, that, who, whose, whom, zero pronoun) was renewed last year,
is one of the best in the city
The man (which, that, who, whose, whom, zero pronoun) you see in the photo is
my brother
The man (which, that, who, whose, whom, zero pronoun) is coming towards us is
my brother
The music (that, which, who, whose, whom, zero article) we are listening to is
Mozart
We stayed in a lovely hotel, (which, that, who, whom, whose) owner is a good
friend of mine
We spent the night in a farm, (which, that, who, whom, whose) was very relaxing
Accepted options
This is the best hotel (that, which, zero pronoun) I was
able to find
This hotel, which was renewed last year, is one of the best
in the city
The man (that, who,whom, zero pronoun) you see in the
photo is my brother
The man (that, who) is coming towards us is my brother
The music (that, which, zero article) we are listening to is
Mozart
We stayed in a lovely hotel, whose owner is a good friend
of mine
We spent the night in a farm, which was very relaxing
RULE OF RELATIVE CLAUSES
Relative clauses can be either defining ( or
restrictive) or non-defining (non-restrictive)
depending on whether they define the antecedent
or add extra information. Commas are required for
defining clauses.
The use of relative pronouns is conditioned by the
antecedent , whether it is human ( who,whom,
whose, that) or non-human ( that, whose, which),
whether it plays the role of subject (who, that,
which) or object (whom, that, which, zero
pronoun), whether it is defining ( who, whose,
whom, that, which) or non-defining (who, whose,
which).
There are some fuzzy areas of usage (e.g.
who/whom)
CONDITIONAL SENTENCES
(periodo ipotetico)
1) If the weather is nice, tomorrow we will go
to the seaside (it is an open possibility)
NO * If the weather will be nice, …
2) If the weather were/was nice, we would go
to the seaside ( it is unlikely)
3) If the weather had been nice, we would
have gone to the seaside (it did not
happen)
Activity 1: build acceptable noun
phrases filling all the boxes
determiner
MY
pre-modifier
BEST
HEAD
post-modifier
FRIEND
IN TURIN
IN THE
CITY
CENTRE
THESE
ELEGANT
FLATS
A
NEW
BOOK
ABOUT
SHAKESPEARE
ACTIVITY 2: Give a top-down scale of the
main grammatical units with an example for
each
SENTENCE Call two taxis, please, because there
are ten of us
CLAUSE (main clause) Call two taxis ( subordinate
clause) because there are ten of us
PHRASE Noun phrase: two taxis or Verb phrase:
call
WORD taxis, call, two, please
MORPHEME taxi (free lexical morpheme) , -s
(bound grammatical morpheme)
ACTIVITY 3: Give examples of declarative clauses
containing the given verbs and having the patterns indicated
1. Show = A time S V Oi Od
Last night Mary showed us a very interesting
documentary
2. Make = S V Od Co
You have made me very happy
3. Be /seems = S V Cs
I am Italian or This seems a good idea
ACTIVITY 4: Identify the clause elements in the
following examples
1. I am getting really angry
I (S) am getting (V) really angry (Cs)
2. Perhaps we should invite Mary
Perhaps (A) we (S) should invite (V) Mary
(Od)
3. It’s going to rain
It (S)’s going to rain (V)
The woman hit the boy with the
umbrella
Use a tree diagram to show that this
clause is ambiguous
The woman (S) hit (V) the boy with
the umbrella (Od)
Or
The woman (S) hit (V) the boy (Od)