The syntax of the simple sentence

SYNTAX

The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

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CONTENTS

Introductory Chapter: General Syntactic Concepts Sentence /vs/ Clause Parts of Sentence/Clause Methods of Syntactic Description

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Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar 1.1. Parts of Sentence 1. 1 .1. The Subject. Definitions 1.1.1.1. Classification of Subjects 1.1.1.2. Subject Predicate Agreement 1.1.1.3. Concluding Remarks 1.1.1.4. Practical Applications 1.1.2. The Predicate. Definitions 1.1.2.1. Classification of Predicates 1.1.2.2. Practical Applications 1.1.3. The Object. Definition and Classification 1.1.3.1. The Direct Object 1.1.3.2. The Indirect Object 1.1.3.3. The Prepositional Object 1.1.3.4. Practical Applications 1.1.4. The Adverbial Modifier. Definition. 1.1.4.1. Classification of Adverbial Modifiers 1.1.4.2. Practical Applications 1.1.5. The Attribute 1.1.5.1. Practical Applications 1.2. Sentential / Clausal Word Order and Syntactic Analysis 1.2.1.Practical Applications

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Chapter 2. The Syntax of the Clause in Structural Grammar 2.1. Structural Analytical Techniques 2.1.1. Test Frames 2.1.2. Immediate-Constituent Analysis 2.2. Refinements to Structural Syntactic Analysis 2.2.1. Word Level. Word Groups 2.2.2. Sentence/Clause Level. Parts of Sentence/Clause 2.2.3. Techniques of Syntactic Analysis 2.3. Practical Applications

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Chapter 3. Final Evaluation Corpora 3.1. Text Analysis 3.2.Evaluation Test

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References 35

4 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence


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Introductory Chapter: General Syntactic Concepts

Introductory Chapter: General Syntactic Concepts Sentence /vs/ Clause The word-concept syntax comes from the ancient Greek syntaxis meaning literally arrangement.Traditionally, it refers to the branch of grammar dealing with the formal patterns into which the words of a language are arranged in order to show connections of meaning within the sentence. In other words syntax deals with the way sentences are constructed so as to formulate understandable messages necessary to ensure successful communication among people ( Chomsky 1986 a). The sentence has been given innumerable definitions according to various approaches provided by philosophers, linguists, grammarians (Aarts 1997, Valin et al 1997, Huddleston 2002). In the history of linguistics, at least four principal types of sentence definition are known: logical, psychological, structural (or grammatical) and phonetic definitions (Crystal 1995). Psychological definitions are not typical of English grammar. Logical definitions predominated in the preceding periods of its development. Structural grammar definitions are based upon grammatical or phonetic criteria.Transformational grammar refrains from giving a definition of the sentence on the principle that the whole grammar of a language constitutes a definition of a sentence ( Chomsky 1957, 1965,1995). The definition we provide for the present course is that the sentence is the basic syntactic unit upon which a syntactic analysis can be applied irrespective of the approach envisaged. The clause is an important unit of analysis, placed between phrase and sentence. The role of both clause and sentence in syntactic analysis is viewed in clear- cut terms by various authors. In what follows we have devised a tabular form synthesis (Table1) using some of the criteria that Miller (2002:76) proposes in order to differentiate between the two concepts. The Sentence -has a certain type of unity, being grammatically complete - has a degree of semantic independence which enables it to stand on its own irrespective of context - there is no occasional dependency relation across sentence boundaries - there are links across sentence boundaries which are better treated as binders tying small units together into a larger piece of coherent text. - is better treated as a unit of discourse into which clauses are grouped


The Clause - can occur successfully in certain slots inside sentences - is recognizable in all types of spoken and written language - cannot stand on its own, it depends upon a certain context - there are occasional dependency relations across clause boundaries and there are dense bundles of dependencies among the constituents of clauses - can display a wide range of syntactic and semantic subcategorisations, as part of complex sentences

Introductory Chapter: General Syntactic Concepts These characteristic features will be revealed during the presentation of the syntactic phenomena of coordination and subordination in revising traditional syntax later in this course. With reference to language use, we can describe its canonical building chain: words occur in phrases, phrases occur in clauses, clauses occur in sentences, emphasizing the canonical definition of sentence as a grammatical unit built up from smaller units. In counterpart, describing how sentences combine to make up a discourse or text differs from analyzing the structure of phrases and clauses (Radford 1988). Parts of Sentence/Clause Traditional grammar has two extremely significant points in its favour: the first is that it is still a functional, elegant, time-honoured way of teaching people what they should know about syntax; the second, and more important, it has given the other grammars the bulk of the terms they use. Both Structural and Transformational grammars rely heavily on the nomenclature and terminology from Traditional grammar: parts of speech like the noun, verb, adjective, adverb and parts of sentence such as subject( S), predicate (P), direct object (DO), indirect (IO) and prepositional object (PO), attribute (A), adverbial modifier (ADV MOD) and so on. Much of the work done descriptively rather than prescriptively in contemporary grammatical analysis was couched in Traditional grammar language by scholars like Otto Jespersen, W. Nelson Francis, and Henrik Poutsma. To understand any of the modern grammars, and virtually all discussion about writing or literature at the level of stylistic analysis, one must have an understanding of the terminology drawn from Traditional grammar, if not of the whole system. The basic morpho-syntactic vocabulary is so fundamental to a discussion of English syntax that a good review of the parts of sentence (Bantas 1996, Badescu 1984) is needed and that will be done in the first chapter of the present course. Structural Grammar focused primarily on the principles elaborated by Bloomfield and based upon the concept of endocentric and exocentric phrases as sentence elements and the immediate constituents analysis (IC). The authors of structural grammars developed a system of sentence patterns employing sentence formulas designating word-classes such as noun/nominal group (NG), verb(al) group (VG), adverbial group (Adv G), and prepositional group (Prep G), used in the representation of clause structure elements such as: Subject, Predicator, Complement, Adjunct (Cole and Sadock 1977, Scott 1970, Croitoru 2002) Methods of Syntactic Description Methods of syntactic analysis submit generally to those applied in English grammars within their development. The first type of grammars in the history of the English language are the early prenormative ones, beginning with William Bullokar’s Bref Grammar for English (1585). By the middle of the 18th century, when many of the grammatical phenomena of English had been described, the early English grammars gave way to a new kind of grammar, a prescriptive, (normative) one, which stated strict rules of grammatical usage and set up a certain standard of correctness to be implicitly followed by learners of English. By the end of the19th century, when the prescriptive grammar had reached its highest level of development, when the system of traditional grammar had been established, there became possible the appearance of The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

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Introductory Chapter: General Syntactic Concepts descriptive and explanatory grammar. The method of distributional analysis was much favoured along with that of substitution. The coexistence of both types of methods in the history of English syntax is still present in contemporary syntactic approaches.


Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar

Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar

1.1. Parts of Sentence 1. 1 .1. The Subject. Definitions The subject is the most complex grammatical function occupying the first place in the grammatical relationships hierarchy (Keenan 1976, Croft 1991, Palmer 1994). It can be defined according to various approaches but the most commonly attributed definitions are the following: - That element in a nexus which names the performer of an action or the first element of an assertion ( Bryant, 1945: 155) - The subject of a sentence has a close general relation to ‘what is being discussed’, the ‘theme’ of the sentence, with the normal implication that something new (the predicate) is being said about a subject that has already been introduced in an earlier sentence (Quirk et al, 1972:34 ) - A term used in the analysis of GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS to refer to a major CONSTITUENT OF SENTENCE or CLAUSE STRUCTURE, traditionally associated with the doer of an action (Crystal,1995: 333) - The main part of the sentence which shows who or what performs the action of the predicate or to whom or to what a feature expressed by the predicative is ascribed ( Bantas, 1996: 95) 1.1.1.1. Classification of Subjects Traditional grammar classifies subjects according to: A. Structure /form/composition B. Semantic content A. According to structure, composition or form, the subject can be grouped into the following types: -Simple subjects , expressed by one word, accompanied or not by attributes, as shown in (1): (1) a. Mr. Ramsay glared at them. b. She was troubled in spirit. c. The children were watching the gorgeous scenery. c. This pleased Brangwen very much. d. Nothing mattered to him. e. Seeing is believing. f. Ten is the favorite mark for all kids. g. To leave is to die a little. We might notice that the range of parts of speech that the simple subject can be expressed by is quite wide: nouns; personal, demonstrative and indefinite pronouns; gerunds; numerals; infinitives etc. We consider it helpful to have a quick review of the eight parts of speech, as defined within traditional grammar and possible candidates to fulfill the role of subject in a sentence/clause. 1. Noun. A word or word group that names a person, a place, a thing, an attitude, an idea, a quality, or a condition. Examples: girl, garden, chair, boldness, truth, clairvoyance, solitude. 2. Pronoun. A word that functions as a substitute for a noun. Examples: it, he, she, we, they, us, ourselves, you, this, them. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

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Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar 3. Verb. A word or word group that expresses an activity, condition or state of being. (The verb’s syntactic function is called predication, and the main verb in a sentence is therefore often called predicate.) Examples: run, sleep, be, feel, believe, promise, write). A verb phrase (a group of words acting like a single part of speech) will usually consist of a main verb plus an auxiliary (helping) verb like have or be: has been going, is moving. A special subclass of auxiliary verbs is provided by modals: can, may, must, ought, shall, will. 4. Adjective. A word or word group that modifies ( limits, defines, characterizes, or describes ) a noun. Examples: nice, young, stubborn, cozy, perfect, impressive, sublime, undeniable, annoying. 5.Adverb. A word or word group that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. (Adjectives and adverbs together are sometimes called modifiers.) Examples: run fast, sleep deeply, very rarely, extremely delicate, run extraordinarily fast. 6. Preposition. A word or word group that signals relationships of space, time, direction, or association between its object (the object of a preposition is always a noun) and some other word or word group. Examples: in the courtyard, after 7:00 P.M., to the lighthouse, with a vote. 7. Conjunction. A word or word group that connects two or more sentence components. There are three major subtypes: coordinating conjunctions (examples: and, but, for, yet, so); subordinating conjunctions (examples: although, because, if, whether); and correlative conjunctions (examples: either… or, neither... nor, both … and, not only… but also). 8. Interjection. Any part of the sentence that is syntactically dependent of the rest of the sentence. Examples: Well! Oh! For God’s sake! -Coordinated subjects, expressed by two or more words referring to several entities / notions joined by coordinating conjunctions or asyndetically, as in (2): (2) a. The Dearlys and the dogs thought how very nice their brightly-lit kitchen looked. b. Pongo and Missis felt sorry for her white cat. c. Lucky, Patch, Roly Poly and the other boys struggled along bravely. The agreement is in number with the predicate. - Compound subjects, expressed by two or several words but referring to one and the same entity. In view of that, the ageement with the predicate is in the singular ( 3): (3) a. Her dog and pet was too young to be able to bark so loudly. b. Cruela de Vil and the enemy was preparing for the fight. - Complex subjects, expressed by heterogeneous elements , belonging either to the class of nouns or to that of verbs, and giving full meaning to the sentence as a whole as shown in (4): (4) a. The excitement of the visit began to pass off. b. People in the crowd cried ‘shame on him’. c. Something in his self-possessed waiting moved her. d.The ice on the ponds they passed was thicker and thicker. e. The windows twinkling in the early morning sunshine looked cheerful and welcoming. - Double subjects, used to focus on the same notion and usually expressed by a noun accompanied by a pronoun (5): 10 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar (5) a. Viola: Conceal me what I am; and be my aid For such disguise (I. ii.) b. Viola: I see you, what you are, you are too proud; (I. v.) B. According to content English subjects can be classified into: - Grammatical or formal subjects which are directly connected to the predicate and allowing concord with it. It is in fact the usual type of subject which agrees in number and person with the predicate ( see A ). - Logical or real subject, which points to the real doer / performer of the action. This directional involvement is indicated by the use of such English constructions as passive and introductory ones, as synthesized in Bantas (1996:98-101) and illustrated in (6): (6) a. The newspaper was brought early this morning by the postman. b. The window has been broken. We have to replace it (unknown agent) c. Here comes Doris. d. It is nice seeing you again at the Opera House. e. It is John who has made the tart. - Impersonal subjects are used to denote time , weather, distance, natural phenomena, state of things etc. (7) a. It was a beautiful September evening, windless, very peaceful. b. It was a bone, the Sheepdog saw with pleasure. c. It was almost dark now. d. It was their first really deep sleep since the loss of the puppies. 1.1.1.2. Subject - Predicate Agreement The agreement in number with the verb/predicate is one of the criterion of identifying the subject. A synthesis of traditional subject-verb agreement rules is presented in Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman ( 1999: 72-74) and here we list some of them: 1. Noncountable noun subjects take a singular verb: (8) a. (The jam / Peter’s) advice is good. 2. Collective noun subjects take singular verbs, but if the group is viewed as individual members, use a plural verb: (9) a. The committee has decided upon the regulations. b. The committee have been arguing about the regulations. 3. Subject nouns that are derived from adjectives and describe people take plural verbs: (10) The rich are less altruistic than the poor. 4. Some proper noun subjects ending in –s such as names of diseases, courses, places, book and film titles and the word news, take singular verbs: (11) a. Mathematics is a very difficult topic. b. Measles has side effects sometimes. c. Wales is famous for its music festivals and sea shores. d. The news was received with enthusiasm. e. The Avengers was one of the best 80’s serials I used to watch on TV. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

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Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar 5. Plural subject nouns of distance, time, and money signaling one unit take a singular verb: (12) a. Eight hundred miles is too far to drive even by the most powerful car. b. Five hours is too tiresome for everybody to navigate. c. Sixty dollars is not that much. 6. Clausal subjects are singular even if the nouns referred to are plural: (13) a. What they need is more feelings. 7. With fractions, percentages, and the quantifiers all (of), a lot of, lots of, verb agreement depends on the noun coming after these phrases: (14) a. A lot of the paper is about dieting. b. A lot of flats need redecorating. c. All the staff ( takes /take) a refreshing break. 8. With a number of as subject use a plural verb: (15) a. A number of birds are coming in spring. 9. With the number of as subject use a singular verb: (16) a. The number of students taking good marks is 20 in this class. 10. With none, either or neither as subjects, use a singular verb: (17) a. None of my old friends has remained in the city. b. Either is good for me. c. Neither is satisfactory for her. 11. With correlative subjects either…or or neither …nor, the verb agrees with the closest subject: (18) a. Either you or your colleagues are to be present. 1.1.1.3. Concluding Remarks The criteria used to identify subjects at this level of analysis are: agreement in number with the verb; never being preceded by a preposition; occurring in the by phrase in the passive as a mark of agency; reference to entities that exist independently of the action or state denoted by the main verb. The theoretical considerations delineated in this chapter will prove helpful in the future analyses of the structure of the simple sentence in English. 1.1.1.4. Practical Applications 1. Analyze the subjects from the point of view of structure/composition or form in the following sentences. Give a detailed analysis of the parts of speech they are expressed by. a. Waymarsh’s face had shown his friend an attention apparently so remote that the latter was slightly surprised. b. The mention to his companion of the sacrifice was moreover exactly what introduced his recital. c. The little waxed salle a manger was sallow and sociable. d. The evidence as yet in truth was meager. e. His silence was one of angry frustration. f. They were such strangers. 12 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar g. The head cows, Blossom and Clover, were waiting to welcome them. h. The bad little boy and nephew was only bad because he had never known dogs. i. I wish I could come with you. j. His heart it will get broken some day. 2. Analyze the subjects from the point of view of semantic content as revealed in the contexts below. a. It will need tremendous organization. b. It’s now nearly ten o’clock. c. It was Cruella de Vil. d. Suddenly there was a thunder of thumps on the front door. e. It was partly rage. f. There was no mistaking that horseshoe of spots on his back. g. The bread and butter were taken back to the haystack by the old woman. h. The teapot was filled by Sir Charles. i. There in came Doris! j. Shut up! Here speaks Michael! 3. Give emphasis to the messages below by using the italicized words and expressions: Model: I saw him in the street only last week. It was only last week that I saw him in the street. a. I want to talk to your sister. b. She got lost later in the morning. c. Susan is looking for her puppy. d. We met them at the airport. e. The young man made a fool of himself on her account. f. I like to meet my family on Sundays. g. The little girl was sad because she had lost her doll. h. Love makes the world go round. i. Not all that glitters is gold. j. A friend in need is a friend indeed. 4. Fill in with the correct verb form: a. Neither you nor your friends…(allow) to come to the party uninvited. b. A number of magazines … ( publish) the news. c. A lot of seagulls … (fly) to the shore in search of food. d. The number of skaters who had fallen on the ice … ( increase). e. Mathematics … (start) with numbers’ counting. f. The committee …(vote) against the law promulgation. g. None of the city’s parks … ( be ) attractive. h. Either …( support) my requests. i. Doris and her friends …( prepare ) a school festival. j. Good news…(be ) awaiting for you. 1.1.2. The Predicate. Definitions Predicate definitions are given in direct relationship with the subject since they are the most important parts of sentence: -“ Most sentences of more than one word consist of two nuclei, one indicating the person or thing about whom a statement is made (or a question asked), the other containing the statement or the question asked. The word (or words) indicating the person or thing referred to is (are) called the subject of The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

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Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar the sentence; that (those) containing the statement (or the question )the predicate”( Zandvoort, 1948: 211) -“A term in the analysis of GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS, to refer to a major CONSTITUENT of SENTENCE structure , traditionally associated with a twopart analysis in which all obligatory constituents other than the SUBJECT are considered together “( Crystal, 1995: 273). - The most simple traditional definition of the predicate is provided by Bantas: “ The predicate is that principal part of the sentence which ascribes an action, a state or a quality to the subject.” (1996: 121). For a better understanding of the relationships existing between the subject and the other parts of the sentence it is compulsory to discuss predicates taking into account the concept of predication which requires both a syntactic and semantic treatment of the English verbs under the umbrella of transitivity. Thus, we can consider verbs of complete predication, having a meaning of their own, and verbs of incomplete predication which require other words to fulfill their meaning. This grouping has led to the following classification of predicates in traditional English syntax. 1.1.2.1. Classification of Predicates. The classification of predicates in English combines the structural criterion with the content one due to the semantic and syntactic overlapping mentioned above. A. Verbal Predicates, which are quite diversified in nature due to the way they form predication. They can be subdivided into various classes: - Simple Verbal Predicates, expressed by verbs in a finite/ personal mood, used in a certain tense, either simple or compound as shown in (1): (1) a. Dolphins live in family groups called herds. b. Wolf spiders hunt during the day. c. She ran onto the road. d. Perdita was picking up more and more human words. e. Missis had collapsed. f. I will tear Cruella de Vil in pieces. g. They’re playing in the garden now. - Phraseological predicates, consist of structurally indivisible phrases and can be replaced by a verb: (2) a. The Browns have dinner in the garden every evening.( eat, serve) b. The child got a bath in the river.( bathe) c. They have had a refreshing walk in the woods. (walk) d. Susan had a terrible cry after hearing the thunder.(cry) e.The little puppy had a long drink from a white pottery bowl.(drink) - Compound verbal predicates show both the way the action is performed and its relation to time. They are subclassified into compound modal verbal predicates , including a modal verb, and compound aspect verbal predicates, including an aspectual verb, such as one of the following classes: ingressive or inceptive, e.g. begin, start; egressive or terminative, e.g. stop, cease, finish; continuative or durative, e.g. continue, go on, keep on; frequentative, iterative, or repetitive, e. g. would, used to. (3) a. We must travel across the country to find them. b. You should manage to do it in due time. c. But no human ear could have heard the cheers. 14 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar d. I’d rather walk than take a taxi. e. The rain started to pour in showers. f. The chairman of the committee finished reading the report. g. There used to be a stately nut-tree in backyard. h. “Go on reading!” said the little girl to her Grandma. B. Nominal Predicates show the state or quality ascribed to the subject by the action performed by the verb. The nominal predicate is made up of a copula or link verb and a predicative. Copula verbs contribute formal information regarding the aspect, tense, person and number, voice while the predicative provides the verb with meaning. Since this piece of information will be necessary for the development of our next chapters, we find it necessary to revise classes of copula verbs and the parts of speech the predicative is denoted by. The most common English copular verbs are: 1. Verbs of being: be, stand, feel (4) a. And she was very, very frightened. b. Juliet felt extremely sad. c. The lake stood still. 2. Verbs of seeming and appearing: seem, appear, look (5) a. They seemed surprised at the news. b. The sky appeared dark and cloudy. c. The lady looked awful in her petticoat. 3. Verbs of becoming: become, get, grow, turn, fall, run, prove (6) a. She has become a famous lion tamer. b. The weather is getting warmer. c. The tree is growing bigger and bigger. d. Grandpa’s hair has turned out grey. e. After a good running the boy has fallen asleep. f. The Danube runs icy in cold winters. g. The hypothesis proved true. The predicative can most commonly be expressed by: nouns, pronouns, gerunds, numerals, infinitives, predicative clauses: (7) a. She was a darling to everybody. b. It’s me. Don’t bother! c. His favourite pastime is reading adventure books. d. They were seven in the group. e. John’s quality is to understand others. f. The truth is that you are too proud. The aspects concerning the types of predicate in traditional grammar will be enlarged upon while having practical applications. 1.1.2.2. Practical Applications 1. Analyze the types of predicates in the following sentences: a. Pongo remembered everything. b. Missis was looking down into the area. c. These plants are meat-eaters. d. A house fly makes a buzzing sound. e. Silk is produced by most moth caterpillars. f. He suddenly gave a squeal of laughter. g. He appeared to be holding it out to them. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

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Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar h. Then his heart gave a glad leap. i. There was still a faint glow from the sunset . j. Water was already boiling in a silver kettle over a spirit lamp. 2. Fill in with a word which should function as a predicative: a. She is…to come back. b. They ran…after the contest. c. Her daughter has become …to traveling abroad. d. His parents are growing…and… e. The leaves of the trees turn…in autumn. f. My uncle’s pigs are getting … g. Miranda looks…Has she eaten something bad? h. The sky seems …today. i. Parents are always…their children. j. Ducks grow…in winter. 3. Rephrase using a “get” –form: Model: She burned the cake. The cake got burned. a. A storm damaged the house. The house… b. He broke his leg while jumping. His leg… c. The fire cracked the entrance. The entrance… d. Bad news upset everybody. Everybody… e. Marlene tore her skirt on a chair. Marlene’s skirt … 4. Analyse the types of predicates in the fragment below paying attention to the agreement with the subjects: “ Can you see them?”said the old gentleman, putting his hand on the Spaniel’s head. “ If you can, don’t be frightened. They won’t hurt you. You’d have liked them. Let’s see, they must have died fifty years before you were born- more than that. They were the first dogs I ever knew. I used to ask my mother to stop the carriage and let them get inside – I couldn’t bear to see them running behind. So, in the end, they just became house dogs.” 1.1.3. The Object. Definition and Classification. The object is the secondary part of the sentence which completes the meaning of a verb, an adjective or a noun. We can speak about three types of objects : direct objects, indirect objects and prepositional objects. 1.1.3.1. The Direct Object comes second within the hierarchy of grammatical relationships after the subject. The notional definition used in traditional grammar refers to the entity( person, thing, abstaction) that receives the action of a transitive verb. Transitivity is relative with some verbs which can be either transitive or intransitive ( asking or not for an object) depending upon the context (1): (1) a. Jolyon reads every afternoon.(intransitive) a’ Jolyon reads a book every month. (transitive) b. Mary sings so often in the bath.(intransitive) b’ Mary sings country songs at the festival.(transitive) c. Do you want to take pictures? No, just, watch.(intransitive) c’ I’m watching the movie right now. The definitional feature of transitive verbs is that they take direct objects , being expressed by the same parts of speech as the subjects: nouns, 16 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar pronouns, substantivized adjectives or past participles, numerals, infinitives, gerunds, clauses: (2) a. He then outlined his plans. b. They won’t hurt you. c. Pongo instantly decided he would learn to manage bolts. d. She saw ten, but there were many more. e. I like shopping during week-ends. f. I hate to clean the house all the time. g. We should help the poor. The classification of direct objects also includes the criteria of composition/structure and content. A. According to structure direct objects can be: - Simple, expressed by a single word, possibly determined and modified by attributes , the same as the subject. (3) a. But the cat followed them all the way to their house. b. I shall always remember this happy walk. c. She was wearing a tight – fitting emerald satin dress. d. I worship furs. - Coordinated, expressed by two or several nouns or noun-equivalents, in the accusative case: (4) a. Mrs Dearly took Pongo and Missis across the park. b. They had splendid heads, fine shoulders, strong legs and straight tails. - Compound, rendered by two or several nouns referring to only one entity. (5) a. I have always liked my balcony and garden. (the balcony is like a garden to me) b. I have met your mother and friend.( mother is like a friend). - Double, expressed by the direct object proper and the indirect object in the reversed order: (6) a. They asked me a lot of questions. b. The public offered them flowers. - Complex, rendered through constructions made up of two inseparable parts ( the object proper, and another part which completes its meaning): (7) a. Not until we’ve found some dogs to help us. b. You shall not let that cruel, thoughtless child put such a sin on your conscience. c. He saw the bowl empty. d. They have made money a passion. Sentences (7) a. and b. introduce the accusative plus infinitive constructions which are given a detailed analysis in Bantas(1996:135-141). B. According to Content, direct objects are grouped into: - Significant, bearing meaning upon the usual type of direct object. (8) a. Then Missis found her voice. b. They heard the Great Dane again. - Impersonal, which bears no meaning, being rather expressed by the formal it. (9) a. Suffice it to say everything about the incident. - Cognate, accompanying verbs which are normally intransitive, such as: sleep, live, smile, laugh; they are labelled cognate because the nouns they are expressed by are related to the verb in meaning and, generally in etymology. (10) a. They lived a life of duty and honour. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

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Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar b. The baby slept a sound sleep. c. She dreamed an unforgettable dream. 1.1.3.2. The Indirect Object shows the entity whom the action of the verb affects indirectly. It is almost always used together with the direct object. It is canonically built up using the preposition to as a mark of the dative but it can be used without any preposition especially when it precedes the direct object. (11) a. They gave the flowers to Doris at the party. b. The postman delivered the letters to the butler. c. She sent me the parcel. d. The officer reported the general the incident. There are verbs which obligatorily ask for the preposition to: announce, attribute, contribute, dedicate, describe, explain, indicate, introduce, listen, point, propose, report, talk, suggest,etc. (12) a. The officer reported the incident to the general. b. They described the journey to their kids. c. He explained the problem to his son. For a minute analysis of the indirect object use of prepostions you should consult especially Bantas, 1996:142-146. 1.1.3.3. The Prepositional Object is particularly discussed in English grammars in connection with verbs with obligatory preposition or that contextually require the use of prepositions. Its main purpose is to complete the meaning of a verb, a noun, an adjective, etc. It is again Bantas 1996 who has provided a classification of prepositional objects into those of agent, instrument, means, association, relation. With reference to its position in the sentence, it generally occupies final place, following the direct object and the indirect object : (13) a. The houses were pulled down by the earthquake. b. The actors were cheered by the audience. c. He opened the door with an old key. d. They travelled to Paris by train. e. Joanna went to the movie with her friends. f. I’m against coffee but in favour of some tea. 1.1.3.4. Practical Applications 1. Identify the direct objects and specify the parts of speech they are expressed by in the following sentences: a. We went to see the latest news film yesterday. b. The clerk finished the report. c. Everybody says he is a good writer. d. I was going to get it from the library. e. As a matter of fact he scored seven out of ten. 2. Rephrase by changing the order of direct and indirect object where allowed: a. Mary told Doris everything. b. He will give the book to anyone who asks for it. c. His aunt left a large fortune to all her nieces and nephews. d. The host oferred drinks to all the guests in the room. e. The guide showed the cathedral to us all. 18 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar 3. Supply the missing prepositions for, with, against as parts of prepositional objects. a. I don’t agree … you when yoou say that. b. You can even insure…loss of income. c. I would like to exchange my old car …a new one. d. Rubber solution is used… sticking patches on tyres. e. I should be satisfied …half of the sum. 1.1.4. The Adverbial Modifier. Definition. The adverbial modifier is that secondary part of the sentence which modifies or renders more precise a verb, an adjective or another adverb. It is morphologically denoted by the adverb in all its categories. 1.1.4.1. Classification of Adverbial Modifiers. Accordingly, we may speak about adverbial modifiers of: time, place, manner, attending circumstances, comparison, comparison and concession, concession proper, purpose, condition, cause/reason, result / consequence. The majority of them may be subcategorized still from a semantic point of view. -Time: (14) a. I’ve been serching for you for years. b. The water in the pond froze last night. c. I have always liked watching the birds fly high up in the sky. d. They danced until the sun rose. - Place: e. She has moved in the countryside. f. He will go to the cinema after his training courses. g. Grandpa is working in the garden. -Manner: h. She sings beautifully. i. He went to his office in a hurry. j. Jeremy behaves rudely to everybody. -Comparison: k. The sky is as clear as crystal. l. Midge is not so intelligent as Fanny. - Concession: m. Though he was tired, he kept on working. - Purpose: n. She works a lot in order to get her salary increased. - Condition: o. I would buy a villa if I had money. - Cause: p. The flight was postponed because of the thick fog. - Result/Consequence: r. It was too much for her to leave her native town. q. He broke fallit as a result of his negligence. 1.1.4.2. Practical Applications 1. Read the sample texts a, b, c ; identify the adverbial modifiers and classify them according to the types illustrated above. a. “ But the chipmunk slept all day and did not get up and have breakfast until after dark. Then he came out for a breath of air before beginning work on a new design.The shrike swooped down to snatch up the chipmunk, but could The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

19

Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar not see very well on account of the dark, so he batted his head against an alder branch and was killed” b. “ I wrote only one story a day, usually consisting of fewer than a thousand words. Most of the reporters , when they went out on assignments , first had to get on their foot in the door , but the portals of the fantastic and the unique are always left open”. c. “ ‘I sometimes think’, he said, ‘that you and I have become a bit pampered. Well, pampering does good dogs no harm, provided they don’t come to depend on it. If they do, they become old before their time.’” 1.1.5. The Attribute The attribute has been defined as that secondary part of the sentence which determines or modifies any nominal part of the sentence starting with the subject, the predicative, the direct, indirect or prepositional object ( Bantas, 1996: 165). The typical attribute in English and other languages is the adjective and its subcategories. The other parts of speech that can function syntactically as attributes are: nouns, pronouns, infinitives, numerals, adverbs,etc. (15) a. Her name is Mary. b. The student camp is full of girls. c. His desire to help us melt our hearts. d. The sleeping pups awoke in alarm. e. The largest kittens in the yard looked older. f. The bedroom upstairs looked down into the garden. g. She liked him from he very first moment. h. Today’s newspapers speak about inflation. Interesting observations have been made concerning the place of the attribute. So it can be front or post positioned vis-a -vis the modified word. Therefore in the literature adjectives are divided into being used either attributively or predicatively. (16) a. The lonely shepherd murmurs a chant every evening. a* The shepherd murmurs lonely a chant. b. She is alone at home. b * She alone is at home. 1.1.5.1. Practical Applications 1.Analyse the attributes in the following texts and specify the parts of speech they are expressed by: a. “ Finally the cops put their shoulders to our big heavy front door with its thick beveled glass and broke it in: I could hear a rending of wood and a splash of glass on the floor of the hall. “ b. “ Once upon a sunny morning a man who sat in a breakfast nook looked up from his scrambled eggs to see a white unicorn with a gold horn quietly cropping the roses in the garden. “. c. “ Owing to the artificially complex life led by city dogs of present day, they tend to lose the simpler systems of intuition which once guided all breeds, and frequently lapse into what comes very close to mental perplexity. I myself have known some very profoundly thoughtful dogs.” Notes and Suggested Readings 20 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar A very comprehensive analysis of the parts of sentence from a traditional point of view is to be found in Badescu 1984, Bantas 1996, if we are to quote two of the most used books in teaching English as a second language in Romania, following the prescriptive method. Another recommended author is Swan 1989 who focuses on the learner’s acquisition of English starting from the rules and pinpointing the exceptions. 1.2. Sentential / Clausal Word Order and Syntactic Analysis. English is a fixed word order language meaning that sentences are built according to restrictive relational rules among the parts of sentence so as to produce meaningful junks of language. With this we introduce the concept of syntactic linkage which, according to Miller 2002 subsumes the traditional concepts of agreement and government. In an active declarative sentence, the subject is immediately followed by the predicate , followed by the object and so on: “ Since the vast majority of the world’s languages display basic orders in which the subject precedes the object, such ordering is seen to be typollogically unmarked…[…] The communicative strategy adopted by the dominant subject-before-object languages is viewed as addresee-oriented because the speaker, having some or newsworthy information to deliver, places the addressee’s need for clarity and distinctiveness above his own need to divulge the message”( Siewierska 2005: 372-373) Therefore, the traditional word order, allowing a linear syntactic analysis, fits into the following pattern: (17)

S

P

DO/IO PO ADV.MOD.

Since language has a ‘living form’, there are naturally exceptions to the rules either with regard to the presence of all the parts in a sentence or their positional occurrence. Consider examples under: (18) a. They/ were talking/ about the fishing industry. S P IO/PO b. Mr. Tansley/ raised/ a hammer. S P DO c. He/ wanted/ it/ urgently. S P DO Adv of manner d. She/ had been reading/ in his room. S P Adv of place e. Lily Briscoe/ watched/ her drifting/ into that strange noman’s land. S P DO Adv of place f. She/ was/ now/ beginning/ to feel/ annoyed/ with them/ for being so late. S P Adv P DO Adv of PO Adv of cause of time manner Rules of inversion to English word order have been largely discussed in the literature with reference to pragmatic highlighting in communication theories. It is mostly for reasons of giving certain emphasis to some parts of the sentence that the canonical word order is reversed. In what follows we shall specify some of the most common cases: - The indirect object comes before the direct object when we want to emphasize it for any reason: (19) a.Give the ball to your brother not to John. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

21

Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar - We can place the Adv of manner immediately after the subject when we want to emphasize how an action is performed: (20) a. Hardly had she finished the washing when the phone rang. b. Little does he realize how selfish he is. - If there is a verb of movement, the Adv of place occurs immediately after the verb to complete its meaning: (21) a. We walked to the theatre in a hurry last night. 1.2.1.Practical Applications: 1. Put the adverbials in their correct order after the verb: a. She spoke ( with deliberation, clearly). b. Take the second door ( downstairs, on the right, in the hall). c. Put the jug ( carefully, on the table). d. They are going to leave ( on Thursday, by plane) e. I said good-bye to them ( yesterday, at the station, regretfully). 2. Rephrase, so that the adverb in italics comes at the beginning of the sentence: a. I have never in my life seen such a sight as this. b. You could nowhere find such a better friend. c. They didn’t speak a word. d. The cat didn’t give a miaw. e. She seldom goes out in the evening . 3. Analyse the word order in the text below: “ Then indeed peace had come. Messages of peace breathed from the sea to the shore. Never to break its sleep any more, […] as Lily Briscoe laid her head on the pillow in the clean still room. Through the open window the voice of the beauty of the world came murmuring[…] The sigh of all the seas breaking in measure round the isles soothed them; the night wrapped them; nothing broke their sleep.


Chapter 2. The Syntax of the Clause in Structural Grammar

Chapter 2. The Syntax of the Clause in Structural Grammar

Structural grammar is quite different from Traditional grammar. Instead of focusing on the individual word and its notional meaning or its part-ofspeech function in the sentence, Structural grammar focuses on clusters of structures – sounds, forms, word groups, phrases – working from smaller to larger units. Structural grammar does not ignore semantic meaning but it tends to emphasize syntactic over semantic meaning. That is, Structural grammar analyzes the meaning carried by the syntactic patterns that words make with each other, patterns like those formed by modifier-noun, modifierverb or modifier-adjective connections, subject-predicate connections, and so on. Besides the general emphasis on morphology and syntax, Structural grammar developed two particular useful analytical techniques: test frames and immediate-constituent analysis. Test frames especially have been helpful in teaching grammar in the schools. 2.1. Structural Analytical Techniques. 2.1.1.Test Frames These are blanks in simple sentences that may be filled in with any example of a particular class of word, such as a noun or an adjective. For instance, noun test frames customarily set up any or all of three types of sentence structures: (1) a. The __ cries. (“The” or “A[n]” __ verb.) b. He was driving his ___ rapidly. ( Subject, predicate, “the” or “a[n],” ____ adverb.) c. Put it on that __ ( [Subject], predicate, preposition, [modifier] _____.) Each version illustrates a different position, and therefore a different function in the sentence which a noun can fulfill. The first blank calls for a subject, the second for a direct object, and the third for a prepositional object. A test-frame exercise demonstrates two important points about English syntax. The first, of course, is that speakers of English know what goes where; they are competent in the use of the language. Even very small children can put the right kind of words into the blanks, words like clown, horse, or table, or any other common noun. Speakers may not know that it is nouns they are inserting – that is, they may not know the language of grammatical analysis or concepts – but they know what belongs in the noun slots. The second point is that the English language is quite regular in its anticipating of nouns. This phenomenon is accomplished in two ways: firstly, by position in the order of words in the sentence (the subject-noun, for instance, nearly always comes at the beginning of the sentence), and secondly, by use of function words called determiners, words like the, a, this, those, or my. Determiners will only work with noun test frames, but other kinds of function words can help identify verbs: these are the auxiliaries, or helping verb forms be and have, and the modal verb forms like may, will, or can. 23 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

Chapter 2. The Syntax of the Clause in Structural Grammar 2.1.2. Immediate-Constituent Analysis This technique, usually referred to as IC analysis, is the Structural grammar’s version of Traditional syntactic diagrammatic representations. Sentences are constructed from groups of words, often paired, rather than from single words added one onto the next. These groups of words in turn cluster with other groups, layer upon layer of word pairs and pair groups, which eventually build up a sentence. We can begin the IC analysis at the word level and work way up to the sentence, or we can begin with the sentence and work back to the word level as shown below: (2). a. /Black streams of people flowed eastward to escape the flood/. b. /Black streams of people// flowed eastward to escape the flood/. c. /Black streams of people// flowed eastward// to escape the flood./ d. /Black/ streams of people// flowed/ eastward// to escape the flood./ e. /Black/ streams/ of people// flowed/ eastward// to escape/ the flood./ f. /Black /streams /of/ people/ flowed/ eastward/ to/ escape/ the/ flood/. IC analysis demonstrates two important points about English syntax. The first reinforces what we already knew from using test frames: English syntax is highly positional in structure – English is a word-order language – and words placed next to each other are usually semantically connected. The second point is that groups of words in English do indeed function as single units of syntax. In our sentences, the word group /Black streams of people/ is the subject, /flowed eastward to escape the flood / is the predicate, at large. Remarks Although these methods are considerably more objective and consistent than the traditional grammar ones, they do not provide complete answers to some major theoretical questions or with many exceptions and contradictions, inherent in the language, which trouble students and teachers at a practical level of grammatical analysis. Test frames will reveal some parts of speech/sentence but cannot comment in detail on structural methods in a sentence: coordination, subordination, and so on. Although IC analysis can identify some structural behaviour without recourse to a speaker’s innate knowledge of the language, nevertheless, intuition, guesswork, and reliance on semantic meaning inevitably are called into play at some point. 2.2. Refinements to Structural Syntactic Analysis. The key words introduced in this chapter are molded upon the methods presented in subchapter 2.1. and have as main purpose to make sentence analysis more precise to the students. The concepts that will be used are: a. at word level: group-G, head-H, modifier-M, qualifier-Q, b. at sentence level: subject-S, predicator-P, complement-C and adjunct-A. 2.2.1. Word Level. Word Groups. The concept of group in syntax has been created around the occurrence of an obligatory word, called head, expressed by one of the following parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions. So, in other words, the group exists if there is a head: “[…] certain relationships hold between words whereby one word, the head, controls the other words, the modifiers”(Miller 2002:70.) We can thus define Noun Group –NG, Verb Group-VG, Adverbial Group-AdvG and Prepositional Group-pG. They can be simple, made up of the head only, and complex, containing some other 24 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

Chapter 2. The Syntax of the Clause in Structural Grammar words besides the head, labeled: modifiers, which precede the head and qualifiers, which come after the head. Their function is to determine or modify the head by conveying extra information, sometimes narrowing down the head meaning. Another main idea is that “Modification is crucial to discussions of word order in different languages”( Miller 2002: 80). -The Noun Group is the richest in determination since nominality is one of the most pertaining characteristic feature of the English written texts. The head noun is the controller permitting some words or excluding others. Simple NG’s contain only nouns, e.g. bird . Complex NG’s can have the following structural matrices: MH; MMH; MHQ; HQ; MMHQ etc. (3) a. that bird M H b. land in view H Q c. that beautiful singing bird M M M H d. that secretary bird with yellow wings M M H Q e. five birds sitting on the branch M H Q Analysing the examples in (3.), we can notice the variety of combinations that the structure of the NG reveals as a result of the modifier typology. ~Modifiers expressed by articles, indefinite and possessive adjectives, genitives are labeled modifier determiners-MD, e.g. the house, my cousin ~Modifiers expressed by adjectives of all types are labeled modifier epithetsME, e.g. nice dress, awful weather ~Modifiers expressed by nouns are labeled modifier nominators-MN, e.g. toy factory, chocolate cake ~Modifiers expressed by numerals are labeled modifier ordinators-MO, e.g. ten clowns Qualifiers follow the head and may be denoted by words, groups or clauses: e.g. everybody here (adverb); girls with flowers ( pG=> p+NG); men who forget ( relative clause). -The Verb Group has as controller /head a verb and follows the same patterning as the NG: MH; MMH; MHQ; HQ; MMHQ, etc. There are thus two kinds of VG’s: simple and complex. In the simple VG, the one verb is obligatorily the head, and in the complex VG, the main verb is the head, and when there are compound verb forms the auxiliaries are M’s. Lack of typology distinguishes among modifiers within the VG, all being simply labeled M’s. Qualifiers in VG’s standing for particles closely linked to the verb should not be confused with prepositions introducing pG’s. (4) a. Read. H b. She is reading. M H c. They have been reading. M M H d. The engine broke down. H Q The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

25

Chapter 2. The Syntax of the Clause in Structural Grammar - The Adverbial Group is controlled by the adverb and can have the pattern: H; MH; HQ. It can also be simple and complex (…) (5) a. Run quickly. H b. They speak English quite fluently. M H c. They came often enough. H Q 2.2.2. Sentence/Clause Level. Parts of Sentence/Clause. The main parts of the sentence/clause that we use in the present version of structural grammar are: Subject-S, Predicator-P, Complement-C and Adjunct-A. ~ Subjects are represented by NG items; they precede the predicator and agree in number with the predicator items; they occupy clause initially: (6) Mary sings beautifully. S ~ Predicators are represented by VG’s; they follow S and are in number concord with the latter; it might precede complement and adjunct if there is one: (7) Dan won the competition. S P ~ Complements are usually represented by NG’s; they immediately follow the predicator and have no concord with it; they might not always be present. There are two types of C’s: extensive-CE and intensive-CI. CE’s are represented by NG’s having the function of the traditional direct and indirect objects; they immediately follow predicators represented by transitive verbs: (8) a. Laurel bought the jewel. S P CE b. They gave her flowers. S P CE1 CE2 CI’s are represented by NG’s having the function of the traditional predicative element in a traditional nominal predicate; they are always in concord with the Subject. CI’s are also called subject complements since they refer and modify the S. (9) a. The little pony is cute. S P CI b. She has become a famous actress. S P CI There is another category of CI, corresponding to object complements which are linked to direct and indirect objects, i.e. CE in our case. (10) a. The committee elected him president. S P CE CI ~Adjuncts can be represented by AdvG’s, pG’s or NG’s, depending upon the context of situation. They are optional clause elements. They roughly correspond to the traditional adverbial modifier. (11) a. They married in secret. S P A b. Jack and Jill went up the hill. S P A c. I saw them yesterday. S P CE A 26 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

Chapter 2. The Syntax of the Clause in Structural Grammar d. They act wonderfully. S P A The description of the structure of these two levels will contribute to the analysis of the clause in the following subchapter. 2.2.3. Techniques of Syntactic Analysis The technique used to analyze clauses at this level is that of tree diagramming which we shall apply in some samples in order to illustrate the seven basic clause patterns that Scott (1970) proposed: 1 Pattern I : S P a. The owl sang. S P S S

P

NG MD The

VG

H

H

owl

sang

2. Pattern II: S P A a. The dancers seem in a good shape. S P A S S

P

A

NG

VG

PG

MD

H

H

P

NG

MD ME N

The

dancers

seem

in

a

good shape

b. The new chairs are outside. S P A The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

27

Chapter 2. The Syntax of the Clause in Structural Grammar S

MD The

S

P

NG

VG

ME new

H

A

AdvG

H

chairs

are

H outside

3. Pattern III: S P CE a. Leslie wore a pink pyjamas. S P CE S S

P

CE

NG

VG

NG

H

H

Leslie

4. Pattern IV: S P CI: a. He looked sad. S P CI


wore

MD ME

H

a

pyjamas

pink

Chapter 2. The Syntax of the Clause in Structural Grammar S S

P

CI

NG

VG

NG

H

H

looked

sad

H

He

5. Pattern V: S P CE CI a. She made him her slave. S P CE CI S

S

P

CE

NG

VG

NG

H

H

H

She

made

him

CI

NG MD her

H slave

6. Pattern VI: S P CE1 CE2 a. The professor handed them the papers. S P CE1 CE2


29

Chapter 2. The Syntax of the Clause in Structural Grammar S

S

P

NG MD

CE1

VG H

The professor

CE2

NG

H

NG

H

handed

MD

them

H

the

papers

7. Pattern VII : S P CE A a. Kim put the bag on the table. S P CE A S

S

NG H

P

CE

VG H

A

NG MD

H

PG PG

NG MD

Kim

put

the

2.3. Practical Applications 1. Analyse the NG’s in the following sentences: a. Mr. Banks expected her to answer. b. “A bit of a hypocrite?’’, he suggested. c. The world by all means should have shared it. d. The vegetable salts are lost. 2. Analyse the NG’s in the following sentences: 30 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

bag

on

the

H table

Chapter 2. The Syntax of the Clause in Structural Grammar a. She could have wept. b. She shut the doors. c. He had come across his former friend in the street. d. The sun is shining. 3. Analyse the AdvG’s in the following sentences: a. They appeared on the terrace. b. For she had triumphed again. c. They drew ahead together. d. She crouched low down. 4. Analyse the following sentences into S, P,C, A . Draw the tree diagrams. Not all elements might be represented. a. Nancy had gone with them. b. Mr. Ramsay felt free now to laugh out loud at Hume. c. She folded the green shawl about her shoulders. d. There was a ladder against the greenhouse. e. He was irritable and touchy. f. He could do nothing to help her. g. The insincerity slipping in among the truths annoyed her. h. His eyes glazed with emotion met theirs. i. She had laid her head on Mrs. Ramsay’s lap. j. Mr. Banks tapped the canvas with the bone handle.


31

Chapter 3. Final Evaluation Corpora

Chapter 3. Final Evaluation Corpora 3.1. Text Analysis 1. Analyse the clauses in the text below in terms of traditional syntax. Identify cases of exceptions to word order. “ Elliot Vereker was always coming into and going out of my life. He was the only man who ever continuously stimulated me to the brink of a nervous breakdown. Vereker was a writer; he was gaunt and emaciated from sitting up all night talking; he wore an admiral ‘s hat which he had stolen from an admiral. Usually he carried with him an old Gladstone bag filled with burnedout electric-light bulbs which it was his pleasure to throw, unexpectedly, against the sides of houses and the walls of the rooms”. 2. Analyse the sentences in the text below in terms of structural grammar. Draw the diagramming trees. “The morning of the ninth of April1865, dawned beautifully. General Meade was up with the first streaks of crimson in the eastern sky. The day continued beautiful. It drew on toward eleven o’clock. General Grant was still not up. He was asleep in his famous old navy hammock, swung high above the floor of his headquarters ‘bedroom. Headquarters was distressingly disarranged: papers were strewn on the floor; confidential notes from spies scurried here and there in the breeze from an open window; the dregs of an overturned bottle of wine flowed pinkly across an important military map.” 3.2. Evaluation Test

32

1. a. b. c.

Subjects can be classified considering: structure and content length position in the sentence

2. a. b. c.

In the sentence To sit and dream is relaxing the subject is: compound coordinated double

3. a. b. c.

In Here comes Mary, Mary is the…subject: formal impersonal logical

4. a. b. c.

The subject in Doris, Peter and the children are going to the Zoo is… logical simple coordinated


5. Indicate which sentence is correct as regards subject-predicate agreement: a. None of the buildings has been renovated. b. None of the buildings were renovated c. None of the buildings have been renovated. 6. a. b. c.

Predication is a grammatical phenomena which requires: words and speech sounds both a semantic and syntactic treatment of the English verbs interjections

7. In the sentence Susan had a wonderful dream last night the predicate is a. verbal b. nominal c. phraseological 8. a. b. c.

The sentence that contains a nominal predicate is She is outside in the garden. The tree is growing bigger and bigger. Juliet has come early today.

9. a. b. c.

The direct object in He saw the bowl empty is: common complex simple

10. The Modifiers in the NG the beautiful lady are of the type a. Determiner, Epithet b. Object complement; Nominator c. Ordinator; attribute 11. In the sentence The committee elected him president, president is an…complement: a. extensive b. intensive c. regular 12. The clause They slammed the door shut has the structure: a. S P b. S P A c. S P CE CI 13. Adjuncts can be represented by: a. Adv G, pG, NG b. complements c. VG 14. The sentence is: a. the basic syntactic unit of any grammar b. a linear fixed ordering in any natural language c. a row of words The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

33

Answer Key: 1a, 2a, 3c, 4c, 5a, 6b, 7c, 8b, 9b, 10a, 11b, 12c, 13a, 14a


References REFERENCES Aarts, B. 1997. English Syntax and Argumentation, Macmillan Press LTD. Abney, S.P., 1987, The English Noun Phrase in Its Sentential Aspect, PhD,diss., MIT. Bantaş, A. 1996. Descriptive English Syntax, Institutul European, Iaşi. Badescu, A., 1984. Gramatica limbii engleze, Ed. Stiintifica si Enciclopedica, Bucuresti Brown, K., et al, 2006. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Second Edition, Elsevier Bryant, M.M., 1945. A Functional English Grammar, Boston Celce- Murcia, Larsen- Freeman, 1999. The Grammar Book. An ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course, Heinle & Heinle Publishers Chomsky, N. 1957. Syntactic structures. (Janua linguarum 4). Gravenhage: Mouton. Chomsky, N. 1965. Aspects of the theory of syntax,. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Chomsky, N.1986a. Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin and Use, Praeger, New York. Chomsky, N. 1995. The minimalistic program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Cole, P. and Jerrold Sadock, eds. 1977. Syntax and semantics, vol.III: Grammatical relations. New York: Academic Press. Croft, W. 1991. Syntactic categories and grammatical relations. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. Croitoru, E. 2002. The English Sentence Structure, Editura Fundaţiei Universitatea „Dunărea de Jos” din Galaţi. Crystal, D. 1995. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Blackwell. Hoekstra, T., 1984, Transitivity, Foris: Dordrecht Huddleston, R., Pullum, K. G. et al. 2002. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, Cambridge University Press Keenan, E. L. 1976b. Towards a universal definition of ‘subject’. In Li (1976), 305-33. Miller, J. 2002, An Introduction to English Syntax, Edinburgh University Press Palmer, F. R. 1994. Grammatical roles and relations. Cambridge University Press. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. and Svartvik, J. 1972, 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of English, Longman, London. Radford, A. 1988. Transformational Grammar: a first course. Cambridge University Press. Scott, F.S.et al, 1970. English Grammar. A Linguistic Study of its Classes and Structures, Heinemann Educational, Books LTD. London Siewierska, A., 2005, Word Order and Linearization in A Concise Encyclopedia of Syntactic Theories, Brown K., Miller, J., Pergamon Swan, M., 1989, Practical English Usage, Oxford University Press Van Valin, R. Jr. and R. LaPolla. 1997. Syntax: structure, meaning & function. Cambridge University Press Zandvoort, R.W., 1948.A Handbook of English Grammar, Groningen A Concise Encyclopedia of Grammatical Categories, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1999.


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The syntax of the simple sentence

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