Study unit 3

Study section 3.1

▪ In this study unit, we will deal with the notion of syntax.

▪ Syntax has to do with how sentences and other phrases are constructed
using smaller phrases and words.

▪ As a native speaker of your home language, you know which syntactic

combinations of words are possible and permissible in your home language.

▪ Let’s consider an example of an English sentence.

▪ Do certain elements in the following sentence belong together?

The fluffy cat was sleeping on the desk.

▪ Certain words can be grouped together to form phrases (i.e. syntactic

constituents).
▪ Now compare the following sentences with one another:

The fluffy cat was sleeping.

* The fluffy cat was sleeping on.

* The fluffy cat was sleeping the desk.
▪ The nature of grammatical structure allows for an intermediate category
between the category WORD and the category SENTENCE. It allows us to
account for the structure of language in a much deeper and richer way. This
category is known as PHRASES.
SENTENCE The umpires talked to the players

PHRASES The umpires talked to the players

WORDS The umpires talked to the players

MORPHEMES The umpire -s talk -ed to the player -s

PHONEMES ðɪ ʌmpʌɪə s tɔːk əd tuː ðɪ pleɪə s

Description of lexical word classes

Morphology Syntax Semantics Use

The forms The syntactic The type(s) Frequency of

that a word role a word of meaning a use in various
have (i.e. in has in word registers.
terms of phrases or conveys.
stems and other higher
affixes). units.

Structure Role Meaning Use

On completion of this study section, you should be able to:

▪ Identify and classify phrases in English text.

▪ Identify and classify the constituents of phrases.

 Description of phrases

Syntax Semantics
Use
Structure
In the case of The meaning
Phrases are
The form of phrases, of phrases
most often
phrases syntactic role depends on
investigated
depends on refers to role the head of
in terms of
the word of the phrase the phrase
their
classes used in terms of and the way
frequency in
to construct the clause, its meaning is
various
the phrase. the higher adjusted by
registers.
unit. modifiers.

Structure Role Meaning Use

▪ For each lexical word, there is a major phrase type with an example of that
class as the head. A phrase can consist of a single word or a group of words.

▪ For each class of lexical word, there is a major phrase type with an example of
that class as the head:
▪ noun phrases (e.g. the little girl next door)
▪ verb phrases (e.g. is doing)
▪ adjective phrases (e.g. more blatant than anything they had done in the past)
▪ adverb phrases (e.g. much more quickly than envisaged)

▪ The only kind of phrase that does not have a lexical word as its head is the
prepositional phrase (e.g. in the morning).
▪ Noun phrases are phrases with a noun as its head.
▪ The noun as head of the noun phrase is obligatory.

▪ The head can be preceded by determiners.

▪ Determiners are optional elements in noun phrases
▪ They clarify the meaning of the noun.

▪ The head can also be preceded by premodifiers.

▪ Premodifiers are optional elements in noun phrases.
▪ They describe or classify whatever the head refers to.
▪ There are four major structural types of premodification in English
▪ general adjectives: big pillow, new pants, official negotiations
▪ ed-participial modifiers: restricted area, improved growth, fixed volume
▪ ing-participial modifier: flashing lights, growing problem, exhausting task
▪ noun: staff room, plastic tray, pencil case

▪ Premodifiers are condensed structures.

▪ They use fewer words than postmodifiers to convey roughly the same
information.
▪ As a result, most premodifiers can be rephrased as longer, postmodifying
relative clauses:
premodifiers relative clause as postmodifier
a big pillow a pillow which is big
a restricted area an area which is restricted
flashing lights lights which are flashing
staff room a room for staff
plastic trays trays made from plastic
▪ The head can also be preceded by premodifiers.
▪ Premodifiers are optional elements in noun phrases.
▪ They describe or classify whatever the head refers to.

▪ The heads of noun phrases can also be followed by postmodifiers or noun

complements.
▪ Noun postmodifiers and noun complements are optional elements in noun phrases.
▪ Just like premodifiers, postmodifiers describe or classify whatever the head refers
to.
▪ Complements complete the meaning of the noun (and typically follows abstract
head nouns).
▪ The difference between postmodifiers and complements are explained here.
▪ The structure of noun phrases are as follows:

A little girl in our neighbourhood

deter- pre-
head postmodifier
miner modifier

Clause:
A little girl in our neighbourhood left the gate wide open.
▪ Verb phrases have a lexical verb or a primary verb as their head (also
known as the main verb).

▪ The main verb can stand alone or be preceded by one or more auxiliary
verbs.

▪ The auxiliary verbs further define the actions, state, or process denoted by
the main verb.
▪ The structure of the verb phrase is as follows:

will have been being eaten

modal primary primary primary lexical
auxiliary auxiliary auxiliary auxiliary verb
⇪ ⇪ ⇪ ⇪ ⇪
modal perfect form progressive passive form main
of have form of be of be verb

Clause:
The apple will have been being eaten by then.
▪ In the following study section, you will see that verb phrases are the pivotal
elements in clauses in that they determine the other clause elements.
Therefore, it is extremely important that you be able to identify verb
phrases.
▪ Adjective phrases have an adjective as head.
▪ The adjective as head of the noun phrase is obligatory.

▪ The head can also be preceded by premodifiers.

▪ Premodifiers are optional elements in adjective phrases.
▪ They typically answer a question about the degree of a quality (e.g. How
lucky/poor?).

▪ The head can also be followed by complements.

▪ Complements are optional elements in adjective phrases.
▪ They often answer the question In what respect is the adjectival quality to be
interpreted?
▪ Adjective phrases have an adjective as head.
▪ The adjective as head of the noun phrase is obligatory.

▪ The head can also be preceded by premodifiers.

▪ Premodifiers are optional elements in adjective phrases and are most often
realised by adverbs.
▪ e.g. incredibly lucky, desperately poor
▪ They typically answer a question about the degree of a quality (e.g. How
lucky/poor?).
▪ The head can also be followed by complements.
▪ Complements are optional elements in adjective phrases.
▪ These complements can be realised by
▪ prepositional phrases (e.g. guilty of a serious crime)
▪ dependent clauses (e.g. more blatant than anything they had done in the past)
▪ They often answer the question In what respect is the adjectival quality to be
interpreted?
▪ The structure of the adjective phrase is as follows:

definitely guilty of a serious crime

premodifier head adjectival complement

Clause:
He is definitely guilty of a serious crime.
▪ Adverb phrases have an adverb as head.
▪ The adverb as head of the adverb phrase is obligatory.

▪ The head can also be preceded by premodifiers.

▪ Premodifiers are optional elements in adverb phrases.
▪ They typically express degree.

▪ The head can also be followed by complements.

▪ Complements are optional elements in adjective phrases.
▪ The structure of the adverb phrase is as follows:

much more quickly than envisaged

premodifier head complement

Clause:
The economy deteriorated much more quickly than envisaged.
▪ Prepositional phrases mostly consist of a preposition, followed by a
prepositional complement.

▪ The preposition links the NP (i.e. the prepositional complement) to the

structure preceding the PP.
▪ It was hard to live in Missouri [after spending so much time in California].

▪ The prepositional phrase can have the following two syntactic roles:
▪ as an adverbial on the clause level, e.g. He worked [in a shop].
▪ as a modifier or complement following a noun, e.g. He was a poet, {a teacher [of
philosophy]}, and {a man [with a terrible recent history]}.
▪ The structure of the prepositional phrase is as follows:

in our neighbourhood

preposition prepositional
complement

Clause:
A little girl in our neighbourhood left the gate wide open.
▪ Phrases can be identified by means of a substitution test (i.e. by replacing
one expression with another, to see how it fits into the structure).

The report does not mention the villains

It mentions them
▪ Phrases can also be identified by means of a movement test (i.e. by moving
a phrase as a unit to a different position). This test is only possible when the
clause is transitive in nature.

The report does not mention the villains

The villains are not mentioned by the report

▪ Traditionally, phrases (and clause elements) are indicated using syntax
trees.


▪ When we place one set of brackets inside another set of brackets, this
means that one phrase is embedded (i.e. included) inside another.

A little girl in our neighbourhood

NP PP NP
▪ The possibility of embedding sometimes means that a given structure can be
understood in two more different ways.
They passed the table where
the two men were sitting

They passed the table with the two men

Accompanied by the two
men, they passed the table

They passed the table with the two men

They passed the table where Accompanied by the two
the two men were sitting men, they passed the table

▪ Words make up phrases, which behave like units.

▪ A phrase can consist of either one word or more than one word.

▪ Phrases can be identified by substitution tests and movement tests.

▪ Differences in phrase structure lead to differences in meaning.

▪ Phrases can be embedded (i.e. one phrase can form part of the structure of
another phrase).
Workbook

▪ Exercise 1: Recognising phrase types (p. 17)

▪ Exercise 2: Phrases within phrases (pp. 17-18)

Classwork

▪ Classwork 3
Study section 3.2
▪ The notion of a sentence is not a very concise concept. To demonstrate this,
consider the following extract from a conversation taken from a corpus of L1 South
African English:

oh gosh how what can I tell you now / how was it uh / in what way now /
course was a fishing village / nothing going on // wonderful to come here by
the sea and play and and walk in the water / when I was a child // but it was
totally different day and of course it's changing fast now // really getting
horrible

▪ The extract demonstrates that the boundaries of a sentence is not clearly

demarcated in spoken language

▪ Therefore, we refine this to the notion of a clause, which is a coherent grouping of

phrases that contains at least a verb phrase.
▪ The verb is the pivotal element in the clause, and it determines the other
elements that occur in the clause.

▪ This study section provides you with the ABC of English sentence structure.

▪ Once you master this, you will be able to write grammatically correct
sentences and edit your own writing and the writing of others.
CLAUSE The umpires talked to the players

PHRASES The umpires talked to the players

WORDS The umpires talked to the players

MORPHEMES The umpire -s talk -ed to the player -s

PHONEMES ðɪ ʌmpʌɪə s tɔːk əd tuː ðɪ pleɪə s

On completion of this study section, you should be able to:

▪ describe each phrase in terms of its syntactic role in the clause.

▪ The clause is the key unit of syntax, capable of occurring independently
(i.e. without being part of any other unit).
▪ It is useful to think of the clause as a unit that can stand alone as an
expression of a 'complete thought' (i.e. a complete description of an event
or state of affairs).
▪ As such, the clause is comprised of a verb phrase with all other elements
associated with that particular verb phrase.
▪ Most verb phrases have subjects, while the other elements are optional or
compulsory depending on the specific type of verb.
▪ This is what is meant by the valency of the verb.
 ▪ The verb phrase is the central element of the clause, because it expresses
the action or state to which other elements relate.

▪ As such, it controls the other kinds of elements and meanings in the clause.

▪ For example:

Sarah and Michael disappeared (Compare: *Sarah and Michael gave.))

S V
NP VP

Sarah gave Michael her book (Compare: *Sarah disappeared Michael her book.))
S V S S
NP VP NP NP
Criteria relating to structure:

▪ The subject (S) is always realised a noun phrase (NP).

▪ It occurs with all types of verbs.

▪ Subject pronouns are in the nominative case (e.g. he, she):

He owes her money / She owes him money

S V IO DO S V IO DO
NP VP NP NP NP VP NP NP
▪ The S precedes the VP (except in clauses with inversion, e.g. questions
where the subject follows the operator):

She opens the door What did she open

VS.
S V DO DO S V
operator
NP VP NP NP NP VP

▪ The S determines the number of the VP:

She works late VS. They work late

S V DO S V DO
NP VP NP NP VP NP
▪ The S of a transitive verb can be moved after the V, and preceded by by to
make a clause with a passive verb:

She demonstrated something VS. Something was demonstrated by her

S V DO
NP VP NP
Criteria related to meaning

▪ The S denotes the most important participant in the action or state denoted
by the verb.

▪ The S generally represents the topic (i.e. the entity that the clause is
about). But sometimes English requires a S, even if the S has no actual
content:

It is warm in here

S V SP Aopt
NP VP AdjP PP
▪ Objects are always realised by noun phrases (NPs).

▪ It usually follows the V.

▪ It only occurs with transitive verbs.

▪ Object pronouns are in the accusative case.

He owes her money / She owes him money

S V IO DO S V IO DO
NP VP NP NP NP VP NP NP
▪ The object NP of a transitive verb can be moved to become the subject of
the corresponding passive clause.

Everyone deserted me VS. I was deserted by everyone

S V DO
NP VP NP
▪ A DO usually follows immediately after the V.

▪ Its most common semantic role is to denote the entity affected by the
action or process of the verb:

She made a card

S V DO
NP VP NP

X make something
▪ Sometimes objects express abstractions. When this happens, it does not fit
the template above:

They spoke French

S V DO
NP VP NP

*
X speak something
▪ An IO usually occurs after ditransitive verbs such as give and tell, and
occurs before the DO.

▪ The most common semantic role of IOs is to denote people receiving

something or benefitting from the action of the verb.
▪ It conforms to the other criteria for objects, including the formation of
passives:

He gave her chocolate

S V IO DO
NP VP NP NP

She was given chocolate by him

▪ Alternatively, the passive can be constructed as follows:

He gave her chocolate

S V IO DO
NP VP NP NP

Chocolate was given to [her] by [him]

The difference between DOs and IOs
I can make a kite. *I can make my son.
I can make my son a kite. *I can make a kite my son.
I can make a kite for my son. *I can make my son for a kite.

Characteristics of DOs Characteristics of IOs

Can occur alone after the V Cannot occur alone after the V

Cannot be replaced by a PP Can be replaced by a PP

Must precede an IO if the IO=PP Must follow the DO if IO=PP

Must follow an IO if the IO=NP Must precede DO, if IO=NP

▪ The predicative can be realised by a NP, an AdjP, and occasionally a PP.

▪ It follows the VP. If a DO is present, it may also follow the DO.

▪ It has the semantic role of characterising the preceding NP.

▪ Subject predicatives characterise or specify the subject:

He is tall
S V SP
NP VP AdjP

She seems happy

S V SP
NP VP AdjP

▪ NOTE: If the SP follows the verb, the verb must be a copular verb.
▪ Object predicatives characterise or specify the DO:

He left the gate wide open

S V DO OP
NP VP NP NP

He found himself out of breath

S V DO OP
NP VP NP PP

▪ NOTE: The OP has to be used in conjunction with a complex transitive verb

(e.g. make, find, consider, name).
Obligatory adverbials

▪ Some verbs take adverbials in order to complete their meaning.

▪ Obligatory adverbials can occur with two patterns. They are the copular
pattern and the complex transitive pattern.

▪ Obligatory adverbials tend to express place or direction, but they can also
express time or manner meanings.

▪ In these patterns the adverbial has to be present in order to complete the

structure and meaning of the verb:

Your toast is on the table

S V Aobl
NP VP PP
Optional adverbials

▪ Only a few verbs require adverbials to complete their meaning. However,

adverbials frequently occur in clauses as optional elements.

▪ Optional adverbials can be added to clauses with any type of verb.

▪ They are usually realised by an AdvP, PP, or an NP.

▪ They can be placed in different positions within the clause (initial, medial or
final positions).

▪ More than one of them can occur in a single clause.

▪ They are rather loosely attached to the rest of the clause and are not
required to complete the meaning of the verb:

She placed the baby on the blanket in the room

S V DO Aobl Aopt
NP VP NP PP PP

I only bought one book today

S Aopt V DO Aopt
NP AdvP VP NP AdvP

They therefore are rather insecure

S Aopt V Aopt SP
NP AdvP VP AdvP AdjP
▪ Intransitive patterns (S + V)
I am eating.

▪ Copular patterns (S + V + SP / S + V + Aobl)

The disastrous consequences are obvious.

▪ Monotransitive patterns (S + V + DO)

I am eating lunch.

▪ Ditransitive patterns (S + V + IO + DO)

I am sending you an official letter of complaint.

▪ Complex transitive patterns (S + V + DO + OP / S + V + DO + Aobl)

I have made my position clear.
 intransitive patterns = S + V

I am eating
S V function/syntactic role

NP VP form/structure
 copular patterns = S + V + SP / S + V + Aobl

The disastrous consequences are obvious

S V SP function/syntactic role

NP VP AdjP form/structure
 monotransitive patterns = S + V + DO

I am eating lunch

S V DO function/syntactic role

NP VP NP form/structure
 ditransitive patterns = S + V + IO + DO

I am sending you an official letter of complaint

S V IO DO function/syntactic role

NP VP NP NP form/structure
complex transitive patterns = S + V + DO + OP / S + V + DO + Aobl

I have made my position clear

S V DO OP function/syntactic role

NP VP NP AdjP form/structure
▪ Clauses (in their simplest form) are composed of phrases that function as
clause elements.

▪ The main elements of clauses are S, V, O (DO/IO), P (SP/OP), and A.

▪ These clause elements combine to form five transitivity structures

(intransitive, copular, monotransitive, ditransitive, complex transitive).

▪ There can be peripheral elements in a clause such as conjunctions, tags and

vocatives.
Workbook

▪ Exercise 3: Labelling clause elements (p. 18)

▪ Exercise 4: Identifying clause patterns (pp.18-19)

▪ Exercise 5: Sentences for additional practice and diagramming (pp. 19-20)

▪ Exercise 6: Sentences for additional practice and diagramming (pp. 20)

Classwork

▪ Classwork 4

▪ Classwork 5