Sentence and Clause structure

In order to state general rules about the construction of sentences, it is necessary to refer to
smaller units than the sentence itself. What are these smaller units that we need to distinguish?
Let's examine the following sentences.

1/ John carefully searched the room.

2/ The girl is now a student at a large university.
3/ His brother grew happier gradually.
4/ It rained steadily all day.
5/ He had given the girl an apple.
6/ They make him the chairman every year.
7/ John painted the door green.

First of all, in these sentences, we can observe the primary distinction between a subject and a
predicate. We can establish the following general characteristics of the subject:
1. It expresses what the sentence is about with the exception of example 4/
2. The subject determines concord. This means that the form of the verb selected
depends on the person and number of the subject. Example sentences 2/ and 6/ and 3/.
3. The subject is the part of the sentence which changes its position as we go from
statement to question. Now, the predicate is a more complex and heterogeneous unit.
It consists of two parts. Operator and predication. Take a look at the table. The
operator is this part of the sentence which switches places with the subject in questions
and takes the negative particle in negative sentences.
He hadn't given the girl an apple.
The operator can be overt as an example five and covert an example 1/ did
The verbs to be and to have also count as operators, even one they are lexical verbs. The
predication can be divided into four important units. These four units are verb, object,
complement, adverbial V, O, C, A.

The object.
We can distinguish two types of objects in examples 1/, 5/, 6/ and 7/ we have one type of
object room, an apple, him and the door. These objects are called direct objects because they
denote a thing which is directly involved in the verbal action. They are directly implicated in
the verbal action. They are directly affected by the verbal action. On the other hand, in
sentence 5/ we have a somewhat different kind of object the word the girl. It is called an
indirect object. It denotes a person who receives something or for whom something is being
done – a recipient. The indirect object usually precedes or comes before the direct object.

Turning now to complements, we can distinguish again two types.

An example 2/ and 3/. The words student and happier represent one type of complement.
Both these words are referred to the subjects of their respective sentences. An example 2/
complement is called referential with the subject of the sentence. In example 3/ the
complement happier denotes a quality of the subject because in both sentences the
complements have a straightforward relation to the subject of the sentence they are called
subject complements,
On the other hand, an example 6/ and 7/ we have object complements, namely the words the
chairman and green. The object complement has a similar relation to the object, the direct
object that is, as the subject complement has to the subject. In example 6/, the object
complement is called referential with the direct object him, the chairman, while an example
seven denotes a quality of the direct object the door green. So far we have established two
types of direct object and two types of complement.
Direct object. Indirect object. Subject complement. Object complement.

Now, the types of verb

The different types of verb are established on the basis of their complementation. The
complementation of a verb consists of all those elements which obligatorily follow a
particular verb used in a particular sense. So, the different types of verbs can be established on
the basis of syntactic criteria. That is their complementation and also on the basis of a
morphological criterion, which takes into account the morphological distinction between
progressive, non progressive.
The aspectual contrast can serve as a criterion for differentiating between stative and dynamic
verbs. Stative verbs are not normally used in the progressive aspect form.
Dynamic verbs can be used in the progressive form. Using the syntactic criterion that is the
complementation of the verb, we can divide verbs into intensive and extensive verbs,
Intensive verbs are those verbs which take subject complements as an examples 2/ and 3/.
Extensive verbs are all other verbs which do not take subject compliments.
Intransitive verbs. Now, if an extensive verb does not permit any of the four object and
complement types, it is an intransitive verb. Transitive verbs are extensive verbs which allow
some object types. They can be mono transitive verbs which take just one object.
Ditransitive verbs which take direct object and indirect object, or two direct objects or direct
object and a prepositional object. But in all cases, two objects. And complex transitive verbs
which take a direct object and an object complement. Now, you may take a look at the table.
The relation between a complex transitive verb and its direct object is different from the
relation between a mono or ditransitive verb and its direct object.

For example, She made a cake.

She made him a cake.

She made a cake for him.

She made him a hero, which means She made a hero out of him or She made him into a hero.

Categories of adverbial.

In example 2/, there are two adverbials now and at a large university. They differ semantically and
syntactically. They differ semantically in that now denotes time while at a large university denotes
place. They differ syntactically in that now cannot follow alone the verb to be while at a large
university. it can do so. For example, we can not say The girl is now, but we can say The girl is at a
large university or we can say The girl is at a large university now. These adverbials can be called
adverbial of time and place, respectively. In our example sentence 1/, we have a third type of
adverbial. The adverbial carefully is associated with a dynamic verb. But it cannot be used with the
stative verb. For example, Joan searched the room carefully, slowly, noisily, sternly, quickly, without
delay, etc.. But you can not say The girl is now a student carefully, slowly, noisily, sternly, quickly,
without delay.

Adverbials, which can be used with dynamic but not with stative verbs are a called process
adverbials. Now it is possible for us to make a summary of sentence structure rules. You look at the
diagram which outlines the basic sentence patterns. In this diagram each line constitutes a pattern.
The adverbials are optional. Here are examples of each pattern.

She is in London now (1).

She is a student in London now (2)

John heard the explosion from his office when he was locking the door (3)

Universities gradually became famous in Europe during the Middle Ages. (4)

They ate the meat hungrily in the hut that night. (5)

He offered her some chocolates politely outside the hole before the concert. (6)

They elected him chairman without argument in Washington this morning. (7)

The train had arrived quietly at this station before we noticed it. (8)

Now, there are four more patterns which are not included in our diagram, and they consist of a
stative verb first, which can be transitive or complex transitive. So, the first of the additional patterns
consists of a stative ditransitive verb, as in the following example. He owes me some money.

The next additional pattern consists of a stative verb, which is complex transitive.

She thinks him brilliant.

The next example or pattern is outlined by a dynamic, transitive verb, which is followed by an
obligatory adverbial. So, we have as an example, she puts the vase on the table.

And the last one is a dynamic intransitive verb, again, followed by an obligatory adverbial, as in the
following example. He lives in London. Now we turn to the notion of clause.

Clause
A definition for clause: A clause is a unit that can be analyzed into the elements of subject, verb,
object, complement, adverbial. S. V. O. C. A

A simple sentences contain just one clause. Composite sentences contain more than one clause.

Types of clauses.

From the point of view of their syntactic behavior, clauses can be independent and dependant. An
independent clause is a clause capable of constituting a simple sentence, as in the example It is late.
A dependent clause is one which makes up a grammatical sentence only if subordinate to a further
clause. We can't say because it is late. That money can buy happiness, but we can say I'm going home
because it is late or Mary thinks that money can buy happiness. A complex sentence containing two
clauses can be analyzed twice over into the elements. S. V. O. C. A. once for the independent clause,
and once for the dependent clause.

For example, I quickly shut the door before the cat could escape. Now, the independent clause will be
I quickly shut the door and the dependent clause is before the cat could escape. Therefore, the
elements S, V, O, C, A are elements of clause structure rather than elements of sentence structure.
The main clause types are the following.

Number one S, V
The child was laughing. Subject verb.

Number two. S. V. C. Subject, verb, complement.

Mary is a nurse.

Number three S, V, A (subject, verb, adverbial)

Mary is in the house.

Number four S, V, O (Subject verb object)

The boy caught the ball.

Number five S, V, O, C.

We have proved him wrong. (Subject. Verb. Object. Compliment.)

Number six S, V, O, A and an optional object complement.

I put the plate on the table.

Number seven S, V, O, O (Subject, Verb, Object, Object. Object. Complement)

She gave him a present.

And the object compliment is also optional in this clause pattern.

Now it is important also to note that number six S V O A with an optional object complement. This is
a possible pattern we can have an optional complement in an inserted in this example. For example,
They dragged him home blind drunk, meaning that he was blind drunk while they were dragging him
home or she put the food hot onto the plate. Hault is object complement to the direct object to food,
but it is optional because we can say she put the food onto the plate. Number seven, again, in
number seven, we can have an optional object complement. So the pattern is S V O O plus optional
object complement. For example, I sold him the car almost new. Almost new is object complement to
the direct object the car. So here we have two objects him indirect object the car. direct object,
almost new object complement to the car. Pattern five: in it we may have this placement of the
object and the object complement meaning that we may change their positions. So the pattern and
being S V O C the complements C may come before the object sometimes not necessarily, but for the
purposes of the functional sentence perspective focusing purposes that is. So, the example being We
have proved the professor himself wrong can be transformed in two. We have proved wrong. The
professor himself. The same phenomenon is possible for pattern six in which we have S. V. O. A. Now,
the adverbial can be moved before the object and we can have these variations. He took a handful of
gleaming hulk coins from his pocket. Or, we might say he took from his pocket a handful of gleaming
coins. Now, these clause types differ from the basic sentence patterns in that they contain only
obligatory elements. Besides, the stative dynamic distinction OF verb is not important, It is ignored.
There is also a rare clause type, which is S V O I, that is indirect object and subject complement. So
we have a subject. Verb, indirect object, Subject complement.

As in the following example, John made Mary a good husband. This means that John was a good or
became a good husband to Mary. So in this case, the verb is ditransitive. It is not complex transitive
verb.

Morphologically clauses can be classified on the basis of what kind of verb, if any, they have. Thus,
we can distinguish 1/ finite clauses: clauses whose verb element is a finite V.P (verb phrase). Well, all
of the examples that we had so far belong to this type of clauses. 2/ non finite clauses: clauses whose
V element. The verb is a non finite V.P., non finite verb phrase. That is an infinitive present or past
participle or the gerund. So these are the non finite forms of the verb. For example, To live in New
York was his ambition To live in New York is an infinitive phrase. And this is an infinitive, non finite
clause. Another example, Seeing the books on the table, I naturally open one, seeing the books on the
table, a participle clause or Attracted by the noise, John opened the window. Attracted by the noise
again participle clause. Or more precisely, Past Participle clause. And 3/, we should mention the
verbless clauses. There are also verbless clauses. And these are clauses which contain no verb
element. We can usually assume that the form of the verb to be has been dropped, has been
omitted.

We can assume that it can be inserted and turn the clause into a verbal clause. For example: Dozens
of tourists were stranded. Many of them children. Now, the second clause, many of them children, is
a verbless clause. It lacks a verbal element. Of course, we can insert it, but it will be redundant. We
could say dozens of tourists were stranded. Many of them being children.

Ok, so that's the end.