1. What are typical syntactic functions of adjectives in a sentence?

Give examples

Adjective phrases are usually employed as qualities and as predicatives.

Examples of qualities – a crying person entered the room. A smiling girl stood up. A bleeding boy fell
down.

Examples of predicatives – it’s cold and freezing in Canada.

2. Name and give functional characteristics of the primary verbs.

We have three most common verbs in English and these are – be, have and do. When primary verbs
actualize their lexical meaning of being, possession or performance, they may behave as main verbs –
I was at school, she has two cousins….

3. How are verbs classified morphologically?

We have two sets of morphological classes for verbs : first, regular and irregular verbs. If we add the
suffix –ed to a verb, we’ll get the regular verb. For example: studied, cried, lied, whispered and many
more. As for the irregular verbs, they kind of form their own forms. For example : teach-taught-taught,
sing-sang-sang…

Then there is finite and non-finite form of the verbs. To see the difference : change of forms in finite
verbs occur when the number or person of the subject changes. However, this does not apply to non-
finite verbs. Also, finite verbs can act as the main verb of a sentence, while non-finite verbs can only act
as nouns, adjectives or advebrs.

4. What does the valency of verbs imply? What are the major valency patterns in English grammar?
Describe each of them by giving examples.

To break it down simply, valency is a verb’s power to combine. As the finite verb is the center of
predication, it organizes every sentence elements. In other words – primary verb and it’s meaning define
sentences’ other needed parts’ arrangements. We have five major valency patterns, according to
british grammarians. There are:

1.interasitive pattern (s+v) this is a combination of main verb plus the subject. Example : more girls
cried.

2.monotransitive patter (s+v+do) this one is a combination of a subject and a verb directly with an
object. Example : he was dragging his aching feet.

3. ditransitive pattern ( s+v+IO+DO) a combination of two object phrases – these are direct and indirect
objects. Example : her cousin slapped her; she was named Stacey.
4. complex transitive patterns – they are represented by only two types – transitive verbs take place
when a direct object is followed by an object predicative, which is expressed by an adjective or by a
required adverbial.

His actions made his girlfriend cry.

5. copular pattern (s+copula+p) a mix of subject plus copular verb, followed by a predicative.

Example : he felt sleepy. (adverb, predicative)

He was driving a sales manager that year. (noun, predicative)

5. What is the essence of the grammatical category of voice? Give examples. Comment on the
semantic distinction of voice forms.

active and passive voices are the voices, in which the most transitive verbs can occur. The active form of
the verb indicates the action that is happening, is done by the the subject of the sentence, while the
passive voice suggests that the action is performed on the subject. For example, active voice example
would be : the boy punched his bully. But in passive voice it would be – the boy was punched by his
bully.

6. Define the essence of the grammatical category of mood and name its main types

in modern English. Give examples

the mood category is basically the morphological expression of modality. We have three moods in
English, differentiated by the grammarians, these are : the indicative mood, the imperative mood and
the subjunctive mood.

Indicative mood : it refers to the action as a fact, something real that has definitely happened. Example :
when I entered the room, she has already been murdered.

The imperative mood : does not actually give any information about the reality, it could be more of a
suggestion, for example : get off the bus on that street. You should go and eat.

The subjunctive mood : an unreal or hypothetical action. Example : if I was back in time, I’d make right
decisions.

7. Comment on the form and functional-semantic peculiarities of past subjunctive. Give examples

Past subjunctive is one of two forms of the subjunctive moods. Past subjunctive is sometimes called as
“were-subjunctive” because “were” is used in a clause, meaning that this “were” is hypothetical, for
example - if I was five years old again, if she was never born, if we were smarter…

8. Characterize syntactic connections (i.e. bonds) between words and syntactic types of

word-groups: subordinate word-groups; Give examples

We have three major syntactic types of syntactic connections between words and these are –
subordination, coordination and predication. So, the word groups are also divided into these types.
Subordinate word groups consist of words that are syntactically uneven as one of the components that
is called “head” is modified by an “adjunct” – which is a dependent element. So, because of this, we can
call this word group “dominational”

Examples : a lazy person – person = a head word, lazy = an adjunct (modifier)

A silly situation – situation = a head word, silly= adjunct.

A box of shoes – box = a head word, of shoes = prepositional adjunct.

A jar of cookies – jar = head word, of cookies = prepositional adjunct.

9. Comment on the sentences which convey only new information. Give examples

Most English sentences admit the theme-rheme split, thought there are number of sentences that only
convey new information.

Mostly, these are the impersonal sentences including “it” – it’s snowing, it’s a night time…

10. Discuss 2 linguistic means of expressing the centre of communication (i.e. the rheme):

1. Complex sentences with emphasized “it”

“it was Anna who killed the boy.”

“it was my sister who came up with the idea”

“it was Keith ho sacrificed himself”

“it was Eren who started the war”

“it was at my friend’s that we got drunk.”

2. “There is or there are” structure.

“there was my house”

“there is her old work place”

“there is some sugar left in it”

“there are the leftovers”

“there was she buried”