Modulo A

Syntax an Overview
- Syntax = from Greek “ syntaxis” (composition/combination) refers to :
• The study of the rules which make it possible to combine smaller linguistic units
into well-formed sentences (the largest independent syntactic unit of a language
that is not embedded in any larger construction)
• To the rule system itself
- Constituent
• Sentences
• Clause
• Phrase
• Word
• Morpheme

Grammar
A. The study of the rules-based structure of a language
B. The object of study itself (the system of rules according to which a given
language may combine words and the morpheme they consist of into larger
units)
C. The book in which this rules are formulated and described
Grammar=
1. In ectional morphology (bound morphemes which are use to encode
grammatical information)
2. Syntax

Word class Kind of in ection In ectional Exemples Number of

morphemes words formed

Nouns Declension Plural -s 2 boys Rule= 2

Genitive ‘s John’s sister Exeptions= 4

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 Word class Kind of in ection In ectional Exemples Number of
morphemes words formed

Verbs Conjugation 3 sing. ind. pre. -s Works Rule= 4

Past -ed Worked Exeptions= 5(8)
Pres. cont. -ing Working
Past. Part. -ed Worked

Adjectives Comparison Comparative -er Stronger Rule= 3

Superlative -est Strongest

Units of language in English and Italian

English Italian

Phrase Sintagma

Clause Proposizione

Sentence Periodo

Paragraph Paragrafo

Basic principles of syntax

1. Linear order
• Syntagmatic relations= the order in which words are combined
• The ordering of the words helps to determine:
• Whether a sentence is grammatical or not
• What the sentence means
2. Hierarchical structure
• Words are organized into semantically coherent groups

Constituency
- Sentences are not simply series of adjacent word, they are made of semantically
meaningful groups (or chunks)
- Constituents= have meaning if their own and each makes a coherent contribution
to the meaning of the whole sentence
- Describing constituents
• Noun phrase (NP)
• Verb phrase (VP)

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 • Adverbial phrase (AdvP)
• Prepositional phrase (PP)
• Adjectival phrase (AdjP)
- Di erent type of constituent phrase
• NP
- Must have at least 1 noun
- Can have pre-modi ers( det.-adj.-adv.) or quali ers(adv.-adj.)
NP—> (det)(mod)N(qual)
• VP
- Must have a verb
- Can have auxiliaries/completor/in nitive to
VP—> (aux)(to)V(completor)
• AdvP
- The advert modify the verb
• PP
- Must have a NP
• AdjP
- Always part of a NP
- Must have at least an adjective
- Can have adverbs
- Constituents tests
1. Question test= a constituent can be answer with a question and make sense
2. Substitution test= a constituent can be substituted by a pro-form
3. Moving test= a constituent can be moved around without compromising
sense

- Features of syntactic constituents

• Recursion= the ability to place one constituent inside another one of the same
kind (can be used in sequence)
• Dependency= how phrases are formed is dependent on other nearly phrases
(Grammatical dependency/ Semantic dependency)
- Constituents and Phrases

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 • In English grammar, a constituent is a linguistic part of a larger sentence,
phrase or clause (all the words and phrase that make up a sentence are said to
be constituents of a sentence)
(My dog Aristotle)NP [(bit)V (the postal carrier)NP (on the ankle)PP]VP
- Sentence analysis
• Identi es the subject/predicate/di erent parts of speech (parting the sentence
into its constituents
- Immediate constituents analysis
• Aims to understand the way sentences are structured, as well as discover the
deep meaning of the sentence and perhaps how it might be better expresse
[(My)det(dog)N(Aristotle)mod]NP [(bit)V[(the)det(postal)adj(carrier)N]NP
[(on)prep(the)det(ankle)N]PP]VP
[(The)det(boy)N]NP [(will)mod(sing)V]VP

The aims of syntactic analysis

- To identify sentence constituents boundaries
- To describe the composition of these constituents combine together and are
related to each other
- Two approaches
• Embedding(how phrases/clauses t into each other to create larger units)
- Hierarchical structure
• Phrases(group of words without a subject and a verb)
• Clauses(group of words that contains a verb and other components and it
may form part of a sentence or be a complete sentence in itself)
• Sentence( includes one or more clauses and expresses a complete
meaning)
- Is represented with parentheses and brackets ( ( ) for phrases/[ ] for clauses)
• (phrases (inside pharases))
• [(phrases (inside (clauses)))]
• [(clauses)inside phrases]
• Tree diagrams (NP/VP/AdjP/AdvP/PP)
-

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 —> Sentence

—> Clauses

—> Phrases

—> Word classes

—> Word

- We use descriptive categories:

• Phrases(NP -VP -AdvP -AdjP -PP)
• Word classes (N -V -det -Adj -Adv -Prep)
- Simpli ed diagram:
S. Level1

NP. VP. NP. Level2

det. adj. N aux. V. det. N. Level3

Most young people will nish their education. Level4

(All sentences must have at least 1 VP+ 1 NP)

Heads and modifiers

1. One word, the head, controls over other words, the modi ers
2. Words are grouped into phrases and that groupings brings together heads and
modi ers
- The head is the only word that has to occur in the phrases
- The modi ers occurring before or after the head and it is optional

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 • Head
• Mod.+Mod.+Head
• Mod.+Head
• Mod.+Head+Mod.
• Head+Mod.
• Mod.+Mod.+Head+Mod.
- Structure of NP
A. The head:
• A noun
• A pronoun
• An adjective
B. The words preceding the head in NP:
• Determiner (the/a)
• Numerals (2 eggs)
• Noun (a garden fence)
• Genitive (John’s sister)
• Adverb (initial position)
• Adjective phrase
C. The modi ers following the head in NP:
• Prepositional phrase
• Relative clause
• Adverbs
• Adjectives
• Embedded noun phrases
- Determiners: are they modi ers?
(Mod(s)) Head (Mod(s))
• Most NPs with a common noun as their head need to being with a determiner
especially ((the)) and ((a)), whose semantic role is not so much to add more
detail of information to the head, as to specify how it refers to something.
- Whether it has de nite or inde nite reference

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 - Verb Phrase
(Auxiliary/ ies) Main verb
• Modality= viewing the action as ltered through concept such as possibility and
necessity
• Aspect= how we view the action or event in temporal terms
• Active vs. Passive
- Syntactic ambiguity
• When sentence can be interpreted in more than one way
- Depending on how we interpret sequences of words
- Sentence tree diagram: ambiguity
• Tree diagrams can also help to describe di erent possible meanings
• A French silk blouse
- 2 meanings
• A blouse of silk that was made in French
• A blouse that was made of French silk
NP. NP
Det. Adj. NP. Det. Adj. N. NP.
N. N. N.
- Functional aspects of syntax
• The descriptive phrasal constituents can also be analyzed according to their
functions in a sentence of clause structure
• Basic functional categories
- Subject (S)= what carries out the action of the verb
- Predicate (P)= what the subject does
- Complement (C)= the meaning of the predicate
- Adjunct (A)= specify the range of the predicate
- Prototypical sentence stricture
• Subjects are typically NPs, but can also be:
- In nitive
- Material that is quoted
- Gerund
- Expletive subject

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 • Predicates are verbs forms:
- Transitive verbs with some type of complements
• SPCA= Subject Predicate Complement Adjunct
Peter(S) nished(P) it(C) yesterday(A)
Peter, tired from his exertion(S) nished o (P) writing the book(C) 2 days ago(A)
- Complements
• Types of complements with transitive verbs:
- Direct/Indirect objects= receive the action of the verb
- Subject complement= tell more about the subject
- Adverbial complement= additional information
- Object complement= more information about the direct object
From phrases to clauses to sentences

Sentence Phrase Sentence Phrase

Clause Clause

Clause structure

- Subject
- Predicate English is an SVO language because these three elements usually occur
in that order
- Object
The cat(S) chased(V) the rat(O)
- English vs. other languages
Structure English equivalent % of languages Example language

SOV I you love 45% Hindi, Japanese

SVO I love you 42% English, Romance

languages

VSO Love I you 9% Hebrew, Irish

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 Structure English equivalent % of languages Example language

VOS Love you I 3% Fijian, Malagasy

OVS/OSV You love I 1% or less Tamil

• English is classi ed as an SVO language (order of prototypical a rmative

sentences)
- Alternative description
• SVO (Subject, Verb, Object)is prototypical for a rmative sentences
Peter(S) nished(V) the book(O)
• SVOA (Subject, Verb, Object, Adjunct)
Peter(S) nished(V) it(O) Yesterday(A)
• SVOO (Subject, Verb, Object, Object)
Peter(S) gave(V) me(O) the book(O)
• SVC (Subject, Verb, Complement)
Peter(S) felt(V) sad(C)
• SVCA (Subject, Verb, Complement, Adjunct)
Peter(S) felt(V) sad(C) yesterday(A)
- The adjunct
• Adds to a clause an extra piece of information about time, place and manner
• We specify the structure of a clause in terms of SVO or ASAVA
A. [(An expression of extreme annoyance)(crossed)(her face)] —> SVO
B. [(Actually)(we)(quite often)(breakfast)(at Ti any’s)] —> ASAVA
- The complement
• After certain verbs, especially the verb to be, an NP is not an object
A. [(Fawlty Towers)(must be)(the best-loved bad hotel in the world)] —> SVC
B. [(The steak tartare)(was)(totally inedible)] —> SVC
C. [(In a moment)(his face)(had turned)(red)] —> ASVC
- De ning Subjects
A. Subjects precede the verb phrase (generally true), but can have the structure
AVS with the subject at the end
B. Subjects are noun phrases (generally true), but can be an adverb

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 C. If the subject is a pronoun, it has to be in the correct form (I, he, we…), used
as subject pronouns, while the others (me, him…)are used as objects
pronouns
D. Subjects are marked by subject pronouns forms?
• He saw her —> correct
• Him saw her —> incorrect
• But we can say:
• You carry it
• It carries you
- De ning Objects
• Are typically NPs
• They typically refers to the “doee” rather than the “doen”
• They are realized by the object form of the pronoun
- Direct and Indirect Objects
• What have you been doing?
A. [(I)(have been writing)] —> SV
B. [(I)(have been writing)(a thank-you letter)] —> SVO
C. [(I)(have been writing)(Auntie Becky)(a thank-you letter)]
• Auntie Becky= indirect object (indirectly a ected by the verb)
• A thank-you letter= direct object (a ected most closely by the verb)
• Indirect object identify people who bene t as a result of the action
• The objects can turned into the subject of a passive clause
- Making statements, asking questions, giving order and uttering
exclamations
• Declarative= the clause acts as a statements (tell something real)
• Interrogative= the clause acts as a question
• Imperative= the clause acts as a directive (request, instructions or suggestions)
• Exclamatory= the clause acts as an expression of emotion
- Interrogative clause
• Types
- Wh- questions (subject-verb inversion or auxiliary)
- Yes-No questions (subject-verb inversion or auxiliary)

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 • Two main grammatical signals
1. They begin with one of the question words
2. They have an inversion of the normal ordering (auxiliary precedes the
subject)
The dummy auxiliary do
• One structural rule says= auxiliaries are optional
• A VP does not have to have any auxiliary verbs= most VP have no auxiliary
• Reverse the order of the subject and auxiliary
• What happen if there is no auxiliary in the positive clause?
• We have the dummy auxiliary do
• Positive= the taxi arrived late
• Negative= the taxi did not arrive late
- Negative clause
• Tipes
- Negative particles
- With “not”, main verbs other than “to be” require the auxiliary do
- Subjective clause
• Occurs only with some verbs and tenses
- In nite after certain verbs in -that clauses
- Invariate “were” with the verb to be in hypothetical situations
- Imperative clause
A. They have no subject and the verb is in the plain form
B. The VP very rarely contains an auxiliary, except when do or don’t precede the
main verb
C. There is no visible subject
- Sentence realizations
Communicative role Clause type Examples

Statement Declarative This man is fat

Denying Negative He isn’t fat

Question Interrogative Is he fat?

Command Imperative Lose weight

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Communicative role Clause type Examples

Speculation Subjective If I were fat….

Expressing emotions Exclamatory What a fat man

- Non prototypical structures

• The prototypical SVO structure is often modi ed for emphatic e ects
- Cleft sentences= it + to be + that/who
- Pseudo-cleft sentences= clause introduce by what or all
- Left dislocation= shifting ending element to the initial part
- Inversion= placing the verb before the NP subject
- Stylistic inversion
• Used in literary texts to evoke imagination, feeling, drama and suspence
• Used only with intransitive verbs of position or motion

Coordination and subordination

- Coordination
• A way to form more elaborate clauses and sentences
• Constituents are structured side-by-side
• Common conjunction
- And
- Or
- But
- So
• Can stand alone
- Subordination
• Have subject and verb, but cannot stand alone
• Punctuation can help nding the subordinate
• Conjunction
- After
- As
- Because
- Even

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- Subordination vs NPs/ PPs
• Compare
1. She walked o while he was apologizing
2. She just walked o in the middle of his apology ( PP, not subordinate)
3. Everyone knows that our world is spherical
4. Everyone knows that joke ( NP, not a subordinate)
• Subordinate have their own verb
- Subordinate type
• Relative= function as modi ers after a noun
- Begin in relation to the main clause
• That
• Which
• Who
• Adverbial= function as adjunction to elaborate conditions, time, reasons in
relation to the main clause
- Typically begin with a subordinating conjunction
• If
• When
• Because
• While
• Where
• Complement= function as NPs that complete the meaning of the main clause
- The other elements in the sentence cannot stand alone without the
complement clause to complete them

Sentence type
- Simple= only one independent clause with a verb and subject
- Compound= two or more simple sentence joined by a coordinating conjunction
- Complex= one main clause plus one or more subordinate clause
- Compound-complex= combine subordination and coordination

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Systemic Functional Grammar

Process What it does Participant roles

Material Creating Actor / Goal / Recipient

Mental Feeling / Thinking Senser / Phenomenon

Relational Being / Having Carrier / Attribute / Identi er

Verbal Expressing / Indicating Sayer / Traget / Verbiage

Behaviour Behaving Behavier

Existential Existing / Happening Existent

- Language is functional= people use language to do things

• Ideational function= construct our experiences in the world and how we
perceive them
• Interpersonal function= express attitudes and relations with others during
interaction
• Textual function= create structure and organize our messages to facilitate
communication
- Categorizes constituents according to what they do:
• Processes= predicate/verb
• Participants= subject/complement
• Circumstances= how/why/when/where they get done
- Processes
• Provide much more information than traditional verb categories like action/
static or transitive/intransitive
A. Material= express actions or events
B. Behavior= involve physical/mental processes that are not really actions
C. Mental= involve senses, feelings and thoughts
D. Verbal= involve communication (speak / write)
E. Relational= have meanings of attribution or identi cation
F. Existential= describe an existing situation
- Participant roles
• Provide speci c information about who/what is involved in the process
A. Material= Actor / Goal / Recipient
B. Behavior= Behave

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 C. Mental= Senser / Phenomenon
D. Verbal= Sayer / Target / Verbiage
E. Relational= Carrier / Attribute / Identi er / Identi ed
F. Existential= Existent
- A modern approach
• The rst English grammar books appeared in the 1500s is based on Latin
grammatical categories, functions and syntax
• A di erent modern approach to syntax
- Developed by Michael K. Halliday in the 1960s
• Emphasizes function

Embedding and coordination

Clause A
Clause B
Clause C
- Here is an example of the embedding involving threes steps of iteration
• [ I was wondering [ when you would nally admit [ that you’re only sticking with
me [ because you want all my money ]]]]
- Embedding clauses in subordination
• Embedded clauses can have functions similar to those of phrases in the main
clause
[(She)S(just)A(walked)V(o )A[(while)Conj(this guy)S(was apologizing)V]A]
[(Everyone)S(knows)V[(that)Conj(our world)S(is spherical)V+C]O]
- Four key types of embedded clause
• Adverbial clauses= the term adverbial clause recalls that adverb and adverb
phrase often function as adjuncts
- Begin with a conjunction such as if, when, because, while
- They ll the function of adjunction in the main clause and can take di erent
positions
[[If you buy the food], I’ll do the cooking]
[I am very exited [because this is my rst podcast]]
• Relative clause= resemble another major word class in that they modify a noun
in an NP and tell us more about what the noun denotes

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 • Zero option= omit the word that
- Complement clause= zero complement clause
- Relative clause= zero relative clause
• Complement clause= complete the meaning of the rest of the main clause
- Introduced by a wh- word or that
- Coordination
• Coordination has a similar potential for elaborating meaning by iteration
• The three most common coordinating words are and, or and but
• The most common combination involves simply joining two similar units of
language together
- My sister (X) and her boyfriend (Y)
- Non nite clause
A. They advised the minister [to leave the building immediately]]
B. [Opening her eyes suddenly], Meg caught a glimpse of a mysterious gure
C. The information [given to the press] was totally false
• Generally have no subject and they tend to be shorter and more compact
- Rules-of-thumb
• Does it modify a noun?= if it does, it could be a relative or a complement clause
- Relative= wh-words and that can be replaced by which
- Complement= that cannot be replaced by a wh-word

Revision of the main concepts

- Syntactic vs. semantic roles
• The building blocks or constituents of a sentence have been classi es
according to formal aspects and functional aspects
- Di erent grammatical relations are linked to di erent semantic roles
[The man(NP)]subj/agent stroked [the dog(NP)]obj/pacient
- Agent vs Patient (in a prototypical active sentence)
• The subject is the element that carries out an action (agent)
• The direct object is typically the element a ected by the action (patient)
• The indirect object is the goal of the action and frequently also the element
which pro ts from it (benefactive)

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 - Further semantic roles
• Adverb often assumes one of the semantica roles of time, place, source, goal
or instrument
- They de ne
1. The participants (actors of play)
2. The numbers of actors
3. The parts they play (the verb)
• The verbs like think requires only one actor, the subject with the
semantic role of experiencer
• The verbs like give requires three actors, the subject(agent), the
direct object(patient) and the indirect object(benefactive)
- Frequently the subject is not an agent and the direct object is not a patient
A. The car burst a tyre= possessor
B. The bucket was leaking water= source
C. They ed the capital= source
- The table provides an overview of the various grammatical relations,
including for each of them the prototypical syntactic category/ies and the
prototypical semantic role:

Grammatical relation Syntactic category Semantic role

Subject NP Agent

Predicate VP /

Object (Direct) NP Patient

Object (Indirect) NP Recipient / Benefactive

Complement NP / AdjP /

Adverbial AdvP / PP Time / Place / Instrument

- The English verb phrase

• Main verbs vs auxiliaries= a fundamental distinction within the word class of the
verbs is the one between lexical and grammar verbs
• English auxiliaries from a separate group which is very di erent from that of
main verbs
- Verb= anchor of the sentence

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 • It’s the main verb that determines how many obligatory constituents there
are in a sentence, that is, whether only a subject is necessary or if one/two
objects, a complement or an adverb are additional required
- Modal Vs Primary verbs
Auxiliaries
Primary verbs modal verbs
• The use of primary verbs is compulsory for the marking of di erent grammatical
categories, but also when forming questions and negating main verbs
• A further basic di erence between modal verbs and be/have/do is the fact that
only primary verbs , may also be used as main verbs
A. Mary has a new car
B. Mary did nothing to help
C. Mary is ill / a teacher / in the garden
- Copula verbs
• Mari is ill / a teacher / in the garden
- Linking / copula verb= a link between the subject os a sentence and a certain
property or attribute
- Is not an auxiliary but has the formal properties of a main verb, easily shown
by the fact that can be combined with auxiliaries and even with the
progressive form of be
• Small group= they include verbs or certain uses of verbs like seem, look,
appear, become, remain, turn, grow
- Sentence patterns
• Sentence are forms around main verbs that determine both the number and the
nature of their arguments by specifying their syntactic function in the sentence,
as well as their semantic role
• In it spatial sense be, together with other spatial verbs such as live, stay or
luck it’s also responsible for the sentence pattern subject-predicate-adverbial
John is / live / stayed in London
- Transitive Vs Intransitive verbs
• Intransitive verbs require only one argument, namely as subject
John slept / snored /simled
- Transitive verbs require not only a subject but at least one more argument, namely
a direct object
John wrote send / read / forgot the message

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 • Can therefore be passive
The message was sent / read/ forgotten by John
• Transitive verbs which, apart from the direct object, require no further argument
are mono-transitive
• We can also have trivalent verbs
John gave Mary a present(indirect object)
Mary called John a fool(object complement)
Mary hid the message in her pocket(object adverb)
- Avalent verbs
• The minimal sentence pattern consisting of one subject and one predicate is
not only required by a intransitive verbs but also by so called valet verbs
• Given their semantic, they do not even require a subject
- It’s only due to the xed word order that the subject slot of weather verbs
such as rain, snow, freeze is lled by the so called dummy it

Arguments Valency type Transivity type Sentence Examples

patterns

0 Avalent / SV Rain/Snow/
Freeze

1 Monovalent Intransitive SV Sleep/Sit/Walk

2 Divalent -(copula) SVC Be/Become

2 Divalent / SVA Live/Stay/Last

2 Divalent Monotransitive SVO Read/Take/Build

3 Trivalent Ditransitive SVOO Give/O er/Pass

3 Trivalent Complex-trans SVOC Consider/Call

3 Trivalent Complex-trans SVOA Put/Hide/Spend

- Phrasal verbs
• The distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs is also valid for another
English verb type
A. Intransitive= John gave in
B. Transitive= Mary gave the secret away
• At rst glance, they are very similar to prepositional verbs, but they di er in
various aspects

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 Phrasal verbs Prepositional verbs

Status of the particle following Adverb and/or preposition Preposition only

the verb

Position of the particle A) look the word up/look up the A) wait for the rain
word B) Wait it for
B) look it up C) The rain for which I waited
C) the word up which he D) For what did I wait?
looked (X)
D) Up what did he look? (X)

Stress on the particle Usually yes Usually no

(It was the word he had looked (Here at last was the rain I had
up) Benn waiting for) (X)

Verbs Types

Auxiliaries verbs Main verbs

The only verb in the sentence No (he has/(does he?)(X) Yes (he comes every days)
Inversion Yes (has he comes) No (comes he?)(X)
Negative contraction Yes (isn’t/hasn’t/can’t/mustn’t) No (comen’t/walken’t)(X)

Do-support
Negations No (he doesn’t have come)(X) Yes (he doesn’t come)
Questions No (does he have come?)(X) Yes (does he come?)
Emphatic No (he does have come)(X) Yes (he does come)
Ellipsis of the main verb No (he will come and so will Yes (he will come and so did
come her)(X) her)

Additionally Modal verb Main verb

Bare in nite Yes (he can/can’t come) No (he comes see me)(X)
Non-in nite forms No (to can/canning/canned)(X) Yes (walk/walking/walked)
3rd, sing, ind. Pres No (he cans/she musts)(X) Yes (he walks/she comes)
Past tense No (he could/might come)(X) Yes (he came)

Tenses
- The central grammatical categories of the English verbs phrase are tenses and
aspects
• Simple sentences require a nite verb and niteness is primary de ned by tense
marking
- If tense is not de ned as a purely in ectional category it makes sense to postulate
three tenses for English
• Present
• Past
• Future

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 - Relative tenses (perfect tenses) expresses anteriority to some reference point in
the past, the present or in the future
- How many tenses?
• In ectional su x= tense marking function

Aspects
- Grammatical category
• Comment on the internal temporal make-up of a situation, where situation is
used as generic term for conditions or states and di erent types of actions
- The progressive form provides a grammatical means which allow us to explicitly
indicate whether he/she regards a certain action as completed or still in progress
• Strongly subjective component

Phraseology
- Is a brach of linguistic that studies xed expressions made-up of more than one
word
• Ready-made units
- Enlarges and enriches vocabulary
• Most colorful part of a language
- Phraseology Units (PUs)
• A phraseology unit is a word group that:
- Has a largely xed lexical composition and syntactic structure (structural
invariability)
- Expresses a certain meaning that is more than the combined meaning of
each component plus more/less idiomatic/transparent
• Some examples:
- To get up
- To have a look
- To kick the bucket
- Back-seat driver
• Can be de ned as a non-motivated word-group that cannot be freely made-up
in speech, but is a ready-made up
• It is a group of words whose meaning cannot be deduced by examining the
meaning of the constituent lexemes

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 • The essential features of PUs are
1. Lack of motivation
2. Stability of the lexical components

Free word groups PUs Distinguishing criterion

Each meaningful component The combination of the Semantic

stands for a separate concept components conveys a single
(Red ower) concept
(Red tape)

Change can be made without No word can be changed or Structural

a ecting the general meaning added without destroying the
(A bee in her hat) meaning
(A bee in her bannet)

Grammatical form varies There can be no variation in Syntactic

according to content grammatical or structural form
(The deep waters) (He is in deep waters)

• It’s important to note that free word-groups are relatively free

- It may posses some of the characteristic features of phraseological units
• There are expressions that allow some degree of substitution
• Phraseology is concerned with all types of set expressions including those that
stand for certain sentences
- Classi cations of PUs
• Semantic classi cation= based on the motivation
- Fusion= units whose meaning cannot be deduced from the meaning of their
component part unmotivated (absorbed by the meaning of the whole)
- Expressions= meaning deduced from the meanings of their components
(meaning of the whole based on the transferred meanings of the
components) (Motivated)
- Collocations= contain one component used in its direct meaning, while the
other is used metaphorically (Substitution)
• Structural classi cation= highly idiomatic set of expressions (semantic and
grammatical units)
- Traditional phrase
- Phraseological Combinations
- Idioms
Phraseological combinations
1. One-top phraseological units
• Verb-adverb PUs (to give up)

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 • Verb-adjective PUs (To be tired)
• Prepositional Substantive units (by heart)
2. Two-top phraseological units
• Attributive-nominal (brain trust)
• Verb-nominal phrases (to take place)
• Phraseological repetitions ( at as a pancake)
• Adverbial multi-top units (every other day)
Types of Transference PUs
- Simile= intensi cation of some features denoted by a PU by means of bringing it
into contact with another object belonging to an entirely di erent class
• Pretty as a picture
• Fat as a pig
• To ght like a lion
• To swim like a sh
- Metaphor= likening of the object of reality to another which is associated with it
on the basis of real or imaginable resemblance
• Hyperbolic character—> og a dead horse
• Euphemistic character —> go to one’s long rest
- Metonymy= transfer of name from one object to another based on the contiguity
of their properties —> a silk stocking
- Synecdoche= naming the whole by its parts —> esh and blood
- Idioms and proverbs
• Idioms are a type of PU that has a metaphoric or gurative meaning
—> it cost an arm and a leg
• Proverbs are idiomatic expressions that are completed sentences
- Express a popular wisdom, a truth or a moral lessons
- Educational function
- Metaphorical / gurative meaning
—> the pen is mightier than the sword
—> two wrongs don’t make a right

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- Syntactic description of PUs
• Nominal PUs
- N+N
- N+and+N
- N+ prep+NP
- Adj+N
- N+subordinate clause
- N’s+N
• Verbal PUs
- V+N
- V+and+N
- V+subordinate clause
• Adjectival PUs (complement)
- Adj+and+adj
- as+adj+as+N
- Adj+prep+NP
• Prepositional PUs
- Prep+NP
- Prep+N
• Adverbial PUs
- Adv+prep+NP
- as+adv+as+NP
• Interjectional PUs
- Well, I never!
- Drop dead
- Origins of PUs
• Literature / famous texts
- The green eyed monster (Shakespeare)
- The kiss of Judas (Bible)
• Traditions and customs
- Baker’s dozen (13 things)

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 • Legends and superstitions
- A black sheep
• Historical facts and events, personalities
- To meet one’s Waterloo
- To do a Thatcher
- To carry coals to New Castle
• Ancient legends and myths
- Achille’s heel

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