Syntax is a linguistic discipline which deals with words in a sentence from the point of view of

sentence structure.

Units in syntax
phrase - group of words containing neither subject nor predicate (in the room, a very old book, was
swimming etc.)
clause - group of words containing a subject and a predicate, which may depend on other words for its
meaning
sentence - group of words containing a subject and a predicate and expressing a complete thought
context - part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its
meaning
dependent clause
- has subject and predicate
- cannot function alone as a sentence
e.g. if he was in the room

independent clause
- has subject and predicate
- can function alone as a sentence
e.g. he was in the room

finite clause
- has finite verb
- the only verb of a sentence, can stand alone.
e.g. Ben confirms his appointment.
non-finite clause
- has non-finite verb, also known as verbals (participles, infinitives)
- cannot stand alone.
e.g. Answering the phone, Ben confirms his appointment.

Forms of sentences
Classification according to context
 Declarative
o Affirmative
 Statements
 Statement tags
 Short answers
 Pro-forms (Word Substitutes)
o Negative
 Interrogative
o Verbal questions
o Negative questions
o Tag questions
o Pronominal questions
o Verbless, non-finite, elided questions
o Declarative questions
o Alternative/exclusive questions
 o Exclamatory questions
o Rhetorical questions
 Imperative
o Plain imperative
o Imperative with subject
o Imperative with let
o Negative imperative
o Verbless imperative
o Imperative with modal verb
 Exclamatory
o Exclamatory questions
o Exclamatory sentences beginning with here, there
o Exclamations with modal auxiliaries may, should, would
o Exclamations in the form of statements with the stress on the auxiliary verb
o Exclamations in the form of statements with the stress on the auxiliary verb
o Exclamations introduced with an infinitive
o Echo exclamations as repetitions of a sentence element
o Interjections, non-finite and verbless exclamatory sentences

Types of sentences
Classification according to structure
Simple sentences - the smallest independent unit which has a subject, a finite verb and expresses a
complete thought. – contains one independent clause and no dependent clauses
Nick paid the check.
Compound sentences – containing at least two independent clauses and no dependent clause, joined
by coordinating conjunction.
Nick paid the check and Terry left the tip.
Complex sentences – containing one independent clause and at least one dependent clause joined by
subordinating conjunction,
Although Nick paid the check, Terry left the tip.
Compound-complex sentences – containing one dependent clause and two or more independent
clauses
Although the rest of us were not aware, Nick paid the check and Terry left the tip.

Parts of sentence
Principal parts – Subject + Predicate
Secondary parts – Object , Complement, Attribute, Apposition, Adverbial
Free parts of a sentence – Detached parts of the sentence, Amorphous sentences, Parenthetical
elements
Object (predmet) - direct object or indirect object Oi
Complement - subject complement or object complement
Attribute (prívlastok) – tight or loose
Apposition (prístavok)

Adverbial/Adverbial Modifiers of:

manner (príslovkové určenie spôsobu),
place (príslovkové určenie miesta),
time (príslovkové určenie času),
degree (príslovkové určenie miery),
cause and purpose (príslovkové určenie príčiny a účelu)
result (príslovkové určenie dôsledku)
condition (príslovkové určenie podmienky)
contrast and concession (príslovkové určenie prípustky)

Subject may be formed by

- noun phrase – A boy is swimming.
- proper noun – Peter is swimming,
- personal pronoun – He is swimming.
- interrogative pronoun – Who is swimming
- possessive pronoun – Mine is the book
- demonstrative pronoun – These are my books
- negative pronoun – No one is swimming
- quantifier – A lot has changed since then
- numeral – Six and six is twelve.
- ´s genitive – John´s is the responsibility for it
- interjection – Your unending ha-ha makes me nervous.
- substantivized adjective – The rich are cowardly
- adverbial of time – Before Christmas is the proper time to do it
- adverbial of place – In front of school is the place of our meeting.
- there and it – There is my sister who lives near us. It was john who did it.
- adverbial quasi subject – Here are the boys. – nepravý príslovkový podmet
- redundant subject – Pat and Harry, they are working abroad – nadbytočný podmet
- finite clause - That he is swimming in this river is not surprising.
- non-finite clause – Swimming in this river is dangerous.

Predicate may be formed by:

- full lexical verb – She goes to school.
- combination of full verb and auxiliary – She will go to school.
- progressive or passive verb phrase – They might have been doing it, the problem was
discussed.

Verb phrase, as a part of the predicate may be formed by:

- finite verb form
- non-finite verb form (participles + infinitive)

Object
direct object – 4th case Accusative, Who? What?
- animate or inanimate
Can be formed by:
- noun phrase - He wrote a letter.
- proper noun - They elected Peter Brown to be the head teacher.
- personal pronoun - She put it there.
- possessive pronoun - I showed him mine (iPhone).
- reciprocal pronoun - We saw each other.
- interrogative pronoun in reduced sentences - Do you know what?
- demonstrative pronoun - I should tell you this.
- quantifier - I don’t know much.
- pro-forms not and so referring to the whole sentence - I suppose not.
- s-genitive - He brought us John’s.
- finite clause - He hoped that she would arrive.
- non-finite clause - He expected me to arrive.
indirect object – 3rd case Dative, To whom? To what?
Can be formed by:
- animate noun phrase - Mother cut her son a slice of bread.
- inanimate noun phrase (only in rare cases) - Give peace a chance.
- personal pronoun - The teacher handed them a questionnaire.
- reflexive pronoun (zvratné zámeno) - She cut herself a slice of ham.
- finite clause - John gave whoever it was a present.
Complement
- modifies the subject or direct object
- always follows linking verb (true linking verbs: be, become, seem or verbs that can serve as a
linking verb appear, feel, grow, look, prove, remain, smell, sound, taste, turn, stay, get
Subject complement can be formed by:
- noun phrase - She made an excellent lawyer.
- adjective phrase - John is very happy.
- personal pronoun in subjective or objective case - It is me.
- reflexive pronoun – He doesn’t look himself today.
- demonstrative - That’s that.
- adverb - I am well.
- noun preceded by a preposition - It smells of plum brandy.
- numeral - Raymond is going on twenty
- past participle - He passed unnoticed.
- clause - She is what most people would call interesting,
Object complement can be formed by:
- noun phrase - They appointed Lord Harrison Prime Minister.
- proper noun - They named the ship Victoria.
- adjective phrase - I find your garden fairly small.
- quantifier – I find it too much.
- numeral – I consider her thirsty.
- pronoun – I consider her somebody.
- past participle - The publisher made it known.

Attribute
- describes a noun or pronoun
- in English, it is not treated as a separate independent sentence elements, but makes a part of
other sentence elements (subject, object, complement)
Can be formed by:
- adjective - The damaged car is under repair.
- pronoun - Is this your hat?
- numeral - There were two women in the bus.
- adverb - the up train
- adverbial phrase - the post- war world
- noun in a direct case - What a nice table lamp you have!
- noun in a genitive case - You must take the doctor's advice.
- noun in prepositional case - the problem under discussion
- infinitive - You have no reason to complain.
- gerund after preposition - There was no possibility of making up for lost time.
- group of words - a word for word translation
Apposition
- special type of attribute
- loose apposition – follows a noun and its separated by comma (Shakespeare, the greatest
English playwright,..)
- tight apposition – is placed before a noun, isn’t separated by comma (the river Thames, the
city of London)
Adverbial
- modifies a verb
Can be formed by:
- prepositional phrase - They usually come at half past six.
- adverb phrase - He has done it properly.
- noun phrase - Last week there was a meeting here.
- clause of time - He came when everyone was at school.
- clause of place - It was where we met.

Free parts of a sentence

- they have no grammatical connection with the other sentence elements
- in written form they are separated by commas or dashes
- detached parts of the sentence, amorphous sentences, parenthetical elements
Detached parts of sentence
- a sentence element can become a detached part of a sentence if it is given in advance or
additionally enclosed
- in English it can be mostly an adverbial, an attribute or an object
He sat alone, a cigar between his lips.
He became conscious of music, very soft, lovely.
Amorphous sentences (neúplné vety)
- they are sentence units, in which some important sentence element is omitted.
- the existence of the sentence element is, however, obvious from the context or situation.
- they are very common in spoken English.
It's a pity you won't come.
Can't help it. (I can't help it.)
Parenthetical elements (vsuvky)
- these are word expressions, which are usually put into a sentence.
- they express the subjective relationship of a person to the content of the sentence.
- they complete the sentence or comment on it.
- they have a coordinating or an explanatory function.
actually, perhaps, however, indeed, besides, after all, actually, on the other hand
Sentence patterns

Verb categories
intensive (linking, copulative) verbs
- sentence patter S-V-Cs
- true linking verbs: be, seem, become
- other verbs: look, wear, work, sit, smell, appear, feel, fall….
- they fall into three categories:
o where Cs is an adjective: The wine smelled bitter.
o where Cs is a noun: She became a teacher.
o where Cs is a past participle: He looked tired.

intransitive verbs
- sentence patter S-V
- group of verbs which are not followed by an object
She trembled.

- intransitive verbs of movement have a sentence pattern S-V-A

- They arrived at five.
- other verbs: go, pause, give up, agree, happen, live, occur, snow, sleep, stay, stand, sit

- to express the same idea without changing the meaning of the sentence, English makes use of
verbs such as do, give, have, and take followed by a noun as a part of the predicate
- He smoked – He had a smoke.

- object that can be used with intransitive verbs is the cognate object
- some transitive verbs can be used intransitively when the direct object is left out.
- the verb of activity is changed into a verb of passive meaning
- She rang the bell – The bell rang.
- other verbs: pass, sit, sleep, stand, grow, run, swim, begin, move, start, close

monotransitive verbs
- sentence pattern S-V-Od
- verbs following a direct object
 - other verbs: buy, read, cut, bring, boil, make, help, understand, help, understand, eat, call,
think, speak, write
- categories:
o verbs without preposition
o prepositional verbs (agree about/on, aim at, ask for, believe in, call for, concentrate
on, lecture on, listen to)
 if the preposition is changed, the meaning of the verb remains
o phrasal verbs (keep up with, catch up with, go in for)
 if the adverbial particle is changed, the meaning of the verb changes
accordingly
 are made up of verb + adverbial + particle + preposition
o phrasal-prepositional verbs
 one verb composed of three elements
 they have a preposition which is separable
o reflexive verbs
 used with reflexive pronoun, both subject and object are identical
 (She looked at herself.)

ditransitive verbs
- sentence pattern S-V-Oi-Od
- other verbs: cut, grant, offer, promise, take, cook, get leave, order, peel, save, spare, bring,
hand, lend
- since the direct object is more closely connected with the verb in most cases only the indirect
object may be omitted
- there are only a few verbs that allow either object to be left out: pay, ask, show, owe, tell,
teach
- direct object is preceded by a preposition:  rob of, provide with, supply with, thank for,
accuse of, remind of, explain to, prevent from, think of/about, speak about

complex transitive verbs

- sentence patterns S-V-Od-Co
- the term complex transitive means that this object, modified with a noun, adjective or past
participle has acquired a new, often surprising, quality: She served the soup hot.
- categories:
o adjective phrase - He made his wife very angry.
o noun phrase/proper noun - They named the son John.
o past participle - I had my car repaired.
o present participle - They heard her crying.
o possessive pronoun - He made the play his.

verbs belonging to more verb classes: make, get, call, find

Agreement/concord
- harmony in person, number and gender based on certain rules between elements of the
sentence
- types of concord:
o grammatical
o notional
o rule of proximity

The types of the agreement between the syntactical units in the sentence:
- subject-verb agreement of number and person
- subject-pronoun agreement
- subject-complement agreement

Subject-verb agreement
- grammatical:
- the subject in the singular takes a singular verb.
- the subject in the plural takes a plural verb.

- notional:
- collective nouns are singular in form
- Rule: Use a singular verb with collective nouns that are acting as a unit; use a plural verb with
collective nouns that are acting individually
- typical collective nouns: association, audience, board, class, committee, company, council,
couple, crowd, department, family, firm, group, jury, majority, minority, management, number,
pair, press, public, staff, team, tribe.
- nouns only used in plural: clergy, police, people, cattle, youth

- subject clause takes a singular verb

- relative clause introduced by a relative pronoun may be also followed by a plural verb
- if sentence starts with here, there, it – they are considered a false subject because they
immediately precede the verb (Here are the lost articles.)
- The subject coordinated by the conjunction and takes a singular or a plural verb depending if
the subject expresses one person, or two people (George Bush, the President, has signed an
agreement. (one person); Senator McLain and the President have signed an agreement. (two
persons))
- Use a plural verb to agree with two separate subjects joined by and
- If two subjects cannot be separated, use a singular verb (The editor and reporter on the staff
needs a computer. (one person))
- Two subjects connected by both ...and take a plural verb.
- Use a singular verb with two singular subjects joined by or or nor.
- Use a plural verb when both subjects are plural.
- When one of the subjects is plural and one is singular, make the verb agree with the subject
closer to the verb
- Sometimes the subject is separated from the verb by such words as along with, as well as,
besides, not, etc.
- These words and phrases are not part of the subject, ignore them and use a singular verb
when the subject is singular.
- The following are plural subjects, but they take a singular verb: four weeks is a long time, a
hundred miles is a long distance
- Use singular verbs with the most indefinite pronouns (any, another, anyone, anything, each,
either, everybody, neither, nobody, someone, somebody)
- Use plural verbs with indefinite pronouns that express plural ideas (few, many, most, several,
some).