SENTENCE TYPES

• There are five prototypical types of the simplest sentences in English; The 5
types are alike in terms of a binary structure that characterizes them.
• The types are:
Type I Intransitive,
Type II The verb BE + Adverbs of Time or Place,
Type III The Linking Verb + Adjectival Subject Complement,
Type IV The Linking Verb + Nominal Subject Complement,
Type V Transitive
The binary structure
• A two-part structure which caracterizes the simplest sentences of the English
language.
• NP noun phrase + VP verb phrase:
• A subject + a predicate
• S→ NP + VP: A sentence can be written as or consists of a subject noun phrase
and predicate verb phrase(s)
• The dog barked.
• Our neighbor’s dog is often outdoors.
• The dog curled up on the rug seems friendly.
• The smallest puppy became the new family member.
• A furry female dog sniffed my hands.
• NP + VP
Type I: The Intransitive Type
Examples:
Fish swim.
A telephone is ringing.
Charlie snores loudly.
The costumer complained persistently.
Angie must have arrived later.
The sun rises at 6:00 am.
The ball is rolling down the hill.
The phone has been ringing non stop.

A verb that can stand alone and functions as the entire predicate is called
INTRANSITIVE.
• Intransitive verbs: Type I sentences can have one or more adverbial modifiers.
• Adverbial modifiers of the verb add information about how, when, where,
why, or how much something happened. Adverbs are the prototypical
modifires of verbs.
• Ex.: The dog barked loudly in the yard.

TYPE II- Linking (copular) verbs + Time and Place Adverbs

• Linking Verbs: Be, look, taste, feel, sound, seem, smell, appear, get, become,
grow, stay, keep, continue, remain, turn, go, resemble, run...

Type II- The Verb BE requiring Adverbs of Time or Place

 • Examples:
• Jesse is outside.
• The job interview was yesterday.
• My cell phone must be in the drawer, on the desk.
• The lecture will be at noon.
• She was home last night.
• Home= AdvPpl
• Last night= AdvPt
• We are all stuck here in class with this crazy teacher
Type III- The Linking Verb Type with Adjectival Subject Complement
• Examples:
• Sheila is beautiful.
• His parties sound awesome.
• The teacher has become friendlier.
• The clouds seem scary.
• The milk tastes funny.
• Your hair smells flowery.
• My voice sounds hoarse.
• The cashmere feels soft.
• Everybody looked surprised after the quiz results.
• My students are anxious about their next exam.
• The second season of DareDevil sounds promising.
• Soup in bread tastes delicious.
Adjectival complement with or without an adjective
• A) He looked weary last night.
• B) He looked as though he had been up all night last night.
• C) He looked like a zombie last night.
TYPE IV- The Linking Verb Type with Nominal Subject Complement
• Those officers are brutes.
• Our students are not animals.
• The classroom is becoming a jungle.
• My high school classmates and I remained friends.
• The race for cancer was a success
• He is an animal. An animal= NP
• My husband is my rock. My rock= NP
• He declared his love to me by saying: “you are my universe”. My universe=
NP
Nominal subject complement
• It was I who volunteered to write the report.
• It was me who volunteered to write the report.
• Pronoun as a subject complement (after verb BE) formal usage requires a
Subject Case(pronoun).
Type V- The Transitive type
• Carlos loves Adriana.
• Adriana hates staying alone.
• Ice cream enlivens any dull dessert.
• I sent an email to my director last week
• I have already bought my mom her mother´s day gift.
 • I = NP
• Have bought = VPt(head= buy)
• My mom= indirect object
• Her mother´s day gift= direct object
Transitive Verbs with Reflexive and Reciprocal Direct Objects
• My dad cuts fruit with his Swiss Army Knife.
• My dad cut himself with his Swiss Army Knife.
• The doctors respect each other.
• My mom and I call one another regularly.
Transitive Verbs with Object Complements
• Some transitive verbs allow their direct objects to be followed by an object
complement which can be nominal or adjectival.
• Examples:
• The students elected Lucia the class president.
• Wool socks keep your feet very warm.
• Some transitive verbs with possible object complements:
• Consider, declare, find, have, like, prefer, think, appoint, call, name, get, make
and want.

• Example:
Transitive and Intransitive verbs
• The child rolled the ball slowly.
• The ball rolled slowly down the street.
• My mom is cooking beans today.
• The beans are cooking.
• Grandpa grows tomatoes.
• Tomatoes grow well here.
• I read 3 books on the holiday.
• I read restlessly on the holiday
• A committee considered Charles Kiefer the best writer in campus.
• She wanted the essay clear and brief.

Phrases, clauses and sentences

There are 5 main Phrase Types in the English language:
NP- Head: noun
Ex: a very smart student
VP- Head: main verb
Ex: She has been oversleeping.
Adj P- Head: adjective
Ex: The air was cool and fresh.
Adv P- Head: adverb
We pronounced each word only once.
PrepP- Head:preposition + a NP
Ex: She made the omelet with many fancy ingredients.

In NP we find the following elements: determiners and modifiers.

Ex: The new projector is working perfectly.
The= determiner new=modifier
Determiners= articles, quantifiers, numbers, possessive adjectives, and demonstrative
adjectives.
Modifiers= adjectives, nouns, possessive case, adverb-adjective combinations.
New projector
Brick houses
Mother´s day
Carefully chosen words

CONTENT WORDS: nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs denote concepts such as
objects, actions, attributes, and ideas; a clear lexical meaning.
FUNCTION WORDS: conjunctions, prepositions, articles, pronouns, and auxiliary verbs.
They have a grammatical function.
Content words and function words make up clauses/sentences.
A Clause in English is constituted by: NP+VP, minimally.
She believes that English is a very useful language to learn.
Clause 1= She believes
Clause 2= (that) English is a very useful language to learn (noun clause)
Simple sentence: I love travelling. NP+ VP+NP or
Subject: I Verb: love (transitive)Object: travelling (gerund)
Compound sentence: I love travelling but I hate packing.
Sentence 1: I love travelling. (independent idea)
Sentence 2: I hate packing. (independent idea)
Coordenating conjunction: but
Complex sentence: I love travelling to places/ where I can find history and charm/,
eventhough I prefer to have adventurous trips.

Simple sentences have 5 types

Noun phrases and clauses

— Noun Phrases can function as:
— Subject
— Object
— Complement
Observe:
I don´t remember his birthday.= NP (object)
I don´t remember when he turns 25.= NC (noun clause) (object)
Remember= VPt

Types of noun clauses

— Question words: I have no idea where to park the car.
— If clauses: Do you remember if I left my phone in class?
— Whether clauses: I wonder whether I left my phone in class.
Noun clauses answer the question “what”
They correspond to an idea = “something” or “ it.”
Ex.: I forgot her last name. Forget “something/what/it”

Noun clauses as a subject and an object

What she really feels is a deep regret.
Something/it/ what is a deep regret.
Something = NC=subject (pre-verbal position)
She knows what she feels, regret.
She knows something/what/it=NC= object (post-verbal position)
A deep regret is what she feels.= something/what/it.

Noun clause as a complement

— A deep regret is what she feels.
What she feels= something/it/what
Post linking verb position- NC =complement
The point I want to make is that we are good as a team.= something/it/what

“That” noun clauses

— We can identify ‘that’ noun clauses in the presence of:
adjectives and nouns expressing:
— feelings: angry, disappointed; feeling, sensation
I am disappointed that you weren´t able to come to my class.
I have a strange sensation that someone is watching us.

— Mental states: convinced, determined; idea, hunch, conviction

I am convinced that she is the one who stole my phone.
I had a hunch that she was the one who stole my phone.
— Necessity: crucial, essential; importance, necessity
It is essential that she tells the truth.
— Aspect of possibility, fact or truth: likely, probable, certain, sure; possibility,
certainty, fact(s)
It is likely that she isn´t telling the truth.
— We can identify a “that” noun clause in the presence of verbs expressing:
— Feelings: feel, sense
— Mental states: believe, learn, think
— Report: mention, claim, argue, tell, say
I sense that she isn´t telling the truth.
I think that she isn’t telling the truth.
I ´ve been claiming that she isn’t telling the truth.

Special case of “that” noun clauses

— After adjectives like: crucial, essential, important; and verbs like: insist,
recommend, suggest
The verb in the “that” clause can be stated as:
Present simple
Base form
Should+ bare infinitive
It is crucial that she come/ she comes/ should come.
I insisted that she tell /tells/should tell the truth.