More Phrase

Structure Rules
 The Structure of the English Verb System

• The system is selective because tense, in the morphological sense, refers

only to the inflections one can use finite verbs.
• English has only two tense forms – the past and present.
• The past tense may be realized through either regular suffixation.
Example:
Regular Suffixation
We walk ed to school.

Other irregular vowel and consonant changes:

We saw the principal. (see)
We bought some books. (buy)
The present tense is explicitly marked only in the case of third person
singular subjects:
He walk -s to school.

It is expressed implicitly with a lack of marking for all other subjects:

I
You walk ø to school.
They
We
English has two optional structural markers of aspect – the progressive
and the perfect aspect.

1. I am walk ing to school.

be … -ing (progressive aspect)
2. I have see n the principal.
have…-en (perfect aspect)
Phrase Structure Rules for the
Auxiliary
Phrase Structure Rules for the
Verb Phrase
OBJECT NOUN
PREDICAT
Object predicate
- an object predicative is an adjective, noun phrase, or prepositional phrase
that qualifies, describes, or renames the object that appears before it.

Predicate noun
- A predicate noun, also called the predicate nominative, is a noun that
comes after a linking verb.
Direct object
- the direct object is the noun or noun phrase that’s receiving the action of the verb.
•
• Syntactic roles of prepositional phrases
•
• Prepositional phrase can be generated as parts of noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases,
adverbials, or object noun predicate.
•
• = Noun phrases
• is a phrase that has a noun (or indefinite pronoun) as its head or performs the same grammatical
function as a noun.
•
• Ex.
• Randall lateness annoyed Maxpein.
Direct Object
- A direct object is a noun or pronoun that receives the action of the sentence.
Ex.
• Jim read a book.
• Indirect object
• - a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase that occurs in addition to a direct object.
• Ex.
• Sara gave me some flowers.
Object of a preposition
- is the noun or pronoun governed by a preposition.

Ex.
• Sam lives in a big house.
Subject noun predicate
- A predicate noun, or predicate nominative, is a noun or noun phrase that
provides more information about the subject of the sentence.

Ex.
• Jan is a teacher.
Object noun predicate
- is an adjective, noun phrase, or prepositional phrase that qualifies,
describes, or renames the object that appears before it.

Ex.
• We elected sam treasurer.
Syntactic roles of prepositional phrases

Prepositional phrase can be generated as parts of noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases,
adverbials, or object noun predicate.

= Noun phrases
is a phrase that has a noun (or indefinite pronoun) as its head or performs the same grammatical
function as a noun.

Ex.
• Randall lateness annoyed Maxpein.
=Verb phrase consists of an auxiliary, or helping, verb and a main verb. The helping
verb always precedes the main verb.

Ex.
• Ethan should take his watch to get repaired.

=Adjective phrase modifies a noun or pronoun by providing more information about

it.

Ex.
• The boy with him is his son.
=An adverb phrase, like an adverb, modifies a verb, an adjective, or an adverb by
providing additional details about it.

Ex.
• We climbed up the hill to see the view.
=Object noun predicate is an adjective, noun phrase, or prepositional phrase that
qualifies, describes, or renames the object that appears before it.

Ex.
• Ronald placed the pillow on the chair.
=Object noun predicate is an adjective, noun phrase, or prepositional phrase that
qualifies, describes, or renames the object that appears before it.

Ex.
• Ronald placed the pillow on the chair.
We are going to generate prepositional phrases under the verb phrase only in
the following cases:

1. where the PrepP follows the copular verb be and predicates something of the
subject NP, such as;
John is in his room.

2. where the PrepP is needed to complete the argument structure of a verb. For
example:
a. Intransitive verb: The baby lay in the crib.
• B. Distransitive verb: Sue handed the letter to Mr. Blake.
Sentence derivation
• - In historical linguistics, the derivation of a word is its history, or
etymology.
• Summary of the
structure rules
This rules can be also summarised Iin a tree like fashion following Clark
(1997).
 Teaching suggestions
• .1 Form- the important thing to stress with the progressive and perfect aspect is
that both form with two constituents that are not next to each other in the surface
structure.

Progressive- a form of be plus the present participle (ing) attached to the main verb.
Ex: Subject a form of be Rest of sentence
+Verbing
(present participle)

I. am talking. my final exam tomorrow

He / She/It. Is sweeping the floor at the moment

2. Form- Another problem arises when the ESL/EFL student has to learn to deal with all
irregular past tense and past participle. The regular past participle forms like the
irregular past tense, couse no undue hardship. This is because both are formed with the
addition of the ed inflectional affix for all persons and numbers.

I walked we walked I have walked we have walked

you walked you walked you have walked you have walked
he/she/it walked they walked he/she/it has waked they have walked
• perfect- a form of have plus the past participle (en) attached to the following verb.

-notice that we are using the –en as a symbol for the past participle. Past participle in English are
not always formed with an –en, as the following show.

-en Vowel alternations Look the same as the past tense form

written sung learned

eaten drunk read
seen swum taught
Maybe this is because, sometimes the past participle is similar with simple
past tense. ,

Example

Walk – based form

Walked – simple past
Walked – past participle
 3. FORM- Olson and Shalek (1981) suggest that game type activities be used to practice past
participles. One of their ideas is to use a tree with many branches as a visual prop for a verb.
conjugation game.
blow sing buy
blew sang bought
blown sung bought
___ ___ ___

keep become
keep became
keep become
___ ___
 THANK YOU MAAM
REPORTERS
Bayog, Jihan Leigh V.
Borja, Anna Mae A.
Baraguir, Sharif S.