UNIVERSITATEA “VASILE ALECSANDRI” DIN BACĂU

FACULTATEA DE LITERE

Catedra de Limbi şi literaturi străine

LIMBA ENGLEZĂ CONTEMPORANĂ.

SINTAXA PROPOZIŢIEI

Titular curs: Lector dr. Nadia Morăraşu

Titular seminar: Asist.drd. Mircea Horubeţ

A. COURSE UNITS

1. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK 1.1. What is syntax? 1.2. The grammatical hierarchy

1.2.1. Clauses in grammatical hierarchy 1.2.2. Sentence across sciences 1.2.3. Sentence constituency 1.2.4. Constructions

1.3. Sentence structure 1.3.1. Phrases as clause elements 1.3.2. Syntactic functions in the phrase structure

1.4. Syntactic functions of clause elements 1.5. Semantic functions of clause elements 1.6. Coordination and subordination. Coordinators and subordinators (types and roles)

2. CRITERIA FOR TYPOLOGY OF SENTENCES

2.1. The criterion of structure/ composition 2.1.1. Simple vs. multiple sentences

2.2. Sentence types and discourse functions 2.2.1. Declaratives, interrogatives, imperatives and exclamatives 2.2.2. Discourse functions: statements, questions, directives, exclamations 2.3. The criterion of status and grammatical dependence

2.3.1. Independent vs. dependent clauses 2.3.2. Main vs. subordinate clauses

2.3.2.1. Functional classes of subordinate clauses 2.4. Morphological criteria

2.4.1. Finite clauses vs. nonfinite clauses 2.4.1.1. Structural classes of nonfinite verb clauses

2.4.2. Active and passive sentences 3. THE SUBJECT

3.1. Definition & characteristic features 3.2. Ways of expressing the subject 3.3. Classification of subjects

3.3.1. The criterion of semantic content 3.3.2. The criterion of structure/ composition

3.4. Semantic roles of the subject 3.4.1. Agentive, affected, and recipient roles 3.4.2. Subject as external causer, instrument, and affected 3.4.3. Locative, temporal, and eventive subjects 3.4.4. Prop IT subject

4. THE PREDICATE VS. THE VERB AS CLAUSE ELEMENT

4.1. Predicate in English grammar 4.2. The predicate in categorial logic 4.3. Predicate in semantics

4.4. Verb and its complementation 4.4.1. Definition and types

4.4.2. Verbs in intransitive function 4.4.3. Copular complementation 4.4.4. Monotransitive complementation 4.4.5. Complex transitive complementation

4.4.6. Ditransitive complementation

5. COMPLEMENTS 5.1. Predicative complements

5.1.1. Subject and object complements 5.1.2. Syntactic features and semantic properties

5.2. Subject complements 5.2.1. Ways of expressing complements

5.2.2. Nominal subject complement 5.2.3. Adjectival subject complement 5.2.4. Adverbial complement 5.2.5. Prepositional complement

5.3. Object complements 5.4. Semantic roles of complements

VI. OBJECTS

6.1. Definition & characteristic features of objects 6.1.1. Criteria for direct and indirect objects 6.1.2. Definition & characteristic features of prepositional objects

6.2. Ways of expressing objects 6.3. Classification of direct objects 6.4. Combinations of objects in complementation 6.5. Semantic roles of objects

7. ADVERBIALS vs. ADVERBIAL MODIFIERS. SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC

FUNCTIONS OF ADVERBS 7.1. Adverbials

7.1.1. Characteristics and functions 7.1.2. Types of adverbials

7.2. Adverbial modifiers 7.2.1. Adverbial modifiers of time & adverbial clauses of time 7.2.2. Adverbial modifiers of manner & adverbial clauses of manner 7.2.3. Adverbial modifiers of comparison & adverbial clauses of comparison 7.2.4. Adverbial modifiers of concession & adverbial clauses of concession 7.2.5. Adverbial modifiers of condition & clauses of condition 7.2.6. Adverbial modifiers of cause/ reason & adverbial clauses of cause/reason 7.2.7. Adverbials of purpose 7.2.8. Adverbials of result

7.3. Syntactic and semantic functions of adverbs 7.3.1. Modifier of adjective 7.3.2. Modifier of adverb 7.3.3. Modifier of particle, prepositional adverb, and preposition 7.3.4. Modifier of pronoun, predeterminer, and numeral 7.3.5. Modifier of noun phrase 7.3.6. Adverb as complement of preposition 7.3.7. Functional relations and semantic functions of adverbial adjuncts

B. SEMINARS

1. Sentence constituents, clause structure and diagramming 2. Classification of sentences in terms of their communicative function (statement, question,

directive, exclamation) 3. Variations on basic sentence patterns (inversion, emphasis, ellipsis and substitution) 4. Coordination and coordinators 5. Subject-verb concord 6. Verb complementation (transitive vs. intransitive constructions)

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Biber D.; Johansson, S.; Leech, G., Conrad, S. (2002): Longman Student Grammar of

Written and Spoken English, Longman (Pearson Education Ltd), London. 2. Chalker, Sidney (1992): A Student's English Grammar Workbook, Longman, London. 3. Cmeciu, Camelia (2007): Lectures on Concepts of English Syntax, Ed. EduSoft,

Bacău. 4. DeCapua, Andreea (2008): Grammar for Teachers. A Guide to American English for

Native and Non-native Speakers, Springer, New York. 5. Greenbaum, Sidney and Quirk, Randolph (1990): A Student's Grammar of the English

Language, Pearson Education Ltd. 6. Halliday, M.A.K. (1994): Functional Grammar, Arnold, London/ New York. 7. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S, Leech, G, Svartvik, J. (1985): A Comprehensive Grammar of

the English Language, London, New York, Longman. 8. Biber D.; Johansson, S.; Leech, G., Conrad, S. (2002): Longman Student Grammar of

Written and Spoken English Workbook, Longman (Pearson Education Ltd), London. 9. Side, R., Wellman, G. (2001): Grammar and Vocabulary for Cambridge Advanced and

Proficiency, Longman. 10. Hewings, Martin (1999): Advanced Grammar in Use, Cambridge Univ. Press. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.

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1. A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK OF SYNTAX 1.1. WHAT IS SYNTAX?

the part of grammar dealing with grammatical units such as words, phrases, clauses, and sentences (Biber et al., 2002:13)

the description of how words, phrases, and clauses are constructed and combined in a language (Biber et al., 2002:460).

“the study of the rules that govern the way words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences.”1

Syntax deals with “the way in which words are combined to form sentences.” (Quirk et al., 1985:43)

1.2. THE GRAMMATICAL HIERARCHY Units of grammar may be placed in a hierarchy of potential size or extensibility as

follows: ◦ highest unit: sentences, which consist of one or more clauses, which consist of

one or more phrases, which consist of one or more words, which consist of one or more lowest unit: morphemes.

◦ Morpheme = a minimum unit of form and meaning which may be a whole word

(forget), an inflection (forget + s) or a word-formation affix (un-forget-ful). ◦ The word = the unit which primarily relates the grammar of a language to its

lexicon. ◦ A phrase is represented by a group of words that form a grammatical unit or

constituent, e.g. noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase. 1.2.1. Clauses in grammatical hierarchy Clause: a key structural unit of grammar, normally consisting of a verb phrase plus other

elements: subject, object, predicative, adverbial. (Biber et al., 2002:455) Clause = the smallest syntactic unit that has meaning and minimally consists of two

constituents, a noun phrase and a verb phrase. (DeCapua, 2008) A clause is a construction with one phrase constituent, typically a noun phrase that

bears the subject relation, and another constituent, the verb phrase, bearing a predicate relation. (Jacobs, 1995: 49)

1.2.2. Sentence across sciences Grammatically, a sentence is:

◦ the highest-ranking unit of grammar (a grammatically autonomous unit – Quirk et al., 1985);

◦ the highest grammatical unit that consists of one independent clause and two or more related clauses (Downing and Locke, 1992/2006:272);

1 www.essex.ac.uk/linguistics/clmt/MTbook/HTML/node98.html.

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◦ Sentences are structured into successive components, consisting of single words or groups of words, called constituents (i.e. structural units);

◦ Some linguists use the term 'sentence' for a clause which is part of a sentence; Semantically, a sentence (Hurford & Heasley, 1994:16) is any string of words put

together by the grammatical rules of a language. Orthographically and rhetorically, it is that unit which starts with a capital letter and ends

with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark (Downing and Locke, 1992/2006:272).

1.2.3. Sentence constituency

In order to state general rules about the construction of sentences, we refer to units smaller than the sentence itself: clause, phrase, word and morpheme.

The relation between one unit and another unit of which it is a part is called constituency. One way of indicating constituency is by bracketing; another is by a tree diagram.

The evenings] [have turned] [very cold] [just recently]

unitary constituency: one unit may be the only 'part' into which another unit can be

analysed (e.g. simple sentences consist of one clause) multiple constituency: a unit is divided into two or more immediate constituents

(complex or compound sentences, which include two or more clauses). 1.2.3.2. Constituents Constituents are structural units, which refer to any linguistic form, such as words or

word groups. A constituent is one of two or more grammatical units that enter syntactically or

semantically into a construction at any level. Constituents are the basic units of a sentence, including noun, adjective, adverb,

prepositional, and verb phrases. Sentence constituents are combined in meaningful ways to form sentences.

1.2.3.2.a. Immediate vs. ultimate constituents

• Sentences are hierarchies of interlocking constituents. After a sentence is cut into its constituent elements, the two parts are called immediate constituents. An immediate constituent becomes any one of the largest grammatical units that constitute a construction.

• The smallest grammatical unit obtained through division, or segmentation is the ultimate constituent.

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• The segmentation of the sentence up into its immediate constituents by using binary cuttings until its ultimate constituents are obtained is called Immediate Constituent Analysis (IC Analysis). The analysis can be carried out in ways of tree diagrams, bracketing or any other.

1.2.3.3. Constituent extensibility 1.2.3.3.a. Embedding

The phenomenon of embedding accounts for the indefinite extensibility of certain units of grammar.

The noun phrase and the prepositional phrase may be immediate constituents of a clause, as in:

E.g. Some students will be working late in their rooms. Both units can consist of more than one word and are placed at the same position in the hierarchy.

The indefinite length of noun phrases and prepositional phrases does not affect their

position in the grammatical hierarchy: E.g. I have been talking to some students at the college on the other side of the park at the north end of. . . They live on the top floor of a house in the corner of the old square behind the church...

Embedding can be defined as the occurrence of one unit as a constituent of another unit at the same rank in the grammatical hierarchy.

1.2.3.3.b. Subordination

Another kind of embedding occurs when one clause is made a constituent of another clause: subordination. E.g. The weather has been remarkably warm since we returned from Italy last week.

Clauses which are embedded in other clauses (since we returned from Italy last week

are subordinate clauses, and they are often introduced by a subordinating conjunction (since).

Subordination of clauses is not confined to clauses which are immediate constituents of other clauses. There are also clauses (especially relative clauses) which are constituents of phrases, and which are only indirectly embedded within a larger clause.

1.2.3.3.c. Coordination

The principle of indefinite extensibility is also present in coordination, typically signalled by a link-word termed a coordinating conjunction.

This construction consists of two or more units of the same status on the grammatical hierarchy which constitute a single unit of the same kind (respectively clauses, phrases, and words). ◦ COORDINATION OF CLAUSES: [[It was Christmas Day,] and [the snow lay thick

on the ground]]. ◦ COORDINATION OF PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES: You can go [[by air] or [by

rail]]. ◦ COORDINATION OF NOUNS: His [[son] and [daughter]] live in Buenos Aires.

The essential principle of coordination is that units and structures may be duplicated without affecting their position in the grammatical hierarchy.

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1.2.4. Constructions A construction is a relationship between constituents. Constructions are divided into two

types (Allerton, 1979:126-130): ◦ endocentric constructions (one whose distribution is functionally equivalent to

that of its constituents). A word or a group of words act as a definable center or head.

◦ exocentric constructions (refer to a group of syntactically related words where none of the words is functionally equivalent to the group as a whole). There is no definable center or head inside the group.

1.2.4.1. Endocentric construction (headed)

If the total construction (head plus modification, or modification plus head) has the same distributional characteristics as the head constituent, it is usually called endocentric construction.

They left because they were tied. [Within this construction, They left is the head and because they were tired is its modifier].

Endocentric constructions can further be divided into the two types of embedding introduced before: subordination and coordination.

1.2.4.2. Exocentric construction (nonheaded)

An exocentric construction is any construction that does not contain any head element that is capable of being a syntactically adequate substitution for the whole construction.

Examples of exocentric constructions2: ◦ Prepositional phrase (neither the component preposition nor the noun phrase

may substitute for the whole prepositional phrase). ◦ Clause (no single element of the clause may substitute for the whole).

1.3. SENTENCE STRUCTURE

One aspect of the syntactic structure of sentences is the division of a sentence into phrases, and those phrases into further phrases…

The constituents which function as elements of sentence structure are either phrases or subordinate clauses.

A phrase is represented by a group of words that form a grammatical unit or constituent, e.g. noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase.

The five formal categories of phrase are verb phrases, noun phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, and prepositional phrases.

1.3.1. Phrases as clause elements Noun Phrases and prepositional Phrases

In its most basic form, a noun phrase consists of just one word, a noun. The elements that can occur in a complex noun phrase include determiners, modifiers, and prepositional phrases.

Determiners include articles, quantifiers, numbers, possessive adjectives, and demonstrative adjectives.

2 http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAnExocentricConstruction.htm.

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The headword of the noun phrase may be modified by any number of modifiers. Modifiers include determiners, other nouns, adjectives, and adverb-adjective combinations.

Noun phrases can also include prepositional phrases. Prepositional phrases are units of words that begin with a preposition and include a noun phrase.

I read that book about dinosaurs. The boy from the shop is waiting at the corner. Verb Phrases A verb phrase can consist of a single verb, a phrasal verb, auxiliary verbs + a main verb. Some grammarians expand the definition of verb phrase to include, a main verb + “to”

infinitive or a main verb + gerund. Finite verb phrases are marked for grammatical categories (mood, tense, aspect, person, voice) and indicate the status of the predication. ◦ Finite verb phrase: She must be telling the truth. ◦ Non-finite verb phrase: He is known to have won a gold medal.

Adjective and Adverb Phrases Adjective phrases include one or more adjectives. Adverb phrases include one or more

adverbs. Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives, adverbs in a sentence. ◦ They are really enthusiastic. He opened it extremely easily.

1.3.2. Syntactic functions in the phrase structure

Determination = the function of words and phrases which, determine what kind of reference a noun phrase has: definite (like the) or indefinite (like a/an), partitive (like some) or universal (like all).

Modification = a largely optional function performed by adjectives in the noun phrase, and by intensifying adverbs in the adverb phrase.

His (unexpected) arrival (in Warsaw) yesterday surprised us. Complementation = the function of a part of a phrase or clause which follows a word,

and completes the specification of a meaning relationship which that word implies. Complementation also overlaps with other functions, such as adverbials and modifiers.

He deceived his father – verb complementation All sales are subject to tax. – adjective complementation

1.4. SYNTACTIC FUNCTIONS IN THE CLAUSE

The traditional approach to syntactic function identifies constituents of the sentence, states the part of speech each word belongs to, describes the inflexion involved, and explains the relationship each word related to the others.

According to its relation to other constituents, a constituent may serve a certain syntactic function in a clause.

There are five functional categories of clause constituents (Quirk et al., 1985: 49): ◦ Subject: the part of the sentence, usually a noun or noun phrase, that acts as

the agent, doer, or experiencer of the verb. ◦ A verb shows what a subject does, what the subject is, or what the subject is

like. ◦ Complement (subject or object complement): anything that comes after the

verb to complete a sentence. ◦ Object (direct or indirect object): A noun, pronoun, or noun phrase that

receives the action of the verb. ◦ Adverbial: a construction (adverb, adverb phrase, temporal noun phrase,

prepositional phrase or clause) that modifies, or describes, verbs.

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1.4.1. Central and peripheral elements of the clause To describe the constituency of clauses, we need to deal with the basic elements of clause structure: subject (S), verb (V), object (O), complement (C), and adverbial (A).

The order of the clause elements is relatively fixed, in general following the sequence in the designation of the clause types. The basic order is that of the canonical declarative clause.

The verb element (V) is the most 'central' element, and it is preceded by the subject (S). Following the verb there may be one or two objects (O), or a complement (C), which

follows the object if one is present. The most peripheral element is the adverbial, which can occur either initially, medially or

finally.

1.5. SEMANTIC FUNCTIONS OF CLAUSE ELEMENTS Agentive participant is the most typical semantic role of a subject that has a direct object (the

participant which instigates/causes the happening denoted by the verb) (Quirk et al., 1985:740-742):

Margaret is mowing the grass. Affected participant is the most typical role of the direct object (a participant directly involved

in some other way in the happening): Many MPs criticized the Prime Minister. James sold his digital watch yesterday.

Recipient participant: the most typical role of the indirect object (the animate being that is passively implicated by the happening or state):

I've found you a place. We paid them the money. Attribute is the typical semantic role of a subject complement and an object complement; it has

two subtypes of role: IDENTIFICATION: Kevin is my brother. They called their daughter Edna. CHARACTERIZATION: The operation seemed a success. I consider the operation a success.

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1.6. COORDINATION AND SUBORDINATION

In order to understand the relations within and across sentence and clause elements, we shall first expand upon two concepts that are specific to syntactic analysis.

Both coordination and subordination involve the linking of units; but in coordination the units are on the same syntactic level, whereas in subordination one of the units is a constituent of a superordinate unit.

They are my neighbours, but I don't know them well. [independent clauses] I don't know where they are staying. [the subordinate wh-clause is the direct object of the sentence]

Similar semantic relationships may be expressed through coordination and subordination, as in the concessive relationship expressed in the following sentences:

He tried hard, but he failed. [coordination with but]

Although he tried hard, he failed. [subordination with although] He tried hard, yet he failed. [coordination through an adverb, such as yet]

1.6.1. COORDINATORS

Three conjunctions are clearly coordinators: and, or, but. And and or are central coordinators, and but differs from them in certain respects. On the gradient between 'pure' coordinators and 'pure' subordinators are or and so that (in the meaning 'with the result that').

Coordinators, subordinators, and conjuncts are all LINKERS. There are six features that apply to the central coordinators and and or in connections between clauses.

1.6.1.1. SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF COORDINATORS

(a) Clause coordinators are restricted to clause-initial position And, or, and but are restricted to initial position in the second clause:

John plays the guitar, and his sister plays the piano. This is generally true of both coordinators and subordinators, but it is not true of most

conjuncts: John plays the guitar; his sister, moreover, plays the piano.

NOTE There are three subordinators (as, that, and though) which are exceptional in that they can occur non-initially: Though he is poor, he is happy. Poor though he is, he is happy.

(b) Coordinated clauses are sequentially fixed Clauses beginning with and, or, and but are sequentially fixed in relation to the previous

clause, and therefore cannot be transposed without producing unacceptable sentences, or at least changing the relationship between the clauses:

They are living in England, or they are spending a vacation there. (c) Coordinators are not preceded by a conjunction The coordinators and, or, and but and the subordinators/or and so that ('with the result that')

do not allow another conjunction to precede them. Other subordinators as well as conjuncts can usually be preceded by conjunctions:

He was unhappy about it, and yet he did as he was told.

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(d) Coordinators can link clause constituents And, or, and but may link constituents smaller than a clause, for example predicates:

I may see you tomorrow or may phone late in the day. The exceptions are the conjunct yet and (in informal spoken English) the conjunct so and

the time adverb then ('after that'): They didn't like it, yet said nothing. They were tired, so left early. They went home, then went straight to bed.

(e) Coordinators can link subordinate clauses As well as linking two main clauses, and and or can link subordinate clauses:

I wonder whether you should go and see her or whether it is better to write to her. Such linking is not possible for conjuncts or for the other conjunctions except but. But,

however, is restricted to linking a maximum of two clauses and even so it can link only certain types of subordinate clauses.

She said that John would take them by car but (that) they might be late.

(f) Coordinators can link more than two clauses And and or can link more than two clauses, and the construction may then be called one

of MULTIPLE COORDINATION. All but the final instance of these two conjunctions can be omitted.

The battery may be disconnected, the connections may be loose, or the bulb may be faulty.

Coordination of clauses and lesser constituents

But an important distinguishing characteristic of coordinators is that they can also be used to link elements that are parts of clauses:

The weather will be cold and cloudy. [1] The warm but windy weather will continue for several more days. [2]

In this respect, however, some linking words that are not coordinators resemble coordinators. Certain concessive subordinators and conjuncts, in particular, are capable of replacing but in [2] and in similar linkings of adjectives and other constituents:

Tim's squat yet ferocious bulldog could be heard growling on the patio. I immediately recognized Sarah's bold if barely legible handwriting. Martin was inclined to boast about his rich though disreputable ancestors.

THE USES OF COORDINATORS The uses of and indicates that there is some relation between the contents of the linked clauses. The relation can

generally be made explicit by the addition of an adverbial, as indicated in parentheses in the examples:

(a) The event in the second clause is chronologically SEQUENT to that in the first: I washed the dishes and (then) I dried them.

(b) The event in the second clause is a CONSEQUENCE or RESULT of the event in the first:

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He heard an explosion and he {therefore) phoned the police. (c) The second clause introduces a CONTRAST:

Peter is secretive and (in contrast) David is open. (d) The first clause has CONCESSIVE force:

She tried hard and (yet) she failed. (e) The first clause is a CONDITION of the first:

Give me some money and (then) I'll do the shopping. (f) The second clause makes a point SIMILAR to the first:

A trade agreement should be no problem, and (similarly) a cultural exchange could be easily arranged.

(g) The second clause is a 'pure' ADDITION to the first: He has long hair and (also) he often wears jeans.

(h) The second clause adds an appended COMMENT on, or EXPLANATION of, the first: They disliked John - and that's not surprising in view of his behaviour. There's only one thing to do now - and that's to apologize.

The uses of or (a) Typically, or is EXCLUSIVE: it excludes the possibility that the contents of both clauses are

true or are to be fulfilled: You can sleep on the couch in the lounge or you can go to a hotel.

Even when both alternatives are clearly possible, or is normally interpreted as exclusive: You can boil yourself an egg or (else) you can make some sandwiches.

The exclusive meaning can be strengthened by the conjuncts else or alternatively. (b) Sometimes or is INCLUSIVE. We can add a third clause that makes this inclusive meaning

explicitly: You can boil an egg, {or) you can make some sandwiches, or you can do both.

And can replace or in its inclusive meaning. (c) The alternative expressed by or may also be a restatement or a CORRECTIVE to what is

said in the first conjoin: They are enjoying themselves, or (at least)/(rather) they apppear to be enjoying themselves.

(d) In addition to introducing alternatives as indicated above, or may imply a NEGATIVE CONDITION. Thus in:

Switch on the radio or we'll miss the news. The conditional use of or is thus the negative analogue of the conditional use of and. Unlike

and, however, or typically follows a negative imperative clause: Don't be too long, or you'll miss the bus.

In this case, the most appropriate paraphrase with an if-clause is positive instead of negative:

If you are too long, you'll miss the bus. In written varieties of the language where precision is required (e.g. in official instructions),

the third possibility can be explicitly included by the use of both coordinators (usually written and/or):

If the appliance is defective, write directly to the manufacturer and/or complain to your local consumer protection service.

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The uses of but But expresses a contrast.

(a) The content of the second clause is unexpected in view of the content of the first:

John is poor, but he is happy.

In this use, but can be replaced by and yet. (b) The second clause expresses in positive terms what the negation in the first clause

conveys: Jane did not waste her time before the exam, but (on the contrary) studied hard every evening. I am not objecting to his morals, but (rather) to his manners.

In this use, but can be emphasized by the conjuncts on the contrary or rather. It normally

does not link two clauses, but two lesser constituents. CORRELATIVES

Either... or, both ... and, neither... nor The three pairs either or, both ... and, and neither... nor are correlatives. The first word is an

ENDORSING ITEM and the second is a coordinator. Either . . . or emphasizes the exclusive meaning of or. The linked units may be

complete clauses or lesser constituents: Either the room is too small or the piano is too large. You may either stand up or sit down. Either Sylvia or her sister will be staying with us.

Both . . . and emphasizes the additive meaning of and:

David both loves Joan and wants to marry her. This new machine will both accelerate the copying process and improve the quality of reproduction. Both Mary and Peter washed the dishes. The regulations are both very precise and very detailed.

It also singles out the segregatory meaning of and rather than the combinatory meaning:

Both David and Joan got divorced, [not from each other] Neither... nor is the negative counterpart of both ... and. It emphasizes that the

negation applies to both units: David neither loves Joan, nor wants to marry her. Mary was neither happy nor sad. Neither Peter nor his wife wanted the responsibility.

Unlike either . . . or, both . . . and and neither . .. nor cannot link complete clauses: *Both Mary washed the dishes and Peter dried them. *Neither Peter wanted the

responsibility, nor his wife did.

Nor and neither as negative adverbs

Nor and neither, followed by subject-operator inversion, can be used without being a correlative pair. They generally presuppose that a previous clause is negative either explicitly or implicitly:

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He did not receive any assistance from the authorities, neither did he believe their assurance that action would soon be taken. (rather formal) All the students were obviously very miserable. Nor were the teachers satisfied

with the conditions at the school. (formal)

The morphology of nor suggests that it is the equivalent of or plus not, but in fact both nor and neither are nearer to being the equivalent of and… not:

All the students were obviously very miserable. And (also) the teachers were not satisfied with the conditions at the school.

Not (only) ... but The negator not/n't or the combination not/n't only may be correlative with a following but:

He didn't come to help, but to hinder us. ['but rather'] They not only broke into his office and stole his books, but (they) (also) tore up his manuscripts.

Their status as correlatives is even clearer when the negative particle is moved out of its normal position to make the two units parallel:

Not only did they break into his office and steal his books, but they also tore up his manuscripts.

FORMAL INDICATORS OF SUBORDINATION

Subordination is generally marked by a signal in the subordinate clause. The signal may be

of various kinds: a subordinating conjunction; a wh-element, the item that; subject-operator inversion in declarative clauses; (negatively) the absence of a finite verb. SUBORDINATORS SUBORDINATORS (or, more fully, SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS) are the most important

formal device of subordination. 1. Single-word (simple) subordinators after, although, as, because, before, lest (esp AmE), like (informal, esp AmE), once, since,

that, though, till, unless, until, when, whenever, where, whereas, whereupon, wherever, while, whilst (esp. BrE)

2. Multi-word (complex) subordinators A. ending with that: but that, in that, in order that, insofar that (informal, rare), in the event

that, save that (literary), such that ending with optional that: (a) participle form: assuming, considering, excepting, given, granting, provided, providing,

seeing, supposing that b) others: except, for, all, now, so + (that) B. ending with as: according as, as far as, as long as, as soon as, forasmuch as (formal),

inasmuch as (formal), insofar as, insomuch as (formal) Others: as if, as though, in case

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3. Correlative subordinators as ...so as/ so/ such …as so/ such …that less/ more (/-er) …than no sooner than. . . than, when (informal) barely/ hardly/ scarcely. . . when, than (informal) the. . . the whether/ if …or There are also optional conjuncts that endorse the meaning of a subordinator that introduces

the preceding clause: although/ even if/ even though/ while …yet/ nevertheless, etc; if/ once/ unless …then; because/ seeing (that) …therefore.

Nonfinite clauses (except bare infinitive clauses) and verbless clauses may have the subordinators with and without, which are required to introduce the subject:

Without you to consult, I would be completely lost. With the mortgage paid, they could afford to go abroad for their vacation. With you as my friend, I don't need enemies.

Bare infinitive clauses are limited to the two synonymous subordinators rather than and sooner than:

He paid the fine rather than appeal to a higher court. As a subordinator with infinitive clauses for is restricted to clauses with their own subject and

indeed is often obligatory: It would be an absurd idea for them to move to another house at this stage of their careers.

Marginal subordinators There are also three types of borderline cases of multi-word subordinators: habitual combinations of a subordinator with a preceding or following adverb (eg: even if,

if only); temporal noun phrases (e.g.: the moment (that), every time (that)), but the following

clause is better analysed as a restrictive relative clause; prepositional phrases ending in the fact that (e.g.: because of the fact that, in spite of the

fact that), but the subordinate clause is better analyzed as in apposition to the preceding noun phrase.

Other indicators of subordination We now turn to other indicators of subordination apart from subordinators. (i) WH-elements are initial markers of subordination in subordinate interrogative clauses

and subordinate exclamative clauses, in wh-relative clauses and in conditional-concessive clauses.

(ii) The relative pronoun that, which can often replace wh-pronouns, is a subordination marker in restrictive relative clauses.

(iii) Subject-operator inversion is a marker of subordination in certain clauses, particularly in conditional clauses. It is typical of a literary and elevated style. The operators that permit the inversion are had, were, should, and (less commonly) could and might:

Were she here, she would support the motion. Inversion of a different kind- the fronting of the whole or part of the predication - may occur

with the subordinators as, though and that in concessive and reason clauses. (iv)The absence of a finite verb is itself an indicator of subordination, since nonfinite and

verbless clauses are generally subordinate.

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Bibliography Allerton, D.J. (1979): Essentials of Grammatical Theory: a Consensus View of Syntax

and Morphology, Routledge & Kegan Paul. Biber D.; Johansson, S.; Leech, G., Conrad, S. (2002): Longman Student Grammar of

Written and Spoken English, Longman (Pearson Education Ltd), London. Cmeciu, Camelia (2007): Lectures on Concepts of English Syntax, Ed. EduSoft, Bacău. DeCapua, Andreea (2008): Grammar for Teachers. A Guide to American English for

Native and Non-native Speakers, Springer, New York. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., Svartvik, J. (1985): A Comprehensive Grammar of

the English Language, London, New York, Longman. www.essex.ac.uk/linguistics/clmt/MTbook/HTML/node98.html. http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsAnExocentricConstructio

n.htm.

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2. CRITERIA FOR THE TYPOLOGY OF SENTENCES

2.1. THE CRITERION OF STRUCTURE/COMPOSITION

2.1.1. SIMPLE AND MULTIPLE SENTENCES (Quirk et al., 1985:719) 2.1.1.a. A simple sentence consists of a single independent clause. We use the term 'simple sentence' for a clause that does not have another clause

functioning as one of its elements. However, a simple sentence may have a clause functioning within a phrase. In that case the complexity is at the level of the phrase, not at the level of the sentence or clause.

You can borrow the car that belongs to my sister. The simple declarative sentence is “the canonical form of sentence, in terms of which other types of sentence, including both those which are more complex ('complex' and 'compound' sentences) and those which are more simple ('reduced' sentences), may be explained by reference to such operations as conjunction, insertion, inversion, substitution, and transposition (“sentence processes”).” (Quirk et al., 1985:78)

A multiple sentence contains one or more clauses as its immediate constituents. Multiple

sentences are either COMPOUND or COMPLEX. In a compound sentence the immediate constituents are two or more COORDINATE clauses.

The syntactical way of forming this sentence is by coordination (homogeneity), using coordinating conjunctions.

Dan knew the truth, but he did not want to disclose it to us. In a complex sentence one or more of its elements, such as direct object or adverbial, are

realized by a SUBORDINATE clause. Even though Dan knew the truth, he refused to disclose the secret to us.

A complex sentence with one subordinate clause can be analysed once for the sentence as a whole and once for the subordinate clause included within the sentence.

You can borrow my car if you need it. A COMPLEX sentence is like a simple sentence in that it consists of only one MAIN clause,

but unlike a simple sentence it has one or more SUBORDINATE clauses functioning as an element of the sentence. For example, [1] is a simple sentence in that the sentence consists of one main clause without any subordinate clauses:

I reject her conclusions. [1] On the other hand, [2] is a complex sentence because the main clause contains a

subordinate clause functioning as an adverbial: Although I admire her reasoning, I reject her conclusions. [2]

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Other grammarians consider that, sometimes, rather than joining two simple sentences together, a coordinating conjunction joins two complex sentences, or one simple sentence and one complex sentence. In this case, the sentence is called a compound-complex sentence:

The package arrived in the morning, but the courier left before I could check the contents.

Therefore, a compound-complex sentence contains at least two clauses and at least one dependent clause (a combination of a compound and a complex sentence).

2.2. SENTENCE TYPES AND DISCOURSE FUNCTIONS

2.2.1. Simple sentences may be divided into four major syntactic types differentiated by their form. Their use correlates with different discourse functions (Quirk et al., 1985:803-853).

declaratives are sentences in which the subject is present and generally precedes the verb: Mary bought her sister a hat from Paris.

interrogatives are sentences which are formally marked in one of two ways: o yes-no interrogatives: the operator is placed in front of the subject:

Did Mary buy her sister a hat from Paris? o wh-interrogatives: the interrogative wh-element is positioned initially and there is

a general subject-verb inversion: What did Mary buy her sister from Paris?

imperatives are sentences which normally have no overt grammatical subject, and whose verb has the base form: Buy Mary a hat from Paris.

exclamatives are sentences which have an initial phrase introduced by what or how, usually with subject-verb order: What a fancy hat she received from her sister!

Associated with these four sentence types are four classes of discourse functions (also identified as semantic types): STATEMENTS are primarily used to convey information; QUESTIONS are primarily used to seek information on a specific point; DIRECTIVES are primarily used to instruct somebody to do something; EXCLAMATIONS are primarily used for expressing the extent to which the speaker is

impressed by something. Although direct association between syntactic type and discourse class is the norm, the two do not always match. For example, a rhetorical question is syntactically an interrogative, but semantically a statement.

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2.2.1.a. DECLARATIVE SENTENCES normally contain a verb phrase and at least one noun phrase (Quirk et al., 1985:719).

He was of medium height, with curly hair and light-blue eyes. Their degree of assertiveness depends on the presence of strengthening or emphatic adverbs (certainly, undoubtedly). To express doubt or probability, there are used adverbial modifiers such as probably, perhaps, maybe.

2.2.1.b. INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES require a strict word order in English. Questions can be divided into three major classes according to the type of reply they expect:

1 Those that expect affirmation or negation, as in Have you finished the book? are YES-NO

QUESTIONS. 2 Those that typically expect a reply from an open range of replies, as in What is your

name? or How old are you?, are WH-questions. 3 Those that expect as the reply one of two or more options presented in the question, as in Would you like to go for a WALK or stay at HOME?, are ALTERNATIVE questions.

A. YES/NO QUESTIONS Form of yes-no questions Yes-no questions are usually formed by placing the operator before the subject and giving the sentence a rising intonation:

The boat has LEFT. ~ Has the boat LEFT? If there is no item in the verb phrase that can function as operator, DO is introduced, as with negation:

They live in Sydney. ~ Do they live in Sydney? Again as with negation, main verb BE functions as operator; in BrE main verb HAVE often acts as operator, but informally HAVE . . . got is more common:

Patrick was late. ~ Was Patrick late?

Positive yes-no questions Like negative statements, yes-no questions may contain nonassertive items such as any and ever. The question containing such forms is generally neutral, with no bias in expectation towards a positive or negative response.

STATEMENT QUESTION Someone called last night. Did anyone call last night? The boat has left already. Has the boat left yet?

Negative yes-no questions Negative questions are always conducive. Negative orientation is found in questions which contain a negative form of one kind or another:

Don't you believe me? Have they never invited you home?

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Hasn't he told you what to do? Has nobody called? If a negative question has assertive items, it is biased towards positive orientation:

Didn't someone call last night? ['I expect that someone did.'] Hasn't the boat left already'? ['Surely it has.']

B. WH-QUESTIONS Form of Wh-questions Wh-questions are formed with the aid of one of the following simple interrogative words (or WH-words): who/ whom/ whose, what, which, when, where, how, why. Unlike yes-no questions, wh-questions generally have falling intonation. There are two principles governing the form and use of such questions:

1. the wh-element (ie the clause element containing the wh-word) comes first in the sentence

2. the wh-word itself takes first position in the wh-element. The main exception to the second principle occurs when the wh-word is within a prepositional complement. Non-formal style generally requires that the wh-word comes first, but formal style requires that the wh-element as a whole comes first.

On what did you base your prediction? (formal) What did you base your prediction on? Function of wh-element The following sentences exemplify the various clause functions in which the wh-element operates:

Who is coming to the PARty? [wh-element: S] What did you buy for your sister? [wh-element: Od] Whose beautiful anTiQUES are these? [wh-element: Cs] How wide did they make the BOOKcase? [wh-element: C0] When will you be proMOTed? [wh-element: A] Where shall I put the GLASses? [wh-element: A] Why didn't you TELL me? [wh-element: A] How did you MEND it? [wh-element: A] How much does he CARE? [wh-element: A] How long have you been WAiTing? [wh-element: A] How often do you visit New YORK? [wh-element: A]

C. ALTERNATIVE QUESTIONS They refer to the questions based on the presence of several possibilities, or one alternative at least. They may be divided into:

limited/ finite questions. They give a finite set of possibilities, thus having the nature of a closed list.

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Would you like some WÍNE or some BEÈR? [the former term has a rising tone, while the latter a falling tone] Do you want to go by BÚS or by TRÀM?

open/ unlimited questions. The number of possibilities is larger than those listed. When would you like to come? On MÓnday, on TÚEsday or some other DÀY?

According to Quirk et al. (1985), there are two types of alternative questions. The first resembles yes-no question, and the second a wh-question:

Would you like CHOcolate, vaNilLa, or STRAwberry (icecream)? [1] Which ice-cream would you LIKE? CHOcolate, vaNiLla or STRAwberry? [2]

The first type differs from yes-no question only in intonation; instead of the final rising tone, it contains a separate nucleus for each alternative: a rise occurs on each item in the list, except the last, on which there is a fall, indicating that the list is complete.

A: Shall we go by BUS or TRAIN? B: By BUS.

The second type of alternative question is really a compound of two separate questions: a wh-question followed by an elliptical alternative question. D. DISJUNCTIVE QUESTIONS OR TAG-QUESTIONS For the most common types of tag question, the tag question is negative if the statement is positive and vice versa. The tag question has the form of a yes-no question consisting of merely an operator and a subject pronoun, the choice of operator and pronoun depending on the statement. The nuclear tone of the tag occurs on the operator and is either rising or falling. Below are the four main types of tag questions, which vary according to whether the statement is positive or negative, and whether the tag question is rising or falling:

POSITIVE STATEMENT + NEGATIVE TAG (i) RISING TONE on tag (iii) FALLING TONE on tag He likes his JOB. DOEsn't he? He likes his JOB, DOESn't he? NEGATIVE STATEMENT + POSITIVE TAG (ii) RISING TONE on tag (iv) FALLING TONE on tag He doesn't like his JOB, DOES he? He doesn't like his JOB, DOES he?

The meanings of these sentences, like their forms, involve a statement and a question; each of them, that is, asserts something, then invites the listener's response to it. There is a further, less common, type of tag question in which both statement and question are positive: Your car is outsiDE, is it? You've had an Accident, HAVE you?

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D. OTHER TYPES OF QUESTIONS Rhetorical questions are interrogative in structure, but have the force of a strong assertion. An answer is not generally expected. A positive rhetorical yes-no question with a rising tone resembles a strong negative assertion, while a negative question seems a strong positive one. (Quirk, 1985: 825-826).

Do you see him HÉre? [the implication: Surely you don’t see him here.] Didn’t you PHone him? [the implication: Surely you didn’t] Who SMÔKED in here? [A negative subject is implied – Nobody smoked here.] What can HÊ do for me? [the implication: It is not he/ him who will do something for me.]

Exclamatory questions are interrogative in structure, but have the force of an exclamatory sentence. They resemble a yes-no question with a final falling tone. The meaning of these questions is positive, inviting the hearer to agree to a statement on which the speaker has strong feelings. (Quirk, 1985: 825)

Isn’t he GÒrgeous! Wasn’t it a wonderful PÀRty!

Echo questions/utterances repeat part or all of what has been said. Replicatory echo questions do so as a way of having their content confirmed:

A: The Browns are emigrating. B: Emigrating? A: He's a dermatologist. B: WHAT is he? A: I'll pay for it. B: You'll WHAT?

Explicatory echo questions, which are always wh-questions, ask for clarification. They have a falling tone on the wh-word:

A: Take a look at this! B: Take a look at WHAT? A: He's missed the bus again. B: WHO'S missed the bus?

2.2.1.c. IMPERATIVE SENTENCES, in their typical form, contain no subject or operator: they consist simply of a predication with an imperative verb, ie a verb in its base form:

Be quiet! Search the room carefully!

Since an imperative normally refers to some future action which the hearer is urged to perform, its subject is semantically predictable, and therefore dispensable, while the verb phrase is required to make no distinctions of tense, number, and person (Quirk et al., 1985:87).

In Modern English, the subject – expressed by the personal/ indefinite pronoun you/ everybody, or by a proper name/ common noun – is used when it is emphasized, in order to avoid any confusion, or with an emotive function: I can't manage this, you try!

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You, Cynthia, fetch the flowers, and you, Paul, the chairs! Have a good time everybody! Nobody move! Boys and girls, hurry up! It's getting late, let's go home! Verbless sentences have the effect of brusque commands or requests:

- adverbials: Here!; Slower!; This way!; Back to work! - noun phrase + adverbial: Everybody outside! Children on the floor! Hands up! - adverbial + with-phrase: Out with you! [get out!]; Off with her head! [‘cut off

her head’]; Up with the Liberal Party! [approval]; Down with the Democrats! [disapproval]

- noun phrases: Taxi!; Shears!; A loaf of bread, please! [a polite request] Negative imperatives To negate imperatives, one simply adds an initial Don't or Do not, replacing assertive by nonassertive items where necessary:

Open the door. Don't open the door. Get some wine. Don't get any wine. You open the door. Don't you open the door. Someone open the door. Don't anyone open the door.

Do with positive imperatives A positive imperative can be made more persuasive or insistent (esp. in BrE) by adding do before the verb (when the subject is absent or when let's is present):

DO have some more tea. DO let's go for a walk. 2.2.1.d. EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES

The means of expression (Quirk, 1985:833-834) for an exclamatory sentence as a formal category are wh-element and how-element. Unlike wh-question or how-question, there is no subject-operator inversion.

1. as subject: What a smell came off! 2. as object: What a meal he ate! 3. as complement: How careless he might be! 4. as adverbial: How he loathed her!; How carelessly he drove!

The subject or the operator can be omitted in exclamatory sentences: What a fool! How depressing! [the ellipsis of the subject and the operator ‘to be’]

They denote two types of attitudes: - positive/ superlative attitudes: admiration, joy, enthusiasm, happiness, satisfaction; - negative attitudes: horror, terror, disgust, sadness, grief.

Exclamatives as a formal category of sentence are restricted to the type of exclamatory utterance introduced by what or how. The WH-element is fronted, but in contrast to wh-questions there is no subject-operator inversion:

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What a time we've had today! How delightful her manners are! How quickly you eat! How I used to hate geography!

When the WH-element is the complement of a preposition, the preposition is normally left in final position: What a mess we're in! 2.2.1.e. IRREGULAR SENTENCES IRREGULAR sentences do not conform to the regular patterns of clause structures or to the variations of those structures in the major syntactic classes.

A. Sentences with optative subjunctive The formulaic (or 'optative') subjunctive, one use of the base form of the verb, survives in a few fossilized expressions. It is combined with subject-verb inversion (induced by the initial adverb) in, for example:

Long live the Republic! So help me God. It is found without inversion in, for example:

God save the Queen! God forbid! A less archaic formula (with subject-verb inversion) for expressing wishes has may in front:

May the best man win! May you always be happy! B. Irregular Wh-questions There are several kinds of irregular wh-questions, which occur mainly in conversation, for example:

How about another kiss? What about coming to my place? How come you're so late? Why listen to him? Why all the noise? What if it rains?

C. Subordinate clauses as sentences Several kinds of subordinate clauses are used as sentences, generally with exclamatory force:

That I should live to see such ingratitude! To think that you might have been killed! Well, if it isn't Susan! ['It is indeed Susan!'] If only I'd listened to my parents!

D. Aphoristic sentences Many proverbs have an aphoristic sentence structure, in which two short constructions are balanced against each other:

The more, the merrier. First come, first served. Waste not, want not.

2.2.1.f. BLOCK LANGUAGE Block language appears (especially in writing) in such functions as labels, titles, newspaper headlines, headings, notices, and advertisements.

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A. Simple block-language messages often consist of a noun phrase in isolation: Entrance 50 mph limit English Department The New York Times For Sale No dogs without leash

B. Newspaper headlines commonly contain block language because of pressure on space, and they are imitated on radio and television news broadcasts: PRESIDENT CALLS FOR CALM [SVA] C. Elliptical sentences are common in conversation and in written dialogue; they respond to, comment on, or question previous sentences spoken by another speaker:

A: Is your daughter at home? B: Probably. [A -She is probably at home.] A: Who sent you? B: The manager. [S - The manager sent me.]

D. Abbreviated sentences are typical in instructional writing In informal conversation many types of phrases occur as complete utterances:

The things they get up to!; You and your ideas!; Of all the stupid things to say!; Taxi!; More coffee?; Your name?; No news.

2.2.1.g. NONSENTENCES Nonsentences, usually but not exclusively noun phrases, occur frequently in speech, mostly in informal conversation.

The things they get up to! Attention! Taxi! In addition there are many formulae used for stereotyped communication situations; for example: Good morning; Goodbye; How do you do?; Thanks; Happy Birthday. Interjections are purely emotive words which do not enter into syntactic relations. Among the common interjections are Ah, Boo, Oh, Ouch, Sh, Wow.

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2.3. THE CRITERION OF STATUS AND GRAMMATICAL DEPENDENCE This criterion refers to the status of dependence or independence and to the position of some constituents in relation to the others. 2.3.1. Independent vs. dependent clauses Independent clauses are isolated simple sentences: It will rain. He is coming. Independent clauses are also part of a compound sentence. They are linked together by coordinating conjunctions, but without being dependent on each other, thus preserving their equal status.

There were not so many carts now 1/ and very few on foot 2/, but the old man was still there 3/.

According to Biber et al. (2001:248-249), independent clauses are used to perform speech-act functions. There is a general correspondence between four basic speech-act functions and the structural types of independent clauses.

Major classification of independent clauses

speech-act functional clause structural example informing statement declarative clause SV structure It's strong eliciting question interrogative clause VS structure Is it strong?

wh-word + VS structure Where is she? wh-word structure Who was there? directing command imperative clause V structure (no S) Be strong.' expressing exclamation exclamative clause wh-word + SV structure How good she is! Dependent clauses are clauses which cannot stand alone without another clause, called the main clause (Biber et al., 2001:31)

I hate to see that. We have 30 men who are working. 2.3.2. Main vs. subordinate clauses Main clauses are also called head clauses, being the elements that rank first in the hierarchy established as part of a complex sentence. This means that they have subordinate clauses and regent clauses in their subordination.

Regent clauses have a twofold nature: o of governing, when the complex sentence is more diversified; o of being subordinated to the main clause.

If you can make it 1/, there are trucks on the road 2/ where it forks for Tortosa. 3/ (E. Hemingway – Old Man at the Bridge)

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Subordinate clauses cannot stand on their own as sentences. Besides the main clauses, they represent the compulsory element in any complex sentence.

I cannot think 1/ what will become of others 2/. Jacobs (1995:65, apud Cmeciu, 2007) differentiates between:

Embedded clauses function either as subjects or as objects of regent clauses, meaning that they are obligatory elements. The clauses that contain embedded clauses are called container or matrix clauses.

For Mary to lie about her whereabouts1/ will be a real disaster2/. They didn’t realize 1/ that Mary had been lying to them 2/.

Subordinate clauses function as adjuncts, namely as optional elements in a clause. The role of subordinators such as because, when, while, after, if etc. is to assign the clauses a lesser grammatical status. That is why the clause to which it is attached is called superordinate clause.

I will give him the money 1/ if he returns it some day 2/. He raised his hand 1/ to pull the bell 2/.

Functional classes of subordinate clauses On the basis of their potential functions, we distinguish several major categories of subordinate clauses. The functional classification resembles to some extent that of subclausal units such as noun phrases and adverbs.

NOMINAL CLAUSES have functions that approximate to those of noun phrases: subject, object, complement, appositive, and prepositional complement. Every nominal clause may function in some or all of these functions. Unlike noun phrases, however, nominal clauses may also function as adjective complementation without a preposition:

I'm not sure that lean remember the exact details. ADVERBIAL CLAUSES function mainly as adjuncts or disjuncts. In those functions they are

like adverb phrases, but in their potentiality for greater explicitness, they are more often like prepositional phrases:

We left after the speeches ended. We left after the end of the speeches. We left afterwards.

RELATIVE CLAUSES generally function as restrictive or nonrestrictive modifiers of noun phrases and are therefore functionally parallel to attributive adjectives.

Compare: a man who is lonely ~ a lonely man But they are positioned like postmodifying prepositional phrases: tourists who come from Italy ~ tourists/raw Italy

COMPARATIVE CLAUSES resemble adjectives and adverbs in their modifying functions: He's not as clever a man as I thought. I love you more deeply than I can say.

Semantically, the comparative clauses together with their correlative element (eg: more, as, -er) are equivalent to degree adverbs.

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2.4. MORPHOLOGICAL CRITERIA

2.4.1. Finite vs. nonfinite clauses There is another parameter (morphological) that we take into account when analysing sentences/clauses: finiteness.

Clauses that have either modal auxiliaries or verbs indicating past, present or future tenses are finite clauses (independent or dependent).

They should have come by now. He behaves as if he had known everything.

Nonfinite clauses refer to those clauses where the verb is not finite (infinitives, gerunds or participles).

It is necessary 1/ for Tom to study 2/. He was afraid 1/ of smoking in here2/. Coming home1/, I realized 2/ I had forgot to buy bread 3/.

For Quirk et al. (1985:150), “a clause with a finite verb phrase as its verb element is called a 'finite verb clause' or, more tersely, a 'finite clause'. Similarly, a clause with a nonfinite verb as its verb element is called a 'nonfinite (verb) clause'”. In some grammars, nonfinite constructions (which have a nonfinite verb as their verb element) are considered phrases rather than clauses. Nonfinite clauses themselves are intrinsically subordinate and therefore do not constitute simple sentences in the canonical forms.

FINITE CLAUSE: a clause whose verb element is finite (such as takes, took, can work, has

worked, is writing, was written): I can't go out with you because lam studying this evening.

NONFINITE CLAUSE: a clause whose verb element is nonfinite (such as to work, having worked, taken):

Knowing my temper, I didn't reply. VERBLESS CLAUSE: a clause that does not have a verb element, but is nevertheless

capable of being analysed into clause elements: Although always helpful, he was not much liked.

Structural classes of nonfinite verb clauses The nonfinite clause may be with or without a subject. The classes of nonfinite verb phrase serve to distinguish four structural classes of nonfinite verb clauses:

(i) TO-INFINITIVE without subject: The best thing would be to tell everybody. with subject: The best thing would be for you to tell everybody. The infinitive clause with to plus a subject is found characteristically in constructions with anticipatory it, for being used to introduce the subject: It would be better for you to tell everybody.

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(ii) BARE INFINITIVE without subject: All I did was hit him on the head. with subject: Rather than you do the job, I'd prefer to finish it myself. The bare infinitive is found characteristically in pseudo-cleft sentences, where the infinitival to is optional: What they did was (to) dig a shallow channel around the tent.

(iii) -ING PARTICIPLE without subject: Leaving the room, he tripped over the mat. with subject: Her aunt having left the room, I asked Ann for some personal help. When the subject of -ing clauses is expressed, it is often introduced by a preposition: With the audience turning restive, the chairman curtailed his long introduction.

(iv) -ED PARTICIPLE without subject: Covered with confusion, they apologized abjectly. with subject: The discussion completed, the chairman adjourned the meeting for half an hour.

2.4.2. Active and passive sentences Rearranging noun phrases in a sentence changes the referent of the predication the verb phrase asserts. Specifically, exchanging the direct object noun phrase (the money) for the subject noun phrase (Dan) creates a passive sentence out of an active sentence.

Dan stole the money from his partner. (active) The money was stolen by Dan from his partner (passive)

There is a systematic correspondence between active and passive clauses in that the direct or indirect object of an active clause becomes the subject of a passive clause while the subject of the active clause is either omitted or made the complement in a by-agent phrase:

My son [S] has prepared lunch [O] today [active] ~ Lunch [S] has been prepared by my son today [passive]

Bibliography

Bantaş, Andrei (1996): Descriptive English Syntax, Institutul European, Iasi. Biber D.; Johansson, S.; Leech, G., Conrad, S. (2002): Longman Student Grammar of

Written and Spoken English, Longman (Pearson Education Ltd), London. Chalker, Sidney (1992): A Student's English Grammar Workbook, Longman, London. Cmeciu, Camelia (2007): Lectures on Concepts of English Syntax, Ed. EduSoft, Bacău. Greenbaum, Sidney and Quirk, Randolph (1990): A Student's Grammar of the English

Language, Pearson Education Ltd. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., Svartvik, J. (1985): A Comprehensive Grammar of

the English Language, London, New York, Longman.

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EXERCISES Identify the following sentences in terms of structure/ composition/ form:

While the present century was in its teens, and on one sunshiny morning in June, there drove up to the great iron gate of Miss Pinkerton's academy for young ladies, on Chiswick Mall, a large family coach, with two fat horses in blazing harness […]. A black servant, who reposed on the box beside the fat coachman, uncurled his bandy legs as soon as the equipage drew up opposite Miss Pinkerton's shining brass plate, and as he pulled the bell at least a score of young heads were seen peering out of the narrow windows of the stately old brick house.

(W. Thackeray – Vanity Fair)

Identify the following sentences in terms of status and grammatical dependence: Hester Prynne, therefore, did not flee. On the outskirts of the town, within the verge of the

peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any other habitation, there was a small thatched cottage. It had been built by an earlier settler, and abandoned, because the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation, while its comparative remoteness put it out of the sphere of that social activity which already marked the habits of the emigrants. It stood on the shore, looking across a basin of the sea at the forest-covered hills, towards the west. A clump of scrubby trees, such as alone grew on the peninsula, did not so much conceal the cottage from view, as seem to denote that here was some object which would fain have been, or at least ought to be, concealed. In this little lonesome dwelling, with some slender means that she possessed, and by the licence of the magistrates, who still kept an inquisitorial watch over her, Hester established herself, with her infant child. A mystic shadow of suspicion immediately attached itself to the spot. (N. Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter)

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3. THE SUBJECT

3.1. DEFINITION & CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES The main difficulty in circumscribing the area of reference of the term “subject” resides in the diversity of sciences/studies which use it as a key concept. SUBJECT n [sʌbdʒɪkt]

1. the predominant theme or topic, as of a book, discussion, etc. 2. (Social science / Education) any branch of learning considered as a course of study; 3. (Grammar) a word, phrase, or formal expression about which something is predicated or stated in a sentence; 4. a person or thing that undergoes experiment, analysis, treatment, etc. 5. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a person who lives under the rule of a monarch, government, etc. 6. (Arts) an object, figure, scene, etc., as selected by an artist or photographer for representation; 7. (Philosophy) a. that which thinks or feels as opposed to the object of thinking and feeling; the self or the mind; b. a substance as opposed to its attributes; 8. (Music) a melodic or thematic phrase used as the principal motif of a fugue; 9. (Logic) a. the term of a categorial statement of which something is predicated; b. the reference or denotation of the subject term of a statement. The subject of John is tall is not the name John, but John himself; 10. an originating motive1.

In syntax, the subject is one of the clause elements for which we can find the greatest number of characteristic features:

a. the subject is typically a noun phrase; b. it normally occurs before the verb in declarative clauses and after the

operator in yes-no interrogative clauses; c. it determines the number and person, where relevant, of the verb; d. in finite clauses, it requires the subjective form for pronouns that have

distinctive case forms.

1 Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 6th Edition 2003. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003.

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In functional grammar, the notion of subject got several interpretations. Halliday (1994: 30) mentions the following interpretations:

1. a psychological subject (the concern of the message). It is the element that the speaker selects for ‘grounding’ what (s)he is going to say.

2. a grammatical subject (something is being predicated). It was seen to determine different grammatical features (case of the noun or pronoun, its agreement of person and number with the verb).

3. a logical subject/actor (the doer of the action). It has to do with the relations between things.

The children showed us their toys Psychological, grammatical, logical subject

The toys we were shown by the children Psychological subject (theme)

Grammatical subject (subject)

Logical subject (actor)

In the latter clause, ‘the toys’ is the psychological subject because it is the concern of the message. It is the point of departure when producing the clause. ‘We’ is the grammatical subject because it is the one of whom the statement is predicated. According to it, the clause is valid or not. ‘The children’ is the logical subject because it is the doer of the action, the one who is said to have carried out the process that the clause represents.

3.1.1. SUBJECT CHARACTERISTICS

1. FORM The subject can be:

a noun phrase (NP); the head of any noun phrase may be a common noun (common to a class of referents), a proper noun (names of particular persons, individually or as a group; the referent is defined experientially) or a (personal) pronoun (unique reference as proper nouns).

a subject clause (finite clauses or nonfinite clauses) (Quirk et al., 1985:724-726). The case that a subject is assigned is nominative.

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2. POSITION According to the type of sentence in which the subject is used, it can be placed before

the verb (declarative sentences), after the operator/ auxiliary (interrogative sentences). They [S] strolled [V] along the riverbank. [declarative sentence]

Did [op] they [S] stroll along the riverbank? [interrogative sentence]

3. SYNTACTIC FUNCTION A subject is a compulsory element in finite clauses. In imperative sentences it is absent,

but semantically it is implied. - The subject triggers the subjective forms (nominative case) for pronouns that have

distinctive case forms in English. He [S] sat in sullen silence and refused to eat his lunch.

- The subject determines the number and person in finite clauses. She [S] loves [V] life. She [S] is [V] my best friend.

- The subject determines the number and the gender of the subject complement [Cs] when that is a noun phrase.

Johnny and Alice [S] are my grandchildren. - The subject determines the number, person and gender of the reflexive pronoun as

direct object (Od), indirect object (Oi), subject complement (Cs), or prepositional complement/ object (Cp)

Peter [S] considers himself [Od] a poet. They [S] had a terrible temper and they [S] were afraid of themselves [Cp].

- There is a systematic correspondence between active and passive clauses: the direct object and the indirect object of an active sentence can become the subject of the passive sentence.

He [S] can repair your tyre [Od]. – Your tyre [S] can be repaired by him. - A subjectless nonfinite clause has an implied subject which is identical with the subject

of the regent clause. After having glared at her, / he left the room. / [after having glared at her =

subjectless nonfinite subordinate clause, adverbial clause of time]

4. SEMANTIC PROPERTIES The subject is typically the theme (or topic) of the clause. It typically refers to information that is regarded by the speaker as given. In a clause that is not passive, the subject is agentive if the agentive role is expressed in

the clause.

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3.2. MEANS OF EXPRESSING THE SUBJECT

The noun can be expressed in several ways: A. NOUNS 1. common nouns

The noun phrase as a whole must be considered as a subject. This means that the determiners and modifiers are parts of the respective noun phrases. The semantic features of this category may include: [+/- animate], [+/- human], [+/- concrete], [+/- abstract].

My wife gave birth to twins. ([+animate, + human]) Love was in the air. [+ abstract] The room reeks of tobacco. [+ concrete] The blind fought for their rights. (substantivized adjective)

2. proper names Billy broke off, forgetting in the intensity with which he continued to look. Is London the unhealthiest city in the world?

3. substantivized past or indefinite participle The dying wanted his nephew next to him. (the man who was dying) My beloved is Mary’s elder sister. The aged must be helped.

4. a fixed group of words (noun phrases that are names of novels, institutions etc.) Big Ben struck seven. Pall Mall is a fashionable street in London.

B. PRONOUNS 1. personal pronouns

We ourselves were certain of the facts. 2. possessive pronouns

My house has a wooden roof, theirs has a thatched roof. 3. demonstrative pronouns (Demonstrative and personal pronouns function as deictic elements because they specify a subset of the semantic thing that is rendered morphologically as a noun and syntactically as a subject)

This is my cat, these are my tools. 4. interrogative pronouns (They appear in interrogative sentences.)

Who has been wearing these shabby clothes? What drove me here?

5. relative pronouns (They appear in declarative sentences and they introduce relative clauses, subject clauses or other types of clauses that, together with the main clauses form a complex sentence.)

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The visitor1/ who had come yesterday 2/slept in this room1/. (2 = relative clause) Who did this1/, can never be forgiven. 2/ (1 = nominal THAT clause)

6. indefinite pronouns can include either quantitative (much, all) or numerical (many, more, most, several)

All is well, when it ends well. (subject, indefinite quantitative pronoun) Some people received money, some got building materials. (subject, indefinite

numerical pronoun) 7. generic pronouns can be subdivided into absolute (one, you, he, everyone, anybody),

limited (they). The sentences including generic pronouns as subjects, must be interpreted as general statements.

He who laughs last, laughs best. You must not give up whenever you get grief-stricken. Everyone has rights under the law, but they don’t always know them.

8. negative pronouns None dared to do this. Nothing remains of the old house but the cellar hole.

C. NUMERALS 1. cardinal numerals

One stood up for the rights of the group. 2. ordinal numerals

Only the first had the courage to fight back.

D. ADVERBIAL FORMS AS SUBJECT In certain restricted contexts (all informal) prepositional phrases, adverbs, and adverbial clauses - all of which normally realize the adverbial element in the clause - function as subject. Two conditions allow this use of adverbials:

(i) the adverbial is a fragment of an understood clause; (ii) the sentence can be related to one with prop it:

Slowly is exactly how he speaks. Sunday will be fine. Will after the show be soon enough? Because Sally wants to leave doesn't mean that we have to.

E. NONFINITE VERBS 1. infinitive constructions

To go abroad with no passport 1/ is not a wise thing2/. He 1/seemed2/ to have lied to us1/. [Nominative + Perfect Infinitive – ‘It seemed

that he had lied to us’. It is used after intransitive verbs – to seem, to appear, to happen, to turn out –.]

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They are unlikely to come. [‘It is unlikely that they will come’. The Nominative + Infinitive construction is a subject clause. It is triggered by adjectives such as (un)likely, sure, certain, easy, tough, difficult, (im)possible]

2. gerundial constructions. Unlike the Infinitive in the subject position, rendering the speaker’s opinion or theory, the Gerund implies the speaker’s or the addressee’s personal experience of the action or a habit (Martinet & Thomson, 1969: 158):

Swimming in the sea 1/ is great fun2/. [Either the speaker or the addressee has tried to swim in the sea and he/ she reached the conclusion that ‘swimming in the sea is great fun’.]

It’s no good1/ talking to him 2/; he never listens. [The construction with the introductory anticipatory it is common with any/ no good; any/no use; worth/ worthless]

Seeing is believing. [saying] Rebuilding the city 1/took years 2/. [rebuilding – Gerund, no definite article]

The rebuilding of the city took years. [rebuilding – Verbal Noun. Whereas a Gerund has the features of a verb (tense, voice, adverbs and direct/ prepositional objects), a Verbal Noun presents the features of a noun (definite/ indefinite article; adjectives; plural number; the prepositional genitive)]

3. finite verbs (Subject Clauses) What was done 1/ can’t be undone2/. [1 = nominal clause; it includes a finite verb;

Indicative Mood, Past tense simple, passive voice] What Tom washed 1/ was his shirts2/. [1 = nominal clause; this type of sentence

is typically English and it bears the name of pseudo-cleft sentence. Its function is to highlight a string of words. The structure is the following: WH-item +….+ form of be + FOCUS]

3.3. CLASSIFICATION OF SUBJECTS

3.3.1. The criterion of semantic content (the meaning a subject conveys). There are three types of subjects: grammatical subjects, logical subjects and impersonal subjects. Grammatical subjects are directly connected with the predicate. They determine the

agreement with the predicate. They are also known under the name of formal subjects. A hot sun is glaring down on the desert.

Logical/ real subjects refer to the doer of the action, and it bears the name of agent.

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Usually the grammatical subject coincides with the logical subject, but there are two cases which are interpreted as exceptions:

A. Passive constructions He was struck by thunder. [The grammatical subject does not coincide with the

logical subject. Semantically, the grammatical subject is the sufferer of the action, thus it is a patient. The logical subject is rendered by a prepositional object of agent.]

B. Introductory constructions - Introductory anticipatory “it”. It has no syntactical function because it is used instead of

the real subject. The subject of the complex sentence is, actually, a subject clause (with a nonfinite verb: perfect infinitive). The meaning of the respective sentence is given by the subject clause and the predicative.

It was rude of him to have left us in the middle of the road. [The main clause includes either verbs, such as to seem, to appear, to turn out, to look like or constructions such as it’s necessary, (im)possible, nice/ rude, important etc.]

It was said that he had broken into my shop. [The verb in the main clause is

rendered through the passive voice of a verb of communication: to say, to tell, to announce, to inform etc.]

There was lying the village of my childhood. [“There” shows either existence or

absence of the real subject.]

- Announcing or exclamatory element. Its role is to put an emphasis on the real subject which is to be mentioned. The construction resembles a sort of interjection and the emphasis is put rather on the subject, than on the predicate.

There you go. Here comes dad.

- Emphatic constructions. Their role is to put an emphasis on a particular part from the sentence. The respective sentence is also called cleft sentence; they are typical English constructions and their purpose is to highlight a particular string of words. The structure of cleft sentences is the following (Aarts, 2001: 226):

IT + form of be + FOCUS + who/ that …. It was Tom who had kicked me. [the real subject is singled out] It is you who I despise. [the direct object is singled out] It was to her that I had given that book. [the indirect object is singled out] It was on Billy that we had wanted to rely. [the prepositional object is singled

out]

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It is gently that he spoke to me. [the adverbial modifier of manner is singled out]

It was in the market that we had met. [the adverbial modifier of place is singled out]

It is at nine o’clock that the phone rang. [the adverbial of time is singled out]

Impersonal subjects refer to time and weather, distance or the state of things in general.

time (hours, parts of the day, dates, days, months etc.) It was getting into the evening. It’s almost nine. It’s dawn.

lapse of time It’s years since we last went for a swim.

weather & natural phenomena It is really hot. It has been drizzling for some hours. It’s snowing.

distance It’s two miles to that remote village. It’s a long way to obtain success.

3.3.2. The criterion of structure/ composition There are four types of subjects: simple subjects, compound subjects, coordinated subjects and complex subjects.

Simple subjects are expressed by one word (a noun phrase or a noun equivalent) The girl started and laid her hand upon the rifle at her side.

Compound subjects are expressed by two or several elements, the predicate agreement is singular.

Chip and Dale is the best cartoon ever seen. Coordinated subjects refer to two or more elements joined by coordinating

conjunctions. The predicate agreement is in the plural. There were two women and six men in the bus. Rage and humiliation have been tormenting his soul for some minutes.

Complex subjects can be expressed either through finite or nonfinite verb phrases. To admit her fault 1/would mean 2/to acknowledge her weakness.3/ Their booing 1/was really annoying. 2/ [their booing - gerund] The victory 1/was likely2 /to be decided by them1/. [the victory + to be

decided = nominative + infinitive, passive voice] Jack 1/was seen2/ regarding him from the back of his room1/. [Jack +

regarding = nominative + present participle]

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The fact that cats know 1/how to look after themselves2/ was all the good luck3/ that the old man would ever have. 4/

What you told me1/ is a secret with me2/. When he arrives1/ is not your cup of tea. 2/

3.4. SEMANTIC ROLES OF THE SUBJECT 3.4.1.Subject as agentive The most typical semantic role of a subject in a clause that has a direct object is that of the AGENTIVE

participant: that is, the animate being instigating or causing the happening denoted by the verb: Margaret is mowing the grass.

3.4.2. Subject as external causer, instrument, and affected The subject sometimes has the role of EXTERNAL CAUSER; that is, it expresses the unwitting (generally inanimate) cause of an event:

The avalanche destroyed several houses. It may also have the role of INSTRUMENT; that is, the entity (generally inanimate) which the agent uses in order to perform an action or instigate a process:

A car knocked them down. With intransitive verbs, the subject also frequently has the AFFECTED role elsewhere typical of the direct object:

Jack fell down (accidentally). The pencil was lying on the table. But we can make some further distinctions according to whether the subject complement as attribute identifies or characterizes.

Kevin is my brother. [identified subject] Martha was a good student. [characterized subject]

There is sometimes a regular relation, in terms of clause function, between transitive verbs expressing CAUSATIVE meaning and corresponding intransitive verbs or adjectives. In the last group, the company and my dog as object arc affected but as subject are agentive.

1. SVO SV The frost has killed the flowers. The flowers have died. Fred is waving the flag. The flag is waving (in the breeze).

2. SVO SVC They have dimmed the lights. The lights became dim. The sun (almost) blinded him. He (almost) went blind.

3. SVO SV The sergeant paraded the company. The company paraded. I am exercising my dog. My dog is exercising.

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3.4.3. Recipient and experiencer subjects

The subject may have a recipient role with verbs such as have, own, possess, benefit (from), as is indicated by the following relation:

Mr Smith has given his son a radio. [So now his son has a radio.]

The perceptual verbs see and hear require an experiencer subject, in contrast to look at and listen to, which are agentive.

The other perceptual verbs taste, smell, and feel have both an agentive meaning corresponding to look at and an experiencer meaning corresponding to see:

I want you to taste the soup. [agentive] I can taste the pepper in my soup. [experiencer] The soup tastes good. [affected]

Verbs indicating cognition or emotion may also require an experiencer:

I thought you were mistaken. I liked the play.

3.4.4. Positioner subject The subject may have the role of POSITIONER with intransitive stance verbs such as sit, stand, lie, live ['dwell'], stay, remain, and with transitive verbs related to stance verbs such as carry, hold, keep, wear.

The transitive verbs are causative and the direct objects that follow them have an affected role. In this positioner role the participant is in control, but the situation is not resultative in that no change is indicated in the positioner during the period in which the situation lasts:

I have lived in London most of my life. The hijacker was holding a revolver. They are staying at a motel. He kept himself upright.

3.4.5. Locative, temporal, and eventive subjects

The subject may have the LOCATIVE role of designating the place of the state or action, or the TEMPORAL role of designating its time:

Los Angeles is foggy. ['It's foggy in Los Angeles.'] This jar contains coffee. [There's coffee in this jar.'] Yesterday was a holiday. ['It was a holiday yesterday.']

An important role of the subject is EVENTIVE. The noun at the head of the noun phrase is commonly deverbal (ie derived from a verb) or a nominalization:

The match is tomorrow. The Norman invasion took place in 1066.

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3.4.6. Prop it subject Prop it has also been termed 'ambient' it, in accordance with the view that it has some generalized reference to the environment in a given context. Another term for prop it is 'expletive' if, the term indicating the view that this it merely fills a syntactic gap (that of subject) and is otherwise meaningless. There are clauses in which no participant is required. In such cases, the subject function may be assumed by the 'prop' word it, which has little or no semantic content. Prop IT mainly occurs in clauses signifying (a) time, (b) atmospheric conditions, and (c) distance:

(a) It's our wedding anniversary next month. (b) It's getting dark. (c) It's not very far to York.

Bibliography Biber D.; Johansson, S.; Leech, G., Conrad, S. (2002): Longman Student Grammar of

Written and Spoken English, Longman (Pearson Education Ltd), London. Chalker, Sidney (1992): A Student's English Grammar Workbook, Longman, London. Cmeciu, Camelia (2007): Lectures on Concepts of English Syntax, Ed. EduSoft, Bacău. Greenbaum, Sidney and Quirk, Randolph (1990): A Student's Grammar of the English

Language, Pearson Education Ltd. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., Svartvik, J. (1985): A Comprehensive Grammar of the

English Language, London, New York, Longman. Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 6th Edition 2003. © William Collins

Sons & Co. Ltd 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003.

EXERCISES

I. Identify the types of subjects. Mention the ways in which they are expressed (morphological categories). 1. Around many a dusky neck hung curiously coiled strands of wire, while several were

further ornamented by huge nose rings. (Burroughs, Edgar Rice, Tarzan of the Apes) 2. Nothing succeeds like success. 3. The man who held out against the Church vanished away, and none knew whither he

had gone or what had befallen him. (Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan , A Study In Scarlet) 4. The two were inventors and proverbially poor business men, though they had amassed

a fortune. (Appleton, Victor, Tom Swift In The Land Of Wonders ) 5. He seems to have rung. 6. We protested against the cruel shooting of the bears. 7. We protested against shooting the bears cruelly.

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II. Identify the semantic roles of the subject. London is crowded. Mary has given her sister a new hat My friend is sitting in a chair near the door. It's ten o'clock precisely. The children are picking up flowers. The computer has solved the problem. Is it raining? The dispute over the inheritance lasted a decade. The electric shock killed him. The pencil was on the table. Today is my birthday. It's just one more stop to Toronto. Tom is cooking the dinner.

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4. THE PREDICATE vs. THE VERB AS CLAUSE ELEMENTS

4.1. THE PREDICATE IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR

In traditional grammar, a predicate is one of the main parts of a sentence (the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies). The predicate provides information about the subject (what the subject is doing or what the subject is like) 1.

The predicate must contain a verb which requires, permits and precludes other sentence elements to complete the predicate (objects, predicatives2 and adverbials).

She dances. (verb only predicate) John read the book. (verb + direct object) John’s mother gave me a present. (verb + indirect object without a preposition)

She listened to the radio. (verb + prepositional object) They elected him president. (verb + predicative/object complement) She met him in the park. (verb + adverbial) She is in the park. (verb + obligatory adverbial)

Quirk et al. (1985:78-79) acknowledge that simple sentences are traditionally divided into two major parts, a SUBJECT and a PREDICATE. This means that, in terms of clause elements, the subject (S) is distinguished from the other elements (V and combinations of O, C, and A) which follow it:

SUBJECT PREDICATE Julie buys her vegetables in the market. Tigers are carnivorous.

The subject is often described as the constituent defining the topic of the sentence – that which the sentence is 'about' and which it presupposes as its point of departure, whereas the predicate is that which is asserted about the subject.

The division subject-predicate has more to do with the statement as a logical category than with the structural facts of grammar; hence, descriptive grammars prefer the term verb as clause element to that of predicate.

The syntactic properties ascribed to the predicate are: It is typically affected by clause negation; It may be omitted through ellipsis; It may be replaced by a pro-form (do so which substitutes for a predicate or a

1 The information draws on the article from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predicate_(grammar). 2 Predicative is identified by some grammarians as “the clause element use element that characterizes the referent of some other clause element, either the subject (subject predicative) or the object.” (Biber et al., 2002:459) The corresponding term in the terminology that we have adopted is that of complement (subject complement or object complement).

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predication): She hoped that he would search the room carefully.

and he searched the room carefully/ and he did so.

The main subdivisions of the predicate are the operator (or first auxiliary performs an “operational” function in relating a positive declarative structure to another major structure in the language) and the predication. Not all simple statements have an operator, but when it occurs, it is normally the word which directly follows the subject.

He had given the girl an apple. [predicate made up of auxiliary and operator had + predication give the girl an apple]

Two predications can be joined by coordination: You should eat regularly and take more exercise. Someone has broken into the house and stolen the money.

The division of a clause into subject, operator and predication cuts across its division into S, V, O, C and A; this entertains two alternative constituent analyses of the same structure.

For Biber et al. (2002:459-460), the predicate also represents the 'logical center of a clause, consisting sometimes of a verb, and sometimes of a copular verb plus predicative: / thought he was there.

4.2. THE PREDICATE IN CATEGORIAL LOGIC In order to understand how the subject and verb are understood in logic, we need to define first categorical propositions in which they are used as terms. The categorical proposition is any statement of the form:

[quantifier: “all” or “some”] P [copula-phrase: “are” or “are not”] Q P and Q are predicates, that is, expressions that denote concepts. The first predicate (P) is the subject term of the proposition and the second predicate (Q) is the predicate term. SUBJECT TERM The subject term of a categorical proposition is the categorical term that occurs first in the proposition.

All men are mortal. – the predicate “all men” is the subject term. PREDICATE TERM The predicate term of a categorical proposition is the term that occurs second in the proposition.

All men are mortal. – the predicate “is mortal” is the predicate term.

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4.3. PREDICATES IN SEMANTICS The semantic analysis of simple declarative sentences reveals two major

semantic roles played by different subparts of the sentence. These are the role of predicator and the role(s) of argument(s), played by the referring expression(s).

Juan is Argentinian. predicator: Argentinian, argument: Juan Juan arrested Pablo. predicator: arrest, arguments: Juan, Pablo Juan took Pablo to Rio. predicator: take, arguments: Juan, Pablo, Rio

Simple declarative sentences typically contain one or more REFERRING EXPRESSIONS (any expression used in an utterance to refer to something or someone (or a clearly delimited collection of things or people), i.e. used with a particular referent in mind.

The PREDICATOR of a simple declarative sentence is the word (sometimes a group of words) which does not belong to any of the referring expressions and which, of the remainder, makes the most specific contribution to the meaning of the sentence.

Intuitively speaking, the predicator describes the state or process in which the referring expressions are involved.

Mummy is asleep. [asleep is the predicator and describes the state Mummy is in] The white man loved the Indian maiden. [love = predicator which describes the

process in which the two referring expressions the white man and the Indian maiden are involved]

Jimmy was waiting for the downtown bus. [predicator wait for describes the process involving Jimmy and the downtown bus] The predicators in sentences can be of various parts of speech:

adjectives (red, asleep, hungry, whimsical); The man who lives at number 10 Lee Crescent is whimsical. I am hungry.

verbs (write, stink, place); prepositions (in, between, behind);

The Royal Scottish Museum is behind Old College. Joe is in San Francisco.

nouns (crook, genius). The Mayor is a crook. Despite the obvious syntactic differences between these different types of words, semantically they all share the property of being able to function as the predicators of sentences. Words of other parts of speech, such as conjunctions (and, but, or) and articles (the, a), cannot serve as predicators in sentences.

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Practice In the following sentences, indicate the predicators and arguments: (1) Dennis is a menace predicator: ...................................... argument(s): ................... (2) Fred showed Jane his BMW Predicator: ...................................... argument(s): ................... (3) Donald is proud of his family predicator: ...................................... argument(s): ................... (4) The hospital is outside the city predicator: ...................................... argument(s): ...................

The semantic analysis of a sentence into predicator and argument(s) does not correspond in most cases to the traditional grammatical analysis of a sentence into subject and predicate, although there is some overlap between the semantic and the grammatical analyses. How does the concept of predicate in the semantic sense differ from the concept of grammatical predicate? The term ‘predicate’ in a semantic sense is similar to the one developed within Logic. A PREDICATE is any word (or sequence of words) which (in a given single sense) can function as the predicator of a sentence. Example hungry, in, crook, asleep, hit, show, bottle, are all predicates; and, or, but, not, are not predicates. A simple sentence only has one predicator, although it may well contain more than one instance of a predicate:

A tall, handsome stranger entered the saloon. This sentence has just one predicator, enter, but the sentence also contains the words tall, handsome, stranger, and saloon, all of which are predicates, and can function as predicators in other sentences:

John is tall. He is handsome. He is a stranger. That ramshackle building is a saloon.

To conclude, ‘predicate’ and ‘predicator’ in semantics are terms of quite different sorts.

The term ‘predicate’ identifies elements in the language system, independently of particular example sentences.

The term ‘predicator’ identifies the semantic role played by a particular word (or group of words) in a particular sentence. In this way, it is similar to the grammatical term ‘subject’: one can talk of the subject of a particular sentence, but it makes no sense to talk of a list of ‘the subjects of English’: similarly, one can talk of the ‘predicator’ in a particular sentence, but not list ‘the predicators of English’.

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4.4. VERB COMPLEMENTATION

4.4.1. DEFINITION AND TYPES COMPLEMENTATION3 Is 'part of a phrase or clause which follows a word, and completes the specification of a meaning relationship which that word implies'. Verbs may be classified into various types (transitive, intransitive, copular, etc) according to their complementation. Where no complementation occurs, the verb is said to have an INTRANSITIVE

use. Types of verb complementation and their variants (Quirk et al., 1985: 1170-1171)

[A] Copular: John is only a boy. [B] Monotransitive: I have caught a big fish. [C] Complex transitive: She called him a hero. [D] Ditransitive: He gave Mary a doll.

3 The term 'valency' (or 'valence') is sometimes used, instead of complementation, for the way in which a verb determines the kinds and number of elements that can accompany it in the clause. Valency, however, includes the subject of the clause, which is excluded from complementation.

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4.4.2. VERBS IN INTRANSITIVE FUNCTION Three types of verb may be mentioned in this category:

1. 'PURE' INTRANSITIVE VERBS, which do not take an object at all (or at least do so only very rarely): appear die fall happen rise come digress go lie wait

John has arrived. Your views do not matter.

2. VERBS WHICH CAN ALSO BE TRANSITIVE WITH THE SAME MEANING, and without a change in the subject-verb relationship. Informally, such verbs can be described as having an 'understood object': approach drive help pass win drink enter leave play write

He smokes (a pipe). I am reading (a book).

3. VERBS WHICH CAN ALSO BE TRANSITIVE, but where the semantic connection between subject and verb is different (from affected subject in intransitive to agentive in transitive):

Examples: begin close increase turn walk change drop move unite work

The door [affected subject] opened slowly. Mary [agentive] opened the door. The car stopped. He stopped the car.

This type also includes intransitive verbs with MUTUAL PARTICIPATION, as in: I have met you. ~ We have met. The bus collided with the car. ~ The bus and car collided.

There are also intransitive phrasal verbs such as: fall out ['quarrel'] pass away ['die'] pass out ['faint'] fall back ['retreat'] fall through ['fail'] make up ['end a quarrel'] pull up ['stop'] come to ['become conscious']

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4.4.3. COPULAR COMPLEMENTATION

[A1-A2] Adjective and noun phrase as subject complement

A verb has COPULAR complementation when it is followed by a subject complement or a predication adjunct and when this element cannot be dropped without changing the meaning of the verb. Such verbs are COPULAR (or linking) VERBS, the most common of which is the copula be.

Copular verbs fall into two main classes, depending on the role of the subject complement:

CURRENT ATTRIBUTE: The girl seemed very restless. RESULTING ATTRIBUTE: The girl became very restless.

The most common copular verbs are listed below. Those that are used only with adjective phrases are followed by '[A]':

CURRENT copulas: appear, be, feel, look, seem, smell [A], sound, taste [A] RESULTING copulas: become, get [A], go [A], grow [A], prove, turn

After certain copulas (appear, feel, look, seem, sound), both AmE and BrE prefer an infinitive construction with to be rather than simply a noun phrase: It appears to be the only solution. Some copulas are restricted as to the words that may occur in their complement. Here are some examples, with typical adjective complements: fall (silent), plead (innocent), rest (assured), run (wild), spring (open).

[A3] Complementation by adverbials

The principal copula that allows an adverbial as complementation is be. The adverbials are mainly space adjuncts {e.g.: The kitchen is downstairs) but time adjuncts are common with an eventive subject (e.g.: The party will be at nine) and other types of adjunct are possible too (e.g.: She is in good health). Two other copula verbs that occur with space adjuncts are get (e.g.: How did you get here?) and keep (e.g.: They kept out of trouble).

With intransitive verbs such as live, come, go, lie, remain, stand, and stay, the adverbial is not always clearly obligatory:

My aunt lives in Toronto. They are staying nearby. Come over here.

The verbs seem, appear, look, sound, feel, smell, and taste may be complemented by an adverbial clause beginning as if or as though: It seems as if the weather is improving. Behave is complemented by a manner adverbial (He behaved badly) and last and take by a duration adverbial (The course lasted (for) three months).

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4.4.4. MONOTRANSITIVE COMPLEMENTATION

Monotransitive verbs require a direct object, which may be a noun phrase, a finite clause, or a nonfinite clause. We include in this category, for our present purposes, type I prepositional verbs such as look at and type I phrasal-prepositional verbs such as put up with.

[B1-B2] Noun phrase as direct object

Direct objects are typically noun phrases that may become the subject of a corresponding passive clause:

Everybody understood the problem. ~ The problem was understood (by everyone).

Some common examples of the numerous monotransitive verbs that may be used in the passive: believe, bring, call, close, do, enjoy, feel, find, get, hear, help, keep, know, lose, love, make, need, receive, remember, see, take, use, win.

A few stative monotransitive verbs (some in particular senses) normally do not allow the passive. These MIDDLE VERBS include have, fit, suit, resemble, equal, mean ('Oculist' means 'eye doctor'), contain, hold (The hall holds over three hundred people), comprise, lack.

They have a large house. ~*A large house is had (by them).

There are also monotransitive phrasal verbs which take a direct object and can be used in the passive: bring about, put off.

Noun phrase as prepositional object

The prepositional object of prepositional verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs resembles the direct object in accepting the passive (though often with some awkwardness in style) and in being elicited by a pronoun in questions:

The management paid for his airfares. ~His airfares were paid for by the management. ~ What did the management pay for?

Your sister has checked up on me. ~/have been checked up on by your sister. ~ Who(m) has your sister checked up on?

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COMPLEMENTATION BY A FINITE CLAUSE

[B3] THAT-clause as object The conjunction that in that-clauses functioning as object is optional, as in I hope

(that) he arrives soon; but when the clause is made the passive subject, the conjunction is obligatory. The normal passive analogue has // and extraposition, that being again to some extent optional:

Everybody hoped (that) she would sing. ~That she would sing was hoped by everybody.~It was hoped by everybody (that) she would sing.

We distinguish four categories of verbs that are complemented by that-clauses: A. Factual verbs

FACTUAL verbs are followed by a that-clause with an indicative verb: They agreed that she was misled.

There are two subtypes: Public factual verbs (consist of speech act verbs introducing indirect

statements): admit, agree, announce, argue, bet, claim, complain, confess, declare, deny, explain, guarantee, insist, mention, object, predict, promise, reply, report, say, state, suggest, swear, warn, write.

Private factual verbs (express intellectual states and intellectual acts that are not observable): believe, consider, decide, doubt, expect, fear, feel, forget, guess, hear, hope, know, notice, presume, realize, recognize, remember, see, suppose, think, understand.

B. Suasive verbs Examples of suasive verbs: agree, ask, command, decide, demand, insist, intend,

move, order, prefer, propose, recommend, request, suggest, urge. SUASIVE verbs are followed by:

a that-clause either with putative should (preferred in BrE) or with the subjunctive;

a that-clause with an indicative verb, occurs, though more commonly in BrE: People are demanding that he leave/we should leave/ leaves (esp BrE) the company.

A common alternative to the that-clause for some suasive verbs is an infinitive clause:

They intended that the news be suppressed/ should) be suppressed. C. Emotive verbs are followed by a that-clause with either the indicative or

putative should: I regret that she worries about it. It surprises me that he should worry about it. This group of verbs includes annoy, concern, marvel, rejoice, regret, surprise,

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wonder, worry. D. Hypothesis verbs comprise wish, suppose (in the imperative), and the modal

idiom would rather or its contraction 'd rather:

I wish (that) she were here.

Complementation by an extraposed subject THAT-clause

The to-clause in examples like It seems (that) you are mistaken is an extraposed subject, not an object of the verb. It resembles other that-clauses in previous sections in that the conjunction is optional and the clause is obligatory. The verb in the THAT-clause is indicative: It appears (that) you have lost your temper.

Common verbs in this pattern include seem, appear, and happen, and the phrasal verbs come about ['happen'] and turn out ['transpire'].

[B4] Wh-clause as object

Many of the factual verbs which can take a that-clause as object can also take a wh-interrogative clause.

I don't know if we can get there in time. Have you heard whether she's coming with us? I doubt whether the flight has been booked.

The use of the wh-interrogative clause (which generally implies lack of knowledge on the part of the speaker) is particularly common where the superordinate clause is interrogative or negative. But verbs that themselves express uncertainty, such as ask and doubt, occur without this nonassertive constraint.

Examples of verbs taking the WH-interrogative clause: ask, care, decide, depend, doubt, explain, forget, hear, know, mind, notice, prove, realize, remember, say, see, tell, think, wonder.

NONFINITE CLAUSES AS DIRECT OBJECT

[B5-B9] We distinguish five types of nonfinite clauses that function as direct object in monotransitive complementation:

(1) TO-infinitive clause: The Curies discovered how to isolate radioactive elements. (2) subjectless infinitive clause: Ruth prefers to go by bus. (3) subjectless -ing participle clause: They like talking about their work. (4) To-infinitive clause with subject: Charles wants you to stand for election. (5) -ing participle clause with subject: I hate them/ their gossiping about our colleagues.

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When the nonfinite clause has no subject - as in (1), (2), and (3) - its implied subject is usually identical with that of the superordinate clause.

The status of these clauses as direct object is confirmed when they are replaced by a coreferential pronoun it or that; for the example sentence in (1): The Curies discovered that. Another indication of their status is that they can be made the focus of a pseudo-cleft sentence: What Ruth prefers is to go by bus.

Many monotransitive verbs take more than one type of nonfinite complementation. Common verbs are listed below for the five types:

decide, discuss, explain, forget, know, learn, remember, say, see, tell, think.

ask, dislike, forget, hate, help, hope, learn, like, love, need, offer. prefer, promise, refuse, remember, try, want, wish.

(can't) bear, dislike, enjoy, forget, hate, (can't) help, like. love, (not) mind, miss, need, prefer, remember, (can't) stand, start, stop.

(can't) bear, dislike, hate, like, love, prefer, want, wish. Where both infinitive clauses - (2) and (4) - and participle clauses - (3) and (5) -are

admitted, several factors influence the choice. The infinitive is biased towards potentiality and is therefore favoured in hypothetical and nonfactual contexts (Would you like to see my stamp collection?), whereas the participle is favoured in factual contexts (Brian loathed living in the country). For the three retrospective verbs forget, remember, and regret this potentiality/performance distinction is extended into the past:

I remembered to fill out the form. [I remembered that I was to fill out the form and then did so.'] I remembered filling out the form. [I remembered that I had filled out the form.']

[a] Monotransitive prepositional verbs are found in all five types. The preposition is optionally omitted in (1) and obligatorily omitted in (2):

(1) I couldn't decide (on) which bicycle to buy. (2) She decided to buy a bicycle. (3) She decided on buying a bicycle. (4) We longed for the lesson to end. (5) Don't count on their helping you.

[b] For the verbs deserve, need, and require in type (3), the implied object of the participle is identical with the subject of the superordinate clause: Your shoes need mending (Your shoes need to be mended).

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4.4.5. COMPLEX-TRANSITIVE COMPLEMENTATION

[C1-C2] In COMPLEX-TRANSITIVE complementation, the two elements following the complex-transitive verb have a subject-predicate relationship:

She considered her mother a sensible woman. [1] She considered her mother to be a sensible woman. [2]

The relationship between the elements her mother and a sensible woman in [1] and [2] is equivalent to the same elements in the subordinate finite clause in [3]:

She considered that her mother was a sensible woman. [3]

Yet the passive suggests that the two elements in [1] and [2] are not a single constituent, since the first element- as direct object- is separated from the second element and becomes the passive subject:

Her mother was considered (by her) < to be) a sensible woman.

Direct object and object complement

In the clausal pattern SVOC, object complement is an adjective phrase or a noun phrase.

The attribute role of the object complement may be CURRENT, as in [1] and [2]. or RESULTING, as in [3] and [4]:

The secretary left all the letters unopened. [1] I have often wished myself a millionaire. [2] The long walk made us all hungry. [3] The committee has elected you its chairman. [4]

The direct object can be made the passive subject:

All the letters were left unopened (by the secretary). [la]

Many verbs admit both adjective phrases and noun phrases as object complements. The most common verbs for this construction are listed below. Those used only with adjective phrases are followed by '[A]', and those used only with noun phrases are followed by '[N]': appoint [N], believe, call, choose [N], consider, declare, elect \N],find, get [A], like [A], make, name [N], prefer [A], think, want [A].

For some verbs, the object complement is optional; eg: elect in The committee has elected you (its chairman).

Prepositional verbs, mainly with the preposition as, take a prepositional object complement; eg: They described her as a genius; He took me for a fool. Sometimes the preposition is optional; eg: They elected me (as) their leader.

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Common examples of these prepositional verbs follow, with those taking an optional preposition listed first: choose (as), consider (as), elect (as) [N], make (into) [N]; accept as, define as, intend as [N], mistake for, regard as, see as, take as/for, treat as, use as.

The SVOC pattern includes a number of verb-adjective collocations; for example: boil (an egg) hard, buy [N] cheap, freeze [N] hard, paint [N] red/blue ..., knock (someone) senseless. The adjectives open, loose, free, and clean are particularly common: push [N] open, shake [N] loose, set \N]free, wipe [N] clean.

The object is generally postposed by extraposition if it is a that-clause, and an anticipatory it then precedes the object complement: I think it very odd that nobody is in.

The collocations make sure and make certain are followed by an object that-clause without anticipatory it: Please make sure that you enclose your birth certificate.

[C3] Direct object and adjunct

In the SVOA pattern, the complex-transitive verb is complemented by a direct object followed by a predication adjunct. The adjuncts are characteristically prepositional phrases of direction or metaphorical extensions of the notion of direction:

I slipped the key into the lock. Take your hands out of your pockets. May I see you to your seat ['escort you . . .'] He stood my argument on its head.

Space position adjuncts also occur in this construction: Always keep your eyes on the road when driving. The attackers caught us off our

guard. The passive of this construction is exemplified for this last sentence: We were caught off our guard (by the attackers). Adjuncts of other semantic types are less common, but they include a manner adjunct with treat (Her parents treated her badly).

[C4] Direct object and to-infinitive clause

Some of the verbs taking a direct object and /o-infinitive clause in complex-transitive complementation correspond to the factual verbs that take a that-clause with an indicative verb:

The police reported the traffic to be heavy, (formal) = The police reported that the traffic was heavy. John believed the stranger to be" a policeman, (formal) = John believed that the stranger was a policeman.

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In such cases, the infinitive clause normally contains a verb used statively, especially be. The finite clause is preferred in normal usage, but the infinitive clause provides a convenient passive form: The traffic was reported to be heavy. Common factual verbs: believe, consider, expect, feel, find, know, suppose. Nonfactual verbs include verbs of intention, causation, modality, and purpose:

They intended Maria to sing an aria. The meeting elected her to be the next treasurer. My contract allows me to take one month's leave. Our teachers encouraged us to think for ourselves.

Common nonfactual verbs: allow, appoint, cause, compel, condemn, dare, get, help, intend, mean, permit, require.

Some verbs in this construction occur only in the passive: rumour, say, see. The field marshal was said to be planning a new strategy.

Others occur chiefly in the passive: repute, dunk. The verb get is not found in the passive. Examples of multi-word verbs in this pattern are the prepositional verbs count on, depend on, rely on; the phrasal verb make out: and the phrasal-prepositional verb keep on at.

[C5] Direct object and bare infinitive clause

Two small groups of verbs take this pattern of complex-transitive complementation: three causative verbs (have, let, make) and some perceptual verbs of seeing and hearing (feel, hear, notice, observe, overhear, see, watch). In addition, help and <esp. BrE> know may occur with the bare infinitive or the to-infinitive.

They had me repeat the message. You shouldn't let your family interfere with our plans. We must make the public take notice of us. Did you notice anyone leave the house! The crowd saw Gray score two goals. Sarah helped us (to) edit the script.

The passive normally requires a To-infinitive: John must be made to take notice of us. Certain verbs in this pattern do not occur in the passive: feel, have, let, watch. There is an apparent passive in let fall and let go (They were let go/fall), but these are fixed expressions. Only let has a passive of the infinitive clause (They let themselves be led away). Corresponding passives of the infinitive clause with verbs of perception require a copula, usually being (The crowd watched two goals being scored), see also admits a passive construction formed with the -ed participle without be (The crowd saw two goals scored), which is the only passive if the verb is have (They had the message repeated).

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[C6] Direct object and -ing participle clause

Three small groups of verbs take this type of complex-transitive complementation: perceptual verbs, many of which also occur with the bare infinitive (feel, hear, notice, observe, overhear, perceive, see, smell, spot, spy, watch), verbs of encounter (catch, discover, find, leave), and the two causative verbs get and have.

This complementation pattern differs from the monotransitive pattern in that the noun phrase following the superordinate verb cannot take the genitive case:

I saw him lying on the beach. *I saw his lying on the beach.

The passive with this pattern is regular:

We could hear the rain splashing on the roof. ~The rain could be heard splashing on the roof.

A teacher caught them smoking in the playground. ~They were caught smoking in the playground (by a teacher).

[C7] Direct object and -ed participle clause

Three small groups of verbs occur with this type of complex-transitive complementation: perceptual verbs (see, hear, feel, watch), volitional verbs (like, need, want), and the two causative verbs get and have:

Someone must have seen the car stolen. I want this watch repaired immediately. She had the car cleaned.

For some verbs there are corresponding constructions with an infinitive copular verb, generally be: I want this watch to be repaired immediately. Since the participle clause is passive, the superordinate clause is not normally in the passive: The car must have been seen stolen.

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4.4.6. DITRANSITIVE COMPLEMENTATION

[D1] Noun phrases as both indirect and direct object

Ditransitive complementation in its basic form involves two object noun phrases: an indirect object, which is normally animate and positioned first, and a direct object, which is normally inanimate:

He gave the girl a doll

S V Oj Od

Most ditransitive verbs can also be monotransitive. The indirect object can often be omitted: She may give (us) a large donation. With a few verbs (eg: ask, pay, teach, tell, show) either object can be omitted:

He taught us physics. ~ He taught us. ~ He taught physics.

Some ditransitive verbs have two passive analogues, which we distinguish as 'first' and 'second': The girl was given a doll. [FIRST PASSIVE] A doll was given the girl. [SECOND PASSIVE]

Of these two, the first passive, in which the indirect object becomes subject, is the more common. The prepositional paraphrase is more usual. as an alternative, than the second passive: A doll was given to the girl. We list ditransitive verbs together with their prepositional paraphrases.

[D2] Object and prepositional object There are numerous ditransitive verbs that take a prepositional object as the second object:

We addressed our remarks to the children. [1] We reminded him of the agreement. [2]

Ditransitive verbs with prepositional objects normally have only the first passive: Our remarks were addressed to the children. [la] He was reminded of the agreement. [2a]

Here are examples of ditransitive prepositional verbs:

accuse of introduce to advise about persuade of charge with prevent from compare with protect from congratulate on punish for deprive of sentence to explain to suspect of inform of thank for interest in treat to

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Some verbs allow more than one preposition. The different possibilities provide a means of achieving different end-focus:

Sidney provided Justin with a Danish apple pastry. ~ Sidney provided a Danish apple pastry for Justin.

Most ditransitive verbs that take two noun phrases as objects can also be paraphrased with a prepositional object equivalent to the indirect object.

Robert read me a chapter. ~ Robert read a chapter to me. I gave Justin some of my shirts. ~ I gave some of my shirts to Justin.

We list some common ditransitive verbs that allow both possibilities. Those in list (1) take the preposition to and those in list (2) take the preposition for. (1) bring, deny, give, hand, lend, offer, owe, promise, read, send, show,

teach, throw; (2) find, make, order, save, spare

A few ditransitive prepositional verbs (e.g.: pay, serve, tell) take one of two prepositions. In one the prepositional object is equivalent to the indirect object, in the other to the direct object: Doris told David her version of the events. ~ Doris told her version of the events to David. ~ Doris told David about her version of the events.

A few other verbs (eg: envy, excuse, forgive) have a prepositional object (introduced by for) that is equivalent to the direct object:

Matthew envied me my video-recorder. ~ Matthew envied me for my video-recorder.

[b] Ask takes the preposition of to introduce a prepositional object that is equivalent to the indirect object:

Robert asked Benjamin a favour. ~ Robert asked a favour of Benjamin.

[c] A few ditransitive verbs do not have prepositional paraphrases: allow, charge. fine, refuse.

[D3] Indirect object and that-clause object Some ditransitive verbs take as direct object a that-clause: Natalie convinced Derek (that) she was right. [1]

Only the first passive is acceptable: Derek was convinced (by Natalie) (that) she was right. [la]

With some verbs, including convince, the indirect object cannot be omitted.

If the that-clause introduces an indirect statement, it contains an indicative verb: Ava told Jack that dinner was ready.

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If it introduces an indirect directive, there are several options: the verb may be indicative or subjunctive, and often contains putative should or another modal auxiliary:

A dozen students petitioned the college chef that he provides/ should provide/ might provide them with vegetarian meals.

The indirect directive construction is rare and formal in comparison with the equivalent infinitive construction: A dozen students petitioned the college chef to provide them with vegetarian meals.

We list common verbs that take an indirect object and (a) a that clause object as indirect statement: advise, bet, convince, inform, persuade, promise, remind, show, teach, tell, warn, write: (b) a THAT-clause as indirect directive: ask, beg, command, instruct, order, persuade, tell.

Prepositional object and that-clause object

Some ditransitive prepositional verbs take a prepositional object and a that-clause:

Estelle mentioned (to me) that her daughter was getting married. Philip recommended (to me) that I buy Harrods malt whisky.

As shown by the parentheses, the prepositional phrase is optional. Some of the ditransitive verbs listed can be optionally followed by a preposition: Jonathan wrote (to) me that he was going to a summer camp this year. Unlike the verbs, ditransitive prepositional verbs allow the THAT-clause to become subject of a corresponding passive clause, more acceptably with extraposition:

That David was innocent has been proved by Jonathan. ~It has been proved (by Jonathan) that David was innocent.

We list examples where (a) the THAT-clause is an indirect statement, and (b) it is an indirect directive:

(a) admit, announce, complain, confess, explain, mention, point out, prove, remark, report, say, write (to) ;

(b) ask (of), propose, recommend, suggest. [D4] Indirect object and wh-clause object The second object may be a finite wh-clause:

Martin asked me what time the meeting would end. Wendy didn't tell me whether she had phoned earlier. Besides ask and tell, the verbs used in this construction are those listed in group (a). A preposition, usually optional, may precede the wh-clause: Would you remind me (about) how we start the engine?

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Some of the verbs also take a to-infinitive clause as second object: She advised us what to wear for the party. Prepositional verbs also appear in this pattern: Could you please suggest to me which museums to visit? [D6] Indirect object and to-infinitive clause object

This pattern is used with verbs that introduce indirect directives. Only the indirect object can be made subject of the corresponding passive construction:

I persuaded Mark to see a doctor. [1] Mark was persuaded to see a doctor. [la]

The subject of the superordinate clause (/in [1]) refers to the speaker of a speech act, and the indirect object refers to the addressee (Mark in [1]). The implied subject of the infinitive clause is generally identified with the indirect object (I persuaded Mark that he should see a doctor). Here is a list of common verbs used in this pattern: advise, ask, beg, command, entreat, forbid, implore, instruct, invite, order, persuade, remind, request, recommend, teach, tell, urge. With some superordinate verbs, the infinitive clause may be replaced in rather formal style by a THAT-clause containing a modal or a subjunctive:

I persuaded Mark that he should see a doctor.

The verb promise is exceptional in that the implied subject of the infinitive clause is the superordinate subject: I promised Howard to take two shirts for his father (I promised Howard that I would take two shirts for his father').

BIBLIOGRAPHY Biber D.; Johansson, S.; Leech, G., Conrad, S. (2002): Longman Student Grammar of

Written and Spoken English, Longman (Pearson Education Ltd), London Cook, Roy T. (2009): A Dictionary of Philosophical Logic, Edinburgh, Edinburgh

University Press Greenbaum, Sidney and Quirk, Randolph (1990): A Student's Grammar of the English

Language, Pearson Education Ltd Hurford, James; Heasley, Brendan; Smith, Michael (2007): Semantics. A Coursebook,

New York, Oxford University Press Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., Svartvik, J. (1985): A Comprehensive Grammar of

the English Language, London, New York, Longman Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predicate_(grammar)

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5. COMPLEMENTS

In grammar, the term complement is used with different meanings. The primary meaning is a word, phrase or clause which is necessary in a sentence to complete its meaning. We find complements which function as sentence elements and complements which exist within sentence elements.

5.1. PREDICATIVE COMPLEMENTS

In linguistics, complement refers only to the predicative complement1. The term predicate complement refers to the fact that the predication depends on the attribution of a subject and its predicator. The predicative complement consists of few contrasting varieties:

Object complement (common complement); Predicative noun or nominal predicative complement (nominal, pronominal that follows a

linking verb and explains or identifies the subject of the sentence; common in SUB or OBJ complement);

o George is king of England. Predicative adjective (or adjectival following a linking verb that describes the subject and

is connected with it; common in subject complement); o Jenny is attractive. Roses are red.

Predicative adverb (or adverbial, common in intransitive predication); Predicative adjunct (optional complement).

5.1.1. Subject and object complements These are the types of complements expanded upon in Quirk et al. (1985) and the ones that we will be dealing with in this course unit. Both complements are in a copular relationship with another clause element. The subject complement relates to the subject, and the verb is copular.

My glass is empty. Their daughter has become an accountant.

The object complement relates to the direct object: We find them very pleasant. Carol made Joshua and Peter her assistants.

The implied relationship between the object and the object complement can be expressed by means of a corresponding SVC sentence with a copular verb (be if the object complement is a current attribute and become if it is a resulting attribute):

They are very pleasant. Joshua and Peter became her assistants. 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complement_(linguistics).

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5.1.2. Syntactic features and semantic properties a) FORM The complement is normally a noun phrase or an adjective phrase, but it may also be a nominal clause. It is a defining characteristic of complements, in contrast to objects, that they may be adjective phrases. b) POSITION The subject complement normally follows the subject and the verb. The object complement normally follows the direct object. c) SYNTACTIC FUNCTION (i) If it is a noun phrase, the subject complement normally has concord of number with the subject, and the object complement normally has concord of number with the direct object. (ii) If it is a reflexive pronoun, the subject complement has concord of number, person and, where relevant, gender with the subject:

She is not herself 'today. (iii) Unlike the object, the complement cannot become the subject of a corresponding passive clause. There is no corresponding passive clause for the SVC type. With the SVOC type, the direct object can of course be made the subject of a passive clause: His friends call him Ted. [Ted is C0] ~ He is called Ted by his friends. [Ted is Cs] (iv) If the subject complement is a pronoun, there is a distinction between subjective and objective forms; the subjective form is more prevalent in formal use (especially in AmE):

This is he. <formal> That's him. d) SEMANTIC PROPERTIES The complement typically identifies or characterizes the referent of the clause element to which it is related. With some verbs, object complements can be omitted:

We appointed her our delegate to the convention. ~ We appointed her. They have named their baby Roger. ~ They have named their baby.

The object complement cannot be the normal reflexive pronoun, but it can have a corresponding form with self/ selves:

I did not find them their usual selves.

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5.2. SUBJECT COMPLEMENTS A subject complement tells more about the subject by means of the verb. In the examples below the sentence elements are (SUBJECT + VERB + COMPLEMENT)

Mr. Johnson is a management consultant. (nominal) She looks ill. (adjectival)

In grammar, a subject complement is a phrase or clause that follows a linking verb (copula) and complements, or completes, the subject of the sentence by:

1) renaming it by a noun which is a way of mirroring the subject; 2) describing it by a describing adjective.

Subject complements are used with linking verbs or copulative verbs, of which to be is the most common. They are not affected by the action of the verb, and they describe or explain the subject.

The lake was a tranquil pool. [was is a linking verb that links the subject complement tranquil pool to the subject lake]

5.2.1. The subject complement can be expressed by the following parts of speech: 1) a noun phrase (nominative/ genitive case) She is a dark-haired woman. The house is my father’s. 2) predicative adjectives a) exclusively predicative adjectives:

- “adverb-like” adjectives prefixed by “a-“: ablaze, afloat, afraid, akin, alike, alone, asleep: There are some kids who are afraid of the dark. - “prepositional adjectives”: Over the years we've grown very fond of each other. (* fond people) Some plants are very prone to disease. (* prone plants)

b) “pseudo-adjectives” (depending on the type of noun they determine, some adjectives can be used in a predicate position or not).

She gave a very civil answer. – Her answer was very civil. He specializes in civil engineering. – *The engineering is civil.

c) from present/ past participles of attitudinal verbs (to please, to frighten, to puzzle, to horrify) Driving in big cities can be frightening for many people. I was frightened of being left by myself in the house.

d) compound –en adjectives (prefixed by adverbs) that cannot be traced back to active sources: well-behaved, ill-behaved.

He has been ill-behaved since his mother left. 3) personal, possessive, indefinite or interrogative pronouns

It was me calling about the advertisement.

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This house is mine. This is indeed something. What are the charges against him?

4) prepositional phrase I was out of breath. His father is of a sound mind. This dress was (of) the right size. This building is (from) 17th century.

5) cardinal/ ordinal numeral They were nine. I was the second in my class.

6) finite verb phrase The idea is1/ that they have been living in this house for ages. 2/ (1 = main clause, subordinate clause, introduced by the conjunction that) His departure means 1/ what we all wanted. 2/ (1 = main clause; 2 = subordinate clause, introduced by the relative pronoun what)

7) nonfinite verb phrase, infinitival construction The problem is1/ to convince him 2/ to come with us. 3/ (1 = main clause; 2 = clause, nonfinite verb: infinitive; 3 = adverbial clause of purpose)

8) non-finite verb phrase, gerundial construction His dream was1/ wandering through the world. 2/ (1 = main clause; 2 = predicative clause, nonfinite verb: gerund)

5.2.2. Nominal subject complement The verb be is the principal copula used in this pattern:

William is my friend. Oslo seems a pleasant city. It appears the only solution. ~ It appears to be the only solution.

There is also, especially in informal Am. E., a tendency to prefer a construction in which a copular verb is followed by like:

It seems like the only solution.

CURRENT RESULTING (i) be (my friend) (iv) become (an expert) (ii) appear (the only solution) end up (her slave) feel (a fool) prove (his equal) look (a fine day) turn out (a success/ a disaster) seem (a genius) sound1 (a reasonable idea)

(iii) remain (good friends)

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Notes [a] With a noun phrase compIement feel has the meaning 'have the sensation of being...'; but with an adjective complement, it has not only this meaning (as in She fell ill), but also the meaning of 'cause a sensation...', as in The table felt rough. [b]The noun phrase following act as, count as, pose as, pass for and similar combinations is in a copular relation with the subject, and these combinations may be reasonably described as 'copular prepositional verbs' on the analogy of intransitive and transitive prepositional verbs. Corresponding to these constructions with current meaning are resulting copular prepositional verbs such as change into, grow into, and turn into, with the general meaning of 'become'. Note the near-synonymy of He turned traitor and He turned into a traitor. [c] One or two verbs such as make and part can appear with a noun phrase complement, but not with an adjective phrase complement:

They parted the best of friends. They make a charming couple.

5.2.3. Adjectival subject complement Copular verbs fall into two main classes, according to whether the subject complement has the role of CURRENT ATTRIBUTE or of RESULTING ATTRIBUTE. The distinction is illustrated below with an adjectival complement:

CURRENT: The girl seemed very restless. RESULTING: The girl became very restless.

The following is a fairly full list of verbs regularly used in this pattern, together with typical adjectival complements:

CURRENT RESULTING (i) be (friendly) [N] (iv) become (older) [N] (ii) appear (happy) [N] come (true) feel (annoyed) [N] end up (happy) [N] look (pretty) [N] Set (ready) seem (very restless) [N] SO (sour) smell (sweet) grow (tired) sound (surprised) [N] Prove (rather useful) [N] taste (bitter) turn (cold) [N] remain (uncertain) [N] turn out (fortunate) [N] keep (silent) stay (motionless) [N]

End up, turn out, and wind up are copular phrasal verbs. The verbs marked [N] in the list also occur with a noun phrase complement.

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Some examples are given below, with typical adjective complements:

CURRENT RESULTING (v) burn (low) (vi) blush (bright red) stand up (straight) fall (silent) loom (large) fall down (dead) play (rough) [N] freeze (solid) plead (innocent) run (wild) rest (assured) slam (shut) stand (firm) [N] spring (open)

5.2.4. Adverbial complement Adverbials are usually adjuncts (i.e. they can be removed and a well-formed sentence remains). If, however, an adverbial is a necessary sentence element, then it is an adverbial complement. Adverbial complements often occur with a form of the copula be acting as a clause's main verb. The structure of the sentence below is (SUBJECT + VERB + ADVERBIAL COMPLEMENT)

The milk seems off. ['sour'] <informal> The performance is over. In technology we are ahead. I am behind in my rent. The television is still on. He imagined himself ahead. I declare this meeting over. They let us off.

5.2.5. Prepositional complement As complementation of a verb or an adjective, the preposition is more closely related to the preceding word (look at, sorry for), which determines its choice, than to the prepositional complement.

We were looking at his awful paintings. I'm sorry for his parents.

That-clauses can often become in effect prepositional complements through the use of an appositive construction with a 'general' noun such as fact often resulting in a rather clumsy expression:

They convinced him of the fact that they needed more troops. The distinction between obligatory adjunct and complement is not clear-cut for all prepositional phrases.

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Some prepositional phrases are semantically similar to adjective or noun phrases functioning as complement:

They were out of breath. That is of no importance. He is under suspicion. She is in good health. They are not at ease.

More importantly, such prepositional phrases can be coordinated with, or placed in apposition with, adjective phrases that undoubtedly function as complement:

She is young and in good health. They were out of breath and extremely tired. They are not at ease, ie not relaxed.

Here are other examples of prepositional phrases functioning as subject complement: They are in love. We're over the worst. The demonstration got out of hand. He feels at home. That child seems in trouble. I don't feel up to it. The house seems in good condition. He sounds in great danger.

We similarly find prepositional phrases functioning as object complement: They put me at my ease. ['I'm at my ease.'] I don't consider myself at risk. He didn't feel himself at home. She didn't want me in any danger. He imagined himself on the point of death. I found him in trouble.

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5.3. OBJECT COMPLEMENTS

An object complement tells us more about the object by means of the verb. In the examples below the sentence elements are (SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT + COMPLEMENT). Object complements can often be removed leaving a well-formed sentence, thus the use of the term complement is slightly illogical.

We elected him chairman. We painted the house red.

An object complement can be a noun, pronoun, or adjective that follows and modifies a direct object. It can describe, clarify, re-name, or show completion of a process. It is most often used with verbs involving judgment, nomination, or creation.

My son painted his room blue. (Blue modifies the direct object room.) The clown made the children very excited. (The participle excited describes children.)

Prepositional phrases functioning as object complement: They put me at my ease. ['I'm at my ease.'] I don't consider myself at risk. She didn't want me in any danger. He didn't feel himself at home. I found him in trouble.

Object complement following prepositional verb The preposition as designates a copular relation, particularly in specifying a role or status associated with the direct object:

The church condemned the relic as a fraud. Following a complex transitive verb and a direct object, the prepositional complement may be termed a 'prepositional object complement' in the same way as the noun phrase following a transitive prepositional verb is called a prepositional object:

He was considered a genius/ to be a genius./ We considered him as a genius/ to be a genius.

Consider as, like regard as, class as, etc, therefore exemplifies a type of prepositional verb followed by a prepositional object complement rather than a prepositional object. Occasionally the preposition for occurs in this copular function, instead of as:

He took these words as evidence. He took me for a fool. Most verbs can also introduce an adjective phrase in the function of prepositional object complement:

The experts rated his paintings (as) poor but representative of their class. They classed Jane as partially sighted.

A more acceptable construction is obtained by adding the word being before the adjective phrase, and thereby converting the prepositional complement into a nominal -ing clause:

The media described the situation as being hopeless.

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5.4. SEMANTIC ROLE OF COMPLEMENTS

The word "attribute" can refer to:

In philosophy, property, an abstraction of a characteristic of an entity or substance; In art, an object that identifies a figure, most commonly referring to objects held by saints

- see emblem; In social sciences, a characteristic of a variable; In linguistics, a syntax unit, either a word, phrase or clause, that modifies a noun.

The typical semantic role of a subject complement and an object complement is that of ATTRIBUTE. We can distinguish two subtypes of role for the attribute: IDENTIFICATION:

Kevin is my brother. Brenda became their accountant. His response to the reprimand seemed a major reason for his dismissal. Henry's room is the one next to mine.

CHARACTERIZATION: Dwight is an honest man. The soup is too hot. Martha was a good student. Daniel remains helpful. The operation seemed a success.

Three syntactic features are associated with this semantic distinction: (a) Only identification attributes normally allow reversal of subject and complement without affecting

the semantic relations in the clause, if the copula is BE: Kevin is my brother. ~ My brother is Kevin.

(b) Only characterization attributes can also be realized by adjective phrases. (c) Identification attributes are normally associated with definite noun phrases. Noun phrases used as characterization attributes are normally indefinite.

I made Maurice my assistant. ~ Maurice is my assistant. ~ My assistant is Maurice. IDENTIFICATION: They called their daughter Edna. She considers Susan her role model. We made John our representative. CHARACTERIZATION: The teacher called their daughter a good student. I consider the operation a success. She made them comfortable.

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We can further subdivide attributes into current or existing attributes (normally with verbs used statively) and resulting attributes, resulting from the event described by the verb (with verbs used dynamically). Here are examples of the distinction for both subject and object complements:

CURRENT ATTRIBUTE He's my brother. She remained silent. He seems unhappy. I want my food hot. We lay quiet. I prefer my coffee black. We felt cold. They consider me their closest friend. RESULTING ATTRIBUTE We became restless. They elected him president. He turned traitor. The heat turned the milk sour. He felt ill. He drives me mad.

Notes [a] If the identification attribute is a noun phrase with an optionally omitted determiner, subject-complement reversal cannot occur:

Joan is president of the company. Contrast: Joan is the president of the company. ~ The president of the company is Joan.

[b] A subject complement may be realized by a genitive noun phrase: That writing must be Tom's. [subjective genitive – agentive role] That newspaper is mine. [possessive genitive – recipient] The idea was Kathy's. [genitive of attribute – recipient]

[c] The notion of characterization extends to various measure and extent phrases: Now she is thirteen (years old). The paperback is three dollars.

He is six foot (tail). The envelope is one ounce.

Similar to these are expressions that denote time or period: It's five o'clock. I'm your age. The house is seventeenth century ['seventeenth-century style'].

Bibliography Cmeciu, Camelia (2007): Lectures on Concepts of English Syntax, Ed. EduSoft, Bacău. Greenbaum, Sidney and Quirk, Randolph (1990): A Student's Grammar of the English Language,

Pearson Education Ltd Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., Svartvik, J. (1985): A Comprehensive Grammar of the English

Language, London, New York, Longman Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complement http://www.ldc.upenn.edu/Catalog/docs/LDC2006T01/manuals/en/t-layer/html/ch06s10s01.html http://www.ldc.upenn.edu/Catalog/docs/LDC2006T01/manuals/en/t-layer/html/ch06s10s02.html

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6. OBJECTS

6.1. DEFINITIONS & CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF OBJECTS

In grammar, the object denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb.

Objects fall into three classes: direct objects, prepositional objects, and non-prepositional indirect objects1.

Some grammarians apply the term 'object' exclusively to the first (or only) object; Others apply the term 'direct object' to an indirect object if it is the only object (e.g.:

you in I'll show you or his children in He's teaching his children); Likewise, the term 'indirect object' is applied to the corresponding prepositional

phrases (e.g.: for me in Pour a drink for me), though it seems more reasonable to use the term 'prepositional object' for such phrases.

6.1.1. Criteria for direct and indirect objects a. Form The direct object can be a noun phrase (NP) or a clause (finite clauses or nonfinite clauses). b. Position A direct object, being an obligatory element for a transitive verb, is placed next to this type of verb (Quirk, 1995: 724-726).

He had made firm rebellion against her proposal. I gave him [Oi] my address [Od].

i) The object function requires the objective form for pronouns that have distinctive case forms: They amuse me [Od]. I amuse them [Od]. They gave me [Oi] some chocolate. I gave them [Oi] some chocolate.

ii) If an object is coreferential with the subject, it usually requires a reflexive pronoun which agrees with the subject in person and, where relevant, in number and gender. Similar agreement is required for an emphatic genitive (my own, etc) within the object:

You [S] can please yourself [Oi]. I [S] have given myself [Oi] a treat. They [S] type their own letters [Od].

iii) The object of an active clause may generally become the subject of the corresponding passive clause:

We have finished the work [Od]. ~ The work [S] has been finished.

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_(grammar).

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If both objects are present, it is often possible to make either the subject in a corresponding passive clause:

We sent Jack [Oi] a copy of the letter [Od]. ~ Jack [S] was sent a copy of the letter [0d]. [1] ~ A copy of the letter [S] was sent to Jack [Oi]. [2]

Instead of the retained indirect object in [2], the prepositional paraphrase is more usual: A copy of the letter was sent to Jack. [2a]

iv) The indirect object generally corresponds to a prepositional phrase, which is generally placed after the direct object:

I'll send Charles another copy. ~ I'll send another copy to Charles. Pour me a drink. ~ Pour a drink/or me.

v) The indirect object can generally be omitted without affecting the semantic relations between the other elements:

David saved me a seat. ~ David saved a seat. Hence, if there is only one object present, it is generally the direct object. But with a few verbs that are normally ditransitive, the indirect object may be retained while the direct object is omitted. In that case the only object present is the indirect object:

Bob is teaching the older children. You can pay me instead.

c. Semantic properties i) The direct object typically refers to an entity that is affected by the action denoted in the clause:

Norman smashed a window in his father's car. ii) The indirect object typically refers to an animate being that is the recipient of the action. It also applies to retained indirect objects in passive clauses:

No reply has been given to me. The identity of the direct object can be tested in an independent declarative clause through a wh-question with who or what; fronting of the wh-item and subject-operator inversion are required:

The buzzer signals the end of the game (Od). ~ What [Od] does [op] the buzzer [SI signal? 6.1.2. Definition & characteristic features of prepositional objects “The prepositional object can be defined as a secondary part of the sentence completing the meaning of a verb in the sentence, of a noun or of an adjective and consisting of a noun or of a noun-equivalent preceded by a preposition.” (Bantaş, 1977: 146)

The prepositional object is closely connected with verbs or adjectives that take obligatory prepositions. I was in the kitchen all day long. [in the kitchen = adverbial modifier of place] I succeeded in convincing him. [in convincing = prepositional object] I was afraid of his rude attitude. [of his rude attitude = prepositional object]

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Prepositional verbs Examples of prepositional verbs used with noun phrases as prepositional object are:

account for add to adjust to admit to agree with/on/to aim at/for allow for apply for concentrate on conform to

consent to contribute to deal with decide on dwell (up)on enlarge rely on object to part with pay for pray for

preach about/on provide for quarrel about/with read about refer to run for speak about/ on take to think about/of wish for

Phrasal-prepositional verbs PHRASAL-PREPOSITIONAL VERBS also take a prepositional object. Such verbs can occur in the passive (eg: She dealt with the problem ~ The problem was dealt with). The verbs marked [P] can fairly readily occur in the passive:

break in on (someone's conversation) keep away from ['avoid'] (someone's conversation) keep up with (the Joneses) catch up on (my reading) look down on ['despise'] [P] catch up with ['overtake'] look forward to ['anticipate with pleasure']

come down with (a cold) look out for ['watch for'] cut down on (expenses) look up to ['respect'] [P] do away with ['abolish'] [P] put up with ['tolerate'] [P] face up to ['confront'] [P] get away with (a crime) get down to (serious talk) turn out for (a meeting)

Prepositional objects have a close connection with the preceding verb:

Mary stood looking at herself in the mirror. He thinks too much of himself. They take too much upon themselves.

We also have prepositional phrases following a noun which refers to a work of art, a story, etc:

Every writer's first novel is basically a story about himself. Rembrandt painted many remarkable portraits of himself.

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6.2. WAYS OF EXPRESSING OBJECTS

6.2.1. Direct and indirect objects a. Noun phrases Object noun phrases are expressed by an indirect object, which is normally animate and positioned first, and a direct object, which is normally concrete.

He gave the girl a doll S V 0i Od

Direct objects are typically noun phrases which may become the subject of a corresponding passive clause:

You stole the money. Tom caught the ball. ~ The ball was caught (by Tom).

We can divide verbs with one object into semantic groups according to the kinds of subject and object that they take: (i) Typically animate subject + typically concrete object (carry , cover, examine, see, win, clean, eat, stop, watch, write):

Professor Dobbs won the prize. ~ The prize was won (by Professor Dobbs). (ii) Typically animate subject + either concrete or abstract object (abolish define explain invent report utter cover discuss forget lose rule): Everybody understood the problem. ~ The problem was understood (by everybody). (iii) Typically animate subject + typically animate object (admire despise hug kiss reject ridicule flatter kill meet respect support):

Mrs. Wood liked the new neighbours. ~ The new neighbours were liked (by Mrs. Wood). (iv) Typically concrete or abstract subject + animate object (affect bother fascinate satisfy trouble deceive grieve please surprise):

The news shocked our family. ~ Our family was shocked (by the news). The following is a sample of monotransitive phrasal verbs with typical objects. back up ['support' someone] let down ['disappoint' someone] make up (a story) break (negotiations) bring about (a change) put across (an idea) burn down (a house) put off (an appointment) fill out (a form) turn off (the light) knock down (someone) win over ['convince' someone] b. substantivized adjective or past participle

We should help the blind. He kissed his beloved on the cheek.

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c. Pronouns I would have given that to him. They saw him in the distance, but ignored him. He would say nothing about her secret. I’ll tell you1/ what I know2/.

d. Finite verb phrases He told me1/ that he had brought us presents. 2/ He asked me1/ what my opinion about his departure was. 2/

e. Fonfinite verb phrases - Gerundial constructions:

I don't remember 1/ putting it in my pocket again 2/. - Infinitival constructions: 1. Accusative + Infinitive The major verbal triggers of the Accusative + Infinitive construction are:

- causative verbs: to get, to let, to make, to have, to cause (cause uses the pattern verb + NP + to-infinitive)

They let 1/ me set foot on their property. 2/ He made1/ her beg forgiveness. 2/

- verbs of physical perception: to see, to hear, to listen, to watch, to feel. The construction with the Infinitive expresses a completed action, whereas the construction with the Participle shows an action in progress.

They heard1/ me sing that song. 2/ [‘They heard that I sang that song.’] I saw 1/John open the gate. 2/

- verbs of propositional attitude (mental perception): to assume, to believe, to consider, to judge, to feel, to find.

We considered him to have been the traitor. [Accusative + Perfect Infinitive]. - verbs of liking and disliking: to want, to like, to love

I wanted him to have brought me something from his trip. I hate slaves to be tortured. [Accusative + Passive Infinitive]

2. FOR-TO constructions The major triggers of the For-to Infinitive construction are:

- verbs of liking and disliking: to love, to hate, to prefer etc. I would like for my sister to stop lying to everybody.

- exercitive verbs: to plead, to pray, to ask, to call, to shout We pleaded for him to be let off.

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6.2.2. Ways of expressing the prepositional object a. Nouns (common, proper nouns)

He got interested in that topic. They have been waiting for the guests for several hours. She thought of her childhood when she saw the movie.

b. Pronouns They have been fighting against each other. (indefinite pronoun) I was afraid of him. (personal pronoun) I was ashamed of nothing. (negative pronoun)

c. Finite verb phrase They prevented us 1/ from what could have been a disaster.2/ I’m looking forward 1/to what he promised. 2/

d. Nonfinite verb phrase - Gerund

I was satisfied 1/ with Rob’s/ Rob accepting our generous offer. 2/ I’m afraid 1/ of his having brought only nuisance to his family. 2/

- Infinitive He was afraid1/ to utter any word. 2/ I was pleased 1/ to have seen him after so many years. 2/

6.3. CLASSIFICATION OF DIRECT OBJECTS

The criterion of structure/ composition

1. Simple direct objects are expressed by a single word, determined by attributes or by a relative clause:

He lifted his sparkling eyes up towards the sky. 2. Coordinated direct objects are two or several nouns or noun-equivalents in the

accusative case connected by conjunctions. (Bantas, 1977: 119) The Hungarian was given top-boots, cigars and resin to make the ends of his

moustache stiff. 3. Compound direct objects are similar in structure and function to coordinated objects

but dissimilar in that the two or several nouns refer to only one person, object or abstract notion: They offered me bed and breakfast. I invited my friend and confessor.

4. Complex direct objects refer to finite and nonfinite verb phrases. I consider 1/ him my enemy. 2 /

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6.4. COMBINATIONS OF OBJECTS IN COMPLEMENTATION Alongside combination based on direct and indirect object patterns, two main prepositional patterns may be distinguished:

Indirect object + direct object. [1] Direct object + prepositional object. [2a] Indirect object + prepositional object. [2b]

The indirect object is normally animate, and is the recipient or beneficiary of the process described by the verb. Unlike ditransitive verbs of category (eg: give), ditransitive verbs with prepositional objects normally have only one passive:

We addressed our remarks to the children. [2a] ~ Our remarks were addressed to the children. We reminded him of the agreement. [2b] ~ He was reminded of the agreement.

Some verbs have all three possibilities of construction in the active; many have two; for others there is only one possibility (in some cases the alternatives are not identical but very similar in meaning): tell [1 + 2a + 2b] Mary told only John the secret. [1 ]

Mary told the secret only to John. [2a] Mary told only John about the secret. [2b] offer [1 + 2a] John offered Mary some help. [1 ] John offered some help to Mary [2a]

envy [1 + 2b] She envied John his success. [1] She envied John for his success. [2b]

wish [1] They wished him good luck. [1 ]

blame[D2n + 2b] Helen blamed the divorce on John. [2a] Helen blamed John for the divorce. [2b]

say [D2a] Why didn't anybody say this to me? [2a]

warn [D2b] Mary warned John of the dangers. [2b]

THAT-cIause as object The conjunction in THAT-clauses which function as object may be zero, as in:

/ hope he arrives soon. Indirect object + THAT-clause object For some ditransitive verbs, the direct object is a that-clause:

John convinced me (that) he was right. ~ I was convinced (by John) (that) he was right.

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Ditransitive verbs followed by a THAT-clause may be divided into a subtype introducing an indirect statement, and a subtype introducing an indirect directive. INDIRECT STATEMENT: May I inform you that your order is ready for collection? INDIRECT DIRECTIVE: (might be "] She petitioned the king that her father < should be [pardoned. Prepositional object + THAT-clause object For most verbs which permit a prepositional object, the preposition is to:

He wrote to me... He reported to me that... etc

Exceptions are ask and beg, which (in somewhat formal usage) are followed by the preposition of: I ask/ beg of you that you will keep this secret. <formal>

Indirect object + finite THAT-clause object This pattern of complementation is primarily found with the verb ask, which introduces a reported question:

John asked me what time the meeting would end. ~ I was asked (by John) what time the meeting would end.

Indirect object + infinitive clause object There are some complementation patterns with verbs that introduce Wh-clause objects (advise,

ask, instruct, remind, show, teach, tell, warn) or with verbs which introduce indirect directives The instructor taught us how to land safely. They advised him what to wear in the tropics.

I told/ advised/ persuaded Mark to see a doctor. ~ Mark was told (advised) I persuaded to see a doctor. The equivalent prepositional verb pattern is illustrated by suggest to, recommend to:

Could you please suggest to the visitors which museums to visit! PREPOSITIONAL VERBS WITH TWO OBJECTS There is an opposition applied both to phrasal and to prepositional verbs, depending on their possibility of taking or not an object: TYPE I (without Od); TYPE II (with Od)

PHRASAL VERB Please drink up. Please drink it up. PREPOSITIONAL He invested in property. He invested his money in property. VERB

Type II prepositional verbs are followed by two noun phrases, normally separated by the preposition: the former is the direct object, the latter the prepositional object. Three subtypes may be distinguished: TYPE IIa

The gang robbed her of her necklace. He deprived the peasants of 'their land. Jenny thanked us for the present.

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TYPE IIb: They ha.ve made a (terrible) mess of the house. Did you make (any) allowance for inflation? Mary took (good) care of 'the children.

TYPE IIc Suddenly we caught sight of the lifeboat. Give way to traffic on the major road. I have lost touch with most of the family.

The first and most numerous type has a passive of the regular kind, the direct object becoming subject of the passive verb phrase:

She was robbed of her necklace (by the gang). The peasants were deprived of 'their land. With Type IIb, there are two possible passives: the regular passive in which the direct object becomes subject (1), and a less acceptable passive construction in which the prepositional object becomes subject (2):

(1) A (terrible) mess has been made of the house. (2) (?)The house has been made a (terrible) mess of. (1)Has (any) allowance been made for inflation? (2) ?Has inflation been made allowance for?

In Type IIc, on the other hand, the only acceptable passive is the irregular passive in which the prepositional object becomes subject:

The lifeboat was suddenly caught sight of. Traffic on the major road should always be given way to.

PHRASAL-PREPOSITIONAL VERBS WITH OBJECTS There is a further major category of multi-word verbs which will be called PHRASAL-PREPOSITIONAL

verbs, because they contain, in addition to the lexical verb, both an adverb and a preposition as particles. There are three binary contrasts, expressed in the formula:

verb + direct object + adverb + preposition These combinations are largely restricted to informal English:

We are looking forward to your party on Saturday. He had to put up with a lot of teasing at school. He thinks he can get away with everything.

The prepositional passive with such verbs is not too common, and is liable to sound cumbersome. Examples such as the following, however, are normal and acceptable:'

These tantrums could not be put up with any longer. ['tolerated'] Such problems must be squarely faced up to. ['confronted']

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6.5. SEMANTIC ROLES OF OBJECTS

The most typical role of the direct object is that of the AFFECTED (PATIENT and OBJECTIVE) participant: a participant (animate or inanimate) which does not cause the happening denoted by the verb, but is directly involved in some other way:

Many MPs criticized the Prime Minister. James sold his digital watch yesterday. The most typical role of the indirect object is that of the RECIPIENT participant (DATIVE): ie of the animate being that is passively implicated by the happening or state:

I've found you a place. We paid them the money.

Resultant objects A RESULTANT (or 'effected’ or ''object of result') object is an object whose referent exists only by virtue of the activity indicated by the verb:

Baird invented television. They are designing a new car. Contrast:

She cooked a meal [resultant] I'm digging the ground She cooked some carrots [affected] I'm digging a hole.

Cognate objects A COGNATE object is similar to a resultant object in that it refers to an event indicated by the verb:

Chris will sing a song for us. She lived a good life. The noun head is semantically and often morphologically related to the verb, and its function is merely to repeat, wholly or partially, the meaning of the verb. Eventive object

A frequent type of object generally takes the form of a deverbal noun preceded by a common verb of general meaning, such as do, give, have, make, take. This EVENTIVE object is semantically an extension of the verb and bears the major part of the meaning. Compare:

They are arguing [verb only] They are having an argument [verb + eventive object] I gave them some advice. Sarah is doing her homework.

Instrumental object The object may occasionally be instrumental:

We employ a computer for our calculations. She is playing the piano.

Occasionally, the notion of instrument is incorporated into the verb: He headed the ball into the goal. ['He hit the ball with his head ...'] He kicked the ball into the goal. ['He hit the ball with his foot...']

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Locative object The direct object may have a LOCATIVE role with such verbs as walk, swim, pass, jump, turn, leave, reach, surround, cross, climb:

We walked the streets. ['We walked through the streets.'] She swam the river. ['She swam across the river.'] He passed a cyclist. ['He passed by a cyclist.'] The horse jumped the fence. [The horse jumped over the fence.']

Though these objects may seem to be adverbials with an omitted preposition (cf: We stayed three days), their status as objects is clear, however, from their ability to assume subject role in a corresponding passive clause.

The fence was jumped by the horse. We should include here locative objects after such verbs as occupy and inhabit, where no preposition can be inserted:

We occupy a spacious apartment. They had inhabited the island for over a century.

Eventive object A frequent type of object generally takes the form of a deverbal noun preceded by a common verb of general meaning, such as do, give, have, make, take. This EVENTIVE object is semantically an extension of the verb and bears the major part of the meaning. Compare:

They are arguing [verb only] They are having an argument [verb + eventive object]

The more frequent eventive object can sometimes be related to a cognate object in that it substitutes for the major lexical meaning of the verb whereas the cognate object repeats the lexical meaning. Compare:

They fought for a long time [verb + adverbial] They fought a long fight [verb + cognate object] They had a long fight [verb + eventive object]

Affected indirect object The indirect object normally takes the role of recipient. It occasionally takes an affected role with a few of the verbs that combine with an eventive object. The most common verb in the latter construction is give:

She gave me a push. ['She pushed me.'] We gave the baby a bath. ['We bathed the baby.'] I should give the car a wash. ['I should wash the car.'] Give the car a push. ['Push the car.'] Judith paid me a visit. ['Judith visited me.']

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Bibliography Cmeciu, Camelia (2007): Lectures on Concepts of English Syntax, Ed. EduSoft, Bacău. Greenbaum, Sidney and Quirk, Randolph (1990): A Student's Grammar of the English

Language, Pearson Education Ltd. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., Svartvik, J. (1985): A Comprehensive Grammar of the

English Language, London, New York, Longman. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_(grammar).

EXERCISES I. Provide objects for the verbs to dream, to die, to press, to eat, to dig, to light. II. Identify the constructions:

He sees us fighting with him. His fighting cruelly annoyed us. – His cruel fighting annoyed us. While fighting, he broke his leg. – On fighting, he broke his leg. The fighting man was my uncle. I believe Tom to have fought against the French.

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7. ADVERBIALS vs. ADVERBIAL MODIFIERS SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FUNCTIONS OF ADVERBS

7.1. ADVERBIALS

Adverbials are the most diverse of the clause elements, and we therefore distinguish several major types. 7.1.1. Characteristics and functions 7.1.1.1. Form The adverbial is normally an adverb phrase, prepositional phrase, or adverbial clause. It may also be a noun phrase. Adverbials can take the following forms:

simple adverb (or adverb phrase): everywhere, always, very… noun phrase: (We go) every day. prepositional phrase: (Come) into the garden. verbless clause: If possible, ... nonfinite clause: Thinking about it …. finite clause: When I realized …

7.1.1.2. Position In general, the adverbial is capable of occurring in more than one position in the clause. Constraints on its mobility depend on the type and form of the adverbial. The adverbial in the SVA type normally follows the subject and verb, and the adverbial in the SVOA type normally follows the direct object. Other predication adjuncts normally appear at the end of the clause. 7.1.1.3. Syntactic function a) Except for the obligatory adverbial in the SVA and SVOA types, adverbials are optional: they may be added to or removed from the clause without affecting its acceptability and without affecting the relations of structure and meaning in the rest of the clause. b) Other syntactic potentialities depend crucially on the type of adverbial. At the most general level, the adverbial may be characterized negatively: it does not have the syntactic features listed for the other clause elements. 7.1.1.4. Semantic properties The adverbial refers to the circumstances of the situation (adjunct and subjunct), comments on the form or content of the clause (disjunct), or provides a link between clauses (conjunct). A more specific semantic characterization relates to the semantic subtypes of adverbials. The term 'adjunct' is sometimes applied by others to all types of adverbial.

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7.1.2. TYPES OF ADVERBIALS 7.1.2.1. ADJUNCTS and SUBJUNCTS are relatively integrated within the structure of the clause. By contrast, disjuncts and conjuncts have a more peripheral relation in the sentence. ADJUNCT is a type of adverbial indicating the circumstances of the action. Adjuncts may be obligatory or optional. They express such relations as time, place, manner, reason, condition, i.e. they are answers to the questions where, when, how and why.

He lives in Brazil (place adjunct). She was walking slowly (manner adjunct), since she was in no hurry (adjunct of reason). Slowly they walked back home. He spoke to me about it briefly.

We apply the term SUBJUNCTS to adverbials which have, to a greater or lesser degree, a subordinate role in comparison with other clause elements. They are semantically subordinate either to a clause or a sentence or to a part of the clause. Examples of subjuncts:

We haven't yet finished. Would you kindly wait for me.

Semantically, DISJUNCTS are evaluative; they express the speaker's judgement of the truth of the utterance (modal disjuncts, e.g. probably, certainly, maybe), the speaker's evaluation of a fact (fact-evaluating disjuncts, e.g. fortunately, actually, to my surprise), the speaker's comment on his/her own wording of the sentence (e.g. briefly, in other words, to tell you the truth), or the speaker’s comment on the subject referent (subject-evaluating disjuncts, e.g. Wisely, she spent the money = 'she was wise to spend the money'). We identify disjuncts with the speaker's authority for, or comment on, the accompanying clause.

Frankly, I'm tired. Fortunately, no one complained. They are probably at home. She wisely didn't attempt to apologize.

CONJUNCTS bind together sentences, and express the speaker's assessment of the relation between two linguistic units: contrast (however, on the other hand), similarity (likewise, similarly), continuation (furthermore, moreover), digression/change of topic (anyway), sequence (first, to begin with, secondly, finally, to conclude). Conjuncts can also be described as text organizers, in that they guide the hearer/reader through the text, showing how the different pieces hang together, and where they belong in the text.

She has bought a big house, so she must have a lot of money. We have complained several times about the noise, and yet he does nothing about it. All our friends are going to Paris this summer. We, however, are going to London. If they open all the windows, then I'm leaving.

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7.1.2.2. Obligatory adverbials: subject-related and object-related adverbials Obligatory adverbials are a subclass of predication adjuncts that belong to the SVA and SVOA types and represent central elements of the clause. They may be adverb phrases, prepositional phrases, or adverbial clauses. Some obligatory adverb phrases and prepositional phrases may be analysed as complements, belonging to the SVC and SVOC types. Obligatory adverbials are commonly required as complementation for the verb BE in the SVA type, but they are also found as complementation for other verbs. The adverbials in this type are subject-related. Many are space adjuncts that designate the position of the referent of the subject:

Your children are outside. Our car isn't in the garage. We are now living in a small village. The plane's off the ground. Dorothy is remaining at Oxford. Sam is staying at a nearby motel. Your scarf is lying on the floor.

Some express other types of space relations: We got off the train. We all got into my car. All roads lead to Rome. The lawn goes all the way around the house. The hills extend from here into the next county.

Time adjuncts commonly co-occur with an eventive subject: Their holiday extended through the summer. The next meeting is on Monday. The last performance was at eight o'clock. The play lasts for three hours.

On the conditions for omitting the prepositions in the last three examples. We briefly exemplify other semantic types of obligatory adverbials in:

The two eggs are for you. [recipient] The drinks ate for the journey. [purpose] If fruit prices are higher this year, it's because [reason] of the bad harvest. Transport to the mainland is by ferry. [means] Entrance was by special invitation only. [means] Payment is by cash only. [means] Melvin's main interest is in sport. [stimulus] Jack and Nora are with me. [accompaniment] The painting was by an unknown artist. [agent]

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The connection of subject-related adverbial with subject is parallel to that of subject complement with subject:

Ronald is off cigarettes. [S V A] Ann is happy. [S V C]

Similarly, the connection of object-related adverbial to direct object parallels that of object complement with direct object:

We kept Ronald off cigarettes. [S V Od A] We kept Ann happy. [S V Od C]

Here are examples of object-related adverbials: I put the kettle on the stove. ['The kettle is now on the stove.'] They are placing the blame on us. I'm keeping most of my money in the bank. I stuck the wallet in the drawer. He set the typewriter on the table. He directed his speech at the workers. She wants the payment in dollars.

7.2. ADVERBIAL MODIFIERS

Whereas direct objects and prepositional objects are considered obligatory elements,

adverbial modifiers are identified as adjuncts because they have an optional relation with the verb. They modify another part of the sentence, expressed by a verb, an adverb, an adjective etc. The main classes of adverbial modifiers and clauses are: 7.2.1. Adverbial modifiers of time & adverbial clauses of time

Adverbial modifiers of time can be subdivided into: - adverbial modifiers of definite time expressed by adverbs (yesterday, tomorrow,

today) and adverbial phrases (last week, three days ago, three days before). - adverbial modifiers of indefinite time expressed by adverbs (just, recently, lately) and

adverbial phrases (in recent time, in the last time). - adverbial modifiers of frequency expressed by adverbs (usually, generally, always,

often, seldom etc.). They are used with present tense simple or past tense simple, expressing habitual actions or habitual actions in the past.

I usually reject proposals coming from this man. As usual, I slept late that Saturday morning.

- Adverbial modifiers of time can be introduced by connective adverbs or conjunctions (when, whenever, while, as, till, until, after, as soon as, before, since). - Adverbial clauses of time can be expressed by:

1. finite verb phrases I shall speak to you1/ when I come back.2/ I shall speak to you1/ after I have come back.2/

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2. nonfinite verb phrases Before sitting down, 1/ we took our coats off. 2/ (1 = adverbial clause of time, expressed by a present participle) Having received the exam results, 1/ he was very happy. 2/ (1 = adverbial clause of time, expressed by a perfect participle) On receiving his letter, 1/ he saw 2/ that he was accepted at Yale. 3/ (1 = adverbial clause of time, introduced by the preposition on and expressed by a gerund.)

7.2.2. Adverbial modifiers of manner & adverbial clauses of manner A distinction can be drawn between adverbial modifiers of manner proper and adverbial modifiers of degree.

He has been eating slowly. He was absolutely/ very/ completely honest.

Adverbial modifiers of degree show the degree, extent, measure, intensity of an adjective or another adverbial modifier.

- adverbial clause of result/ manner (the action expressed by the Present Participle is a part of the one expressed in the main clause or is a result of it):

He rushed out, slamming the door. - adverbial clause of manner He was lying in the grass watching the people passing by.

7.2.3. Adverbial modifiers of comparison & adverbial clauses of comparison The adverbial modifier can be interpreted as a simile. It can also be used in

constructions with a degree of comparison. He is as cool as a cucumber. His house is bigger than mine.

- Adverbial clauses of comparison are introduced by conjunctions (as, so, than, more than): She was slender 1/ as a willow shoot is slender. 2/ He draws quite differently 1/ than she does. 2/

7.2.4. Adverbial modifiers of concession & adverbial clauses of concession Adverbial modifiers of concession can be introduced by prepositions, such as despite, in

spite of. Despite my apologies, they have never forgiven me. In spite of his rude attitude, he turned out to be a nice man.

Adverbial clauses of concession show a certain contradiction between them and the main clauses. They are introduced by conjunctions (although, though, in spite of, despite the fact that), connective adverbs (however, however long, no matter how), by indefinite pronouns (whoever, whichever, whatsoever, whoever).

Whoever comes 1/ will be welcomed. 2/ The first part was easy; 1/ the second, however, took hours. 2/

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Despite of my being late, 1/ I could finish the exam. 2/ Try as he might,1/ he will never succeed2/ in passing this exam. 3/

The conjunctions as if, as though introduce adverbial clauses that have a twofold interpretation: a comparison and the contradiction of reality through concession which show their hypothetical nature.

7.2.5. Adverbial modifiers of condition & clauses of condition

Adverbial modifiers of condition can be introduced by conjunctions and conjunctive phrases expressing a positive condition (if, supposing that, on condition that, in case, as long as) and by conjunctions and conjunctive phrases expressing a negative condition (unless, in case not)

Adverbial clauses of condition can be expressed by: 1. finite verb phrase

If I were rich, 1/ I would go on a world cruise. 2/ As long as he had arrived, 1/ we would have gone. 2/

2. nonfinite verb phrase Given time, 1/ he will be too late. 2/ (given = past participle) All being well, 1/ Ann shouldn’t come. 2/ Weather permitting, 1/ we shall go on a trip. 2/

3. noun But for her help, 1/ we wouldn’t have succeeded 2/ in getting that job. 3/

7.2.6. Adverbial modifiers of cause/ reason & adverbial clauses of cause/reason – express the motivation of an action

Because of this rain, our car skidded. Adverbial clauses of reason are introduced by conjunctions such as since, because, as or when. This type of adverbial clause imposes the first element in the relation of cause to effect.

(When) seeing that, 1/ he decided 2/ to leave the house. 3/ Being late, 1/ she decided 2/ to take the bus. 3/

7.2.7. Adverbials of purpose show the idea of finality. They are introduced by conjunctions or by conjunctional phrases (so that, for fear that, lest, for the purpose that, etc.)

They called Jim1/ so that he may break into that rich woman’s house2/. He went there1/ in order to patch things up. 2/ She went on tiptoe1/ lest the guard should hear her2/.

7.2.8. Adverbials of result – show the consequence, the result of a certain action. The adverbial clause of result is introduced by conjunctions (so + adjective/ adverb + that), by conjunctional phrases (so that)

So popular has the show been 1/ that it isn’t going to close after all. 2/ Such a popularity has the show had 1/ that it isn’t going to close after all. 2/ He was so exhausted1/ so that he turned in2/ the minute the arrived home3/.

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7.3. SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FUNCTIONS OF ADVERBS

There are two types of syntactic functions that characterize traditional adverbs (as lexical word classes), but an adverb need have only one of these: a) clause element adverbial:

He quite forgot about it. An adverb may function in the clause itself as adverbial, ie as an element distinct from subject, verb, object, and complement. As such, it is usually an optional element and hence peripheral to the structure of the clause:

Perhaps my suggestion will be accepted. John always loses his pencils. They may well complain about his appearance. I spoke to her outside.

b) premodifier1 of adjective and adverb: They are quite [happily] married.

The adverb may itself be modified, in which case the adverb phrase as a whole functions as adverbial or premodifier:

John nearly always loses his pencils. They may very well complain about his appearance.

The typical functions of the adverb are those of modifier: of an adjective:

They are very happy. It was a remarkably good show. He is stupid enough to do it.

of another adverb: She drives too fast. They play so very well. He gave a far more easily acceptable explanation.

However, not all adverbs that modify adjectives also modify adverbs, and some adverbs may modify phrases, e.g. noun phrases and prepositional phrases. The most conspicuous example of an adverb that functions only as a modifier of adjectives and adverbs, and not as a clause element, is very.

1 The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (2002): a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure; the removal of the modifier typically does not affect the grammaticality of the construction. Modifiers can be a word, a phrase or an entire clause. Semantically, modifiers describe and provide more accurate definitional meaning for another element. A premodifier is a modifier placed before the head (the modified component). A postmodifier is a modifier placed after the head.

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7.3.1. Modifier of adjective An adverb may premodify an adjective. Most commonly, the modifying adverb is a scaling device called an intensifier, which co-occurs with a gradable adjective. We first distinguish two sets of intensifiers: amplifiers and downtoners. (a) AMPLIFIERS scale upwards from an assumed norm, eg 'a very funny film', as compared with 'a funny film'.

absurdly fussy amazingly calm awfully sorry deeply concerned entirely free extremely dangerous highly intelligent irretrievably lost perfectly reasonable sharply critical strikingly handsome terribly nervous too bright unbelievably smart

(b) DOWNTONERS have a generally lowering effect, usually scaling downwards from an assumed norm:

a bit dull a little extravagant almost impossible barely intelligible fairly small hardly noticeable nearly dark pretty rare quite normal rather late relatively small somewhat uneasy

As in the treatment of adjectives, it may be possible to distinguish another class of adjective modifiers called EMPHASIZERS, which add to the force (as distinct from the degree) of the adjective:

She has a really beautiful face. The play is very good indeed. He looked all confused.

Unlike intensifiers, emphasizers co-occur with nongradable adjectives, but the effect is often similar to that of intensifiers:

You are certainly welcome. ['You are very/most welcome.'] The function of many emphasizers is similar to that of disjuncts.

I'm frankly surprised at your behaviour [emphasizer] Frankly, I'm surprised at your behavior. [disjunct]

Adjunct adverbs are sometimes converted into premodifiers of adjectives. In this position, they tend to retain their general meaning of manner, means, etc. though they also acquire some intensifying effect:

an easily debatable proposition ['a proposition that can be easily debated'] his quietly assertive manner a readily available publication

On the other hand, disjunct adverbs tend to become intensifiers: surprisingly good unnaturally long incredibly beautiful unusually easy

Apart from intensifiers, premodifying adverbs may be 'viewpoint' subjuncts: politically expedient ['expedient from a political point of view']; artistically justifiable; economically weak; theoretically sound; technically possible.

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7.3.2. Modifier of adverb An adverb may premodify another adverb. Similar sets of intensifiers are used for adverbs and adjectives:

I expect them pretty soon. They are smoking very heavily. He spoke extremely quickly. He played surprisingly well.

As with adjectives, the only postmodifiers are enough and indeed: He spoke clearly enough ['sufficiently clearly'] She spoke clearly indeed.

Adverbs modifying other adverbs can only be intensifiers. 7.3.3. Modifier of particle, prepositional adverb, and preposition A few intensifying adverbs, particularly right and well, can premodify particles in phrasal verbs, as well as prepositions, or (perhaps rather) prepositional phrases:

He knocked the man right out. They left her well behind. The nail went right through the wall.

7.3.4. Modifier of pronoun, predeterminer, and numeral Intensifying adverbs (including downtoners) can premodify: a) indefinite pronouns:

Nearly everybody came to our party. b) predeterminers:

They recovered roughly half their equipment. He received about double the amount he expected. Virtually all the students participated in the discussion.

c) cardinal numerals: They will stay fully ten weeks ['for ten full weeks'] I paid more/less than ten pounds for it. As many as fifty candidates had applied for the post.

d) Noun phrases with the indefinite article can be intensified when a(n) is equivalent to the unstressed cardinal one:

I didn't have more than a dollar on me. ['I had no more than...'] They will stay for about a week. Nearly/almost (a thousand demonstrators) attended the meeting.

e) With the ordinals and superlatives, a definite determiner is obligatory for premodification: We counted approximately the first thousand votes. She gave me almost the largest piece of cake.

f) Modification can also apply to larger units, eg: The acceleration fell to less than <ten metres per second>.

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7.3.5. Modifier of noun phrase A few intensifiers may premodify noun phrases and precede the determiner in doing so. The most common of these among adverbs are quite and rather (esp BrE):

We had quite a party. They will be here for quite some time. He was quite some player. They were quite some players.

Some disjunct adverbs and conjunct adverbs occasionally appear within the noun phrase, not modifying the noun phrase but related to a modifying adjective phrase:

A cure has now been found for this fortunately very rare disease. ['a disease that is fortunately very rare']

He wrote an otherwise extremely good paper ['a paper that was otherwise extremely good'] Similarly, subjunct adverbs expressing viewpoint appear after the noun phrase and relate to the premodifying adjective within the phrase:

A <good> paper editorially can also be a good paper commercially. The more usual form for the sentence is:

An editorially good paper can also be a commercially <good> paper. Postmodifying adverbs Postmodifying time adverbs appear to be limited to those denoting time position or time duration: TIME:

the meeting yesterday the day before the meal afterwards their stay overnight

PLACE: the way ahead your friend here his trip abroad his return home the sentence below the players offside

In other cases, both positions are available:

the downstairs hall ~ the hall downstairs the backstage noise ~ the noise backstage his home journey ~ his journey home

Many of these postmodifying adverbs can be used predicatively with be: The noise is backstage. The sentence is below. The meeting was yesterday. The meal was afterwards.

Premodifying adverbs Only a very few adverbs premodify nouns within the noun phrase. There is, for example, an inside job ['a robbery done by someone connected with the place which has been robbed'], which is not the same as a job inside.

an away game in after years inside information the then chairman

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7.3.6. Adverb as complement of preposition A number of adverbs signifying place and time function as complement of a preposition. Of the place adverbs, here and there take the most prepositions

Come over here. Do you live near here? Yes, I live over there.

Other prepositions that take here and there as complements are: along around down from in on round through under up

The other place adverbs are restricted to the preposition from, eg: You've got a letter from abroad. Other adverbs that function as complement of from are:

behind above/ below/ beneath/ underneath downstairs/upstairs indoors/ outdoors inside/outside within/without

The time adverbs that most commonly function as complement of a preposition are shown in the figure below. PREPOSITIONS ADVERBS

7.3.7. Functional relations and semantic functions of adverbial adjuncts

Adverbial adjuncts establish circumstances for the nuclear constituents of a sentence, which can be classified as following2: Temporal adjuncts establish when, for how long or how often a state or action happened or existed.

He arrived yesterday. (time point) He stayed for two weeks. (duration)

2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjunct_(grammar).

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She drinks in that bar every day. (frequency) Locative adjuncts establish where, to where or from where a state or action happened or existed.

She sat on the table. (locative) Modicative adjuncts establish how the action happened or the state existed, or modifying its scope.

He ran with difficulty. (manner) He stood in silence. (state) He helped me with my homework. (limiting)

Causal adjuncts establish the reason for, or purpose of, an action or state. The ladder collapsed because it was old. (reason) She went out to buy some bread. (purpose)

Instrumental adjuncts establish the instrument of the action. He wrote the letter with a pencil.

Conditional adjuncts establish the condition in which a sentence becomes true. I would go to Paris, if I had the money.

Concessive adjuncts establish the contrary circumstances. Lorna went out although it was raining.

Bibliography Cmeciu, Camelia (2007): Lectures on Concepts of English Syntax, Ed. EduSoft,

Bacău. Greenbaum, Sidney and Quirk, Randolph (1990): A Student's Grammar of the

English Language, Pearson Education Ltd. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., Svartvik, J. (1985): A Comprehensive

Grammar of the English Language, London, New York, Longman. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjunct_(grammar).

Exercises Pick out the adverbials in the following passage (22) and group them according to the parts of speech they are expressed by. Analyse the adverbs in the following text as clause element adverbials and modifiers. There were piles of papers on the stairs and piles everywhere in the room. He kicked a tidy heap with his toe. 'That pile,' he said, 'has been there for ten years. The trouble is I work all the time. There isn' t time to sort things. I would get around to buying cupboards if I could be bothered. Somehow life is full of objects that suddenly take over. One week the place is tidy; and the next week it is too late. Now I can't throw things out.'

Hearing his explanation, I just smiled. I have always thought that it is best, whenever possible, not to criticize other people. And there was something very impressive about all that chaos.