IOANA MURAR

ANA-MARIA TRANTESCU CLAUDIA PISOSCHI

ENGLISH SYNTAX THE SIMPLE SENTENCE

Editura Universitaria Craiova, 2011

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IOANA MURAR

ANA-MARIA TRANTESCU CLAUDIA PISOSCHI

ENGLISH SYNTAX THE SIMPLE SENTENCE

Editura Universitaria Craiova, 2011

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C O N T E N T S

UNIT 1. INTRODUCTION............................................................................... 5 UNIT 2. SENTENCE TYPES ........................................................................... 9 1. Functional Classification of Sentences ............................................................. 9

1.1. Declarative Sentence ..................................................................... 10 1.2. Interrogative Sentences .............................................................. 13 1.3. Imperative Sentences .......................................... 16 1.4. Exclamatory Sentences ....................................... 18

UNIT 3. THE NOUN PHRASE 20 1. The Structure of The NP .......................................... 20

2. The Functions of The NP .......................................... 21 2.1. The Subject ............................................................... 21 2.2. The Object .......................................................... 24 2.3.The Predicative .................................................... 31 2.4. The Predicative Adjunct ............................................ 32 2.5 .The Apposition ............................................................ 33

UNIT. 4. THE VERB PHRASE.............................................. 34 1. The Structure of The VP ............................................. 34 2. The Function of The VP: The Predicate ........ 34 3. Subject Predicate Concord ....................................... 44

UNIT 5. THE ADJECTIVE PHRASE........................................ 48 1. The Structure of The Adjective Phrase ....... 48 2. The Functions of The Adjective Phrase ........................................ 48 2.1. The Attribute ............................................................. 48 2.2. The Predicative ................................................................ 49 2.3. The Predicative Adjunct .................................................. 50 UNIT 6. THE ADVERBIAL PHRASE.......................................... 52

1. The Structure of The Adverbial Phrase ..... 52 2. The Functions of The Adverbial Phrase ..... 52

2.1. Adverbial Modifiers of Place ........................................ 53 2.2. Adverbial Modifiers of Time ....................................... 54 2.3. Adverbial Modifiers of Manner .................................. 56 2.4. Adverbial Modifiers of Concession ................................. 59 2.5. Adverbial Modifiers of Cause ...................................... 60 2.6. Adverbial Modifiers of Purpose ................................ 60 2.7. Adverbial Modifiers of Result ........................................ 61 2.8. Adverbial Modifiers of Condition ................................. 61

UNIT 7. COMPLEX CONSTRUCTIONS ........................................ 64 REVISION TESTS ....................................................................... 70 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..... 75

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UNIT 1. Introduction to Syntax

Obiective: Studenii vor fi capabili: 1. S defineasc domeniul sintaxei. 2. S identifice elementele eseniale ale modelelor de analiz gramatical din

lingvistica secolului XX. 3. S identifice regulile de formare a propoziiilor.

Timp de studiu: 2 ore.

Most of the grammars written in the 19th and 20th centuries reflected the traditional attitude that stems from the 18th century grammarians. They were rather rigid and dogmatic, tended to reject actual usage, and were quite frequently under the influence of Latin grammars. We find a different attitude in H. Sweets New English Grammar, Logical and Historical (vol. I 1892, vol. II 1898). Sweet had the attitude of an explorer rather than that of a legislator. He wrote In considering the use of grammar as a corrective of what are called ungrammatical expressions, it must be borne in mind that the rules of grammar have no value except as statements of facts: whatever is in general use in a language is for that very reason grammatically correct1. Apart from Sweets works, the most elaborate presentations of English grammar have been made by some grammarians in the Netherlands and Scandinavia: E. Kruisinga, A Handbook of Present - Day English (1911), H. Poutsma, A Grammar of Late Modern English (1926), O. Jespersen, A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (7 vols: 1909-1949). These grammars are fully documented, considerable attention is paid to the history of the language and meaning is the main basis of treatment of syntax.

The past decades have witnessed - to a certain extent in Britain and to a larger extent in the United States an increasingly changed attitude, viz. the rejection of old conventions based on reason, the observance of actual usage, as well as modern and the progressive methods of study. Since the nineteen thirties there have been several approaches which have differed significantly from that of traditional grammars.

One of the first of these was the structural grammar, associated chiefly with the name of the American linguist, L. Bloomfield (Language, 1933). As its name suggests, the main thesis of this school was that language has a structure. This structure can and must be discovered by a set of rigorously defined procedures (discovery procedures). One of the procedures most emphasized was substitution in a frame, to find out what particular class a word belongs to. For instance, in a sentence The birds are singing we substitute other words such as children, people, crickets for birds. The words which remain unchanged The are singing provide the frame in which the substitution takes place. The words which can be substituted for birds are members of the same class. The most extensive use for this procedure may be found in Ch. Fries The Structure of English (1952). The chief characteristic of this approach was a rigid exclusion of considerations of meaning. The structural method considers the traditional type of sentence analysis unscientific because it starts from the total meaning of the sentence and bases the whole analysis on this meaning: it therefore labels instead of analysing. Fries points out that the meaning of a sentence is not just the sum of the meaning of all the words. It is a combination of the lexical meanings plus the structural meanings, i.e. the relationships of the words to each other.

As well as the emphasis on procedures, structural grammars developed the technique of immediate constituent (IC) analysis. This is a technique for breaking down a sentence into its immediate constituents; in turn, these constituents are broken into their immediate constituents. Eventually, constituents are reached which cannot be divided up further; these are the ultimate constituents. An illustration of IC analysis is provided by the following sentence:

1 H. Sweet, A New English Grammar, p. 5.

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[[The] [trees]] {[[were][lying]][[on][[the][ground]]]} The most comprehensive grammars based on the principle of IC analysis are E.

Nida, A Synopsis of English Syntax (1960) and B. Strang, Modern English Structure (1962). In structural grammars, linguistic systems are considered as ensembles formed of elements subordinate to combination laws which characterize the whole ensemble. Attention is focused not on the individual unit as such, but on the relations holding between units. The definition of individual units through their position in the (whole) structure of the language presupposes a clear notion of the organization of language into hierarchical levels and a clear conception of the relations holding between the different hierarchical levels of language. The hierarchical levels of language are interrelated and they have isomorphic organization.

The most influential of all modern linguistic theories is transformational generative grammar, TG for shorts. This theory was first made public through Syntactic Structures (1957) by N. Chomsky. He has pointed out that a grammar must satisfy various requirements: it must be based upon accurate observation of actual language and also satisfy the native speakers intuition about language. It must, for example, be able to account for his intuitions that:

- some sentences are related to each other (e.g. active-passive) - some sentences are grammatically ambiguous: cases of syntactic ambiguity show

that one and the same string of words may represent entirely different constituent organizations, correlated with different meanings. For instance, the sentence The chicken is ready to eat has two readings depending on the function of the word chicken: subject or direct object (to eat = to be eaten).

- some pairs of sentences, though alike on the surface, are different at a deeper level. The sentences The man was eager to please and The man was easy to please show the same arrangement of constituents in their surface structure but they are understood in different ways because there hold different functional relations between these constituents in the two sentences. In the first sentence the man is understood as subject of the verb to please, while in the second the man is decoded as direct object of the verb please. Chomsky offered the view that grammar is a set of rules for forming sentences. A

sentence (S) such as The headlights penetrated the darkness consists of a noun phrase (NP) followed by a verb phrase (VP). In turn, the VP consists of a transitive verb (Vt) and an NP; the last NP consists of a Det and a N. This information can be represented in a tree diagram:

S

NP

Det N

the headlights

S

Vt

penetrated

NP

Det N

The darkness

Such an analysis becomes generative when it is expressed in the form of rules: 1. N NP + VP 2. VP Vt + NP 3. NP Det + N 4. Vt penetrate 5. Det the 6. N darkness, headlights

Rules such as those which allow for a single symbol at a time to be rewritten or replaced by another symbol are known as phrase structure rules. By applying these rules it would be possible to produce, to generate the sentence that we wanted.

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The question of generation concerns the contrast between competence and performance: the TG grammarians are interested not in the actual utterance of the speaker (which are a matter only of performance) but in what is linguistically possible, in what the speaker can say (his competence).

The new grammar focused on two major problems: linguistic creativity and the learnability of grammars which leads to the conclusion that they are finite devices. Chomsky put forth the concept of linguistic theory, in fact a universal grammar, having both descriptive and explanatory adequacy.

Starting from the fact that the faculty of language is an attribute possessed by everybody, the Universal Grammar contains the set of principles and elements of any acquired system of linguistic knowledge, beginning with the specification of the assumed levels of representation (Deep Structure and Surface Structure with its components logical form and phonological form).

Sentences have both a deep structure (DS) which gives the meaning of the S, and a surface structure (SS) which gives the form of the S, as it is used in communication. DSs are converted into SSs by the application of syntactic operations which are called transformations. As the term implies, a transformational rule has the effect of altering the shape of the sentence: it may change a sentence by adding to it, or deleting from it, or changing the order of its constituents.

The syntactical categories to operate with are of two types: phrasal and lexical (sets of lexical items). Each lexical item is assigned to a lexical category in a given language, according to its distribution and morphological properties. For instance, each verb may be given a subcategorisation feature by specifying the syntactical categories it occurs with.

The subcategorisation frame is lexical knowledge, we take this information about lexical items from out mental Lexicon. Each lexical item is associated with a feature specifying the structure of a minimal phrase containing that lexical item.

In early 80s Chomsky set up a new model of grammar, Government and Binding (GB), which presents phrases and sentences as developing out of the lexical properties of words. Each word may project a phrase i.e. it may grow into a phrase. Phrase Structure Rules are no longer necessary, being predictable from the lexical properties of words.

A more fundamental development concerns the relations between semantics and deep structure: deep structure often accounts for semantic differences which cannot be accounted for in surface structure. Some grammarians suggested that deep structure ought to go even deeper and will thus be identified with semantics. One of the most interesting theories that have come out of this approach is the case grammar associated with the name of the American linguist Ch. Fillmore. The theory is based on the fact that we can, for instance, say John broke the window, John broke the window with a hammer, The hammer broke the window, and even the window broke. What is apparent from this is that in the SSs the relations of subject and object do not seem in any way to indicate DS relations. Thus, although we are talking about John as the one who did the breaking, the window as the item that was broken and the hammer as the instrument which was used, all three can appear as the subject of the sentence. Therefore, traditional functions (Subject of etc.) are discarded as being semantically irrelevant. New functions cases - are introduced, which receive semantic characterization, so that John is agentive, hammer is instrumental, window is objective. Fillmores model takes us very close to logical representation because he views the sentence as a relation expressed by the verb, holding among a number of nominals.

Syntax is that branch of linguistics which describes the relation between words and their correct arrangement in units of expression apt to reflect logical units and patterns. While morphology studies words and their changes in various situations and contexts, syntax describes the situations and contexts themselves, deriving the principles, rules and patterns which govern the arrangement of morphological elements as part of independent or connected sense units. Among the various disciplines and branches of linguistics, syntax plays the role of offering the structures of speech and writing which are most adequate for the communication of peoples thoughts. That is why many of the notions and terms employed in syntax are so closely connected with logic and philosophy.

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The present series of lectures is focused on the description of units and the relation between them at the syntactic level of linguistic analysis. It is also focused on the correct arrangement by which the strings of units are constructed. The place held by function is central in this course of lectures, syntax consisting of the treatment of the main functions of sentence constituents: subject, predicate, objects, adverbials.

We have based our course on structural grammar but we have systematically tried to include as much of the traditional grammatical insight as possible. The terminology and the concept are broadly in accordance with those of R. Quirk et al.., A Grammar of Contemporary English (1972). The type of English we are mainly concerned to describe is contemporary standard British English (BE). But discrepancies between American English (AE) and BE, as well as variations of style are noted where they are important.

BIBLIOGRAFIE: Bdescu, A.. 1963. Gramatica limbii engleze., Bucureti : Ed. Stiintifica. Banta, A.1977. Elements of Descriptive English Syntax. Bucureti: TUB. Budai, L.1997 Gramatica engleza, Teorie si exercitii, Bucureti: Editura Teora. Biber,D., Conrad, S., Leech, G. 2005. Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English.

London:Longman. Gleanu, G., Comiel, E. 1982. Gramatica limbii engleze. Bucureti: Ed. Didactic i

pedagogic. Murar I, Pisoschi C., Trantescu A.M. 2010 Essentials of English Syntax. The Simple

Sentence. Craiova: Editura Universitaria. erban D. 1982. English Syntax, volume one, Bucureti. tefnescu, I.. 1978.Lectures in English Morphology. Bucuret:, TUB.. Quirk R., Greenbaum S., Leech G., Swartvick J. 1972. A Grammar of Contemporary

English. London: Longman. Thomson A., Martinet A.1969. A Practical English Grammar. London: Oxford University Press.

AUTOEVALUARE:

1. Define the domain of Syntax. 2. Enlarge upon the major trends in the syntactic models of analysis of the 20 th

century.

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UNIT 2. Sentence Types

1. Functional Classification of Sentences 1.1. Declarative Sentence

Positive Sentences Negative Sentences

1.2. Interrogative Sentences 1.3. Imperative Sentences 1.4. Exclamatory Sentences

Obiective: Studenii vor fi capabili : 1. S identifice tipurile de propoziie n funcie de scopul comunicrii. 2. S identifice modurile de realizare ale negaiei. 3. S clasifice propoziiile interogative.

Timp de studiu : 4 ore.

In morphology we examined the morphemic structure of words (words are structured strings of morphemes); in syntax we shall see how words are combined into larger structures: phrases, clauses, sentences. The sentence is the main unit of syntactic description. The sentence enjoys a status of independence at the level of occurrence, i.e. a structural independence, as well as at the other levels, such as the phonological or the semantic level. The sentence is a string of words organized according to the following properties:

- grammatical properties: there is an underlying hierarchy of syntactic relations holding between the constituents of sentences, minimally actualized by the relation of predication between an NP functioning as Subject and a VP functioning as predicate of the sentence.

- semantic properties: the sentence is assigned a global semantic interpretation; - phonological properties: the sentence has a phonetic shape made up of a

specialized intonational (phonological) contour, the pitch and boundary signals; - functional properties: (the functionality of sentences in concrete communicative

contexts): the sentence items may be analysed as items of discourse which serve most efficiently the communicative function of the message. The sentential organization of units of information is the following: the sentence is divided into theme (or topic) and rheme (or comment). The theme renders old or given information; it tends to be incorporated in the first part of the message roughly coinciding on the grammatical plane with the subject group. The rheme is that part of the message that conveys new information; it roughly coincides with the predicate group and the focus of information is on the last constituent of this group.

Sentences may assume a variety of forms: 1. The overlapping between the form of sentences and the communicative function of each formal type leads to the following classification of sentences:

1.1 Declarative sentences are primarily used to convey information under the form of Statements;

1.2. Interrogative sentences (or Questions) express lack of information on a specific point and request the listener to supply missing information;

1.3. Imperative sentences (or Commands) are specialized for requesting action under the form of orders, invitations.

1.4. Exclamatory sentences are primarily used to express subjective reactions, feelings. They are the proper field of applications of those modalities which are most clearly connected with our emotions.

There is no one-to-one correspondence between a certain sentence form and its discourse function.

e.g. I wonder if youd kindly open the window is a statement according to form, but a command according to function.

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Further subclasses obtain if we take into account the possibility that each type has variations according to polarity, hence there are positive and negative variants for each sentence type.

1.1 Declarative sentence (Statements) normally end in a period or full stop and are uttered in a falling tone . A declarative sentence expresses some statement in the affirmative or negative form.

Positive (Affirmative) sentences are sentences in which the subject is present and generally precedes the verb; the predicate is in the positive (affirmative), form.

Negative sentences The negation of a simple statement is accomplished in two ways: - by negating the verb: verb negation is usually done by means of the negative

particle NOT which is attached to the operator, i.e. to the tense (modal)-bearing element of the VP (be, have, modals).

e.g. John is not working these days. John has not been working for several days. John could not have been working at the time.

I shant forget you, Jude. (T.H.) . You neednt be concerned about that (T.H.) When the sentence contains no operator, i.e. when the verb is a simple present or

past tense form, the auxiliary DO is introduced2 e.g. They do not understand my problem.

Peter did not answer. In colloquial English the particle not occurs in an enclitic contracted form nt.

In circumstances where it is possible to abbreviate the auxiliary by the use of a contracted form enclitic to the subject, two colloquial forms of negation are possible.

e.g. Were not ready We arent ready (more frequent) Hed not notice anything He wouldnt notice anything.

As we have already mentioned, the negation of a whole sentence is done by means of the adverbs no and not. No is usually followed by the subject (expressed by a pronoun), the operator and the contracted negative from nt.

e.g. Do you like him? - No. Have you seen Tom? No. I havent. Not is used after some verbs: believe, expect, hope, suppose, think in the Simple

Present or Past Tense. e.g. Do you think it will rain? / I hope not. A feature of the syntax of subordination in colloquial English is the transfer of the

negative from a subordinate that- clause where, semantically it belongs, to the main clause. Thus, I didnt think he was happy, can have two meanings, one in which the negation applies to the main clause, and one in which it applies through transferred negation to the subordinate clause, i.e. I thought he wasnt happy. Transferred negation is limited to verbs of belief or assumption, such as believe, expect, fancy, imagine, reckon, think.

e.g. I didnt think/believe/suppose (that) hes paid for it yet. He doesnt imagine/reckon that we need worry. = He imagines we neednt worry.

The negative status of the that/clause is shown by the occurrence of the non/assertive form yet or of the verb need (which could not occur in an affirmative sentence).

- by negating another part of the sentence: to negate other parts of the sentence, the following negative pronouns, adjectives, adverbs can be used: no one, none, neither, nothing, nowhere, never followed by the verb in the affirmative form.

e.g. Nobody come here yesterday. He is nowhere to be found. Polarity Items

2 The old negative form without the use of the auxiliary do is still preserved in the poetic style, e.g.

Those ills that we know not of (W.S.); I speak not, I trace not, I breathe not thy name. (G.G. Byron)

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Roughly speaking, for any affirmative statement there is a negative counterpart, usually obtained by negating the verb (by introducing the particle not).

e.g. John is happy John is not happy. However, this is not always so. There are affirmative sentences which have no

negative counterpart (S/*Not-S). Similarly, there are negative sentences which do not have affirmative counterparts (*S/NotS). This lack of symmetry (regular correspondence between affirmative and negative sentences) is due to the occurrence in such sentences of certain grammatical and lexical items, which at least in some of their meanings or in given collocations require only an affirmative or only a negative environment (context). Such items have been called polarity items: those items which occur only in affirmative contexts are called affirmative polarity items (API), those which are restricted to negative contexts are called negative polarity items (NPI). They are subclassified into:

a) lexical items: - items occurring only in an affirmative context: pretty (adv.), far, long since e.g. Tom is pretty smart. *Tom isnt pretty smart.

He is far taller than his father - *He isnt far taller than his father. He has long since given up smoking. *He hasnt long since given up

smoking. - items occurring only in a negative context: verbs such as abide, bother, budge,

care (=like), adverbs such as at all, a bit, in the least/slightest. e.g. *He budged He didnt budge. *I care to stay at home all day long I dont care to stay *I like it at all I dont like it at all. b) grammatical items Certain regular correspondences between polarity items can be established in

affirmative and negative sentences: thus, for the indefinite some and its compounds there are two corresponding items in the negative sentence: non-assertive items and negative items.

Affirmative sentences Negative sentences Affirmative items Non-assertive items Negative items Some any no something, somebody anything, anybody nothing, nobody Somewhere anywhere nowhere Sometime ever never Still anymore/longer no more/longer Already a lot, a great deal Too

yet much either

e.g. Ive bought something for you I havent bought anything for you/Ive bought nothing for you Ive seen them somewhere I havent seen them anywhere/Ive seen them nowhere. He smokes a lot He doesnt smoke much. Her mothers coming, too Her mothers not coming, either.

In most cases (except possibly that of never) the combination of not + a non-assertive item is more colloquial than the negative variant. Other grammatical NPI are restrictive adverbs such as: barely, hardly, only, rarely, scarcely, seldom, little.

Sentences with this words behave like ordinary negative sentences. Thus: - they are followed by non-assertive forms; e.g. He seldom speaks to anyone. Youll scarcely hear anything from here. I know little about him. - they correlate with positive tags.

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e.g. She scarcely seems to care, does she? You could hardly understand the book, could you? There are words which are negative in meaning but not in form (verbs deny, fail,

forget, prevent, adjectives difficult, hard, reluctant). Syntactically they dont make the sentence negative:

e.g. I deny having been there but this doesnt prevent me from telling the truth. The same happens with negative affixes: a-, in-, non-, un-, -less. They realize

negation at word level, but negation doesnt take scope over the whole sentence: e.g. I think its not useless to do it. I think its impossible to solve this matter. As we can notice a negative prefix allows the verb in the negative form. The initial negative element. The mere consideration of these examples might lead to the supposition that the

rule of attaching the negative particle either to the verb or to another element, such as pronouns, adverbs is an optional rule. In fact, there are certain restrictions on the optionality of this rule, determined by the position of the pronoun/adverb with respect to the verb.

When the indefinite pronoun/adverb precedes the verb, the negative particle is always attached to the pronoun. The verb is not negated since non-assertive forms cannot precede not in the sentence. Therefore, there is no alternative construction to the negative pronoun when it occurs in initial position.

e.g. Something was missing Nothing was missing. - *Anything wasnt missing. - when the indefinite pronoun follows the verb, either the verb or the infinite

pronoun is negated. e.g. John said something John didnt say anything, - John said nothing. Knowing this rule, one understands the alternation anything / nothing in active and

passive sentences. e.g. Active: He never knows anything. Passive: Nothing is ever known by him. Scope of negation. If a sentence contains a negative element, the whole sentence is negative. This

means that after a negative, a non-assertive form must be used in place of every assertive form that would have occurred in the corresponding affirmative sentence.

e.g. Ive never travelled anywhere by air yet. I havent ever been on any of those big liners, either. The non-assertive forms even occur in affirmative subordinate clauses following a

negative in the main clause. e.g. Nobody has promised that any of you will be released yet. The scope of the negative particle normally extends from the negative particle

itself to the end of the sentence. e.g. I didnt listen to any of the speakers. Assertive forms, however, can occur after a negative, so long as they fall outside

the scope of negation. e.g. I didnt listen to some of the speakers. Negative intensification (Emphasis). A negative word can be given emphasis by placing it in front position. This is

followed by inversion of subject and operator. e.g. I will never make that mistake again Never will I make that mistake again.

Nowhere have we seen the results more clearly than here. Not till then did they see the disaster in the corridor. (J.G.)

There are several ways of giving emotive emphasis to a negative: - the combination not one, not a are emphatic alternatives to no as a countable

determiner. e.g. Not a word come from his lips (=No word) - negative determiners and pronouns are given emphasis by at all, whatever, by any

means, a bit.

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e.g. You have no excuse whatever. - other familiar and emotively coloured expressions of negation are exemplified by

the following lexical NPI: e.g. I didnt sleep a wink. I dont care a damn whether we lose or not. Double negatives. Two negatives3 that occur in the same sentence cancel each other and produce an

affirmative. Such sentences show an interesting connection between logic and language: in language, as well as in logic, two negations are equivalent to an assertion, e.g. I cant not obey I have to obey.

Major points of the grammar bite: Clauses are either positive or negative. Negative sentences are most commonly formed by using not or its contraction nt. The verb as operator is a key tool for forming negation with not or nt Sentence negation is the main type of negation. The scope of negation is important for choosing non-assertive versus assertive forms (polarity items).

1.2. Interrogative sentences Interrogative sentences are usually subdivided into General questions, Special

questions, Alternative questions, Disjunctive questions. General questions (Yes/No questions) They are questions which require an affirmative or negative answer in relation to

the validity of an entire sentence4: yes, of course, rather, no, not at all, etc. The intonation of General questions is rising . General questions are formed by means of Subject-Operator inversion. This rule

inverts the order of the subject and the Operator moving the operator in front of the subject:

- there is full inversion when the predicate is expressed by the verbs be, have in a simple form.

e.g. Is the man in town? Has she sisters? - there is partial inversion when the predicate is in a compound form or comprises a

modal verb. e.g. Is he coming? Can you see the car over there? When the sentence contains no operator, i.e. when the verb is in the Simple Present

or Past Tense, the auxiliary DO/DID is used. e.g. Do you like that? Did John find the book? The only alternative is to retain the statement organization of the sentence and to

mark it as a question by using the appropiate intonation, commonly a rising intonation and punctuation.

e.g. Hes coming? John found the book? If the interrogative sentence also contains the negative particle the result is a

negative question or an interrogative-negative sentence. Subject-operator inversion applies normally as specified above, e.g. He did not leave from London Did he not leave for London? However, if a contracted form of the negative particle is used, this is moved with the operator (i.e. the contracted form precedes the subject), so we obtain the following alternative construction:

Didnt he leave for London? Dont you go there every day?

3 In substandard English there is an entirely different kind of multiple negation, where more than

one negative form is used, but the meaning is that of a single negative, e.g. No one never said nothing (no one ever said anything). 4 Yes/no questions may however be focused upon some part of the sentence and this may be

achived by grammatical focus or prosodically (by stress and intonation): Was it John that found the book? Was it the book that John found? Did John find the book?

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Special questions (Wh- questions) They elicit information on particular parts of the sentence: Through the use of wh-forms we can ask for the identification of the subject,

object, predicative or adverbial of the sentence5. The wh-forms are represented by the interrogative pronouns who, what, which and the interrogative adverbs when, where, why, how .

e.g. What was he? A painter (J.G.) (Predicative) What have you told him? That they were relations. (J.G.) (Object)

Why wont you come? (J.G.) (Adverbial modifier of cause). - Who (for persons)

Who is coming? Whose is the car?

- What (for objects) What job did he like best?

- Which is used to indicate selection: e.g. Which of these textbooks have you read? - How e.g. How did you managed? - How many indicates number e.g. How many arrived yesterday? - How much indicates quantity e.g. How much sugar did you buy? - How old is used to indicate age e.g. How old is she? - How far (for distance) e.g. How far did he get? - Where shows place e.g. Where was he yesterday?

- When and what time are used to indicate a certain moment: e.g. When did you finish? e.g. What time did you finish? - How long indicates duration: e.g. How long have you been studying French? - Why indicates reason: e.g. Why are you here? The order of Special questions is: Wh-form+Operator/Do+Subject+Predication e.g. Why have you come? How long will you stay? What do you want?6

Do does not occur when the wh-form questions the subject, i.e. when the interrogative word is the subject or serves as an attribute to the subject.

e.g. Who told you? June. (J.G.) (subject) Whose book is on the table? (Attribute to the subject) The intonation of Special questions is falling (descending) : e.g. When did he leave? In Special questions the preposition is often placed at the end of the sentence: e.g. What is it about? What do you want the money for? In spoken English there are several devices for emphasizing or intensifying the

emotive effect of the question:

5 Not all subjects, objects can be elicited by whquestions, It rained steadily all day. *What

rained steadily all day? 6 In the poetic style we come across the old interrogative form without the auxiliary DO: e.g.

Madam, how like you this play?

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- by means of the intensifying element ever placed after the wh form; who ever, what ever etc.

e.g. I have to get up at 5 oclock. What ever for? Why ever didnt he tell me? - other phrases used for emphasizing the speakers surprise, consternation or

annoyance on earth, in heavens name, the hell are highly colloquial and sometimes denote an impolite use of intensification.

e.g. Who on earth opened my letter? What in heavens name do you think you are doing? Alternative questions They expect as an answer one or two alternatives mentioned in the question. They

are a type of General questions, but they differ from the latter in intonation: instead of the final rising tone they contain a separate nucleus for each alternative: a rising intonation on the first alternative and the falling intonation on the second alternative The intonation difference between alternative and general questions is important: the same syntactic form can be interpreted either as an alternative or as a general question, conveying different meanings and expecting different answers.

e.g. Shall we go to the theatre or to the movie ? A: To the theatre. Shall we go to the theatre or to the movie ? A: No, wed better stay at home. Disjunctive (Tag) questions A tag questions is a very short question attached to a statement. Tag questions are

very frequent in conversation. Their meaning differs from that of general or special questions in that they are not requests for information but for confirmation that a statement or supposition is really correct. Compare:

Did John leave? general question. John left, didnt he? A sentence with a tag is the paraphrase of I suppose John

left. The rules for forming tag questions are: a) the question consists of an operator (auxiliary) and a subject; b) the operator is opposite in polarity to the verb of the statement: if the

statement is affirmative, the operator is negative and if the statement is negative, the operator must be affirmative. The operator in the tag corresponds to the verb in the statement, namely:

- if the verb in the statement contains an operator (be, have, do, can, must, will, shall) the operator is repeated.

e.g. The Smiths are your friends, arent they? You havent reed the book, have you? I can depend on you, cant I? (G.B.S.) You dont think we have lost our way, do you? (J.K.I) - if the statement contains no operator, i.e. when the verb is in the simple present or

past tense, the auxiliary do/did is used as for questions formation in general. e.g. He knows you, doesnt he? c) the subject of the tag is always a pronoun which repeats or substitutes the subject

of the statement. e.g. The girl/she is a beauty, isnt she? Indefinite pronouns marked by [+animate] such as everyone, no one, everybody are

resumed in the tag either by he (as usually indicated in normative grammars) or by they (often found in actual usage).

e.g. Everyone likes her, doesnt he/dont they? Indefinite pronouns marked by [-animate] such as everything, anything, something

are resumed in the tag by it. e.g. Something is missing, isnt it? The intonation is either falling or rising: - the tag with the falling intonation is used when the speaker is sure of the

correctness of his statement and awaits confirmation from the listener. e.g. The vase is made of plastic, isnt it? (= I know that for sure).

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- the tag with the rising intonation is used when the speaker is no longer sure of the correctness of his statement and is asking the listener to correct or confirm it.

e.g. The vase is made of plastic, isnt it? (=Im not very sure so please correct me if it isnt so) There is a further type of Tags in which the statement and the Tag have the same

polarity (very frequently positive). Such Tags sometimes called Reactive Tags, express a whole gamut of feeling ranging from irony to incredulity, suspicion, sarcasm.

e.g. Thats your crooked notion of honour, is it? (G.E.) Do as I say, Im giving orders here. Oh, you are, are you? They have always falling intonation.

Echo questions The echo question has no subject/auxilliary inversion. It is identical in form to a

statement, except for the final rising intonation. Such a question repeats part or the entire message and expresses surprise, disbelief or more misunderstanding of the previous statement.

e.g. I didnt like the book. You didnt like it? The wh word can be left in its position (it is not fronted). e.g. I saw Bill yesterday. You saw whom yesterday? She dyed her hair green. She dyed it what color?

Some, any, no and their compounds in different types of sentences Declarative sentence Negative sentence Interrogative

sentence Affirmative verb + some/ compounds

Affirmative verb + no/ compounds

Negative verb + any/ compounds

Interrogative verb + any/ compounds

They need some information.

They need no information.

They neednt any information.

Do you need any information?

He has got something.

He has nothing. He hasnt anything. Has he got anything?

Someone/somebody is asking for you.

Nobody/no one is asking for you.

*Anybody isnt asking for you.

Is anyone/anybody asking for you?

He must be somewhere.

He is nowhere to be found.

He isnt anywhere to be found.

Is he anywhere to be found?

Major points of the grammar bite: Questions are varied in forms and in function.

Major types of functions are wh-questions, yes/no questions, and alternative questions.

Questions tags are also very common in conversation.

1.3. Imperative sentences (Commands) Commands without a subject This is the most common category of command, that which differs from a

statement in that: a) it has no overt (formally expressed) grammatical subject; b) the verb is in imperative mood (the 2nd person singular and plural). Commands

have a falling tone. e.g. Write down these sentences in ink! Speak to him today! Commands are apt to sound abrupt unless toned down by markers of politeness,

such as please (placed at the beginning or end of the imperative sentences). e.g. Please, come in! Shut the door, please!

or if one changes the command into a question or a statement: e.g. Will you shut the door?

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Would you mind shutting the door? I wonder whether you would mind shutting the door. Turn the volume up, will you? (will you in final position gives the imperative

sentence the aspect of disjunctive question). Commands with subject It is implied in the meaning of a command that the omitted subject of the

imperative verb is the 2nd person pronoun you. This is intuitively clear, but it is also confirmed by the occurrence of you as subject of the following tag question: Be quiet, will you! and by the occurrence of yourself as object: Behave yourself!

There is, however, a type of command in which the subject you is retained. You indicates:

- the speakers irritation (these commands are usually admonitory in tone), e.g. You be quiet! You mind your own business!

- a differentiation: to single out two ore more distinct persons. e.g. You come here, Jane, and you go over there, Mary! A third person subject is also possible: an indefinite pronoun when the

imperative is addressed to any person in the group. e.g. Somebody open the window! Everybody write their names! Commands with LET In the 1st and 3rd person sg and pl, the imperative can be formed by means of let

followed by a (pro)noun in the objective case. e.g. Now, brother, let her be at peace a while. (C.B.) Tom closed the book and said, Now, let us go!(G.E.) Let each man decide for himself! The structural types of command may be summarized as follows7:

1st person 2nd person 3rd person Without subject - (I) Open the door! -

Without let - (II) You open the door!

(III) Someone open the door!

With subject

With let (IV) Let me open the door!

(IV) Let someone open the door!

Negative commands. To negate the first three classes of command, one simply adds an initial dont, replacing assertive by nonassertive forms where necessary:

I. Open the door! Dont open the door! II. You open the door! - Dont you open the door! III. Someone open the door! - Dont anyone open the door!

1st person imperatives (class IV), on the other hand, are generally negated by the insertion of not after the pronoun following let,

e.g. Lets not open the door! Informally however, the negation with dont is frequently heard: e.g. Dont lets open the door! The same construction is available for class V, e.g. Dont let anyone fool himself that he can get away with it. Persuasive commands. A persuasive or insistent (emphatic) imperative is

created by the addition of do (with a nuclear tone) before the main verb. This construction only applies to classes I and IV e.g. Do come and stay the night with us! (J.G.)

Do lets go to the theatre! 3.6. Other constructions having the value of command. In lively speech, an imperative sentence may contain no verb but only a noun,

an adverb, a prepositional phrase. e.g. No parking! No entry! Wet paint! Out with it! The salt, please!

7 See R. Quirk, op.cit., p. 405.

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1.4. Exclamatory sentences Exclamatory sentences resemble wh-questions in involving initial placement of

an exclamatory wh-element. The word which is emphasized by the speaker is placed after the exclamatory word (except when the emphasized word is the predicate of the sentence, which remains in its usual place, after the subject: How she sings!) On the other hand, in contrast to wh-questions, there is generally no subject operator inversion.

e.g What an enormous crowd came! (Subject) What time weve had today! How delightful her manners are! (Predicative) What a long time weve be waiting! (Adverbial).

The range of wh-words that can be used in exclamations is restricted to what used with reference to a noun (functioning as predeterminer in an NP) and how functioning as intensifier of an adjective, verb, adverb.

e.g. What a fool I was! Said Kemp. (H.G.W.) What delightful weather we are having! (O.W.) How silly I was in my happiness! (T.H./ How fast you walked! (C.B.)

Sometimes the exclamatory sentences are elliptical, the subject and predicate being omitted.

e.g. What a wonderful voice (she has)! How true (this is)! Exclamatory sentences may be also expressed by: - declarative sentences, e.g. It was a pleasure to talk with her (What a pleasure

it was to talk with her!). The same functions are fulfilled by such as a determiner and so as intensifier.

e.g. Weve had such a time. Her manners are so delightful. - interrogative-negative sentences e.g. Hasnt she improved! Isnt he clever! The intonation of exclamatory sentences is falling .

According to their structure, sentences may be classified into: 1. simple sentences: are based upon one predication relation realized by a finite

verb form. 2. compound sentences: are based upon the coordination (conjoining) of two or

more simple sentences. 3. complex sentences: are based upon the subordination (embedding) of at least

one sentence. The embedded sentences are called clauses. Clauses may be, in their turn, subclassified according to the verb form of their predication:

i. Finite clauses, whose verb form carries the markers of mood, tense, aspect; ii. Non finite clauses whose verb form is an infinitive, a gerund or a participle.

Major points of the grammatical bite: There are four main types of independent sentences: declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentences. These correspond to four main types of speech act: statement, question, directive and exclamation. However there are mismatches between clause types and the associated speech- types. Grammatically, although independent clauses are the main building blocks of texts, non-clausal material is also common, particularly in conversation.

BIBLIOGRAFIE: .

Bdescu, A.. 1963. Gramatica limbii engleze., Bucureti : Ed. Stiintifica. Banta, A.1977. Elements of Descriptive English Syntax. Bucureti: TUB. Budai, L.1997 Gramatica engleza, Teorie si exercitii, Bucureti: Editura Teora.

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Biber,D., Conrad, S., Leech, G. 2005. Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London:Longman.

Gleanu, G., Comiel, E. 1982. Gramatica limbii engleze. Bucureti: Ed. Didactic i pedagogic.

Murar I, Pisoschi C., Trantescu A.M. 2010 Essentials of English Syntax. The Simple Sentence. Craiova: Editura Universitaria.

erban D. 1982. English Syntax, volume one, Bucureti. tefnescu, I.. 1978.Lectures in English Morphology. Bucuret:, TUB.. Quirk R., Greenbaum S., Leech G., Swartvick J. 1972. A Grammar of Contemporary

English. London: Longman. Thomson A., Martinet A.1969. A Practical English Grammar. London: Oxford University Press.

AUTOEVALUARE: 1. Classify sentences in point of their purpose. 2. Enlarge upon the negative polarity items. 3. What are the types of interrogative sentences?

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UNIT 3. The Noun Phrase

The Noun Phrase 1. The Structure of The NP 2. The Functions of The NP

2.1. The Subject 2.2. The Object 2.3. The Predicative 2.4. The Predicative Adjunct 2.5. The Apposition

Obiective: Studenii vor fi capabili : 1. S identifice caracteristicile sintactice ale subiectului. 2. S identifice tipurile de subiect. 3. S enumere clasele de verbe urmate de un complement direct.

Timp de studiu : 6 ore

1. The structure of the NP The NP consists of the Head (expressed by a noun, a pronoun or a nominal)

accompanied by one or several adjuncts. Adjuncts may be expressed by: a) Determiners: articles, demonstrative, possessive, indefinite determiners; b) Modifiers: adjectives, nouns, adverbs, prepositional phrases, clauses.

Adjuncts may appear: 1) in front of the head when they are expressed by: a) determiners, e.g. Her face was close to the window pane.(J.G.) Every bough was swinging in the wind (J.G.). Two or three days went by. (S.M.). The boy was smiling. These magazines are very interesting. b) modifiers expressed by: - adjectives, e.g. a low fence; old buses; a fine day - nouns, e.g. A wire fence; London buses; Shaws plays When an adjective and a noun modify the head, the adjective precedes the

modifying noun, e.g. That low wire fence.8 - an attributive group of words. e.g. A very small and not-over-particularly-taken-care-of boy.(C.D.) 2) after the head, when they are expressed by modifiers: - some adjectives: present, proper, extant, e.g. The story proper - adverbs, e.g. The examples above. - prepositional phrases, e.g. He was a young man of middle height.(J.G.) - an infinitive, participle or gerund, e.g. I have no time to spare. He saw a figure standing by the door. The conclusion arrived at is not encouraging. The Importance of Being Earnest (O.W.) - a relative clause, e.g. The book which Im reading is interesting.

8 The pattern of Det.+Adj.+N+Head is often ambiguous as the Adj. may modify either the noun

modifier or the noun head, e.g. a decent graduate college: the phrase may mean either graduate of a decent college or a decent graduate of a college.

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2. The functions of the NP. The NP has the following functions in the sentence: subject, object, predicative, apposition.

2.1.The Subject 1) Syntactic characteristics The subject is expressed by means of noun phrase items: - the noun (phrase), e.g. The library closes at 8 oclock. - two or more coordinated nouns which make up: i. A compound subject representing only one element, e.g. A great poet

and revolutionist was lost when Shelley died; ii. Coordinated subjects, e.g. Tom and Maggie are the principal

characters in The Mill on the Floss. - a noun substitute: i. a pronoun (personal, possessive, demonstrative, interrogative,

indefinite, negative) e.g. Can you drive?

His is a large family. Thats his bad luck. (J. Al) Whos there? Nothing was said for a long time.

ii. a numeral, e.g. Four were missing.

The first was a tall lady with dark hair. (C.B.) iii. a non finite form (infinitive or gerund), e.g. To escape would be difficult.

Reading aloud will help you a lot; iv. a complex construction, e.g. He happened to be in town at the moment.

Louise had been overheard to begin a conversation with her brother (C.D.) (a Nominative with Infinitive construction)

He was noticed entering the house. The children were seen running to the river (a Nominative with

Participle) v. a subject clause, e.g. Whether he admits it or not is another matter. Owing to the scantiness of inflections for person and number in the verb, the

subject is always expressed with the exception of imperative sentences having you as implied subject9.

The place of the subject. The subject takes the first place in the sentence, place normally held by the

element which forms the theme/topic of discussion. The subject is placed - before the predicate in declarative (affirmative and negative) sentences, e.g. Turner was a landscape painter.

My brother has come. - after the operator (auxiliary, copulative and modal verbs) in interrogative

sentences, e.g. Can it be true?

Do you want the book? - after the predicate when it is anticipated by introductory it, there, e.g. One night there flew over the city a little swallow. (O.W) 2) Classification of subjects in point of content.

9 The subject is also not expressed in a) elliptical sentences in colloquial English, e.g. [I] hope to

see you soon; b) in enumerations (when the subject of 2 or more coordinated clauses refers to the same element) the subject need not to be repeated, e.g. they were exhausted and (they) fell asleep at once.

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According to the criterion of content or semantic value, subjects may be classified into: grammatical, impersonal, logical.

Grammatical (formal) subjects are directly connected with the predicate and therefore usually determine concord between the latter and the subject, e.g. He knows you.

Impersonal subjects do not refer to a definite person or thing; they lack semantic content altogether. The impersonal subjects are expressed by the impersonal pronoun it. It is an impersonal empty subject of:

- impersonal verbs: dew, lighten, rain, snow, thunder e.g. It often rains in autumn. It dewed heavily overnight. - sentences expressing time, weather, distance or a state of things in general, e.g. It was late when I arrived, it was midnight.

It is getting colder and colder. Its a log way to the station. It was very pleasant at the seaside.

- Indefinite/Generic Subject: (subjects of vague or general meaning) are expressed in English by the following pronouns:

- they, meaning an indefinite group of people e.g. They say I am like my father, grandmother. (CD) - we, you, one, meaning any person, people in general e.g. We learn to restrain ourselves as we get older (GE). Here one could

wander unseen. (C.B.) - he, people: e.g. People drink a lot of tea in Britain. Logical subjects point to the agent, that is the real author or doer/performer of

the action. Usually, the grammatical subject is identical with the logical subject. Yet, there are two categories of exceptions where the grammatical subject is not identical with he logical subject:

a. Passive constructions: the logical subject (the agent, the author of the action) is not identical with the grammatical subject of the sentence,

e.g. New victories have been won by our sportsmen. (gram. subj.) (logical subj.) b. Constructions with introductory elements a) Emphatic constructions may underline or single out any part of the sentence

(except the predicate). The grammatical subject is expressed by it, while the real (logical) subject is placed within the framework of the clause, e.g. Its his stubbornness that exasperates me.

b) Anticipatory constructions: the grammatical introductory subject is expressed by it and there.

It anticipates the logical subject of the sentence when it is an infinitive, a gerund or a subject clause,

e.g. It is necessary to start at once. Its no use crying over spilt milk. It seems he is right. There is used in constructions where emphasis is laid merely on the existence or

absence of the logical subject. The introductory subject there anticipates the logical subject of the sentence when the predicate is expressed by:

- existential verbs: be, exist, happen, live, occur10, e.g. There will be an adequate supply of goods.

There once lived in the flat an eccentric lady. There occurred an unexpected incident during the meeting.

- verbs of seeming: appear, seem,

10 As A. Banta] shows in Elements of Descriptive Syntax, p. 56, according to a frequency survey of

contemporary British and American usage in constructions introduced by there, that the verb be occurs in about 95% of the instances, seem, appear in about 2% come, arrive another 2%, while all other verbs taken together amounting to barely 1 per cent.

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e.g. There appeared some marks on the X-ray plate. There seemed to be no escape.

- aspectual verbs: arise, begin, emerge, remain, start, e.g. There began to be a violent commotion.

There emerged a new philosophical trend at the turn of the century. - verbs of motion: arrive, come, run, e.g. At that moment there came a knock at the door.

There arrived a shabbily dressed man. There is a regular transformational relation of equivalence between clauses with

there-subject and clauses of the standard type. There-constructions may be derived by means of the rule:

S+V+O/ATHERE+V+S+O/A. The insertion of there consists of the following operations: movement of the

subject NP in post-verbal position, i.e. in between the verb and the rest of the sentence; insertion of there in the position left empty by the moved subject,

e.g. A book is on the table There is a book on the table. There becomes subject of the sentence and behaves like a subject, i.e. it can act

as a subject in general and tag questions, e.g. Is there any coffee? Theres nothing wrong, is there?; it can act as subject in non-finite clauses, e.g. I dont want there to be any misunderstanding. He was disappointed at there being so little to do. The NP functioning as logical subject is usually indefinite. Indefinite reference

of the NP may be realized by the indefinite and zero article, indefinite determiners and pronouns (any, some, anything, something, everything, much), negative determiners and pronouns (no, nothing), numerals.

e.g. There is a strange man in the hall. There are no changes in the document. There is much noise in the street. There isnt anything new in his article. The insertion of there is usually conditioned by the presence in the sentence of

an adverbial of place or time. When the adverbial of place is in initial position, there is no longer obligatory11.

e.g. On the table there stood plates full of cakes. (W.I.) High above the city on a tall column stood the statue of the Happy Prince.

Parallel structures with it and there: It and there are often interchangeable; they often share the feature of forward

reference to the real subject they anticipate. The difference lies in the tendency of it to anticipate[+definite]subjects, while there usually anticipates [definite] ones. Compare: Its time we left (the time has come for us to leave). Theres time, no need to hurry (Theres enough time).

Impersonal constructions have alternative forms with it and there as subjects, e.g. It was still raining (A.J.C.). There had been rain the night before (J.G.).

We can account for the application of there in the light of the already discussed principles of discourse (Ch. II). The subject is the element which, in most cases, contains given information (is known to the listener, speaker) and, as is but natural, English sentences begin with this element, that is they proceed from something which is already known to something which is yet unknown (new information). However, when the subject of a sentence is not known, when it is introduced for the first time (is an indefinite NP), this means that contrary to general practice the subject introduces new information, an indefinite expression being by definition a reference to something that has not been mentioned. There has the function to insert in subject position a given information item,

11 According to R. Quirk, op.cit., p. 961, there as an introductory element provides the necessary

condition for inversion to take place (i.e. for the subject to be placed after the verb); if an initial adverbial is also present, of course, such a condition already obtains, and there may be omitted.

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and to postpone the item marked as new to a later, nonthematic position. Seen from a functional perspective, there appears as a formal theme that secures the normal progression of discourse, causing the items that are heavily loaded informationally to occur in the sentence in the position commonly held by the comment.

The major points of the grammar bite: The subject is a noun phrase. It occurs with all types of verbs. The subject denotes the most important participant in the action or state denoted by the verb. With transitive verbs it is usually the doer or the agent of the action. English always requires a subject, even if the subject has no actual meaning (dummy it).

2.2. The Object The main syntactic function discharged by NP constituents at the level of the

verb phrase is that of Object. The government relation holding between the predicating verb and the Object(s) may be of two distinct kinds:

a) non-oblique: the function of the NP is that of Direct Object and it actualizes the regime of transitive verbs;

b) oblique: the verb governs a prepositional NP. The functions of this prepositional NP are:

(i) Indirect Object if the preposition is the dative to or for (ii) Prepositional Object if the preposition is other than to or for

The Direct Object 1) Syntactic characteristics The direct object (DO) is expressed by means of noun phrase items: a) a noun (phrase), e.g. I enjoyed the book. Have you met Dr. Jones? b) coordinated nouns: two or more nouns - connected either by conjunctions or

asyndentically - discharge an identical syntactic function, viz. coordinated objects in relation to a transitive verb

e.g. A cupboard with glass doors contained some books and an ancient set of china. (C.B.)

c) a noun equivalent: pronoun, numeral, non-finite form (infinitive, gerund), e.g. He didnt do anything. Add fifty and thirty and you will get eighty. I should like to explain. She hates being contradicted. d) a complex construction made up of a (pro)noun in the Accusative (Objective)

case + a non finite form of he verb (infinitive, participle, gerund): - The Accusative with the Infinitive occurs after verbs of physical perception,

mental activity, feeling, order, permission (acknowledge, admit, advise, allow, ask, assume, believe, cause, command, compel, conceive, consider, declare, deny, desire, expect, feel, force, get, hate, have, hear, imagine, induce, know, let, like, make, mean, notice, observe, order, perceive, permit, persuade, proclaim, pronounce, prove, recommend, request, see, suffer, suppose, understand, want,watch, wish).

e.g. He conceived himself to be calm. (J.C.) I never knew her to do such things before (C.D.). At that moment she felt him tremble.

- The Accusative with the indefinite Participle after verbs of physical perception, mental activity, feeling (like, notice, observe, see, set, want, watch, hear).

e.g. And they heard him walking to and fro late in the night. (C.D.)

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Mr. Marvel felt his ears glowing. (H.G.W.) - The Genitive/Accusative with the gerund after the verbs, excuse, hate, like,

mind, prevent. e.g. She doesnt like my doing that.

Youll excuse me leaving earlier. - The Accusative with the Past Participle after verbs expressing causative

relations, coercion, order (get, have, hear, like, want) e.g. He had his hair cut.

I cant bear to hear them spoken badly of. They had him brought before them.

- the Accusative with an Adverb occurs after verbs expressing feeling, order, permission (desire, keep, order, permit, prefer)

e.g. I ordered him away. = I ordered him to go/stay away. I prefer it there. = I prefer it to remain there. The Infinitive is present in the deep structure. e) an object clause, e.g. I dont know where he lives.

The place of the Direct Object The DO normally follows the verb phrase expressed by a transitive verb, e.g. Put out the candle, so that they cant see the light when I open the shutters.

(G.B.S.). The DO is sometimes separated from the transitive verb by a prepositional

object or adverbial modifier. This is often the case when the group of the object is rather lengthy,

e.g. Felix saw on the branch of the apple-tree a tiny brown bird with a little beak sticking out.(J.G.)

With complex verbs: a) the DO expressed by a pronoun precedes the adverbial particle, e.g. The noise woke him up. They have a radio but they dont switch it on

during the day; b) the DO expressed by a noun precedes or follows the adverbial particle, e.g. He had thought the problem out. Mrs. Hall went to clear away the strangers lunch. The DO may appear at the beginning of the sentence, for purposes of emphasis, e.g. Talent, Mr. Micawber has; money, Mr. Micawber has not. (C.D.) The

presence of the DO in front position is usual when it is expressed by a group of words including not a + noun. If the predicate contains neither an auxiliary, nor a modal verb, to do must be used in these constructions,

e.g. Many a book have I consulted without finding an answer to this questions. Many sweet little appeals did Miss Sharp make to him about the dishes at

dinner (W.M.T.). Not a stone has he left unturned. Not a hint did she drop about sending me to school (C.B.). By the passive transformation the DO assumes the status of a subject, e.g. The

woman recognized the driver The driver was recognized by the woman.

2) Classes of verbs followed by a Direct Object: a) transitive verbs - transitive verbs followed by one Direct Object: drink, eat, love, meet, need,

read, seek, speak, write etc. e.g. I need the book tomorrow. He speaks English well. The Passive Transformation: The Direct Object becomes the subject of the

passive sentence, and the subject becomes the Object of Agent. The students loved their teacher. The teacher was loved by his students.

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- transitive verbs followed by two Direct Object (the first DO denotes a person, the second a thing): answer, ask, envy, forgive, save, spare, strike, teach.

e.g. We ask him several questions. They envied us our success. That will save us a lot of trouble. He taught the children mathematics. Passivization: Constructions with two Direct Objects have two transformations: Mr. Bent taught us a new lesson. We were taught a new lesson (1)or A new

lesson was taught to us (2). The most frequent is the first one (the personal Object becomes the subject and the other Direct Object is retained).

- transitive verbs followed by a DO and an Indirect Object: bring, give, hand, lend, offer, read, show, write etc. The usual order is IO + DO, e.g. I gave Mary a book. I handed him a letter.

Passivization: Both Objects can become the subject for the passive sentence: They showed me the picture. I was shown the picture.

The picture was shown to me. The first is the most common. The Indirect Object becomes the Subject and the Direct Object is retained.

-transitive verbs followed by DO and a Prepositional Object: accuse (of), charge (with), compare (with), congratulate (on), cure (of), deprive (of), prevent (from) etc. The order of these objects is DO + PO:

e.g. They charged him with an important mission. We congratulate him on his promotion. I helped my friend with his project. The Passive Transformation: the Direct Object becomes the Subject, and the

Prepositional Object is retained. We congratulated him on his success. He was congratulated on his success. b) intransitive verbs There are some intransitive verbs: die, laugh, live, sleep, smile etc. which can be

followed by DO. In such cases the verb behaves like a transitive verb. The object is a lexical copy of the verb or a mere semantic one (cognate object). The peculiarity of the Object NP lies in its consisting of a head N (the nominalization corresponding to the verb) and a modifier expressed by an adjective which indicates the manner in which the action/process takes place.

e.g. Last night I dreamt a strange dream. He lived a long and happy life. He died a terrible death. A tendency is noticeable in contemporary English of replacing certain

intransitive verbs (cry, dance, walk etc.) by transitive constructions such as have a dance. The construction contains a transitive verb of general meaning (do, give, have, take) followed by a direct object a verbal noun which carries the actual semantic force or value of the idiom. The transitive construction is more idiomatic than the equivalent construction with an intransitive verb,

e.g. He did little work that day (=He worked little) He made several attempts to contact them (He attempted several times) 3) Classification of DOs in point of semantic content a) significant/meaningful objects e.g. The members heard the minutes and approved them. b) non-significant/meaningless objects are expressed by the pronoun it. - it has an anticipatory function to introduce an object clause, an infinitive or

gerund after verbs such as believe, consider, find, leave, owe, think e.g. I consider it my duty to warn you. - it occurs after verbs such as catch, lord, overdo, rough e.g. They find it easier to work in another town. They had to rough it when the storm started. He acted foolishly and he caught it.

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Such verbs often impart a peculiar liveliness to the description: e.g. We therefore decided that we would sleep out on fine nights, and hotel it,

and inn it and pub it, like respectable folks when it was wet. (J.K.J.)

The Indirect Object 1) Syntactic characteristics The indirect Object (IO) is expressed by means of: - a noun (Phrase), e.g. He spoke to the manager - a pronoun: the pronoun is in the objective case when it is represented by a

personal pronoun or by the interrogative-relative pronoun who, e.g. Please send me a postcard. To whom did you lend it? (or: Who(m) did you lend it to?)

The place of the Indirect Object - the IO is placed before the DO (the IO is used without any prepositions): e.g. He sold us his car. She bought her mother a blouse. - the IO is placed after the DO (the IO is preceded by the preposition to/for): e.g. He sold his car to our neighbour. I bought a blouse for mother. - the IO may be placed at the beginning of the sentence for emphasis: e.g. To him, of all the younger poets, people accorded the right to say

something (J.G.)

The passive transformation - the to - IO construction yields two passive forms: a) the IO becomes the formal subject of the sentence, e.g. The teacher gave John a book John was given a book (by the teacher); b) the IO is retained, e.g. A book was given to John. - the for IO yields only one passive from, the one with the IO in subject

position being ungrammatical, e.g. A book was brought for John. *John was brought a book. 2) Classes of words followed by an Indirect Object: a) verbs - transitive verbs followed by an IO and a DO (the order can be changed if the

preposition FOR is inserted): built, buy, choose, cook, cut, do, find, get, leave, make, order, prepare, receive, reserve,

e.g. Buy me an ice-cream, please Buy one for me. Ill telephone: they must find a room for me (J.G.). - transitive verbs followed by an IO and a DO (the order can be changed if the

preposition TO is inserted): assign, cause, give, hand, lend, offer, owe, pay, promise, read, return, sell, send, show, sign, write:

e.g. This has caused us much anxiety. Youve caused trouble to all of us. Please hand me that book. He handed the book to the man at his side. He showed me his pictures. He has shown them to all his friends. The obligatory sequence IO + DO occurs in constructions with the verbs give,

lend (the IO can refer to something inanimate); give sth. a wipe, give ones imagination full rein/play, give sb a black eye, give sb a kiss/a punch, give sb a piece of ones mind, lend sth an air/aura.

e.g. He gave the door a push/a kick (=He pushed the door). They gave the house a new coat of painting. He gave the rope a hearty tug.

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I gave the problem my full attention. - transitive verbs followed by a DO and an IO preceded by the preposition to:

address, admit, announce, ascribe, attribute, communicate, confess, contribute, dedicate, deliver, dictate, convey, demonstrate, describe, declare, entrust, explain, illustrate, indicate, introduce, mention, narrate, point out, propose, refer, recommend, relate, repeat, report, say, state, submit, suggest, translate, transmit

e.g. He ascribed the mild climate of the land to the warm stream. He very often contributes articles to the Daily Worker. I described to her all the grandeur of Lady Catherine and her mansion (J.A.). The boy explained everything to his father. Let me introduce my friend to your parents. And you must not say these extravagant things to me (O.W.) I suggested another solution to him. Transitive verbs followed by a Direct Object and an Indirect Object are divided

into two groups according to passivization. Some of these have a single transformation in which the Direct Object becomes

the Subject of the passive sentence, and the Indirect Object is preserved. The following verbs belong to this category:

- verbs followed by a Direct Object and an Indirect Object in this order + preposition to: address, announce, communicate, describe, explain, introduce, mention, relate, repeat, say, translate, convey,

They conveyed the news to us. The news was conveyed to us. - verbs followed by the preposition for: buy, choose, do, leave, make, order etc. Have you left any chocolate for the others? Has any chocolate been left for the others? Other verbs like: give, offer, tell, show, promise etc. have two passive

transformations. The most common transformation is when the Indirect Object becomes the

Subject, the Direct Object being retained. They gave me a beautiful flower. I was given a beautiful flower. A beautiful flower was given to me. This is a variant seldom used. - some intransitive verbs followed by a non-prepositional IO: last, take, e.g. This umbrella has lasted me ten years. It took me two hours to solve the problem. - some intransitive verbs require an IO preceded by the preposition to:

apologize, belong, happen, occur, read, speak, talk. e.g. It could have happened to anyone. An idea occurred to me. The secretary was late again this morning; youd better speak to her about it. b) adjectives: dangerous, faithful, good, grateful, harmful, helpful, open e.g. He always remained faithful to his principles. Tom was good to her (G.E.). c) nouns: benefit, gratitude, help, service, use e.g. My gratitude to him cannot be expressed in words. It was of great help to me. 3) Types of indirect Objects a) The non-prepositional Indirect Object. The non-prepositional IO is used when the IO is placed before the DO. The

non-prepositional IO is preferred in English because (i) the object designating persons normally precedes that which designates

things; (ii) spoken English manifests a preference for shorter constructions, e.g. The colonel gave us a wintry smile (G.G.) The Miller paid Hans a visit (O.W.) We owe you many apologies, Maam. (C.D.) Ill just read you a few of the leaders I wrote at the time (C.D.).

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b) The prepositional Indirect Object The prepositional IO built up with the prepositions to/for is required in the

following situations: - when the speaker or writer wants to emphasize the IO or to place it in contrast

with another IO, e.g. Harry, promise me that you will never lend that book to anyone. (O.W.) I shall show the letter to you (not to her). - when the IO is followed by a subordinate clause, e.g. He gave a book to his friend who is visiting him. - when DO is expressed by a personal pronoun while the IO is expressed by a

noun, e.g. He gave them to his mother. I offered it to John. - when both objects are expressed by personal pronouns, e.g. He gathered a half-blown rose and offered it to me (C.B.) Name them to me. (C.D.). I handed it to him. The verb give allows the omission of the preposition to (I gave it to her I gave

it her), e.g. A gentleman gave it me (C.D.). The Frenchwoman looked for her compact; I gave it her and she thanked me.

(G.G) - when the DO is not expressed: the IO is usually employed with the DO;

nevertheless, there are cases when the IO is used without the DO, especially after the verbs read, sing, speak, wire, write (the DO is implied),

e.g. I understand you have been in the habit of reading to your father (C.D.) The verb to write may be followed by an IO without the preposition to, e.g. On my being settled at Doctor Strongs I wrote to her again. (C.D.) Wont you write me and tell me how you all are? (T.D.)

The Prepositional Object 1) Syntactic characteristics Means of expression: Being a nominal part of the sentence, the PO can be

expressed practically by any of the nominal elements preceded by a preposition: - a noun or an equivalent preceded by a preposition e.g. He was looking for a pen. She looked at herself in the mirror. I got on very well with him. - a gerundial phrase preceded by a preposition, e.g. He insisted on doing it himself. She was conscious of being admired by everyone present. The place of the Prepositional Object. a) the PO is placed after the predicate when it is expressed by an intransitive

verb, e.g. He was talking with his friends. Look at that honey-coloured moon that hangs in the dusky air; she is waiting

for you to charm her (O.W.). b) The PO is placed after the Indirect Object, e.g. Have you spoken to him about it? This letter was send to me by my mother. c) The PO is placed after the Direct Object when the predicate is expressed by a

transitive verb, e.g. He informed her of his decision. Have you compared the translation with the original? He gave me a broad hint about it.

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d) The PO may be placed at the beginning of the sentence for emphatic purposes (the front position of the PO is sometimes accompanied by Subject-Auxiliary inversion),

e.g. With fire and sword the country round/They wasted far and wide (R.S.) Oh, on what little things does happiness depend. (O.W.). 2) Classes of words followed by a Prepositional Object: a) verbs - intransitive verbs with obligatory preposition: argue about/with, aim at, boast

of, call for, care for, complain of, depend on, hint at, insist on, long for, look at/after/for, pass for, resort to, wait for, wonder at, worry about.

e.g. She seems always to agree with other people (J.G.) He boasts of being the best cricket player in the College. Would you care for one of these books? The success of the picnic will depend on the weather. - transitive verbs with obligatory preposition: acquaint sb with, advise sb about,

assure sb of, blame sb for, bother sb with, congratulate sb on, convince sb of, cure smb of smth, deprive smb of smth, help smb with smth, entrust sb with, mistake sb for, remind sb of, warn sb about/against.

e.g. I am writing to acquaint you with the latest developments in the situation. At first I resolved not to disturb you with such a useless piece of information

(T.H.) We cannot entrust him with such a task. The doctor cured the woman of that terrible disease. The verbs assist sb in, charge sb with, dissuade sb from, force sb into, prevent

sb from are followed by a gerundial phrase. e.g. Various obligations have prevented me from going earlier. He charged me with neglecting my duty. b) Adjectives or participles, which fulfil the function of a predicative in a

nominal predicate, followed by obligatory prepositions: angry at/about/with, aware of, careful about/of, content with, concerned about/for, free from/of, good at, interested in, proud of, satisfied with, successful in, surprised at.

e.g. Try not to be angry with her. I am aware of your efforts. There are many kinds of hunters engaged in the pursuit of happiness (C.D.) He is interested in astronomy. I am surprised at his behaviour. c) nouns: anger at, attitude to/towards, reaction to, response to, surprise at, e.g. What is your attitude towards this question? The response to the appeal has not been very encouraging. 3) Types of Prepositional Objects a) The Prepositional Object of Agent is expressed by means of a NP introduced

by the preposition by. It denotes the person (more rarely the thing, natural element or abstract notion) performing the action. This doer or performer of the action appears as the real/logical subject in passive sentences, being therefore closely connected with the passive voice.

e.g. This was given me by a young French lady (M.H.) The flowers were crushed by a hailstorm. b) The Prepositional Object of Instrument is expressed by means of a NP

introduced by the preposition with. It denotes the instrument, agency through which an action is performed.

e.g. Mr. Peggotty ruffled his hair with both hands (C.D.) I managed to beat the dog off with a stick. c) The Prepositional Object of Association is expressed by means of an NP

introduced by the prepositions with, together with. This PO denotes the person (more rarely the animal and thing) participating in an action with the speaker or writer.

e.g. It is already creating widespread discussion and he with others had gone to see it (T.D.)

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I am sending you a letter from the County Council together with a copy of my reply.

d) The Prepositional Object of Relation is expressed by means of the prepositions for, against, to, towards. It includes various kinds of relations as well as attitudes, feelings etc.

e.g. Are his feelings towards us friendly? They did not die; death being contrary to their principles they took precautions

against it (J.G.).

Summing up An object is a noun phrase. It only occurs with transitive verbs. The object noun phrase of a transitive verb can be moved to become subject of the corresponding passive clause. Compare: Everyone read the book with The book was read by everyone. Three valency patterns contain direct objects: the monotransitive, ditransitive and complex transitive patterns. The ditransitive pattern contains first an indirect object followed by a direct object.

2.3. The Predicative (The Subject Complement) The Predicative (Complement), occurs after link verbs forming with them

Nominal Predicates. The Predicative has the following syntactic characteristics: a) It is expressed by means of - a noun phrase, usually a [-definite] NP, e.g. He is an engineer. She has remained a widow. The undergraduates were boys in their teens. He was a brilliant, original teacher. There are very few cases in which [+definite] NPs function as predicatives, e.g.

White hats are the thing today. - a prepositional noun phrase: (i) with deleteable preposition: a whole group

including of NP which indicates attributes connected with colour, size, age, quality, shape may undergo preposition deletion,

e.g. These shoes are (of) the same size, Her dress is (of) the same colour as mine. (ii) with undeletable preposition, e.g. They are of the same opinion. His son is of a sound mind.(we notice that be of has a possessive meaning) His behaviour is above reproach. The car was beyond repair. The screw was out of the plank. She is in good health. The phrase is often the same or almost the same as an adjective. e.g. He was happy. At last he was at liberty, (at liberty=free). At last he was

free. She is out of danger (out of danger=safe) She is safe. - a noun substitute: (i) a numeral e.g. Mike was the first. She was seventeen then. (ii) a pronoun (personal, possessive, interrogative, indefinite) e.g. The house was no longer theirs. (CD) Who are you?, asked Tom; It is I

(In spoken English: It is me).The pronouns it, which, that and such are used to replace a preceding subject complement:

She is very ill and looks it.

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We are loyal and you will always find us such. (iii) a non finite verbal form (an infinitival or gerundial phrase), e.g. His principal pastime is to drive in the countryside. His hobbies are gardening and watching football. A boy is missing. Seeing is believing. Sometimes the subject complement is expressed by an infinitival or gerundial

complex: The most important thing was for them to finish the project in time. The greatest trouble was our ignoring some details. - a predicative clause, e.g. The trouble is that I forgot the address. The problem is that he never comes in time. b) There is number concord between the subject and the predicative e.g. He felt a fool (both subject and Predicative are singular). They felt fools (both Subject and Predicative are plural) b) The Predicative cannot became subject through passivization. e.g. He looked a complete idiot. *A complete idiot was looked by him.

2.4. The Predicative Adjunct (The Complement of the Object) The Predicative Adjunct determines both the predicate expressed by a transitive

verb and the noun (or the noun substitute) heaving the function of a Direct Object of the Predicate. The Predicative Adjunct has the following syntactic characteristics:

a) it is expressed by means of: - a noun phrase which occurs after verbs such as: appoint, call, choose,

consider, declare, designate, elect, make, name, nominate, proclaim, prove, select, vote. e.g. They appointed Paul Brown chairman. They elected him president. The parents named the boy Peter. - a noun phrase preceded by as, after the verbs: accept, describe, designate,

disguise, engage, regard, look upon, e.g. The jury accepted the woman as a witness. He designated Smith as his successor. b) The Predicative Adjunct is placed after the Direct Object c) There is number concord between the Direct Object and the Predicative

Adjunct e.g. They consider him a fool. They consider the men fools. d) The Predicative Adjunct does not become Subject through passivization, e.g. They appointed Harry manager. *Manager was appointed Harry. Harry was appointed manager.

2.5. The Apposition The apposition is an element which renders the main noun more precise or

definite. The apposition resembles coordination since two or more units in apposition are constituents of the same level. For units to be appositives, i.e. in apposition, they must normally be identical in reference or else, the reference of one must be included in the reference of the other. For example, in

A neighbour, Frank Brown, is on the phone. a neighbour and Frank Brown refer to the same person.

In terms of structure, appositions are subdivided into: a) the simple (close) apposition is closely connected with the respective head

noun; it determines or defines names of persons, titles, professions, geographical names. The close apposition precedes the head noun, except in some phraseological

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combinations, when the apposition follows the head noun (William the Conqueror, Richard the Lion Hearted): Lord Nelson, Queen Victoria, Doctor Pitt,

e.g. Im afra