An Introduction to the Grammar of English. Revised edition

An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Revised edition

An Introduction

to the Grammar of English

Revised edition

Elly van Gelderen

Arizona State University

John Benjamins Publishing Company

Amsterdam / Philadelphia

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Gelderen, Elly van.

An introduction to the grammar of English / Elly van Gelderen. -- Rev. ed.

p. cm.

Rev. ed: .

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. English language--Grammar. . English language--Grammar, Historical. . English

language--Social aspects. . English language--Syntax. I. Title.

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Table of contents

Foreword xi

Preface to the second edition xv

Abbreviations xvii

List of gures xix

List of tables xxi

chapter 1

Introduction 1

1.

Examples of linguistic knowledge 1

1.1

Sounds and words 1

1.2

Syntactic structure 2

2.

How do we know so much? 5

3.

Examples of social or non-linguistic knowledge 6

4.

Conclusion 8

Exercises 9

Class discussion 9

Keys to the exercises 10

Special topic: Split innitive 10

chapter 2

Categories 12

1.

Lexical categories 12

1.1

Nouns (N) and Verbs (V) 13

1.2

Adjectives (Adj) and Adverbs (Adv) 15

1.3

Prepositions (P) 18

Grammatical categories 19

2.1

Determiner (D) 19

2.2

Auxiliary (Aux) 21

2.3

Coordinator (C) and Complementizer (C) 21

3.

Pronouns 23

4.

What new words and loanwords tell us! 24

5.

Conclusion 25

Exercises 27

Class discussion 29

Keys to the exercises 30

Special topic: Adverb and Adjective 32

vi An Introduction to the Grammar of English

chapter 3

Phrases 35

1.

e noun phrase (NP) 36

2.

e adjective phrase, adverb phrase, verb phrase

and prepositional phrase 39

2.1

e adjective phrase (AdjP) and adverb phrase (AdvP) 39

2.2

e verb phrase (VP) 40

2.3

e prepositional phrase (PP) 41

3.

Phrases in the sentence 42

4.

Coordination of phrases and apposition 43

5.

Finding phrases and building trees 45

5.1

Finding the phrase 45

5.2

Building trees 46

6.

Conclusion 49

Exercises 50

Class discussion 51

Keys to the exercises 52

Special topic: Negative concord 56

Review of Chapters 1–3 59

Exercises relevant to these Chapters: 60

Class discussion 60

Keys to the exercises 61

Example of an exam/quiz covering Chapters 1 to 3 63

Keys to the exam/quiz 63

chapter 4

Functions in the sentence 65

1.

Subject and predicate 65

2.

Complements 68

2.1

Direct and indirect object 68

2.2

Subject and object predicate 70

3.

Verbs and functions 72

4.

Trees for all verb types 74

5.

Light verbs (optional) 76

6.

Conclusion 77

Exercises 78

Class discussion 80

Keys to the exercises 80

Special topic: Case and agreement 83

Table of contents vii

chapter 5

More functions, of prepositions and particles 86

1.

Adverbials 86

2.

Prepositional verbs 90

3.

Phrasal verbs 90

4.

Phrasal prepositional verbs (optional) 93

5.

Objects and adverbials 93

6.

Conclusion 96

Exercises 97

Class discussion 99

Keys to the exercises 100

Special topic: e passive and ‘dummies’ 102

chapter 6

e structure of the verb group (VGP) in the VP 105

1.

Auxiliary verbs 105

2.

e ve types of auxiliaries in English 107

2.1

Modals 107

2.2 Perfect have

(pf) 109

2.3 Progressive be

(progr) 110

2.4 Passive be

(pass) 111

2.5 e ‘dummy’ do

112

3.

Auxiliaries,‘ax hop’, and the verbgroup (VGP) 113

4.

Finiteness 114

5.

Relating the terms for verbs (optional) 116

6.

Conclusion 118

Exercises 120

Class discussion 121

Keys to the exercises 122

Special topic: Reduction of have

and the shape of participles 122

Review of chapters 4–6 124

Examples of midterm exams covering Chapters 4 to 6 127

Example 1 127

Example 2 127

Example 3 128

Key to example 1 129

Key to example 2 130

Key to example 3 131

viii An Introduction to the Grammar of English

chapter 7

Finite clauses: Embedded and coordinated 132

1.

Sentences and clauses 133

2.

e functions of clauses 134

3.

e structure of the embedded clause: e Complementizer Phrase (CP) 135

4.

Coordinate sentences: e Coordinator Phrase (CP)? 138

5.

Terminological labyrinth and conclusion 139

Exercises 141

Class discussion 142

Keys to the exercises 143

Special topic: Preposition or complementizer: e ‘preposition’ like

146

chapter 8

Non-ﬁnite clauses 149

1.

Non-nite clauses 149

2.

e functions of non-nites 151

3.

e structure: CP 152

4.

Coordinating non-nites 154

5.

Conclusion 155

Exercises 156

Class discussion 157

Keys to the exercises 159

Special topic: Dangling participles and gerunds 161

Review of Chapters 7 and 8 164

Exercises 165

Keys to the exercises 165

Sample quiz/exam, covering Chapters 7 and 8 166

Keys to the quiz/exam 167

chapter 9

e structure of the PP, AdjP, AdvP, and NP 169

1.

e structure of the PP, AdjP, and AdvP and the functions inside 170

2.

e structure of the NP and functions inside 172

3.

Arguments for distinguishing complements from modiers (optional) 176

3.1

Complement and modier follow the head N 176

3.2

Complement and modier precede the head N 177

4.

Conclusion 179

Exercises 181

Table of contents ix

Class discussion 182

Keys to the exercises 183

Special topic: Pronoun resolution 188

chapter 10

Clauses as parts of NPs and AdjPs 189

1.

Relative clauses (RC) 189

2.

Inside the NP: Relative and complement clauses 190

2.1

Relatives 190

2.2

Complement clauses 191

2.3

Reduced relative clauses 192

3.

NPs as compared to AdjPs, AdvPs, and PPs 193

4.

Categories

1. Lexical categories

2. Grammatical categories

3. Pronouns

4. What new words and loanwords tell us!

5. Conclusion

In this chapter, I provide descriptions of the categories or parts of speech. Categories

can be divided into two main classes: lexical and functional. e lexical categories

include Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, and Preposition and are called lexical because

they carry lexical meaning. ey are also called content words since they have syn-

onyms and antonyms. As we’ll see in the next chapter, syntactically, lexical categories

are the heads of phrases.

ere are also functional or grammatical categories: Determiner, Auxiliary, Coor-

dinator, and Complementizer. ese categories are called grammatical or functional

categories since they do not contribute much to the meaning of a sentence but deter-

mine the syntax of it. ey do not function as heads of phrases but merely as parts or

as connectors. I’ll refer to them as grammatical categories. Prepositions and adverbs

are a little of both as will be explained in Sections 1.2 and 1.3 respectively, as are pro-

nouns, e.g. it, she, and there, to be discussed in Section 3.

When languages borrow new words, these will mainly be nouns, verbs, and adjec-

tives, i.e. lexical categories. erefore, the dierence between lexical and grammatical

is oen put in terms of open as opposed to closed categories, the lexical categories

being open (new words can be added) and the grammatical ones being closed (new

words are not easily added). Section 4 will examine this in a limited way.

.

Lexical categories

e ve lexical categories are Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, and Preposition. ey

carry meaning, and often words with a similar (synonym) or opposite meaning

Chapter 2. Categories 

(antonym) can be found. Frequently, the noun is said to be a person, place, or thing

and the verb is said to be an event or act. ese are semantic denitions. In this chapter,

it is shown that semantic denitions are not completely adequate and that we need to

dene categories syntactically (according to what they combine with) and morpholog-

ically (according to how the words are formed). For example, syntactically speaking,

chair is a noun because it combines with the article (or determiner) the; morphologi-

cally speaking, chair is a noun because it takes a plural ending as in chairs.

.

Nouns (N) and Verbs (V)

A noun generally indicates a person, place or thing (i.e. this is its meaning). For

instance, chair, table, and book are nouns since they refer to things. However, if the

distinction between a noun as person, place, or thing and a verb as an event or action

were the only distinction, certain nouns such as action and destruction would be verbs,

since they imply action. ese elements are nevertheless nouns.

In (1) and (2), actions and destruction are preceded by the article the, actions can be

made singular by taking the plural -s o, and destruction can be pluralized with an -s.

is makes them nouns:

(1) e actions by the government came too late.

(2) e hurricane caused the destruction of the villages.

As will be shown in Chapter 4, their functions in the sentence are also typical for

nouns rather than verbs: in (1), actions is part of the subject, and in (2), destruction

is part of the object.

Apart from plural -s, other morphological characteristics of nouns are shown

in (3) and (4). Possessive ’s (or genitive case) appears only on nouns or noun phrases,

e.g. the noun Jenny in (3), and axes such as -er and -ism, e.g. writer and postmodern-

ism in (4), are also typical for nouns:

(3) Jenny ’s neighbor always knows the answer.

(4) at writer has modernized postmodernism.

Syntactic reasons for calling nouns nouns are that nouns are oen preceded by the,

as actions and government are in (1), as destruction and villages are in (2), and as

answer is in (3). Nouns can also be preceded by that, as in (4), and, if they are fol-

lowed by another noun, there has to be a preposition, such as by in (1) and of in (2),

connecting them.

e nouns action and destruction have verbal counterparts, namely act and destroy,

and (1) and (2) can be paraphrased as (5) and (6) respectively:

(5) e government acted too late.

(6) e hurricane destroyed the villages.

Just as nouns cannot always be dened as people or things, verbs are not always acts,

even though acted and destroyed are. e verb be in (7), represented by the third

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

person present form is, does not express an action. Hence, we need to add state to the

semantic denition of verb, as well as emotion to account for sentences such as (8):

(7) e book is red and blue.

(8) e book seemed nice (to me).

Some of the morphological characteristics of verbs are that they can express tense,

e.g. past tense ending -ed in (5), (6), and (8); that the verb ends in -s when it has a

third person singular subject (see Chapter 4) and is present tense; and that it may have

an ax typical for verbs, namely -ize, e.g. in modernized in (4) (note that it is -ise in

British English). Syntactically, they can be followed by a noun, as in (6), as well as by

a preposition and they can be preceded by an auxiliary, as in (4). Some of the major

dierences between nouns and verbs are summarized in Table 2.1 below.

Table 2.1. Some dierences between N(oun) and V(erb)

Noun (N) Verb (V)

Morphology a. plural -s with a few exceptions,

e.g. children, deer, mice

h. past tense -ed with a few

exceptions, e.g. went, le

b. possessive ’s i. third person singular

agreement -s

c. some end in -ity, -ness -ation, -er,

-ion, -ment

j. some end in -ize,-ate

Syntax d. may follow the/a and this/that/

these/those

k. may follow an auxiliary

e.g. have and will

e. may be modied by adjective l. may be modied by adverb

f. may be followed by preposition

and noun

m. may be followed by noun or

preposition and noun

Semantics g. person, place, thing n. act, event, state, emotion

In English, nouns can easily be used as verbs and verbs as nouns. erefore, it is

necessary to look at the context in which a word occurs, as in (9), for example, where

Shakespeare uses vnckle, i.e. ‘uncle’, as a verb as well as a noun:

(9) York: Grace me no Grace, nor Vnckle me,

I am no Traytors Vnckle; and that word Grace

In an vngracious mouth, is but prophane.

(Shakespeare, Richard II, II, 3, 96, as in the First Folio edition)

us, using the criteria discussed above, the rst instance of ‘uncle’ would be a verb

since the noun following it does not need to be connected to the verb by means of a

preposition, and the second ‘uncle’ is a noun since ‘traitor’ has the possessive ’s. Note

that I have le Shakespeare’s spelling, punctuation, and grammar as they appear in the

First Folio Edition.

Chapter 2. Categories 

Other examples where a word can be both a noun and a verb are table, to table;

chair, to chair; oor, to oor; book, to book; fax, to fax; telephone, to telephone; and walk,

to walk. Some of these started out as nouns and some as verbs. For instance, fax is the

shortened form of the noun facsimile which became used as a verb as well. Currently,

when people say fax, they oen mean pdf (portable document format), another noun

that is now used as a verb. A sentence where police is used as noun, verb, and adjective

respectively is (10a); (10b) is nicely alliterating where pickle is used as a verb, adjective,

and noun; and (10c) has fast as adjective, adverb, and noun:

(10) a. Police police police outings regularly in the meadows of Malacandra.

b. Did Peter Piper pickle pickled pickles?

(Alyssa Bachman’s example)

c. e fast girl recovered fast aer her fast.

(Amy Shinabarger’s example)

As we’ll see, other words can be ambiguous in this way.

As a summary to Section 1.1, use Table 2.1. Not all of these properties are always

present of course. Morphological dierences involve the shape of an element while

syntactic ones involve how the element ts in a sentence. e semantic dierences

involve meaning, but remember to be careful here since nouns, for instance, can have

plural -s in (1) and (2) above.

Dierences (e) and (l) will be explained in the next section. ey are evident in

(11), which shows the adjective expensive that modies (i.e. says something about) the

noun book and the adverb quickly that modies the verb sold out:

(11) at expensive book sold out quickly.

. Adjectives (Adj) and Adverbs (Adv)

Adverbs and Adjectives are semantically very similar in that both modify another ele-

ment, i.e. they describe a quality of another word: quick/ly, nice/ly, etc. As just men-

tioned, the main syntactic distinction is as expressed in (12):

(12) e Adjective-Adverb Rule

An adjective modies a noun;

an adverb modies a verb and (a degree adverb) modies an adjective or adverb.

Since an adjective modies a noun, the quality it describes will be one appropri-

ate to a noun, e.g. nationality/ethnicity (American, Navajo, Dutch, Iranian), size (big,

large, thin), age (young, old), color (red, yellow, blue), material/personal description

(wooden, human), or character trait (happy, fortunate, lovely, pleasant, obnoxious).

Adverbs oen modify actions and will then provide information typical of those,

e.g. manner (wisely, fast, quickly, slowly), or duration (frequently, oen), or speaker

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

attitude (fortunately, actually), or place (there, abroad), or time (then, now, yesterday).

As well and also, and negatives such as not and never, are also adverbs in that they

usually modify the verb.

When adverbs modify adjectives or other adverbs, they are called degree adverbs

(very, so, too). ese degree adverbs have very little meaning (except some that can

add avor to the degree, such as exceedingly and amazingly) and it is hard to nd

synonyms or antonyms. It therefore makes more sense to consider this subgroup of

adverbs grammatical categories. ey also do not head a phrase of their own, and

when it looks as if they do, there really is another adjective or adverb le out. e very

in (13) modies important, which is le out:

(13) How important is your job to you? Ver y.

(from CBS 60 Minutes 1995).

Some instances of the use of the adjective nice are given in (14) and (15). Traditionally,

the use in (14) is called predicative and that in (15) attributive:

(14) e book is nice.

(15) A nice book is on the table.

e adverbs very and quickly appear in (16) and (17):

(16) is Hopi bowl is very precious.

(17) He drove very quickly.

In (14) and (15), nice modies the noun book. In (16), the degree adverb very modi-

es the adjective precious; and in (17), it modies the adverb quickly, which in its turn

modies the verb drove. (We will come back to some of the issues related to the precise

nature of the modication in Chapters 3, 4, and 9). In the ‘special topic’ section at the

end of this chapter, it will be shown that speakers oen violate rule (12), but that these

so-called violations are rule-governed as well.

Sentence (16) shows something else, namely that the noun Hopi can also be used

to modify another noun. When words are put together like this, they are called com-

pound words. Other examples are given in (18) and (19):

(18) So the principal says to the [chemistry teacher], “You’ll have to teach physics this

year.” (from Science Activities 1990)

(19) Relaxing in the living room of his unpretentious red [stone house], …

(from Forbes 1990)

Some of these compounds may end up being seen or written as one word; others are

two words e.g. girlfriend, bookmark, mail-carrier, re engine, dog food, and stone age.

When we see a noun modifying another noun, as in (18) and (19), we will discuss if

they are compounds or not. e space and hyphen between the two words indicate

degrees of closeness.

Chapter 2. Categories 

Oen, an adverb is formed from an adjective by adding -ly, as in (17). However,

be careful with this morphological distinction: not all adverbs end in -ly, e.g. fast,

and hard can be adjectives as well as adverbs and some adjectives end in -ly,

e.g. friendly, lovely, lively, and wobbly. If you are uncertain as to whether a word is an

adjective or an adverb, either look in a dictionary to see what it says, or use it in a

sentence to see what it modies. For instance, in (20), fast is an adjective because it

modies the noun car, but in (21), it is an adverb since it modies the verb drove:

(20) at fast car must be a police car.

(21) at car drove fast until it saw the photo radar.

In a number of cases, words such as hard and fast can be adjectives or adverbs, depend-

ing on the interpretation. In (22), hard can either modify the noun person, i.e. the

person looks tough or nasty, in which case it is an adjective, or it can modify look

(meaning that the person was looking all over the place for something, i.e. the eort

was great) in which case hard is an adverb:

(22) at person looked hard.

As a reader of this sentence, what is your preference? Checking a contemporary

American corpus, i.e. a set of representative texts, I found that most speakers use hard

as an adverb aer the verb look. Do you agree?

Some of the ‘discrepancies’ between form and function are caused by language change.

For instance, the degree adverb very started out its life being borrowed as an adjective from

the French verrai (in the 13th century) with the meaning ‘true’, as in (23):

(23) Under the colour of a veray peax, whiche is neuertheles but a cloked and furred peax.

‘Under the color of a true peace, which is nevertheless nothing but a cloaked and

furred peace.’ (Cromwell’s 16th century Letters)

Here, what looks like a -y ending is a rendering of the Old French verrai. What’s worse for

confusing Modern English speakers is that, in Old English, adverbs did not need to end in

-lich or -ly. at’s why ‘old’ adverbs sometimes keep that shape, e.g. rst in (24) is a ‘correct’

adverb, but second is not. e reason that secondly is prescribed rather than second is that

it was borrowed late from French, at a time when English adverbs typically received -ly

endings.

(24) … ﬁrst I had to watch the accounts and secondly I’m looking at all this stu for

when I start my business. (from a conversation in the BNC Corpus)

A last point to make about adjectives and adverbs is that most (if they are gradable)

can be used to compare or contrast two or more things. We call such forms the com-

parative (e.g. better than) or superlative (e.g. the best). One way to make these forms is

to add -er/-est, as in nicer/nicest. Not all adjectives/adverbs allow this ending, however;

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

some need to be preceded by more/most, as in more intelligent, most intelligent. Some-

times, people are creative with comparatives and superlatives, especially in advertising,

as in (25) and (26), or in earlier forms as in (27):

(25) mechanic: “the expensivest oil is …”

(26) advertisement: “the bestest best ever phone”.

(27) To take the basest and most poorest shape … (Shakespeare, King Lear II, 3, 7)

ere are also irregular comparative and superlative forms, such as good, better, best;

bad, worse, worst. ese have to be learned as exceptions to the rules, and can be played

with, as in the pun ‘When I am bad, I am better’.

To summarize this section, I’ll provide a table listing dierences between adjectives

and adverbs. Not all of these dierences have been discussed yet, e.g. the endings -ous, -ary,

-al, and -ic are typical for adjectives and -wise, and -ways for adverbs, but they speak for

themselves.

Table 2.2. Dierences between adjectives and adverb

Adjectives (Adj) Adverbs (Adv)

Morphology a. end in -ous, -ary, -al, -ic;

mostly have no -ly;

and can be participles

d. end in -ly in many cases, -wise,

-ways, etc. or have no ending

(fast, now)

Syntax b. modify N e. modify V, Adj, or Adv

Semantics c. describe qualities typical of nouns,

e.g: nationality, color, size

f. describe qualities of verbs,

e.g: place, manner, time,

duration, etc. and of adjectives/

adverbs: degree

. Prepositions (P)

Prepositions typically express place or time (at, in, on, before), direction (to, from, into,

down), causation (for), or relation (of, about, with, like, as, near). ey are invariable

in form and have to occur before a noun, as (28) shows, where the prepositions are in

bold and the nouns they go with are underlined:

(28) With their books about linguistics, they went to school.

On occasion, what look like prepositions are used on their own, as in (29):

(29) He went in; they ran out; and he jumped down.

In such cases, these words are considered adverbs, not prepositions. e dierence

between prepositions and adverbs is that prepositions come before the nouns they

relate to and that adverbs are on their own.

Some other examples of one word prepositions are during, around, aer, against,

despite, except, without, towards, until, till, and inside. Sequences such as instead of,

Chapter 2. Categories 

outside of, away from, due to, and as for are also considered to be prepositions, even

though they consist of more than one word. Infrequently, prepositions are transformed

into verbs, as in (30):

(30) ey upped the price.

Some prepositions have very little lexical meaning and are mainly used for grammati-

cal purposes. For instance, of in (31) expresses a relationship between two nouns rather

than a locational or directional meaning:

(31) e door of that car.

Prepositions are therefore a category with lexical and grammatical characteristics.

Here, however, I will treat them as lexical, for the sake of simplicity. A partial list is

given in Table 2.3.

Table 2.3. Some prepositions in English

about, above, across, aer, against, along, amidst, among, around, at, before, behind, below,

beneath, beside(s), between, beyond, by, concerning, despite, down, during, except, for, from, in,

into, inside, like, near, of, o, on, onto, opposite, outside, over, past, since, through, to, toward(s),

under, underneath, until, up, upon, with, within, without

. Grammatical categories

e main grammatical categories are Determiner, Auxiliary, Coordinator, and Com-

plementizer. As also mentioned above, it is hard to dene grammatical categories in

terms of meaning because they have very little. eir function is to make the lexical

categories t together.

.

Determiner (D)

e determiner category includes the articles a(n) and the, as well as demonstratives,

possessive pronouns, possessive nouns, some quantiers, some interrogatives, and

some numerals. So, determiner (or D) is an umbrella term for all of these. Determin-

ers occur with a noun to specify which noun is meant or whose it is. If you are a native

speaker, you know how to use the indenite article a and the denite article the. For

non-native speakers, guring out their use is very dicult.

e indenite article is oen used when the noun that follows it is new in the text/

conversation, such as the rst mention of Florida manatee in (32) is. e second and

third mentions of it are preceded by the denite article the:

(32) e fate of a Florida manatee that has wandered into northern New Jersey waters

remained unclear Saturday night. e wayward male – known as Ilya – has been

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

stuck near a Linden oil renery, and ocials say plunging temperatures and a lack of

food were endangering its life. And while the gentle sea cow appears to be in good

health, it had been huddling near an outfall pipe at an oil renery – the only place it

could nd warm water. (from Hungton Post)

ere are four demonstratives in English: this, that, these, and those, with the rst two

for singular nouns and the last two for plural ones. See (33a). Possessive pronouns

include my, your, his, her, its, our, and their, as in (33b). Nouns can be possessives as

well, but in that case they have an -’s (or ’) ending, as in (33c):

(33) a. at javelina loved these trails.

b. eir kangaroo ate my food.

c. Gucci’s food was eaten by Coco.

In (33b), their and my specify whose kangaroo and whose food it was, and the posses-

sive noun Gucci’s in (33c) species whose food was eaten.

Determiners, as in (32) and (33), precede nouns just like adjectives, but whereas

a determiner points out which entity is meant (it species), an adjective describes the

quality (it modies). When both a determiner and an adjective precede a noun, the

determiner always precedes the adjective, as in (34a), and not the other way round, as

in (34b) (indicated by the asterisk):

(34) a. eir irritating dog ate my delicious food.

b. *Irritating their dog ate delicious my food.

Interrogatives such as whose in whose books, what in what problems, and which in

which computer are determiners. Quantiers such as any, many, much, and all are usu-

ally considered determiners, e.g. in much work, many people, and all research. Some are

used before other determiners, namely, all, both, and half, as in (35). ese quantiers

are called pre-determiners, and abbreviated Pre-D. Finally, quantiers may be adjectival,

as in the many problems and in (36):

(35) All the books; half that man’s money; both those problems.

(36) e challenges are many/few.

Numerals are sometimes determiners, as in two books, and sometimes more like

adjecti ves, as in my two books. Table 2.4 shows the determiners in the order in which

they may appear. I have added the category adjective to the table since some of the

words that are clear determiners can also be adjectives. e categories are not always a

100% clear-cut, and (37) tries to shed some light on the dierence.

3. Believe it or not, Gucci and Coco are names of real dogs!

Chapter 2. Categories 

Table 2.4. Determiners

Pre-D D Adj

quantier all, both

half

some, many, all, few(er)

any, much, no, every, less, etc.

many, few

article the, a

demonstrative that, this, those, these

possessive my, etc., NP’s

interrogative whose, what, which, etc.

numeral one, two, etc. one, two, etc.

(37) e Determiner-Adjective Rule

A Determiner points to the noun it goes with and who it belongs to;

An Adjective gives background information about the noun.

. Auxiliary (AUX)

is category will be dealt with in detail in Chapter 6. For now, it suces to say that, as

its name implies, the auxiliary verb functions to help another verb, but does not itself

contribute greatly to the meaning of the sentence.

Verbs such as have, be, and do can be lexical verbs or auxiliaries. In (38a), have

is a lexical verb because it has a meaning ‘to possess’ and occurs without any other

lexical verb. In (38b), on the other hand, have does not mean ‘possess’ or ‘hold’, but

contributes to the grammatical meaning of the sentence, namely past tense with pres-

ent relevance. It therefore is an auxiliary to the lexical verb worked. e same is true

for be in (39). In (39a), it is the only verb and therefore lexical; in (39b), it contributes

to the grammatical meaning emphasizing the continuous nature of the event. Lexical

and auxiliary uses of do are given in (40a) and (40b) respectively:

(38) a. I have a book in my hand.

b. I have worked here for 15 years.

(39) a. at man is a hard worker.

b. at reindeer may be working too hard.

(40) a. She did her homework.

b. She didn’t sleep at all.

Because auxiliaries help other verbs (except when they are main verbs as in (38)),

they cannot occur on their own. us, (41) is ungrammatical:

(41) *I must a book.

. Coordinator (C) and Complementizer (C)

In this section, we discuss two categories that join other words or phrases. Coordinators

are relatively simple and join similar categories or phrases. Complementizers introduce

subordinate clauses and look remarkably similar to prepositions and adverbs. We abbre-

viate both as C.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Coordinators such as and and or join two elements of the same kind, e.g. the

nouns in (42):

(42) Rigobertha and Pablo went to Madrid or Barcelona.

ey are also sometimes called coordinating conjunctions, as in Figure 2.1, but in this

book, we’ll use coordinator. ere are also two-part coordinators such as both … and,

either … or, and neither … nor.

Figure 2.1. Connecting sentences (Reprinted with the permission of Universal Press Syndicate. All

rights reserved)

Complementizers such as that, because, whether, if, and since join two clauses

where one clause is subordinate to the other (see Chapter 7 for more), as in (43). e

subordinate clause is indicated by means of brackets:

(43) Rigobertha and Pablo le [because Isabella was about to arrive].

ey are also called subordinating conjunctions or subordinators. We will use com-

plementizer. Like prepositions, coordinators and complementizers are invariable

in English (i.e. never have an ending), but complementizers introduce a new clause

whereas prepositions are connected to a noun. Some examples of complementizers

and some of their other functions (if they have them) are provided in Table 2.5.

Table 2.5. A few complementizers

C Example of C use Other use Example of other use

aer Aer she le, it rained. preposition aer him

as Fair as the moon is, it… degree adverb as nice

because (43) –

before Before it snowed, it rained. preposition before me

for I expect for you to do that. preposition for Santa

if If she wins, that will be great. –

so He was tired, so he went to sleep. adverb so tired

that I know that the earth is round. D that book

when I wonder when it will happen. adverb He le when?

while She played soccer, while he slept. noun A short while

Chapter 2. Categories 

ere is a group of words, namely yet, however, nevertheless, therefore, and so, as in

(44), that connects one sentence to another:

(44) “you are anxious for a compliment, so I will tell you that you have improved her”.

(Jane Austen, Emma, Vol 1, Chap 8)

Some grammarians see these as complementizers; others see them as adverbs. With

the punctuation as in (44), the complementizer scenario is more obvious since so con-

nects the two sentences. However, so sometimes appears at the beginning of a sen-

tence, in which case it could be an adverb expressing the reason why something was

done. I leave it up to you to decide what to do with these. You may remember from

Section 1.2 that so can also be a degree adverb, as in so nice.

We can now formulate another rule, namely the one in (45):

(45) e Preposition-Complementizer-Adverb Rule

A Preposition introduces a noun (e.g. about the book);

a Complementizer introduces a sentence (e.g. because he le); and

an Adverb is on its own (e.g. She went out; and Unfortunatel y, she le).

ese categories are oen ambiguous in Modern English because prepositions and

adverbs can change to complementizers.

.

Pronouns

In this section, I discuss the dierent pronouns in English. Pronouns are a hybrid

category since they do not carry much lexical meaning but they can function on their

own, unlike articles and complementizers, which need something to follow them. is

makes them hard to classify as lexical or grammatical categories.

Personal pronouns, such as I, me, she, he and it, and reexive pronouns, such

as myself, yourself, and herself, are seen as grammatical categories by many (myself

included). e reason is that they don’t mean very much: they are used to refer to

phrases already mentioned. However, in this book, I label personal and reexive pro-

nouns the same way as nouns, since they function like full Noun Phrases as Subjects

and Objects (more on this in Chapter 4). us, a determiner such as the cannot stand

on its own, but she, as in (46) from Shakespeare, can:

(46) ‘Twere good she were spoken with,

For she may strew dangerous coniectures

in ill breeding minds. (Hamlet, IV, 5, 14)

Personal pronouns can be divided according to number into singular and plural and

according to person into rst, second, and third person. For example, I and me are rst

person singular, and we and us are rst person plural. e second person pronoun you

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

is used both as singular and as plural. ird person singular pronouns he/him, she/her,

and it are further divided according to gender; the third person plural pronouns are

they and them.

Pronouns look like the determiners we saw in the previous section. Almost all

determiners, except the articles, can stand on their own, e.g. demonstratives, such as

that in that is a problem. us, they are very much like pronouns, but they can in prin-

ciple have a noun following. erefore, I will label something a D if it can have a noun

following it but a pronoun if it can’t.

Apart from personal and reexive pronouns, there are some possessive pronouns

that occur on their own, and are therefore not determiners. Examples are mine, yours,

his, hers, ours, and theirs, as in (47a). ese pronouns appear when the noun they

specify has been le unspecied. us, (47a) could be rewritten as (47b), with mine

replaced by my e-mail:

(47) a. at e-mail is not mine, but it is yours.

b. at e-mail is not my e-mail, but it is your e-mail.

e result is awkward, however, and I will suggest that mine and yours are really inde-

pendent pronouns, not determiners with the noun le out.

e other determiners, namely interrogatives, quantiers, and numerals can occur

independently too, as in (48). It will be up to you as the reader to decide whether these

are independent pronouns or are really determiners preceding nouns that have been

le out:

(48) What would be solved if all chose two?

Indenite pronouns, such as anyone, anybody, everyone, someone, something, and noth-

ing, occur frequently and are in many ways similar to personal pronouns. ere are

many other indenites that are similar to adverbs, e.g. anywhere, nowhere, sometime,

and somewhere, or to degree adverbs, e.g. somewhat. ey are pro-forms and can stand

in for an adverb. When I label them in the answers to the exercises, I will indicate that

they are pronouns as well adverbs.

In this section, we discussed several types of pronouns. Some occur indepen-

dently (I, you, and mine) and others occur with a noun and are Ds (my and whose).

ere are other pronouns we will encounter, mainly relative ones and adverbs such as

then and there.

.

What new words and loanwords tell us!

Some of the new words of the late 20th and early 21th century are geocache, sudoku,

podcast (from the Oxford English Dictionary online), spyware, mouse potato, agritourism

Chapter 2. Categories 

(from the Merriam Webster online), and facebook, google, kindle, twitter, sustainability,

pwned, and texting, to name but a few, and they are all lexical categories! Some of the

new words or expressions are loanwords (e.g. sudoku is from Japanese, pwn possible

from Welsh), some are extensions of other meanings (bookmark a site from bookmark

a book), some are clipped (weblog becomes blog), others come from special (pwned

from internet gaming) but all are lexical, rather than grammatical categories.

Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky includes a number of ‘nonsense’ words. As an exer-

cise, at the end of the chapter, you’ll be asked what category each of these is. For now,

it is enough to point out that they are all lexical:

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves

And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

e jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird and shun

e frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

Longtime the manxome foe he sought -

So rested he by the Tumtum tree

And stood a while in thought. (…)

ere are other phenomena that the lexical/grammatical distinction sheds light on.

For instance, children learn lexical categories before grammatical ones, and people

with aphasia can have diculties with either lexical or grammatical categories (see

Exercise E below). So there is empirical (from the outside world) evidence for the dis-

tinction made in this chapter.

.

Conclusion

e lexical categories discussed in this chapter are dened in semantic, morphological,

and syntactic terms, i.e. according to meaning, word form, and position in the sen-

tence. e main factor determining the category (in English) is the position in relation

to other words. You could also try to nd a synonym and that might help you decide

on the category.

Grammatical categories can mainly be dened (as their name implies) in terms

of their grammatical function and it is oen hard to nd a synonym. Pronouns have

characteristics of both. A summary table is provided as Table 2.6, but review Tables 2.1

to 2.4 and Rules (12), (37), and (45) as well.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Table 2.6. e categories in English

Lexical N cloud, sun, love, kitchen, house

V know, see, paint, swim

Adj good, nice, friendly

Adv actually, now, there, sometimes,

where

P to, from, on, in front of

Grammatical D the, that, my, one, whose

AUX may, have, be

C and, that, because

Pronouns Pron I, yourself, who, mine, someone

e key terms in this chapter are lexical category (Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb,

Preposition and Pronoun) and grammatical category (Determiner, Auxiliary, Coor-

dinator and Complementizer), or open as opposed to closed.

Chapter 2. Categories 

Exercises

A. Identify each word in the short text below.

We found this place accidentally and have been returning almost weekly. We just love

it. It is so simple and yet so wonderful and the sta is great. They are always smiling and

just so nice. There is almost always a line. A must!

(review of the Fry Bread House in Phoenix, slightly adapted)

. Compose some sentences (a) where an adjective modies a noun,

(b) where an adverb modies an adjective, and

two together modify a verb.

C. Find the prepositions, coordinators, and complementizers in the text below.

MUnicycling is the act of riding a one-wheel bike o road. It is also known as Rough Terrain

or All Terrain Unicycling and, in the past decade, has become the hottest trend around in

the unicycling community. O road terrain is, of course, uneven and mountains have gra-

dients, rocks and other obstacles to get in the way of the intrepid unicyclist. Whilst jump-

ing over rocks provides the fun element, cycling uphill on a unicycle demands incredible

strength and lung capacity. Additional balancing skills, including the ability to back-pedal,

are also needed to safely negotiate a downhill section on a unicycle. As a result, above

average tness levels are required. (from http://mountain-biking.suite101.com/article.cfm/

mountain_biking_on_a_unicycle)

D. To what categories do the nonsense words belong in Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”,

given in Section 4 above? Which arguments did you use to decide on these?

E. Choose ve words that are grammatical categories and look them up in a dictionary.

How do dictionaries deal with them?

. Broca’s aphasia results in a loss of grammatical categories, such as determiners

and auxiliaries, but not in a loss of lexical categories, such as nouns and verbs. It is

sometimes called agrammatism. Wernicke’s aphasia results in a loss of meaning, but not

in a loss of grammatical categories. Which sentence exemplies which aphasia?

I. I could if I can help these like this you know … to make it.

II. Well … front … soldiers … campaign … soldiers … to shoot … well … head … wound

… and hospital … and so … (from O’Grady et al. 1987: 280; 278)

G. The excerpt below is from D.H. Lawrence’s Snake. Find the adjectives and adverbs in

the two excerpts below and see how they are used. What do they modify? Are there

compounds?

Snake

A snake came to my water-trough

On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,

To drink there.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob-tree

I came down the steps with my pitcher

And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before me.

…

And voices in me said, If you were a man

You would take a stick and break him now, and nish him o.

But must I confess how I liked him,

How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough

And depart peaceful, pacied, and thankless,

Into the burning bowels of this earth?

…

H. Most people, if asked to provide or repeat the rst line of Dylan Thomas’ poem, partially

given below, will say ‘Do not go gently . . .’ with gently as an adverb modifying the verb.

Why is gentle grammatical as well?

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in ight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Look at the cartoon in Figure 2.2. Explain why gently is used rather than gentle.

Chapter 2. Categories 

I. First, circle the verbs (and auxiliary verbs) in Wallace Stevens’ ‘Anecdote of the Jar’ and

then identify the categories of the other words, i.e. N, Adj, Adv, P, Det, C, and Pronoun.

Are there any words that you are unsure about? Make an educated guess as to their

category.

I placed a jar in Tennessee,

And round it was, upon a hill.

It made the slovenly wilderness

Surround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it,

And sprawled around, no longer wild.

The jar was round upon the ground

And tall and of a port in air.

It took dominion everywhere.

The jar was grey and bare.

It did not give of bird or bush,

Like nothing else in Tennessee.

J. Identify all the words in the following sentence taken from Shakespeare. Are there any

that look unusual?

(49) Ile serve thee true and faithfully till then. (Love’s Labor’s Lost, V, 2, 840)

K. Look at the rst 10 instances of fast in the BNC or COCA and see how many are adjectives

and how many are adverbs.

Class discussion

L. In class, it has been argued that lexical categories can be borrowed from one lan-

guage into another (e.g. karaoke, taco, sauerkraut) or ‘invented’ (e-mail, chat-room, web

navigator). Can you think of a preposition or a pronoun that has been borrowed or

made up? What does your answer mean for the status (lexical/grammatical) of these

categories?

M. Morris Bishop wrote the following in The New Yorker (27 September 1947, p. 30). How

do you like the prepositions in the last line?

I lately lost a preposition

It hid, I thought, beneath my chair

And angrily I cried, ‘perdition!

Up from out of in under there.”

Correctness is my vade mecum,

And straggling phrases I abhor,

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

And yet I wondered, “What should he come

Up from out of in for?”

N. Identify all the adjectives in (50), the completed (19), and discuss some aspects, e.g. the

category of capital:

(50) Relaxing in the living room of his unpretentious red stone house in an

upper-middle-class section of his capital city, Tegucigalpa, Callejas spoke

about his plans.

Keys to the exercises

A. The dierence between verb (V) and auxiliary (AUX) will only become completely clear in

Chapter 6. Note that I classify pronominal adverbs as Adv/Pro(-form). See the last part of

Section 3 on this. Are there other questions that came up?

We (Pron) found (V) this (D) place (N) accidentally (Adv) and (C) have (AUX) been

(AUX) returning (V) almost (Adv) weekly (Adv). We (Pron) just (Adv) love (V) it (Pron). It

(Pron) is (V) so (Adv) simple (Adj) and (C) yet (Adv) so (Adv) wonderful (Adj) and (C) the

(D) sta (N) is (V) great (Adj). They (Pron) are (AUX) always (Adv) smiling (V) and (C) just

(Adv) so (Adv) nice (Adj). There (Adv/Pro) is (V) almost (Adv) always (Adv) a (D) line (N).

A (D) must (AUX used as N)!

B. a. The cute kitten slept soundly; That was not pleasant;

He is this very abrasive politician.

b. He is this very abrasive linguist; That computer was extraordinarily irritating; The

extremely unpleasant judge was impeached.

c. I can see [very well] from here; He went [extremely quickly];

He said that she drove [too fast].

C. The prepositions are: of, o (unless you consider o road as a compound), as, in, (around is

an adverb), in, O, (of course is one adverb), (to in to get is an innitive marker), in, of, over,

on, including, on, As, and above. The coordinators are one or and four instances of and.

There is one complementizer, namely whilst.

D. ‘Twas brillig (Adj), and the slithy (Adj) toves (N)

Did gyre (V) and gimble (V) in the wabe (N):

All mimsy (Adj) were the borogoves (N)

And the mome (Adj) raths (N) outgrabe (V).

“Beware the Jabberwock (N), my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub (N) bird and shun

The frumious (Adj) Bandersnatch!”

Chapter 2. Categories 

He took his vorpal (Adj) sword in hand:

Longtime the manxome (Adj) foe he sought -

So rested he by the Tumtum (N) tree

And stood a while in thought. (…)

E. Five grammatical categories: all (D), my (D), have (AUX), though (ADV and C), since (C and

P). If you look some up in a dictionary that is historically based (e.g. the Oxford English

Dictionary), you will run into trouble because there is so much information. For instance,

the is listed as ‘demonstrative’, ‘pronoun, and ‘article’. A less historical dictionary might just

give ‘article’.

F. I is Wernicke; II is Broca.

G. The adjectives, adverbs, and compounds are listed below. Most of these are tricky and

probably hard to do until you have reached Chapters 5 and 10. So don’t worry!

Adjectives: hot, deep, great, dark, glad, peaceful, pacied, thankless, burning.

Adverbs: there (twice), now, how. Compounds: water-trough (twice), strange-scented,

carob-tree.

A short analysis: Lawrence’s Snake is about reflection and lack of action. It describes

a still, beautiful scene, which is emphasized by the use of adjectives such as hot (l. 2)

and deep, strange-scented, great, and dark (l. 4). There is also a conflict between the

peace of the moment (and nature) and the voices (of education, etc.). The conflict

is emphasized by the use of the adjectives peaceful, pacified, thankless as opposed

to burning. It is the snake that is seen as peaceful, hence, depart peaceful and not

depart peacefully.

H. Grammatically speaking, having an adverb such as gently modify go is correct but Dylan

Thomas chose gentle. Suddenly, another interpretation becomes available, one where

the person addressed in the poem should not ‘become gentle’. Now, because of its form,

gentle modies the implied ‘you’. The eect is very dierent. The Stone Soup cartoon

plays on the distinction nicely. The kids are not going gently, i.e. in a gentle manner; they

are o with BBQ tools and much energy.

I. I (Pron) placed (V) a (D) jar (N) in (P) Tennessee (N)

And (C) round (Adj) it (Pron) was (V), upon (P) a (D) hill (N)

It (Pron) made (V) the (D) slovenly (Adj) wilderness (N)

Surround (V) that (D) hill (N).

The (D) wilderness (N) rose (V) up (Adv) to (P) it (Pron)

And (C) sprawled (V) around (Adv), no (Adv) longer (Adv) wild (Adj)

The (D) jar (N) was (V) round (Adj) upon (P) the (D) ground (N)

And (C) tall (Adj) and (C) of (P) a (D) port (N) in (P) air (N).

It (Pron) took (V) dominion (N) everywhere (Pron/Adv).

The (D) jar (N) was (V) grey (Adj) and (C) bare (Adj).

It (Pron) did (AUX) not (Adv) give (V) of (P) bird (N) or (C) bush (N).

Like (P) nothing (Pron) else (Adj) in (P) Tennessee (N).

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Possible dicult words: no longer, wild, nothing, and else. The Oxford English

Dictionary labels else an adverb. I think it is an adjective since it is a synonym

of ‘other’ and the order of adjectives and indenites is often inverted, as in

someone strange.

J. (49) Ile (Pron and AUX) serve (V) thee (Pron) true (Adv) and (C) faithfully (Adv) till (P)

then (Adv).

K. I checked the BNC and the rst 10 instances of fast that I found are listed here:

Adv: … the cold spreading too fast, of my not being able to live with it.

I have never had to run so fast in a job in my life

Following fast on its heels is Ko Samui

He turned quickly, and left the station as fast as he could.

They go fast enough as it is.

Adj: … take a fast step forwards

… progression from fast to slow to fast again

The prototype fast reactor at Dounreay

… a fast new locomotive.

… a fast enough speed of about 60 miles an hour.

Special topic: Adverb and adjective

The rule stated in (12) above is often ignored by native speakers. In its simple form, it reads:

an adjective modies a noun; an adverb modies a verb, adjective, or adverb. The reason that

the rule is not always followed is that English is changing. For instance, real is being used as

a degree adverb and is becoming more like other degree adverbs such as too, so, and very

that lack the -ly ending. In (14) to (17) above, examples of the ‘correct’ use of adjectives and

adverbs are given. Some additional prescriptively correct uses are listed here in (51) to (55),

where the adjective modies a noun:

(51) She waited impassive while they made it in safe.

(52) I list them separate.

(53) He tested positive.

(54) In an article on nails: Color them unusual!

(55) Headline: 911 system stretched thin.

Explain what the adjectives in (51) to (55) modify. What happens if you add a -ly and

make the adjective into an adverb? The meaning changes since now the adverb modies

the verb.

Examples of ‘incorrect use’ are listed in (56), (57), and (49) above, all from an earlier

variety of English. One of the reasons for this is mentioned in Section 1.2, namely that in Old

English adverbs have no endings:

Chapter 2. Categories 

(56) Tis Noble Spoken. (Anthony and Cleopatra, II, 2, 99)

(57) Thou didst it excellent. (Taming of the Shrew, I, 1, 89)

There may be other reasons. Explain why (58) to (61) are prescriptively incorrect:

(58) In formal speech:

You did that real good.

(59) ‘because if she doesn’t do good in school, then …’ (Judge in Texas, quoted in a

newspaper)

(60) It looks beautifully.

(61) Does the clutch feel any dierently? (The Tappet Brothers on ‘Car Talk’)

These sentences illustrate three problems speakers encounter. First, as mentioned, really

is losing its ending when it is degree adverb, as in (58). As Swan (1980: 12) writes:

“In informal conversational English (especially American English), real is often used instead

of really before adjectives and adverbs”. Note that nobody uses real in (62). Why might that be

the case?

(62) Really, you shouldn’t have done that.

Secondly, the adverb counterpart to the adjective good is not good, as in (58) and (59), or

goodly, but well, as in (63), the rewritten version of (59). Well is also used as adjective, as in (64).

It is no wonder speakers become confused! In (64), good can replace well. Please explain why:

(64) You did that really well.

(65) I am well, thank you.

Thirdly, speakers tend to overreact when they see an adjective next to a verb and hypercorrect

themselves. Hypercorrection occurs when speakers are so unsure that they think about the

prescriptive rule too much and confuse themselves. They think that if an adjective is next to a

verb, it has to modify the verb and be an adverb, as in (60) and (61). The poem by Dylan Thomas

cited above shows, however, that this is not always necessary.

As a last point, a comment on hopefully is necessary. Swan (1980: 296–7) mentions

that there are two uses: one is ‘full of hope’, as in (65), and the other use, as in (66), “shows the

speaker’s attitude”, and means ‘it is hoped’. According to Swan, “[s]ome people consider the

second use ‘incorrect’. Both functions will be dealt with in Chapter 5:

(65) They waited hopefully for a positive response.

(66) Hopefully, that concert is worth going to.

It is not clear why hopefully should have attracted all this attention. There are several other

adverbs like it, e.g. those in (67) to (70):

(67) Naturally, I’d like you to stay with us for a few days.

(68) Amazingly, he arrived on time.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(69) Fortunately, the bus wasn’t late.

(70) Funnily enough, I’d been thinking about that.

In (67) to (70), the adverbs all express the speaker’s attitude and this is a legitimate use of an

adverb; they do not all have to modify the verb, although many used to in earlier varieties of

English. More on this in Chapter 5.

Chapter 3

Phrases

1. The noun phrase (NP)

2. The adjective phrase, adverb phrase, verb

phrase, and prepositional phrase

3. Phrases in the sentence

4. Coordination of phrases and apposition

5. Finding phrases and building trees

6. Conclusion

Sentences can be divided into groups of words that belong together. For instance, in the

nice unicorn ate a delicious meal, the, nice, and unicorn form one such group and a, deli-

cious, and meal form another. (We all know this intuitively). e group of words is called

a phrase. If the most important part of the phrase, i.e. the head, is an adjective, the phrase

is an Adjective Phrase; if the most important part of the phrase is a noun, the phrase is

a Noun Phrase, and so on. Indicating the phrases renders the structure of the sentence

clearer and less ambiguous, as we’ll see.

One can indicate phrases by putting brackets around them and we will occasionally

do so. However, brackets are (visually) confusing and, as an alternative, ‘trees’ are used

with branches connecting parts of phrases. e grammatical categories Determiner

and Coordinator do not form phrases of their own but function inside a Noun Phrase

(NP), Verb Phrase (VP), Adjective Phrase (AdjP), Adverb Phrase (AdvP), or Prepositional

Phrase (PP). e grammatical category Auxiliary functions inside a Verb Group (see

Chapter 6) and the Complementizer connects one sentence to the other and is head of

a CP, as we’ll see in Chapter 7.

In Sections 1 and 2, the structure of phrases is examined. e head of a phrase is

important, but oen this is intuitively understood. e trickiest part of this chapter concerns

the intermediate categories N′ (N-bar) and V′

(V-bar). In Section 3, the structure for a

full sentence and its phrases is discussed. Phrases are very oen coordinated by means

of and or or

and a structure for this is given in Section 4. In Section 5, more precise

rules are given on how to identify phrases and on how to construct trees.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

. The noun phrase (NP)

An NP such as the nice unicorn is built around a noun, namely, unicorn. is noun (or

N) is called the head of the NP. We can nd the head in a simple way by thinking how

we’d shorten the phrase and still keep the essential part, as in a telegram. For instance,

we might shorten (1) to (2):

(1) [e nice unicorns from that planet] are visiting us regularly.

(2) Unicorns visit regularly.

More will be said on heads below.

In addition to the head, NPs can contain determiners (e.g. the) and adjectives

(nice) as well as other elements (e.g. from that planet). A tree structure for a simple NP

is given in (3). e lines, called ‘branches’, indicate how the phrase is divided up, and

branches come together in ‘nodes’:

(3)

the

Adj

nice

unicorn

A dierent structure for (3) looks like (4):

(4)

the

N′

Adj

nice

unicorn

A structure such as (4) expresses the relationships more accurately than (3). In (3), it

is unclear whether the is more closely connected to the adjective or the noun, but from

(4), it is clear that the species nice unicorn. A structure as in (3) with more than two

branches is a at structure since the hierarchies are not clear. Using this book, you will

learn to draw structures such as (4) and to avoid trees such as (3).

ere are a number of things to note. First, the top node of (4), i.e. where the branches

come together, is an NP because the head of the phrase is an N. Shortening the NP would

tell us that. Secondly, the node in between the NP and N is called N′ (pronounced N-bar).

It is an intermediate node and some people call it NOM and students in my grammar

classes have called the N′ the small NP or the placeholder. ird, note that nice in (4) is

itself the head of an Adjective Phrase (see 1.3 as well) and we could indicate that as in (5):

Chapter 3. Phrases 

(5)

the

N′

AdjP

Adj

nice

unicorn

One way to go about constructing this tree is (a) to nd the head unicorn, (b) to label

the entire phrase as NP, and (c) to draw branches from the NP down to D on the le

and, if there is more than one word le, to Nʹ on the right. e Nʹ functions as place-

holder until you can put the N down. More step by step suggestions on how to draw

trees can be found in the last section.

On occasion, it may be hard to nd the head of an NP, or to identify the entire NP. For

instance, the initial group of words in (6), adapted from one of Dr. Seuss’ books, is centered

around a noun. Which noun do you think is the head and how extended is the NP?

(6) [e pleasant wocket in my pocket that I adore] loves cranberry chutney.

e right answer is that wocket is the head because if you had to shorten the sentence,

you might say the wocket loves chutney. us, pleasant and in my pocket and that I adore

add additional information. Another way to shorten the sentence is to use a pronoun,

as in (7). is is called pronominalization. If the group of words in the pleasant wocket

in my pocket that I adore can be replaced by one pronoun, it has to be a phrase:

(7) It loves cranberry chutney.

You can also nd the entire phrase by examining which parts say something about the

head, i.e. modify it. For instance, in (6), both pleasant and in my pocket have no other

function in the sentence than to modify the head wocket.

An important function of the head is to determine the agreement with the verb.

is will be more obvious in the next chapter though. I have repeated (1) as (8) with

brackets indicating that the head of the subject NP is unicorns. e singular and plural

number underneath the nouns and verb show that the head of the NP, unicorns, agrees

with the auxiliary verb are in (plural) number, not the closer noun planet:

(8)

[e nice [unicorns] from that planet] are visiting us regularly.

|||

PLURALSINGULARPLURAL

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

We could represent (6) as (9), where I have le the that I adore out for simplicity:

(9)

DAdj NPDN…

the pleasant wocket in my pocket

is structure indicates that the NP is composed of six words, but it does not say

whether in is more connected to my pocket or to wocket. is is again a at structure

since we don’t see what goes with what. It is even worse than (3). erefore, as men-

tioned, we will avoid this kind of tree.

More hierarchical structures for this sentence are given in (10ab). To draw those

trees, you could start by grouping what goes together, e.g. the PP in my pocket, and by

circling the head. Since the head is an N, you have to put down the NP and then go to

the D on the le (and put the underneath D) and the N′ on the right. You need an N′

because you have more than just the head wocket. en, if you put pleasant on the le,

you need another N′ on the right and you get (10a). If you rst want to put the PP on

the right, you need an N′ on the le to be a placeholder for the adjective and the noun

and the results is (10b). We’ll do a lot of practice with this:

(10)

b.a. NP

N′

e

AdjP

Adj

N′

pleasant

NPP

wocket

PNP

D N

my pocket

N′

e

AdjP

Adj

N′

pleasant

wocket

PNP

D N

my pocket

In (10a), in my pocket goes together with wocket. In a structure, this close connection is

expressed by having the line, i.e. ‘branch’, that goes upwards connect to the same point,

i.e. ‘node’. is means they are ‘sisters’ in the structure. In (10b), pleasant and wocket are

put closer together, i.e. are sisters. Both structures are possible. e meaning dierence

between (10a) and (10b) is minimal, but this is not always the case as sentences such

as (20) and (22) below show. Note again that pleasant is itself the head of a phrase and

that I indicate that by means of and Adj head inside an AdjP. e ultimate tree is not

as important as understanding why you represent a tree in a particular way, as I have

just tried to do for (10).

Chapter 3. Phrases 

In (10), I am representing my pocket as an NP because it has a D and an N head. If

the NP had been a pronoun or a name, the structure would have been as in (11). Pro-

nouns and names such as Jennifer, Edward, Malacandra cannot have other elements

modify/specify them and therefore we will see them as full phrases, as in (11ab):

(11)

a. NP b. NP

she Edward

Under very special circumstances, proper names can be modied, as when there are

many persons called Edward and you want to make sure it is the nice Edward. is is

not common with names, and it is very uncommon with pronouns.

Some heads are trickier to identify than others. For instance, in one of those pages,

the head is one, and in a piece of paper, piece is the head. Frequently, a Relative Clause,

such as who wore that ugly hat in (12) is part of an NP, as shown by brackets, modifying

the head person:

(12) [e person [who wore that ugly hat]] is the queen.

A structure for (12) will be given in Chapter 10. For now, just understand that it is part

of the NP.

Structures such as (10) are called trees. As mentioned, the lines connecting parts

of the trees are called branches, and the points where the branches come together are

called nodes. e nodes are usually labelled, e.g. N, N′, or NP. Remember that N′ is an

intermediate node between the top NP and the N. Such intermediate nodes allow one

to indicate which elements are grouped together and thus make trees less at. ey are

placeholders for a group of words that go together.

.

The adjective phrase, adverb phrase, verb phrase,

and prepositional phrase

. The adjective phrase (AdjP) and adverb phrase (AdvP)

AdjPs are built around adjectives, which indicate properties of nouns; AdvPs are

built around adverbs which indicate qualities of verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. Since

adjectives and adverbs have this qualifying function, they themselves are (optionally)

accompanied by a degree marker such as very, too, extremely, really. e latter are

adverbs of a special kind: they always modify another adverb or adjective and never

modify a verb. ey are comparable to the determiner in the NP, and more like gram-

matical than lexical categories. ey do not expand into an AdvP of their own since

degree markers such as extremely very do not occur.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

An example of an AdjP is given in (13a) and of an AdvP in (13b). e (D)Adv

indicates a degree adverb but, from now on, just Adv will be used:

(13)

a. AdjPb. AdvP

(D)Adv Adj (D)Adv Adv

so nice very quickl

In (13a), the head of the AdjP is the adjective nice, and this head is modied by a

degree adverb so; in (13b), the adverb quickly expands into a phrase and is modied by

the degree adverb very that does not form a phrase of its own. at’s why I choose not

to make very the head of an AdvP.

An AdjP can be pronominalized, as in (14), but pronominalizing an AdvP, as in

(15), sounds slightly awkward:

(14) I was happy and so was she.

(15) He behaved nicely, and she behaved so/thus.

. The verb phrase (VP)

A VP is built around a verb and the latter can be in the present or past tense (they are

past in (16abc)). Some VPs include other obligatory material, i.e. words or phrases

that cannot easily be le out, such as the NP in (16a), the PP in (16b), and the AdjP

in (16c). ese obligatory parts are called complements and will be discussed in the

next chapters:

(16)

a. b. c.

VNP

wrote

the letter

VPP

was

PNP

the garden

V AdjP

was

Adv Adj

very quiet

e VP can also include optional material that explains when, where, why, and how

the action or state that the verb describes took place. ese optional elements function

as adverbials and will be discussed in Chapter 5.

As in the case of the NP, a VP can be pronominalized. An example is given in (17),

where the (bolded) VP washed the dishes is replaced by do so. Some linguists call these

pro-VPs or pro-forms, since they do not stand for nouns. It is up to you whether you

call them pronoun or pro-form:

(17) Gijsbert washed the dishes and Mariken did so as well.

Chapter 3. Phrases 

. The prepositional phrase (PP)

A PP is built around a preposition. As mentioned in the previous chapter, prepositions

indicate relations in space and time. PPs include a P and an NP, as in (18):

(18)

PNP

the Moon

PPs can be replaced (pronominalized) by the adverbs then, when, how, there, etc.

In this section, it is necessary to jump ahead to Chapters 4, 5, 9 and 10 where

functions are discussed. Up to now, we have looked at the names of categories and

phrases, e.g. N and NP. Depending on where phrases are situated in the tree, they play

a particular function, such as subject and object. Functions will not be put in the tree

structure because it should be clear from the tree what they are.

With respect to PPs, it is not always easy to determine what role they play and

their function in a sentence is manifold. For instance, in the ambiguous (19), an oen

used sentence in linguistic circles, does the PP function inside the NP, or are the NP

and PP independent of one another?

(19) She saw the man with glasses.

e answer to both questions can be ‘yes’ because the sentence is ambiguous. In the

one case, the PP with glasses modies the man and functions inside the NP the man

with glasses; in the other case, the PP is independent of the NP since it modies the VP

and species how the seeing was done. e structure for the former reading is as in

(20a) and for the latter reading as in (20b):

(20)

a. b. VP

V′ PP

VNP

PNP

saw

with glasses

the man

VNP

saw

DN′

the

NPP

man

PNP

with

glasses

us, a particular tree structure disambiguates the sentence. In (17a), the PP with

glasses is right next to the N man (i.e. PP is sister to N) and therefore modies man; in

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(17b), the same PP is right next to the V′ saw the man (i.e. PP is sister to V′) and hence

says something on how the seeing of the man is done. For now, don’t worry about

(17b) too much. You may have noticed the use of V′ (pronounced V-bar) in (17b). A

V′ (like the N′ in an NP) is an intermediate category in the VP. In (17b), we need to

group the V and NP together so we need a label for that and we use a ‘small VP’ or

placeholder until we can put down a branch for the V.

Groucho Marx uses structural ambiguity a lot, as in (21) below. Consider how the

PP in my pajamas in (21) is ambiguous, in at least two ways:

(21) I once shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I’ll never know.

When you read the rst line you think that the speaker was wearing pajamas, but the

second line makes that impossible and you have to rethink the sentence. Now, there

are two interpretations le: (a) the elephant was wearing the pajamas of the speaker

while being shot and (b) the elephant was shot inside the pajamas. I have represented

the two interpretations in (22). In (22a), the elephant is wearing the pajamas and, in

(22b), the elephant is shot in the pajamas:

(22)

a. b.

V′ PP

VNPP NP

shot in

DNDN

an elephant my pajamas

VNP

shot

DN′

NPP

elephant

PNP

my pajamas

As explained in Chapter 1, structural ambiguity is dierent from lexical ambiguity. With

lexical ambiguity, a word has two meanings, e.g. case in (9) in Chapter 1. Another instance

is (23), a well-known joke also attributed to Groucho Marx, where the preposition outside

is lexically ambiguous. Outside and inside look like each other’s opposites in expressing a

location, but in fact outside has an additional meaning, namely ‘in addition to; except for’:

(23) Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend; inside it’s too hard to read.

. Phrases in the sentence

Having provided a tree structure for all of the phrases whose heads are lexical catego-

ries, I will now show how to combine these into a sentence. e basic structure for a

sentence, i.e. S, is shown in (24):

Chapter 3. Phrases 

(24)

a. b.

NP VP

le

NP VP

DNVNP

e emu loved

the kangaroo

Thus, the initial element in the sentence is generally an NP (and, as we’ll see in

the next chapter, the function of this NP is subject). The NP is a daughter of the

sentence S (i.e. immediately below S and connected by a tree branch). e rest of the

sentence is the VP which can be more complex (as seen in (22b) above), as can the NP

(as seen in (10)).

e relationships that are relevant in a tree are sister and daughter/mother. In

(24ab), the NP and VP are sisters to each other and daughters of S. Sisters have a close

relationship. us, in (20a), the relationship between the V saw and the NP the man

with glasses is a direct one since they are sisters, but the relationship between glasses

and the V saw is an indirect one.

As we’ll see in the next chapter, each phrase has a function to play in the sentence.

ese functions can be read o the tree. For instance, in (24ab), the NP is the subject

and the VP is the predicate; in (16a), the verb wrote is the head of the VP and its sister,

the NP the letter, is the object.

.

Coordination of phrases and apposition

Phrases and categories can be coordinated, as long as they are the same kind. For

instance, two NPs are coordinated in (24), two prepositions in (26), and two VPs

in (27):

(25) We see scorpions all the time in [the house] and [the garden].

(26) e dog went [under] and [over] the fence.

(27) I [read books] and [listened to music].

When the elements that are coordinated are not the same, e.g. an NP and a PP in (28),

the sentence becomes ungrammatical:

(28) *I read [a book] and [to Janet].

Coordination can be used to recognize phrases and categories. If you know one phrase

or category, then the other phrase or category will be the same.

e structure for coordinate constructions is controversial. A number of linguists

argue that the relationship between the coordinated phrases in, for instance, (29) is

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

completely equal and hence that a structure as in (30a) is appropriate. Others claim

that the rst phrase is somewhat more important and use (30b). Note that I have not

labelled the node above and in (30b) since its name is controversial:

(29) Books and magazines sell easily.

(30)

a. b.

NC NP

books and

magazines

NP CNP

N and N

books magazines

Arguments can be found for either structure. For ease of representation, I’ll use (30a),

but feel free to use (30b). We can usually switch around the NPs in (29) and this seems

to be an argument in favor of (30a) since both NPs have the same status. However,

when we move part of the books and magazines, for instance, because the second NP

is a very long one, as in (31), and remains with the second NP and this speaks in favor

of (30b) since and magazines discussing political issues is a unit (indicated by brackets

in (31)), but books and is not:

(31) I read books yesterday [and magazines discussing political issues].

In Chapter 7, we’ll look at coordinating sentences. e basic question about which

structure to pick is relevant there too. Two-part coordinators were mentioned in the

previous chapter, e.g. both Mary and John; I will not provide a structure for these.

Apposition diers from coordination. It occurs when two NPs are used side by

side but with the same reference, as in (32) to (34). In (32), the added information

is not crucial for the meaning of the sentence since many of us know who Napoleon

was, and I could have chosen another way to describe him. If we saw or heard (33)

and (34), however, without a context, we wouldn’t know who was meant by ‘we’ or

‘my friend’:

(32) Napoleon Bonaparte, the past Emperor of France, went to war against most

of Europe.

(33) We the people of the United States, …, do ordain and establish this Constitution for

the United States of America. (from the Preamble to the US Constitution)

(34) My friend Bill sent a letter.

In appositives, the second NP can replace the rst, or could be rephrased by a relative

clause, as in (35). e structure could be as in (36), close to that of a relative clause:

Chapter 3. Phrases 

(35) We, who are the people of the United States, ….

(36)

NP NP

N′

the

NPP

people

of the United States

. Finding phrases and building trees

. Finding the phrase

A phrase is a group of words forming a unit and united around a head, e.g. a noun or a

verb. Since phrases are syntactic units, a number of rules apply to them. Some of these

have been discussed above, namely pronominalization and coordination. ree addi-

tional ones can be used, namely deletion, replacement by a wh-element, and movement.

ese ve rules are listed in Table 3.1. If I have a hunch that, for instance, to the store in

(37) is a phrase, how do I prove that? Let’s apply the rules and see:

(37) She ran to the store.

I can pronominalize to the store as there, coordinate it, delete it, replace it, and move

it, as shown in the Table.

Table 3.1. Finding a phrase

Rules Examples

A phrase can be pronominalized: She ran [there].

b. It can be coordinated with a phrase

of the same kind:

She ran [to the bookstore] and

[to the library];

c. It can be deleted: She ran […].

d. It can be replaced by a wh-element: [Where] did she run?

e. It can be moved: [To the store] she ran.

e ve criteria in Table 3.1 conrm that to the store in (37) is a phrase. We know that

it is a PP because a Preposition, namely to, is the head.

All phrases can be pronominalized and coordinated. However, not all phrases can

be deleted. e initial NP is very important, and in English, sentences are ungrammat-

ical without it. us, changing (37) into (38) produces an ungrammatical sentence:

(38) *Ran to the store.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

In Chapters 4 and 5, we will discuss what kinds of phrases can be deleted and what

kinds cannot.

.

Building trees

We can build trees from top to bottom or from bottom to top. Experiment with this a

little to see what you personally like best. Let’s do the phrase the boy with the red hat using

both ways. Either way, we rst need to decide what the head is. We’ll argue the head is

boy (e.g. because we pronominalize the phrase with he not it). is means the phrase is

an NP.

Starting from the top, let’s put down the NP rst. If there is a determiner, the rst

branch to the le will always be a D, so D is the daughter of NP:

(39)

the

Now, we have to be careful not to make the next branch go to N because then there

won’t be space for both the N boy and the PP with the red hat. Instead, we’ll put

down an N′ which can be expanded. Remember that N′ is a placeholder for more

than one branch:

(40)

N′

the

Now, the branches coming down from Nʹ need to be put in, as in (41):

(41)

N′

the

NPP

boy

Aer this, nishing the tree is easy. We’ll draw branches from PP to P and NP, and then

have to start all over again with the NP. Aer the NP is nished, we make sure that we

have put all the words under the categories. e result will be as in (42):

Chapter 3. Phrases 

(42)

N′

the

boy

PNP

with

DN′

the

AdjP N

Adj

red

hat

Sometimes you will see the tree in (42) drawn as in (43). is makes it easier to see the

actual sentence. You have to wait until the end to put the words in. Either tree is ne,

though I usually use (42):

(43)

N′

e

boy

PNP

with

DN′

the

AdjP N

Adj

red hat

When a phrase is not a branching phrase, e.g. the AdjP red in (42) and (43), we still

indicate that it can have a head (and other elements) by having it go to the Adj. To save

space, I sometimes leave out the branches, as in (44):

(44) AdjP

Adj

red

It is also possible to draw a tree starting from the bottom. In this case, it is handiest to

put the category of each word on top of it, as in (45a). en, we need to nd what goes

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

with what. In this case, red and hat combine, so we’ll draw branches to connect them, as

in (45b):

(45)

a. DNPDAdj N

theboy with thered hat

DNPDAdj N

theboy with thered hat

en, D has to be combined with it and then P, with the result of (46):

(46)

DNPDAdj N

the boy with the red hat

Now, the PP has to be connected to boy since it modies it, and then D has to be con-

nected. e result will be the same as that in (42) and (43). We’ll need to make sure all

nodes have labels, e.g. we need to put in the N′. e disadvantage of this tree is that

the branches are not of equal length and that this becomes confusing in seeing what

goes together.

A few more trees to look at are given in (47) and (48). In (47), the PP near the park

shows where the tree was planted because it is the sister to the V′ planted an exotic tree. In

(48), the PP without leaves is sister to the N trees, so it is the tree that is without leaves.

(47)

NP VP

ey

PNP

near

the park

V′

VNP

planted

DN′

AdjPN

Adj tree

exotic

Chapter 3. Phrases 

(48)

NP VP

ey

VNP

planted

NPP

trees

PNP

without N

leaves

Notice that I am indicating that leaves is the head of the NP but that it could be modied

by an adjective; the pronoun they cannot.

Finally, one can use a computer to draw trees either by purchasing a tree-drawing

font or by just using the line-drawing feature that’s part of most word processing pro-

grams. In the latter case, use tabs to space out the nodes and then draw the branches

aer the nodes are in. Experiment a little with this.

.

Conclusion

In this chapter, phrases and their tree structure are introduced. A lexical category such

as a noun typically has other elements around it that go with it (i.e. modify it). is

group of words and the head form a phrase. All lexical categories (N, V, Adj, Adv, and

P) head phrases and each of these phrases is discussed.

Phrases are combined into sentences (or S), as in (24) above. A sentence includes

an NP and a VP. In the next chapter, we discuss the functions of the NP and VP in the

sentence. A structure for phrases that are coordinated and appositives is also given

in (30).

e key terms in this chapter are phrases (NP, VP, AdjP, AdvP and PP); S; ﬂat as

opposed to non-ﬂat/hierarchical structures; ambiguity; pronominalization; coordi-

nation and apposition. e most important thing is to learn to draw trees.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Exercises

A. Draw the tree structures for (49) and (50):

(49) They saw the lights.

(50) The rabbit planted carrots.

B. What do trees express?

C. First identify the phrases in (51) to (53) by putting brackets around them. Then try to

draw trees for (51) and (53) but not for (52) (we get to that sentence in the next chapter):

(51) Dumbledore submits his tax-return on time every year.

(52) Kim’s painting made Voldemort extremely unhappy.

(53) Hagrid remained a lover of dragons during his life.

D. Draw brackets around all the NPs in the rst paragraph of the text below. Note that

names, pronouns, and nouns on their own also need to be marked as noun phrases.

Man rescued after 4 months at sea

A U.S. Navy frigate rescued a man off the coast of Costa Rica last week. The man says

his crippled sailboat was adrift at sea for almost four months. The 24-foot sailboat

appeared battered and broken, and the navy spokesperson said his crew was

stunned when Van Pham appeared and waved at the frigate.

Van Pham told crew members of the Navy frigate that he had set out for a brief trip

between Long Beach and Catalina Island when high winds broke his mast. His radio, he

said, failed to work and he found himself adrift. Van Pham survived because he ate the

sh that he caught in the water around him, as well as a few seagulls. He drank rainwater

collected in a bucket and he appeared to be in generally good health.

Draw brackets around all the PPs in the second paragraph of the text in D.

F. Sentence (54) has a fairly complex initial NP. Try to draw the tree rst for this NP and then

t it into an S:

(54) The man with the monstrously ugly umbrella left the house.

G. Sentence (55) is ambiguous. Explain which of the two trees expresses that the Martian

has the telescope?

(55) She spotted the Martian with a telescope.

Chapter 3. Phrases 

(a)

OR: (b)

NP VP

She

V′

VNP

spotted

the Martian

PNP

with

atelescope

NP VP

She

VNP

spotted

DN′

the

N PP

Martian

PNP

with

atelescope

H. Draw a tree for (56). Is (56) ambiguous? If so, explain how:

(56) They like a house with a porch with rocking chairs.

I. Put brackets around all the phrases in (57) and (58). How would you draw these

sentences as trees?

(57) Tom and Jerry make very good ice cream.

(58) They washed dishes and cleaned the sink.

J. Give some reasons justifying your choice of some of the phrases in (51).

Class discussion

K. In Chapter 1, Section 1.2, two instances of structural ambiguity are given. The headlines

in (59) to (61) are likewise structurally ambiguous. Can you explain their ambiguity using

brackets indicating the structure?

(59) Complaints about NBA referees growing ugly.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(60) Enraged cow injures farmer with ax.

(61) Two sisters reunited after 18 years at check-out counter.

L. Discuss the structure of one of these, a piece of chalk, and all those arguments.

Draw brackets around the phrases for the intended meaning of ‘throw it away in a waste

basket’ and around those for the meaning PJ heard in Figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1. From inside or into? (family circus  2008 Bil Keane, Inc. king features

Syndicate)

Keys to the exercises

(49)

They

VNP

saw

the lights

NP VP

(50)

NV NP

The rabbits planted N

carrots

B. Trees indicate what goes with what, e.g. which phrases modify which head.

C. In (51), [Dumbledore] is an NP and [submits his tax-return on time every year] is a VP;

[his tax-return] is an NP; [on time] is a PP and [every year] is an NP. All put together,

it looks as follows: [[Dumbledore] [submits [his tax-return] [on time] [every year]]]. In

Chapter 3. Phrases 

(52), [Kim’s painting] is an NP and [made Voldemort extremely unhappy] is a VP; [Kim]

is another NP; [Voldemort] an NP; and [extremely unhappy] an AdjP. With brackets, it

looks like: [[Kim’s painting] [made [Voldemort] [extremely unhappy]]]. In the next

chapter, we will see a structure with an added bracket. In (53), [Hagrid] is an NP;

[remained a lover of dragons during his life] is a VP; [a lover of dragons] an NP; [of

dragons] a PP; [dragons] an NP; and [during his life] a PP. With brackets: [[Hagrid]

[remained [a lover [of [dragons]]] [during his life]]]

(51)

every year

NP VP

Dumbledore

V′ NP

V′ PP

NP P

submits

D Ntime

his tax-return

(53)

NP VP

Hagrid

PNP

during

his life

′

V NP

remained

′

NPP

lover

PNP

of N

dragons

D. The NPs: [Man] rescued after [4 months] at [sea]

[A U.S. Navy frigate] rescued [a man] o [the coast of [Costa Rica]] [last week]. [The man]

says [his crippled sailboat] was adrift at [sea] for almost [four months]. [The 24-foot

sailboat] appeared battered and broken, and [the navy spokesperson] said [his crew] was

stunned when [Van Pham] appeared and waved at [the frigate].

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

E. The PPs: Van Pham told crew members [of the Navy frigate] that he had set out [for a

brief trip [between Long Beach and Catalina Island]] when high winds broke his mast.

His radio, he said, failed to work and he found himself adrift. Van Pham survived because

he ate the sh that he caught [in the water [around him]], as well as a few seagulls. He

drank rainwater collected [in a bucket] and he appeared to be [in generally good health].

F. (54)

umbrella

N′

The

N PP

man

PNP

with

DN′

the

AdjP N

Adv Adj

monstrously ugly

left

thehouse

VNP

D N

G. In (a), the Martian has a telescope; in (b), the ‘she’ uses the telescope to spot the Martian.

We can gure this out from looking at who the PP is sister to in the tree.

H. If the structure for (56) is the one drawn in (a), they like a house with both a porch and

with rocking chairs and the rocking chairs can be anywhere in the house. If it is drawn as

in (b), they like a house with a porch that has rocking chairs and the rocking chairs have

to be on the porch:

a. S

NP VP

They

VNP

N′

NPP

house

P NP

with

a porch

PNP

with

AdjP N

Adj chairs

rocking

Chapter 3. Phrases 

b. S

NP VP

They

VNP

DN′

NPP

house

PNP

with

DN′

NPP

porch

PNP

with

AdjPN

Adj chairs

rocking

I. Sentences (57) and (58) can be drawn with brackets as follows:

(57) [[Tom] and [Jerry]] [make [[very good] ice cream]].

(58) [They] [[washed [dishes]] and [cleaned [the sink]]].

As trees, they can be drawn as follows:

(57)

VNP

make

AdjP

Adv Adj

ice cream

very good

NP and NP

om Jerry

(58)

NP VP

hey

and

VNP

washed N

dishes

VNP

cleaned

thesin

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

J. In (51), Dumbledore is an NP because it can be pronominalized, i.e. replaced by he; it can

be coordinated with another NP as in Dumbledore and his accountant submit the forms on

time. It cannot be deleted or moved because it is the subject as we will see in Chapter 4. It

can be questioned as in Who submits the forms on time?

Submits his tax-return on time every year is a VP since it can be pronominalized, i.e. replaced

by do so as in Dumbledore submits his tax-return on time every year and Hagrid does so too.

It can also be coordinated with another VP as in Dumbledore submits his tax-return on time

every year but neglects to renew his accident insurance.

His tax-return is an NP since it can be replaced by it, can be coordinated as in Dumledore

submits his tax-return and insurance claims on time every year, and moved as in It is his

tax-return that Dumbledore submits on time every year. And so on…

Special topic: Negative concord

Unlike most of the special topics, Negative Concord does not supplement the material covered

in the above chapter, but is an often debated issue. The prescriptive rule on multiple negation is

as follows:

(62) Two negatives in one sentence make the sentence positive.

Swan (1980: 182) says “[i]n standard English, nobody, nothing, never etc are themselves enough

to make the sentence negative, and not is unnecessary”.

We use certain types of multiple negatives in our utterances all the time, e.g. in (63) and

(64b). In (63), the sentence expresses negation since the no is outside the clause and independent

of the I don’t want to go. In this sentence, the negatives do not cancel each other out, since the

negatives are independent of each other, and the sentence is prescriptively correct. In (64b),

an answer to (64a), nothing is negated and the sentence could be paraphrased as (65). In this

sentence, the negatives cancel each other out:

(63) No, I don’t want to go.

(64) a: I paid nothing for that.

b: Five dollars is not nothing.

(65) Five dollars is quite something.

Since (63) and (64) follow the rule, they are not objected to by prescriptive grammarians.

A sentence such as (66), however, is said to be incorrect if it means the same as (67) or (68):

(66) They don’t have no problems.

(67) They don’t have problems.

(68) They don’t have any problems.

Chapter 3. Phrases 

Although two negatives are supposed to make a positive, most speakers understand (66) as

a negative. This construction is referred to as Negative Concord, i.e. the two negatives work

together to emphasize the negation rather than cancel each other out. Sentences such as (66)

occur very frequently in spoken, informal English. However, the prescriptive rule is so well

known that people often deliberately break it for impact. That may have been the reason a

double negative is used in (69), a protest sign at the time that a student code of conduct was

being considered at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor:

(69) WE DON’T

NEED NO

STINKIN

CODE

Figure 3.2. Multiple Negation

Changes involving negatives follow a certain path, sometimes called the negative cycle. Thus,

in Old English, there is a negative no or ne, as in (70). At some point, the negative weakens and

contracts with the verb. That’s the reason another negative is added in (71):

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(70) Men ne cunnon secgan to soðe ... hwa

Man not could tell to truth ... who

‘No man can tell for certain ... who’. (Beowulf 50–52)

(71) Næron

e noht æmetti

e, ðeah ge wel ne dyden

not-were you not unoccupied. though you well not did

‘You were not unoccupied, though you did not do well’. (Pastoral Care, 206).

At some point the noht/not itself weakens and we’d expect another negative. The prescriptive

pressure of (62) stops this from happening, certainly in writing. There is the use of never, as in

(72), however, as you can nd when you google the sequence:

(72) I never see him much these days. (meaning ‘I don’t see him often these days’)

Review of Chapters 1–3

e rst chapter shows that we know quite a bit about language intuitively without

formal training and the second and third chapters make some of this knowledge more

explicit. Chapter 1 examines two types of ambiguity, lexical and structural ambiguity,

and the latter in particular has been helpful in showing the necessity for dierent tree

structures in Chapter 3. Chapter 1 also explains prescriptive rules, examples of which

are given in the special topics at the end of each chapter.

Chapter 2 lists the lexical (N, V, A, and P) and grammatical (D, AUX, C) catego-

ries we make use of in English. Tables provide the characteristics and examples of

many of these. Several rules are also formulated to distinguish adjectives and adverbs

in (12), determiners and adjectives in (37), and prepositions, complementizers and

adverbs in (45). Pronouns are complicated because so many kinds exist. Personal pro-

nouns function like entire phrases but have very little meaning. Other pronouns, e.g.

possessives, are determiners.

Chapter 3 shows how sentences can be divided into phrases, each of which is cen-

tered around a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, or preposition. e NP and VP are the

most complex since they can include an N′ or V′. ese are intermediate categories,

not quite full phrases (they lack something) but bigger than heads. Chapter 3 also sug-

gests the S to represent the entire sentence and gives trees for coordinated phrases.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Exercises relevant to these chapters:

A. List the lexical and grammatical categories in (1) and (2). Draw a tree for (1):

(1) The tortoise from Jupiter ate his food.

(2) Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day; …

B. List the categories in (3), both lexical and grammatical. Give two reasons why painted

is a verb:

(3) Zoya painted the chairs in the rain.

C. Provide the tree for (3). The intended meaning for (3) is unambiguous: Zoya painted

actual chairs while it was raining and she was out in it’.

Draw trees for the phrases in (4) and (5) and for the sentences in (6) and (7):

(4) That sensitive poet from Shiraz

(5) noticed a hopeless sadness

(6) Vincent and his brother wrote many letters.

(7) We suggested those solutions quickly.

E. Draw a tree for (8):

(8) The trees in the park are unhappy.

F. How is the following sentence ambiguous?

(9) Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it is too dark to read.

G. Is there anything prescriptively incorrect in (10) and (11)? If so, say what?

(10) That seemed logical enough.

(11) ne durste þer na man speken; leste þe king hit wolde awreken

not dared there no man speak lest the king it wanted to-avenge

‘No one there dared to speak in case the king wanted to punish them.’

(Layamon, Brut 12425)

Class discussion

H. Please comment on ‘You look real nice’. When would you say this; when might you say

something else.

Explain the dierence between linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge.

Review of Chapters 1–3 

J. Briey discuss the poem ‘We Real Cool’ by Gwendolyn Brooks in the light of either

chapter 1 or 2 or both:

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk Late. We

Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We

Die soon.

Keys to the exercises

A. (1) The (D) tortoise (N) from (P) Jupiter (N) ate (V) his (N) food (N)

(2) Do (AUX) not (Adv) go (V) gentle (Adj) into (P) that (D) good (Adj) night (N), Old

(Adj) age (N) should (AUX) burn (V) and (C) rave (V) at (P) close (N) of (P) day (N)

(1)

VNP

ate

hisfood

N′

The

NPP

tortoise

PNP

from Jupiter

B. Zoya: N C. (3)

NP VP

Zoya

V′

VNPP NP

painted in

DNDN

the chairs the rain

painted: V

the: D

chairs: N

in: P

the: D

rain: N

Painted is a verb because it shows past tense (morphological) and indicates an action (semantic).

Sentence (3) is not ambiguous since in the rain is independent of chairs; it says something about

where you painted them.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(4) (5)NP

DN′

That

AdjP

N′

Adj

sensitive NPP

poet

PNP

from Shiraz

VNP

noticed

DN′

AdjPN

Adj sadness

hopeless

(6)

NP VP

NP CNPV

Vincent and wrote

his brother

many letters

(7)

NP VP

V′ AdvP

Adv

VNPquickly

suggested

thosesolutions

E. (8)

N′

The

NPP

trees

PNP

the park

V AdjP

are Adj

unhappy

F. See the end of Section 2 (Chapter 3).

G. Sentence (10) is correct because logical is used as an adjective here. The multiple

negation in (11) would not be correct in Modern English, but was in the 13th century.

Review of Chapters 1–3 

Example of an exam/quiz covering Chapters 1 to 3

A. Why is (a) prescriptively ungrammatical? What would you say in a formal situation

instead of (a)?

(a) I would like to rst make the point that bureaucrats don’t think that way.

B. Please list the category (N, V, etc) of each word in (b):

(b) The coyote evolved in North America alongside the wolf and expanded its range

since they readily reproduce in metropolitan areas.

C. Give two reasons why evolved in (b) is a verb.

Draw tree structures (as in Chapter 3) for the phrases in (c) and (d):

(d) heard a strange sound.

E. Please draw tree structures (again as in Chapter 3) for the sentences in (e) and (f):

(e) Zoltan and Zoya read three books in a week.

(f) We rarely suggest useful solutions.

Keys to the exam/quiz

A. Split innitive (and contraction). Alternative: ‘… rst like to make …(do not) …’

B. The (D) coyote (N) evolved (V) in (P) North (Adj) America (N) alongside (P) the (D) wolf (N)

and (C) expanded (V) its (D) range (N) since (C) they (Pron) readily (Adv) reproduce (V) in

(P) metropolitan (Adj) areas (N).

C. Evolved has an -ed ending and could be preceded by an auxiliary, e.g. has.

DN′

That

AdjP

N′

Adj

careful

NPP

driver

PNP

his Volvo

(d)(c)

VNP

heard

DN′

AdjPN

Adj sound

strange

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(e)

NP VP

NP CNP

Zoltan andZoya

PNP

aweek

V′

VNP

read

three books

(f)

NP VP

AdvP

V′

Adv

rarely VNP

suggest

AdjP N

Adjsolutions

useful

Chapter 4

Functions in the sentence

1. Subject and predicate

2. Complements

3. Verbs and functions

4. Trees for all verb types

5. Light verbs (optional)

6. Conclusion

In Chapter 3, groups of words that go together were called phrases and labelled as

NP, VP, AdjP, AdvP, and PP depending on what headed them. Phrases (and pronouns

since they replace phrases) have functions in the sentence, e.g. subject, direct object,

indirect object, and subject and object predicate. e name, label, or realization (e.g.

NP) and the function itself (e.g. subject) should be kept separate.

As mentioned, we will not be putting functions in the tree structures since (most

of) the functions follow from the tree structure. Certain functions such as subject and

direct object occupy specic positions in the tree (daughter of S and sister of V respec-

tively), and to label them would be redundant.

e four basic functions are subject, predicate, complement, and adverbial (see

next chapter for adverbials). As explained in Section 1, a subject and predicate are

needed in every sentence. Most verbs need complements as well, as Section 2 dis-

cusses. Complements come in dierent varieties; the ones dealt with in this chapter

are direct object, indirect object, subject predicate, and object predicate. Some people

equate object and complement, but technically complement is a broader category than

object. In Section 3, verbs will be named depending on the type of complement they

appear with. Section 4 provides trees for the dierent verbs, and Section 5 explores

one additional verb type, the light verb.

.

Subject and predicate

Every complete sentence has a subject and a predicate. e subject is usually realized

by an NP (sometimes by a clause, see Chapter 7), and the predicate is always realized

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

by a VP. In (1), the moon is the subject and has risen in the sky is the predicate. e

predicate says something about the subject:

(1) [e moon] [has risen in the sky].

Other examples of subjects and predicates are given in (2). Note that subjects can be

more than one or two words, as their long-term survival in Florida shows!

(2) [Manatees] [are large, marine mammals]. [ey] [can live up to 60 years and can

weigh up to 1200 pounds]. [eir long-term survival in Florida] [is uncertain,

however].

Typically, subjects start o a sentence, as in (1) and (2), but there are a number of

constructions where they don’t. For instance, in (3), the Adverb Phrase fortunately for

us precedes the subject; in questions such as (4), the auxiliary verb does; and in (5),

the sentence is a complex one and there are multiple subjects. (We’ll go into complex

sentences in more detail in Chapters 7, 8, and 10).

(3) Fortunately for us, [she] managed to join the government.

(4) Do [those people] like anything?

(5) [He] made no answer, and [they] were again silent till [they] had gone down the

dance, when [he] asked her if [she and her sisters] did not very oen walk to Meryton.

(Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice, Chapter 18)

Since the subject is not always the initial word or phrase of the sentence, we need other

ways to determine the subject. Table 4.1 lists three diagnostics for determining what

the subject is.

Table 4.1. Subject tests (subject is in italics; verb is in bold)

a. Inversion with the AUX in Yes/No questions

e pig from Malacandra will want to eat soon.

Will the pig from Malacandra want to eat soon?

b. Agreement with the Verb/AUX

e prigg is nice.

e priggs are nice.

c. Tag questions

e hross is nice, isn’t he?

Let’s apply these tests to (1). e rst test of Table 4.1 shows that the moon is the

subject since it can change places with has, as in the question (6):

(6) Has [the moon] just risen in the sky?

Chapter 4. Functions in the sentence 

e second test involves subject verb agreement. We discussed this rule in Chapter 3

because it is helpful in nding the head of an NP. e NP that determines agreement

on the verb is the subject. In English, this marking is fairly limited. In (7) and (8), some

instances of subject verb agreement are marked, which most of you know already. In

English, the verb be shows the most inection, as seen in (7), but most other verbs just

show the singular third person, as in (8b), and leave the other subjects unmarked, as

in (8a):

(7) a. I am happy. (rst person singular subject I with rst person

singular am)

b. You are happy. (second person subject you with second person are)

c. He/Matthew is happy. (third person singular subjectwith third person

singular is).

d. We/they are happy. (plural subject with third person plural are).

(8) a. I/you/we/they walk regularly. (unmarked walk).

b. She/Emma walks regularly. (third person singular subject with third person

singular verb)

us, to nd the subject in (1), we could change its number (singular to plural or plu-

ral to singular) and see if that changes the form of the verb as well. In (1), the subject

the moon is singular and, if we pluralize it to the moons, as in (9), the verb becomes

plural as well (i.e. loses the third person singular ending):

(9) e moons have just risen in the sky.

is shows that the subject in (1) is indeed the moon (and in (9), it is the moons of

course). Sentence (9) is a bit strange since there is only one moon surrounding earth.

However, if we were on Jupiter, (9) would be appropriate. Hence, the strangeness is not

caused by the grammar, but by our knowledge of the world.

e third test for determining the subject involves adding a tag question and see-

ing what the pronoun in the tag replaces. In (10), the it in the tag refers to the moon

and not to the sky and that’s why the former is the subject:

(10) e moon has just risen in the sky, hasn’t it?

Having discussed three criteria for identifying subjects, I turn to a kind of subject that,

at rst, does not look like a subject, namely, there in (11):

(11) ere are ve unicorns in the parking lot.

If we apply the three tests of Table 4.1 to sentence (11), there and ve unicorns each pass

some, but not all, of the tests for subject. For instance, in a question there and are switch

places; the tag will be formed with there, as in aren’t there; but the agreement on the

verb is determined by ve unicorns. To account for this, we’ll assume that both there and

ve unicorns function as the subject. ere is called a dummy or pleonastic or exple-

tive subject. It is used when no other subject occupies the position in the beginning

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

of the sentence. A variant of (11) is (12), where ve unicorns is in subject position and

there is not needed:

(12) Five unicorns are in the garden.

Turning to the predicate, we will just dene it as everything in the sentence that is not

the subject. In the tree, the predicate is always the VP that is under the right branch

right below the S and the subject is the NP right below the branch o the S on the le

side, as in (13).

(13)

NP VP

. Complements

A complement is what has to follow the verb. Complements come in dierent avors,

as direct and indirect objects and as subject and object predicates.

.

Direct and indirect object

A common function in the sentence is the direct object, usually realized as an NP, as in

(14) (see Chapter 7 for the use of a clause as direct object):

(14) a. Harry Potter played [a game].

b. He read [the letter from Hogwarts].

Objects occur as sisters to the verb, as in (15), and can be turned into subjects in a pas-

sive construction, as in (16):

(15)

NP VP

VNP

read

DN′

the

NPP

letter

PNP

from Hogwarts

(16) [e letter from Hogwarts] was read by him.

Chapter 4. Functions in the sentence 

In (16), the letter from Hogwarts functions as the subject because, for instance, in a

question it would switch with the auxiliary verb was. Make the subject in (16) plural

and see what that shows!

Passive sentences are variants of non-passive or active ones and come about by

switching the subject and the object and by adding a form of to be as in (17b), the

passive variant of (17a). e subject of the active sentence (17a) becomes optional in

the passive and, if expressed at all, is preceded by by:

(17)

a. I saw him. (active)

b. He was seen (by me). (passive)

Passives are useful when we don’t know who the agent of the action is and they oen

occur when the object is more denite than the subject, as in (18), but this is a complex

matter:

(18) e decision was made by a small group of people.

(Talk of the Nation, 1998, COCA)

Passivization is a way to distinguish between objects (both direct and indirect) on the

one hand and subject predicates, object predicates, and adverbials on the other, as we’ll

see in the next chapter.

e indirect object expresses the goal (Santa in (19a)) or the beneciary of the

action (Harry in (19b)):

(19) a. I gave Santa a letter.

b. I made Harry some soup.

Indirect objects can be passivized as well, and in a sentence with both a direct and

indirect object, it is the indirect object that becomes the subject. For instance, (20) is

the passive counterpart of (19a), and the indirect object Santa becomes the subject,

not the direct object a letter:

(20) [Santa] was given a letter by me.

Indirect objects can be preceded by the prepositions to, in the case of the goal, and for,

in the case of a beneciary, as in (21) and (22):

(21) I gave a letter to Santa.

(22) I made some soup for Harry.

When to and for are added the order of indirect and direct object switches, as you

can see by comparing (18) with (21). Some grammarians call the PPs to Santa and for

Harry indirect objects; others call them adverbials since they seem less important to

the sentence (e.g. some can be le out) and they cannot become the subject of a passive

sentence, as the unacceptable (23) shows:

(23) *Santa was given a letter to.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

I will call the PPs in (21) and (22) indirect objects but am happy to listen to other views.

A list of verbs that take a direct object and those that take both a direct and indi-

rect object is given in Table 4.2. In Section 3, we will label the former transitive verbs

and the latter ditransitive. Many verbs have optional indirect objects. Table 4.2 is based

on a limited search of the British Nation Corpus and the Corpus of Spoken American

English; see Exercise N for more on this issue. You will have to decide each time you

see them in a sentence if they have a direct or a direct and an indirect object.

Table 4.2. Verbs with direct and indirect objects

Verbs with only direct objects with direct and mostly

obligatory indirect objects

with direct and less

obligatory indirect objects

see, eat, love, hit, hear,

watch

give, teach, oer, tell, show, ask, lend

provide, send, hand, promise, grant,

award, begrudge, mail, throw

buy, bring, bake, read,

pay,earn, build, cook, knit,

prepare

Making this table, I was very surprised how few verbs only have a direct object.

e reason is that we can imagine doing almost anything for the benet of others, e.g.

running a mile for the ASPCA and reading someone a book.

.

Subject and object predicate

e subject predicate is usually realized as an AdjP. It makes a claim about the subject,

as in (24), and can also be an NP, as in (25), or a PP, as in (26) (see Chapter 7 for the

use of a clause as subject predicate):

(24) He is [pleasant].

(25) He is [a nice person].

(26) He is [in the garden].

e verb used in sentences with a subject predicate is usually either be or become or

can be replaced by it. us, in the rst line of the poem by Dylan omas, discussed

in exercise H from Chapter 2, the adjective gentle goes with the unexpressed subject

and the verb go could be replaced by become. Other verbs that typically occur with a

subject predicate are feel, look, grow, and smell, when used as in (27):

(27) a. is silk feels nice.

b. at problem looks hard.

c. e kitten grew tired.

d. ose raspberries smell nice.

In (27abd), the verb can be replaced by a form of be and in (27c) by a form of become,

with some loss of specic meaning. If you replaced the transitive verb in (13) and (14)

with be or become, the results would be strange, to say the least.

Chapter 4. Functions in the sentence 

As mentioned in the special topic to Chapter 2, many speakers overreact or panic

when they produce an adjective right next to a verb, as in (27). e combination is

correct, however, since the adjective modies a noun (functioning as subject). It need

not be changed to an adverb and in many cases it can’t. A list of verbs that may have a

subject predicate in English appears in Table 4.3.

Table 4.3. Examples of verbs with subject predicates

act, appear, be, become, get, go, grow, fall, feel, keep, look, remain, seem, smell, sound, stay, taste, turn

Most of the verbs in Table 4.3 can be used in other ways too and that’s why it is

important to think about the entire sentence and not just to look at the verb. For instance,

each of the verbs in (27) can be used without a subject predicate, as (28) shows:

(28) a. He felt his pulse.

b. ey looked around.

c. She grew strawberries in her garden.

d. I smell trouble.

In (24) and (27), the adjective functioning as a subject predicate says something about

the subject, but an adjective can also say something about a direct object. e adjective

then functions as an object predicate. ere are relatively few verbs that take a direct

object and an object predicate, so don’t overuse the function in your analysis! It is safe

to say that, if you see a verb such as consider, you need to think about the possibility of

an object predicate, but not with verbs such as see, read, and go.

e object predicate is usually an adjective phrase, as in (29), but can also be an

NP, as in (30), or a PP, as in (31):

(29) e students found the exam [dicult].

(30) Jane considers Pride and Prejudice [a classic].

(31) She put the cup [on the table].

A few examples are given in Table 4.4.

Table 4.4. Verbs with direct objects and object predicates

consider I considered Sabina very smart.

think I thought Timber (to be) nice.

nd ey found Einstein interesting.

know I know Chandra to be nice.

put She put snails on the table.

place ey placed a jar upon a hill

call ey called the ship e Lauderdale.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Here too, it sometimes depends on your analysis whether you consider a phrase

an object predicate or a direct object. For instance, a good chairperson in (32) can be an

object predicate to the direct object him, in which case to be can occur between them,

as in (33), and him is the same person as a good chairperson. Alternatively, him can be

an indirect object and a good chairperson a direct object, in which case for can precede

him, as in (34), and him and a good chairperson are not the same person. Hence, the

verb nd is ambiguous:

(32) ey found him [a good chairperson]. (ambiguous)

(33) ey found him to be [a good chairperson]. (Object Predicate)

(34) ey found for him [a good chairperson]. (Direct Object)

e terms for the two functions discussed in this section are much debated. Some

grammarians call them subject and object complements; others subject and object

predicatives; yet others call them subject and object attributives. I have chosen subject

and object predicate to show that their function is similar to that of the VP predicate.

It is as if the AdjP is more important than the verb in these constructions. at is the

reason the verb in (24) to (26) can be le out in many languages and, in English, no

verb appears to link object and object predicate, even though to be can be included in

(33) and in (35):

(35) Jane considers Pride and Prejudice to be [a classic].

Four suggestions on identifying the object predicate are as follows. (a) Only use this

label if you have a (direct) object; (b) if you see the verb consider, it is a good candidate

for having a direct object and object predicate; (c) if you leave out the object predi-

cate, the sentence is incomplete or has a dierent meaning; and (d) don’t overuse the

function!

In short, some of the major functions of phrases in the sentence are subject, predi-

cate, direct and indirect object, subject predicate and object predicate. ere are spe-

cial objects such as prepositional objects and objects of phrasal verbs. ese will be

dealt with in Chapter 5 together with the adverbial function.

.

Verbs and functions

Verbs are distinguished depending on what objects or object predicates they select.

Verbs that select objects are called transitive verbs and those that don’t, as in (36)

below, intransitive. If the verb selects one object, as in (13) and (14) above, it is (mono)

transitive; if it selects two objects, as in (19), it is ditransitive. Verbs that select a subject

predicate, as in (24) to (27), are called copula verbs or linking verbs and those that have

Chapter 4. Functions in the sentence 

both an object and an object predicate, as in (29) to (31), are called complex transi-

tive. Two more types of verbs will be discussed in the next chapter: prepositional and

phrasal verbs. Since adverbials can always be added to any verb, they do not play a role

in the classication of the verb. I will now provide examples of each kind of verb.

Examples of intransitives are swim, walk, arrive, cough, sleep, and sneeze. ey do

not need a complement:

(36) He sneezed and sneezed.

(37) He slept during the meeting.

As mentioned before, you should look at the entire sentence before you can be com-

pletely sure of the classication of the particular verb. us, walk in I walk the dog is

transitive, but in I walked for hours it is not. (In the next chapter, Section 5, I give some

reasons why during the meeting in (37) is not an object but an adverbial).

Examples of (mono-)transitives are eat, read, see, hear, plant, write, compose,

paint, love, hate, drink, hit, and hug, as in (38). ey have a direct object complement:

(38) He hugged the ball.

As also seen in Table 4.2, give, tell, bake, cook, and play are ditransitives. A typical

ditransitive appears in (39). However, many transitive verbs have optional indirect

objects as mentioned before. e example given in (40) contains a fairly optional indi-

rect object him:

(39) ey told the public a lie.

(40) I played (him) a tune.

If a verb selects a subject predicate, it is called a copula or linking verb. A number

of copula verbs are given above in Table 4.3, namely be, become, go, feel, look, grow,

seem, and smell. Complex transitives are verbs such as consider, know, elect, keep,

prove, deem, judge, reckon, make, and regard. ey have direct objects and object

predicates as their complements. ey are similar to regular transitives except that

their object needs some modication. Please notice (again) that many verbs belong

to more than one category. For instance, make can be a transitive, as in I made a

sweater, or a complex transitive, as in She made them happy, or a ditransitive, as in

She made them a cake.

Distinctions such as transitive and intransitive are useful to explain when to use

verb forms such as lay/lie, set/sit, and fell/fall. e rst verb in these three sets is the

transitive one and the second is the intransitive. e verbs are irregular in that the

normal rules for past tense (add -ed) and participle (add -ed or -(e)n) do not apply.

Sentences (41a) and (42a) are in the present tense, (41b) and (42b) in the past tense,

and (41c) and (42c) in the present perfect. (We’ll discuss these terms in Chapter 6):

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(41) a. is chicken lays an egg every day. (transitive irregular)

b. He laid that book on the table yesterday.

c. I have laid the table like this for years.

(42) a. I lie down regularly. (intransitive irregular)

b. I lay down yesterday.

c. I have lain here for hours.

One problem with these verbs lies in the past tense of the intransitive being the same

as the present of the transitive. Both of these are irregular verbs since they are not

predictable. In addition, there is an intransitive lie, meaning ‘not telling the truth’, that

is regular in form, as (43) shows:

(43) a. ey always lie under oath. (intransitive regular)

b. ey always lied under oath.

c. ey have always lied.

is makes them really dicult to use!

To nish this section, I’ll just again list some intransitive, transitive, and ditransi-

tive verbs, as well as copulas and complex transitives with their complements. Seeing

all together might give a better picture.

Table 4.5. Examples of the verb classes so far with their complements

Intransitive no complement

walk, go, arrive, sneeze, go, lie (as in both lie to congress and lie down), sit, die, and swim

Transitive one (direct) object

see, eat, love, hit, hug, drink, break (as in break the vase), and paint.

Ditransitive one direct and one indirect object

give, teach, oer, tell, show, ask, lend, buy, bring, bake, read, provide, send, hand, promise, grant, cook,

prepare, award, begrudge, mail, and throw

Copula one subject predicate

be, become, seem, appear, look, remain, keep, stay, fall, turn

Complex Transitive one (direct) object and an object predicate

consider, nd, know, name (as in name the ship the Albatros)

. Trees for all verb types

As I have mentioned before, the tree structure reects what the function of each phrase

is. us, the subject and the predicate are the daughters of S, and the objects and sub-

ject predicate are sisters to V. e object predicate is a bit more complex but can be

Chapter 4. Functions in the sentence 

argued to be a sister of V too. e adverbial elements, as we’ll see in the next chapter,

are not sisters to V, but the prepositional objects and objects to phrasal verbs are.

Intransitives may occupy the entire VP, as in (44):

(44)

NP VP

laughed

A structure for the (mono)transitive verb of (38) above is (45), and for the copula verb

of (27a) above, it is (46):

(45)

NP VP

hugged

the ball

(46)

NP VP

at

V AdjP

feels

Adj

nice

In general, we try to make trees show hierarchies, i.e. we seek to avoid triple branches

in (47). However, to show that both the direct and indirect object in (47) are objects, I

have drawn them as sisters to the V:

(47)

NP VP

She

VNPNP

gave him

books

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

ere are ways of expressing this in a non-at/hierarchical structure but they are com-

plicated and still controversial. Hence, this book will use (47), noting the problem of

the atness of the VP.

The other complement where flatness is a problem is the one to the complex

transitive verb, as in (29) to (31) above. Since the object and predicate in some way

form a unit (unlike the direct and indirect object), I’ll represent it as in (48a), labeling

the node above NP and AdjP a small clause (SC), i.e. a clause with the verb deleted.

If the verb is present, the structure will look like (48b). More on (48b) in Chapter 8,

however:

(48)

a. b.S

NP VP

She

VSC

found

NP AdjP

Adj

nice

NP VP

She

found

NP VP

V AdjP

to be

Adj

nice

If the small clause in (48a) really has a be verb le out, we can think of the object predi-

cate as a sister to V as well.

.

Light verbs (optional)

is is an introductory grammar text, and hence not all kinds of verbs can be dealt

with. To give an example of such a group, we’ll look at light verbs, an interesting set of

verbs in English that combines with mainly indenite nouns (and sometimes preposi-

tions also). Examples of light verbs with nouns are given in (49):

(49) have a look, take a look, take a rest, take a tumble, take the initiative, take heart, take

measures, give advice (on), make a decision (on), do a translation (of), do harm,

give a hand, make trouble (for).

e verb and noun together have the meaning of a verb, e.g. have/take a look is similar

to the verb look, give advice to the verb advise, and make a decision to the verb decide.

With some, e.g. do a translation, the noun is still a real object and can be passivized, as

in A translation of Homer was done by that famous writer although the indenite sub-

ject sounds unusual; with some, e.g. take a look, the passive sounds ungrammatical, as

in A look was taken by me. We won’t draw trees for these or analyze them further.

Chapter 4. Functions in the sentence 

. Conclusion

In this chapter, we have discussed six major functions for which phrases are used:

subject, predicate, direct and indirect object, subject predicate, and object predicate.

Particular functions are realized by particular phrases, e.g. the subject is oen an NP.

In Figure 4.1, a schematic representation for the functions of the phrases NP, VP and

AdjP is given. Apart from VP, which is always a predicate (and the other way round),

there is no one-to-one relationship between a phrase and a function. In Chapter 5, PPs

and AdvPs will be discussed.

Subject ([the driver] laughed)Subject Predicate (is [a student])

Direct Object (see [the problem])NPObject Predicate (consider him [a fool])

Indirect Object (give [the dog] food) Adverbial (le [this week], see Chap 5)

Predicate (He [saw the clock])VP

Subject Predicate (is [nice]) AdjPObject Predicate (consider him [foolish])

Figure 4.1. A schema of the functions of NPs, VPs, and AdjPs

e classication of verbs is dependent on the kinds of objects and predicates they

have. e obligatory elements following the verb are called complements. We have

seen ve classes of verbs. Intransitives have no objects, (mono)transitives have one,

and ditransitives have two objects, a direct and an indirect. Copula verbs have a sub-

ject predicate and complex transitive verbs have an object and an object predicate. See

what you nd easier to recognize: the verb (as transitive or ditransitive) or the func-

tions. Tree structures are also provided for each of these verbs with the complements

as sisters to the V.

Key terms are the six functions (subject, predicate, direct and indirect object,

subject predicate and object predicate); and the classiﬁcation of ﬁve verb types

(intransitive, (mono)transitive, ditransitive, copula, and complex transitive). Be

careful to keep function and phrase separate!

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Exercises

A. Provide an example of each of the six functions we have discussed so far.

B. Examples of subjects are given in brackets in (50), which is adapted from a wikipedia

entry on javelinas. Do you agree with this selection of subjects?

(50) [Peccaries] are medium-sized animals, with a strong supercial resemblance to

pigs. Like pigs, [they] have a snout ending in a cartilagenous disc, and eyes [that]

are small relative to their head. Also like pigs, [they] use only the middle two digits

for walking, although, unlike pigs, [the other toes] can be altogether absent.

[Their stomach] is non-ruminating, although [it] has three chambers, and is more

complex than [that of pigs] is. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peccary)

Identify the subjects in the text used in Chapter 2, repeated here:

At last, we had begun lming. Should I say ‘we’? I was living in the house and extremely

curious about everything connected with the lm. Fortunately, they let me hang around

and even gave me a job. As an historian, I kept an eye on detail and did not allow the

lmmakers to stray too far from the period of Louis Philippe. The project was to make an

hour-long lm about Houdin and it was decided to shoot the picture in Switzerland. This

may have been a bad idea. It certainly mixed professional and domestic aairs.

. Identify the functions of the phrases in brackets in the sentences below:

(51) [I] gave [him] [the ticket].

(52) [They] [planted a dogwood].

(53) [The trees in the park] are [unhappy].

E. Identify the dierent kinds of complements (e.g. direct object, subject predicate) in (54)

to (60):

(54) They sold us their furniture.

(55) Tom submits his tax-returns.

(56) She seemed very happy.

(57) He found it easy.

(58) He took the early train.

(59) The politician considered that argument invalid.

(60) That sounds terrible.

F. Provide the labels of the verbs in (54) to (60) (e.g. copula, ditransitive).

G. Draw trees for sentences (54) to (60).

Chapter 4. Functions in the sentence 

H. List all the functions and names/labels of the phrases in (61) to (64). To what categories

do the following words belong: helpful, from, and hard-working?

(61) I considered the book very helpful.

(62) He baked Joan a cake.

(63) The pig from Mars left.

(64) The hard-working students seemed exhausted.

I. Read the rst part of Mavis Gallant’s short story “About Geneva”:

Granny was waiting at the door of the apartment. She looked small, lonely, and patient,

and at the sight of her the children and their mother felt instantly guilty. Instead of

driving straight home from the airport, they had stopped outside Nice for ice cream.

They might have known how much those extra twenty minutes would mean to Granny.

Colin, too young to know what he felt, or why, began instinctively to misbehave,

dragging his feet, scratching the waxed parquet. Ursula bit her nails, taking refuge in a

dream, while the children’s mother, Granny’s only daughter, felt compelled to cry in a

high, cheery voice, “Well, Granny, here they are, safe and sound!”

What kinds of verbs are wait, look, feel, and drive in this text? What is the function of those

extra twenty minutes, the waxed parquet, and small, lonely, and patient?

J. Identify the subjects in (65) to (68). Provide two reasons why in each case:

(65) In the rain, it is sometimes hard to see.

(66) Only one of these people is happy.

(67) The book Chomsky wrote when he was young was reissued last year.

(68) Were the Wizard of Oz and Catweazle preparing to go to Alabama?

K. We reviewed the rule for lay, lie, etc in Section 3. State it in simple terms and then discuss

what is happening in the cartoon?

Figure 4.2. Lie ahead. (Used with the permission of GEC, Inc. and United Media in conjunction

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

L. Sentence is (69) is quite complex. What kinds of verbs are grow and look? What are their

complements?

(69) We must expect to see her grown thin, and looking very poorly. (Jane Austen,

Emma, Vol 2, Chap 1).

Dicult. The excerpt below is from Roethke’s Villanelle ‘I wake to sleep and take my

waking slow’, of which only the rst six lines are given. Discuss the types of verbs that are

used (intransitive, transitive, etc). If you are interested in literature, you may also look at

the function of the adjectives and adverbs.

The Waking

I wake to sleep and take my waking slow.

I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.

I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?

I hear my being dance from ear to ear.

I wake to sleep and take my waking slow

Class discussion

N. Find two intransitive verbs and two copula verbs (without looking directly in the book).

Also, provide two sentences with only a direct object and two sentences with a direct

and indirect object.

O. Use the British National Corpus (BNC at http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/) or the Corpus of

Contemporary American English (COCA at http://www.americancorpus.org/) to see if any of

your copula, transitive, and ditransitive verbs can be found with the complement you

selected in the previous question.

Keys to the exercises

A. Subject and predicate in [He][left]; direct object and direct object in I gave [myself]

[flowers]; subject predicate in Flowers are [nice]; and object predicate in I thought that

[stupid].

B. – Peccaries can be inverted in a question, as in Are peccaries medium-sized animals, with

a strong supercial resemblance to pigs? It is a pretty obvious subject and if you made it

singular, the verb would change, as in A peccary is a medium-sized animal. The third test

would give you: Peccaries are medium-sized animals, aren’t they?

– The next subject they does not appear immediately at the beginning, but making they

singular would have an eect on the verb, as in Like pigs, it has a snout ending in a

cartilagenous disc.

Chapter 4. Functions in the sentence 

– The third subject is trickier since we haven’t talked about relative clauses yet. So, not to

worry if you didn’t see that. It wouldn’t be on an exam at this point. The object eyes in

this sentence is modied by that are small relative to their head. In that relative, that is

the subject.

– The next they is pretty obvious again. You could make it singular, as in Also like pigs, it

uses only the middle two digits for walking.

– The other toes and their stomach are obvious intuitively although the tests are a little

hard to apply. You would have to change the sentences to make them into a single

sentence question: Can the other toes be altogether absent? and Is their stomach

non-ruminating?

– The next subject is it which if plural would cause the verb to be have.

– The last subject is again tricky. The original text didn’t have the is following the NP that

of pigs. After than, NPs on their own can be analyzed as subjects if you think there is a

verb left out, and that’s what I did.

C. we, I, I, they, I, the lmmakers (this will be clearer after Chapter 8), the project, it, this, it.

D. [I] gave [him] [the ticket]: S, IO, DO

[They] [planted a dogwood]: S, Pred

[The trees in the park] are [unhappy]: S, SuPred

E. (54) They sold us their furniture: IO DO

(55) Tom submits his tax-returns: DO

(56) She seemed very happy: SuPred

(57) He found it easy: DO, ObPred

(58) He took the early train: DO

(59) The politician considered that argument invalid: DO, ObPred

(60) That sounds terrible: SuPred

F. The verbs are ditransitive, transitive, copula, complex transitive, transitive, complex

transitive, and copula.

G. (54)

NP VP

They

VNPNP

sold us

their furniture

(55)

NP VP

Tom

VNP

submits

his tax-returns

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(56)

NP VP

She

V AdjP

seemed

Adv Adj

very happy

(57)

NP VP

VSC

found

NP AdjP

it Adj

easy

The tree for (58) is similar to the one for (55); the tree for (59) is similar to the one for (57);

and the tree for (60) is similar to (56).

H. Su:NP, Pred:VP, DO:NP, ObjPred:AdjP

Su:NP, Pred:VP, IO:NP, DO:NP

Su:NP, Pred:VP

Su:NP, Pred:VP, SuPred:AdjP

And the categories are: Adj, P, Adj

wait: intransitive; look: copula; feel: copula; drive: intransitive (debatable).

those extra twenty minutes: Su; the waxed parquet: DO; small, lonely, patient: SuPred.

J. In (65), it; in (66), only two of those people; in (67), The book Chomsky wrote when

he was young; in (68), the Wizard of Oz and Catweazle. I’ll give some reasons.

– In (68), Were the Wizard of Oz and Catweazle preparing to go to Alabama, the subject and

auxiliary have already inverted since it is a question. Thus, without having to invert the

sentence yourself, you can see what the subject is, namely the phrase after the auxiliary.

The agreement on were is plural which ts if the subject is the coordinated the Wizard

of Oz and Catweazle. Notice that if you changed it to just the Wizard, the agreement

becomes singular: Was the Wizard preparing to go? The tag question test doesn’t work in

a sentence that is already a question.

– In the three remaining sentences, you could use tag-questions in some:

In the rain, it is sometimes hard to see, isn’t it?

The book Chomsky wrote when he was young was reissued last year, wasn’t it?

And Inversion would work as follows in the non-questions:

In the rain, is it sometimes hard to see?

Is only one of these people happy?

Was the book Chomsky wrote when he was young reissued last year?

Chapter 4. Functions in the sentence 

If you changed the subject, the following would show the subject (this is hard to do with

it in (65) though):

Two of these people are happy.

The books Chomsky wrote when he was young were reissued last year.

K. The funny aspect involves hypercorrection. The initial use of lies was correct. Since the

future always lies ahead, the content is expressed in a redundant way that we often use.

Some people pick on this.

L. In this sentence, the verbs grow and look are used as copulas since the adjective thin

is used as subject predicate to modify her and poorly is used as subject predicate as

well since it modies the left out her. So, even though poorly looks like an adverb, it is

an adjective (the Oxford English Dictionary says that the use of poorly as an adjective is

somewhat rare, but it is quite frequent in Jane Austen). Grow can also be a transitive

verb and look a prepositional object verb, but not in this sentence.

M. Many of the verbs are intransitive (wake, sleep, fear, go, dance) or used as intransitive

(learn, think, know). This contributes to the apparent simplicity. The verb take is twice

used as a complex predicate (although one could also argue it is light verb). There are

two transitives (feel, hear) and one copula (be). There is only one adjective (slow), used

twice. The adverbs are -not, where, and there.

An analysis:

Roethke’s ‘I wake to sleep and take my waking slow’ is dominated by verbs. There is

symmetry in the two sentences in that both start with similar sounding verbs (wake

and take) and the rst verb is repeated as a noun (waking). This focuses our attention

on the waking and yet the author purports to be interested in sleeping.

As to the use of adjectives, only one is used (slow) and, on rst reading, we might

think this is incorrect and that it has to be an adverb (slowly). It is not incorrect and,

moreover, using the adjective rather than the adverb focuses our attention on waking

rather than on the verb take. Both the use of the verbs and the adjective contribute

to making the poem puzzling since, if the poet really wanted to sleep, he should not

want to be slow in falling asleep.

Special topic: Case and agreement

In this special topic section, we’ll discuss case and agreement. Most of these rules have changed

in the last 500 years and native speakers of English have lost their intuitions on case endings

and agreement. Prescriptive rules die hard, however, so we’ll discuss those and see how subject

and object can be helpful here. One prescriptive rule can be formulated as (70):

(70) Case in English:

Subjects have nominative case. Direct and indirect objects have accusative or

objective case. Prepositional objects also have accusative or objective case. Pos-

sessive nouns have genitive case.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

In Modern English, cases are only visible on pronouns. For instance, in (71), the subject she is

nominative and the direct object him accusative. Me has objective or accusative case because

of the preposition towards. With full NPs, it is not obvious what the case is. Notice the lack of

obvious case on the garden.

(71) She saw him come towards me in the garden.

In (72), the demonstrative this doesn’t show case, but you and me have accusative case since they

are objects of the preposition between. In coordinates such as these, however, the rule is often broken

in all stages of English. Thus, in (73) and (74), the nominative I is used rather than the accusative me

and in (75), the nominative he is used where an accusative would be expected (prescriptively):

(72) This (matter) is between you and me.

(73) all debts are cleared between you and I. Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice III, 2, 321

(74) If you are sick and tired of the way it’s been going, …, you give Al Gore and I a chance

to bring America back. (Bill Clinton, as reported in the New York Times in the 1990s)

(75) In his speech, Mr. Giuliani said that one of the main dierences between he and

Mrs. Clinton was that “I’m in favor of reducing your taxes …” (again as reported in

the New York Times, 8 April 2000).

In (76), the accusative thee (a special form for the second person, no longer used in Modern

English) is used rather than the nominative thou (again no longer in use). The nominative would

be expected since the Diuell and thee are the subject:

(76) How agrees [the Diuell and thee] about thy soule?

(Shakespeare 1 Henry IV I, 2, 126)

Notice that in (76), the agreement on the verb is singular as well even though the subject is the

plural the Diuell and thee. This ‘mistake’ happens often in coordinated subjects.

With wh-questions, the case rule is also often broken. Thus, in (77), the use of whom in

the rst frame would sound very articial even though, as the accusative or objective form, it is

the correct form. Whom cares is not correct but completely appropriate in Figure 4.3.

(77) Who shall I say is calling?

Figure 4.3. Who or whom? (Used with the permission of King Features Syndicate in conjunction

Chapter 4. Functions in the sentence 

Similarly, after copulas, many people insist on using the nominative. Before 1600 or so, in

sentences with the copula verb to be, both subject and subject predicate have nominative case.

Nowadays, this sounds overly formal.

The genitive case is used in cases such as (78) and (79). If the word does not end in s, an

apostrophe and s are added, as in (78), but if it ends in an s, as in (79), either an apostrophe and

s or just an apostrophe is added. Many people consider the ending in (79) pedantic and hence

it often disappears altogether:

(78) Shakespeare’s works

(79) Employees’(s) cafeteria

Turning to agreement, we can formulate the rule, as in (80). We have used it above to nd the

subject and the head of the NP that functions as subject:

(80) Agreement in English

The subject of a sentence agrees in person and number with the nite verb.

In Modern English, there is little agreement left on the verb. In standard English, apart from the

verb to be (I am, you are, s/he is, we are, you are, and they are etc.), there is only a third person

singular -s ending on verbs in the present tense (e.g. I walk, you walk, s/he walks, we walk, you

walk, and they walk). Note that in some varieties of English, words such as police and government

are singular, whereas in others, they are plural. In general, as long as you are consistent, either

should be ok.

The diculties with agreement usually occur with long subjects, as in (81), or with dummy

subjects, as in (82):

(81) [One of the problems that they worried about continuously] were solved rather

quickly.

(82) There’s some problems that they could not solve.

Prescriptively, (81) should have singular agreement, i.e. was, and (82) should be plural, i.e. are.

In earlier varieties of English, e.g. in 16th century English, there is much more agreement.

For instance, in (83), the verb agrees with the second person singular thou. In some varieties of

English, no agreement is left, as in (84), and in some, both singular and plural are possible, as in

(85), from Hiberno-English:

(83) Caes. What sayst thou to me now? Speak once againe.

Sooth. Beware the Ides of March. (Shakespeare, Julius Ceasar, I, 2, 18)

(84) The dog stay outside in the afternoon.

(85) The boys is/are leaving.

Chapter 5

More functions, of prepositions

and particles

1. Adverbials

2. Prepositional verbs

3. Phrasal verbs

4. Phrasal prepositional verbs (optional)

5. Objects and adverbials

6. Conclusion

is chapter deals with adverbials, i.e. the optional elements in the sentences that pro-

vide background information on when, where, why, and how the event described by

the verb and its objects takes place. It is important to be aware that adverbials are not

always realized as Adverb Phrases, but can also be realized as PPs or NPs (or as clauses,

see Chapter 7). Note that the term ‘adverb’ refers to the category that heads the Adverb

Phrase (AdvP) and that ‘adverbial’ refers to the function.

Prepositional objects are also discussed since they look like adverbials, but can

be argued not to be. Objects to phrasal verbs are regular direct objects. ey are dis-

cussed here rather than in Chapter 4 because they are easily confused with preposi-

tional objects and include a preposition-like element called a particle. Finally, two

other kinds of verbs are discussed involving particles and prepositions: the intransitive

phrasal verb and the phrasal prepositional verb.

e main point of this chapter is to learn to distinguish between adverbials and

objects. I’ll provide some tests for this. When a sentence is passivized, the functions of

subject and object may be reversed, i.e. an object then functions as a subject, whereas

an adverbial can never function as a subject.

.

Adverbials

When adverbials modify verbs, they express when, where, how, and why the action

takes place. So, they give background information on time, place, manner, and cause

Chapter 5. More functions, of prepositions and particles 

of the event. In the tree structure, we make a distinction between direct and indirect

objects, subject predicates, and object predicates on the one hand (all referred to as

complements) and adverbials on the other: objects, subject predicates, and object

predicates are closer to the verb than adverbials. Even if in the tree the functions of the

phrases are not indicated, you should be able to tell from the tree which phrase is the

object and which is the adverbial, e.g. in (1):

(1)

NP VP

She

AdvP

Adv

quickly

V′

VNP

wrote

the story

In (1), the NP the story is sister to the V wrote and is therefore the object; the AdvP

quickly is sister to the intermediate V′ wrote the story, and therefore modies that.

Quickly tells you how the story was written and is therefore an adverbial. Since the V′

that represents wrote the story is intermediate inside the VP, we call it a V′ (‘V-bar’).

When you draw the tree, perhaps look back to Chapter 3 (Section 5) and remem-

ber possible ambiguities, e.g. in (20) of Chapter 3. We’ll go over how to construct the

tree in (1) quickly (from top to bottom). First, you start with S, whose daughters are

always NP and VP, as shown in (2a). e NP happens to be a pronoun, so nothing

else needs to be done to the NP in terms of branches. e VP consists of a V wrote,

an object the story, and an adverbial quickly. Be careful not to make the rst branch

to the le into a V because then you won’t have space for all three. Instead, use the V′,

as in (2b), and then think what should be closest to the V, and t them in, as in (2c).

Remember the V′ is a placeholder for lots of branches, a little VP so to speak, but still

with the V as its head:

(2)

a. b. c. S

NP VP

She

V′ AdvP

VNP

NP VP

SheShe

V′ AdvP

NP VP

Now add the words to V and branches and words to the NP and AdvP and you have

the nished tree of (1).

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

ere is a dierence between a VP-adverbial, e.g. quickly in (1), and a sentence

adverbial, e.g. fortunately, actually, indeed, and of course. Sentence adverbials (or

S-adverbials) do not modify the action of the VP but express the views and the mood

of the speaker. Trees for a sentence-initial and sentence-nal S-adverbial are given

in (3). Duplicating the S intends to show that the adverbial is really outside the core

sentence:

(3)

a. Sb.S

AdvP S AdvP

AdvNPVP Adv

Unfortunately they unfortunately

lied

NP VP

ey

lied

Certain adverbs can be both VP-adverbials and S-adverbials. For instance, happily

has two interpretations in (4). One is where painting the pictures was a happy event,

in which case happily is a VP-adverbial modifying painted those pictures, and the

comma is less appropriate. A second interpretation is where the speaker expresses

an opinion about the entire sentence (perhaps because the pictures turned out to

be good):

(4) Happily, they painted those pictures.

e same ambiguity exists for adverbs such as wisely and clearly. For most speakers of

English, hopefully too is both a VP-adverbial and an S-adverbial, although for unclear

reasons some people object to its use as an S-adverbial (see special topic to Chapter 2).

PPs that function as adverbials are typically VP-adverbials. ey oen provide

background information regarding place, as in (5), and time, as in (6):

(5)

NP VP

She

V′ PP

VNPP NP

ate in

DNDN

that food the dark

Chapter 5. More functions, of prepositions and particles 

(6)

NP VP

NV′ PP

Javelinas

VNPP NP

roam

DN DN

the deserta the evenin

A sentence can have many adverbials (depending on the speaker’s or hearer’s patience).

For instance, in (7), the speaker’s feelings (the AdvP unfortunately), the time (the NP

that morning), and place (the PP to work) of driving the car are given, as well as the

reason for this action (the sentence the bus had broken down) and the way in which the

action occurred (the PP without glasses):

(7) [Unfortunately], he drove the car [to work] [that morning] [without his glasses]

[because the bus had broken down].

It is possible to add more adverbials to this sentence, e.g. quickly or recklessly.

As can be seen in (7), adverbials are not only realized as AdvPs such as quickly, but

also as NPs (that morning), PPs (to work and without his glasses), and clauses (because

the bus had broken down, see Chapter 7). is means NPs function not only as sub-

jects, indirect and direct objects, subject predicates and object predicates (see previous

chapter), but also as adverbials. AdvPs on the other hand only function as adverbials.

PPs function mainly as adverbials and subject predicates but, as we’ll see in the next

section, they also function as objects to certain verbs, namely prepositional ones (and,

as we saw in Chapter 3 and will see in more detail in Chapter 9, they can also be modi-

ers inside a phrase). Identify the adverbials in Figure 5.1.

Figure 5.1. Adverbials. (Used with the permission of King Features Syndicate in conjunction with

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

All adverbials used by Beetle are VP-adverbials, but one could imagine an

S-adverbial, such as unfortunately, being used! eir realization is through an AdvP

(thoroughly, completely, and expeditiously) and through a PP (with gusto and verve,

without delay, and with determination).

We’ll now turn to PPs that sometimes resemble adverbials but are actually objects.

.

Prepositional verbs

Prepositional verbs are verbs such as abide by in (8), refer to in (9), glance at, lean

against, add to, allow for, approve of, care for, insist on, resort to, apply for, account for,

reply to, absolve from, long for, yearn for, result in, argue about, and defer to. e P with

the NP functions as an object:

(8) ey abided [by the contract].

(9) He referred [to that article].

ese verbs require a PP, i.e. (10) and (11) are ungrammatical, and that’s why the PP is

considered an object rather than an adverbial. e contract in (8) and that article in (9)

can also be passivized, as in (12) and (13), and this test shows that they are real objects,

as shown in (14), where the PP is sister to V:

(10) *He abides.

(11) *He refers all the time.

(12) e contract was abided by.

(13) at article wasn’t referred to by him.

(14)

NP VP

VPP

referred

PNP

that article

Native speakers of English know that verbs such as refer are combined with a certain

preposition. Non-native speakers must learn the meanings of these verbs or look them

up in a dictionary, e.g. refer with, refer about, refer at are not possible.

.

Phrasal verbs

Phrasal verbs must be distinguished from prepositional verbs and from verbs with

an adverbial. Like prepositional verbs, they are listed separately in a dictionary

Chapter 5. More functions, of prepositions and particles 

since their combinations are somewhat idiosyncratic. Examples of phrasal verbs

are call up, bring up, cover up, look over, take away, turn in, put down, take o, put

on, switch on/o, hand in, make out (as in ‘decipher’). Some example sentences are

given in (15) to (19):

(15) ey called up the president.

(16) ey covered up the scandal.

(17) Helen turned in her homework.

(18) She put down the nasty people.

(19) She switched on the light.

e prepositions up, in, down, and on accompanying these verbs have become par-

ticles rather than prepositions or adverbs since they no longer always express place

or direction. e structure of a sentence such as (15) is therefore one of a verb with a

particle, as in (20):

(20)

NP VP

ey

VNP

called up

the president

us, in (20), the verb and particle are placed in V together, whereas the object is a

separate NP. We could represent the verb in (20) as a compound verb if you don’t like

two words under one category.

One of the easy (but not so well understood) criteria for determining if a verb is

phrasal is whether the (pronominalized) object can be put between the verb and the

particle, as in (21) to (25):

(21) ey called him up.

(22) ey covered it up.

(23) She turned it in with many mistakes.

(24) She put them down.

(25) She switched it on.

is is not possible with prepositional verbs, as the unacceptable (26) shows:

(26) *ey abided it by.

e basic distinction, clear from (20), is that the V and particle form a unit and that the

object is an NP, not a PP. is is so because (a) a pause can occur between the verb particle

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

complex and the NP object, as in (27), but not between the V and the unit which is not a

phrase as in (28); (b) the NP objects of a phrasal verb can be coordinated, as in (29), but the

particle and NP cannot be coordinated with another particle and NP, as (30) shows; and

but moving the particle and the NP together is not ok, as (32) shows, indicating they do

not form a phrase:

(27) She put down — the customers.

(28) *She put — down the customers.

(29) She put down the customers and the owner.

(30) *She put down the customers and down the owner.

(31) It was the customers she put down.

(32) *It was down the customers she put.

In (33) and (34), examples are given of phrasal verbs without an NP object:

(33) His career is taking oﬀ.

(34) ey nally gave in.

Because the verb and particle have lost their independent meanings in (33) and (34),

just like the verbs in (15) to (25) above, they are referred to as phrasal verbs. Unlike

the phrasal verbs in (15) to (25), the ones in (33) and (34) lack objects. Some other

examples are sleep in, and turn in, as in (35):

(35) Even though I turned in early last night, I slept in.

Figure 5.2 exemplies a few more phrasal verbs. Calvin uses them intransitively, but

some of these are also possible as transitive ones (shut them up and mix them up).

Figure 5.2. More Phrasal verbs (Reprinted with the permission of Universal Press Syndicate.

In Table 5.1, I am listing some phrasal verbs that just came to mind starting with

the letter ‘a’, but there are thousands. For this reason, there are dictionaries of phrasal

verbs in English (and some are online).

Chapter 5. More functions, of prepositions and particles 

Table 5.1. Examples of phrasal verbs

Intransitive Transitive

add up mean something add up calculate/add

drop out stop participating back up put it in reverse

break down experience a crisis bring o accomplish

catch on (begin) to understand bring out publish

carry on continue as before bring up raise (a child)

die out diminish in intensity drop o deliver

Phrasal verbs are in general used in less formal styles; the synonyms in Table 5.1

are much more formal vocabulary choices.

.

Phrasal prepositional verbs (optional)

Constructions with phrasal prepositional verbs combine a verb, a particle, a preposi-

tion, and an NP. e object of such a verb is a prepositional object, as indicated with

brackets in (36) and (37) for the verbs put up with and come up with:

(36) Orrmm will not put up [with that noise].

(37) Benji came up [with a new solution to Fermat’s eorem].

e reason the verbs are phrasal is that the verb and the particle have lost their inde-

pendent meaning. ey are, however, not very prepositional since the prepositional

object cannot be passivized very well, as the awkwardness of (38) shows (and I indicate

the awkwardness by means of a question mark):

(38) ?at noise will not be put up with.

Other examples are cut down on, catch up on, get away with, stand up for, face up to, and

check up on. Like phrasal verbs, phrasal prepositional verbs are very colloquial and are

oen avoided in formal writing. Could you think of a single verb that can replace the

phrasal prepositionals in examples (36) and (37)?

.

Objects and adverbials

As a possible help in distinguishing the dierent functions, Table 5.2 is provided:

Table 5.2. Dierences among objects, su/obj predicates, and adverbials

Objects Su/Obj Predicates Adverbials

Obligatory yes yes no: optional

info on time, place, manner, etc.

Passive yes no no

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

I have already mentioned that adverbials are optional but that objects and predi-

cates are not. us, in contrast to prepositional objects, such as those in (10) and (11)

above, an adverbial PP can be le out, as (39ab) shows.

(39) a. He slept [during the meeting].

b. He slept.

A second criterion for distinguishing the dierent functions is passivization. As men-

tioned, direct and indirect objects and the NP in the prepositional object can be pas-

sivized, e.g. (40), (41), and (42) respectively:

(40) Emma was seen. (active: Someone saw Emma.)

(41) Walter was given a book. (active: Someone gave Wal te r a book.)

(42) e article was referred to. (active: Someone referred to the article.)

Aer the direct, indirect, and prepositional objects are passivized, they of course func-

tion as subjects.

Not yet mentioned above is that objects of phrasal verbs can also be passivized, as

expected if they are objects, as can objects of complex transitives. Respective examples

are (43) and (44), where the scandal and that math problem are now the subjects:

(43) e scandal was covered up immediately.

(active: Someone covered up the scandal immediately.)

(44) at math problem is considered unsolvable by many great minds.

(active: Many great minds consider that math problem unsolvable.)

In (40) to (43), I have le the original subject unspecied (hence the ‘someone’ in the

active); in (44), I have added by many great minds. Many great minds is the subject of

the active sentence, but is optional in the passive. Hence, I would argue that the func-

tion of by many great minds is adverbial.

e NPs in adverbials, subject predicates, and object predicates cannot be passiv-

ized, as is shown for adverbials in (45) and object predicates in (46):

(45) *e meeting was slept during.

(46) *e chair was elected him. (passivized from the active We elected him (to be) chair)

As expected, the direct object in (46) can be passivized namely as He was elected

the chair.

In the previous chapter, we discussed intransitive verbs such as sleep, sneeze, go,

and swim. Now that we know there are PP objects as well as PP adverbials, how can

we tell which is which using the criteria from Table 5.2, e.g. in sentences such as (47)

and (48):

(47) I went [to the library].

(48) I swam [in the pool].

Chapter 5. More functions, of prepositions and particles 

Some speakers regard the information contained in the PP as essential and others

consider it less so. If the goal of the going is seen as obligatory in (47), one might call

the PP an object, a prepositional object in this case; if the goal is seen as optional, the

PP would be an adverbial. Hence, for sentences such as (47) and (48), there are two

dierent analyses: the verbs can be intransitive ones with the PPs functioning as adver-

bials or the verbs can be prepositional ones with the PPs functioning as prepositional

objects. Notice that these sentences dier as to whether or not they can be passivized,

as shown in (49) and (50):

(49) *e library was gone to.

(50) ?e pool was swum in.

e results of passivization provided in (49) and (50) make the adverbial analysis plau-

sible for (47) and the object analysis for (48). ose of you for whom (49) and/or (50)

are ok consider both or one of the adverbials more like objects.

It could be that (50) sounds awkward because speakers feel ill at ease with the par-

ticiple of the verb swim. Let’s therefore try two other sentences and their passives:

(51) He walked on the grass.

(52) Washington slept in this bed.

(53) e grass was walked on.

(54) is bed was slept in.

Sentences (53) and (54) provide evidence that the grass and this bed are real objects in

(51) and (52).

Two other frequently asked questions are (a) how the object predicate, as in (55)

and (56), repeated from Chapter 4, diers from a modier to a noun, e.g. from Mars

in (57), or (b) from an adverbial in (58). I have indicated the most likely analyses by

means of brackets:

(55) Jane considers [Pride and Prejudice] [a classic].

(56) She put [snails] [on the table].

(57) I saw [a man from Mars].

(58) I saw [a man] [in the garden].

e answer is that, in (57), from Mars forms part of the direct object (as indicated by

the brackets) which can be replaced by a single element, as in (59). In a sentence such

as (56), on the table is not part of the direct object since they cannot both be replaced

by one element as the ungrammatical (60) shows:

(59) I saw him.

(60) *She put it.

e same is true for (55), since (61) has quite a dierent meaning than (55):

(61) Jane considers it.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

. Conclusion

As a conclusion, I list instances of the eight types of verbs we have discussed in Chapters

4 and 5:

Table 5.3. Verb types and their complements

Name Example Complement Sentence

intransitive swim, arrive – She arrived (early).

(mono)transitive see, eat, read, love Direct Object She saw me.

ditransitive give, tell Direct and Indirect Object I gave him owers.

copula be, become Subject Predicate She is nice.

complex transitive consider, know Direct Object and Object

Predicate

I consider her nice.

prepositional refer, glance Prepositional Object He glanced at the book

phrasal switch on/give in Direct Object/ – She turned o the light

He gave in.

(phrasal prepositional get down to Prepositional Object He got down to business).

Typically, the direct and indirect objects are realized as NPs and the subject and

object predicates as AdjPs, but as was indicated above, there are other possibilities.

e prepositional object is always a PP, but the reverse is not true since PPs can have

many functions.

Adverbials are not relevant for the classication of verbs since they can always be

added or deleted. As mentioned above, they are typically realized as PPs and AdvPs

even though NPs and clauses are also possible. As an addition to Figure 4.1 where the

functions of NP, VP, and AdjP are given, Figure 5.3 does the same for PP and AdvP:

Indirect Object (give it [to him])

Subject Predicate (is [in the garden]) PP Prepositional Object (insist [on it])

Object Predicate (put it [in the car]) Adverbial (swim [during the day])

AdvP Adverbial (swim [carefully])

Figure 5.3. e functions of PPs and AdvPs

Passives are relevant since they allow us to nd direct, indirect, prepositional, and

phrasal objects. Aer being passivized, these objects of course function as subjects.

Key terms are adverbial, prepositional verb, and phrasal verb. Don’t worry too

much about phrasal prepositional verbs. Also relevant are VP- and S-adverbials.

Chapter 5. More functions, of prepositions and particles 

Exercises

A. Identify all the functions in (62) to (67). Draw trees for (62) and (65):

(62) Fortunately, she found it easily.

(63) I separated it carefully.

(64) She found it easy.

(65) He baked Zoya bread last night (i.e. he baked it for her).

(66) Wisely, the pig from Mars left relatively early.

(67) The hard-working students seemed exhausted after three weeks of classes.

B. In the short text below, identify the underlined verbs (e.g. intransitive, complex transitive)

and the function of the phrases in brackets:

I have [a shocking news item]. [This little-known tidbit] will stun some of you and put the

rest [in a catatonic haze]. This is why I am warning you to brace yourselves. The Olympics

are going on [right now].

(adapted from a piece by Steve Galindo in the State Press)

Do the same in the text below. How would you analyze deal in the last sentence?:

Underground nitrogen leak shuts down roads in the city

A worker from T&T Construction punctured [a high-pressure nitrogen line] at about 7 a.m.,

shutting down [trac] on the northeast side of town [all day]. The Police Department

blocked o a large area because [it] didn’t [initially] know what was leaking. “[It] could

have been natural gas, so we had to be [careful],” [Tena Ray, a spokesperson], said.

“Fortunately, we don’t have to deal with things like this very often”.

(adapted from a piece by Michelle Beaver in the State Press)

Underline the PPs in the text below, and say which ones are adverbials.

In Rapid City, S.D., a bualo escaped from an auction and ended up in a dressing room. It

spent a couple of hours staring into a mirror at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. The bualo

jumped over a steel panel during the Black Hills Stock Show & Rodeo on Sunday morning,

went down an alley and got into the dressing room reserved for visiting sports teams, said

Brian Maliske, the civic center’s general manager. “The door happened to be unlocked and he

pushed the door open and went in,” Maliske said. The crew conducting the Black Hills Classic

Bualo Sale decided to keep the animal locked in the dressing room for the rest of the auc-

tion. During its two hour stay, it reportedly became fascinated with the image it saw in a big

mirror. When the sale ended, a rodeo crew member coaxed the bualo out and into captivity.

(adapted from the East Valley Tribune, January 2005)

Take a verb and combine it with dierent prepositions and explain what kind of verb is the

result. For instance, take sleep and combine it with in, during, o, around, over, or outside.

Make a sentence containing the verb complain about. What kind of verb is it? Do the

same with resort to, comment on and catch up with.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

G. Explain the ambiguity in the cartoon in Figure 5.4.

Figure 5.4. Glasses. (Used with the permission of the Thaves and the Cartoonist Group.

How would you describe the dierence between ‘to visit with somebody’ and ‘to visit

somebody’? Speakers of English use both. What would you say?

Find the adverbials in the text below (adapted from an Amnesty International document).

How are they realized, i.e. what kind of phrases are they? Be careful not to list the phrases

that modify nouns (of the failure of justice) or adjectives. This is a dicult text, I found, so

don’t get discouraged!

Human Rights and the Punjab

The organization provides a number of instances of the failure of justice in this report.

The government authorities have failed to address the problem of ‘disappearances’

in Punjab. The government has not responded to any of the cases documented since

December 1993. The practice of ignoring petitions continues.

The Supreme Court found the police guilty of abducting and killing people but grave

concerns remain unaddressed. The report expresses concern about recent allegations

in the press that hundreds of people have been killed in Punjab. Continuing allegations

of ‘disappearances’ are indicative of the absence of a serious commitment by the state

authorities.

Are there prepositional objects in the text of B? Are there phrasal verbs?

K. (Dicult) Please circle and label (transitive etc.) all lexical verbs in the text below.

Streets of Athens

My friends next door are some of the few Athenians who have not moved into a concrete

block or sold local building contractors their family home for a handsome prot. The

sprawling morass of concrete that spills into the Attica Plain surrounding the suburbs

of Athens makes Europe’s southernmost capital one of the world’s most polluted cities.

(adapted from The Guardian, June 1990)

Then, bracket and label all the direct/indirect objects, subject/object predicates, and

adverbials of the text in K.

Chapter 5. More functions, of prepositions and particles 

Class discussion

L. What do (68) and (69) tell you about the type of verbs switch on and look up are

respectively? One way to look at this is to focus on the light being preposed in (68)

without taking on along. Up the word is not a unit in (69) since it cannot be coordinated

with a similar unit:

(68) It was the light he switched on.

(69) *I looked up the word and up the quote.

M. In connection with phrasal verbs, we discussed intransitive phrasal verbs, such as take o

and give in, repeated here as (70) and (71). Take o can also be a transitive phrasal verb,

as in (72):

(70) His career took o.

(71) They nally gave in.

(72) She took o her glasses.

How would you analyze (73)? If you looked up away in a dictionary, it would tell you it

derives from the PP on way and is now an adverb or preposition, just like o and in:

(73) He went away.

One of the ways to solve this is to see if you can question where he went. If you could, that

would mean away would be an adverb, and not a particle. It is not a likely P since it has no object

(which we suggested in Chapter 2 was a way to dierentiate between prepositions on the one

hand and adverbs and particles on the other).

A garbage collection company used (74) as one of its slogans. Explain the ambiguity in

terms of verb type:

(74) Our business is picking up.

O. Identify the prepositions and particles in Figures 5.5 and 5.6.

Figure 5.5. Put o until after

(The Born Loser: © Newspaper Enterprise Association, Inc.)

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Figure 5.6. Back up over

P. In the text in tree (20), I provide a tree for the phrasal verb when the object follows

the verb and particle. Discuss some possible trees for sentences where the object

intervenes between the verb and the particle.

Keys to the exercises

A. (62) Adv-ial Su Pred do Adv-ial

(63) Su Pred Do Adv-ial

(64) Su Pred Do ObjPr

(65) Su Pred Io Do Adv-ial

(66) Adv-ial Su Pred Adv-ial

(67) Su Pred SuPred Adv-ial

(62)

(It doesn’t matter whether or not you connect AdvP and

Adv with a line, as (62) shows)

AdvP S

Adv

Fortunately NP VP

She

V′ AdvP

VNP Adv

found it easily

Chapter 5. More functions, of prepositions and particles 

(65)

V′ NP

VNPNPD N

baked Zoya N last night

bread

B. I have: transitive [a shocking news item: DO]. [This little-known tidbit: SU] will stun:

transitive some of you and put: complex transitive the rest [in a catatonic haze: ObjPr].

This is: copula why I am warning: transitive you to brace: transitive yourselves. The

Olympics are going on: intransitive phrasal [right now: Adverbial].

C. A worker from T&T Construction punctured: transitive [a high-pressure nitrogen line: DO]

at about 7 a.m., shutting down: (transitive) phrasal [trac: DO] on the northeast side

of town [all day: adverbial]. The Police Department blocked o: (transitive) phrasal a

large area because [it: Su] didn’t [initially: Adverbial] know: transitive what was leaking:

intransitive. “[It: Su] could have been: copula natural gas, so we had to be [careful: SuPr],”

[Tena Ray, a spokesperson: Su (appositive)], said. “Fortunately, we don’t have to deal

with things like this very often”.

Deal is a verb taking a prepositional object.

D. In Rapid City, S.D., a bualo escaped from an auction and ended up in a dressing room.

It spent a couple of hours staring into a mirror at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. The

bualo jumped over a steel panel during the Black Hills Stock Show & Rodeo on Sunday

morning, went down an alley and got into the dressing room reserved [for visiting sports

teams], said Brian Maliske, the civic center’s general manager. “The door happened to be

unlocked and he pushed the door open and went in,” Maliske said. The crew conducting

the Black Hills Classic Bualo Sale decided to keep the animal locked in the dressing room

for the rest [of the auction]. During its two hour stay, it reportedly became fascinated with

the image it saw in a big mirror. When the sale ended, a rodeo crew member coaxed the

bualo out and into captivity. The adverbials are all of the underlined or bracketed PPs

EXCEPT of hours (goes with an N couple) and of the auction (goes with the N rest).

E. Sleep in would be an intransitive phrasal, with in a particle, since in does not have it

original (locational) meaning. Sleep around is similar. Sleep o is a transitive phrasal since

one can say sleep o a hangover and sleep it o; o is a particle, because you would have

to look up the meaning in a dictionary. Sleep during consists of an intransitive verb sleep

and a preposition during. During is not a particle since sleep it during is ungrammatical,

and it is not an adverb since it cannot occur independently of an NP, as in I slept during.

Sleep outside contains an intransitive verb sleep and an adverb outside.

F. She complained about the government; He resorted to violence; They commented on

the book. They are all prepositional object verbs.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

A sentence with the phrasal prepositional verb ‘catch up with’ is: They caught up

with him.

G. The question ‘How do they look?’ contains a copula verb, but the joke is that look can also

be used in another way, namely as a prepositional verb. In this case, ‘How do they see?’

plays on that meaning.

H. ‘To visit with somebody’ is said to be American English, whereas ‘to visit somebody’

is said to be British English. The dierence is that in the former case, visit with is a

prepositional verb, whereas in the latter case, visit is a (mono)transitive verb.

I. Adverbials in the rst paragraph: in this report: PP and since December 1993: PP; in the

second paragraph: in Punjab: PP.

J. Respond could be argued to be prepositional; no phrasal ones.

K. My friends next door

are

some of the few Athenians who have not

moved

into a

concrete block or

sold

local building contractors their family home for a handsome

prot. The sprawling morass of concrete that

spills

into the Attica Plain

surrounding

the suburbs of Athens

makes

Europe’s southernmost capital one of the world’s most

polluted cities.

The names of the verbs are: copula, intransitive or prepositional verb, ditransitive,

intransitive (possibly prepositional), transitive, and complex transitive.

The minimum you can do is as follows but that doesn’t catch all complements:

My friends next door are SuPr [some of the few Athenians who have not moved into

a concrete block or sold local building contractors their family home for a handsome

prot]. The sprawling morass of concrete that spills into the Attica Plain surrounding the

suburbs of Athens makes DO [Europe’s southernmost capital] ObjPr [one of the world’s

most polluted cities]. You could look inside these complements, as in:

[some of the few Athenians who have not moved Adv-ial or PO [into a concrete block]

or sold IO [local building contractors] DO [their family home] Adv-ial [for a handsome

prot]]. The sprawling morass of concrete that spills Adv-ial [into the Attica Plain

surrounding DO [the suburbs of Athens]].

Special topic: The passive and ‘dummies’

I consider the use or non-use of the passive a matter of style not of grammar (not even an

issue of prescriptive grammar). In certain kinds of writing, the use of the passive can have

advantages and, in others, it is better to be direct and to use the active. Sometimes, it is

irrelevant to know who performed the action and then the passive is more appropriate.

Let me start o with some quotes against the use of the passive. George Orwell, in his

1946 essay ‘Politics and the English Language,’ is perhaps the strictest:

(70) “Never use the passive where you can use the active.”

Chapter 5. More functions, of prepositions and particles 

Orwell was of course worried about political propaganda. Style books include similar statements:

(71) “Use the active voice. The active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the

passive” (Strunk The Elements of Style 1918; later Strunk & White 1959[2000]).

The Princeton Writing Center cautions against the use of the passive as recently as 2009 though

it doesn’t suggest getting rid of it altogether:

(72) “Remember: to use the passive voice eectively, use it sparingly. Otherwise, your

writing may well evince the absurdity of this famous example …

`It was midday. The bus was being got into by passengers. They were being

squashed together. A hat was being worn on the head of a young gentleman ....’”

(http://web.princeton.edu/sites/writing/Writing_Center/handouts/html/

passivevoice.htm)

The passive has of course been in the English language since its beginning, as (73) shows, with

the passive auxiliary and verb in bold:

(73) Ða wæs gylden hilt gamelum rince

then was golden hilt old man

harum hild-fruman on hand gyfen

grey war-chief in hand given

‘Then was the golden hilt given into the old man’s, the grey warrior’s, hand.’

(Beowulf 1677–78)

Since passives use the auxiliary ‘to be’, rules such as (74) seem to include them:

(74) Avoid the verb ‘to be’. “One of the most common stylistic mistakes aspiring writers

make is to rely too much on the verb “to be.” “To be” is the most basic verb in the

English language, and writers can all too easily nd themselves using it in almost

every sentence.” (http://www.essayforum.com/13_5678_0.html)

I think most of the time the copula ‘to be’ is meant when this rule is stated, but this rule may

also contribute to the unpopularity of the passive.

Finally, the dummy subjects ‘there’ and ‘it’, also called pleonastics or expletives, are

cautioned against by many style guides, as in the following quote from the Purdue University

writing center:

(75) “Avoid overusing expletives at the beginning of sentences.”

(http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/572/04).

Many writers use these of course. Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, a long text, contains

596 instances of there, many at the beginning of the sentence, and 4676 instances of

is. Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, a much shorter text, has 173 occurrences of there and

413 of is.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

As with the passive, the frequent use of to be, it, and there is really a matter of style. Some

authors like them, as reading the following adaptation from Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White

Elephants shows. I have put the forms of to be and the dummy subjects in bold:

(76) The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was

no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun.

Close against the side of the station there was the warm shadow of the building

and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into

the bar, to keep out ies. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in

the shade, outside the building. It was very hot and the express from Barcelona

would come in forty minutes. It stopped at this junction for two minutes and went

on to Madrid.

Chapter 6

The structure of the verb group (VGP)

in the VP

1. Auxiliary verbs

2. The ve types of auxiliaries in English

3. Auxiliaries, ‘ax hop’, and the verbgroup (VGP)

4. Finiteness

5. Relating the terms for verbs (optional)

6. Conclusion

In this chapter, the verbs that can appear together in a VP are discussed in more detail.

Most of the sentences we have talked about so far have contained one (nite and lexical)

verb. In English, a VP can (in principle) have four auxiliary verbs and one lexical verb.

English is quite unusual in this respect, compared to other languages that typically do

not have this many auxiliaries. is complex of auxiliaries and the lexical verb will be

called the Verb Group, abbreviated in the tree as VGP (and used when auxiliaries are

present). English is also unusual in that if an auxiliary is not present and the sentence

is negative or a question, a ‘dummy’ auxiliary do is needed.

In Section 1, the auxiliaries are dened and characterized in general terms. In that

section, I also include auxiliaries as part of the (at, non-hierarchical) Verb Group.

We will label the auxiliaries as modal, perfect, progressive, passive, and dummy in

Section 2. Auxiliaries are associated with a particular ending, i.e. ax, that appears on

the verb immediately to their right. is process is called ax-hop and is discussed in

Section 3. Section 4 provides rules for identifying nite verbs and for distinguishing

them from non-nite ones. Section 5 is an optional section that reviews the terminol-

ogy that is relevant to verbs and tries to justify the dierent classications.

.

Auxiliary verbs

Verbs can be divided into lexical and auxiliary verbs. A VP contains one lexical verb

and (optionally) up to four auxiliaries. Most of the VPs dealt with in the previous

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

chapters consist of a single verb, and then they automatically are lexical verbs. Lexical

verbs can be further divided into intransitive arrive, walk, copula be, transitive see,

eat, etc, as we’ve seen. ese verbs carry a real meaning and are not dependent on

another verb. In addition to a lexical verb, the VP may contain auxiliaries which are

then grouped together with the lexical verb in a Verb Group. Auxiliaries depend on

another verb and add grammatical information. ey are divided into dierent kinds

in Section 2.

Auxiliaries are also sometimes called helping verbs since they help out other

verbs. For instance, in (1), has does not mean ‘possess’; it merely indicates that the

action of the lexical verb see was in the past. In (2), on the other hand, have has a lexi-

cal meaning (‘to possess’) and there is no other lexical verb present. Its classication is

transitive since it has a direct object (a book on sentences):

(1) e Malacandran has seen the hross. (perfect auxiliary have with lexical verb see)

(2) I have a book on sentences. (transitive verb have)

Unlike lexical verbs, auxiliaries invert in questions, as in (3), can precede the negative

n’t (i.e. the common form of not), as in (4), can be used in tag questions, as in (5), and

can be used to emphasize that the action did indeed take place, as in (6):

(3) Has she gone yet? (perfect auxiliary have)

(4) She hasn’t done that yet. (perfect auxiliary have)

(5) She hasn’t done that yet, has she? (perfect auxiliary have)

(6) She HAS actually said that! (emphatic auxiliary)

If n’t/not appears, as in (4) and (5), this adverb will be included in the Verb Group as

well and will be abbreviated as ‘neg’ to save space in the tree. Table 6.1 provides some

ways to recognize auxiliaries.

Table 6.1. Characteristics of auxiliary verb

a. ey must be used with a lexical verb (unless the verb is elided).

b. ey have little meaning; rather, they express tense, mood, and aspect.

c. ey invert in questions, as in (3).

d. ey occur before n’t , as in (4).

e. ey are used in tags, as in (5).

f. ey are used for emphasis, as in (6).

e Verb Group will be represented as a at tree structure, as in (7). As men-

tioned in Chapter 3, grammatical categories such as the auxiliary do not head their

own phrase (in this book) and hence do not function at sentence level. Grammatical

categories function inside a phrase or, in this case, as heads inside the Verb Group (if

auxiliaries are present, VGP will be used; otherwise, V will suce):

Chapter 6. The structure of the verb group (VGP) in the VP 

(7)

VGPNP

modal pf progr VD N

may have been seeing the hross

I use abbreviations for the auxiliaries for practical reasons: the full names are hard to t

in the tree otherwise. Let’s now look at each of the auxiliaries in more detail.

.

The ve types of auxiliaries in English

In this section, we’ll discuss the auxiliaries as they appear if all are present in a sen-

tence, namely modal, perfect (pf), progressive (progr), and passive (pass). When no

auxiliaries are present, we need do in certain cases.

.

Modals

English is exceptional in the numbers of auxiliaries it has and the combinations it

allows. Each auxiliary has its own name and position with regard to the others. Modals

do not have agreement or tense endings (hence *he cans; *I am canning to go); they are

the rst to occur in a sequence of auxiliaries; and do not require an ending, i.e. ax,

on the verb following them (He can walk, but not: *He can walked). us, (8a) and

(8b) are typical instances: the modals might and could are rst and the verb following

it does not have an ax:

(8) a. It might rain. (modal auxiliary might)

b. Rigobertha could be going tomorrow. (modal auxiliary could)

ere are nine modals in English: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, and

must. Modal auxiliaries express uncertainty, as in (8), necessity (must, should), ability,

as in (9), or permission, as in (10):

(9) I can swim. (modal auxiliary can)

(10) You may go now. (modal auxiliary may)

Modals are also used where some languages would use the subjunctive mood. e

Modern English subjunctive is very restricted and examples are given in (11a) and

(12a). Alternatives using modals are provided in (11b) and (12b):

(11) a. ey insisted that he go. (subjunctive mood)

b. ey insisted that he should go.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(12) a. I wish it were Friday. (subjunctive mood)

b. I wish it would be Friday

Since subjunctives are not common in Modern English, I will not go into this more

deeply.

Modals are oen used when we ask a favor of someone, as in (13), or when

we want to be polite. e ‘past’ form (could) in (13) is seen as more polite than the

‘present’ form (can) in (14). Modals have lost the ability to express present and past

tense, but they are nite. us, the dierence between (13) and (14) is not related to

when the action happened, but to how likely the event is to happen. Could is more

polite since it expresses a more remote possibility; can is more direct and hence seen

as less polite:

(13) Could I borrow some money? (modal auxiliary could)

(14) Can I borrow some money? (modal auxiliary can)

In English, the modal will (and shall in some varieties of English) is used to express

future, as in (15) and (16), the latter of which is the contracted form:

(15) He will go to Mars next year. (future expressed by will)

(16) She’ll walk on Jupiter in two years. (future expressed by ‘ll)

ere are special modals, called semi-modals: dare (to), need (to), have to, and ought

to. ey are seen as modals since they express obligation, ability, and necessity. Used

to is sometimes added to this group, but it is much more a regular auxiliary expressing

habituality. Semi-modals are in ux between auxiliary and lexical verb status. In (17),

T.S. Eliot does not invert dare in a question (see test (c) of Table 6.1) and it therefore

looks like a lexical verb, but in (18), acceptable for some speakers, dare is inverted and

more of an auxiliary:

(17) Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? (semi-modal dare)

(e Love Song of J.A.P, l 122)

(18) Dare I eat a peach? (semi-modal dare)

In English, only auxiliaries move, and if the sentence contains just a lexical verb,

a dummy do will be used (see Section 2.5). Since do is used in (17), it is usually

thought that dare in (17) is a lexical verb. e other semi-modals allow a variety of

constructions as well. For instance, ought in (19) is very much an auxiliary since it

moves, but in (20), it is not. Both occur in 19th century texts (see the Oxford English

Dictionary):

(19) How ought I address thee, how ought I revere thee? (semi-modal ought)

(Robert Browning, Agamemnon 796)

Chapter 6. The structure of the verb group (VGP) in the VP 

(20) You did n’t ought to have received ‘em. (semi-modal ought)

(Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit 34, 403)

. Perfect have (pf)

Have follows the modal if there is one. It is called the perfect auxiliary, and abbreviated

as ‘pf’, though it does not make the meaning perfective or nished. It is used to indicate

that a past action still has relevance and that mixture of tense and aspect is called the

‘present perfect’. For instance, in (21), the speaker still lives ‘here’, whereas in the simple

past tense, as in (22), the speaker no longer does:

(21) I have lived here for ages. (perfect auxiliary have, used in present perfect)

(22) I lived here in the nineties. (simple past)

ere is currently a shi between British English and American English in that the

former prefers the present perfect, as in (23), for the recent past, whereas the latter

does the simple past, as in (24):

(23) Well I’ve, I’ve seen her today but she said she’d er get me some socks and that…

(BNC – informal conversations)

(24) in fact, I saw him today at the airport (COCA – FOX TV)

When have is used, the verb following it is marked with an -ed ending (if it is regular),

e.g. lived in (21). e form of the verb that is the result of ‘ax-hop’ is called the past

participle, or -ed participle. Ax-hop is so called because the ax appears on the verb

to the immediate right of the auxiliary it goes with: the ax ‘hops’ onto the next verb.

In (25), the ending related to have appears on be, which is an irregular verb (like see,

go, do, etc.) and therefore has an -en ending:

(25) Zoltan may have been playing a terrible game. (perfect auxiliary have)

e term past participle is perhaps somewhat confusing since the presence of the past

participle does not make the entire sentence past tense. In fact, (21), (23), and (25) are

in the present tense, and hence the name present perfect. ere is a past perfect, as in

(26), with the form of the auxiliary have in the past but otherwise similar. Its meaning

is completion by a certain point in the past (in this case ‘by ve’):

(26) He had done it by ve. (perfect auxiliary had)

In Figure 6.1, I provide (simplied) timelines for the dierent tense and aspect

combinations, where S represents the time of speech and E the event. e present

tense is used when the time of the event and the utterance are the same; the past is

used when the event is at an earlier time; and the future is used when the event is at

a later time. e present perfect is used when the event (represented by the arrow)

started earlier but includes the time of speech and the past perfect is used when there

is a reference time in the past, such as ve o’clock, and the event occurred before that

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

time. e future perfect has a time reference in the future by which time the event will

have occurred.

Timeline Example

Present ______S____ I know the answer

Past ____E___S___ I knew the answer yesterday

Future ____S___E___ He’ll do it

Present perfect ___E__S_________ I have lived here for ages

Past perfect __E_______S_____ He had done it by 5 a.m.

5 a.m.

Future perfect __S____E________ He’ll have done it by 5 a.m.

5 a.m.

Figure 6.1. Timelines for tense and aspect

e exact order of S and E doesn’t matter in the future perfect.

In Figure 6.2, we will list three progressives. If you are a native speaker, you know

how to use these, but you might want to know terms such as present and past perfect

since these are used. I don’t think that you need to memorize the terms in Tables 6.1

and 6.2. I just want you to have a familiarity with the terms.

.

Progressive be (progr)

e progressive, abbreviated as ‘progr’, indicates that the action is or was in progress.

is is the aspect of a verb, as opposed to the tense of a verb which tells you whether

the action took place in the present, past, or future. In (27) to (29), the aspect is pro-

gressive, but the tense is present in (27), past in (28), and future in (29). Since the

progressive indicates that an action is or was in progress, it is incompatible with verbs

that express a state, as shown in (30) and (31):

(27) Zoya is walking. (progressive be)

(28) Zoltan was playing the piano, when a noise disturbed him. (progressive be)

(29) He will be walking the dog. (progressive be)

(30) *He is knowing the answer. (progressive be)

(31) *e book is being blue. (progressive be)

Chapter 6. The structure of the verb group (VGP) in the VP 

To form the progressive, a form of to be is used, as in (27). e verb that follows this

auxiliary has an -ing ending through ax-hop. It is called a present participle, or

ing-participle. Again, as in the case of past participles, the term is confusing since the

present participle need not make the sentence into the present tense, as (28) shows.

In Figure 6.1, I showed simplied timelines for some simple tenses and the per-

fects. Figure 6.2 adds timelines for progressives. e present progressive expresses that

the event is taking place for some time at the time of the utterance; the past progressive

that it was taking place for some period in the past; and the future progressive that an

event will be taking place in the future. A few more combinations can be added but I

will leave that for the class discussion section (see Exercise G, Figure 6.5).

Timeline Example

present progressive SI am working

past progressive E __S__ I was working

future progressive ___S__ EI will be workin

Figure 6.2. ree progressives

Some people argue that certain forms of be are not auxiliary verbs but lexical ones,

and that the -ing forms are adjectives. I mention it here as a possible analysis in some

cases. For instance in (27) above, one could argue walking is like nice, since like nice, it

can be used to modify a noun in (32):

(32) My nice walking shoes are very light. (present participle used as adjective)

My own feeling is that walking in (27), where it refers to an action, is very dierent

from walking in (32), where it describes the qualities of a noun. If we considered the

distinctions made in Chapter 2, walking would be a verb in (27), but an adjective in

(32). e same ambiguity occurs with passives, as will be shown next.

.

Passive be (pass)

As seen in Chapters 4 and 5, passive constructions, as in (33b), are made from active

ones as in (33a) by switching the subject and the object around and by adding a form

of to be. is passive auxiliary is abbreviated as ‘pass’ in the tree. e verb immediately

following this be has a past participle ending, in this case -en, because of the ax ‘hopping’

from the auxiliary to the next verb:

(33) a. I see him. (active)

b. He is seen by me. (passive auxiliary be)

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

e stylistic eects of passives were discussed in Chapter 5. Here, we just discuss the

form. In the active (34a), the Verb Group consists of a modal, a perfect, and a lexical

verb. Because of the perfect have, the form of the verb see is a past participle. In (34b),

the passive be is added and now its form is that of past participle (namely been) because

it follows have. Seen appears as past participle as well because it follows the passive be.

If this sounds too complex, just look at the ending of the verb on the immediate right

of the auxiliary and Table 6.3 below:

(34)

a. Zoya may have seen Zoltan. (modal may and perfect have)

b. Zoltan may have been seen by Zoya. (modal may, perfect have, and passive be)

Passive participles can oen be analyzed as adjectives (known, mixed, written) and are

then not part of the Verb Group. en, the form of be is not an auxiliary either, but a

copula. It is up to the reader to decide whether delighted in (35) is a passive participle

or an adjective. Most linguists would argue that (35) is not a passive construction since

(a) adding a by-phrase, as in (36), is awkward, and (b) delighted appears aer copula

verbs such as seem, as in (37), which is typical of adjectives:

(35) She was delighted to get chocolate. (copula be and adjective)

(36) *She was delighted by Edward to get chocolate. (by-NP not possible)

(37) She seemed delighted to get chocolate. (delighted aer seem)

e regular passive is constructed with the auxiliary be and that is the one you should

probably use in formal writing. ere is another passive auxiliary that I mention here

but won’t include in the Table or summaries, namely get, as in (38). According to the

Oxford English Dictionary, the get-passive is rst used in 1652. It seems more forceful

than the be-passive:

(38) en he got knocked out. (passive auxiliary get)

(BNC, ction)

As we’ll see in the next section, if there are two be auxiliaries in a row, the rst is the

progressive and the second one is the passive auxiliary. Note that the passive auxiliary

gets the ax of the preceding auxiliary through ax-hop, in this case that of the pro-

gressive. Missed is a past participle because of the preceding passive be:

(39) Treatable chronic liver disease may be being missed in primary care …

(google – medical site)

. The ‘dummy’ do

Lexical verbs, such as know and think, cannot be used in questions and negative sen-

tences in Modern English, as (40a) and (41a) show for know. Instead, a dummy do is

used in (40b) and (41b):

Chapter 6. The structure of the verb group (VGP) in the VP 

(40) a. *Knows he the answer?

b. Does he know the answer?

(41) a. *He knows not the answer.

b. He doesn’t know the answer.

Do does not appear together with the other auxiliaries but is only inserted in questions,

as in (40b), or negative sentences with n’t/not, as in (41b), or for emphasis, as in (42):

(42) Oh, but I DID know the answer.

In earlier English, dummy do does not appear in this way. In Shakespeare’s time, for

instance, it is optional, as (43) to (45) indicate:

(43) Or if it were, it not belongs to you. (2 Henry IV, IV, i, 98)

(44) What meanes your Lordship? (Hamlet, III, i, 106)

(45) What does this meane my Lord? (Hamlet, I, vi, 7)

Leaving the do out has an archaic eect, or just a playful one, as in Figure 6.3.

. Auxiliaries, ‘ax hop’, and the verbgroup (VGP)

e auxiliaries dealt with in the previous section occur in a particular order: modal,

perfect, progressive, and passive. Since dummy do only occurs if no other auxiliary

is present, I will ignore it here. As mentioned, the verb that immediately follows a

particular auxiliary bears the ending, also called ax, of that auxiliary. Since the

ax associated with a particular auxiliary does not appear on the auxiliary but on

the next verb, this process is called ax-hop. e auxiliaries and lexical verb go

together in a verbgroup or VGP. As a summary of the auxiliaries and axes, I list

them in the table below.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Table 6.2. Auxiliaries and their axes

Name of AUX AUX aﬃx on the

next verb

sentence name of verb

with aﬃx

modal: may, might, can,

could, etc

– He may go innitive

perfect: have -ed/-en ey have walked

/seen/gone

past participle

progressive: be -ing I am going present participle

passive: be -ed/-en ey are loved/seen past participle

A sentence that includes all four types of auxiliaries sounds a little contrived. Note

the strict order (e.g. have may would be ungrammatical:

(46) e woman made a 911 call from the trunk of a car [that] police believe she may

have been being held in. (google – local news site)

In (46), there is a modal may, a perfect have, a progressive be marked with -en because of

have, a passive be marked with -ing because of the progressive immediately to its le, and

a lexical verb held that bears the ax of the passive auxiliary immediately to its le.

As shown in (7) above, the structure of a sentence with a number of auxiliaries is

not very insightful, i.e. it is very at, since all the auxiliaries are part of the Verb Group.

e negative adverb not in English must be included in the Verb Group as well since it

is an ax on the nite auxiliary. A structure for (47) is (48):

(47) He hasn’t been doing his homework.

(48)

NP VP

VGPNP

pf-neg progr VD N

hasn’t been doing hishomewor

Other structures have been suggested with a less at structure but they are still contro-

versial and would lead us into a new set of arguments.

.

Finiteness

e sentences we have discussed so far have been complete sentences, not sentence frag-

ments. A complete sentence consists of a subject and a nite verb. A nite verb in English

Chapter 6. The structure of the verb group (VGP) in the VP 

agrees with the subject (in the present tense) and indicates present or past. Its subject

has nominative case, which can only be seen in the case of pronouns in Modern

English, i.e. the subject pronoun of nite verbs must be nominative I, you, he, she, it,

we and they, not accusative me, him, her, us or them (you and it are both nominative

and accusative).

Finite sentences have a Verb Group with a nite verb as its rst (or only) member.

In (49), have is the nite verb that makes the entire Verb Group nite. As a result, the

entire sentence is also nite:

(49) I [have been going] there frequently. (nite have in a VGP)

Have is nite because it shows subject agreement (have rather than has, as in (50)),

indicates present tense (have rather than had, as in (51)), and has a nominative subject

(I rather than me, as in the ungrammatical (52)):

(50) He has been going there frequently.

(51) He had been going there frequently.

(52) *Me have been going there frequently.

Note that in some varieties of English, sentences such as (52) are grammatical.

Modals, as in (53), are nite even though (for historical reasons) they never dis-

play subject-verb agreement:

(53) I might have done that.

Only finite sentences are complete sentences. Most of us, however, use fragments

in informal speech, in poetry, e.g. John Keats in the excerpt in (54), or even in

formal writing:

(54) Ode on a Grecian Urn

ou still unravish’d bride of quietness!

ou foster-child of silence and slow time,

…

What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?

What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstacy?

Nevertheless, incomplete sentences are generally frowned upon in formal writing.

Sentence (55) below is not a complete sentence but is a sentence fragment. How can

it be xed?

(55) Mentioning that point about nite sentences yesterday.

Sentence (55) can become a full sentence by adding a subject and a nite verb as in (56):

(56) I was mentioning that point about nite sentences yesterday.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

As will be shown in a later chapter, non-nite sentences can only be part of other sen-

tences. It is always a good idea to count the number of lexical verbs. For instance, how

many lexical verbs are there in (57)?

(57) I have heard her sing too oen.

In (57), there are two lexical verbs, heard and sing, but only the rst Verb Group is

nite since have is nite (e.g. the subject of have is nominative I). e Verb Group that

sing is the sole member of is non-nite since its subject is accusative her.

Other sentences that include a non-nite Verb Group are (58) and (59), with the

non-nite Verb Groups in bold. Note that the innitive marker to is part of the Verb

Group, and is abbreviated as ‘inf ’:

(58) Seeing the ordinary as extraordinary is something we all like to do.

(59) She forgot to google them.

In (58), seeing, is, like, and do are lexical verbs, but only is and like are nite. In (59),

forgot and google are the lexical verbs, but only forgot is nite.

A sentence can contain many Verb Groups, a (potentially) indenite number

if, as mentioned in Chapter 1, the speaker had enough energy and could continue.

Sentences such as (60), containing more than one Verb Group, are discussed in

Chapters 7, 8, and 10:

(60) I noticed that she mentioned that he was saying that she should tell him …

Imperatives are used to order someone to do something. ey oen lack a subject, as

in (61), but this need not be the case, as (62) shows:

(61) Draw the trees for these sentences.

(62) You, draw trees for this.

Imperatives are complete sentences and not sentence fragments.

.

Relating the terms for verbs (optional)

In this section, I’ll review all the terms we have used for verbs. First, we will discuss

regular and irregular forms. ese are relevant when forming a past tense or using a

participle. When we use a participle, we may label its Verb Group as present, past, or

future perfect. en, we will see that the classication of verbs into e.g. transitive and

of auxiliaries into e.g. modal belongs to a dierent type of classication. Finally, we add

niteness to the mix. is is quite a lot! So just try to read this section and don’t worry

too much about connecting all the terms.

Chapter 6. The structure of the verb group (VGP) in the VP 

We have briey talked about regular and irregular verbs (end of Section 2 of

Chapter 4). Regular verbs have a predictable form, as in I walk, you walk, s/he walks,

we walked, and they have walked. If you are a native speaker of English, you know that

third person singular present tense has -s, the past tense has -ed, and the past participle

has -ed too. If you invent a new verb, you will use these endings without hesitation.

Irregular verbs are unpredictable; they were once more regular but because of changes

in the language, they now need to be learned, as Figure 6.4 shows.

Figure 6.4. Drawed and drew. (Used with the permission of the Baby Blues Partnership and King

Some people make a distinction between weak verbs (such as walk), strong verbs

where the vowel changes in the past (such as draw), and irregular ones (such as go,

with its past went). Many others just distinguish regular (the weak ones) from irregular

verbs (the strong and irregular ones).

e ending is used to build the tense and aspect forms of English that we have

seen in Figures 6.1 and 6.2. us the present perfect uses a present tense auxiliary

(and have is irregular) and the past participle ending of another verb. e latter can be

regular, as in the case of walked, or irregular, as in the case of gone. I list a few of the

regular ones in (63a) and the irregular forms in (63b):

present past past participle

(63) a. walk(s) walked walked (regular)

love(s) loved loved

hike(s) hiked hiked

b. go(es) went, gone (irregular)

begin(s) began begun

sing(s) sang sung

write(s) wrote written

put(s) put put

4. Consult a dictionary (or the internet) for longer lists of irregular verbs.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

I have suggested to not worry too much about the names of all the tense and aspect

combinations (see Figure 6.5 below for even more names).

Whether a verb is regular or irregular or used as past or present is not con-

nected to its classification as intransitive or transitive. We have divided verbs in

Chapters 4 and 5 into intransitive, transitive, ditransitive, copula, complex tran-

sitive, phrasal and prepositional verbs. These can be either regular or irregular

and most can be used in all the tense and aspect combinations discussed. Auxilia-

ries are irregular: modals only have one form, the progressive and passive auxiliary

be is the most irregular, as is shown in (64a), and so is perfect have, as shown

in (64b):

present past past participle

(64) a. am, is, are was, were been

b. has, have had had

e copula be and transitive have work the same way of course.

Finally, we have used nite and non-nite to label verbs. e present and past

forms of verbs (am, was, sings, etc) are always nite and the past participle (been) and

present participle (being) always non-nite. Sometimes, it is hard to distinguish the

simple past (e.g. had) from the past participle (e.g. had) and you have to look at the

sentence. Remember that as long as one nite verb is present, the entire VGP is nite,

as is the entire sentence.

.

Conclusion

In summary, this chapter has classified the different kinds of auxiliary verbs: the

modal, perfect, progressive, and passive which occur in this order; do is added in

questions and negative sentences when an auxiliary is not available. Several names

for tenses, such as the present perfect and past progressive, are also provided. I

would suggest that, unless you are going to teach them, to just ignore the names

and have some sense for these terms and what they mean on timelines (see also

Exercise G).

Finiteness is also discussed: a verb is nite if it agrees with the subject and if this

subject bears nominative case. Since nite verbs and their relationship to lexical and

auxiliary verbs are oen challenging, I end with a list of examples in Table 6.3. e clauses

are indicated by brackets but their use will not be explained till the next chapter. For now,

remember that if you have a lexical verb, there is a clause.

Notice that each sentence has at least one nite verb in Table 6.3.

Chapter 6. The structure of the verb group (VGP) in the VP 

Table 6.3. Some nite (in bold), lexical, and auxiliary verbs (underlined)

1. [ose people could have been goong o].

AUX AUX AUX lexical

modal perfect progressive phrasal

2. [He has been wanting [to go there for ages]].

AUX AUX lexical lexical

perfect progressive transitive intransitive

3. [I mentioned [that it had been said [that she wished [to leave]]]].

lexical AUX AUX lexical lexical lexical

transitive perfect passive transitive transitive intransitive

4. [I saw [him giving her a present]].

lexical lexical

transitive ditransitive

5. [[Feeling ne], he le early [to put dinner on the stove]].

lexical lexial lexical

copula intransitive complex transitive

Key terms are auxiliary and lexical verb; aﬃx; participle; modal, perfect, progressive,

and passive; regular and irregular verbs; ﬁnite and non-ﬁnite; nominative case, and

tense.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Exercises

A. Identify the auxiliary/ies in (65) to (68), e.g. are they passive, or modal? List the nite

verbs as well:

(65) Rigobertha has been meeting Carlos.

(66) Belo and Horta were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

(67) Indonesia was not too happy with the decision.

(68) They may be bringing about a peaceful solution in East Timor.

B. Identify the auxiliaries (e.g. modal, passive) in the passage from Chapter 2, repeated here.

Again, list the nite verbs as well:

Granny was waiting at the door of the apartment. She looked small, lonely, and patient,

and at the sight of her the children and their mother felt instantly guilty. Instead of

driving straight home from the airport, they had stopped outside Nice for ice cream.

They might have known how much those extra twenty minutes would mean to Granny.

Think up a sentence with a perfect and a passive auxiliary.

D. Add a progressive auxiliary to: He might go. Now add a perfect as well.

Take out the perfect in He could have been going.

Read the two poems below. Then, compare the use of the verbs: lexical as opposed to

auxiliary, and nite as opposed to non-nite. What is the eect of this dierent verb use?

As the cat Fire and Ice

climbed over

the top of Some say the world will end in re,

Some say in ice.

the jamcloset From what I’ve tasted of desire

rst the right I hold with those who favor re.

forefoot

But if it had to perish twice,

carefully I think I know enough of hate

then the hind To say that for destruction ice

stepped down Is also great

And would suce.

into the pit of

the empty Robert Frost (1874–1963); www.bartleby.com

owerpot

william carlos williams (1883–1963)

Chapter 6. The structure of the verb group (VGP) in the VP 

Optional (Section 5)

F. In the following list of verbs, identify the irregular ones:

wait, become, see, look, take, lead, grow, hang, light, run, garden, paint, and drive.

Class discussion

G. In Sections 2.2 and 2.3, I have given simplied timelines to the dierent tenses and

aspects. There are a few more possibilities that I have added together with the previous

ones in Figure 6.5. Discuss these in class and perhaps draw some of your own timelines.

If you have access to the internet in class, search for some sites with irregular verbs. They

vary enormously in number. What is the largest number you can nd.

Timeline Example

Present ______S______I know the answer

Past ____E___S_____I knew the answer yesterday

Future ____S___E____ He’ll do it

present progressive ___ S ___ I am working

past progressiveE__S__I was working

future progressive ___S__ EI will be working

Present perfect ___E__S_________I have lived here for ages

Past perfect __E_______S_____He had done it by ﬁve

5 a.m.

Future perfect __S____E________He’ll have done it by 5 a.m.

5 a.m.

Progressive past perfect __E______S__ I had been working up to that point

Progressive future perfect ___S__E_____ I will have been working by then

Progressive present perfect __E__S_____ I have been working

Figure 6.5. Timelines for tense and aspect (nal version)

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Keys to the exercises

A. has (perfect) and been (progressive) in (65); were (passive) in (66); no auxiliaries in (67);

may (modal) and be (progressive) in (68).

Finite verbs: in (65), has; in (66), were; in (67), was; in (68), may.

B. Granny was (progressive) waiting at the door of the apartment. She looked small, lonely,

and patient, and at the sight of her the children and their mother felt instantly guilty. Instead

of driving straight home from the airport, they had (perfect) stopped outside Nice for ice

cream. They might (modal) have (perfect) known how much those extra twenty minutes

would (modal) mean to Granny.

Finite are: was, looked, felt, had, might, would

C. He has been seen.

D. He might be going.

He might have been going.

He could be going.

E. In the rst poem, there are 2 nite lexical verbs; in the second, there are 12 lexical and 4

auxiliary verbs, and only 1 Verb Group is non-nite. Note also that in the second poem,

a number of nouns are somewhat verbal, e.g. hate, destruction, re, and desire. They are

either based on a verb or can be used as a verb. Discuss the eects of the verb use on the

tone of the poems.

F. Irregular are: become, see, take, lead, grow, hang (can also be regular), light (can also be

regular), run, and drive. You can tell this by thinking of the past and participle forms,

e.g. become has became and become respectively.

Special topic: Reduction of have and the shape of participles

The prescriptive rule against contraction can be formulated as follows:

(69) In formal writing, do not contract auxiliaries and negatives.

Most people do not fully spell out the auxiliaries in speech or informal writing. Thus, have in (70)

becomes ‘ve or a, as in (71), or even of, as in (72):

(70) I should have done that sooner.

(71) Now, that’s someone who they shoulda kept out the sun.

(COCA-Fiction 2008)

(72) He should of said something.

(COCA-ction 1994)

Reduction of have is typically done by speakers when have is in fact an auxiliary as in (71) and

(72), not when it is a main verb, as in (73), formed from (74):

(73) *He shoulda books in his oce.

(74) He should have books in his oce.

Chapter 6. The structure of the verb group (VGP) in the VP 

Reduction of auxiliaries has occurred since medieval times. Sentences (75) to (79) are from

the 15th and 16th centuries, where the reduced forms of have are in bold:

(75) it xuld a be seyd

‘It should have been said’. (Paston Letters, #131 year 1449)

(76) 3e wold a be plesyd

‘You would have been pleased’. (Paston Letters, #176 year 1464)

(77) there xuld not a be do so mykele

‘There should not have been done so much.’ (Paston Letters, #205 year 1469)

(78) So would I ha done by yonder Sunne.

(Shakespeare, Hamlet, IV, 5, 65 First Folio Edition 1623)

(79) I know you ha’ practised vpon the easie-yeelding spirit of this woman.

(Shakespeare, 2 Henry 4, II, 1, 126)

Hence, even though the reduction of have to of and -a is common in speech

nowadays (and was common in writing in earlier times), it is ‘not done’ in formal

writing. Since perfect have is weakening, we nd sentences such as (80):

(80) I feel that American Express should of not have paid once they received my call

and emails of the merchandise not working. (google – complaints site)

As mentioned, the perfect auxiliary have and the passive auxiliary be are followed by a past

participle. This rule is often violated. Remember the discussion of lie and lay (with participles

as lain and laid respectively) in Chapter 4? Other instances are the past participles bitten

and gone. They are often replaced by the past tense, as in (81) and (82), but this use is not

prescriptively correct in Modern English even though it occurs in writers such as Milton, as in

(83), Dryden, Pope, Addison, and Swift:

(81) Some mosquito has bit me.

(82) I should have went to Medical School at the U of A. (overheard on ASU campus)

(83) According to his doom: he would have spoke,

But hiss for hiss return’d with forked tongue. (Milton, Paradise Lost, X, 517–8)

Two other comments can be made about the forms of the participle. First, in earlier stages

of English, the ax was often not present, as in (84) and (85). It is not clear what caused that

absence:

(84) What have I do? (Chaucer, Miller’s Tale, 3739)

(85) If I so ofte myghte have ywedded be. (Chaucer, Wife of Bath’s Prol. 7)

Secondly, the present participle is preceded by the auxiliary be, as we have seen in Section 2.3, but

in many varieties of English, this participle has a prex, as in (86). Most frequently, the verb

preceding it is go, as in (87) from an English folksong, or keep:

(86) He was a-working

(87) A Frog he went a-courting.

The a-prex is the remnant of an older on that marked the progressive.

Review of Chapters 4–6

I’ll start with Chapter 6. In this chapter, the Verb Group (VGP) is examined more care-

fully: a Verb Group contains at least a lexical verb but can also contain one or more

auxiliaries. Verbs (and Verb Groups) are either nite or non-nite. If verbs express

tense and have a nominative subject, they are nite; if not, they are non-nite. Some

verbs are irregular in form. at aects the shape of, for instance, their simple past and

present perfect.

In Chapters 4 and 5, functions at sentence level are discussed: subject, predicate,

direct object, indirect object, phrasal object, prepositional object, subject predicate, and

object predicate. ese are obligatory parts of the sentence. Verbs are classied in terms

of whether or not they have obligatory complements: intransitives do not but transi-

tives, ditransitives, copulas, complex transitives, phrasal and prepositional verbs do.

In contrast to complements, adverbials function to add background and can be

added to a sentence optionally and without limitation (except for the speaker’s and

hearer’s level of patience and memory). e dierence between direct object, indirect

object, phrasal object, and prepositional object on the one hand and subject predicate,

object predicate, and adverbial on the other is that the former can be passivized. As a

reminder, I’ll provide a list of the major verb types with a simple tree for each. Review

the Tables of Chapters 4 and 5 as well.

(1) Intransitive: no objects

NP VP

Manatees

swim

(2) (Mono)transitive: one direct object

NP VP

ey

VNP

ate

an apple

Review of Chapters 4–6 

(3) Ditransitive: one direct and one indirect object

a. b. S

NP VP

Amy

VNPPP

gave N

toys PNP

to Chandra

NP VP

Sabina

VNPNP

told Timber N

stories

(4) Copula: one subject predicate

NP VP

Aster

V AdjP

Adv Adj

very nice

(5) Complex Predicate: one direct object and an object predicate

Soly

VSC (= small clause)

found

NP NP

anuissance

(6) Prepositional object verb: one PP object

NP VP

She

VPP

insists

PNP

an answer

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(7) Phrasal: no object if intransitive, as in (7a); one direct object if transitive, as in (7b).

a. b.S

NP VP

Jona

logged o

Hermione

VNP

turned o

the light

Review of Chapters 4–6 

Examples of midterm exams covering Chapters 4 to 6

Example 1

A. In Text A, list (or underline) the lexical verbs and label them as e.g. transitive, complex

transitive, or phrasal verb.

List the adverbials, subjects, and direct objects in paragraph 1 of Text A.

C. List the auxiliary verbs in paragraph 2. Are they modal, perfect, progressive, or passive?

D. Circle the nite verbs in the complete text.

E. Are any of the verbs irregular?

F. Draw a tree for:

(8) Spain was the target at the end of the century

Text A (adapted from: The Good Neighbor, by G. Black).

Ever since the US Civil War, the countries of Central America and the Caribbean have

occupied a special place in the American psyche. Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama and their

neighbors have been a magnet for adventurers and pioneers, a proving ground for grand

abstractions of democracy and freedom, and frequently they have given scoundrels a

refuge. For most of the twentieth century people knew them as “banana republics”; by

the 1980s, a chain of clothing stores serving auent customers in today’s travel-mad

world had adopted that name.

This was frontier territory, a land where the whim of the adventurer was often the

only law, where Americans had limitless prerogatives, and where people considered

outside intruders malicious. Senator Hannegan of Indiana saw something else. He saw

Britain hastening ‘with race-horse speed’ to seize all of Central America. Spain was

the target of similar suspicion at the end of the century, but was succeeded in turn by

Germany, Mexico and the Soviet Union. Each of these foreign powers was charged with

importing ideologies alien to the natural order of the region.

Example 2

A. Find all the lexical verbs and classify them (monotransitive, phrasal, etc.) in Text B, a text

from a few years ago, but in many respects still relevant.

Find all the complements and classify them (direct object, indirect object, subject

predicate, etc.). How are they realized (NP, PP, AdvP, etc.)?

Point out the auxiliary verbs and classify them. Also circle or list the nite verbs.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

D. Are result, kill, and carry regular or irregular verbs?

Draw a tree for:

(9) Continued hostilities have resulted in terrible abuses inside Afghanistan.

Text B. Afghanistan troubles

Continued hostilities have resulted in catastrophic human rights abuses inside Afghanistan.

All warring factions have carried out attacks against residential areas. The factions have

targeted civilians. They have killed tens of thousands of people in various parts of the

country. The vast majority of the victims have been Kabul residents. Previous attacks

against Kabul stopped when the Taleban forces entered Kabul about ve months ago.

Now, Taleban has threatened a bombardment. This will leave many people dead and

many more wounded.

(adapted from an Amnesty International document)

Example 3

A. List or circle the nite verbs in the second paragraph of Text C.

B. List and identify the lexical verbs (transitive, intransitive, etc.) and the auxiliary verbs

(passive, perfect, etc.) in the rst paragraph.

Draw a tree for (10). First, indicate the functions and names/labels by means of brackets.

(10) They met in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century.

D. What is the function and name/label (i.e. realization) of the following phrases in the

sentences in which they occur:

(11) a brilliant success (rst paragraph).

(12) Picasso’s arrival (second paragraph).

Text C (adapted from an article in Arizona State University’s State Press)

Imagine if Steve Martin wrote a comedic concept play with the entirely possible idea that

Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein could have met in Paris at the beginning of the twentieth

century in a small bistro. He has succeeded, and the Arizona Theatre Company’s production

of Picasso at the Lapin Agile is a brilliant success. Martin has created a hilarious and thought

provoking look at two geniuses.

The play begins with Einstein and several other patrons discussing the probability

that Picasso would venture into the bistro. Einstein is anticipating Picasso’s arrival.

The players discuss everything from physics to the letter ‘E’. The play abounds with

Steve Martin’s bizarre philosophies and even stranger sense of humor.

Review of Chapters 4–6 

Questions that are not related to the text:

E. Explain (using terminology used in class and in Chapter 5) why the following sentence is

ungrammatical:

(13) *Down the president she ran.

F. Add passive auxiliaries to the following sentences (and make the appropriate changes):

(14) Picasso may have played a part.

(15) Einstein is looking at Picasso.

Key to example 1

A. The lexical verbs in the rst paragraph are occupied (transitive), been (copula), given

(ditransitive), knew (complex transitive), serving (transitive; this is tricky), adopted (transi-

tive) and in the second paragraph: was (copula), was (copula), had (transitive), considered

(complex transitive), saw (transitive), saw (transitive), hastening (intransitive), seize (transi-

tive), was (copula), succeeded (transitive, but here passivized), charged (complex transi-

tive, but passivized), and importing (transitive).

B. The adverbials are: Ever since the US Civil War, (in the American psyche), frequently, For most

of the twentieth century, by the 1980s, (and in today’s travel-mad world). The PPs in paren-

theses could also modify place and customers respectively.

The subjects are: the countries of Central America and the Caribbean, Cuba, Nicaragua,

Panama and their neighbors, they, people, and a chain of clothing stores serving auent cus-

tomers (in today’s travel-mad world). The direct objects are: a special place (in the Ameri-

can psyche), a refuge, them, and that name and the sole indirect object is scoundrels. The

only subject predicate is long: a magnet for adventurers and pioneers, a proving ground

for grand abstractions of democracy and freedom and the object predicate is: as “banana

republics”.

C. The auxiliaries are had (perfect), was (passive), and was (passive).

D. The nite verbs are: Ever since the US Civil War, the countries of Central America and the

Caribbean

have

occupied a special place in the American psyche. Cuba, Nicaragua,

Panama and their neighbors

have

been a magnet for adventurers and pioneers, a

proving ground for grand abstractions of democracy and freedom, and frequently they

have

given scoundrels a refuge. For most of the twentieth century people

knew

them as “banana republics”; by the 1980s, a chain of clothing stores serving auent

customers in today’s travel-mad world

had

adopted that name.

This

was

frontier territory, a land where the whim of the adventurer

was

often the only law, where Americans

had

limitless prerogatives, and where people

considered

outside intruders malicious. Senator Hannegan of Indiana

saw

something else. He

saw

Britain hastening ‘with race-horse speed’ to seize all of

Central America. Spain

was

the target of similar suspicion at the end of the

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

century, but

was

succeeded in turn by Germany, Mexico and the Soviet Union.

Each of these foreign powers

was

charged with importing ideologies alien to the

natural order of the region.

E. The irregular verbs are auxiliaries have (three times), had, was (twice), and copula

be (four times), the ditransitive give, the complex transitive know, the transitive see

(twice).

NP VP

Spain

V′ PP

VNPPNP

was at

DN DNP

the target the

NPP

end

PNP

the century

Key to example 2

A. resulted: prepositional verb; carried out: phrasal; targeted: transitive; killed: transitive;

been: copula; stopped: intransitive; entered: transitive; threatened: transitive; and leave:

complex transitive.

B. in catastrophic human rights abuses (inside Afghanistan): prepositional object/PP;

attacks against residential areas: phrasal object/NP; civilians: direct object/NP; tens of

thousands of people: direct object/NP; Kabul residents: subject predicate/NP; Kabul:

direct object/NP; a bombardment: direct object/NP; many people: direct object/NP;

dead: object predicate/AdjP; many more: direct object/NP; and wounded: object

predicate/AdjP.

C. Auxiliaries: ve instances of have (perfect), one has (perfect), and one will (modal). The nite

verbs are ve instances of have, one stopped, entered, has and will.

D. regular.

Review of Chapters 4–6 

ORS

NP VP

AdjPNVGP

Adj hostilities

Continued

pf V

have resulted

PNP

AdjP

N′

Adj

terrible

NPP

abuses

PNP

inside Afghanistan

NP VP

V′ PP

VGP PP in Afgh.

pf Vin terrible abuses

have resulted

Key to example 3

A. The nite verbs are: begins, would, is, discuss, and abounds.

B. Imagine: transitive, wrote: transitive, met: (here) intransitive, succeeded: intransitive, is:

copula, and created: transitive.

NP VP

hey

PNP

DN′

the

NPP

beginning

PNP

DN′

the

AdjPN

Adj century

20th

V′

VPP

met

P NP

in Paris

D. SuPr: NP; DO: NP

E. The run down in She ran him down is a phrasal verb and the particle cannot be separate

from the verb.

F. A part may have been played by Picasso; Picasso is being looked at by Einstein.

Chapter 7

Finite clauses

Embedded and coordinated

1. Sentences and clauses

2. The functions of clauses

3. The structure of the embedded clause:

The Complementizer Phrase (CP)

4. Coordinate sentences:

The Coordinator Phrase (CP)?

5. Terminological labyrinth and conclusion

So far, the sentences we have focussed on have included one lexical verb and one or

more auxiliaries. ese are simple sentences. is chapter gives examples of sentences

that include more than one lexical verb, which means that they are composed of more

than one clause. Sentences that are part of another sentence, i.e. that have a function in

that sentence, are oen referred to as embedded clauses, where the embedded clause is

seen as subordinate to the other.

ere are also coordinated clauses. ey involve at least two clauses (and two

lexical verbs) that are joined by and (or another coordinator) and both coordinated

clauses are of (almost) equal importance. Both embedded and coordinated construc-

tions enable us to make very long sentences (innite if we have the energy) and ones

we had never heard before.

Section 1 provides some examples of complex clauses and Section 2 discusses

functions, such as subject, object, and adverbial, as they relate to clauses. In Section 3,

I introduce the structure of the embedded clause, making use of the grammatical

category complementizer and the Complementizer Phrase (abbreviated as CP).

In Section 4, I do the same for coordinated clauses by using the coordinator to

form a Coordinator Phrase (also abbreviated as CP). Section 5 reviews some of the

terminology.

Chapter 7. Finite clauses 

. Sentences and clauses

A simple clause contains one lexical verb. Hence, if there are two lexical verbs, there

are two clauses. For instance, in (1), the lexical verbs are noticed and like and hence,

there are two clauses: the main clause (I should have noticed that Zelda doesn’t like

Zoltan) and the embedded one (Zelda doesn’t like Zoltan). is can be indicated by

means of brackets:

(1) [I should have noticed [that Zelda doesn’t like Zoltan]].

In determining the clauses in a text, it will be helpful to rst identify the lexical verbs

and then to draw the brackets around the clauses.

e embedded clause in (1) is part of the main clause. We could split it up into two

clauses, as in (2), but that is awkward:

(2) I should have noticed it. Zelda doesn’t like Zoltan.

Auxiliaries, such as should and does in (1) and (2), are not relevant for determining the

number of clauses or sentences; only lexical verbs are. How many main verbs are there

in the middle frame of Figure 7.1?

Figure 7.1. A pony (Used with the permission of the Baby Blues Partnership and King Features

If I counted right, there are ten. If you really want a pony, that may not be so many!

In a coordinated sentence, there are also two lexical verbs (or more, if more clauses

are coordinated or if one of them contains an embedded clause) but they are joined by

a coordinator. us, in (3), we have the main verbs arrived and ate and the coordina-

tor and:

(3) [e food arrived] and [they ate].

(COCA – ction 1995)

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

As we’ll see, it is easier to divide (3) into two separate clauses than (1) and that is

because coordinated clauses have a looser connection.

Some linguists call the larger sentence in (1) the sentence or main clause and the

smaller sentence the embedded sentence, dependent, or subordinate clause. In Section 5, I

list some of these terms. I will use both clause and sentence interchangeably to indicate

a unit that contains a lexical verb. e complementizer that in (1) functions to link the

embedded sentence to the main clause, but can oen be le out in English. Try that in

(1). For a list of complementizers, look back to Chapter 2, Table 2.5.

In (1), both clauses have a VP containing a nite verb, i.e. should and does (remember

auxiliaries can be nite), but embedded sentences can be non-nite as well. In this chapter,

I discuss the clauses with nite VPs and in the next chapter those with non-nite VPs.

Be careful not to confuse nite verbs, such as should or does, with lexical verbs, such

as noticed and like: each clause must have a lexical verb, but each clause need not have

a nite verb.

.

The functions of clauses

As mentioned, embedded clauses function inside another clause as subject, direct or

phrasal object, subject predicate, or adverbial. For instance, in (1) above, the embedded

clause functions as direct object; in (4), it is a subject; in (5), a subject predicate; in

(6), a phrasal object; and in (7), an adverbial. e embedded clauses are indicated by

means of brackets here:

(4) [at she le] was nice. (embedded subject)

(5) e problem is [that she reads junk]. (embedded subject predicate)

(6) I gured out [that it didn’t work]. (embedded phrasal object)

(7) He read books [because it was required]. (embedded adverbial)

Embedded clauses do not function as indirect objects or as objects of prepositional

objects. ey do not function as object predicates either. Inside an NP or AdjP, clauses

function as modiers (e.g. relative clauses) or complements (e.g. noun complements).

Examples of relative and complement clauses will be given in Chapter 10.

Coordinated clauses have no function in another clause. ey are on an equal

footing, most argue, with each other. In (3), this means that you could even make them

into two independent clauses, as in (8), and although that sounds very ‘choppy’, it is

still better than (2):

(8) e food arrived. ey ate.

We’ll now turn to the tree structures.

Chapter 7. Finite clauses 

. The structure of the embedded clause: The Complementizer Phrase (CP)

As mentioned, embedded sentences have complementizers that connect the embedded

clause to another clause. ese complementizers are sisters to S and a sentence with

a complementizer is a Complementizer Phrase, abbreviated as CP. e CP, as in (9),

expresses that there is a sentence S that can be independent, i.e. occur on its own but,

when it functions in another sentence, it is glued to that sentence by the C. e C

determines the nature of the phrase above the C and S, namely the CP:

(9)

that …

Unlike the S, the CP cannot appear on its own, since a sentence such as (10) is a fragment:

(10) at he went to the store.

Using CP, C, and S, a sentence such as (1), has a structure as in (11). I have slightly

simplied (1) by taking the auxiliaries out:

(11)

VCP

noticed

that

NP VP

Zelda

VNP

likes Zoltan

Using a CP makes it possible to include the complementizer in the sentence and link

the embedded S to the main S. In (11), the embedded CP is the sister to noticed, which

means that it functions as the direct object to noticed.

ere are also embedded clauses that express questions. In these, the C position

can be occupied by if or by whether, as in (12). e CP here, as in (11), functions as a

direct object:

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(12)

NP VP

asked

whether

NP VP

her

VGPNP

had seen

pf V

Trees for a CP as subject and a subject predicate clause are given in (13) and (14)

respectively:

(13)

V AdjP

was Adj

nice

at

NP VP

she V

le

(14)

NP VP

e problem is

that

NP VP

she

VNP

reads N

junk

Chapter 7. Finite clauses 

Other examples of complementizers are because, before, aer, unless, and since. ese

particular complementizers are oen used to introduce adverbial clauses. An example

of an embedded adverbial is given in (15):

(15)

NP VP

V′ CP

VNPCS

readN because

books NP VP

it VGP

pass V

was required

e position of clauses functioning as adverbials, like that of non-clausal adverbials,

is very exible. For instance, in a sentence such as (15), the because-clause can also

precede he read books, as in (16):

(16) Because it was required, he read books.

We will assume that the tree structure for this is as in a sentence with an S-adverbial,

discussed in Chapter 5, namely, as in (17). However, other trees are possible:

(17)

Because

NP VP

it VGP

pass V

was required

NP VP

VNP

readN

books

Sentences containing embedded subjects, such as (4) above, are oen changed into

extraposed sentences, such as (18). e reason for the extraposition of the subject clause

is that speakers do not like to have embedded sentences in the beginning or middle of

the main clause. e dummy subject it takes the place of the extraposed clause:

(18) It was nice [that she le].

I'll refrain from drawing a tree here, but if you want to draw one, attach the extraposed

CP as if it were an S-adverbial.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Aer seeing a C and CP, some of you might have wondered if there is a C′ as well.

ere is, and we will briey mention this in Chapter 11. Until then, we will draw the CP

with just a C and S. Now, we’ll continue with the structure of the coordinate clause.

.

Coordinate sentences: The Coordinator Phrase (CP)?

As in the case of coordinate phrases (discussed in Chapter 3), there is a debate over

how best to represent coordinate sentences, such as (3) above. I think (3) is similar to

(19) in that there is a connection between the two clauses. In (20), on the other hand,

the two clauses have no causal relationship (at least not one obvious to me):

(19) [She arrived] and [he le].

(20) [Phoenix is a city in Arizona] and [the moon is made of cheese].

We could argue that sentences that are more closely connected have a coordinator and

that really means ‘and then’. en, the second clause is subordinate to the rst and the

structure of (19) would be similar to the adverbial clause in (15) above. I have repre-

sented that as (21), where and he le would function as an adverbial to the main clause:

(21)

NP VP

She

V′

arrived

and

NP VP

he V

le

In (20), neither clause is subordinate to the other. is could be represented as (22):

(22)

and

NP VP

DNVGPPP

the moon

is made PNP

of N

cheese

NP VP

Phoenix

VNP

DN′

NPP

city

PNP

in Arizona

Chapter 7. Finite clauses 

I leave it to the reader to decide whether (21) or (22) is more appropriate for (19) and

(20) (see Chapter 3, Section 4, for more arguments).

Coordinated structures, especially the ones with a closer connection between the

clauses, oen leave out the second subject if it is identical to the rst, as in (23). is is

analyzed as ellipsis, i.e. deletion, of the second subject. In a tree, you could leave this as

a blank space. It is possible to repeat the subject, as in (24), or use a pronoun but this

is only done if you want to emphasize the subject:

(23) [Streams of people arrived] and [ate arctic anchovies].

(24) [Streams of people arrived] and [streams of people ate arctic anchovies].

As an alternative to analyzing (23) as a case of ellipsis, you could argue that it involves

the coordination of two VPs, as in (25). Again, I leave that to you to decide:

(25)

VP CVP

arrived and

VNP

ate

NPP

Streams

PNP

of N

people

AdjPN

Adj anchovies

arctic

In this section, I have used the coordinator and since that is the most frequent. In some

kinds of writing, it is the third most frequent word (aer the articles a and the, and

usually in competition with the prepositions to and of). Other, less frequent coordina-

tors are (n)or, (n)either, so and but.

.

Terminological labyrinth and conclusion

In this concluding section, I will list some synonyms or near synonyms for terms

related to clauses that are used in the grammatical tradition. Remember that, in this

book, the terms clause and sentence are used interchangeably. Grammar has existed

for thousands of years and hence there are many terms that have come to be used. I

am sorry about that. We need a United Nations decision on this but, for the moment,

perhaps Table 7.1 helps.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Table 7.1. Terms for clause

sentence = main clause = matrix clause = independent clause = superordinate clause = S

clause = embedded clause/sentence = dependent/subordinate clause = CP (Complementizer Phrase)

complementizer = subordinating conjunction = subordinator = C

clause = coordinated clause = coordinated sentence = CP (Coordinator Phrase)

coordinator = coordinating conjunction = C

Note that a main clause always has to be nite but that an embedded clause can be

nite or non-nite.

In conclusion, this chapter discusses sentences that contain more than one lexical

verb. ese are of two types, embedded and coordinated. Embedded clauses are part

of another clause and typically function as subject, direct object, or adverbial in that

clause. Examples are given of all the functions that clauses have as well as of their trees.

ere can be more than one embedded clause in a main clause, and sometimes clauses

are extraposed. We represent embedded clauses as CPs (Complementizer Phrases),

and these consist of a complementizer C and an S.

Coordinated sentences are like independent sentences but are combined with a

coordinator, such as and. Two possible structures are suggested, one when the two

clauses are dependent on each other and another when that’s not the case. e reader

is invited to choose for him- or herself depending on the kind of sentence. ere is also

a brief discussion of subject ellipsis which may occur when the subject in coordinate

sentences is identical. Here too, there is an alternative analysis.

Key terms are clause and sentence; main clause/sentence; embedded and coordi-

nate, CP, S, and C; complementizer; coordinator; ellipsis; and extraposition.

Chapter 7. Finite clauses 

Exercises

A. Find the lexical verbs in the sentences below (adapted from the London Times,

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article509889.ece). After that, put brackets

around the clause that goes with each of these verbs.

(26) Mr. Bell, the Chief Inspector of Schools in England, nds that classroom discipline

is worse since the current government took oce several years ago.

(27) The proportion of secondary schools with good pupil behavior has fallen from

three quarters to two thirds, while 9 per cent have serious discipline problems.

(28) The Chief Inspector worries that so many of the 60 per cent of youngsters from

non-professional backgrounds lack the ambition or qualications to go to university

a quarter of a century after he became the rst in his family to do so.

(29) Access to good schools is the key. Mr. Bell highlights unacceptable levels of

variability in the performance of state schools.

(30) He focuses particularly on the 10 per cent that make little or no improvement

between inspection visits.

(31) Because children in these schools are eectively being written o, it is little

wonder that many suer the greatest problems with discipline.

Underline the lexical verbs and put brackets around the clauses that go with them in the

following text, adapted from http://www.eva.mpg.de/psycho/dogs/dogs_research.html.

One aim of the Department of Comparative and Developmental Psychology is the

investigation of the evolution of dierent cognitive processes. The comparative approach

includes the study of a variety of animal species. Although most of our work is done

with the great apes, we also investigate other species such as goats, seals, and dogs. For

a number of reasons, the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) is a very interesting model for

investigating dierent questions regarding the evolution of cognitive abilities. The fact

that dogs have been living with humans for at least 15.000 years may have led to the

selection of cognitive abilities by humans or even the co-evolution of dogs’ cognitive

abilities with those of humans. We know from dierent studies that dogs are sensitive

to the attentional state of humans. We also know that dogs understand communicative

cues. Those abilities have not been found in nonhuman primates and wolves.

Draw trees for:

(32) Zelda noticed that candies disappear.

(33) They suggested that the sketch was done by daughters of the architect.

(34) They fussed that the unpleasant computer was down again.

(35) They puried books because they didn't like them.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(36) I heard that a manuscript has been stolen.

(37) Amir didn't know if Zoya was unhappy.

(38) He left the party because she arrived.

D. And for:

(39) Fortunately, Zelda discovered that Zoltan missed her.

(40) Because the snow was bad, the trac on that street became impossible.

(41) Zoltan mentioned that Bela had gone to the library without his rain jacket.

(42) That two paintings were stolen from the Munch Museum is so sad.

(43) I wondered whether that would happen.

E. List the functions of the embedded clauses in (32) to (43).

F. Draw trees for (44) and (45). The latter is a non-nite and this construction will be

discussed in the next chapter:

(44) I wonder what he saw.

(45) He told us where to go.

G. There are a few special types of sentences that we haven't had a chance to talk about

above, namely (46) and (47):

(46) If he was rich, (then) he would own an island.

(47) He did that task as well as he could.

We won't draw trees for these, but think about the structures. They are very dierent from

each other.

Class discussion

H. Sentences such as I mentioned that Sue won the Nobel Prize yesterday are ambiguous.

How are they (draw trees) and how would you change them if you wanted to avoid

ambiguity?

Find the lexical verbs in:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish

Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the

general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do

ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. (The Preamble

to the Constitution of the United States)

How might you bracket the long sentence in Figure 7.1?

Chapter 7. Finite clauses 

Keys to the exercises

A. The lexical verbs are underlined and the clauses surrounded by brackets:

(26) [Mr. Bell, the Chief Inspector of Schools in England, nds [that classroom discipline

is worse] [since the current government took oce several years ago]].

(27) [The proportion of secondary schools with good pupil behavior has fallen from

three quarters to two thirds, [while 9 per cent have serious discipline problems]].

(I think in this sentence, we could argue that while is a coordinator).

(28) [The Chief Inspector worries [that so many of the 60 per cent of youngsters from

non-professional backgrounds lack the ambition or qualications [to go to university

a quarter of a century [after he became the rst in his family to do so]]]]. (The

clause around go should get clear in the next chapter; don’t worry about that now).

(29) [Access to good schools is the key]. [Mr. Bell highlights unacceptable levels of

variability in the performance of state schools].

(30) [He focuses particularly on the 10 per cent [that make little or no improvement

between inspection visits]].

(31) [[Because children in these schools are eectively being written o], it is little

wonder [that many suer the greatest problems with discipline]].

B. [One aim of the Department of Comparative and Developmental Psychology is the inves-

tigation of the evolution of dierent cognitive processes]. [The comparative approach

includes the study of a variety of animal species]. [[Although most of our work is done

with the great apes], we also investigate other species such as goats, seals, and dogs].

[For a number of reasons, the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) is a very interesting model

for [investigating dierent questions regarding the evolution of cognitive abilities]]. [The

fact [that dogs have been living with humans for at least 15.000 years] may have led to

the selection of cognitive abilities by humans or even the co-evolution of dogs’ cognitive

abilities with those of humans]. [We know from dierent studies [that dogs are sensitive

to the attentional state of humans]]. [We also know [that dogs understand communicative

cues]]. [Those abilities have not been found in nonhuman primates and wolves].

C. (32)

NP VP

Zelda

VCP

noticed

that

NP VP

candies disappear

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(33)

NP VP

They

VCP

suggested

that

the sketch

VGPPP

pf passV PNP

hadbeen doneby

NPP

daughters

of the architect

(34)

hey

fussed

that

NP VP

DN′ V′

AdvP

the

Adv

AdjPNV AdjP again

Adj computer was Adj

unpleasant down

(35)

NP VP

They

V′ CP

VNP

puriﬁed N

because

books

NP VP

they

VGPNP

them

do-neg V

didn'tlike

Chapter 7. Finite clauses 

Sentence (36) involves an embedded object and is similar in structure to (32), (33), and (34).

Sentence (37) is similar too, except that if is in the C. Sentence (38) has the same structure as (35).

D. (39)

AdvP S

Adv

Fortunately NP VP

Zelda

VCP

discovered

that

NP VP

Zoltan

VNP

missed her

(40)

Because

NP VP

DNV AdjP

thesnow was

Adj

bad

V AdjP

became Adj

impossible

N′

the

NPP

traﬃc

PNP

that street

Sentence (41) is similar to the above embedded objects, and so is (43), except that whether is in C.

The structure of (42) is as below, with the embedded clause as subject:

(42)

hat

(I made the Munch Museum

into a compound)

two paintings

VGP PP

pass VP NP

were stolen from

the Munch Museum

V AdjP

Adv Adj

so sad

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

E. In (32), (33), (34), (36), (37), (39), (41), and (43) it is a Direct Object; in (35), (38), and (40) an

Adverbial; and in (42), it is a Subject.

F. In (44), the object of the embedded clause what is used as complementizer. We can

represent that by saying that what moved to the C position.

(44)

NP VP

VCP

wonder

what

NP VP

saw

V (what)

The same is true in (45): the adverb where is used as complementizer:

(45)

NP VP

VNPCP

told us

where

NP VP

VGP

(where)

to go

G. In (46), the two clauses are coordinated since one is not subordinate to the other. In (47),

as well as he could is an adverbial, and one could argue that the head is the adverb well, so

that it is an AdvP in form. The head well is modied by a clause as he could that is dependent

on the adverb as, a discontinuous modier. This is quite a complex construction.

Special topic: Preposition or complementizer: The ‘preposition’ like

Especially since the 1980s, like has expanded its uses tremendously. It is sometimes claimed

that it is the most frequent word in the speech of certain groups of speakers (see cartoon

below). Prescriptive grammarians are not too pleased with this development, but tend to focus

on the use of like as a complementizer. This prescriptive rule goes as follows:

(48) like is a preposition and not a complementizer.

Chapter 7. Finite clauses 

That means that like can introduce an NP but not a clause. Instead of like, as is used to

introduce a sentence. Fowler (1926 [1950]: 325ff.) is not too clear in the following excerpt

but is not happy with the use of like except as preposition. He writes:

It will be best to dispose rst of what is, if it is a misuse at all, the most agrant &

easily recognizable misuse of like. A sentence from Darwin quoted in the OED [Oxford

English Dictionary] contains it in a short & unmistakable form: Unfortunately few have

observed like you have done. Every illiterate person uses this construction daily; it is

the established way of putting the thing among all who have not been taught to

avoid it … in good writing this particular like is very rare.

Swan (1980: 73) is more low-key and says that “[i]n informal American English, like is very often

used as a conjunction instead of as”.

According to prescriptive authorities, we should allow like as a preposition as in (49), but

not as a complementizer as in (50) to (54):

(49) Certainly, he is not like Mr. Knightley.

(Jane Austen, Emma, Vol 1, chap 4)

(50) “When we open up our hearts and our minds to those who may not think

precisely like we do, or believe precisely what we believe, that’s when we discover

at least the possibility of common ground.” (President Obama, 17 May 2009,

Commencement Speech Notre Dame University)

(51) Shop like you mean it. (advertisement)

(52) I felt like I could tell you anything. Now I don’t feel like I can anymore. (quoted in

Tannen’s That's not what I meant).

(53) Winston tastes good like a cigarette should. What do you want: Good grammar or

good taste? (an ad in the 1960s that caused much controversy)

(54) She forgot all about the library like she told her old man now. (Beach Boys’ Song)

Except as complementizer and preposition, like is often used to mark direct speech, as in (55),

focus, as in (56), or to soften a request or demand, as in (57). These uses are not accepted in

formal speech either, even though some are old, as (58) and (59) show, quoted in the OED:

(55) So the other girl goes like: ‘Getting an autograph is like, be brave and ask for it’.

So I got it. I just went up to him and he like. ‘O.K ...

(56) I couldn’t get to class because, well, like I had this accident on the freeway.

(57) Stephanie, you, like, still owe me that $10.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(58) ȝon man is lyke out of his mynd.

(Dunbar Poems, xix, 19)

(59) all looking on, and like atonisht staring

(Spenser, Fairie Queen, iv, x, 56)

Figure 7.2. Quotative ‘like’

Chapter 8

Non-nite clauses

1. Non-nite clauses

2. The functions of non-nites

3. The structure: CP

4. Coordinating non-nites

5. Conclusion

Chapter 7 deals with nite embedded and coordinated clauses, i.e. those sentences or

clauses that contain nite verbs. e present chapter deals with non-nite sentences

(or clauses), i.e. those that contain only non-nite verbs. Non-nite sentences can only

function as parts of another sentence; they are not considered well-formed sentences on

their own in formal writing but are seen as sentence fragments. Since they are not com-

plete sentences, they cannot be coordinated unless that coordinated structure is itself

embedded. Remember from the last chapter that one lexical verb means one clause, two

such verbs two clauses and so on. is holds for non-nite lexical verbs too!

In Section 1, I list the three kinds of non-nite clauses and review the general

characteristics of non-nites. en, in Section 2, I will briey illustrate the functions

that non-nite clauses have. Tree structures are provided in Section 3 and using a CP

with empty positions is justied. In Section 4, we’ll consider coordinated non-nites.

.

Non-nite clauses

ere are three kinds of non-nite clauses, namely those whose verb groups contain

innitives, or present participles, or past participles. We’ll rst consider innitives.

In (1), there are two lexical verbs, expected and go. is means there are two

clauses, which I have put brackets around. e non-nite clause her to go is the object

of expected. is non-nite clause can of course be rephrased by means of a nite

clause, as in (2):

(1) [I expected [her to go]].

(2) [I expected [that she would go]].

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

e innitive implies something uncertain or something that will happen in the future

perhaps. e corresponding main clause therefore has a modal would, expressing a

similar uncertainty.

ere are two types of innitives: one with to, as in (1), and a bare one, without to,

as in (3). e bare innitive lacks the uncertainty:

(3) She made [him leave].

e bare innitive in (3) occurs only as the object aer verbs such as make, see, hear,

and feel. e to-innitive is much more frequent. It occurs as object to many verbs, as

subject, subject predicate, and adverbial, as we’ll see.

e innitival clause with to frequently has a for as complementizer, as in (4), or

an in order, as in (5), that connects the innitival clause to the main clause:

(4) I expected [for him to be scared … ]

(from the catsite.com)

(5) [In order to understand the legislative process], it is necessary rst of all to know

something about the nature of the lawmaking body itself. (from an Alabama Senate

document)

As we’ll see when we draw the Verb Group for the non-nite clause, to will be put

inside this Verb Group since it is similar to a modal. If you want to name it, call it an

innitive marker. I abbreviate it as ‘inf’.

Apart from innitives, there are two other kinds of non-nite Verb Groups, usu-

ally referred to as participles. ey involve the present participle ending in -ing, as in

(6), and the past participle ending in -ed or -en, as in (7). Again, I have bracketed the

clauses these verbs go with:

(6) [Wa lk i ng down Rural Road], he was bothered by the trac lights.

(7) [Kidnapped last night], he is in Central Asia right now.

e form of kidnapped is a regular past participle because it ends in -ed. However, past

participles, like simple past tenses, can have irregular endings. e participle clause in

(6) can have while as a complementizer.

As mentioned in Chapter 6, non-nites fail to express tense. us, in (8), the non-

nite to walk in the subordinate clause is neither past nor present nor future. Instead,

the nite verb is/was/will be in the main clause determines the tense. e same is true

for the non-nite in (9):

(8) [To walk in the Superstition Mountains] is/was/will be nice.

(9) [Wa lk i ng in the Superstition Mountains] is/was/will be nice.

In addition, the verb in non-nite clauses displays no person or number marking, as is

shown by the ungrammaticality of walks in (10):

(10) *[For him to walks in the Superstitions] is nice.

Chapter 8. Non-nite clauses 

A third characteristic of non-nites is that the subject is not nominative. us, (11)

and (12) are grammatical with the subject of the innitive as him, i.e. accusative. Sen-

tence (13) with a nominative he as subject of the non-nite is not:

(11) I want [him to go].

(12) I heard [him playing a song].

(13) *I want he to go.

If the subject of the non-nite clause is not a pronoun, the accusative or objective case

on this subject is of course not visible, as (14) shows:

(14) She couldn’t bear to see [Edward suering].

e non-nite verb suering in (14) can also be a verbal noun, as in (15a), and then

the subject has genitive case, namely his or Edward’s, rather than the accusative him or

Edward. In (14), suering is a verb but in (15a) it is a noun because it is preceded by a

possessive. Note that you could replace the possessive by an article, as in (15b):

(15) a. She couldn’t bear to see [his/Edward’s suering].

b. She couldn’t bear to see [the suering of him/Edward].

Prescriptive grammarians object to (12) and (14), and prefer (15), known as gerund.

We will come back to gerunds as a special topic. I like to think of present participles as

a hybrid category, in between nouns and verbs, and prefer to avoid the term gerund.

As we saw in the previous chapter, nite embedded clauses, as in (16a), can become

independent from the main clause by leaving the complementizer that out, as in (16b).

A non-nite clause, as in (17a) can be the object inside another clause but, on its own,

as in (17b), it is not a complete sentence:

(16) a. I know [that he le].

b. He le.

(17) a. I want [him to go].

b. *Him to go.

We’ll now turn to the functions of the non-nite clauses.

.

The functions of non-nites

e functions of non-nite clauses are similar to those of nite ones. ey function

at sentence level as subject in (18), direct object in (19), adverbial in (20), and subject

predicate in (21):

(18) [Eating pancakes] is a pleasant thing.

(19) I love [eating pancakes].

(20) ey went there [to eat fry bread and chocolate].

(21) e problem is [to decide on what to eat].

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

e present participle clause, as in (18) and (19), and the to-innitive clause, as in (20)

and (21), are the most versatile in function. is is indicated as ‘broad’ in Table 8.1.

Past participle clauses, as in (7), are more restricted in that they usually function as

adverbials and bare innitives are mostly objects of certain verbs. is is indicated in

the table as ‘narrow’. I think the functions of non-nites are not dicult but, just as a

review, see if you can identify the functions of the clauses in (1) to (9).

Table 8.1 lists the dierent kinds of nite and non-nite clauses, with examples,

their complementizers, and in how many functions they are used.

Table 8.1. Embedded clauses

Example C Function

Finite (2) that, because, etc broad

Non-Finite innitive (1) sometimes: for, as in (4); broad

in order, as in (5)

bare-innitive (3) no narrow

present participle (6) while, aer, before broad

past participle (7) when, where narrow

In Chapter 10, nite and non-nite clauses will be shown to function inside

phrases as well.

.

The structure: CP

I represent a non-nite clause by means of a CP, as in (22), the structure for (17a). is

captures that the non-nite clause is fairly similar in structure to the nite clause but,

as we’ll see, it is a little more reduced and therefore can have more empty positions:

(22)

NP VP

VCP

want

NP VP

himVGP

inf V

to go

5. In (1) to (4), these clauses function as objects, in (5) and (7) as adverbials, and in (6), (8) and

(9) as subjects.

Chapter 8. Non-nite clauses 

In (22), I have put in an empty complementizer. is C position can be lled by for in

a number of cases, e.g. in (23). I like to use the C position, even if it is empty, because

it shows that the non-nite clause is embedded:

(23) I want [for you to do your homework].

Non-nite clauses need not include a subject. e subject may be understood, as in

(24). Since the subject is understood, I will add a subject position, with an empty sub-

ject, as in (25), as well as an empty C since there is no complementizer:

(24) To hike around Weaver’s Needle is pleasant.

(25)

V AdjP

is Adj

pleasant

NP VP

PNP

around

Weaver’s Needle

VGP

inf V

To hike

We could add the subject and complementizer in (25) and the reason I prefer (25) is

that it is pleasant for someone to walk around Weaver’s Needle; the tree expresses that

there is a subject even if this subject is le out.

e innitive marker to adds some uncertainty, as we have seen comparing (1)

and (3). I think it is somewhat similar to a modal and have therefore placed it in the

Verb Group. Be careful in recognizing this to: it goes before a verb. A preposition goes

before a noun or pronoun, as in to us.

Sentences such as (6) and (7) above can also be represented using a CP, as (26)

and (27) show:

(26)

NP VP

VGP

passV

was bothered

PNP

by N

trac lights

NP VP

VPP

Walking

PNP

down Rural

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(27)

NP VP

AdvP

Adv Adv

rightno

NP VP

VNP

Kidnapped

last night

V′

VPP

PNP

in Central Asia

As in the case of innitives, there are people who prefer a structure with fewer empty

positions. I like seeing which clause is embedded and which clause has a potential

subject. is comes in handy with dangling modiers, for instance, as we’ll see in the

special topic to this chapter.

In the previous chapter, I mentioned extraposed nite clauses. Extraposition is

possible with non-nites as well. For instance, (24) might be rendered as (28):

(28) It is nice [to hike around Weaver’s Needle].

In (28), the innitival clause that functions as the subject of the entire sentence has

been moved from the beginning to the end of the sentence.

Table 8.2 gives examples of some non-nite Verb Groups that have a full CP, an

empty C, an empty subject, and an empty C as well as empty subject.

Table 8.2. e non-nite CP

To-inﬁnitive Present participle

Full CP

I want [for her to do well]. —

Ø C

I want [Ø her to do well]. I saw [Ø him crossing the street].

C Ø NP *I want [for Ø to do well].

[While Ø doing that], she fell.

Ø C Ø NP

I want [Ø Ø to do well]. I like [Ø Ø doing well].

. Coordinating non-nites

Non-nite clauses can be coordinated, as in (29). Note that the coordinated non-nite

clauses gossiping about Zelda and chewing gum function as subject to the verb is. (Speakers

dier as to whether the verb is is or are):

(29) [[Gossiping about Zelda] and [chewing gum]] is hard to do at the same time.

6. Note that most varieties of English do not accept for to here but that certain varieties do.

Chapter 8. Non-nite clauses 

Other examples of coordinated non-nites are given in (30) to (32):

(30) She could not think of [[Emma losing a single pleasure], or [suering an hour’s

ennui]]. (adapted from Jane Austen’s Emma)

(31) But Emma, in her own mind, determined that he did not know what he was talking

about, and that he shewed a very amiable inclination [[to settle early in life], and

[to marry]].

(Emma, Vol 2, Chap 6)

(32) e point is [[to watch the whales], and [to participate in fun]] …

e coordinated non-nites function as the object to think in (30), as the complement

to inclination in (31) (this will get clearer in Chapter 10); and as the subject predicate in

(32). So, coordinated non-nite clauses always function as a unit inside another clause.

I will suggest (33) as a tree for coordinated non-nites functioning as a subject. I

leave it to your imagination what the verbs are:

(33)

CP VP

and

VGP AdjP

Adj

wouldbe

hard

for

NP VP

him

to …

For

NP VP

her

to …

Note that I am using ‘coathangers’ in (32). at means that I am not indicating that the

VPs can be divided into a V (or VGP), an NP. and a PP. It shows that in this particular

tree, we are not really interested in the structure of the VP. However, I have tried to

avoid using coathangers in this book.

.

Conclusion

In this chapter, non-nite clauses are discussed. eir structure and function is quite

similar to that of nite clauses. ey are CPs and function inside another clause as

subjects, objects, adverbials, and subject predicates.

ey dier from nite clauses in that the complementizer oen does not appear

and the subject can be absent. ey also cannot stand on their own. If they are coordi-

nated, they have to function together as an embedded clause.

Key terms are non-ﬁnite Verb Group, inﬁnitive, bare inﬁnitive, present participle,

past participle, gerund, CP, empty C, and empty subject.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Exercises

A. Please nd the non-nite clauses that function as direct objects and adverbials in the

sentences below, adapted from an article in the East Valley Tribune (4 April 2005, by

Jason Emerson). You might try to locate the lexical verbs rst.

(34) Arizona State University wants to make wholesale changes to the undergraduate

curriculum.

(35) The eort is still in the early stages but could result in a fundamental shift in the

knowledge and skills gained from a university education.

(36) The discussion intends to transform ASU into what President Crow calls the

“New American University.”

(37) Changing a university’s curriculum is often controversial. It can erupt into

full-blown controversies, as Stanford University discovered in the 1980s when

faculty members voted to replace a number of books that had been considered

part of the Western Canon.

(38) The task force is focusing on what the ideal ASU student should know upon

graduation.

(39) The task force hasn’t talked yet about specic changes. But some early ideas

include adding interdisciplinary classes and continuing them over four years until

graduation. Now, general studies are clustered in the rst two years.

(40) Carlson said the task force continues to debate how to make undergraduate

education more meaningful.

Are there any coordinated sentences? Is there ellipsis?

C. Draw trees for the following sentences:

(41) Drawing trees is easy.

(42) Emma wanted to do that.

(43) For Ed to be resigning from that job is stupid.

(44) Anselm made Vicky read the paper.

(45) I saw turkeys crossing the street.

(46) Santa set the alarm to be on time.

D. In the text below, nd the non-nite clauses.

When movie producers for Star Trek III needed someone to produce alien-sounding

dialogue for the Klingons, they turned to Marc Okrand, a linguist who has done

scholarly work on Native American languages. Okrand, however, didn’t limit himself to

creating lines of dialogue. He also developed a language, complete with phonological,

morphological, and syntactic rules, in addition to vocabulary. His hard work paid o

Chapter 8. Non-nite clauses 

not only by giving him subsequent lm work, but also by making him a sort of celebrity

among Star Trek fans across the world, who are studying Klingon. These fans are also

teaching their children to speak it, and are translating major works into Klingon. Any

short sentence will show you the complexities of Klingon. All nouns may be followed by

one or more suxes divided into ve types. If there are two or more suxes, the suxes

must occur in a specic order.

Construct a sentence with two embedded sentences, one of which must be a non-nite

clause functioning as direct object.

Construct a sentence with three non-nite clauses.

Class discussion

G. The following sentences are ambiguous. Why?

(47) Flying planes can be dangerous. (from Chapter 1)

(48) Visiting aliens should be amusing on a Monday morning.

H. Bracket the clauses in the sentence in Figure 8.1.

Figure 8.1. Embedded sentences

Read Keats’ poem “To Autumn” and circle/list the nite verbs in the rst two stanzas. Discuss

the dierence between the two paragraphs in class.

To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom friend of the maturing sun,

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;

To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

And ll all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later owers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For summer has o’er-brimmed their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid they store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may nd

Thee sitting careless on a granary oor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,

Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its twined owers:

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cider-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, –

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Make up some sentences with an innitival and participial object, as in (49) and (50).

Try to think about the dierence between the use of innitive and present participle.

You might look back to Table 8.2 as well:

(49) I want to visit Iceland, Israel, India, and Indonesia.

(50) I like traveling.

This is quite complex and has to do with to. I think verbs with the present participle as

complement are more auxiliary-like and the two clauses are not as independent as when

an innitive is involved. What do you think?

Chapter 8. Non-nite clauses 

Keys to the exercises

A. The lexical verbs are underlined and the non-nite clauses functioning as objects and

adverbials are indicated by brackets:

(34) Arizona State University wants [to make wholesale changes to the undergraduate

curriculum]. (=Object, DO)

(35) The eort is still in the early stages but could result in a fundamental shift in the

knowledge and skills gained from a university education. (coordinated clause and

reduced relative)

(36) The discussion intends [to transform ASU into what President Crow calls the

“New American University].” (=Object, DO)

(37) [Changing a university’s curriculum] is often controversial. It can erupt into

full-blown controversies, as Stanford University discovered in the 1980s when

faculty members voted [to replace a number of books that had been considered

part of the Western Canon]. (=Adverbial)

(38) The task force is focusing on [what the ideal ASU student should know upon

graduation]. (=Object)

(39) The task force hasn’t talked yet about specic changes. But some early ideas

include [[adding interdisciplinary classes] and [continuing them over four years

until graduation]]. (=Object that consists of coordinated non-nite clauses). Now,

general studies are clustered in the rst two years.

(40) Carlson said [the task force continues [to debate [how to make undergraduate

education more meaningful]]]. (=Object three times, DO)

B. Coordinated clauses occur in (35), since but can be seen as a coordinator. There is ellipsis

of the subject before could. In (39), two present participle clauses are coordinated and

form a complement.

C. (41)

V AdjP

is Adj

easy

NP VP

VNP

Drawingtrees

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(42)

NP VP

Emma

VCP

wanted

NP VP

VGPNP

that

infV

to do

(43)

V AdjP

Adj

stupid

For

NP VP

VGPPP

inf progr VP NP

to be resigning from

that job

(44)

NP VP

Anselm

VCP

made

NP VP

Vicky

VNP

read

the paper

Sentence (45) has the same structure as (44).

Chapter 8. Non-nite clauses 

(46)

NP VP

Santa

V′

VNP

set

the alarm

NP VP

VGPPP

infVPNP

to be on time

D. Non-nite clauses are in brackets: When movie producers for Star Trek III needed [someone

to produce alien-sounding dialogue for the Klingons], they turned to Marc Okrand, a

linguist who has done scholarly work on Native American languages. Okrand, however,

didn’t limit himself to [creating lines of dialogue]. He also developed a language, complete

with phonological, morphological, and syntactic rules, in addition to vocabulary. His hard

work paid o not only by [giving him subsequent lm work], but also by [making him a

sort of celebrity among Star Trek fans across the world, who are studying Klingon]. These

fans are also teaching [their children to speak it], and are translating major works into

Klingon. Any short sentence will show you the complexities of Klingon. All nouns may be

followed by one or more suxes [divided into ve types]. If there are two or more suxes,

the suxes must occur in a specic order.

E. Kim and Paul hoped [to see unicorns in the parking lot] [because they had studied

their habits].

F. They intend [to nd out if [looking out the window more often] makes [them work better]].

Special topic: Dangling participles and gerunds

There are two topics discussed here that involve the present participle. Both have been much

criticized by prescriptivists.

As we have seen in Chapter 3, PPs can go with a noun (e.g. woman in the woman with

glasses) or with a verb (e.g. saw in saw her with glasses). Sometimes, it is hard to tell. In this

special topic, we’ll look at non-nite adverbial clauses that are misplaced and often result in a

funny reading. There are prescriptive rules about how to place the modier. In (51), there is one

relevant for a non-nite clause:

(51) Avoid Dangling Participles

The subject of a clause with a participle in it (i.e. without a subject of its own) must

be the same as the subject of the main clause.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Swan (1980: 455) provides the following rule: “It is usually considered a mistake to make

sentences like these in which the subjects are dierent: Looking out of the window of our hotel,

there were lots of mountains … However, there are some very common expressions which

break this rule. Generally speaking, … Judging from his expression, … Considering, …”. Fowler

(1926 [1950]: 675) says that “it is to be remembered that there is a continual change going on

by which certain participles or adjectives acquire the character of prepositions or adverbs,

no longer needing the prop of a noun to cling to”. Hence, neither Swan nor Fowler are very

critical of the use.

‘Incorrect’ uses are given in (52) to (56). Some of these are funny because we automatically

think of the participles as having the same subject as the main clause:

(52) Running down the street, the house was on re.

(53) Referring to your letter of 5 September, you do not state …

(54) Although spoken in Shakespeare’s First Folio, we do not speak that way today.

(55) Lying in a heap on the oor, she found the clothes.

(56) Being a student, the challenges are many.

Sometimes, the left out subjects seem to be able to refer to the subject of the main clause, or

to the closest NP, or to neither. The rst meaning we come up with in (57) is the one where the

waiter is drenched in syrup:

(57) The waiter brought the waes to the table drenched in maple syrup.

Misplaced participles are not new. An example from Shakespeare appears in (58). I have put

brackets around the participle:

(58) It’s giuen out, that [sleeping in mine Orchard], A Serpent stung me: so the whole

eare of Denmarke, Is by a forged processe of my death Rankly abus’d: But know

thou Noble youth, The Serpent that did sting thy Fathers life, Now weares his

Crowne. (Hamlet I, v, 35)

The gerund was mentioned in section 1. Many grammarians avoid the term ‘gerund’;

I mention it in this book since it seems to be a pervasive term among my audience. It is a

present participle that looks either as a noun or as a verb, as in (59) and (60) respectively:

(59) I like [his doing that].

(60) I like [him doing that].

Fowler calls the present participle used as a verb the ‘fused participle’ (1926 [1950]: 206), probably

because it gets the same case as the noun preceding it. He calls the one used as a noun the

gerund. In the Modern English Usage, Fowler doesn’t quite dene the fused participle, except by

providing examples, as in (61):

(61) [Women having the vote] reduces men’s political power.

Chapter 8. Non-nite clauses 

About its users, Fowler says “[i]t need hardly be said that writers with any sense of style do not,

even if they allow themselves the fused participle, make so bad a use of the bad thing as is

shown above to be possible” (1926 [1950]: 207).

In conclusion, the dangling participle, as in (52) to (58), can result in amusing ambiguity;

the present participle used as a verb, as in (60), has been denounced for centuries (without

much success).

Review of Chapters 7 and 8

Chapters 7 and 8 cover embedded and coordinated sentences. If a sentence contains

more than one lexical verb, it contains multiple sentences or clauses. An embedded

clause functions (as subject, object, adverbial, or subject predicate) inside another clause.

is is true for nite and non-nite embedded clauses. e nite embedded clauses

discussed in chapter 7 all contain a nite verb and a complementizer that is optional in

some cases. e non-nite clauses come in a number of shapes, as innitives, present

participles, and past participles. ey are ‘smaller’ in that the complementizer and sub-

ject need not be present.

A coordinated clause can be split into two independent clauses but only if its

clauses are nite. Coordinate nite sentences can leave the second subject out aer

a coordinator, and that is called ellipsis. Some coordinated sentences are borderline

embedded sentences since the second clause can be seen as an adverbial.

e structure of the embedded sentence is a CP which accommodates the comple-

mentizer C and the S. A typical embedded clause is given in (1), with the CP embedded

in the main S as sister to the V:

(1)

NP VP

Sam

VCP

said

that

NP VP

Diane

VNP

was

a poetess

In a non-finite clause, some of the positions in (1) would be empty; see (26) of

Chapter 8.

e structure of coordinate sentences is also a CP with a coordinator C and S.

Subjects and complementizers can be absent in the non-initial coordinated clause. We

discussed two possible structures.

Review of Chapters 7 and 8 

Exercises

A. In the following sentences, please identify by means of brackets and labels the nite

and non-nite clauses that function as subjects, direct objects, subject predicates,

and adverbials:

(2) Some linguistic historians prefer to believe that languages live and die by social

evolution.

(3) They saw him cross the street without looking.

(4) It is gratifying to see that idea becoming more accepted.

(5) Since the advent of printing, the standard language may have developed that way

because of increased standardization.

(6) The president that founded this organization was arrested twice before he was

replaced.

Which are the lexical verbs in (2) to (6) and which are the nite Verb Groups (i.e. a VGP

containing a nite verb)?

Draw a tree for (7):

(7) Poirot thought that he had sucient evidence to solve the mystery.

Keys to the exercises

A. (2) Some linguistic historians prefer [OBJECT: to believe [OBJECT:

that languages live and die by social evolution]]. Note that I consider

‘live and die’ as coordinated verbs not as separate clauses.

(3) They saw [OBJECT: him cross the street [ADVERBIAL: without looking]].

(4) It is gratifying [(extraposed) SUBJECT: to see [OBJECT: that idea becoming more

accepted]].

(5) Since the advent of printing, the standard language may have developed that way

because of increased standardization. NOTHING

(6) The president that founded this organization was arrested twice [ADVERBIAL:

before he was replaced]. Note that this sentence also contains a relative clause.

Relative clauses modify a N and do not function independently. For more on this,

see Chapter 10.

B. In (2), prefer, believe, live, die are lexical. In (3), saw, cross, and looking are; in (4) is, see,

becoming; in (5), developed; in (6), founded, arrested, replaced are.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Finite VGPs in (2) are prefer, live and die; in (3), saw; in (4), is; in (5), may have developed;

and in (6), founded, was arrested, was replaced.

C. (7)

Poirot

thought

C S

that

NP VP

V′

VNP

had

AdjPN

Adj evidence

suﬃcient

NP VP

VGP NP

infVDN

to solve themystery

Sample quiz/exam, covering Chapters 7 and 8

A. What is prescriptively wrong with sentence (1)? Provide the name of this phenomenon

and explain why it is wrong.

(1) Although spoken by Shakespeare, we don’t speak that way today.

B. Identify the (main and subordinate) clauses by means of brackets in the short text below.

Indicate which clauses are nite:

The future of 100,000 refugees was dealt another blow this week after the Bhutanese

government rejected a UN formula. Bhutan and Nepal started negotiations to solve

the problem of the people in refugee camps in 1992. Since then 9 high-level meetings

have taken place without resulting in a solution, however.

Draw trees for (2), (3) and (4):

(2) Those Martians decided that they would take along some chickens on their trip.

(3) They wanted to see him before leaving Malacandra.

(4) For us to accompany penguins on that trip is a wonderful opportunity.

Review of Chapters 7 and 8 

Keys to the Quiz/Exam

A. The subject of the main clause (we) and that of the embedded clause (a hidden subject that

is probably language/English) are not the same. That’s why the prescriptive problem is

that of a dangling participle.

B. The clauses are bracketed and the nite clauses have FIN marking that:

FIN[The future of 100,000 refugees was dealt another blow this week FIN[after the

Bhutanese government rejected a UN formula]]. FIN[Bhutan and Nepal started

negotiations [to solve the problem of the people in refugee camps in 1992]]. FIN[Since

then 9 high-level meetings have taken place [without resulting in a solution, however]].

(2)

NP VP

DNVCP

Those Martians decided

that

they VP

(I have the phrasal verb as compound)

on their trip

V′

VGPNP

modal VD N

would take along some chickens

(3)

NP VP

They

C S

before

NP VP

VNP

leavingMalacandra

V′

V CP

wanted

NP VP

him

infV

to see

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(4)

VNP

N′

AP N

A opportunity

wonderful

For

NP VP

V′

VGPNP on that trip

infVpenguins

to accompany

Chapter 9

The structure of the PP, AdjP, AdvP,

and NP

1. The structure of the PP, AdjP, and AdvP

and the functions inside

2. The structure of the NP and the functions

inside

3. Arguments for distinguishing complements

from modiﬁers (Optional)

4. Conclusion

Up to now, we have mainly seen phrases function at sentence level (as subjects, direct

objects, subject predicates, adverbials, etc.). In this chapter, examples are given where

phrases function inside other phrases, as modiers and complements to the heads of

these phrases. Grammatical categories, such as the determiner, also function inside

phrases, whereas auxiliaries function in the Verb Group (see Chapter 6) and comple-

mentizers link one sentence to another.

Some of the structure of the NP, AdjP, AdvP, and PP has already been provided in

Chapter 3. ere, we noted that PPs could be modiers to a noun (or adverbials in a

sentence). In this chapter, we discuss the modier function in more detail and add the

complement. e four possible functions inside a phrase are determiner, head, modi-

er, and complement. ere can be more than one modier in a phrase, but not more

than one complement or determiner.

In Section 1, I review the structure for the simple phrase, the PP, AdjP, and

the AdvP, and examine the components of each of these phrases. In Section 2, we

discuss the NP. It can have a modifier as well as a complement and a determiner.

The distinction between modifier and complement is elaborated on Section 3.

This distinction can be skipped depending on how much detail you want (or have

time) to explore.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

. The structure of the PP, AdjP, and AdvP and the functions inside

e structure of the Prepositional Phrase is relatively straightforward, with a P head

and an NP complement, as in (1a). e PP can of course be longer, as in on the roof of

the very fancy gingerbread house, with a tree as in (1b):

(1)

a. PP b. PP

PNPPNP

on on

DN DN′

the roof the

NPP

roof

PNP

DN′

the

AdjP N

gingerbread house

Adv Adj

very fancy

e preposition is the head of the PP and the NP that follows always functions as

complement. ere are a limited number of modiers to PPs, e.g. right and straight, as

in right to school. We won’t draw a tree including those here.

Instances of Adjective Phrases are very fancy in (1b), blatantly illegal in (2), perfectly

safe, nice, interesting, and too good:

(2) at was [blatantly illegal].

ese phrases are called AdjPs because their heads are adjectives, i.e. illegal in (2). A

structure for an AdjP would be as in (3), where illegal is the head and the adverb bla-

tantly modies it:

(3)

AdjP

AdvP Adj

Adv illegal

blatantly

e adverb blatantly expresses the manner of the illegality. I have made it into an AdvP

because you can expand it into very blatantly, but most modiers to adjectives are

degree adverbs, so just Adv.

us, (3) contains an Adj head and an AdvP modier. In very rare cases, there can

be a complement to the adjective as well (not to the adverb though). For instance, in

7. I treat gingerbread house as a compound noun.

Chapter 9. The structure of the PP, AdjP, AdvP, and NP 

(4a), of his catch does not describe the manner or the place of being proud but what

someone is proud of, i.e. of his catch is the complement of proud (inside the VP we’d

call it a direct object). e same is true of about that waste in (4b):

(4) a. He was [blatantly proud of his catch].

b. ere is something that is [very illegal about that waste].

A tree for the AdjP in (4b) is given in (5). I have indicated the dierent functions of the

elements of the phrase. As in the case of VPs where objects are sisters to V, the complement

about that waste is sister to the Adjective. In (5), I have put in the (intermediate) label Adj′

(pronounced ‘Adjective-bar’). In Chapters 3 and 5, we mentioned intermediate nodes in

connection with the NP and the VP. As mentioned, as much structure as in (5) is

unusual for an AdjP:

(5)

AdjP

Adv Adj′

very

Modier Adj PP

illegal

Head

PNP

about

Complement

that waste

Some other examples of adjectives that have complements are able, afraid, aware, conscious,

fond, glad, happy, mad, proud, reasonable, and successful.

Very frequently, adjectives are ‘stacked’, as in (6), which is a bit exaggerated:

(6) e beautiful, large, fast, young, spotted leopard jumped out of nowhere.

Adjectives occur in a particular order that native speakers don’t even pay attention to,

but that is very complex to work out. Try ordering the adjectives in (6) in a dierent

way and see how that works out. If you are curious about the order and the tree for (6),

look at question D and its answer.

AdvPs have a simple structure. e ones listed in (7) came up aer a search for

happily in the British National Corpus (all from written non-ction):

(7) a. One day he will happily walk along a busy road.

b. I’d happily buy her this.

c. It is a contradiction which thousands happily go along with because they are

keen to advance up the social ladder.

d. He was a gentle man, happily dominated by his competent wife.

e. I turned to nd the young Mr. Cardinal beaming happily at me.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

So, these have just a head, as in (8a), or as I oen put them, as in (8b):

(8)

a. AdvP b. AdvP

Adv

Adv happil

happily

e AdvPs can be expanded by a modier that precedes the head, e.g. by the degree

adverb very in very happily in (9), also from the BNC non-ction collection, with the

AdvP drawn in (10):

(9) e majority of popular community sh will survive very happily on this diet.

(10)

AdvP

Adv Adv

very happil

e adverbs that modify adverbs are few in number. Some examples are very, so, too,

extremely, really, and quite. ey are all degree adverbs and cannot be expanded. at’s

why they do not head their own AdvP, but are represented as just an Adv in (10). A

summary table is provided.

Table 9.1. Components of the PP, AdjP, and AdvP

PP P head and NP complement (on the roof)

AdjP Adv(P) modier and Adj head

and occasional PP complement (very proud of his mother)

AdvP Degree Adv modier and Adv head (very happily)

When drawing a tree, you need not put the functions in, just use D, Adj, N, PP, etc.

.

The structure of the NP and the functions inside

Typical instances of NPs are provided in (11a) and (11b):

(11)

a. NP b. NP

DN′ DN′

that the

AdjP NNPP

Adj

manatee manatee

blue PNP

from Florida

Chapter 9. The structure of the PP, AdjP, AdvP, and NP 

In (11a), the AdjP blue modies the head in that it describes a quality or characteristic of

the manatee. We can add many such modifers, e.g. where the manatee comes from, if

it is fast or slow, and whether we think it is nice or not. From Florida in (11b) modies

the head as well since it tells you where the manatee is from. So modiers can precede

or follow the head: AdjPs precede and PPs follow. Hence, they are sometimes called

pre-modiers and post-modiers respectively. Determiners function as pointers: that

points to a particular manatee and the makes it a specic manatee. In (12a) and (12b),

I repeat these structures with the functions added, but we don’t usually clutter up the

tree that way since the functions are predictable from the tree.

(12)

a. NP b. NP

DN′ D

N′

that Determiner the

AdjP

Adj manatee

manatee

blue Head PNP

Determiner from Florida

Modier

An NP in English can also contain what is called a complement to the noun. Unlike objects

in the VP, complements to N and Adj are optional and that’s what makes it hard to distin-

guish between modiers and complements. See how helpful the following discussion and

that in Section 3 are and decide if the distinction is important or interesting for you.

Examples of NPs with complements to the head nouns are given in (13) to (16),

with the complement in brackets:

(13) e teacher [of Martian]

(14) eir discussion [about genetics]

(15) e student [of elephants]

(16) Your reply [to my letter]

e nouns that can have complements are verb-like. One way to check if a PP is a com-

plement is to make the noun into a verb. If you change the nouns into verbs in (13) to

(16), the complements change into direct objects in (17) to (19) and into prepositional

object in (20). e type of object they become depends on the verb:

(17) You teach [Martian].

(18) ey discussed [genetics].

(19) She studied [elephants].

(20) You replied [to my letter].

8. From my own experience, this is diﬃcult material and, since it is less crucial to the understanding

of the NP (and AdjP), I sometimes skip complements to nouns.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

e NPs in (13) to (16) change into full sentences in (17) to (20) as well. A table with

typical PP modiers and complements to nouns is given as Table 9.2.

Table 9.2. Examples of nouns with modiers and with complements

Modiers Complements

the manatee [from Florida] the teacher [of English]

the student [with red hair] the student [of physics]

a boy with [with green hair] an appeal [to reason]

a book [on the table] the investigation [of corruption]

a glass [on the table] the allegations [of murder]

green tea [from Korea] recruitment [of new sta]

a computer [with sound] his attack [on that celebrity]

Modiers are quite free, e.g. with red/green hair and on the table can occur with many

nouns. Complements are more restricted and only go with certain nouns, e.g. student,

teacher, discussion, disgust and investigation. Adding of physics to teacher and student is

ne but adding it to boy results in a very strange phrase!

As in the case of objects inside the VP (Chapter 4), complements to the N can be

represented in the tree as sisters to the head, in this case N, as in (21) and (22):

(21)

DN′

e

NPP

teacher

PNP

of Martian

(22)

DN′

eir

NPP

discussion

PNP

about N

genetics

So far, we have seen that the elements of an NP in English function as determiner,

head, modier, and complement. is is summarized in Table 9.3. e name (i.e. label

Chapter 9. The structure of the PP, AdjP, AdvP, and NP 

or realization) of each of these functions is listed underneath the function. Note that

there can be many modiers but only one determiner and one complement.

Table 9.3. Functions inside the NP (the ‘^’ indicates that there can be more than one)

determiner modier^ head complement modier^

D AdjP^ N PP PP^

the nice student of chemistry from Macedonia

several interesting discussions about politics at night

a delicious pie – from my friend

those noisy teachers of linguistics from outer space

In tree form, the expanded NP in the rst example of Table 9.3 looks like (23):

(23)

DN′

e

AdjP N′

Adj

nice N′ PP

NPPP NP

student from Macedonia

PNP

of chemistry

As indicated by the ^^ in Table 9.3, modiers can be repeated on both sides of the

noun. Multiple modiers oen result in ambiguities, as in (24) and (25):

(24) On a menu: ‘Vegetarian Chicken Soup’. (Was the chicken vegetarian?)

(25) An o/Old English French teacher. (When spoken, the punctuation doesn’t appear!)

In this section, we have spent most time on the head, the modier, and the comple-

ment. e determiner is relatively easy. Check Chapter 2 for a list of determiners. If the

D is there, it appears right underneath the NP, as in (26):

(26)

Determiner my/the

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

e determiner is special in that it is both an umbrella category name, which includes

articles, quantiers, demonstratives, possessives, etc. (see Chapter 2), as well as a func-

tion name.

As you may remember from Chapter 2, the pre-determiner may be added as a

function inside the NP. In (27), three quantiers that function in this way are given. In

a tree, they would precede the D, but I won’t go into this here:

(27) All the nice books; half the people; both my pictures.

e last element we are adding to the NP is the focusser or emphasizer, but these are

relatively rare. Some of the ones that occur in English are just, only, especially, and

even, as in (28). Most of these are tricky in that they can be used in other ways too, e.g.

even and just are also adjectives, and most are adverbs as well:

(28) then it will perhaps gravel [even a philosopher] to comprehend it.

(George Berkeley, Treatise 97)

. Arguments for distinguishing complements from modiﬁers (Optional)

As was mentioned in the previous section, inside the NP, some elements are more

closely related to the head N than others. We can refer to these as complements and

modiers respectively. ey can be compared to the objects (even though the latter

are more obligatory) and the adverbials in the VP. Above, I have suggested that, if you

can change the noun into a verb (discussion into discuss), the PP complement will

change into an NP object (or PP object depending on the verb). To me, that is the most

crucial argument. In this section, I provide several additional arguments (summarized

in Table 9.4) for distinguishing complements from modiers and provide trees that

show the distinction.

.

Complement and modiﬁer follow the head N

e NP in (29) has a modier from England that tells you where the teacher is from

and a complement of physics that tells you what the teacher teaches:

(29) A teacher of physics from England.

In the tree structure, we represent the dierence between the complement and the

modier by having complements be sisters to N and modiers sisters to N′. For

Chapter 9. The structure of the PP, AdjP, AdvP, and NP 

instance, in (30), of physics is sister to N and is therefore the complement, whereas

from England is a sister to the N′ and is therefore the modier:

(30)

DN′

N′ PP

NPPPNP Modier

teacher

from England

PNP

of N

physics Complement

ere can only be one complement and the order between complement and modier

cannot be reversed as the ungrammaticality of (31) shows:

(31) *A teacher [from England] [of physics].

e impossibility of complement modier reversal is the rst argument that you can

use to distinguish between complements and modiers.

Apart from word order (complement is closest to the head), there is a second

way to distinguish complements from modiers and it involves determining what pro-

noun one can use to pronominalize certain parts of the NP. In (28), teacher of physics and

teacher of physics from England are N′s. e N′ can be replaced by one, but the N (and NP)

cannot be replaced by one. In (32), one replaces teacher of physics, i.e. an N′, and the

sentence is grammatical; in (33), one replaces teacher, i.e. an N, and this results in an

ungrammatical sentence:

(32) I know the [teacher of physics] from England and the one from France.

(33) *I know the [teacher] of physics from England and the one of chemistry.

ese sentences provide evidence for the special status of the intermediate category N′

in that it can be replaced by one, as in (32), unlike the N in (33).

.

Complement and modiﬁer precede the head N

Complements and modiers can also precede the N, as in (34). e modier English

again says something about the teacher, i.e. where he or she is from, and the complement

physics claries what the teacher teaches:

(34) at English physics teacher.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

ere can be many modiers, as (35) shows, but there can only be one complement

connected to the noun, of course, as (36) shows:

(35) at [nice] [intelligent] teacher [with purple hair].

(36) *at [physics] teacher [of chemistry].

Again, the complement is closer to the head than the modier, as (34) shows. e

complement is sister to the N whereas the modier is sister to the N′:

(37)

DN′

that

AdjP

N′

Adj

Modier English NP N

N teacher

Complement physics

e same arguments to distinguish complements and modiers hold as in the case of

(29). First, their order cannot be reversed, as the ungrammaticality of (38) shows, and

there can only be one complement but many modiers, as in (39):

(38) *at physics English teacher.

(39) at nice, patient, English [chemistry] teacher.

Secondly, replacement by one of the N′ physics teacher in (34) is possible. See (40). e

N teacher cannot be replaced. See (41):

(40) at English one.

(41) at English physics one.

e N′ English physics teacher can also be replaced of course.

So far, I have only drawn trees with the modiers and complements either preced-

ing or following the noun. Tree (42) has modiers on either side as well as a comple-

ment preceding the head:

(42)

DN′

the

AdjP N′

Adj

adventurousN′ PP

NP NP NP

Nteacher with N

physics

ideas

Chapter 9. The structure of the PP, AdjP, AdvP, and NP 

e complement physics in (42) is sister to the N teacher and the two modiers are

sisters to N′.

A question that oen comes up in class is what the category of some of these

pre-nominal modiers and complements is. When complements precede the head,

it is unclear what the category is, an N or an Adj. For instance, English in (37) is a

clear adjective when it tells you where someone comes from. However, it looks like

a noun when the teacher teaches the English language, as in the ungrammatical

(38). I will treat it as a noun when it is a complement and an adjective when it is a

modier.

In this section, I have shown that there is evidence that complements and modi-

ers are distinguished in an NP: their order, coordination, and pronominalization by

one dier. I will nish by summarizing the dierences that are the easiest to use, and

among these it is (a) and (b) that may be clearest. See also Table 9.2.

Table 9.4. Modiers and complements to N: a summary

Modiers Complements

All Ns may have modiers only certain Ns have complements:

those Ns that are verb-like

b gives general background information gives information pertinent to the N

c position is relatively free occurs either right before or right aer the N

d more than one are possible in one NP only one per NP

. Conclusion

In this chapter, we have discussed the dierent functions of elements inside the AdjP,

AdvP, PP, and NP. e functions include head, determiner, modier, and complement.

Not all phrases include all these functions, only the NP does. e other phrases are

less complex. e PP has a head and a complement, the AdjP a head, a modier, and a

complement, and the AdvP just a modier. e most important part is to recognize a

phrase and its head and to be able to draw a tree.

e functions of modier and complement are similar to the functions of

adverbial and object in the VP, discussed in Chapters 4 and 5, with the exception

of the names given and their optionality. is is not something you need to think

about further if it makes the matter more complex. e adverbial of the VP is called

modier when it occurs in the AdjP, AdvP and NP, and the dierent kinds of objects

in the VP are not dierentiated but just called complements in the AdjP, PP, and NP.

e NP may also contain a determiner where the VP has a subject. e complements

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

in the NP and AdjP are usually optional, whereas objects and predicates in the VP

are obligatory.

Key terms in Sections 1 and 2 are determiner, modier, head, and complement;

in Section 3, they are complement as opposed to modier; word order; pronominal-

ization; and coordination.

Chapter 9. The structure of the PP, AdjP, AdvP, and NP 

Exercises

A. In the sentences below, adapted from The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy, ﬁnd the PPs

that function as modiﬁers inside phrases, i.e. as modiﬁers to nouns or adjectives:

(43) During an interval in the Melvinski trial, the members and public prosecutor met

in Ivan Egorovich Shebek’s private room, where the conversation turned on the

celebrated Krasovski case.

(44) On receiving the news of Ivan Ilych’s death, the ﬁrst thought of each of the

gentlemen in that private room was of the changes and promotions it might

occasion among themselves or their acquaintances.

(45) Leaning against the wall in the hall downstairs near the cloak-stand was a

coﬃn-lid covered with cloth of gold, ornamented with gold cord and tassels.

B. Provide a tree structure for the following NPs (use NP, AdjP, D, etc.). Also list the functions

of the diﬀerent elements.

(46) one of their irrational responses

(47) the attack on the conclusions of that report

(48) a hilarious look at two geniuses

(49) four ﬂuﬀy feathers on a Fiﬀer-feﬀer-feﬀ (from Dr. Seuss’s ABC)

Provide a tree structure for the following sentences:

(50) This wonderful fridge is available in Montana.

(51) A very curious, red book with ink stains was found.

(52) He hides behind the pile of books on his desk.

(53) The lovely pig from Wyoming told the bureaucrat in Washington the story of his life.

Optional (Section 1)

D. In (6) above, repeated here as (54), we saw ﬁve adjectives in a row. Try to see how the

classes listed in (55) are ordered in relation to each other:

(54) The beautiful, large, fast, young, spotted leopard jumped out of nowhere.

(55) opinion size appearance speed age shape color origin material

pretty, ugly large soft, sweet fast old round pink Israeli golden

Now try to draw a tree for (54).

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Optional (Section 3)

E. Try to draw trees for (56) and (57) expressing the diﬀerence between complements and

modiﬁers. Which PPs and NPs are complements? Provide reasons for your answer:

(56) Canadian students of English

(57) a French Old English student.

Class discussion

F. My own favorite ambiguous NP is given in (58):

(58) The chocolate toy factory.

I can think of three interpretations and a few trees. Two of my favorite trees are as

follows. Discuss the diﬀerence!

(59)

a. NP b. NP

DN′ DN′

The The

NP NAdjPN′

factory Adj

AdjP N′ chocolateNPN

AdjN Nfactory

chocolate toy toy

Remember that sisters to N categories are complements, so that the NP complements to

the N factory would be the products of the factory, and that sisters to N′ nodes describe

physical properties of the factory.

The ﬁrst sentence of Exercise A is actually as in (60). Do you think there is ambiguity?

Is the trial modiﬁed by the PP that follows, or is that PP an independent adverbial?

(60) During an interval in the Melvinski trial in the large building of the Law Courts the

members and public prosecutor met in Ivan Egorovich Shebek’s private room,

where the conversation turned on the celebrated Krasovski case.

Compare the NP in (61a) with the S in (61b). What are the similarities/diﬀerences?

(61) a. Stella’s destruction of that awful set of dishes.

b. Stella destroyed that awful set of dishes.

Chapter 9. The structure of the PP, AdjP, AdvP, and NP 

Keys to the exercises

A. The below PPs all modify an N:

(43) During an interval [in the Melvinski trial], the members and public prosecutor met

in Ivan Egorovich Shebek’s private room, where the conversation turned on the

celebrated Krasovski case.

(44) On receiving the news [of Ivan Ilych’s death], the ﬁrst thought [of each [of the

gentlemen [in that private room]]] was of the changes and promotions it might

occasion among themselves or their acquaintances.

(45) Leaning against the wall [in the hall downstairs] (could also be Adverbial) near the

cloak-stand was a coﬃn-lid covered with cloth [of gold], ornamented with gold

cord and tassels.

B. The structure for (46) is as follows, with one as the head and of their irrational

responses as the modiﬁer. In this phrase, the determiner one is functioning as noun

head (see Chapter 2 for other determiners that do this). A test for picking the head is

making the phrase into a subject and then checking the agreement on the verb (One

of their responses was to ... and not One of their responses were…):

(46)

NPP (and if you want to show that irrational is a modiﬁer,

one i.e. sister to an N′:

PNP…N′

DN′

AdjP N′

their

Adj N

AdjP N irrational responses)

Adj responses

irrational

In (47), the is the determiner, attack the head, and the rest is the complement (because attack is

a verb-like noun):

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(47)

DN′

the

NPP

attack

P NP

DN′

the

NPP

conclusions

PNP

that report

In (48), a is the determiner, hilarious the modiﬁer, look the head, and the PP the complement:

(48)

DN′

AdjP N′

Adj

Nhilarious PP

look

PNP

D geniuses

two

In (49), four is the determiner, ﬂuﬀy is the modiﬁer, feathers the head, and the PP is the (post-)

modiﬁer. I could have shown that the PP is the modiﬁer by making it a sister to an N′ but haven′t:

Chapter 9. The structure of the PP, AdjP, AdvP, and NP 

(49)

DN′

four

AdjP N′

Adj

Nﬂuﬀy

AdjP

Adj

-fe

ﬀ

Fiﬀer-feﬀer

feathers

PNP

DN′

C. (50)

NP VP

DN′ V′ PP

This

AdjP NV AdjP P NP

Adj fridge is Adjin Montana

wonderful available

(51)

Sa.

NP VP

VGP

′

AdjP

Adv

very curious

Adj

′

pass

was found

AdjP

Adj

′

Nred

book

with

AdjP

Adj stains

ink

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

There are other correct trees for (51). You could put red and book more closely together than

book and the PP, as I’ve done above. Also, if you wanted to express that the PP in (51) is a

modiﬁer not a complement, you could make it sister to N′ rather than N, as in:

(51)

b. N′

N′ N′

book with ink stains

A structure for (52) is as follows. There are again other possible trees for (52), e.g. one could

indicate that the PPs are modiﬁers by making them sisters to N′. Notice in (52) that on his desk

is modifying the pile of books. If it were an independent adverbial, it would mean that he hides

on his desk behind a pile of books:

(52)

NP VP

VPP

hides

P NP

behind

DN′

the

NNP

pile

PNP

NPP

books

NNP

his desk

A tree as in (53) is a challenge if you don’t have enough space. Doing it by hand (in draft form)

will save you a lot of time over drawing it using a computer. Note that I could have made the

PPs from Wyoming and from Washington sisters to an N′, showing their modiﬁer status:

Chapter 9. The structure of the PP, AdjP, AdvP, and NP 

(53)

DN′

AdjP N′

Adj

lovely PPP

pig

PNP

Wyomingfrom

NPV

told

DN′

the the

PPP

b′crat

PNP

Washingtonfrom

DN′

PPP

story

of his life

D. The adjectives are usually seen as ordered in the way that I have listed the types

in (55). In (54), tall is an adjective of dimension, thin of physical characteristic, as is

strong, young is age-related, and clever expresses a value. The tree for the NP in (54) is

as below (and of course the last AdjP could be sister to an N′ too):

(54)

DN′

The

AdjP N′

Adj

beautiful

AdjP N′

Adj

large AdjP N′

Adj

fast AdjP N′

Adj

young

AdjP N

leopard

Adj

spotted

E. The structure for (56) is as in (38) above, with Canadian as modiﬁer and of English as comple-

ment. One of the reasons is that you can say The Canadian one, but not the one of English:

(56)

AdjP N′

Adj

Canadian NPP

students

of English

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

In (57), since Old is capitalized, it goes with English, and I have made it into a D, but modiﬁer

would be ok too. The modiﬁer is French and the complement is Old English:

(57)

DN′

AdjP N′

Adj

French NP

student

Old

English

Special topic: Pronoun resolution

In this special topic, we’ll look at some problems that speakers and writers encounter when

they are deciding on which pronoun to use. The choice of the pronoun, of course, depends on

the antecedent, the phrase that the pronoun refers to. Some are easy, as in (62), but some are

ambiguous, e.g. the he in (63) could in principle go back to Obama or to Putin:

(62) I noticed a woman in that store. She was wearing a greenish purple jacket.

(63) Obama met Putin at the Kremlin. He wanted to discuss Afghanistan.

Writers are usually advised, as in (64), not to be ambiguous and sentence (63) would be

clearer using the former or the latter rather than he:

(64) Avoid ambiguity: “There should not be two parties justifying even a momentary

doubt about which the pronoun represents.” (Fowler 1926 [1950]: 464)

The use of the plural they and their to refer to a singular antecedent is still frowned upon. The

prescriptive rule could be formulated as (65) and an example appears in (66):

(65) Avoid ‘singular they’: do not use they, them, or their to refer to a singular antecedent.

(66) The student should be aware not to leave their computer unattended in the library.

‘Singular their’ in (66) is of course used because English lacks a gender-neutral third person

pronoun.

The OED is not prescriptive on this topic and lists the following function of they. It also

cites examples of this use from the 16th century:

(67) They: “Often used in reference to a singular noun made universal by every, any, no,

etc., or applicable to one of either sex (= ‘he or she’).”

There are many other rules to help writers decide on the use of pronouns. In Chapter 10,

we’ll discuss, as special topic, the prescriptive rules for which relative pronoun to use for which

antecedent.

Chapter 10

Clauses as parts of NPs and AdjPs

1. Relative clauses (RC)

2. Inside the NP: Relative and complement

clauses

3. NPs as compared to AdjPs, AdvPs, and PPs

4. More on RCs

5. The structure of modiers

and complements (optional)

6. Conclusion

In Chapters 7 and 8, the functions of nite and non-nite clauses are discussed at

sentence level (e.g. as subjects or objects). e present chapter shows that clauses can

also function inside the phrase as modiers or complements. Traditionally, modier

clauses are called relative clauses and we'll continue that practice. Relative clauses

come in many kinds, as we’ll see.

In Section 1, I provide a brief introduction to the shape and function of relative

clauses. In Section 2, examples are given of relative clauses and complement clauses

inside the NP. e non-nite reduced relative is also discussed. ese two rst sections

are the most important. In Section 3, we look at the internal structure of phrases other

than the NP, and in Section 4, we explore some dierent types of relative clauses. In

Section 5, we examine the tree structure.

.

Relative clauses (RC)

roughout the book, we have seen that PPs can function as adverbials and as modi-

ers. A PP used as modier has a function very similar to that of a relative clause, as

(1) and (2) show:

(1) e student [from Zombie Island] has yellow hair. (modication by PP)

(2) e student [who is from Zombie Island] has yellow hair. (modication by RC)

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

A relative clause (RC) typically starts with a who, which, or that relative pronoun and

provides further information about a noun.

Let’s look at the short text in (3), from the Times of London, and see where the RCs are:

(3) “Changes have to be made,” said a 34-year-old political activist [who asked to remain

anonymous]. Her rst target would be headscarves, [which are mandatory in Iran].

“e least of the freedoms [we need] is the ability to choose what to wear. For women

this is really an issue. Whenever you go out, you have to be vigilant because the moral

police may not think it is appropriate and they may even take you to jail. A woman’s

integrity is judged by the colour of your dress – well, isn’t that stupid?”

As you can see, I have put brackets around the three relative clauses. e rst modies

the noun an activist, the second headscarves, and the third freedoms. e third one has

the relative pronoun that or which le out, but you could always add it. When you look

at the entire text, there are lots of other clauses that are not relative, e.g. whenever you

go out is a nite clause functioning as adverbial and it is appropriate is a nite clause

functioning as direct object. So, be careful when you see a clause!

.

Inside the NP: Relative and complement clauses

In this section, we will divide the nite relative clauses into restrictive and non-restrictive.

We also add the complement clause and the non-nite reduced relative.

.

Relatives

Clauses that modify nouns, such as the one in (4), are referred to as relative clauses

because the noun they modify (stories in this case) plays a role (has a function) in the

RC. e RC is related to the noun by means of which:

(4) e stories [which he repeats oen] are boring.

e element that connects the noun and the clause, i.e. which in (4), is called a relative

pronoun. In (4), the relative pronoun functions as the direct object of repeat. Relative pro-

nouns can also function inside the relative clauses as subjects, as in (2), or have other

functions. e rst two relative pronouns in (3) are subjects. e third one lacks a rela-

tive pronoun but, if we added which, it would function as object.

RCs are usually divided into restrictive as in (4) and non-restrictive, as in (5) and (6):

(5) Hillary Clinton, who just returned from a trip to Cuba, intends to write a book.

(6) Queen Elizabeth the rst, who was born in 1533, was the last sovereign of the house

of Tudor.

e reason we discuss the dierence between restrictive and non-restrictive clauses is

that the use of one over the other has grammatical (and possibly other) consequences.

ree dierences between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses are listed

in Table 10.1. First, restrictive RCs can have a that, as in (7), or a who/which, as in (4).

Chapter 10. Clauses as parts of NPs and AdjPs 

In the non-restrictive RC (5) and (6), on the other hand, only a wh-pronoun occurs

and that is not possible, as (8) shows:

(7) e stories that he told us oen are boring. (restrictive)

(8) *Hillary Clinton, that just returned from a trip to (non-restrictive)

Cuba, intends to write a book.

e second dierence is that restrictive RCs provide essential information, unlike

non-restrictive ones. For instance, in (4), the stories is so general that the RC restricts

and species the stories that are meant. In the case of (5), everyone living in the US

at the beginning of the 21st century is expected to know who Hillary Clinton is and

therefore the NP Hillary Clinton does not need to be restricted. e RC just provides

background information that is not essential in knowing which noun is meant. at’s

why it is called non-restrictive.

ird, since the information in non-restrictive RCs is background information, the

non-restrictive RC in (5) can be surrounded by commas or parentheses, and is therefore

sometimes referred to as a parenthetical, whereas the restrictive RC in (7) cannot be.

Table 10.1. Restrictive and Non-Restrictive RC

Restrictive Non-Restrictive

wh-pronoun or that only wh-pronouns

highly relevant information additional information

commas cannot surround it commas may surround it

As an illustration of the dierence, (9) and (10) are given. e restrictive RC in (9)

contrasts interestingly with a non-restrictive in (10). In (9), only a small set of climbers

reached the top, but in (10), all the climbers did:

(9) e hikers who reached the top were very tired. (restrictive)

(10) e hikers, who reached the top, were very tired. (non-restrictive)

(anks to Johanna Wood for the examples)

Another set that I sometimes use is (11) and (12). If you were a journalist, you’d be ok

using the restrictive (11) but might get into trouble using the non-restrictive (12):

(11) Bankers that are crooks should be red. (restrictive)

(12) Bankers, who are crooks, work overtime nowadays. (non-restrictive)

Of course, you could substitute bankers with politicians, investors, house keepers, pro-

fessors, or doctors as well.

.

Complement clauses

ere is a type of clause that looks deceptively like the RC, namely the complement

clauses in (13) and (14):

(13) Reports [that he reached Mars] are exaggerated.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(14) e fact [that he reached Mars] went unnoticed.

e nite clause following the noun in (13) and (14) is a complement (and not a RC)

for several reasons. e rst is that noun (reports and the fact) can be le out, as in (15)

and (16):

(15) [at he reached Mars] is exaggerated.

(16) [at he reached Mars] went unnoticed.

e nouns can be deleted because the complement spells out what reports and the

fact are.

e second reason this clause is not a relative clause is that the head N reports

plays no role inside the clause. If we changed (13) to (17a), we would force the comple-

ment to be a relative clause. Now, reports (through that) is the object of reached but the

result is very strange (indicated by the question mark) since report is not an object you

would expect with reached. If we change the verb to read, as in (17b), we do get a RC

because one can read reports:

(17) a. ?Reports [that he reached] are exaggerated.

b. Reports [that he reads] are (always) exaggerated.

e third reason that the clause in (13) and (14) is a complement and not a RC is that

the complementizer has to be that. is that is not a relative pronoun. When we change

that in (13) and (14) to which, the result is very strange, indicated by an ungrammatical

mark in (18) and (19):

(18) *Reports which he reached Mars are exaggerated.

(19) *e fact which he reached Mars went unnoticed.

Table 10.2 summarizes the dierences between relative and complement clauses. I have

added a fourth one, namely that the type of noun complemented by a clause is quite

restricted, e.g. story, fact, dream, idea and concept.

Table 10.2. Relative Clauses and Complement Clauses

Relative Clause (RC) Complement Clause

relative pronoun has a function in the RC that has no role in the clause, as in (17)

relative marker: which, who, that, etc only that as marker, as in (18) and (19)

noun preceding RC cannot be deleted noun can be deleted (see (15) and (16))

any noun can have a RC follow noun is fact, story, idea, …

. Reduced relative clauses

Non-nite clauses, as in (20) to (22), just like their nite counterparts above, can be

modiers to N:

(20) e stories [to tell him] are the following.

(21) at story [written by him] is awful.

(22) e author [writing those marvellous books] lives in Antarctica.

Chapter 10. Clauses as parts of NPs and AdjPs 

ese non-nite clauses are called reduced relative clauses since one can paraphrase

them with full relative clauses. For instance, (20) to (22) are similar to the relative clause

structures in (23) to (25):

(23) e stories [which you need to tell him] are the following.

(24) at story [which was written by him] is awful.

(25) e author [who is writing those marvellous books] lives in Antarctica.

In cases where there is a PP present, as in (24), we can oen further reduce it, as in

(26), in which case the modier is a PP, not a (reduced) RC:

(26) at story [by him] is awful.

We don’t generally distinguish between restrictive and non-restrictive clauses in (20)

to (22). Unlike nite clauses, non-nite clauses cannot be complements to nouns.

Don’t memorize this kind of information; just be able to analyze the structure of

phrases.

us, the functions of nite clauses inside the NP are complement and modi-

er. Modiers are referred to as relative clauses (RCs) and can be restrictive or non-

restrictive. Non-nite clauses only function as modiers and are referred to as reduced

relatives. Some examples of reduced RCs appear in Table 10.3.

Table 10.3. Examples of Reduced RC

Innitival e plumber [to nd the leak in the White House]

Present Participle e ship [exploring Antarctica]

Past Participle e book [written in an Edinburgh café]

A dictionary [plagiarized in 1803]

In this section, we have looked at clauses that go with a noun. e next section will

look at categories other than a noun that can be modied or complemented.

.

NPs as compared to AdjPs, AdvPs, and PPs

As we’ve seen, inside an NP, clauses can function as relatives (i.e. modiers) or comple-

ments, as (27) shows:

(27) [e man [who crossed Antarctica]] was happy.

Let’s look at the AdjP, AdvP, and PP.

Finite and non-nite clauses, as in (28) to (31), can be complements to AdjPs:

(28) ey were [happy [that he enjoyed his sugar-coated zucchini]].

(29) Are you [condent [that your full Social Security benets will be paid to you]]?

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(30) He was [unsure [what to do with the elephant in the room]].

(31) She was [proud [to have grown the largest blue eggplant]].

Since adjectives can be compared, we also have comparative clauses, as in (32) and

(33). ese clauses function as modiers since they indicate the degree of happiness

and niceness. With adjectives, don’t worry too much about the dierence between

complements and modiers:

(32) Most people are as [happy [as they want to be]].

(33) She was [nicer [than I had thought]].

As shown in the previous chapter, AdvPs do not have complement or modier PPs.

ey have no clausal complements or modiers either. ey only can have degree

modication by another adverb.

Prepositions have complement clauses such as in (34) but do not generally admit

object clauses with a that complementizer, as (35) shows. Instead, a non-nite clause,

as in (36) or (37), appears:

(34) I relied [on [what he wrote about clauses]].

(35) *I insisted [on [that he/Stan should pay the bill]].

(36) I insisted [on [him/Stan paying the bill]].

(37) I insisted [on [his/Stan's paying (of) the bill]].

Some prepositions, such as before or aer in (38), do introduce a clause but, as I men-

tioned in Chapter 7, they are then complementizers rather than prepositions:

(38) He le [aer she arrived].

. More on RCs

In this section, we’ll briey discuss a few other facts about English RCs. First, we’ll look

at relativized adverbials. en, we’ll look at prepositional and possessive relatives.

In Sections 1 and 2, most examples have the relative occupying a subject position

or an object position. ere is another frequently relativized function, namely that of

adverbial, such as in (39) to (41):

(39) e time [when you decide to discuss that] is important.

(40) e place [where you plan to live] is important.

(41) e reason [why/that I avoided that party] is clear.

e dierence between subject, object, and adverbial relative is in the relative pronoun

used. For subjects, who is used for humans, as in (2), (5), (6), (9), and (10) above; which

for non-humans, as in (4) above; and that for both if it is restrictive, as in (7). For (direct,

Chapter 10. Clauses as parts of NPs and AdjPs 

indirect, and prepositional) objects, whom is used for humans in very formal English,

who in less formal English; which for non-humans, and that in restrictive relatives for

both subject and object. Relativized adverbials, as in (39) to (41), use the relative pro-

noun most appropriate to the adverbial, when for a time adverbial, where for place, etc,

but can sometimes also use that.

RCs that relativize PPs occur and English has many options. ey can ‘strand’ the

preposition, as in (42), or ‘pied pipe’ it (as in the Rat Catcher of Hamelin), as in (43):

(42) e translation [which I insisted on] was unavailable.

(43) e translation [on which I insisted] was unavailable.

e relative pronoun can be le out, as in (44); and that can be used, but only when the

preposition stays in place, as in (45):

(44) e translation [I insisted on] went missing.

(45) e translation [that I insisted on] went missing.

When who is used, there are some other possibilities, depending on whether the objec-

tive marked whom is used; that is still a possibility too:

(46) e man [about whom she heard that rumor] is in prison.

(47) e woman [who(m) I heard this rumor about] is pleasant.

(48) e woman [that I heard this rumor about] is pleasant.

Possessives can be relativized too, as in (49). ey have an alternative as in (50), but

the use of whose is not restricted to human antecedents, as (51) shows. And there’s an

alternative in (52):

(49) You start with S, [whose daughters are always NP and VP].

(50) You start with S, [the daughters of which are always NP and VP].

(51) e book, [whose author is well-known], was on NPR this morning.

(52) e book, [the author of which is well-known], was on NPR this morning.

. The structure of modiers and complements (optional)

Relative clauses and complement clauses have a structure very similar to those clauses

discussed in Chapters 7 and 8, with a CP, a C, and an S. e CP will be the same for all;

the crucial dierence between the dierent kinds of RCs and complement clauses is

how close the CP is to the noun, i.e. what they are sister to. In this section, I provide the

trees for some of these, namely for restrictive and non-restrictive RCs, complement

clauses, reduced relative clauses, and complements to adjectives.

Structures of NPs with restrictive and non-restrictive RCs are given in (53) and

(54) respectively. Structurally, the restrictive RC is closer to the head noun than the

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

non-restrictive. In (53) and (54), this is indicated by being sister to the N′ and to the

NP respectively:

(53)

DN′

e

N′ CP

woman CS

that

NP VP

V (woman

)

met

(54)

NP CP

Zelda

who

NP VP

V′ AdvP

Adv

V (Zelda

) well

know

To indicate the function of the modied noun inside the RC, a copy in parentheses is

introduced. It has a line through it to show that it is not pronounced there. In (53), for

instance, the woman is met, i.e. the woman functions as the direct object in the RC.

Similarly, in (54), Zelda is the object in the RC and a copy indicates that. I am focus-

sing on trees in which the copy is an object since they are the least complex. In the

(advanced) exercises, there will be other trees to draw.

Structurally, the restrictive RC is said to be closer to the N head but not as close as

the complement clause shown below. e non-restrictive RC is oen said to be sister

to the NP, i.e. outside the NP. In Chapter 3 (Section 3), a number of structures were

discussed that have a similar structure (with one NP branching to another), namely,

coordinated NPs and appositive NPs. Many grammarians have noticed the similarities

between non-restrictive RCs and appositive NPs, hence the alternative name of appos-

itive RC. us, as mentioned, the appositive NP We, the people of the United States, ...

could be rewritten as We, who are the people of the United States, …

Chapter 10. Clauses as parts of NPs and AdjPs 

Now, let’s turn to the clause with the closest connection to the noun, the comple-

ment clause as in (55). Note that the CP is sister to the N reports:

(55)

V AdjP

are

Adj

exaggerated

NCP

reports

that

VNP

reached Mars

e reduced RC in (56) is similar to (53) but with more empty positions:

(56)

DN′

e

N′ CP

book CS

(book

)VP

VPP

written

by them

PNP

Finally, some trees for complements to adjectives are provided in (57) and (58), one

nite and the other non-nite:

(57)

AdjP

AdjCP

happy

that

NP VP

V AdvP

went

Adv

away

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(58)

AdjP

AdjCP

unsure

what

ØVP

VGP(what

)

inf V

to do

To summarize the dierences in the positions of the clauses in relation to their heads,

I provide Table 10.4.

Table 10.4. e sisters of CP

Complement Clause CP is sister to N Adjective Clause CP is sister to Adj

Restrictive RC

CP is sister to N′

Reduced RC

CP is sister to N′

Non-restrictive RC CP is sister to NP

. Conclusion

In Chapters 7 and 8, functions of nite and non-nite clauses were discussed at sen-

tence level, namely subject, direct object, adverbial, and subject predicate. In the cur-

rent chapter, we have discussed nite and non-nite clauses at phrase-level, namely

functioning inside an NP or AdjP. ese phrase-internal clauses have two functions:

modier and complement.

Sections 1 and 2 are the most important of the chapter. It is rst explained that nite

clauses that function as modiers are called relative clauses and can be divided into

restrictive and non-restrictive relatives. Clauses that function as complements to a lim-

ited set of nouns are also discussed as are non-nite clauses functioning as modiers,

namely those called reduced relative clauses. Section 3 examines clausal modiers and

complements to the P and Adj heads. Section 4 adds complexity to the RC by provid-

ing three additional varieties and Section 5 provides tree structures for the clauses

discussed in Sections 1, 2, and 3.

e key terms are relative and complement clauses; restrictive and non-restrictive

relative clauses; and reduced relatives.

Chapter 10. Clauses as parts of NPs and AdjPs 

Exercises

A. Label the clauses in (59) to (64) as complements or relatives and as nite or non-nite:

(59) The javelina [that I saw next door] was unafraid of coyotes.

(60) The report [that javelinas are dangerous] is exaggerated.

(61) Gerald, [who lives next door], will be leaving soon.

(62) The yellow fog [that rubs its back upon the window-panes]

(from T.S.Eliot’s Love Song for J.A.P)

(63) The president [that founded this organization] was arrested twice before he was

replaced.

(64) I am the man [to x this].

(65) The story [that Kissinger went to Moscow for Obama] seems true.

B. In the text below, from Harry Potter, there are three RCs. Find them and label them as

restrictive, non-restrictive, or reduced. If there are relative pronouns, what is their function

inside the RC?

Harry’s feet touched road. He saw the achingly familiar Hogsmeade High Street: dark

shop fronts, and the outline of black mountains beyond the village, and the curve in

the road ahead that led o towards Hogwarts, and light spilling from the windows

of the Three Broomsticks, and with a lurch of the heart he remembered, with pierc-

ing accuracy, how he had landed here nearly a year before, supporting a desperately

weak Dumbledore; all this in a second, upon landing – and then, even as he relaxed

his grip upon Ron’s and Hermione’s arms, it happened. The air was rent by a scream

that sounded like Voldemort’s when he had realized the cup had been stolen: It tore

at every nerve in Harry’s body, and he knew immediately that their appearance had

caused it. (J.K Rowling, Harry Potter, volume 7: 554)

Change one of the nite clauses in (63) into a non-nite one.

D. In the (challenging) text below, identify the relative clauses by putting brackets around

them:

To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can learn. That

learning process comes easiest to those of us who teach who also believe that there

is an aspect of our vocation that is sacred; who believe that our work is not merely to

share information but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students.

To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential

if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and

intimately begin. (from bell hooks Teaching to Transgress, 1994: 13)

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Optional (Section 5)

E. Draw trees for (59) to (65).

Class discussion

F. What is the basic structure of (65)? (Don't draw a tree!) Which are the relative clauses?

(66) Shakespeare, Loves Labour's Lost, I, 2, 157

Armado: I doe aect the very ground (which is base) where her shooe (which is baser)

guided by her foote (which is basest) doth tread.

Can clauses (relative or complement clauses) ever precede the head? If yes, give

examples. If no, give ungrammatical examples.

Keys to the exercises

A. In (59), that I saw next door is a (restrictive) RC which is nite; in (60), that javelinas are

dangerous is a nite noun complement; in (61), who lives next door is a (non-restrictive) RC

which is nite; in (62), that rubs its back upon the window-panes is a (restrictive) RC, also nite;

in (63), that founded this organization is a (restrictive) RC which is nite, and in (64), there is a

reduced (non-nite) RC. Sentence (65) contains a nite complement to the noun story.

B. The rst RC is restrictive (and nite), the second reduced (and non-nite), and the third

restrictive (and nite). The two relative markers function as subjects.

Harry’s feet touched road. He saw the achingly familiar Hogsmeade High Street: dark

shop fronts, and the outline of black mountains beyond the village, and the curve in the

road ahead [that led o towards Hogwarts], and light [spilling from the windows of the

Three Broomsticks], and with a lurch of the heart he remembered, with piercing accuracy,

how he had landed here nearly a year before, supporting a desperately weak Dumble-

dore; all this in a second, upon landing – and then, even as he relaxed his grip upon Ron’s

and Hermione’s arms, it happened. The air was rent by a scream [that sounded like Volde-

mort’s when he had realized the cup had been stolen]: It tore at every nerve in Harry’s body,

and he knew immediately that their appearance had caused it.

C. The president that founded this organization was arrested twice before being replaced.

D. To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching [that anyone can learn]. That

learning process comes easiest to those of us [who teach [who also believe that there is an

aspect of our vocation [that is sacred]]]; who believe that our work is not merely to share

Chapter 10. Clauses as parts of NPs and AdjPs 

information but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students. To teach

in a manner [that respects and cares for the souls of our students] is essential if we are to

provide the necessary conditions [where learning can most deeply and intimately begin].

It is not clear how the clause starting with who believe … is connected to the rest of the

sentence and that’s why I haven’t marked it.

E. (59)

(You could make ‘next’

an Adj)

The

N′ CP

javelina CS

that

NP VP

V′ NP

V(javelina

)D N

saw next door

V AdjP

was

Adj PP

unafraid

PNP

of N

coyotes

In (60), you could also argue that exaggerated is the past participle form of the verb and part

of the VGP. Then, is will be an auxiliary, not a copula as in the tree below:

(60)

V AdjP

is Adj

exaggerated

DN′

The

NCP

report

that

NP VP

javelinas

V AdjP

are Adj

dangerous

In (61), I have indicated that soon and next door are adverbials by making them sisters

to V':

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(61)

V′ AdvP

VGP Adv

soon

modal progr V

will be leaving

NP CP

Gerald

who

who VP

V′ NP

lives DN

next door

(62)

DN′

The

AdjP N′

Adj

yellow N′ CP

fog CS

that

(fog

)VP

V′

VNP

rubs

its back

PNP

upon

the window-panes

(63)

DN′

The

N′ CP

president CS

that

(president

)

VNP

founded

this organization

pass V

wasarrested

before

NP VP

he VGP

pass V

was replaced

V′

V′ AdvP

VGP Adv

twice

Chapter 10. Clauses as parts of NPs and AdjPs 

In (63), I have expressed that twice and before he was replaced are adverbials by making them

sisters to Vʹs. (Note that VGP is used when auxiliaries are present, but that V suces when there

is just the lexical verb).

(64)

NP VP

V NP

DN′

the

N′

man

NP VP

(man

)

VGPNP

this

infV

to ﬁx

(65)

V AdjP

seems Adj

true

(and to Moscow could be sister to V′

to show it is an adverbial)

DN′

The

NCP

story

that

NP VP

Kissinger

V′ PP

VPP

for Obama

went

to Moscow

Special topic: Relative choice and preposition stranding

In spoken language, our most favorite relative marker is that. In writing, we predominantly use

a wh-pronoun. This shows that there are some strong prescriptive rules at work where relatives

are concerned. Fowler has denite ideas on all of these issues. In the older edition, he says:

“Relative pronouns are as troublesome to the inexpert but conscientious writer as they are

useful to everyone, which is saying much” (1926 [1950]: 709). Other style books have similar

ideas. Three of these rules can be phrased as follows:

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(67) The case of the relative: “The case of the pronouns who and whom depends on

their function within their own clause. When a pronoun serves as the subject, use

who or whoever; when it functions as an object, use whom or whomever” (Kirszner &

Mandell 1992: 376–7).

(68) The antecedent: “who refers to people or to animals that have names. Which

and that usually refer to objects, events, or animals and sometimes to groups of

people” (Kirszner & Mandell 1992: 381).

(69) Do not strand prepositions.

The choice between nominative or accusative case has been talked about in the special topic

to Chapter 4, as well as briey in the chapter above. The only position where speakers still use

whom is directly following a preposition, as in (70):

(70) This is a man about whom I know very little.

The debate about the use of who, which, or that is a very lively one. Many argue that that can only

be used in restrictive relatives when the antecedent is non-human. Sentence (71) violates both:

(71) ‘was her Brother, that in pure kindnesse to his Horse, buttered his Hay.

(Shakespeare, King Lear II, 4, 128)

Fowler is careful about criticizing the use of that and thinks it will change (1926[1950]: 716)

“at present there is much more reluctance to apply that to a person than to a thing. Politeness

plays a great part”.

The dislike of stranding prepositions allegedly started with John Dryden. Many ‘good’

writers employ constructions with stranded prepositions, and would rewrite (70) as (72) with a

stranded about. Sir Winston Churchill is said to have ridiculed the construction by uttering (73):

(72) This is a man (who) I know little about.

(73) This is something up with which I will not put.

Stranding prepositions does not just occur with relatives, but in questions as well, as in (74):

(74) who did I want to talk to?

Chapter 11

Special sentences

1. Questions/interrogatives: The CP

2. Exclamations

3. Topicalization, passive, cleft, and pseudo-cleft

4. Conclusion

In this chapter, I discuss sentences in which elements have moved around for a par-

ticular reason, e.g. to enable the speaker to ask a question, to make an exclamation,

or to emphasize something. e latter occurs through topicalization, passive, cle,

and pseudo-cle. Question sentences are referred to as interrogatives, whereas most

of the sentences we have seen up to now assert something and are called indicatives

or declaratives.

In Section 1, we look at questions, both yes/no and wh-questions and suggest a

tree for them using a CP. In Section 2, we briey cover exclamatives and how they

dier from questions. Section 3 goes into topicalization, passives, and cleing. Some

of the material in this chapter has been covered, e.g. questions and passives, but in

slightly dierent contexts.

Questions/interrogatives: The CP

Questions can be main clauses (Will she leave?) or embedded clauses (I wonder if she’ll

leave). ey can also be classied according to whether the entire sentence is ques-

tioned, in which case a Ye s or No answer is expected, or whether another element is

questioned using a wh-word (also called an interrogative pronoun) such as who, what,

why, etc., in which case a full answer is expected.

In yes/no questions, the only appropriate answer is Yes or No (or Perhaps/maybe).

To make a question, e.g. of (1), the auxiliary has is fronted, as in (2):

(1) She has gone.

(2) Has she gone?

206 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

If there is no auxiliary present, a dummy do is used, as in (3), as discussed in Chapter 6:

(3) Did you see Santa?

A structure for yes/no questions is given in (4), where the auxiliary moves to C (indi-

cated by its copy le in the VGP that is not pronounced):

(4)

Can

NP VP

sheVGP

modal V

(can

)go

A main clause wh-question starts with a wh-word (who, what, why, when, where, and

how) or wh-phrase (which book, etc). e auxiliary follows. ere are empty positions

in the sentence, indicated by copies (crossed out because we do not say them out loud).

Examples are given in (5) to (7):

(5) Who will you (will)

see (who) in the Highlands?

(6) How heavy is that box of chocolates (is) (how heavy)?

(7) How much wood would a wood chuck (would) chuck (how much wood), if a wood

chuck could chuck wood?

Evidence that the question word was at some point in the position of the copy is that,

with special intonation, movement is not necessary. us, (8) is possible with empha-

sis on what. In this case the auxiliary stays in place too, as (8b) shows:

(8) a. You saw WHAT?

b. You would do WHAT?

Questions such as (8) are called ‘echo-questions’

As to the structure, I will suggest (9) for wh-questions. e wh-word moves to the

position immediately underneath the CP and the auxiliary moves to the C position. e

original position of the wh-word and the auxiliary is indicated by means of a copy:

9. Some people indicate that the sentence is a question by having a Q in C in (4) and in (9).

Chapter 11. Special sentences 207

(9)

WhoC′

will

NP VP

you

V′

VGP (who

)

modal V

(will

) see

PNP

the Highlands

Using C, C′, and CP makes sense for these sentences and also makes the CP similar to

the VP, the NP, and the other categories that have a phrase, a head, and an intermedi-

ate category.

Exclamations

Sentences such as (10) can be analyzed using a CP as well, namely as structures where

the phrase what a nasty person is in the same position as the wh-word in (9). Notice

that in sentences, such as (10) and (11), the auxiliary does not move, unlike in the

questions in (5) to (7):

(10) What a nasty person he is (what a nasty person)!

(11) “What an excellent father you have, girls,” said she, when the door was shut.

(Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice, Chapter 2)

is was not always the case in English, as (12) shows. In (12), have has moved to

before the subject I, unlike is in (10) and have in (11):

(12) O what a Scene of fool’ry haue I seene. Of sighes, of grones, of sorrow, and of teene:

(Shakespeare, Love’s Labor’s Lost, IV, iii, 163)

Modern English exclamatives dier from questions in not fronting the auxiliary, but

they do involve movement of a wh-phrase to a position in the CP.

208 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

3. Topicalization, passive, cleft, and pseudo-cleft

Even though the structures of topicalizations, cles, and passives look very dierent,

they have in common that the order of words is rearranged to emphasize a part of the

sentence. Examples such as (13) are similar to exclamations but occur without the

question word. I have marked where tomatoes comes from by means of an arrow. In

(14), the topic is preceded by as for, and repeated by a pronoun:

(13)

Tomatoes, I really don’t like __ in my cereal.

(14) and as for herself, she was too much provoked . . .

(Jane Austen, Emma, Vol 1, Chap 15)

Some topicalizations serve to front old information, which is convenient to listeners.

In the same way, passives and cles can shi phrases to put old information at the

beginning of a sentence and new information towards the end. In a passive, as seen in

earlier chapters, the subject she in (15) is the object her of the corresponding active in

(16). is shis the attention:

(15)

(16)

She was persuaded to go by Columbo. (passive)

Columbo persuaded her to go. (active)

Examples of a cle and pseudo-cle are given in (17a) and (18a). I have provided a

declarative version of each in (17b) and (18b). A cle starts with it is or it was and a

pseudo-cle starts with a wh-word:

(17) a. It was on the wedding-day of this beloved friend that Emma rst sat in mourn-

ful thought of any continuance. (Jane Austen, Emma, vol 1, Chap 1)

b. Emma rst sat in mournful thought of any continuance on the wedding-day of

this beloved friend.

(18) a. What he threw away was the winning lottery ticket.

b. He threw away the winning lottery ticket.

e cle picks out one phrase from the sentence to focus on, e.g. on the wedding-day

of this beloved friend in (17a). By doing so, it separates the phrase from the rest of the

sentence which becomes subordinate to the rst part. e pseudo-cle focuses on a

phrase by doubling it through a wh-word and then having the focussed phrase come

aer the copula.

Chapter 11. Special sentences 209

e structure of cles is that of a restrictive relative clause, as in (19). e structure

of pseudo-cles is controversial and will not be given:

(19)

NP VP

VPP

was

P NP

DN′

the

N′ CP

NPPC S

wedding day that

Focus of Cle

of her …

NP VP

Emma

AdjP V′

Adj

rst

V′

VPP

(on …

)

sat

in … thought

Note that I have represented an NP and PP by means of a ‘coathanger’ since the internal

structure is not relevant here; and I haven’t lled in the words to some of the phrases.

is is for reasons of space.

Conclusion

In this chapter, I briey describe a number of special constructions, where movement

seems to be taking place to achieve a special eect, namely questions, exclamations,

topicalization, passive, and cleing. Tree structures using a CP are provided for the

yes/no and wh-questions and the cle.

Key terms are questions (wh and yes/no); exclamations; topicalization, cle,

pseudo-cle, and passive.

210 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Exercises

A. Identify the special constructions in:

(20) It is his character that I despise.

(21) She was recognized going into the store.

(22) Higgins I hate.

(23) Who did Anne say that she saw?

B. Draw trees for:

(24) Will she go then?

(25) What will they think?

C. Explain the ambiguity in the following headline:

(26) Stolen Painting Found by Tree.

Keys to the exercises

A. Sentence (20) is a cleft; (21) a passive; (22) a topicalization, and (23) a wh-question.

(24)

Will

NP VP

she

VGP

AdvP

Adv

modal Vthen

(will

)go

(25)

What C′

will

NP VP

they

VGP (what)

modalV

(will

)think

C. The sentence can be a passive in which case the meaning is strange/funny since typically

trees are inanimate objects and don’t nd things. The intended meaning is not a passive,

Chapter 11. Special sentences 211

but one where by tree is a place adverbial, i.e. the painting was found by someone at the

site of a tree; the nder has been left out or is unknown.

Special topic: Comma punctuation

Commas are used in writing to indicate a slight pause in speech. Pauses help disambiguate

structural ambiguities, i.e. are syntactic in nature. The discussion below is not meant to be

exhaustive but merely discusses commas in connection to some of the constructions dealt with

in this book. The main use of commas is to indicate that some information is not crucial. Since

objects and complements are more important than modiers and adverbials, we don’t use

commas for the former but we may do so for modiers and adverbials (some people argue that

one must use them there).

Some specic rules are (26), (27), and (28):

(26) Commas are not used inside the core sentence to separate the subject, verb, and

object.

(27) Commas may be used for non-restrictive relative clauses and for adverbial

clauses but not for restrictive clauses. Sentence adverbials are always surrounded

by commas.

(28) Commas are not used between independent clauses. If they are, the construction

is called the comma splice.

As to (26), subjects, as in (29), cannot be separated from their verbs, even if the subject is a

clause, as in (30), and neither can commas appear before objects, as in (31), or before subject

and object predicates:

(29) *He, left.

(30) *That he didn’t want to meet the Dalai Lama, is true.

(31) *I noticed, that she …

I have marked these as ungrammatical but that is perhaps too radical since technically they

aren’t.

Commas are used for non-restrictive relative clauses, as in (32), sentence initial adverbials,

as in (33), but are not used for restrictive relative and complement clauses, as in (34):

(32) Pure Empiricism, which he was disposed not to accept, leads to scepticism.

(33) Fortunately, she was on an urban safari tour.

(34) *The story, that he met the Dalai Lama, is true.

The comma splice is well-known from composition classes. An example appears in (35):

212 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(35) Scientists think they have detected life on the Moon, visions of people living in

lunar colonies that stop o to refuel on the way to Mars can be envisaged.

Where would you put a period in (35) to x this?

I’ll now give some examples where pauses in speech and commas in writing do make a

dierence. The well-known (36) is ambiguous; it is sexist either way but illustrative. When (36) is

pronounced without pauses or written without commas, it is unclear:

(36) Woman without her man is a savage.

The two possible interpretations are either (37) or (38):

(37) Woman, without her, man is a savage.

(38) Woman, without her man, is a savage.

The tree structure of (38) is given in (39), with woman the subject and is a savage as the

predicate. The structure of (37) is more complex since woman is topicalized and, as shown in

(40), man is the subject and is a savage is the predicate:

(39)

VNP

a savage

NPP

woman

PNP

without

her man

(40)

NP S

(as for) womanS

NP VP

man VNP

D N

a savage

PNP

without her

Chapter 11. Special sentences 213

A construction where there is no agreement about when to use commas in coordinating three

or more elements. Some argue that all commas should be present in (41), e.g. Fowler and

Oxford University Press; others argue the last can be left out. Allegedly, it once became the

matter of a law suit, when something like (42) appeared in a will:

(41) The books, magazines, and records in this store are on sale.

(42) Equal parts of the estate will go to Mary, Jane, Edward and Michael.

Apparently, Mary and Jane assumed they would each get a third and Edward and Michael

each a sixth, whereas Edward and Michael assumed each would get a quarter. I now put all

commas in!

Review of Chapters 9 to 11

In Chapters 9 and 10, the inner structure of the phrase is examined. PPs and AdvP

are the simplest: PPs have a head and a complement and AdvPs have a modier and

a head. AdjPs and NPs are more complex. e AdjP can have an Adj head, an Adv(P)

modier, and a complement; an NP can have a determiner, a head, several modiers

(both preceding and following the head) and one complement (either preceding or

following the head). DON’T memorize this; just be able to analyze a given sentence. A

relatively complex NP is given in (1):

(1)

DN′

the

AdjP N′

Adj

typical

NPP

teacher

PNP

from

AdjPN

Adj

space

outer

In Chapter 10, we give names to the dierent kinds of clauses. ese include restrictive

and non-restrictive relative clauses, complement clauses, reduced relatives, and com-

plements to adjectives. Trees for these are provided in the last section of that chapter.

Chapter 11 gives examples of some special eect sentences such as topicalizations,

passives, questions, and cles. Just be prepared to recognize these. A tree for some of

these is also given in that chapter, using a CP, with a C and a C′.

Rather than providing separate exercises, I include three homework assignments,

a short one that covers the special topics, a second one that I use regularly and that stu-

dents nd very helpful, and a third, very comprehensive and dicult one, that covers

Chapters 7 to 11 and that I oen use as a special credit assignment. No keys are given

because they are meant to be real homework or take home assignments. ere are also

three samples of nal exams covering the entire book. A key is provided on the web-

site. (I have tried to balance convenience and too much convenience by doing this).

10. If you want to show that the PP in (1) is a modiﬁer, make it sister to an N′.

Review of Chapters 9 to 11 

Homework 1, on Chapter 1 and special topics

The book has discussed prescriptive grammar in Chapter 1 and has covered 11 special topics.

Some of these topics include well-known prescriptive rules, e.g. the one on the split innitive

(Chapter 1), the multiple negative (Chapter 3), the dangling participle (Chapter 8), and

preposition stranding (Chapter 10). Some topics help explain a grammatical category, for

instance, the adjective and adverb (Chapter 2) or the complementizer (Chapter 7) and how these

categories change over time. Case and agreement phenomena (Chapter 4) are very relevant to

the grammar of English and the changes it is undergoing while other phenomena are stylistic

choices, such as the use of the passive (Chapter 5). Thus, in an academic paper, one must use the

correct agreement on the verb but, depending on the eld, the use of the passive is ne.

Choose one of the special topics and show by means of examples from your own writing

whether or not you follow the prescriptive rule. Then, choose an audience (perhaps rst year

students taking a composition class) and write a short (200 words) explanation on how, and

possibly how not, to use this construction.

Homework 2, covering Chapters 2–11

Take a page of your own writing (an academic paper might be the easiest) and analyze it in

terms of the grammatical structures it uses. For instance, we have seen that Hemingway ((76) in

Chapter 5) uses relatively short sentences with copulas and that Tolstoy ((43) to (45) in Chapter

9) uses lots of PP modiers. Use similar observations about your own writing.

To analyze your own writing, consider the ten points below. You could mark the page of

your writing in a dierent color or use multiple copies of your text. Then write a paragraph

summarizing what you see. If you think it is easier to compare your writing to someone else’s,

do that, still using these points.

A. Modication of nouns. Do you use a lot of adjectives and PPs as modiers?

B. Types of verbs used? Do you use a mixture of intransitives, transitives, copulas, and other

types?

C. Do you use coordination? If so, which coordinators do you use and is your coordination

of phrases or of clauses?

D. Adverbials. Are there many adverbials and, if so, which kinds (clausal or PP)?

E. Auxiliaries.

F. Passive.

G. Embedded clauses. What functions do they have?

H. Finite as opposed to non-nite clauses.

I. Dummy elements.

J. Split innitives, dangling modiers, or anything else banned by prescriptive rules?

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(For fun, you could use http://textalyser.net. This site will give you the frequency of words in a

text you want).

Homework 3, or take-home exam, covering Chapters 7–11

In the text below, taken from Thomas Kuhn:

A. Locate the relative clauses and indicate whether they are restrictive or non-restrictive.

B. Find all the nite verbs and indicate whether or not they are lexical.

C. Analyze the last sentence of the rst paragraph in terms of basic sentence structure.

Try to draw a tree.

D. Draw a tree for the NP its practitioners’ insistence . . . being considered (second paragraph)

E. How might one analyse a sentence with if as in (last but one sentence in the second

paragraph).

Anyone who studies the history of scientic development repeatedly encounters a question, one

version of which would be, “Are the sciences one or many?” Ordinarily that question is evoked by

concrete problems of narrative organization, and these become especially acute when the

historian of science is asked to survey his subject in lectures or in a book of signicant scope.

Should he take up the sciences one by one, beginning, for example, with mathematics, proceeding

to astronomy, then to physics, to chemistry, to anatomy, physiology, botany, and so on? Or

should he reject the notion that his object is a composite account of individual elds and take

it instead to be knowledge of nature tout court? In that case, he is bound, insofar as possible, to

consider all scientic subject matters together, to examine what men knew about nature at each

period of time, and to trace the manner in which changes in method, in philosophical climate, or

in society at large have aected the body of scientic knowledge conceived as one.

Given a more nuanced description, both approaches can be recognized as long-traditional

and generally noncommunicating historiographic modes. [note deleted] The rst, which treats

science as at most a loose-linked congeries of separate sciences, is also characterized by its

practitioners’ insistence on examining closely the technical content, both experimental and

theoretical, of past versions of the particular specialty being considered. That is a considerable

merit, for the sciences are technical, and a history which neglects their content often deals with

another enterprise entirely, sometimes fabricating it for the purpose. On the other hand, historians

who have aimed to write the history of a technical specialty have ordinarily taken the bounds of

their topic to be those prescribed by recent textbooks in the corresponding eld. If, for example,

their subject is electricity, then their denition of an electrical eect often closely resembles the

one provided by modern physics. With it in hand, they may search ancient, medieval, and early

modern sources for appropriate references, and an impressive record of gradually accumulating

knowledge of nature sometimes results. (from Kuhn “Mathematical versus Experimental

Traditions in the Development of Physical Science”)

Review of Chapters 9 to 11 

Examples of nal exams

Example 1

This exam is based on a text adapted from The Games Helmet (the London Sunday Times,

25 Nov 2007).

A. Label the categories (N, V, D, etc.) in the sentence below:

(1) The fact that an advanced system has been developed

for computer games should come as no surprise.

B. Label the six lexical verbs (Intransitive, etc) that are underlined:

Think carefully before you answer: is a device that is capable of reading people’s minds

fact or fantasy? We knew you’d say that. But scientists at an American laboratory have

been brainstorming the same question for more than ve years and have thought up

a mind-blowingly dierent answer. They call it Epoc, but when it is launched early next

year in Britain and the US we will probably give it the name of “mind-reading helmet”,

capable, supposedly, of knowing what users are thinking.

is: reading:

thought: call:

give: knowing:

C. Identify the functions of the eight underlined and numbered phrases (Su, Dir Object, etc.

or Modier):

The device is being hailed as a revolutionary breakthrough in the way that humans

will be able to interact (1) with computers. Its implications are (2) massive, opening

the possibility that one day (3) people will be able to control everything from light

switches to the cursor on their computer screen simply by thinking about it. (4)

However, for now, the technology will be used as the ultimate gimmick: to play

computer games simply by thinking your screen character (5) into action. Emotiv

Systems, the San Francisco company that has developed the technology, says Project

Epoc could mean the end of joysticks and keyboard bashing. Instead games players

will be able to visualise a move in their head and that move will be replicated (6)

on the screen in front of them. So, for example, Harry Potter could be ordered to

cast exotic spells, or a jedi might exert “the force” to ing (7) his enemies around – all

through the willpower (8) of the gamer, with no buttons pressed.

AND name these phrases (e.g. NP, PP):

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

Function (e.g. Adverbial) Name (e.g. NP, PP)

1………………………………………………………………………

2………………………………………………………………………

3………………………………………………………………………

4………………………………………………………………………

5………………………………………………………………………

6………………………………………………………………………

7………………………………………………………………………

8………………………………………………………………………

E. Draw a tree for:

(2) Scientists at an American laboratory brainstormed the question for ve years

F. Circle the lexical verbs and underline the auxiliaries in the text. Which are nite?

So how does the helmet work? In simple terms it relies on the fact that every time a

human thinks about something, electrical impulses are triggered in the brain. This has

been known for years in the medical world and is the basis of an electroencephalogram

(EEG) – the technique that measures the electrical activity of the brain by recording from

electrodes placed on the scalp. Emotiv claims to have rened the technique to isolate

and identify the electrical patterns that are given o when humans think about a given

course of action, such as moving their arm to the left or right or depressing their right

thumb or index nger. The Epoc helmet recognizes these electrical patterns and

translates them into “real” movements on the screen.

Identify the function and type of the clauses in brackets, e.g. modier/reduced RC,

Subject/non-nite, etc. in:

[To look at], the helmet resembles nothing so much as a novelty head massage gadget

with several spidery arms [curving around the head and meeting at the top]. The arms

are tted with a total of 16 sensors [that are positioned so that they are in contact with

the relevant part of the head and pick up electric signals in the brain]. The system’s

software analyzes these signals and then wirelessly relays what it detects to a receiver

plugged into the USB port of the game console or PC. Emotiv says that it has mapped

12 specic actions [that the helmet will recognize].

Draw a tree for:

(3) Emotiv says that it has mapped specic actions to use in its program.

I. Circle the phrasal verbs, if any, and underline the passives, if any, in:

If true, the implications are huge. Gaming is believed to merely be the way to popularize

the technology rather than being an end in itself: the tip of the virtual iceberg. In the long

Review of Chapters 9 to 11 

run the headset could be used widely, from the use of brain scanners as lie detectors

to see whether suspects can make out a crime scene, to enabling consumers to turn

machines on or o or change television channels without a remote control.

Example 2

Please read the following text. Most questions are based on it. It is adapted from The

New York Times, 4 December 1996, but even as late as 2009, the debate on ice/water on the

moon continued.

The Moon May have Water

Scientists think they have detected water on the Moon. Suddenly, visions of people living

in lunar colonies that stop o to refuel on the way to Mars are less far-fetched. After two years

of careful analysis, scientists said yesterday that radar signals from an American spacecraft

indicated the moon was not bone-dry. The spacecraft’s radar signatures suggested the presence

of water ice in the permanently cold shadows of a deep basin near the lunar south pole.

The survey revealed a vast landscape in which ice crystals are mixed with dirt. It seems a

kind of permafrost that is presumably the residue of moisture from comets striking the Moon

over the last three billion years.

Even though scientists are not positive, they see signals consistent with ice. Dr. Paul

Spudis, one of the scientists reporting on the discovery, acknowledged that the discovery

needed to be conrmed by an independent investigation. That might come a year from now

because then another spacecraft will orbit the Moon with instruments of even greater precision

for determining the presence of lunar water.

This discovery gives astronauts hope for longer stays in space. Told of the new discovery,

Dr. Story Musgrave was very enthusiastic. He said that this implied there might be water and

water is extraordinarily important to establishing a permanent base on the Moon. Other scientists

reacted to the report with a mixture of caution and enthusiasm. They noted that the radar results

were particularly dicult to interpret.

Identify all the categories in (1), e.g. D, N, etc.:

(1) a kind of permafrost that is presumably the residue of moisture from comets

striking the Moon over the last three billion years.

List all PPs used as adverbials in the rst paragraph (or underline them clearly in the text).

C. Indicate function and name (or realization) of the phrases at sentence/clause level in the

sentences/clauses below, e.g. the world is round: SU: NP/Pred: VP/SubjPr: AdjP. DO NOT

ANALYSE THESE UNITS ANY FURTHER.

(2) Suddenly, visions of people living in lunar colonies that stop o to refuel on the

way to Mars are less far-fetched.

 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

(3) The survey revealed a vast landscape in which ice crystals are mixed with dirt.

(4) … another spacecraft will orbit the Moon with instruments of even greater

precision for determining the presence of lunar water.

(5) This discovery gives astronauts hope for longer stays in space.

D. Locate all non-nite clauses in the third paragraph. List them here or underline them

clearly in the text.

What is the function and name of the following phrases in the structures in which they

occur (e.g. Su/NP):

(6) positive (l. 10)

(7) consistent with ice (l. 10)

(8) Told of the new discovery (l. 15)

(9) that the radar results were particularly dicult to interpret (ll 18–9)

F. List the modiers in the fourth paragraph. Also indicate what their name is (e.g. PP, CP, etc.)

G. List all auxiliaries. Indicate what kind they are (perfect . . .)

H. Draw trees for (10) and (12):

(10) After two years of careful analysis, scientists said yesterday that radar signals from

an American spacecraft indicated the moon was not bone-dry.

(11) Paul Spudis acknowledged that the discovery needed to be conrmed by an

independent investigation.

Example 3

Please read the following text, A Life of Fiction, adapted from Jane Smiley (New York Times

Magazine, 3/12/00)

When Charles Dickens was traveling home from France in June 1865, the train he was

riding in went o the tracks while crossing a bridge over a river. Seven rst-class carriages

dropped into the river. The eighth, which was the one Dickens was travelling in, dangled o the

bridge. Dickens calmed his companions and clambered out. He was indefatigable and helped to

free his friends in the carriage and many others.

When all that could be done for the victims had been done, Dickens, who was 53 years old

and not in very good health, climbed into the carriage again and retrieved from the pocket of his

coat the installment of ‘Our Mutual friend’ he had just nished.

The author, who hadn’t shrunk from describing the lurid and the terrible before, made

no eort to describe what he had seen. “I don’t know what to call the accident” he wrote to a

friend. He also refused to give testimony to the subsequent inquest. Why did Dickens hide his

heroism? It so happens that Dickens’ traveling companions were his mistress Ellen Ternan and

Review of Chapters 9 to 11 

her mother. What is really interesting is that a man whose volume of writings approach logorrhea

could dissemble his most intimate concerns and feelings so consistently and for so long.

List all adverbials in the second paragraph.

B. Indicate function and name of the phrases/clauses at sentence level, e.g. Su/NP;

Adverbial/PP in the sentences below. Do not go further than the rst layer:

(1) I don’t know what to call the accident

(2) When all that could be done for the victims had been done, Dickens, who was

53 years old and not in very good health, climbed into the carriage again

(3) … helped to free his friends in the carriage and many others

C. What is the function and name of the following:

(4) his mistress … mother (ll. 12–3)

(5) testimony (l. 11)

(6) o the bridge (l. 3–4)

(7) a man … logorrhea (l. 13)

D. List all auxiliaries in the second paragraph. Indicate what kind they are.

E. List all nite verbs in the third paragraph.

F. Indicate the relative clauses in the rst and second paragraphs. Are they restrictive,

non-restrictive, or reduced?

Draw trees for:

(8) When Charles Dickens was traveling home from France in June 1865, the train he

was riding in went o the tracks while crossing a bridge over a river.

(9) Why did Dickens hide his heroism?

Glossary

At the end of each chapter, there is a list of key terms. These are the most relevant and

should be understood. The glossary tries to be somewhat comprehensive, and lists key

terms, abbreviations, non-key terms, and some common terminology not used in this book,

e.g. attributive adjective, but perhaps used elsewhere. Don’t attempt to memorize the glos-

sary! There is also an index to the book so, if the definitions in the glossary do not suffice,

check the index and read the relevant pages.

accusative case The case of the object or

prepositional object, only visible on pronouns

in English, e.g. me, in He saw me, also called the

objective case.

active A sentence in which the doer of

the action is the subject, as in She guided the

elephant.

Adj = adjective.

Adj′

Adjective-bar, intermediate category,

see Chapter 9, Section 1.

adjective A word which often describes

qualities, e.g. proud, intelligent, or physical

characteristics, e.g. short, strong.

adjective complement Complement to an

adjective, e.g. of him in proud [of him]; see

Chapter 9, Section 1.

AdjP = Adjective Phrase: group of words

centered around an adjective, e.g. very nice.

adjunct Term not used in this book; alterna-

tive for ‘adverbial’.

Adv = adverb, i.e. the category

Adv-ial = adverbial, i.e. the function

adverb E.g. proudly; it is similar to an adjec-

tive but it modies a verb, adjective, or other

adverb, whereas an adjective modies a noun.

adverbial A function at sentence level

providing the background on where, when,

how, and why the event described in the VP

takes place.

AdvP = Adverb Phrase: group of words cen-

tered around an adverb, e.g. very nicely.

ax Cannot stand on its own, e.g. an ending

such as -ing; see Table 6.2.

ax-hop Process where an ax belonging

to an auxiliary ‘hops’ and attaches to the verb

immediately to the right of the auxiliary; see

Chapter 6 and Table 6.2.

agreement E.g. -s in she walks, ending on

the verb that ‘agrees’ with the subject.

ambiguity/ambiguous Word (lexical ambi-

guity) or sentence (structural ambiguity)

with more than one meaning; see Chapters

1 and 3.

antecedent What a pronoun refers to, e.g.

the noun that a relative pronoun such as who

refers to in the man who(m) I saw; see Chapters

9 and 10. Antecedent is used more generally

though for any pronoun that refers to a noun.

antonym A word with the opposite mean-

ing, e.g. hot/cold, good/bad

; Chapter 2.

appositive NP The second NP in Teguci-

galpa, the capital of Honduras; see Chapter 3. It

rephrases the rst and provides extra informa-

tion; similar to a non-restrictive relative clause.

appositive relative clause Another word for

non-restrictive relative clause; see Chapter 10

and below.

article A, an, the in English; see Chapter 2,

Section 2.1.

aspect When the type or duration of the

action is emphasized, as in he is reading, rather

than when the action took place, Chapter 6.

attributive adjective Term not used in this

book; an adjective that modies a Noun inside

an NP.

AUX = auxiliary, see below.

Glossary 223

auxiliary A ‘verb’ that cannot stand on its

own, but that ‘helps’ (combines with) another

verb, e.g. have in They have seen a riot; see

Chapters 2 and 6 and Table 6.1.

bare innitive Innitive without a to; e.g.

leave in I saw her leave, see Chapter 8.

branch A line that marks the relationship

between two nodes in tree; it shows how a

phrase is divided up; see Chapter 3.

C = complementizer, see below.

C′

= C-bar, intermediate category, only used

in Chapter 11.

case In English, case is only visible on pro-

nouns. Thus, she in She saw me has nomina-

tive case, i.e. is used in subject position, and

me has accusative or objective case, i.e. is

used in object position.

clause Unit containing a lexical verb, see also

main clause, subordinate clause.

cleft A construction of the form It is Catwea-

zle who caused the problems; see Chapter 11.

coathanger Not dividing a phrase into sepa-

rate branches (to save space); used rarely in

this book.

comma splice A comma between two inde-

pendent clauses; see extra topic Chapter 11.

comparative Forms such as greater that

compare one situation or entity with another.

complement There are complements to V, N,

Adj, and P. Complements to VPs are divided into

direct and indirect object, subject predicate,

object predicate, prepositional and phrasal

object. Nouns, adjectives, and prepositions can

also have complements.

complementizer E.g. that, if, and whether;

connects two clauses, one subordinate to the

other; see Chapters 2 and 7.

complex transitive A verb with a direct object

and an object predicate; see Chapter 4.

compound When two words are put

together to form one word, e.g. blackboard

and sleepwalk.

conjunction Not generally used in this book,

except in quotes and to indicate an alterna-

tive phrasing. It is a general term to describe a

word that joins two or more words or phrases

or sentences together. There are subordinat-

ing (that) and coordinating (and) conjunctions;

see Chapter 2.

consonant Sound such as b, p, f, v, t, k, made

by somehow modifying the airstream; see

Chapter 1, 1.1. for use in a rule.

constituent Not used in this book; a group

of words that form a unit, typically a phrase.

contraction A word that is shortened, e.g.

he’s for he has; see special topic Chapter 6.

coordination Connecting two phrases or

clauses that are equal to each other by means

of e.g. and; see Chapter 3.

coordinating

conjunction Not used in this

book; same as coordinator, see there.

coordinator Connects two phrases or

clauses that are equal to each other, e.g. and/

or, also called coordinating conjunction; see

Chapter 2.

copula A verb with a subject predicate, typi-

cally to be or to become, see Chapter 4.

corpus A set of texts collected to provide a

representative view of the language of a par-

ticular time, social group, or genre.

CP Complementizer Phrase, see Chapter 7

and 8.

D = determiner.

(D)Adv Degree adverb, see below.

dangling modifier An adverbial clause

whose subject is not the same as the sub-

ject of the main sentence, see special topic

Chapter 8.

daughter For example, P is a daughter of a

PP, i.e. lower in the tree but connected to the

‘mother’ by a branch; see Chapter 3.

declarative A neutral sentence that is a

statement, not a question or command.

denite article The article the.

degree adverb Adverbs that indicate degree,

e.g. very, too, so, more, most, quite, rather; see

Chapter 2.

descriptivism Describing what language

users really say, as opposed to what they

‘should’ say; see Chapter 1.

224 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

determiner Word that points or species, e.g.

the; see Chapter 2, Section 2.1.

direct object Object of a verb such as eat,

see, and enjoy. For instance, him in They saw

him.

ditransitive Verb that has both a direct and

indirect object, e.g. tell, give; see Chapter 4.

dummy A word used to fulll a grammatical

requirement, see dummy do and dummy sub-

ject below.

dummy do

If no auxiliary is present in a sen-

tence, do is used with questions and negatives;

see Chapter 6.

dummy subject If a subject is not present, it

or there are used, also see pleonastic subject;

see special topic to Chapter 5.

E = Event time, used in Chapter 6.

echo question Question formed by special

intonation, as in You saw WHAT

? See Chapter 11.

ed-participle See past participle.

elided/elision Word or phrase left out to

avoid repetition after a coordinator, e.g. in He

wrote a poem and painted a pictures, the sub-

ject of painted has been left out.

ellipsis Word or phrase left out to avoid

repetition.

embedded

sentence/clause A clause or sen-

tence inside another phrase or sentence/clause;

see Chapter 7.

emphasizer Words such as even and just that

are used to emphasize a phrase, also called

focusser; see Chapter 9.

exclamation or

exclamative Sentences such

as What a fool he is!! See Chapter 11.

extraposed/

extraposition When an embed-

ded clause (usually in subject position) is

placed at the end of the sentence, e.g. It was

nice [that he left]. A dummy subject it is put in

the original position.

nite clause A clause with a nite verb

(see below) and a nominative subject; see

Chapter 7.

nite verb A verb expressing agreement

and tense (past or present), e.g. has in He has

left; see Chapters 6 and 7.

at structure A tree that does not express

hierarchies because many braches descend

from one node; see Chapter 3, Section 1.

focusser Words such as even and just that

are used to emphasize a phrase, also called

emphasizer; see Chapter 9.

formal language Language used in formal

situations such as ceremonies, formal lec-

tures, or meeting a government official; see

Chapter 1.

fragment An incomplete sentence, i.e. one

missing a nite verb.

functional category Not used in this book,

alternative to grammatical category.

functions Phrases (and clauses) have func-

tions, such as subject and direct object, at the

level of the sentence. There are also functions

inside the phrase, namely as determiner, modi-

er, and complement. See Chapters 4 and 5 for

functions at sentence level and Chapters 9 and

10 for functions at phrase level.

future (tense) E.g. will see in They will see the

new bridge on their trip.

future perfect E.g. will have done in They will

have done that by 5; see Chapter 6, Figure 6.1.

genitive case The case that a possessive has,

e.g. Catweazle’s in Catweazle’s book; see special

topic Chapter 4.

gerund A verbal noun that ends in -ing,

briey discussed in Chapter 8 and special topics

Chapter 8.

gradable Not used in this book. Adjective

that can be modied in terms of degree, e.g.

very happy, happier.

grammar The rules to form and understand

language. In this book, we focus on how to

analyze sentences, rather than full texts, words,

or sounds. We also focus on descriptive, rather

than prescriptive rules.

grammatical A sentence (or word) that native

speakers consider acceptable.

grammatical category Word with little

lexical meaning, e.g. Determiner, Quantier,

Auxiliary, Coordinator and Complementizer;

see Chapter 2.

Glossary 225

head The most important part of a unit/

phrase, e.g. the N seadog is the head of the NP

the blue seadog.

hypercorrection When speakers are so con-

scious that a prescriptive rule exists that they

make a mistake. The use of between you and I is

a good example.

inf = innitival marker to; see Chapter 8.

ing

-participle See present participle.

imperative A command such as Go away,

shut up! See Chapter 6, Section 3.

indenite article The articles a and an.

indicative A ‘normal’ sentence, i.e. not ask-

ing a question, indicating a wish or command.

Declarative is also used.

indirect object Object that can be preceded

by to or for, e.g. Doris in Clovis gave Doris a

ower; see Chapter 4.

innitive Form such as to go, to be, to ana-

lyze; it is one of the non-nite constructions.

See Chapter 8.

informal language Language used in infor-

mal situations such as casual conversation. In/

formality depends on the situation, the partici-

pants, the topic. See Chapter 1.

innate faculty Enables us to acquire lan-

guage; see Chapter 1.

interrogative

pronoun Pronouns that

start a wh-question such as who left; see

Chapter 11. In form, they are similar to rela-

tive pronouns.

interrogative sentence A question such as

who will go there; see Chapter 11.

intransitive A verb without an object, e.g.

laugh, swim; see Chapter 4.

irregular verbs The past tense and past par-

ticiple of these verbs are not formed by add-

ing -ed to the present, as in the case of regular

verbs. Some examples of irregular verbs are:

go, went, gone; see, saw, seen; write, wrote, writ-

ten. See Chapter 6.

lexical category Word with lexical meaning,

such as a Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, and

Preposition; see Chapter 2. It has a synonym

and antonym.

lexical verb Verb that can stand on its own,

e.g. see, walk; see Chapters 2 and 6.

light verb Verbs such as make, do, take

with a very general meaning that combine

with nouns, such as take a walk. They can be

replaced by verbs, e.g. walk; see Chapter 4.

linguistic knowledge Knowledge about lin-

guistic notions and rules that we have in our

heads, e.g. consonants and vowels, structure,

question formation; see Chapter 1.

linguistics The study of language.

main clause Independent clause, i.e. a sen-

tence that can stand on its own, minimally

containing a subject and a predicate and not

embedded within another clause.

modal Auxiliary such as must, will, would,

can, could that expresses necessity, uncer-

tainty, possibility; see Chapter 6.

modier An element whose function is to

provide more information on another element,

e.g. purple in purple sage; see Chapter 9.

modify Describe the quality of something.

monotransitive See transitive.

morphology Rules for how to build words,

e.g. formal + ize; see Chapter 1.

mother In a tree, the node above another

node, e.g. PP is the mother of P.

multiple negation When two or more negative

words (not, nobody) occur in the same clause, e.g.

I didn’t eat nothing; see special topic Chapter 3.

N = noun.

N′

= N-bar, intermediate category; see

Chapters 3 and 9.

negation/negative E.g. not or n’t, or a negative

word such as nothing.

node a point in the tree, e.g. NP is a node,

see Chapter 3.

nominative case The case of the subject,

only visible on pronouns, e.g. she in She left

early; see special topic Chapter 4.

non-nite clause A clause lacking a nite

verb; see Chapter 8.

non-nite verb A verb that lacks tense and

a nominative subject, e.g. to be in to be or not to

be is the question; see Chapters 6 and 8.

226 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

non-linguistic (or social) knowledge Knowl-

edge of social rules; see Chapter 1, Section 3.

non-restrictive RC A clause that provides

background information to the noun it modies;

is often set apart from the rest of the sentence

through commas or comma intonation; see

Chapter 10.

noun A word such as table, freedom, book,

love; see Chapter 2.

noun complement Of chemistry in teacher of

chemistry; see Chapter 9.

NP = Noun Phrase, group of words cen-

tered around a noun, e.g. the red balloon; see

Chapter 3.

numeral A word such as one or two. They

can be seen as Adj or D; see Chapter 2 and

Table 2.4.

objective or accusative case In English, case

is only visible on pronouns, e.g him, in Hermi-

one saw him. Objects typically get this case,

hence the name objective. See special topic,

Chapter 4.

object predicate Realized as an AdjP, NP, or

PP, making a claim about the object, e.g. nice

in I consider her nice. It occurs together with a

complex transitive verb such as consider, elect;

see Chapter 4.

OED Oxford English Dictionary, see references.

P = preposition.

participle Either accompanied by an aux-

iliary, see Chapter 6, or on its own heading a

non-nite clause, see Chapter 8.

particle Similar in form to prepositions and

adverbs, but a particle is only used together

with a verb; see Chapter 5.

passive auxiliary A form of to be used

together with a past participle. For instance,

was in She was arrested; see Chapter 6.

passive construction A construction where

an undergoer of the action is functioning

as a subject, e.g. she in She was met at the

airport.

past (tense) An event took place in the past,

i.e. the speech time and event time do not

overlap.

past participle Typically follows auxiliary to

have to form a perfect, or to be to form a pas-

sive. It can function on it own in a non-nite

clause. The participle ends in -ed/-en (walked,

written, chosen) or may be irregular, such as

gone, swum, begun, learnt.

past perfect E.g. had done in She had done

that by ve; see Chapter 6, Figure 6.1.

perfect auxiliary To have when used

together with a past participle. For instance,

have in I have done that already.

phonology The structure of the sound sys-

tem; see Chapter 1.

phrasal verb A verb that is always com-

bined with a preposition-like element but

which has a special meaning. For instance,

look up does not mean ‘see upwards’, but ‘go

to the library and check on something’, see

Chapter 5.

phrase A group of related words, centered

around a head; see Chapter 3.

pied piping Taking the preposition along in

a relative clause or a question, as in the man [to

whom] I talked; see Chapter 10.

pleonastic subject See dummy subject, see

also Chapter 4 and special topic to Chapter 5.

possessive E.g. his or Catweazle’s in his book

or Catweazle’s book; see Chapter 2. It is of the

D category.

postmodier Modier that follows the head,

e.g. from Venice in a stone from Venice.

PP = Prepositional Phrase: group of words

belonging to the preposition, e.g. in the garden.

pre-D = Pre-determiner, quantiers such as

all, both, half can occur before the determiner,

e.g. in all that trouble; see Chapter 2.

predicate Says something about the sub-

ject, realized as a VP, e.g. saw him in Hermione

saw him.

predicative adjective Term not used in

this book; an adjective that heads an AP with

the function of subject predicate or object

predicate.

premodier Modier that precedes the

head, e.g. blue in a blue hat.

Glossary 227

preposing Moving a word or phrase to a

position towards the beginning of a sentence.

preposition A word indicating location (in

place and time), such as at, in, and on, direction,

such as to, into, and towards, relationship,

such as with, between, among, and of; see

Chapter 2.

preposition stranding Leaving the preposi-

tion behind in a relative clause or a question,

as in the man who I talked to; see Chapter 10.

prepositional verb A verb that has a PP

as a complement, e.g. rely on, refer to; see

Chapter 5.

prescriptive rules A rule typically learned in

school, see Chapter 1, e.g. don’t split an inni-

tive or don’t use multiple negation.

present (tense) The event occurs at the time

of speech.

present participle Forms that end in -ing, e.g.

walking, used after a progressive auxiliary, as in

he is walking, or on its own in a non-nite clause,

as in walking along the street, I saw a re.

present perfect A Verb Group like have lived

in I have lived here for ever. See Chapter 6 and

Figure 6.1.

progressive (aspect) Indicating that the

action is or was going on; see Chapter 6.

pronominalization Referring to an NP, PP,

VP, AdjP, or AdvP, i.e. a phrase, by means of a

pronoun.

pro-form Word that pronominalizes a PP,

VP, AdjP, or AdvP. Used as a broader term than

pronoun.

pronoun Words such as he, she, it, me that

refer to an NP; pronouns replacing PPs (there),

AdjPs (so), AdvPs (thus), or VPs (do so) are called

either pronoun or pro-form.

pronoun

resolution Determining the proper

antecedent for a pronoun. See special topic to

Chapter 9.

proper noun Not used in this book. A noun

that used for names, e.g. Bertha, Arizona.

pseudo-cleft A construction such as What

he did was stupid, used to emphasize/focus a

part; see Chapter 11, Section 3.

pun The use of a word to suggest two mean-

ings; see Chapter 1.

quantier Words such as all, some, many,

each; they are either like determiners or adjec-

tives, or occur before determiners.

question See yes/no question and wh-

question.

RC = relative clause, see below and Chapter 10.

reflexive pronoun The pronouns myself,

yourself, himself, herself, ourselves and

themselves.

regular verbs Verbs formed by adding -ed to

the present to form the past tense and the past

participle, as in the case of regular verbs such

as walk, walked, walked. See Chapter 6.

relative clause A clause/sentence that typi-

cally modies a noun, e.g. the tree which I see

from the window; see Chapter 10.

relative pronoun pronoun such as who,

whose that introduces relative clauses; see

Chapter 10. The same set is used in ques-

tions and then they are called interrogative

pronouns.

restrictive RC A relative clause with highly

relevant information; see Table 10.1.

S = sentence: a group of words that includes

at least a verb/VP

= Speech on a timeline; see Chapter 6.

S′ = S-bar, used in the rst edition of this book,

replaced by CP.

S-adverbial An adverbial that modies the

entire sentence or expresses the feelings of

the speaker, e.g. unfortunately, as opposed to

a VP-adverbial. See Chapter 5.

SC = Small Clause, see below.

sentence/clause A unit that contains at

least a verb. The subject may or may not be

expressed; see Chapters 7, 8, and 10.

semantics The linguistic aspects to meaning.

semi-modal Auxiliary such as dare (to), need

(to), used to, ought to, have to. They have prop-

erties of both main verbs and modal verbs; see

Chapter 6.

simple sentence/

clause Sentence or clause

with only one lexical verb; see Chapter 7.

228 An Introduction to the Grammar of English

sister For example, a P and NP are sisters of

each other; each has a branch going up to the

‘mother’; see Chapter 3.

specify Point to something, i.e. a determiner’s

function in a phrase.

split innitive Separating the to from the

verb, e.g. as in to boldly go ...; see special topic

Chapter 1.

small clause A sentence in which the verb

has been left out; see Chapter 4.

stacking When more than one adjective pre-

cedes the noun; see Chapter 9.

strong verbs A term for a verb that has a dif-

ferent vowel for the present, the past, and the

past participle, e.g. swim, swam, swum.

subject In English, the subject agrees with

the verb in person and number, see Chapter 4.

subject predicate Often realized as an AdjP,

making a claim about the subject, e.g. nice in

She is nice. It occurs after a copula verb such as

be, become; see Chapter 4.

subject verb

agreement Finite verbs agree

with subjects in English. Evidence for it is fairly

limited, e.g. the –s on she walks.

subjunctive Expressing a wish or intention

or necessity, e.g. go is a subjunctive verb in it is

important that he go there. In Modern English,

most of these are replaced by modal verbs; see

Chapter 6, Section 2.1.

subordinate clause Dependent clause, or

clause embedded in another by means of a

complementizer such as that, because, if; see

Chapters 7 and 8.

subordinating

conjunction Not used in this

book, same as complementizer, see there.

superlative An adjective such as greatest,

see Chapter 2.

synonym A word with an almost identical

meaning, e.g. often and frequently; see Chapter 2.

syntax Rules for how words are combined

into phrases and sentences, the topic of this

book; see Chapter 1.

tag-question A repetition of the subject and

the auxiliary, as in She has been there before,

hasn’t she? See Chapter 4.

tense Indicating past or present time.

trace Not used in this book. When used,

it indicates that a word or phrase has been

moved. In Chapters 10 and 11, I have used

copies in brackets instead. These copies have

a line through them to show they are not

pronounced.

transitive Verb with one object, e.g. see; see

Chapter 4.

tree A representation of the units/phrases of

a sentence by means of branches and nodes;

see Chapter 3.

two-part coordinator Coordinator with two

parts, e.g. both Mary and John, neither Mary nor

John; see Chapter 2.

Universal Grammar Grammatical properties

shared by all languages; see Chapter 1.

V = verb

V′

= V-bar, an intermediate category; see

Chapter 5.

verb A lexical category often expressing a

state, act, event or emotion; see Chapter 2.

VGP = Verb Group; see Chapter 6.

vowel Sounds such as i, e, a, o, and u, made

by not blocking the airstream; see Chapter 1,

for use in a rule.

VP-adverbial An adverbial that modies

the action of the verb, e.g. quickly, slowly, as

opposed to an S-adverbial; see Chapter 5.

weak verbs A term for a verb that has a -ed

past and past participle, e.g. walk.

wh-question A question that starts with

who, what, how, why, when or where; see

Chapter 11.

word order Linear sequencing of words and

phrases.

yes/no question A question for which the

appropriate answer would be ‘yes’, ‘no’, or

‘maybe/perhaps’; see Chapter 11.

References

British National Corpus, http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk.

Chomsky, Noam 1975. Reections on Language. Fontana.

Corpus of Contemporary American English, http://www.americancorpus.org.

Fowler, H.W. 1926 [1950]. A Dictionary of Modern English Usage. Oxford: Clarendon.

Kirszner, Laurie & Stephen Mandell 1992. e Holt Handbook [third edition]. HBJ.

O'Dwyer, Bernard 2000. Modern English Structures. Broadview Press.

O'Grady, William & Michael Dobrovolsky 1987. Contemporary Linguistic Analysis. Longmans

[1st edition]

Oxford English Dictionary (OED). online edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Quirk, Randolph & Sidney Greenbaum 1973. A University Grammar of English. London: Longman.

Strunk, William with E.B. White 1959[2000]. e Elements of Style. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Swan, Michael 1980. Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

accusative case 83–84, 115–116,

151, 204

active 69, 94, 102–103,

111–112, 208

adjective 8, 10, 12, 14–18, 20–21,

26–27, 32–33, 35–36, 80, 83,

111–112, 170–176, 179, 187,

194–195, 197

AdjP 35, 38–40, 47, 49, 53,

65, 70–72, 76–77, 96, 134,

169–176, 179–181, 187,

193–194, 198, 214

adverb 8, 10–12, 14–18, 22–24,

26, 28, 32–34, 39–40, 59, 86,

99, 106, 114, 176

adverbial 69, 72–73, 77,

86–90, 93–96, 124, 132,

134, 137–138, 140, 150–152,

161, 189, 194–195, 198,

211, 215

AdvP 35, 39–40, 49, 86–90, 96,

169–172, 193–194

ax 13–14, 105, 107, 109, 111–114,

119, 123

ax-hop 105, 109, 111–113

agreement 8, 10, 14, 37, 66–67,

83–85, 107, 115, 183, 215

ambiguity/ambiguous 2–5,

8–9, 15, 35, 41–42, 49,

72, 88, 98–99, 111, 142,

157, 163, 175, 182, 188,

210, 211–213

antecedent 188, 195, 204

antonym 12–13, 16

article 1–2, 13, 19–21, 176

aspect 106, 109–110,

117–118, 121

auxiliary 4, 12, 14, 19, 21, 26,

29–30, 35, 37, 66, 69, 103,

105–119, 122–123, 127–128,

132–134, 158, 169, 201, 203,

205–207, 215

bare innitive 150, 152, 155

branch 35–39, 42–49, 68, 75, 87

case 8–10, 13, 83–85, 115, 118–119,

151, 162, 204, 215

clause 21–22, 39, 44, 56,

65, 68, 70, 76, 89, 96, 118,

132–140, 149–155, 189, 205,

214–216

cle 205, 208–210

coathanger 155, 209

comma splice 211

comparative 17–18, 194

complement 40, 65, 68, 73–74,

76–77, 80, 87, 96, 124, 167,

170–180, 182–188

complement clause 187–198,

200, 211, 214

complementizer 8, 12, 19, 21–23,

26, 35, 59, 132–137, 140,

146–148, 150–152, 153, 155,

164, 192, 194, 215

complex transitive 73–74, 76–77,

81, 94, 96–97, 118–119, 124,

129–130

compound 16, 27, 30, 91, 170

consonant 1

contraction 8, 63, 122

coordination 35, 43–45, 49, 84,

92, 132–134, 138–140, 154,

164, 179–180, 213, 215

coordinator 12, 19, 21–22,

26, 35, 132–134, 138–140,

154, 215

copula 72–77, 80–83, 85, 96, 103,

106, 112, 118–119, 124–125,

129–131, 201, 208

corpus 9, 17, 70, 80, 171

CP 35, 132, 135–140, 149,

152–155, 164, 195–198,

203–207, 209, 214

(D)Adv 40

dangling participle/modier 8,

154, 161–163, 167, 215

daughter 43, 46, 65, 74, 79, 87

declarative 205, 208

denite article 19

degree adverb 15–17, 22–24,

32–33, 40, 170, 172

descriptivism 8

determiner 12–13, 19–21,

23–26, 35, 39, 46, 169,

173–176, 179–180,

183–184, 214

direct object 65, 68–77, 83–84,

86, 89, 94–96, 106, 124–127,

130, 134–135, 140, 151,

156–157, 171, 173, 190,

196, 198

ditransitive 70, 72–74, 77,

96, 102, 118–119, 124–125,

129–130

dummy do

105, 108, 112–113,

206, 215

dummy subject 67, 85, 103–104,

137, 215

echo question 206

-participle see past participle

elided/elision see ellipsis

ellipsis 106, 139–140, 156,

159, 164

embedded 132–137, 140, 142,

145–146, 149–155, 157, 164,

167, 205, 215

emphasizer 176

exclamation/exclamative 205,

207–209

extraposed/extraposition 137,

140, 154, 165

nite clause 132, 134, 140,

149–150, 152, 164, 190–193,

197, 198

nite verb 85, 103, 105, 108,

114–116, 118–119, 124, 134,

149–150, 164

at structure 36, 38–39, 49, 76,

105–106, 114

focuser 176

formal language 6–9, 33, 195

fragment 114–116, 135, 149

Index

Index 231

function 1, 5, 41, 43, 65–77,

83–96, 124–126,

132–134, 151–152, 155,

169–179, 189–194, 196, 198

future 108–111, 116, 150

future perfect 110, 116

genitive case 13, 83, 85, 151

gerund 151, 155, 161–163

grammar 1–6, 8

grammatical category 12, 16,

19–23, 25–26, 35, 60, 106, 215

head 12, 16, 35–40, 43, 45–47, 49,

67, 85–87, 106, 146, 169–180,

183–184, 192, 195–196, 198,

200, 207, 214

hypercorrection 33, 83

ing

-participle see present

participle

imperative 116

indenite article 19

indenite pronoun 24

indicative 205

indirect object 65, 68–70,

72–77, 87, 89, 94, 96,

124–125, 134, 195

innitive 8, 10–11, 114, 116,

148–155, 167, 215

informal language 6–9, 33, 57,

109, 115, 122, 147

innate faculty 5–6, 8

interrogative 205

interrogative pronoun 19–21, 24

intransitive 72–75, 77, 86, 94–95,

106, 118–119, 124, 215

intransitive phrasal 92–93, 126

irregular verb 73–74, 109,

116–119, 121–122, 124, 150

lexical category 12–19, 23,

25–27, 29, 39, 42, 49, 59

lexical verb 21, 105–106, 108,

112–119, 124, 132–134, 140,

149, 164, 203

light verb 65, 76

linguistic knowledge 1, 6, 8, 60

main clause 133–134, 137–138,

140, 150–151, 161–162,

167, 205

main verb see lexical verb

modal 105, 107–109, 112–119,

150, 153

modier 89, 95, 134, 146,

169–180, 189, 193–195, 198,

211, 214–215

modify 14–18, 20, 32–34,

37, 39–41, 48–49, 71, 73,

86–89, 95

monotransitive 72–73, 77,

96, 124

morphology 1–2, 14, 18

mother 43

multiple negation 6, 8, 56–58

negation 6, 8, 56–58, 62

negative 6–7, 16, 56–58, 105–106,

112–114, 118, 122, 215

node 36, 38–39, 44, 49, 76,

171, 182

nominative case 10, 83–85,

115–116, 118–119, 124,

151, 204

non-nite verb 105, 116, 118–119,

120, 124, 150–151, 154–155

non-nite clause 116, 134, 140,

142, 149–155, 161, 164,

189–190, 192–194,

197–198, 215

non-linguistic 1, 6, 8, 60

non-restrictive RC 190–191,

195–196, 198, 211, 214

noun 6, 12–26, 32, 35–39, 45,

49–50, 59, 71, 76, 83, 95, 111,

134, 151, 153, 161, 169–170,

173–179, 190–193, 195–198,

200, 215

noun complement 132, 192, 200

NP 21, 35–49, 65, 67–68, 70–71,

76–77, 84–85, 86–87, 89–96,

134, 162, 169–180, 189–198,

207, 209, 214, 216

numeral 19–21, 24

object predicate 65–77, 87, 89,

94–96, 124–125, 134, 211

participle 18, 73, 95, 109,

111–112, 114, 116–119,

122–123, 150, 152, 154–155,

161–163, 193, 215

particle 86, 91–93, 99, 131

past tense 14, 21, 40, 73–74,

108–109, 116–117, 121–122,

124, 150

past perfect 109–110, 121

passive auxiliary 103, 111–113,

114, 118, 123

passive construction 8–9, 68–69,

76, 93–96, 102–104, 105, 107,

111–112, 114, 205, 214–215

past participle 109, 111–112, 114,

117–118, 123, 149–150, 152,

155, 193, 201

perfect auxiliary 106, 109, 123

phonology 1–2, 7

phrasal verb 72–73, 75, 86,

90–96, 99–100, 118–119,

124–126, 134, 167

phrase 1, 5, 12, 16, 23, 35–49, 59,

65–66, 71–72, 74, 77, 86–87,

89, 92, 106, 132, 135–140,

169–180, 188, 189, 198,

206–209, 214

pied piping 195

pleonastic subject 67, 103

possessive 13–14, 19–21, 24, 51,

83, 151, 176, 194, 195

PP 35, 38–43, 45–49, 69, 70–71,

77, 86, 88–90, 94–96, 155,

169–179, 189, 193–195,

214–215

pre-D 20–21, 176

predicate 65–68, 74, 77

preposition 8, 10, 12–14, 18–19,

21–23, 26, 29, 41–42, 45, 59,

69, 72–73, 84, 86, 90–91, 93,

139, 146–147, 170, 194–195,

203–204, 215

preposition stranding

203–204, 215

prepositional verb 86, 90–91, 93,

96, 118, 124

prescriptive 1, 6–10, 33, 56–59,

83–85, 102, 123, 146–147, 151,

161, 188, 203, 215

present 14–15, 40, 73–74, 76, 85,

108–110, 115, 117–118, 121, 150

232 Index

present participle 111, 114,

118, 123, 149–152, 154–155,

161–163, 193

present perfect 73, 109–110,

117–118, 121, 124

pro-form 24, 40

progressive 105, 107, 110–114,

118–119, 121

pronominalization 37, 45, 49,

179–180

pronoun 8, 10–12, 19, 23–24,

26, 29, 31, 37, 39–40,

49, 59, 65, 67, 84, 87,

115, 139, 151, 153, 177,

188, 190–192, 194–195,

203–204, 208

pronoun resolution 188

pseudo-cle 205, 208–209

pun 3, 8, 18

quantier 19–21, 24, 176

question 4–5, 66–67, 69,

105–106, 108, 112–113, 118,

135, 204–209, 214

reexive pronoun 23–24

regular verb 117, 119

relative clause (RC) 39, 44,

134, 165, 189–198,

203–204, 209

relative pronoun 188, 190, 192,

194–195, 203–204

restrictive RC 190–191,

193–196, 198

S 42–43, 135–136

S-adverbial 88, 90, 96, 137

SC 76, 125

semantics 14, 18

semi-modal 108–109

sister 38, 41–43, 48, 54, 65,

68, 74–76, 87, 90, 135,

164, 171, 174, 176–179, 184,

195–198, 214

specify 19–20, 24, 36, 39, 41

split innitive 8, 10–11, 63, 215

small clause 76

stacking 171

strong verb 117

subject 3, 5, 8, 10, 13–14, 23, 37,

43, 65–77, 83–85, 89, 94,

96, 103–104, 111, 114–116,

118, 124, 132, 134, 136–137,

139–140, 151–155, 161–163,

164, 169, 179, 189–190,

194–195, 198, 204, 207–208,

211–212

subject predicate 65, 69, 70–77,

85, 87, 89, 94, 96, 124–125,

134, 136, 150–151, 155, 164,

169, 198

subject verb agreement 8, 10,

37, 67, 85, 115

subjunctive 107–108

subordinate clause 21–22, 134,

140, 150

superlative 17–18

synonym 12, 16, 25, 32,

93, 139

syntax 1–2, 7–8, 12, 14, 18

tag question 66–67, 106

tense 14, 21, 40, 73–74,

85, 106–111, 115–119,

121, 150

transitive 70, 72–77, 92–93, 96,

106, 116, 118–119, 124

transitive phrasal 92–93

tree 35–49, 65, 68, 74–77,

87–88, 105–107, 111, 124,

134, 136–137, 139–140, 149,

153, 155, 170–176, 178–179,

195–198, 205, 209, 212

two-part coordinator 22

Universal Grammar 5–6, 8

verb 4–5, 13–15, 40, 59, 71, 72–74,

76–77, 84–85, 90–93, 103,

105–119, 122–123, 132–134,

149–155, 215

VGP 105–119, 155

vowel 1–2, 117

VP-adverbial 88, 90

weak verb 117

-question 4, 84, 205–206,

209, 210

word order 66, 177, 180

Yes/No

question 4, 66,

205–206, 209