Baas Arts Chapter 1: introduction.

One of the principal concerns of syntax is the order of the units that make up sentences. In
English we cannot string words into a sentence randomly.
For example, we can have: The president ate a doughnut, but not: The president a doughnut
ate.
The contrast between both sentences shows that in English the word that denotes the activity
(of eating) must precede the unit that refers to the entity that was being eating (a doughnut).
It seems that “the president” together form a unit, in the same way that “a” and doughnut do.
We will use the term constituent for strings of one or more words that syntactically and
semantically (meaning-wise) behave as units.

Next consider the sentences:

The cat devoured the rat - It is possible to rearrange the words in this sentence as follows:
The rat devoured the cat.

This is still a good sentence in English, but its meaning is different despite the fact that both
sentences contain exactly the same words. In the first one, the Agent (perpetrator) of the
attack is the cat and the Patient/under-goer (victim) is the rat. In the second sentence these
roles are reversed. The rules of syntax must be set up in such way that they can account for
the fact that native speakers of English know that a reordering of units leads to a difference in
meaning.
However, not all reorderings lead to a difference in meaning. An alternative ordering can be
given with emphasis, indicated by capital letters, on the word rat:
The RAT, the cat devoured.

Sentences of this type are commonly used for contrast. For example: might be uttered in
denial of someone saying “the cat devoured the mouse”. Again, the syntactic rules of our
grammar must be able to characterise the regrouping that has transformed the first sentence
into the last one (The RAT, the cat devoured) and they must also be able to explain why, in this
case, there is no change in meaning.

How we can analyse them in terms of their constituent parts.

The president blushed
One possible subdivision is to separate the sentence into words
The- president- blushed.
However, such a dissection tells us nothing about the relationships between the individual
words. Intuitively, the words “the” and “president” together form a unit “while blushed” is a
second unit that stands alone as in:
[The president] [blushed]

It is used square brackets to indicate groups of words that belong together. One way in which
we can also show that the string the president is a unit is by replacing it with he:
[He] – [blushed]
This subdivision makes good sense from the point of view of meaning too: the word-group
“the president” has a specific function in that it refers (in a particular context of utterance) to
an individual whose job is head of state. Similarly, the word “blushed” has a clear function in
that tells us what happened to the president.

Chapter 2: Function.

The task of syntax is to give the strings of words that are organised according to certain rules,
an account of those rules. Sentences can be analysed into subparts, which we referred to as
“constituents”.

Subject and Predicate.

The meaning difference between sentences comes about as a result of different roles played
by the various constituents. Words that denote actions are verbs.

We can define the function Subject of a sentence as:

Subject: The constituents that tell us not
only who performs the action denoted by
the verb (the agent) but also who or what
the sentence is about. To find out what is
the subject of a particular sentence, we can
ask: Who or what carried out the action
denoted by the verb? Who or what is this
sentence about?
Predicate: it’s the unit in a sentence whose
typical function is to specify what the
subject is engaged in doing. In any given
sentence the predicate is everything in the
sentence except the subject.

The Subject is often defined as the unit that indicates who or what is engaged in carrying out
the action specified by the verb, an also as the unit that tells you what the sentence is about.
Referents of subjects need not always be doing something. Subjects can precede stative or
dynamic predicates.

The element “it” it can be a “weather it” because it is used in expressions that tell us about the
weather (for example: it is raining”). It is also called “nonreferential it” and “dummy it”. The
important fact is that this element does not refer to anything in the way that “referential it”
does

The element “there” can be an “existential there” because it is used in propositions that have
to do with existence. Existential there should be kept apart from locative adverbial there,
which specifies a location.

Nonreferential it and existential there are said to be meaningless because all they seem to be
doing in the sentences in which they occur is fill the Subject slot.
The first thing to note about the Subjects is that they predominantly consist of groups of word
whose most important element denotes a person, an animal, an institution or a thing. We will
call such words nouns.
Second, in straightforward sentences, those that are used to make a statement, the Subject is
the first NP we come across.
Third, with the exception of imperative clauses, Subjects are obligatory. If we leave out the
Subjects we derive ungrammatical sentences.
Fourth, Subjects determine the form of the verb.
Fifth we can identify the Subject of a sentence by adding a so-called tag question to it. A tag
question is a short question that is tagged onto a statement. One of its uses is to seek the
hearer’s confirmation of what is being stated.
The generalisation is that the Subject of a sentence is identified by the unit which is being
referred back to by means of words like she, they (pronouns). Tag questions must contain a
pronoun that identifies the Subject of the sentence it as tagged onto.

We say that the verbs, in the sentences agree with the Subjects. This agreement is visible
through the –s ending on the verbs. Such agreement occurs only if we have a third person
singular Subject. Such Subject does not denote the speaker or the hearer (a third person is not
me or you) but someone (or something) else. Any Subject other than a third person singular
Subject takes what is called the base form of the verb (form of the verb that has no ending).

In sentences which are concerned with asking questions, more specifically the ones used to ask
yes no questions, the Subject changes position: the verb is then in the initial slot of the
sentence and the Subject is in the second slot.

Predicator

Here we concentrate on the function of the verb. Predicators are pivotal elements that specify
what we could call the bare-bones content of the sentences in which they occur, that is, the
main action, event or process denoted by the verb. As their name suggests, Predicators are in
the business of predicating something, saying something of something else. The cat devoured
the rat.

Direct Object

In semantic terms, Direct Objects are said to be constituents that refer to entities that typically
undergo the activity or process denoted by the verb. The characterisation of Direct Objects is
in terms of the kind of role they play in sentences: in the same way that Subjects typically play
an agentive (instigator) role, Direct Objects have a Patient role. What this means is that the
referent of the constituent that we can identify as Direct Object typically undergoes the action
or process denoted by the verb.
Although this semantic characterisation is useful, it is also needed to define Dos syntactically,
in terms of their structural properties.
Like Subjects, DOs are often noun phrases (although not exclusively). Their usual position is
after the main verb. They have a strong relationship with the verb that precedes them.
A verb that requires Direct Object to complement its meaning is a transitive verb. Not all verbs
are transitive. We also have intransitive verbs. These are verbs that do not need a following
constituent to complete their meaning. Some verbs appear to be able to function both
transitively and intransitively: Harold move the table / Harold moved.

Direct Objects are constituents that are closely related to the verb that precedes them. A
fourth syntactic characteristic of DOs is that if we turn an active sentence into a passive
sentence, the DO of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. The
subject of the active sentence ends up in a phrase introduced by the word by.

Direct Objects complete the meaning of the verbs that precede them. Another way of putting
this is to say that Direct Objects function as Complements to verbs. When we talk about
Complements, we’re using a cover term to denote any constituent whose presence is
determined or licensed by another element.

Indirect Object

Verbs that take Direct Object and an Indirect Object are called di-transitive verbs. Apart from
their semantic properties, Indirect Objects have a number of syntactic characteristics:
First, they are usually noun phrases.
Second, they cannot occur without a following a Direct Object.
Third, Indirect Objects always precede Direct Object.
A final syntactic characteristic is that, like DOs they can become the Subjects of passive
sentences.

If we passive is the Direct Object of a sentence which also contains an Indirect Object, then the
Indirect Object ends up in a to-phrase.

Adjuncts

They have the function of telling us about the how, when, where or why of the situations
expressed by the respective sentences. We can test to see if a particular sentence contains an
Adjunct by asking how? When? Where, Or why? Adjuncts are always optional, and express
peripheral information. They can be stacked, which means that more than one of them can
appear in a sentence.

Chapter 3: Words, Word Classes and Phrases.

System of word classification: it groups the words of languages into word classes (also called
parts of speech):

Nouns Preposition
Determinative Adverb
Adjective Conjunction
Verb Interjection
Nouns and determinatives
Traditionally, nouns are defined as words that denote people, animals, things or places. A
description like this is called notional definition, because it offers a characterisation, in this
case of a word class, in terms of concepts of meaning. A problem with this is that it leaves a
great number of words unaccounted for, which could also be said to belong to the class of
nouns. A far better approach is to characterise nouns using formal and distributional criteria.
We look at the shape words can take, where they can occur in sentences, and the way they
behave and function in sentential patterns.

Different words can have similar endings or suffixes as they are known in morphology. Suffixes
and their positional counterparts prefixes belong to the class of affixes (for example: -ance,
-hood, - tion, -ness, -ship). Sometimes, by looking at the morphological make-up words, we can
tell to which word class they belong. They can have plural endings, indicating that we have
more than one item of a kind, they can have genitive endings, which usually indicate
possession.
We might observe that all the words we have labelled as nouns can be preceded by
determinatives such as the, a, this/these, that/those etc. which specify more precisely the
meaning of the nouns they precede.
Nouns can also be preceded by adjectives; for example, nice, difficult, strong, etc. These are
words that in some way qualify the nouns they precede. We are defining a word class by
characterising the environments that the members of that class typically occur.

Determinatives
A, the Each, every
This, these Either, neither
That, those Any, some
Which, whose Certain, a few, several, various
No (no exit) Enough
Few, little, many, much All, both

As the name suggests, common nouns are ordinary, everyday nouns. Some of them can be
counted (one book/two books) but others as a rule cannot (one butter/two butters).
Proper nouns are names of people, places and even objects. They do not normally take a
preceding determinative or modifying elements or a plural ending. Proper nouns are examples
of what are called referring expressions. This is because when they are uttered in a particular
context, they uniquely refer to one individual in the world of discourse.
She her

Pronouns are special. They suggest that these words function as noun substitutes.
I, you, he, she, it, we, they = nominative case
General personal pronouns
Me, you, him, her, us, them = accusative
My, your, her, his, our, their = dependent pronoun which
occurs before nouns
Possessive personal pronouns
Mine, yours, hers, his, ours, theirs = independent form
which occurs elsewhere
Myself, yourself, herself, himself, itself, ourselves,
Reflexive personal pronouns
themselves

Reciprocal personal pronouns

Each other, one another

This/these (occur independently) that/those (occur

Demonstrative pronouns before nouns as determinatives and function as
Specifier)

Relative pronouns That, who, which

Interrogative or wh-pronouns What, which

Another, a few, less, a little, many, more, most, much;

either, neither; each, every, everybody, everyone,
everything, everywhere; any, some, somebody,
Indefinite pronouns
someone, something; nobody, no one, none, nothing;
certain, several, various; enough; all, anybody, anyone,
anything, both.

Noun phrases they are string of words whose central element is a noun. The central element is
its Head.

Adjectives
They are words that modify nouns. They can sometimes be identified through certain formal
characteristics: the suffixes –ful, -less and –ive are typical adjectival affixes, among others, as is
the prefix un- .
Most adjectives possess Gradability. They can be preceded by words such as very, extremely,
less, etc. which indicate the extent to which the adjective applies to the word it combines with.
Exceptions are normally adjectives denoting material, nationality, and a few others. Adjectives
also take comparative and superlative endings. The comparative form indicates the greater
extent to which the unmarked form of the adjective called the absolute form applies, while the
superlative form indicates the maximal extent.
Not all gradable adjectives are able to form comparative and superlative forms with –er and –
est. Instead, the words more and most are used. The general rule is that adjectives with two or
more syllables take analytical comparative and superlative forms.
Distributional characteristics of adjectives: they typically occupy two positions: attributive
position and predicative.
When an adjective precedes a noun in a noun phrase, it is said to occur in an attributive
position. It supplies more information about the character, nature or state of the noun.
When an adjective follows a copular o linking verb, it is said to occur in predicative position
(some examples of the verbs: appear, be, become, feel, look, remain, seem, smell, sound).
Adjectives function as the Head of the adjective phrases.

Verbs
The endings -s and -ed are called inflections. The -s ending signals present tense inflection,
while the -ed ending encodes a past tense inflection. Any word that can take a tense inflection
is a verb.
The –s ending on the verbs is referred to as the third person singular ending of the present
tense. Singular or plural referring expressions (John, Kate, The Canary Islands, etc.) are also
third person. This agreement is signalled by the –s ending that is added to the verb.
The form of the verb other than the third person singular is often referred to as the base form.
The verb “be” is an exception to the general pattern.
A verb that carries tense is called a finite verb, whereas a verb that doesn’t carry tense is a
nonfinite verb.

Main verbs or lexical verbs: they can stand on their own in a sentence without another verb
preceding or following.

Auxiliary verbs: they cannot occur independently and function as “helping verbs”. Auxiliary
verbs by definition are helping verbs and must accompany another verb, namely a main verb.
Depending on the context the verbs “be” or “do” function as main verb or an auxiliary verb.

can/could, may/might, must,
Modal auxiliaries
Aspectual auxiliaries
Passive auxiliaries
Dummy auxiliaries
What distinguishes auxiliaries from main verbs is that they can:
 Carry the negative enclitic particle not
 Invert with Subject
 Manifest code
 Carry emphatic stress
Ability, permission, possibility,
obligation, necessity, intention,
ought to, shall/should,
prediction, etc.
will/would
Modals are ALWAYS finite.
They encode aspect, a concept that
refers to the way the meaning
expressed by the main verb is
viewed in time. Progressive and
Be/have Participle aspects.
Have and be can function as
auxiliary verbs or as main verbs. The
modals, by contrast, can only
function as auxiliary verbs.
The DO of an active sentence is in
Subject position in the passive
sentence, and the Subject of the
active sentence appears in a phrase
introduced by by in the passive
Be
sentence. If we want to form the
negative counterparts of sentences
containing a modal auxiliary, we
simply add the negative particle not
after the first auxiliary.
The reason why do is referred as
dummy do is because it does not
carry any meaning by itself, but is
Do inserted simply to aid main verbs in
forming negative or interrogative
sentences, and also to allow code
and emphasis.
NICE properties
Dummy do
If we want to form the negative counterpart of a sentence that does not contain an auxiliary
verb we need to insert a form of the verb do. This process is called do support. Do is also used
to form the interrogative versions of sentences that do not contain an auxiliary verb (subject-
auxiliary inversion).

The third use of the dummy auxiliary is in contexts where auxiliaries get stranded. The auxiliary
occurs without its main verb. This property is referred to as code.

There is a fourth use of the dummy auxiliary, namely in so-called emphatic contexts.
The reason why do is referred as dummy do is because it does not carry any meaning by itself,
but is inserted simply to aid main verbs in forming negative or interrogative sentences, and
also to allow code and emphasis.

It is quite common for auxiliaries to combine. It is always the first auxiliary that carries tense
(and is therefore finite). All the other verbs are non-finite.

Non-finite verb forms come in four types.

 To- infinitive: to dance
 Bare infinitive: dance
 Present participle: dancing
 Past participle: danced

The “to”- element of the “to- infinitive” is called the infinitival particle. The bare infinitive is not
preceded by this particle.
Each auxiliary verb determines the form of the verb that follows it. Thus, the progressive
auxiliary be determines the –ing ending on the passive auxiliary being. The passive auxiliary
with the –ed ending determines the past participle form of the main verb.
The modal auxiliary comes first and is followed by the perfect, progressive and passive
auxiliaries.

Verbs are Heads of the verb phrases. Some verbs syntactically require the presence of a Direct
Object

Prepositions
They tend to be short, often consisting of only two or three letters: at behind, by, for, in, like,
of, on, through, with, without, etc. Prepositions can be simple: consisting of only one word as
in the list above or complex: consisting of more than one word as in by means of, in front of, in
spite of, etc.
From the point of view of meaning prepositions often denote a relationship of some sort
between two entities.
Adverbs
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. The ending -ly is a typical adverb ending
(merrily, happily, extremely). Caution is in order here, as there are also a number of adjectives
that end in -ly. Other adverb endings are -wards, -wise, -ways. Some adverbs also take
comparative and superlative forms: Fast-faster-fastest, soon-sooner-soonest and well-better-
best.

Subclasses of adverbs:
 Circumstantial adverbs: its members can specify a variety of different types of
circumstantial information: e-g- frequency and manner. Included here are the
interrogative adverbs why, when and how. These are used in interrogative clauses.
(often, gleefully, intentionally, reluctantly).
 Degree adverbs: they specify the degree to which the adjective they modify applies
(extremely rude how rude? Extremely). (Extraordinarily, less, more, quite, too, very).
 Sentence adverbs: either they have a linking function, or they modify whole sentences.
However, perhaps, probably.

Degree adverbs cannot themselves be modified (very extremely x), while circumstantial and
sentence adverbs can (very often, quite intentionally, very probably). Sentence adverbs are
syntactically detached from the sentences they modify.

Adverbs function as the Heads of adverb phrases.

Conjunctions.
They belong to a closed class of word that have a linking function.

 Coordinating conjunctions: and, or, but

 Subordinating conjunctions: that, if, whether, for, because, although, when. They can
consist of more than one word: as if, as long as, in order that, so that.

The units that are being coordinated we will call conjoins. They link units of equal syntactic
status; e.g. phrases and sentences. Two coordinated phrases form a new phrase of the same
type as the two constituent conjoins.

We also speak of coordination in cases where more than two items are being strung together,
as in the sequence cheese, nuts and crisps. There is usually only a coordinator between the last
two items in the list.

Subordinating conjunctions are elements that introduce subordinate clauses, which we define
provisionally as sentences within sentences. Subordinators link units of unequal syntactic
status.

Because that, if, whether and for introduce Complement clauses, they are called
complementiser.

Clauses introduced by because, although, when and in order that supply circumstantial
information: they specify a reason, a contrast of some sort, “time when” and purpose,
respectively. These clauses function as Adjuncts. These conjunctions are called adjunctisers.

conjunctions coordinating conjunctions

 subordinating conjunctions complementisers

adjunctisers

Interjections:

They are expressions of emotion, physical state, agreement, disagreement and such like. Ah,
erh, hmm, no, oh, ouch, phew, shit, yes, yuck. They are not really part of the sentences in
which they occur, but literally thrown in (inter-jected).

Chapter 4: Clauses and sentences

The string of words collectively forms a sentence, which contains two clauses: a main clause
which is coextensive with the overall sentence and, a subordinate clause.
Main clauses, by definition, are superordinate clauses that are not themselves subordinate to
any other clause.
Matrix clauses, contains a subordinate clause within it. Some matrix clauses are also main
clauses.

Finite clauses are clauses that contain a finite (tensed) verb, whereas non-finite clauses do not
contain a finite verb. Main clauses are always finite, although they may of course contain non-
finite subordinate clauses (as well as finite clauses).
Finite subordinate clauses: that-clauses and if-clauses are frequently occurring type of finite.

Types of non-finite clauses

To-infinitive clause
Bare infinitive clause
-ing participle clause
-ed participle
Verbless clauses or small clause (Martin considers Tim a creep)

Non-finite subordinate clauses can also be introduced by a complementiser.

Every sentence can be analysed at four distinct form levels: word level, phrase level, clause
level and sentence level.

Clause types

Declarative clauses:
Declarative clauses are the most straightforward clause type. They are syntactic configurations
which usually display an unmarked order of the functional categories Subject, Predicator,
Direct Object, etc. This means that the Subject comes first in the sentence, followed by the
Predicator which in turn is followed by an Indirect Object (if there is one) and a Direct Object
(if present)
Non-declarative clauses by contrast display marked (in some way out of the ordinary)
configurations.
Declarative clauses are normally understood to make statements. But if I uttered with a rising
intonation some would become a question.

Interrogative clauses
ICs are normally used to ask questions. ICs can be yes/no interrogatives because they elicit
either “yes” or “no” as answers and open interrogatives or wh-interrogatives, because they
can potentially elicit an infinite range of answers.
Yes/no interrogatives and open interrogatives display inversion of the Subject with an auxiliary
verb. The open interrogatives are additionally characterised by the initial question words
starting with the letters “wh”. These are called wh-words (how is also considered a wh-word).
The possible answers to alternative interrogatives are given in the way the question is asked.

There are situations in which interrogatives are not used to ask questions at all. This is the case
of rhetorical questions: e.g.: How many times do I have to tell you not to lick your plate!
Instead, if we say “Can you be quiet? “Syntactically is an interrogative sentence but it has the
import of directives.

Imperative clauses
They are normally interpreted as directives, i.e. as someone telling someone else to (not) do
something. What syntactically characterises imperative clauses is the fact that they do not
normally contain Subjects, and that their verb is in the base form. They sometimes do not
receive the default directive interpretation, e.g. Take care of yourself.

Exclamative clauses
Like the open interrogatives, they are formed with an initial wh-word. Exclamatives differ from
interrogatives in that in the former, the wh-word usually functions as a modifying element
inside a phrase: What a load of nonsense he talks! But, it also can function as a noun-phrase:
What did you eat?
Exclamative clauses are used almost exclusively as exclamations. They can, however, also be
questions: What an extraordinary lecturer Kate is! / What an extraordinary lecturer who is?
We can also take that exclamation to make a statement.

The pragmatics of the clause types

The terms declarative, interrogative, imperative and Exclamative are syntactic labels that refer
to clause types that have certain syntactic characteristics (e.g. Subject-Auxiliary Inversion or no
Subject). The notions statement, question, directive and exclamation, by contrast are
pragmatic notions.
Syntax Pragmatics
Declaratives Statements
Interrogatives Questions
Imperatives Directives
Exclamatives Exclamations
A yes/no question is an utterance that has the force of a question and elicits a “yes” or “no”
response. Its syntactic form can be, but does not need to be interrogative. For example “you
haven’t closed the door?” This is an example of a declarative clause with the force, not of a
statement but that of a question.
Open questions have the force of questions, which elicit a potentially infinite variety of
answers. For example: Tom likes what? Syntactically is a declarative sentence but
pragmatically an open question.
Finally alternative questions, for example: You want beer or kir? This clause is syntactically
declarative, but pragmatically is a question.

Chapter 5: Function- Form Interface

Realisations of the Subject: Subjects can be realised by the following range of phrases and
clauses:
Noun phrases Finite clauses
Prepositional phrases Non-finite clauses

Noun Phrases functioning as Subject: They are typically noun phrases [(A rat) bit my toe]

Prepositional Phrases functioning as Subject: There are some restrictions on PPs as Subjects.
First, they are usually phrases that specify a location, or a time interval.
Second, the main verb of the sentence is often, although no exclusively a form of the verb be.
Under the stairs was a safe area to be during the war.
After Saturday would be a good time to go away for a few days.

Finite clauses functioning as Subject:

That he will go to New York soon is obvious
That the people adore her will no doubt boost her ratings.
What the terrorists said doesn’t need to be demonstrated
Whoever emerges as the winner will earn a lot of money
Why she consented remains a mystery

Non-finite clauses as Subject

With a Subject of their own:
For Judith to buy that house would spell disaster.
To-infinitive clauses without a Subject can be of two types: they are either not introduced at
all, or they are introduced by a wh-word.

Without a subject of their own: they are either not introduced at all or they are introduced by a
wh-word. ([To see her] is to love her. [Who to ask for permission] seems unclear.)

a. bare infinitive
b. -ing participle: with a subject of their own ([Pete breaking the rules] is unacceptable)
or without a subject of their own ([going on holiday] always creates tension). (the
subject can be inferred)
c. -ed participle
 d. Verbless clauses: they always have a subject of their own ([The kitchen free of
cockroaches] is a welcome prospect).

Chapter 10: Tense, Aspect and Mood.