Functions in the Sentence

Categories, Phrases, and Functions

CATEGORIES

What is a grammatical category?

A word with little meaning, e.g., Determiner, Quantifier, Auxiliary, Determiner, Quantifier, Auxiliary,
Coordinator, and Complementizer

What is a lexical category?

A word with lexical meaning, such as a with lexical meaning, such as a Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb,
and Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb, and Preposition

What is a subject?
A subject is the person or thing that is doing an action, or the person or thing that is the focus of the
sentence.

What is a Predicate?
Is the part that contains the action in the sentence.

Mr. Smith took a walk.

The dentist pulled out a tooth.

The pig with the big snout slobbered on a kid.

An OBJECT in grammar is a part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It refers to someone or
something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. It is what the verb is being done to.

A direct object answers the question "what?" or "who?"

Examples:

David repaired his car → his car is the direct object of the verb repaired. ( What did David repair?)

He invited Mary to the party → Mary is the direct object of the verb invited. (Who did he invite?)
An indirect object answers the question "to whom?", "for whom?“

An indirect object is the recipient of the direct object, or an otherwise affected participant in the event.

There must be a direct object for an indirect object to be placed in a sentence. In other words an
indirect object cannot exist without a direct object.

They sent him a postcard -

him is the indirect object of the verb sent. (To whom did they send a postcard?)

He bought his son a bike -

his son is the indirect object of the verb bought. (For whom did he buy a bike?)

The object of a preposition is the noun or pronoun governed by a preposition. The object of a
preposition is usually (but not always) the noun or pronoun to the right of the preposition.
examples

We drove to the store.

There is a woman beside the big man.

He lived down the street

Complement is the term used for a word or words that are needed to complete the meaning of an
expression.

2 types of Complement

Subject Complement

Object Complement

A subject complement is a word or phrase that follows a linking verb and identifies or describes the
subject.

An object complement is a noun, a pronoun, or an adjective that follows a direct object to rename it or
state what it has become.
 1. Leaves fell. (Subject)
2. We raked the leaves. (Direct Object)
3. Charlie showed me the leaves on the ground. (Indirect Object)
4. Charlie walked on the leaves. (Object of Preposition)
5. Charlie put them in the leaf bin. (Modifier)

1.She sent her friend an email . INDIRECT OBJECT

2.Sally will help you with your housework. DIRECT OBJECT
3. Marcus hid under the bed. Object of the Preposition
4.He gave them a bag full of money. INDIRECT OBJECT
5. We considered him worthy Object Complement
6.I need your help. DIRECT OBJECT
7. Ben is a policeman. Subject Complement
8.My father bought us a new TV set. INDIRECT OBJECT
9. Shan named John the new manager. Object Complement
10.I wish you good luck . INDIRECT OBJECT

A transitive verb always has a noun that receives the action of the verb, called the direct object.

EXAMPLE: Laurissa raises her hand. The verb is raises. Her hand is the object receiving the verb’s action.
Therefore, raises is a transitive verb.

Transitive verbs sometimes have indirect objects, which name the object to whom or for whom the
action was done.

Action verbs that do not have a direct object.

EXAMPLE: Abdus gave Becky the pencil.

The pilot landed the antique airplane.

Linking verbs have NO object.

Linking verbs link two parts of a sentence. They link the subject to a noun or adjective. In this sense,
linking verbs are like a mathematical equals sign (=).

Linking verbs do not make sense if used alone: they need a "subject complement" to complete their
meaning.
They are (???)
They are teachers
I feel (???)
I feel unwell

Functions of Prepositions and Particles

Prepositions perform three formal functions in sentences.

They can act as an adjective modifying a noun, as an adverb modifying a verb, or as a nominal when
used in conjunction with the verb form to be.

Particles modify the verbs they follow; but in terms of meaning they combine with their verbs to make
verbs with different meanings.

PHRASES
What is a phrase?
A group of related words centered around a head, such as NP, VP, PP, AdjP, AdvP

FUNCTIONS

Phrases and clauses have functions in the sentence.

„„These are the main sentential functions:
Subject
Predicate
Complement
Direct object
Indirect object
Subject predicate (or subject complement)
Object predicate (or object complement)
Adverbial

The name of the phrase that performs the function and the function itself must be kept separate.
You’re always giving, my therapist said
[My therapist] is an NP functioning as the subject of the sentence.
You have to learn how to take.
[You] is an NP pronoun functioning as the subject of the sentence.

Whenever you meet a woman, the first thing you do is lend her your books.

 Identify Nouns, Verbs, Determiners, an Adjective, an Adverb

 Identify phrases.
 Identify the subject, the predicate, a subject predicate, and an adverbial.

Whenever you meet a woman, the first thing you do is lend her your books.

 Nouns, Verbs, Determiners, an Adjective, an Adverb

[SWhenever you meet a woman], [Sthe first thing you do] [VPis [Slend her your books]].
Phrases.

[Whenever you meet a woman] is an adverbial.

„„[the first thing you do] is the subject.
„„[is lend her your books] is the predicate.
„„[lend her your books] is a subject predicate.

Three Diagnostic Tests for Subjects

1. Subjects invert in Yes/No questions
2. Subjects agree in number with the verb or the AUX.
3. Subjects are repeated in tag questions.

1. Inversion in Yes/No questions Inversion

You think she’ll have to see you again in order to return them.
Do you think she’ll have to see you again in order to return them?
She doesn’t have the time to read them.
Doesn’t she have the time to read them?

2. Agreement in number between the verb/AUX

She’s afraid if she sees you again you’ll expect her to talk about them and will want to lend her
even more.
She’s afraid if she sees you again you’ll expect her to talk about them, and will want to lend her
even more.
They are afraid if they see you again .

3. Tag questions
So she cancels the date.
So she cancels the date, doesn’t she?
You end up losing a lot of books.
You end up losing a lot of books, don’t you?
You should borrow hers.
You should borrow hers, shouldn’t you?

Pleonastic
 Describe superfluous words
There are whole blocks of New York where no one lives.
Expletive
  A word that carries no meaning but has a grammatical function in a sentence
It started to rain a few minutes ago.

DIRECT OBJECTS

 Direct objects are sisters to the verb and can be passivized.

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the ice box

Sentence Structure
A simple sentence contains a subject and a verb, and it may also have an object
and modifiers. However, it contains only one independent clause.
Key: Yellow, bold = subject; green underline = verb, blue, italics = object, pink,
regular font =prepositional phrase
Here are a few examples:

 She wrote.
 She completed her literature review.
 He organized his sources by theme.
 They studied APA rules for many hours.

Compound Sentences
A compound sentence contains at least two independent clauses. These two
independent clauses can be combined with a comma and a coordinating conjunction or
with a semicolon.

Key: independent clause = yellow, bold; comma or semicolon = pink, regular font;
coordinating conjunction = green, underlined

Here are a few examples:

 She completed her literature review, and she created her reference list.
 He organized his sources by theme; then, he updated his reference list.
  They studied APA rules for many hours, but they realized there was still
much to learn.

Using some compound sentences in writing allows for more sentence variety.
Complex Sentences
A complex sentence contains at least one independent clause and at least one
dependent clause. Dependent clauses can refer to the subject (who, which) the
sequence/time (since, while), or the causal elements (because, if) of the independent
clause.

If a sentence begins with a dependent clause, note the comma after this clause. If, on
the other hand, the sentence begins with an independent clause, there is not a comma
separating the two clauses.

Key: independent clause = yellow, bold; comma = pink, regular font; dependent clause
= blue, italics

Here are a few examples:

 Although she completed her literature review, she still needed to work on her
methods section.
o Note the comma in this sentence because it begins with a dependent
clause.

 Because he organized his sources by theme, it was easier for his readers to
follow.
o Note the comma in this sentence because it begins with a dependent
clause.

 They studied APA rules for many hours as they were so interesting.
o Note that there is no comma in this sentence because it begins with an
independent clause.

 Using some complex sentences in writing allows for more sentence variety.

Compound-Complex Sentences
Sentence types can also be combined. A compound-complex sentence contains at least
two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

Key: independent clause = yellow, bold; comma or semicolon = pink, regular font;
coordinating conjunction = green, underlined; dependent clause = blue, italics

 She completed her literature review, but she still needs to work on her
methods section even though she finished her methods course last semester.
 Although he organized his sources by theme, he decided to arrange them
chronologically, and he carefully followed the MEAL plan for organization.
 With pizza and soda at hand, they studied APA rules for many
hours, and they decided that writing in APA made sense because it was clear,
concise, and objective.

 Using some complex-compound sentences in writing allows for more sentence

variety.
 Pay close attention to comma usage in complex-compound sentences so that the
reader is easily able to follow the intended meaning.