CHAPTER SEVEN

GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS AND RELATIONS

A. INTRODUCTION

1. Description of the Chapter

This chapter discusses the basic concepts of grammatical functions and relations,
such as the notion of the subjects, objects, adjuncts, and predicates. This chapter will
explain the relationship between them and the syntactical impact of the relationship.
Relational grammar is used to analyses the phenomena since the theory can explain
the structure revaluation in every level of a sentence.

2. Relevance
This chapter will be related to the topic discussions of the previous chapters. This
topic requires the basic knowledge in syntax which have been discussed before.

3. Expected Competency and Indicators

a. Expected competency
The students are able to analyse grammatical functions in sentences.
b. Indicators

Be able to anlyse subjects

Be able to anlyse predicates

Be able to analyse adjuncts

Be able to analyse object

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B. Material Organization

1. Grammatical Function in Sentence

Grammatical function is the syntactic role played by a word or phrase in the context
of a particular clause or sentence. Sometimes called simply function. In English,
grammatical function is primarily determined by a word's position in a sentence, not by
inflection (or word endings). Analysing the function of a constituent the whole clause must
be considered sentences normally contain a subject and predicate but may in addition have
extra elements: conjuncts or adjuncts.

2. The notion of Subjects

Consider the following pair of examples:

a. [The cat] [devoured [the rat]].

b. [The rat] [devoured [the cat]].

These two sentences have exactly the same words and have the same predicator
devoured. Yet they are significantly different in meaning, and the main difference comes
from what serves as subject or object with respect to the predicator. In (1a), the subject is
the cat, whereas in (1b) it is the rat, and the object is the rat in (1a) but the cat in (1b). In
(1a) and (1b) distinct entities, namely the cat and the rat respectively, carry out the action
denoted by the word devoured. Also, notice that we could say that (1a) is concerned with
telling us more about the cat, while (1b) is concerned with telling us more about the rat.
We can now define the Subject of a sentence as the constituent that on the one hand tells us
who performs the action denoted by the verb (i.e. who is the Agent), and on the other hand
tells us who or what the sentence is about. So 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?’ and also
‘Who or what is this sentence about?’ The answers to these questions will pinpoint the

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Subject. The second bracketed units in the sentences in (1a) and (1b) are devoured the rat
and devoured the cat, respectively. These constituents tell us more about the Subject of the
sentence, namely what it was engaged in doing (or, to be more precise, what its referent was
engaged in doing). In (1a) the Subject (the cat) was engaged in eating a rat, whereas in (1b)
the Subject (the rat) was engaged in eating a cat. We will use the term Predicate for (the
cat) was engaged in eating a rat, whereas in (4) the Subject (the rat) was engaged in eating
a cat. We will use the term Predicate for the unit in a sentence whose function is to specify
what the Subject is engaged in doing.

The most common structure for a sentence seems to be one in which the NP subject
is the one who performs the action denoted by the verb (thus having the semantic role of
agent). However, this is not always so:
a. My brother wears a green overcoat.
b. This car stinks.
c. It rains.
d. The committee disliked her proposal.

wearing a green overcoat, stinking, raining, or disliking one’s proposal are not
agentive activities; they indicate stative descriptions or situations. Such facts show that we
cannot rely on the semantic roles of agent for determining subjecthood.

More reliable tests for subjecthood come from syntactic tests such as agreement, tag
questions, and subject-auxiliary inversion.

 Agreement: The main verb of a sentence agrees with the subject in English:

a. She never writes/*write home.

b. These books *saddens/sadden me.
c. Our neighbor takes/*take his children to school in his car.

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 As we noted in the previous chapter (chapter 6), simply being closer to the main verb
does not entail subjecthood:
a. The book, including all the chapters in the first section, is/*are very
interesting.
b. The effectiveness of teaching and learning *depend/depends on several
factors.
c. The tornadoes that tear through this county every spring *is/are more than
just a nuisance.

The subject in each example is book, effectiveness, and tornadoes respectively,

even though there are nouns closer to the main verb. This indicates that it is not simply
the linear position of the NP that determines agreement; rather, agreement shows us
what the subject of the sentence is.

 Tag questions: A tag question, a short question tagged onto the end of an
utterance, is also a reliable subjecthood test:

a. The lady singing with a boy is a genius, isn’t she/*isn’t he?

b. With their teacher, the kids have arrived safely, haven’t they/ *hasn’t he?

The pronoun in the tag question agrees with the subject in person, number, and
gender – it refers back to the subject, but not necessarily to the closest NP, nor to the
most topical one. The she in (10a) shows us that lady is the head of the subject NP in
that example, and they in (10b) leads us to assign the same property to kids. The
generalization is that a tag question must contain a pronoun which identifies the subject
of the clause to which the tag is attached.

 Subject-auxiliary inversion: In forming questions and other sentence-types,

English has subject-auxiliary inversion, which applies only to the subject.
a. This teacher is a genius.

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 b. The kids have arrived safely.
c. It could be more detrimental.

a. Is this teacher a genius?

b. Have the kids arrived safely?
c. Could it be more detrimental?

As seen here, the formation of ‘Yes/No questions’ such as these involves the
first tensed auxiliary verb moving across the subject: more formally, the auxiliary
verb is inverted with respect to the subject, hence the term ‘subject-auxiliary
inversion’. This is not possible with a non-subject:
a. The kids in our class have arrived safely.
b. *Have in our class the kids arrived safely?

Subject-auxiliary inversion provides another reliable subjecthood test.

3. Direct and Indirect Objects

A direct object (DO) is canonically an NP, undergoing the process denoted by

the verb:
a. His girlfriend bought this computer.
b. That silly fool broke the teapot.
c. Our linguistics lecturer took this photograph.
d. My sister found this book.

The Subjects of these sentences are the first NPs in each case: his girlfriend, that
silly fool, our linguistics lecturer and my sister. The Predicates are bought this
computer, broke the teapot, took this photograph and found this book. The Predicators
are bought, broke, took and found. We now assign the function of Direct Object to the
NPs this computer, the teapot, this photograph and this book. How can we characterize
the notion Direct Object? In semantic terms Direct Objects are said to be constituents
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 that refer to entities that undergo the activity or process denoted by the verb. In (a) the
referent of the NP this computer undergoes a buying activity. In (b) the referent of the
NP the teapot undergoes a breaking process, in (c) the referent of this photograph
undergoes a picture-taking process, and, finally, in (d) the referent of this book
undergoes a process of being found. The characterization of Direct Objects which have
just been given is in terms of the kind of role they play in sentences: in the same way
that Subjects typically play an agentive (i.e. instigator) role, Direct Objects have a
Patient role (though of course not in the medical sense!). As we have just seen, 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. However, although this
semantic characterization is useful, and in most cases enables us to find the Direct
Object of a sentence, we will also need to define DOs syntactically, i.e. in terms of their
structural properties. So what can we say about the structural properties of Direct
Objects?

Secondly, their usual position, as (a)–(d) show, is after the main verb. Thirdly,
Direct Objects have a strong relationship with the verb that precedes them. However,
this is not a solid generalization. The objects in (a) and (b) are not really affected by the
action. In (a) the dog is experiencing something, and in (b) the thunder is somehow
causing some feeling in the dog:

a. Thunder frightens [the dog].

b. The dog fears [thunder].

Once again, the data show us that we cannot identify the object based on
semantic roles. A much more firm criterion is the syntactic construction of
passivization, in which a notional direct object appears as subject. The sentences in
(A) can be turned into passive sentences in (B) :

a. His girlfriend bought this computer for him.

b. The child broke the teapot by accident.
c. This computer was bought for him by his girlfriend.

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 d. The teapot was broken by the child by accident.
What we can notice here is that the objects in (A) are ‘promoted’ to subject in
the passive sentences. The test comes from the fact that non-object NPs cannot be
promoted to the subject:

a. This item belongs to the student.

b. *The student is belonged to by this item.
c. He remained a good friend to me.
d. *A good friend is remained to me (by him).

The objects that undergo passivization are direct objects, distinct from
indirect objects. An indirect object (IO) is one which precedes a direct object (DO),
as in (E); IOs are NPs and have the semantic roles of goal, recipient, or benefactive:
(E)
a. I threw [the puppy] [the ball]. (IO = goal)
b. John gave [the boys] [the CDs]. (IO = recipient)
c. My mother baked [me] [a birthday cake]. (IO = benefactive)

A caution is in order – when a DO follows an IO as in (E), the DO cannot be

passivized:
(F)
a. *The CDs were given the boys by John.
b. *A review copy of the book was sent her by the publisher.

In examples like (E), passive has the property of making the IO into the subject.
(G)
a. The boys were given the CDs (by John).
b. She was sent a review copy of the book (by the publisher).

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 Note that sentences with the IO-DO order are different from those where the
semantic role of the IO is expressed as an oblique PP, following the DO:
a. John gave the CDs to the boys.
b. The publisher sent a review copy of the book to her.
c. My mother baked a cake for me.

In this kind of example, it is once again the DO which can be passivized,

giving examples like the following:
a. The CDs were given to the boys by John.
b. A review copy of the book was sent to her by the publisher.
c. This nice cake was baked for me by my mother.

4. Predicates

The predicate of a sentence is the part that modifies the subject in some way.
Because the subject is the person, place, or thing that a sentence is about, the
predicate must contain a verb explaining what the subject does and can also include a
modifier.

a. Simple Predicates
A simple predicate is the word that shows the action in a sentence. It is used
to tell you what the subject of the sentence does. Look at some of the shorter
sentences in the English language:

 She danced.

The subject of the sentence is “she,” the person being spoken about, but what
is being conveyed or expressed about this person? She performed an action, of
course; she moved her body; she danced. The word that modifies the subject “she” is
the past-tense verb “danced.”

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  It talked!
It might be a baby saying a word for the first time, a parrot squawking
“hello,” or even an inanimate object somehow bestowed with the power of speech.
What you know about “it” is that, according to the speaker, it spoke. “Talked”
modifies the subject “it.”

These sentences are very simple examples of what predicates are, since the
predicate is expressed entirely by one verb. A simple predicate may also be a short
verb phrase.

Some more examples of simple predicates are as follows. The simple

predicate is underlined in each example.

 I sing.
 He was cooking dinner.
 We saw the cat outside.
 I walked the dog.
 Anthony wrote to his friend.
 They ate all the candy.
 My aunt moved.
 The house has a new roof.
 Andrew threw the ball.
 He is sad.

b. Examples of Compound Predicates

In addition to simple predicates, there are also compound predicates. A

compound predicate gives two or more details about the same subject and has two
or more verbs joined by a conjunction. For example: "She visited her cousins and
met all their friends." In this example, "she" is the subject and "visited" and "met"
are the predicates joined by the conjunction "and". Some more examples of

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 compound predicates are as follows. The compound predicate is underlined in each
example.

 He did homework and played video games.

 She likes dolls but hates trains.
 The mail was late but arrived later that evening.
 He lives in Italy and speaks English and Italian.
 We completed the project and won a prize.
 She slept in and was late for work.
 My sister fell and hurt her shoulder.
 Mark broke his computer so borrowed one from his friend.
 The cat chased the mouse and trapped it in the kitchen.
 We shopped and ate lunch at the mall.

c. Examples of Complete Predicates

A complete predicate is the verb that shows the action and also the modifying
phrase that completes the thought, basically everything in the sentence that isn't the
subject. Some examples of complete predicates are as follows. The complete
predicate is underlined.

 She is dancing on stage for the first time.

 My family are arriving early tomorrow.
 She was upset for a long time over the break-up.
 I have been studying for hours.
 We are going to the movies later.
 My parents just finished repainting their house.
 You were visiting us this time last year.
 He has left his home town for the big city.
 The children believe in Santa Claus.
 Our new puppy has been crying all night.

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 d. Understanding Other Examples of Predicates

“I am” is often described as the shortest sentence in the English language, but
this is not exactly true. While it can be a complete thought and does contain a subject
and a verb, it doesn’t explain what “I am.” An additional piece of the phrase is usually
necessary to complement the verb. When you answer "I am," you are usually leaving
out an implied word which completes the sentence.

Whatever you add to “I am” technically forms the predicate of the sentence. For
example: I am playing guitar. You must add "playing guitar" to complete what you are
doing in the sentence. Another example: "I am tired." The word "tired" is used to
describe what you are.

Now that you know “I am” is not technically a complete sentence, you’ll
probably be quick to notice other examples that seem like complete sentences but lack
a predicate, such as “I can” and “I will.” What might confuse you is the sentence that
seems to lack a subject.

There are two things you’ll need to understand before this example will make
sense.

 If you tell a person to do something, they are the assumed subject of

the sentence. What the imperative (meaning, “do this!”) form of the
“to go” verb is addressing is the person to whom you are speaking.
What you really mean when you shout “go!” is, “(You) go!”

Unlike the “to be” verb used above in the “I am” example, “go” is an action
verb, not just a state of being. “Go” is therefore a complete predicate in and of
itself—it needs no further explanation or qualification to make sense. (You) can go
anywhere, as long as (you) heeds the imperative.

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 As surprising as it may sound, the shortest complete sentence in the English
language is the imperative, “Go!” How can this be? After all, “go” is a verb
seemingly without a subject or a predicate.

e. Finding the Predicate

Every sentence has two parts: subject and predicate. The predicate is used to
tell the reader what the subject does. It contains a verb and shows action. Predicates
can be one verb or verb phrase (simple predicate), two or more verbs joined with a
conjunction (compound predicate) or even all the words in the sentence that give
more information about the subject (complete predicate). To find the predicate,
simply look for what the subject is doing.

5. Adjunct

Adjuncts are words and phrases, like adverbs and adverb phrases, which are
not completely central to the meaning of the clause; predicate contrasts with adjunct,
although with some unfortunate inconsistency. For some grammarians, adjuncts are not
a part of the predicate, so that for them a clause consists of subject, predicate,
and adjuncts. For others, perhaps the majority, adjuncts are a part of the predicate, so
that the clause consists of just two parts, subject, and predicate, with the predicate in
turn containing, amongst other things, any adjuncts." (James R. Hurford. 1994.
Grammar: A Student's Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.)

a. Predication Adjuncts and Sentence Adjuncts

Adjunctival is a term used in grammatical theory to refer to an optional or

secondary element in a construction: an adjunct may be removed without the structural
identity of the rest of the construction being affected. The clearest examples at sentence
level are adverbials, e.g. John kicked the ball yesterday instead of John kicked the ball,
but not *John kicked yesterday, etc.; but other elements have been classed as
adjunctival, in various descriptions, such as vocatives and adjectives. Many adjuncts
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 can also be analyzed as modifiers, attached to the head of a phrase (as with adjectives,
and some adverbs)." (David Crystal, A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics.
Blackwell, 1997).

b. Characteristics of Adjuncts (Optional Adverbials)

The followings are some basic characteristics of adjuncts. Adverbials occur

widely in clauses as optional elements. Optional adverbials can be added to clauses with
any type of verb. They are usually adverb phrases, prepositional phrases, or noun
phrases. They can be placed in different positions within the clause—in final, initial, or
medial positions. More than one of them can occur in a single clause. They are rather
loosely attached to the rest of the clause. Whereas the verb phrase is central, the
adverbial is relatively peripheral (except in those clause patterns that require
adverbials).

Optional adverbials add additional information to the clause, covering a wide

variety of meanings, such as place, time, manner, extent, and attitude."
(D. Biber, et al., Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Longman,
2002)

Wh-words for adjuncts

At least five common adjunct types can be the basis for questions with an open range of
answers, expressed with the specialized words how, where, when, and why:

how for ways, manners, means, or instruments How did you break it?
how much for degrees and extents How much did it hurt?
where for locations in space Where did the crime occur?
when for locations in time When did all this happen?
why for certain purposes, reasons, or causes Why did you do all this?

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 Manner, means, and instrument adjuncts
Manner adjuncts generally take the form of AdvPs or PPs. For PPs, heads like in
or by or These adjuncts are tightly integrated with the VP and semantically associated
very clearly with the verb. The usual place for them is at or toward the end of the VP. It
is relatively uncommon or even unacceptable to prepose them:
A choir of schoolchildren sang the national anthem enthusiastically.
Enthusiastically a choir of schoolchildren sang the national anthem.

Act-related adjuncts
Some adjuncts modify the whole act described by a clause, not the action or state
identified by the verb. We call these act-related adjuncts. Foolishly, I opened the door
when I smelled smoke. What is foolish here is not the exact manner in which the door
was opened It's a fairly easy operation, and it's not clear what it would mean to do it in a
foolish way. What's being identified as foolish is the act of opening a door behind which
there may be a fire. Act-related adjuncts may be positioned at the beginning of the
clause, or between the subject and verb (I foolishly opened the door), or at the end of
the clause, usually as a supplement (I opened the door, foolishly).
The reason [ii] cannot be understood as act-related is that enthusiasm is inherently an
attribute of activities or attitudes, but not of acts. So the clause-initial position of the
adjunct just makes the sentence odd rather than forcing an act-related interpretation.
Some adverbs, however, have a meaning that can easily be interpreted in either way:
They spoke rudely only to him, not to her.
Rudely, they spoke only to him, not to her.

The difference is that [iii] says that they spoke in a rude way (though only to the
man); but [iv] says something very different: that it was a rude act to limit their
(possibly very polite) conversation to the man and ignore the woman. Act-related
adjuncts typically have the form of adverbs. Some of them have a specific semantic
connection to the subject of the clause, expressing volition (some kind of deliberate act
of will) on the part of whoever the subject refers to:

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 The mayor reluctantly preceded the marching band. [reluctant mayor]
The marching band reluctantly followed the mayor. [reluctant band]

For the mayor to precede the band is the same thing as for the band to follow the mayor,
but [v] and [vi] do not have the same meaning.

Space and time

It is very common for sentences to contain adjuncts identifying spatiotemporal
information: locations, directions, and sources or goals or paths of movement in either
space or time.
They used to meet secretly in the library. [location]
After a while they drifted off toward town. [direction]
There was a strange sound coming from the boiler. [source]
I’m going on a trip to Antarctica. [goal]
The rat ran right along the bottom of the fence. [path]

The constituents that serve as adjuncts of these types can be complements in some
cases. For example, verbs like put take a location phrase as an obligatory second
complement, as seen in [xii], and verbs like head require a direction phrase, as seen in
[xiii]:

i *I want you to put the flowers.

ii I want you to put the flowers in the middle of the table
i *When evening came, the cowboys tended to head.

When evening came, the cowboys tended to head for the nearest saloon.
Also very common are adjuncts relating to points or regions in the time dimension,
specifying hours of the day, days of the week, dates, intervals, durations, and other
properties of the way events related to time:

i It will start at 3 o’clock. [time]

ii I’ll see you on the 23rd. [date]

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 iii It all happened while I was undergoing chemo. [interval]
iv They were at it for a long time. [duration]
i. We were still eating but the staff were already starting to close the restaurant.
What still conveys in [xv] is that our eating continued on from some time in the past
up until the past time referred to; and what already conveys is that the period of the staff’s
beginning their restaurant-closing activities began unexpectedly or surprisingly early. Words
like often and repeatedly specify frequency of occurrence (I often get unsolicited friending
requests), and again makes a reference to the serial order of events (That stalker has
contacted me yet again).

Many of the basic adverbs (the ones that are not derived by adding-ly to an adjective base)
are used as temporal adjuncts: already, always, early, later, never, nowadays, often, seldom,
sometimes, soon, still, then, etc. Many different prepositions that have meanings originally
relating to space are adapted via metaphor to refer to time instead: around the turn of the
century, at the right moment, from early morning, in a minute or two, into the following
week, on the same day, to 2015, toward evening, etc. Specifically temporal prepositions like
during, now, since, and while are not so numerous.

Degree

Many adjuncts express the degree to which something holds: they express some quantity,
extent, amount, magnitude, or intensity. In [12] we give a representative sample. Notice the
variety of categories, functions, and modified constituents involved.

I very much regret I ever said that. [Adv modifier in VP]

This is totally ridiculous. [AdvP modifier in AdjP]
It was done rather sneakily. [Adv modifier in AdvP]
We should change it a little bit. [NP modifier in VP]
I don’t think it matters at all. [PP modifier in VP]

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 REFERENCES
Huddleston,Rodney,. and Pullum, K, Geoffrey. 2012. The 2nd edition of A Student’s
Introduction to English Grammar
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-adjunct-grammar-1689066
http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/sentences/what/what-is-a-predicate.html
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-grammatical-function-1690821.

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