ASSIGNMENT

COURSE NAME: Grammar & Syntax

(BS ENGLISH)

An assignment submitted in 6th semester, section A

By
Easha Noor
Muhammad Danish
Syed Shah Guloon

To
Dr. Khurram Shehzad

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF MODERN LANGUAGES, ISLAMABAD

PAKISTAN
(19th May, 2021)
PRESENTER: EASHA NOOR

 Grammatical Functions

The term ‘grammatical functions’ implies the syntactic role of a word or a phrase, with
reference to the contextual aspect of any clause or sentence. In other words, the grammatical
function of any word is determined by its position in a sentence or a clause. The status which is
given to a word in any sentence determines the role of that particular word.

‘Two sets of concepts bear on the relationship between the verb in a clause and its
complements; one is the set of grammatical functions or grammatical relations, that is,
subject, direct object, indirect object/second object and oblique object, and the other is the set
of roles such as Agent and Patient’. (Jim Miller)

In a similar context, the major grammatical functions that play an important role in
identifying the purpose of a word in a sentence are as follows:

 Subject

One of the major and most critical grammatical function in a sentence or a clause is of subject.
Hence, o define the term, ‘subject’ is the performer of the action in a given sentence.

It is believed that subject always come in the beginning of a sentence. However, the placement of
a subject may occur at the middle and sometimes, end of sentence. When a sentence is changed
in passive form from the active tense, subject follows the preposition.

For example;

i. Ayesha bakes the best cupcakes.

ii. The best cupcakes are baked by Ayesha.

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 Syntactic Tests for Determining Subject hood

In order to identify whether a word is grammatically functional as subject or not, there are
several syntactic tests that help in the process. These are as follows:

1. Subject-Verb Agreement: The main verb of sentence agrees with the subject of the
sentence.

Examples;

a) Ayesha goes to the market.

b) Ahmad and Ali go to the market.

2. Tag Questions: Verb and the subject are repeated in the tag questions. For example,

a. We are going to the park. Aren’t we?

3. Subject-Auxiliary Inversion: The auxiliary verb is inverted with respect to the subject. For
examples,

b. It could be more obvious.

c. Could it be more obvious?

 Types of Subject

I. Logical Subject: Either in active or passive voice, the role of the agent does not change
i.e. the performer of the action remains same.

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 II. Psychological Subject: According to systematic functional linguistics, anything that
comes at the beginning is the psychological subject.

III. Grammatical subject: The performer of the action is called agent.

Examples;

a) The tiger haunted the prey.

b) The prey was haunted by the tiger.

Logically, ‘tiger’ is the subject in both the sentences. Whereas psychologically, ‘prey’ comes at
the beginning of the second sentence, hence it is the subject.

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PRESENTER: MUHAMMAD DANISH

1. Direct and indirect objects

The object of a sentence (if there is one) normally comes after the verb phrase. Whether
there is an object or not depends on the meaning of the verb. For example, if you want to talk
about what someone is doing, you might say ‘She is writing’ but if you want to talk about the
point of the activity, you might say, ‘She is writing a book’.

Examples;

a) She was riding.

b) She was riding her horse.
c) Erica was writing.
d) Erica was writing a letter.

 An object that follows a verb like this is called the direct object.

a) Rory found a pen.
b) Our cat doesn’t like milk.

 Some verbs also have another sort of object, called an indirect object.

An indirect object names the person for or to whom something is done. It is usually needed
with verbs like give, find and owe. For example, with give, we need to name both the thing that
is given and the person it is given to.

Examples;

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 a) Mike owes Tom five pounds.
b) Rob gave me a box of chocolates.
c) Susan bought her rabbit some more food.

 Some verbs must always take a direct object, some never take a direct object; others
sometimes take one and sometimes don’t, depending on the meaning. When a verb has an
object it is called a transitive verb.

Examples;
a. Rowan bought a magazine.
b. I don’t like rap music.
c. When it does not have an object it is called an intransitive verb.
d. Lynn fainted.
e. Patrick screamed.
f. Soon, everyone was shouting.
g. Some verbs may be either transitive or intransitive.
h. Ann was reading (a letter).
i. Kim was drawing (a picture).

o When a verb has both an indirect and a direct object it is called a di transitive verb.
I. Amy owes Mark ten pounds.
II. Stephen gave me some flowers.
III. Katie bought her hamster a new cage.
 A direct object is needed where the meaning of the verb requires something to give it a
focus. This is why we sometimes say that a direct object ‘complements’ a verb.
 Some verbs must have an adverbial as well as a direct object, for example to specify a
place.
a) He placed the parcel on the chair.
b) She put the umbrella in a corner.

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 Predicative Complement

A predicative complement completes the meaning of a sentence by giving information

about a noun. Predicative complements follow linking verbs (i.e., verbs that do not denote an
action but instead connect a noun to information about it). Linking verbs are usually found in a
form of the verb to be (e.g., is, are, was). Other linking verbs include appear, feel, look, and
seem.

Angry is an example of a predicative complement in the following sentence:

a. Greg felt angry.

The adjective angry gives information about the noun Greg. The verb felt links these two
elements rather than describing an action. For this reason, angry is a predicative complement in
this sentence.

 The Oblique Complement

An oblique complement is a PP or an AdvP which behaves like a complement, i.e. it is

semantically implied.

 syntactically necessary

They cannot be used with a pro-VP form such as do so:

E.g. ''John put a book on the shelf and Mary did so (*into the drawer), too.

But it does not fit the definition of any of the other grammatical functions.

Typical examples,

A particular preposition is required by the verb: wait for, substitute with, rely on, talk to ...
about .

 Oblique complements are always PPs. It is a sister of V and NP and dominated by a VP.

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PRESENTER: SYED SHAH GULOON

 Grammatical Functions and Modifiers:

The PS rule ‘S → NP VP’ represents the basic rule for forming well-formed English
sentences. Such PS rules allow us to represent the constituent structure of a given sentence in
terms of lexical and phrasal syntactic categories. There are other dimensions of the analysis of
sentences; one such way is using the notion of grammatical functions and the other is Semantic
roles.

English grammar refers to these three different levels of information:

1. Syntactic category such as N, A, V, P, Adj, Adv and Phrasal categories like NP, VP, AP,
PP, AdvP…
2. Grammatical function such as SUBJ (Subject), OBJ (Object), MOD (Modifier), PRED
(Predicate)…
3. Semantic role such as agent, patient, location, instrument, and the like.

All these three levels of information interact with each other.

 MODIFIERS

“A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that functions as an adjective or adverb to provide

additional information about another word or word ground. A modifier is also known as
an adjunct. Modifiers in English contains adjectives, adverbs, demonstratives adjectives,
possessive adjectives, determiners, prepositional phrases, degree modifiers, and intensifiers.” 

In order to determine if a word or phrase is a modifier, one of the simple tests is to

notice if the larger segment (phrase, sentence, etc.) makes meaning without it. If it does, the
element or constituent you are testing is certainly a modifier. If it doesn't make sense or
meaning without it, it cannot be considered a modifier.

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 Examples;

i. Ali bought a chocolate  cake yesterday.

In this example ‘a’ is an article(determiner) which modifies the noun ‘cake’ and the word
‘chocolate’ is the direct adjective of the word ‘cake’. So both the words ‘a’ and ‘chocolate’ are
adjectives which modify the noun ‘cake’. The word ‘yesterday’ announces the time of the
action, i.e., the verb ‘bought’. So it is an adverb which modifies the verb. By removing the
additional and extra modifiers, the above example can be written as, Ali bought a cake.

ii. Ahmed, the teacher’s  son, is very sick.

Here, the phrase ‘the teacher’s son’ modifies the noun ‘Maria’. In this phrase, ‘the
teacher’s ’ modifies the noun ‘son’ but the complete phrase itself becomes an adjective when it
modifies the noun ‘Ahmed’. There is another adjective ‘sick’ which is modified by the adverb
‘very’. By removing the additional adjective phrase (modifier), the example can give sense and
written as, Ahmed is very sick.

(adjective) adverb)
iii. The black  dog was barking at me aggressively ( .

Similarly, if both adjective and adverb (modifiers) are removed from the sentence, it still
gives the complete meaning like, the dog was barking at me.

 The MOD, as noted before that it is not only Adv, Adj, AP and AdvP but also phrases such
as NP, S, VP, or PP can function as a modifier. For examples,
a. She gave her friend a gift [NP last night].
b. Ali left [AdvP very early].
c. Ahmed has been at Islamabad [PP for four years].

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 d. Alix studied hard [VP to pass the exam].
e. He disappeared [S when the main party arrived].

 One more characteristic of modifiers is that they can be stacked up, whereas complements
cannot.

a. *Aslam gave Umer [a book] [a record]. (Wrong)

b. I saw this film [many times] [last year] [during the winter].

In example (b) temporal adjuncts/modifiers like many times and last year can be
repeated, whereas the two complements a book and a record in (a) cannot. Certainly,
temporal adjuncts do not function as the subject of a passive sentence. So temporal
adjuncts cannot serve as objects. Similarly,

a. My brother visited yesterday.

P.V. *Yesterday was visited by my brother. (Wrong)

 TYPES OF MODIFIERS

Generally, there are two types of modifiers according to their position to the words they
modify and describe:

i. Pre-modifiers:
Pre-modifiers are the modifiers which modify the words that come after them in the
sentence. Usually, the adjectives come before the nouns. So, most of the adjectives are pre-
modifiers. Adverbs often come before the words, they modify.

o Articles, determiners, demonstratives adjectives, descriptive adjectives etc. are the

adjectives which come before the nouns and modify them.

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Examples;

a) Generally (adverb) the(article) black(descriptive adjective) dogs are good.

b) Usually(adverb), that(demonstrative) bank has a lot of(determiners) security (adjective) process.

ii. Post-modifiers:

Post-modifiers are the modifiers which come after the words they modify. Generally, the
adverbs come after the verbs and modify them. Some adjectives also come after the nouns and
modify them. Most of the adverbs of time, adverbs of manner, adverbs of place usually come
after the verbs they modify.

o Similarly, appositives, prepositional phrases, infinitives (adverbs/adjectives), dependent

clause, etc. usually come after the nouns they modify.

Examples;
a) Akram, a footballer, (appositive) has been selected in the squad(adverb).
b) Sir Khurram, our teacher,  (appositive) assigned us tasks to do(infinitive - adjective) in the class(adverb
of place)
.
c) Muhammed Hafeez, the player of Pakistan team, (appositive) plays exceptionally (adverb of
manner)
 well.

Note: In English grammar, an appositive is a noun, noun phrase, or series of nouns come next
to another word or phrase to determine or rename it. The word "appositive" comes from the
Latin for "to put near." 

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d) The boy came suddenly.
e) T.S Eliot published his poems a long time ago.
f) They went to Lake view park in Islamabad.
g) I passed Physics because I can understand it.

All the italicized expressions in examples d, e, f and g here are all optional or additional and
function as modifiers. They area also known as ‘adjuncts’ or ‘adverbial’ expressions.

 Form and Function Together:

These are two different dimensions such as, grammatical functions and structural
constituents. Any sentence can be analyzed along with these two dimensions:

NP: SUBJ VP: PRED

Det A N V NP: OBJ

The small boy ate Det N

an apple

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 The expressions the small boy and an apple are both NPs. But both have different
grammatical functions, SUBJ and OBJ. The verb ate is a VP and works as the predicate of the
sentence, describing the property of the subject.

 Grammatical functions along with structural constituent within complex sentences are
the following:

Example;

NP: SUBJ VP: PRED

N V CP: OBJ

Aslam says C S

that NP: SUBJ VP: PRED

the policeman V NP: OBJ

arrested a thief

The given example is a complex sentence contains two clauses. Aslam says is the main
clause and that the policeman arrested a thief is relative clause (dependent clause), describing
the verb, says. Each clause possesses its own grammatical functions constituents such as SUBJ

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and PRED: Aslam is the subject of the higher clause, whereas the policeman is the subject of the
lower clause. Similarly, there are also two OBJs: the CP is the object of the higher clause
whereas the NP is that of the lower clause. We can also notice that syntactic categories such as
N, V, NP VP and the grammatical functions such as SUBJ, PRED, OBJ both levels work
together in structural constituents.

 Different types of Phrases, Infinitival VPs and CPs also function as SUBJ or OBJ:

Examples;

a. [ NP The soldiers] protected the small children.

b. [VP Being responsible] is not as easy task.

c. [CP That Ali went] surprised him.

d. [VP To win the match before time] is very difficult.

e. [PP Under the shadow of tree] is a comfortable place for sitting to enjoy the nature.

f. I received [NP an expensive clock] from Haider.

g. They appreciated [S what he performed last evening]

h. We hope [CP that Pakistan would win the match]

The given examples show that different Phrases types can function as SUBJ or OBJ. We
can also notice that in examples c, d and h, Infinitival VPs and CPs also work as SUBJ or OBJ.

 Infinitival VPs and CPs can be determined SUBJ by the tag-question, subject-verb
agreement, and subject-hood tests.

o Infinitival CPs
Examples;
a. [That Maria went] surprised her, didn’t it ?

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 b. [[That the exam should conduct now] and [ that it should be postponed]] have/ *has
been argued by different students at different Universities.

o Infinitival VPs
Examples;
a. [ To reach Islamabad on time] looks difficult for us, doesn’t it?
b. [[To delay the protest] and [ to go ahead with it]] have/*has been discussed by
different people at different times.

THE END

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