LEC SYNTAX

SEMINAR SHEET 3

THE COMPLEX SENTENCE

1. Read the following and identify the subordinate clauses, stating their function:
1. He took an intelligent interest in her, which, though it was largely politeness, was a novelty
to Mitzi. 2. When Mitzi bought the house in Brook Green she offered Austin the best rooms,
but he declined, as he had just found the little Bayswater which he inhabited still. 3. At this
time we know that we are mortal beings with a short span of days and that our end as our
beginning belongs to God. 4. Sometimes she thought that her own failure to marry Matthew
was actually the cause of Austin’s marrying Dorina. 5. You must know that if you do not
meet it right here at home, you are choosing exile from what you are fortunate enough to call
your homeland. 6. Your suggestion that we should, at our age, remove our home yet again
seems to us merely thoughtless.
2. Which of the following are that-relative clauses and which are that-complement
(attribute) clauses?
1. His idea that men are smarter than women led him to total ruin. 2. The idea that he had had
earned him good money. 3. His order that all the men in the village should be killed was
instantly disobeyed. 4. The order that he had given was instantly disobeyed. 5. Their proposal
that he should run for Congress was the best ever. 6. The proposal that they came up with was
no better than hers.
3. Which of the following that-clauses are extraposed ones? What is their syntactic
function?
1. It occurred to him that people were laughing behind his back. 2. Nobody knew that they
were sorry for what they had done. 3. It was known to no one that Peter had tried to take his
own life. 4. The crowd resented it that the police had been sent for. 5. Magellan regrets it that
the world is round. 6. It appears that no one voted for him. 7. It was suggested that they
should meet the President. 8. It is too bad that they always make fun of Gillian. 9. I don’t like
it that he should be left alone in my flat. 10. He will answer for it that his son is innocent. 11.
You may depend on it that I will pick you up.
4. Read the following, noticing the effect of topicalization within the literary
passages below. Is the phenomenon of topicalization restricted to that-
complement only?
1. No wonder Alison had punished her and Matthew thought of her only as an instrument.
That she could still be in instrument might have comforted her one, but not now.
2. That she condemned herself in moral terms brought no consoling spring of vitality and
even guilt gave her no energy. When this is so one is in extremity indeed.
3. Whether this despair made it easier or harder to act, whether it would finally carry her off,
mere chance would decide. She had always been the slave of chance, let it kill her if it would
by a random stroke.
4. This was another era. That she should have sat in his room and penned the letter yesterday,
even today, was inconceivable. Austin had been lost in some ancient cataclysm. He was
utterly gone.
5. His own confusion and misery were so great that he felt unable to cope with Dorina, he felt
no spring of interest in her, almost felt resentment at seeing her now. To walk by was an
expression of his own despair.
6. Why she had originally left Valmorana she had by now forgotten.
7. To return to Valmorana seemed to her like death. To go back there now would be to climb
into her coffin.
8. That Dorina should have electrocuted herself with an electric fire on a rainy morning in a
small hotel in Bloomsbury made Ludwig feel disgust with herself and the world which was
almost mysterious in its intensity. He did not blame Gracie. He did not think that Dorina had
done it on purpose. The thing was pure chance and yet weighted with a significance of horror
which he could not bear to contemplate. That he had actually seen Dorina on the day that she
died and had passed her by was so nightmarish that he felt he would never be able to tell
anybody about it. (Iris Murdoch – An Accidental Man)
5. Comment on the following sentences from the point of view of the Heavy NP
Shift.
1. ? Susan burnt the letter (which) she had just written to the last page. / Susan burnt to the
last page the letter she had just written.
2. Susan told her mother that she had just been fired. / ? Susan told that she had just been fired
to her mother.
3. He was informed on Saturday at noon that he was going to be fired. / He was informed that
he was going to be fired Saturday at noon.
4. He appointed prime-minister Mr Hugh, who had just returned from Africa. / ? He
appointed Mr Hugh, who had just returned from Africa, prime-minister. / He appointed Mr
Hugh prime-minister, who had just returned from Africa.
5. They dismissed as unrealistic Mr Hugh’s proposal to build a new hospital. / They dismissed
Mr High’s proposal to build a new hospital as unrealistic.
6. * I found for Susan to behave like that in public disgraceful. / * I found disgraceful for
Susan to behave like that in public. / I found it disgraceful for Susan to behave like that in
public. / I found disgraceful Susan’s behaving like that in public. / I found Susan’s behaving
like that in public a disgrace.
6. Translate into English, paying attention to the sequence of tenses:
A. 1. A replicat că nu ştie, că munceşte din greu şi n-o să îngăduie nimănui să-l întrerupă. He
siad he was working hard and wouldn’t let anyone interrupt him. 2. A replicat că a uitat pe
cine aşteaptă de două ore.- He said he had forgotten who he’d been waiting for for two hours.
3. A răspuns că nu ne va mai cere niciodată ajutorul şi chiar şi fără el, tot se va plimba prin
Roma a doua zi.- He said he wouldn’t ask us for help and even without it he would walk in
Rome the next/following day. 4. A recunoscut că face întotdeauna ceai sau cafea când n-are
altceva de făcut.- He admitted he made coffee or tea when he didn’t have anything else/better
to do. 5. Zise tărăgănat că vrăjitoarea nu face bine niciodată, dar nici rău nu face, aşa că nu
vede de ce să fie izgonită.-He said slowly that the witch never did neither bad nor
wrong/...never did good but did no harm either so she didn’t see why she sould be banished.
6. A protestat că habar n-are că n-a făcut bine şi, dacă nu-l credem, a zis că n-o să mai încerce
niciodată să facă ce trebuie.-He said he had no idea he had done it the wrong way, and if we
didn’t believe him he said he would never try to do anything (he should). 7. Adolescentul
obiectă că-şi face întotdeauna datoria dar, întrucât nu-i de datoria lui să facă paturile, pur şi
simplu n-o s-o facă, orice ar spune profesorul.-The teenager objected that always did his duty
but making the beds was not his task so he simply wouldn’t do that whatever the teacher
might say. 8. Elevul îl contrazise că nu-şi face niciodată temele dimineaţa, dar bunicul nu voia
să-l lase să-şi bea laptele dacă nu le face mai întâi.- The pupil said he never did his homework
in the morning but his grandpa wouldn’t let him drink his milk unless he did it first. 9.
Soldatul replică cum că nu se aşteaptă de la nimeni să-i facă vreo favoare.- The sooldier said
he didn’t expect any favor from anyome. 10. Când i s-a spus fetei în casă să facă curat în
cameră, ea a protestat, că e şi aşa prea ocupată. – When he told the girl to cleand her room she
said she was already pretty busy.11. Declară că-i place să facă focul şi de obicei nu face nici
un zgomot când face focul, aşa că putem dormi liniştiţi, iar el se va ocupa de toate. 12. Mi se
adresă zicând că vrea să ne împrietenim, întrucât s-a făcut pace şi vrea să fie în relaţii bune cu
toată lumea. 13. Recunoscu că se coafează şi nu poate deschide uşa, aşa că am face bine să
aşteptăm afară până ce o să termine şi o să ne poată primi. She admitted that she was having a
hair cut and she couldn’t open the door so we’d better wait outside until she had finished and
she could receive us. 14. Cineva a afirmat că publicul îşi bate joc de actori, iar regizorul nu ia
nici o măsură. Someone claimed that the audience was making fun of the actors and the
director wasn’t taking any measures in the matter. 15. Burlacul dezvălui că face afaceri cu
fata bătrână şi speră să scoată o groază de bani, ceea ce-i va permite să se însoare mai
devreme sau mai târziu. The bachelor revealed that he was doing business with the spinster
and he hoped to make a large amount of money which would allow him to get married sooner
or later.
B. 1. O prietenă de-a mea pretinse că lucrează şi n-o să meargă acasă până nu apare vrăjitorul
care face minuni, să arate dacă poate face mai mult ca ea. 2. Regina dezvălui că un instalator
repară baia regală şi ea nu va putea asista la paradă pînă nu pleacă el. 3. Martorul a atestat că
acuzatul face un drum la Londra în ziua aceea, ceea ce nu înseamnă deloc că este vinovat. 4.
Vorbitorul recunoscu făţiş că greşeşte vorbind acelei mulţimi, dar fusese încolţit şi nu putuse
refuza. 5. Frizerul a exclamat că nu ţine nici un discurs, că i-a spus doar clientului lui că ar
face bine să-şi lase mustaţă. 6. Cântăreaţa de operă a strigat că de o bună bucată de vreme îşi
câştigă traiul cântând şi n-are deloc chef să renunţe. 7. Chelnerul a ţipat că a făcut deja câteva
încercări să fie pe placul acelui domn, dar n-a reuşit şi e dispus să iasă la pensie. 8. Jucătorul
de fotbal urlă că arbitrul s-a strâmbat la el şi că n-are de gând să mai joace în echipa aceea,
până nu-i va cere cineva scuze mai întâi. 9. Agentul de la pompe funebre îşi încheie discursul
zicând că decedatul a făcut cinste familiei, ceea ce era în parte adevărat, fiindcă bătrânul
fusese oaia neagră a familiei, dar câştigase un mare premiu pentru neruşinare.