MARIJA KUSEVSKA

English Sentence
Analysis
Language Workbook

2014

1
GOCE DELCEV UNIVERSITY - STIP
 Marija Kusevska

English Sentence Analysis

Language Workbook

Goce Delcev University - Stip

2014

2
 Author
Marija Kusevska, PhD

English Sentence Analysis

Language Workbook

Reviewers
Nina Daskalovska, PhD
Biljana Ivanovska, PhD

Proofreading
Marija Kusevska, PhD

Publisher
Goce Delcev University – Stip

CIP - Каталогизација во публикација

Национална и универзитетска библиотека "Св. Климент Охридски", Скопје

811.111'367.2(035)

KUSEVSKA, Marija
English sentence analysis [Електронски извор] : language
workbook / Marija Kusevska. - Текст во PDF формат, содржи 81 стр.,
табели, граф. прикази. - Shtip : Goce Delcev University, 2014

Начин на пристап (URL): http://e-lib.ugd.edu.mk/naslovna.php. -

Наслов преземен од екранот. - Опис на изворот на ден 16.12.2014

ISBN 978-608-244-133-7

а) Англиски јазик - Реченица - Прирачници

COBISS.MK-ID 97595914

3
 Марија Кусевска

Анализа на речениците во англискиот

јазик

Практикум

Универзитет „Гоце Делчев“ - Штип

2014

4
 Автор
д-р Марија Кусевска

Анализа на речениците во англискиот јазик

Практикум

Рецензенти
д-р Нина Даскаловска
д-р Билјана Ивановска

Лектор
д-р Марија Кусевска

Издавач
Универзитет „Гоце Делчев“ - Штип

CIP - Каталогизација во публикација

Национална и универзитетска библиотека "Св. Климент Охридски", Скопје

811.111'367.2(035)

KUSEVSKA, Marija
English sentence analysis [Електронски извор] : language
workbook / Marija Kusevska. - Текст во PDF формат, содржи 81 стр.,
табели, граф. прикази. - Shtip : Goce Delcev University, 2014

Начин на пристап (URL): http://e-lib.ugd.edu.mk/naslovna.php. -

Наслов преземен од екранот. - Опис на изворот на ден 16.12.2014

ISBN 978-608-244-133-7

а) Англиски јазик - Реченица - Прирачници

COBISS.MK-ID 97595914

5
Preface

English Sentence Analysis: Language Workbook is a collection of exercises created with

the aim of supporting the topics studied as a part of the English Syntax 1 course. This
course is an introduction to English syntax for students at university level majoring in
English language and literature. The course objectives are as follows:

1. To introduce students to syntactic theory and the wide scope of syntactic structures
in English;

2. To provide students with rudimentary training in the skills and methods of English
sentence analysis;

3. To orient students towards linguistic research.

The main purpose of the course is to make students aware of different levels of
analysis at the sentence, clause and phrase level. It first reviews some of the aspects of
English grammar covered in previous courses and which are relevant for this course as
well. As the verb is central to sentence formation, special attention is paid to the English
verb and verb types. Then it moves to phrase level, clause level and sentence level. The
course also reviews some of the previous terminology (word classes, subject, direct object,
indirect object, etc.) and introduces students to new terminology (sentence constituents,
noun phrase (NP), verb phrase (VP), etc., pre-modifiers, post-modifiers, etc.).

The course is based on the following course books:

1. Verspoor, Marjolin and Kim Sauter. (2002). English Sentence Analysis. An

Introductory Course. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

2. Gelderen, Elly van. 2002. An Introduction to the Grammar of English. Syntactic

arguments and socio-historical background. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing
Company.

3. BurtonBurton-Roberts, Noel. (1998). Analysing Sentences: An Introduction to English

Syntax. London and New York: Longman.

The material in English Sentence Analysis: Language Workbook is meant for a

classroom-taught introductory course of about 12 weeks. It includes the following chapters:
1. Introductory exercises; 2. Typical sentence patterns; 3. Sentences: simple, compound
and complex; 4. Verbs I; 5. Verbs II; 6 Review 1; 7. Word classes I; 8. Word classes II; 9.
Structure of noun phrases (NP); 10. Structure of other phrases (VP, AdjP, AdvP, PP); 11.
6
Sentence constituents realized as clauses; 12. How to analyze sentences at all levels; и
13. Review 2.

The main chapters contain exercises that are related to the material presented in
the subject literature. In each chapter there are several types of exercises that gradually
empower students for independent sentence analysis. One type of exercises are designed
to lead students to independently go through the book's contents and to enable them to
extract relevant information from them. Other exercises allow them to classify information
and use it in partially controlled exercises. The third type of exercises allow students to
independently perform analysis and to become independent in determining, analyzing and
creating syntactic structures at different levels in the syntactic system of the English
language. The review chapters enable students to revise the material that has already
been studied, to increase students’ confidence in performing sentence analysis and to
enable them to be successful at exams.

How to use English Sentence Analysis: Language Workbook

For best results, students are advised first to study the book chapters and make sure
they understand the terms and concepts. Then they can proceed to doing the exercises.
Class attendance and participation is essential.

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Contents

Preface ................................................................................................................................ 6

1. Introductory exercises ...................................................................................................... 9

2 Typical Sentence Patterns .............................................................................................. 13

3 Sentences: simple, compound and complex................................................................... 17

4 Verbs I ............................................................................................................................ 21

5 Verbs II ........................................................................................................................... 27

6 Review 1 ......................................................................................................................... 33

7 Word classes I ................................................................................................................ 37

8 Word classes II ............................................................................................................... 43

9 Structure of noun phrases (NP) ...................................................................................... 49

10 Structure of other phrases (VP, AdjP, AdvP, PP) ......................................................... 59

11 Sentence constituents realised as clauses ................................................................... 66

12 How to analyze sentences at all levels ......................................................................... 73

13 Review 2 ....................................................................................................................... 77

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1. Introductory exercises
I. Before we start our Syntax class let us make sure that you are comfortable with
the most important terms for this course. We will start by analyzing the structure of
sentences. Please answer the following questions:
1. What is a sentence?

2. What is a clause?

3. What is a simple sentence?

4. Which clauses are dependent, which are independent?

5. What is a compound sentence?

6. Name some of the words that link independent clauses.

7. What is a complex sentence?

8. Name some of the words that link dependent clauses.

II. Look at the sentences below and decide if they are simple, compound or
complex?

e.g. My friends met the person who was playing Rodrigo in “Mexico City.” - complex

1. William and Elizabeth argued so that everyone could hear them.

2. Wherever I go, I find something that reminds me of you.

3. He invited her out but she refused because of her job.

4. Many people like quiet life and would live in the country but they never go there.

5. My daughter went to France for the first time and loved it.

6. I don’t know the person who is standing in front of our house.

7. Can you see the old man in front of the bakery?

8. I enjoy swimming in the ocean even if the waves are big.

9. I drove my fast car for the first time.

10. We all talked to him and expressed our wishes for fast recovery.

11. She always tells everybody about her private life, even if she has met them for
the first time.

12. She was very surprised when we gave her the present.

9
 13. Parents of teenagers complain that they never listen to them.

III. As you can notice, the basic sentence structure is SVO (subject-verb-object). So,
the next thing that you should be able to do is to identify the sentence constituents:
subject, direct object and indirect object.
1. What are their functions of the subject, the direct object and the indirect object?

2. What questions can you ask to discover the constituents?

3. In the sentences above, underline the subject with one line, the direct object with two
lines and the indirect object with three lines.

IV. Sentences also have adverbials, which are optional. That’s why we put them in
brackets. So we can extend the basic structure of the English sentence to SVO(A).
1. What information do adverbials give?

2. What questions do they answer?

3. What is their position in the sentence?

4. What is the difference between an adjective and an adverb?

V. Read the instruction on verbs below. Look at the verbs in the sentences above.
Are they intransitive or transitive? Are the transitive verbs monotransitive or
ditransitive?
Central to the English sentence is the verb. Verbs can be intransitive and transitive.
Intransitive verbs have subjects but they don’t have objects. Transitive verbs have both
subjects and objects. Objects can be direct and indirect. Direct objects are patients, the
activity of the verb is performed on them. Indirect objects are receivers; they receive
the activity of the verb. There are also copula verbs. They tell us what something is;
they equal something. The most prominent is the verb to be. But this category also
includes seem, sound, look, feel, taste, turn into, etc.

VI. According to their functions sentences can be declarative, interrogative,

imperative and exclamatory. Underline two examples of each type in the passage.
"Where we goin', George?"

"So you forgot that awready. did you? I gotta tell you again, do I? Jesus Christ, you're a
crazy bastard!"

"I forgot," Lennie said softly. "I tried not to forget. Honest to God I did, George."

"O.K.- O.K. I'll tell ya again. I ain't got nothing to do. Might jus' as well spen' all my time
tellin' you things and then you forget 'em, and I tell you again."
10
 "Tried and tried," said Lennie, "but it didn't do no good. I remember about the rabbits,
George."

"The hell with the rabbits. That's all you ever can remember is them rabbits. O.K.! Now
you listen and this time you got to remember so we don't get in no trouble. You
remember settin' in that gutter on Howard Street and watchin' that blackboard?"

Lennie's face broke into a delighted smile. "Why sure, George. I remember that... but...
what'd we do then? I remember some girls come by and you says... you says..."

"The hell with what I says. You remember about us goin' in to Murray and Ready's, and
they give us work cards and bus tickets?"

"Oh, sure, George. I remember that now." His hands went quickly into his side coat
pockets. He said gently, "George... I ain't got mine. I musta lost it." He looked down at
the ground in despair.

"You never had none, you crazy bastard. I got both of 'em here. Think I'd let you carry
your own work card?"

Lennie grinned with relief. "I... I thought I put it in my side pocket." His hand went into
the pocket again.

George looked sharply at him. "What'd you take outa that pocket?"

"Ain't a thing in my pocket," Lennie said cleverly.

"I know there ain't. You got it in your hand. What you got in your hand- hidin' it?"

"I ain't got nothin', George. Honest."

"Come on, give it here."

Lennie held his closed hand away from George's direction. "It's on'y a mouse, George."

"A mouse? A live mouse?"

"Uh-uh. Jus' a dead mouse, George. I didn't kill it. Honest! I found it. I found it dead."

"Give it here!" said George.

"Aw, leave me have it, George."

"Give it here!"
(Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck)

Homework
1. The paragraph below is the beginning of the John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men.
Analyze the sentences in the following terms:
a. put slashes / between the clauses;
b. decide if the clauses are dependent or independent;

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 c. decide if the verbs in each clause are intransitive, monotransitive, ditransitive or
copula;
d. in each sentence underline the subject, direct object and indirect object
1. A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and
runs deep and green.
2. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight.
3. On one side of the river, the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky
Gabilan Mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees- willows fresh and
green with every spring.
4. On the sandy bank under the trees, the leaves lie deep and so crisp that a lizard makes
a great skittering if he runs among them.

2. Write examples for each of the following categories:

a. compound sentences

b. complex sentences

c. intransitive verbs

d. monotransitive verbs

e. ditransitive verbs

f. copula

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2 Typical Sentence Patterns

I. Sentences and their communicative functions

1. Look at the sentences below. How many types of sentences are there in English?
a. My sister lives in the USA.

b. How many cigarettes a day do you smoke?

c. Take the milk to the fridge.

d. For God’s sake leave it there.

2. How many communicative functions can each of the sentences have?

a.

b.

c.

d.

3. Write three sentences for each of the following communicative (pragmatic) functions:
a. a request

b. an invitation

c. a piece of advice

d. an apology

e. a complaint

II. Participants in a situation

1. What aspects can a speaker mention about each event or situation?

2. Are participants in a situation or event always alive?

3. How many participants are possible?

4. How many participants are necessary?

5. How many participants are there in the following sentences:

a. Aunt Nora made us a cake.

b. We met Neil at the farmer’s market.

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 c. Rich people buy their children beautiful houses.

d. A friend helped me.

6. What participant does the information in bold refer to?

a. We consider aunt Nora very generous.

b. They made the farmer’s market very attractive.

c. Rich people consider their children little gods.

d. My friend made me feel happy.

7. In the table below, name the functions for each of the roles and their abbreviations.
Roles Function Abbreviation
first participant
process
about the first participant
a second participant
something about the
second participant
a third participant
the setting

8. The sentence constituents of the sentences below (adapted from The Secret Garden by
F.H. Burnett) have been set off with slashes. Identify their functions.

a. When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle/

everybody/ said/ she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen.

b. It/ was/ true.

c. She/ had/ a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour
expression.

d. Her father/ had held/ a position under the English Government/ and /had always

been/ busy and ill himself/, and/ her mother/ had been/ a great beauty who cared

only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people.

e. She/ had not wanted/ a little girl/ at all/, and /when Mary was born/ she/ gave/
her/ to an Ayah.

9. In the sentences below (adapted from The Secret Garden by F.H. Burnett) separate the
sentence constituents with slashes. Then name their functions.
14
 a. One frightfully hot morning, when she was about nine years old, she awakened
feeling very cross, and she became even crosser when she saw that the servant
who stood by her bedside was not her Ayah.

b. The woman looked frightened, but she only stammered that the Ayah could not
come.

c. Nothing was done in its regular order and several of the native servants seemed
missing.

d. But no one would tell her anything and her Ayah did not come.

e. She pretended that she was making a flower-bed, and she stuck big scarlet
hibiscus blossoms into little heaps of earth.

f. All the time she was growing more and more angry.

III. Verb Types

1. How many prototypical sentence patterns are there in English? Which are they? What
are their characteristics?
Verb type Sentence pattern Typical verbs
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

2. Determine the type of verbs and the number of its participants:

ask prepare donate

want smile cook

lie sing walk

paint stand tell

show steal swim

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have think make

take dream read

3. Look at the underlined verbs in II/9 and decide to which group they belong.

4. What copula verbs other than be can you name?

5. Some copula verbs can be both a copula and a regular verb. Mark the sentences
containing a copula verb.
a. The two men appeared out of the blue.

They appeared tired and scared.

b. Indian dishes taste strange

They tasted the food and didn’t like it.

c. He makes a good leader.

You always make me cry.

d. The two girls look similar.

He looked at her and burst into tears.

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3 Sentences: simple, compound and complex

I. Sentence Types
1. What is a sentence?

2. What is a clause?

3. What is the difference between dependent and independent clauses?

4. What are they also called

5. There are four types of sentences. Which are they? Define each type.

6. In the following stream of words (adapted from The Secret Garden by F.H. Burnett), set
off sentences with a period. How many sentences does this passage contain?

during the second day Mary hid herself in the nursery and was forgotten by everyone
nobody thought of her, nobody wanted her, and strange things happened of which she
knew nothing Mary alternately cried and slept through the hours she only knew that
people were ill and that she heard mysterious and frightening sounds once she crept
into the dining-room and found it empty, though a partly finished meal was on the table
and chairs and plates looked as if they had been hastily pushed back when the diners
rose suddenly for some reason

7. Circle all subordinators and underline all coordinators in the passage above. What type
are the sentences above?

8. Identify the sentences below (adapted from The Secret Garden by F.H. Burnett) as:
simple, compound, complex or compound-complex.

a. The child ate some fruit and biscuits, and as she was thirsty she drank a glass of
wine which stood nearly filled.

b. It was sweet, and she did not know how strong it was.

c. Very soon it made her intensely drowsy.

d. The wine made her so sleepy that she could scarcely keep her eyes open and she
lay down on her bed and knew nothing more for a long time.

e. She wondered if everybody who had been ill of the cholera had got well and all the
trouble was over.

17
 f. She had been angry because no one seemed to remember that she was alive.

g. When people had the cholera, they remembered nothing but themselves.

h. If everyone had got well again, surely someone would remember and come to look
for her.

i. The house was perfectly still.

j. When she awakened she lay and stared at the wall.

k. She heard something rustling on the matting and she looked down.

l. She saw a little snake who was gliding along and watching her with eyes like jewels.

m. She was not frightened, because he was a harmless little thing who would not hurt
her and he seemed in a hurry to get out of the room.

n. He slipped under the door as she watched him.

9. What is the main feature of compound sentences?

10. Clauses in compound sentences are connected with coordinate conjunctions,

correlative conjunctions, punctuation marks and conjunctive adverbs. Fill in the table below
with these words.

Coordinate Punctuation marks Correlative Conjunctive

conjunctions conjunctions adverbs

11. How are coordinate and correlative conjunctions related?

12. Can coordinate and correlative conjunctions change their position in the sentence?

13. Can conjunctive adverbs change their position in the sentence?

14. There are three types of dependent clauses. Which are they?

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15. Name 10 subordinators.

16. Underline the subordinate clauses in exercise 6. Identify what type is each clause.

II. Phrases
1. What is the difference between a clause and a phrase?

2. How long are phrases?

3. What type of phrases are there?

4. What determines what type the phrase is?

5. Look at the phrases below (from The Secret Garden by F.H. Burnett). Underline the
head (the main word) of the phrase and decide what type it is.

Mary was standing in the middle of the nursery when they opened the door a few

minutes later. She looked an ugly, cross little thing and was frowning because she was

beginning to be hungry and feel disgracefully neglected. The first man who came in

was a large officer she had once seen talking to her father. He looked tired and

troubled, but when he saw her he was so startled that he almost jumped back.

It was in that strange and sudden way that Mary found out that she had neither father

nor mother left; that they had died and been carried away in the night, and that the few

native servants who had not died also had left the house as quickly as they could get

out of it, none of them even remembering that there was a Missie Sahib. That was why

the place was so quiet. It was true that there was no one in the bungalow but herself

and the little rustling snake.

III. Fill in the missing words in the summary below:

A sentence can be ____________, ____________, ____________, or ____________,

depending on the types of clauses it contains. These clauses may be ____________
(also called main) clauses or ____________ (also called subordinate) clauses.
____________ clauses can stand on their own, or two or more main clauses may be

19
connected with a ____________ (a ____________ or ____________ conjunction) or
separated with a ____________, to form a compound sentence.
Dependent clauses are introduced by ____________ and function as a ____________
____________ (subject, object, adverbial, and so on) or as part of a constituent; in other
words, a ____________ ____________ by itself does not form a complete sentence. Each
clause, in turn, has single words or groups of words that together form grammatical and
meaningful units, called ____________. The difference between clauses and phrases is
that phrases do not have a ____________ and ____________.

20
4 Verbs I

I. Lexical versus auxiliary verbs

1. Fill in the gaps in the sentences below with information about lexical verbs:
The lexical verb is also called __________ __________. It names the __________. It
has the most __________. If the verb phrase has more than one verb, it comes
__________.

2. What are the forms of the following lexical verbs:

a. hold

b. lie

c. lay

3. Fill in the gaps in the sentences below with information about auxiliary verbs:
Auxiliary verbs are also called __________ __________. They help indicate when the
process takes place, will take place, or took place or how the whole process is
__________ by the speaker. Common helping verbs are __________, __________,
__________, __________, __________, __________, __________, __________,
__________, __________ and so on.

4. Underline all verb phrases in the opening summary of Animal Farm by George Orwell
and identify each underlined verb as lexical or auxiliary:
As the story opens on Mr. Jones's farm, the farm animals are preparing to meet after
Mr. Jones goes to sleep, to hear the words that the old and well-respected pig, Old
Major, wants to say to them. The animals gather around as Old Major tells them that he
had a dream the previous night and senses that he will not live much longer. Old Major
goes on to say that animals in England are cruelly kept in slavery by man.

Old Major tells the animals that they must all band together to fight the common
enemy, Man, and rise up in rebellion when the opportunity comes. Three days later,
Old Major dies and is buried. Two of the pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, emerge as the
leaders of the animals. Another pig named Squealer also becomes prominent for his
persuasive speaking ability. These three pigs create a system which is named
"Animalism," and begin imparting it to the rest of the animals, often simplifying and
slowly reasoning with the less-intelligent animals such as the Sheep, or the frivolous
animals, like Mollie the white mare.

21
II. Finite versus non-finite verb forms

1. Which verb forms are called finite?

2. How can you decide if the verb form is finite or not?

number person present tense past tense

ride first I ride I rode
singular second you ride you rode
third he/she/it rides He/she/it rode
plural first we ride we rode
second you ride you rode
third they ride they rode
speak

forget

3. Write the finite forms of the verbs in the table below.

4. Which verb forms are called non-finite?

5. Write the non-finite forms of the verbs in the table below.

plain infinitive to infinitive present participle past participle

ride to ride riding ridden
speak
dig
justify

6. Which verb form is used in dictionaries?

7. How can you test if a verb is finite or non-finite?

8. In the next passage, which is continuation of the opening summary of Animal Farm by
George Orwell, all verbs are underlined. Indicate whether they are finite or non-finite.

Revolution comes earlier than anyone expected, when Mr. Jones gets so drunk that he

is unable to go feed the animals. The animals attack them, and the men flee, leaving

Manor Farm to the animals. The next morning, Snowball repaints the sign reading
22
 "Manor Farm" to say "Animal Farm," and he and Napoleon introduce the animals to

The Seven Commandments, which form the tenets of their "Animalism".

The Animalism regime begins very promisingly, with all the animals working

industriously to improve the farm, and enjoying the feeling of self-governance and

"animal pride" which their regime produces. Inspired by the idea that they would enjoy

the fruits of their own labors for the first time, the animals overcome the challenges of

farming without man and bring in the largest harvest Animal Farm has ever produced.

News of the rebellion at Animal Farm spreads quickly to the rest of the animals in England,

and the words to "Beasts of England" can soon be heard on farms everywhere. Alarmed

by the developments at Animal Farm and the threat of revolution spreading, the townsmen

band together with Mr. Jones and attempt to reclaim his farm. The animals successfully

defend it, led by the strategy and bravery of Snowball. Snowball and Boxer are given

medals for their courageous fighting.

9. Identify the form of each verb (present finite, past finite, plain infinitive, to infinitive,
present participle, or past participle),

10. Look at the paragraphs in exercises I/4 and II/8. Are there any verb forms that would
rather be treated as adjectives than as verb forms?

III. Auxiliary verbs

1. Match the auxiliary verbs with the examples.
The men were walking with their Modals + (to) infinitives
heads down.
The men had set out hours before we Progressive be + present participle
arrived.
They may find something horrible. Passive be + past participle
Something horrible was found. Do for questions, negation and
emphasis
They did walk with their heads down. Perfect have + past participle

23
2. The table below describes the functions of the auxiliaries. Assign each function a
corresponding auxiliary.
Function Auxiliary verb
a speaker can express that he or
she saw an action as relevant to
another moment
a speaker can express that he or
she saw an action as not really having
taken place
a speaker can focus on a second or
third participant by making it the
subject of a sentence
a speaker may want to emphasize an
action
a speaker can express that he or
she saw an action as ongoing

3. Modal auxiliary verbs, together with the other verbs in the verb phrase form a
subjunctive mood. A subjunctive mood expresses that
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________

4. Modal auxiliary verbs can be divided in three groups:

a.

b.

c.

5. Which modals are described with the following definitions:

a. a small group of modal verbs can express meanings similar to some of the central
modals but they have only limited grammatical uses.
________________________

b. there is a group of modal verbs that express meanings similar to the will, would
group. Because the uses of the central modals have become so limited (for example,
they cannot express past permission or obligation), these modal verbs are used
instead.
________________________

c. have in common that they are always finite (come first in the verb phrase), but do not
get an -s ending when the subject is he, she or it and must be followed by a plain
infinitive form of a verb.
24
 ________________________

6. Fill in the table below.

central modal marginal modals semi-modals

7. What do all modal verbs have in common?

8. In the following sentences identify (a) the type of verb (lexical, modal auxiliary, auxiliary
of perfect aspect, progressive aspect, or passive voice or do) and (b) the form of the verb
(finite or non-finite).
a. Unhappy with the new workload, Mollie has run away to work pulling a dogcart for a

man who feeds her sugar lumps, and she is never spoken of again.

b. When winter comes, Snowball begins talking of a plan to build a windmill to bring

electricity to the farm.

c. Snowball envisions an Animal Farm where increased productivity will result in less

work and more comfortable lifestyles for all the animals.

d. Napoleon, who by this time disagrees with Snowball about almost everything, is

bitterly opposed, and the animals get divided.

e. Napoleon is afraid that Snowball may win over him at the elections

f. Snowball gets attacked by Napoleon and is drive off the farm.

g. The animals are now working like slaves to complete the harvest and build the

windmill.

25
h. As the animals haven’t finished the windmill in time, Napoleon decides to introduce

voluntary work.

i. From now on the animals must perform voluntary work.

j. Any animal who does not participate will have their food rations cut in half.

26
5 Verbs II

I. Sub-types of lexical verbs

1. Decide if the underlined verbs from the short story Peaches by Dylan Thomas are
transitive, intransitive or copula. Are the transitive verbs monotransitive, ditransitive or
complex-transitive?

Uncle Jim’s chair creaked again, he might have struck his fist on the table and we
heard him shout: “I’ll give her peaches! Peaches, peaches! Who does she think she is?
Aren’t peaches good enough for her? To hell with her bloody motor-car and her bloody
son! Making us small!

“Don’t, don’t Jim!” Annie said, “You’ll wake the boys.”

“I’ll wake them and whip the hell out of them, too!”

“Please, please, Jim!”

“You send the boy away.,” he said, “or I’ll do it myself. Back to his three bloody
houses.”

Jack pulled the bedclothes over his head and sobbed into the pillow: “I don’t want to
hear, I don’t want to hear. I’ll write to my mother. She’ll take me away.”

I climbed out to close the door. Jack would not talk to me again, and I fell asleep to the
noise of the voices below, which soon grew gentle.

Uncle Jim was not at breakfast. When we came down, Jack’s shoes were cleaned and
his jacket was darned and pressed. Annie gave two boiled eggs to Jack and one to me.
She forgave me when I drank tea from the saucer.

II. Direct object forms

1. What form can the direct object take?

2. What does FC stand for?

3. What does NFC stand for?

4. What question can the direct object answer?

5. What can the direct object be replaced by?

27
6. Underline the direct object in the following sentences from the short story Peaches by
Dylan Thomas and decide if it is a word, a phrase, NFC or FC.

a. I began to whistle between my teeth, but when I stopped I thought the sound went
hissing on behind.

b. I remembered the demon in the story ….

c. I tried to remember her true name …

d. He did not need to touch the rains.

e. I saw the plates on the shelves, the lighted lamp on the long, oil-clothed table

f. She made a mustard bath and strong tea, told me to put on a pair of my cousin
Gwilym’s socks and an old coat of uncle’s that smelt of rabbit and tobacco.

g. I thought that I had been walking long, damp passages all my life and climbing stairs
in the dark, alone.

h. He told me stories about girls who died for love.

i. I’ve done a lot of improvements to this place.

j. We knew where uncle was.

k. She had forgotten to change her gym shoes, which were caked with mud and all
holes.

l. She forgave me when I drank from the saucer.

III. Passive constructions

1. How are the subject and the object transformed in passive sentences?

2. What kind of verbs are used in passive sentences?

3. How many passive sentences can you make if the verb is ditransitive? Give an
example.

4. Is it possible to transform active sentences into passive if they contain a non-finite

clause? Give an example.

5. Please analyse the following sentences into their constituents:

a. The birds were scattered by the dog.

28
 b. I was told that he lived abroad.

c. The reward was given to Jim.

d. She was called a good girl.

e. He was known to be on time.

f. he is believed to be honest.

g. He was seen to walk across the street.

6. Are the sentences containing to be allowed to and to be supposed to considered as

passives? What is the explanation?

7. Sometimes it is difficult to say if the past participle form is an adjective or a part of a

passive construction. Give examples.

8. Transform the active sentences below into passive ones. Then analyze them.

a. The burglar killed the policeman standing in front of the tent.

b. Nine out of ten doctors recommend camels for desert trips.

c. I gave Henry a new Scrabble set for Halloween.

d. Julio’s father paid for the new car.

e. Two boys were selling tickets for the benefit dance.

f. An important executive offered Jane a job.

g. Someone sent Sam the soda. [Again, give two possible transformations.]

h. Jim’s mother considered the villagers savages.

i. The nuns raised him a good Christian.

IV. Multi-word verbs

1. Answer the questions below:
a. What are multi-word verbs?

b. What are the four sub-types of multi-word verbs?

29
 c. What tests can we apply to check if the verb is phrasal or prepositional?

d. What kind is the multi-word verb if there isn’t an object?

e. Here are some tests that you can apply to check if the preposition and/or adverb and

noun phrase is a part of the multi-word verb or not:

- Check if the preposition or adverb gives the verb a ___________ sense.

- If you can substitute the verb and preposition or adverb with another expression

covering the same meaning, it is likely that you have to do with a ___________ or

___________ verb.

- Finally, if the preposition or adverb or noun can easily be ___________ with another

___________ , ___________ or ___________, it is ___________ a multi-word verb.

2. Tell whether the underlined two-word verbs are prepositional verbs or phrasal verbs.

e.g. The angry mob chased the gangster out. “Chase out is a phrasal verb because the
‘little’ word, out, can appear both after its noun object and before it.

a. We set up the VCR.

b. That calls for a lot of planning.

c. I’m going to fill out the forms.

d. Let’s tear down that shack. (a small cabin)

e. I found him out.

f. Go for it!

g. They looked up my name in the directory.

h. She immediately called out the army.

i. I want you to look at this photograph.

j. We don’t approve of what you are doing.

k. The city engineer turned on the switch.

l. That actor really turns me on.

m. Without any warning he turned on me and ended our friendship.

30
 n. He’s always invested heavily in California real estate.

o. In his hour of need he always turns to me. (cause to become interested)

3. Write out the correct version of each of these sentences.

e.g. Up which sale did she ring just now? (up)“The correct version is ‘Which sale did she
ring up just now?’

a. Give back it right now!

b. They took rapidly over the company.

c. He laughed us at.

d. The gangster off whom they bumped was my godfather.

e. They took out it at seven o’clock.

4. Analyse the following sentences into their constituents: S, P, DO, IO, SA, OA, and A.
Then decide if the verb is transitive or intransitive.

a. I ran down to meet them with my tie undone and my hair uncombed.

b. He stepped down from the cart and groped about in the hay beneath it and held out

a battered tin to me.

c. You should put on your nice suit for this afternoon.

d. We walked away from the sty.

e. Gwilym’s chapel was the last old barn before the field that led down to the river.

f. He took out a ring of keys and shook them gently and tried each one in the lock.

g. Then he brought out his deepest voice again and cried to the heavens …

h. The white house was left behind, the light and the hill were swallowed up.

31
5. Make up a sentence with each of these two-word verbs. Make sure each sentence
contains a direct object similar to sentences 1–15 above, for example: He called on his
sister to help [direct object].

1. hand over

2. put out

3. break up

4. see through

5. hold back

6. bring in

7. look out

8. put off

32
6 Review 1

1. Write the names of the functions of the sentence constituents and their abbreviations.
Roles Functions Abbreviations
first participant
process
something about the first
participant
a second participant

something about the second

participant
a third participant
the setting

2. Name the function of the sentence constituents, which have been separated with
slashes. The first one has been done for you.
S P BO DO
a. I /gave/ him/ the saguaro. f. The hard-working students/ seemed/
exhausted.
b. The committee/ elected/ Mark/ their
president. g. He/ found/ it/ easy.

c. The train/ left/ the station/ after 3 h. He/ took/ the early train.
o’clock.
i. I/ considered/ the book/ very helpful.
d. Tom/ submitted/ his tax-return/
yesterday. j. That/ sounds/ terrible.

e. They/ sold/ us/ their furniture. k. My father/ bought/ me/ a car/ for my
birthday.

3. Look at the sentences in task 2 and define their sentence pattern: (11 pts)
a. The giving/buying pattern (ditransitive)___ h. __________________________________
b. __________________________________ i. ___________________________________
c. __________________________________ j. __________________________________
d. __________________________________ k. __________________________________
e. __________________________________
f. __________________________________
g. __________________________________

33
4. Use the verb make to write four different patterns.
a. _________________________________________________________________
b. _________________________________________________________________
c. _________________________________________________________________
d. _________________________________________________________________

5. Go back to the sentences in Task 2 and assuming they stand for typical
English sentences, answer the following questions:
a. How many subjects can be found in a sentence? _________________________
b. How many direct objects can be found in a sentence? ______________________
c. If there is one object in a sentence, is it a direct, indirect, or benefactive object? __
d. Is it possible to have a subject attribute and a direct object in one sentence? ____
e. Is it possible to have more than one adverbial in a sentence? _______________
f. Which of the following are possible combinations, and which ones not?
S– P– A S– P– IO– IO– DO
S– P– DO– A S– P– OA
S– P– DO– SA S– P– SA– DO
S– P– DO– OA S– P

6. Complete the following definitions:

a. A sentence is _____________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
b. A clause is _______________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
c. A simple sentence is ________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
d. A compound sentence is _____________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
e. A complex sentence is _______________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

34
7. Fill in the table below.
coordinate conjunctions correlative conjunctions conjunctive adverbs

8. In the following stream of words set off sentences with a period.

a. How many sentences does this passage contain? _________________________
b. What type are they? _________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
c. What type are the subordinate clauses? _________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
granny was waiting at the door of the apartment she looked small, lonely, and
patient, and at the sight of her the children and their mother felt instantly guilty they
came late because they had stopped outside Nice for ice cream they might have
known how much those extra twenty minutes would mean to Granny Colin, too
young to know what he felt, or why, began instinctively to misbehave, dragging his
feet

9. Look at the text in Task 9 again. Which verb forms are finite and which are
non-finite?
Finite verb forms: ____________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
Non-finite verb forms: _________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

10. Describe what the following forms with auxiliary verbs express. (10 pts)
a. progressive be + present participle _____________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

35
___________________________________________________________________
b. perfect have + past participle _________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
c. modals + (to) infinitives ______________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
d. passive be + past participle ___________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
e. do ______________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

11. Describe the central modals, the marginal modal and the semi-modals in
more detail.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________

36
7 Word classes I
I. Fill in

1. Open classes are: __________________________________________________

2. Closed classes are: _________________________________________________

3. Nouns can be _______________ versus _______________, _______________

versus _______________, _______________ versus _______________

4. Proper nouns are names for a ____________________________________:

Peter, Dorothy, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and so on. Common nouns refer to

____________________________________ by their general name: boy, girl, etc.

5. Concrete nouns refer to things that are _______________ like mountain, bicycle,

and table. Abstract nouns refer to things that are _______________ like idea,

thought, and dream

6. Count nouns refer to things that are clearly _______________ and are seen as

separate things like house and bicycle. Non-count nouns are also called _________.

7. Verbs usually denote _______________, _______________, or _____________.

8. Walk and run have _______________ meanings because they stand for actions

that can be clearly visualized. On the other hand, have or become, which refer to a

state of _______________ or a _______________, believe and think, which refer to

__________, and be, which refers to a ____________________________, have

more abstract meanings.

9. Adjectives are words that ____________________ a noun; they either name

an____________________ of a thing, like a glass door or ___________________

like a beautiful door or _____________________ as in a shed door. Many adjectives

37
are ____________ or ____________ used as adjectives, as in city life or walking

shoes.

10. Typical adverbs are words expressing _______________ or _______________

an event or situation is taking place. Also question words themselves like

______________, _______________ and _______________ are adverbs, called

interrogative adverbs.

11. Adverbs like very express ‘degree’ and modify _______________ or _________

12. Some adverbs, like clearly or obviously modify a ______________________.

Other adverbs like however and therefore, called _______________ adverbs

express the logical relationship between _____________________ or ___________.

13. There are nine kinds of pronouns:

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

14. Dependent possessive pronouns are: _________________________________

15. Independent possessive pronouns are: ________________________________

16. Interrogative pronouns are __________________________________________

They can be used as _________________________________________________.

17. Indefinite pronouns are _____________________________________________

18. So is always used _______________ and it refers to _____________________.

II. True or false?

1. Question words like when, where and how are adverbs.

2. The word “glass” in the phrase “like a glass door” is a noun.

38
3. One particular word may belong to more than one class.

4. Nouns may be used as verbs and vice versa.

5. Interrogative adverbs introduce a dependent question

6. Pronouns are always used independently, i.e. they stand on their own.

7. All pronouns are determiners.

8. Independent pronouns stand in front of a noun. Dependent pronouns stand on

their own.

9. Relative pronouns are dependent.

10. Relative pronouns have double function.

11. Demonstrative pronouns can be used dependently or independently.

12. Reciprocal pronouns are always used independently.

13. Indefinite pronouns may consist of more words.

III. Classify the given words in the table below: hundreds, where, Gosh, My
Goodness, a great many, a few, someone, walk, present, all much, obviously,
inside, whether, in contrast to, each other, lovely, when, these, whose,
however, how, whom, mine, completely, busy, exhausted, lived, once, in spite
of, eventually, unwilling, back, across, principal, or, missionary, promptly,
therefore, considering,

nouns verbs adjectives adverbs pronouns numerals coordina- interject- preposit-

tors ions ions

39
IV. Decide what kind the underlined nouns are: proper or common, abstract or
concrete, count or non-count.

During his first five years in Maycomb, Atticus practiced economy more than

anything; for several years thereafter he invested his earnings in his brother’s

education. John Hale Finch was ten years younger than my father, and chose to

study medicine at a time when cotton was not worth growing; but after getting

Uncle Jack started, Atticus derived a reasonable income from the law. He liked

Maycomb, he was Maycomb County born and bred; he knew his people, they

knew him, and because of Simon Finch’s industry, Atticus was related by blood

or marriage to nearly every family in the town

V. Underline all nouns, adjectives and adverbs.

Dill was a curiosity. He wore blue linen shorts that buttoned to his shirt, his hair

was snow white and stuck to his head like duckfluff; he was a year my senior but

I towered over him. As he told us the old tale his blue eyes would lighten and

darken; his laugh was sudden and happy; he habitually pulled at a cowlick in the

center of his forehead.

* * *

Dill blushed and Jem told me to hush, a sure sign that Dill had been studied and

found acceptable. Thereafter the summer passed in routine contentment. Routine

contentment was: improving our treehouse that rested between giant twin

chinaberry trees in the back yard, fussing, running through our list of dramas

based on the works of Oliver Optic, Victor Appleton, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

In this matter we were lucky to have Dill. Thus we came to know him as a pocket

40
 Merlin, whose head teemed with eccentric plans, strange longings, and quaint

fancies.

VI. What type are the underlined pronouns. Are they used dependently or
independently?

Calpurnia was something else again. She was all angles and bones; she was

nearsighted; she squinted; her hand was wide as a bed slat and twice as hard.

She was always ordering me out of the kitchen, asking me why I couldn’t behave

as well as Jem when she knew he was older, and calling me home when I wasn’t

ready to come. Our battles were epic and one-sided. Calpurnia always won,

mainly because Atticus always took her side. She had been with us ever since

Jem was born, and I had felt her tyrannical presence as long as I could

remember.

VII. What category are the underlined words?

1. According to Miss Stephanie, Boo was sitting in the living room cutting some items

from The Maycomb Tribune to paste in his scrapbook.

2. It was all right to shut him up, Mr. Radley conceded, but insisted that Boo not be

charged with anything: he was not a criminal. The sheriff hadn’t the heart to put him

in jail alongside Negroes, so Boo was locked in the courthouse basement.

3. Miss Stephanie Crawford said some of the town council told Mr. Radley that if he

didn’t take Boo back, Boo would die.

4. Besides, Boo could not live forever on the bounty of the county.

5. Nobody knew what form of intimidation Mr. Radley employed to keep Boo out of

sight, but Jem figured that Mr. Radley kept him chained to the bed most of the time.

41
6. When he passed we would look at the ground and say, “Good morning, sir,” and

he would cough in reply.

7. He was one of the few persons we ever saw enter or leave the place. Nobody else

did so.

8. Mr. Nathan would speak to us, however, when we said good morning.

9. I suppose she chose me because she knew my name.

10. “If he didn’t teach you, who did?”

42
8 Word classes II

I. Connectors
1. Fill in the gaps.
a. The term connector is used as a ____________ term for all words that ‘link.’
Coordinators link parts that have ____________ syntactic value. Subordinators
link a ____________ clause or ____________ to a clause or phrase of a higher
level.

b. There is a small number of coordinators, the ____________ ____________

(and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet) and ____________ ____________: not only … but
also, neither … nor, either … or, and both … and.

c. Coordinators connect ____________ structures.

d. ____________ is a term reserved for connectors that have no function within

the clause they introduce.

e. ____________ ____________ have a meaning very similar to coordinate

conjunctions, but they are different as far as grammatical properties are
concerned.

f. When main clauses are linked with a coordinate conjunction, they are
separated with a ____________.

g. When main clauses are logically linked with a conjunctive adverb, these main
clauses are separated with a ____________, a ____________or a
____________.

2. Look at the two paragraphs below taken from the short story Ha’penny by Alan
Paton. What do the underlined coordinators connect: words, phrases, clauses or
sentences? Use square brackets to mark where they begin and where they end.
Out of six hundred boys at the reformatory, about one hundred were from ten to

fourteen years of age. My Department had from time to time expressed the

intention of taking them away, and of establishing a special institution for them,

more like an industrial school than a reformatory. This would have been a good

thing, for their offences were very trivial, and they would have been better by

43
 themselves. Had such a school been established, I should have liked to be

principal of it myself, for it would have been an easier job; small boys turn

instinctively towards affection, and one controls them by it, naturally and easily.

Some of them, if I came near them, either on parade or in school or at football,

would observe me watchfully, not directly or fully, but obliquely and secretly;

sometimes I would surprise them at it, and make a small sign of recognition,

which would satisfy them so that they would cease to observe me, and would

give their full attention to the event of the moment. But I knew that my authority

was thus confirmed and strengthened.

II. Subordinators

1. Fill in the gaps

a. Subordinator is a superordinate term for all words that introduce a

____________ clause.

b. They can introduce three types of dependent clauses: (1) clauses functioning
as sentence ____________, (2) clauses ____________ a noun, and (3) clauses
functioning as ____________.

c. Among the subordinators, we can distinguish between those that

____________ a function

within the clause they introduce and those that ____________ .

d. Those that have a function within the clause they introduce are ____________
and ____________ or ____________ at the same time.

e. Those that don’t have a function within the sentence that they introduce are
only ____________. They are called ____________.

f. A clause functioning as ____________, ____________ or ____________ is

introduced by subordinators like that, when, where, who, whom, whose, what,
whether, how, which, and if.

44
 g. ____________ or ____________ clauses are introduced by the subordinators
that, which, who, whom, whose (called relative pronouns) and where and when
(called relative adverbs).

h. A relative clause comes ____________ the noun it modifies, and the

____________ or ____________ refers to this noun.

i. Relative pronouns and adverbs ____________ have a double function. They

are ____________ and they are a ____________ of the clause they introduce.

j. Clauses functioning as ____________ are introduced by words like when,

where, after, before, since, although, because, before, even though, if, in order
that, now that, once, rather than, since, so that, that, though, unless, until, when,
whenever, where, whereas, wherever, while and so on.

k. None of the subordinators introducing an adverb clause have a ____________

function.

So they are ____________ ____________.

2. Here are two more paragraphs taken from the short story Ha’penny by Alan
Paton. The subordinators have been underlined for you. Put square brackets around
the clauses that they introduce. Then fill in the table below about each of them.

He watched me with concealed apprehension, and I came to the conclusion 1.

that this waif of Bloemfontein was a clever boy, 2. who had told me a story 3. that
was all imagination, and had changed one single letter of it to make it safe from
any question. And I thought I understood it all too, 4. that he was ashamed of
being without a family and had invented them all, so that no one might discover
that he was fatherless and motherless and that no one in the world cared whether
he was alive or dead. This gave me a strong feeling for him, and I went out of my
way to manifest towards him that fatherly care that the State had enjoined upon
me by giving me this job.

Then the letter came from the Social welfare officer in Bloemfontein, saying that
Mrs. Betty Maarman of 48 Vlak Street was a real person, and that she had four
children, Richard and Dickie, Anna and Mina, but that Ha’penny was no child of
hers, and she knew him only as a derelict of the street. She had never answered
his letters, because he wrote to her as “Mother”, and she was no mother of his,

45
 nor did she wish to play such role. She was a decent woman, a faithfull member
of the church, and she had no thought of corrupting her family by letting them
have anything to do with such a child.

Subordinator Type of Type of Do they have a If yes, what

dependent subordinator* double function? functions do they
clause they have?
introduce
that
who
that
that
so that
that
that
whether
that
that
that
that
because

*Identify the subordinator as subordinating conjunction (SC), relative pronoun (RP)

or relative adverb (RA), or as interrogative pronoun (IP) or interrogative adverb (IA).

III. Prepositions
1. Answer the questions

a. How are prepositions similar to subordinators?

b. How does a noun phrase change when a preposition is put in front of it?

c. What are multiword prepositions made up of?

d. Name some multi-word prepositions.

e. Why are some subordinators and prepositions confused?

2. Underline coordinators with one line, subordinators with two lines and prepositions
with three lines.

46
 Some of them, if I came near them, either on parade or in school or at football,
would observe me watchfully, not directly or fully, but obliquely and secretly;
sometimes I would surprise them at it, and make some small sign of recognition,
which would satisfy them so that they would cease to observe me and would give
their full attention to the event of the moment. But I knew that my authority was
thus confirmed and strengthened.

He in his turn gave his whole attention to her, and when I visited him he was
grateful, but I had passed out of his world. I felt judged in that I had sensed only
the existence and not the measure of his desire. I wished I had done something
sooner, more wise, more prodigal.

So she left for Bloemfontein, after her strange visit to a reformatory. And I was left
too, with the resolve to be more prodigal in the task that the State had enjoined
on me.

(Taken from Ha’penny by Alan Paton)

3. Some words can belong to several groups. Look at the examples below and
decide which group the title words belong.

LIKE
a. lived like royalty.

b. saved things like old newspapers and pieces of string.

c. There's nothing like a good night's sleep.

d. worked like hell; ran like crazy.

e. was subject to coughs, asthma, and the like.

f. To dance like she does requires great discipline.

g. It looks like we'll finish on time.

AS
a. The child sang as sweetly as a nightingale.

b. Think as I think.

c. slipped on the ice as I ran home.

47
 d. Ridiculous as it seems, the tale is true.

e. The sun is hot, as everyone knows.

f. acting as a mediator.

g. On this issue they thought as one.

AFTER
a. seek after fame; go after big money.

b. come after dinner.

c. They are still friends after all their differences.

d. named after her mother.

e. departed shortly after.

f. in after years.

g. I saw them after I arrived.

4. What group do the underlined words belong to?

Alan Paton became famous in 1948 with his first novel Cry, the Beloved Country;

but his work for South Africa, where he was born in 1903 and where he has

chosen to remain in spite of many risks, had begun much earlier and has

continued unfalteringly ever since. As a novelist he has great power, but his first

concern is for the improvement of race relations and the penal system in his

country, and all his writing is directed to this end. For thirteen years he was

Principal of a large boy’s reformatory in Johannesburg, and it is clearly from this

experience that Ha’penny is told.

(Hunter, Jim (ed.) Modern Short Stories. London: Faber and Faber, 1964, p.48)

48
9 Structure of noun phrases (NP)

I. Phrases

1. Phrases can be used as _____________ of a sentence or a clause. But phrases

can also be parts of other _____________.

2. A phrase can consist of _____________ word or _____________ words.

3. If it consists of _____________ words, it usually has one _____________ word

that is the most important one as far as meaning is concerned.

3. For example, in the phrase the cushion on the chair in the garden the thing talked

about is the cushion. This main word is called the _____________ of the phrase.

Since the main word in this phrase is realized by a noun, the whole phrase is called

a _____________.

4. When we name a head, we talk about the _____________ of a word in a phrase.

Once we have identified a _____________, we can again specify how it is

_____________.

5. As you can see from the examples the head of a phrase is realized by a

_____________, _____________, _____________, _____________,

_____________, or _____________. Accordingly, there are _____________ kinds

of phrases.

6. Write examples for the following:

Noun phrase (NP) _________________________________________________

Verb phrase (VP) __________________________________________________

Adjective phrase (AdjP) ______________________________________________

49
Adverb phrase (AdvP) _________________________________________________

Prepositional phrase (PP) ______________________________________________

7. Name the type of phrases, underlined in the following passage taken from The

Rain Horse by Ted Hughes.

He had come too far. What had set out as a walk along pleasantly remembered

tarmac lanes had turned dreamily by gate and path and hedge-gap into a cross-

ploughland trek, his shoes ruined, the dark mud of the lower fields inching up the

trouser leg of his grey suit where they rubbed against each other. And now there

was a raw, flapping wetness in the air that would downpour again any minute. He

shivered, holding himself tense against the cold…

This land had no longer recognized him, and he looked back at it coldly, as at a

finally visited home-country, known only through the stories of a grandfather; felt

nothing but the dullness of feeling nothing. Boredom. Then, suddenly,

impatience, with a whole exasperated swarm of little anxieties about his shoes

and the spitting rain and his new suit and that sky and the two-mile trudge

through the mud back to the road.

II. Noun Phrases

1. The possible constituents of noun phrases are _____________, _____________,

_____________, and _____________.

2. The central element of a noun phrase is called a _____________. It may have

words before it called _____________ and _____________ and words after it called

_____________.

3. Premodifiers of nouns are always realized as _____________ _____________.

50
4. Note that even when there is only _____________ word to modify a noun, it is still

called a _____________ because potentially it could have

______________________________.

5. Analyze the following noun phrases:

a. a walk along pleasantly remembered tarmac lanes

a is a determiner realized as an indefinite article; walk is the head realized as a

noun; along pleasantly remembered tarmac lanes is a postmodifier realized as

a PP

b. the dark mud of the lower fields

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

c. the trouser leg of his grey suit

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

d. great power which attracts the readers

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

e. a raw, flapping wetness in the air

51
 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

f. a whole frustrated mass of little anxieties about his shoes

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

g. his experience gained by living with the natives

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

h. a small sign which would make them understand

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

III. Determiners and Genitives

1. Determiners are words somewhat like _____________ in that they come before a

noun, but they are different in that they do not say anything about the

_____________or _____________ of the ‘thing’, but tells ‘_____________’ (in

relation to the speaker) the thing/person can be found. Determiners may be the

_____________ or any of the dependent _____________ and _____________,

including some expressions like a few, a number of, a lot of and so on, which we

also call _____________ _____________.

2. There are two main kinds of genitives: _____________ and _____________.

52
3. Some genitives express to whom something or someone _____________. In this

case the genitive could be substituted with a _____________ _____________ like

her, his, its, or theirs; therefore, it functions as a _____________ and it is called a

_____________ _____________.

4. Another type of genitive, expresses ‘_____________’ of thing something is and is

called a _____________ genitive. This type functions more like a _____________

and should be regarded an _____________ phrase.

5. In a noun phrase with a specifying genitive, the article and the possessive noun

together function as _____________ determiner as the article is the determiner of

the _____________ noun, not the _____________ noun.

6. In a noun phrase with a _____________ genitive, the article functions as

determiner of the _____________ noun.

7. In some cases, the same genitive phrase can be used with two different senses

depending on the context, which makes the phrases ambiguous. Give examples.

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

8. Analyze the following noun phrases.

a. All Ted’s poems

________________________________________________________________

b. several wild horses

________________________________________________________________

c. a few muddy roads

________________________________________________________________

d. those crazy guys

53
 ________________________________________________________________

e. the soldiers’ boots

________________________________________________________________

f. some student’s books

________________________________________________________________

g. all President’s speeches

________________________________________________________________

h. a students’ hostel

________________________________________________________________

i. my child’s toys

________________________________________________________________

j. the children’s playground

________________________________________________________________

IV. Post-modifiers of NP, relative clauses and ellipsis

1. Postmodifiers may be realized as phrases, finite clauses, or non-finite clauses.

Give examples.

a. ____________________________________________________________

b. ____________________________________________________________

c. ____________________________________________________________

2. _____________ clauses are often used as postmodifiers in NP. They can be

_____________ and _____________. _____________ clauses specify or restricts

the reference of the noun phrase. _____________ clauses give extra information

about the head of the NP. In writing, the distinction is marked with _____________.

54
A non-restrictive modifier, _______________________with commas. The restrictive

one _________________ with commas.

3. There are five relative pronouns: ______________________________.

_______________ and _____________ are normally used to refer to persons (or

animals or things seen as persons) and _____________ refers to things. The

pronoun _____________ may be used for both, but only in _____________ clauses.

4. These pronouns have a _____________ function. They are _____________

introducing a dependent clause and at the same time they function as a clause

_____________: they may function as _____________, _____________, or

_____________ within the clause itself.

5. The relative pronoun whose is different in that it is a _____________ one.

Therefore, it is not a _____________ constituent, but a _____________

constituent: the _____________ of a noun phrase.

6. A _____________ , a _____________ , or _____________ may be ellipted.

7. A subject followed by a form of the be verb is often ellipted if it is _____________

in the context, but only in _____________ clauses.

8. This type of ellipsis takes place very frequently in _____________ clauses and

the resulting post-modifier is no longer a _____________ clause, but a

_____________ or a _____________ clause

9. Analyse the following noun phrases taken from The Rain Horse by Ted Hughes.

a. Down this front, from the crest, hung two small woods separated by a field.

b. The near wood was nothing more than a quarry, circular, full of stones, with a

few thorns and nondescript saplings, foxholes and rabbit holes.

55
 c. Beyond the river smouldered the town like a great heap of blue cinders.

d. It must have come over the crest just above the wood in which he was now

sitting.

e. Meanwhile the idea of being watched became more and more unsettling until

at last he had to twist around again, to see if the horse had moved.

f. There were deep hollows in the river-bank.

g. He remembered those perfect places to defend himself from if the horse

followed him out there.

h. Quietly, he released himself from the thorns and climbed back across the

clearing towards the one side of the wood he had not tried yet.

i. He let out a tearing roar and threw the stone in his right hand.

j. There were plenty of stones, piled and scattered where they had been

ploughed out of the field.

k. The hill looked lifeless and desolate, an island lifting out of the sea.

l. He remembered three dead foxes hanging in a row from one of the beams.

m. It hung under the surface of his mind, an obscure confusion of fright and

shame, as after a narrow street accident.

n. There was a solid pain in his chest that made him wonder if he had strained his

heart on that last stupid burdened run.

V. Tree representations of noun phrases

Syntactic structures can be represented in forms of trees. Trees have ‘branches’ that
go upwards and connect to the same point, called ‘node’. Study the examples below
and then draw the tree representations of the following NPs: the man with the
umbrella, the cushion on the chair, the river beyond, a new unpleasant experience,
plenty of exercises, Jane’s younger sister, the children’s books on the shelf.

56
 the beautiful chair in the garden

NP

Det N’
the
AdjP N’
Adj
beautiful N PP
chair
P NP
in
Det N
the garden

the broken sign ahead

NP

Det N’
the
AdjP N’
Adj
broken N AdvP
sign Adv
ahead

57
58
10 Structure of other phrases (VP, AdjP, AdvP, PP)

I. True (T) or false (F)?

1. The head of a noun phrase is either a noun or a pronoun.
2. We can have more than one premodifiers, but only one determiner before the
noun.
3. The postmodifier of a noun phrase is always a finite or a non-finite clause.
4. When the post-modifier is a finite clause, the subordinators are the relative
pronouns who, whom, whose, which and that.
5. Where and when are also relative pronouns that can be used in relative clauses.
6. A verb phrase must contain a lexical verb.
7. The premodifier of an adjective phrase is always another adjective.
8. The postmodifier of an adjective group can be a clause.
9. So … that, too … to, enough … to are discontinuous modifiers.
10. A discountinuous modifier is partly before the head and partly after the head.
11. Only adjective phrases can have discontinuous modifiers.
12. The premodifier in an adverb phrase is an adjective.
13. A prepositional phrase consists of a head and a complement.
14. The complement is always a preposition.
15. Only prepositional phrases and verb phrases have complements.
16. Some prepositions can also be subordinaters. The difference is what they link.
17. Prepositions link noun phrases.
18. Subordinators link clauses.
19. Clauses cannot be parts of phrases.

II. Fill in the missing information

1. A sentence and a clause always have __________________________________.

2. The functions of the constituents are ___________________________________.

3. The realization of a predicator is always a _______________________________.

4. The realization of the other constituents can be ___________________________.

5. All the different types of phrases (except the verb phrase) can have functions at

the __________________________ or __________________________.

59
II. Write what exactly you would say when analyzing the following phrases

the sun watching you from the sky

___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

over the line of the hills

___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

disturbingly real
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

too fierce to watch

___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

so unexpectedly that we couldn’t defend

___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

ought to have paid

___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

60
III. The paragraph below was taken from the short story The Wedge-Tailed
Eagle by Geoffrey Dutton. Decide what type the underlined phrases are. Then
analyze each of the phrases separately. Can you find any examples of
ellipses?

But the eagles watch the sky as well as the earth, and not only for other birds;
when an Air Force station was established in the country in 1941, 1. they were
not alarmed by 2. the noisy yellow aeroplanes. 3. Occasionally they would even
float in circles 4. across the aerodrome, and then disappear again 5. behind the
hills; the pilots had 6. little fear of colliding with one of these circling, watchful
birds. 7. The vast, brown-black shape of the eagle would appear before the little
Tiger Moth biplane and then be gone. There was nothing more to it. 8. No
question of haste or flapping of wings, simply a flick over and down and then the
eagle 9. would resume its circling. 10. Sometimes a pilot 11. would chase the bird
and would find, 12. unexpectedly, no response; the eagle13. would seem not to
notice the aeroplane and hold the course of its circling 14. until the very moment
when collision seemed inevitable. Then there would be the quick turn over,
under, or away from the plane, with 15. the great span of the wings unstirred. The
delay and the quick maneuver would be done with a princely detachment and
consciousness of superiority, the eagle in the silence of its wings scorning the
roar and fuss of the aircraft and its engine.

1. NP = they (head: N)________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________________

4. ________________________________________________________________

5. ________________________________________________________________

6. ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

7. ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

61
8. ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

9. ________________________________________________________________

10. ________________________________________________________________

11. ________________________________________________________________

12. ________________________________________________________________

13. ________________________________________________________________

14. ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

15. ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

IV. Here is another paragraph from the short story The Wedge-Tailed Eagle by
Geoffrey Dutton. The heads of some of the phrases have been underlined.
Decide where the phrases begin and end.

“Have you ever seen him close-up? Or ever seen them feeding? The king of birds
landing on a lamb and tearing him to bits. Or an old, dead, fly-blown ewe* that’s
been fool enough to lie down with her legs uphill. Then all you have to do is to let
him see you five hundred yards off and up the flaps, slow and awkward, to a
myall* where he sits all bunched-up looking as if he is going to overbalance the
little tree. Still go ahead with your scheme. I’d like to see you bit one at his own
game.”

He left and the two others continued discussing their plans. A pilot in a small,
aerobatic aircraft is like a child. He longs for something to play with. He can be
happy enough, rolling and looping by himself in the sky, but happiness changes
to a kind of ecstasy when there is someone to applaud him when he low-flies
through the unforeseeable complications of tree and rock, hill and river.

Ewe-female sheep; Myall – a kind of Australian tree

62
V. Tree representation of phrases
The nice unicorns are visiting us regularly.
The nice unicorns from that planet are visiting us regularly.
1. What is the head of the NP?

________________________________________________________________

2. What are the premodifiers and post-modifiers of the head?

________________________________________________________________

3. How can we represent the structure of this NP?

________________________________________________________________

4. What is the language that we use: tree, branches, node, N’=N-bar (intermediary

between the NP and the head)

________________________________________________________________

5. How would you draw the trees to represent the following:

wrote the letter

VP

V NP
wrote
Det N
the letter

was in the garden

VP

V PP
was
P NP
in
Det N
the garden

63
 saw the man with glasses

VP

V NP
saw
Det N’
the
N PP
man
P N
with glasses

VI. Draw the trees of the following noun phrases:

sad eyes an elephant in my pajamas
city life the boy with the red hat
the teeth of an animal an exotic tree near the park
the shin tightly covered with shiny skin met my old friend
all the books trees without leaves
found the child’s book the head of the English Department
a children’s book shot an elephant in my pajamas

64
65
11 Sentence constituents realised as clauses

I. True or false?

1. “Because he doesn’t know what to do,” is a sentence.

2. “Robert not knowing what to do” is a phrase.

3. “Robert, who doesn’t know what to do,” is a clause.

4. “doesn’t know” is a phrase.

5. All constituents can be realized by noun phrases.

6. All constituents except for the verb phrase can be realized as finite and non-finite

clauses.

7. Subjects and objects can be realized by finite and non-finite clauses.

8. The clauses by which subjects and objects are realized are called noun clauses.

9. A noun clause may be related to a statement or to a question.

10. who(ever), what(ever), which(ever), when(ever), where(ever) or how(ever) are

interrogative pronouns.

11. Subordinators introducing a noun clause do not have a function in the clause that

they are introducing.

12. Finite and non-finite clauses can be found at different levels.

13. The sentence Lincoln wanted to end slavery in the nation and keep the American

Unit from splitting apart during the war can be analyzed at two levels.

66
II. Complete the sentences

1. Non-finite clauses that may function as subject, object or attribute can be of three
types: _________________, _________________ and _________________.

2. Verbs that express a cause, a mental state, or an order related to something that
will happen at a future time are followed by a _______________________________.

Give an example: _____________________________________________________

3. Verbs like begin, continue, stop, when used with a non-finite verb as object, can
also be seen as ______________________________________________________.

Give an example: ___________________________________________________.

4. Verbs that have in their meaning an element of ‘(dis)belief’ or ‘(un)certainty’ or ‘I

am (not) sure it is true’ can be followed by _________________________________.

Give an example: ____________________________________________________.

5. Direct objects can be realized by a non-finite plain infinitive clause when they

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Give an example: ____________________________________________________.

6. The -ing form is used as direct object after quite a few different types of verbs:

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Give an example: ____________________________________________________.

7. Finite that clauses and non-finite to infinitive clauses used as a subject or object
can be extraposed. It means
___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

8. The sentence “It is our duty to inform the parents” will be analyzed as follows:

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

67
9. The sentence “They made it a hell to live here” will be analyzed as follows:

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

10. Adverbials can be realized by ________________________________________.

11. The clause “which I didn’t like at all” in the sentence “I had to go to work at 6:00
in the morning three times a week, which I didn’t like at all” is an adverbial because

___________________________________________________________________

12. In the sentence “It is too early to go”, the NFC “to go” modifies ______________.

III. Apply extraposition to make these sentences more acceptable.

1. That she left was nice.

___________________________________________________________________

2. To hike around Weaver’s Needle is nice.

___________________________________________________________________

3. Gossiping about Zelda is outrageous.

___________________________________________________________________

4. To watch the whales is pointless.

___________________________________________________________________

5. To see that idea becoming more accepted is gratifying.

___________________________________________________________________

6. We consider moving abroad possible.

___________________________________________________________________

7. They made living in the big city unbearable.

___________________________________________________________________

68
IV. What is the function of the underlined clauses in the sentences below?

1. I said it was samphire at once, didn’t I, although I have never actually seen it

before.

2. His wife didn’t reply, although she had heard him the first time.

3. I said so as soon as I saw it from down there.

4. She remembered how he had had to persuade her to come up even the smallest

cliff at first.

5. As they passed he said, “Good day, men,” and wanted to ask them what they

were doing but they walked quickly on.

6. On the way he stopped at the tobacconist on the promenade to buy a stick.

7. Walking along past the pier towards the cliff path, he put the stick on his shoulder.

8. When a man who was staying in the same hotel passed near them, he called out

that they were going to see if they could get a bunch of jolly good samphire that they

had seen on the cliff yesterday.

9. When they began to climb he said that he would never go without a stick again.

V. Analyze each sentence at sentence level by setting off sentence

constituents with square brackets and naming their function and realization.
S:NP P:VP DO:FC
1. [She] [didn’t think] [it was a great help].

2. She remembered what they had agreed about the exact allowance for every day.

3. He was walking a few feet ahead of her, so that each time he had to turn his head

for her answer.

4. He kept silent, or at least she didn’t hear him say anything.

5. He repeated, shouting over the wind, that he had been sure of it at once.

69
6. For a moment she wondered whether it was perhaps possible that he saw beauty

there.

7. He had made her look over.

8. She saw him fall but she didn’t know what to do to help him.

9. He touched her arm still speaking.

10. The wind, rushing from a clear, high sky, brought the salt on their lips.

11. Standing on a high cliff always terrified her.

12. This tale, in many ways horrific, is told with a glassy calm, which I find

remarkable.

13. We know from different studies that dogs are sensitive to the state of humans.

14. We also know that dogs understand communicative cues.

VI. Study the tree representations of the sentences below. Then draw trees of the
following sentences:
- Someone took my food from the fridge.
- He seems untouchable.
- Her relatives never showed her their house in the country.

70
71
72
12 How to analyze sentences at all levels
I. Answer the questions.

1. What is the typical word order in English sentences?

__________________________________________________________________

2. What are called the variations of this basic pattern?

__________________________________________________________________

3. What type of constructions are included in this group?

__________________________________________________________________

4. Write an example for each of them.

__________________________________________________________________

5. What kind of verbs do passive sentences contain?

__________________________________________________________________

6. Do passive sentences have objects? Why?

__________________________________________________________________

7. How is the former subject analyzed in the passive sentence?

__________________________________________________________________

8. In the case of a complex transitive verb, what happens to the ‘old’ object attribute?

__________________________________________________________________

9. Which conventionalized passive constructions are no longer seen as passive

verbs but multi-word auxiliaries of mood. Give an example.

__________________________________________________________________

10. What movements happen in the extraposed constructions?

__________________________________________________________________

11. How are extraposed sentences analyzed?

__________________________________________________________________

73
12. Is it also possible to have a temporary object?

__________________________________________________________________

13. Which constructions are called elliptical?

__________________________________________________________________

14. How do we analyze elliptical constructions?

__________________________________________________________________

15. What do existential constructions emphasize?

__________________________________________________________________

16. How do analyze existential constructions?

__________________________________________________________________

17. What is the function of cleft constructions?

__________________________________________________________________

18. Give examples when different parts of the sentence are emphasized.

__________________________________________________________________

19. Which constructions are called pseudo-cleft constructions?

__________________________________________________________________

II. Determine the form and function of the focus constituents in the cleft
sentences below. Provide the original sentence.

1. It was a bright yellow jumper that Henry bought yesterday.

__________________________________________________________________

2. It’s in six weeks we’ll get our first certificate.

__________________________________________________________________

3. It was greedily that Homer Simpson drank his beer.

__________________________________________________________________

4. It is that he is reluctant to help that bothers me.

__________________________________________________________________

74
5. It wasn’t green I told you to paint it.

__________________________________________________________________

6. It’s not lonely he made me feel, but angry.

__________________________________________________________________

7. It could be slacking off work that the boss reacted to.

__________________________________________________________________

8. It is to address a far-reaching problem that Oxfam is setting out to do.

__________________________________________________________________

III. Identify the sentence type (normal, passive, existential, cleft, or extraposed)
and analyze the sentences at sentence level naming functions and realizations
of the constituents.

S: FC P: VP SA: NFC
1. [What Mr. Edmonds refused] [is] [help my father].

2. Caught red-handed, he struck with a piece of iron pipe at the officer who surprised him.

3. He was seen no more after he had left the prison.

4. It was two weeks later that he broke out of jail.

5. It is impossible that he refused to have anything with it.

6. It was Edmonds who had actually sent the boy to Jefferson.

7. There was an older man in a black tie and an old-fashioned shirt and

tremendously fat.

8. It was necessary to wait for the waiter to return and tell him to go on with the paper.

9. What they found about him was that he had robbed stores and people.

10. There was nothing to be done.

11. It was because she was so lonely all the time that drove her to move out.

75
12. There were more than a dozen cars.

13. It is sinister and horrific which are emphasized in Faulkner.

14. The story was written in the mid-eighties with the aim to express the writer’s

protest and anger.

76
13 Review 2

Part I – Answer the questions

1. There are two categories of word classes: lexical category and grammatical
category. What word classes does each of them include?
Lexical category: _____________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
Grammatical category: _________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
2. Which word classes are open and which are closed?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
3. Give two examples about each type of nouns:
Proper nouns: ______________________________________________________
Common nouns: ____________________________________________________
Concrete nouns: _____________________________________________________
Abstract nouns: ______________________________________________________
Count nouns: _______________________________________________________
Non-count nouns: ____________________________________________________
4. What word group does the word glass from the phrase a glass door belong to?
___________________________________________________________________
5. What can adverbs modify?
___________________________________________________________________
6. What double functions can interrogative adverbs (when, where, how) have? Give
examples for each of the functions.
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
7. Which pronouns are dependent, which are independent? Give examples.
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
8. How is it determined what type the phrase is?
___________________________________________________________________
9. What types of words can determiners be?

77
___________________________________________________________________
10. What are extraposed subjects and objects?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

Part II – Phrase and sentence analysis

1. Set off the sentence constituents with square brackets. For each constituent
identify its function (S, P, DO, etc. and its realization (type of phrase or finite and
non-finite clause)

S:NP V:VP A:PP

0. [He] [hides] [behind the pile of books on his desk].

1. The lovely woman from Wyoming told us the story of her life

2. After lunch Obama met Putin at the Kremlin to discuss Afghanistan.

3. Most people are happy if they find any job.

4. It is important that you decided to discuss this.

5. She remembered seeing his hands becoming as white as paper.

6. We do not agree with the report that arrived yesterday.

7. It is a fact that he likes you.

8. We consider it our mistake to have missed such a wonderful opportunity.

9. Having left the room, I asked Ann for some help.

10. She regrets not telling him how much she loved him.

2. Read the following text. The next questions are based on it.

This device, which is being welcomed as 0. the revolutionary invention of the

century, will affect 1. the way that humans interact with computers. Its implications
are 2. of various kinds, opening the possibility that one day people will become 3.

78
extremely good at controlling everything on their computer screen simply 4. by
thinking about it. However, for now, the technology will be used 5. extremely
carefully so that its misuse is prevented. Emotive Systems, the San Francisco
company that has developed the technology, says that this invention is so powerful
that it could eliminate joysticks and keyboards. Instead of doing it manually,
children’s heroes, for example, Harry Potter 6. could be given 7. nasty tasks to cast
exotic spells, or throw his enemies around – all through the willpower of the gamer,
with no buttons pressed.

a) Name the ten numbered and underlined phrases and determine their constituents.
For each constituent identify its function (head, determiner, premodifier,
discontinuous modifier, complement, post-modifier).
0. NP = the (det: definite article) revolutionary (pre-mod.: AdjP) invention (head:
noun) of the century (post-mod: PP)
1. _________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
4. _________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
5. _________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
6. _________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
7. _________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

b) Look at the phrase children’s heroes. Is the genitive form in it specifying or

classifying?
___________________________________________________________________
c) In the phrase Instead of doing it manually, is instead of o preposition or a
subordinator?

79
___________________________________________________________________
d) What kind of a modifier does the phrase so powerful that it could eliminate
joysticks and keyboards contain?
___________________________________________________________________
e) What is the function of which in the phrase which will be done all through the
willpower of the gamer, with no buttons pressed
___________________________________________________________________

3. Decide if the relative clauses in square brackets are restrictive or non-

restrictive.

1. “Changes have to be made,” said a 34-year-old political activist [who asked to

remain
anonymous]. ___________________

2. Her first target would be headscarves, [which are mandatory in Iran].

___________________

3. Hillary Clinton, [who just returned from a trip to Cuba], intends to write a book.
___________________

4. The stories [that he told us often are boring]. ___________________

5. Jacobs says that they have included 12 specific actions [that the helmet will
recognize]. ___________________

4. Decide what type the non-canonical sentences below are. Then analyze
them.

1. This collection of stories was edited by a young writer.

2. There are many famous stories in it.

3. It was at the end of the last century that it was published.

4. Although written for adults, they have been selected as likely to be entertaining to

adolescents.

5. What really attracts readers is author’s comments on the stories.

6. It is important that all stories communicate with the reader.

80
81