Syntax Seminar Sheet 1

Sentences Types: Simple, Compound and Complex Sentences

Verb agreement with compound subjects

- It depends on the conjunction used:
AND – compound subjects correlated by and are generally used with plural verbs:
e.g. Semantics and syntax are interrelated.
Both your fairness and your kind nature have been appreciated.
When the verb appears before the subject, both pl. and sg. forms are generally accepted. (The sg.
form is restricted to informal speech)
e.g. There was /were a man and a woman in the room.
There are cases when the compound subject is not made up of the two semantically distinct
conjunctions any more. The subject contains two conjuncts that are perceived as one semantic
unit – sg. verb)
e.g. The hammer and sickle was flying from the flagpole.
Fish and chips is my favourite food.
OR, EITHER ... OR, NOT (ONLY) ... BUT ALSO – rule of agreement by proximity: the verb
agrees with the nearmost conjunct:
e.g. Not John, but his two brothers are to blame.
Not John’s brother but he is to blame.
NEITHER...NOR – accept both sg. and pl. form of the verb since from a syntactical point of
view Neither...nor resembles either... or, but semantically it is the negative counterpart of
both...and
e.g. Neither he nor his wife have/has arrived.

Insert the appropriate verb form:

A. 1. Cathy and David (have) arrived. 2. The bread and the butter (be) both more expensive this
year. 3. The bread and butter (be) scattered on the floor. 4. The green and blue blanket (be) also
to be washed. 5. The red and the blue shirts (be) washed yesterday. 6. My aim and object (be) to
make the theory clear for all. 7. A carriage and a pair (be) standing at the door. 8. His friend and
legal adviser (be) present at the funeral. 9. My son and heir (be) safe. 10. My son and daughter
(be) twins.
B. 1. There (be) a table and some chairs in the room. 2. There (be) some chairs and a table in the
room. 3. Both the houses and the garden (be) damaged by the fire. 4. Not only the houses but
also the garden (be) damaged by the fire. 5. Not John but his sons (be) to blame. 6. A traffic
warden or a policeman (be) always on the watch in this street. 7. Either Peter or John (have) had
breakfast already. 8. Either the child or the parents (be) to blame. 9. Neither he nor his wife (be)
here. 10. Neither Isabel nor I (be) timid people.
2. Read the following and identify the subordinate clauses, stating their function:
1. He took an intelligent interest in her, which, though it was largely politeness, was a novelty to
Mitzi. 2. When Mitzi bought the house in Brook Green she offered Austin the best rooms, but he
declined, as he had just found the little Bayswater which he inhabited still. 3. At this time we
know that we are mortal beings with but a short span of days and that our end as our beginning
belongs to God. 4. Sometimes she thought that her own failure to marry Matthew was actually
the cause of Austin’s marrying Dorina. 5. You must know that if you do not meet it right here at
home, you are choosing exile from what you are fortunate enough to call your homeland. 6. Your
suggestion that we should, at our age, remove our home yet again seems to us merely
thoughtless.
(Iris Murdoch – An Accidental Man)

3. Read the text below and identify subordinate clauses from a structural point of view:
My dearest son,
Your father has suggested that I should write to you so that you can be sure that he and I are of
one mind in this matter. I am not very good at this sort of letter and I did not earlier write
because the discussion was between yourself and your father, you understand. Dear Ludwig, I
cannot express to you how much we miss you. To say that I think of my dear son every day says
little. I think of him every minute and remember what times in our day and night are his bed-time
and his getting-up times, and every night and indeed always in my thoughts I pray for him that
he may be protected and guided to the right. (...) Even leaving aside the concern which I know
you have for our feelings, surely you cannot sincerely believe, at your young age, that you will
never want to set foot in the US in your life again. We so much fear that you will suddenly
decide to come later when it will all have such terrible consequences.
(Iris Murdoch – An Accidental Man)

4. After each sentence, select the option that best describes that sentence: simple (A),
compound (B), complex (C) and compound-complex (D).

1.  Pauline and Bruno have a big argument every summer over where they should spend their
summer vacation.
2.  Pauline loves to go to the beach and spend her days sunbathing.
3.  Bruno, on the other hand, likes the view that he gets from the log cabin up in the mountains,
and he enjoys hiking in the forest.
4.  Pauline says there is nothing relaxing about chopping wood, swatting mosquitoes, and
cooking over a woodstove.
5.  Bruno dislikes sitting on the beach; he always gets a nasty sunburn.
6. Bruno tends to get bored sitting on the beach, watching the waves, getting sand in his
swimsuit, and reading detective novels for a week.
7.  This year, after a lengthy, noisy debate, they decided to take separate vacations.
8.  Bruno went to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and Pauline went to Cape Cod.
9.  Although they are 250 miles apart, they keep in constant contact on the internet.
10.  Bruno took the desktop computer that he uses at work, and Pauline sits on the beach with her
laptop computer, which she connects to the internet with a cellular phone.
5. Read the text below and identify subordinate clauses from a structural point of view:
One night he felt very bad about all the wrong he was doing and vowed to set himself straight. If
I could do one right thing, he thought, maybe that would start me off; then he thought if he could
get the gun and get rid of it he would at least feel better. He left the grocery after supper and
wandered restlessly in the foggy streets, feeling cramped in the chest from his long days in the
store and because his life hadn’t changed much since he had come here. As he passed by the
cemetery, he tried to keep out of his mind the memory of the holdup but it kept coming back in.
he saw himself sitting with Ward Minogue in the parked car, waiting for Karp to come out of the
grocery, but when he did, his store lights went out and he hid in the back among the bottles.
Ward said to drive quickly around the block so they would flush the Jew out, and he would slug
him on the sidewalk and take his fat wallet away; but when they got back, Karp’s car was gone
with him in it, and Ward cursed him into an early grave. Frank said Karp had beat it, so they
ought to scram, but Ward sat there with heartburn, watching with his small eyes, the grocery
store, the one lit place on the block besides the candy store on the corner.
(Bernard Malamud – The Assistant)

6. Read the following and identify the subordinate clauses, stating their function:
He saw a most wonderful sight. Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in, and
they were sitting in the branches of the trees, in every tree that he could see there was a little
child. And the trees were so glad to have the children back again that they had covered
themselves with blossoms, and were waving their arms gently above the children’s heads. The
birds were flying about and twittering in delight, and the flowers were looking up through the
green grass and laughing. It was a lovely scene, only in one corner it was still Winter. It was the
farthest corner of the garden, and in it was standing a little boy. He was so small that he could
not reach up to the branches of the trees, and he was wandering all round it, crying bitterly. The
poor tree was still quite covered with frost and snow, and the North Wind was blowing and
roaring above.
(Oscar Wilde – The Selfish Giant)