Unit 1

Types of sentences
Types of sentences
SIMPLE SENTENCE consists of a single independent clause.

MULTIPLE SENTENCE

● COMPOUND the immediate constituents are two or more coordinated

clauses.

My sister likes comedies and my brother likes horror movies.

● COMPLEX one or more of its elements, such as Od or Adv are realized by a

subordinate clause.

What you have done is very romantic.

When you call they will wait for you at the bus stop.
Parts of the sentence
Grammatical units

clause refer to units

phrase smaller than

word the sentence

morpheme itself.

CONSTITUENCY the relation between one unit and another unit of which it is part.
In [1] the evenings, have turned, very cold, and just recently are CONSTITUENTS
of the whole sentence:

[1] [The evenings] [have turned] [very cold] [just recently].

Constituency
One way of indicating constituency is by bracketing, another is by a tree
diagram:

The evenings have turned very cold just recently.

The evenings have turned very cold just recently.

 Constituents
Constituents contain units, the individual words of which they are composed;

The evenings have turned very cold just recently.

The evenings have turned very cold just recently.

The evenings have turned very cold just recently.

The words themselves in some cases consist of 2 or more smaller units of smaller
size: evening+s, turn+ed, recent+ly:

evenings turned recently

evening s turn ed recent ly

A tree diagram is more informative:

clause

Noun Phrase Verb Phrase Adjective Phrase Adverb Phrase

Det Noun Aux Main Verb Adv Adj Adv Adv

The evenings have turned very cold just recently

Constituents are the smaller part into which a unit can be divided...
Immediate constituent units are the parts into which another unit is immediately
divisible.

e.g. the verb phrase [have turned] is an immediate constituent of the whole clause,
and the auxiliary [have] and the main verb [turned] are immediate constituents of
the verb phrase [have turned].

One unit may be a unitary constituent of another unit, it may be the ‘only part’ into
which another unit can be analysed. Multiple constituency where a unit is divided
into two or more immediate constituents.
The grammatical hierarchy
There is a hierarchical ranking of units in terms of their potential size:

HIGHEST UNIT sentences, which consist of one or more

clauses, which consist of one or more

phrases, which consist of one or more

words, which consist of one or more

LOWEST UNIT morphemes

Subordination
When one clause is made a constituent of another clause;

The two clauses in [1] and [2] constitute simple sentences, but it is also possible to
combine them into a single complex sentence, by subordinating one to the other,
as in [3]:

● The weather has been remarkably warm. [1]

● We returned from Italy last week. [2]
● The weather has been remarkably warm since we returned from Italy last
week. [3]

Clauses which are embedded in another clauses are SUBORDINATE clauses,

and they are often introduced by a subordinating conjunction.
Coordination
Two or more units of the same status on the grammatical hierarchy may constitute a single
unit of the same kind.

This type of construction is termed coordination, signalled by a link-word called a

conjunction, in this case a coordinating conjunction. The most common are and, or and but.

Coordination of clauses

[[It was Christmas Day,] and [the snow lay thick on the ground.]]

Coordination of prepositional phrases

[You can go [by air] or [by rail]].

Coordination of nouns

[[His son] and [his daughter] live in Buenos Aires.]

Sentences
It is difficult to decide, especially in spoken language, where one sentence ends
and another begins.

What counts as a grammatical English sentence? A difficult question, because

acceptability inevitably becomes involved with questions of:

● meaning,
● good or bad style,
● lexical acceptability,
● acceptability in context, etc.

ENGLISH is commonly described as a ‘fixed-word-order-language’.

Clause structure
To describe the constituency of clauses, we need to distinguish the following elements of
clause structure:

Subject (S), Verb (V), Object (O), Complement (C) and Adverbial (A)

● Someone was laughing loudly in the next room.

● My mother usually enjoys parties very much.
● In 1945 the country became totally independent.
● I have been in the garden all the time since lunch.
● Mary gave the visitor a glass of milk.
● Most people consider these books rather expensive actually.
● You must put all the toys upstairs immediately.

The V element is the most ‘central’ and in all the examples above it is preceded by the S.
Following the V there may be one or two O or C which follows the O if there is one. The most
peripheral element is the A, which can be at the beginning, in the middle or at the end.