Syntax 1

CONTENTS
Introductory Chapter: General Syntactic Concepts 5
Sentence /vs/ Clause 5
Parts of Sentence/Clause 6
Methods of Syntactic Description 7
Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in

Traditional Grammar 9
1.1. Parts of Sentence 9
1. 1 .1. The Subject. Definitions 9

1.1.1.1. Classification of Subjects 9
1.1.1.2. Subject Predicate Agreement 11
1.1.1.3. Concluding Remarks 12
1.1.1.4. Practical Applications 13
1.1.2. The Predicate. Definitions 15

1.1.2.1. Classification of Predicates 15
1.1.3. The Object. Definition and Classification 18

1.1.3.1. The Direct Object 18
1.1.3.2. The Indirect Object 20
1.1.3.3. The Prepositional Object 20
1.1.4. The Adverbial Modifier. Definition. 21

1.1.4.1. Classification of Adverbial Modifiers 21
1.1.5. The Attribute 23

1.2. Sentential / Clausal Word Order and Syntactic Analysis 25

1.2.1.Practical Applications 26
Chapter 2. The Syntax of the Clause in Structural
The Syntax of the Simple Sentence 3

Grammar 27
2.1. Word Level. Word Groups 27
2.2. The Sentence/Clause Level. Parts of Sentence/Clause 28
2.3. Techniques of Syntactic Analysis 29
2.4. Practical Applications 33
Final Evaluation Corpora 36
REFERENCES 38
4 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

Introductory Chapter: General Syntactic Concepts
Introductory Chapter: General

Sentence /vs/ Clause Syntactic Concepts
The word-concept syntax comes from the ancient Greek syntaxis meaning
literally arrangement. Traditionally, it refers to the branch of grammar dealing with the
formal patterns into which the words of a language are arranged in order to show
connections of meaning within the sentence.
In other words syntax deals with the way sentences are constructed so as to
formulate understandable messages necessary to ensure successful communication
among people (Chomsky1986a).
The sentence has been given innumerable definitions according to various
approaches provided by philosophers, linguists, grammarians ( Aarts 1997, Valin et al
1997, Huddleston 2002). In the history of linguistics, at least four principal types of
sentence definition are known: logical, psychological, structural (or grammatical) and
phonetic definitions (Crystal 1995).
Psychological definitions are not typical of English grammar. Logical definitions
predominated in the preceding periods of its development. The definitions of the
structural linguists are based upon grammatical or phonetic criteria. Transformational
grammar refrains from giving a definition of the sentence on the principle that the
whole grammar of a language constitutes a definition of a sentence (Chomsky 1957,
1965,1995).
The definition we provide for the present course is that the sentence is the
basic syntactic unit upon which a syntactic analysis can be applied irrespective of the
approach envisaged.
The clause is an important unit of analysis, placed between phrase and
sentence. The role of both clause and sentence in syntactic analysis is viewed in
clear-cut terms by various authors. In what follows we present some of the criteria
that Miller (2002: 76) proposes in order to differentiate between the two concepts:
The Sentence The Clause

-has a certain type of unity, being - can occur successfully in certain slots
grammatically complete inside sentences
- has a degree of semantic independence - is recognizable in all types of spoken
which enables it to stand on its own and written language
irrespective of context
- there is no occasional dependency - cannot stand on its own, it depends
relation across sentence boundaries upon a certain context
- there are links across sentence - there are occasional dependency
boundaries which are better treated as relations across clause boundaries and
binders tying small units together into a there are dense bundles of dependencies
larger piece of coherent text. among the constituents of clauses
- is better treated as a unit of discourse - can display a wide range of syntactic
into which clauses are grouped and semantic subcategorisations, as part
of complex sentences
These characteristic features will be revealed during the presentation of the

syntactic phenomena of coordination and subordination in revising traditional syntax
in a future course. With reference to language use, we can describe its canonical
Introductory Chapter: General Syntactic Concepts
building chain: words occur in phrases, phrases occur in clauses, clauses occur in
sentences, emphasizing the canonical definition of sentence as a grammatical unit
built up from smaller units. In counterpart, describing how sentences combine to
make up a discourse or text differs from analyzing the structure of phrases and
clauses (Radford 1988).
Parts of Sentence / Clause
Traditional Grammar relies on well-known terminology including parts of

speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions,
prepositions and parts of sentence like subject (S), predicate (P), direct object (DO),
indirect (IO) and prepositional object (PO), attribute (A), adverbial modifier (ADV
MOD), sentence, clause and so on. The basic morpho-syntactic vocabulary is so
fundamental to a discussion of English syntax that a good review of the parts of
sentence (Bantas 1996, Badescu 1984) is needed and that will be done in the first
chapter of the present course.
Structural Grammar has at its core the principles elaborated by Bloomfield,
introducing the concept of endocentric and exocentric phrases as sentence elements
and the immediate constituents analysis (IC). The authors of structural grammars
developed a system of sentence patterns, employing sentence formulas designating
word-classes such as noun/nominal group (NG), verb(al) group (VG), adverbial group
(AdvG), and prepositional group (PrepG), used in the representation of clause
structure elements such as: Subject, Predicator, Complement, Adjunct (Cole and
Sadock 1977, Scott 1970, Croitoru 2002)
Transformational Grammar introduces phrasal units such as noun phrase
(NP), verb phrase (VP), adjectival phrase (AP), adverbial phrase (AdvP), prepositional
phrase (PP) which are conventionalized symbols standing for single words labelled as
heads, word groups and clauses in the subject and predicate position. Both phrasal
units in respect of their structure and position correspond exactly to the subject and
predicate of traditional grammar, only the new notation is less explicit, because the
function of the NP’s within a verb phrase is not always indicated in functional or
relational terms ( such as object, complement, etc.) ( Bresnan 1982, Cornilescu 1986,
1995).

Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar

The Syntax of the

Simple Sentence in Traditional Grammar
1.1. Parts of Sentence

1. 1. 1. The Subject. Definitions
The subject is the most complex grammatical function occupying

the first place in the grammatical relationships hierarchy (Keenan 1976,
Croft 1991, Palmer 1994). It can be defined according to various
approaches but the most common attributed definitions are the following:
- That element in a nexus which names the performer of an action or the
first element of an assertion (Bryant, 1945 : 155)
- The subject of a sentence has a close general relation to ‘what is being
discussed’, the ‘theme’ of the sentence, with the normal implication that
something new (the predicate) is being said about a subject that has
already been introduced in an earlier sentence (Quirk et al, 1972:34 )
-A term used in the analysis of GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS to refer to a
major CONSTITUENT OF SENTENCE or CLAUSE STRUCTURE,
traditionally associated with the doer of an action (Crystal, 1995: 333)
-The main part of the sentence which shows who or what performs the
action of the predicate or to whom or to what a feature expressed by the
predicative is ascribed (Bantas, 1996: 95)
1.1.1.1. Classification of Subjects

Traditional grammar classifies subjects according to:
A. Structure /form/composition
B. Semantic content
A. According to structure, composition or form, the subject can be
grouped into the following types:
-Simple subjects , expressed by one word, accompanied or not by
attributes, as shown in (1):
(1) a. Mr. Ramsay glared at them.
b. She was troubled in spirit.
c. The children were watching the gorgeous scenery.
c. This pleased Brangwen very much.
d. Nothing mattered to him.
e. Seeing is believing.
f. Ten is the favorite mark for all kids.
g. To leave is to die a little.
We might notice that the range of parts of speech that the simple
subject can be expressed by is quite wide: nouns; personal, demonstrative
and indefinite pronouns; gerunds; numerals; infinitives,etc.

We consider it helpful to have a quick review of the eight parts of speech,
as defined within Traditional grammar and possible candidates to fulfill the
role of subject in a sentence/clause.
1. Noun. A word or word group that names a person, a place, a thing, an

attitude, an idea, a quality, or a condition. Examples: brother, rotunda,
chair, happiness, truth, clairvoyance, solitude.
2. Pronoun. A word that functions as a substitute for a noun. Examples: it,
he, she, we, they, us ourselves, you, this, them.
3. Verb. A word or word group that expresses activity, condition, or state
of being. (The verb’s function is sometimes called predication, and the
main verb in a sentence is therefore often called the predicate.) Examples:
run, sleep, is, feels, believes, promises, write. A verb phrase (a group of
words acting like a single part of speech) will usually consist of a main
verb plus an auxiliary (helping) verb like have or be: has been going, is
walking. A special subclass of auxiliary verbs is the modals: can, may,
must, ought, shall, will.
4. Adjective. A word or word group that modifies - limits, defines,
characterizes, or describes - a noun. Examples: slovenly, impressive,
brocaded, sublime, undeniable, stubborn, wracking.
5. Adverb. A word or word group that modifies a verb, an adjective or
another adverb. (Adjectives and adverbs together are sometimes called
modifiers.) Examples: run fast, sleep deeply, seldom is, very slovenly,
extremely impressive, delicately brocaded; run extraordinarily fast, sleep
exceptionally deeply, very seldom is.
6. Preposition. A word or word group that signals relationships of space,
time, direction, or association between its object (the object of a
preposition is always a noun) and some other word or word group.
Examples: in the doghouse, after 5:00 P.M., to the lighthouse, with a
calendar.
7. Conjunction. A word or word group that connects two or more sentence
components. There are three major subtypes: coordinating conjunctions
(examples: and, but, for, yet, so); subordinating conjunctions (examples:
although, because, if, whether); and correlative conjunctions (examples:
either… or, neither... nor, both … and, not only… but also).
8. Interjection. Any part of the sentence that is syntactically dependent of
the rest of the sentence. Examples: Well! Oh! Goodness sakes!
-Coordinated subjects, expressed by two or more words referring to

several entities / notions joined by coordinating conjunctions or
asyndetically, as in (2):
(2) a. The Dearlys and the dogs thought how very nice their brightly-lit
kitchen looked.
b. Pongo and Missis felt sorry for her white cat.
c. Lucky, Patch, Roly Poly and the other boys struggled along bravely.
The agreement is in number with the predicate.
- Compound subjects, expressed by two or several words but referring to
one and the same entity. In view of that, the ageement with the predicate
is in the singular ( 3):
(3) a. Her dog and pet was too young to be able to bark so loudly.
b. Cruela de Vil and the enemy was preparing for the fight.

- Complex subjects, expressed by heterogeneous elements, belonging
either to the class of nouns or to that of verbs, and giving full meaning to
the sentence as a whole as shown in (4):
(4) a. The excitement of the visit began to pass off.
b. People in the crowd cried ‘shame on him’.
c. Something in his self-possessed waiting moved her.
d.The ice on the ponds they passed was thicker and thicker.
e. The windows twinkling in the early morning sunshine looked
cheerful and welcoming.
B. According to content English subjects can be classified into:

- Grammatical or formal subjects which are directly connected to the
predicate and allowing concord with it. It is in fact the usual type of subject
which agrees in number and person with the predicate (see A ).
- Logical or real subject, which points to the real doer / performer of the
action. This directional involvement is indicated by the use of such English
constructions as passive constructions and introductory constructions, as
synthesized in Bantas (1996:98-101) and illustrated in (6):
(6) a. The newspaper was brought early this morning by the postman.
b. The window has been broken. We have to replace it(unknown
agent)
c. Here comes Doris.
d. It is nice seeing you again at the Opera House.
e. It is John who has made the tart.
- Impersonal subjects are used to denote time , weather, distance, natural
phenomena, state of things, etc. (7):
(7) a. It was a beautiful September evening, windless, very peaceful.
b.It was a bone, the Sheepdog saw with pleasure.
c. It was almost dark now.
d. It was their first really deep sleep since the loss of the puppies.
1.1.1.2. Subject Predicate Agreement

The agreement in number with the verb/predicate is one of the criterion of
identifying the subject. A synthesis of traditional subject-verb agreement
rules is presented in Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1999: 72-74) and
here we list only some of them:
1. Noncountable noun subjects take a singular verb:
(8) a. (The marmelade / Cecily’s) advice is good.
2. Collective noun subjects take singular verbs, but if the group is viewed
as individual members, use a plural verb:
(9) a. The jury has decided upon the winner.
b. The jury have been arguing about the winner.
3. Subject nouns that are derived from adjectives and describe people
take plural verbs:
(10) The poor are more altruistic than the rich.
4. Some proper noun subjects ending in -s such as names of diseases, courses, places,
book and film titles and the word news, take singular verbs:
(11) a. Physics is a very interesting topic.
b. Measles has side effects sometimes.

c. Wales is famous for its music festivals.
d. The news was spread quickly.
e. The Avengers was one of the best 80’s serials.
5. Plural subject nouns of distance, time, and money signaling one unit
take a singular verb:
(12) a. Eight hundred miles is too far to drive even by the most powerful
car.
b. Ten hours is too tiresome for everybody to navigate.
c. Fifty dollars is not that much.
6. Clausal subjects are singular even if the nouns referred to are plural:
(13) a. What they need is more feelings.
7. With fractions, percentages, and the quantifiers all (of), a lot of, lots of,
verb agreement depends on the noun coming after these phrases:
(14) a. A lot of the paper is about doing research in the tundra fauna.
b. A lot of houses need redecoration.
c. All the staff ( takes /take) a rewarding break.
8. With a number of as subject use a plural verb:

(15) a. A number of birds are leaving in autumn.
9. With the number of as subject use a singular verb:

(16) a. The number of pupils taking good marks is 15 in this class.
10. With none, either or neither as subjects, use a singular verb:

(17) a. None of the old buildings has been renovated.
b. Either is reliable to me.
c. Neither is too good for her.
11. With correlative subjects either…or or neither …nor, the verb agrees
with the closest subject:
(18) a. Either you or your kids are to be present.
1.1.1.3. Concluding Remarks

The criteria used to identify subjects at this level of analysis are:
agreement in number with the verb; never preceded by a preposition;
occurring in the by phrase in the passive; reference to entities that exist
independently of the action or state denoted by the main verb.
The theoretical considerations delineated in this chapter will prove
helpful in the future analyses of the structure of the simple sentence in
English.

1.1.1.4. Practical Applications
1. Analyze the subjects from the point of view of structure/composition or form in

the following sentences. Give a detailed analysis of the parts of speech they are
expressed by.
a. Waymarsh’s face had shown his friend an attention apparently so remote/ that the
latter was slightly surprised.
b. The mention to his companion of the sacrifice was moreover exactly what introduced
his recital.
c. The evidence as yet in truth was meager.
d. His silence was one of angry frustration.
e. They were such strangers.
f. The head boys were waiting to welcome them.
g. The bad little boy and nephew was only bad because he had never known dogs.
h. I wish I could come with you.
i. His heart it will get broken some day.
2. Analyze the subjects from the point of view of semantic content as revealed in the
contexts below.
a. It will need tremendous organization.

b. It’s now nearly ten o’clock.
c. It was Cruella de Vil.
d. Suddenly there was a thunder of thumps on the front door.
e. It was partly rage.
f. There was no mistaking that horseshoe with spots on his back.
g. The bread and butter were taken back to the haystack by the old woman.
h. The teapot was filled by Sir Charles.
i. There in came Doris!
j. Shut up! Here speaks Michael!
3. Give emphasis to the messages below by using the italicized words and
expressions:
Model : I saw him in the street only last week.

It was only last week that I saw him in the street.
a. I want to talk to your sister.

b. She got lost later in the morning.
c. Susan is looking for her puppy.
d. We met them at the airport.

e. The young man made a fool of himself on her account.
f. I like to meet my family on Sundays.
g. The little girl was sad because she had lost her doll.
h. Love makes the world go round.
i. Not all that glitters is gold.
j. A friend in need is a friend indeed.
4. Fill in with the correct verb form:

a. Neither you nor your friends (allow) to come to the party uninvited.
b. A number of magazines (publish) the news.
c. A lot of seagulls (fly) to the shore in search of food.
d. The number of skaters who had fallen on the ice (increase).
e. Mathematics (start) with numbers’ counting.
f. The committee (vote) against the law promulgation.
g. None of the city’s parks (be) attractive.
h. Either (support) my requests.
i. Doris and her friends (prepare) a school festival.
j. Good news (be) awaiting for you.
1.1.2. The Predicate. Definitions
Predicate definitions are given in direct relationship with the subject

since they are the most important parts of sentence :

-“Most sentences of more than one word consist of two nuclei, one
indicating the person or thing about whom a statement is made (or a
question asked), the other containing the statement or the question asked.
The word (or words) indicating the person or thing referred to is (are)
called the subject of the sentence; that (those) containing the statement
(or the question ) the predicate”(Zandvoort, 1948: 211)
-“A term in the analysis of GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS, to refer to a
major CONSTITUENT of SENTENCE structure, traditionally associated
with a two-part analysis in which all obligatory constituents other than the
SUBJECT are considered together “(Crystal, 1995: 273).
- The most simple traditional definition of the predicate is provided by
Bantas: “The predicate is that principal part of the sentence which ascribes
an action, a state or a quality to the subject.” (1996: 121). For a better
understanding of the relationships existing between the subject and the
other parts of the sentence it is compulsory to discuss predicates taking
into account the concept of predication which requires both a syntactic and
semantic treatment of the English verbs. Thus, we can consider verbs of
complete predication, having a meaning of their own, and verbs of
incomplete predication which require other words to fulfill their meaning.
This grouping has led to the following classification of predicates in
traditional English syntax.
1.1.2.1. Classification of Predicates

The classification of predicates in English combines the structural
criterion with the content one due to the semantic and syntactic
overlapping mentioned above.
A. Verbal Predicates, which are quite diversified in nature due to the way
they form predication.
They can be subdivided into various classes:
- Simple Verbal Predicates, expressed by verbs in a finite/ personal mood,
used in a certain tense, either simple or compound as shown in (1)
(1) a. Dolphins live in family groups called herds.
b. Wolf spiders hunt during the day.
c. She ran onto the road.
d. Perdita was picking up more and more human words.
e. Missis had collapsed.
f. I will tear Cruella de Vil in pieces.
g. They’re playing in the garden now.
- Phraseological predicates, consist of structurally indivisible phrases and
can be replaced by a verb:
(2) a. The Browns have dinner in the garden every evening.( eat, serve)
b. The child got a bath in the river.( bathe)
c. They have had a refreshing walk in the woods. (walk)
d. Susan had a terrible cry after hearing the thunder.(cry)
e. The little puppy had a long drink from a white pottery bowl.(drink)
- Compound verbal predicates show both the way the action is performed and its relation
to time.
They are subclassified into compound modal verbal predicates, including a modal
verb, and compound aspect verbal predicates, including an aspectual verb, such as one of
the following classes: ingressive or inceptive, e.g. begin, start; egressive or terminative,
e.g. stop, cease, finish; continuative or durative, e.g. continue, go on, keep on;
frequentative, iterative, or repetitive, e. g. would, used to.
(3) a. We must travel across the country to find them.
b. You should manage to do it in due time.

c. But no human ear could have heard the cheers.
d. I’d rather walk than take a taxi.
e. The rain started to pour in showers.
f. The chairman of the committee finished reading the report.
g. There used to be a stately nut-tree in backyard.
h. “Go on reading!” said the little girl to her Grandma.
B. Nominal Predicates show the state or quality ascribed to the subject

by the action performed by the verb. The nominal predicate is made up of
a copula or link verb and a predicative.
Copula verbs contribute formal information regarding the aspect, tense,
person and number, voice while the predicative provides the verb with
meaning.
Since this piece of information will be necessary for the development of
our next chapters, we find it necessary to revise classes of copula verbs
and the parts of speech the predicative is denoted by.
The most common English copular verbs are:
1. Verbs of being: be, stand, feel
(4) a. And she was very, very frightened.
b. Juliet felt extremely sad.
c. The lake stood still.
2. Verbs of seeming and appearing: seem, appear, look
(5) a. They seemed surprised at the news.
b. The sky appeared dark and cloudy.
c. The lady looked awful in her petticoat.
3. Verbs of becoming: become, get, grow, turn, fall, run, prove
(6) a. She has become a famous lion tamer.
b. The weather is getting warmer.
c. The tree is growing bigger and bigger.
d. Grandpa’s hair has turned out grey.
e. After a good running the boy has fallen asleep.
f. The Danube runs icy in cold winters.
g. The hypothesis proved true.
The predicative can most commonly be expressed by: nouns, pronouns,
gerunds, numerals, infinitives, predicative clauses:
(7) a. She was a darling to everybody.

b. It’s me. Don’t bother!
c. His favourite pastime is reading adventure books.
d. They were seven in the group.
e. John’s quality is to understand others.
f. The truth is that you are too proud.
The aspects concerning the types of predicates in traditional grammar will
be enlarged upon while having practical applications.
1. Analyze the types of predicates in the following sentences:

a. Pongo remembered everything.
b. Missis was looking down into the area.

c. These plants are meat-eaters.
d. A house fly makes a buzzing sound.
e. Silk is produced by most moth caterpillars.
f. He suddenly gave a squeal of laughter.
g. He appeared to be holding it out to them.
h. Then his heart gave a glad leap.
i. There was still a faint glow from the sunset.
j. Water was already boiling in a silver kettle over a spirit lamp.
2. Fill in with a word which should function as a predicative:

a. She is…to come back.
b. They ran…after the contest.
c. Her daughter has become …to traveling abroad.
d. His parents are growing…and…
e. The leaves of the trees turn…in autumn.
f. My uncle’s pigs are getting …
g. Miranda looks…Has she eaten something bad?
h. The sky seems …today.
i. Parents are always…their children.
j. Ducks grow…in winter.
3. Rephrase using a “get” –form:

Model: She burned the cake. The cake got burned.
a. A storm damaged the house. The house…
b. He broke his leg while jumping. His leg…
c. The fire cracked the entrance. The entrance…
d. Bad news upset everybody. Everybody…
e. Marlene tore her skirt on a chair. Marlene’s skirt …
4. Analyse the types of predicates in the fragment below paying attention to the
agreement with the subjects:
“ Can you see them?”said the old gentleman, putting his hand on the Spaniel’s head. “ If
you can, don’t be frightened. They won’t hurt you. You’d have liked them. Let’s see, they
must have died fifty years before you were born- more than that. They were the first dogs I
ever knew. I used to ask my mother to stop the carriage and let them get inside – I couldn’t
bear to see them running behind. So, in the end, they just became house dogs.”

1.1.3. . The Object. Definition and Classification
The object is the secondary part of the sentence which completes

the meaning of a verb, an adjective or a noun. We can speak about three
types of objects: direct objects, indirect objects and prepositional objects.
1.1.3.1. The Direct Object comes second within the hierarchy of

grammatical relationships after the subject. The notional definition used in
traditional grammar refers to the entity( person, thing, abstaction) that
receives the action of a transitive verb. Transitivity is relative with some
verbs which can be either transitive or intransitive (asking or not for an
object) depending upon the context (1):
(1) a. Jolyon reads every afternoon.(intransitive)
a’ Jolyon reads a book every month. (transitive)
b. Mary sings so often in the bath.(intransitive)
b’ Mary sings country songs at the festival.(transitive)
c. Do you want to take pictures? No, just, watch.(intransitive)
c’ I’m watching the movie right now.
The definitional feature of transitive verbs is that they take direct objects ,
being expressed by the same parts of speech as the subjects: nouns,
pronouns, substantivized adjectives or past participles, numerals,
infinitives, gerunds, clauses:
(2) a. He then outlined his plans.

b. They won’t hurt you.
c. Pongo instantly decided he would learn to manage bolts.
d. She saw ten, but there were many more.
e. I like shopping during week-ends.
f. I hate to clean the house all the time.
g. We should help the poor.
The classification of direct objects also includes the criteria of
composition/structure and content.
A. According to structure direct objects can be:

- Simple, expressed by a single word, possibly determined and modified
by attributes , the same as the subject.
(3) a. But the cat followed them all the way to their house.
b. I shall always remember this happy walk.
c. She was wearing a tight – fitting emerald satin dress.

d. I worship furs.
- Coordinated , expressed by two or several nouns or noun-equivalents, in
the accusative case:
(4) a. Mrs Dearly took Pongo and Missis across the park.
b. They had splendid heads, fine shoulders, strong legs and straight
tails.
- Compound, rendered by two or several nouns referring to only one
entity.
(5) a. I have always liked my balcony and garden. (the balcony is like a
garden to me)
b. I have met your mother and friend.( mother is like a friend).
- Double, expressed by the direct object proper and the indirect object in
the reversed order:
(6) a. They asked me a lot of questions.
b. The public offered them flowers.
- Complex, rendered through constructions made up of two inseparable
parts (the object proper, and another part which completes its meaning):
(7) a. Not until we’ve found some dogs to help us.
b. You shall not let that cruel, thoughtless child put such a sin on your
conscience.
c. He saw the bowl empty.
d. They have made money a passion.
Sentences (7) a. and b. introduce the accusative plus infinitive
constructions which are given a detailed analysis in Bantas (1996:135-
141).
B. According to Content, direct objects are grouped into:

- Significant, bearing meaning upon the usual type of direct object.
(8) a. Then Missis found her voice.
b. They heard the Great Dane again.
- Impersonal, which bears no meaning, being rather expressed by the
formal it.
(9) a. Suffice it to say everything about the incident.

- Cognate, accompanying verbs which are normally intransitive , such as:
sleep, live, smile, laugh; they are labelled cognate because the nouns they
are expressed by are related to the verb in meaning and, generally in
etymology.
(10) a. They lived a life of duty and honour.

b. The baby slept a sound sleep.
c. She dreamed an unforgettable dream.
1.1.3.2. The Indirect Object shows the entity whom the action of the verb
affects indirectly. It is almost always used together with the direct object. It
is canonically built up using the preposition to as a mark of the dative but it
can be used without any preposition especially when it precedes the direct
object.
(11) a. They gave the flowers to Doris at the party.
b. The postman delivered the letters to the butler.
c. She sent me the parcel.
d. The officer reported the general the incident.

There are verbs which obligatorily ask for the preposition to: announce,
attribute, contribute, dedicate, describe, explain, indicate, introduce, listen,
point, propose, report, talk, suggest,etc.
(12) a. The officer reported the incident to the general.
b. They described the journey to their kids.
c. He explained the problem to his son.
For a minute analysis of the indirect object use of prepostions you should
consult Bantas (1996:142-146).
1.1.3.3. The Prepositional Object is particularly discussed in English

grammars in connection with verbs with obligatory preposition or that
contextually require the use of prepositions. Its main purpose is to
complete the meaning of a verb, a noun, an adjective, etc. It is again
Bantas 1996 who has provided a classification of prepositional objects into
those of agent, instrument, means, association, relation. With reference to
its position in the sentence, it generally occupies final place, following the
direct object and the indirect object :
(13) a. The houses were pulled down by the earthquake.
b. The actors were cheered by the audience.
c. He opened the door with an old key.
d. They travelled to Paris by train.
e. Joanna went to the movie with her friends.
f. I’m against coffee, but in favour of some tea.
1. Identify the direct objects and specify the parts of speech they are expressed by
in the following sentences:
a. We went to see the latest news film yesterday.
b. The clerk finished the report.
c. Everybody says he is a good writer.
d. I was going to get it from the library.
e. As a matter of fact he scored seven out of ten.
2. Rephrase by changing the order of direct and indirect object where allowed:
a. Mary told Doris everything.
b. He will give the book to anyone who asks for it.
c. His aunt left a large fortune to all her nieces and nephews.
d. The host oferred drinks to all the guests in the room.
e. The guide showed the cathedral to us all.
3. Supply the missing prepositions for, with, against as parts of prepositional

objects.
a. I don’t agree … you when you say that.
b. You can even insure…loss of income.
c. I would like to exchange my old car …a new one.
d. Rubber solution is used… sticking patches on tyres.

e. I should be satisfied …half of the sum.
1.1.4. The Adverbial Modifier. Definition
The adverbial modifier is that secondary part of the sentence which

modifies or renders more precise a verb, an adjective or another adverb. It
is morphologically denoted by the adverb in all its categories.
1.1.4.1. Classification of Adverbial Modifiers.

Accordingly, we may speak about adverbial modifiers of: time, place,
manner, attending circumstances, comparison, comparison and
concession, concession proper, purpose, condition, cause/reason, result /
consequence. The majority of them may be subcategorized still from a
semantic point of view.
-Time:
(14) a. I’ve been serching for you for years.
b. The water in the pond froze last night.
c. I have always liked watching the birds fly high up in the sky.
d. They danced until the sun rose.
- Place:
e. She has moved in the countryside.
f. He will go to the cinema after his training courses.
g. Grandpa is working in the garden.
-Manner:
h. She sings beautifully.
i. He went to his office in a hurry.
j. Jeremy behaves rudely to everybody.
-Comparison:
k. The sky is as clear as crystal.
l. Midge is not so intelligent as Fanny.
- Concession:
m. Though he was tired, he kept on working.
- Purpose:
n. She works a lot in order to get her salary increased.
- Condition:
o. I would buy a villa if I had money.
- Cause:
p. The flight was postponed because of the thick fog.
- Result/Consequence:
r. It was too much for her to leave her native town.
q. He broke fallit as a result of his negligence.

1. Read the sample texts a, b, c; identify the adverbial modifiers and classify them
according to the types illustrated above.
a. “ But the chipmunk slept all day and did not get up and have breakfast until after dark.
Then he came out for a breath of air before beginning work on a new design.The shrike
swooped down to snatch up the chipmunk, but could not see very well on account of the
dark, so he batted his head against an alder branch and was killed”
b. “ I wrote only one story a day, usually consisting of fewer than a thousand words. Most
of the reporters, when they went out on assignments, first had to get on their foot in the
door, but the portals of the fantastic and the unique are always left open”.
c. “ ‘I sometimes think’, he said, ‘that you and I have become a bit pampered. Well,
pampering does good dogs no harm, provided they don’t come to depend on it. If they do,
they become old before their time.’”
1.1.5. The Attribute
The attribute has been defined as that secondary part of the sentence which
determines or modifies any nominal part of the sentence starting with the subject, the
predicative, the direct, indirect or prepositional object (Bantas, 1996: 165). The typical
attribute in English and other languages is the adjective and its subcategories. The other
parts of speech that can function syntactically as attributes are: nouns, pronouns,
infinitives, numerals, adverbs,etc.
(15) a. Her name is Mary.
b. The student camp is full of girls.
c. His desire to help us melt our hearts.
d. The sleeping pups awoke in alarm.
e. The largest kittens in the yard looked older.
f. The bedroom upstairs looked down into the garden.
g. She liked him from he very first moment.
h. Today’s newspapers speak about inflation.

Interesting observations have been made concerning the place of the attribute. So it can
be front or post positioned vis-a -vis the modified word. Therefore in the literature
adjectives are divided into being used either attributively or predicatively.
(16) a. The lonely shepherd murmurs a chant every evening.
a* The shepherd murmurs lonely a chant.
b. She is alone at home.
b * She alone is at home.
1.Analyse the attributes in the following texts and specify the parts of speech they
are expressed by:
a. “ Finally the cops put their shoulders to our big heavy front door with its thick beveled
glass and broke it in: I could hear a rending of wood and a splash of glass on the floor of
the hall. “
b. “ Once upon a sunny morning a man who sat in a breakfast nook looked up from his
scrambled eggs to see a white unicorn with a gold horn quietly cropping the roses in the
garden. “.
c. “ Owing to the artificially complex life led by city dogs of present day, they tend to lose
the simpler systems of intuition which once guided all breeds, and frequently lapse into
what comes very close to mental perplexity. I myself have known some very profoundly
thoughtful dogs.”
Notes and Suggested Readings
A very comprehensive analysis of the parts of sentence from a traditional point of view is
to be found in Badescu 1984, Bantas 1996, if we are to quote two of the most used books
in teaching English as a second language in Romania, following the prescriptive method.
Another recommended author is Swan 1989 who focuses on the learner’s acquisition of
English starting from the rules and pinpointing the exceptions.
1.2.Sentential/Clausal Word Order and Syntactic Analysis

English is a fixed word order language meaning that sentences are
built according to restrictive relational rules among the parts of sentence
so as to produce meaningful junks of language. With this we introduce the
concept of syntactic linkage which, according to Miller 2002 subsumes the
traditional concepts of agreement and government. In an active
declarative sentence, the subject is immediately followed by the predicate,
followed by the object and so on :
“ Since the vast majority of the world’s languages display basic orders in
which the subject precedes the object, such ordering is seen to be
typollogically unmarked…[…] The communicative strategy adopted by the
dominant subject-before-object languages is viewed as addresee-oriented
because the speaker, having some or newsworthy information to deliver,
places the addressee’s need for clarity and distinctiveness above his own
need to divulge the message” ( Siewierska 2005: 372-373)
Therefore, the traditional word order, allowing a linear syntactic
analysis, fits into the following pattern:
(17) S P DO/IO PO ADV.MOD.

Since language has a ‘living form’, there are naturally exceptions to the
rules either with regard to the presence of all the parts in a sentence or
their positional occurrence. Consider examples under:
(18) a. They/ were talking/ about the fishing industry.
S P IO/PO
b. Mr. Tansley/ raised/ a hammer.
S P DO
c. He/ wanted/ it/ urgently.
S P DO Advof manner
d. She/ had been reading/ in his room.
S P Adv of place
e. Lily Briscoe/ watched/ her /drifting/ into that strange noman’s land.
S P DO Participle Adv of place
f. She/ was/ now/ beginning/ to feel/ annoyed/ with them/ for being so
late.
S P Adv P DO Adj PO Adv of cause
of time
Rules of inversion to English word order have been largely

discussed in the literature with reference to pragmatic highlighting in
communication theories. It is mostly for reasons of giving certain emphasis
to some parts of the sentence that the canonical word order is reversed. In
what follows we shall specify some of the most common cases:
- The indirect object comes before the direct object when we want to
emphasize it for any reason:
(19) a.Give the ball to your brother not to John.
- We can place the Adv of manner immediately after the subject when we
want to emphasize how an action has been performed:
(20) a. Hardly had she finished the washing when the phone rang.
b. Little does he realize how selfish he is.
- If there is a verb of movement, the Adv of place occurs immediately after the verb to
complete its meaning:
(21) a. We walked to the theatre in a hurry last night.

1.2.1. Practical Applications:
1. Put the adverbials in their correct order after the verb:

a. She spoke ( with deliberation, clearly).
b. Take the second door ( downstairs, on the right, in the hall).
c. Put the jug( carefully, on the table).
d.They are going to leave( on Thursday, by plane)
e. I said good-bye to them ( yesterday, at the station, regretfully).
2. Rephrase, so that the adverb in italics comes at the beginning of the sentence:
a. I have never in my life seen such a sight as this.
b. You could nowhere find find such a better friend.
c. They didn’t speak a word.
d. The cat didn’t give a miaw.
e. She seldom goes out in the evening .
3. Analyse the word order in the text below:

“Then indeed peace had come. Messages of peace breathed from the sea to the shore.
Never to break its sleep any more,[…] as Lily Briscoe laid her head on the pillow in the
clean still room. Through the open window the voice of the beauty of the world came
murmuring[…]
The sigh of all the seas breaking in measure round the isles soothed them; the night
wrapped them; nothing broke their sleep”.

Chapter 2. The Syntax of the Clause in Structural Grammar
The Syntax of the Clause in Structural Grammar
Structural grammar analyzes the sentence into word groups, taking

into account the meaning carried by such syntactic patterns formed by
modifiers and qualifiers gravitating around the head.
2.1. Word Level. Word Groups
The concept of group in syntax has been created around the occurrence
of an obligatory word, called head, expressed by one of the following
parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions.
In other words, the group exists if there is a head: “[…] certain
relationships hold between words whereby one word, the head, controls
the other words, the modifiers”. (Miller 2002:70). We can thus define Noun
Group-NG, Verb Group-VG, Adverbial Group-AdvG and Prepositional
Group-pG. They can be simple, made up of the head only, and complex,
containing some other words besides the head, labeled: modifiers, which
precede the head and qualifiers, which come after the head. Their function
is to determine or modify the head by conveying extra information,
sometimes narrowing down the head meaning. Another main idea is that
“Modification is crucial to discussions of word order in different languages”.
(Miller 2002: 80). MHQ
-The Noun Group is the richest in determination since nominality is one of

the most pertaining characteristic feature of the English written texts. The
head noun is the controller permitting some words or excluding others.
Simple NGs contain only nouns, e.g. bird. Complex NGs can have the
following structural matrices: MH; MMH; MHQ; HQ; MMHQ, etc.
bird
H
(3) a. that bird

M H
b. land in view pG>>>>p+NG: H
H Q
c. that beautiful singing bird
MD ME ME H
d. that secretary bird with yellow wings pG>>>p+NG: M+H
M M H Q
e. five birds sitting on the branch Q----------VG: H+pG: p+NG:M+H

M H Q
Analysing the examples in (3), we can notice the variety of combinations

that the structure of the NG reveals as a result of the modifier typology.

~Modifiers expressed by articles, indefinite and possessive adjectives,
genitives are labeled modifier determiners-MD, e.g. the house
~Modifiers expressed by adjectives of all types are labeled modifier
epithets-ME, e.g. nice dress
~Modifiers expressed by nouns are labeled modifier nominators-MN, e.g.
toy factory
~Modifiers expressed by numerals are labeled modifier ordinators - MO,
e.g. ten clowns
Qualifiers follow the head and may be denoted by words, groups or
clauses: e.g. everybody here (adverb); girls with flowers (pG = p+NG);
men who forget (relative clause).
CLG
-The Verb Group has as controller /head a verb and follows the same
patterning as the NG: MH; MMH; MHQ; HQ; MMHQ, etc.
There are two kinds of VGs: simple and complex. In the simple VG, the
one verb is obligatorily the head, and in the complex VG, the main verb is
the head, and when there are compound verb forms the auxiliaries are
M’s. Lack of typology distinguishes among modifiers within the VG, all
being simply labeled M’s.
Qualifiers in VGs standing for particles closely linked to the verb should
not be confused with prepositions introducing pGs.
(4) a. Read.
H
b. She is reading.
M H
c. They have been reading.
M M H
d. The engine broke down.
H Q
- The Adverbial Group is controlled by the adverb and can have the
pattern : H; MH; HQ. It can also be simple and complex (…)
(5) a. Run quickly.
H
b. They speak English quite fluently.
M H
c. They came often enough.
H Q
2.2. The Sentence/Clause Level. Parts of Sentence/Clause.
The main parts of the sentence/clause that we use in the present version
of structural grammar are: Subject-S, Predicator-P, Complement-C and
Adjunct-A. ~ Subjects are represented by NG items; they precede the
predicator and agree in number with the predicator items; they occupy
clause initially:
(6) Mary sings beautifully.
S

~ Predicators are represented by VGs; they follow S and are in number
concord with the latter; it might precede complements and adjuncts if there
is one:
(7) Dan won the competition.
S P
~ Complements are usually represented by NGs ; they immediately follow
the predicator and have no concord with it; they might not always be
present. There are two types of Cs: extensive-CE and intensive-CI .
CEs are represented by NGs having the function of the traditional direct
and indirect objects; they immediately follow predicators represented by
transitive verbs:
(8) a. Laurel bought the jewel .
S P CE
b. They gave her flowers.
S P CE1 CE2
CIs are represented by NGs having the function of the traditional
predicative element in a traditional nominal predicate; they are always in
concord with the Subject. CIs are also called subject complements since
they refer and modify the S.
(9) a. The little pony is cute.
S P CI
b. She has become a famous actress.
S P CI
There is another category of CI, corresponding to object complements
which are linked to direct and indirect objects, i.e. CE in our case.
(10) a. The committee elected him president.
S P CE CI
~Adjuncts can be represented by AdvGs, pGs or NGs, depending upon
the context of situation. They are optional clause elements. They roughly
correspond to the traditional adverbial modifier.
(11) a. They married in secret.
S P A
b. Jack and Jill went up the hill.
S P A
c. I saw them yesterday.
S P CE A
d. They act wonderfully.
S P A
The description of the structure of these two levels will contribute to the analysis of
the clause in the following subchapter.
2.3. Techniques of Syntactic Analysis

The technique used to analyse clauses at this level is that of tree diagramming. It
will be apllied to some samples that we shall provide to illustrate the seven basic clause
patterns that Scott 1970 proposed:
1 Pattern I : S P
a. The girl sang.
S P

S P
NG VG
MD H H
The girl sang
2. Pattern II: S P A
a. The dancers seem in a good shape.
S P A
S
S P A
NG VG PG
MD H H P NG
MD ME H
The dancers seem in a good shape
b. The new chairs are outside.

S P A

S P A
NG VG AdvG
MD ME H H H
The new chairs are outside
3. Pattern III: S P CE
a. Leslie wore a pink pyjamas.
S P CE
S P CE
NG VG NG
H H MD ME H
Leslie wore a pink pyjamas

4. Pattern IV: S P CI:

a. He looked sad.
S P CI
S P CI
NG VG NG
H H H
He looked sad
5. Pattern V: S P CE CI
a. She made him her slave.
S P CE CI
S P CE CI
NG VG NG NG
H H H MD H

She made him her slave
6. Pattern VI: S P CE1 CE2

a. The professor handed them the papers.
S P CE1 CE2
S P CE1 CE2
NG VG NG NG
MD H H H MD H
The professor handed them the papers
7. Pattern VII : S P CE A
a. Kim put the bag on the table.
S P CE A
S P CE A
NG VG NG pG
H MD H pG NG

MD H
Kim put the bag on the table
2.4. Practical Applications
1. Analyse the NG’s in the following sentences:

a. Mr. Banks expected her to answer.
b. The world by all means should have shared it.
c. The vegetable salts are lost.
2. Analyse the NG’s in the following sentences:

a. She could have wept.
b. She shut doors.
c. He had come across his former friend in the street.
d. The sun is shining.
3.Analyse the AdvG’s in the following sentences:

a. They appeared on the terrace.
b. For she had triumphed again.
c. They drew ahead together.
d. She crouched low down.
4. Analyse the following sentences into S, P, C, A. Draw the tree diagrams. Not all
elements might be represented.
a. Nancy had gone with them.
b. Mr. Ramsay felt free now to laugh out loud at Hume.
c. She folded the green shawl about her shoulders.
d. There was a ladder against the greenhouse.
e. He was irritable and touchy.
f. He could do nothing to help her.
g. His eyes glazed with emotion met theirs.
h. She had laid her head on Mrs. Ramsay’s lap.
i. Mr. Bankes tapped the canvas with the bone handle.


Final Evaluation Corpora
1. Analyse the sentences in the text below in terms of traditional syntax. Identify
cases of exceptions to word order.
“ Elliot Vereker was always coming into and going out of my life. He was the only man who
ever continuously stimulated me to the brink of a nervous breakdown. Vereker was a
writer; he was gaunt and emaciated from sitting up all night talking; he wore an admiral ‘s
hat which he had stolen from an admiral. Usually he carried with him an old Gladstone bag
filled with burned-out electric-light bulbs which it was his pleasure to throw, unexpectedly,
against the sides of houses and the walls of the rooms”.
2. Analyse the sentences in the text below in terms of structural grammar. Draw the
diagramming trees.
“ The morning of the ninth of April ,1865, dawned beautifully. General Meade was up with
the first streaks of crimson in the eastern sky. The day continued beautiful. It drew on
toward eleven o’clock. General Grant was still not up. He was asleep in his famous old
navy hammock, swung high above the floor of his headquarters’ bedroom. Headquarters
was distressingly disarranged: papers were strewn on the floor; confidential notes from
spies scurried here and there in the breeze from an open window; the dregs of an
overturned bottle of wine flowed pinkly across an important military map.”

Final Evaluation Corpora

References
References
Aarts, B.,1997, English Syntax and Argumentation, Macmillan Press LTD

Abney, S.P.,1987, The English Noun Phrase in Its Sentential Aspect, PhD, diss.,
MIT
Bantaş, A., 1996, Descriptive English Syntax, Institutul European, Iaşi
Badescu, A.,1984, Gramatica limbii engleze, Ed. Stiintifica si Enciclopedica, Bucuresti
Bresnan, J., ed.,1982a, The mental representation of grammatical relations, Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press
Bryant, M.M., 1945, A Functional English Grammar, Boston
Celce- Murcia, Larsen- Freeman, 1999, The Grammar Book. An ESL/EFL Teacher’s
Course, Heinle & Heinle Publishers
Chomsky, N., 1957, Syntactic structures, (Janua linguarum 4), Gravenhage: Mouton
Chomsky, N., 1965, Aspects of the theory of syntax, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Chomsky, N.,1986a, Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin and Use, Praeger, New
York
Chomsky, N., 1995, The minimalistic program, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Cole, P. and Jerrold Sadock, eds. 1977, Syntax and semantics, vol.III: Grammatical
relations, New York: Academic Press
Cornilescu, A., 1986, English Syntax, Volume two, Ediţia a II-a, Bucureşti
Cornilescu, A.,1995, Concept of Modern Grammar, A Generative Grammar Perspective,
Editura Universităţii Bucureşti
Croft, W., 1991, Syntactic categories and grammatical relations, Chicago and London:
University of Chicago Press
Croitoru, E.,2002, The English Sentence Structure, Editura Fundaţiei Universitatea
„Dunărea de Jos” din Galaţi
Crystal, D., 1995, A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Blackwell
Gazdar, G., 1982, Phrase structure grammar, In Pauline Jacobson and Geoffrey Pullum,
eds. The nature of syntactic representation, 131-86. Dordrecht: Reidel
Hoekstra, T., 1984, Transitivity, Foris: Dordrecht
Huddleston, R., Pullum, K. G. et al., 2002, The Cambridge Grammar of the English
Language, Cambridge University Press
Miller, J., 2002, An Introduction to English Syntax, Edinburgh University Press
Keenan, E. L., 1976b, Towards a universal definition of ‘subject’. In Li (1976), 305-33
Palmer, F. R., 1994, Grammatical roles and relations, Cambridge University Press
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. and Svartvik, J. 1972, 1985, A Comprehensive
Grammar of English, Longman, London
Radford, A.,1988, Transformational Grammar: a first course, Cambridge University Press
Scott, F.S.et al., 1970, English Grammar. A Linguistic Study of its Classes and Structures,
Heinemann Educational, Books LTD. London
Siewierska, A., 2005, Word Order and Linearization in A Concise Encyclopedia of
Syntactic Theories, Brown K., Miller, J., Pergamon
Swan, M., 1989, Practical English Usage, Oxford University Press
Şerban, D.,1986, English Syntax, Volume One, Ediţia a II-a, Bucureşti
Zandvoort, R.W., 1948, A Handbook of English Grammar, Groningen
A Concise Encyclopedia of Grammatical Categories, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1999

References
Sources
James, H., The Ambassadors, Wordsworth Classics, 1993

Orwell, G. Animal Farm, http://www.book4free.us/2014/09/animal-farm pdf.html
Smith, D., The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Egmont, 2006
Thurber, J., "The Shrike and the Chipmunks", http://www
personal.ksu.edu/~lyman/english320/Thurber-The_Shrike_and_the_Chipmunks.htm
Thurber, J.,Tonight: My Life and Hard Times: "The Night the Ghost Got In" -
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.ro/2011/01/thurber-tonight-my-life-and-hard-
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https://books.google.ro/books?isbn
Woolf, V.,To the Lighthouse, "Time Passes" 10 ...genius.com › V › Virginia Woolf

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CONTENTS

Introductory Chapter: General Syntactic Concepts 5

Sentence /vs/ Clause 5

Methods of Syntactic Description 7

Chapter 1. The Syntax of the Simple Sentence in

1.1. Parts of Sentence 9

1. 1 .1. The Subject. Definitions 9

1.1.2. The Predicate. Definitions 15

1.1.3. The Object. Definition and Classification 18

1.1.4. The Adverbial Modifier. Definition. 21

1.1.5. The Attribute 23

1.2. Sentential / Clausal Word Order and Syntactic Analysis 25

Chapter 2. The Syntax of the Clause in Structural

The Syntax of the Simple Sentence 3

2.1. Word Level. Word Groups 27

2.2. The Sentence/Clause Level. Parts of Sentence/Clause 28

2.3. Techniques of Syntactic Analysis 29

2.4. Practical Applications 33

Final Evaluation Corpora 36

4 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

Introductory Chapter: General

The Sentence The Clause

These characteristic features will be revealed during the presentation of the

Parts of Sentence / Clause

Traditional Grammar relies on well-known terminology including parts of

6 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

The Syntax of the Simple Sentence 7

The Syntax of the

1.1. Parts of Sentence

The subject is the most complex grammatical function occupying

1.1.1.1. Classification of Subjects

8 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

1. Noun. A word or word group that names a person, a place, a thing, an

-Coordinated subjects, expressed by two or more words referring to

The Syntax of the Simple Sentence 9

B. According to content English subjects can be classified into:

1.1.1.2. Subject Predicate Agreement

10 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

8. With a number of as subject use a plural verb:

9. With the number of as subject use a singular verb:

10. With none, either or neither as subjects, use a singular verb:

1.1.1.3. Concluding Remarks

The Syntax of the Simple Sentence 11

1.1.1.4. Practical Applications

1. Analyze the subjects from the point of view of structure/composition or form in

a. It will need tremendous organization.

Model : I saw him in the street only last week.

a. I want to talk to your sister.

12 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

4. Fill in with the correct verb form:

1.1.2. The Predicate. Definitions

Predicate definitions are given in direct relationship with the subject

The Syntax of the Simple Sentence 13

1.1.2.1. Classification of Predicates

14 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

B. Nominal Predicates show the state or quality ascribed to the subject

(7) a. She was a darling to everybody.

1.1.2.2. Practical Applications

1. Analyze the types of predicates in the following sentences:

The Syntax of the Simple Sentence 15

2. Fill in with a word which should function as a predicative:

3. Rephrase using a “get” –form:

16 The Syntax of the Simple Sentence

1.1.3. . The Object. Definition and Classification