UNIT 1 SENTENCE ELEMENTS

I. SENTENCE ELEMENTS
[[

1. Subject: The subject can be realized by:

- a noun: Cocaine can damage the heart and the brain.
- a pronoun: She is a good doctor.
- a noun phrase: The precise number of heart attacks from using cocaine is not known.
- an adjective used as a noun: The handicapped are given special facilities in public places
- a non-finite clause:
- To become a pilot is really difficult.
- Collecting stamps is her hobby.
- Run for President is what he may do.
- a finite clause:
- That he failed the exam surprised nobody.
- Where they spent their honeymoon is a mystery.
- empty subject: It is used in sentences referring to time, the weather, temperature, distance, the
tides, the environment, present situation, with since, says and takes.
- It is 2 o'clock now.
- anticipatory / preparatory subject:
- It is pleasant to lie in the sun.
- It is pleasant lying in the sun.
- It is a shame that Tom is not here.
- It does not matter when we arrive.
- It makes one sad to see such property.
- prepositional phrase:
- By plane costs more than by train.
- Now is the time to act.
- Here is the news.

- adverbial phrase: Before midday would be convenient.

- unstressed there: There are twenty students in the classroom.

1
2. Verb
 AUXILIARIES:
- Primary auxiliaries: to be, to have, to do
- Modal auxiliaries: may, might, must should, can could, ought to, dare, .....
 PRIMARY VERBS:
- Transitive verbs:
Monotransitive: She bought a camera yesterday.
Ditransitive: She has sent her son some money.
Complex transitive: We elected him chairman of the club.
- Intransitive verbs: The boys are playing noisily in the garden.
- Linking verbs: (taste, sound, smell, look, feel, keep, become, turn, be get, `
remain, seem, stay, .....) She has become a good teacher.
3. Object
Objects can be divided into two types:
 Direct object refers to the person or thing affected by the action of the verb.
- He kicked the dog.
 Indirect object usually refers to the person who benefits from the action expressed in the verb.
- Mary bought me some flowers.
The object can be realized by:
- a noun: She likes music.
- a noun phrase: Mary threw the ball.
- a pronoun: She loves him very much.
- a non-finite clause: She likes to eat oranges. She likes listening to music
- a finite clause: I wonder whether they know the truth.
4. Complement

The complement can be defined as a sentence element that gives further information about the subject
or the object. In other words, the complement completes the meaning of subject and object, and
therefore, there are two kinds of complements.
Subject complement can be expressed by a word, a phrase or a clause.
- He is the chairman of the club.
- A pig is not a flying animal.
- His brother grew happier gradually.
- Our duty is that we must finish the problem.

2
Object complement can be expressed by a word, a phrase or a clause.
- They made Sam the chairman.
- They have proven me wrong.
- You push the door open.
- I found what he said to mean nothing.
- I named my son what my father named me.
- We found her in tears.
- I saw her running down the hill.
- He could not make his voice heard.

5. Adverbial

The adverb suggests the idea of adding to the meaning of a verb. They tell us something about the
action in a sentence by modifying a verb. Adverbs are single words. Nevertheless, many phrases and
clauses can perform a similar function of the adverb in the sentence.
- She sang softly.
- She sang in a soft voice.
- She sang so softly that some people started to cry.
- The students met to prepare for the Students' Day ceremony.
- Whenever she had a cold, she eats only fruit.
- I did not come home until the rain started.

II. CLAUSE TYPES

The five sentence elements above can be arranged in 7 different ways to make sentences as follows.
- S V The girl is dancing
- S V O The girl kissed her dog.
- S V C The girl is sick
- S V A The girl lay on the ground.
- S V O O The girl gave her dog a bone
- S V O C The girl called her dog Honey
- S V O A The girl put her dog on the sofa.

3
III. PRACTICE

Practice 1: Divide each of the sentences below into its constituent parts and label each part S, V,
C, O or A.
1. Full –scale computers have a large number of programs.
2. We must change all the programs tomorrow.
3. Tomorrow will be a holiday here.
4. These bookshelves are becoming very popular in Sweden.
5. We all read too many books too quickly.
6. They had made him their son-in-law despite his objections.
7. They had found him a charming young wife.
8. I didn‟t tell anybody anything.
9. George and Paul both became famous doctors.
10. The weather is turning warmer.

Practice 2: For the phrase in bold in each of the following sentences, identify its function.

1. I will wait for you outside the cinema.

2. She looks extremely happy today.
3. The old farmer was eating his lunch in the cornfield.
4. My neighbor‟s children played in the garden all yesterday afternoon.
5. We considered that plan foolish.
6. His boss was pleased because he did the job amazingly well