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Adverbial NP aux VP
NP
AdjP Det N V PP
N
Adj P NP
Stage two
LING 103
Introduction to
English Linguistics
2016
Review: Form vs Function
The structure of phrase, as created by our phrase rules, is the form that a phrase
takes (NP, AdvP, VP etc).
The difference
An adverb phrase (AdvP) is a FORM that contains an adverb.
Adverbial is a FUNCTION that can be performed by various types of phrase.
Adverbials are ALWAYS optional and can be used with any type of verb.
Adverbials do not occur between the verb and its direct object.
*He loaded on the truck the uranium.
What adverbials do
Adverbials typically provide information on where, when , and how things
described by the sentence are taking place.
Form PP NP VP NP PP PP
On Thursday, the girl [gave the mouse to the cat for lunch]
Function Adverbial subject [pred. DO INDO Adverbial]
(OBLIQUE)
Placement
Sometimes care is needed with adverbial placement
‘Waving in the strong breeze, we watched the flags as the hurricane approached.’
Our revised set of rules
S (Adverbial) NP aux VP
pron
NP (Det) *(AdjP) N (PP)
name
NP
VP (AdvP) V (AdvP) (NP) (PP) (Adverbial)
PP
PP P NP
Imperative: Sit!
Unmarked / marked
A simple declarative sentence is considered the basic (‘unmarked’) sentence form
in any language.
All other sentence forms (‘marked’) that is, they are derived from it.
from which all other sentence types can be created
NP aux VP
NP
Exercise.
Form a question that requires yes or no as the answer using only the words in
the declarative sentence
‘The wombat has eaten all my melons’
Yes/No
Three question types Wh-
tag
Yes/No Question
requires yes or no as the answer
The last word is pronounced with rising intonation
The cat was fed The cat could have been hungry
Was the cat fed? Could the cat have been hungry?
S
aux
NP aux VP
has
Rule: move the first aux past the Subject to create a yes / no question
Wh-Question
Begin with a wh- word (where, why, how, when etc)
Requires an answer
The last word is pronounced with a falling intonation
Generally, if the sentence is positive, the tag is negative and vice versa.
He is sitting at home, isn’t he?
He isn’t sitting at home, is he?
Unbalanced tags
The sentence and tag can be both positive or both negative
He is sitting at home, is he?
Unbalanced tag questions are often used for irony or confrontation
Imperative
expresses a command, request, instruction, warning etc.
2nd person imperatives are the most common form.
you can be added for emphasis: You do the assignment and I’ll copy it
Other languages
Russian: Они ничего не могут сделать
They nothing not can do ‘They can’t do anything’
A: Hello, I need to know how to cite the CIA world fact book.
B: Good evening. Ok, MLA style?
A: It doesn't really matter, so I'll say sure.
B: Please hold while I search.
A: OK.
B: I have accepted the downloaded Cobrowse on your behalf.
A: Thanks . . . sorry . . . I have a slow computer.
B: Take your time.
A: Is the CIA World Factbook considered an electronic source?
B: yes
CLAUSE vs SENTENCE
Modal verbs are a bit oddball – they have no tense marking BUT they
are considered finite
OR a participle
OR a bare infinitive
I made the cats [leave the mice alone]
c.f. I made the cats [*left the mice alone]