Reading 3

McIntyre, A. (2014). Fundamentals of English Syntax. Section 1.5 (pp. 7-12)

https://www.angl.hu-berlin.de/department/staff-faculty/academic/mcintyre/unterrichtsmaterial
ien/fundamental-engl-syntax-2014-online-einseitig.pdf

After reading the text, answer the following qüestions:

● How can you identify NPs in sentences?

According to the text, noun phrases often acts as the subject in a sentence (not always) and
with this we can know how the verb is inflected; generally, noun phrases can be replaced by
pronouns, as it is stated in the text, this is because pronouns act as proforms for the noun
phrases mentioned early.

● What arguments does the author provide to use the label 'VP' instead of the
'predicate'?

According to the text, this term is not needed, the author says that it’s better to call them verb
phrases, because they’re already headed by verbs; something evident that we can find in this
is that the object or material that gives us information about the topic or situation is named by
the verb. Therefore, the objects that these constituents contain is determined by only the verb,
even so, we can say that the verb is the head or the main character in the constituent that we
call VP.

● Is the concept of intransitive prepositions new for you? Why does the author
prefer the term 'intransitive preposition' to 'adverbs' to refer to the elements in
the PP 40 a?

Yes, from my point of view, the author mentions that intransitive prepositions were
traditionally called adverbs, but it was noticed that they had more in common with
prepositions than with adverbs, more precisely those that were related to adjectives. The
author has this preference because intransitive prepositions are often reminded like
intransitive verbs, where the sentences that project a verb phrase but without a noun phrase.

● When do APs not precede the noun they modify?

When in front of them there’s an optional degree expression, like cases such as very, too,
which shows the degree where the property named by the adjective holds.

● Name the three functions of AdvP mentioned in the text. Provide your own
examples.

1
They usually contain adverbs, almost always, but sometimes can have optional degree
expressions and some prepositional phrases.
a. Her breakup was painful
b. She depended completely of the approval of her parents
c. Lucy hardly knew the contents by heart.

● Underline the AdvPs in each sentence, then identify what each AdvP modifies.
a. The little boy reluctantly ate the disgustingly mushy porridge. AP —
reluctantly ate

b. Jane is surprisingly friendly, considering her previous bad experiences. AP

— surprisingly friendly

c. Jeff completed the task extremely efficiently. AP – the task