University of Kerbala

College of Education
Department of English

OPTIONAL AND
OBLIGATORY
FATI MA HASS AN
CONSTITUENTS &
&
THE SENTENCE
FARAH AB D ZAI D
 OPTIONAL AND OBLIGATORY CONSTITUENTS

This chapter considers some constituents that are non-distinctive for the purpose of verb
subclassification.
As we noted, since all the sentences require a Subject NP, NP is not subclassifier for the verb in the VP.
Only what follow the verb can be distinctive for the subclassification of V.
1. The woman wept in the bathroom
2. The dog bit the man in the bathroom
3. John gave Mary a book in the bathroom
4. John stood on the table in the bathroom
5. John stood the gun against the wall in the bathroom
 OPTIONAL AND OBLIGATORY CONSTITUENTS
In categorical terms, in the bathroom is a prepositional phrase.
The function of such constituents is referred to as “Adverbial”

If it indicates “where the action took place”, it is “place adverbial”.

If it indicates “when the action took place”, it is “time adverbial”.
If it indicates “how the action took place”, it is “manner adverbial”.
OPTIONAL AND OBLIGATORY CONSTITUENTS
There are a number of things we should observe about adverbial constituents in deciding their
constituent structure:
1. In each case in the bathroom is an optional constituent, and without it the sentence remains
grammatical. By contrast we can not leave out the constituent immediately following the verb.
The dog bit the man BUT NOT *The dog bit in the bathroom
2. The constituent in the bathroom is not criterial for verb subclassification; since it occurs with all the
verb classes.
3. The sentcence like 1-5 can often be paraphrased by two sentences, once containing the “nuclear”
predication and the other containing the place adverbial:
The woman wept. This happened in the bathroom
John stood the gun against the wall. This happened in the bathroom
OPTIONAL AND OBLIGATORY CONSTITUENTS

The constituents criterial for strict subclassification are those constituents that are sisters of the V
and daughters of VP with V.
This suggests that we should consider our adverbial constituents as constituents of some node other
than VP.

The grammar enables us to distinguish clearly between those PPs that are within the VP, and are
criterial for the strict subclassification,
And those PPs that are daughters of the root S and function as adverbs of place .
OPTIONAL AND OBLIGATORY CONSTITUENTS
 OPTIONAL AND OBLIGATORY CONSTITUENTS
Traditionally constituents with adverbial function have been seen as ‘modifiers’ and traditional
grammars often refer to ‘modifying adverbs’.
In informal notional terms, a modifier is a constituent that restricts the possible range of reference of
some other constituent, the ‘head’.
in the sentence The woman wept in the bathroom
The woman wept is the head and the “nuclear” sentence
In the bathroom is a PP modifying the head by specifying the particular place in which the action
took place.
We use ‘scope’ to refer to the constituents which the modifier modifies; thus, the scope of the modifier
in the bathroom is the nuclear the woman wept
Syntactically, modifiers are optional constituents.
OPTIONAL AND OBLIGATORY CONSTITUENTS
We can draw a useful distinction between ‘nuclear’ and ‘non-nuclear’ constituents.
Nuclear constituents of the sentence are NP + VP and all that is immediately dominated by the VP.
Other sentences constituents are non-nuclear constituents.
Nuclear constituents are either obligatory for the sentence to be accepted as grammatical, or criterial
for verb subclassification.
Non-nuclear constituents are optional and, typically, modifiers.
Frequently, non-nuclear constituents can be placed in a separate sentence.
In these terms PPs deriving from an expansion of VP are nuclear.
PPs deriving from the expansion of S are non-nuclear.
OPTIONAL AND OBLIGATORY CONSTITUENTS
ADVERBS AND ADVERBIALS
Adverbials of place and time are usually considered to be sentence modifiers.
Adverb is the name of a category, and adverbial the name of a function.
Adverbs typically have an adverbial function.
Adverbs are modifiers and that to some extent the scope of the modification can be
caught in constituent structure representations
 THE SENTENCE

The sentence as defined by Lyons “The maximum unit of grammatical analysis: it is A

grammatical unit between the constituent parts of which distributional limitation
and dependencies can be established, but which can itself be put into no distribution
class”.
Lyons’s definition implies: the sentence has a certain sort of unity, it is grammatically
complete and it can stand on its own, independent of context with a degree of
semantic independence.
When binding many sentences, we use what we call “binding expression”. They bind
sentences together into text.
Without binding expressions the sentenced could be arranged in a different way.
 THE SENTENCE

Consider the following sentences.

1-When John and Mary got back home, they found the front door
had been left open. 2-John accused Mary. 3-She denied it . 4-
John asked her to shut it. 5-She wouldn’t.
The first sentence is grammatically and semantically can stand as an isolate.
None of the other sentences can stand as an isolate.
If S2 is found as an isolate, one might inquire: what did John accuse Mary of?
In an isolate, S2 needs a the frame NP___NP PP, where the Sub. NP is the accuser, the Obj. NP is the
accused and the PP contains the accusation.
 SIMPLE AND COMPLEX SENTENCES
Simple sentences are those sentences that contain a single main verb.
The dog frightened the cat. The man put the lamp on the table.
Complex sentences are thise that can be analysed as consisting of a number of simple
sentences.
John believes that Bill has married Mary.
As having the sentence Bill has married Mary embedded within the Matrix Sentence
John believes NP.
Constituent sentences of such types are called Subordinate Sentences.
 MARKERS FOR SUBORDINATION
Marker used for subordination are like:
Complementizers (that ), subordinating conjunctions (when, after…etc), infinitive
construction (Bill to go), and gerund construction (your smoking so much)
1. When Mary came into the room, John stood up.
2. After entering the room, John took off his coat.
3. John wanted Bill to go
4. I don’t like your smoking so much.