Grammar I

Mg. Analía Esquerré

 Lexical categories

So far, so good? Grammatical categories

Phrases
Building trees

Hierarchy

Branches

Nodes

Intermediate nodes

Relationships:

• Sister

• Daughter / mother
Let’s practice!

• They saw the lights • The rabbit planted carrots.

 Subject and predicate

Functions Complements

Van Gelderen Verbs and functions

Ch.4 Trees

Light verbs
Four basic functions

1.- Subject Complements

2.- Predicate • Direct object

3.- Complement
• Indirect object
4.- Adverbial
• Subject predicate

• Object predicate
Subject and predicate

S= NP + VP

Subject tests (See table 4.1)

Complements: direct and indirect object

Direct object Indirect object

- Usually a NP
- Sister to the verb
- Subject in a passive construction
- Transitive verbs
- Goal or beneficiary
- Passivized
- Preceded by “to” (goal) or “for”
(beneficiary)
- Ditransitive verbs
Complements: subject and object predicate

Subject predicate Object predicate

- Usually an AdjP or NP or PP
- About the subject
- After verb “be” or “become”
- Other verbs: “feel”, “look”,
“grow”, “smell”
(see table 4.3)
- Usually an AdjP, or NP or PP
- About a direct object
- Verbs with DO and OP
(see table 4.4)
Verbs and functions

Transitive

- (Mono) transitive

- Ditransitive

Intransitive

Copula verbs

Complex

(See table 4.5)

Time to practise! Ex. C / D / E / F / H / J