Lecture 2 The of the Sentence

Lecture 2

The of the Sentence

1.      Complete Sentence

2.      Elliptical sentence

3.      Unfinished Sentence

4.      Non –clauses

1.      Expresses a complete thought and is grammatically complete sentences are called Complete Sentence.

2.      Elliptical sentences are incomplete sentences, but they are perfectly normal and acceptable. They are subject to rules. For example: while Did I is an acceptable response by speaker. Elliptical sentences are particularly common in spoken dialogue and in written representations of dialogue.

3.      Unfinished Sentences are not rule– governed. Speakers may fail to complete a sentence for a variety of reasons. For example, they may restart a sentence to correct themselves, or they may become nervous, excited, or hesitant, or they may lose the thread of what they are saying, or they may be interrupted by another speaker.

Ex: Right Friday morning I will I am supposed to go see Mrs.  Girlock

      Well you put it uh yeah you put it here.

Grammars, therefore, cannot account for them. There are equivalents of unfinished sentences in writing, but writers have the opportunity to complete them or to delete them in process of writing or at the later stage of editing.

4.      Many utterances in speech are not analyzable in terms of clause structures. They are complete in themselves, but they are non-clauses. Most of the non-clausal items, as well as others, may be used primarily as reactions to previous utterances to convey sentiments such as agreement, disagreement, acceptance, refusal, reservation, surprise. Yes, sure, oh, that’s true, that’s right, I see et. Other non-clausal utterances that commonly occur in conversation include greeting hello, good afternoon, happy birthday etc. 

THE CONSTITUENTS OF SENTENCES

The main and Secondary Parts of the Sentence

THE BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURE

The basic structures have two obligatory constituents: a subject and a verb, denoted by the symbols SV. Ex:  [1]. All the flowers (S) have disappeared (V) 

              [2]. The enemy tanks (S) are retreating (V)

              [3]. You (S) should be working (V)

              [4]. All my friends (S) laughed. (V)

       

The Verb of the Sentence takes the form of a verb phrase. The verb phrase consists of one or more auxiliaries (or auxiliary verb) plus the main verb, which is the head of the verb phrase. The main verbs in [1]-[4] are disappeared, retreating, working and laughed. It is the main verb that determines which constituents may follow it, and these constituents are the complements of the verb. In [1] – [4] there are no complements.

        The types of complements are:

Direct object  O

Indirect object  O

Subject predicative P

Object predicative P

The Complements are discussed in later sections. They are exemplified in the sentence bellow:

[5] I (S) hate (V) this noise (O).

[6] The idea (S) could make (V) her (O) a fortune (O).

[7] The party treasurer (S) is (V) very hospitable (P).

[8] They (S) drove (V) us (O) crazy (P).

        Traditionally, sentences have also been divided into two parts: the subject and the predicate. The predicate consists of the verb and its complements, and also most adverbials. Excluded from the predicate are sentence adverbials, which point to logical links with what precedes in this example: Nevertheless (A), he is driving his father’s car. Or express a comment by the speaker or writer. Example: Frankly (A), he is driving me mad.

Subject

 The Subject has a number of characteristics, two of which we have seen. Here is a list of the major characteristics:

1.      In declaratives, the subject normally comes before the verb:

[1] I (S) might go (V) back to Cambridge early.

It need not come immediately before the verb, since an adverbial may intervene:

[2] I (S) just (A) remembered (V) the letter.

2.  In interrogatives, the subject generally comes after the operator, the verb used for forming interrogatives ; the rest of the verb phrase (if it consist of more than the operator) follows the subject. In the examples, the operator is indicated by ‘V’ and the rest of the verb phrase (if any) by ‘V’;

[3] Are (V) they (S) aware your views?

[4] What did (V) you (S) get (V) out of it?

[5] Is (V) everything (S) being changed (V)?

There is no change in the declarative order in wh- interrogatives if the interrogative wh-expression is itself the subject:

[6] Who (S) did (V) most of the driving?

[7] What (S) made (V) them angry?

[8] What sort of physical activities (S) were (V) available?

3. In second person imperatives (the most common type), the subject you is normally omitted:

[9] Turn (V) it off.

4. The verb agrees in number and person with the subject where the verb has distinctive forms in the present or past tense:

[10] I (S) am (V) in sympathy with her position.

[11] We (S) are (V) very concerned about you.

[12] All their children (S) were (V) in good shape.

[13] He (S) seems (V) nervous.

The agreement applies only to the first verb phrase if there is more than one:

[14] Your friends (S) are being (V) bitchy.

5. The subject decides the form of a reflexive pronoun (e.g myself, herself, themselves) functioning as the object, when the subject and object refer to the same person or things:

[15] You (S) can cut yourself.

[16] They (S) washed themselves.

6. Some pronouns have a distinctive form when they function as subject (3, 18)

[17] She (S) is at college, so you can’t see her now.

[18] We (S) very rarely worked with them, though they contact us sometimes. She and we are subjective forms, contrasting with her and us.

7. When we change an active sentence into a passive sentence (3, 12) we change the subjects:

[19] The young producer (S) proved all the critics wrong.

[19a] All the critics (S) were proved wrong by the young producer.

8. In an active sentence that expresses the notion of an agent (‘doer of the action’), the agentive role is taken by the subject:

[20] My aunt (S) gave me a mover for my wedding.

Lecture 4

COMPLEMENTS AND ADVERBIALS

We have so far encountered five basic structures: SV, SVO, SVOO, SVP, SVOP.  The constant constituents are the subject and the verb. The other constituents are the complements of a verb: direct object, indirect object, subject predicative, and object predicative. Complements of the verb can be clauses as well as phrases.

        The basic structures can be expanded by adverbials, which are optional constituents of the sentence. They are not complements, because their occurrence is not dependent on the main verb in the sentence. They are optional in the sense that the sentence remains well formed when they are omitted. However they are usually important information ally in the context, and in that sense they cannot be omitted without damaging the communication.  Here are some examples of adverbials (A) that show their informational value. The examples also illustrate the possibility for more than one adverbial to occur in a sentence.

[1] It was quite a nice do otherwise (A)

[2] I met a girl on the train (A) today (A)

[3] In the summer (A) you can take a car and four people for a hundred and twenty pounds (A)

[4] You need a lot of strength in the right hand (A)

[5] Well (A) presumably (A) she called him

        Adverbials are usually adverbs (e.g presumably in 5), prepositional phrase (e.g on the train in [2]), or clauses (cf. 6.13f.). They also be noun phrases:

[6] I had a really good supper last night (A)

[7] Give me a warning next time (A)

[8] In the ‘ good old days’ our great – great- grandmothers walked several miles (A) to the village, […]

[9] Oh Cath was in this afternoon […] (A)

        Some constituents that resemble adverbials semantically are complements, since they are obligatory and are dependent on the main verb. These are predicatives (P). For example last night in [10] is required to complete the sentence, unlike last night in [6]:

[10] Our committee meeting (S) was (V) last night (P).

In [10], the subject predicative completes a sentence beginning with a subject and a verb. The basic structure of the sentence is SVP, Similarly, in [11] the object predicative is an adverb:

[11] […] yeah you put it (O) here

Elsewhere here may be an adverbial, but in [11] it is object predicative that is required to complete the sentence. The basic structure of [11] is SVOP.

        The five basic structures are listed below in full:

SV           Subject + Verb

SVO        Subject + Verb + Direct or Indirect Object

SVOO    Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object

SVP        Subject + Verb + Subject Predicative

SVOP     Subject + Verb + Direct Object + Object Predicative

Here are examples of the five structures:

[12] My glasses (S) have disappeared (V)

[13] Our country (S) is absorbing (V) + many refugees (O)

[14] I (S) am sending (V) you (O) an official letter of complaint (O)

[15] The water – bed (S) was (V) very comfortable (P).

[16] I (S) have made (V) my position (O) clear (P)

  

     

Lecture 3

Subject predicative

So far we have seen three basic structures: SV, SVO, SVOO.  They are exemplified in [1]-  [3];

[1]. My glasses (S) have disappeared (V).

[2]. Our country (S) is absorbing (V) many refugees (O).

[3]. I (S) am sending (V) you (O) an official letter of complaint (O).

In [1] the main verb disappeared is intransitive, whereas in [2] and [3] the main verbs absorbing and sending are transitive. Absorbing in [2] has one complement: the direct object; sending in [3] has two complements; the indirect object and the direct object.

        Some verbs are neither intransitive (without any complement), nor transitive (accompanied by one or two objects as complements). Such verbs are copular (or linking) verbs. The most common copular verb is be. The