Syntax II (Grammatical Relations, Syntax Patterns, Verb Phrase) Flashcards
grammatical relations
syntactic functions of phrases and clauses in a sentence
grammatical functions fulfilled by syntactic constituents
subject, predicator, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, object complement, adverbial
Predicator (P/V)
- the verb or group of verbs that forms the verbal core of a clause /sentence
- follows the subject in declarative sentences
Subject (S)
- the agent of the action expressed by the verb
- precedes the predicator in declarative sentences
- agrees with the verb in person and number
- pronouns occur in subject case
- typically expressed by a NP
- except for imperative sentences the subject slot always needs to be filled
Direct object (Od)
- usually the person/thing affected by the action described by the verb
- follows the predicator
- pronouns occur in object case
- typically expressed by a NP
Indirect object (Oi)
- typically, the “recipient” of the entity expressed by the direct object
- occurs between the predicator and the direct object
- pronouns have object case
- usually expressed by a NP
Complement
- serves to assign a property to the subject or to the object
- subject complement (Cs): e.g. Einstein was a genius. (≠ direct object)
- object complement (Co): e.g. I declare this exhibition open.
- usually expressed by a NP or AP
Adverbial
- indicates time, place, manner, purpose, cause etc.
- several adverbials can occur in one clause
- often optional, structurally dispensable constituents (“adjuncts”) in the sentence periphery, i.e. when deleted, the sentence is still well-formed
- sometimes required by the verb and therefore obligatory in these cases
- typically expressed by an AdvP or a PP
The 7 basic clause patterns of English
SV
SVO
SVC
SVA
SVOO
SVOC
SVOA
Grammatical relations in complex sentences
- whole clauses can function as subject, object, complement or adverbial
→ Subject clauses, object clauses and complement clauses can be subsumed under the label of nominal clauses (because they have syntactic functions similar to those of NPs).
→ Adverbial clauses are usually introduced by subordinating conjunctions
Semantic roles
express the meaning relations between the constituents of a sentence with respect to the action or state described by the verb
Agent
one who deliberately
performs an action
Patient
person or thing that
undergoes an action
Recipient
(typically animate) endpoint
of a transferred item
Benefactive
person or thing to whose
benefit the action occurs
Experiencer
person that perceives something
Goal
place to which an action is directed
Time
time of the action
Location/Place
place of the action
Instrument
means by which an action is performed
inversion
pattern can only be reversed in interrogative sentences or subject follows the finite verb (Did you know? Never have I laughed like this.)
Valency
ability of a verb to open a specific number and type of syntactic slots that must/can be filled by the “arguments” of the verb
intransitive verbs
require only one argument (a subject) → monovalent
transitive verbs
subject + min. one more argument → direct object (John wrote/read/forgot the message) → can be passivized (The message was written by John) →
monotransitive/divalent
trivalent
either require an:
- additional indirect object (ditransitive verbs)
- object complement (complex-trans.)
- object adverbial (complex-trans.)
many English verbs can be used transitively or intransitively
transitive verbs → intransitively by leaving the second required argument implicit (Mary was
eating; John writes)
intransitive verbs → transitively (The policemen stood the bank robbers against the wall; She
ran a horse in the derby.)
Avalent verbs & dummy subjects
- semantically speaking, verbs of natural phenomena (rain, snow)
- don’t require any arguments, i.e. they have a valency of zero
→ English does not allow sentences without a subject → subject slot is filled by a semantically empty placeholder, the dummy subject it
Copula verb
- linking verb → links the subject with its complement (SVC)
- main copula in English: be
- other verbs: become, remain,
seem, appear, look, feel, get, turn, grow and sound
Multiword Verbs - Phrasal verbs
- consist of a verb and a particle that form a single semantic unit, e.g. wake up (intransitive)
Multiword Verbs - Prepositional verbs
- consist of a verb and a preposition e.g. stare at
- have a meaning that can be deduced from the verb alone
- always transitive but (unlike phrasal verbs) never separable
Multiword Verbs - Phrasal-prepositional verbs
- consist of a verb followed by a particle and a preposition e.g. get away with
- their meaning is not fully compositional
- always transitive
Structure of the English verb
phrase
- modular structure with a max. of five verb forms, which occur in a rigid order
- each auxiliary determines the
form of the following verb - predicate = main verb + partners
- every auxiliary determines the form of the verb following
modal auxiliaries + bare infinitive
perfect have + past participle (V-ed)
progressive be + present participle (V-ing)
passive be + past particple (V-ed)
Subclasses of Auxiliaries - Primary auxiliaries (be, have, do)
- be: compulsory for marking the grammatical categories of passive voice and progressive as-
pect - have: compulsory for marking the grammatical category perfect
- do: compulsory in negation, question formation, emphasis and ellipsis when no other auxil-
iary is present
Subclasses of Auxiliaries - Modal auxiliaries
- can, could, may, might, must, shall, should etc.
Subclasses of Auxiliaries - semi-auxiliaries
- be going to, have to, (had) better and used to
- distinction between main verb and auxiliary is not always clear-cut
Tense
- grammatical category that locates an event in time
- three basic dimensions of tense: past, present and future
Tense - Past
- form: marked by the inflectional morpheme {-ed}
- meaning: expresses events that occurred prior to the time of speaking
Tense - Non-past
- form: unmarked or {-s} (3rd person singular)
- meaning: expresses events occurring at the time of speaking, but also future-time events;
Aspect
- grammatical category that indicates the internal temporal makeup of an event and how an
event unfolds over time - e.g. an activity may be viewed as progressive through time (I was sleeping) or as bound without any reference to its temporal flow (I slept)
Perfect
- formed by have + past participle (V-ed)
- grammatical category that combines features of both aspect and tense
- locates an event in time prior to another event
Active voice
- the grammatical subject is usually the agent of the action designated by the main verb
Passive voice
- form: be + past participle (V-ed)
- the direct object (= the patient) of the active sentence is promoted to subject position
- the logical subject (= the agent) is demoted to an adjust: the by-phrase
- the get-passive is a more informal alternative e.g. John got fired.
Mood and Modality
allow to express hypothetical events, necessities, possibilities, beliefs etc.
Mood
- inflectional grammatical category
- comprises: indicative (He leaves alone) , imperative (Leave me alone), subjunctive (If I were rich)
Modality
- can be expressed by modal auxiliaries. can, may, must
Tree Diagrams - Phrase Structure Trees
- sequential order of constituents
- elements: nodes & branches
→ branch nodes: carrying syntactic category labels (NP, VP,…)
→ leaf nodes: carrying words (“terminal nodes”) - superordinated nodes = “parent/mother nodes”
- subordinated nodes = “children/daugter”
tree as a whole = representation of the syntactic structure of the sentence
