Verbs And Subjects Flashcards
Verbs are obligatory in a clause.
True or false
True
Does a clause have verbs in
Yes
Does a phrase have verbs in
No
Example of a verb phrase containing one verb
I booked a flight on line
Example of a verb phrase containing two or more verbs
I shouldn’t have been seeing him
When a VP has more than one verb, what will the verbs be
One verb will be lexical and the others will be auxiliary/ modal verbs to show tense, probability or question
What can verbs be inflected for
Person (she cooks every day)
Tense (she cooked yesterday)
Aspect (she was cooking all day yesterday)
What are the primary auxiliaries
Be have do
What do primary auxiliaries help to
Make questions
Make negations
Express a different tense/aspect
What is a lexical verb
Action
Modal verbs express ideas such as…
Permission, obligation, possibility, necessity, prediction
What is a noun phrase
Consist of a noun and all of its modifiers. Modifiers include adjectives, articles, participes, possessive nouns and pronouns but not verbs
What is an argument
An argument is a noun phrase bearing a specific grammatical or semantic relation to a verb and whose overt or implied presence is required for well formedness in structures containing that verb.
An argument is required by the verb (needed to be grammatical)
True
What is an adjunct
Superfluous, less connected to the event, freer in ordering, can be added to further specify any kind of compatible event
Are adjuncts obligatory
Never obligatory. The sentence is well formed although some additional information might be lost if the phrase is not there
Transitive verbs (eg want)
Take obligatory direct object arguments
Eg *i want vs i want a drink
2 arguments (subject and direct object)
Intransitive verbs eg fall
Not permitted to take direct object arguments
Eg im sneezing vs*im sneezing my nose
1 argument (subject)
Mixed verbs eg eat
May take an optional direct object argument but are not required to do so im eating vs im eating an apple
3 arguments (subject, direct object, and indirect object )
What are the 3 kinds of grammatical arguments
Subjects, direct objects, indirect objects
Subjects
-word order (pre verbal)
-nominative case (on pronouns)
-agreement with the verb
Direct objects
-word order (post verbal)
-accusative case (on pronouns)
-no agreement with the verb
Indirect objects
-word order (post verbal)
-dative case (on pronouns but same as accusative in English)
What is the subject?
The noun phrase
Subjects are obligatory
It’s the who/what of the actio
When can a noun phrase be replaced by a pronoun
In a nominative case
Agreement in regards to the subject
Subject agrees with the verb in number and person.
The cows are under the tree. The cow is under the tree
Movement/agreement in regards to subject
Subject inverts first auxilalry if there is one eg Rachel married john vs did Rachel marry john
Tag questions in regard to subject
subjects are duplicated and replaced by pronouns
Tom didn’t want to go on a skiing holiday did he?
Predicate
- Predicates tend to convey the majority of the information contained in a clause
- Predicates always contain a verb
- A property that a subject has or is characterised by
