Syntactic functions
1. Definition: A syntactic function is the grammatical
relationship of one constituent to another within a syntactic
construction.
(Crystal, 1985:129)
2. Grammatical relations are structurally defined as relations
between words in phrases and clauses
3. Syntactic function
= grammatical relationship
= grammatical function
= grammatical role
Syntactic functions
1. Subject
2. Predicate
3. Object
4. Complement
5. Attribute
6. Adjunct
Syntactic functions
SUBJECTS PREDICATE
ATTRIBUTES OBJECTS
COMPLEMENTS
ADJUNCTS
The Subject
1. Definitions
“The subject is the topic, or what is being spoken about.”
(Le, H. T., et al, 2015)
“The subject is the who or what that the sentence is about.
The subject is usually whatever or whoever is doing the
action of the verb.”
(Wendy & James, 2020)
2. E.g.:
My sister took me home last night.
The Subject - Features
1. The subject is a main part of a sentence.
My boss / gave me instructions to do this report.
2. The subject controls the predicate.
His brother told me the truth.
3. The subject is always a noun, a noun phrase, or a group of words
that functions as a noun.
Books are our true friends.
Those books are good for you.
Learning the syntactic function is important.
Subject
4. The subject normally precedes the verb in declaratives, but follows the auxiliary
in questions.
The boy runs fast.
Have you met that girl?
5. The subject is normally absent in imperatives.
Help me!
6. The subject will be changed when turning an active sentence into a passive
one.
My brother bought a new car.
A new car was bought by my brother.
Subject It (Impersonal pronoun)
1. Why is It called impersonal pronoun?
2. What are its roles?
The empty subject It
1. The empty subject
It is 3 o’clock now.
The empty subject It
The empty subject expresses
- time
- weather
- temperature
- distance
- the tides
- environment
- present situation
- the structure with since
- the structure with say
- the structure with take
The preparatory/introductory subject It
2. Preparatory / Introductory subject
Discussion
Talking to him is very interesting.
Introductory/ Dummy subject There
1. There is a meeting this week.
2. There followed a frozen silence!
There + be/ linking verbs + N/NP.
There has no content.
There is an introductory/a dummy
subject because it introduces new
information.
N/NP is a notional subject
The Subject - Means of expression
The subject can be expressed by:
1. a word
He comes.
2. a phrase
The man invited me to his party.
3. a clause
That she passed the entrance exam makes everyone happy.
The Subject - Means of expression
The subject clause can be expressed by:
1. that
That he didn’t come made me sad.
2. wh-word (+ how)
Why he didn’t come is my question.
3. whether
Whether he loves her is my question.
The Predicate
1. Definition
“The predicate is what is “predicated” (or said to be
true) about the subject.”
(Le, H. T., et al, 2015)
2. E.g.
He took me home last night.
The Predicate - Features
1. The predicate is a main part of a sentence.
My brother / is taking a nap at this moment.
2. The predicate is controlled by the subject.
She waters the flowers every day.
3. The predicate consists of the verb and any other elements of
the sentence apart from the subject.
I love this song much.
4. Every sentence needs at least one verb.
I need to leave now.
She has been working as a lecturer for 20 years.
The Predicate - Means of expression
The predicate can be expressed by:
1. a word
It rains.
2. a phrase
Mary dances very beautifully.
The Object
“The object is a person or thing toward
which the subject directs the process
spoken of in the verb.”
Definition (Le, H. T., et al, 2015)
He gives me roses every day.
The Object - Features
1. The object is the receiver of an action.
2. The object goes after a transitive verb in the active sentence.
The term transitive comes from the notion that a person
(represented by the subject of the sentence) performs an action
that affects a person or thing: there is a ‘transition’ of the action
from the one to the other.
The Object - Classification
1. Direct object
2. Indirect object
3. Prepositional object
The direct object
1. The direct object receives the action of the verb.
2. The direct object is affected directly by the action.
3. The sentence can have the direct object only without the
indirect object.
4. E.g.:
I threw the ball at him.
We ate pizza last night.
The indirect object
1. The indirect object refers to people/things that benefit the
action.
2. The indirect object comes between the verb and the direct
object.
He gave his lover roses.
3. A sentence cannot have the indirect object only without the
direct object.
Mum baked me a cake.
The prepositional object
(The object of a preposition)
Discussion
Analyze the use of highlighted words in the following
sentences.
1. Come in.
2. Turn off the light.
3. My mum asked me to look after the baby when she is out.
4. His dog went for the postman this morning.
The Object - Means of expression
The object can be expressed by:
1. a word
He gave me his love.
2. a phrase
He gave me his love.
3. a clause
He doesn’t know who I am.
The Complement
“The complement can be defined as a sentence element that gives
further information about the subject or the object.”
(Le, H. T., et al, 2015)
E.g.:
1. He is nice.
2. He makes me happy.
The Complement - Classification
2 types
1. The subject complement (Predicative)
2. The object complement
The Complement - Classification
The subject complement The object complement
(Predicative)
E.g.: E.g.:
He is nice. He makes me happy.
Linking verbs
1. Link verb is a verb which can go
with one adjective.
2. Link verbs = Linking verbs =
Copula(r) verbs
3. Classification
- The verb BE
- The group of BE-like verbs:
taste, stand, feel, prove, act, look,
sound, become, grow, etc.
The Predicative vs. The Predicate
The Predicative The Predicate
1. He seems happy. 2. He seems happy.
Positions of the complement
1. He is nice.
2. He made me happy.
The Complement - Means of expression
The complement can be expressed by:
1. a word
She is nice.
2. a phrase
She is my wife.
3. a clause
My question is who she is.
Attribute
The attribute refers “to a word, a phrase or
even a clause that functions like an
attributive adjective, i.e.” and modifies “the
meaning of a noun in the sentence”.
Definition
(Le, H. T., et al, 2015)
E.g.:
1. He is a good man.
2. I have something special for you.
3. The girl talking to me is nice.
4. The girl who is talking to me is nice.
The attribute vs. The predicative
1. This is a good book. 2. This book is good for children.
The Attribute vs. The Complement
The good man will make me good.
The Attribute - Means of expression
The attribute can be expressed by:
1. a word
He is a good man.
2. a phrase
He is a very good man.
3. a clause
The man who is talking to her is very generous.
The Adjunct (The Adverbial modifier)
The adjunct adds “to the meaning of a
verb” in the sentence “by telling
how, when, where, etc., something
happens or is done”.
Definition
(Le, H. T., et al, 2015)
E.g.:
1. He loves me madly.
2. She spoke in a soft voice.
3. They visit me when they have
free time.
The Adjunct - Means of expression
The adjunct can be expressed by:
1. a word
It rained heavily.
2. a phrase
It rained very heavily.
3. a clause
When it stops raining, I will go out.
Note: There are 9 types of adverbial clauses.
9 types of adverbial clauses
1. The adverbial clause of time
When he came here, it was very dark.
2. The adverbial clause of place
You can camp everywhere you like to.
3. The adverbial clause of manner
It sounds as if the situation will become worse.
4. The adverbial clause of comparison
He worked much better than I had hoped.
9 types of adverbial clauses
5. The adverbial clause of reason/ cause
We decided to cancel our picnic because the weather was bad.
6. The adverbial clause of result
The weather was so bad that we decided to cancel our picnic.
7. The adverbial clause of purpose
He is studying very hard so that he can pass the exam easily.
8. The adverbial clause of concession
Although he knew the danger, he still came into the house.
9. The adverbial clause of condition
If I had known the truth, I would have told you.