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Study Guide II—English 302

Chapter 5—Structure-class words Part I.

INTRODUCTION: Structure-class words, typically called function items/words, include classes
determiners, pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliaries (or auxiliary verbs), and (verb) particles.
This section covers only determiners, auxiliaries (including modals), and pronouns.
Unlike content words, function words are not names of things, actions, attributes, or
anything similar. They have specific functions in a sentence or clause. Because they generally
go with content items, they typically do not stand alone (with the exception of pronouns, which
replace entire noun phrases and have no independent meanings of their own). They are said to
express relational meanings (indicating the meaningful relationships among words). For
example, prepositions and conjunctions of various kinds function to link ideas by joining
individual words and various word groups together. In the sentence, “The book is on the table,”
the underlined portion indicates a physical or spatial relationship between the book and the table.
The preposition on, therefore, expresses a relational meaning. In this particular case, the word
on would be meaningless if it stood alone: “The book is on…” (Of course, sometimes on has a
completely different function and meaning—see particles.) Function words may also indicate
abstract, difficult-to-define concepts (e.g., determiners and modals), and they may be required
for grammatical reasons. What does the word of mean in the following sentence?
(a) John showed Mary a picture of his mother.
(b) He was dependent on many different people and things.
In (a), the preposition on is required by the adjective dependent. No other preposition can go
there. In addition, it does not have the same MEANING as on in the sentence “The book is on the
table.” All in all, function words are a diverse group.

5.1 Determiners—they include words like the articles of English, a/n and the. The main
function of determiners as a group is to co-occur with nouns (in construction of noun phrases),
and to express such contrasts as quantity and number. In English, determiners occupy a position
(sometimes called slot) before the nouns with which they occur and precede any/all adjectives
(or article position), at the leftmost edge of the noun phrases: the tall Chinese gentleman. There
are several kinds of determiners:
(i) articles: e.g., the definite article the, and indefinite article a (an).
(ii) demonstratives: singular this/that and plural these/those.
(iii) quantifiers (in degrees): few, some, any, several, many, all, each, every.
(iv) possessives (sometimes called possessive adjectives or possessive pronouns): my, your,
his, her, its (notice, no apostrophe), our, their.
(v) numerals: one, two, three…

5.2 Auxiliary (verbs)—these include and do, have, and be and the nine modals (will/would,
shall/should, can/could, may/might, must). All auxiliaries are subordinate to the main verb and
express such abstract concepts as Aspect (be for progressive and have for perfect), Modality (the
modals that express intention, possibility, ability, permission, obligation, etc.), and in negation
(do, as in “I do not enjoy skiing”). The modals are distinctive because they never receive the
3PSPT –s, and they do not require the word “to” when followed by a main verb. For example,
(c) I must, you must, he must (no –s)
(d) I should go now (no to), and he wants to leave, too.
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CONCEPT MODAL EXAMPLES

intention: will I will do my homework.
past of WILL; condition would I would visit (pst); I would if…(con)
futurity, command shall You shall stop that!
obligation, necessity, or probability: should You should study more
ability: can He can play the piccolo.
past and conditional of CAN could He couldn’t help me.
possibility, permission may May I go to the…?
past of MAY; less possibility might That might happen, but…
obligation (required, compelled to) must You must obey the rules or risk…

The modals are very important in making “hedges,” when we have some doubt about the factual
nature of a sentence (This may be true…). In this respect, modals are connected to Mood in
English (e.g., subjunctive versus indicative mood). Auxiliaries are the elements that are involved
(they move) in question formation (“Can you help me?”), the process of subject-aux inversion
(discussed in later chapters). Note: ought, need, and want are not modals; they all require to.
The verbs to be, to do, and to have can be both, main verbs and auxiliary verbs.
(e) I am a happy man.
(f) I am writing my memoirs.
In example (e), the form am is the main verb; it is the only verbal form in the sentence. In
example (f), it is the auxiliary be used in the formation of the progressive aspect (be + V-ing).
Do and have can also be either main verbs or auxiliaries:
(g) Make sure you do your homework.
(h) Did you do your homework.
(i) I think that I have some money in my wallet.
(j) I have had enough fun for one class.
In (g), the verb do is the main verb; there is no other verb form in that sentence. However, in (h),
the verb form did, the past-tense form, is the auxiliary. Notice, there are two dos in that
sentence. Similarly, (i) shows the main verb have (which has the sense of “possess”), and in (j),
the first form of have is the auxiliary, and the second form is the main verb. The first have does
not mean the same as the second one (which is the past participle form). The two together, have
+ past participle, express the perfect aspect—a completed action at an indefinite time in the past.
Characteristics of the copula are worth noting. First, it is irregular in the sense that it has
different forms for each person, singular and plural. Second, it can be either the main verb (in
types II–IV) or Aux when used in either progressive aspect or in the passive formation. When it
is the Aux, make sure to look for the main verb representing the principle activity of the
sentence. If the copula is used to help mark progressive, the verb form that follows is the
PRESENT PARTICIPLE; it will have the –ing suffix. In the passive, the following verb form will be
the [-en] form, the PAST PARTICIPLE. The copula is often difficult or impossible to translate.
Some languages have no copula (Arabic, Vietnamese), and some have more than one (Spanish).

5.3 Pronouns—The pronoun system of English has preserved important distinctions of

person (1st, 2nd, 3rd), number (singular and plural), case based on their functions (i.e.,
position) in a sentence and gender (for instance, masculine and feminine) on third-person,
singular pronouns (e.g., he, him, his and she, her, hers). As a result, the forms of the pronouns
are determined by case (and gender). For example, the forms must be in the subjective case
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(when they are the subjects of a sentence), objective (when they are direct or indirect objects or
the objects prepositions), or possessive (genitive) when they are the possessors of persons or
things (entities). For example:
(k) He loves Mary. (He is the subject of the sentence, and is, therefore, in subjective
case.)
(l) Mary loves him. (Mary is the subject, and the object of the verb love is him, in
objective case).
(m) John said, “That book is mine.” (The pronoun mine expresses first-person,
singular, possessive case; it replaces the NP John’s, which has the possessive
marker ’s.)
Pronouns are traditionally defined as words which stand in the place of nouns. However, they
can replace single (singular) proper nouns (John) and common nouns (people), and/or entire
noun phrases, as in the following examples:
(n) John loves Mary. (The correct pronoun for John is third-person, singular,
masculine he, which is the subjective case—the pronoun him would be right in
every way except for case.)
(o) People love Mary. (Substitute they—third-person, plural, subjective case.)
(p) The tall Chinese gentleman loves Mary. (The correct pronoun would be he, once
again.)
Note: It would not be possible for he to substitute for the noun man, only. That would produce
the rather silly-sounding sentence in (i), below (which gets the *, as well).
*(q) The tall Chinese he loves Mary.
The pronoun would have to substitute for the noun and all the words that go with it (which
constitute the noun phrase that is the grammatical subject of the sentence). This would produce
(r) He loves Mary. (He substitutes for The tall Chinese gentleman.)
Note of the following:
(s) John loves the beautiful young cosmonaut.
To substitute a pronoun for the NP the beautiful young cosmonaut, one would have to select the
third-person, singular, feminine pronoun her, which is the objective-case form. This is because
the NP is the grammatical object of the sentence, of the verb love. The subjective form she
would not be grammatical (*John loves she). The correct form would be
(t) John loves her.
Reflexive pronouns are pronouns that end in –self or –selves. One warning with this type
of pronoun is that there are nonstandard usages that can be quite attractive (they must be avoided
in formal, written English). For example, the first-person singular is myself, but the first-person
plural is ourselves (not *ourself).
(u) They said we could help ourselves.
Also, the second-person reflexives, unlike regular pronouns, express plural, when used to address
more than one person.
(v) Help yourselves!
But, when addressing only one person, it must be
(w) Help yourself!
The third-person reflexives also express singular and plural distinctions.
(x) I think he hurt himself.
(y) They just let themselves in; the front door was unlocked.
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The following forms are always nonstandard, and, therefore, wrong according to the rules of
SAE: *hisself, and *themself.
In sum, pronouns appear to be a complicated subclass of function words. They express
many concepts all at once, person, number, case, and sometimes gender.

KEY TERMS:
adpositions, auxiliaries (auxiliary verbs), borrowing, closed class, conjunctions,
demonstratives, determiners, feminine, genitive, masculine, modals, nominative, numerals,
objective (case), open class, particles, possessives, postpositions, prepositions, pronouns,
quantifiers, reflexive, subjective (case).

STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Explain what a pronoun is. Does it only stand in the place of nouns? How come?
2. List the nine modals. How do they differ from all other verbal forms?

Chapter 6—Structure-class words, Part II

INTRODUCTION: In part II, adpositions (prepositions and postpositions), particles, and various
kinds of conjunctions. As you can see, prepositions illustrate much of what was said about
function words. For example, they link ideas, and they have relational meanings. Particles are
perhaps more idiomatic, and because they are one part of so-called “two-part verbs,” their
meanings are sometimes difficult to master.

6.1 Adpositions—which include prepositions and postpositions. In English, they precede

their accompanying noun phrases (pre-positions), while in languages like Japanese, they follow
their noun phrases (post-positions). They generally indicate relational meanings (indicating the
relationship of one noun phrase to another), and express location in space or time (the words in
italics make up prepositional phrases).
(a) The book is on the table. (The relational meaning is the location of the book
relative to table).
(b) Let’s meet in the morning. (There is a temporal relation between the act of
meeting and morning.)
In both (a) and (b), the prepositions introduce a noun phrase that indicates some sort of location,
but prepositions may have additional functions. They may be required by specific content items
(e.g., different from, interested in, to depend on…), in which case, their definitions will be very
abstract and somewhat difficult to specify. They may also indicate the specific kinds of roles
that participants in a sentence my play (persons and things). For example,
(c) The book was written by Albert Einstein.
(d) Mary hit her thumb with a hammer.
In both (c) and (d), the underlined groups of words are prepositional phrases consisting of a
preposition and a noun phrase (P + NP). The preposition by in (n) indicates who wrote the book
(the doer of the action represented by the main verb), and, in (o), the preposition indicates the
thing (or instrument) that Mary used to hit her thumb. There will be more on prepositions later.
In addition, prepositional phrases can function just like adjectives (adjectival phrases),
giving additional information about a noun (or NP); and, they can function as adverbs (adverbial
phrases). In the following examples, pay attention to how the PPs function:
(e) The man with the long hair constantly combed his beard.
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(f) She had an accident at the market.

In example (e), the PP “with the long hair” tells us what kind (of man), and it is descriptive of the
man. Prepositional phrases that are adjectival always immediately follow the noun they go with;
they cannot be moved. Like simple adjectives, however, they give additional details about the
noun they accompany, and they can be omitted without changing the overall meaning of the
sentence. In (q), the PP answers the question where the event depicted by the verb occurred.
And, just like simple adverbs, it can move to the front of the sentence.
As a closed class, the prepositions of English can be listed; they will neither increase nor
decrease in number, e.g., about, after, against, among, around, at, before, beneath, between,
down, during, from, in, of, off, on, over, since, through, under, until, and with.

6.2 Particles—look like prepositions, but they go with a verb and not with a noun or noun
phrase. They go together with corresponding verbs (called two-part verbs) to express a single
concept that often can be paraphrased with a single verb: e.g., to throw up can be expressed with
the Latin-derived vomit. The key is that particles can move around (a process called particle
movement), within limits. Syntactically, they do not introduce prepositional phrases.
(g) Please turn down that awful music.
(h) Please turn that awful music down.

6.3 Conjunctions—there are two kinds of conjunctions (conjoiners), coordinating and

subordinating. Coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but, and for in English) link two items
(words, phrases, or clauses) that are grammatically equal, e.g., “This and that”, “My friend or my
brother,” “He loves her, but she doesn’t love him.” This particular kind of word seems to be
fairly universal—most languages of the world either have an individual word or affix of some
kind to indicate the concepts represented. As a result, they are somewhat exceptional among
function words, and they are usually easy to translate.
Subordinating conjunctions (subordinators) link clauses (not individual words) that are
not grammatically equal. One is dependent on the other. They include words such as because,
since, until, before, though, although, even though, and so on.
There are other words that function (act like or serve the same purpose) as subordinators.
For example, the complementizer that serves to link dependent clauses (e.g., nominal that
clauses and relative clauses) its main clause, as in (r), below:
(i) [I believe] [that you are an intelligent person.]
MAIN CLAUSE DEPENDENT CLAUSE
Both underlined portions are clauses (they each have a subject and predicate), but the second
one, the dependent clause (beginning with that) cannot stand alone. It does, however complete
the sentence and answers the question “What do I believe?”

6.4 Relatives and interrogatives

A relative pronoun (who, whom, whose, which, that) has characteristics of both a
pronoun (it is pronominal) and subordinating conjunction (it links clauses). Some points
regarding usage are worth pointing out. The differences between who and whom, for example,
relate to subjective and objective case. (It is true that in informal spoken English, whom is dying
out, so there is a lot of confusion where and when to use it. There is an expression that may
work in this case: “When in doubt, leave it out.” It seems to be worse to put whom where it does
not belong then to put who where whom would be preferred by the prescriptivists.) The relative
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whose is the possessive case (“Whose book is this?”). (See Section 10.3 for explanation or
relative clauses.)
(j) The boy who fled the scene was obviously guilty.
In (j), the relative who stands for “the boy,” and it introduces a clause that adds information
about the boy (it is adjectival). It must be in subjective case because it stands for the NP that is
the subject of the sentence. However, in the following examples, the formal, SAE form would
be whom or whomever.
(k) To whom it may concern. (object of the preposition)
(l) You can give this to whomever you like.
(m) Whoever thought of this was an idiot.
Whom corresponds to the pronoun him in objective case. Whenever an expression or phrase can
take “him,” the correct relative would be whom. (Whose corresponds to his.)
(n) She loves him! She loves whom!
But, as you may sense, whom may feel a wee bit formal.
(o) *Whom, shall I say, is calling?
In this final example, whom is clearly incorrect. If we remove the phrase “shall I say,” we are
left with
(p) *Whom is calling.
This corresponds to “Him is calling,” which is an error.

Interrogatives are typically referred to as Wh-words or question words. They introduce

questions, but sometimes they behave in similar ways to relative pronouns. They form a longer
list, including who, whom, whose, which, what, where, why, when, and how. (See Section 10.2
for explanation of subordinate clauses.) A couple of examples will suffice for now.
(q) Who left the door open?
(r) I wonder who left the door open.
The example in (q) is a direct question, and it receives the appropriate question mark. However,
the underlined clause in (r) is not a question. That is why there is no question mark. This is
known as an “indirect question” or indirect discourse (discussed later). The entire sentence is a
statement, and the clause explains what it is that I was wondering. It is acting as a direct object.

6.5 Content and function items/words compared: OPEN vs. CLOSED classes.
Content words such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs share many characteristics.
For one thing, they are typically (1) quite easy to translate from one language to another. For
instance, if you want to find out how to say the word book in Spanish, you can go to a translation
dictionary and find the word libro. They also (2) have a dictionary meaning, that is some sort of
content. The form (what the word sounds or looks like) refers to something that is generally
tangible, visible, audible, or somehow imageable (you can form a mental image of it). The form
can be linked directly to a concept and back again from concept to form. It can be represented
with a picture, for example, or an explanation of some kind (using concepts that are known). So,
if I hear the word book, I know that it refers to a specific object that has a cover, pages, and so
on. When I see such an object, I know what to call it—a book. The same goes for actions
(verbs), attributes (adjectives), and so on. In addition, (3) if a new word is added to a language,
or an old one is lost, it is almost always a content item or word. For that reason the general
classifications of Noun, Verb, Adjective, and Adverb are referred to as the open classes. If a
language needs to expand its lexicon, it can also borrow a word, but the vast majority of the time
 29

a borrowed word is a noun (e.g., sushi, tortilla, sauerkraut, pizza…), more rarely a verb (L. A.
Spanish has borrowed a number of English verbs, e.g., “to park” as parkearse), and so on.
Function items/words, on the contrary, are a very heterogeneous (varied) group. They are
(1) usually very difficult, sometimes impossible to translate. Many languages have no indefinite
article (e.g., Arabic and Hebrew). In English, there is only one definite article, the; Spanish has
four (masculine, feminine, singular and plural), and German has 24, depending on three genders
(masculine, feminine, and neuter), two kinds of number (singular and plural), and four types of
case, which are determined by the position of the noun they accompany in the sentence. Such
words typically (2) will not have a dictionary definition; an explanation is most often necessary.
And, function words (3) belong to so-called closed classes because they very seldom get new
members or lose old ones. Entire classes of function words in English have stayed the same for
centuries—nothing new and nothing borrowed.

KEY TERMS:
adpositions, borrowing, closed class, conjunctions, interrogatives, postpositions,
prepositional phrases, prepositions, relative pronouns.

STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Describe the different types of prepositions in English. How do they differ from particles?
2. Compare and contrast content (or form-class) words and function (structure-class) words.

Chapter 7—Traditional classification of phrases and clauses (syntax)

INTRODUCTION: This portion of the course looks at the syntax of English: (1) how words
combine into phrases and clauses; (2) the grammatical relationships among words; and (3) the
linear ordering of elements. In other words, what goes together goes together. Every native or
proficient speaker generally knows when something is missing (a word or inflectional affix) and
if something is out of the normal sequence. And, every native speaker knows how to string
words, phrases, and clauses together, albeit largely unconsciously, into larger units of discourse.
Word order is very significant in languages such as English. The speaker/hearer needs to
pay special attention to the beginnings and ends of sentences. For instance, the native and/or
proficient speaker will usually know when he or she is being asked a question (e.g., when the
sentence starts with a wh-word or Aux). Research has also shown that very young children
figure out how to find new words for new things (or animals) by attending to (or focusing on) the
final word in Mommy’s sentence: Look at the big tiger!
Traditional English teachers often define the term sentence by saying that it is a complete
thought—whatever that means, and that every sentence has a subject and a predicate, whatever
they are. Most of us have seen “frag” written on a paper; it means fragment, also known as an
incomplete sentence. But, what exactly is a sentence fragment? Is it a sentence that has fallen
out of a tree and broken into tiny fragments on the pavement below? Hardly… Fragments are
typically words (one-word phrases), phrases, or clauses that are normally parts of a sentence.
They are not “complete” themselves (without their context). We speak in fragments; it is a
characteristic of spoken language. For example, when people ask me my name, I will usually
say “Fred.” I don’t answer in complete sentences like, “My name is Fred,” at least not usually.
We typically answer questions by responding with the requested information: “How are you?”
“Fine, thanks.” So, in a sense, this type of fragment is truly a complete thought. Right?
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The other side of the traditional English teacher’s definition can be equally frustrating,
mostly because some fragments have both subject and predicate, but, for some reason, they
cannot be considered complete sentences. Many of us have heard, “Never start a sentence with
the word because.” Teachers want their students to avoid potential mistakes. The reason is that
some fragments are actually subordinate clauses, a type of dependent clause that has a subject
and predicate, but is, nonetheless, not a complete sentence. If someone asks me why I’m so
generous, I may answer, “Because I like giving.” But, that would be a sentence fragment, an
incomplete sentence (it’s a subordinate clause). The purpose of this section, therefore, is to
define what a sentence is and locate where the boundaries of a sentence are, so that future
teachers will be able to hand this information off to their own students accurately.
The first question is, “What is a subject and a predicate?” According to the traditional
approach, the SUBJECT is often described as the “doer” of the action, or as the TOPIC of the
sentence (what the sentence is about or what it focuses on). It is important to realize that it may
be misleading to say that the subject is always the doer of the action because it is quite frequently
not the doer. The PREDICATE is the rest of the sentence (including the verb and everything that
goes with it). The predicate makes a comment about what the subject DOES or IS LIKE. This is
illustrated in (a), below:
(a) [John] [loves Mary]
SUBJECT PREDICATE
The reader or hearer immediately knows that John is the one who is doing the action
(loving) by the word order. As mentioned before, grammatical functions are typically
determined by POSITION, where a word occurs in a sentence. John is also the topic of the
sentence. It is also understood that Mary is the one who is receiving something from the action
—in grammatical terms, she is the OBJECT of the verb.
This little sentence illustrates much about the English language: First, English is an SVO
language, so it shows the normal word order of the language. The subject John occurs before a
form of the verb to love and so on. Second, it illustrates the relationship between John and love,
the relationship of subject and predicate. Remember, a verb must agree with its subject in
person and number when it is in the nonpast (or present) tense, the process called subject-verb
agreement. Because John is 3rd person and singular (there is only one of him), the inflectional
affix –s (which also expresses that the verb is indeed in the nonpast) is obligatory in SAE.
In order to add a little linguistic precision to the concepts of subject and predicate, and,
consequently, what makes a complete sentence, we will examine how such things are determined
by linguists, language specialists. We may have to change some terms or add a term or two so
that we can be more clear. The first important step is separating grammar and grammatical terms
from meaning—very often, a person can be very clear with what she says, but her utterance may
be grammatically incorrect according to the rules of SAE.

7.1 Grammatical roles refer to the grammatical functions that noun phrases (NPs) play in the
makeup of a sentence. NPs represent the people, things, places, etc. that participate in the
activities, actions, and situations of daily life. They play roles, much like actors who play
various dramatic roles in plays and films. Grammatical roles are not always the same as
semantic roles;1 consequently, the subject of the sentence cannot always be identified as the

1
Semantics is the study of MEANING. So, when the traditional teacher talks about the “doer” of an action, she or he
is referring to what a particular noun phrase means, not necessarily where it occurs in the sentence or its
grammatical function (as subject, object of a preposition, and so on).
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“doer“ of an action. Subject, predicate, object, and other similar words are GRAMMATICAL terms
because they refer to grammatical relationships.
subject—in a normal, declarative sentence in English (e.g., it is not a question), it is always the
first NP. It always occurs before (on the left of) the verb unless an adverb or other movable
element has been inserted before the subject. Refer to example (a), above.
object—this applies to three kinds of object noun phrases: (1) the direct object, (2) indirect
object, and (3) object of a preposition. For example,
(b) John loves Mary.
When a transitive verb has one and only one object, it is always known as the direct object, or
DO. Therefore, Mary is the DO of the sentence. In addition, the NP Mary is an object of the
verb because it belongs in the predicate with the verb (in the verb phrase or VP).
When a ditransitive verb has two objects (V + NP NP), the first one (closest to the verb)
is always the indirect object (or IO), and the second one is the DO.
(c) John gave [Mary] [a check for a thousand dollars]
IO DO
(d) John gave Mary a kiss [on the lips]
PP OP
The prepositional phrase (PP) on the lips contains the preposition (P) on followed by the NP the
lips. As a grammatical unit, the PP gives a location to the action (where the kissing took place).
This particular NP is called the object of the preposition; it goes together with the preposition
(what goes together goes together). NB! Prepositional phrases always stand apart from a
sentence and cannot count in such relationships as subject-verb and cannot affect agreement.
They always provide additional information (details), but they are not part of the SVO.

7.2 Semantic roles refer to the meaningful relationships among the noun phrases (NPs) of the
sentence. For example, a “doer” or a “recipient” is a meaningful role. Regarding sentences with
transitive verbs, we may be able to discern who or what is the doer of the action by the actual
word order. But, again, the doer is not always the subject of the sentence. In fact, some
sentences may not even have a doer (technically, an agent) at all. The semantic roles that NPs
play in sentences typically involve the properties or characteristics of the person or thing
represented by the NP and not necessarily its grammatical role—the result of its position or
function in the sentence. Semantic roles in English are normally indicated by word order, but
also quite often by a preposition, for instance
(e) The boy hit the ball.
(f) The ball was hit by the boy.
In both (e) and (f), above, the doer of the action is clearly the boy. In (e), word order indicates
that he is the SUBJECT of the sentence. However, in (f), the listener or reader knows that the ball
is not a doer in any sense even though the NP is in grammatical subject position (the NP to the
left of the verb). The doer is actually inside a prepositional phrase (PP) and is, therefore, the
OBJECT OF THE PREPOSITION by.
The following is a brief list of important semantic roles.
agent—the doer of the action, e.g.,
(g) The boy hit the ball.
patient—undergoes the action represented by the main verb
(h) The boy hit the ball. (The ball is the thing getting hit.)
theme—the topic of a sentence, e.g.,
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(i) The sky is cloudy.

(j) The log floated downstream.
This term may be particularly handy when referring to the subject of an intransitive verb or the
subject of a sentence with the verb be. In some discussions of semantic roles, patient is referred
to as the theme because they both seem to undergo the action or state rather than initiate or cause
anything. In both (i) and (j), the subject NPs are NOT agents; they are not doing anything like
hitting a ball or causing some time of effect. The thing that is (the sky) seems to be simply
undergoing existence, and the log is not causing anything to happen: it is floating itself
downstream. However, most approaches will consider an object directly acted upon, as the ball
in (h), is truly a patient, for example, in (k), below.
(k) The doctor examined the patient.
goal—the recipient (typically, of a thing)
(l) John gave Mary a check for a thousand dollars. (Mary is the goal of the thing.)
Some approaches to syntax discuss a transformation or word-order change known as the indirect
object transformation (also known by more technical dative shift). In this reordering rule, the
sentences in (i), above, comes from the more typical English sentence in (m), below.
(m) John gave a check for a thousand dollars to Mary.
Note the preposition to; “to” typically indicates semantic goal (dative case), either in the form of
a location (“…to Paris”) or a recipient (“…to Mary). Prepositions in English are also known as
case markers—in some languages, such semantic relationships as goal, benefactive, instrument,
and patient are indicated with suffixes (or perhaps prefixes), just as possessive case on nouns is
indicated by the ’s.
benefactive—receives the benefit of the action portrayed by the main verb (VP)
(n) John cooked Mary an egg.
John did not cook Mary! In addition, the sentence does not indicate whether Mary ever
received the egg (a thing). Nevertheless, she did receive the benefit of John’s COOKING THE EGG.
She is the beneficiary (in a sense) of his act of kindness.
Note in (l), below, that the same semantic relationship (benefactive case) is also indicated by a
preposition. In this case (pun intended), it is the preposition for.
(o) John cooked an egg for Mary.
Example (o), however, is ambiguous (in English). It can mean that John cooked the egg in her
place, instead of Mary (as in “My mother did my homework for me.”). It can also mean that he
cooked the egg with Mary in mind (so to speak). He may have intended to give it to her (goal) as
a present of sorts—maybe she received it, maybe not.
instrument—the inanimate object used to bring about an action
(p) The boy hit his finger with a hammer. (The thing used to hit something.)

7.3 Inflectional categories (revisited)—these were discussed in the description of word

classes and morphology. For example, the categories of Number and Gender typically occur on
classes of nouns, and the categories of Tense and Aspect occur on verbs. Two more inflectional
categories are briefly discussed here in hopes that the basic sentence transformations of Chapter
8 will be a little clearer. Perhaps, some of the terms will have a familiar ring.
Tense and Aspect—discussed in previous chapters. Tense locates the event portrayed by the
verb in time (e.g., past, present, or future), and Aspect generally indicates how the event is
viewed by the speaker/writer (e.g., as an act in progress—the progressive aspect—or as
completed at an unspecified time in the past—the perfect)
 33

Mood (and modality) is a term used in the analysis and classification of sentences. It reflects
the speaker’s attitude concerning the FACTUAL content of a sentence (e.g., “The earth is round”),
and expresses such concepts as certainty (an assertion of truth), uncertainty, possibility,
vagueness, etc. In English, certain kinds of meanings are expressed with modals (the root of the
term modality). In languages such as Spanish and French, the SUBJUNCTIVE mood is used for
events that are counter factual (against fact). In Spanish and French, the subjunctive is an
inflectional category (a special form that the verb must take) that determines the form of the
verb. It is usually used instead of a modal, the typical strategy of the English speaker. The result
is that sentences in the subjunctive in one language are customarily translated into English by
using modals such as may, might, and so on. Subjunctive mood contrasts with indicative
(below). Grammarians often refer to the following three kinds of Mood in English.
1. the indicative mood—the form that the verb takes in normal, declarative statements; the
speaker is relatively certain of the truth of his or her statement (barring those occasions when the
truth is intentionally manipulated).2 The subjunctive mood in English, is almost completely
gone. It survives in just a few frozen expressions like
(q) If I were a bird, I would fly away to an island somewhere.
(r) If I had a hammer, I would hammer in the…
Notice the modal expressions in the second parts (clauses) in these sentences. They are usually
called conditional sentences (those that start with if), but not all subjunctives involve if:
(s) Had I known that, I might have done something different.
Nevertheless, in (p), the verb “were” is clearly not a past tense (the correct form with the subject
pronoun “I” is was). Some expressions in French or Spanish, when translated into English,
contain only modal expressions simply because there is no exact English equivalent.
(t) The earth is round. (A statement of fact, opinion, or belief—so, indicative mood.)
2. the imperative mood—the form of the verb used in commands; the attitude of the
speaker is obvious: do this, and do this now! (English speakers learning Spanish must learn all
of the special verb forms used for the imperative mood.)
(u) Stop that fooling around!
3. the interrogative mood—used in question formation; the speaker does not know
something (or it seems that way), so he or she asks for information of a factual nature
(v) Where do you think you’re going, young man?
Voice—a term used in the classification of sentences. It deals with the SEMANTIC
RELATIONSHIPS among the various NPs of a sentence in relation to the verb, sometimes altering
the relationships of subject and object without changing the meaning of the sentence.. In
common terms, this is something like “Who’s doing what to whom?” In English, there are two
kinds of Voice:
1. the active voice—in the active voice, the SUBJECT NP is the AGENT (see (g), above).
(w) The boy kicked the ball. (The subject NP is also the agent.)
2. the passive voice—the subject is not the agent and one of the objects (IO, DO, or objects
of certain prepositions) has moved into the SUBJECT position (see (f), above). Again, for English
speakers learning Spanish, the reflexive verbs of Spanish are in a kind of middle area between
active and passive voice. Consequently, they are very difficult for English speakers to master in
their L2 Spanish (even when a list of reflexives are memorized).
(x) The ball was kicked by the boy. (Subject is the patient; and the agent is in the PP.)

2
This is not to say that you have to be in a good mood to tell the truth!
 34

The important distinction here is between Mood (e.g., indicative) and Voice (e.g.
passive). Mood expresses an opinion about how accurate and factual a sentence is. Voice
pertains to whether or not the subject of the sentence is the semantic agent , and whether the verb
has been put into the passive voice. Chapter 8, below, discusses the transformations that produce
(or generate) both questions (interrogative mood) and passive sentences.

7.4 Phrases: The three most basic types of phrases (the structures that make up the sentences
of English) are NP (noun phrase), VP (verb phrase), and PP (prepositional phrase).
NP (noun phrase) can be defined in this way: a noun phrase is basically anything that can be
the subject of a sentence. So, pronouns, proper nouns, and common nouns with their modifiers
(determiners and adjectives) can all be subjects of a sentence. Proceeding from the evidence
(subject NPs are underlined):
(y) John loves Mary.
(z) The tall, skinny surfer loves Mary. (To replace the subject NPs of both (k) and (z),
the pronoun he must be inserted—it matches with respect to gender/sex, number, and
case.)
(aa) He loves Mary.
So, from the above, the following generalizations can be made:
NP —> (det) (adj...) N or Pro
VP (verb phrase) can be defined in similar ways: a verb phrase includes the main verb and all
the words that go with it (VPs are underlined).
(bb) John stinks (vi)
(cc) John can speak Spanish (vt)
(dd) John gave Mary a check for a thousand dollars (ditransitive)
VP —> (Aux) V (NP) (NP)
The generalizations, above, concerning VP capture the fact that some verbs can have no objects
(intransitive verbs); some can have one object (transitive verbs); and some can have two objects
(ditransitive verbs).

PP (prepositional phrase) is the easiest to illustrate; it is always the same.

(ee) John mailed the check on Monday.
PP —> P NP
By definition, a preposition precedes the NP that its object (or complement). Taken together, the
structure is known as a PP.
Prepositional phrases can be adjectival and adverbial. However, when adjectives come in
groups (e.g., very handsome man), they may be called adjective phrases. Likewise, groups of
adverbs cluster together to form adverb phrases (e.g., “very efficiently”).

KEY TERMS:
active, agent, benefactive, complete sentence, direct object, imperative, indicative, indirect
object, instrument, interrogative, Mood, NP, object of a preposition, object, passive,
patient, PP, predicate, subject, SVO, theme, Voice, VP.

STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Compare and contrast grammatical roles and semantic roles?
2. Compare active and passive sentences.
 35

3. What is meant by grammatical Mood?

Chapter 8—The five basic sentence types

INTRODUCTION: One way to analyze kinds of sentences is to put them into basic types according
to the type of verb they have. There are five basic types of sentences based on their verbs. For
example, in a Type I sentence, the verb is the intransitive type (which can take no object). The
Type V sentence has a transitive verb (including the ditransitive kind) which must take an object
(or objects). (Some verbs can be both transitive and intransitive.) Types II–IV involve different
sorts of linking verbs, including the copula, to be.

8.1 Type I—The intransitive type

(a) John stinks.
(b) The bus stops here on Mondays.

8.2 Type II—The verb be with adverbs of time or place (predicate adverbs)
(c) Jesse is outside.
(d) The dog was in the back yard.

8.3 Type III—Linking verbs with adjectival sentence complements (predicate adjectives)
(e) Larry’s girlfriend is extremely ugly. (Ugly is an adjective that goes with his
girlfriend.)
(f) John’s socks smelled terrible. (Verbs of sense are considered linking verbs when they
are intransitive. In “John smelled his socks and passed out,” the verb is transitive.)
(g) You seemed happy yesterday.

8.4 Type IV—Linking verbs with nominal (kinds of nouns) subject complement (a k a
predicate nominatives)
(h) Mary is a nurse.
(i) George W. became the President of the United States.

8.5 Type V—The transitive type, which includes ditransitive verbs

(j) John had bought a beautiful engagement ring for Mary.
(k) Mary’s mother cooked Greek food all night.

It is important to distinguish between Type IV and Type V sentences. In Type IV

sentences, the nominal complement (predicate nominative) and the subject NP refer to the same
person, for instance in (j) Mary and nurse, and in (k) George W. and the President. Neither one
is the doer of an action (an agent). In Type V sentences, there is a grammatical object (or
objects) that have such semantic roles as PATIENT and, sometimes, GOAL or BENEFACTIVE.

KEY TERMS:
copula, linking verbs, Type I (intransitive), Type II (adverbial), Type III (adjectival), Type
IV (nominal), Type V (transitive).

STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Describe sentence Type I, II, III, IV, and V.
 36

Chapter 9—Basic sentence transformations

INTRODUCTION: In this section, discussion centers on how elements move around in English
sentences. (In some languages, words do not change order for any reason.) According to one
theory (known as Transformational or Generative Grammar—associated with the famed
linguist Noam Chomsky), children acquire a finite set of rules that can generate an infinite
number of possible sentences. According to several versions of this theory, when elements move
(or are reordered), the process is called a transformation. These transformations seem to
account for the ways words and other structures move about in a sentence. The theory also
seems to account for the amazing ability we have to speak and understand new sentences every
day—once you know the system—the rules, you can anticipate the kinds of words that are going
to be spoken, signed, or written next. To illustrate, when a proficient English speaker asks a
question, certain words appear at the front of sentence indicating that a question is on the way
(you generally know when a person is asking you a question by the first word he or she says).
Not every specialist in language agrees that this is really what is going on, but most agree
that some sort of calculations are going on inside our heads. Some feel that language has
patterns, and different patterns serve different functions. That is, a normal, declarative sentence
makes a statement of fact, opinion, or belief; and the interrogative kind asks a question. We
merely acquire these patterns as we acquire the language. No matter who is really right, word
order in languages like English changes (or it is simply different) depending on the purpose
and/or meaning of the sentence. And, the proficient speaker/writer can manipulate elements
accordingly.
Part of the original theory (remember, modern linguistics is still fairly young as a
science) stated that every sentence or question has an underlying (mental) form that goes through
a series of changes as it goes from the mind/brain to the vocal (or manual) apparatus. (We fetch
the words we want to use and the syntax or grammar puts them into the proper order and in the
proper form according to that order.) So, prior to or beneath every sentence we speak (sign or
write), the actual output called the surface structure, there is an underlying sentence, or deep
structure. Consequently, every question begins with a declarative statement, and all the raw
possibilities for sentence construction occur as language is processed. Whether you agree with
the theoretical part or not, this way of looking at English syntax can be helpful in teaching, in
particular, in helping students who are learning English non-natively (as a second or subsequent
language or dialect).

9.1 The indirect object transformation—moving the object of a preposition (to or for) to
the position immediately following the verb (the IO position).
(a) John gave a check for a thousand dollars [to Mary].
(b) John gave [Mary] a check for a thousand dollars.
In (a), the NP Mary is the semantic GOAL and the grammatical object of the preposition to. In (b),
Mary is still the GOAL, but she is no longer the object of a preposition; she is now the IO
(determined by the position of the NP Mary in the sentence).
(c) John cooked a hamburger [for Mary].
(d) John cooked [Mary] a hamburger.
In (c), the NP Mary has the semantic role of BENEFACTIVE, and it is the object of the preposition
for. In (d), Mary keeps the same semantic role of benefactive, but she has moved to IO position.
 37

9.2 The passive transformation (or passive voice)—moving an object into subject position
and moving the subject/agent to the end of the sentence (to a PP introduced by by).
(e) [Albert Einstein] wrote this book in 1942. (Step One—move subject NP.)
(f) wrote [this book] in 1942 by Albert Einstein. (Step Two—move the DO into subject
position.)
(g) This book [wrote] in 1942 by Albert Einstein. (Step Three—be + [-en])
(h) This book was written in 1942 by Albert Einstein. (Note: adverbial phrases such as
in 1942, can move forwards or backwards in the sentence.)
Step One: In order to get from (e) to (f), the subject NP Albert Einstein, which also has
the semantic role of AGENT, is moved to the back of the sentence preceded by the P by. This
creates PP [by Albert Einstein]—such phrases are also called agentive phrases (or “by phrases”)
because they contain semantic agents—an agent is the doer of the action.
Step Two: The DO (this book) is moved into the subject position. This means that the
PATIENT is now the grammatical subject.
Step Three: The form of the verb must be changed to the passive form: the Aux be
followed by the past participle of the main verb. Note that the original Tense, found on the main
verb, must be put on the Aux (Aux is the place where Tense is marked). This produces the past
(3rd person, singular) of the verb be —> was. The past participle does not indicate Tense.
Participles (present or past) are typically used to distinguish Aspect, but here, the past participle
form is required to indicate passive voice.

9.3 Negative sentences—the opposite of the normal, affirmative kind, and adding the
negative element not. (No is an adjective, and not is an adverb.)
(i) John can speak Spanish. (Step One—add not, the negative element.3)
(j) John cannot speak Spanish. (Done.)
Step One: Insert not into Aux position, immediately following the auxiliary verb. (It
must precede the main verb, which is in its base form.) This is the only step necessary when
there already is an auxiliary verb present. However, when there is no auxiliary, one has to be
found. For a negative sentence to be grammatical, it must have an auxiliary—the dummy
auxiliary do. The same processes occur again and again, making the language easier to learn
(for children and ESL learners). This is important because many transformations in English
require auxiliaries to be present (see 8.4, below). Observe what happens in the following:
(k) John speaks Spanish. Step One—insert not, the same as in (i), above.
(l) John not speaks Spanish. (Step Two—insert the dummy auxiliary do.)
(m) John do not speaks Spanish. (Step Three—make sure Tense is on Aux.)
(n) John does not speak Spanish. (Remember, the form that the verb must take when it
follows a modal or do is the base form. It has no tense because tense goes on the Aux.)
Step One: Insert not.
Step Two: Insert the auxiliary do into Aux position. This operation is called Do-
support.
Step Three: Make sure the tense marker is on the auxiliary verb (in Aux). This means
that the main verb must be in the base form.

3
In Spanish, the adjective and adverbial forms of the negative are the same: no. In English, the adverbial form that
goes with verbs is not, and the adjectival one that goes with nouns is no. Sometimes, non-native speakers of English
will use one form (the adjective) to fit all situations: I no speak English. This sentence is very understandable, but it
is not the correct version in SAE. It resembles the Spanish strategy.
 38

NOTE that the dummy Aux do really has no specific meaning of its own, but it has to be
there for the sentence to be grammatical. Like be and have, do can also be a main verb: What
are you doing? What did you do? The dummy Aux do seems peculiar to English; nothing like is
exists in Spanish, French, or any other European language. It seems to be a development that is
unique among European languages—those genetically related to English.

9.4 Interrogative sentences—question formation. There are two kinds: the yes-no kind and
the kind that is asking for missing information, the wh-question. First, note the steps that go into
a typical yes-no question.
(o) John can speak Spanish. (Step One—Subject-Aux Inversion.)
(p) Can John speak Spanish? (Done.)
Step One: The subject NP changes places with the Aux, a process called inversion. This
is the only step necessary when the sentence already has an auxiliary verb. In the event that it
does not, there are a couple more steps that must be followed:
(q) John speaks Spanish. (Step One—Do-support. Because there is no Aux, one has to
be found, especially for Subject-Aux Inversion to occur.)4
(r) John do speaks Spanish. (Step Two—put Tense on Aux.)
(s) John does speak Spanish. (Step Three—Subject-Aux Inversion.)
(t) Does John speak Spanish?
Step One: Just as in negative sentence formation, Do-support is required. Many
transformations require an auxiliary verb to be present. In fact, all questions and negatives
require the dummy Aux do if no other auxiliary is present.
Step Two: Again, Tense must be marked on the auxiliary, and the form of the main verb
must be the base form. This construction is the emphatic form: John does speak Spanish!
Step Three: Subject-Aux Inversion.
Wh-questions involve a couple of added steps, but be aware that some of the same
operations are going to occur. As the theory suggests, the native speaker acquires a finite set
(that is, limited number) of rules that are used to generate an infinite number of possibilities.
One way to do this is to use the same rules again and again.
(u) John brought something for dinner. (Step One—insert the appropriate wh-word to
retrieve the missing information. To find something, the correct word is what.)
(v) John brought what for dinner. (Step Two—move the wh-word to the front of the
sentence or clause.)5
(w) What John brought for dinner? (Step Three—once again, Do-support.)
(x) What John do brought for dinner? (Step Four—again, make sure tense is on Aux.)
(y) What John did bring for dinner? (Step Five—Subject-Aux inversion.)
(z) What did John bring for dinner? (Done.)
Step One: insert the wh-word.
Step Two: Wh-fronting moves the question element (the wh-word) to sentence initial
position. Notice that in yes-no questions, the Aux is in sentence initial position, too. This is the
main reason why hearers know right away when someone is asking a question. They hear either
an Aux or wh-word, which is their first clue that they are being asked to respond.
4
The transformation known as Do-support is used when the question is formed syntactically—using word order
changes to indicate the question. It is also possible to make a question out of the statement phonologically by using
intonation, rising on the final word of the sentence, which also applies to example (o), above. This is typically the
first question strategy used by those who are learning English as a second language.
5
Note: as in examples (o) and (q), above, questions can be formed either syntactically or phonologically.
 39

Step Three: Do-support.

Step Four: Check tense on Aux.
Step Five: Subject-Aux inversion
Note: To form direct questions, wh-movement involves all the operations or steps. In indirect
questions, which are really not questions at all (they do not receive punctuation as questions), not
all of the operations occur. This points to the fact that all proficient speakers need to know (1)
which rules apply and (2) when the rules apply or do not apply. Many second-language learners
overgeneralize the rules and apply them incorrectly, when they do not apply. For example,
(aa) I know where he lives.
(bb) I know what your name is.
If all the operations of wh-movement were applied to the second clauses in (cc) and (dd), the
result would be
(cc) *I know where does he live.
(dd) *I know what is your name.
The only step needed to get the wh-word to the front of its respective clause (sentence) is wh-
fronting. Do-support is not necessary, and tense stays on the main verb. Pay attention to (1)
which transformations seem to occur again and again and (2) the order that they occur in.

9.5 Imperative sentences—giving commands, also in imperative mood.

(ee) You bring me water. (Step One—delete the subject you.
(ff) Bring me some water. (Step Two—remove/delete tense from verb/Aux.)
(gg) Bring me some water! (Done.)
Step One: Delete the subject “You” of the declarative sentence. The tensed verb in (ee);
bring is in nonpast. It is also in indicative mood, that used for normal, declarative sentences.
Step Two: Remove tense from verb. Even though it is unmarked, it is there
nonetheless. (The verb in example (ee) can be put into the past, producing You brought me some
water.) The mood changes to the imperative. In commands (the imperative mood), there are no
tense markers.
In English, the verb in imperative mood looks like the base form or unmarked for tense.
However, those who are familiar with languages such as Spanish or French know that the
imperative or command form of the verb has a special form, or declension (conjugation). For
example, to say the command “Dance!” in Spanish, the –ar ending of the verb bailar is not
replaced with –a (2nd person, formal, present) –a, as in *¡Baila! It must receive the “other”
ending, the -e, as in ¡Baile! There is even a plural form for the imperative: ¡Bailen! English
does not have many verb endings, especially when compared with languages like Spanish.

KEY TERMS:
deep structure, imperative sentence, interrogative sentence, negation, surface structure,
transformation.

STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Explain the indirect object transformation. Give an example.
2. Explain the passive transformation. Give an example.
3. What is “Do-support?”
4. Explain Wh-movement.