Phrases

 S  NP VP
 NP  (Det) A* N (PP/S)
 VP  V (NP)(PP/S/VP)
 AP  A (PP/S)
 AdvP  (AdvP) Adv
 PP  P NP

sentence prepositional phrase

noun phrase preposition
verb phrase determiner
noun conjunction
verb complementizer
adjective auxiliary verb
adverb particle
The Syllabus
 Words, phrases, clauses, sentences
 Morphological issues
 Types of sentences: simple, compound, complex, compound-complex
 The Clause Rank: Nominal, Relative, Adverbial
 Syntactic functions
 The Phrase Rank: Noun, Adjective, Adverb, Verb, VP, PP

article
pronoun
noun noun phrase nominal clause
adjective adjective phrase relative clause
adverb adverb phrase adverbial clause
verb verb phrase
preposition prepositional phrase
conjunction
interjection

 Forme verbal nepredicative – infinitive, gerund, participle

 Prepositional phrases – infinitive phrase, participial phrase, gerund phrase

Present Participle vs. Gerund

Sleeping is my favorite pastime. (Behaves like a noun = gerund)
Don’t wake up the sleeping baby. (Modifies a noun = present participle; syntactic function -
premodifier)
The baby is sleeping. (Progressive action, behaves like a verb, but is not alone)
The pills are for sleeping. (Prepositions usually followed by a noun – gerund)

A sleeping bag (a bag used for sleeping, gerund)

A sleeping child (a child who is sleeping, present participle)
Pronouns
The winner is my husband. (Possessive adjective)
The prize is mine. (Possessive pronoun)
I live in that house. (Personal pronoun, demonstrative adjective)
I don’t like that. (Demonstrative pronoun)
Jane cut herself. (Reflexive pronoun)
The congresswoman herself met us at the door. (Intensive pronoun, personal pronoun)

 Relative pronouns: who, which, that, whose, whom

 Indefinite pronouns: all, another, any, anybody/anyone, anything, each,
everybody/everyone, everything, few, many, nobody, none, one, several, some,
somebody/someone

Adjectives vs. Adverbs

 Adjectives modify nouns
 Adverbs modify everything else
A wild goose never laid a tame egg. (adj., adv., adj.)
Be extremely good and you will be very lonesome. (adv., adj., adv., adj.)

AdjP AdjP

The detective looked cautiously for fingerprints. (Adv.)

[The detective] [looked cautious.] (adj. in a VP)

Uses of the verb

 Linking
 Transitive
 Intransitive
The Preposition
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
 PP: to hell, with good intentions
 Hell = noun, complement of prep.
 Good intentions = noun phrase, complement of prep.
 To hell = postmodifier of the NP the road to hell
 With good intentions = adverbial modifier of manner
 I. Coordinating conjunctions: and, but, or, yet
 Join grammatically equal elements
II. Correlative conjunctions: either… or…; neither… nor…; not only…, but also…; both…
and…; whether… or…
 pairs of conjunctions that join grammatically equal elements
III. Subordinating Conjunctions: while, unless, so that, until
 Introduce subordinate clauses and indicate their relation to the rest of the sentence
 ! relative pronouns and relative adverbs (when, where, why) also introduce
subordinate clauses
IV. Conjunctive adverbs: finally, furthermore, however, moreover, nevertheless, similarly,
therefore, thus
 Adverbs used to indicate the relation between independent clauses

English is a SVO language because it prefers the sequence of Subject+verb+object in its simplest
unmarked declarative statements.
 Markedness – if something is marked, it is rather emphatic; if it is unmarked, it is neutral.
 Point of departure – usually it is the subject of a declarative clause; a p.o.d. is marked
when it is not the subject:
o I got up this morning. (unmarked)
o This morning I got up.
o I blame you for this misunderstanding. (unmarked)
o You I blame for this misunderstanding.
o Will you tell me a story after dinner? (unmarked)
o After dinner, will you tell me a story?
o Improve your grammar! (unmarked)
o You improve your grammar!
o Do improve your grammar!
  Is a unit of language consisting of a combination of subject and predicate, it states only
one thing, idea or question, but expresses a complete thought; it consists of one
independent clause.
o The dog barks.
o The brown dog with the red collar always barks loudly early in the morning.
 The verb and its objects, complements and modifiers form the predicate of the sentence.

 A clause contains one subject and one predicate and it can either constitute the whole
sentence or part of it
 Independent clauses are normally the whole sentence except in compound structures,
whereas subordinate clauses are only part of a sentence

Simple sentences:
S P
He [is here.]

S P
He [loves you.]

Clauses:
S1 V1 conj. S2 V2 D.O.
I know that he is here.

S1 V1 V2
That he loves you is obvious.
P1 P2
S2

Types of sentences:
 Simple sentence – one independent clause with no subordinate clauses
 Compound sentence – contains two or more independent clauses with no subordinate
clauses
 Complex sentence – is composed of one independent clause plus one or more subordinate
clauses
 Compound-complex sentence – at least two independent clauses and at least one
subordinate clause
 S V I.O. D.O. S.C. O.C. Adv.C.
SV John is sleeping.
S V SC John is tired.
S V AC John is here.
S V DO Mary loves John.
SV IO DO Mary bought John a watch.
SV DO OC Mary called John a liar.
SV DO AC Mary put the watch there
SV DO IO Mary bought a watch for John.

Types of exercises
 Complete the following sentence with finite adverbial clauses: 1 using the introductory
words given and specifying the syntactic function, 2 using the required adverbial
clauses.
 Build sentences of your own according to the following patterns.
 Analyse the underlined words of phrases.
 Give examples in sentences of...
 Point out the constituents of the following phrase.
 Point out the constituents of the full sentence.
 Types of predication.
 Identify the finite subordinate clause in the following text and state the type of sentence
in each case. Clearly but briefly explain your choice.