LECTURE ONE WORD ORDER. THE SIMPLE SENTENCE. TERMINOLOGICAL DISTINCTIONS: SENTENCE, CLAUSE, PHRASE.

Syntax, originating from the Greek words syn (meaning "co-" or "together") and txis (meaning "sequence, order, arrangement"), can be described as the study of the rules, or "patterned relations" that govern the way the words in a sentence come together. It concerns how different words (which, going back to Dionysios Thrax, are categorized as nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc.) are combined into clauses, which, in turn, are combined into sentences. WORD ORDER English is a subject verb object (SVO) language: it prefers a sequence of subjectverb object in its simplest, unmarked declarative statements. Thus "Tom [subject] eats [verb] cheese [object]" and "Mary saw the cat". However, beyond these simple examples, word order is a complicated matter in English. In particular, the speaker's or writer's point of departure in each clause is a key factor in the organisation of the message. Thus, the elements in a message can be ordered in a way that signals to the reader or listener what the message concerns.

The duke has given my aunt that teapot. (i.e., I'm going to tell you about the duke) My aunt has been given that teapot by the duke. (i.e., I'm going to tell you about my aunt) That teapot the duke has given to my aunt. (i.e., I'm going to tell you about that teapot)

Virtually any element in a clause can be put first.

"What the duke gave my aunt was a teapot" (i.e., I'm going to tell you what the duke gave my aunt) "What happened was that the duke gave my aunt a teapot" (i.e., I'm going to tell you what happened)

Usually, the point of departure is the subject of a declarative clause; this is the unmarked form. A point of departure is marked when it is not the subjectthus, occasionally it is the object ("You I blame for this dilemma") and more often an adverbial phrase ("This morning I got up late").

In questions, point of departure is treated slightly differently. Unmarked questions start with the word that indicates what the speaker wants to know.

"Where is my little dog?" (I want you to tell me where) "Is John Smith inside?" (I want you to tell me whether he is or isn't)

Marked questions displace this key "what I want to know" word with some other element.

"After tea, will you tell me a story?" (still "will you or won't you"?) "In your house, who does the cooking?" (still "who"?)

Imperative clauses are either of the type "I want you to do something" or "I want you and me to do something". The second type usually starts with let's; in the unmarked form of the first type, you is implied and not made explicit ("Improve your grammar!"), and included in the marked form ("You improve your grammar!"); another marked form is "Do improve your grammar". In the negative, "Don't argue with me" is unmarked, and "Don't you argue with me" is marked. In spoken English, the point of departure is frequently marked off by intonation. In general, English is a head-initial language, meaning that the "anchor" of a phrase (segment of a sentence) occurs at the beginning of the phrase.

ran quickly (verb phrase) to the store (prepositional phrase)

The main exception is the case of noun phrases:

a dog (article + noun) blue house (adjective + noun) Fred's cat (possessive + noun) but man of the house (noun + prepositional phrase)

The sequence of a basic sentence (ignoring articles and other determiners as well as prepositional phrases) is:

Interrogative sentences invert word order ("Did you go to the store?"). Changing a given sentence from active to passive voice changes the word order, moving the new subject to the front ("John bought the car" becomes "The car was bought by John"), and lexical or grammatical emphasis (topicalization) changes it in many cases as well (see duke-auntteapot examples).
2

Building a sentence A sentence is a group of words which starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!). A sentence contains or implies a predicate and a subject. Sentences contain clauses. Simple sentences have one clause. Compound sentences and complex sentences have two or more clauses. Sentences can contain subjects and objects. The subject in a sentence is generally the person or thing carrying out an action. The object in a sentence is involved in an action but does not carry it out; the object comes after the verb. For example: The boy climbed a tree.

If you want to say more about the subject (the boy) or the object (the tree), you can add an adjective. For example: The young boy climbed a tall tree.

If you want to say more about how he climbed the tree you can use an adverb. For example: The young boy quickly climbed a tall tree.

There are more things you can add to enrich your sentence. Parts of a sentence
Adjective Adverb Article Conjunction Interjection Noun Preposition Pronoun Proper noun (subject) Verb Description Describes things or people. Alters the meaning of the verb slightly a, an - indefinite articles the - definite articles Joins words or sentences together A short word showing emotion or feeling Names things Relates one thing to another used instead of a noun to avoid repetition The actual names of people or places etc. Action or doing word

THE SIMPLE SENTENCE A sentence is a unit of language, characterised by the presence of (at least) a finite verb. For example, "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." A simple sentence contains a single subject and predicate. It describes only one thing, idea or question, and has only one verb - it contains only an independent (main) clause. Any independent clause can stand alone as a sentence. It has a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought. For example: The dog barks.

Even the addition of adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases to a simple sentence does not change it into a complex sentence. For example: The brown dog with the red collar always barks loudly.

The parts of a sentence Each sentence is regarded as having a subject and a verb, sometimes objects, complements and modifiers. The verb and its objects, complements and modifiers collectively form the predicate of a sentence. An incomplete sentence is called a sentence fragment.

THE CLAUSE A clause is a group of words consisting of a subject and a predicate, although, in non-finite clauses, the subject is often not explicitly given. A clause is either a whole sentence or part of a sentence. Clauses are often contrasted with phrases, which do not express complete thoughts through combinations of subjects and predicates. Phrases generally do not contain verbs except as verbals (gerunds, participles, and infinitives). Example:

I didn't know that the dog ran through the yard. o through the yard is not a clause, but a phrase, since it has no subject or verb. o the dog ran through the yard is a clause contained within a larger sentence.

There are two basic categories of clauses: independent clauses and dependent clauses.

An independent clause (or main clause) can stand by itself as a grammatically viable simple sentence. Multiple independent clauses can be joined (usually with a comma and/or a coordinating conjunction) to form a compound sentence. Examples:

I am a taxi driver. I drive a taxi. (two simple sentences) I am a taxi driver, but I want to be an engineer. (compound sentence) Go out! (Though a subject is not visible, in English the subject of an imperative is considered to be the pronoun 'you') (simple sentence)

A dependent clause (or subordinate clause) cannot stand alone as a sentence. It usually begins with a subordinating conjunction or, in the case of an adverb or adjective clause, a relative adverb or a relative pronoun. A sentence with an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses is referred to as a complex sentence. One with two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses is referred to as a compoundcomplex sentence. Examples:

My sister cried because she broke her arm. (complex sentence) o Subjects: My sister, she o Predicates: cried, broke her arm o Subordinating conjunction: because When they told me I won the contest, I cried, but I didn't faint. (compound-complex sentence) o Subjects: they, I, I, I o Predicates: told me, won the contest, cried, didn't faint o Subordinating conjunctions: When, that (understood) o Coordinating conjunction: but

The above sentence actually contains two dependent clauses. "When they told me" is one; the other is "(that) I won the contest." The "that" is understood to precede the "I won" and functions as a subordinating conjunction. Types of dependent clauses Dependent clauses are often classified by their part of speech: a nominal (noun) clause functions as a noun, a relative (adjective) clause functions as an adjective, and an adverbial (adverb) clause functions as an adverb.
5

Examples:

That the kid was making so much money bothered me. (A nominal clause is the subject of bothered.) Her eyes were a shade of blue that reminded me of the sea. (A relative clause is modifying a shade of blue.) I have a tendency to hyperventilate when I'm upset. (An adverbial clause is modifying the entire main clause.)

The classification of sentences

Major and minor sentences A major sentence is a regular sentence; it has a subject and a predicate. For example: I have a car. In this sentence one can change the persons: We have a car. However, a minor sentence is an irregular type of a sentence. It does not follow all the grammatical rules; For example: How do you do? In this sentence one cannot change the person, for example. It is a kind of greeting and therefore saying How do they do? is not something one would normally express in a greeting, but may be used to ask for information. Other examples of minor sentences are headings (e.g. the heading of this entry), stereotyped expressions (Hello!), emotional expressions (Wow!), proverbs etc.

The functional classification of sentences: Sentences can be classified based on their purpose:

A declarative sentence or declaration, the most common type, commonly makes a statement: I am going home. An interrogative sentence or question is commonly used to request information When are you going to work? but sometimes not, if it is a rhetorical question. An exclamatory sentence or exclamation is generally a more emphatic form of statement: What a wonderful day this is! An imperative sentence or command is ordinarily used to make a demand or request: Do your homework.

The structural classification of sentences: English sentences can be classified by the number and types of finite clauses they contain:

A simple sentence consists of a single independent clause with no dependent clauses. A compound sentence consists of multiple independent clauses with no dependent clauses. These clauses are joined together using conjunctions, punctuation, or both. A complex sentence consists of one independent clause with at least one dependent clause. A compound-complex sentence (or complex-compound sentence) consists of multiple independent clauses, at least one of which has at least one dependent clause.

THE PHRASE A phrase is a group of words that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence. Each phrase has a word called its head which gives it its syntactic properties. For example the house at the end of the street (example 1) is a phrase. It acts like a noun. Its head is house, and its syntactic properties come from that fact. It contains the prepositional phrase at the end of the street (example 2), which acts like an adjective, or adjunct. Example 2 could be replaced by white, to make the phrase the white house. Examples 1 and 2 contain the phrase the end of the street (example 3) which acts like a noun. It could be replaced by the cross-roads to give the house at the cross-roads. Of the street, another prepositional phrase, acts as a complement of end. Complexity A complex phrase consists of several words, whereas a simple phrase consists of only one word. Each phrase has a word called its head which links it to the rest of the sentence. In English the head is often the first word of the phrase. English is a language with five classes of phrases, noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, and prepositional phrases. Phrases may be classified by the type of head they take

Prepositional phrase (PP) with a preposition as head (e.g. in love, over the rainbow). Noun phrase (NP) with a noun as head (e.g. the black cat, a cat on the mat) Verb phrase (VP) with a verb as head (e.g. eat cheese, jump up and down) Adjectival phrase with an adjective as head (e.g. full of toys) Adverbial phrase with adverb as head (e.g. very carefully)
7

The Clause Rank Words and phrases are the constituents of the clause rank. In order to discuss the constituents of the clause, it is necessary to refer to the units smaller than the clause itself. Consider the following example, in which we can see that a single clause is composed of smaller units of the phrase rank.

From our discussion of the phrase rank, we also know that we can categorize the constituents of that clause into the appropriate phrase type.

Furthermore, we also know that each phrase can be subcategorized into its constituent parts.

This diagram above, however, looks at the constituents of the clause only from the perspective of the constituents' forms. We should remember that those forms also serve functions, just as the forms at the phrase rank can also be described according to the functions they served within their phrases. Essentially the clause can be divided into eight functional constituents, grouped into five categories:

Functional Categories Eight Clause Functions (1) Subject (2) Verb (3) Objects [1] Subject [2] Verb [3] Direct Object [4] Indirect Object [5] Prepositional Object (4) Complements (5) Adverbials [6] Object Complement [7] Subject Complement [8] Adverbial

At the clause rank, the constituents marked in the example sentence above serve four different clause functions: subject (S) as in The news, verb (V) as in has been, subject complement (SC) as in quite sad, and adverbial (A) as in in fact. We use the following abbreviations for the other four clause functions: direct object (DO), indirect object (IO), and object complement (OC), prepositional object (PO). The examples below illustrates some other clause patterns that are possible in English. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Liz (S) is resting (V) quietly (A) in the other room (A). The mind (S) is (V) immensely complex (SC). The children (S) were (V) here (A) all morning (A). Emily (S) is playing (V) cards (O) with her sister (A). Early next week (A), the President (S) will send (V) Congress (IO) his budget (DO). 6. Clearly (A), the committee (S) considers (V) her (DO) the best (OC). 7. Once again (A), I (S) will put (V) the book (DO) away (A).

When we look at the examples, we notice that each clause has a different arrangement of functional elements, but there are some patterns too. First, we notice that while the different clauses have different arrangements of objects, complements, and adverbials, each clause consistently has a subject and verb. Thus, in the declarative clause, we call the functions of subject and verb the 'central' functions while objects, complements, and adverbials are the 'peripheral' functions. We also notice that adverbials are 'optional' when compared to the other clause constituents. That is, we could easily eliminate all the adverbials in sentences (1) through (7) and still have a well-formed English clause remaining. By eliminating the optional adverbials, then, we arrive at a classification of the basic clause patterns on the basis of the 'obligatory' constituents.
9

Some Examples of the Seven Clause Patterns in English S SV SVC SVA SVO Liz V is resting complex here cards her the book the best away IO DO SC OC AC

The mind is The kids were Emily is playing consider will put will send Congress his budget

SVOO Clinton SVOC We SVOA I

This set of patterns is the most general classification that can be usefully applied to the English clause. Correlating with the seven clause patterns are the three main types of verbs:

intransitive verbs, followed by no obligatory constituents, as in SV pattern above; copular verbs, followed by a SC or A, as in the SVC and SVA patterns above; and transitive verbs, followed by an object, as in the SVO, SVOO, SVOC, and SVOA patterns above.

To conclude this outline of the basic clause patterns, we need to understand the principles by which the functional constituents of the clause are identified. Although the categories of S, V, DO, IO, PO, OC, SC, and A are functional constituents, they are identifiable by both formal and functional criteria. However, it is not just elements at the word or phrase rank that must serve many functions in different contexts. So too each clause serves many different functions simultaneously.

10