Aims and Methods

Prá cticas discursivas de la comunicació n escrita I: Grammar
Aims and methods

What is syntax?
Syntax,or syntactic analysis,may be defined as:
(A) determining the relevant component parts of a sentence

(B) describing these parts grammatically.
The component parts of a sentence are called constituents. In others words, syntax involves the two closely tasks
of:
(A) breaking down the sentence into its constituents

(B) assigning some gramatical label to each constituent, atating what type of constituent it is, and what
gramatical function it has.
This definition of syntax implies that we start from (the sentence) and proceed until we arrive at the smallest
meaningful unit. The units smaller tan the sentence will be referred to as clauses, phrases, words and morphemes
respectively. However, we might also look at the sentence the other way round –that is, ´from bottom to top´- and
say that constituents at different levels can combine to form increasingly larger units: we proceed then from the
morpheme to the sentence as a whole. Constituents are like building blocks which pattern in certain ways to form
larger and larger units, the largest unit being the sentence. Each constituent can be broken down into its
component parts. The purpose of doing syntax is to discover the ways in which constituents combinetoform the
structure of sentence.
To illustrate the hierarchical structure kf sentences, le tus consider sentence:
“The snake killed the rat and swallowed it”
this sentence consistsof two coordinate clauses, joined together by the coordinator and. the first clause is: the
snake killed the rat, and the second is: swallowed it. As we shall see later, the snake is a noun phrase and killed the
rat and swallowed it are both verb phrases.
Each phrase is made up of words and nouns phrase. The constituents the rat and it are examples of (noun) phrases
within (veerb) phrases. Sentence (1) contains eight words, including the coordinator and. Each Word consists of
one or two morphemes.
REPRESENTING SENTENCES STRUCTURE
BRACKETING
The syntactic structure of sentence (1) above may be represented provisionally by marking off each constituen
from sentence level to Word level by square brackets: []. We shall ignore the morpheme boundaries here.
[[[[the] [snake]] [[killed] [[the] [rat]]]] [and] [[[swallowed] [[it]]]]]
We can see that Word and morpheme bundaries may coincide. Words and phrases mayalso coincide.
Word phrase, clause and sentenc may also coincide, as in: Run!
It is structurally one sentence, one clause, one phrase and one Word (also one morpheme)
Alcioni, Rocío Alejandra Pá gina 1

The above examples show that a sentence is not necessarily longer tan a clause, a clause not necessarily longer tan
a phrase, and a phrase not necessarily longer tan a Word. We shallsee that sentences may vary in length and
complexity from one clause to indefinetely many clauses from one phrase to indenfinitely many phrases, and
phases from one Word to indefinitely many Word.
LABELLED BRACKETING
The label indicates what type of constituent (or gramatical category) is contained within the brackets. This
convention is called labelled bracketing. To illustrate the new system , consider again the structure of the sentence.
We shall use square brackets with the label S (short for “sentence”) to mark off the boundaries of the whole
sentence
[ s The snake killed the rat and swallowed it]
The category label isinserted in the bottom corner of the left-hand bracket. This sentence, as we have seen, consists
of two clauses.
[s1 [ s2 the snake killed the rat ] and [ s3 (it) swallowed it]
The clauses can be further analysed into phrases as follow:
[ s1[s2[NP the snake] [VP killed [ NP the rat]]] and [ s3 [NP (it)] [ VP swallowed [ NP it ]]]]
The label NP stands for noun phrase, and the label VP for verb phrase. The NP s the rat in killed the rat and in it
swallowed it are parts of the VPs , and acts as complements of the verbs killed and swallowed respectively.
[ s1[s2[NP [ Det The] [N snake] [VP [V killed] [ NP [ Det the] rat]]]] [and] [ s3 [NP (it)] [ VP [ V swallowed] [ NP [ N it ]]]]
The label Det stands for determiner, the label N fou noun, and the label V for verb. Noun and verb are major Word
clases, and Det is a collective term for various ítems preceding the noun, example: the, a, that, this, some, any.
Our syntactic analysis of the sentence will be useful to mark off the morpheme structure of a given Word. This, too
can be done by means of labelled bracketing, as, for example, in the case of killed:
[V [B kill] [ SUFF ed ]
Here the label Bis used for base (of the verb), and the label Stuff for suffix.
TREE DIAGRAMS AND PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES
One other verycommon representation is the tree diagram It is a notation device which is entirely equivalent to
labelled bracketing: although it looks different, ir providesthe same information about the syntactic structure of a
sentence.

To read the diagram we require some additional

terminology. For example, we say that S1 (the whole
sentence) is expanded as S2 and S3 (two clauses), which are
coordinated by and . S1 is said to contain as its immediate
constituent S2, S3 and the coordinator and. S2 is expanded
as NP-VP, and so is S3. The VP in each case is expanded as V-
NP. The constituents mentioned so far are considered to be
the mail constituents of the sentence. Further down the
tree, NP may again be expanded as either Det-N (the snake)
or as N (it). There is a convention which is generally used to
sum up the system of spanding one unit into other units. It is
set of instructuinos called phrase structure rules (PS rules).
The category labels in tree diagram are all attached to the

nodes of that tree, and the lines connecting these nodes are called branches. The node labels in the tree diagram
correspond to the labels in the labelled bracketing. The node labelled S 1 dominates the nodes labelled S2 ,coord.,
and S3.
The lexical ítems (the words) the, snake, killed, etc are attached to the so-called terminal nodes of the tree diagram,
the bottom nodes. The other nodes in the tree diagram are non-terminal.
Subordination of a clause, as in:
The snake wchich killed the rat belongs to our neightbour.
This simplified tree diagram shows that S2 is inmediately dominated by NP1: S2 is an immediate constituent of the
NP. The triangle under VP is a device commonly used to indicate that we are not concerned with the internal
structure of that constituent.
SENTENCE AND DISCOURSE
Sentences do not normally occur in isolation. They usually form part of talarger text (or discourse) which is also
organised in a particular way. The sentences of a text follow each other in some “logical” order, and reflect a
certain sequence of thoughts or events. There are often elements in a sentence which mar kits relationship with
the context.

The structural organisation of texts is different from that of sentences. The rules conditioning the organisation of
texts are the rules of text grammar or discourse grammar, whereas the rules which determine the structure of
sentences make up sentence gramar or syntax.
CONSTITUENCY TESTS
The immediate constituents of the sentence/clause (NP-VP) and those of the VP are considered to be the main
constituents of syntacticanalysis. They may be involved in a number of processes which change the appearance of a
basic sentence pattern. These processes always affect complete constituents, and thus anable the student of
language to discover what the constituents of sentences are.
Clefting:
1- most of the silk we see in Britain comes from silkworms.

The constituent from silkworms ma be given more emphasis bay placing it at the beginning of the sentence and
surrounding it by the Word it was/was…. That, as follows
2- it is from silkworms tha most of the silk we see in Britain comes
(1) and (2) have different outward appearance (or form), but their content (or meaning) is more or less the
same. The only difference in meaning between them is that in(2) the element from silkworms is very
emphatically constrasted with something else in the context.
The operations of fronting a constituent like from silkworms and surrounding it by it was/was…that are partof a
process kwnon as clefting. If we represent the string from silkworms by X, we could summarise the process as
follow
CLAUSE [with X]------it is X that CLAUSE [without X]
Sentences resulting from the clefting process are called cleft sentences. It is not posible to rpoduce a cleft sentence
by putting just anything in the position for X. For example: it was Jane gave that this book to Bill on Saturday. (IT IS
WRONG)
Clefting cannot affect the string Jane gave, because this is not a constituent in the sentence. Clefting is a useful way
of discovering which words in a sentence form constituents and which do not: Jane is a constituent, but Jane gave,
for example, is not.
Pseudo-Clefting:
A process closely related to clefting is that of pseudo-clefting. This involves the use of what to form sentences like:
“what Jane did was give this book to Bill on Saturday”
Pseudo-clefting affects whole constituents.
Passivisation:
The personwho perform the activity is the Agent, and whoever or whatever undergoes it is called the PAtinet.
Agent and PAtient are roles. Passivisation is a way of rearranging the infrmation in a sentence: if for some reason
the PAtint is to be made more prominent, we may use a passive sentence. In passives the Agent role is no longer
obligatorily expressed. In active sentences, normally, the Agent precedes and the PAtinet follows. In passive
sentences the Patient precedes and the Agent, if any, follows. Passivisation also affects complete constituents.
Pronominalisation:
Substitution by pronouns is called pronominalisation. Like clefting and passivisation, pronominatisation can affect
constituents only.
Fronting:
“Tasar is producedin a humid and dense belt of tropical forest in India”

This sentence contains the string in a humidand dense belt of tropical forest inIndia, which may be moved to the
beginning of the sentence, as follows: “in a humid and dense belt of tropical forest in India, tasar is produced”.
We call this process fronting (of preposing). Only certain sentence elements can be fronted, and these elements
must be constituents.
CONSTITUENTS
We have argued that sentences have structure, and are not just strings of words which occur in a random order.
The words of a sentence are strickly organised internally: the structure of sentences can be discovered by certain
constituency tests.
The items in a text are somehow organized: texts also have a certain structure. Texts contain one or more
paragraphs, often set off by indentation. Paragraphs in turn consists of sentences, wich are usually ser off by a
capital letter at the beginning and a full stop, an exclamation point or a question mark at the end.
Sentences are hierarchically organized into different constituents.
With five words you can have different combinations. However, only some of these strings will be correct English
sentences. The sentences wich the grammar of English does not allow are said to be ungramamatical.
The following sentences are all grammatical, but they may be ordered on a more-or-less descending scale of
acceptability:
12- George allegedly cheated at Harvard

13- At Harvard George allegedly cheated
14- Allegedly George cheated at Harvard
15- ?allegedly at Harvard George cheated
16- ?george at Harvard allegedly cheated
17- ?george at Harvard cheated allegedly
Sentences (11-13) are all fairly normal. The sentences (14-16) have very unusual word order, and require a special
intonation to sound acceptable. (14-16) are marked stylistically : they will only occur rarely. The other sentences
are less marked. These sentences do not differ with respect to the number or kind of words. What distinguishes
them us the order of the words. Word order in English is fixed to a large extent, and if a given word is disrupted the
sentence may become less acceptable or even ungrammatical.
Syntax should provide a generalized account of sentence structure.
Some words in a sentence are linked more closely together than others. They form grammatical units within the
sentence, and any variation I the order must respect the fact that tere are such units. These grammatical units
(sentence, clause, phrase, word and morpheme) are the cnstituents of a sentence.
Here follows a list of some the test wich can be used to identify strings like at Harvard as constituents:
A) The string at harvadr can b replaced by one word (tere):

George allegedly cheated at Harvard (there)
B) one can ask a question of the following form:

Where did George allegedly cheat?

C) at and harvard can be move around together.
D) at Harvard can be the focus element X in a cleft sentence:
It was at Harvard that george allegedly chated.
SENTENCES
SIMPLE DECLARATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES
Questions like Did you remember the distance? Ask for the answer Yes or No. they are said to be yes-no questions.
If you ask a yes-no question, you want to know whether something did or did not happen. However, if you know
that something happened, you might want to hear about the circumstances of the event (e.g. the time, place,
reason of the event), or you might want to know more about he participants (the people envolved).
Questions wich ask for a particular piece of information, rather than for simpl Yes or No, are called wh-questions.
We call them wh-question because they are foten ontroduce by a word (or phrase) beginning with wh-. For
example:
Where did john hide the money?

What did she say?
When did he come back?
However, the wh word does not always open the question. It may also appear inside the first constituent of the
sentence:
For what reason did you leave early?

In what way did john offend her?
At what distance were you from that spot?
In what way can be replace by how, and at what distance by how far. How and constituents containing how are also
regarded as wh.elements. for example:
How did you get to know him?

How far away were you from that spot?
How old are youhow much money do you earn?
Sentences used to ask questions are interrogative senteces; sentences used to supply information are declarative
sentences.
COMPOUND AND COMPLEX SENTENCES
A clause wich is coordinated with another claus in this way is called a conjoin.
A sentence which consist of a string of coordinated clauses (conjoins) is called a compound sentence. For example:
“George cheated at Harvard and jane cheated at Yale”

“John studied very hard last year but he failed his test”.
Sentences which contain embedded clauses are said to be complex. For example: the sanke which killed the rat
belongs to our neighbours.
There are also mixed types of sentences, which involve both coordination and subordination: there may be
subordinate clauses within conjoins and subordinate clauses may also be coordinated.
The sanke which killed the rt and (which) swallowed it belongs to our neighbours.
Thsese mixed ypes of sentences are called compound-complex sentences.
There are importart different between coordinate and subordinate clauses.
a) coordinate clauses are introducen by coordinators (and, but, or, for, etc.) and suborditane clauses by
subordinators (when, before, because, if , since, although, that, etc)
b) the coordinator always appears in a position between two coordinated clauses, wheres the subordinator is part
of the subordinate clause. As a result, it is imposible to plac the second cojoin togheter with the coordinator in
front of the first conjoin. Examples:
the sanke killed the rat and swallowed it.
and it swallowed it. The snake killed the rat. (it is wrong)
On the other hand, subordinate claueses and the subordinators which introduce them can be fronted together:
the sanke killed the rat, before it swallowed it.
before it swallowed it, the snake killed the rat.
His two separate constituents, which cannot be moved together this difference between coordination and
subordination of clauses may be represented as follows:
c) Coordination with ands, but and or allows deletion fo the subject of the second conjoin, if it is co-referential to
the subject of the first conjoin. Deletion of the subject is generally impossible in subordinate clauses.
Examples:
The snake killed the rat and it swallowed it.
The sanke killed the rat, before it swallowed it. (it is wrong)
CLAUSES
We use the termt “clause” to refer to sentences which are constituents of other sentences or of phrases. A
constituent sentence (or clause) may be coordinated with one or more other constituent sentences to form a
compound sentence, or it may be embedded in another sentence or in a phrase to form a complex sentence. A
simple sentence is a one clause sentence, whereas compound and complex sentences always contain at least two
clauses.
His aunt feared that he might catch something
If we passive this sentence, we get:

That he might catch something was feared by his aunt.

Passivisation is a process which operates on sentences: it rearranges the sentence constituents. Since passivisation
affects the string that he might catch something, we conclude that this string is a sentence constituent. Our
conclusion is confirmed by pseudo-clefting and by pronominalisation (use of it, that, what, etc)
His aunt feared (that he might catch something)
The role of that in 7 is that of linking S to the sentence insdide which it occurs: that is the subordinator. It is a unit
containing the subordinator and the subordinate clause.
The element that occupies the so-called complementizer slor (COMP slot) in front of the sentence S.
That can be omitted (or deleted)
However, in the passive variants of this sentences that is not deleteable.
Example:
He might catch something was feared by his aunt.
Considering:
On evening he asked whether he might go home with her. You will find that wheter he might go home with her is a
is a constituent. For example, pseudo-clefting yields:
What he asked one evening was wheter he go home with her.
We can ask a question like:
What did he ask one evening?
Whether he might go home with her. The string whether + he might go home with her is an embeded ye-no
question. When yes-no questions are embedded, the subordinator is wheter or if, not that.
Example: one evening he asked whether/if/thatX he might go home with her.
Why did you measure the distance?
What did you see there?
Such wh-wuestions may also be embedded in other sentences, but we ned no special subordinator to do that.
The new law requires that seat-belts should be worn by all passengers.
The new law requires for seat-belts to be worn by all passengers.
Elements which occupy the COMP slot( that, whether, if, for, etc) are often reffered to as complementisers.
First of all, note that (21) allows a great deal of variation in front of be worn. We could replace should by must or
shall, and sould be worn by are worn. In fact, should, must, or shall may aslso be absent. The varios possibilities are
expressed by (29):
29)the new law requires that seat-belts should/must/shall/-are be worn…
It (22), however,no such variation is allowed: in front of be worn we only find to, and to is obligatory. The sequence
to be worn is called a to-infinitive of the verb wear.
If we replace seat-belts by a pronoun, we find another contrast:

30) the new law requires that the shold be worn…
31) the new law requires for them to be worn…
The embedded sentence in 21 is finite, since the verd phrase is finite the embedded sentence in 22 in non-finite,
since its verb phrase in non-finite.

Non-finite clauses may also contain a bare infinitive (which is an infinitive without to) or the may contain an -ing
participle or an -ed participle. Consider, for example:
We say Mary leave.
We saw Mary leaving.
Apart from finite and non-finite clauses of various types, English also has verbless clauses. Verbless clauses are
clauses in which the verb (usually a form of times other elements have been deleted. Consider, for example:
John believes the prisioner innocent.we assume is a reduced version of the to-infinite clause I 37:
37) John believes the prisoner to be innocent.
Non.finite clauses and verbless clauses are always embedder/subordinate.
PHRASES
Noun phrases
If we search phrasal constituents, we find one very common type, which is represented by constituents such as the
tramp, the diary, he, a page, it, the german girl, etc.
We see that the type of constituent we are here dealing with has as its most important element a word of the class
of nouns (N). This N may be preceded by such words as the, a, no, etc. and also by words such as German, young, ...
If a constituent has as its central (non-omissible) element an N, then such a constituent will be labelled NP. The
noun is the Head of the NP:
Elements before the Head

Words such as a and the help to specify what person or thing is indicated by (or referred to by) the NP. The person
or thing referred to by an NP is its referent. For example,
(4a) The tramp read the diary.
(4b) A tramp read a diary.
In (4a) the tramp suggests that we already know who, or what tramp, is involved. In (4b), on the other hand, the
referent of tramp is introduced for the first time. Since the definite and the indefinite article (the and a) both serve
to specify the reference of the NP, they are said to be Specifiers of the NP.
Possessive pronouns and genitives thus also function as Specifiers narrowing down the reference of the NPs in
which they occur. The demonstrative pronouns this, that, these and those, and items like some, any, what, which,
whose, each, every, all, half, both, much, many, and the numerals (one, two, . . .) may also have a specifier function.
Items like those mentioned which precede the NP Head, belong to the grammatical category of determiner.
Depending on their position relative to each other, determiners may be predeterminers (half, both, all, double),
central determiners (the, a, this, that, my, his, etc.) or postdeterminers (numerals, etc.). Determiners function as
Specifiers in the NP. The Head of an NP may also be preceded by adjective phrases, which modify the Head N, as in:
young boys, expensive diamonds, and the three gorgeous girls. Since young, expensive, etc. normally precede the
Head, they are said to premodify it. Premodifiers follow determiners. The function of Specifier is realised by the
fairly limited collection of items which we call determiners, whereas the function of Premodifier is usually realised
by adjective phrases or other open class elements.

Pronouns
Words like he, she, //and they (personal pronouns) are used whenever repetition of the full NP is unnecessary.
Constituents which can be replaced by personal pronouns must be NPs.
The contrast between he, she and it is one of gender. He is said to have masculine gender, she feminine gender and
//neuter gender . Another contrast found with personal pronouns, in addition to those of (a) number, (b) person
and (c) gender, is that between the forms he and him and between the forms she and her, etc. This is a contrast of
case.
We use he and she for the NP which precedes the VP. Since this NP is the Subject, he and she are called the Subject
forms of the pronouns. We chose her and him to replace NPs which occur inside a VP: such forms are called Object
forms.
We have seen that personal pronouns replace complete constituents, in the same way that clefting, passivisation,
etc. affect whole constituents. Pronouns are useful devices for avoiding repetition of the whole NP. For example:
“John met Mary at the entrance of the station. He bought her an ice-cream”.
John and he are linked, and so are Mary and her. John and he are co-referential, and so are Mary and her. Consider
now: “ John was unable to control him”.
John and him are not co-referential; him must be taken to refer to someone else. In order to say that John lacked
self-control, for example, i.e. that 'John cannot control John', we use a special pronoun with -self '(a reflexive
pronoun): “ John was unable to control himself”.
Himself 'and herself are pronouns which must be bound inside their sentences. Other reflexive pronouns are:
myself, yourself, himself, itself, ourselves, yourselves and themselves.
Apart from the possessive pronouns my, your, our, etc., which belona to the category of determiners (2.4.2.1),
English also has the possessive pronouns mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours and theirs. These can be used to
replace a complete NP and can thus occur on their own. For example: “This is your bicycle. Mine is over there”.
We have seen that, like possesses and articles, they may occur as determiners functioning as Specifiers of the NP in
which they occur. However, the four demonstrative pronouns may also occur independently as NPs For example:
“This is my mother and that is my father”.
Pronouns are said to form closed sets, since it is possible and fairly easy to make an exhaustive list of all the
pronouns m English Adjectives, nouns, verbs and adverbs, on the other hand, constitute open classes. In these
cases it is impossible to list all the tems belonging to a class, since such a class can be indefinitely extended by
adding newly formed adjectives, nouns, verbs or adverbs.
Elements after the Head
For example: “The diary which the tramp was reading was amusing”.
“The idea that he might like some chocolate did not occur to the German girl”.
“The question whether the tramp had any money did not arise”.
The Head N diary is followed by the string which the tramp was reading. This sentence/clause is fully integrated
within the NP. The clause follows the Head noun in an NP, and has the function of Postmodifier. Which is a relative
pronoun; relative pronouns introduce relative clauses. The other clauses above (with that and whether) are not
relative clauses, but appositive clauses, which give an indication of the 'content' of the idea or the question. They
are also said to function as Postmodifiers.
VERB PHRASES

Consider : “The tramp read the diary”.

The tramp and the diary are NPs. The word read belongs to the class of verbs (walk, talk, sleep, help, etc.). Clefting
and fronting yield ungrammatical sentences:
“It is read that the tramp the diary”.  It is wrong
“ Read the tramp the diary”.  It is wrong
In fact, pseudo-clefting shows that read and the diary constitute one unit: “What the tramp did was read the
diary”.
Moreover, we can replace the string read the diary by a special pro-form with do. For example:
“The tramp read the diary, and the Egyptian did (so) too”.
” The tramp read the diary. Did he? “
We shall call the string read the diary the verb phrase (VP). The verb (V) ,read is the Head of the VP. It is
represented as follows: “ The tramp [ VP read [ NP the diary] ]”
The diary is an NP within a VP. In a sense, the NP completes the VP and is therefore called a Complement of the
verb read.
Verb Complements
They are elements which obligatory follow the verb in the VP. The verb is the Head of the VP, and the Complements
(NP,AdjP,PP, etc) may have functions like Direct Object, Indirect Object, Predicative Complement,etc.
A verb subcategorises for a certain type of Complement. In other words, a verb occurs inside a certain frame, and is
obligatorily followed by certain classes of categories. Such frames are called subcategorisation frames.
Subcategorisation frames
Verb types Examples
for verbs
[-------] Intransitive He laughed
[----{AdjP,NP,PP}] Copula He seemed very cheerful
[----{NP;that-cluse}] Monotransitive He killed the mouse
[----{NP-NP;NP-PP}] Ditransitive He gave the girl a book
[----NP-{AdjP,NP}] Complex transitive He called him a fool
[----PP] Intransitive He leaned towards the girl
[----NP-PP] Transitive He put his head on her shoulder
Obligatory Complements are those elements whose presence is syntactically required. But we shall see that it is
also possible for indefinitely many optional constituents to occur in a sentence. For example: “he unfolded his
magazine (for the girl) (quite unexpectedly)”
we find additional elements which are optional. These elements belong to the VP, but that they are not
Complements; they are not needed to complete the VP; they add further information: they realice the gramatical
function of Adjunct.
Elements before the Head: If we change the time reference of the text from past to present, we find that every
time it is the form of the first element in the VP which is affected. For example: laughed becomes laughs, and was
unfolding becomes is unfolding. The form of the verb is altered from past tense to present tense.

If a VP is marked for tense, it is said to be finite. (Non- finite VPs are those which exhibit no contrast between past
and present tense.)
If we were to rewrite the text so as to change its time reference to the future, we would get sentences like the
following: “The tramp will read the diary. He will turn the page . . .”
Apart from will, one might also use may, must, could, etc. in the same position. These pre-verbal elements are the
so-called modal auxiliaries, or modals. They must be added in front of the V, after the tense element.
There are three more types of pre-verbal element: perfect, progressive and passive. Consider, for example: “She
had given him no chocolate”.
Given combines with have to form the perfect aspect.
In “He was unfold ing his magazine”.
Here the verb unfold is preceded by was (the past tense of the auxiliary be) and the present participle suffix -ing is
added to it. Be + ing expresses progressive aspect.
The third pre-verbal element is that of the passive voice. Passive is expressed by the auxiliary be and the past
participle suffix -ed, which is attached to V. For example: “The tramp was arrest^ by the pólice”.
Tense, the modal auxiliaries and the auxiliaries have and be function as Specifiers of the VP.
The First Auxiliary in the VP
Consider: “The Egyptian was clowning”

“She had given him chocolate”.
These declarative sentences can be turned into Yes-No questions, as follows:
Was the Egyptian clowning?
Had she given him chocolate?
But, if we want to turn the following sentences into interrogative:
“The tramp admires the girl” and “He laughed”.
Here we always get the additional element does or did in the corresponding questions. For example:
Does the tramp admire the girl? (Not: * Admires the tramp the girl?)
Did he laugh?
What we have said about the role of the first auxiliary and the use of do also applies to the negation of English
sentences. Negation is normally achieved by inserting not after the first element of the VP.
Example: “The Egyptian was not/wasn't clowning”.
“ The tramp does not/doesn't admire the girl. (Not: *The tramp admires not the girl)”.
Negative sentences always need an auxiliary in front of not. And if there is no auxiliary available, the auxiliary do
must be inserted. The first auxiliary in the VP (a modal, or have or be) is not only involved in operations like
question formation and negation, but also, for example, in tag formation. Example: “The Egyptian was clowning,
wasn't he?”
Question formation, negation and tag formation are three ways to illustrate the special status of the first auxiliary
in the VP. However, it is not only the auxiliaries have and be that are involved in inversion, negation and tag
formation, but also the lexical verbs have and be. For example:
“Her voice was soft”.
“Was her voice soft?”
“Her voice wasn't soft”.

“Her voice was soft, wasn't it?”

These lexical verbs behave like auxiliaries here.
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES
Phrases consisting of a preposition (in, about, under, to, with, etc.) followed by an NP or an S are called
prepositional phrases (PPs).
The preposition may be preceded by an element which specifiesit. For example
Right on the spot
Slap in the middle
Thge Specifiers in the PPs are adverb phrases and NPs.
PPs may occur within VPs, NPs, etc.
In: [met her at the entrance of the cinema]
The PP at the entrance of the cinema occurs inside a VP, and the PP of the cinema inside the NP the entrance of
the cinema, which is the Prepeo f at.
The structure of this PP is as follows:
[pp AT[np THE ENTRANCE[ppOF[np THE CINEMA]]]]
The normal order of elements in the PP is: P-NP. However, English also has a number of postpositions, which
typically follow their Complements, as in: three weeks ago and all joking aside; ago and aside are like prepositions
in that they serve as the Head of a PP.
ADJETIVE PHRASES
The Head o fan AdjP is an adjetive. A Head Adj can be preceded by an adverb phrase chich specifies it. For
example  Very soft.
The Head Adj may also be followed by a PP or an S which serves as a Complement of the Head Ajd. For example:
Worried about the future
In [s [NP he][VP learned[PP towards[NP the[ADJP german]girl]]]]
The Adj¨german functios as a Premodifier in the NP the German girl.
Nps may contain more tan one AdjP functioning as Premodifier. For example:
The young German girl.

Words like only, as in an only child, and utter, are also AdjP. However, they are limited in their distribution: unlike
the vast majority of AdjPs, they cannot occur after the Copula be in a sentence: *the child is only or *the fool is
utter. These AdjPs, it appears, can only be used attributively, not predicatively. Other ADJPs, such as awake or
alone, can only be used predicatively, not attributively: *the alone boy.
ADVERB PHRASES
The Head o fan AdvP is an adverb. AdvPs may occur in a VP or in an AdjP. AdvPs take no Complements.
WORDS
Words are gramatical units which a speaker of a langueage can intuitively recognise.
It is your linguistic competence which allows you to do this.
Word Classes: the Distribution of Words.
In order to form sentences, words must appear in a particular structural relationship and in a particular order.
Words can be classified depending on the type of enviroment in which they can appear. The enviroment in which
a Word occurs (the context) serves as an important criterion for setting up clases of words. Words which can
appear in the same context Will be said to have the same distribution: they belong to the same word class.
NOUNS
Nouns may vary in form
They can be singular and plural nouns. Example: Tramp-Tramps
Proper nouns. They do not normally take an article (*the Jane was ill) and usually occur in the singular only
(*Janes). However, some proper nouns always occur in the plural and take a definite article: The Hebrides.
VERBS
In:
Mary Ann had come to the vicarage when she was eighteen.
Philip asked her whether he might come with her.
The head Vs in termo are called main verbs or lexical verbs. The ítem had in had come in an auxiliary (of the
Perfect), and might, in might come is a modal (auxiliary).
Lexical bers are verbs which function as the Head of a VP, and which as such can be the only verb in a sentence.
Lexical bers can be preceded by one or more auxiliaries.
Auxiliaries cannot normally occur on their own, although in some cases the lexical verb functioning as the Head
may have to be recovered from the context: we say then the lexical verb (and other material accompanying it in
the context) is deleted. Examples are:
A. Who has broken the window? B: Jonh has (broken the window)

ADJETIVES
Adjetives in English do not change in form to show number.
Some adjetives may have different forms depending in the degree of the quality they express:
Mary Ann is nice, Philip is nicer, but the Vicar is nicest.
The form nice is said to be the base; nicer is the comparative degree, and nicest is the superlative degree. Base,
comparative and superlative are the trhee degrees of comparison.
Longer adjetives cannot be ‘graded’ by adding -er/-est to the base. Instead we must put more and most before
the adjetive to form the comparative and the superlative.
There are also irregular degrees of comparison such as: good-better-best; bad-worse-worst; and little-less-least.
ADVERBS
Adverbs are often formed by adding the suffix -ly to the corresponding adjetives. However, not all adverbs are
formed with -ly. For example, son, well, then have no regular corresponding adjetive forms. Early, fast, hard,
kindly, and late are both adverbs and adjetives.
Like adjetives, adverbs may be put in the comparative and the superlative degrees.
PREPOSITIONS
Prepositions may consisto f only one Word (e.g: on, at, in, inside), oro f more tan one word (e.g: in relation to,
with respecto to, because of, in favor of, in aid of) these multi-word prepositions are ‘frozen’ units, which have
become single lexical ítems.
CONJUCTIONS
Conjuctions serve to link sentences/clauses, or phrases. They may consist of only one Word (and, but, or, that, if,
etc) or more tan one Word (so, that, in order that, as son as etc.)
Conjunctions may also be subdivided into coordinators and subordinators.
Subordinating conjunctions occur in the COMP slot they are often referred to as complementisers.
Functions
Adjuncts are not obligatory constituents. It is important to point out that the verb itself may contain more than one
word, for example: “He went out”.
“He gave up alcohol”.
Go out is a multi-word verb which takes no Complement, whereas give up is a multi-word verb which needs an NP
Complement. Verbs express activities of some kind (but the term 'activity' is to be interpreted here in a fairly wide
sense, to include such events, happenings, states of affairs and situations as are expressed by verbs like die, dream,
fall, hate, possess, resemble). Activities usually involve one or more participants. The activity 'kill', for example,
expressed by the verb kill, involves two participants: the Agent and the Patient.
GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS
Compare: “The girl showed the diary to the tramp”.

“ The tramp showed the diary to the girl”.
The difference in the position of the NPs clearly has an effect on the behaviour of such NPs in the sentence. For
example, only the two NPs inside the VP (e.g. the diary and the tramp) may switch places. Compare:
1-The girl showed the diary to the tramp.

6- The girl showed the tramp the diary.

7- The diary showed the girl to the tramp.
We shall say here that the change from (1) to (6) above also involves the deletion of the preposition to. The NP
outside the VP (the girl) is not affected by the operation which changes (1) into (6). This operation is called Dative
Movement.
Constituents are said to have different grammatical functions (GFs) In (1), for example, the girl is Subject (Su);
thediaryis Direct Object (Od) to the tramp is Indirect Object (Oi). We shall say that in (1) the Subject is realised by
an NP, the Od is realised by an NP, and the Oi bv a PP. For (1), we may provisionally abbreviate this information as
follows- NP/Su NP/Od and PP/Oi. Conversely, we might want to sav, for example, that the NP the girl m (1) realises
the GF of Su: NP/Su, or NP functions as Su. The slash convention introduced here provides a quick way of indicating
the GFs and their realisations in a given sentence.
GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS IN S
SUBJECT
The Subject of a sentence has been defined as the NP which combines with the VP to form an S.
We noted that NPs functioning as Su invert with the first auxiliary element (was in our examples) in the formation
of questions. For example: “Was the tramp laughing? “
The switch of the Subject NP and the first auxiliary element is called Subject-Auxiliary Inversion (SAI). Another
characteristic of Subject NPs in finite clauses is that they normally agree in number with the first element in the VP.
If, for example, we put the NP the tramp in the plural, we get sentence: “The tramps were laughing”.
The change from singular to plural here does not only affect the Subject NP but also the VP. Agreement is overtly
marked in finite clauses on the first auxiliary element. A third way of recognising Subject NPs is that pronouns
replacing them will normally have the subjective form (he, she, they, etc.), not the objective form (him, her, them,
etc.). For example:
“He was laughing”.
“*Him was laughing”.( it is wrong)
PREDICATE
The VP 'predicates something' of the Subject; its function is 'predicative'. Since the function of VP is that of
predicating, we shall call it the Predicate of the sentence.
SENTENCE ADJUNCTS: the sentence may also contain elements which are peripheral in the structure of the
sentence: they fall outside the major constituents NP and VP. These peripheral sentence elements are of two types:
(a) items which serve to specify the speaker's attitude towards the rest of the sentence; examples are:
unfortunately, certainly, in my view, in fact. For example:
“Unfortunately, the match was cancelled because of bad weather”.
(b) items which serve to connect sentences in a text; examples are: moreover, however, nevertheless, yet. For
example:
“John had planned to swim across the Channel last year. However, when the time came he did not have the

courage”.
GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS IN VP
PREDICATIVE COMPLEMENTS
The function of a Predicative Complement (Pc) is that of ascribing some property to the Subject of the sentence.
This function is normally realised by NPs. AdjPs or PPs, and the verbs that select such a Complement belong to the
class of copulas {be, look, seem, etc.). Examples:
Jane seemed a good student.
John looked foolish in that tracksuit.
She is an actress.
The Predicative Complement (to the Subject) agrees in number with the Subject NP.
DIRECT OBJECT
An NP-Complement of V which becomes the Subject of a passive sentence is said to have the function of Object.
Example: “the tramp was unfolding the magazine” ->”the magazine was unfolding by the tramp”
INDIRECT OBJETC
Example”She had given the tramp no chocolate”->”she had given no chocolate to the tramp”.
It is characteristic of the Ob that can often be replaced by a PP with either to or for.
She poured the tramp a drink
She poured a drink for the tramp
ADVERBIAL COMPLEMENTS WITH INTRANSITIVE VERBS
Consider: “the newspaper reamined with MR Ellis for three hours”

There are two PPs in the VP, of which the second seems to be optional and the first obligatory: For three hours is an
optional VP-Adjunct. With Mr Ellis is a Verb Complement. Remain in this case requires a PP: [ VP -------PP]. Remain is
an intransitive verb: it does not take an OD, b. But at the same time remain subcategorices for a PP. Constituents
which give us more information concerning the place, manner, time, duration,etc. Of an activity are said to have an
adverbial function, and if such an element (like the PP with Mr Ellis) is obligatory, we call i tan Adverbial
Complement (Ac). Alternatively, the Adverbial Complement of remain may be realised by anAdvP
Examples: “He remained there” “the women remained upstairs”
The AdvP again isa Complement: it is non-omissible. Furthermore, it specifies the location of the activity: it has an
adverbial function. The following examples illustrate other uses of verbs which take an Ac:
“He leaned against the sideboard”
“He is in London”
“His birthday is next Saturday”
“The performance lasted (for) two hours”
NPs which can not become the Subject of corresponding passive sentences are not Objects of the lexical verbs, but
form part of the PPs which function as Ac. Example: “John belongs to several social clubs”.
ADVERBIAL COMPLEMENTS WITH TRANSITIVE VERBS
Transitive verbs may also selecta n Ac. Consider:

John putt he money in a box

He worded the letter very carefully
The children always remind me of their grandfather
The verbs take an NP/OD, which can regularly become the Subject of a passive
The money was put in the box

The etter was worded very carefully - expresses manner
The PP in a box is a Complement of the V and expresses the location of “puttin”
The Ac for put can also be realised by an AdvP: “John putt he money there/upstairs”.
PREDICATIVE COMPLEMENT + ADVERBIALCOMPLEMENT: A COMPLEX FUNCTION
Consider:
“The government set the priosioners free”

“The Vicar flung the door open”.
Free is obligatory, it is a Complement within the VP. It narrows down the meaning of set (and is thus adverbial), but
it also links up with the Direct Object NP: it predicatessomething of the NP the prisioners. The AdjP free is thus both
adverbial and predicative in function. This combination of functions could be abbreviated as Pc+Ac. Verbs which
select a Pc+Ac are called complex transitive. Complex transitive verbs such as call, set and fling requiretwo
Complements, one of which is the Direct Object, while the other has an adverbial and, perhaps more importantly, a
predicative function relating it to the Direct Oject.
Verbs such as laugh, snore and yawn have no complement (he laughed) this is not the same as “zero
complementation”. The term “zero” complementation is used with reference too cases like “he is Reading, which
may be opposed to he is Reading a book. “zero” is only used if there is a corresponding explicit Complement and
not if there is no corresponding explicit Complement normally, as in the case of He laughed/snored/yawned, etc.
SENTENCE ADJUNCTS AND VP-ADJUNCTS
Consider:”William walked slowly down the road” and “She was certainly a very unreasonable person”.
The verb walk requires an obligatory indication of location: down the road, which in that case functions as
Adverbial Complement (Ac). In this context slowly seems less obligatory in the VP. It is a sentence of the Su [V-Ac]
type, with an additional Adjunct slowly
The Adjunct slowly is a manner Adjunct. In general, Adverbial Adjuncts are modifiers of the activity expressed by
the verb.
Certainly is also an optional Adjunct, but it indicates the speaker´s attitude towards the rest of the sentence.
Certainly is an Adjunct which relates to the content of the sentences an is therefore said to be a sentence Adjunct
(Sa). The Sam ay also be realised by PPS. Examples:
In fact, she was a very unreasonable girl

In my opinión, she was a very unreasonable girl.
Yet is also an Sa: its function is to connect sentences. Other examples are AdvPs such as however, nevertheless,
then or PPs such as in addition, in spite of that, etc. Examples: “however, what could he do about it?”
“Nevertheless, we must ge ton with the job”

Englishhas twomain types of (optional) Adjuncts: Adverbial Adjuncts (As) and Sentence Adjuncts (Sas). Adverbial
Adjuncts appear inside the VP. Sas relate to the entire sentence.There are two syntactic tests which may be used to
differentiate between As, on the one hand, and Sas , on the other:
a) focusing; it is posible to focus on certain As but not on Sas:

“He walked down the road slowly, not quickly”
“She arrived home before dark, fortunately, not unfortunately” (it is wrong)
b) wh-questioning: As can be questioned with wh-items;

“How dis he walk down the road? Slowly”
but Sas cannot be questioned in this way:
“when was she a very unreasonable girl? Certainly” (it is wrong)
PREDICATIVE ADJUNCTS
Consider: “They have painted the house red”

Red is optional but that the NP “the House” is obligatory. Obviously, red says something about the activity of
'painting', but in addition it predicates something of the NP/Od: 'the house is red as a result of ilie painting': thus
red is used both adverbially and predicatively.
Adjuncts like red in paint the house red, which are both predicative and adverbial, but which are optional, are
called Predicative Adjuncts. They are labelled P+A.
In [ s They [ vp have appointed [ NP John Brown] [ NP their new manager] ]
their new manager has a double relation: it specifies the appointing, and it predicates something of the Object.
Consider: “She married Young”
The AdjP young must be considered to be optional. “voung” is an Adverbial Adjunct (A). It specifies the time of the
'marrying'. But young also ascribes a property to the Subject: thus young is also predicative.
The AdjP young predicates something of the Subject NP, and expresses the time of the activity of the verb: it is
predicative and adverbial at the same time: a P+A. This pattern is, of course, very close to that found with copulas:
“She was Young” . Where young is a Complement and predicates something of the Subject: a Pc. The crucial
difference is that in “She married Young” young is not obligatory, while with the copula be in: “She was Young” the
AdjP is needed.
COMPLEX SENTENCES: FUNCTIONS OF CLAUSES
Finite Clauses
He felt that he should dislike the Little girl intensely. in addition to a V (felt), it contains a that-dause, which is said
to be embedded in the VP. The GF of the that-dause is that of Direct Object. Since it is an Od, it should be possible
to make it the Subject of a passive sentence. Consider: “That he should dislike the little girl intensely was felt by
William”
This may not be a very elegant sentence, but it is grammatical. A good way of improving the sentence would be by
means of the process called ' it extraposition'. We find then that Subjects and Objects may be realised not only by
NPs but also by clauses (S/Su or S/ Od).
The element that in COMP serves as a subordinattor. Each S has its own Subject NP and VP).
Embedded clauses very often function as Adjuncts (A). For example:
“ Someone called to William when he was walking down the road”
“ I will meet you at the station if I can”
The when-clause is optional and serves to express the time of the activity of 'calling'. It is also a VP- Adjunct, rather
than a Sentence Adjunct, as the focusing and wh-question tests show. It is possible to focus on S when:
“ It was when he was walking down the road that someone called to William”

And it is possible to ask a w/i-question about S when:

“ When did someone call to William?”
The analysis in “Someone called to William when he was walking…” is thus confirmed by these two tests.
Non-finite and Verbiess Clauses
Compare:
1- “John believes that the prisoner is innocent”
2-“ John believes the prisoner to be innocent”
3-“ John believes the prisoner innocent”
Example 1) contains a finite Object clause, and 2) a non-finite one. In 1 and 2 the prisoner is the NP/Su of the
embedded S and the AdjP innocent m both cases in the Predicative Complement (Pc) in the VP of the embedded
clause. The whole clause “The prisioner to be innocent” is the Direct Object of believe: what does John believe?
That the prisoner is innocent. Sentence 3 is almost identical with 2. They have the same meaning: the string the
prisoner innocent is a reduced form of the prisoner to be innocent.
Although the string the prisoner innocent contains no verb, we shall treat it as a clause, since there is a predicate
relationship between the NP the prisoner and the AdjP innocent. Such a string is called a verbiess clause or a small
clause.
Verbless clauses may also be used, for example, as Prepc of with:

With [ s John in hospital] I we cannot go out
With [ NP this sort of weather] we cannot go out.  Here P takes an NP as its complement
With may also take a non-finite clause as its Prepc:
With [Sing him being so slow nowadays] we'll never get there.
Empty Subjects in Non-finite and Verbless Clauses
(173a) When he was waiting for the train, John noticed that he had lost his ticket.
(173b) When waiting for the train, John noticed that he had lost his ticket.
(174a) Whenever he was in trouble, Bill rang his girl-friend.
(174b) Whenever in trouble, Bill rang his girl-friend.
Sentences (173a) and (174a) contain finite embedded clauses functioning as A: the embedded clauses are optional
and they express the time of the activities expressed by notice and by ring in the main clause. The (b)-sentences are
clearly reduced versions of the corresponding (a)-sentences. The when -clause in (173b) is non-finite, and the
whenever-clause in (174b) is verbless. In both cases, the subordinate clause lacks an overt Subject, but the Subject
can usually be inferred from the rest of the sentence or the context. We assume that non-finite and verbless
clauses of this type do contain a Subject position, but that this position is 'not lexically realised'.
We shall say that the Subject of the main clause {John, Bill) controls the empty Subject position of the subordinate
clause.
Non-finite clauses may also be passive.Example: “ When he had been arrested by the police, he rang up his lawyer”
Infinitive clauses may also have empty Subjects. For example:

“John decided ( ) to study English”
“George promised Mary ( ) to leave”
They [ VP have painted [ NP/OD the house] [ sØ/A [ NP/Su ( ) ] [ Adj/Pc red]]]
The verbless clause itself has the GF of A (VP- Adjunct). Inside the verbless clause, the Subject position is not
lexically realised and it is controlled by the NP/Od the house ('the house is red'). The AdjP red is a Pc, again inside
SØ.


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Prá cticas discursivas de la comunicació n escrita I: Grammar

Aims and methods

Syntax,or syntactic analysis,may be defined as:

(A) determining the relevant component parts of a sentence

(A) breaking down the sentence into its constituents

To illustrate the hierarchical structure kf sentences, le tus consider sentence:

“The snake killed the rat and swallowed it”

REPRESENTING SENTENCES STRUCTURE

[[[[the] [snake]] [[killed] [[the] [rat]]]] [and] [[[swallowed] [[it]]]]]

Alcioni, Rocío Alejandra Pá gina 1

“The snake killed the rat and swallowed it”

[ s The snake killed the rat and swallowed it]

The clauses can be further analysed into phrases as follow:

TREE DIAGRAMS AND PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES

“The snake killed the rat and swallowed it”

Alcioni, Rocío Alejandra Pá gina 2

To read the diagram we require some additional

The category labels in tree diagram are all attached to the

Subordination of a clause, as in:

The snake wchich killed the rat belongs to our neightbour.

SENTENCE AND DISCOURSE

Alcioni, Rocío Alejandra Pá gina 3

1- most of the silk we see in Britain comes from silkworms.

Alcioni, Rocío Alejandra Pá gina 4

12- George allegedly cheated at Harvard

Syntax should provide a generalized account of sentence structure.

A) The string at harvadr can b replaced by one word (tere):

Alcioni, Rocío Alejandra Pá gina 5

Where did George allegedly cheat?

Where did john hide the money?

For what reason did you leave early?

How did you get to know him?

COMPOUND AND COMPLEX SENTENCES

“George cheated at Harvard and jane cheated at Yale”

Alcioni, Rocío Alejandra Pá gina 6

Thsese mixed ypes of sentences are called compound-complex sentences.

There are importart different between coordinate and subordinate clauses.

the sanke killed the rat and swallowed it.

Alcioni, Rocío Alejandra Pá gina 7

That he might catch something was feared by his aunt.

29)the new law requires that seat-belts should/must/shall/-are be worn…

If we replace seat-belts by a pronoun, we find another contrast:

Alcioni, Rocío Alejandra Pá gina 8

37) John believes the prisoner to be innocent.

Non.finite clauses and verbless clauses are always embedder/subordinate.

Elements before the Head

Alcioni, Rocío Alejandra Pá gina 9

Elements after the Head

Alcioni, Rocío Alejandra Pá gina 10

Consider : “The tramp read the diary”.

Alcioni, Rocío Alejandra Pá gina 11

Consider: “The Egyptian was clowning”

Alcioni, Rocío Alejandra Pá gina 12

“Her voice was soft, wasn't it?”

The preposition may be preceded by an element which specifiesit. For example

Right on the spot

Slap in the middle

Thge Specifiers in the PPs are adverb phrases and NPs.

PPs may occur within VPs, NPs, etc.