THE SENTENCE: DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS

○ Clause: A group of words which forms a grammatical unit and which contains a subject and a finite verb 

• Because I was late, they went without me.

➔ Independent and dependent clauses

○ Phrase: A group of words which forms a grammatical unit but which does not contain a subject and a finite verb

• I like her expensive new car.
• George hates working in the garden.

○ Noun phrases, prepositional phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, adverbial phrases

THE SENTENCE: DEFINITIONS OF KEY TERMS

○ Sentence: a grammatically complete unit capable of standing alone on its own and semantically independent. Normally a sentence contains an independent clause with a finite verb.

○ Simple sentence: a sentence with only one clause

• I like milk.

○ Compound/Complex sentence: a sentence with two or more than two clauses

• He is a small boy but he is very strong.
• When it rained, we went inside.

○ Subject: generally the noun, pronoun or noun phrase which

• typically precedes the main verb and is most closely related to it
• determines concord (agreement)
• refers to something about which a statement is made in the rest of the sentence
• My mother is beautiful.

○ Predicate: part of the sentence which

○ states/asserts something about the subject

○ usually consists of the finite verb, object, complement, and adverbial

○ Verb: a word that is usually one of the main parts of a sentence and that expresses an action, an occurrence, or a state of being

• Action verbs
• State verbs

○ Finite verb: a form of a verb that is related to the subject in PERSON and/or NUMBER, and which shows TENSES.

○ Non-finite verb???

E.g.:         We                   want

She                 wants           to leave.

_○                           I                   wanted

finite verb forms                       Non-finite verb forms

VERBS

○ Transitive verbs

• He kicked a small stone.
• Did you enjoy the concert?
• I’ll send you a postcard.
• I’ll send a postcard to you.
• She said that she would be late.

○ Intransitive verbs

• I can’t sleep.
• The thief escaped.

○ Transitive and intransitive

• Miss Reynolds smiled and left.
• Miss Reynolds smiled her bright smile and left the room.

DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS

○ Object: a noun, pronoun or noun phrase which goes after the (transitive) verb, affected by the action of the verb

            I love dogs.

○ Direct object vs. Indirect object

   My mom gave me some money.

VERBS

○ Linking verbs

• Anna became my best friend.
• I am a student.
• Bill seems to have no friends.

○ Complement: part of the sentence which follows the verb and which thus completes the sentence

○ Subject complement: one linked to a subject by be or a linking verb

       She is a doctor.

○ Object complement: one linked to an object ● We made her the chairperson.

Pattern 1 S + V_i

S + V_i  + particle S + V_i  + adverbial phrase

• The phone rang.
• He came in.
• The phone rang loudly.

Pattern 2 

S + V_l + SC

• Frank is clever.
• Frank is a teacher.

○ The complement maybe

• An adjective
• A noun
• An adjective + noun
• A pronoun
• An adverb of place or time
• A prepositional phrase

○ Pattern 3        S + Vt + DO

S + V_t + DO + to/for + IO

• My sister answered the phone.
• They introduced me to the professor.

○ The Direct Object may be:

• A noun
• A pronoun
• A reflexive pronoun
• An infinitive An –ing form ○ Pattern 4

S + V_t + IO+ DO

    S + V_t + DO+ to/for + IO       S + V_t + IO

• They gave him a watch.
• They gave a watch to
• They brought me some water.
• They brought some water for me.
• I’ll tell you soon.
• I’ll post the letter for you.

○Pattern 5

S + V_t + DO + OC

• They appointed him chairman.
• He drove me crazy.

○They gave him a watch.

○They made him chairman.

DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS

○ Adverbials: any word, phrase, or clause that functions like an adverb  

➔ an adverb are a single-word adverbial

○ Adjuncts: part of the basic structure of the sentence, modifying the verb, expressing time, manner, place, etc.  

   We went to the concert yesterday evening.  

○ Conjuncts: not part of the basic structure of the sentence, connecting ideas  

    Altogether it was a happy week.

○ Disjuncts: (sentential adverbs) showing speaker’s attitude or evaluating what is said in the rest of the sentence  

         Naturally, I paid for my own meal.

BASIC WORD ORDER

SENTENCE STRUCTURES

Based on WORD ORDER 1. Statements (Declarative Sentences)

An utterance which describes a state of affairs, action, feeling or belief, etc.

• It’s very cold here in winter.
• I don’t think she looks very well.

2. Questions (Interrogative Sentences) An utterance which asks for an expression of fact, opinion, belief, etc.

• Can she come?
• What’s your name?

SENTENCE STRUCTURES

3.          Commands (Imperative Sentences)

An utterance which tells other people what to do ● Be seated, please.

4.                                  Exclamations (Exclamatory Sentences)

An utterance that may not have the structure of a full sentence and which shows strong emotions

• How clever she is!
• What a meal!

SIMPLE SENTENCES

○ A sentence that contains only one clause  I like milk. 

Mary and I went to the concert together.

He is a good man but sometimes misbehaves. 

○ A sentence that contains only one predicate

COMPOUND SENTENCES

A sentence that contains two or more than two independent clauses joined by

○ A semi-colon  

My father is a doctor; my mother is a nurse.

○ A colon

I don’t want to go: it’s raining outside.  

○ Coordinating conjunction (coordinator)   

BOY FANS

He is a small boy, but he is very strong.

○ A connecting adverb  

He is a small boy; however, he is very strong.

○ Correlative conjunctions

These headlines both mystified and infuriated him.

COMPLEX SENTENCES

A sentence that contains one or more dependent clauses (including the subordinating conjunction/subordinator) in addition to its

independent clause

When it rained, we went inside. 

If you cannot have what you like, you had better like what you have.

Types of dependent clauses in complex sentences

○ Nominal clauses (noun clauses)

○ Adjectival clauses (adjective/ relative clauses)

○ Adverbial clauses (adverb clauses)

REVISION

○ What is a sentence?

○ What basic constituents does a sentence consist of?

○ How many sentence patterns are there? What are they?

○ How many sentence structures are there? What are they?

○ How many sentence types are there? What are they?

TRUE OR FALSE?

○ A compound sentence is a sentence with at least two clauses.

○ A finite verb shows its agreement with the sentence subject.

○ SONGS in “I love singing songs” is the direct object.

○ A disjunct is part of the basic structure of a sentence.

○ A compliment is optional, i.e. it can be left out without changing the structure and the meaning of a sentence.

○ In a predicate, there always has to be a verb and an object.

○ SMELLED in “He smelled the food carefully” is a linking verb.

○ “Driving over long distances always exhausts me” is a simple sentence.