SYNTAX 2

What is Phrase ? A group of words that express a concept, functioning as a unit within a sentence.

Types of Phrase :

1. Noun Phrase ( A good girl, my vail)

2. Prepositional Phrase (Since last week, at restaurant)

3. Adverbial Phrase (Too much, extremly slowly)

4. Adjective Phrase (Very cold, so good)

5. Gerund Phrase (Being a father, getting the best score)

6. Infinitive Phrase (To call him, to be a better woman)

7. Appositive Phrase (The best selling car, a foremost scientist)

8. Absolute Phrase (I love jasmine, rose and orchid)

9. Participal Phrase (Sleep in my room, i didn’t let anyone disturb)

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Form and Function:

In terms of forms, a sentence consist of a noun phrase and a verb phrase

In terms of function, a sentence consist of a subject and a predicate

A predicate must contain a predicator which is a verb.

Noun Phrase: Is a result of combining noun (or pronoun/number) that functions as head of that
phrase with one or more modifiers

Verb Phrase: Verb phrase is a syntactic unit consisting of an auxiliary (helping) verb preceding the main
verb

Subject and Predicate: Something or someone that the sentence is called the subject, while predicate
contains information about the someone or something that is the subject
Phrase Structure Tree

Example Sentence: The child found the puppy

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Adjectives And Adjective Phrase

Adjectives : Adjective itself means adjective. Adjectives can be inserted for a subject or an object to
describe the nature of the item or person. E.g.: He is handsome.

Adjective Phrase: An adjective phrase is phrase whose head is an adjective.

Modifier (M) + Head (H)

Adverb Adjective

e.g.: Comfortably Beautiful dress

M H

Types of Adjective Phrase:

Predicative Adjective: Predicative adjective is an adjective phrase that functions as a predicate. It

Attributive Adjective

Attributive Adjective is used to describe a noun. This phrase is placed before the noun.

E.g She is really pretty student

We need a very smart phone

THE FUNCTIONS OF ADJECTIVE PHRASE

Subject Complement: A subject complement (sC) follows a linking verb (be, seem, appear, look, etc),
it is normally an adjective or a noun that renames or defines in some way the subject.

E.g.: Sally seems unhappy

S P sC

Object Complement: An object complement follows and modifies or refers to a direct object. It can
be a noun or adjective or any word acting as a noun or adjective.

E.g.: Kate called John stupid

S P dO oC

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Transitive and Intransitive Verb

Transitive Verb: A transitive verb is a verb followed by a direct object to take the action of the
subject. For example : -Kate hugged the baby

-Kate hugged

The functions of the various constituents

Kate hugged the baby

S P dO

Intransitive Verb: An intransitive verb is defined as a verb that does not take a direct object.

• Ex. Ken snores

Ken snores

S P

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DITRANSITIVE AND INTENSIVE VERB

Examples of Ditransitive Verb: Rey told the children a story

Intensive Verb: are verbs that decribes and focus on one thing; the subject.

they are followed by noun, noun phrase, adjective or prepositional phrase.

Example of Intensive verb: Sally became a doctor

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Complex-transitive verbs

When a verb takes both of a direct object and an object compliment it’s called a complex transitive
verbs

Transitive verbs and complex-transitive verbs

take direct object .

Example: kate thought john a fool

s complex- direct object

transitive verb object compliment

(noun phrase)

Anna rated john a worthy rival

S complex- DO OC

trans verb
 (adjective phrase)

A panel judged Robert entirely blameless

S complex- DO OC

trans verb

IMPERATIVE: Imperative are verbs that create an imperative sentence.

For example: - Close the door!

- Beat the eggs lightly

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The Verb Group: Tense and Modal Auxiliaries

These verb groups (hug, hugged, and hugging) carries the meaning = Lexical Verb (V).

The Lexical Verb can appear alone as in 1. Or with additional as in 2 (was), and 3 (has been).

These additional (was, has been, etc.) elements are called Auxiliaries (AUX).

Auxiliaries verbs modify the lexical verb by indicating modality, or aspect, or voice.

For example, for a verb phrase incorporating a transitive verb:

1. VP = verb group + dO

2. Vgp = AUX + V

3. dO = NP
MODAL AUXILIARIES:

Modality allow us to express whether a state of affairs is likely, possible, necessary and so on.

Modal Auxiliary is a feature of the language which allows us such expression.

The modal auxiliaries are: will, would, can, could, may, might, shall, should, must, ought to and
marginally: need, dare, used to.
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Primary Auxiliaries and Summary of Rules

Auxiliary Verbs: An auxiliary verb is a verb that is used to modify the lexical verb by indicating
Modality, Aspect, Voice, and Tense. (helping Verbs)

Primary auxiliary:

Auxiliary verbs which are used to form different tenses or not modals are known as Primary
Auxiliaries. I.e.: have, be, do There are two kinds of aspect: PERFECT and PROGRESSIVE

Perfect Aspect: Perfect aspect (PERF) is indicated by the presence of the auxiliary verb have.

e.g. :Sally has finished this book Sue had given the dog a bone

Passive Voice : Voice refers to whether a sentence or utterance is in the active or the passive

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The noun phrase:

PRONOUNS: A pronoun is a word that is used to replace a noun (noun) which can be a person,
object, animal, place, or abstract concept.

Example of pronouns: 1. He chased her

What is Pre Modification ? Pre-modification is modification of constituents which modify a head

NOUN PHRASE USING PRE MODIFIERS Determiners

Articles (a , an, the) : a book , an apple, the computer

Distributive adjectives (this, that, those, these) : This guy, that girl, these boys

Possessive adjectives (My, your, his, her, their, our) : My car, Your friend, his mother

Quantifiers (some, many, a few, the few, a lot of, several etc.) : a lot of people , several students
 NOUN PHRASE USING PRE MODIFIERS - Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words that making more specific one

Pre-Modification in Noun Phrase with a Noun : Ex. I bought a new computer

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THE NOUN PHRASE PART 2

POST MODIFICATION: As stated before, constituents which modify the head noun can also appear
after the noun. here look at the two ways to post modify a noun 1.Prepositonal phrase : the dog
chased the cat with three legs 2.Relative clause : the cat which is laying on the mat hates dogs

Prepositional Phrase: We have already looked at prepositonal phrase with regard to other
function. now we come to a further function, that post-modifying example :

1. The dog chased the cat with tree legs (S) (P) (dO)

RELATIVE CLAUSE:

A relative clause is a bit different from anything we have looked at so far, because it introduce a kind
of subsidiary sentence into the main one.eg : 1. The cat which is lying in the mat loves dog.

Rules to remember : Noun Phrase (NP)NP (pre-modifier) + HEAD (+ post-modifier)

pre-modifier DET eg. a game AP eg. a new game N eg. a new computer game

post-modifier PPeg. the cat with three legs

Rel clause (S)eg. the cat which is lying on the mat

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SUBORDINATING AND COORDINATION

SUBORDINATION : Linking two clauses in a sentence.

•Main clause or Independent clause.

•Subordinate clause or dependent clause.