Download Unit 5: The Verb Phrase

Unit 6: Understanding Complexity in and around Clauses
What is a clause?
- A clause is a fundamental unit in the process of communication because it is the minimal unit which can stand alone
as constituting a complete message. e.g. Go! Stop! and Run!
- Clauses can range from those with one process only to those with a process and a number of participants and
circumstances. See page 158 for examples.
What are the keys to identify clause boundaries?
One of the keys to identifying clause boundaries in the text is to see that each clause must have a process. There is at
least one process e.g. got, went, to buy, bought and liked?
There are a number of other aspects can help you identify the boundaries;
1- In written language, full stops indicate a clause boundary.
2- Intonation patterns provide a guide.
3- Commas often, but not always, mark clause boundaries.
4- We can use conjunctions (e.g. When, and and) as one of the key indicators because of their position near or at the
beginning of a new clause.
5- Another helpful test is to see if the clause is moveable as a unit.
6- A further guide to identifying clause boundaries, but not evident, is the presence of grammatical elements like , who,
which, whose. Activity 1 page 160.
What are non-clausal Units?
Non-clausal units are defined as structural units that are not composed of clauses.
Non-clausal material is defined as the parts of the text which do not consist of clauses.
Why non- clausal language is more common in conversation than in writing? Reference Grammar
pages440-441
- Non-clausal units reflect the simplicity of grammatical constructions resulting from real-time production in
conversation. e.g. Poor Kids, Good for you.
- Many questions in conversation occur as noun phrases or a verbless structure beginning with a wh-word e.g. More
sauce?, How about your wife?
- Non-clausal units can also be related to ellipsis. For example, Perfect! as a response is equivalent to the clause That’s
perfect with the subject and verb omitted.
What are clause complexes?
First, the rank scale looks at language hierarchically.
And clause complexes are clauses of various kinds combine together into larger stretches of language.
In the scale we use here, there are four levels; the clause/clause complex level, the phrase level, the word level, and the
morpheme level.
e.g. Even though every room in the school had an air conditioner, the heat was unbearable.
Summarized by: Ranya AL-Esh
E303/1st Semester 2006/2007
1
Unit 5: The Verb Phrase
-
Communication can take place without verb phrases. But this tends to be the case only
where the context is very clear. e.g. a list about plays and films in a magazine. We can get
the message from the noun phrase alone.
What does a verb phrase represent?
- In this unit, our interest is focused on the kinds of process that are going on in the texts.
These processes interpret the doing, thinking, saying and relational experiences of people
and other entities. They are realized by the verb phrase. Activity One, page 129
What are the four semantic categories of processes? (Halliday(1994))
-
-
-
Material processes: they interpret external actions, both concrete (e.g. catch, play, run)
and abstract actions(e.g. close a meeting, resign, dissolve committee)
Mental processes: they express processes that go inside the head such as thinking and
sensing- intellectual action. They include cognition ( I don’t believe you) , affection (I
hate injections) ,perception (I saw the accident) and receiving of information (e.g. read,
hear).
Verbal processes: they interpret the saying and reporting of things –verbal action. They
include saying and all its synonyms, e.g. tell, ask, state, whisper…etc.
Relational processes: these processes interpret the many different ways of being and
having and they relate participants to each other (She was so small. She is the biology
lecturer. She has a piano). See pages 130& 131
Based on Reference Grammar pages 106-109, there are seven semantic
categories of lexical verbs:
1- Activity verbs: they refer to an action performed intentionally by an agent or a doer e.g.
move, buy (they are equivalent to material processes).
2- Communication verbs: they describe speech and writing e.g. ask, offer, talk, speak,
write (they are the same as verbal processes)
3- Mental verbs: they refer to mental states and activities. e.g. think, want, know, love.
They are equivalent to mental processes.
4- Causative Verbs: they indicate that some person or thing helps to bring about a new state
of affairs e.g. allow, enable, cause, force, and help. (They are equivalent to
relational processes)
5- Verbs of Occurrence: they report events that occur without an actor e.g. become, grow,
change , happen, die.(They are equivalent to relational processes)
6- Verbs of existence or relationships: they report states of existence or logical relationships
between two entities e.g. seem, appear, and stay. (They are equivalent to relational
processes).
7- Verbs of aspect: they characterize the stage of progress of an event or activities e.g. stop,
start, begin, keep, continue. (They are equivalent to relational processes).
Summarized by: Ranya AL-Esh
2
E303/1st Semester 2006/2007
What is the frequency of the different process types in spoken and written
texts?
- In spoken texts, the processes are concerned with concrete actions and thus material
processes (e.g. killed, forced, thrown, started, doing). However, the processes , in the
written texts, are no longer focusing on doing things but rather on setting up relationships
between things (e.g. deals, is, defined, designated). Many of the participants in these
relationships are abstract actions (e.g. crime, abuse, behavior). See texts on pages 131&132.
- In summary, spoken texts are focused on reconstructing the external
activities of the human and concrete participants; while the written texts
are focused on the issues that are associated with the phenomenon.
What is the structure of the verb phrase?
-
The verb phrase consists of two major elements: the lexical part of the verb phrase and
the auxiliaries.
- The verb phrase always contains a central verbal element that expresses the process.
This is referred to as the lexical verb.
e.g. They meant it as a complement
They did mean it as a complement
They might have meant it as a complement
- The verb phrase may contain one or more other elements, called auxiliary verbs. There
are auxiliaries that express some tense and aspect and auxiliaries that express modality.
See page 135
- Verb forms can be grouped into three major classes according to their
ability to function as main verbs or auxiliary verbs:
1- Lexical Verbs (e.g. run, eat, think) function only as main verbs.
2- Primary Verbs (be, have & do) can function as both auxiliary and main verbs.
3- Modal Verbs (can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must) function
only as auxiliary verbs.
What is a temporal finite /a modal finite auxiliary verb?
-
The finite is either a temporal finite (expressing tense) or a modal finite (expressing
modality).
The temporal finite anchors the verb phrase in terms of person (I, you, he, she, it, we,
they) and number (plural or singular). e.g. I don’t think so. She doesn’t think so.
The modal finite (may, might, could, should, must, will) expresses a degree of
certainty or obligation.
What are the finite auxiliary verb’s usages?
1- To form interrogative e.g. Did they mean it as a complement?
2- To form question tags or mood tags e.g. They meant it as a complement, didn’t they?
The water might spread bacteria, mightn’t it?
3- To form a negative statement e.g. They didn’t mean it as a complement
4- To form the stressed form of a positive statement e.g. They did mean it as a
complement.
Summarized by: Ranya AL-Esh
E303/1st Semester 2006/2007
3
Can a verb phrase have more than one lexical verb?
The verb phrase could be made up of two or more lexical verbs constituting one process,
thus forming a verb phrase complex. e.g.. The Toyota driver kept calling. The art critic
started calling Monet an Impressionist.
How to determine whether an item in question does constitute a phrasal verb?
1- Ask yourself: Is it possible to find a single word replacement? if the items tend to remain
together , then they probably constitute a phrasal verb e.g. The meeting has been called
off. What they called off was Friday’s meeting.
2- Check that the elements that make up a phrasal verb can be interrupted by a participant
e.g. He called off the meeting. He called the meeting off. He called it off.
Conversation and fiction registers use much more phrasal verbs than
news and academic prose registers, why?? Reference Grammar page 128
-
The reason is that the most phrasal verbs are colloquial in tone. In fact, the most
common phrasal verbs are activity verbs that are used as directives. They often occur as
imperatives. Since imperative clauses are most common in conversation and fiction, it is
no surprise that phrasal verbs are common in these registers. e.g. Shut up, Go off,
stand up…etc.
How do active voice and passive voice differ?
-
-
In the active voice, the doer of the action occurs before the verb as the subject and the
done-to occurs after the verb.
In the passive voice, the done to is the subject of the clause.
The structure of the verb phrase in the passive voice usually contains a temporal finite
(always a form of the verb ‘to be’) plus the past participant of the lexical verb e.g.
studied. released…etc.
Passive voice allows us to: hide who carries out an action, e.g. The swimming pool was
shut down. It also allows information in a text to be organized strategically according to
the writer’s objectives. In other words, the context pressures us to begin with ‘the
swimming pool’ or ‘the council’. Activity 7 page 142
Academic register has the greatest frequency of all types of passive
construction as conversation register has the least, why??
- The main aspect to consider is what the writer or speaker chooses to put first in the clause.
In spoken texts, the speaker is presenting his/ her perspective; also the speaker is usually the
doer. The active voice is therefore the dominant choice.
What are adjective phrases?
-
Adjective phrases have adjectives as the head words, which can be modified in a similar
way to the way nouns are modified in noun phrases.
- Adjective phrases are either describers in noun phrases or participants in relational
processes.
e.g. He gave an electric performance. (Describer)
Summarized by: Ranya AL-Esh
4
E303/1st Semester 2006/2007
It was a natural way to end the story. (Describer)
That’s right. (Participant)
He’s totally crazy. (Participant)
The radio was so loud. (Participant)
- As it is possible to premodify the head adjective, it is also possible to postmodify it e.g.
It’s too hot to handle.
It’s very close to the bone.
Why can an adjective phrase be regarded as a participant in the relational
process?
-
The answer lies in taking the perspective that the adjective phrase is, in a sense a
‘truncated’ noun phrase (make the noun phrase shorter). e.g.
John is a happy man.
John is a happy one
John is happy.
What is an adverb phrase?
1234-
An adverb phrase has an adverb as its head word and may have other adverbs to
modify.e.g. so beautifully, hardly ever, very smoothly, luckily enough.
An adverb phrase can play the following roles:
Modify another adverb or adjective e.g. really big, fairly often.
Express some kind of interpersonal meaning through stance adverbials e.g. normally,
probably, apparently
Realise circumstances e.g. She smiles sweetly
Modify prepositions e.g. He was immediately behind me.
Summarized by: Ranya AL-Esh
5
E303/1st Semester 2006/2007