Download Index: Participial postmodification in NP

Index:
Participial postmodification in NP: .....................................................................................................2
Clauses as postmodifiers in adverbial function: .................................................................................2
Scope of negation: .............................................................................................................................2
Ways of expressing negation: ............................................................................................................3
Coordination: .....................................................................................................................................3
Prepositional phrase as PostM in NP:.................................................................................................3
Adjectival relative clauses vs. adverbial clauses: ................................................................................4
Clauses introduced by however: ........................................................................................................4
Non-finite modifiers in nominal phrase: ............................................................................................4
Clauses introduced by a zero marker: ................................................................................................5
Position of subordinate clauses:.........................................................................................................5
Appositive clauses: .............................................................................................................................5
Subject and predicator agreement: ....................................................................................................5
Structure of the prepositional phrase (pP) .........................................................................................6
Non relative adjectival clauses: ..........................................................................................................6
Non-finite clauses of purpose: ...........................................................................................................7
Syndetic vs. asyndetic coordination: ..................................................................................................8
Nouns as premodifiers in adjectival phrase: ......................................................................................8
Nominal clauses functioning at the level of phrase structure: ...........................................................8
Coordinating vs. subordinating conjunctions: ....................................................................................9
Clausal subjects (finite, infinitival, gerundial, participial) ...................................................................9
Infinitival postmodifier in adjectival phrase: ....................................................................................10
Cleft sentences: ................................................................................................................................10
Appositive vs. coordinate nominal phrase: ......................................................................................11
Determiners .....................................................................................................................................11
Sentence structure S+P+A and S+P+SC .............................................................................................11
Clauses introduced by ‘as’ ................................................................................................................11
Subject – predicator agreement with coordinating subjects: ...........................................................12
Prepositional phrase as a non-headed structure ..............................................................................12
General characteristics of a phrase ..................................................................................................12
Embedding vs. conjoining.................................................................................................................12
Adjuncts, disjuncts and conjuncts: ...................................................................................................13
Scope of adverbial adjuncts .............................................................................................................13
Intransitive sentence patterns .........................................................................................................14
Types and syntactic functions of nominal non-finite clauses: ..........................................................14
Sentence vs. predication adverbials: ................................................................................................14
Prepositional phrase in a phrase structure:......................................................................................15
Nominal phrase in a phrase structure: .............................................................................................15
Participial postmodification in NP:
Participles are used as postmodifiers when they have retained their verbal character:
Present participle expresses an action performed by the headword: This is Mr. Black
speaking.
Present participle nearly always occurs as predicator of a participial clause: The woman
cleaning the windows is their housekeeper.
In its function of a PostM it is derived from a relative clause: Here is a letter announcing his
arrival (...which announces its arrival).
o use of a present participial clause as postmodifier is common:
 with nouns after There is or Here is:
There’s a bus coming.
 with indefinite pronouns as headwords:
I found nothing insulting in the letter.
A single past participle expresses the result of an action: A penny saved is a penny gained.
Past participial clause occurs even more – it is usually a transform of a relative clause: Books
published for children (which are published for the children) should be well illustrated.
Clauses as postmodifiers in adverbial function:
infinitival clauses occur as postmodifiers particularly when the headword is premodified by
too or postmodified by enough:
You work too slowly to finish in due time.
She knew French well enough to read books.
A for-phrase is used to indicate the subject of the infinitive.
There was nowhere for me to put anything.
clauses introduced by as expressing cause or concession:
Incessantly as she talked she made me nervous. (cause)
Quickly as he reacted he still could not prevent the collision. (concession)
Scope of negation:
There are three types of negation:
clausal negation affects the whole clause – we achieve it by negating the verb:
o negation by placing ‘not’ after an auxiliary or modal verb – I have not seen him, have
I?
o negation by the negative determiner, pronouns and by negative and semi-negative
adverbs (negative in form, not in meaning) – I have never seen him, have I?
o negation by the negative conjunctions – I have neither seen him nor spoken to him,
have I?
predication negation (limited scope)
o negation by placing not before predicate: You can always not go to the party. (not
negates the predication ‘go to the party)
local negation
o negation by placing not before a particular element of sentence structure - I met him
not long ago. (long ago is negated)
Ways of expressing negation:
by placing not after an auxiliary or a modal verb: I must not forget locking the doors.
by placing not before a particular element of the sentence: You can always not go to the
party.
by the negative determiner (no), pronouns (nobody, nothing) and by negative and seminegative adverbs (never, rarely): Nobody knows you here
by the negative conjunctions: He couldn’t hear neither could he speak.
Coordination:
Clauses in a complex sentence are joined either by co-ordination or by subordination. Coordination
means that the constituent clauses are on the same level. They are joined by:
a coordinating conjunction – and, but, or, nor, for
a conjunct – adverbs accordingly, also, consequently, in fact
punctuation – semicolon, colon, comma
There are 5 types of causal coordination:
copulative coordination (and, nor, as well as): He is very fond of music and plays the violin.
disjunctive or alternative coordination (or, otherwise): Take it or leave it.
adversative (but, however): He adores football matches, but his wife doesn’t.
resultative coordination (accordingly, consequently, so): You are the older brother, so you
should be wiser.
explanatory coordination (as, namely, for instance...): He is not a reliable man, that is to say,
he rarely keeps his word.
Prepositional phrase as PostM in NP:
Prepositional phrases are the most common postmodifiers in NPs e.g. the birds in the tree. The object
in a prepositional phrase is often a gerund or a gerundial clause (after preposition of, about, at, for,
in , to) e.g. his intention of marrying. Some prepositional phrases derive transformationally from
relative clauses e.g. the little boy who is on the swing – the boy on the swing.
The of-phrase is the most common among PostM pPs and denotes various relations to the
headword:
possession: the furniture of the old couple
the doer of the action expressed by the headword (the of-phrases are the S of the
headwords): the departure of Miss Hicks
the object of the action expressed by the headword (the of phrases are the objects of the
headwords): the export of raw materials
the quality or characteristics of the headword: a feeling of hunger
apposition to the headword: the city of York
Two or more pP may follow the headword: the house at the end of the road. (mind the
interpretation!)
Adjectival relative clauses vs. adverbial clauses:
Adjectival non relative clauses express the circumstances in which the headword appears (after,
before, until) – The day before he took the exam he studied until midnight.
Adjectival relative clauses are the ones that postmodify a noun or pronoun occurring as headword in
a nominal phrase – the headword is called antecedent. They are divided into two groups:
restrictive – A student who can speak two or three languages can work as a tourist guide.
non-restrictive – Mrs. Thompson, from whom I bought the plants, said that the should grow
fine in this climate.
Adverbial clauses perform in a complex sentence the same function as an adverbial adjunct in a
simple sentence: You may go out / where you want.
Adverbial clauses function on the level of sentence elements, while adjectival clauses function on the
level of phrase.
Clauses introduced by however:
In a complex sentence, however may introduce clauses in adversative coordination (clauses
contradict each other): He is often in pain, however he never complains. It may be substituted with
but.
Non-finite modifiers in nominal phrase:
Determiners: the articles (the, a an) and the pronouns in determiner (attributive) function
(this, my, whose, some) function as premodifiers
Numerals: can premodify countable nouns.
Adjectives describe or classify the headword in a nominal phrase: an angry man.
Nouns as preM can be used only attributively. Mind the use of singular and plural (a book
shop, customs office). Such structures may be written separated a gold ring, hyphenated an
apple-tree, or as a single word snowflake
Adverbs: the above paragraph.
Prepositional phrases: an after-dinner nap.
Gerunds: a shopping centre.
Syntactic structures containing an infinitive: a well-to-do person
Clauses introduced by a zero marker:
In clauses introduced by a zero marker the marker of subordination is understood though not
expressed.
Contact clauses – type of restrictive relative clauses: The boy you saw is our book-keeper’s son. Zero
marker may be the marker of subordination for the subordinating conjunction that: You know you
can rely on him (that you can rely on him), or a relative pronoun in the objective case: John does not
like the girls Mary shares the flat with. (with whom Mary shares the flat).
I the case of some adverbial clauses of condition they are marked by inversion: Should Tom be at
home tomorrow, ..., Had i known,...
Position of subordinate clauses:
When in final position, subordinate clauses are not separated from the main clause by commas: He
didn’t miss the train because it was 20 minutes late. When in initial position they often sound
emphatic with the exception of subject clauses: Since the train was 20 minutes late, he didn’t miss it.
Medial position is not very common – subordinate clause is usually separated from the res by
commas: On Tuesday, as he came home from school, his brother broke the news to him. Relative
clauses introduced by the independent relatives whoever, whatever, whichever,... normally occur in
initial position: Whoever you are, be honest.
Appositive clauses:
Apposition is a special kind of noun postmodifier which gives noun another name.
Nominal clauses are usually in apposition to nouns derived from verbs and adjectives which take a
that clause, e.g. announcement, belief, indignation, proposal, request: His request that he be freed
from paying taxes was flatly refused. After factive (after the fact) nouns: The fact that he always
cheats at playing cards makes me furious.
They may occur as dependent statements: The fact that he is now old and weak must be taken into
consideration, dependent verbal questions: The problem whether they should send the child to the
kindergarten will soon have to be resolved or dependent wh-questions: The question who shall take
his place is still open.
Subject and predicator agreement:
In principle the predicator agrees with the subject in number and person – agreement is restricted to
the present tense forms (verb be is an exception). Rules:
subject – predicator: He runs fast
predicator agrees with S not SC: The best part of his book is prepositional phrases.
predicator in plural:
o coordinate subjects connected asyndetically: Mr. Brown and Mary’s father are great
friends.
o none: None are so blind as those who won’t see.
Predicator in singular:
o subjects joined by or or by the correlative conjunctions: either... or, neither...nor, not
only... but: John or Mary is going to settle the affair.
o with conjunction as well as, no less then: I as well as they am ready to help you.
o subject is a plural nominal phrase denoting time, measure or instance weight,
height... and represents a singular idea: Ten days is too short a time for the trip.
o either, each, someone, anyone, ...Either of the examples was wrong.
Depending on the meaning:
o books: Gulliver’s travels is a fine satire vs. Lyrical ballads were written in 18th century.
o fractions: One third of the debt was... vs. One third of the workers were...
o phrases like a lot of: A lot of money has been wasted. vs. A lot of cars were parked.
o collective nouns: if attention is paid to the individual members of the unit, the
predicator is in the plural: His audience is middle class people. vs. The audience are
requested no to leave the theatre before the national anthem is finished.
o fruit and hair: She has a few grey hairs. vs. What colour is her hair.
Structure of the prepositional phrase (pP)
after midnight: prepositional phrase contains two elements: the head (preposition) and the object to
a preposition.
Prepositional phrases have as the head of the structure a preposition. Prepositions show the
relationship between its object and some other word:
simple: at, by, from
compound: inside, into, throughout
phrasal preposition: by means of, according to
participial preposition: concerning
converted from adverbs: aboard, about...
The second element of the prepositional phrase is the object to a preposition which may be:
a noun: after midnight
a pronoun: with you
an adjective: by then, from here
another prepositional phrase: from under the floor
a gerundial clause: for being late again
an infinitival clause introduced by how: his plan of how to fight
a finite clause: it all depends on when we shall start
an adjective: in short, in brief
Non relative adjectival clauses:
Express the circumstances in which the headword appears. They are introduced by temporal
conjunctions such as after, before, until, when, while and postmodify headwords denoting time. They
are strongly related to adverbial clauses of time: The day before he took the exam he studied until
midnight.
Sentence elements: syntactic functions vs. semantic roles:
Sentence elements may take different semantic roles e.g.
Syntactic functions:
Predicator (P): the state/action. Always a verb (phrase): Mary fed the cat.
Subject (S): the “doer” of the action: You must feed the cat.
Direct Object (DO): the sufferer/result of the action. Typically a noun phrase: You must feed
the cat.
Indirect Object (IO): the beneficiary of the action. Typically a noun phrase: I fed the cat some
fish
Subject complement (SC): a description/qualification of the subject. Adjectival or nominal.
Occurs with such verbs as be, become, etc. The cat is hungry. / The cat is my favourite
animal.
Object complement (OC): a description/qualification of the direct object. Adjectival or
nominal. I find cats annoying. / The Egyptians considered the cat a sacred animal.
Adverbial (A): time, place, manner etc. Typically adverb (phrase) or prepositional phrase.The
cat wasn’t fed yesterday. The cat is in my favourite chair. I am sitting uncomfortably on the
floor.
Non-finite clauses of purpose:
They may be infinitival or gerundial clauses. With the infinitival clauses of purpose the number of
verbs which can be followed by an infinitival clause of purpose is not restricted and their lexical
character may be quite different: She rang up her mother to ask her to dinner.
An infinitival clause of purpose may follow the verb be when it is used with adjuncts of place (e.g.
down, here, off, there, up) and also such set phrases as be down, be off, be over: I’ll be there to help
you.
Purpose can be expressed by a to-infinitive alone, or occasionally by in order + to-infinitive and so as
+ to-infinitive which emphasize the idea of purpose: I had to keep shaking my head so as / in order to
stay awake.
Negative purpose is not expressed by a negative to-infinitive alone; therefore the sentence *I’ll go
there at once not to be late is not grammatical. A negative infinitive of purpose is always preceded by
so as or in order: I’ll go there in order not to be late.
The subject of the infinitival clause is, as a rule, the subject of the finite verb in the sentence: My
parents saved money to go abroad.
However the subject of the infinitival clause may also occasionally be the person denoted by the
object of the subordinate clause: Tom says that he is taking you to meet some interesting people
tomorrow. In other cases if the subject of the subordinate clause is different from the subject of the
finite verb in the sentence, it must be expressed by the preposition for: My parents saved money for
Mary to go abroad.
Gerundial clauses of purpose (formal English) are preceded by prepositions such as for, for the
purpose of, with the object of, with a view to: This aeroplane is used for transporting goods.
Syndetic vs. asyndetic coordination:
Clauses in a sentence coordination are usually coordinated using one of the coordinators (e.g. and,
but, or). The type of coordination where a coordinator is present is called syndetic coordination: She
came early, but he arrived only in the small hours. When no coordinator (or the so called zero
marker) is present, but the clauses are still coordinated, the coordination is called asyndetic: He
came, he saw, he conquered. If we have more than two coordinate clauses, we speak of polysyndetic
coordination: He came and he saw and he conquered.
Nouns as premodifiers in adjectival phrase:
Noun premodifiers in adjectival phrases are used adverbially. The number of nouns used in this way
is very limited and the adjectival phrases with noun premodifiers also belong to set phrases. This
structure is typical of English language. Adjectival phrases with noun premodifiers express:
adverbial relations of time: age long, life long
adverbial relations of comparison: brick red, navy blue, sky blue
different degrees of quality: ankle deep, mountain high
When such adjectival phrases are used as premodifiers in nominal phrases they are usually
hyphenated: an age-long wait.
Adjectives denoting distance, age, and size are premodified by nominal phrases: The canal is twenty
metres wide. When such adjectival phrases occur as premodifiers in nominal phrases they are
hyphenated: a twenty-metre wide canal
Nominal clauses functioning at the level of phrase structure:
Nominal clauses may have the pattern of dependent statements (that-clauses) that may function on
the level of phrase structure as:
appositive clauses (as apposition in nominal phrases): The fact that he is now old and weak
must be taken into consideration.
postmodifier in adjectival phrases: He is afraid (that) things might get worse.
Dependent verbal questions may function as:
appositive clauses (as apposition in nominal phrases): The problem whether or not they
should send the child to the kindergarten will soon have to be resolved.
postmodifier in adjectival phrases (after certain, doubtful, sure): I am not certain whether or
not there is an elephant in our zoo.
object to a preposition: Everything depends on whether the telegram will reach him in time.
Dependent wh-questions may function as:
apposition in nominal phrases: The question who shall take his place is still open.
postmodifier in adjectival phrases: I am not sure who will substitute for the manager.
object to a preposition (preposition is often dropped): Don’t worry (over) what people will
say.
Nominal relative clauses may function as:
object to a preposition: This differs greatly from what I expected.
Coordinating vs. subordinating conjunctions:
Coordinating conjunctions link two or more syntactical units which are equal in rank. They may join
clauses asyndetically (with a zero marker) or by means of conjunctions, which are placed between
syntactical units. They are either simple (and, but, nor, or), compound (rather than, as well as) or
correlative (not only... but also, either... or): e.g. John and Mary smiled an nodded each other.
Subordinating counjunctions join the subordinate clause with the main clause or with a clause of a
higher degree of subordination: after, before, providing... According to morphemic structure they are
divided into:
simple: as, if, that
compound: although, unless, notwithstanding
phrasal: as if, as long as, in order to
participial: providing, seeing
Subordinating conjunctions are always placed in initial position in the clause they introduce, they can
even come at the beginning of the complex sentence (not the case with coordinating conjunctions).
As markers of subordination may function also wh-pronouns and adverbs – they have two functions:
that of subordinationg conjunction (joining the subordinate to the main clause) and that of subject
(who), direct object (whom) and adjunct (where) in the subordinate clauses they introduce: Tell me
who did it.
Zero Marker may also be the marker of subordination. It normally stands for the subordinating
conjunction that: You know (that) you can rely on him. or a relative pronoun in the objective case:
John does not like the girls Mary shares the flat with (with whom).
Clausal subjects (finite, infinitival, gerundial, participial)
With the exception of elliptical sentences, every sentence needs a subject. In a finite clauses subject
precedes the predicator expressed by a finite form: Mary speaks English brilliantly. In non-finite
clauses predicator consists of a non-finite verbal phrase. Subject in non-finite sentences may be
expressed in the clause itself or (if subordinated) in the clause of a higher degree.
Infinitival clauses :
o bare infinitive
without subject: All I did was take French leave.
with subject: I saw her take the change from the counter.
o with the to-infinitive:
without subject: He wants to leave at once.
with subject: He wants me to leave at once.
Gerundial clauses:
without subject: I like driving a fast car.
with subject: I don’t mind your brother coming to our party.
Participial clauses:
o –ing participial clauses:
without subject: Nearing the entrance I shook hands with my friends.
with subject: The bus being crowded, I had to stand.
o past participial clauses:
without subject: Once published, the book proved a bestseller.
with subject: The choice made, she rang her father up.
Infinitival postmodifier in adjectival phrase:
Adjectives that take an infinitive or an infinitival clause as postmodifier normally denote some
attitude such as pleasure, surprise or annoyance (afraid, amazed, pleased). They often imply cause or
reason: I was delighted to hear of your success.
There are two types of adjectives, postmodified by infinitives – eager and easy type:
John is eager to please. – John is eager. John pleases. the subjects of the main clause and of
the infinitive or infinitival clause are identical.
John is easy to please. – To please John is easy. the subject of the main clause and that of the
infinitival clause are different
The infinitive may also be accompanied by a preposition: John’s girlfriend is pleasant to look at.
A to infinitive or infinitival clause often postmodifies adjectives which are premodified by too – they
may imply result: The man was too old to start a new job.
The post modifying structure enough + to-infinitive marks the amount of the quality required for the
action of the infinitive to be realized: The drink was cold enough to drink.
A for phrase is used to indicate the subject of the infinitive: The great truths are too important for us
not to know.
Cleft sentences:
The subject and the object of the sentence are made strongly emphatic if placed after the
introductory phrase it+be (it was, it will be); the remaining part of the sentence then follows as a
relative clause introduced by who, which, that. In this way a simple sentence is split or cleft into two
parts – see the conversions:
Subject:
I am not to blame. vs. It’s not I who am to blame.
The flies bothered me most. vs. It was the flies that bothered me most.
Object:
I met Mrs. Brown at Selfridges. vs. It was Mrs. Brown that I met at Selfridges.
He really misses Mary. vs. It’s Mary that he really misses.
The emphatic it is used when a whole subordinate clause is made emphatic.
It’s what you do that counts.
A similar structure is to be found in the sentence pattern: it+be+adjunct+that in which the adjunct is
made strongly emphatic:
It was then that he did it. vs. He did it then.
Appositive vs. coordinate nominal phrase:
An apposition is a special kind of noun postmodifier which gives the headword another name. It is
either loose (separated by commas, e.g. Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VII, was...) or close (not
separated by commas and closely connected to the headword, e.g. We children adored our
grandfather). Coordinate nominal phrase has two or more elements of the same rank which are
joined by means of coordinators (e.g. Mike and Mary are a nice couple).
Determiners
Determiners precede nouns and prove that the H they premodify is a noun (for example: “this car”,
wherein this is a determiner and car is a noun ). Furthermore, determiners indicate selection, as in
the example “my book”. The article is the most frequent determiner in English and is considered a
clear-cut marker of the noun (for example: "a car" or "the car"). Pronouns in determiner (attributive)
function present the second group of determiners, comprising demonstrative pronouns (“this car”),
short possessive pronouns (“my car”), interrogative and relative pronouns (“whose car”, “which car”)
and indefinite pronouns (“any car”). It is interesting to note that only demonstrative pronouns show
number agreement with the noun they premodify, as seen in the example “this car”.
Sentence structure S+P+A and S+P+SC
The sentence structure S+P+A (e.g. The dog is outside) is an intransitive pattern, which means that it
has no complement. S+P+SC structure belongs to the linking or equational patterns. Subject
complement in this case may be an adjectival phrase (e.g. Dogs are beautiful) or a nominal phrase
(e.g. Dogs are a nuisance).
Clauses introduced by ‘as’
Adverbial clauses of time:
adverbial clauses of time –as normally introduces a clause in which the action is in progress
and refers to past only denoting:
o simultaneity: His eyes glittered as he looked at his new car.
o gradual development: As night came on, the wind calmed down.
o action of the main clause immediately follows that of the subordinate clause: Just as
he neared the corner, a little girl jumped directly in front of the car.
adverbial clauses of time – as soon as denotes that actions in the subordinate and in the
main clause closely follow each other: As soon as we received your telegram, we prepared
the goods for shipment.
adverbial clauses of time – as long as: I’ll never eat oysters as long as I live.
Adverbial clauses of reason: the emphasis is not so much on the reason as on the result expressed in
the main clause: As it was raining, we stayed indoors all day.
Concession may be expressed by a predicate adjective or noun, or ba an adverb in initial position
postmodified ba a clause introduced by as: Dazed as she was, he couldn’t catch up with the others.
Adverbial clauses of manner express the manner in which an action is done: They keep the house as it
was in the poet’s lifetime. As if expresses a supposed present or past fact: He spends his money as if
he were rich (subjunctive were or the modal past tense or the modal past perfect is used).
Adverbial clauses of comparison: She was as friendly as she had ever been (postM in adj.P), His
brothers work as hard as he does. (postM in adv. P)
Copulative coordination: She cleaned the car as well as washed the dishes.
Subject – predicator agreement with coordinating subjects:
The base rule is that two or more co-ordinate subjects connected by and or asyndetically take a
plural predicator: Mr. Brown and Mary’s father are great friends. When two or more co-ordinate
subjects connected by and denote one single idea, or one person or thing (a unit), a singular
predicator is used: Truth and honesty is the best policy.
With two or more subjects joined by the conjunction or, or by the correlative conjunctions either…or,
neither…nor, the predicator is in the singular: John or Mary is going to settle the affair.
However: Neither the assistants nor the professor was/were able to solve the problem.
When two or more subjects are connected by means of as well as, no less than the predicator is in
the singular: The main actress as well as the director was late again.
Prepositional phrase as a non-headed structure
Prepositional phrase e.g. George is at the meeting consists of a preposition and object to a
preposition. Both elements are obligatory, therefore we can not say, e.g. George is at or George is
the meeting. It could be argued that the whole prepositional phrase is the headword of the structure,
or we can simply call it a non-headed structure.
General characteristics of a phrase
A phrase is structured around its headword, which is usually the part of speech the phrase takes its
name from (e.g. adjective – adjectival phrase). The words in front (to the left) of the headwords are
premodifiers, the words after the headword (to the right of it) are postmodifiers. Premodifiers and
postmodifiers are dependent on the headword. While the headword is always obligatory, the
premodifiers and postmodifiers are optional. Phrase is either simple, consisting of the headword
only, or complex, consisting of one or more modifiers (those three books on the shelf).
Embedding vs. conjoining
If we embed, we place a sentence inside another sentence. In the sentence ‘I’m aware that she
knows’, she knows is an embedded sentence. If we conjoin two sentences, we simply put them
together with the means of coordinators: John read a book and Mary watched TV.
Adjuncts, disjuncts and conjuncts:
Adjunct is a syntactic term used to describe a word, phrase, or clause joined to another word or
phrase, yet not syntactically required by that word or phrase. Adverbial adjuncts, for instance, modify
a verb or verb phrase. An adverbial adjunct is a sentence element that usually establishes the
circumstances in which the action or state expressed by the verb take place. The following sentence
uses adjuncts of time and place: Yesterday Lorna saw the dog in the garden.
Quirk says that there are three types of adjuncts:
ADJUNCTS: those integrated in clause structure: She sang beautifully. He went home
yesterday. They comprise:
o qualitative adjuncts – fast, hard, well (Learning rules by heart is useless)
o quantitative adjuncts – almost (adjuncts of degree), thirty pence (adjuncts of
measure)
o circumstantial adjuncts – now, always, here, on account of illness...
DISJUNCTS: those peripheral in clause structure (primarily non-connective): He is, in fact,
quite a drinker! They are not incorporated in the sentence structure – they are independent
elements used to express the independent opinion of the speaker towards the situation
described in the clause
CONJUNCTS: primarily connective: It was late autumn; yet the days were very warm.
Scope of adverbial adjuncts
The adverbial adjunct is usually an optional element in sentence structure and characterizes an
action as to its quality or quantity, or indicates the time, place, cause, purpose, etc. with which the
action is connected e.g. The children play happily. It may be realized by:
1. qualitative adjuncts or adjuncts of manner denote the quality of an action e.g. fast, hard,
well, beautifully, by heart, arm in arm, in a rush, by leaps and bounds.
Learning rules by heart is useless.
2. quantitative adjuncts denote intensity or the extent of an action:
a. adjuncts of degree e.g. almost, even, hardly, merely, partly, scarcely
I do not quite understand what he is up to.
b. adjuncts of measure, including cost, distance, weight (usually represented by NP) e.g.
a lot, three miles, two pounds
He spends about 50 p. on bus fares a day.
3. circumstantial adjuncts express various circumstance in which an action takes place
a. adjuncts of time, e.g. now, then, tomorrow, yesterday
Peter took his Master’s degree four years ago
b. adjuncts of frequency, e.g. always, ever, never, seldom, usually, each year, hardly
ever, annually
Buses to Brighton run at short intervals.
c. adjuncts of place and direction e.g. here, there, everywhere, in the corner, in London
Miss Tapley hasn’t been on the stage this season.
d. adjuncts of cause, e.g. on account of illness, due to the weather
The boy was absent from school on account of his illness not laziness.
e. adjuncts of concession, e.g. in spite of, for all his riches
Despite his endeavours he was not promoted.
f. adjuncts of condition, e.g. in case of fire, but for his expert knowledge
In case of danger ring the alarm bell.
g. adjuncts of instrument, e.g. with a carving knife
He succeeded by dint of hard labour.
h. adjuncts of result, e.g.
He worked himself to death.
The house was burned to ashes.
Intransitive sentence patterns
Intransitive sentence patterns are the ones which take no complement or only a subject complement
(with linking verbs). There are four such patterns:
S P – Dogs bark
S P A – The dog is outside
S P SC (adjectival phrase) – Dogs are faithful.
S P SC (NP) – Dogs are a nuisance
Types and syntactic functions of nominal non-finite clauses:
To-Infinitival Nominal Clauses can occur in the function of:
• Subject: To know the truth is important.
• Subject complement: Mary’s aim is to win the first prize.
• Direct object: The doctor wanted to cure her.
Gerundial Clauses can occur as sentence elements in the function of:
• Subject: Writing letters is a waste of time.
• Subject complement: During the war our only task was fighting for freedom.
• Direct object: Have you finished reading the newspaper?
Sentence vs. predication adverbials:
Sentence adverbials (disjuncts) characteristically modify an entire sentence or comment on its
probability, desirability or style. They are often set off with commas at the beginning and end of a
clause:
•
•
•
Surprisingly, George passed.
Fortunately, I wore my raincoat.
Frankly, I'd rather be in Philadelphia.
We can say that disjuncts are a special group of adverbials in order to separate them from those
adverbs which modify verbs and verb phrases.
Predication adverbial is a syntactic term used to describe a word, phrase, or clause joined to another
word or phrase, yet not syntactically required by that word or phrase. It modifies a verb or verb
phrase. An adverbial adjunct is a sentence element that usually establishes the circumstances in
which the action or state expressed by the verb take place. The following sentence uses adjuncts of
time and place: Yesterday Lorna saw the dog in the garden.
Prepositional phrase in a phrase structure:
A prepositional phrase represents a unit which may perform different syntactical functions in phrase.
It may function as:
• headword (as such it can take its own modifiers): right in the centre
• postmodifier in nominal phrases: the department of English
• premodifier in nominal phrases: his on-the-job training
• postmodifier in adjectival phrases: afraid of dogs, red with anger
• postmodifier in adverbial phrases: there in the corner, first of all
Nominal phrase in a phrase structure:
A nominal phrase represents a unit which may perform different syntactical functions in phrase. It
may function as:
• postmodifier:
o derived from prepositional phrases: a girl your age
o as apposition (give the word another name)
 loose: Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry VII, was...
 close: You two keep quiet