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SYNTAX 2 Werkcolleges
Jennifer
Phrasal verb
Prepositional verb
Phrasal – prepositional verb
 particle can be separated from the verb
 particle can’t be separated from the verb
 verb – particle – preposition
* ‘lay down on’ isn’t because you can lay on
anything/how
NP inside a prepositional object = when the preceding verb + particle is a prepositional verb
or an ordinary intransitive verb.
NP after a phrasal verb makes it a direct object.
Passive verbs  the woman is being eaten by the bear.
* not passive: The bear eats the woman.
Transitive verbs are needed to make a passive sentence.
If a sentence only has a subject complement after the verb, it can’t be made into a passive.
 John has become a nuisance.
Transitive verb = has an object.
Ditransitive = takes an direct + indirect object
Intransitive verb = verb that does not take a direct object
Particle = a particle is a function word that does not belong to any of the inflected
grammatical word classes. Mostly used as negation, mood or case, or fillers.
- prepositions, such as over in I went over the hill
- adverbs and adverbial portions of phrasal verbs, such as off in we put it off too long
Adverb = Adverbs typically answer questions such as how?, in what way?, when?, where?,
and to what extent?. Adverbs are used to modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb
Preposition = Prepositions typically come before a noun.
(kastwoordjes) across, after, at, before, by, during, from, in, into, of, on, to,
under, with, without
Conjunction = Conjunctions are used to express a connection between words.
- Coordinating conjunctions: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So.
- Subordination conjunctions: although, because, before, since, till, unless,
whereas, whether
Complement
Adjunct
CP
IP
= selected by the head
= further removed from the head
!! Extra bar level is needed
(sister of head)
(sister of bar level)
= complementizer phrase, subclause (often starts with ‘that’ which is the head)
= inflectional phrase, sentence (I is auxiliary, if no aux. than shows inflection)
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Example tree (rest of the trees see syllabus):
XP
Specifier
X’
X’
X
adjunct
complement
NP specifiers
- articles
- possessives
- demonstratives
- numerals
- indefinite pronouns
AP specifiers
-
adverbs
PP specifiers
-
most often complement with NP
specifier does not often occur
VP specifiers
- specifiers are rare
- however the complement is usually a direct object or copula
AdvP
- complements are rare
Ditransitive verbs and complex transitive verbs can take two complements.
 in other words the tree can have three branches.
Complement clause
-
always comes first (before adjunct)
gives more info about the head (defines it)
Mary is a terrible girl  says something about Mary
- If a NP head is followed by “of” the rest is complement.
Story, message, news, question, fact  prototypical nouns that have complements.
Relative clause
-
Restrictive clause 
contains info which is necessary to identify the head
(without commas)
doesn’t contain necessary info to identify the head noun
(with commas)
Non restrictive clause 
introduced by a relative pronoun (that, which, who)
relative pronoun can be substituted
always adjuncts in the NP
if ‘that’ can be replaced by ‘which’
Relative pronouns
Human headnoun. Non human headnoun. Restric-Rel-clause Non-Restr-RC.
Which
x
x
x
Who/Whom
x
x
x
That
x
x
x
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If you can leave the relative pronoun out, you can always use ‘that’
You can’t leave out the pronoun if it’s the subject of the clause.
WH-movement & Questions  just practise!
Interrogative pronouns
Relative pronouns
= used in questions, occur in the beginning of the sentence.
= occur in the beginning of a relative clause.
Clauses : Every clause has 1 lexical verb, so more lexical verbs? More clauses!
Finite verb
 always needs a subject
Shows tense, person
Modals are always finite
Non finite verb
 always depedent
Past participle (-ed)
Present participle (-ing)
Infinitive (to…)
Non finite clauses Any clause which is non finite
Any clause with a signpost.
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