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Chapter 2
Elements of Grammar
2015
Chapter 2
Elements of Grammar
Parts of a sentence
a. Subject
1. The subject is typically the theme (or topic) of the clause.
2. The subject determines concord (agreement). “The girls are students at the
university.” “The girl is a student at the university.”
3. The subject can change its position to form a question. “Are the girls students at the
university?”
b. Predicate
1. Auxiliary (operator)
a. The first aux. acts as operator. “He should have been questioned by the police.”
b. In case we don’t have an aux. in the sentence, do is introduced when an operator is
required.
Ex. “It rained steadily all the day.”
“Did it rain steadily all the day?”
c. The verb be can act like an operator whether its an aux. or main verb. “John is
inviting somebody to dinner.” & “The girl is a student at the university.”
d. In some cases, has can act as an operator. “He has a degree.”
2. Predicate (State something about the subject)
Ex. “He (S) had (Aux.) given the girl an apple (Prediction).”
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Chapter 2
Elements of Grammar
2015
Q\ Why do we need to subdivide the sentence into smaller units?
A\ Because it helps us to understand:
1. How to form a question
2. How to negate sentences
3. How certain adjuncts are positioned and
4. How certain types of emphasis are achieved.
Sentence Elements
1. Subject (S)
2. Verb (V) (stative, dynamic)
3. Object (O) (direct and indirect object)
4. Complement (C) (subject and object complement)
5. Adverbial (A) (process, time, place etc.)
Example:
They (S) make (V) him (O) the chairman (C) every year (A).
Complementation and Objects
Indirect object1
“He had given the girl (Oi) an apple.”
Direct object2
“He searched the room (Od).”
Object
Subject complement
“The girl is now a student (Cs).”
Object complement
“They make him the chairman (Co).”
Complement
1
Precedes the direct object and tells to whom the actions of the verb is done.
2
Receives the action done by the subject.
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Chapter 2
Elements of Grammar
2015
Categories of Verbs
Stative3 (cannot be used with progressive i.e. couldn’t be seen as referring
to something that is in the progress).
Verbs
Ex. *He is knowing.
Dynamic (can be used with progressive i.e. could refer to something that is in
the progress).
Ex. He is searching the room.
Intensive verbs use to describe the subject and focus on one thing.
Ex. “ Rose is a student.”
(The focus is Rose and what she is)
Extensive verbs use to say what the subject is doing. Extensive verbs do not have a
subject complement.
Ex. “John runs very fast.”
(The focus is on run and how he does that)
Transitive verbs (take an object)
1. Mono-transitive verbs require only two arguments, a subject and a single direct
object.
Ex. “They ate the meat.”
Sometimes stative verbs can have a dynamic use, such as (have, see, think… etc.) as in the
following examples:
1. a. I’m seeing my doctor next week. (See here means an appointment/meeting).
b. I see what you mean. (See here means understand).
2. a. I have a house in London. (Have here means own).
b. I am having my breakfast. (Have here means eat).
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Note: sometimes the stative verbs can be used dynamically, in the progressive, when the
complement is dynamic and when they express a temporary feeling.
Ex.
- She is silly.
- She is being silly.
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Chapter 2
Elements of Grammar
2015
2. Di-transitive verbs take two objects (indirect and direct).
Ex. “I lent him some money.”
3. Complex-transitive verbs require a direct object and object complement.
Ex. “We elected him president.”
Intransitive verbs do not take an object.
Ex. “The book fell.” & “ I walked to the park today.”
Element realization Types: (Linguistic Structure)
1. Verb: verb phrase
Finite (showing tense, mood, aspect & voice)
Non-finite (not showing tense, mood,
but can show aspect & voice)
Examples:
a. He had given the girl an apple.
b. He may be growing happier.
c. He had been challenging rudely, and having been challenged he was angry.
The first three verbs are finite (had given, may be growing, had been challenging) the fourth is
non-finite (having been challenged).
2. Subject: noun phrase or a clause.
a. The boy plays with his toys.
b. That she answered the question correctly pleased him.
3. Object & Complement:
Subject, direct object and object complements can be realized in the same way as subjects
but the subject and object complements have additional possibilities of being realized by
adjective phrases.
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Chapter 2
Elements of Grammar
2015
Examples:
a. He is the chairman. (Cs)
b. She saw the chairman. (Od)
c. They made him the chairman. (Co)
d.
Meeting my friend again has left me very happy. (Adjective phrases)
Indirect objects4 are chiefly noun phrases as in:
a. The man had given the girl an apple.
4. Adverbial: can be realized by the following:
a. Adverb phrases: John very carefully searched the room.
b. Noun phrases: They make him the chairman every year.
c. Prepositional phrases: She studied at a large university.
d. Clauses: either finite or non-finite
He grew happier when his friend arrived.
Seeing the large crowd, john stopped his car.
Categories of Adverbial:
In this chapter we will deal with three types of adverbial, which are process, time, and
place.5
Examples:
1. The girl carefully searched the room.
2. The girl is a student at a large university.
3. The girl is now a student.
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Unlike Od and S, Oi cannot be realized by that -clauses.
Process adverbials can allow and occur with progressive, the on-going activity.
Examples:
1. The girl searched the room carefully. (Simple past)
2. The girl is searching the room carefully. (Progressive)
Note: process adverbials cannot be used with stative verbs as the ungrammatically of the
following example:
1. The girl is now a student *carefully.
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Chapter 2
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2015
Parts of Speech:
1. Opened- class items6:
a. Noun:
A noun is a word used to refer to people, animals, objects, ideas and feelings.
A noun functions as a subject or object of a verb and can be modified by an
adjective.
Ex. (John, lion, table, freedom, play, answer)
b. Adjective
Adjectives are used to describe a noun or pronoun.
Ex. (happy, steady, new, large)
c. Adverb
An adverb is used to modify a verb, adjective and other adverbs.
Ex. (steadily, completely, very, then, really)
d. Verb
A verb is used to show an action or a state of being.
Ex. (play, give, take, answer, search, feel, love)
2. Closed-system items7:
a. Article
An article is a word that is used before a noun to show whether the noun refers
to something specific or not.
Ex. (a, an, the)
b. Demonstrative
A demonstrative is a determiner that points to a particular noun or to the noun
it replaces.
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Can be extended, such as “happy ____> happier, play ____> playing”
7 Cannot be extended by the creation of additional members, such as “the ____> *a the…”
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Chapter 2
Elements of Grammar
2015
Ex. (that, this)
c. Pronoun
A pronoun is used in the place of a noun or phrase.
Ex. (I, you, he, she, it...)
d. Preposition
A preposition is used before nouns to form a phrase that shows where, when,
how and why
Ex. (in, above, to, for, at…)
e. Conjunction
A conjunction joins clauses or sentences or words.
Ex. (and, but, when...)
f. Interjection
An interjection is used to show surprise or emotion.
Ex. (oh!, phew!, OMG!)
Pro-Forms:
A pro-form is a word that replaces a previously word or expression and takes its meaning.
A pro-form has a similar function to pronouns.
1. Pro-nouns
A pro-noun is a word that substitutes for a noun.
2. Pro-adverbs
A pro-adverb is a word that substitutes for an adverb.
1. Mary is in London and john is there too. (Place)
2. Mary arrived on Tuesday and john arrived then too. (Time)
3. Pro-predication
The pro-predication can be achieved by the operator alone as in:
a. He did not give her an apple.
b. Yes, he did.
Or by the pro-verb “do” along with “so” as in,
a. He would search the room carefully.
He would do so.
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Chapter 2
Elements of Grammar
2015
Question and Negation:
1. Wh-Questions (Open Questions)
Leave room for a description or opinion, and are more useful in eliciting
information. There are eight wh-questions.
a. What when you are asking for information about something.
b. When to ask about the time that something happened or will happen.
c. Where to ask questions about place or position.
d. Which when you are asking for information about one of a limited number of
things.
e. Who or whom when you are asking about someone's identity.
f. Whose to ask about possession.
g. Why to ask for a reason.
h. How to ask about the way in which something is done.
Wh-word + Aux. + Sub. + Main Verb?
Why
+ are + you + angry?
What are you doing next week?
2. Yes/No Question (Close Questions)
The answer to such questions is either "yes" or "no”. Yes/No questions are usually
started with an auxiliary verb.
a. Is the girl a student?
Yes, she is. / No, she is not.
b. Does he play football on Sundays?
Yes, he does. / No, he does not.
c. Have you borrowed my pencil? 8
Chapter 2
Elements of Grammar
2015
Negation:
When we want to say that something is not true or is not the case, we can use negative
words, such as “not.” When we use be as a main verb, we simply put not after the form of
be as in:
1. She is not a student.
2. They are not students.
In case we don’t have an auxiliary verb or the verb is not “be” we introduce “do” and put
the negative word after it.
1. He did not search the room carefully.
2. He doesn’t play football on Sundays.
Non-assertion:
Words, such as (some, somebody, something, sometimes, somewhere, already etc.) are
called assertive words.
Assertive words cannot be used in questions and negatives. Instead we use other words
like (any, anything, anybody, yet etc.). These words are called non-assertive words.
Examples:
1. He offered her some chocolates. (Assertive)
2. Did he offer her any chocolates? (Non-assertive)
3. He did not offer her any chocolates. (Non-assertive)
4. Have you found any mistakes yet? (Non-assertive)
Yes, I have found some already. (Assertive)
No, I haven't found any yet. (Non-assertive)
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