Download Chapter 3 - Introduction to phrases and clauses

Introduction to phrases and
clauses
Longman Student Grammar of Spoken
and Written English
Biber; Conrad; Leech (2009, p.37-54)
Phrases and their characteristics
• [They] [passed] [the table] [with [the two men]].
• [They] [passed] [the table [with [the two men]]].
(bracketing instead of tree diagram)
• Words make up phrases, which behave like units.
• A phrase can consist of either one word or more than one
word.
• Phrases can be identified by substitution or movement
tests.
• Differences in phrase structure show up in differences of
meaning.
• Phrases can be embedded (i.e. one phrase can be part
of the structure of another phrase).
Phrases in use
• Phrase types differ both in their internal structure and in
their syntactic roles, recognizing the latter (subject and
object) can be crucial for interpretation of phrases.
• Noun phrases and prepositional phrases can have
particularly complex structure in written text, with several
layers of phrase embedding. In fact, the complexity of
phrases is a very striking measure for comparing the
complexity of syntax in different registers of English. The
simplest structures occur in conversation and the
complexity increases through fiction,newspaper and
academic writing.
• He really [doesn’t trust] me, does he?
• [Three months ago] BNF confirmed that [a leak of
radioactive plutonium solution] [had been classified] [as
‘a serious incident’].
Major points
• The main classes of phrases are: noun phrase,
verb phrase, adjective phrase, adverb phrase
and prepositional phrase.
• The classes can be identified by their meaning,
structure, and syntactic role.
• Each of these phrases has a head from the
corresponding word class: e.g. noun phrases
usually have a noun as their head.
• The frequency of longer and more complex
phrases varies from one register to another,
increasing from conversation, to fiction, to news
writing, to academic prose.
Types of phrases
1) Noun: a noun is its head; the head can be preceded by determiners and
accompanied by modifiers or complements; role of subject or object.
[The little girl next door] loves swimming.
He can’t understand [her refusal to show any sign of emotion].
2) Verb: they have a lexical verb or a primary verb as the head; the main
verb can be preceded by auxiliary verbs; finite (present/past, modal);
non-finite
The current year [has) definitely (started] well.
3) Adjective: an adjective is its head; modifiers can precede or follow head;
attributive adjective before noun; subject predicative following be.
That’s right. He’s a [deeply sick] man.
4) Adverb: usual syntactic roles are modifier for adjective/adverb phrases,
adverbial on the clause level
He was a little creature with a [sweetly expressive] face.
They sang [boomingly well].
5) Prepositional: consist of a preposition followed by a noun phrase, known
as the prepositional complement; stranded prepositions
He retired [after three minor heart attacks] [at the age of 36].
[What more] could a child ask [for]?
Clause patterns
A clause is the key unit of syntax, capable of occurring independently.
• The verb phrase is the central element in each clause. The
five major valency patterns are:
• Intransitive pattern: Subject + verb phrase
– Sarah and Michael disappeared.
• Monotransitive pattern: Sub. + verb phrase + direct object
– She changed her dress.
• Copular patterns: Sub. + verb p. + subject predicative or adverbial
– The Swiss cheese has gone bad.
– Marc was in the bathroom.
• Ditransitive pattern: Sub. + verb p. + indirect object + direct object
– You gave her the wrong kind of egg.
• Complex transitive patterns: S + VP + DO + object predic. or adv.
– That makes me so mad.
– They’re sending us to Disneyland.
*The valency of the verb controls the kinds of elements that follow it.
Clause elements
• Verb phrase: central element of the clause
• Subject: 1) noun phrase; 2) it occurs with all types of verbs; 3)
subject pronouns are in the nominative case (not accusative); 4) it
often precedes the verb phrase; 5) it determines the number of
the verb phrase, 6) it can make a passive clause. It denotes the
agent of the action or represents the topic.
– Attention! It’s warm in here. (dummy pronoun)
• Object: it is a noun phrase; often follows the (transitive) verb;
object pronouns are in accusative form; it can be moved to
become the subject of a passive form; direct objects (role: denote
the entity affected by the action), indirect objects (denote people
receiving sth)
• Predicative: role: characterizing a preceding noun clause; subject
predicative (or complement), object predicative (or complement)
• Adverbials: obligatory adverbials (used in order to complete the
meaning of verbs: copular and complex transitive patterns);
optional adverbials (added to clauses with any type of verb).
– I was here, with Uncle Nick, thirty years ago
Truly peripheral elements
• Conjunctions: coordinating and subordinating conjunctions
[And], of course, now Keely doesn’t have any teeth.
• Parentheticals: set off from the surrounding clause by paretheses or
dashes
At precisely 11.07 [(Earth time)], a message flashed up on ITN screen.
• Prefaces: noun phrases placed before the subject, which typically have
the same reference as a personal pronoun in the clause.
[This woman], she’s ninety years old.
• Tags: normally added at the end of a clause (noun phrase tag, question
tags or declarative tags)
It’s nice [that table] anyway.
• Inserts: extra words which can be ‘slipped into’ spoken discourse,
mainly to convey interactive meaning
[Hello] is that Cindy Jones?
• Vocatives: noun/noun phrases which refer to people and serve to
identify the person being addressed.
[Mum], I’m making such a big sandwich.
Analysis
• AVATAR takes us to a spectacular world beyond imagination, where
a reluctant hero embarks on an epic adventure, ultimately fighting to
save the alien world he has learned to call home. We enter the alien
world through the eyes of Jake Sully, a former Marine confined to a
wheelchair. But despite his broken body, Jake is still a warrior at
heart. He is recruited to travel light years to the human outpost on
Pandora, where corporations are mining a rare mineral that is the
key to solving Earth's energy crisis. Because the atmosphere of
Pandora is toxic, they have created the Avatar Program, in which
human "drivers" have their consciousness linked to an avatar, a
remotely-controlled biological body that can survive in the lethal air.
These avatars are genetically engineered hybrids of human DNA
mixed with DNA from the natives of Pandora... the Na'vi. Jake is
given a mission to infiltrate the Na'vi, who have become a major
obstacle to mining the precious ore. But a beautiful Na'vi female,
Neytiri, saves Jake's life, and this changes everything. Jake is taken
in by her clan, and learns to become one of them, which involves
many tests and adventures.