Download Document

Lecture 1
Sentence Structure
Teaching Contents

1.1. Clause elements

1.2. Basic clause types and their
transformation and expansion




Owing to the various sentence structures in a language,
what is described here as sentence structure, sentence
elements, or sentence patters is only concerned with the
simple sentence or rather with the clause.
1.1. Clause elements
The clause or the simple sentence is structurally a
sequence of phrases and logically a construction of
"subject + predicate".
1) Subject and predicate

The subject is the topic or theme of the
sentence, which tells of what the sentence is
about. And it is generally realized by a noun
phrase or an equivalent of noun phrases.
The predicate says something about the
subject and bears the new information
which the speaker or writer wants to
transmit to the listener or reader.

2) Two ways of sentence analysis

a. subject + predicate:
Predicate verb +
Object + Complement + Adverbial

b. subject + predicate: Operator (the
auxiliary or the first auxiliary in a complex
verb phrase) + Predication
e.g. [All the men] [[have done] [their best]].
1.2. Basic clause types and their transformation
and expansion
 1) Basic clause types
A. SVC subj. + linking verb + complement
 She is in good health.
 My brother has become an engineer.

Linking / Copular verbs:
 a. current copular verb: describe a state. e.g. be,
feel, smell, taste, stay, look, keep, sound, appear


b. resulting copular verb: denote a change of
state
e.g. become, come, fall, go, get, grow, turn, prove
B. SV subj. + intransitive verb
e.g. Iron rusts.

Everybody laughs.
C. SVO subj. +(mono)transitive verb + object
 e.g. I want a return ticket.
D. SVOO
 Double Object / Ditransitive Construction
 (DOC)
 subj. + ditransitive verb (give, send, teach,
show, tell…) + indirect object (IO) + direct
object (DO)
e.g. I gave *(John) a book.

Someone left (you) this note.
E. SVOC
subj. + complex transitive verb + object +
complement
The relationship between the object and
complement can be paraphrased with either “be”
or “become”.
e.g. She found it cold here. =…that it was cold here.
 The Airport Operators Council re-elected him
president.
F. SVA Subj. + V. + Adverbial
e.g. I live in Beijing.
G. SVOA
subj. + transitive verb + object + obligatory
adverbial
e.g. Put / place a note on my door.
The adverbial in the SVOA pattern most
typically expresses location. It differs from
ordinary locative adverbials in that it does
not specify the circumstances of the action
‘placing’, ‘putting’, etc., but rather describes
where the referent of the direct object ends
up.


2) Transformation and expansion of basic clause
types
The basic clause types are all affirmative
statements with verbs in the active voice. An
affirmative one can be transformed into a
negative; a statement into a question; and an
active into a passive; all these add varieties to the
basic clause types. They can also be expanded
into larger grammatical units through adding
modifiers.
A: modifications
--- Last Saturday, an old woman worker told
the students the bitter story of her
childhood.
B: coordination and subordination
--- Most us were in the hall, the doors had
been closed and later comers had to wait
outside.
--- You can call him what you like, but you
won’t make him what he isn’t.