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Welcome
LANE 233 (Grammar 3)
Presentation 1
The Simple Sentence
Clause patterns:
Simple and complex sentences
• Elements such as Verb (V) and Object (O) are
constituents of sentences, and of clauses within a
sentence.
• A simple sentence is a sentence that consists of
only one clause.
• Example: I like grammar.
Clause patterns:
Simple and complex sentences
• A sentence may be seen as comprising five units
called elements of sentence (or clause) structure:
▫
▫
▫
▫
▫
Subject (S)
Verb (V)
Complement (C)
Object (O)
Adverbial (A)
Clause patterns:
Simple and complex sentences
[1] John (S) carefully (A) searched (V) the room (O)
[2] The girl (S) is (V) now (A) a student (C) at a large
university (A)
[3] His brother (S) grew (V) happier (C) gradually (A)
[4] It (S) rained (V) steadily (A) all day (A)
[5] He (S) had given (V) the girl (O) an apple (O)
[6] They (S) make (V) him (O) the chairman (C) every
year (A)
Clause patterns:
Clause types
Type
1
S
Sara
V
is
A
in the house
2
S
Sara
V
is
C
kind
a nurse
3
S
Somebody
V
caught
O
the ball
Clause patterns:
Clause types
Type
4
S
I
V
put
O
A
the plate on the table
5
S
We
V
O
have proved him
C
wrong
a fool
6
S
She
V
gives
O
expensive presents
O
me
Clause patterns:
Clause types
Type
7
S
The child
V
laughed
Clause patterns:
Complementation
• The elements Od, C, and A in the previous
patterns are obligatory elements of clause
structure in the sense that they are required for
the complementation of the verb.
• This means that given the use of a particular
verb in a particular sense, the sentence is
incomplete if one of these elements is omitted.
* I put the book (Type SVOA).
* He lift (Type SVO).
Clause patterns:
Complementation
• In some cases, however, a direct object or object
complement in one of these patterns may be considered
grammatically optional:
• He’s eating (Compare it with) He’s eating an apple (Type
SVO)
• He made her career (Compare it with) He made her
career a success (Type SVOC)
• He’s teaching (Compare it with) He’s teaching German
(Type SVO), He’s teaching the boys (German) (Type
SVOO)
Clause patterns:
Complementation
• Our approach, however, will be to regard this as
a case of conversion, whereby a word such as eat
is transferred from the transitive to the
intransitive category. Thus
He’s eating
is an instance of clause-type SV rather than of
SVO (with optional deletion of the object).
Clause patterns:
Transformational relations
• One way of distinguishing the various clause
types is by means of 'transformational' relations,
or relations of grammatical paraphrase.
• Clauses containing a noun phrase as object are
distinguished by their ability to be converted
into passive clauses, the object noun phrase
assuming the function of subject (Vpass= passive
verb phrase), the subject appearing (if at all) in
an optional by-phrase, symbolized as [A]:
Clause patterns:
Transformational relations
• Many critics disliked the play (S V Od)  The
play was disliked (by many critics) (S Vpass [A])
• More examples:
• Type SVOd Co: Queen Victoria considered him a
genius  He was considered a genius by Queen
Victoria (S Vpass Cs [A])
• Type SVOd Aloc: An intruder must have placed
the ladder there  The ladder must have been
placed there by an intruder (S Vpass Oloc [A])
Clause patterns:
Transformational relations
• Type SVOO: My father gave me this watch (S V Oi
Od)
I was given this watch by my father (S Vpass Od [A])
This watch was given me by my father (S Vpass Oi
[A])
• As Type SVOO clauses have two objects, they often
have two passive forms, as shown above - one in
which the direct object becomes subject, and
another (more common) in which the indirect object
becomes subject.