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(4) Sentence Patterns

The document discusses sentence patterns, focusing on the roles of subjects and predicates, as well as complements and adverbials in sentences. It categorizes verbs into various types, including stative, dynamic, transitive, and intransitive, and provides examples for each category. Additionally, it includes exercises for analyzing sentence structures and identifying objects and complements.

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salmaelhaouti8
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6 views

(4) Sentence Patterns

The document discusses sentence patterns, focusing on the roles of subjects and predicates, as well as complements and adverbials in sentences. It categorizes verbs into various types, including stative, dynamic, transitive, and intransitive, and provides examples for each category. Additionally, it includes exercises for analyzing sentence structures and identifying objects and complements.

Uploaded by

salmaelhaouti8
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Grammar 3

Sentence Patterns
Sentence Patterns

⚫ Back to subject and predicate:


⚫ Simple sentences (clauses) contain a subject and a predicate
⚫ Subject and predicate are functions (different from form classes/parts
of speech
⚫ This means that we can consider words or any other sentence
elements in terms of their nature/form (part of speech) and in terms
of their function
eg.1 John bought a new computer
‘John’ is a noun (part of speech) but it functions as a subject
Sentence Patterns
⚫ eg.2 I met john yesterday
‘john’ is still a noun (part of speech) but now it functions differently: object.
⚫ To analyze words (or any other sentence elements) we need to identify its
part of speech (i.e. the nature) and also its function.
Positions of the subject
⚫ Consider the following setences:
1. Jim reads a book every month.
2. Doing exercise is good for health
3. Are you studying tomorrow morning?
4. Usually my mother takes us for a drive
5. Which is the tallest building?
6. I believe her, so do I
7. At the bottom of the river lay his axe.
8. Please stay
9. There are two apples on the table
10. His wife he lost in a war
11. “I am tired,” she said.
12. Rarely do people realize the importance of this
⚫ Typically subjects come before verbs, but sometimes their position varies depending on
the context where they occur.
Predicate

⚫ Predicate is the remaining part of the sentence that says something


about the subject.
⚫ It must contain a verb (simple predicate)
⚫ The verb is often used with other elements, which are either
obligatory or optional
⚫ Obligatory elements used with the verb are called complements
Complements

⚫ Consider the following examples:


1. Children babble
2. The boys are playing
3. I met Tom
4. They bought a computer
5. He sent Mary a letter
6. He sent a letter to Mary
7. Mary is a lawyer
8. Tom looks tired
9. The noise is driving me crazy
10. The Americans elected him president
Complements

⚫ 1 and 2: verb with no complement


⚫ 3 and 4: verb with one complement (direct object)
⚫ 5 and 6: verb with two complements (indirect object+direct object)
⚫ 7 and 8: verb with a complement (subject complement)
⚫ 9 and10: verb with an object and a complement (object complement)
In addition to the five sentence/clause elements, we can also classify
sentences/clauses in terms the following patterns
⚫ Intransitive pattern 1&2
⚫ Monotransitive pattern 3&4
⚫ Ditransitive pattern 5&6
⚫ Linking verb pattern 7&8
⚫ Complex transitive pattern 9&10
Sentence Patterns: Types of verbs

⚫ Stative (7,8) Vs Dynamic verbs (all the rest)

states Vs actions

⚫ Intensive (linking/copular) Vs Extensive verbs


have only subject complements Vs have objects or have no
object
⚫ Transitive Vs Intransitive verbs
have object or more Vs have no object
monotransitive, ditransitive and complex transitive
Types of verbs

Verb

stative dynamic

Int Ext Int Ext

SC DO SC trans Intrans

mono di complex

DO IO DO+OC
More on Complements
⚫ Consider:
1. John bought a car
2. John has a car
3. His house must have cost a fortune
4. He feels very happy
5. This soup smells nice
6. He always smells soup before serving it

⚫ Do all these sentences have objects?


More on Complements
⚫ More examples:
⚫ She lacks confidence
⚫ She resembles her elder sister
⚫ Do these shoes fit you?
⚫ That colour doesn’t suit me
⚫ The suitcase weighs twenty kilos
⚫ The civil worker weighed the suitcase
⚫ The soup smells good
⚫ The chef smelled the soup
More on Complements

⚫ More examples:
⚫ Tom relies [on his father] VC
⚫ Tom laughed [at Mary] VC
⚫ Tom looked after [my cat] DO
⚫ Tom broke into the house??
⚫ Tom reminds [me] DO [of his father] VC

⚫ Tom put [the car] [in the garage] ??Vc


⚫ Tom is [in a good mood]??
⚫ Tom is [in the cafeteria]??
More on Complements
⚫ Consider:
1. Mary made a cake yesterday (monotansitive pattern)
2. Mary made us a cake yesterday (ditransitive pattern)
3. Mary makes John happy (complex transitive pattern)
4. She made him manager ……
5. They make a good couple (Linking verb pattern)
6. John makes a good husband
Adverbials

⚫ Unlike complements, some elements are not obligatory


sentence/clause elements. They add circumstancial details that
we can do without. They are called adverbials.

⚫ So far we have seen five sentence/clause elements:


Subject, verb (predicator), object, complement,and adverbial
Exercise 1

⚫ Divide each of the following sentences into its constituent parts, and then
label each part S, V(P), C, O and Adv
1. Computers /are /fairly commonplace /today
2. Did you eat chicken ?
3. We/ must change/ all the programmes/ tomorrow
4. Tomorrow/ will be/ a holiday/ here
5. These bookshelves are becoming very popular in Sweden
6. We have recently added an extra unit to them
7. Will you give it a try ?
8. On July 7, DDT was sprayed on the marsh from a helicopter
9. We all read too many books too quickly
Exercise 2

⚫ Find the objects and the complements in the following sentences


1. Will someone get a doctor, quickly !
2. George and Paul both became famous doctors .
3. Do you call yourself a doctor ?
4. May I call you a taxi or something ?
5. May I call you Jenny ?
6. Call me anything you like .
7. It’s so cold . I can’t get warm .
8. I can’t get my hands warm .
9. Keep quiet . Keep those children quiet .
10. Can’t you give them something to keep them quiet ?

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