Introducing English Syntax

Introducing English Syntax provides a basic introduction to syntax for students

studying English as a foreign language at university. Examining English phrase
and sentence structure from a descriptive point of view, this book develops
the reader’s understanding of the characteristic features of English sentence
construction and provides the necessary theoretical apparatus for engaging
with the language.
Key features include:

•• A unique framework combining theoretical and practical approaches to

provide an insight into the intricacies of English syntax;
•• An accessible and clear style which guides the learner through analysis,
application and practical construction of sentences;
•• A range of exercises at the end of each chapter and a brand new e-resource
housing answers and commentaries to these exercises.

This book requires no previous knowledge of linguistics and is essential reading

for students and teachers of applied linguistics and EFL/ESL, as well as those who
seek a basic grounding in English sentence structure.

Peter Fenn is a lecturer in English language and linguistics at the Ludwigsburg

University of Education, Germany.

Götz Schwab is Professor of Applied Linguistics and EFL teaching methodology

at Karlsruhe University of Education, Germany.
Introducing English Syntax
A Basic Guide for Students of English

Peter Fenn and Götz Schwab

First published 2018
by Routledge
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 2018 Peter Fenn and Götz Schwab
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Fenn, Peter, author. | Schwab, Götz, author.
Title: Introducing English syntax : a basic guide for students of English /
by Peter Fenn and Götz Schwab.
Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY :
Routledge, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017027525| ISBN 9781138037489
(hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138037496 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781315148434 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: English language—Syntax—Study and teaching. |
English language—Syntax—Problems, exercises, etc. | English
language—Textbooks for foreign speakers.
Classification: LCC PE1375 .F46 2017 | DDC 428.2/4—dc23
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Contents

List of symbols and abbreviations viii

Introduction 1
0.1 Who this book is for 1
0.2 What this book does 1
0.3 What is syntax? 3
0.4 The role of meaning 4
0.5 The connection to language teaching and training 5

1 Basic elements of grammatical structure 6

1.0 Structure 6
1.1 What are word-classes or ‘parts of speech’? 6
1.2 The phrase 8
1.3 What word-classes are there, and what are their characteristic
features? 10
1.4 Phrase, clause and sentence 28
Exercises 32

2 The simple sentence and its grammatical functions 34

2.0 Structure and function 34
2.1 Sentence functions explained 35
2.2 Verb complementation 43
2.3 Functions in the sentence 44
Exercises 48

3 Structural variations of the simple sentence and

functional consequences 50
3.0 Basic sentence operations 50
3.1 Questions (the interrogative) 50
3.2 Voice: active to passive 54
vi Contents
3.3 Negation 57
3.4 Commands (the imperative) 60
Exercises 62

4 Phrases and their structure (I) 64

4.0 Phrases 64
4.1 The noun phrase 64
4.2 The prepositional phrase 79
4.3 The adjective phrase 82
4.4 The adverb phrase 87
Exercises 94

5 Phrases and their structure (II) 96

5.1 The verb phrase 96
5.2 Effects of negative, interrogative and passive on the verb phrase 103
5.3 Auxiliary pro-forms 107
5.4 Two- and three-part verbs 108
Exercises 120

6 The multiple sentence 122

6.1 Co-ordination 122
6.2 Further aspects of co-ordination 123
6.3 Subordination 127
6.4 Subordination without conjunctions 138
Exercises 139

7 Non-finite clauses in the complex sentence (I): the infinitive 141

7.0 Non-finite clauses 141
7.1 The infinitive clause 141
7.2 The infinitive clause as verb complementation 143
7.3 The subject of an infinitive clause 146
7.4 Some special cases in complementation by infinitive clause 149
7.5 The infinitive clause as subject 152
7.6 Semantics: implicative meanings of catenatives with infinitives 154
7.7 Tense and aspect 155
Exercises 158

8 Non-finite clauses in the complex sentence (II): the gerund 161

8.0 The gerund 161
8.1 The gerund clause 162
 Contents vii
8.2 The semantics of the gerund 167
8.3 The gerund clause as catenative complementation 169
8.4 Questions of tense and aspect 181
8.5 The action nominal 184
Exercises 186

9 Non-finite clauses in the complex sentence (III): the participles 188

9.0 The participles 188
9.1 The present participle and its clause 189
9.2 The past participle and its clause 201
Exercises 207

10 The complex phrase (I): the complex noun phrase 209

10.0 The complex phrase 209
10.1 Postmodifiers: the relative clause 211
10.2 Postmodifiers: other structures as reduced relative clauses 221
10.3 Postmodifiers: apposition 224
Exercises 228

11 The complex phrase (II): complex prepositional and

adjective phrases 231
11.0 Complex prepositional and adjective phrases 231
11.1 The complex prepositional phrase 232
11.2 The complex adjective phrase 234
Exercises 244

12 Selected clause constructions 246

12.0 Return to sentence-level: particular clause constructions 246
12.1 Extraposition 246
12.2 False subject constructions 248
12.3 Existential sentences 251
12.4 Cleft sentences 253
12.5 Nominal relative clauses 255
12.6 Interrogative clauses 258
Exercises 259

Bibliography 261
Index 262
Symbols and abbreviations

Symbols
[ ] square brackets are used to indicate a subordinate clause at
sentence level.
/ / slants are used to show subordinate clauses inside phrases (i.e. at
phrase level).
Ø indicates omission of a certain element.
indicates that the particular unit could be analysed further.
arrows indicate a general connection between two items (as
discussed in the accompanying text).
a kinked left-pointing arrow indicates the relation of a clause inside
a phrase to the head of the phrase.
» indicates a relation of presupposition between two elements.
→ indicates an implicative relation between two elements.
→ indicates the negation or destruction of a former implicative relation.

Sentence function
S Subject
P Predicator
Oi Indirect object
Od Direct object
A Adverbial
Cs Subject complement
Co Object complement
 Symbols and abbreviations ix
Other abbreviations
ELT English Language Teaching
EFL English as a Foreign Language
ESL English as a Second Language

Reference abbreviations
LGSWE Biber, D. et al. (1999). The Longman Grammar of Spoken and
Written English. Harlow: Longman.
Fenn, P. (2010). A Student Advanced Grammar of English.
SAGE 
Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto.
Introduction

0.1 Who this book is for

This book is intended for both teachers and learners of English. Though
primarily aimed at non-native speakers, it will be of interest also to native
speakers who are professionally involved in the ELT field or in general linguis-
tics, and to those who simply wish for an overview of the central characteristics
of English phrase and sentence structure. It is not a practical grammar, though
it does give advice to the learner on various points of difficulty in using the
language. The book is oriented to a general international readership within
an applied linguistics and ELT framework. The core material was developed
within the European context of higher education with special emphasis on
language teacher training. Though it deals with many basic issues and concepts
‘bottom up’, the book is aimed at the intermediate and advanced student in
university training, as well as at the practising teacher.
It can be used:

•• as a textbook for seminars in syntax and linguistics;

•• as a reference work;
•• as a self-study course;
•• to supplement existing practical courses in English grammar;
•• as a first introduction to fields of language dealt with more theoretically in
model-based linguistic studies (such as generative grammar);
•• for purposes of general reading on the nature and character of English.

No previous knowledge of linguistics is necessary.

0.2 What this book does

The book examines English phrase and sentence structure from a descriptive point
of view. The object of study, that is, is the language itself and its central syntac-
tic characteristics, in particular as far as they potentially affect language-learning
processes. In other words the treatment here is applied linguistic in nature, and
is not intended as a contribution (nor indeed as opposition) to any particular
2 Introduction
theoretical model of syntax (for example, transformational-generative grammar,
the Minimalist Program, the Lexical-Functional Approach, Generalised Phrase
Structure Grammar, cognitive linguistic approaches, construction grammar, etc.).
Nevertheless, the approach does have certain theoretical points of origin and pre-
supposes one or two basic principles that need mentioning briefly. These are set
out below, together with other goals we are pursuing and aspects of content that
are dealt with.

•• The type of analysis used here is what we call structural-functional, since

it takes as a starting point the two parallel levels of grammar and language
function, i.e. the systematic relations between form and meaning within a
sentence.
It is based on concepts that are traditional in talking about language, such
as word-classes and functional roles. However, they are more clearly defined
and more consistently applied here than in many traditional treatments.
•• Essentially, the ‘system’ is based in its modern form on that used by Quirk,
Greenbaum, Leech and Svartvik in their epoch-making descriptive work A
Grammar of Contemporary English (1972) and its various sequel publications,
in particular A University Grammar of English (1973). It is further developed,
analysed and refined in Fenn, A Student´s Advanced Grammar of English
(SAGE) (2010), but is presented here for the first time in a specific intro-
duction to syntax. The latter was used as a reference source whenever it was
felt that detailed information might be necessary. Further reference is made
in the text to another standard grammar of English based on Quirk et al.
(1972), The Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (LGSWE) by
Biber et al. (1999). Rooted in corpus linguistics, this provides further infor-
mation on the use and scope of a wide range of grammatical phenomena
discussed here.
•• The theoretical approach to sentence functions is in principle semantic.
It is rooted in the conception of real-world ‘roles’ in events, such as agent,
patient, recipient, etc. and regards these as reflected in functions like subject
and object.
•• Besides providing the reader with a solid basis for analysing and categoris-
ing sentences and their parts, the book also aims to give both practical
and theoretical insight into many of the key structures (e.g. non-finite
verb forms) which influence sentence and clause patterns in English. It
thereby contributes significantly to the furtherance of high-level language
awareness in the learner.
•• There is thorough definition and explanation of standard concepts used in
talking about syntax, and of the principles of their application. Exercises are
provided at the ends of sections or chapters.
•• Although we do not distinguish between written and oral codes in detail, we
do in places take into account the fact that oral communication has to some
extent its own grammatical features (Biber et al. 1999, 2002), which can
deviate from standard written forms of the language.
 Introduction 3
•• The book has a definite, though flexible, course structure. Chapters 1, 2
and 3 address the basic questions of form and function in grammar, so that
the reader can quickly grasp the rudiments of sentence-functional analysis
and apply them to simple sentences. Not until after this do we go into the
details of phrase structure (Chapters 4 and 5), which we conceive of as a
second level of analysis below that of the sentence. The reader now has
all the tools required for the analysis of simple sentences and the phrases
composing them. In Chapter 6 we return to the functional level of the
sentence, expanding the object of analysis from the simple to the complex
sentence, and dealing with the issues of co-ordination and subordination
at sentence level. Chapters 7, 8 and 9 address themselves to non-finite
clauses, and Chapters 10 and 11 look at complex phrases. In Chapter 12,
finally, we focus on specific kinds of clause and sentence construction.

0.3 What is syntax?

Syntax describes how words ‘hang together’: that is, the rules and principles
that underlie their combination in sentences and phrases. First of all, as a field,
syntax should be seen together with its ‘neighbours’ in language studies: mor-
phology and semantics. And also, to add two more to those, with phonetics and
phonology, which examine the sounds of speech. These are the different areas
of study in the scientific examination of language and languages. But the terms
also mean the characteristics of language itself, both generally and specifically.
For instance, we can talk about the phonetics of English (in other words, the
kinds of speech sounds used), or the semantics of a particular phrase or sentence
(i.e. its meaning), or the morphology of this or that individual word: that is, its
grammatical form.
These, then, are the different ‘departments’ of language and language study,
and syntax is one of them.
Syntax has an especially close relationship to morphology. Both these fields
concern rules about forms and structures. Together, they make up the larger area
that we normally call grammar. Grammar therefore has two major components:
the grammar of individual words (morphology) and the grammar of joining them
into larger units like sentences (syntax). For illustration let us apply the two fields
to a sentence example:

(1) Amy enjoys watching sad films.

Picking out examples of ‘grammar’ here we can say, for instance, that the verb
enjoy has the third person singular ending, the verb watch is in the gerund, and
the noun films is in the plural. What we have now described is the morphology
of those words, i.e. the particular grammatical form in which they appear in this
sentence. Morphology, then, is what we might call word grammar. But the sen-
tence does not consist of just isolated words, of course. In every sentence there
is a grammatical relationship between the different words. This second level of
4 Introduction
grammar (‘beyond the word’) is what we call syntax. When we say, for example,
that Amy is the subject of the sentence, watching sad films is the direct object
of enjoys and sad films is the direct object of watching, then we are referring to
the grammatical level of syntax. Other syntactic points we might observe could
concern word order: this type of sentence conveys a statement (in contrast, for
instance, to a question) and therefore has to have declarative word order, with
the subject Amy in front of its verb enjoys. Another point is that here the adjec-
tive sad has to precede the noun that it describes. And so on.
What must also be taken into account is the connection between syntax and
morphology: the grammatical form of a word often depends on its relationship
to other words. The reason for the third person singular -s-ending on the verb
enjoy, for example, is that it has to agree grammatically with its subject Amy, a
noun that also has the morpho-semantic characteristic of third person singular.
Or take the gerund form of watching. This is triggered by the verb enjoy in front
of it. With some other verb, e.g. want, we would need an infinitive, i.e. a differ-
ent morphological form of watch:

(2) Amy wants to watch sad films.

The syntax of a sentence, then, can affect the morphology of the individual
words. On the other hand, the morphology of the words often tells us some-
thing about their actual or possible syntactic relationships to other words in the
same sentence. When we look at enjoys, say, we know that it has to have a third
person singular noun as subject before it. A clause with a gerund verb, like watch-
ing sad films, is a typical direct object. Other possible positions would be as subject
(Watching sad films is Amy´s favourite hobby), or following a preposition (Amy is
always for watching sad films). The morphology of a word can therefore indicate its
syntactic role and position in a given or possible sentence.
So, although they deal with different areas of grammar, syntax and morphology
are really two sides of the same coin and have a two-way relationship:

(3) Grammar

Syntax Morphology

0.4 The role of meaning

Our diagram in (3) covers the form side of things, i.e. the shapes of words and the
relations between them when they are linked in sentences. This is normally all
that we think of when we think of grammar. But actually this leaves a further very
important component out. Grammar also reflects meaning. Consider example
(1) again. The morphology of enjoys that connects it syntactically to Amy is not
just part of an internal code programme. The syntactic connection represents a
 Introduction 5
meaning: it refers to a link between a person and an action. Specifically it tells
us that the person carries out an action and has a particular emotional attitude
towards this. Similarly, the tense and aspect morphology of enjoys (present tense,
simple form) conveys the idea of a present habit or regularity. Syntax and mor-
phology are therefore partly responsible for the semantics of a sentence, i.e. its
meaning content. So we should add this to our grammar diagram as follows:

(4) Grammar

Syntax Morphology

Meaning (Semantics)

Note that here too we have a two-way relationship. The grammar conveys the
meaning, but the intended meaning also determines the grammar.
Though this book is specifically about syntax, we will often refer to its close
relation to morphology and semantics.

0.5 The connection to language teaching and training

Our own long experience in the realm of ELT and EFL teacher training shows
that many advanced students, and even teachers of English, have only a rather
hazy idea of some of the central concepts in applied syntax. Limited cognitive
awareness of key characteristics of English sentence structure also means limited
ability to grasp and deal with pedagogical issues involved in learning, teaching
and using the language. This book aims to fill the gaps. It attempts to provide a
comprehensive frame of reference and a fund of systematic descriptive knowl-
edge, supporting both student and teacher in the development of an informed
and reflective professional practice.
1 Basic elements of grammatical
structure

1.0 Structure
The term structure is used in this book to cover the following:

•• any kind of morphological feature: plural/singular of nouns, verb categories

like tense, aspect or person, verb forms like gerund/infinitive, etc., adjective
features like comparative/superlative, and so on. (This is just a small selection
of examples.)
•• any kind of syntactic construction: the of-genitive, do-support, negation,
declarative, the interrogative, the imperative, the passive, relative clauses,
cleft sentences, extraposition, etc.
•• grammatical categories of words known as word-classes or parts of speech:
nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, etc.

All this concerns grammatical characteristics of words and groups of words that
are permanent and individual, and do not depend on particular sentences. What
contrasts with structure is the idea of function (subject, object, etc.), which, as
we will see later, is a sentence-dependent concept. For the moment we will stay
with structure. Function is discussed in the next chapter. The aspect of structure
that we want to look at more closely now is the word-class, which needs some
detailed explanation.

1.1 What are word-classes or ‘parts of speech’?

Word-classes are a good example of how morphology, syntax and semantics inter-
act with each other. The basis in this case is morphology. Words of the same
class have the same grammatical forms. Verbs, for instance, change according to
the type of subject they have (= person: I am, you are, he is), and the time they
refer to (= tense: present tense, I am; past tense, I was). Nouns have number,
i.e. singular and plural forms (woman → women), Adjectives and adverbs have
the category of comparison: slow → slower → slowest; slowly → more slowly →
most slowly. And so on. Many members of particular word-classes also show typi-
cal endings, e.g. -ive, -ible/-able for adjectives (massive, respectable), -ion and -ity
 Basic elements of grammatical structure 7
for nouns (station, integrity), -ise and -ate for verbs (realise, compensate), -ly for
adverbs (slowly, quickly), etc. This means that members of one word-class can be
converted into members of another (a morphological process called derivation):
sensitive (adjective) → sensitivity (noun), nation (noun) → nationalise (verb), etc.
However, although the external features of word-classes are morphological, it
is syntax that shows their real purpose. A word-class comprises members that do
the same job syntactically. Members of the same class occur in the same places in
a sentence and have similar relationships to members of other word-classes. For
instance, we typically start a declarative sentence with a noun or pronoun and
follow it with a verb. Sometimes, depending on the verb, this is enough:

(1) noun + verb

Jenny   
drinks.

To say more, we might follow this with another noun and extend this further
with an adverb:

(2) noun + verb + noun + adverb

Jenny   drinks    tea   regularly.

But the options are restricted. The second noun cannot swap positions with the
verb (*Jenny tea drinks regularly)1 and an adjective could not replace the adverb
(*Jenny drinks tea regular). On the other hand, there is nothing to be said against
putting adjectives before the nouns:

(3) adjective + noun + verb + adjective + noun + adverb

Young    Jenny    drinks     green     tea    regularly.

This is not just about position. Some word-classes are more closely associated
than others. Adjectives, we can see here, relate typically to nouns, whereas
adverbs relate to verbs and verb sequences. Further examples of close neighbours
are articles and nouns, and prepositions and nouns. Conjunctions, on the other
hand, combine the larger parts of sentences that we call phrases and clauses
(see 1.4 below for a detailed discussion of these terms).
So we can see that word-classes tell us a great deal about what goes where in
a sentence.
Finally, semantics also plays a large role in the character of word-classes.
Traditionally, in fact, it is meaning, rather than syntax or morphology, that is
used to define word-classes, especially in the teaching of children. This is not sur-
prising, as meaning is more easily understood by young learners than grammar. In
this approach, nouns, e.g. are said to refer to things and people, verbs are labelled
‘doing words’, signifying actions, and adjectives are thought of as ‘describing
nouns’. Linguists have often criticised descriptions of this kind as vague and unre-
liable. And it is true that they can easily be contradicted. For instance, abstract
nouns (such as love and hate) do not really mean ‘things’. Words like action and
8 Basic elements of grammatical structure
movement refer, obviously, to ‘actions’, yet they are not verbs. On the other hand,
verbs are not just ‘doing words’: they can mean states (Vanessa strongly resembles
her sister) or experiences (Alan caught a cold).
Nevertheless, there is a lot of truth in semantic characterisation. It is not
enough for a full definition, but gives us a good indication of typical cases or
prototypes. Not all nouns refer to ‘things’ or people, certainly. But the reverse is
usually true, i.e. that almost all words referring to things or people do belong to
the class of nouns. Similarly, the typical meaning of a verb is that it refers to an
event or state, even though a few nouns do the same thing. Furthermore, verbs
always link other elements in the sentence together as participants in the event
or state. This is not only a grammatical relationship, but a semantic one. For
instance, in

(4) John kissed Mary

the verb tells us that John and Mary became involved with each other, and
moreover in a certain general way: John caused what happened and he caused it
to happen to Mary. This is what we call in semantics an agent–patient relation-
ship. It is not exclusive to verbs, nor is it always present when verbs are used,
but it is prototypically part of verb meaning in sentences that have the pattern
Noun + Verb + Noun. This shows generally that when we use grammar, we also
think meaning. In the more detailed discussion of the individual word-classes
further below, we will therefore examine matters from both grammatical and
semantic perspectives. The next section, meanwhile, introduces the important
concept of phrase, an analytical category closely allied to word-class.

1.2 The phrase

The sentences in the examples (1)–(4) look as if they are composed simply of
strings of individual words in sequence. This is not the whole story, however.
We said above that certain word-classes associate particularly closely with each
other, e.g. articles and adjectives with nouns. Certain words, that is, form groups.
If we want to show word relationships in sentences more accurately, we have to
take account of this. A more exact portrayal of (3) above, for instance, could look
like this:

(5) (adjective + noun) + verb + (adjective + noun) + adverb

(Young   Jenny)   drinks  (green     tea) regularly.

Young and Jenny on the one hand, and green and tea on the other, belong
together. The verb drinks and the adverb regularly are just single words. But we
could expand these too (grammatically speaking, that is) into groups, e.g. has
drunk and quite regularly:

(6) (Young Jenny) (has drunk) (green tea) (quite regularly).

 Basic elements of grammatical structure 9
Such groupings as now shown in the brackets in (6) are vital building-blocks of
the sentence, and are known as phrases. Each one acts as a unit. If a phrase is
moved to another part of the sentence (for stylistic reasons, say, or because the
sentence construction changes syntactically), it must be the whole phrase that
moves, and not just a part of it, as, e.g. with the passive:

(7) (Green tea) (has been drunk) (quite regularly) (by (young Jenny)).

Though there are certain exceptions to this rule, phrases in principle remain
together and act as a group. This applies particularly to sentence functions
(discussed in detail in Chapter 2), which relate to phrases as a whole: for instance,
the subject of (6) is Young Jenny and the direct object green tea, which becomes
the subject in the passive version in (7). It is phrases, therefore, rather than indi-
vidual words, that comprise the first level of sentence organisation.
Notice that each phrase has a main word (respectively Jenny, drunk, tea and regu-
larly). This is called the head of the phrase. The word-class of the head gives its
name to the phrase. As Jenny and tea are nouns, young Jenny and green tea are noun
phrases. The phrase quite regularly has the adverb regularly as its head, and is there-
fore an adverb phrase. The verbs in a sentence form the verb phrase, here has drunk
(with drunk as the head). Similarly, there are adjective phrases (e.g. very big, with
the adjective big as the head), and prepositional phrases (e.g. in the house, with the
preposition in as the head). Phrases can also include others, as shown in (7) by the
prepositional phrase by young Jenny, which contains the noun phrase young Jenny.
The concept of being ‘included’ or ‘contained’ within a particular unit of sen-
tence organisation is expressed by the linguistic term constituent, which refers to
component elements of larger units. Words are therefore constituents of phrases
and phrases can be constituents of sentences or of other phrases.
A final word must be said on single words: drinks and regularly in (5) above
were ‘expanded’ into units of more than one word. We did this in order to
explain the term phrase and demonstrate its central features. In actual fact,
however, linguistics treats single words already as phrases. It does so precisely
because they are capable of extension into a multi-word unit with themselves
as potential heads. Looked at from the opposite point of view, most multi-word
phrases can be reduced syntactically to their heads alone and the phrase struc-
ture of the sentence will remain intact. Drinks and regularly, then, represent
phrases (a verb phrase and an adverb phrase respectively), i.e. phrases with only
one constituent. And by the same token the single-word constituents of (1), (2)
and (4) can now be described, more accurately in a syntactic sense, as phrases:

(8) noun phrase + verb phrase

Jenny    drinks.
(9) noun phrase + verb phrase + noun phrase + adverb phrase
Jenny     drinks      tea       regularly.
(10) noun phrase + verb phrase + noun phrase
John      kissed     Mary.
10 Basic elements of grammatical structure
1.3 What word-classes are there, and what are their
characteristic features?
If you look a word up in a dictionary, you will find that its word-class (part of
speech) is given before the meaning. For instance:

house, noun: A building for human habitation

make, verb: to construct, build, or create, from separate parts

This underlines a point made above: that word-class is a permanent feature of a

particular word, i.e. part of its individual character.
We generally distinguish between the following main word-classes: nouns,
pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, determiners.
We will now point to basic features that identify each word-class, using the
three different perspectives of semantics, morphology and syntax. The func-
tional aspect of syntax will not be discussed here, however, as functions are not
introduced until the next chapter. Under the ‘syntax’ heading we will confine
ourselves for the moment to other kinds of relationship between words.

1.3.1 Nouns
•• Semantics:
Nouns denote entities, i.e. living things (person, woman, plant, animal),
objects (table, road, car), other physical phenomena (weight, distance, elec-
tricity, rain, wind), and abstractions like concepts and ideas (wish, religion,
memory, economics, friendship). Names such as Peter, London, Christianity,
Communism are called proper nouns and are spelt with capital letters.
Nouns have further semantic features that not only identify them as nouns
but also influence their morphology and syntax. Many can be counted, but
others cannot. Those referring to persons can imply male or female identity
(i.e. sex or gender).
•• Morphology:
An important feature of nouns is what we call number: that is, they can be
singular or plural. The singular is the ‘normal’ or unmarked form (cat) and
the plural is marked, usually just by adding the ending -s (cats). There are
various irregular plural forms, e.g. internal change of vowel (man→ men,
goose→ geese), same form as singular (sheep→ sheep), etc.
Another important feature related to this is countability. Most nouns
are what we call count nouns, i.e. they appear in the singular and plural
with numbers (one girl, ten girls). But there are also many non-count nouns.
These cannot appear with numbers. Some are only singular (tea, wheat, infor-
mation), others are only plural (surroundings, clothes).
And finally, a third central feature of nouns is their person status. This is a
wholly semantic factor, but it has a kind of ‘sleeping’ morphological charac-
ter that appears grammatically in the relationship to other word-classes like
pronouns and verbs. Consider the sentence:
 Basic elements of grammatical structure 11
(11) Our neighbour is celebrating in her garden, but although we like her, she
has not invited us.

Note that the noun neighbour ‘controls’ the choice of any following pronoun
that refers back to it. As the garden belongs to the (apparently female) neigh-
bour we have to say her garden and not *our garden, followed by we like her
(and not, for instance, *We like them), and she has not. . . (rather than *You
have not. . .). This is the morphology of a category that we call person. It
forces pronouns to correspond in certain ways to their ‘parent’ nouns (i.e.
their antecedents), which can only be referred back to by he, she, it or they.
As these are known grammatically as third person pronouns, nouns are also
regarded as having third person status. (The division of person status into
three sub-categories numbered first, second and third is explained fully under
Pronouns below). Example (11) also shows us that pronoun choice (in the
singular at least) is further restricted by whether the noun refers to a thing
or a person and in the case of a person whether the person is male or female.
This is known as gender, and is differentiated according to masculine (he), for
male persons, feminine (she), for female persons, and neuter (it) for things.

•• Syntax:
Nouns
{{ can be preceded by determiners, such as articles (see below), and also

by adjectives:
The big cat.
These accompanying words form a unit with the noun that we call a
noun phrase.
Nouns
{{ occur (alone or in a phrase) before and after verbs:
The dog followed the boy.
{{ occur (alone or in a phrase) after prepositions:
On the table; in anger; under a large tree.

1.3.2 Pronouns
Pronouns are specialised semantic and morphological variants of nouns. They
are not really a separate word-class, but form a sub-division of nouns. Basically,
they are used to stand for nouns, i.e. represent them, in certain grammatical and
communicative contexts.
•• Semantics:
Pronouns step in as substitutes for full nouns that speakers cannot use, or do
not wish to use, in particular circumstances. The most general reason is to
avoid repeating a noun (and more usually a whole noun phrase) which has
already been mentioned:
(12) The milkman usually comes around 11 o’clock, but today he´s very late.
Maybe his cart has broken down. That was the reason why he was late on
one day last week. The cart is an old one that he’s been driving for years.
12 Basic elements of grammatical structure
Back-reference to previous elements of texts and dialogues is known
generally as anaphora. The back-referring item is called the anaphor.
Pronouns are one of the most common examples of anaphor. In (12) the
pronouns printed in bold type all show this anaphoric relationship. Note,
however, that what they refer back to is different in each case. That is,
each pronoun here represents a particular sub-category with its own dis-
tinct kind of use:

he anaphor for the milkman

[personal pronoun]

his anaphor for the milkman, but in the

[possessive pronoun] genitive and showing
possession (i.e. really a
replacement for the
milkman’s)

that anaphor for the content of the second

[demonstrative pronoun] sentence, which could be
expressed by a noun like
event or occurrence, and
is referred to by the
pronoun with emphasis.

one anaphor for cart

[‘prop’ pronoun] replacing a single noun
inside a noun phrase.

that anaphor for the prop pronoun one in a

[relative pronoun] following relative clause
that describes one (and
thereby cart, of course)
more closely.

Further pronoun types are: reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself,

etc.), interrogative pronouns (who?, what?, which?, etc.), and indefinite pro-
nouns (somebody, anybody, no-one, etc.). Numerals (one, two, three. . .) and
quantifiers (much, many, some, any, etc.) can also do duty as pronouns, even
though that is not their basic job and not their primary word-class. This does
not exhaust the list, but what we have mentioned so far is enough to illustrate
the general meaning of the word-class, and at the same time the individual
semantic variety among its members. At its most extreme this can be seen with
the indefinite pronouns, which unlike the other types are not anaphoric. They
do, nevertheless, have a kind of representation function semantically.
 Basic elements of grammatical structure 13
•• Morphology:
Corresponding to the semantic variety, the different pronoun types all
have their own individual and specific morphological features. Most prom-
inent are the personal pronouns. These dominate the pronoun scene, so
to speak. They are the most common type, and when we think of pronouns
we tend automatically to think of personal pronouns as a prototype. They
are also closely related to two other groups: the possessive pronouns and
the reflexive pronouns.
{{ Personal pronouns are sub-divided into persons, as mentioned above,
and distinguished also in terms of number:

Person Singular Plural

First I we
Second you you
Third he, she, it they

A point to note is that gender is marked only in the third person singular. A
further point is that, unlike full nouns, the personal pronouns are marked for
case. That is, their syntactic status in a sentence (position and function) is
marked morphologically. There are two case forms, subject (= those in the
box above), and object, as follows:

Person (object forms) Singular Plural

First me us
Second you you
Third him, her, it them

The category of person originates in the social situation of speech, i.e.

has to do with what we call pragmatic meaning. It belongs to the more
general pragmatic category of deixis (= speaker-related meaning). In
personal deixis speakers do three things: they refer to themselves as
speakers (first person: I/we); they refer to the people they are address-
ing (second person: you); and they refer to third parties, i.e. people
and things not involved in the I–you exchange (third person: he/she/
it/them). This explains why nouns have the morphological idea of per-
son attached to them, since full nouns are always used in the sense of
third parties to a conversation. Third person pronouns are basically the
only ones that are directly anaphoric. First and second persons can be
regarded as representatives of proper nouns, i.e. the names of the speaker
and the addressee: but they do not really ‘refer back’ to them, except
perhaps in a rather abstract way.
14 Basic elements of grammatical structure
{{ Possessive pronouns follow the pattern of the personal pronouns:

Person Singular Plural

First my our
Second your your
Third his, her, its their

Possessive pronouns are not pronouns syntactically, however (see below

under Syntax). If we want to use them as ‘real’ pronouns, i.e. standing
alone, they have to be in their ‘pronoun possessive’ forms, as in:

(13) This book is mine, not yours.

This is the complete table of pronoun possessives:

Person Singular Plural

First mine ours

Second yours yours
Third his, hers theirs

{{ Reflexive pronouns follow partly the possessive pronouns and partly

the object forms of personal pronouns, adding the ending -self/-selves
to them. Semantically, reflexive constructions mean literally that the
subject does something ‘to itself’, as in

(14) She has hurt herself.

Reflexive pronouns therefore have to signal person agreement with the

subject pronoun:

Person Singular Plural

First myself ourselves

Second yourself yourselves
Third himself, herself, itself themselves

Demonstrative pronouns are marked for number, i.e. they have separate
forms for singular (this/that) and plural (these/those). The same applies to the
prop pronoun: one (singular), ones (plural).
The relative pronouns who, which and that are differentiated in use
according to semantic criteria, which we will not discuss further here (see
Ch. 10.1, on relative clauses). Who has an object form (whom) and a geni-
tive (whose). Note that who and which can also be interrogative pronouns.
 Basic elements of grammatical structure 15
A further Doppelgänger is that, which, as we have just seen, also features as
a demonstrative pronoun (see below under Syntax).

•• Syntax:
Anaphoric reference with most pronouns generally involves the whole noun
phrase, and not just part of it:

(15) The big brown dog had hurt itself badly. It could not stand on its back legs.

An exception here is the prop pronoun, whose job is to replace just the
noun part of a noun phrase:
I wanted to buy red shoes for my daughter, but she preferred white ones.
Other major syntactic points are the following:
{{ Possessive pronouns, as was said above, are not pronouns syntacti-
cally, but determiners (see further below). That is, they have the
function of article words in larger noun phrases. We will therefore
refer to them from now on as possessive determiners. Only what we
called above the pronoun possessives have real pronoun status syntac-
tically. The same is true of demonstrative pronouns. Only when they
appear without a following noun, as in (12) above, are they pronouns
in a syntactic sense. But with a noun following (this problem, that cat)
they are demonstrative determiners.
{{ Anaphora is a semantic relationship (i.e. it is a form of reference).
But it also has a variety of morphological consequences, as we saw
above, e.g. personal pronouns, reflexive pronouns, possessive deter-
miners, pronoun possessives have to agree morphologically with
their antecedents. This is therefore a syntactic relationship too,
as the grammar of one word in a sentence affects the grammar of
another. Another example is the case of personal pronouns. Case
is a morphological feature, but is dependent on sentence function
(see next chapter), which is a syntactic relation. This is just a
further pointer to what we said at the beginning of this chapter:
semantics, morphology and syntax interact in a sentence to pro-
duce its total meaning.
{{ Relative pronouns introduce relative clauses.
{{ Interrogative pronouns introduce questions and interrogative clauses
(see Chapter 3, 3.1).

1.3.3 Verbs
•• Semantics:
Verbs, as we have already said, typically denote actions and states, i.e. things
that ‘happen’, ‘last’ and ‘go on in time’:
16 Basic elements of grammatical structure
(16) a. The dog followed the boy.
b. Karen is a teacher.

The close relation to time is shown by the fact that we can ask questions
referring to the verb using expressions like When? and How long?:
For how long/When did the dog follow the boy?
How long has Karen been a teacher?
Another close connection to time is that verbs always show us, through
tense, how an occurrence or state relates to the moment of speech,
e.g. before it (past), simultaneous with it (present), both at once (present
perfect), and so on. Tense is part of morphology, as we will see immediately.
Nevertheless, it points to something semantic, i.e. a time reference that is a
basic component of verb meaning.
In a more general way we can say that verbs have a semantically con-
necting effect: they link the other ‘participants’ named (typically the
subject noun and any elements following the verb) with each other. In
doing so they produce a message, or what is sometimes referred to as a
proposition. In (16)a. above, for instance, the two noun phrases the dog and
the boy are brought into a meaningful relationship with each other through
the verb. The same applies to Karen and a teacher in (16)b. Some verbs, it
is true, can create a proposition without anything following:
(17) a. David snores.
b. Karen sang.

But they still form a link, i.e. bind the noun to themselves to form a sense
unit or message.
It is the semantic conception of a proposition that lies behind the sen-
tence as a grammatical unit (see below under Syntax).

•• Morphology:
In English the verb is the word-class with the most complex system of forms.
We can see this already in a relatively simple statement like
(18) Jenny drinks coffee.

Firstly, the verb has an ending (-s) that is connected grammatically with the
noun Jenny, which refers to the ‘doer’ (or agent) of the action. The agent, in
sentences like this one, generally has the function of subject. Functions belong
in the next chapter, as we have said, but the term subject is important here
already, as it is this (or, more exactly, the noun in that function) that deter-
mines the ending of the verb. It does this according to the person status of the
noun, here third person singular. In other words a third person singular noun
requires this characteristic to be shown also in the verb ending. Syntactically,
this is another example of agreement, this time subject–verb agreement, also
known as concord. Verbs, then, are also marked for person, or, more exactly,
they are marked according to the person status of their subject noun (since
person is properly speaking a characteristic of nouns, not verbs).
 Basic elements of grammatical structure 17
Tables like the following, showing all the person forms of a particular
verb (here be) are familiar to every language learner:

Person Singular Plural

First I am we are
Second you are you are
Third he/she/it is they are

This is what we call a conjugation. To conjugate a verb means to put it

in all its person forms like this. But we can also speak of an individual verb
form (such as he is) as a conjugated verb form, i.e. one that agrees with its
subject noun. A verb like this is also known traditionally as a finite verb.
By contrast, a non-finite verb has no subject agreement and is unchange-
able: very often, in fact, it has no subject at all. Non-finite verbs are the
various participle and infinitive forms, and the gerund. This is an impor-
tant distinction, because finite verb forms have other characteristics too.
In (18), e.g. the third person singular -s-ending does not just signify person,
but also tense (present) and aspect (simple). An example such as You were
driving is marked for second person (singular or plural, as the case may be),
past tense, and progressive aspect. In English, that is, finite verbs always
show – apart from subject–verb agreement – also tense and aspect. By con-
trast, non-finite verbs usually do not. Take, for instance the infinitive in
(19) Jenny decided to drink coffee.
To drink here relates to the past; yet it has no past tense marking of its own,
any more than it is marked for person. It simply takes over these meanings
(i.e. that Jenny is the subject and the action of drink is past-related) from
the preceding finite verb. It is true that non-finite verbs have certain tense
and aspect forms of their own, but they are used only in a limited way.
Further prominent morphological characteristics of verbs are the following:
{{ Composite verb forms:

Finite verbs like drinks in (18) consist of just a single verb. Most, however,
are composed of two or more separate verbs in partnership, such as have
drunk, were drinking, have been drinking, will drink, can drink, and so on. These
are composite verb forms. Most of them are made up of one auxiliary verb +
lexical (or main) verb, though some have two or even three auxiliaries:

Auxiliary verb(s) + Main verb

   have + drunk
   were + drinking
    can + drink
have been + drinking
should have been + drunk
18 Basic elements of grammatical structure
Auxiliary verbs are ‘helping’ verbs. They form a supporting partnership
with main verbs in various ways. For instance, they help in creating tense
(have + past participle = perfect), aspect (be + present participle = progressive),
the passive (be + past participle = passive form), and so on. These are purely
morphological operations, and the auxiliaries concerned (be and have) are
therefore called grammatical auxiliaries. These contrast with modal auxiliaries,
like can, must, should, etc., which have individual meanings (as well as helping
with grammar). Auxiliaries are also essential for certain syntactic operations,
such as forming questions and negatives (see below). A further grammatical
auxiliary for this purpose is do. Note that the lexical verb here is always a parti-
ciple or infinitive. It is the auxiliary that gives the partnership its finite features
(i.e. concord, tense and aspect). Nevertheless, the partnership as a whole, as a
unit, is regarded as finite. All the verbs involved work together, as one phrase.
For this reason we call these units verb phrases. A composite verb form is always
one verb phrase, and the cases listed here are all finite verb phrases.

{{ Regular and irregular verb forms:

This is a distinction that affects morphology mainly in the formation of
the past tense and past participle. With regular verbs both are derived
simply by adding -ed to the infinitive (or just -d if the verb already ends
in -e), for instance:

Infinitive Past tense Past participle

walk walked walked

Irregular verbs, by contrast, form past tense and past participle in a

variety of quite distinct ways:

Infinitive Past tense Past participle

swim swam swum

bring brought brought
come came come
put put put
give gave given

A general feature here is that instead of an -ed-ending internal changes

to the word are made, usually affecting the vowels, but in some cases
also consonants. Certain past participles are additionally inflected
with -en. In a few cases all three forms are the same. These patterns
usually repeat themselves wholly or partly with other irregular verbs, so
that certain close neighbour groupings occur (e.g. sing-sang-sung, shut-
shut-shut, take-took-taken, etc.). Several, however, are highly irregular,
and show person divergence also: have, do and go have irregular forms
in the third person of the present tense, be even in the second person,
and between singular and plural in the past tense.
 Basic elements of grammatical structure 19
•• Syntax:
As was said above, it is the semantic idea of the proposition that is the basis
for the grammar of a sentence. Or, regarded from the opposite perspective, it
is the sentence as a grammatical unit that gives form and structure to propo-
sitions. Propositions are conceptualisations of relationships between entities.
When they are expressed through language this is done via a sentence.
As verbs hold propositions together semantically, so they hold sentences
together grammatically. This translates into the grammatical rule that every
sentence needs a verb. And it needs at least one noun for the verb to con-
nect to. How much more it needs depends on the individual verb and what
is required or allowed to follow that particular verb. This is known in modern
linguistics as the verb´s complementation, and in (9) and (10), for instance,
consists of the noun phrases tea and Mary respectively. The shape of a sen-
tence is therefore determined prominently by the verb. In order to establish
the network of relationships in a sentence we need to refer not just to the
word-classes and the phrases they form, but in particular to the roles those
phrases play in their connection and relation to one another. This is the
domain of sentence function, as we will see in the next chapter.
Basic features of syntactic behaviour that characterise verbs are the
following:
{{ Position in declarative sentences (statements):

Verb phrases always follow the subject noun or pronoun (for a definition
of the function of subject, see Ch. 2), and in general follow it directly:
They were dancing.
An exception is with certain types of adverb that can occur between
subject and verb: They often dance.
{{ Negation:

Verbs are negated by adding not after an auxiliary verb: They were not
dancing. If there is no auxiliary verb in the affirmative sentence (as with
the simple aspect of the present or past tense), do has to be added as a
‘dummy’ auxiliary (known as do-support): They did not dance.
{{ Position in interrogative sentences (questions):

Like negation, questions require an auxiliary verb. Again, if there is no

auxiliary, do-support is necessary. Then subject and auxiliary simply
change places: Were they dancing? Did they dance? This turn-around of
subject and verb is called inversion. Note again, though, that only the
auxiliary is involved, not the full verb. This remains in the same posi-
tion as in the declarative sentence.
{{ Abbreviated forms:

These are also known as weak forms, and affect certain auxiliaries and nega-
tion. In less formal language certain auxiliaries are shortened (abbreviated),
and in writing attached to the subject noun or pronoun by apostrophe:
I am I´m; you are you´re; he is he´s;
the car has gone the car´s gone; we will we´ll; and so on.
20 Basic elements of grammatical structure
The negative particle not is also reduced to n’t and attached to the
auxiliary:
aren´t, doesn´t, hadn´t, won´t, can´t, mustn´t, etc.

1.3.4 Adjectives
•• Semantics:
Adjectives denote qualities or characteristics of entities, i.e. they are
‘describing words’ relating to nouns. When they are derived from proper
nouns, i.e. names, they are known as proper adjectives and are spelt with
capital letters. Proper adjectives typically refer to characteristics such as
national and regional identity (French, British, Texan), religion (Christian,
Protestant, Buddhist), historical, cultural and political groupings (Victorian,
Impressionist, Marxist, Keynesian), etc.
As with other word-classes, certain semantic features of adjectives have
an effect on their morphology and syntax. A typical feature is their gradabil-
ity, i.e. whether they can be considered in terms of degree or extent: a little
tired, rather bored, highly sensitive. Associated with this is comparability: you
might be happier now than in the past, when you were more wealthy but less
relaxed. On the other hand you cannot be *slightly married or *somewhat dead,
and nor can you be less or more of either than anyone else. This is because
the state referred to is thought of as absolute.
•• Morphology:
As with other word-classes there are no specific forms that all adjectives
must have. Many cannot be distinguished from verbs or nouns. But there are
certain typical endings (suffixes) that are used to derive adjectives from other
kinds of words, such as -ful (wonderful), -ious or -ous (envious, mountainous),
-ic (tragic), -al (tropical), -ish (selfish), -ible and -able (sensible, considerable),
-ive (primitive), -ent and -ant (different, significant), -y (sleepy), and so on. On
the other hand there are many members of other word-classes that are simply
used as adjectives with no change made to them. For example,
{{ participles: a passing car, falling rain, the broken ladder;

{{ gerunds: singing lessons, diving apparatus, a cleaning woman;

{{ nouns: the car driver, a grass verge, a door handle;

{{ numerals/quantifiers: the two men, his many hobbies.

A further feature, with comparable adjectives, is that of comparison:

Base form Comparative Superlative

big bigger biggest

small smaller smallest
violent more violent most violent
selfish more selfish most selfish
 Basic elements of grammatical structure 21
•• Syntax:
Adjectives typically occupy two positions:
{{ as parts of noun phrases, placed between a determiner, such as an article
(see below), and a noun:
The big cat.
This is known as an attributive position. It is usually premodifying
(before the noun), but in some cases can be postmodifying (after the
noun): a woman alone, the people responsible, nobody special.
{{ after a small number of verbs like be, seem or feel, that denote a
characteristic of the subject:
Simon was lazy.
He feels ill.
That sounds good.
This is known as a predicative position. A further kind of predicative
position is after nouns following verbs of cause:
Father painted the ceiling yellow.
The bad food made Julia ill.
Adjectives also form their own phrases. If they are gradable, e.g. they can
have adverbs like very or slightly before them (very lazy, slightly ill). Adverbs
like this are called adverbs of degree (see below).
Another typical kind of adjective phrase has a preposition and a noun
following:
full of water, pale with fright, keen on films.
And of course also with comparative and superlative constructions:
lazier than Simon, better than me, simplest of all the problems.

1.3.5 Adverbs
•• Semantics:
Adverbs add various kinds of information to phrases and sentences. One
of their most typical jobs is to describe how an action takes place. In this
respect they are like adjectives, i.e. they are ‘describing words’. An important
difference, however, is that they do not refer to nouns, but to verbs. Compare
the following:

(20) a. Babs is a quick thinker. [quick = adjective]

b. Babs thinks quickly. [quickly = adverb]

Thinker is a noun and needs an adjective to describe it. Thinks is a verb and
can only be described by an adverb. Note the difference in form. Making
the adjective into an adverb requires the addition of an -ly-ending (more
on this point under Morphology below). The business of adverbs is broader
than just describing how something happens, however. They can also tell
22 Basic elements of grammatical structure
us when (tomorrow, yesterday), where (here, there), how often (sometimes,
always, once, twice), and to what extent (highly, deeply, much). These core
meanings are generally referred to as manner (how), place (where), time
(when, how often) and degree (to what extent). The question words used to
ask about them (how?, when?, where?, how much?, etc.) are known together
as interrogative adverbs.
In all of these cases the adverb relates to the verb. Technically, we call
this modifying the verb. Adverbs can also modify other parts of a sentence.
As we saw in 1.3.4, adverbs of degree (very, slightly, completely, etc.) modify
gradable adjectives. Adverbs of focus direct our attention to particular
phrases (only, also), emphasise them in some way (particularly) or restrict
point of view (socially, politically, etc.). They may also apply to a whole
sentence: Psychologically, he´s a broken man; I only wanted to say ‘hello’;
Federico repaired the washing-machine too.
Connective adverbs like however, therefore, furthermore, etc., are impor-
tant semantic links between one sentence and another: So what did you do
next?; Anyway, we had a great time; Incidentally, how is Federico?
Comment adverbs (modal adverbs) show the speaker´s attitude to his
or her utterance, or indicate in some other way how it is intended to be
understood: Well, he obviously doesn´t love her; Unfortunately, we lost all
our money.

•• Morphology:
As already mentioned, adverbs can be derived from adjectives by the addi-
tion of the suffix -ly:

rapid rapidly; conscious consciously; powerful powerfully.

Most adverbs are like this. Nevertheless, there is a lot of ‘anarchy’. A large
number of them have no special adverb marking, chiefly because they are
not related to adjectives at all. Among these are many common adverbs,
such as perhaps, now, often, also, soon, etc. Others that do have an adjective
partner have the same form and add no suffix, e.g. fast, hard, deep, far, near,
late, high, low. Some of these also have -ly versions, but they are either not
related in meaning to the adjective, or reflect just a specialised adjectival
meaning: hardly, nearly, lately, deeply, highly. And there are a number of
further exceptions.
Like adjectives, adverbs can be gradable (very quickly, rather dangerously), and
then usually participate in comparison:

Base form Comparative Superlative

hard harder hardest

fast faster fastest
violently more violently most violently
selfishly more selfishly most selfishly
 Basic elements of grammatical structure 23
•• Syntax:
The main syntactic issue with adverbs is their position in the sentence,
which can vary, depending on factors such as emphasis and style, and also
the meaning of the adverb. General principles are the following:
{{ Adverbs modifying individual items (single words or phrases) usually

come immediately before them, e.g. very nice, right after lunch, about a
boy, even you.
{{ Apart from this, the most general position, especially with adverbs of

manner, time and place, is final, i.e. at the end of the sentence or clause,
following any phrases that are part of the verb´s necessary complementation:
She spoke to the horse softly.
I saw Mike yesterday.
General exceptions to this are as follows:
{{ Certain adverb types, especially those of frequency (often, sometimes,

always, etc.) are attracted to a medial position, i.e. between subject and
verb, or after the first auxiliary:
I have never been to Scotland.
McCaverty occasionally drank at Bewlin´s Bar.
This also applies to common adverbs of focus that restrict, add or emphasise:
Jane had only/already/also been working at the hospital for six months.
I especially enjoyed the picnic on the beach.
{{ Most adverbs that give speaker comments, focus on viewpoint or connect

with previous sentences favour initial position, i.e. the beginning of the
sentence:
Basically, the company is no longer profitable. Moreover, it has been like this for
at least the last six months. Frankly, I don´t see that it can survive much longer.

1.3.6 Articles and ‘article words’ (Determiners)

These are words that precede nouns and help to identify them. Apart from the
articles themselves (definite = the, indefinite = a/an or ‘zero’), this category
includes a variety of other words, i.e.:

•• quantifiers:               
There weren´t many
people at the concert.
•• numerals:               Two men came into the room.
•• possessive pronouns:           I like your new jacket.
•• demonstrative pronouns:          
Where did you get this
watch, Mr Breene?
•• the interrogative pronouns which and whose:   
Which/Whose bicycle did
you take this afternoon, Paul?
•• the relative pronoun whose:         
Mary is the woman
whose husband works for
Cruikshank Chemicals.
24 Basic elements of grammatical structure
A modern term in linguistics that is used to cover all these is determiner. But
there is an objection to this: as we will see later in Chapter 4 (4.1.1.1), the expres-
sion determiner really refers to a phrase function and not a word-class. However,
we will nevertheless use the term here (exceptionally) to cover both function and
word-class. It is important to have an expression that brings all these sub-groups
together in one overall word-class, for as we will see immediately, they have a
common basic meaning as ‘identifiers’. It is also necessary to replace the tradi-
tional term ‘pronoun’ in the last four categories above by a more appropriate one.
Although the ‘pronoun’ label has a certain semantic justification, syntactically
these are ‘article words’ and not ‘pronouns’, as was already indicated under 1.3.2
above in the case of possessives and demonstratives. We will refer here, then, to
possessive determiners, demonstrative determiners, interrogative determiners
and, in the case of whose, to the relative determiner.

•• Semantics:
Two forms of identification are involved with determiners: definite and
indefinite. These terms are derived from the traditional names for the two
kinds of article, the and a/an. But as terms they are a little misleading. There
is a tendency to think, e.g. that the ‘woman’ in the phrase a woman is auto-
matically a less specific one than the ‘woman’ referred to by the woman. But
this is not necessarily so. If I tell you, There is a woman outside, I mean a
specific one, not just ‘any woman’. If, on the other hand, I make a statement
like The modern woman is very different from the Victorian woman, I mean
‘any woman’ from each respective period, although I have used the definite
article. So what is the difference?
{{ The indefinite article identifies an entity by category. This is the central
meaning of a/an. For instance, if I say This is a table, I mean ‘an object
belonging to the category “table”’. If I say That´s not a cat; it´s a rabbit,
I mean ‘the category of the animal referred to is not “cat”, but “rabbit”’.
This is the way we identify and refer to an object, animal or person that
we mention for the first time.
However, we cannot use an indefinite article twice for the same entity. That
is, when something or someone has been introduced ‘by category’, subse-
quent reference to the same thing or person has to be definite:

(21) I was waiting for a bus one day in Beresford Square when an old woman
approached me and asked for money. The woman looked shabby and ill.
Then the bus came and unfortunately I had to get on it quickly without
giving her anything.

Bus and old woman are introduced by the indefinite article. But after that,
reference back to them requires the definite article (or some other form of
definite reference like a pronoun). The definite article here is therefore a
kind of anaphor pointing back to an entity already known to the hearer.
It may also point forwards, as a cataphor, to an identifying part following:
 Basic elements of grammatical structure 25
(22) a. The man in the corner is smoking.
b. The couple we met on holiday have written to us.
The identifying information, on the other hand, may be entirely under-
stood through context, and not stated at all:
(23) a. I put the dirty plates in the dishwasher.
(= the plates we have just used for the meal; the dishwasher in our kitchen.)
b. I like the new jacket.
(= which you are now wearing, i.e. that one that you have on.)

We can therefore say generally that

•• the definite article identifies an entity through association with a known
or stated context. This may be the utterance itself (forward or backward
reference), or a social context in which speaker and listener already
share knowledge of the identity of what is being referred to.
Examples of definite or indefinite reference by other determiners are as
follows:
{{ Definite: demonstrative, possessive, interrogative determiners and
the relative determiner; the quantifiers both and every.
{{ Indefinite: no article at all (known as the zero article), numerals,
the quantifiers much, many, all, every, some, any.

•• Morphology:
The articles differ in form only according to pronunciation rules (i.e. phonology):
a before consonants, an before vowels; [δə] before consonants, [δi:] before vowels.
Demonstrative determiners have singular (this/that) and plural (these/those)
forms.
Possessive determiners, as seen above under Pronouns, have the same pro-
noun characteristics (person, number, gender) as the personal pronouns.
•• Syntax:
Determiners are parts of noun phrases. Some, such as the demonstratives,
numerals and most quantifiers, can be used also as independent pronouns
(see under Pronouns above), but then lose their determiner status.
Numerals, quantifiers and the indefinite article are affected by the number
and count status of the nouns they refer to, chiefly in the form of restric-
tions. The following are just a few illustrative examples (more details in
Chapter 4, 4.1):
{{ The indefinite article is restricted to count singular nouns, the zero
article to plurals and non-count singular nouns.
{{ Numerals can only precede count nouns; one is restricted to singular and
all other numerals to plural nouns.
{{ The quantifiers much, little and less can combine only with non-count
singulars, while many and few are restricted to count plurals.
{{ The quantifiers some and any precede non-count singulars and count
plurals, all and both only count plurals, each and every only count singulars.
26 Basic elements of grammatical structure
1.3.7 Prepositions
Prepositions are words like at, in, of, from, to, etc. They precede noun phrases
(e.g. to the cinema) and express a relationship between them and other parts of the
sentence. Or rather, as the ‘other parts’ come first, between those parts (e.g. Stella
went . . .) and the noun phrase following: Stella went to the cinema.

•• Semantics:
In their concrete meanings, most prepositions express a connection of space
or time, e.g. to/at/from the cinema (space), or at 8 pm, on Wednesday, in the
evening (time).
Abstract meanings include the following:
{{ ‘regarding’ or ‘concerning’: a story about a lion, a book on bee-keeping, a
quarrel over a damaged car, etc.
{{ ‘belonging’ and origin: the works of Dickens, a woman from Jamaica, a
problem with a client, his reasons for refusing, a painting by Turner, etc.
{{ abstract location/place: at high speed, in a bad mood, under pressure,
above suspicion, beyond belief, etc.
Abstract meanings like these underlie many collocations with nouns and
adjectives: attitude towards, love for, interest in, hatred of, dependence on, good/
bad at, aware of, angry/happy/disgusted with, keen on, nice to, fond of, etc.
Verbs in particular combine with prepositions to produce special meanings:
wait for, rely on, tire of, decide on, deal with, look for, enquire into. These are
known as prepositional verbs. The preposition in these cases mostly loses its
original meaning and is simply ‘absorbed’ into the meaning of the verb. For
example, decide on means choose, look for is ‘try to find’, and deal with means
to process in a certain way or subject to a certain procedure. Sometimes the
verb takes on a special meaning too: come across (find), look after (guard, take
care of), take to (start to like/do), wonder at (be surprised by), make for (move in
the direction of), etc.
All collocations of this kind, whether involving verbs, nouns or adjectives,
can be called composite lexical items. That is, they form one unit of vocabu-
lary, a semantic phrase that is idiomatic (= not literal in meaning). Often
verbs are involved together with nouns or adjectives, as well as prepositions:
take into consideration, take care of, pay attention to, keep an eye on, set one´s
sights on, lose one´s head over, get rid of.
•• Morphology:
Prepositions undergo no morphological changes at all. Because of this and
the fact that they are short, they are traditionally called particles. However,
they do have a morphological effect on following pronouns, requiring an
object form: for me, towards him/her, above us, from them.
Some prepositions form composite units with other items preceding them (com-
plex prepositions): in spite of, because of, up to, out of, etc. Syntactically, these
all count as ‘one preposition’, just as if they were composed of only one word.
 Basic elements of grammatical structure 27
•• Syntax:
In simple sentences prepositions are always followed by nouns. In most cases
the preposition forms a syntactic unit with the noun phrase that follows it: at
the station, by car, from south-east Asia, with a large black dog. These are known
as prepositional phrases.
An exception to this is the prepositional verb. Here, as the name implies, the
preposition forms a syntactic unit with the verb: look after, wait for, decide on,
deal with. We still need a noun phrase after the preposition, e.g. look after the
children, wait for me, decide on a particular plan, deal with the day´s mail,
etc. But the noun phrase is regarded as separate from the preposition and, as
we will see later, is treated as an object of the prepositional verb (called a
prepositional object).
Finally, many prepositions can also become adverbs. This happens as soon as
the noun phrase is left out, e.g.:

(24) a. We waved to them on the other side of the street and they came across
(= across the street).
b. My young son had started to climb up a dangerous ladder in the garden.
I told him to come down immediately (= come down the ladder).
Across and down in these examples are no longer prepositions but adverb
particles. These also form a syntactic unit with their verbs, which are then
called phrasal verbs. It is important to distinguish carefully between phrasal
verbs, prepositional verbs and prepositional phrases (see Chapter 4, 4.2).

1.3.8 Conjunctions
These are words like because, when, although, since, if, etc., as in the following
examples:

(25) a. Stanley quit his job because it bored him.

b. Although the day was cloudy and grey, it did not rain.
c. The man has not left the house since he arrived home last Friday.
d. When you get to the next set of traffic lights, you will see the station on
the left in front of you.
•• Semantics:
Conjunctions express a connection between two potential sentences. For
instance in (25)a. the two sentences would be: Stanley quit his job. It bored
him. In (25)b. they would be: The day was cloudy and grey. It did not rain.
In each case the conjunctions bring the two sentences together and relate
the clauses in meaning: because gives a reason, and although a contrast or
contradiction. In (25)c. and (25)d. the conjunctions since and when express
time relationships between the two respective sentence parts. Other con-
nections of meaning are:
28 Basic elements of grammatical structure
{{ Condition: If you had been at the party you would have had a good time.
{{ Place: There is a big park now where the old slum used to be.
{{ Purpose: We stood on tiptoe so that we could see the game properly.
{{ Addition: Clara will do the shopping and cook the meal.
{{ Content: I don´t think that we should react too quickly.

•• Morphology:
Like prepositions, conjunctions do not change morphologically and tradi-
tionally also belong to the particles. Conjunctions that consist of more than
one word, like so that in the example above, are called complex conjunc-
tions. Other examples are: as soon as, as if, even if, even though, no matter how.
Certain constructions consist of two separate conjunctions working together
as a pair: You must either change your job or take a long vacation. These are
known as correlative conjunctions.

•• Syntax:
When two base sentences are joined together grammatically by a conjunc-
tion, they become clauses of the same sentence. We can therefore say that
the syntactic task of a conjunction is to link clauses in a sentence gram-
matically (as well as semantically, as we saw above). In this book we will
call the clause with the conjunction before it the conjunction clause, and
the other one the free clause. One of our main topics later will be the
explanation of the various syntactic relations between the free clause and
the conjunction clause. We do not need to talk about these yet, though.

1.4 Phrase, clause and sentence

Finally, we will look briefly at three basic units in sentence analysis and see how
they are related to each other. The term phrase has already been introduced, but
as a reminder we give a summary of the concept immediately below. What a sen-
tence is has been regarded so far as intuitively understood, but at this point we will
consider the meaning of the term more exactly. The third type of unit, the clause,
has hardly been mentioned at all and now needs to be introduced properly. First
of all, a word of general explanation concerning all three concepts. The sentence,
the clause and the phrase are units of syntactic structure. To these, for the sake of
completeness, we must add two more: words and morphemes. These five units of
syntactic structure represent five levels of analysis related to each other in a hier-
archy. From ‘top to bottom’ and from left to right, this can be shown as follows:

sentence → clause → phrase → word → morpheme.

Starting at the top of the hierarchy2 and going downwards level by level, we can
therefore say that sentences consist of clauses, clauses of phrases, phrases of words
and words of morphemes. Or, if we look at it ‘bottom up’, we can say that an
utterance is made up of morphemes (= the smallest unit of syntactic structure),
 Basic elements of grammatical structure 29
which form words, which are grouped into phrases, which in turn combine into
clauses, from which a sentence is immediately composed. The introduction of the
clause-level between the phrase and the sentence may appear to conflict with the
impression possibly given earlier that the phrase is the immediate constituent of
the sentence. With sentences of the kind shown so far this is actually the case, at
least in effect, since here the terms clause and sentence refer to the same unit. The
sentence, in other words, is equal to the clause. With other types of sentence, as
we will see further below, this is not so.

1.4.1 The sentence

The sentence, as we have just seen, is at the top of our syntactic hierarchy: it is
the largest unit of syntactic structure and is independent, i.e. it stands alone
grammatically. In this respect it contrasts with the other four types of unit, none
of which can stand alone. At first sight, however, there appear to be certain
objections to the idea that only sentences are independent. Take, for instance,
the following conversation:

(26) a. ‘Where are you going?’

b. ‘To the shops.’

(26)b. is clearly a complete utterance, typically of an ordinary conversation and

therefore giving an intelligible answer to the question in (26)a. Yet it is not a
sentence but just a prepositional phrase. In real speech complete messages are
often conveyed like this by isolated phrases and even just individual words. This
appears to contradict the principle that only sentences can stand alone. However,
such a phrase does actually represent a sentence communicatively, and can be
expanded into one: I am going to the shops. Utterances like the answer in (26)b.
are sometimes called sentence fragments. They are properly regarded as ellipses,
i.e. context-bound ‘shortened versions’ of full sentences.
A further problem for our definition is that even formally complete sentences
may contain elements that refer to other sentences, and are therefore only fully
interpretable if those other sentences are known. This is the case with both the
following examples:

(27) a. ‘What did Celia do then?’

b. ‘She called the police.’

In (27)a. the adverb then is obviously a back-reference to an event or point of

time previously mentioned. The sentence is therefore not strictly independent:
to understand it fully we need to have knowledge of what was said beforehand.
A counter-argument to this is that back-reference here is a semantic problem,
not a grammatical one; and what we mean in the definition by ‘independence’
is grammatical independence. However, if we look at (27)b. (meant as a reply
to (27)a.), we are still not off the hook: the personal pronoun she points back to
30 Basic elements of grammatical structure
Celia in (27)a. This is a pronoun connection, and is therefore not only semantic
but also grammatical. And the connection here crosses a sentence boundary.
Other very common examples of this phenomenon occur with tense and aspect.
The need for the past tense with did and called in both sentences in (27) would
be dictated by a time reference already established in the immediate context,
i.e. in preceding sentences. So again we have an example of grammatical influ-
ence on the sentence from outside it, and this appears to contradict the claim
of independence. Trying another counter, we could protest that the grammati-
cal elements just mentioned are morphological rather than syntactic. This is
largely true. Nevertheless, they have a syntactic influence in that they impose
constraints on the forms of other words co-occurring with them, even across
sentence boundaries.
The solution to these objections actually lies in a more narrow interpretation
of the term syntactic in the definition. If we see syntactic in the more restric-
tive sense of functional, then the sentence is actually an independent unit, not
influenced by anything outside itself. And it is this in both an internal and an
external respect. Firstly, a sentence is self-contained in that it does not play a
functional role (subject, object, etc.) in relation to any larger unit. Secondly,
its internal functional characteristics are determined entirely internally. This
will become clear from our introductory discussion of sentence functions and
functional patterns in Chapter 2.

1.4.2 The clause

Consider the following:

(28) a. Jane made the tea.

b. Benny cooked breakfast.
c. Jane made tea and Benny cooked the breakfast.

Here we have three sentences. The last one, (28)c., has been formed by combin-
ing (28)a. and (28)b., using the word and to join them. In (28)c. the formerly
separate sentences in a. and b. have now become clauses of the same sentence.
We could of course take (28)c. as our starting-point and reverse the process.
In this case we would divide sentence (28)c. up by making each clause into a
separate sentence. Sentences become clauses when they are joined to form larger
sentences (they cannot then still be called ‘sentences’, because if they were, this
would violate our definition of a sentence as being the ‘largest unit of syntactic
structure’).
The clauses of a sentence need not be identical in structure with separate
sentences. Let us assume now that tea-maker Jane is ill and Benny does both jobs:

(29) a. Benny made the tea and cooked breakfast.

b. Benny made the tea.
c. Benny cooked breakfast.
 Basic elements of grammatical structure 31
Notice now that when Benny is the subject of both clauses, he is only mentioned
once. In other words, if the subject is the same in each clause, it is ellipted in
the second one. If we make the clauses into separate sentences, as in b. and c., of
course the ellipted subject in a. must be reintroduced in c. (otherwise we would
not have a complete sentence). What we are saying here, then, is that when
sentences become clauses, they often have to be integrated into the syntax of the
larger sentence. As we will see later, this adaptation can be quite drastic, making
some clause types look very different from how they would have to look if they
were independent sentences. Nevertheless, every clause can be called a sentence-
like unit, and this is so for a simple reason: every clause has its own separate verb
phrase (functioning, as we will see in Chapter 2, as predicator).
We have used the term sentence to illustrate what a clause is. But actually we
can define the clause quite independently of the sentence:

•• A clause is a unit of phrases held together by one of them in the role of

predicator.
•• The predicator must always be a verb phrase.

This will allow us to reverse the logic above and define sentence in terms of clause:

•• A clause or group of connected clauses that can stand alone syntactically is

known as a sentence.
•• A sentence consisting of just one clause is known as a simple sentence.
•• A sentence consisting of more than one clause is known as a multiple sentence.

In Chapter 4 we will go into detail on multiple sentences, distinguishing two

kinds: compound sentences and complex sentences. But for the moment we will
let this aspect of the matter rest there.

1.4.3 The phrase

The phrase is the most basic unit in sentence analysis. The major phrases of a
sentence or clause are its immediate constituents, i.e. those phrases not contained
inside any other phrases. These major phrases are the first elements that must be
identified before we can establish sentence functions, as we will see in Chapter 2.
In a simple sentence, all sentence functions are filled by phrases. Phrases, to return
to basic definitions, are structural word units based on word-classes. This is illus-
trated again, by way of summary, in (30). (30)b. is the phrase analysis of (30)a.:

(30) a. My daughter reads crime novels.

b. noun phrase (my daughter) + verb phrase (reads) + noun phrase (crime
novels).

As already mentioned above (1.2), a phrase may consist of just one word, or of
more than one. If there are more than one, the unit will depend for its grammatical
32 Basic elements of grammatical structure
existence on one major member representing the particular word-class. This is
known as the head of the phrase. The head of a noun phrase must be a noun, that
of a verb phrase a main verb, that of an adjective phrase an adjective, and so on.
In (30) the heads of the two noun phrases are daughter and novels, respectively. As
the verb phrase consists of just one member (reads), this, obviously, is the head.
The second noun phrase actually consists of two nouns, crime and novels, but
only novels is the head, as this is the element we cannot leave out, i.e. the mem-
ber on which the unit crime novels depends. Grammatically speaking, phrases
are of flexible length and can be expanded or reduced, but the head always has
to be present. Conversely, it is the head around which expansion takes place,
i.e. around which the further elements of the phrase are grouped. Taking the
example in (29)c., we could expand the phrases in it as follows:

(31) (My brother Benny) (had cooked) (our breakfast).

Notice also that if a phrase is shifted in the sentence, e.g. due to the passive
operation, it must move as a whole:

(32) (Our breakfast) (had been cooked) (by (my brother Benny)).

We cannot split phrases up and place their parts in other sentence positions. (33)
is ungrammatical and, for that reason of course, nonsense:

(33) *Our had been breakfast my Benny cooked by brother.

In Chapter 4 we discuss the structure of phrases in more detail.

Exercises

Exercise 1
Bracket the phrases in the following that are constituents at sentence-level
(see 1.2).

1 Old Bob walks five miles a day.

2 The three small children crossed the busy road very quickly.
3 Mrs Simpson´s daughter has gone into town by bus.
4 Large vehicles should be parked behind the house on the grass.
5 We are meeting at 6 o´clock inside the main entrance to the concert
hall.
6 All kinds of wild animals gather on the edge of the lake in the early morning.
7 Kalinda always did her maths homework on the table in the dining room.
8 Many visitors like the Impressionist paintings in Gallery B most.
 Basic elements of grammatical structure 33
Exercise 2
Give the word-class of each of the underlined words in the following. In the
case of pronouns, verbs and determiners name also the particular sub-type,
e.g. determiner: definite article, possessive determiner, modal auxiliary verb,
reflexive pronoun, etc.

1 We walked to the beach this morning.

2 Charis waited for Brendan outside a hairdresser´s in McBride Street.
3 They should arrive at the theatre early.
4 A band of four young women were playing loud rock and blues on a small
stage.
5 Julie has played very well in her last three basketball games.
6 After she got home, Sounis asked her mother which dress she should wear to
the party.
7 I didn´t know that you were not well.
8 Farouk didn´t have much luck in the race, but at least he enjoyed himself.
9 Kim Chok went to the concert with Gary yesterday, although she had sworn
she would never see him again.
10 The children had not visited their grandparents since the previous
Christmas.

Exercise 3
Show how semantics, morphology and syntax all contribute to the meaning of
these sentences:

1 My father reads a newspaper only on Sundays.

2 Colin´s wife gave him an expensive painting for their wedding anniversary.
3 Have you made your bed and tidied up your room, Eric?
4 Samira is from Kenya, but her parents are Indian.

And how is each of these language fields responsible for the differences in mean-
ing between the a. and b. sentences in the following?:

5 a. She offered me a seat, but I didn´t want it.

b. She offered me a drink, but I didn´t want one.
6 a. I wasn´t going to drink wine or beer.
b. I wasn´t going to drink wine and beer.

Notes
1 An asterisk (*) signifies an incorrect item of language.
2 Structures above the level of the sentence are referred to as text and discourse.
2 The simple sentence and its
grammatical functions

2.0 Structure and function

Let us go back first of all to structure. As we saw in the last chapter, an impor-
tant basic item of grammatical structure is the phrase. The phrase, just to
refresh our memories, is a grammatical unit based on a word-class. For example,
in the sentence

(1) My daughter reads crime novels.

we have three phrases: my daughter and crime novels are both noun phrases and
reads is a verb phrase. The structure of the sentence, that is, is as follows:

(2) noun phrase (my daughter) + verb phrase (reads) + noun phrase (crime novels).

However, this does not tell us much about how the phrases are related to each
other in terms of meaning and grammar. One noun phrase comes before the verb
and the second follows it. But what does that say about their relationship to each
other and to the verb? This is where the idea of grammatical function comes in.
The first noun phrase, my daughter, functions as the subject of the sentence and
the second, crime novels, as the object (more specifically, as the direct object). The
verb phrase functions as the predicator: that is to say, it joins the two noun phrases
to form the sentence, and determines their parts in the meaning of the message:

subject     predicator   direct object
(3) My daughter   reads      crime novels.

For a basic description of the sentence, then, we need both levels of analysis,
i.e. structure and function. And for our sentence in (1), this can be expressed
as follows:

(4) The first noun phrase (my daughter) functions as subject;

the verb phrase (reads) functions as predicator;
the second noun phrase (crime novels) functions as direct object.
 The simple sentence: grammatical functions 35
As concepts, it is important to keep structure and function distinct from each
other. But we use both when describing the basic syntax of the sentence. In a
sense, they are ‘partners’ in the description. As we will see a little later, however,
function is the ‘senior partner’. It is the functions in a sentence that reflect its
general shape and pattern.
In summary, then, we can say that the term function means the role that a
phrase has in a particular sentence. This role:

•• represents the relationship of that phrase to other phrases in the sentence;

•• represents the relationship of that phrase to the sentence as a whole;
•• is therefore a sentence-dependent concept (as opposed to structure, which is
not);
•• has both a grammatical and a semantic character.

There are seven different sentence functions, which we will now look at in detail
(2.1.1–2.1.7). Our object of analysis in this chapter is confined to the simple sen-
tence (i.e. containing only one predicator) in its declarative form (i.e. expressing
a statement), with its verb in the affirmative (i.e. not negative) and in the active
voice (i.e. not passive).

2.1 Sentence functions explained

Sentence functions are syntactic categories. However, as with word-classes (see
Chapter 1), we can define them according to both grammar and meaning.

2.1.1 Predicator (P)

•• Syntax/morphology:
The predicator:
{{ is always a verb phrase;

{{ follows the subject;

{{ contains a verb (always the first, if there is more than one) which

signals the subject grammatically in terms of person and number (called

agreement or concord, see also Chapter 1). In a simple sentence, in
other words, the verb phrase must be finite:

  P
(5) The children   have been eating  strawberries.
Mike     is          a student.
Maxine      did not like    Robert.

Every sentence needs a predicator. A string of phrases with no predicator is

not a grammatical sentence. It is the predicator which ‘makes’ phrases into
sentences by joining them in a certain grammatical way: e.g. by placing one
36 The simple sentence: grammatical functions
phrase in the role of subject and another in the role of object. Such functions
are only possible if they are related to a predicator.

•• Semantics:
Also in terms of meaning it is the predicator which pulls the other members
of the sentence into a coherent message. Without a predicator there would
be no message. The predicator is the core of the statement.

2.1.2 Subject (S)

•• Syntax/morphology:
The subject
{{ is always a noun phrase,

{{ precedes the predicator,

{{ must be present in every simple sentence,

{{ imposes concord (morphological agreement, see Chapter 2, 2.1.1) on the

verb in the predicator role:

 S
(6) The children  have been eating  strawberries.
Mike     is        a student.
Maxine    did not like    Robert.

Furthermore the subject role requires a particular morphological form for

personal pronouns. This is often called the subject case (or, more tradition-
ally, the nominative case). If we make pronouns out of the subjects in (6),
this gives us:

  S
(7) They   have been eating   strawberries.
He    is         a student.
She   did not like     Robert.

These pronouns change forms in other functions, i.e. take on a different case
(see also below).

•• Semantics:
When the verb refers to an action, the subject is always the person or thing
performing the action, in other words the ‘actor’ or ‘doer’ (the agent, to use a
technical term, cf. SAGE, pp. 20, 422, 423ff.). If the verb refers to a state or
feeling, the subject is usually the person or thing that experiences it. In (6),
e.g., the children perform an action (eat), whereas Mike and Maxine experi-
ence particular states: a state of being, in the case of Mike, and an emotion
in the case of Maxine. (Note, again, that in this chapter we are referring only
to active sentences.)
 The simple sentence: grammatical functions 37
2.1.3 Direct object (Od)
•• Syntax/morphology:
The direct object
{{ is always a noun phrase;

{{ follows the predicator;

{{ but only when the predicator function is filled by certain kinds of verbs.

   Od
(8) The children   have been eating   strawberries.
Maxine    did not like    Robert.

Verbs followed by a direct object are called transitive. As can be seen in

(8), only two of our examples have transitive verbs: eat and like. The noun
phrase after is in the other example sentence (a student) is not a direct object.
Reasons for this are given immediately below.
The object function also means a change in morphology for pronouns, which
then have to be in the object case. So if strawberries and Robert are made
into pronouns, we get them and him (rather than they and he, which are the
subject case versions, as shown in (7)):

  Od
(9) The children   have been eating   them.
Maxine    did not like    him.

•• Semantics:
The direct object is always the person or thing that ‘suffers’ from, or is the
target of, an action or feeling (known technically as the patient, cf. SAGE,
loc. cit.). This already shows us why a student in Mike is a student cannot be
a direct object. On the level of meaning, the verb be does not create a target
relation between the two noun phrases. It gives no sense of the first one
‘aiming’ any kind of affecting experience at the second. Verbs that do not
have direct objects following them, like be, are called intransitive.

2.1.4 Indirect object (Oi)

•• Syntax/morphology:
The indirect object
{{ is always a noun phrase;

{{ follows the predicator;

{{ can only occur together with a direct object;

{{ must immediately precede the direct object;

{{ only occurs, again, when particular verbs fill the predicator function.
38 The simple sentence: grammatical functions
   Oi    Od
(10) The children  gave   their mother  some strawberries.
Maxine    sent   Robert      a letter.
Joe      bought  his sons      new cars.

Verbs followed by an indirect object + direct object are also transitive, of

course: in fact they are ‘doubly transitive’, as they have two objects. For this
reason we call them ditransitive, as opposed to the first type with just a direct
object (as shown in 2.1.3), which is often referred to as monotransitive, to
distinguish it from this second type.
Personal pronouns as indirect objects also need the object case, of course:

       Oi           Od
(11) The children  gave   her   some strawberries.
Maxine    sent   him    a letter.
Joe      bought  them  new cars.

We can nearly always express an indirect object alternatively by using a

prepositional phrase, usually with the prepositions to or for:

      Od   A
(12) The children  gave   some strawberries  to their mother.
Maxine    sent    a letter       to Robert.
Joe      bought  new cars      for his sons.

Here there are two things to note. Firstly, there is no indirect object in this
case. That is, the verb is now monotransitive and the noun phrase that was
the indirect object in (10) now becomes part of a prepositional phrase, which
functions as an adverbial (A): more explanation of the adverbial function
follows below. Secondly, the prepositional phrase follows the direct object,
in contrast to the ditransitive version, where the indirect object precedes the
direct object. A final point and a word of warning on correct usage: not all
prepositional phrases like those in (12) can be expressed as indirect objects.
One must know which verbs can be ditransitive and which cannot. Several
verbs with similar meanings to those of ditransitive verbs can in fact only
be monotransitive, e.g. tell is ditransitive, but say and explain are both only
monotransitive; show is ditransitive, but demonstrate is only monotransitive.
So although all indirect objects can be paraphrased by the prepositional
phrase version, the reverse is not true. It just depends on the individual verb.
The point is mentioned again immediately below, under Semantics.

•• Semantics:
The indirect object is the receiver (or recipient) of the direct object. This
is clear from (10): the mother gets the strawberries, Robert receives a letter
and Joe´s sons get new cars. The prepositional phrase variants underline this
receiver meaning especially clearly.
 The simple sentence: grammatical functions 39
However, we must emphasise the last point mentioned under Syntax/
morphology. Not all prepositional phrases with receiver meanings can be
converted into noun phrases as indirect objects. It depends on the particular
verb. As already mentioned, the verb show, for example, can be ditransitive,
but not the verb explain. So in (13)a. both variants are permissible, but not
in (13)b.

(13) a. Fred showed the maths problem to Claire.

Fred showed Claire the maths problem.
b. Fred explained the maths problem to Claire.
*Fred explained Claire the maths problem.

2.1.5 Subject complement (Cs)

•• Syntax/morphology:
The subject complement
{{ can be a noun phrase or an adjective phrase;

{{ follows an intransitive verb in the predicator function;

{{ occurs only after the verbs be, seem, become, feel, and any of similar

meaning, such as appear, get (= become), sound, look (= appear), etc.

S   Cs
(14) Mike   is    a student.
Mother  seems  worried.
Joe    got   angry.

The subject complement occupies the same position in the sentence as a

direct object. This sometimes leads to confusion. As we said earlier, there
are semantic reasons why the noun phrase in the first example cannot
be a direct object. But we can now add a syntactic factor. The subject
complement slot can also be filled by an adjective (such as worried or
angry, above). The object function, however, cannot. Only noun phrases
can be direct objects. Subject complements occur when intransitive verbs
need something following them to complete the sentence (i.e. obligatory
complementation). Many intransitive verbs, it is true, need nothing at
all, as in (15):

(15) Dogs bark.

Patrick was working.
I have been running.

But with intransitive verbs like those in (14) this is not so. Sentences con-
sisting just of *Mike is or *Joe got are ungrammatical. And they do not of
course make sense. The sense has to be completed by an adjective or noun,
as shown immediately below, under Semantics.
40 The simple sentence: grammatical functions
•• Semantics:
The subject complement describes a characteristic of the subject. If left out,
of course, the most important part of the message would be missing.

2.1.6 Object complement (Co)

•• Syntax/morphology:
The object complement
{{ can be a noun phrase or an adjective phrase;

{{ occurs after certain kinds of transitive verb in the predicator function;

{{ follows the direct object.

         Od       Co
(16) Bad food   made    the guests  sick.
The pupils   elected     Robin   class-monitor.
Jenny    considers  Alan     stupid.

Object complements, like subject complements, are compulsory after certain

verbs. Leaving them out would result in ungrammatical sentences and an
incomplete message. They have a similar relation to the object as a subject
complement has to the subject, especially in a semantic sense. Transitive
verbs that have object complements are called complex transitive, to distin-
guish them further from the other two transitive types.

•• Semantics:
Just as a subject complement refers to a characteristic of the subject, so
the object complement describes a characteristic of the direct object. The
relation to the verb, however, is slightly different in the case of the object
complement. Generally speaking, the verb confers (or imposes) the charac-
teristic on the direct object. This might be a concrete case of cause and effect,
as in the first two sentences in (16); or a more abstract sense of imposition
by thought or feeling, as in the last example. Complex-transitive verbs are
a relatively small group. Among them are verbs of judgement and thought,
like think, find, consider, imagine, prove, judge, confirm, rank, etc.; and verbs
expressing declarations, such as call, name, declare and pronounce:

  Od Co
(17) The parents called the baby Wanda.
The chairman declared the meeting open.
A doctor pronounced the patient dead.

2.1.7 Adverbial (A)

•• Syntax/morphology:
An adverbial
 The simple sentence: grammatical functions 41
{{ can be a noun phrase, prepositional phrase or an adverb phrase (occa-
sionally also even adjective phrases);
{{ can be obligatory after certain verbs, but is usually an optional addition
to the sentence;
{{ usually follows the objects and other complements of the predicator
(though there are two other frequent positions discussed below).

  A
(18) They completed the job   last week.
People were waiting    at the bus stop.
Morton crossed the road   quickly.

The adverbial function is an extension of the adverb itself as a word-class.

The position in the sentence is therefore the same. The final position, as in
(18), is probably the most common. Other positions are medial and initial
(see also discussion of adverbs in 1.3.5). The medial position, i.e. between
subject and predicator, or inside the predicator (if there are auxiliaries), is
preferred with single adverbs that express frequency, focus and emphasis (for
more comment on adverbial meaning, see under Semantics below):

  A
(19) I often eat fish.
 A
We should always be optimistic.
     A
Stella had only washed three of the shirts.

The initial position (at the beginning of the sentence) is common with
adverbials that comment on the sentence, or connect it to a preceding
statement. It is also used with other types to emphasise them:

A
(20) In the town square a large crowd had gathered.
Frankly, I don´t think that the plan will succeed.
In that case, we ought to call the police.

Note that although the terms adverb and adverbial are connected, they
must be carefully distinguished as concepts. An adverb is a word-class.
An adverbial is a sentence function, like subject and predicator. So, for
instance, we say that the word frankly in the second sentence is an adverb
filling the function of an adverbial in that sentence. Adverbs, as we will
see later, do not always function as adverbials. And adverbials are certainly
not always adverbs, as our examples show. In (18), e.g., last week is a noun
phrase and at the bus stop a prepositional phrase. In (20) in the town square
42 The simple sentence: grammatical functions
and in that case are also prepositional phrases. Sentence functions and word-
classes are not the same thing, even though they occur together when we
are talking about sentences.
Another point concerns the question of when adverbials are optional
and when they are obligatory. Syntactically speaking, most adverbials are
optional, i.e. they are not required grammatically. Some, however, are
needed to complete the sense and grammar of the sentence, particularly with
verbs that express movement from one place to another:

  A
(21) This train goes       to London Bridge.
My grandfather came   from Scotland.
Mrs Bleckford put the letter   on the table.

Another major case of compulsory adverbials arises when ditransitive verbs

are converted into monotransitive verbs:

Oi Od       Od A
(22) We gave our son some money We gave some money to our son.

In contrast to other functions, there can be more than one adverbial in a

sentence:

        A            A        A
(23) This train only goes      to London Bridge  on Sundays.
Maureen   just put the letter   on the table    slowly.

In the case of final position, the compulsory adverbial comes first, and any
others follow. Other factors affecting the order of adverbials are mentioned
briefly in the Semantics section immediately below.

•• Semantics:
It is customary to classify adverbials according to the same meanings as those
of adverbs. Typical concrete meanings are time, place and manner, answering
the questions When?, Where? and How? (see also SAGE, p. 23). This is the
order of the adverbials in the three example sentences in (18). Other common
categories include adverbials of frequency such as always and often, adverbials
of circumstance (in that case), focus adverbials like only, especially and particu-
larly, and adverbials of comment and connection, such as anyway, however, and
so. Further meanings will be mentioned later in the course of the book.
As we have seen at certain points in this and the last chapter, the mean-
ings of adverbs and adverbials has some influence on their position in the
sentence. Two or more adverbials in final position are usually found in the
order manner, place, time:

   A  A   A
(24) He washed his hands quickly in the kitchen sink before the meal.
 The simple sentence: grammatical functions 43
There are no strict grammatical rules on this, though, and the order may
vary according to style and speaker emphasis. A full guide to usage is given
in SAGE, pp. 196–208.

2.2 Verb complementation

The structural elements and functions of a sentence following the verb are known
as the verb complementation. As we saw in 2.1, the individual verbs filling the
predicator function present a variety of complementation requirements and pos-
sibilities which have a large influence on determining the shape of a sentence.
Here we want to give a short overview of them.

2.2.1 Transitivity
Transitive verbs are subdivided into the following types:

•• Monotransitive verbs take a direct object (Od):

Od
(25) Fred was eating a hamburger.

•• Ditransitive verbs take an indirect object (Oi) + a direct object (Od):

         Oi    Od
(26) Dick bought his girlfriend a present.

•• Complex transitive verbs take a direct object (Od) + an object complement

(Co):

         Od   Co
(27) We found the wine too sweet.

An important point to note is that when we apply a particular transitivity fea-

ture to a verb (monotransitive, ditransitive, intransitive, etc.), we are talking
about the use of the verb concerned in a given sentence. There may, in addi-
tion, be other complementation possibilities. This is information that we will
find in a dictionary. A dictionary would tell us, for instance, that eat is not only
transitive, as in (25), but can also be used intransitively, as in (28) below; or
that with buy, apart from the monotransitive version of the ditransitive mean-
ing, i.e. with compulsory adverbial (Dick bought a present for his girlfriend), there
is also a ‘straight’ monotransitive possibility without the adverbial, i.e. Dick
bought a present. (With give, for instance, this is not the case). On the other
hand, find, in the meaning of (27), has no alternative complementation types,
and can only be used in a complex transitive way. From the practical point
of view, knowing how to use a verb means, among other factors, knowing its
complementation potential.
44 The simple sentence: grammatical functions
Intransitive verbs are those without objects. Some have other types of
complementation, while others do not:

•• without complementation:

(28) Fred was eating.

•• with complementation:

   Cs
(29) Karen  is  Dick´s wife.
Jill   felt   happy.
                        A
The children had been in the garden.

Again, we can see here that the same verb may have various possibilities of com-
plementation. Eat, as already said, can be transitive or intransitive. (29) shows
that be can take a subject complement or an adverbial. This is not the case with
feel, which occurs only in the form seen here, i.e. solely with a subject comple-
ment. Furthermore, be and feel are examples of intransitive verbs which, unlike
eat in (28), always need complementation.

2.3 Functions in the sentence

Having focused on the various functional parts of the sentence, we now want to
consider the sentence as a whole. How are typical sentence patterns expressed
in terms of function and how should we approach the task of analysing a given
sentence? Let us look at the general patterns of sentence architecture first.

2.3.1 Basic sentence patterns

The foundation plan of a sentence depends very much on the complementation
of the verb in it. And as we have seen, complementations vary. In accordance
with these, there are seven basic functional sentence patterns:

     S    P
(30) a. The letter has arrived.         [S + P]
     S  P Cs
b. Janine became a teacher.        [S + P + Cs]
     S   P  A
c. This train goes to Leicester.       [S + P + A]
      S     P    Od
d. The painters are decorating the kitchen. [S + P + Od]
     S   P Oi  Od
e. Our son sent us a postcard.      [S + P + Oi + Od]
 The simple sentence: grammatical functions 45
      S  P   Od     A
f. Craig put his hands in his pocket.   [S + P + Od + A]
      S    P   Od  Co
g. His success has made us very happy.   [S + P + Od + Co]

These patterns represent the minimum type that is permissible with each verb.
But one should bear in mind what was said in the previous section. A verb may
have several complementation possibilities. For example, the minimum pattern
with sing is the absolute minimum shown in (30)a. But further optional pat-
terns are those in (30)c., d., e. and f., as illustrated in (31)a.–e.:

    S  P
[S + P]
(31) a. Rita is singing.               
    S  P   A
b. Rita sings in the shower.           [S + P + A]
    S  P    Od
c. Rita sings Elizabethan love songs.        [S + P + Od]
    S  P   Oi      Od
d. Rita sang her children Elizabethan love songs.   [S + P + Oi + Od]
    S P       Od        A
e. Rita sang Elizabethan love songs every evening. [S + P + Od + A]

And of course we could add an adverbial to (31)d. as well (Rita sang her children
Elizabethan love songs every evening).

2.3.2 First steps in analysing the simple sentence functionally

Finally we will look at procedures of analysis. How do we approach the task of
functional sentence analysis in its application to whole sentences? And what part
does structural description play? We will use the following examples to answer
these questions:

(32) a. They sent some money to the woman in Brighton.

b. The hot soup was getting cold in the draught from the open window.
c. A light plane suddenly appeared between the mountains.
d. Bad service in restaurants nearly always made Brian very angry.
e. After the hectic years in London we bought ourselves a small cottage in
the country.

It is the answer to the second question that concerns us first. We need first of all
to identify the major phrases in a sentence, those, that is, that are constituents at
sentence level. In (33) we have used brackets to do this. Each phrase is numbered
for reference and described briefly in the comments further below:
46 The simple sentence: grammatical functions
(33) a. 1 (They) 2(sent) 3(some money) 4(to the woman in Brighton).
b. 1 (The hot soup) 2(was getting) 3(cold) 4(in the draught from the open
window).
c. 1 (A light plane) 2(suddenly) 3(appeared) 4(between the mountains).
d. 1(Bad service in restaurants) 2(nearly always) 3(made) 4(Brian) 5(very
angry).
e. 1
(After the hectic years in London) 2(we) 3(bought) 4(ourselves) 5(a
small cottage in the country).

Note again that it is not our task yet to identify all the phrases in each sentence,
but just those that are the major constituents. It is only these that are relevant
for the sentence functions. Type of phrase, position and meaning are the further
points of orientation. For (33)a. this gives us:

(34) 1
(They) = noun phrase functioning as subject (S)
2
(sent) = verb phrase functioning as predicator (P)
3
(some money) = noun phrase functioning as direct object (Od)
4
(to the woman in Brighton) = prepositional phrase functioning as
adverbial (A).

Graphically we can then represent the functions in the usual way:

 S   P   Od        A
(35) They sent some money to the woman in Brighton.

A detailed breakdown of phrases is not necessary for a functional analysis of the

sentence, and that is our first concern here. Note, however, that this does involve
identifying sentence-constituent boundaries accurately. Phrase4, for instance,
actually consists of two prepositional phrases: to the woman and in Brighton. It
is important to see here that the second, in Brighton, is not a separate sentence
constituent, but is contained within the scope of the first. More exactly, it is a
constituent of the noun phrase the woman in Brighton, which in turn is a constitu-
ent of the larger prepositional phrase to the woman in Brighton. That in Brighton is
not a sentence constituent is seen first of all in the semantic relations: it identi-
fies and describes the noun woman more closely. Secondly, and because of this,
it cannot be detached syntactically from the noun. If, e.g., we make the noun
phrase the woman . . . into an indirect object, the prepositional phrase in Brighton
has to move with it:

   S    P     Oi         Od
(36) They sent the woman in Brighton some money.

We have to pay attention generally in this respect to prepositional phrases

and ask ourselves where they belong, i.e. whether they are parts of other
 The simple sentence: grammatical functions 47
phrases or independent constituents of the sentence and therefore func-
tional parts of it. We have further examples here in (33)b.4 , (33)d.1, (33) e.1,
(33) e.1 and (33) e.5, all of which involve prepositional phrases contained
within major constituents.
(33)b.–e. are analysed further in (37)–(40):

(37) 1
(The hot soup) = noun phrase functioning as subject (S)
2
(was getting) = verb phrase functioning as predicator (P)
3
(cold) = adjective phrase functioning as subject complement (Cs)
4
(in the draught from the open window) = prepositional phrase functioning as
adverbial (A).

Functional overview:

    S           P    Cs         A
The hot soup was getting cold in the draught from the window.

(38) 1
(A light plane) = noun phrase functioning as subject (S)
2
(suddenly) = adverb phrase functioning as adverbial (A)
3
(appeared) = verb phrase functioning as predicator (P)
4
(between the mountains) = prepositional phrase functioning as adverbial (A).

Functional overview:

  S     A    P      A
A light plane suddenly appeared between the mountains.

(39) 1
(Bad service in restaurants) = noun phrase functioning as subject (S)
2
(nearly always) = adverb phrase functioning as adverbial (A)
3
(made) = verb phrase functioning as predicator (P)
4
(Brian) = noun phrase functioning as direct object (Od)
5
(very angry) = adjective phrase functioning as object complement (Co)

Functional overview:

     S        A    P   Od  Co
Bad service in restaurants nearly always made Brian very angry.

(40) 1
(After the hectic years in London) = prepositional phrase functioning as
adverbial (A)
2
(we) = noun phrase functioning as subject (S)
3
(bought) = verb phrase functioning as predicator (P)
4
(ourselves) = noun phrase functioning as indirect object (Oi)
5
(a small cottage in the country) = noun phrase functioning as direct object (Od)
48 The simple sentence: grammatical functions
Functional overview:

      A       S  P  Oi        Od
After the hectic years in London we bought ourselves a small cottage in the country.

Exercises

Exercise 1
Decide whether the underlined parts in the following sentences are the direct
object (Od), the indirect object (Oi), the subject complement (Cs), or the object
complement (Co).

1 My brother has told me that story already.

2 The weather is getting colder.
3 The committee has made Marley their honorary president.
4 Dahlia got her brother a job at the same company.
5 Ossie became a music teacher in West London.
6 Let me ask you a question.
7 The sun had turned Carrie´s brown hair almost blond.
8 Our mad games with the dog had got him very excited.

Exercise 2
Underline the adverbials (A) in the following and identify the kinds of phrases
involved.

1 I am going there for the first time next week.

2 You will probably find Maria´s husband in the garage.
3 They often go to the Scilly Isles for their holidays.
4 I´ve been to that restaurant three times with Joe already.
5 The car then drove across the bridge very fast.

Exercise 3
Show all the sentence functions in the following, using the appropriate letter
symbols (S, P, Od, Oi, Cs, Co, A):

1 Grandmother sent the children some fine toys for Christmas.

2 These days, I am often in Tel Aviv on business.
3 Chocolate always makes my daughter happy.
4 You seemed a bit tired this afternoon at the meeting.
5 We will find Uncle George a quiet seat by the river.
6 During the Channel crossing Roy´s face slowly went green.
7 Unfortunately, Dave´s secretary had sent the letter to the wrong firm.
 The simple sentence: grammatical functions 49
8 Some students find our exercises rather difficult.
9 I gave the suspicious-looking package to the police at the airport.
10 The directors might consider Bailey unsuitable for the job.
11 I am going to make everyone a cup of tea.
12 The potatoes had turned mouldy in the damp air of the cellar.
13 The damp air in the cellar had turned the potatoes mouldy.
14 Without doubt they will show us their whole collection of holiday photo-
graphs.
15 Esther did not explain the plan to us clearly enough.
3 Structural variations of the simple
sentence and functional consequences

3.0 Basic sentence operations

In the chapters so far we have been talking only about sentences produced as
statements (declarative sentences), with verbs that are affirmative and in the
active voice. How is the syntax, and in particular the functional basis of it,
affected by a change in one of these basic features, or ‘settings’? Changing one of
these settings is what we call here a ‘basic sentence operation’. The declarative,
affirmative and active sentence is the starting point. From here, in the course of
this chapter, we go through the series of operations necessary for the formation
of questions, the passive, negation and the imperative. Our first port of call is
question formation.

3.1. Questions (the interrogative)

The fundamental operation here is subject–predicator inversion. The subject
and predicator, that is, are turned around (i.e. inverted), so that the question
begins with the predicator:

     S   P  Cs         P   S     Cs
(1) Mr Creasey is a maths teacher. Is Mr Creasey a maths teacher?

This type of question is what we call a yes-no-question. Its purpose is to ask

whether the equivalent declarative sentence, i.e. the statement, is true. And the
required answer, logically, is either confirmation (yes) or denial (no). A second
and communicatively quite different type of question is the wh-question. This
focuses on an information gap filled by a particular constituent of the equivalent
declarative sentence:

   S   P    Cs        Cs P S
(2) Mr Creasey is our maths teacher. Who is Mr Creasey?

In this case the wh-word (the interrogative pronoun) refers to information

provided by the noun phrase our maths teacher. As this functions as Cs in the
 The simple sentence: structural variations 51
declarative sentence, so also does the wh-word in the question. Notice here
that the declarative sentence from which the question is formed is actually
the answer to the question. Basically, though less obviously, this is so also with
yes-no-questions. The answer yes, for instance, affirms the truth of the declara-
tive sentence underlying a particular question and is often emphasised by the
addition of the equivalent declarative sentence to the answer:

(3) a. ‘Is Mr Creasey a maths teacher?’ ‘Yes, Mr Creasey is a maths teacher.’

b. ‘Who is Mr Creasey?’ ‘Mr Creasey is our maths teacher.’

So we see that, from the communicative point of view, statements might be

regarded as back formations from questions, and could be held on some abstract
level to presuppose them.

3.1.1 Yes-no-questions
Simple inversion, as seen in (1) is only part of the story. This sentence, in fact, is
an absolute exception. The reason for this is that as a general rule only auxiliary
verbs are allowed to participate in subject–predicator inversion:

    S   P    Od       P S  P     Od
(4) Denise is reading the newspaper. Is Denise reading the newspaper?

In other words, we cannot say *Is reading Denise the newspaper? The main verb
reading has to stay in third position (its declarative position, in fact); only the
auxiliary is participates in the inversion with the subject. So we have a split
predicator, and we mark both parts of it as P.
If the declarative sentence does not contain an auxiliary, we have to intro-
duce an artificial one in the form of do, before inversion can take place (known
as do-support):

     S   P  Od       P    S   P Od
(5) Mr Creasey teaches maths. Does Mr Creasey teach maths?

Questions are subject, then, to what we will call the auxiliary-inversion rule.
However, as example (3) shows us, this rule does not apply, exceptionally, to the
verb be. This is allowed to behave like an auxiliary, even when it is not one, as here.
The questions discussed so far are what we call yes-no-questions (meaning that
they can be answered with yes or no). A second major category is that of the wh-
questions, discussed in the next section.

3.1.2 Wh-questions (the wh-interrogative)

As already seen in the introduction above, the wh-word (more exactly labelled
an interrogative pronoun, interrogative adverb or interrogative determiner, as
52 The simple sentence: structural variations
the case may be) focuses on a particular item of information in the equivalent
declarative sentence. This information is represented by a phrase in a certain
sentence function. The wh-word takes over this same sentence function:

        S    P  Od
(6) a. Mr Creasey teaches maths.

        Od   P   S    P
What does Mr Creasey teach?
     S   P    Od    A
b. Denise is seeing her boyfriend this evening.

          Od P   S   P   A
   Who is   Denise seeing this evening?
     S   P   Od    A
c. Denise is seeing her boyfriend this evening.

         A P S   P   Od
When is Denise seeing her boyfriend?

A point to note by the way is that the interrogative pronoun who has an object-case
form whom. This is not used much today, except in very formal style. (6)b. could
therefore be expressed as Whom is Denise seeing this evening? In ordinary language,
especially in speech, this version would not be very likely. There is one case, how-
ever, where the whom-form is compulsory. We deal with this a little later below.
Notice that in wh-questions subject–predicator inversion (with do-support, if
necessary, as in (6)a.) is the same as in yes-no-questions. There is one exception,
however: when the wh-word refers to the subject of the sentence, no inversion
takes place, i.e. the declarative word order is kept, and there is no do-support:

      S   P  Od
(7) a. Mr Creasey teaches maths.

        S  P  Od
     Who teaches maths?
      S   P    Od
b. Heavy rain caused the flooding.

        S  P   Od
     What caused the flooding?

3.1.3 Wh-questions and indirect objects

Another special case, though of a different kind, arises with indirect objects. A
wh-word cannot refer to an indirect object. For example, if we want to know who
the recipient was in (8)a., we cannot do it by asking (8)b.:
 The simple sentence: structural variations 53
     S   P  Oi  Od
(8) a. Sharon gave Tracy the book.
b. *Who did Sharon give the book?

The reason is that an indirect object must be followed immediately by a direct

object (see 2.1.4). But that rule is broken here because the interrogative pronoun
(= who) is placed at the beginning of the sentence. So now an indirect object is
no longer possible. It must be converted into its alternative prepositional phrase
version first. The who then refers to the noun following the preposition (i.e. the
former indirect object). In other words, the interrogative pronoun and the prepo-
sition form a new interrogative prepositional phrase. Here the object-case of who
(whom) is compulsory:

    S   P   Od    A
(9) Sharon gave the book to Tracy.

      A  P  S  P Od
To whom did Sharon give the book?

Like an ordinary prepositional phrase, the interrogative prepositional phrase

functions as an adverbial. Because of the whom this still sounds rather formal.
But as long as the interrogative pronoun follows the preposition the object-case
is necessary. The much-preferred alternative, in neutral and more informal lan-
guage, is to place the preposition at the end of the sentence. Then the subject
form of the interrogative pronoun (who) can be used:

  A P   S  P   Od   A
(10) Who did Sharon give the book to?

This is the normal form of an interrogative prepositional phrase. The prep-

osition has been postposed. This therefore splits the prepositional phrase,
meaning that the adverbial function is also split, so that we have to label each
half separately.
Postposing prepositions like this is common in one or two other structures as
well, as we will see later in the book.

3.1.4 Wh-questions and subject complements

Wh-words in the function of subject complement also require subject–predicator
inversion, with do-support where necessary:

  S  P   Cs
(11) a. Bobby is getting fat.

      Cs  P  S   P
     What is Bobby getting?
54 The simple sentence: structural variations
     S  P  Cs
b. Paula seems angry.

     Cs  P  S  P
     What does Paula seem?

With be, as we emphasised above, inversion does not need do-support:

 S  P     Cs
(12) Paula is our new chairperson.

    Cs  P  S
Who is Paula?

Because there is no do-support here, we may think at first glance that who is the
subject and Paula the subject complement. But that would be wrong. The func-
tions in the question must match the functions in the declarative sentence. So
if we think of the declarative sentence as the answer to the question, then it
is clear that the subject complement our new chairperson provides the missing
information that the questioner asks about by using who. Who must therefore be
the subject complement of the question. Or, to use another argument, as Paula
is obviously the subject of the answer (initial position!), Paula must also be the
subject of the question, leaving only the subject complement slot for who. (The
different positions of Paula in question and answer show also, incidentally, that
inversion occurs in the question.)
Let us compare this with a completely different answer to the same question.
A teacher asks a group of pupils Who is Paula? and one of them replies I am Paula.
In this case the missing information is the subject:

S P Cs
(13) I am Paula.

    S  P  Cs
Who is Paula?

Notice this time that Paula is in the same position in both. That is, no inversion
takes place in this question because who refers here to the subject.

3.2 Voice: active to passive

The term voice in this context means ‘way or manner of speaking’ (SAGE,
p. 280). It refers to the distinction between what we call active and passive verb
forms. All the sentence examples used so far have been active: their verbs, as
we say, are in the active voice. (14) shows the contrast between the active and
passive voices in the same verb:
 The simple sentence: structural variations 55
(14) a. My son painted that picture.     [active]
b. That picture was painted by my son. [passive]

Voice is usually considered to be something that affects, first and foremost, the
morphology of the verb. Focusing on this point for a moment first of all, we should
note that the passive voice of a verb is formed by combining its past participle
with the auxiliary be, as in (14)b. The following is also important to remember:

•• passive verbs refer to actions, and must therefore be in the progressive form
when necessary:

(15) The house was being renovated when the fire broke out.
Departing hotel guests are now being transferred to the airport.

•• only be + past participle counts as a passive. Other verbs that can be fol-
lowed by past participles, such as get and become, are not passive formations.
In this case the past participle occurs as an adjective in the function of subject
complement. Verbs like get and become are main verbs, not auxiliaries:

    S    P      Cs

(16) Sandra  
got    married.
Harry  became  involved.

•• depending on meaning, this may also apply even to be + past participle:

    S     P   Cs
(17) The food  was  cooked.

In this analysis cooked is an adjective referring to a state, like married in (16). The
meaning is that the food was in a ‘cooked state’, i.e. it was not uncooked or raw.
But in isolation the sentence is ambiguous. It may alternatively refer to an action,
i.e. to something that happened. In this case was cooked must be regarded as
passive, and the functional analysis would be:

    S     P-pass
(18) The food   was cooked.

3.2.1 Monotransitive passivisation

The last two points in the preceding section show how closely morphology is
connected with syntax and semantics. So this puts us in a good position to do
what we now want to do, and discuss the syntactic issues involved with the pas-
sive. First of all, it can already be seen from our comments and examples here
that the passive is not just a verb phenomenon, but affects the syntax of the
whole sentence. We therefore speak not just of passive verbs, but also of passive
56 The simple sentence: structural variations
sentences and ‘passive constructions’. Considerable changes come about when
an active sentence is passivised:

S P Od A
(19) Melissa cooks the food here. [active]

S P-pass A A
The food is cooked by Melissa here. [passive]

Apart from the change in the verb form,

•• the active direct object becomes the passive subject;

•• the active subject becomes – in the passive sentence – part of a prepositional
phrase with by, functioning as an adverbial;
•• and the whole operation is accompanied, of course, by the necessary changes
in word order.

All this shows us the main syntactic and semantic purposes behind the concept
of voice. The passive operation (passivisation) allows us, for one thing, to change
the word order of the active sentence. In doing this we shift the emphasis. By
bringing the patient to the beginning of the sentence as the passive subject, we
change the focus from the agent to the patient. The active sentence in (19),
e.g., is about ‘what Melissa does’, whereas the passive sentence is concerned more
with ‘what happens to the food’. When we want to stress the patient´s experience
in this way, we use the passive. The agent in fact may be completely unimportant
or unknown, and therefore remain unmentioned:

(20) a. Several players were injured in the game on Wednesday.

b. Our flat is being re-decorated at the moment.
c. My car had been badly damaged.

3.2.2 Ditransitive passivisation

Active sentences with ditransitive verbs (i.e. with the complementation indirect
object + direct object) can be put into the passive in two possible ways. The first is the
same as with monotransitives: the active direct object becomes the passive subject:

S P Oi Od
(21) Maxine sent Robert a letter. [active]

S P-pass A A
A letter was sent to Robert by Maxine. [passive]
 The simple sentence: structural variations 57
Notice that in this case the indirect object has to be dropped, and expressed
by the prepositional phrase variant. This conversion is necessary because of
the basic rule that an indirect object can only occur together with a direct
object following it (see under 2.1.4 and 2.3.2). In the passive sentence the
direct object disappears (having become the subject). So we have to get rid of
the indirect object too.
The second form of ditransitive passivisation (and probably the most
common) converts the active indirect object into the passive subject, and
keeps the direct object:

S P Oi Od
(22) Maxine sent Robert a letter. [active]

S P-pass Od A
Robert was sent a letter by Maxine. [passive]

3.2.3 Complex transitive passivisation

Complex transitive verbs, as a reminder, are those with an object complement
following the direct object (Od + Co). In the passive, the object complement
becomes the subject complement. The other changes are the same as with
monotransitive passivisation:

S P Od Co
(23) Jill called Jenny an idiot. [active]

S P-pass Cs A
Jenny was called an idiot by Jill. [passive]

3.3 Negation
So far all our sentence examples have been affirmative (sometimes referred
to as positive). That is, they have not been negated. When we negate an
affirmative sentence, we turn it semantically into its opposite: we say that
something is not the case. This is done by adding not, the negative particle
(technically an adverb), to the verb phrase, as is explained in detail in the
following sections.

3.3.1 Negation with declaratives

In the case of the verb be the negative particle is simply added to the verb
phrase:
58 The simple sentence: structural variations
(24) Mrs Conway is a fashion designer.       [affirmative/positive]
Mrs Conway is not a fashion designer. [negative]

However, be is an absolute exception. In all other cases, as with questions (see

3.1.1 above), an auxiliary verb is necessary: the negative particle not then fol-
lows the auxiliary (or the first auxiliary if there is more than one):

  S P   A    A
(25) a. Mike is coming to the dance tonight.
 S P    A   A
Mike is not coming to the dance tonight.
 S   P            Od      A
b. She should have been doing her homework at that time.
 S    P Od      A
She should not have been doing her homework at that time.

As the examples show, the negative particle just counts as part of the verb phrase,
i.e. functionally it is part of the predicator.
If there is no auxiliary in the affirmative sentence, do-support is necessary, as
with questions:

  S    P A A
(26) a. Mike came to the dance yesterday.
    S P     A     A
Mike did not come to the dance yesterday.
     S       P   Od
b. Mrs Conway designs clothes.
       S     P        Od
Mrs Conway does not design clothes.

In speech, unless stressed, the negative particle becomes a weak form, added as
an ending to the auxiliary (an enclitic, as it is technically called), and informally
written as n’t:

(27) a. Mike isn´t coming to the dance tonight.

b. She shouldn´t have been doing her homework at that time.
c. Mrs Conway doesn´t design clothes.

The weak-form version reinforces the idea that not is a part of the predicator.

3.3.2 Negation with questions

Negated questions follow the same general syntactic principles as negated state-
ments. But there are one or two extra things to point out. The first concerns the
 The simple sentence: structural variations 59
position of not. With the enclitic (i.e. weak form) this is exactly the same as in state-
ments, see (28)a. As a full form, however, not follows the subject, as shown in (28)b.:

(28) a. Didn´t Sam play darts on Tuesday night?

b. Did Sam not play darts on Tuesday night?

Secondly, negated questions and affirmative questions have differing semantic

relationships to their respective declarative sentences:

(29) a. Did Sam play darts on Tuesday night?

b. Didn´t Sam play darts on Tuesday night?

(29)a. is an open yes-no-question. (29)b., however, is not. It expresses a conclu-

sion on the speaker´s part that a formerly held belief (that Sam played darts) now
may not be true, and seeks confirmation of this.

3.3.3 Varied negation focus

Despite the general attachment of not to the predicator, there are one or two
exceptions to be mentioned. Sometimes it is not the verb phrase, but other
phrases that are negated. The negative particle is then part of those other phrases
(technically as an adverb, as mentioned above):

    S       P-pass       A
(30) a. Not a soul could be seen in the street.
 S  P    Od    A
b. He rejected the criticism, but not angrily.
     S       P     A
c. Not everyone can run fast.
     S      P Cs      Cs
d. The summer was wet, and not warm.

In (30)a. and c. it is the subject noun phrase that is negated, and not is regarded
as part of it, i.e. is integrated into the subject function. In (30)b. and d.
the negated phrases are added using conjunctions (though, but). In b. this is an
adverb phrase functioning as an adverbial, and in d. an adjective phrase func-
tioning as a subject complement. (As we will see later, these additions to the
sentences are really clauses). There are two points to note here. Firstly, phrase-
focused negation occurs most commonly with subject noun phrases, as in (30)a.
and c. It is unusual in the verb complementation, unless there are additions to
already existing previous verb complementation, as in (30)b. and d. Otherwise
it is nearly always the verb that is grammatically negated, even if the negation
refers to parts of its complementation. This can sometimes lead to ambiguity.
Out of context, for instance, (31)a. may mean any one of b., c., d., or e.:
60 The simple sentence: structural variations
(31) a. Sam didn´t play darts on Tuesday night in the pub.
b. Sam didn´t play.
c. Sam didn´t play darts, but billiards.
d. Sam played darts in the pub, but not on Tuesday night.
e. Sam played darts on Tuesday night, but not in the pub.
(examples from SAGE, p. 289)

(31)b.–e., then, are four different interpretations of what the negated verb in a.
might mean. This shows that the semantic negation focus in (31)a. is ambiguous.
In b., as we might expect, it is on the verb (play); but in c. the intended negation
refers to the direct object (darts), in d. to the first adverbial (on Tuesday night), and
in e. to the second adverbial (in the pub). The moral of the story is that in all of
these cases negation has to be attached syntactically to the verb, even though the
semantic negation focus might be on various elements of the complementation.
To return to the general point being made, then, negation from a syntactic point
of view is generally a matter for the verb phrase, i.e. it is part of the predicator.

3.4 Commands (the imperative)

Along with statements and questions, commands are traditionally regarded as
being one of the three basic moods of speech, i.e. syntactic and morphological
forms showing speaker-attitude to the utterance. The imperative has been left
until last in our considerations here, as there is relatively little to say about its
effect on syntax. Nevertheless, there are one or two things to point out. First of
all, we must distinguish morphologically between two command types: those in
the second person (singular and plural), and those in the first person plural.

3.4.1 The second person imperative

As there is no difference morphologically between singular you and plural you,
the imperative form is the same for both, and additionally corresponds to that
of the base infinitive (i.e. without to). With the exception of be, this is also the
present tense second person form of the ordinary finite verb. For the imperative,
then, all we have to do is leave out the subject pronoun (you):

  P   Od
(32) a. Have another drink.
b. Turn left.
c. Be quiet and eat your crisps!
d. Keep calm and carry on!

The missing subject, in fact, is the most prominent feature of syntax with impera-
tives. Apart from this, functional labelling (as indicated in the first example)
and word order are the same as in any declarative sentence. In informal language
 The simple sentence: structural variations 61
the subject is sometimes even included, usually together with a name, when the
speaker wishes to emphasise who is being spoken to:

     S  P   A         S  P    A

(33) a. Eric, you stand by the door. Jason, you go to the window.
b. You be quiet and eat your crisps, Maurice!

Apart from the use of the name (known as vocative emphasis), there is no syn-
tactic distinction in this case between imperative and declarative sentences. A
different kind of emphasis (focusing on the verb) is created with do-support:

   P     Od
(34) a. Do have another drink.
b. Do be quiet and eat your crisps, Maurice!

As in other uses of do-support, do here is an auxiliary followed by a main verb,

and therefore belongs to the same verb phrase (= the same predicator). A point
to notice here is the use of do even with be.
Though not very frequent, progressive forms also appear in the imperative
when a framework meaning is indicated:

(35) Please be waiting outside the cinema at 8 o´clock.

Negative commands need do-support, even in the progressive:

(36) a. Don´t move!

b. Don´t be rude!
c. Don´t be still packing your bags at 9 am.

3.4.2 The first person plural imperative

This is formed with the expression let us, and usually appears informally in its
weak form let´s:

(37) a. Let us (let´s) have a drink.

b. Let us (let´s) go to the circus on Saturday!
c. Don´t let´s/Let´s not go out this evening. Let´s stay at home.

As shown in (37)c., there is a choice of two possible negatives. The second is

perhaps a little more elegant stylistically.
A word should be said on the syntax of let us. As we will see later in the book,
let can be an independent main verb meaning allow/permit. The imperative form
let us has clearly developed from this, but in doing so has taken on a different
meaning. (38)a. therefore has two possible interpretations, either (38)b. or (38)c.:
62 The simple sentence: structural variations
(38) a. Let us go to the circus on Saturday.
b. Allow us to go and don´t forbid it.
c. What about you and me going to the circus on Saturday?

The different meanings are also based on differences in syntax. In the b.-mean-
ing, (38)a. has the main verb let as its predicator and us as its direct object. (It
is not necessary to comment on the rest of the syntax in the sentence at this
point.) In the c.-meaning there is no direct object, let us go is simply one verb
phrase (and therefore one predicator). That is, it is one unit: a verb phrase in the
imperative form. Notice in this case that us is invariant, i.e. we could not replace
it by any other object. In the b.-meaning, of course, this is not so: here we could
equally say Let me go. . ., Let John go. . ., and so on. The invariance of us in the
imperative form shows that its identity as a separate pronoun is restricted simply
to the morphological task of signalling the first person plural character of the
imperative. But it has lost its status as a separate object and has simply become a
person-marker for the verb. This point is underlined by the fact that in the imper-
ative version we can reduce it to a weak form, let´s, a total exception (as pronouns
are otherwise never weakened), and impossible in the case of the b.-meaning.
The moral of the story, then, is that first person plural imperatives, despite their
different (derived) form, have the same syntactic status as second person impera-
tives: as one verb phrase they function also as one predicator:

       P      Od
(39) Let us have/Let´s have a drink.

Exercises

Exercise 1
Form yes-no questions from the sentences with no underlining. Otherwise, form
wh-questions relating to the underlined parts of the sentences. Mark all syntactic
functions in each question.

1 Tracy went to Birmingham by train with her sister.

2 Tracy went to Birmingham by train with her sister.
3 Sonny and Jake are repairing Jill´s bicycle.
4 I am going to give my neighbours this letter. [Use you in the question.]
5 Tracy went to Birmingham by train with her sister.
6 She has given up her job because of illness.
7 Sam came to London for an interview yesterday.
8 She has given up her job because of illness.
9 Sam came to London for an interview yesterday.
10 Carrie teaches refugees English.
11 Sam came to London for an interview yesterday.
12 Sam came to London for an interview yesterday.
 The simple sentence: structural variations 63
13 Frank and Joan have been writing a book about their journey through South
America.
14 Frank and Joan have been writing a book about their journey through South
America.
15 You must help people more often. [Use I in the question.]

Exercise 2
Put the following sentences into the passive and then analyse them functionally.
If alternative passive versions are possible, please give them also and mark both
versions functionally.

1 The people of this country have elected O´Brien the new president.
2 Eleanor is going to give the stranger in the pub three packages.
3 A teacher was explaining the movements of the planets to some pupils in
class 4b.
4 Kevin´s son showed me the new family car.
5 Neighbours were looking after the children while the couple were at the
theatre.
6 Roberts waits on the guests and his wife does the cooking.
7 An unknown person has sent the mayor threatening letters.
8 Many customers consider the service at this garage to be inferior.
9 Tom´s colleagues had bought him an expensive wedding present.
10 When we arrived there several other prospective buyers were already looking
at the house.

Exercise 3
Using weak forms of not, negate the following sentences and then analyse them
functionally.

1 Mrs Conway repairs cars on Sundays.

2 She should have been walking home at that time.
3 Have you brought the wine with you?
4 We´re going to Iceland for our holidays. [Use a full form of not here.]
5 Did Hari meet Yasmin at the dance on Friday?
6 Have another beer.
7 Just be very nice to them.
8 Let us go to the fair in Tewkesbury.
9 What two different meanings can no. 8 have?
10 In what various ways might the negation in the following sentence be understood?:

Chas did not go fishing with Brian at Yalding on Sunday.

4 Phrases and their structure (I)

4.0 Phrases
As we saw in the last chapter, the phrase is the most basic unit in sentence analysis.
It is a structural unit based on word-class, and is the smallest unit that can fill a
sentence function. In this chapter we take a close look at what phrases consist of,
i.e. what we will call here in a general sense their composition. Like sentences,
phrases can be analysed internally in terms of both structures and functions. In
other words, the composition of a phrase consists of phrase functions and the struc-
tures that fill them. That is, like sentences, phrases can be analysed on the one
hand structurally, and on the other hand functionally:

(1) Composition of phrase

Structures Functions

What this means concretely we will see in the following. In this first chapter on
the phrase, we will be looking at noun phrases, prepositional phrases, adjective
phrases, and adverb phrases.

4.1 The noun phrase

Let us look first of all at some typical structural patterns in the noun phrase:

(2) a. noun alone

trees
b. article + noun
the    trees
 Phrases and their structure (I) 65
c. article + adjective phrase + noun
the    big         trees
d. article + adjective phrase + noun + prepositional phrase
the    big         trees    in our garden

The minimum that we need in order to form a noun phrase is a single noun, as in
(2)a. The rest is just a selection, of course. The prepositional phrase could follow
the noun on its own (trees in our garden), for example, or the adjective could be
used without the article (big trees). We´re simply looking here at the main pos-
sibilities for combining structural elements within a noun phrase. As can be seen
in (2)c. and (2)d., other types of phrase unit can also be included, here an adjec-
tive phrase and a prepositional phrase. One phrase inside another one is a general
phenomenon in syntax. The prepositional phrase itself here (in our garden), for
instance, also contains a further noun phrase (our garden). In fact, as we will see a
little later, this is the case with all prepositional phrases. Unlike a noun, a prepo-
sition cannot form its own phrase alone.
Now let us consider the phrase functions. The central function on which
every other function depends is the head of the phrase, which must be a
noun (trees). Without this, of course, there would be no phrase. The other
elements are optional. These consist of two large functional groups: the
one that comes before the head (the premodification) and the one following
(the postmodification):

(3) Premodification Head Postmodification [functional level]

article noun prepositional phrase [structural level]

the trees in our garden

This is only the first step, however. The premodification has an additional lower
functional level, which we should also add in our analysis. Articles function as
determiners and adjectives as what we call the modification:

(4) Premodification Head Postmodification [functional level 1]

Determiner Modification [functional level 2]

article adjective phrase noun prepositional phrase [structural level]

the big trees in our garden
66 Phrases and their structure (I)
We will later make a further distinction within the premodification on functional
level 2. But there are the main elements of premodification to be considered in a
little detail first. What is the character of determiners, and why is it necessary to
distinguish these from the modification?

4.1.1 Premodification
The functional concept of determiner comprises several different word-classes.
These, to re-cap, are:

•• the definite and indefinite articles (the/a)

•• quantifiers (much, many, all, some, etc.)
•• numerals (two, three, etc.)
•• possessive determiners (my, you, their, etc.)
•• demonstrative determiners (this, that, these, those)
•• the interrogative determiners (which?; whose?)
•• the relative determiner (whose)

To the possessive determiners we will now add the s-genitive (‘s, s’) such as
George’s, the Smiths’ or my uncle’s (for more on s-genitives see SAGE, p. 78,
LGSWE, pp. 292ff.).
The common semantic relation of determiners to the noun, as we said in 1.3.6,
is that of identification. They identify the noun following by locating it in certain
fields of reference. This is either indefinite (type, category or genre) or definite
(a known context or a relation to entities mentioned elsewhere in the commu-
nication or participating in it). A detailed discussion of individual meanings and
usage would go beyond the scope of a book like this one on syntax. For a full
guide, see SAGE, pp. 73–140 or LGWSE, pp. 270–2. Nevertheless we come back
to one or two syntactically important things about determiners further below.
The chief concern at this point is to establish the essential nature of a determiner
and distinguish it from the other main sub-category of premodification, i.e. that
of the modification. Semantically the modification comprises elements that char-
acterise the noun in a descriptive sense. Whereas the determiner relates to the
question which? (i.e. which or what entity is being referred to), the modification
tells us what kind of X is being referred to (i.e. characterises the entity more closely
and individually). First and foremost it is adjectives that fill this functional slot.
One or two other structural elements in this role are dealt with further below.

4.1.1.1 Determiners and predeterminers

Like most functional slots in both sentences and phrases, the determiner can only
appear once in one noun phrase. Determiners cannot be combined. Phrases like
the following, in other words, are ungrammatical, if not meaningless:

(5) *the his car

 Phrases and their structure (I) 67
However, some words that are usually determiners can take on the character
of adjectives and function as part of the modification. These are numerals and
certain quantifiers:

the four cars; Henry´s many ex-girlfriends:

(6) a. Premodification Head

Determiner Modification

article adjective phrase noun

the four cars

b. Premodification Head

Determiner Modification

s-genitive adjective phrase noun

Henry’s many ex-girlfriends

Another point is that certain quantifiers (all, half and both) can precede the
determiner:

all the cars; half the cake; both my friends. In this case they function as what
we call predeterminers:

(7) Premodification Head

Predeterminer Determiner

quantifier article/possessive noun

all the cars
half the cake
both my friends
68 Phrases and their structure (I)
This is what we will call ‘direct contiguity’: that is, the predeterminer and
determiner are direct neighbours, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, so to speak. A
stylistically more elegant version places the preposition of between them: all of
the cars; half of the cake; both of my friends. This then immediately increases the
scope of possibilities to numerals and nearly all other quantifiers: three of these
trees, none of the milk, some of Greta´s money. Only all, half and both can have direct
contiguity, i.e. appear without of. The of-construction is therefore the general
pattern with quantifiers and numerals as predeterminers:

(8) Premodification Head

Predeterminer Determiner

quantifier demonstrative/s-genitive noun

three of these trees
some of Greta’s money

Traditionally, of-constructions like these with quantifiers and numerals are

called partitive constructions (see also SAGE, p. 109, LGWSE, pp. 258ff.). That
is, they refer to a part or portion of a larger group or amount. Fractions and
percentages are also common partitive expressions (three-fifths of the people, 60%
of the pupils). Technically, quantifiers in of-constructions are being used as pro-
nouns. However, it is syntactically neater, and more in line with semantics and
usage, to treat the whole construction as one composite quantifier, as we have
done here. In addition to the word-class of numerals and quantifiers, ordinary
nouns referring to an amount or a measure of something can also be regarded as
partitive-type expressions:

(9) a pint of milk; two pounds of beef; a drop of blood; a slice of bread; a bar of
chocolate

Similarly, nouns denoting containers of various kinds can also be seen as essen-
tially partitive in nature:

(10) a cup of tea; a jug of water; a box of chocolates; a jar of marmalade

Such examples do pose a syntactic question, however. The first noun in each
case refers to an individual object and not just to a measure of something. This
also goes for drop, slice and bar in (9). Of the two nouns in each phrase, which one
 Phrases and their structure (I) 69
is actually the head? In our partitive solution, of course, it is the second noun,
i.e. bread, chocolate, tea, water, etc. The first, as we have seen, is part of the
premodification. But we may also be justified in declaring the first noun as
the head. In this case the preposition of would form a unit with the second
noun and this unit would then function as a postmodification (see under 4.1.2
below). Both types of analysis are possible. The choice of one or the other is
basically a semantic issue depending on the particular context of use. If a guest
asks for a bottle of wine in a restaurant, it is obviously the noun wine that is
semantically profiled and therefore syntactically the head of the phrase. But
to a still-life artist painting a bottle of wine, for instance, the order of prior-
ity would probably be reversed, suggesting syntactically the postmodification
analysis. (Though of course neither artist nor guest is likely to care much about
syntax in these situations!)
This is another pointer to the fact that syntax and semantics are often inextri-
cably bound to one another.

4.1.1.2 The zero article

Let us stay with the wine for a moment, though in the interests of syntax
(some of the best wine connoisseurs we know are also linguists; after a bottle
or two they are fluent in both subjects). If we put a bottle of wine into the plural
(its most satisfying form), we get bottles of wine. The indefinite article, that is,
now disappears. What is left, however, is not simply a gap where something
that ought to be there is just missing. No article is actually not ‘no article’
but the plural equivalent of the indefinite article. The gap, that is, is itself
an article form and represents a grammatical presence. For this reason we call
this ‘gap’ the zero article (see also LGSWE, pp. 261–3). It is also necessary
for indefinite reference to mass nouns like wine or water (see below). Among
other things, this is an important point in connection with partitive construc-
tions. When these are followed by mass nouns and plurals we assume a zero
article as a determiner in-between. The partitive expression thus remains in
its role of predeterminer:

(11) Premodification Head

Predeterminer Determiner

quantifier zero article noun

a pound of Ø sausages
a bottle of Ø wine
70 Phrases and their structure (I)
4.1.1.3 The modification
Unlike most other functional slots, the modification can have single or multiple
representation, for example, two beautiful big white swans:

(12) Premodification Head

Determiner Modification

adjective adjective adjective

numeral phrase phrase phrase noun
two beautiful big white swans

Elements of modification (modifiers) can also be nouns:

(13) a. a bus stop, the kitchen window, the garage roof

b. Victoria Station, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus

Two nouns together, as in (13)a., are sometimes traditionally called ‘com-

pound nouns’, and regarded (in our terminology) as ‘double heads’. Some are
frequently spelt with a hyphen (bus-stop, taxi-driver) to underline the fact
that they belong together. In our analysis, however, we will not recognise
compound nouns or double heads as such. Where they are hyphenated they
will be regarded here as one word, and without a hyphen, as in (13)a., as two
words, with the first as a modifier, i.e. serving as a kind of adjective charac-
terising the head noun more exactly. The second type, in (13)b., which are
names, will be regarded in the same way, with the common noun (i.e. the
‘ordinary’ second noun) as the head and the proper noun (i.e. the naming
element) as the modifier. A significant point to be made here in passing
is that as a general rule proper nouns have no definite article before them
(though there are admittedly a number of individual exceptions to this, see
SAGE, pp. 95–8).
 Phrases and their structure (I) 71
(14) Premodification Head

Determiner Modification

article noun phrase noun

a bus stop
the garage roof
Leicester Square

Finally, non-finite verb forms are also used as modifiers in the noun phrase:

(15) a. a walking stick, an ironing board (gerunds, often with hyphens)

b. a passing car, a used vehicle (participles)

These are discussed in detail in Chapters 8 and 9.

4.1.1.4 Order of modifying elements

There are certain general principles governing the order of modifiers. We cannot,
for example, express (16)a. as (16)b.:

(16) a. a small fat white dog

b. *a white fat small dog

The principles are semantic and have to do with certain categories of meaning.
Generally speaking, the modifiers referring to the qualities most intrinsic or
essential to the identity of the entity come closest to the head. There is there-
fore a kind of progression in meaning from ‘general’ to ‘particular’ in a left-right
direction.
72 Phrases and their structure (I)
Although there is some scope for variation, the following order is usually kept:

General More Size Age Shape Colour Origin Material Purpose/ Head
quality/ specific type
assessment quality/
assessment
a fine old curved white- Indian ivory hunting knife
handled
the pleasant good- tall young olive- Israeli maths teacher
looking skinned
a smart powerful new blue-and- French fibre speed boat
white glass
that awful tuneless fat middle- London rock singer
aged

4.1.2 Postmodification
Just as the premodification comprises everything that precedes the head, so the
postmodification comprises everything that follows the head. Elements of post-
modification are typically clauses:

(17) a. the man who is standing on the corner

b. my fears that our son would lose his job
c. Lavinia´s fateful decision to marry Paul

In (17)a. we have a relative clause, in (17)b. a finite appositive clause introduced

by the conjunction that, and in (17)c. a non-finite appositive clause introduced
by the infinitive. These are constructions which we deal with in detail under
‘The Complex Noun Phrase’ in Chapter 10. Clauses like these involve subordi-
nation, which we introduce and discuss fully in Chapter 6. At this point we are
just explaining the general principle of postmodification. In diagram form the
composition of the noun phrases in (17) looks like this:

(18) Premodification Head Postmodification

Determiner Modification

article/possessive/ Ø/adjective noun relative clause/that-clause/

s-genitive phrase infinitive clause
the man who is standing on the corner
my fears that our son would lose his job
Lavinia´s fateful decision to marry Paul
 Phrases and their structure (I) 73
We will not go into the further analysis of the postmodifying clauses now. As we
have just said, this comes later. For the moment we will stay with phrases. Easily
the most common phrase-type postmodifier is the prepositional phrase. In fact
the relative clause in (17)a. can be reduced to the prepositional phrase on the
corner without changing the meaning. This and further prepositional examples
are shown in (19):

(19) a. the man on the corner

b. the legs of the table
c. our grave doubts about the economy

And in diagram form, for the sake of clarity:

(20) Premodification Head Postmodification

Determiner Modification

article/possessive Ø/adjective phrase noun prepositional phrase

the man on the corner
the legs of the table
our grave doubts about the economy

Traditionally, the head noun is called the antecedent of the postmodification.

This may seem like just another term to refer to the same thing, but in fact it is a
useful expression when talking specifically about the head noun in its relation to
the postmodification and vice versa.
Further structural elements functioning as postmodifiers are adverb phrases
(here, over there, just now, then, etc.) and noun phrases with an adverbial-type
meaning, such as last year and next door. As we will see further below, certain
types of adjective phrase also appear as postmodifiers (see under 4.3).

4.1.2.1 The concept of restriction

Most postmodifications are restrictive. This means that they identify or define
their antecedent (and for this reason are known alternatively as defining post-
modifications). For instance, our example above, the man on the corner, means
‘only that man; he alone out of all other possible men’. In other words, a restric-
tive postmodification narrows the choice down to that particular antecedent,
so that the reader or listener knows which one is meant. All our examples so far
74 Phrases and their structure (I)
have been restrictive. By contrast, the postmodifications in the following are
non-restrictive:

(21) a. Alan´s house, in Mill Lane, was being re-decorated.

b. The two antique chairs, from the reign of Queen Anne, were no longer
in my grandfather´s study.

Here the postmodifications are separated by commas from both the antecedent
and the rest of the sentence. The commas indicate that if the sentences were
spoken there would be a pause at that point, also causing a change of intonation:

(22) Alan´s house, in Mill Lane, was being re-decorated.

This creates a parenthesis, i.e. a ‘slotting in’ of additional information as a kind

of extra thought, which implies that the reader or listener does not need it to
identify what the antecedents refer to, as this is already known. In any case,
Alan´s house (if he has only one house) is sufficiently identified by the premodi-
fying s-genitive. As the additional information is not necessary to identify the
antecedents, it does not need to be given in a postmodification, but could just as
easily be shifted to a different clause or sentence:

(23) a. Alan´s house was being re-decorated. It was in Mill Lane.

b. The two antique chairs were no longer in my grandfather´s study. I was
worried, as they were from the reign of Queen Anne, and were very
valuable.

Let us assume now that Alan has two houses and that the study contained three
further antique chairs from a different period (Victorian, for example), which were
still there. In this case we need defining information for each antecedent. This
must be given in restrictive postmodifications:

(24) a. Alan´s house in Mill Lane was being re-decorated (= only that one, not
the other two in Forbes Road and Pinkett Way).
b. The two antique chairs from the reign of Queen Anne were no longer in my
grandfather´s study (although the three Victorian ones were still there).

Notice now that there are no commas, meaning no parenthesis, and in the spo-
ken version no pauses. The whole of each noun phrase is now pronounced with
the same intonation, and in one breath:

(25) a. Alan´s house in Mill Lane. . .

b. The two antique chairs from the reign of Queen Anne . . .

 Phrases and their structure (I) 75
Non-restrictive postmodification is less common with prepositional phrases,
but frequent with noun phrases as postmodifiers, and occurs sometimes also with
adjective phrases:

(26) a. The sales manager, Mrs Tomlin, was interviewing candidates for a post.
b. Jane´s husband, a keen fisherman, is on the quay every Sunday with his
rods and nets.
c. Grandmother, unsure about her visitor´s identity, called the police.

Traditionally, noun phrase examples like those in (26)a. and b. are called
apposition. The antecedent and the postmodifier are said to be in apposition,
i.e. side by side, to one another. We will come back to this term later when
we discuss clause examples (see Chapter 10.3). Although for clarity commas
are desirable with all forms of non-restrictive postmodification, the comma
principle is not a fixed grammatical rule. The commas are sometimes left out,
although usually only with cases of apposition:

(27) a. Our maths teacher Ms Landsdowne is away ill at the moment.

b. Jane´s husband Robert is a keen fisherman.
c. My brother Terry has two motor-bikes.

It is now sense and context that decide whether the postmodifications are
restrictive or non-restrictive. They look restrictive (i.e. there are no commas –
commas must definitely not be used with restrictive postmodifications!). But
context and social custom tell us at least with (27)a. and b. that women can
have only one husband and school classes (usually) only one maths teacher at
one time. The postmodifying names (proper nouns) are therefore most likely
to be non-restrictive. (27)c. is a different case. It is not unusual for people to
have more than one brother. So does the writer here mean ‘only Terry but not
my other brother, Simon’ (restrictive), or is this a case of a comma left out,
i.e. ‘my only brother, whose name is Terry’ (non-restrictive)? Only contexual
knowledge will help us to decide that one – as long, that is, as we only have the
written form to go on. The spoken form of the non-restrictive cases would still
be distinct (= slight pause and fall in intonation, see example in (22) above).

4.1.2.2 Multiple postmodification

Like the modification, the postmodification can have multiple representation.
That is, it may contain more than one postmodifier relating to the same head noun:

(28) a. the woman in the red dress by the fishpond

b. the neighbour in the corner-house with the four children

For these examples, we assume contexts in which either of the postmodifying

prepositional phrases are sufficient alone to identify the head noun. This means
76 Phrases and their structure (I)
that with (28)a., for instance, there is only one woman by the fishpond and that
she is the only one (at least in the direction possibly indicated by the speaker)
who is wearing a red dress. So the person concerned could be equally identified
as the woman in the red dress or the woman by the fishpond. Similarly, for (28)b., we
will take it that there is only one neighbour with four children, and that she (and
no other neighbour) lives in the corner-house.
This state of affairs is shown syntactically in the following phrase diagram.

(29) Noun phrase

Premodification Head Postmodification

Postmodifier 1 Postmodifier 2

Determiner

article noun prepositional phrase prepositional phrase

the woman in the red dress by the fishpond
the neighbour in the corner-house with the four children

For these contexts, then, there is a choice of postmodifiers. Either postmodifier

in each sentence could do the job as a solo performer. Both together simply pro-
vide alternative signals of identification and therefore possibly better insurance
against misunderstanding. It is important to stress that the two postmodifiers in
each case are restrictive, but independent of one another. We will say here that
they function in parallel.
Let us now assume slightly different contexts: for (28)a. more than one woman
in red (say, in the garden as a whole), and more than one by the fishpond (though
of course only one in a red dress by the fishpond). And for (28)b. a corner-house
with two flats, each housing a different neighbour, only one of whom has four
children. Regarding identification, the situation now is more complicated. The
first postmodifier now narrows the choice down (‘only the women in red dresses’)
but not enough to be unambiguous. It is only the second postmodifier that makes
the focus exclusive. On the other hand, the second one is also not sufficient to
do the job by itself. Both postmodifiers have to act in co-operation, so to speak.
In fact, each one has a different task in contributing to the combined effect:
postmodifier 1 describes the head noun alone; postmodifier 2 describes the head
noun + postmodifier 1. So actually the two postmodifiers have distinct anteced-
ents. Only the first postmodifies the head noun. In doing this, it expands the
head noun into a unit which we will call the head phrase. It is the head phrase
 Phrases and their structure (I) 77
which is the antecedent of postmodifier 2. The second postmodifies the head
phrase. What we must now also say in addition is that the two postmodifiers no
longer belong to the same postmodification. As we have two different anteced-
ents, we also now have two distinct postmodifications. These function serially,
i.e. one is applied after the other. In linear form, and using brackets, we could
represent this generally as follows:

(30) premodification + head phrase [head + postmodification 1] + postmodi-

fication 2

A phrase diagram with all the details looks like this:

(31) Noun phrase

Premodification Head phrase Postmodification 2

Head Postmodification 1

Determiner

article noun prepositional phrase prepositional phrase

the woman in the red dress by the fishpond

This is a good example showing that syntax and meaning are two sides of the
same coin and go hand-in-hand. In this case the individual situation and con-
text have to be interpreted semantically before the syntax of the phrase can be
properly defined.

4.1.3 Number and countability

These are morphological and semantic categories, but have a certain effect on
syntax. The specific issue here, from a syntactic point of view, is the compatibility
of certain types of nouns with numerals, particular quantifiers, and the indefinite
article. This is a particular issue in EFL. The following, for instance, are typical
learner errors:

(32) a. *much cars (*There weren´t much cars in the street)

b. *an information (*Can you give me an information?)
c. *a surrounding (*He grew up in a poor surrounding)
78 Phrases and their structure (I)
(32)a. wrongly combines a quantifier restricted to singular use (much) with a
plural noun. By contrast, the error in (32)b. does not arise from a singular-plural
problem. The noun is singular and the indefinite article also, of course, but there
is nevertheless an incompatibility. This has to do with a certain morphologi-
cal property of nouns known as countability. Particularly affected are what are
often categorised semantically as mass nouns, of which information is an example
(further examples are terms referring to elements and substances, such as air,
water, sand, sugar, etc., or to abstract entities like feelings: love, anger, disgust, and
so on). These are singular, but cannot be individualised grammatically as defined
single units. They are therefore not compatible with the numeral one, or with the
indefinite article (which has a similar meaning), and, accordingly, have no plural
form either. In short, they cannot be counted, and are hence known as uncount-
able or non-count nouns.
A further large semantic category of non-count nouns are collective
nouns, representing groups or sets of individual items, such as furniture, lug-
gage or crockery. These also have no equivalent plural form. On the other
hand, many collective nouns are ‘plural only’: clothes, goods, contents, etc.
Here we cannot talk about *a clothe or *a good, just as we cannot refer to
*furnitures or *luggages in the case of the singular type. We therefore have
non-count plural nouns, as well as non-count singulars. One such is the
noun surroundings, falsely rendered in (32)c. as a singular. In a sense (if the
correcting hand was inclined to be nasty) this might be viewed as a kind of
‘double error’, since in addition to being plural only, the word is non-count:
in (32)c. it appears (erroneously) as a count noun. Non-count plurals, in
other words, are just as incompatible with numerals as non-count singulars.
This brings us to a further group of non-count plurals known semantically as
pair nouns (see also SAGE, p. 33). Here, too, of course, numerals and other
individualising quantifiers are taboo:

(33) a. *three scissors

b. *several trousers
c. *a few shorts

The countability type (count/non-count) and number status (singular/plural)

of nouns are therefore factors influencing determiner compatibility, though
only because determiners themselves also exhibit these characteristics (other-
wise there would be no compatibility problem). The use of much in (32)a. is
a violation of determiner number status. (32)b. and c. contravene the count
status of their respective nouns, as do the errors in (33). In cases of error,
countability and number often appear to be separate factors, as they do here.
This is because one rather than the other is predominantly involved in the
mismatch. In fact, however, the two properties are mostly intertwined, and
condition each other. Non-count nouns always have bound number status
(i.e. they are exclusively ‘singular only’ or ‘plural only’). The great majority
 Phrases and their structure (I) 79
of count nouns, on the other hand, have free number status, i.e. can occur
in both singular and plural. (Nevertheless, there are exceptions. For a full
account see SAGE, pp. 29–31.)
On the determiner side, countability and number status are highly variable.
Among the numerals, one (along with the indefinite article) is restricted to count
singular nouns, the rest to count plural. Among the quantifiers, some, any and
enough are confined to plurals and non-count singulars, many and a few to count
plurals, each and every to count singulars. Both and neither are restricted to pair
relations, the first to count plurals and the second to count singulars. Other
determiners like the definite article, possessives and s-genitives are unrestricted,
while the demonstratives distinguish between singular and plural. These are just
a few examples showing the importance of countability and number status for the
syntax of the noun phrase.

4.1.4 Sentence functions of noun phrases

In the sentence, noun phrases can fill all functions, apart from that of predicator:

•• subject (S) Dogs bark.

•• direct object (Od) Carrie liked her teacher.
•• indirect object (Oi) Your friends sent you this.
•• subject complement (Cs) Her husband became an alcoholic.
•• object complement (Co) The group made Albert their leader.
•• adverbial (A) I saw Wendy last night.

In phrases, noun phrases can function as:

•• modifiers in noun phrases the kitchen door

•• postmodifiers in noun phrases my brother Tim
•• prepositional complements
in prepositional phrases on the table

As prepositional phrases have an important part to play in noun phrases, and vice
versa, our next port of call will be the prepositional phrase.

4.2 The prepositional phrase

The prepositional phrase is a unit consisting of a preposition + noun phrase:

(34) preposition + noun phrase

  in     our garden
  on     the dining room table
  at      work
80 Phrases and their structure (I)
As we said in 4.1. above, a preposition cannot form its own phrase alone. It
always requires an accompanying noun phrase, which functions as prepositional
complement:

(35) Prepositional phrase

Head Prepositional complement

preposition noun phrase

in
our garden

The triangle under the noun phrase slot indicates that the noun phrase is not
further analysed. We have not used this symbol in previous diagrams, but will do
so from now on for every phrase that is not broken down into its end components.
That, however, is precisely what we will do now for (35). The final, complete
analysis looks like this:

(36) Prepositional phrase

Head Prepositional complement

preposition noun phrase

in

premodification head

possessive det. noun

our garden
 Phrases and their structure (I) 81
As we can now break down prepositional phrases properly into their final compo-
nents, we are able to provide the following complete analysis for the noun phrase
the woman in the red dress by the fishpond from 4.1.2.2. This is based on the serial
postmodification version shown in example (31):

(37) Noun phrase

Premodification Head phrase Postmodification 2

Head Postmodification 1

Determiner

article noun prepositional phrase prepositional phrase

the woman

head prep. complement head prep. complement

preposition noun phrase preposition noun phrase

in by

premodification head premodification head

determiner modification determiner

def. article adjective noun def. article noun

the red dress the fishpond

4.2.1 Premodification of prepositional phrases

In the ordinary way, prepositional phrases cannot be premodified. However, a
restricted type of premodification does occur with specific types of degree adverbs:
right outside the station, just by the door, directly after lunch. We deal with these
later in a section on special kinds of adverbs (see under 4.4.1).

4.2.2 Sentence functions of prepositional phrases

In the sentence, a prepositional phrase always functions as an

•• adverbial (A) Billie was waiting at the station.

82 Phrases and their structure (I)
There may, of course, be several in one sentence:

  A          A   A
(38) On Saturday we are flying to Spain for a holiday.

In other phrases, prepositional phrases function as:

•• postmodifiers in noun phrases the man on the corner

•• adjectival complements red with anger

The term adjectival complement is explained in the next section.

4.3 The adjective phrase

Typical structural patterns in the adjective phrase are the following:

(39) a. adjective alone

good
b. adverb + adjective
very good
c. adjective + prepositional phrase
good   at grammar

Putting b. and c. together, we get very good at grammar. This gives us all the pos-
sible functional slots of the adjective phrase, which look like this:

(40) Premodification Head Adjectival complement

adverb phrase adjective prepositional phrase

very good
at grammar

Note again the use of the triangle symbol indicating that the phrase concerned
could be analysed further if desired. The only form of premodification in the
adjective phrase consists of adverbs of degree (and this only with gradable adjec-
tives, see 1.3.4). (40) is the basis of our phrase diagram. But it does not yet show
clearly how different relations of ‘closeness’ between the three members of the
phrase are arranged. There is a certain hierarchy which we could represent in
bracketed form like this:
 Phrases and their structure (I) 83
(41) [[very (good)] at grammar]

That is, the adverb premodifies the adjective and both together, as a unit, are
complemented by the prepositional phrase. This means that for the phrase dia-
gram we need our concept of the head phrase again to distinguish different levels
of ‘belonging’:

(42) Adjective phrase

Head phrase Adjectival complement

Premodification Head

adverb phrase adjective prepositional phrase

very good
at grammar

There is one adverb of degree, enough, that follows the head as an adjectival
complement (good enough). As with postmodification in noun phrases, there may
be more than one adjectival complement. The connection is then always serial
(see 4.1.2.2 above):

(43) a. She was blue in the face with cold.

b. I´m not good enough at maths.

This means that the first phrase complements the head and the second comple-
ments the head plus the first phrase. This is a mirror image of the arrangement of
premodification and head in (41) and (42). In bracketed form:

(44) a. She was [[(blue) in the face] with cold].

b. I´m not [[(good) enough] at maths].

Here also, as with (42) and the corresponding noun phrase pattern, we need the
head phrase slot to account for the unit head + first adjectival complement, as
represented in the internal set of square brackets in (44):
84 Phrases and their structure (I)

(45) Adjective phrase

Head phrase Adjectival compl. 2

Head Adjectival compl. 1

adjective adverb/prepositional phrase prepositional phrase

good enough at maths
blue in the face with cold

Multiple adjectival complementation occurs more often when one of the com-
plements is a clause (see Chapter 11 for a detailed account on this issue).

4.3.1 Comparison
Semantically, comparison tells us how much of something one entity has in
relation to another. It can involve various word-classes, but is probably most
typical with adjectives and adverbs (though gradable ones only!). With adjec-
tives, which is what we are focused on here, the ‘something’ referred to is
a characteristic of some kind. Comparative constructions express that one
‘comparison partner’ has more, less, or equal amounts of this characteristic
relative to the other partner:

(46) a. Gerry is shorter than Mike.

b. Mrs Sims is more generous than her husband.
c. Wanda is as tall as her father.

For full guidance on formation and use of comparatives see SAGE, pp. 166–87
(or LGSWE, pp. 521–44). We will not go into semantics and morphology at
length here, but one or two morphological aspects should be mentioned briefly
in connection with the syntax. First, adjectives can have inflectional (for exam-
ple, shorter) and/or periphrastic (for example, more generous) comparative forms,
depending on the length of the adjective concerned. Periphrastic comparison
involves the use of more and less, which are adverbs of degree functioning as
 Phrases and their structure (I) 85
premodifiers. Secondly, a comparative phrase follows the adjective as the
adjectival complement. The comparative particle than is a preposition in the
examples in (46). Similarly, the comparative particle as is a preposition when it
follows the adjective, i.e. when it introduces the adjectival complement. In the
premodifying position we will treat it is an adverb since it expresses an ‘amount
relation’. In keeping with the prepositional character of than and as (in comple-
ment position), comparative phrases are therefore prepositional phrases and fit
into the ordinary functional phrase diagram as follows:

(47) Adjective phrase

Premodification Head Adjectival complement

prepositional phrase
Ø/adverb adjective
shorter than Mike
more generous than her husband
as tall as her father

Notice that premodifying comparative adverbs operate together syntactically

with the adjectival complement and are therefore on the same level. Here, that
is, they do not form a phrase with the head.
Comparative constructions may also involve more than one adjectival
complement:

(48) a. Conny is better than Gary at maths.

b. Gary is not as good as Conny at maths.
c. Mrs Sims is more generous than her husband with money.

As was said above, multiple adjectival complements are always serial, see exam-
ples (43)–(45). Internal phrase patterns here are therefore the following:

(49) a. [[as (good) as Conny] at maths]

b. [[more (generous) than her husband] with money]

Together with the head, the first adjectival complement thus forms a head
phrase, with the premodification included. That is, pattern directly under the
86 Phrases and their structure (I)
adjective phrase slot in (47) remains the same, but ‘drops a slot downwards’,
so to speak, so that the second adjectival complement can be shown as com-
plementing the whole first pattern of premodification + head + adjectival
complement 1:

(50) Adjective phrase

Head phrase Adjectival compl. 2

Premodification Head Adjectival compl. 1

Ø/adverb adjective prepositional prepositional

phrase phrase

better than Gary at maths

as good as Conny at maths
more generous than her husband with money

It is also possible for the two prepositional phrases to swap positions, so that
we get:

(51) a. Conny is better at maths than Gary.

b. Gary is not as good at maths as Conny.
c. Mrs Sims is more generous with money than her husband.

This changes the internal relations a little:

(52) a. [as [(good) at maths] as Conny]

b. [more [(generous) with money] than her husband]

The head phrase now no longer includes the premodifying comparative adverb.
In the phrase diagram the premodification therefore has to feature on the same
level as the second adjectival complement:
 Phrases and their structure (I) 87
(53) Adjective phrase

Premodification Head phrase Adjectival compl. 2

Head Adjectival compl. 1

Ø/adverb adjective prepositional prepositional

phrase phrase

better at maths than Gary

as good at maths as Conny
more generous with money than her husband

4.3.2 Sentence functions of adjective phrases

In the sentence, adjective phrases function as

•• Subject complement (Cs) The food was cold.

In the phrase, adjective phrases function as:

•• Modification in noun phrases the black jacket.

4.4 The adverb phrase

Adverbs typically occur alone, especially when they premodify adjectives. But
they can also be premodified themselves by other adverbs. If, like many adjec-
tives, the head is a gradable adverb, a particularly frequent premodifier is an
adverb of degree. This is most common when the adverb phrase is used indepen-
dently in its sentence-functional role of adverbial:

(54) a. He fell off a chair and hurt himself rather badly.

b. Manchester United are now challenging Liverpool very strongly.
88 Phrases and their structure (I)
But it occurs also in adjective premodification, particularly with adjectives in
participle form:

(55) a. Liverpool are now a very strongly challenged side.

b. They do quite hotly spiced curries at the Star of India.

The most common structural patterns in the adverb phrase are thus the fol-
lowing:

(56) a. adverb alone

strongly
b. adverb + adverb
very  strongly

The functional diagram looks like this:

(57) Adverb phrase

Premodification Head

adverb phrase adverb

very strongly

Unlike adjectives, adverbs generally have no further complementation fol-

lowing the head. An exception is with comparative phrases (see below under
4.4.2). Drawing a parallel to the adjective phrase, one might object here that
prepositional phrases, for example, follow adverbs in the same way. Compare, for
instance, the two sentences in (58):

(58) a. Sally is bad at maths.

b. Sally has done badly at maths.

There is an important difference, though. In (58)a. the prepositional phrase is

closely related to the adjective in sense, and cannot be moved independently
to another part of the sentence. In (58)b., on the other hand, the prepositional
phrase relates to the sentence as a whole, and functions as an independent
adverbial. A functional analysis of the sentence shows the difference:
 Phrases and their structure (I) 89
  S P   Cs
(59) a. Sally is [bad at maths].
 S  P   A  A
b. Sally has done badly at maths.

We now want to see how the adverb phrase fits into larger phrase patterns, for
example within an adjective phrase inside a noun phrase. Here a diagram of the
noun phrase the quite hotly spiced curries of Sri Lanka:

(60) Noun phrase

Premodification Head Postmodification

Determiner Modification

def. article adjective phrase noun prepositional phrase

the curries
of Sri Lanka
Premodification Head

adverb phrase adjective

spiced
Premodification Head

adverb phrase adverb

quite hotly

4.4.1 Adverbs in strange places: some special cases

Adverbs of place and time have their own particular kinds of degree adverb, with
which they usually form fairly restricted collocations: right behind, well ahead, close
by, far away; just then, right now, etc. Though they may not look like it, these
are structurally and functionally quite normal adverb phrases, with the second
adverb as the head and the first as the premodification.
90 Phrases and their structure (I)
Adverbs of place and direction can themselves act as premodifiers, not as
degree adverbs, but as a kind of what we might call ‘specifier’, giving more
semantic exactness to common generalised place adverbs like here and there.
The premodifier in this case is usually an adverb particle (see 1.3.5 and 5.1): over
here, up there, out there, down here. But there are also combinations with preposi-
tions: through here, along there, from here, until later, by now, since then. These must
be seen as prepositional phrases, with the adverb as prepositional complement
(see also 3.2):

(61) Prepositional phrase

Head Prepositional complement

preposition adverb phrase

since then

As mentioned briefly in 4.2.1, prepositional phrases can also have adverb parti-
cles as a kind of ‘specifying’ premodification: up in Scotland, over in France, down
in the south:

(62) Prepositional phrase

Premodification Head phrase

adverb phrase head prepositional complement

up

preposition noun phrase

in
noun
Scotland
 Phrases and their structure (I) 91
Note that we need the head phrase slot here because the adverb premodifies the
whole prepositional phrase, i.e. in the form

(63) [up [(in) Scotland]]

Mentioned at the beginning of this section above were particular kinds of

degree adverb premodifying adverbs of place and time. Quite logically, they
can also premodify prepositional phrases (since prepositional phrases are also
adverbial in function): just behind the door, right outside the bank, shortly after
midnight (see also 4.2.1). The phrase patterning is that of (62). Certain degree
adverbs focus specifically on numerals and quantifiers: about fifty students,
almost all children, practically every pupil:

(64) Noun phrase

Premodification Head

Determiner phrase

Premodification Determiner

adverb phrase numeral/quantifier noun

about fifty students
practically every pupil

Some common degree adverbs take a ‘predeterminer’ position: such a nice boy!;
quite a good performance; rather a bad beginning. The position is optional for rather
and quite, which can also follow the article (a rather bad beginning). However,
they seem to be generally preferred in the predeterminer position. With such
there is no choice.
The predeterminer position only applies when the indefinite article is used.
All other determiners trigger the regular post-article position (some rather sour
apples; this quite humorous remark; many such doubtful characters). This in fact rep-
resents their meaning more faithfully, for like any degree adverbs, they modify
the adjective. The predeterminer position does not change this semantically,
i.e. there is no difference in meaning between quite a good performance and a
quite good performance. In other words, even as predeterminers, these adverbs still
belong semantically to the modification. Nevertheless, in functional-syntactic
92 Phrases and their structure (I)
terms they should be regarded as filling the predeterminer slot. What underlines
this point is that they also occur without adjectives, i.e. when there is no modi-
fication. Both cases are illustrated in the following diagram:

(65) Noun phrase

Premodification Head

Predeterminer Determiner Modification

adverb phrase article adjective phrase/Ø noun

quite a good performance
rather a fool
such a bore
Adverbs of place and time can also appear in noun phrases as postmodifiers:

(66) a. My relatives here are all on my father´s side.

b. The workplace nowadays is more flexible than it used to be.

This applies especially to those that specify directions with nouns referring to
dimensions of time and space:

(67) a. four months ago; three years hence.

b. three feet wide; four yards long; ten miles away.

The diagram pattern is then, quite simply:

(68) Noun phrase

Premodification Head Postmodification

Determiner

numeral noun adverb phrase

three feet wide
four months ago
 Phrases and their structure (I) 93
4.4.2 Comparison of adverbs
The comparison of adverbs is similar to that of adjectives:

(69) a. Brad drives faster than Mike.

b. Mrs Sims drives more patiently than her husband.
c. Wanda drives as well as her mother.

Here, too, there are inflectional forms (faster) and periphrastic forms (more
patiently), depending on the length of the word concerned, with periphrastic
comparison involving more and less as premodifiers. The comparative phrase with
than or as functions as the adverb complement. Again, full details on usage can be
found in SAGE, pp. 218–20 or in LGSWE, pp. 544–50:

(70) Adverb phrase

Premodification Head Adverb complement

prepositional phrase
Ø/adverb phrase adverb
faster than Mike
more patiently than her husband
as well as her mother

As has already been said, adverb complements occur only with comparative
constructions. That is, if we add a prepositional phrase, it is not part of the
adverb phrase, but an independent sentence adverbial (see comments on (58)
and (59) above):

(71) a. Brad drives faster than Mike in heavy traffic.

b. Mrs Sims drives more patiently than her husband under stress.

That is, we can quite comfortably put the prepositional phrase also at the
beginning of the sentence:

(72) a. In heavy traffic Brad drives faster than Mike.

b. Under stress, Mrs Sims drives more patiently than her husband.

Rather confusingly, however, the prepositional phrase can also precede the
comparative phrase:
94 Phrases and their structure (I)
(73) a. Brad drives faster in heavy traffic than Mike.
b. Mrs Sims drives more patiently under stress than her husband.

Even here, however, the meaning does not change. The prepositional phrases in
heavy traffic and under stress could equally have other sentence positions and are
therefore still independent functional units of the sentence as a whole. The com-
parative phrases, though, cannot be shifted. Admittedly, they have been cut off
from the rest of their ‘home’ in the respective adverb phrases, but they still belong
there and only make sense in combination with their adjectives. The independ-
ent prepositional phrases are ‘intruders’. They can be represented like this:

 S  P    A1  A2     A1
(74) Brad drives faster in heavy traffic than Mike.

This indicates that the two parts of A1 belong together as a single phrase with a
single sentence function. What we have here is the phenomenon of phrase post-
ponement. It is caused by a kind of ‘interrupting’ external phrase which acts as a
parenthesis. The interrupting element may also be a whole clause. This point is
taken up again in Chapter 10.1.10.

Exercises

Exercise 1
Analyse the following phrases using phrase diagrams:

1 a glass of fine Scottish malt whisky.

2 a few young football fans from Manchester.
3 the many students in our big city.
4 four beautiful statues of Greek gods.
5 all the guests at Terry´s wedding.
6 more clever than Ryan in difficult business negotiations.
Give both a parallel and a serial interpretation of the following sentence:
7 the boy with the dark hair next to Sarina.

Exercise 2
Identify the errors in the following and describe them in terms of countability
and number status:

1 *She lived in an unfriendly surrounding where she didn´t have much

people to talk to.
2 *Can I have an attention please? I have some important informations for
you.
 Phrases and their structure (I) 95
3 *None of the two boys had brought any towel with them, so they were both
unable to go swimming, although every one of them had two swimming
trunks in his bag.

Exercise 3
State the differences in meaning between the a. and b. sentences in the following,
and say how those differences arise. Pay attention to possible contexts:

1 a. The hotel guests in eighteenth-century costume were admitted to the ball

free of charge.
b. The hotel guests, in eighteenth-century costume, were admitted to the
ball free of charge.
2 a. The choir members, with bouquets in their hands, posed on stage for press
photographs.
b. The choir members with bouquets in their hands posed on stage for press
photographs.
3 a. The old pub at the western end of Blakely High Street has been forced to
close.
b. The old pub, at the western end of Blakely High Street, has been forced
to close.

Exercise 4
Analyse the following according to sentence functions:

1 Kate works much better alone.

2 Theresa is writing a book on flower gardens in Kent.
3 The school rugby team get better in defence after a few training sessions.
4 Courtney has been doing well in English again.
5 He has been good at English since Grade 1.
6 None of the guests at Terry´s wedding were from Scotland.
5 Phrases and their structure (II)

Finally we come to the verb phrase, the most important phrase in the sentence
and the one with the most far-reaching effects on sentence structure as a whole.

5.1 The verb phrase

Structural patterns in the verb phrase look like this:

(1) a. main verb alone

work
b. auxiliary verb + main verb
am        working
c. auxiliary verb + auxiliary verb + main verb
have         been     working
d. auxiliary verb + auxiliary verb + auxiliary verb + main verb
should       have         been      working

The main verb gives the verb phrase its individual lexical meaning (and for that
reason is alternatively called the lexical verb). This is the head of the verb phrase.
Any other members of the phrase must be auxiliary verbs and these precede the
head. In a sense they ‘modify’ it in very important ways: i.e. by indicating its
tense, aspect, person, and also, in an example like (1)d., its modal colouration
(for modality see SAGE, pp. 430ff.). However, apart from their semantic con-
tent, the basic nature of these categories is morphological: that is, they represent
compulsory morphological characteristics of a finite verb phrase (see 1.3.3). The
auxiliaries that express them are therefore not ‘premodifiers’ as such, but carriers
of formal grammatical features applying to the phrase as a whole. Sometimes
these carriers are contained in the main verb alone, as in (1)a. As a finite verb,
for instance in the form I work, this shows all the necessary tense, aspect and
person features by itself: first person, present tense and simple aspect. With com-
posite verb forms (e.g. perfect or progressives, see 1.3.3) these features are partly
‘outsourced’ to the preceding auxiliaries:
 Phrases and their structure (II) 97
(2) a. Terry was lying on the couch.
b. He had arrived the day before.

In (2)a. the verb phrase was lying is marked (as it is usually called) for third person
singular, past tense and progressive aspect. The marking for the first two categories,
and also for half of the last one, is carried by the auxiliary. That is, was is a third
person singular, past tense verb form, and also contributes 50%, so to speak, to the
aspect marking, which requires a form of the verb be. The remaining 50% of the pro-
gressive form is added by the present participle form of the main verb. In (2)b. the
auxiliary had indicates the past element in the past perfect, half of the perfect tense
marking (which requires a form of the verb have) and third person singular; the past
participle form of the main verb is responsible for the remaining 50% of the perfect
form and for the simple aspect. Our phrase diagrams then have the following forms:

(3) a. Verb phrase

3rd pers. sg. past progressive

auxiliary (be) head

3rd pers. sg. past

main verb
present participle

was lying

b. Verb phrase
3rd pers. sg. past perfect simple

auxiliary (have) head

3rd pers. sg. past

main verb
past participle

had arrived
98 Phrases and their structure (II)
We thus have to see the verb phrase a little differently from the other
phrases. There is no modification and verb phrases consist entirely of verbs,
without any further components (except, of course, the negative particle
not). It is important to bear this point in mind. It is true, as we said in
Chapter 1 (see 1.3.3), that the verb phrase influences the architecture of
any remaining parts of the sentence. For that reason, what follows the verb is
often called its complementation. This is a rather loose term, however, and
should not be taken to mean that its components are actually part of the verb
phrase itself (as is usually done, for instance, in generative grammar models).
From the functional-structural point of view this would be a contradiction.
If following phrases are analysed according to their sentence functions
(e.g. direct object, adverbial, etc.), then they must be regarded as belonging
to the sentence-level. Equally, the verb phrase can only fulfil its function as
a predicator if the rest of the phrases in the sentence are regarded as separate
from it and on the same level as each other and the verb phrase. So when
we speak of the verb complementation, what we really mean is that its parts
actually ‘complement’ the sentence, in the sense that they ‘complete’ it.
This is mentioned here simply to explain why a verb phrase does not include
anything beyond its verbs (for further reference see SAGE, pp. 273–310, or
LGSWE, pp. 358–450).
Complementation as such is no longer relevant at this point, and we will leave
it for the time being and turn our attention back to the actual phrase compo-
nents. Note that we include morphological information in the phrase diagram, as
this is relevant to the syntax of the phrase. As we said above, a finite verb phrase
must be marked for tense, aspect and person. This information is given for the
whole phrase beneath the main phrase slot in the diagrams. Beneath the sub-slots
we show the individual components of these categories, as they are distributed
over the different members of the phrase.

5.1.1 More on auxiliaries

We will now look in more detail at how auxiliaries are represented in phrase
diagrams, particularly when there is more than one auxiliary. The first point is
to recall the distinction between grammatical and modal auxiliaries (see also
1.3.3). Grammatical auxiliaries help in performing certain grammatical opera-
tions. These are be and have (necessary for the construction of tense and aspect
forms), and do (for certain question types). Modal auxiliaries are those like
should, will, must, etc., which add individual meanings of their own to the lexi-
cal meaning of the main verb. In the phrase diagrams in (3)a. and (3)b. above
we have a single grammatical auxiliary. A single modal auxiliary, as in Kate
should arrive tomorrow, looks more or less the same, though with slightly differ-
ent morphological specification:
 Phrases and their structure (II) 99
(4) Verb phrase
3rd pers. sg. modal future simple

auxiliary (should) head

conditional

main verb
infinitive

should arrive

If a further auxiliary is added (as for instance in Kate should be arriving tomorrow),
it must be a grammatical one, in its infinitive form, and must follow the modal.
More than this, however, the second auxiliary is morphologically attached to the
main verb, as it helps to form the progressive of the infinitive. In order to capture
the hierarchy of elements properly, we therefore need to introduce a head phrase
slot, as with the other phrases we looked at in Chapter 4 (see, for instance 4.1.2.2,
and the diagrams there in (29) and (31)):

(5) Verb phrase

3rd pers. sg. modal future progressive

auxiliary 1 (should) head phrase

conditional infinitive progressive

auxiliary 2 (be) head

infinitive

main verb
present participle

should be arriving

In morphological specifications auxiliaries can be additionally marked as modal

or grammatical. However, this is not necessary. The verb phrase specification
100 Phrases and their structure (II)
already notes that the overall meaning is modal, and if a second auxiliary follows,
as in (5), it is clear because of its position that it must be grammatical. It is also
worth pointing out that only grammatical auxiliaries have infinitives. Indeed to
a great extent they behave in formal terms like main verbs. Modal auxiliaries,
by contrast, are what is known traditionally as ‘defective’: they have no non-
finite forms, no aspect and hardly any tense distinctions (for full information, see
SAGE, pp. 430–1).
What has just been said leads directly into our next point: grammatical
auxiliaries, being like main verbs, also have perfect forms.

(6) a. Trisha had been running.

b. Kate should have been working.

The grammatical auxiliary be appears in the past perfect in (6)a. and in the per-
fect infinitive form in (6)b. As this involves splitting the auxiliary be into two
further auxiliaries, we need to introduce the idea of an auxiliary phrase within
which this can be done (see also the head phrase slot in (5) above). For (6)a. the
diagram is therefore the following:

(7) a. Verb phrase

3rd pers. sg. past perfect progressive

auxiliary phrase (be) head

3rd pers. sg. past perfect

auxiliary (have) auxiliary main verb

3rd pers. sg. past past participle present participle

had been running

In (6)b. the grammatical auxiliary be followed the modal just as it does in (5).
But this time its tense form necessitates lower level splitting and therefore the
introduction of the upper level auxiliary phrase slot, as in (7)a.:
 Phrases and their structure (II) 101

(7) b. Verb phrase

3rd pers. sg. past conditional progressive

auxiliary 1 (should) head phrase

conditional infinitive perfect progressive

auxiliary phrase (be) head

infinitive perfect

auxiliary 2 (have) auxiliary 3 main verb

infinitive past participle present participle

should have been working

5.1.2 Non-finite verb phrases

We have just seen how participles and infinitives play a role within the finite
verb phrase.
But we will now consider how they look when they are verb phrases in their
own right. First of all compare the following three sentences.

(8) a. The children should see Tom.

b. The children ought to see Tom.
c. The children want to see Tom.

Each of them contains two verbs. The second verb in all three sentences is an
infinitive. In (8)a. and (8)b. the infinitive follows an auxiliary verb. As we
can see here, the infinitive comes in two variants, one with and one without
the preposition to before it. The normal form of the infinitive after auxil-
iaries is the version without to (e.g. must see, can see, would see, etc.). The
auxiliary ought is one of the exceptions, but there are others too, for instance
to be to, going to and to be supposed to, all of which also count as auxiliaries.
The point to remember in this connection is that auxiliaries are always parts
of other verb phrases: that is, they cannot stand alone and therefore do not
form separate verb phrases of their own. (8)a. and (8)b. therefore contain only
102 Phrases and their structure (II)
one verb phrase each. (8)c., however, is a different case. Using pronouns, we
could express (8)c. as The children want something or The children want this.
The verb want, that is, can stand alone. It is therefore not an auxiliary, but a
main verb. As a consequence, (8)c., unlike the preceding sentences, contains
two separate verb phrases, one finite (want), and the other non-finite, i.e. the
infinitive form to see. There are a large number of main verbs like want that
can be followed by the infinitive or other non-finite verbs (e.g. promise, expect,
try, learn, remember, seem, etc.). We call such verbs traditionally catenatives
(= ‘connecting verbs’), in order to distinguish them from auxiliaries. This
is important, because two separate verb phrases in the same sentence mean
that it consists of two separate clauses. In other words, the infinitive and its
direct object in (8)c. form a subordinate clause. This is dealt with in detail in
Chapters 7–9, and we will not go into the aspect of subordination further here.
The significant point here is that infinitives can form their own verb phrases.
This is the case with the other non-finites too. In the following examples the
catenatives stop and regret are followed by gerunds:

(9) a. Sally has stopped smoking.

b. I regret moving from London.

In phrase diagrams these look exactly the same as finite verbs. Here the infinitive
and gerund phrases from (8)c. and (9):

(10) Verb phrase

non-finite

head

main verb
infinitive/gerund

to see/smoking/moving

And the same applies, essentially, when auxiliaries are involved. Non-finites can
appear in perfect and progressive forms:

(11) a. I regret having moved from London.   [gerund perfect]

b. She claims to have been working all day. [infinitive perfect progressive]
 Phrases and their structure (II) 103
And the diagrams:

(12) a. Verb phrase

gerund perfect

auxiliary (have) head

gerund

main verb
past participle

having moved

b. Verb phrase
infinitive perfect progressive

auxiliary phrase (be) head

infinitive perfect

auxiliary 1 (have) auxiliary 2 main verb

infinitive past participle present participle

to have been working

5.2 Effects of negative, interrogative and passive on the verb phrase

As was pointed out in Chapter 3, questions and negation require a composite
verb form. This is because both operations need the presence of an auxil-
iary. Only auxiliaries can participate in inversion, i.e. the position change
of subject and verb in questions. Only auxiliaries can be followed by not,
the negative particle, when verbs are negated. If there is no auxiliary in the
equivalent affirmative (i.e. positive) and declarative (statement) form of the
104 Phrases and their structure (II)
sentence, the ‘dummy’ grammatical auxiliary do must be added (known as
do-support). Details are given in the next sections below.

5.2.1 Negation
Negation was dealt with thoroughly in 3.3. However, we want to re-consider
it here firstly as a reminder and, secondly, from the perspective of a procedure.
What is the process involved in negating verbs? As our starting point we will
take the two affirmative sentence examples in (13):

(13) a. Christine has read a lot of crime fiction.

b. Christine reads a lot of crime fiction.

What mental steps should we observe when proceeding from affirmative to

negative? For (13)a. these would be:

(14) a. Christine has read a lot of crime fiction. [affirmative]

auxiliary present

negative particle follows

b. Christine has not read a lot of crime fiction. [negative]

And for (13)b.:

(15) a. Christine reads a lot of crime fiction. [affirmative]

no auxiliary

do-support needed, then negative particle

b. Christine does not read a lot of crime fiction. [negative]

As pointed out in 3.3, using the weak form of the negative particle (n´t) tends to
emphasise the importance of the auxiliary in negation, as in writing the particle
is treated as an affix of the auxiliary:
 Phrases and their structure (II) 105
(16) a. Christine doesn´t read a lot of crime fiction.
b. Christine hasn´t read a lot of crime fiction.

In sentence-analytical terms we will therefore treat the negative particle, even

in its separate full form not, simply as a morphological part of the auxiliary verb.

5.2.2 The interrogative

As said above and shown in 3.1, questions are subject to the same auxiliary con-
dition as negatives. Conversion of a declarative sentence into an interrogative
one therefore involves the same procedural issue as that shown in (14) and (15):
do-support must be given if there is no auxiliary present. After this point has been
resolved, inversion of subject and auxiliary follows. Taking the declaratives in
(13) as the base, we then get

(17) a. Has Christine read a lot of crime fiction?

b. Does Christine read a lot of crime fiction?

As the subject noun phrase now interrupts the phrase, we have a case of phrase
postponement. Functional labelling should therefore read as follows:

  P1  S   P1      Od
(18) a. Has Christine read a lot of crime fiction?
b. Does Christine read a lot of crime fiction?

Sub-script numbering shows that the two verbs belong to the same predicator. The
phrase diagram looks like any other in which an auxiliary precedes the main verb,
since inversion (as a clause construction) cannot be shown inside the verb phrase:

(19) a. Verb phrase

3rd pers. sg. present perfect simple

auxiliary (have) head

3rd pers. sg. present

main verb
past participle

has read

b. Verb phrase
3rd pers. sg. present simple

auxiliary (do) head

 has read

106 Phrases and their structure (II)

b. Verb phrase
3rd pers. sg. present simple

auxiliary (do) head

3rd pers. sg. present

main verb
infinitive

does read

5.2.3 The passive

As was shown in 3.2, verb phrases in the passive consist of auxiliary be + past
participle, and are functionally marked as P-pass:

    S    P-pass     A
(20) a. Crime novels are read by many people.
  S    P-pass
b. Food was being prepared.

In the corresponding phrase diagrams the verb phrase slot is marked as

passive. The rest is just a case of auxiliaries and the past participle form of
the main verb:

(21) a. Verb phrase

3rd pers. plural present simple passive

auxiliary (be) head

3rd pers. plural present

main verb
past participle

are read

b. Verb phrase
3rd pers. sg. past progressive passive

auxiliary phrase (be) head

 are read

Phrases and their structure (II) 107

b. Verb phrase
3rd pers. sg. past progressive passive

auxiliary phrase (be) head

3rd pers. sg. past progressive

auxiliary 1 (be) auxiliary 2 (be) main verb

3rd pers. sg. past present participle past participle

was being prepared

5.3 Auxiliary pro-forms

A particular feature of English verb phrase syntax is the omission (or ellipsis)
of the main verb after an auxiliary. This is a sentence device in specific gram-
matical contexts to avoid the repetition of a main verb used immediately
beforehand:

(22) a. Sonny can swim, but his girlfriend can´t.

b. Christine has read a lot of crime fiction and her husband has too.

The gap left by the missing main verb acts as a back reference, rather like a
pronoun in the case of a noun. It is the auxiliary, however, that mainly signals
the ‘pronoun’ role, so to speak, and for this reason we call it here an auxiliary
pro-form. What it refers back to is an antecedent main verb. This is always
part of a preceding separate clause or sentence, which means that the follow-
ing auxiliary pro-form is the predicator of its own separate clause, the pro-form
clause. There are several different types of pro-form clause, some co-ordinate,
like those in (22), and others subordinate. Two of the most common types
of pro-form clause in spoken language are question and answer tags (see also
SAGE, pp. 294ff.). The phrase diagram for an auxiliary pro-form, taking (22)b.
as an example, is as follows:
108 Phrases and their structure (II)
(23) Verb phrase
3rd pers. sg. present perfect simple

auxiliary (have) head

3rd pers. sg. present

main verb (read)

past participle (read)

has Ø

5.4 Two- and three-part verbs

We now come to prepositional and phrasal verbs. How do they fit into the
general verb phrase pattern? Moreover, how do they affect sentence structure and
functions? Here again, then, our consideration of the verb phrase will necessarily
involve discussing features of sentence syntax.

5.4.1 Prepositional verbs

With prepositional verbs, as we said in 1.3.7, the accompanying preposition
forms a semantic and syntactic unit with the verb, as in:

(24) a. Kelly´s mother looks after the children during the week.
b. I waited for Jamie outside the hairdresser´s.
c. The police are looking into the matter.
d. They looked at the painting closely.

Further examples are attend to, cater for, deal with, depend on, look at, wait on, etc.
(for a comprehensive overview see LGSWE, pp. 416–18).
There are several points to note regarding sentence syntax:

•• a noun must always follow the preposition (i.e. in a simple declarative

sentence);
 Phrases and their structure (II) 109
•• the noun following the preposition is sometimes called the prepositional
object, but is functionally an ordinary direct object (Od);
•• the preposition is part of the main verb unit, i.e. the preposition belongs
syntactically to the verb (unlike the case with a prepositional phrase, where
it forms a unit with the noun following).

The conception of the prepositional verb as a syntactic category is based

on the meaning relationship between the verb and the preposition. So it
is another good example of how syntax often reflects what are essentially
semantic factors. Because of this we will briefly consider the meaning rela-
tions involved here and how they differ from the normal case of a preposition
simply following a verb.

5.4.1.1 The semantics of prepositional verbs

Semantically, the significant point about prepositional verbs is that verb and
preposition have a unified conceptual meaning that is usually more than simply
the ‘sum of the parts’. In other words, the meaning of the whole is not generally
just ‘verb meaning plus prepositional meaning’. It is an idiomatic combination.
The idiomatic, or special, meaning is often clearly the case with both partners,
exemplified by look after (= ‘to tend, to take care of’), as in (24)a. But it may be
mainly the preposition that deviates from its ordinary semantics, leaving the verb
to retain more or less its usual sense. This is the case with wait for, as in (24)b.
We find a third kind of semantic relation in (24)c., where look into to an extent
retains the base semantics of both partners, but takes on an abstract or metaphor-
ical sense specific to that individual prepositional verb. And finally, we might ask
whether look at, as in (24)d., is really a prepositional verb at all, precisely because
its combined meaning does appear to be the sum of the individual components
of look + at. This is a fringe case which perhaps many would deny has any idi-
omatic sense to it. Look, certainly, means what it normally does. The preposition,
however, is a borderline issue semantically: although normally locative (= ‘in a
particular place’), its ‘directional’ meaning is by no means unique to look, but is
found with a whole series of verbs, such as aim, shoot, fire or shout at. On the other
hand, it only takes on this sense with verbs that express a targeting of something
or someone, indicating that it is strongly dependent for this meaning on the verb
concerned. This is an open question, but for the purposes of this book we will
regard such verbs as prepositional in nature.

5.4.1.2 Representation in phrase and sentence

In a phrase diagram prepositional verbs can be represented as follows, using as
examples the verbs in (24)a. and (24)c.:
110 Phrases and their structure (II)
(25) a. Verb phrase
3rd pers. sg. present simple

head

main verb
prepositional verb

verb preposition
looks after

b. Verb phrase
3rd pers. pl. present progressive

auxiliary (be) head

3rd pers. pl. present

main verb (look into)

prepositional verb

verb preposition
present participle
are looking into

Functional analysis of the sentences in (24) is as follows:

    S      P     Od      A
(26) a. Kelly´s mother looks after    the children during the week.
b. I       waited for    Jamie     outside the
hairdresser´s.
c. The police    are looking into the matter.
d. They     looked at    the painting closely.

5.4.1.3 Prepositional verbs contrasted with prepositional phrases

Prepositions are very common in English, and it is important to see where they
‘belong’ if one wants to analyse sentences accurately. When we have identified a
 Phrases and their structure (II) 111
word as a preposition, we must then ask whether it forms a unit with the preced-
ing verb (prepositional verb) or with the noun phrase following (prepositional
phrase). This will of course depend on the meaning:

    S  P     A
(27) a. She waited on the street corner.  (= She stood on the street corner,
                 waiting for something/somebody.)
    S  P    Od
b. She waited on the guests.      (= She served the guests.)
    S    P    A
c. The cat has got over the wall.   (= It has jumped or climbed to the
                 other side.)
    S     P    Od
d. The cat has got over its illness.   (= It is now healthy again.)

As indicated in bold type, the preposition and the noun belong together in (27)a.
and (27)c., i.e. they form prepositional phrases (on the street corner, over the wall)
functioning at sentence level as adverbials (A). In (27)b. and (27)d. the preposi-
tion belongs to the verb, i.e. here we have prepositional verbs (wait on, meaning
‘serve with food and drink’, and get over, meaning ‘recover from’). A good test for
the difference is substitution. Prepositional phrases allow us to replace the prepo-
sitions by others fairly freely, without changing the meaning of the verb or its
relation to the noun following, e.g. She waited at/by the corner and The cat got onto/
off the wall. But with prepositional verbs, this is either not possible at all (as with
get over), or the range of possibilities is strictly limited and preposition substitution
alters the meaning. If (27)b. is turned into She waited with the guests, for example,
waited no longer has the sense of ‘serve’. We might alternatively keep the mean-
ing ‘serve’, and replace the preposition-noun sequence on + the guests by a suitable
prepositional phrase, say, in the restaurant. We then get She waited in the restaurant.
Although now ambiguous, the verb could still be interpreted as ‘served’. But the
verb–noun relation (waited–restaurant) has completely changed, semantically as
well as syntactically, from what it was in the original (waited–guests).

5.4.1.4 Complex prepositional verbs

There is another type of prepositional verb which is followed by two nouns,
one before, one after the preposition: ask someone for something, blame someone/
something for something, remind s.o. of sth., deprive s.o. of sth., congratulate s.o. on
sth., etc. These are known as complex prepositional verbs, and have the pattern
verb + noun + preposition + noun:

(28) a. An old man asked Jill for money.

b. This house reminds me of St Pancras Station.
c. The editor congratulated Harris on his new book.
d. A fan had mistaken me for the famous singer.
112 Phrases and their structure (II)
First of all, sentence functions here need some clarification. Generally speaking,
we can keep the idea of the prepositional object. This is the noun phrase follow-
ing the preposition and functions as direct object (Od). The first noun phrase
immediately after the verb is then the indirect object (Oi). In other words, the
verbs here are ditransitive and the first noun phrase refers semantically to a
receiver. This is most obviously the case when the verb refers to an act of com-
munication or some kind of ‘signalling’, as in (28)a.–c. The verb mistake, as in
(28)d., however, does not fit this semantic requirement. In cases like these what
follows the preposition is not an object but an object complement (Co), and
the first noun is then direct object (Od) (cf. 2.1.6). Mistake is thus a complex
transitive verb:

   S     P1       Oi    P1    Od
(29) a. An old man asked      Jill    for  money.
b. This house reminds     me   of   St Pancras Station.
on   his new book.
c. The editor  congratulated  Harris  
  S       P1    Od    P1         Co
d. A fan  had mistaken   me     for  the famous singer.

Again, we have an intrusion or postponement within the verb phrase and

therefore mark both predicator parts with the subscript1 to show that they
belong together. The phrase diagram is the same as for ordinary prepositional
verbs, but with the note below the verb slot that a complex prepositional verb
is involved:

(30) Verb phrase

3rd pers. sg. present simple

head

main verb
complex prepositional verb

verb preposition
asked for

Other ditransitive examples of complex prepositional verbs are: accuse s.o. of sth.,
talk s.o. into sth., persuade/convince s.o. of sth.
 Phrases and their structure (II) 113
Further complex transitive examples of complex prepositional verbs are: regard
sth./s.o. as sth., punish s.o. for sth., honour s.o. for sth., praise s.o. for sth., bother s.o.
with sth., blame sth. on s.o., etc.

5.4.2 Phrasal verbs

A second kind of two-part verb is the phrasal verb. At first sight, phrasal verbs
look exactly like prepositional verbs (for a comprehensive overview see LGSWE,
pp. 407–13). Consider the following:
(31) a. She took off her coat.
b. Bill put up his hand.
c. I have switched on the light.
d. You must turn down your stereo.

We meet the words off, up, on and down constantly as prepositions. However,
they are not prepositions in this case. Prepositions must always precede a noun.
Admittedly, the words that look like prepositions in (31) also precede nouns.
Here, however, they could just as easily follow the nouns:

(32) a. She took her coat off.

b. Bill put his hand up.
c. I have switched the light on.
d. You must turn your stereo down.

Stylistically, in fact, this is often the preferred position. Moreover, if the nouns
are made into pronouns, the end position (or ‘post-position’) is compulsory. That
is, for example, we say She took it off or You must turn it down (and not *She took
off it or *You must turn down it). This shows that off, up, on and down in (31) and
(32) are not prepositions, but what we call adverb particles. When they combine
with a verb, that verb is known as a phrasal verb. The verbs take off, put up, switch
on and turn down are therefore phrasal verbs. Adverb particles belong to phrasal
verbs in the same way that prepositions belong to prepositional verbs. That is,
they are regarded as part of the verb phrase. Here the phrase diagrams for take off
and switch on as they occur in (31) and (32):

(33) a. Verb phrase

3rd pers. sg. past simple

head

main verb
phrasal verb

verb adverb particle

took off

b. Verb phrase
 verb adverb particle
took off

114 Phrases and their structure (II)

b. Verb phrase
1st pers. sg. present perfect simple

auxiliary (have) head

1st person sg. present

main verb
phrasal verb

verb adverb particle

past participle
have switched on

And in the sentence:

   S   P  Od
(34) a. She took off her coat.
  S  P1 Od  P1
b. She took her coat off.

That is, we have to account in the post-position also for postponement of the parti-
cle, using the subscript1 to show that it belongs with the verb to the same predicator.

5.4.2.1 Intransitive phrasal verbs

Unlike prepositional verbs (which are always transitive), phrasal verbs can be
transitive or intransitive. Those in our examples so far have all been transitive.
We will now consider the intransitive variety:

(35) a. The plane took off.

b. I get up around noon on Sundays.
c. Caleb came in and sat down next to Francie.

Here, obviously, there is no risk of confusing the adverb particle with a preposi-
tion, as there is no noun following it. One must say, however, that in particular
with verbs of motion, adverb particles generally have a concrete meaning of place
or direction. And this is usually roughly identical with the meaning of an equiv-
alent prepositional phrase in which the same word functions as a preposition.
Come in, as in (35)c., is an example, and (36) shows a couple more:

(36) a. Caleb came in(to) the room.    Caleb came in.

b. Grandfather walked down the steps. Grandfather walked down.
c. We swam across the river.     We swam across.

In this situation preposition and adverb particle are closely associated. In fact,
the adverb particle can often only be understood on the basis of the equivalent
 Phrases and their structure (II) 115
prepositional phrase (here in brackets), which is either mentioned previously or
implied in the particular context:

(37) a. Barry, please come down immediately (e.g. down the ladder you have
just climbed).
b. The bus stopped and several people got off (= off the bus).
c. The little girl ran to one of the swings and climbed on (= on(to) one of
the swings).
d. The cow came to the fence and looked over at us (= over the fence).

In cases like these we can speak of an ellipsis. That is, the noun following the prep-
osition (the prepositional complement, as you will doubtless recall from Chapter
4, 4.2!) is omitted in a situation where it can be understood contextually. This
converts the preposition immediately into an adverb particle, though the mean-
ing is unchanged. We might say, in fact, that the meaning of the prepositional
phrase is entirely shouldered by the preposition (which then, accordingly, loses
its identity as a preposition).

5.4.2.2 Adverb particles only

As we have been saying, the majority of adverb particles are the same words as
the corresponding prepositions. But there are one or two exceptions. The fol-
lowing are only particles. They do not occur as prepositions: away, back, out,
forward(s), backward(s), upward(s), downward(s). In some regional varieties of
British and American English the particle out is in fact used as a preposition.
It is not standard usage, however. To become prepositional in the standard
language, out must join forces with of: the resulting combination out of is then
regarded for syntactic purposes as a single preposition (or, more exactly, as a
complex preposition, since it consists of more than one word).

5.4.2.3 The semantics of phrasal verbs

Adverb particles are important semantic building blocks, enabling speakers to
form a great number of further lexical items by combining elements from a highly
restricted range of base components. Common verbs like bring, get, take or put
can be modified by particles such as up, down, on, off, in, out, etc., to generate an
almost limitless number of separate items with distinct meanings: take off, take on,
take in, take out; put up, put on, put in, put off, and so on (here again the LGSWE,
pp. 407ff, provides you with a good overview of their use and distribution).
Furthermore, each individual verb itself, due to the very general semantic nature
of its components, can potentially fit a wide range of different contexts and so
develop in daily usage a host of divergent meanings: take off, for instance, means
to detach or remove one thing from another (clothes from oneself, or caps from
bottles), to imitate other people, to leave a place hurriedly, or of aircrafts (and
people in them), to rise from the ground in flight. Entities as diverse as guests (for
the night), hands (in class), weapons (in battle) and sums of money (in business)
116 Phrases and their structure (II)
can be put up; put off can mean extinguish (a light), distract someone from a task,
postpone (a meeting), discourage (someone from doing something), and so on.
One can see from this diversity that phrasal verbs have large potential for all
types and shades of concreteness or abstractness in their semantics. They can
show highly subtle shades of differentiation between quite literal meaning at one
end of the scale, and totally idiomatic or figurative at the other. Taking clothes
off (a line) says precisely what the individual components mean, taking clothes off
(oneself) is slightly more idiomatic, taking off the queen in the sense of impersonat-
ing her is totally so, and taking off as an aircraft does is somewhere in-between.
All this demonstrates again the intense connection between syntax and seman-
tics and how, essentially, the former is the servant of the latter. Grammatical
tools are basically implements of meaning.

5.4.3 Phrasal-prepositional verbs

These are three-part verbs. The second part is an adverb particle and the third is
a preposition: look forward to, look back on, get on with, go in for, put up with, set out
for, get away with, etc.:

(38)       verb + adverb particle + preposition + prepositional object

a. The hikers  
set       out    for     the next village.
b. We     are looking forward    to    our holidays.
c. He     will not get  away    with   such behaviour.

Essentially, then, phrasal-prepositional verbs are a variant of prepositional verbs,

and behave like them syntactically. They are always transitive and the third part,
the preposition, always stays in the same position before a noun or pronoun – as we
expect a preposition to do, of course. Phrase diagrams for (38)a. and b. as follows:

(39) a. Verb phrase

3rd pers. plural past simple

head

main verb
phrasal-prepositional verb

verb adverb part. preposition

set out for

b. Verb phrase
1st person plural present progressive
 verb adverb part. preposition
set out for
Phrases and their structure (II) 117

b. Verb phrase
1st person plural present progressive

auxiliary (be) head

main verb
phrasal-prepositional verb

verb adverb particle preposition

present participle
are looking forward to

And in the sentence:

  S      P            Od
(40) a. The boss backed out of     the agreement.
b. We   are looking forward to our holidays.

We will also regard composite idioms of the pattern verb + noun + preposition
as a variant of the phrasal-prepositional verb, e.g. take care of, find fault with, pay
attention to, take part in, etc.:

  S      P        Od
(41) a. Our son   takes care of   the garden.
b. He    pays attention to every detail.

Outwardly these bear the same structure as complex prepositional verbs and
could also be analysed in the same way (see under 5.4.1.4 above). We prefer the
analysis here, though, as there is very strong idiomatic cohesion between verb
and noun. This is underlined by the lack of an article in the noun phrase and the
fact that there are no substitution possibilities for the nouns in such expressions.
Phrase diagrams for (41) would be the same as in (39)a., except that the adverb
particle slot under main verb would be marked noun.
118 Phrases and their structure (II)
(42) Verb phrase
3rd pers. sing. present simple

head

main verb
phrasal-prepositional verb

verb noun preposition

takes care of

5.4.4 Two- and three-part verbs in the passive

In the ordinary passive the active direct object function disappears. This means
that there is no longer any noun to follow the preposition of prepositional verbs.
Similarly, phrasal verbs that are transitive in the active voice lose the noun
phrase following or preceding them when passivised. As a result, passive phrasal
and prepositional verbs look the same, with nothing to distinguish the particle
from the preposition. Compare the two active sentences in the following,
i.e. (43)a. and c., with their respective passive versions in (43)b. and d.:

(43) a. David switched on the light.       [active phrasal verb]

b. The light was switched on by David.   [passive phrasal verb]
c. Professional serving staff will wait on
the guests.              [active prepositional verb]
d. The guests will be waited on by
professional serving staff.               [passive prepositional verb]

The object noun phrases the light and the guests in (43)a. and c. are transferred for-
ward into the subject position in (43)b. and d. (the passive versions), so that the
object position falls vacant, so to speak. This does not change the particle status
of on in (43)b., or preposition status of on in (43)d., of course. It is just that there
is nothing overt to distinguish them syntactically. Not only the preposition is in
fixed position after the verb: the particle is too, i.e. it cannot ‘wander’ anywhere.
We cannot, for instance, say *The light was switched by David on. Here are four
more examples. The functional roles, as shown, are the same for all of them:

      S       P-pass

(44) a. The stereo must be turned down.  [passive phrasal verb]
b. Mrs Timms was being looked after. [passive prepositional verb]
c. All the guests had been put up.   [passive phrasal verb]
d. The matter is being looked into.   [passive prepositional verb]
 Phrases and their structure (II) 119
Complex prepositional verbs allow only the first noun (i.e. the one immediately
following the verb) to become the passive subject. When the verb is ditransi-
tive, this first noun is the active indirect object. In the passive, the direct object
remains, as indeed it would when any ordinary ditransitive verb is passivised in
this way (see 2.5.1):

      S    P1 Oi P1 Od
(45) a. An old man asked Jill for money.      [active]
    S  P-pass   Od    A
b. Jill was asked for money by an old man.    [passive]
        S   P1  Oi  P1 Od
c. A teacher accused Nigel of cheating.     [active]
     S   P-pass    Od   A
d. Nigel was accused of cheating by a teacher.   [passive]

When the verb is complex transitive the first noun is the direct object, which
in the passive, of course, becomes subject: this means that the active object
complement (Co) then changes to passive subject complement (Cs):

    S    P1   Od P1   Co
(46) a. A fan had mistaken me for the famous singer.     [active]
    S   P-pass       Cs     A
b. I had been mistaken for the famous singer by a fan. [passive]
        S     P1    Od   P1  Co
c. The police blamed the accident on Wendy.     [active]
      S    P-pass   Cs    A
d. The accident was blamed on Wendy by the police.   [passive]

Phrasal-prepositional verbs are not usually found in the passive. Passive forms
are either not possible at all, or, with the few that are possible, are usually
avoided as being stylistically inelegant. Occasionally look forward to and look
back on occur:

(47) a. The holidays were looked forward to.

b. Schooldays were looked back on.

But the preference is always with the active version. In principle this is also the
case with the noun-type phrasal-prepositional verbs like take care of, find fault
with, pay attention to, take part in, etc. One, certainly, has a generally acceptable
passive form, viz. take care of. But the rest, if they can be passivised at all, do not
submit gladly:

(48) a. The garden is taken care of by our son.

b. (*)The plan was found fault with by everybody.
120 Phrases and their structure (II)
A solution offering itself here, though, is to extract the noun from its idiomatic
attachment within the phrase and treat it as an independent object. In some
cases this is permissible (though in others it is certainly not, e.g. in c.):

(49) a. Fault was found with the plan by everybody.

b. Great attention has been paid to detail.
c. *Part was taken in the play by the whole class.

Exercises

Exercise 1
Analyse the underlined verb phrases using phrase diagrams:

1 I had lost my door-key.

2 The windows were being cleaned.
3 Charles said you would be leaving tomorrow morning.
4 Kelly must have gone to the cinema.
5 We should have been staying at a different hotel.
6 I don´t speak Thai, but my wife does. [Provide two separate phrase diagrams.]
7 Chloe resented being forced to give up seeing Najeed. [Provide three separate
phrase diagrams.]

Exercise 2
Analyse the following sentences functionally and state in each case whether
prepositional phrases, prepositional verbs, or phrasal verbs are involved. Provide
phrase diagrams for all two- and three-part verbs.

1 Tom took off his shoes.

2 The teacher came into the room.
3 Terry´s mother is looking after his children.
4 Lynn jumped off the high diving-board.
5 The teacher came in.
6 The plane took off.
7 Carla climbed down the ladder.
8 I have put away the clean crockery.
9 Our neighbours have been searching for their cat.
10 Carla climbed down.
11 We looked up the tree.
12 My daughter is waiting on the guests at the moment.
13 The boss congratulated them on their work.
14 The man was waiting on a street corner.
15 We looked up the word.
 Phrases and their structure (II) 121
16 My son is looking forward to the game on Sunday.
17 The police have charged Fanshaw with murder.
18 The company blamed the low profits on the sales manager.
19 Joe got in the car and drove off.
20 The two cyclists had set out for Blandford that morning.
6 The multiple sentence

The simple sentence consists of just one clause. The multiple sentence, which we
are going to introduce in this chapter, consists of two or more clauses. Clauses
can be joined together in one of two ways: by co-ordination or by subordination.

6.1 Co-ordination
In the following, (1)a. and (1)b. are separate simple sentences. That is, each
consists of one clause. (1)c. gives an example of how they can be joined together
to form one sentence:

(1) a. Craig is a journalist.

b. Millie works at a bank.
c. Craig is a journalist and Millie works at a bank.

Each sentence in (1)a. and (1)b. becomes a clause of the same sentence in
(1)c. The two clauses are joined by the word and, which belongs to the word-
class conjunction. As we said in Chapter 1, 1.3.8, the task of a conjunction is to
link clauses in a sentence. This link is both syntactic and semantic. That is, the
conjunction not only combines potentially separate sentences, but also tells us
how the second clause (the conjunction clause) relates in meaning to the first
(the free clause). In the case of and, it is simply an addition of one thing to
another. Other conjunctions are more profiled in meaning. For instance but
expresses a contradiction between the clauses, and or an alternative:

(2) a. Craig is a journalist but Millie works at a bank.

b. You can catch a bus from here or you can take the train from the main
station.

In addition, conjunctions also affect the syntactic status of the two clauses in
their relation to each other: and, but and or confer equal status on the two clauses.
Potentially each one can stand alone as a separate sentence. All we would have to
do is replace the conjunction by a full-stop. In a sense, therefore, the clauses are
independent of each other. Underlining this is the fact that they can be swapped
over, so that the conjunction clause becomes the free clause and vice versa:
 The multiple sentence 123
(3) a. Millie works at a bank but Craig is a journalist.
b. You can take the train from the main station or you can catch a bus from
here.

This flexibility may be prevented by factors of meaning, however. Sometimes the

order of reference to actions is fixed logically. For example, in the sentence Jason
got dressed and left the house, the clause positions cannot be reversed. This has to
do with semantic logic (and social custom!), however, and not with syntax. The
compulsory sequence of mention would in fact apply even if the two clauses here
were separate sentences: Jason got dressed. He left the house. Apart from this general
semantic constraint, each clause can occur, syntactically speaking, in either posi-
tion. This shows that the two clauses are essentially independent of each other and
have equal status. (The importance of this point will become fully clear further
below when we discuss clauses in the multiple sentence that have unequal status.)
Joining clauses of equal status is known as co-ordination, and the clauses
themselves are called co-ordinate clauses. The conjunctions and, but and or are
accordingly co-ordinating conjunctions (or simply co-ordinators). To these
three we must add a fourth, for, discussed briefly below.
Multiple sentences consisting just of co-ordinate clauses, like those in (1)c.,
(2) and (3), are traditionally known as compound sentences.

6.2 Further aspects of co-ordination

6.2.1 Ellipsis of subject and auxiliary

When the subjects of co-ordinate clauses are identical in reference (i.e. refer to
the same thing or person), the subject of the conjunction clause is usually left out,
unless there is a need to emphasise it. (4)a. shows repetition for emphasis, (4)b.
the generally preferred omission (with the omission sign Ø to mark the ‘gap’, fol-
lowed by S to show what the missing element is):

(4) a. He cooked the meals and he did all the housework.

b. He cooked the meals and Ø S did all the housework.

The omission of a grammatically necessary element like this is generally known

as ellipsis. In (3)b., then, we have ellipsis of the subject in the conjunction clause,
possible because of reference identity with the subject of the free clause. Ellipsis
in co-ordinate clauses is also applied additionally to any auxiliary verbs that
would otherwise be repeated. Here again the less usual included version in the
first example and the preferred ellipsis in the second. (5)c. and (5)d. give further
examples of auxiliary ellipsis:

(5) a. He has always cooked the meals and Ø S has done the housework.
b. He has always cooked the meals and Ø S Ø aux done the housework.
c. With her injury Kerry can´t play football or Ø S Ø aux go swimming.
d. Somebody will come and Ø S Ø aux pick you up from the airport.
124 The multiple sentence
The ellipsis-markers are used here to show clearly what has been left out, but they
are omitted in all examples following in the sections below.

6.2.2 Co-ordination of three or more clauses

When more than two clauses are co-ordinated, the conjunction, unless emphasised,
usually occurs only between the last two. Previous clauses are separated by commas:

(6) a. He cooks the meals, does the housework and looks after the garden.
b. With her injury Kerry can´t play football, go swimming or ride a bike.

A comma may also be placed, optionally, before the conjunction. But this is a
semantic consideration. It is applied to emphasise the distinction between the
two final clauses and tends to occur particularly with or:

(7) With her injury, Kerry can´t play football, swim long distances, or ride
a bike.

Co-ordination by comma alone anticipates the later conjunction and must

therefore express the same semantic link. If the connections do not share the
same meaning, the comma solution is ruled out. Different conjunctions are
then necessary:

(8) a. *Patrick loves the good life, must earn money, or win the lottery.
b. Patrick loves the good life and must earn money or win the lottery.

This rule applies furthermore not just to adjacent clauses. All the clauses involved
(i.e. in our examples all three) must stand in the same relation to each other. As
this is generally ruled out with but, owing to the meaning of contrast, but does not
participate in this kind of comma co-ordination:

(9) a. *She left the house, forgot the door key, but luckily met her husband by
chance at the garden gate.
b. She left the house, but forgot the door key, but luckily met her husband
by chance at the garden gate.

Repetition of but can be avoided for stylistic reasons by substituting and then in
the third clause, or using subordination, e.g., Although she forgot the door key when
she left the house, she luckily met . . . .

6.2.3 Fixed position of co-ordinating conjunctions

A defining feature of co-ordinating conjunctions is that they are in fixed posi-
tion. The conjunction clause, that is, cannot be placed first, i.e. we could not
express (9)a. as (9)b.:
 The multiple sentence 125
(10) a. They took a train but had no money with them.
b. *But they took a train, they had no money with them.

The clauses themselves of course, as stated in 6.1, can exchange positions (They
had no money with them but took a train), but the conjunction must always remain
between them. As we will see later, this is a striking contrast to conjunctions
involved in subordination.

6.2.4 The conjunction for

We have met the three main co-ordinating conjunctions: and, but, or. To these
we can add a fourth, for. Note, however, the starred (*) sentence in (11)b.:

(11) a. We did not go on with our journey that afternoon, for we were very
tired.
b. *We were very tired for we did not go on with our journey that afternoon.

(11)b. is starred as unacceptable because it does not make sense to swap the two
clauses over. With for a reason is given in the second clause for the semantic
content in the first. That is, for is really a way of saying because, and will therefore
logically not allow its clausal meaning relation (i.e. the element of causality) to
be shifted to the other clause. However, as we have seen, flexibility in clause posi-
tion is otherwise a feature of co-ordination. A further point is that for (unlike the
other co-ordinators) will not allow subject or auxiliary ellipsis:

(12) a. We had had a hard journey and become very tired.

b. *We had become very tired for had a hard journey.

These untypical characteristics of for, plus its semantic closeness to because and as
(both subordinating conjunctions, as we will see further below) speak in favour of
regarding for also as a subordinating conjunction. On the other hand, for has to
remain between the two clauses. We cannot shift the conjunction clause together
with its conjunction to the initial position, as we can with as or because:

(13) a. Because/As we were very tired, we did not go on with our journey that
afternoon,
b. *For we were very tired, we did not go on with our journey that afternoon.

So in this respect for behaves syntactically like a co-ordinating conjunction, and

is usually therefore regarded as one.

6.2.5 Analysing compound sentences

We will now set about a full functional analysis of sentences containing co-
ordinate clauses. First, some examples in their ‘virgin state’, so to speak:
126 The multiple sentence
(14) a. For his birthday we gave our grandson a bicycle and took him to the zoo.
b. They took a train but had no money with them.
c. The neighbours are probably on holiday, or have gone away for the
weekend.
d. With her injury, Kerry can´t play football, go swimming or ride a bike.

The first point to bear in mind is that co-ordinating conjunctions are not
parts of the clauses they introduce. If they were, the clauses could not change
position. In analysis we will show this, and the equivalent syntactic status of
co-ordinate clauses, by putting brackets around the separate clauses and leaving
the conjunction outside:

(15) a. (For his birthday we gave our grandson a bicycle) and (took him to
the zoo).
b. (They took a train) but (had no money with them).
c. (The neighbours are probably on holiday), or (have gone away for the
weekend).
d. (With her injury, Kerry can´t play football), (swim long distances) or
(ride a bike).

A full clause-internal functional analysis looks like this:

        A  S P   Oi    Od
(16) a. (For his birthday we gave our grandson a bicycle) and
    S P Od A
(Ø took him to the zoo).
     S  P Od    S P  Od    A
b. (They took a train) but (Ø had no money with them).
       S    P  A   A     S    P    A
c. (The neighbours are probably on holiday), or (Ø have gone away for the
weekend).
      A      S   P   Od S   P    A
d. (With her injury, Kerry can´t play football), (Ø Ø aux swim long distances)
     S  P   Od
or (Ø Ø aux ride a bike).

6.2.6 Co-ordination of phrases

However, co-ordinators link not only clauses, but also phrases:

(17) a. Dave and Sue are on holiday.

b. Rana is going to buy a car or a motorbike.
c. She was tired but happy.
 The multiple sentence 127
We can regard most examples like these as having an ellipted co-ordinate
clause (e.g. She was tired but she was happy), which is then simply reduced to a
co-ordinated phrase. This is a theoretical consideration, however, and does not
affect our formal analysis, which views the ‘double phrase’ as having a single
function. The co-ordinate noun phrases in (17)a. and (17)b. and the co-ordinate
adjective phrases in (17)c. each share the following functional slots:

       S
(18) a. Dave and Sue are on holiday.
                 Od
b. Rana is going to buy a car or a motorbike.
          Cs
c. She was tired but happy.

6.3 Subordination
The second way of linking clauses produces an unequal relation between them,
i.e., a hierarchy:

(19) a. Carla was actually in love with Roberto, although she was getting
married to Paul.
b. When Carla was getting married to Paul, she was in love with Roberto.
c. If Carla gets married to Paul, she´ll have to give up Roberto.

This is because here the conjunction clause is made into a functional part of the
free clause, and thereby placed on a ‘lower’ level. This is known as subordination,
with the conjunction clause as a subordinate clause, introduced by a subordinat-
ing conjunction. The free clause, as the ‘dominant’ partner in the relationship,
is called the superordinate clause. In analysis, brackets are placed around the
subordinate clause and its function is marked above the opening bracket. In (19)
each of the subordinate clauses (or sub-clauses for short) functions in relation
to its superordinate clause as an adverbial (A). In contrast to co-ordinating con-
junctions, subordinating conjunctions are part of the clauses they introduce and
are included within the bracket marking off the subordinate clause. The reason
for this will become clear further below:

                     A
(20) a. Carla was actually in love with Roberto, [although she was getting
married to Paul].
     A
b. [When Carla was getting married to Paul], she was in love with
Roberto.
     A
c. [If Carla gets married to Paul], she´ll have to give up Roberto.
128 The multiple sentence
Multiple sentences with subordinate clauses, like these, are known as complex
sentences. Sub-clauses are also called dependent clauses, as they have a relation
of functional dependence on the superordinate clause. Both this and the kind
of function involved can be shown if we replace the sub-clause by a phrase of
roughly similar meaning:

A
(21) a. Carla was actually in love with Roberto, [although she was getting
married to Paul].
A
despite her future marriage to Paul
A
b. [When Carla was getting married to Paul], she was in love with Roberto.
A
At the time of Carla’s marriage to Paul
A
c. [If Carla gets married to Paul], she’ll have to give up Roberto.
A
Under the condition of Carla’s marriage to Paul

In replacing the sub-clause by a phrase, of course, we reduce our complex sentences

to simple sentences. Note that it is then the former superordinate clause that remains
as the core of the simple sentence:

(22) a. Carla was actually in love with Roberto, despite her future marriage to
Paul.
b. At the time of Carla´s marriage to Paul, she was in love with Roberto.
c. Under the condition of Carla´s marriage to Paul, she´ll have to give up
Roberto.

Clause replacement in this way shows why we have to regard subordinating con-
junctions as parts of their clauses. The conjunction has to be replaced too, as this
signals the meaning relation of the sub-clause to the superordinate clause and
also the nature of the syntactic link, i.e., the syntactic function of the clause.
The conjunction is therefore part of the clause meaning, and must therefore
be regarded as a syntactic component of the clause. Another indicator is the
movement of the clause. As with co-ordinate clauses, many (though not all)
sub-clauses can exchange position with their superordinate clauses. However, the
conjunction then has to move too if the syntactic and semantic relation between
the clauses is to remain the same:
 The multiple sentence 129
(23) a. A
 lthough she was getting married to Paul, Carla was actually in love
with Roberto.
b. Carla was in love with Roberto when she was getting married to Paul.
c. Carla will have to give up Roberto, if she gets married to Paul.

This is a further indication that the conjunction belongs to the clause.

6.3.1 Other functional roles of sub-clauses

Sub-clauses do not function just as adverbials. They take on the whole range
of functional roles, except (naturally enough) those of predicator and indirect
object. Here are examples of sub-clauses as direct object (Od), subject (S) and
subject complement (Cs). The conjunctions associated with these roles are that
and whether. In object clauses that can be omitted in more informal styles, as in
(24)b. (the Ø symbol indicating the omission):

         Od
(24) a. We realised [that someone was following us].
         Od
b. We realised [Ø someone was following us].
           Od
c. Cathy asked [whether I would be at the conference].
    S
d. [That Jake was out of work] did not bother him at first.
    S
e. [Whether I would be at the conference] was uncertain.
           Cs
f. The problem was [that Jake was out of work].
            Cs
g. The big question is [whether I will be at the conference].

As we will see later, subject-clauses of this kind are more common with the sen-
tence construction known as extraposition (see Chapter 7, 7.5.1).
Sub-clauses functioning as object complement (Co) do not involve con-
junctions and will be dealt with later. This brings us to the general point that
conjunctions do not by any means always play a role in subordination. There are
other ways of subordinating clauses, as we will see further below. For the moment,
though, we will stay with the conjunction as the prototype subordinator.

6.3.2 Sub-clauses as adverbials: semantic classification

It is common (though optional) to distinguish adverbial clauses according to
meaning. We say, for instance, that since introduces an adverbial clause of time,
because an adverbial clause of reason, and unless an adverbial clause of condition.
130 The multiple sentence
The following are further examples of common conjunctions introducing adver-
bial clauses, with the semantic specification given in brackets:

although, though (concession); if, in case (condition); when, while, after, before,
as soon as (time); whereas (contrast); where (place); so that (purpose and
consequence); so (reason and consequence); as, since (time and reason).

Again we see the crucial role of conjunctions not simply as syntactic elements
but also as semantic indicators. Semantic identification is particularly important,
however, when there is no conjunction involved, as it is then often a little more
difficult to see the nature of the meaning relations and thus also of the syntactic
role of the sub-clause.

6.3.3 Subordinating conjunctions: points to note

Something to note in passing is that some conjunctions consist of more than
one word, for example, in case, as soon as, so that, provided that, etc. These
are sometimes referred to as ‘complex conjunctions’, but in behaviour and
function they are exactly the same as their single-word colleagues. Another
point to bear in mind is that words with varying uses and meanings may
belong to more than one word-class. This applies to several conjunctions. For
instance, when, where, so and though can also be adverbs; that occurs as a rela-
tive pronoun and demonstrative determiner; after, before, as and since double
as prepositions. There is in any case a close connection between conjunctions
and prepositions. Conjunctions that cannot themselves take on the role of
a preposition generally have equivalent prepositional partners, for example,
although – despite; because – because of/due to/for; when – on/at; while – during, etc.
(As a reminder: conjunctions prototypically link clauses, whereas prepositions
relate to a noun phrase.) The conjunction–preposition relation can be seen
clearly in our operation above reducing clauses to phrases. Here for clarity are
two further examples:

A
(25) a. Frank lost his job [because the factory closed].

A
for this reason/because of factory closure.
A
b. It rained a lot [while we were on holiday].

A
during our holiday
 The multiple sentence 131
6.3.4 Relations between superordinate and subordinate clauses: further
aspects
What we have seen so far is that sub-clauses fill most of the same sentence func-
tions that phrases do: subject (S), direct object (Od), subject complement (Cs),
adverbial (A), and to these, as indicated above, we can also add object comple-
ment (Co), though examples for this last one still have to be given (see Chapter 7,
7.4.3). Exceptions, as already pointed out, are the functions of predicator (P) and
indirect object (Oi), neither of which are available for clausal roles. Furthermore,
there are absolute parallels regarding what is optional and what is compulsory
in particular sentences. Subject-clauses, of course, are always obligatory. Clauses
complementing verbs (i.e. following the predicator) generally follow the same
rules as phrases in the same functions. That is, whether clause complementation
is obligatory or optional depends on the particular verb concerned:

       Od
(26) a. I knew [that I was wrong].
          Cs
b. The question is [whether we have enough money].
           A
c. She went to bed [because she was tired].
             A
d. Sylvia put the letter [where nobody could find it].

(26)a. and b. are part of compulsory patterns (SPOd and SPCs respectively).
The same goes for (26)d., which has a compulsory adverbial slot, that is, with
the obligatory pattern SPOdA. (26)c. has the same pattern, but here, as with
most adverbials, the A-slot is optional. These factors affect traditional concep-
tions regarding the relative ‘dependence’ or ‘independence’ of the two clauses.
A highly simplified traditional view of subordination explains the sub-clause as
being ‘dependent’ in the sense that it cannot stand alone as a potentially sepa-
rate sentence, whereas the superordinate clause (usually called the ‘main clause’,
see below in 6.3.5) allegedly can stand alone and is therefore to be regarded as
‘independent’. This is true of our example sentences in (19), (25) and (26)c. But
it would not of course apply to any of those in (24) or (26)a., b. and d. Here the
sub-clause fills an obligatory function of the superordinate clause, which as a
result could not stand alone without the sub-clause. In the sense of the ‘defini-
tion’ the superordinate clause is therefore not ‘independent’ at all. Both clauses
in these cases are dependent on one another. The superordinate clause is only
potentially independent if the function of the sub-clause is optional. It is therefore
better to ignore any traditional notion of subordination in terms of ‘independent
vs. dependent’. Two clauses are in a hierarchical relation to one another when
one is a functional part of the other. This is the only valid general definition of
subordination at sentence level.
132 The multiple sentence
A final point on the superordinate clause: in the sentences discussed so far
the superordinate clause is what is traditionally known as the main clause.
This designates it as the ‘top clause’, so to speak, in the clause hierarchy of
the sentence. All superordinate clauses in our examples above are therefore
main clauses. This may seem as if we have introduced a second term for the
same thing. In the next section below, however, we come to complex sentences
containing more than one subordinate clause. We will then see that the two con-
cepts superordinate clause and main clause are not identical, and that we must
distinguish between them.

6.3.5 Further clauses in the complex sentence

Our complex sentence examples so far have consisted of only two clauses, i.e.
one main clause and a subordinate clause. Now we will add more clauses. The
analysis here is a little more complicated, and raises one or two initial questions
of orientation: where does one clause end and the next clause begin? And are
there sub-clauses that themselves contain other sub-clauses?

6.3.5.1 Two sub-clauses

First of all some sentence examples with two sub-clauses, here again, to start with,
in their unanalysed forms:

(27) a. We realised that someone was following us after we had been walking
for about an hour.
b. Frank has been out of work since he lost his job when the factory closed
down.
c. Although she went to bed because she was tired, Sally could not sleep.

As every clause has only one predicator (P), a useful first step is to identify the
predicators in the sentence: this will show us the number of clauses it contains
and will also give us a first point of orientation in determining their beginning
and end. The next thing to be done is to decide which predicator represents
the highest clause (the main clause) in the superordinate–subordinate hierarchy.
Proceeding from there, we then identify the sub-clauses and put brackets around
them. Phrase-substitution will help us:

(28) P Od P A P
a. We realised [that someone was following us] [after we had been walking
for about an hour].

Od A
this fact at this time

P Cs A P A P
b. Frank has been out of work [since he lost his job [when the factory closed
down]].

A
[since he lost his job at that time]
 Od A
this fact at this time
The multiple sentence 133

P Cs A P A P
b. Frank has been out of work [since he lost his job [when the factory closed
down]].

A
[since he lost his job at that time]

A
since then
A A
c. [Although she went to bed [because she was tired]], Sally could
not sleep.

A
[Although she went to bed for this reason]

A
Despite this fact

This is just a first analysis, in order to establish the core ‘architecture’ of each sen-
tence (a full functional analysis, including the internal functions of the clauses, is
given in the next section below). Each sentence contains three predicators, and
therefore consists of three clauses. In (27)a., for instance, these are:

•• Clause 1: we realised
•• Clause 2: that someone was following us
•• Clause 3: after we had been walking for about an hour.

We number the clauses just for the sake of clarity. Phrase substitution, as dem-
onstrated in (28)a., shows, first, the length of each sub-clause and, second, its
respective function. The resulting simple sentence We realised this fact at this
time shows that the two substituting phrases are independent of one another.
The replaced Clauses 2 and 3 are therefore also independent of each other, but
both dependent, of course, on Clause 1. Clause 1 is therefore the main clause and
subordinates Clauses 2 and 3 separately.
In (27)b. the three clauses appear to be in a similar arrangement:

•• Clause 1: Frank has been out of work

•• Clause 2: since he lost his job
•• Clause 3: when the factory closed down.
134 The multiple sentence
There is a difference, however: here one sub-clause (Clause 2) subordinates
the other one (Clause 3). In other words, Clause 2 contains Clause 3, as the
phrase substitution in (28)b. shows. In this case there are two levels of subordina-
tion, one between Clauses 1 and 2, and another, ‘deeper’ one between Clauses
2 and 3. From a ‘bottom-up’ perspective we can see this as two rising levels of
superordination: the immediate superordinate clause of Clause 3 is Clause 2.
And the immediate superordinate clause of Clause 2 is Clause 1. So all three
clauses are arranged in the same hierarchy. Clause 2 is a superordinate clause
in relation to Clause 3, and a subordinate clause in relation to Clause 1.
We can therefore say that this sentence contains two superordinate clauses, one of
which (Clause 2) is subordinate to the other (Clause 1). It is the higher one, Clause 1,
that is the main clause of the sentence. Here we can see why it makes sense to
distinguish between the terms superordinate clause and main clause. A sentence
may contain several superordinate–subordinate clause relationships, but only one
of the superordinate clauses (the highest in the hierarchy) is the main clause.

6.3.5.2 Full internal analysis of clauses

After an initial survey of clause architecture, the functions inside the clauses
have to be established in order to present the full picture. Each clause is now
rather like a mini-sentence of its own, with separate internal functions that have
nothing to do with anything outside that particular clause. A full analysis of the
sentences in (27) looks like this:

    S  P  Od   S      P   Od A  S    P
(29) a. We realised [that someone was following us] [after we had been walking
       A
for about an hour].
    S   P    A   A   S P   Od A   S
b. Frank has been out of work [since he lost his job [when the factory
            P
closed down]].
    A     S P  A A   S P Cs    S    P
c. [Although she went to bed [because she was tired]], Sally could not sleep.

6.3.5.3 Co-ordination in the complex sentence

Co-ordination may also play a part in complex sentences. Sub-clauses can be co-
ordinated with one another and superordinate clauses as well:

(30) a. We thought that the team would win easily and get into the next round
with no difficulty.
b. As she was a complete stranger and didn´t know her way around the
town, Kelly bought a detailed street map.
 The multiple sentence 135
c. If a thunderstorm comes up you must take shelter or get on a bus home
immediately.
d. You can come with us or stay at home until we get back.

In (30)a. the main clause (We thought . . .), has two co-ordinated sub-clauses
(the team would win easily and get into the next round) as direct objects:

    S  P Od  S    P   A    Od P      A

(31) We thought [that the team would win easily] and [get into the next round
      A
with no difficulty].

Note that the subordinating conjunction that counts as introducing each sub-
clause separately, but is ellipted in the second one (along with the subject and
auxiliary verb).
(30)b. has two co-ordinated sub-clauses (As she was a complete stranger and
didn´t know her way around) as adverbials:

   A S P   Cs      A P   Od

(32) [As she was a complete stranger] and [didn´t know her way around the town],
     S  P     Od
Kelly bought a detailed street-map.

Here too the subordinating conjunction introduces the second sub-clause just as
it does the first one, but is subject to ellipsis.
(30)c. has two co-ordinated superordinate clauses, both of which here are
main clauses:

   A    S    P     S   P   Od    P   A

(33) [If a thunderstorm comes up] [you must take shelter] or [get on a bus home
    A
immediately].

Note that in this case we must bracket even the main clauses. This is because
there are two of them and they are co-ordinated. What distinguishes them
from the sub-clause is that the sub-clause has a function, here adverbial (A).
This adverbial clause refers to both main clauses. In (30)d. we also have two
co-ordinated main clauses. In contrast to the case in (30)d., however, the
sub-clause refers only to one of the main clauses, i.e. is subordinated only to
that particular one:

    S  P    A    P  A A   S  P

(34) [You can come with us] or [stay at home [until we get back]].
136 The multiple sentence
6.3.5.4 Three or more sub-clauses
Finally, to complete the picture, we will add a sub-clause or two, making sentences
longer and the arrangement of clauses more involved.

(35) a. Jamie had forgotten whether he had told Celia that if she met him in
the pub with the rest of the cast after they had been rehearsing at the
theatre, she should just ignore him and pretend that she had no closer
relationship to him.
b. As the sea was apparently quite calm in fine weather if you looked at it
from a distance, we were surprised when we discovered that the water
became quite rough as soon as we had left the harbour in our small yacht.
c. Although Jane had never spoken to Drury while she was working at the
hospital as an orderly before she took her final medical exams, she now
found that she was soon talking to him in this new situation as if they
had been close colleagues for many years.

We will apply the steps in analysis previously recommended. They are highly
necessary in analysing sentences of this complexity. Taking (35)a. first, we will
first focus on just counting the predicators to give us an idea of how many clauses
the sentence contains:

(36) Jamie had forgotten whether he had told Celia that if she met him in the pub
with the rest of the cast after they had been rehearsing at the theatre, she
should just ignore him and pretend that she had no closer relationship to him.

As we have seven predicators, we can conclude that there are seven clauses, one
of which, of course, is the main clause. Six clauses, then, are sub-clauses; some of
these are probably also superordinate to others. To establish the clause arrange-
ment, we can apply our substitution-by-phrase test. As before, this will also lead
us to seeing clause functions more clearly:

P Od
(37) a. Jamie had forgotten this.

P Od P Od
b. Jamie had forgotten [whether he had told Celia this].

P Od P Od A
c. Jamie had forgotten [whether he had told Celia [that under this
condition. . .

A P A
d. [if she met him in the pub with the rest of the cast then. . .

A P
e. [after they had been rehearsing at the theatre]]. . .
P1 P1 P Od
f. she should just ignore him] and [pretend this]
 condition. . .

A P A
The multiple sentence 137
d. [if she met him in the pub with the rest of the cast then. . .

A P
e. [after they had been rehearsing at the theatre]]. . .
P1 P1 P Od
f. she should just ignore him] and [pretend this]

Od P
g. [that she had no closer relationship to him]]].

Transferring this architecture to the linear sentence and filling in the internal
functions, we get:

    S     P   Od   S  P   Oi Od A S  P Od    A

(38) Jamie had forgotten [whether he had told Celia [that [if she met him in the pub
       A       A     S          P             A
with the rest of the cast [after they had been rehearsing at the theatre]],
 S  P1
she should
   A  P1  Od    P   Od  S  P      Od
just ignore him] and [pretend [that she had no closer relationship to him]]].

We will not repeat the steps for (35)b. and c., but just give the final results of the
analysis in (39)a. and (39)b.:

       A  S      P  A     Cs       A       A  S    P   A

(39) a. [As the sea was apparently quite calm in fine weather [if you looked at it
  A      S  P   Cs  A   S   P    Od   S
from a distance]], we were surprised [when we discovered [that the water
       P   Cs  A    S  P  Od     A
became quite rough [as soon as we had left the harbour in our small yacht]]].
    A     S P1 A   P1  A   A    S   P   A
b. [Although Jane had never spoken to Drury [while she was working at the
         A   A    S P      Od     S
hospital as an orderly [before she took her final medical exams]]], she
 A    P Od   A         S   P        A        S  P1     A
now found [that [whenever they met in the laboratory] she was soon
   P1    A   A            A    S     P      Cs
talking to him in this new situation [as if they had been close colleagues
     A
for many years]].
138 The multiple sentence
6.4 Subordination without conjunctions
As already pointed out, conjunction clauses account only for a part of subordina-
tion. Two other types of subordinator can be added at this point: firstly, wh-words
(as adverbs or pronouns), and on the other, non-finite verbs.

6.4.1 Wh-adverbs and -pronouns as subordinators

Like subordinating conjunctions, these belong to their sub-clauses, which as
usual are bracketed and marked functionally in the following examples. The
wh-words are italicised in bold script. They are discussed fully below.

           Od
(40) a. I regretted bitterly [what I had said].
            Od
b. Mory had forgotten [where he had parked his car].
     S
c. [Why she did not turn up at the meeting yesterday] is a mystery.
          Cs
d. The question is [who we should invite to our party].

First of all one or two remarks on word-class:

•• what in (40)a. introduces what is known as a nominal relative clause (see

Chapter 12, 12.5 for a full explanation), and is classed as a nominal relative
pronoun.
•• where in (40)b. introduces an indirect question (or interrogative clause, see
Chapter 12, 12.6), and is classed as an interrogative adverb.
•• why in (40)c. is also an interrogative adverb introducing an indirect
question.
•• who in (40)d. also introduces an indirect question, though as an interrogative
pronoun.

The contrast to conjunctions is that wh-words do not have a linking or introduc-

tory function alone (as do conjunctions), but in addition play a functional role in
the clause. This is reflected among other things in the fact that they are adverbs
and pronouns, which of course means that they represent internal elements of
the clause. Wh-interrogatives, for instance, as in (40)b., c. and d., focus questions
on semantic and syntactic components of the equivalent declarative sentence
(see also Chapter 3, 3.1.2–3.1.4).
A full functional analysis of these sentences therefore looks like this:

    S  P   A  Od Od S  P
(41) a. I regretted bitterly [ what I had said].
     S   P  Od A S   P   Od
b. Mory had forgotten [where he had parked his car].
 The multiple sentence 139
   S A  S    P     A    P  Cs
c. [Why she did not turn up at the meeting] is a mystery.
        S   P  Cs Od S   P     A
d. The question is   [ who we should invite to our party].

6.4.2 Non-finite verbs as subordinators

Non-finite verbs are gerunds, participles and infinitives (see Chapter 1, 1.3.3, and
Chapter 5). Within their sub-clauses they function as predicators, just like finite
verbs. But they also bring about subordination automatically. (This is because
main clause predicates must always consist of a finite verb phrase):

     S   P   Od P   Od
(42) a. Damian regretted [leaving the company].
    S  P  Od P  Od
b. Clio wanted [to teach history].
      S    A  P   A  A P    Od    A
c. Our teacher once came into class [carrying a small dog in her arms].

Non-finite verbs and their clauses are dealt with in detail in the next chapter.

Exercises

Exercise 1
Analyse the following sentences functionally, putting square brackets around the
separate clauses:

1 For our anniversary I am giving my wife a gold necklace and taking her to a
concert.
2 Tomorrow we will probably just relax on the beach, or sit by the pool.
3 Donna left London early, but ran into a big traffic jam outside Dover and
only just reached the ferry in time.
4 After your long illness, you must take proper rest, do no heavy work and not
walk too far.
5 The children were extremely hungry, for they had not eaten since breakfast.

Exercise 2
Analyse the following sentences functionally:

1 Dan did not know that Connie was going to be at the party.
2 You should call my office if the package doesn´t arrive tomorrow.
3 Nobody had told us that we couldn´t buy tickets on the boat.
4 They got home late because the coach had been delayed by heavy traffic.
140 The multiple sentence
5 That the young couple had no money did not worry them at first.
6 When Kay was getting out of the car, she fell and hurt her ankle.
7 The big problem was that Sandy could not find a cheap flat near the university.
8 The walkers realised that if they did not get down the mountain before dark-
ness fell, they would probably have to spend the night in the open.
9 Stomatos asked me whether I would lend him money if he did not get his pay
at the end of that week.
10 Paula did not understand why the message had not been passed on after she
had rung the firm and explained the situation with her sick child.

Exercise 3
Analyse the following sentences and identify the semantic specification of the
clauses that are adverbial.

1 As Monday is a public holiday, this is a long weekend.

2 We should take jackets with us in case the weather turns cooler this evening.
3 Dinah has been working for the company since she left college.
4 As soon as she entered her house, she felt that something was not quite right.
5 Chris had parked in a side-street so that his car could not be seen from the
house.
6 Though Jamie was new at the firm, he had been given a position of responsi-
bility relatively quickly.
7 Luxury apartments have been built where the old theatre used to be.
8 While I was in the supermarket, my bicycle was stolen from the car-park at
the rear.
7 Non-finite clauses in the complex
sentence (I)
The infinitive

7.0 Non-finite clauses

In non-finite clauses the predicator consists solely of a non-finite verb. As said in
Chapter 1, 1.3.3, there are three categories of non-finite verb: the infinitive, the
participles and the gerund. In this chapter we examine these non-finite forms in
detail. To re-cap, their main common characteristics are:

•• They can occur without an overt subject, and in fact they generally do.
•• When they do occur with a subject, they do not show concord (i.e. there are no
inflections for subject–verb agreement, as there would be with a finite verb).
•• They are not usually marked for tense. Their time reference is normally
implied in the context, and is generally oriented to the tense form of the
finite verb closest to them (very often the preceding catenative). Non-finites
nevertheless have perfect tense forms. These are used to show ‘pastness’
when a time-level distinction has to be made clear between the non-finite
verb and its nearest finite neighbour.
•• Except for the infinitive, which has a progressive form, they are not marked
for aspect either.
•• With certain exceptions, non-finite verbs are functionally predicates in their
own right, and form separate subordinate clauses.

Apart from these basic clausal considerations, a major syntactic issue addressed
in this chapter is the question of which non-finite structures can actually accom-
pany which kinds of superordinate clause. Compared with other languages,
English makes particularly widespread use of non-finite verbs. Their distribution,
however, is usually not open to random choice, but is fairly rigidly controlled
by both semantic and syntactic factors. A central question here, especially for
the EFL learner, is which kinds of non-finite structure can or must complement
which individual catenatives.

7.1 The infinitive clause

An infinitive forms its own clause, whether it is alone or has complementation:
142 The complex sentence (I)
(1) a. We went to the café on the corner [to eat].
b. We went to the café on the corner [to eat lunch].

In these examples the infinitive clause functions as an adverbial (A). Internally,

the infinitive is the predicator (P) of the clause, which in (1)b. is complemented
by a noun phrase as direct object (Od):

                        A P
(2)a. We went to the café on the corner   [to eat].
                        A P Od
b. We went to the café on the corner   [to eat lunch].

In other words, we analyse the infinitive clause in the same way as any finite
subordinate clause. That is, we mark its external function with regard to the main
clause and then turn our attention to the internal functions. Applying the inter-
nal clause analysis also to the main clause then, we get the following full picture:

    S P       A        A  P
(3) a. We went to the café on the corner   [to eat].
    S P       A        A  P Od
b. We went to the café on the corner   [to eat lunch].

The infinitive clause is an adverbial clause of purpose. We can see this just by
adding in order to the infinitive:

                 A
(4) We went to the café on the corner [in order to eat].

More generally, though, we can establish sub-clause function by the same pro-
cedure as we used with finite clauses, i.e. by reducing the clause to a roughly
equivalent phrase:

            A
(5) a. We went to the café on the corner   [to eat].

                   A
b. We went to the café on the corner   for this purpose.

As a further example, here is the infinitive clause as direct object (Od):

        Od
(6) We wanted [to eat lunch].

Other functional roles are discussed in the sections following.

 The complex sentence (I) 143
7.2 The infinitive clause as verb complementation
The infinitive is the most widely used non-finite form, especially after cat-
enatives. It is nevertheless necessary to distinguish carefully (especially in EFL
teaching and learning) between those main verbs that allow infinitive clauses
to follow them and those that do not. A further question with those that do, is
whether the infinitive is the only permissible sub-clause type, and if not, whether
choice between two or more possibilities depends on further semantic or syntactic
constraints (which is usually the case). Furthermore, infinitive complementation
may involve the mandatory or optional presence of an object between catenative
and sub-clause, or on the other hand rule it out. When an object does occur, the
functional question arises as to what kind of object it is, for this varies according
to the lexical nature of the verb. Finally, there are one or two cases where the
infinitive is required without its introductory to-particle. All these factors depend
on which main verb is selected as the catenative.
In summary, then, the issues are the following:

•• Which main verbs allow complementation by the infinitive? Which of these

require the ‘bare’ infinitive (i.e. without the to-particle)?
•• Which of these verbs also occur with other types of non-finite comple-
mentation?
•• Are there syntactic and/or semantic constraints on the presence or absence
of a main-clause object?
•• In the case of a main-clause object, is it a direct or an indirect object? How
does this affect the function of the infinitive clause?

7.2.1 Catenatives followed by the infinitive: general overview

The following verbs take infinitive clauses as sub-clause complementation.
Alternatives are indicated in brackets:

advise (also gerund), agree, allow (also gerund), appear, arrange, ask, attempt (also
gerund), be (also gerund), begin (also gerund), care, cause, compel, consent, dare
(also gerund), determine, encourage (also gerund), expect, fail, forbid, force, for-
get, hate, have (= cause, without to, also past participle), hesitate, hate, help, hope,
intend (also gerund), instruct, invite, lead, learn, let (without to), like (also gerund),
love (also gerund), make (without to), manage, mean (also gerund), need (also
gerund), neglect, oblige, order, permit (also gerund), persuade, prefer (also gerund),
prepare, promise, propose (also gerund), refuse, regret (also gerund), remember
(also gerund), remind, request, seem, show how, start (also gerund), swear, teach
(also gerund), tell, tempt, try (also gerund), urge, want (also gerund), warn.

To these we must add verbs denoting acts of sensory perception (feel, hear, notice,
see, watch, etc., all taking the infinitive without to). These combine alternatively
with present participle clauses. The infinitive without to is dealt with in 7.4.1 below.
144 The complex sentence (I)
We will not for the moment go into the syntactic or semantic implications of
the alternatives given. These are dealt with later in Chapter 8, 8.3.2.1.

7.2.1.1 Main verb + infinitive clause

In this pattern, the infinitive clause follows the catenative directly, i.e. without
an intervening main-clause object:

    S  P    Od P  Od
(7) a. I had forgotten [to post the letter].
     S  P   Od P   Od  A
b. Terry managed [to pass the exam this time].

The infinitive clause, as indicated, is the direct object of the main verb. Catenative
verbs in this category follow only this pattern. They include:

agree, appear, arrange, attempt, begin, care, consent, determine, fail, forget,
hesitate, hope, learn, manage, neglect, prepare, promise, propose, refuse, regret,
remember, seem, start, swear, try.

With these verbs, then, an intervening object between catenative and sub-clause
is not possible. In most cases the monotransitive character is clear from the lexi-
cal nature of the individual verb. Sentences such as *We hesitated him to go or
*I managed her to come, are obviously meaningless. The semantics of the verbs,
that is, will not accommodate such a syntactic pattern. However, this is not nec-
essarily the case with other members of the group. For example, promise and refuse
can both be ditransitive from the perspective of their semantics. Syntactically,
however, the ditransitive construction with these two verbs is allowed only in
simple sentences. It is not possible when one of the objects is an infinitive clause.
(8)a. is therefore permissible, but (8)b. is not:

(8) a. The boss promised/refused his workers a pay-rise.

b. *The boss promised/refused his workers to grant a pay-rise.

7.2.1.2 Main verb + object + infinitive clause

Verbs in this group require an object before the infinitive, i.e. in the main clause.
Depending on the verb, this is either a direct or an indirect object. After a direct
object the infinitive clause functions as an object complement. After an indirect
object it functions itself as the direct object:

      S   P   Od     Co P     A

(9) a. Bad weather forced the boats [to return to harbour].
     S   P  Oi   Od P    A
b. Mother told the children [to stay in the garden].
 The complex sentence (I) 145
Functionally, then, we have two possible patterns here: one is ditransitive, the
other complex transitive.
In the ditransitive pattern (9b.), the noun phrase following the verb takes on
the semantic role of recipient. This is the case when the verb expresses an act of
communication, such as an utterance, or some other form of ‘giving and sending’.
Examples are:

advise, allow, forbid, instruct, invite, order, permit, persuade, remind, request, show
how, teach, tell, urge, warn.

The complex transitive pattern (9a.) occurs with verbs that convey some other
kind of force or influence affecting the noun phrase, e.g.:

compel, encourage, force, lead, oblige, tempt.

7.2.1.3 With or without the intervening main-clause object

The verbs in this group can take either of the patterns presented in 7.2.1.1 and
7.2.1.2, depending upon the meaning intended:

     S  P   Od  P Od
(10) a. Ted wanted [to marry Jane].
     S  P  Od  Co P Od
b. Ted wanted Jane   [to marry him].

When there is a main-clause object, most verbs here are complex transitive. But
the ditransitive pattern can also occur, as in (11)b.:

      S   P      Od P   Od
(11) a. Charlene has asked [to borrow Jake´s car].
      S   P    Oi Od P   Od
b. Charlene has asked Tim [to borrow Jake´s car].

Verbs in this group include:

ask, dare, expect, hate, help, intend, like, love, mean, need, prefer, want.

7.2.1.4 The infinitive clause as subject complement or adverbial

Subject complements, to re-cap, occur after verbs of ‘being’, ‘becoming’ and
‘seeming’ (e.g. be, become, seem). Some of the verbs within this group can take
infinitive clause complementation. The infinitive clause then functions as
subject complement:
146 The complex sentence (I)
     S   P  Cs P  A
(12) a. Gerald appears [to be in Paris].
     S   P  Cs  P  Od
b. Sonia came [to hate Ryan].
     S  P  Cs P   A
c. My job is   [to cook for the team].

As adverbials, infinitive clauses always express the meaning of purpose, and can
invariably be expanded by in order:

      S   P  A   A     P   A
(13) a. Gerald went to Paris [(in order) to be with Michelle].
    A    P     Od     A   S P   Od
b. [(In order) to achieve real success in this job], you need a lot of luck.

7.3 The subject of an infinitive clause

The subject of an infinitive is not usually stated as such explicitly, but is implied
according to certain syntactic principles. Consider again our examples from (11)
above, now repeated in (14):

(14) a. Charlene has asked to borrow Jake´s car.

b. Charlene has asked Tim to borrow Jake´s car

In (14)a. Charlene, the subject of the main clause, is also the implied subject of
to borrow. Charlene, that is, intends to borrow Jake´s car herself. In (14)b. the
intended borrower is Tim. Underlying this is the following rule:

•• if there is a main-clause object preceding the infinitive, this is understood as

the implied subject of the infinitive;
•• otherwise, it is the main-clause subject which is understood as the implied
subject of the infinitive (as in 14a.).

Putting it simply, then, the relation across the two clauses is object–subject when
there is a main-clause object present (as in 14b.), and subject–subject when there
is not (as in 14a.). The subject–subject relation applies also when the infinitive
clause functions as an adverbial:

(15) a. The driver of the car braked suddenly to avoid a dog in the road.
b. To get there on time tomorrow, we should leave the house by 7 am.

In (15)a. the subject of both verb phrases (braked and to avoid) is the driver of the
car. In (15)b. the subject of both verb phrases (to get and should leave) is we.
 The complex sentence (I) 147
Violation of these principles leads to ungrammatical sentences:

(16) a. *Charlene has asked me to borrow my car.

b. *To get away on time tomorrow, the car must be loaded tonight.

The object–subject rule designates me in (16)a. as the desired borrower of the

car, but that is clearly not the intended meaning. Either the pronoun must
be omitted (Charlene has asked to borrow my car, see analogy to (14)a., or the
sub-clause must be finite, thus specifying subject relations: Charlene has asked
me whether she can borrow my car. There is a similar deviant subject relation
in (16)b., this time brought about by violation of the subject–subject rule:
the syntax makes the car the subject of to get away, which clearly militates
against semantic logic. The necessary amendment must introduce a contextu-
ally compatible subject into the main clause, e.g. . . .we must load the car. . .,
or specify the same referent as subject of the sub-clause. One way of doing this
is to make the sub-clause finite, e.g. in the form If we intend to get away . . . .
Another is to put the verb in the main clause into the active voice: . . . we
must load the car . . . .
It is also possible to specify infinitive subjects in syntactically overt form. This
is discussed further in Chapter 12, 12.2.3.

7.3.1 Subject relations with infinitive clauses as subject complements

Subject-identity principles with clauses as subject complement are not always
quite so straightforward as in the cases discussed so far. Let us return for a moment
to the examples in (12) above, repeated here as (17):

(17) a. Gerald appears to be in Paris.

b. Sonia came to hate Ryan.
c. My job is to cook for the team.

In (17)a. and b. our subject–subject rule applies as we would expect from what
was said in the preceding section: that is, in the absence of any objects, the
main-clause subjects Gerald and Sonia are the implied subjects of their respec-
tive infinitive clauses. In (17)c., however, this is not so. Clearly, my job is not
the implied subject of to cook. This has to do with the lexical nature of the verb
be, which here means ‘consist of’ and confers the meaning of equivalence on
the relation of subject to subject complement. Consequently (and in contrast
to a. and b.), subject and subject complement can swap functions, allowing the
infinitive clause to become the subject without changing the basic semantics of
the sentence:

   S         P Cs
(18) [To cook for the team] is my job.
148 The complex sentence (I)
The message here is that the lexical nature of be suspends the subject-identity
principles which normally apply to main verb complementation by infinitive
clauses, even to those in the subject complement function. The unique charac-
ter of be in this respect is further underlined by other factors: a gerund clause is
also possible in the same meaning and function (My job is cooking for the team,
see Chapter 8, 8.1), and likewise the construction we will meet further below as
extraposition (see Chapter 12, 12.1). Neither of these alternatives apply to other
verbs taking infinitive clauses as subject complements.
So where does this leave us as far as subject interpretation is concerned?
The answer is that if syntactic principles of implication are absent, context and
semantics ultimately decide. Certain references in the sentence may give more or
less foolproof clues, it is true. In (18), for instance, the possessive determiner my
(in my job) clearly indicates the speaker or writer as the subject of cook. However,
signals such as genitives, possessives and other pointers may not be as obvious as
this. Consider the following:

(19) a. The firm´s main strategy this year is to develop new markets abroad.
b. Kate´s idea was to meet at the station.
c. The best solution would be to play Morris and Kinley in midfield.

In (19)a. the s-genitive firm´s appears to indicate beyond all doubt that this noun
is the subject of develop. Actually, however, it is additionally the lexis of strategy
(‘a course of action’) that helps us to conclude this: develop equals a course of
action ‘belonging to’ firm. The context of the sentence (in, say, discourse on
company economics) and our world knowledge that this is the kind of thing com-
panies do, are also factors flowing into our syntactic understanding of the subject
relation. In (19)b. we can likewise assume subject relations from the genitive: the
surrounding context, however, might tell us that Kate is not the only subject of
meet, but that there are others involved in the plan. (19)c. is entirely dependent
on context and/or co-text: whose ‘solution’ is being referred to here? Again, lexis
(play, midfield) and general knowledge about team-sports and club decisions on
player positions before a game also support our understanding of who or what the
subject of the infinitive is.
Having considered all these internal and external factors involved in lan-
guage meaning, we should now add that infinitive subjects can be specified as
such syntactically. This is examined in the next section.

7.3.2 Overt subject specification in the infinitive clause

A subject can be introduced overtly into an infinitive clause using the prepo-
sition for:

(20) a. Kate´s idea was for Tim and Mike to meet at the station.
b. For us to get away on time tomorrow, the car must be loaded tonight.
c. The best solution would be for the manager to play Morris and Kinley
in midfield.
 The complex sentence (I) 149
The for-construction comes into play especially when the infinitive subject is
different from what would otherwise be implied. (19)b., for instance, as we saw,
implies that Kate is at least one of the subjects of meet. (20)a., by contrast, tells
us a completely different story. In this version Kate is definitely not involved
in the meeting. Her ‘idea’ is about a meeting between two other people. These
therefore need to be marked as the subject of the infinitive. (20)b. is a further
way of making the earlier deviant sentence in (16)b. grammatical. Without
the overt introduction of we as the subject, the sentence is ungrammatical, as
previously explained, since it then wrongly implies the car as the subject of the
infinitive. The for-construction redresses the imbalance. (20)c., by contrast, can
be felicitously interpreted in the same way as its predecessor, (19)c., without the
for-construction. Context and ‘experience’, as explained in the previous section,
would allow us to interpret (19)c. quite correctly in its intended sense. Subject-
specification by for simply provides clarification beyond all doubt. In addition, it
emphasises the subject, which could be important for contextual reasons within
the discourse.
The for-construction occurs particularly frequently with extraposition (see
below and Chapter 12, 12.1). But how can the for-construction be represented in
functional analysis? This is still an open question in the theory. For the purposes
of this book, we will give two possible alternatives:

      S   P Cs A        P   A
(21) a. Kate´s idea was [ (for Tim and Mike) to meet at the station].
      S    P Cs    S     P   A
b. Kate´s idea was [for Tim and Mike to meet at the station].

The first solution, in (21)a., integrates for as a preposition into a prepositional

phrase, doing better justice to standard syntactical patterning, but on the other
hand failing to capture the subject role of the noun phrase. In (21)b. the preposi-
tion for is not treated as a preposition, but as a kind of eccentric ‘conjunction’,
whose job is simply to introduce the sub-clause. The noun-phrase Tim and Mike
can then accordingly be marked as what it essentially is, i.e. as the subject of the
infinitive. Tendentially, this is the solution we prefer.

7.4 Some special cases in complementation by infinitive clause

Complementation by the infinitive is subject to one or two special conditions
with certain kinds of catenative: these concern the use of the ‘bare’ infinitive (i.e.
without to), restrictions on the catenative use of verbs in certain lexical fields,
and also the preference for passive constructions with some catenatives.

7.4.1 The infinitive without to

The bare infinitive is encountered most widely with modal auxiliaries (You must
see that film; My father can speak several languages). But there are certain catena-
tives that also require it in the pattern verb + object + infinitive clause:
150 The complex sentence (I)
•• Verbs of sensory perception (such as feel, hear, notice, see, watch, etc.):

    S  P   Od   Co P    A

(22) a. We saw the man   [swim across the river].
     S  P  Od   Co P  A
b. Katie heard someone   [come up the stairs].

The meaning in these cases is that the whole of the action expressed by the
infinitive verb was perceived, including its end. In (22)a., that is, the onlook-
ers saw the man swim from one riverbank to the other, while in (22)b. the
subject Katie perceived that the person on the stairs started at the bottom
and arrived at the top. The semantics are important, since the same verbs can
be complemented by participles, though then with a different meaning (see
Chapter 9).

•• The verbs let (= allow), make (= force), and have (= cause/order):

    S   P  Od  Co P   A
(23) a. We do not let guests   [smoke in the house].
     S   P   Od  Co P A
b. Hunger made the children [hurry home].

7.4.2 Verbs of knowing and thinking

Verbs from the semantic field of mental states and activities have a restricted
range of infinitive complementation: they can only be combined with the infini-
tives of be and have, and only with an intervening object (functioning as Od):

(24) a. Yorkshire police knew Bradley to be violent.

b. The committee considered these two candidates to have the best
qualifications.
c. Many guests assumed the man in the dark suit to be the bridegroom.

Infinitive structures in these cases are stylistically elevated. More neutral are the
equivalent finite clauses with the conjunction that. The infinitive versions are
more commonly used with the catenatives in the passive, especially when the
agent is generalised, or clearly indicated in the context, and can therefore be left
unstated:

(25) a. Bradley was known (by Yorkshire police) to be violent.

Yorkshire police knew that Bradley was violent.
b. These two candidates were considered (by the committee) to have the
best qualifications.
 The complex sentence (I) 151
The committee considered that these two candidates had the best
qualifications.
c. The man in the dark suit was assumed (by many guests) to be the
bridegroom.
Many guests assumed that the man in the dark suit was the bridegroom.

7.4.3 Catenatives in the passive

Passive constructions are popular with catenatives in certain contexts. This is
usually because, as generally in passive usage, action and patient are profiled and
the agent is unknown or unimportant. An additional motive, especially with
commands, requests and other forms of communicated obligation, is that the pas-
sive has a softening effect. It emphasises the responsibility of the patient, but does
so without mentioning the agent as the authority behind the communication:

(26) a. Passengers are kindly requested to remain seated during the flight.
b. Visitors to the private zoo were forbidden to feed the animals.
c. You have been asked to report to the controller, Mr Simms.

However, there are also considerable restrictions on catenative passivisation:

•• Monotransitive catenatives cannot be put into the passive, i.e. the infinitive
clause cannot function as a passive subject:

(27) The authorities tried to stop the demonstration.

*[To stop the demonstration] was tried by the authorities.

•• Ditransitive catenatives allow the passive. Only the active indirect object,
however, can become the passive subject. This is because the active direct
object is the infinitive clause, and as just seen in (27), infinitive clauses are
ruled out as passive subjects:

S P Oi Od
(28) a. The Institute asked Empson [to give a lecture]. [active]

S P-pass A Od
b. Empson was asked by the Institute [to give a lecture]. [passive]

S
c. *[To give a lecture] was asked of Empson by the Institute.
152 The complex sentence (I)
•• Many complex transitive catenatives allow the passive, but there are some
that do not. The chief factors in the distinction are lexical, and are
explained below. We will look at the syntax first. As with the passivisation
of all complex transitive verbs, the active direct object becomes the passive
subject, while the active object complement functions as passive subject
complement:

S P Od Co
(29) a. The Institute expected Empson [to give a lecture]. [active]

S P-pass A Cs
b. Empson was expected by the Institute [to give a lecture]. [passive]

Complex transitive catenatives that allow the passive include: compel, encourage,
expect, force, help, intend, lead, mean, oblige, tempt. Semantically, most of these
convey a force or directive influence acting on the referent of the object noun
phrase. The verbs that do not allow the passive express wishes and similar emo-
tional dispositions: hate, like, love, need, prefer, want. None of the verbs followed
by the infinitive without to can passivise in that form; however, three of the
sensory perception verbs (feel, hear and see), plus make, permit passive versions
(though with the addition of to to their infinitives):

(30) a. A man was seen to enter the building just after midnight.
b. A car was heard to pass the house.
c. The cinema-goers were made to wait outside in the pouring rain.

7.5 The infinitive clause as subject

So far we have been looking at the infinitive clause when it complements cat-
enatives. We will now turn our attention to its function as the subject of the
main clause:

    S P   Cs  P  A       Cs

(31) a. [To get rich] was always my greatest ambition.
    S P    Od    A   P  Oi    Od
b. [To see his relatives in poverty] gave Shelley a bad conscience.

The initial position of the subject clause, as here in (31), is found in formal styles,
but is not generally favoured in neutral or everyday language. The tendency in
this case is to place the infinitive clause in final position, especially if it is an ele-
ment in the sentence that is being introduced into the particular text or discourse
for the first time. This is because medial and final positions in English sentences
are generally rather more profiled or accentuated than initial positions (more
is said on this point below in 7.5.1). The construction needed here to shift the
 The complex sentence (I) 153
clause into final position is known as extraposition, and is explained briefly in
the next section.

7.5.1 Extraposition
With extraposition, the subject clause occurs in final position as the ‘real’,
or logical, subject (marked as S-log.), and is represented at the beginning of
the sentence by a grammatical ‘dummy’ subject in the form of it (marked as
S-gramm.):

(32)
S-gramm. P A Cs S-log. P Cs
a. It was always my greatest ambition [to get rich].

S-gramm. P Oi Od S-log. P Od
b. It gave Shelley a bad conscience [to see his relatives
A
in poverty].

It might be thought of as thoroughly against the rules of functional analysis to

have two subjects in a sentence. However, these are not really two subjects, but
merely two subject positions for the same functional element. The S-gramm.
as a ‘dummy’ subject simply fills what would otherwise be a syntactically imper-
missible gap in the initial sentence position, upholding the prescribed basic
S-P-O-structure of an English sentence, and as a kind of cataphor foreshadow-
ing full subject-reference in the S-log. position to which it points forward (see
also SAGE, pp. 267 and 481).
Extraposition is particularly common with be as the main verb, particularly
so as the construction is almost mandatory with adjective phrases as subject
complements (see also Chapter 9):

(33)
S-gramm. P Cs S-log. P A
a. It was impossible [to swim across the river].

S-gramm. P Cs S-log. P Od A
b. It would be very nice [to see you at the party].

Extraposition is taken up again in Chapter 10.

154 The complex sentence (I)
7.6 Semantics: implicative meanings of catenatives with infinitives
Quite a number of catenatives with infinitive complementation show a system-
atic semantic relation between main verb and sub-clause: the infinitive act is
implied as taking place. To indicate this implicative relation we use the symbol
→ (= ‘implies’):

(34) a. Rangers managed to score in the last minute.

→ Rangers scored in the last minute.
b. The police forced the car to stop.
→ The car stopped.
c. Brian happened to meet Sandra in the bar.
→ Brian met Sandra in the bar.

Implicative relations are logical semantic relations between two elements. If we

call these two elements X and Y and X implies Y (X → Y), then it is logically
impossible for X to be true and Y to be false. Applied to our examples, that is,
saying that Rangers managed to score means Rangers scored; if The police forced the
car to stop is true, then The car stopped must also be true.
Other examples of implicative catenatives like those shown in the examples
are bother, dare, remember and take care.
An important point is what happens when the catenative is negated. In all
cases the implication is then destroyed (not-X → Y). With many of them, how-
ever, a negative implication then additionally replaces the destroyed positive one
(not-X → Y, and also not-X → not-Y):

(35) a. Rangers did not manage to score in the last minute.

→ Rangers did not score in the last minute. (not-X → Y, and also not-X
→ not-Y).
b. The police did not force the car to stop.
→ The car stopped. (not-X → Y).
c. Brian did not happen to meet Sandra in the bar.
→ Brian did not meet Sandra in the bar. (not-X → Y, and also
not-X → not-Y).

In (35)b., the negative of (34)b., the implication of (34)b. that the car stopped
is no longer given. We do not know now whether the car stopped or not. But in
(35)a. the statement that Rangers did not manage to score . . . not only destroys the
implication Rangers scored . . . in (34)a., but replaces it by the negative implica-
tion Rangers did not score . . . . A similar negative implication occurs in (35)b.
Whether a negative implication arises or not depends on the individual catena-
tive: happen, when negated, as in (35)c., leads to a negative implication, like
manage. So also do bother, dare, remember and take care, when negated. Verbs
of perception, however, to name a further example, behave like force, i.e. their
negatives are not implicative:
 The complex sentence (I) 155
(36) a. I saw the three men enter the bank.
→ The three men entered the bank.
b. I did not see the three men enter the bank.
→ The three men entered the bank.

The negation of (36)a., then, leaves it quite open whether the three men (from
the point of view of the speaker) entered the bank or not.
Some catenatives in the positive form have negative implications:

(37) a. I forgot to post the letter.

→ I did not post the letter. (X → not-Y).
b. Fred refused to move his car.
→ Fred did not move his car. (X → not-Y).
c. They failed to reach the valley before nightfall.
→ They did not reach the valley before nightfall. (X → not-Y).

Here the effects of negation, again depending on the individual catenative,

either just cancel the implication, or, in doing this, additionally bring about a
positive one:

(38) a. I did not forget to post the letter.

→ I posted the letter. (not-X → not-Y, and also not-X → Y).
b. Fred did not refuse to move his car.
→ Fred did not move his car. (not-X → not-Y).
c. They did not fail to reach the valley before nightfall.
→ They reached the valley before nightfall. (not-X → not-Y, and also
not-X → Y).

It is important to remember that the implicative relation applies only to some

of the catenatives taking infinitives. Others are non-implicative, e.g. agree, ask,
decide, hope, invite, try, etc.
We will come back to the concept of implicative meaning later in Chapter 8,
8.3.2 when we discuss catenatives that are complemented by both infinitives and
gerunds.

7.7 Tense and aspect

As these fields of grammar are morpho-semantic rather than syntactic, thorough
discussion of them would go beyond the scope of this book. Nevertheless, certain
points of tense and aspect use with infinitives have effects on syntax and need
mentioning briefly.
There are two tense forms with the infinitive, the neutral or base form, and
the perfect infinitive. There is additionally an aspect distinction in both, i.e. a
simple form and a progressive form respectively (for more on the notions of tense
and aspect, see SAGE, pp. 312ff.):
156 The complex sentence (I)

Base form simple Base form progressive Perfect infinitive simple Perfect infinitive progressive

to eat to be eating to have eaten to have been eating

7.7.1 Tense
The perfect infinitive expresses pastness or completion, and can be regarded as
both a ‘perfect’ and a ‘past’ infinitive in one form:

(39) a. Barry seems to have met Sylvia yesterday.

(Past tense meaning: It seems that Barry met Sylvia yesterday).
b. Barry seems to have met Sylvia several times already.
(Present perfect meaning: It seems that Barry has met Sylvia several
times already).

At this stage, it is important to emphasise a general point: unlike their finite

counterparts, non-finite verbs do not have a direct grammatical time relation to
the moment of speech. Their time orientation is expressed indirectly: that is, it
is understood as being oriented to the tenses of catenatives or other main verbs
present in the context. In this sense, non-finites are grammatically tenseless. The
following examples show this principle with the infinitive:

(40) a. Barry seems to like Sylvia.

(Present tense orientation: He likes her now (it seems).

b. Barry seemed to like Sylvia (when they first met).

(Past tense orientation: He liked her then (it seemed).

Here we see how the infinitive retains the same form in (40)a. and b., even
though it refers to the present in the first and the past in the second. The dif-
ference in time orientation between the two sentences is signalled through the
tense distinction in the catenative alone. The infinitive tense only changes when
it is oriented to a time prior to that of the catenative. This is the case in (39)
above, now explained in (41):
 The complex sentence (I) 157
(41) a. Barry seems to have met Sylvia yesterday.

(present) (past)

b. Barry seems to have met Sylvia several times already.

(present) (past-present)

We cannot say *. . . seems to meet. . . here because in contrast to the case in (40)
catenative and infinitive do not share the same time-level. The before-relation of
infinitive to catenative requires the perfect infinitive to signal this. In (39)–(41)
the finite equivalents are the past tense and the present perfect. In the following,
the equivalent is the past perfect:

(42) Barry seemed to have met Sylvia the week before/several times already.

(past) (past-past)

(= It seemed that Barry had met Sylvia the week before/several times
already.)

The perfect infinitive thus serves, as it were, as an ‘all-purpose’ past and perfect
tense. It can function like this as it is not speaker-time-related, but merely shows
the discrepancy in time orientation between catenative and infinitive. Separate
infinitive forms for past and past perfect tenses are therefore unnecessary. As it
does not show the full range of tense distinctions of a finite verb, the infinitive
can be called defective in that respect.

7.7.2 Aspect
Whereas the infinitive is defective (i.e. ‘limited’) regarding tense, it manifests
the same aspect relations as a finite verb. The non-progressive forms of the
infinitive are perfective in meaning, i.e. semantically equivalent to finite sim-
ple forms. They express an action as a whole, completed entity. By the same
token, the progressive infinitives are semantically equivalent to finite progres-
sive forms: they are imperfective, and express an action as ongoing, i.e. in the
course of occurrence, at a given or implied point of time:
158 The complex sentence (I)
(43) a. The builders have promised to do the job by next Friday.
(= They have promised to complete the job by next Friday.)
b. The builders have promised to be doing the job by next Friday.
(= They have promised to start the job by next Friday.)
c. She seems to have run away when she saw the tiger.
(= It appears that she saw the tiger and then ran away.)
d. She seems to have been running away when she saw the tiger.
(= It appears that she was already in the course of running away and the
sight of the tiger interrupted this.)

7.7.3 Voice: the passive

To complete the picture, we should add that there are passive forms of the infini-
tive. These behave semantically and grammatically like the passive forms of
finite verbs. The progressive forms of the passive infinitive exist in theory, but
in practice are avoided because they sound awkward. The question marks in the
table indicate their borderline character.

Passive base Passive base form Passive perfect infinitive Passive perfect infinitive
form simple progressive simple progressive

to be eaten (?) to be being to have been eaten (?) to have been

eaten being eaten

(44) a. This house is to be sold.

b. It seems to have been re-painted last year.

Exercises

Exercise 1
Analyse the following sentences in terms of sentence functions:

1 Grandmother wants to do the shopping.

2 Grandmother wants you to do the shopping.
3 Des asked Frank to give him a cigarette.
4 Carrie would like Jason to come to her party.
5 Carrie has invited Jason to come to her party.
6 I was expecting my brother to arrive on the afternoon flight from Toronto.
7 The heavy rain forced us to take cover in an old barn.
8 My boss has persuaded me to do overtime this Saturday.
9 The children had been told to stay off the grass in the garden.
10 For years Katie was considered to be the best singer-songwriter in London.
11 I refused to let her drive my car.
 The complex sentence (I) 159
12 Sam did not manage to get the job with Lloyd´s.
13 MacDowell´s plan is to cross the Sahara by jeep.
14 It is MacDowell´s plan to cross the Sahara by jeep.
15 It was generous of them to give so much money to charity.
16 She had sat down on the terrace with a cup of coffee to relax after a long day
at the office.
17 It became difficult for us to steer the boat as the sea got rougher outside the
harbour.
18 On the way home we stopped to have a drink at a roadside café.
19 In the dusk I noticed two figures climb over the garden fence and hide in the
bushes.
20 I have been reminded to tell you not to forget to feed the cat while my par-
ents are away.

Exercise 2
Identify and correct the errors in the following:

1 *We promised Mum to be back in time for tea.

2 *The tourist guide recommended to visit the Old Palace in the hunting park.
3 *Dave asked me to take my CD home with him.
4 *To go to the coast tomorrow, breakfast should be early.
5 *Delia offered Nathalie to drive her to the station.
6 *It is not allowed to smoke in this building.
7 *Mrs Frinton invited to come to her house for dinner the next day.
8 *The police inspector made all the suspects to line up against the wall.
9 *I assume my guests to arrive tomorrow.
10 *It was attempted by the firm to sack all the strikers.

Exercise 3
State the differences in meaning between the a. and b. sentences in the following,
and say how those differences arise. Provide possible contexts. How are implica-
tive meanings involved in 3. and 4.?

1 a. Clint saw Samantha crossing the road.

b. Clint saw Samantha cross the road.
2 a. Smoke seems to have filled the room when they opened the window.
b. Smoke seems to have been filling the room when they opened the
window.
3 a. Kylie managed to reach the village by nightfall.
b. Kylie did not manage to reach the village by nightfall.
160 The complex sentence (I)
4 a. I heard the stranger threaten the barkeeper.
b. I did not hear the stranger threaten the barkeeper.
5 a. Simon intended to be cooking the meal by the time Chloe returned.
b. Simon intended to cook the meal by the time Chloe returned.
6 a. Scragg happened to meet Mullery at the station.
b. Scragg happened to have met Mullery at the station.
8 Non-finite clauses in the complex
sentence (II)
The gerund

8.0 The gerund

The gerund is an -ing-form. It refers to actions, and especially to activity fields, in
much the same way as a noun does:

(1) a. Jogging became her great passion.

b. Jill hates shopping.
c. Their favourite evening activity was reading.

There is also a passive gerund with the -ing-form of be, plus the past participle of
the full verb, e.g. Jenny likes being asked difficult questions.
Gerunds are not only noun-like in meaning. They also fill the same sentence
functions as noun phrases, as we can see from these examples: subject in (1)a.,
direct object in (1)b. and subject complement in (1)c. For this reason, the gerund
is traditionally called a ‘nominal’ verb form. Modern linguists, though, tend to
regard this view as an oversimplification: the infinitive, after all, can take on the
same functions, yet it is not seen as particularly ‘nominal’ in character. Secondly,
like any other non-finite verb, the gerund always has a predicator function. It
forms a subordinate clause even when it is alone, as in the sentences in (1). And
this demonstrates its verbal character, underlined by the fact that within its own
clause it can take its own verbal complementation:

    S P    A      P    Cs
(2) a. [ Jogging along the beach] became her great passion.
     S P Od P     A
b. Jill hates [shopping in department stores].
          S        P Cs P    Od
c. Their favourite evening activity was [reading the newspaper].

On the other hand, stressing the ‘nominal’ label does have a certain justification
to it, particularly when the gerund is contrasted with the present participle. The
latter is also an -ing-form, but as we will see later has no ‘nominal’ character at
all syntactically. Secondly, even though infinitive clauses can also be noun-like,
162 The complex sentence (II)
gerunds are especially (and more or less exclusively) so. In addition to what might
be called their ‘classical’ sentence functions as subjects and objects, gerunds

•• occur clausally as the complement of a preposition (a brush for cleaning shoes);

can be the first or second element in a compound noun (swimming-pool;
shark fishing);
•• can be preceded in their clauses by the s-genitive or a possessive determiner
(I do not like Jane´s driving my car); and
•• can take on a complete noun-like character as an actional nominal (I do not
like Jane´s driving of my car).

A major consideration in the sections following is how the gerund is used in sen-
tences and with what kinds of meaning. A particular issue, as with infinitives, is
the part played in catenative complementation. Which main verbs are followed
by gerunds, as opposed, say, to infinitives, or can be complemented by either type
of clause depending on certain other grammatical and semantic conditions? This
question also poses a teaching problem in EFL which teachers are well advised to
grasp first of all theoretically.
To start with, however, we will consider the syntax of the gerund clause, both
internally and externally, in detail.

8.1 The gerund clause

To repeat what was indicated above, the gerund at sentence level is always
clausal. Even when not further complemented, it functions as predicator and
introduces a subordinate clause. This is shown if we go back to the sentences in
(1) and analyse them fully:

    S P   P     Cs
(3) a. [Jogging] became her great passion.
      S P  Od P
b. Jill hates [shopping].
        S          P Cs  P
c. Their favourite evening activity was [reading].

As with all subordinate clauses, replacement by an equivalent phrase (e.g. this,

this activity, etc.) will demonstrate the functional relation to the main clause:

     S   P    Cs
(4) a. This became her great passion.
     S  P   Od
b. Jill hates this activity.
         S        P Cs
c. Their favourite evening activity was this.
 The complex sentence (II) 163
By far the most common sentence functions of the gerund clause are those shown
here, i.e. as subject, direct object and subject complement. Gerund clauses do
not generally occur as adverbials: adverbial -ing-clauses are almost always pre-
sent participle clauses (see Chapter 9). For semantic (and also stylistic) reasons
gerund clauses are rarely indirect objects, though this is not impossible:

       S  P   Oi P     Od     Od
(5) The company has given [building the new warehouse] top priority.

Gerunds have a strong attraction to prepositions, and frequently appear as parts

of prepositional phrases (on arriving, without saying goodbye, by breaking the door
open, etc.). This is a phrase-level function which will not concern us in detail
at this point (see more in Chapter 10). Gerunds following prepositions do occur
in sentence-level functions, however, when the prepositions are attached to
prepositional verbs:

    S    P   Od P   Od   A

(6) a. They decided on [promoting her immediately].
    S   P    Od P  Od A  A
b. We look forward to [meeting you here next month].
      S      P    Oi  Od P   Od
c. Terry´s parents congratulated him on [passing the exam].
      S   P  Od   Co P    Od
d. The club fined Sanchez for [insulting other players].

A word of explanation here: ordinary prepositional verbs (decide on), and phrasal-
prepositional verbs (look forward to) are complemented by direct objects (called
in this case prepositional objects). The verbs congratulate someone on something
and fine someone for something are complex prepositional verbs (see Chapter 5,
5.4.1.4, and SAGE, p. 380). These are mainly ditransitive, as in (6)c., but can
also be complex transitive, as in (6)d. In the first case, the element after the
preposition is the direct object, and in the second the object complement (also a
comparatively rare function of the gerund).
The most frequent types of main verb complementation in which gerunds
occur, as we said above, are those of subject, direct object and subject comple-
ment. And it is these that we will focus on in the next sections. First of all,
though, let us shift the perspective briefly to the ‘inner life’ of a gerund clause,
and consider one particular internal function more closely: the subject of a ger-
und predicator.

8.1.1 Subject matters

As with other non-finite verbs, the subject of a gerund is usually implied. It can
be generalised or specific:
164 The complex sentence (II)
(7) a. Reading is a great educator.
b. Drinking all that wine was a bit stupid.
c. Running so fast had made him breathless.

In (7)a. it is the activity itself that is in the foreground, and the subject, understood
as ‘anyone’, or ‘people in general’, is unimportant. As the gerund can focus on
actions, it lends itself very easily to generalised references of this kind. The other
examples point to specific subjects. With (7)b., certainly, we could only know who
did the drinking from the situation of utterance or a preceding reference: a speaker
with a headache, say, talking about the party she attended the night before. But
the grammar of the sentence itself contains no actual clue to this. Subject implica-
tion, here, then, depends entirely upon context. (7)c., by contrast, tells us quite
concretely who had been running, even though it is unstated in the gerund clause:
it is the person ‘made breathless’, i.e. the him referred to in the main clause. This
illustrates a general principle of concrete subject implication: unless otherwise
indicated (see further below), the implied subject of a gerund is usually considered
to be identical with a semantically appropriate noun phrase occurring in the main
clause. This principle is seen at its clearest when the gerund clause is in the object
position, i.e. follows the catenative. We will therefore turn our attention now to
this case, and come back afterwards to subject-position clauses like those in (7).

8.1.1.1 The subject of the gerund clause in object position

With gerund clauses following catenatives, the principle just stated translates
into an invariable syntactic rule: the subject of the main clause is almost
always the implied subject of the gerund. As with the infinitive, that is, we
have subject–subject congruity:

(8) a. My brother hated playing rugby.

b. Kiara does not remember ordering this computer.

In (8)a. My brother is the subject of both hated and playing; in (8)b. the same
applies to Kiara as regards remember and ordering.
However, this may not be the intended meaning. Let us now assume, as a
variant, that my brother hated it when someone else played rugby, and that what
Kiara does not remember is that not she but I ordered the computer. In cases like
this, when gerund subject and main clause subject diverge, the gerund subject
must be made explicit. Traditionally this is done by inserting the subject between
catenative and gerund, as a genitive noun or possessive determiner:

(9) a. My brother hated his girlfriend´s playing rugby.

b. Kiara does not remember my ordering this computer.

However, as this is regarded nowadays as rather formal and elaborate style, genitives
and possessives are usually replaced, more neutrally, by an object noun or pronoun:
 The complex sentence (II) 165
(10) a. My brother hated his girlfriend playing rugby.
b. Kiara does not remember me ordering this computer.

On the surface, this appears to be a direct parallel to the Od + sub-clause pattern

with the infinitive:

                Od   Co
(11) a. My brother hated    his girlfriend [playing rugby].
b. Kiara does not remember   me   [ordering this computer].

The version in (9) speaks against this analysis, however. Syntactically, genitives
and possessives are determiners, which means that they really have their place
inside the sub-clause. This also reflects the semantic relations better. Semantically,
his girlfriend and me in (10) are not objects of the main verb, and the latter does
not create a genuine complex–transitive relation between an object and a sub-
clause. What was respectively ‘hated’ and ‘not remembered’ were actions, not
people. The persons involved feature simply as agents. For these reasons we will
favour the following functional version for both (10) and (11):

      S    P Od S      P  Od
(12) a. My brother hated [his girlfriend(´s) playing rugby].
     S    P    Od S   P   Od
b. Kiara does not remember [my/me ordering this computer].

8.1.1.2 The subject of the gerund clause in subject position

We will now return to consideration of examples like (7)c. and add two more for
good measure:

(13) a. Running so fast had made him breathless.

b. Working overtime at weekends has exhausted me.
c. Smoking so heavily is going to kill Lucy.

Here we have essentially the same principle operating as in (8), but reversed. As
the gerund clause is now the subject of the main verb, its own implied subject in
the main clause must be the object, i.e. here it is the object of the main clause
that is the implied subject of the gerund. Here, in other words, we have subject–
object congruity: him is the implied subject of running, me of working and Lucy of
smoking, respectively.
Let us now look at the case discussed in the previous section of what we will
now call subject divergence. Here, with examples like those in (9)–(12), the
gerund subject diverges in reference from the main clause object. So, again, the
gerund subject must be made explicit: a genitive noun or possessive determiner is
introduced, as previously, before the gerund:
166 The complex sentence (II)
(14) a. The children´s running so fast surprised their parents.
b. My working overtime at weekends bothers my wife.
c. Lucy´s smoking so heavily disturbs her family.

Reduction to an ordinary noun or pronoun is possible here in informal varieties

of English (cf. 11):

(15) a. The children running so fast surprised their parents.

b. Me working overtime at weekends bothers my wife.
c. Lucy smoking so heavily disturbs her family.

But there is still a general preference in standard varieties for the genitive/
possessive versions, as in (14), when the gerund clause begins the sentence as
it does here.
Another question that arises with gerunds in initial position involves minor
violations of the congruity rule, which, in some cases and with some speakers,
seems to be less stringently applied than it does when the gerund clause follows
the main verb. Consider:

(16) a. (*) Working overtime at weekends bothers my wife.

b. (?) Running so fast made the children´s faces red.
c. (?) Smoking heavily affected Lucy´s heart.
d. (?) Driving across the mountains ruined Freddie´s tyres.

(16)a. is correct on the reading that my wife is the gerund subject. It is gram-
matically wrong, however, if it is meant in the same way as (15)b., since then
there would be a discrepancy between the implied subject and the main clause
object. On the same grounds, (16)b., c. and d. would also be ungrammatical
(especially so as there is no alternative reading possible as with (16)a.). The
subjects of running, smoking and driving are intended, respectively, to be chil-
dren, Lucy and Freddie, even though these are actually not the heads of the
main clause object noun phrases. What these sentences say, strictly speaking,
is that the children´s faces were ‘running’, Lucy´s heart was the smoker and the
tyres on Freddie´s vehicle did the driving: all nonsensical and unintended,
of course. But we give the examples question marks here rather than stars as,
in our estimation, though doubtful for some speakers, they are not impossible
for others.

8.1.2 Extraposition of the gerund clause in subject position

To re-cap: with infinitive clauses in subject position, extraposition is more or
less mandatory (see Chapter 7). Gerund clauses, however, as our various exam-
ples so far show, can be quite readily placed in initial position. Nevertheless,
extraposition is frequently used with gerunds, especially in informal language,
to give emphasis:
 The complex sentence (II) 167
(17) a. It was very restful lying on the beach.
(= Lying on the beach was very restful.)
b. It will be fun running over the dunes.
(= Running over the dunes will be fun.)
c. It´s not very nice sitting out here in the rain.
(= Sitting out here in the rain is not very nice.)

As a reminder: extraposition moves the clause concerned (here the gerund

clause) into final position, where it remains the logical subject (S-log.); the
initial position is then occupied by the ‘dummy’ subject it (the S-gramm.):

S-gramm. P Cs S-log. P A
(18) a. It was very restful [lying on the beach].

S-gramm. P Cs S-log. P A
b. It will be fun [running over the dunes].

In standard usage, extraposition with gerunds is confined to sentences with be as

main verb. In informal varieties, though, other main verbs can also occur:

(19) a. It had made him breathless, running so fast.

b. It is going to kill Lucy, smoking so heavily.
c. It has exhausted me, working overtime at weekends.

Stylistically, to emphasise the point, sentences like these are felt to be col-
loquial. When spoken, they usually include a slight pause before the gerund,
shown in writing by a comma. The pause suggests that the gerund reference
has been mentioned before and is now being repeated as a kind of clarifying
afterthought.

8.2 The semantics of the gerund

The use of the gerund has certain semantic implications that can affect the
syntax. Here are a couple of general remarks on what the gerund as a form
means:

•• an activity in a general sense: cooking, reading, swimming, playing chess, shop-

ping for clothes, hiking in the hills. Because of this the gerund often figures
strongly in the expression of habits: Jill doesn´t enjoy shopping for clothes;
Reading the paper is something I do every day;
•• an event on a specific occasion: Meeting Kenny at the fair last Saturday was a
coincidence.
168 The complex sentence (II)
In both of these uses there is a strong tendency for the gerund to indicate that
the event referred to is in one sense or another a factual experience and actually
takes or took place:

(20) a. I hate jogging (I´ve done it a couple of times and disliked it).
b. Jill doesn´t enjoy shopping for clothes (although she is forced to do it
occasionally).
c. Meeting Kenny at the fair last Saturday was a coincidence (= We met
Kenny at the fair last Saturday and it was a coincidence).

As a result, gerunds are attracted to contexts that we call factive, i.e. ones con-
taining expressions that presuppose (symbol ») the truth or factual status of other
things referred to (see SAGE, pp. 496f.). Typical factive verbs are catenatives like
resent, regret and appreciate:

(21) a. Our neighbours resent us buying a bigger car (= . . . resent the fact that
we bought . . .).
» We bought a bigger car.
b. Tom now regrets leaving the firm last year (= . . . regrets the fact that he
left . . .).
» Tom left the firm last year.
c. We appreciate your coming to see us (= . . . appreciate the fact that you
have come . . .).
» You have come to see us.

These verbs express a feeling, comment or attitude in relation to an act that

happened beforehand (and is consequently referred to in the gerund). They only
make sense if the act actually did take place. Non-factive verbs, by contrast, do
not show this presuppositional relation:

(22) a. Our neighbours think we have more money (*. . . think our hav-
ing . . . /*. . . the fact that we have . . .).
b. Tom now says he left the firm last year (*. . . says leaving . . ./*. . . the
fact that he left . . .).

Significantly, gerunds are not possible in these cases. Non-factive verbs cannot
generally take gerunds as complementation, whereas factive verbs usually do.
This is not a hard-and-fast rule, and there are several exceptions. Nevertheless,
it is a general principle.
By no means all factive verbs express comments or feelings:

(23) a. Billy gave up smoking.

» Billy smoked beforehand.
b. We resisted being tempted by their offer.
» We were tempted by their offer.
 The complex sentence (II) 169
As their factive presuppositions are of a slightly different kind from those in
(21), the catenatives give up and resist do not allow gerund paraphrase by the fact
that. Nevertheless, since they refer to acts operating on other events or processes,
the previous occurrence of the latter is logically presupposed. Presuppositions of
(23)a. and b., respectively, are Billy smoked and We were tempted. Other verbs
of this lexical type are cease, stop, go on, continue. Related to these are verbs that
carry negative presuppositions such as take up, start and begin. Here, that is, the
gerund in a sentence like Billy started smoking is presuppositionally motivated by
the fact that the action expressed must not have occurred beforehand. Other
verbs occupy a kind of middle position in that they presuppose the contextual
presence of a risk or plan of the gerund action occurring: avoid, postpone, prevent,
risk, save, etc.
Adjectives (chiefly evaluative in lexical nature) can also be factive and attract
gerunds, as in (24)a., for example. Those in (24)b., by contrast, are not factive,
and do not allow the gerund:

(24) a. Richardson´s leaving the meeting early was regrettable/inconsiderate/

unwise.
b. *Richardson´s leaving the meeting early was likely/true/impossible.

Catenatives taking the gerund are listed below. Those that in addition can have
infinitive complementation are commented on individually. We will then return
to the concept of factivity in contrasting gerund and infinitive meanings (see
8.3.2.2 below).

8.3 The gerund clause as catenative complementation

As indicated at the beginning of the chapter, a particular issue in the
syntax of non-finite verb forms, and one especially relevant to applied lin-
guistics and EFL/ESL, is the question of which individual catenatives are
complemented by which kind of non-finite structure. Just as some main
verbs are followed by the infinitive, so others need the gerund; others again
take either form of complementation, but according to certain systematic
conditions, sometimes grammatical in nature and sometimes semantic. A
third alternative often given in the case of verbs taking gerunds is the finite
clause introduced by the conjunction that (referred to here as that-clauses).
The purpose of this section is to examine these issues and (where possible)
explore any systematic factors involved in the selection of appropriate
catenative complementation.

8.3.1 Catenative + gerund

The following verbs require the gerund as non-finite clausal complementation.
Some among them additionally allow a that-clause:
170 The complex sentence (II)
admit (also that), anticipate (also that), avoid, deny (also that), defer, delay,
enjoy, dread (also that), can´t endure, entail, excuse, finish, give up, can´t help,
imagine (also that), involve, it´s no good/no use/worth/not worth, keep, mind, miss,
postpone, prevent, put off, recollect (also that), resent (also the fact that), resist,
risk, save, suggest (also that), can´t stand, tolerate.

8.3.2 Catenative + gerund or infinitive

The following verbs can have gerund or infinitive clauses as non-finite comple-
mentation. Where indicated they additionally allow a that-clause:

advise, agree (also that), allow, attempt, bear, begin, consider (also that), continue,
decide (also that), go on, hate, intend, like, love, mean (also that), need, permit, prefer,
propose (also that), recommend (also that), regret (also that), remember (also that),
remind (also that), start, stop, try, understand (also that), want, warn (also that).

With these verbs the choice of complementation is oriented to one of the three
following factors:

•• Lexical semantics: the catenative has different meanings, and these require
different complementation-types. In the following we distinguish between
the ‘gerund meaning’ and the ‘infinitive meaning’ of individual catenatives.
•• Syntax: considerations of grammar determine the choice (e.g. presence of a
main clause object, possible conversion of the catenative into a prepositional
verb, and so on).
•• The choice is essentially free, though subject in some cases to certain
collocational restrictions.

Gerunds and (where possible) that-clauses are usually semantically equivalent,

though there are one or two exceptions. Certain syntactic factors may rule a that-
clause out. Complementation types are discussed for individual verbs in the sections
following. Section divisions correspond to the three main criteria just presented.

8.3.2.1 Gerund or infinitive according to meaning

Verbs in this group are: consider, bear, go on, hate, like, love, mean, prefer, propose,
regret, remember, stop, try, understand, want.

(I) CONSIDER, BEAR, GO ON:

•• Consider:

(25) a. The boss had considered giving Daly a different position.

{{ Catenative meaning with gerund: ‘think about’.
 The complex sentence (II) 171
{{ that-clause also possible: . . . had considered that he might give . . . .
{{ Restriction: modal verb (would, might, etc.) necessary in sub-clause.

(25) b. The interviewers considered her to be unsuitable for the job.

{{ Catenative meaning with infinitive: ‘believe/regard as’.

{{ Pattern: object + infinitive.
{{ Restriction: usual only with the stative verbs be and have.
{{ Passive catenative or that-clause more common: . . . was considered
to be . . .; . . . considered that he was unsuitable . . . .

•• Bear:

(26) a. She couldn´t bear people touching her.

{{ Catenative meaning with gerund: ‘stand/tolerate’; factive: People

touched her and she couldn´t bear it.
{{ Restriction: usual only with negated can/could in main clause.
{{ Related meaning with negated verb and no modal, but passive sense
(see also want under (vi) below):
{{ The consequences don´t bear thinking about (= . . . are too awful to
be considered).

(26) b. She couldn´t bear people to touch her.

{{ Catenative meaning with infinitive: also ‘stand/tolerate’, but infini-

tive non-factive: People didn´t touch her, because she couldn´t bear it
(and therefore prevented it).
{{ Pattern: infinitive, object + infinitive.

•• Go on:

(27) a. The speaker went on talking about America.

{{ Catenative meaning with gerund: ‘continue’; factive: The speaker

had been talking about America and continued to do so.

(27) b. The speaker went on to talk about America.

{{ Catenative meaning with infinitive: ‘changed the topic’: Having

talked about Canada, the speaker went on to talk about America.
{{ Pattern: infinitive.
172 The complex sentence (II)
(II) HATE, LIKE, LOVE, PREFER:

•• Hate, like, love:

(28) a. I loved/hated going on that boat trip last week.

b. Simon likes relaxing by the pool.

{{ Catenative meaning with gerund: hate = ‘strongly dislike’, like =

‘enjoy’; factive: attitude towards a single action, as in (28)a., or
towards a habit/regularity, as in (28)b.

(28) c. Simon loves/hates to talk while he is resting.

d. Simon likes to relax by the pool.

{{ Catenative meanings with infinitive: hate/love retain the same mean-

ing, but are only used in this combination for habits. Additionally,
the infinitive in British English (though less so in American) always
confers a non-factive sense, suggesting that occurrence of the action
or state is ‘theoretically possible’ but rare, e.g. Simon hates to talk
while he is resting (and therefore refuses to admit visitors during such
phases). Because of this more ‘theoretical’ connotation, the infini-
tive is used with conditionals: I would love to see you on Saturday, but
I won´t promise anything as I would hate to disappoint you.
{{ The verb like can also have this connotation, e.g. Simon likes to relax
by the pool, but rarely gets the chance to do so.
{{ A second common meaning with the infinitive is ‘want/think some-
thing good/advisable’. (28)d. could then mean, for instance, Simon
always relaxes by the pool, as he thinks that´s the best place to do so.
{{ Pattern: infinitive, object + infinitive.

•• Prefer:

(29) a. I preferred cycling to walking.

{{ Catenative meaning with gerund: ‘do both actions but like one of
them more’; factive.

(29) b. I preferred to cycle rather than walk.

{{ Catenative meaning with infinitive: ‘want/choose one action and

reject the other’; non-factive.
{{ Pattern: infinitive, object + infinitive.

(III) REMEMBER, REGRET:

•• Remember:

(30) a. Shane remembered sending off the package.

 The complex sentence (II) 173
{{ Catenative meaning with gerund: ‘recall to mind afterwards’; factive.
{{ that-clause also possible: . . . remembered that he had sent off . . . .

(30) b. Shane remembered to send off the package.

{{ Catenative meaning with infinitive: ‘think of in advance and then

do’; non-factive.
{{ Pattern: infinitive.

•• Regret:

(31) a. Sheila regretted breaking up with Robbie.

{{ Catenative meaning with gerund: ‘be sorry about afterwards’; factive.

{{ that-clause also possible: . . . regretted that she had broken up . . . .

(31) b. We regret to tell you that you have failed the test.

{{ Catenative meaning with infinitive: ‘be sorry about the message fol-
lowing’; non-factive.
{{ With the infinitive regret is used purely as a set-phrase accompany-
ing the introduction of bad news.
{{ Pattern: infinitive.

(IV) MEAN, PROPOSE:

•• Mean:

(32) a. A job like hers means travelling all over the world.

{{ Catenative meaning with gerund: ‘involve/have as a consequence’.

(32) b. I did not mean to travel so far.

{{ Catenative meaning with infinitive: ‘intend’.

{{ Pattern: infinitive, object + infinitive.

•• Propose:

(33) a. She proposed going to the cinema.

{{ Catenative meaning with gerund: ‘suggest’.

(33) b. She proposed to go to the cinema.

{{ Catenative meaning with infinitive: ‘intend’.

{{ Pattern: infinitive.
174 The complex sentence (II)
(V) STOP, TRY:

•• Stop:

(34) a. She stopped talking to her next door neighbour.

{{ Catenative meaning with gerund: ‘cease/give up/discontinue’, e.g.

Because of the conflict she did not talk to her next door neighbour any more.

(34) b. She stopped to talk to her next door neighbour.

{{ Catenative meaning with infinitive: ‘break off/interrupt an

(unnamed) action in order to do the action expressed by the infini-
tive, e.g. She interrupted her walk home so that she could talk to her next
door neighbour.
{{ Pattern: infinitive.
{{ The syntax here is different from that of the gerund version. The
main verb is not really used as a catenative. It is intransitive, and
followed by an adverbial clause of purpose:

    S  P    A     P       A
(34) c. She stopped   [(in order) to talk to her next-door neighbour].

•• Try:

{{ We deal here with the infinitive version first, as this is the most
common of the two structures:

(35) a. We tried to push the car.

{{ Catenative meaning with infinitive: ‘attempt the infinitive action’, e.g.

We tried to push the car, but it was too heavy for just the two of us to move.
{{ Pattern: infinitive.

(35) b. We tried pushing the car.

{{ Catenative meaning with gerund: ‘do something in order to achieve

a further state or action’, e.g. We pushed the car as an attempt to start it.
{{ Factive, i.e. we actually did push the car, as a means to achieve some-
thing else. Could be paraphrased as We tried to start the car by pushing it.

(VI) UNDERSTAND, WANT:

•• Understand:

(36) a. I can´t understand Jane reacting like that.

{{ Catenative meaning with gerund: ‘see the reason for’; factive.

 The complex sentence (II) 175
(36) b. I understood Jane to be in Barcelona.

{{ Catenative meaning with infinitive: ‘think that something is the case’.

{{ Pattern: object + infinitive. Usually only with the verb be, both as full
verb and auxiliary, and also with utterance verbs like say. In this respect
like verbs of ‘thinking’, see Chapter 7, 7.4.2. A that-clause would be less
elevated and more neutral in style: I understood that Jane was in Barcelona.

•• Want:

(37) a. The car wants washing properly.

{{ Catenative meaning with gerund: ‘need’. Informal usage. The main

clause subject is in this case not the subject, semantically speaking,
but the object of the gerund. An alternative way of expressing this
would be to say that the gerund meaning is passive. However, we
cannot actually use the passive of the gerund here: *The car wants
being washed. This kind of meaning and syntax occurs also with bear
(see under (i) above) and need (see 8.3.2.4 below).

(37) b. I want the car to be washed properly.

{{ Catenative meaning with infinitive: ‘wish/desire’.

{{ Pattern: infinitive, object + infinitive.

8.3.2.2 Factive vs. implicative meaning

An important semantic point made above (see 8.2 and example (21)) is that
gerunds usually indicate actions and states as facts, and therefore tend naturally
to combine with catenatives that are factive, i.e. that presuppose (symbol ») the
occurrence of the event or state referred to by the gerund:

(38) a. Our neighbours resent us buying a bigger car.

» We bought a bigger car.
b. Tom now regrets leaving the firm last year.
» Tom left the firm last year.

Catenative + infinitive combinations, by contrast, are always non-factive: that is,

there is no presupposition of the infinitive act occurring:

(39) a. Our neighbours appear to dislike us.

» Our neighbours dislike us.
b. Tom wanted to leave the firm last year.
» Tom left the firm last year.
176 The complex sentence (II)
However, many catenative + infinitive structures, though all non-factive, indi-
cate a certain kind of ‘hidden meaning’ of their own. This is what we called
implicative meaning (symbol →), see Chapter 7.6:

(40) a. Tom has managed to find a new job.

→ Tom has found a new job.
b. We happened to meet Tom in the pub.
→ We met Tom in the pub.

Implicative and factive meanings appear to have certain similarities. Let us com-
pare the factive verb regret with the implicative verb manage:

(41) a. We regret selling the house. [ factive, i.e. X » Y]

» We sold the house.
b. We managed to sell the house. [implicative, i.e. X → Y]
→ We sold the house.

Both sentences ‘say’ that we sold the house. That is, they both contain the same
hidden meaning. But there is a significant difference in the respective relations
to the main verb:

•• In terms of time, presupposed elements precede what the main verb

refers to, and are assumed to be the case prior to the utterance. The
main verb and the sub-clause verb are independent of each other in their
meanings:
We sold the house and then regretted it.
•• Implied elements follow on logically from the meaning of the main verb, i.e.
they are actually part of that meaning:
The sale of the house was what we managed.

Implicative meaning is therefore based on the semantic dependence of the

sub-clause verb on the main verb. Factive meaning, on the other hand, is
based on the semantic independence of the two verbs. This contrast is shown
clearly in the negation test. When a factive catenative is negated, the sub-
clause verb (= the gerund) remains positive and the presupposition stays the
same. When an implicative catenative like manage is negated, the sub-clause
verb is negated as well, and the positive implicative meaning is replaced by a
negative one:

(42) a. We do not regret selling the house.   [presupposition same as positive,

» We sold the house.        i.e. not-X » Y]
b. We did not manage to sell the house. [implication now also negative,
→ We did not sell the house.    i.e. not-X → Y, and also not-X →
not-Y]
 The complex sentence (II) 177
As we saw in 7.6, not all implicative verbs behave like manage when negated.
The implications of the positive form, however, are always cancelled by negation.
By contrast, active presuppositions remain unaffected when the factive verb is
negated: indeed, this is a requirement, since even the negated version only makes
sense against the background of the presupposition. For example, We regret sell-
ing the house and We don´t regret selling the house both presuppose that We sold the
house is true.
With catenatives taking gerunds or infinitives as semantic alternatives, the
two meanings very often show a factive–implicative contrast:

(43) a. Brian remembered calling Maisie last Tuesday.

[factive: He called Maisie and remembered this afterwards.]
b. Brian remembered to call Maisie last Tuesday.
[implicative: He called Maisie (since he remembered beforehand that
he had to do it).]
c. Timpson went on growing very rich.
[factive: He continued a process which had already begun.]
d. Timpson went on to grow very rich.
[implicative: He grew rich (later).]
e. I did not like entering the cave alone.
[factive: I entered the cave and then felt uncomfortable in there.]
f. I did not like to enter the cave alone.
[implicative: I did not enter the cave (because I didn´t think it a good
idea to do so alone).]

Again, this is a tendency only, and not a rule. Apart from anything else, of course,
infinitive-bearing catenatives are by no means all implicative. Nevertheless, this
is an interesting systematic dimension of semantic difference between the two
complementation types with the same verb, and is yet another illustration of the
deep intertwining of syntax and meaning.

8.3.2.3 Gerund or infinitive according to grammar

Verbs in this group select infinitive or gerund not according to semantics, but on
syntactic grounds.

(I) PERMIT, ADVISE, RECOMMEND, ALLOW:

When there is an object (generally indirect) in the main clause, the infinitive is
required:

(44) a. The company does not allow people to smoke inside the building.
b. My friends advised me to call the police.
178 The complex sentence (II)
And in terms of functions, for the sake of clarity:
         S       P     Oi  Od   P     A
(45) a. The company does not allow people [to smoke inside the building].

      S   P Oi Od P  Od
b. My friends advised me [to call the police].

The infinitive remains even when the catenative is passivised and the main
clause object is thus lost:

     S   P-pass     A     Od  P     A
(46) a. People are not allowed (by the company) [to smoke inside the building].
    S  P-pass   A    Od P Od
b. I was advised (by my friends) [to call the police].

What this rule essentially boils down to is that the infinitive is required when the
agent of the non-finite clause (i.e. the direct object) is referred to: people, friends
(45)/(46).
When there is no object in the active main clause (i.e. when there is no refer-
ence to the agent of the non-finite clause), the gerund is required:

(47) a. The company does not allow smoking inside the building.
b. My friends advised calling the police.

And functionally:

      S     P    Od P     A
(48) a. The company does not allow [smoking inside the building].
      S   P  Od P   Od
b. My friends advised [calling the police].

Catenative passivisation is possible here as well, with the gerund clause becoming
the subject:

  S P    A        P-pass     A
(49) a. [Smoking inside the building] is not allowed (by the company).
   S  P   Od  P-pass    A
b. [Calling the police] was advised (by my friends).

This grammatical gerund/infinitive rule is important in the pedagogical context

of a widespread error among EFL/ESL students, especially those with a European
native language background:

(50) a. *To smoke is not allowed inside the building.

b. *It is not allowed to smoke inside the building.
 The complex sentence (II) 179
(50)a. and b. show the same error in different syntactic forms. (50)b. is the
extraposition version of (50)a., and occurs with particular frequency. The use
of the infinitive here is ruled out by the omission of the sub-clause agent. Only
the gerund is possible: Smoking is not allowed inside the building. By the same
token, sentences like *It is not recommended to eat too much fat, or *It was not
advised to walk in the town after dark are similarly deviant, and require gerund
clauses: Eating too much fat is not recommended; Walking in the town after dark was
not advised.

(II) WARN, AGREE, DECIDE, REMIND:

This is a different case. These verbs can combine with prepositions to become
prepositional verbs; as far as they have non-finite complementation, they then
require the gerund:

(51) a. The lifeguard warned us against bathing near the rocks.

b. The two major parties agree on developing renewable energy.
c. We decided on going by train.

Otherwise the infinitive is necessary:

(52) a. The lifeguard warned us not to bathe near the rocks.

b. The two major parties agree to develop renewable energy.
c. We decided to go by train.

8.3.2.4 Gerund or infinitive with little semantic or syntactic distinction

There are no syntactic or major semantic differences between gerund or infinitive
complementation after the following verbs: attempt, begin, continue, dread, intend,
need, start. Nevertheless, there are one or two nuances of meaning to distinguish
in the usage.

(I) ATTEMPT, BEGIN, CONTINUE, INTEND, START:

When there is an object (generally indirect) in the main clause, the infinitive is
required:

(53) a. Our neighbour began mowing his lawn.

b. Our neighbour began to mow his lawn.
c. We will not attempt installing the new boiler until the spring.
d. We will not attempt to install the new boiler until the spring.

Basically, (53)a. and b. and (53)c. and d. are interchangeable. However, there
are contextual preferences, depending mainly on the type of action expressed by
the non-finite verb. The more neutral form is always the infinitive. The gerund
180 The complex sentence (II)
is chosen for process-like actions, especially when intensity and duration are
stressed. In fact, we could insert the words the process of in (53)a. and c.: Our
neighbour began the process of mowing . . .; We will not attempt the process of
installing . . . .
The infinitive is also much preferred with stative verbs and passive forms:

(54) a. Faraday began to be more considerate towards other people.

b. (?) Faraday began being . . . .
c. After a short time in the jungle, we began to be assaulted by clouds of
flies.
d. (?). . . we began being assaulted . . . .

Similar conditions apply to start, continue and intend.

(II) DREAD:

This is a slightly different case. The basic meaning of dread (= be very afraid) is
the same in each case, but the infinitive is restricted to certain collocations with
verbs denoting ‘mental visions’, such as think, imagine, envisage, etc. Otherwise
the standard form is the gerund:

(55) a. I dread to think what might happen to the roof in a storm.

b. Cathy dreaded meeting Paul in the town.

Infinitive collocations such as that in (55)a. lend to the basic lexis of dread
the connotation dare not, making it implicative in a negative sense: I do not
think . . . (because I am afraid of imagining the consequences). With the gerund,
dread might be called factive in the same sense that we applied the term to verbs
like avoid and risk. (55)b. expresses ‘meeting Paul in the town’ as a given possibil-
ity (i.e. as a presupposition) that ‘Cathy’ was afraid of.

(III) NEED:

In this case there is no difference at all in terms of catenative meaning, nor indeed
in the choice of gerund vs. infinitive as such. Equivalence, however, depends
on the morphological distinction of passive vs. active. The following sentences
mean the same:

(56) a. Your hair needs to be cut.

b. Your hair needs cutting.

(56)b. shows the same construction and meaning as example (37)a. above with
want. That is, the main clause subject your hair is from the semantic perspective
the direct object of the sub-clause verb cutting. As with want, we might alter-
natively express this by saying that the gerund in (56)b. has passive meaning.
 The complex sentence (II) 181
In fact the semantic equivalence to (56)a. (with the passive infinitive) seems to
suggest this strongly. Rather curiously, however, we cannot replace the active
gerund by the passive gerund here: *Your hair needs being cut. So which is the most
likely interpretation? The same question will arise later when we discuss the false
subject construction with the infinitive (see 12.2). But we will leave the issue
open here, and simply say that the active gerund following need is understood

•• either in a passive sense;

•• or in an active sense, but with the main clause subject interpreted as the
gerund direct object.

Whichever explanation we favour, though, the facts of the case with example
(56) are clear: the two sentences are only identical in meaning if the infinitive
version is in the passive voice and the gerund version in the active voice.

8.4 Questions of tense and aspect

Tense and aspect, as morpho-syntactic categories, are not major concerns in a book
of this kind (for more see, for example, SAGE), but they are relevant peripherally
to the syntax of non-finite verb forms, as we saw previously with the infinitive.
Time relations involved in gerund use therefore deserve a little attention here.
The gerund has two tense forms (the base form and the perfect), and in the
perfect also an aspect distinction, as there is a perfect progressive form:

Base form Perfect simple Perfect progressive

eating having eaten having been eating

The passive equivalents here would be being eaten (see the beginning of this chap-
ter) and having been eaten. The passive form of the perfect progressive (having been
being eaten) is felt to be clumsy, and is usually avoided for stylistic reasons.
As with the infinitive, the perfect forms indicate pastness or completion, usu-
ally in relation to the catenative, but also with reference to other elements in
the sentence. As the base form can also express this temporal relation there is
a considerable degree of overlap, making the perfect largely redundant. In a few
contexts, it is nevertheless necessary. Before discussing these, we will look briefly
at time reference with the base form.

8.4.1 Temporal semantics of the gerund base form

As has already been said, the base forms of non-finite verbs are tenseless, morpho-
logically and semantically speaking. They take their time reference from factors
of context, including especially and typically the tenses of catenatives or other
co-occurring main verbs (see also Chapter 7). This general principle is illustrated
in the following gerund examples:
182 The complex sentence (II)
(57) a. I´m going to enjoy swimming in the ocean for a change.
b. Walking in the woods on Sunday was a rather wet experience.

From the going-to form in (57)a. it is clear that the gerund is future-oriented,
while in (57)b. it follows from the past tense of the main verb that walking refers
to a past action. This would also normally be underlined by particular contexts of
utterance, here perhaps a general discussion of a future plan in the first instance,
and conversation on ‘past weekend experiences’, say, in the second.
An additional time factor can be implied in the lexical character of individual
catenatives. Consider the following:

(58) a. Cathy regrets going to the party (= Cathy regrets that she went . . .).
b. I remembered seeing Tom on the beach (= I remembered that I had
seen . . .).

The finite versions in brackets indicate explicitly that each catenative is ori-
ented to a later time than its respective gerund. The time-level distinction
comes about in part lexically, as the catenative itself entails a retrospective
view of the gerund action. A further factor is the systematic factive character of
gerund meaning (see 8.2 above); the occurrence of the gerund action is presup-
posed as a fact, underlining the retrospective meaning of the catenative and thus
the priorness of the gerund action temporally.

8.4.2 Temporal semantics of the perfect gerund

The perfect gerund explicitly introduces the meaning of pastness or completion,
usually in relation to the catenative, but also with reference to other elements in
the sentence. It therefore fits as an alternative to the base form in examples like
those in (58):

(59) a. Cathy regrets having gone to the party.

b. I remembered having seen Tom on the beach.

There is no grammatical necessity for the perfect gerund here, however, because
the base form (as we have seen) does the job nicely on its own. The use of perfect
forms where base forms express the same is regarded in general as a little stilted,
and in neutral style is normally avoided. The (58) versions, then, would be pre-
ferred to those of (59). In contexts like these, the perfect gerund is therefore a
redundant form. In other situations, however, the priorness interpretation of the
base form may be ruled out if the catenative–gerund relation is not retrospective,
or other time factors in the sentence contradict it. Use of the perfect gerund is
then essential for the past meaning. Compare the following:

(60) a. I remember Paul leaving the meeting when Sanderstone arrived.

b. I remember Paul having (already) left the meeting when Sanderstone
arrived.
 The complex sentence (II) 183
(60)a. and b. mean different things. The time clause introduces a further tem-
poral relation into the sentence that has to be interpreted additionally. Did Paul
leave before or after Sanderstone´s arrival? In (60)a. it was afterwards. In (60)b.
it was beforehand, i.e. Paul had already left when Sanderstone arrived. This can
be made clear by adding already, as indicated in the brackets. Here we need the
distinguishing effect of the perfect because of the clausal addition.

The perfect may also be needed when the relation between catenative and gerund
action is not retrospective, as in (61)a. and b., or is ambiguous in that respect, as
in (61)c.:

(61) a. They anticipated eating at 9 o´clock.

b. They anticipated having eaten at 9 o´clock.
c. He resented spending his money on trivial amusements.
d. He resented having spent his money on trivial amusements.

(61)a. and b. obviously point to distinct objects of anticipation: in the first case
that the subjects would begin to eat at the stated time, and in the second that
they would then already have done so. In (61)c. it is left open whether the
subject´s resentment already arose during the act of spending or did not actually
occur until after it. (61)d. comes down clearly in favour of ‘afterwards’. It there-
fore has a disambiguating function with respect to the possible retrospective
interpretation of (61)c.

8.4.3 The question of aspect

As seen above, differences in aspect are not shown morphologically in the base
form of the gerund. That is, if we take as an example the base form running, there
is no progressive equivalent *being running. On the other hand, one might think
that as an -ing-form the gerund already carries progressive meaning, and that it
is actually a ‘simple form’ that is missing. However, this is not so. Semantically,
in fact, gerunds are usually construed as perfective, that is, as carriers of simple
form meaning, denoting actions as a whole. This does not rule out imperfec-
tive interpretations (i.e. progressive meaning). Indeed, we have just discussed a
possible progressive reading of (61)c. Imperfective meaning, however, is chiefly
determined by the semantic nature of the catenative or other elements of context
which suggest being ‘in the middle of’ an ongoing action. Even then, there may
be an alternative perfective interpretation, as also with (61)c.
In principle, then, the base form of the gerund will accommodate imperfect
interpretation, but its ‘default value’ is perfective. (61)a., for instance, clearly
means . . . anticipated that they would eat (= begin to eat) at 9 o´clock. The imper-
fective version . . . would be eating at 9 o´clock (indicating eat as in progress at
the stated time) could only be rendered with the gerund by the addition of an
appropriate adverbial phrase, e.g. They anticipated being in the middle of eating at
9 o´clock.
184 The complex sentence (II)
With the perfect gerund, this is a different matter. Here we do have aspect
differentiation:

(62) a. I regret having spoken to Rodney (= I regret that I spoke . . .).

b. I regret having been speaking to Rodney (when you called) (= I regret
that I was speaking . . .).

In finite terms, then, the simple form of the perfect gerund (having spoken) is
equivalent to the past simple, while the progressive form of the perfect gerund
(having been speaking) corresponds to the past progressive. There are two things to
point out here: firstly, for stylistic reasons the finite progressive is often preferred
to the perfect progressive gerund, which can sound stilted and is in any case ‘a bit
of a mouthful’; secondly, the base form can replace having spoken in (62)a. (I regret
speaking . . .), but not having been speaking in (62)b.: *I regret speaking to Rodney
when you called. This links to the point made previously that base form gerunds
are usually construed as perfective. The imperfective variant is the perfect pro-
gressive gerund, i.e. the missing base form progressive is compensated for by using
the perfect progressive (where this is possible) or, alternatively, using a finite
progressive, as illustrated in the brackets in (62)b. In other words, to repeat the
point, the imperfective partner of the base form gerund is the perfect progressive:
as long, that is, as the base form is retrospective in the given context. Compare:

(63) a. She remembered going down the stairs when she heard the noise in the
kitchen.
(= She heard the noise in the kitchen and then went down the stairs.)
b. She remembered having been going down the stairs when she heard the
noise in the kitchen.
(= She was already in the process of going down the stairs when she
heard the noise.)

A context for (63)a. might be that the subject was upstairs when she heard a
noise below and then went down to investigate. (63)b. is a framework situation.
The subject is already on the way down when she hears the noise (and, say, then
runs back upstairs to her mobile phone to call for help). A more common way of
expressing this (only (63)b., though!) is simply in a that-clause with the progres-
sive: She remembered that she was going down the stairs when . . .).

8.5 The action nominal

Gerund clauses can often be expressed alternatively by noun phrases in which the
-ing-form is kept. The resulting full noun phrase is known as the action nominal:

(64) a. Driving the car is Martin´s job.    [gerund]

b. The driving of the car is Martin´s job. [action nominal]

 The complex sentence (II) 185
Assuming for the sake of simplicity that we have converted (64)a. to (64)b.,
we can say that the sub-clause in (64)a., along with the gerund in predicator
function, has been lost. In the action nominal version, the -ing-form has simply
become the head of a noun phrase, reducing a complex sentence in (64)a. to a
simple sentence in (64)b. The direct object of the gerund in (64)a. (the car) is
now expressed in a postmodifying prepositional phrase with of.
With that we now pass from sentence to phrase level, and in doing so really
go beyond the scope of this chapter. However, there are certain systematic rela-
tions (i.e. regular contrasts and similarities) between the gerund and the action
nominal that deserve a brief word of explanation, and this is an appropriate place
to compare them.
A first point concerns meaning. In principle the two constructions mean
the same. However, the action nominal is often chosen to give emphasis to the
action itself. It is also stylistically more elevated and is often found in formal or
official contexts, for instance on notices relating to public behaviour. If the agent
is generalised or unmentioned, the definite article precedes:

(65) a. The hunting or harming of wildlife in this wood is prohibited by law.

b. The sailing of model boats on the lake is not allowed.

As the action nominal profiles the action itself and its procedure more than the
gerund, it is the action nominal that is invariably chosen for reference to the
manner in which something occurs. The gerund, on the other hand, is usually
taken to express the fact that something occurs. Subject specification with an
action nominal requires an s-genitive noun or possessive determiner, which is
also one of the gerund options, of course:

(66) a. I did not like Jerry´s riding of the horse. He was not very gentle with it.
[action nominal: the way in which he rode it]
b. I did not like Jerry´s riding the horse. Celia should have ridden it. It was
her turn.
[gerund: the fact that he rode it]

As both constructs can be used with intransitive verbs, there may be ambiguity,
e.g. if we leave out mention of ‘the horse’ in (66).
(67)a. can then mean either (67)b., or (67)c.:

(67) a. I did not like Jerry´s riding.

b. I did not like the way that Jerry rode. [action nominal interpretation]
c. I did not like the fact that Jerry rode. [gerund interpretation]

This ambiguity only occurs here also because both gerunds and action nomi-
nals can be preceded by genitives and possessive determiners. However, only the
gerund allows reduction to a noun or object pronoun, whereas only the action
nominal allows a definite article before it:
186 The complex sentence (II)
(68) a. I did not like the riding.
[action nominal interpretation only: the way the rider rode]
b. I did not like Jerry riding.
[gerund interpretation only: the fact that Jerry rode]

To sum up, here is an overview of the syntactic contrasts between the two forms:

Gerund Action nominal

Verbal predicator in sub-clause. Noun phrase.

Can be preceded by s-genitive noun/ Can be preceded by s-genitive noun/possessive
possessive determiner, or ordinary determiner, or definite article: but not by
noun/object pronoun: but not by the an ordinary noun or object pronoun: *Alan
definite article: *The driving cars. driving of cars.
Can occur with nothing preceding it. Always needs a determiner:
Driving cars. Alan´s/The driving of cars, but not *Driving of cars.
Patient of action as direct object: Patient of action connected by of-phrase: Alan´s
Alan´s driving the car. driving of the car.
Can be further described (modified) by Can be further described (modified) by
adverbs: premodifying adjectives: Alan´s dangerous
Alan´s driving the car dangerously. driving of the car.
Can be formed from stative verbs: Cannot be formed from stative verbs:
John´s realising the problem. *John´s realising of the problem.
Has a perfect form: Alan´s having driven Has no perfect form: *Alan´s having driven of
the car. the car.

Exercises

Exercise 1
Analyse the following sentences in terms of sentence functions:

1 We didn´t mind missing the film on Saturday.

2 Repairing old cars is Frank´s favourite pastime.
3 Saul didn´t like his little sister borrowing his bike.
4 Berkdale´s leaving the company at this time has caused a sensation.
5 The chairman can´t bear people criticising him.
6 She doesn´t remember lending the book to anyone.
7 Your saying those things to Ruth really upset her.
8 Clara was looking forward to seeing her parents again.
9 Her worst nightmare was driving in heavy traffic.
10 The teacher accused Phil of cheating in the test.

Exercise 2
Fill in the gaps, using the gerund or infinitive forms of the verbs in brackets. Any
nouns or pronouns in the brackets indicate the subject of the verb:
 The complex sentence (II) 187
1 Some maths teachers do not permit ……. (their pupils, use) pocket calculators.
2 Tony suggested ……. (we, consult) a child therapist in London.
3 Somehow Paul can never avoid ……. (upset) people, although he never
means ……. (do) so.
4 You may not remember …….. (meet) me at the party, but you definitely
liked ……. (listen to) my jokes.
5 As Kate did not like ……. (enter) the building alone, she put off ……. (go in)
until other police officers arrived.
6 If you need ……. (see) a particular doctor at the clinic, it could mean …….
(wait) for some time.
7 Let us now stop ……. (talk) about Scottish history and go on …… (look at)
the present condition of the country.
8 Tony and Geoff are considering ……. (go) to Morocco for their holidays, but
as Geoff hates ……. (be) in the sun all day, I have discreetly advised …….
(they, try) Finland instead.
9 I don´t deny ……. (watch) Chelsea on certain occasions, but I much prefer
… (see) Arsenal play, and will go on ……. (support) them as usual, even if
they do badly.

Exercise 3
State the differences in meaning between the a. and b. sentences in the following,
and provide possible contexts.

1 a. He stopped to buy flowers on his way home.

b. He stopped buying flowers on his way home.
2 a. They tried to open the windows, but without success.
b. They tried opening the windows but without success.
3 a. We regret to inform guests that there will be no meals this evening.
b. We regret informing guests that there will be no meals this evening.
4 a. What do you propose to do?
b. What do you propose doing?
5 a. I didn´t remember calling the Sampsons.
b. I didn´t remember to call the Sampsons.
9 Non-finite clauses in the complex
sentence (III)
The participles

9.0 The participles

We now come to the participle, our third type of non-finite verb form after the
infinitive (Chapter 7) and the gerund (Chapter 8). There are two main types: the
present participle, an -ing-form like the gerund (e.g. painting), and the past par-
ticiple, with a regular form ending in -ed (e.g. painted), and a variety of irregular
forms. These differ individually from one another depending on the particular
verb concerned.
With all regular verbs, the past participle is always formally identical with the
past tense. Some irregular verbs also have the same form for past tense and par-
ticiple (buy is given as an example below); more usually, however, irregular past
participles have their own distinct forms:

Infinitive Past tense Past participle

walk (regular) walked walked

buy (irregular) bought bought
do (irregular) did done

A major phrase-level function of the participles is as morphological formatives,

i.e. they contribute to the construction of composite finite verb phrases (see also
Chapter 5, 5.1). In this role the present participle is instrumental in forming
the progressive, and the past participle in constructing the perfect tense and the
passive voice:

(1) a We are painting the kitchen door.

b. We have painted the door.
c. The wall is going to be painted too.

Both participle types feature in perfect and passive progressives, though the past
participle in the perfect progressive and the present participle in the passive are
solely forms of be (i.e. been and being respectively):
 The complex sentence (III) 189
(2) a. We have been painting the kitchen door.
b. The door is being painted.

Participles also occur

•• as adjectives premodifying nouns (a satisfying/cooked meal);

•• as adjectives functioning at sentence level as Cs (The meal was satisfying/
cooked);
•• as predicators of clauses postmodifying nouns (a meal satisfying all our
needs/cooked to perfection);
•• as predicators of clauses in the phrase function of adjectival complement
(happy lying here on the beach).

All these cases are dealt with fully in Chapters 10 and 11 on Complex phrases.
What interests us in this chapter are participles used in a similar way to that
described in the two preceding chapters on gerunds and infinitives: that is, as
predicators introducing sub-clauses at sentence-level:

(3) a. Taking her child tightly by the hand, Claire left the room.
b. The king entered the scene followed by three servants.

With certain exceptions, participle clauses are not closely tied to particular
main clause verbs. Subject to constraints of meaning, they can appear with
almost any verb in the main clause. This syntactic independence means that
they are not generally part of the main verb complementation, and the main
verb therefore does not have a catenative relationship to the participle. In this
respect participles differ from a large body of usage with gerunds and infinitives,
where the individual main verb, as we have seen, can have a strong determin-
ing effect on the type of non-finite clause following it. In the case of participles,
this kind of relationship is confined mainly to verbs of perception, as we will
see further below.

9.1 The present participle and its clause

As the present participle and the gerund have the same form, they are easily con-
fused with one another. However, they are syntactically and semantically very
different, and should be carefully distinguished.
Participle clauses at sentence-level are always adverbial in function. Within its
own clause, the participle functions just like other non-finites, i.e. as predicator:

   A P   Od   A   A     S  P   Od
(4) a. [Taking her child tightly by the hand], Claire left the room.
     S   P    A    A P    Od
b. A man came into my office [carrying a large briefcase].
190 The complex sentence (III)
It is the adverbial function that distinguishes participle clauses syntactically from
gerund clauses. Gerund clauses function in the same way as noun phrases, i.e. as
S, Oi, Od, Cs or Co. They are also ‘attracted’ to prepositions, as we will see when
we come to discuss prepositional phrases. But they can rarely be adverbial clauses.
Participle clauses, on the other hand, are only adverbial in function. This also
points to the fact that present participles and gerunds differ radically from each
other in terms of meaning, as we will see further below.
The adverbial function accounts for the basically flexible position of the
participle clause, which in principle can precede or follow the main clause, as
shown in the examples.

9.1.1 Subject relations

In their subject relations, participles are similar to other non-finites. The subject
of the participle is generally implied, and in sentences like those in (4) is under-
stood as identical with the main verb subject:

(S) S
(5) a. [ Taking her child tightly by the hand], Claire left the room.

S (S)
b. A man came into my office [ carrying a large briefcase].

The presence of a direct object in the main clause, as in the example in (4)a. and
(5)a., does not alter this basic principle:

S Od (S)
(6) a. Joe greeted Dick [ standing on one leg].

S Od (S)
b. I washed the dog [ using the garden hose].

This does change, however, when the participle clause becomes part of the main
verb complementation and a catenative relation arises:

S Od (S)
(7) a. Joe saw Tim [ going into the lift].

S Od (S)
b. I noticed the dog [ playing with the garden hose].
 The complex sentence (III) 191
In this case it is the main clause object that is understood as the subject of the
participle clause. Even here, though, the sense may allow a non-catenative inter-
pretation as an alternative, in which case the subject–subject relation kicks in.
This is unlikely in (7), but certainly possible, giving (as alternatives) the respec-
tive meanings Joe saw Tim as Joe was going into the lift and I noticed the dog as
I was playing with the garden hose. The ordinary way of avoiding such ambiguity is
to start with the participle clause when the subject–subject meaning is intended:

(S) S Od
(8) a. [ Going into the lift], Joe saw Tim.

(S) S Od
b. [ Playing with the garden hose], I noticed the dog.

We deal with catenative cases and their possible ambiguities later in the
chapter, in particular when we take a more detailed look at ‘perception con-
structions’ like those in (7). What we wish to emphasise for the moment is
that in the absence of a catenative interpretation the implied participle subject
must be identical with that of the main verb. If this is obviously not the case,
the sentence is ungrammatical:

(9) a. *Raining heavily, we ran for shelter.

b. *Losing control of the sails, Daly´s yacht turned on its side.

These examples show what are called misrelated or (rather less formally) ‘dangling’
participles. The grammar clashes with the sense, often creating, as here, a grotesque
or comical effect: people do not ‘rain heavily’, nor do yachts lose control of them-
selves, though in fact that is what these sentences express according to their syntax.
As we will see in the following section, there is a certain tolerance of misrelated
participles in a few closely defined cases. Generally, though, if the subjects of the
two clauses are distinct, we have to change the syntax.

9.1.1.1 Variant subjects

One way of restoring balance and correctness to the sentences in (9) is to replace
the participle clause by a finite one:

(10) a. As it was raining heavily, we ran for shelter.

b. Daly´s crew lost control of the sails and the yacht turned on its side.

Another solution is simply to add the separate subject to the participle clause.

(11) a. We ran for shelter, the rain pouring down heavily.

b. Daly´s crew losing control of the sails, the yacht turned on its side.
192 The complex sentence (III)
As this operation is not possible with pronouns, the it in (10)a. has to disap-
pear and the wording must be changed accordingly. Participle clauses with their
own subjects are traditionally called absolute. Stylistically, they have a literary
character and do not occur outside formal contexts. In more neutral style the
participle subject is introduced via the preposition with:

(12) a. We ran for shelter, with the rain pouring down heavily.
b. With Daly´s crew losing control of the sails, the yacht turned on its side.

With often carries a causal note, as suggested in (12)b. It is used especially to

underline causality when particular circumstances are responsible for something:

(13) a. With Charles and Julia getting married, we won´t be going on holiday
this year.
b. They felt forced to sell the house, with developers buying up the land
around them.

This is a strong tendency also with stative verbs (see below).

Misrelated participles are acceptable in certain kinds of comment clause
which have the character of set phrases:

(14) a. He´s dissatisfied with his performance, judging by the look on his face.
b. Considering how long she has been learning French, her pronunciation
is poor.
c. Strictly speaking, you need a special pass to enter the building.

Informally, they are also tolerated in certain impersonal constructions, when the
subject is referred to elsewhere in the sentence, or with passives when there is a
clear link to a stated or implied by-agent:

(15) a. The gas-tap must be installed using special equipment (= by someone,

using . . .).
b. When leaving the house, it occurred to me that I had not phoned Ellen.

9.1.2 Semantics of the present participle

The present participle has the same basic imperfective meaning as the finite pro-
gressive form. This is not surprising: after all, the present participle is actually
used in forming the progressive (see also above).

9.1.2.1 The framework situation

Taking the finite progressive briefly as our starting-point, we can say that
it expresses an act as ongoing, i.e. in the course of occurrence, at an implied
 The complex sentence (III) 193
or stated point of time. Aspect works together with tense. The tense used
(e.g. present or past) tells us where the relevant point of time is located (i.e. in
the present or in the past). Thus the sentence I am writing a letter, for example,
means that the act of writing is ongoing ‘now’, at the moment of speaking.
‘Now’, in other words, is a point of time implied as being inside the act of
writing, or, as we might alternatively put it, as ‘falling’ or intruding into the
event contour:

(16) ● Now

▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫
writing a letter

This framework situation, as we call it, is crucial to an understanding of

imperfective meaning (see also SAGE, pp. 313ff.). The act referred to in
the progressive forms a kind of ‘frame’ into which the implied point of time
falls. This time point could be overtly stated (e.g. at 10 pm), or implied in an
interrupting act in the simple form (e.g. . . . when Jenny called), or given as a
combination of both:

(17) ●... when Jenny called at 10 pm

▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫
I was writing a letter

In essence, the present participle has the same aspectual meaning and can be
represented in the same way:

(18) a. Copeland hurt his arm playing tennis.

(= . . . when/while he was playing . . .)
b. She tore her dress getting out of the car.
(= . . . when/as she was getting . . .)

And as a framework diagram:

194 The complex sentence (III)
(19) ● Copeland hurt his arm/She tore her dress

▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫▫
playing tennis/getting out of the car

In fact, participles can appear with time conjunctions, especially in more for-
mal style, to emphasise this time-frame sense ( . . . while playing tennis; . . . when
getting out of the car). The basic framework meaning is not necessarily always
given in this strict sense. It can often glide over into a more general sense of
‘ongoingness’ and suggest a parallel action to the activity or state expressed in
the main clause. In this case it may then imply ‘throughout’:

(20) a. Bryant left for work still wearing his carpet slippers.
b. Be careful climbing those cliffs!
c. Passengers must remain seated going through the tunnel.

Through this reference to accompanying actions, participles typically express a

more detailed ‘break-down’ of the main clause action, often conveying a meaning
of manner or attendant circumstance:

(21) a. Mac spends all his time training dogs.

b. She sat at a corner-table drinking coffee and reading the paper.
c. On the TGV we had to travel from Karlsruhe to Paris standing in the
corridor.

Parallel actions can additionally take on instrumental overtones:

(22) a. We emptied the tank using a hand-pump.

b. Lying flat on his stomach in the undergrowth, Jason observed the bears
unnoticed.
c. They crossed the rest of the desert riding on camels.

Despite this, however, participle clauses are usually regarded primarily as adver-
bial clauses of time (if specification is required), since the prominent meaning
is the simultaneous or parallel one. We have already seen that participles can
appear with conjunctions. These can in fact specify other meanings of the clause
in addition to the time factor in the participle:
 The complex sentence (III) 195
(23) a. Although wearing a suit, I was not admitted to the hotel restaurant.
[concession]
b. If intending to cross the Channel by ferry this weekend, travellers must
be prepared for long delays. [condition]

9.1.2.2 Verbs with a point-telic meaning

Point-telic verbs refer to momentary actions, such as arrive, break, drop, hit, leave,
etc. They represent a kind of ‘border-crossing’, so to speak, from one state to
another, e.g. with break from ‘whole’ to ‘broken’ in one moment of time (on the
concept of ‘telic’ and other verbal action types, see also SAGE, pp. 298–300). In
present participle form they can create a meaning of sequence:

(24) a. Dropping all their tools, the burglars escaped in panic.

b. He dived too strongly into the shallow pool, hitting the bottom and
breaking his arm.
c. Arriving at the station almost too late, we rushed straight to the barrier
at Platform 9 ¾.

The sequence of acts is understood as being in the order in which they are
mentioned. Public media commentaries make considerable use of point-telic par-
ticiples, where appropriate, as they can ‘economise’ on language volume. The
resulting sentences, though, are often incomplete (i.e. without a main clause):

(25) a. Rover Boy there jumping the fourth slightly ahead of Time Out and
What´s Up, but landing awkwardly and losing ground as Time Out chal-
lenges strongly on the far side.
b. The Queen leaving the plane now in front of Prince Philip and coming
down the gangway to greet the Mayor of Berlin.

9.1.2.3 The present participle of stative verbs

Stative verbs do not normally appear in the progressive form, as they do not
denote actions, but express states and acts of perception (see also SAGE, p. 324).
Consequently, we might not expect them to occur in the present participle form
either. However, they do, though usually with a special meaning. A stative present
participle typically conveys a causal relationship, particularly in initial position:

(26) a. Thinking the banknotes were forged, Ray contacted the police.
(= As he thought . . .)
b. Trusting the salesman´s promise, we bought the car immediately.
(= Because we trusted . . .)
c. Feeling rather ill, I drove to the local doctor´s surgery.
(= As I was feeling . . .)
196 The complex sentence (III)
In general, this semantic relation also remains when the participle clause follows.
However, some stative verb participles in this position can alternatively convey
the parallel (‘accompanying’) meaning:

(27) a. Ray contacted the police thinking the banknotes were forged.
(= When he contacted . . ., he thought . . .)
b. I drove to the local doctor´s surgery feeling rather ill.
(= During the drive I felt . . .)
c. We bought the car immediately, trusting the salesman´s promise.
(= When we bought the car, we trusted . . .)

A lot depends here on the individual verb and whether its lexical meaning is
amenable to the idea of an ‘accompanying circumstance’. Sometimes, as in (27)a.
and b. with think and feel, the parallel meaning is furthered especially when there
is no pause (and in writing no comma) before the sub-clause.
As indicated above (see 9.1.1.1), a separate participle subject introduced by
with strongly underlines causal meaning; and this is particularly so with stative
participles:

(28) a. With Jonathan being out of work, we won´t be going on holiday this year.
b. The house in the town is very convenient, especially with Cathy having
no car.

9.1.3 Catenatives followed by the present participle

Catenative use with the present participle is focused largely on verbs of sensory
perception, like see, hear, feel, notice, watch, etc. A main clause object is always
present. The participle clause has its usual adverbial function:

     S   P   Od  A P     A

(29) a. Ginny heard her husband [playing with their children].
    S P   Od A    P   Od     A
b. We felt the plane [gathering speed on the runway].

Note again what was said about subject relations and catenatives in 9.1.1: here
the direct object of the main clause is the implied subject of the participle.

9.1.3.1 The choice between participle and infinitive

Verbs of perception are complemented not only by present participles, but alterna-
tively by the infinitive without to (see Chapter 7, 7.4.1). The difference is linked
to the aspectual semantic distinction between simple and progressive forms:

(30) a. Hannah watched Charlotte swim across the river.

(= Charlotte swam across the river and Hannah watched this.)
 The complex sentence (III) 197
b. Hannah watched Charlotte swimming across the river.
(= Hannah watched Charlotte as Charlotte was swimming across the river.)
c. Jamie saw Ron eat a sandwich.
(= Ron ate a sandwich and Jamie saw this.)
d. Jamie saw Ron eating a sandwich.
(= Jamie saw Ron as Ron was eating a sandwich.)

The infinitives in (30)a. and c. show the simple form meaning of completion,
i.e. the whole act was perceived in each case: Charlotte swam from one river
bank to the other and Ron ate the whole sandwich. The present participles, on
the other hand, only express the respective acts as in progress, i.e. there is no
entailment in (30)b. that Charlotte actually reached the other river bank, nor in
(30)d. that Jamie ate all of the sandwich. This basic distinction leads to a com-
mon preference for the participle when the process of the action or its manner of
occurrence is in focus, while the infinitive tends to stress a whole ‘occasion’ of the
action or the fact that it occurred:

(31) a. I´ve heard Maria sing. (= I´ve experienced her performance.)

b. I´ve heard Maria singing. (= I´ve experienced her technique and style.)
c. We´ve watched the horses race. (= their behaviour over the whole
length of a race.)
d. We´ve watched the horses racing. (= the style and speed of their gallop.)

Note that although participle clauses are adverbial after verbs of perception,
infinitive clauses function as object complements:

     S   P   Od  Co P    A
(32) a. Hannah watched Charlotte [swim across the river].
     S   P Od Co P  Od
b. Jamie saw Ron [ eat a sandwich].

This is because they do not refer to the circumstances of perception (an adverbial
relation), but to part of its object.

9.1.3.2 Other kinds of catenative

Other catenatives commonly taking participle complementation are similar to
acts of perception, though they do not strictly denote them. These are verbs
referring to other types of ‘intrusive’ experience like catch, come across, discover,
find, leave, etc.:

(33) a. I came across Craig and Bryant lying on the beach.

b. A passer-by has found the body floating in the lake.
c. The children left Mr Tulliver mowing his lawn.
d. My wife caught the dog eating grapes from the table.
198 The complex sentence (III)
Another group consists of causative verbs such as get, have and keep:

(34) a. You always keep people waiting!

b. I had/got the car running again in no time.

One or two intransitive verbs belong here also, e.g. remain, stay, and get in the
sense of ‘become’:

(35) a. Several passengers remained standing in the train.

b. Julia stayed sitting on the couch.
c. We must get moving as quickly as possible.

Exceptionally, the participle clauses here function as complements, rather than

as adverbials:

    S   P  Od  Co P   A   A

(36) a. I had got the car [running again] in no time.
    S   P  Cs P      A
b. We must get [moving] as quickly as possible.

9.1.4 Questions of tense and aspect

Tense and aspect forms of the present participle are identical to those of the
gerund (see Chapter 8, 8.4). There is a base form and a perfect form, with the
aspect distinction simple–progressive in the perfect only. The perfect is known
traditionally as the perfect participle:

Base form (present participle) Perfect participle (simple) Perfect participle (progressive)

eating having eaten having been eating

As with the other non-finite perfects, the perfect participle indicates pastness or
completion, generally speaking relative to the time level attached to the main
verb and manifested in its tense form. It is equivalent, that is, to the finite past
tense, the finite present perfect, or the finite past perfect, depending on context.
As might be expected, perfect participle clauses are adverbial in function, like
their base form equivalents:

    A   P   Od   S P    A   A

(37) a. [Having mown the lawn], I went into the house for a drink.
(= After I had mown the lawn, . . .)
    S  P  A     A    A    P    Od    A
b. We settled cosily into our theatre seats, [having deposited our coats in the
cloakroom].
(= . . ., after we had deposited . . .)
 The complex sentence (III) 199
In terms of time reference, the perfect participle and the present participle are
quite distinct. Unlike the case with the gerund, that is, there is no time-semantic
overlap between base form and perfect. This is because the present participle
(due to its ‘progressive’ meaning) always expresses an action parallel to that of
the main verb. The aspect relation thus implies also a ‘same-time’ tense relation.
To express ‘beforeness’ we therefore always need the perfect participle form. A
further point is that in the perfect, as has been said, there is an aspect distinction.
Unlike the present participle, which by its very nature can only have imper-
fective (i.e. ‘progressive’) meaning, the ‘beforeness’ of the perfect participle will
naturally admit both perfective and imperfective meanings, and therefore both
aspects, simple and progressive:

(38) a. I don´t really feel like any food now, having been eating for most of the
afternoon. (= . . . as I have been eating . . .)
b. Having been cooking when you called yesterday, I did not hear the
phone. (= As I was cooking yesterday . . .)

A further point that we can see from (38) is that the perfect participle can be
used to express causal meaning, or at least causal overtones. The conjunction as
makes this clear in the finite paraphrases. This is a contextual (and/or lexical)
connotation. It is not part of the participle meaning as such, but results simply
from the close nature of the time relation between the two clauses. Causal mean-
ing is essentially decided by the overall semantic relation between the two clauses,
i.e. whether what they respectively refer to can be regarded logically as causally
linked or not. Despite the heavy role of context here, though, perfect participles
are very often favoured when causal meaning has to be expressed, especially if
a stylistically less direct and rather more incidental and nuanced reference to
causality is intended.

9.1.4.1 Voice: the passive

Passive forms of the present participle are (as one might expect) identical to
those of the gerund. The passive perfect participle, though grammatically pos-
sible, is usually avoided for stylistic reasons of awkwardness. This is indicated by
the question mark in brackets:

Passive present participle Passive perfect participle (simple) Passive perfect participle
(progressive)

being eaten having been eaten (?) having been being eaten

9.1.5 Present participles as adjectives

This is phrase-level syntax and belongs, strictly speaking, in Chapter 4.
However, a note is appropriate here as we have been talking in this chapter
200 The complex sentence (III)
about the base meaning of the present participle, and it is the meaning which
makes the participle available for an adjectival role. The present participle
occurs as an adjective premodifying nouns, i.e. in attributive position, as it is
called traditionally:

freezing rain, standing passengers, a flying object, blossoming flowers, a smiling

face.

The participle refers to an action performed by or happening to the noun-

referent and can be paraphrased by a relative clause, e.g. freezing rain = rain
that is freezing. This shows that even as an adjective the participle keeps a cer-
tain verbal identity in semantic terms: on the other hand, it also loses some of
its force as a verb. It cannot be complemented. We cannot, for instance, say
*a flying through the air object. It therefore does not have a predicator function
here and is not clausal. True, it can be further described by an adverb, but this
must precede the participle in the same way that adverbs precede adjectives:
quickly freezing rain (not *freezing quickly rain). Furthermore, the participle can-
not be used semantically in this way simply to refer to any action that the
noun-referent is performing. We cannot normally call a girl who is eating,
e.g., *an eating girl. The participle must signify a characteristic, a form of con-
text-typical behaviour, placing the noun it describes in a certain ‘category’:
standing passengers are those in buses and trains who are not seated, freezing rain
is a certain type of rain, and so on.
On the other hand there are restrictions on adjectival use. There are no
comparative and superlative forms, and participles cannot be used predicatively
(i.e. complementing verbs) in the sense of adjectives (*The object looked flying).
A participle following be is quite simply regarded as forming a progressive: The
faces were smiling.
Participles used in this part-verb and part-adjective role just described can best
be regarded as ‘verbal adjectives’. However, some of these, mainly with abstract
meanings, have lost their verbal character completely over time, and have devel-
oped lexically into full adjectives. Examples like boring, comforting, interesting,
worrying, etc., behave grammatically as normal adjectives: they can be compared
(more/less worrying) and occur predicatively: The story seemed interesting at first,
but turned out rather boring.

9.1.6 Distinguishing the present participle from the gerund

As was said at the beginning of the chapter, it is analytically important to make
a clear distinction between the present participle and the gerund. As they share
the same form and both function as predicators in their own sub-clauses, they can
easily be confused. In clausal terms, however, they have very different functions
and meanings, as we have shown, and should therefore be kept apart conceptually.
Below, in table form, is a summary of the contrasts.
 The complex sentence (III) 201

Present participle clauses – Sentence Gerund clauses – Sentence functions

functions

Adverbial (A): Lennie lay on the couch Subject (S): Reading improves one´s mind.
reading.
Never subject, object, or Direct object (Od): I like reading.
complement.
Subject complement (Cs): My favourite pastime
is reading.
Never adverbial (apart from the exceptional
case of go shopping/swimming/jogging, etc.)

Present participle meaning Gerund meaning

Imperfective: refers to an ongoing Perfective: refers to an action or state as a whole:

action accompanying the main I remember Billy crossing the street and going into a
clause action or interrupted by it: drugstore.
Grumbling profusely, the janitor Factive in tendency: complements many
unlocked the school doors. catenatives that presuppose prior occurrence
I saw Billy crossing the street (*and of the gerund action:
going into a drugstore). Tom regretted buying the house.
Geraldine hated studying economics.

As we will see later, there are also clear distinctions at phrase level.

9.2 The past participle and its clause

In function, past participle clauses are similar to present participle clauses, i.e. they
are mainly adverbial. As clauses, they also have an accompanying (or parallel)
meaning, and the same kind of subject relation:

S P A A P A
(39) a. The children lay on the grass, [exhausted after their energetic games].

(S)

A P A S P
b. [Surprised by the changes in the area], we decided on a little
Od
(S) exploration.

However, there is an important contrast between the individual semantics of the

two participles themselves:

•• the present participle is active (in terms of voice), and imperfective (in terms
of aspect);
•• the past participle is generally passive (in terms of voice), and always perfective
(in terms of aspect).
202 The complex sentence (III)
The past participle, in other words, expresses a state (and not an action) as an
‘accompanier’ to the reference in the main clause. The state, however, results
from a previous action and therefore can be said to imply one. With transitive
verbs, the implied subject of the past participle is the patient of this implied
action. The past participle thereby confers a passive sense on the participle
clause, and in many (if not most) cases can be understood as a kind of ‘passive
participle’ shortening an implied passive construction. This is underlined by
the fact that paraphrase by a finite verb usually requires the passive form:

(40) a. Re-decorated in brighter colours, this room would be ideal for children.
(If it is re-decorated . . . )
b. Jeremy´s bicycle stood against the fence, covered by a sheet of plastic.
( . . . , and had been covered . . . )

The ‘beforeness’ element in examples like these can often be expressed alterna-
tively by a perfect participle: but notice that here also we need a passive form:
Having been decorated . . . ; . . . having been covered.
Passive meaning, then, is strongly associated with the past participle. However,
there is not always a direct and automatic link to the passive in syntactic terms.
The most prominent semantic factor in the past participle is the state itself. As
we will see further below, there are cases where this cannot really be said simply
to derive from a passive verb form alone. Apart from this, past participle use also
extends to a small number of intransitive verbs. With these, there is no passive
meaning at all. The term ‘passive participle’ is therefore not 100% appropriate,
and is thus better placed in inverted commas, as we have done. The semantics of
state, however, always apply when the past participle occurs.

9.2.1 Specification of adverbial meaning

Like present participles, past participles are usually regarded as forming adverbial
clauses of time, with manner and circumstance as further (and sometimes over-
lapping) possibilities. Greater specification can be brought about by appropriate
conjunctions:

(41) a. When freshly painted, furniture must be placed in the drying room.
[time]
b. Children under 10 are not allowed in the pool, unless accompanied by
an adult.
[condition]
c. Although just serviced, the car has broken down again.
[concession]

9.2.2 Variant subjects and the with-solution

When the participle clause has its own subject, this must be named. As with
present participles, absolute clauses like this (see 9.1.1.1 above) have a formal
or literary ring to them, and in more neutral style are usually introduced by with:
 The complex sentence (III) 203
(42) a. The cases safely stowed in the luggage compartment, we took our seats.
b. With our cases safely stowed in the luggage compartment, . . .
c. Sadie climbed into the boat, her hair thrown over her shoulder.
d. Sadie climbed into the boat, with her hair thrown . . . .

This is especially favoured when causal overtones are involved:

(43) a. With the famous tower closed for repair, Blackpool has attracted fewer
visitors this summer. (As the famous tower is closed . . . )
b. The team is much less effective with Braeburn and Dawley injured.
( . . . , as Braeburn and Dawley are injured.)

9.2.3 Catenatives followed by past participles

Catenative constructions are not widespread with past participles. They are
confined to a handful of verbs with particular meanings; among these are verbs
of perception, plus one or two other semantic types with specific and often
idiomatic uses. There is always an object present in the main clause (which,
again, is the implied subject of the participle). Noteworthy here is that the
participle clause is not adverbial, but functions as an object complement (Co).

9.2.3.1 Shortened passive infinitives

In this case the past participle is truly a ‘passive participle’, and actually does
replace a passive construction. This occurs, firstly, with verbs that we might
call volitional in meaning, i.e. those such as like and want that express forms of
demand or desire:

(44) a. I would like the food (to be) delivered on Saturday morning, please.
b. The boss wants this package (to be) sent off immediately.

As the infinitives in brackets indicate, either the passive infinitive can be used
in full, or alternatively be reduced to the past participle alone. Other catenatives
belonging to this group are desire, require and prefer.
A second catenative group consists of verbs of perception:

(45) a. Peter listened to a joke told by Marie about politicians.

b. Joey saw his favourite team beaten by Leicester City in the Cup last
week.

We dealt above with verbs of perception followed by the present participle or the
infinitive without to (see 9.1.3.1). The difference, to re-cap, is aspectual, with
the present participle as the imperfective partner (= finite progressive form), and
the infinitive as the perfective one (= finite simple form). The examples in (45)
are the passive versions of active infinitive clauses, i.e.:
204 The complex sentence (III)
(46) a. Peter listened to Marie tell a joke about politicians.
b. Joey saw Leicester City beat his favourite team in the Cup last week.

The past participles in (45), that is, have the same perfective meaning as the
active versions with the infinitive in (46). A point to note here is that the alter-
natives with passive infinitives, as in (44), are not an option in (45). This is
because the active infinitive clause with a verb of perception needs an infinitive
without to, and this has no passive equivalent. We cannot say *Peter listened to
a joke be told . . . , or *Joey saw his favourite team be beaten . . . . Reduction to the
past participle is therefore mandatory here.
Functional analyses are as follows:

           S      P      Od    Co   P      A

(47) a. The boss wants this package [sent off immediately].
         S   P      Od   Co  P       A           A       A
b. Joey saw his favourite team [beaten by Leicester City in the Cup last week].

As was said above, it is important to note here that the participle clause is func-
tionally an object complement. This corresponds to the active interpretations
with the infinitive, e.g.:

      S   P     Od     Co P        Od         A        A

(48) Joey saw Leicester City [beat his favourite team in the Cup last week].

The same functional labelling of the sub-clause would apply also to an active
rendering of (47)a., such as The boss wants you to send off this package immediately.
Catenatives with causative meanings also fit this pattern. As they have one or
two further syntactic characteristics of their own, we deal with them in a separate
sub-section immediately below.

9.2.3.2 Causative constructions

The verbs have and get occur with the past participle in what semantically speak-
ing are causative constructions. The pattern to have something done means ‘to
order something to be done/to arrange for something to be done’:

(49) a. I had my car washed at a service station.

b. The couple next door are having their garden re-designed.

The sub-clause active equivalents, like the examples discussed in 9.2.3.1, use the
infinitive without to:

(50) a. I had (somebody at) the service station wash my car.

b. The couple next door are having a landscape architect re-design their
garden.
 The complex sentence (III) 205
Again, as the infinitive without to has no passive form (*I had my car be
washed . . . ), reduction to the past participle is the only permissible passive
equivalent.
Get features in the same construction with a similar meaning, though with the
added connotation of ‘manage’ or ‘make an effort to achieve’:

(51) a. You must get your hair cut.

b. I´ll get the job done by the end of the week.

Agent relations here can vary according to context. In (51)a. the case is the
same as with have, i.e. the task expressed by the participle is not performed by
the subject of the main verb. In (51)b., however, the agent is identical with the
subject of the main verb. Have does not allow this interpretation. This makes no
difference to the functional syntax, though.
Another meaning of the same construction with get and have is ‘to experience
something negative’, often with the connotation of the subject being careless or
otherwise partly responsible:
Zadie had her mobile phone stolen on a train; Tom got a fishbone stuck in his
throat.
Finally, there are one or two fixed idiomatic expressions with make that follow
the same pattern: to make something/oneself heard/understood/felt. Examples:
Because of the howling wind we could not make ourselves understood; The influ-
ence of the new law is slowly making itself felt; John wants to make his voice heard in
the art world.
Functional relations are the same as for the examples in the previous section:

       S P   Od Co P          A

(52) a. I had my car [washed at a service station].
         S    P     Od    Co P
b. You must get your hair [cut].

9.2.4 Past participles as adjectives

Like present participles (see 9.1), past participles can take on the role of an adjec-
tive: boiled potatoes, chopped wood, locked doors. In addition to this attributive
position (i.e. before nouns, as noun phrase premodifiers), they also occur, like
most adjectives, in predicative position, following intransitive verbs:

(53) a. In storms walkers get lost on the moors.

b. All the shops in the city centre remained closed after the riots.

In these cases the participles have no verbal character and therefore no predica-
tor function. Consequently, they do not form sub-clauses, but remain as adjective
phrases at main clause level. Like any other kind of adjective phrase in the same
position, the participles here function as subject complements:
206 The complex sentence (III)
           A      S    P Cs      A
(54) a. In storms walkers get lost on the moors.
               S                     P     Cs        A
b. All the shops in the city centre remained closed after the riots.

The ‘state’ meaning of past participles makes them particularly suited to an adjec-
tive role, so much so, in fact, that distinguishing between verbal and adjectival
character is difficult in certain cases. This is especially so after the verb be. The
following are ambiguous in both meaning and syntax:

(55) a. The eggs were fried.

b. The park gate is closed.

These may mean, firstly, that the respective subject is described as being in a par-
ticular condition, e.g. the eggs on the plate were in a fried state (and not raw or
scrambled), and the park gate was not open but shut, so that nobody could enter.
Here be is a full verb followed by an adjective as Cs:

           S         P   Cs
(56) a. The eggs   were  fried.
b. The park gate  is  closed.

The other interpretation involves an action: someone fried the eggs and someone
closes the gate, e.g. The eggs were fried in this pan; The park gate is closed punctually
every day at 6 pm. In this case be is an auxiliary verb forming the passive:

    S            P-pass

(57) a. The eggs    were fried.
b. The park gate   is closed.

It is important to note that this ambiguity arises only with be. No other verbs
can take on the role of an auxiliary in passive constructions. Get in (54)a., for
instance, must be viewed as a full lexical verb with the meaning of become (hence
the subject complement following).

9.2.4.1 ‘Are we finished now?’: adjectival past participles with ‘active’ meaning
The answer to the question is ‘Not quite, but almost’. Finally, we must include
a remark on past participles with an ‘active’ meaning. First, though, a note of
explanation and reminder: all past participles discussed so far have been those
of transitive verbs. This is logically so, as the kind of state meaning we have
been talking about is ‘passive’ in nature, even when the participle is an adjec-
tive: fried eggs, that is, are eggs that have been fried, and a closed gate is one that
has been closed. In other words, the entity that the participle describes is (or was)
the patient of an action and the potential subject of a passive verb (as pointed
 The complex sentence (III) 207
out at the beginning of the chapter). However, there is a handful of adjectival
past participles, formed mainly from intransitive verbs, which convey an ‘active’
meaning. The noun involved here is the potential subject of an active verb and
refers, classically, to the agent of an action:

(58) a. Mel and Frampton, as it turned out, were escaped convicts.

(= convicts who had escaped from prison.)
b. Davis used to work here, but is now retired. (= He doesn´t work anymore.)
c. Our dog is well-behaved. (= It behaves well.)
d. I was busy cooking, but I am now finished. (= I have finished cooking.)

(58)d. is a rare transitive example, and can only occur in this sense predicatively.
The others are intransitive. Further examples (also intransitive) are the follow-
ing: fallen apples, a faded colour, an advanced student, an experienced guide, a departed
soul. Most of these potential subjects refer to the experiencer of an action, rather
than the agent. But we will not pursue that point here. In their adjective roles,
most of these participles can be used either predicatively or attributively, but one
or two are restricted: fallen and escaped, for instance, are generally avoided in pre-
dicative position, while finished in attributive position takes on passive meaning
(a finished product). A common predicative-only example is gone, as in My money
is gone.

Exercises

Exercise 1
Analyse the following sentences in terms of sentence functions:

1 Wiping his forehead with a handkerchief, the gardener put down his
spade.
2 A woman was sitting at the bar sipping a cocktail.
3 Shouting angrily, the couple pursued the bicycle thief out of the park.
4 Cleo got onto the train thinking it was the 4.30 to Hendon.
5 Seeing the water boiling, I turned off the gas.
6 When walking up to her front-door one evening, Soraya heard a loud noise
coming from behind the house.
7 With our only van broken down, we unfortunately can´t make home deliveries.
8 Although bored by the disc-jockey, Cindy and Clive stayed dancing at the
club for another two hours.
9 The singer returned to the stage followed by his band.
10 Astonished by the scene at the bank, we just stood there, staring at the police
cars.
11 With their sirens blaring, four fire engines raced into the park.
12 Sue always has her hair done by the stylist in Market Street.
13 You cannot use the country club dining room unless invited by a member.
208 The complex sentence (III)
Exercise 2
State the differences in meaning between the a. and b. sentences in the following,
and say how those differences arise. Provide possible contexts.

1 a. Brett saw Connie climbing a tree.

b. Brett saw Connie climb a tree.
2 a. Kay noticed Alex talking to Marie.
b. Talking to Marie, Kay noticed Alex.
3 a. Leaving the building, I realised I had no key.
b. Having left the building, I realised I had no key.
4 a. Sophie was missed at the office.
b. Sophie was missing at the office.
5 a. We don´t like our dog barking at night.
b. We don´t hear our dog barking at night.
6 a. The housework is done quickly.
b. The housework is done already.
7 a. Tony went to Gail holding a glass.
b. Gail went to Tony holding a glass.
8 a. Sheila´s hobby is singing.
b. Sheila´s hubby is singing.
9 a. I´ve often seen Robby riding badly.
b. I´ve often seen Robby ridden badly.
10 a. The ticket-office was closed 10 minutes after we joined the queue.
b. The ticket-office was still closed 10 minutes after we joined the queue.
10 The complex phrase (I)
The complex noun phrase

10.0 The complex phrase

We now leave subordination at sentence level and come to subordination at
phrase level. Sub-clauses at phrase level are parts of phrases. That is, they do not
have a functional relationship to a clause or sentence, but to the head of a phrase.
A clause inside a phrase makes that phrase into a complex phrase. Here are three
examples:

(1) a. The man sitting next to Jane spilt his coffee over her.
b. Jane was sure that he did it on purpose.
c. She left without saying a word.

In (1)a. we have a present participle clause as postmodifier in a noun phrase,

in (1)b. a that-clause as adjectival complement, and in (1)c. a gerund clause
as prepositional complement. Notice these clauses are not directly related to
their respective sentences. It is only the particular phrase as a whole that has a
sentence function:
the man sitting next to Jane noun phrase functioning as subject (S)
of spilt.
sure that he did it on purpose adjective phrase functioning as subject
            complement (Cs) following the verb be.
without saying a word prepositional phrase functioning as
adverbial (A).

The clause itself, of course, will have its own internal sentence functions, just like
any other sub-clause:

       P    A
(2) a.  . . . sitting next to Jane . . .
        S P   Od      A
b.  . . . that he did it   on purpose . . .
        P  Od
c.  . . . saying a word . . .
210 The complex phrase (I)
However, a preliminary word on analysis conventions is necessary here. In just
a sentence-functional analysis, we will indicate clauses subordinated at phrase
level by slants or backslashes (/ /), and show the head of the phrase by an arrow
( ).

      S    P   A    P   Od   A
(3) a. The man /sitting next to Jane/ spilt his coffee over her.
    S  P Cs   S P Od   A
b. Jane was sure /that he did it on purpose/.
    S  P A    P  Od
c. She left without /saying a word/.

Note that this is not a full internal analysis of phrases. It is a functional sentence
and clause analysis which is basically of the kind we have been doing in the
previous chapters. We are introducing the slant convention here to distinguish
sub-clauses at phrase level from those at clause level (for which we will continue
to use square brackets, as we have done so far). A more detailed analysis of phrase
functions, as shown in Chapter 4, is best done separately. This point will be taken
up again later in the chapter.

10.0.1 The complex noun phrase

Clauses in the noun phrase always belong to the postmodification, i.e. they
always follow the head (see Chapter 4, 4.1 for these terms). They can be finite
(e.g. a relative clause or that-clause) or non-finite. Common types of finite clause
are relative clauses and, with nouns of a certain semantic kind, that-clauses.
Non-finite clauses are usually participle or infinitive clauses:

(4) a. The strange girl who Jenny had noticed on the train was standing out-
side the café.
b. Jenny had a vague idea that the girl was in some kind of trouble.
c. Two boys playing football in the street saw Mrs Belford leave her
house.

The clauses in bold type are part of the same phrase as the noun which they
follow. The noun is the head of the phrase, but in its relation to the postmodifica-
tion it is traditionally called the antecedent:
 The complex phrase (I) 211
Noun phrase

Premodification Head (antecedent) Postmodification

The strange girl who Jenny had noticed on the train

a vague idea that the girl was in some kind of trouble
Two boys playing football in the street

If we were analysing the sentences in (4) just in terms of sentence and clause
functions, we would do this in the way that we showed above in (3):

      S     Od S    P     A     P     A
(5) a. The strange girl /who Jenny had noticed on the train/ was standing outside
the café.
     S  P   Od      S  P     A
b. Jenny had a vague idea / that the girl was in some kind of trouble/.
       S   P   Od   A    P  Od    Co P     Od
c. Two boys /playing football in the street/ saw Mrs Belford [leave her house].

We will now look in detail at the different types of postmodifying clause.

10.1 Postmodifiers: the relative clause

The relative clause is the most widespread kind of finite clause postmodifying
nouns. The subordinating element is the relative pronoun, which has the same
reference as the antecedent and links the clause with it. The relative pronoun
represents the antecedent, so to speak, in the relative clause. But it has its own
sentence function inside the relative clause. It is important to realise this. Any
kind of clause inside a phrase has its own separate internal sentence functions,
as already shown in (5). There are more examples further below. First, though, a
consideration of relative pronouns.

10.1.1 Relative pronouns

English has several distinct relative pronouns. The main ones are who, which and
that, selected first and foremost according to semantic criteria:

•• who refers to persons;

•• which to things and animals;
•• that to persons, things and animals.
212 The complex phrase (I)
Selection involves certain syntactic criteria, usually in the form of restrictions on
the use of individual pronouns to certain clause positions or functions. These are
dealt with in the course of the discussion below.
Points of usage that can be noted here already are the following:

•• relative pronouns are used regardless of number and gender;

•• that is less formal than the other two pronouns; it is especially colloquial in
the subject function of the relative clause;
•• who has an object form whom, regarded as formal in style; who generally
replaces it in more neutral language;
•• there is a genitive relative pronoun, whose, expressing a genitive relation to
the antecedent; syntactically speaking, it is a relative determiner, since a
noun must accompany it, and it premodifies this noun;
•• animals referred to as he or she (because speakers are individually familiar
with them, or wish to treat them in this way) can also take the relative
pronoun who.

A particular characteristic of English relative clauses is that the relative pronoun

can be left out. The ‘gap’ resulting from this omission of the pronoun is usually
referred to as the zero relative pronoun (marked ø in sentence analysis). It can
occur with all three relative pronouns:

(6) a. The strange girl who Jenny had noticed on the train . . .
  The strange girl (ø) Jenny had noticed on the train . . .
b. The car which/that I bought last month . . .
  The car (ø) I bought last month . . .

The zero relative pronoun is also subject to certain restrictions. Stylistically, it is

generally confined to speech and informal language. The major syntactic condi-
tion is that it can only occur as an object or complement of the relative clause,
or with prepositions. In other words, omission of the regular relative pronoun is
not permissible when it is the subject of the clause. Examples illustrating this are
given in the next section.

10.1.2 Sentence functions of relative pronouns

Relative pronouns occur in nearly all the functions in which nouns occur, except
as indirect object (see below). The most common functions are as subject, object
or (when accompanied by an independent preposition) as part of an adverbial.
The examples in (7) and (8) focus entirely on the relative pronoun, showing its
function and indicating possible alternative pronouns in brackets (zero = ø):

                  S
(7) a. Mandy did not know the person /who (that) had sent her the flowers/.
         Od
b. The car /which (that, ø) I am going to buy/ is not yet in the showroom.
 The complex phrase (I) 213
                      Od
c. Tony and Christine are the people /who (whom, that, ø) we see most
often socially/.
             A
d. That is the house /in which my father was born/.

(7)d. is an example of a prepositional relative clause. There will be more to say

on this in the next section.
Relative pronouns can also function as subject and object complements,
though they are not that common:

             Cs
(8) a. The kind of man /that (which, ø) Simon had become/ shocked us pro-
foundly.
                 Co
b. I will not repeat the names /that (which, ø) the boss called you/ in his rage.

10.1.3 Prepositional relative clauses

These are clauses like the one shown in (7)d., where the relative pronoun is
connected to a preposition. The kind of connection depends on whether the
preposition is part of a prepositional verb or the head of a prepositional phrase.
In (7)d. the preposition forms a prepositional phrase with the relative pronoun:
that is, the relative pronoun is the prepositional complement, and the phrase
as a whole functions inside the relative clause as an adverbial. This is presented
again in (9)a., but to make things clear, all the functions in the clause are now
shown. In (9)b. the preposition is part of a prepositional verb, making the relative
pronoun into a prepositional object (functionally a direct object like any other).

              A    S   P-pass
(9) a. That is the house /in which my father was born/.
           P1 Od S    P1
b. The opportunity /for which I had been waiting/ came along surprisingly
quickly.

Notice that in (9)b. the preposition and relative pronoun have the same posi-
tions as those in (9)a., and appear to form a unit in the same way: however,
this is not so. The preposition for is part of the prepositional verb wait for, and
therefore part of the predicator, from which it is split off and placed before the
relative pronoun. When one predicator is split like this, we mark each part as
P and give it the same subscript numeral to indicate that the two parts belong
together as one unit (see also 5.4.2).
This initial position in the relative clause is not the only possibility for prepo-
sitions. There is an alternative: final position, i.e. at the end of the clause. This
counts for both prepositional verbs and prepositional phrases:
214 The complex phrase (I)
             A1   S  P-pass A1
(10) a. That is the house /which my father was born in/.
            Od S    P
b. The opportunity /which I had been waiting for/ came along surprisingly
quickly.

In (10) we have a reversal of the situation in (9). A phrase-split has now occurred
in the prepositional phrase in (9)a., whereas that in the verb phrase in (9)b. has
been removed. In actual fact, this final position of the preposition in relative
clauses is the preferred one in everyday language. The initial position is regarded
as stylistically elevated.
Position of the preposition also affects the choice of relative pronoun. Only
which and whom are permitted when the preposition is initial, as in (11)a. and b.
When the preposition is final, as in (11)c. and d., all relative pronouns (includ-
ing the zero pronoun) are possible:

                A      S     P-pass
(11) a. Mrs Quinn is the teacher /to whom the anonymous letters were sent/.
(not *to who . . . )
           A    S    A   P
b. The bus stop /at which the children usually wait/ is by the station.
(not *at that . . . , or *at ø . . . )
                    A1           S 
c. Mrs Quinn is the teacher / who (whom, that, ø) the anonymous letters
       P-pass A1
were sent to/.
           A1     S    A P A1
d. The bus stop /that (which, ø) the children usually wait at / is by the station.

10.1.4 The ‘empty slot’ phenomenon

Prepositional relative clauses underline a phenomenon that can be felt in all
relative clauses: we will call this the ‘empty slot’ phenomenon. Something has
‘gone missing’ at the end of the relative clause. In (11)a. and b., for example,
where the preposition is initial, it is the whole prepositional phrase; in (11)c.
and d., where the preposition is final, it is just the prepositional complement.
The reason for this feeling is that these elements are parts of the verb comple-
mentation, and we expect them to follow the predicator, as they do in simple
sentences. In relative clauses, however, these elements of verb complementa-
tion appear in initial position, where they are now represented by the relative
pronoun. Going from simple sentence to relative clause therefore involves not
only converting elements of complementation into relative pronouns, but also
shifting them from final to initial position:
 The complex phrase (I) 215
(12) A
a. Anonymous letters were sent to Mrs Quinn.
A
Mrs Quinn is the teacher /to whom anonymous letters were sent to Mrs Quinn/.
A
b. Anonymous letters were sent to Mrs Quinn.

A1 A1
Mrs Quinn is the teacher /whom anonymous letters were sent to Mrs Quinn/.

What we cannot do is keep the complementation elements in their original

position and send them to initial position as well: *Mrs Quinn is the teacher to
whom the anonymous letters were sent to Mrs Quinn. Precisely this, however, is an
error often found among EFL/ESL learners whose mother tongue deals differently
with relative clauses from the way they have to be in English (e.g. in Hebrew or
Korean, to name just two examples).
The ‘empty slot’ phenomenon is emphasised by prepositional relative clauses,
in particular when the preposition is in final position. But the principle is the
same for all relative clauses. The following are more general examples:

Od
(13) a. We visited a friend in Bournemouth.

Od
The friend /that we visited the friend/ lives in Bournemouth.

Od
b. Vincent has taken a job in a factory.

Od
The job / ø Vincent has taken a job/ is in a factory.

Relative clauses with the zero pronoun, as in (13)b., seem especially to provoke
error as the Od is not overtly present in the sentence at all. The temptation
to insert a ‘false’ personal pronoun (instead of simply repeating the full noun
wrongly) is particularly prevalent, e.g. here *The job Vincent has taken it is
in a factory.
The ‘empty slot’ phenomenon is found also with other clause types, as we will
see in Chapter 12.
216 The complex phrase (I)
10.1.5 The concept of restriction
Restriction was introduced in Chapter 4, 4.1.2.1 as being fundamental to all
forms of postmodification, which show two basic kinds of meaning relation
to the antecedent: restrictive and non-restrictive. The concept of restriction
is particularly relevant to relative clauses, which is why it is taken up here
again.
All the relative clause examples so far have been restrictive. This means that
they identify the antecedent. Consider again:

(14) a. the car /which I am going to buy/

b. the people /who we see most often socially/

The relative clauses here answer the question Which one(s)? Thus the ‘car’ meant
in (14)a. is ‘that one (and only that one) which I am going to buy’. Similarly,
the particular ‘people’ referred to in (14)b. are ‘those that we see most often
socially’ and no others. The antecedents alone could refer to any cars or people.
The relative clause restricts the choice to the individual or group which fits the
description. By contrast, a non-restrictive relative clause does not have this iden-
tifying or defining function. It simply gives added information. Consider (15)a.
and (15)b. The only semantic difference between them is that the relative clause
in the first is restrictive, whereas in the second it is non-restrictive (signalled here
by the commas):

(15) a. The crew members who were still on the ship were rescued by helicopter.
b. The crew members, who were still on the ship, were rescued by helicopter.

The version in (15)a. identifies which crew members were rescued by helicop-
ter: that is, those (and only those) who were still on the ship. What is implied
here is that other members of the crew were not rescued in this way (for exam-
ple, because they had already escaped and were in safety): the restrictive relative
clause here selects a particular group of crew members from the total number.
In (15)b., however, all the crew members are meant. We can express this in the
two sentences: The crew members were still on the ship. They were (then) rescued
by helicopter.
If we do the same for (15)a., we have to say: Some of the crew members were still
on the ship. They were (then) rescued . . . .
The non-restrictive relative clause in (15)b. is a kind of parenthesis, i.e. a
clause conveying extra information not necessary to understand the anteced-
ent. We can therefore take it out of the sentence (as we did just above) without
altering the identity of the antecedent: The crew members were still on the ship.
The parenthesis-character is shown by the commas. These also reflect pronun-
ciation. Commas in writing usually signal pauses in speech. Here, slight pauses
are made before and after the relative clause, and the clause itself has a separate
intonation pattern:
 The complex phrase (I) 217

(16) The crew members, who were still on the ship, were rescued by helicopter.

Restrictive relative clauses, by contrast, are pronounced with no pause and in the
same breath as the rest of the noun phrase:

(17) The crew members who were still on the ship were rescued by helicopter.

In writing, the commas, as we have said, are an important signal of non-restric-

tiveness. However, if the intended non-restrictive meaning is clear from the
context, the commas may occasionally be missing. This is found mainly when
the non-restrictive clause ends the sentence: Denise couldn´t find her bicycle which
she had left against the railings outside the park. What is definitely not permissible is
the reverse, so to speak: commas must never appear with restrictive clauses.
Restriction has certain consequences regarding the choice of relative pronoun:

•• only who(m), which and whose are possible in non-restrictive relative clauses;
•• the use of that and the zero pronoun is confined to restrictive relative clauses.

Three final points: firstly, non-restrictive relative clauses are more common in
formal rather than in informal language styles. Secondly, non-restrictive post-
modification occurs more commonly with relative clauses than with most other
postmodification types; it is therefore especially relevant to relative clauses.
Thirdly, an analytical question: do restrictive and non-restrictive clauses have
the same syntactic status? Phonologically and semantically, as we have seen,
non-restrictive clauses are separate from their antecedent phrase. For this rea-
son they could be regarded also as syntactically separate. They would then be
clauses which are directly subordinated at sentence level (see SAGE, pp. 535f.).
What speaks against this, however, is that the relative pronoun still has the
head of a noun phrase as its antecedent (here: crew members), suggesting that
the phrase relation is the same as in the restrictive case. This is what we will
assume here also.
(16) is then analysed in the same way as (17):

       S     S  P A   A      P-pass     A
(18) a. The crew members, /who were still on the ship/, were rescued by helicopter.
       S     S  P A     A      P-pass      A
b. The crew members /who were still on the ship/ were rescued by helicopter.

10.1.6 The problem of indirect objects in relative clauses

Relative pronouns cannot function as indirect objects. These must always be
paraphrased as prepositional phrases:
218 The complex phrase (I)
(19) a. *Marley is the person who I gave the money.
b. Marley is the person who I gave the money to.

The normal requirement for indirect objects is that they should be positioned
between the predicator and the direct object. With the relative pronoun as Oi
this would not be possible, of course, as the relative pronoun has to introduce the
clause. The only solution therefore lies in the prepositional phrase. A similar rule
applies to interrogative pronouns (see 3.1.3).

10.1.7 Whose and the of-genitive

Whose, as we have said, is the genitive relative pronoun (see above 10.1.1). It is
thought of as a pronoun because it represents the s-genitive of the antecedent
noun. Within the relative clause, however, it functions syntactically as a deter-
miner in a separate noun phrase:

(20) a. Mrs Simmons is the neighbour whose car was stolen.

b. The person whose money I borrowed was Marley.

Whose is usually preferred only in reference to persons (not surprisingly, as it is the

genitive of who). However, it is not completely ruled out with inanimate entities
and sentences like the one in (21)a. below do occasionally occur, though mainly
in colloquial language. Just as in the ordinary case the of-genitive is favoured for
things, so we have a relative clause version in the form of which, as in (21)b. A
problem here, though, is that the construction sounds a little awkward in the
intonation pattern of a restrictive relative clause: of-genitives are therefore gener-
ally reserved for the non-restrictive case, as in (21)c. The most natural solution
in the restrictive case is offered by the preposition with, together with a rephras-
ing of the sentence as shown in (21)d.

(21) a. The table whose legs were badly scratched cost far too much.
b. The table of which the legs were badly scratched cost far too much.
c. The table, of which the legs were badly scratched, cost far too much.
d. The table with the badly scratched legs cost far too much.

In certain marked styles (e.g. elevated or emphatic) of-genitives can occur with
person referents. The relative clause version is of whom, used like of which mainly
in non-restrictive clauses. An often preferred syntactic variation with of-genitive
relative clauses is to place the belonging noun before the of-genitive relative
pronoun, as in (22)b. and (22)c.:

(22) a. Sissi Briggs, of whom the husband is unemployed, wants a divorce.

b. Sissi Briggs, the husband of whom is unemployed, wants a divorce.
c. The table, the legs of which were badly scratched, cost far too much.

Syntactically speaking, however, we no longer have relative clauses in (22)b.

and c., but a kind of postmodification by noun phrase known as apposition. This
is dealt with further below.
 The complex phrase (I) 219
10.1.8 Relative adverbs
Sometimes the function of relative pronoun is taken over by the adverbs
when, where and why, known in this case as relative adverbs (see also SAGE,
pp. 539f.). Their function is adverbial, and the style a little informal. In more
elevated language they are replaced by prepositional relative pronouns (in the
following in brackets):

               A
(23) a. Thursday afternoon is a time /when (at which) we are very busy in the
office/.
                        A
b. There was a violent robbery yesterday in the street /where (in which)
Rod works/.

               A
c. I can´t think of a reason /why (for which) Jason should have been here
yesterday/.

Why can also be omitted (i.e. replaced by the zero pronoun) in less formal English:
I can´t think of a reason Jason should have been here yesterday. This does not gener-
ally apply to when and where, however.

10.1.9 Sentential relative clauses

This is a special case of a relative clause subordinated at clause level. Sentential
relative clauses have the whole of the preceding clause as their antecedent, and
are therefore not contained inside a phrase. They are always introduced by which
and are only non-restrictive:

S
(24) a. She invited me to her party, / which was nice of her/.
Od
b. Her husband whistles and hums in public, /which she finds
embarrassing/.
The two-way arrow indicates that the whole clause is the antecedent.

10.1.10 Postponed relative clauses

In informal style relative clauses are sometimes separated from their antecedents,
usually by adverbials belonging to the preceding clause. This postponement splits
the noun phrase concerned:
220 The complex phrase (I)

     S P  Od   A     A    S P Oi Od
(25) a. Kay met a friend at the station yesterday /who gave her a lift home/.

    S  P         Od            A        A    Od S     P
b. I found several old photo albums in the attic last week /that I had not
     A
seen before/.

Constructions like this are only permissible when there is semantically no doubt
about what the antecedent is. A sentence like the following would probably be
avoided:

(26) (?) Bennet married a girl from a midlands town that he wasn´t exactly in
love with.

This is not grammatically wrong, but humorously ambiguous: was it the girl or the
town that Bennet was not in love with?

10.1.11 Further clauses inside the relative clause

Relative clauses can also contain further subordinate clauses. This is then ordi-
nary clause-level subordination, with functional relations between any higher
and lower clauses:

      S    P    Od  Od  S     P  A      S  P    A        A
(27) a. She married a man/ ø she had met [while she was on a cruise in the
Caribbean]/.
          S     S    P    Od       S   P   Cs A    S    P   Od
b. A guest /who complained [that the steak was tough [after he had ordered it
     Co    P1-pass   A P1-pass Od P1-pass
well done]]/ was   later given his money back.

10.1.12 Secondary fronting

This also concerns further clauses inside the relative clause, but affects the
syntactic status of the relative pronoun. Consider the following:

(28) a. An old friend that I had forgotten to contact phoned me the day after
my wedding.
b. Cleaning the flat is the task that I hate doing most.
c. The woman who the police thought had committed the crime was
arrested in Harlow.
 The complex phrase (I) 221
The relative pronouns in these examples introduce relative clauses in the normal
way. However, they have no functional relation within the main relative clause.
They are syntactically part of a subordinate clause inside the relative clause. In
(28)a., for instance, the relative pronoun that appears to be the direct object of
had forgotten, but in fact it is the direct object of the infinitive sub-clause to con-
tact. Similarly, that in (28)b. is the direct object of doing, not hate, while in (28)c.
who, although apparently the direct object of thought, is actually not: it is in fact
the subject of had committed. Analytically, this looks as follows:

S Od S P Od P
(29) a. An old friend /that I had forgotten [to contact ]/
P Od A
phoned me the day after my wedding.

S P Cs Od S P Od P A
b. This is the job /that I hate [doing ] most.

S S S P Od P
c. The woman /who the police thought [ had committed
Od P-pass A
the crime]/ was arrested in Harlow.

We can consider this best in terms of the ‘empty slot’ idea introduced in 10.1.4
above. There we said that a phrase made into a relative pronoun is removed from
a later position in the clause and leaves an empty slot there. In these cases, the
empty slot is not left in the main relative clause, but in a sub-clause, indicated by
the arrows in the examples. The fronted pronoun has been ‘taken out’ of that sub-
clause. This phenomenon is what we call here secondary fronting. It is unknown
in many other languages, and often strange to EFL learners. It is nevertheless very
common in English, especially in speech and informal styles.

10.2 Postmodifiers: other structures as reduced relative clauses

What is expressed by a relative clause can often be conveyed more economically
(in terms of syntax) by other structures. All three sentences in the following
mean the same:

(30) a. The man who is standing by the car is my uncle.

b. The man standing by the car is my uncle.
c. The man by the car is my uncle.
222 The complex phrase (I)
The full relative clause in (30)a. is shortened to a present participle clause in
(30)b., and reduced even further to just a prepositional phrase in (30)c. We will
now look at these alternative structures in a little more detail, with particular
focus on non-finite verb forms.

10.2.1 Participle clauses

Both present and past participles are common as postmodifiers. First, the present
participle:

     S    P     Od   P    A
(31) a. Two men /wearing face-masks/ burst through the door.
              [= two men who were wearing . . . ]
     S     P     Od        P       Od
b. All passengers /possessing European passports/ should join queue number 3.
              [= all passengers who possess . . . ]

The antecedent is always the implied subject of the present participle. As

explained in Chapter 9.1.2, present participles have imperfective aspectual
meaning and correspond to the finite progressive form. This is shown in the rela-
tive clause equivalent given for (31)a. With ordinary active (i.e. non-stative)
verbs, a postmodifying present participle can have only this meaning. That is, it
cannot generally replace a simple form in a relative clause. (32)b. is therefore not
acceptable as an equivalent of (32)a.:

(32) a. I was introduced to a man who restores old furniture.

b. *I was introduced to a man restoring old furniture.

Restores in (32)a. is clearly a general habit reference (see also SAGE,

pp. 320f.). The participle form in (32)b., however, suggests an ongoing act
( . . . a man who was restoring . . . ). Things are different with stative verbs (see
also 9.1.2.3). Here one does encounter present participle postmodification as
an expression of the finite simple form. This is the case in (31)b. above. Other
examples are:

(33) a word meaning ‘rubbish’ (= a word that means ‘rubbish’); anyone seeing
that picture for the first time (= anyone who sees . . . ); a bottle containing
colourless liquid (= a bottle which contains . . . ).

Principally involved here are stative verbs that belong to the semantic categories
of possession and perception (see also SAGE, p. 324).
Past participles in postmodification represent passive forms in the equivalent
relative clauses:
 The complex phrase (I) 223

         S         P      A           P     A   A
(34) a. The truck /parked across the street/ has been there for a week.
           [past participle = the truck that has been parked . . . ]
        S  P Od    P     A
b. We ate beef /cooked in wine/.
              [past participle = beef that had been cooked . . . ]

Here again the antecedent is always the implied subject of the participle.

10.2.2 Infinitive clauses

Infinitives also occur as postmodifiers, though in a restricted range of meanings,
and under certain specific syntactic conditions:

           S     P      Cs         P    Od

(35) a. Christine was the only guest /to bring flowers/.
          [antecedent implied subject = the only guest who
brought . . . ]
            S     P     Od       P         A
b. Mr Creeley has a few words /to say on our new project/.
                      [antecedent implied direct object = a few words which
he would like to say . . . ]

These are rather different from participle postmodifiers. Infinitives are not a sim-
ple alternative to relative clauses in the way that participles are. There are two
special semantic elements involved in (35):

•• (35)a. is an example of a noun premodified by one of the following: next,

last, only, or an ordinal number (first, second, third, etc.). This is one condi-
tion allowing infinitive postmodification of a relative clause type. As with
the participles, the antecedent is the implied subject of the clause.
•• (35)b., a more widespread type, shows the second condition: it has a modal
meaning. In other words, a replacement relative clause here has to contain
a modal verb. In cases like this, the antecedent is either the implied direct
object of the infinitive (as here), or an implied prepositional complement, as
in (36)b. below. The implied subject is the main clause subject in this exam-
ple, but it may also be a generalised one, depending on context.

Here are more examples of what we call the modal relative infinitive:
224 The complex phrase (I)
(Od)
S P Cs P A

(36) a. Mrs Turner is the person /to see for an appointment

with the boss/.
(prepositional compl.)
S P A A P Cs
b. The new store /to shop at for shoes/ is Bryant’s.

Modal relative infinitives are especially common with indefinite pronouns, such
as something, anything, everything, etc.:

(37) a. I have nothing to do. (= . . . nothing that I should/must/can do)

b. Is there anything more to add? (= . . . anything that I should/can add)
c. Something to drink would be nice. (= something that I can/could drink)

10.2.3 Prepositional phrases

Prepositional phrases are not clausal postmodifiers as such, of course. But they have
two clausal associations connected with noun phrases: firstly, most prepositional
phrases that are potentially adverbial can be seen as reduced relative clauses:

S P A
(38) a. The book on the table belongs to Carron.

S S P A P A
b. The book /which is on the table/ belongs to Carron.

Secondly, complex prepositional phrases quite often postmodify nouns:

That´s a cupboard for storing old files.
We deal with complex prepositional phrases in the next chapter.

10.3 Postmodifiers: apposition

Apposition is the expression of the antecedent in other words. Traditionally,
the standard case is where the postmodifier is itself a noun phrase. Again, this is
not a clausal modifier, but we have good reasons for dealing with it here, as will
become clear later:

(39) a. Have you met Mrs Stanmore, our restaurant manager?

b. My brother, an accomplished musician, has joined the local chamber
orchestra.
c. This is the new maths teacher, Tina Simms.
 The complex phrase (I) 225
Typically, as in (39)a. and (39)c., either the antecedent or the postmodifier is
a proper noun, i.e. a name. The postmodifier gives extra information on who
or what the antecedent is, or what it consists of. Naturally enough, this ‘added
information’ element points to a non-restrictive role for the apposition noun.
However, appositive nouns can equally have a ‘narrowing down’ function seman-
tically: in specifying a particular member of a group, they are then restrictive:

(40) a. Tim´s sister Beth goes to Clongarth High School.

b. I first met the maths teacher Tina Simms at a PTA meeting.

The implication in (40)a. would be that Tim has more than one sister, and in
(40)b. that Tina Simms is not the only maths teacher at the school in question.
Restrictive apposition commonly occurs when there is semantic focus on the
appositive noun, and the antecedent characterises it by reference to category or
type: the actor Salvatore Caldero; the word ‘sanctuary’; the herb oregano; the Greek
letter sigma.
Analytically, apposition should remain unmarked at sentence level, as it is not
clausal and therefore has no internal sentence functions. However, in the case of
non-restrictive apposition, there is a need for the sake of clarity to indicate that
it is part of the preceding noun phrase. This will be done using the arrow conven-
tion showing the antecedent. With the restrictive type we will simply place the
sentence function marker in such a way as to show that the postmodifying noun
phrase is included. Here are three examples from above. All sentence functions
are shown:

   P1 S    P1    Od
(41) a. Have you met Mrs Stanmore, our restaurant manager?
     S                 P            Od
b. My brother, an accomplished musician, has joined the local chamber
orchestra.
        S    P     A
c. Tim´s sister Beth goes to Clongarth High School.

Apposition of the non-restrictive type shown in (41) has certain similarities to

postmodification by relative clause. (41)b. could alternatively be expressed quite
comfortably as My brother, who is an accomplished musician, has joined the local cham-
ber orchestra. Nevertheless, apposition cannot generally be regarded as a reduced
form of relative clause. Firstly, it is a plausible alternative only with the non-
restrictive variety of apposition. Furthermore, the only permissible verb in the
relative clause is be (not surprisingly, as the appositive relation is one of equiva-
lence). Thirdly, relative clause replacement usually produces shifts of meaning:

(42) a. I saw the new maths teacher, Tina Simms, in town last Thursday.
b. I saw the new maths teacher, who is Tina Simms, in town last Thursday.
226 The complex phrase (I)
The relative clause in (42)b. suggests that the listener or reader already knows the
person Tina Simms, but the appositive version in (42)a. does not.
As no clausal element is involved, the kind of apposition discussed so far
does not create a complex phrase. We will see below, however, that apposi-
tion can also include clauses, and indeed that particular types of apposition are
entirely clausal.

10.3.1 Partitives
Apposition can also express just a part of the antecedent. The appositive noun is
then often a numeral or quantifier used as a pronoun:

(43) a. Only about fifty delegates, many fast asleep, were present at the dis-
cussion.
b. A whole troop of police, some of them with dogs, searched the train.

Here too, there is a semantic connection to the relative clause, and in fact a
relative clause may be included in the appositive noun phrase: . . . many of
whom were fast asleep . . . . Note in this case, though, that the relative clause
postmodifies the appositive pronoun, and has no direct syntactic relation to the
antecedent of the apposition. The same is true of participle clauses:

(44) a. Four young men, two of them carrying knives, were arrested yester-
day after an affray outside La Dolce Vita coffee bar in Townley High
Street.
b. The three escaped convicts, one of them considered very dangerous,
are still at large in the Manchester area.

Of course, clause structures introduced like this into the appositive noun phrase
make it a complex postmodification of the antecedent noun.
Part relations are also involved when certain members of a group are speci-
fied or singled out as representatives. Focusing expressions, such as for example,
particularly, like, etc., then usually accompany the apposition:

(45) a. Many low-income workers, especially women in retail jobs, are now
suffering under the recession.
b. The new trade restrictions will affect several important sections of the
economy, for example, car manufacture or chemical engineering.

Here are two examples from above given full sentence analysis:

           S               P      Od      P-pass    A
(46) a. Four young men, two of them /carrying knives/, were arrested yesterday . . . .
 The complex phrase (I) 227
        S                                         P1 A 
b. Many low-income workers, especially women in retail jobs, are now
   P1      A
suffering under the recession.

Note that in (46)a. the participle clause is a second postmodification inside the
first. As it is clausal, we place it in slants.

10.3.2 Appositive clauses

Postmodification by noun phrase is not the only form of apposition. Appositive
postmodifiers can be entirely clausal. These appositive clauses, as they are called,
typically postmodify abstract nouns, such as idea, fact, plan, possibility, thought,
wish, desire, etc., and express the semantic content of the antecedent. The major
finite type of appositive clause is the that-clause:

(47) a. I did not like the idea that we might run out of petrol in the middle of
the desert.
b. The fact that Fred has bought an expensive car reveals something about
his income.

As with noun phrase postmodification, so also here the central characteristic of

the appositive relation is that antecedent and postmodification are equivalent.
With appositive clauses, this can be shown by inserting be between antecedent
and postmodification and forming a separate sentence:
The idea was that we might run out of petrol . . . ; The fact is that Fred has
bought . . . .
Note that in that-clauses the word that is a conjunction (in contrast to relative
clauses, where it is a relative pronoun).
Non-finite apposition is typically with an infinitive clause or of + gerund clause:

(48) a. Brian´s hopes of marrying Babsi came to nothing.

b. Wendy´s intention to go to the beach was thwarted by bad weather.

Here again we can apply the equivalence test: Brian´s hopes were of marrying Babsi;
Wendy´s intention was to go to the beach.
Appositive clauses are usually restrictive, as in the examples. The most
common non-restrictive type occurs with the gerund clause as direct post-
modifier (i.e. without a preposition):

(49) a. Sadly, Ken´s great hobby, keeping bees, ended with the move to a flat.
b. Caitlyn refused to give up her first love, painting landscapes.

Directly postmodifying gerund clauses are always non-restrictive.

228 The complex phrase (I)
10.3.3 Clauses as antecedents
We have already come across a similar phenomenon with the sentential relative
clause (see 10.1.9 above). It is more common, though, with apposition. This is
not surprising, as the equivalence factor provides a possibly firmer semantic base
for comment and specification. It will also allow us simply to swap the roles of
antecedent and postmodifier around. Applying this to (49) we get:

(50) a. Sadly, keeping bees, Ken´s great hobby, ended when he had to move to
a flat.
b. Caitlyn refused to give up painting landscapes, her first love.

This looks analytically as follows. Note again that the purpose of the two-way
arrow is to show the whole clause as the antecedent:

A S P Od P A

(51) a. Sadly, [keeping bees, Ken´s great hobby,] ended with the move to
a flat.
S P Od P Od P Od

b. Caitlyn refused [to give up [painting landscapes, her first love]].

Appositives postmodifying clauses are invariably non-restrictive, as the commas

in the examples indicate. Antecedents can be other clause types, apart from the
gerund:

(52) a. We had to make our escape in full moonlight, a problem nobody seemed
to have envisaged.
b. Tommy said that he hadn´t been informed, a complete lie actually.
c. To rehearse the whole play so early, the producer´s first idea, would have
been impossible.

Exercises

Exercise 1
Analyse the following sentences in terms of sentence functions:

1 We have never met the man who sold us this house.

2 The dog that my dad gave me for Christmas has run away.
3 Michael´s wife doesn´t like the present he bought her.
4 The person to whom we sent the letter has disappeared.
5 That is the child that I gave the money to.
6 The group we had booked the tickets for didn´t turn up.
7 The pet names he calls his children are rather sentimental.
 The complex phrase (I) 229
8 Mrs Bates is the neighbour whose son had the accident.
9 The town McGregor comes from is on the Scottish east coast.
10 Dave couldn´t find the socks June had knitted for him when he joined the
army.
11 The man who stole the car Sandra got after she had passed her driving test
has been arrested in Weymouth.
12 We have many students who don´t like the tests we set them.
13 The department head who turned down the offer the directors made him is
Harry Benfield.
14 Violent films are the ones I hate watching most.
15 Unfortunately I have forgotten several important things about grammar that
my teacher told me I should always remember.
16 The woman we imagined was his mother turned out to be his sister.
17 The meeting that Clarke had intended to arrange with the Italian CEO had
now become unnecessary.

Exercise 2
Comment on the syntax of the -ing-forms in the following:

1 A man carrying a newspaper came out of the shop whistling the Welsh
national anthem.
2 I remember Helen telling us to send her our manuscript on time.
3 After searching all the farm buildings, the police eventually found the shotgun
standing against a tree in the garden.
4 Any person behaving suspiciously should be reported to Security immediately.
5 A bag containing dangerous chemicals was discovered lying under the sofa.

Exercise 3
State the differences in meaning between the a. and b. sentences in the follow-
ing, and say how those differences arise. Provide possible contexts.

1 a. The spectators who were not standing under cover left because of the
rain.
b. The spectators, who were not standing under cover, left because of the
rain.
2 a. The police-officer sitting on the bed examined Stacy´s diary.
b. Sitting on the bed, the police officer examined Stacy´s diary.
3 a. Jenny found a meal cooking slowly in the oven.
b. Jenny found a meal to cook slowly in the oven.
4 a. The conductor, Craig Lucas, is retiring.
b. The conductor Craig Lucas is retiring.
5 a. I saw mail piled up on Steve´s desk.
b. I saw mail piling up on Steve´s desk.
230 The complex phrase (I)
Exercise 4
In what way are the following sentences ambiguous, and why?

1 Masterson spoke to the workers in the factory.

2 Janice did not like the woman talking to her mother.
3 The motorcyclist turning right into Brunswick Road caused the accident.
4 The idea that he´s preaching is awful.
5 The bus driver did not notice the car overtaking him.
11 The complex phrase (II)
Complex prepositional and adjective
phrases

11.0 Complex prepositional and adjective phrases

The last chapter looked at clausal postmodification in the noun phrase. In this
chapter we continue our examination of the complex phrase with an examination
of clausal subordination in prepositional and adjective phrases, as exemplified in
the following:

(1) a. On sitting next to Jane the man promptly spilt his coffee over her.
b. Jane was sure that he did it on purpose.

These examples echo those at the beginning of Chapter 10, with (1)a. slightly
amended to fit the topic in this chapter. In the first case we have a gerund
clause as the prepositional complement of on, and in the second a that-clause
as adjectival complement of sure. Analytically we will deal with these at the
sentence-function level in the same way as with the complex noun phrase, i.e. by
putting the clausal phrase complements in slants (//). Functionally, the sentences
in (1) then pan out as:

        A    P      A         S      A     P     Od     A

(2) a. On /sitting next to Jane/ the man promptly spilt his coffee over her.
        S   P  Cs      S  P  Od     A
b. Jane was sure /that he did it on purpose/.

As shown in Chapter 10, the arrows indicate that the clauses in slants belong
to the same phrase as the immediately preceding word, and that this is the head
of the phrase. The sentence function shown above the head is the function of
the phrase as a whole in the sentence concerned. In other words, on sitting next
to Jane in (2)a. is a prepositional phrase functioning as A in the sentence as a
whole, with on as the head and the gerund clause sitting next to Jane contained
inside the phrase as prepositional complement. In (2)b. we have the adjective
phrase sure that he did it on purpose functioning as Cs in the larger sentence, with
sure as the head and the that-clause as adjectival complement. We will now look
at such phrases individually and in detail.
232 The complex phrase (II)
11.1 The complex prepositional phrase
A clause inside the prepositional phrase occurs always as prepositional complement:

(3) Prepositional phrase

Head Prepositional complement

preposition gerund clause

on
sitting next to Jane

As pointed out in previous chapters, a triangle indicates that the particular unit
(here the gerund clause) could be analysed further. (4) gives a more comprehen-
sive breakdown of the phrases involved, together with the sentence functions, as
shown already in (2)a.:

(4) Prepositional phrase

Head Prepositional complement

preposition gerund clause

on

verb phrase (P) prepositional phrase (A)

head (gerund)
sitting next to Jane
 The complex phrase (II) 233
Gerund clauses, with their ‘nominal character’ (see Chapter 8), are particularly
drawn to prepositions:

(5) Prepositional phrase

Head Prepositional complement

preposition gerund clause

without saying goodbye

before going home
by breaking a window

This is equally true, incidentally, when the preposition belongs to a prepositional

verb. In this case the gerund clause is the direct object of the verb:

          S      P   Od P    A
(6) a. Valerie insisted on   [sitting by the window].
       S       P        Od    P       Od
b. I did not think of   [contacting the police].

This is simply by way of reminder: clausal constructions with prepositions gen-

erally apply to both prepositional structures, i.e. to prepositional phrases and
prepositional verbs. Prepositions can also be complemented by finite clauses.
These are mainly confined to wh-clauses (discussed fully in the next chapter),
and the prepositional phrase in such cases itself usually complements an adjective
(see next section) or postmodifies a noun:

        S   P  Cs         Od   S      P       Oi

(7) a. She was unsure /about /what she should tell her parents//.
         S      P      Od       A    S     P     Od
b. Daly has written an article/on/how people plan their careers//.
234 The complex phrase (II)
11.2 The complex adjective phrase
Here, too, a clause inside the phrase occurs always as a complement, in this case,
of course, as an adjectival complement:

(8) Adjective phrase

Head Adjectival complement

adjective finite clause

sure
that he did it on purpose

Semantically, there is some similarity here to noun-phrase postmodification:

the adjectival complement tells us in what respect the adjective is to be under-
stood, restricting its validity and relation to the content of the complement.
Common complement types are that-clauses and infinitive clauses, and as
briefly mentioned in the preceding section, also complex prepositional phrases.
Adjectives of particular semantic kinds are followed by wh-clauses. Two special
clause types occurring with adjectives are comparative and consecutive clauses,
which we have not yet introduced. All this is explained in detail in the next
sections below.

11.2.1 that-clauses
These particularly accompany adjectives that convey various mental states and
attitudes, such as feelings, knowledge, prediction, etc.

(9) a. We are all happy that Sanderson is leaving the firm.

b. He is aware that people don´t like him.

The that-clause expresses the semantic object of the attitude, i.e. what is per-
ceived, known or thought, or what causes the emotion.
 The complex phrase (II) 235
11.2.2 Complex prepositional phrases and wh-clauses
Prepositional phrases are a common form of adjectival complement (see
Chapter 4, 4.3), and gerund clauses, as seen in 11.1, are a ‘natural extension’,
so to speak:

(10) a. Yasmin is good at helping other people.

b. I felt nervous about going to London for an interview.

Indirect questions can follow adjectives relating to knowledge and awareness:

(11) a. I´m not certain why you are asking me this question.
b. Jamie was unsure whether he should apply for the job.

And as seen above in (7)a., prepositions can occur before the wh-clause, making
it into a complement in a complex prepositional phrase:

(12) a. I´m not quite clear on where we are going to meet.

b. Are you conscious of what this action might lead to?

Wh-clauses are not always indirect questions. As we will see in the next chapter,
they may also be nominal relative clauses, in particular with what, and sometimes
also with where:

(13) a. Jill was generally not interested in what her husband was writing.
b. I was shocked at where Sonya had to sleep.

The difference between indirect questions and nominal relative clauses is not
important at this point. It is explained fully in Chapter 12.
Sentence-analytical representation looks like this (taking just (10a.) and
(12a.) as examples):

     S   P Cs       S    Od
(14) a. Yasmin is good /at /helping other people//.
    S   P      Cs       A   S        P
b. I am not quite clear/on/where we are going to meet//.

And in phrase terms, as in (15)a. and b.:

236 The complex phrase (II)
(15) a. Adjective phrase

Head Adjectival complement

good Prepositional phrase

Head Prepositional complement

preposition gerund clause

at

verb phrase (P) noun phrase (Od)

head (gerund)
helping
other people
b. Adjective phrase

Head Adjectival complement

clear Prepositional phrase

Head Prepositional complement

preposition finite clause

on

where we are going to meet

 The complex phrase (II) 237
11.2.3 Comparative clauses
Comparative clauses and comparative phrases are used among other things in
the comparison of adjectives (see also Chapter 4). As a basis for discussing the
comparative clause, we will first give one or two words of reminder on the com-
parative phrase. This is introduced by as and than, known in this construction as
comparative particles:

(16) a. June is taller than Paul.

b. Paul is not as tall as June.

The expression ‘comparative particle’ is a cover term for items belonging to

various word-classes according to their position and function: than and as
(when as follows the adjective) are prepositions (see also SAGE, pp. 166ff. or
LGSWE, pp. 526f.). They introduce the comparative phrase, which is in gen-
eral terms a prepositional phrase functioning as the adjectival complement.
The equative comparison, shown in (16)b., needs another comparative parti-
cle (also as) to premodify the adjective. In this role, as is an adverb. With the
‘as. . .as-construction’ (as it is often called informally), it is important, then,
to identify premodifying as as an adverb (here: before tall), and complement as
as a preposition (here: after tall).
We will now add a verb to the end of each sentence in (16):

(17) a. June is taller than Paul is.

b. Paul is not as tall as June is.

This does not change the meaning, but it does change the structural syntax.
Instead of comparative phrases, we now have comparative clauses. Adding a
verb, that is, has turned the phrase into a subordinate clause, which now requires
internal analysis in terms of sentence functions. The comparative particle fol-
lowing the adjective has become a conjunction, as it now introduces a clause.
The clause is still the adjective complement, but our simple adjective phrases in
(16) have now in (17) become complex adjective phrases:

         S  P Cs        S  P

(18) a. June is taller /than Paul is/.
         S  P    Cs       S  P
b. Paul is not as tall /as June is/.

Internally the adjective phrases then look as follows:

238 The complex phrase (II)

(19) a. Adjective phrase

Head Adjectival complement

taller comparative clause

than Paul is

b. Adjective phrase

Premodifier Head Adjectival complement

adverb tall comparative clause

as
as June is
Comparative clauses are taken up again further below in connection with adverb
and noun phrases.

11.2.4 Infinitive clauses

The infinitive occurs after adjectives in a variety of constructions and meanings.
The exact nature of these is determined by the lexical character of the adjective
(and/or certain modifying elements in the phrase). Depending on this, the infini-
tive action or state represents, in general semantic terms, one of the following:

•• the cause of a reactive feeling: Brian was glad to meet Penny again;
•• the object of a prior volitional attitude: The couple were unwilling to sell their
house;
 The complex phrase (II) 239
•• the consequence of a condition present in a certain degree: Harriet was too
drunk to walk straight;
•• the specifier of a particular characteristic: Tommy is quick to criticise others;
•• the possessor of a particular characteristic: The book is easy to read; It is easy
to read the book.

In the sentences of the first four categories, the subject of the main verb is also
the implied subject of the infinitive. Significantly, this is not the case with the
two examples in the last category. As we will see further below, the infinitives
here cannot be regarded as part of the adjective phrase at all. (The last example
sentence is an extraposition, a structure we have already talked about to some
extent in 7.5.1 and which we come back to below.)
Now for one or two more detailed considerations on the syntax and semantics
of these adjective-infinitive relations.

11.2.4.1 Adjectives of emotion

Adjectives like angry, delighted, glad, happy, sad, surprised, etc., express emotional
reactions to the event or state referred to by the infinitive. Notice that the event
happens (totally, or at least in part) before the emotion occurs:

(20) a. Brian was glad to meet Penny again.

(= Brian met Penny again. This made him glad.)
b. Pia is delighted to win so much money.
(= Pia has won so much money. This makes her delighted.)

The feeling, in other words, is the result of the action, as indicated by the para-
phrases in brackets. In logical-semantic terms, the event reference is a factive
presupposition of the emotion reference (see Chapter 8, 8.3.2.2): i.e. the sen-
tences in (20) show the following presuppositional structure:

(21) a. X (Brian was glad to meet Penny)   » Y (Brian met Penny)

b. 
X (Pia is delighted to win       » Y (Pia has won so much money)
so much money)

11.2.4.2 Volitional adjectives

Adjectives of this type include desperate, eager, hesitant, keen, prepared, ready,
reluctant, willing, etc. We said above that they refer to attitudes, but in a wider
sense they also represent ‘feelings’, i.e. in the form of desire or willingness
(= volition) for something to happen. The difference to the emotive adjectives
in the previous section lies in the reversed time sequence of feeling and event.
With volitional adjectives the emotion comes first: it is the wish for (or accept-
ance of) a later action:
240 The complex phrase (II)
(22) a. Brian was eager to meet Penny again.
(= Brian had this attitude towards the future event meet.)
b. Pia is reluctant to win so much money.
(= Pia has this attitude towards the future event win.)

11.2.4.3 Consecutive clauses with the infinitive

Consecutive clauses state the consequences of having a particular characteristic
in sufficient or excessive ‘amounts’. They are mainly associated with the adverb
modifiers too, enough and so:

(23) a. Colin is still too nervous to drive in heavy traffic.

(= Colin is very nervous and as a result does not drive . . .).
b. I did not feel strong enough to leave the house for long periods.
(= I had too little strength and therefore did not leave the house . . .).
c. He was so generous as to give all his money to charity.
(As a result of his generosity, he gave all his money . . .).

As seen in (23)c., so requires the conjunction as to be placed before the infinitive

clause.
Consecutive clauses do not occur just with the infinitive, nor indeed are they
focused only on adjectives. This point is taken up again later in the chapter. A
final note: adjective phrases containing consecutive infinitives create a system-
atic implicative relation to the infinitive act reference (see also Chapter 7, 7.6).
That is, depending on the kind of modifier (too, enough, so), in combination with
the positive or negative status of the main verb, the infinitive act is implied as
either taking or not taking place:

(24) a. X (Colin is still too nervous to drive in heavy traffic.)

→ Y (Colin does not drive in heavy traffic.)
b. X (He was so generous as to give all his money to charity.)
→ Y (He gave all his money to charity.)

Notice that for (24)a. (with too) a positive main verb implies that the infinitive act
does not take place, i.e. X → not-Y. Negating the main verb, on the other hand,
will imply that the infinitive act does take place, i.e. the implication is reversed:
not-X → Y. For (24)b., with so, by contrast, the implication is positive-positive:
X → Y. Negating the main verb here implies also negation of the infinitive act:
not-X → not-Y. The same applies to sentences with enough, as in (23)b.

11.2.4.4 Points of analysis

To clarify: what we are discussing here is the infinitive clause as adjectival com-
plement. Analysis of the examples here in 11.2.4 therefore looks on the sentence
level as follows:
 The complex phrase (II) 241
         S   P  Cs          P    Od    A
(25) a. Brian was glad (eager)/ to meet Penny again/.

          S  P A       Cs      P        A

b. Colin is still too nervous /to drive in heavy traffic/.

And the adjective phrases internally:

(26) a. Adjective phrase

Head Adjectival complement

glad infinitive clause

eager

to meet Penny again

b. Adjective phrase

Premodifier Head Adjectival complement

adverb nervous infinitive clause

too
to drive in heavy traffic
242 The complex phrase (II)
11.2.4.5 Infinitive clauses as specifiers
This relates to sentences of the type Tommy is quick to criticise others (given in
the introduction to 11.2.4 above). At first glance the adjective phrase quick to
criticise . . . may appear similar in its internal semantic and syntactic relations
to the ones with a volitional adjective, such as eager or ready. A second glance,
though, reveals differences. For one thing, quick to criticise creates an implicative
relation, but there is none with volitional adjectives:

(27) a. X (Tommy is quick to criticise others).

→ Y (Tommy criticises others).
b. X (Brian was eager to meet Penny).
→ Y (Brian met Penny).

Secondly, we can express X in (27)a. in alternative syntactic constructions that

are not possible with volitional adjectives, for example, Tommy criticises others
quickly; Tommy is quick in criticising others. These alternatives show that the adjec-
tive head (quick) in the original sentence is semantically rather like an adverb,
i.e. it expresses a characteristic of the action; at the same time, of course, the
adjective points to a characteristic of the subject, Tommy. The two directions –
here Tommy and there the action – combine to tell us about the way in which
the subject behaves. Volitional adjectives, by contrast, are just subject-centred,
denoting, as we have said, the subject´s attitude towards an anticipated event.
In the quick-to-criticise type, we call the infinitive clause a specifier, because it
tells us in what sense the subject is ‘quick’, i.e. with regard to the stated action.
This kind of head-complement relation is actually not very widespread. It is
restricted mainly to the adjectives quick and slow.

11.2.4.6 Infinitive clauses as ‘false complements’

The first of our last two examples in the introductory list in 11.2.4, The book is
easy to read, shows a certain similarity to the quick-to-criticise type we have just
been discussing. At first sight, that is, it appears to place the infinitive clause
also in the role of specifier. The sentence as a whole, in other words, seems to
attribute an adjective feature (easy) to the subject (book) and narrow it down to
a particular domain of activity (to read). But consider now our final introductory
example, It is easy to read the book. This is actually an alternative way of express-
ing the same sentence. (28)a. and (28)b., that is, are paraphrases of each other:

(28) a. The book is easy to read.

b. It is easy to read the book.

(28)b., as mentioned above already, is an example of the construction we call

extraposition. There are two significant things about it in this connection. Firstly,
we cannot apply it to the quick-to-criticise kind of sentence:
 The complex phrase (II) 243
(29) a. Tommy is quick to criticise others.
b. *It is quick to criticise others.
c. *It is quick for Tommy to criticise others.

Neither (29)b. nor (29)c. make sense. Both are ungrammatical with the adjective
quick. If we swap this for easy, of course, we do get grammatical sentences, as we
have already seen in (28). Then, however, the pattern in (29)a. would not work,
as shown in (30), which actually reverses the previous pattern of acceptability:

(30) a. *Tommy is easy to criticise others.

b. It is easy to criticise others.
c. It is easy (for Tommy) to criticise others.

The second important point about the extraposition version of (28)a. in (28)b. is
this: it shows the book syntactically as the direct object of the infinitive. To re-cap
on the sentence functions involved in extraposition (see also Chapter 7, 7.5.1),
we will give a full function version of (28)b.:

     S-gramm.   P Cs S-log.    P     Od
(31) It         is easy  [   to read the book].

We will not comment generally on the function pattern here (this is taken up
again later in Chapter 12). What interests us now is the book as direct object of
read. If (28)a. means the same, we have to account for the fact that here the same
noun phrase (the book) appears as the subject of the sentence. The answer to the
problem lies in recognising that this is a ‘false’ subject semantically. As we will
see later, false subject constructions are a regular pattern in English, and require
the following analysis:

(32)
S-gramm. P Cs S-log. P Od-log.
The book is easy [ to read ].

The infinitive clause itself is the ‘real’ or logical subject (S-log.), but is antici-
pated by a ‘dummy’ grammatical subject, as with extraposition. The difference to
extraposition is that here the ‘dummy’ subject has a real function in the infini-
tive clause. ‘Dummy’ subjects help to avoid beginning the sentence with an
infinitive clause, which is grammatically possible, but is usually regarded in com-
municative terms as undesirable (see also Chapter 7, 7.5). Extraposition and
false subject constructions are discussed more fully in the next chapter, when we
return from phrase- to sentence-level and consider the syntax and communica-
tive purposes of these and other ‘special’ syntactic constructions.
244 The complex phrase (II)
The point to be made here, in the context of phrase syntax, is this: with
extraposition and false subject constructions, the infinitive clause does not
belong to the adjective phrase (see the use of square brackets). We are tempted
to think that it does, when we read a word sequence such as easy to read: but it
is a syntactic deception, a case of a ‘false’ complement. The infinitive clause,
therefore, is not an adjectival complement at all, but a separate and independent
part of the sentence.
With that we pass back to the sentence level. In the next chapter we will
consider extraposition, false subject constructions and other special clausal forms
in more detail.

Exercises

Exercise 1
Analyse the following sentences in terms of sentence functions:

1 The tourists left the café without paying for their drinks.
2 After settling in at your hotel you will receive a visit from our travel repre-
sentative.
3 Carmen was not sure about what she should wear to the wedding.
4 Geoff was fined for driving too fast along Brighton promenade.
5 On returning to the camp-site, we were shocked to discover that our tent had
been stolen.
6 Politically, Folthorpe never recovered from being defeated in the election.
7 Adam and Roberta had a big argument over where to go for their holidays.
8 The company is certain that it is going to be successful in developing this
new far-eastern market.
9 The trainer was happy to see that his players were so confident about win-
ning the next game.
10 Although she is keen to pass the exams, she has always been reluctant to
work at improving her practical skills.
11 The town planners are angry at receiving so little public support for building
the new shopping-centre.
12 As we were too exhausted to leave our hotel after arriving in London, we
decided on having an early night.
13 My partner was more surprised to hear the result of the competition than
I was.
14 Mother is just as relieved as I am that our new neighbours are much quieter
than our old ones.
15 When it is necessary to have spare parts delivered immediately, Jones is
slower to react than our other suppliers.
 The complex phrase (II) 245
Exercise 2
Do complete phrase analyses of the following:

1 before boarding the plane.

2 excellent at solving problems.
3 surprised to see Madeleine.
4 anxious about leaving her mother alone.
5 too tired to eat any food.

Exercise 3
Using appropriate symbols, give the implicative meanings or presuppositions
contained in the following:

1 Codd was too scared to jump.

2 We are sad to be leaving the island.
3 The family are wealthy enough to own four homes.
4 I am not prepared to pay the bill.
5 Julie is very upset to hear that the trip has been cancelled.
6 The dog wasn´t quick enough to catch the rabbit.
7 We weren´t unhappy to see them go.
12 Selected clause constructions

12.0 Return to sentence-level: particular clause constructions

We now want to examine common clause constructions of a slightly eccentric
and individual kind, and to see how they fit into our functional scheme of things,
adding where appropriate one or two observations on their usage. First point
on the agenda is to give an overview of the two types we were talking about in
Chapter 11 in connection with phrase syntax: extraposition and the false subject
construction.

12.1 Extraposition
We have met extraposition so far with infinitive clauses (7.5.1, 11.2.4.6) and
gerund clauses (8.1.2). It is also common with finite clauses (usually that-clauses,
but occasionally other types that are mentioned further below). Here are some
summarising examples, together with their common function pattern. Note that
the Cs slot can also be filled by a noun phrase:

    S-gramm. P    Cs     S-log.

(1) a. It is dangerous   [to swim in this river].
b. It is my intention [to cross the mountains on foot].
c. It was lovely     [lying by the pool in the sun].
d. It was an insult    [saying that to Wanda].
e. It was unfortunate   [that you could not attend the meeting].

The communicative purpose of extraposition is to create emphasis by placing

the subject clause in final position. This is known as postponement. As we will
see below, postponement is exemplified in other sentence types as well. Moving
the clause from the real subject position at the beginning of the sentence leaves
a ‘gap’ that must be filled by what we called in Chapter 11, 11.2.4.6 a ‘dummy’
subject. This is the grammatical subject (S-gramm.). With extraposition the
S-gramm. is identical with the shifted clause, the logical subject (S-log.).
Extraposition is usual not only with infinitive clauses, as we have seen, but
also with that-clauses in the subject function. In the case of gerunds, it is common
 Selected clause constructions 247
in informal usage (see also Chapter 8, 8.1.2), although not generally regarded as
necessary. Nevertheless, with gerunds accompanying certain adjectival expres-
sions extraposition is either strongly preferred (e.g. with no good and no use) or
mandatory (e.g. with worth): It will be worth taking a taxi to the station (*Taking a
taxi to the station will be worth).

12.1.1 Variations on verb and function

Extraposition is most commonly linked to the main verb be, but occurs with
certain other verb types when the reference is general or impersonal. These are
chiefly verbs which:

•• denote mental/emotional reactions (annoy, shock, surprise, worry, etc.):

It shocked us to see how poor the people were;
•• refer in the passive to general or anonymous acts of thought or communication:
It was assumed/thought/said that the firm was bankrupt;
•• mean seem, happen or become known (e.g. appear, chance, emerge, turn out, etc.):
•• It appeared/turned out that suspect was innocent after all;
•• signify acts of perception and awareness (occur, become clear, dawn on, etc.):
It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn´t paid the bill before leaving the café.

Extraposition can occur in complex transitive constructions with clauses that

function as direct objects. The ‘dummy’ it is then the Od-gramm., and the post-
poned clause the Od-log.:

        S        P Od-gramm.    Co    Od-log.

(2) a. Drayton   is finding it difficult  [to save money].
b. Thick fog   made. it impossible [to leave the harbour].

12.1.2 Attributive of
Infinitive clause extraposition is very common with evaluative adjectives, those
that comment on people´s actions and behaviour. Here, the agent of the action
(i.e. the implied subject of the infinitive verb), is usually specified by an of-phrase.
Syntactically, this is then the adjectival complement:

    S-gramm.      P       Cs     S-log.
(3) a.    It    was   silly of Robert [to park the car there].
   S   P Od-gramm.   Co     Od-log.
b. We thought it kind of Mrs Morley   [to look after the children].

Semantically, this not only specifies the agent (Robert and Mrs Morley in the
respective examples), but also allows the judgement on the action to reflect on
the person as well.
248 Selected clause constructions
12.2 False subject constructions
This kind of construction was briefly introduced in Chapter 11, 11.2.4.6 in dis-
cussing infinitive clauses following certain types of adjective. The example given
was (32) The book is easy to read, in which the apparent subject of the sentence
(the book) is to be understood semantically as the direct object of the infini-
tive (to read), and it is then the infinitive clause as a whole, i.e. with the ‘real’
Od added (to read the book), which must be seen as the intended subject of the
sentence. These ‘real’ functional relations behind the apparent syntax of the
sentence were clarified in the paraphrase by extraposition (see example (28)).
In fact we could also show these relations by quite simply placing the infini-
tive clause in initial position. The following three sentences then all mean the
same, with the meaning of the first two shown at its clearest in (4)c. (this is not
favoured stylistically, as we have said, but is still a grammatical sentence):

(4) a. The book is easy to read.   [false subject construction]

b. It is easy to read the book. [extraposition]
c. To read the book is easy.

Like extraposition, the false subject construction is a way of manipulating

sentence focus. However, in contrast to extraposition, which emphasises the
whole sub-clause by postponing it, the false subject construction additionally
profiles a particular phrase in the sub-clause by ‘extracting’ it from the clause,
and placing it in initial sentence position (i.e. by fronting the phrase). This
shifts the focus slightly. (4)b. and c. are about ‘reading something’, whereas
(4)a. is about ‘the book’: here, the ease of reading it is named as one of its
characteristics.
False subjects are not always infinitive clause objects. They can also be infini-
tive subjects or the complement of a preposition in the infinitive clause. We will
now look at these cases in detail.

12.2.1 False subject: infinitive object

The following examples have the same hidden syntactic pattern of meaning as
(4)a. That is, the subject of the sentence is to be understood as the direct object
of the infinitive clause. It is the infinitive clause that is the real subject of the
sentence. Extraposition equivalents are given in brackets:

(5)
a. This camera is difficult to use. [= It is difficult to use this camera.]
b. My horse is great to ride.    [= It is great to ride my horse.]
c. The film is good to watch     [= It is good to watch the film on a
on a winter´s evening.       winter´s evening.]

Here is the analysis pattern again:

 Selected clause constructions 249

(6) S-gramm. P Cs S-log. P Od-log.

The camera is difficult [ to use ].
My horse is great [ to ride ]
The film is good [to watch . . . .]

False subject constructions can nearly always be paraphrased by extraposition.

Note, however, that this is not true the other way round. Extraposition is possible
with a much wider range of adjective types. With the adjectives in the following,
for instance, only extraposition is permissible:

(7) a. It is not polite to say things like that. [*Things like that are not polite
to say.]
b. It is usual to give a dog bones.     [*Bones are usual to give a dog.]

Generally speaking, the kind of false subject construction discussed in this sec-
tion occurs with evaluative adjectives (such as bad, exciting, fantastic, good, great,
lovely, nice, pleasant, wonderful, etc.), and in particular with a sub-group that refers
to levels of ease or difficulty (awkward, hard, simple, impossible, etc.). Ultimately,
however, the precise syntactic possibilities have to be learnt in connection with
the individual adjective.

12.2.2 False subject: prepositional complement

Going together with the same kinds of adjectives is a second and similar kind of
false subject which stands for a missing prepositional complement at the end of
the infinitive clause:

(8)
a. My old boss was awful to       [= It was awful to work for my old
work for.          boss.]
b. Henry is nice to talk to.        [= It is nice to talk to Henry.]
c. The table is all right to look at [= It is all right to look at the table,
but bad to write on.       but bad to write on it.]

And the analysis pattern:

(9) Log. prep. comp

S-gramm. P Cs S-log. P A
Henry is nice [ to talk to ].

In this and the preceding false subject pattern, noun phrases can also occur as
subject complement, e.g.:
250 Selected clause constructions
(10) a. My old boss was an awful person to work for.
b. This is a difficult camera to use.
c. Henry is a pleasure to talk to.

This alters the possibilities a little with regard to extraposition. If the noun itself
expresses the evaluation or comment, as in (10)c., extraposition will work. In
cases like (10)a. and b., where the adjective still expresses the evaluation and the
noun is just a ‘neutral’ insertion, extraposition is not possible:

(11) a. *It was an awful person to work for my old boss.

b. *It is a difficult camera to use this.
c. It is a pleasure/a joy to talk to Henry.

Finally, there are certain types of adjectives within the broad evaluative range
which cannot occur alone in false subject constructions, but are nevertheless
acceptable if accompanied by a noun. (12)a. and c. are permissible because
the evaluating adjectives premodify nouns. Without the nouns, however, as in
(12)b. and d., the sentences are not acceptable:

(12) a. That was the wrong thing to say to Jill.

b. *That was wrong to say to Jill.
c. A field is a strange place to get married in.
d. *A field is strange to get married in.

The kinds of adjectives to which this applies are typically those expressing degrees
of appropriateness and normality (right, normal, strange, odd, peculiar, etc.).

12.2.3 False subject: infinitive subject

With this third type of false subject construction, it is the implied subject of the
infinitive clause that becomes the false subject of the main clause:

(13) a. Grandma was very generous to give you that money.

(It was very generous of grandma to give you that money.)
b. You would be foolish to pay so much for a wooden bungalow.
(It would be foolish of you to pay so much for a wooden bungalow.)
c. Dick was thoughtless to leave the dog without water.
(It was thoughtless of Dick to leave the dog without water.)

At first glance this does not seem to be different from the ordinary S + P + Cs
sequence with adjectives like happy or keen. After all, the main clause subject is
generally understood as the subject of the infinitive if there is no further noun
phrase in the main clause:
 Selected clause constructions 251
(14) a. Grandma was very happy to give you that money.
b. Grandma was very keen to give you that money.
c. Grandma was very generous to give you that money.

In all of these, ‘Grandma’ is the subject of the main clause and the implied sub-
ject of the infinitive, as we would expect also with catenative sentences such as
Grandma wanted to give you that money. Insofar as this, (14)c. is a standard case,
like (14)a. and b. However, there is a fundamental difference. The adjectives
keen and happy relate entirely to the subject: they attribute characteristics to her.
In (14)c., however, the adjective generous gives a value judgement on Grandma´s
action. The difference is indicated once more by the paraphrase potential: extra-
position, i.e. making the infinitive clause into the logical subject, can only be
applied to (14)c. As it was Grandma´s action that was ‘generous’, and not her
character or person, Grandma in (14)c. is a false subject, whereas in (14)a. and b.
it is a genuine one. The analytical pattern in (13) is then the following:

                  S-log.2
    S-gramm.  P      Cs S-log.1  P
(15) a. Grandma was    very generous [ to give you that money].
b. You     would be foolish       [ to pay so much for a bungalow].
c. Dick   was   thoughtless  [ to leave the dog without water].

Notice that we have two S-log. positions in this case: one for the main clause
subject and one for the infinitive clause subject.
False subject constructions of this kind are very common with the speculative
adjectives bound, certain, likely, sure:

(16) a. They are certain/likely/sure to arrive tomorrow.

[= It is certain/likely/sure that they will arrive tomorrow.]
b. Jonah is bound to get lost on the moors.
[*It is bound . . .]

Two points are of note here. Firstly, extraposition is only possible with a that-
clause. It does not work if the infinitive is kept, quite simply because we cannot
then accommodate the infinitive subject in an of-phrase: *It is certain of them to
arrive tomorrow. Secondly, bound does not permit extraposition at all: *It is bound
that Jonah will get lost on the moors.

12.3 Existential sentences

Existential sentences are those that begin with there, which in this case has the
role of an existential pronoun (and not an adverb!) (see also SAGE, pp. 574f.,
LGSWE, pp. 943ff.):
252 Selected clause constructions
(17) a. There are many different varieties of apple.
b. There were four books on the table.
c. There is a train at 11am.
d. There were three children playing outside the house.

As the term suggests, existential sentences state that an entity ‘exists’. This can
apply in a general way, as with (17)a., or in a more specific and defined sense, as in
the rest of the examples: (17)b. refers to the existence of entities (books) in a cer-
tain local physical position; (17)d. does the same, but with additional reference
to an activity which the entities named (children) are performing. Note that for
these last two we can produce approximate paraphrases (or neutral equivalents)
just by substituting main parts of the noun phrases for there in initial position:

(18) a. Four books were on the table.

b. Three children were playing outside the house.

However, this depends for its success on the lexis and syntax of the individual
elements involved. It will not work, for instance, for (17)a. or c.: *Many different
varieties of apple are; *A train is at 11am. A unified solution, in accordance with
our explanation above, is to assume that the literal meanings of the sentences in
(17) should be represented in the following way:

(19) a. Many different varieties of apple exist.

b. Four books on the table existed.
c. A train at 11am exists.
d. Three children playing outside the house existed.

This rather abstract semantic representation is made more concrete when we

consider the communicative purpose behind saying that something ‘exists’. It is
essentially to introduce new information in the form of what is grammatically
known as an indefinite noun phrase, i.e. one premodified by an indefinite arti-
cle or an equivalent (such as a zero article or a numeral). Indefinite pronouns
(something, nothing, anybody, etc.) also fall into this category. New information
is often avoided in initial sentence position. It is generally preferred later in the
sentence, where it gets more profile. The existential construction fulfils this
purpose. It is a postponement device, similar in form and function to extraposi-
tion, giving end-profile to the main reference: a ‘dummy’ subject comes first,
anticipating the real subject in its more stressed final position. The sequences
following the head nouns in (17)b., c. and d. are postmodifications (italicised in
the following for clarity):

    S-gramm.  P  S-log.
(20) a. There  were   [four books on the table].
b. There  is    [a train at 11 am].
c. There  were   [three children /playing on the village green/].
 Selected clause constructions 253
Generally speaking, only be is acceptable as the main verb. Exceptions are certain
catenatives expressing appearance (seem, appear) and ‘chance’ (chance, happen,
turn out). However, be must then follow as the sub-clause infinitive. What would
normally be the Cs of the sub-clause is then the S-log. of the main clause:

    S-gramm.  P   Cs P        S-log.
(21) a. There  seemed   [to be no alternative to the plan].
b. There  happened [to be a train at 11 am].

12.4 Cleft sentences

Cleft constructions are used for certain types of emphasis. As they always start
with It + be, they might be confused at first sight with extraposition. In cleft sen-
tences, however, the sub-clause is a relative clause. The emphasised element in
the sentence is the antecedent:

(22) a. It was the lorry driver who caused the accident.

b. It is tomatoes that I need for the recipe.

Analytically, this comes out as

    S P    Cs    S   P   Od
(23) a. It was the lorry driver /who caused the accident/.
    S P   Cs Od  S  P    A
b. It is tomatoes /that I need for the recipe/.

In contrast to the case with extraposition, there are no ‘double functions’ such
as S-gramm. and S-log. involved here. The initial it is an impersonal pronoun.
Though there is some type of postponing effect on the highlighted noun (especially
in cases like (23)a.), the pronoun itself does not replace anything that comes later
in the sentence. Syntactically, cleft sentences are emphasis-marking paraphrases
of neutral, ‘unmarked’ sentences. A comparison of (23)a. and b. with their corre-
sponding neutral versions shows what changes occur to produce the cleft variants:

(24) a. The lorry driver caused the accident.

{It was the lorry driver}{who caused the accident}.

b. I need tomatoes for the recipe

{It is tomatoes} {that I need for the recipe}.

254 Selected clause constructions
Cleft means ‘split’. The single clause of the original simple sentence is divided
into two, as illustrated. The element to be profiled gets its ‘own clause’, so to
speak, where it functions as Cs after It + be, a kind of semantic pointer unit with
a communicative function that we might describe as ‘highlighter’. The rest of
the original neutral sentence becomes the postmodifier of the profiled element,
i.e. it is subordinated inside the same phrase and thus relegated to a lower level in
the clause hierarchy. This makes it less important syntactically, and underlines,
by contrast, the prominence of the profiled element. The lower syntactic status
of the relative clause also reflects the status of its information content: this is
‘less important’ as it is old information which is presupposed as known. The new
information is the profiled element.
The profiled elements have different functions in the two original sentences:
the lorry driver is S, and tomatoes is Od. Practically any functional element can be
emphasised in this way, even adverbials. The following gives further illustration.
(25)a. is the neutral sentence, and (25)b.–e. give different cleft versions profiling
various elements of (25)a.:

(25) a. Jill was studying marine biology in Sydney last year.

b. It was Jill who was studying marine biology in Sydney last year.
c. It was marine biology that Jill was studying in Sydney last year.
d. It was in Sydney that Jill was studying marine biology last year.
e. It was last year that Jill was studying marine biology in Sydney.

Points to note:

•• It is normally not possible to postmodify prepositional phrases like in Sydney

in (25)d. by relative clauses. However, it is permissible, exceptionally, in
cleft sentences. In this case, also exceptionally, we must diagnose the relative
pronoun that as a functional adverbial in the meaning of where:

   S P   A    A S    P    Od    A

It was in Sydney /that Jill was studying marine biology last year/.

•• Everything said under the previous point applies also to last year in (25)e.,
with the relative pronoun standing here for when:

S  P  A   A S     P     Od     A
It was last year /that Jill was studying marine biology in Sydney/.

•• The following test will distinguish a cleft sentence from extraposition:

Replace the it by the sub-clause. If this works, we have a case of extraposition, e.g.:
It was a disappointment that Tom cancelled his party.
That Tom cancelled his party was a disappointment. (= Extraposition)
 Selected clause constructions 255
It was a disappointment that made Tom cancel his party.
*That made Tom cancel his party was a disappointment. (= Cleft sentence)

Finally, let us come back for a moment to considerations of content already men-
tioned above: communicatively speaking, the profiled element in a cleft sentence
conveys new information, while the relative clause usually expresses something
known or presupposed. This becomes clear if we think of a cleft sentence as the
answer to a wh-question, e.g. Who caused the accident? What do you need for the
recipe? In communicative terms, therefore, the neutral sentence underlying a
cleft sentence has an ‘information gap’. If we call this X, we must say that (25)b.
derives from X was studying marine biology in Sydney last year, (25)c. from Jill was
studying X in Sydney last year, and (25)d. from Jill was studying marine biology X last
year. In other words, X varies in position according to what the cleft sentence
highlights. From this point of view (25)b.–e. derive, strictly speaking, from dif-
ferent sentences. These are all versions of (25)a., certainly, but with a different
element missing in each case.

12.5 Nominal relative clauses

The classical nominal relative clause is one introduced by what in the role of
nominal relative pronoun:

(26) a. Bobby didn´t like what we gave him for Christmas.

b. What you have said might interest the police.
c. What you become in adult life does not just depend on your upbringing.

Basically, the what-clause is a variant of a relative clause: what is a combination

of antecedent and relative pronoun. Expressing these roles separately, we could
paraphrase what in (26)a. by the presents which . . ., in (26)b. by the things that . . .,
and in (26)c. by the way that . . . . What therefore stands for both a noun (i.e. it is
‘nominal’), and the relative pronoun following the noun: hence the term nomi-
nal relative pronoun. Unlike regular relative clauses, the nominal relative clause
is not part of a noun phrase: it is subordinated directly at sentence level and has
sentence functions. This gives what the additional character of a conjunction.
However, it is not one. Inside the clause it fills a sentence function, just like an
ordinary relative pronoun:

     S   P  Od  Od S P Oi     A
(27) a. Bobby didn´t like [   what we gave him for Christmas].
    S Od S   P       P    Od
b. [ What you have said] might interest the police.
    S Cs S   P      A        P             Od       A
c. [What you become in adult life] does not depend on your upbringing alone.
256 Selected clause constructions
Like ordinary relative pronouns, what can complement prepositions. The prepo-
sition is then always sent to the end of the clause:

       S A1 S  P   A1  P     Cs
(28) a. Careful! [What you´re sitting on] doesn´t look very stable.
    S Cs1 S P   Cs1      P     Od
b. [What I am interested in] doesn´t interest my husband.

A certain difficulty with nominal relative clauses arises in distinguishing them

from interrogative clauses (i.e. indirect questions). We come back to this
point below.

12.5.1 Other types of nominal relative clause

Where, when and words ending in -ever (whoever, whatever, wherever, whenever)
can also introduce nominal relative clauses:

(29) a. Home is where the heart is.

b. Whoever did this has made a big mistake.
c. Whenever the plane lands counts as the arrival time.

Several of these are actually not pronouns, but adverbs: they function inside their
clauses as adverbials, and are called nominal relative adverbs:

     S P Cs A  S   P
(30) a. Home is   [where the heart is].
    S  A    S   P    P   Od
b. [Whenever the plane lands] counts as the arrival time.

At first glance it may seem strange to have an adverb introducing a nominal

relative clause. Nevertheless, clauses like this are also clearly ‘nominal’ in the
sense that they fill the same functions as nouns, here S and Cs. Secondly, the
adverbs themselves have the same combination meaning as we described above
for what: that is, they stand for a noun antecedent + relative clause. What gives
them their adverbial character is the fact that the relative pronoun equivalent
must be combined with a preposition, i.e. where = the place at which and when-
ever = any time at which.

12.5.2 Pseudo-cleft sentences

A special variant in the usage of nominal relative clauses is in forming pseudo-
cleft sentences. Here we are back again with the phenomena of splitting and
postponement for purposes of emphasis (see 12.1, 12.4 above). In the following,
a. and c. are the emphasis-neutral sentences, whereas b. and d. are the pseudo-
cleft versions formed from them:
 Selected clause constructions 257
(31) a. Right now I need a good meal.
b. What I need right now is a good meal.
c. Phil´s lack of professional experience worries me a little.
d. What worries me a little is Phil´s lack of professional experience.

Like its cleft counterpart, the pseudo-cleft variant splits a simple sentence into
two clauses, one of which is subordinated as a relative clause: in this case the
relative clause is a nominal relative clause, as shown in (31). The structural and
functional pattern is as follows:

    S Od S P  A   P   Cs
(32) a. [What I need right now] is a good meal.
    S S   P Od  A  P      Cs
b. [What worries me a little] is Phil´s lack of experience.

Postponement as an emphatic device is also involved here. This is most obvi-

ous with sentences like (31)d., where the subject of the neutral sentence
(Phil´s lack of experience . . ., (31)c.) is shifted into end-focus. It is less obvi-
ous in (31)b., where the profiled element is the direct object (a good meal)
and is already in end-position in the neutral sentence (31)a. In this case
postponement occurs in the sense that the sentence as a whole is extended,
pushing the end slot of (31)a. even further to the right in (31)b. by the crea-
tion of a sub-clause in subject position. This extension effect counts equally
for (31)d., of course, where it is added to the first kind of postponement
(shift of original subject into end-position), creating what might be seen as
a ‘double effect’.
The order of clauses can be reversed, with the what-clause in second position:

(33) a. A good meal is what I need right now.

b. Phil´s lack of professional experience is what worries me a little.

This changes the emphasis. It is now the what-clause that is profiled, lending
emphasis to the verb phrases need and worries, again through postponement into
a later position.
Pseudo-cleft sentences are generally well suited to predicator profiling.
Through the use of ‘dummy do’ in the what-clause (essentially an extended form
of do-support) an action-reference is given end-focus. The usual emphasis through
postponement is enhanced by the anticipation effect of do-support:

(34) a. What Jim did then was (to) get drunk.

b. What we´re doing on Saturday is decorating the bedroom.

Sentences like this tend to be confined to speech and informal language, probably
because creating a second sub-clause to equate to the first (i.e. the what-clause) is
felt to sound a little awkward:
258 Selected clause constructions
    S Od S P  A  P Cs P Cs
(35) a. [What Jim did then] was [(to) get drunk].
    S Od S P   A       P Cs P    Od
b. [ What we´re doing on Saturday] is [decorating the bedroom].

Note that the verbs in the second sub-clause are non-finite: an infinitive is
required as the equivalent of a simple aspect in the what-clause and a gerund as
the equivalent of a progressive.

12.6 Interrogative clauses

These are indirect questions (see also Chapter 6, 6.4.1). We touch on them
briefly again here because the wh-elements in them are sometimes difficult to dis-
tinguish from nominal relative pronouns and adverbs. We will confine ourselves
to examples introduced by what.

(36) a. You know what you must do next.

b. What Jim did then is a mystery.
c. They had not told her what was being discussed at the meeting.

Here the what-clauses are interrogative clauses, and what itself is used as an interroga-
tive pronoun. Unfortunately, a functional analysis will not help us tell the difference
between interrogative and nominal relative clauses, as interrogative clauses are also
‘nominal’ in character and their pronouns and adverbs fill similar functions:

     S   P  Od Od  S  P  A

(37) a. You know   [   what you must do next].
    S Od S P A P Cs
b. [What Jim did then] is a mystery.
     S     P   Oi Od Od  P-pass     A
c. They had not told her [ what was being discussed at the meeting].

The usual way of identifying an interrogative clause is to insert the phrase the
answer to the question before what, and then to form a direct question from the
indirect original. If this works syntactically and semantically then the clause is an
interrogative one. Applying this test to (36), we get:

(38) a. You know the answer to the question, ‘What must I do next?’
b. The answer to the question, ‘What did Jim do then?’, is a mystery.
c. They had not told her the answer to the question, ‘What is being dis-
cussed at the meeting?’.

The inserted phrases reflect the essential semantic role of an interrogative clause:
it is referred to by elements in the main clause (e.g. verbs like know and tell) as
representing a factor of knowledge to be possessed or communicated.
 Selected clause constructions 259
Applying the test phrase to nominal relative clauses like those, for instance, in
(26) above is clearly not possible:

(39) a. *Bobby didn´t like the answer to the question, ‘What did we give him
for Christmas?’
b. *The answer to the question ‘What have you said?’ might interest the
police.
c. *The answer to the question ‘What do you become in adult life?’ does
not just depend on your upbringing.

Exercises

Exercise 1
Analyse the following sentences in terms of sentence functions, and name the
type of sentence construction:

1 It annoys Myra that Grant always comes home late.

2 It was a cigarette-end that caused the fire.
3 The fire is certain to have been caused by a cigarette-end.
4 What caused the fire was a cigarette-end.
5 It was Jane´s greatest wish to sail her yacht in the Caribbean.
6 They never discovered what caused the fire.
7 We found it nasty of Greg to say those things at the party.
8 It is not worth getting a bus into the village.
9 The mountain hut isn´t easy to find in the dark.
10 There is no bus into the village before midday.
11 We were fools to believe such a ridiculous story.
12 There were about fifty students sitting in the chemistry lab.
13 Henderson is bound to find another job soon.
14 She´s a lovely person to be with.
15 There is a huge lorry parked in front of my garage!

Exercise 2
Where possible, turn the following into false subject constructions. (Careful! You
may have to add nouns in some cases!) If it is not possible at all, just leave the
sentence as it is:

1 It was interesting to read the victim´s diary.

2 It is not possible to contact Larry at home.
3 It was exciting to watch Real Madrid last season.
4 It is wrong to be in Cornwall at this time of year.
5 It is sure that McBride will turn up soon.
6 It is unusual to find them at home on Saturdays.
7 It was odd to ask Tracy that question.
8 It is surprising to have such luck.
260 Selected clause constructions
Exercise 3
Make cleft sentences from the following in order to emphasise the underlined
parts (one cleft sentence for each underlining):

1 Maisie works for a design studio.

2 The table was made in Shanghai.
3 We´re going to the jazz concert next week.
4 Roger is on a study-trip at the weekend.
5 Sammy bought a horse from Cribbs Farm.
Bibliography

Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S. and Finegan, E. (1999) The Longman
Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Harlow: Longman.
Fenn, P. (2010) A Student Advanced Grammar of English. Tübingen: Narr Francke
Attempto.
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. and Svartvik, J. (1972) A Grammar of Contemporary
English. London: Longman.
Quirk, R. and Greenbaum, S. (1973) A University Grammar of English. London: Longman.
Index

If not mentioned otherwise, terms are only indexed where they occur for the first time or
when explained or defined in a more detailed way.

abbreviated forms 19 relative clause 138, 235, 255–9;

action nominal 184–6 participle clauses 189, 201, 222–3;
active / active voice see voice postponed relative clauses 220–1;
adjective 6, 20; evaluative adjectives prepositional relative clause 213–14;
247, 249; gradability of adjectives 20; reduced relative clauses 221; relative
proper adjectives 20 clause 211; sentential relative clauses
adjective phrase see phrases 219; subordinated clause 127, 131;
adverb 6, 21–3, 41; nominal relative that-clauses 169, 234
adverbs 256; relative adverbs 219 cleft sentence 253–5
adverbials 40–3 collocations 26, 89, 180
affirmative (positive) 35, 57 commands see imperatives
agent 8, 16, 36 comparison 6, 20, 22, 84, 93; comparison
agreement (concord) 35; person of adjectives 237; comparison of
agreement14; subject–verb agreement 16 adverbs 93; equative comparison 237;
anaphor / anaphora 12, 15, 24 in flectional (forms) 84, 93; periphrastic
antecedent 11, 15, 73, 210, 228 (forms) 84, 93
apposition 75, 218, 224 complementation 19; adjectival
article / article word 23–5; definite articles complements 82–3; object complement
24–5; indefinite articles 24–5; zero 40; prepositional complement 79, 90,
article 25, 69; 115, 213, 231–2; subject complement 39;
aspect 17–18, 155, 157, 183; framework verb complementation 43, 143
situation 192–3 complementation potential 43
attributive 21, 200 composite lexical items see collocations
auxiliaries 17–18; auxiliary pro-forms 107; composition see phrases
grammatical auxiliaries 18, 98; modal concord see agreement
auxiliaries 18, 98; see also verbs conjunction 27; complex conjunctions
28; co-ordinating conjunctions
cataphor 24, 153 123–4; correlative conjunctions 28;
catenatives 102 subordinating conjunctions 127, 130,
causative constructions 204 138; see also word-classes
clause 28, 30–1; absolute clauses 202; co-ordination 122–6
appositive clauses 227; comparative countability (of nouns) 10, 77–8
clauses 234, 237; conjunction clause 28,
122; consecutive clauses 234, 240; free declarative sentence 50
clause 28, 122; gerund clause 162–3; defining / non-defining see restriction
infinitive clause 141–9; interrogative deixis 13
clause 258; main clause 132; nominal derivation 7
 Index 263
determiner 23–4; articles (definite / numerals 12, 20, 23, 77
indefinite) 24–5; numerals 23, 66; noun 6–7; compound nouns 70, 162;
possessive determiners 15, 25, 66; genitive nouns 164; proper nouns 10,
predeterminer 66–9; quantifiers 12, 20, 20; see also word-classes
23, 25, 66
do-support 19, 51 object 2, 13; direct object 4, 9, 37;
grammatical direct object (Od-gramm.)
ellipsis 123 247; indirect object 37–9; infinitive
’empty slot’ phenomenon 214 object 248; logical direct object
enclitic see abbreviated forms (Od-log.) 247; prepositional object 27,
extraposition 153, 166, 246 109, 112, 163; see also sentence function
omission see ellipsis
function see phrase function or sentence
function patient 8, 37, 56
parenthesis 74, 216
genitive 12, 15; genitive noun 164; participle 20, 71, 141, 188–9; base form
of-genitive 218; s-genitive 66 of 198; past participle 18, 188, 201–2;
gerund 20, 71, 141, 161–2; base form of perfect form of 198; perfect participle
181; perfect form of 181; perfect gerund 198–9; present participle 161, 163,
182; see also gerund clause 188–9, 200–1
gradability see adjectives particle 26, 28; adverb particles 27, 90,
grammar 3–8 113; comparative particles 85, 237;
grammatical function 34 negative particles 57, 103–5
grammatical independence 29 partitive constructions 68, 226
grammatical unit 16, 19, 34 passive / passive voice see voice
passivisation 56; complex
head 9, 32; see also phrases transitive passivisation 57;
ditransitive passivisation 56–7;
identification 66, 76, 130 monotransitive passivisation 55
idiomatic 26, 109 patient 2, 8, 37
imperative 50, 60–1 phonetics 3
implication 154–5, 176; factive meaning phonology 3
176–7; implicative meaning 154, 175–6; phrase 8–9, 28–9, 31, 64; adjective
implicative relation 154–5, 240, 242; phrases 9, 64, 82–4; adverb phrases
negative implication 154–5 9, 64, 87–9; auxiliary phrases 100;
intransitive see transitive comparative phrases 85, 93, 237;
inversion 19; auxiliary-inversion 51; complex adjective phrases 234;
subject–predicator inversion 50 complex noun phrases 209–10;
complex phrases 209–10, 231;
lexical verbs see verbs complex prepositional phrases 232,
235; composition of phrases 64;
main verb see verbs finite verb phrases 18, 98; head (of
meaning 3–5, 8; see also semantics a) phrase 9, 32, 65, 85, 99; indefinite
modification 65–6; non-restrictive post- noun phrases 252; interrogative
modification 75; premodification 65–6; prepositional phrases 53; non-finite
post-modification 65, 72–3; restrictive verb phrases 101; noun phrases 9,
post-modification 73–4 64–5; phrase postponement 94, 105;
modifier 70 prepositional phrases 9, 27, 53, 64,
morphology 3–5 79–81, 81, 224; verb phrases 9, 96–8
phrase function 64–5
negation 19, 57–60, 103–4; phrase structure 64
phrase-focused negation 59; postmodification 65, 72–3, 75, 210
semantic negation (focus) 60 postponement see phrases
number (status) see countability pragmatic meaning 13
264 Index
predicator 35–6 specifier 90; infinitive clause 141–2
prepositional object 27, 109, 163 structure 6
prepositions see word-classes subject 36–9; false subject constructions
presupposition 168–9, 175–6, 239 248; grammatical subject 153, 243, 246;
progressive form 55, 155 implied subject 146–7, 164; infinitive
pronoun 11–15; demonstrative pronouns subject 250; logical subject 153, 243,
14–15, 23; existential pronouns 251; 246; main-clause subject 147; see also
genitive relative pronouns 212, 218; sentence function
indefinite pronouns 12–13, 252; subject complement see complementation
interrogative pronouns 12, 14, 23, 51; subject divergence 165
nominal relative pronouns 138, 255; subject relations 190
personal pronouns 13–14; possessive subject–verb agreement see agreement
pronouns 14–15, 23; prop pronouns subordination 127–9
14–15; reflexive pronouns 12–15; syntax 3–4
relative pronouns 14–15, 23, 138,
211–12; zero relative pronouns 212 tense 16–19, 156–7
proper adjectives see adjectives transitive 37; complex transitive 40, 43;
proposition 16, 19 ditransitive 38, 43; intransitive 37, 43;
pseudo-cleft sentence 256–7 monotransitive 38, 43
transitivity 43; see also transitive
quantifiers 12, 20, 23
question 19, 50–4; direct questions 258; verb 6, 10, 15–20; auxiliary verbs 17–18,
indirect questions 138, 256, 258; 96; composite verb forms 17–18;
wh-questions 50–4; yes-no questions complex prepositional verbs 111–13;
50–1 complex transitive verbs 40, 43, 57;
ditransitive verbs 38, 43; factive verbs
receiver 38 168, 176; finite verbs 17; implicative
recipient 145; see also receiver verbs 176; infinitive 18, 141;
restriction 73; 216; concept of restriction intransitive verbs 37, 44; lexical verbs
216–17; non-restrictive 74, 216–17; 96; main verbs 96; monotransitive verbs
non-restrictive postmodification 75; 38; non-factive verbs 168 ; non-finite
restrictive 73, 216–17; restrictive verbs 17, 139, 141; phrasal prepositional
postmodification 73 verbs 116–18; phrasal verbs 27,
113–16; point-telic verbs 195;
secondary fronting 220–21 prepositional verbs 26–7, 108–113;
semantics 3, 5, 10–11, 15, 20–1, 26–7 stative verbs 195; transitive verbs 37
sentence 28–9; affirmative sentence 35, verb complementation see
57; cleft sentence 253–5; complex complementation
sentence 128, 132, 134; compound verb phrase see phrases
sentence 123; declarative sentence 50; voice 54–5, 158
existential sentence 251–2; multiple
sentence 31, 122; positive sentence 35, weak forms see abbreviated forms
57; pseudo-cleft sentence 256–7; simple wh-word see interrogative pronoun
sentence 31, 34–5 word-classes 6–7
sentence fragments see ellipsis word grammar see morphology
sentence function 2, 35–43 word order see syntax