Analysis of a sentence: Where to begin¶
The main thought¶
A sentence is typically divided into two main pillars:
The Subject: The person, place, or thing the sentence *is about*.
The Predicate: Everything *else*
The predicate is the verb and all the words that follow it to provide detail. It must contain a verb.
Without a verb, you don’t have a predicate, and without a predicate, you don’t have a complete thought.
By simply substitute with a personal pronoun (I, you, he, she, it, they) for the subject, what remains is the predicate.
Look for category and function
Main structure & conjunctions¶
- Subject & Predicate
- Verb
- Coordinating (FANBOYS)
- Subordinating
- Correlative
- Coordination-like (discourse markers)
The subject often requires verb and agreement of the subject with the verb
Coordinates (clauses or phrases) can switch their order without changing of meaning.
Coordinates should have the same function
He is a liberal and proud of it (NP a liberal, AdjP Proud of it, both function as complements)
Subordinators: that, whether, if (not the conditional), for. Preposition can also lead to subordinate, but they have meaning (because, although)
Predicator (CGEL)¶
- Subject
- Predicator
- Complement(s)
- Adjunct(s)
The predicator is realised by a VP, that it’s head is lexical or copular verb.
Gotcha: “That”¶
- Relative pronoun
- Subordinate conjunction
- Demonstrative
See: That, roles of
Clauses¶
- Main clauses can stand on their own.
- Main clauses: we can split to separate sentences.
- Imperatives are inherently main clause
- Decleratives, interogatives and exclematives are capable of being embeded as subordinates subparts of larger clauses
A verb, noun, adjective, adverb or preposition that is a lexical head of the phrase can take a clause as a complement, and can impose requirements regarding which type of clause it will accept.
Sentences can have stacks of content clauses embedded in other content clauses. Can mark them in [] and nested []:
- [content clause [[content clause [c.c.] ]]
Interrogatives appear w/o auxiliary verb, and may even w/o subject, so they don’t look much the main open/closed intrrogatives (but they are interrogatives)
Phrases¶
- Head word
- Complement(s)
- Adjucts(s): supplements, modifiers.
Adjuncts can be left out
PP can be shifter around easily, without changing the meaning
Complements¶
A complement is selected (licensed) by the head; selection is never optional. It may or may not be overtly realized. Whether a complement is realized can be optional or obligatory, but this does not affect its status as a selected complement.
Optionally realized:
She ate *a sandwich (“She ate” is grammatically acceptable)
Obligatory realized:
She put the book on the table (“She put” is ungrammatical)
Adjective complements occur only with predicative adjectives because only in predicative position can the adjective act as a head that licenses (selects) a complement. Attributive adjectives are embedded in the NP and cannot do this.
Complements depend on the head word and reflect the specific requirements and idiosyncrasies of individual words.
- Subject (predicative complement, often an adjective) → is ...
- Object complelement → Follows the direct object
- Adjective complement → A clause or phrase, follows predicate adjective
Identify complements by head word category: Verb, adjective, noun, preposition. Complements are licensed by the head word - no necessarily verbs
Adjuncts¶
Optional, non essential, not selected, recursive nature (freely iterates). The results without them would still be grammatical and sensible
Supplements or modifies. Not determiners - determiner “specify” (quantify, specific), a modifier “describes”.
- Adjectival: Can grade. About what/which/how big
- Adverbial: About where/when/why/how/how often something happens.
- Nominal adjuncts: NP modifying another noun
Adjectival is about what something is (what sort), also: which one, how big etc.
Of nouns, in NP¶
- Attributive adjective (inside an NP): modifies, can grade
- Determiner: Specifies: define, possesive, quantity, demonstrate, specifies, makes particular
- Pronoun: Refers to, replaces
- Appositive: Renames, describes in another way
- Nominative case: The noun is the subject
- Predicate nominative (complement): Linked to a noun & renames/identifies
- Nominal adjuncts (modifier): NP functioning adjectevial, "type of", classify, pre-modifier
Who is doing it?¶
- Agent
- Subject
Who/what is affected?¶
- Patient/Theme
- Object
- Subject in a passive
Who benefits?¶
- Identify adverbials
- Attached to the verb
She baked a cake for her friend. (for her friend attaches to ‘baked’, adverbial)
- Two objects constructions
- PPs of benefit
Helps distinguish two-object constructions from ones with PPs of benefit (for him, to him), with direct and indirect object
She gave a gift to her friend (gift direct, to her friend indirect)
When/where/how/why does it happen?¶
- Time
- Place
- Manner
- Cause
- Reason
These indicate or describe aspects of the event. Typically adjuncts (optional), making them useful for identifying non-arguments that can be added or omitted freely.
Semantic role to grammatical function¶
- Agent → usually subject or by-phrase (passive)
- Patient/Theme → object or subject (passive), often complements
- Experiencer → subject/object in psychological constructions
Usually adjuncts: Instrument, Location, Temporal, Cause, Goal, Source