Grammar analysis gotchas

Adjuncts from 50K foot:

Adjectival: about what something is.

Adverbial: about how/when/why something happens.

Nominal adjuncts: A noun *phrase *modifying another noun

It’s a school bus (school is a noun, modifies bus. Not a “true” adjective. School has singular and plural form, and you can’t say “schooler”)

This is not unlike the stoics fundamental distinction between matter and action. Where action is actually also how, purpose, place, time etc

What modifies what?

So long as they have mastery over themselves, say the Stoics, even slaves may in the deep sense be ‘free’

What does ‘deep sense’ modify?
In English, adverbial phrases that precede or immediately follow the verb “be” usually modify the predicate complement rather than the auxiliary or the subject. It wouldn’t modify ‘may’: possibility is standard, while the nature of freedom - is not. Note that the verb phrase is may be, and predicate complement is free. So ‘deep sense’ modifies free.

Quick rules of thumb

• Determiner modifies: limits or specify, decorate

• Adverbs, adjectives: extra info, decorate

• Complement: completed the meaning of the head, completes

Complement vs. Adjunct

Most phrases and clauses will include a complement of some kind. If you can’t remove it from your sentence, then it’s likely to be a complement.

This is how complements differ from adjuncts. Adjuncts are optional as they are usually just descriptive. Complements are not optional. They are essential to ensure understanding.

Possessive genitive is usually a determiner. However it can be a modifier that is not a determiner (but never a complement!)

Construction	Example	Syntactic Role
Prenominal Genitive (before noun)	the jury’s decision	Determiner (functionally equivalent to the or their)
Post-genitive (after full NP)	a friend of John’s	Modifier, not determiner

What Completes What?

A complement is a word, phrase, or clause that fulfills the semantic requirement of a verb, completing its meaning. While it “completes the verb,” its content usually describes, renames, or provides essential information about another element of the sentence—typically the subject (with linking verbs) or the object (with transitive verbs). Without the complement, the verb’s meaning would be incomplete or semantically odd.

Preposition complement

A preposition will likely modify a verb, and after the preposition a complement/object to the preposition

For a preposition complement, in most cases, this is simply the same thing as the object of the preposition — meaning noun, pronoun, noun phrase, gerund, or clause that follows the preposition. modern linguistics (especially in complement vs. modifier theory) prefers “preposition complement,” because the preposition selects that phrase — it is required to complete its meaning.

Prepositional phrase

The preposition is always the head word of the prepositional phrase. The preposition is considered the “head word” because it determines the type of phrase and its relationship to the rest of the sentence.

So whenever you have a phrase starting with a preposition, the preposition is its head.

• No all PP are adverbials. They might be complements.

Focused adverbs

So long as they have mastery over themselves, say the Stoics, even slaves may in the deep sense be ‘free’

The focused adverb “even” modifies a noun phrase, actually a sentence modifier - and not an adjective for the noun slaves)

What is the linking verb when using modal verbs?

It is the modal + verb to be.

She may be tired (linking verb ‘may be’)

Relative clause

• Function as an adjective

• Introduced by a relative pronoun (who, whom, whose, which, that)

• Or, by relative adverb (when, where, why)

• Can omit the relative pronoun if it’s a subject of a restrictive relative clause (see here)

Implied nouns of pronouns

Pronouns stand in for nouns, and sometimes the noun is understood rather than explicitly mentioned:

This is delicious

Definite is known

Definite article refers to specific, identifiable entity. The reader already knows or can identify this entity.

Indefinite article refers to a member of a class, not a specific one. The reader does not know exactly which one.

A determiner is part of the noun

Never an adjunct

Determiner vs. adjective

Both describe a noun.

Determiner
Specify a reference: which, how many, whose, etc. A quantity, or clarification what the noun refers to

• Possession: my dog, their opinions

• Specificity: that dog, these opinions

• Quantity: one dog, many opinions

• Definiteness: the dog, the opinions

• In-definiteness: a dog, an option

Adjective
Describes quality or appearance:

• Appearance: attractive, burly, clean, dusty

• Color: azure, blue, cyan, dark

• Condition: absent, broken, careful, dead

• Personality: annoying, brave, complex, dizzy

• Quantity: ample, bountiful, countless, deficient

• Sense: aromatic, bitter, cold, deafening

• Size and Shape: angular, broad, circular, deep

• Time: ancient, brief, concurrent, daily

Hints\

• determiner cannot have a comparative form

Pretty > prettier (that > x, no comparative form)

• A determiner often cannot be removed

The ~~young~~ boy stole a ~~silver~~ watch (adjectives removed, grammatically correct)

~The~ Young boy stole a silver watch (flawed)

• A determiner often refers back to something (similar to a pronoun)

Release those prisoners immediately.(the determiner ‘those’ refers back to something previously mentioned)

• A determiner cannot be used as a subject complement

She is intelligent (adjective, works)

She is [no determiner fits here]

Summary

Word	Function	Example
Determiner	Shows reference, quantity, or possession	“The book is mine.” / “Some people left.” / “My car is red.”
Adjective	Describes a property, quality, or state	“The red book is mine.” / “A happy child played.”

Who, whom & whose

All are relative pronoun that introduce a relative clause.

Who A relative pronoun that relates to people, and usually functions as subject Hint: can replace with he/she

Whom
Whom is a relative pronoun that relates to an object (it’s the objective form of who). Hint: can replace with him/her

She’s the colleague with whom I worked on that project (object of the preposition ‘with’)

She’s the colleague who worked on that project (subject of the relative clause)

She’s the colleague who I worked with on that project (actually it’s an object of with so should be ‘whom’, but in modern English people say who here)

Whose\

A relative pronoun that shows possession and relates to the owner or possessor Hint: like whom/which together

The man whose car was stolen reported it to the police (relates to the antecedent ‘man’ and the ownership of the car)

The man, the car of him being newly repaired, reported it to the police (not idiomatic, just to illustrate the function of ‘whose’)

When, where, why

Same words, more than one role:

• Relative adverbs

• Interrogative adverbs

Word	As a Relative Adverb	As an Interrogative Adverb (direct & indirect)
When	I remember the day when we met. (adjective clause modifying “day”)	When are you leaving? / I wonder when he will arrive.
Where	This is the house where I grew up. (adjective clause modifying “house”)	Where do you live? / She asked me where I had put the keys.
Why	I don’t know the reason why he left. (adjective clause modifying “reason”)	Why did he leave? / He explained why he was late.

Relative vs. interrogative pronouns

• Interrogative: what, which, who, whom, whose

• Relative: that, which, who, whom, whose

• Note: what as a relative is different, it doesn’t have an antecedent, the meaning of “the thing(s) that” is built into the word itself

Common to both:

Word	As a Relative Pronoun	As an Interrogative Pronoun (direct & indirect)
Who	The person who called you is my friend.	Who is calling? / I wonder who called.
Whom	The man whom you met yesterday is my uncle.	Whom did you meet? / Do you know whom she invited?
Which	The book which I borrowed was excellent.	Which book do you want? / I don’t know which book to choose.
Whose	The girl whose phone rang is my cousin.	Whose bag is this? / I asked whose bag it was.
What (different from the others as relative)	I couldn’t understand what he said.	What is this? / Can you tell me what happened?

Confusing possessives

• ‘his’ same for possessive adjective and possessive pronoun

• ‘whose’ same for possessive adjective and possessive pronoun

• ‘its’ used only for possessive adjectives. ‘It’ is not used as possessive pronoun.

• Don’t confuse a possessive determiner with an identical-sounding contraction

• There’s no gender-neutral singular possessive determiner that can be used for people

Possessive: pronouns, adjectives, determiners

• Adjectives: my, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose.

• Pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, [it not used as possessive pronoun], ours, theirs, whose

This house is our house

This house is ours

• English does not have a separate possessive pronoun for “it.”. So ‘its’ is only an adjective and determiner.

• All possessive determiners are also possessive adjectives, except whose

I met the man whose car was stolen.

It’s a possessive determiner but not a possessive adjective, because it’s not simply describing the noun; it introduces a relationship of ownership.

• Possessive adjectives are considered pronominal

Is that the Queen’s hat? No, it’s her crown (her is an adjective that modifies crown, but also replaces the noun ’The Queen’)

Determiners vs pronouns:

Demonstratives, this, that, these, those: same words, but different grammatical role

This is delicious (pronoun, here the noun is implied from the context)

This cake is delicious (determiner, modifies noun ‘cake’)

Quantifiers, many, few, several, some:

Many students passed (determiner)

Many passed (pronoun)

Personal Pronouns

• The subjective pronoun ‘I’ can’t be the object of a verb or preposition

• There are no apostrophes in any possessive personal pronoun.

• Don’t use myself when giving an order: When you give an order the implied subject is you

Note to myself (as imperative, when note is a verb, is grammatically wrong)

Subordinate clauses and complements

Subordinate clause is simply a clause that can not stand alone as a complete sentence. It depends on the a main clause.

A complement is any word, phrase, or clause that completes the meaning of another element: a verb, adjective, or noun.

So a subordinate clause can function as complement - if it completes the meaning of an element in the main clause:

I think she is right

Properties of a complement

Complement vs modifier

A complement is necessary to complete the meaning of a verb, adjective or noun/pronoun

She is a teacher. (a subject complement, completing the idea of “She is…”)

They elected him president.(object complement, completing the meaning of “elected him.”)

He put the book on the table.(complement of “put”, because “put” requires location)

They are interested in linguistics (complements the adjective interested)

They found him happy to help (less common form, happens with verbs that allow an adjective+complement)

Modifier adds extra information or details. It’s optional, and the sentence will hold without it.

She is a teacher with curly hair(describing the teacher, not necessary)

They elected him president last year

He put the book on the table carefully

Conjunctions of a complement

Complement is always in subordinate role (though not necessarily subordinate clause). So it never introduced with coordinative or correlative conjunction

Complement in a phrase

A complement always completes the head of its own phrase — not always the verb of the sentence.

• In a verb phrase (VP), complements complete the verb.

• In an adjective phrase (AP), complements complete the adjective.

• In a noun phrase (NP), complements complete the noun.

So the complement’s target depends on which phrase it belongs to.

Complement vs. Complement Clause

a “complement” may complement a noun, adjective, or verb (or n/a/v phrases), but a “complement clause” can only complement a verb.

Relative clause vs. Complement clause

• Nouns can have complements → ✅ often PPs or NPs.

• Complement clauses → ❌ only for verbs, adjectives, or prepositions.

• Clauses modifying nouns → always relative clauses, not complement clauses.

Grammatical roles of “That”

Different roles
‘That’ can take on several different grammatical roles:

• Relative pronoun

• Demonstrative pronoun

• Demonstrative adjective/determiner

• Conjunction/subordinate conjunction

• filter (‘such that’, a bit formal)

Replace a relative pronoun
Only in restrictive clause, as follows:

Antecedent	Original	That works?
Person (subject)	who	✅
Person (object)	whom	✅
Thing (subject/object)	which	✅
Non-restrictive clause	who/whom/which	❌

It’s vs That’s

It’s is a dummy subject, so use when the subject was mentioned or known:

Whose car is blocking the driveway?
It’s his car

That’s is a demonstrative determiner, and modifies the subject:

That’s our teacher (pointing to the teacher)

We walked into the schoolyard and noticed someone standing by the gate. That’s our teacher, wearing a bright red jacket. She smiled as we approached.

We saw someone waving at us from across the street. At first we weren’t sure who it was, but then I said, “That’s our teacher.” Everyone smiled and waved back.

Punctuation

Structural punctuation reflects an actual grammatical boundary. Real structural division. Sometimes a comma doesn’t mark a grammatical division but is used for style, clarity, rhythm, emphasis, parenthetical phrase

Word grammatical role

The actual role is determined not by the word itself, but by its function within the sentence.

This is a big house

Dream big!

True adjectives

Adjectives can be graded (red → redder → reddest)