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.

Adjective, noun, other¶

bus station (bus modifies station) California girls (California, proper noun, modifies girls) Sleeping dogs (Sleeping, gerund-participle, modifies dogs) Determinatives like All, an, the occur before nouns

Adjectives often modify nouns, but not everything that modifies noun is an adjective.

Possessive genitive¶

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 does not necessarily complement the verb. A complement is simply a dependent licensed by a head, and the head can belong to several categories.

A complement is a word, phrase, or clause that realises a semantic license of the head.

Always selected by the head

While it may “completes the verb,” its content usually describes, renames, or provides essential information about another element of the sentence:

Subject (with linking verbs)
Object (with transitive verbs)
Predicative adjectives (attributive adjectives can’t license a complement).

Without the complement, the meaning would be incomplete or semantically odd.

AdjPs Complement¶

Adjectives form phrases with complements following the head. The complements are nearly always PPs

Proud of her achievements

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.

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

Some complements are objects¶

All objects are complements But not all complements are objects Object is only: NP complement of a verb

She read [the book] → object ✔️

> She said [that he left] → complement, not object

> She is [happy] → complement, not object

She relied [on him] → complement of on, not object

Definite article: it must be 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.

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

The grammatical role of a word¶

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)

Very is two words: adverb and adjective¶

very anxious, very bold (adverb) The very person (adjective, mean exact)

The “very” adjective is not gradable

The ~~very very person~~

The function of “for”¶

Coordinate (FANBOYS)
Subordinate. If a subordinate infinitive clause has a subject, the subordinate for precedes the subject
Preposition

Jim arranged for us to be met at the airpot (subordinate, arranged for someone to meet us)

For us, Jim arranged to be met at the airport (preposition, Jim arranged to meet someone in the airport, and this will benefit us)

Jim arranged at the airport, for us (coordinating conjunction, not coordinated PP, like in FANBOYS)

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 adjunct - and not an adjective for the noun slaves

Adverb or adjective¶

The mail arrived late (adv)

“Late” is an Adv. here. It cannot be replaced by an attributive adjective:

The late train (adj)

Has different meaning. Cannot convert directly to attributive position.
With adjective, you can:

I found the room empty. The room was empty when I entered it. I entered the empty room.

Determinatives vs adverbs for quantity/extent/degree¶

Determinative:

(D) → pre-nominal, quantifies or measures the NP
Answers: “how many?” or “how much/extent?”
Examples: one, all, some, many, much, little, a lot of, enough, more, most

** Adverb:** *(Adv) → modifies adjective, adverb, verb, or clause, expresses degree or quantity

Answers: “to what degree?” or “how much/many in the event?”
Examples: very, quite, almost, extremely, much (in VP), a lot (in VP)

Overlap: Some words (much, little, enough, a lot of, more, most) can appear in both roles depending on context.

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.”

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)

Possessive determiners vs. pronouns¶

“My” is a Determiner: It is a dependent that must precede a head noun. It cannot stand alone because its grammatical job is to “determine” a noun (e.g., my book).

“Mine” is an Independent Genitive: It functions as the head of an NP. It contains the meaning of the possession and the “thing” possessed within a single word.

The lexical category of “mine” is genitive determinative, but it functions as a pronoun,

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’)

Wh: 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’)

Wh: 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.*

Wh: 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?*

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

Predicate, predicator, predicative¶

Predicate: The “doing/being” part of the sentence.

Predicator: The verb acting as the structural engine.

Predicative: A property/state attributed to a noun.

Predicate ≠ Predicator
Predicate = large clause portion
Predicator = single verbal head
Predicative ≠ Complement (in general). All predicatives are complements, but not all complements are predicatives (predicative adjunct)
Predicative ≠ Adjective Predicative is a function; adjectives are categories.

Predicative can, but not must, be complement¶

Predicative that is NOT a complement, adjunct predicative, depictive predicative (adjunct)

> She left angry.

angry: predicative
function: adjunct
predicated of: subject (she)
NOT selected by: leave

Why it is not a complement: She left is already complete: leave does not license a predicative.

The predicative contributes additional descriptive information, not required structure. This is a depictive secondary predicative adjunct in CGEL.

In contrast: Predicative that is a complement

> She is intelligent (primary)

intelligent: predicative
function: complement
predicated of: subject (she)
licensed by: the verb be

Why it is a complement:

The verb be requires a predicative complement. She is is incomplete. The predicative is selected by the predicator.

Also: > They elected her president (secondary) > He painted the fence white (secondary, resultative)

Participle¶

Participle are easier to identify with irregular verbs, e.g. See, Seeing, Seen. With regular verbs the V-ed look the same for participle and non participle, e.g. asked

What modifies a participle¶

Participle is a verb form, it

Gerund - participle in CGEL¶

CGEL does not diffrentiate between gerund and present-participle

Form	Function	Example
Gerund-participle	NP subject	Swimming is fun
Gerund-participle	VP progressive	He is swimming
Gerund-participle	NP modifier / adjective	The swimming boy waved
Gerund-participle	PP complement (historical participle → preposition)	Owing to illness, he stayed home

Notice “owing” here is historically a participle, but CGEL treats all -ing forms as gerund-participles.

CGEL uses “gerund-participle” because morphology is the same
Syntactic role determines the function, not a separate “gerund vs participle” distinction.
This makes the grammar cleaner and more systematic.

Auxiliary verbs¶

Do and Have are both auxiliary verbs and lexical verbs

Auxiliary Be¶

Be is always auxiliary, even if it’s the only verb in a sentence

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.

Clause vs Phrase (CGEL-style)¶

Feature	Clause	Phrase
Must have a verb/predicator?	Usually yes (finite or non-finite)	No
Must have a subject?	Usually yes, but can be implicit	No
Can stand alone as a proposition?	Often yes	Usually no
Example	“[If hungry], eat something.” (elliptical clause)	“Running late” (participial phrase)

A clause always has a predicator (a verb or verbal form), even if the subject is implicit.

A phrase is a grouping of words without a finite predicator, like “the tall man” (NP) or “running late” (VP/participle phrase).

So: You may have subjectless clause that is not a phrase:

glad that no one had seen us

Subordinators¶

The subordinators are: that, whether introducing interrogative content clause*, if (informal, not as conditional), for:

I thought that you didn’t really care I wondered whether anybody would listen I wondered if anybody would listen Jim arranged for us to be met at the airport

Subordinators are neutral. They do not have meaning. Unlike prepositions that introduce subordinate clauses:

I’m happy because they are here I’m happy although they are here (not the same!)

Subordinators vs. prepositions¶

Prepositions are not subordinators. A preposition will add meaning.

after, although, because, before, if, lest, since, though, till, until, while etc (prepostions) that, for as subordinates - meaningless

Complement in phrase/clause¶

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.

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)

Content clause vs Relative clause¶

Content clause is often a complement: thought, idea. Licensed by the head

Relative clause typically functions as a modifier, specifically an adjunct, within a nominal.

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.
Prepositions can take NP, clause complement and PP complement. Some take no complement
Complement may be obligatory or optional

Implied nouns of pronouns¶

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

This is delicious

Relative adv. have other usage except introducing RC¶

Function	Example	Comment
Relative clause introducer	the day when* it happened*	RC modifying head noun
Interrogative adverb	When did it happen?	No head noun; adverb in question
Adverbial clause (less common)	I remember the day, when* all was calm*	More like temporal adjunct than strict RC

Relative clause vs. PP¶

When deciding whether a post-nominal modifier is a reduced relative clause or just a prepositional phrase, the key is to look for a hidden verb.

If the phrase contains only a preposition and a noun phrase —for example:

In the front row

There is no verb behind it, and it is simply a PP modifier, not a reduced relative clause. In contrast, a true reduced relative clause comes from a full relative clause with a relativiser plus verb that has been deleted or non-finite: for instance, “sitting in the front row” comes from “who is sitting in the front row”.

To check, ask yourself: Can I restore a verb like “who is/was” or “that was”?
If yes, it’s a reduced relative clause; if no, it’s probably a simple PP or adjectival modifier. Observing the presence or absence of an implied verb is the most reliable diagnostic.