The Syntax of the English Simple Sentence

II year Applied Modern Languages

Course instructor: Daria Protopopescu
Contact: dariaprotopopescu@yahoo.com

Lecture 1
The Syntax of Simple Sentences - Introduction

Lexical and Functional Categories

Lexical categories = open classes of words that have descriptive content (Nouns,
Adjectives/Adverbs, Prepositions, Verbs).
o They contain an infinite number of members, new ones can always be added
to such classes.
o both categorial selection and semantic selection operate on lexical categories
o are assigned theta-roles (Nouns) or are theta-role assigners (Verbs,
Prepositions)
o are assigned case (Nouns) or are case assigners (Verbs, Prepositions)
o can license an argument (Verbs) or can be licensed as an argument (Nouns) (=
Nouns are always arguments of Verbs)

Functional categories = closed sets; no new members can be added

o Do not have descriptive content, they are semantically abstract. They serve to
express certain morpho-syntactic features that are not expressed by the lexical
category they combine with.
o They always select the same type of argument (they exhibit only categorial
selection. E.g. Inflection always selects a Verb Phrase, Determiners always
select a Noun.)
o They are the locus of grammatical information. Parametric variation affects
only functional categories.
o Do not assign theta-roles (thematic roles).
o Determiners (definite and indefinite articles, demonstratives, the Genitive
possessive marker ’s, cardinal numbers, possessives, pronouns) for Nouns,
Degree words (-er, -est, more, most, than) for adjectives/adverbs; tense,
aspect, agreement, inflection, mood, complementizers (that, whether, for-to)
for verbs.

The Auxiliary

- auxiliaries are a functional category.

- auxiliaries are base-generated in a pre-verbal position, to the left of the verb.
- auxiliaries lack an event structure; do not assign a theta-role
- auxiliaries move (raise) to Inflection, while lexical verbs do not move in English, they
remain inside the Verb Phrase
- Two classes of auxiliaries in English: lexical and modal auxiliaries:

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  Lexical auxiliaries: (1) perfective aspect: HAVE-EN; (2) progressive aspect:
BE-ING, (3) DO which supports the tense affix or negation in
negative, interrogative but also emphatic contexts.
 Modal auxiliaries: all modal verbs (must, can, could, may, might, will, shall,
would, should, dare)
- The NICE properties (Negation, Interrogation, Codas, Emphatic contexts)
- auxiliaries can be directly negated by NOT;
(e.g.) She does not sing. She doesn’t sing.
- they can invert with the Subject in question formation.
(e.g.) Did Mary wash the dishes? (SAI = Subject-Auxiliary-Inversion)
- auxiliaries occur in tag questions (Codas)
(e.g.) He didn’t mean it, did he?
- auxiliaries occur in emphatic contexts.
(e.g.) I DO believe that you are a fool. / He DID say he would be late so you should
not be angry.
- Modal verbs are base-generated under Inflection together with Tense and Agreement,
but they always precede other lexical auxiliaries.
(e.g.) He might have been reading a book.
- DO is devoid of any meaning. It appears as a Last Resort. It is a support for the
negative or the Tense affix.

The formula of the English auxiliary

[Tense^(Modal)^(have-en)^(be-ing)]Inflection^bare lexical verb

(e.g.) He might have been reading a book.

T = -ed (past) - M = may - Perfective asp = Have -en - Progressive asp = Be-ing - verb =
read

might have been reading

The tense affix hops over the first auxiliary it encounters and attaches to it by means of an
operation labeled Affix Hopping. All the auxiliaries that appear in between brackets in the
formula are optional which means that only Tense is obligatory in the Inflection cluster.
Attention!!! Since this is a set formula which shows how auxiliaries correctly combine in
English, other combinations, and therefore aberrant verb forms are rules out.

(e.g.) *He may had been reading a book.

This example is grammatically incorrect because the first auxiliary that the tense affix
encounters is may, have is the second, therefore the past tense affix –ed cannot attach to
auxiliary have.

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Argument Structure - Theta Theory

The intuitive idea of participants in an activity has been formalized in terms of the general
notion of argument structure and of the notion of thematic structure.
Generally speaking, verbs have an argument structure, based on the structure of the event
denoted by the verb. The structure of this event determines the structure and the meaning of
the sentence. The argument structure of a verb determines which constituents of a sentence
are obligatory. The obligatory constituents are called complements, while the non-obligatory
ones are called adjuncts.

(e.g.) This detective imitates Poirot. (Two arguments)

<Agent> <Patient >

We like John. (Two arguments)

<Experiencer> <Patient>

He gave the flowers to Mary. (Three arguments)

<Agent> <Theme> <Goal>

He bought the book for Mary. (Three arguments)

<Agent> <Theme> <Benefactive>

He is working. (One argument)

<Agent>

The house collapsed. (One argument)

<Theme>

Arguments are divided into external and internal arguments. Internal arguments are
subcategorized by the verb (i.e. they are obligatory complements of the verb). External
arguments are always the subject(s) of the sentence.

Adjectives and prepositions also have an argument structure. (e.g. [interested in art]AP,
[between Mary and John]PP).

The specific semantic relations between a verb and its arguments are referred to in terms of
theta roles. The verb theta-marks its arguments by assigning a theta role to each one. Each
verb is marked in the Lexicon for a particular number of arguments.

(e.g.) The ball rolled towards him. (two arguments)

roll <theme, goal>  [the ball]NP = <theme>; [towards him]PP = <goal>

Theta-Criterion - each argument is assigned one and only one theta role, and each theta role
is assigned to one and only one argument.

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Theta roles

Theta role Description Example

Agent/Actor the initiator of some action John made a table.
Theme/Patient entity undergoing the effect The ball rolled towards him. <Theme>
of some action Jane crumbled to the floor. <Patient>
Experiencer entity experiencing some Students hate linguistics.
psychological state
Benefactive entity benefiting from some John did the job for me.
action
Goal entity towards which He offered the flowers to Jane.
something moves
Instrument means by which something He opened the door with the key.
comes about
Location place in which something is He put the book on the shelf.
situated or takes place
Source entity from which He came from Venice.
something moves

Types of movement in the English sentence

Constituents may move in a sentence in one of two directions: to the left (i.e. to the
front/beginning of the sentence) or to the right (i.e. to the end of the sentence)

a) Movement to the left.

1. Topicalisation
a) “Flora: Do you like Belgian beer and Belgian wine?”
“Ben: [Belgian beer] I like [ _ ], but [Belgian wine] I hate [ _ ].

b) [The books about New York that she bought] nobody liked [ _ ].

2. VP-Preposing.
Ralph says that he will clean his room and [clean his room], he will [ _ ].

*Ralph says that he will clean his room, and [clean] he will [ _ ] his room.

Sally said she returned my book, and [return my book] she did [ _ ].

* Sally said she returned my book, and [returned my book] she [ _ ].

3. Though Movement
Though students are [fare dodgers]NP, they are not thieves.
[Fare dodgers]NP though students are [ _ ], they are no thieves.

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b. Movement to the right
1. Extraposition from NP
[Six women [with yellow hats [on their head]PP]PP]NP finally appeared.
[Six women [ _ ]PP]NP appeared [with yellow hats on their heads]PP.

*[Six women [with yellow hats]PP]NP finally appeared [on their head]PP.
*[Six women [[ _ ]PP on their head]PP]NP finally appeared [with yellow hats]PP.

2. Heavy NP Shift
We [brought [the chocolate boxes]NP]VP into the country.
*We brought into the country the chocolate boxes.
We [brought [ _ ]NP]VP into the country [six boxes of excellent French wine]NP.

Other types of operations in the English simple sentence.

a. Substitution. Use substitution by pro-forms to prove that the italicized strings are
constituents.
I believe that God is good and everybody believes it / so, too.
When he saw her, the man greeted the lady who had been waiting.

b. Coordination
[Few America men can play rugby] and [few American women will play rugby].
*Few American men can and women will play rugby.

c. Clefts and pseudo-clefts

Michael loudly announced the election victory.
It was Michael who loudly announced his victory.
It was the election victory that Michael loudly announced.
It was loudly that Michael announced the election victory.

d. Insertion of parenthetical phrases

I myself won’t be going on holiday this summer.
Pam, however, will take two weeks off in August.
Pam will, however, take two weeks off in August.
Pam will take, however, two weeks off in August.
Pam will take two weeks off in August, however.

e. Figurative readings
That news really was a bolt from the blue.
It turned up out of the blue.
It looked like a good idea at first blush, but there were several faults in it.
The cat is out of the bag.
He is easy game/ meat.

f. The placement of phrasal morphemes.

[Mary]’s hat
[the Queen of England]’s hat.
*[the Queen’s of England] hat.
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 Revision of syntactic functions

Syntactic Romanian Description Part of Example

function equivalent speech
Subject Subiect The subject of a sentence is any part He did it.
the person, place, thing, or of speech The cat jumped up the tree.
idea that is doing or being Seeing is believing.
something.
Direct object Complement A direct object will follow a nouns They witnessed the event as it unraveled in front of their eyes.
direct transitive verb. pronouns I saw him.
clauses
Indirect object Complement An indirect object is the NP But I could do an ad for a few thousand, then show them the sales
indirect recipient of the direct object, figures.
or an otherwise affected pronouns His own airport commissioners voted him a handsome raise.
participant in the event. There Well, that tells you the voltage of the battery.
must be a direct object for an
indirect object to be placed in
a sentence.
Prepositional Complement The prepositional object of a PP Don’t you tell me about the war.
object prepozițional sentence is a noun or pronoun
that is related to the sentence's
verb through a preposition.
Prepositional objects occur in
sentences in which the
predicate partly consists out
of a verb + a preposition to go
with that verb.
The preposition connects the
prepositional object to the
predicate.
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Predicative Nume predicativ The subject predicative is the NP I’ve been a skinhead for eight years.
clause element which Now I am a Klansman and a politician.
typically indicates a property AP He remained anxious about the surgery and its outcome.
of the person / animal / thing But gas cooking is nice.
referred to by the subject It tastes different.
noun phrase. PP The elevator is out of order.
Predicative Element An adjective, noun phrase or NP I know, but they will probably christen her Victoria.
Adjunct predicativ prepositional phrase that AP I always wanted to paint that a different colour.
suplimentar qualifies, describes or He did not find her amusing and she found him disastrously dull.
subordonat CD renames the object that She found it cold here.
appears before it. The agent pulled out a gun and shot him dead.
She shouted herself hoarse.
They regarded that as an excuse.
PP You know sometimes I would take you for a bloody Welshman.
She tied it into a knot.
I made it into a ball.
Adverbial of Complement provides extra information Adv I had to go a long way to put the camp behind me.
place circumstanțial de about the place where NP And they went from here about nineish, I suppose.
loc something happens PP The Ethiopian army is failing to halt northern rebels advancing
rapidly southwards to the capital and its vital lifeline road.
Adverbial of Complement provides extra information Adv Occasionally, she would like to gaze out the window.
time circumstanțial de about the time when NP You don’t do it every single day, do you?
timp something happens PP
Adverbial of Complement provides extra information Adv We were frantically doing the painting. I found myself writing
manner circumstanțial de about the manner in which NP slowly, piecemeal, endlessly.
mod something happens
Adverbial of Complement provides extra information PP We reserved this table for lunch.
purpose circumstanțial de about the purpose for which We use the thermometer for measuring temperature.
scop something happens

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Adverbial of Complement provides extra information PP He was buried under bricks and died of head injure.
reason circumstanțial de about the reason for which
cauză something happens
Adverbial of Complement expresses some idea that PP Thousands of miners have been out for several months despite
concession circumstanțial de contradicts what is stated in intimidation.
concesie the modified part of the In spite of his anger John listened to me attentively.
sentence. Thus, in its meaning Cleary, for all his reputation, was already out of date.
it is opposite to the adverbial With all his faults, I like him.
of reason. Though a bad painter, he had a delicate feeling for art.
Adverbial of Complement provides extra information PP On what condition will it happen?
condition circumstanțial de about the condition(s) under But for you I wouldn’t be here at all.
condiție which something happens Except for the sound of his breathing I wouldn’t have known he
was there.
Without faith there can be no cure.
Participle Jane won’t sing unless asked to.
Adj We’ll come earlier if necessary.
Adverbial of Complement refers to an adjective, a noun infinitive He was fool enough to believe it.
result circumstanțial with qualitative meaning, or John was so fortunate as to get the first prize.
consecutiv an adverb accompanied by an
adverb of degree, such as too,
enough, sufficiently, so... (as).
Adverbial of Complement provides extra information PP He’s coming down with sleeping bags over the top of his head.
means / circumstanțial de about the instrument, agent Similar processes can be guided by users with different views on
instrument / instrument / with/by which something the purpose of this communication.
agent / agent / happens I had dinner with Clay.
accompaniment acompaniament
Adverbial of Complement introduced by the PP A mountain is higher than a hill.
comparison circumstanțial de conjunctions than, as, as if, as Adj The boy is now as tall as his father.
comparație though or the preposition like. Tom is not so tall as his brother.
The adverbial with than is Tom speaks French as fluently as a born Frenchman.
preceded by the comparative Tom speaks French like a Frenchman.
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 of the adverb or the adjective
it modifies, the adverbial with
as - by the correlative adverbs
as or so
Adverbial of Complement expressed by nouns or NP I looked everywhere except in the bedroom.
exception circumstanțial de prepositional phrases PP Your English is decent apart from spelling.
excepție introduced by the prepositions The road was empty except for a few cars.
but, except, save, but for, These men were in fact quite civil save during certain weeks of
except for, save for, apart autumn and winter.
from, aside from, with the
exclusion of
Independent elements of the sentence
Stance have the primary function of subject Ruth was definitely at Goose-hill School.
adverbials commenting on the content or oriented / It was funny, though, how Christmas undeniably brought out the
style of a clause or a speaker gentler, kinder aspects of human nature. Regrettably, last night’s
particular part of a clause oriented audience was a meager one, but what they got was impressive.
adverbials Quite frankly, he looked terrible.
Linking He couldn’t bring himself to say what he thought.
adverbials For one thing, she seldom stopped to listen. For another, he
doubted that he could make himself clear.