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DETERMINERS

● begin nouns phrases and are generally mandatory with count singular nouns

● they precede an adjective if present, otherwise they’re just used right before a noun

● there are quite a few types

○ articles

○ demonstratives

○ possessive determiners

○ quantifier determiners

○ wh- determiners

● their main semantic contribution is to mark the noun phrase as definite or indefinite

● numerals could also be classified as determiners

PRONOUNS

● they replace nouns or noun phrases and occupy their same position

● there are various kinds of pronouns

○ personal

○ reflexive

○ reciprocal

○ interrogative

○ relative

○ possessive

○ demonstrative

PREPOSITIONS

● they introduce prepositional phrases and express relations of possession, place, time

…

● they all share the following properties

○ taking a noun phrase as a complement

○ the vast majority has meaning to do with relations in space or time

CONJUNCTIONS

● they’re linking words

○ subordinating conjunctions = they join a subordinate to a main clause

○ coordinating conjunctions = they join elements that are grammatically equal

AUXILIARIES

● they precede the main verb in the verb phrase

○ modal auxiliaries = can, will, may, shall, must…

○ primary auxiliaries = be, have, do

DISCOURSE MARKERS

● they’re mostly used in conversation and can be placed at the beginning, middle or

end of a sentence

LESSON 4

CLASSES OF PHRASES

● phrase = smallest unit of syntactic construction

● three criteria to identify phrases

○ movement = the phrase moves as a whole unit

○ meaning = phrases also form units of meaning

○ substitution = any phrase will substitute for another as long as they occupy

the same position

● phrases get classified by their head words or heads that lead the reader to the crucial

meaning of the phrase

○ noun phrases

○ verb phrases

○ adjective phrases

○ adverb phrases

○ prepositional phrases (the only closed class phrase type) = they cannot stand

on their own

● usually all sentences have the same basic structure

○ (modifier(s) HEAD + modifier(s))

EMBEDDED PHRASES

● one phrase may include one or more phrases

○ main phrase = the direct part of a clause

○ embedded phrase = part of another phrase

FUNCTIONS OF PHRASES

● many sentences consist of a single clause

● each phrase also performs function

○ subject (S)

○ verb phrase (VP) = doesn’t have to be labeled since there can only be one in

each clause

○ direct object (DO)

○ indirect object (IO)

● adjuncts (A) = phrases that describe incidental circumstances such as time, place or

manner of an action, event or state

LESSON 5

NOUN PHRASE STRUCTURE

● minimally made up of just a noun head that could be a noun, a pronoun, an adjective,

a numeral or a genitive

● NPs can be expanded with

○ pre-head determiners = they specify the mode of reference

○ pre-head modifiers = they add more content to the head

○ post-head modifiers = they also add more content but right after the head

DETERMINERS

● they give us the chance to assign reference to a noun that creates a link between a

NP and the object

○ non-generic reference = the speaker refers to a specific object or a specific

class

○ generic reference = the speaker refers to all the items contained in the

category

MODIFIERS

● pre-modifying information = NP-internal adjectives before the head

○ NP-internal adjectives = head of the NP modified by them (attributive function)

○ opinion > size > age > shape > color > origin > material + head noun

● post-modifying information = information that takes the form of a relative clause

○ relative clauses = they provide additional information too

■ restrictive relative clause = the kind of addition that they make is

essential to the complete understanding

■ non-restrictive relative clauses = they give us an information which is

not essential

LESSON 6

VERB PHRASES

● the verb is the main element of a VP

● focus on the finite verb phrase that is contained in finite clauses

○ finite verb phrases = they’re marked by tense

○ non-finite verb tenses = have no marking for tense

● verbs can be preceded by auxiliaries that have the same function as modifiers

● tense

○ present tense = plain form and -s

○ past tense = -ed / irregular form

● aspect

○ progressive aspect = present progressive, past progressive

○ perfect aspect = present perfect, past perfect

○ they’re not mutually exclusive

● all of the above may occur with a modal auxiliary such as might or should

TRANSITIVE, DITRANSITIVE AND INTRANSITIVE VERBS

● intransitive = require just the subject

● transitive = they require a direct object (DO)

● ditransitive = require both a DO and a IO

LESSON 7

CLAUSE STRUCTURE

● major unit of grammar

● clauses are formed by phrases

● clause = minimally composed by a subject and a predicate (what is said about the

subject)

● typically a clause contains a finite VP

● elements of clauses

○ subject = S

○ VP = V

○ object = O/DO/IO

○ adjunct = A

○ subject complement = SC tells us more about the subject

○ object complement = OC tells us more about the DO

○ prepositional object = PO made by prepositional verbs

○ prepositional complement = PC they answer the questions when, where, why

CLAUSE TYPES

● declarative clauses = they provide information and are a statement / assertion

● interrogative clauses = used to ask a question

○ yes-no interrogative

○ wh- interrogative

● imperative clauses = invite someone to do something

● exclamative clauses = express emotion more emphatically

LESSON 8

SUBORDINATION

● more clauses put together form a sentence

● within a sentence a clause can be either main or subordinate (embedded clauses)

● finite clauses = have finite verbs and can be main or subordinate

● non-finite clauses = have non-finite verbs and can only be subordinates

● finite subordinate clauses

○ adverbial clauses = typically begin with a conjunction and function as adjuncts

○ relative clauses = introduced by a relative pronoun, they function as

post-modifiers and have the same function as adjuncts and PrepPs;

■ restrictive = defining

■ non-restrictive = non defining