Modulo teorico inglese 2

Chapter 5: The Verb Group Phrase (VGP)

As we have already seen, a VP contains one lexical verb and optionally up to four auxiliaries. When both auxiliary and lexical verb occur, we label them as VGP. We now see the characteristics of lexical verbs and auxiliaries.

Lexical verbs:

• It must be present in a VP, until ellipsis occurs.
• They are independent (they can stay alone in a sentence).
• They carry the real meaning.

Auxiliaries:

• Used with lexical verbs.
• They invert in questions.
• They are used in tag questions.
• They have little meaning, but they carry TENSE, MOOD, ASPECT, MODALITY!!

Verb analysis: (pay attention to this, there is an...)

Exercise in the exam

Tense: Present/Past (no tense with non-finite verbs!)

Aspect: Progressive (be + -ing) / Perfect (have + -en/ed/irregular form)

Voice: Active/Passive

Mood: Indicative (or unmarked) / Imperative / Subjunctive

Modality:

• Deontic modality: Constructions in which the speaker expresses volition or obligation and/or attempts to direct the behavior of another.
• Epistemic modality: Epistemic modality expresses the speaker's opinion about the sentence. It is needed to convert an impersonal fact to a subjective opinion about that fact. For example: Tom must have gone out = I suppose Tom has gone out. In other words, epistemic modality expresses the speaker's behavior and opinion about the sentence. Can be communicated by auxiliaries, lexical verbs, and adverbs.
• Dynamic modality: The ability or requirement of the subject to do something.

Chapter 6: Different types of clauses

1. Main clause: Can clause stand alone as a complete sentence
2. Embedded clause: A clause that is part of another clause
3. Relative clause: A clause that provides additional information about a noun or pronoun

1. Main clause: a main clause (also known as an independent clause) is made up of a subject and a predicate that together express a complete concept. It can stand alone in a sentence. For example: I like koalas.
2. Subordinate clause: A subordinate clause is a clause that cannot stand alone as a complete sentence because it does not express a complete thought, so it is dependent on the main clause. It is typically linked to the main clause by a complementizer (a word used to introduce a complementizer phrase including subordinate conjunctions, relative pronouns, and relative adverbs).
   FORM: FUNCTION: (complementizer phrase).
   CP - Subject - Subject Examples of subordinate clauses, the complementizer is complement - Object in bold:
   - Adverbial She left [before they arrived] CP
   The problem is [that she left] CP
   I'm tired [because I didn't sleep] CP

Always have a function in a sentence. Examples:

[That she left] is obvious —> CP functions as subjectCP

The problem is [that she left] —> CP=subject complementCP

They know [why she left] —> CP= objectCP

They were sad [because she left] —> CP=adverbialCP

11 di 263) Coordinate clause: a coordinate clause is a clause that is introduced by one of the coordinating conjunctions, most commonly and or but. They have the same importance of the main clause ( they are equal). For ex: Sally was singing and [Pete was cooking]

FORM: Two ways to represent coordinate clauses. See after.

4) Non- finite clauses: Non-finite clauses are realized with non-finite verbs.

Non-finite verbs

Infinitives: Past participle present participle

2 types “-ed/-en” end or irregular “ing form”

1)To-infinitive: I wanted form ex: [walking back home,] he [to eat] ex: [Arrested last night,] was hit by a lorry

2)Bare infinitive: She he is in jail this morning made me [eat]

(Remember that)

bareinfinitive occurs only as the object after verbs such as "make, hear, see, feel".

Characteristics of non-finite verbs:

• NF verbs don't express tenses, the finite one does.
• NF verbs don't display person or number.

Function of non-finite clauses:

• Subject -> [Drinking too many pints] is dangerous.
• Subject complement -> Her wish is [to become a top model].
• Object -> she loves [drinking wine].
• Adverbial -> She spent three years in Japan [learning the language].
• Verb complement -> He persuaded us [to leave].

Relative clause:

1. A relative clause is a clause that always follows the NP and typically starts with a wh-pronoun (called relative pronoun because it introduces a relative clause) or with "that".
2. The relative pronoun has the same referent as the preceding NP (i.e. if the preceding NP functions as subj., the referent of the relative pronoun is the subject, if the preceding NP functions as obj., the referent of the relative pronoun is the object).

back] is my sister. There are different types of RC: 1) Restrictive RC: Restrictive RCs are used to restrict the possible referents of the preceding NP. In fact, they are usually used in cases in which the preceding NP has more than one potential referent. They don't occur with proper nouns (because the referent is already clear). Example: I don't know the student [who is standing in the back]. 2) Non-restrictive RC: Non-restrictive RCs provide additional information about the preceding NP and they are never crucial in determining the referent. N-R RCs allow us to introduce unfamiliar people into discourse by using a common NP or proper noun followed by explanatory material. Example: My uncle, [who is from Italy], lives in England = My uncle lives in England. 3) Reduced RC: Relative clauses realized with non-finite clauses. Example: The girl [sitting on the back] is my sister.is Pam.13 di 26 CHAPTER 7: Marked sentences Unmarked sentence= A sentence that follows the following order: Subject-verb-object (SVO ORDER) Marked sentence= A sentence that doesn't follow the SVO order, normally used to emphasize an element of the sentence. Types of marked sentences: 1) Preposing/fronting/topicalization: emphasis placed on the topic or focus of a sentence by preposing it to the beginning of the sentence. Example: "This one she accepted" ORDER: OSV Unmarked: She accepted this one 2) Postposing/end shifting: The object or another element is shifted at the end of the sentence, and the sentence doesn't follow the SVO order anymore. Example: "I made without delay all the changes" ORDER: S+V+modifier+O Unmarked: "I made all the changes without delay" 3) Left dislocation: An element of the sentence is dislocated to the left, and then is repeated by a pronoun. Example: "That money I gave to her, it has disappeared Unmarked: That money Igave to her has disappeared.

4) Right dislocation: An element of the sentence is dislocated to the right, and it is preceded by a pronoun.

Example: They are still here, our friends

Unmarked: Our friends are still here.

5) Inversion: The order of two elements of the sentence is inverted.

Example: Seldom have I seen such things

Unmarked: I have seldom seen such things.

6) Extraposition: An extraposition is a construction in which a clause that acts as a subject is moved (or extraposed) to the end of the sentence and replaced by dummy "it" (or empty "it") in the initial position.

Example: It is important to book early. Extraposition always

Unmarked: To book early is important. begins with "it"

7) Cleft: A cleft sentence is a complex sentence in which a simple sentence is expressed using a main clause and a subordinate clause.

Example: It was Tom that broke the window.

Unmarked: Tom broke the window Cleft structure: It [...] that [...]

8) Pseudo-cleft: Pseudo-cleft sentences are similar intocleft sentences, but they are formed with the pronoun “what “ Pseudo-cleft structure:Example: What Tom broke was the window what-clause+ “be”+Unmarked: Tom broke the window phrase

1. Passive
2. Interrogatives and exclamations

CHAPTER 8: Syntactic trees

Syntactic trees are useful to visualize the form of phrase and the syntactic relation between them.

If you don’t know what a tree is, here there is a useful link: https://gawron.sdsu.edu/fundamentals/syntax/syntax_homework_remedial.htm

As we already said, forms are:

• NP terminology
• VP XP= head
• AdjP xp1,xp2= daughters
• AdvP to the head
• PP xp1 sister to xp2
• and also: CP

We now see some basic tree structure:

NP tree structure example: The lady

the=determiner lady=noun

The young lady

the=det young=adj lady=noun X’ = It is an intermediate node that occurs when you have more than one element in the same phrase. It occurs also when you show that an element is a modifier to another

VP tree structure example:

element wrote the letter

Sentence: A sentence ALWAYS has a NP and a VP.

Fixed structure: S head NP and VP daughters.

Remember the hierarchy!!!

The modifier is always sister to X’

The complement is always sister to X.

In this example:

• “young” is a modifier to “lady”, so we put the AdjP sister to N’
• “in the cafe” is an adverbial and it modifies the verb “wrote”, so we put the PP sister to V’
• “an email” is the complement of the verb “wrote” (it is a direct object), so we put the NP sister to V

Tree for a subordinate clause:

The subordinate is represented with CP

CP head with C and S daughter is a fixed structure.

Trees for non-finite clauses:

1. Full non-finite
2. Non-finite without complementizer
3. Non-finite without complementizer and subject

Trees for relative clauses:

Restrictive relative:

1. Relative pronoun as subject
2. Relative pronoun as

1. Preposition stranding (syntactic construction in which a preposition occurs at the end of a sentence)
2. Pied piping (syntactic construction in which a preposition is moved to the front of the sentence)
3. N