Riassunto esame per la materia Morfosintassi Inglese II, prof. Maggioni, libro consigliato A Handbook of Present-day English, autore: Pulcini (capitoli richiesti)

SUBJECT PREDICATE VERB ELEMENT (PREDICATOR) + ANY VERBY COMPLEMENTATION

The subject is the focus or topic of the sentence, while the predicate expresses what we want to say about

the subject. Example:

Paul (subject) broke his ankle (predicate = predicator [broke] + verb complementation/object [his ankle])

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THE OBJECT ELEMENT

The object element occurs after the verb and describes the person or the thing that is directly affected

by the verb. It can be a noun, a pronoun or a clause:

-I ate an apple (noun)

-The rain soaked him (pronoun)

-He did what I asked him (clause)

TRANSITIVE AND INTRASITIVE VERBS

Verbs which do not require an object are called INTRANSITIVE verbs: Paul fell

Verbs which require 1 object are called MONO-TRANSITIVE verbs: Paul broke his ankle

Verbs which take 2 objects are called DI-TRANSITIVE verbs; these objects are an INDIRECT OBJECT

(Oi) and a DIRECT OBJECT (Od):

John (S) gave (V) Mary (Oi) a diamond ring (Od)

My mother (S) used to tell (V) me (Oi) a bedtime story (Od)

The indirect object (=complemento di termine) usually precedes the direct object (=complemento

oggetto):

Jane gave Phil (Oi) a book (Od)

But, if the indirect object is preceded by “TO”, it follows the direct object and becomes a prepositional

phrase (an ADVERBIAL from the function point of view):

Jane gave a book (Od) to Phil (Adverbial – Prepositional phrase)

John bought a diamond ring (Od) for Jane (Adverbial – PP).

Some verbs can be used both as transitive and as intransitive verbs:

I am reading / I am reading a book

I am eating / I am eating an apple

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THE COMPLEMENT ELEMENT

Non è il complemento italiano (adverbial), è il predicativo del soggetto / oggetto !

It gives extra information about the subject or object. Examples:

They (S) named (V) him (O) president (C) -- > complement of the object

Sue (S) was feeling (V) very nervous (C) -- > complement of the subject

Complements can be nouns, pronouns, adjectives and numerals:

The car was a bargain (Cs) The book is mine (Cs) She felt nervous (Cs) My granny is eighty (Cs)

SUBJECT COMPLEMENT (also called SUBJECT PREDICATIVE)

The Cs follows the subject and the verb: the verb must be a COPULAR VERB! -- > be, seem, appear,

feel, become, look … verbs that link the subject to their complements.

Examples:

I am happy today Sarah felt angry The cake seems good

OBJECT COMPLEMENT (also called OBJECT PREDICATIVE)

The Co usually follows the direct object and its meaning is related to this. For the Co we need to

have a transitive verb!

Examples:

I name Carlo my chief

They elected Bush president

The teacher considered his pupil a genius

Chris made Sarah really angry

These verbs which take both the object and the object complement are called COMPLEX-TRANSITIVE

VERBS (pronounce, consider, make, etc.): in the previous example -- > The teacher considered his pupil (O)

a genius (Co).

OBJECT OR OBJECT COMPLEMENT?

Let’s consider these examples:

The news made Anny really happy

Andrew bought Anny a sports car

To understand whether it’s an object complement, we can use the coupla BE:

1.Anny was really happy -- > happy is the Co

2.Anny was a sports car !! -- > sports car is the direct object, not the Co

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THE ADVERBIAL ELEMENT

Adverbials are Italian COMPLEMENTI ! --- > they give information about time (compl. di tempo), place

(compl. di luogo) and manner (compl. di modo). They can be adverbs, prepositional phrases, nouns or

clauses:

They went yesterday -- > AdvP

They went on Sunday -- > PP

They went last week -- > NP

They went while I was in Ireland -- > clause

There can be more than one adverbial in a clause and adverbials can take many different positions in the

clause:

Actually we went shopping on Monday / On Monday we actually went shopping

Adverbials are not obligatory: only few verbs require obligatory adverbials, for example “hare” (to go or

run very quickly) or “put” are grammatically incomplete without an adverbial. Examples:

*Mike hared -- > Mike hared to the supermarket

*George put -- > George put a book on the table

Other verbs do not require always an adverbial, they might require it if adopted to express a certain meaning,

like “lean”:

The Tower of Pisa leans (it’s not upright)

Mike’s bike was against the tree (it was supported in a sloping position).

Sometimes it’s difficult to decide whether the obligatory prepositional phrase connected to a verb is an

adverbial or an object/subject complement, as in:

The rubbish is in the dustbin -- > it’s an adverbial, expresses a locational meaning

The boat is in danger -- > it’s a subject complement, expresses a feature of the subject

To test if we’re dealing with a complement or an adverbial we can try this --> if it’s a complement, it can be

used with copular verbs, like seem:

The boat seems in danger -- > it’s correct, so it’s a Cs

The rubbish seems in the dustbin* -- > it’s not possible to say this, so it’s an adverbial

SENTENCE = largest unit of syntactic structure. It must consist of at least one main clause

(an independent clause that can stand alone), but it may consist of several.

When we talk about sentences we’re dealing with structural principles and not with written

conventions. Grammatical sentences may not correspond to punctuated sentences:

-I agreed to go with them. Although it wasn’t a very good idea. -- > There’s a full stop, but from the

grammatical point of view, we consider this item as a single sentence, formed by a main clause (I

agreed to go with them) + one subordinate clause (Although it wasn’t a very good idea).

-It will be all right, I shan’t have to stay here, even now -- > There’s a coma, they’re not separated

by a full stop, but they are two separate sentences.

SENTENCE TYPES

Form/Type Function/Use

Declarative Statement

Interrogative Question

Imperative Directive (command)

Exclamative Exclamation

Function and form do not always correlate: for example an interrogative form (which normally

expresses questions), might be used with a directive/command function:

Do you mind not shouting and lowering your voice, please? -- > interrogative form, command

function

1) DECLARATIVE SENTENCES

They’re the most common sentences used in the language and are used to formulate

statements. The most typical declarative structure is the SVO: overt subject + verb element + verb

complementation (+ adverbials, not obligatory elements). Example: I (S) am reading (V) a book (O)

on animals (A). Some verbs are called PERFORMATIVE VERBS, that is you perform/do an action

when pronouncing them in the first person singular, in the simple present tense (and in a

declarative context), example: promise, name, swear, pronounce …

I promise that I won’t tell anyone your secret

I swear I will tell the truth

I name you president of the club

I now pronounce you husband and wife

2) INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES

They are used to ask a question. To formulate them, we have a SUBJECT/OPERATOR

INVERSION: the operator (auxiliary verb do/douse/did used for negation and questions) comes

before the subject. If we have only BE as lexical verb, we have the subject-verb inversion.

There are two types of interrogative sentences:

1)YES-NO (POLAR) QUESTIONS: they expect the answer “yes” or “no”, for example:

-Can (Vop) you (S) write (V) a letter (O)? Yes, I can/ No, I can’t

-Do (Vop) you (S) speak (V) Italian (O)? Yes I do/No, I don’t

2)WH-QUESTIONS: they require more specific information, for example:

-What (O) did (Vop) the thief (S) take (V)?

-When (A) will (Vop) we (S) finish (V) this job (O)? -- > here the wh-

word is an adverbial element

WH-WORDS AS SUBJECTS OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES:

Wh-questions do not require the use of operators do/does/did, when:

-the verb is positive (affirmative)

-the wh-word is part of the subject phrase (it forms the subject)

-the wh-word can be a pronoun (who, what, which, whose), a determiner (which, whose, what), or

how much/many

Examples: Which (Swh )is (V) the capital of Peru (Cs)? -- > no verb operator!

Which book (Swh) is (V) the most interesting (Cs)?

Who (Swh) married (V) Mick (O)?

How many (Swh) are (V) there (A)?

QUESTION TAGS

A question tag is a short structure (often used in spoken English) added to a declarative

sentence to turn it into a question. This is usually done when you expect the person you are

addressing to agree with you or to confirm your statement. The tag is formed by using an auxiliary

or a form of “be” / “do” + a personal pronoun referring to the subject.

-If the main clause is affirmative, you use a negative tag: It’s quite warm, isn’t it? -- > negative

tags are always contracted forms;

-if the main clause is negative, you use an affirmative tag: You didn’t know I was an artist, did

you?

The person you’re talking to, replies to the content of the statement, rather than to the tag, so he

confirms the affirmative statement (ex. 1) with “yes”, and the negative one (ex. 2) with “no”.

-If you use “let’s” to suggest doing something, you can add the tag “shall we?”, in order to

make sure that the people you’re talking to agree with you. Ex: Let’s forget it, shall we?

-If you’re suggesting that you do something and you want to check that the person you’re

talking to agrees with you, you can add the tag “shall I?”. Ex: I’ll call the doctor, shall I?

-If you’re telling someone to do something, but you want to make your order sound less

forceful, you can add the tag “will you?”. Ex: Come into the kitchen, will you?

3) IMPERATIVE SENTENCES

The imperative is used to direct someone to do something, and it can be more or less kind:

Shut up

Have a good day (more gently and polite)

-Some imperatives are introduced by a politeness marker, such as “please”, which softens

the abruptness of the imperative, ex. Please, close the door.

-In the imperative form, we usually omit the subject, that is the second person (you) and the verb

is in the base form. The exception is for the imperative in the third person, with an overt subject,

such as Nobody enter this room !

-The auxiliary DO softens the command, and DON’T is used to make the imperative negative:

Do come in! / Don’t come in!

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