Sentence constituents and word order

Slot and filler

A way of looking at language by breaking down sentences into “slots” following certain patterns. Each “slot” can be filled only with “fillers” from that particular category of words.

Grammar structures are often taught this way: “If + subject + past / would + present”

Constituent

A linguistic part of a larger sentence, phrase, or clause. For instance, all the words and phrases that make up a sentence are said to be constituents of that sentence. A constituent can be a morpheme, word, phrase, or clause.

What is the “basic ordering principle” of a clause or sentence?

Familiar information comes at the start, new and important information at the end (end-weight)

Noun Phrase

A phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun

What is highlighted below?

“The woman (who) I told you about last Thursday”

A subordinate clause within a noun phrase

What is highlighted below?

“The trouble with young people…”

A prepositional phrase within a noun phrase

What is highlighted below?

“The house is on the corner”

A preposition phrase

Preposition phrase

A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition and a noun or pronoun that acts as the object of the preposition.

E.g. Mark looked behind his brother.

What questions does a preposition phrase usually answer?

A prepositional phrase usually answers the questions ‘when’ or ‘where’

Verb Phrase

A verb phrase consists of a main verb alone, or a main verb plus any modal and/or auxiliary verbs.

Where does the main verb come in a verb phrase?

The main verb always comes last in a verb phrase

Adjective phrase

An adjective phrase always has an adjective acting as the head. The adjective phrase may also contain words or phrases before or after the head (modifiers and complements)

What is highlighted below?

“She is really quite beautiful”

Adjective phrase (complement)

What is highlighted below?

“I’m not very old”

Adjective phrase (complement)

What is highlighted below?

“We are having an argument”

Verb phrase

What is highlighted below?

“You ought to get rid of that awful dog”

Verb phrase

What is highlighted below?

“I suggest going to the park”

Verb phrase

Adverb phrase

The adverb is the head of the phrase and can appear alone or it can be modified by other words

What is highlighted below?

“Time goes very quickly”

Adverb phrase

What is highlighted below?

“This works really well for its size”

Adverb phrase

What is highlighted below?

“We kept the new money quite separately from what we’d already collected”

Adverb phrase

Indirect objects

Usually tell us who (or what) receives something or benefits from something.

What is the indirect object below?

“Give me a hand”

Me

What is the indirect object below?

“Have you fed the plants any fertiliser?”

The plants

What is the indirect object below?

“You ought to give the windows a good clean”

The windows

What is the indirect object below?

“We gave all our money to a charity”

A charity

What kind of verb is used below?

“She gave the money to me”

A ditransitive verb (must have two objects)

Name some common ditransitive verbs

Ask, bring, give, serve, take, tell

What kind of verb is used below?

They elected him Prime Minister

A complex transitive verb

What kind of verb is used below?

“She made him angry”

A complex transitive verb

Adverbial

A word or group of words that modifies a verb, an adjective, an adverb, or a whole clause

Are adverbials necessary to complete the meaning of a clause?

Usually not, there are some exceptions

What do adverbials express?

How, where or when something is done or takes place

How many adverbials are used below?

“Let’s meet at 8.00 on Sunday in the park”

Three (at 8, on Sunday, in the park)

Identify the adverbial below

“They broke the window on purpose”

On purpose

Identify the adverbial below

“For the last few weeks, I’ve not been feeling well”

For the last few weeks

Identify the complement below

“For the last few weeks, I’ve not been feeling well”

Well

Name the three (main) coordinating conjunctions

And, or, but

Conjunctions

Words that connect two clauses together. The clauses can be of different or equal rank.

Subject of a clause

Everything before the verb phrase

Predicate of a clause

Everything after the verb phrase

What kind of verb is used below?

“The river has dried up”

Intransitive verb

What kind of verb is used below?

“My car isn’t working”

Intransitive verb (or to be more correct, “work” is intransitive when it has this meaning)

What kind of verb is used below?

“I cried until the morning”

Intransitive verb

What kind of word is highlighted below?

“It/That was the worst day of my life”

Dummy subject

What kind of word is highlighted below? And why is this structure used?

“There is a rat in my kitchen”

Dummy subject. This structure is used to say that something exists.

Name the highlighted components below.

“I have on many occasions offered help”

Have offered - verb phrase

On many occasions - adverbial

What is fronting?

Any construction in which a word group that normally follows the verb is placed at the beginning of a sentence. Often used to enhance cohesion and provide emphasis.

Why do we front words or phrases?

To establish common ground and orientate the listener or reading to what is coming next

To give information extra prominence by placing it in an unexpected position

Why do we sometimes push information towards the end of a clause?

Because it is long and/or complicated

Why is this structure used? (be + on)

“It was on Thursday that I saw him”

To emphasise the word “Thursday”

Why is the word order changed below?

“Only in England does that tree grow”

Because after negative or limiting adverbials, such as “only”, we invert when they are fronted

What is fronted below?

“A right mess they have made!"

A direct object (for emphasis)

What is fronted below?

“A funny old language English is”

A Complement (for emphasis)

What is this an example of?

“It was Julia who phoned us”

Clefting

Where does new information come in a cleft sentence?

At the start (after “It”)

Where does known information come in a cleft sentence?

Near the end

What is this an example of?

“What he needs is a bath!”

Pseudo-clefting

What do we use instead of “It” in a pseudo-cleft sentence?

A question word`

What information is spotlighted in a pseudo-cleft sentence?

The information after the verb “to be”

What is this an example of?

“A good shake up is what it really needs”

A reversed pseudo-cleft sentence

Causitive Constructions

When we do not perform an action ourselves but instead cause the action to be performed by another person. The causative is constructed by combining the verbs 'to have' or 'to get' with the main verb past participle.

Passive

A set of forms of a verb in which the subject undergoes the action of the verb

Why is passive used below?

“The event was badly organised”

To focus on how it was done

Why is passive used below?

“No one was injured”

The agent is unknown or unspecified

Why is passive used below?

“I’ve been sacked”

To focus on what happened to the subject

Why is passive used below?

The Mona Lisa was painted by Di Vinci

To focus on who did it (that is the new or important information)

Why use “get” below?

“We got cut off”

To show that the action was unexpected, involuntary or unwelcome

Why use “get” below?

"She got elected”

To show that it was an achievement based on something that was built up beforehand

Why use “get” below?

“I got admitted to hospital”

To show it was an achievement in the face of difficulty

What has been “reduced” in the passive relative clause below?

“They sold some products made by hand”

Why do this?

“Which were”. To make the clause more succinct.

When do we use causitive forms?

When we arrange someone to do something for us, or for an unfortunate experience

Why use “get” instead of “have” in causitive structures?

“Get” shows an achievement (perhaps with an element of difficulty) or an unfortunate experience

What is highlighted below?

“Firstly, I’m unhappy with the room because…”

A discourse marker (adverb)

What is highlighted below?

“…next, I’d like to discuss the issue of…”

A discourse marker (preposition)

What is highlighted below?

“I went home and afterwards cried a lot”

A discourse marker (adverb)

What is highlighted below?

“What is more, he is rude to me”

A discourse marker (idiomatic phrase)

What is capping?

Using a discourse marker such as “What is more” or “On top of that” to add another, even more important point

What is highlighted below?

“Besides, it always rains in Scotland”

Discourse marker (linking adverb)

What is highlighted below?

“In fact, she has never missed a day of work”

Discourse marker (shows contrast)

What is highlighted below?

“We lost and, as a result, were knocked out”

Discourse marker (shows result)

What is highlighted below?

“In other words, we’re screwed”

Discourse marker (for re-stating)

What is highlighted below?

“In conclusion, the second world war was caused…”

Discourse marker (for rounding off)

What is highlighted below?

“I’m afraid I have some bad news”

Discourse marker, comprising a subject, auxiliary verb and predicative adjective. Used to prepare the listener or reader for something (in this case, bad news)

What is highlighted below?

“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn”

A discourse marker, in the shape of an adverb of attitude. Used here to introduce a strong point of view.

Name the two kinds of ellipsis

Situational and textual

What is situational ellipsis?

When only the context can tell us which words have been ellipted.

What is textual ellipsis?

When the ellipted words are in grammatically predictable positions. Typically after the words “and” and “but”, and also in adverbial and relative clauses

What kind of ellipsis is used below?

“Could you help me?”

“Possibly”

Situational

What kind of ellipsis is used below?

“You should clean your teeth and brush your hair”

Textual

What kind of ellipsis is used below?

“When watching TV, be sure to sit in a comfortable position”

Textual (in a reduced adverbial clause)

What kind of ellipsis is used below?

“I am watching a film made in 2004”

Textual, in a reduced relative clause

What are adverbial clauses?

A subcategory of subordinate clauses. They are linked to a main clause and tell us something about the information in that main clause

Why is a comma used below?

“Although it’s very late, I am still not sleepy”

The subordinate clause is before the main clause

What is the highlight language below an example of?

“Once finally under way, the ship quickly made up for lost time”

A verbless clause (kind of reduced adverbial clause)

What is the highlight language below an example of?

“Even though badly damaged, it was still valuable”

A reduced past participle (adverbial) clause

Where can a coordinating conjunction appear?

Between two clauses

Where can a subordinating conjunction appear?

At the beginning of a sentence or between two clauses

What does adding a coordinating conjunction create?

A compound sentence

What does adding a subordinating conjunction create?

A complex sentence