Syntax Notes

Syntax Definition

• Syntax: Order of words to create logical, meaningful sentences.
• Differs from parts of speech, which are types of words.
• English's flexibility makes syntax nuanced and complex.
• Basic building blocks help identify the language's hierarchical structure.

Hierarchy of Grammatical Structure

Subjects and Predicates

• Subject and predicate: Basis of all syntax.
• Subject: Person or thing performing/controlling an action.
• Predicate: Describes the action.
• Subject: At least a noun or pronoun.
• Predicate: At least a verb.
• Subject Example:
  • "My father drives a car to work each day."
  • Subject: "My father" (noun "father" + determiner "my").
  • Specifies which father is controlling the action.
• Predicate includes modifiers, objects, or complements.
• Predicate Example:
  • "My father drives a car to work each day."
  • Predicate: "drives a car to work each day".
  • Includes verb "drives", direct object "a car", prepositional phrase "to work", and adverbial phrase "each day".

Modifiers

• Modifiers: Words, phrases, or clauses that add descriptive meaning.
• Categories: Adjectives or adverbs.
• Can appear anywhere in a sentence, part of subject or predicate.
• Example:
  • "The red car went too fast."
  • Modifiers: "red" (adjective), "too" (adverb), "fast" (adverb).
• Adjunct:
  • Non-essential information.
  • Removing it doesn't significantly change the meaning.
  • Example: "red" in "The red car went too fast".
• Complements:
  • Modifiers necessary to the meaning of the sentence.
  • Always part of the predicate.
  • Example: "too fast" in "The red car went too fast".

Phrases

• Phrases: Groups of two or more words lacking both a subject and a predicate.
• Formed by determiner, modifier, or complement to describe or complete meaning of another word.
• Can be made up of smaller phrases.
• Example:
  • "The bright red car is mine."
  • Subject: "the bright red car" (noun phrase).
  • Root: "car" (head noun).
  • Includes determiner "the" and adjective phrase "bright red".
  • Adjective phrase: "bright red" (adjective "red" + adverb "bright").
  • Predicate: "is mine" (verb phrase).
  • Includes verb "is" and possessive pronoun "mine".
• Phrases are often a constituent part of clauses.

Clauses

• Clauses: Group of two or more words containing both a subject and a predicate.
• Types: Dependent or independent.
• Dependent Clause:
  • Cannot stand alone.
  • Marked by dependent words (subordinating conjunctions) connecting it to an independent clause.
  • Relies on independent clause for meaning.
  • Example: "when they were younger". Subordinating conjunction: "when".
• Independent Clause:
  • Can function as a sentence on its own.
  • Does not depend on other clauses for completeness.
  • Example: "Mark and Betty often traveled together".
• Sentences must have at least one independent clause.

Sentences

• Sentence: Most complete unit of syntax.
• Made up of at least one independent clause.
• Always contains a subject and a predicate.
• Simple Sentence:
  • Contains a single independent clause.
  • Example: "Mark and Betty often traveled together".
• Complex Sentence:
  • Attaches a dependent clause to an independent clause.
  • Example: "Mark and Betty often traveled together when they were younger".
• Compound Sentence:
  • Joins two or more independent clauses.
  • Joins with:
    • Coordinating conjunction and comma
    • Conjunctive adverb, comma, and semicolon
    • Semicolon
  • Example: "Mark and Betty often traveled together, and they have been to many different countries".
• Compound-Complex Sentence:
  • Links a complex sentence and a simple or complex sentence.
  • Example: "Mark and Betty often traveled together when they were younger, and they have been to many different countries".
• Sentences can also be categorized based on their purpose.

Subjects and Predicates

• All sentences require both a subject and a predicate.
• Subject: Noun performing/controlling the action of the verb.
• Predicate: Everything that follows the subject.

The Subject

• Usually appears before the verb.
• Made up of:
  • Noun
  • Pronoun
  • Grammatical element functioning as noun
• Examples:
  • "Computers can process numbers very quickly." (Noun)
  • "A boy I know owns a motorcycle." (Noun phrase)
  • "Someone ate my cake!" (Pronoun)
  • "Swimming is great exercise." (Gerund)

The Predicate

• Includes:
  • Participles
  • Objects
  • Complements
  • Modifiers
• Usually comes after the subject.
• Adverbial modifiers can appear before the subject.
• Examples:
  • "I refuse." (refuse - intransitive finite verb in present simple tense)
  • "My family loves going to the beach each summer." (loves - transitive finite verb, going to the beach - gerund phrase, each summer - adverbial phrase)
  • “In school we are learning about the American Revolution.” (in school — adverbial prepositional phrase, are — finite auxiliary verb used with learning, learning — present participle, about the American Revolution — prepositional phrase)

The Subject Definition

• The person or thing performing the action of the verb.
• Sentences require a subject and a verb to be complete.
• Exception: Imperative sentences (subject implied). "Do your homework!"

Subject Forms

• Must have the grammatical function of a noun.
• Examples:
  • Nouns: "Computers can process numbers very quickly."
  • Noun phrases: "A boy I know owns a motorcycle."
  • Pronouns: "Someone ate this cake!"
  • Gerunds: "Swimming is great exercise."
  • Gerund phrases: "Traveling the world has been my lifelong dream."
  • Infinitives: "To err is human; to forgive is divine."
  • Infinitive phrases: "To fall in love can be both wonderful and tragic."
  • Noun clauses: "Whoever knows the truth should come forward."
  • Dummy pronouns: "There is nothing we can do for him now."

Subject Positions

• Typically occurs at the beginning of a clause, before the verb.
• Auxiliary questions: Subject comes between the auxiliary verb and main verb.
  • "Is hiking your favorite activity?"
  • "Did Mary come by yesterday?"
  • "Have you heard this song before?"
• Passive voice: Object of the verb becomes the grammatical subject.
  • Active voice: "Jack is reading the book."
  • Passive voice: "The book is being read by Jack."

Subject-Verb Agreement

• Using certain conjugations of verbs with singular subjects and different conjugations with plural subjects.
• Example with the verb "to be":
  • "My brother is back from college." (singular present simple tense)
  • "The company was in financial trouble." (singular past simple tense)
  • "Many people are frustrated with the government." (plural present simple tense)
  • "The computers were rather old." (plural past simple tense)
• For any other verb, make a change if it is in the present simple tense.
  • "My father runs his own business." (singular)
  • "But his sons run it when he’s away." (plural)
• The verbs have and do also only conjugate for singular subjects in the present simple tense, but they have irregular forms for this: has and does.
  • "The apple has a mark on it." (singular)
  • "All the apples have marks on them." (plural)
  • "My teacher does not think it’s a good idea." (singular)
  • "The other teachers do not mind, though." (plural)
• Modal auxiliary verbs (will, would, shall, should, can, could, might, must, and ought to) do not conjugate for singular or plural subjects—they always remain the same.

Subject Pronouns

• Pronouns: Stand in for a person or thing.
• Avoid repetition.
• Personal pronouns I, you, he, she, it, we, they = subject pronouns
• Examples:
  • "John is running late, but he is almost ready."
  • "The book is on the table. It is just over there."
• Question words who and what can also be subject pronouns.
  • "Who is going to the party later?"
  • "What just happened?"
• Indefinite pronouns do not specify the noun (e.g. everyone, anybody…)
  • "Everyone is waiting for the party to begin."

Common Subject Errors

• Subject-Verb Agreement Errors: Many opportunities for confusion as to when to omit the -s when conjugating a verb for subject-verb agreement. *“I lives in Paris.” (incorrect)
  • ✔ “I live in Paris.” (correct)
• Irregular plurals
  • ✖ “People lives here.” (incorrect)
  • ✔ “People live here.” (correct)
• Indefinite pronouns
  • ✖ “Everyone have a television.” (incorrect)
  • ✔ “Everyone has a television.” (correct)
• One, each: singular verbs
  • ✖ “One of my students have gone to England.” (incorrect)
  • ✔ “One of my students has gone to England.” (correct)
  • ✖ “Each person study individually.” (incorrect)
  • ✔ “Each person studies individually.” (correct)
• Double Subject Error
  • ✖ “My brother he speaks English.” (incorrect)
  • ✔ “My brother speaks English.” (correct)
• Omission of the subject
  • ✖ “I think is going to rain.” (incorrect)
  • ✔ “I think it is going to rain.” (correct)
• Subject before auxiliary verbs in questions
  • ✖ “Where does work Mary?” (incorrect)
  • ✔ “Where does Mary work?” (correct)
• Subject Question Error
  • • “What did happen last night?” (less common; only used for emphasis when trying to determine what did happen vs. what did not happen)
  • • “What happened last night?” (much more common) (Subject question)

The Predicate Definition

• The predicate is, essentially, everything in the sentences that follows the subject.
• Has at least one finite verb.
• May include:
  • Participles
  • Objects
  • Complements
  • Modifiers

Identifying the predicate

• Most cases, the predicate comes after the subject in a sentence or clause.
• Possible in simple sentences to have only a subject followed by a finite verb.
• Examples “I refuse.” • “Dogs bark.” • “Bees sting.” • “Cats meow.”
• Elements after the subject are related to the verb, the entire phrase is considered the predicate.
• Example sentence Parts of the predicate “My family loves going to the beach each summer.” • loves — transitive finite verb in the present simple tense • going to the beach — gerund phrase acting as the direct object of the verb loves • each summer — adverbial phrase modifying the verb phrase loves going to the beach
• Adverbs appear at the beginning of a sentence to add emphasis to the information.
• Example sentence Parts of the predicate “In school we are learning about the American Revolution.” • in school — adverbial prepositional phrase acting as a modifier of the present participle learning • are — finite auxiliary verb used with the present participle learning to create the present continuous tense • learning — present participle (a type of non-finite verb) used with the auxiliary finite verb are to form the present continuous tense • about the American Revolution — prepositional phrase functioning as the direct object of the present participle learning

Compound predicates

• The subject of a clause or sentence must always be performing at least one action but it can perform more than one action.
• Use coordinating conjunctions to link the verbs in a compound predicate.
• If there are more than two predicate elements, separate them with commas and use a conjunction before the final one.
• Example sentence Parts of the compound predicate “I live in New Jersey but work in New York City.” live in New Jersey, work in New York City
  “My friend Daniel teaches in the morning, volunteers in the afternoon, and plays volleyball in the evening.