Topic 4 (session A) - The grammar of simple sentences > SPOCA checksheet

Checksheet: The structure of simple sentences

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(I) Word Classes and Phrases

So far we have distinguished four major word classes:
NOUN (N), VERB (V), ADJECTIVE (Adj) and ADVERB (Adv).

We can use these word classes to define four of the five kinds of phrases which occur in English sentences:

In addition, we need one more phrase type:

(II) How we make sentences

We can join words from the major word classes together to make very simple sentences:

1. John / hit / Mary (N V N)
2. Mary / hit / John (N V N)

In fact, the words in these two sentences are really one-word phrases and so really have the structure NP VP NP. We can join other, longer, phrases together to make sentences which are a bit more interesting:

3. The student / had been yawning (NP VP)
4. That grotty little English student with green hair / has guzzled / a pint of Boddingtons (NP VP NP)
5. That grotty little first year English student / is / a pint of Boddingtons (NP VP NP)

The head word of a phrase is its most important word. However, we can also see that the labels we have provided so far give sentences (1) and (2) above (John hit Mary and Mary hit John) the same description when they mean very different things. In (1), John does the hitting and Mary is hit, and in (2), Mary does the hitting and John is hit. Similar comments apply to sentences (4) and (5). So, we need an additional set of labels to characterise how the phrases join together to make these sentences. Remember, both Mary and John are NOUNS. But in John hit Mary, John is the SUBJECT (S) and Mary is the OBJECT (O), whereas in Mary hit John it is the other way round.

To parallel the distinction between NOUN on the one hand and SUBJECT and OBJECT on the other, we also need a label to distinguish the VERB word class from its sentence element role. We use the term PREDICATOR for this purpose.

(III) Types of predicator

Predicators are at the core of English sentences, and to understand how sentences work we have to recognise that there are FOUR kinds of Predicator, which you can see in the following sentences. These are TRANSITIVE, INTRANSITIVE and LINKING predicators.

(1) Mary hit John

hit is a TRANSITIVE predicator
hit is a verb which requires an object as well as a subject. It usually describes an action directed from one participant to another. Notice how deviant Mary hit seems.

(2) The student yawned

yawned is an INTRANSITIVE predicator
yawned also expresses an action, but unlike hit, it does not require an object after it. Notice how deviant The student yawned the apple seems.

(3) That student is utterly despicable
     That student is a member of the Monster Raving Loony Party

In both of these cases is is a LINKING verb
is links together the subject Noun Phrase that student with another Noun Phrase or an Adjective Phrase which expresses some attribute or role of the subject.

     

(IV) There are five major elements which can make up a simple sentence:

(V) What phrases will we find in each of the sentence elements?

S		Noun Phrase
P		Verb Phrase
O		Noun Phrase
C		Adjective Phrase or Noun Phrase
A		Adverb Phrase or Prepositional Phrase or Noun Phrase

(VI) What are the most common (conventional) orderings of the sentence elements?

S P Mick / laughed
S P O Mick / ate / the student
S P C Mick / is / crazy
S P A Mick / laughed / mysteriously
S P O A Mick / ate / some more students / on Thursday
S P O C The rest of the students / voted Mick / maniac of the year
S P O O The students / gave / Mick / his bus fare to the asylum

Notice that unusual orderings are deviant and so produce foregrounding. Consider, for example:

(i) Crazy Mick is.
(ii) Mick on Thursday some more students ate.

How to identify elements of simple sentences

Go through the following procedure step by step:

1. Find the VERB
   What form? (single Verb or VP)
   Is there only one?
   Is there more than one?
   Pick out the VP which describes the action/process/state of the SUBJECT
   Label this the PREDICATOR (P)

2. Find the SUBJECT of the main verb(s)
   (the person or thing doing the action of a 'dynamic' verb): the TOPIC of the sentence.
   What form? (single Noun or NP)
   Label this the SUBJECT (S)

   IMPORTANT NOTE: The remaining elements will now be O, C or A. CHECK BACK TO THE PREDICATOR. Is it transitive, intransitive or linking? The kind of predicator governs what sentence elements can come next.

3. IF THE PREDICATOR IS TRANSITIVE
   (a) Find the OBJECT of the main verb(s)
   (the recipient of the action of the main verb)
   What form? (N or NP)
   Bracket the word or phrase and label it OBJECT (O)

   (b) IF THERE SEEM TO BE TWO OBJECTS as in e.g.
   S P Oi Od
   Our landlady / cooks / us / strange dishes.
   S P Oi Od
   The student / sent / Mick / poison pen letters.
   One is the direct Object (Od) and one is the indirect Object (Oi)
   You can test for an INDIRECT Object:
   Can you put to or for in front of it? (e.g. for us, to Mick)'
   S P Od Oi
   Our landlady / cooks / strange dishes / for us .
   S P Od Oi
   The student / sent / poison pen letters / to Mick.

4. IF THE PREDICATOR IS LINKING
   (e.g. BE, SEEM, APPEAR, BECOME, LOOK, etc.)
   Find the COMPLEMENT element:
   (the unit of structure which specifies or describes the SUBJECT (or, occasionally, the OBJECT) in more detail)

   IS IT SEPARATE FROM THE S OR O IN THE SENTENCE?
   What form? (Noun or NP , Adjective or AdjP. Can you replace the phrase with a single Adjective?)
   IF SEPARATE FROM S or O, bracket the word or phrase and label it COMPLEMENT (C)

5. IF THE PREDICATOR IS INTRANSITIVE,
   the only other element which can occur in a simple sentence is an ADVERBIAL.
   But ADVERBIALS can also occur with both transitive and linking Predicators.
   Find the ADVERBIAL element:
   Does the unit of structure specify or describe the nature of the action/process in more detail?
   Does it function very like an ADVERB?
   (See WORD CLASS CHECKSHEET)
   Can it easily be moved to different parts of the sentence?
   What form?
   (Noun, NP, Adverb, AdvP, PP)
   Bracket the word or phrase and label it ADVERBIAL (A)

You now have the main elements of any simple sentence.
What about odds and ends that don't fit in?

You may find any of the following:

* CONJUNCTIONS:
Words (or short phrases) linking one sentence to another (or part of a sentence to its main body):
e.g. and, but, therefore, however, neither, because, since, so that, for, as though,
if ... then, either .... or, etc.
Bracket and label them cj.

* VOCATIVES, as in:
Mick, put that student down, sweetheart!
Bracket and label voc.

* INTERJECTIONS, as in:
Hell, Mick, isn't it about time you ate that student, for heaven's sake?
Bracket and label them int.

It is possible that you will have left some things left outside brackets or unlabelled. Check to see if they can be included with any other element. If there are still some unlabelled words or phrases left, mention them in the seminar for discussion.

NB If you want to read up more thoroughly on aspects of grammar we suggest you read pages 57 - 76 of Leech, Hoogenraad and Deuchar English Grammar for Today.

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