Lecture 3aClause functions

Adapted from Mary Laughren

Sentences and Clauses

Phrase structure rules

(1) S NP VP

(2) NP (Detv) (AdjP)* N

(3) AdjP (AdvP) Adj

(4) VP V (NP) (NP) (PP)*

(5) PP P (NP/PP)

Complex SentenceS

NPVP

V

CP

COMP (SUB)

S

I know that the tall librarian put the book on that shelf

Upper S = sentence

Lower S = clause

Complex Sentence

S SConj

S

The tall librarian put the book on AND the short one removed it

the shelf

Upper S corresponds to a sentence

Lower S corresponds to a clause

The status of VP in English

S NP + VP (as in (1))

VP V (NP) (NP) (PP)* (as in (4))

Tests for phrasehood of VP:• Substitution • Clefting • Movement

(8)a. The tall librarian put the book on the shelf, and so did John.

The tall librarian put the book on the shelf, and John did so too.

b. *It was put that book on the shelf that the tall librarian _____.

c. (I told the tall librarian to put that book on the shelf, and)

*put that book on the shelf the tall librarian ___.

(9)a. (I told the tall librarian to put that book on the shelf, and) put that book on the shelf

the tall librarian did ___.

b. ... the tall librarian did put that book on the shelf.

(10)a. (She denies that) she puts all the linguistics books in the bin, but

put them in the bin she does.

b. *puts them in the bin she ___.

c. She does put all the linguistics books in the bin.

d. * She does puts all the linguistics books in the bin.

(11)a. The bowler took a great catch.

b. *Took a great catch the bowler ___.

c. (...and) take a great catch the bowler did ___.

d. The bowler did take a great catch.

e. *The bowler did took a great catch.

so

puts/takes

does put/take

put/took

did put/take

so

so

puts

present PUT

put

past PUT

takes

present TAKE

took

past TAKE

Revised S

S

NP AUX VP

TENSE

The tall librarian does/did put that book on…..

---------- puts/put that book on..

The bowler does/did take a great catch

----------- takes/took a great catch

Revised S

S

NP AUX VP

TENSE

The tall librarian does/did so (16a)

---------- *so (16b)

The bowler does/did so

----------- *so

What about the cleft test?

(20) a. ?It was take a great catch that he did

____.

b. *It was took a great catch that he ____.

Functions in the Clause

S NP AUX VP Subject Tense Predicate

Mary PAST cleaned her teeth.

John PRESENT eats his dinner.

The baby does drink milk

PRESENT

Subjects

• Typically filled by NP– The baby ate the lasagne

• Can also be filled by PP– Under the bed seems the safest.

• Or by a clause– That John left surprised me

Predicates

• Typically filled by VP– The baby does drink milk.

• Can also be filled by AdjP– The baby is extremely happy.

• Or by an NP– John is a good doctor.

• Or by a PP– John was in the house.

Traditional definitions of Subject

• “the performer of the action”The boy bit the dog.The boy felt sick.The boy is an Australian.The boy was bitten by the dog.

• How do these sentences challenge the traditional definition that the subject is the “performer of the action”?

AGENT

• “what the sentence is about”I bought this hat at the Ekka.No-one runs faster than Superman.It rained last night.

• How do these sentences challenge the traditional definition that the subject is “what the sentence is about”?

TOPIC

Defining “Subject” by grammatical properties

• Test 1 - Word order–Subjects typically precede the predicate

• Test 2 - Agreement–In some circumstances the AUX/verb will change form, depending on the nature of the subject. We say the verb agrees with the subject

Examples of subject-verb agreement

The boy was biting the dog.The boy was biting the dogs.The boys were biting the dog.The boys were biting the dogs.

• The tensed verb form changes when the preceding NP (the subject) becomes plural.

• It is unaffected by the change in number of the following NP (the object).

More properties of Subjects

• Test 3 - Pronoun form– In English, pronouns have distinct (case)

forms for certain functions, such as subject.

– The case form used for subjects is called Nominative case.

Examples of Case forms of English Pronouns

• Nominative (or subject) pronouns forms include: I, he, she, we.– I kissed you, he kissed you, she kissed you, we

kissed you

• These forms are in contrast with Accusative (or object) forms such as: me, him, her, us.– You kissed me, you kissed him, you kissed her,

you kissed us

Another subject property

• Test 4 - Auxiliary raising– When an interrogative sentence is formed

from a declarative sentence, the auxiliary verb which has the tense-marking function precedes the subject phrase.

– The boy is biting the dog. (declarative)– Is the boy biting the dog? (interrogative)

Summary

Simple sentence = single S or clauseComplex sentence > 1 S or clause

Functions of main constituents of S:• Subject: NP/PP/clause• Tense: Auxiliary verb (Lexical verb)• Predicate: VP/AdjP/NP/PP

Summary (con't)

VP = V (minus tense-marking) + .....

– VP with untensed verb passes all three tests for phrasehood:

• Substitution (by so )• Cleft• Movement

–VP with tensed verb fails all three tests

Further reading:

Fromkin, V. Rodman, R. et al. 2005. An Introduction to Language Ch. 4