GRAMÀTICA DESCRIPTIVA DE L’ANGLÈS II

1. GRAMMATICALITY

a) The children sang songs for the teacher

b) The teacher sang songs for the children
c) *Songs sang for the the children teacher (grammatical sentences are sequences
of words that conform to the rules of syntax; ungrammatical sentences violate
them)

- The meaning of a sentence is more than the sum of the meaning of its words
- sentence is a string of words (or morphemes) but a string of words is not always
a sentence
- The rules of grammar determine how morphemes and words can combine to
express a specific meaning. Knowing a language means knowing which
combinations are possible and which are not
- Sentences are not simply random strings of words (and morphemes) but
confirm to specific patterns
- Also, grammaticality judgements are not based on whether the sentence has
been heard before, whether the sentence is meaningful or not, whether the
sentence is true or not

AMBIGUITY

Syntactic knowledge may also account for multiple meanings, the same string may be
analysed differently

a) I like biting dogs

b) I saw the man with telescope on the hill

FORM AND MEANING

Syntactic knowledge also allows us to determine whether two sentences have the
same meaning

a) Pleasing Susan is fun for John

b) It is fun for John to please Susan

a) The student solved the problem

b) The problem was solved by the student
CONSTITUENCY

- Syntactic rules determine how words are grouped in a sentence

- The groupings are called constituents

We need to be aware of the fact that sentences have hierarchical structure not to
overlook potential ambiguity

2. THE ENGLISH SENTENCE I

Clause patterns (verb complementation)

Verb type:
- Intransitive
o It’s raining/ the dog died (SV)
- Monotransitive
o Marta loves John (SVO)
o She insists on an answer (SVObl)
- Copular (or complex intransitive)
o Lucy seems bored (SVCs)
o Lucy is a doctor (SVCs)
o My office is upstairs (SVAdvC)
- Ditransitive (SVOO)
o I gave him a rose (SVOO)
o They gave a rose to him (SVOObl)
o They charged him with murder (SVOObl)
- Complex-transitive
o Consider Chris nice (a nice guy) (SVOCo)
o I put the key in my pocket (SVOAdvC)

a) Disappear, die, vegetate

 typically intransitive

b) Treat, inspect, throw

 typically transitive

c) Play, eat, elect

 the great majority of monotransitive verbs belong to the intransitive class as well
Elect: they elected her/they elected her our rep

d) Drink, propose, expect

 some verbs may belong to different classes with different meanings
Testing for “arguments” (obligatory constituents)
- Omission of constituents:
o Dave became ill  Dave became (ungrammatical)
- Change in meaning?
o Dave fell ill  Dave fell (it’s not ungrammatical but we cannot omit “ill”
because it does not have meaning)
o Dave stayed in bed  Dave stayed (ungrammatical)
o Dave kept Sue in bed  Dave kept Sue

3. THE ENGLISH SENTENCE II

SENTENCE VS CLAUSE
- I found her an interesting partner  simple sentence
- Winter had come and snow lay thick on the ground  compound sentence
- Although I admire her reasoning, I reject her conclusions  complex sentence
Clauses are part of a sentence

CLAUSE AND SENTENCE TYPOLOGY

- Hierarchical structure of a sentence:
Word > phrase > clause > sentence
- Types of clauses:
o Independent or main: (I like him)
o Subordinate: (I love (snowboarding in the Alps))
- Types of sentences:
o Simple or complex (I like him or I love snowboarding in the Alps)
o Compound: (I like him and he likes me)
- Sentences can be canonical or non-canonical. If they are canonical, we have
(SV) and some other patterns, for example SVO, SVAdv… A non-canonical
sentence is when there is no order with the clause patterns, for example OSV,
mushrooms I love.
- Structure of canonical sentence: ((subject (NP)) (predicate (VP)))

BASIC VS NON-BASIC SENTENCES

- Polarity (positive vs negative)
o He is very rich (basic)
o He isn’t very rich (non-basic)
- Clause type (declarative vs interrogative and imperative):
o She enjoyed the film (basic)
o Did she enjoy the film? (non-basic)
o Watch the film (non-basic)
- Subordination (main vs subordinate):
o She studies grammar (basic)
 o I think that she studies grammar (non-basic)
o Studying grammar was a great idea (non-basic)
o She is the girl who studies grammar (non-basic)
- Coordination of sentences:
o John washed the car (basic)
o Mary watched TV (basic)
o Compound: john washed the car and Mary watched TV (non-basic)
- Information packaging (passives: active vs passive voice):
o The dog bit me (basic)
o I was bitten by the dog (non-basic)
- Preposing:
o I love mushrooms (basic)
o Mushrooms I love (non-basic)
- Extraposition:
o That I overslept was unfortunate (basic)
o It was unfortunate that I overslept (non-basic)

TYPES OF CLAUSES
- Finite clauses: clauses headed by a primary verb- form, an imperative and a
subjunctive. Main clauses are always finite and subordinate clauses may be
finite or non-finite
- Non-finite clauses: subordinate clauses headed by a gerund-participle, a past
participle or a plain form of the infinitival construction
- Verbless clauses: those which have an omitted verb, typically be. For example:
he talked about the different patients he was treating, many of the mentally ill.

SENTENCE TYPE AND DISCOURSE FUNCTION

- Declarative: SV structure, situational ellipsis: declarative clauses without explicit
subject, though I can be inferred from the context. VS structure: the fronting of
some complement of the predicate provokes S-V inversion, for example up
went the balloon.
- Interrogatives:
o Closed interrogatives clauses: limited range of possible answers. Polar
interrogatives, alternative interrogatives and interrogative tags.
o Open interrogative clauses: open range of possible answers. For
example, Wh- interrogatives
o Polar interrogatives: they open with an auxiliary followed by the subject
and they expect affirmation or negation (are you happy?)
o Alternative interrogatives: they open with an auxiliary followed by the
subject and they present alternatives (in the meeting today, tomorrow,
or next Monday?)
 o Interrogative tags: it consists of an auxiliary and a subject pronoun, the
choice of the auxiliary is given by the preceding declarative clause and
their main function is to elicit confirmation or agreement rather than
eliciting information (we haven’t done anything wrong, have we?)
o Wh-interrogatives: a wh-element is positioned initially and there is
subject-auxiliary inversion (which version did they recommend?)
- Imperatives:
o Positive imperatives: usually they don’t have an overt grammatical
subject. When there is an overt subject, it may be the subject pronoun
you or a 3rd person subject NP (you shut up!, somebody open this door,
parents with two children leave the room). The verb is the plain form.
o 1st person inclusive let-imperatives: overt subject 1st personal plural,
subject in the objective case just after “let” (let’s consider the effect of
such an approach)
o Imperative with empathic “do”: it makes the message more persuasive
or insistent. “do” must appear in initial position and also is possible if
there is no overt subject (do have some tea) and “let’s” is present (do
let’s go for a walk)
o Negative imperatives: “don’t” need to be added in initial position so as
to negate an imperative clause. Replace assertive by non-assertive items
when necessary (don’t ask me anything else but no don’t ask me
nothing else)
- Exclamative: they have an initial phrase (introduced by “what” or “how”). For
example, what a disaster you are! or How wonderfully you dress! They normally
follow an SV order.

THE FOUR MAJOR COMMUNICATE FUNCTIONS

 4. APPROACHES TO CLAUSE ANALYSIS

HEADS AND DEPENDENTS

Dependents can have arguments structured by a subject and complements
(arguments: obj, C…) or non-arguments structured by adjuncts.

ARGUMENTS VS. NON-ARGUMENTS

- Arguments: subcategorized dependents, they are licensed by their head
- Non-arguments: not subcategorized by the head

ARGUMENTS VS. ADJUNCTS

- Arguments:
o Arguments of the verb
o Subcategorized dependents. (Their head selects the number and type of
complements and the head imposes selectional restrictions on its
complements)
o They tend to be obligatory
- Adjuncts:
o Non-arguments of the verb
o Not subcategorized by the head. (They do not select the number and
type of adjuncts and the head does not impose selectional restrictions
on adjuncts)
o They are always optional

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES (form/shape) vs SYNTACTION FUNCTIONS

- Grammatical categories:
o Phrases: NP, VP, AdjP, AdvP, PP
o Clauses: relative Cl, that cl…
- Syntactic functions:
o Subject
o Complements (arguments)
o Adjuncts

5. (CLAUSE STRUCTURE) SYNTACTIC FUNCTIONS: SUBJECTS, OBJECTS,

COMPLEMENTS AND ADJUNCTS

COMPLEMENTS (ARGUMENTS) VS. ADJUNCTS

- Complements/arguments are licensed by the verb. Their occurrence depends
on the type of verb
- Adjuncts: are always optional. They occur independently of the verb
o Her dress was blue because it is her favorite color
 o I met her yesterday
o They still believe you cheated them

ARGUMENTS (SUBJECT)
Traditional grammars provide a semantic definition for subject: subjects = performer of
the action.
the definition fails in:
- She knows him well
- John suffered a heart attack
- My mother was attacked by the neighbor’s dog
The subject of an English clause cannot be identified on the basis of semantic role.

Distinctive syntactic properties of the subject:

- Basic position before the V or VP:
o John loves Mary / Mary loves John
- Case (only pronouns):
o He (nom) loves her (acc)
- Agreement (subjects-verb agreement)
o John (3sng) loves (3sng) Mary
- Subject-auxiliary inversion
o Does John love Mary?

ARGUMENTS (OBJECTS)
Distinctive syntactic properties of objects:
- Prototypical form: NP
- Licensed by the verb and usually obligatory
- Prototypical objects passivise
- Accusative case (pronouns)
- Basic position immediately after the verb
o John broke (a window) object
o John arrived (last week) adjunct

Direct object vs. indirect object:

- John gave (Mary) OI (the books) OD
- John bought (them) OI (come books) OD
The traditional labels directs and indirect are based on the idea that in clauses
describing an action the referent of the OD is apparently more directly involved in
being acted on in the situation than the referent of the OI.
Syntactic differentiation: position, OI precedes OD
- I won’t give (you) OI (anything) OD
- He lent (me) OI (his car) OD
Dative alternation:
Alternation of the OI with prepositional constructions “to” and “for” with most
ditransitive verbs.
- He gave (us) OI (a cake) OD
- He gave (a cake) OD (to us) Oblique
- She’ll cook (you) OI (a good dinner) OD
- She’ll cook (a good dinner) OD (for you) oblique

ARGUMENTS (PREDICATIVE COMPLEMENTS, PC, Cs, Co)

Prototypical forms:
- AdjP: john is happy
- NP: john is a linguist
- PP: john is under the weather
- AdvP: the news was over

Two patterns:
PCs are always directed towards a predicant (subject or object)
- SVCs: they became friends
- SVOCo he painted the house blue
If the PC has the form of an NP then it contrasts directly with an object:
- Monroe was a millionaire
- Monroe married a millionaire
PC can be classified into resultative or depictive depending on the semantic
implications of the verb.
- Depictive PC: describes the state of the predicant argument (subject or object).
No change is implied.
- Resultative PC: describes the result of the event expressed by a verb denoting a
change of state.
Obligatory vs. optional PCs:

Sentences 1 and 3: the omission of the PC results in a change of meaning of the verb
Sentences 2 and 4: the omission of the PC results in an ungrammatical sentence
Sentence 5 and 8: the omission of the PC neither results in a change of meaning of the
verb nor in an ungrammatical sentence

OBLIQUES (prepositional complements/arguments)

- Oblique = argument introduced by a preposition

- Prepositional complements: some grammars distinguish between obliques and
adverbial complements. That is, not all arguments introduced by a preposition
(PP-Compl) are considered to be obliques. In some approaches adverbial
complements (AdvC) aren’t.
- The PP is lexically selected: the head licenses/determines a specific preposition.
The head of the PP is a dummy preposition. For example “(John) depends (on
Mary)” we have the NP (subject), V, and PP (oblique preposition), so the clause
pattern is: SVOprep
- (John) gave (a book) (to Mary), we have NP (subject), V, NP (Od) and PP (Oi,
oblique). The clause pattern is: SVOdOi (Oi, when introduced by a
preposition=oblique)
- Also the by-phrase in passive voice, The wall was painted (by my sister), we
have NP (subject), V, and PP (by, O =oblique)

ADVERBIAL COMPLEMENTS

The PP is semantically selected. The verb determines the role of the PP complement,
the head of the PP is a meaningful preposition. (John) lives (in London), we have NP
(subject), V, PP (location, AdvC oblique). The clause pattern is: SVAdvC

ADJUNCTS

Types of adjuncts (the most frequent categories are):

- Manner, instrument, place, time, duration, frequency, degree, purpose, result,
concession, condition and company

Manner:
- It describes how the process expressed by the VP is performed
 - Realization:
o AdvP (normally a gradable one)
 She departed very hastily (gradable)
 Beat the eggs separately (non-gradable)
o PP (“with”, “without” and “in” + NP
 She carried the baby with great care
 She talked in a spontaneous way
o NP (less frequent)
o Don’t eat that way

Instrument:
- It describes the instrument used to perform the process expressed by the VP
- Realization:
o PP (“with” and “without”, others)
 They ate with their fingers
 She opened the door without the key
 The letter was written by hand
 She worked it all out on her computer

Place:
- It refers to the place where the process expressed by the VP takes place
- Realization:
o PP
 I always have dinner in the kitchen
 Next door they sell jewellery

Time:
- It locates in time the situation described by the verb
- Realization:
o PP (the most common form)
 I spoke to her before the meeting
o NP
 I read your thesis last week
o AdvP
 They finished it recently

Duration:
- It describes the extent in time that the process expressed by the verb takes
- Realization:
o PP
 They stayed there for three weeks
 They built the house in a year
o NP
 We argued about it all weekend
o AdvP
 I will stay in your house temporarily
Frequency:
- It describes the frequency of the process expressed by the VP
- Realization:
o AdvP
 We periodically visit our friends
o NP
 She plays tennis every two days

Degree:
- It refers to the level of intensity of the process expressed by the verb
- Realization:
o AdvP (it’s the prototypical form)
 I absolutely agree with you
 I had modified it slightly
o PP (it’s not so common)
 He had for the most part understood what they said
 I didn’t like it in the least

Purpose:
- It describes the purpose of performing the process expressed by the verb (it
normally entails intention)
- Realization:
o PP (prep+ clausal complement)
 He phoned everybody in order that they may all remember
about the meeting
 He phoned everybody in order to remind them about the
meeting
 He phoned everybody so that they may all remember about the
meeting
 He phoned everybody so as to remind them about the meeting
o PP (prep+NP)
 I did it for fun

Result:
- It describes the result of the process expressed by the verb. It does not imply
intentionality or agentivity
- Realization:
o PP
 They forgot to turn off the light so that / with the result that the
bulb didn’t work when they return home after their summer
holidays

Concession:
- It expresses contrast between two circumstances
- Realization:
o PP
 Though an American citizen, he has never lived in the States
  While the first act was excellent, the second was dull
o AdvP
 The term papers were very brief. Still, they were better than I
expected (conjunct)

Condition:
- It describes the necessary condition so that the process expressed by the verb
becomes true
- Realization:
o PP (if (prototypical head) + clause)
 If you touch that wire, you will get an electric shock
 I won’t pass the subject unless I study harder

Company:
I went to the cinema with my sister

CAA2
3. VERBS WITH PREDICATIVE / RESULTATIVE COMPLEMENTS

HEAD-SHIFT

Resultative:
- He hammered the metal flat
- The door banged shut
- He slammed the door shut
- He scared the passengers stiff
- I laughed myself sick

Resultative of movement:
- V + PP
o They bribed themselves out of the jail
- V + satellite
o This will scare the thieves off
o He bought his partners out

Examples with no objects:

- The little worm crawled up my leg
- The log floated into the cave
- He puffed up the stairs

4. CLAUSE STRUCTURE (position of predicate dependents (predicate=verb))

POSITION OF DEPENDENTS

Core vs non-core complements / arguments

- Core complements:
 o NPs (objects)
o ADJPs (predicative complements: Cs, Co)

- Non-core complements:
o PP (obliques and some Adverbial complements)

Order of complements / arguments

- Head > Core > non-core
o Sam gave the boss his report (SVOO)
o Sam gave his report to the boss (SVOObl)
o Sam gave to the boss his report

Order of adjuncts
- Head > complements / arguments > adjuncts (default)
o Sylvia drove me to the station after the class
o After class Sylvia drove me to the station
- (manner)
o Joe read slowly the book (head > adjunct > core)
o Joe read slowly to their children (head > adjunct > non-core)

MORE AMBIGUOUS SENTENCES

- She put the flowers in the vase in the kitchen
o In the vase which is in the kitchen
o Do it in the kitchen
o The flowers that are in the vase
- She decided on the boat
o When she was on the boat
o She picked up the boat
- She said they would leave last weekend
o Las weekend she said that
o Las weekend is the time when they would leave
- The design has big squares and circles
o Both the squares and circles are big
o Just the squares are big
- The train left the station crowed and dirty
o The train was crowed and dirty
o The station was crowed and dirty

5. THE SYNTAX-SEMANTICS INTERFACE: SEMANTIC ROLES

SYNTACTIC STRUCTURE

The thief killed husband and wife with a gun

- Syntactic function
o Clause structure (SVO (A))
o Clause pattern: SVO
 - Syntactic form (grammatical category)
o Lexical pattern: kill<Subj-NP, Obj-Np>

SEMANTIC STRUCTURE

The specification of the semantic relations that exist between a verb and its
complements.
Semantic relations=semantic roles (we need to specify not only the number of
arguments a verb requires but also their semantic roles).
This will account for semantically ill-formed sentences:
- The pizza ate the boy

Semantic structure:
- Argument structure:
o Kill<Subj-NP-Agent, Obj-NP-Patient> The thief killed husband and wife
with a gun

Semantic roles:
Three levels of generality:
- Verb-specific semantic role
- Thematic relation
- Semantic macroroles

1st level: verb-specific semantic roles:

- (the thief) killed (the couple)
Killer victim

- (Sam) is running
Runner

Being over specific, one would have to identify an individual role for each verb,
basically verb-specific semantic roles such as runner, dancer, listener… but this
prevents us from overserving generalizations among semantic roles.

2nd level: thematic relations:

Generalization across the verb-specific roles  agent, patient…
- (the thief) killed (the couple)
Agent patient
- (Sam) is running
Agent

3rd level: semantic macroroles:

Generalizations across thematic relations  actor, undergoer
- (the thief) killed (the couple)
Actor undergoer

- (Sam) is running
 Actor
Being to general prevents us from observing the differences among semantic roles.

Semantic theoretical considerations:

- theta roles are the formal device for representing syntactic argument structure
(the number and type of arguments required by a particular verb, the verb put
is said to assign 3 theta roles)
o an argument may only bear one theta role
o only arguments bear theta roles
o adjuncts do not bear theta roles
- a noun can bear only one theta role, but can take multiple thematic relations.
“Sean gave David the paper”. Sean bears both “agent” and “source” thematic
relations; but it only bears one theta role, the external “agent” role. One way of
thinking about theta roles is that they are bundles of thematic relations
associated with an argument position
- each argument is assigned a special participant role in relation to the verb.
Roles are not inherent properties of NPs, for instance, but are relational notions
and depend on their occurrence in the context of a given sentence
- the verb controls the range of semantic roles It takes, imposing selection
restrictions on the semantic characteristics of its arguments. There isn’t a one-
to-one relationship between syntactic functions and semantic role: instead,
there are typical matchings: cross-linguistically, languages show a preference for
the grammatical subject being agent or related animate semantic roles,
whereas the object typically is patient or theme

Drawbacks:
- no agreement among linguists on an inventory of semantic roles
- even for the trained linguist, there are considerable difficulties to clearly
identify semantic roles in a specific context. In many cases the proposed
inventory of roles does not seem to be sufficient to capture a specific semantic
relation between a verb and its argument
- overlap of roles (one single argument may have more than one role)

PROPOSED INVENTORY
- agent: animate and volitional initiator of events
- causer: non-volitional entity which is directly involved in the causation of an
action or an event
- patient: entity which is acted upon, affected, or created, or of which a change of
state is predicated
- theme: entity which undergoes a change of location or possession; or whose
location is being specified (or about which something is being predicated). It
has a rather wide application
- experience: animate entity which perceives a stimulus or registers a particular
mental or emotional process or state
- stimulus: object of perception, cognition, or emotion; entity which is seen,
heard, known, remembered, loved, hated…
 - recipient: animate entity which receives or acquires something (a s subtype of
goal applying in the field of possession)
- beneficiary: usually animate; an argument that something is obtained for or
done for
- instrument: inanimate entity used by an agent to perform some action
- location: spatial (and temporal) reference point of the event. The location role
includes the subtypes source, foal and path, which respectively describe the
origin (or beginning-point), destination (or end-point) and pathway of a motion
- state of affairs: situations, events…
- prepositions (props): prepositional content of clauses

RECIPIENT VS BENEFICIARY
- dative shift (NP to NP)
- benefactive: a case of dative shift with for

grammatical differences:
- benefactives are taken to be structurally distinct from the cases with to. PPs
with for are optional while ditransitive to PPs are not
- do so test: do so substitutes for an entire VP
- dative alternation (to):
o many of the verbs (but not all) are verbs of change of possession
o the to preposition is a goal preposition (communicate, describe, donate,
explain, report)
- benefactive alternation (for):
o verbs that can be broadly characterized as either verbs of obtaining or
verbs of creation (in an extended use)
o the for preposition is benefactive (construct, create, design, obtain,
purchase)

6. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS

PASSIVE ALTERNATION
- Pat must have washed the dishes (SVO)
o Was<Subj-Np-Agent, Obj-NP-patient>
- The dishes must have been washed by Pat (SVObl)
o Washed <Subj-NP-patient, Obl-PP-agent>
1. Voice: active to passive
2. Roles: agent, patient
3. Clause pattern: SVO  SVObl

DATIVE ALTERNATION
- Pat gave Sam your phone number (SVOO)
o Give<Subj-NP-Agent, Obj-NP, recipient, Obj-NP-theme>
- Pat gave your phone number to Sam (SVOObl)
o Give<subj-NP-agent, Obj-NP-Theme, Obj-PP-recipient>
1. Roles: recipient, theme
2. Clause pattern: SVOO  SVOObl
ERGATIVE ALTERNATION
- The sun melted the ice (SVO)
- The ice melted (SV)
Clause pattern: SVO (V transitive)  SV (V intransitive)

- Passive alternation: SVO  SVObl

- Dative alternation: SVOO  SVOObl
- Ergative alternation: SVO  SV

7. DATIVE SHIFT AND PASSIVE

(NP V NP NP) / (NP V NP TO NP)

- Active: he gave Susan a book / he gave a book to Susan
- Passive: Susan was given a book / a book was given to Susan

(NP V NP NP)
- Active: he wished me a happy birthday / he wished a happy birthday to me
- Passive: I was wished a happy birthday / a happy birthday was wished to me
- He asked me the way
- The bank refused me a loan
(other verbs: allow, cost, deny, wish, forgive)

Warning:
- Verbs with very similar meanings are not used in the same structures:
o They’ll give some old books to the library
o They’ll give the library some old books

8. MIDDLE TRANISTIVITY ALTERNATION (pseudo-passive/middle construction) vs

ergative alternation
- The subject of the intransitive verb corresponds to the object of the transitive
use:
o Crystal vases shatter easily (middle construction)
o The crystal vase shattered (ergative alternation)
- Middle alternation does not denote an event, it need not have a specific time
reference
- Cristal vases shatter easily
o It always implies an implicit agent
o It often includes an adverbial or modal element
o There is a causing of a change of state
- In the ergative construction the meaning may not be described as passive
(there’s no agent required)
o The window broke
o The ice melted
o The balloon burst
 o Verbs (of change of state or position):
 Break verbs: break, crack, crush, smash, split, tear, burst
 Roll verbs: bounce, drift, drop, move, slide
 Verbs of change of state: abate, age, blur, capsize, condense,
contract, melt
 Color: blacken, tan
- Verbs that display the ergative alternation are found in the middle construction,
but there are a number of verbs found in the middle construction that do not
display the ergative alternation
o Colloquial language translates badly
o Colloquial language translates

9. PASSIVE VERB FORM OR ADJECTIVE? WHERE IS THE FRONTIER?

a) I’m excited
b) We were worried
c) She was frightened

a) I’m excited (by/at the prospect of the trip)

b) We were worried (about/by her silence)
c) She was frightened (of spiders)

1.
a) John and Sue were married by the same priest
b) They are still happily married

2.
a) Her leg was broken while skiing
b) She could not ski that winter because her leg was broken

10. CLAUSAL COMPLEMENTS / ARGUMENTS

- X- complements (X-compl)
- Clause-complements (cl-compl)

X-COMPLEMENT (the Catenative construction)

Catenative complement:
- Non-finite clause functioning as internal complement of a verb
- Simple catenative construction (SVX-compl)
- Complex catenative construction (SVOX-Compl)

SVX-compl and SVOX-compl

1. Bill wanted to visit the doctor

(Bill) subj wanted (to visit the doctor) Xcompl
<Subj X-compl=Subj>

2. Bill wanted Laura to visit the doctor

(Sam) subj wanted (Laura) Obj (to visit the doctor) x-compl
<Subj X-compl=Obj>

- Verbs that subcategorize an X-Comp are examples of Control Verbs

- Control verbs may be classified as:
o Subject-control
 Their syntactic subject is semantically shared
o Object-control
 Their syntactic object is semantically shared

1. Manel tried to escape (tried: subject-control)

2. Manel convinced Sue to escape (convinced: object-control. Sue is syntactically
only the Od of convinced, but semantically both the patient of convinced and
the agent of to escape)

CLAUSE COMPLEMENT

- Internal complements of a verb which have the form of a subordinate clause

- Types:
o That clause:
 I think that you are a liar
o Whether / if clause
 I can’t remember whether/if he went to the cinema
o Wh- clause (open interrogative content clause)
 I don’t understand how they managed to get there
o For clause
 He arranged for her to be interviewed first

- “that” = complementizer / subordinator

- The complementizer is likely to be omitted under certain circumstances:
o In informal style
o With short and common verbs
 I think it’s a good idea vs. this will demonstrate that this is
genuine
o When it is not separated from the verb by another phrase
 They told me that you were out vs they said you were in town

- Contrary to closed interrogative clauses, closed interrogative content clauses

are not marked by the subject-auxiliary inversion
o Did he accept the offer? Vs. I’m unsure whether he accepted the offer
o Will you go to the party? Vs. he asked her if she will go to the party
- And wh-clause (open interrogative content clause)
o Why did you change your mind? Vs I can’t understand why she changed
her mind
- “for” functions as the complementizer/subordinator
- It is non-finite
- It has a syntactic subject in the accusative form
o He arranged for her to be interviewed first