The subject is the topic or theme of the sentence, which tells of what the sentence is about. And it is generally realized by a noun phrase or an equivalent of noun phrases. The predicate says something about the subject and bears the new information which the speaker or writer wants to transmit to the listener or reader.

Linking / Copular verbs: a. current copular verb: describe a state. e.g. be, feel, smell, taste, stay, look, keep, sound, appear


b. resulting copular verb: denote a change of state e.g. become, come, fall, go, get, grow, turn, prove
Lecture 1 Sentence Structure
Teaching Contents

1.1. Clause elements

1.2. Basic clause types and their transformation and expansion



Owing to the various sentence structures in a language, what is described here as sentence structure, sentence elements, or sentence patters is only concerned with the simple sentence or rather with the clause. 1.1. Clause elements The clause or the simple sentence is structurally a sequence of phrases and logically a construction of "subject + predicate". 1) Subject and predicate
A: modifications --- Last Saturday, an old woman worker told the students the bitter story of her childhood. B: coordination and subordination --- Most us were in the hall, the doors had been closed and later comers had to wait outside. --- You can call him what you like, but you won’t make him what he isn’t.
E. SVOC subj. + complex transitive verb + object + complement The relationship between the object and complement can be paraphrased with either “be” or “become”. e.g. She found it cold here. =…that it was cold here. The Airport Operators Council re-elected him president. F. SVA Subj. + V. + Adverbial e.g. I live in Beijing.

2) Two ways of sentence analysis a. subject + predicate: Predicate verb + Object + Complement + Adverbial Nhomakorabea

b. subject + predicate: Operator (the auxiliary or the first auxiliary in a complex verb phrase) + Predication
B. SV subj. + intransitive verb e.g. Iron rusts. Everybody laughs. C. SVO subj. +(mono)transitive verb + object e.g. I want a return ticket.
D. SVOO Double Object / Ditransitive Construction (DOC) subj. + ditransitive verb (give, send, teach, show, tell…) + indirect object (IO) + direct object (DO) e.g. I gave *(John) a book. Someone left (you) this note.


2) Transformation and expansion of basic clause types The basic clause types are all affirmative statements with verbs in the active voice. An affirmative one can be transformed into a negative; a statement into a question; and an active into a passive; all these add varieties to the basic clause types. They can also be expanded into larger grammatical units through adding modifiers.
G. SVOA subj. + transitive verb + object + obligatory adverbial e.g. Put / place a note on my door. The adverbial in the SVOA pattern most typically expresses location. It differs from ordinary locative adverbials in that it does not specify the circumstances of the action ‘placing’, ‘putting’, etc., but rather describes where the referent of the direct object ends up.
e.g. [All the men] [[have done] [their best]].
1.2. Basic clause types and their transformation and expansion 1) Basic clause types A. SVC subj. + linking verb + complement She is in good health. My brother has become an engineer.