LES 1: The complex sentence
Core verb types used in clause analysis
- Finite verbs are inflected for tense/agreement, for example -s and -ed. These are
typical of main clauses and many subordinate clauses
- Non-finite verbs include:
o The infinitive (to-infinitive)
o The bare infinitive (no to)
o And other non-finite forms
- Participles function like verbal adjectives. They can describe or qualify nouns,
and they are also used with auxiliaries
- Gerunds function like verbal nouns. They can appear in positions normally filled
by noun phrases
- Auxiliary + participle (for example be + -ing) creates the progressive, which is
treated here as a matter of aspect
- Voice contrasts active vs. passive
What makes a sentence “complex”
- A complex sentence is made up of a main clause + 1 or more subordinate
(dependent) clauses
- These subordinate clauses can be finite or non-finite
- Clauses are discussed in terms of hierarchy:
o Superordinate clause: the clause “above” a subordinate clause
o Main clause: the highest clause in the sentence
o Matrix clause: a clause that is higher in a tree diagram, but not necessarily
the main clause (so “matrix” is a structural notion, not always equivalent
to “main”)
Tree diagrams as a technique for syntactic analysis
- A tree diagram is a formal representation of hierarchical relationships between
phrases in a sentence
- A tree is a phrase marker built out of:
o Nodes (points in the tree)
o Labels (that identify constituents)
o And branching relations
- Structural relations between nodes are described with family metaphors:
o A node can dominate nodes below it
o And nodes can be mothers, daughters, and sisters
- A qualifier is any constituent that optionally accompanies a head. The notes
mention typical qualifiers such as:
o Adjective in NPs
, o Modifying adverbs in AdvPs and AdjPs
3 basic sentence types (by clause combination)
1. Simple sentence: 1 clause (sentence = clause)
2. Compound sentence: 2 (or more) clauses at the same structural level through
coordination
o Coordinators include and, but, or
o Coordination can also be asyndetic, for example coordination using only
commas
3. Complex sentence: clauses at different structural levels through subordination
o This requires distinguishing subordinate clauses from their superordinate
clause
Recursion as a property of human language
- Recursion means a structure-building operation can be repeated indefinitely
- This is presented as a defining property of human natural language
- Example pattern: He said that she thought that… (embedding clauses inside
clauses)
Basic “rules” for building complex and compound structures
A) Subordination rules: subordinate clauses fill phrasal slots
- A major idea is that a subordinate clause behaves like a phrase in the larger
clause. Subordination is described as rewriting a phrase category as a clause:
o Nominal clause: a clause can function where an NP would
Rewrite rule: NP S
o Modifier clause: a clause can function where an AdjP would
Rewrite rule: AdjP S
o Adverbial clause: a clause can function where an AdvP would
Rewrite rule: AdvP S
- So, subordinate clauses are treated as occupying syntactic “slots” normally
reserved for phrases
B) Coordination rule: only like categories coordinate
- Coordination follows a schema like: X X1 (Coord) X2, under the condition that
X1 and X2 are the same category
- Examples:
o John and Mary came (NP + NP)
o You can and should do this (VP elements of the same type)
Phrasal complementation and verb subcategorization (valency)
- A central part of the notes is that the function of a phrase helps determine the
category and subcategory of the verb. The notes present 9 verb subcategories,
, largely defined by what complements a verb requires and what syntactic
behaviors those complements allow (especially passivisation)
Important diagnostic used throughout: passivisation
- A key claim: a transitive verb is one that can be passivized
- In passivisation, the object of the active clause can become the subject of the
passive clause
The 9 verb subcategories
1) Intransitive verbs (intr)
o Self-contained verbs can occur without a complement, for example He
drinks (though the notes suggest this tends to require a “specific
meaning” reading)
o The existential there-construction as a transformation:
From something like A noise is … to There’s a noise …
o The word there is questioned and treated as potentially a dummy element
(no semantic content or grammatical function in the usual sense)
2) Copula verbs (cop)
o Copulas are described as linkers that connect the subject to a subject
complement
o Crucially: copulas do not impose syntactic restrictions on the
complement (they are said to have no valency in the same way as other
verbs)
o Possible complement categories after a copula include: NP, AdjP, PrepP,
AdvP
o The complement’s function is subject complement, and it predicates a
property of the subject referent:
She was young. (AdjP)
She was a teacher. (NP)
o A key semantic point: if an NP is a subject complement, it is non-
referential (and the notes say the same is true for PrepP and AdvP subject
complements)
o Primary copula: be
o Secondary copulas include:
Inchoative verbs expressing change of state (The milk went bad)
Verbs of the senses with an external-sensation subject (The fish
smells bad), but not in perception uses like I can smell fish
everywhere
A miscellaneous group such as seem (She seems very helpful)
o The notes also mention linking verbs (a related idea), for example She
married young.
, 3) Monotransitive verbs (mtr)
o Require exactly 1 NP complement, functioning as the direct object (D.O.)
o The notes connect D.O. with a typical semantic role:
Patient (the affected or effected participant)
o Examples:
She drove his car.
She painted a face.
o They warn about pseudo-transitives, where the D.O. rarely passivises:
He had lived a happy life.
4) Ditransitive verbs (dirt)
o Require 2 objects NPs:
Indirect object (I.O.) + direct object (D.O.)
o The I.O. can often alternate with a prepositional indirect object using to or
for, depending on factors like complexity:
He gave flowers to his girlfriend’s mother. (target)
She cooked us a marvellous meal (for us). (beneficiary)
o Because there are 2 objects, there are 2 possible passivisations,
corresponding to different topicalisations:
She was given flowers.
Flowers were given to her.
5) Control verbs (ctr) (new category)
o Take 2 complements:
A direct object and an object complement (O.C.)
o Example: They elected her chairperson.
o The O.C. is described as expressing a resulting situation, similar in some
ways to a subject complement but mediated through the object
o Some O.C.s can be optional, and when omitted the verb behaves like
monotransitive:
They painted the door (red).
o The O.C. slot can be filled by multiple phrase types, including PrepP
They chose her as chairperson.
Zeus turned her into a bear.
He pulled the cap over his ears.
o The notes flag an analysis challenge:
If a D.O. is followed by an AdvP, is that AdvP an O.C., or part of a
phrasal verb?
o They note “fuzzy edges”:
Some AdvPs can behave like O.C.s (They cut the tree down)
Others are inherent to a two-word monotransitive verb (He was
sizing her up)
o A strong warning: object complements are not modifiers
Core verb types used in clause analysis
- Finite verbs are inflected for tense/agreement, for example -s and -ed. These are
typical of main clauses and many subordinate clauses
- Non-finite verbs include:
o The infinitive (to-infinitive)
o The bare infinitive (no to)
o And other non-finite forms
- Participles function like verbal adjectives. They can describe or qualify nouns,
and they are also used with auxiliaries
- Gerunds function like verbal nouns. They can appear in positions normally filled
by noun phrases
- Auxiliary + participle (for example be + -ing) creates the progressive, which is
treated here as a matter of aspect
- Voice contrasts active vs. passive
What makes a sentence “complex”
- A complex sentence is made up of a main clause + 1 or more subordinate
(dependent) clauses
- These subordinate clauses can be finite or non-finite
- Clauses are discussed in terms of hierarchy:
o Superordinate clause: the clause “above” a subordinate clause
o Main clause: the highest clause in the sentence
o Matrix clause: a clause that is higher in a tree diagram, but not necessarily
the main clause (so “matrix” is a structural notion, not always equivalent
to “main”)
Tree diagrams as a technique for syntactic analysis
- A tree diagram is a formal representation of hierarchical relationships between
phrases in a sentence
- A tree is a phrase marker built out of:
o Nodes (points in the tree)
o Labels (that identify constituents)
o And branching relations
- Structural relations between nodes are described with family metaphors:
o A node can dominate nodes below it
o And nodes can be mothers, daughters, and sisters
- A qualifier is any constituent that optionally accompanies a head. The notes
mention typical qualifiers such as:
o Adjective in NPs
, o Modifying adverbs in AdvPs and AdjPs
3 basic sentence types (by clause combination)
1. Simple sentence: 1 clause (sentence = clause)
2. Compound sentence: 2 (or more) clauses at the same structural level through
coordination
o Coordinators include and, but, or
o Coordination can also be asyndetic, for example coordination using only
commas
3. Complex sentence: clauses at different structural levels through subordination
o This requires distinguishing subordinate clauses from their superordinate
clause
Recursion as a property of human language
- Recursion means a structure-building operation can be repeated indefinitely
- This is presented as a defining property of human natural language
- Example pattern: He said that she thought that… (embedding clauses inside
clauses)
Basic “rules” for building complex and compound structures
A) Subordination rules: subordinate clauses fill phrasal slots
- A major idea is that a subordinate clause behaves like a phrase in the larger
clause. Subordination is described as rewriting a phrase category as a clause:
o Nominal clause: a clause can function where an NP would
Rewrite rule: NP S
o Modifier clause: a clause can function where an AdjP would
Rewrite rule: AdjP S
o Adverbial clause: a clause can function where an AdvP would
Rewrite rule: AdvP S
- So, subordinate clauses are treated as occupying syntactic “slots” normally
reserved for phrases
B) Coordination rule: only like categories coordinate
- Coordination follows a schema like: X X1 (Coord) X2, under the condition that
X1 and X2 are the same category
- Examples:
o John and Mary came (NP + NP)
o You can and should do this (VP elements of the same type)
Phrasal complementation and verb subcategorization (valency)
- A central part of the notes is that the function of a phrase helps determine the
category and subcategory of the verb. The notes present 9 verb subcategories,
, largely defined by what complements a verb requires and what syntactic
behaviors those complements allow (especially passivisation)
Important diagnostic used throughout: passivisation
- A key claim: a transitive verb is one that can be passivized
- In passivisation, the object of the active clause can become the subject of the
passive clause
The 9 verb subcategories
1) Intransitive verbs (intr)
o Self-contained verbs can occur without a complement, for example He
drinks (though the notes suggest this tends to require a “specific
meaning” reading)
o The existential there-construction as a transformation:
From something like A noise is … to There’s a noise …
o The word there is questioned and treated as potentially a dummy element
(no semantic content or grammatical function in the usual sense)
2) Copula verbs (cop)
o Copulas are described as linkers that connect the subject to a subject
complement
o Crucially: copulas do not impose syntactic restrictions on the
complement (they are said to have no valency in the same way as other
verbs)
o Possible complement categories after a copula include: NP, AdjP, PrepP,
AdvP
o The complement’s function is subject complement, and it predicates a
property of the subject referent:
She was young. (AdjP)
She was a teacher. (NP)
o A key semantic point: if an NP is a subject complement, it is non-
referential (and the notes say the same is true for PrepP and AdvP subject
complements)
o Primary copula: be
o Secondary copulas include:
Inchoative verbs expressing change of state (The milk went bad)
Verbs of the senses with an external-sensation subject (The fish
smells bad), but not in perception uses like I can smell fish
everywhere
A miscellaneous group such as seem (She seems very helpful)
o The notes also mention linking verbs (a related idea), for example She
married young.
, 3) Monotransitive verbs (mtr)
o Require exactly 1 NP complement, functioning as the direct object (D.O.)
o The notes connect D.O. with a typical semantic role:
Patient (the affected or effected participant)
o Examples:
She drove his car.
She painted a face.
o They warn about pseudo-transitives, where the D.O. rarely passivises:
He had lived a happy life.
4) Ditransitive verbs (dirt)
o Require 2 objects NPs:
Indirect object (I.O.) + direct object (D.O.)
o The I.O. can often alternate with a prepositional indirect object using to or
for, depending on factors like complexity:
He gave flowers to his girlfriend’s mother. (target)
She cooked us a marvellous meal (for us). (beneficiary)
o Because there are 2 objects, there are 2 possible passivisations,
corresponding to different topicalisations:
She was given flowers.
Flowers were given to her.
5) Control verbs (ctr) (new category)
o Take 2 complements:
A direct object and an object complement (O.C.)
o Example: They elected her chairperson.
o The O.C. is described as expressing a resulting situation, similar in some
ways to a subject complement but mediated through the object
o Some O.C.s can be optional, and when omitted the verb behaves like
monotransitive:
They painted the door (red).
o The O.C. slot can be filled by multiple phrase types, including PrepP
They chose her as chairperson.
Zeus turned her into a bear.
He pulled the cap over his ears.
o The notes flag an analysis challenge:
If a D.O. is followed by an AdvP, is that AdvP an O.C., or part of a
phrasal verb?
o They note “fuzzy edges”:
Some AdvPs can behave like O.C.s (They cut the tree down)
Others are inherent to a two-word monotransitive verb (He was
sizing her up)
o A strong warning: object complements are not modifiers
