Language optimization book summary
Chapter 1
A typical declarative sentence provides information about a situation or
event and may include one or more participants, a process, attributes of
participants, and details about the setting.
The sentence consists of a subject and a predicate. The predicate contains
the predicator > names the process, and its complement. The
complement can be a direct object or a subject attribute. If there is a
direct object, the complement may also include an indirect or benefactive
object or an object attribute.
Additionally, sentences may have one or more adverbials that provide
information about the setting.
People talk for four main reasons, each reason has a different
sentence pattern:
1. Declarative: to inform someone of something (most common)
Example: “John is leaving”
Syntactic characteristic: subject > whole verb
2. Interrogative: to get information from someone
Example: “Is John leaving?”
Syntactic characteristic: part of verb > subject > rest of
verb
3. Imperative: to get someone to do something
Example: “Leave!”
Syntactic characteristic: verb by itself
4. Exclamatory: to express one’s attitude about something
Example: “How sad that John is leaving!” “What a shock that
John is leaving!”
Syntactic characteristic: How.. or What a … followed by
remainder (rest of the words that finish the thought) of
sentence
Almost any linguistic sign (including a typical sentence pattern) may have
more than one sense or communicative function. For sentence types this
means that in the right context, with the right intonation, a given
sentence type may very well be used to express a different
communicative function.
Roles and functions of sentence constituents:
Participants: who is involved?
, First participant (subject, S): the person or thing that
stands out the most (for us humans, that is usually a person
doing something) is named first
Second participant (DO): another thing, person, event, or
situation that stands out in the scene
Third participant (IO): also another thing, person, event, or
situation that stands out in the scene, this usually shows
something being transferred between participants
Attributes: what can be said about these participants (red, pretty,
big, etc.)?
Setting (adverbial, A): how, where, when, why, or under what
conditions the event happens, it includes time, reason, condition,
cause, etc. (yesterday, up high,
for his birthday, when he walked
through the hallway, etc.)
Process (predicator, P):
describes the act, deed, state of
being or becoming that the first
participant is involved in (is
holding, is walking, etc.)
Five prototipical sentence patterns:
Running pattern (intransitive verbs):
subject (S) + predicator (P) + (often) adverbial (A)
Verb examples: Run, swim, talk, cycle, listen, etc.
Intransitive verbs do not take an object or subject attribute
The action involves only one main participant
They may be followed by adverbials of place, time, or manner
The verb; be is intransitive when followed by an adverbial
The action does not pass to an object
Example: [John S] [is running P] [fast A]
Being pattern (copula/lexical verbs): subject (S) + predicator
(P) > subject attribute (SA, only gives info about subject, not
predicator)
, Verb examples: Appear, grow, seem, look, be, make, smell,
sound, become, prove, tastefeel, remain, turn, etc.
Copula verbs take a subject attribute that says something
about the subject
The verb itself doesn’t carry much meaning but works like an
equal sign =
The meaning is to point a link between the first participant
and and an attribute or a category
Some verbs change meaning based on the sentence
Example: [John S] [is P] [fast SA] [as usual A]
(3 subtypes of transitive verbs)
Doing/seeing pattern (mono transitive verbs, first
type): subject (S) + predicator (P) + direct object (DO) (only one
object in the sentence)
Seeing verbs (mental experience) examples: feeling,
hearing, believing, thinking, etc.
Verb examples: holding, counting, building, kicking, etc.
Transitive verbs take a direct object in the sentence
The verb expresses an action or a mental experience involving
two participants: one who acts or experiences (S) and one
who is acted upon or perceived (DO)
Only transitive verbs can be used in passive constructions.
Therefore, all verbs that appear in the passive voice
are transitive by definition
Example: [John S] [kicked P] [the ball DO] [when it was
thrown by Peter A].
Giving/buying pattern (ditransitive verbs, second type):
subject (S) + predicator (P) + indirect object (IO) or benefactive
object (BO) + direct object (DO) (two objects in the sentence)
Verb examples: give, pass, send, tell, make, buy, offer, ask,
etc.
Involves three participants
Indirect object: implies the receiver now has the thing
(e.g., gave the ball)
Benefactive object: means the receiver benefits but may
not have the thing yet (e.g., bought the ball)
Example: [I S] [give P] [the ball DO] [to you IO]. [I S] [bought
P] [the ball DO] [for you BO].
Making/considering pattern (complex transitive verbs, third
type): subject (S) + predicator (P) + direct object (DO) + object
attribute (OA, describing only the DO) (one
object and one object attribute)
, Verb examples, DO belong to new category: make, call,
crown, name, elect, etc.
Verb examples, mental opinion about DO: consider,
assume, prove, declare, certify, regard, deem, etc.
Example: [We S] [made P] [her DO] [president OA]
English has a rigid word order: usually subject > predicator > other
parts/complement
To identify the subject, try turning the sentence into a question; the
subject follows the first verb.
Example: He told me to add honey. Question: Did he tell
me...? (he is the subject)
Adverbial is the only flexible part, which can move around in the
sentence.
One-word adverbial examples: not, always, often > can
appear in different positionss
Adverbial movement example: Last week Michael showed
us how to prepare fruit leather. > Michael showed us how to
prepare fruit leather last week.
Chapter 2
Sentence: a group of words that begins with a capital letter and ends
with a full stop, question mark, or exclamation mark. It expresses a
complete thought with a subject and a predicate.
Clause: also expresses a complete event or situation with a subject
and predicate. (psychology reading: every clause is a thought unit)
When a sentence has only one clause, it’s a simple sentence:
[Whales cannot breathe under water].
[They have lungs instead of gills].
Some sentences have two or more clauses, joined by connectors
such as for or because:
[Whales cannot breathe under water], [for they have lungs instead
of gills].
[Whales cannot breathe under water], [because they have lungs
instead of gills].
Although these two sentences mean nearly the same thing, they differ
grammatically because they use different types of clauses.
Chapter 1
A typical declarative sentence provides information about a situation or
event and may include one or more participants, a process, attributes of
participants, and details about the setting.
The sentence consists of a subject and a predicate. The predicate contains
the predicator > names the process, and its complement. The
complement can be a direct object or a subject attribute. If there is a
direct object, the complement may also include an indirect or benefactive
object or an object attribute.
Additionally, sentences may have one or more adverbials that provide
information about the setting.
People talk for four main reasons, each reason has a different
sentence pattern:
1. Declarative: to inform someone of something (most common)
Example: “John is leaving”
Syntactic characteristic: subject > whole verb
2. Interrogative: to get information from someone
Example: “Is John leaving?”
Syntactic characteristic: part of verb > subject > rest of
verb
3. Imperative: to get someone to do something
Example: “Leave!”
Syntactic characteristic: verb by itself
4. Exclamatory: to express one’s attitude about something
Example: “How sad that John is leaving!” “What a shock that
John is leaving!”
Syntactic characteristic: How.. or What a … followed by
remainder (rest of the words that finish the thought) of
sentence
Almost any linguistic sign (including a typical sentence pattern) may have
more than one sense or communicative function. For sentence types this
means that in the right context, with the right intonation, a given
sentence type may very well be used to express a different
communicative function.
Roles and functions of sentence constituents:
Participants: who is involved?
, First participant (subject, S): the person or thing that
stands out the most (for us humans, that is usually a person
doing something) is named first
Second participant (DO): another thing, person, event, or
situation that stands out in the scene
Third participant (IO): also another thing, person, event, or
situation that stands out in the scene, this usually shows
something being transferred between participants
Attributes: what can be said about these participants (red, pretty,
big, etc.)?
Setting (adverbial, A): how, where, when, why, or under what
conditions the event happens, it includes time, reason, condition,
cause, etc. (yesterday, up high,
for his birthday, when he walked
through the hallway, etc.)
Process (predicator, P):
describes the act, deed, state of
being or becoming that the first
participant is involved in (is
holding, is walking, etc.)
Five prototipical sentence patterns:
Running pattern (intransitive verbs):
subject (S) + predicator (P) + (often) adverbial (A)
Verb examples: Run, swim, talk, cycle, listen, etc.
Intransitive verbs do not take an object or subject attribute
The action involves only one main participant
They may be followed by adverbials of place, time, or manner
The verb; be is intransitive when followed by an adverbial
The action does not pass to an object
Example: [John S] [is running P] [fast A]
Being pattern (copula/lexical verbs): subject (S) + predicator
(P) > subject attribute (SA, only gives info about subject, not
predicator)
, Verb examples: Appear, grow, seem, look, be, make, smell,
sound, become, prove, tastefeel, remain, turn, etc.
Copula verbs take a subject attribute that says something
about the subject
The verb itself doesn’t carry much meaning but works like an
equal sign =
The meaning is to point a link between the first participant
and and an attribute or a category
Some verbs change meaning based on the sentence
Example: [John S] [is P] [fast SA] [as usual A]
(3 subtypes of transitive verbs)
Doing/seeing pattern (mono transitive verbs, first
type): subject (S) + predicator (P) + direct object (DO) (only one
object in the sentence)
Seeing verbs (mental experience) examples: feeling,
hearing, believing, thinking, etc.
Verb examples: holding, counting, building, kicking, etc.
Transitive verbs take a direct object in the sentence
The verb expresses an action or a mental experience involving
two participants: one who acts or experiences (S) and one
who is acted upon or perceived (DO)
Only transitive verbs can be used in passive constructions.
Therefore, all verbs that appear in the passive voice
are transitive by definition
Example: [John S] [kicked P] [the ball DO] [when it was
thrown by Peter A].
Giving/buying pattern (ditransitive verbs, second type):
subject (S) + predicator (P) + indirect object (IO) or benefactive
object (BO) + direct object (DO) (two objects in the sentence)
Verb examples: give, pass, send, tell, make, buy, offer, ask,
etc.
Involves three participants
Indirect object: implies the receiver now has the thing
(e.g., gave the ball)
Benefactive object: means the receiver benefits but may
not have the thing yet (e.g., bought the ball)
Example: [I S] [give P] [the ball DO] [to you IO]. [I S] [bought
P] [the ball DO] [for you BO].
Making/considering pattern (complex transitive verbs, third
type): subject (S) + predicator (P) + direct object (DO) + object
attribute (OA, describing only the DO) (one
object and one object attribute)
, Verb examples, DO belong to new category: make, call,
crown, name, elect, etc.
Verb examples, mental opinion about DO: consider,
assume, prove, declare, certify, regard, deem, etc.
Example: [We S] [made P] [her DO] [president OA]
English has a rigid word order: usually subject > predicator > other
parts/complement
To identify the subject, try turning the sentence into a question; the
subject follows the first verb.
Example: He told me to add honey. Question: Did he tell
me...? (he is the subject)
Adverbial is the only flexible part, which can move around in the
sentence.
One-word adverbial examples: not, always, often > can
appear in different positionss
Adverbial movement example: Last week Michael showed
us how to prepare fruit leather. > Michael showed us how to
prepare fruit leather last week.
Chapter 2
Sentence: a group of words that begins with a capital letter and ends
with a full stop, question mark, or exclamation mark. It expresses a
complete thought with a subject and a predicate.
Clause: also expresses a complete event or situation with a subject
and predicate. (psychology reading: every clause is a thought unit)
When a sentence has only one clause, it’s a simple sentence:
[Whales cannot breathe under water].
[They have lungs instead of gills].
Some sentences have two or more clauses, joined by connectors
such as for or because:
[Whales cannot breathe under water], [for they have lungs instead
of gills].
[Whales cannot breathe under water], [because they have lungs
instead of gills].
Although these two sentences mean nearly the same thing, they differ
grammatically because they use different types of clauses.
