There are
several words that are used to replace nouns. They are
called pronouns. Pro in Greek means "for" or "in
place of".
Some pronouns
are called personal pronouns because they take the place of specific
names of persons, places, or thing, as in: Has Fred arrived?
Yes, he is here. Here he is the personal pronoun that
replaces Fred. As indicated in the table, there are both subject and
object personal pronouns as well as those that show possession.
In His house is the white and green one, his is a personal
possessive pronoun.
|
Singular
|
Subject
|
Object
|
Possessive
|
|
First person
|
I
|
me
|
my, mine
|
|
Second person
|
you
|
you
|
your, yours
|
|
Third person
|
he, she, it
(one)
|
him, her, it
(one)
|
his, her,
hers, its (one's)
|
|
Plural
|
Subject
|
Object
|
Possessive
|
|
First person
|
we
|
us
|
our, ours
|
|
Second person
|
you
|
you
|
your, yours
|
|
Third person
|
they
|
them
|
their,
theirs*
|
*Some
authorities give my, your, his, her, our,
your and their as possessive adjectives orpronominal
adjectives, as they qualify nouns.
Some personal
pronouns are formed by the addition of -self or -selves as
a suffix: myself, ourselves, yourself, himself, herself,
itself, and themselves.
Some
pronouns - this, that, these, those - refer to particular people or
things: This is mine, and that is yours.
These are demonstrative pronouns. The demonstrative words can also be used
as adjectives: this house, those cars.
Pronouns that
refer to people or things in general are called indefinite pronouns. Like
the demonstrative pronouns, they can be used as adjectives: another day, both
animals, many weeks.
The
words who, whose, whom, that, which, and what are
called relative pronouns. (The word that can be a demonstrative
or a relative pronoun.) They create relative clauses in a sentence: The
committee, which met last night, discussed your report. The
words which met last night form a relative clause that describes the
subject of the main clause, the committee.
Sometimes a
relative pronoun is used as the subject of a question such as Who ate the
pizza? Here it is classed as an interrogative
pronoun. Interrogate means "ask" (questions).
Verbs are
the action words in a statement. They tell what is happening - what a noun is
doing or what is being done to it, or the state of being, becoming, thinking or
feeling. A verb with a subject, which will be in a particular tense is
a finite verb. Without a subject it will be the infinitive form
(for example, to think, to dream) or a gerund (the present
participle, used as a noun: smoking is bad for you).
When a verb
denotes what a noun is doing, the noun is said to be the subject of
the verb:The man speaks. When the verb denotes what is being
done to a noun, the noun is theobject of the verb: The man
eats jelly. The noun jelly is the direct object of the
verb. Verbs can also take indirect objects: Parents give children toys. In
this sentence, toys is the direct object, (what is given)
and children is the indirect object. The parents do not give children
but toys.
Verbs that take
objects are called transitive verbs, and those that normally do not take
an object are intransitive verbs (but note that an intransitive verb
may be used transitively in non-standard speech or writing). Some common
transitive verbs are: tell, give, show, eat, buy, take, and see. Some
verbs can be both transitive and intransitive: Tell a
story(transitive), andTime will tell (intransitive). Verbs
like sleep, walk, rest, come, and go are nearly always
intransitive. The most common verb of all, to be, is intransitive in all
of its forms: am, are, is, was, were, and been.
Tenses (time
signals): Verb tenses tell the time when an action takes place. Any action
or condition may be in the past, present, or future: he was, he is, he
will be. Most common verbs simply add an -ed to show the past
time, or form the past tense, as it is normally called.
Thus walk becomes walked. Other verbs, sometimes
called irregular (or strong) verbs, do not
add -ed. Instead they undergo an internal change: sing, sang,
sung; fly, flew, flown; go, went, gone.
Auxiliary
verbs: In the sentence She will sing even though he cannot
stay, the verbs willand cannot are called auxiliary,
or helper, verbs. Other auxiliary verbs are
the incomplete ormodal verbs: can, could, may, might, shall,
should, and would.
The various
forms of the verb to be can also be used as
auxiliaries: I am going. He wassinging. They have
been shopping. The verb have - and its other
forms has and had - are also common auxiliaries to indicate
past action.
Participles: The
verb form used with auxiliaries is the participle. There is a present
participle, talking, and a past participle, talked. Thus, a person can say
either I talk(present tense) or I am talking (present
continuous) to show present action and I talked(imperfect), I have
talked (perfect), or I had talked (pluperfect) to show past
action. When a present participle is used with an auxiliary verb, the purpose
is to show continuing or ongoing action. She is doing the
laundry. He was speaking when someone interrupted him. Note that this
uses a present participle with a past tense auxiliary verb (was) to indicate
continuous past action.
Verb
flexibility: Verbs and verb forms can be used in a number of ways in
sentences. A verb can be the subject of a statement (To walk is good
exercise) or its object (I like to walk). In each case, the infinitive
form to walk is used as a noun. Participles can be used in the same
way: He likes swimming. Flying is great sport. In the first sentence,
swimming is the object of the verb, and in the second, flying is
the subject.
Verb forms can
also be used as adjectives, or words that describe nouns.
In a wrecked car,the word wrecked is a past participle
used as an adjective.
Occasionally a
verb form or verb phrase can be used as an adverb: He was pleased to meet
her. The phrase to meet her modifies the adjective pleased.
Adjectives and
adverbs are descriptive words, sometimes called modifiers because
they restrict meaning. They add detail to statements. The difference between
the two is that adjectives modify only nouns, pronouns, and verb forms used as
nouns; adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.
Adjective function: An
adjective may be a single word: blue, tall, funny, warm. As a single
word, it may come before the noun - the blue sky - or after
the verb - the sky is blue.Adjectives may be positive (tall), comparative
(taller) or superlative (tallest). Adjective phrases usually follow
the noun they describe: the girl with blond hair. The
phrase with blond hair describes girl. Adjective
clauses also usually follow the noun: The child who finds the most
Easter eggs wins. The clause who finds the most Easter eggs modifies child.
Adverb
function:The most common use of an adverb, of course, is to describe
verbs: He ranquickly. Actually, however, adverbs can modify anything but
nouns or verb forms used as nouns. Typically adverbs express:
- time (now,
then)
- manner (happily,
easily)
- degree (less,
more, very)
- direction and place (there,
up, down)
- affirmation or negation (certainly,
not)
- cause and result (thus,
consequently), and
- qualification or doubt (however,
probably).
Although many
adverbs are formed by adding -ly to adjectives (quick, quickly;
happy, happily), adverbs have no characteristic form. They must be
identified by the function they perform in a sentence. In the
sentence That is a fast car, fast is an adjective. But
in He ranfast, it is an adverb.
Certain adverbs (how,
when, where, why, whenever, and wherever) are
called relative adverbs because they introduce relative clauses in a
sentence: The keys are upstairswhere you left them. The
clause where you left them modifies the adverb upstairs.
Other adverbs
are called conjunctive adverbs because they join one clause with
another. Some of these adverbs are: therefore, accordingly, besides,
furthermore, instead, meanwhile, and nevertheless.In the
sentence He was tired; therefore he stayed home, the
word therefore modifies the clause of which it is a part and connects
that clause to the previous part of the sentence. Note
that therefore is not to be used as a conjunction, hence the
semi-colon.
Conjunctions
are joining words: they connect words, phrases, or entire clauses. There are
two general kinds of conjunctive
words: coordinate and subordinate.
Coordinate
conjunctions join elements that are grammatically the same: two or more
words, two equivalent phrases, or two equivalent clauses. The most common coordinate
conjunctions are: and, but, or, for, nor, so, yet.
- Red and white (two
equal words joined in a phrase).
- Taking
walks and looking at nature (two equal phrases in a
relative clause).
- She ran to
the corner, but she missed the bus (two equal clauses in a
complete sentence).
A correlative
conjunction is a special kind of coordinate conjunction. It connects
equivalent elements, but it works in pairs of words: both,
and; either, or; neither, nor; whether, or; not only, but
also.
- He
wants both money and power.
- Neither money nor power
matters.
- Either she
will go, or she will stay.
Subordinate
conjunctions. While coordinate conjunctions connect equal grammatical
elements, subordinate conjunctions introduce dependent or conditional clauses.
- Although she
has money, she buys few luxuries.
- Because he
was late, he missed the train.
- After the
movie is over, we shall have dinner.
Other word
uses. Words that operate as conjunctions can often be used in other ways:
as adverbs, prepositions, adjectives, or even pronouns.
- We have
met before (before is an adverb).
- Before they
leave, let us have dinner (before is a conjunction).
There are other
words besides conjunctions that serve as connectors (or connectives) in
sentences. The relative pronouns who and which are often so
used.
- That is
the man who was speaking to her.
- The
dessert is strawberries, which give him a rash.
Some of the
conjunctions work both as adverbs and conjunctions in the same sentence. This
is often true of consequently, however,
therefore, and nevertheless.
- He was
ill; nevertheless he went to work.
- She
disliked work; consequently she lost her job.
Note the
semi-colon (;). This is standard here but is non-standard
before but or and. (This appears to be changing, as speakers and
writers treat words like nevertheless as conjunctions.)
It is possible
to make clauses with conjunctions into separate sentences, especially when
writing for literary effect.
- He did
it. And he was glad.
- Stay away
from here. Unless you want trouble.
In the second
case the clause is so obviously dependent that it would not stand alone as a
sentence and make sense. It can only be written that way for emphasis or some
other effect.
Prepositions are
words or groups of words, that introduce phrases; and these phrases modify some
element in a sentence. What follows a preposition is normally a noun, pronoun,
or noun clause. A word that follows a preposition is its object, and, in the
case of pronouns especially, this affects the form of the word.
- He
walked near her (never He walked near she).
- He gave
them to her and me (never He gave them
to she and I or He gave them
toher and I).
One of the
problems in spotting prepositions in a sentence is that many of the words that
are usually prepositions can also be used as adverbs.
- He never saw
them before (here before is an adverb).
- They
sat before the counter (before is a preposition,and
the whole prepositional phrase serves as an adverb, modifying sat).
|
Modern language
scientists have devised other categories of word in relation to syntax, which
you should know. A few of these are explained in the table below.
|
Parts of
speech, or word categories, indicate what words usually do, or may be expected
to do. Some of these categories - such as nouns and pronouns - make sense when
we consider words in isolation. Others - such as conjunctions or prepositions -
only make sense within a longer structure, a phrase,
clause or sentence.
Note that these
three terms are traditional, and do not easily describe how strings of language
work. All are broad categories. The sentence, especially, is much more
characteristic of written than of spoken English, and of formal rather than
informal usage. Alternatively, we may say that spoken English contains sentence
types not usually found in writing.
The internal
grammar of phrases, clauses and sentences refers to the principles (sometimes
mistakenly called “rules”) of structure and organization. Be aware of the tension
between model structures devised for textbooks and guides for learners of the
language, and the syntax of real sentences (those you have found in
speech or writing), which you are subjecting to analysis.
A phrase is
a useful all-purpose name for any short sequence of words (or even a single
word, considered as an element in the structure of a clause or sentence),
especially a grouping which could be replaced by a single word. A phrase which
works like, or equates to, a noun is a noun phrase, one which qualifies a
verb is an adverb phrase and so on.
A clause may
be short or long, but must contain at least one main, finite verb. A short
clause may in fact be identical with a verb phrase: the two terms reflect
differences of emphasis or analysis in regard to the language string in
question. If you are analysing a sentence, you will look first for clauses; if
you wish to see how words have been combined in simple sequences, you will look
for phrases. Phrases are especially important for analysing spoken data, and
some kinds of written text (such as advertisements or information leaflets)
where (written) sentence forms are not considered essential.
The noun
phrase (NP) is the main construction which can be the object,
subject orcomplement of a clause. It must contain a noun or noun-like
word (such as a pronoun) which is the main element, and which is called
the head. It may contain other elements, either before or after the head.
These could include predeterminers, determiners, postdeterminers, premodifiers and postmodifiers.
The examples in the table below show how noun phrases can grow in length, while
their structure remains fairly clear.
|
Noun phrase
structure
|
Verb phrase
|
|||||
|
Predeterminer
|
Determiner
|
Postdeterminer
|
Premodifier
|
Head
|
Postmodifier
|
(not part of
noun phrase)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Buns
|
|
are for sale.
|
|
|
The
|
|
|
buns
|
|
are for sale.
|
|
All
|
the
|
|
currant
|
buns
|
|
are for sale.
|
|
Not quite all
|
the
|
|
currant
|
buns
|
|
are for sale.
|
|
Not quite all
|
the
|
|
hot tasty
currant
|
buns
|
|
are for sale.
|
|
Not quite all
|
the
|
|
hot tasty
currant
|
buns
|
on the table
|
are for sale.
|
|
Not quite all
|
the
|
many
|
hot tasty
currant
|
buns
|
on show on
the table
|
are for sale.
|
|
Not quite all
|
the
|
very many
|
fine hot
tasty currant
|
buns
|
which I
cooked
|
are for sale.
|
These are
usually formed from an intensifier, followed by the head (an
adjective, shown in bold below). Examples include very happy, not
too awkward, and cold enough. They may also be formed from an
adjective and a verb construction, such as easy to please, loath to do it.
These are
intensifying expressions formed from an intensifier (optional),
followed by thehead (an adverb, shown in bold below), followed by
a postmodifier (optional). Examples would
be: terribly slowly, very happily indeed,
exceptionally carefully, completely utterlydangerously,
quite often and very soon.
These are
formed from the head (a preposition, shown in bold in the examples),
followed by a noun phrase. Examples of prepositional phrases
are in the teapot, on the bog, and roundthe bend.
- They may
be called adverbials since their usual function is to qualify a
verb in the same way as an adverb does. You can test this by replacing a
given prepositional phrase with an adverb - for example: Fred
swam in the river and Fred swam swiftly. Both of these
are grammatically standard forms.
- They may
also function as adjectives: the pirate with the wooden leg.
These are
restricted to a small number of constructions, and are sometimes regarded as a
minor type of noun phrase. They are formed from a head (a pronoun, shown in
bold below) with a pre- or postmodifier. Examples would
be: Silly me! You there! she herself, we all,
nearly everyone, and such relative clause types as those who
knew Fred.
These are quite
simple syntactically, although the verb in them may contain important
grammatical information, such as tense, number,
active or passive voice and so on. (All of these are explained
above in the section on word categories). One or more auxiliaries may precede
the head (a verb participle, shown in bold below). Examples would
be: has died, may have gone, might have been listening. You
may be puzzled by the simplicity of these models. Don't be. In order to explain
the more complex function of verbs in the predicates of sentences (what they
say about their subject), we use the structural model of the clause.
In the syntax
of English and other modern European languages, such as Dutch, French, German
or Italian, the two most important structures are almost
certainly clauses andsentences. Please note that:
- the
sentence as we know it, is not found in all languages
- the
sentence is not a necessary structure in natural language
- many
written texts and most spoken data are not organized into regular
sentence forms
Before you look
at descriptions of either structure, you may wonder why they appear together in
the heading above. This is because neither makes sense without the other.
Writers of language textbooks may put either of them ahead of the other,
depending upon whether their structural model builds (or synthesises)
smaller structures into larger ones (“bottom up”) or analyses larger
structures into smaller ones (“top down”). This is explained at the start of
this guide, and briefly again below, under the heading Building or
analysing?This guide places clauses before sentences, in keeping with its
"bottom up" or synthetic approach. You should try to explain the
subject with both synthetic and analytic models.
We can
understand a clause in several ways. Simply it can be seen as a verb and
the words or phrases which cluster round it. Professor Crystal (The Cambridge
Encyclopedia of the English Language, p. 449) describes it as "a
structural unit smaller than a sentence but larger than phrases or words".
The problem here is that in some cases a clause may appear identical with a
sentence or phrase, but the term we use tells us about a different structural
feature. A more difficult explanation to follow is that a clause is a
syntactic unit consisting of a verb, together with its associated subject,
objects or complements and adverbials. Note that the only obligatory
("must have") elements are the subject and theverb (usually, but
not always, in this order). So before you can go further, you need to know
about these different clause elements (parts of the clause).
Clauses and
clauses
You may have
met the term clause in other contexts - it is used to identify short
passages within longer ones (such as paragraphs) in such texts as legal or
parliamentary documents. The writers of these will often construct artificial
sentences which are broken into a series of clauses, so that these can be
named. This allows us to write such things as "Paragraph x , clause y
of the Sale of Goods Act, 1979 protects
consumers." Here clause identifies the unit of syntax (and
its meaning or semantic content) but may not in every case exactly match the
models explained here or in grammatical reference works.
These are well
worth learning about, as you will certainly want to use them to explain the
syntax of language data you are studying in exams or investigations. If you are
not able to describe or identify clause types, it is usually acceptable and
always helpful to consider how these elements work together. You may use them
to explain how sentences work, also. They are:
- subject (S), object (O), verb (V), complement (C), adverbial (A)
- The
subject is a noun or noun phrase, pronoun or subordinate clause.
- The
dog was sick. Fred felt funny. (n)
- Mad dogs
and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. (NP)
- I am
happy. They are jealous. (pn.)
- What she
said is untrue. (sub.clause)
- In this
kind of analysis a series of noun phrases is a single clause element.
- Pronouns
used as subject are in the subject case (I, she, they not me,
her, them)
- The
subject controls singular-plural verb agreement (You go; she goes)
and agreement of reflexive pronoun objects (I injured myself; they
amused themselves)
- A subject
is usually present in a clause, but it may be omitted in non-standard
(especially spoken) structures (Drinks like a fish. Gets here when?) or
imperatives (Listen to this).
- Objects
usually follow the verb. They may be direct or indirect.
- Direct
object: Fred bit his thumb. The chimpanzees groomed each
other.
- Indirect
object: Jane gave the gorilla a kiss. Jane gave a kiss
to the gorilla.(Note that here there is also a direct object
= a kiss)
- Just as
with subjects, they may be nouns, noun phrases, pronouns or subordinate
clauses.
- Just as
subjects are, pronouns are in the appropriate (object) case (me, her,
them).
- As above,
reflexive pronoun objects agree with their subjects (They
amusedthemselves).
- But unlike subject,
the object has no effect on agreement of verb.
Verb
- This is
the central and obligatory element. A
clause must contain at least one verb phrase,
which may be a single verb: Jesus wept. They are
drowning. The cowjumped over the moon.
- The choice
of verb will largely determine what other elements are in the clause.
- The verb
usually has a subject. A transitive verb is one which takes a direct
object. (Strictly this is a tautology since transitive =
"taking a direct object")
- Complement (verb)
means "go with". (Do not confuse with compliment). In
clause syntax, the complement is anything which adds to the
meaning of the subject (subject complement) or object (object complement).
- Subject
complement usually follows the verb. The most common verb for a
subject complement is the verb to be, but some other verb may be
substituted where the meaning of be is expressed. These are
called copular (= linking) verbs or simplycopulas. In the
examples complements are in bold, copular verbs underlined: She isa
doctor. That smells heavenly. The students are
feeling dazed and confused.
- Object
complement usually follows the direct
object: Football makes me very happy. The voters elected
Clinton president of the USA.
- These
clause elements add to or complete the meaning of the verb element. They
may be single adverbs. But they also include nouns, noun or verb
phrases andsubordinate clauses: They ran quickly. He went
home twice nightly. We walked on the playground. My girlfriend
phoned me this morning. I was happy when I saw her again.
- Adverbials
may appear in several positions in the clause, but are most common at the
end: Often I dream. I often dream. I dream often.
- Adverbials
may perform different functions:
- Adding
information: I walked quietly.
- Linking
clauses: The bus was full. However, Fred found a seat.
- Adding a
comment on what is expressed: Quite frankly we disapprove of
violence.
- Some verbs
(like put) must have an adverbial to complete their meaning: Please
putthe gun down. The path runs around the field.
- These are
optional elements used to show the person to whom a sentence is addressed.
They may occur in various positions in the clause. They include names,
titles, evaluative labels, the pronoun you and certain kinds of
clause: John, it's me. It's me, darling.
Hello, Susan, how are you? You daft git, what do
you mean? Honey, I shrank the kids. Come out, whoever
you are. Come in, ladies, and sit down.Madam Speaker,
I will give way.
- Clause
elements combine to form clauses. The number of patterns is small.
According to David Crystal (The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English
Language, p. 221) there are only seven basic types.
- S +
V: I / yawned
- S + V +
O: Fred / opened / the door
- S + V +
C: The dinner / is / ready
- S + V +
A: Dick Whittington / went / to London
- S + V + O
+ O: Romeo / gave / Juliet / a kiss
- S + V + O
+ C: Henry / got / his feet / very wet
- S + V + O
+ A: Sam / put / the bottles / in the cellar
- We can
vary these patterns using directives (such as advising,
instructing or commanding): Turn left at the junction. Help yourself
to a drink. Go to hell! You be quiet.
- We can
also vary the patterns through pro-forms (words which replace
long constructions) and ellipsis (omitting an understood
element).
- Pro-forms: I've
got a lovely cold drink and you've got one as
well. (Here one is the pro-form, understood to mean a
lovely cold drink.)
- Ellipsis: I'd
like to drink some tea, but I won't. (Here drink some
tea is understood to follow but I won't.)
Building or
analysing?
These are
contrasting ways of organizing the same theoretical model. We may
eitheranalyse long structures (and find the smaller elements in them) or
think of how smaller elements are combined to form longer structures.
The second approach has been seen as akin to what really happens in speech and
writing (phrase structure grammar). Noam Chomsky argues that real language
users start with longer structures and alter these by means of transformations (transformational
grammar). For example, a model or paradigm with an active verb is
changed by a transformational rule into a structure with a passiveverb.
To understand
the contrast in these approaches, see the table at the start of this guide to
structure. The two approaches are shown in simple form below:
- "Bottom
up"/synthetic
model: morpheme è word è phrase èclause è sentence
- "Top
down"/analytic
model: sentence è clause è phrase è word è morpheme
Coordinate
clauses
The simplest
sentences may contain a single clause. (Simple is a standard
description of one kind of sentence.) Where a sentence contains more than one
clause, these may be considered of equal grammatical importance. If
this is so, these are coordinate clauses. They are joined by
a coordinating conjunction, such as and or but. (Some
grammarians call the first clause of the sentence the main clause, and the
others coordinate clauses). Here are some examples. Apart from the conjunctions
(or, so and and, everything else is a main/coordinate clause):
- You can
travel by tube, you can drive or you can take the train.
- The
weather was hot, so I went on my bike.
- Lucy
opened her window, and in came Count Dracula.
Subordinate
clauses
Sometimes the
clauses are placed in a hierarchy: the more important ones are main
clauses, while the less important are subordinate clauses. A main or
coordinate clause could stand on its own as a sentence, but a subordinate
clause works only within a sentence. A subordinate clause can
do the job of other clause elements. It can work assubject, object,
complement and adverbial, as in these examples:
- Subordinate
subject clause: What you say is stupid.
Clause as
subject = What you say; main clause = X is stupid, verb = is
- Subordinate
object clause: I did not know that you were here.
Clause as
object = that you were here; main clause = I did not know X; verb
= did not know
- Subordinate
complement clause: Your first job is learning this grammar.
Clause as
complement = learning this grammar; main clause = Your first job is
X; verb = is
- Subordinate
adverbial clause: Come round when you're ready.
Clause as
adverbial = when you're ready; main clause = Come round (X); verb
=Come
Clauses that
function as subject, object or complement replace noun phrases,
so they are called nominal clauses. Those that function
as adverbs/adjectives are adverbial/adjectival clauses.
Some other
kinds of nominal clauses are shown below. For clarity, they are all shown in
object position. This is not the only place where they may occur, but is the
most common.
- That clause: I
think (that) you know each other. (That may be omitted if
understood.)
- Wh- clause: I
know what you did last summer. (Clause introduced
by who, when, what, why, whether.)
- -ing clause: I
don't recall seeing her there. (Clause introduced by present
participle.)
- inf.
clause: I wish to confess to my crimes. (Clause
introduced by to + infinitive.)
Adverbial
clauses
These are
introduced by a subordinating conjunction, which explains the adverbial
meaning of the clause. These
include when/before/after/while (time); because/since (reason);if/unless/lest (condition),
as in these examples:
- When the
bell sounds, you may leave the room.
- We cannot
send you the goods, because we are out of stock.
- Unless you
are good, Father Christmas will bring you nothing.
Two minor types
of adverbial clause are inf. and -ing clauses.
- Inf.
clause: I went to the shop to buy some bread. (Clause
introduced by to + infinitive.)
- -ing clause: Jane
broke her arm while fighting. (Clause introduced by present
participle.)
Adjectival
clauses
A familiar type
is the relative clause, introduced by a relative pronoun (who,
whom, whose, that, which), as in these examples:
- Here is
the woman (whom) I married.
- This is
the book (which) I am reading.
- The drink
(that) I most like is orange juice.
The relative
pronouns are in brackets, as they may be omitted if understood.
Two minor types
of adjectival clause are -ing and -ed clauses.
- -ing clause: The
train now standing at platform four is the 5.30 to Leeds.
- -ed clause: She
is the celebrity pursued by the press.
Since past
participles do not all end in -ed we may find other verb forms in
such clauses:The tea drunk by the students or the
exam taken by the pupils.
Clause elements
may be single words of the appropriate category, they may
be phrases or even some kinds of subordinate clause. Explaining
even simple structures is difficult. Verbal explanations are less easy to make
than diagrams. These work best when there is a hierarchical level,
as sentences are analysed into clauses, which are further
analysed into (more clauses and) phrases, which are analysed
into words, which are analysed intomorphemes.
In an exam, you
are very unlikely to be required to analyse long sequences. Use clause
analysis (or phrase analysis) selectively, to establish some point about
language acquisition (learning to make or understand structures), about
language and society (how structures embody social attitudes to language),
language change (how structures or paradigms change over time) or stylistics
(how structures embody style).
