Grammar and Syntax- A Refresher.

1) Words can be classed as:

 Nouns: boy, dog, London
 Pronouns: he, it, whose, my, those, our, your, that
 Adjectives: yellow, sad, unreal, big, tiny, what
 Verbs: run, spit, have, was, shooting
 Adverbs: quickly, moodily, rather, how
 Prepositions: in, on, between, below, above

Some pronouns, nouns, adverbs and adjectives can function as

determiners (these can also be subdivided into pre, central and post
determiners). Determiners are always a a part of the noun phrase.
He gave me the first three books (a determiner and two post
determiners)

Some adverbs often function as conjunctions (or connectives): they

link together different clauses and sentences.

He gave me the book, although I didn’t want it.

2) Pairs of groups or words make up phrases:

 Noun phrases: The big yellow bus went by. (S)
 Adjectival phrases: The bus is big and yellow. (C)
 Verb phrase (which will indicate tense and mood): The big yellow
bus drove past. (V)
 Prepositional phrases (e.g into the bathroom), which are usually
considered by some linguists as adverb phrases: The big yellow
bus turned into the road. (A)
 Adverbs and adverb phrases (more on this later). The big yellow
bus braked too late. (A)
 Conjunctives: Unfortunately, the bus crashed. (A)

3) Together, words and phrases function as elements in a clause.

What is a clause? It is a grammatical unit with, usually at least a

subject and a finite verb (this is particularly true of declarative
statements). Most clauses are made up of at least these two
elements: there can also be objects, complements and adverbials.

4) Many different kinds of words, phrases and dependent clauses

can function as these elements. Below is a chart to summarize
this:

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Element Can Be….
Subject A Noun, noun phrase, a pronoun( or
occasionally a dependent clause)
Verb Only a verb or a verb phrase. Whether it is a
transitive or intransitive verb will be important
in determining other elements in the clause.
Object Noun phrases, pronouns and some dependent
clauses. An indirect object is an object which is
only indirectly affected by the verb, e.g he
gave the cake to me
Complement(Subject) Usually follows copular verbs
(be/remain/appear/feel/seem etc). Usually an
adjective, adjective phrase or a noun phrase
Complement (Object) Usually follows the direct object. Can be an
adjective, an adjectival phrase, a noun phrase,
a pronoun or a dependent clause.
Adverbial These tell us things about space, time, process
(e.g manner), respect, contingency, modality
and degree. They can also add a comment.
Can be adverb phrases, prepositional phrases,
nouns and noun phrases, and dependent
clauses (when they are called adverbial
clauses)

Remember, many clauses can be analysed in two different ways:

I kicked the ball. Is this S+V+O or S+V+A?

5) The main types of clause are:

 A main clause. It stands on its own as a sentence.
 A subordinate or dependent clause. These always begin with a
conjunction.
 A relative clause. These begin with relative pronouns such as
who or which, and are always linked to a noun or a noun phrase.
 A complement clause. This is a clause which gives information
about the subject, object or the adverbial.
 An adverbial clause. This is always linked to the verb or verb
phrase.
 A comment clause, e.g ‘I think’, ‘I’m glad to say’, ‘What is more’,
‘to put it bluntly’. These often function as adjuncts or disjuncts
(more of this later).

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 The verbless clause, often found in spoken language, advertising
and other modes of written language which rely on informality
and features of grammar.

Some clauses do not have a subject. The main examples are

listed below:

 Directives (or imperatives), as well as some exclamations, oten

omit the subject: ‘Sit down’ or ‘What a mess’.

 With exclamations, and some other types of statement, this is

often a result of ellipsis where part of a sentence is left out
because it would repeat what has been said elsewhere: Mike
took the bus and later caught a train.

 Some adjectival phrases can function as verbless clauses, with

the subject and the verb omitted: I saw his face, dirty and
scratched.

Together, clauses make up sentences:

 A simple sentence has a single main clause.
 A compound sentence has two or more main clauses linked by a
coordinating conjunction (and/but/or).
 A complex sentence has at least one main and one dependent
clause, linked by a subordinating conjunction.
 A compound complex sentence has main and dependent clauses
linked with both subordinating and coordinating conjunctions.

There is also a kind of sentence known as a minor sentence. This

kind of sentence cannot be clearly analysed into a sequence of
clause elements. They are frequently used in everyday spoken
language, and thus appear in written modes which try to represent
spoken language (e.g. literature, advertisements, some kinds of e
language). They include aphorisms (sayings), formulaic
expressions for certain situations (Hello.), interjections (Ugh!)
abbreviations ( Mix well.) and words or phrases which are used as
statements, commands or questions (What?)

In Standard English, there are complex rules about the use of

typographical symbols to separate clauses, phrases, and even some
individual words, in a sentence: the rules are known collectively as
punctuation!!

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The tricky bit of analyzing grammar (words, phrases and clauses) and
syntax (clauses and sentences) is distinguishing between what a word
or unit of words is (its form) and the role it plays (function).

Try the following exercises to help you with this.

The man in the pool fell into the freezing water.

List each individual word in this sentence.

What kind of a sentence is this?

It doesn’t really help much, does it?

What about this?

The man/ in the pool / fell into/ the freezing water.

Noun Phrase/ Adjectival Phrase / Verb Phrase/ Noun Phrase, with premodification

It still doesn’t go very much beyond basic description of the parts.

Now try this:

The man: Noun phrase functions as the subject.

in the pool: An adjectival phrase which post modifies the subject.

fell into: The verb element, simple past tense, declarative mood.

The freezing water: The object element, another noun phrase with

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premodification.

Overall, a simple sentence, written in Standard English, with a fairly

simple lexis and grammar, and which could really come from
anywhere!!

Your Turn:

When I arrived at the station the last train had sadly gone.

6) Pre and Post Modifiers:

Modification can occur in noun phrases, verb phrases, adjectival

phrases and adverbials.

What can act as a pre or post modifier?

Pre modifiers:
An adjective, adjectival phrase, participles and some nouns. What will
they modify?

Post modifiers:
An adverb, an adverbial or an adverbial clause. What can they modify?

A whole dependent clause (think of what a relative clause does for a

noun phrase).

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Your turn again:

The man who had given me the first, rather musty book ran back to
his house, laughing like a madam in the slivery light of the moon.

7) Verbs phrases can be thought about it two very important ways:

 Finite verb phrases indicate contrasts of number, tense, person
and mood: she works/it was moved
 Non finite verb phrases use either the ing participle, the ed
participle or the infinitive form: running away/walked home
This is crucial for making the distinction between a phrase and a
clause.

8) There is also a crucial distinction between transitive and

intransitive verbs:
 Transitive verbs must have an object e.g bring/desire/find/get
 Intransitive verbs can function without an object e.g
fall/go/matter/wait (although that doesn’t mean they won’t
have one!)
 Be careful: some verbs can be used in both ways:
I am expecting a letter. (transitive)
She is expecting. (intransitive)

9) Verbs also have a mood (declarative, interrogative, imperative,

subjunctive) .

10) We can also analyse verbs in terms of the active or the passive
voice.

The wind damaged the fence= Active

The fence was damaged by the wind=Passive

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 In the active construction, we have a subject, a verb and an
Object: the subject is the agent of the action
In the passive the subject is moved to the end of the clause, and
becomes the passive agent. By is added. The object of the active
verb is moved to the front of the clause, and becomes the passive
subject.
The passive voice is a feature of formal written English: it
indicates a high level of formality, and occurs in varieties such as
academic and legal writing. It is usually associated with
informational texts where there is a need for a factual, objective
style.

The agentless passive is used when the writer, or speaker, does

not know or wish to state the cause, or when the cause is too
obvious to be stated.

The fence has been damaged.

11) Adverbials can function in one of four ways: as an adjunct, a

subjunct, a disjunct or a conjunct!

 Adjuncts relate directly to the verb. Eg. He ran quickly.

 Subjuncts play a subordinate role to one of the other clause

elements, or to the clause as a whole. E.g Even Jim left early.
Here, even only refers to Jim!

 Disjuncts are adverbials which play a superior role in a clause,

allowing the speaker to comment on what is inside the clause.
Frankly, I hated the whole thing.
He was, to my surprise, rather late.

 Conjuncts (or conjunctives) link independent grammatical units,

such as clauses, sentences and paragraphs. They are not really
involved in the internal functioning of a clause.

12) Varying the information order in a clause can be done in several

Ways. The aim is to bring attention to the theme of the sentence.

 Fronting involves moving an item to the beginning of a sentence

Which does not usually belong there: Into the sea they dived.

 Inversion involves the subject and the object appearing in

reverse order: Down came the rain. Here’s the postman.

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  Cleft sentences split simple s sentences into two clauses, each
with its own verb. The first clause uses a pronoun and a form of
be, the second begins with a pronoun like that or who: John
kicked the ball into the ground becomes: It was John who kicked
the ball into the ground.
 Extraposition takes place where the subject or object element is
a clause. This clause is moved later in the sentence and its place
is taken by it, which anticipates the clause. Thus, What you say
doesn’t matter becomes: It doesn’t matter what you say.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GRAMMAR AND SYNTAX?

Grammar is a description of the structure of a language, and in

particular of the way in which linguistic units such as words and
phrases combine to produce clauses and sentences.

Syntax means the rules which govern the formation of sentences.

The two key bits of advice are:

Always consider the function of word or phrase.

You won’t get many marks without a detailed consideration of

CRAP.