Functional Syntax - Overview

7/24/2019 Functional Syntax - Overview

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/functional-syntax-overview 1/9

1

Functional Syntax – Overview

Term function refers to a role word may assume in a phrase, clause or sentence i.e. subject, predicate,

direct object, etc. Term form refers to word classes i.e. parts of speech, phrases and clauses and includes

categories such as nouns, noun phrases, verbs, adjective clauses, etc.

Constructions

- Can be divided according to level (phrases, clauses, sentences) and according to type

(endocentric, exocentric).

hrases

Phrase is a construction that functions in the structure of a clause. !n phrase we have "ead (obligatory

element) and optional elements.

#oun hrase

an interesting film on T$ (determiner % modifier % head % &')

eterminers

- *rticles a, an, the

- emonstrative adjectives this, that, those, former, latter, such

- !ndefinite adjectives all, some, several, any, no, much, many, (a) few, (a) little, enough, etc.

- #umbers two, three, etc.- istrubitive adjectives each, every, either, neither, both

- !nterrogative adjectives which, what, whose

- ossessive adjectives my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their

- ossessive case +ohns, old ladys

hen there are two determiners, the first one is called a predeterminer.

redeterminer eterminer "ead

all (of) my sisters

none of the answers

each of those boo/s

most of our water

0odifers

- escriptive *djectives- #ouns- *djective hrases

1 &ualifier is a prepositional phrase here.

2 All sisters 1 all would be also quantifier. !n whole this phrase we have 2uantifier % determiner % head. *lso, in the example

the ten officers, ten is also called enumerator.



2

- #oun hrases

*s for postmodifers, the examples show that they can be either prepositional phrases ( on the shelf , from

London) or relative clauses (that I like to read ).

&ualifier

- repositional hrase

- Clause

!n addition to an adjective, noun can be modified by another noun (army officers). *part from a single

noun, a head can also be a coordinate noun phrase (boys and girls).

*djective hrase

- eterminer the

- 0odifier *dverbs (very, most)

- "ead *djective (interesting)

- &ualifier *dverb3 (enough, indeed)

*dverbial hrase

- 0odifier *dverb (pretty)

- "ead *dverb (fast)

- &ualifier *dverb (indeed)

repositional hrase

rep % #oun 1 in 4ondon

rep % ronun 1 with me

rep % # 1 in the morning

rep % Cl 1 of what was to happen

$erb hrase

$tr !5 5 *0 $tr !5 5

! gave him a boo/ (yesterday). ! have given him a boo/.

$intr 5 $intr 5

! am reading a good boo/. ! am wal/ing the dog.

$intr *0 $c red

! wal/ every day. ! am (have been) in the par/.

* complement is a syntactic function that can be fulfilled by a nominal element (a noun, noun phrase or

noun clause) or an adjectival element (an adjective or adjective phrase). Complements occur after

particular verbs (intensive) such as be, seem, become, appear Sofia is a teacher 6 Sam became a doctor 6

3 *dverb functions here as an intensifier.



3

Carlos became very angry. 5ther verbs that are followed by complements are verbs of change, such as

ma/e, paint, rub and verbs of perception such as thin/ and consider. These verbs have objects (bold) as

well as complements (underlined) Mary made me successful 6 Sam’s training made him a doctor .

The complement cannot be made the subject of a passive sentence, though the indirect object can

* tennis player was made me by mother.

* cup of coffee was made for me by my mother.

!n 7nglish there are five general types of complementation intransitive complementation,

monotransitive complementation, ditransitive complementation, complex-transitive

complementation4, copular complementation.

Common copulative verbs are appear, become, come, fall, feel, get, go, happen, /eep, prove, remain,

run, seem, sit, sound, stand, stay, taste, turn (out) etc.

8ome verbs are complete in themselves and re2uire no complementation ( She died last week.) (they are

used as intransitive verbs), others re2uire sinle complementation ( I hate hospitals.) or dualcomplementation (She gave me her number.) and are used as transitive verbs.

Predicate (red) is everything but subject. !ts always at least one $.

The predicator () is the only place in the clause where form and function map onto each other one-to-

one (head in a $). *lthough verb phrases usually function as predicators it is worth noting that some

parts of the verb ta/e on noun or adjective-li/e functions at time er playing !was sublime". !t normally

follows the subject #he lorry braked hard . hen the predicator occurs in non-finite subordinate clauses

with no subject, it will be the first element in the clause or follow a subordinating conjuction After being

$uestioned so aggressively !the man collapsed".

The final clause element in 7nglish is the adverbial. The important difference between the adverbial

function and adverb forms, as with all clause elements, is that a number of different forms fulfil the

function of an adverbial clause element, and not all of them are based on adverbs. !n addition noun

phrases, particularly when they refer to moments or periods in time, can function in this way

The train pulled away from the station very slowly (adverb phrase).

!n a moment, ! shall pour you a cup of tea. (prepositional phrase).

7very day of my life ! practice for four hours (noun phrase).9

Clauses

4 Complex-transitive verbs are verbs that are followed by direct object and object complement. The most common verbs of this

class are appoint, call, consider, declare, drive, elect, feel, find, get, have, hear, help, hold, /eep, leave, let, li/e, ma/e, notice,

prefer, pronounce, rate, see, send, thin/, turn, vote, watch etc.

5 They all describe the circumstances in which the action or process of the clause ta/es place.



4

Clause is group of words that consists of subject and verb, but it doesnt necessarily have to ma/e a

complete sense. !t can be main or subordinate, depending on its position in the sentence.

#on-clauses according to Carter and 0c0arthy

the green sofa (#)

in the garden (rep)

"ello (greeting formula)

hopefully (adverb)

*djective clauses

!t 2ualifies nouns, and it is generally introduced by a relative pronoun which, who, whose, that etc. They

can be defining or non-defining.

'. efining adjective clauses The students who answered the 2uestion : was +ohn.

. #on-defining adjective clauses ;ernard 8haw, who wrote St %oan,<

died in '=9>.

#oun clauses

*lso called nominal or complement clause is one which does the wor/ of a noun. !t may be

'. The object of a sentence ! forgot to as/ how long it would ta/e.?

The noun clase, i.e. the object clause, may be

a) * direct or indirect statement "e told me that the debt had been paid.

b) * direct or indirect 2uestion "e as/ed me where ! lived.

. The subject of a sentence (always precedes a verb) hat you are doing= seems very difficult.

3. * part of a prepositional phrase "e only laughed at what we said.@. redicative (after $c) That is not what ! want.

*dverbial clauses

They do the wor/ of adverbs, they function as *0 in sentences.

'. *dverbial clauses of manner ("owA6 introduced by as, as if '>, as though) "e ran as if his life depended on

it.

. *dverbial clauses of place (hereA6 introduced by where, whenever) 8tay where you are.

6 !f this part is left out of the sentence does not ma/e complete sense.

7 !n these sentences the adjective clause could be omitted and the rest of the sentence would still ma/e a perfect sense.

8 e could replace the underlined clause with any noun phrase and the sentence is still complete.

9 8ubject noun clause always precedes the verb. The verb is usually the verb to be or another verb of incomplete predication.



5

3. *dverbial clauses of time (henA6 introduced by when, while, after, until, since, as soon as) ! learnt a lot

of Brench while ! was in aris.

@. *dverbial clauses of reason (hyA6 introduced by because, since, now that, it iswas only becauseD that)

"e sold the car because it was too small.9. *dverbial clauses of concession (introduced by though, even though, whatever) "owever difficult it was,

we managed to do it.

:. *dverbial clauses of comparison (introduced by asDas, soD, than) This wor/ is not so easy as you thin/.

<. *dverbial clauses of condition (introduced by if, unless, provided) ! will go as long as he as/s me.?. *dverbial clauses of result (introduced by so that) ! received my wages yesterday, so that ! can now pay

what ! owe you.

=. *dverbial clauses of purpose (introduced by so that, in order that, for fear that) They came in time so that

they wouldnt miss the train.'>. *dverbial clauses of contrast (introduced by whereas, while) "e li/es fried rice, while ! prefer boiled.

''. *dverbial clauses expressing comment ( introduced by as you /now, ! believe, ! suppose) ! could ring him,

! suppose.

0ain and subordinate clauses

!ain clauses are not dependent on any other clause in the sentence and a sentence must have at least one

main clause ! went to spea/ to them6 !f ! went down there, ! could use the computer.

The following consist of subordinate clause, which need to be accompanied by a main clause in order to

form a sentence before ! went6 which arrived yesterday

*ccording to Carter and 0cCarthy, these examples are non-sentences they are constructions without

main clause, and they cannot form a sentence.

"mbedded clauses are dependent clauses which function as constituents of phrases. They are most

typically relative clauses, but may also be adverbial clauses, nominal clauses or comparative clauses. !n

the sentence #wo people I know have gone there, the clause I know modifies the noun people, and is a

constituent of the subject noun phrase.

Coordination and subordination are two principal ways in which clauses are combined to form

sentences.

Coordinated clauses are clauses which have the same syntactic status. Coordination most typically

involves conjuctions and , but and or %im brought me here and &hil’s taking me home. !n addition to this,

there also eitherD or, not onlyDbutD 'ither she could come down here or I could go there.

Coordination may also occur without the explicit lin/ created by a conjuction. This is particularly true in

literary style or for special effect in narrative texts.

Coordination may involve more than two clauses, especially in informal spo/en language. This is called

multiple coordination I’ll be driving off down to (rance and I’ll try and ring again but remember I’ll be in my car most of the day. *lso, it is e2ually possible to consider coordination at the word and phrase

level a) words me or you6 up and down6 b) phrases good boo/ but bad film6 very pretty and very clever

10 Simple subordinators are single words which introduce subordinate clauses after , how, if) in case, in order that , whom,

unless. Enli/e them, complex subordinators consist of more than one word and include common expressions ending in as and

that (or optional that ), plus a small number of other expressions as far as, considering , such that , supposing !that".



6

Subordinate clauses are typically introduced by a class of words /nown as subordinators (as, if , since,

when). !n addition to a subordinator, a subordinate clause may be introduced by using a non-finite verb

form to create a non-finite subordinate clause I’ll call you when I get home (subordinate clause

introduced by subordinator when)6 Looking at it now ) I don’t think it’s such a good idea after all (non-

finite subordinate clause introduced by the participle looking ). * subordinate clause may also be

dependent on another subordinate clause 8he wor/ed there for some time, although, as she herself hastold you , she was not happy in her job.

#ot at least important, we need to mention sentential relative clauses. They comment on a whole

previous sentence or series of clauses, or a spea/er turn, or a longer stretch of discourse. They are always

introduced by which. Their most fre2uent function in informal language is to express evaluation

e’s always in the office and then he complains about not having any time off

and how wonderful he is to the company) which is his own fault.

#ow, loo/ at this example

&uic/ly and resolutely, he strode into the ban/.

This type of coordination, with a coordinator present, is called syndetic coordination. "owever,

coordination can also occur without the presence of a coordinator

(&uic/ly), (resolutely), he strode into the ban/.

#o coordinator is present here, but the conjoins are still coordinated. This is /nown as asyndetic

coordination.

4et us now consider some examples of phrasal coordination. *ll phrases can be joined by conjunctions,

but there we shall loo/ at the verb phrase as predicator, to see how it operates

0y children were running and jumping for sheer joy.

The audience were crying but laughing at the same time.

*thletes were training or resting according to their schedule.

*lthough these are examples of phrasal coordination, in each case the second phrase has the auxiliary

verb (were) missing through ellipsis, which is the deletion of entirely predictable elements of structure. *s

with the coordination of words, these examples provide mutually supportive notions ( running and

*umping ), apparently contradictory but concurrent processes (crying but laughing ), and mutually

exclusive processes (training or resting ) respectively. !t is important to note that the role of a coordinated

structure is exactly the same as it would be for a single item performing the same function.

There are at least two methods of pic/ing out one clause element and placing it in a focal position,

thereby downgrading the importance, in information terms, of the remainder of the clause. 5ne of these

methods is /nown as frontin, and as its name implies it simply re2uires the focal clause element to be

put at the beginning of the clause. !n 7nglish there are two /ommon /inds of fronting, which is also

/nown as inversion the first is when the subject and predicator elements are put in reverse order, and in

the second the subject and first auxiliary elements are reversed



7

ere’s the hotel.

ardly had I arrived !before +"

The other method of focusing on the information in a clause element is to create what is /nown as a cleft

sentence. This involves using a fairly information-light frame, such as It was + that +, and then slotting

the re2uired clause element into the focal point after the verb. The remainder of the basic clause ends upin a relative clause (beginning with that ) and its importance is accordingly lessened.

This sentence has all five clause elements, as follows

#he ,ritish electorate (subject) voted (predicator) #ony ,lair (object) prime

minister (complement) in -/ (adverbial).

!f we ta/e each element in turn, we find out that with exception of the predicator we can put any of them

into the focal position in the cleft sentence frame

It was the ,ritish electorate that elected #ony ,lair prime minister in -/.

It was #ony ,lair that the ,ritish electorate voted prime minister in -/.

It was prime minister that the ,ritish electorate voted #ony ,lair in -/.

It was in -/ that the ,ritish electorate voted #ony ,lair prime minister.

;asic clause structure Central and peripheral elements

The verb is the most central element in the clause as it tends to determine what else must or may occur in

the clause. #ext in importance come the subject and object or predicative complement, which express the

relationship between participants and the process expressed by the verb. Central elements have a

relatively fixed word order in 7nglish. Enli/e them, objects and predicative complements have slightly

more flexibility and occasionally occur in untypical positions for reasons of emphasis (0ell) rich theymay be) but I’m not sure they’re happy.)

#d$uncts are normally regarded as peripheral elements in the clause6 they are always optional, and they

do not determine what else must occur in the clause. They may occur in a variety of positions in the

clause, either front ( In the summer , Above), mid position (often, above) or end position (every day, in a

big way). They modify the verb or the clause but, unli/e complements, they do not complete the meaning

of the verb and are not re2uired elements.

8ometimes, especially in informal spo/en language, elements occur which are not contained within the

clause structure. !tems may occasionally occur before or after the clause for emphasis and be repeated in

some form within the clause (most typically by a pronoun)

%oe) I’ve known him for years.

Pramatic mar%ers are also normally considered to be outside of the clause structure. These include

discourse mar/ers (words and phrases indicating boundaries in the discourse or words that monitor the

state of the discourse in some way), stance mar/ers (words and phrases indicating a stance or attitude to a

segment or section of discourse) and interjections.



8

0ell) what are you going to do with it1 (discourse mar/er)

#o be honest) I don’t think I’ll go this year. (stance mar/er)

2osh) that’s very cheap. (interjection)

$ocatives are also considered to be outside of the clause structure.

8entence

Sentence is an independent construction, or an independent language form. * sentence contains one or

more predications (subject % predicate). *lso, a sentence consists of one or more clauses and each of them

has its own subject and predicate.

Simple sentence is a group of words that contains a finite verb and ma/es complete sense. !t contains

only one predication. !n following examples it is underlined (They left6 * very interesting novel was

lying on the top shelf of an old boo/case.)

Complex sentence consists of a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses. The clauses aretherefore in the subordination relation. The main clause is much nearer being complete in itself, while the

subordinate clause ma/es complete sense only when it is with the main clause ! will come if you invite

me6 ! cannot do that for you since ! have no idea how to do that.

Compound sentence consists of two or more clauses that have a complete meaning onto each and that

are joined by one of the coordinating conjunctions (and, or, but). These clauses are therefore in the

coordination relation

!m standing and youre sitting.

;ring your boo/ here and open it at page four, but dont begin reading.

!t is also possible to find combinations of a complex sentence plus a simple sentence

8ince she didnt want to come with us, we decided to stay at home but she objected to that.

The above mentioned three types of sentences are called major sentence types.

0inor sentence types

They do not conform to the subject % predicate rule, but are still considered sentences as they express a

full meaning. These are

'. 8entences without subject Fo awayG

. $ocatives eterG3. *phorisms8ayings The sooner the better.

@. Bragments 0y FodG

The main part of each sentence is a finite verb.

There is another division of sentences into

'. declarative (which can be positive or negative)



9

. interrogative

3. imperative

@. exclamatory

&ord order is very important in 7nglish. e call 7nglish an 8$5 language (subject % verb % object).

Conruence (concord) is a formal agreement of the elements of a sentence (number, gender, person,tenseD). Bor example

- number this boo/ and these boo/s

- gender +ohn saw his friends6 +ane saw her friends

- person ! spea/"e spea/s

- tense "e said he would come.

"lipsis is omitting elements of a sentence in order to avoid repetition

- "ave you spo/en to herA- Hes, ! have (spo/en to her).

Functional Syntax - Overview

Documents

Transcript of Functional Syntax - Overview