SYNTAX SUMMARY Major classes Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs

SYNTAX SUMMARY

Major classes Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Parts of speech Minor classes Prepositions Conjunctions Pronouns Determiners, Numerals

Positional Nominal: S, O, C Adjectival: Attribute (Modifier) Verbal: Tenses, aspect, mood, voice Adverbial: Adverb (Modifier)

Noun phrases Premodification Postmodification Identifier, numeral Relative clause quantifier, non-finite clause Adjective Prepositional phrases noun modifier

Verb phrases Tenses: Present simple, past simple, future simple Aspect: Perfect/imperfect Mood: Permission, ability, possibility, advice, etc. Voice: Active and passive

Verbs (vgrp) Sentence patterns Linking Transitive Intensive Monotransitive Ditransitive 1/Monotransitive prepositional verbs: Ex: They talked about her story. 2/Ditransitive prepositional verbs: Ex: The picture reminds me of my country.

Troublesome verbs • Get, go, appear, etc. Ex: He gets to school. (Vi) He gets some food in the supermarket. (Vt) He gets old after the sad news. (Vl)

Adjective phrases Non-finite clause Prepositional phrase Premodifier Postmodifier The doctor treating her works in Dong Nai. The long white Italian dress The tree behind the house The trunk full of clothes

Adverb phrases Non-finite clause Prepositional phrase Arriving in London, they were tired. Broken into pieces, the bowl is priceless. They rested under the tree.

Prepositional phrases Adjective phrase s Adverb phrases The man in front of her (AP) The man stopped in front of her. (Adv. P) Rare cases: Nominal

Clauses Finite Non-finite

Finite clauses 1/Nominal clauses 2/Relative clauses 3/Adverbial clauses 4/Reporting clauses: Reported speech Ex: He said: “I am happy. ” 5/Comment clauses: Ex: She is nice, I think.

Non-finite clauses 1/Prepositional 2/Gerund 3/Present participle 4/Past participle 5/Infinitive 6/Absolute 7/ Verbless clause Conj. + N/Prepositional phrase Ex: Though not a teacher, he works at school. When on the top of the mountain, he could see many things.

Subjects Overt Covert • He came home. • Coming home, he cooked dinner.

Cleft clause It is… that… It is meeting Peter that has changed my life. (= Meeting Peter has changed my life. ) It is my life that meeting Peter has changed. It is in Do Son that he met his wife. (= He met his wife in Do Son. ) It is his wife that he met in Do Son.

Pseudo-cleft clause WH = subject/object What impressed me most was her sincerity. (= Her sincerity impressed me most. ) What he likes is ice-cream. (= He likes ice-cream) Whom Chi Pheo loves is Thi No. (= Chi Pheo loves Thi No)

Embedded clause The fact that he has just heard of is important. The fact that he won a prize is important. A noun clause is also called an embedded clause.

THEORY + A noun phrase in English consists of a nominal head (normally a noun or a pronoun) with or without the modifiers that accompany it, before or after. Pre-modifiers are the words before a noun. Ex: A fine blue china pot. (The underlined words are pre-modifiers). Post-modifiers are the words after a noun. Ex: A pot full of soup. (The underlined words are post-modifiers).

+ A verb phrase in English consists of a Vgrp and all the words and word groups which cluster around it. The Vgrp itself is called the head, and the other words and word groups are the modifiers and/or the complements of the head. Ex: He called her his wife. (The underlined words are a verb phrase) This verb phrase is stated as follows: VP V + NP

+ An adverb phrase in English is a group of words which modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a phrase, a clause or a whole sentence. Ex: He runs ten kilometers a day. The underlined words are an adverb phrase. This group modifies “runs”.

+ An adjective phrase in English is a group of words which modifies a noun. Ex: He found a bag full of gold. The underlined words are an adjective phrase. This group modifies “bag”.

+ A dependent clause is “a clause which must be used with another clause to form a complete grammatical construction. Ex: Who he is is very important. (The underlined clause is a noun clause. It plays the role of the subject in the sentence). That’s the woman who has helped me. (The underlined clause is an adjective clause. It modifies “woman”). He stays home because he is ill. (The underlined clause is an adverb clause. It modifies “stay home”).

The kind of VP in the active voice form. - VP V + NP Ex: Jack bought a book - VP V + NP + PP Ex: They accused him of stealing the bicycle. - VP V + NP Ex: Jack bought me a book.

State the kind of VP in each of the following sentences and then transform it into the passive voice. + She makes some coffee. - VP V + NP - Some coffee is made (by her). + We called him Teo. - VP V + NP - He was called Teo (by us).

TRANSFORMATION Sentence transformation is changing sentence patterns without changing their meanings. You may take a reference to CAI BIEN CAU by Truong Van Anh (735 sentence patterns of transformation). Simple sentence simple sentence Simple sentence compound sentence Simple sentence complex sentence Several simple sentences simple sentence

A sentence may be transformed into nine other structures with the same meaning: The cat ate the rat. The rat was eaten by the cat. It was the cat that ate the rat. It was the rat the cat ate. What the cat did was eating the rat. What the cat did was “ate the rat”. Ate the rat, the cat did. The cat, it ate the rat. It was the rat that was eaten by the cat. It was the cat the rat was eaten by. The cat did eat the rat.

Synthesis is the combination of two or some simple sentences into one sentence: simple, compound or complex. + My friend works in the hospital. He is a doctor. My friend, a doctor, works in the hospital. + The sun set. The fog became thicker. The leader ordered the guerrillas. They secretly crawled to the barracks. At sunset, in the thick fog, the guerrillas obeying the leader's order secretly crawled to the barracks.

Simple sentence Appositive That is her father. His name is Terry Smith. That is her father, Terry Smith. Uncle Ho founded the Vietnamese Communist Party. He is the greatest leader in Vietnam history. Uncle Ho, the greatest leader in Vietnam history, founded the Vietnamese Communist Party.

Simple sentence Present participle phrase The tiger was hungry. It roared. The tiger, being hungry, roared The gangster jumped out of the boat. He swam and dived away. Jumping out of the boat, the gangster swam and dived away.

Simple sentence Past participle phrase He was interested in the film. He did not feel hungry. Interested in the film, he did not feel hungry. The mason was blamed by the host. He stopped working immediately. Blamed by the host, the mason stopped working immediately.

Simple sentence Prepositional phrase She has failed many times. She will take part in the next examination. Despite many failures, she will take part in the next examination. Her father died. She heard the news. She fainted. On hearing the news of her father's death, she fainted. I tell the truth. I am not afraid of ghosts. To tell the truth, I am not afraid of ghosts.

Simple sentence Absolute phrase The boss arrived. The workers stopped to work. The boss having arrived, the workers stopped to work. Teacher entered classroom. Students stopped talking. Teacher entering classroom, students stopped talking.

Complex sentence Absolute phrase When the weather was cold, we used blankets. The weather being cold, we used blankets. When the weather is hot, we use airconditioners. The weather being hot, we use airconditioners.

Simple sentences Simple sentence with adverb She answered the examiner. Her answer was wrong. She answered the examiner wrongly. She read the file. She was very careful. She read the file carefully.

Several simple sentences One Complex sentence with Adjective clause Her father is a doctor. He works in the hospital. You met him yesterday. Her father, whom you met yesterday, is a doctor in a hospital. It was April 30 th, 1975. Vietnamese People’s Army arrived in Saigon and liberated South Vietnam. On April 30 th, 1975 arriving in Saigon, Vietnamese People’s Army liberated South Vietnam.

SAMPLE TEST I. From each of the following sets of data, form one NP composed of premodifiers a. two villas: attractive, flat roofs b. jackets: new, made of leather, on sale at reasonable prices c. school: famous, teaching medicine, in Scotland

II. Explain the ambiguous meaning of the following sentences by means of tree diagram a. They feed her dog biscuits. b. The tourists wanted to visit more interesting places.

III. Complete the sentences with a noun clause, and state the function of the clause you have added 1. The fact that…………. is now generally known. 2. A view widely held by experts was that…………. 3. I wanted to discover…………. 4. Deciding on…………………can be very difficult. 5. That………………. was clear from his subsequent remarks.

IV. Replace that-clause in each of the following sentences by a prepositional phrase without changing the original meaning a. I assure you that I am willing to stand down. b. The young man convinced everyone that he was innocent. c. Did anyone inform you that the plans had been changed?

V. State the kind of VP each of the following sentences has and then transform it into the passive voice. a. Do we owe the milkman anything? b. We regret that we must make this criticism. c. They accused Barlow of a certain crime.

Ambiguity A sentence is considered as structurally ambiguous when its structure permits more than one interpretation. - Same surface structure. - But different deep structures.

Handsome students and teachers. Meaning 1: Students are handsome. Teachers are not described. NP NP Conj NP A N’ N’ N N Handsome students and teachers.

Meaning 2: Both students and teachers are handsome. NP A’ A NP N’ Conj N’ N N Handsome students and teachers.

+ They are reading books. Meaning 1: S NP VP Pro V NP A N’ N They are reading books.

Meaning 2: S NP Pro VP V NP Aux V N They are reading books.

SOME NOTES + Vgrp [monotrans/ditrans/monotrans-prep/ ditrans-prep/complex/intens/intrans] - She gets some food. - Jack gave me a pen. - They talked about the book. - They told me about the book. - We made him angry. - The boy was nice. - The girl is sleeping.

+ Empty [E] It is stated that before a non-fine clause there is an empty element (the hidden subject of the action). [E ] to learn English [E] learning English [E] learn English [E] arrested by the police When [E] in the USA (verbless), he met her.

Þ stands for hidden determiners or complementisers. He took some books/ He took the books. > He took Þ books. They decided that they should write a letter. > They decided Þ [E] to write a letter.

There are many kinds of adverbs. In the sentences, adverbs are often optional. Adv. P = op. Adv of Manner/Location/ Degree/Time, etc. op = optional

S NP VP Pro vgrp NP [monotrans] [Oi] He greets me PP [op. Adv of manner] prep Det N with Þ enthusiasm.

S NP Pro VP vgrp [complex] He allowed Pro [Oi] Inf. P N Inf Det N them [E] to pick Þ guavas.