Lecture 3a Clause functions

1. Lecture 3aClause functions Adapted from Mary Laughren

2. Sentences and Clauses

3. Phrase structure rules (1) S  NP VP (2) NP  (Detv) (AdjP)* N (3) AdjP  (AdvP) Adj (4) VP  V (NP) (NP) (PP)* (5) PP  P (NP/PP)

4. Complex Sentence S VP NP CP V COMP (SUB) S I know that the tall librarian put the book on that shelf Upper S = sentence Lower S = clause

5. Complex Sentence S S S Conj The tall librarian put the book on AND the short one removed it the shelf Upper S corresponds to a sentence Lower S corresponds to a clause

6. The status of VP in English S  NP + VP (as in (1)) VP  V (NP) (NP) (PP)* (as in (4)) Tests for phrasehood of VP: • Substitution  • Clefting  • Movement 

7. (8)a. The tall librarian put the book on the shelf, and so did John. The tall librarian put the book on the shelf, and John did so too. b. *It wasput that book on the shelfthat the tall librarian _____. c. (I told the tall librarian to put that book on the shelf, and) *put that book on the shelf the tall librarian ___.

8. (9)a. (I told the tall librarian to put that book on the shelf, and) put that book on the shelf the tall librarian did ___. b. ... the tall librarian didput that book on the shelf.

9. (10) a. (She denies that) she puts all the linguistics books in the bin, but put them in the bin she does. b. *puts them in the bin she ___. c. She doesput all the linguistics books in the bin. d. * She doesputs all the linguistics books in the bin.

10. (11) a. The bowler took a great catch. b. *Took a great catch the bowler ___. c. (...and) take a great catch the bowler did ___. d. The bowler didtake a great catch. e. *The bowler did took a great catch. so

11. puts/takes put/take does so put/took put/take did so

12. puts put present PUT past PUT took takes past TAKE present TAKE

13. Revised S S NP AUX VP TENSE The tall librarian does/did put that book on….. ---------- puts/put that book on.. The bowler does/did take a great catch ----------- takes/took a great catch

14. Revised S S NP AUX VP TENSE The tall librarian does/didso (16a) ---------- *so (16b) The bowler does/didso ----------- *so

15. What about the cleft test? (20) a. ?It was take a great catch that he did ____. b. *It was took a great catch that he ____.

16. Functions in the Clause S  NP AUX VP SubjectTensePredicate Mary PAST cleaned her teeth. John PRESENT eats his dinner. The baby does drink milk PRESENT

17. Subjects • Typically filled by NP • The baby ate the lasagne • Can also be filled by PP • Under the bed seems the safest. • Or by a clause • That John left surprised me

18. Predicates • Typically filled by VP • The baby does drink milk. • Can also be filled by AdjP • The baby is extremely happy. • Or by an NP • John is a good doctor. • Or by a PP • John was in the house.

19. Traditional definitions of Subject • “the performer of the action” The boy bit the dog. The boy felt sick. The boy is an Australian. The boy was bitten by the dog. • How do these sentences challenge the traditional definition that the subject is the “performer of the action”? AGENT

20. “what the sentence is about” I bought this hat at the Ekka. No-one runs faster than Superman. It rained last night. • How do these sentences challenge the traditional definition that the subject is “what the sentence is about”? TOPIC

21. Defining “Subject” by grammatical properties • Test 1 - Word order • Subjects typically precede the predicate • Test 2 - Agreement • In some circumstances the AUX/verb will change form, depending on the nature of the subject. We say the verb agrees with the subject

22. Examples of subject-verb agreement The boy wasbiting the dog. The boy was biting the dogs. The boyswere biting the dog. The boyswere biting the dogs. • The tensed verb form changes when the preceding NP (the subject) becomes plural. • It is unaffected by the change in number of the following NP (the object).

23. More properties of Subjects • Test 3 - Pronoun form • In English, pronouns have distinct (case) forms for certain functions, such as subject. • The case form used for subjects is called Nominative case.

24. Examples of Case forms of English Pronouns • Nominative (or subject) pronouns forms include: I, he, she, we. • Ikissed you, he kissed you, she kissed you, we kissed you • These forms are in contrast with Accusative (or object) forms such as: me, him, her, us. • You kissed me, you kissed him, you kissed her, you kissed us

25. Another subject property • Test 4 - Auxiliary raising • When an interrogative sentence is formed from a declarative sentence, the auxiliary verb which has the tense-marking function precedes the subject phrase. • The boy is biting the dog. (declarative) • Is the boy biting the dog? (interrogative)

26. Summary Simple sentence = single S or clause Complex sentence > 1 S or clause Functions of main constituents of S: • Subject: NP/PP/clause • Tense: Auxiliary verb (Lexical verb) • Predicate: VP/AdjP/NP/PP

27. Summary (con't) VP = V (minus tense-marking) + ..... • VP with untensed verb passes all three tests for phrasehood: • Substitution (by so ) • Cleft • Movement –VP with tensed verb fails all three tests

28. Further reading: Fromkin, V. Rodman, R. et al. 2005. An Introduction to Language Ch. 4