Adjectives, Verbs, Clauses, and Coordination in English
Adjectives vs. Verbs
Attributive Position: Adjectives in attributive position cannot be used predicatively and are not gradable. Adverbs that typically modify these items are manner adverbs.
Worth vs. Due: These adjectives are complements of “become.” “Due” is a preposition that admits a noun phrase (NP) complement and may be followed by an -ing form.
Adjective Phrases (AdjPH) and Adverb Phrases (AdvPH)
AdjPH: Modification (modifier + head) or complementation (head + complement).
AdvPH: Adverb modifiers of verbs vs. adjective modifiers of nouns.
Verb Types
- Intransitive Verbs: Verbs that do not require any complement.
- Copulative Verbs (Head + Predicative Complement Subject): She turned red.
- Transitive Verbs (Head + Direct Object): I am eating an apple. She is reading a book.
- Ditransitive Verbs (Head + Indirect Object + Direct Object): Verbs that take two objects, such as “The teacher gave the students an interesting book.”
- Complex Transitive Verbs (Head + Direct Object + Predicative Complement Object) OR (Head + Predicative Complement Object+ Direct Object): You are driving my family mad. He found the suggestion ridiculous.
Prepositional Verbs
- Intransitive Prepositional Verbs: Max glanced at the talented acrobat.
- Transitive Prepositional Verbs: Head + Prepositional Object + Direct Object, or Head + Direct Object + Prepositional Object. Example: Max convinced the jury of his innocence.
Phrasal Verbs
- Intransitive Phrasal Verbs (Head + Non-Complement): He didn’t turn up.
- Transitive Phrasal Verbs (Head + Direct Object + Non-Complement) or (Head + Non-Complement + Direct Object): He turned down the offer.
- Phrasal Prepositional Verbs (Head + Non-Complement + Prepositional Object): I cannot put up with so much hypocrisy.
- Phrasal Transitive Prepositional Verbs (Head + Direct Object + Non-Complement + Prepositional Object): They put their success down to their effort.
Relative Clauses
- Adnominal: They depend on and refer back to a noun. Their syntactic function is that of a modifier of the previous noun.
- Nominal Relative Clause: No antecedent. The relative pronoun acts like a noun + relativizer (e.g., What I bought was a house).
- Sentential Relative Clause: The antecedent is a whole clause. The relative pronoun refers back to the previous clause (e.g., The sky was black, which was unexpected for this time of the year).
- Adverbial Subordinate: Functions as an adjunct or place, time, or manner complement. I go to the gym because I want to be fit.
Coordination
- Symmetric: The order of coordinates can be changed (e.g., “We can have beans or apples”).
- Asymmetric: Temporal sequence (e.g., “I got up and took the train”) or cause-consequence.
- Syndetic: The coordinate construction is linked by an explicit coordinator.
- Asyndetic: Unmarked (e.g., “They offered us a choice of red wine, white wine, or beer”).
- Layered: One coordinate construction functioning as a coordinate within a larger one (e.g., “Kim works in a bank, and Pat is a teacher, but Julio is unemployed”).
- Gapped: Part is omitted (e.g., “His son lives in Chicago and her daughter in Palma”).
Dative Alternation
Prepositional Object Construction: The recipient is encoded as a prepositional phrase (e.g., “She gave the ball to her”).
Double Object Construction (DOC): “She gave her the ball” (recipient precedes theme).
DOC was frequent in Old English with verbs whose meaning denotes a change of possession. In Middle English, it was the predominant variant. Presently, it is predominant in the North and South.
Levin’s Classification:
- Verbs that can only occur in double object constructions (e.g., *”The bank denied me the credit,” not “The bank denied the credit to me”).
- Verbs only in prepositional object construction (e.g., “Troubadours recited poems and songs to the audience,” *not “Troubadours recited the audience poems and songs”).
- Verbs admitting both (e.g., “Harry has lent some money to me” / “Harry has lent me some money”).
English needs two constructions: DOC, where the recipient goes before the theme, and PREP, where the theme precedes the recipient.
DOC is predominant in contemporary British English.
Grammatical Status of “However”
- “However” can connect clauses with the power of a coordinator, granting it a syntactic coordinating function (equivalent to “but”). It is punctuated with a preceding comma.
- By definition, coordinators link phrases. Conjunctive adverbs are optional; they do not perform formal work. Removing them does not affect the integrity of the sentence.
Quirk’s Rules for Coordinators:
- Coordinators must occupy the coordinate-initial position.
- Only one coordinator per coordinate.
- Expanded coordinates cannot be fronted.
- A wide range of categories can be coordinated.
- There can be an unlimited number of coordinates.
Conjunctive adverbs uses of “however” are almost always followed by a comma.