English Syntax: Phrase Structure, Verbs & Function Words

Posted on Apr 7, 2025 in Modern Languages and Translation

Understanding Syntactic Structures

The key to analyzing standard sentence structures (syntax trees):

• Complement: A phrase required by a Head to complete its meaning (Forms X’ with Head).
• Adjunct: A phrase modifying an X’ category, resulting in another X’ category. Adjuncts can typically be removed without affecting the grammatical sense of the core phrase.
• Specifier: A phrase combining with an X’ category to form a maximal projection (XP).

Saxon Genitive (‘s)

Structure: Specifier + ‘s + Complement

Verb Morphology: Affix Hopping

This table illustrates how tense and aspectual affixes attach to verbs:

Verb Form Examples (using ‘write’):

• Perfect: have written
• Progressive: is writing
• Passive: is written / was written
• Perfect Progressive: have been writing
• Perfect Passive: have been written
• Progressive Passive: was being written
• Perfect Progressive Passive: has been being written (Note: Original ‘has been written’ corrected based on pattern)

Polarity Sensitivity and ‘Any’

• Free Choice ‘Any’: Means ‘cualquiera’ (any one, no matter which). Example: I like any food.
• Polarity Sensitive ‘Any’: Used in specific contexts, often translating to ‘algo’, ‘algún’, or ‘ningún’ (some, any, none). Example: They haven’t got any children.

Contexts Licensing Polarity ‘Any’:

• Negative clauses: They haven’t got any children.
• Interrogative clauses: Do you have any questions?
• Comparative clauses: She has forgotten more than I will ever learn.
• Conditional clauses: If you ever come by, drop in.
• With negative adjectives: It’s unlikely he would insult anyone.
• Complements of adjectives modified by ‘too’: He is too polite to insult anyone.
• With ‘only’: Only two people suffered any injury.
• With ‘without’: I’ll do it without any delay.
• With negative verbs: He’ll deny he’s done any such thing.

Tenseless Complementation Analysis

This involves analyzing whether a post-verbal NP constituent functions as a subject or object of the non-finite verb.

Tests for Subject/Object Properties:

Example Sentence: I thought him to have read that book.

• Passivization (Main Clause): Can the NP become the subject of the passive main verb? If yes, it suggests object properties.
  He was thought to have read that book. (Grammatical – ‘He’ acts like an object of ‘thought’).
• Passivization (Embedded Clause): Can the logical object of the non-finite verb become its subject in a passive form? If the resulting sentence is grammatical, it suggests the NP has subject properties relative to the embedded verb.
  I thought that book to have been read (by him). (Grammatical – ‘him’ acts like a subject of ‘read’).
• Existential ‘There’: Can the NP be replaced by existential ‘there’? Since ‘there’ can only function as a subject, grammaticality indicates subject properties.
  I thought there to be a storm. (Grammatical – ‘there’ is the subject of ‘to be’).
• Tough-Movement Construction: Can the NP be moved in a tough-construction? If yes, it suggests object properties relative to the non-finite verb.
  He is easy to think to have read that book. (Grammatical – ‘He’ behaves like the object of ‘read’ in this construction).

Auxiliary Verbs

Auxiliary verbs assist the main verb.

• Modal Auxiliaries: can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, must, ought to. (Note: ‘need’ and ‘dare’ can also function as modals).
• Non-Modal Auxiliaries: be, have, do, used to.

Need, dare, have, do, and use(d) are dually categorized: they belong to both auxiliary and lexical verb classes.

Characteristics of Modal Verbs:

• No 3rd person singular ‘-s’ marker (*he cans).
• No non-finite forms (no *to can, *canning, *canned as modals).
• Must be followed by a bare infinitive (verb stem).
• Add information about modality (e.g., probability, necessity, permission, desirability) to the main verb.

Distinguishing Prepositions, Adverbs, and Particles

Identifying the function of words like ‘up’, ‘on’, ‘down’, etc., which can belong to different categories.

1. Absence of Following NP/DP: If the element is not followed by a Noun Phrase (NP) or Determiner Phrase (DP), it is typically not a preposition in that instance. Example: John showed up at ten. (‘up’ here is likely an adverb or particle).
2. Presence of Following NP/DP: If the element is followed by an NP/DP, it might be a preposition, but further tests are needed.
   1. Mobility (Particle Shift): If the element (‘P’) can occur after the NP/DP (especially if it must move when the NP is a pronoun), it’s likely a particle, not a preposition. Prepositions must precede their complement.
      Examples: look up a word / look a word up / look it up (‘up’ is a particle) vs. depend on you / *depend you on (‘on’ is a preposition).
   2. Cleft Sentence Test: A prepositional phrase ([P NP]) often forms a single constituent and can be moved to the focus position of a cleft sentence (It was X that…). Particles usually cannot move with the NP in this way.
      Examples: It was on you that I depend. (‘on you’ is a PP) vs. *It was up that word that we looked. (‘up that word’ is not a single constituent).
   3. Coordination: Prepositional phrases, as single constituents, can often be coordinated. Verb + Particle combinations usually cannot coordinate the particle and NP together.
      Examples: It was on him and on you that I depended. vs. *It was up this word and up that one that he looked.
   4. Pied-Piping / Preposing: A prepositional phrase ([P NP]) can often be moved as a unit (e.g., in relative clauses or fronting). Particles generally cannot move together with the NP this way.
      Examples: the persons on whom I depend (pied-piping) vs. *the words up which I looked; Down the road he ran (PP preposing) vs. *Down the business he ran (assuming ‘run down the business’ where ‘down’ is a particle).
3. Selected vs. ‘Normal’ Prepositions: If tests indicate it’s a preposition, distinguish between those with independent meaning (‘normal’) and those required by the verb (‘selected’ or ‘prepositional verbs’). Selected prepositions often form idiomatic units (depend on someone) vs. literal meaning (stand on the platform). Passivization can help: selected prepositions can often be ‘stranded’ (left at the end), while ‘normal’ prepositions usually cannot (except in specific passive types).
   Examples: He can be depended on. vs. *The platform was stood on.
4. Adverbs: If the element fails tests 1 and 2 for being a preposition, it might be an adverb (especially if it indicates time, place, manner). Example: John showed up at ten. (‘up’ indicates arrival, functioning adverbially).
5. Particles: If the element is not a preposition (tests 1, 2) and not clearly an adverb with independent meaning, it’s likely a particle. Particles often combine with verbs to create phrasal verbs with idiomatic meanings, or they add aspectual meaning (like completion). They are semantically opaque or idiosyncratic.
   Compare: I went up. (‘up’ likely adverbial, indicating direction) vs. I drank up the milk. (‘up’ is a particle indicating completion, not direction; see test 2a: I drank the milk up). Particles generally cannot be emphasized through fronting (except for specific cases like continuative ‘on’: On they moved).