The Syntax of

English
^L Introductory Definitions

In order to build a sentence, you must first understand some basic facts
about sentences.
1. The Meaning or Function of Sentences
There are several kinds of sentences. These can be classified accord-
ing to the way they are used:
A. A declarative sentence makes a statement of fact or a statement of
opinion. In it the subject usually comes before the verb:
The door is open.
B. An imperative sentence gives a command or makes a request:
John, close the door.
Will you close the door, John.
C. An interrogative sentence asks a direct question. The sentence be-
gins with an interrogative word:
What shall we have for lunch?
D. An exclamatory sentence shows strong or sudden feeling. Such
sentences usually begin with what or how and end with an exclamation
mark:
What a nuisance!
How did I make that mistake!
Whatever its function, every sentence has a subject and a predicate.
In the imperative sentence the subject is understood to be you'. The
remaining elements that make up sentences are either modifiers or com-
plements.
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2. Sentence Structure
A. Subjects. The subject of a sentence is the person or thing the subject
is about. In some sentences the subject is understood, e.g. Stop! (the
subject V ' is understood). Generally though, the complete subject
011

includes the noun or noun substitute alone, without any of its modi-
fiers. It normally occurs before the verb in sentences: e.g.
The woman in the frilly pink dress came into the room,
(the noun 'woman' is the subject)
Where are you going?
(the noun substitute, pronoun Y '> the subject)
ou

A compound subject consists of two or more nouns or noun phrases:

Anne and Peter Eden are playing badminton with us tonight.
B. Predicates. The predicate of a sentence consists of the verb and its
modifiers and complements. The predicate expresses the action or con-
dition of the subject. Predicates may be simple or compound:
The simple predicate is the main verb or verb phrase in the predicate:
Sue visited Switzerland last year. (= main verb)
The children were swimming in the sea. (= verb phrase)
A compound predicate has two or more main verbs:
The clown joked, danced and sang. (= 3 main verbs)
He should have bought more fish. (= verb + complement)
Little girls cry very easily. (= verb + modifier)
C. Complements. While some verbs are complete in themselves (The
girls ran; Birds fly), other verbs need a noun, noun substitute or adjec-
tive to complete their meaning. The term complement, then, means
something that is needed to complete a grammatical construction.
Complements may be a direct object, an object complement, a predica-
tive adjective, or a predicative nominative:
The direct object is the noun which indicates the receiver of the
action:
My brother plays the organ.
She celebrated her birthday yesterday.
The object complement follows the direct object and refers to the
same thing, usually after verbs of naming or calling:
The director appointed Miss Fry a personnel officer.
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 The predicative adjective is an adjective in the predicate referring to
the subject:
Eddie Howe was cheerful.
My father is quite fat.
The predicative nominative is a noun or noun subject in the predicate
naming or referring to the subject:
Those women are dentists.
All of my sons have been scouts.
3. Modifiers
Adverbs and adjectives (and phrases or clauses acting as adverbs and
adjectives, e.g. prepositional phrases), are modifiers. They limit, de-
scribe, or identify the words they modify. Thus they are used to make
ideas more exact and clear. Compare:
1. He threw a stone. Adjectives modify nouns.
The naughty boy threw a sharp stone.
2. My brother repaired the radio. An adverb modifies a verb.
My brother carefully repaired the
radio.
3. Eight a.m. is a busy time. An adverb modifies an
Eight a.m. is an unusually busy time. adjective.
4. The girl plays the guitar. A prepositional phrase
The girl in the red dress plays the modifies a noun.
guitar.
4. Phrases
Phrases are groups of words which do not express a complete thought,
but which acl^as^jLunit. They may function as nouns, modifiers, or
verbs:
Swimming and running are two A verb phrase functions as
excellent forms of exercise. a noun.
He sat near the pool. A prepositional phrase
functions as an adverb.
A. A noun phrase is a phrase which can be the subject, object, or com-
plement of a clause, or as a prepositional complement. A nouri^pfirlse
usually TTasFTnoun as its head (i.e. main part of the phrase), although
pronouns and adjectives may also be heads of noun phrases. The head-
wordlmay appeartogether with determiners, in particular (see page 67),
and one or more modifiers (see pages 42 and 49):
 NP-subject NP-object NP-complement
Jim likes girls with blonde hair.
(headword = a noun)
NP-subject NP-object
She spoke softly to the dying man.
(headword = a pronoun)
NP-subject NP-object NP-complement
The poor comprise a large section of the Asian population.
(headword = an adjective)
(NP = Noun Phrase)
B. A verb phrase consists of either a main verb (see page 22), or a
main verb plus one or more auxiliary verbs (see page 54):
My sister reads two story books every week.
(Verb phrase = main verb)
My sister is reading a story book about animals.
(Verb phrase = main verb + auxiliary)
C. A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition (see page 85)
followed by a prepositional complement-either a noun phrase, a wh-
clause, or an -ing clause:
There were 200 students in the lecture hall.
preposition + noun phrase
We were not sure of what the teacher said.
preposition + wh- clause
She brightened the house by putting fresh flowers in every room.
^ •

preposition + -ing clause

(See page 142 for examples of idiomatic prepositional phrases.)
5. Clauses
Clauses are groups of words containing both subject and predicate
(i.e. a subject + verb + complement + (optional) adverbial). Almost all
sentences contain at least one clause.
Thus, a typical clause structure looks like these diagrams:
1 Clause
subject adverbial verb object
I
He
I
slowly
I
climbed
I
the hill.

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 2 Clause
. uz i— —i1 i
adverbial + subject + verb + complement
I
Immediately the baby I fell I I
asleep.
A. Independent (Main) Clauses are those which are complete in them-
selves (like the two examples above). They can thus stand by them-
selves as complete sentences. Alternately, two main clauses which are
equal in construction, can be joined by a conjunction to form a com-
plete sentence:

Sentence

main clause main clause

subject verb object conjunction subject verb object

You can sweep the floor or you can wash the dishes.
I play the piano and my sister plays the violin.

B. Dependent (Subordinate) Clauses are generally not able to stand

alone as the main clause of a sentence. Usually they are included as sub-
clauses in a main clause. As such, they act as modifiers to alter, limit, or
to clarify the ideas in the main clause. They can function as nouns,
adjectives or adverbs and they are normally linked to the main clause by
linking words such as that and wh- words like which and where.
Compare:
Independent (Main) Clauses Dependent (Subordinate) Clauses
1. I realize if. I realize that he is the youngest
child. (Clause replaces a noun
or pronoun.)
2. My friends went on a round-the- My friends went on a trip which
world trip. took them around the world.
(Clause replaces adjectives.)
3. He left his book here. He left his book where he could
find it. (Clause replaces
adverbs.)

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 Sentence
main clause
• V,;
subject verb object
He left his book

subclause

conjunction subject verb object

(;wh- word)
where he could find it.
DIAGRAM OF A MAIN CLAUSE AND A SUBORDINATE CLAUSE
C. Functions of Clauses
1. Relative Clauses (introduced by wh- pronouns, or that):
The couple, who live next door to us, have no children.
2. Comparative Clauses (introduced by than):
I liked this film better than the one we saw last week.
3. Nominal Clauses :
We are pleased that you got the job.
(= that- clause)
I wasn't sure what I had to do.
(= wh- interrogative subordinate clause)
She wants everyone to stay the night at her house.
(= to- infinitive clause)
Her children were busy playing with marbles.
(= -ing clause)
D. Adverbial Clauses
His son wrote to him whenever he wanted some money.
(= time clause)
They left the bag where they had found it.
(= place clause)
He fell into the drain because he wasn't looking where he was
walking. (= reason clause)
She wrote home so that her mother would know she was
coming. (= purpose clause)
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 Gerry was late for work so the manager telephoned his house.
(= result clause)
I'll lend you some money ifyou need it urgently.
(= conditional clause)
6. Types of Sentence Structure
Sentences can be divided into three kinds according to the way they
are built, i.e. according to the number of clauses included and whether
the clauses are independent (main) clauses or dependent (subordinate)
clauses.
A. A simple sentence expresses one main idea. Thus it has one main
clause only which may have word or phrase modifiers (adjectives or
adverbs or prepositional phrases):
My mother was born in India.
B. A compound sentence expresses two or more main ideas in two or
more independent (main) clauses:
main idea (1) main idea (2)
My mother was born in India but she came to Malaysia as a small girl.
C. A complex sentence expresses one main idea and at least one sub-
ordinate (less important) idea. Thus it contains one independent (main)
clause and one or more dependent (subordinate) clauses:
main idea subordinate idea
/ >, N
My mother came here from India when she was a small girl.
NOTE: Other grammatical terms used in this book will be defined
as we come to them.

2 Recognizing W o r d Classes (or Parts o f Speech)

In English it is usual to classify words into word classes (or Parts of

Speech as they are more commonly known), but at the same time it is
important to remember that it is the function of a word in a sentence
which determines what part of speech a word is. For example, a word
may belong to almost any word class without changing its form:
8
 We vriW. fast \\ve motrtk oi tof&toxv. NetV)
After one month he broke his fast. (= noun)
She types fast. (= adverb)
Marion is a fast worker. (= adjective)
Thus, it is necessary to consider a word in the light of the work it
does in a sentence before classifying it into a particular word class.
We can distinguish between major and minor word classes:
1. Major Word Classes
1 Nouns Singapore, city, thunder, group, honesty
2 Main Verbs call, try, help, go, like
3 Adjectives pretty, new, small, square, long
4 Adverbs quickly, lively, completely, very, really
2. Minor Word Classes
Auxiliary Verbs can, may, should, will
Determiners a(n), the, this, every, such
Pronouns I, which, mine, one, everyone
Prepositions above, at, on, from, without,
Conjunctions and, but, or, since, neither... nor
Interjections oh, phew, ouch, Ugh, wow
The minor word classes differ from the major word classes in that
they contain a fixed number of words; that is, the words in these
classes do not change, nor do they increase in number. In contrast, the
number of words in the major word classes is always growing as people
coin new words to meet new situations: e.g. atomic bomb, atomic
energy, atomic number, atomic pile, atomic weight; monophonic,
monorail, monomania; overcharge, overcrop, overdress.

3 F o r m s and F u n c t i o n s o f t h e W o r d Classes
(Parts o f Speech)

M a j o r W o r d Classes

1. Nouns
A. Kinds of Nouns
Nouns are simply 'naming words'—the words we use to refer to
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objects. A noun can be easily identified because it is usually modified
by a, an, or the.
Nouns may be broadly classified as follows:
Nouns

Proper Nouns Common Nouns

(a) Concrete (b) Group (c) Mass (d) Abstract (e) Compound
nouns (Collective) (Uncountable) nouns nouns
nouns nouns
e.g. house e.g. team e.g. butter e.g. freedom e.g. doorknob

Thus, there are two main classes of nouns: Proper and Common.
Proper Nouns refer to particular persons, places or things: Singapore,
March, Mr Jones. Proper nouns are always capitalized.
Common Nouns refer to any of a class or group of persons, places, or
things: city, girl, month, book, pencil. The word 'common' really means
'shared by all'. All nouns that are not Proper are Common.
(a) Concrete Nouns refer to objects and substances that exist in a
physical sense; that is, anything that can be seen, heard, tasted, smelled,
or felt by the body: bird, house, apple, child. Concrete nouns can be
used with the articles (the, a, an), with numerals, and in the plural, as
they are countable nouns.
(b) Group (collective) nouns refer to a number, or a set of persons,
things, or animals regarded as a single group of the same kind: swarm,
crowd, team, class, committee, group. Because they are countable they
may be singular or plural: a group of teenagers, two groups of teenagers.
Special group names are used with both animate (living) and inani-
mate (non-living) things:
Animate
an army (of soldiers) a gang (of thieves, labourers)
a band (of musicians) a herd (of buffaloes, cattle)
a board (of directors) a swarm (of bees, insects)
a crew (of sailors) a team (of oxen, players)
a flock (of birds, sheep) a troop (of lions, monkeys)
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 Inanimate
a bouquet (of flowers) a fleet (of cars, ships)
a bunch (of grapes) a pack (of cards)
a bundle (of rags) a set (of clubs, tools)
a chest (of drawers) a string (of beads)
a clump (of trees) a tuft (of grass)
Some group nouns refer to a group of people which are related or
linked in some way to each other: family, team, committee, administra-
tion, audience,class, etc. With such nouns there is a choice as to whether
to use singular or plural verbs and pronouns, depending on whether they
refer to individuals which make up the group or to the group as a unit:
The family has brought its gift.
The family have brought their gift.
The team is winning the match at the moment.
The team are going to celebrate if they win.
The audience is enjoying the concert.
The audience are stamping their feet.
(See page 14)
(c) Mass (Uncountable) Nouns usually refer to substances (liquid or
solid) which are not normally divisible: milk, butter, sugar, oil, water,
iron, glass, wood, meat, fish. Such nouns are not normally used in the
plural (and, therefore, not with numerals):
There's some tea in the cupboard.
There are two packets of tea in the cupboard.
Mass, or uncountable, nouns may be used with determiners (in this
case, group nouns) to indicate quantity and measurement, weight, etc.
or other divisional terms:
Quantity: the whole cake
a segment of the cake
half of the cake
a piece of the cake
a slice of bread
a loaf of bread
two-thirds of the milk
Area: an acre of land
Length: three metres of cloth
a yard of material a cake

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Weight : two kilogrammes of flour
a pound of butter
an ounce of tobacco
a ton of soil
Volume: half a litre of milk
a pint of beer
a gallon of petrol
TypesI Pine is a type of wood.
Species: The Toyota is a make of car.
Carlsberg is a brand of beer.
The Rajah Brooke is a species of butterfly.

Although some group nouns go together with particular mass nouns

(e.g. a tuft of grass, a speck of dust), some group nouns can be used
without such group terms:
Bread is made of flour.
Some nouns belong to both the 'countable' and 'uncountable' classes
depending on the context of the sentence:
How many times have you been absent this week?
(= countable)
How much time did you spend on your homework?
(= uncountable)
Our house is next door to some woods.
Most houses in rural Asia are made of wood.
Today I baked a cake.
Would you like some cakel
There were many chickens in the yard.
(= individual birds)
They eat chicken very often.
(= an undivided item of food)
(d) Abstract Nouns are the names of special qualities, actions, emo-
tions, or conditions (including fields of study and sports). Although
abstract nouns tend to be mass nouns—poverty, honesty, love, courage,
patience, freedom, progress, information, democracy, philosophy,
tennis—they can also be both 'countable' and 'mass' nouns:
Spare a thought for those poor refugees.
He was deep in thought.
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 There's a sound in the roof.
The Concorde can fly faster than sound.
The pianist played two works by Beethoven.
I have plenty of work to do this week-end.
Abstract nouns can also be used with group nouns to indicate quan-
tity, quality, measurement and species or type:
Quantity and Quality: an item of news a burst of applause
a bit of advice a piece of research
a word of warning a fit of anger
Measurement : six months of hard labour
two weeks of study leave
Type/Species: a type of work
a kind of humour
(e) Compound Nouns consist of two or more words put together to
form a name. They can be hyphenated or written separately, but they
mean one thing: post office, living-room, brother-in-law, textbook,
doorknob, check-up, grown-up.
B. Functions of Nouns
Function Examples Position
1. as subject of verb A //loves Leila. before the verb
after the verb
2. as object of verb after the verb
(a) direct object Alf loves Leila.
(b) indirect object Alf sent Leila flowers.
(after verbs like
buy, bring, give,
take, owe, sell,
write, pay)
3. as object of preposition She took them from after a preposition
(in a prepositional Alf.
phrase)
4. as complement after the verb
(a) subjective com- Leila is the secretary.
plement (after
verbs like be,
seem, appear,
become)
 Function Examples Position
(b) objective com- They elected Leila
plement (after secretary.
verbs like
appoint, consider,
name, nominate,
choose)
5. as noun adjunct Alf waited at the bus- before a noun
stop. after a noun
6. as appositive Alf, chairman of the after a noun
committee, gave a
speech.
7. in direct address Alf, come here. usually at the
beginning of a
sentence

C. Nouns and Number

In English, nouns can have either singular ('one') or plural ('more
than one') number. Singular nouns comprise:
1. Those denoting 'one': a shoe, this flower, that magazine.
2. Mass (uncountable) nouns: the tea, our democracy, that advertise-
ment.
3. Proper nouns: Jonathan, Germany.
Usually plural count nouns (denoting 'more than one') are the only
nouns which occur in the plural: two flowers, those shoes, these chop-
sticks.
Generally the plural is formed by adding -s or -es to the singular (see
Rules on page 16) but there are two exceptions:
(i) some nouns ending in -s are actually singular and not plural
(ii) some nouns only ever occur in the plural
(a) Singular nouns ending in -s
1. Diseases: mumps, measles, Measles is a common illness
rickets among young children.
2. Subject names ending in Linguistics is the study of
-ics: statistics, linguistics, language.
mathematics
3. Some games: chess, darts, Draughts is a popular game
billiards, dominoes in many countries.
4. News The news is at nine o'clock.

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(b) Nouns occurring only in the plural
1. Animals and fish: cattle, There are various species of
sheep, deer, trout, salmon deer all over the world.
2. People: people, police The police were setting up a
road-block.
3. Tools, instruments: tongs, He used tongs to turn over the
scissors, pliers, scales, meat on the grill.
binoculars, tweezers
Note: These words can be She has a pair of scissors which
turned into ordinary count she uses to cut material.
nouns by using a pair of.
4. Articles of clothing: trousers, His jeans were so tight that they
spectacles, jeans, pyjamas, split.
tights
5. Depending on the context, The Russians are building up
a noun may occur in the their arms.
plural although it may have There is an arms factory near
a singular form: their hometown.
There aren't any funds to build
arms (weapons), a swimming-pool.
outskirts, spirits, headquarters, After his death, a scholarship
stairs, surroundings fund was set up.
6. Some nouns have two plurals
with different meanings:
brother. brothers (sons of the same
mother)
brethren (members of a com-
munity)
cloth: cloths (pieces of cloth)
clothes (articles of dress)
fish: fish (referring to a type/species
of fishes)
fishes (referring to individual
creatures)
shot: shot (non-explosive metal balls
for guns)
shots (number of actions)
penny, pennies (number of coins)
pence (amount in value)
index: indexes (tables of contents to
books)
indices (signs used in
mathematics)

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 We begin with a fox, whose plural is foxes,
But the plural of ox, is oxen, not oxes.
You may see a lone mouse, or a whole nest of mice,
But more than one house is houses, not hice.
If I speak of a foot, and two are called feet,
And you show me your boot, would a pair be called beet?
I may have a brother, or I may have brethren,
But though I've a mother, no one has methren.
So English, I fancy you all will agree,
Is the funniest language you ever did see.

(c) Rules for Forming Plural Nouns

Rule 1: Nouns are regularly made day days, roof roofs,
plural by the addition of -s: shoe shoes
Rule 2: Other nouns are made
plural by adding -es:
1. Nouns ending in sibilant (Y) bus /buses, box boxes, /
sounds spelled with s, ch, sh church churches,
and*: dish dishes
2. Nouns ending iny preceded curry curries, baby babies,
by a consonant: y is changed key keys; monkey monkeys
to i (s only is added if y is
preceded by a vowel):
3. One-syllable nouns ending in a leaf leaves, thief thieves,
single / o r fe: f is changed to v: knife knives
Exceptions: chiefs, handkerchiefs,
roofs, safes, beliefs.
4. Nouns ending in o:
-es only: buffalo buffaloes, mango mangoes
-s only: bamboo bamboos,
radio radios, piano pianos
Rule 3: Other nouns have other
types of plural:
1. -en ending children, oxen

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 2. internal vowel change tooth teeth, foot feet,
man men, woman women,
mouse mice, goose geese
Rule 4: The plural of com-
pounds :
1. In most compounds the boyfriends, breakdowns,
ending -s is added to the grown-ups, check-ups, assistant
last part: directors, stepfathers, doorbells
2. With a few compounds, brothers-in-law, hangers-on,
the pluralization occurs to passers-by, commanders-in-chief
the first part:
3. Sometimes internal vowel Englishmen, policemen
changes occur:
4. A few compounds have both menservants, women doctors
the first and the last part in
the plural:
Rule 5: Foreign plurals:
There are two ways of pluralizing foreign words that have become
part of the English language:
1. by the addition of the regular -s plural
2. by the addition of a foreign plural (usually in technical writing).
Some foreign words take both the regular and the foreign plural.
Singular Ending Foreign Plural Regular Plural Both Plural
Ending Ending Endings
-us -i -uses -i/-uses
stimulus stimuli
bonus bonuses
campus campuses
chorus choruses
circus circuses
virus viruses
cactus cacti/cactuses
focus foci/focuses
nucleus nuclei/
nucleuses
radius radii/radiuses
syllabus syllabi/
syllabuses
terminus termini/
terminuses

17
Singular Ending Foreign Plural Regular Plural Both Plural
Ending Ending Endings
-a -ae -as/-ae
larva larvae
vertebra vertebrae
area areas
dilemma dilemmas
diploma diplomas
drama dramas
antenna antennas/
antennae
formula formulas/
formulae
•um •a -s -a/-s
curriculum curricula
album albums
museum museums
stadium stadiums
forum forums
memorandum memoranda/
memorandums
aquarium aquaria/aquariums
symposium symposia/
symposiums
medium media/mediums
-ex, -ix -ices -ices/-es
index indices
matrix matrices/
matrixes
appendix appendices/
appendixes
-is -es
basis bases
analysis analyses
crisis crises
thesis theses
diagnosis diagnoses
hypothesis hypotheses
on -a/-t
criterion criteria
phenomenon phenomena
demon demons
electron electrons
neutron neutrons
automaton automata/
automatas

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Singular Ending Foreign Plural Regular Plural Both Plural
Ending Ending Endings
•eau -eaux -s -eaux/s
bureau bureaux
plateau plateaux/
plateaus
D. Nouns and Gender
Every noun in English belongs to one of four genders: masculine,
feminine, neuter and common:
The masculine gender is used when the noun refers to males (persons
and animals):
man, bull, master, poet (and is used with third person pronouns he,
him, his, etc.)
The feminine gender is used when the noun refers to females (persons
or animals):
woman, cow, mistress, poetess (and is used with she, her, etc.)
The neuter gender refers to nouns that are neither masculine nor femin-
ine ; that is, they are inanimate:
book, water, table, happiness, democracy, biology (and is used with
it, its, etc.)
The common gender refers to nouns that are of either sex, masculine or
feminine:
f
baby, person, parent, bird
Note these exceptions:
1. He and she can be used for animals whom we consider as having
human qualities, especially family pets:
Has Blackie had her milk yet?
Conversely, babies and very young children are often referred to as
it:
The baby is crying for its milk.
2. She is occasionally used for inanimate objects when we consider them
to have animate qualities, for example, ships and cars, and sometimes
countries:
What a beautiful yacht! What have you named her?
Malaysia is celebrating her national day next month.
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The feminine gender is shown in three ways in nouns:
(i) by the suffix -ess, e.g. mistress, hostess
(ii) by a word in front of another word,
e.g. billy-goat nanny-goat
(iii) by a totally different word, e.g. nephew -> niece.

Below are lists of nouns and their various genders:

Persons: Masculine and Feminine Gender:
Feminine ending in -ess Other feminine endings
Masculine Feminine Masculine Feminine
actor actress bachelor spinster
author authoress barman barmaid
conductor conductress boy girl
count countess bridegroom bride
duke duchess brother sister
emperor empress father mother
god goddess fianc6 fiancee
headmaster headmistress gentleman lady
heir heiress grandfather grandmother
host hostess hero heroine
manager manageress husband wife
master mistress king queen
mayor mayoress landlord landlady
millionaire millionairess lord lady
murderer murderess male female
poet poetess man woman
postmaster postmistress manservant maidservant
prince princess monk nun
proprietor proprietress nephew niece
waiter waitress salesman saleswoman/salesgirl
son daughter
Sultan Sultana
uncle aunt
widower widow

Persons'. Common Gender

adult companion infant owner singer
ancestor cousin judge parent student
baby doctor juvenile passenger teacher
Buddhist European lawyer principal teenager
child friend lecturer pupil tourist
Chinese guardian Minister relation traveller
citizen guest orphan relative worker

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