AboutTheAuthor

MuslihHambali,borninasmallvillage,Kayuaralocatedintheareaofaneastern

S
ynt
coastofOganKomeringIlir,about120km from Palembanghasamotto“home

axTHE STRUCTURE OFSENTENCES

sweethome”and lovesnature and environmentverymuch.MuslihHambali,
agraduate ofFacultyofTeacherTrainingSriwijayaUniversityin1983,became
alecturerin 1984 teaching ESP atthe Socialand PoliticalScienceFaculty
andAgricultureFacultyofSriwijayaUniversity.HegothisDiplomainTESLfrom
VictoriaUniversityofWellington,New ZealandandhismastersdegreeinLibraryandInformation
Sciencefrom UniversityofWestern Ontario,Canada.Since the lastfew yearshehasbeenactive
inteaching Englishgrammar,morphologyand syntaxto theundergraduatestudentsofEnglish
StudyProgram ofFacultyofTeacherTrainingSriwijayaUniversity.Thisbookhasbeenhissecond
productsincethelasttwoyears.

SoniMirizonwasborninPrabumulih,acitylocatedabout100km intheeastern
partofPalembang City,thecapitalofSouth Sumaterawhen hisfatherwas THE STRUCTURE
OFSENTENCES
working there.Hisparentsoriginally came from Ogan Ulu districtofOgan
Komering Ulu Regency. He left his birth city when hewasinyear6of
primaryschoolfollowing hisparents’officialmovingofworkingtoPalembang.
He finished hisprimaryandsecondaryeducationinPalembang.Hisinterestin
English sincethesecondaryeducation inspired him to continuelearning English in thetertiary
education.
SoniMirizon,agraduateofFacultyofTeacherTrainingandEducationSriwijayaUniversityin1991,
became a lecturerofEnglish in 1993 atthe Faculty ofTeacherTraining and Education Jambi
Universityfortenyearsbeforemovingbacktohisalmamater,SriwijayaUniversityin2002.Hegot
hisMaster’ sDegree(M.A.)inAppliedLinguisticsfrom UniversityofEssex,UnitedKingdom in1999
andhissubsequentdegree,DoctorofEducation(Ed.D.)inEnglishLearningandInstructionfrom
FlindersUniversity,Australiain2015.Sincethelastfew yearshehasbeenactiveinteachingEnglish Musl
i
hHambal
i
Syntax,LanguageAcquisition,LanguageTesting,and Teaching and Learning Strategiessubjects Mu
bothtotheundergraduateandgraduatestudentsofEnglishEducationStudyProgram,Facultyof
TeacherTrainingandEducation,SriwijayaUniversity.Hehasalsobeenactiveinconductingresearch
sli
hHa
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So
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andpresentingpapersinsomedifferentplacesinIndonesiaandoverseas.
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SBN:979-
587-
692-
9
n
Syntax
THE STRUCTURE
OF SENTENCES
An Introduction to English Syntax Course

i
 Sanksi pelanggaran Pasal 72
Undang-undang Nomor 19 Tahun 2002
Tentang Perubahan atas Undang-undang Nomor 12 Tahun 1997
Pasal 44 Tentang Hak Cipta

1. Barang siapa dengan sengaja dan tanpa hak melakukan perbuatan

sebagaimana dimaksud dalam Pasal 2 ayat (1) atau pasal 49 ayat (1) dan
ayat (2) dipidana penjara masing-masing paling singkat 1 (satu) bulan
dan/atau denda paling sedikit Rp. 1.000.000,00 (satu juta rupiah), atau
pidana penjara paling lama 7 (tujuh) tahun dan/atau denda paling banyak
Rp. 5.000.000.000,00 (lima miliar rupiah)

2. Barang siapa dengan sengaja menyiarkan, memamerkan, mengedarkan,

atau menjual kepada umum suatu ciptaan atau barang hasil pelanggaran
hak cipta atau hak terkait, sebagaimana dimaksud ayat (1) dipidana
dengan pidana penjara paling lama 5 (lima) tahun dan/atau dendan paling
banyak Rp.500.000.000,00 (lima ratus juta rupiah)

ii
Syntax
THE STRUCTURE
OF SENTENCES
An Introduction to English Syntax Course

Muslih Hambali
Soni Mirizon

iii
SYNTAX

THE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES

An Introduction to English Syntax Course

Muslih Hambali, Drs., MLIS

Soni Mirizon, MA., Ed.D.

UPT Publishing and Printing

Sriwijaya University 2017
Campus Unsri Palembang
JalanSrijaya Negara, Bukit Besar Palembang 30139
Telp. 0711-360969
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Website: www.unsri.unsripress.ac.id

Member appti No. 026/CT/apt/X/2015

Member IKAPI No. 001/SMS/2009

Editorial /production : Oktaf Juairiah, S.T.

Cover and interior design : Ihsan Tarmizi, S.Pd., M.Pd.
xii + 134 p; 24 x 16 cm

© All right reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed,
in any form or by means, or stored in a database or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the authors and publisher

ISBN: 979 - 587 - 692 - 9

iv
ABBREVIATION AND SYMBOLS

A, Adj Adjective
Adv Adverb
AP Adjective Phrase
AC Adjective Clause
Adv P Adverb Phrase
Adv C Adverb Clause
aff Affix
C Consonant
Cl Clause
F Female
M Male
MC Main Clause
N Noun
NP Noun Phrase
NC Noun Clause
P, Prep Preposition
PP Prepositional Phrase
Phr Phrase
Pl Plural
Pro Pronoun
S Sentence
SC Subordinate Clause
Sing Singular
n Number
V Verb ,
VP Verb Phrase
v Vowel
≥ More than
—› is realized as, is changed to
[ ] phonetic

v
vi
PREFACE

This textbook presents a primary introduction of the analysis of English

sentence structure, syntax. Syntax, the study of sentence structure, is an
essential part of linguistics to be introduced to the students of English
Education Study Program. The essential role of learning syntax for the
students is thatsyntaxis a preliminary study of takingsemanticscourse.
Besides, it is a must for them to learn the structures of sentence swhich I
believe are very much used in building sentences in any spoken and written
text.
This textbook adopted from different up-to-date sources stated in the
bibliography provides and is limited to basic structures of English sentences.
In other words, the textbook discusses basic English syntax rather than
advanced one. This textbook is also written using simple sentences with
simple words and is completed with clear additional information and some
examples so that it might be easy for learners to understand syntactical
explanation. Some Indonesian examples about the structure of sentences are
also included. Few words in other languages such as Bahasa Indonesia,
Arabic and others as well as local languages are also adopted. That other
languages especially Bahasa Indonesia are adopted is to have a little
comparison so that learners might also get easier to grasp the analysis of the
structure of English sentences.
This study can be a starting point of syntax learners to learn their future
study of syntax in more advanced. It is hoped this book will give some
benefits for learners of English Education Study Program in particular and
invite them to learn about the grammar of English in more detail.
We would like to invite any comments and critisms related to the contents of
this textbook from whoever reads this textbook for the purpose of better
product of basic Englishsyntax studies.

Palembang, September 2017

vii
viii
CONTENTS

Abbreviation and Symbols ....................................................................... v

Preface ....................................................................................................... vii
Contents ..................................................................................................... ix

CHAPTER 1 Word Class ............................................................................ 1

1.1 Introduction ..................................................................... 2
1.2 Word Definition ............................................................... 3
1.3 Word Class ....................................................................... 3
A. Noun .......................................................................... 4
B. Pronoun ..................................................................... .8
C. Adjective ............................................................... . 11
D. Adverb .................................................................. . 11
E. Verb........................................................................ . 12
F. Preposition .............................................................. . 18
G. Conjunction ............................................................ . 18
H. Determiner ............................................................. . 19
I. Word Classification ................................................. . 20
Testing Yourself! .................................................................. 22

CHAPTER 2 Word Function .................................................................... 25

2.1 Introduction .................................................................... 26
A. Noun ....................................................................... 26
B. Pronoun ................................................................. . 27
C. Adjective ............................................................... . 27
D. Adverb .................................................................. . 29
E. Verb ....................................................................... . 30
F. Conjunction ........................................................... . 30
G. Determiner ............................................................. . 31
Testing Yourself! ................................................................. 34

CHAPTER 3 Phrases ................................................................................ 37

3.1 Introduction .................................................................... 38
3.2 Head and Complement ................................................... 38
3.3 Types of Phrases and Its Structure ................................. 39

ix
 A. Noun Phrase ............................................................ 39
B. Adjective Phrase ...................................................... 42
C. Verb Phrase ............................................................ 43
D. Adverb Phrase ......................................................... 44
E. Prepositional Phrase ................................................ 45
Testing Yourself! ................................................................. 48

CHAPTER 4 Sentence and Clause ............................................................ 51

4.1 Introduction .................................................................... 52
4.2 Clause ............................................................................. 54
4.3 Type of Clause................................................................ 54
4.3.1 Types of Subordinate Clause ................................. 55
A. Noun Clause ..................................................... 55
B. Adjective Clause ............................................... 56
C. Adverbial Clause ............................................... 57
4.4. Sentence ....................................................................... 58
4.4.1 According to Structure............................................ 58
A. Simple Sentence ............................................... 58
B. Compound Sentence ......................................... 59
C. Complex Sentence ............................................ 61
D. Compound Complex Sentence .......................... 62
4.4.2 According to Function or Purpose ......................... 62
A. Declarative Sentence ........................................ 62
B. Interrogative Sentence....................................... 63
C. Imperative Sentence .......................................... 63
D. Exclamatory Sentence....................................... 63
4.4.3 According to Voice................................................ 63
Testing Yourself! .................................................................. 65

CHAPTER 5 Syntactical Analysis ............................................................ 73

5.1 Introduction .................................................................... 74
5.2 Components of a Sentence.............................................. 75
5.3 English Sentence Patterns .............................................. 82
Testing Yourself! ................................................................. 84

CHAPTER 6 Sentence Diagramming ....................................................... 89

6.1 Introduction ................................................................... 90
6.2 Types of Diagramming .................................................. 91
A. Tree Diagram ............................................................ 91
B. Fish-bone Diagram.................................................... 97
Testing Yourself! ............................................................... 104

x
CHAPTER 7 Syntax in Relation to Semantics ........................................ 107
7.1 Introduction ................................................................. 108
7.2 Semantics Role of Subject ........................................... 109
7.3 Semantics Role as Object ............................................ 114
Testing Yourself! ............................................................... 118

CHAPTER 8 Impersonal It in English Language ............................. 121

Introduction ....................................................................... 122
The Definition of Impersonal It ........................................ 122
Testing Yourself! ............................................................... 129

BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................... 131

xi
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 1

CHAPTER 1

WORD CLASS
Chapter Contents Objectives
This chapter provides: After learning this chapter, learners
 definition and description are expected:
of words,  to define and describe words as a
 identification of word class unit that conveys meaning,
category or parts of speech,  to know, understand and master
and about different kinds of English word
 kinds or subdivisions of class, and
each word class  to know, understand and master word
classification and its subdivisions

“ A word has a name like a human body does”

- Muslih Hambali & Soni Mirizon–
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 2

CHAPTER 1

WORD CLASS

1.1. Introduction
In the study of linguistics, words are commonly introduced and even
discussed in various branches of linguistics such as phonology, morphology,
syntax, and semantics. In phonology, words are discussed dealing with how
they are pronounced. For example, when a plural word ends with s, the
pronunciation of s can be [s] or [z] depending whether or not the s occurs
after voiceless nonsibilant or voiced nonsibilant such as cats [keits] and
trains [treinz].

In morphology, words are analyzed in terms of their structure. For

example, the word ‘empowerment’ consists of three morphemes (one free
morpheme, power and two bound morphemes, em- and -ment) . While in
semantics, words are described in terms of meaning. Very simple examples
in the sentence of Bahasa Indonesia are:

(1) Diatelahmendapat kursi di DPR itu.

He already get chair in parliament that.
‘ He has already got position in the parlement’
(2) Diasedang duduk diataskursi di parlemenitu
He sit on chair in parliament that
‘He is sitting on the chair in the parliament’

The word kursi in sentence (1) above does not mean the real chair, but it
refers to position, maybe the position as a chairman, a vise chairman, a
secretary or anything else. Meanwhile, the word kursi in sentence (2) refers
to the real chair used for sitting, so the word in semantic always talks about
meaning.
Furthermore, in syntax, words are very much discussed in terms of their
class and function as they form sentences for example the sentence like this:
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 3

(3) Many rubber farmers of South Sumatera complained about the

price of rubber getting lower and lower.

The main subject of the sentence is farmers (noun) modified by the word
many (determiner) and rubber (noun). A prepositional phrase, of South
Sumatera, is also a modifier modifying farmers, so the complete subject of
the sentence is The rubber farmers of South Sumatera. The predicate of the
sentence is complained about the price of rubber getting lower and
lower.More detailed description of syntax will be discussed further in the
following chapters.

1.2 Word Definition

Hornby (2010, p.1712) defines a word as a single unit of language which

means something and can be spoken or written. A word can also be defined
as a separate independent phonological unit (Emma, 2012, p. 8) and as the
basic units of language (McCarthy, 2002, p. 4). In addition, a word provides
information that carries meaning (Hambali, 2016, p 3). This means when we
look at a word or listen to a word spoken, there must be something to
understand or interpret so that our mind moves on to transfer it into the real
meaning.

1.3 Word Class

Word class is interesting to discuss since it guides us when we later want to

create a sentence pattern formula or a phrase formula in English. The
arrangement of a sentence pattern or a phrase will involve what kind of word
class is used. When we write a declarative sentence for example, we begin
with a subject and the subject is a noun.
A word is classified into lexical category and grammatical category.
Lexical category is related to a word class or a word function such as noun,
verb, adjective, etc., and grammatical category refers to the inflection that
shows grammatical relationship such as plural, tense, number, gender and
case, and degree. The following sections will be the description of lexical
category of words related to word classes.
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 4

Word classes are actually called parts of speech. There is no a fixed

number of word classes known as parts of speech (Greenbaum and Nelson,
2002, p. 101). They divide English parts of speech into nine as summarized
in the Table 1.1 (noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb, verb, conjunction,
preposition, determiner, and auxiliary verbs). Finegan (2004) does not
include auxiliary verbs in parts of speech, so he argues that English parts of
speech consist of eight. Meanwhile, Tamara (2007, p.5) includes modal
verbs, articles, particles, and words of affirmation and negation as parts of
speech. Table 1 below contains English parts of speech that are commonly
used in most grammar books.

Table 1.1 English Parts of Speech

No Parts of Speech Examples
1. Noun bag, watch, pencil
2. Pronoun he, they, we
3. Adjective good, cold, happy
4. Adverb well, extremely, quite
5. Verb read, write, study
6. Preposition by, for, through
7. Conjunction and, but, yet
8. Determiner the, some, six
9. Interjection aah, eh, hmn

All the nine parts of speech except interjection will be described in turn in
the following sections. It should be noted that the terms word class is
adopted in the next description of syntactical analysis.

A. NOUN
A noun can simply be defined as a word that denotes people, things,
animals or places such as Bob (people), table (thing), crocodile (animal), and
house (place). Altenberg and Vapo (2010) divides nouns for things into two
different terms: animate and inanimate. An animate noun is a thing that is
alive such as trees, cats, crocodiles, etc., and an inanimate noun refers to a
thing that is not alive such as paper, stone, typewriter, etc.
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 5

In traditional grammar there are seven types of nouns (proper, abstract,

concrete, common, collective, mass, and compound).

1. Proper Noun
A proper noun is defined as a word or words that refer to a specific
person, place, or thing (Lyn and Berk, 1999). In writing, a proper noun is
usually
capitalized.
Examples of proper nouns are:
Names of people place : Bandung, Palembang, Taman Safari Indonesia, etc.
Names of People : Habib Rizieq, Rahmawati, Ahmed Dinejad, etc.
Name of months : July, October, December, etc.
Name of days : Friday, Saturday, Sunday, etc.
Name of Language : Arabic, German, English, Japanese, etc.

2. Common Noun
A common noun is a noun that refers to place, people, and thing such as
river, woman, computer, and so on.

3. Abstract Noun
An abstract noun can be defined as a thing which cannot be touched or
seen as the concrete one such as patience, healthy, information, etc.

4. Concrete Noun
A concrete noun is actually a class of common noun. This noun can be
touched or seen such as chair, book, leaf, etc.

5. Collective Noun
A collective noun is a noun that refers to a collection of individual
entities such as family, team, faculty, audience, etc. Like a concrete noun,
a collective noun is also one of the common noun classes.

6. Mass Noun
A mass noun is actually the same term as uncountable noun. This noun is
also a class of common nouns such as water, aqua, blood, gas, etc.

7. Compound Noun
Another class of common noun is a compound noun. A compound noun
is a noun consisting two or more words such as pickpocket, mailman,
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 6

postman, etc. Hyphen is usually used for certain compound nouns such as
son-in-law, book-case, hand-writing,etc.

In summary, among the seven types of nouns above, we can divide three
main types of nouns: common nouns which include concrete, mass,
collective, and compound, proper nouns, and abstract nouns.

In accordance with its form, a noun is divided into two types: singular and
plural such as pen (singular) and pens (plural). In English there are several
ways how to make plural nouns as in the following.

a) Adding suffix s at the end of the noun.

Examples:
book —› books
toy —› toys
chair —› chairs
orange —› oranges

b) If a noun ends with y preceded by a consonant, change y into

iand add suffix es.
Examples:
lady —› ladies
lily —› lilies
lory —› lories

c) If a noun ends with x, s, sh, ch, o, add suffix es to form a plural

one. Few nouns may have suffix s only or both s and
es(especially the ones ending with o).
Examples:
box —› boxes
watch —› watches
dress —› dresses
mosquito—› mosquitoes or mosquitos
video —› videos
studio —› studios
tomatoe —› tomatoes or tomatos
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 7

d) If a noun ends with forfe, changeforfe with v and add suffix es.
Examples:
knife —› knives
wife —› wives
calf —› calves

However, some nouns that end with f just simply add s to form
plural such as
cliff —› cliffs
roof —› roofs

e) Few plural nouns do not end with s or es, and these are usually
called irregular plural nouns.
Examples:
ox —› oxen
tooth —› teeth
goose —› geese

f) There are also some nouns that have the same form for both
singular and plural.
Examples:
fish —› fish
sheep —› sheep
deer —› deer

g) English has few words borrowed from other languages such as

Greek and Latin, and they have special plural nouns.
Examples:
alumnus—› alumni
thesis —› theses
phenomenon—›phenomena
curriculum—› curricula
criterion —› criteria

All abstract nouns do not have plural in form. Most common nouns except
mass noun have both singular and plural forms. Mass nouns belong to non-
count nouns which cannot be pluralized (Radford, 2004, p. 19) such as
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 8

furniture, coffee, gas, etc. A proper noun is usually singular except it is

preceded by the to show people such as English (language), the English
(people of England) or Japanese (language) but the Japanese (people of
Japan).

B. PRONOUN
A pronoun is defined as a word that is substituted for a noun for
examples, as subjects, the words they for students, he for Ahmad, she for
Linda, it for cat, etc. In a formal writing, a pronoun usually occurs after or is
identified by its antecedent called a noun as in the following example.

(1) The students will submit their syntax assignment on Monday.

The subject of the sentence above is students as antecedent, and their is a

pronoun (possessive) referring to students.

Types of pronoun
Greenbaum and Nelson (2002) divide a pronoun into eight types as in the
following.

a. Personal Pronoun
A personal pronoun consists of two cases as (subject and object)
which distinguish first, second, and third person and singular and
plural (number) as the following examples.

(2) They are working with their new job.

(3) Mr. Yadi is a friendly math teacher in this school, so we like
himvery much.

The word they in (2) is a pronoun subject, and the word him in (3) is
an object pronoun referring to Mr. Yadi.
Both subject and object pronouns are included in the following table.

b. Reflexive Pronoun
A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that shows the doer and the
recipient of the action of the verb. For examples:
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 9

(4) Andrew usually cooks dinner himself.

The word himself is an example of reflexive pronoun. A complete

list of reflexive pronoun is shown in the Table 2 below.

c. Possessive Pronoun
A possessive pronoun is a pronoun that indicates possession or
ownership and is used to replace the noun that has already been
mentioned previously such as the following example.

(5) The laptop on the table is hers.

Hers in (5) is the same as her laptop. So, a possessive pronoun has a
different pattern from possessive adjective in a sentence. A
possessive adjective is always followed by a noun, while a
possessive pronoun stands alone but as if there were a noun inside.
A complete list of possessive pronouns is included in the Table 2
below.

Table 2 List of Pronouns

Subjective Objective Possessive
Reflexive Pronoun
pronoun pronoun Pronoun

I Me Mine Myself

You You Yours Yourself/Yourselves

We Us Ours Ourselves

They Them Theirs Themselves

He Him His Himself

She Her Hers Herself

It It
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 10

Notice that possessive adjectives are not included in the table above, as they
are categorized as determiners.

d. Demonstrative pronoun
Demonstrative pronouns consist of four:
this –these
that – those
To identify these pronouns, we must look at their context in a
sentence as they are also included in determiners. Let’s consider the
following examples.

(6) This doesn’t belong to me.

(7) This book doesn’t belong to me.

This in (6) represents a pronoun, while this in (7) acts as a

determiner modifying book.

e. Indefinite pronoun
An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun that refers to the presence or
absence of a quality such as both, some, several, few, etc, and
includes a set of some and any such as somebody, anybody,
something, anything, etc.

f. Reciprocal
Greenbaum and Nelson (2002, p. 103) further state that there are two
reciprocal pronouns such as:
each other (each other’s)
one another (one another’s)

g. Relative Pronoun
A relative pronoun is actually an interrogative pronoun used in
relative clauses such as who, whom, which, and whose, and includes
that which is for who, whom, and which. These relative pronouns are
always describing the preceded nouns.
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 11

h. Interrogative Pronoun
The interrogative pronouns include who, who, and whose. These
pronouns appear when asking questions and they occur at the
beginning of an interrogative sentence.

C. ADJECTIVE
An adjective is a word that describes a noun or a pronoun. An adjective
may have different positions when modifying nouns. An adjective may or
may not go together with nouns modified such as the following examples.

(8) The street is busy.

(9) The busy street is full of cars.

The word ‘busy’ in (8) modifies ‘street’, but its position is separated from
the word ‘street’. Similarly, the word ‘busy’ in (9) also modifies ‘street’, but
its position directly precedes the word ‘street’ forming a phrase (noun
phrase). Adjectives can be a common adjective found in a dictionary and a
derived adjectives that come from verbs called verbal adjectives or
participial. More description or the function as well as examples of those
will discussed in the following Chapter 2.

D. ADVERB
A word that describes a particular word class such as verb, adjective or
adverb itself is called an adverb. Most adverbs in English are derived from
adjectives ending with morpheme ly such as slowly, quietly, carefully, etc.
Some adverbs are formed from nouns with suffix wise such clockwise or
weather-wise. Few adverbs have the same form as adjectives for examples,
hard, early and, fast or irregular ones such as well from an adjective good.

Aarts (2001, p. 45) divides an adverb into three subclasses: circumstantial

adverbs, degree adverbs, and sentence adverbs. A circumstantial adverb is
an adverb that provides information about frequency (often called frequency
of time) such as sometimes, never, often, etc. and about manner such as
slowly, diligently, interestingly, etc. A degree adverb is an adverb that
specifies the degree of its modifying adjectives such as extraordinary, pretty,
very, etc. Meanwhile, a sentence adverb is an adverb that functions to link
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 12

sentences such as probably, perhaps, however, etc. The following are the
examples of each subclass in sentences.
(1) Our family has never been in Manukwari, Papua. (circumstantial
adverb)
(2) The old machine generated electricity slowly. (circumstantial
adverb)
(3) Mrs. Bailey is an extremely good teacher. (degree adverb)
(4) Many people believe that Erdogan is a very good leader. (degree
adverb)
(5) It is too cloudy today. Perhaps, it will get rain this afernoon
(sentence adverb)
(6) My brother had attended extra science courses all year round.
However, he once failed the university entrance test. (sentence
adverb)

E. VERB
A verb is a word that denotes actions, sensations and states (Fromkin,
2001, p. 598). A verb is a word that is a constituent of sentence structure
(Greebaum and Nelson, 2002, p. 21).

Part of verbs
When we refer to the principal part of a verb, an English verb is classified
into four parts (Azar, 2002) as in the following.
1. Simple present form
Simple present form is a root verb which usually occurs in dictionary
as an entry. This verb is sometimes called a base form for examples:
buy, play, come, drink eat, etc.

2. Simple Past
Simple past form is a verb that ends with ed for regular and without ed
for irregular. This verb is often called verb 2. for examples:
cook – cooked (regular)
work – worked (regular)
or
write – wrote (irregular).
drink – drank (irregular)
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 13

3. Past Participle
Past participle is also a verb that ends with ed for regular and without
ed for irregular.. This verb is called verb 3 for examples:
cook – cooked - cooked (regular)
work – worked – worked (regular)
or
write – wrote - written (irregular).
drink – drank – drunk (irregular)

Note that to distinguish whether verb 2 or verb 3 is used in a sentence if

a regular verb, verb 3 is usually preceded by helping verb be or have
(including has, had) such as is cooked, will be cooked, have worked, had
worked, etc.

4. Present Participle
Present participle is a verb formed ending with ing for examples:
playing, drinking, studying, etc.

Class of Verbs
When we refer to classes of verbs, Miller (2002, p. 51) divides into six
classes: transitive, intransitive, ditransitive, transitive directional verb,
intransitive locational verb, copula (intensive verb). In the following
each class of a verb is dicussed in turn briefly.

a. Transitive Verb
A transitive verb is a verb that always requires an object in a
sentence for example the verb buy in the sentence:

(10) AlBaro’ usually buys ‘nasi uduk’ for his breakfast.

The words ‘nasi uduk’ is an object of the verb buys. If we omit the
object (nasi uduk) such as,

(11) AlBaro’ buys for his breakfast.*

CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 14

the sentence seems not to have a complete meaning. People will

think of buying what, so an object is needed for the transitive verb.

Some examples of transitive verbs in English are:

cut, give, lend, leave, make, offer, pass, sell, show, take, change,
close, draw, drink, eat, move, open, paint, start, study, wash, write

b. Intransitive Verb
Unlike a transitive verb, an intransitive verb is a verb that does not
need an object such as the following sentence.

(12) Keisha sleeps at nine every night.

The verb sleep does not require an object.

Some common intransitive verbs in English are:

agree, appear, arrive, cry, go, laugh, smile, rain, run, sit, snow, talk,
work, become, belong, cost, depend, die, disappear, dwell, emerge,
exist, fall, go, happen, inquire, listen, laugh, live, look, occur, remain,
respond, rise, sit, sleep, swim, vanish, wake, wait.

c. Ditransitive Verb
A ditransitive verb is a verb that usually requires two objects such as
in the following sentences:
(13) Ota gave me an umbrella.
(14) Eman will bring us some presents.

In sentence (13) the two objects are me and an umbrella, while in

sentence (14) the objects are us and some presents.

When a sentence has two objects, there must be a direct object and an
indirect object. See chapter 5 for more detail related to objects.
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 15

Some common ditransitive verbs are:

allocate, allow, appoint, assign, award, bake, bet, bring, build, buy,
catch, charge, cook, deliver, deny, design, do, draw, drop, earn, feed,
fine, forgive, give, grant, guarantee, hand, leave, lend, make, name,
offer, order, overpay, owe, pass, pay, permit, prescribe, promise,
purchase, quote, read, sell, send, serve, set, show, take, teach, tell,
throw, , write.

d. Transitive directional verb

A transitive directional verb is a verb that requires an object
followed by a prepositional phrase usually a preposition toplus noun
or pronoun. If the prepositional phrase is not absent, it seems the
sentence is incomplete. Consider the following examples.

(15) Irnan will give a gift.*

(16) Irnan will give a gift to his dad.

Sentence (15) is not complete as we have no idea to whom a gift will

be given. Sentence (16) is much more complete and correct since the
object (a gift) will be given to the receiver. A prepositionla phrase, to
his dad is the directional receiver. Actually a transitive directional
verb is almost the same as a ditransitive verb. Compare these two
sentences.

(17) Mr Jumadi offers me a good job.

(18) Mr Jumadi offers a good job to me.

Sentence (17) has two objects (a good job as a direct object and me as
an indirect object). In sentence (18), the word me is not an object
anymore because it is preceded by a preposition. When a noun or
pronoun preceded by a preposition, a prepositional phrase is formed.
Generally a prepositional phrase can become neither a subject nor an
object. In case of to me in (18), it is called a directional object. There
are actually certain transitive directional verbs in English other than
give and offer, such as write, send, hand, etc.
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 16

e. Intransitive locational verb

An intransitive locational verb is actually like a common intransitive
verb but it requires a prepositional phrase functioning as an adverb to
make the sentence more complete. Let’s compare the following
sentences.

19. My brother is lying on the sofa now.

20. My brother is lying now.

Both sentences (19) and (20) have the same verb phrase with no
difference in meaning, but sentence (19) is more complete one since it
gives addtional information to the listener where my brother is lying.

f. Copula
Copula is a verb followed by an adjective. The term linking verb is
commonly used instead of copula. Thomas (1995, p. 46) would rather
choose the terms intensive verb for copula. Woods (2001, p. 17) calls
linking verbs being verbs as they express states of being. For learners
of English syntax, whatever the name for copula should be adopted,
one thing that they must know is to recognize verbs included in copula
and to be able to use them into a good sentence structure. Here in this
book we adopt the the term ‘linking verbs’ for copula. The following
are two examples of sentences with linking verbs.

21. The secretary looks happy today.

22. My friend feels healthier after hospitalized.

Common linking verbs are listed in the Table 3 below.

Table 3 List of linking verbs.

Linking Verbs:
appear feel seem sound be look
smell turn become taste prove grow

Among these linking verbs, be is the most fertile one used in both
writing and speaking. However, the copula or linking verb be does
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 17

not give the main meaning of the sentence to describe the event or
situation but just carries tense (Pavey, 2012, p.57).

In addition, Thomas (1995) adds another class of verb called complex

transitive. This kind of verb requires an object plus a complement that
describes the object such as the underlined phrase in (23) below. The
complement is usually a noun or a noun phrase.

23. Senators elected Anis Sagaf a rector .

Type of Verbs
All six classes of verbs above can be summarized into two types: action
verbs which include transitive, intransitive, ditransitive, transitive
directional verb, and intransitive locational verb, and linking verbs (copula).
Besides, there is another type of verbs called helping verbs which include
modals and auxiliaries. Modals and auxiliaries are commonly used to go
with verbs to form a verb phrase. The following Tables 4 and 5 are lists of
common helping verbs in English.

Table 4 Modals
can may must shall will
could might ought to should would

Table 5 Auxiliaries
am is was been being did have
are be were do does has had
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 18

F. PREPOSITION
A preposition is “a word or a group of words used before a noun or
pronoun to showplace, position, time or method” (Hornby, 2002 p.1037).
A preposition usually links with an adjective or a verb for examples:

Adjectives : good at, fond of, interested in, proud of, etc.
Verbs : agree with, listen to, look at, take off, etc.

There is such number of English prepositions. Azar (2002, p 454) provides

45 different words of common preposition as shown in the following
Table 6.

Table 6 Common English Preposition

about at beyond into since up
above before by like through upon
across behind despite near throughout with
after below down of till within
against beneath during off to without
along beside for on toward(s)
among besides from out under
around between in over until

G. CONJUNCTION
A conjunction is simply defined as a word that joins words, phrases or
clauses. There are three kinds of conjunction: coordinating,
subordinating, and correlative conjunction. A coordinating
conjunction is the one that joins words, phrases or clauses such as and,
or, but. A coordinating conjunction is used to make the words, phrases or
clauses parallel. Table 7 provides words of coordinating conjunction. A
correlative conjunction itself is similar to a coordinating conjunction,
but this conjunction exists in pairs as listed in Table 8 below A
subordinating conjunction is a conjunction that always joins two
clauses such as because, since, if, etc. More description about and the list
of subordinating conjunctions often called subordinators are discussed in
the following Chapter 4.
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 19

Table 7 List of Coordinating Conjunction

and, or, but, yet, either, so

Table 8List of Correlative Conjunction

both ... and, either ... or, neither ... nor, not only ... but also

H. DETERMINER
A determiner is a part of a word class that usually modifies a noun.
Nurgues (2006, p.5) does not include determiner in parts of speech and he
uses the term ‘participle’ for adjective. Greenbaun and Nelson (2002) add
numerals as a different word class instead of determiner. Let’s have few
examples of sentences containing determiners.

24. My brother bought a computer.

25. That computer is an IBM one.
26. The computer is on his desk.
27. There are five books and several writing tools on his desk.

From sentences above we find the wordsa, an,and theas articles, thatas a
demonstrative, hisa possessive, five a numeral, and several a quantity.
Articles, demonstratives, numerals, quantity and possessives are referred
to be called determiners, and they should be put in the same word class in
English grammar i.e. determiner.
In this book, we have adopted determiners that include different names of
traditional grammar shown in the following Table9.
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 20

Table 9 Determiners with different grammatical names

No Names in grammar Examples
1 Article a, an, the
2 Possessive adjective (genetive my, your, his, her, our, their,
determiner) its
3. Demonstrative (deixis) this, that, these, those
4 Numerals one, two, three, etc.
5. Quantity some, several, much, etc.
6. Interrogative determiner which, whose, what

Again a possessive adjective expresses possession of a noun by someone or

something. Possessive adjectives are actuallyincluded in a word class of
determiner. All the possessive adjectives are listed in the following Table10.

Table 10 Possessive adjectives for determiners

Possessive adjectives
Singular Plural
my our
your your
his their
her their
its their

I. WORD CLASSIFICATION
Akmajian, et al. (2001) classify words into two types: simple and
complex. His point of view seems to refer to a morphological analysis in
which he calls a word simple when the word is a minimal unit and cannot be
broken into meaningful parts or has only one morpheme such as the words
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 21

glass, cup, spoon, etc. Meanwhile, a complex word is made up of at least

two parts and could be analyzed. For example, the word countable contains
two morphemes count as a verb and able that is added to the root count
changing the word meaning and its grammatical form from a verb to an
adjective. Besides, Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams (2007, p. 74)) distinguish
two kinds of words: content words and functional words. Nouns,
adjectives, verbs, and adverbs are included in the content words, but the rest
parts of speech belong to functional words. Content words usually give
semantic contents and can be a single free morpheme such as the words
count (verb), clear (adj), and soon (adv). These content words have been
adopted much for the presentation of morphological analysis to follow
because nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs (although very few or quite
rare) can form or add new words.
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 22

Testing Yourself!

A. Directions: Identify the word class of the following words. Write N for
noun, ADJ for adjective, ADV for adverb, and V for verb.
 discover = ..........
 explorer = ..........
 action = ..........
 social = ..........
 systematically = ..........
 investigation = ..........
 remain = ..........
 enlighten = ..........
 lively = ..........
 childish = ..........

B. Directions: Use the labelled bracketing technique to assign each word

in each of the sentences below to a grammatical category which
represents how it is being used in the position in which it occurs in the
sentence concerned. Give reasons in support of your proposed
categorisation, highlight any words which are not straightforward to
categorise, and comment on any interesting properties of the
relevant words.

1. He was feeling excited of obtaining above average grades in the

morphology course.

2. University students believe that money troubles can cause

considerable stress.

3. Opposition politicians are pressing for election debates to receive

better television coverage.
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 23

4. Seasoned press commentators doubt if the workers will ever fully

accept that substantial pay rises lead to runaway inflation.

5. Students often complain to their high school teachers that the state
education system promotes universal mediocrity.

6. Some scientists believe that climatic changes result from ozone

depletion due to excessive carbon dioxide emission 37.

7. Linguists have long suspected that peer group pressure shapes

linguistic behavior patterns in very young children.

8. You don’t seem to be too worried about the possibility that many of
the shareholders may now vote against your revised takeover bid

Model answer for 1

(1) [Pro He][T was][V feeling][A excited][P at][ADV only ]

[V obtaining] [A average][N grades][Pin][D the][N morphology][N

exercises]

(2)

(3)

(4)
CHAPTER 1 - WORD CLASS 24

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)
CHAPTER 2 – Syntax : Word Function 25

CHAPTER 2
Word Function
Chapter Contents Objectives
This chapter provides: At the end of the study of this
 the function of word class chapter learners must be able:
- noun  to know types of each word
- pronoun function
- adjective  . to know, understand and
- adverb master word
- verb function of each word class
- conjunction
- deterrminer

“words are like parts of human body having their own function”
- Muslih Hambali & Soni Mirizon–
CHAPTER 2 – Syntax : Word Function 26

CHAPTER 2
WORD FUNCTION

2.1. Introduction
In the previous chapter we have been introduced different kinds of word
class.This chapter provides the function of each individual word class in a
phrase or a sentence.
A. Noun
A noun commonly functions as a subject or an object. Consider the
following sentences as examples.

(1) Beta has already finished doing her assignment.

(2) The government will build a botanical garden in Gandus district.

Sentence (1) has two nouns Beta (proper noun) and assignment (common
noun). In sentence (1) the word Beta functions as a subject, and the word
assignment functions as an object of the verb doing. Meanwhile, in
sentence (2), there are four nouns the words government (common noun)
functions as a subject and garden (common noun) functions as an object
of the verb build.Gandus (proper noun) modifies district (common noun)
as an object of preposition in.

In addition to functioning as an object of a verb, a noun also can function

as an object of preposition such as the following sentences.

(3) Students will stay in class for four hours during lesson.
(4) Father usually arrives at home before Maghrib.

All the italic words in (3) and (4) are all nouns as objects of the
prepositions in bold types.
Furthermore, in a noun phrase a noun can also function as a modifier to
modify another noun for example the word Gandus in (2) above modifies
district. Other examples are chicken soup, water surface, office building,
etc. act as modifiers describing the nouns following them. Nouns chicken,
CHAPTER 2 – Syntax : Word Function 27

water, and office act as modifiers describing the nouns following them.
When nouns modify other nouns, they act as pre-modifiers and cannot be
separated from the head noun (Burton-Roberts, 2011, p.148).
Morphologically, the combination of these two nouns is called
compounding.

B. Pronoun
Learning the function of pronouns is actually simple. Like a noun, a
pronoun especially personal pronouns (subject and object) has the same
function as a subject, an object of a verb or an object of a preposition as
in the following examples.

(5) They will teach us math.

(6) He has helped them cut the grass.
(7) We were in the train returning from Tanjung Karang when you called
us.

The words in italic in sentences (5), (6), and (7) are all pronouns. The
words they (5), he (6), we and you (7) are functioning as subjects, while
the words us (5), them (6), and us (7) are functioning as objects.

C. Adjective
There are actually different types of adjectives including demonstratives,
numerals, articles, possessives, and descriptives. All those types except
descriptive is grouped in the area of determiners as this book has adopted
a determiner as a different word class or part of speech. So, the discussion
of adjectives here is limited to the description of descriptive adjectives.
A descriptive adjective is an adjective functioning to describe nouns or
pronouns as the following examples.

(8) Creative students usually spend their time for something beneficial.
(9) They are happy today because it is a holiday.

In (8) the adjective creative modifies students as a noun, while in (9) the
adjective happy describes the pronoun they. Furthermore, Hambali (2016,
CHAPTER 2 – Syntax : Word Function 28

p.5) argues that an adjective might or might not go together with nouns.
Let’s consider the following sentences.

(10) The building is tall.

(11) The tall building has twenty floors.

The word tall in (10) modifies the word building whose position in a
sentence is separated. Similarly, the word tall in (11) also modifies the
word building, but its position in a sentence directly precedes the word
building forming a phrase (noun phrase). When an adjective is used to
modify a following noun, it is called attributive in function, but when it
modifies the previous nouns, it is said to be predicative (Radford, 2004.,
Huddleston and Pullum, 2007) such as tall in (10). Let’s have some more
examples.

(12) Most syntax students are busy with their work.

[ predicative]

(13) Busy students are usually successful.

[attributive]

When we refer to the form of descriptive adjectives, a descriptive adjective

can be in the form of common adjectives and participial adjectives. A
common adjective is an adjective that is found in the entry of a dictionary.
This adjective is as a root word such as busy, clever, dark, etc. A participial
adjectiveor a verbal adjective as introduced earlier in the previous chapter
is an adjective derived from a root verb ending with ing called present
participle and or formed from verb 3called past participle. Let’s have two
examples here.

(14) We usually watch singing bird pearching in the tree in front of our
house.
(15) All students have done the given exercises on photosynthesis.

The word singing in (14) is an adjective in the form of present participle

adjective, while the word given in (15) is a past participle one.
CHAPTER 2 – Syntax : Word Function 29

In addition, syntactically Huddleston and Pullum (2007, p. 112) provide

three distinctive properties of prototypical adjectives: function in which
adjectives act as pre-head modifier and predicative complement, grade that
shows a contrast in degrees of comparison such as young – younger –
youngest or diligent – more diligent – most diligent, and modification in
which adjectives can be modified by an adverb such as the adverb absolutely
modifies the adjective true in absolutely true.

D. Adverb
An adverb is a word class functioning to describe a verb, an adjective, or
an adverb itself as in the following examples.

(16) Dr. Ibrahim drives his car carefully

(17) Jim feels extremely happy today.
(18) The old woman walks very slowly.

The adverb carefully in (16) describes the verb drives, the word
extremely in (17) describes the adjective happy, while the adverb very in
(18) describes the adverb slowly to form an adverb phrase very slowly
describing the verb walks. When an adverb modifies a veb, the position
can ocur after the verb such as in (16) or before the verb. Sentence (16)
can be changed like this;

Dr. Ibrahim carefully drives his car

It should be noted that when there is an object after the verb, we cannot
put the adverb between a verb and an object, so the sentence,

Dr. Ibrahim drives carefully his car*

is totally WRONG

An adverb phrase is discussed in the following chapter for more detail.

Sub-classes of adverbs have previously been introduced in adverb section
of Chapter 1.
CHAPTER 2 – Syntax : Word Function 30

E. Verb
The only function of a verb is as a required predicate in a sentence. A
good standard sentence structure in writing must contain a verb in
addition to a subject. In speaking especially in giving a quick response for
example, we often hear people not pronounce a verb such as in the
following.

(19) Teacher: who cleans this room?

Student: I, me, Bob, Fatimah, etc.

The short response without mentioning a verb in speaking is also

acceptable since the listener has recognized what to do.
Furthermore, (Miller, 2002, p. 4) argues that a verb has an important role
to control every phrase in the clause for example the sentence;

(20) Mrs. Ema teaches her students biology.

The verb teaches needs a human subject and requires whether or not an
object is included, and the fact is it does. If both the objects are deleted,
the sentence seems to have incomplete information for the listener, but if
either one is deleted, the sentence still provides more information. This
indicates that a verb controls who the doer is and what the doer does.
Syntactically, the role of a verb in a sentence not only functions as a
predicate but also as an operator. This will be discussed in Chapter 7 for
more detail.

F. Conjunction
In the previous chapter we have been introduced such number of
conjunctions with different names in grammar (coordinating, correlative,
and subordinating). As briefly described earlier, any conjunction
functions to connect word and word, phrase and phrase, and clause and
clause.Therefore, the characteristics of coordinating and correlative
conjunctions must connect all items that are parallel.
Let’s have some examples how these conjunctions appear in a sentence.
CHAPTER 2 – Syntax : Word Function 31

(21) The teacher will teach her and me.

NOT
The teacher will teach her and I. *
(22) The teacher has already given us a lot of information and some
advice.
NOT
(23) The teacher has already given us a lot of information and what he
will advise.*
(24) The teacher will check our assignment and the students will take a
break.
NOT
When the teacher will check our assignment*,and the students will
take a break

In (21) the conjunction and connects two words (her and me), (22) it
connects two phrases (a lot of information and some advice). Meanwhile
in (23), the conjunction and links two clauses to become a compound
sentence. Conjunction and is included in coordinating conjunction.
A correlative conjunction is always in pairs, so again we have to be
careful that the connected words, phrases or clauses must be parallel as in
the following examples.

(25) My father likes either coffee or tea

(26) Neither the students nor the teachers will attend the conference
(27) Not only does Keisha have a doll, but she also has a new dress.

In (25) the correlative conjunction connects the words coffee and tea, in
(26) it connects a noun phrase (the students) and a noun phrase (the
teachers), and in (27) the correlative conjunction connects one clause to
another clause. The other type of conjunction is subordinating
conjunction such as since, before, though, etc. This will be discussed in a
special section of ‘Sentence and Clause’ in Chapter 4.

G. Determiner
A determiner actually functions the same as a modifier describing nouns.
A determiner usually associates with a noun that appears in one set called
CHAPTER 2 – Syntax : Word Function 32

a phrase. An article is one kind of determiner, so if an article whose

characteristic is associated with a noun (Haegeman and Gueron, 2001, p.
59), other kinds of determiners are also associated with nouns. In other
words, a determiner is usually accompanied with a noun, and its position
always precedes the noun it modifies as in the following examples.

a giraffe
this umbrella
your bag
five cats
several books

The words a, this, your, five and several are all determiners but
grammatically
have different names as introduced in the previous chapter. Again when
we have a determiner followed by a noun, there will be a phrase called a
noun phrase.

There are generally two kinds of determiner: pre-determiner and post

determiner. We sometimes find two determiners go together in one phrase
especially a noun phrase. Examine these two phrases in the following.

(a) All the other students are ready for the quizz.
(b) All of the other students in the class seem ready for syntax quiz.

In (a) two determiners all and the are placed near each other without any
word separating them. When these happen, the first determiner is called pre-
determiner and the second one is post determiner. Unlike (a) the word all
in (b) is not a determiner but a pronoun. However, we often have three
determiners in a phrase such as all other new students. When there are three
classes of determiners put in order, the second determiner is called central
determiner (Greebaum and Nelson, 2002, p. 106). So, the word other in all
other new is a central determiner, while all is pre-determiner and new
becomes a post determiner. Post determiner may also occur after the head or
the noun, and it can be in the form of prepositional phrase such as in the
CHAPTER 2 – Syntax : Word Function 33

class in all the students in the class (b) or in the form of adjective clause or
reduced adjective clause such as;

(c) All the students who attended the seminar last week are now in the
hall.
(d) All the students attending the seminar last week are now in the hall.

The clause who attended the seminar last week is an adjective clause while
the phrase attending the seminar last week is an adjective phrase.

In Table 9 of Chapter 1 all determiners with different grammatical names

have been stated. Each of the following sentences contains a highlited
determiner with its grammatical name in brackets.

1. Indonesia consists of five big islands, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi,

Papua, and Java. (numeral)
2. There are many small islands in Indonesia. (quantifier)
3. The capital city of Riau Island Province is Tanjung Pinang. (article)
4. Bukit Tinggi is popular with itsJam Gadang and Lembah Anai.
(possessive)
5. Those megalits located in Lahat have been thousands years of age.
(demonstrative).
6. Which provinces are well-known to have ‘Wisata Halal’ in Indonesia?
(interrogative).
7. Nusa Tenggara Barat is a popular province in Indonesia for
destination of Wisata Halal. (article).
8. My brother loves any history book. (quantity)
CHAPTER 2 – Syntax : Word Function 34

Testing Yourself!
1. Directions:
Read the following passage, find at least 12 modifiers, mention their
word class and then what word class they modify. Number 1 is already a
given as an example.

Passage 1
Last January, Alfath and Albaro’ visited Waykambas in Lampung to see
elephants’ sanctuary.One day, they had to get up early in the morning to
see people bathe baby elephants. In the afternoon they rode a huge
elephant for sight-seeing around the sanctuary. The day after they took
their car to go to the beach. There, they had a barbeque with their friends
from a primary school of Muhammadiyah 14 Palembang. Alfath and
Albaro’ learned to make chicken satays, Indonesian popular traditional
food, and were busy baking the satays. They all loved their delicious
satays very much.

Write your answer here.

No. Words Word Class Word modified
1. last adjective January
2. ............... ....................... ...........................
3. ............... ....................... ...........................
4. ............... ....................... ...........................
5. ............... ....................... ...........................
6. ............... ....................... ...........................
7. ............... ....................... ...........................
8. ............... ....................... ...........................
9. ............... ....................... ...........................
10. ............... ....................... ...........................
11. ............... ....................... ...........................
12. ............... ....................... ...........................
CHAPTER 2 – Syntax : Word Function 35

2. Directions:
Find and rewrite nouns or pronouns in the following sentences.
Identify their position (as subjects or objects). If as objects, mention if
they are as objects of verbs or objects of preposition. Give a check √
under each element it belongs to.

Passage 2
“Old English lasted about 400 years; this English would look and sound
like a foreign language to English-speakers today. Although it's gone,
Old English isn't forgotten. Remnants remain in Modern speech. You
can thank (or blame) the Anglo-Saxons for most of their regular verbs,
including the fact that you say ran instead of runned.
In the Middle English period (1100 to about 1450) England was
speckled with local dialects, each with its own vocabulary and sentence
structure. Nobody studied grammar in school,and nobody worried about
what was correct or incorrect. (There were a few more important items
on the agenda, including starvation and the bubonic plague.)”
Source: Woods (2001, p. 44).

Write your answer here.

No. Nouns/Pronouns Subject Object of Verb Object of preposition

1. ............... .......... ....................... ...........................

2. ............... .......... ....................... ...........................

3. ............... .......... ....................... ...........................

4. ............... .......... ....................... ...........................

5. ............... .......... ....................... ...........................

6. ............... .......... ....................... ...........................

CHAPTER 2 – Syntax : Word Function 36

7. ............... .......... ....................... ...........................

8. ............... .......... ....................... ...........................

9. ............... .......... ....................... ...........................

10. ............... .......... ....................... ...........................

 CHAPTER 3 – Syntax : Phrases 37

CHAPTER
3
PHRASES
Chapter Contents Objectives
This chapter provides: At the end of the study of this chapter
 The definition of phrase learners must be able:
 Kinds of phrases  to describe what is meant by
phrase
 to understand and distinguish
different kinds of phrase
 to write and use a phrase in a
sentence

“God, Allah has created us with five fingers.

Alhamdulillah, thanks to God to give us the five fingers to show
five kinds of English phrases classified ”

- Muslih Hambali & Soni Mirizon–

CHAPTER 3 – Syntax : Phrases 38

CHAPTER 3
PHRASES

3.1 INTRODUCTION
In a sentence structure, a phrase is a sequence of words functioning as a
constituent (Roberts, 2011,p. 27). In traditional grammar, a phrase is simply
defined as a group of related words having no subject and no predicate. This
means a phrase must contain at least two words such as nice baby, extremely
good, very well, will have done, etc. However, when we refer to the analysis
of syntax, any single word in a parsion of a sentence can be called a phrase.
Let’s consider the subjects in the following sentences.

(1) The president of the company will give a speech in the meeting.
(2) He gave a speech in the meeting.

The subject in (1) is president, and the full subject is the president of the
company in the form of a noun phrase in which the head is president. While,
the subject or the full subject of sentence (2) is a single word he.
Syntactically both subjects in (1) and (2) are phrases. More description of
analysis of syntax will be discussed in Chapter 6 of this book.

3.2 Head and Complement

The terms head and complement will appear in some types of English
phrase structure such as noun, adjective, adverb, verb, and preposition.
When a phrase contains more than one word there will be a head. The
general property of a phrase is to have a head determining the characteristic
of the overall phrase (Radford, 2004, p. 10). Head is defined as a functional
label referring to the principal element in a phrase which identifies the
category of a phrase (Aarts, 2001, p. 291). Whereas complement simply
refers to a word or words that complete the head. When we refer to the
above example, sentence (1) has a subject president as a head, and its
complement is of the company. The phrase of the company is a prepositional
phrase whose head is a preposition of followed by its complement the
CHAPTER 3 – Syntax : Phrases 39

company. So, the function of a prepositional phrase of the company is as a

complement of president as a noun. Pavey (2012) has adopted the term
dependent for complement in a phrase.

3.3 Types of Phrase and Its Structure

There are five major types or categories of phrases in English: noun
phrase, adjective phrase, verb phrase, adverb phrase, and prepositional
phrase. A phrase has a structure, which means we have to arrange the words
in order. For example, a noun phrase of my teacher is determiner + noun,
not noun + determiner. In the following discussion we very much focus on
an individual phrase that has two or more words with a certain word class as
a head. However, syntactically a phrase with a single word is also briefly
introduced.

A. Noun Phrase
If we refer to the traditional definition of grammar above, a noun phrase
is a phrase that consists of a noun as a head preceded by at least one
modifier. The modifier can be an adjective, determiner or a noun itself. The
formula of a noun phrase is

Noun Phrase (NP) = Modifier(s) + Noun

Examples:
Noun Phrase Description Word order

a lady a two- word noun phrase Det + N

modified by a determiner

a young lady a three-word noun phrase Det + A + N

preceded by a determiner
and an adjective

a beautiful a four-word noun phrase Det + A + A + N

young lady modified by a determiner
and two adjectives
CHAPTER 3 – Syntax : Phrases 40

a very beautiful five-word noun phrase Det + Adv + A + A + N

young lady modified by a determiner
and two adjectives with an
adverb

When a noun is preceded by another noun to form a noun phrase, the

first noun acts as a modifier for examples:

- baby deer
- chicken soup
- university students
- office building

In addition, Meyer (2004, p. 120) provides the internal structure of noun

phrases as in the following diagram.

Determinative Adjective Head Prepositional Phrases/

Phrases Phrases Noun Relative Clauses
the expensive house on the hill
many good books in the library
some local people whom we met
every beautiful city that we visited last month

When a noun followed by a prepositional phrase or a noun relative clause,

the function of a prepositional phrase or a noun relative clause modifies the
previous noun and is called post modifier. A noun phrase with a premodifier
and post a post modifier is considered a complex noun phrase or even a very
complex noun phrase if a post modifier contains clauses such as:

The postman who delivered a parcel that contained food and drinks
to our neighbour last three weeks has moved to a new town since
two days ago.

Who delivered a parcel that contained food and drinks to our neighbour last
three weekshas two relative clauses: (1) Who delivered a parcel that
contained food and drinksfunctions to modify a noun postman, and (2) that
CHAPTER 3 – Syntax : Phrases 41

contained food and drinks modifiesthe previous noun parcel. While it is

possible for a noun phrase to contain only a single head noun or pronoun
such farmers, nurses, they, he, etc.

The position of a noun phrase in a sentence is the same as a noun or pronoun

mentioned in the previous chapter as a subject or an object. Finegan (2004, p
153) argues that a noun phrase functions as a unified constituent in a
sentence without looking at the number of words a noun phrase may contain.
Again, this leads us to say that syntactically a noun phrase can contain a
simple word of noun or pronoun such as in the following examples.

(3) Father has been in Bandung several times.

(4) He brought his umbrella to his office.
(5) Cats don’t like hot food.
(6) They are playing kites by the beach.

Father and cats are nouns with a single word, and he and they are pronouns
in the form of a single word too. They are all noun phrases as subjects.

So far in the above description of noun phrase we have been introduced

kinds of pre-modifiers that describe head nouns. Another internal structure
of noun phrase can also contain participle phrases in the form of progressive
and perfect or passive as pre-modifiers (Burton-Rioberts, 2011, p. 147).
Here are some examples:

Progressive : the singing bird, the growing flowers, the crying child, etc.
Perfect or Passive : an organized party, a broken vase, the melted ice etc.

To distinguish between perfect and passive, we have to look at and learn the
meaning in the noun phrase. For examples, an organized party means the
party which has been organized, and so is a broken vase meaning the vase
which has been broken, and they are all passive. In contrast, the melted ice
means the ice that has melted.

In addition to as a subject, Greenbaum and Nelason (2002) provides other

possible functions of a noun phrase such as direct object, indirect object,
CHAPTER 3 – Syntax : Phrases 42

subject complement of preposition pre-modifier, and adverbial. Study the

following examples.

(7) Mr Zulfatan has fixed his old bicycle.

(8) My father brought his children some brown bread.
(9) Mrs. Bailey is a very dedicated teacher.
(10) People has chosen Anis Baswedan a governor of Jakarta.
(11) Children go to the zoo for wild animals.
(12) Rubber price has dropped drastically since the last few years.
(13) The price of rubber is still low this year.

The underlined phrases above are all nou phrases.

B. Adjective phrase
An adjective phrase can be formed by inserting an adverb before an
adjective. So we can formulate

Adjective Phrase (AP) = Adverb + Adjective

Examples:
- absolutely correct
- very quick
- extremely happy
When we refer to the function of an adjective phrase, we must go back to the
function of an adjective itself in which it describes a noun or pronoun as the
following examples.

(14) The windows of our classroom have very colorful curtains.

(15) Most students gave exteremely good answers.
(16) They are very friendly.

The italic adjective phrases in (14) and (15) modify the words that come
after. While in (16) the adjective phrase very friendly describes the
subject pronoun they.
CHAPTER 3 – Syntax : Phrases 43

C. Verb Phrase
A verb phrase is formed by adding any modal or auxiliary before a
verb as a head in a verb phrase, so the structure of a verb phrase can
be:

Verb Phrase (VP) = Modal/Auxiliary + Verb

Examples:
- could write
- has been submitted
- is being discussed
- will be cultivating

In a formal sentence a verb is the major essential element of a predicate

and so is a verb phrase. This means there is no sentence if there is no
verb or verb phrase. In syntax analysis the verb with its whole
complements is included in a verb phrase. For example the sentence like
this;

(17) Barbara is making apple pie in her new kitchen soon.

The verb phrase in (17) is is making apple pie in her new kitchen soon.
The phrase apple pie in her new kitchen soon is the complement of the
verb phrase is making.
Furthermore, in the category of syntax, in addition to containing a verb,
a verb phrase may contain a noun or a noun phrase or a noun or a noun
phrase followed by a prepositional phrase (Fromkin, Rodman, and
Hyams, 2007, p. 88). The analysis of syntax will be discussed in Chapter
5 to follow.
In addition to a common verb phrase formulated above, we can also
have another type of verb phrase from verbals. Gerunds, participles, and
infinitives are categorized as verbals. All verbals are nonfinite verbs.
Miller (2002, p. 91) points out that verbals standing by themselves
without certain tenses involved are called nonfinite verbs. Let’shave few
examples of verbal phrase in the following sentences.
CHAPTER 3 – Syntax : Phrases 44

(18) Growing vegetables in the backyard of the house gives a lot of

fun.
(19) My mother loves growing vegetables in her backyard of the
house.
(20) To attend the seminar on environment is useful for our live.
(21) Bob has decided to attend the seminar on environment.
(22) Father usually waters growing vegetables in his garden

The phrase ‘growing vegetables’ in (18) is an example of a gerund

phrase as a subject, while the one in (19) acts as an object of a verb
loves. Besides, the phrase to attend in (20) functions as a subject, and
the one in (21) is called to infinitive phrase as an object. Meanwhile, the
phrase ‘growing vegetables’ in (22) is an example of participial phrase.

The formula of gerund phrase is

Gerund + (noun/pronoun)

The formula of infinitive phrase is

To Infinitive + (noun/pronoun)

We put nouns and pronouns in the formula above in brackets as

they may sometimes be absent such as in the following examples.

(23) Fishing is my favorite past time.

(24) To see is to believe people often say.

D. Adverb Phrase
An adverb phrase consists of an adverb as a head preceded by another
adverb.
The formula for this phrase is

Adverb Phrase (AdP) = Adverb + Adverb

Examples:
- exceptionally well
- extremely hard
CHAPTER 3 – Syntax : Phrases 45

- too slowly
- very frequently

A sentence may or may not have an adverb phrase depending on the

purpose of the sentence. If a sentence requires additional information to
make the sentence much clearer, an adverb phrase is included. Mostly
adverb phrases are in the form of adverb of manner describing verbs or
adjectives. Here is an example.

(25) Mr. Ferdinan painted the wall of this school very completely.

Sentence (25) contains an adverb phrase very completely modifying

the verb painted.

E. Prepositional Phrase
A prepositional phrase actually contains a noun or pronoun preceded
by a preposition. The formula for this phrase is

Preposition Phrase (PP) = Preposition + Noun/Pronoun

Examples:
- for us (preposition followed by pronoun)
- at school (preposition followed by a noun)
- behind this building (preposition followed by a noun phrase)

When a noun or a noun phrase or a pronoun occurs after or as a complement

of a preposition and the complement itself is as the complement of a verb, it
is called an oblique object (Miller, 2002, p. 95). For examples:

(26) Ema will go to Bahrain.

(27) Annisa carried a parcel for her mother.

Phrases to Bahrain and for her mother are prepositional phrases. When we
refer to syntactical analysis, in fact the phrase for her mother is basically a
noun phrase as an indirect object if we put the sentence (20) like this;
CHAPTER 3 – Syntax : Phrases 46

(28) Annisa carried her mother a parcel.

In addition, in the modal structure of the clause, the prepositional phrase can
serve as Adjunct (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004). See chapter 5 for the
description of adjunct. The complement of a prepositional phrase may also
be a nominal relative clause (Greenbaum and Nelson, 2002, p. 70). Few
examples are shown in the following underlined clauses.

a) The farmers have been interested in what Mr. Zainal has presented
about tropical plants.

b) The students are fond of which book the teacher has instructed to
read.
c) The prisoner has escaped from where he has been put in.

Function of Prepositional Phrase

There are three major functions of a prepositional phrase: post modifier on a

noun, post modifier of an adjective, and an adverbial.
1 Post modifier of a noun
A prepositional phrase functions as a post modifier of a noun if it is
related to or modifies the previous nouns for example,
 A strong man with a mask
 A tall building of Bank Syariah
2. Post modifier of an adjective
Some adjectives require or are always followed by prepositons suc
as good at, afraid of, angry with, etc. When those adjectives with
prepositions are followed by nouns or noun phrase, there appears to
have a prepositional phrase. This prepositional phrase will certainly
function as a part of modifier of an adjective.
3. An adverbial
A prepositional phrase which is very common to occur in a sentence
can function as an adverbial (time, place) such as in these sentences.
 Mrs. Rosmalina has left her umbrella in Graduate School
Digital Library.
 The children will arrive at the zoo at noon..
CHAPTER 3 – Syntax : Phrases 47

In summary,
From the description of all kinds of phrases above, we can argue that the
relation between a lexical category and a phrasal category is quite clear. The
lexical category will determine the head of a phrasal category while other
lexical category accompanied with the head functions as modifiers. In other
words, the category of the head word determines the category of the phrase a
whole while the presence of other words is because of their function
(directly presentor indirectly) having in respect of the head (Roberts, 2011,
p. 65).
CHAPTER 3 – Syntax : Phrases 48

TESTING YOURSELF!

1. Directions:
Read the following text and then put brackets ( ) for all noun phrases, put
square bracket [ ] for all prepositional phrases, and underline all verb
phrases as few examples in the first paragraph.

Grease

‘Greasy Spoons’ very rarely appear [in guidebooks], but they

are (an essential part)of life in the UK, especially for people living in
the bigger cities. These small restaurants are so common that they
often go unnoticed, but if they were removed, the country would be
on its knees. In London, the capital city of greasy spoon, there are
hundreds of them, fuelling the population with bacon, egg and
sausage.

Greasy spoon cafés are so called because cutlery that comes

into contact with the food they offer is immediately coated with a
sticky, greasy layer of lard. More calories can be found in a cup of tea
in a good greasy spoon than in a whole meal at a normal restaurant.

Greasy spoons are generally found slightly away from the

main streets of most towns, they usually have large glass windows, a
plastic sign with the name of the café – usually containing the name of
the owner, e.g. Mario’s, Bob’s Place, Rita’s Café – and a huge menu
offering a wide variety of delights. Inside they are generally clean and
functional. You’ll see old wooden seats, tables covered with cracked
linoleum and plain walls. Each table has on it a bottle of brown sauce,
tomato ketchup and vinegar, and pots of salt and pepper.

In a typical greasy spoon, you will find people from all walks
of life. Poets, builders, hurrying businessman, student lazing around
with huge mugs of tea. Some read novels, some stare into space, and
 CHAPTER 3 – Syntax : Phrases 49

others catch up on the day’s news. At weekends there will always be

large group of friends, recovering from a night in town.

The meals here are dangerously unhealthy, and absolutely

delicious. All kinds of fried food can be bought for incredibly low
prices. The centerpiece is usually the traditional English breakfast.
Although it’s called a breakfast, you have to be really brave to eat it
first thing in the morning, because it is huge. At least two pieces of
bacon, two sizing sausages, two fried eggs, fried mushrooms, baked
beans and bread soaked in hot oil and fried. The English breakfast is
full of meat and fat. If you want something less filling, there’s still a
lot to choose from, particular specialties are bacon or fried egg
sandwiches (or, of course, bacon and egg sandwiches). There is also
often a range of vegetarian sausages and burgers.

Greasy spoons have some devoted followers. Typing ‘greasy

spoons’ into an internet search engine will bring up hundreds of
entries. With pictures, reviews, menus, and stories, it’s the next best
thing to going to a greasy spoon café yourself. But of course, nothing
can beat going to the real thing – especially on an empty stomach.

2. From the passage above, rewrite all adjective phrases and adverb phrases.
Write your answer here.

No. Adjective phrase Adverb phrase

1. .......................... ....................................
2. .......................... ....................................
3. .......................... ....................................
4. .......................... ....................................
5. .......................... ....................................
6. .......................... ....................................
7. .......................... ....................................
CHAPTER 3 – Syntax : Phrases 50

8. .......................... ....................................
9. .......................... ....................................
10. .......................... ....................................

3. Directions:
Identify the type of phrases below and describe their head and
modifier(s) or complement.

a. a terrific soccer player

___________________________________________________
b. an awkward age
___________________________________________________
c. the job in the city
___________________________________________________
d. the manager of the production of the company
___________________________________________________
e. very interesting
___________________________________________________
f. about fertile soils
___________________________________________________
g. very effectively
___________________________________________________
h. a reputation for progress
___________________________________________________
i. a heavy breakfast
___________________________________________________
j. absolutely amusing
___________________________________________________
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 51

CHAPTER
4
SENTENCE AND
CLAUSE
Chapter Contents Objectives
This chapter provides: At the end of the study of this chapter
 Sentence definition learners must be able:
 Types of Sentence  to describe what is meant by sentence
 According to and clause
Structure  to understand and distinguish
 According to different types of sentence
Purpose  to identify and know the type of
 According to sentence according to its structure
Voice  to identify and know the type of
 Clause definition sentence according to its purpose
 Types of Clause  to identify and know the type of
 Main sentence according to its voice
 Subordinate  to understand and distinguish
different types of clause

“Our body consists of parts of organs. If one gets hurt or pain, he feels not fine.
Similarly, a sentence has words or phrases. If one is missing, there will be an ill-
formed sentence. So a sentence is like our body, and therefore, keep it healthy!”

- Muslih Hambali & Soni Mirizon –

CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 52

CHAPTER 4
SENTENCE AND CLAUSE

4.1 INTRODUCTION
Logically and structurally, the terms both sentence and clause are the
same as they must contain both subject and predicate. Sometimes beginning
syntax students get confused to distinguish between these two terms if asked.
In fact, both sentence and clause may differ if we think of the whole
complete thought. Compare the following examples.

(1) Mr. Parker will complete his job before he leaves this city.

The sentence above has two clauses, so if we parse it, there will be like
these:

(2) Mr. Parker will complete his job.

(3) Before Mr. Parker leaves this city.*

Examples (1), (2), and (3) have both subjects and predicates. Example (1)
has two clauses, example (2) has one clause, and example (3) has one clause.
However, when we refer to a complete meaning, Example (3) is not a
sentence, but it is only a clause as it does not represent a complete thought.
Therefore, I might say a sentence must convey a complete meaning, while a
clause it may or may not. Besides, Woods (2001, p. 61) argues that “ a
complete sentence must have a complete thought.” In another way, it is said
that a sentence must be a clause, but a clause may or may not be a sentence.
A sentence in a language must be arranged in order using grammatical
structure of a language used. An English sentence normally begins with a
subject followed by a verb and other elements (if any) such as objects and
adverbs. If a sentence begins with a verb or an object for example, this will
be considered ungrammatical (ill-formed sentence. Examine these following
sentences.
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 53

(4) Ananda wears uniforms on Fridays.

(5) Wear Ananda uniforms on Fridays. *
(6) Uniforms Ananda wears on Fridays. *

Both sentences (5) and (6) are ill-formed sentences. Sentence (5) begins with
a verb. In English a sentence can begin with a verb if it is an imperative
sentence or if it is an inverted sentence begins with negative expression or
place expression such as:

(7) In the basket are all the dirty clothes.

(8) Rarely did Mohammad Ali speak arrogantly.

. In (6) the sentence begins with an object, and this is incorrect since there is
no rule in English sentence beginning with objects. In addition, a sentence in
English can begin with an adverb for example;

(9) This morning many students arrived to class late.

Instead of
(10) Many students arrived to class late this morning.

For a comparison, a sentence in Bahasa Indonesia has similar grammatical

structure order as that of English. Perhaps, a very common difference is in a
phrase structure especially noun phrase for examples.
English Bahasa Indonesia
That man cultivated his land for Orang itu mengelolah tanah dia untuk
M + N M+ N N + M N+M
palm plantation tanaman palm
M (N) + N N + M

M = modifier, N = Noun
Notice noun phrases in English that man, his land, andpalm plantation. All
modifiers precede nouns. In contrast, in Bahasa Indonesia all modifiers come
after nouns such as Orang itu, tanah dia, and tanaman palm.

To get more description aboutsentences and clauses, there will be a

discussion in turn.
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 54

4.2 CLAUSE
Simply defined a clause, “ a sentence or sentence-like construction
contained within a sentence”, (Greenbaum and Sidney, 2002, p.16) is a
group of related words that have a subject and a predicate. The predicate
itself must be at least a verb as in the following examples.

(11) Mr. Heman loves his job very much.

(12) Okta and Dekta are in the mall.

Sentence (11) has Mr Heman as a subject and the verb loves, and sentence
(12) contains subjects Okta and Dekta with the verb are. Both (11) and (12)
are clauses as well as sentences. Though a clause contains a subject and a
verb as a predicate, it does not mean a clause is a sentence. Now let’s
consider the clauses below.

(13) If they finish their work on time.

(14) The employees will have two days off next week.

Clause (13) is not a declarative sentence yet since it does not represent a
complete meaning, while clause (14) gives meaning as it is a statement or a
declarative sentence. However, if we combine clause (13) with clause (14) to
become like these:

(15) The employees will have two days off next week if they finish
their work on time.
or
(16) If the employees finish their work on time, they will have two
days off next week.

clause 13 above will make sense as an adverbial clause in sentences (15) or

(16). Therefore, I could say that a clause can be a sentence like (14) or
cannot be a sentence like (13).

4.3 Type of Clause

Referring the above examples we can make a conclusion that there are
two types of clauses: main and subordinate. A main clause sometimes
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 55

called independent clause is a clause that can stand alone and conveys
meaning. A subordinate clause or dependent clause is a clause that cannot
stand alone but must depend on a main clause to make it meaningful. The
characteristics of a subordinate clause is that it usually begins with a
subordinator except certain subordinate clauses that may or may not include
subordinators such as in the following.

(17) We believe people need water.

(18) The man you talked to last week has been working in this
company.

In (17), people need water is a subordinate clause (noun clause) in which the
subordinator that is not used, and in (18) actually the subordinate clause you
talked to last week is in the form of adjective clause whose sobordinator
whose is omitted.
It is actually easy for beginning learners of syntax to identify a subordinate
clause in a text or discourse by looking at whether or not a clause begins
with any of subordinators. Hence, if we find sentences as in (17) and (18) in
which subordinators are missing, this a little bit requires more knowledge.

4.3.1 Types of Subordinate Clauses

There are three types of subordinate clauses: noun clause, adjective
clause, and adverbial clause. The following will be the description of
each.

A. Noun Clause
A noun clause is simply defined as a clause that functions as a noun. If a
noun can function as a subject or an object, this also happens to a noun
clause. Now let’s have some examples here.

(19) People believe [that Indonesia has the greatest army forces in
Southeast Asia].
(20) [That Indonesia has the greatest army forces in Southeast Asia]
makes other Asian countries powerless.
(21) If there is a riot, people are afraid of [what will happen to their
famly].
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 56

All bracketted clauses in (19), (20), and (21) are subordinate clauses as
nouns. In (8) the noun clause functions as an object of a verb believe, in
(20) the noun clause acts as a subject in a sentence whose full predicate
is makes other Asian countries powerless. Meanwhile, the noun clause
in (21) functions as an object preposition of. All noun clauses begins
with subordinators such as that, whether, what, who, which,
whom,how, etc. Azar (2001, p. 240-265) provides subordinators for
noun clauses that begin with question words, if andwhether, and some
questions words + ever such as whoever, whatever, whichever, etc.

B. Adjective Clause
An adjective clause is a clause that functions to modify a noun or a
noun phrase. This means any noun or noun phrase that exists whether it
function as a subject or an object in a sentence can be modified by an
adjective clause. Consider the following sentences.

(22) The young lady [who visited this school las week] is an
architect.
(23) The contractor has examined the building [that needs to be
repaired].
(24) We have been familiar with the man [whom the rector is
talking to].

The adjective clause of (22) in square brackets describes the preceded

noun phrase the younglady as a subject. The one in (23) describes the noun
building as an object in that sentence. Furthermore, The adjective clause
whom the rector is talking to in (24) describes the noun man. The following
table contains common subordinators for adjective clauses.

Table 11 Common subordinators of adjetive clauses.

For People For Things For People /Things

Subject: who Subject: which Subject: that
Object: whom Object: which Object : that
Possessive: whose Possessive: whose
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 57

C. Adverbial Clause
An adverbial clause can be briefly defined as a subordinate clause
functioning to modify a verb in a sentence. For example,

(25) Islamic parties in Indonesia have been existing since Indonesia

was proclaimed.
(26) Abel will go to Pandeglang when she finishes her senior high
school.

The clause since Indonesia was proclaimed is an adverbial clause

functioning to modify the verb phrase have been existing.
Adverbial clauses are classified into several kinds. Philips (2001)
divides six different kinds of adverbial clauses namely: reason or cause,
time, condition, contrast, manner, and place. He further provides the list
of subordinators for each kind of adverbial clause as in the following
Table 2 and Table 3. Note that here I use the terms subordinators
instead of connectors as Philips adopted.

Table 12 List of Subordinators for Adverbial Clause

SUBORDINATORS
TIME CAUSE
after as soon as once when as now that
as before since whenever because
as long as by the time until while since inasmuch as

Table 13 List of Subordinators for Adverbial Clause (cont)

SUBORDINATORS
CONDITION CONTRAST MANNER PLACE
if although as Where
in case even though in that wherever
provided though
providing while
unless whereas
whether
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 58

Here some more sentences with different kinds of Adverbial Clause (the
underlined clause). The highlited word is a subordinator to introduce a
subordinate clause. The word in brackets is to identify the type of adverbial
clause.

(27) My friend won’t be able to go to college unless he gets a

scholarship from the government. (condition)
(28) While the local people in Aceh were trying to run away,
the tsunami washed over many buildings and trees.(time)
(29) Alfayette is planning to continue his studies overseas in that
he gets a god grade in English. (manner)
(30) The man doesn’t get the job although he has a lot of
experience in marketing. (contrast)
(31) Wherever there is a football match, many fans of each
club give support to their team. (place)
(32) It is advisable that people need proper shoes to go hikingin
the mountains since the ground is rough and hard. (reason or
cause)

4.4 SENTENCE
A sentence can be simply defined as a group of related words that contain
at least a subject and a predicate. A sentence refers to a string of words that
are organized in accordance with certain rules (Aarts, 2001, p. 8). Miller
(2002) prefers to use the term construction instead of sentence. A sentence
can be classified based on its structure, function (purpose), and voice.

4.4.1 According to Structure

According its structure there are four major types of sentence.
- Simple
- Compound
- Complex
- Compound Complex

A. Simple Sentence
A simple sentence is a sentence that contains one main clause as in
the following examples.
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 59

(33) Alfath does his assignment.

(34) Alfath does his work and eats dinner.
(35) Alfath and Alfaizah work their assignments.
(36) Alfath and Alfaizah do their work and eat dinner.

The four sentences above are classified as simple having subjects and
predicates although they have different structure. Sentence (33) has a
single subject and a single predicate, but sentence (34) has a single
subject with two predicates. Sentence (35) has double subjects and
one predicate, while sentence (36) has double subjects and double
predicates. All four sentences above consist of one main clause.

B. Compound Sentence
A compound sentence is a sentence having two or more main
clauses. The two main clauses are usually separated with
conjunctions. Consider the following sentences.

(37) Alfath and Alfaizah work their assignments.

(38) Alfath works his assignment, and Alfaizah works her
assignment.

Sentence (37) has one clause with a compound subject (Alfath and
Alfaizah). The conjunction and is used to connect the subject Alfath
and Alfaizah. While sentence (38) the function of and is to connect
two clauses Alfath works his assignment, and Alfaizah works her
assignment. The conjunctions that are commonly used in compound
sentences are coordinating conjunctions and corelative
conjunctions as shown in the previous Tables 5 and 6 in Chapter 2.

In addition, a common formula used in a compound sentence is like

this;

CLAUSE, connector (conjunction) CLAUSE

See a comma is used after the first clause or before the

conjunction in a compound sentence.
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 60

Feature Deletion
In a compound sentence there might exist that a part of a sentence is
deleted. This is commonly called feature deletion. In English
language, it is often to delete a feature or features in a sentence such as
in the following sentence:

1. Brian loves his teacher, and Mark does too.

Syntactically, the sentence above is originally from

2. Brian loves his teacher, and Mark loves his teacher too.

Sentence 1 contains feature deletion of pronoun his and other features

loves and teachers. Semantically the word his in sentence 1 refers to
Brian, while his in sentence 2 it can refer to Mark. The interpretation
can be different if co-reference of a noun is not known.

The Role of Economy in Language System

The term of economy in this context can refer to the efficiency of

words in a sentence by deleting a part or parts of features in a
sentence. Therefore, it is necessary that we learn the interpretation of a
sentence such as in the following:

Brian said that he called his mother. Jack did too.

In sentence Jack did too, the interpretation is different because the

sentence refers to the previous one containing pronoun he and his.
There might have possible interpretations of this sentence.

a. Jack said that Jack called his mother.

b. Jack said that Brian called Brian’s mother.

c. Jack said that Jack called Brian’s mother.

d. Jack said that Brian called Jack’s mother.

CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 61

However such number of possible interpretations there will be, choice

a is probably the most common one that many people might think. In
sentence Jack did too (Jack said that he called his mother), the words
did and too are the representatives of deleting a part or parts of
features in that sentence. Note that the word did (as an auxiliary) is
used as the sentence is in the form of simple past. Other common
words or expressions used to represent a part or parts of sentence
features deletion are such as so, neither, and either. Let’s have some
sentences as the examples.

1) My sister loves traditional food, and so do I.

2) Farmers cannot stand the cost of living because of economic
crisis, and neither can fishermen.
3) Farmers cannot stand the cost of living because of economic
crisis, and fishermen cannot either.

C. Complex Sentence
A complex sentence is a sentence containing one main clause and one
or more subordinate clauses. Let’s have some examples below.

(39) AlBaro’ will play football [after he gets home from school].
(40) Keisha usually eats her lunch[when it is 12 o’clock].
(41) [After the train arrives], the passengers[who are waiting in
the balcony]walk to the entrance gate.

We can formulate a complex sentence like this:

1 Main Clause + ≥ 1 Subordinate Clause

CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 62

D. Compound Complex Sentence

A compound complex sentence is a sentence with two or more main
clauses and one or more subordinate clauses. So the formula of this
type of sentence can be:

≥ 2 Main Clause + ≥ 1 Subordinate Clause

Let’s have some examples below.

(42) Dekta will visit the botanical garden this week [because she
needs to do a Research], but Eman will attend the seminar
on waste pollution.
(43) The doctor [who examined my friend last Monday] is now
on vacation, and my friend still stays at home [since he
must have a few days for bed rest].

Sentence (42) has two main clauses and one subordinate clause, but
sentence (43) has both two main clauses and two subordinate clauses.

4.4.2 According to Function or Purpose

There are four kinds of sentences in accordance with their functionor
purpose, declarative (Statement), interrogative (Question), imperative
(Command), and exclamatory.

A. Declarative Sentence
A declarative sentence is a sentence that provides a statement
either in positive or in negative. Therefore, this kind of sentence is
also often called statement instead of declarative for examples.

(44) Mr Kiplan Zein is also popular in Asean countries. (positive

statement)
(45) People of Indonesia do not tolerate with the existence of
PKI. (negative statement)
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 63

B. Interrogative Sentence
An interrogative sentence is a sentence that begins with question
words or yes-no questions such as in the following.

(46) Where do most people like to do on weekend?

(47) Did many participants attend the peace demonstration of
212 in Jakarta in 2016?

C. Imperative Sentence
An imperative sentence is a sentence that contains a request to
someone to do or not to do something for examples.

(48) Submit your work when finished.

(49) Don’t ever come without your report.

An imperative sentence in English is always usinginfinitive. The

subject of an imperative sentence is always you but is spelled out, so
this is called null subject (Radford, 2004, p. 60).

D. Exclamatory Sentence
An exclamatory sentence is a sentence that begins with question
words how and what with different patterns and ends with
exclamation mark. How here is always followed by adjectives and
what is followed by a noun phrase as in the following examples.

(50) How hot the weather today is!

(51) What a hot day the weather is!

4.4.3 According to Voice

According to its voice, a sentence can be in the form of active or in
the form of passive. When a sentence is active the subject always
represents as the doer, but when it is passive, the object of the active
voice will become the subject of the sentence. In another way, the
subject in the active sentence is assigned to the by-phrase (Wekker and
Haegeman, 1996, p. 133). Let’s have some examples of active and
passive sentences.
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 64

(52) Active : Farmers usually harvest the crops after rainy

seasons.
(53) Passive: The crops are usually harvested by farmers after
rainy seasons.
(54) Active: The government built Glora Sriwijaya stadium for
Asean games.
(55) Passive: Glora Sriwijaya was built by the government for
Asean games.
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 65

TESTING YOURSELF!

A. Directions: Identify the type of sentence on each of the following

sentences according to its structure. Write your answer in the blank at
the end of each sentence. Give square brackets if a sentence contains a
subodinate clause

(1) Recent news has reported that the number of people from South
Sumatera going for Umrah outnumbers the number of those from
other provinces in Sumatra every month, so Garuda thinks of
opening new route to Jeddah from Palembang. _________
(2) Many travel agents compete to offer low prices for overseas and
local trips. _________
(3) When prophet Ibrahim wanted to cut his son for sacrification,
suddenly his son became a sheep because Allah had changed him.
_________
(4) It is virtually impossible to get a job in Britain without a permanent
address, and it’s very difficult to get somewhere to live if you don’t
have a job, so most of those people get trapped._________
(5) People sympathetic to the homeless are being told to donate money
to charities who specialize in caring for the poor or to offer beggar
gifts of food or clothes instead of money._________
(6) It gave them a sense of security and became so permanent that the
locals gave the area a nickname – Cardboard City. _________
(7) The Labour Party administration claims that many of these people
are homeless by choice, and that there are many drug addicts among
them._________
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 66

(8) All profits are reinvested into the magazine or diverted to The Big
Issue foundation, a charity that runs many social support programs
for the homeless._________
(9) In stark contrast to this centre of London’s cultural activity, are the
subways close by, which offer some relief from the cold at
night._________
(10) These small restaurants are so common that they often go unnoticed,
but if they were removed, the country would be on its
knees._________
(11) In a typical greasy spoon, you will find people from all walks of life.
(12) Poets, builders, hurrying businessman, students lazing around with
huge mugs of tea are discussing about economic crisis._________
(13) The Big Issue is a financial success, and it generates huge amounts
of money to be spent on good causes._________
(14) Cultural landmarks stand next to temporary shelters for people
sleeping rough._________
(15) In the 1980s, many people arrived in the capital in search of a home
and a job._________
(16) The Big Issue is now an international initiative._________
(17) The life of homeless people on the South Bank was immortalized in
a theatre play._________
(18) People can offer support for homeless people through special
organizations._________
(19) The teacher said that honesty is the best policy._________
(20) The man who committed the theft last night has been
caught._________
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 67

B. Directions: Read the following passage and rewrite any subordinate

clause, and mention the kind of subordinate clause.

Making time for science

Chronobiology might sound a little futuristic – like something

from a science fiction novel, perhaps – but it’s actually a field of
study that concerns one of the oldest processes life on this planet
has ever known: short-term rhythms of time and their effect on
flora and fauna.

This can take many forms. Marine life, for example, is

influenced by tidal patterns. Animals tend to be active or
inactive depending on the position of the sun or moon.
Numerous creatures, humans included, are largely diurnal – that
is, they like to come out during the hours of sunlight. Nocturnal
animals, such as bats and possums, prefer to forage by night. A
third group are known as crepuscular: they thrive in the low-
light of dawn and dusk and remain inactive at other hours.

When it comes to humans, chronobiologists are interested in

what is known as the circadian rhythm. This is the complete
cycle our bodies are naturally geared to undergo within the
passage of a twenty-four hour day. Aside from sleeping at night
and waking during the day, each cycle involves many other
factors such as changes in blood pressure and body temperature.
Not everyone has an identical circadian rhythm. ‘Night people’,
for example, often describe how they find it very hard to operate
during the morning, but become alert and focused by evening.
This is a benign variation within circadian rhythms known as a
chronotype.
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 68

Scientists have limited abilities to create durable modifications

of chronobiological demands. Recent therapeutic developments
for humans such as artificial light machines and melatonin
administration can reset our circadian rhythms, for example, but
our bodies can tell the difference and health suffers when we
breach these natural rhythms for extended periods of time.
Plants appear no more malleable in this respect; studies
demonstrate that vegetables grown in season and ripened on the
tree are far higher in essential nutrients than those grown in
greenhouses and ripened by laser.

Knowledge of chronobiological patterns can have many

pragmatic implications for our day-to-day lives. While
contemporary living can sometimes appear to subjugate biology
– after all, who needs circadian rhythms when we have caffeine
pills, energy drinks, shift work and cities that never sleep? –
keeping in synch with our body clock is important.

The average urban resident, for example, rouses at the eye-

blearing time of 6.04 a.m., which researchers believe to be far
too early. One study found that even rising at 7.00 a.m. has
deleterious effects on health unless exercise is performed for 30
minutes afterward. The optimum moment has been whittled
down to 7.22 a.m.; muscle aches, headaches and moodiness
were reported to be lowest by participants in the study who
awoke then.

Once you’re up and ready to go, what then? If you’re trying to

shed some extra pounds, dieticians are adamant: never skip
breakfast. This disorients your circadian rhythm and puts your
body in starvation mode. The recommended course of action is
to follow an intense workout with a carbohydrate-rich breakfast;
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 69

the other way round and weight loss results are not as
pronounced.

Morning is also great for breaking out the vitamins. Supplement

absorption by the body is not temporal-dependent, but
naturopath Pam Stone notes that the extra boost at breakfast
helps us get energised for the day ahead. For improved
absorption, Stone suggests pairing supplements with a food in
which they are soluble and steering clear of caffeinated
beverages. Finally, Stone warns to take care with storage; high
potency is best for absorption, and warmth and humidity are
known to deplete the potency of a supplement.

After-dinner espressos are becoming more of a tradition – we

have the Italians to thank for that – but to prepare for a good
night’s sleep we are better off putting the brakes on caffeine
consumption as early as 3 p.m. With a seven hour half-life, a
cup of coffee containing 90 mg of caffeine taken at this hour
could still leave 45 mg of caffeine in your nervous system at ten
o’clock that evening. It is essential that, by the time you are
ready to sleep, your body is rid of all traces.

Evenings are important for winding down before sleep;

however, dietician Geraldine Georgeou warns that an after-five
carbohydrate-fast is more cultural myth than chronobiological
demand. This will deprive your body of vital energy needs.
Overloading your gut could lead to indigestion, though. Our
digestive tracts do not shut down for the night entirely, but their
work slows to a crawl as our bodies prepare for sleep.
Consuming a modest snack should be entirely sufficient.
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 70

Source:
http://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/prepare-test/practice-
tests/reading practice-test-1-academic/reading-passage-1

Write your answer on the table here.

No Subordinate Clause Name of Subordinate clause

10

11

12

13

14

15
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 71

16

17

18

19

20
CHAPTER 4– SYNTAX: SENTENCE AND CLAUSE 72
CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 73

CHAPTER 5

SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS
Chapter Contents Objectives
This chapter provides: At the end of the study of this
 The definition of syntax chapter learners must be able:
 Analysis of syntactic analysis  to describe what is meant by
 Units of syntax covering: syntax
- Units of syntax  to understand and distinguish
- Grammatical units of syntax
category  to understand and describe
- Grammatical grammatical category and
function grammatical function
- Argument structure  to analyze syntactical structure
of a sentence

“Human body is constructed from skeleton with muscle, flesh, and skin so is
a sentence having morphemes, words, phrases, and clauses”

- Muslih Hambali & Soni Mirizon–

CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 74

CHAPTER 5
SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS

5.1 Introduction
So far in the previous chapters we have been introduced relevant
component parts of a sentence starting from word, phrase, clause and
sentence. Although morpheme is absent in the previous discussions, it seems
the discussions are in line with what Wekker and Haegeman (1996, p. 5)
state that the hierarchy of sentence constituent is like this diagram below.

SENTENCE↔CLAUSE↔PHRASE↔WORD↔MORPHEME

While Meyer (2009) has a slight difference of the hierarchy of sentence

constituent from Wekker’s and Haegeman’s in which he does not include
morpheme in his diagram as shown in the following.

SENTENCES → CLAUSES→PHRASES→WORDS
largest smallest

The arrows that point to the right represent that a sentence consists of a
clause or clauses, and a clause may consist of words or phrases. While, a
phrase contains words.
Although slight different, both diagrams represent that a sentence has the
largest constituent and the smallest one is a word. The diagram also shows
us what the syntax rules do is “to combine wordsinto phrases and phrases
into sentences” (Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams, 2011, p. 78).
The study of syntax is actually the study of sentence structures and their
functional relationship to one another (Finegan, 2004, 147). The analysis of
syntactic structure in this book focuses on the constituents of a sentence in
which what grammatical category and what grammatical function each
constituent belongs to. Finegan (2004) further says that a constituent is a
structural unit relevant to some purpose of organization. Grammatical
category usually describes an element of a word class or type which later
becomes a component part of a sentence, while grammatical function refers
CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 75

to the identity of word class such as subject, predicate, or adjunct. Let’s have
the following example.

(1) Ida drives her car on a highway carefully.

In grammatical category the word Ida is a noun, drives is a verb in present,

her car is a noun phrase, on a high way is a prepositional phrase, and
carefully is an adverb. In grammatical function, the sentence above contains
a subject, a predicate, and adjuncts. The subject of the sentence is Ida, the
predicate is the verb driveswith the object her car (direct object), and the
adjuncts are on a high way and carefully in the forms of adverbs.

5.2 Components of a Sentence

A sentence is the largest constituent that divides into a noun phrase serving
as a subject and verb phrase serving as a predicate (Jackendoff, 2003, p. 9).
Since a sentence contains two major components: subject and predicate, the
following will be the description of the two.

Subject
Aarts (2001, p. 72) argues that to identify an expression of a subject in a
sentence is simply by asking who or what is denoted by the verb. For
example a sentence “Indah has drawn a picture of rice field.” Then we ask a
question “Who has drawn a picture of rice field?”, and the answer is Indah,
so that is a subject. A subject is basically a noun or a pronoun. A noun itself
can be in the form of a noun or a noun phrase, a noun clause, and a pronoun.
Here are the possible noun structures of a subject.

(2) Students need a lot of time to do the assignment.

(3) The assignment takes a lot of time to do.
(4) It takes a lot of time to do the assignment.
(5) Doing the assignment takes a lot of time
(6) To do the assignment takes a lot of time.
(7) [That we do the assignment ] takes a lot of time.
(8) Papatanger takes a lot of time to do the assignment.
CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 76

The subjects in sentences (2) and (8) are nouns, but the subject in sentence
(4) is a pronoun (called dummy IT or impersonal IT). The subjects in
sentences (3), (5), and (6) are in the form of phrases, noun, gerund, and
infinitive. While, sentence (7) has a subject in the form of noun clause.
When a noun begins a sentence, the noun can be followed by either a
phrase (prepositional phrase) or clause (adjective clause) as shown in (9) and
(10) below.

(9) All the students in syntax class need a lot of time to do the
assignment.
(10) Many female students that take syntax with Mr Harson need a lot of
time to do the assignment.

The italic phrase in (9) is a prepositional phrase modifying students, while in

(10) the italic clause is an adjective clause describing the previous word
students. Any modifier preceding a noun is called premodifier such as all
and the in all the students (9) or many female in (10), while any modifer in
the form of a prepositional phrase such as in syntax (9) or an adjective
clause following a nounsuch as that take syntax with Mr Harson (10) is
called post modifier. Both (9) and (10) we could say a complex noun phrase.

Predicate
A predicate can be defined as “an expression denoting an activity or event”
(Radford, 2001, p. 127). A verb is a central component of a sentence as a
predicate. Pavey (2012, p. 50) has adopted the term “core” for the predicate
containing nucleus and argument. The term nucleus itsself refers to a verb
and the term argument represents the participants of the action or event for
example the sentence;

(11) The doctor has examined the patients

has a nucleus has examined in the form of verb phrase and two arguments
the doctor and the patients.
The role of a verb in a sentence is to control not only a word or a phrase
following it but also to control every other phrase in a clause (Miller, 2002,
p. 4). This means that in a sentence a verb is an obligatory, otherwise, the
CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 77

sentence is meaningless. In addition, a verb in a sentence is called a

predicator, while a subject or an object is called an argument (more
commonly used in semantics). A predicator can be defined as elements of
verbs (lexical verbs and auxiliary verbs) (Meyer, 2009, p.137). Radford
(2001, p. 127) furthers says that an argument is an expression that denotes a
participant in the relevant activity or event. The participants of a sentence
involve both subjects and objects. A predicate is always a verb or
auxiliary/modal plus verb as the following examples.

(12) The circus performed a good play.

(13) The circus has been performing a good play in the huge hall.

Sentence (12) has the main verb performed as a predicate, and sentence (13)
contains modal and auxiliary has been plus the main verb as a predicate.

In a whole, a complete predicate in syntax actually contains not only a

verb but also includes any elements following the verb if any. The elements
can be objects or adverbs. So, the complete predicate of (12) is performed a
good play, and of (13) is has been performing a good play in the huge hall.
Both sentences (12) and (13) have the same object (direct object) a good
play. Although the phrase in the huge hall (13) is included in the area of a
predicate, it is not called argument but non-argument or periphery (Pavey,
2012), or adjunct (Radford, 2004; Miller, 2002; Wekker and Haegeman,
1985). See more about adjuncts in the following section.
Furthermore, Pavey (2012) offers non-verbal predicate for any sentence with
copula be such as the sentences;

(14) Bachtiar is diligent.

(15) Bachtiar is a student.
(16) Bachtiar is in the classroom.

We see sentence (14) has an adjective as a predicate, sentence (15) has a

noun phrase as a predicate, and the predicate of sentence (16) is a
prepositional phrase. Therefore, those italic word or phrase in sentences (14),
(15),and (16) are called non-verbal predicate. When an adjective comes
CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 78

after BE verb as a predicate the sentence is called attributive clause, while a

noun phrase as a predicate is called a nominal predicate (Pavey, 2012, p. 57).

1. Object
An object is one of the elements in a predicate but not as essential as a verb
as it can be absent in a clause for example the sentence The students are
gathering in the classroom doesnot contain an object. An object is a word or
a phrase or even a clause that functions as a noun preceded by a verb or a
preposition for examples:

(17) Andi plays football on weekends

(18) Raisya sharpens her pencil before the test.
(19) Bela is interested in what the delegates from New Zealand Embassy
have informed.

All italic word or words in (17), (18), and (19) are objects. Sentence (17)
has an object of a single word, sentence (18) has a noun phrase as an object,
and sentence (19) has a noun clause as an object.
A verb may have one object or two objects. If there are two, one is called a
direct object (DO) and the other is called indirect object (IO). Let’s consider
the following example.

(20) Mr. Marzuki distributed us two assignments.

The direct object in (20) is two assignments, and the indirect one is us. It is
actually easy enough identify the direct object of a verb by looking at which
object is directly close to or with the subject (doer). In another way is to look
at the word that comes after the verb that must be an indirect object and the
last must be a direct object. It should be noted that both direct object and
indirect object will exist in a clause or a sentence as long as the verb in the
clause or sentence is in the type of transitive or ditransitive verb.

When a noun or a noun phrase comes after a preposition, the noun or the
noun phrase will become an object of preposition so that a prepositional
phrase is formed. This is syntactically called an oblique object. Miller (2002,
p. 95-98) defines an oblique object is any noun phrase as a complement of a
CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 79

preposition, in which the prepositional phrase becomes the complement of a

verb. Here are some examples.

(21) Dekta brought some food for Keisha.

(22) My brother has returned from Tehran.
(23) Our sister rides her bicycle to school.

The prepositional phrases for Keisha, from Tehran, and to school are
examples of oblique objects. As previously been mentioned, a prepositional
phrase may be used to describe a noun or a noun phrase such as the
following.

(24) The lady on the phone is a students of this university.

(25) We are not familiar with the lady on the phone.

Although a prepositional phrase can describe a noun or a noun phrase,

sometimes it is confusing when it acts as an adjunct. Let’s examine the
sentence below.

(26) The teacher called the lady in the canteen.

The prepositional phrase in the canteen in (26) may invite two different
meanings. First, it might show the action of the teacher’s calling the lady
took place in the canteen. Second, it can be describing the position of the
lady (the lady was in the canteen) while the teacher was somewhere else.

2. Adjunct
Another element that a complete predicate may have is an adjunct. An
adjunct is simply defined as a word or words functioning as an adverb
modifying a verb in a sentence. Unlike a verb, an adjunct is not obligatory.
This means a prediacte may sometimes contain a verb or a verb plus objects
without any adjunct such as the previous sentences in (11) and (12). An
adjunct is usually in the form of adverb of time, manner, place, frequency,
reason, etc. Let’s have some sentences as the examples below.
CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 80

(27) Mrs. Fadhilah wakes up at five o’clock.

(28) Mrs. Fadhilah goes to bed early.
(29) Mrs. Fadhilah works in a pharmaceutical company.
(30) Mrs. Fadhilah rarely comes to work late.
(31) Mrs. Fadhilah visits Padang restaurant for her lunch.

All the italic words above are the examples of adjuncts. In (27) the phrase at
five o’clock represents an adverb of time, (28) the word early functions as an
adverb of manner, (29) the phrase in a pharmaceutical company functions
as an adverb of place. The word rarely in (30) functions as an adverb of
frequency modifying comes while the phrase for her lunch in (31) acts as an
adverb of reason. Notice that the position of an adjunct is not necessarily
next to its head, a verb, such as in sentences (25) and (28).

A complete predicate may contain several adjuncts such as the following

sentence.

(32) Mr. Mirizon sometimes writes his article diligently for his
promotion in the library in the late afternoon.

Sentence (32) has five different kinds of adverbs i.e. frequency

(sometimes), manner (diligently), reason (for his promotion), place (in
the library), and time (in the late afternoon). For the purpose of our
explanation of analysis of syntax, we have adopted the term adjunct for
non-argument.

3. Complement
Sometimes learners get confused between adjunct and complement. The
term complement refers to any element that completes the predicate or the
verb as the core of a clause. This complement can be a word , phrase, or
even a clause. Study these examples;
a. The welder felt tired.
b. Many exotic birs are in tropical forest.
c. The children will get what they are expecting.
CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 81

The underlined word or words above act as complements. They are in the
forms of a word in (a), a phrase in (b), and a clause in (c). Those
complements cannot be omitted as they complete the predicates. In a
sentence with elements of adjunct(s), the adjunct(s) can sometimes be
omitted without ungrammatical change of the sentence. Consider this
example,
 The doctor carefully examined the patients in a wheel chair
yesterday evening.
This sentence contains several elements of adjuncts such as carefully, in a
wheel chair, and yesterday evening. When we omit all these adjuncts, the
sentence will become like this,
 The doctor examined the patients

and the sentence is still meaningful.

Again a sentence may or may not have a complement depending on its verb
(transitive or intransitive). A transitive verb is usually followed by an object,
otherwise, it is incomplete. However, sometimes an object is absent and is
still acceptable. Consider the following examples.
(a) Mother has bought.
(b) Mother will cook traditional food now.
(c) Mother is cooking now.
We see sentence (a) is incomplete although grammatically correct since it
does not convey a complete message, so the reader might ask “ what has
mother bought?” Sentence (b) with a complete object is correct, and
sentence (c) without complement (object) is also correct.

In summary, from the above description about object , adjunct and

complement we could learn that a complement can be an object, but not all
complements are objects. An object (we mean as a part of a predicate) can
exist in a sentence if the verb is transtive. In addition to a noun or a noun
phrase, a complement can be in the form of adjective, prepositional phrase,
and even a noun clause. An adjunct which is not a complement but
functions as an adverb may appear as many as possible or may not be
present at all in a sentence.
CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 82

5.3 English Sentence Patterns

A sentence in English can be constructed into a variety of sentence patterns
depending on how many elements we have in a sentence. The number of
elements can occur in the part of a subject if in the form of a complex phrase
or in a predicate since the predicate may contain not only verbs but also
other complements such as objects, adverbs and other complements.

In the following I offer eight basic English sentence patterns for declarative
sentences.
1. Subject + Verb
Example: Her baby is crying

2. Subject + Verb + Adjunct

Example: The children are playing in the field.

3. Subject + Verb + Direct Object

Example: Nurses wear white uniforms.

4. Subject + V erb+ Direct Object+ Adjunct

Example: Farmers prepare fertilizers for their plants.

5. Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object

Example : The bank teller gives his customer a new card.

6. Subject + Verb + Noun + Noun (object complement)

Example : The senators have chosen Anis Saagaf a rector of
Sriwijaya University.

7. Subject + Verb + Noun + Adjective (object complement)

Example : My father loves his coffee strong.

8. Subject + be + Subject complement

Examples :
(a). Mrs. Harison is friendly.
(b). Mr. and Mrs. Harison are farmers.
(c). They are in the rice fields now.
CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 83

Patterns 1 until 5 have been familiar with us since there have been many
sentences in the previous chapters written as examples. Here we discuss
sentence patterns 6 and 7. These patterns require special verbs to create
object complement. The object complement functions to describe the noun
as an object. For example, the phrase a rector of Sriwijaya university in
pattern 6 describes Anis Saagaf. While the word strong in pattern 7 describes
coffee. In traditional grammar, this object complement is known as
appositive in the form of either a noun or an adjective. To know whether an
object complement is needed or not depends on its verb chosen so that verbs
included in patterns 6 and 7 should be introduced as in the following Table
14 and Table 15.

Table 14 Common verbs used in pattern 6 with object complement.

appoint, call, choose, declare, elect, make, name, select, think,vote

Table 15 Common verbs used in pattern 7 with object complement

consider, declare, find, keep, leave, like, love, make, paint,

prefer,prove, turn, want

Pattern 8 is also considered special to discuss since the subject complement

can have three different structures. The subject complement in this pattern
can be in the form of an adjective (predicative adjective) 8 (a), a noun or a
noun phrase 8 (b), and a prepositional phrase 8 (c). The subject complement
is crucial in this case since it completes the sentence, otherwise, the sentence
is wrong with the absence of subject complement. The be verb is commonly
used in this pattern 8.

From the eight basic sentence patterns above, we can summarize that there
are three major types of sentence patterns related to the class of the verbs:
Sentence pattern with intransitive verbs such as patterns 1 and 2, sentence
pattern with transitive verbs as in patterns 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, and sentence
pattern with Copula or linking verbs as in pattern 8.
CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 84

TESTING YOURSELF!
A. Directions: Identify and analyze each phrase of the following
sentences according to their grammatical structure and grammatical
function. Study this example,

 A young botanist has made an experiment in the green house.

Phrase Grammatical structure Grammatical Finction
A young botanist NP subject
has made VP predicator (core)
an experiment NP object of VP
in the green house PP adjunct(adv.
place)

a. Eman and I are travelling across the country this year.

b. Statistics problems contain complex calculations.

c. The nurses are really friendly.

d. Dr. Ardaya visited and examined his patients early in the morning.

e. Dr. Jones experts not only in animal disease but also in plant disease

f. Thousands of Rohingya refugees still live on the tents.

g. Many young Canadian boys hope to become professional hockey

players one day.

h. Fadhil will invite his friends for dinner this weekend.

i. Many local banks have merged in order to survive.

j. Foreign investors run their business on mining in Indonesia.

CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 85

B. Directions: Each sentence below is in the form of a complex sentence.

Split each sentence into two groups: Subject and Predicate. Give square
brackets for the subject group and underline the predicate group. Number
1 has already been done. Give square brackets if the sentence contains an
adjunct.

1. [Most students] seem not to know what they should do about the

assignment {in the classroom}.

2. Understanding why some people distrust their own children nowdays is

unbelievable.

3. This is the senator who voted against that bill we were fighting.

4. What will actually be on the test is what the students most want to know.

5. How the football team will do this year is what the students want to know

6. Many people in this district want to know about why Ahok becomesa

suspect.

7. Whatever you want to do is what we’ll do on your birthday.

8. Stephen King is a man who has written many horror novels.

9. That he believes came as a surprise to everyone.

10. After the movie was over, the young couple went out to eat immediately.

11. We had to write an essay about what we did on our summer vacation

12. The family have not decided where they want to go to camp this year.

13. Green forms of energy are what we need to slow global warming

urgently.
CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 86

14. The kids who started out with the highest scores actually finished near the

bottom.

15. That semantic test, which was supposed to be so hard, turned out to be

quite easy.

16. Our algebra teacher, who just started teaching this year, is the best

teacher we’ve ever had.

17. Whatever the children want to do for their vacation does not make any

difference for their parents.

18. While the local people were trying to escape, the tsunami washed over

their town.

19. People will have to pay higher insurance whenever they buy a sports car.

20. The Indonesian money, rupiah looks very historical since it has a picture

of a famous hero on it.

21. Mountain climbers need proper shoes to go hiking in the mountains

because the ground is rough and hard.

22. Hockey players should wear lots of protective clothing in order that they

don't get hurt.

23. The people that you met last weekend at the barbeque attended the

opening ceremony of Ranau Festival 2016

24. Hamka, who wrote a novel, ‘Di bawah Lindungan Ka’bah, is still a well-

known Indonesian author.

CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 87

25. The bank is growing because new banking policies make borrowing

money easier.

26. What is the most important thing that you learned from your parents?

27. All studennts were impressed by the Danube River when we visited

Budapest.

28. The Pony Express was a company which delivered the mail in the old

west.

29. Dinosaurs became extinct millions of years ago, so our knowledge of

them is based on fossils and other remains.

30. As soon as Albaro’ has finished his homework, he usually goes to bed

immediately.
CHAPTER 5 –SYNTAX : SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS 88
CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 89

CHAPTER 6

SENTENCE
DIAGRAMMING
Chapter Contents Objectives
This chapter provides: At the end of the study of this chapter
 The definition of learners must be able:
diagramming  to describe what is meant
 Phrase and Sentence diagramming
Diagrams  to understand and distinguish
 Types of sentence different types of diagrams
diagrams  to understand how to make phrase
 Steps how to make diagrams and sentence diagrams
diagrams  to know the steps of diagramming
 to make a tree diagram and fish-
bone diagrams.

“A sentence diagraming is like a family tree having branches

(a father and a mother) and stems (children)”

- Muslih Hambali & Soni Mirizon–

CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 90

CHAPTER 6
SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING

6.1 INTRODUCTION
In presenting syntactic relationship one technique is using diagrams.
There are two kinds how to diagram a sentence using a tree diagram or using
Basic schemata offered by Reed-Kellogg. Tree diagram is used to “show the
internal structure of constituents and the relationship between them in a
visual way” (Pavey, 2012, p. 55).

Diagramming Phrases and Sentences

It has been mentioned earlier in this book that a sentence contains a

subject and a predicate. A subject or a predicate may contain a group of
related words called a phrase. For examples, a noun phrase is for subjects or
objects, verb phrase if for core predicate, and a prepositional phrase is for
adjuncts or for modifiers. Therefore, it is advisable that we should learn how
to diagram a phrase ealier before we come to the application of sentence
diagramming.

Diagramming a phrase is not so complicated as long as we know each

word’s function in a phrase. In diagramming a phrase we need to identify the
head and its antecedent. In the previous chapter, we have been introduced
kinds of phrases. The head of a noun phrase is a noun and its antencedent is
determiners or adjectives or an adjective phrase. The head of a prepositional
phrase is a preposition and its antecedent is a noun or a noun phrase. This
also happens to other type of phrases which have different structures
between one another. Here are some examples,

a) my lovely mother = NP
mother = head
my lovely = antecedent
b) to the bookstore = PP
to = head
the bookstore = antecedent
CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 91

c) very carefully = AP
carefully = head
very = antecedent

6.2 Types of Diagramming

There are basically two types of diagramming system, using tree
diagram and fish-bone diagram.
A. Tree Diagram
In the following we offer some basic simple phrases using a tree
diagram. The first thing that we have to do is to identify a root on the top of
tree for the move of phrase
Helpful Hints
1. For every phrase we have to identify the root by writing the name of a
phrase using abbreviation such as NP for noun phrase, VP for verb
phrase, AP for adjective phrase, Adv P for adverb phrase, and PP for
prepositinal phrase.
2. To identify whether the diagram belongs to what phrase, we need to see
the head. The head of NP, VP, AP, or Adv P is identified by the last word
in the phrase. For a prepositional phrase, PP, the head is identifed by the
preposition itself.

Figure 1. Noun Phrase with one Figure 2. Noun Phrase with two
pre-modifier pre-modifiers

NP NP

Det N Det A N

many people many local people

In Figure 1 above, the head is The noun phrase here has a noun
people as a noun, and the word people as a head modified by two
many is a determiner functions as modifiers: many as a determiner
a pre-modifier. and local as an adjective
CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 92

Figure 3. Noun Phrase with pre-modifier and post-modifier

NP

Det/N N PP

P NP

Det/A N

tall building with twenty floors

det s det det det

Post modifier in a noun phrase of figure 3 is in the form of a prepositional

phrase, with twenty floors. This noun phrase is considered complex as it has
also pre-modifier tall as an adjective.

Figure 4. Adjective Phrase Figure 5. Adverb Phrase

Adj P Adv P

Adv Adj deg adv

extremely good very carefully

CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 93

Figure 6. Prepositional Phrase Figure 7. Verb Phrase

VP
PP

Det N aux V

in the garden have grown

the

Figure 8. Verb Phrase with its Figure 9. Verb Phrase with NP as a

object complement

VP VP

V NP V NP

Det/A N
raise chicken

raise local chicken

CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 94

Figure 10. Verb Phrase with NP Figure 11. Verb Phrase with that
and PP clause as a Complement

VP VP

V CP
V NP PP
C S
Det/A N P N
NP VP

keep their tradition at home

believe that they win

Figure 12. A complete Sentence with Prepositional Phrase as an Adjunct

NP VP
PP

NP
NP
V P Det/A N
Det A N
N N

many local people grow pineapple trees in their gardens

e
CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 95

When a sentence has a complex noun phrase as a subject consisting of pre-

modifier and post modifier, we just refer to the three diagram figure no 3
above. If the post modifier is a clause, of course there will be another S
(sentence) on the top as a part of NP (noun phrase) as the following figure
for the sentence:

Many tall buildings that they built last ten years were destroyed.

Figure 13. A complex sentence with pre and post modifiers of a subject NP

S1

NP VP

NP S2 Aux V

Det A N Conj N VP

V NP

A Det N

Many tall buildings that they built last ten year were destroyed.
CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 96

When we have a compound phrase either as a subject or an object or a

compund clause the diagram will be like as the following examples.

1. A compound phrase (two subjects) joined by and

Example: Teachers and students visited the Art Museum last week.

Figure 14 A diagram of a sentence with a compound subject NP

NP VP

NP and NP V NP NP

N N det N N N N

Teachers and students visited the Art Museum last week.

Notice that the NPs of the Art Museum and last week are separated since
they have different group of constituents.
CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 97

2. A sentence with two independent clauses joined with and.

Example: Alfath attended the party, but Albaro’ watched a movie.

S but S

NP VP NP VP

N V NP N V NP

Det N det N

Albaro’ attended the party Alfath watched a movie.

B. Fish-bone Diagram

Another type of phrase or sentence diagram is a fish-bone diagram. When

we want to diagram a sentence using a fish-bone diagram, first we have to
identify which group belongs to subject and which group belongs to
predicate. So, the steps are:

 First we draw a horizontal line, and then draw a small vertical line
through the middle across the horizontal line. So there will be two
parts.
CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 98

 On the left of the vertical line, write our subject group and then to
the right of the vertical line, write our predicate group. The figure is
like this.

SUBJECT PREDICATE

 Next, any word or phrase related to describe a subject as a head must

be put on the right, and the one or ones describing predicate is on the
right of the vertical line.
 Now we have some examples of declarative sentences with fish-
bone diagrams as in the following.

1. A sentence with one subject and one verb

Formula: Subject + Verb

For the sentence: Her baby is crying.

the diagram wil be:

baby is crying
her

In the example above, the word her modifies baby, so draw a slash beneath
the word it modifies.Any word modifier in a phrase must be put beneath the
head.

2. A sentence with a prepositional phrase (adjunct)

Formula : Subject + Verb + Adjunct

A prepositional phrase in the sentence below is describing the verb, so draw

lines beneath the verb as shown below. Note that since a preposition in is a
head we put a slash line directly beneath the verb line followed by other
CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 99

elements of complements of preposition. When a preposition is followed by

a noun phrase, there will be another head noun followed by a modifier. For
example the sentence:

The children are playing in the football field.

the diagram wil be:

children are playing

the in
field
the football

the football field is a noun phrase with field as a head and the and football as
modifiers.

3. A sentence with direct object

Formula: Subject + Verb + Direct Object

When a sentence contains a direct object, draw another vertical line

stopping at the horizontal line. For example the sentence:

Nurses wear white uniforms

Nurses wear uniforms

white

Since the word white modifies the noun uniform, we draw a slash beneath
the verb and write the modifier.

4. A sentence contains direct object and adjunct.

Formula: Subject + Verb + Object + Adjunct

If a sentence has an adjunct functioning to describe verbs, draw a slash

line beneath the verb line followed by other steps as described in formula 2.
For example the sentence:
CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 100

Farmers prepare fertilizers for their plants

the diagram wil be:

Farmers prepare fertilizers

for
plants
their

The adjunct in the sentence above is in the form of a prepositional phrase, so

the steps of the diagram are the same as the ones in formula 2.

5. A sentence contains both direct and indirect objects.

Formula: Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object

When a sentence contains an indirect object, draw a slash line beneath the
verb line for the indirect object, but for the direct object, just draw another
vertical line stopping at the horizontal line as in formula 3. If an indirect
object is in the form of a noun phrase, draw a slash line for the head exactly
beneath the verb line. For example the sentence:

The bank teller gave his customers a new card.

the diagram wil be:

teller gave card

the bank customers a new
his

The noun phrase above is his customers. Here the head is cutomers and the
modifier is his, so put the modifier beneath the head.
CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 101

6. A sentence contains an object complement

Formula: Subject + Verb + Noun + Noun (Object complement)

When a sentence contain an object complement with a noun or a noun

phrase, draw a slash after the area of verb group. To the right of the slash,
write the object complement. So, the sentence

The senators have chosen Aher a governor.

the diagram is

Senators have chosen Aher governor

the a

7. A sentence contains an object complement

Formula: Subject + Verb + Noun + Adjective (Object complement)

To put an adjective as an object complement is the diagram is the same as

the one in 6 above.

Example: My father loves his tea strong.

father loves tea strong

my his

8. A sentence with a BE verb and a subject complement.

As previously been mentioned there are three different kinds of subject
complement: adjectives, noun or noun phrase, and prepositional phrase, so
for diagramming of these, there will be the same in which we draw a slash
line after the BE verb. To the right of the slash, we write a predicative
adjective or predicative nominative. This is also the same when the subject
complement is in the form of prepositional phrase. In the following are our
examples .
CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 102

a) Subject + BE + Adjective (Subject complement)

For example: Our teacher is really friendly

the diagram is

teacher is friendly
our really

b) Subject + BE + Noun (Subject complement)

For example: The men on the boat are fishermen

the diagram is

men are fishermen

the on
boat
the

c) Subject + BE + Prepositional Phrase (Subject complement)

For example: The farmers are in the rice fields.

the diagram is
in
fields
the rice
farmers are
the

If there are two subjects, there will be a conjunction to join the two subjects
connected by a broken lines to split the line, so the diagram is like this.
CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 103

For example: Teachers and students are gathering in the university hall.

The diagram will be

teachers

are gathering
and
in
students hall
the university

This also happens when there are two verbs or objects, we use a conjunction
to join the words connected by broken lines for examples a sentence with
two objects.

For example: Everybody needs food and drinks

The diagram is

food

everybody needs and

drinks
CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 104

TESTING YOURSELF!

I. Directions: Make tree diagrams of the following sentences.

1. The teletype converts electrical impulses into typed news stories.

2. More recently, improved electrical typewriters have been invented.

3. The improved electric typewriters’ carriages do not move.

4. The ball impresses characters on the paper.

CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 105

5. The ball rotates very quickly.

6. Different balls are interchangeable.

II. Directions: Make fish-bone diagrams of the following sentences.

1. The papers in the wastebasket should be emptied into the trash can
outside.

2. People preferring fast food should go to the corner of the street.

CHAPTER 6– SYNTAX: SENTENCE DIAGRAMMING 106

3. A marketing consultancy based in Palembang set up new network in

other cities.

4. Wildlife habitat provides a valuable life spot system, so people

acknowledge it.

5. John Quincy Adams was successful Boston lawyer in his time.

6. Green house has been popular in Japan.

CHAPTER 7– SYNTAX: SYNTAX IN RELATION TO SEMANTICS 107

CHAPTER
7

SYNTAX IN RELATION
TO SEMANTICS
Chapter Contents Objectives
This chapter provides: At the end of the study of this chapter
 The role of semantics in learners must be able:
relation to syntax  to describe the role of semanticss
 Types of verbs in semantics inrelation to syntax
 Different kinds of  to identify and understand types of
semantics roles of subjects verbs in semantics
 Different kinds of  to understand and distinguish
semantics roles of different kinds of semantics roles
predicates of subjects
 to understand and distinguish
different kinds of semantics roles
of predicates.

“A verb is the core of a sentence. A sentence without a verb likes

a human body without heart”

- Muslih Hambali & Soni Mirizon-

CHAPTER 7– SYNTAX: SYNTAX IN RELATION TO SEMANTICS 108

CHAPTER 7
SYNTAX IN RELATION TO SEMANTICS

7.1 Introduction
It is interesting to discuss the relationship between syntax and
semantics. Syntax talks about the structure of a sentence or clause, and in the
sentence or clause we have a subject and a predicate. Within the predicate
there will be a proposition, a term used to describe the semantics content of a
sentence or clause. This chapter provides a brief description of the role of
semantics in relation to syntax particularly basic sentence structure related to
subject and predicate. Generally and grammatically a subject is the doer in a
sentence. For examples,

(1) Bob cooks dinner himself.

(2) Bob feels tired.

Both sentences above have the same subjects Bob and have predicates with
different patterns. Sentence (1) the predicate contains a verb complement
dinner functioning as a direct object, but sentence (2) the predicate contains
predicative complement tired functioning as a subject complement.
However, when we refer to the semantics role of the subject, both subjects
have different role names. The subject of Bob in (1) is called agent subject as
it is the doer of the action. While Bob in (2) is a patient subject as Bob is
doing or acting but experiencing something through his sense instead.
To identify whether a subject is an agent or a patient one for example,
actually depends on its verb in a sentence. As mentioned earlier in the
previous chapter a verb is a predicator that causes to have an argument or
arguments. Let’s examine these sentences.

(3) The farmer killed many mice.

(4) Reza and Uni are swimming.

Sentence (3) has two arguments (the farmer as a subject and many mice as
an object). The verb killed is a predicator. Unlike sentence (3), sentence (4)
has only one argument i.e. Reza and Uni as a subject. A sentence having
CHAPTER 7– SYNTAX: SYNTAX IN RELATION TO SEMANTICS 109

only one argument such as sentence (4) is called a one-place predicate or a

monolic predicate (Aarts, 2001, Berk, 1999). Different number of arguments
will have different names such as a two-place predicate (dyatic predicate)
for two arguments, a three-place predicate (triadic predicate for three
arguments) (Bas, 2004). Here are some examples of three-place predicate.

 Mrs. Blair bought him a pair of shoes.

 Mr. Bailey has sent his students some postcards.

7.2 Semantics Role of Subject

A sentence is considered incomplete without a verb, therefore, a verb is
usually called the heart of a sentence. Any type of a sentence in accordance
with function or purpose requires a verb. Though an imperative sentence for
example, does not need a subject (because the subject is already understood)
a verb must exist in it such as the following;

 Sit down please!

 Please speak loudly!
 Come in please !

Again the semantics role of a subject in a sentence is actually a part of the

discussion of argument structure in the verb phrase. The thematic role of a
subject or an object very much depends on its verb in a sentence. A subject
role called patient or an object role called a theme is affected by its verb. Fo
examples;

(a) The ice melted.

(b) Mrs. Harizon broke the glasses.

The word ice in sentence (a) has thematic role of patient (patient subject) as
it suffered from the process of melting. While, sentence (b) has patient
object (the glasses). It is called patient object since the result of the action
verb “broke” makes the glasses broken or become suffered.
Berk (1999, p.14) divides seven types of subject in relation to semantics
role:agent, causer, experience, instrument, patient, described, and
located. The following are the examples of the seven types of Berk.
CHAPTER 7– SYNTAX: SYNTAX IN RELATION TO SEMANTICS 110

(5) The students did their assignments. (agent)

(6) His uncle felt exahusted after a long journey. (experience)
(7) The orange juice is sour. (described)
(8) A small cottage in our rice field got damaged. (patient)
(9) The scissor cuts a lot of papers. (instrument)
(10) The flood damaged the rice field. (causer)
(11) The big tube contains oxygen. (located)

From the examples above, it seems clear that to identify whether a subject
role is categorized as one of the seven types depends on its verb in a
sentence. Now let’s have some explanation in a little bit detail.
1) Agent subject
An agent subject is simply defined as a subject which does the action.
In sentence (5) the action of doing is done by a subject ‘students’ so that
‘students’ is the agent or doer.

2) Causer subject
A causer subject is actually a subject that affects the action.
For example,

(12) Poor grades depress Martha.

In this sentence the subject is the causer to make Martha become

depressed, and therefore, it is called causer subject and the verb depress
is included in the thematic role of subject.

3) Experiencer subject
An experiencer subject is actually the subject that experiences the effect
of sensory verbs.
For example,

(13) Our friend smelled something burning in the kitchen.

The verb smelled in this sentence is one of the sensory verbs or

sometimes called verbs of sense. The phrase our friend acts as an
experiencer subject as it undergoes the process of psychological state of
the verb smell.
CHAPTER 7– SYNTAX: SYNTAX IN RELATION TO SEMANTICS 111

4) Instrument subject
An instrument subject can be defined as the subject that becomes the tool
of the action.
For example,

(14) The screwdriver tightened all the nuts of the window.

The word screwdriver is a tool used to perform the action of tightening

the nuts, so it is called an instrument subject.

5) Patient subject
When the action verb in the predicate causes the subject get suffered,
semantically a patient subject might occur.
For example,

(15) Mt. Sinabung has burst many times.

In this sentence, Mt. Sinabung gets suffered because of the action of

bursting, so it is called a patient subject.

6) Described subject
When a subject is described by the subject complement, the subject is
called a described subject. The subject complement can be in the form of
adjective phrase, noun phrase, or prepositional phrase as discussed earlier
in chapter 5.
For examples;

(16) Gatot Subiantaro is religious.

(17) Anis is a leader of Jakarta, Indonesia.
(18) The teacher is in the office
(19) The children have been in the field playing kites.

In (16) Gatot Nurmantyo is a described subject as it is described by the

adjective phrase religious. While, in (17) Anis, a described subject, is
described by the noun phrase a leader of Jakarta, Indonesia. Sentences
(18) and (19) contain prepositional phrases as the subject complement
CHAPTER 7– SYNTAX: SYNTAX IN RELATION TO SEMANTICS 112

7) Located subject
A located subject is so called as it is explained by a word or phrase
functioning as a place. A prepositional phrase is commonly used in this
case.
For examples,

(20) The tank holds water

(21) This box contains writing instruments

The tank and this box are the phrases showing the place where the
subjects water and writing instruments are located or take place.

From the examples above, again we could argue that the thematic role of
subject in a sentence is determined by its verb. In addition, we can learn or
analyze a construction with the same syntactic structure but differenr sets of
roles. Study these examples.

(22) Marsha has planted banana trees.

(23) Marsha loves bananas

Both sentences (22) and (23) have the same subject, Marsha, but there is a
difference between the two in terms of theta role. In (22) Marsha did the
action, while in (23) the situation does not invole action. The other examples
are:

(24) The teacher has made Marcel his assistant.

(25) The teacher has made Marcel a new jacket.

The word teacher in both (24) and (25) function as subjects, but the situation
described in both sentences is different although they have the same verb
phrase. The situation in (24) is that the teacher does something to Marcel,
but the one in (25) the teacher does something for Marcel. Marcel in (25) but
not in (24) refers to the recipient of the new jacket.

Radford (2004, p. 128) although few terms are different provides list of
semantics roles as summarized in the following Table 16.
CHAPTER 7– SYNTAX: SYNTAX IN RELATION TO SEMANTICS 113

Table 16 List of Roles played by arguments with respect to their predicates.

Role Gloss Example

Theme Entity undergoing the effect of Mary fell over
some action
Agent Entity instigating some action Denies killed Bob
experiencer Entity experiencing some I like syntax
psychological state
Locative Place in which something is He hid it under the
situated or takes place bed
Goal Entity representing the John went home
destination of some other entity
Source Entity from which something He returned from
moves Paris
Instrument Means used to perform some He hit it with a
action hammer

Radford has also divided seven types of semantic roles and adopted the term
theme, and other terms which are not included in Berk’s such as goal and
source.Meanwhile, Aarts (2001, p. 94) gives nine types of thematic roles
such as agent, patient, theme, experiencer, goal, benefactive, source,
instrument, and locative. Our previous discussion has put forward several
types of thematic roles but not benefactive type offered by Aarts. A
benefactive subject occurs when the verb gives benefits to the subject. It is
called benefactive or possessor as the entity gets benefits from the action
designated by the predicate ( Aarts, 2001) for example;
(26) Mr. Gunawan owns a piece of land for his new house.
In this sentence the verb own determines something benefits for Mr
Gunawan, so the subject Gunawan here deserves to be called a benefactive
subject. Furthermore, it seems theme and patientare differed. Aarts (2001)
further says that when the ‘undergoer’ of the action or event is denoted by
the predicate, it is called patient, but, when the entity moved by the action or
event is denoted by the predicate, it is called a theme.Here are the examples;
(27) Syafiq threw the ball to his father.
(28) Abror killed the snake.
CHAPTER 7– SYNTAX: SYNTAX IN RELATION TO SEMANTICS 114

Both the ball and the snake in sentences (27) and (28) are direct objects, but
the thematic role of both are different. The thematic role of the phrase the
ball in (27) acts as a theme and the one of the phrase the snake in (28) has a
thematic role of patient.
The terms goal and source have a slight difference in use. We use the terms
goal to the location or entity in the direction of which something moves, and
source for the location or entity where something moves from (Aarts, 2001).
Here are the examples.
(29) Mr. Horizon has sent Anggraini the proposal.
(30) Mr Horizon comes from Prabumulih.

Anggraini in (29) has a thematic role of goal in which the proposal is sent
to. While, the phrase from Prabumulih in (230) acts as a source where Mr
Horizon is originally from.
However different the terms are, at least beginning syntax learners should
recognize all the terms of semantics roles above.

7.3 Semantics Roles of Object

In addition to semantics role of subject, we also have semantics role of
object. This also depends on its verb on a sentence. If we learn the previous
types of thematic role of subjects, we can find some verbs that can be used to
identify thematic roles of objects. Examine and compare the verbs in the
sentences on table 17 below.

Table 17 Examples of different roles of subjects or objects described by

predicators.

No Sentences Subject role Object role

1 Poor grades depress Martha causer patient
2 Marha got depressed patient
3 The screwdriver tightened all the nuts instrument theme
of the window
4 All the nuts are now tightened described
5 The gas tube has exploded patient
CHAPTER 7– SYNTAX: SYNTAX IN RELATION TO SEMANTICS 115

6 The police has exploded the pan agent patient

bomb
7 The young lady stopped the bus at the agent theme
bus stop.
8 The bus suddenly stopped. experiencer
9 Thermometer measures the instrument
temperature
10 Sun shine dries all the clothes causer patient

If we notice several verbs of the sentences in Table 17, we learn that the
same verb may have to cause different thematic roles of subject and object
such as the verbs in 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8.

Table 18 List of few Verbs for Semantics roles of subject

Types fo Roles Verbs
Agent make, break, roast, drink, sink, lift, pick, etc.
Experiencer love, like, hate , feel, enjoy, want, doubt, etc.
Causer move, roast, damage, fire, heat, dry, warm, etc.
Instrument cut, sharpen, hit, pound, measure, blow, tight, etc.
Patient melt, burst, sink, gather, boil, cut, melt, destroy, etc.
Described be, seem, look, sound, taste, etc.
Located contain, hang, stand, lie, stay, put, place, take, go,
dwell, inhabit, etc.

In addition, we have few verbs for benefactives such as have got, gain,
belong to, win, arm, acquire, bribe, accept, buy, sell, etc.
Again a verb is a predicator to determine not only the number of arguments
in a sentence as previously been discussed but also the thematic role of
subject and object. A verb may act to determine the same type of thematic
role for both subject and object. Consider the following examples;
(31) The chef roasted bread.
(32) The bread roasted.
CHAPTER 7– SYNTAX: SYNTAX IN RELATION TO SEMANTICS 116

Sentence (31) has a patient object ie. bread, while in sentence (32) the
subject, bread, acts as a patient subject as the effect of the verb roast .
Meanwhile, the subject chef in sentence (31) is an agent subject. Examine
the highlighted phrases in the examples below. The phrase in brackets
indicates the function of the highlighted phrase.

(33) Minister Susi sank many foreign ships. (patient object)

(34) Many foreign ships sank. (patient subject)
(35) The teacher gathered the students of physics class in the
building C. (patient object)
(36) The students of physics class are gathering in the building C.
(agent subject)

Useful Hints
The participants role of a given sentence is actually assigned to nouns
as they are the properties being agents, patients or themes. There are
hints to help us identify the thematic role of a subject or an object in a
sentence such as by asking questions as follows:
 What happens/ happened? This is the question to describe the
event.
 What does/did X do? This question isused to identify what
action X does/did. If he does/did something, this indicates the
thematic role of X is automatically as agent.
 What happens/happened to X ? This quetsion will identify
whether X does/did the action, receives the action, or neither
both.
Let’s have a look some other cases of thematic role of a subject and
object in a sentence. Consider the following examples.
(37) The glass laid on the table.
(38) Mr Rahmat lay the glass on the table.
(39) Rumondang broke the glass on the table.
CHAPTER 7– SYNTAX: SYNTAX IN RELATION TO SEMANTICS 117

In sentence (37) the glass functions as subject but does not describe an
action since it does not give an answer of the question such as what
happened? or what did the glass do? Sentence (38) shows that the
glass does not change its state or originality, so its thematic role
should be theme. Different from sentence (38), in sentence (39) the
glass changes its state or originality because of the action. Therefore,
the thematic role of it must be patient.
CHAPTER 7– SYNTAX: SYNTAX IN RELATION TO SEMANTICS 118

TESTING YOURSELF!

A. Directions: Read the following sentences and identify the

thematic role of the underlined subjects or objects in the
sentences.
1. Albaro’ loves fishing very much.
..................................................................................................
2. The tubes on the truck contain oxygen to be sent to the
hospital.
..................................................................................................
3. The wind destroyed the mango tree.
..................................................................................................
4. The fire burnt the house.
..................................................................................................
5. His brother has hung a picture on the wall.
..................................................................................................
6. Mouri tribes inhabit the area of Whataroa
..................................................................................................
7. The baby crawls on the floor.
..................................................................................................
8. The journey looks exciting.
..................................................................................................
9. That man has already painted the wall pink.
..................................................................................................
10. The porcupine mother nurses its young.
..................................................................................................
CHAPTER 7– SYNTAX: SYNTAX IN RELATION TO SEMANTICS 119

B. Direction: Examine the following sentences and discuss the

thematic roles of the phrases in brakets.

1) [Eman] laid [himself] [on the matress].

2) [Mrs. Bailey] comes [from Kentucky].

3) [His brother] sent [my friend] [a bunch of flowers].

4) [A foreigner ] tasted [the local food].

5) [The truck driver] put [some fresh vegetables] [in the truck].

6) [Alfath ]threw [a flying saucer] [to his uncle Denis]

7) [Our grandfather] hates [hot food]

8) [Clean and dry clothes] are hanging [on the wall]

9) [Most roads] are slippery

10) [The dolphin attraction] amused [the children]

CHAPTER 7– SYNTAX: SYNTAX IN RELATION TO SEMANTICS 120

C. Directions: Study all verbs in sentences of A and B. Indentify the

type of thematic roles of each verb, for example the verb loves in
sentence 1 of A is verb of experiencer. There are 19 verbs left to
identify. Write your answer in a separate sheet.

D. Directions: Write ten sentences of your own using five different

type of verb roles.
1. ......................................................................................................

2. ......................................................................................................

3. ......................................................................................................

4. ......................................................................................................

5. ......................................................................................................

6. ......................................................................................................

7. ......................................................................................................

8. ......................................................................................................

9. ......................................................................................................

10. ....................................................................................................
CHAPTER 8– SYNTAX: IMPERSONAL IT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE 121

CHAPTER
8

Impersonal It in English
Language
Chapter Contents Objectives
This chapter provides: At the end of the study of this chapter
 The definition of learners must be able:
Impersonal IT  to describe the definition of
Different uses of Impersonal Impersonal IT.
IT  to identify the uses of Impersonal
IT.
 to understand and distinguish
different kinds of semantics roles of
subjects
 to understand and distinguish
different kinds of uses of
Impersonal IT.

“If the word It can occur in many uses, why not we (our life) can also benefit
for other people ”

- Muslih Hambali & Soni Mirizon-

CHAPTER 8– SYNTAX: IMPERSONAL IT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE 122

Introduction

As we may know that every language in the world is not the

same. In other words, every language has different system in the form
of either writing or grammatical structure. It is interesting to learn the
differences so that there will be no errors and language receiver could
easily understand what the speaker means in the process of
communication. For example the word it in English can be used in a
variety of sentences and of course it may have different meaning and
function such as the following sentences.

1) It is nice to meet you.

2) I have a book. It is on the table.

3) You gave me a book. I like it very much.

4) Bob will take a final exam. Mother said, “take it easy Bob!”.

In sentence (a) impersonal it does not have meaning, but it is used to

begin that sentence whose subject is actually to infinitive phrase (to
meet you). In sentence (b) impersonal it refers to a noun (book) that
functions as a subject in that sentence. The word ‘It’ in sentence (c) is
a pronoun that refers to ‘book’ functioning as an object. While the
word it in sentence (d) is a kind of expression that follows the verb
‘take’ without meaning but as a complement. In English grammar this
is included in verb expression. The following will be the description
of the word it so called impersonal it. All examples of sentences
containing it are derived from the book “Exam Excellence,
Preparation for Secondary School Exam” by Gryca, Danura, 2010.

The Definition of Impersonal It

Impersonal ‘It’ may have different meanings depending on its context.

Grammatically, Impersonal ‘It’ is commonly known as a pronoun
(singular) such as the following sentences.
CHAPTER 8– SYNTAX: IMPERSONAL IT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE 123

5) You buy a pencil for me. Please put it on the table.

6) The cat belongs to Mr. Ahmad. It has three colors.

The impersonal ‘It’ in sentence (a) is replaced for pencil, while in

sentence (b) refers to cat. However, the impersonal ‘It’ can be used in
other context in sentences below.

7) Where is my cat? It is your cat under chair.

8) Look! It is our dog near the barn.

In sentences (7) and (8) the meaning of it tends to refer to ‘that’ which
is called in English ‘demonstrative’. The following tables contain all
sentences derived from the book of English lesson (Gryca, Danura,
2010). The sentences are grouped based on the function and meaning
if the word it.

Table of Group 1 “Dummy IT”

NO SENTENCE PAGE
1 a) The EOC interviewed sixty-hour fathers and 15
their partner about their home and work life.
b) Most fathers agreed that it was important to ‘be
there’ for the children for key events such as
school sports day, their first appearance in the
school play and for at least one meal a day.

2 a) Once, it was easy to know what to wear to the 18

office.
b) For male manager, it was always a dark suit and
white shirt with a tie. In the recent poll, 82% of
Americans thought that it is OK for business to
have a dress-down day, while 12% thought it is
not.
CHAPTER 8– SYNTAX: IMPERSONAL IT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE 124

3 It became so popular there in the 1980s that each 24

person had their own, much-prized space that they
would guard carefully.

4 a) Canada geese can be seen and heard in many 48

areas of British Columbia.
b) It is only at this time that the geese must go their
separate ways.
c) Because Canada geese are a national symbol, it
is illegal to harm them in any way.

5 A school of last resort for many of its students, it is 64

their best chance to turn their lives around, and make
friends in the process.

6 a) Walking in southern Apennines was very tough. 114

b) It was also fascinating, with ramshackle
mountain village along the way.
c) It was great to be out in the hills with the
freedom to travel and live life at my own slow
pace.

Impersonal ‘It’ in the above sentences actually does not have meaning
but is as the opening of the sentence and as it were a subject if
followed by to infinitive phrase or that clause. In sentence 1 (b)
impersonal it is included subordinate clause (noun clause). This
sentence can be changed into;

9) To ‘be there’ for the children for key events such as school
sports day, their first appearance in the school play and
for at least one meal a day, was important.

Therefore, the subject of the sentence is infinitive phrase ‘to be there’.

Similarly, the sentences 4(b), 5, and 6(c) can be changed into;
CHAPTER 8– SYNTAX: IMPERSONAL IT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE 125

10) To have a dress-down day, while 12% thought it is not, is

OK for business.
11) To harm them in any way is illegal.
12) To turn their lives around, and make friends in the process
is their best chance.
13) To be out in the hills with the freedom to travel and live
life at my own.

The infinitive phrases underlined take the real subject of the sentences
and Azar (1999, p.323) states that an infinitive phrase is often used
followed by it as a subject in a sentence. It is shown that the word it
has a similar meaning with an infinitive phrase in the last sentence. In
addition, impersonal it in sentences 2(b), 3, and 4(b) is also followed
by a subordinate clause in those sentences, if that clause is put at the
beginning, the impersonal it is deleted as in the following sentences;

14) That each person had their own, much-prized space that
they would guard carefully became so popular there in the
1980s.
15) That the geese must go their separate ways is only at this
time.

If the impersonal it is followed by that clause, the impersonal it seems

to show the meaning that exists in the that clause. Bywater (1990,
P.73) mentions that impersonal it appears as a prepatory subject
beginning with infinitive or gerund. The term by water use for
impersonal it is the pleonastic ‘it’ (the extra ‘it’). Azar (1999, p.248)
also says that the word more generally functions as a subject and a
noun clause put in the last sentence. Besides, the impersonal it in
sentence 6(b) shows the response of sentence 6(a) as a whole.
CHAPTER 8– SYNTAX: IMPERSONAL IT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE 126

Table 2 Impersonal It (Promina’s Group)

NO SENTENCE PAGE
1 We spoke with lawyer in a firm with casual dress 18
policy who keeps a jacket and tie in his office, and
puts it on when expecting a client who might be
offended by a more casual approach.

2 a) Each table has on it a bottle of brown sauce, 28

tomato ketchup and vinegar, and pots of salt
and pepper.
b) The centre apiece is usually the traditional
English breakfast. Although it’s called a
breakfast, you have to be really brave to eat
it first thing in the morning, because it is
huge.

3 a) The market expansion is all the more 34

impressive given that the target age group is
shrinking.
b) While it may not be an endless supply of
consumer energy, this bright spot in the
national economy is enough to excite
everybody from clothing designers to
magazine publishers.

4 a) An Englishman’s home is in castle, right? 38

b) We can’t actually have massive walls around
it, but we can make it, but we can make it
difficult to get to.

5 The Englishman’s home is much more than just his 38

castle; it is also his identity and his prime obsession.
CHAPTER 8– SYNTAX: IMPERSONAL IT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE 127

The impersonal it in the sentences on table 2 is all pronouns singular.

The impersonal it here replaces the singular noun as shown in the
following;

1. Sentence 1, = casual dress policy

2. Sentence 2(a) = table
3. Sentence 3(b) = the bright spot
4. Sentence 4(b) = castle
5. Sentence 5 = home

Table 3 Impersonal IT in Verb Expression

NO SENTENCE PAGE
1 But until we have equal pay, decent childcare and 15
more opportunities to work flexible hours, many
fathers will continue to find it hard to be there for
their children and many women will continue to
be disadvantaged at work.

2 An Englishman’s home is in castle, right? We 38

can’t actually have massive walls around it, but
we can make it difficult to get to.

3 Longer-term trends, including a rise in global 108

wealth, improving transport technology, cheaper
flights and the use of the internet as a travel tool,
will make it possible around the world to travel
than ever before.

Impersonal it in the bold type in the above sentences shows that it

is part of ‘verb expression’ as if it were as an object of the
CHAPTER 8– SYNTAX: IMPERSONAL IT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE 128

previous verb. Although there is no meaning, the impersonal it

here cannot be deleted.

The word It is also used in a cleft sentence. A cleft sentence is

simply defined as a sentence that is introduced by It followed by
Be verb. A cleft sentence is generally used to emphasize a
particular part of the sentence that contains a relative clause such
as the following examples.

16) It was Mr. Fadlan who taught some isolated Papua people
how to take a bath using soap and shampoo.

17) It is every August 17 that Indonesian people celebrate

their independence day.

The emphasized parts of (16) is Mr Fadlan, and (17) is every

August 17.

In addition, the word It is known as anticipatory in which it is

used to take the position as a subject (anticipatory subject) instead
of a noun clause. Consider the following sentences.

18) That many people leave for urbans for better jobs is
obvious.

19) That the syntax class should begin at 7 am is likely

impossible.

Sentences (18) and (19) can begin with anticipatory It such as;

20) It is obvious that many people leave for urban for better
jobs.

21) It is likely impossible that the syntax class should begin at

7 am.
CHAPTER 8– SYNTAX: IMPERSONAL IT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE 129

TESTING YOURSELF!

Exercise 1
Directions: Change the folowing sentences using impersonal IT to begin
your sentence.

1. That the farmers have harvested their crops successfully is a great

happiness.
_______________________________________________________
2. That this practice should be changed is advisable.
_______________________________________________________

3. That some lawyers have handled the case made the old woman
happy.
_______________________________________________________

4. Understanding local customs before internship is important for a

young doctor.
_______________________________________________________

5. Learning a foreign language takes a lot of time.

_______________________________________________________

6. That the mayor asked the restaurants to pay high taxes.

_______________________________________________________

7. Travelling across the nations spends much money.

_______________________________________________________

8. That people need housing and food is universal.

_______________________________________________________

9. Why the temperature dropped drastically amazed everybody.

_______________________________________________________

10. That the young boy has found a drug for cancer is a mistery.
_______________________________________________________
CHAPTER 8– SYNTAX: IMPERSONAL IT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE 130

Exercise 2
Directions: Read the folowing sentences and give explanation the use of
IT in each sentence.

1. How was your trip Ana? Well, “It is fantastic”, said Ana.

2. Children couldn’t go swimming today because it is too foggy.

3. Now it your responsibility to put put up the fire inthe garden.

4. The teacher has revised the questions in order that it is easy for the

students to answer.

5. It is an interesting point of view to move to technological

innovation.

6. It takes a high cost for the consumers to deliver packages by air.

7. It is a financial impact of wider media that amazes people.

8. The lady has already put her purse on the chair. It is made of leather.

9. Don’t ever go out during heavy storm. It is dangerous.

10. It is a fact that some companies can learn from others’ mistakes.
CHAPTER 8– SYNTAX: IMPERSONAL IT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE 131

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