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Sentence Patterns in English

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 Sentence Patterns in English
Mohammed Jasim Betti

1. Aims and Methodology of the Study

This study aims at investigating English sentence patterns. These
patterns are viewed by nine structuralists and throughout their
representative works in syntax. They are: Al-Hamash and Abdullah
(1979), Close (1978), Eckersley and Eckersley(1966); Gleason(1961) ;
Quirk and Greenbaum (1983) ; Nasr (1985); Onions (1980); Roberts
(1952); and Stageberg (1981). This group of grammarians is randomly
selected for the study. For the purposes of this study , works in
collaboration are taken to stand for one grammarian. The order in which
the group of grammarians appears in this study is determined by
alphabetical rather than by chronological or any other consideration so
that Al-Hamash and Abdulla, the first in the group, is taken to be the
basis for any comparison.

This paper starts with an exposition of each one of the

grammarians' views in regard to English sentence patterns that he
believes to be exclusive furnished with examples that appear in his work.
Certain syntactic abbreviations are used which are either present in the
original work or made by the researcher for research purposes and these
are referred to in the exposition process (Betti, 2002: 13). Then, a
discussion and comparison are brought as a consequence. At a final step
of the study , some conclusions are arrived at .

2. Exposition
Structuralism as a type of linguistic study developed, very largely in
America under the influence of Bloomfield and others : It considers the
structure of the sentence to be vital to any adequate grammar (Betti,
1996: 25). According to structuralism, the construction of sentences
follows certain regular patterns and the nature of these patterns can be
considered the basis of grammar. In this regard, the structuralists' view
of languages leads to the development of an activity known as 'pattern
practice' in language teaching. The discussion of this activity is far
beyond the purposes of this study . A detailed account is given in Lado
(1964) (Betti and Mahdi, 2021: 29).
1
 Structuralism, through its long history, makes various accounts of
English sentence patterns. The group of grammarians selected for this
study belongs to this heritage of structural linguistics (Betti, 1995: 7).
Below is an account of nine structuralists of the English sentence
patterns.

A. Al-Hamash and Abdullah

In their account of English sentence patterns, AL-Hamash and

Abdulla (1979) perceive only patterns of basic sentences; they exclude
expanded ones and they describe only statement types and verbs in the
active voice. They also acknowledge their benefit of Roberts(1952). Their
account is one of structure of predication which is very complicated. So,
it can be thoroughly presented only through basic patterns starting with
the simplest one (Ibid:150-1; and Al-Seady, 1998a: 85).
Al-Hamash and Abdulla (1979) list ten basic sentence patterns ;
they sometimes provide a morpho-syntactic account and a number of
verbs used in each pattern. The patterns are listed below :

(1) : N + In1 : Men work .

(2) :N + LV + adj : The young boy appears healthy .

(3) : N1 + LV+ N1 : That boy is a student .

(4): N1 + TV+ N2 : The workers demanded a rise .

(5): N1 + TV + N2 + N3 : I wrote my friend a letter.

(6): N1 + TV + N + OC : We elected Emily monitor of our class

(7): N1 + Be + adv : The man was here. (Dehham, Betti, and

Hussein, 2021: 8).

1
Al-Hamash and Abdulla never use symbols. The researcher adopts the following : N (noun),
N1, N2, N3 (unrelated nouns), InV (Intransitive, LV (linking verb), TV (transitive verb) , adj
OC (objective (adjective), adv (adverb), and OC (Objective Complement) (Betti, 2002b: 2).
complement),

2
(8): N + Be + N2 + adj : We consider John brilliant.

(9): N1 + Be + N1 : I am a student .

(10) : There ' Pattern : There comes one man.

B. Close (1978)

According to Close (1978) , there are five basic sentence patterns in

which all the elements are obligatory. Each pattern follows the
fundamental pattern: NP+VP. In each, the subject comes first and is
followed by the verb: It is only the structure of the VP that changes and
the VP may contain V1 or Vt (Be or any other copula), Adj , adv , C , do
and IO (Al-Seady, 1998b: 62) .The five patterns, which have many
variations, are the following:

SP (1): N + V1 (adv) : The sun disappeared .

SP (2): N + Be + C : He was my friend .

SP (3)1N + Vt + DO + (adv) : I put the key in the lock .

SP (4)1N + Vt + IO + (DO) : I gave him an answer .
SP (5)1N + Vt + DO + C : I found him dull2 .

C. Eckersley and Eckersley (1966) 3

Eckersley and Eckersley (1966:385-402) provide a list of (24)

principal verb patterns and a number of variations. They also provide an
account of the verbs used in each pattern:
SP (1) 1N + V : Birds sing .

2
Close (1978) uses the following symbols : NP (noun phrase) ,VP (verb phrase), Vi
(intransitive verb), Vt (transitive verb) adj (adjective), adv (adverb),C (complement),
do (direct object), and io (indirect object). He designates the five patterns as Type O,
A, B, C and D in which the first has no complement or object (Betti, 2021a: 2).
3
The researcher uses the following symbols : N (subject) ,V (verb) ,C (complement),
advC (adverb complement), do(direct object) ,P (preposition), PO (prepositional
object), adj(adjective), OC (objective complement, io (indirect object, bv (base verb),
IW (interrogative word) , G (gerund), prep(present participle) and PP(past participle)
(Betti, 2021b: 5).
3
SP (2)1N + V + C : He is rich .

SP (3)1N + V + adv : He tries hard.

SP (4)1N + V + do : He did the work .

SP (5)1N + V + p + p0 : I will wait for you .

SP (6)1N + V + do + advC : You will want this tomorrow .

SP (7)1N + V + do + adj : I will get the dinner ready.

SP (8)1N + V + do + Be + (C) : I told him to be careful .

SP (9)1N + V + do + oC : The bishop crowned Henry king .

SP (10)1N + V + do + p + p0 : I will do the work for you .

SP (11)1N + V + io + do : I gave him a lesson .

SP (12)1N + V + (for) + C : You have come a long way .

SP (13)1N + V + bv : I must go now .

SP (14)1N + V + do + bv : I made him come .

SP (15)1N + V + (to) + bv : I want to go away .

SP (16)1N + V + IW + (to) + bv : I wonder what to do next .

SP (17)1N + V + do + to + bv : I 'll ask him to help us .

SP (18)1N + V + do + IW +(to)+bv :You must teach them how to behave

SP (19)1N + V + G : He loves skating .

SP (20)1N + V + do + prep : I caught them stealing apples .

SP (21)1N + V + do + pp :I want my fish fried .

SP (22)1N + V + (that) + NC :He said that he would come .

SP (23)1N + V + So (not) :I think so.

SP (24)1N + V + do + IW + NC :I told him he must work harder

(Betti, 2021c: 4) .
4
d. Gleason 4

Gleason (1961) produces patterns depending upon the number of

words for each sentence so that he has two-word level (sentence), three-
word sentence, four-word sentence, etc. (Al-Seady, 1998c: 75). The list
for four-word sentences would be hundred while for five- word sentences
run to thousands. He accounts for a number of sentences which this study
divides into six patterns:

SP (1) N1 + TV + N2 : John saw him.

SP (2) N + IV + (adv) : The boy came .

SP (3) N1 + TV + N2 + (adv) : John , go home .

SP (4) N + Be+ (adj) :He is good .

SP (5) (N1) + TV + N2 + (N3) + (adv) : Take him home .

SP (6) N1 + Be + N1 :He is John .

e. Quirk and Greenbaum (1983) 5

Quirk and Greenbaum (1983: 16) provide eight basic sentence

structure rules diagrammatically. Each line constitutes a pattern which is
illustrated by means of a correspondingly numbered example, having just
these obligatory and optional (parenthetical) elements that are specified in
the formula (Al-Seady, 2002a: 45):

SP (1) :S + Vintr + A place + A : She is in London now .

SP (2): S + Vtrans + Cs +: She is a student (in London) (now) .

SP (3) : S + Vtrans + Od + (A place) + (A time) :John heard the

explosion (from his office) (when he was looking the door).

4
The researcher uses the following symbols: N(noun),TV(transitive verb),
IV(intransitive verb),adv (adverb) and adj (adjective).
5
Quirk and Greenbaum use the following symbols: S(subject),Vintr (verb
intransitive), Vtrans (verb transitive),A(adverb),Cs(subjective complement), Od(direct
object) ,Oi (indirect object) and Co (objective complement).

5
SP (4): S + Vintr + Cs +( A place) + (A time) :Universities (gradually)
became famous (in Europe)(during the middle ages).

SP (5): S + Vtrans + (Ot) + Od + (A process) + (A place) + (A time):

They ate the meat (hungrily)(in their hut)(that night).

SP (6): S + Vtrans + (Oi) + Od+ (A process)+(A place)+(A time):He

offered (her) some chocolates (politely)(outside the hall ) (before the
concert) .

SP (7) : S + Vtrans +Od + Co +( A process)+( A place)+( A time) : They

elected him chairman (without argument)(in Washington) (this morning).

SP (8) :S + Vintr +(A process) +(A place)+(A time) :

The train had arrived (quietly)(at the station) (before we noticed it).

f. Nasr (1985) 6

Nasr (1985:76-83) provides major syntactic structures of English: Such

structures are divided into complete sentences and incomplete ones. The
first type consists of greetings, leave takings and response utterances.
This study is not concerned with the first type since this is the exception
and not the rule (Al-Seady, 2002b: 16). Meanwhile, the second type is
used in ordinary speech and writing to make statements of different types,
and negative and questions of multi-types. Nasr (1985) lists (27) patterns
for the statement types:

SP (1) : N + Be + N : John is a captain .

SP (2) : NR + Be + N : He is a captain.

SP (3) : D + N + Be + D + N : The man is a leader .

SP (4) : N + Be + D + N : The are the leaders.

SP (5) : N + Be +Adj : Mary is nice .

6
Nasr(1985) uses these symbols :N(noun),V(verb),V-ing(gerund),V-en(past participle), NR
(noun replacement), Adj (adjective), Adv (adverb),AV(auxiliary verb), PP (prepositional
phrase), RC (relative clause), D (determiner), P (preposition), C (conjunction), QW (question
word), and AdvC (adverbial clause) .

6
SP (6) : NR + Be + Adj : She is nice .

SP (7) : N + Be + D + Adj + N : Sam is a clever boy .

SP (8) : NR + Be + D + Adj +N : He is a clever boy .

SP (9) : N + V : Peter reads .

SP (10) : NR + V : He reads .

SP (11) : D + N + V : The boy reads .

SP (12) : D + Adj + N + V+ D + N : The clever boys read a book .

SP (13): D +Adj + N+ V+ D+ N + Adv: The lazy students wrote the letter

slowly.

SP (14) : N + AV + V : Alice can swim .

SP (15) : NR + AV+ V+ Adv : They will arrive later .

SP (16) : N + Be +V-ing+ D + N :Ben is reading a story .

SP (17) : N + Have +Be + V-en +PP :

The money was taken by the boy.

SP (18) : N + Have+ V-en + D + N: Roy has written a letter.

SP (19) : N +C+N+(any of the above patterns):Alice and Mary ……

SP (20) : N + Have+ Be +V-ing+ +PP++PP: John has been studying in

the library for an hour .

SP(21):D+N + Have+ Be +V-en +PP : The money has been taken by the
boy .

SP (22) : N +V+CC+N+V: Albert worked but Robert slept .

SP (23) : N + V+C+NR+ Be +Adj : Robert slept because he was lazy .

SP (24) : N + AV+ Have +V-en + D+N : He might have written a letter.

SP(25): N+AV+ Be+ V-ing + PP: Mr. Smith may be coming in the
evening.
7
SP (26) : V+ D +N : Close the window .

SP(27):D + N+RC+(any of the above patterns):The man who drove the

car. (Betti, 2002c: 8).

g. Onions (1980) 7

Onions (1980:4-8) provides five forms of the predicate: this exemplifies

for five English sentence patterns:

SP (1) : S + Vintr : He died .

SP (2) : S + V+ P Adj + ( PN)+ ( P pro) : I am he.

SP (3) : S + V+ do : Rats desert a sinking ship .

SP (4) : S + V + io + do : We taught the dogs tricks .

SP (5) : S + V + do + (P Adj) + (PH) : Nothing makes stoic angry . (Betti

and Mahdi, 2020: 89).

h. Roberts (1956) 8

Roberts (1956: 70-6; and 169-73) lists seven basic patterns of statements:

SP (1) 1 2 : Birds sing.

SP (2) 1 2 3 : She look sad .

SP (3) 1 2L 1 : Canaries are birds.

SP (4) 1 2 1 : Canaries eat worms.

SP (5) : 1a 2 1b 1c : The man gave his son some money .

SP (6) : 1a 2 1b 1 b : The girls considered the boy a fool.

SP (7) : 1a 2 1b 3 : I believed him honest .

7
The researcher uses the following symbols : S (subject), intr and transV (transitive
and intransitive verb) ,P(predicative), Adj(adjective),N(noun), Pro(pronoun), do and
io (direct and indirect object) (Betti, 2002d: 1) .

8
Roberts (1956) uses the following symbols : 1,1a ,1b ,1c (nouns not referring to each
other), 2 (verb), 2L (linking verb), and 3 (adjective).
8
i. Stageberg (1981) 9

Stageberg (1981:197-215) lists nine basic sentence patterns. Included in

those patterns specific sentence positions. Each of which is the home-slot
of a particular grammatical meaning (Betti, 1990: 13):

SP (1): N+ be +Aj : Food is good .

SP(2): N+ be + AV :The girl in here .

SP(3): N1+ be + N1: My brother is a doctor .

SP(4): N + LV + Aj : The acrobat seems young .

SP(5): N1+ LV + N1 : My sister remained an outstanding student .

SP(6): N+ InV: Girls smile .

SP(7): N1 + Tr + N2: The girl bought a dress.

SP(8): N1 + TrV + N2 + N3: The mother bought the girl a dress.

SP(9): N1 + TrV + N2 + (N2) + (Aj) + (Pro) + (AV place) + (Pres Par) +

(P Par) + (Prep Ph) + (I Ph): The basketball team chose Charlotte captain.

3. Discussion

Having exposed the patterns listed by each one of the group of

grammarians, it is time to run a discussion of both the methodology and
realization or the patterns. The discussion takes the same order of the
exposition process (Betti, 1993: 12).
a. Al-Hamash and Abdulla

1-Al-Hamash and Abdulla (1979) believe that the structure of predication

is complicated and thus it can only be presented in terms of patterns: such
patterns are ten. In my opinion, those ten basic sentence patterns cannot

9
Stagaberg (1981) uses the following symbols : N1, N2, N3(nouns not referring to
different nouns), Aj (adjective), AV(adverb), LV, InV and TrV (linking, intransitive
and transitive verbs). In addition, the researcher uses the following symbols in
SP(9):Pro(pronoun), AVPLace (Adverb of place), Pre Par(Present participle ) , PPar
(past participle),Prep.Ph(prepositional phrase)and Iph (inflected phrase) (Betti,
2020d: 13).

9
account for the complexity of the structure of predication 10 (Betti,
2002e: 2).

2- They acknowledge their a great deal benefit of Roberts (1959), but a

quick juxtapositioning of the two works show the following.

i- Roberts (1956) lists seven basic patterns while Al-Hamash and Abdulla
(1979) list ten ones. Though patterns (1-6) coincide in both works, some
other patterns are realized differently in both works (Betti, 2020c: 13).

ii- Roberts (1956) uses certain symbols while Al-Hamash and Abdulla do
not. In addition, he discriminates among different nouns symbolically .

iii- The last three patterns in Roberts (1956) are modifications of the
previous three ones. Compared to them, Al-Hamash and Abdulla (1979)
do not follow the same procedures.
iv- Both works show that the main sentence patterns can be modified and
expended, but a third comparison with Roberts (1962) will show that
Roberts (1956) is structuralist while Roberts (1962) is transformationalist
11
in orientation (Betti, 2002f: 1). This is shown clearly by Roberts (1962)
by saying that there are basic sentence patterns and all other sentences are
transformations of those patterns (Betti, 2002d: 18). In the sentence 'A
man is here', the basic sentence pattern is transformed into 'There is a
man here'12 .The passive construction is a transformation 13 of the active
so that 'John loves Mary' can be transformed into 'Mary is loved by John'
14
(Betti, 1993: 15).

3-In order to differentiate SPs (1&2), Al-Hamash and Abdulla say that
all verbs in sp(2) are intransitive ,but non-linking. It is clear from

10
See Table (1).
11
This paper does not hold any transformational orientation , and it discusses the
patterns in structural terms only. But Roberts (1962) shows an admiration of this
theory (Igaab, 2010a: 15) .
12
Al-Hamash and Abdulla's SP(10) does not appear in Roberts(1956).
13
The impact of Chomsky (1957) is clear on Roberts(1962).
14
See also : Harding (1973:45-8).

11
examining the following sentences that all the verbs are linking ,but usage
makes some linking and others non-linking :

a.1.The young boy appears unexpectedly.

a.2.The young boy appears healthy.

a.1. The weather turned quickly.

a.2. The weather turned hot.

So, to differentiate the verbs from the patterns, one might say that if
the linking verb is followed by an adverb , then it belongs to Sp(1) and if
followed by an adjective, then it belongs to sp (2). Meanwhile, Stageberg
(1981:198-9) provides a test for sp(2) : It is capable of this explosion
(Igaab, 2010b: 170):

The young boy appears healthy: The healthy young boy appears very
healthy, The weather turned hot : The hot weather turned very hot.
Meanwhile, sp(8) in Al-Hamash and Abdulla(1979) can be expanded in
the same way but not sp(7&9) (Betti, 2020b: 13):

SP (8): The children are hungry :The hungry children are very hungry.

SP (7): The man was here : *The here man was very here.

SP(9): My father is peter : My peter father was very peter.

4. In Al-Hamash and Abdulla (1979),

i-Sps (2&3) are the same as sp(7,8,9&10). These patterns are coined
together in some structuralists. Al-Hamash and Abdulla sometimes
produce the same examples for different patterns:

SP(3): That boy is a student.

SP(9): I am a student.

ii-an emphasis was made from the very beginning that they deal with
statements in the active voice, but the following example expresses an
instance of the passive voice (Igaab, 2015a: 139):

11
The cheese was poisoned .

b. Close(1978):
1-Close (1978) lists five basic patterns and about sixty sub patterns
which makes it difficult to trace the sub patterns as belonging to this or
that pattern. Likewise, he provides too comprehensive an account of the
verbs and their occurrence in different patterns (Betti, 2002e: 3; and
(Igaab and Al-Manhalawey 2010c: 15).

2-He perceives that all the elements in the patterns are obligatory, but the
presence of certain variations makes it clear that certain parenthetical
usages do exist (Betti, 2020a: 6; and (Igaab, 2015b: 14).

3-He emphasizes that all the patterns are of the statement types, but there
are certain examples which are side-tracked from this (Betti, 2003: 31):

SP(1); Up go the prices (close,1978:190).

SP(4): Tell me if they have gone (Ibid:192).

c. Eckersley and Eckersley(1966):

1-They provide a comprehensive account of English patterns and the
long list that shows the complexity of predication in English (24 patterns)
is too comprehensive (Betti, 2006: 138; and Igaab and Kareem, 2018:
99).

2-They do not use symbols to facilitate treating the patterns and to

diagnose whether the nouns refer to each other or not (Igaab and
Abdulhasan, 2018: 95 ).

3-They provide patterns which refer to negative and interrogative

sentences alongside the statement types (Betti and Hasan, 2020: 57:
SP(3) : Is there any cheese in the larder?
SP(4) : Do you know the answer?

SP(6) : Have you put the cheese in the larder?

But what is important is that the patterns cannot account for questions
and commands (Igaab and Altai, 2018: 290).

12
SP(3): S+V +AdvC : Go away. Is there any cheese?, etc. (Betti, 2007:
401)

d. Gleason(1961)

Gleason(1961) produces patterns depending upon the number of words in

the sentence so that he produces three-word, four-word, five-word, etc.
sentences. Doing this, he undertakes the following (Betti and Al-Jubouri,
2009: 372):

i. He verifies the subject: The boy came. Two boys came, etc.

ii. He believes that the list is complete, but how can such patterns
provide for the following:

The class elected Ahmed monitor.

Fourscore and seven years age our fathers brought forth upon this
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty , and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal (Gleason, 1961:148; and (Betti
and Al-Jubouri, 2015c: 138).

e. Quirk and Greenbaum (1983)

The complexity of sentence structure rules is shown by Quirk and

Greenbaum (1983) through the parenthetical usages in spite of the fact
that parentheticals characterize elements of the sentences that are not
fixed. Similarly, the authors presuppose that the structure rules which are
contextually familiar or 'given' come relatively early in the patterns , but
contextual familiarity can never be guaranteed unless through use, of
which such patterns do not account (Betti, 2015b: 66).

f. Nasr (1985)

Nasr (1985) exemplifies for both 'incomplete' and 'complete' sentences.

This can be saved by designating the formers as 'spoken' and 'written'.
other structuralists, i.e. Al-Hamash and Abdulla(1979) and Stageberg
(1981), designate 'incomplete' sentences as being 'spoken' or 'elliptical' .

Nasr(1985) was very indulged in the 'noun-nominal' distinction:

13
N + Bo + N : John is captain.

NR + Be + N: He is captain.

D + N + Be + D + N: The man is a leader.

NR + Be + D + N: They are the leaders. (Betti and Igaab, 2015: 26)

Of course, all the above patterns belong to one SP: N + Be + N1: This is
applicable to all other patterns. He was also indulged with 'verb'.

-Verb1' distinction; this is considered verb modification by Al-Hamash

and Abdulla(1979). The following examples will Show this clearly:

N + AV + V: Ali can come.

NR + AV + V + Adv: They will arrive later.

Nasr (1985) was also side- tracked in including instances of the passive
voice and commends though he was concerned with statements :

D + N + Be + V-en + PP : The money was taken by the boy.

D + N + Have + Be + V-en + PP: The money has been taken by the boy.

V + D + N: Close the window (Betti and Ghadhab, 2020: 73).

g. Onions(1980)

Onions (1980) treats ' verb to be ' as he treats other intransitive verbs and
he also does not provide an account of linking verbs (Betti and Yaseen,
2020: 53).

4. Conclusions

As a result of the exposition and discussion process, the following

conclusions have been arrived at :

I. As shown clearly in Table (1), Nasr(1985) provides (27) patterns:

This is the highest number of patterns listed by the group of grammarians

in this study . Compared to, Onions(1980) lists the least number since he
includes no sub patterns while Close(1978) lists around(60) sub patterns.

14
 Table(1) : The Number of Patterns Listed by the Grammarians

The Grammarians No. of patterns

a. Al-Hamash and Abdulla 11
b. Close 10
c. Eckersley and Eckersley 42
d. Gleason 10
e. Quirk and Greenbaum 10
f. Nasr 42
g. Onions 10
h. Roberts 12
i. Stageberg 10

II. The number of patterns as listed by the grammarians does not

correspond to each other with the exception of Al-Hamash and Abdulla
(1979) and Roberts(1956) who show partial agreement because of the
former's benefit of the second ((Betti and Mugeer, 2016: 17). The result
of such juxtapositioning is shown in Table(2). Surprisingly , one pattern
may correspond to (2-8) patterns or to (0) pattern.

Table (2): Juxtapositioning of the Grammarians' Patterns

Close Eckersley & Gleason Quirk & Nasr Roberts Stageberg

The pattern Al- Eckersley Green- Onions
Hamash baum
and
Abdulla
N+ InV 1 1 1,2,3,5,13 4,5,6 0 0,10,11, 1 1 0
14, 15,19,
23,24
N+ LnV 4 1 4 3,2 2 x x 4 2

N1+LV+N1 3 x x x 2 x x 3 0

N1+TV+N2 2 3 8,2 6,1 3 14,13,10 3 2 2

25,12
N1+TV+N2+N3 0 2 2,9,10 x 0 x 2 0 0
,11,12
N1+TV+N2++(OC)+(adj) 0 0 x x x x 0 7,0 0

N+ Be +adv 2 4 3 x 1 x 4 x 4

N+ Be +adj 0 4 4 x x 6,0 4 4 1

N1+Be+N1 0 4 4 x 4 1,2,3,4,7,8 4 3 3

There +Be+N1+(adv) 11 x 1 x x x x x x

15
III-The stated patterns are only expansions or modifications of one type
or another of the basic patterns listed by close (1978) so that Al-Hamash
and Abdulla (1979) list their ten SPs which are included in the other
structuralists' other patterns, and Nasr (1985) was very occupied with
'non-nominal' and 'verb-verbal' distinctions so that he produces a great
number of patterns (Betti and Hashim, 2018a: 278).

IV-The comprehensive accounts of verbs that are used in the patterns are
only valid statement since it is the use of the verb in concrete contexts
that makes it suitable for this rather than that pattern. Close(1978) was
really of the type we are talking about (Betti and Igaab, 2018b: 44).

V-The semanticity element, which is a drawback of structuralism rather

than of sentence patterning, might bring the fallacy that Chomsky's
famous sentence 'clorless green ideas sleep furiously' or 'The dog smiled'
belongs to a pattern of this type: N +Vintr+(adv) (Betti and Ulaiwi,
2018c: 90).

VI- Some of the patterns must be extremely rare, probably rare enough
that many speakers of English never hear them in their life time. What
about a sentence like: 'Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought
forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal' (Betti and
Yaseen, 2020: 56). This sentence is accepted and understood as normal
and 'familiar English. It can be cut to the bone as being basic, but native
speakers of English do not really produce only basic sentences (Betti,
Igaab and Al-Ghizzi, 2018d: 256). If such can happen, it is only because
the previous sentence was built of familiar units. Then, a grammar must
describe the smaller units of such patterns of which they are constructed,
not the patterns themselves. Only thus can a language be described; a
basis laid for understanding how it operates in human communication
(Betti and Igaab, 2019: 231).

VII. In all the patterns, there might be some ellipsis. "Ellipsis involves the
omission of one or more elements leaving the reader to infer the omitted
element and this recoverability depends on the context. Likewise, ellipsis
contributes to text and sentence cohesion and it is used to avoid

16
repetition. In this regard, subject, object, verbal, clausal, initial medial,
and final ellipsis occur in both languages (Betti and AlFartoosy, 2019:
102).

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