Chapter 7

Phrasal structure and verb

complementation

1. Introduction to generative grammar

2. Constituents
3. A phrase structure grammar of English
4. Review of phrase structure rules

Chapter preview

This chapter treats the syntax of simple sentences in English. It begins with a brief
description of generative grammar, defining the notion of a syntactic constituent and
discussing the different relations of dependency between members of a constituent.
The remainder of the chapter is concerned with the phrase structure grammar of
English. Following an introduction to the formalisms of phrase structure rules, the
distinction between subject and predicate is discussed. The internal structure of the
noun phrase, the adjective phrase, the adverb phrase, and the prepositional phrase
is then considered. Finally, the complement structures found in the verb phrase are
treated, a number of grammatical functions are identified, and a categorization of verb
types emerges.

Commentary

1. Introduction to generative grammar

We move now from the study of individual words to the study of the sequences of words
which form the structure of sentences. This is the study of syntax. Although there are many
ways to approach this study, we will take a primarily “generative” approach. This approach
 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  185

to syntax came into being over fifty years ago, and has been the dominant approach ever
since.1 This chapter makes use of some of the core notions of generative grammar which
are most useful for empirical and pedagogical purposes without concerning itself with the
now strongly theoretical and quite abstract aspects of this approach.
A fundamental tenet of generative grammar is that not only do words occur in a lin-
ear order (or “string”) but they also enter into hierarchical relationships with one another
within coherent units known as “constituents”. Constituents are the proper subparts of sen-
tences, as we will see below. Generative grammar inherited the notion of constituents from
the approach to grammar which preceded it called “American Structural Linguistics”. The
form of sentence analysis used by the American structuralists was known as “immediate
constituent analysis”. (An even older form of sentence analysis which recognizes the exis-
tence of hierarchical structures in sentences is the “sentence diagramming” of traditional
grammar; see Chapter 12.)
In a book entitled Syntactic Structures originally published in 1957, which inaugurated
generative grammar, Noam Chomsky argued that immediate constituent analysis, though
not wrong, was insufficient since it dealt only with the surface order (Chomsky, 2002). It
could not account for the relation between an active and corresponding passive sentence
(e.g. Sam walked the dog ~ The dog was walked by Sam) or a declarative and correspond-
ing interrogative sentence (e.g. Sam walked the dog. ~ Did Sam walk the dog?), which
have different linear orders (different strings of words) but are understood by speakers as
related. It could also not account for the difference between sentences such as Samantha
is eager to please and Samantha is easy to please, which on the surface seem to have the
same structure but are in fact structurally very different (note that one can say It is easy
to please Samantha but not *It is eager to please Samantha). Nor did immediate constitu-
ent analysis provide a means of distinguishing between structural ambiguous sentences
such as the following:
The missionary is ready to eat.
Norah’s writing occasioned him some surprise.
Visiting relatives can be tiresome.
Flying planes can be dangerous.
The tourists objected to the guide that they couldn’t hear.
They took the animal to the small animal hospital.

. In that time, generative grammar (originally known as “Transformational-Generative (T-G)

Grammar”) has undergone many changes, including versions known as “Standard Theory”,
­“Extended Standard Theory”, “Government and Binding Theory”, “Principles and Parameters”, and
“Minimalism” (see advanced textbooks in “Recommended Additional Reading” section). As is also
to be expected, alternative approaches have also arisen, including “Lexical Functional Grammar
(LFG)”, “Systemic Grammar”, “Optimality Theory”, and so on.
186 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

For example, is it the relatives (who happen to be visiting) who are tiresome or is it the fact
of a visit to relatives that can be tiresome? (Try to determine the ambiguity in each case.)
Chomsky argued for the need to distinguish between deep (or underlying) structure
(D-structure) and surface structure (S-structure). D-structure is the abstract level in
which all meaning resides, determining the structure of simple sentences, the lexical and
phrasal categories to which words in the sentence belong, and the hierarchical relation-
ships in which the words enter. S-structure is the actual linear order of words. It is important
to distinguish between the two levels for two reasons:

1. different sequences on the surface – as in an active sentence and its passive coun-
terpart such as The dog uncovered the bone and The bone was uncovered by the dog –
may have (roughly) the same meaning and hence identical D-structures, but different
S-structures.
2. similar or identical sequences on the surface – as in a case of structural ambiguity such
as Flying planes can be dangerous – may have different meanings and hence different
D-structure, though their S-structures are the same.

In the classical “standard” form of generative grammar, it was argued that syntax consisted
of two types of rules, phrase structure rules and transformations.2 Phrase structure rules
account for the form of D-structures, which are simple (as opposed to complex), active (as
opposed to passive), declarative (as opposed to interrogative or imperative), and positive
(as opposed to negative) sentences. The phrase structure rules specify what is a constituent
of what, or in other words, they reveal the hierarchical structures of sentences. Transfor-
mations perform various syntactic operations on the output of the phrase structure rules to
produce surface structures. They may move, transpose, add, and delete elements, but they
may not change meaning.
What gives generative grammar its name generative? It is the view that in order for
a speaker to acquire a language, the rules of the grammar must be finite in number. No
speaker could master an infinite number of rules. At the same time, this finite set of rules
must be able to “generate”, or produce, any possible sentence of English (and no impossible
sentence of English). This finite set of rules must account for the infinite number of sen-
tences that can be produced and comprehended by speakers of a language.
Finally, generative grammar is concerned exclusively with the form of sentences, dis-
tinguishing between “grammatical” (or “acceptable”) and “meaningful”. For example, the
sentence (coined by Noam Chomsky) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously is grammatical,
though not necessarily meaningful, while the sentence Furiously sleep ideas green colorless
is ungrammatical (unacceptable) since it violates the rules of syntax. In other words, it is

. Note that these rules are constitutive rules (determining grammatical structure) rather than
regulatory rules (legislating the “good” forms to use, see Chapter 1).
 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  187

believed that syntax and meaning are completely separate: grammar is autonomous and
independent of meaning. (We will look at the semantics of sentences in Chapter 10.)
In this chapter and the next two chapters, we will study the phrase structure rules and
syntactic operations needed to account for the syntax of English.

2. Constituents

As observed above, constituents are the proper subparts of sentences. The study of syntax
is the analysis of the constituent parts of a sentence:

–– their form (the types of elements, the internal arrangement of elements, and the rela-
tion among elements within the constituent),
–– their (external) positioning in respect to other constituents, and
–– their function.

Constituents may themselves be complex, containing other constituents. The structure of

a sentence is hence hierarchical.
Note that the same sequences of words may not always function as a constituent. It is
the context which determines whether a particular sequence forms a constituent or not. In
the following three sentences:
Suzie took in the winter scene.
They won’t survive in the winter.
He is happy in the winter.

“in the winter” is a constituent in the second and third sentences, but not in the first. In
the first sentence “in” forms a constituent with “took”. The sequence of words “beautiful
flowers” is a constituent in I received beautiful flowers for my birthday but not in Though
they are beautiful, flowers cause me to sneeze. The sequence “the house on the hill” is a con-
stituent in one reading of the ambiguous sentence I bought the house on the hill, namely, in
the sense ‘I bought the house which is on the hill’, but not in the sense ‘I bought the house
while standing on the hill’.
How can we determine what is a constituent in a particular sentence? Constituents
can be identified by a number of different “constituency tests”. Constituency tests are based
on the principle that only entire constituents may be manipulated by syntactic operations.
They can be replaced (by pronominal forms), they can be moved, they can be conjoined, or
they can stand alone. For example, the constituent “beautiful flowers” in the first sentence
above can be:

replaced by pro-forms I received them for my birthday.

What did you receive for your birthday?
188 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

moved It was beautiful flowers that I received for my birthday.

What I received for my birthday was beautiful flowers.
Did you receive beautiful flowers for your birthday?
conjoined I received beautiful flowers and chocolates for my birthday.
interrogated (What did you receive for your birthday?) Beautiful flowers

Self-Testing Exercise: For more practice in applying constituency tests, do Exercise 7.1
question 1.

There are two basic relationships possible between the members of a constituent:

1. one-way dependency, or modifier-head: one of the members of the constituent, the

modifier (Mod), can be omitted, but the other, the head, cannot. The head is the essen-
tial center of the constituent and is obligatory; the modifier depends upon the head
and cannot occur without it. The modifier expresses some quality or aspect of the
head. The relation of adjective to noun is one example of modifier-head. In blue eyes,
the modifier blue modifies the head eyes. In deep blue eyes, deep modifies blue, and
deep blue modifies eyes. It is not the case that blue modifies eyes and deep modifies
blue eyes, because this would suggest the incorrect reading “blue eyes which are deep”
rather than the correct “eyes which are deep blue”. In the woman beside me, beside me
is the modifier of the head woman. The modifier also follows the head in he swam
quickly, where quickly is the modifier of the head swam.
2. mutual dependency, or governor-complement: neither member of the constituent
can be omitted and one cannot occur without the other; neither is more central. The
first “governs” or controls the presence of the second, and the second “completes” the
first. The relation between the subject and the predicate of sentence is a special case of
mutual dependency (as in The weather/is improving). Other relations of governor to
complement hold between:
a. a preposition and its complement (as in on/the shore),
b. an adjective and its complement (as in dear/to me),
c. a verb and its complement (as in be/a fool), and
d. a verb and its object (as in swim/a race).

Self-Testing Exercise: Do Exercise 7.1 questions 2 and 3.

3. A phrase structure grammar of english

We will now attempt to construct a phrase structure grammar of English, a set of rules
that will “generate” any possible (simple) sentence of English. In reality, our grammar will
be incomplete, partial, possibly wrong, but it will be illustrative. We will not be overly
 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  189

concerned with syntactic argumentation – with the niceties of arguments or the merits of
alternative accounts – but you will learn to analyze most of the basic structures and types
of English sentences. When trying to write rules to generate all possible but no impossible
structures in English, it is reassuring to remember that no one has yet written a complete
and flawless generative grammar of English. The grammar we write will always be subject
to revision and testing: the phrase structure rules can be changed if they aren’t formulated
correctly, or a particular structure might be accounted for in a different component of the
grammar (by transformations rather than phrase structure rules or the reverse).

3.1 The form of phrase structure rules

Before we can begin actually constructing our grammar, we must learn the formalism used
to represent phrase structure rules.
A phrase structure grammar consists of a set of ordered rules known as rewrite rules,
which are applied stepwise. A rewrite rule has a single symbol on the left and one or more
symbols on the right:
A→B+C
C→D

More than one symbol on the right constitutes a string. The arrow is read as ‘is rewritten as’,
‘has as its constituents’, ‘consists of ’, or ‘is expanded as’. The plus sign is read as ‘followed by’,
but it is often omitted. The rule may also be depicted in the form of a tree diagram:
(1) A

B C

B and C are called labeled nodes; a node is a point on the tree diagram. Two metaphors
are used here:

1. In the family tree metaphor, B and C are daughters of A and they are sisters of each
other; less often, A is referred to as the “mother” or “parent” of B and C. (The view
taken here is entirely matriarchal!) Also, in the tree metaphor, A is seen as a branching
node, as opposed to C, which is a nonbranching node.
2. In the domination metaphor, a distinction is made between immediate domination
and domination: a node dominates everything below it (hence, A dominates B, C, and
D); a node immediately dominates those nodes for which there are no intervening
nodes (hence, A immediately dominates B and C, but not D).

Finally, B and C form a constituent: a constituent is all and only the nodes dominated by a
single node, in this case, A.
190 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

The phrase structure rules also allow for choices. The optional choices are indicated
with parentheses:
A → (B) C

This rule reads that A is expanded as optionally B and obligatorily C. In every rewrite rule,
at least one element must be obligatory. There may also be mutually exclusive choices of
elements in a string; these are indicated with curly braces:
B
A → {B,C} or A →
C

This rule states that if you choose B, you can’t choose C, but you must choose one – either B
or C, but not both. Whether the mutually exclusive items are written on one line separated
by commas or on separate lines does not matter, as long as they occur within braces.
These two types of choices can be combined:
A → ({B, C}) D

This rule leads to the following possibilities:

(2) A A A but not A or A

D B D C D B C D B C

In every phrase structure rule, there must be an initial symbol, a first left-hand symbol,
such as A above. Thereafter, every symbol appearing on the left has already been intro-
duced on the right-hand side. The symbols that occur on the right, but never on the left are
the terminal symbols; another way of defining them is that they occur at the bottom of a
tree diagram. In our brief grammar above, B, C, and D are terminal symbols. They imme-
diately dominate lexical items, or words.
Phrase structure rules account for the linear order of elements in a sentence in
D-structure, as well as for the hierarchical arrangement of sentence structure. They can
also account for the infinite generating capacity of language. If a symbol introduces itself,
it is known as a recursive symbol, as A in the following rule:
A → B + C + (A)

Or if A introduces a symbol, and that symbol later introduces A, we also call A recursive,
as in the following:
A→B+C
B → (A) + D

(Note that if we don’t make the second occurrence of A optional, there would be no end to
our expansion.) Recursiveness leads to the “nesting” property of language, the embedding
of elements within other elements. Thus, recursiveness, along with the options provided by
 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  191

the parentheses and curly braces formalism and with the choices to be made among a large
number of lexical items, accounts for the infinite nature of language.3

Self-Testing Exercise: If you are having trouble understanding this formalism, do Exercise 7.2.

3.2 Subject and predicate

In constructing our phrase structure grammar of English, we begin with the initial symbol
S = sentence. We all have an intuitive idea of what counts as a sentence. It is a tenet of both
traditional and generative grammar that S consists of two constituents: the subject (Su)
and the predicate (pred). The subject is variously defined as the topic, the actor, or that
which is spoken about. The predicate is defined as the comment, the action, or that which
is said about the subject; it says something true or false about the subject.
Note the different structures serving the function of subject in the following sentences:
The chocolate was later confiscated House plants add to humidity. (COCA:MAG)
(read: inhaled) by his counselors.
(COCA:MAG)
The woman with the yellow hair They hoped to make it before midnight.
clapped her hands together with joy. (COCA:FIC)
(COCA:FIC)
Girls and boys performed equally There are also gender gaps on issues.
well in all types of classes. (COCA:MAG).
(COCA:MAG)
The book that changed my life It’s snowing in summer! (COCA:FIC).
professionally was Catch-22.
(COCA:FIC)
It is possible to overdo the jargon. Wrinkles disappeared. (COCA:FIC)
(COCA:FIC)

There are two tests for identifying subject:

1. subject–auxiliary inversion, or the “question test”, e.g. Was [the chocolate] later confis-
cated?; and
2. the “tag question” test, in which the pronoun in the tag agrees with the subject in
gender, number, and person, e.g. [It] is possible to overdo jargon, isn’t [it]?

. In addition to tree diagrams, there is the “notational variant” known as labeled bracketing.
In this system, the terminal symbols are placed on the line and the nodes dominating them are
subscripted. Square brackets indicate constituents. Our brief grammar immediately above would
permit expansions such as the following with labeled bracketings: A[B[D]C] or A[B[A [B C]D]C].
Note that there must be as many left-facing as right-facing brackets.
192 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

The main element constituting the subject appears to be the noun with its accompanying
modifiers; we will see below that this is the phrasal category of the noun phrase. Note that
a noun may stand alone as subject (wrinkles above); a pronoun may also stand alone as
subject since it replaces an entire noun phrase (they above). It and there are special kinds
of “dummy” subjects called “expletives”; structurally they fill the position of subject but are
lexically empty. There are two kinds of meaningless it, the impersonal it in It’s snowing in
summer, where there is no personal subject, and the anticipatory it in It is possible …, where
the real subject to overdo the jargon occurs at the end of the sentence and it fills the normal
subject position.
The predicate is generally what remains of a simple sentence after the subject is
removed. As you can see in the sentences above, a verb stands alone in the predicate (dis-
appeared) in one example and is the main element constituting the predicate in the other
examples. The category of the predicate is thus the verb phrase. A test for predicate is to see
whether the sequence may be replaced by so do/do too:

Wrinkles disappeared, and so did the brown spots.

We can formalize our recognition of the subject and predicate as key elements in the sen-
tence in the following phrase structure rule:

S → NP + VP

This gives us a formal definition of subject and predicate: the subject is the NP immedi-
ately dominated by S and the predicate is the VP immediately dominated by S. The rule
will account for declarative sentences, but not for imperatives, which have no subject
(e.g. Remove the pan from the fire!) nor for interrogatives, which have a different word
order (e.g. Are you hungry?). We account for these types of sentences later by means
of syntactic operations (see Chapter 8). It is important to keep in mind that subject
and predicate are functions, not categories; not all noun phrases serve the function
of subject.

Self-Testing Exercise: Do Exercise 7.4, question 1.

Now that we have established that two phrasal categories – NP and VP – perform the
major functions of the sentence, subject and predicate, we can look more closely at the
internal structure of these categories. We will assume that there are phrasal categories cor-
responding to the major parts of speech, or lexical categories, namely noun, verb, adjec-
tive, adverb, as well as preposition (the parts of speech were treated in Chapter 5). The
category of each phrasal category is determined by the lexical category of the head of a
modifier-head construction or by the governor of a governor-complement construction;
the head or governor is always obligatory. Phrases can be classified as belonging to the
same phrasal category if they have the same internal structure and the same distribution
 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  193

in the sentence. We will see below that phrasal categories always occur on the left side of a
phrase structure rule and are composed of other categories (lexical and phrasal).

NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY: In traditional grammar, “phrases” are groups of words (without

subject and predicate) forming a coherent group. In generative grammar, phrases are
defined as sequences of words – or a single word – having syntactic significance: that
is, they form a constituent. Since tree diagrams indicate the phrases functioning as
constituents, they are also called phrase markers.4

3.3 Noun phrase4

The noun phrase (NP) can be expanded in many different ways (see Table 7.1).5

Table 7.1. Expansions of NP

NP → N dogs
Det N the dogs
Det A N the large dogs
Det AP N the loudly barking dogs
Det N PP the dog in the yard
Det A N PP the ferocious dog behind the fence
Det AP N PP the wildly yapping dog on the sofa
Pro He
PN Goldy

The noun (N) is the only obligatory element in the first seven expansions of NP below and
serves as head; the other elements are all optional. The adjective (A) or adjective phrase (AP)
precedes the N and the prepositional phrase (PP) follows the N; both serve as modifiers of the
noun (modifier of N), expressing a quality of the noun, answering the question “which dogs?”.
“Det” here stands for determiners (introduced in Chapter 5), a set of grammatical words
that are somewhat like modifiers, but actually serve the function of specifier of N (a one-way

. In current generative theory, phrases are called “projections” (because a phrase is a projection
of its head), but we will use the older, more intuitively obvious terminology.
. For the present, we are simplifying the structure of the NP by not considering the presence of
subordinate clauses in the NP, that is:
NP → Det N S the fact that I bought a dog, the dog which I bought
S that I own a dog
Later in this chapter, we will be simplifying the structure of the AP and the PP in a similar way by
ignoring the possibility of subordinate clauses as complements to A and as objects of P:
AP → A S worried that he might bite
PP → P S about what it takes
These phenomena will be treated in Chapter 9.
194 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

dependency), making more precise or definite the phrase that follows. Det includes quite a
diverse set of grammatical words: demonstratives (Dem), articles (Art), wh-words (Wh-),
possessives (Poss), and quantifiers (Q). We can write a rule for Det as follows:
Det → {Dem, Art, Wh-, Poss, Q}
Dem → {this, that, these, those}
Art → {a, an, the}
Wh‑ → {which, what, whose}
Poss → {my, our, their, John’s, the man’s …}
Q → {some, any, every, each, neither, more …}

The ellipses (…) indicate that these are not complete listings of the members of the sets
Poss and Q. Note that Poss includes both possessive adjectives such as my and possessive
nouns such as John’s or Sally’s. (It may even include an entire noun phrase, as in that angry
man’s (dog), where the -’s inflection is being attached to the end of the noun phrase that
angry man.) We can account for this phenomenon by the following rule:
Poss → NP -’s
my, our, their …

In the last two cases in Table 7.1, the pronoun (Pro)6 and the proper noun (PN) stand alone
and cannot cooccur with the AP, the Det, or the PP:
*The fierce he in the yard
*The fierce Goldy in the yard

Our rule for NP, therefore, must indicate the optionality of Det, AP, and PP and the mutual
exclusiveness of Pro and PN with the other elements.
A preliminary structure for the NP the large dogs might be the following:
(3) NP

Det AP N

Art A dogs

the large

Here, Det is shown as sister of both AP and N. In fact, the determiner really relates to the rest of
the noun phrase as a whole, not the AP and N separately. For this reason (and for reasons that
will become clearer in Chapter 9), we will introduce the intermediate category of N-bar (N̄):
–
N → (AP) N (PP)

. Certain pronouns are identical in form to determiners and take the place of the entire
NP (e.g. That is a fierce dog); however, the determiner form sometimes differs slightly from the
pronominal form, as in My dog is gentle vs. Mine is a gentle dog.
 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  195

N-bar consists of N and it modifiers (but not its specifiers). Our rule for NP is then the
following: 7
–
NP → (Det) N
PN
Pro
And our revised structure for the large dogs would be the following:
(4) NP

Det N

Art AP N

the A dogs

large

The validity of this “nested” structure is shown by the fact that the word one, which is a
kind of substitute noun, can replace both dogs and large dogs:
I like large dogs rather than small ones. (ones = dogs)
The ones that I like best are Rottweilers. (ones = large dogs)

. We are adopting here – in part – a formalism called “X-bar theory”. In this theory, all phrasal
categories are seen as having the same structure, namely:

XP

Specifier X

X Complements
XP is called a “maximal projection” and X – is called an “intermediate projection”. By a process of
–
“adjunction”, Xs can be stacked or nested, giving us the structure we see in the NP:

XP

Specifier X

Premodifier X

X Complements
According to X-bar theory, the grammar has only binary branching nodes. You will notice that
some of our nodes have three or more branches. In this way and others, we depart from the strict
theory (see Footnotes 11 and 12, also Chapter 8, footnote 4 and Chapter 9, Footnote 2).
196 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

By our rule for NP, a more complex phrase, that angry man’s fierce dog, would have the
following phrase marker:
(5) NP

Det N

Poss AP N

NP -’s A dog

Det N fierce

Dem AP N

that A man

angry

We are ignoring the presence in the NP of what are called predeterminers (all, both, half )
and postdeterminers, such as some quantifiers (many, few), as in the following:8
[all] the [many] very happy people
Numerals, too, present a similar problem. In one respect, they would appear to be deter-
miners (e.g. two trees, two large trees), but they also seem to fill the position predeterminers
(e.g. the two large trees). We will not be accounting for numerals here.
To this point in our grammar, the only function for NP that we have examined is that of
subject (S → NP VP); numerous other functions will be recognized later in this chapter.

3.4 Adjective phrase

The adjective phrase (AP) can be expanded in several different ways (see Table 7.2).9

Table 7.2. Expansions of AP

AP → A happy
Deg A very happy
Adv A blissfully happy
Deg Adv A very blissfully happy
A PP dear to me, tired of him, glad about that

. We are also not accounting for structures such as all of (the dogs) or some of (the dogs).
. We are ignoring adjectives that can follow the noun, as in the people responsible for the budget
or the members present, or even the pronoun, as in someone responsible.
 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  197

The category of degree adverbs (Deg) (introduced in Chapter 5) includes words which are
traditionally defined as adverbs, since they modify both adjectives and adverbs:
Deg → {more, most, less, least, very, quite, rather, least, exceedingly, awfully,
absolutely, pretty … }

However, they occupy a special syntactic position; unlike other adverbs – “general adverbs” –
degree words cannot be modified by other adverbs. Degree words express a quality, inten-
sity, or degree of the following adjective or adverb; in other words, they function, like
determiners, as specifiers of the head.10

HINT: A test to distinguish between degree adverbs and general adverbs is to see if the
adverb can be preceded by very or quite. If it can, then it is a general adverb (e.g. very
happy, very blue, quite rigid, quite patriotic); if it cannot, then it is a degree adverb (e.g.
*very rather, *quite awfully, *very absolutely).
There are two problems with this test. The first is that some adverbs can be both
general adverbs and degree adverbs (but with different meanings). Thus, pretty is a
degree adverb in the sense ‘somewhat’ and cannot be preceded by another degree
word. If it is – i.e. very pretty – it becomes a general adverb and has the sense ‘attractive’.
The second problem is that although participles which occur before the noun are
general adjectives, they often cannot be modified by Deg (*very smiling, *rather broken),
though they can be modified by AdvP (very sweetly smiling, rather badly broken). Note that
one cannot say very married (except humorously), but one can say very happily married.10

We can see that in all cases above, A is the obligatory element and head of the phrase; all
of the other elements are optional. The elements preceding the A are modifiers or speci-
fiers, but the PP following bears a different relationship to the A; it serves as complement
(complement of A). Although we will indicate it as optional in our rules, it is not optional
if a complement-taking adverbial structure such as aware of, afraid of, curious about, obvi-
ous to, or angry at is selected. Note that the PP does not express a quality or degree of the
A but rather “completes” it; the A serves as governor of the PP.
The initial tree structure for the NP the very fiercely barking dog might be the following:
(6) NP

Det N

Art AP N

the Deg Adv A dog

very fiercely barking

. Participles which occur after the noun (e.g. the girl smiling sweetly …) will be accounted for
in Chapter 9.
198 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

However, this structure incorrectly shows very, fiercely, and barking as sisters, all modify-
ing dog, that is, a ‘very dog’, a ‘fiercely dog’, and a ‘barking dog’. Obviously, this is not what
is being said, but rather “very fiercely” is modifying “barking”, and “very” is modifying
“fiercely”. As we will see in the next section, the sequence [Deg Adv] constitutes an adverb
phrase, so the correct structure is the following:

(7) NP

Det N

Art AP N

the AdvP A dog

Deg Adv barking

very fiercely

We must also recognize in our rule that Deg can modify A directly, as in the very fierce dog:
(8) NP

Det N

Art AP N

the Deg A dog

very fierce

Thus, the following is our formulation of the rule for AP:11

AP → Deg A (PP)
AdvP
–
We have seen above that the AP is introduced in our phrase structure rules under N, func-
tioning as modifier of the noun; we now have a structural definition for the “attributive”
–
position of the adjective mentioned in Chapter 5: it is the adjective dominated by N.
Later in this chapter we will also introduce AP under the verb phrase, functioning as
complement of the verb; this is the “predicative” position. Note that if an adjective has a
complement, it can only occur in predicative position in English (the lake is near to me but
not *the near to me lake) unless it is compounded (twenty-year-old house).

. Although a nested structure with an intermediate category Ā – dominating A and PP – is

warranted here, we will not introduce it because it is not important for our purposes.
 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  199

It is quite common for more than one adjective to occur as modifier of the N, as in
the long, blue, silken scarf. Moreover, each of the adjectives can be modified by Deg or
AdvP, as in the very long, quite pale blue, silken scarf. To account for this possibility, we
must introduce a modification to our rule for NP which permits more than one AP in a
single NP. One way to do so would simply be to allow for multiple APs in a “flat” structure
as follows:

(9) NP

Det N

Art AP AP AP N

the A A A scarf

long blue silken

Apart from the fact that we don’t actually have a mechanism in our rules for generating
more than one AP, a hierarchical, or “nested”, structure such as the following better cap-
tures the meaning of the phrase:

(10) NP

Det N

Art AP N

the A AP N

long A AP N

blue A N

silken scarf

That is, rather than being a ‘scarf which is silken and blue and long’, it is a ‘silken scarf
which is blue’ and a ‘blue silken scarf which is long’. Note that changing the order of the
adjectives produces unnatural phrases: ? blue long silken scarf, ? silken blue long scarf.
–
In order to account for this structure, our rule for N must be rewritten as follows:

– –
N → (AP) N (PP)
N
200 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

3.5 Adverb phrase

The adverb phrase (AdvP) can be expanded as in Table 7.3a. We note that Deg is an optional
modifier and that the Adv is head; our rule for AdvP is thus formulated as follows:
AdvP → (Deg) Adv

Table 7.3. Expansions of (a) AdvP and (b) PP

(a) AdvP → Adv quickly
Deg Adv very quickly
(b) PP → P NP on the beach
P P NP from behind the door
P P P NP out from under the table

So far we have looked at the AdvP only as modifier of the adjective, but we will look at its
other functions in the next chapter.

3.6 Prepositional phrase
The prepositional phrase (PP) may be expanded as in Table 7.3b. Again, we observe
that the P is the head of the PP, but unlike the other categories we have examined, the P
cannot stand alone in the PP. It must be followed by an NP, what is traditionally known as
an object of the preposition (OP).
It also appears that Ps can have specifiers as well as objects. Like determiners or degree
adverbs, these forms specify or limit the prepositional phrase. They include the words
right, straight, and slap (in some dialects) and phrases measuring time and space, such as
three seconds or one mile:
right after lunch two feet behind me
straight along this route two minutes before my arrival
For lack of a simpler name, we will term these specifiers of P (PSpec):
PSpec → {right, straight, slap, one mile, three seconds … }
Finally, we must also account for the sequences P P NP and P P P NP. Writing the rule as
PP → P (P) (P) NP would incorrectly show the NP as object of all the Ps, when it is actually
complement of only the last P. Thus, we write our rule as follows:12

PP → (PSpec) P NP
PP

. This rule is actually too powerful, since it would allow PSpecs to precede all Ps, whereas they
appear to be possible only before the first P: cf. right out from under the table but not *out right
 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  201

So far, we have seen PPs functioning as modifier of the N and complement of the A; further
functions will be identified later in this chapter and in the next chapter.
The rule for PP is a recursive rule since PP (on the left) introduces a PP (on the right).
And since NP introduces PP which introduces NP, NP is also a recursive symbol. The latter
recursion leads to structures such as the following:

(11) NP

Det N

Art N PP

a N P NP

book in Det N

Art N PP

the N P NP

library on N

campus

Here, “in the library” modifies “book” and “on campus” modifies “the library”. Note that
a cat on the mat in the hallway would have the structure given above, but the superficially
similar a cat on the mat with long whiskers would not since “with long whiskers” modifies
“the cat”, not “the mat”. A possible analysis of the phrase with a “flat” structure would give
the following:

from under the table or out from right under the table. Again, a “nested” structure in which an
–
intermediate category P dominates P and its complements would solve this problem (but would
unnecessarily complicate our tree structures):

–
PP → (PSpec) P
–
P → P {NP, PP}
202 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

(12) NP

Det N

Art N PP PP

a N P NP P NP

cat on Det N with N

Art N AP N

the mat A N

long whiskers

But the revision of our rule which permits more than one AP in the NP will also permit
more that one PP, so the correct phrase marker for the cat on the mat with long whiskers is
the following:

(13) NP

Det N

Art N PP

a N PP P NP

N P NP with N

cat on Det N AP N

N A N

the mat long whiskers

A further complication arises if there is a modifier both preceding and following the noun,
as in heavy rain in the night. Should this be analyzed as a “flat” structure?
 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  203

(14) NP

AP N PP

A N P NP

heavy rain in Det N

Art N

the night

While this structure is probably not correct, it will suit our purposes, since there seems to
be no reason to prefer one of the following hierarchical structures over the other:

(15) N N

AP N N PP

N PP AP N

The phrase marker on the left would be ‘night-rain which is heavy’ and the phrase marker
on the right would be ‘heavy rain which is in the night’.

3.7 Conjunction
Our phrase structure rules do not yet account for the conjunction of elements (with and,
but, or). It is possible to conjoin two or more like constituents, either phrasal or lexical
categories (see Table 7.4).

Table 7.4. Conjunction

PP + PP on the table and under the chair
P+P over or under
NP + NP the tortoise and the hare
– –
N+ N cold coffee and warm beer
N+N cats and dogs
AP + AP very slow and quite tedious
A+A long and boring
AdvP + AdvP very cautiously but quite happily
Adv + Adv quietly and smoothly
204 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

The combined category will be the same as the individual categories conjoined.
Thus, the supercategory of two conjoined Ps is P, while the supercategory of two con-
joined APs is AP. The conjunction of lexical categories (Ps) [in and out] the window, is
shown below:

(16) PP

P NP

P and P Det N

in out Art N

the window

The conjunction of phrasal categories (APs) is found in a [rather expensive and ugly] car:

(17) NP

Det N

Art AP N

a AP and AP N

Deg A A car

rather expensive ugly

Note that we interpret ugly as AP rather that just A in order to have the conjunction of two
like constituents. Generally, it is not possible to conjoin unlike categories, such as AP + NP,
*very polite and the quick response, unless the unlike categories are functioning the same
way; in The instructor will be away [on Tuesday] and [next week], for example, the PP on
Tuesday and the NP next week are both functioning adverbially.
A phrase such as a very rich and fattening dessert is ambiguous; either very modifies
rich only or it modifies both rich and fattening:

(18) AP AP

Deg A AP and AP

very A and A Deg A A

rich fattening very rich fattening

 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  205

A phrase such as soup or salad and french fries is also ambiguous, as shown below:
(19) NP NP

NP and NP NP or NP

NP or NP N N NP and NP

N N N N N N

N N french fries soup N N

soup salad salad french fries

When APs are conjoined, and the As are of the same semantic type, it is common to omit
the conjunction, as in a happy and carefree child > a happy, carefree child or a delicious and
bracing burgundy > a delicious, bracing burgundy. Note that unlike the nested AP structures
discussed above (i.e. a long blue silken scarf), it is entirely natural in these cases to change
the order of the adjectives, i.e. a carefree, happy child, or a bracing, delicious burgundy.
Nominal compounding (which we treated in Chapter 4 as a matter of word forma-
tion), such as french fries and ice cream could also be represented in our syntactic trees as a
kind of conjunction without an explicit conjunction, but we will not do so here:

(20) N N

N N N N

french fries ice cream

Self-Testing Exercise: Do Exercise 7.3.

3.8 Verb phrase

In order to study the structure of the VP, we will introduce the intermediate category of
Vgp = verb group consisting of the lexical verb with or without a particle.13 For the present
we are not going to concern ourselves with the specifiers of the verb, including both tense
and the auxiliary verbs; we will deal with these in Chapter 8. In this chapter, the Vgp may
be thought of as the verb in its base form.

. A verb plus a post-verbal particle forms a “phrasal verb”, as was introduced in Chapter 5 and
will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 8.
206 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

Verb complementation. What we will consider now is the type(s) of complements that
follow a verb. Verbs fall into different classes based on the type of complement structures
that they require. This is called the verb subcategorization (as we noted briefly in Chap-
ter 5). The particular structure or structures in which a verb can occur can be represented
formally in a subcategorization frame:
____ NP ____ AP ____ PP

The verb occurs in the slot indicated by the line, with the possible complement(s) specified
afterwards.

HINT: Note that only obligatory complements (NPs, APs, and PPs) are relevant to the
subcategorization of a verb, not the optional PPs which often follow a verb or verb
phrase. Distinguishing obligatory from optional PPs can often be very difficult. Generally,
it is the case that the obligatory complements cannot be omitted without affecting the
grammaticality or meaning of the sentence: e.g. in She identifies with her mother or She
talked with her mother, omitting with her mother produces an ungrammatical sentence
in the first instance (*She identifies) and one with a different meaning in the second (She
talked). In contrast, optional PPs, which are functioning as adverbials, can be omitted or
can be moved to the beginning of the sentence: e.g. They ordered a pizza for dinner cf.
They ordered a pizza, For dinner they ordered a pizza. (This topic will be treated in detail
in Chapter 8.)

Based on the type of complement a verb takes, a number of subcategories of verbs can be
identified:

1. Intransitive verb (intrans), e.g. arrive, cry, laugh, or swim, with the following subcat-
egorization frame:
____ # By then aunts, uncles and cousins had arrived. (COCA:SPOK)
Some in the audience laughed. (COCA:NEWS)

With an intransitive verb, no complement is required or allowed.

HINT: Intransitive verbs often sound more “natural” when followed by adverbials,
especially if the verb is in the simple present or past tense: e.g. The package arrived on
Tuesday, The package arrived yesterday, The package arrived after I got home. But adverbials,
as we will see in more detail in Chapter 8, do not affect the subcategorization of the verb.
It remains an intransitive verb.

2. Transitive verb (trans) (also known as “monotransitive”), e.g. hit, eat, kill, or tie, with
the following subcategorization frame:
____ NP I dug a giant hole. (COCA:MAG)

The complement of the verb here is a noun phrase functioning as a direct object (dO).
While traditionally a direct object is defined as the person or thing affected by the
 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  207

action of the verb, we are now able to give it a formal definition: it is the NP immedi-
ately dominated by the VP, or it is the NP which is sister of the Vgp. Note that the direct
object follows the verb directly (i.e. it is not preceded by a preposition).14
3. Ditransitive verb (ditrans), e.g. give, send, tell, lend, buy, offer, or show, with the
following subcategorization frames:
____ NP1 NP2 Maggie’s niece sent her flowers. (COCA:NEWS) OR
____ NP2 PP[to/for NP1] Huber sent flowers to teachers. (COCA:NEWS)

We can write this subcategorization frame more economically as follows:

____ NP {NP, PP[to/for NP]}

HINT: In our discussion of the structure of the NP above, we saw that a PP could serve as
the optional modifier of the N, as in the snow on the roof. Here we see that the PP in a very
different function as an obligatory complement of the verb.

NP1 serves the function of indirect object (iO), while NP2 serves the function of direct
object. An indirect object is the goal or benefactive of the action; it always denotes
something which is animate or is conceived of as animate. It is important to distin-
guish the indirect object to marker (a) from the one meaning ‘place to which’ (b):

a. Some friends sent flowers to Jon. (COCA:FIC)

b. Helen’s husband had sent flowers to the party. (COCA:SPOK)

and the indirect object for marker (c) from the one meaning ‘in the stead of ’, ‘in the
place of ’ (d):

c. When was the last time you cooked a meal for the family? (COCA:FIC)
d. so you do the dishes for them (COCA:MAG)

The test to distinguish indirect objects from the other cases is known as the indirect
object movement transformation: if the noun following to or for is an indirect object,
it should be able to move to a position before the direct object (V NP2 to/for NP1 ⇒ V
NP1 NP2):15

a. ⇒ Some friends sent Jon flowers.

b. ⇒ *Helen’s husband had sent the party flowers.

. A direct object can also be a subordinate clause: Vivian wrote that she was unhappy. However,
since we will be considering subordinate clauses in Chapter 9, they will be omitted from our
current discussion.
. We are assuming that the order V NP2 to/for NP1 is the order in D-structure and that V NP1
NP2 is the derived order (as S-structure), though this assumption can be debated.
208 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

c. ⇒ When was the last time you cooked the family a meal?
d. ⇒ *so you do them the dishes

(⇒ means ‘is transformed into’.) The test works no matter how lengthy either of the
NPs is, that is, how many modifiers it has preceding or following it:
Iranian authorities gave [plastic keys to paradise to hang around their necks] to [young
Iranians, some only twelve years old] ⇒
Iranian authorities gave young Iranians, some only twelve years old, plastic keys to
paradise to hang around their necks. (COCA:ACAD)
the state sent [a letter to inform them about the survey] to [each school district] ⇒
the state sent each school district a letter to inform them about the survey (COCA:NEWS)

There are, however, certain restrictions with pronouns. If both the direct and indirect
object are pronouns (a), or if the direct object alone is a pronoun (b), then indirect
object movement cannot normally occur, but if the indirect object alone is a pronoun
(c), then it can occur:
a. My father gave it to her. (COCA:FIC) ⇒ ?My father gave her it.16
b. Then I gave it to my nephew. (COCA:FIC) ⇒ ?Then I gave my nephew it.
c. Besides, Hilda gave the money to you. ⇒ Besides, Hilda gave you the
(COCA:MAG) money.

(This restriction results from the weakly stressed nature of pronouns.)

4. Copula(tive) verb (cop), e.g. become, seem, appear, feel, be, grow, or look, and with the
following subcategorization frame:
____ NP She is a computer software analyst. (COCA:NEWS)
____ AP She seems perfectly relaxed. (COCA:MAG)
____ PP He was in a good mood. (COCA:SPOK)

Or, more concisely:

____ {NP, AP, PP}

The complement here serves the function of subject complement (sC).17 A subject com-
plement characterizes the subject: it identifies, locates, or describes the subject, as in Bill
is the leader, Bill is in the living room, and Bill is irritable. It expresses either a current state
or a resulting state of the subject, as in Bill is rich vs. Bill became rich. Any copulative verb
can usually be replaced by be (She seems perfectly relaxed ⇒ She is perfectly relaxed).

. British English allows I gave it her, and colloquially one might find both of the asterisked
sentences in North American English.
. You may know this function by one of its other names: predicative nominative, subject(ive)
predicative, and so on.
 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  209

HINT: It is important to distinguish an NP serving as direct object from an NP serving

as subject complement. A test distinguishing dO from sC is that the dO can become the
subject of a passive sentence, while the sC cannot.
Here a lawyer is sC:

Martina became a lawyer. ⇒ *A lawyer was become by Martina.

Here a lawyer is dO:

Martina hired a lawyer. ⇒ A lawyer was hired by Martina.

5. Complex transitive verb (complex trans), with the following subcategorization frame:
____ NP NP I consider him a real colleague. (COCA:SPOK)
____ NP AP She made him uneasy. (COCA:FIC)
____ NP PP You regard that as a problem? (COCA:FIC)

Or more concisely:
____ NP {NP, AP, PP}

There are two subclasses of verbs in this category:

a. nonlocative: find, consider, make, think, elect, call, hold, regard (as), take (for), devote
(to); and
b. locative: hang, put, place, lay, set, touch, shoot, pierce.

The complex transitive verb combines the transitive and the copulative structures.
The first NP is a direct object; the second element is an object complement (oC).18 The
object complement characterizes the object in the same way as the subject comple-
ment characterizes the subject: it identifies, describes, or locates the object (as in
We chose Bill as group leader, We consider him a fool, She laid the baby in the crib),
expressing either its current state or resulting state (as in They found him in the
kitchen vs. She made him angry). It is not possible to delete the object complement
without either radically changing the meaning of the sentence (e.g. She called him
an idiot ⇒ She called him) or making the sentence ungrammatical (e.g. He locked
his keys in his office ⇒ *He locked his keys). Note that be or some other copula verb
can often be inserted between the direct object and the object complement (e.g. I
consider him to be a fool, We chose Bill to be group leader, They found him to be in
the kitchen).

. This is also known as an object(ive) predicative. Object complement structures are sometimes
analyzed as clauses with the infinitive of the verb be understood: They found the idea (to be)
ridiculous. However, in some object complements, the presence of be is less natural, e.g. We made
him (to be) captain.
210 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

HINT: Like the subject complement, the object complement cannot usually become the
subject of a passive sentence:

Queen Elizabeth II made her a dame. ⇒ *A dame was made her by
Queen Elizabeth II.

But note that the direct object in the same sentence can become the subject of a passive
sentence

Queen Elizabeth II made her a dame. ⇒ She was made a dame by Queen
Elizabeth II. (COCA:NEWS)

6. Prepositional verb (prep), with the following subcategorization frame:

____ PP Arvydas had insisted on the scorpion. (COCA:FIC)
Colleen stood on her tiptoes. (COCA:FIC)

Here the entire prepositional phrase serves as a complement of the verb. Thus on the scor-
pion is the complement of insisted. We call this PP a prepositional complement (pC).
There are two subclasses of verbs in this category:

a. locative: stand, lie, lean, hang, sit, flow; and

b. nonlocative (idiomatic): agree (to), work (for), depend (on), look (into), refer (to),
insist (on), respond (to).

In the case of nonlocative prepositional verbs, the verb and preposition seem to form
a close syntactic and semantic unit, and the particular preposition occurring with a
verb is idiosyncratic and must be learned (e.g. to is used rather than on with refer: refer
to, *refer on). In the nonlocative cases, it is often possible to replace the prepositional
verb with a simple verb (e.g. She asked for a raise ⇒ She requested a raise).
The locative cases often express a copulative relationship (e.g. Colleen stood on her
tiptoes ⇒ Colleen is on her tiptoes).

HINT: It is easy to confuse pC “prepositional complement” and oP “object of the

preposition”, but they are different. oP refers to the NP which serves as the complement
of the preposition (e.g. my head in on my head), whereas pC refers to the PP which serves
as the complement of the verb (e.g. on my head in The bird landed on my head).
Earlier we also encountered prepositional complements of adjectives, as in similar
to my handwriting, where to my handwriting is the complement of the A similar, as well
as prepositional complements of prepositions, as in up on the table, where on the table is
the complement of the P up.

7. Diprepositional verb (diprep), e.g. confer, talk, or consult, with the following sub­
categorization frame:
____ PP PP I argued with the officers about little things. (COCA:FIC)
 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  211

This is a limited set of verbs that can often be prepositional, with only a slight differ-
ence in meaning:

a. diprepositional: We talked with our parents about buying a house. (discussed a

specific topic)
b. prepositional: We talked with our parents. (conversed generally)

Thus, for the category VP, we have the possible expansions shown in Table 7.5.

Table 7.5. Expansions of VP

VP → V NP open a package
V NP NP write a friend a letter
V NP PP give an excuse to the teacher
V AP feel lonely
V NP AP make the dog angry
V PP jump into the pool
V PP PP talk about the problem with a friend

We need to write a single rule for the verb phrase. There are a number of ways to do
so; we will do it in the following way:

({ {( ({ {(
(21) VP → Vgp NP NP
PP
AP
AP
PP (PP)

We must make sure that our rule generates all possible structures and does not generate any
impossible structures. You should see if it might be possible to write the rule differently.

Latent objects. One of the difficulties for verb subcategorization in English is that it is
sometimes possible to omit the direct object when it is understood from context, as in the
case of He ate being understood as ‘He ate dinner’ in a certain context. In such cases, the
object can be understood as being latent. How can you tell, then, when the verb is really
transitive with a “latent” object (i.e. present but not overt at the level of S-structure), and
when it is really intransitive? A few tests can be applied to the verbs in question. When the
verb has a remarkably different meaning without an object than with an object, then we
can assume that it is truly intransitive, not transitive with a latent object:

intransitive transitive
From time to time the workers vs. She struck the match. (COCA:FIC)
struck, of course. (COCA:ACAD)
I just played outside. (COCA:NEWS) vs. As a girl in Manchester, Elizabeth played
tennis. (COCA:FIC)
212 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

If the object is irrelevant, then the verb is likewise intransitive since the object is not neces-
sary at all:
Jeff smokes and is male. (COCA:SPOK)
He was in bed and he was reading. (COCA:SPOK)
Was there an argument after we left yesterday? (COCA:FIC)

In the first sentence, it is not important what Jeff smokes; you are simply saying that ‘Jeff
is a smoker’. In the second sentence, what he was reading is immaterial, as is where we left
from (home, town, country) in the third sentence.
If the object is completely predictable, however, then the object is latent because in
those cases the object is “understood from context”:
They elected a movie star president. They elected a movie star – Ronald Reagan
(COCA:NEWS)
They played the game very well. They played very well. (COCA:NEWS)
I bathed myself already. I bathed already. (COCA:SPOK)

In the corpus examples, then, we would say that elect is a complex transitive verb with the
latent object complement president, played is a transitive verb with the latent direct object
the game, and bathed is a transitive verb with the latent object myself.19

Self-Quiz: Try to determine whether the verb write is intransitive, mono­transitive, or

ditransitive on the basis of the following sentences:19

a. Margaret writes.
b. Margaret wrote yesterday.
c. Margaret wrote to George yesterday.
d. Margaret wrote a letter yesterday.
e. Margaret wrote a novel.

In the following case, while start does not appear to have radically different meanings in
the two uses, it is impossible to recover from the context who or what started the trouble
in the second case:

. ANSWER: There is no missing object in (a) because an object is irrelevant; the sentence means
‘Margaret is a writer’. The object in (b) and in (c) is latent because an object must be understood
from context (e.g. a poem, a letter, a memo). In (d), the indirect object is latent because it must be
understood from context (e.g. to her mother, to Nadine). Sentence (e), on the other hand, has no
latent indirect object, because novels, unlike letters, are not written to anyone. Therefore, we need to
assign write to all three verb subcategories, intransitive (a), transitive (b, e), and ditransitive (c, d).
 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  213

They started their first diet. (COCA:ACAD)

The trouble started again. (COCA:ACAD)

Thus, start is analyzed as both transitive and intransitive.

Self-Testing Exercise: Do Exercise 7.4.

4. Review of phrase structure rules

The following are the phrase structure rules for English which we have established so far:

S → NP VP
–
NP → {(Det) N, PN, Pro}
– –
N → {(AP) N (PP), N}
Det → {Art, Dem, Poss, Q, Wh‑}
Dem → {this, that, these, those}
Art → {a, an, the}
Wh‑ → {which, what, whose}
Poss → {NP‑’s, my, our, their …}
Q → {some, any, every, each, neither, more …}
AP → ({Deg, AdvP}) A (PP)
AdvP → (Deg) Adv
PP → (PSpec) P {NP, PP}
VP → Vgp ({NP ({NP, PP, AP}), AP, PP (PP)})

We have identified the following grammatical functions:

Subject (Su) Object of the Preposition (OP)

Direct Object (dO) Prepositional Complement (pC)
Indirect Object (iO) Modifier of Noun (Mod of N)
Subject Complement (sC) Specifier of Noun (Spec of N), Specifier of Preposition
(Spec of P)
Object Complement (oC) Complement of Adjective (Comp of A)

The phrasal categories we have studied can serve the following functions:

NP: Subject, Direct Object, Indirect Object, Subject Complement, Object

Complement, Object of Preposition
AP: Modifier of Noun, Subject Complement, Object Complement
PP: Modifier of Noun, Subject Complement, Object Complement, Indirect
Object, Prepositional Complement of Verb, of Preposition, or of Adjective
AdvP: Modifier of Adjective
214 The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

We are now in the position to give D-structure trees for complete sentences. Here are a
couple of examples:

The architect’s plans for that renovation proved completely unworkable.

(22) S

NP VP

Det N Vgp AP

Poss N PP proved AdvP A

NP ’s N P NP Adv unworkable

Det N plans for Det N completely

Art N Dem N

  the architect that renovation

Mr. Richardson assigned her a very challenging new job on our newspaper.

(23) S

NP VP

PN Vgp NP NP

Mr. Richardson Pro Det N

assigned her Art AP N

a Deg A AP N

very challenging A N PP

new N P NP

job on Det N

Art N

the newspaper

Self-Testing Exercises: Do Exercise 7.5 as a review of the material covered in this chapter
 Chapter 7. Phrasal structure and verb complementation  215

Chapter summary

Now that you have completed this chapter, you should be able to:

1. manipulate the formalisms of phrase structure rules;

2. determine the type of dependency relation (subject–predicate, modifier-head, governor-
complement) between elements within a constituent;
3. analyze the structure of noun, adjective, adverb, and prepositional phrases in English using
tree diagrams and identify their grammatical functions; and
4. determine the subcategory of verbs in English on the basis of their complement structures.

Recommended additional reading

NOTE: You should be aware that in the works cited here, the order in which the material
is presented may diverge quite markedly from the order followed in this textbook and
that the formal system used may differ from the form of the grammatical rules introduced
in this text.

Less detailed textbook treatments of syntax which take a similar approach to that taken in this
chapter include Jeffries (2006, Chapters 4 and 5, pp. 124–143), Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams
(2007, Chapter 4), Plag, Braun, Lappe, and Schramm (2009, Chapter 4), Finegan (2008, Chapter 5),
Curzan and Adams (2009, Chapter 6), and O’Grady and Archibald (2009, Chapter 5).
Treatments of English syntax which are similar in depth and level of formality to the
­treatment in this chapter include Brown and Miller (1991, Chapters 1–6 and 8), Kaplan (1995,
Chapter 6, pp. 207–250, and Chapter 7), Burton-Roberts (1997, Chapters 1–4 and 7), ­Hopper
(1999, ­Chapters 3–5 and 8–9), Miller (2009, Chapters 2–5 and 8), Morenberg (2002, ­Chapters 1–4),
Disterheft (2004, Sections I and II), and Tallerman (2005, Chapters 4–6). Wardhaugh (1995,
­Chapters 2–4) and Klammer, Schultz, and Della Volpe (2010, Chapter 8) are clear, but less formal
treatments.
More advanced textbook treatments of generative syntax (with a focus, but not an exclusive
focus on English) include Haegeman and Guéron (1999), Ouhalla (1999), Carnie (2002), Radford
(2004), and Haegeman (2006).