1. What are syntactic functions of a Noun phrase in English? Examples.

 Subject: Tom is a teacher

 Direct Object: I gave him a book

 Indirect object: I gave him a book

 Objective complement: they elected him chairman

 Subject complement: My mother is an actress

 Attribute: this is Tom’s house

- Possessive: Tom, come in please

- Vocative: my friend, Tom, is a teacher.

2. Briefly state the structure of a basic Noun phrase. Examples?

- Closed-system Premodifiers:

+Predeterminers (3 subclasses): * Inclusives: all, both, half (Eg: all the books)

* Multipliers: double, twice, three-times (Eg;

double your salary)

* Fractions: one-third, two-fifths (one-third the

students)

+ Determiners: (6 subclasses): * Articles: a, an, the, 0

* Possessive: my, your, his, her, their

* Demonstrative: whose, which, what

* Indefinite: some, any, every, each

* Quantifier: much

+ Post-determiners (2 subclasses) * Quantifiers: Closed-system: many, little, few

 Open class: a lot of, good deal of,
a great number of

* Numerals: Cardinal: one, two, three

Ordinal: first, second, third

- Head Noun

3. Structurally, what is the difference between a basic and a complex Noun

phrase? Examples?

Basic noun phrase and complex noun phrase differ in some ways:

Basic Noun phrase – consists of Pre-modification + Head Noun

- Functions as S, O, C, A, App

Complex Noun phrase: - 3 components: Premodification + Head +

Postmodification

- functions as S, O, Complement, Adverbial, App

4. What can be the pre-modifiers(s) and post-modifier(s) of a Noun phrase in

English? Examples?

5. What are the forms of verbs in English? In which cases, these forms are
used? Examples?

English verbs have 5 forms

- Base-form: work/go (simple present tense, all persons except third persons
singular; after modal auxiliary verbs; imperative; after causative verbs (let, make,
have), subjunctive

- S/ES -form : works/ goes (simple present tense for third person singular)

- Ed-form: worked/went (past simple; subjunctive)

- Ing-form: working/ going (progressive aspects); present participle clause)

- Ed-participle form: worked/ gone (passive voice, perfective aspects, part
participle clause)

6. Briefly state the classification of verbs in English. Give examples

According to their functions of these items in the same verb phrase: auxiliary
(grammatical) and lexical verb (semantic) verbs.

I shall have been being followed.

auxiliary lexical

 Auxiliary verb: help complete the meaning of the verbs phrase (that
has grammatical function in the verb phrase)

shall => tense

have => the aspect (perpective aspect)

been => voice

being => the aspect (continuous aspect)

-> Grammatical device

- Auxiliary verbs:

- Primary auxiliary verbs: be, do, have

- Modal auxiliary verbs: 10 modal verbs

- Semi-modal auxiliary verbs: dare, need

 Lexical/semantic verb: carries full dictionary meaning / that denotes

action or state.

7. Briefly state the complementation of di-transitive verb and complex

transitive verb. Give examples for illustration.

* Ditransitive verbs: take two objects (S-V-O-O)

 He gave me his book.

- With ditransitive complementation: sentence type SVOO.

* Complex transitive verbs: take Od Co or Od A

a. With SVOC type:

I think life to be thus.

I have my hair cut. I grow my hair long

b. SVOA type: put, place, stand, hang

They put him in a good position.

They hit him on the head.

With complex transitive complementation (sentence types SVOC and SVOA)

8. What are syntactic functions of an adjective and adverb phrase in English?

Examples?

 Syntactic functions of an adjective phrase in English:

- Modifiers: +Pre-modifiers: some attractive girls

+Post-modifiers: the stars visible

- Object Complement: They painted the door red

- Subject Complement: He looks tired

- Head of noun phrase: the rich/ the poor

- Supplementative Adjective Clause: Nervous, the man opened the

letter.

 Syntactic functions of an adverb phrase in English:

- As adverbials
 Adjunct: They are waiting outside

Disjunct: Frankly, he is honest

Conjunct: They tried, however, they failed.

- As modifiers

Of adjective : It’s extremely good

Of adverb: He plays very well

Of prepositional phrase: The nail went right through the wall

Of determiner : About a week is enough for this job

Of noun phrase: He told such a funny story

- As complement of preposition: Since then he has not seen her

Until now

Upto now

At once

9. Briefly state the classification of adjectives in English? Examples?

1. According to syntactic functions

- Central adjectives can function both attributely and predicatively

Eg: a hungry man ; The man is hungry

- Attributive adjectives can be attribute only:

Eg: The political situation; My former friend

- Predicative adjectives can be predicative only:

Eg: He’s afraid to do it.

2. According to Semantic functions

a. Stative/ dynamic

Stative adjectives: It’s a male cat

Dynamic adjectives: It’s an old blue jacket

b. Gradable/ non-gradable adjectives:

- Gradable adjectives: can be modified by intensifiers and include

comparison

Eg: very young, so plain

- Non-gradable adjective: principally technical adjectives and adjectives

denoting provenance

Eg: atomic, British-wonderful, fantastic, perfect.

10. What can be the prepositional complement in English? Examples?

Prepositional complement realised by:

- Noun phrases

Eg: he was surprised at her remark.

- Ing participle clauses

Eg: he was surprised at her saying that.

- Wh-interrogative clauses;

Eg: he was surprised at what she said

- Yes/No interrogative clauses;

Eg: It depended on whether he would win the match or not

- Nominal relative clauses

Eg: I was interested in whatever he was saying at the time.

- Adv: Eg: Since then, I’ve been very happy.

11. Briefly state the syntactic features of the Subject, Object, Complement and
Adverbial in English. Give examples for illustration.

12. What are semantic roles of the Subject, Object and Complement in
English? Give examples for illustration.

13. What are principles that regulate the SV concord in English? Examples?

There are 3 principles that regulate the SV concord in English

+ Grammatical principle: the verb must agree with the subject in terms of person,
number and tense.

Eg: She goes to work by car

+ Notional principle: The verb agrees with the subject in terms of meaning

Eg; My family lives on the second floor.

My family all agree with his proposal (all members)

+ Principle of proximity: The verb agrees with the nearest subject (either…or/
neither…nor…)

Eg: Either her parents or she comes

Either she or her parents come.

Other concords: pronominal concord

Eg: He loves his son

He did it by himself
14. What are the differences between a finite and a non-finite clause in terms
of structure and syntactic function? Examples?

15. How are clauses in English classified? Examples?

16. briefly state the cases of ellipsis in English. examples?

17. What is nominal clause? How are they classified?

18. What are syntactic function of finite nominal clauses? Examples?

19. What are syntactic function of non-finite nominal clauses? Examples?

20. How are sentences in English classified in terms of sentence elements? In

terms of communicative functions? In terms of structure? Examples?