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Session 5 - Syntax

The document discusses various types of adverbials including adjunct adverbials, which provide additional information about manner, means, purpose, reason, place or time. It examines how adjunct adverbials modify verb phrases and can occur in different positions within sentences. The document also covers phrasal verbs, ellipsis, and sentence adverbials.

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tân mai
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69 views34 pages

Session 5 - Syntax

The document discusses various types of adverbials including adjunct adverbials, which provide additional information about manner, means, purpose, reason, place or time. It examines how adjunct adverbials modify verb phrases and can occur in different positions within sentences. The document also covers phrasal verbs, ellipsis, and sentence adverbials.

Uploaded by

tân mai
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Syntax

Session 5
Agenda
• Questions from Ses #4
• Adjunct adverbials
• Phrasal verbs
• Ellipsis
• Sentence adverbials
Adverbials and other matters
Chapter 5
Adjunct adverbials (VP-adverbials)
ADJUNCT: Modifiers in VPs, giving additional information (manner, means,
purpose, reason, place and time).
Answers to questions like Where? Why? When? How? What for? How long?
How often? How many times?

E.g.,
[1] Old Sam sunbathed for an hour.
[2] Max spotted those wildcats with his binoculars.
[3] Nicholas became so successful by sheer cunning.
[4] Oscar was in the engine room during the whole voyage.
[5] Ed spent money like a maniac.
[6] William gave Millie some bleach on her birthday.
[7] Liza kept the wine under the bed as a precaution.
Adjunct adverbials (VP-adverbials)
Notes on terms

ADVERBIAL denotes function


ADVERB PHRASE (AdvP) is a CATEGORY label, which can function as
ADVERBIAL
Adjunct adverbials (VP-adverbials)
Not all AdvPs function as adverbials (e.g., AdvP within AP)
Not all constituents functioning as adverbials are AdvPs (e.g., PPs as adverbials)
NPs can function as temporal adverbials (e.g., last year, the day before yesterday)
Levels of VP
Max spotted those wildcats in the spring.

Any problems with [11]?

[11] doesn’t represent [spotted those wildcats] as a constituent


and [in the spring] as its sister
Levels of VP
Is [12] a better phrase marker? Two levels of VP
+ Complement NP (dO) and modifying adjunct
adverbial (aA) PP function differently.
+ Adjunct adverbials are MODIFIERS of VPs, and
thus sisters-of-VPs.
Levels of VP
Bottom line
COMPLEMENTS of the verb are sisters of Verb (V)
ADJUNCT ADVERBIALS are sisters of Verb Phrase (VP).
Levels of VP
Task. Draw the phrase markers for [13] and [14]
[13] Albie mended his bike in the garage.
[14] Jon put his bike in the garage.
Levels of VP
[13] Albie mended his bike in the garage.
 two VP layers
Levels of VP
[14] Jon put his bike in the garage.
 one VP layer
Levels of VP
Using the do so/did so (i.e. PRO-VP) test can help show why [14]
contains only one VP layer while [13] contains two.

[17a] Albie [mended his bike] in the garage and Jon did so in the
garden.
[17b] Albie [mended his bike in the garage] and Jon did so (too).
[18a] *Albie [put his bike] in the garage and Jon did so in the garden.
[18b] Albie [put his bike in the garage] and Jon did so (too).
Levels of VPs
Try drawing phrase markers from [20-22]. You may use triangles for NPs/PPs
[20] Sam sunbathed beside a stream.
[21] He guzzled cakes noisily under the blankets every night.
[22] Stellar drove her car on the right in France.

How to represent different layers of VP?


Tip: Always ask yourself when drawing the immediate VP under S: does that VP
include an adjunct? If yes, that VP must take another VP inside it as sister to the
adjunct.
Levels of VPs
[20] Sam sunbathed beside a stream.
Levels of VPs
[22] Stellar drove her car on the right in France.
Adverbials can move around
Which positions can very surreptitiously occupy in [27]?
[27] She put it under the bed.

 beyond the scope


immediately precedes VP
 beyond the scope
immediately precedes VP
Adverbials can move around
[31] She hardly slept last night.

Which of the two adjunct


adverbials is higher in the
structure?
Draw a phrase marker for [31].
Adverbials can move around
[31] She hardly slept last night.

Intuitively, last night modifies [hardly slept] and is thus the higher of
the two adjuncts.
Last night can be preposed without change of meaning, but hardly
cannot:
(a) Last night, she hardly slept
(b) *Hardly, she slept last night.
Adverbials can move around
The position of the adjunct can make a difference to the meaning.
[32a] They slowly answered all the questions.
[32b] They answered all the questions slowly.

[32a], slowly scopes over all. Slowly, they answered all the questions.
[32b], all scopes over slowly. For all the questions, they answer each of them
slowly.
Phrasal verbs
Now think about the difference between [33] and [34]:
[33] Aisha called up the street.
[34] Aisha called up her friends.

[33] V [intrans] + PP modifier


[34] V [trans phrasal] + NP complement
call up in [34] is a transitive PHRASAL VERB, with up as particle (not a preposition
as in [33])
Phrasal verbs
[34] Aisha called up her friends.
Phrasal verbs
There are many phrasal verbs in English, some more idiomatic than others.

TRANS: call off, look up, put down, hand down, hand over, sound out, drink
up.
TRANS and INTRANS: give up, give in, throw up. (These have different
[trans] and [intran] senses.)
PREP: put up (with NP), go along (with NP), run out (of NP), sign up (for
NP).
INTENS: turn out, end up, wind up.
Phrasal verbs
A phrasal verb consists of [VERB + PARTICLE].
A defining feature of particles is that they can shift to a position following the direct
object NP, i.e., PARTICLE SHIFT.
[39a] *Aisha called the street up.
[39b] Aisha called her friends up

Participle shift is obligatory when the direct object is a pronoun


[40a] Aisha called them up
[40b] *Aisha called up them
Phrasal verbs
Task. Decide if each VP below contains a transitive phrasal verb or a
prepositional verb.

phrasal verb prep. verb


prep. verb phrasal verb
prep. verb phrasal verb
phrasal verb prep. verb
Ellipsis
[41] William gave some bleach to Millie.
[42] William gave Millie some bleach.
[43] William gave some bleach.

Does that mean that give is subcategorized as both [trans] and [ditrans]?

[44] What the hell happened to the bleach? – *William gave it.
Ellipsis
Ellipsis: The omission of grammatically necessary elements that can be understood
in the context of use.
Ellipsis creates acceptable but strictly grammatically incomplete utterances.

• Two crucial concepts in a theory of grammar: The GRAMMTICALITY of


sentences vs. the ACCEPTABILITY of utterances.
Ellipsis

ellipted element
Ellipsis
Ellipsis vs. Verb subcategorization

[47] Max played his trumpet in the street.


[48] Max played in the street. May not contain an ellipted element

[49] Jeane-Pierre ate the couscous rapidly.


[50] Jean-Pierre ate rapidly. Contain an ellipted element
Sentence adverbials
Compare the [a] and [b] examples in the following pairs:
Sentence adverbials
The [b] examples are SENTENCE ADVERBIALS, a.k.a. DISJUNCT ADVERBIALS.
Disjunct adverbials provide some comment by the speaker/writer about what she is
reporting or about how she feels she is expressing it.
Sentence adverbials
Sentence adverbials
With a ditransitive verb such as send, we need to specify
(a) a sender (subject)
(b) what is sent (direct object)
(c) to whom it is sent (indirect object).
So indirect object PPs are part of the complementation of ditransitive verbs.

Two crucial notes


 If a [ditrans] VP is in the form of V + NP1 + PP, then PP is the indirect object
when the form can be rewritten as V + NP + NP1.
 If the P in the PP is other than to or for, it can’t be an indirect object.
Exercises

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