Introduction to English Syntax Level 1 Course

1. Introduction to English SyntaxLevel 1 Course Ron Kuzar Department of English Language and Literature University of Haifa Chapter 3 Major Sentence Patterns: The Verbal Sentence

2. Major Sentence Patterns:General Introduction • In the following 5 chapters we will familiarize ourselves with the following sentence patterns: • The verbal sentence. • The copular sentence. (3 sub-patterns) • The existential sentence. • The extraposition sentence (2 sub-patterns). • The locative inversion sentence. • Sentence Patterns are constructions.

3. Terminological Note • Sentence Pattern • Also: • Sentence type • Sentential construction • Clause type • Clausal construction • Sentence model

4. A construction is • (a) a complex linguistic form that is non-compositional (it is not just the sum total of its components). • (b) It has its own form and function (meaning). • (c) It is not a product of derivation from another construction. • Sentence patterns are (a) complex non-compositional linguistic forms that (b) have their own form and meaning, and (c) are not derivable from one another. • Hence, sentence patterns are constructions.

5. Terminological Note • Derivation (in this context) means that sentences have a “history” or a “biography”, i.e. they start out as in one form and then become something else. • For example: an interrogative sentence starts out as a declarative sentence: • Linda is happy • And then it “becomes” an interrogative sentence, through subject-auxiliary inversion: • Is Linda happy

6. Terminological Note (continued) • To say that a construction (in our case a sentence pattern) is not a product of derivation from another construction amounts to saying, for example, that an existential sentence: • There are spots on the wall • Is not “derived” from the verbal sentence • Spots are on the wall. • They represent two unrelated constructions.

7. Terminological Note • Some terms (extraposition, inversion) to be used in the upcoming discussion may suggest derivation. These terms have become accepted labels, so we use them, even though they represent a derivational linguistic philosophy towards sentence patterns.

8. Representation of Sentence Patterns • Sentence Patterns will be represented by the maximal number and type of slots determined by the valency of predicates participating in that pattern.

9. The Verbal Sentence Pattern • In the V sentence, the V is the predicate. • The valency of the verb may have up to 3 arguments, hence its maximal pattern will look like this: NP (M) [VP V NP NP/PP] Subj. Mod Pred. Dir. Obj. Obl. Obj. +Aux Ind. Obj. Dir. Obj. • Remember: adjuncts may be added as well.

10. Examples of V Sentences NPVC (=M+V)NPNP/PP Itwas snowing. Johnfell. The stormhas subsided. Jackmay be talkingto Sam. The waterhas separatedfrom the oil. Maryshould findHer keys. ItalybordersFrance. LindagaveGeorgea hug. Bethoffereda jobto Jeff. Roberthas been forcingthe screwinto the hole.

11. Terminological Note • The term V sentence refers to sentences whose predicate is a lexical verb. • Grammatical verbs are not predicates. Hence: • Mary is a teacher. • Yohn is tired. • Are not V sentences. • Note However: • The V have is both lexical and grammatical.The possessive use is lexical: • Linda has a dog.

12. Unmarked Word Order • Here and elsewhere in the presentation of Patterns, the sentence formula is arranged in the unmarked word order. • If we look at all the word order alternations of a sentence as a set of options (=a category), one of the members of this set is unmarked. • Unmarked word order is the word order which is most widely used, and which contains no special function or emphasis. • Marked word order serves to emphasize something or to achieve a special effect.

13. Terminological Note • A set of options is called a category. • A category has members (also called: terms). • For example: • frog/frogs = a binary category of number (sg./pl.) • I/you/he/she/it/we/they = a multiple category of personal pronouns. • Some categories (not all!) have a member which is unmarked. • The unmarked member is often more widely used than the others and has the broadest function, with no special effect or emphasis.

14. Unmarked vs. Marked Word Order • Direct Object Fronting: Unmarked: Mary found her keys. Marked: Her keys Mary found, [but her wallet she must have lost]. • Direct Object Fronting (in a double object construction): Unmarked: She gave me a lousy book. Marked: A lousy book she gave me![Can you believe it?]. • Oblique Object Fronting: Unmarked: You can rely on me. Marked: On me you can rely. [It is John who is unreliable]. • In each pair, the unmarked member is more broadly usable, while the use of the marked member creates a special effect.

15. Another Word Order Alternation • Another marked word order alternation is the interrogative (vs. unmarked declarative) form, used for expressing questions or astonishment : Unmarked: They fooled you. Marked: Did they fool you? Marked: Wow! Did they ever fool you! • Note however that the word order of the predicate and the arguments has NOT changed here. They fooled you / Did they fool you = A fool B = SVO

16. The V Sentence:The Unmarked Sentence Pattern • The group of all sentence patterns constitute a category. • In the category of sentence patterns,the V sentence is the unmarked pattern. • This pattern is most broadly used and does not carry any particular function or emphasis. • Differently put, upon hearing a V sentence, the listener cannot predict that a special function or emphasis are intended.

17. Events • Nevertheless, note that all sentences that describe events are V sentences. • The teacher entered the classroom. • She spoke to the students. • A tree fell in the forest. • Mary sneezed.

18. Events and non-events • Event verbs comprise the majority of verbs. • However, there is also a minority. • In the minority we find, for example: • Old MacDonald had a farm. Possession is not an event. • Mary loves John. Feelings are not events. • The vineyard stretches over 5 square miles. Spatial relations are not events. • Etc.

19. Unmarkedness and Prototypicality • It is not unusual to find a member of a category that is unmarked but also has a prototypical function. • The burglar broke the window. = prototypical V sentence:Eventive: representing an event. • The pool reflected the clouds. • Mary had a little lamb.= non-prototypical V sentence:non-eventive, representing a state.

20. V sentences and Narratives • Telling stories is a basic human need. • Stories are also called narratives. • Since: • In narratives something always happens. • Events are central to most narratives. • Hence: • V sentences representing events form the skeleton of most narrative texts.

21. Terminological Note • We have defined two different functions for the V sentence: • to express events, • to serve as the core of narratives. • The former is its sentential function. • The latter is its discursive function.

22. Sample Question • In the following passage, identify all sentences expressing events: • Joseph Pulitzer was born in Hungary to a wealthy Jewish grain dealer. Before age 17, he left home to get away from his stepfather. He applied to the French Foreign Legion, and the British army in India, but was rejected because he had poor eyesight and was underage and frail. In 1864, a U.S. agent in Hamburg, Germany, recruited Pulitzer for the Union army in North America's Civil War.

23. Answer to Sample Question Sentences not expressing events. Sentences expressing events. Joseph Pulitzer was born in Hungary to a wealthy Jewish grain dealer. Before age 17, he left home to get away from his stepfather. He applied to the French Foreign Legion, and the British army in India,but was rejected because he had poor eyesight and was underage and frail.In 1864, a U.S. agent in Hamburg, Germany, recruited Pulitzer for the Union army in North America's Civil War.

24. Homework • In the following passages, identify sentences expressing events: • After the war Pulitzer looked for work in New York City. Entering French’s Hotel to get his shoes shined one day, he was turned away because of his frayed uniform. He felt appalled. He moved to St. Louis, where he found only menial jobs before becoming a reporter in 1868. In 1874 he bought a St. Louis German newspaper. [Continued on the next slide]

25. In 1878 he bought two more newspapers and merged them into the best-selling evening paper. In 1883 he bought a New York morning paper, The World, and four years later began The Evening World. He remembered the incident at French Hotel, so he bought it and built The World headquarters on the site of his earlier humiliation. The newspaper magnate died in Charleston, at age 63. His endowment has awarded eight coveted journalism awards annually since 1917.