English Grammar Structures and Sentence Analysis

Posted on Jan 29, 2026 in Linguistics and Applied Languages

Grammatical Structures and Examples

0. Relative Clauses

Who, that, which, etc.

1. Appositive

Dr. Sanders, the one operating Amy, is a professional. (Una aclaración.)

2. Cleft Clauses

It was in June we got married.

3. Anticipatory

It is likely that we stay at home.

4. Prop (Dummy Pronoun)

It pero impersonal.

5. Referential

Where is my coat? Ah, there it is.

6. Existential/Non-existential

The bear is there / There happens to exist the possibility.

7. Indirect Object

Give him the book. (Sólo el him.)

8. Benefactive Object

She opened the door for Tom. (El for incluido.)

9. Prepositional Object

He come at noon.

10. Pro Elements

Bertha called Amy – She called her.

11. Ellipsis

Tomo likes toasts and (likes) doughs.

12. Object Complement

To make her happy. (Verbos make y name.)

13. Predicator Complement (PC)

Pat considered Kim a genius. (Si no se puede pasar a pasiva es PC.)

14. Compound Sentence

I want the car, I will buy the blue one. (Dos frases independientes.)

15. Complex Sentence

I was snippy with him because I was running late for work. (Una independiente y una dependiente.)

16. Subordinate Sentence

I saw that the people were having fun.

17. Embedded Sentence

I saw that the people were having fun.

EJERCICIO 1: Analysis of Sentences

  1. Relative clause “that”, Non-existential “there”, Prepositional object “to be aware of”, Ellipsis “that”, Predicator complement “to be aware of”. There occurred nothing.
  2. Relative clause “what”, Existential “there”, Pro element “there”. I wondered what.
  3. Relative clause “that”, Referential “it”, Prepositional objects “in a few places”, Ellipsis “clear”, Predicator complement “clear”. The motion that we are all…
  4. Relative clause “who”, Indirect object “you” and “me”, Ellipsis “that”. Who wrote you the email?
  5. Benefactive “me”. Non-existential “there”, Prepositional objects “on the table”, Ellipsis “stamps”. Can you buy me…?
  6. Relative clause “that”, Cleft clause, Anticipatory “it”, Predicator complement “his idea”. It is his idea that the…
  7. Relative clause “that”, Anticipatory “it”, Existential “there”, Prepositional object “in time”, Ellipsis “that”, Pro element “there”. I supposed she deems…

EJERCICIO 2: Sentence Classification

Phrase level = dependent

Sentence level = independent

  1. Don’t expect me to be here if I don’t call you before. Complex, subordinate, finite, pure subordinator if, sujeto omitido you.
  2. No one came to the play for they were all away. Complex, subordinate, finite, pure subordinator for, sujeto the play.
  3. That they didn’t come didn’t surprise anyone. Complex, subordinate, finite, subordinator that, Sujeto they.
  4. She took it for granted that we would all be there. Complex, subordinate, finite, pure subordinator that, sujeto she.
  5. Although he was a very famous player now he plays in a second division. Compound, finite, coordinator although, sujeto he.
  6. The day when he arrived and called the airport I wasn’t there. Complex, Embedded, finite, subordinator and, sujeto he.

EJERCICIO 3: Structural Analysis

  1. The house = Od / In a mess = Co / In a hurry = Adverbial.
  2. He = Subject / The guitar = Complemento directo / Very well = Adjunct. The guitar = Subject / Well = Adjunct.
  3. Tres posibles lecturas, ambigüedad.

EJERCICIO 4: Lexical Verbs and Morphemes

Lexical and Auxiliary Verbs

Lexical verbs express action, state of being, or predicate meaning. In a word, they are the main verbs of a sentence. An auxiliary verb is a helping verb; that is, auxiliary verbs help the main verb. When auxiliary verbs exist, there is a verb phrase.

Morphemes and Types

A “morpheme” is a short segment of language that meets three basic criteria:

  1. It is a word or a part of a word that has meaning.
  2. It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful segments without changing its meaning or leaving a meaningless remainder.
  3. It has a relatively the same stable meaning in different verbal environments.

There are two types of morphemes: free morphemes and bound morphemes. “Free morphemes” can stand alone with a specific meaning, for example, eat, date, weak. “Bound morphemes” cannot stand alone with meaning. Morphemes are comprised of two separate classes called (a) bases (or roots) and (b) affixes.

EJERCICIO 5: Syntax and Semantics (Passivization)

The army attacked the city yesterday: the army is syntactically the subject, whose semantic role is agent; the city is the object, whose semantic role is that of theme or patient.

The city was attacked by the army: the city is now the subject but its semantic role is the same of patient; the army is syntactically an adjunct now but its semantic role is still the same, that of agent.

Passivization is just a syntactic operation because the underlying semantics remain the same.

EJERCICIO 7: Plural Forms

A) Alumni, Data, Theses, Knives, Oxen, Mice, Loci, Passer-By, Formulae, Geese.

B) Fish = Both (singular/plural). The rest = Plural.