Mastering English Grammar: Clause Structures & Sentence Elements

Posted on Jun 15, 2025 in English Studies. Language, Literature, and Culture

Chapter 3: Development of the Message

Unit 9: Intransitive and Copular Patterns

Intransitive Verbs: These verbs do not require an object to complete their meaning (She runs).

• Pattern 1: Subject + Predicate (John sleeps).
• Pattern 2: Subject + Predicate + Adjunct (She runs quickly).
• Pattern 3: Subject + Predicate with time adjunct (The baby cried all night).

Types of Intransitive Verbs:

• Verbs of behaviour: cry, laugh, yawn, cough
• Verbs of weather: rain, snow, thunder
• Verbs of occurrence: happen, occur, develop
• Idiomatic intransitive phrasal verbs: break down, get up, fall out

Copular Verbs: Also called linking verbs, these connect the subject to a subject complement (He is happy).

• Pattern 1: Subject + Copula + Subject Complement (The soup smells delicious).
• Pattern 2: Subject + Copula + Adverbial Complement (He is in the garden).

Common copular verbs include be, seem, appear, become, look. Example: The flowers look fresh.

Unit 10: Transitive Patterns

Transitive Verbs: These require a direct object to complete their meaning (She wrote a letter).

• Pattern 1: Subject + Verb + Direct Object (He ate the sandwich).
• Pattern 2: Subject + Verb + Direct Object + Adjunct (She found the keys on the table).

Transitive verbs often appear in passive constructions: The sandwich was eaten.

Ditransitive Verbs: Require both a direct and an indirect object (She gave him a gift).

• Pattern 1: Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object (We sent her flowers).
• Pattern 2: Subject + Verb + Direct Object + Prepositional Phrase (We sent flowers to her).

Unit 11: Complementation by Finite Clauses

Finite Clauses: These include a subject and a verb marked for tense and modality (I know that she is coming). Common verbs that take finite clauses as complements include know, think, believe, say, hope. Example: She said that she was tired.

WH-Clauses: These clauses begin with interrogative words like what, where, when, who, why, how.

• Example as Subject: What he said surprised everyone.
• Example as Object: I don’t know where she went.

WH-clauses can be embedded to provide detailed information within larger sentences.

Complement Types:

• Pattern 1: Subject + Verb + Subject Complement (The problem is that he’s late).
• Pattern 2: Subject + Verb + Object + Object Complement (We made him what he is today).

Reported Speech: Often uses finite clauses to relay information (He said that he would call).

Unit 12: Complementation by Nonfinite Clauses

Nonfinite Clauses: Verbs in infinitive, participle, or gerund forms, often lacking explicit subjects (e.g., To leave now would be unwise).

Common Structures:

• Subject + Verb + Infinitive Clause (e.g., She decided to leave).
• Subject + Verb + Gerund Clause (e.g., He enjoys swimming).
• Subject + Verb + Participial Clause (e.g., Having finished the work, she left).

Functions of Nonfinite Clauses:

• As Subject: To win was his dream.
• As Object: She wants to learn.
• As Adverbial: After finishing the project, they celebrated.

Verbs and Preferences:

• Verbs preferring infinitive complements: She hopes to succeed.
• Verbs preferring gerunds: He avoids meeting strangers.

Example: I saw him running (nonfinite clause as object complement).

Catenative Complements: A catenative verb controls a nonfinite complement, creating chains of linked verbs. Example: She decided to try to rent a house. Not all catenatives allow object analysis (e.g., want, like, prefer).

Meanings of Nonfinite Clauses:

• To-Infinitive Clauses: Evoke potential situations (I want to go).
• Gerund Clauses: Represent factual situations (He enjoys swimming).
• Bare Infinitive Clauses: Describe events including the endpoint (She saw him leave).
• Past Participial Clauses: Function as object complements after verbs like:

• Causative: We’ll have some repairs done.
• Volitional: The boss wants these records updated.
• Perception: I felt my arm grasped.
• Finding/Leaving: They found the room abandoned.

Chapter 4: Syntactic Elements and Structures of the Clause

Unit 13: Speech Acts and Clause Types

Speech Acts: Acts performed through language: statements, questions, exclamations, directives.

Direct Speech Acts: Explicitly match the structure to the function (e.g., Close the door! is a command).

Indirect Speech Acts: Use one structure to perform a different function (e.g., Can you close the door? is a request). Examples: He asked where she went.

Clause Types:

• Declarative: She is happy.
• Interrogative: Is she happy?
• Imperative: Be happy!
• Exclamative: How happy she is!

Unit 14: Declarative and Interrogative Clause Types

Declarative Clauses: State information or facts (She likes coffee). Typical word order: Subject + Predicate. Can express certainty, opinion, or description.

Interrogative Clauses: Used for asking questions.

• Yes/No Questions: Require a positive or negative response (Do you like coffee?).
• Wh-Questions: Begin with a wh-word (who, what, where, etc.) to request specific information (What do you like?).
• Alternative Questions: Offer a choice (Do you want tea or coffee?).
• Tag Questions: Add confirmation or seek agreement (It’s late, isn’t it?).
• Echo Questions: Repeat part of a statement as a question (She left?).

Inversion: Typical in yes/no and wh-questions (Is she coming?, Where is she?).

Unit 15: Exclamative and Imperative Clause Types

Exclamative Clauses: Express strong emotion or surprise (What a beautiful day!). Often begin with what or how (How lovely she looks!).

Imperative Clauses: Used to issue commands, requests, or instructions (Close the door!). Typically lack an explicit subject (Sit down!).

• Negative Imperatives: Use don’t for prohibition (Don’t touch that!).
• Let-Imperatives: Include the subject explicitly (Let’s go!, Let him stay.).
• Softened Imperatives: Use modal verbs or politeness markers (Please pass the salt., Could you help me?).
• Freestanding Subordinate Clauses: Often used imperatively (If you could just wait here.).

Unit 16: Indirect Speech Acts, Clause Types, and Discourse Functions

Indirect Speech Acts: Perform actions indirectly (Could you open the window? implies a request). Structure doesn’t match the intended function (e.g., a question form for a command).

Discourse Functions: Declarative clauses can function as commands or questions depending on context (You will do this, won’t you?). Interrogatives can soften commands (Could you help me?).

Unit 17: Questions, Clause Types, and Discourse Functions

Types of Questions:

• Yes/No Questions: Confirm or deny (Did she leave?).
• Wh-Questions: Seek specific information (Where is she?).
• Tag Questions: Add confirmation (She’s here, isn’t she?).
• Rhetorical Questions: Don’t seek an answer but emphasize a point (Who cares?).
• Alternative Questions: Present choices (Will you stay or leave?).
• Subjunctive Questions: Hypothetical or contrary-to-fact (What if she were here?).

Discourse Functions: Questions can challenge, persuade, or elicit agreement (Don’t you agree?). Rhetorical questions emphasize ideas without expecting answers.

Unit 18: Directives: Getting People to Carry Out Actions

Definition: Directives aim to get the listener to perform an action.

Forms of Directives:

• Imperatives: Close the door!
• Questions: Can you close the door?
• Declaratives: You need to close the door.

Politeness Strategies:

• Use of modal verbs (Could you…, Would you mind…).
• Indirect phrasing to soften commands (It would be great if you could help.).

Subjunctive and Verbless Clauses in Directives:

• Subjunctive: It’s essential that you be on time.
• Verbless: Out with it! (implied Get out with it!).

Chapter 5: Conceptualising Patterns of Experience

Unit 19: Conceptualising Experiences Expressed as Situation Types

Definition: Clauses represent patterns of experience conceptualized as situation types.

Main Situation Types:

• Material Processes: Actions or events, involving physical actions or changes (e.g., She built a house).
• Mental Processes: Processes of thought, feeling, perception, or desire (e.g., He loves music; She hopes for success).
• Relational Processes: Processes of being or having, expressing states, attributes, or identities (e.g., The sky is blue; She is the teacher).

Dynamic vs. Stative Processes:

• Dynamic: Involve actions or changes that happen (e.g., What happened?).
• Stative: Represent a durative state or condition (e.g., exists rather than happens).

Components of Situation Types:

• Process: The central action or state, realized by a verb.
• Participants: Entities involved in the process (Agent, Affected, etc.).
• Attributes: Qualities of participants.
• Circumstances: Elements providing time, place, manner, etc.

Inherent and Actualized Participants:

• Inherent: Required for a process (e.g., Agent and Affected in kick).
• Actualized: Explicitly mentioned in the clause (e.g., Ted kicked the ball).

Unit 20: Material Processes of Doing and Happening

Definition: Processes involving physical actions or changes.

Types of Material Processes:

• Doing: Volitional actions performed by an Agent (e.g., She runs).
• Happening: Involuntary actions (e.g., The roof collapsed).
• Causing: External force or agent causes a change (e.g., The wind broke the vase).
• Transferring: Moving objects or information (e.g., He sent a letter).

Key Participants:

• Agent: Initiates the action.
• Affected: Receives or is impacted by the action.
• Effected: Created as a result of the process (e.g., Fiona made a cake).
• Force: Non-controlling initiator (e.g., The earthquake destroyed the town).
• Affected Subjects: Found in involuntary processes (e.g., The ice melted).

Unit 21: Causative Processes

Definition: Processes where one participant causes another to act or change.

Types of Causative Processes:

• Direct Causatives: Agent directly causes an action (e.g., She made him cry).
• Analytical Causatives: Use verbs like make or turn to show a change of state (e.g., She made him happy).
• Ergative Pairs: Transitive and intransitive alternations (e.g., He rang the bell / The bell rang).
• Affected Subject Types: Include pseudo-intransitives (e.g., Glass breaks easily).

Unit 22: Processes of Transfer

Definition: Processes involving giving, sending, or receiving.

Participants:

• Agent: Initiates the transfer (She gave the book).
• Recipient: Receives the transferred item (to him).
• Beneficiary: For whom the action is performed (She baked him a cake).

Examples:

• They delivered the package to her.
• She handed him the keys.

Unit 23: Conceptualising What We Think, Perceive, and Feel

Mental Processes:

• Cognitive: Thought processes (e.g., She knows the answer).
• Perceptive: Sensing (e.g., He heard the music).
• Affective: Emotions (e.g., She loves chocolate).
• Desiderative: Wishing or wanting (e.g., She hoped for success).

Key Participants:

• Senser (Experiencer): The one experiencing (e.g., She feels happy).
• Phenomenon: The object of experience (e.g., He saw the sunset).

Unit 24: Relational Processes of Being and Becoming

Definition: Processes that describe states, attributes, or identity.

Types:

• Attributive: Assign a quality (e.g., She is kind).
• Identifying: Equates entities (e.g., She is the teacher).
• Possessive: Shows ownership (e.g., The car is hers).

Participants:

• Carrier: Entity being described.
• Attribute: The quality or state assigned.
• Identified/Identifier: Entities in identifying clauses (e.g., Fred is the doorman).

Unit 25: Processes of Saying, Behaving, and Existing

• Verbal Processes: Acts of communication (He said hello). Participants: Sayer, Receiver, Verbiage (She told him a story).
• Behavioral Processes: Represent physiological or social behaviors (She laughed). Participant: Behaver (He yawned).
• Existential Processes: Indicate existence (There is a cat on the roof). Participant: Existent (A problem exists).

Unit 26: Expressing Attendant Circumstances

Definition: Circumstantial elements provide context to processes.

Common Types of Circumstances:

• Place: Specifies location.
• Time: Indicates when.
• Manner: Describes how (e.g., quickly, loudly).
• Cause: Specifies reason or purpose.
• Accompaniment: Involves other entities (e.g., She went with her friends).
• Role, Matter, Evidence: Less common, provide scope or clarification (e.g., He worked as a guide).

Unit 27: Conceptualising Experiences from a Different Angle

Definition: Reorganizing clause elements to shift focus.

Examples:

• Passive Voice: Shifts focus to the Affected (e.g., The cake was eaten by her).
• Cleft Sentences: Highlights specific elements (e.g., It was John who called).
• Thematic Structures: Controls information flow (e.g., In the morning, she left).
• Nominalisation: Encodes actions as nouns (e.g., Government spending increased).

Unit 28: Theme – The Point of Departure of the Message

Definition: Theme sets the starting point of the clause, guiding the message’s flow. The Rheme adds new information.

Theme Types:

• Topical: Aligns with the Subject (default).
• Circumstantial: Marked: Unexpected fronting (e.g., The cake, she baked).
• Multiple:

Marked vs. Unmarked Themes:

• Unmarked: Subject (default in declarative clauses).
• Marked:

Theme by Clause Type:

• Declarative: Subject (She went).
• Interrogative: Yes/No: Finite + Subject (Is she coming?).
• Wh-questions:
• Imperative: Verb or Let’s (Go now!).
• Role in Discourse:

Unit 29: The Distribution and Focus of Information

Information Units: In speech, clauses are divided into tone units, with one tonic syllable marking focus.

Tonic Focus: Highlights the most important part of the message.

Given and New Information:

• Given: Known or recoverable information (comes first).
• New:
• Unmarked Order: Given → New (principle of end-focus).

Focus Variants:

• Unmarked: Default placement of focus on the last lexical item.
• Marked:
• Ellipsis and Substitution: Tools to avoid repetition by omitting or replacing elements (do so).

Unit 30: The Interplay of Theme-Rheme and Given-New

Thematic Progression: Guides coherence by linking Themes and Rhemes:

• Simple Linear:
• Continuous: Same Theme persists across clauses.
• Derived:

Clefting for Emphasis:

• It-Clefts: Focus shifts to front (It was John who called).
• Wh-Clefts:

Shifting Focus: Passive voice, existential sentences, and extraposition highlight elements at clause ends.

Pragmatic Considerations:

Adjuncts (Addition to Chapter 2, Unit 8)

Definition: Adjuncts are optional elements in a sentence that provide additional information about time, place, manner, reason, or condition. They are not essential to the grammatical integrity of the clause but enrich its meaning.

Types of Adjuncts:

• Circumstantial Adjuncts: Add details about time, place, or manner. Example: She left early. (early specifies time.)
• Stance Adjuncts: Indicate the speaker’s attitude toward the proposition. Example: Clearly, he made a mistake. (Clearly expresses certainty.)
• Connective Adjuncts: Show relationships between clauses. Example: However, she stayed. (However contrasts the previous idea.)

Positioning of Adjuncts: They can occur at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence.

• Initial position: In the morning, we went hiking.
• Mid-position: She has always been kind.
• End position: He spoke passionately about his work.

Multiple Adjuncts: Sentences can include several adjuncts. Example: She left early in the morning for an important meeting.