The class of verb & verb phrases, presentation 7

The Class of Verb

LANE 334 -EA: Syntax

2011 – Term 2

By:

Dr. Shadia Y. Banjar

http://SBANJAR.kau.edu.sa/

http://wwwdrshadiabanjar.blogspot.com

The Class of Verb

&

The Verb Phrase

Dr. Shadia Yousef Banjar 1

7

Lexical:

– eat, walk, write, give, dream, jump

Auxiliary:

– be, have, do, may, can, will

VERBS


Subtypes of lexical verbs

Copula verbs: 1 participant, 1 attribute

Mary is pretty.

Intransitive verbs: 1 participant

[Mary] is running.


[Mary] is running.

Transitive verbs: at least 2 participants

[Mary] likes [cats].

• (mono)transitive: John ate the apple.

• ditransitive: I gave John an apple.

• complex transitive

Transitive Verbs


• complex transitiveSub. V. DO. OC

• We consider him our boss.

• We wiped the table clean.

• We elected him president.

• She called me a liar.

revolve around their verb.

Of the obligatory elements in a sentence, the main verb is

the one that wholly or largely determines what form the rest of

the structure will take.

This means that, in technical terms, a sentence is a verbal

expansion, and the VP is its head, with all the other phrases

SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS OF VPs


expansion, and the VP is its head, with all the other phrases

somehow subordinate to it.

Verbs are the words that hold sentences together. Even

though it is not difficult to find a verbless sentence, the

definition of the unit ‘sentence’ requires the existence of a verb

in every sentence.

The unit sentence can be divided into

two elements: Subject + Predicate.

subject


subject

predicate

Sentence

Noun Phrase

Verb Phrase

The girl chased the dog.

Tree Diagram


a { } with an [ ] the girl in first position and a [ ] in which

the ( ) chased has another ( ) the dog attached to it.

The first [ ] functions as a SUBJECT,

the [ ] functions as a PREDICATE, in which, the ( ) functions

as a PREDICATOR and

SENTENCE STRUCTUREForm +


as a PREDICATOR and

the last ( ) functions as a DIRECT OBJECT.

Until this moment, we have been dealing with a SENTENCE

STRUCTURE: Form + ( ).

the unit sentence can be divided into two elements: a Head, which is realised by a , and the rest of the dependents.

The may have more than one dependent.The two most important dependents are the

Subject and the Object, which are normally realized by .Apart from their different syntactic function and semantic role,

Subjects and Objects differ in their position:

If we analyze the same expression by its meaning structure, we will

get a PROPOSITION. Imagine this simple analysis:


Subjects and Objects differ in their position:(Subjects usually complement VPs in pre-position,

whereas Objects usually appear in post-position), andin their relation to (Subjects but not Complements control

forms, like in John likes Mary/People like Mary vs. John likes

Mary/John likes people).

have usually been classified according to the

number and type of Objects and Complements that

follow particular verbs into intensive and extensive verbs.

VERBS


INTENSIVE EXTENSIVE

Intensive verbs are those that require a Subject

Complement or a Predication Adjunct.

Examples:

Jane seemed restless.


Jane seemed restless.

The kitchen is downstairs.

are subclassified into

intransitive and transitive verbs.


intransitive

transitive

are verbs that do not need any Object

or Complement. Semantically, only one participant is

involved in the action expressed by the verb.

Even after the sun vanished,

Example:


Even after the sun vanished,

amazement continued.

In contrast, transitive verbs are verbs that do need some Object or

Complement. They can be subclassified according to the number

and type of Objects and Complements they can take in as:

Monotransitive verbs ,Ditransitive verbs , andComplextransitive verbs.

MonotransitiveVerbs


Transitive Verbs

Verbs

Ditransitive Verbs

ComplextransitiveVerbs

-Monotransitive verbs are those verbs that take one Object.

-Example:

- I saw your picture in the paper here just last week.-Ditransitive verbs are those verbs that take two Objects, a Direct and

Indirect Object;

-Example:

-Mary sent me a card.-or a Direct and a Predicator Object;

Example:

I encouraged the English boy to move in one evening after he had taken


me to a pub.-Complextransitive verbs are those verbs that take one Object and an

Object Complement;

-Example:

-Nicole appointed him a fellow of the Shakespeare Institute in 1953. -or an Object and an Adverbial Complement;

-Example:

Daniel put the book on the table.

As can be seen, Subjects and Complements (Objects, Subject

Complements, Predication Adjuncts and Adverbials) modify and

complement the meaning of the verb.

John has been eating crisps all the morning,the meaning of EAT is modified by the following elements:

- the Subject, which specifies the agent of the action (it is John and not

any other person who has been eating),

- the Direct Object, which specifies the patient of the action (it is crisps


- the Direct Object, which specifies the patient of the action (it is crisps

and not anything else that John has been eating),

- the Adverbial, which specifies the time when the action took place (it

has been all this morning and not yesterday evening).

These modifications are syntactic and external. They are realised by

another type of phrases (NPs in our example). They clearly contrast

with the way tense and number (-s), phase (have –en) and aspect (be –ing) modify the meaning of EAT.

A prepositional verb consists of a verb and a preposition.

Examples:

•call on,

• care for and

•insist on.

PREPOSITIONAL VERBS


•insist on.

A phrasal verb is a complex verb consisting of a simple verb and an adverb particle. Examples: �make up,

� turn on,

�put away,

phrasal verbs


�put away,

�take off,

�fill up,

�run over,

�take in and

�do up. �Note that phrasal verbs are different from prepositional verbs.

PHRASAL VERB AND

PREPOSITIONAL VERB:

DIFFERENCES

A prepositional verb differs from a phrasal verb

in many ways.

1) The particle in a phrasal verb is always

stressed, but the preposition in a


stressed, but the preposition in a

prepositional verb is not stressed.

2) Phrasal verbs are separable. That is the particle in a phrasal verb

can be moved to the end. Prepositional verbs, on the other hand, are

inseparable.

Examples with phrasal verbs:

�They called up the teacher OR They called the teacher up.

�I picked John up. OR I picked up John.

�He filled the glass up. OR He filled up the glass.

�She turned the lights on. OR She turned on the lights.

Note: The particle in the phrasal verb can be moved to the end.


Note: The particle in the phrasal verb can be moved to the end.

Examples with prepositional verbs:

We called on the teacher. (BUT NOT We called the teacher on.)

We called on them. BUT NOT We called them on.

Note:The preposition in a prepositional verb cannot be moved to

the end.

3) You cannot put an adverb between the verb and the particle of a

phrasal verb, but you can put an adverb between the verb and the

preposition of a prepositional verb.

Examples:

We called early on the doctor. BUT NOT We called early up the doctor.

The adverb early can come between the verb called and the preposition

on in the prepositional verb called on. But it cannot come between called

and up.


and up.

When to separate a phrasal verb?

A Phrasal verb can remain together when its object is a noun or noun

phrase.

Note that phrasal verbs must be separated when the object is a pronoun.

We called them up. BUT NOT We called up them.

(Here the object of the phrasal verb is a pronoun.)

prepositional verbs are

inseparable

She is looking after

the baby.

This is possible.

She is looking the

baby after.

This is not

possible.


baby after.

Source:

VERB PHRASES AND NOUN PHRASES IN ENGLISH:

A PARALLEL APPROACH,

LUIS QUEREDA RODRÍGUEZ-NAVARRO,University of Granada.


Education

The class of verb & verb phrases, presentation 7