GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS ENGL 341 - PowerPoint Presentation

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GRAMMATICAL FUNCTIONS

ENGL 341

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GRAM FUNCTIONS

Study the

ff

structures:

Jane saw the thief 1

Jane is friendly 2

Jane has paid her dues 3

They made Jane their spokesperson 4

Jane gave the students useful tips 5

What is the gram role/function of Jane in sentence 1?

Why is it called the subject?

What relationship does it share with the rest of the words

Is the relationship between

friendly

and

Jane

in sent. 2 the same as the relationship between

the thief

and

Jane

in 1?

Explain the relationships

Is the relationship between

Jane

and

their

spokesperson

in 4 the same as that between

students

and

useful

tips

in 5

Watch closely the types of verbs used in all 5 structures

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List of gram functions

Another type of grammatical analysis has to do with the role/function of the gram categories – lexemes, phrases

These functions are the relative positions of the gram items in a sentences

Categories may perform:

The Subject functions:

The verbal functions

Object functions:

Complement functions

Adverbial/adjunct functions

These function types are also referred to as the elements of the clause/sentence (

Wiredu

, Organised Structure

pg

91 – 111)

In

E

nglish, the sentence is deemed to have the

ff

structure:

S V C O A

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THE SUBJECT

The actor/performer/ the object

a

bout whom/which something is said, always preceding the verb; Examples:

The tall tree fell unto our house

Kofi and

Ama

came here

Unfortunately, it was not the man.

The subject may be realised by:

NPs

Nominal clauses

The empty/dummy ‘it’

Anticipatory it

Adverbial phrase

Adjectival head

Existential ‘there’

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Subjects

NPs: you brought yourself up.

The game is over

Your friend is fighting outside

Obviously, their preparation was enough

The Nominal clause as subject

A clause that performs the function of a noun; examples:

That you could say that to him shows you are very tough.

To overcome teenage financial insufficiency is a major burden for.

Chewing the finger nails is a bad habit

Studying in groups is a good thing to consider.

What you said yesterday shocked all of us.

The empty/dummy ‘it’ as a subject:

This type of it is semantically empty and does not refer to any object; examples:

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SUBJECT

Empty ‘

it

’ as subject

It rains heavily in October in Ghana

It is too cold here

It is too late to go out

It is a long journey

anticipatory ‘it’

It surprised everybody that he failed.

It is easy to forget your keys

It’s a pity we can not buy you a common drink

Existential ‘

There

’ as a subject; examples:

There is someone in your room.

There is a man in my life.

There are too many people in his class

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The subject

Adverbial

Ph

as subject:

Now is the time for action

Here is better

Adjectival head:

The poor need support.

The handicapped are left out in most national policies.

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The verb

The verb describes the action in the sentence.

It plays very important roles in the sentences:

It helps identify the subject of the sentence

The nature of the verb determines whether what comes after it is an object or a complement

By its nature a verb may be intensive, intransitive,

monotransitive

, complex transitive, or

ditransitive

(to be explored later under complementation)

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The Object

Always placed after the verb and indicates the entity that feels the impact of the action of the verb

They follow a transitive verb

2 types of objects:

Direct object

Indirect object; examples:

They sent us gifts

Kwame showed his friends his house

You gave me your work

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Object

They sent us gifts

What action did they do?

Who benefited from the action?

Kwame showed his friends his house

What action did

K

wame perform?

Who benefitted from the action?

You gave me your work

What action did you perform

Who benefitted

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Object

The direct object feels the immediate action of the verb:

they sent gifts,

He showed his house

The indirect object is the beneficiary of the action:

Us, his friends, me

The direct object can be used without the indirect object, but the indirect object can hardly be used without a direct object

You must drink something

I like mangoes

Indirect objects are always animates

You gave the table your book?

The indirect object can have an optional prepositional paraphrase, which functions as a prepositional object

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Objects

Indirect objects/prepositional object

They sent us gifts

They sent gifts to us.

Kwame showed his friends his house

Kwame showed his house to his friends

You gave me your work

You gave your work to me

You bought us gifts

You bought gifts for us

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Objects

Following can function as objects:

Mostly NPs: we gave you our names

A nominal clause: they like

what you said;

I knew that you were coming

Identify the type of object in the following:

They said something

We bought them water as well.

They gave everybody a variety of items

You showed him the room

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Compare

Observe the relationship between the subject and the item that follows the verb and explain your observation

They make

enough money

We share

the same ideas

It sounds

interesting

They sounded

the alarm

You have grown

tall

They grow

tomatoes

They kept

quiet

I kept

the

money

.

What do you think accounts for the change in the relationship

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Complements

The

ff

verbs are the English copula/ linking verb

Be

; Look; Feel; Taste; Smell; Sound; Seem; Appear; Get; Become; Grow; Stay; Keep; Turn; Prove; Go; Remain

;

appear, find,

Categories put after these verbs usually perform

complement functions; they

refer back to items that precede them

Complements refer

back to other items already mentioned to complete them; example:

He is handsome

You are my king

She became a lecturer

He

got crazy

They smell nice

They made him their leader

We consider you our friend

one difference between complements and objects is that, whereas objects are found after transitive verbs, complements are placed after

copula

verbs

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Complements

2 types of complement:

Subject complements; and

Object complements

Subj

comps refer back to the subject to qualify

it

The prototypical/archetypal complement that follows the copula verb

He is kind

My mother sounds interesting

Your friend looks funny

He appears

weird

They became committed

We remained speechless

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Complements

Some complements, however, make comments about the object; example:

We made you

our friend

.

We found it

useful

We will appoint him

our leader

These are called object complements

Object

complements refer back to objects to give additional qualities.

Objects that are complemented usually follow following special verbs: find, elect, appoint, make, consider; examples:

I find him interesting

We elected him our leader

We made you somebody

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Complements

Items that can function as complements include

NPs

; examples

We made him

our leade

r

You are

my

king

He turned

a

traitor

An Adjectival phrase;

examples

:

We are innocent

I find your friend very boring

He doesn’t sound convincing

Nominal clauses; examples:

The point is that you are lying

The crucial question is why he did

it

The truth is that we lost him

The fact is we are leaving now

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Adjuncts (adverbials)

Adjunct/adverbials are optional elements in the clause that add extra info (frequency, place, time, reason,

etc

)

Unlike other elements, there can be more than 1 adjunct in a clause:

On the other hand

, we

actually

meant to give you

freely

all the support you need

in this circumstance

Adjuncts are mobile elements in the structure of the clause

Use the adjuncts ‘

unfortunately

’ ‘

immediately

’ in a sentence

They can be initially placed, medially placed and finally placed

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Types of Adjunct

A

djuncts are grouped into 3 main classes depending on their functions in the clause:

Circumstantial adjuncts

Stance adjuncts; and

Connective adjuncts

Circumstantials

: provide details about the action or state described by the verb (time, place, manner, degree, frequency, direction)

Examples of circumstantial adjuncts:

They came

early

we have met

already

We visit

very often

they spoke

gently

They went

into the room

We are

in

Liman

Hostel

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Types of Adjuncts

Stance adjuncts

: express a speaker’s evaluation or comment about the message. They are often set apart from the clause:

Coincidentally

, we met at the entrance of the hotel

Interestingly

, we had earlier agreed to meet in the garden

They bumped into the meeting

accidentally

Certainly

we will not allow them to take us for granted.

Someone is

definitely

going to be punished

Other examples

obviously, undoubtedly, incidentally, apparently, initially, honestly, frankly speaking, unfortunately, surely, broadly speaking, supposedly, in fact, in reality, by any chance, to be frank with you, strictly speaking,

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Types of Adjuncts

Connective adjuncts

: connectors which signal a speaker’s indication of transitions or logical connections

Meanings they express may be additive, contrast, causal, temporal

He is a motivational speaker and

furthermore

a great evangelist.

Students are on strike;

nevertheless

, examinations will not be cancelled

He has been wrongly accused by his friends.

Consequently

, he has decided to have nothing to do with them again.

However

, we will conduct a test.

Besides

, they did not give us enough notification.

Finally, English is foundational to many professions

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Adjuncts

Items that can function as adjuncts

An Adverbial phrase

However, we patiently waited for you

He shouted quite loudly

Alternatively, we can postpone the meeting

We are

almost

late

It is enough for everybody

A prepositional phrase

We saw him

in his car

In fact, we don’t want to see your face

The man

in the room

is my husband

A noun phrase

The next day

, we met with him

Last night

, we saw light in his office

We will be here

next year

A clause

Frankly speaking, I am no longer interested

Be that as it may, we are determined to get an A

To be frank with you, you disappoint us

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To read for next week: clauses – classification, verbal types – finite/ non-finite

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