SYNTAX

SUMMARY
 Parts of speech
Major classes Minor classes
Nouns Prepositions
Verbs Conjunctions
Adjectives Pronouns
Adverbs Determiners, Numerals
 Positional
Nominal: S, O, C
Adjectival: Attribute (Modifier)
Verbal: Tenses, aspect, mood, voice
Adverbial: Adverb (Modifier)
 Noun phrases
Premodification Postmodification
Identifier, numeral Relative clause
quantifier, non-finite clause
Adjective Prepositional phrases
noun modifier
 Verb phrases
Tenses: Present simple, past simple, future simple
Aspect: Perfect/imperfect
Mood: Permission, ability, possibility, advice, etc.
Voice: Active and passive
 Verbs (vgrp)
Sentence patterns
Linking Transitive Intransitive
Intensive Monotransitive
Ditransitive
1/Monotransitive prepositional verbs:
Ex: They talked about her story.
2/Ditransitive prepositional verbs:
Ex: The picture reminds me of my country.
 Troublesome verbs
• Get, go, appear, etc.
Ex: He gets to school. (Vi)
He gets some food in the supermarket. (Vt)
He gets old after the sad news. (Vl)
 Adjective phrases
Non-finite clause Prepositional phrase
Premodifier Postmodifier
The doctor treating her works in Dong Nai.
The long white Italian dress
The tree behind the house
The trunk full of clothes
 Adverb phrases
Non-finite clause Prepositional phrase
Arriving in London, they were tired.
Broken into pieces, the bowl is priceless.
They rested under the tree.
 Prepositional phrases
Adjective phrases Adverb phrases
The man in front of her (AP)
The man stopped in front of her. (AdvP)

Rare cases: Nominal

 Clauses
Finite Non-finite
 Finite clauses
1/Nominal clauses
2/Relative clauses
3/Adverbial clauses
4/Reporting clauses: Reported speech
Ex: He said: “I am happy.”
5/Comment clauses:
Ex: She is nice, I think.
 Non-finite clauses
1/Prepositional
2/Gerund
3/Present participle
4/Past participle
5/Infinitive
6/Absolute
7/ Verbless clause
Conj. + N/Prepositional phrase
Ex: Though not a teacher, he works at school.
When on the top of the mountain, he could see
many things.
 Subjects
Overt Covert
• He came home.
• Coming home, he cooked dinner.
 Cleft clause
It is… that…
It is meeting Peter that has changed my life.
(= Meeting Peter has changed my life.)
It is my life that meeting Peter has changed.
It is in Do Son that he met his wife.
(= He met his wife in Do Son.)
It is his wife that he met in Do Son.
 Pseudo-cleft clause
WH = subject/object
What impressed me most was her sincerity.
(= Her sincerity impressed me most.)
What he likes is ice-cream.
(= He likes ice-cream)
Whom Chi Pheo loves is Thi No.
(= Chi Pheo loves Thi No)
 Embedded clause
The fact that he has just heard of is important.

The fact that he won a prize is important.

A noun clause is also called an embedded

clause.
 THEORY
+ A noun phrase in English consists of a nominal
head (normally a noun or a pronoun) with or
without the modifiers that accompany it, before
or after.
Pre-modifiers are the words before a noun.
Ex: A fine blue china pot. (The underlined words
are pre-modifiers).
Post-modifiers are the words after a noun.
Ex: A pot full of soup. (The underlined words are
post-modifiers).
+ A verb phrase in English consists of a Vgrp and
all the words and word groups which cluster
around it. The Vgrp itself is called the head, and
the other words and word groups are the
modifiers and/or the complements of the head.
Ex: He called her his wife. (The underlined words
are a verb phrase)
This verb phrase is stated as follows:
VP  V + NP + NP
+ An adverb phrase in English is a group of
words which modifies a verb, an adjective,
another adverb, a phrase, a clause or a whole
sentence.
Ex: He runs ten kilometers a day.
The underlined words are an adverb phrase. This
group modifies “runs”.
+ An adjective phrase in English is a group of
words which modifies a noun.
Ex: He found a bag full of gold.
The underlined words are an adjective phrase.
This group modifies “bag”.
+ A dependent clause is “a clause which must be
used with another clause to form a complete
grammatical construction.
Ex: Who he is is very important. (The underlined
clause is a noun clause. It plays the role of the
subject in the sentence).
That’s the woman who has helped me. (The
underlined clause is an adjective clause. It modifies
“woman”).
He stays home because he is ill. (The underlined
clause is an adverb clause. It modifies “stay
home”).
The kind of VP in the active voice form.
- VP  V + NP
Ex: Jack bought a book
- VP  V + NP + PP
Ex: They accused him of stealing the bicycle.
- VP  V + NP + NP
Ex: Jack bought me a book.
State the kind of VP in each of the following
sentences and then transform it into the
passive voice.
+ She makes some coffee.
- VP  V + NP
- Some coffee is made (by her).
+ We called him Teo.
- VP  V + NP + NP
- He was called Teo (by us).
 TRANSFORMATION
Sentence transformation is changing sentence
patterns without changing their meanings.
You may take a reference to CAI BIEN CAU by
Truong Van Anh (735 sentence patterns of
transformation).
Simple sentence simple sentence
Simple sentence compound sentence
Simple sentence complex sentence
Several simple sentences simple sentence
A sentence may be transformed into nine other
structures with the same meaning:
The cat ate the rat.
The rat was eaten by the cat.
It was the cat that ate the rat.
It was the rat that the cat ate.
What the cat did was eating the rat.
What the cat did was “ate the rat”.
Ate the rat, the cat did.
The cat, it ate the rat.
It was the rat that was eaten by the cat.
 It was the cat that the rat was eaten by.
 The cat did eat the rat.
Synthesis is the combination of two or some simple
sentences into one sentence: simple, compound or
complex.
+ My friend works in the hospital. He is a doctor.
 My friend, a doctor, works in the hospital.
+ The sun set. The fog became thicker. The leader
ordered the guerrillas. They secretly crawled to the
barracks.
 At sunset, in the thick fog, the guerrillas obeying
the leader's order secretly crawled to the barracks.
 Simple sentence  Appositive
 That is her father. His name is Terry Smith.
That is her father, Terry Smith.
 Uncle Ho founded the Vietnamese
Communist Party. He is the greatest leader in
Vietnam history.
Uncle Ho, the greatest leader in Vietnam
history, founded the Vietnamese Communist
Party.
 Simple sentence  Present participle phrase
 The tiger was hungry. It roared.
The tiger, being hungry, roared
 The gangster jumped out of the boat. He
swam and dived away.
Jumping out of the boat, the gangster swam
and dived away.
 Simple sentence  Past participle phrase
 He was interested in the film. He did not feel
hungry.
Interested in the film, he did not feel hungry.
 The mason was blamed by the host. He
stopped working immediately.
Blamed by the host, the mason stopped
working immediately.
 Simple sentence  Prepositional phrase
 She has failed many times. She will take part
in the next examination.
Despite many failures, she will take part in the
next examination.
 Her father died. She heard the news. She
fainted.
On hearing the news of her father's death, she
fainted.
 I tell the truth. I am not afraid of ghosts.
To tell the truth, I am not afraid of ghosts.
 Simple sentence  Absolute phrase
 The boss arrived. The workers stopped to
work.
The boss having arrived, the workers stopped
to work.
 Teacher entered classroom. Students stopped
talking.
Teacher entering classroom, students stopped
talking.
 Complex sentence  Absolute phrase
 When the weather was cold, we used
blankets.
The weather being cold, we used blankets.
 When the weather is hot, we use air-
conditioners.
The weather being hot, we use air-
conditioners.
 Simple sentences  Simple sentence with
adverb
 She answered the examiner. Her answer was
wrong.
She answered the examiner wrongly.
 She read the file. She was very careful.
She read the file carefully.
 Several simple sentences  One Complex
sentence with Adjective clause
 Her father is a doctor. He works in the
hospital. You met him yesterday.
Her father, whom you met yesterday, is a
doctor in a hospital.
 It was April 30th, 1975. Vietnamese People’s
Army arrived in Saigon and liberated South
Vietnam.
On April 30th, 1975 arriving in Saigon,
Vietnamese People’s Army liberated South
Vietnam.
 SAMPLE TEST
I. From each of the following sets of data, form
one NP composed of premodifiers
a. two villas: attractive, flat roofs
b. jackets: new, made of leather, on sale at
reasonable prices
c. school: famous, teaching medicine, in
Scotland
II. Explain the ambiguous meaning of the
following sentences by means of tree
diagram
a. They feed her dog biscuits.
b. The tourists wanted to visit more interesting
places.
III. Complete the sentences with a noun clause,
and state the function of the clause you have
added
1. The fact that…………………….is now generally
known.
2. A view widely held by experts was
that…………………….
3. I wanted to discover…………………….
4. Deciding on…………………can be very difficult.
5. That……………….was clear from his subsequent
remarks.
IV. Replace the that-clause in each of the
following sentences by a prepositional phrase
without changing the original meaning
a. I assure you that I am willing to stand down.
b. The young man convinced everyone that he
was innocent.
c. Did anyone inform you that the plans had
been changed?
V. State the kind of VP each of the following
sentences has and then transform it into the
passive voice.
a. Do we owe the milkman anything?
b. We regret that we must make this criticism.
c. They accused Barlow of a certain crime.
 Ambiguity
A sentence is considered as structurally
ambiguous when its structure permits more
than one interpretation.
- Same surface structure.
- But different deep structures.
Handsome students and teachers.
Meaning 1: Students are handsome.
Teachers are not described.
NP

NP Conj NP
A N’ N’
N N
Handsome students and teachers.
Meaning 2: Both students and teachers are
handsome.
NP

A’ NP

A N’ Conj N’
N N
Handsome students and teachers.
+ They are reading books.
Meaning 1:
S
NP VP

Pro V NP
A N’
N
They are reading books.
Meaning 2:

NP VP

Pro V NP
Aux V N
They are reading books.
 SOME NOTES
+ Vgrp [monotrans/ditrans/monotrans-prep/
ditrans-prep/complex/intens/intrans]
- She gets some food.
- Jack gave me a pen.
- They talked about the book.
- They told me about the book.
- We made him angry.
- The boy was nice.
- The girl is sleeping.
+ Empty [E]
It is stated that before a non-fine clause there
is an empty element (the hidden subject of
the action).
[E ] to learn English
[E] learning English
[E] learn English
[E] arrested by the police
When [E] in the USA (verbless), he met her.
 Þ stands for hidden determiners or
complementisers.
He took some books/ He took the books.
> He took Þ books.
They decided that they should write a letter.
> They decided Þ they should write a
letter.
> They decided Þ [E] to write a letter.
There are many kinds of adverbs. In the sentences,
adverbs are often optional.
AdvP = opAdv of Manner/Location/ Degree/Time,
etc.
op = optional
 S

NP VP

Pro vgrp NP PP [opAdv of manner]

[monotrans] [Oi] prep Det N

He greets me with Þ enthusiasm.

 S

NP VP

Pro vgrp Pro InfP

[complex] [Oi] N Inf Det N

He allowed them [E] to pick Þ guavas.