The Syntax of the Clause

Course Outline
I.
1.1. Sentences and Phrases
1.2. Processes, Participants and Circumstances
1.3. Clauses
1.4. The Rank Scale
1.5. How Meaning and Grammar Are Related
1.6. Form and Function
1.7. Word Order
II.
2.1. Transactive and Non-Transactive Processes
2.2. Transitive and Intransitive Clauses
2.3. Kernel Clauses
2.4. The Subject in Kernel Clauses
2.5. Object Complements / Direct Objects in Kernel Clauses
2.6. Intensive Complements in Kernel Clauses
2.7. Kernel Clauses in a Simple Text
2.8. Adverbial Complements
2.9. Adverbial Complements and the Predicator
2.10. Phrasal and Prepositional Verbs
III.
3.1. Labelling Constituent Function
3.1.1. Types of Process in a Text
3.1.2. Some Transformations: Derived Clauses
3.2. More Clause Structure Constituents
3.2.1. Direct and Indirect Objects
3.2.2. Intensive Complements Referring to the Objects / Object Complements
IV.
Complexity within Phrases
4.1. Subordination within NPs and PrepPs
4.2. Coordination within NPs and PrepPs
4.3. Apposition
4.4. Complex AdjPs and AdvPs
4.5. Complexity within the VP

I.
1.1.

Sentences and Phrases

The smallest meaningful unit of grammar in language is the morpheme and, in English, one or

more morphemes make up a word. We show the boundaries of words in writing by leaving a space
between them, although in speech we do not separate words from each other. As listeners and speakers
of English, we know where the word boundaries would be. However, we neither read nor listen to one
word at a time in normal circumstances. So there must be other grammatical units which convey
meaning, and the one which we have been taught to observe in writing is the sentence.
Words, then, make up sentences, and within sentences words are grouped together to make
other meaningful units for which the term phrase is used. We can say that words are grouped into
phrases, and phrases are grouped into sentences.
But when we talk or write, we do not think specifically in terms of words, phrases and
sentences (which are units of grammar), but in terms of meanings. The grammar of English, however,
makes meaning possible when we wish to refer to the world around us or to the world inside our minds
i.e. what we see, hear, touch, think, or feel.
One fundamental use of language is to make statements or observations about life to another
person, typically about what we have done or seen. For example, the spoken statement:
(1). I can see the milkman across the road.
contains what is called a proposition about seeing, which relates three elements: me / I, the
milkman, and the road. This statement uses language by obeying the rules of the grammar of
English. It puts the words in a certain order. Word order is as much a part of grammar as space is part
of punctuation.
For the statement above other word orders are possible:
(2). Across the road I can see the milkman.
in which the phrase across the road has been moved to the front of the sentence.
The phrase the milkman can be moved to the front, and if we stress the word milkman the
construction below is very likely to occur in speech:
(3). The milkman I can see across the road.

However, we cannot move other groups or individual words about:

(4). *1 The road I can see the milkman across.
(5). * Across I can see the milkman the road.
(6). * Can see the milkman I across the road.
(7). * See the milkman across the road I can.
Construction (4) could be a response to the question Which road do you mean?, but it is not
itself a complete grammatical sentence.
At this point we can say that the grammatical constituents of a sentence, i.e. the units we can
move about to some extent, are not words, but phrases that consist of one or more words, which
consist of one or more morphemes.

1.2.

Processes, Participants and Circumstances

The verb phrase can see in the sentence I can see the milkman across the road means that:
a). I am able to do something at the moment (can).

and
b). I am using my sense of sight (see).
The term process is used as a general term to represent:
-

events, whether they are physical actions like walk and hit, or mental like think or
see;

states like be and seem.

So to see is a mental process of perception.

The term process is an abstraction from reality. Someone or something has to do the process.
The person or things involved in the process are called participants.
In the sentence above, there are two participants: I and the milkman. Of course, the milkman
is not himself participating knowingly in this mental process of perception, and he is not affected by
my seeing him: he is the objective of my seeing, and in that sense he is a participant in my personal act
of seeing.
It is easy to make up a sentence in which the milkman is an active participant, either doing
something to a second participant, or being himself affected by the other participant, or simply doing
something which does not involve a second participant:
(1). The milkman delivered three pints yesterday.
1

The asterisk at the beginning of a string of words marks the fact that such a formulation is deviant, i.e. incorrect or
unlikely to occur in the English language.

(2). Next doors dog has bitten the milkman in the leg.
(3). The milkman was singing cheerfully.
(4). This morning, the milkman said, Three pints as usual?
The verbs delivered and has bitten represent actional processes, i.e. things which people do;
the verbs was singing and said represent verbal processes.
As illustrated in sentences (1) to (4) above, there are one or more participants in a process. But
these sentences also include further information about time (when?): yesterday, this morning; about
place (where?): in the leg, across the road; about manner (how?): cheerfully. These are the
circumstances in which the participant(s) took part in the process, and often they give additional
information which could be left out without affecting the grammaticality of the sentence (this means
that the sentence remains an acceptable grammatical English sentence without the information about
the circumstances in which the process took place):
(1`). The milkman delivered three pints.
(2`). Next doors dog has bitten the milkman.
(3`). The milkman was singing.
(4`). The milkman said, Three pints as usual?
But what we often cannot do is omit a participant without leaving an ungrammatical sentence
or changing the meaning:
* The milkman delivered.
* Delivered three pints.
* Next doors dog has bitten.
* Has bitten the milkman.
* Was singing.
* Said, Three pints as usual?
However, this does not always work, as there are many verbs representing processes which can
operate both with and without a second participant. For example, sing:
(5). Jill sang a group of folk songs at the concert.
(6). Jill sang at the concert.

Construction (5) is a transitive clause, because the verb sang is followed by a grammatical
Direct Object (a group of folk songs), and construction (6) is an intransitive clause, because the
clause does not contain a Direct Object.
In the next two sentences, the process represented by the verbs are and is is neither an
actional nor a mental process. These words link or relate the participant 1 to a word or phrase which
describes an attribute or quality of this participant. An attribute / quality is not a participant in a
process!!!
Participant 1

Process

Attribute

Circumstances

The peas
My basket

(relational)
are
is

hard and cold.

very heavy

now.

The term mental process is used as a label to cover a range of non-actional kinds of process,
for example, admiring someone (a behavioural process), looking at something (a perceptive
process), or thinking (a cognitive process), and so on. It could also include saying or whispering
something (verbal processes). These categories of meaning are quite complex (and will not be
developed any further for the moment), but the division of processes into actional, mental and
relational is a useful starting point, provided that these labels are not taken too literally.
Labelling the participants simply as participant 1 and participant 2 does not descriptively
differentiate the roles they play in relation to the processes. All the first participants in the sentences
below who perform actional or mental processes are acting by doing something, so they can be called
actors:
Participant 1
The milkman
Next doors dog
I
He

Process
delivered (actional)
has bitten (actional)
like (mental)
thinks (mental)

Participant 2
three pints
the milkman
cheese.
of her

Circumstances
yesterday.
in the leg.
every day.

The participants in relational processes, however, are not actually doing anything, so their role
cannot be that of actor. In fact, the relational process itself is little more than a link between the first
participant and the attribute.
The second participants are the persons or things that are affected by the action of the actor,
or they are the objective of a mental process.
At this point, the relationships of meaning in a clause can be represented as:

Actor

Process

Circumstances

actional

Affected or

time

mental

Objective

place

manner

or
-

1.3.

relational

Attribute

Clauses
In the sentence:
(1). We pay for all the things and we buy some sweets.

the conjunction and links what could equally be written as two sentences: We pay for all the things.
We buy some sweets.
Similarly, the sentences (2) and (3) below could be written as a single sentence, (4):
(2). We walk down the street.
(3). We go to the supermarket.
(4). We walk down the street and we go to the supermarket.
As a conclusion, propositions (i.e. grammatical units expressing a complete thought; also
called simple sentences) can be written and spoken as single sentences, or linked by the coordinative
conjunction and to form longer sentences / compound sentences.
The problem is that if a single proposition is processed in the grammar as a simple sentence,
and yet it is possible to link a whole series of them together in a long compound sentence or in a
complex sentence2, we have to talk about sentences within sentences. It is helpful, therefore, to find
another word / term to stand for the concept of a single proposition or simple sentence. The term
commonly used for this is clause.
Now we can say that:
-

A sentence consists of one or more clauses.

A clause consists of one or more phrases.

A phrase consists of one or more words.

A word consists of one or more morphemes.

A compound sentence contains coordinated simple sentences; in a complex sentence there are subordinated simple
sentences as well.

1.4.

The Rank Scale

The system of English grammar, which provides a means of encoding thoughts and ideas into

speech and writing, can be described in terms of a rank scale, from the largest to the smallest unit:
-

sentence

clause

phrase

word

morpheme

A simple sentence consists of one clause. There is no upper limit in the grammar to the number
of clauses that can make up a larger compound or complex sentence, but in practice the style of speech
or writing will determine this.
The clause is the central structure in the language, because it represents a complete proposition,
something that is stated or questioned or requested and so on. Its meaning is complete because it
relates processes and participants together.
Evidence for the importance of the clause as a proposition (a self-contained unit of meaning)
can be demonstrated from infant speech. The young childrens first recognizable words are in fact
more like simple sentences than single words in their meaning. A one-word utterance can only be
understood in its context. Milk could mean I want some milk or Ive knocked my milk over or I
can see some milk, and so on, depending on the extra-linguistic context in which it is uttered. These
are all clauses.

1.5.

How Meaning and Grammar Are Related

One participant actor (i.e. someone or something that acts) is essential for a process to take

place, in circumstances of time, place, or manner, as in the following clauses. The processes of
living, jumping, going, whistling, singing and running involve only one participant, who is
involved as the actor:
Once upon a time
and on
and
with

Actor
a little tailor
A great big dog
they
He

Process
lived
jumped
go.
was whistling
singing
running

the great big dog

Circumstances
in a little town.
out

at his heels.

In other processes an actor does something to, or affects, another person or thing, the affected:
Actor
The tailor
He
He

Process
found
put
slung

Affected
little work.
a clean shirt
the knapsack

Circumstances
in his knapsack.
over his shoulder.

The great big dog

I
I

wagged
have eaten
can find

his tail.
every scrap of bread.
food.

The terms actor, affected, and process are semantic terms, that is, they refer to meaning. Actor
and affected are roles played by people and things. In the grammar of the clause, the actor is the
SUBJECT (S), the process is the PREDICATOR (P), the affected person or thing is one kind of
complement, usually called DIRECT OBJECT (Od), and the circumstance is the ADVERBIAL,
also called ADJUNCT (A). Complements are so called because they make complete the meaning of
the Predicator.
Clauses with grammatical Direct Objects (the affected person or thing) are transitive (SPO).
For example:
Actor

Process

Affected

Circumstance

as

as

as

as

SUBJECT
He
He
The tailor
He
He

PREDICATOR
swung
banged
ordered
threw
seated

OBJECT
his yardstick
the table
a meal.
his knapsack
himself

ADVERBIAL
round his head.
with his fist.
on a bench.
in an armchair.

Clauses without a grammatical Direct Object are intransitive (SP). For example:
Actor

Process

Circumstance

ss

as

as

SUBJECT
He
The host
(the manner in which the host

PREDICATOR
marched
came
running

ADVERBIAL
into the tavern.
(in a certain manner)
quickly.

came was =)
He

was whistling

loudly.

When the clause is studied in more detail, it can be noticed that this one-to-one relationship
between meaning and grammar (i.e. actor = Subject, affected = Object) does not always occur.
SUBJECT (S), PREDICATOR (P), OBJECT (O), and ADVERBIAL (A) are grammatical terms,
not semantic, i.e. they are labels for syntactic relationships between phrases, and their position in a
clause.
In an unmarked clause3 that makes a statement, like those above, the order of the clause
constituents is SPOA (or SVOA, according to R. Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum in A University
Grammar of English, Longman, 1993).
3

Unmarked here means stylistically unmarked, with no inversions, no emphases, no interruptions, etc.

The predicators that do not represent actional or mental processes, but relational processes,
function as links between the first participant and an attribute of this participant, as in:
-

The host was astonished.

The stick looked short.

The ogre seemed very fierce.

The word astonished describes an attribute of the host, short, an attribute of the stick,
and very fierce, an attribute of the ogre, and they all are another form of complement to the
predicator. To distinguish their function from Objects in a clause, they are called INTENSIVE
COMPLEMENTS (Ci) (according to Dennis Freeborn, A Course Book in English Grammar, Second
Edition, MacMillan, 1995), or SUBJECT COMPLEMENTS4 (Cs) (according to R. Quirk et al, op.
cit.) A few other examples:
S
The host
The stick
The ogre

P
was
looked
seemed

Ci or Cs
astonished.
short.
very fierce.

The SUBJECT COMPLEMENTS in these sentences could have been used as MODIFIERS of the
nouns they refer to, as they are adjectives (e.g. the astonished host, the short stick, the fierce ogre), but
the SUBJECT COMPLEMENT need not be an adjective:
S
John
He

P
was
became

Cs
a young soldier.
a kings son.

In these last two clauses, the SUBJECT COMPLEMENTS a young soldier and a kings son identify
or equate with the SUBJECT, saying who or what John / he is. They are noun phrases (NP-s) which
develop the grammatical function of a Cs.
In the following two clauses, the relationship is of a different kind:
S
The food
A cord

P
was
was

?
on the table.
in the knapsack.

Here, the phrases on the table and in the knapsack tell us where the food and the cord were,
respectively, not what they are / were like, and so they are not attributes. However, they are essential to
complete the meaning of their clauses. They, therefore, function both as COMPLEMENTS and as
ADVERBIALS, because the clauses would not be grammatically complete without them. The
4

The Romanian term for SUBJECT COMPLEMENT is nume predicativ.

adverbial kinds of phrase functioning as complements are called ADVERBIAL COMPLEMENTS

(Ca) to show that they have a double function. In other clauses they function as optional
circumstance ADVERBIALS (A)5:
S
The tailor
He

1.6.

P
saw
was carrying

O
a stick
his goods

A
on the table.
in the knapsack.

Form and Function

It is necessary to distinguish between what a word / phrase is and what it does. The

corresponding terms of form and function are used to refer to this distinction. The forms and functions
of the words and phrases in the simple sentence The tailor saw a stick on the table are described in
what follows:
Word / Phrase
the

form
definite article

FUNCTION
DETERMINER (phrase

noun

constituent)
HEAD word of NP1 (phrase

NP1
verb / Verb Phrase (VP)

constituent)
SUBJECT (clause constituent)
PREDICATOR (clause

indefinite article

constituent)
DETERMINER (phrase

stick

noun

constituent)
HEAD word of NP2 (phrase

a stick

NP2

constituent)
OBJECT / DIRECT OBJECT

on

preposition

(clause constituent)
HEAD of Prepositional Phrase

definite article

(PrepP) (phrase constituent)

DETERMINER (phrase

noun
NP3

constituent)
HEAD word of NP3
COMPLEMENT of preposition

PrepP

(phrase constitiuent)
ADVERBIAL (clause

tailor
the tailor
saw
a

the
table
the table
on the table

constituent)

The Romanian term for the function of ADVERBIAL is complement circumstanial (de loc, timp, mod, etc.)

10

The tailor, a stick and the table have the same form as NPs, but they each have a different function
in the clauses or phrases of which they are constituents. VPs, however, always function as the
PREDICATOR of the clause, be them finite or non-finite.6
NOTES:
1. The term PREDICATOR (P) is used to distinguish the function of this clause constituent,
although it is always performed by a VP in a clause. Traditional and some contemporary
grammar books use the word VERB for both form and function. Nevertheless, the
distinction between the form-class of an item and its function is a useful one to keep.
2. The term PREDICATOR must not be confused with the traditional category of predicate
(the latter includes PREDICATOR, COMPLEMENT(S) and ADVERBIAL(S), i.e. all that
part of the clause which is not the SUBJECT).
3. Similarly, a choice has to be made between the functional terms ADVERBIAL and
ADJUNCT (A)7, which are virtually interchangeable in syntactic description.
4. The functional term COMPLEMENT (C) is used somewhat differently from traditional
grammar. It is a super-ordinate term which includes the objects: DIRECT OBJECT (Od),
INDIRECT OBJECT (Oi), PREPOSITIONAL OBJECT (PrepO), and the intensive
complements: SUBJECT COMPLEMENT (Cs), ADVERBIAL COMPLEMENT (Ca),
OBJECT COMPLEMENT (Co)8.

1.7.

Word Order
The word order in a clause is an essential part of the grammar of English, and it is commonly

illustrated by the difference in meaning between John likes Mary and the clause using the same
words in a different order: Mary likes John. Another simple sentence 9 will demonstrate the way in
which words and phrases change their form, function and meaning, if written in a different order:
NP and SUBJECT
The ducks
The crowd
The crowd

VP and PREDICATOR
crowd
stone
ducks

NP and OBJECT
the stone.
the ducks.
the stone.

In these clauses, the words ducks, crowd and stone are either nouns or verbs, functioning as
SUBJECT, OBJECT or PREDICATOR, according to their position / word order in each clause.
6

The finite verbs are considered all the forms of the Indicative, of the Subjunctive, of the Conditional, and of the
Imperative; the non-finite forms: the Infinitive, the Gerund, and the Participle. Mind that in the grammar of the Romanian
language only the finite forms are considered predicative!
7
This means that the student has to make a choice between the two terms and be consistent in using it.
8
All these syntactic functions will be studied in more detail in the forthcoming sections.
9
Remember that simple sentence and clause are synonymous!

11

SUMMARY:
Meaning

Participant 1

(semantic

Actor

terminology)

Process

Participant 2

Circumstance(s)

- actional

- affected

of time, place,

- mental

- objective

manner

OR
Grammar
(syntactic

SUBJECT (S)

- relational
PREDICATOR

- attribute
COMPLEMENT

ADVERBIAL

(P)

(C)

(A): of time,

- OBJECT: Od,

place, manner.

terminology)

Oi, PrepO;
-

INTENSIVE

COMPLEMENT:
Cs, Ca, Co.

12