ELS 106: English Syntax
Rachel Paquibot
BAELANG 2A
September 24, 2022
DEFINITION OF TERMS:
verb, but is acts like a noun.
Ex. Baking is one of her skills.
1.
2.
Noun- a word that name something such as a
IMPORTANT NOTE: All gerunds end in -ing,
person, place, thing, or idea.
but not all words ending in -ing that are
Ex. Person, Place, Thing.
formed from verbs are gerunds.
Pronoun- a type of word that replaces a noun.
11. Determiners- a word that comes before a
Ex. I, She, He, You, We.
3.
noun to show how the noun is being used.
Verb- a word used to describe an action,

Articles: the, a, and an.
state, or occurrence, and forming the main
4.

part of the predicate of a sentence.
refer to non-specific or
Ex. Eat, Laugh, Write, Sing.
general thing.
Predicate- the part of a sentence or clause

containing a verb and stating something

Ex. Went home in, John went home.
Subject- a person or thing that is being

Demonstrative Determiners: this,
that, those, and these
Ex. Rachel is watching Netflix.

Quantifiers: some, a few, many, a
little, few, none and etc.
Adjective- a word that modifies a noun or
pronoun.
7.
Possessive Determiners: my, your,
his, her, its, our, and their.
discussed, describe, or dealt with.
6.
Definite article (the) refers
to a specific thing.
about the subject.
5.
Indefinite articles (a, an)

Distributive Determiners: every,
Ex. She is cheerful.
each, either, neither, both, all, half,
Adverb- a word modifies everything except
and etc.
nouns and pronouns.
Ex. Runs slowly.
8.
12. Articles- the, a, and an.
Prepositions- is a word used to link nouns,

pronouns, or phrases to other words within a
Indefinite articles (a, an) refer to
non-specific or general thing.
sentence.

Ex. Go down the stairs and through the
Definite article (the) refers to a
specific thing
door.
9.
Conjunctions- words that link other words,
WORLD CLASSESS NOUN
phrases, or clauses together.
Syntactic Roles of Nouns Phrases


Coordinating: for, and, nor, but, or,
Often called as Grammatical Relations
yet, and so.
because they define NPs in terms of their
Correlative: both/and, either/or,
relationships with the verb of which they are
neither/nor, not only/but,
an argument.
whether/or.

-
Subordinating: after, although, as,
Properties of Subjects in English
-
whenever, whereas, only, and etc.
10. Gerund- is a form of a verb that ends in -ing
agreement)
-
that is used as a noun. A gerund is like a
blend of verbs and nouns. It looks like a
Subjects control the verbs (subject-verbSubjects precede the verb in English (normal
position)
-
Pronominal Subjects (subjects that are
ELS 106: English Syntax
Rachel Paquibot
BAELANG 2A
September 24, 2022
pronouns) have a special subject form
prepositional phrases.
known as nominative case.
TYPES OF PREPOSITIONS
Number of Singularity and Plurality of the Subjects
-

Consider count and mass nouns.
before, and after.

POSITIONS AND FUNCTIONS OF ADJECTIVES

Prepositions of Place- on, in, at,
under, over, inside, outside, above,
Attributive- directly modifying a noun, and
and below.
normally have fixed position.

Prepositions of Time- at, on, in,

Prepositions of Movement- to,
Ex. The red car.
across, off, down, into, up, past,
Predicative- function as predicates
around, and through.
Ex. She felt very sad.

Intensifiers- preceding the adjective; they
VERBS
modify, as in very.
The main function of verbs is to express what is
known
as predication. (a predicate expresses and ‘event’
Adjectives and their grammatical categories;
which may be quite literally an event but also includes
Two ways:
actions, processes, situations, states, and so on.)

Morphological (straight-
SYNTACTIC SUB-CLASSES OF VERBS
straighter-straightest)

1.
Sub-class of intransitive verbs
Addition of a functional
Ex. John sneezed.
element (more/most)
(participant is the argument of the verb)
Three questions adjective answer about a noun or
Verbs with only one participant or argument
pronoun.
are called INTRANSITIVE VERBS.
-
Which one?
2.
Sub-class of transitive verbs
-
What kind of?
Ex. Bella rejected my generous assistance.
-
How many? /How much?
Verbs with two participants or arguments are
called TRANSITIVE VERBS.
ADVERBS
3.
Third sub-class of a verb has three
Some irregular English adverbs have the same form
arguments.
as the adjectives.
Ex. Georgie handed the document # to Liza.
Ex. She works fast/hard.
Verbs with three participants or arguments
NOTE:
and are either considering transitive or

Adjectives modify noun as in sad song.

Adverbs modify adjective as in strangely sad

ditransitive as its verb.
song and other adverbs such as, she spoke
DITRANSITIVE VERBS
strangely lucidly.
Ditransitive verbs are action verbs that are followed
Adverbs also modify verbs as in, she spoke
by two objects: the direct object and the indirect
strangely.
object. The indirect object comes right after the
ditransitive verb and just before the direct object.
PREPOSITION
Ex.
Prepositions combined with a noun phrase to for
My mother taught me how to cook.
ELS 106: English Syntax
Rachel Paquibot
BAELANG 2A
September 24, 2022
I got the kids their favorite toys.
NOTE:
Ask WHAT to find out the direct object and WHOM to
find out the indirect object.
GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES OF VERBS

Tense and Aspect- Present, Past and
Future.
(simple, progressive, perfect, and perfect
progressive)

Mood- grammatical category which marks
properties such as possibility, probability,
and certainty.
Ex. Aleena goes to Denmark tomorrow.
Aleena would go to Denmark tomorrow if
she were wealthy enough.
(the mood used for actual events is termed
as INDICATIVE)

The Indicative Mood- states a fact
or asks a question.
Ex. This broom is fast. Do you want
a go?

The Imperative Mood- expresses
an order.
Ex. Keep away from the sunlight.

The Subjunctive Mood- shows a
wish, a suggestion, or possible
condition.
Ex. If I were alive, I’d demand that I
be at the party.
GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES OF VERBS

Valency-changing Processes- passive is
best know of the valency-changing
processes in verbs.

Agreement- verbs agreeing with their
arguments.