Study Advice Service
Grammar Series - 5
Units of Language (Advanced)
Author: Peter Wilson
The Study Advice Service‟s Grammar Series -1 leaflet was about Word Classes, or Parts of Speech.
This was supplemented in Grammar Series - 3. More about Word Classes and Grammar Series - 4 .
Verbs.
Grammar Series - 2 was about Units of Language – Phrases, Clauses and Sentences etc. If you have
read these leaflets – or you know something about the subject already – you may want the more
advanced information in the present leaflet.
Studying grammar has only a limited role in directly improving your own production of „good English‟,
but it may help you to make the best of courses in other languages – and sometimes to understand
your tutors‟ criticisms of your use of English.
As always, the best way to learn something is to practise it – “learning by doing”. The subject,
however, is so big and complicated that there is not enough room in this leaflet to include useful
examples. You are advised to follow a practical textbook or a course if you want to have a full
understanding of Clauses. (Some useful books and websites are listed in “Grammar: recommended
resources” on the website at www.hull.ac.uk/studyadvice.)
Basic ideas. (Revision of Grammar 1-4)
Words can be classified in several ways. Verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs can be regarded as
semantic (or form) words; articles, pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions are function words. (See
Study Advice Service leaflets Grammar 1; Grammar 3; and Grammar 4.)
In another way of looking at grammar, our utterances can be divided into different sizes of unit. A
sentence contains at least one clause; a clause contains at least one phrase – which contains at least
one word. A word has at least one syllable, and a syllable has at least one letter. (See leaflet
Grammar 2).
A clause can be defined as a group of words containing a verb. Other elements of a clause – which
may or may not be present – are the Subject, Complement (which may be a copular Complement, a
direct Object or an indirect Object, etc) and one or more Adverbial(s).
Grammar 5 – New ideas
When you think about the ideas in the previous leaflets, you may realise that any of the semantic words
can be replaced by a clause or a phrase.
Indeed, grammar has words to name this phenomenon. In grammar, an adjectival is a word used to
name a unit – of any size (word, phrase or clause) – that does the work of an adjective. Similarly, an
adverbial is any unit that fulfils the function of an adverb, and a nominal is a unit that acts as a noun.
(In addition to these noun uses, adverbial and the other words may be used as adjectives. We can
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have an adverbial Clause, for example, as well as an adverbial; and we can have an adjectival
phrase and a nominal Clause.)
(As a verb is the essential ingredient of a clause, there can be no such thing as a „verbial‟. However,
verbs in English very commonly contain more than one word, so the verb phrase is very common.
This is the phenomenon where a single meaning is conveyed with more than one word, e.g. “He may
have been being cheated”. See Grammar 4 – Verbs.)
It can be useful, in analysing grammar, to distinguish between verb (with a small „v‟), which is a word
class, and Verb (with a capital), which is a function performed in a sentence. A Verb can be a single
verb, or a multi-word verb phrase.
The Verb is the essential part of a Clause (except for a small group of units known as „verbless
Clauses‟, whose analysis belongs to a more advanced study of grammar than this). The three other
function elements of a clause are:
the Subject (the „performer‟ of the action of the Verb), which is the second most commonly found
element after the verb;
the Complement, which may be either a copular or adjectival Complement (these are the only
functions traditionally called Complements); or an Object, either Direct or Indirect. There may be
more than one Object, or Complement, in a Clause; and
the Adverbial. This is the vaguest function to define. Adverbials may modify (that is, tell us more
about the action of) a Verb. Most commonly, they tell us how, where, when or why something was
done – e.g. she did it quickly (adverb, answering the question „how?‟), or yesterday („when?‟); at
home (adverbial phrase, answering „where‟); because it seemed like a good idea (adverbial Clause,
„why?‟).
Adverbials may also act as Sentence Adverbials and tell us more about the whole sentence. For
example, in “Meanwhile, the position was getting worse”, the adverb „meanwhile‟ refers to all that
follows, not just to the verb „was getting‟. In “In the High Court of Justice, it was ruled that the Minister‟s
action had been illegal”, the adverbial phrase of place tells us where the whole sentence took place. In
this, and the similar adverbial Clause of time “When the US President said this, the Governments of
Europe took notice”, you will see that there is no clear division between a sentence adverbial and an
ordinary adverb – to say where a verb happens is usually to talk of where the whole Clause happens.
This is connected with the fact that the Verb is the essential element of the Clause.
The Simple Sentence
In a Sentence or a Clause the simplest forms are something like “Jane is clever” and “He threw the
ball”. We can analyse them like this:
Text
Function
Form
Word class
Jane
Subject
nominal
noun
is
Verb
copular verb
verb
clever
Complement
adjectival
adjective
Text
Function
Form
Word class(-es)
He
Subject
Nominal
Pronoun
threw
Verb
Verb
Verb
the ball
Object (Cod)
Nominal
Noun phrase
(=article + noun)
We can make each individual functional unit bigger. We can change the nominal which acts as the
Subject: the single word He can be replaced by „The cricketer‟, „The tall cricketer‟ or „The tall,
handsome dark-haired young cricketer in the brilliant white flannels‟ and so on. But however long it is –
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however many kinds of word it contains – it is still a single unit, a nominal (a noun phrase, containing
at least one word): the Subject of the sentence.
This example (“he threw the ball”) shows the essential structure of the basic Clause – [Subject + Verb +
Object]. An adverbial can be added to it in almost any position: “Quickly, he threw the ball”; “Then he
threw the ball”; “He threw away the ball”; “He threw the ball hard”. You can even add an adverb in all
of these positions: “Then he quickly threw the ball away hard” - though this may show the artificial
nature of some grammatical examples!
Sentences such as the two above which have only one Clause (i.e. only one Verb) are called Simple
Sentences. That is because they are easy to analyse; because they only have the one structure of
[S +V (+ C + A)], with variations.
If we write more than one Main Clause linked with co-ordinating conjunctions like „and‟ or „but‟, we
make a Compound Sentence. (This form of sentence is common in young children telling stories:
“We did go to the shops and Mummy bought some sweets and we came home but she didn‟t give me
any.” Check that you can explain why this is a Compound Sentence.1)
Where it becomes more interesting is when we replace any of the elements of the simple Sentence
with a second Clause inside the Main Clause.
Such a second Clause (a Subordinate Clause) has the same structure as the Main Clauses (Simple
Sentences) shown above, normally with the addition of a conjunction. Subordinate Clauses fall into the
pattern of nominals, adjectivals and adverbials – Noun Clauses, Adjectival (or Relative) Clauses and
Adverbial Clauses.
(A Simple Sentence is a Main Clause, with only one Verb. A sentence with a Main Clause and at least
one Subordinate Clause is called a Complex Sentence. There are also compound-complex
sentences, with at least two Main Clauses and at least one Subordinate Clause.)
Noun Clauses
The easiest examples to look at first are sentences based on verbs of utterance – „to say‟, „to think‟
etc. In these, in their simplest form, the Object, or COd (Complement Object direct), which like all
Objects is a nominal, often takes the form of a Clause introduced by that – a Noun Clause. (This is an
Object, because it is the answer to the question „What did he say?‟)
A short example is “He said that I was stupid”. (Sometimes, particularly in speech, the that is omitted:
“He said I was stupid.” Using the word „that‟ is to be recommended in academic English, for clarity. It
sounds better, too.)
Function
Form
Wordclass
He
Subject
nominal
pronoun
said
Verb
transitive verb
verb
that I was stupid
Object (COd)
nominal (NCI)
[cj + pn + v +adj]
The Object (Noun Clause) of the above sentence can be further analysed:
Function
Form
Wordclass
that
conjunction
conjunction
conjunction
I
Subject
nominal
pronoun
was
Verb
copular verb
verb
stupid
Complement
adjectival
adjective
This chaining of clauses can be continued indefinitely. Consider “You said that I thought that he had
claimed that I was stupid”.
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You
Subject
said
Verb
that I though that he had claimed that I was stupid
Object
in which the Object can be further analysed as:
that
Conjunction
I
Subject
thought
Verb
that he had claimed that I was stupid
Object
and again the Object of that can be further analysed:
that
Conjunction
he
Subject
had claimed
Verb
that I was stupid
object
I
Subject
was
Verb
stupid
Complement
and yet again:
that
Conjunction
See the full diagram below
These diagrams can be amalgamated and shown as:
You said
Subj Vb
that
I
thought
Cj
S
Vb
that
he
had claimed
Obj =
that
I
was
stupid
Obj =
S
Vb
Comp
Obj =
Cj
S
Vb
Cj
or as:
[You said [that I thought [that he had claimed [that I was stupid]]]]
where square brackets mark each Clause – the outside pair, of course, marking the Sentence.
(There is no record „longest sentence in English‟, because a sentence can always be lengthened by
inserting another [Subject + verb of utterance + „that‟] at the beginning. We can take any sentence and
lengthen it by putting “He said that” before it. A structure like this, which can be repeated inside
itself without limit, is known as recursive. We can also say that such Noun Clauses are nested inside
each other.)
Noun Clauses can act as nominals (replace single-word nouns) in other functions. As well as being the
Object of a verb of utterance, Noun Clauses can be the Subjects, most often of the verb „to be‟. In the
sentence “That he has made a mistake is undeniable”, the Subject of the verb „is‟ is the Noun Clause
„That he has made a mistake‟, which has the structure [conjunction + S + V + O].
Adjectival (or Relative) Clauses
The next easiest Clause to consider, after the Noun Clause used as the Object of a verb of utterance,
is the Adjectival Clause. This is a Clause which does the work of an Adjective. (See if you can find the
Adjectival Clause in this paragraph.2)
Adjectival Clauses usually have a Relative Pronoun (wh-word) as their connecting word. In “Here is the
man who found your wallet”, the Adjective Clause „who found your wallet‟ is analysed as
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who
found
Subject
Verb
your
wallet
Object
This is clearly not an adequate sentence on its own (although if there is a question mark after it, it
becomes a complete sentence. In that case, the wh-word „who‟ is an interrogative, not a relative,
pronoun). A mistake that writers sometimes make is to use a full stop where a relative pronoun has
connected two Clauses, which should therefore be a single sentence. This usually happens in more
complicated examples than this one.
Adjectival Clauses usually start with a wh- word, like „which‟ or „who‟. Like one-word adjectives, they
give more information about a noun. Unlike them, they usually come after the noun they describe: they
postmodify it. For example, in “The Company, which had been losing its grip on the market, now
increased its share of sales” the Adjectival Clause „which had been losing its grip on the market‟ follows
the noun „Company‟ which it describes. (Check that you can identify the Main Clause in this example. 3)
In contrast, „the green car‟ has an adjective, „green‟, before the noun it qualifies („car‟): it premodifies it.
A common problem with the use of relative pronouns is confusion between „who‟ and „whom‟. This can
be because the relative pronoun has two functions, one inside the Adjectival Clause and the other
outside it. (The Word Class is called the relative pronoun because it relates, or shows the relationship
between, the two units.)
Consider the two sentences, “This is the man who saw her” and “This is the man whom she saw”. Both
have an Adjective Clause post-modifying the noun „man‟. In the first, the relative pronoun „who‟ is the
Subject of the Adjectival Clause. It is the male person who has done the seeing. In the second
sentence, the relative pronoun „whom‟ is the Object of the Adjectival Clause. It is the female who has
done the seeing. In both sentences, of course, the relative pronouns link „the man‟ to the different
descriptions.
The difference in grammar, and the accompanying change in word order, can be shown as:
who
Subject
saw
Verb
her
Object
whom
Object
she
Subject
saw
Verb
I have used a form of grid to show the analysis of the examples so far. Other forms of diagram are also
used, notably the tree diagram. My own preference, for ease of writing – and for saving paper – is by
the use of brackets.
In my bracketing system, square brackets indicate clauses and round brackets indicate phrases. If
details are required, I use subscripts to identify elements – word classes, etc – in the sentence which I
am analysing; and superscripts to identify functions. Take, for example, the sentence “You can go out
if you have done your homework”.
[[(You)Spn ((can)aux (go out)phr vb)Vvb phr ]Main Cl [(if)cj (you)Spn ((have)aux (done)vb)Vvb phr ((your)poss pn
(homework)n)OdNphr]Advb Cl]Sent.
In the grid form I used earlier, the same sentence can be represented in the two following ways. (In
old-fashioned English grammar teaching, the analysis of form was called „parsing‟; the analysis of
function was called „sentence analysis‟.)
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The decision of how to show the analysis that you have made (which diagram to use) is a matter of
judgement. Use the one that appears to you to demonstrate most clearly what you want to show. And
– also for your reader‟s convenience – remember not to include more information than is necessary.
S
[
You
pn
Main Clause
V
can
aux
vb
]
out
go
verb phrases
phrasal verb
vb
You
pn
can
aux
Function analysis
Subordinate Clause
Cj
S
V
Od
[
]
if
you
have
done
your
homework
cj
pn
verb phrase
noun phrase
aux vb
verb poss pn
noun
advb
go
out
vb
advb
phrasal verb
(verb phr)
Form analysis
if
you
have
cj
pn
aux
done
vb
(vb phr)
your
homework
poss pn
n
(noun phrase)
Adverbial Clauses
Attentive readers will have noticed that the Subordinate Clause in the above example is neither a
nominal nor an adjectival. It is an Adverbial Clause.
Probably the commonest type of Subordinate Clause, the Adverbial Clause is as hard to define as the
adverb itself. (See Grammar Series – 1. Word Classes (Basic.))
One reason for that difficulty is the number of functions which are carried out by Adverbials. In my
youth, for example, students of Latin were always taught that there were eight kinds of Adverbial
Clause (for which typical conjunctions are shown in brackets): Clauses of Place (where), Time (when),
Cause (because, since), Condition (if), Consequence (so that), Concession (though, although),
Manner (as), and Purpose (in order to).
In this brief introduction, I will only point out that Adverbial Clauses follow the same pattern as other
Clauses in English. They have a Subject, a verb, and – where appropriate – a Complement. They are
usually introduced by a conjunction which links their meaning to that of the Main Clause.
A final note on Complements
As Grammar Series - 2. Units of Language (Basic) said, the complement is something which
completes the sense of a verb. Several different types exist.
Transitive verbs, by definition, take a Direct Object (COd, or „Complement Object Direct‟). This is a
nominal which indicates the thing or person directly acted upon by the verb – “She loves her baby”, “he
loves her”, “dogs chase cats” and “rain benefits crops”.
Some verbs can have an Indirect Object (COi) in addition. (These can be called ditransitive verbs.)
The Indirect Object is the thing or person to or for whom the action of the verb is performed – indirectly.
In “The King gave some land to the hero”, „some land‟ is the COd, and „to the hero‟ is a COi.
Intransitive verbs are those which do not take an Object, such as „to die‟. (Notice the difference
between the intransitive „to die‟ and the transitive „to kill‟.) Many verbs in English can be used both
transitively and intransitively, with greater or lesser changes in meaning. “She drives” (intransitive) and
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“She drives a Ford” (transitive; „a Ford‟ is the Direct object, or COd) are closer in meaning than “John
cooked the potatoes” (transitive; COd „potatoes‟) and “The potatoes cooked slowly” (intransitive).
Copular verbs („to be‟, etc.) take not an Object but a Complement. Complements can be of many
types. We can use nominals, as in “He is a teacher” (where the complement is a Noun Phrase);
adjectivals, “Their house is white” (where the complement is a single word); and adverbials, “It is where
you left it” (where the complement is an adverbial Clause). Many variations of the complement are
possible.
1
Verb
It contains a series of Main verbs linked by co-ordinating conjunctions: [We (did go)
to the shops] Main Clause (and)ccj
Verb
Verb
Verb
[Mummy (bought)
some sweets] Main Clause (and) ccj [we (came)
home]Main Clause (but) ccj [she (didn't give)
me any] Main
Clause. (This illustrates – among other things – how even beginners in speaking a language know a great deal of grammar. It
takes some time for students of the subject to be able to describe all this – though all native speakers understand it pretty
well.)
2
„which does the work of an Adjective‟
3
„The Company now increased its share of sales‟.
For more about Grammar see: “Grammar: recommended resources” on the website at
www.hull.ac.uk/studyadvice
All web addresses in this leaflet were correct at the time of publication.
The information in this leaflet can be made available in an alternative
format on request. Telephone 01482 466199.
© 01/2008
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