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An Introduction to English Syntax An Introduction to English Syntax Jim Miller Edinburgh University Press 01 pages i-xvi prelims 18/10/01 4:49 pm Page ii Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language General Editor Heinz Giegerich, Professor of English Linguistics (University of Edinburgh) Editorial Board Laurie Bauer (University of Wellington) Derek Britton (University of Edinburgh) Olga Fischer (University of Amsterdam) Norman Macleod (University of Edinburgh) Donka Minkova (UCLA) Katie Wales (University of Leeds) Anthony Warner (University of York) An Introduction to English Syntax Jim Miller An Introduction to English Phonology April McMahon An Introduction to English Morphology Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy 01 pages i-xvi prelims 18/10/01 4:49 pm Page iii An Introduction to English Syntax Jim Miller Edinburgh University Press 01 pages i-xvi prelims 18/10/01 4:49 pm Page iv © Jim Miller, 2002 Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Janson by Norman Tilley Graphics and printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin A CIP Record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7486 1254 8 (hardback) ISBN 0 7486 1253 X (paperback) The right of Jim Miller to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. 01 pages i-xvi prelims 18/10/01 4:49 pm Page v Contents Acknowledgements ix To colleagues x To readers xii 1 Heads and modifiers 1 1.1 Heads and modifiers 1 1.2 Heads, modifiers and meaning 3 1.3 Complements and adjuncts 4 1.4 Clauses 5 1.5 Dictionary entries and collocations 7 1.6 Verbs, complements and the order of phrases 8 Summary 9 Exercises 9 2 Constituent structure 11 2.1 Heads, modifiers and arrangements of words 11 2.2 Tests for phrases 13 2.3 Phrases: words and slots 17 2.4 Coordination 18 2.5 Concluding comments 19 Summary 21 Exercises 21 3 Constructions 23 3.1 Introduction 23 3.2 Different constructions and different meanings 23 3.3 Types of construction 27 3.4 Relationships between constructions 29 3.5 Copula constructions 30 Summary 32 Exercises 32 01 pages i-xvi prelims 18/10/01 4:49 pm Page vi vi AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SYNTAX 4 Word classes 34 4.1 What are word classes? 34 4.2 Criteria for word classes 36 Summary 45 Exercises 45 5 The lexicon 47 5.1 Syntax and lexical items 47 5.2 Individual verbs, complements and adjuncts 49 5.3 Classes of verbs and subcategorisation restrictions 51 5.4 Selectional restrictions 52 5.5 Classes of nouns 53 5.6 Subcategorisation, selection and constructions 55 5.7 Fixed phrases 56 Summary 57 Exercises 57 6 Clauses I 60 6.1 Clauses and sentences 60 6.2 Main and subordinate clauses 62 6.3 Subordinate clauses 63 6.4 Complementisers and subordinating conjunctions 66 6.5 Recognising clauses 67 6.6 Final comment 69 Summary 69 Exercises 70 7 Clauses II 72 7.1 Main and subordinate clauses 72 7.2 Clause and sentence 73 7.3 More properties of subordinate clauses 77 7.4 Finite and non-finite clauses 81 Summary 85 Exercises 85 8 Grammatical functions 88 8.1 Introduction 88 8.2 Subject 88 8.3 Direct object 93 8.4 Oblique object and indirect object 95 Summary 98 Exercises 99 01 pages i-xvi prelims 18/10/01 4:49 pm Page vii CONTENTS vii 9 Syntactic linkage 101 9.1 Introduction 101 9.2 Agreement 101 9.3 Government 103 9.4 Number and person linkage 106 9.5 Syntactic linkage in English 107 9.6 Number in English 109 9.7 Gender in English 109 Summary 110 Exercises 111 10 Heads and modifiers revisited 113 10.1 For and against verb phrases 113 10.2 Verb, core, nucleus and periphery 115 10.3 What is the head of a noun phrase? 116 11 Roles 119 11.1 Roles, grammar and meaning 119 11.2 Criteria for roles 120 11.3 Roles and role-players 125 11.4 Problems with Patients: planting roses 128 Summary 131 Exercises 131 12 Grammar and semantics: case, gender, mood 133 12.1 Introduction 133 12.2 Case 133 12.3 Gender 135 12.4 Mood 136 Summary 141 Exercises 142 13 Grammar and semantics: aspect, tense, voice 143 13.1 Aspect 143 13.2 Tense in English 148 13.3 The English Perfect 149 13.4 Voice 151 13.5 Conclusion 156 Summary 157 Exercises 157 01 pages i-xvi prelims 18/10/01 4:49 pm Page viii viii AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SYNTAX Appendix 1 160 Appendix 2 162 Appendix 3 167 Discussion of the exercises 169 Further reading 185 Index 188 01 pages i-xvi prelims 18/10/01 4:49 pm Page ix Acknowledgements Anthony Warner read the first draft of this book and offered many valu- able comments which have helped me to improve both the organisation of the contents and the explanation of particular points. Jenny Fuchs, although busy with her studies on the second year of the Honours MA in English Language at the University of Edinburgh, gave both a student’s reaction and comments worthy of professional linguists. Derek Britton spent a considerable time devising Old English examples. Karin Søde-Woodhead drew my attention to a number of inadequacies. Will Lamb reassured me that the text was at the right level and on the right lines for an introduction to syntax. Over the past ten years, a number of classes have acted as guinea pigs for Chapters 6 and 7 on clauses and for Chapters 12 and 13 on grammar and semantics. I thank all the above and declare that I alone am responsible for any imperfections in the book. ix 01 pages i-xvi prelims 18/10/01 4:49 pm Page x To colleagues This book is an introduction to syntax for students embarking on English Language courses. It might also prove useful to students taking the English Language A-level or its equivalent and to students taking university courses in Linguistics. The book does not even sketch the major syntactic constructions of English. Most of the examples are indeed from English, but the book deals with the general concepts necessary for analysing syntax (whether of English or of some other language). Many students in the UK and elsewhere take courses in English Language and in Linguistics in their first and/or second years but then specialise in another subject. The content of this book reflects the view that such students should be taught concepts and methods that find an application in other university disciplines or outside university. This criterion excludes detailed discussion of constituent structure, tree diagrams and formal models of syntax, because these find no application outside the classroom except in computational linguistics. But even in that field, the central topics include basic clause analysis, discourse organisation, tense, aspect and modality. The concepts of head and modifier, and of subcategorisation and valency, find some application, say in the teaching of foreign languages. Also useful and applicable is knowledge of different types of clause and their function in sentences, word classes, case, transitivity and gender. The topics mentioned in the preceding paragraph are traditional but have been greatly developed over the past thirty years; new perspectives, new data and new insights are available. More importantly, they all find applications in teaching, in speech pathology, in university courses on discourse analysis and stylistics, in courses on psycholinguistics and in cognitive science, and in the preparation of commercial and technical documents and in writing in general. The above explains why the book has only one short chapter on constituent structure. (But Appendix 1 gives diagrams showing depen- x 01 pages i-xvi prelims 18/10/01 4:49 pm Page xi TO COLLEAGUES xi dency analyses of various clauses, Appendix 2 provides constituent- structure diagrams of the traditional sort and Appendix 3 diagrams the relationships among various constructions.) Students who use this book and continue with English Language or Linguistics will learn in detail about constituent analysis and formal models of syntax in their second or later years. I hope that readers of this book will find it interesting (in places, at least), clear, and useful after their studies are finished. 01 pages i-xvi prelims 18/10/01 4:49 pm Page xii To readers We study syntax because it enables human beings to compose complex messages. Suppose a disgruntled worker utters the single word idiot! He or she might have muttered stupid, unfeeling, ignorant idiot, with four words combined into a phrase. The speaker might even have said That stupid, unfeeling, ignorant idiot is the new manager!, in which the phrase the new manager and the phrase that stupid, unfeeling, ignorant idiot are combined into a clause by means of is. (For a discussion of phrases and clauses, see Chapters 1, 2, 6 and 7.) Syntax has to do with how words are put together to build phrases, with how phrases are put together to build clauses or bigger phrases, and with how clauses are put together to build sentences. In small and familiar situations, humans could communicate using single words and many gestures, particularly when dealing with other members of the same social grouping (nuclear family, extended family, clan and so on). But complex messages for complex situations or complex ideas require more than just single words; every human language has devices with which its speakers can construct phrases and clauses. We habitually talk of human languages and their speakers; we ask questions such as ‘How many speakers are there of Chinese/Arabic/ Spanish?’ Nobody ever asks how many writers such-and-such a language has, but the distinction between speaking and writing is crucial and affects the study of syntax.
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