Analysing sentences : an introduction to English syntax

297 Pages·2011·3.39 MB·English

by  Noel Burton-Roberts

LEARNING ABOUT LANGUAGE
General Editors: Geoffrey Leech and A
Mick Short, Lancaster University
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An Introduction to English Syntax n
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Third Edition
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Noel Burton-Roberts E
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This highly successful text has long been considered a standard introduction to
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the practical analysis of English sentence structure. As in previous editions, key
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concepts such as constituency, category and function are carefully explained
n An Introduction
as they are introduced. Tree diagrams are used throughout to help the reader
visualise the hierarchical structure of sentences. The final chapter sets the C
analysis in the context of generative grammar. E
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In this third edition, Analysing Sentences has been thoroughly revised. It has an to English Syntax
attractive new layout, more examples, clearer explanations and summaries of
key points. A major change concerns the analysis of auxiliary verbs, which has
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been revised to bring it more in line with current thinking. oA
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Clear development from chapter to chapter, together with the author’s glintr Third Edition
accessible style, make this book suitable for readers with no previous so
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experience of sentence analysis. A practical and reader-friendly text, it includes Su
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many in-text, end-of-chapter and further exercises, making it suitable for self- nti
directed study as well as for taught courses. taon
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Noel Burton-Roberts is Professor of English Language and Linguistics at
Newcastle University. He is the author of The Limits to Debate: A Revised Theory B
of Semantic Presupposition (CUP , 1989), the editor of Phonological Knowledge: u
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Conceptual and Empirical Issues (OUP , 2000) and Pragmatics (Palgrave, 2007), t
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and the author of numerous articles on various aspects of linguistics and the nN
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English language. e
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ts Noel Burton-Roberts
www.pearson-books.com LEARNING ABOUT LANGUAGE
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Analysing Sentences
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LEARNING ABOUT LANGUAGE
General Editors:
Geoffrey Leech & Mick Short, Lancaster University
Also in this series:
Words and Their Meaning Howard Jackson
An Introduction to Phonology Francis Katamba
Grammar and Meaning Howard Jackson
An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (Third edition) Janet Holmes
Realms of Meaning: An Introduction to Semantics Th. R. Hofmann
An Introduction to Psycholinguistics (Second edition) Danny D. Steinberg
An Introduction to Spoken Interaction Anna-Brita Stenström
Watching English Change Laurie Bauer
Meaning in Interaction: An Introduction to Pragmatics Jenny Thomas
An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics(Second edition) Friedrich Ungerer and
Hans-Jörg Schmid
Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose Mick Short
Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction William O’Grady, Michael Dobrovolsky
and Francis Katamba
An Introduction to Natural Language Processing Through Prolog Clive Matthews
An Introduction to Child Language Development Susan Foster-Cohen
The Sounds of Language: An Introduction to Phonetics Henry Rogers
Varieties of Modern English Diana Davies
An Introduction to Language Acquisition Susan Foster-Cohen
Patterns of Spoken English Gerald Knowles
The Earliest English: An Introduction to Old English Language Chris McCully
An Introduction to Foreign Language Learning and Teaching(Second edition)
Keith Johnson
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Analysing Sentences
An Introduction to English Syntax
Third Edition
NOEL BURTON-ROBERTS
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PEARSON EDUCATION LIMITED
Edinburgh Gate
Harlow CM20 2JE
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Website: www.pearsoned.co.uk
First published in Great Britain in 1986
Second edition published 1997
Third edition published 2011
© Pearson Education Limited 1986, 1997, 2011
The right of Noel Burton-Roberts to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Pearson Education is not responsible for the content of third party internet sites.
ISBN: 978-1-4082-3374-0
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burton-Roberts, Noel, 1948–
Analysing sentences : an introduction to English syntax / Noel Burton-Roberts. – 3rd ed.
p. cm. – (Learning about language)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-4082-3374-0 (pbk.)
1. English language–Sentences. 2. English language–Syntax. I. Title.
PE1375.B87 2010
428.2–dc22
2010015457
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a
licence permitting restricted copying in the United Kingdom issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. This book may
not be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade in any form of binding
or cover other than that in whi ch it is published, without the prior consent of the Publishers.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
14 13 12 11 10
Typeset in 10.5/13pt Minion by 35
Printed and bound in Malaysia, (CTP-KHL)
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Contents
Preface to the third edition ix
Preface to the second edition xi
Preface to the first edition xiv
Introduction 1
The organisation of the chapters 4
A note on how to read this book 4
1 Sentence structure: constituents 6
Structure 6
Establishing constituents 10
‘Phrase’ and ‘constituent’ 15
Exercises 19
Discussion of exercises 20
Further exercises 23
2 Sentence structure: functions 24
Subject and predicate 24
Noun Phrase and Verb Phrase 29
Dependency and function 31
Head 32
The modifier~head relation 32
The head~complement relation 35
Summary 38
Exercises 38
Discussion of exercises 40

Further exercises 43
3 Sentence structure: categories 46
Nouns 47
Lexical and phrasal categories (noun and Noun Phrase) 50
Adjectives and adverbs 54
Adjective Phrases and Adverb Phrases 55
Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases 56
Co-ordinate Phrases 57
Diagrams for in-text exercises 62
Exercises 62
Discussion of exercises 63
Further exercises 65
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CONTENTS
4 The basic Verb Phrase 67
A first look at verbs 67
The complements of lexical verbs 68
Transitive verbs 70
Intransitive verbs 71
Ditransitive verbs 72
Intensive verbs 74
Complex transitive verbs 76
Prepositional verbs 78
Summary 79
Discussion of in-text exercises 80
Exercises 80
Discussion of exercises 82
Further exercises 85
5 Adverbials and other matters 87
Adjunct adverbials (VP adverbials) 87
Levels of Verb Phrase 88
The mobility of adverbials 92
Phrasal verbs 93
Ellipsis 96
Sentence adverbials (S adverbials) 98
Discussion of in-text exercises 101
Exercises 103
Discussion of exercises 104
Further exercises 109
6 More on verbs: auxiliary VPs 111
Part I: Lexical and auxiliary verbs 111
Tense and time 112
The contrast between lexical and auxiliary verbs 114
Modal auxiliaries (M OD) 115
The perfect auxiliary – have (PERF) 116
The progressive auxiliary – be (PROG) 118
The passive auxiliary – be(PASS) 119
Where auxiliaries fit in the structure of VP 121
Auxiliary VPs and adverbials 123
Part II: Constructions that depend on auxiliaries 125
Passive sentences 125
Negative sentences and auxiliary do 128
Questions – fronting the tensed auxiliary 130
More on have and be 132
Discussion of in-text exercises 133
Exercises for Part I 135
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CONTENTS
Exercises for Part II 135
Discussion of exercises 135
Further exercises (Part I) 138
Further exercises (Part II) 139
7 The structure of Noun Phrases 141
Determiners 142
Pre-determiners 145
Pre-modifiers in NOM 146
Quantifying adjectives 146
Participle phrases (PartP) 147
Nouns 148
More on the structure of NOM 149
Post-modifiers 150
Prepositional Phrases 150
More on Adjective Phrases 154
Modification of pronouns 155
Discussion of in-text exercises 157
Exercises 160
Discussion of exercises 161
Further exercises 163
Appendix: NOM and the pro-form one 165
Answers to exercise 169
Further exercise 170
8 Sentences within sentences 171
Complementisers: that and whether 174
The functions of that- and whether-clauses 176
Subject – and extraposed subject 176
Complement of V within VP 179
Complement of A within AP 181
Complement o f N within NP 182
Complement of P within PP 184
Adverbial clauses 186
Discussion of in-text exercises 188
Exercises 191
Discussion of exercises 192
Further exercises 194
9 Wh-clauses 196
Wh-questions 196
Subordinate wh-clauses 202
Subordinate wh-interrogative clauses 202
Relative clauses 204
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CONTENTS
Omission of the wh-phrase 207
That again 207
Restrictive vs. non-restrictive 208
Discussion of in-text exercises 211
Exercises 216
Discussion of exercises 218
Further exercises 220
Questions and interrogatives 220
Relative clauses and other matters 221
10 Non-finite clauses 224
Part I: The form of non-finite clauses 224
The form of non-finite verbs 225
Ia. Bare infinitive verbs 226
Ib. To-infinitive verbs 226
IIa. Passive participle verbs 227
IIb. -ing participle verbs 228
Complementisers and non-finite clauses 229
C1: for and whether 230
C2: fronted wh-phrases 230
Part II: The functions of non-finite clauses 232
Subject and extraposed subject 232
Complement of A in AP 233
Complement of P in PP 234
Adverbial 234
Complement of N in NP 235
Modifier in NP 235
Complement of V 236
Discussion of in-text exercises 244
Exercises 247
Discussion of exercises 249
Further exercises 251
11 Languages, sentences and grammars 254
Languages 254
Describing languages 257
Describing infinite languages 259
Grammars 262
Grammars and sentence analysis 265
Further reading 269
Index 271
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Preface to the third edition
The major substantive change in this edition concerns VERBS. I have abandoned
the ‘Verb Group’. The ‘Vgrp’ was pedagogically convenient but it did not do
justice to the facts of how auxiliary verbs figure the structure of VP.
The treatment of auxiliaries is now more standard. Each auxiliary is treated as
taking a VP complement. This allows me to maintain the idea that complements
of lexical verbs are their sisters, combining with them to form a (‘basic’) VP. This
also makes the use of the do sotest for VP more consistent than in previous edi-
tions (it actually works now). And it allows me to acknowledge that adverbials
can, and very naturally do, occur between auxiliaries and between auxiliary and
lexical verbs.
Contrary to what I expected, this change has barely increased the complexity
of the presentation. I have simplified some examples. I have kept the termin-
ology of the previous editions (including MOD, PERF, PROG, PASS) insofar as
it is consistent with the new analysis. In fact, Chapter 4 – now called ‘The basic
Verb Phrase’ – is now simpler and more focused. The reader can concentrate on
what really matters here – complementation of lexical verbs. True, this means
there is more to discuss in Chapter 6 – now called ‘More on Verbs: auxiliary VPs’
– but I’ve divided that chapter into two parts in what seems a fairly natural way.
This gives teachers the option of spending two weeks on that material.
There are other, smaller, analytical changes:
(i) In Chapter 3, now, then, whenand here, there, whereare now categorised as
prepositions, abandoning the previous traditional categorisation of them
as adverbs. This m eans that PP can consist just of P, as well as P + NP.
(ii) The section ‘Modification of pronouns’ in Chapter 7 now maintains a more
consistent distinction between pronouns and (pre-)determiners. The latter
remain (pre-)determiners – i.e. they don’t suddenly become pronouns– in
NPs like those at the back. These are now analysed as having an ellipted head
(those [E] at the back).
N
(iii) The section ‘More on Adjective Phrases’ in Chapter 7 takes greater care
than before in explaining complementation of adjectives – and why APs
with complements must post-modify the head within NP.
(iv) In Chapter 8 of the last edition, I categorised after, before, until, and since
as subordinating conjunctions but I had a Further Exercise inviting the
reader to wonder if they weren’t in fact prepositions. I now analyse them as
ix