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Coordination &
Subject review
Grammar of English
LING90016
Week 12

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 End of Subject Survey
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Log in directly from your notification email or visit the following

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for-students/faqs
Announcements

• Recording of a previous year’s lecture on relative clauses,

comparative clauses & adverbial clauses is now available on Canvas
• Asst. 2 to be returned later this week (Week 12)
• NO TUTORIALS in Week 12 (though we may run a make-up tute for
last week’s missed Wednesday tute – TBC)
• Exam is June 14 in Royal Exhibition Building
• You can bring a double-sided A4 page and a paper dictionary to the
exam.

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Coordination

In a coordination, two or more elements of equal status are joined to

make a larger unit.
• Special words called coordinators are used to mark this kind of joining
• Coordinators indicate the particular relation holding between the
coordinates (e.g., addition, alternatives, contrast).

(1) <[Jane is a good teacher] and [her students really like her]>.
(2) They offered us a choice of <red wine, white wine or beer>.
(3) Her assistant is <very young but a quick learner>.

Here:
• Clauses are in square brackets
• Coordinations are shown in angled brackets (note: here, not always a
coordination of clauses)
• the coordinator is underlined 5
Coordination

Internal syntax: the composition of coordinate structures

• Coordinates are equal in status: They cannot be distinguished as
head vs dependent(s).
• Coordination: a non-headed construction
• The constructions dealt with earlier (clauses, NPs, VPs, PPs, etc.) have all had
heads.

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Coordination: A Non-Headed Construction

Jane is a good teacher and her students really like her

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Coordination: A Non-Headed Construction

Her assistant is very young but a quick learner

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Coordinators

• prototypical coordinators: and, or, but

1. <[Her daughter was a dentist] and [her son was studying law]>.
2. You can have <[peach melba] or [plum pudding]>.
3. <[I asked him] but [he refused]>.

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Coordinators

• other coordinators
4. <Both Kim and Pat> witnessed the accident.
5. We could meet <either this afternoon or tomorrow morning>.
6. [They <neither knew] nor [cared]>.
7. They finally went <not by plane but by car>.

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Coordinators

• no coordinator (known as juxtaposition, unlinked or

asyndetic coordination)
8. She is <honest, hard-working, intelligent>.
9. <[Hunting mice is his delight], [hunting words I sit all
night]>.
• mixture of an overt coordinator and no coordinator
10. <[Her daughter was a dentist], [her son was studying
law] and [her cousin was an accountant]>.
11. <The Governor General, the Premier or the Mayor>
could open the Exhibition.

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Prototypical Properties

• range of coordination occurrence: words, phrases, clauses can be

coordinated
12. He met <Tim and Ed>.

13. She had eaten <some chips and an apple>.

14. <[Ed was late] and [she was furious]>.

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Prototypical Properties

• prototypically the (conjoined) items have the same function

15. I’ll do it <either this morning or this afternoon>. Adjuncts

16. *She had eaten <some chips and this morning>. some chips = O

17. She had eaten some chips.

18. She had eaten this morning.

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Prototypical Properties

• prototypically the conjoined items are reducible to one element

19. <Either [Tom has missed the train] or [the train is late]>.
20. Tom has missed the train.
21. The train is late.

An exception is with reciprocal constructions (e.g. each other):

22. <Ed and Kim> have known each other for five years.
23. *Ed have known each other for five years.

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Prototypical Properties

• prototypically the order of the conjoined items can be changed

24. <His father gave him some CDs] and [his mother gave him a
jacket]>.
25. <[His mother gave him a jacket] and [his father gave him some
CDs]>.

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Prototypical Properties

• additional semantic relationships between clauses

• sequential:
26. <[She went home] and [had a bath]>. ≠ She had a bath and went
home.
• consequence:
27. <[Ed was late] and [she was furious]>. (probably means she was
furious because Ed was late)

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Pronominalisation and Ellipsis
28. <[Tom’s passport was out of date] and [this forced him to
withdraw]>.
this = Tom’s passport was out of date; him = Tom
29. <[Liz ordered a martini] and [Bill Ø a beer]>.
30. <[His father gave him some records], and [his mother Ø a tie]>.
31. <[I gave $10 to Kim] and [Ø $5 to Pat]>.
32. <[It was criticised by some for being too short] and [Ø by others
for being too long]>.

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Subject Review

Grammar of English
Week 12

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19
Key Concepts

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Form versus Function
Subject:NP Object:NP
The monster terrified the animals.

Form (category) refers to the word class / part of speech

(e.g. N, Adj, Adv) or phrasal category (e.g. NP, AdjP, AdvP) to
which a lexical item or a phrase belongs.

Function refers to the grammatical role of a lexical item or

phrase within the construction that contains it (e.g. Subj,
Obj, Predicate Complement, Adjunct).

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Sentences and Clauses
• A single sentence is made up of one or more
clauses; but
• A clause only ever has one verbal element
• a lexical verb; and optionally
• auxiliary verbs.
Lexical verbs: verbs that carry meaning, e.g. hit, kiss
etc.
Auxiliary verbs: can sit in front of lexical verbs and add
extra grammatical information. E.g. do, have, be; can,
could, may etc.
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Types of Sentences
Simple: a sentence containing a single clause.
I know just the place for an uninterrupted afternoon nap.
Compound: a sentence containing two or more
coordinated clauses.
< [Along the way, they met an elephant] and [they told him of
the monster]>.
Complex: a sentence containing one or more subordinate
clauses.
The rhino marched to the cave, [followed by the leopard, the
fox and the hare]. Note: the last 3 animals are coordinated, but this isn’t a coordination of clauses
Compound-Complex: a sentence containing one or more
subordinate clauses and two or more coordinated
clauses.
Then out of the dark crawled a tiny caterpillar, <[blinking his
eyes] and [rubbing his ears] >. 23
Identifying Clauses
•Look for the verbal elements
•Find the main/matrix verbal element:
•the one that the main/matrix subject is
‘doing’.
•You can use substitution to determine
this, as well as the boundaries of the
remaining verbal elements

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Identifying Clauses
Example: I was dreaming she might love me.

• What are the verbal elements?

• was dreaming and might love
• What is the matrix/main verbal element?
• “was dreaming”
• Why? Because, using substitution, we can say: I was dreaming
something/it.
• We can’t say *Something/It she might love me.
• This gives us the boundaries of the subordinate clause within the
matrix clause:

I was dreaming [she might love me]

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Other revision topics in these slides…

• The grammar of clause structure

• Verbs: tense, aspect, mood, voice
• NP structure
• AdjP structure
• Word classes (key differences between categories)
• Subordinate clauses

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And some not in these slides…

• Prescriptivist vs. descriptivist approaches to grammar

• Grammar, variation and identity
• Morphology
• Adverbs and AdvPs
• Prepositions and PPs
• Negation
• Clause types (declaratives, interrogatives, etc.) and speech acts
• Thematic variation
• Coordination

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The Grammar of Clause
Structure: Basic Clauses

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Basic Clauses

a. Properties
• a basic clause forms a sentence on its own—it is not
required to be part of some larger syntactic unit.
• a basic clause is structurally complete, not reduced by
ellipsis.
• a basic clause is a declarative, not an imperative, an
interrogative or an exclamative.
• a basic clause is positive, not negative.
• a basic clause is unmarked with respect to all the
thematic variants of the clause (passive, extraposed…)
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b. Forms of constituents in a basic clause

NP noun phrase
Ve verbal element
AdjP adjective phrase
AdvP adverb phrase
PP prepositional phrase

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c. functions of constituents in a basic clause
S subject
P predicator
O object
Od direct object
Oi indirect object
PCs subject predicate complement
PCo object predicate complement
Cx non-central complement
A adjunct

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Functions within the Basic Clause
Subject

• basic position: The subject always precedes the

predicator in a basic clause.
• obligatoriness: It is necessary to have a subject in a
basic clause.
• phrasal category: The subject is a noun phrase in a
basic clause.

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Subject (con’t): Tests

• verb agreement: The subject determines whether the

verb is singular or plural in the third person of the
present tense.
• pronoun form: Some pronouns have a distinctive
nominative form when used as a subject .
• yes-no interrogatives: the auxiliary occurs in front of the
subject and the main verb after the subject.
• tag questions: the subject is ‘repeated’ as a pronoun in a
tag question.

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Functions within the Basic Clause
Predicator
• Predicator (function of the Ve)
• Predicate (function of the VP)

The dependents of the predicator within the VP:

• Complements
• Adjuncts

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Object
• basic position: The object usually follows the predicator
in basic clauses.
• phrasal category: The object is a noun phrase in a basic
clause.
• pronoun form: some pronouns have a distinctive form
when used as an object.
• passive: The object can be shifted to the front of a
sentence to become the ‘grammatical’ subject in passive
sentences.

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Object (con’t): indirect and direct object

I offered her chicken soup.

Oi Od

• An indirect object typically refers to an animate being

which is the recipient of an action whereas a direct object
typically refers to the noun phrase directly affected by
the action.
• When there is both an indirect object and a direct object
present in a sentence, the indirect object comes before
the direct object.
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Object (con’t): indirect and direct object
• In English we also usually have the possibility of
expressing the indirect object in a prepositional phrase
containing to or for with a resulting change in word order.
This type of indirect object can be called a PP-indirect
object.

I offered her chicken soup → I offered chicken soup to her

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Predicate complement: Subject pred. complement
(PCs) and object pred. complement (PCo)

• basic pattern
• A subject pred. complement usually follows the subject
and predicator.
• The form of the predicator contains a copula or
‘linking’ verb such as be, seem, appear, become,
remain.
• An object complement usually follows the object.

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Predicate complement: subject complement and object
complement (con’t)
• phrasal category: In basic clauses, a predicate
complement can be a noun phrase or an adjective
phrase.
• number agreement: When the predicate complement
(either subject complement or object complement) is a
noun phrase, it typically agrees in number with the entity
it refers to.
• passive: An object can be shifted to the front of a
sentence to become the ‘grammatical’ subject in a
passive sentence, but a predicate complement (either
subject complement or object complement) cannot.
• Tim saw a professor > A professor was seen by him
• Tim was a professor > *A professor was been by him
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Adjunct

Optionalness
• An adjunct is more peripheral than an object or
predicate complement
• it can be freely omitted from a sentence.

Flexibility of word order

• An adjunct has a greater flexibility of word order than
an object or complement
• by comparison, most adjuncts can be easily moved
about in the sentence.
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Adjunct (contd.)
• number per clause
• Adjuncts are not restricted in number
• A clause can only have one subject, one main verb, one predicate
complement, and one or two objects;
• but, there may be any number of adjuncts.
• phrasal category
• Adverb phrases
• Prepositional phrases, and
• some noun phrases can function as adjuncts (e.g. this morning)
• range of meanings: Adjuncts can range over a wide variety of
meanings such as
• manner (how something is done)
• place (where something happens)
• time (when something takes place)
• instrument (with what something is carried out)
• degree (to what extent something happens), and
• frequency (how often something happens).
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Clause patterns
Intransitive = no Objects or Predicative complements
e.g. I slept all afternoon.
Transitive = presence of an Object
e.g. I ate a mandarin.
Ditransitive = Direct Object and Indirect Object present
e.g. I gave her an idea.
Copular/complex-intransitive = PCs is present
e.g. I grew tired.
Complex transitive = Object and PCo are present
e.g. I made the neighbours jealous.
Non-basic = anything else (for our purposes, this includes, e.g.
fragments, thematic variants, non-declaratives, negative
sentences, etc.; also any sentence with a non-central
complement (Cx)) 42
Verbs: Tense, Aspect, Voice, Mood

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Structure of the Verbal Element
•Tense •Mood
•Present •May, can, must…
•Past
•Voice
•Aspect •Active
•Perfect •Passive
•Progressive

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Structure of the Verbal Element
Tense Modal
Present Past
1. Tense or Modal a. Jane sings. d. Jane sang. g. Jane can sing.
only b. The children e. The children h. The children can
perform. performed. perform.
c. Joe plays the cello. f. Joe played the cello. i. Joe can play the
cello.
2. + Perfect a. Jane has sung. d. Jane had sung. g. Jane must have
(Compound Tense or sung.
Aspect) b. The children have e. The children had h. The children may
performed. performed. have performed.
c. Joe has played the f. Joe had played the i. Joe may have played
cello. cello. the cello.
3. + Prog Aspect a. Jane is singing. d. Jane was singing. g. Jane will be
singing.
b. The children are e. The children were h. The children may
performing. performing. be performing.
c. Joe is playing the f. Joe was playing the i. Joe could be playing
cello. cello. the cello. 45
4. + Perf & Prog a. Jane has been d. Jane had been g. Jane may have been
Aspect singing. singing. singing.
b. The children have e. The children had h. The children may
been performing. been performing. have been performing.
c. Joe has been f. Joe had been i. Joe could have been
playing the cello. playing the cello. playing the cello.
5. + Passive Voice a. The aria is sung by d. The aria was sung g. The aria may be
Jane. by Jane. sung by Jane.
b. The magic tricks are e. The magic tricks h. The magic tricks
performed by the were performed by the will be performed by
children. children. the children.
c. The cello is played f. The cello was i. The cello should be
by Joe. played by Joe. played by Joe.
6. + Perf & Passive a. The aria has been d. The aria had been g. The aria will have
sung by Jane. sung by Jane. been sung by Jane.
b. The magic tricks e. The magic tricks h. The magic tricks
have been performed had been performed may have been
by the children. by the children. performed by the
children.
c. The cello has been f. The cello had been i. The cello should
played by Joe. played by Joe. have been played by
Joe. 46
7. + Prog & Passive a. The aria is being d. The aria was being g. The aria might be
sung by Jane. sung by Jane. being sung by Jane.

b. The magic tricks are e. The magic tricks h. The magic tricks
being performed by were being performed will be being
the children. by the children. performed by the
children.
c. The cello is being f. The cello was being i. The cello might be
played by Joe. played by Joe. being played by Joe.

8. + Perf & Prog & a. The aria has been d. The aria had been g. The aria would have
Psv being sung by Jane. being sung by Jane. been being sung by
Jane.

b. The magic tricks e. The magic tricks h. The magic tricks

have been being had been being must have been being
performed by the performed by the per-formed by the
children. children. children.

c. The cello has been f. The cello had been i. The cello might
being played by Joe. being played by Joe. have been being
played by Joe.
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Formations
TENSE (present or past) +
• Perf = have + {-en} where -en is the past
participle suffix.

• Prog = be + {-ing} where -ing is the pres

participle suffix.

• Pass= be + {-en} where -en is the past

participle suffix.

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Noun Phrase Structure

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 What do the labels in the highlighted cells indicate?
What do the labels in the cells beneath them indicate?
What do “Pre-head”, “head” and “post-head” indicate?

NP Structure
PRE-HEAD POST-HEAD
Determiner(s) Modifier(s) HEAD Dependent(s)
Determinatives AdjP N PP
(Pre-determiners &) NP Subord Cl
Determinative
Phrases
Genitive phrases Present AdjP
Participle
Past Participle NP in apposition
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Determinatives: Subclasses
• Articles: definite: the; indefinite: a/an
• demonstrative determinatives: this, these, that, those
• quantifying determinatives: all, both, each, every, no…
• cardinal numerals: one, two, one hundred, two million
• fractions: one half, two thirds, three quarters
• multipliers: double, twice, three times
• interrogative and relative determinatives: which,
what, whichever, whatever

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Pre-determiners & Determinative Phrases
Pre-Determiners: some determinatives can function as external
modifiers modifying the NP

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Pre-determiners & Determinative Phrases

Types of Pre-Determiners
• quantifying determinatives (all, both, such…)
• e.g. all the money
• determinative: what (exclamative)
• e.g. What a tall tale that is!
• fractions (half, one-third, three-quarters…)
• e.g. half a bar of chocolate
• multipliers (double, twice, three times…)
• e.g. Double the pleasure, double the fun in Wrigley’s spearmint
chewing gum

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Pre-determiners & Determinative Phrases
Determinative phrase: a number of the quantifying
determinatives can have dependents of their own,
including another determinative.

A determinative with dependents functions as the head

of a determinative phrase (DP).
((Not many) people) saw her leave.
((Almost all) fieldworkers) use digital audio technology
exclusively.

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Genitive NPs
• clitic ‘s
Jill’s friend; someone else’s daughter; the dentist
who lives around the corner’s car
• (typical) function: determiner in NP
NP
Dr:NP H:N
the dentist who lives around the corner’s car

• Note: of-genitive/periphrastic genitive (PP as post-

head dependent)
The ship’s name ~ the name of the ship
This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.
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Pre-Head Dependents: Modifiers
Function: pre-head modifier
• any word or phrase appearing between the determiner(s) and the head of the
noun phrase.
Form:
• adjective: the [hungry] caterpillar; the [inflatable] dinghy
• adjective phrase: that [absolutely fabulous] sunset
• noun phrase: a [hewn stone] wall
• present participle (phrase): the [smouldering] ashes
• past participle (phrase): the [recently captured] terrorist

So…. the moral is:

Just because a lexical item occurs between the determiner and
the head N (i.e., it modifies the head N) doesn’t mean that you
can say that it is an adjective.
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Post-Head Dependents

Function: Post-Head Dependents (complements;

modifiers)
Form:
• PP: the tree by the gate
• Subordinate Clause: the claim that he was ill
• AdjP: people fond of animals
• NP in apposition: a woman my age; someone your own
size

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Adjective Phrase Structure

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Internal structure of Adjective Phrases
• Pre-Head Dependents:
oMost pre-head modifiers in adjective phrases are adverbs/AdvPs
expressing degree
too small
very stuffy
rather ordinary
totally awful
quite crowded
quite unbelievably crowded

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Internal structure of Adjective Phrases

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 Internal structure of Adjective Phrases

• Post-Head Dependents:
• PP and Subordinate Clause Complements (licensed by particular
adjectives)
Kim is (fond of animals).
Kim is (certain of her analysis).
I was (sure that it was mine).
They were (eager to meet her).

• Degree Adverbs (Adjuncts: freely available)

He was (old enough).

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Complements of Adjs: Examples

Adj + post-head dependent (adj head in bold)

I was (sure [that it was mine]).
(finite clause complement)

D = Dependent
SCl = Subordinate Clause

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Discontinuous AdjPs

She received (a (higher than she needed) mark))

She received (a (higher) mark (than she needed)).

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Summary of differences in
categories

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1. Adjectives vs Nouns
inflection
• nouns typically have plural inflected forms, adjectives never do
• many adjectives have comparative and superlative inflected forms, but nouns
never do
determiners
• nouns take determiners as dependent, adjectives never do
modifiers
• nouns take adjectives as modifiers, but adjectives don’t normally take other
adjectives as modifiers
• adjectives most often take adverbs as modifiers
function
• nouns head phrases in subject and object position, adjectives never do this

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2. Adjectives vs Verbs
inflection and grade
• verbs typically inflect for past tense and 3rd person singular, adjectives never do
• many adjectives have comparative and superlative inflected forms, but verbs
never do
modifiers
• some adverbs such as very, pretty (in the sense ‘fairly, quite’) and too (in the
sense ‘excessively’) can modify adjectives, but not verbs
function
• verbs function as predicator (head of a Ve) in clause structure, adjectives do not

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3. Adjectives vs Adverb
Function
• The crucial distinction between adjectives and adverbs is function
• Test: Determine what the word in question modifies
• adjectives modify nouns
a virtual disaster
Adj N
• adverbs modify other categories
It was virtually impossible.
Adv Adj
• Test: Determine if the word in question can function as a predicative
complement
• Central (or prototypical) adjectives can function as predicative complements as well
as attributively (i.e. in pre-head modifier position in NPs)
the happy camper
the camper was happy
• Adverbs do not normally function as predicative complements
The camper lived happily ever after.
*The camper was happily ever after.
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4. Prepositions vs Adjectives
NP complements
• prototypically prepositions have NP complements
• adjectives never do

inflection and gradability

• prototypical adjectives are gradable
• prepositions are normally non-gradable

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Subordinate Clauses

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Functions of subordinate clauses
Within the clause Within other phrases
• Subject • Noun + post-head dependent
• Object
• Adj + post-head dependent
• PCs
• PCo • Adv + post-head dependent
• Adjunct

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Finiteness
2 Properties
 form of verb (tensed vs non-tensed)
 form of subject (nominative vs accusative or genitive)

I hope [that they are reimbursed]. finite; tensed

I hope [that she is reimbursed]. finite; tensed
I insist [that they be reimbursed]. finite; non-tensed
/plain [subjunctive]

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Non-Finite – non-tensed
I wouldn’t let [them be reimbursed]. plain
It would be inappropriate [for them/*they plain
to be reimbursed].
I don’t approve of [them/their/*they participle
being reimbursed by the club].

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Non-finite Subordinate Clauses
 form
1.He went to the pub [to get some lunch].
to-infinitival
2.The experiment helped [define the problem areas].
bare-infinitival
3.He ignored [those living on their own].
present-participial
4.He set aside [those considered too young].
past-participial
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74
Content Clauses / Complement clauses
Clause Type

(declarative)
1. a. He stayed behind.
b. [That he stayed behind] was now understandable.
c. They hope [(that) he stayed behind].

(closed interrogative)
2. a. Did he stay behind?
b. I wonder [whether/if he stayed behind].

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(open interrogative)
3. a. How did she fix it?
b. I know [how she fixed it].

(exclamative)
4. a. How well behaved he is.
b. They realised [how well behaved he is].
c. What a well behaved dog he is.
d. They realised [what a well behaved dog he is].

(subjunctive)
5. a. [That he stay behind] was necessary.
b. It is necessary [(that) he stay behind].
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Relative Clauses (RCl)
 function: prototypically a relative clause is a post-head
dependent of a noun (or nominal), with a relativised
element (e.g. who) linking to an antecedent (e.g. the
man):

Give (the man [who is waiting at the door]) the package.

(The car [(that) Nori bought] ) was a lemon.

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 Comparative Constructions and Clauses
 comparison of inequality (than= Prep/Subord)
Sue is shorter (than Tom).
The conference was more successful this year [than it was
last year].
(note the string in square brackets here is a
comparative clause)

 comparison of equality (as)

She is as happy (as the next person).
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Adverbial Clauses
 Form: a finite subordinate clause introduced by
subordinators such as while, because, if, although, before
and when.
 Function: prototypically as adjuncts, so the meanings
they express (time, place, reason, purpose, condition,
concession) are similar to those for adjuncts in basic
clauses.
1.It was a good idea [except (that) it wasn’t very practical in
this case].
2.I will do it [when I have time]. cf. I will do it (today).
3.I can’t do it [unless you help me].
4.I went home [because I didn’t have any money left]. 79
Good luck!

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