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Introduction To Sentences

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Instituto Superiro Dardo Rocha U.E.P.

71

Language and Grammar I

Short introduction to the topics of sentences and sentence analysis.

Sentences:

We have seen that in order to understand how English sentences are analyzed, we needed to
have a look at a few concepts, such as the clause. At the same time, when clauses stand alone, or are
combined together, we end up with different sentences:
In English there are three basic types of sentences:
 Simple sentence.
 Compound sentence.
 Complex sentence.

A sentence which contains one clause is called a simple sentence. E.g.: Stephen apologized at
once
Or it may contain more than one clause, in which case it is either a compound sentence.
E.G.: Stephen realized his mistake and (he) apologized at once
or a complex sentence E.g.: When he realized his mistake Stephen apologized at once

A sentence can take any one of four forms


- a statement The shops close/don t close at 7 tonight
- a question Do the shops close at 7 tonight?
- a command Shut the door!
- an exclamation What a slow tram this is!
A simple sentence is the smallest sentence unit, and at the same time, it is a complete unit of
meaning. A simple sentence contains only one clause (with one finite verb).

A clause that stands on its own, that is, it has meaning on its own, is called an independent
clause, sometimes called main clause.
E.g.: He is the man.
From the grammatical point of view, this sentence, even though it seems not to give us much
information, it is complete. It has a subject and a finite verb.

¨Remember that a clause may also have Adverbials, Complements or Objects, depending
whether the verb is transitive, intransitive or copulative.¨

But, if we have a sentence such as:


E.G.: ¨That I told you about.¨

We feel that there is something missing in this sentence, especially because of the ¨that¨
conjunction which begins the clause. Note that it is still a clause because it has subject (¨I¨), and it has
a finite verb (¨told¨).
This type of clauses that need something extra to make their meaning complete is called a
subordinate or dependent clause. They ¨depend¨ on something extra to complete their meaning.
We would immediately come up with a sentence like this:
E.g.: He is the man that I told you about.

We can see how this second part (in bold and italics) is secondary to the meaning of the first part,
the main clause.

When we have a sentence made up of at least one independent clause linked to a dependent
clause by so called subordinating conjunctions, we end up with a complex sentence.
Subourdinating conjuctions are, for examples: which, that, who, whom, where, in which, so
that, because, if , whether, although, even though, however, etc.
However, when we join two ideas that are equally important, such as:
E.g.: I studies hard, but it wasn’t enough.
If we break this sentence into the two constituent clauses:
¨I studied hard¨ and ¨it wasn’t enough¨, we can see that both clauses are independent clauses,
but in this case they are joined by a co-ordinating conjunction.
The co-ordinating conjunctions we have in English are: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. ( you can
remember them if you remember this mnemotecnics: ¨FANBOYS¨)
E.g.: I studied hard, so I passed the exam.
I studied hard, and (I) passed the exam.
I passed the exam, for I studied hard.
I studied hard, yet I didn’t pass the exam.
I didn’t study hard, nor passed the exam.

When we have a sentence made up of two main clauses (independent clauses) joined by a co-
ordinating conjunction, we get a compound sentence.

NOTE: for further explanations refeer to chapter1 of the grammar book.

Sentence Analysis.
When we decide to analyze sentences, this can be done:
1_ Word by word: He (pron) is (verb) my (pos.adj) best (adj) friend (noun)
We have two groups of words in English:
Content words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
Structural words: prepositions, conjunctions, determiners (quantifiers), articles, possessive
adjectives, demonstrative adjectives, pronouns, interjections.
2_ Phrase by phrase: She(n.phr) is(v.phr) the woman(n.phr) I(n.phr) told(v.phr) you(n.phr)
about(prep.phr).
Note that pronouns also count as noun phrases.
3_ Clause elements (S V O C A): The dog (S) bite (P) the mailman (O)
4_ Clauses (main clauses and subordinate clauses): He is the neighbor (M.Cl) who lives next
door (Sub.Cl).

NOTE: The aim of this short summary is to show how sentence analysis is done in English. Of
course practice makes perfect, so use your practice book and the theory on the Alexander book to be
able to work with this.

Professor Arce Sueldo Santiago E.

Bibliography:
¨Longman English Grammar¨. L.G. Alexander. 2003. Longman editorial.
¨Longman English Grammar for intermediate students with key¨. L.G. Alexander. 1998. Longman
editorial.

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