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A Skeletal Introduction to English Grammar

clauses

represent simple states of affairs

States are unchanging situations

events are situations in which something changes.

have two phrases, one functioning as the subject and the other as the predicate.

Subjects are traditionally viewed as expressions that represent the doer of the action represented by the verb of the clause.

An essential grammatical element in a predicate is its main verb.

main verbs are defined as words that denote actions or states of being.

Objects are traditionally viewed as the expression denoting the “receiver” of the situation represented by the verb.

the indirect object is viewed as the “recipient” of whatever is denoted by the direct object, or the “beneficiary” of whatever situation is denoted by the clause.

the direct object is the noun or noun phrase that's receiving the action of the verb

Clauses may contain one or more modifiers, also called adverbials or adjuncts

which may take several different grammatical forms and which may occur in several different positions

clauses may also contain auxiliary or “helping” verbs. These occur before, and in addition to, the main verb:

Clause types

voice distinction between active and passive

different moods: the declarative, the interrogative, and the imperative.

A clause’s polarity has to do with whether it is positive or negative.

sentences

sentences are the largest grammatical units.

types of sentences

simple sentences consist of only a single clause and have only one main verb, one subject, and one predicate

coordinate sentence combine two or more clauses by connecting them with and, but, or or:

Complex sentences also contain two or more clauses, but at least one of them is subordinate to another

we can speak of main, subordinate, and coordinate clauses in sentences.

phrases

grammatical units composed of one or more words that function as unified parts of clauses

They are traditionally viewed as not containing both a subject and a predicate

Phrases are constructed around a head word, that is, the main word of the phrase.

complementation and modification

Complementation

Modification

When one element in an expression creates the expectation that another expression will also occur, the expected element complements the expecting element.

When one expression is modified by another, then, the two expressions together denote only a subset of the things denoted by the unmodified expression.

words

are the units from which phrases are constructed.

compound words

are created by combining two or more words together to create another word.

morphemes

are the smallest forms in a language that have meanings or grammatical functions.

divided into three classes

derivational

Adding a derivational morpheme to a word or to another morpheme creates a separate, though related, word.

inflectional

adding an inflectional morpheme merely creates a modified version of the word to which it is added.

root

is the morpheme left over when all derivational and inflectional morphemes have been removed.

a morpheme attached after the root of a word is said to be suffixed.

A morpheme attached before the root of a word is said to be prefixed

Some clauses contain phrases that play the role of object