  Nguyễn Hồng Diệu HULIS VNU  Syntactic features of clause elements • A SUBJECT – Is normally a NP or a clause with nominal function – Occurs before the VP in declarative clauses, and immediately after the operator in questions – Has number and person concord, where applicable, with the VP • An OBJECTIVE (O d or O i ) – Is a NP or clause with nominal function – Normally follows the S and the VP – Assumes the status of S by the passive transformation – The O i precedes the O d and is semantically equivalent to a prepositional phrase Syntactic features of clause elements • A COMPLEMENT – Is a NP, and Adj phrase, or a clause with nominal function – Has a co-referential relation with S or O – Follows the S, VP, and O – Does NOT become S through the passive transformation • An ADVERBIAL – Is and Adv phrase, adverbial clause, NP, or prepositional phrase – Is generally capable of occurring in more than one position in the clause – Is generally optional (may be added to or removed from a sentence without affecting its acceptability), except for the obligatory adverbial or the SVA and SVOA patterns Semantic roles of clause elements       Can you comment on the role of the Subjects in the following sentences? 1. John opened the door. 2. The wind opened the door. 3. The door opened. 4. John has a big house. 5. This hall can hold about eighty students. 6. Today is April Fool’s Day. 7. The March Melody live show was on March 28 th . 8. It is getting hotter and hotter. 1. Agentive (most typical) 2. Instrumental 3. Affected 4. Recipient 5. Locative 6. Temporal 7. Eventive 8. ‘Empty’ It   Agentive Subject Animate causer of the happening John opened the door. (The most typical semantic role of a subject is AGENTIVE; that is, the animate being instigating or causing the happening denoting by the verb) Instrumental Subject Inanimate causer of the happening The wind opened the door. The unwitting (generally inanimate) material cause of an event Affected Subject One being affected by the event The door opened. This role of subject is found with: Intransitive verbs: E.g.: Jack fell down Intensive verbs: E.g.: The pen is lying on the table Let’s look at the examples • His English has been improved.  Transitive • His English has improved.  Intransitive Affected subject [...]... object 2 Object that repeats partially or wholly the meaning of the verb E.g.: Mary sang a song We fought a good fight – and lost Effected direct object 3 Object that takes the form of a verbal noun preceded by a common verb of general meaning Have, do, make, take, give, pay E.g.: He did little work that day The prisoner made no comment Recipient indirect object An animate participant being passively... Semantic roles of COMPLEMENT • A resulting attribute denotes a characteristic that comes about because of the event reported in the sentence – He became a teacher in 1 963 – Her new dress made her attractive HOMEWORK • Exercise 10 2-1 04 Workbook ... agentive Verbs indicating cognition or emotion may also require a recipient subject E.g: I thought you were mistaken (It seemed to me …) I liked the play (The play gave me pleasure) How can you say this in English? Em có nghe thấy gió nói gì không? Can you hear what the wind is whispering? The subject of the sentence is recipient Locative Subject One that denotes location E.g.: The bus can hold forty people... “IT” Subject One that lacks semantic content E.g.: It is getting dark Semantic roles of OBJECT 1 Affected (Od) 2 Locative (Od) 3 Effected (Od) 4 Recipient (Oi) 5 Affected (Oi) Affected direct object A participant which does not cause the happening denoted by the verb but is directly involved in some other way E.g.: Many MPs criticised the Prime Minister Locative direct object One that shows location . verbs: E.g.: The pen is lying on the table Let’s look at the examples • His English has been improved.  Transitive • His English has improved.  Intransitive Affected subject Let’s look at the. door. 3. The door opened. 4. John has a big house. 5. This hall can hold about eighty students. 6. Today is April Fool’s Day. 7. The March Melody live show was on March 28 th . 8. It is getting. hotter and hotter. 1. Agentive (most typical) 2. Instrumental 3. Affected 4. Recipient 5. Locative 6. Temporal 7. Eventive 8. ‘Empty’ It   Agentive Subject Animate causer