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HI-LING

LINGUISTICS IN THE HIGH SCHOOL

UNIT 2: VIOLATION OF MAXIMS

Lesson 1: Clauses and Sentence Structure

Definition: 

In English, the term 'clause' refers to all components of a complete sentence.

A clause consists of one or more words.

Sentence elements can be asked for with the help of question words (e.g. who?, what?, whom?, whose?, with what?)

Only few sentence elements can be moved within a sentence (e.g. time descriptions), but in this process the sentence must remain grammatically correct. This means that words which form a sentence element together can only be moved together.

 

Original example: I had a date with Johnny yesterday evening.

Possible shifted example: Yesterday evening, I had a date with Johnny.

Wrong shifted example: I had yesterday evening a date with Johnny.

 

You can shift the sentence element ‘yesterday evening’ from the end of the sentence to the beginning. However, you can’t just put it into the middle of the sentence.

Key Concepts

  • Sentence elements

    • Subject

    • Verb

    • Object (direct vs. indirect)

    • Complement

    • Adverbial

UNIT 1: SENTENCE ELEMENTS

There are basically five different sentence elements:

  • subject

  • verb

  • object

  • complement

  • adverbial (not discussed in this lesson)

 

In English, we make a distinction between the following two objects:

  • direct object

  • indirect object

 

If you want to find out whether you have an indirect object or a direct object in your sentence, think of the following:

  • the subject is the 'doer' of an action (e.g. Lara gives a present)

  • the direct object is the 'undergoer' of the action described by the verb (e.g. Lara gives a present)

  • the indirect object is the 'recipient' of the action done by the direct object (e.g. Lara gives Anna a present)

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In case you don't know which questions you have to ask in order to ask for the (in)direct object, look at the picture of exercise 1.

In groups of two, identify the direct and indirect objects in the following sentences: 

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  1. My mother tells the latest gossip to her sister.

  2. Chris ate cereal.

  3. Athena threw me a frisbee. 

  4. My father gave my mother a giftcard. 

  5. The vicar told us a fable.

  6. Paula passed her friend the parcel.

  7. Simon gave his uncle an angry look.

  8. Shall I tell the children our ghost story tonight?

  9. He presented the prize to the winning team.

  10. I bought lunch for Alison.

Answers: Direct Object = DO Indirect Object = IO 1. My mother tells the latest gossip to her sister. DO = the latest gossip IO = to her sister 2. Chris ate cereal. DO = cereal 3. Athena threw me a frisbee. DO = a frisbee IO = me 4. My father gave my mother a giftcard. DO = a giftcard IO = my mother 5. The vicar told us a fable. DO = a fable IO = us 6. Paula passed her friend the parcel. DO = the parcel IO = her friend 7. Simon gave his uncle an angry look. DO = an angry look IO = his uncle 8. Shall I tell the childrern our ghost story tonight? DO = our ghost story IO = the children 9. He presented the prize to the winning team. DO = the prize IO = to the winning team 10. I bought lunch for Alison. DO = lunch IO = for Alison

UNIT 2: COMPLEMENTS

Now we will look at another sentence element: the complement. Here is a short definition of complements: "Complements are used to describe or identify the clause constituent to which they relate, which either is the subject or the object. Accordingly, we can distinguish subject complements and object complements." (Kreyer, 2010, p. 113)

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We differ between the subject complement and the object complement as follows: (Kreyer, 2010, p. 115)

  • Subject complement

    • describes, characterises and/or identifies the subject​

    • wide range of formal realisations

    • immediately follows the verb

    • if a noun phrase, in concord with the subject

  • Object complement

    • describes, characterises and/or identifies the object​

    • wide range of formal realisations

    • immediately follows the direct object

    • if a noun phrase, in concord with the direct object

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Now, let's look at this in a few examples:

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Example 1: I was lucky.

In this example, the subject 'I' is lucky and therefore lucky is a subject complement.

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Example 2: He was a very popular person.

In this example, the subject 'he' is a very popular person, there 'a very popular person' is a subject complement.

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Example 3: I find it fascinating.
In this example, not the subject 'I' is fascinating but the object 'it'. Therefore, 'fascinating' is an object complement in this case.

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Example 4: I call them wild flowers.
In this example, again not the subject 'I' is called wild flowers but the object 'them' are called like this. Therefore, 'wild flowers' is an object complement. 

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Identify the sentence elements in the following sentences. If you can't remember all the question words, look at the picture on the right.
Remember to define the objects more precisely (direct or indirect) and also the complements (subject or object).

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  1. Sybille gave her mum a cake.

  2. He explained this task awkwardly. 

  3. The last train left the station 30 minutes ago.

  4. Peter has failed his Maths test.

  5. He made the exercise very difficult.

  6. A star gives me an autograph.

  7. Can you pass her the ball, please?

  8. She saw the balloon in the air.

  9. I brought you a present. 

  10. He behaved badly. 
     

Answers: 1. Sybille gave her mum a cake. Sybille = subject gave = verb her mum = IO a cake = DO 2. He explained this task awkwardly. He = subject explained = verb this task = DO awkwardly = subject complement 3. The last train left the station 30 minutes ago. The last train = subject left = verb the station = DO 30 minutes ago = subject complement 4. Peter has failed his Maths test. Peter = subject has failed = verb his Maths test = DO 5. He made the exercise very difficult. He = subject made = verb the exercise = DO very difficult = object complement 6. A star gives me an autograph. A star = subject gives = verb me = IO an autograph = DO 7. Can you pass her the ball, please? Can ... pass = verb you = subject her = IO the ball = DO 8. She saw the balloon in the air. She = subject saw = verb the balloon = DO in the air = object complement 9. I brought you a present. I = subject brought = verb you = IO a present = DO 10. He behaved badly. He = subject behaved = verb badly = subject complement

Final thought for this lesson

In this lesson you've learned the distinction between an indirect and a direct object and between a subject complement and a subject complement.
It's important to always repeat these things, so keep going!

Sources Used:

Kreyer, R. (2010). Textbooks in English Language and Linguistics (TELL) 3: Introduction to English Syntax. M. Huber and J. Mukherjee (Ed.) Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

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