Introduction

The basic unit of language analysis is the sentence. A grammar is essentially a description of how the sentences in a language are formed. Although sentences are neither the smallest nor the largest units in a language, they are more tightly constructed than the other larger elements. This unit and the next look at ways of analysing sentences and describing their construction.

1 Sentences vs phrases

A sentence consists of at least one main clause. (We will be looking at clauses in more detail in the next unit.) The main clause consists, minimally, of a subject and its associated verb.

Which of the following book titles are complete sentences and which are just phrases? If sentences, what is the subject and its verb? If phrases, what kind of phrase is each one?

• a On the Road

• b One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

• c Far from the Madding Crowd

• d A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

• e The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

• f The Spy who Came in from the Cold

• g The Sun also Rises

• h Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

• i For Whom the Bell Tolls

• j You Only Live Twice

2 Subjects and predicates

Simple sentences consist of two parts: the subject and the predicate. The subject is typically a noun phrase and the predicate is the verb and whatever completes the meaning of the verb. (In some grammars, the predicate is called the verb phrase. Here we use verb phrase to describe just the verb and its components.)

Here are some movie titles. Identify the subject and predicate in each case.

• a Mr Smith goes to Washington

• b Alice doesn’t live here anymore

• c The Postman Always Rings Twice

• d The Empire Strikes Back

• e Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

• f A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

• g It’s a Wonderful Life

• h There Will be Blood

3 Finite verbs and agreement

The main verb of the sentence has to be a finite verb. A finite verb is a verb that has a subject and carries an indication of tense. For example: I work; she has worked; they worked. But not: She likes to work. After working all day, she went home.