Syntactically, the most important difference between imperatives and declara tives is that they usually contain no subject, though there is a covert subject understood: is interpreted as "You be patient". Imperatives are characteristically used to issue what we call directives, a term covering requests, commands, instructions, etc. Syntactically, the subject she of interrogative follows the verb instead of occupying the default position before the verb (see §3 above). We illustrate here two of these other clause types, interrogative and imperative.ĭeclaratives are characteristically used to make statements, while interrogatives are associated with questions. Clauses belonging to any other clause type are non-canonical. In the negation is marked on the verb it can also be marked by not (He is not very careful) or by some other negative word (Nobodv liked it).Ĭanonical clauses are declarative. The gram mar will have a special section describing how negation is expressed. Polarity is the name of the system contrasting positive and negativeĬanonical clauses are positive, while negative clauses are non-canonical. Non-canonical clauses contrast with canonical ones on one or more of the dimen sions reviewed in § §7. The subject is usually (but not invariably) an NP, while the predicate is always - in canonical clauses - a VP. The others, non-canonical clauses, can then be described derivatively, in terms of how they differ from the canonical ones.Ĭanonical clauses consist of a subject followed by a predicate, as illustrated in and. There is a vast range of different clause structures, but we can greatly sim plify the description if we confine our attention initially to canonical clauses, those which are syntactically the most basic or elementary. The determiner function is usually filled by determinatives (see §5.4 above), but it can also have the form of a genitive NP, as in Fido's bone or the dog's owner, where 's is the marker of the genitive. key, for example, the determiners the and a are obligatory. Certain kinds of singular noun usu ally require the presence of a determiner. This type of dependent is found only in the structure of NPs, where it serves to mark the NP as definite or indefinite. Thus we cannot have, say, */ met very friendly or *Sam appointed very friendly. The most important syntactic difference is that a predicative complement can have the form of an adjective (or AdjP), as in, whereas an object cannot. In a friend of yours gives a property of the person referred to as she, while in a real idiot doesn't refer to a separate person but describes how I felt. A predicative complement, by contrast, typically expresses a property ascribed to the person or other entity referred to by the subject. In there was a meeting between two people, referred to by the subject and object, while in we have a situation involving Sam and a person described as a real idiot. The constructions differ in both meaning and syntax.Ī prototypical object refers to a person or other entity involved in the situation. Objects are found with a great number of verbs, while predicative complements occur with a quite limited number of verbs, with be by far the most frequent. Two important subtypes of complement are the object and the predicative complement, illus trated in : The next distinction applies primarily within the VP. A more general account of the distinction between complements and modifiers will be introduced when we come to look at clause structure in Ch. In the complement is optional, but its close relation to the head is seen in the fact that the particular preposition on which introduces it is selected by advice: advice takes on,fear takes of, interest takes in, and so on. In the clearest cases, complements are obligatory: we cannot, for example, omit her letters from. Complements are related more closely to the head than modifiers.
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