Grammar Notes (Advanced)

Traditional Grammar and Linguistic Description

(Advanced)

Traditional Grammar vs. Linguistic Description

RELATED GRAMMAR TERMS

Semantic roles:  (meanings)

agent—the person or thing that takes action to do something. (He sang a song for them.. The wind blew the leaves.)

patient ("theme")—the person or thing that is affected by the action denoted by the predicate. The thing acted upon. (He sang a song for them..)

beneficiary—the person (or entity) that receives the benefit or enjoyment of the action. (He sang them a song. He sang a song for them.)

recipient—the person (or entity) that is the receiver or endpoint of the action. (He sang her a song. He sang a song to her. )

Functions: (uses)

direct object (DO) — (usually a noun phrase) the person or entity (thing, concept, etc.) that undergoes the action expressed by the predicate.  (He sang a song.)

indirect object (IO) — (usually a noun phrase) the people or things that carry the semantic role (meaning) of goal (location), recipient (receiver), beneficiary of (one who receives the benefit of or enjoyment) an action or event. goal—The teacher sent the students home. [to]; recipient—The teacher gave Jason a book. [to]; beneficiary—The teacher saved Jason a book. [for]

Verbs types:

dynamic verb – a verb in which an action takes place (not a static verb or copula)

static verb – (stative verb) a verb that is not dynamic; no action takes place (e.g., be, seem, appear, etc.) 

intransitive verb – a verb that does not take an object as its complement (and cannot be passive). (e.g., He lies down.)

transitive verb – a verb that takes an object as its complement. (e.g., He lay the baby down.)

Word Categories: N – Noun; V – Verb; Aux – Auxiliary; Adj – Adjective; Adv – Adverb; P –Preposition; Det –Determiner.

Phrasal Categories: NP – Noun Phrase; VP – Verb Phrase; AdjP – Adjective Phrase; AdvP – Adverb Phrase; PP – Prepositional Phrase; DP – Determinative Phrase.

Clausal Categories: Cls – clause; F – finite clause; NF – nonfinite clause (Ger – gerund; Inf – infinitive; PPart – past participle).

Word Functions: Subj – subject; Pred – predicate/predicator; Comp – complement: elements required by an expression to complete its meaning (DO – direct object; IO – indirect object);  Adjunct – adjunct: elements not required by an expression to complete its meaning (Subord – subordinator; Coord – coordinator); Supl – supplement: a clause or phrase added onto a clause that is not closely related to the central thought or structure of the main clause.