Functions and Modes of Classification in English Sentences





A. Functions



Each position in the nine basic sentence patterns plays two roles:

First, it is the place for a particular part of speech, i.e. noun, verb, adjective, or adverb. This was shown by the abbreviations N, V, Aj, and Av. For example, let us consider a Pattern 7 sentence:



N1 TrV N2

The girl ate an apple.



In this sentence, the N1 and N2 positions are characteristically occupied by nouns. We can replace girl and apple by many other nouns. Likewise, the TrV position is characteristically occupied by transitive verbs, i.e. those that are followed by noun-objects. In other words, each position is a part-of-speech habitat / home.

Second, the other role each position plays is to signal the grammatical meaning of the word / phrase that occupies it. This grammatical meaning is called function. For example, in the sentence above the occupant of the N1 position has the function of performer / doer of the action indicated by the verb, i.e. it is the girl who ate the apple. This function of performer is called subject of the verb, and is acronomized as SV.

In the same sentence we have N2, which is another place for nouns, but the noun here has a different function, namely the undergoes of the action of the verb. It is the apple that underwent the eating. This function of undergoing is called direct object of the verb, and is acronomized as DO.

Let us consider another example, this time of a Pattern 1 sentence:



N be Aj

The cake is sweet.



The first role of the Aj position is that it houses adjectives, e.g. good, hard, soft, and the like. The second role of this Aj position is that it signals the function of the word / phrase that occupies it. The function here is to modify, i.e. sweet modifies cake. We should also note that any adjective in the third position of the sentence will modify any noun in the first position.

To sum up, function is the grammatical job that any word or word group does in the particular position it occupies. In other words, function is the grammatical manning.

Following is a list of all the functions that this book deals with, with a simple note on the job which each one of them does. After the name of some of them there is an acronym that is used to identify these functions.











1. Subject of Verb (SV)



that who / which performs the action of the verb, as in Patterns 6, 7, 8, and 9.





2. Verb / Predicator (V)



a. That which asserts an action or a state, as in

Patterns 2, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

b. "May be described as," as in Patterns 1 and 4.

c. "May be identified as," as in Patterns 3 and 5.





3. Subjective Complement (SC)



that which tollows be or a linking verb like seem and identifies the subject.





4. Direct Object (DO)



that which undergoes the action of the verb.





5. Indirect Object (IO)



that who / which or for whom / which an action is performed.



6. Objective Complement (OC)



that who / which completes the direct object or identifies him / her / it.





7. Object of Preposition (OP)



that which is related to another word (e.g. a noun) by a preposition.





8. Complement of Noun



a word group that behaves like a direct object of the verb corresponding to the noun, e.g. His expectation that he would succeed was great.





9. Complement of Adjective



a word group that directly follows an adjective and completes it, e.g. We are grateful that you gave books to the library.









10. Modifier



that which modifies or adds to the meaning of a word or a word group.





11. Connector



that which connects words or word groups or both. The concoctors, by function, are: a. the coordinating conjunctions, b. the subordinating conjunctions, c. prepositions, and d. relative pronouns.

In chapter 6 the book will distinguish the different noun positions by using the function name / label of the word / word group that occupies each position. The chapter will refer to these noun positions using the labels SV, SC, DO, IO, OC, and OP.





B. Modes of Classification



There are three modes of classification of words. We have already discussed two of these modes, namely 1. classification by form, which, as you may recall, was discussed in the book An Introductory English Morphology in the chapter entitled "Parts of Speech: Form-Classes"; and 2. classification by function, which we have briefly examined in section A of the present chapter. The third mode of classification is classification by position, which we will deal with briefly here, and which we must keep clearly in mind as a preliminary to the next chapter. Following is a brief discussion of these three modes of classification:





1. Classification by Form



In this mode of classification we classify words by word-form alone, using inflectional and derivational suffixes to determine the class to which a particular word belongs. As we have seen, there are five form-classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and uninflected words. However, this was not a complete part-of-speech classification because a large number of words could not be classified as nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs, and had to be grouped together as uninflected words. These uninflected words, as you may remember, include: a. words that are traditionally called nouns (e.g. tennis, advice, evidence, and botany), b. words traditionally called adverbs (e.g. often, seldom, also, never, perhaps), c. words traditionally considered adjectives (e.g. tired), d. most of the words in the structure classes, which we have examined in the last chapter of An Introductory English Morphology (e.g. the, must, quite, from, and, since, which, and all), and e. the words beginning with the prefix a-. (e.g. afoot, awake, aloud, and ajar).







2. Classification by Function



In classification by function, as we have already seen in section A above, certain positions in specific sentence patterns signal grammatical meanings. In the sentence The professor explained the assignment, the position of assignment signals that its grammatical meaning, or function, is undergoes of the action of the verb. This function is called direct object of the (transitive) verb.





3. Classification by Position



In this mode of classification, it is the part of speech, not the function, that is associated with positions. This means that certain positions are normally occupied by particular parts of speech. For example, the positions that have the functions of SV, SC, DO, IO, OC, and OP are normally occupied by nouns. Therefore, we consider these six positions to be noun positions. Thus any word or word group that occupies any of these positions, whether a noun or not, is called a nominal by position, regardless of its form class or its function. The following examples will make this clear. The italicized words are all nominals. The function of each word / group of words is given in parentheses after the sentence:



1. The tallest stood in the center. (Subject)

2. Whoever wanted sat in the first row. (Subject)

3. Now is the time to go to bed. (Subject)

4. Under the trees is the place to rest. (Subject)

5. That is he. (Subjective Complement)

6. That is whom I met. (Objective Complement)

7. She chose the shortest. (Direct Object)

8. We chose whatever we wanted. (Direct Object)

9. He gave whomever he met a red rose. (Indirect

(Object)

10. Hard exercise made Ayman a good boxer.

(Objective Complement)

11. Hard exercise made Ayman what he is.

(Objective Complement)

12. Can you hear from where you stand? (Object

of preposition)



In all the sentences above we can put a noun in each of the italicized positions because each is the usual place for a noun.

Likewise, any word or word group that occupies a slot / place normally filled by a verb is called a verbal, that filled by an adjective is an adjectival, and that filled by an adverb is an adverbial. The terms nominal, verbal, adjectival, and adverbial all end in the suffix –al, which tells us that what we have in hand is a positional class.

Following are three examples that illustrate the threefold classification of words, namely by form, function, and position. You should remember that the last mode of classification, i.e. positional classification, will become clearer in your mind after you have studied the following chapter. Our example sentence is:



The fighting chickens will eat corn.



1. Fighting is a verb by form, a modifier by function, and an adjectival by position.

2. Chickens is a noun by form, the subject of the verb by function, and a nominal by position.

3. Corn is an uninflected word by form, the object of the verb by function, and a nominal by position.