Syntax- přednášky

It is the country that she likes best.

a)

b)

It is an advantage that the team is afraid to lose.

a)

b)

Pseudo-cleft sentences

The pattern with WHAT

What clause + BE + phrase

Phrase + BE + What clause

S V C

• The emphasis comes after be

What you need is a personal organiser.

A personal organiser is what you need.

• Wh cleft conforms to the basic distribution of communicative dynamism (The principle of end-focus.)

IT cleft – wh cleft - interchangeable - inanimate NPs

We need a rest.

It is a rest that we need. What we need is a rest.

Predicate (emphasis on an action) - only Wh clefts – special construction

ALL/WHAT + SUBJECT + DO + BE + ACTION (verb, (to) infinitive)

• The guests played mini-golf after tea.

• What the guests did after tea was played/play/to play mini-golf.

• It is possible to emphasise different parts of the sentence.

What the guests played after tea was mini-golf.

What happened after tea was that the guests played mini-golf.

• WHO, WHOSE, WHY, HOW do not easily enter into the pseudo-cleft sentence construction. To compensate for these restrictions - numerous paraphrases of pseudo-cleft constructions are used.

The person who spoke to you must have been the manager.

Somebody whose writing I admire is Jill.

Other Wh words

• 1966 was (the year) WHEN England won the World Cup.

• The sports hall is (the place) WHERE the students do the examination.

PRO FORMS

• We replace items which are too long or well-known to be repeated

• Substitute words – pro-forms

NOUNS + NOUN PHRASES

1. Pronouns

• Looking up, she caught David’s eye. He was sitting directly opposite.

Coordinate clauses – repetition, substitution, omission

• It was Peter who suffered from insomnia, and it was Peter who had a heart attack. – repetition

He - substitution

• But Peter wanted it, bought it, and then sold it again. - omission

Subordinate clauses

• Ben did it because he wanted it.

1. One(s), another, both, this, that, these, those, the same, the former/latter …..

SUBSTITUTES FOR PREDICATION

Do

• I hope people won’t read it. I never do.

Do so, do it, do that

• Do = main verb, not an auxiliary

• She had married and produced as it seemed cheerful children. Maybe she shouldn’t have done it/so/that.

SUBSTITUTES FOR CLAUSES

1. So – an affirmative that clause after certain verbs:

appear fear presume think

assume guess say trust

believe hope suppose understand

expect imagine tell be afraid

Not – negative that-clause

The recipe said so.

I think so.

I’m afraid not.

• Sometimes we place the So at the beginning of an utterance.

So it seems.

So it appears.

believe

expect

imagine

suppose

think

• 2 negative structures, no difference in meaning.

I don’t suppose so.

I suppose not.

1. Conditional clauses starting with IF – SO or NOT substitute for a whole preceding clause.

2. To show (un)certainty, (im)possibility in a response utterance, we can use

SO after: maybe, perhaps, possibly

NOT after: apparently, certainly, perhaps, probably, surely, of course

• as a substitute for a preceding clause.