Descriptive Grammar of English part 2: Syntax – class handout
Topic 4: Constituents and phrases
Reading: Wardhaugh, Ronald. 2003. Understanding English Grammar. Blackwell . Chapter 3.
Tutor: mgr Jadwiga Bogucka

1. Check whether the underlined string of words is a constituent:

Susan gave a minivan to Petunia
Clyde got a passionate letter from Stacy

2. What is the difference between a head and a modifier?
3. What are the elements that can occur within noun phrases?
4. Explain the difference between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clause. Give examples.
5. What are appositives? What is the difference between appositive and a relative clause?
6. Provide tree diagram for the two meanings of the following phrase

a British English student

7. What is the structure and function of adjective phrases
8. What elements can serve as premodifiers in an adjective phrases?
9. Provide a tree diagram for the following phrases:

a very sad movie

very fond of chocolate

10. What is the structure and function of prepositional phrases?
11. What is the structural difference of the following underlined prepositional phrases?

There was a young woman in the car
A young woman in the car was injured

12. What elements are parts of verb phrases?
13. What is the difference between finite and non-finite verb phrases?
14. Explain the difference in use of the modal must in these two examples:

He must be injured, otherwise he wouldn’t be limping.
He must do this task or else they’ll fire him.

15. What are the markings of progressive and perfective aspect in English? What is the marking

of passive voice?

16. Where do aspectual and voice suffixes appear in a sentence? Where does negation appear?
17. What is the structure and distribution of adverb phrases?
18. What are adjuncts? What is the difference between sentential and predicate adjunct?
19. Explain the difference between conjuncts and disjuncts.

Important concepts:

constituent, coordination, substitution, preposing, clefting, pseudo-clefting, standalone test, head,
modifier, determiner, predeterminer, postdeterminer, partitive expressions, relative clauses,
restrictive, non-restrictive, appositives, premodifiers, attributive, predicative, finite, non-finite,
auxiliaries, modals, epistemic, deontic, aspect, voice, participles, sentential adjunct, predicate
adjunct, conjunctive adverbs, disjuncts.