Chapter 3 The Development of the Message (Explanatory material)

For instructors and students:

This chapter is all about relating syntactic patterns to the verbs that control them. The verb is the key element here as it controls the kind of complement that will follow. Certain verbs such as make or get take more than one pattern; it is necessary, then, to be aware of the kinds of complement to look for. Direct and Indirect Objects, Complement of the Subject and Complement of the Object are the basic elements after Subject and Predicator, as we saw in Chapters 1 and 2, that go to form syntactic patterns or ‘constructions’. 

We start with the least complex: the purely intransitive pattern with no complement (S-V) compared with other intransitives (+ obligatory Locative C, non-obligatory circumstantial, inferred from the context):

• 3.9.1 Identify the type of intransitive verb in each of the following, and say to which semantic group it belongs (behaviour, weather conditions, location in space or time, occurrence, inference from the context).
• 3.9.2 Identify Complements by their type in the following clauses (Cs, Goal/Loc Complement).
• 3.10.1 Which of the italicised verbs used intransitively below can be used transitively?
• 3.10.2 Which of the verbs in the following sentences are monotransitive and which are ditransitive?
• 3.10.2(2) ! Brain-teaser:  What’s wrong with: ‘*She explained me the way to the theatre.’
• 3.10.3 Which of the following are correct and which incorrect?
• 3.10.4  Fill in the gaps with one of the following prepositions: for, on, to, with, of.
• 3.11.1 Complete the following sentences by filling in the gaps to form either a that-clause complement or a wh-clause complement.
• 3.12.1 Complete the following sentences with a to-infinitive clause with or without its own subject (this depends on the verb some can take either). Use the following, X standing for a person: (go to university; lend X something; put X’s life in danger; be independent; switch off the lights).
• 3.12.2 Complete the following sentences with an NG + -ing-clause, with or without its own subject (using the following: complain about … ; attempt to steal a car; holiday abroad; borrow clothes; tell family secrets).
• 3.12.3 Identify the complementation pattern of the following.