Lecture 1: The composition of simple sentences
Part of speech (part of speech)
When learning English, there are two concepts that must be understood. One is part of speech. , one is the sentence components.
Part of speech English name meaning example role in sentences
Noun (pronoun) noun (n.) refers to a person, thing or concept smile, success, capability, decoration, mainly As subject; object; object complement can also be used as attributive; subject complement; appositive
Verb verb (v.) expresses action or state succeed, enlarge, the finite form is used as predicate; the non-finite form is used as other than predicate Components
Adjective adjective (a.) expresses the characteristics of a person or thing free, ancient. It is placed before a noun, modifies the noun, and serves as an attributive; it serves as predicative object complement; main complement
Adverb adverb (ad.) expresses action characteristics or shape characteristics and can modify verbs, adjectives, adverbs or entire sentences as adverbials and occasionally as predicates; occasionally as object complement
Preposition preposition (prep.) can never be used alone ; must be followed by a noun to form a prepositional phrase, indicating the relationship with other words. The prepositional phrase serves as a predicate; an attributive; an adverbial as an object complement
2. Sentence components, five sentence patterns
The components of a sentence are related to the sentence structure, or what kind of sentence pattern it is.
Five basic sentence patterns, main sentence components
Sentence pattern 1: subject + verb + predicate (predicate can be a noun, adjective or prepositional phrase)
That girl was my fiancée.
The story is about my son.
The flower is red.
In addition to the verb be, there are also some words that express state and change, such as feel, look, smell, taste, sound, seem, appear, become, get, grow, turn, go, come, ran, fall, prove, remain, stay, keep, etc., can also be used as linking verbs, such as:
She felt a bit dizzy. She felt a bit dizzy.
You are not looking very well. (well is used as an adjective except for "good health", and in other situations it is used as an adverb, such as: He performs well in school.)
The dish smells good. This dish smells good.
The medicine tastes awful.
The report sounds true.
He seemed quite normal. He seemed quite normal.
She appeared calm. She appeared calm.
His advice proved sound. His advice proved sound.
She remained calm. She remained calm.
They stayed awake to see the eclipse.
He looked in splendid health. He looked in splendid health.
Sentence pattern 2: subject + intransitive verb
The sun is rising. The sun is rising.
Tim is sleeping. Tim is sleeping.
The accident occurred suddenly. The accident occurred suddenly.
It is snowing. It is snowing.
The train is arriving. The train is arriving.
We waited and waited. We waited and waited.
He danced for joy.
She often dreams. She often dreams.
She trembled all over.
Sentence pattern three: subject + transitive verb + object
He loved poetry. He loved poetry.
Have you ordered your meal? Have you ordered your meal?
Silence means consent.
Note: a. The difference between "transitive verb + double object" and "transitive verb + compound object": both objects in the "transitive verb + double object" sentence pattern are nouns, both It is the object of this transitive verb; and in the sentence pattern of "transitive verb + compound object", the object complement does not need to be a noun, and there is a logical subject-predicate relationship between the object and the object complement. For example: He teaches me English. It is a "transitive verb + double object" structure; He called me Jean. It is a "transitive verb + compound object" structure.
b. In addition to the above five sentence patterns, there is also a special there be sentence pattern that expresses objective existence.
c. Every declarative sentence has negative and interrogative forms. Pay attention to the changes in the various tenses.
d. When expressing commands or begging, do not use the form of a declarative sentence, but use the form of a command sentence, that is, without a subject, starting with the original form of the verb.
Secondary components
Everyone has seen the sentence components of various sentence types. The above components are all necessary components, that is to say, a sentence of a certain sentence pattern must have its complete sentence components. The specific sentence pattern you use is related to the meaning you express and the verb you choose. For example, if you want to express "He found a new job", you can use sentence pattern 3: subject + transitive verb + object, He found a new job; and if you want to express "He found his new job quite boring." use sentence pattern 3: subject + transitive verb + object, He found a new job; and if you want to express "He found his new job quite boring." Sentence pattern 5: subject + transitive verb + object + object complement, He found his new job rather boring. Some verbs can be used in multiple ways and in multiple sentence patterns. Some verbs have different meanings when used in different sentence patterns, such as find in He found a new job and He found his new job rather boring, because the usage of the verb corresponds to its meaning. But why are the English sentences we see often not as simple as what we said above? One reason is that in addition to the above necessary components, there are two secondary components: attributive and adverbial. It is called secondary component because a sentence is valid without attributive adverbials. For example: The hospital is big. Everyone works. He loved poetry. They awarded her a scholarship. But in fact there are rarely such simple sentences. They contain too little information and the meaning of the sentences is unclear. So although it is called a secondary ingredient, it is actually a very important and very common ingredient. Attributives modify nouns, and adverbials modify verbs, adjectives, adverbs or entire sentences. A noun can have multiple attributives that modify it from different perspectives, and a verb can also have multiple adverbials.
For example: The hospital run by my father was big enough to hold 1000 patients during the anti-Japanese war period.
Main components:
Sentence pattern 1 subject (n.) + system Verb + predicate (a., n., short introduction)
Sentence pattern 2 subject + intransitive verb
Sentence pattern 3 subject + transitive verb + object (n. )
Sentence pattern four subjects + transitive verb + indirect object (n.) + direct object (n.)
Sentence pattern five subjects + transitive verb + object (n. ) + object complement (n., a., short introduction)
Secondary components:
Attributive (a., n., short introduction); adverbial (ad.,
Attributive: The component that modifies a noun in a sentence, which can be an adjective, a noun, or a prepositional phrase.
A beautiful flower comes out in the garden. summer vacation
The flower in the vase is expensive. Childhood friend
I have something important to do. Greenhouse effect
Adverbial: A component in a sentence that modifies a verb, an adjective, or the entire sentence. It can be acted by an adverb or a prepositional phrase.
Listen attentively attentively is an adverbial, modifying the verb listen;
He said in contempt. in contempt is an adverbial, modifying the verb said;
live a comparatively wealthy life comparatively is an adverbial, modifying the adjective wealthy;
Summer reading was not the innocent entertainment I had assumed it to be, not a light-hearted, instantly forgettable escape in a hammock.
instantly It is an adverbial, modifying the adjective forgettable