Syntax & Verbs: Key Sentence Structures - Essay Sample

Introduction

The syntactic structure of a sentence is the arrangement of the components of the sentence. Elements of a sentence include the words, phrases, and clauses used in that sentence. The syntactic structure is also known as syntax, grammatical structure, or sentence structure. For a given sentence to be considered grammatically functional, the sentence must be able to generate a meaning that fulfills the required structure organization or syntax. A verb in the other end is the part of the sentence that describes a noun or the subject of the sentence. Verbs, in a sentence, outline the link or relationship between the subject and the object in the sentence. Verbs are considered the core or the backbone of English sentences. For a sentence to pass the correct intended message, the verb should be used together with the most appropriate smaller morphological segments that are also known as morphemes. This paper will be highlighting the relationship between the grammatical structure or sentence structure and the verb meaning of the sentence.

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Traditional linguistics subcategorizes grammar into two interrelated studies: morphology of the sentence and the syntax of the sentence. Verbs can always be generated in the English language through derivational morphology. In this type of morphology, a verb stem is used in a word building process from which we generate or derive specific nouns. An example of a derivational morphology is when we create a noun 'cleaner' from a verb 'clean.' The verb stem clean is combined with the suffix -er to generate the noun cleaner. This immediate change of verb to a noun is fundamental in changing the entire meaning of the sentence, and it affects how we can construe words that make up a complete meaningful sentence (Rosier et al., 2016). According to the journal of linguistic Beth Levin and Malka Rappaport, there exists a rule that determines the selection of the subject, object and theme of the sentence (Levin. Malka, 1992) The subject-selection rule dictates that the agent is considered and the first subject of a sentence, the instrument as the second choice and the theme as the third choice, according to Fillmore (1968).

Consider examples of sentences below, the relationship between the sentence structure is dependent on the verb used to describe the subject in the sentence.

The glass broke

Beverly broke the glass

The glass broke with the storm.

The brick broke the glass by Beverly. (not a grammatically correct sentence structure)

The glass broke by Beverly (not a correct grammatic structure)

The instruments used to perform the verb (brick) or natural forces (storm) cannot be the subjects in the presence of an agent in a sentence. Fillmore's rule also highlights the fact that the theme of the sentence cannot even be a subject in the presence of an agent, instrument, or natural forces. When we consider the word itself, we distinguish the effect the word has on an entire sentence from the word level (Rosier et al., 2016). This is known as the Lexical features of a word found in a sentence. These lexical features of a wordplay a significant role in changing the morphological properties of the neighboring words in a way that derives a new meaning from a sentence.

Morphological affixes, past tense, and the progressive affixes such as -ing cannot be used independently in a sentence. The introduction of prefixes and affixes in a verb changes the meaning of the entire sentence. What makes a sentence grammatically correct is how the word relates to the next component of the sentence. This kind of relationship where a "word-based" morphology affects the meaning of the sentence is known as a lexical morphology (Levin. Malka, 1992). Examples in a sentence:

Killian is spraying the insects.

Killian sprayed the insects.

Killian sprays the insects.

The word that defines the meaning of the entire sentence is the noun spray in the first sentence. The lexical morphology is achieved by adding the progressive affix '-ing' that tells the reader or the audience that the verb spraying describes the subject Killian and the activity that Killian is doing at that particular moment. This creates the idea in the reader's mind and the spirit of the audience that the action of spraying the insects is going on continuously at that particular moment.

In the second sentence, the verb sprayed is the past tense of spray. When the suffix '-ed' is introduced in the noun spray, the entire message passed by the sentence shows that the sentence is a report of an activity that happened in the recent past. Every sentence contains two essential parts, the subject, and the predicate. The subject is what the sentence is all about, whereas the predicate tells us more about the subject in a particular sentence. The subject of a sentence is identified by asking the question "who?" before a sentence. The answer to that question is the subject of the sentence. The verb is always included in the predicate part of a complete sentence.

In the third sentence, the predicate is the component of the sentence 'sprays' the meaning derived from this sentence is that Killian usually does the activity of spraying the insects frequently, it can also pass the message of Killian being the one tasked with the responsibility of spraying the insects.

The other type of morphology that determines the meaning of a sentence as perceived by the audience or the reader is a non-word-based morphology between a noun and a verb. This is known as a Functional morphology in linguistics (Levin. Malka, 1992). To understand the difference between functional morphology and a lexical morphology in a sentence, consider the examples of sentences below:

The book is mine

The book is hers

The book is his.

In our first sentence, the article 'the' indicates to the reader and audience that the object being discussed is not new in the minds of the reader, and the pronoun mine indicates the grammatical property of ownership or possession of the object is attributed to the subject in the sentence. The second and third examples will help the reader or audience to define the gender of the subject in the sentence. The pronouns and articles in the sentences give more information on the subject of the sentence without altering the actual meaning of the sentence.

In the functional morphology of a sentence, the determinants, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, and the quantifiers do not play a significant role in changing the meaning of a sentence. These functional morphemes of linguistics simply modify the meaning of the word rather than constituting the actual meaning of the sentence. Examples include pronouns such as him, she, and mine. Or articles such as 'a' and 'the,' among others. Indefinites such as many, some any, no, and cardinal numbers such as 1,2,3 and so on are all functional morphemes that modify the meaning of a sentence (Levin. Malka, 1992). The relationship between the sentence structure and these morphemes constitute the functional morphology of a sentence, and it is crucial to establish that these functional morphemes ONLY modify the meaning of the sentence rather than changing the sentence meaning as seen with lexical morphemes.

The use of auxiliary verbs in front of the main verb can completely change the meaning of a sentence in English. Auxiliary verbs are also known as helping verbs. Consider examples of the following sentences:

Do you want some juice?

She has driven safely.

In the first sentence, the auxiliary verb is 'do'. This auxiliary is used together with the main verb want to generate a question. The main idea of the sentences is not changed; when a reader or audience encounters such an auxiliary verb, the nature of the sentence mostly transforms into a question. The second sentence also has a helping verb 'have' from which has is inflected. In this case, the auxiliary verb is used to express the perfect aspect of driving safely, without changing the original meaning of the sentence. This exhibits another unique relationship between the sentence structure or syntax and the type of verb used in the sentence (verb meaning).

Another unique morpheme is prepositions. Prepositions are used in sentences as joining words. They are used to link phrases, nouns, and pronouns to the other words found in a sentence, prepositions are sometimes put in front of nouns as short words, and in other cases, prepositions are located in front of gerund verbs. Using a different preposition will give a sentence a very different meaning. Therefore, a lot of attention is paid when incorporating prepositions in the sentence so that the originality of the sentence is not lost due to a change in the entire meaning of the message passed by the sentence. For example:

Cliff, I want to talk to you in the shed now.

Cliff, I want to talk to you on the shed now.

The meaning of the two sentences will change depending on the type of preposition that is used in the sentence. In the first sentence, a cliff is required to enter inside the shed for the meeting, while in the second sentence, Cliff is required to get to the top of the shed, probably on the roof of the shed for the meeting. These two prepositions have a characteristic of altering the general meaning of the sentence structure. Therefore, in the interest of passing a clear message, one needs to ensure that the right preposition is used with a verb, noun or a gerund verb to ensure that the meaning of the sentence is not lost (Levin. Malka, 1992). It is, therefore, correct to say that if the preposition in a sentence is changed, then the meaning of the sentence also changes.

The first rule to ensuring that a preposition does not change the meaning of a sentence is by using appropriate and specific types of prepositions in a sentence. Prepositions should generally be followed by nouns or pronouns to limit the chances of ending a sentence in a preposition since this would alter the meaning of the entire sentence.

The use of intransitive and transitive verbs can also be used to study the effects they both have on the sentence structure or syntax. This depends mainly on whether the sentence requires an object, or it can make sense without the inclusion of an object in the sentence. Transitive verbs can only make sense in a sentence if they exert their effects or actions on the object of a sentence. These transitive verbs need to transfer their actions to an object in the sentence. From this definition, transitive verbs, therefore, affect the idea of the object in the sentence. On the other hand, an intransitive verb will make sense in the sentences even if the sentence lacks an object in the predicate part of the sentence. For example:

Please buy milk

Please buy.

In the first sentence, the verb buy is transitive, and the noun milk is the object. This verb has to be used together with a noun to make sense in a sentence, as seen in the examples above; the second sentence cannot make sense since the transitive verb cannot stand alone. This relationship between syntax and the transitive verb is what differentiates between a grammatically correct sentence and an incomplete sentence as seen in the second example above. Intransitive verbs can be used to end sentences without affecting the general meaning of the sentence, for example:

She jumped

The baby cried.

It is important to note that verbs or adverbs do not have plurals as a noun in a sentence, this relationship is the base to understanding that words such as jokes which are the plural form of the noun joke can be inflected while the same cannot be said for a word like 'jokingly' jokingly is an adverb that describes the main verb in the sentence 'joking' therefore the important rule to know in the i...