BASIC SIMPLE SENTENCE PATTERNS: Nouns and Noun Phrase, Pronouns, Adjective and Adjective Phrase

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 INTRODUCTION

In this unit, the basic simple sentences will be expanded using some words and some parts of sentences. The various items or sections in a sentence are referred to as ‘elements of structure’. I will not spend much time on this because you must have been taught some of these in some other English courses. Nevertheless, I will still take some time to give some explanation on the various items that make up the patterns. As a university student, you need to know all these things so that you can be well equipped.

3.1 Pattern 1 Expanded

Pattern 1 has just two obligatory parts and these are the subject and the predicator. Below are examples.

Subj

Birds

The room Petrol

John

He



Pred.

fly.

stinks.

burns.

fell.

died.

The subject is normally realised in actual simple sentences by nouns, noun phrases or pronouns. The predicator is realised by verbs or verb phrases. The examples listed above have verbs. Below are examples with verb phrases.

Subj

Birds

He



Pred.

can fly.

has died.

Aremo (1995) notes that the commonest type of pattern 1 is one in which the predicator (realised by a verb or verb phrase) expresses an action while the subject is realised by a noun, noun phrase or pronoun which denotes the persons or things that perform the action. With certain verbs, the pattern 1 sentence does not say that the subject performs any action. Aremo (1995) notes the following.

1. Birds fly - the subject performs a action

2. The room stinks (says the subject is in a certain state or condition)

3. Petrol burns (says the subject –petrol has a certain property- (burns)

4. John fell (tells us that an event affected the subject)

5. He died (tells us that an event affected the subject)

We mentioned the fact that the subject is usually realised by nouns, noun phrases and pronouns. As a result of this, we shall discuss nouns briefly to remind ourselves of what they are and how they are used.

3.1.1 Nouns

Nouns are words such as bird, room, petrol, things names of people and places etc. They are members of an open class (i.e. indefinite). New nouns are added to the class whenever they are required. All names are nouns. There are common nouns and proper nouns. Common nouns are nouns that can be used to refer to any example of a class of persons (boy/girl), places e.g. (town, stadium) etc. Proper nouns are used to refer to particular persons and places e.g. John, Bola, Liberty stadium, Lagos etc

There are two kinds of common nouns-count nouns and mass nouns. Count nouns refer to entities that are regarded as countable e.g. bird, boy etc. Plural forms - (boys, girls, goats etc). In the plural, most count nouns occur with an –s suffix added to the base form (which is the same as the singular form). Some others appear with e.g. – es as in boxes. Some appear with – ies as in ladies while some have no plural morpheme e.g. sheep.

Mass nouns are common nouns referring to entities that are regarded as uncountable e.g. water and petrol. We can not count water or petrol but we may say little water, little petrol, much water, a large quantity of petrol.

With a proper noun, there is normally no need to distinguish between a singular form and a plural form because it does not refer to countable things. It is used to refer to particular persons or places etc. The noun subclasses are as follows:

  Count: boy, birds, books

                                     Mass: petrol, chalk etc

     Proper Lagos, Ajayi

3.1.2 Noun Phrases

A noun phrase is a sequence of words consisting of a noun and its modifier such as ‘The man’ which is no longer a noun but a noun phrase. In the noun phrase, the modified noun is regarded as the head or central word. A noun phrase may consist of more than one modifier.

Please check your ENG101 for more on these.

Please note the following about noun phrases:

1. the article ‘the’ is a special noun modifier known as determiners

2. determiners are members of a closed class (i.e. one whose membership is limited or fixed).

3. proper nouns do not normally take any determiner e.g.

. The John fell

This is an unacceptable sentence in English and that is why you have it preceded by a star. Once you see that star before any sentence, it means it is an unacceptable sentence in English. It is sad to note that we still find students who put determiners before proper nouns. It should not be so. You should pay attention to all these rules of English usage so that you will make fewer mistakes.

Another common determiner which students confuse at times is ‘a (n)’ The determiner is a before words beginning with a consonant sound e.g. ‘a king’, ‘a town’ ‘a dress’ etc, but it is an before words beginning with a vowel sound (‘an ox’, ‘an egg’, ‘an answer’ etc).

4. Unlike ‘the’ which can be used with singular count nouns, plural count nouns and mass nouns, a(n) can only be used with singular count nouns i.e.:

the room-----

the birds-----

the petrol-----

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1

1. Write out ten words that can take ‘a’ as a determiner.

2. Write out ten words can take ‘an’ as a determiner.

3.1.3 Pronouns

Pronouns are members of a closed class, like determiners. They are thus limited in number, and new members of the class are not normally formed. Commonly used pronouns are (I, we, you, she, it, they, and he (personal)). Each of these can be used as subject in the sentence like a noun phrase. The personal pronouns are so called because they are used by the speaker (or writer) to refer to one or other of the three kinds of entities, persons or things technically known as persons. These three entities are the first person – the speaker himself or herself, or the speaker and one or more others (I and We), the second person (the person (s) the speaker is addressing (You) and the third person (one or more other person (s) or things that are mentioned by the speaker.(He, She, It and They).

3.2 Pattern 2 Expanded

This pattern has three parts. Below are examples

Subj

Pred

Direc Object (Od)

Birds

lay

Eggs.

Water

caused

the problem.

The woman

cooked

Rice.

Tinu

thanked

John.

She

praised

him.

The items used as predicators here are all verbs: lay, caused, cooked, thanked, praised. The item used as subject in each of the example sentences is a noun in examples 1, 2, 4, noun phrase in example 3 and pronoun in example 5. Optional adverbials can be used to expand the sentences. Below are examples.

1. (Of course), birds lay eggs.

2. (Actually), water caused the problem.

3. The woman (quickly) cooked rice.

4. Tinu (then) thanked John.

5. She praised him for the effort.

You will notice that adverbials have been added to the sentences above to expand them. This shows that adverbials are very important and that they are of different varieties. You should be able to construct sentences and good write- ups using these different sentence patterns so that your work can be an interesting one.

For more details of these expanded sentence patterns, see Aremo (1997)

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2

Go through the verbs listed here and construct pattern 2 sentences with them, one for each verb. Try to expand these sentences using optional adverbials of pour own ‘work’, ‘play’, ‘dig’, ‘pull’, ‘destroy’ .

3.3 Pattern 3 Expanded

This pattern has four parts. The first two are again, the subject and the predicator. The remaining two parts are both objects- a indirect object and then an direct object.

Subj.

Pred

Indirect Object

Direct Object

Teachers

buy

the pupil

presents.

Tinu

brought

John

water.

They

showed

visitors

the cave.

God

sent

them

Manna.

The move

gave

music

a boost.

The predicators in the actual sentences are all verbs: buy, brought, showed, sent, gave. The subject or direct object is in each case a noun, a noun phrase or a pronoun. The indirect object is also realised by a noun in 2, 3 and 5, a noun phrase in example 1 or a pronoun in example 4.

Pattern three sentences can also be expanded with optional adverbials. Below are examples.

Teachers (often) buy the pupil presents.

Tinu brought Kunle water (in the morning).

They (usually) showed visitors their wedding album.

(Then) God sent them Manna.

The move (really) gave music a boost.

You can enrich your writing by varying your sentence patterns.

3.4 Pattern 4 Expanded

Pattern 4 has three parts; subject, predicator and subject complement

(nominal)

Subj

Pred

Subj Complement (nominal) Cs (nom)

Birds

are

animals.

The winner

was

I.

Water

seems

aproblem.

The name

became

John.

It

is

bread.

The subject in each case is a noun, a noun phrase or a pronoun. The items realising the predicator are all verbs. The subject complement (nominal) is realised in the examples by a noun in examples (1,4,5 ) a noun phrase in example 3 or a pronoun in example 2.

Examples of pattern four sentences expanded with optional adverbials are listed below. What has been included are the optional adverbials.

. (In a sense), birds are animals.

. The winner was (always) I.

. Water seems a problem (in town).

. The name (later) became John.

. (Of course), it is bread.

Please note that most of the examples here are from Aremo 1997 and for details of the expanded forms, see Aremo 1997.

3.5 Pattern 5 Expanded

This pattern also has three parts. The parts are subject, predicator and subject complement (adjectival)

Subj

Pred

Subj Comp (adjectival) Cs(adj)

Birds

are

beautiful.

The boy

looks

kind.

Water

appears

scarce.

The name

became

very popular.

The pot

remained

hot.

This pattern is very important because adjectives and adjective phrases function as subject complement. Adjectives and adjective phrases commonly specify the qualities or characteristics of persons or things. Below are some pattern five sentences with optional adverbials.

. Birds are (naturally) beautiful.

. (However), the boy looks kind.

. Water appears scarce (everywhere)

. The name (soon) became very popular throughout Lagos.

. The pot remained hot (for hours).

3.5.1 Adjectives and Adjective phrases

Adjectives are open items. They are large in number. Some common adjectives include bad, big, easy, fair, good, large, old poor, rich, small, strong, weak etc.

Adjective phrases may be formed by modifying an adjective with a word like very or too as in -

. It is very large.

. The name became very popular.

. He seems too good.

Modifiers like very and too are members of a closed class. They are known as intensifiers. This is because they commonly intensify or heighten the meaning of the head word. There are however some intensifiers which have more or less the opposite effect-lowering or weakening the meaning of the headword. Intensifiers of this later kind include- ‘somewhat’, ‘rather’ and ‘pretty’:

Somewhat small.

She is pretty good. (not as good as you think)

In descriptive essays, you need the mastery of a lot of adjectives for your work to be interesting. For more on adjectives, see Quirk et al 1985 and Aremo 1997.

3.6 Pattern 6 Expanded

This pattern has three parts- subject, predicator and adverbial. We have mentioned some of the uses of adverbials in this unit in that they are what we use to expand the simple basic sentences. Examples are

Subject

The birds

The boy

The bread

They

John



Predicator

are

was

is

appeared

seems



Adverbial

in the cage.

here.

on the table.

in a hurry.

in the mood.

The adverbial in the third part in the pattern is obligatory like each of the other two parts. This pattern can still be expanded with optional adverbials. Below are examples.

. The birds are (always) in the cage.

. The boy was here (last week).

. The bread is (already) on the table.

. They appeared in a hurry (then).

. (Right now), John seems in the mood.

The items realising adverbial parts in this pattern can be adverbs and adverb phrases. These are used to supply various kinds of information in respect of time, place, manner etc.

You will notice that some of the adverbial phrases are preposition headed- that is, they have preposition starting them e.g. in the room, at the door, on the table, in a hurry, beside the bed. They are of two main kinds- simple prepositions (consisting of one word) and compound

prepositions consisting of more than one word. The following are examples of simple prepositions- above, across, after, against, among, around, at before behind, below, beneath, beyond, by down, during, from inside of, off, outside, over, past, since, than, through, throughout, to toward (American) towards (British) under, up, until, with, without.

Some compound prepositions are: along with, apart from, out of, together with, due to, because of, instead of.

You need to master the use of these for cohesion in your work.

Patterns seven, eight and nine can also accommodate optional adverbials. Even though pattern nine has obligatory adverbials, it can still accommodate optional adverbials. For details, see Aremo 1997

4.0 CONCLUSION

In this unit, we have been able to take you fully through six of the simple sentences and their expanded forms. It is important for you to be able to construct good sentences as this is the ladder upon which continuous writing rests. To expand all the basic simple sentence patterns, optional adverbials should be added.

5.0 SUMMARY

In this unit, you learnt that:

1. the basic simple sentences can be expanded by adding optional adverbials

2. the subject in each case is either a noun, a noun phrase or a pronoun

3. commonly used pronouns are (I, we, you, she, it, they, and he (personal)

4. adjectives and adjective phrases commonly specify the qualities or characteristics of persons or things

5. The items realising adverbial parts in pattern 6 can be adverbs and adverb phrases

6. the adverbial phrases are preposition headed

6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT

Write out ten examples of pattern 6 sentences with preposition headed adverbials. Go through the examples you were given on pattern 6 so as to remind yourself of what preposition headed adverbials are.

7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING

Adedeji, E.O. (2005). Grammatical ties in English Discourse in Moji Olateju & Lekan Oyeleye (eds.) .Perspectives on Language and Literature. Ile-Ife, Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo University. pp 157-166.

Aremo, B. (1995). An Introduction to English Sentences (1). Ibadan, Nigeria: Caltop Publications Nigeria Ltd

Aremo, B. (1997). An Introduction to English Sentences (2). Ibadan, Nigeria: Caltop Publications Nigeria Ltd.

Aremo, B (2001). (ed.). Advanced English Compositions. Lagos, Nigeria: Scribo Educational Books.

Asiyanbola, A.A. (2005). Sentence Connective Devices as Linguistic Tools for English Reading Tasks in a Nigerian ESL in Moji Olateju & Lekan Oyeleye (Eds) Perspectives on Language and Literature. Ile-Ife, Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo University. pp 187-184.

Babalola, E.T. (2005). The Grammar of Paragraphs and the Mechanics of Good Written English in Moji Olateju & Lekan Oyeleye (Eds) Perspectives on Language and Literature. Ile-Ife, Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo University. pp 269-284.

Zandvoort, R.W. (1967). A handbook of English Grammar. London: Longman Group Limited.