Sentence analysis: Subject & Predicator

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• Studiejaar 1

Grammar 2 | Period 4 | Week 5

Sentence elements: subject and predicator

Objectives

• I know what parsing is.
• I know what syntactic sentence analysis is.
• I can divide a simple sentence into sentence elements.
• I can identify the subject in a sentence.
• I can identify the predicator in a sentence.

Sentence analysis: subject and predicator

Ontleden - Analysis

At the beginning of the year 1 grammar course, you looked at word classes. Labelling words according to their part of speech like this is called parsing. In Dutch: taalkundig ontleden.

Now we are going to look at the function of sentence elements in building the sentence. This is called syntactic analysis. In Dutch: redekundig ontleden.

Book

For this part of the grammar course 

you need the book 

Sentence Analysis 

by Koning & Van der Voort

"Birds fly." - Can you analyse this simple sentence?

	Birds	fly
Parsing:
Analysis:

predicator

noun

verb

subject

Which word classes
do you remember?

Nouns

Articles

Verbs

Adjectives

Adverbs

Pronouns

Conjunctions

Prepositions

Which sentence elements
do you know?

Subject

Predicate

Predicator

Subject complement

Direct object

Object complement

Indirect object

Adverbial

Can you divide a simple sentence into sentence elements?

Birds fly.

Birds | fly.

Birds fly high.

Birds | fly | high.

Birds fly high in the sky.

Birds | fly | high | in the sky.

Now you! Divide this sentence into sentence elements:
She waved.

A direct object answers the question of who(m) or what.

An indirect object answers the question of to whom, for whom, or for what.

Again! Divide this sentence into sentence elements:
She waved at me.

A direct object answers the question of who(m) or what.

An indirect object answers the question of to whom, for whom, or for what.

Once more! Divide this sentence into sentence elements:
She waved at me frantically.

A direct object answers the question of who(m) or what.

An indirect object answers the question of to whom, for whom, or for what.

Another one! Divide this sentence into sentence elements:
He met her yesterday.

A direct object answers the question of who(m) or what.

An indirect object answers the question of to whom, for whom, or for what.

Again! Divide this sentence into sentence elements:
Her father met her mother at the high school prom ten years ago.

A direct object answers the question of who(m) or what.

An indirect object answers the question of to whom, for whom, or for what.

What do the previous example sentences show you?

1. Simple sentences often start with first subject, then predicator.
2. A sentence element can consist of one or more words.
3. The predicator always consists of at least one verb.
4. A, B and C are all correct.

Identify the subject:
I love chocolate chip cookies.

Identify the predicator:
I have always loved chocolate chip cookies.

Identify the subject:
How long have you been practising for the recital?

Identify the predicator:
How long have you been practising for the recital?

Sentence elements in simple sentences

• The SPOCA model
• A sentence element, for example the subject, can consist of one word or more words
• The predicator consists of at least one verb
• 'There': provisional subject (no meaning; introduces S)
• 'It': formal subject (no meaning)