Transformational Grammar

Learning activities

Learning activity 1.1.

a) Make a comparative chart of the different type of verbs.

|TYPE OF VERB |CAN / MUST |CANNOT |
|Intransitive |end sentences |Be transformed to passive sentences |
||be followed by ADVERBS | |
| Linking |Must be followed by nouns (predicate nouns) or |end sentences |
| |adjectives (predicate adjectives) |be followed immediately by adverbs |
|Transitive|be followed by nouns or noun phrases (Direct Objects) |rename their subjects |
| |be transformed to passive sentences | |
|Vg |Be followed immediately by two noun phrases (an indirect| |
||object and a direct object) | |
|Vc |Be followed first by a noun phrase, an adjective or an | |
| |infinitive phrase (complements) | |
||Their objects can be followed by nouns, adjectives, or | |
| |infinitive phrases (object complements) | |
|Be |Be followed by nouns or adjectives (predicate nouns and | |
||predicate adjectives) | |
| |Be followed immediately by an adverb of place | |
| |Easy to recognize by its forms: | |
||am-is-are-was-were-been-being | |

b) Make a tree diagram of a Noun Phrase with pre and post noun modifiers

NP

NP

PreArt N PostN

some of you both

Learning activity 1.2.

a) Identifythe immediate constituents of the sentence and their elements.

The boiler exploded with a loud bang
NP: SUB VP: PRED

Americans love informal dining
NP: SUB VP: PRED

Stephen King gives readers scary stories
NP:SUB VP: PRED

Holocaust Museum visitors find their experience unsettling
NP: SUB VP:PRED

Spring is hiking season in Idaho
NP: SUB VP:PRED

AIDS was abig–city plague until de ‘90s.
NP:SUB VP: PRED

American voters remain sceptical about politicians’ sincerity.
NP:SUB VP:PRED

Thomas Jefferson left Americans a marvellous legacy
NP:SUB VP: PRED

Huck is an unreliable narrator.
NP:SUB VP:PRED

Hamlet ends in a bloody melee.
NP:SUB VP:PRED

Gardening clothes became fashionable during the ‘80s.
NP:SUB VP:PRED

Thoreauoffered advice to young people in Walden.
NP:SUB VP:PRED

South Africans elected Mandela their first president.
NP:SUB VP:PRED

General Grant’s determination made him victorious.
NP:SUB VP:PRED

Distance comes from a balanced golf swing.
NP:SUB VP:PRED

The Apalachian Center looks out for eastern Kentucky’s image.
NP:SUB VP:PRED

Orlando is the world’s biggest...