Delahunty and Garvey
(79) a. NP AUX [VPVi] (79) b. SNP AUX VP
N Vi
Edgar will speak
Examples of this pattern are:
(80) a. Edgar spoke.
b. Edgar spoke eloquently.
c. Edgar spoke to the crowd.
d. Edgar spoke eloquently to the crowd.
e. Edgar will speak to the crowd this evening.
f. Edgar spoke eloquently to the crowd after the protest march.
g. Edgar spoke eloquently to the crowd after the protest march
had concluded.
h. Edgar will have been speaking for an hour in just a few moments.Exercise
Identify the whole subject, any auxiliaries, and the whole VP in each of
the sentences in (80).
The greater length and complexity of some of these sentences arise not from
changes in the basic clause pattern of the simpler examples, but because of
choices in auxiliaries and modifiers. Modifiers in the VP and auxiliaries have
no effect on the basic pattern. This fact holds true even when, as in (80g), a
modifier is a clause: the modifying clause naturally has its own pattern (here
also pattern 1), but as a modifier, it is irrelevant to the pattern of the clause
that contains it.
Basic clause pattern 2: simple transitive
If clauses represent propositions, and propositions represent situations, then
many situations involve more than a single essential participant. Some re-
quire two, others three, and a few four. The next five clause patterns consist
of ways to add participants represented by various types of objects and/or
complements. Note that all of the clause patterns require a subject, either