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Basic Sentence Patterns

We do not speak English by merely stringing words together in some random fashion. Instead,we carefully arrange our words, for the most part unconsciously, into patterns. In English we use ninebasic sentence patterns and a multitude of subpatterns. It will now be our purpose to examine thesebasic sentence patterns of English. Any sentence you speak will probably be based on one of them.Included in these nine basic sentence patterns are specific sentence positions. Each position in eachpattern is the home-slot of a particular grammatical meaning. Let us pause here to see what is meant bygrammatical meaning. ne pattern you will soon meet is illustrated by this sentence!

"he girl bought a dress

"he noun girl, in isolation, would me an simply #young female human being.# $ut by dint of occupying thefirst position in this pattern it ac%uires, the additional meaning of the performer of the action, in this case,bought.

In another pattern, as shown by,

.The girlis happy,

girl is not the performer of any action but, in this position in this pattern, has an added grammaticalmeaning of #that which is described!#

&imilarly, the 'erb, which occupies the second slot in each pattern, has the grammatical meaningof predication, assertion. It predicates or asserts the occurrence of an action or the existence of acondition, as in

Dick brokea branch.She seemedalarmed

It is the grammatical motor of the sentence. (When attention is focused on the grammatical meaning, the

'erb is called predicator. In general practice, howe'er, the term verbis commonly used for both aspectsof the 'erb, its form as part of speech and its meaning as predicator.

"hus grammatical meaning is a meaning that is added to the sentence by 'irtue of a particularposition in a particular pattern-( )ow let us look it the patterns.

"he first three patterns ha'e only beas their 'erb. It is necessary to gi'e bethis specialtreatment because it beha'es somewhat differently from other linking 'erbs. And it is to be rememberedthat behas eight different forms! am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been.

Pattern 1: N be Aj

Food is good.

In the nine basic patterns the sub*ect always occurs in the first ) position. In +attern the grammaticalmeaning of the sub*ect is #that-which is described.#

In each of the first three patterns the 'erb behas a different meaning. "here the meaning is#may be described as!#

In +attern the third term must be an ad*ecti'e or ad*ecti'al!

That food is poisonous.

ou can test for +attern in a simple way. It is capable of this expansion!

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That food is good That goodfood is very good.

That food is poisonous > That poisonous food is very poisonous.

If a sentence will not undergo this expansion, it belongs to some pattern other than +attern . /orexample, the sentence

My mother is outside

cannot be expanded to

My outside mother is very outside.

&o this sentence does not belong to the +attern type. "he ad*ecti'e in +attern is, in grammaticalmeaning, a modifier of the sub*ect.

&ometimes a prepositional phrase will, as a modifier of the ), occupy the Ad* position, as

The teacher was in a bad mood.01 irritable2

!is e"planation was over my head. 01 incomprehensible2

Exercise 1

Apply the expansion test to see which of these sentences belong to +attern . Write after suchsentences

. "he box is large.3. "he box is here.4. 5y mother is kind.6. 5y mother is out.7. "he boys were busy.8. "he boys were below.9. "he dahlias ha'e been lo'ely.:. "he party must ha'e been en*oyable.;. "he party was afterward.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

/or example, some ad*ecti'es are used only before a noun, like mainand utter. &ome others appear, inthis pattern, after be # very, like afraidand content, but not before the noun. &till others are restricted in

'arious ways. /urthermore, all ad*ecti'es can be modified by very.We do not say, for instance, the verymain speaker.# $ut, apart from such exceptions, the test for +attern is useful.

Pattern 2: N be Av

The girl is here.

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+attern 3 differs from +attern in these respects!

-"he 'erb bein this pattern usually has the meaning of #be located# or ?occur@

3-+attern 3 is not capable of taking the +attern expansion.

3- "he third position is occupied by an ad'erb. Words of this type include here, in, out, inside, outside,upstairs, downstairs, on, off, now, yesterday, over, through, above, below, before, after.

"he pingpong table is downstairs."he game was yesterday."he balls are outdoors.

ften a prepositional phrase with a thereor thenmeaning will occupy the third position."he wolf is at the door."he game will be at three o(clock.

"he grammatical meaning of the sub*ect 0) position2 in +attern 3 is #that about which as assertion ismade,# and that of the ad'erb is #modifier of the 'erb.#

Exercise 2

After each sentence place a number or 3 to identify the pattern it conforms to.. "he picnic was outside.3. "he picnickers were happy.4. "he batter is tall.6. "he batter is inside.7. "hey are on the lawn.8. ur appointment is now.9. "he meeting will be in an hour.:. "he dean is in.;. "he dean is bene'olent.

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Exercise 3

Indicate the pattern of each sentence by the numbers , 3, or 4.

>>>. &andy must ha'e been the thief.>>>3. "he dinner was o'er.>>>4. "he dinner was tasty.>>>6. "he dinner was a feast.>>>7. "he Indians were the winners.>>>8. 5y cousin is a fool.>>>9. 5y cousin is proud.>>>:. "he policeman may be wise.>>>;. "he policeman may be there.>>>