Ranks
Complete the rank scale from smallest to largest:
morpheme → ______ → group/phrase → clause
word
What word class is the bold word?
The government announced a new policy.
Adjective
What kind of unit is:
the new government
A. nominal group
B. verbal group
C. prepositional phrase
D. clause
A. nominal group
Which of these tells us what kind of grammatical unit something is?
A. Subject
B. nominal group
C. Complement
D. Subject and Complement
B. nominal group
Key idea: nominal group names a class/type of unit; Subject and Complement describe what that unit is doing in a clause.
How many clauses are there?
The president arrived.
One clause
True or False:
A group/phrase is normally larger than a word but smaller than a clause.
True
Match the word with its word class:
1 → adverb
2 → conjunction
3 → noun
4 → preposition
What kind of unit is:
has been announced
Verbal group
Look at the bold words:
Complete:
The students is a __________ in both clauses, but its grammatical function changes.
A. noun
B. nominal group
C. Subject
D. Complement
B. nominal group
In sentence 1 it functions as Subject.
In sentence 2 it functions as Complement.
How many ranking clauses are there in the following clause complex?
The president arrived and the crowd applauded.
Two
Which of these is a clause?
A. the new president
B. in the city centre
C. the president arrived
D. very quickly
C. the president arrived
Which sentence contains a pronoun?
A. The minister spoke yesterday.
B. They announced the decision.
C. Several students protested.
D. Their meeting ended quickly.
B. They announced the decision.
They is a pronoun.
Which option is a prepositional phrase?
A. the western departments
B. very unexpectedly
C. in the western departments
D. the earthquake struck
C. in the western departments
For each bold unit, identify:
A. The new government announced the reforms.
B. Protesters criticized the new government.
C. Several teachers opposed the decision.
D. The decision surprised several teachers.
They are all nominal groups.
A. Subject
B. Complement
C. Subject
D. Complement
Which is the best first clue for finding clauses in SFL?
A. Count the nouns.
B. Find the verbal groups and the Processes they realize.
C. Count the commas.
D. Find every preposition.
B. Find the verbal groups and the Processes they realize.
On the whiteboard, use this clause:
The protesters marched through the streets.
Create a 4-rank ladder by finding or extracting four different ranks. Then label each one in the whiteboard using the notation from last class.
Example answer:
Alternative acceptable group/phrase:
True or False:
If a word is a noun, it must always represent a concrete physical thing.
False.
Nouns can construe concrete entities, but also abstractions, events and other meanings, for example:
Break this clause into its main groups and phrases:
The new president spoke at the university on Friday.
On your whiteboard, rewrite this clause so that the bold nominal group changes from Complement to Subject.
The government closed the schools.
You may change the form of the verb, but keep approximately the same event.
Then label:
Possible answer:
The schools were closed by the government.
Original: the schools = nominal group, functioning as Complement
Rewrite: The schools = nominal group, functioning as Subject
Are the clauses joined paratactically or hypotactically?
Because the roads were blocked, the ceremony started late.
Hypotactically
Because the roads were blocked is dependent on the main clause.
On your whiteboard, analyze:
The students in the front row discussed the new policy.
Show:
Use brackets or a visual system to show which units are inside other units.
[[The students [in [the front row]NG]PP]NG [discussed]VG [the new policy]NG]Clause
On your whiteboard, classify the bold words and explain what clue in the sentence helped you decide.
Write the word class in each sentence and underline the evidence around the word that helped you decide.
Look at:
the protesters outside the palace
Which statement is correct?
A. The whole expression is a prepositional phrase.
B. The whole expression is a nominal group containing a prepositional phrase.
C. outside the palace is a nominal group.
D. The whole expression is a clause.
B. The whole expression is a nominal group containing a prepositional phrase.
A student says: “A nominal group is the Subject of a sentence.”
Use these two clauses to prove that statement is incomplete:
The minister announced the decision.
The decision surprised the minister.
On your whiteboard:
Clause 1:
[The minister]NG = Subject
[the decision]NG = Complement
Clause 2:
[The decision]NG = Subject
[the minister]NG = Complement
Possible rule:
A nominal group is a class of grammatical unit; depending on where and how it is used in a clause, it can perform different functions such as Subject or Complement.
Look carefully at:
The proposal [[that the ministry published last month]] was withdrawn.
How many ranking clauses are there, and what is special about the bracketed material?
There is one ranking clause.
that the ministry published last month is an embedded/rankshifted clause inside the nominal group the proposal that the ministry published last month. It does not count as another ranking clause in the clause complex.