Show:
Ranks
Word Class
Group, Phrase or Clause?
Class vs Function
Clause Detectives
100

Complete the rank scale from smallest to largest:

morpheme → ______ → group/phrase → clause

word

100

What word class is the bold word?

The government announced a new policy.

Adjective

100

What kind of unit is:

the new government

A. nominal group
B. verbal group
C. prepositional phrase
D. clause

A. nominal group

100

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.

100

How many clauses are there?

The president arrived.

One clause

200

True or False:

A group/phrase is normally larger than a word but smaller than a clause.

True

200

Match the word with its word class:

  1. quickly
  2. because
  3. government
  4. through

1 → adverb

2 → conjunction

3 → noun

4 → preposition

200

What kind of unit is:

has been announced

Verbal group

200

Look at the bold words:

  1. The students criticized the policy.
  2. The policy affected the students.

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.

200

How many ranking clauses are there in the following clause complex?

The president arrived and the crowd applauded.

Two

  1. The president arrived.
  2. the crowd applauded.
300

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

300

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.

300

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

300

For each bold unit, identify:

  1. what kind of unit it is, and
  2. whether it functions as Subject or Complement.

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

300

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.

400

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:

  • -s → morpheme
  • protesters → word
  • the protesters → nominal group
  • The protesters marched through the streets. → clause

Alternative acceptable group/phrase:

  • through the streets → prepositional phrase
400

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:

  • democracy
  • decision
  • destruction
  • freedom
400

Break this clause into its main groups and phrases:

The new president spoke at the university on Friday.

  • The new president — nominal group
  • spoke — verbal group
  • at the university — prepositional phrase
  • on Friday — prepositional phrase
400

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:

  • the class of the schools
  • its function before
  • its function after

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


400

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.

500

On your whiteboard, analyze:

The students in the front row discussed the new policy.

Show:

  • the full clause,
  • all nominal groups,
  • the prepositional phrase,
  • the nominal group inside that prepositional phrase.

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

500

On your whiteboard, classify the bold words and explain what clue in the sentence helped you decide.

  1. The government announced a record increase in spending.
  2. Officials will record every complaint.
  3. The public response was immediate.
  4. The meeting was open to the public.

Write the word class in each sentence and underline the evidence around the word that helped you decide.

  • record — noun functioning within the nominal group a record increase
  • record — verb
  • public — adjective
  • public — noun
500

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.

500

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:

  1. bracket the nominal groups,
  2. label each as Subject or Complement,
  3. write a one-sentence rule explaining the relationship between class and function.

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.

500

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.