-Joan met tall boys and girls.
Joan met boys and girls who are tall.
Joan met both boys and girls who are tall.
- Beautiful girls hostels.
Beautiful girls or hostels which are beautiful.
Beautiful hostels for girls.
Hostels for beautiful girls.
- New English Textbook
It is a text on the New English.
It is an English text which is new.
- A Practical English Course
A practical course in English (i.e. a course with practice oriented presentation
style).
An English course which is practical written to suit practical uses of the
language.
- The secretary of the president who sacked the typist.
Was it the secretary who sacked the typist or was it the president ?
- We gave a table to a boy with painted legs.
Whose legs were painted the boy s or the table.
Structures of Basic Sentence
Rewrite Rule
The basic rewrite rule of English basic sentences may be formulated as the followings:
S ? NP + VP
N
NP ?
Det + N
Nprop
Nindef.
N ? Npp.
Ncom.
Art
Det ? (pre – Art) + Demon + (Num)
VP ? Aux + MV
Aux ? Tense + (M) + (Aspect)
Aspect ? (have + participle) + (be + ing)
NP
be + Adj.
MV ? Adv - p
Verbals
VI
VT + NP
NP
Verbals ? Vb +
Adj.
Vs + Adj.
Vh + NP
Nprop. ? Robert, Samran, Amy, Thongpool, Phetchabun, Thailand etc.
Nidef. ? someone, anyone, everyone, no one, somebody, anybody,
nobody, something, anything, everything, nothing.
Npp ? I, you, we, they, he, she, it.
Ncom ? girl, boy, cat, dog, water, chair etc.
Pre-Art ? some of, any of, a few of, one of, a lot of, two of .. etc.
Art ? the, a, an, some, ?
Demon ? this, these, that, those.
Num ? one, two, three, first, second….
Tense ? present, past.
M ? can, will, shall, may, must.
Adj. ? good, beautiful, small, bigm etc.
Adv – p ? here, there, at home, in the class, etc.
VI ? occur, run, go, …
VT ? take, read, see, …
Vs ? seem, taste, look, feet, …
Vh ? have, cost, weigh, total, …
Vb ? become, remain, …
Notes
English basic sentences contain two main parts; a noun phrase and a verb phrase. So the simple rewrite rule may be : a sentence consists of (?) a noun phrase (NP) plus a verb phrase (VP).
S ? NP + VP
As the rule above, the NP functions as the subject of the basic sentence and comes before the VP. The VP functions as its predicate.
The following are examples of the English basic sentence consisting of two main parts: NP and VP.
Samran is here.
Someone is coming.
I have a note.
You must come.
That girl looks pretty.
Some of the girls sit down.
They throw away the magazines.
NP
The NP may be a noun (N) alone or a noun preceded by the determiner (Det.)
N
NP ?
Det. + N