English grammar - Roger Berry 2012

C8.2 Analysing verb patterns
C8 Analysing clauses
Section C Exploration

Make is a very versatile verb. You are probably familiar with its use as a transitive verb, but there are several refinements of this, and it can also be a link verb.

Look at the following sentences and distinguish the verb and object and predicative clause elements. You may find some clause patterns that you have not met before.

1. She’ll make a cake.

2. She’ll make him a cake.

3. She’ll make a cake for him.

4. She’ll make a good wife.

5. She’ll make him a good husband.

6. She’ll make him a good wife.

Hidden verb patterns

There are a number of situations where the pattern of a verb may be ’hidden’ in some way, especially if an object has been moved from its typical position after the verb:

a) passive constructions. Passive sentences should be converted into their active equivalents to find which pattern the verb has. So

The ball was caught by Tom

is the passive equivalent of Tom caught the ball (i.e. it is SVOd).

b) reduced passives. In

A man called Jones telephoned.

call is link transitive. It has a predicative (Jones) and an object which is hidden but is equivalent to a man (compare with A man who is called Jones . . . )

c) relative clauses (see B10). In

The girl that he likes . . .

that is the object of likes and so like is transitive here.

d) wh- interrogatives representing the object, as in

Who does he like?

e) infinitives following adjectives and nouns, as in:

She’s difficult to please.

Please is transitive here; its (deep structure) object is she (compare It is difficult to please her). See also ’fronting’ in A11.

Activity C8.3

Now look at the concordance lines for make and identify the verb pattern. The two main choices are monotransitive and link transitive.

1. Billy was too close to the policeman to make any suggestion . . .

2. Perhaps an illustration can make this difference clear . . .

3. ... use these to make even more profit.

4. Do not learn your lines as this can make the talk rather stilted . . .

5. ... the diverse interests that make up one profession.

6. ... if you . . . have any comments to make on this briefing.

7. ... the Magistrate Sahib had tried to make them strengthen the embankments.

8. The point I’m trying to make is . . .

9. ... it is a good idea to make it the destination of an excursion from there.

10. When you were little I used to make up stories for him . . .

11. Does it make any sense to put in the same numbers . . .?

12. Make your sandwiches look as attractive as you can . . .

13. If so, did it make the rest of the winter any warmer?

14. Not to make eye contact with anyone in the audience.

Comments

Activity C8.1:

The vertical lines show the divisions between clause elements.

Activity C8.2:

The first three are relatively straightforward to analyse:

1. monotransitive verb with a direct object

2. ditransitive verb with indirect and direct objects

3. ditransitive verb with direct and prepositional objects

The next three are perhaps unexpected:

4. link verb with subject predicative (a good wife). Here make could be replaced by a link verb such as be.

5. link transitive verb with direct object and object predicative

6. link transitive verb with indirect object and subject predicative

Sentences 5 and 6 seem to be identical structurally, but obviously are contradictory in terms of meaning. 5 means she will turn him into a good husband, but in 6 him represents an indirect object while a good wife is a subject predicative; a paraphrase would be She will be a good wife for him. The use of a subject predicative after an object is rare; another example would be She left the room angry (i.e. ’she’ was ’angry’), which is not to be confused with She left the room angrily, where angrily is an adverbial. She left him angry could also have the same structure but is more likely to mean that ’he’ was ’angry’, i.e. angry is an object predicative.

There are other patterns involving make, for instance ’make someone do something’.

Activity C8.3:

Monotransitive: 1, 3, 5 (a phrasal verb), 6 (make comments), 8 (make a point), 11 (see extraposition in A11), 14

Link transitive: 2, 4, 7, 9, 12, 13

Ditransitive phrasal-prepositional: 10

Note that in 6 on this briefing belongs with comments as part of the object, as does with anyone in the audience with eye contact in 8.