Word Order/SVOCA

SVOCA & Word Formation

In the text you have just read, all the parts of speech we read about are in sentences. But how do we know where to put the parts of speech in each sentence?

• 1. Let’s look at what a sentence is.

     1. First of all, a sentence has to have a Verb. The most basic sentence is a one-word sentence, for example:

            Write.

            Read.

            We can add more information to the sentence, such as  who or what ‘does’ an action:

            Students learn.

            Teachers teach.

            ‘Students’ and ‘teachers’ are the Subject of the sentence.

• 1. Look at this sentence from the text:

            CLIL teachers don’t teach Basic Interpersonal Language Skills (BICS) (5).

            We can see that ‘don’t teach’ is the verb.

            The subject is ‘CLIL teachers’.

            What  don’t teachers teach? ‘Basic Interpersonal Language Skills (BICS)’.

            This group of words is the Object of the sentence, in other words, (who or) what is affected by the verb.

            The Object can be a Direct Object (DO) or an Indirect Object (IO), as in the sentence below.

Tim gave in the homework to his teacher.

  S          V               DO                  IO

• 1. We can add more information to the sentence we quoted in section 2:

CLIL teachers don’t teach Basic Interpersonal Language Skills (BICS) in their lessons.

• 1. 1.         S                         V                                               O                                                            ???

     2. What Part of Speech is: ‘in their lessons’?

     3. Remember Adverbs? Adverbs give information about time (when), place (where) and manner (how).

     4. The group of words ‘in their lessons’ shows ‘where’, and is called an Adverbial.

     5. Examples of other adverbials:

     6. at school, outside the language classroom (where); in the evening, at 7pm (when); in a hurry, in this way (how).

• 2. In the first sentence in the text, we read:

I’m a CLIL teacher (1).

• • 1. S V           ??

    2. In this sentence,  ‘a CLIL teacher’ is not an Object. 

    3. Neither is ‘uncomfortable’ in the sentence below:

    4. Content teachers sometimes feel uncomfortable about teaching new language.

    5.              S                           A           V             ???                                   A

Verbs like ‘be’,’ feel’ or ‘become’  do not show an action. Instead, these verbs link two things which are the same.  For example, “John becomes ill” is the same as “John = ill”.

The part of the sentence which comes after a linking verb is called the Complement.

Some examples:

The students felt good about their results.

           S              V      C                A

Physics is a difficult subject.

         S   V             C

Learning a language becomes more difficult as you get older.

                 S                          V                 C                         A

           The five Parts of Speech (S- V-O- C -A ) which make up sentences are called Sentence Elements.

• 1. Word Order:

     1.  Sentence Elements often come in the following order:

     2. S V O A

           CLIL students can learn language through learning about the content.

                    S                     V              O                                A

However, the Adverbial can also be put at the start of the sentence:

Through learning about the content, CLIL students can learn language.        

                                     A                                     S                    V               O  

 Another pattern is:

CLIL is an approach to teaching.

   S   V                    C

 When we want to focus attention on the object of the verb, because the subject is not very important, we put the object before the verb.  In other words, the Object of the verb moves to the Subject position. For example:

This sort of language learning  is called CALP – Cognitive Academic Langauge Proficiency (8).

 (This sentence is better than ‘People call this sort of language learning CALP’, because we are not interested in WHO calls it CALP,only on the fact that it is called CALP.  You will read more about this type of sentence in the section of the course on ‘Passives’)

• 1. a) Groups of words like the ones above are called clauses. A clause is the smallest complete unit in grammar, formed by SV,  SVO or SVC. When a  sentence is made up of two or more clauses, it is called a ‘complex sentence’.

The rules of ordering the elements still apply. Look at this sentence from a History lesson:

France was one of the Western Allies whereas Austria was one of the Axis Powers.

     S        V                     C                                                   S         V                  C

The sentence is made up of two equal clauses, which could both stand on their own as ‘simple sentences’. They are linked by whereas. Other words which link sentences like this are  and, so, but, for, and yet.

• 1. 1. b) Other types of complex sentence have a main clause and a secondary clause. This secondary clause is incomplete, and cannot stand on its own. It is subordinate (less important):

CLIL students don’t follow a syllabus which is based on grammar development (4).

                           PART A                                                      PART B

                     Main Clause                                        Subordinate clausee

In this sentence, ‘which’  is the Subject of Part B – ‘which is based on ....’

• 1. 2. CLIL teachers don’t teach the sort of language  that students usually learn in language classes (3).

                            PART A                                                                      PART B

In this sentence,  ‘that’  is the Object of Part B – students learn that (language)

CLIL students learn the sort of language (Part A) which helps them organise their thoughts and solve problems, like ‘analyse’, categorise’ or ‘design’ (Part B) (7).                     

Here, ‘which’ is the Subject of Part B – ‘which helps them ...)

These subordinate clauses usually start with either:

pronouns like which, that or who. These are pronouns which RELATE the secondary part of the sentence to a noun in the main part of the sentence

or

linkers like although, while, because, provided, until, ….

• 1. Questions and Word Order:

     1.  

     2. Look at these questions from the text:

     3. But how do I know what language to teach them? (2)

           So what language do CLIL teachers teach? (6)

In these questions, the word order is no longer SVO. Instead, the Verb comes before the Subject.

Questions using the verb BE are very simple:

Am I?

Are you?

Was he?

Were we?

Making questions with other verbs is different.

Later on in the course, the tenses mentioned below will be explained further.

Present Simple:     Hot air rises.

                                    DOES hot air rise?

Past Simple:           The acid reacted with the calcium.

                                    DID the acid react with the calcium?

Notice that:

When we have a verb in a Simple Tense, we need to add an extra verb, DO, to form the question. DO is here called an auxiliary – a ‘helping’ verb.

The tense is shown by the auxiliary (‘do/does’ or ‘did’), not by the main verb.

Only the auxiliary comes before the verb.

The Progressive & Perfect Tenses already have auxiliaries - BE for progressive tenses, and HAVE for perfect tenses.

Their economic influence is becoming stronger.

Is their economic power becoming stronger?

China has become a world power.

Has China become a world power?

Modal Verbs act like the verb BE:

Rust can occur in the presence of water and oxygen.

Can rust occur?

Oxygen must be present for this reaction to occur.

Must oxygen be present?

• • • Word Order with Question Words:

So far we have seen how questions are formed by inverting the verb (putting it in from of the subject. What about when we have Question Words like:

who, what, which, how , when, why, how long, ….

Let’s have a look at some questions from a History lesson:

Type A:

• Who was the Austrian Emperor in the First World War?

• What caused the start of the First World War?

• What weapons played a part in the mass destruction?

• How many died in the First World War?

• Which countries allied themselves with Germany?

 Type B:

• Who did the Austrians ally themselves with?

• What did the war in the trenches achieve?

• What effect did technology have on the First World War?

• What part did the Russian influence in the Balkans play?

Type C:

• • • How did the men die?

    • When did the First World war start?

    • Why were there so many deaths and casualties?

    • How long did the war last?

    • How successful was trench warfare?

Notice:

Question words always appear at the beginning of the sentence clause.

In Type A, the Question word is the Subject of the question, so the verb follows AFTER the Subject: S - V

In Type B, the Question Word is the Object, and the underlined part shows the inversion of the Subject and the Verb:  V – S

In Type C, the Question Word is an Adverbial, showing Time, Place, or Manner, so the order is as in B. The underlined part shows the inversion of the Subject and Verb: V - S

• 1. Negatives and Word Order:

     1. Like Questions, Negatives also need auxiliaries:

     2. Present Simple:                   Rust doesn’t (does not) occur without the presence of oxygen

     3. Past Simple:                          The hydrochloric acid didn’t (did not) react with the copper.

     4. Progressive Tenses:           The fumes aren’t (are not) descending, which shows that they are lighter than air.              

     5. Perfect Tenses:                    The acid has not reacted with the copper.           

     6. Modals:                                  Oxidisation can’t (cannot) occur without oxygen.

     7. Notice that:

• • NOT is placed between the auxiliary (or modal) and the main verb.

Download - SVOCA / Word Order

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