Identifying Verb Groups and Sentence Structures in English

ELG213 Language Structure: Sentences and Sounds

Questions:

Q1.

Identify EIGHT verb groups from the passage below, ONE from each of the eight sentences (numbered). There must be at most two non-finite verb groups (they must be different in form) in total. Illustrate your understanding of verb groups by labelling each verb group in terms of its finiteness, modality, tense, aspect, and voice. Present your answers using the format below:

Verb group
Finiteness
Modality, Tense, Aspect
Voice

Text

(1) Two Chinese megacities have implemented population caps last year — and (2) the policy might already be having an effect. (3) Reducing population has been heralded as an answer to "big city disease", characterised by state media as an overcrowded, polluted city with too many people living in it. (4) China's government is moving people out of its top cities to its underused cities. (5) Cities such as Shanghai and Beijing have been systematically making room for a "new very high-income middle class", and pushing the lower-earning middle classes out to the edges of the city limits. (6) Newly built apartments in these cities can be out of reach for many of its citizens, costing upwards of 20 times the average annual income. (7) People will just live further and further away from the city centre, and (8) have to spend longer getting to work.

Q2.

Illustrate your understanding of constituent and sentence structures in English by identifying the sentence type (i.e. simple, compound, complex, compound-complex) of the sentences a) —d) below.

a) Health authorities should broaden their battles against obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes and encourage communities to eat fruit, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, seeds and nuts.

b) Of the 11 million estimated annual deaths from diet-related causes, 3 million can be blamed on sodium, but a further 3 million die because of a lack of whole grains in their diet, and 2 million due to lack of fruit.

c) In a country like Singapore with no minimum wage, migrant workers take home just US$13-15 daily for back breaking work that usually lasts from 10 to 12 hours a day.

d) For many migrant workers in Singapore, the catered food is often paltry, nutritionally insufficient and sometimes downright rotten.

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