8
For example: A couch potato is someone who lays watching television all day.
Other verbs which usually followed this pattern are remain, keep, tastes, smell, sound, fall, feel, come, grow and turn.
For example: - We have to remain optimistic about the future. - We began to grow uneasy when the skin driver didn’t appear.
2.2 Syntax
Syntax is a branch of linguistics which study about the arrangements of the phrases or sentences. According to Miller 2002:12 syntax can be defined as
follows: “syntax has to do with how words are put together to build
phrases, with how phrases are put together to build sentences.” Miller 2002:12
From definition above, syntax can be called as branch of linguistic which
studies about structure of sentence. In discussing syntax, the writer wants to explain some parts of sentence structure as subject, predicate, verb, modifier, complement
and adjunct. These parts will be used in the data analysis in next chapter.
2.2.1 Subject Every sentence has subject. The subject is mostly in the form of noun, noun
phrase or pronoun which is usually placed in the beginning of sentence. According to Quirk and Greenbaum 1973:170, subject can be defined as follows:
“subject is normally a noun phrase or a clause with nominal function; occurs before the verb phrase in declarative clauses,
and immediately after the operator in question; has number and person concord, where applicable, with the verb phrase”.
Quirk and Greenbaum 1973:170
Universitas Sumatera Utara
9
In order to know clearly about subject, here are some example: 1.
The moon has risen in the sky. 2.
Has the moon just risen in the sky? 3.
The moon has just risen in the sky, hasn’t it? 4.
There are five unicorns in parking lot. From the examples above, the sentence 1 and 2 can be seen clearly that the
subject in the sentence is the moon, although the sentence 2 is begun by the word has
. In the sentence 3 there is a question tag which consists of pronoun it. It in the question tag refers to the noun ‘the moon’ not ‘the sky’. Therefore the subject in the
sentence 3 above is the moon. In the sentence 4, there is a word ‘there’ and phrase ‘five unicorns’. The agreement on the verb at the sentence is determined by
phrase ‘five unicorns’ which is the next functioned as a subject. Then, the word ‘there’
is called dummy or pleonastic subject. The pleonastic subject is used in a sentence when there is no subject placed in the beginning of the subject.
2.2.2 Predicate
Predicate is an important part of sentence which explains the activity which done by subject. According to Gelderen 2002:61, predicate can be defined as
follows: “predicate says something about the subject. The verb in the predicate is named predicator” Gelderen 2002:61
For example:
The girl skipped In this sentence the action ‘skip’ is done by the subject ‘girl’, so the word
‘skip’ is called predicate or predicator. Another example is ‘He left’. ‘He’ is a subject
and ‘left’ is predicate or predicator.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
10
2.2.3 Verbs
