Practical Grammar 6

Governable grammatical functions

There are different types of grammatical functions. One type we have already seen, those grammatical functions which are listed in the PRED values of meaningful words. The textbook (p. 21) gives a complete list:

Governable grammatical functions: SUBJ, OBJ, OBJ-θ, OBL-θ, POSS, COMP, and XCOMP.

Here are some comments on the functions other than SUBJ and OBJ:

• OBJ-THEME: the GF of the second object of a ditransitive verb like give or show
• OBL-θ, for instance OBL-LOC: the GF of a PP which is a locative complement of a verb like sit or put
• POSS: the GF of the possessor within an NP (e.g. my in my book)
• COMP: the GF of a finite complement clause complement of a verb like say that or certain that
• XCOMP: the GF of non-finite phrases with understood subjects (e.g. to leave in Lilly tried to leave)