Marking the functions of a sentence: 'She may like it'

Question

I am reading Cambridge Grammar of English Language (CaGEL) all over again, though not cover to cover.

One page no. 215, I came across

The major functions in the structure of the clause are the predicator (P), complements of the predicator (C), and adjuncts (A), as illustrated in:

He [C] always [A] reads [P] the paper [C] before breakfast [A].

But during the end of that particular chapter, it also says like this:

In clauses containing an auxiliary verb, such as She may like it, some grammars analyse auxiliary + lexical verb as forming a 'verb group' unit realising (in our terms) a single P function. Under the analysis presented in this book, may is the predicator of the main clause, and like that of a subordinate clause functioning as complement of may. The contrast between these two analyses is discussed in Ch. 14, §4.2. In this chapter we will for the most part avoid the issue by concentrating on examples without auxiliary verbs.

Now what if I need to mark the functions of the sentence below using P C and A, how will you do it? I mean according to the concepts the book follows

She may like it.

Answer 1

A CaGEL analysis would be like this:

• She [C] may [P] like it [C]

Or to make it clearer:

• She [C]

• may [P]

• like it [C]

Of course, the last Complement, like it, is itself a clause with its own internal structure. The structure is:

• like [P]

• it [C]

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It is interesting to note that, from what we can see of the OP's excerpts, CaGEL have missed out the function Predicate here. This is interesting because the function of Predicate is a major function within the CaGEL clause system. The term Predicate means Head of the clause.

However, if they had put an extra layer of functions in then it would be difficult to show that the Subject is an external Complement of the verb. Their analysis of a clause in the book would have looked like this, where [R] is the function of Predicate:

• The dog [C] bit me [R]

This would have been problematic, because according to their analysis, although it is external to the verb phrase, the phrase the dog (the subject) is a Complement of the Predicator. In other words, it is a Complement of the verb. It is not a Complement of the Predicate or verb phrase.

Answer 2

She may [ like it ].

Traditionally "may like" has been taken as a constituent (and commonly called 'the verb’). There was a lot of argument about this in the 70s, and many have come round to the view that the auxiliary verbs are special cases of catenative verbs. This is discussed at considerable length in CGEL (pp. 1209-1220, see tree on p1218).

Thus the bracketed subordinate clause serves as catenative complement of "may", which is P in the matrix clause, while "like" is P in the catenative complement clause. "It" is of course direct object of "like".