[Casiopea]

Every English sentence, no matter its length, contains a basic statement. The 5 English sentence patterns below represent the barest basic statement. Notice that the patterns are based on verbs:

1. Intransitive Verbs: SV (e.g. Bells rang.)
2. Linking Verbs et al: SVC (e.g. Love is blind.)
3. Transitive Verbs: SVO (e.g. The cat scratched Sally.)
4. Ditransitive Verbs: SVOO (e.g. John gave his mother flowers.)
5. Object Complement Verbs: SVOC (e.g. The teacher considered him a good student.)

Question: What pattern is "She is upstairs"?
Answer: The pattern SVC. She =S, is = linking verb, upstairs =C, subject complement. 'upstairs', an adverb in form, functions here as a predicate adjective. Test: The upstairs woman. Compare a non-linking verb: "She walked upstairs", 'upstairs' has the form and function of an adverb in modifying the verb 'walked'.

Only linking verbs et al (See below) take subject complements. That is, C of SVC is known as a subject complement because it describes the subject, never the verb.

Subject Complement: Linking verbs take a subject complements. A subject complement is a word or word group that complete the meaning of the subject by either renaming it or describing it. SVC: Linking verbs Forms of Be (am, is, are, were, was, being, been) and "appear" "become" "feel" "grow" "look" "make" "prove" "seem" "smell" "sound" and "taste".

Question: "Can I argue that the C in SVC includes prepositional phrases?"
Answer: Yes. C has two factors: 1) Form and 2) Function. "She is at the store." (SVC). C = 'at the store', a prepositional phrase, functioning as an adjective, describing Where the subject (She) is situated.

Question: "I'm not particularly clear about the term "adverbial"; can it mean both adverbs and prepositional phrases?"
Answer: If a word is used to describe a verb, then its functions is that of an adverb. For example, "They swam in the lake". 'in the lake', a prepositional phrase, functions as an adverb in describing where they swam. Its form is that of a preposition and its function is that of an adverb. Note, 'swam' is not a linking verb. Compare, "She is in the lake", she is situated in the lake. 'in the lake', a prepositional phrase, functions as a predicate adjective, describing the subject (She).

Question: What sentence pattern is "She lives in London"?
Answer: 'live' meaning, to reside in a particular place or way isinstransitive:

"She lives in London. (SV+PP) 'in London' is a prepositional phrase.

Question: What sentence pattern is "She put her hands in her pockets"?
[b]Answer[/]: SVOC. She = S, put =V, her hands = O, in her pockets =C
Note, Her hands are in her pockets. 'in her pockets' modifies 'hands'; it tells us where her hands are located.

Question: "Surely we can argue that "put something in somewhere" is a verb phrase so SVO fits in this case, but does SVOA clarify the pattern better?
Answer: Firstly, SVO doesn't fit. It's SVOC. Second, put X in Y is the verb's subcategorization frame, (VOC). Third, suggesting the pattern SVOA works for sentences that have A only. It doesn't work for other SVOC sentences. That is, C was choosen because it houses many forms, PP, Adj, Adv, whereas A was rejected because it houses one form only, A. In other words, iff we chose SVOA, the we would have to add SVOPP, SVOAdj, SVOAdv, so as to describe the other SVO_ sentences, which would make the list of English sentence patterns very long, not to mention no longer basic. SVOC descibes more than one kind of object complement.

Question: What pattern is "She introduced me to her brother."
Answer: SVOO. She = S, introduced = V, me = O (direct object), to her brother = O (indirect object)
Note, introduced is a dirtransitive verb: It takes two objects, introduce X to Y.

Question: What sentence pattern is "She left the room exhausted."
Answer: SVO+Adverb. She =S, left =V, the room =O, exhuasted =Adv. 'exhausted' describes How she left the room. (SVO+Adv)
Note, Exhausted, she left the room. We can move the adverb to the beginning or end of the sentence. Adverbs and other added modifications do not have set, fixed positions. That's why they are not dealt with in the structure of the 5 basic sentence patterns.

Question: What sentence pattern is "I sold him my car brand-new."
Answer: SVOO. I =S, sold =V, him =O (indirect object, i.e. to him), my car =O (direct object), brand-new = Adjective, modifying 'car'. (SVOO).

Note, Non-standard usage, meaning "I sold him my car: brand new, (it was)." For non-native speakers, here's a rule of thumb. Fit the sentence into one of the basic 5 patterns, anything left over is a modification. To find out what role the modification plays, ask yourself the 5Ws: who, what, when, where, how. For example, What kind of car? A brand-new car. Adjective.

Question: What sentence pattern is "The plan struck me as excellent."
Answer: SVOC. The plan=S, struck=V, me=O, as excellent =C, functioning as an adjective modifiying 'the plan'. (SVOC)
Note, It struck me as (being an) excellent (plan). Adjective

I feel I can classify all of the above in any 5 basic patterns, but that is in a loose manner. I'm looking for a more strict approach to analyze these problems.

Funny you mention the word "loose". I suggest you visit the site below.

• VARIETY IN SENTENCE STRUCTURE http://iws.ccccd.edu/cobb/sentences.html

Basic statement: Bells rang.
Loose sentence: Bells rang, filling the air with their clangor, startling pigeons into flight from every belfry, bringing people into the streets to hear the news.

In short, in order to understand the 5 basic sentence patterns, one must first know the basic structure of English verbs. Look for the verb type (intrans, linking, trans, ditrans, object compl.), find its pattern; anything left over is modification; Ask the 5 Ws. If the sentence is a question, make it into a statement e.g. Why did he go? => He went because/why?; if the sentence is complex, like "Bells rang, filling...,...,...." make it simplex. If the sentence begins with a non-subject, move the subject back to the beginning e.g. At the store is where I found him => I found him at the store. Trust the 5 basic patterns. They are more helpful than you think.

:D