Leech 2003 - English Grammar For Today

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"IIIIIIIII"IIIIIIIIII~ IIII

Contents

Foreu/ord

.

IX

Preface

x

Svmbols and conventions A c k.no lui cdgem ents

.

XIV

..

XVIi

Part A

I ntroduction

1

1 What (;ramnlar Is and Is Not 3
'1 .1 Grammar and its role in language 3
1.2 ;'(;ooJ' and "bad ' granllllar 5
1.,) \/ a ria ti on in I angu age 6'
1.4 Englis hand other la ngu ages 10
1.5 Grammar and effecti ve comrnunica tion 12
1.6 Con (1 usio n 14
Exercises 14 2 Getting 5 ta rted wi th (~ram (11 ar

2.1 C~ra m rn ar in prose lirer a tu re

2. ') Gra m rna r in poetry

2.3 A taste or morphology: the structure of words

2.4 Sim plc and complex words

2.5 Derivational and inflectional suffixes

2.6

Summary: the 111ai n points of English morphology

17 17 19 20 20 24

')_.)

26

Exe rc ise s

Parr B Analysis

31

.) Sentences and Their Parts 33
.1. '1 Prologue: parts of speech 33
3.2 The hierarchy of units 36
.~L3 G r(1111 111 a tic (11 nota ti () ns 38
3~4 LJ sing tests 40
3~5 1-'or111 and function 4)
3+6 Summary 46
Exercises 46 v

vi CONTENTS

4

\\lords 4.1

4.2

4 .....

.. )

Open and closed word classes '{he opcn cl asses

Closed word classes

S Ll TIl 111 J. rv

~

49 49 S"I S9 63

Exercises

S Phrases

S ~"I Classes of ph rase

S.2 Main and Sll bord inate ph rases

5".3 NOLIn phrases and rela ted ph rase cla sses

5.4 The adjective ph rase and the adverb ph rase

5.5 The verb phrase (\lP)

5.6 Su T1l1HarV

...

63

66 66 67

70 75

':'7 I i

Exercises

6 Clauses

6.1 Elements of the cla use

6.7 6.3 6.4 6~5 6+6 (,.7

h.8 6.9 6. j U

Co 111 P 1 ex sen rcnccs

Tensed and tense less clauses

1) c c I :1 rat i v c ~ i n t err () g (1 t i v e ~-1 11 d i m per a t 1 v e c 1 a u ~ c s Active (lnd passive clauses

More on clause structure

Clause p.nrer ns

· Ihe srru cr u re of ten sc less c l a uses Parsing ~l si Tuple sentence

Summa ry

85 S5 g;

X9 90

Cj""' _J

93 94

97

" f

9--:> " I

Exercises

7 Subordination and Coordination 104
7. l Subordilla te cla uses (SC:l) "lOS
:) '1'C11scd su bord inate clauses 101
! .~
/.3 The functions of subordinate cl a use~ "I "1 "J
7~4 Tensclcss su hord inate clauses "I 1 ')
-- - Direct and indirect subordination 114
.I •• )
7{ Skeleton ana Ivsi s 115
__ . l
~
~ ..... Coord ina ti ()I1 117
/.1
~ S S11 mrnu r y and coriclusi on 120
I . {
Exe rc ise s 121 8 13 as ic and Oeri ved S tructu res

8."1 Const iruent strucru re gramTIlar

8.2 Basic and derived structures

8.3 ~.4 8.5

· M issi I1g~ elements Spl it constituents

~ I) () II b 1 e a I , a 1 v s is'

~

123 .123 "124 "126 "I )9

"130

CONTENTS

••

VII

8.6 Back to parsing

8.7 Sty le and structure-changing rules

8.H SU111111J.ry and conclusion

Exercises

133 134 "137 137

Part (.~ Applications

'139

9 W'orking with Discourse: Speech and Writing

9."1 1 ntroductiori

.9.2 Speech and writing: which comes fi rst?

9.3 Functions of writing a nd speech

9.4 The forrn of speech and wri ti ng

9 ~5 Li ngu isti c ch a ra crer I s tics () f speech and w rm ng

Y~6 An analysis of spoken and written discourse

9. 7 Conclusion

Exe rcise 5

141 14"1 "141 "142 143 ]44 151 154 154

"10 \\' orking with Discourse: Tenor and Domain 10.1 Introduction

1 O~2 Tenor

"[ 0.3 Tenor and disc-au rsc "10.4 Domain

10.5 Dorn a in and discourse

10.6 Corn hining categories of use Exercises

156 156 156 159 162 164 "166 168

11 Working with Literary Discourse 11.1 How to ana lyse style

11.) Illustrative extract

11+3 Outli ne an a lysis (with questions for fu rrhcr study} 11 +4 Fu rther ill ustrativc extracts fur d iscu ssion Exercises

172 172 179 lS0 J8l 182

12 Grammar and Problems of Usage 184
12+1 Opin ions a bout gr3.J11nlar 184
12.2 P rescri pri ve 'rul cs' 185
12.3 The prj es ts 0 f l.l sage 186
1) .4 Problems of personal pronoun~ 187
1) - The problem of number concord "190
_.)
"]2.6 The problem of the generic mascu 1 inc 19"t
12.7 Problems of ellipsis "191
1 ).8 Da ngl ing tcnsclcss cla uses "192
1 ).9 Conclusion "194
Exercises "194 ....

VIII CONTENTS

13 Crammar and composition 13 ~ "1 C; ra In mar and ~r ri ti ng

13.) "M ake your language easy to follow' 13.3 ~Bc clear'

13.4 ~Bc cconornica l'

"j .3 +5 L Be cl C3 r hu t co ncise ': cl a r i ty versus CCOll 0 m r "13+6 'Be effective'

Exercises

196 196 196 201 202 203 )05

206

Notes

209 )28

Ansu..1(~rs to Exercises

Further Reading Index

)30

233

Foreword to the Second Edition

The well-deserved success of rhe Fi rst Edition of English Grammar for 'l'oday a rnong a wide a udience of students and teachers has occasioned its timely publ ication in an updated and expanded version. Perhaps ITIOre than ever ~ wi th the in tern a tio n ali sa t ion of English and the cxp ails ion of its litera tu res, all scholars of the L1 nguagc require a clea rand k nowlcdgcable guide (0 the complexities and nuances of the gra m m ar in both its spoken and wr itrcn [orms. There can be 110 better introduction than this: no authors more expert and practised in delivering 3. clear and aut horirativc account of the la nguagc.

Cognisant of the needs of the reader, the authors have added a chapter with an exempla ry explanation of the roles and terminology of Eng1 ish granll11ar. The clarity and detail of Cha pter 2 makes it a 1 and mark inaccessible i ntroducrions to grammar + T 11 addition, taking into account the nU111erOUS signi ficanr changes in the evolution, employment and functions of English th roughnut the world, the a uthors have incorporated new and useful discussions of the globalisar ion of English and its usage in electronic forms of d iscour sc. These a ceo u n ts wi 11 p rove in v 31 u a b I e for as scss i ng the ro le of English in current-day cornrnunica tions. Throughout the book, exa mples employed in ilJ ustra ti ng points, and references given, ha ve also been thoroughly revised, making this one of the 1110St valuable a nJ perti ncnt textbooks a va ila ble.

There C30 he 1 ittlc doubt that this edition of English Grammar (or Today responds SLl pcrbly to the req uirernents of contemporary students and scholars alike, and is of very significant value in understanding, describing and appreciating English in all its varied Forrns. The English Association is delighted by the book's publication in this revised version, and is i mrncnsclv gra tefuJ to the authors for their ach ievcmcnt in enhancing th is already excellent book for new 3 udiences worldwide.

Plt()FESSOR Fl_A.lNE TH._EHARl\TE President of the English Association

ix

--

Preface

After being in print for over twenty years, the first edition of this book was beginning to lose its entir lernenr to be ca 11 eel English Grammar (or Todav. J r was time to prepare :1 new edition, bringing the book up to da te, and tak ing account of w hat v .... c ha ve learned over the intervening decades. The result is a thorough 1 y revised and upda ted book that is proud of its title once more!

J r is interesting, though, to trace what has been happen] I1g [0 grarnn1ar cduca tion during this period. \Xlhile the reach i ng of English grammar has rcrna ined in high demand, students and teachers have continued to have a 'Iovc--ha te' lela tion with the subject. /\s David Crystal J.rgllCS:

I n the past few yea rs, the study of gra m mar, in an cducati onal context, h.15 come of J.ge. r rom being a topic of marginal interest, beloved by a fcyv~ hated by 111'-lny, (lIH.-) ignored by most, it has moved into the centre of pedagogical attention. You I11ay srill love it, or hate it, but you can 110 longer ignore it. (Crystal ~ l\laking Sense of Grammar, 20(4)

ln the U 1(., gra mm.ir has become pa rt of the N arional Cu rriculum for pri Ina ry (_llh.l scconda ry cd Ll ca ri o n, \v he rcas ba ck in 19 ~2 it \V:-1 san eglectcd S II h j cct. Tn h is preface to the fi rsr edition of English Grammar for T oday (;coffrey Harlow of the Fngl ish Association made clear the feel ing many educated people had at rhnt rime: that J. whole tradition of grammatical knov .. dcdgc was on the wane a nd that grammar had to be reborn. There was a musty, dry-a s-d ust tradition, \'V hich in our preface we described as i1 spectre h41 unting 'our colleen vc consciousness in the form of a Victorian schoo 1 master instilling guilty' leelings about split infinitives and dangllng participles".

Tha t trad ition has now 13 rgely disa ppea red: it has passed i ntu history, along wi t h the \l ictorian schoolmaster. There has emerged instead a new consciousness of the importance of gr3.1l1n13T as a key part of language education. Y et 111J.ny students and, indeed, teachers still find it di fficu lt to engage scri ously with the intellectual content of grammar. It is often fel~- to be too ana lytic, and \Jifficult' ill rhe way mathcma tics is assumed to he.

In contrast, our feeling, based on years of teaching, is that the inrcllectunl challenge is pa rt of what makes grarnrnar rcwardi ng~ The important point is that the an.i] y t ic part of g_ranl rna r education can not be separated frorn the stud v of its corn m unicati vc function.

~

A._ gal n ~ as Cr y s tal puts j r, L G r a III 111 a r ~ s t: he stu d y 0 f h () v./ sen t e 11 c e S 111 c an', 0 r

more explicitly, '{;ra Tl1 mar is the srructu ral foundation of our ability to express ourselves" {Crystal, iVLlking Sense of Crantmnr, 2004, P+ 9). In this book we take care to provide an overall rrea tment of grarnnla T in the context of COTl1 municarion, a nd especially the a bi lity of grammar lO explain and promote the successful a nd effective usc of la nguage.

x

PREFACE xi

The purpose, structure and content of English Grammar for Today

Th is book has a Ttl u 1 ri plc purpose. 1 t is pr i 111;) rily designed J.~ a cou rsebook for students at the top secondary levels and the initial tertiary levels (especially first-year university students)' but ir 1 s a lso adapted to the needs of reachers interested in applying an up-to-da tc approach to gra m 111:1 r , or of anybody keen to catch up with a subject raking on new importance in rhc educational system.

] ronically, al though this book originated to meet a spcci fie need in J. British eel uca riona l context) it was found to be I110rC in dern and in COl] ntrics outside the lJK, including countries where English is a second or foreign language. In the new edition we have r.rkcn (_'3_fC to address this wider intcrnatiuna l educational audience.

SOIne of the book is devoted to the correcting of preconceptions. Pa rr A (In r roduction) is nlea nt to provide a fresh or ien t;l tion: d ispcil ing lllyths1 ;) nd sec kin g to jus t i f y. a 11 e \v r ceo g nit ion 0 f the val U C 0 f g r a m m a r i 11 pre sen t - day education. Here, also, in the second chapter, as a gentle introduction to gr3.111n1ar for the student unfamiliar with the basic concepts, wc introduce some of them by applying them to the st rucru rc of words: morphology. Part B ( A 11 31 y sis L the n 1 a 1 n par t 0 f the boo k ~ pre sen t s a III c tho d for des c r i h i n g the gra mm a t i ca l srructu rc of se n tences + Pa rt C (A P plica ti on s.} s hows h O\V this 111 e tho d 0 fall a 1 y sis can be use d ·i nth est u d y 0 f dis C 0 u r S. e and sty lei nth e i r broadest senses, incl uding the deve loprncnt of written la ngU;lgc sk ills.

The systcIn of grarnmatica I a nalysis introduced in Pa rr B is based on rha t found in Randolph Qu irk et ;.1 L, A Comprebenstue Grammar of the fnSjlish Language C19S5), and its adaptations for student usc j n Green ba urn and Qu irk, A Student' s Crannnar of the English Languag« (1990) and Leech and Svartvik~ i\. Commurucatiue Grammar of l~nglish (Jrd cdn, 2002) + I t is J. framework that h as been widely adopted in the study of English a round rhe world: it makes 1 n formal use of modern developments in linguistics, hut docs not depart without good reason frorn trad itional terms and categories tha t \VC C 3. 11 C o n sid era corn n 1 011 C U 1 tu r a 1 her ita g e . l\';.1 t: u r ally, at t his f o U n d a t 10 11 1 cv c I ~ the framework has to be considerably si m pli fied. 'G ram rna r ', for our purpose, is defined in a narrow sense fot which nowadays the term "syntax' is so 111 eri mes 1.1 sed. It mea us 1'0 ugh I y 'rh e r ulcs fo r co n s tru cti 1"1 g sell tell ccs ou t 0 f words', but: it: takes account of how words are structured, \'\. .. hat words and sentences mean, and how they arc used in communication.

\Yi e provide exercises a t the end of each chapter, but the! r function in each part is S0111C\\? ha t di fferen t. For Pa rt A t h c cxcrci ses a re III C ~·1 n r to en co urage students' interest as well as S0J11e new thinking about gr:1n1Inar~ In Part B the e xe rei ses 3. re In uch L110 re full y ill teg ra ted ill to the lea rn i ng P recess: stu den t· s need to test and consolidate their 11 ndcrstanding of the system by doing the exercises as they progress. I n Parr C: the exercises in Chapters 9-13 invite the student to tryout the system of grammatical analysis 011 different varieties and uses of English. Here grammar is related to other levels of language, such

-

••

XII PREFACE

as mean Ing and vocabulary ~ as pa rt of the total functioning of language as (l

. ,

C()nlI11lJ rncanon system.

The hook is designed to be used as a courscbook: each chapt-er provid ing one or t\VO weeks' work, though the exercises arc varied in form and pllrpose~ Most of the exercises corisi st of problems with more or less definite answers, and in these cases answers are gi veri at the back of the book (pp. 209-27). But so nle cxcrc i ses - In ainl y th ose in ell a p rers S}-"Il - a re open-en ded tasks to w hich no answers can be given. The exercises which have answers provided are recogn i 7a b le by ~ a nswe rs on p. . .. ' a longsidc the head ing, Stu d en rs using rh e book fo r p ri va te stud y \\0' ill ga i n con s id era b lc feed ba ck, \\7 h il e teachers using the book as a class book will find enough rnarcria I for week-by-week preparation and discussion, in addition to the exercises which studcn ts can check for themselves.

F ollowing the answers to the exercises, we list books and articles for further reading (on pp. 230-2) ~ The list is alpha betical hut the puhi ications arc also i isred by topic.

Although the book does not include a glossary of technical terms, (he funcrion of a glossary can be matched by careful LIse of the index, where technical terms of grarn mar arc 1 isrcd alphabetically, together with the pages on »: h ich they arc i 11 trod uced and cxp 1 a ined.

Changes from the first edition

Those familiar with the first edition of English Grammar for Today should ha ve little di fflculty adapting to this new edition. Here are the main areas of change:

• To ease the Introduction to gra m mar for those unfamiliar with the subject, \VC have added a new Ch a p rer 2, ~Gctti ng 5 tarted v: i the ra In n13 r ' :I incorporating some of the materra] from Chapter 1 of the original edition. One consequence of this is to equalize the length of the chapters: all the chapters in the book are now roughly of equal length, a ruaj or ad vantage if it is being used as a classroom coursebook. Another conscq uence, less fortuna re, is that the n umbers of al ~ the chapters following Chapter 2 are increased by one. Thus Chapter 2 of the first edition becomes Chapter 3 of the new ed irion, and so on+ The su bsecrions of each of these chapters, however, remain the same, so that (for example) section 2.5 of the first edition becomes section 3.5 of the ne\ov edition, section 7.3.4 becomes section X.3~4, and so on. In this way t it will be easy to match chapters and sections of the 0 ld edition to eq ui va len t ch a pters and sect ions of the new edition.

• The language of explanation has been simpl ified where possible.

• \Y'/c ha ve used many new examples, often frorn a uthentic sources in spoken and written corpora of the language+ These examples have been simplified or adapted w here n ecessa ry.

PREFACE

.....

XIII

• \Xlh ile rhe system of grarnmatical analysis remains almost enri rel y the sa T11C as that of the first edition, we have simplified notation to some extent, and ha ve m ade more use of tree diagrams, which students tend to fjnd easier than labelled bracketing nota tion. In t\VO cases we have made a change of terminology. \Y'/e ha vc used the term TEKSF,T) instead of fINITE and the term TEN SELESS instead of N II N - F I ~TTr~~ w i th rcfc renee to vcr b sand verb phrases. This change is made because 'finite' and 'non-finite", although traditional, are not tra nsparent terms for J. student today. "Tensed' and "tenseless " on the other hand, arc increasingly US(Xl) and have the merit of nanling the rna jar defi 11 ing criterion of the classes they refer to. l~he other cha nge is to rep lace "tra n s for 111 a ri () 11' in Ch 3. ptcr H by 'structu rechanging ru le' .

• Vile ha ve upda ted some of the extended passages and accornpa nying dis c us s ion S 0 f reg i s t c r va rat ion ill Ch J. pte r s 9 a 11 d lOb y S 11 b s t j t uti n g rn are recent passages. \Xl e have also given some attention to new electron ic modes of communication, such as e-mail.

.. Chapter "I2l on problems of usage, has also been adapted to changi Ilg habits and issues of English grammatical usage+ For e x a mple, the debate about I ioill and 1 shall referring to the future is largely Irrelevant today, as the usc 0 f 5 ba]! has become inc rea si ngl y ~ n freq 1I en t.

\Xie hardly need to add that the fina 1 sections of the book - the answers, fu rthcr reading and ind ex ~ h a ve "been tho rou gh 1 y rcvi sed, to rna tch the needs of the new edition.

Ackncudcdgement: Geoffrey r .ccch records his gratitude to Mick Short, his co 11 e a g u eat Lan cas t e r ~ for his co TTl me 11 t son the fi r s ted i t i 011; and t o firs t - yea r students at the Universiry of \Xlales, Bangor, in 2003 and 2004, for following this courscbook with apparent enthusiasm in trying out new III a teria Is in prepa ra ri on for the second cdi tio n.

1 .ancas ter, England

GF,OFFR r.v I~F~F.(_~I"l in association with NfARGARFT DF.lJ(] -IAR and Rl)r~F.RT HOO(;f~NR~A_AD

-

Symbols and Conventions

The sections where the symbol or convention is first introduced, and where the gr;l mrna tical cat~gory is most full y discussed, ~l re here shown in brackets.

Labels

Function labels

A Aux C Co Cs

H M

Adverbial (4r ') .4; 6. "L]) Auxiliary verb (3.5~3~ 5.5) Corn plement (4.2.3; 6."[ +2) Object complement ((,"~6) Suhject: complement (4.2+.3; 6~6)

Head (3. S ~3; 5. 1 )

(Pre- or posr-lrnodificr (3 . 5 ~ 3; 5."1)

Mv o Od Oi p

S Voc

Form labels

~\(~l

Av AvP (~C~I

.

c]

(:]

d

e GP

_ .

IJ

j\lCI

•

XIV

Adverbial clause (7+ 1.1; : 2 )\

!. +-j

Adjective {3.5 r 1 ; 4.) ~3)

Adjective phrase (3.5+1; S ~4."J )

Adverb (3+5.1; 4.2.4)

Ad verb ph rase (~~LS."I; 5 ~4.2) COin par:l ri ve clause (/. ') ~4) {Sub()rd ina ring or

coord l na t i Ilg) C()I1 j U 11 cri 0 11 (4~1; 4.3.S)

CIa usc (3.2; Chap. 6) (for eli ~ (J i ng., Cl en, see be low) D e t e r 111 i 11 C r (4. 1; 4 . .3. 1 ;

- ") 2~

_) ..», !

En 1] n 1 e r ~1 tor (4 . "1; 4 ~ ~L 3 ) (~cnitive phrase (.5."1; 5.3~4) In r e rj ec t ion (4 J ; 4 . .3 + 7) Main clause (6.2)

?\l l':Cl NP

P PC:l

Ph pll pp

It(]

,

~ s

S(J

Se

Main verb {3.5 ~3; 5.5) o bjccr C~~5 .2; 6.1.2) Direct object (6.6) indirect object (6.6)

Pre d i cat 0 r ( .3 + 5 . 2; 6 ~ 1 . 'I ) Subject (3.S.'); 6.1.1) Vocative (6.6)

N 0 11 11 { 3 .5+ 1; 4.2."J)

N 0 U 11 C L1U s e (7 ~ 1. J; 7. 2 . "J ) Noun phrase (3.5.1; 5.3.1) Prcposi tion (3.5.3; 4.3.4) Prcposirinnal cla usc (7 .1 ~5) Phrase (J.2~ Chap. 5) Pronoun (4~"1; 4.3+2; 5.3.2) Prepositional phrase (3.5.1; 5 . .3.3)

R e 1 a ri v e cl a 11 sc (7 ~ ) .3)

Gen itive marker (5 + 1.; 5.3.4) Subordinate clause (6. );

"I "] ~

/ • ~ I

Sentence (.3+"))

\l crb CL5."'; 4+1.2) (used for full-verb or operator-verb) Operator-verb (4.1; 4~~) .6) Verb phrase (3.5.1; 5.5) \~/ord {3.))

SYMBOLS AND CONVENTIONS XV

Composite labels

Cl, A (:1, (:(:1, N(:1 and It (:1 combine with i, ing, en to form composite la bels for tcnsclcss cla usc types:

Cl i I nfi n itivc clause

Cling Clen

i ng-cla 1.1SC en-cia IlL~C

(6J~; for A(]cn, N(:1i~ ctc., sec 7~4)

\l combines w i th 0, s, ed, i~ ing, en to form cornposi te 1 a bels for tensed and tcnsclcss vcr b fo rrn s:

Yo vVed v:

Present tense or base form

Third-person singular present tense f01'l11 Past tense forln

infinitive (5+5.1.)

(4.2.J~ 4.3.6~ 5.5.1)

Ving ing- (or present) participle

\' en Ct1- (or past) pa rriciplc

} (4.2.2, 4.3.6.5.5.1)

Specialized labels

The following symbols are used, rna in 1 y III 5.5, for su bclasscs of Aux a nd v:

Perf

I\·"1 oda 1 (5 ~5) Passive voice (5.5) P rogrcss i vc a speer (5.S}

Perfective aspect (5.5~

\ :

V: be Primary verb to be (4.3.6; 5 +5)

do ~ L)un1111Y' verb do (5 +5; 5 +5.2)

hv Primar y verb to bauc (4.3+6; 5.5)

rn Modal verb (4.3.6; 5.5)

Aux: Mod Pass Prog

The following particles (4.3.8) arc used as their own labels:

It nor

, e n 1 p t y' s u hie c tit ( R . 7 ~ ·1 ) clause ncg:·l [ion marker

(4.4)

t here 1:0

.;; - '1 'f (O 7 .J)

C X I S fen r 1:1 t.1 P. r e o .:. . L...

infini rive [11:1 rkcr (4.4)

Brackets and other separators .r 1

( )

( ) { }

around (1 auses }

I 1 (3 +3 · 1 )

3 rou nc p 1 ra ses

separates word constituents (3.3+])

encloses t\VO or more coordina tes (7.7)

encloses 311 optional constituent: one that C[In he omitted (3+4.4)

links interrupted constituents of a unit (6."1.3): c.g. (/s (he) hillding)?

Labelling

An asterisk (~~) precedes an ungrumrnu ricul construction (3.5 +·1).

Form Ll bels (3.5.1) ha ve an ini tiul capital for open cl asses, 4:111<:1 lov'r'er case for closed classes. They are written as su bscri prs before t he open ing bracket or before the wo rd: NP{pn You~).

•

XVI SYMBOLS AND CONVENTIONS

function labels (1.5.2) are in italics in the text; when wrrtmg them, usc undcrli ning: e.g+ lIse >. for S+ They arc written as supcrscr: pts before the opening bracket or before the word: Voc (Hyou!) ~

Function plus fornl labels (4~2.'~:I 4.3. H): the function ia be] is written above the form label: ~p (~n Youl).

Skeleton analysis (7.6)

The plus symbol +- stands for (he coordi na ring conjunction in linked

.l , - II 7'

cooruma rIO 11 \.; .,. ).

TIH:~ COTI11113. is used between coordiua res in unlinked coordination (7.7+ 'I).

Tree diagrams (3.3~2)

Sec 6.9 on how to build up a fully la belled tree diagram,

Use of italic, bold and capitals

italic type is used for examples of language quoted or cited ill the text, as in: 'The single word Fire can be a complete sentence'. I talics arc also used for the titles of books, and for dra wing a ttention to particu lar words or expressions in a displayed ex a mple, e.g. 'The earl» train arrived early ~ ~

CAPrr.l\LS are used for tcchn ical or gran11113tical terms, where these are introduced and/or explained, as ill: 'The sma llcst units of grammar are known as A~:l() RPI -Ir.MES.'

Bold type is used for other kinds of ern phasis, with the a im of drawing you r attenti on to particu L.1 r words or expressions which arc more important in rhe con rex l t ha TI orh crs, as: '\\lh i eb 0 f the fo H O\'\" ing no U l1S 3_ re co un t nouns and wh ich are mass nouns?'

\'X.rhcl1 ~'l sentence is quoted in italics, bold italic is sometimes used to highlight pa rricular words in rhe sentence for you r a rrention, as in: 'The cook doesn l, actually cook the meat.

Acknowledgements

The a uthors and publishers wish to thank the following for permission to use cop yr i gh t n13. tcri a 1: B ri tish Broad ca s ti ng Co rp () r a t i on fo r extracts Irorn Neursheat , BB(~ Radio 1~ 13.8+04 [hbc.co.uk/radio l zuews/main news/ main .shtml] and. BEe Sport, Radio 4, 13.8.04 [news, bbc.co. uk /sporr l /h i/ olyJnpics~2004/; Church House Publishing for the Confession horn C'On1JnOH Worship: Services and Prayers for the Churcb of i:ngldl1(i; Copyright ':{.) The Archbishops" Council, 2000; rATA for extracts £ro111 the 1;\ T'A Passenger Ticket and Baggage Check ~ NT Syndication Ltd for an extract Fr orn 'Robbie Dumps Rachel: Superstar "[00 paranoid?", the Sun, l3.2.0J; Oxford University Computing Services for extracts from the l~ritjsh ?\~;ll'iollal Corpus:

Pet Mare Ltd for an extract from information supplied to pu rchascrs of a pet door; Son y lJK for an extract frorn an ad vertisemenr for rhe Sony' Cybcrshot digital camera; Trainlinc.corn Ltd for an extract From ~1 telephone dialogue be r ween a cus to mer a nd a rail wa y ticketi ng ser vice; \l a l.l x hall Motors L rd for extracts fro III "1980 prtss and television ad vertiserncnts for the \' auxhall Chevette car; David I\lc[(ce for .the letter on P+ "1.57.

Every effort has hccn made to trace the copyright holders but if any ha ve been inadvertently overlooked the pu b] ishers will he pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first· opportunity ~

xvii

itz

Introduction

What Crammar Is and Is Not

.. . . .

1.1 Grammar and its role in language

It is important frorn the outset to be clear about what \VC m can by the term C;R.A. M MAR in this hook+ Many people think of grammar as a rather boring school su bject which has little use in real lite. They may have COll1C across the concept in lea rning la nguages 1 ike French or La tin, in English composition, or in the explanations of teachers as to what is 'good ~ or ~bad) grammar. So gran11nar is 0 ftcn assoc i a ted in people's mind s w i th one of the foIl owing ideas: a dead language such as I .a ti n ~ 1 ea rni ng how to \\or ri te 0: proper 1 y' ~ or learning what 'good English' is. None of these ideas about grammar is corn p letel y w 1'0 ng, but colleen vel y they gi vc qui te the wrong picture of VI! ha t gra mrnar is about and what grammar is for.

I n this book we use the term 'grammar' to refer to the mechanism by which language works when we C0111111Unicatc with other people. \'X?e cannot see grarrl mar concretely, because it is represented rather abstractly in the h u man III ind, but we know it is there because it works. One way of describing gra III rn a r is as a set of ru les which allow us to p II t \VO rds together ill certa i n ways, but not in other ways. Ar some level, speakers of a language must know these rules; otherwise they would not be able to put words together in a meaningful way,

Even if they have never heard of the word 'gramn1ar~ all native speakers of English (i.c, those who have lea rned English as their first language) know at least unconsciously that adjectives are placed before nouns in English. You would get unanimous agrce1l1cnt among English speakers tha t The blue book is on the table (where blue is an adjective, book. a noun) is 8. possible sentence, whereas "the book blue is on the table is not.

If we study the grammar of our native language, then we are trying to make explicit the know ledge of the language that \VC already have. We m ight do this out of pure curiosity as to how language works, but we might also find the know ledge useful for other purposes. \Y/ c might wish to teach English to fa re i gn ] a ngu a ge s peakers ~ for exam p lc, o r \\70 r k out how a fo reign 13 n gu age

3

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4 PART A: INTRODUCTION

is different from our own. Or \\.:e might want to work out how the language of poetry or advcrtisi Ilg makes a 11 i mpact on LlS~ or lCJ r n to criticise and i mprove our own style of wri ring.

So far w e h a V C s J. ide r 11 del y t h a r g rat n In a r is a wa y 0 f p II t t j n g \V 0 r d s together, but we have said little about sound or meaning. \x/e can think of g_ranl rna r as being J. central part of la nguage, which relates sou nd and mean ing. The meaning of any message con veyed by language has to be converted in ["0 words put together accord i ng to grammatical rules, and these words a rc then conveyed by sound. The term PH O N O L()(;Y is often used to 111C:1n the system of sounds in a language, (ll1d SE~:{j\N'rI(~S, the system of meaning. ] Ioweve r, III this book \VC will be concerned mainly with the central co 111 poricn t 0 f 1:1 nguage, C· Ri\,.Pvll\tAR. ~ \v h ich re 1 a res phonology a n d semantics, or sound and meaning. ·rhc relationship between the three C0l11 po nell ts is rcp rcsen ted 1 n F igure "I ~ 1 .

Semantics I... ....1 Grammar I· .. I PhorlOlogy

Figure I. 1

SO 111C3.11 i ngs ~·l rc conveyed, VIa granlnla r , in sou nd; but v .. -h at a hour writing? One of the ideas \v hich many people have about graTIl111ar is that it has to do with the written language. The word ~gran1nl~.lr' In fact goes back to the Greek gramma , meaning "something written, a letter of the alphabet", but although statements about the origin of words such as this may be i n t ere s till ~ his tor i call y, \V C C a 1111 0 t rel y 011 the 111 tot c II u S the C II r r e n t ITl e ani n g of the word, as mean ings ch ~·l nge in time. Traditionally, gr:.un m a r did ha ve to do with the written langu agc, cspeciall y the Latin language, wh ich continued to he stud ied and used in its wri rtcn form long after it had ceased (0 he general 1 y spoken. But the wr itrcn farrn of a language is really only sccorida r y ro irs spoken fornl~ which developed fi rsr + Children learn to speak before rhcy IC~l r n to wri te. \X.'her~as they learn [0 speak natu rally, without tuition, frorn (he Ll nguuge they hear around them, they ha ve to be taugh t to v .. .r itc - that is, to convert their speech into a written or secondary torrn. Yet writing perfo r m sail ex trao rdi na r ily i 111 porta nr fu n cti on in our cultu rc (sec Chapter 9) ~ (1 nd in this book we view gra In Tl1 a r as a mechanism for produei Ilg borh speech and w rrnng. \~/ c can now [nod ify our previous diagram ~ as sh OVv'l1 in Figure 1.1~

Semantics I... ...1 Grammar I...,...._-""

Phonoloqy or writing systems

Figure 1.2

WHAT GRAMMAR IS AND IS NOT 5

1.2 'Good' and 'bad' grarnl11ar

The val u e re r In s ~ go 0 d' and ~ ba d' don 0 rap ply r 0 ~ g r a [111 n a r ' in r h c wa yin which ~'C are using tha t term in this hook. If we view gran1111ar as a set of rules which describe how we use 1.1 ngllagc, (he rules themselves are neither good nor bad, though they 1111ght he described V\1(JI or badly in a description of how the language works.

Lingu isrs w ho write gran1nlars are concerned wi th describing how the language works r a thcr than dictating, or prescribing, how it should be used. So if 1 t is corn 1110n for people (0 usc sentences such as .!vIe and Kim are good [rlends, then descriptive graIll mar has to allow for this type of sentence in its ru les. People concerned with prescription) however, 111 ight consider this to be an example of 'bad granl111ar' ~ and Blight suggest rh.u Kim and 1 are good friends would be a better sentence. But w ha t is considered hetter or \VOr5C is of no co n cern to a descri pti v e linguist in \v ri ti n g ~l gr am m a r r hat ;·1 ceo un (S fo r the 'A~ay people actually use language. If people are (0111 municari ng effectively with language, then they must be following ru les, even if those rules are nor universally approved+ So the role of the linguist is si In dar to the role of the a nth r 0 pol o g i s t \ov h 0 ~ i f ask edt 0 des c r 1 be a p ;·1 r r 1 C ul a r cul ru r c ~ s c a t i 11 g h a bits) would be expected to do so w irh out ex pressing a personal opinion as to what they should be 1 i k e. The la ttcr would he a prescriptive approach. It is probably 1110re di fflcu It, though, to avoid bei ng prescriptive when dealing with our owri cultu reo As speakers of the! r native language, many people have ideas or prescri pti ve notions a hour how ir should be used. N cvertheless, we shou ld be a hlc to sepa rare the expression of our own or other people 's opinions frot"n the activity of dcscribi ng actual observed language beha viour +

A lthough the focus of this book is to be 011 descriptive granllllar~ we have (0 recognise rhe existence of prescriptive rules, such J.S the "rule' rha t sa ys we should avoid phrases beginning with Aile and at the beginning of a sell tCI1CC~ (This 'rule' was broken in the example quoted above - 1,1 e and K im are good friends.) Prescriptive rules are clearly not grarnrna rica 1 rules in the sa T11e sense as descriptive rules, so it rnight be appropriate to ca II them ru les of grarnIl1;] tica 1 appropriateness. Then we can ~ee that \v hat SOT1le people ca n 'bad gran1nlar' is something like "bad mariners' ~ i.e. it is sorneth ing yOLl might want to avoid doing, if you wished to gi vc a good impression. SOll1C peop lc consider it had manners to put one's elbows on the table \vhile e.u ing and yet, fr0111 a descriptive point of view ~ it O(C11 ts rather often. A 1 J the sa me, people who ea t regularly at horne with their el bows on the table might J. void doi ng it at a formal d inner party ~ simply because it \voldd not he fitting bcha viour in such a setting, Sirnilar ly, there are occasions when being on one's hcsr linguistic beh a viour means obeyi ng ru les (e~g. saying or writ: ng Kiln and 1 rather than hlf C and K itn) which one would not normally adhere (0 in private

,

conversation.

For a m 0 m en t, let's g o h a c k t: 0 the :l n ( h ro polo g is t s r 11 d yin g soc i ale II s to 111 S .

In some SOCieties it is f:1 mously considered 'good forlll' for all invited gll~st to burp a ppreciari vel y after eating. But i 11 other societies a burp, \~/ hcther apprecia rive or 110t, is avoided as a faux pas. The anthropologist would not

b

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try to judge which of these t\VO habits is the 'correct one'. Instead, his or her joh would he simply to describe such di fferen t a rtitudes and patterns of behaviour. lienee anthropologists can even be descriptive in giving an account of prescriptive norms, And the same is true of grammarians.

This leads to the poi nt rha r, 3S well as knowing the gra Oln13 tical rules of a language, its speakers also ha ve to know how to use the language appropriately, and th is often involves a choice between different options associated with different I~A NGlF J.A.G£ V ;\1\'lE TIES.

1.3 Variation in language

1.3 t 1 Introduction

T ak i ng a rigid ly prescriptive approach to la nguage, we Blight S11ggCSt rha t there \VJ,S just one, "correct' form of the 1 a nguage that everyone shou ld use. ~l C m igh t recogni se rha t not eve ryone s pea ks this ~ correct' £0 rrn 0 f th e language, hu t we would describe any other forrn as simply \vrong.

If, however ~ we take the descriptive approach explored in this hook, we cannot disrn iss a 11 ,.' forn15 of language in regular use as incorrect: we have to be prepared to descri be all varieties of language.

f\ descriptive approach recognises that there arc m a ny varieties of a [angu age such as F~ ng 1 t s h. \Y./ e can id en rify Amcr ica 11 s as spea k 1 ng in a J ifferen t wa y. £ro111 B ri ti sh pcopl e, n ort he rners from souther ncrs, you ng From 0 ld, V~! hi te-co lla r f 1'0111 h J uc-co 1] a r Vi 0 rk e rs ~ and men from women. So la ngll a ge \\0' ill vary according to who its IJSP~RS a te. t\ user's speech might well reflect. several of these characteristics simultaneously: for example, a young woman \\'i11 speak differently from both a young roan and an older woman.

So language can vary frOITI user to user, depending on the user's personal characteristics+ This docs not 111Can that each person speaks 3 uniform variety of language which never changcs. ()f course, speech can change as personal characteristics change: 3S a young person becomes older, a northerner moves sou th, 0 r soci a l-c1 aSS ruern bersh i p ch a 11 ges as a res u 1 t of ed uca ti on, for exam plc. In addition, a person "s language \V1H va ry according to the USE it is put to in different situations. For example, the \vay you ta lk to a friend will be differcnt frorn the way you talk to a stranger. The way you talk on the telephone will be di fferent from the way you talk to someone face to face, and you will use yet another va riety in writing an e-mail or a text message. Your language will also vary according to what subject you are dealing with, e.g. sport, politics or religion. The varia tion of 1anguage according to its use means that cach user h as a \;Y' h ol era nge of 13 nguagc var j cries w h j ch he o r she learns by experience, and knows ho\v to use appropriately. If you ta lked in the classroom as you would in the pub, you might be considered poorly educa ted (you might be using 'had graTll rna r' from a prescriptive point of view), and if you addressed your friend as you would your teacher, you might he laughed at.

Let's now consider variation in language according to user and use in more detail.


1.3 .. 2 Variation according to user: dialect

The characteristics of the language user which can a ffecr la nguagc include the following: regional origin, social-class mern bersh ip, age and gender. /\ useful rcrm in connection wi th these cha ra cteri s ti cs is Dr A Lf (~T. Th is is often used to reflect regional origin ~ as in, for example, New England dialect, Cockney (London) dialect ~ but can be used to refer to any language variety related to the personal cha racreristics 1 istcd above.

Regional variation

~/e can often tell where a person comes from by the way he or she speaks. Depending on how familiar we are with th-e variety of 8. gj ven region, we m ay be able to identify, for example, Cockney ~ G laswegian (G lasgow), Scousc (Liverpool) or Geordie (Tyucside) speech. On an international level, we 111 ight be able to identify dialect features of (say) Australia n, Canad 1 a n, Ca ri bbcan or Singaporean English. \Y./ e can identify speech on the basis of its pronunciation, vocabulary or gt31nn1ar. For exa mple, in Yorksh ire dialect, as in S0111C other northern England dia leers, the words put and putt arc pronounced alike beca use the vowel found in the standard or southern pran uncia ti on of \~/ a rds such a s putt, bus, cup, etc, is not used. Regie na I dialect traits of pronunciation a re often refcrred to as IlEGl()): AL i\CC"EN1·, Y 0 r k shire d ia le ct a 1 so has 1 t s 0 w n voca b u 1 a ry, fo r ex a m ple th e us e 0 f the word happen to mea n perhaps. Finally, on the level of gr ammar, the dialect ha s uiere as the pa st tense of the vcr b be in all its forms, 50 tha t ~ fo r exa m pie, he uiere is corn J110n Iv heard 1 nstcad of he uras. So dialect (an be identified on

~

the levels of pronunciation, vocabulary and grall1lnar.

At th is point we should ern phasise tha t the rerrn 'dialect' does not imply an incorrect or deviant usc of language: it is simply used to mea n a va r icty of 13 ngll age detc rill i ned by the ch aracteristi (:$ of its u set.

As standard English has become the best-known va riery of English, and is ha bi tua II y used in pub lie, especia 11 y \ov ri tten, (om m un 1 ca ti 0 n, 'Are will U sc it for analysis in Part B of this book+

Soc l al s t ra ti f1 ca ti 0 n

The extent to which we can identi fy social-class dialects is controversial, but the socia I strati fica ti on does ce rta in 1 y affect th c va ricty 0 f the ] a nguage used, In Britain there is a very noticeable relationship between social stratification and the use of sta nda rd and non-standard speech: the 'Iiighcr' you are up the social scale, the less likely you arc to usc non-standard or regionally identifia hie speech. This means that it is not usually possible to identify the regional background of ~ for example, an u ppcr-rniddlc-class speaker educated at 3 pub 1 i c sc h 0 01. To m a kc this clear er, imagi n e tha t you tra vel f to m 0 n e en d of the country to the other, talking only to manual workers, and tapereeo rdi ng thci r speech ~ Then, on the \v a y back ~ yo II ta ke the sam e rou te, bu [ record only the speech of "professionals ~ such as doctors a nd teachers, On

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SPECIAL NOTE ON STANDARD AND NON .. STANDARD LANGUAGE

Sornetirnes, however, the term dialed may be used to refer to varieties of the language which are not STANDAR.D. Thus the expression he were mentioned on page 7 is considered to be an example of non-standard grammar.

The standard language is in fact just another variety or dialect: in English use th roughaut the world, th ere are si mi lar 'standardized' varieties wi dely accepted as the mast suitable for public communication. Beginning in Britain more than five hundred years ago. standard English became established as that variety which was generally used by southern British, educated speakers of the language, and In writing and in public usage including, nowadays, radio and television. It is sometimes known as 'BBC English' or even 'The Queen's English'. A similar standard (with some differences, for example, in spelling and pronunciation) exists for American English. Standard EngHsh is not inherently better or more 'grammatical' than non-standard English - all varieties are grammatical in that they follow rules. Clearly, standard English gained prestige for social rather than llnguistlc reasons. It was ultimately based on the usage of educated people living in the south-east of England, where the important institutions of government and education became established.

comparing the record ings you \VOU lJ expect to find more variation in the speech of the workers tha r in tha t: of the professionals. · lhe speech of workers would contain a higher proportion of tea rures which are not found in the standard language . Several of these fearu res would be found in 1110rc than one area: for example, done as the past tense of do is found in both Liverpool and London anl0ng work ing-class speakers (\\1 ho m ight say ~ for example, \\/ ho done it? as opposed to \\I!Jo did it?).

Age

Less is known about the effect of age on language V(1 riarion, but there are grarnmatica] features vv hich distinguish age dialects to some extent. For example, the question H aue you any money? would be more likely to be asked by a n older speaker of lnitish English than a younger speaker, who wou ld he more likely to use the construction (normal for American Engl ish):

Do you haue . + .? Y ounger speakers in both American and British English arc more 11 kel y to use 's like as a substitute for said in utterances 1 ike She '5 like, c c \X/ lso put that there?"

Gender

Differences of language bcha viou r between J11a le and female ha ve been a focus of great interest in recent years, hut it 1$ di Hiculr to come up with firm conclusions on granlnlar ~ because most research results cOU Id be influenced by situational factors, such as the ki nds of dialogue in w h ich spea k ers are


engaged. Bu t the fo llowi ng 3. re ex a L11 plcs \v here typical 1 i ngu i s til differences have hecn c la imcd between female and male speakers on the basis of convincing evidence:

Female speakers s how a tendency to use J110TC prestige pron uncia tions than 111 ell. For e x a m p 1 e, n 1 e 11 te 11 d r 0 II S e In 0 rc p T 0 11 un cia t 1 0 n s 0 f - i H ,~ a s / I n /, J. S in gettin'; flippin', crc., \V hercas women arc more incl incd to usc the standard pronunciation.

Males show a stronger tendency to use non-standard grammur , as in 1 ain't. done nothing. I didn't urant no trouble.

!Vi ales 3.1 so s h O\V a stro ngc r tend eric y to use ta bo 0 \~.1 0 rd sand ~ rud e ~ expressions.

Another difference is a tendency' among males to use less polite language, such as plain irnpera tive Iorms, e.g. Sit doiun. Fe m a Ie spea ktrst on the other ha rid, sh O\~~ a p rcfcrcn ce for I ess confron ta ti 0 n a 1 srrn teg i es~ S 1I ch as Let's sit doum, \Xl ()u/(/ you like /0 sit doum, etc.

It shou ld by now be clear rha t personal characteristics of the language user can combine to influence the variety of language used. The term '"dialc~T" has been used for convenience to i d en ti fv the effects of t hese ch a ra creri s ti cs .. as in'!

. ' "

for example, "regional dialect \ 'social-class d ialecr \ but these f.ictors are not

reall y sep ara tc ~ All the ch a ractcristi cs in teract w i tho n e ~11} ot her, so t h ~l t ~l n y indi vid u a 1 \~~ ills peak a la ng uage va ri ery TI13 dell p of fe u t L1 res a ssoci a red w i 1- h s eve r a I ~ d i a ] e c t s 'I. • l ' J. boo ex pre s ~ i o l1 S ~ fo rex a m pie, are ass o c i n ted ( n ) \0\' i rh males rather than females, (b) with lower social strata rather than higher, (lnd (c) witb younger people rather th an with older. Y011 mav well find these associations L1TlSll rprls1ng~

1.3t3 Variation according to use

As was pointcd out in "1.3."1, 110 user of language uses one uniform variety of language. Language also varies according to the LlSC to which it is put. \X/hile the term 'dia leer' is convcn icnr to refer to language variation according to the user, REC; ISTFJ~ can be used to refer to variation according to usc (or "sty lc' in ;1 g_cncr;ll sensc). Register can he SLl hdividcd into rl: rcc factor's of language usc, each of which affects the language variety. These are: ~rEN ()H._~ M () L)E and O()M;\Il'.

Tenor

This has to do with the rela tionship between a speaker a l1d the addressee.s) in d given siruari on) a nd is often shown by' gre~l ter or less forTll;ll i ry. For exa n1ple, u req uest to close the v v indow In ight he \\l auld you be so k.iJu.i as to close 'he iuindou/i in a very form a 1 sirua 1"1011, (0111 pa red \V1l h Sbut the ioi H d 0 U/ , J F. d 1 nan I n f o r rn a lsi t: 1.1 a t: I 01 L F 0 r n 1 a It t: y :11 soh as the c f fcc t 0 f producing speech which is closer to t he standard. rOT CX(lI11p]C, a witness in co 1.1 r t m 1 g h r bee arc f ul r 0 say / Ie d i c_{ n ., t (10 i t ~ Y () U r J-I 0 no 14 r, rat her t han 'E neuer done it , wh ich rnigh t be said to Cockney-speaking friends outside the

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I 0 PART A; INTRODUCTION

co urtroo m . .J.\ speaker h as to k n O\V v~r hie h 1 s the right kind of I anguagc to usc in which circumstances, though sorncri mes the wrong choice may be made delibera telv ~ for h timorous or iron ic effect,

Mode

This has to do with rhe effects of the medium in which language is transmitted. Spoken language used in face-to-face situations rcl ics 011 t11 :lny "non-verbal' signals such 3S gestures and faci a] expressions. On the telephone, however, the visual channel is not available so rha t, for example, Yes or Yeah has to be substituted for head-nodding. I n writing, only the visual channel is ;·1 v ~111 a b l e, so the effect of in rona ri 0 n, or ~ tone 0 f voi ce' ~ Cd nnot be (:0 n veycd, except ~ in part, by graphic means such as cxclarna l"1011 rna rk s and question 1T1 ~l r k s n ~ ?). \'Xl ri tten la ngu age us U3 11 y ill VO 1 vcs addressees w h a a re nut p resen t ~l nd so ca nnor respond immediately, and this has an effect on the language, For exn mp 1e, in letters or e-mail nlcssages, di reet a nd shortened questions tend to he less common than in con versarion, so that you m ight be Tl)OTt 1 ikcly to wri re somerh ing like Let me lenou/ iobether you are coming ra rher than Coming? The key ca tegory difference of 1110de is the d istinction between written and spoken L1 ngu~·lge~ and recently a fascinating 1l1crgcr of rhese modes has been tak ing place in electronic COTI1111Unic;1tion, using the internet. These matters wi 11 be given fll rther considera tion in Chapter 9.

Domain

This has to do \vith how language varies according to the h uma n actl v ity in which it play's ~l part. t\ seminar about chemistry, for example, will involve (1 wider range of VOC(1 bu 1 a ry ~ 1110re technical terms and possi bly longer sen rcnccs t h a 11 a co n ve rs at i on abo u t the we ather (unlcs s by I11CtCO ro 1 ogis ts!) . Similarly. the language 0 f a lega] docu ment will be different f1'0l11 rha t of an advertisement, and the language of d religious service will be different from t ha t of nc\vspa per rc po rt i ng. \X/ c ca nth u s re fer to d 0111 ains of chernis try) 1 a \V, religio 11 > a nd so () n.

As with dialect variation, the ca tegor ies of register variation have a com bined effect, so that \VC cannot really iden ri fy discrete registers any more t h a 1"1 d iscrete dialects. Further, di a leet and regi s rer va ri a tio n in tera cr wi t h each other since both the dimensions of user and use arc al ways present+

To SL.l T11111(l rive what has been said in this section, language varies according to hoth user and use. "\('hile certain persona] traits and dialect 'settings' \v111 characrerise the language LIse of a given person, that person 's language w 11 1 also reflect a range of registers appropriate for various uses.

1.4 English and other languages

1 .. 4~ I What is a language?

So fa r \VC ha ve shown r hat a l a ngu a ge such a s English has 1113 n y diffcrcn t varieties, which result [rom a corn bination of factors+

r

,

WHAT GRAMMAR IS AND IS NOT

I I

\'7e have not questioned the assumption, however, that a language made up of such varieties can be clearly disti ngu ishcd from all other languages. It is true that we ha ve separate la bels for di fferent languages, e.g. English, French, Chinese> but the existence of labels should not delude us into believing rha t these arc linguistica 11 y we 1] -d ef n ed en ri tics. () n c cri tcri 0 11 U sed to define a language is ~J U'Tl.IA 1. INTFLLIGTBILITY. According to this, people who can understand each other speak the same language, whereas those who cannot do not. But there are degrees of (on) prehension. For exam plc, southern British speakers of English may have di fficulty understanding Tyneside Engl ish ~ and American English speakers mu y find i (' virtually inco mpr ehensiblc. There is even less 11111tual intell jgi bi] i t"Jr in rhc g roup of 'dialects' referred to as Chinese: North Chinese speakers of Mandarin, for example, cannot understand Cantonese, though both usc the SJ.nlC written language, On the other hand, in Scandina via, speakers of Norwegian, Danish and S wed 1 sh can often und erstand on e an 0 t h er ~ eve nth ough they sp cak w hat arc called different languages. if Scandina via were one politico 1 entity") then these languages might be considered d 1 a leers of Just one language. So the criteria for defining languages, r a ther than being strictly linguistic, are often political anJ geogra ph lea L

J~4.2 Grammatical rules in English and other languages

If a langu age variety is viewed as 3. standard language rather than as ~1 dialect (usually for non-linguistic reasons), then it has more social prestige. This partly explai I1S, for example, the recent prolifera ting of+icia 1 recognition of distinct languages in Europe, where previously these h a d been 'officially disregarded as dialect varieties: Catalan, Galicia 1"1, Ulster Scots, Maccdonian, Croat, to mention a few. \X?hen a langu age va ricry docs not have social prestige, its gralll111.1 tical forms are sornet.i mes condemned as uncduca ted, 3S ~ bad g r a 111 111 a r '. T his is t r II e 0 f r her 1.1 1 e 0 fin u 1 tip 1 C 11 ega t i () n ins 0111 e Eng li S h dialects, for example, This rule a naVY'S sentences such as 1 didn't see nothing (~I didn't see anything'), \vhich do not occur in the standard. The high prestige of standard English leads people to cla irn that multiple negation is wrong because it is illogical or misleading, T Iowcvcr, VVT ha vc never heard French speakers cornpl a in a bou t mu 1 tiplc negation in standard French, 'A~ hich ha s } en' ai rien VU, co n ta i n i ng two n ega ri vc clcrncn ts 11) an drier! J (1 S a translation of rhe f.ngl ish sentence. Also, Cha uccr had no q ualms about the m a trer \v h en he wrote (i n the P rol () gut: to the Cu n terb ury "{ales):

He neuere Y Cl nov i ley nyc ne sa yd c In al his [y f unto no maucr wight.

eH~ ncuer yet didn't. speak no discourtesy in J 1] h is life to no k ind ·of person ~.)

In fact, not content with double nega tion, Cha ucer uses four negatives in these two lines! Multiple nega rion was perfectly acceptable in the fourteenth century.

»

•

12 PART A: fNTRODUCTION

I t is im porta nt for English speakers of whatever va riery to realise that other la ng uages or va ri e t1 es ca n ha ve thei r own gra m ttl a ti ca 1 rules. \X/ e can not assume that other languages or varieties will fit the fr~·l mewor k of the one \VC know well. This kind of misra ke was made in the past by classica 1 scholars who tried to describe Englis h i 1"1 the framework of Latin. for example, the prescriptive rule that It is I is right and 11 is me is \vrol1g comes [rom assuming that the distinction between 1 and nte must be the same as the d istinction made in Latin between ego and 111C. This rule is not at all descriptive, since It L,,' me oec II rs often ill E 11 gl ish ~

Many' of us first encounter gramrna rica 1 ru les diffen:nt frorn ou r O\lVl1 when V v f~ learn a fo reign la ngu age such as r re n c h, C~ erma n o r 5 p all i sh. \'X/ c fi nd rh a t, for cxa III pie, the rules of word order in these la ngu ages are different [rom those found in English. in French a pronou n 11 ke le has to precede the verb rather rh.rn follo\v it+ So, for example, I see him is translated as [e le uois (litcral ly, I hint see). In German, certain forms of the verb must be placed at the end of [he sentence, so that, for example, I uiill go tomorrow is translated as lch tucrde morgen gebcn (literally, 1 tuil! tomorrou go). In Spanish 3_ su hject 1 ike usted comes after a past participle in a question ra ther than before it, so that, for example, Huue you [orgotten the iuord? is translated as ~ H a u/ui(/ado usted la [ralabra? (I iterally ~ H ave forgotten Y01! the u/ordi). However, French 't Ccrma nand Spanish still show consider a blc si T1111a r itv to English in thci r granl III a r: a 11 four languages belong to the IND()E.LJR OPE1\N L1I11ily of languages. In all four, for example, you can forrn q uesrions by changing the order of words in the sentence. Thjs is not true of all la nguages, though: in J apancsc, wh ich is not an Indo-European language, questions are torrncd by the addition of a pa rricle (ku) a t the end of the sen tene-e. So Suzuki-san ua ikimasu means l'v1r/1\15 Suzuki is going ~ wh ilc Surulei-san io« ikimasu ka? n1CJ.l1S 1s lVlr/A/ls Suzuk.i going?

These e x a III P les serve to show that \VC need to a void preconceptions about the [orrn which grammatical rules will take i 11 a grvcn language or language variety. Instead, \;4"o'C can find out what these rules are by observing the way people speak or write ill different situations. Once we h J. ve done this, we can return (as th is book does in Chapter 1)) to questions of appropriate usage,

1.5 Grammar and effective cornrnunlcatlon

The main function of language is to corn municate with other people. \X/ c said in section 1. ') that in the language itsel f there is no such thing as 'goner or 'h a d ~ g ru nl rna r. It is rea so n a h 1 c, h O'A?C vcr , to d i sringuis h between good 3_ n d bad COJnm urtication. In other words, language use shcu ld not be evaluated accord ing to vv ha t kind of gran1n1atical rules it fonov~··s, but according to whether it conveys its message effectively. It is qll itc possible, for example, to speak or wri (C according to the grammatical ru lcs of sta nda rd English, and yet to prod uce 1 a nguage w hich is unclear or di fficulr ro fo llow. This C8n be

r

!


described as 'bad style', and the tollowing examples Irorn wr irten English illustrate the point:

(i) This is a picture that a girl that a friend of mine knows painted.

(2) I saw it in a book that a former teacher of mine thought of at one time setting us some exam questions out of.

(3) lf a bomb drops near you, don't lose your head - put it in a bucket and cover it with sand.

(4) For sale: a piano belonging to a lady going abroad with an oak case and carved legs.

(5) The problem of what contribution the public should make to the swimming

pool arose.

(6) She has given that part-time job in San Francisco up~

There is little doubt that these sentences arc gran1111a tical, accordi ng to the standard ru lcs for constructing sentences in English. But it is inreresri ng to consider why these sentences strike us as being "unhappy ' in their construction. In (1) and (2) the sen rcnccs are put together ill ~l wa y wh ieh makes them difficult to unr a vel and understand. For ex a 111 ple, in ("I) who painted the picture - the girl or the friend? Most people w i 11 ha vc to reread the se n ten c e in 0 r d e r top 1.1 7 Z leo II t ex act 1 y \-v h a t j S go i n g () 11. In (3) a 11 d {4) the construction of each sentence leads to an ambiguity: \v ha t the writer intended to say is not clea rll' stated. This does not necessa T11}1 imply that the reader cannot \V ork 0 u t rh e in tendcd I11Ca ning. Y ou ~·l re 1.1 n 1 j k ely, fo r in sta nee, to imagine a lad Y' with an oak case and carved legs in (4). But you arrive at this conclusion in spite of the gr3.111111ar ra rher than because of it. The ~ranln1 a r J 1IO\VS a second rneaning which, like an a fter-i rnagc, lurks disrractingly in the backgrou nd. In (5) and (6) the diffil:ulty is tha t there SCCI11S to be a lack of balance, a 'rop-hca viness ', in the construction of each sentence. 'To solve th is difficulty, one could change the order of the words as follo\\!s:

(Sa) The problem arose of what contribution the public should make to the

swimming pool.

(6a) She has given up that part-time job In San Francisco.

At this stage \VC do not attempt to explain exactly what is the 111 a trer with (1)-(6); it is enough to note that \VC sec here three types of di fficulry in fermi ng and in rerpreti n g gra rn III a tic al sen tcnces: con fu sin g stru ctu re ("1 and )) ~ ambiguity (3 and 4L un balanced structure (5 and 6).

Since using langu age is a sk ill, it is not surprisi ng tha t' some people arc more skilled a t it tha n others. There is no need to sh rink from evaluation of this skill - for exa m plc, saying that one writer has J. better style of writing than another. But it is helpful, for this purpose, to he a ware of the gramrna rica 1 rcsou rccs of the language, and the va r ious possibilities open to the user who wants to make effective use of the la ngu age. J n this way we galn conscious control over the skill of using language. This is one of the rna in rcaso n s for lea rn i ng a bout gram TIl a r, and \VC rctu rn to it in Cha pters l ? and ·13.

>

-


1.6 Conclusion

At the other extreme from sentences (1 )-(h) a re the products of literary masters of prose style. One additional reason for studying grammar is that \VC can gai n J. n a pp reci J. ti on of h O\V li tcrary wr i tcrs 1I se 1 a nguage for po\ver ful effects. Howcvcr , this chapter is already long enough, and the literary topic is one we \v ill have to 1 ea ve for the next eha ptcr.

Meanwhile, in this chapter we have aimed to provide a backcloth for the study of Engl ish gra m rna r. \Xle began with an attcm pt to "demythologise' the su bjecr: that is, to dispel some misconceptions about gra rnmar which have been prevalent in the past, and still ha ve influence today.

\Xl e ~ howcd h 01A:r the 11 0 ri on of gra m rna r In ust all O\V for va ria tion in 1 a ngu age ~ and t hat \VC ca 11 not P rescr i be the form \,./ hich gra 111 m a rica 1 ru les \v ill rake+ There is no grammatical analogue of the Ten Commandments. \\1 e thus rejected the possibility of cvaluari ng grammar out of context, but went on to begin showing how granlJl1ar can be used for mere effective or less effecti ve corn rnunica tiori. In Part C: of this hook \ve will return to some of the points \ve h a ve r a i s ed 0 n I y b ric fI y and s i III ply so far, an J \\0' e ~r i 11 a Iso iII us r rat e the pracrica I benefits of studying gramn1ar for understanding our language and usi ng it more efftcti vely.

Part R, which follows the next chapter, ai ms to make you a ware of your knowledge of how standard English is srructu red. \"Xl e shall be introducing grammatical terminology and techniq Des of analysis tha t will ena ble you to describe rh is srructu re. A large part of understanding grammar is learning how to do it .. so we wou Id urge you to work through the exercises in each cha ptcr ill o rdc r to a pp 1 y your new kn O\V 1 edge.

EXERCISES Exercise I a (answers on P+ 209)

True/false questionnaire (to test your understanding of the chapter) Label the following statements either 'true' or 'false':

L The study of grammar has to include the study of Latin.

2~ Grammar can be seen as a set of rules that we follow when we use language.

3. We can follow the grammatical rules of our native language without knowing them consciously.

4. The study of grammar witl improve your spelling+

5. Grammar onty deals with the study of writing, because it originally meant Iota write' in Greek.

6. Children have to be properly tutored in their language if they are to learn

to speak grammatically.

7. Studying grammar involves learning how people should speak.

8. It is incorrect to end a sentence with a preposition.

9. American English is less grammatical than British English.

10. The way we speak depends, among other things, on our personal c h a r acte r i sti c s.

r

WHAT GRAMMAR IS AND IS NOT IS

I L The way we speak to friends is identical to the way we speak to strangers. 12~ Dialect is inferior to the standard language.

13. Manual workers in the north and south of Britain differ more in their speech than do doctors.

14. The term tenor refers to the pitch of your voice in a given situation.

I s. Whatever you can convey in speech, you can equally well convey in writing+

16. The English language as used in medicine could be considered a language domain.

17. All languages follow the same grammatical rules,

18. A sentence which is difficult to understand must be ungrammaticaL

Exercise I b (answers on pp. 209-10) Classification of sentences

All of the following sentences appear to have something 'wrong' with them. Try to work out whether each is:

A ungrammatical ln the sense that it does not follow a rule observable in the language behaviour of competent speakers of English;

B 'incorrect' - i.e. 'bad etiquette' from the point of view of prescriptive

grammar (see 1.2); or

C 'bad style' in the sense that it does not communicate effectively (see 1.5)~

In the case of C, decide whether the 'bad style' is due to confusing structure .. ambiguity or unbalanced structure+

I. I can recommend this candidate for the post for which he applies with

complete confidence.

2. I ain't going nowhere tonight.

3. We need more experienced teachers.

4. To was or not to was, that be the askr

S. Me and [asrnin are going to the beach today.

6. How are you, it has a long time that we don't have heared from you again. 7+ The principal of the college gave a timely piece of advice to me once.

8+ They will tomorrow arrive.

9+ Eggs should be stamped with the date when they are laid by the farmer. 10. Vvhere's those books you told me about?

Exerc ise I c (answers and sou rces on p. 21 O) Identifying categories of language use (see 1.3.3)

Identify the caregori es of language use in these sam pi es of ranguage~ as fa II ows:

Tenor; Mode:

Domain:

relatively formal or informal spoken or written

advertisi ngt jou rnall s m, pol f ti cs 0 r re I igi on

After reading this, other central heating systems won't 100k so hot.

Tenor: informal Mode written Domain: advertising.

Example:

b

III

16 PART A: INTRODUCTlON

I. STUNNING Rachel Hunter has dumped pop superstar Robbie WilHams because she can no longer cope with his 'paranoia', The Sun can reveaL

2. Praise and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honour, power and might, be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.

3. America has entered a great struggle that tests our strength, and even more our resolve. Our nation is patient and steadfast+

4. MSN Messenger: the most popular, fun and personal way to chat online. 5~ So what's likely to happen now! Wet! the report has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, in view of er certain evidence.

Getting Started with Grammar

in the last chapter 'A!C introduced some idea s n hour whv gra mmar is useful. III this chapter we approach gr:l m T11;.1 r more d i reedy, but from two different points of view r The first half of the cha ptcr is concerned to sho\v you how grarnn~ar can help us to delve into the form and meaning of a text, :1Ih,1 thus g:11n insight into th ings which would otherwise csca pc Oll r ;1 trent ion. The second ha 1 f begi ns the 1110rC formal study of gra [l1J1L1 r in rhc 1l10Sl a P pro a c h n h 1 e w a y) h y look i 11 gat t h L g r a 111 [TI at i c a 1 fo rm S 0 f 'v 0 r d s : t his is (he probably the easiest part of English grarnnlar~ and is known as (vi ()RPI-l()1.0C;\~,

2.1 GralT1l11ar in prose literature

First, to illustra tc rhe value of gra m mar in more depth, we choose t\VO exa rnples of literary texts - one :·1 prose te x r and the other a poem: In literature) it C3n be argued, grallHl1:1 r is Sh(HVn a tits highest level of achievement, In a POC111, ~1 play or a prose ,vork, t he resou rccs of the language, including gralllIllar, are used not only for efficient communication of ideas, but for effective communication ill a broader sense: CO 111111 unicaring and interpreting people's experience of life, lndjvidual and collective, This means II 5i ng ranguag(;_~ in especially 'forcgrou ndcd ' or 111;.1 rk cd ways, as can be illusrra ted ~ on a srnall scale, by even a shorr sentence 1 i k e the follo\ving:

(i) To live is like to love - all reason is against it, and all healthy instinct for it.

(Samuel Butler, ~T otebooks)

'The di fficu1t:y of Ina king sense of (1) is quite different from rh.u of rna king sense of ("1) and (2) on page 13. Here an unusual pcrspccti vc 011 1 i fc is expressed in a striking and unusual way. This IS typical of literary expression, and nlC311S that :.L lot of meaning or effect is condensed into a few words. Let's briefly consider how gr~l m nl a r contributes to the effect. This is done particularly through P /\ R A I_I .Ll .IS M: the Ina rching of one pattern of words \.v it h a n {) the r, s i III jl a r P :1 t rc r t L fig u r e 2 + :I is a v 1 sua Ire p r c sen t 3 t ion 0 f t his pa ra 11elis111.

17

b

..


-;

..---------,-.oi--------------iIo-r---------.

to love

to live

ls like

all healthy insti net

.. ' : .'

all reason IS

.'

against it

-

IS

lor it

• J •

':.... . ....

'I". 'x .- .: ~~ I •

,. .

. • r ','

:: ." _..... - ._ I

....... ". . .

.. , .,

Figure 2 .•

. . .

. .. -= •

': I .. '

.' I .. :

~ .

As the d t:lgrarll shows, sentence ("1) is cleverly constructed so as to hri ng out t\VO p:lra llclisrns. The first is one of sirnilarity (-ito liue ... Ito lovel) and the second is one of contrast (Iall reason I ... 'ali health1.1 instinctb. -[he Pi] rallclisms arc expressed by symmetry and similarity in the actual choice 8.11 d co 111 hi na ti 0 n of \VO rd s, so t ha t 31 most ev ery wo rd in th e sen renee is b31 anced sign i fican tl y aga i nst another \V ord . Even the sou nd of word s he Ips to underline these rcla tionships: the analogy between liue and loue is emphasised by similar pronunciation /1_v./, and the word like., which 'rncd i~Hcs' . bctwecl1_ the t\"'(~ resembles liuc in appearance and loue in mean 1 ng: .It ~_l.~~~!1 .;-- r h~ c I ----7 1~!:_~1.

Sentences exist pr irna rily in time rather than in space, and so the order in

v v hich word s occur is irnporra nt for literary effect+ Suppose (1) had read 1 ike this, w ith the sections in italics in reverse order:

(I a) To live is like to love - all healthy instir«: is for it, and an reason against It The resu 1 f would have been to stress the 'reason' for not 1 iving at the expense of the "instinct' to live - almost as if the writer were think ing that 1 i fe lS not w () r rh 1 i vi 11 g, s n 1 c r ~ S C o 111111 its II i c ide ~ T h is i s bee a usc the r c is a general principle (sec 13.").J ) that the 1110St newsworthy and important information in a sentence tends to be sa vcd to the cud. Actually sentence (1), as Butler writes it, is optimistic ra ther than pessimistic: he places instinct in a rriumphanr position ar the end ~ adding the word healthy for further optimistic emphasis.

. lhc first p3_rt of {I) CJ.1l provide a further example of the significance of ordering. Lcts nO\\1 imagine that Butler had written 'Fa love is fikc to liuc . + • In that case he would be comparing loving with living ra ther than vice versa. f\S it stands) CI) seems to say: 'You know a bout love bei ng the tr iu mph of healthy instinct over reason, don't you? Now I'm tell ing you thar 1 i fe itself is li k e t hat . ~ T hat is 1 the sen ten c e 'b e g i 11 S \v it h fa ttl. i 11 a r g r 0 U 11 d (o r s h are d g en era 1 k110\oV ledge) --- the traditional idea of love defyi ng reason - a nd extends th is wel l-k no wu idea to a new sphere ... or rather, generalises it to the whole of life. So jf Butler had wr irten To love is lil:e to hue, the whole effect would ha vc becn undcr m incd, to the bafflement of the reader.

Th is si III plc exam plc shows how much the way \VC construct J. sentence - the way \VC put the parts together - can contribute to the effect it has on a reader or listener. If we want to understand the know-how of good writing, whether as students of literature or as writers ourselves, we need to understand something of the gr ammarica l resources of the lu nguage, a nd the

GETT1NG STARTED WITH GR.AMMAR 19

--------------------------~~~~~~~~~---~~---------------

ways in which they can he exploited. This is not [he place to go into the exact grammatical analysis that would be needed to make these relationships of similaritv and contrast clear: the idea is that V()U will be able to undertake this

~ ~

kind of analysis yourself when \VC reach Chapter 11.

2.2 Grammar in poetry

Gr3111n1ar is also important in poetry. Poetry and gran1LllJ.r might SCCJll to he poles apart - the one suggestive of 'the spark 0' Nature's fife', the other of [he cold eye of analysis. But a poet would be fo()li~h to proclaim, 'I am above grarnrnar ", as it is hy granl111atical choice that many of the special mcaui ngs of poet ry a re ~l c h, eved, O tren these effects shu w 'poet ic licence' - the poet's we 11- known ha bit of devia tion frOTl1 the ttl ]es or conventions of everyday language. If those rules di d not exist, of course, the poet's deviation Iroru the rules \V 0 U ] d los e its co m rn un 1 cat i ve for c e . '1' he f 0 11 0 v .... in g s h 0 rt poe In 0 nan u n ~ s raking the veil shows some of the characteristics (in addition to those of metre and r by J11 e ) t h a I \V C m aye x pee t: t o fill din the Jan g II age 0 f poe try:

(2) Heaven-Haven

J

I have desired to go

Where springs not fail,

To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail And a few lilies blow.

And I have asked to be Where no storms come,

Where the green swell is in the havens dumb, And out of the swing of the sea.

(C;crard Manley J Iopk ills)

A.s in (:I.) ~ but more obviously here, words strike up special rclarionsh ips with one J norher bee a use of similarities of sound and meaning, and also bcca usc of simila riries of grarnrna tical structure, ··rhe first tendency is hest illustra ted by {he play on words in the title, where the similar sounds of the words heaven and haven s u gges t t}1 ey ha ve si1TI i I a r mea n ings. -rh c scco n d rc n dcncy is evident In the rna rk ed parallelism between the t\VO stanzas, as shown in this 'skeleton' version of their structure;

(2a) I have _ed to ~

Where

---------------------

To fields where

--------------

And

-----------------------

And I have ed to

-- -----

Where

----~----------

Where

----------~--~~--

And

------------~~~~~-

\X"'c cou Id not t;~ further, the unbnglish grammar of the second line (\\1 here springs not [ail, ra ther than \X/here springs (to not fail). Also, Hopkins reverses the normal order (_)f words in the third line tlo fic/(Is ichcre flies no ~.harp tl1u{ sided hail) ~ a nd postpones the adjective dumb to the cnd-··~)f"-tEc seventh line (The green stoel! is in the hal/ens dumb) + Such unusual patterns of

b

•

20 PART A: INTRODUCT~ON

gCl mrn a r contribute to a strange dissocia tion of words from rhei r expected C o n t ext 1 s o t h ~ t t s i HI pie and 0 r din a ry \v o r d s li k c s p r in g s ~ f7 i P. S J bl 0 t u ~ S us ella n d suring seem to J rra in a bnormal force. \X'h8.t makes such simple words specia 1 here is th.t t they ~1 re not confined to their normal gran1Il1a rica 1 use: sz-uing (referring to ~l rOllnded to-and-fro movement) is usually a verb, hut here occurs :1$ :1 nrnm; side is n or rn ul Iy a noun, but here is used in an adjecri ve [orrn sided. i\ 11 dlCSC words ha ve J role to play in a grJ.l1d metaphor th.u the \v hole POCIll expresses: the 1 ik en 1 ng of a spiritual life to an earthly refuge.

I t is enough here (0 PO] I1t out l ha t poetic empowerment through langu :lgc involves both extra freedom (including freedom to depart from the rules of granl mar) and extra disc] plinc (the d iscip 11 ne w hich COn1tS by supcrirnposi ng special structu res on language - ill a hroad sense, parallelism, includi ng rhyme and metre). \X/L later (Chaprcr ·1·]) explore further the application of g r ~1 111 111 art o t h L S t II d y () f 1 i t era t u r c, t h r 011 g h ::l n a 1 y s 1 S 0 f so rn e e x a 111 plc S 0 f prose \Y [1 ting.

2.3 A taste of morphology: the structure of words

N O\V VVC 111 o veto so m et: hi ng rn 0 rc do wn -ro-ea rr hand III J. ttcr-o f - fact . 1\"1 () r p h 0 log y. (l i r c r a ll ~/ n 1 C a 11 i n g ~ l" h c sr 11 d y u f for m ~) i s the p J. r t 0 f g r a rn n 1 a r dealing with how words arc structured. The smallest units of grJ.1111l1ar arc known as 1110rphe[l1CS, but ill more everyda y language they are called STE1\lS and i\FFIXEf). Here is a sentence where rhc stems and affixes are separated by hyphens:

(3) Un- know- n to the govern-or-s:, th e re were te rr-i bl e m i s-under-standing-s, and the Board utter-Iy fail-ed to reach agree-ment,

1 nth i s s e n ten c C , t h e rca r c ·16 '/I,! 0 r d s ~ hut tl1 cy C:1 n he s p 1 i [. i 11 t o rn any m 0 r e 111 orph emes (lS uctuully, separated by hyphens or spaces) ~ Some of l he morphemes :1 re STFJ\:1 S - they are the major parts of words, and can usually s tn n d ~ 11 o n e ;:1 sse par ate VV 0 r d s: k n 0 u., g () U ern, the r e, 5 t (1 n d .

Other morphemes J re f\ FFTXES: they are added before or after 3. stern, to m a k e a 10 n g era n d n 1 0 re co rn p lie a ted \v o r d: un- > - n, - () r, u S ~ ~ i b I e, J n is - . The affixes added before (he stern ~l re cal led PREFIXES: un-, mis-, etc, The affixes added after the SrCt11 arc called SlJPFIXf,S; -n -or -5 -ible -ine -tv -ed

~ ':r , ("'"'!o'" .., .l

-ment,

\\/hat about .. .under .. ~ and terr. ~ .? A. re they sterns? i\t the TIl0111ent .. it

. '

looks as if ... under. .. rs a stern, because ir can stand alone as a \VorJT But

terr. ~. SeCI11S not to be :·1 st cm ~ heed use it ca nnot stand alone - it has to he fu llowed by a suffi x. \X/ c will not answc r these q 1.] est: i on S 11 O\V, htl r \-vll1 ret urn H) them shortly - in 2.4.1.

2.4 Simple and complex words

N oricc in (3) that SO!l1C words, 1 ike the, there ~ urere a nd reach, ha ve a stern, but no affixes. -rhcsc arc S LMPLF. words, words wi th i ust one morpheme.

b

GETIING STARTED WITH GRAMMAR 21

Ot her \'\,' ord s arc (:C) M P LEX word S, con ta 1111 ng tw 0 0 r 111 0 rc 1110rp hernes. Fortun-ate has two morphemes, un-fortun-ate has th rcc 1110rphc111tS, and un-lort un-ate-ly has fou r. (Notice we are usi ng hyphens here to show the bounda ry between morphemes. The hyphen, for the purposes of our notation, will be added to affixes~ but nor to StCI11S. So [ortunatc consists of the stern fortun( e) and the affi x -dte~)

p • -
. ,
r;
~.
j
-
~.
;
~
~.
~
~
~
L!
~
S
~
...
IJ
~
s
:~
:!
;.':
":
J
l
•
j NOTE

English spelling can be misleading when we try to identify stems and affixes. For example, the stem fortune when it occurs as a separate word ends in -e1 but when it occurs in a bigger word like fortunate it loses its. -e. because of the following vowel D. There is no need to worry about this kind of thing ~ it is a feature of the irregular spelling (i.e. the writing system) of English, and not of the grammarOther changes like this are doubling of consonants (win - wjnn-er) and substituting j and y for one another (hurrr- hurr;-ed~ ~e - ~-fng).

-=-It.. .. ' I' '.

2.4.1 The structure of complex words

Complex words have a structure we ca 11 show by using bracketing (+ . +), or else by using a TREE D lAG l\_l\.l~+ The easiest way of showing their srrucru re would he to usc all 'upside-down tree' as in Figure 2.2, with a verrica 1 branch for each morpheme (the whole word is signalled by the 'tree trunk ' at the top).

WORD

n

WORD I

WORD

I

l -ly

fortu ne -ate

u n- fortu ne -ate

un- fortune -ate

Figure 2.2

Th is s tructu rc ca n also be sh own by h racket in g: (fo rtu 11)( -a te}, (u n- j( [oriun] t-ate}, (un-) ((ortun)(-ate)(-ly). J Iowcvcr , this one-level bracketing is not the best way to show the strucru rc of the second and third \vords, bcca usc un- is actually added ["0 the adjective fortun-ate'} which we therefore place in brackets as follo\vs: (UH.-)( ((ortun)( -atei). Then unfortunate as a \\,1}10Ic can be shown 8.S bracketed, \vhCI1 -tv is added to it, so that" the longest word's strucru re looks 1 ike this: (( un-]! (fortun)( -ale)))( -ly). Each pai r of brackets ( .... ) conta ins a morpheme, SO S0111C morphemes, like fortunate, arc complex, in (he sense of containing two or more other morphemes. '!'his can alternatively he shown by placing numbers over the I11orphc111CS in the order

J ·1 2 4

in V~[ hich they are ad Jed ~ begi n n 1 ng w i th the ro or: un- [o rtun-at e-ly. 0 r ~ better

still, in figure J.3 we repeat the sa me structure in a tree d iagra rTL

\X/hat is the point of picru ring structure like this? One reason is that the diagram sho v v s \vh Y we have no word un-fortunc in Engl ish. This word

-

22 PAR.T A: INTRODUCTION

WORD

-I
n- y

u

fortu ne -ate

Figure 2 .. 3

makes no sense, beca use the ucgati vc prefix un- shou ld link with the adjective fortunate t not the noun fortune. Consider another exa mple: un-bear-able. lIcrc we should not want to bracket un-bear together like this: ((un-) (bear))., because uri-bear m a k es no sense as 3. word: the negative pr efi x un- does not go with the verb bear, but with the adjective bearable. Hence this hracketi ng is the right analysis: (un-)((bear)(-able)).

SPECIAL NOTE ON STEMS

Stems can be defined as the main elements of words, to which affixes may be added. Going back to terrible and misunderstandjngs in (3)~ we have to note that some English stems cannot stand alone as separate words in today's English. This is because of the history of the language. For example, in ruth-less and un-couth, ruth and couti: used to mean something rn English. But the words passed into disuse, and we are left with a 'fossil' stem. Similarly, In terr-jble, the farm terr used to have a meaning Cfright(enf) in Latin, the language from which m~ny words were farmed in past centuries. Now it ~s a kind of fossil, like coutft A stem which cannot stand alone, like these, we will call a bound stem .. because rt can occur only in combination with Some other morpheme.

The situation with under- in understand (or misunderstandings) is the opposite: it looks like a stem, but in fact is best considered an affix. Under can occur as a separate word, and therefore seems to be a stem. But when under does occur as a separate word, it has a different role - it normally refers to position, as in under the tabie, and is grammatically speaking a preposition (see 4.3.4). But here under has no such prepcsitional meaning, and we can reasonably consider it a prefix. Under- as a prefix often has a special meaning particularly when preceding a verb: in underestitnat«. underdone, underpaid it means 'less than enough'.

To complete this brief sketch of the role of stems in word-structur-e, we have to consider a common phenomenon of English, where a word contains two sterns, one added after the other. Words of this kind are called compounds, and the most frequent examples are nouns: (ootbaft newspaperj weekend. These nouns actually consist of twa nouns placed alongside one another, with the meaning focused on the second noun, such that a foot+baU is a kind of baJJ} and a news+paper a kind of paper+ But because both nouns are separate stems, we do n at use hyph ens. here in showi ng thei r structu re: (foot) (baN), (news) (paper), (week) (end).

b

GETT~NG STARTED WITH GRAMMAR 2]

2.4 .. 2 The grammatical role of final suffixes

As we have just seen wi t h ex '-1]11 pies 1 ike (0 otball, not every co m p lex 'A; ord ends with a suffix. Yet grammatically speaking" the most important pa rt of a co m P lex Eng lis h word is in general the su ffix it end s wi t h: e .g. - ing ~ -able, -ful ~ -a tio n, - ed, Befo re we proceed, ] ook at the fa 11 O\V i ng wo rds, ;·1 nd note how they contain a stem (underli ned) with a following suffix (i n bold type). Notice whether the stern 1S capable of standi Ilg as a scpara tc word, or whether it is a bound stem like terr-:

(au nd-ati 0 n vo n-a bt e re-~u rn-i n g d is- tu rb-ed u n-recs 0 n-o b Ie /0 (-at;o n re-~_p~. ~ -0 bJe

Remember that the spelling of sterns can vary slightly, for exa rn ple through fin a I y be C 0 111 in g i 0 r t h rough the los S 0 f fin ale + Sot h est: e 111 ua r i in u a r i -tl hle is not 3. hound stern, but just a slightly different spelling of the verb vary. The sterns tor and spect in the last two words above a re, on the other hand, bound stems beta use they do not correspond to any word in English. They come [rom La tin words meaning "place' and 'look'. Like 111::1ny bound sterns, though, they occur with [he same or a si rnilar meaning in a nurn ber of different word s; local, locate, relocate, allocate, ctc.; respect, inspect") inspect ion, s P ectac ular, etc.

r ..... -I' • __ -: "", - -r-r-, :-: .s-, , , v . -, F_..:

_'" .. ":.: "",,",, " - ""_,,, - I """ .-. F ""._ -_::-.: '_" ,,"_" , -." 1.-.".- -,",-:' .-. ,,"_" - - -. ,," -" ,,"_ .-L-.I_·.: .:.-.:.: _.. .: -.",,: ' "" "" , "."" :'" ._. ", , ,

"" ",,', ~ , "I" .. :- • •

TASK

.,

Write out the foHowing list of words in six groups! based on their suffixes. When you write out each word, insert a hyphen before the suffix. Apart from the suffix!

what do the members of each group have in common?

1. national 6. computer II. extremely

2. organize 7 criticize 12. dirty

3. frontal 8. specialize 13. really

4. valua.ble 9, personal 14. funny

5. usually /0, teacher 15. manager

r-

16. suitable
11 lucky
/8. readable
.) ~ ~

j ..

:-:...:.-L:. •• .:_ •• _-.. :. - •• ::.: .r • ._·r_-. "'''.,=".1_·. . I "1.·. _ 1 . - .. 1 -. _ - -.. ) ••• _. ": •• -.:_'_,..:-. - :. _. _._._ • ._ ::. •• _ ", _. _ • ._._ I=-·· __ . ._ .-. JI::. -':1.-,: :..- _ .. ..:..:.. .. "", _'I:" 1:- .: .::1 .._ : - :.. _ r""I •. 1 .. -:1· - ~ . . . ._.

ASSUEl1ing you have ordered these words in six lists according to whether they end i L1 the suffix -a l, -a b! e '} ~ ize (V\-; hich has an altern a ti ve L Bri tish ' s pe 11 ing -isei, -er or -ly ; you may go in t\VO directions in giving the answer to the question ~\xrhat do the members of each group ha ve in C01l1n1on?' One kind of answer looks for a common meaning. This is easier with SOTIle suffixes tha 1"1 others: for ex amp le~ the \V ord end ing -er us u a IJ y id en ti fi es th e doer of th e action: a teacher is someone who teaches, a manager is someone who manages, and so 011. But the meaning, if any, associated with an end ing like -al (in national) is more difficult to pin dO\VD+

,1.\ different kind of answer looks for the gra ttl rna rica 1 f1.1 ncrion of each kind of word, If you are familiar wi th rhe terms for word classes such as noun ~ verb, adjective and adverb, you will recognize [he words cndi ng in -al and

JIIIIII

24 PART A: !NTRODUCTION

-able, for example, as adjectives. (If you are unclear about the meaning of the set c r m s, the y \ov i 11 bee la r i fi c din the n ext c hap t err) Yet a r h i r d wa y to look for a common factor in these groups is to remove the suffix, and find what other kind of \-vord remains. For example, if \'\"e remove the -ly from the words wi rh l'h is suffix, we end up with adiecti ves: real) usual, extreme, If \ve rC111()Ve the -y (rom words with th is S11 ffi x , we end up with nouns: fun"} dirt, luck.

NOTE

In some cases, we do not end up with a sing[e word class: if we strip the -ism from organism, criticism and specia'ism, we are left with organ and ernie, which are nouns, and speciQl. which is an adjective.

2i1S Derivational and inflectional suffixes

There are t\VO maj or kinds of suffixes: DEl\I\! JtJ.... TTO N JA. T_, and IN FLE(~TI()N;'\L SUFfIXE.S.

J~s irs name implies, a derivational suffix is used to derive one word fr0111 another: for example, j f we add the deri va tiona! suffix -er to sprint t we change the word sprint into a fresh word sprinter. This often tells us something about a worcl's history (the word sprint existed in English before the word sprinter) + More important for the present purpose .. it [ells us a bout the wor ds role in granlJl1J.I" today. Returning to the six suffixes 1 n 2.4+2 ahovc:

By adding -oj to nature, we change a noun (nature) into an adjective (naturaD. By adding -able to wash! we change a verb (wash) into an adjective (washable). By addi ng -ize to vandal, we change a no u n (vanda0 into a verb (vandalize). By adding -Iy to hideous! we change an adjective (hideous) into an adverb (hideously)+

By adding ~er to mow, we change a verb (mow) into a noun (mower). By adding -y to fluff, we change a noun (ruff) into an adjective (fluffy).

TNFLEC" lIO )JAL. SlJPrTXF.S can also rnore simply be called l~FLE'(~TIC) ~S. Unlike dcri vation 31 .1 ffl xes, they do not derive one word from another; instead, they represent a differ-ent torm of (he same word. For example, catamaran and catama run-50 are different [orms of the same word: they are both nouns} and in a dictionary they would hoth be looked up under the sa n1C headword catamaran. The on lv difference between them is rha tone

~

of them is singular (referring to one) and the other is plural (referring ro more than one). In fact, the number of inflectional suffixes in English is quite small, compared w irh most other European Ia nguages. They are all (apa rt [rom some cxccpr ional "irregular" forms like the -en of oxen) included in Table 2."1+

If this table looks sl ightly complex at first gl a net"} just rC111C111bcr 3.11 rha t: it contains in a nutshell: it tells you an you need to know about the regular

GETTING STARTED WITH GRAMMAR 25

Table 2.]

Regu lar verbs ln EngJ ish have four forms:

look look-ed
move mov-ed
pet pet-s
copy copi-es
kind kind-er
white whit-er look-s move-s;

look-ing mov-mg

Regu lar nouns i n Eng~ ish have an -5 (or -es) in the plu ral:

Regular short adjectives (and a few adverbs) have forms ending in -er and -est:

kind-est whit-est

inflcctional morphology of English! Addi tiona 1 to this, there arc only exceptional cases - irregular forms of one kind or another - nora hly those of i r reg u 1 a r ve r b s ] ike C a r ,-...., (l t e ....._, e a len.

In cast the distinction between derivational and inilectionul ~\ffjxes is 1]01" yet clear, the following tests will help to t"XPI.1IHJ I.11H.1 clarify what hus been said about them:

Inflections ha YT i rrcgu lar forms (c.g. irregular nouns like crisis -..., crises; ir rcgu 1 ar vcr bs 1 ike l: l1()U) '"""-' len e IU ,..,__. f.:._ no III n: i rrcgu 13 r ad j ccri ves like /~:{) od -..., better ,..,.... be sf; irrcgu 1 ar ad vcr b s 1 ike fa r '"""-' [u r (her .'"'"'-' [ur tbcs t) + U U t fo r 1110 S t \V 0 r d s the yap p ] y to, in f1 cc t i 0 nul s u f fix c s arc reg u 1 a r :: erg. - 5 for the plural of a noun., -ed for the past tense of a verb).

Inflections apply (allowing for irregular forms) to a whole class of words without exception> whereas deri vational suffixes are of va ria ble .iccepra b iIi t y. F \0: e r y f 1] 11 v e r h , for e x a rn pie ~ h ;1 sail i n fl c c t ion :l ! r 0 r T n i n - in g : teaching, u-orking, hoping, enjoying, f iking, choosing) $1 and lng, ere. On the other h ~·l nd, consider the der iva tiona I 511 ffi x -er ch~ll1ging verbs into 'doer" nouns: teacher and iuorlecr .J re examples of CSL-l h 1 ishcd .ind perfectly ace c p tn h 1 c n 0 U11 ,'-; i n - e r , hut 0 I her n 0 U n sin - e r d c r i v c d f r () 111 vcr b S J r c somewhat or entirely unacceptable: hoper, enjoyer, lileer, chooser, st ander. If a word has both 3. derivational suffix and an inflectional suffix, it is the inflectional suffix rha r CO!l1CS last: e.g. in comput-er-s, iuid-en-ed, lucli-iest"! It IS the last suffix (in bold type) that is the inflectional onc.

Prefixes arc always derivational; there arc no inflectional prefixes in English.

Usually a derivational suffix ca uses a change in the grammatical word class of a word: e.g. -li.lt is added to a noun (c.g. u/ondert to fornl J.11 adjecti ve (c.g. U.}()Jld(_~rfu{); -ncss is added to an adjective (C7g. ha!)jJy) to form J. noun (e.g. hdjJpiness) ~ However ~ an inflectional suffix docs not change the word class of the word it is added to: c.g. choir is '-1 noun, and cb.t: rs (with the plural inflection added) is still a nOUl"L

2.6 Summary: the main points of English morphology

M()lZPH()L()C Y is a p3.rt of grJ.1l1I11ar telling how words arc srructu red. The units that morphology deals with - .. rvtOIZPHE1\J1ES - can be S.tCIl1S or affixes .

•

JIll

26 PART A~ INTRODUCTION

A ffi xes co m i ng he fore the stern are PR F,FTXE,S; tho se £0 llow in~ the stern arc suff xes.

Suffixes call he either DER [\, JA. TTON AT. (showi ng ho\v the word is derived from another, smaller word) or INFL,F"(_~TTON.A. 1.. (showing the word is a variant [orm of the same word withou r the su ffl x).

The (last) su ffix of a word is i 1l1portant for showi ng the word's gr ammatical class, c.g. noun, verb, adjective or adverb.

A final point is rh ;·1 t, un II ke most European languages, English has 3. rather simple, if not impoverished, morphology, Most of the C0111mOne5t English words arc sirup Ic - that is, they conra in no a ffixes at all, but just a stern. Examples arc the, Cd11., loue, u.el! ~ big, time. The shape O.e+ spelling or pronunciation) of these words tells us nothing about thei r gr,l mmarical class; instead we have to look at the context in which rhcy OCCLl r - a topic to \vhlch we return early in the next chapter.

EXERCISES

Exercise 2a (answers on p. 210)

I . In th e following sentences, wh ic h words are (mo rph ologic::ally) si m pie, an d which words are complex? To help you find out, write out the sentences, placing hyphens wherever an affix adjoins a stem:

a. lf half the stories of deception, fraud, terrorist associations, bribery, embarrassed or compromised executives, and Government buckpassing are true, this is a scandal of unprecedented proportions.

b. Realistically this will have to be the roughest! toughest inquiry ever undertaken by a British Government,

.. . " "_. :

..... _ ..... ":."_ .. _ ....

, .'

NOTE

.'

':

There can be legitimate disagreement on the way complex words are broken down into morphemes, especially where Latin stems are in question. Far example, it can be argued that portion In the word proportions is r.wo morphemes, not one: port-ion. A similar argument can be made about decept and preced .

...• ...•. ", . I •.. - ._". _ .. _.. _ I . .. : ". "_" _._ .•. _ ._ :.. :_" .. :..1.... .." •.. _._._ _. ." " _ ", . __ ", "_." "."_."._" _. " .. " .•. :: .- "_ "." .

2+ Now, instead of using hyphens, use the bracketing notation of 2.4.1 to show the structure of any five complex words in sentences a and b. Here are two, to help you: ((terr)(-or))(-ist)~ (buck) ((pass) (-ing)).

Exercise 2b (answers on P+ 210)

L Write out each of the words below! putting a hyphen between Its morphemes and underlining the stem (e.g. dis-agree-d).

reviewed, blackens, kindnesses, unthinkable, overturning, proactively, magn etiz: ng~ destabll izes, h ealthi est, i ntervt ewees.

GETTING STARTED WITH GRAMMAR. 27

2. Now. distinguish between derivational and inflectional suffixes (ignoring prefixes). Put a box around derivational suffixes and put a double line underneath inflectional suffixes. (Ignore spelling variations, e.g~ the replacement of y by i in healthy "-" healthiest~ or the loss of the final ~e in magnetize ""' magnetizing.)

Here is an exampl e to give you th e rdea: mis-spell-!i~g_: ~S

3. (OPTIONAL) Mark the words in the list above as N (for noun), V (for verb) ..

Aj (for adjective) and Av (for adverb). You can try this if you alrea.dy know something about grammatical word classes - a topic we return to in Chapter 3~

Exercise 2c

I. Below are some examples of derivational suffixes in English. Add cwo more examples of English words, to illustrate each suffix.

octo r, doctor, edito r . -tfy: justify1 qualifyJ clarify
a. -or: J.
b. -ee; ernployee, refugee~ kT -en: th reoten, strengthen)
trustee weaken
c. -ess: princess, cctress, lioness I. -ent: different current;
confident
d. busjness~ iI/ness, . e ffe dive J adi ve,
-ness: m+ -rve:
darkness .
massive
e. -jty: re Q I ity, aaf vity~ san ity n~ -ous: various, [amou«,
dangerous
f. . action, production:o -ful: successfu4 careru~
-ion: o.
. beautiful
regIon
g. -ment: government, treatment p. -less: co reJ e ss, h ope less,
argument Qim/ess
h+ -hood: chjldhood, q. -an, -ian: humQn~ Am erico»,
neighbourhoodJ Christian
likelihood
. -ize, - i se: realize, recognjze~ -ist: communist feminis~
I. r,
emphasize Marxist ~- :- .. :.:

~

i

: . - :: ... .. .. ..... ..... . ." ..

NOTE

You can recognize a suffix in part by its spelling. and in part by its meaning or semantic function. However; neither of these IS a totally reliable guide. English 'I words reflect earlier history of language (including languages like Latin and u

~ French), and this can affect both spelling and meaning over the centuries. Often

~ we have to say that the suffix has been added to a bound stem. E.g. pre-sid-ent ! originally meant 'someone who sits before Dr in front'. Here pre- originally means ~

~ 'before', the bound stem sid means 'sit' (from Latin). and -ent adds the meaning of

I doing an action.

... : -:r..:: '.1:-. .' - _. r ••• :- - .: ". ','. ".- ... 1"'..- •••• - •• .1&. ... :'-,-,.1" -. ':. '_." •• _' ',-', '_ ••••••• • •••• '._ ••••• _ ••• •• • •• ',

b

JIIII


2. Some of the words in a-r above contain bound stems as their stems, instead of stems capable of standing alone as words (give or take the odd adjustment of spelling), Which words have bound stems? Wrfte out the words, inserting hyphens between morphemes, and underlining the bound stem.

To help you, we give you the first example of a bound stem: dod-or. Note that dod is not a word in English - it comes from the Latin word meaning 'teach', wh i ch is also retl ected in words like docde, doctrine. and docum ent.

Exercise 2d (answers on p. 2 J J)

Some derivational suffixes, such as -Iy and -Q/~ are ambiguous; they can do two different 'jobs' according to the kind of stem they are added to. Divide the following list of words ending in -Iy into two lists (A and B), showing the two different functions that ~/y can perform in different words:

Iove~/y, reaJ-Iy, probab-Jy, certoin-Iy, queen-Iy, friend-Iy, usual-ly, cost-Iy, deor-'Y1 quick-Jy

Now here is a similar list of words ending in ~Qt Divide it into two lists (C and D)~ separating the two different functions:

natur-at, tri-al, approv-aI, with-draw-al, rov-al, norm-ct. re-rnov-oi, music-ai, region-at, arriv-al

FOR DISCUSSION

Haw did you decide whether to place a word in one list or the other? It could just be intuition, or the decision could be based on meaning, or it could be based on th e ki nd of word that results from addi ng ~ly or -al. For those of you who are familiar with word classes like noun, verb, adjective and adverb, the decision is not so difficult. Hints: even if you are unfamiliar with word classes, you can try various tests, e.g. to which words can be added an -et or -est suffix? Which words cau ld follow the word very?

Exercise 2e

Prefixes are less important in the grammatical structure of English words than suffixes, so here we just give two examples of a number of common prefixes in English. Add two other examples of each prefix from your knowledge of English vocabu 1 ary (0 r you can look ina d icti onary):

dis-: discover, dismiss over-: overdone, overseas
co-: (0-0 p e rate, co-driver pre-; preview, prepared
ex-: export, exclude re-: return) rediscover
m-: include, involved sub-: subject, submit
inter: internationat interview trans-: trQnspo(t, transaction
ob: object observe un-: unlikely, unfair GETTtNG STARTED WITH GRAMMAR 29

Exercise 2f (answers on P+ 21 I)

The words In the following list are all compJex words containing two morphemes+

disappear, straighten, bathroom, mismatch, intermarry, acouitto], realism~ /ife/ong~ broadcast. brightest

Divide them into three lists:

J ~ Words contai n i ng prefix + stern, ergr mis+take 2~ Words contai n i ng stem + suffix, e.g. stat+ed

3~ Words containing stem + stem, i.e. compound words, e.g. day+light.

Insert a '+) between the two morphemes.

b

..... ~: .. ~ .. :.I.~ .. : .. :.::.:

I .: :: : • ..... .: •

I : .: •••• •

.. : ..

. . ..

. .

.. . . .

•• r

..

i . .'1: ..

. .: - .. .

:>1 .':

1 ': •••

·.1.

. .

. . ...

. . .. .. ..

. .... . ... : . .

. .

. .

. . .

.. . . {' ...

. .

, . .

. . .

. .

'. .

.... . .. .

b

Analysis

Sentences and Their Parts

C; rarnrnar can he briefly dcscri bed as 8. set of rules for consrructing and for analysing sentences. The process of analysing sentences into their pJ.rts., or COt\STITl.JE:..JTS, is known as P.i\l{_SI~G. In [his and the next five chapters \VC \v111 grad ually build up a simple rechn iquc for parsing Lnglish sentences. If pa rsi Ilg SCClllS at first J. negati ve process of taking things to pieces, remember that: by taking something to pieces we Jearn how it works. Analysis and synthesis arc t\VO J.spccts of the salt) e process of 1.1 ndcrsranding, This chu pter g, i v c san 0 vcr vic \-\or ~ i L1 t rod U c 1 n g m o 5 tor t: h C 111;) inc 0 n c ~ p t s 0 f g r a lTli n a r, w i r h CX:1111 plcs. I t should help you to k 110\V that 3.11 the topics of Chapter .. ; will he dealt with in 1110re dera i! la rer on.

361 Prologue: parts of speech

3 .. 1.1 A test

First, here is a short test, \\,1 h ieh can be seen as an easy genera l-knowlcdgc test about English gra mrna r. Its pu rposc is simply to sta rt you thi n king 011 the right lines. For some of you, 110 doubt, this will be too easy; for others, it will mea n r e mern bering what you learned S01l1t years ago. for others of you, thin king a bout gr a t11J11ar will be a new experience .- so you may find it helpful fi rst to look back to the preliminary way nou ns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs \vere 1 ntroduccd ill Chapter 2~

(a) In sentences (1 )-( 4) make a list, in four col umns, of the italicized words which arc (i) nouns, (1) verbs, (Iii) adjectives, and (i v) adverbs (ignore the other words):

( I ) New cars are very expensive nowadays.

(2) I understand that even Dracula hates werewolves.

(3) I have won more rounds of golf than you have had hot dinners.

(4) Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard, looking vainly for food to give her dog+

33

34

PART B: ANALYSIS

Assuming you 11 a ve made the list, SJ.y why you classified the words as you did. This wi 11 requ i re S0111C kind of definition of what a noun, a verb, J.1l adjective or a n ad verb is.

If YOLl reI11CIll her ahou [ rrad irional \X/()ltD (~Li\SSES, or PARTS OF SPEE(~H as they 3.fC called, your 1 isrs will be something 1 ike the fo11o\ving:

Cars, Dracula, urereurolues ; rounds, gol], dinners, food and dog a re nouns; Are ~ u nders t a nd ~ lia! es, u/on, had, ure nt , looking and give are verbs;

.~~J etc, e xpe ns iue and bo tare ad i ecti ves,

Very, nouadays and v~inly are adverbs.

In order to explain your 1 isrs, you rn ;·1 y ha ve used familiar definitions 1 i ke these:

·r ~ ~ A noun is a naming word: it refers ro ~l rh i ng~ person, substance, etc.'

). 'A. verb 15 a doing word: it refers to an action.'

3. ~ A II adjective is a word that describes something a bout a noun.'

4. ~ i\ n adverb 1 S ,1 word that says sorncthi ng about other types of words, S LlC h as ver h s, ad j ecti ves and ad vcr b s .'

'J 'hese are largely scm antic definitions, i.e. definitions in terms of meaning .. Such definitions arc a useful starting-point, especially in the early days of learning about grarntl1 ar, hut they have t\VO dra whacks: they a re often vague and they are sometimes wrong.

For exam plc, golf and dinners in sentence (3) are nouns, but do not fit the defin ition given ~ golf names 3. type of ga me, and dinners 3. type of meal, Th is defect could be mended if \\~C included games and meals under the 'etc.' of 1+ But having extended the definition of nouns in this v-lay, ¥/C would ha ve to ex tend 1 t in other VlJ.yS~ to include other words such as rounds. The plain fact is that it is difficult to sec anything in common between all the 'things' to \v h ich n ou 11 S ca n refer ~ except the fact r11 at no u n s ca 11. refer to t hem r On the other ha nd, 1 t is true that the most typical or centra 1 members of the class of nouns refer to people, things and substances, These are often called (~()Nl-:RETE NOUNS.

Sirn ilarly \\1 ith verbs, the definition of a 'doi ng word' applies naturally to u/e 11 t ~ looked, uro nand giue, but docs not so casi I yap ply to are) hates and urule r stan d r \'(! C co uld i 111 prove the d efini tion by sa yi ng th at a vcr h ca n den ote 'sta res' as \VC 11 as' act i oris' ~ but, th e d ifficul ty is partly th 3. t words 1 ike s tate and action are themselves vague 111 meaning, \~/hel1 \VC say The girls seem hungry) for example, does seem refer to a state? The adjective hungr-y fits the d efin i ti on of oL sta tc \\10 rd ' m 0 re ea s i I y t ha n seem, And v: ha t a bou t T 1110 tUJQS arc (our? Saying that are refers to J. 'sra re' here seems to be pushing the m e a n 1 n g 0 f 's tat e ' a bit too far .

. A. n additional problem is that such definitions fail to keep the parts of speech apart. Compare hates in Dracula hates urereuiolues with hatred in Dracula's hatred of ioereioolues, It is genera lly accepted that hates here is a verb, whereas hatred is a noun; but rh is cannot be due to the meaning of these words, for they both refer to the same 'thing' - that is, an emotion \.\1 hich

L

SENTENCES AND THE1R PARTS JS

Dracula feels, ;1 nd wh ich is the opposite of love. \X? e could rna ke the sa me point a hour hundreds of ABSTH,_AC~T N O UNS which, like hatred, are rela ted in form to a verb or an adjective:

Abstract noun:

Verb or adjectlve:

reduction reduce

love Increase kindness

love increase kind

difference (old

different cold

3.1.2 An example: 'Jabberwocky"

So we cannot alwa ys rely on rncani ng ill defining word classes. This point is {Jut beyond dou hr \v' hen \VC notice (as many have noticed before) that in n onsen se POCI11 S S uch as Lew is Carro 11' s we ll- kno wn poe 111 J a bb eriooc k y 1 vl/e C3n tell the word class of the nonsense words even though we do nor know their meaning. Here is the first verse:

'Twas brilllg, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

All mimsy were the borogoves, And the marne raths outgrabe.

It is clear, for instance, that toues and borogoues are nouns, that gyre, ginible, and outgrabe are verbs, and that slith y and mimsy a re adjectives. Rut how do we know? Certainly not on account of meaning! Rather, we classi fy each word on rh e ba sis of its form and its posi ti on. R 0 to go ves is a 11 ou n hcca usc it ends in -$ (the regu lar plu ra 1 ending of nouns), and because it follows the. Slithy is an adjective bcca use it comes between the and the plural noun toues, JS well as ending in -yo Outgrabe is a verb because it has a (0[111110n verb prefix out- (as. in outu/it, outdoL and also because if it were not a verb, the sen ten cc \VO u ld not be co 111 p letc. These arc only pa rt 0 f the exp lana ti on ~ but they show the kind of intuitive skill in gramnlatical analysis which all of US po s scss, and w h ich a book on gra mmar ha s to expl ain ~ They a Iso show that this intuitive skill is not primarily dependent on meaning.

3.1.3 The fuzzy boundaries of grammatical classes: prototypes

\X/ c learn, then, that Se111a n tic definitions are fa lli ble (1 nd a re a I so d j spen sa bl e. But this does not mean that they a re useless. Defining grammatical terms 1 ike noun and verb is like defining many other words of rhe la nguage, such ;·15 cup, chair, bird, dog, mountain. ~l e can easily identi fy the tea tures of the I1105t typical members of the cl ass: for exa mple, a 'prototype' chair - the typical cha I r we m ight see in ou r m i rid's eye when asked [0 i magi nc a [hal r - has four legs, a hack and a seat, is Blade with wood, and is used for sitri ng on. But th ere a re 0 th er 0 hj ects w hi ch \VC \-VOLl ld be less i ucl i ned to can c h airs, though they a re m a rgina lly so: for e xa rnple, a sofa, a settle, a PCVirr, a garden scat, a bench, In such cases .. we cannot easily give 3. yes-or-no answer to the g ucstion "Is [his a chair?' Similarly with birds: the typical bird has t\VO legs, t\VO wings, feathers, a beak and 3. tail; it flies, perches on branches, lays eggs in a nest, and sings. In this, sparro~Ts and robins are typical, whereas eagles) ducks and

tn

]6 PART B~ ANALYSIS

penguins arc to varyi ng degrees less 'hi rdy '. The same idea of prototype ca regori es \OV1 t h fu ZZ Y edges a P p 1 i cs to gra m m a r + Just ~·l S SOTIle ch ai rs are 1 css \~h airy ~ than others, and just as SOJllC birds ~·l re less "bird y ~ than others, so some nouns are less "nounv' than others, and some verbs less 'verhy ' than others. The typical, or prototype, nouns ~l rc those \'V h ich refer to people, animals and things - and J.I110ng these, incidentally, are the nouns which chi 1 d r e n 1 e (_l r 11 fi r s t ~ v~:' hen the y s t J. r t to usc Ian g 1.1 age to ide 11 t i f y the ph e n o 111 en a around them. Similarly, the prototype verb 1S a 'doing word' such as help Of C(lrry - even though the L11USt C01111110n verb of all , to be, is fa r [rom typical in rh 1 s respect.

In wh a t folknvs, then, we shall often, when defining grarnmaricul terms, usc words such as 'typicn I' or 'geuerally', father than 'every' and ~a lwn ys'. This is [lot :1 \VC:l kncss - it is a reflection of the fuzzy boundar ics of granl matico 1 classes. espcci a II y in the a rea of meaning.

1-h is concept of ~l 'fu/.:r,y' ca tcgory a pplics not j LIst to meaning, but also to formal aspects of dcfin it ion. For example, J. typical noun has a plural ill -5 and 3. typical verb h~l s a past tense in -cd; but there arc less rypical 110U IlS rh.u ha vc no plu r.il (c .g~ sunshine) ~ and way-our nouns that have a wei rd plura 1 Eke -cn (eTg. oxeni, There arc also Jess typical verbs which ha vc an irrcgu lar past tense, such ;IS unnitoon or eat/ate.

Gra111111J.r is not a precise logical or m ~·l thcrnarical system, but has 111 uch in C0111111011 with systems of organ isms in the natura 1 world, in that it involves overlapping criteria, and has fuzzy edges. There are p lent)' of linguistic pa ra llels to the duck-billed platypus. This means, incidcnrall y 1 th a t there rnay not he a si ngle, uniquely correct parsing of a sentence; there is scope for legitimate disagreement about what is the best analysis. (Now try Exercise 3~L)

3.2 The hierarchy of units

t

The SEN'rENCE is the largest unit of language th.u we arc concerned with in grammar. ;\ sentence is (:0]11 posed of smaller un i [S, CI..A lJST?S~ PHR.I.\SES and \Xl o {{'1) 5 (sec .1'J. b 1 c 3.·1).

For convenience in parsi ng, \VC gi ve each gra III T11a tical ca regory we inrrod nee a shorthand sY111boL The symbols and abbreviations used in th 1 S hook a re I isred on pp. xiv--x vi.

The u ni rs 5 F~'~rE).: C·E and \Xl()lZD need little i ntroduction, as they arc [airly clearly represented in our writing system. ln gel1era] we shall identify

Table 3.1

Grammatical units of English

Symbol

Sentence Clause Phrase Word (Morpheme)

Se CI

Ph Wo (Mo)

r

SENTfNC£S AND THEIR PARTS 37

them according to the usual conventions: that is, a sentence will he recognized by a n in] rial capital letter and a final full StOP (or question mark or excla marion mark), and a word will be recognized, for most pu rposcs, by a space (or punctuation mark other than a hyphen or apostrophe) on each

'd 1 SI t.

Cl.A lJ S ES arc the 1113 j 0 r u ni ts of w hie h sen rences arc corn posed. A sen renee may consist of one or more cl a uses. for example:

(5) Jack Sp rat cou I d eat no fat.

This, standing on its O\Vl1, is a sentence. Rut (S) can also occur as part of a la rgcr u ni t:

(6) Uack Sprat could eat no fat] and his wife could eat no lean. (7) Every child knows [that Jack Sprat could eo! no (at].

Here (6) and (7) a re sen ten ccs, hut the parts of t hem in ~ q ua re bra ckets a r e cla uses.

PH.R I\SF.S a re un its intermediate between clause and word. Th us (8) consists of nine words, bur these words arc grouped into fou r phrases:

(8) (My Unci e 0 laf) (was munch i ng) (h is peach) (with rei ish).

L ike \V 0 r d s ~ ph r a s c s be] 0 n g to a n u 111 be r 0 f d i ffe r en t cl ass e s. 1\.1 Y [) n (I e C)! a f is a N() lIN PI ·rRi\SE~ uias munching is a \1 EH .. ll P HR1\SE., his peach is another noun phrase, and icith relish is a PREPl)SrrrONAI. PHRASE.

In Chapter 2 we met the smallest unit in the h iera rchy: rhe M ()R PI I EMFJ.

In themselves, morphemes are not important for p~l rsi I1g., so \VC have placed the 111 In brackets in the hierarchy table a bove. for pa rsing, morphemes (especially suffixes) are mainly useful because or whar they rcl] us about the grammatical status of words.

"The units of grarnm a r ca n be ordered in terms of H .. A NT<- (sec Figure 3.1). It is very important to notice that \VC arc using 'high' and '}O\V' in a special way here: what \ve mea n is tha r. ;1 un it of the higher rank consists of one or more of the units of the next lower r a nk ~ So a sentence can consist of only one clause (such sentences are called STMPLE Sr,NTFJ\JC:ES) and a phrase can consist of only one word. C01l1 pare sentence (8) with the following:

(Sa) [(Olaf) (munched) (peaches) (contentedly)].

The \v hole of rh is sen renee is a single clause (as signalled by the square brackets), a nd each word also constitutes a phrase (in round brackets). For that rna ttcr t a whole sentence can consist of a single word: Shoot.' is a

Higher

A clause A phrase A word

consists of one or more ph rases consists of one or more words

A sentence

consists of one or more clauses

Lower

consists of one or more morphemes

Figure 3.1

,

38 PART B: ANALYSIS

sentence consisri ng of j ust one clause consisting of j ust one phrase consisting of just one word {consisting of i ust one morpheme}.

A t first gla nee t h 1 s id ea of ra nk rna y seem strange, but the fo 1] owing analogy 111ay help to cla rify it. For another hu man activity - not talking, but ea ti ng - \VC coul d set up a rank sea lc 0 f fou r u ni ts: meal, COLl rsc, he 1 ping, mouthful, A meal may consist of one or more than one course; a course may consist of one or more than one helping; and a helping may consist of one or more than one mouth ful {see Figure 3.2).

Higher

A course

consists of one or more helpings consists ot one or more mouthfuls

A meal

consists of olle or more courses

Lower

A hefping A mouthful

Figure 3~2

Such a ran k scale is adaptahle enough to account for a wide variety of human eating heha viour - ranging frorn a seven-course banquet at w hich everyone has second helpings, to a brief snack when, literally, S0I11COnC has a '- bit e toe at'. S i rn i 1 a r 1 Y:I the ran k sea I e () f g r a In 111 a race 0 II n ts for a \v ide ran g e 0 f language bchaviou r ~ Notice that the rank of a unit is not necessarily related to its size, in terms of the nu mber of words. For insta nee, the sentence in (Sa) consists of only four words, whereas the clause in sq ua re brackets in (7)., wh ich is of lower rank, consists of as many as seven words.

3.3 GrarnlTlatical notations

For hath clarity and brevity, we need a way of representing grammatica l structu rc on pa per. 1 n fa ct ~ \VC \v ill fi n d it u sefu l to have two d i ffcren t graphic notations: BRACKETIKC, and TH,_EE DL~GRAMS.

3f'l.1 Bracketing

\X/e ha vc already used a simple set of BR /\CKP-TINC; conventions:

Sentences are marked with an Initial capital letter and a fi nal full stop. Clauses are enclosed in sq ua re brackets: l J.

P h rases are enclosed in rOll nd brackets: ( ).

\Xlo rei s 3 re separa ted by spaces+

If we need to separate the morphemes (i.e~ sterns and affixes) in words, we usc a hyphen.

So in (S))-( 11) we have as complete a parsing as can he managed at present:

(9) [(Our land-lady) (keep-s) (a stuff-ed moose) (in her attlcj], (10) [(Uncle Olaf) (savage-Iy) (devour-ed) (his six-th peach)].

(I I) [(They) ere play-ing) (Arsenal) (at home) (next week)].

SENTENCES AND THEIR PARTS 39

(Notice that 're in They're playing (11) hclongs with piayi'lg rather than with They, To sec this, we expand 're 10 are, which clearly belongs [0 the verb phrase are playing.)

3.3.2 Tree diagrams

It is very useful, as in (9)-( 11) ~ to use l J (square brackets) for clauses and ( ) (round brackets) for phrases, and we wi ll do rh is when needed throughout the book. These brack eti ngs are easy to use, but they do not give a very clear visual picture of the rela tion between constituents. Par rh is, when \V~ want ro, ~rc can replace the brackets by a tree diagram (see Figure 3.3)~ which we can think of as a 1"1 upside-down tree with its branches pointing downwa rd rather than upwa rd.

Se
I
CI
r l 1 T-

Ph Ph Ph Ph
~ J I i-h
1 I
Wo Wo Wo Wo Wo Wo WoWoWo
I I I I
(Our land-lady) (keep-s) (a stuff-ed moose) (in her attic)
Figure 3.3 Se

CI

Ph

Wo

The symbols Cl, ctc., which we introduced earlier, arc here used as I _A RF.I ,5 for nodes on the tree, so that a 11 units of the same rank (as shown Oil the right-hand side) appear at the same level of the tree. Each "branch' of the tree represents a relation of 'containing'; for example, the left-hand p3.rt of the diagram means 'The phrase (lur landlady contains two words, i.e. Our and land! adv ~ ,

~

The conventions of bracketing and tree-diagramming shou Id he ou r slaves and not our masters; we should usc rhcm only to show what is needed for our purposc. for example, if (l sentence contains a single clause, it is often unnecessary to show the clause level, and it is often un necessary to la bel the words. The tret shown 111 Figu re 3 .4~ which may be en lled an ABBI{_£'VL~ TED tree diagram, shows S0l11C simplifies tioris, by om itting the labels Cl and \X/o> and simply joining up the lines where those labels would have been.

\'\7 e lT1 aye v en \, .. 3_ n t to S i 111 pl i fy t hi n g s eve n fur the r , 3_ n d p r o due e a n unla belled tree diagr3.!11 (sec Figure 3.5) +

'rhus w e C8Jl use the notations flcxiblv .. tu sho\\/ whatever information we

~ ,

consider irn pOrLlT1L Bu r it is also imporra nr 1"0 be able to do a COll1 plel-e

parsing when necessary, and for this we need to be able to draw a FlJLL1T L.t\RrJ J .f.O tree diagram, such as figure 3 .. 1, where every constituent is labelled. (~O\\~ try Exercise 3b+)

b

l

40 PART B: ANALYSIS

Se

Se

Ph Ph Ph Ph Ph
~ I
I
Uncle Olaf savagely devoured his sixth peach Wo
Figure 3~4 Se

They're

playing

Arsenal

at

home next week

Figure 3 .. 5

3.4 Using tests

\Y'/e already have hand y tools for parsing a sentence. But, as will become more ~lnd more clear, we often cannot tell the structure of a sentence simply by passively observing It; we need to in vestige te acti vel}' the rel a tions between its parts by using various grammatical tests.

3 .. 4.l Expansion tests

In They're playing (11) we expanded 're into are, and so made i r clear that 're is a sepa ra l"e verb, belonging to the ph rase "re playing ~ rather than with They. \X/e can also expand a word by adding other words to it, to show that the \-\"'0.-.::1 is acting as a phrase. For e x arn p]e , each of the words of (Sa) can be expa nded into a wor'd grou p:

(Sa) [ (Olaf) (munched) (peaches) (Bb) [(Uncle Olaf) (has munched) (his peaches)

(contentedly) ]~ (very contentedly)].

Such additions, although they aJd something to the meaning, do not change the relations between the parts of the sentence. Hence the round brackets in (Ra) correctly show (()laf), imuncbedi, etc., as ph rases, capable of expansion into multi-word phrases like the phrases of (8h).

3 .. 4.2 Substitution tests

Sometimes, even though we cannot lise an expansion test, by substituting a word seq ue 11 cc fo r a wo rd \VC Cd 11 sec rh a t th c \VO rd is 3CtU all y bcha ving as

I

L

SENTENCES AND THEIR. PARTS 41

a phrase. Fur instance, in (11) we marked Tbcv and i1rsenal as one-word phrases:

(II a) [(They) (are playing) (Arsenal) (at home) (next week)].

And to help sh O\V t ha t r his an a lysis is correct, we CJ. n rc place cach ri f these consnruenrs by a word group ha ving the S3Il1C function, and a sim ilar

,

rn C (111111 g:

(II b) (Their team) (are playing) (the best team in the world) (at home) (next week).

On the use of the p lu rnl arc following ted111"J sec 4.2~ l (collective nouns).

3~4.3 Subtraction tests

The opposite of an ex pansion test is a subtraction test, i.e. omitting SOll1C parr of :·1 consrruct.ion, 1 n [ahherioocl:v ill 3+ L2~ ill the slit hT toucs we recognised

.. _. _. L

toues as a noun, arid this in p~1rt was because intuition tells us that {OUt

( w it h o U t the ~ s) v\t 0 ul d al sob C g ran 1111 a ri cal. E qua 1l y, i n (1 ()), w c n 1:1 r ked r h c - e d a s a s epa rat c g r J.1l1 m a tic J.l s u f fi x 0 f deu () U r - ed, and t his l spa r rl y j 1] sri f i cd by the fact that the remain i ng part of the word, dcuour .. is itsel f [;1 p~l hlc of standing alone as 3. separate word.

Returning to sentence (S), suppose \VC mod i fied rhc word ing as [o 110\-\o's:

(Be) [(Dear old Uncle Olaf) (devoured) (the peach) (with relish)].

\YJe would recognize Dear old Uncle Ola] as a noun phrase, because \VC could subtract the initial three words and end up with a noun, ()ft.1f~ which has a si rnilar function to the whole. The usefulness of rh is test will become ClC:·1 rer later on.

3.4.4 Movement tests

1 n ('10) on page 38~ Uncle Oldf sauagely deuourcd his sixth peach, \VC treated sauagely as a sepa rn re phrase ra thcr than J.S part of a phrase sauagel» devoured, and t his \V;·1 S beca II se s aUdgc/y cu n be m o vcd c lscw here ill the cla usc, withou r noticca h 1 y cha ngi ng its mea 1'1 ing or function in the clause, and without d raggrng devoured wi rh it:

(! Oa) [(Savagery) (Uncle Olaf) (devoured) (his sixth peach)].

These tests will he refined as we go~ and at the moment 11111St he used with caution, JA.Iso hear in 111 i I1d that, because gf;.l m mat i ca I C~l regories ha vc fuzzy edges, one test is ra rely enough; \VC ofrcn ha ve t o rely 011 a n urn her of different tests i 11 dccid i ng which ana 1 ysi sis the correct or best one. 1\ evcrthclcss, the tests arc a 1 ready useful, and t his is pa rricu la rly l~\ ... idenr in recognising types of phrase. Each phrase CL.·l~S has a "keyword which is essential to it) and which provides it with a name, For CX~1 rnple, in ('12) the 'keywords I of the phrases arc as follows:

-

42 PART B: ANALYSIS

noun phrase

verb adjective adverb
+ ~ +
(has seemed) (rather grump y) ( jus t r c c en t 1 y) J
verb adjective adverb
phrase phrase phrase (12) noun

+

[ (A 11 n r Cladysi

J~ nd we C3n see that these words - uou n, verb, adjective, adverb - are essen tia 1 to the st rucru rc, S o t hat i f \V~ red II ce the sen renee to 3. m in i m 1.1 m by subtraction or substitution, \VC end up with them alone:

(12a) ((Gladys) (seemed) (grumpy) (recently)].

If \ve \\!(1 nt to ind icarc which constituents a re opti orial, we can place them in {} (curly brackets), J.S in (12h). ] lere is another useful piece of notation:

(12b) [({Aunt} Gladys) ({has} seemed) ({rather} grumpy) (Uust} recentlyj],

(:\"" O\V trv Exc rei sc 3c.)

. ~

3.5 Form and function

Th i s bri ngs US to the gLIlcra] q Ll csti () n 0 f 11 0 w to cia ss ify gran11na ti cal u n i [S~ To ex pla i n how sentences arc constructed, it: is nut enough to idcuti fy coustituen ts such as clauses, phrases and words; we a lso need to identify these as belongi I1g to va rious classes.

3tS.1 Form classes

As we ha vc seen, \vonJs are di vided into word classes such ~·l s N O U N ()J), V EIZ B CV), i\ 0 JE (~T I Yr_ ( Ai) and ;\ 1) \' ERB (A v) . Sin 1 i 1 a r 1 y, ph ra se S d re su bdi vidcd into phrase classes such as NOUN PHH._i\SE (NP), \!F~R B PHI{i\SE (\/P), Al)JEC:TI\rf~ Pf·1R~~SE {,[\jP)~ i\DVEltB PHlti\SE (l\VP) and PREP()Sl'I'I()N_A_L P}-I R_ASE (PP) ~ \Xle will look at these word classes and phrase classes later (see 4.2, S .J-5 .5) ~ F or the moment, notice that one reason VIr' h y we need to identify such classes is to e xpla i n the order in which clements of rhe sentence occur. It would not do to put the ph rases of (9) into any order (an asterisk C1-) before a sentence marks i [ as being u ngrarnmatical):

(9a) [(Our landlady) (keeps) (a stuffed moose) (in her attic)]. (9b) *((Keeps) (a stuffed moose) (our landlady) (in her atticj]. (9c) *[(A stuffed moose) (keeps) (In her attic) (our landlady)].

?\"!or would it do to put the words in any other ordcr within the phrases:

(9d) *[(Landlady our) (keeps) (stuffed a moose) (in attic her)].

The tree d iagra m 5ho\OV11 in r igurc 3.6, adapted frOTH sentence (1 JL shows how the extra in formation about phrase and v v ord classes ca n be included, by using C:LASS LA HPJ .5+


CI

l

Se/CI

NP VP AjP AvP Ph
~ ~ ~
N N V Av Aj Av Av Wo
I I I
I I I
Aunt Gladys seemed rather grumpy just recently
Figure 3.6 Altern atively , vee ca 11 show the same detail by LABELLED BRA CKE'-rl0:G~ placing the class 1 a hel as a su bscript before each word and opening brack er:

(12c) Ct [NP(NAunt N Gladys) vp(vseemed) AjP(Avrather Ajgrumpy) AvP(Avjust Av recently)] +

Gr31111ll3r has to state which orders arc per mitred. For example, the order \lP KP NP A v P ttl (9b) a bovc is ungrammatical in English (although not necess 3 IiI Y in 0 t her 1 a ngu ages} .

3.5.2 Function classes: elements of the clause

Classes such as NP, VP and AiP are called FC)R.L\-t CLAssr.S because the classi ficariol1 of phrases in this way depends on how the uni t is composed of smaller units, or on hO\\1 its forrn can vary. But it is also necessary (0 classify units into FlJi\"(:TI()~ CL.i\SSES: that lSJ to classify them according to how they are usc d to fo r m I a rg e r tl nit s . /\ 1 ll11 t ~ s fun c t ion c 1 :l S s de t crrn inc s sue h things as what positions it can fill, ~"lnd whether if is optional.

The need for function classes is illustrated by another version of (9):

(9a) [( Ou r Ian dlady ) (keeps) (a stuffed moose) (i n her atti c)]. (ge) [(A stuffed moose) (keeps) (our landlady) (in her atticj].

The sequence of phrase types is the sa n1C ill both (9a) and (9c): :.JP \!P N P Pi>. Rut the relationship between phrases in the clause is quite different~ alld this is reflected in rhe very d i ffcrcnt meaning of (9c) ~ in trad itional terms, our landiadv j n (9a) is the SlJRJF.(~T (S) of the clause, and a sturred moose is the OnJEC~T (0). In (ge) these fu ncrions arc reversed, so that a Slurre(i moose ~s the S 11 b jeer, a nd our land! a dy is the 0 hi cct ~ \Xl C will L1 se t h est trad i ti 0 11;1] terms, bu r we will also combine them with a less trad irional, hut uscfu l, rcrrn for th c verbal clcmcn t: we will call kec ps i Tl both sen rcnccs the P R F, D r (_ ~ A T ( ) J\_ (P). Toe x c 111 11 1 i fy the ide a 0 f fun (t i 0 11 1 w e Ii 111 i r ou rat ten t ion i1 t t b is poi n r t o the set h r c eel c n 1 C n t s ~ 5 ~ 0 ~1 11 d P t 1 e a v in g fill h."1 the f u 11 c r treatment of (:LA lJSE functions, including those of u n i rs such as in the attic. \Y/c LlSC the term ELEl\ .. "1EN~r for members of [unction classes such :IS S~ 0 and P. \X' e can also think uf them as 'slots' in the clause pattcnl, ca pa hle of

>

..

44 PART B: ANALYSIS

bei 11g filled bv va riou s ph r a se typcs~ These three cICJl1C!1ts c a 11 be d istingu is hed as follows:

1. P is the only element of J. clause whicb is a verb phrase, and so there is 1 i t tl c d i f fi cui t yin ide n t i f y i 11 g i [" .

') In English S rypica lly COLl1CS before P ~ \V here-as 0 rypica lly comes after P.

3. 5 typically denotes the doer ((,acror') of the action represented by P, whereas 0 typica 11 y: denotes rhc docc {~su fferer ~/~ of the action.

I r ~

4+ 5 111 LIst normally he present (in rna in dccla ra ti ve cl8.uSCS such as \.ve he] ve

seen in cxa mp Ic sentences so far), w hcrcas 0 is often not needed.

Using l"his starting-point, we can identify the functions of the phrases ill (13)-( 17). Notice, by the way, another piece of notat ion - \VC 111J.rk the function CL1SS of a unit bv a raised italic Jetter imrncdiatclv in front of it (when

~ r

wri ring fUllCl ion [a be]s, LISC undcrli n i I1g; e.g. for P wri (C P.):

( ~ 3) [s(Her heart) P (sank)].

(14) (s(A big red apple) P (might have fallen)]. (IS) [5 (Many gentlemen) P (prefer) O(blondes)J~

(16) [s (Empty vessels) P (make) o(the most soundj].

(17) [s(Everyone) P (will enjoy) O(Uncle Olaf's funeral)].

3.5.3 Function classes: elements of the phrase

T () f i 11 j s h t hi$. b r i e f s k c t c h 0 f g r a 11"1 rn a tic a ] c 18. sse S ,Ie t ' s 1. a k e a 10 o kat the functions of words in phrases. \Xl e will identify ["\\10 function classes:

IlEA D (H) and 1\/1 ()I) 1 FI ER (M). In the examples shown in '-fa hlc 3.2 (though this is not always the case} modifiers come before the head.

In gCl1Cr~1J, rhe head is the word which cannot be omitted frorll the phrase, whereas modifiers are optional. This applies to j\jP, AvP and a lot of the

Table 3.2

Modifiers (M) Head (H)
Noun Boris
phrase my bicycle
(NP) th at stran ge feeling
both his rich elderly spinster great-au nts
Britain's only known surviving Victorian cast-iron outside public convenience
Adjective pleasant
phrase more careful
{AjP) much much happier
extremely narrow
Adverb now
phrase too slowly
(AvP) very very often r

I

SENTENCES AND THEIR PARTS

45

word S in N P + 1 n ver h phrases ~ h 0 wever, the rcl a tion between the con sr it u en ts is different frorn th is, and i nsrcad of (he tcrITIS modifier and head) we use the terms AUXILLA R Y verb and ]\·1 i\ IN verb (sec Table 3.3).

Table 3.3

Auxiliaries (Aux) Main verb (Mv)

Verb phrase (VP) is

had received

must be working

may have been broken

Prepositional phrases, on the other hand, a rc essentially noun phrases (NPs) with an initial preposition (p) such as ot, in, on J under {sec 1·3 ble 3r4).

Table 3.4

p Modifiers (M) Head (H)
Prepositional phrase (PP) In luck
of strong convictions
under the squeaky old oak t1 00 rboa rd s \X/ c can no V-V' rep resen t sen renee (·1 2) (1 S a tree d i ag r am, rh i s ti me II si rig fU>J(~>-rION LABELS instead of f(1RM LABELS for each node (see Figure ~:L7) r {Here two further function classes, C == complement and A == adverbial, are used - see 4+2.3 and 4+) .4~)

CI Sa/el
l I
p C A Ph
~ ~

Aux Mv M H M H Wo
i I I I
i I I I
has seemed rather grumpy j ust recently
Figure 34'7 s

~

M H

Aunt Gladys

Alterna ri vel y ~ we can represent the S3.111t sentence as a bracketing wi rh fu ncrion la be] s:

(12d) [S(M Aunt HGladys) P (A~JXhas M~seemed) C (Mrather Hgrumpy) A (Mjust H recently)].

(Now try Exercises 3d and .3e.)

h

,

46 PART B: ANALYSIS

3.6 Summary

In rh is cha prer we ha ve mentioned in a pr cli rn inary way:

.J.tJ,. rank scale consisting of four units: sentence (Sc), clause (Cl), phrase (Ph) and word (\X/o).

Form classes of word: noun (N), verb (V) ~ adjective (Aj) ~ ad verb (i\ v) and preposition (1").

Form classes of phrase: noun phrase {~~P), verb phrase (VPL adjecri ve phrase {AjP), adverb phrase (AvP) and prepositional phrase (PP). Function classes withi 11 the ph rase; modifier (M) and head (H); a lIX diary verb (Aux) and I113.in verb (Mv) ~

Function classes within the clause: subject (5), object (0)., predicator {P) ([:\\'0 tutrher elements, COLll plcmcnr (C) a nd adverbial (A) ~ wi ll he considered 13 ter) ~

The following arc conventions for brackets:

( ): rou nd brackets enclose a phrase l ]: sq u.i rc brackets enclose a clause

{ }: curly brackets enclose an optional constituent {one rha t can be ()I11 i rrcd) ~

EXERCISES

Exercise 3a

It is a significant point about nonsense words, such as those in Jabberwocky, that we ran put these words to work in new sentences which we know to be grammatical. For example:

I. A rove is mimsier than a rath, but a borogove is mimsiest of all. 2. Did you see that slithy tove gimbling and outgribing?

But the following, for example, are not grammatical:

3. ~I momed a rath mimsy.

4~ "Our brilHgs have toved slithy,

Think up five new examples of (a) sentences which are grammatical, and of (b) sentences which are ungrammatical, using Carroll's nonsense words. Discuss the reasons for the differences between (a) and (b). Also, see how many grammatical forms of the same word (e.g. mimsylmimsierlmimsiest) you can find.

Exercise 3b (answers on pp. 21 1-12)

Draw tree diagrams like Figure 3r I for the foUowing sentences;

I . [(Th ose stu dents) (have made) (an i nteresti ng discovery)].

2. [(Without doubt) (the play) (has been) (tremendously successfulj].

Now reduce these diagrams to (a) abbreviated tree diagrams, and (b) unlabelled tree diagrams. Lastly, translate the tree diagrams shown in Figures 3.8a and 3.8b into bracketed sentences like I and 2.


CI

I

l

Ph

Ph Ph Ph
~ ~
Wo Wo Wo Wo Wo Wo
~ I I
r I I
Tawny owls were hooting loudly in
Figure 3.8a
Cl
I Wo Wo

I I

I I

the wood

Ph Ph Ph Ph
~ ~ ~

Wo Wo Wo Wo Wo Wo Wo Wo
I r I
I I I
The crttlcs have slated his plays without mercy
Figure 3.8b Exercise lc

Using expansion and substitution (3.4~! -3~4~2), convert the one-word phrases in the following sentences into units of two or more words (choose your own vocabulary, and make minimal changes to each sentence as it stands):

I. [(Tonfght) (we) (leave) (London)]. 2. [(Sometimes) (she) (looks) (tired)].

Now, using subtraction and substitution (3.4~2-3.4.3), reduce the phrases of the following sentences to one-word phrases, so that each sentence consists of just fou r words (you can use p ronou ns such as tie, she, it an d they as su bstitutes):

3. [(The paintings in the Ducal Palace) (are considered) (without doubt) (his greatest masterpi eces)].

4. [(Her first novel) (had made) (Emlly Bronte) (almost as famous as her sisterj].

Exercise 3d (answers on p. 212)

I. Translate the tree diagram shown in Flgure 3.9 into a sentence with bracketing labelled with form labels, like (I Zc), p~ 43.

....

48 PART B: ANALYSIS

Cl
I
I
AvP NP VP NP NP
~ r I ~
I
Av N N v V V N d N
I I I I 1
I I I I l
Typically, Aunt Belinda had been uttering platitudes all evening
Figure 3 .. 9 2. Translate the following sentence into a labelled tree diagram. like Figure 3.9:

CI [NP(N Jane) vp(v~s vfinding) NP(Ajmodern Aj French N literature) AiP (Ajfasci nating)].

3+ Translate the tree diagra.m shown in Figure 3.10 into a sentence with bracketing labelled with function labels like (12d)1 P7 45~

Cl
I
I
A S P a
~ ~ , ~

H M H Aux Mv M M H
I I
I I
Next the dancers will perform a vigorous hopak
Figure 3.10 4. Translate the following sentence into a labelled tree diagram like Figure 3~ 10: [S(HComputers) P(Auxcan MYsearch) O(Mvast Hdatabases) A(Mvery Hrapidly)].

Exercise 3e (answers on p. 212)

Insert the function labels 5 (subject), P (predicator}, and 0 (object) as appropriate j n front of the ph rase brackets in th e fo! I owi ng senten ces. (Hi nt: fi rst identify the predicator, then the subject and then the object (if any))~

17 [(M Little HJoanna) (AlJXwas Mv sleeping)].

2. [(MThis Hjob) (AuX must Auxbe MVfinished)].

3. [(MThe M poor Hgfrl) (AU)(has Mv seen) (M seven Hghosts)].

4. [(Hyou) (AuX must Mvmeet) (Mmy Hsister)].

5. [{M My Hteeth) (Avxwere Mv chatteringj].

Words

In the next th rce chapters we extend (1 nd explain in grca tcr detail the concepts of grammar introd uced in Cha pter .3+ It is simplest for us to start at .he bottom of the rank scale, tocusi ng on words in th is chapter, then ascending the scale to phrases in Chapter 5, and to clauses in Chapter 6+ It will become clearer, though, that we cannot flllly understand one un it of gram rna r without taking account of the others. Th is is true for words: to sec how words work in gramrnatica 1 structure, \VC need to understand something about the mOrphClTIC5 they contain (particularly suffixes) and how the words themselves fUllction in ph rases and cla uses.

4.1 Open and closed word classes

Our first task is to ela borate on the form classes, or parts of speech, al ready

in trod Heed in 3.1 + • lhcrc arc tw 0 rna j or ki rids 0 f word cla sscs i 11 English:

OPEN CLi\SSES and CLC)SED (J.;-\SSES. 'Y.lc have a lr eady mer the open c 1 ass e s, \ov hie h are the 0 n e s s h 0 vv n in Tab le 4. 1.

These classes are k nown as open classes because \VC can readily invent 11e\V words to add to them (either real words, or nonsense words such as slithy and

Open class

Symbol

Examples

Noun

Verb (= fun-verb) Adjective

Adverb

N V Ai Av

girt, chair} water, thing, beauty, thought sing1 walk, go, become, seem, water

gOOd1 watery, calm, unlimited, friendly, able now, there, calmly, actually, past, away~ today

love - see .3+ 1.2) .. Their mern bership is fai rly open -endcd; for instance, the word blachhox is a noun w h ich was coined fa i rly recently (referring to an electronic device) ~ But in OtJ r libr ary there was a notice on a hook-rack: Hooks to be blackboxed. Here hfackbox has become a verb, and refers to the action of putting books through a h lack box! This is a small illusrra tion of how English voca bu la ry is continually bei ng extended to rneet new demands. Note

49

50 PART B; ANALYSIS

also here rhat a member uf one class 111ay be identical in spelling and pronunciation with a mern her of another class - for example, tuater can be a noun or a verb: \X· .... e u\ller(verb) our plants luilh rain ruafcr(lloun).

The closed classes, 011 the other hand, have a fairly fixed membership. \Xle rarely invent new words li k e the, she, ichich, nuts! and in, and it is possible to give a reasonably full listing of each closed CL1SS~ In the lists shown in T:1 h 1 c 4.") \ov C g i v e son 1 ceo 1111110 n 111 C 111 be r S 0 f e a c h. {Y 0 U \V ill see t hat we use sn13.11 letters for the closed class symbols, vV hercas \VC used initial ca pi ra Is for The open class symbols, This is another feature of notation to rernernber.)

Table 4.2

Closed class Symbol
Determiner d
Pronoun pn
Prepositi on p
Conj unction c]
Operator-verb v
I nterjection "I- ij
"I-
Enumerator e Examples

the, a. this, that, some, any, all, many

I ~ me, you, he, she, lt, her, them, one, some, someone of, in, on, at, before, under, past. from, to, by, for

an d, Q~ but, if, when, because, that, so

can, may, will, shall, have, be, do

oh, ah, ooh, gee, ugh~ hell, shoo, hey one, two, three, f rst, second, elghtccnth

·1· In some ways interjections and enumerators. are like open classes, but for our present purpose they are more happily placed here among the dosed classes.

The closed classes arc straightforward enough, but they are not qUI[C so sirn plc as they seem, Fi rsr, like open classes, and grJ.1111113ti<.:a 1 classes in general, they' have 'fuzzy cdgcs~: for example, on the outskirts of the preposition class a re COin hi nations like instead of, {nt-'ay [rom, u/i! h reference to, which behave in SOll1C ways like a single preposition, and in other respects like J. seq ucnce of words. Sccondl y, aga in like the open cl asses, they have members w h ich arc identical In forrn to members of other classes: for example, this can be either a deterrn j ncr or 3. pronou n (see 4~3. "1-1); since mu y be either ~l preposition or a conjunction. \X/c can distinguish these words, when \ve like, hy using separate labels. dthis and pnthis. There arc even cases where the sa me fornl is shared by a n open c lass word 80d ~·l closed class word ~ for e x a tuple, about can be either an adverb or a preposition; round can be either a n adjective or a preposition - it can a lso belong to thr-ee other word classes, including noun and verb.

There IS another little corn pl ication about open and closed classes.

Although this distinction is generally very useful and i rnportant, it cuts right ;·1 ern s son c t r a d it i U 11 a 1 \.\:, a r del ass, t hat 0 f v e r b s + T 11 fun c t ion a 1 t er In s, the rei s a distinction between a main verb, and a "helpi ng' verb, or a uxilia ry verb (sec 3.5.4) T • lhis usu a lly corresponds tu a distinction of form between a large open class of FLJLL-VFRRS, and a very small closed class of OPERA T{_)R- \'EH .. BS~ these being verbs which can act as opera (or (sec 4.3.6, 6+4.1) ill (he formation of questions, nega rion, etc. 'v./ e distinguish these, in our la bell ing system, simply by' the ca piral \' and lower case v. (\X/hcn we wish to refer to verbs in general, V~·· C 1] sc the ca p i tal \l.)

WORDS 51

4.2 The open classes

In defining the open classes of N ~ \', J\j and 1\ v, \VC will use rh ret: types of test,

- .

or crrterron:

1. F C) R M: \X' e can tell the c 13. S S 0 f 3. \V 0 r d par tl y f r ()J n 1 t s f () r 111 ~ 1113. de up 0 f 111 () r ph C [11 C S :

'vic have seen that l)l::J{1 \1 ~A_ TI() K A L SlJPflXES (2.5) arc characteristic of cerra in word classes, C.gL electric-ity (noun); electr-ify (verb); electr-ic t el ec I ric-al (ad j cct i vcs) .

\X/ e have a J so se en tha t I NF L F, (~T I O ~ .:-\ L 5 U F FIX E S (7.5 ) C :1 n he added (0 cha nge the form of a word: box ~ box-es (noun); u/orlc, icorlced (verb); tall, tall-er (3d jccrivc). These purely gra m 018 tical endings can be si 111 ply ca 11 ed in f1 ecti ons and, co III pa red to so m e at her well ~ known European la nguages (e.g. Latin, (;crnl;;t 11, R II ssian, French), English has on Iy a tew of them (sec 2.3~2).

In so 111C 1 css rcgul a r ca ses, Engli sh \VO rds have i n flee ti on s \v hie h in vol vc some other change in the form of a word, e.g. a cha nge of vowe 1 iman ,-..... me 11., s i Hg '"'-. sa ng)" 0 r ina few ext rem C (;1 ses a complete change in the word (go ,...,___. u/cnt ~ gOO({ ......... better ""' best).

2. fUN C:TI() K: \"Xl e can tell the c lass of a word by the way it occurs i t1 C e rt a in P o S i [i 0 n S 0 r s r r u ct II r 31 con t c x t s. A not her wa y t o p II t t his is t () S;] Y that a word has ccrra in function (s) in phrases, and therefore indirectly in cl a uses. for exam plc, ill The cook dues not actually cook the rnea! we can recognise the first cool: as a noun a nd the second as 3. verb beca use of their function. O bviously [here is no overt Jifferencc of fortl1 (0 help us, so it must be the posi tion of the word in r ela tion to orher words that tells us the word class.

3. lV1EJt\ NJ1'\C~~ This is J. less rcl ia ble criterion, as pointed out III Cha prer 3+ But if you lea rn tu recognise certain semantic types of word (i.c. word types classi fied according to III call ing), such as action verbs, state vcr hs, abstract nouns, etc., this will help you to check the purely structural criteria, those of fornl and fu ncrion.

These rh ree tests can be placed in the following order of ~ rn porta nee:

Function is most importn nt Form is next most i m po rra 11 t Meaning is least important.

\X/by this order? F irsr, we have al ready seen (3.1) rha t meaning is not a Tel iable guide to word CL1SS1 for example:

( I ) I Jove( ve rb) my co u ntry, but my love (noun) of human ity is greater.

In (1), loire and laue ha ve the same mea ning: (hey buth refer to a parricu la r emotion. But they differ in \~ ... ord class. Second, we cannot always rely on a word's forrn , bCC3.tlSC m any word s contain no su ffix (he{p~ u/ater, male, much, rather), and many words (! he, o], (UU~ quite) arc inv.i ri a hle - i.e. they

S2 PART B: ANALYSIS

do not change their form by inflection at all. Also, just as with word-forms, \VC 11111St also allow for aL11 biguous usc of suffixes, c.g~ -ing marks th rcc different word classes in:

(2) It IS very amusing(adjective) to watch Mungo lrying(verb) to paint the guttering( nou n).

Similar cases are:

-ed can en d a n ad j ecti ve (e. g. 1 i red) as we 11 as a V" erh (e. g. I (Joked)

-ic call end a noun (e.g~ a comici as \vel] as an adjective (e.g. /)(lsic)

-lv can end an adjective (e.g~ /rjendly) ;"IS well as an adverb (e.g. happily}+

Even su ffi xes w hich seem t-o be thoroughl y sa fe indicators of a word class can sometimes be deceptive, c~g. -ion usually indica res a noun, but forms 1 ike mention (as in Don't mention it) can a lso be verbs.

Rut let's not he roo hasty in downgrad ing the criterion of form. \Xlhere \ve C J. n 1.1 sea f est. 0 fin fl ec ti 0 n ~ i f is 0 f ten con c 1 U S 1 ve + For e x a In ple, que .._i.,' t. ion a s a verb has inflected Forms questions, questioned and questioning+ As a noun, however, question has only the plural inflected forln questions. If we meet the word question, we can decide whether it is a verb by thinking up si milar sen tcnccs \,,~ i t h the infl cered Eo rrns:

(3) We (always) question the usual suspects. (3a) We questioned the usual suspects.

(3b) We are questioning the usual suspects.

In (3) question is a verb beca use we can say (3a) and (3b)) which are similar to (3) in structure and rneaning. nut English has few inflections, so this inflectional test applies mainly only to nouns and verbs.

Because of the limitations of forrn and meaning as criteria, we chiefly rely on a word's function as a criterion of its class. In what follows, we look at the four open word classes in tu rn, each frorn the viewpoints of function, form and meaning,

4.2. f Nouns (N)

The class 0 f nou ns (N) 1 s by fa r th C ITIOst n U III C rous word class ~

(a) FUNCTION

Nouns can function as the head (H) of a noun phrase (N P) - sec 3.:5 .3:

NP(Hdonkeys) Np(Mour Htown)

Np(Mthe Mworst Hjourney Mever)

NP(MStanley's Mhistoric H meeting ~p(wi!h Livingstone)).

(Notice rha t navy' ~ for the first time, 'Are a re com bi ning function la bels (M~ H) \v ith [orrn 1 a bels ()JT\ PP) + As these ex a m ples show, the head rna)" be preceded or follov\!cd by rnodi fiers.)

WORDS 53

/\. good way [0 recognise an NP is to see whether it will fit into a frame such as Have you heard about . ~ .? or Did you know about .. +? I t is also generally possible for an NP to begin wi rh the, and so a good test for a noun (which docs not apply, however, to proper nouns - see (ii) below) is whether it can fit the frame 'the _'. (The, the 11105t: common word in English, has a special name: the DE.FIKITE AIZ TI(:LE~) Try these tests on the tou r examples 8. hove: fo r exa 111 p lc, we can say Did you kn o u! a b ou t donkeys? ;·111 d f) id you kHOU.' about the donkeys?

(b) FORM

(i) /\5 we sa Vv' in ') . .3~ J, many nouns ha ve characteristic suffixes: C.gr -er (singer), -ist (hypnotist), -ism (fascism)t -ion or -aiion (station, caution) -ity (university), -hood (falsehood), -ence (pre(eren{."c), -ness (gOO(/ uess) 7 There are many exceptions, however, where these end i ngs do not signal a noun: c.g~ longer is a 11 A L linger is a V.

(ii} Most nouns can change thei r forrn r rom singu la r to pill ra 1 by aJding "s or -es (goal "-' goals; dress ......... dresses) or by some other cha nge uf form ( U! U man ."-' U} 0 I n en; [o 0 t -... [e e t ; hac i [ [ U 5 -..- b a c i fI i). T h L S C no \l n s are count nouns, as opposed to 1113.SS nouns (sec (i) below).

(c) MEAN~NG

Nouns typically refer to physical things: people istudcnt), objects (book), places (city), substances (gold), ere. These nouns a n.~ (a l1ed concrete nouns; but there arc also ahsrracr nouns rcferri ng to events, sra tes, acti vi tics, processcs~ rimes, occasions, ctc.: bitt h, baptiiness, relincment, reuiual, birthday, meeting,

Members of such a large class of words as nouns \\-'1 H obviously not all beha ve in the same way. \Y'/c distinguish these su bclasses i 11 terms of form, fu ncrion and meaning:

"I. C:C)I)NT/ !'vLA.SS N()lJNS: Count nouns (e.g. tuble, (log', idea, !nile) refer to things thar can be counted, and so can have a plural form itnbles, crc.). 1\1 ass nouns, on the other hand, refer to substances, qualities, etc. that \VC do nor think of as corn ing in COUlltJ b~e 'Iu mps': such nouns normally have no plural C:·go/ds, "goodnessesi. N Deice, ho\vcvcr, that the sa n1C noun may belong to both carcgor ics: in I! er h.tir is broum, h.tir is a mass noun, but in I fo 14 12 d i.1 h air in my sou p, i l" is a co U 11 t no un, A / ani ~ t e rill edt h c U\ D EF I NIT E i\ R TIC ~ L, F_, a n d , 1 ike 1: hen l H n her S 011 C, '[.(.1 o , / h r e c etc., is a good indicator of count nouns: a hair and tIUO hairs rna ke good sense, but Hot :~-a sunshine, "turo sunshines.

2~ PRl1PER/CO.L\1 ... rvl 0 N N()lJNS: Proper nouns denote a n i nd i vld ua 1 person, place, etc., whereas (01111110n nouns classi fy rh 1 I1gs into types. j\ proper noun norrna lly begins with 3. capital letter: John ~ Goldiloc]:s, London, Africd'J etc. It generally has no plural form C-IoiJns, ~::-/1t.rri(a~), and c am lot g e II era 11 y 0 cell raft c r the 0 r a / an: C~· a _I () h n , ~:- ~ 711 A [r i c a ) C~on1111on nouns, on the other hand, can occur after the. So all the count

...

S4 PART B~ ANALYSIS

and 111 ass nouns discussed 1 n 1 a re (.:0111mOn nouns. (Sometimes, however, proper nouns are trea ted 1 i ke corn mo n nouns: There' 5 a London in Ontario; J k.H01.t.1 several johns: erc.)

.1. (:()LL.E(~Tlvr. N() lJNS: These a re genera lly count nouns, hut even in the si ngul.ir they refer to groups of people, animals or things: [amilv; gouernment, committee, team. (;ra m ma rica lly, the thing to notice about collective nouns is thci r a hili ry , sorncti rues, to go with a plural verb even when they themselves arc si ngular: Her [amily liue/Liucs in Bangalore . 'I'l:c crouid tuast urere ch.inting (sec .·:L4.2, ·l) .5).

fNo\v try' Exercise 4~L)

4 .. 2.2 Verbs (V)

(a) FUNCTfON

Verbs as \\,1C discuss d1CT11 now are full verbs; that is, they always function as the 1l13.i n clement of :·1 verb phrase. They ca n stand on their OV,1l1 as a predicator} or they C3.11 follow ocher (opera tor) verbs; [s(Most wombats) P (vbite)], [s(One peach) P (had been veaten)], [s(The cat) P (was vpurring)]~ [s{l) P (must have been vdr€aming)].

Because the predicator is the centra 1 or pi vora 1 element of a cla USt> and because every predicator contains a main verb, it is always a good idea to begi 11 an a na I ys is h y looking for the verb (0 r vc r bs) fi rst.

(b) FORM

(i) Some verbs, as we S3.\\~ in ").3.)~ have derivational suffixes like -isc, -ize irc.tlisc! realize) and -itv (clarify) > but these arc not very i 1l1portant.

(i i) !\/f uch more important are inflections: each verb has up to five different i 11 [lcctiunal Forms, \''v' h ich \ve ca n la bel Vo, \/ s~ Ved ~ V ing and Yen, as shown in Ta ble 4+3. l' otice that most verbs are ItE.G ULAl\'; and have forms 1 ik e those of ask. For these verbs, the Ved and V en forms arc ideutica L For IRR EGlJ L./\R. \lERBS (there are a bout t\VO hundred of rhein i 11 P.l1g1 ish) the \l ed (l nd Vcn [orms ca n va ry in a number of different \V3. ys: For cxa tl1 P 1 c, \VC call th e \1 en fo rm s '\l ell' been u se r he y SOJll et i In es have the distinctive suffix -en (as in eaten, u/rittenv, instead of -ed.

Table 4.3

Vo Vs Ved Ving Yen
Regular as.k asks asked asking asked
wash washes washed washing washed
Irregular show shows showed showing shown
write writes wrote writing written
put puts put putting put
give . . , -
gives gave giving g[ven WORDS 5S

N orice that the Vo forrn of a verb is the forrn without an v suffl x. Vic will caJi

..

this form the plain form, as d i stinct from the s-forrn, the ed-forrn, the ingform and the en-form,

(c) MEANING

\' erbs can express actions, events, processes, activities, stu tes~ etc. Such "happen ings' can be physical (eat) ~ mental (think), pcrceptua 1 (see), social (bu'y), and so OIl.

An easy test for a verb is: Can the word vary its form frOTI1 present tense to past ten sc? The p la i 1"1 fo rrn 3. n J the s- fa rrn are used fo r the p resen t te 11 SC, \ov hi le the ed-forrn is used for the past tense. (N ow try Lxcrcisc 4h.)

4.2.3 Adjectives (Aj)

(a) FUNCTION

Adjectives in general ha ve two functions: (i) as head of an adjective phrase (Ajl"):

(4) [Dukes can be AjP(~v very ~jrich)].

(i i) as modifier ina noun phrase {NP): Np(Ma Xjrich Hduke)+

If a word can fill both these positions \VC can feel confident thar It is 3.11 adjective.

(b) FORM

Most corn T110n adjectives arc gradable (sec below), ~lIhj can vary for COIn par a t 1 v call d sup e r I a t i ve : ric h ~ rich e r ~ ric h (! st. T h II S we C J_ n 0 f t tnt e H a 11 adjecti ve by its ability to take -er and -est as suffixes.

(c) MEAN1NG

Adjectives typica lly describe some quality or property attributed to nouns. Most common ly they arc used to narrow down, or specify 1110re precisely, the reference of nouns, as svmp athetic specifies w hat ki nd of [ace in:

(Sa) NP(her Ajsympathetic Nface).

(Sb) [(Her Nface) (ywas) (Ajsympathetic)].

A. d j c C t i v cs h a ve va rio u sty pes 0 f m can i 11 g S ~ f o r 1 n s tan c c:

physical qualities of colour, size, shape, ctc.: green., large, heal/y~ tall, round;

psychological qualities of ern orion , ctc.: [unnv; hraue, sad, interested;

evaluative qualities: good, u/rong, [oolish, beautiful, cleuer; qualities reL·l ting to time: ncu/, old, young, early, late.

.

amazing,

56 PART B: ANALYSIS

1n the cla usc of (Sh), (syrnpathetic) is called the C:()J\tPLEMENT (C) -" 1110re precise] y, the S l JB JF,CT C O 1'11> LE_._r~vlENT (sec 6+ 6) - because j t fo 11 0 v~/ S the predicator, and attributes some quality to the subject. It is a good test of adjecti vcs that they ca n follow the so-called (~()PlrLl\ verb to he ~ acting as

the head of an AjP 111 the Irame ~ NP be ':t as in:

(6a) [s (Her eyes) P (were)c (brownfbJue/wary/intel/igent)]r

I t is also a good test of adject] ves tha t they can occur between the and the head of an 1'\P, in the frame 'the '_- 1\'. This [s because as modifiers they come before the nou [1, hu r a frer articles and other determiners:

(6b) NP (M her M brownlblue!warylinteUigent H eyes).

j\ further test is t he insertion of the adverb ucry before the adjective, as a modifier in a 11 adjective phrase:

(6c) [s (Her eyes) p (were) C (M very Hbrown/bl u efwary/i ntel I igent) J ~

This test, however, applies to (;R~~D~~RL.E but not to f\'()N-C;Rl\Dl\BLE adjectives. C;r:lda ble adjectives dcscri he qu a lities tha t vary along a scale of degree or extent, such as size, age, weight, etc.: large/SJ1U1.II; old/you~lg; heavy! light" N on-grada b le adjecti vcs refer to 'J ll-or-norhing' qual itics, 1 ike sex/gender and nationa 1 it}': male, Austrian, chemical, uiooden. But adjccri ves move [a thcr easily [rom one of these suhc lasses 1'0 a nother, often with a su brle change of meaning. \Y,/onden meaning 'made of woori' is non-grada blc, but \v hen w e sa y H is pe rfo rrnance of J jam let tun 5 uery I uo od en", we refer to a gr ada blc quality Cbeh3.Vlng as if made of wood") ~ As Ta ble 4.4 shows, gr:tda b 1 e adjecti vcs call he T110d ified by I)F~(;R Fr, ad verbs like very, extremely, utterly rather. They call also ha vc C0t11pJ ra ri ve and superlative forrns. The shorter and more corn mon gradablc adjectives ra ke -cr and -est suffixes, wh i le the longer and less cornm on ones arc 1110di fied by a separate comparative or superla ti vc adverb: more or most, There arc also a few irregular adjccri \lCS which ha ve special corn para tive and superlative forms, ] i ke good! better! best .

Table 4.4

Plain Comparative Superlative Degree adverbs
Gradable funny funnier funniest very funny
beautiful more beautiful n'105 t bee u tifu I rather beautiful
good better best quite good
Non -gradab!e male "mater *malest "somewhat male Bcca use of their ITICall i ng, non-gradable adjectives can only occur in the pla in construction. Although we can talk of a male tuombat; it is non-English to say )~ a mater uiomhat, "the malest uromb at ; or "a very male uiomb at. To be more preci~e, \VC could say IT e was really a uerv male urornhat , but then male would rake on a subtly different mea ni ng, presumably referring to his macho qualities. (Now try Exercises 4c and 4d.)

WORDS 57

4.2.4 Adverbs (Av)

\YJe can disti nguish three major types of ad verb (j\ v), but there is considera ble ovc r1 a p between them:

(~II~ClJNls~ri\t\~ CE i\l)VERBS add sorne kind of circumstantial informat ion ( 0 f tim e ~ pla c e, m ann e r, e t: C L ) to [ be s tat C 0 f a f f air sex pre sse d i 11 the core of the cla use:

(On the sym bol A, see below.)

DEGH .. EE .A.D \' ERBS mod ify adjecti ves a nd other words in terms of grada bili ty (Allfairly nero ~ etc. - see Ta hie 4.4).

SEN'fENCE i\I)VERBSt which apply semantically to the whole clause or sen tenet, express a n a tti tu d e to it, or a con nee ri on between it all dan other c 18 use or sen ten ce:

(8) [A (AvSO } s(the whole thing) P (was) A(Avfrankly) C(Av too awful for words)].

(a) FUNCTION

The pri ma ry function of an adverb is to be head of JIl ad verb ph rase. It ca n typically be preceded and/or followed by a modifier, which is of tell itself a degree adverb:

(9) [She spoke A~p(~fronkly)].

(10) [She spoke A~p(~very A~fronkly t~)ndeed)].

(I I) [She spoke A~P(~too ~vfrankly ~(for comfort))].

These examples show us a second function, especially of degree ad verbs: an adverb can act as modi fier in an adjective phrase (erg. too in (8)) ur in a 1"1 adverb phrase (e.g. uerv; indeed and too in (10) and (11)) .

. As head of an AvP, an ad verb very often stands on its 0\\0'11 as a n ad verhia 1 e l e 111 e n t (A ) in c 1 a us est rue t u r e ( see 6 + 1.3 ), Tnt h j s fun c rio n ,It is r y pic a I 0 f adverbs that they (8 n be om itted from [he cla usc, OT rnovcd to a d iffcrcnt position in the cla use, without t11 a king it U ngrammarica l. This can be illustra ted by (7) and (8), Both of these sentences can he si 111pIi fied by orn is sio n of ad ver bs: He 50 I d the car. The U}/J ole th i J1 g teas too a u.:'ful for u/ords, Also, both sentences ca n be rearranged by moving the adverbs to di fferent positions: Yesterday he hurriedly sold the car. Su frankly, tbe iohole thing IUdS too au.tul for urords. Note there is S0l11t ovcrla p between ad verbs of d 1 fferenr classes .. For example, in She ansu/ered the question sensibly) sensibly is the m a nner adverb, but in She sensibly ansu/ered the question, sensibly is a n adverb of a ttirudc. Again, looking back to an earlier illustration ~ ill (9)-("11) [rankl» was 3. manner ad verb, but in {~) {rankly was an a tti tude ad vel' b ~

58 PART B: ANALYS!S

(b) FORM

(1} The examples we ha vc gi ven j U usrra te that many adverbs a re formed by the addition of -ly to all adjective.

(ii) In addition, a few adverbs resemble adjectives, in having comparative and superlative forms: [ast, (aster, fastest; u/ell, better, best; etc.

(N 0 V't.' try Lxerc isc -lc.)

(c) MEANING

Adverbs can ex press many different types of mea n 1 ng, especially as adverbial S in the cla usc, ';Xi e can only give the 1l10SI i mportanr categories, and to distinguish them, it is useful to usc a question test: for example, home answers the quest-ion \X/here r.. to? in the follov'v'lng exchange (sec also Ta blc 4.S below):

(12) Where did he go to? He went home.

Table 4.5

Adverb type

Eli c i ti n g q u esti 0 n

Man ner adverb Place adverb Direction adverb Time-when adverb Duration adverb Frequency adverb Degree adverb

How? Where?

Where to? Where from? When?

How long?

How often?

To what degree? How much?

Examples

well, nicely, cleverly here, there, everywhere u p, back, forward, home then, once, ton ight, soon long, briefly, always

always, weekly, often, usually rather, quite, much, pretty

Unlike these, sentence adverbs, like [ortunately ; I) rohably, actually and hUU!CIJCr., do not answer questions. But they can be divided into two main

.

ca regor ies:

A TTTTlJ[)E j\L) VrEI\.BS: [ortunately, actually, oddly, perhaps, surely (~O N ~E C'T 1 \/ E J~ 0 V E It BS: so .. yet, b OtU(} uer ~ I hereto re, seco ndly .. though.

For example, in (13) fortunately is an attitude adverb, while in (14) botceuer is J. co nn ccri vc ad ver h :

( I 3) (A (Av Fortunately) S ( el ephants) P ( can n at fly) J .

( 14) [s (Some of th em) P (can run) A (p retty fast), A (Avhowever)].

(2\" O\V try Exercises 4f and 4g7)

WORDS 59

4.3 Closed word classes

\We ttl rn n O\\.1 [0 th c seven (~L() SED \Xl 0 RD C:Ll\ 5S ES + I .u C k 11 y t h esc do 11 ot

..

need so J11 uch i ndividual attention as the open classes+ They ha ve rclnti vcly Fe\\! members, so 'A;"C can, if \VC want to, identify each of them by listing their rTICTn bcrs. A thorough treatment of each class 1 n term s of fu ncrion, form and meaning would be possible. A more practical way to deal with them, however, is to focu~ on their function wi th in the higher units. In this way ~ you ",,1 i 11 grad ua 11 y gro\v fa 111iJ ia r \v i t h these s m ;·111 h11 t i 111 porta n t w o rd cl asses in the 11 ext t \\0' 0 c hap t c r s ~ as we de a 1 \"l i t h ph r a s e s :1 n del a use s . i\ 11 c los L del ass words tend to occur at or t ow a rds the hcginni ng of the larger units of which they are part; in th 15 respect they arc uscfu 1 identifying l\J1j\lZKEH._S of the units they 1 nrroduce.

~

Now here are brief definitions of the closed classes, and a fairly fuJl listing

of their members.

4.3.1 Determiners (d)

DE.l-lEH.J'vl1NElZS introd nee noun ph rases, a nd function as modifiers. Unlike adjective modifiers, however, they are sometimes obl igaror y. I f the head of an ~p is a singular count noun, then SOJne dcrcrrn i ncr has to be added. So (15 a) is not ace e pta b 1 e i n Eng J ish g r ~·l r n t11 a r ~ h l.l r CI S b) 1 S :

(I Sa) ):- [(~ Dog) (~V b it) (~ man)]~

(~Sb) [(~The ~dog) e~Vbit) (~a ~man)].

The Al~~rlCLES the and a a r e the 1l10St' common dctcrm i ncrs.

Determiners

the, alan; this! that, these, those~ ali, some, any~ no, every, eocn. eftheft ne,ther, one! several, enough, such; manYj much, more, most; (0) [e«; {ewer, fewest; (a) little, ress, least; wnot, which, wtiatevet. whjchever, half, myt our! your, his, her, its, their.

4.34'2 Pronouns (pn)

PH._()N()l.rNS arc words which are in a sense ~dllllln1V' Ns or NPs, because

"'

they have a gen era liscd o r u ns pecific In ea n 1 ng. R~c(l usc th ey a rc no r 111:111 Y

obligatory clements of noun phrases, we consider them 1'0 be [he head of such phrases, though they are lim ired j 1'1 terms of whar mod i f~crs can be added to them. For example, we ca nnor sa y ):- a strange it or "the old euerybodv,

60 PART B: ANALYS1$

. '.-_',' '. ." ,' .

_. . ... .,

Pronouns

II me, mine, myse'{; we, USI ourselves, ours; yout yourself; ycurseves, yours; he, him .. himself, his; she. herl herse/~ hers; it, itself; they~ them. themselves, theirs; this, that, these, those; all, some, any, none, each, eithe" neither, coe, oneself, several, enough; everybody, everyone, everything; somebodYI someone"! something; onybody~ anyone, anything; nobody, no one, nothing; manYI much, more, most; (0) few, (ewer, fewest; (0) little, 'ess, least; who, whom, whose; whotl which; whoever, whichever~ whatever; each other; one another.

, ,

. . . ....

Y Oll can sec tha r there is a large overlap between determiners and pronouns: this, that, all, some, u/hich, for instance, can belong to either catcgory~ Take this as an ex a mp le:

(16a) [S(This wine) P (is) C (very sweet)]. (16b) [5 (This) P (is) C (a very sweet wine)].

(This is ~1 determiner) (This is a pronoun)

S i In i I a r 1 v , i 11 M S ()J n e H g i r Is, S (H n e is a de t crm inc r, »: her e as in H 5 0 m e M ( 0 f the girls) (where SO}}lP. is lollowed by a prepositional phrase), some is a pronoun.

4.3.3 Enumerato~s (e)

f~Nl;lvrFR A TC)RS include (~A]\DINAr. NlJj\-lBERS (one, tUN), three, +. + t e n . ~ .); 0 R I) I N }\ L N U M B E I~ S ((i r s t, S e c 011 d) t hi r d, . . . t e 11 t h . . .), .:1 n d a f e V~.1 (; F N F R i\ LOg,. L) 1 ~ A LS {rl ext, I a S t ~ <J l h c r, (u r I her ~ ctc.) ~

4.3 .. 4 Pr-epositions (p)

PHLEP()SITI()NS introd uee prepositional phrases, and express relations of possession, place, rime, and many other meanings: pp{po( tbe ioorld), pp{phy if") ~ pp(pOrl the coldest nigb! o] the year). \"xlhat fo llows the preposition in the PI> has the structure of a 11 Nl' +

...... ,' ,-,'

Prepositions

oboutt ~ abovet, across!, Qfter~. againstl a'ong~, alongsidet, amid, among, Qround~ t aSI at, before; t behindt, be'owt, beneothl besidel besides~j betweent, beyondJ byt, despite:o down!, durfng~ fOft from~ int l insidet, into, o~ orrt, ant t opposite"t, outsidet, over!, past! t roundt I sjnce~:, than, throught, th rough outt .. tUft tOI toward{s}, under!"! underneath! ..

; + +

until.! up"'="t Vidl with, within+, without+.

t These prepositions can also be adverbs (sometimes called prepositional adverbs: or particles) L

.~

,

~

I

"1', ',:'.

' .. " .. '. . ..".. . .. ,' . .

. _ .. _. ... _.

. .

.. ' . - .

.......

._ ', ... ",_._. _.,. . ... -

. -,'_', -. ,'. - -. . _ ..

,

I

l

WORDS 61

There is large overlap between prepositions a nd ad verbs, particularly adverbs of place or direction:

(t 7) [5(1) P (looked) A (pUp the chimney)]. (18) [5 (I) P (looked) A(AvUp)l

( 19) [5 (I) P (looked) A (AvUP) 0 (the word)].

In (17) U jJ is apr e po sit i 011, \\" hi 1 e in {18 ) and ("J 9 ) up is a n a d vcr b ~

4 .. 3.5 Conjunctions (cj)

CONJLJNC·f10"NS like prepositions, are introductory linking words, hut they often introduce clauses rather than phrases. In fact they subdivide into (\\"0 rna i n classes: SlJB()R DIN A TIN(; conjunctions and (:()()H,_D 1Nl\-rlNG

. ,

COOl unctions.

Subordinating conjunctions

after, although, as, because, before, but, if, how, however; Jike, once, since, than, mat, till, unless, until, when, whenever! wherever, whereas, whereby, whereupon, while; in thatt so that, in order that, except that; as far as, as soon as; rather than, as iG as though, in case.

Coordinating conjunctions

and, or: but, nor, neither.

. .' .

. . ..

As rh eli st sh OV./s ~ so Inc of the S 11 bordi n 3_ t ing con i uncti 0 n s are \v ri tten as more th 3.11 on c \VO rd. I n add i rion, j n both CJ. tcgorics, there a re a n u rn ber of C()ltl\_ELi\_-rl VE cox JlJN (:1"1 o NS: tha tis> two conjunctions occurring together} one preceding one construction, and another preceding the other.

Subordinating correlative conjunctions if ... then, although ... yet, etc.

Coordinating correlative conjunctions

;..

",

both . ~. and, either ... or, neither ... nor.

:.,

:"I". '.... .: ••• _. • ..,' -. ," • ''':' _'.: ':.'.

" ... I' -,

4 .. 3.6 Operator-verbs (v)

As already explained, these constitute a closed class of verbs 'tv hich can function as auxiliaries in the verb phrase {sec 3.5.3), or more precisely, as ope ra tors ( sec 5.5. 2 ~ 6. 4 ~ 1 ) . The y fa II i 11 tot \V 0 111 a i 11 cat eg 0 r i e s : MOL) i\ L \~ERBS and PH,.lJ\-tl\l~ Y V EIZl~S+

..

62 PART B~ ANALYSIS

Modal verbs

c.an, will, may, shQU~ (QuId, would, might! should; must, ought to.

Primary verbs
Vo Vs Yed Ving Yen
bet orn, are ~s WQS~ were being been
have has had having had
do does did doing done The modal verbs a re best considered invariable words, though for some purposes could, u.onld, n1ighl and should can be rcga rded as Ved torrns of (an, uiill, }JUlY and shall. The primary verbs arc the three most important verbs in English, and w e shall refer to them by their \r 0 forrn: be, b aue and (tv. They arc very ir rcgula r, and are in fact the only English verbs that have a n irregular Vs form. J~ nothcr i mpor rant thing about them is tha t l hey can each function either as auxil ia rics or as m a in verbs (see 5.5).

4.3.7 Interjections (ij)

IN·rEl{_.JE(~~rl()NS arc rather per ipher al to language: 'words' like ugh, phetu, oh ~ al: and ouch J.I"C (Ii ngu isrica 11 y) somewhat primitive expressions of feel ing, only loosely integrated into rhe language system. \X/c can include here, roo, swear words idamn, crc.), greeti ngs (hello) and other signall ing words like K() od bve, yes., 11 o , okay, shoo ~ etc.

4 .. 3.8 Particles

There is a distinction, aJllong closed class word s, between words wh ic11 ha ve a function in phrases (e.g. dcrerm iners are 1110difilTS in noun phrases) and words which arc simply 'markers" (:15 prepositions are introductory markers I n preposiriona l ph rases). F () r th esc "rna r k er word 5 ~ ~ which include prcposi rions, couj unctions and interjections, we are usi ng the time-honoured gran1 marical term particle, which literally mea ns 'little part'. \Xle can say that prcposi l ions and conj unctions arc '1 itrlc pa rts' of sentences in that they do not enter into the structure of phrases; they are ra ther II ke arithmetical signs ....... , -., x ~ C[C~ - which is not to say) of course, that they are lacking in meaning or

.

1 m p 0 r r all c e.

oro illustrate the use of particles, we represent the structure of the clause But gee> inn I hungry as follows:

Or in tree diagram form (sec Figure 4.1).

WOR.DS 63

CI

p S C
VP NP AjP
I
Mv H H
CJ IJ V pn Aj
I I I I
But gee, am hungry
Figure 4.1 4.4 Summary

'vic have now said something about all the word classes used in this grammar.

. .

One last thing: some words are uniq ue in function) and ca nnor be read 11 y

classed with any other words - for example, the to which precedes a verb (/(_) uiorlc, to hal.Jc) and the negative \\!ord not. for these words \\?C do not need any specia 1 la bel; \\!e can sim pl y rna ke use of these words 111 thci r normal wri tren form: to, not,

The word classes we ha ve now distinguished are:

Open classes

noun (N) ~ verb [i.e. full-verb) (V)t adjective (AI) and adverb (Av).

Closed classes

determ iner (d), pronou n (pn) ~ enumerator (e) t preposition (p), conj lJ n ction (cj), operator-verb (v) and interjection (in~

(1< 0 \V try Exercise 4 h r)

EXERCISES Exercise 4a (answers on p, 2 J 3)

L Which of the following nouns are count nouns (having a plural), and which are mass nouns?

weed! gold, rigidity, laugh! rubbish! employer! music! steam, week.

2. Many nou n s (ti ke h air) are capable of acting as both cou nt nou ns and mass nouns, but with some difference of meaning.

a. Explain such differences of meaning in the following:

paper, grass, cake, coffee, room, business, success, kindness, rope.

b. Alternatively, illustrate the differences with simple sentences of your own .

..

....

64 PART B: ANALYSIS

3~ Some English nouns have irregular plural forms (e.g. the plural of man is men, not the regular *mans). Find two examples of each of the following kinds of i rregu lar pi ural:

a. plurals involving a change of vowel in the stem;

b. plurals ending in -I;

c. plurals ending in -0;

d. plurals which have the same form as the singular.

Exercise 4b (answers on p~ 213)

l , Make a table like Table 4.3, showing the Vo, Vs~ Ved, Ving and Yen forms for the foJlowing verbs: take, receive, beginj run, sleep~ meet Which of these ve rbs is regu lar?

2. Find ten irregular verbs (apart from the verbs already listed or discussed), and list their five forms+ (We talk of 'five forms', but two or more of these forms may of course have the same spelling and pronunciation; e.g. the Vo, Ved and Ved forms of put are all put.)

Exercise 4c (answers on p. 213)

Which of the following adjectives are gradable? Explain how you arrived at the answers.

a kind thought dirty water

a mOjor success crimina/law

a Japanese wrestler

a male pig

a chauvinist pig an absolute pig careful speech a whole pizza

Exercise 4d (suggested answers on p~ 213)

Some adjectives are capable of being gradab1e or non-gradable with some d iffe renee of mean i ng: fa r exam ple, in odd behavjour~ odd is gradab le: wh i Ie in an odd number, odd is non-gradable. Find pairs of phrases, like these, which exemplify the gradable and non-gradable use of these adjectives: human, guiltyt m usicaJ, economk, original, modem, common, royol, free .

.. . - ... _

. .'.. .' .. - . ·.··1 .... -.

FOR DISCUSSION

.'

;-

How do the two uses of each adjective differ in meaning!

. ... - .. .. -.. ...

.. . _ .. _.. .. . ..

• " •• I ••••

. ..... '... .


Many adverbs are derived from adjectives by the addition of -Iy. Some adverbs, however, do not add the -Iy, but have exactly the same form as adjectives. Which is the adjective and which is the adverb in the following sentences? A further question for discussion is why.

WORDS 65

I. The earfyl train arrived earl?

2. I have long I hated long2 skirts.

3. Sh e's not just a pretty I face, sh e's al so pretty} good at gram mar.

4. A dally I newspaper is one that's printed doil(-.

5. That's right I ! turn right2 at the next crossroads.

6. The arrow fell a shortl distance short2 of the target.

7. When your health is better I j you'll play better2.

8. I tried hard I j but the exercise was too hard2+

Exercise 4f (answers on p. 214)

Here are some further examples of word forms which can belong to more than one word class. Identify the word classes of the repeated words in the following:

1. Her fur CODtl was coated 2 with ice+

2. Herman is more Germani than any of the Germans2 I've met.

3. He left I her alone on the /e(t2 bank of the Seine.

4. There's no point in drying I your clothes if they're already dry2_

5. Arabella pointed I at me, and made a very pointed 2 remark.

6. She drew the curtains to make the room lighter I , then lighted 2 her cigarette wi th a Jjghter3 +

7. After he had drunk I the whisky, the drunk2 was very drunk3 indeed.

8. The re(ereel who referees2 the motdi' has to match2 the toughness of the players.

Exercise 4g (answers on P+ 214)

Now that you have studied the open word classes, we can take another look at nonsense words such as those which occur in Jabberwocky. Identify the nouns, verbs, adjectives an d adverbs in th e following:

And then, whozing huffily, with cruppets in his spod, podulously priddling across the vornity, yipped Podshaw, that gleerful glup, brandJing bindily a groan and ftupless wharnpet. Magistly, mimsiness and rnanity gumbled on Podshaw's blunk gooves.

Exercise 4h (answers on p~ 214)

I . Here is a sentence wh ich contai ns just one instance of eac h of the eleven word classes introduced in this chapter. Match each word to its word class:

But alas, the two ugly sisters had gone home without her.

2~ Find another example (preferably a better one!) of a sentence which, like the one above, contains just one member of each of the eleven word classes .

..

Phrases

N O\'\"' that we ha VL investigated word classes in English, it is not too difficult to explain phrase ctL~SCS. Th is will mea n tak ing a further look at the closed cl asses of words (such as dcrcrrn i ncrs) which play an important role in ph rases, ~·l nd becoming familiar with the c lasses of phrase al read y introduced

. ') - .....

1 n L.J • .) ..»,

5.1 Classes of phrase

'vie will rccogn ise sl x classes of phrase. Of these, N()lJN Pl-JRASF~S (NP), ADJE(~TI\'E PIIRi\SES (Ajr) and Af)\lERl) PHRASES C~vP) all have the sa 1l1C basic structu rc:

({M*} H {M*})

The astcri sk C:-) mea ns rha t there can be one or more than one modifier (M).

· lhesc phrases 111 ust ha vc a head (H), bu t the modifiers are optional ({ }).

· rhus S0111C of the possible structures of phrases are:

H, M H, H M, M H M~ M M H, H M M, M M H M.

III 3.5 ~~) \VC showed I110d l fiers only in front of the head, but now we will have two kinds of modifiers: PRF.MC)DIFIFRS precede the head, while P()Sl'~ Jvf.l) I) IFIERS follo\v the head:

(I) NP(Mawfu/ Hweather) : (awful is a premodifier)

(2) Np(Hsomething MawfuQ : (aVf{ul is a postmodifier).

()f the remaining three types of phrase, both PltEP{)SITl():..JAL PI-TRA._SF.S (PPs) and Gf.NITIVf, PHR ASE,S (CPs) can be thought of as NPs with an extra particle or J11a rkcr added to thern. '

(3) the bride pp(pof ~the ~ heir ~japparent).

Th c pa rt of (3) in rou nd b r~l c kets is a prepositional phra se. (4) GP(~the ~heir ~japparent-~s) bride.

66

i

PHRASES 67

The part of (4) in round brackets is a genitive phrase. The difference between them is that the preposition is added to the fron f of the Pl", whereas the genitive marker ('5) is added to [he end of the GP. Also the genitive marker, spelt 's or .'> behaves 1110re like 3. suffix than a separate word. Although the genitive phrase is one of the oddest constructions in Eng] ish, the point we draw attention to in (3) and (4) is that PPs and C;Ps J.TC very similar - the one

."

heing a k 1 nd of mirror image version of the other.

r inall y the VF,R B PHR.l\SE (VP) is peculiar to itself, ha virig a rather di fferellt structure Irorn those of other phrases, and ha ving a special pivotal role in the cla use+ \YJ e will discuss it last, as this will lead us on to the rrea tmenr of clauses in Cha pter 6.

5.2 Main and subordinate phrases

The distinction between main and subord ina rc clauses is pro ba b 1 Y' fa mil iar to rna ny of you: Cha ptcr 7 of this book is devoted to su hordi nate cia uses. Rut here we introduce the same distinction for phrases. A i\1 A L\f Pl1R ~~SF 1,~ one which 15 a direct constituent of a clause, i.c. vv hich is not part of another p b r asc ~ w hi] e a 5 lJR 0 R I) I N 1\ T E PH g,.i\S E is 0 11 e rha tis p;] rt 0 f a n () th er ph rase. N O\V th is 1 dea must be explored.

5~2.1 Subordinate phrases

In 3, 2 we p r c sen ted the r a 11 k hie rar c h y 0 f l.I nit s Jail d s ~l i (J t h ~-l t a u nit {e ~ g . a clause) higher in the scale consists of one or more ex a mples of the next IO\~.1er unit (c.g. a ph rase) ~ This sta tcmcnr was correct J but could hu ve misled by what it did not say. K O\V VVC h ~l vc ro add to it: we ha ve tu allow the possibility that units arc not mcrclv divisible into units of the next lower rank, but ca 1"1 contain as their elements units of the same, or even of a higher ra nk. This is the phenomenon of SUBOH,.DINA TI()N - and it is important because ir allows LIS to make sentences as complex as vc«: like.

So, returning to (3) a hove, note that the bride of the heir apparent is a phrase (actually an t\ P), and tha r it contains another ph rase (:1 PP) as a posrrnodifier within it: of the heir apparent, Similarly, ill (4) the heir apparent's bride 1 s an KP conta ining another phrase, the C; P the heir apparent's, as a prernorlifier. \\le can represent these cases of subordination as brackets with in brackets as fall ows:

(3a) NP(the bride ~p(of the heir apparent)) (4a) NP(~p(the heir apparent's) bride).

\,vhercvcr \VC have t\VO sets of round brackets ] ike these, one within the other ~ the inner brackets enclose a suhordin a te phrase. Consider now:

(5) [~p(The heir apparent) A~p(nearry) Sp(became) ~p(an Olympic charnpionl]. J Icre The heir apparent is functioning as an clement of cla use structure, i.c, as sub j ccr. It is t: here for e a n18 i n phrase. ~/ c can t c I I [ h is at a g l.m c e, bee all S e the

..

68 PART B: ANALYSIS

round brackets arc immediately within the square brackets of the cla usc. J n simple bracketing notation, then, the following arc indicators of main and subordina tc phrases:

M a 1 n ph rase

[~.~(Ph) ... ]

Subordinate phrase

( ... (Ph) +. +}

In terms of tree diagrams, the following configurations indica te main and su bordi nate ph rases respecri vely:

Ct

Ph

l\1ain:

S II bordina te:

Ph

Ph

\Xlhere there is a subordinate phrase, it will always be directly or indirectly a pa rt of a rna i n phrase:

(6) [~p(The bride ~(of the heir apparent)) (nearly) (had) (a fit)].

I Icre, of the heir apparent is :t 51.1 hard ina re phrase and the bride of the heir apparent is the 111 a in ph rase which includes i L

Once \VC ha vc allowed [he possibil ity of phrases wirhi 11 phrases, there is nothing to stop subordinate phrases themselves containing further subo rd ina te p h rases, a nd so on indefin i tel y:

(7) (his book (on gastronomy (in the Dark Ages)))

(8) (my review (of his book (on gastronomy (in the Dark Ages))))

(9) (his reply (to my review (of his book (on gastronomy (in the Dark Ages})}}).

Su bordiuation of phrases is one of the ch ief sources of complexity in gra m ma r ~ pa rricu la rl}' in NP5 (see pp~ 7(}-) ~ 1 '15) ~ Tn the form of a tree d iagra Ill, (7) looks as in T igure 5 + 1 and (8) looks 1 ike figure 5.2.

(Now do Exercise 5 a.)

NP
I

d N pp
I

p N pp
I
r 1
p d Aj N
I I I
his book on gastronomy In the Dark Ages
Figure St I PHRAS.ES 69

NP

P N pp
I
I I
p d Aj N
, I I I
my review of his book on gastronomy in the Dark Ages
Figure St2 d

N

p

pp

d

N

pp

5.2.2 Subordinate clauses

\Xihilc on the subject of subordination, we should mention that subordinate clauses work on the same principle, as we will see more fully in Chapter 7. This time 51.1 bordination is indica ted by a nesting of sq uare brackets:

(10) [joel thinks [that Anna loves him]].

(t I) [Ann thinks [that JoeJ thinks [that she roves him]]].

(12) Doe! thinks [that Anna thinks [that he thinks [that she loves him]]]].

CI

I

CI

Figure 5.3

T ilk i ng the matter just one stage further, \ve have to a llow for the possib il i t:y of the subordination of one unit (say a clause) within a unit of 1 o VI,: er rank (say a ph rase) ,- see further 7~5. In such a case the bracken ng wil] S how sq narc brackets inside round brackets:

(13) (the house [that Jack builtj)

(14) (the malt [that lay (in the house [that Jack built])])

(15) (the rat [that ate (the malt [that lay (in the house [that Jack builtJ)J)])

70 PART B: ANALYSIS

Ph

CI

Figure 5 .. 4

The c J a tl S e I hal J a c k b u i It her tis call e dar e 1 at i vee I a usc (7 r 2.3), and is part o f an N P. i\gain there is the possi b i li ty o f repeated s u bord i na ti on in th c s arne structure. F.x~"Hnp le (14) shows us one relative cla use indirectly inside another relative clause. These points will he taken up 1 a ter in 7.2+ If you find the notion of subordination puzzling at rh is stage, [here will be plen l'y of opportunity later to become J110rC [am iliar with it. (:.JO\V try Exercise 5b.}

5.3 Noun phrases and related phrase classes

Like words, phrases C3.n he classified partly by their cxtcr na 1 fu nction a nd partly by their internal form, By 'form ', with phrases as with words, \VC mean the way the structure of the unit is made up of other, smaller constituents. Typica lly, in a phrase composed of head and modi ficrs, prcrriodi ficrs tend to be single words and post modifiers tend to bc phrases or clauses. Although the geniti ve ph rase (as we sa \0\0' in 5 + 1) is an important exception, this tendency is illustrated by' the strucru re of the "NP ~ shown in 5 +3.1+

5.3. I The noun phrase (N P)

(a) FUNCTION

I n the c la usc, ~Ps arc i rn porLlnt and versatile clements: they can act as su bjcct {S), as object {O), or as complement (C}:

(16) [~p(The house) P (was) c(qulte empty)].

NP = S NP ::: 0

NP = C

(see 4.2.3)

( 17) ( 18)

[S(We) P (have bought) ~p(the house)). [s(This) P (must be) ~p(!he house)].

Sorne kinds of ~Ps (c.g. some L\--:Ps of time) can even act as advcrbials (A):

(19) [s{We) P (walked) ~p(five miles) ~p(IQst week)]~ (On advcrhials, sec 4.).4 and 6.1.3.)

Subordinate NPs act as modifiers in other NPs:

NP = A

(20) (~my ~friend (Jp(the professional diver)) (21 ) (~Buffy :fp(the Vampire Slayer))

NP = M

This construction, in \vhich one ;.JP is 'defined~ by another, is called J&.. PP()S TTI() N.

PHRASES 71

(b) STRUCTURE

I I'he s tr uctu res 0 f NPs J rc very diverse, b 11 t th c eh i ef el ernen ts a re these:

The head of an NP can be:

I + a nou n: (th e H do/D ~ (dear H Margaret), etc.

2~ a pronoun: (Hjt)f (Hherseln, (Heveryone (in the streetl), etc.

3~ (less usually) an adjective (the H Qbsurd)~ an enumerator (all Hfifteen)! or a genitive phrase (H Uohn's))+

'1\VO of the less usua 1 possi hil ities in 3 arc illustrated in:

(22) [[If you offer them three types of ice crearn.] ~p(the ~igreedy) (will take) ~p(all ~three)].

But in such cases there is usually a noun which semantically is understood to be the head: c.g. the last part of {22) mea ns: r (The greedy people) (will take) (all three types of Ice cream)] +

The PRF!v1C)DIFIEH.S of an i'\P can be:

"I ~ Determiners: (Mthis morning), (Mwhat Ma girl), (Msome water) 2+ Enumerators: (Mtwo eggs), (the Mthird man). (my Mlast throw)

3. Adjectives: (M red shoes), (Molder children), (the Mstrangest coincidence)

4. Nouns: (a M garden fence), (a Mgo'd ring)~ (M London pubs)

s. (;cnitive phrases: (M (Gina's) pet marmoset), (M(someone elsej:s) problems) 6. Adverb,"! (i n i nitial position): (Mquite a noise).

,/ . An 8 ssorrm en t 0 f ot her ca tcgor i c s, s uch a s ad i ccti vc p hru ses (~p (awfuHy bad) weather}; other phrases (~(round-the-clock) service); compound words of various kinds. (the kind-hearted vampire); \' en a nd Vi ng [orrns of verbs (grated cheese), (a working mother).

This last set of prem ad i fiers is so III isccllancous that \VC cannot hope to dea I with it thorough I}",. There is ofren dou ht 3.S to whether, for example, a mod ifjer is a ph rase or compound word, and whether a word end ing i 1"1 -ed or -ing is a verb or all adj cctivc derived from a verb, For parsing purposes, we I11ay have to take some rather arbitrary decisions. For e x a mple .. VlC C3n let hyphenation or lack of a space in writing determine whether something is to be trca ted as a single word, and we can TI13ke SOUle sema n tic distinctions determine bracketing, to resolve ambiguities such as:

(23) NP(a (steel cutting) blade) - 'a blade for cutting steel'

(23a) NP( a steel (c utti ng blade)). - loa cutti ng-blade made of steer

~rhc P()S'l'MOVIFIERS of an ~p can he:

"1. Prepositional phrases: (the best day ~p(of my /ire)). 2. Relative clauses: (a quality M [that J admjre])+

b

72 PART B: ANALYSIS

3. V J.riOLlS other types of modifier, includi ng adverbs (the girl :tv upstairs) adjectives (something ~jnasty (in the woodshedj l, noun phrases in a pposi ti on {the band icoot, ~p( 0 tiny marsupiary Land ot her types 0 f c 1 a use (set 7.3).

Because of these various kinds of modifier, it is possible for all r.;p to reach considerable complexity ~ \X'it:h prernodificatiun alone, such ph rases as (24) are possible, though ra re:

(24) ( M b , I M h M J M M Id M· M" H h)

Ava so ute Y d tee ast c two Aj unso Aj ripe Aj JUICY Npeac es .

In postrnodifica tion there is in principle no limit to r}1C length of NPs+ The occurrence of subordinate PPs a s post modifiers is very corn mo n , and it is important to distingu ish C~1SCS 1 ike:

(25) (the girl pp(by the table pp(with the carved legs))) (26) (the gjrl pp(by the table) pp(with the sunburnt legs)).

In (25") one PP postmcdifies girl, and the other Pf is subordinate to it, postnl od i fy i ng tab le, In (26), however ~ both PP s post mod ify girl - it is the 1 cgs of the girl, nor the legs of the table, that \VC arc discussing. ()JO\V try Exercises 5c and Sd.)

St3.2 Pronouns (pn) and determiners (d)

P ron au ns and (1 eterrn i ners are two closed \V 0 rd classes 1 nth e ;-.JP \"l h ich have sim ila r su bd iv isions:

1. PltON()UNS function as H

Personal pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, rue, they, me, us, him, her, them, ntysel], yourself, himsel], herself, itsel], ourselves, yourscli .. res" themselves, one, onesel [.

Possessive pronou ns: mine, ours, yours, his, hers, theirs. Demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those.

QUJ ntifier pronouns:

General: all, some, any, none, one, another, each, both, seueral, either, neither, ere,

C()111 pound: eueryb ody, somebody, anybo dv; nobody, cucryonc , someone, anyone, no one, everything, something, anything .... nothing. Crada ble: many; much, more, most; [eu ..... [eu.er, [eu/est; little, less, I east,

\Yl h- pronouns: u/ho ; uborn, u-bose, t..V/J{lt, uihich, uhateuer, ere.

2. DEtTER...PvlINERS function as M JA rricles: t he, a/an,

Possessive detern1iners: J1IY, our, your, his, her, its, their.

Dcrn on sr r a t i ve d eterrni ners: this, tb at , these, those (the same as pronouns).

..

PHRASES 73

Quantifier dcrcrrnincrs:

C;cncra l: ail, some, any, no, euery; another, each, both"} several, either"} neither, etc.

Gradahlc: lndny, l1U1Ch, more, IHOSt~ [cur, etc. (the same as pronouns).

\V 17- deterrn iners: iobat, u.bicb ~ ichose ~ u/hateuer, iobicbeuer,

t\ otice that, for example, the demonstratives and the grada blc quanti ficrs arc c he sa m e for both pro nou ns a nd determiners. . lh e other c la sses 3. rc a] so vc ry si mil a r, excep t rha t person al pro no uns a re a I w a y s p roriouns, and articl cs a rc always determiners. Nevertheless, we treat these as separate word classes, the simple rule being tha t words from these classes which function as heads arc pronouns, and those which function as modifiers are determiners. This rule applies even to POSSF,SSI\'P. words (see Ta ble 5.1.) +

Table 5 .. 1

Possessive pronouns

Po ssess ive determ i ners

mine, ours, you rs, his, hers, thei rs

my, ou r, you r, h 1St h er, lts, their

Possessi ve pronouns can stand alone as the head of an NP: (This) (is) (H mine) ~ P ossessi ve dctermi ncrs 3 rc modi fi c rs, \V hie h need a h cad to fo 11 0 \V them: (This) (is) (Mmy H mouse); similarly your sister, her book, etc. In meaning, words like mv and your are equivalent to genitive phrases (as in Gina's mouse), but as they are single words filling the determiner 'slot", it is simpler to treat them as determiners like the, a, euery; etc.:' Compare the d and pn 1 abels in these examples:

(27) [S(~n Those) Jp(are) ~p (~your ~books)]. (28) [s(~Those ~ books) 0p(are) ~p(::'yours)].

Or, equivalently, in the tree diagrams shown in figure 5.5 and 5.6.

CI CI
I I

s p c s p C
NP VP NP NP VP NP
I----i r-1
H Mv M H M H Mv H
pn v d N d N v pn
~
I
I
Those are your books Those books are yours
Figure 5.5 Figure S~6 74 PART B: ANALYSIS

These sentences also show the di ffcrence between those as a pronoun and

t b () 5 e a sad e t e r m i n e r 7 ( N () \v try Ex ere i s c s 5 e all d 5 L )

5.3.3 Prepositional phrases (PP)

(a) FUNCTION

In the clause, PPs act. as adverbials (A):

(29) [tp(On Monday) (we) (arrived) pAp(by train) tp(in Omsk)].

The advcrbi :11 PI's have various ll1CJ.1l ings (see 6. '1.3) + 'J 'hus in (29) the three PPs arc advcrbials of ti rne-ll'hen) of 111CanS., and of place, answering the que s t ion s \Y/ hen? , f 1 () U,/ ? and 'WI!J ere? P P s 3. rca 1 s o corn n 10 n ass u b 0 r din ate phrases: in 2'<Ps,. Ajf's, Avf's and Pl's they act 3.S posrrnodifiers (see 573.1., 5.4).

(b) STRUCTURE

\Xle have already noted in 3.S~.1 that PPs have exactly the same structures as

~ .J

NPs, except that they arc introduced by' a preposition; iLC. PP = P f- NP.

Norm a llv prepositions arc inscpa ra ble fr0L11 the head (and modi [iers) that follow them. There 8.1"C, however, various circumstances in which a p reposi don ca n be scpa ra ted fro T11 its fo I! 0 \V1 ng 2'J P .

Corn pa re:

(30) (problems [fp(with which) ~p(everyone) $p(must live)])

(31 ) (problems [NP(which) ~p( everyone} 0p(must live) p(with)]).

Tn (3 U) u' i t h 1(/ hie his a P P, h ur i n (3 'I) the pre p o sit i o 11 has bee n 1 e f r 's t r a T1 d ed ' at the end of the clause, and the pronoun tohtch which follows it in (30) has turned i rsel f into a separa tc NP.

SPECIAL NOTE ON PREPOSITIONAL VERBS AND PHRASAL VERBS

Another way in which prepositions can separate themselves from the following NP is in idioms like took at1 look for; approve of, deo! with~ etc. We can compare two apparently sim i lar sentences:

(32) Most monkeys live in trees.

(33) The gangs indulge in wild gunplay.

ln (32) the PP clearly has an adverbial function (Where do most monkey Uve? In trees). But ill (33) in seems more closely connected with indulge, so that indulge in can almost be regarded as an idiomatic compound verb. Thus while the clause structure of (32) is SPA, that of (33) might be transcribed as S P P 0., the preposition being a 'floati ng' constituent of clause stru ctu re, in the man n er of particles disc ussed in 4.378.

I

I

;

!

t

l

PHRASES 75

I dioms I ike look at, care for., indulge in, etc . ., are often called prepositional verbs, and the NPs wh ich follow th em prepositional objects. Mention sh ou I d also be made of another type of verb idiom very common in Engl!sh: that of phrasal verbs like make up~ take o~ hang about But in these cases, the second ward up~ off, about, etc., is an adverb rather than a preposition (see 4.3+4).

Phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs constitute an important but rather problematic area of English grammar (for details, see Quirk et 31. 1985: I 150-68). This discussion illustrates the principle that in grammar we are often trying to weigh up the merits of alternative solutions. There is no such thing as a. 'correct' analysis of sentences [ike (3])~ but we may be able to argue for one analysis being better than another.

In this baok we treat phrasal verbs like hang on and sum up as combinations of two words (verb + adverb), even though semantically they may behave as a single unit. For parsing, however, we treat the adverb as part of the VR rather than as a separate adverb phrase.

5.3.4 The genitive phrase (GP)

'0/ C ha vc a lrcady given S0111C attention to this construction, and need to do 1 itt 1 C III 0 rc th a 11 S urn TTl a r i s c YV hat h (1 sal rea d y he ens 3. i d .

(a) FUNCTION

C;Ps [unction either as prcrnodi ficrs (M) or as heads (H) in NPs. Compare:

(34) [S(~n These) Jp{are) ~p(~p(the technician's) ~tools)]+ (35) [s(~These ~ tools) ~p(are} ~p(~p(the technjeian-'s))].

(b) STRUCTURE

C; P s are j II S t li k e "N P sex (e p t t hat the yen d \-v 1 t h the par tic I e ~ s {i. e ~ GP = -:\Tp "I 's, as 111 the boy '5). 111 the plu ra l, a ftcr a noun with -5, the pa rticlc is not sera rarely pronounced, and J~ simply written as an apostrophe ('): the bovs' ~

5.4 The adjective phrase and the adverb phrase

Compared with NPs, . .\jPs and i\VPS tend to h8.VC a simple structure. Although potentially they consist of the same clements ({M::'} H {M ::.}), in practice they often consist of only a head, and it is unusual for them to ha vc more than one premodifier and one postmod ifier.

b

76 PART B: ANALYS!S

5.4.1 The adjective phrase (AjP)

(a) FUNCTION

In a cia usc, AjPs funcri on as complement (C):

(36) [The weather has turned Afp(milder)]. (37) [Adolphus likes his coffee Afp(very milky}].

As SlI bord inare phrases, .. t\jPs can function as prcmodi fiers in NPs:

(38) [The Mad Hatter took NP (~a t;p (very farge) ~sl ice)].

Bur \ve only analyse the modi fier as an AjP if the adjecri ve has one or I110re modifiers. i\ single adjective without modifiers ill front of a noun (c.g. a large slice) dots not count as an .J~jP.

(b) STRU CTU RE

The head of an adjective phrase is an adjective, which can he plain (big), comparative {higgpr}, or superlative (biggest) (see 4.2+3).

Prernodificrs arc mostly ad verbs: typically, adverbs of degree iextremelv, rath er, lou) uc ry). SOBle, cspeci ally uery a nd to 0, ca n be repea ted {very uery uery tall) + Postrnodificrs C3.n he either adv-erbs (indeed, pnough) or PPs:

(39) (~very ~tall J;;indeed) (40) (~jnice ;:;enough)

(41) (fvrather ~vtoo ~j hot ~(for comfort)).

\Xl e also find ccrta i 11 kin d S 0 f (:J a uses as post rn ad j fi ers: younger l than I tho ugh l L to o h () t i fo r rn e t o d r ink Let c. Wed e a 1 w it 11 t h es e 1 ate r, inC hap t c r 7.

5.4.2 The adverb phrase (AvP)

(a) FUNCTION

Avf's function in the cla use as advcrbials (A). {See 6+ 1.3+)

(b) STRUC'fURE

The head of an adverb phrase is an adverb (A v) + Otherwise, the strucru re of f\ v Ps is the same as rha t of j\jPs:

(42) (~often)

(43) (~vquite toften)

(~rather ~vtoo fvquickly ~p(for comfort)) (~more t!qu1ckly ~(than last yearl).

1

I I

!

>

PHRASES 77

s.s The verb phrase (VP)

{a) FUNCTION

The \'P is th e pi vota 1 c 1 ern ell t of the cla usc ~ a nd a lwa y s acts as prcd ica tor (P). Although we will nced to distinguish in 6.3 between tensed and tenseless clauses," at present \VC limit ourselves to tensed clauses, which means that we concentrate on the fullest kind of Vl', the tensed verb phrase (the kind of VP that has present or past tense).

(b) STRUCTURE

\Y./c have already outlined (in 3.5+3) the structure of the VP in rCTIT1S of t\VO kind s 0 f e I ernen t: th e main verb (M v) a 11 d a llX L l iarics (Aux). The 3. ux i liar i cs arc optional, and precede rhe rna in verb .. A. t the 1110St general level the structure of the \'P is:

{Aux} {Aux} {Aux} {Aux} Mv

with an y nurn her of auxiliaries from zero up to four. But this i~ not by any means the whole story. In practice \VC can distinguish four different functions performed hy rhe auxiliaries themselves (see 'fa ble 5.2L and these can corn h i nc to crca tc si xtccn J i ffcren t kinds of \/ P .

Table 5.2

5 P A
NP VP AvP
.
Modal Perfect Progressive Passive Main
aspect aspect • verb
voice
M H Mod Perf Prog Pass Mv H
d N m hv be be V Av
the branch shook violently I
the branch might shake violently 2
the branch had shaken violently 3
the branch was shaking violently 4
{he branch was shaken violently 5
the branch might have shaken violently 6
the branch might be shaking violently 7
the branch might be shaken violently 8
the branch had been shaking violently 9
the branch had been shaken violently 10
the branch was being shaken violently I I
the branch might have been shaking violently 12
the branch might have been shaken violently 13
the branch might be beirlg shaken violently 14
the branch had been being shaken violently 15
the branch might have been being shaken violently 16 Note: Where there IS no passive voice auxiliary, the verb phrase is in the ACTrVE VOICE.

78 PART B: ANALYSIS

In T able S" J, \ve have replaced the general label Aux by S0111C more specific 'slots' or function labels: Mod, Pelf, Prog and PQSS~ Mod is always filled by one oft h c m 0 d a 1 ve r b s (In) (4. 3 ~ 6). Perf is a I w 3. Y s fill cd by the p r i 111 a r y v e r b h a u e (hv), and Prog is t11 ways filled by the primary verb be (be); sirn ilarly , the Pass position is alwa ys frUed by be"! and the main verb position {Mv) can be filled cit her by any fu 11 verb {\1), or by one of the primary verbs (be, h v. do). Wi e can now explain the structure of the VP 1 n 1110re detail as: ({Mod) {Perf} {Prog} {Pa ss} M v). T he tc r t11 s ~ m 0 d a 1 \ ~ per fcc r " ~ pro g res s i v c ' and ' pas s i v c ~ r c 1 a t: e to (he kinds of 111("3 ning expressed by the elements they la bel. (Remcrn her that { } means optionall)

The formula just gi ven explains tha t the elements of the \1 P can only occur in a fixed order. for example, could have uiorlccd and had been u/aiting are goo d g r am m u tic ale 0 n 1 hi nat ion S t but ~~ h a ue c 0 u 1(/ u J o r ked and ~~ bee n had ur a i tin gar e II 0 t 7 H 0 w eve r , r her e iss till so m e t h i ng to he ex p 1 a in e d : n 3.111 ely, that each a uxiliary dcrcrrn ines the form of the verb wh ieh lollows it, c.g~ has ioorlscd occu rs, but ~:'IJi.1S uiorluns; does not. To explore th is fu rrher , we have to rctu rn 1'0 the dcscri ption of verb forms.

5.5.1 Verb forms

In . l' J. b 1 c 5 .. 3, the tab 1 C S 0 f vc r h for m s g i v e n ~ n 4. ') .2 and 4.3. (..; are ex pan de d, s o as to apply not only to full-verbs but also to operator-verbs (i.e. to modals ~l nd primary verbs) + \Xl e also make a d is tinct jon here between TE l':5FT) and TP.NSELESS [orms. In the "fEKSED \If.RB PHH'.JA.SF., the first word is always d TENSE.U \lEH.R fORAd.

TabJe 5.3

Tensed forms Tenseless forms
Tense Infinitive Participles
Present Past Past Present
3rd person Other
singular
v« Vo: Ved: Vi: Ven: Ving:
Regular reaches reach reached reach reached reaching
VI'
.o , .. ... .. _ ~
L lrregular writes write wrote write written writing
(J)
>
~ sinks sink sank sink sunk sinking
~
-
:;:I puts put put put putting
u._ put
Y'".I Primary (do) does do did do done doing
....a verbs (hv) has have had have had having
:L..
Q) (be) . am/are was/were be been being
> IS
L.
0
;; Modals (m) may might
L
QJ etc. etc.
o,
0 l

PHRASES 79

In T:1 h 1 e 5 + 3 we h a v e a Iso ] abc 11 ed a 11 ext r a ve r b for 111, ina d d i t i () n t o \l o, \of S , V c d ~ \' I n g and V' en. Th is 11 C w for t11 is the 12'\~ r 1 NIT I \1 F_ for n 1 ( \l i) 0 f the verb, hu l' I t differs from Vo only] n the verb be. '1'0 an intents a nd purposes, then, the infinitive is the forrn of the verb which has no ending, [he plain fonn, just [i k.e Vo. The rules for corn bi Iling verbs in the verb ph rase can now be expressed as ill Table .5 .4.

Table 5~4

Optional elements

Function Class of verb Form of following verb
Modal (Mod) Modal verb (m) I nfin itive (Vi)
Perfect aspect (Perf) Have (hv) -en participle (Yen)
Progessive element (Prog) Be (be) -ing participle (Ying)
Passive voice (Pass) Be (be) -cn participle (Yen)
--"n .. _
Main verb (Mv) Verb (V) (There is none) Obligatory

'rhus jf \VC wa nr to construct a VP with the structure Perf Mv, the rules or Table 5 r4 say that the My m ust be a \1 ell: e.g. has talscn. If we want [0 construct more C0I11plcx ph rases such as Mod Prog Mv or Mod Pass Mv, the ru lc will work as shown in figure 5 +7 (see below).

Mod

Mv

Mod

Pass

Mv

Prog

be

m

be

m

vi

vi

Ven

may

be

telling

may

be

taken

Figure 5.7

Th e in i ti al parts 0 f ten sed Vl's are ten sed ~ v: he rea S 11 on - in i ria l parts 0 f dn}' VP art always tcnsclcss (Vi, Ving, or Veri). This means that there could he a qui te different way of describing the structure or the \' P, this rime not in terms of Aux and Mv, but in terms of tensed and tcnscless verbs:

7T {-T} {-T} {-T} {" T}

\\; here -+ T = ten sed) and - T = renseless,

The English \/1\ in fact, ca n not all be described hy mea us of one set of labels: it is a structure of interlocking patterns. However, these m a tters do not have to bother us when \VC arc parsing a sentence, for n10S[ pll rposes, it will be enough to label phrases with the function slots Aux and Mv, a ncl the forrn labels In (for modal}, he, hv, do a nd V. Fur example:

VP (~~X is 'Cv playing)

vp(A~Xmust ~Vgo)

vpe'~x must Ab:be Ab: being ~v done).

(AUXshould Auxbe MVworking)

VP m be V

80

PART B: ANALYSIS

----- ~-. _ .. _------------

Here \VC h ~1 vc used the more dcr.i ilcd form la bcls m, be, h V and do for opcr.iror-vcrbs, hut u simpler wu y of Llhcl1lng would be just to usc rhe single la bel v in pL1CC of all these four label s.

5.5.2 The 'dummy operator' do

One irn porranr Llcct of the Vl? h~1S still to be dealt wi th: the spcci al ro lc of the J uxi 1 ia ry (10.

E~l rlic r \YC i den ti fi l~d the Sill J 11 closed cl a ss () f vcr b {4. 1) a S operator-verbs (v). Thi« name is cspcciu lly appropriate, because these verh~ in their tensed for m ( 11 0 r m a 11 y a So fir ~ r w () r din [11 C V' P) J. r c usc d ill v ~ t r i o U S ~ 0 P cr ~1 t i 0 tl s' S 11 C h as t11 ak i ng J cla usc IlCg:l ri vc or i ntcrroga ti ve,·:;;

C.: () 11 S j d ern ega t 10 n :

(44) She can slng, ~. (44a) She cannot sing. (or: She can.lt sjng)

(45) Sh e is singing. ----+ ( 4 Sa) She is not singing. ( or; She isn't singing)

(46) It has been sung. _____.._ (46a) It h as not been sung. (or: It h asn 't been sung)

T o [or m r hc negative, \VC sl1l1p1y ;Hld [he particle not (or irs r~(ll1ccd version u ' I ~ ( t r l err h c f j r s t \V 0 nJ 0 f the \' P 1 w hie his ~ 1 tell sed 0 per a tor. Is u t w h ~l r ;1 h 0 ut thi~ CJ.~C:

( 47) She sang.

_____.._ (47 a) "She song not. ._______....... (4 7b) She did not sing.

(or: "She songn't) (or: Sh e djdn It sing)

in (-+7(.\) \-\'c c.mnor add not utter the tensed operator, b(_'l:ausl~ there is no o pcr.i tor-\·vrh ill the \/P: there is 0111 y thl~ fu ll-vcrh sang, So the 11Cg~11 i \- c rule j 11 S t ,"i l ; 11 C (J c. 11111 0 t \v ( ) r k , II 1"1 1 c ~,Lj \V V C; 111 fin dan () p (: r J. tc ) r - vcr l ! ~ T 11 c r) I J ~:l ~:l Y () P F.H. A~ T() It do COll1CS to the rescue: it i s the verb we i nr r od LLce to take the r()Il.' 0 f uper:l tor \-\' hl'r~ there is no OI1llT verb to d {) so ~ J S in (4 7b). ~l oti CC., I h01lgh., th.ir the verb I)e ~1~1 s. ~lS an operator even \-Vhl~11 it" functions as ~1 Mv:

(48) Bunter is my friend ----+- Bunter is not my friend.

,. r h c ~ ~ 1 n 1 e s \) rue t i me s ~ 1 P P 1 i c s ., i 11 so m c Y J. ric t i l~ S n f F n g.] ish ~ r 0 b a l rca S III a 1 n verb: I-Ie b.isn'! .tnv i.le.:«. Bur nowadays Tl1USt people prefer the opcr.it or do hL.:forL b.n.e: I le doesnt b.u.c anv id e«: .... ·. ~.\:"(}\\" try Exercise Sg~)

5.6 Summary

The follo\\-jllg~ th cn , ~1rL' the formal structures or our six (YPl~S of p h ru sc:

I. Noun phrases (N P): {M~:~} H {M "l

\ \ her L H ( h ~ ad) call he: ~ ~ P 11 ~ (0 r so 111 C til 1 H:~ ~ j\ i, C., () r (; P ) M he to r c H (p r l~ n H HJ i f i v r s) c. 1 n he: d ~ c, /\ j ~ :'\, (~P, ere.

M ;1 frL~r H (posrrnod 1 fi erx) can be : P P ~ ~\ 1\ j\ v, ,A..l ~ relative cla use .. etc.

") Prepositional phrases (PP): p {M*} H {M8} w here p is a prcposi l ion ~ ~1 nd

M, H~ arid M arc cx.ictly ~lS III n ouu phrJ~cs.

1

I

i

•

PHR.ASES

81

3. Ccnitive phrases (GP): {M*} H {M*} 's where 's is the genitive particle, and

M, H,. and M arc as 1 n noun phrases (a [though posrrnod ificrs arc c. Ps).

4. Adjective phrases (AjP); {M*} H {M*} where H (head) is an ~O\ i

M before H (prcmodi ficrs) ;·1 re norma lly A v

M a ftc r H (p o s t m u d i fie r s } are P 1 \ A v, all d s o m e l Ll U S. C _" ~

S. Adverb phrases C\vP): {M*} H {M*} w here H (h(:;:1'3) is an A v , ;1 nd

Mis J. S [ n .A.. j P s .

6~ V erb phrases (\rp): {Aux} {Aux] {Aux} {Aux} Mv \v here any Aux 1 s a v (opera tor-verb), and

f heM v j sci t 11 c r ; l V (" o per a tor - v e r h) 0 r \/ ( f ull- ver h ) +

The fu 11 C t ion S 0 f the s c ph r a sec L.1 sse s [ n ( he c j a us Lea 11 he s U 111111 a r i sed as shown in Figl.lrt~ 5.N. The arrow X ---4 )1 is t.o be inter preted: 'X can he ~·l Y'. \X7e move on 111 Chapter (~ [0 J more dcta i led description of how phrases bcha ve in CL1USCS.

-

rare In

S Subject

p Predicator

o Object

C Complement

A Adverbial

/

VP

\

<

NP

AjP

AvP

pp

Figure 5.8

EXERCISES

Exerc:i se 5 a (answer on p. 2 I 4)

Draw a tree diagram corresponding to example (9) (p. 68). Use form labels, as in Fig. 5.2.

Exercise Sb (answers on pp. 214~15)

Which phrases, in the following, are main and which are subordinate?

l. [(Mary) (had) (a little lamb )J.

2. [(The fleece (of the little lamb)) (was) (as white (as snow))].

3. [(Ever'yone (in town)) (admires) (the whiteness (of the fleece (of (Mary's) little Iamb)))].

b

82 PART B: ANALYSIS

Exercise Sc (answers on p. 215)

Examples (25) and (26) on p. 72 illustrate a possible ambiguity of prepositional phrases. To which of the examples below do these descriptions apply:

a. Two PPs postmodify the same head: ( .. r H (PP) (PP)): e.g. (th e largest bi rd ( of prey) (i n Africai).

b. One PP is subordinate to another PP: (. + + H (p ~ .. H (PP))): e~g. (lectures (by the leading poets (of the day)).

c. The interpretation is ambiguous between (a) and (b):

e.g. (a book (on games) (for childrenj) OR (a book (on games (for chi ~ d re n ) ) ) ~

I . (h er interest in th e col n s of Roman B ritai n)

2. (the outbreak of the revolution in Camelot)

3. (the courage of a stag at bay)

4. (a battle of words in Parliament) S. (the fall of Rome In 1527)

6. (the highest rate of inflation in Europe)

7. (a father of ten kids with a criminal record).

8. (a conference on wild life in Canada)

9. (rap for peopl e eve r sixty)

FOR DISCUSSION

What differences of meaning are implied in the different analyses?

Exercise 5d (answers on pp. 215-16)

The following are NPs in which the order of premodifiers is scrambled:

I. sisters, two, Cinderella's, ugly

2. [ada, idol, carved, green~ ap small

3. des fgns, i nterlocki ng, Ch i n ese, intricate! a I d, those, ai I

4. old, disgusting, Vlctorian, a, drawings, ie«, quite

5. brilliant, new, Moldwarpjs, hypothesis, geological

6. cyl i n drical ~ second, Morgan 's, steam, con denser, revol utionary 7~ an, tower, church, Gothic, grey~ ancient

8~ first, hundred, tourists, the, foreign, ali~ almost 9~ responsibilities, moral, new, her, heavy

I o. I ife, hecti c, my, soc tal ~ London

A~ Unscramble the words into their correct grammatical order; (Occasionally there may be more than one possible order.)

B~ In doing A~ you have used you r ability, as a speaker of English, to apply rules for ordering prernodifiers in an NP. What are these rules? First, work out the order in which these classes normally occur if they are combined before the head noun: N, e, G~ Aj~ d, Av+ Secondly, if there is more than one member of the same class in the same Np, are there any principles for deciding in which order to put them?

PHRASES 83


In the following examples, give function labels and form labels for each of the words and phrases that are heads or modifiers of each NP. For example, the NP the new faaory here in Chennai ca.n be analysed:

(~the ~jnew ~factory ~vhere ~p(jn Chennai)).

I. she

2. the skeleton in the cupboard

3. that strange feeling

4. half the people present

S. Stanley's historic meeting with l.ivingstone at Ujijr

6. all those utterly fruitless afternoon meetings of the committee last year

Exercise 5f (answers on p. 216)

The most important category of pronouns is that of the personal pronouns. In Table 5.5 the personal pronouns are arranged according to distinctions traditionally known as person (first, second, third), number (singu lar, plural), case (subject, object, genitive, etc.) t and gender (masculine, feminine, neuter). Often these distinctions are neutralised, which means that the same form has to go in two different boxes (e.g. this is true of boxes 3 and I I). Complete the

•

table by fi II i ng in the n umbered gaps.

"l'The object form of the pronoun is not limited to pronouns functionlng as object. l n what other functions is the object form used? (See further section 12.4.)

TabJe 5.5

Person First Second Third
Number -------- :c Sing .. Plur .. Sing. Plur. Sing. Plur.
0 ~
~-
~
Gender u Masc. Fem .. Neut.
______.,..... !I:: :
:1;
Case + LL
-- .... - .. -
Subject H ! 2 3 4 5 she 7 8
- --' - -
I
Object H 9 us I I 12 him 14 15 16
.. _ .. _ -_ .. ._--_. --
Reflexive H 17 18 yourself yourselves 21 22 23 themselves
- _. - . -
Possessive M my 26 ,! 27 28 29 30 its 32
determiner +
~ ~~,
Possessive H mine 34 35 36 37 ]8 - 40
pronoun ..L

, We have included the possessive determiners mY1 etc. in the pronoun table, because they are

closely related to personal pronouns in form, and in the way they vary for person. number and gender_

84 PART B: ANALYS~S

Exercise 5g (answers on p. 217)

(This is a preliminary look at constructions to be re-examined later.)

Look at these sets of sentences in which the VPs are italicized, and then describe a rule, as well as you can, for: (i) how to form the constructions 2, 3. 4, St 6 below. and (li) when to use the dummy auxiliary do in English. Do your best to state (i) an d (i i) as ge neral ru I es.

1. Ordinary declaratives She is workrng+

They had eaten them. She works hard.

They made a mistake.

3. Questions

Is she working?

Had they eaten them? Does she work hard?

Did they make a mistake?

S. Tag questions

She's working, isn't she?

They'd eaten th em, hadn't th ey? She works hard, doesn't she? They made a mistake, didn~t they?

2~ Negative sentences with NOT She is not working+

They had not eaten them. She does not work hard. They did not make a mistake.

4. Emphatic sentences Yes, she is working.

Yes, they had eaten them. Yes, she does work hard.

Yes, they did make a mistake.

6. Comparative clauses

She's working harder than Bill is. They'd eaten more than we hod. She works harder than I do. They made more mistakes than we did+

I 1

Clauses

6.1 EleOlents of the clause

\Vc h.ivc identified five m.i i n elements of the CL111SC~ Jnd it is now rime to explain them 1110['C cnrcfully. They arc listed in Table 6~1 111 order of the de g r c C to \ V hie h the Y' :1 r c 'p c r i J.') her art 0 C L1 usc S t n len I r c, ~ L 1 r tin g w i t h P :1 S 1 h t ~ 1110S[ ~('('n1Ta I ~ element.

Table 6.1

Clause elements

Label

Predicator Subject Object Cornplcrncnt Adverbial

p S o (

A

(I) [s(Many people) P (are painting) 0 (thei r houses) C (white) f\ (these days)].

6.1.1 Predicator (P) and subject (5)

The P 1<._ I::-J) l (>\ T () R i ~ the 0 nl Y' c lc T u c 1 H \ V h i l- his a vcr h ph LJ S l' . - l h l' S l J B J E CT t1 0 r n 1 ; 1 H y pre c c d c S t hLp red i (~l t () r. and r her cis C~ (_) N (JJ RD h (' t \ vee 11 the S 1] h fcc t t 111 d p rc dic;1 [0 r J S r ~ g J r d s N l .11\'1 B F R_ :11 h. ~ P F 1 { S ():'\ ( s L' c Exercise hC ~ p .. , (")"J} .. lha t 11lC~H1S~ for CXJ mp lc, rha t if rhc xu hjcct 1 S si ngu 1:1 r (rctcrring to just Olll' person, thing, LIC.:::~ the vcr b also h:1S 10 he -.ingular (en d i 11 g i 11 - S ). ~ 11 [11 her en n l o r d ( ~11 so c a llc (1 ~ J g r C c III en r ' :) i s i llu s [ r t 1 n_~ d ; u :

(2) [s(His sister) P (cooks) excellent Chinese dinners].

(singular $, singular P)

(3) [5 (His sisters) P (cook) excellent Ch inesc dinners]. (plural S, plural P)

85

86 PART B: ANALYSIS

It is often possible to use ~l substitution test, su bsritu ti llg one of the subject pronou ns I, t oe ~ b (!. 'J she ~ I hey (see prL 59-60) for the p h ra se ~ n sub i ccr posi tio 11. T his is a vcr y usc f ul t e s t ~ sin ce a P :1 rtf r 0111 Y () U a 11 d it per so I1.J 1 pro n 0 un s h a ve d isrinctivc forms \\.' hen they act as sub] ect: cornpa te I Fe prefers her, She prcfe rs h un,

\Y/c should emphasise the need to use several tests for identifying clause elerncnrs, Consider the sentences in (4) and (5):

(4) [A (In the box) P (are) s(six sku llsj],

(5) [s (The box) P (contains) o(six skulls)].

The cr ircr ia of position and meaning {3.577) do 110l: help to identify S in (4)~ bur we can still rely 011 tests of concord and pronoun substitution - thus \ve (an say: They arc in the box; and in (5) the verb contains cuds in -s) because the su bjcct The box is singul a r. 1 n these examples, the su hjcct does not refer tot he'd () c r .. 0 f J. n a ct ion, s 0 \~r C h a vet 0 r el yon for 111 all d fun C t i o 11 1 not meaning, [0 sec rha t the su hjecr is six skulls in (4) a nd The box in (5).

6 .. 1.2 Object (0) and complement (e)

The OBJF(~T is very closely tied to the predicator in terms of meaning, 311(.1 typically denotes the person or rh i ng most intimately a ffcered by the action or stare, crc., denoted by the P. The (:()l\lPLEJvlE~T can look superficial] y 11 kc an object (both can be Nf's), but in terms of meaning it describes or characterizes the 5 or O. Objects 3.nJ comp lernenrs normally follow the P:

(6) [s(They) P (,ve elected) o(Harry)]+

(7) [s (Harry) P (wi i I be) c (the next I eader of the sch 001)].

If there are both 3.11 0 and a C in rhe clause, then norma lly the C follows the 0:

(8) [s(They) P eve elected) 0 (Harry) C (the next leader of the schoolj].

I n ( X ) as i n (7), t h P. n e J: t le ad c r 0 r t h e s c h () 0 f c h a rae t e r i 7. e s F -/ a r ry .

6.1.3 Adverbials (A)

,;\1) \!EH .. Bll\l.S fill out the cla use by addi t1g extra eireu msrantial informa rion of various kinds, ra ngi ng from time and location to the speaker's attitude. Of the clause elements that we ha ve exa mined, adverbials arc rhc least closely integra ted into clause structure - and this goes especia lly for sentence adverbials.

The first point about adverbia ls is that there is no fixed number of them 111 a cIa use; In th is they are ra ther like modifiers i 11 the NP. The 1110re con11110n adverbial types arc listed in Table 6.2, together w i rh typical questions which eli c itt h e m .

The CLlllSC in (9) has four advcrbials:

(9) [A (Actually}, 5 (she) P (works) A(at home) A (very rarely) A(these days)].

CLAUSES 87

Table 6.2

Adverbial type Place

Direction Time-when Duration Frequency Manner

Agency

Goal

Reason Condition Degree

Sentence adverbial

Eliciting question

Example

Where~

Where to/from? When?

How fong?

How often?

How? In what manner? By wflom?

To/For whom?

Why?

In what circumstonces~ How much? How far?

Exp re sses attitude, con n ection

(there ), (on a box)

{horne], (to/from Paris) (tomorrow), (on Sunday) (for a month), (since 1990) (once a week), (every day) (qu ickty), (with confidence) (by a tall dark stranger)

(to Mary), (for himself) (because of her mother)

(If you do the dishes)

(camp letely) t (to som e extent) (in fact). (conseq uently)

lts variants (98.) and (9b) show that (ld verbinls arc generally much 1110re mobile in the clause than the other cla usc clements \VC have I11Ct:

(9a) [s(She) A(very rarely) P (works) A(at home) A(these days], A(actuaIlY)l (9b) [A(These days) S (she) A (very rarely) A (actually) P (works) A(at home)].

So m 0 b i I e a re (e r t a i 11 ;h.i vcr h i a 1 s t hat the yea n he p 1 a c cd in t h c 111] d dIe 0 f the P ~ interrupting its elements, :1~ in CIO), where V{C usc a new syrnbol (1- ..... I} to link the interrupted clements of the phrase:

(10) [s (The place) P (is A (fast) going) A(to the dogs)].

_j

( ( : 0111 par c : ~rh e 1) I a C e i 5 go j n g t () I h e dog s ~ I S L )

Ad verbi als arc a lso optional in most cla usc types. They C~l n normally be om ittcd from the clause, as \VC sec in COIl1 paring (9) with (1·1)-:

(I i) [She wo rks at home very rarely] [She works].

[She works at home]

(~O\V try Exercises 63 and 6b.)

6.2 Complex sentences

So far \VC have dealt only with Sl Ml' LE SENTEN CF~S consist i ng of (1 single M A TN ( : L i\ l J S E (M C I)., \0,," hie his pre cis ely a c l a use t hat can s tall d :11011 C ;1 S :1 s i 111.P 1 c sen ten c e ( sin c e t his i s the 01l J y e l e 111 e 11 tin r h esc 11 ten c C, 11 o fu net [ 0 11 label is necessary):

(1 2) s- Me! [Th ey' I t su pport you].

B II t the m a j 0 r i t y 0 f f. n g 1 ish sen ten c cs r 11 a t yo L1 arc li k ely to 111 C c t i 11 t ext s are C 0 !vrp 1. P. X S F_ :-JTF -:\7 (~FS ~ i. c. sen rcnccs \v h ich (on ta i n ad d i t j onul cla II ses.

88

PART B: ANALYSJS

.... _ ... ----------------------------

.lhcru arc t\VO ways in which ;1ddition;d clauses can occur in a complex sentence. T \VO or more CL1l1 scs ca n he (~()O R f) l~ 1\ TEL); that is, they can he 1 i 11 k C' d ~1 S 11 n irs () f c q II ;11 ~ L1 n 1 S :

( f 3) Sc Mel [You su pport you r team-mates] and Mel [th ey' t I su pport you].

()r there m i.1 y he one or more 5 Ull() lZD l~l i\' I'E (~LJA..lJSES (S( .l), i .c. Cl:l11SCS which .irc gLll1l111Jtjc~dly SL~B()lZL)li\i\·rE. (sec 5.2) because [hey .irc part of ~ 1 nut her c L III S C + i\ S 11 b 0 r din ~1 tee 1 au S C 1 ~ C l t h IT :111 C 1 c rn en r 1 11 a ' h i g her -ll P' c L 111 S l.\ c. g + J 11 ~ 1 d v ~ r b i a I {A):

( 14) Sc Mel [S~I [If you sup port you r team -mates] ~p (they) 0p C Il su pport) ~p(you)].

{) r c 1 s c ~ 1 po S t rn () d i fie r (M::' 1 n ~ 1 P h r ~ 1 S e \v it h ill a cla II s t :

( ~ 5) Sc Mel [(~ Players S~I [who support thei r team -m ates]) are su pported j n tu rn by them].

For clarity, \VC prCSCll[ (14) and (15) as tree dl~lgrdlns, in Figures 6.1 and 6.2.

Corn plcx sentences can also result [rom a COTn billa r ion of coorcl inatiori and su bord illation of cla L1SCS~ for cxa t11 plc:

(16) Se Mel [She looked as cool as a cucumber], and Mel [SCI [if she could fool herself] she could fool anybody].

Th isis enough to give you a taste of su bordi narc cla uses .. \Xl c will be deal ing wit h subordination .md coordination .. and with classes of subordinate CL1lL"CS, III [he nc x 1 Ch~l ].}t~~r" . l"hc rernai nder of th is chapter, fr0I11 6.4., will be concerned pr irnn r ily \vlt"h classes of main clause.

Se

Mel
I
-~-I
A s P 0
SCI NP VP NP
I
I
1
If you support your team-mates I they III support you
Figure 6.1 CLAUSES 89

Se

Mel

S NP

I

H N

M SCf

I

p VP

A pp

A pp

r

Players who support their team-mates are supported In turn

by them

Figure 6.2

6.3 Tensed and tenseless clauses

So far we have dealt only with 'fENSED \/ElZL~ PHH._ASES, cont.urung (_1 tensed verb, which is a verb showing ~rEN SE (past or present) and S L 1).1 EC' r

Cl) N C·O R I") (for person and n u 11"1 ber) + ,\ tensed v er h 1 seith e r t h t

OPFRl\T()R (the f~rst :lllxillJry verb ir: the \lP) or Ihe M.AIN \If.RR (the only verb ill the \TP) if there is 110 opcr;1tor (sec 5.S.1)~

Rut there arc also many rcnsclcss verb ph r:1SCS, conra ill ing no tensed verb.

Table 6.3 shows that ill a rcnsclcss \lP all the verbs must be Vi, Ving or Vc». (i\ tcnsclcss verb ca n he :·1 ny verb - either ~l n oper:·l tor-verb or ~1 full-verb - except for modal verbs, which have 110 tcnsclcss forn1s.) F~X~l rnplcs of tensed and tcnsclcss \IPs (sec 5.5.1) arc shown in Table ().3~ The particle to is always followed by Vi, and it can he considered J.!1 optional part of the Vi form. In fact, it is the usual practice in English to qUOTL verbs in the to-infinitive for111 (to \7 i): to be, to crea te, to bf udgeo n.

Table 6.3
Tensed VP Structure .r; Tense Tenseless VP Structure :.:.::. Tense
ate Ved ~T eating Ving -T
wilt eat m VI -: T -T to eat to Vi -T -T
is. eaten be Ven -f- T -T be eaten be Yen - T .- T
have been hv be Ving fT T T having been hv be Yen T T T
eating eaten + T :::: tensed verb; - T == tenseless verb

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