A Guide to English Grammar

A guide toUniversity grammar of English

1

foreward

To the Vietnamese readers-students!Grammar is an indispensable and essential part of any

language which any student and user of the language make a deep insight into. The famous book "A University Grammar of English" by R.Quirk and S.Greenbaum is a precise grammar book, suggested to be used by tertiary-level students of the English language. In the programme of study at university in Vietnam, this book has been proposed to be used as one of your chief reference books. However, the problems presented in the different chapters (fourteen chapters in all) of the book would be rather difficult to graps and memorize particulary for Vietnamese students if they were not systematised and shortened. This is the reason why were have, with the experiences of one of the pioneer researchers in the area, found it necessary to summarize, and emphasize the fundamental contents of the concepts used in the book.The precise book we compile here with can be considered as a guide book which summarizes, highlights and emphasizes, in a rather full manner, the basic and essential problems which any Vietnamese university student of the English language should firmly grasp and thoroughly understand, so that he/she can make use of the English language in a precise and expert way. In the process of finding accounts and explanations for these problems, we also use notes and the Vietnamese equivalent terms when necessary and possible. After each chapter we suggest the exercises that should be concentratedly done (taken from R.A Close's workbook).Therefore this guide book is aimed to serve Vietnamese students of English language at different universities throughout Vienam including open universities, part-time and distant education learners who wish to get a B.A degree, as well as anyone who wishes to grasp the English language.We sincerely hope that with the help of this guidebook, Vietnamese reader-students can read, digest, and more thoroughly interpret what has been written in the aforesaid book.

Great successes to you all.

2

Hanoi, 2000TrÇn H÷u M¹nh, Assoc.Prof.Dr

NguyÔn V¨n C¬, Senior Lecturer

3

Môc lôc (contents)

Foreward

An Introduction to Grammar

Chapter I Nouns, Pronouns and the Basic noun Phrase

Chapter II The Complex Noun Phrase

Chapter III Verbs and the Verb Phrase

Chapter IV The complementation of the Verb

Chapter V Adjectives and Adverbs

Chapter VI Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases

Chapter VII The Simple Sentence

Chapter VIII Adjuncts, Disjuncts and Conjuncts

Chapter IX Coordination and Apposition

Chapter X Subordination Complex Sentences

Terminology

4

An introduction to grammar

I. What is grammar:

I.1. Definition: Elements of grammar:

* In traditional concepts, grammar consists of two parts

morphology and syntax.

a. Morphology deals with these major problems:

(i) Classes of word (different parts of speech)

(ii) Different grammatical categories of different parts of

speech.

N: number, case + gender

V: Tense, aspect, voice + mood

b. Syntax deals with the combination of words to make larger

units of language: phrase, clause and sentence.

(i) phrases: treating the combination of words into noun

phrases, verb phrases, adjectival phrases, prepositional

phrases.

(ii) clauses: different kinds of clauses; independent clauses,

main/superordinate clauses and subordinate clauses

(dependent)

(iii) Sentences: - Simple sentences; sentence with one

clause

- Compound sentences and complex

sentences: sentences consisting of two or

more clauses.

In modern concept, grammar may be defined as a set of

morphological and syntactic rules which may be treated

5

together to make it essier for the learners - the users of the

language to grasp and apply to concrete situations of usage.

I.2. Grammar and other branches of linguistics:

a. Phonology: treating phonemes - (smallest linguistic units)

Segmental Supra segmental

Vowels Consonant

s

Stress

rhythm

Intonatio

n

Prosody

b. Grammar: dealing with; Morphemes (smallest meaningful

linguistic unit)

Morphemes (made of phonemes)

Words Phrases Clauses Sentences

(parts of

speech)

(NP, VP, etc) Independen

t

Main/dep.cl

Simple,

compound

Complex

(Largest grammatical unit)

c. Semantics (also called semasiology)

Treatments of

meanings of

Words

Phrases

Clauses

Sentenc

Utterances (unit of

speech)

6

es

d. Discourse analysis:

+ Largely concerned with larger units than sentence

sentences - paragraphs - texts

+ Means of linking sentences: cohesion

coherence

II. Parts of sentences and sentence types

1. Traditional concepts

Principal parts: Subject and predicate

Secondary: Object, complement (predicative), Adverbial

Attribute (modifier)

E.g: My brother walked to the station (simple Predicate)

S Predicate (V + A)

His sister is a teacher of English (compound nominal

Predicate)

S Predicate (V + NP = complement)

2. R.Quirk et al's concepts:

Sentences elements are Subject, Verb, Object,

Complement and Adverbial (S.V.O.C and A for short)

E.g: We all know these rules

S V O

They went to the station last week

S V A A

We elected him President twice

S V O C A

7

S, V, O, C and A can be used to label clauses (see

subsection 4 below)

3. Sentence types: (possible arrangements of S, V, O, A)

a. S + V intransitive: E.g: She's coming. They're gone out.

The planne took off

b. S + Vintransitive + C: E.g: She's my sister. They look tired

The milk turned sour

c. S + Vintransitive + A: E.g: They were here. She got off the

bus

d. S + Vmonotrasitive + O: Eg: They built this house. He

gave up tobacco

This depends on you. We cut down on

this

e. S + V ditransitive+O+O: Eg: We gave him a book . She

informed me of the news He took great

care of the children

f. S + Vcomlextrans +O+C: E.g:We elected him our President.

She painted the door green

g. S + Vcomlextrans+O+A: E.g: I put it here

They hung the picture on the wall.

These are also clause types, parts of compound and

complex sentences

4. Compound and complex sentences:

These are sentences formed by two or more independent

clause joined by "and", "but", "or" and others.

E.g: I told him this but he didn't believe me.

8

S V O O S V O

1st indep.cl 2nd indep.cl.

She's a teacher and she's out of work

S V C S V A

1st indep.cl 2nd indep.cl.

You can drive my car or you can walk

S V O S V

1st indep.cl 2nd indep.cl.

b. Complex sentences:

These are sentences joined by two or more clause of which one

is the main clause and the other (s) - subordinate clause 9s)

being part (S, O,C or A) of the former.

E.g: I know that you're honest

S V C = sub. clause

S V O = main clause

What he likes isn't what I like

O S V O S V = sub.clause

S V C = main clause

III. Some basic concepts

1. Closed - system vs. Open class:

Parts of ech

9

Open class Closed – system

Noun, Verb, Adjective,

Adverb

- numerous

- lexical meaning

Pronoun, Article, Preposition,

Conjunction

Demonstrative, Interjection

- Small in number

- Exclusively used

- Clearly defined in contrast

with one another (grammatical

meaning)

However, the distinction between these two is not clear-

cut:

E.g: Verb: open class: lexical verbs

Closed-system: auxiliaries

Prepositions: closed-system: simple preps

Open class: compound: prep + N + prep

2. Dynamic vs. Stative:

a. Verbs are:

+ Dynamic when denoting action; play, learn, speak, (often

used in progressive tense).

E.g: They're playing the piano

She's been learning English for 5 years.

+ Stative when denoting state: be, appear, look, turn, know,

understand, used in the Progressive).

E.g: She is a teacher. She knows me.

b. Subclasses of lexical verb

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Stative Dynamic

Intensive Extensive Intensive Extensive

Be, become know, feel

Appear, turn understands grow

(S+V+C) (S+V+O) (S+V+C) Intransitive

Transitive

A A come, go

(S+V) Monotrans Ditrans

Comp

Buy, ask give,

call

Give up offer

p

(S+V+O) (S+V+O+O)

(SVC)

c. Parts of eech Dynamic : V.Adv

Stative : N.Adj

3. Optional vs. Obligatory:

a. Obligatory elements of the sentences are those that must be

present sentence strurcture. Without these, the meaning of the

sentences is incomp and the sentence is unacceptable.

E.g: She is a teacher They got off the bus

S V C S V A

In these sentences, S, V, C and A are obligatory.

b. Optional elements are those that are not necessary in the

sentences structure.

11

With out these, the meaning of the sentence is still complete: In

most cases A is optional.

E.g: She went to London last Sunday

A A

The plane took off immediately

A

Exercises: U.G.E Work book (by R.A.Close)

4, 5, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15 (Chapter 2, pp, 5-11)

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Chapter I

Nouns, pronouns and the basic noun phrases

(UGE, chapter 4, pp, 59 - 113)

I. Definition and classification

I.1. Definition:

A noun is a word use to name person, thing, animal or

abstract conce.

For example:

- Name of persons: E.g: Tom, John, Bill Jones, Mr.Smith,

people, m.....

boy, woman, girl...

- Names of things: E.g: bed, chair, table, house, earth,

sun...

- Names of animals; E.g: cat, dog, tiger, lion, dragon,

cattle...

- names of abstract concepts: E.g: peace, war,

independence...

I.2. Classification

Nouns

(i) Proper nouns

(unique reference)

(ii) common nouns

(generic/specific reference)

Tom, John (+) Count N Non-count N

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Mr.Smith, etc man, boy,

people

(+) Concrete

man, boy,

water

Water, oil,

independence

Abstract

Peace, war,

independence

b. Subclassification of proper nouns:

(i) Personal names: E.g: Tom, John, Mr.Smith, Bill Clinton, Sir

Jones, L B. Russel

(ii) Geographical names: E.g: England, London, Vietnam,

China, the Unite States of America, the

Nile

(iii) Names of institutions or organisations:

E.g: London University, the United Nations, FAO, UNICEF,

etc.

* Proper nouns have unique reference (i.e. they refer to a

unique person, country, organisation or sometimes a group of

these).

c. Futher classification of common nouns:

(i) The most important classification of common nouns is the

distinciton between count and non-count nouns

* Count nouns are those that vary in form

Singular Plural

E.g: man, boy, ox man, boys, oxen

* Non-count nouns are those that have only one form which is

often used in the singular,

E.g: Water, oil, silver, independence

14

(ii) Con nouns and non - count nouns can be concrete or abstract:

Concrete Abstract

Count

Man, boy

Non-count

Water, gold

Count

War,

activity

Non-count

Peace,

independence

II. Grammatical categories

II.1. The category of number

a. Number is grammatical category that distinguishes count

nouns into:

Singular Plural

E.g: man, boy, man, boys,

War, activity wars, activities

b. General classification of nouns in terms of number

(i) Invariables (= Nouns that do not vary)

Invariables

Singular only Plural onlyNoncount N-

ending in-s

SubstantivisedAdj

N with plura

l

Pluralia tantum

s

Collective

nouns

SubstantiveAdj

Material

abstract

(abstract) meaning

(concrete)

WaterOil

PeaceFreedo

m

NewsPhysic

s

The trueThe

beautiful

Scissors

Trousers

Customs

Arms

PeopleCattle

The poorThe blind

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(ii) Variables Regular plural + S /-s/ books, stops

/-z/ beds, stars

/-iz/ boxes, brushes

Irregular plural

+ voicing (/f/ -> /vz/) : leaf -> leaves

-en ending : ox -> oxen

+ change of root vowel : foot -> feet

+ foreign plural: phenomenon -> phenomena

Zero plural: sheep, deer, fish, trout

(the same form for both singular & plural)

II.2. Case (N's: Genitive)

(i) Two genitives: 's genitive & of - genitive

E.g: the boy's book the wheels of the car

(ii). Choice of 's genitive: with nouns of higher gender classes

E.g: The boy's name, this cat's eyes, China's export.

Choice of of-genitive: with nouns of lower gender classes

(iii): Genitive meaning: Equivalents

+ Possessive: possession: E.g: My father's

hat

the legs of the

table

My father has a

hat

Human relation: E.g: my sister's

friends

My sister has

friends

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+ Subjective

(+original):

E.g: My father's s

permission

My father

permits

The arrival of the bus The bus arrived

+ Objective: E.g: The criminal's

arrest

Someone

arrested

The criminal

+ Descriptive: E.g: Two days'visit A visit that lasts

Two days

+ Appositive E.g: The town of Vinh

Yen

Vinh Yen is a

town

(iv) Double genitive: of & 's - genitive used together

E.g: A friend of my father's

II. 3. Gender: (sometimes considered unimportant)

Gender Sex (semantic concept)

Masculine: man

Feminine: woman

Common teacher

Neuter: table

(male)

(female)

(both male and female)

In English, there is not any further morphological feature

that helps distinguish gender (unlike Russian or French).

III. Elements of the basic noun phrase (NP)

17

III.1. Diagram

Basic NP

Closed -system

Premodifiers

Head noun

Predetermin

ers

(3

subclasses)

Determiners

(6

subclasses)

Potsdetermi

ners

(2

subclasses)

III.2. Determiners: 6 subclasses

a. Article: definite a(n)/indefinite the, e.g: an old man, boys

b. Possessive: my, your, his, her, their, e.g: my brother, their

discussion.

c. Demonstrative: this, that, these, those, e.g: this book, these

boys.

d. Interrogative: whose, which, what. E.g: which colour, whose

books

e. Indefinite: some, any, every, each, e.g: some water, any car

(s), every student

g. Quantifier: much, e.g: much water.

In the basic NPs, these words are central elements of pre-

modifiers.

III.3. Pre-determiners (=words preceding Determiners):

a. Inclusives: all, half, eg: all the books

b. Multipliers: double, twice, three times, e.g: double your

salary.

18

c. Fractions: one-third, two-fifths, e.g: one-third (of) this

book/the student

III. 4. Post - determiners (=words coming after Determiners):

a. Quantifiers: Closed-system: many, little, few

E.g: many books, few apples

Open class: a lot of, good deal of,

A great number of

E.g: a lot of books, a great deal of oil

b. Numerals: Cardinal: one, two, three,

E.g: one book, two books

Ordinal: first, second, third.

E.g: first, second book

More examples: this book, your head, a boy, much

water

All these examples, all these fifty students

Half that water, the first two books...

Uses of head noun and close - system pre-modifiers

1. Common uses of Determiners and all classes of head Noun:

Head Noun

(in terms of number)

a. Article: the, : Count N Non-count

N

b. Possessive: my, your Sing Plural

19

c. Interrogative: whose,

which

N N-s

2. Restricted uses:

a. Article: a(n) with singular count N: e.g: a book, an old man

b. Demonstratives:

* this/that with singular count N/non - count N.

E.g: this books, this oil

* these/those with plural count N.

E.g: those books

c. Indefinite: * some with non-count/ count plural N (stressed)

with singular count N (stressed)

* any, every/each with singular count N

d. Quantifier: * much with non-count N only

IV.3. Pre-determiners and head N:

a.

Inclusive:

* all

half

with Non-count N

Sing count N

Volum

e

Volum

e

(+N)

Plural count

N

(+N-s)

E.g: all/half the book (s)

* both: with plural count nouns (+N-s)

(optional use of of)

E.g: both (of) my brothers

20

b. Multiplier: often used singular count N (volume) or no-

count N

E.g: double /twice/three times your salary

c. Fractions: with nouns denoting volume in the main

E.g: one-third (of) your/the book

IV. 4. Post - determiners:

a. Numerals cardinal: - one with singular count N

- two/three... with plural count N

ordinal: - with either singular or plural

E.g: two books, the second book

9s)

b. Quantifiers: little with non-count

e.g: little water

Few/many with plural count N

e.g: many/few friends

Other quantifiers,

e.g: a great deal of books

a large amount of cars

IV. 5. Noun reference and article usage

All the nouns in their concrete uses have reference of their

own

a. Proper N: unique reference

Without article (): e.g: Tom, China, Mr.Jones

With definite article the, e.g: the Smiths (family), the

Congo, the Philipines

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With indefinite article., e.g: There's a Tom Smith here.

I bought a Macintosh (proper N-> common N)

b. common Nouns:

Non - count N: Generic: e.g: Oil-floats on water

Specific: the e.g: The oil in this well

The wine of France

Count N: * Singular Generic: a = (every), e.g: A tiger lives in

the jungle

The (= whole class),

e.g: The cat is a small domestic

animal

Specific: a (=one), e.g: There's a car here

The e.g: The man in the car

You met

* Plural Generic: , e.g: boys will be boys

Specific: the, e.g: The boys of this group

c. More uses of definite article, e.g: the first car, the right

answer, the same room, to the

left/right (side).

Pronouns and numerals

Subclasses of pronouns (used in replacement of NPs)

a. Specific group includes:

(i) Central Personal: I/m, we/us, you/you, his/him,

they/them

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Reflexive: myself, ourselves, yourself,

yourselves,

himself, herself, themselves

Reciprocal: one, another, each other (use with

we, you, they (plural)

Possessive: my(mine), our(s), your(s),

their(s)

(ii) Relative: who, which, that

(iii) Interrogative: who, which, what

(iv) Demonstrative: this, that, these, those

b. Indefinite group includes:

(i) Universal: all, each, everyone, everything, everybody

(ii) Partitive: assertive: many, some, someone,

somebody

No-assertive: anyone, anything, anybody

Negative: none, no one, nobody, nothing

(iii) Quantifying pronouns:

* much, many, (positive). E.g: Many didn't come.

* little, few (negative), e.g: Little can be done now

2. Numerals:

a. Both cardinals and ordinals can be used pronominally.

E.g: Two are absent to day. We only need the

first

b. One can be used as:

23

(i) Numerical "one" e.g: I need one One went this way, the

other, than

(ii) Replacive "one", e.g: Is this the one you mean?

(iii) Indefinite "one", e.g: One can't be too careful, can

one/you?

IV. Syntactic functions of noun phrases (including pronouns)

1. Common syntactic functions: S, O, C

a. Subject (S) E.g: My brother is a teacher

S Cs

b. Direct Object (Od) E.g: They like football

S Od

c. Indirect Object (Oi) E.g: We gave our friend a book

S Oi Od

d. Subject complement (Cs) E.g: My brother is a teacher

S Cs

e. Object complement (Co) E.g: They elected him their

chairman

S Od Co

2. Some other functions (also called minor functions):

f. Prepositional complement (Cprep.) E.g: On the way we

look at it

Cprep Cprep

g. Appositive (App.) E.g: My friend, a teacher, will

come soon

App

24

g. Adverbial (A) E.g: Last week we telephoned

him

A (time)

i. Adjectival Complement (Cadj) E.g: The game isn't worth

the candle

Cadj

Exercises: U.G>E. Work book (by R.A. Close)

45, 47, 48, 50, 51, 53, 57, 58, 59, 63, 64, 65, 66

(chapter 4, pp.28-38)

25

Chapter II

The complex noun phrase

I. Elements of complex noun phrase

I.1. Diagram

Complex NPs

Premodifiers Head N Postmodifiers

Closed-system Open-Class Adv.or

Pre.P

Non-

finites

Relative

clause

Adjectiv

e

Verb Noun

I.2. Examples: (These) beautiful girls

Adj headN

The approaching train

Det V-ing head N

The beautiful girl sitting in the corner

Det Adj head N non-finite

I.3. Restrictive vs.non-restrictive modifiers:

Restrictive: Essential information

No - restrictive: Additional information

Eg: My old mother

Restr. Non-restr.

26

II.1. Major classes of pre-modifiers:

Adj E.g: A good boy

Verb + Head N The approaching train

This broken vase

Noun My brother's letter

This lecture hall

II. 2. Minor classes of pre-modifiers:

- Adv e.g: The then minister, a far-away

cottage

- Prep.P e.g: On -the - job classes cottage

- Clause e.g: Pop-down-for-the-weekend cottage

II. 3. Pre-modification by Adjectives:

a. Different classes of adjectives:

Central Adj

General

Good

Bad

Beautiful

Age

Old

New

Young

Colour

Black

White

Orange

Shape/size

Square

Round

Triangular

E.g: These old cars

The beautiful old orange car

* Attributive Adj:

27

- Nationality: e.g: British/American radio

- Denominal: e.g: political consciousness, physical

conditions

b. Relative sequence:

Premodifiers Head

N

Adj Verb Denominal

Gen Age Color Shape V-ing/V-

ed

Adj N

This pretty old black

triangular

The extravagant

Crumblin

g social

Church Tower

life

II.4. Pre-modification by Verbs:

a. V-ing rticiple: temporary, e.g: the approaching

train

(= the train which is approaching)

permanent, e.g: an interesting book

(= a book that interests readers)

a. V-ed2 participle: passive, e.g: the broken vase

(= the vase that was broken)

non-passive, e.g: a retired teacher

( = a teacher who has retired)

28

II.5. Nouns used as pre-modifiers:

a. N's (genitive) e.g: the boy's cottage

room

b. N (common - case) e.g: the country cottage

c. A series of N e.g: the black market meat price

reduction

head N

II.6. Multiple pre-modification:

a. One head N with multiple pre-modifiers

* Relative sequence:

Premodifiers Head

N

Det Adj Verb Denominal

Predet.Det +

Pstdet

Gen Age Col Sha

pe

V-ing/V-

ed2

Adj N

Ex: This Beautiful new white Japanese Car

The Old Pentagonal

crumbing

Church Towe

r

* Change in sequence -> change in meaning

E.g: This black old man This old black man

His last interesting novel His interesting last novel

b. Multiple head with one modifier

E.g: Old men and women

(i) old man and old women

(ii) women and old men

29

c. With modified modifiers

E.g: The extremly beautiful pictures

The meat production increase measures

The King of England's crown

III. Post-modification

III.1. Major classes of post-modifiers:

Adv./Prep.P: E.g: The man there

The book on the left

Head N

+

Nonfinites:

Relative

clauses:

E.g: The first man to leave

Elg: The boy who went with

you there

III.2. Minor classes of post - modifier:

Head + Adj

E.g: The boys

Nothing

Easiest to teach

New

III. Post - modification by Adverbs/Prepositional Phrase:

- Place: e.g: The man in the car/at the desk

upstairs/down there

- Time: The meeting on Tuesday

30

- Manner: A problem of great significance

A man of four children

III. 4. Post - modification by non-finite verbs:

- To V appositive, e.g: their hope to become teachers

descriptive, e.g: the last bus to arrive

- V-ing temporary character, e.g: the man standing

there

- V-ed passive meaning, e.g: The vase broken

during the row

the words underlined

III. 5. Post - modification by relative clauses:

a. Restrictive vs. Non-restrictive relative clauses

Restrictive Non-restrictive

+ Essential information

+ Head N: Specific reference

+ Wider choice of relative

pronouns

who (m)

whichthat

+ Additional information

+ head N: Unique reference

+ Narrower choice of relative

pronouns

who (m)

which

IV. Premodification & postmodification in comparison:

- Greater with post - modifier:

E.g: The London trip

31

Pre-mod

The trip to London (+ direction)/around London

Post-mod

* Explicitness varies with different classes of post-

modifiers:

E.g: The girl: near the door (+ position)

Sitting near the door

(+posture<action>+position)

Who's sitting near the door

(+time+posture+position)

IV.2. Other features:

a. Permanence & temporariness

Pre-modifiers Post-modifiers

- Temporary:

E.g: the approaching train

- Permanent:

E.g: this surprising news

- Temporary only:

Eg: the approaching train

at platrform 5

b. Passive & non-passive

Pre-modifiers Post-modifiers

- Passive:

E.g: the broken vase

- Non-passive:

E.g: a retired teacher

- Passive only:

E.g: the vase broken

during the now

-

IV.3. Pre-modification and post-modification in

combination:

32

Examples:

Pre-modification Head Post-modification

The pretty blackish Girl (who) you met on the way here

The interlocking China Box Which you'll see later.

Her interesting love Novel About war veterans

The English Grammar Book There which I bought two years

ago

The beautiful broken

China

vase On the table which I bought

two months ago is still there

These three nice

ancient pentagonal

crumbling church

Tower

s

In the city centre which you

will come across later are of

great his significance

Exercise: U.G.E Work book (by R.A.Close)

245, 247, 250, 251, 254, 255, 257, 258, 259, 262

(chapter 13, p.p 123 - 131)

33

Chapter III

Verbs and the verb phrase

(UGE, chapter 3, pp.26-58)

I. Definition and classification

I.1. What is a verb?

A verb is a word (or a part of speech) used to denote action or

state, or, otherwise help to complete to meaning of the verb

phrase.

E.g: She goes there twice a week (action)

She'll become a doctor (state)

They're trying to finish the work

I.2. Classification:

a. Lexical verbs and auxiliary verbs.

- Lexical (or main) verbs are those verbs that denote

action or state.

E.g: We speak Vietnamese (action)

They went there last night

She looks tired today (state)

She's my teacher of English

- Auxiliary verbs are those that help complete the meaning

of the verbs phrase.

E.g: You can go there now

She did sit there with him

We're learning a new lesson

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b. Auxiliary verbs: primary and modal auxiliaries

Auxiliaries

Primary ModalCan, may, must

Periphrastic Perfect Progressive

Passive Ought to, dare, need

Do Have Be 1 Be 2

Often used in negative

interrogative sentences

Use to add the meaning of aspect, voice of the verb

phrase

Used to add the meaning to the verbs phrase

c. lexical verbs: dynamic and stative verbs:

Dynamic verbs Stative verbs

* Dynamic verbs are often

verbs that denote action, but

some may denote state:

E.g: They're singing

She's feeling tired

now

* Can be used inthe

progressive tense

E.g: She learns Russian

She's learning lesson

10

* Are often verbs that denote

state (even transitive verbs):

e.g: She knows me

* Not commonly used in the

progressive tense:

E.g: She's weak

He looks tired

d. Lexical verbs: intensive and extensive verbs

35

Intensive verbs often denote intensive relationship, often

between subject and complement.

E.g: She's my sister.

She looks cheerful today (one entity ins involved

here)

We're feeling tired now.

Extensive verbs are those that extend their meaning to a

new entity, of which the presence helps complete the meaning

of the action or state.

E.g: She knows me.

We're learning a new lesson.

We elected him president twice

Sometimes, extensive verbs are intransitive:

E.g: She has come

They're living in a new world

e. Lexical verbs - their classification in terms of their

complementation

Verbs

Transitive

Intensive

(1)

Intransitive

(2)

Monotran-

sitive(3)

Ditransitive

(4)

Complex-

transitive(5

)

Be, appear,

look,

become,

get, run

Come, go,

live, come

in, go out,

give in

Ask,

answer,

get, give

up, turn

Give, take,

inform of

Call, elect,

make, put

36

down

(SVC/SVA) (S V) (S V O) (S V O O) (S V O C/ S

V O A)

f. Lexical verbs; Classification based on word formation:

Verbs

Simple Derived Compound

Root only:

Ask, give, take, go,

come, work

* prefix + root:

return, redo,

overdo, mistake

* Root + suffix:

Socialise, broaden

* Phrasal: come in,

go out, give up, turn

down

* Prepositional:

depend on, look for

* Others: white -

wash

I. Auxiliaries: Syntactic and Semantic Features

II.1. Syntactic features of primary auxiliaries:

a. Their forms:

Periphrastic:

Do

Perfect:

Have

Progressive:

Be

Passive: B

Prese

nt

Do/does Have/has (be+)

am/is/are

Am/is/are

Past Did Had Was/were

(+been)

Was/were

(been &

being)

b. Form of the verbs following them:

Do + V lexical Have + V-ed2

of

Be + V-ing of

lexical/auxiliar

Be + V-ed

37

lexical/auxiliar

y

y lexical

He does like

coffee

The don't go out

often

She's been

here

We're talking

It was being

built

This was done

It has been

finished

c. Used as operator:

They didn't go

there

Why did she come

late?

She hasn't

done it

What has she

got?

She isn't coming

Where was it

going?

He wasn't

informed

How was it

done?

d. Used as proform (pro-verb)

She went there but I

didn't

Have you

finished?

Yes, I have

Are they

coming?

I'm sure they

are

Was she

chosen?

Certainly she

was

e. Only "Do" can be used as emphatic auxiliary:

E.g: Do come in and sit down

He did go there last Sunday

II.2. Modal auxiliaries: their syntactic features

a. List of items: can, may, must, shall, will, ought to

dare, need.

b. Their own forms:

38

Present: can, may, shall, will must, ought to, need,

dare

Past: could, might, should, would

* For their present tense form, only one form is use for all

persons and numbers, e.g: He/we... can go now

c. Form of the verb following them:

Modal + V (base) of the lexical/auxiliary verb following it.

E.g: You can go

They must have gone out

She shouldn't be prompted

He can't be arriving

d. Used as operator:

E.g: She can't do it now

He couldn't swim

What must we do now?

Why shouldn't they have taken photographs then?

e. Used as pro-form

E.g: You must go there but they mustn't (needn't)

Note:* "Dare" and "need" are modals when they are used as

operator.E.g: She needn't attend the lecture.

Dare you go to with him now?* Otherwise, they are lexical verb.E.g: We don't need to take care of him.

39

II.3. Semantic features of modal verbs:Semantically modal verbs form a sacle of modality when they

are use with lexical verbs:

Prese

nt

E.g: He can speak 3 foreign languages

a. Ability They can swim across the river

(mental/physical)

(~be able to

V)

Past E.g: He could play the guitar when he was 3

She could talk with them in their native

tongue

b. Possibility Theoretic

al:

E.g: The roads can be blocked now

(~be possible) Practical: E.g: He knew that the road might be

blocked then

c. Permission Formal +

polite

E.g: May I borrow your car, sir

(~be allowed

+to V)

E.g: Might I come in, sir?

Casual: E.g: Can I smoke in here

d. Obligation: Subjective: E.g: You must keep silent now

(~be

obliged+toV)

E.g: She mustn't do it (prohibition)

Objective E.g: They had to attend 4 lectures

e. Necessity: E.g: She has to be very careful

40

(~be necessary) E.g: We needn't go there now

f. Advisability: E.g: You should do as you are told

(~be advisable) E.g: She ought to be very cautious

g. Suggestion: E.g: Shall we go there with him now?

E.g: Why shouldn't they ask for permission

to go?

h.

Habituality:

Past E.g: They would sit there and welcome him

home then

Present/

Future:

E.g: She will always say good bye to him at

4 o'clock

i. Volition (willingness) E.g: Water will boil at 900C at this heightE.g: there'll be strong wind and cold weather

j. Futurity: E.g: They'll go there the other dayWe shall try our best

III. The different forms of lexical verbs:

III.1. Five different forms of lexical verbs and their uses:

a. A general look at verb forms:

There are five verb form judged by their by used in the verb

phrase:

V V-s V-ed V-ing V-ed2

(base) (3rd person) (past) (participles)

E.g: Ask

Want

Cut

Asks

Wants

Cuts

Asked

Wanted

Cut

Asking

Wanting

Cutting

Asked

Wanted

Cut

41

Bring

Take

Go

Be

Brings

Takes

Goes

Am, is, are

Brought

Took

Went

Was,

were

Bringing

Taking

Going

Being

Brought

Taken

Gone

Been

b. concrete uses of the verb forms:

(i) Base form:

Infinite VPs In no-finite VPs

* Indicative mood

Simple Present Tense with

I/We/you/they/the boys

E.g: I go there twice

a week

The boys

* Imperative mood

E.g: Take a great care of the

children

* Subjunctive mood

E.g: God save the Queen!

He suggested that she be

there

* To - infinitive

E.g: To help him is my task

They wanted to keep silent

They wanted there to find

better jobs

* Bare infinitive.

E.g: Run a way was all th**

could do then

(ii) V-s: used only infinite VPs- Indicative mood, simple Present

Tense with 3rd person singular (He/She/It/The boy).

E.g: He/she/It/The boy often comes early.

(iii). V-ed (past): In finite VPs

42

+ In Indicative mood Simple Past Tense with all persons

numbers: Eg: I/He.../They asked this question

+ In subjunctive mood (also called Past Subjunctive)

Eg: If he went there, he'd certain see her

(iv) V-ing (participle):

Infinite VPs In no-finite VPs

+ With verbs in the

progressive tense

E.g: They're coming

She's been living for 2 years

If he'd been learning for a long

time he'd have known this

E.g: Seeing is believing

They enjoyed watching T.V

Having finished work they

home

(v) V-ed2 (participle) with verbs in the Perfect Tenses

Infinite VPs In no-finite VPs

+ With verbs in the perfect

tenses

E.g: We've done all the work

She'd met him before she went

there

+ In the passive voice

they were asked a lot of

question

E.g; having done all the work

they are free now

II.2 Regular verbs with 4 actual verb forms:

43

V, V-s, V-ed 1 = V-ed2, V-ing

/d/ borrowed, drilled

onunciation of - ed /t/ asked, stopped

/id/ wanted, needed

E.g Ask

Want

Travel

Asks

Wants

Travelled

Asked

Wanted

Travelled

Asking

Wanting

Travelling

II.3. Irregular verbs

Verbs with 3 actual forms:

V = V - ed1 = V-ed2 V-s V-ing

Eg: cut Cuts Cutting

Ther verbs: bid, bet, burst, cast, cost, forecast, hit, hurt, let, put,

set, spread, put, slit, split, upset.

Verbs with 4 actual forms

(i) V = V-ed V-s V-d V-ing

E.g: become Becomes Became Becoming

Other verbs: come, overcome, run, overun

(ii) V V-s V-ed1 = V-ed2 V-ing

* with ending -1 (change of root vowel)

E.g: bend Bends Bent Bending

+ bring, build, catch, creep, deal, feel, fight, keep, kneel, lend,

leap, leave, lose, mean, rebuild, seek, send, sleep, spend,

sweep, think, teach, weep.

V V-s V-ed1=V-ed2 V-ing

* Change of root vowel only

44

E.g: Baby-sit Baby-sits Baby-sat Baby-sitting

+ bleed, breastfeed, breed, cling, dig, feed find, fling, get,

grind, hang, have hear, hold, lay, lead, make, meet, mislead,

misunderstand, overhear, pay, repay, rewind, say, shine, sit,

slide, speed, spin, stand, stick, sting, strike, swing, tell,

understand, unwind, weave, wind, wring.

c. Verbs with 5 different forms:

V V-s V-ed1 V-ing V-ed2

Eg: arise Arises Arose Arising Arisen

+ Quake, bear, beat, begin, bite, blow, break, choose, do, draw,

drink, drive, eat, fall, fly, forbid, foresee, forget, forgive, freeze,

give, go, grow, hide, know, like, mistake, outgrow, overeat,

overtake, overthrow, rewrite, ride, rise, see, shake, shrink, sing,

sink, speak, steal, swear, swim, tear, tread, undergo, undertake

undo, wake, wear, withdraw, write.

III.4. Mixed type:

E.g: learned - learnt, show - shown

V. the grammatical categories of the english verb

V.1. Four categories: tense, aspect, voice, mood (a

general look)

a. Tense - use of verb form to indicate time of action/state

We make clear distinction of two tenses:

Present:

Past:

V/v-se

V-ed1

Ask/asks

Asked

Write/

writes

Wrote

Have/has

Had

45

b. Aspect; the aspect denotes the manner in which the

action/state is performed (i.e. completion/in-completion of

action)

There are 4 subcategories of aspect:

Simple

Perfect

Progressive

Perfect

Progressive

V/V-s/V-ed1

Have+V-ed2

Be + V-ing

Having been + V-

ing

E.g: She works here

E.g: They're lived there for

8 years

E.g: We were dancing then

E.g: She's been learning

English, for a long time

c. Voice: Voice denotes the relationship between the subject

and the verb. We distinguish two voice:

Active: S - actor (agentive) + V-action (V/V-s...)

E.g: We built this house

Passive: S-affected (recipient) + V - action (Be + V-ed2)

E.g: This house was built last year

She was given a booklet

d. Mood: Mood indicates the speaker's attitude to the

predication (action/state). In his mind, the action may be

thought of as:

+ Factual: E.g: He went there last night (Indicative)

+ Non - factual:

* Desirous: E.g: Keep silent please (Imperative)

* Unreal: E.g: If he went there tomorrow he would meet

her (subjunctive)

46

IV. Tense and aspect

a. Tense and aspect are closely related in the formation of the

system a tenses

Tense

s

Simple Perfect Progressive Perfect

progressive

Presen

t

V/Vs

Ask/

ask

(be)

am

is

are

Hav

e

Has

+ V-

ed

asked

Am

+

Is

Are

V-ing

Asking

Hav

e

Has

bee

n

Past V-ed1

Asked

Was

Wer

e

Had

+

Was

Were

Was

Wer

e

+ Ving

asking

Had Bee

n

+Ving

asking

v. In any finite verb phrases, we can notice the use of tense,

aspect and mood well

E.g: He went there last Sunday

(tense: past: aspect: simple, mood: indicative)

She's been living here since she graduated from the

college

- Tense: present

- aspect; perfect

progressive

- mood: indicative

- Tense: past

- aspect: simple

- mood: indicative

I'd him before I came here

- Tense: past - Tense: past

47

- aspect: perfect

- mood: indicative

- aspect: simple

If you had gone there you'd have met her

- Tense: past

- aspect: perfect

- mood: subjunctive

- Tense: past

- aspect: perfect

- mood: subjunctive

c. In the non-finite verb phrases, time of the action my be

indicate by the perfect or progressive auxiliary.

E.g: He seems to know her (simultaneous)

To have met her (prior)

To be attending the seminar (temporally

simultaneous)

To have been living here for a longtime

VI.3. concrete uses of basic tenses:

* The simple present tense

a. Forms b. Uses

Affirm: Ask/he asks

I am, He is, You

are

eg: We do not ask

Don't

He does not ask

Doesn't

Quest: Does he ask this

question?

(i) Repeated/habitual action

(timeless)

E.g: We often go there.

Every morning she does physical

exercise

(ii) characteristic action/sate

E.g: He speaks Vietnamese

They are teachers

(iii) Action in progress

48

Where do they often

go?

E.g: He understands this now

(iv) General statement & universal

truth

E.g: Two and two makes four

The earth rotates around the sun

(v) Future - time action

E.g: The train leaves tomorrow

When she comes she'll tell us the

news

(vi) Past time action

E.g: Famous film star marries ex-

President

* The simple past tense

a. Forms b. Uses

V-ed1:

I/we... asked

I/h/she was

We/you/they were

(i) Past time action

E.g: He went there yesterday

In 1945 two million people diet of

(a time) (starvation)

(ii) habitual past activity:

E.g: They drank liquer very often

(used to drink)

(iii) Succession of past action

E.g: He went in, took a chair and sat

down

(iv) Future action viewed from the

49

pats

E.g: He said he would come when

he had time

* The present perfect tense

a. Forms b. Uses

Have + V-ed2:

I/we/you/they: have done

He/she/it: has gone

eg: We haven't gone

They've not done it

Quest: Have they finished?

Where have you been?

(i) Past action with

consequence to present time:

E.g: He's gone out

They've just come.

A time + already,

recently...)

(ii) Action whose duration

covers a pen of time up to the

present:

E.g: We've lived here for ten

years

She's cried for half an hour and

sleeping

(iii) Action completed before a

for moment.

E.g: You won't be allowed to go

unless have finished the work

* Present progressive tense:

a. Forms b. Uses

Be + V-ing (i) Action going on at the

present moment (except

50

I am doing (I'm cooking)

We are dancing (We're joking)

She's working (he's speaking)

eg: I'm not joking

We are not sleeping

(aren't)

He is not dancing

(isn't)

Quest; Are they listening?

What's she doing?

stative verbs):

E.g: We're having a new

lesson.

She's talking over the phone

(ii) continual process:

E.g: The earth's always

rotating around the sun

(iii). Characteristic action (+

emotional colouring).

E.g: You're always joking

(iv) Future time action

E.g: The train's leaving

tomorrow

* Present Perfect Progressive Tense:

a. Forms b. Uses

Have been + V-ing

I/se have('ve) been living here.

He/she has('s) been working

Neg. We have not been

working

Haven't

She has not been listening

Hasn't

Quest: What have they been

doing since then?

(i) Action whose duration

covers a period of time up to

the present moment and is.

+ Still going on:

E.g: We've been living in this

house for ten years (We're still

living here)

+ No longer going on:

E.g; She's been crying for

hours and is now sleeping

51

The uses of the Past Perfect, Past Progressive and Past Perfect

Progressive tenses are largely dependent on those of the

corresponding present tenses.

IV.4. Means of expressing future time action:

In English there is not a definite future tense with fixed

dorms of verb shown in the contrast Present and Past. In fact,

futurity, modality a aspect are closely associated in expressing

future time action. future action thus can be denoted by:

a. Modal auxiliary: shall/well+V'

E.g: We will go there next Sunday

Shall

He'll be more patient

b. Modal structure: be going to = V

E.g: We're going to finish our work.

She's going to retire next year

c. Be about to/be to + V

E.g: They're about to leave the country

He's to play against that man this afternoon.

d. Present Progressive Tense (be + V-ing) (planned action)

E.g: The train's leaving the station tomorrow.

e. Modal verb + Progressive Tense (will be + V-ing)

(expectation):

E.g: They'll be building a new stadium in this area

f. Present Simple (V/V-s) (with verbs of motion and a

time/condition)

E.g: The coach starts early this evening from K.M. Station

52

If she has time she'll come to see us.

g. Present Perfect (have/has+V-ed2) (action completed before

a future moment).

E.g: You won't be allowed to leave until you have done all the

exercises.

IV.5. More on Voice and Mood

a. Passive Voice with different sentence types:

(i) Active: SVO -> Passive: E.g: This house was

built last year

SVOO-> Oi -> Spass: E.g: He was given a new

book

Od -? "S": E.g: A new book was given to him

SVOC -> S + Cs: E.g: She's been elected

President twice

SVOa -> S + A: E.g: The picture will be hung on

the wall

(ii) Passive voice is used when the agentive is neglected or

emphasised:

This house was built by my father, not by my brother

(iii) The so-called middle voice:

E.g: The door opened

The dam blew up.

S = affected . Vintransitive

In this case, according to some grammarians, the verb here is

active in form but passive in meaning.

53

b. Mood: the marked forms - Imperative and subjunctive

(i) Imperative mood (use of V-base form)

+ The imperative mood is often used without S (or more

exactly, with the understood S - you) to express command,

request, or invitation.

E.g: Keep silent. Be more patient! Come in, please.

+ When Subject "you" is present emotional colouring (often

anger indignation, etc.) is often attached with change of tone as

well.

E.g: You there keep silent! You there stop doing that!

Don't you there say any more words or I'll put you out

+ Indefinite pronouns "someone, anyone" can be used as S of

imperative sentences in a rather common way.

E.g: Someone go out and tell him to go away!

Don't anyone saw anything about this!

(ii) Subjunctive mood, now considered less important, is used to

expressive

+ A desired action/wish/ often with base form of verb):

E.g: God save the Queen ! Far be it from me to contradict you!

(formulaic subjunctive)

E.g: He suggested (that) everyone be resent at 6.00 a.m

Order (mandative subjunctive)

+ Unreal condition or comparison (with V-ed1 or had + V-ed2)

E.g: If were in your shoes, I'd help her.

54

He looks as if he didn't understand me

She says this as thought she were my mother!

If she had gone there she'd have met him

(condition) ( consequence)

V. The structure of the verb phrase

V.1. Finite and non-finite verb phrases

Finite VPs Non-finite VPs

a. finite VPs (V, V-s & V-ed1,

etc)

E.g: They go there very often.

He goes there twice a week

(Tense; past, mood: indicative)

We

(Tense: past, mood: indicative)

Non-finite VPs (to V, V-ing & V-

ed2)

Do not have tense and mood.

E.g: They want to go there

then

She enjoyed watching TV

(Can be used either with

Present or Past tense)

With four auxiliaries = lexical verb:

ABCD + V-ed2: The students might have been being asked a lot

questions.

Note: In these complex finite VPs, attention should be paid to

the use of the initial auxiliary as operator, the required form of

the auxiliary in combination of 2/3/4 auxiliaries and that of the

lexical verb.

V.4. Complex non-finite VPs:

These complex VPs often have one auxiliary (except modal

auxiliary) or sometimes two auxiliaries:

55

E.g: He seemed: to have met her (perfect)

to be following her exemple

(progressive)

They appear to have been met by a stranger

(perfect+passive)

to be being met (prgr +

passive)

She happened to have been running after a cat (perf + progr)

Exercises; U.G.E. workbook (by R.A.Close)

17, 24, 266, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)

(Chapter 3, pp, 13-18)

56

chapter IV

the complementation of the verb

(Ch.12, pp.347 - 374)

I. Classification of verbs in terms of their complementation types:

There are five main groups of verbs in terms of their

complementation types and each of these may be further sub-

classified

I.1. Intranstive verbs: with complementation zero (sentence

type SV)

There are two subclasses of intransitive verbs:

a. common Vintransitive: Simple: E.g: come, go, live, work,

walk, die, fall

Derived: E.g: return, retire,

disintegrate

b. Phrasal Vintransitive:

E.g: com in, go out, blow up, take off, come to, give in.

I.2. Intensive verbs:

With intensive complementation (sentence types, SVC and

SVA). Two subgroups:

a. Current intensive:

E.g: be, appear, feel, look, smell, remain, keep.

b. Resulting intensive:

E.g; become, come, get, go, grow, turn, make.

I.3. Monotransitive verbs:

57

With monotransitive complementation (sentence types SVO).

Four subgroups (the largest ones)

a. Simple Vtransitive:

E.g: ask, answer, buy, build, speak, write.

b. Phrasal:

E.g: give up, make up, turn down, switch on, set off

c. Prepositional:

E.g: depend on, look for, look after, think of

d. Phrasal prepositional:

E.g: cut down on, look down upon, get on with, catch up with,

live up to.

I.4. Ditransitive verbs:

With ditransitive complementation (sentences type SVOO).

Three subgroups:

a. Simple Vditrans:

E.g: give, get, bring, take, buy, do, lend, find, make, offer, owe,

pay.

b. Prepositional Vdistrans:

E.g: inform of, accuse of, provide with, remind of, compare to.

c. Idiomatic Vditrans:

E.g: make use of, pay attention to, catch sight, give way to,

make fun of, make room for, put an end to, set fire to, take

advantage of.

I.5. Complex transitive verbs

With complex transitive complementation (sentence types

SVOC and SVOA)

58

a. With SVOC type:

(i) Factual verbs: E.g: feel, find, imagine, knows, suppose, think,

like.

(ii) Causative verbs: E.g: have, let, make

(iii) Verbs of perception; E.g: feel, hear, notice, observe, see,

watch

(iv) other verbs: E.g: elect, appoint, name, consider (with

optional)

accept, class, intend, interpret... (always with

as)

II. Zero complementation

III. 1. Intransitive verbs are often used with complete

zero

E.g: She's come. They are dancing

They danced and danced. She came to

The plane took off just before lunch time

II.3. There may also be place Adjunct which seems to be

closely associate with the verbs:

E.g: She comes from Leeds

We're living in London

III. intensive complementation (CS and A)

a. subject complement (Cs) (in intensive relation with S)

III.1. Cs = a noun phrase (basic or complex):

59

This often comes after such verbs as be, become, turn, make

E.g: She is a teacher of Russian

They'll soon become engineers in construction.

He turned traitor.

She'll make a good wife

III.2. Cs = adjective or adjectival phrase:

E.g: They are good She's good at grammar.

We're afraid of fierce dogs (Adj + Prepositional)

The game isn't worth the candle (Adj = NP)

III.3. Adjectival clauses as Cs:

a. Cs = Adjective = to infinitive. There are five subtypes here.

Adjectival clause Corresponding structure

E.g: he's wise to stay at home

He's slow to react

He's glad to see you again

He was reluctant to leave

He's hard to deal with

It's wise of him to stay at home

He reacts slowly

To see you again makes him

glad

It's hart to deal with him

b. Cs = Adjective + V-ing participle

E.g: She was busy doing her home work

This book is worth reading many times

c. Cs = Adjective + Finite clause

E.g: I'm sure that he will win the match (that clause)

60

We weren't certain whether he would come or not

She wasn't aware who he was (wh-interrogative

clause)

I wasn't clear about whatever he said (nominal relative

clause)

B. Adverbial (as intensive complementation)

III.4. Adverbial expression:

a. an adverb: E.g: He was here/upstairs.

b. a prepositional phrase: E.g: She was in the car

c. a clause: E.g: He's nowhere to be seen

They are exactly where they went the other day

III.5. Meaning of these adverbials:

a. Place (most common)

E.g: He was here/in the car

They kept off the grass

b. Time:

E.g: The meeting will be on next Monday

c. Manner/Description:

E.g: The matter is of great importance

He's (a man) of great fame

IV. Monotransitive complementation (Od)

IV.1. O = a noun phrase

E.g: We bought this book

This depended on you

On the way here we met a man with a very large ear

61

The man who went with you

We put off the meeting

IV.2. O = a non-finite clause

E.g: She wanted to set the house on fire (to V)

They enjoyed watching the program (V-ing participle

clause)

his singing the song

IV.3. O = a finite clause:

E.g: I know that she didn't go there with him (that clause)

We can't make out what he says (wh-interrogative

clause)

He didn't remember whoever had met him first at the station

(nominal relative clause)

He didn't say whether he would come or not (yes/no

interrogative)

They cut down on what they had to spend everyday

(wh - relative clause)

v. Ditransitive complementation (Oi + Od)

V.1. Oi = NP1 = Od = NP2:

E.g: We didn't give him any book

She informed the boy of the terrifying news

V.2. Oi = NP + Od = non-finite clause:

E.g: She told the criminal to lay down his gun (to V)

They accused him of having stolen the sum of money (v-ing)

62

V.3. Oi = NP - Od - finite clause:

E.g: They told us that they had won the match (that clause)

She asked him why he hadn't come on her birthday

(wh-interrogative clause)

He didn't tell her whether he would be able to go there with her

(yes/no interrogative)

You can accuse me of whatever I have done against you

(nominal relative clause)

VI. complex transitive complementation (Od + Co)

VI.1. Od = Np1 + co - NP2

E.g: We consider him our younger brother

They looked upon us as their brother and sisters

She regarded us as her enemies

VI.2. Od = NP + co = Adj. Phrase/clause

E.g: We painted the door red

This made her afraid of these animals

whoever came near

VI.3. Od = Np + Co = non-finite clause

E.g: We wanted him to finish his work in time (to V)

Her story made them laugh all the time (V - bare infinitive)

We saws them entering the supermarket (V-ing)

They watched the house broken into without doing anything (V-

ed2)

VI.4. Od = NP + Co = finite clause (nominal relative

clause)

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E.g: You can cal me whatever name you like

They painted the doors and windows whichever colour they

wanted

VII. Complex transitive complementation (Od + A)

VII.1. Od = NP + A = Adverb

E.g: I put my bag here

We led them upstairs

VII.2. Od = NP + A = prepositional phrase

E.g: She hung the pictures on the wall

They rowed their boat up the stream

The officer marched the soldiers through the yard

VII.3. Od = NP + A = as finite clause

E.g: You can put it wherever you like

She hung it where she had hung the day before

VII.4. Od = finite clause + A = prepositional phrase

E.g: Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do to day

VIII. some remarkable comparisons

VIII.1.1. Phrasal and Prepositional verbs

Phrasal verbs Prepositional verbs

a. Formation and

subclassification

V + article (-> adverb)

V + Preposition

64

Intransitive

Com in, go out

Come to, take

off

Monotrasitive

Turn on, switch

off,

Monotrasitive

Rely on, depend

on,

Look for, look

after

Ditransitive

Inform of,

charge

With, take

care of

b. Similarity in case of montrasitive verbs:

E.g We turned on the lights

They gave up tobacco smoking

O = NP

We depended on your help

They looked after the children

O = NP

c. Differences; in position of O

E.g: We turned the lights on

We turned them on

Pronoun

they looked after them

pronoun

VIII.2. Ditranitive complementation and complex

Transitive complementation:

a. Confusion is easily made especially when with

(i) Oi = Np + Od = NP

E.g: We gave him a book

She told us the news

(ii) O + NP + O = to V

E.g: We told him to close the

door

(iii) O = NP + prep + O = NP

E.g: We informed her of the

Od = NP + Co = NP

We consider him our brother

They called it a spade

O = NP + Co = to V

We want him to close the door

O = NP + A = prep.Phrase

She took him off the roar

65

news

b. Differentiation:

(ii). E.g: We gave a book to him

She told us the news

We consider him our brother

It was a spade

Him & a book

Us & the news

= two entities Him & our

brother

It & a spade

= one ent****

(ii) by asking questions:

E.g: What did you tell him?

We told him that he should close

the door

Vditrans + Oi + Od

(iii). E.g: We informed her of it

pronoun

What did you want?

We wanted that he should

close the

V monotrans + Od

She took him there

adverb

IX. Multiple class verbs

IX.1. Verbs can participate in different clause types.

Most typically, the verb GET can be

- intransitive: E.g: She got up rather late (SV)

- intensive: E.g: We got tired/pale (SVC)

She got out of the car (SVA)

- monotransitive: E.g: We got a letter this morning (SVO)

- ditransitive: E.g: I got her a chair (SVOO)

- complex transitive: E.g: They get everything ready (SVOC)

66

You’ve got your self into serious trouble

IX. Complementation type transformation

O + O <=> O + A: We gave him a book <--> We gave a book

to him

Exercise: 211, 214, 215, 219, 220, 221, 222, 225, 226.

230, 231, 236, 243 (chapter 12, pp, 109-121)

67

chapter V

adjectives and adverbs

(UGE, chapter 5, pp, 114 – 142)

I. Adjectives

I.1. Definition – Characteristic features:

a. Definition:

An adjective is a word belonging to an open class which

generally denotes quality, e.g: good, hot, little, young, fat, etc:

colour: black, white, etc. or shape: e.g: square, round.

b. Four features characteristic of adjectives:

(i) They can freely occur in an attributive position, i.e. They can

pre-modify a noun

E.g. : the happy children; this good old man

(ii). They can freely occur in predicative position, i.e. They can

function as

Subject complement Object Complement

E.g.: the man seemed old

Milk turns sour;

E.g: They painted the door

blue;

He thought the painting ugly

(iii). They can be pre-modified b intensifiers: every, quite,

rather.

E.g: The children are very happy;

This is rather difficult

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(iv). They can take comparative and superlative forms whether

inflectional

E.g: the children are happier now

They are the happiest people

(cf. Beautiful – more beautiful – the most beautiful)

I.2. Syntactic functions of adjectives:

a. Pre-modifier and post-modifier

- Adjectives are attributive when they pre-modify nouns

E.g: this beautiful painting...

The only child..

His main argument...

- Sometimes, adjectives can be post-modifier (or postpositive

attribute):

E.g: Anyone intelligent can do it

There’s nothing new...

I have a house larger than yours

b. Complement – both Cs and Co:

Predicative adjectives can be:

(i) Cs (in intensive relationship with S):

E.g: Your daughter is intelligent. He’s rather careless

(ii). Co. (in intensive relationship with O):

E.g: I consider him foolish

c. Head of a noun phrase:

Substantivised adjectives (the + adj) can function as heads of

NPs as S, C, O and Cprep):

69

E.g: S: The poor are causing the nation’s leaders great

concern

O: They will help only the humble poor.

Cprep: There is lack of communication between the young and

the old

The wise look to the wiser for advice.

C: We are the humble poor who suffer greatly now

d. Supplementive adjective clause:

E.g: Nervous, the man opened the letter

The man, quietly assertive, spoke to the assembled

workers

When ripe, the apples are sweet.

Whether right or wrong, he always comes off worst in an

argument

e. Exclamatory adjective sentences:

E.g: How good of you ! How wonderful!

Excellent!

I.3. Sub-classification of adjectives:

a. According to syntactic function: central, attributive,

predicative.

(i). Central adjectives can function both attributively and

predicatively.

E.g: A hungry man The man in hungry

(ii). Attributive can be attributive (modifier) only, e.g

E.g: An utter fool...

70

The political situation...

My former friend...

(iii). Predicative adjectives can be predicative (=complement)

only.

E.g: He’s afraid to do it

That’s tantamount to an ultimatum

b. Semantic sub-classification.:

(i) Stative/dynamic adjectives

+ Adjectives are characteristically stative, e.g: good, old,

beautiful, tall, round, square, etc.

+ Many adjectives, however, can be seen as dynamic,

especially when they are susceptible to subjective

measurement, e.g: abusive, ambitious awkward, careful,

careless, foolish, friendly, generous, impatient, jealous

reasonable, etc. Dynamic adjectives can be used either.

- With verb in the progressive tense

E.g: He's being careful

They're feeling tired (jealous)

- With verb in the imperative mood:

E.g: Be careful

Don't be afraid

jealous

(ii) Gradable/non-gradable adjectives:

+ Most adjectives are gradable, i.e. they can be modified by

intensifiers and include comparison.

E.g: very young, so plain, extremely useful, rather old

71

Young - younger - youngest

Useful - more useful - most useful

These include all dynamic adjectives and most stative

adjectives.

+ Some adjective, principally technical adjectives and

adjectives denoting provenance, are non-gradable.

E.g: atomic, hydrocholoric, British

I.4. Semantic sets and adjectival order:

Semantic sets have been proposed to account for the usual

order of adjectives for their - occurrence (often in NPs).

(i) Intensifying adjectives; E.g: a real hero, a perfect idiot...

(ii) Postdeterminer + limited adjectives: E.g: The fourth student.

The only occasion

(iii). General adjectives:

E.g; careful, naughty, lovely (subjective measure)

Wealthy, poor, bat (objective measure)

Large, square (size & shape)

(iv) Adjectives denoting age, e.g: young, old, new

(v) Adjectives denoting colour, e.g: black, red, white...

(vi) Adjectives denoting material, e.g: woolen, wooden,

metallic...

(vii) Adjectives denoting provenance, e.g: British, Parisian...

II. Adverbs:

II.1. Definition - Characteristics of adverbs:

72

a. An adverb, also belonging to an open class, is often used as

adverbial

E.g: They're waiting outside

I can now understand it

He spoke to me about it briefly

Or, otherwise, as modifier:

E.g: That was a very funny film.

She has a really beautiful face

b. Characteristics of the adverb:

(i) A great number of adverbs have the derivational suffix - ly:

E.g: briefly, really, beautifully, awkwardly, historically, etc.

(ii) Two syntactic functions that characterise adverbs are

adverbial and modifier of an adjective/adverb. An adverb need

have only one of these.

E.g: he spoke briefly about it.

They're smoking very heavily

II.2. More on syntactic functions of adverbs:

a. As adverbial:

Either (i) Adjunct: E.g: They're waiting outside. You can now

go out

Or (ii) Disjunct: E.g: Frankly, I', tired, fortunately, no one

complained

Or (iii) conjunct: E.g: We have complained about the

noise, and yet he

does nothing about it.

73

They tried to listen. However, they heard

nothing

b. As modifier:

(i) Modifier of adjective:

E.g: It is extremely good of you to say this

They are very/quite tired now

(ii) Modifier of adverb:

E.g: They smoked very heavily

They left him well behind.

They knocked the man right out

(iii) Modifier of prepositional phrase:

E.g: The nail went right through the wall

This deals exactly with the right answer

(iv) Modifier of determiner:

Eg: About a week is enough for this practice.

I paid more than ten pounds for it

She gave me almost the largest piece of cake

(v) Modifier of noun phrase:

E.g: He told such a funny story It was rather a mess

He was quite some player How tall a man he is

c. As complement of preposition (Cprep):

(i) Preposition + Adverbs (time)

since + Lately, recently, then, today, yesterday

74

Till/until + Now, tomorrow, tonight, after,

afterwards

After/by/

Before/from

+ Then, today, tomorrow

For + Always, ever, once, afterwards, later

(ii) Preposition + Adverbs (place)

Long, around,

Down, from,

in,

Never, on

over,

Through,

under,

Up

+ here/there From +

Above,

abroad,

Below,

downstairs,

Indoors,

inside,

Outside,

upstairs..

III. comparison and intensification

III.1. Three degrees of comparison

Applied to gradable adjectives and adverbs:

Absolute Comparative Superlative

Adjs: Young

Beautiful

Younger

More beautiful

Youngest

Most beautiful

Advs Hard

Easily

Harder

More easily

Hardest

Most easily

III.2. Basis of comparison:

a. Between two entities:

E.g Adjs: John is Younger Than Bob (is)

75

More

Less

Stupid

Intelligent

John is

as

Young

stupid As Bob

(is)

John is

the

Younger Of the two boys

more Stupid

intelligent

Advs: John Works harder than bob (does

Behaves more politely than his wife

John Works as hard

Behave as politely

As Bob (does)

Of the two boy John behaves the more politely

b. Among three or more entities:

E.g

:

Adjs: John is

the

Younges

t

Of these (three)

boys

Most Stupid

intelligent

76

Advs: John Behaves the most

stupidly

Works the hardest

Of the boys of this

group

As we see above, the most common ways of doing this include.

- Correlative construction introduced by than (with more/est/er)

or by as (correlative to as)

- And prepositional phrases with of

III.3. Inflection of adverbs and adverbs of comparison

a. Adjectives: Positiv

e

Comparati

ve

Superlativ

e

(i) Adjectives with

inflectional

suffixes - ER + EST

You

Old

Younger

Older

Youngest

Oldest

+ With changes in spelling Big

Early

Brave

Bigger

Earlier

Braver

Biggest

Earliest

Bravest

+ With changes in

pronunciation

Simple

Poor

Simpler

Poorer

Simplest

Poorest

+ Formed from different

stems

Good

bad

Better

Worse

Best

Worst

(ii) Disyllabic adjectives:

+ with inflected forms: funny Funnier Funniest

+ With periphrastic forms More funny Most funny

(noisy, friendly, hollow,

shallow, gentle, feeble,

Feeble Feebler

More feeble

Feeblest

Most feeble

77

clever, mature, common,

handsome, quiet, etc)

(iii) Adjectives (polysyllabic

ones) with periphrastic forms

Relucta

nt

Tiring

More

reluctant

More tiring

Most

reluctant

Most tiring

b. Adjectives: Positiv

e

Comparati

ve

Superlativ

e

(i) With inflected forms (=-

er/-est)

Well Better Best

+ From different stems Badly

Little

Much

Far

Worse

Less

More

Further

Farther

Worst

Least

Most

Furthest

Farthest

+ Those identical in form

with

adjs: early, late, hard, slow,

fast, quick, long & soon

Early

Long

Soon

Earlier

Longer

Soonner

Earliest

Longest

Soonest

(ii) With periphrastic forms Beautiful

ly

More

beautifully

Most

beautifully

III.4. formulas of cases of comparison: degree of

comparison:

Degree of comparison Examples

a. Equal comparison As + Adj (positive) +

as

As = Adv (positive) +

As long as

As hard as

78

as

b. Superior/inferior

comparison:

Adj (comparative) +

than

Adv (comparative) +

than

Bigger than

More politely

than

c. Superlative

comparison

The + Adj (superlative)

The + of Adj

(superlative)

The youngest of

all

The most

beautifully of

them all

III.5. Unmarked term in "How" questions and measure

phrases:

a. common questions:

E.g: How efficient is he? How efficiently does he work?

How beautiful is she? How old is that man?

How long did they dance?

And exclamations:

e.g: How beautiful she is! How beautifully she danced!

b. Adjectives (and adverbs) with the unmarked/marked terms:

(Unmarked term in "how" question)

U M U M

(i) Measure adjectives: Deep

High

Long

Shallow

Low

Short

Old

Tall

Thick

Wide

Young

Short

Thin

Narrow

79

(ii). Other adjectives: Big

bright

Fat

Small

Dim

Thin

Heavy

Large

Strong

Light

Little

Weak

Unmarked

(iii) Adverbs: How much did they complain?

(often)

(quickly)

III.6. Modification of comparatives and superlatives (of

adjs & advs):

a. Comparatives pre-modified:

By intensifiers or By downtoners

(that)

much

(so) (very)

(all) the

far

a good bit/a

lot

a good

deal/a

great

deal/lots

Better

Sooner

More careful

Less

carefully

Rather

Somewhat

A little

A (little) bit

Better

Sooner

More

careful

Less

careful

b. Inflectional superlative; modified by very or by far

E.g: The very best

She put on her very best dress

80

He is funniest by far

IV. correspondence between adjectives and adverbs

IV.1. Equivalent constructions:

E.g

:

He liked Mary

considerably

~ He liked Mary to a

considerable extant

He spoke to John

sharply

~ He spoke to John in a sharp

manner

Politically, it is a bad

decision

~ From the political point of via it

is a bad decision

IV.2. Other regular correspondences:

E.g a He loved her

deeply

~ His deep love for her

He writes legibly ~ His legible writing

b A beautiful dancer ~ A dance who is beautiful

~ A person who dances

beautifully

c A real idiot

The main reason

~

~

He's really an idiot

It's mainly the reason

V. Adjectives, adverbs and other word classes:

V.1. Adjective and adverbs with prefix a-:

a- adjectives a- adverbs

Ablaze, afloat, alert, alike,

alive, alone, aloof, ashamed,

Abroad, around, away

81

asleep, averse, awake, aware

Common uses:

E.g: The patient was asleep

The journalist seemed asleep

E.g: The patient was abroad

The journalist went abroad

V.2. Some other uses of adjectives and adverbs:

E.g

:

His loud and clear voice

They made very long

speeches

~

#

He spoke loud and clear

Such animals have long had

to defend themselves

Still water runs deep # They still can't make up

their minds

V.3. Adjectives and nouns:

A Adj.-s N-s

E.g

:

The attack seemed

criminal to us

E.g The criminals pleaded guilty

to all charges

Those black boys are

very active

There was only one black in

my class

We admired his noble

ideas

The king greeted his nobles

b. Nouns used as pre-modifiers:

E.g: August weather; the city council; a love poem

V.4. Adjectives and participles:

82

a. V-

ing

His views were very

surprising

~ His surprising views

b. V-

ed2

The man seemed very

offended

The offended man

Exercises; 67, 68, 70, 72, 74, 77, 78

(Chapter 5, pp, 40-45)

83

chapter Vi

preposition and prepositional phrase

(UGE, chapter 6, pp, 143 - 165)

I. Definition - classification

I.1. What is a preposition?

Prepositions are words belonging to closed-system parts of

speech which are used to express relationships between two

entities, one being prepositional complement.

E.g: He went to London in November

Prep+Cprep prep+Cprep (place & time relationships)

(place) (time)

In accordance with these rules you should be present before 10

a.m

Prep + Cprep prep + Cprep

(manner)

I.2. Classification of prepositions:

a. According to their composition, prepositions fall under two

groups:

(i) Simple prepositions: those that consist of one word. They are

very small in number (as compared to open class parts of

speech); as, by, at, on, in, to, of, of, for, since, with, between,

like, against, under, up, down. We may also include here some

derived prepositions: during, concerning...

(ii). Compound prepositions: These include two subgroups:

84

+ prepositions with two components linked closely: into, onto,

behind, below, beneath, underneath, until, within, without,

upon.

+ Prepositions with separate components:

- Adv + prep: out of, away from, according to, thanks to, up to.

- Prep: + N + Prep: in font of, on top of, at the back of, in spite

of, account of, in accordance with, with the exception of, etc..

b. According to the meanings of the prepositional phrases (or

meaning preposition for short), we have:

Prepositions of place: at, on, in, up, down, off, ect

Time: at, on, in, for, since, during, pending...

Reason: out of, because of, due to, on account of

Manner: like, as, in accordance with..

Concession: in spite of, despite, in defiance of

II. prepositional meanings

II.1. Place: Prepositions of place may be further classified into:

a. Prepositions denoting position:

Point: E.g: at the post office, at the grocer's

At the doctor's, off the road

Surface/line: E.g: on the wall, on a straight line

On the way (to)...

Volume: E.g: in the car, in that house

b. Prepositions denoting destination and direction:

E.g: to the post office, to London, to the market

Onto the floor, off the road

85

Into the room, out of the car

c. Prepositions denoting passage:

Eg: Across the street, down the road, up the stream.

See the figure (VI.10 below:

Positive Negative

Point Direction

To

x

Position

At

x

Direction

From

x

Position

away

From

x

Line/

surface

On (to)

On

Off

Off

Area/

volume

In to In Out of Out of

Fig. VI.1: Place prepositions (Direction and position)

d. Relative position:

(i). Vertically relative: above, over, on top of, under,

underneath, ...

(ii). Horizontally relative: before, in front of, behind, after...

86

A: above

B: below

D:behind

C:In front of

x

Fig. VI.2. Relative position

II.2. Time:

a. Point At Christmas , at noon, at night, at dawn, at dusk

At 12.00 sharp, at 4.30 a.m

(when) On Tuesday(s), on holidays, on Sunday morning

In simmer, in 1920, in June, i the XIX century

b. duration For 20 years, since 1979, for another six weeks

Up to that time, during the last war

c.

Relationship

After the war, before 1986

Between five and six o'clock, from three to five

By the end of October, until last year

II.3. Manner, cause, purpose and others:

a. Manner

(means)

Lie a brother to me, as a child/boy...

By doing so, without saying anything

With a knife in his hand

b. Cause: Because of ill health, on account of your

absence

Due to your carelessness...

c. Instrument: With that knife

d. Purpose: For freedom, for a better life

e. Opposition: Against their rule

III. Prepositional phrases:

87

III.1. Structure of prepositional phrases:

Preposition

+

Prepositional complement

E.g: For

Against

During

According to

Freedom

Exploitation and injustice

The resistance war

These rules

III.2. Prepositional complement may be realised by:

a.Noun

phrase:

Basic:

Comple

x:

In accordance with the regulations

With his greatest efforts

In his deepest gratitude of his teacher's

help

b. V-ing participle clause:

by doing so

without being accepted

at his coming late

c. Wh-interrogative clause:

on what the Government will decide

in why you want to do that

d. Yes-no interrogative clause:

(aware) of whether our salaries have been increased

(dependent) on whether he would win the match or

not

e. Nominal relative clause:

(interested) in whatever he was saying at the time.

88

IV. syntactic functions of prepositional phrases:

IV.1. Adverbials:

a. Adjunct:

(i) Obligatory Adjunct:

E.g: - Place: They were in the car then

- Time: The meeting will be on Monday

- Manner: The problem is of great importance.

(ii) Optional Adjunct:

E.g: - Place: In the car they fought fiercely

- Time: In 1945, two million people died of hunger

- Manner: They went into the room without saying any

word

- Purpose:We fought heroically for our own liberation

- Cause: He couldn't come on account of getting suddenly

ill

b. Disjunct:

E.g: - To my surprise, the doctor phoned

- In general, this is difficult matter

c. Conjunct:

E.g: On the other hand, they made no attempt to help the

victors

In addition, he failed to keep his promise

IV.2. Other functions:

d. Post modifier in a noun phrase:

E.g: The people on the bus were singing

89

This is a problem of great significance

e. Comlementation of a verb (also call)

E.g: We depend on you (c.f. we depend on you)

We're looking for the little boy

f. complementation of an adjective

E.g: I am sorry for his parents

He wasn't conscious of his own strength

They weren't interested in what he was saving

Exercise: 79, 80, 85, 86, 89, 91, 94, 95, 96

(Chapter 6, pp 46-54)

90

Chapter VII

The simple sentence

(UGE, chapter 7, p, 166-206)

I. Sentence - it's elements and types

I.1. Working definition of sentence:

A sentence is the combination of words or phrases (often

noun phrase and other type and possibly other phrase(s) on the

basis of:

- Concords between Subject (often a NP) and verb (often a

verb phrase) and other type) nouns or pronouns use as S, O, C,

etc)

- Order of words in the phrase and sentence structure; and

this serves to express a complete idea for the purpose of

communication.

E.g: He's my brother

He knows your intention

He wants to help (to) complete your thesis (3

sentences)

I.2. Five sentence elements: S, V, O, C and A

Sentence may be, compound or complex

1. All the three kinds of sentence can be analysed in terms of S,

V, O, C and A

a. Simple sentence; E.g: He' s a teacher of English

S V C

We bought this car two years ago

91

S V O A (optional)

They hung the picture on the wall

S V O A

b. Compound sentence: E.g: They said this and went away

S V O V A

1st indep cl 2nd indep.cl

She's a teacher but she's very rich

S V C S V C

1st indep cl 2nd indep.cl

c. Complex sentences: E.g: When we came they were

watching TV

A S V

A = clause S V

O

Main/superordinate clause

We know that you're honest

S V C

S V O = clause

Superordinate clause

I.3. Basic sentence (or clause) types:

- These are the possible arrangements of sentence elements in

the language

In English there are seven sentence types

a. S + V intransitive:

E.g: The bird sang. She's come

92

S V S V

They were dancing. They talked and talked

S V S V V

b. S + Vintensive + C:

E.g: He's my student. They look tired

S V C S V C

They'll become teachers of English

S V C

c. S + V intensive + A

E.g: They were here, too. She got off the bus

S V A (A) S V A

c. S + V monotrans + O:

E.g: My sister bought this car last year

S V O (A)

They gave up drug addiction

S V O

We depended much on your help

S V (A) O

e. S + Vditrans + O + O

E.g: They gave him this book

S V O O

We informed them of the news

S V O O

They took great care of the children

S V O O

93

f. S + Vcomplextrans + O + C

E.g: We elected him president of the company

S V O C

They left the house empty

S V O C

g. S + Vcomplextrans + O + A

E.g: She led them upstairs

S V O A

We hung these pictures on the wall

S V O A

I.4. Decisive factor on sentence types determination: the

Verb

Five different groups of verbs and seven sentences types

(for more, see chapter IV)

94

Verb

Transitive(1)

TransitiveIntensive(12)

Simple

Monotransitive

Ditransitive(4)

Complex transitive

(5)

PhrasalGo out

Currentbe

Resuiting

become

Simple

buy

Phrasal

Give up

PrepDepend

on

Simple

give

PrepInfrom of

PerceptSee, hear

CausatMake, put

II. Syntactic features and semantic roles (of S, O, C and A)

II.1. Syntactic features of S, O, C and A:

Elem

entsExpression Position

Identificatio

n

S NP Basic

Complex

+ initial

completely before

+ Medial - (after

Operator)

- in questions

- in case of subject

operator in version

- in emphatic

sentence (with

stressed O, C or A)

+ Final: with

introductory "it"

+ S

determin

S-Vcone

Ssingular+V

(V-****)

- Splur + V

(V

(simple sentence)

NCl Non-finite

(to V-

Ving)

finite

That

clause

Wh-clause

If/what cl

(complex

sentence)

Example for illustration:

My brother is a teacher of English. They are

teachers

S = basic NP (Vsing) Splur Vplur

Where does your poor old mother live?

Operator S = complex NP (V-ing)

It is may task to help him. It is said that he's still single

95

S = to infinitive clause S = that clause

Only by so doing can we help him successfully

Operator S

Here comes the winner

V-ing S = basic NP

O

(bot

h Od

and

Oi)

NP Basic

Complex

+ after V transitive

(monotrasitive,

ditrans and complex

transitive)

+ After another O (in

case of Oi + Od)

+ Initial with wh-

question on O

- I emphatic

sentences

O easily

assumes

The status of

S in the

passive

sentence

(simple sentence)

NCl Non-finite

(to V-

Ving)

finite

That w-,

If/whether

cl

(complex

sentence)

E.g: We know this man ----> This man we know

Vmonotran O = basic NP O

96

She asked her brother some interesting

questions

Oi = basic NP Od = complex NP

We want to ask him a lot of questions

Od \= to infinitive clause

We all know that he's telling the truth

Od - that clause

We can't make out what he's dealing with

Od = wh-interrogative clause

C

(bot

h Cs

and

Co)

NP

Adj.P

Basic

Complex

Adj

Adj + Prep.P

+ after

intensitive

verb (sentence

type S V Cs)

+ after Od

(sentence type S

V O Co)

+ initial position

-C is in co-

referential

relation with S

(denoting the

entity)

- Not involve

passive

transformatio

n

(simple sentence)

NCl Non-finite

Finite (that,

wh-cl)

97

+in wh-question

on C

-in emphatic

sentence

Adj + non-

finite

Adj + finite.

(complex sentence)

E.g; He is my brother Our task was to help him

Cs = basic NP Cs = to V

They were expert at grammar

Cs = adjectival phrase

Our plan was becoming a teacher

Cs = V-ing clause

We found him innocent of all charges

Co = adjectival phrase

I'm sure that they will succeed

Adjectival phrase (Adj + that c.)

Adv.

Prep.P

(simple sentences)

- mobile in

sentence

structure

- A is ****

optional in ***

structure

98

A - initial

- medial

- final

- A is

obligatory

sentence *****

and S V O

Clause

Finite

Non-

finite

Verbless

(complex sentences)

E.g: He went there yesterday She's now

upstairs

Aplace A time = adv A A

They were in the car then Where did

you go?

A = Prep.P A

He's nowhere to be seen You can hang it

where you like

A = adv. Clause (non-finite) A =

finite clause

When in Rome do as Rome does

A = verbless clause A = finite clause

II.2. Semantic roles of S, O and C:

S, O and C often play the following semantic roles in the

sentences (of which the one(s) listed first being the most

common:

a.S

E.g: - agentive

- instrumental

- affected

She opened the door

This key can open the door

The door opened

99

- recipient

- locative

- temporal

- eventive

- empty IT

(with Vintrans)

She has a new skirt

This room accommodates 20 people

Tomorrow will be fine

The meeting ended success fully

It's (very) wonderful to meet you

b. Object

E.g: Od - affected:

- effected:

- locative:

We opened the door

He did the exercises

They entered the room

Oi - recipient:

- affected:

We bought him a new house

We paid him a visit

c. Complement: attribute

E.g: Cs - current atr:

- resulting attr:

She looks cheerful today

They became teachers

- current attr:

- resulting attr:

We found the room empty

She left the house empty

* A: locative/temporal/conditional/concessive, etc (types)

III. concord between sentence elements

Concord is the agreement between sentence elements

III.1. Different types:

+ S - V concord: He/she agrees I/we agree

It doesn't agree They don't agree

+ Pronominal concord: She looked at herself in the mirror.

100

They're teachers of English

III.2. S - V concord: The most important type

a. Grammatical concord (formal): most obviously distinctive

with third person

S singular = V singular (V-s/was)

E.g: The boy (he) likes football

S plural + V plural (V/were)

E.g: The boys (they): like football

Were there yesterday

b. Notional concord (-meaning)

(i) S = nominal relative clause +Vsingular

V plur

E.g: What he says isn't true

(= The thing he says...)

What they like best are tea and coffee

(= The things they like best...)

(ii) S = collective

+ Vplural (~ members of collectively)

E.g: The government are having a rest

+ V singular (~ whole collectively)

E.g: The government has approved of his plan

(iii). S = co-ordinated NPs + Vplur (non-positional)

+ V-ing (appositional)

E.g: His brother and his secretary were there with him

(two different entities)

101

His brother and (at the same time) his secretary was there with

him.

(same entity)

(iv) S = none + ing (non-count N)

+ Vplur (plural count N)

c. concord by proximity: (S - word that stands immediately next

to V determines S - V concord

(i) In set phrases

E.g: One in ten take drugs

None of them agree to go

(ii) In existential sentence with there:

E.g: there are two chairs and a desk there

There is a desk and two chairs there

(iii) With either...or...

E.g: Either your brakes or your eyesight was at fault

Either your eyesight or your brakes were at fault

III.3. Pronominal concord:

a. S - O (with reflexive & emphasising pronoun)

E.g: She saw herself in the mirror

We can do it ourselves

b. S - C:

E.g: He is a teacher of English

They're teachers

c. O - C:

E.g: We elected him our chairman (sing)

102

Them our representatives (plur)

IV. Sentence process: negation

E.g: We all like football

We all don't like football

Do you like football?

Don't you like it? Why don't you like it?

Someone go there with him

Don't anyone go there with him?

IV. 2. Assertives and non-assertives:

a. List of items:

Assertives Non-assertives

+ Indefinite

(Determiners)

Some + N

Some + N-s

Any + N

Any + N-s

Anybody

Anything

Anywhere

Either

Yet

In any way

At all

+ Pronouns Some one

Something

+ Adverbs: Somewhere

Too

Already

+ Prep.P: In some way

To some

extent

b. Uses:

103

+ in affirmative sentence

E.g: I met someone on they

way here

+ in negative sentence

E.g: I didn't give the book to

some students.

(scope of negation: narrowed)

+ in questions

Eg: Did someone call last

night?

(positive orientation)

+ in negative + interrogative

sentences

E.g: We didn't see anything

+ two (more) non-assertives

used in the same sentence:

E.g: I haven't seen anyone yet

+ for negative intensification

E.g: I didn't go out at all

I met no one at all

IV.3. Scope and focus of negation:

a. Scope of negation = stretch of language within which the

negative meaning operates normally extending from negative

word to the clause and.

E.g: I don't know him

Scope of negation

She didn't definitely know the answer

A

Scope of negation

* An Adverbial may be inside or out side the scope of negation

E.g: She definitely didn't know him

A

Scope of negation

104

b. Focus of negation:

- Emphatic stress on certain on word of the sentence, covering

different shades of meaning

E.g: My sister didn't like the show

Emphatic stress may be on 'show, 'like, 'sister, 'my

Scope includes the focus

We didn't give the book to some of the student

* Extended scope to include subordinate clause (rise + fall)

I didn't leave home because I s afraid of my father

V. 4. Negation of modal verbs (scope & focus of negation):

AUXILIARY NEGATION MAIN VERB NEGATION

Ability

Can't + V permission

Possibility

E.g: The road can't be blocked

now

(= It's not possible that...)

* May not = V: permission

e.g: You may not/can't use my

car

* mustn't + V \ = negation

E.g: You mustn't smoke in

here

(= you're obliged not to smoke

in here)

* Won't + V = futurity,

prediction, etc

E.g: Oil won't floats on petrol

* May not + V = possibility

E.g: The road may not be

105

* needn't + V; necessity

E.g: She needn't attend the

lecture

* (don't/doesn't have to + V)

E.g: You don't have to go there

now

blocked now

( It's possible that the road isn't

blocked)

* Shouldn't + V = advisability

E.g: You shouldn't do that

again

(=you're advised not to do that

again)

* Oughtn't to + V

She oughtn't to go there again

V. Different kinds of sentences (a communicative classification):

In accordance with the purpose of the utterances, sentences in

general (either simple or complex) can be classified in to:

Statement (or declarative sentences): E.g: I'm ill

Question (or interrogative sentences): Who are

you?

Commands (or imperative sentences): Keep silent!

Exclamations (or exclamatory sentences): What a

mess!

V.1. Statements:

These are sentences in which the subject is always present and

generally precedes the verb.

Positive: E.g: John will speak to the boss today

He thinks that he can win the match

Negative: E.g: We won't be able to go out on that day

106

They didn't think they were winning the battle

V.2. Questions:

- These often involve subject-operator inversion together with

rising intonation, or placement of wh-element in the initial

position (cf. Concrete questions later)

- Questions fall under three major classes: yes/no, wh-and

alternative.

a. Yes-no questions (interrogation on the whole sentence):

These are the questions which require the answer of "yes" or

"no" and can be subdivided into.

(i). General yes-no questions: Formed by pacing operator before

subject (plus a rising intonation more often).

Eg: Has the boat left? Can we stop it now? Are you signalling?

* Yes-no questions with positive orientation:

E.g: Did someone call last night? Has the boat left already?

* Yes-no questions with negative orientation:

E.g: Can't you give us any hope of success? Does no one

believe me?

(ii). Tag questions: These consist of two components - the first

being a statement and the second - a tag, often of an opposite

verb from to the statement (positive >< negative or vice

versa). Semantically, they are composed of assumption and

expectation which are largely dependent on the tone used by

the speaker.

Rising tone Assumption: positive/negative + expectation:

neutral

107

E.g: He can do these, cant he? Yes, he can. No, he can't

The boat hasn't arrived, has it? Yes, it ha/ No, it hasn't

Falling tone: Positive assumption + Positive expectation

E.g: You know him, don't you?

Yes, I do

Negative assumption + Negative expectation

E.g: They haven't finished it, have they?

No, they haven't

(iii). Declarative questions:

This exceptional type of yes no question is identical in form to a

statement, except of the final rising tone:

E.g: You've got the losive? He didn't finish the race?

You realise what the risks are? (complex sent)

(iv). Exclamatory questions:

The exclammatory question is a question in form, but is

functionally ke an exclamation. These are marked by falling

instead of rising tone. E.g:

- Negative yes-no questions: Hasn't grown!

(most typical) Wasn't a marvelous concert!

- Positive yes - no questions: Am I hungry!

Did he look annoyed!

b. Wh -questions (interrogation on part of the sentence):

These are questions on elements of the sentence which fall

under two subgroups, with wh-word or Q - word placed initially:

108

(i) Wh-questions with wh-word pronouns: who, whom, which,

what, and whose. These are questions on S, Od, Oi, Cs, and on

modifier of NP.

E.g: Who went there with her? (wh-word = S)

Who(m) did he talk with/ (wh-word = Cprep)

Which books have you lent him (wh-word=Premodifier)

Whose beautiful antiques are these? (wh-whose=Determiner &

Q-element=Cs)

Who did you lend the book to? (wh-word= Oi)

(ii). Wh-questions with wh-word adverbs: when, where, how,

why and how-adj/adv. These are questions of Adverbial, or

sometimes on Cs CO (with how + adj).

E.g: When will you come back? (Q-word = Atime)

Where shall I put these glasses? (Q-word = A

place)

Why are they always complaining? (Q-word = A

reason)

How did you mend it? (Q-word = A manner)

How long has she been waiting? (Q-words = A

time dur)

How often did he visit London? (Q-words = A

frequency)

How much does he care? (Q-words = Cs)

How wide did they make the book-case? (Q-words = Co)

109

* These questions are often uttered with falling tone. But when

the speaker shows interest of great care in what he/she is

asking, the rising tone can be used.

c. Alternative questions:

These are questions that make use of co-ordinator "or" and can

be divide into three subclasses.

(i) Common alternative questions, often with rising tone before

"or' and falling tone at the end, which require selection of one

of the two given alternative on the questioned

E.g: A: Did you come by train or by bus?

B: We came by bus?

A: Can we go there by bicycle or (can we) walk there?

B: Oh, you can walk there. It isn't quite far away

(ii). Alternative plus yes-no questions, often with the final rising

tone, which require either choice of the given options (often

with initial yes) or supplement of proper element (when saying

initially No).

E.g: did you come by train or by bus?

Yes, I came by train? No, I came by motorbike

(iii). Alternative plus wh-question, often with wh-word at the

beginning and or for the suggested options, and falling tune,

e.g.

E.g: A: How did you come/ By bus or by train?

B: Oh I came by bus (but it really took a long time)

A: Where did you go; to Leeds or to Birmingham?

B: I went to Birmingham

110

V.3. Commands:

Commands are sentences that make use of the imperative

mood in the main, or sometimes of questions with the initial

modal - particularly with invitations or requests.

There are three kinds of commands.

a. Commands without a subject

These have imperative finite verbs as the main element.

(+) Positive: E.g: Jump.(V) be reasonable (VC)

Do come in and sit down (emphatic command)

Put it on the table (V O A)

Please eat up your dinner (V O)

(please = marker of politeness)

(+) Negative: E.g: Don't make such a noise!

Don't be impatient!

b. Commands with a subject (which can be subdivide into two

subgroups)

(i) "you" as S

+ With adomonitouriness in tone (+ strong irritation)

E.g: You there be quiet!

You mind your own business, and leave this to me!

+ To single out two or more distinct addressees;

E.g: You come here, Jack, and you go over there, Mary.

+ As requests or invitations: (verb phrase is not an imperative)

E.g: Will you come in and sit down?

(ii). With indefinite pronoun S:

111

+ Positive: E.g: Somebody open this door!

Everybody shut their eyes!

+ Negative: E.g: Don't anyone say anything!

c. Commands with LET:

First person imperatives can be formed by proposing the verb

followed by a subject in the objective case.

(i) Positive: E.g: Let us all work harder!

Let's go out!

Let me have a look

Let each man decide for himself

If anyone disagrees let him speak louder

(ii). Negative: E.g: Let's not open the door

Don't let's open the door (informal BrE)

Don't let him lose heart.

V.4. Exclamations:

Attention here is restricted to exclamatory utterances

introduced by what or how.

a. Full exclamations:

What + NP + ... E.g: What an enormous crowd came! (SV)

What a time we've had today! (Od S V A)

How + Adj/Adv: Eg: How delightful her manners are (cs S V)

How fast he drove his car (A S VO)

b. Short exclamations (exclamations with ellipted S + V)

What + NP: E.g: What a book! What a mess!

How + Adj. E.g: How beautiful How difficult!

112

Adj.only E.g: Wonderful! Fantastic!

V.5. Minor types: Formulae

a. Certain question can be used in special cases:

(i) As a greeting: E.g: How do you do?

Or a consolation E.g: Why get so upset? Why not enjoy

yours elf?

(~ Take it easy) (~ Be more

cheerful)

b. A number of exclamatory types:

E.g: if only I'd listened to my parents!

To think I was once a millionaire! Now for some fun!

c. Sentences with formulaic. Subjunctives:

E.g: Far be it from me to contradict you!

God save the Queen!

Long live our friendship

VI. Block language

This special use of language appears in such functions as labels,

titles, headings, notices and advertisement.

1. Simple block language messages:

a. Noun or noun phrases:

E.g: Entrance Exit English department

Purlemon juice A grammar of contemporary English

b. Adjective phrases; or equivalent:

E.g: Where to go in London

How to win friends and influence people!

113

2. In newspaper headlines, abbreviated clause structures can

be used.

E.g: film - star Marries Ex-Priest (S V Od)

Election: A. Landslide of socialists (S Cs)

Clinton to Meet Asian Premiers than Ever (S V Od)

Share Prices Now Higher than Ever (S A Cs)

Exercies; 98, 100, 101, 102, 103, 105, 106, 107

109, 110, 112, 113, 116, 117, 120

(chapter 7, pp, 56-66)

114

chapter VIII

adjuncts, disjuncts and conjuncts

(UGE, chapter 8, pp, 207-250)

I. Generalities

Adverbials - either Adjuncts, Disjuncts or Conjuncts - share the

following characteristic feature:

a. Expression (or realisation):

(i) By an adverb; E.g: He went there yesterday (adjuncts)

Frankly, I don't like his manner (disjunct)

(ii) By a prepositional phrase:

E.g: Peter was playing with great skill (adjunct)

Like his brother, he's an author (disjunct)

(iii). By a noun phrase (less common):

E.g: He went to London last week (adjunct)

They praised Tom many times (adjunct)

By a noun phrase (less common):

E.g.: He went to London last week . (adjunct)

They praised Tom many times (adjunct)

(iv). by a non-finite verb clause:

E.g: to tell the truth, he failed the driving test (disjunct)

Making a lot of noise they praised tom (adjunct)

Caught red handed they couldn't deny their mistake (adjunct)

(v) By a finite verb clause:

e.g: Peter was playing although he was very tired (adjunct)

What's more important he won the decisive match (conjuncts)

115

(vi). by a verbless clause:

E.g: When in London he sent me a lot of letters (adjunct)

Grateful for his help they praised Tom (adjunct)

b. Position: Most adverbials are mobile: they can be placed

initially, medially or or initially:

E.g: Like his brother he's an author.

(-> He is like his brother, an author -> He's an author, like his

brother)

c. Identity: They are in most cases, optional in clause structure,

except the cases where A stands after an intensive verb (clause

type SVA) or after O (clause type SVOA).

I.2. Distinctive features of the three subgroups:

Adjunctis, disjunctis or conjuncts:

Adverbials

Adjuncts (most common) Disjuncts conjuncts

non-connective

connective

Status: Integrated in clause

structure

Peripheral in clause structure

Criteria:

(i) cannot appear initially in a

negative declarative clause

(ii) can be contrasted with

another

adverbial in an alternative

interrogation (as focus of

(i) They can appear initially

before a negative clause in

most cases.

E.g: Probably, he'll be there

tomorrow

(disjunct) won't

116

clause interrogation)

e.g: does he write to them

because he wants to or

because he needs money?

(iii) Can be contrasted with

another adverbial in

alternative negation (as focus

of clause negation):

E.g: We didn't go there on

Monday. But on Tuesday.

There fore, he couldn't come

on time (conjunct)

(ii) They cannot be contrasted

with another adverbial in

alternative interrogation.

(iii). they can not be focus of

clause negation.

* Distinctive criterion of Disjuncts + Conjuncts

(iv) disjuncts can serve as

response to a yes - no

question.

E.g: A: Will he be there?

B: Yes, probably

or No, obviously

Conjuncts cannot serve as

response to a yes - no

question

E.g: He'll therefore be there

tomorrow

II. Adjuncts:

II.1. Syntactic features of Adjuncts:

a. Adjuncts can come within the scope the of clause

interrogation and can be the focus of the question (of I.2.b (ii)

above)

b. They can come within the scope of clause negation and can

be the focus of the negation (of I.2 (iii) above)

c. They can come within the scope of predication pro-forms or

predication ellipsis.

117

E.g: John greatly admires Bob, and so does Mary

Peter will pay back the loan when he has money but George

won't.

d. They can be the focus additive adverbials (also) or, of a cleft

sentence.

E.g: They will also meet if they have time

It was when we were in Paris that we first saw John.

f. Besides, Adverbs as Adjuncts can have these additional

features:

(i). Can be focus of clause comparison:

E.g: John writes as frequently as his brother does

John writes more frequently than his brother does

(ii) Can be premodified by "forever" or "how"

E.g: However strongly you feel about it, you should be careful

what you say

How cautiously he drives!

(iii) Can be premodified by "so"

E.g: so monotonously did he speak that every left.

I.2. Sub classification of Adjuncts:

a. Place Adjuncts:

- Most place adjuncts are prepositional phrases or clauses:

E.g: He jumped over the fence and ran across the road

Stay where you are. He's nowhere to be seen

- Adverbs that are place adjuncts make up a rather long list

aboard, about, abroad, across, ahead, alongside, anywhere,

118

ashore, away, back, behind, below, down, downhill, downstairs,

east, eastwards, elsewhere, far, here, hereabouts, home, in,

indoors, inside, locally, near, north (ward), nowhere, off, on,

opposite, out, outdoors, outside, overhead, overseas,

somewhere, thorough (out), under, underfoot, underneath, up,

upstream, west, within.

They may be used for both position and direction (like other

place adjuncts);

E.g: He was upstairsHe went up stairs

- A few Np can be used as place adjuncts (position or direction)

E.g: He lives along way from here. He threw it (about) ten yards

- Position and direction adjuncts can be used together in the

same clause:

E.g: The children are running around upstairs

He was thrown overboard near the shore.

b. time Adjuncts:

- Time adjuncts are often clause (finite and non-finite) or

prepositional phrases: E.g: We'll go there when we have time.

having finished work they went home.

She'll go there in December.

- Adverbs as time adjuncts are a relatively closed, though, fairly

large class. They can be divided into 4 semantic classes:

(i) When; today, tomorrow, afterwards, again, eventually,

formerly

(ii) Duration: (not) very long, permanently, briefly, (ever) since,

lately

119

(iii). Frequently; frequently, rarely, monthly, annually, usually,

ever, once

(iv). Relationship: already, afterwards, before, subsequently,

then, yet...

E.g: They went to see him again yesterday at 8 o'clock (time

when)

His studies haven't been improving lately (duration)

His studies haven't been improving since (duration)

They often watch T.V. at night but seldom do so during the day

They often watch T.V. at night but frequently) do so during the

day

- A few already left by the time they arrived (relationship)

E.g: next Sunday, I'll go there (time when)

I shall be in my office every other day (time frequency)

c. Process Adjuncts:

Process adjuncts can be divided into 3 semantic sub classes:

(i) Manner adjuncts:

E.g: They sprayed tear gas indiscriminately on the protesters

She replied to questions with great courtesy

He spoke in a way that reminded me of his father

You should write as I tell you

(ii) Mean adjuncts:

E.g; He decided to treat the patient surgically

We often go to school by bus

(iii) Instrument adjuncts:

120

E.g: He examined the specimen microscopically

He can cut the bread with that knife

d. Focusing Adjuncts; Two sub classes

(i) Limited adjuncts (what is being communicated is limited to

the part that is focused). These include: lone, just, merely, only,

simply, chiefly, especially, in particular.

E.g: John only phoned Mary today

You can get a B grade just/simply for that answer

(ii) Additive adjuncts (the focused part is an addition): also,

either, even, neither, nor, too, as well, in addition.

e.g: We too/as well will do what we can for you

they won't help him, but they won't harm him either

e. Intensifiers: There are three subclasses:

(i) Emphasizers; actually, certainly, definitely, indeed, really,

literally, frankly, honestly, for sure, of course.

E.g: I honestly don't know what he wants

They literally tore his arguments to pieces

They didn't know what to do, of course.

(ii). Amplifiers: absolutely, completely, entirely, quite,

thoroughly, in all respects, by far, to some extent.

E.g: We absolutely refuse to listen to your grumbling.

I entirely agree with you

(iii). downtoners: kind of, sort of, quite, rather, partly,

somewhat.

121

E.g: The incident somewhat influenced his actions in later life

We didn't it in the least/at all

+ Oher adjuncts: purpose, cause/reason, etc

(i). Purpose; E.g: We fought heroically for our own liberation

(ii). Reason/cause: E.g: He was absent because he was ill

The figure below shows different classes of adjuncts

Adjuncts

Place (1) Time (2) Process(3

)

Focusing(

4)

Intensifier

(5)

Others (6)

Position

Destinatio

n

Point

Duration

Frequenc

y

Relations

hip

Manner

Means

Instrumen

t

Limited

Additive

Emphasise

amplifier

Downtoner

Purpose

Reason

etc.

III. Disjuncts:

There are two main classes: style and attitudinal disjuncts

III.1. Style disjuncts:

When using style disjuncts, the speaker/writer implies his own

comment on the speaking/writing style: seriously, personally.

E.g: Seriously, do you intend to resign?

Strictly speaking, nobody is allowed in here

If I may say so, the dress doesn't suit you

III.2. Attitudinal disjuncts:

These convey the speaker/writer's comment on the content of

what he is saying

122

E.g: Obviously, nobody expected us to be here today.

They arrived, to our surprise, before we did.

To be sure, we have heard many such promises before

Even more important, he has control over the party's finances

IV. conjuncts:

Most conjuncts are adverb phrases or prepositional phrases.

The most commonly used conjuncts are:

1. Enumerative: first (ly), second(ly) for one thing, for a start, to

begin with, to start with, in the second place

2. Reinforcing: also, furthermore, moreover, in addition, what is

more

3. Equate: equally, like wise, in the same way

4. Transitional: incidentally, by the way

5. Apposition (al); namely, in other words, for example

6. Result (active); consequently, hence, therefore, as a result

E.g: I'd like you to do two things form. First, phone the office

and tell him from me that I'm going to tell him that myself.

Secondly, post this letter.

What's your name? Are you married, by the way?

Exercises: 121, 122, 124, 126, 128, 137, 139, 143, 144, 146.

123

Chapter IX

co-ordination and apposition

(UGE, chapter 9, pp, 251-283)

I. CO-ORDINATION

I.1. What is co-ordination?

Co-ordination is the combination of two or more equal units,

namely, phrases or clauses.

E.g: My friend and I went there together.

We went there and returned immediately

I told him this, but he didn't believe me.

I.2. Syndetic and asyndetic co-ordination:

a. Syndetic co-ordination - with presence of co-ordinators:

E.g: Slowly and stealthily, he crept towards his victim.

I.3. co-ordinators and correlatives.

a. Co-ordinators and their meanings:

(i) Syntactic features of co-ordinators

- Restricted to initial position in the clause or phrase.

E.g: John plays the guitar, and his sister plays the piano

- Fixed position of clauses beginning with co-ordinator.

E.g: They are living in England or they are spending a vacation

there.

- Impossibly preceded by other conjunction.

- Allowing ellipsis of S of the clause it introduces (to avoid

repetition):

124

E.g: I may see you tomorrow or (I) may phone later in the day

"And" and "or" can link subordinate clauses.

E.g: I asked him who he was and why he had come.

I wonder whether you should speak to him personally or

whether it is better to write to him.

(ii). Semantic implication of "AND"

- Addition of consequence or result:

E.g: He heard an explosion and (he therefore) phoned the

police.

- Addition of choronological sequence:

E.g: She washed the dished and (then she) dried them.

- Contrast:

E.g; Robert is secretive and (in contrast) David is candid

- Second clause being a comment on the first:

E.g: They disliked John - and that's not surprising.

- First clause being a condition of the second:

E.g: Give me some money and (then) I'll help escape.

- Second clause making a point similar to the first:

E.g: A trade agreement should be no problem, and (similarly) a

cultural exchange could be arranged.

(iii). Semantic implication of "OR"

- Exclusive choice:

E.g: You can go there by car or you can walk there

- Inclusive choice:

125

E.g: You can boil an egg, or you can make some cheese

sandwiches, or you can do both.

- Restatement or correction of previously - mentioned idea.

E.g: he began his educational career, or, in other words, he

started to attend the local kindergarten.

- Negative condition.

E.g: Give me some money or I'll shoot.

Let go of me or I'll scream.

(iv). Semantic implication of "BUT

- Unexpected contrast:

e.g: John is poor, but he's happy.

He didn't want their help, but he had to accept it.

- Contrast being restatement (negative >< affirmative)

E.g: John didn't waste his time in the week before the exam, but

studied hard every evening.

b. correlatives:

(i) Common correlatives with anticipated addition (both ... and),

alternation (either...or) and additional negation (neither...nor):

E.g He both has long hair and wears jeans

either or

neither nor

I

can

both knit and sew

126

eith

er

or

She

smoked

both cigars and cigarettes

neither nor

Unlike "both", "either" and "neither" can be placed before the

lexical verb even when the scope does not include the whole of

the predication. E.g:

He either smoked

cigars

and cigarettes

neithe

r

nor

You

can

either write

elegantly

or

neithe

r

nor clearly

Other correlatives

- nor/neither - correlated with actual or implied negative in the

previous clause.

E.g : He did not want to ask them for help; (but) nor could he do

without their help.

We owe no money, (and) neither do they.

- not only ... but (also)

127

E.g: They not only broke into his office and stole his book, but

they (also) tore up his manuscripts.

(Not only did they break into... but they also tore up...)

I.4. Phrasal and clausal co-ordination:

a. Phrasal co-ordination (co-ordination of phrases of equal

status)

+ Co-ordinated noun phrases (in different syntactic functions)

E.g: Peter and John were there.

I write articles on current affairs for newspapers and magazines

We were 3 afraid of poisonous snakes and fierce animals

+ Other phrases (as modifier):

e.g: I like teaching a studious or hard - working undergraduate

(apposition co-ordination)

He has workers from Ireland and from France (Prep.P)

The attacks in June failed (Prep.P)

+ Co-ordinated adverbials (adv, and other units (non-finite/finite

clause)

E.g: They sang beautifully and passionately (adv + Adv)

She waited patiently but in vain (adv + prep.phrase)

You can wash it manually or by using a machine (adv + V-ing)

They can call this week or whenever they wish

(NP = Adverbial + Finite clause)

b. Clausal co-ordination (co-ordination of clause of equal status)

-Co-ordinated independent clauses

E.g: he has long hair and he wears jeans.

128

They disliked John, and that's not surprising

He began his educational career, or, in other words, he started

to attend this local kindergarten.

She didn't want their help, but he had to accept it

Davie neither loves Joan nor wants to marry her

You can either knit or sew

- Co-ordinated subordinate clauses:

E.g: If you can find the letter and (if) you are interested in it I'll

let you have it.

I'm prepared to meet them when (they like) and where they

like.

I want to know for whom it was ordered and by whom (it was

ordered)

She desired to know where he had gone but not why he had

gone.

Tell me both why he went away and how (he went away)

II. Ellipsis

II.1. Ellipsis in co-ordinated clauses:

a. Ellipsis of subject: Identical subjects of co-ordinated clauses

are ellipted:

E.g: Peter ate a cheese sandwich and (Peter/he) drank a glass

of beer. Sometimes, ellipsis of both S and auxiliary occurs:

E.g: Mary has washed the dishes, (she has) fried them, and (she

has) put them in the cupboard.

b. Ellipsis of auxiliary only: when subjects are different

129

E.g: John should clean the shed and Peter (should) move the

lawn.

John must have been playing football and Mary (must have

been) doing her homework.

c. Ellipsis of Predicate or Predication:

(i). Ellipsis of V or lexical verb only:

E.g: Yesterday John was given a railway set, and Sue (was

given) a doll.

I work in a factory and my wife (works) on a farm.

Nam will work today and (he) may (work) the day after

tomorrow.

(ii). Ellipsis of V + Cs (and possibly of S as well)

E.g: John was the winner in 1971 and Bob (was the winner) 10

years later.

The milk turned sour not only today but yesterday too

(iii) Ellipsis of V + Od (possibly only lexical verb + Od)

E.g: Peter plays football for his school and Paul (plays football)

for his club.

Joan will cook the meals today and Barbara may (cook the

meals) tomorrow.

(iv) Ellipsis of required form of lexical verb or predication:

E.g: We met last year, but we haven't (met) since.

I saw your parents last week, but I haven't (seen your parents)

since

John could have been (watching television), but (he) wasn't

watching television.

130

They can (pay the full fee) and (they) should pay the full fee,

but (they) won't (pay the full fee).

d. Ellipsis of Od or Cs only:

(i) Od; E.g: John likes (Mary), and Peter hates, Mary.

George opened (the door), but Mary closed, the door

(ii) Cs: E.g: Bob seemed angry, and George certainly was

(angry)

John has recently become (a very hard - working student)

and his brother always was, a very hard - working student)

e. Ellipsis of A:

E.g: to my surprise, they didn't appoint him, and they (to my

surprise) didn't even interview him.

Theoretically, I have no objections to his proposal and

(theoretically) neither have any of my colleagues.

In our school, students and teachers get on well together, but

(in our school) this harmony is comparatively temporary.

f. Ellipsis of head noun or of C prep:

E.g: We wanted fried fish, but they gave us boiled (fish)

She wore the black dress, but the blue (dress) suits her better.

bob is bored with (music), but Peter enjoys music

II.2. Semantic effect of ellipsis:

Sometimes, the effect of ellipsis is to indicate that there is a

combined process rather than two separate processes:

E.g; Did Peter tell lies, and did he hurt his friends?

131

Where Peter's telling lies and his hurting his friends are

regarded as two separate processes, hence two separate

questions.

III. APPOSITION

III.1. What is apposition?

Apposition resembles co-ordination in linking units having

grammatical affinity (referring to the same entity).

E.g: A neighbour, Freed Smith, is on the telephone.

Mr.Campbell, the lawyer, was here last night.

III.2. Indicators of apposition:

A number of expressions, which commonly mark the same or

similar relationship being grouped together, explicitly indicate

apposition. They can be inserted between appositives. These

include: that is today, that is, i.e, namely, viz., in other words,

or, or rather, and, as follows, for example, for instance, e.g, say,

including, such, as, particularly, chiefly, mainly, mostly:

E.g; the passenger plane of the 1980s, namely the supersonic

jet, have some what transformed relations between people of

the world.

The President of the USA, in other words Bill Clinton, was on

television last night.

I didn't meet any people, including my sister.

III.3. Restrictive and non-restrictive apposition:

a. Restrictive apposition:

Strict restrictive apposition of noun phrases can take three

forms, of which the first one is the most common.

132

(i) The first apposition is the more general expression preceded

by a definite determiner (and possibly pre-modifier)

E.g; That famous critic Paul Jones came here last night.

The novel Great Expectation was the best seller last week.

I haven't seen my good friend bob for a forthright.

(ii) The second appositive is preceded by a determiner and is

more general than the first.

E.g: Paul Jones the critic didn't attend the last seminar.

Bill Clinton the president of the U.S.A ended his working visit to

Japan.

(iii). This type is like (i) but with omission of the determiner.

E.g: Critic Paul ones was completely against the plan.

They talked with Democratic leader Robison for half an hour.

Restrictive apposition is common with such NPs as the fact, the

idea, the view, the question, etc...

E.g: I don't agree with the view that there is no advantage in

being patient

the questions whether to confess or not troubled him.

b. Non-restrictive apposition:

Apposition is typically exemplified by noun phrases in non-

restrictive apposition. Semantically, the appositives may be of.

(i) Equivalence: These may be appellation (namely, who/which

+ BE), designation (who/which + BE), identification (namely) or

reformulation (or)

- Appellation:

133

E.g: the company commander, (who was) captain Madison,

assembled his men and announced their mission.

He told them the good news: taxes are to be reduced

+ Designation:

E.g: Captain Madison, (that is to say) the company commander,

took the lead (2nd appositive being less specific than the first).

+ Identification: E.g: A literary critic, Mr. Paul Jones wrote this

article,

(2nd appositive being more specific)

We - (that is to say) John and I - intend to resign.

+ Reformulation: E.g: He drew a pentagonal, or five-sided,

figure.

(2nd appositive being reworded)

We are studying sound units of the language, technically

phonemes.

(ii) Attribution: This involves predication rather than

equivalence.

The second appositive is commonly an indefinite NP

E.g; The house, an imposing building, dominated the street.

But it can be definite or non-articled

E.g: Many soldiers, the cream of the battalion, died in the

attack.

Robinson, leader of the Democratic group on the committee,

refused to answer questions.

(iii). Inclusion: In this type, the first appositive includes the

second (but not identical with it).

134

E.g: His excuses, say the break down of his car, never seemed

plausible.

The children liked the animals, particularly the monkeys.

The two men, one a Dane, were awarded medals.

III. 4. Realisation of apposition:

The first appositive is often a noun phrase while the second can

be a noun phrase, a non-finite or a finite clause.

E.g: His novel Great Expectations is truly thrilling (NPs)

The soldiers, some of them being natives, are friendly (V-ing Cl)

His hope, to become a doctor, was realised at last (to V Cl)

This strongly supports his argument that things are getting

worse than before (that clause)

He didn't answer my question, why he hadn't come to the

meeting (wh-interrogative clause).

His account of what he had done that year did not satisfy his

colleague.

Exercises: 148, 152, 153, 155, 156,. 158

(chapter 9, pp, 80-85)

135

CHAPTER X

SUBORDINATION: COMPLEX SENTENCES

(UGE, chapter 11, pp. 309 - 345)

I. CO-ORDINATION AND SUBORDINATION

I.1. General distinction:

Co-ordination and subordination are the two techniques of

combining simple sentences into compound and complex

sentences* respectively.

Given two (or more) simple sentences

Tom saw Mary (1). He ran away (2)

We may form compound sentences such as:

Tom saw Mary and he ran away (different in meanings)

Tom ran away and he saw Mary

(We use here the technique called co-ordination)

otherwise, we may form complex sentences

When Tom saw Mary he ran away

While running away Tom saw Mary.

(We use here the technique called subordination)

I.2. Specific features:

Compound Complex

a. Components:

* Clauses: finite clauses (which

use finite verb phrases)

* Clauses:

+ Main clause + subordinate

clause finite (Vmain) - finite

* In R.fQuirk et al's book, the term "complex' sentences is used for both. However, in manyother garmmar books, the term compound sentences is also used. Many grammarians use the term "composite sentences"

136

These clauses are structurally

and semantically independent

(Vsub)

clause: - non-finite

- verbless

clause

+ subordinate clauses are

structurally and semantically

dependent on main clause,

functioning as S, O, C or A of

the main clause

b. Joining words:

Co-ordinators Subordinators

Simple

and, but, or

correlatives

both... and

not only... but

either...or

Simple

if, as,

that,

when,

while

Compou

nd

as if, as

though,

so that

Correlativ

es

so... that

more..tha

n

hardly..

when

c. Concrete analysis of these sentences in terms of s, v, O, C

and A

137

Tom saw Mary and he ran

away

S V O S V A

1st indep.cl 2rd indep.cl

He saw it but (he) didn't

interfere

S V O S V

1st indep.cl 2rd indep.cl

Did you come by car or by

bus?

S V A A

1st indep.cl 2rd

indep.cl(ellipsis)

Not only did he failed the exam

A S V O

1st indep.cl

but he lost the game as well

S V O A

2nd indep.cl

When Tom saw Mary he ran

away

A S V O S V A

(dep)

(Vphrasal)

main clause

I know that you're honest

S V C

S v O - dep.cl (sub)

Why he didn't go is still a

secret

A S V

S = sub.cl

(dep) V A C

When in Rome do as Rome

does

A a A S V

A = sub.cl V A - sub.cl

(verbless) (finite)

I.3. Co-ordination and subordination in combination:

In many case these two procedures are combined to make very

complex sentences (also called compound complex sentences,

etc..)

E.g: He said (that) he would come but he didn't

(1st clause = complex sentence)

138

I contemplated the stones a few feet away and saw that several

of them were flat up against our wall.

(2nd indep. clause = complex sentence)

One bright morning when I was nineteen(1), I packed (2) all I

had (30 on my back, left (40 my native village and walked up(5)

to London looking (60 for gold and glory.

(6 clauses: 2nd, 4th, 5th cl; independent clauses;)

1st cl = A time;

3rd clause = relative clause modifying pronoun "all' functioning

as O;

6th clause: V-ing participle cl = A purpose)

II. SUBORDINATION; GENERALITIES

II.1. Indicators of subordination:

a. Formal indicators: In the sentence, we can notice

subordinator(s) which may be subclassified in the following

diagram:

Subordinators

Simple

as, because, if,

since,

that, when, while,

etc..

Compound

as if, as though, so

as,

so that, in order

that

Correlatives

so...that,

more...than,

such...that,

no sooner..than,

hardly...when

E.g: We have lived here since we graduated from the college

They went there so that they could earn their living

139

Hardly had they started the race when they heard a loud

explosion

b. Use of wh-words:

wh-words

Pronouns (S, O, C in sub.cl,)

who, which, what

E.g: What he says isn't true

Who'll go there hasn't been

decided...

Adverbs (=A in sub.cl.)

Where, when, how, why...

I'll go where you go

Why he hadn't come was still

troubling her then

c. Optional use of subordinator:

+ In finite clause: E.g: I knew (that) he did he didn't like

joking

+ In non-finite clause; E.g: (While) running away, Tom saw

Mary.

(After) having finished the work, they went

home.

d. Absence of subordinator:

+ In non-finite clauses acting as S, O or C

E.g: We went him to stop talking

Watching these films was not to my liking

+ In contingent adjectival clauses:

E.g: They went home tired/happy.

+ In case of subject - operator inversion:

Had you gone there you would have met her.

140

I.2. Subclasses of subordinate clauses:

Structural classification:

(i) Finite clauses:

- That clauses: E.g: It's obvious that he's honest

- Wh-interrogative clauses; E.g: I don't know who he is

- Adverbial clauses: E.g; The man who went there didn't know

this

(ii) Non-finite clauses:

- Infinitive: to V : E.g: To elp him is my task

V : E.g: Run away was all we could do

-Participles: -ing : E.g: It's no use crying over the spilt

milk

V-ed2: E.g: Badly injured he couldn't escape

(iii). Verbless clauses:

- With adjective: E.g: Tired of the lecture he fell fast asleep.

- With when, while, if. E.g: When in Rome do as Rome does

b. Functional classification (depending on syntactic functions of

subordinate clauses)

(i) Nominal clauses: These clauses often function as S, O, C in

the main cl..

(cf. Section III below)

(ii). Adverbial clauses: These clauses often function as Adjuncts

(of different kinds), Disjunct and Conjunct (cf. Section IV below)

(iv). comment clauses; These often function as main clause,

Adjunct, Disjunct, or Conjunct (cf. Section VI below)

141

Here below is the diagram showing a and b in combination.

Subordinate clauses

Nominal clauses

(1)

(functioning as

(S,O,C)

Adverbial clauses (20

(functioning as

Adjuncts and

Disjuncts)

Relative

clauses (3)

as

Postmodifi

er

Comment

clauses(4)

(functioning as

Adjunct

Disjunct &

Conjunct)

Finite

(-that cl.

-wh-cl.

-if/

whether

clauses)

non-

finite

(to V

V

V-ing)

finite

(as, if,

while,

etc)

nonfinit

e

(to V,

V-ing,

V-ed20

verble

ss

(adj.

if/

when

+ A)

(only

finite cl.)

finit

e

non-finite

(to V,

V-ing)

Fig. Subordinate clauses; general classification

In the following sections we are going to deal with these four

groups of subordinate clauses respectively.

III. NOMINAL CLAUSES

III.1. Subclassification of nominal clauses:

There are two subgroups, each of which comprises a set of

minor types:

a. Finite nominal clauses including:

+ That clauses E.g: That he knows me is obvious

+ Wh-interrogative clauses: E.g: Where he has gone is still

not known

+ Yes/no-interrogative clauses: E.g: He asked whether you

knew it

142

+ Nominal relative clauses: E.g: What causes the fire was only

a cigarette end.

b. Non-finite clauses including:

+ to-infinitive clause (to V) E.g: It's my task to help him

+ Bare infinitive clause (V) E.g: All we had to do was repeat

what he said

+ V-ing participle clauses (V-ing) E.g: We all enjoyed

watching TV

III.2. Possible functions of nominal clauses:

Like noun phrases, nominal clauses can be used in eight

different syntactic functions, namely subject, direct object,

subject Complement, appositive, prepositional Complement,

object Complement, adjectival complement and indirect Object.

However, not all the above - mentioned types can perform all

these junctions. There are in fact: major (or common) functions

that all of them can perform and minor functions that are

restricted to a certain type only.

+ Major functions: S, Cs, Od, App

+ Minor functions: Cprep, Co, Cadj + Oi

V. ADVERBIAL CLAUSES

In this section we are largely concerned with the main type of

Adverbial clauses - Adjuncts, either finite or non-finite, or

verbless clauses. There exists another way of classifying.

Adverbial clauses: in terms of meaning (or semantic

classification of these. For more, see chapter VIII, section II). To

make it more convenient let us deal here with the finite

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Adverbial clauses, the most commonly used, at first and then

with other types.

V.1. Finite Adverbial clauses:

Table: Finite Adverbial clauses - semantic sub-classfication:

Subclassifi

-cation

Subordinators +

joining words

Examples

a. Clauses

of time

after, before,

since,

until, when,

while, as

soon/long, as,

when ever

+ When I last saw you, you lived in New

York

+ Buy your tickets as soon as your

reach the station

+ Our hostess, once everyone had

arrived, was full of good humour

b. Clause

of place

where/wherever + They went wherever they could find

work

+ Where the fire had been we saw

nothing but blackened ruins

c. Clauses

of

condition

if, unless, on

condition that,

provided

(providing), that,

as long as, so, so

long as

* Real conditions:

+ He must be lying if he told you that

+ Unless the strike has been called off,

there will be no trains tomorrow

+ Provided that no objection is raised,

we shall hold the meeting here

* Unreal condition

+ if he came now, I'd see him

+ If she had gone there, she'd have met

him

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d. Clauses

of

concession

Conditiona

l

concessive

clauses

although, though,

even if, even

though, while,

whereas

whether ... or,

wherever

whatever,

whoever, no

matter

how

+ No goal were scored, thought it was

an exciting game.

+ Whereas John seems rather stupid,

his brother is clever.

+ Whether they beat us or we beat

them, we'll celebrate tonight.

+ She looks pretty whatever she wears

+ Nom matter how hard I try can never

catch up with him

e. Clauses

of reason

(or cause)

as, because,

since

+ I lent him the money because he

badly needed it.

+ As Jane was the eldest she looked

after the others

f. Clauses

of

circumstan

ce

because, since,

now, that, seeing

that

+ Seeing that the weather has

improved, we shall enjoy our game

+ We'll try to enrich ourselves now that

the state has permitted us to do so

g. Clauses

of manner

exactly as, just

as

+ Please do it (exactly) as I instructed

+ Just as a moth is attracted by a light ,

(so) he was fascinated by her

h. Clauses

of

compariso

n

(more).. than

as if, as though

+ he's younger than I am

+ She drove more carefully than her

father did

+ he treated me as if he had never met

me.

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i. Clause of

result

so (that)

in order that

(purpose)

+ We planted many shrubs, so (that)

the garden soon looked beautiful

f. Clauses

proportion

and

preference

as ... (so)

the

more/less...the

more/less

+ As he grew disheartened, (so) his

work deteriorated

+ The harder he worked, the happiest

he felt

IV. 2. Non-finite Adverbial clauses

a. To-infinitive clauses (to V): often introduced by (in order)/

(for+N) to, so as to, Infinitives thus used often function as A

purpose:

E.g: I left early (so as) to catch the train

They left the door open in order for me to her the baby

Sometimes, to infinitive can act as A result

E.g; The ceiling is too high for me to reach

She woke up to find the whole house on fire

b. V-ing participle clauses - ing participle clauses are very

common with subordinator: while, without, when, etc, in the

following.

- A time;

E.g; He wrote his greatest novel while working on a freighter

Nearing the entrance I shook hands with my acquaintances

-A circumstance:

E.g; The weather having improved, we enjoyed the rest of the

game

- A manner:

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e.g: She entered the room without greeting anyone inside

- A reason:

E.g: Being very suspicious she hesitated to open the door.

Being a man of ingenuity, he soon repaired the car

- A preference:

E.g: Rather than sitting quietly a home he preferred to visit his

friends

- A condition + concession:

E.g: Whether living in London or not, John enjoyed himself

c. V-ed 2 participle clauses:

- A time:

E.g: Once published the book caused a remarkable stir

- A place

E.g: where (ver) known, such facts have been reported

- A condition:

E.g; These books will caused great harms to young students

unless forbidden.

d. Bare infinitive clause:

- A preference

E.g: Rather than go their by air. I'd take the slowest train

IV.3. Verbless adverbial clauses:

Verbless adverbial clauses include

a. Adjectival contingent clauses (without our with subordinator)

E.g: They went home dead tired (A circumstance)

John, sad at the news, went to Mexico (A reason)

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Though very poor they are extremely generous (A

concession)

If necessary I'll do that again (A condition)

When ripe the oranges are picked and sorted

b. Other clauses (often with subordinator)

E.g: When in Rome do as Rome does

While in London he enjoyed himself greatly

He'll do his best to help her if requested by the boss

These verbless clauses are often considered as reduced finite

clauses with ellipted Subject + Verb

V. RELATIVE CLAUSES

In some grammarians'points of view, relative clauses are not

considered as part of complex sentences. In r. quirk et al's

books (both'A Grammar of Contemporary English) and 'A

University Grammar of English) relative clauses are treated in

the chapter dealing with the complex noun phrases (of chapter

II above)

However, to most grammarians' frame of mind, they may be

classified among the complex sentences. There are in fact

different kind of relative clauses that do not merely function as

post-modifier in noun phrases as follows:

V.1. Relative clauses functioning as post-modifier in NPs:

There are two subtypes:

a. Restrictive relative clauses (also called defining relative

clauses)

E.g; The man who went there with him is my brother in law

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I tried to discuss this problem with the professor who wrote this

book.

b Non-restrictive relative (or non-defining) clauses:

E.g; We met Mr Jones, who was expert at nuclear physics

This book, which was written fifteen years ago was again

revises and published

(for more see chapter II, section)

V.2. Sentential Relative clauses:

This has been mentioned in subsection dealing with non-

restrictive relative clauses. However this group differ from them

in that they have antecedents as the whole previous main

clause.

E.g: He came to see her too often, which annoyed her mother

They failed the final exam, which surprised us all

V.3. Nominal relative clauses:

These are clauses that are very close to the noun phrase status

in that they can perform seven (out of eight) different functions

of noun phrases. They can act (as S. Cs.Od, Co, App. Cprep and

Oi (cf, Subsections III.3 and III.4). They differ from the other two

subgroups in that they can be paraphrased by nominal element

plus relative clauses.

E.g: What caused the fire was only a cigarette end.

(=The thing that caused the fire...)

We remember when we first came here

(= the time when we first came here)

We gave whoever went there a brochure

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(= anyone who went there)

VI. COMMENT CLAUSES

Comment clauses are some what loosely related to a super -

ordinate clause and may be classed as disjuncts or conjuncts,

which may occur initially, finally or medially.

Comment clauses very in form and syntactic functions as follow:

1. Like a main clauses:

E.g: At that time, I believe, labour was cheap

You know, I think you're wrong

2. Like and adverbial clause (functioning as Adjunct):

E.g: I'm a pacifist, as you know

As far as grammar is concerned the sentence is the largest unit

3. Like a nominal relative clause as conjunct;

E.g: What's more, we lost all our belongings

4. Non-finite clauses as style disjunct

a. to V: E.g I'm mot sure what to do, to be honest

b. V-ing: E.g: I doubt, speaking, as a layman, whether television

is the right medium.

c. V: E.g: Stated bluntly, he has no chance of winning the game.

VIII., DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH

1. Direct things, there are two ways:

a. Using Direct Speech

E.g: He said "I'm very hungry" (1a)

"How are you today?" asked her friend

Here, the reporting clause may be classed as comment clause

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b. Using Indirect Speech

E.g: He said that he was very hungry (1b)

Her friend asked (her) how she was that day (2b)

Obviously, the reporting clause is, in this case, the super-

ordinate clause and the reported, a subordinate clause.

Beside the change in the clause status there are other changes

that are noteworthy. We are going to deal with them in the

following subsections.

2. Changes in clauses status:

DIRECT SPEECH --------------- INDIRECT SPEECH

that clause

Generally, independent clauses are changed into subordinate

clauses.

a. Statement That clause

E.g: "I'm very hungry, he said -> He said that he was very

hungry

"We didn't go there because

we "were ill" said my friend

-> My friend said that they

hadn't gone there because they

had been ill.

b. Question (wh-question) Wh-interrogative clause

E.g: "Who are you" asked her

mother

-> Her mother asked him who he

was

"Why didn't you attend the

meeting?" they asked him

-> They asked him why he hadn't

attended the meeting

c. Questions: Yes/no +

alternative qs.

Yes/no interrogative cls

(if/whether)

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E.g: "Have you finished the

work?" he asked

-> He asked her if/whether) she

had finished the work

"Did you come by train or by

bus?" she asked me

-> She asked whether I had

come by train or by bus

d. Commands To-infinitive clause

E.g: "Come in and sit down

please!" the monitor said to

them

-> The monitor told them to

come in and sit down

"Will you participate in this

meeting?" said my colleague.

"It will be of great interest".

-> My colleague invited me to

participate in the meeting saying

that it would be of great interest

e. Exclamations That clause/wh-clause

E.g; "What a hero you are!"

Margaret told him.

-> Margaret told him what a hero

he was

that he was

a real hero

3. Change of the verb forms:

When the reporting verbs is in the present tense, there is not

any change in the subordinate clause in Indirect Speech as

compared to the independent clause in Direct Speech in terms

of tense and aspect forms - When the reporting verb is in the

past tense (said/thought/wonder), there is the so called

backshift change in the tense form of the subordinate verbs as

follows.

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Direct Speech ------------------ Indirect Speech

Simple Present (V/V-s)

Present Perfect (have/has +

Ved2)

Present Progressive (am/is/are +

Ving)

Present Perf. Prog. (have/has

been+ Ving)

Simple Past (V-ed)

Past perfect (had + Ved2)

Past Perf. Progr. (had been+

Ving)

will + V

may be + Ving

Simple Past (V-ed1)

Past perfect (had + V-ed2)

Past progressive (was/were +

Ving)

Past perfect (had + V-ed2)

Unchanged

Past Pref. Progr. (had been

+Ving)

Unchanged

would + V

might be + Ving

4. Change of pronouns and pointer word:

Pronouns and pointer word:

Pronouns in indirect speech should be changed in accordance

with the relationship between them and those of the reporting

clause subject.

- Subject:

E.g: he said: "I'm very tired"

-> He said that he was very tired

"We didn't agree with him", she said to him.

-> She told him that they hadn't agreed with that man

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- Adverbials of time and place and determiners should also be

changed as follows.

Dr.Sp --------

>

In.Sp Dr.Sp --------

>

In.Sp

today

now

here

that

day

then

there

this

my

our

that

his/her

their

yesterd

ay

the day before your his/her

tomorr

ow

the day after

following day

next day

the day after tomorrow

two days

after

later

E.g: "Why didn't you go there yesterday?" she asked

-> She asked me why I hadn't gone there the previous day.

"The day after tomorrow I'll come here again", said the man

-> The man told them that he would go there two days later

Exercises: 172, 174, 176, 177, 179, 180, 181, 182, 185, 187,

188, 190, 191, 201, 203, 206, 208, 209

(chapter 11, pp, 94-108)

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Terminology

AdverbialAbsolute/positiveAdditionaladditiveAdjectival phraseAdjective clauseAdjunctAdjunct of durationAdjunct of frequencyAdjunct of relationshipAdjunct - WhenAdverbial AffectedAgentiveAmplifierAppositiveArticleArticle usageAspectAssertiveAttributeAttributiveBasic Noun phraseCardinalCaseCategoryCausativeCauseCentralCharacteristicClassificationClauseClause coordinationClosed system

tr¹ng ng÷nguyªn/®¬nphô thªmcéng thªmcôm tÝnh tõmÖnh ®Ò tÝnh ng÷phô ng÷phô ng÷ chØ thêi ®o¹n/diÔn biÕnphô ng÷ chØ tÇn xuÊtphô ng÷ chØ quan hÖthêi ®iÓmtr¹ng ng÷bÞ/chÞu t¸c ®éngt¸c nh©nt¨ng cêng®ång vÞ ng÷/nghÜa ®onßg vÞqu¸n ng÷viÖc sö dông qu¸n tõthÓx¸c nhËn®Þnh tè®Þnh ng÷côm danh tõ c¬ b¶nsè ®Õmc¸chph¹m trïkhiªn ®éngnguyªn nh©ntrung t©m®Æc trngph©n lo¹imÖnh ®Ò (có)liªn kÕt mÖnh ®Ò

155

CoherenceCohesionCommonComparativeComplementComplement of preposition (Cprep)ComplementationComplementation typeCompleteComplexComplex finite VPComplex NPCompoundConceptConjunctionConjunctCoordinatorCorrespondenceCriterionCurrentDecisive factorDefinite articleDegree of comparisonDemonstrativeDenominalDependent clauseDerivational suffixDeterminersDiscourse analysisDescriptiveDisjunctDitransitiveDouble genitiveDowntoner

hÖ thèng ®ãngsù m¹ch l¹cliªn kÕtchungso s¸nh t¬ng ®èibæ ng÷bæ ng÷ giíi tõbæ tèkiÓu bæ tèhoµn chØnhphøccôm ®éng tõ biÕn vÞ phøccôm danh tõ ghÐpkh¸i niÖmliªn tõliªn ng÷liªn tõ ®¼ng lËpsù t¬ng ®¬ngtiªu chÝhiÖn tr¹ng, hiÖn cãnh©n tè quyÕt ®Þnhqu¸n tõ x¸c ®Þnhmøc ®é so s¸nhchØ ®Þnh, tõ chØ ®Þnh¸ danhmÖnh ®Ò phô thuéchËu tè ph¸t sinhc¸c tõ x¸c ®Þnhph©n tÝch diÔn ng«nm« t¶biÖt ng÷ngo¹i híng kÐpthuéc c¸ch së h÷u kÐptõ gi¶m nghÜa, uyÓn thanh

156

DurationDynamicEffectedEmphasizerEmptyEqual comparisonEssentialEventiveExclamatoryExplicitnessExpressionExtensiveFeminineFinite clauseFinite VPFocusFocusingFractionGenderGeneralGenitiveGradableGrammatical meaningInclusiveIncompleteIndefiniteIndefinite articleIndependent clauseIndicatorInferiorInstrumentInstrumentalIntegratedIntensifierIntensive

thêi ®o¹n®éng, n¨ng ®éng®îc thµnh t¹otõ nhÊn m¹nhkh«ngm ang ý nghÜa g×so s¸nh ngang b»ngträng yÕuchØ sù kiÖnc¶m th¸n®é hiÓu ng«n, sù râ rµngc¸ch diÔn ®¹tmë rénggièng c¸imÖnh ®Ò biÕn vÞcôm ®éng tõ biÕn vÞtiªu ®iÓm träng t©m®Þnh híngph©n sègièngchungthuéc c¸ch së h÷uph©n chia møc ®énghÜa ng÷ ph¸ptõ gépkh«ng hoµn chØnhtõ phiÕm chØqu¸n tõ kh«ng x¸c ®ÞnhmÖnh ®Ò ®éc lËpdÊu hiÖukÐm h¬nc«ng côcã tÝnh c«ng côhoµ kÕttõ t¨ng cêng (vÒ tÝnh chÊt, møc ®é)

157

InterjectionInterrogationInterrogativeIntransitiveLexical meaningLimiter adjectiveLocativeMainMain clauseMajorMannerMarkedMasculineMeansMinorModified modifiersModifierMoodMultipleMultiple headsMultiplierNegativeNeuterNominal relativeNon-assertiveNon-finite verb phraseNon-gradableNon-restrictiveNounNumeralNumericalObject (O)ObjectiveObligatoryOpen class

quan hÖ s©uth¸n tõsù nghi vÊnnghi vÊnnéi, híng néinghÜa tõ vùngtÝnh tõ h¹n chÕ®Þnh vÞchÝnhmÖnh ®Ò chÝnhchÝnh, thêng thÊyph¬ng thøccã dÊu hiÖugièng ®ùcph¬ng tiÖnÝt thÊy®Þnh ng÷ ®îc bæ nghÜatõ bæ nghÜathøc®a thµnh tènhiÒu tõ chÝnhtõ chØ béi sèphñ ®Þnhgièng trungmÖnh ®Ò quan hÖ danh tÝnhphi x¸c nhËnmÖnh ®Ò kh«ng biÕn vÞkh«ng ph©n møc ®ékh«ng h¹n ®Þnhdanh tõsè tõthuéc sè häct©n ng÷thuéc t©n ng÷b¾t buéc

158

OperatorOptionalOrdinalParticlePartitivePassivityPerceptivePeripheral, periphrasticPermanentPersonalPhrasal coordinationPhrasal verbPossessivePostdeterminerPostmodifierPostpositivePosturePredeterminerPredicatePredicativePremodificationPrepositional verbPrincipalProcess adjunctProformProgressive tensePronominallyPronounProvenanceQuantifierRecipientReciprocalReflexiveRelativeReplacive

líp mëtõ ®iÒu phèituú ý, kh«ng b¾t buécsè thø tùtiÓu tõchØ bé phËný nghÜa bÞ ®éngchØ c¶m gi¸c, c¶m qu¸nngo¹i biªn, ngo¹i diªnthêng trùcnh©n xngliªn kÕt côm tõ ®¼ng lËp®éng tõ cã tiÓu tõsë h÷u, së thuéctõ ®øng sau tõ x¸c ®Þnh®Þnh ng÷ ®øng sau®øng saut thÕtõ ®øng tríc tõ x¸c ®ÞnhvÞ ng÷biÓu ng÷phÐp sö dông ®Þnh ng÷ ®øng tríc®éng tõ cã giíi tõchÝnhphô ng÷ chØ tiÕn tr×nhtõ thay thÕthêi tiÕp diÔnnh ®¹i tõ®¹i danh tõxuÊt xøtõ chØ ®Þnh (sè) lîng®èi tîng, ngêi nhËn.qua l¹iph¶n th©n

159

RestrictiveResultingSubject (S)ScopeSecondarySegmental phonemeSemantic roleSentence structureSentenceSequenceStativeSubclassificationSubjectiveSubjunctive moodSubordinate clauseSubordinatorSubstantivised adjectiveSubtypeSuperiorSuperlativeSuperordinate clauseSupplementiveSuprasegmentalSyntactic functionsTemporalTemporaryTenseUnacceptableUnique referenceUniversalUnmarkedV intensiveV complex transitiveV ditransitiveV intransitive

quan hÖthay thÕh¹n ®ÞnhkÕt qu¶chñ ng÷ph¹m vithø yÕu©m vÞ ®o¹n tÝnhvai trß ng÷ nghÜa, ý nghÜacÊu tróc c©uc©uthø tù, tr×nh tùtÜnh t¹iph©n lo¹i s©u h¬nthuéc chñ ng÷gi¶ ®Þnh thøcmÖnh ®Ò phô (thuéc)liªn tõ chÝnh phôtÝnh tõ ®îc danh tõ ho¸tiÓu nhãmcao h¬nso s¸nh cao nhÊtmÖnh ®Ò chÝnh chi phèibæ sung, thªm nghÜasiªu ®o¹n tÝnhchøc n¨ng có ph¸pthêi giannhÊt thêithêi, th×kh«ng thÓ chÊp nhËn ®îcquy chiÕu, ý nghÜa ®¬n nhÊtphæ qu¸ttrung tÝnh, kh«ng mang dÊu hiÖu®éng tõ quan hÖ

160

V monotransitiveVerblessVolume

ngo¹i ®éng tõ phøcngo¹i ®éng tõ kÐpnéi ®éng tõngo¹i ®éng tõ ®¬nkh«ng cã ®éng tõkhèi lîng

161