LONGMAN

STUDENT GRAMMAR OF SPOKEN AND WRITTEN ENGLISH

GRAMMAR: THE SYSTEM WHICH ORGANIZES AND CONTROLS THESE FORM-MEANING
RELATIONSHIPS.

UNIT 2: “WORDS AND WORD CLASSES”

GRAMMATICAL UNITS are meaningful elements which combine with each other in a structural
pattern, can be graded according to size:

(DISCOURSE)

SENTENCES

CLAUSES

PHRASES

WORDS

(Considered the basic elements of language, items defined in a dictionary, fixed form but
independent role)

MORPHEMES

(Parts of words: stems, prefixes, suffixes)

PHONEMES

(The individual sounds which make up the language)

/GRAPHEMES

(The written symbols we use to communicate in language)

In general, GRAMMATICAL UNITS are described in terms of four factors:

-STRUCTURE: the internal structure, words: bases and affixes, phrases: heads and modifiers,
clauses: clause elements.

-SYNTACTIC ROLE: e.g. the object in a clause.

-MEANING: e.g. adverbs, adjectives, etc. Adverbs can express information about time, place
and manner.

-USE: Discourse function. Their behavior in discourse, different registers, frequency in speech
or written texts.

Each occurrence of a word in a written or spoken text is a separate TOKEN. In contrast, word
TYPES are the different vocabulary items that occur in a text.

TYPES OF “WORDS”: ORTHOGRAPHIC WORDS (those we write), GRAMMATICAL WORDS

(grammatical category/word classes) and LEXEMES (set of two words, familia de palabras).

FAMILIES OF WORDS:

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-LEXICAL WORDS (There are the main carriers of information and can be subdivided into word
classes (or parts of speech: nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives and adverbs. There are the
generally more stressed in speech)

-FUNCTION WORDS (Can be prepositions, coordinators, auxiliary verbs, determiners, adverbial

particles, subordinators and pronouns. They belong to closed classes)

-INSERTS (They are found mainly in spoken language, they generally carry emotional and
discoursal meanings).

CLOSED CLASSES AND OPEN CLASSES

THE STRUCTURE OF WORDS: MORPHOLOGY

Lexical words can consist of a single morpheme (a stem: go, book, cat), or they can have a
more complex structure created by: INFLECTION (s/es, ing, d/ed  inflectional suffixes),
DERIVATION (adding affixes) or COMPOUNDING: In complex words with more than one stem
 noun + noun (chair + man) verb + noun (cook + book) adjective + noun (blue + bird) noun +
adjective (water + tight).

HOW ARE WE TO KNOW WHETHER TWO WORDS ARE GENUINELY A COMPOUND AND NOT
SIMPLY A SEQUENCE OF TWO WORDS?

-The word will be spelt as a single word: goldfish, not gold fish.

-It will be pronounced with the main stress on the first element: a ‘goldfish, not a gold ‘fish.

-It will have a meaning which cannot be determined from the individual parts: goldfish (a fish)
not gold fish (a fish which is made of gold).

MULTI-WORD UNITS, COLLOCATIONS, AND LEXICAL BUNDLES

There are other sequences of words that behave as a combination:

A MULTI-WORD UNIT: a sequence of orthographic words which functions like a single

grammatical unit. E.g. on top of, of course, etc.

AN IDIOM: Is a multi-word unit with a meaning that cannot be predicted from the meanings of
its constituent words- E.g. make up (one’s) mind: decidirse.

A COLLOCATION: 2 or more words that commonly appear together or co-occur. E.g. do or

make that are similar in meaning but occur in different collocations; do exercise and make a
cake.

LEXICAL BUNDLE: Phrases or words commonly used. E.g. I think, would you mind…, etc.

LEXICAL WORD CLASSES

NOUNS

CHARACTERISTICS

-MORPHOLOGY: INFLECTIONS (Plural and genitive. E.g. a book  two books/ Sarah’s book),
UNCOUNTABLE (No plural), COMPOUNDS (E.g. bomb + shell = bombshell) and DERIVATION
(Affixes: bright + ness = brightness)

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-SYNTACTIC: They can be modified by many kinds of words both before and after them. HEAD
ON NOUN PHRASE, COMMON NOUNS (Modifiers) and PROPER NOUNS (Not modifiers,
exceptions the USA)

-SEMANTICS: CONCRETE, PHYSICAL ENTITIES (People, objects) and ABSTRACT, NON-PHYSICAL

ENTITIES (Freedom, wish)

LEXICAL VERBS

CHARACTERISTICS

-MORPHOLOGY: TENSE (Present/Past), ASPECT (Simple/Progressive/Perfective), VOICE

(Active/Passive) and MULTI-WORD OR DERIVED VERBS.

-SYNTACTIC: SINGLE WORD VERB PHRASE (E.g. He writes a page – “writes” is a simple verb)
and MAIN VERB IN THE VERB PHRASE (E.g. He has written a page – “has” auxiliary verb and
“written” as the main verb). A single-word verb phrase acts as the central part of the clause
and in the final or main verb position of verb phrases.

-SEMANTICS: ACTIONS, PROCESSES AND STATES/ HUMAN AND NOT-HUMAN.

ADJECTIVES

CHARACTERISTICS

-MORPHOLOGY: (Many can take the inflectional suffixes –er or –est for comparative and
superlative. They can also be complex; derived adj. –able –ful –ial; compound adj. color-blind,
home-made, etc.)

-SYNTACTIC: (They can occur as the head of and adjective phrase like very dark or guilty of a
serious crime. They are commonly used as modifiers preceding the head of a noun phrase or
as predicatives following the verb in clauses)

-SEMANTICS: (They describe the qualities of people, things and abstractions. Many of them are
gradable)

ADVERBS

CHARACTERISTICS

-MORPHOLOGY: Many are formed from adjectives by adding –ly (eagerly, clearly), but others
have not such endings (however, just).

-SYNTACTIC: (They occur as head of adverb phrases. E.g. Very noisily. With or without their
own modifiers they are often used as modifiers of an adjective or another adverb. E.g. Very
soon. Otherwise, they can act as adverbials in the clause. E.g. I’ll see you again soon.)

-SEMANTICS: They most often express the degree of a following adjective or adverb (totally
wrong, right now). They have many meanings: they can modify an action, process or state, by
expressing such notions as time, place and manner (she was here earlier today), they can
convey the speaker’s or writer’s attitude (surely that child’s not mine?) and they can express a
connection with what was said earlier (it must be beautiful, though).

The classification of lexical words is not always clear-cut, and some words have borderline
status between two classes.

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 FUNCTION WORD CLASSES

DETERMINERS

Normally before the noun and they clarify the meaning of the noun.
-The definite article THE indicates that the referent is assumed to be known by the speaker
and the person being spoken to.

-The indefinite article A/AN makes it clear that the referent is one member of a class (e.g. a
book).

-Demonstrative determiners indicate that the referents are “near to” or “away from” the
speaker’s immediate context (e.g. this book, that book, etc.).

-Possessive determiners tell us who or what the noun belongs to (e.g. my book, your book,
etc.).

-Quantifiers specify how many or how much of the noun there is (e.g. every book, some
books, etc.).

PRONOUNS

They replace the position of a noun or a whole noun phrase.

-Personal pronouns refer to the speaker and other entities. (e.g. I won’t tell you how it ended)

-Demonstrative pronouns refer to entities which are “near to” or “away from” the speaker’s
context. (e.g. This is my dog called Pelusa)

-Reflexive pronouns refer back to a previous noun phrase, usually the subject of the clause.
(e.g. I taught myself)

-Reciprocal pronouns refer to a previous noun phrase, but indicate that there is a mutual
relationship. (e.g. Yeah they know each other pretty well)

-Possessive pronouns are closely related to possessive determiners and usually imply a missing
noun head. (e.g. Is this yours, or mine?)

-Indefinite pronouns have a broad, indefinite meaning. Some of them are compound words
(e.g. every/one) consisting of quantifier + general noun and others consist of a quantifier alone
(e.g. all, some, many, etc)

-Relative pronouns introduce a relative clause (who, whom, which, that).

-Interrogative pronouns ask questions about unknown entities (e.g. What did he say?) most of
them are wh-words.

AUXILIARY VERBS

They are added to a main verb to help build verb phrases.

-Primary auxiliaries (be, have and do) show how the main verb is to be understood: have to
form the perfect aspect, be used for the progressive aspect and passive voice and do used in
negative statements and in questions.

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-Modal auxiliaries never take inflections, there are nine: will, can, shall, may, must, would,
could, should and might.

PREPOSITIONS

They are linking words that introduce prepositional phrases, e.g. about, after, around, as, at,
by, down, for, from, into, like, of, off, on, round, since, than, to, towards, with, without.

-Complex prepositions are multi-word units which have a meaning that cannot be derived
from the meaning of the parts. Two-word complex prepositions usually end with a simple
preposition (e.g. such as, as for, apart from, instead of, due to, etc.) and three-word
prepositions usually have the structure simple preposition + noun + simple preposition. (e.g. by
means of, in addition to, as far as, etc.)

There are borderline cases where is not clear whether a multi-word combination is a complex
preposition (a fixed expression with a special meaning) or a free combination of preposition
(article) + noun + preposition. (e.g. at the expense of)

ADVERBIAL PARTICLES

They are a small group of words that shows motion (what you add to a verb to form a phrasal).
The most important are: about, across, along, around, aside, away, back, by, down, forth,
home, in, off, on, out, over, past, round, through, under and up.

They are also used to build extended prepositional phrases, where a particle precedes the
preposition (e.g. back to the hotel).

CONJUNCTIONS

COORDINATORS: Are used to indicate a relationship between two units such as phrases and
clauses. They link elements which have the same syntactic role.

BOYS (B: but, O: or, Y: yet, S:so, and nor)

-Correlative coordinators: Each simple coordinator can be combined with another word. (e.g.
both X and Y, either X or Y, not only X but also Y, neither X nor Y, etc.)

SUBORDINATORS: Are linking words that introduce clauses known as dependent clauses
(clauses that can’t stand alone without a main clause). There are three major subclasses:
adverbial clauses; adding details of time, place, reason, etc. to the main clause (e.g. after, as,
because, if, since, although, while, etc.), three subordinators introduce degree clauses; as,
than, that and three subordinators introduce complement or nominal clauses; if, that and
whether. The last ones are called complementizers because they introduce clauses following
verbs, adjectives or nouns completing the meaning of them (e.g. I’m glad that I found you
again.)

-Complex subordinators (e.g. as long as, as soon as, given that, on condition that, provided
that, except that, in that, in order that, so that, such that, as if, as though, even if, even
though, etc.)

SPECIAL CLASSES OF WORDS

WH-WORDS

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They introduce clauses but do not form an independent word class, they are members of word
classes such as determiners, pronouns and adverbs. They are used at the beginning of:
-An interrogative clause: (e.g. What is your name?) Interrogative words can be: interrogative
pronouns: who, whom, what and which, interrogative determiners: what, which and whose
and interrogative adverbs: when, where, how and why.

-A relative clause (relativizers): Can be: relative pronouns: who, whom, which and that (they
stand for a noun phrase; e.g. I’m the kind of person who loves money), relative determiners:
which and whose (they occur before the noun; e.g. Juliana Viollaz, whose father works as
blacksmith since 2002) and relative adverbs: where, when and why (are used to refer to times,
reasons or places; e.g. Colón, where everyone knows everyone else).

-A complement clause (complementizers): e.g. I don’t know what we would have done
without their help with the bottles outside the supermarket, I will pay whatever I have in my
pocket to see Imagine Dragons and I wonder where did I left the keys of my Clio, etc.

-An adverbial clause: e.g. I will improve the business, whatever they might say and however
they vary, each CEVEAR will increase this year, etc.

SINGLE-WORD CLASSES

Unique words because they don’t fit in any class;

-Existential there: Often called anticipatory subject, no other word in English behaves the
same way. E.g. There’s a delicious ice cream in my fridge, there were four of us working
yesterday, etc.
-The negator not: Is in some ways like an adverb, but in other respects it is unique. Its use is to
make a clause negative (n’t). E.g. You can go to sleep early, but I can’t. Apart from negating
whole clauses, not has various other uses (as in not all, not many, not very, etc.)

-The infinitive marker to: Not to be confused with the preposition to, its chief use is as a
complementizer preceding the infinitive (base) form of verbs: e.g. I’m excited to be at this
concert today. In addition, infinitive to occurs as part of two complex subordinators expressing
purpose: in order to and so as to.

NUMERALS

They form a self-contained area of English grammar and consist of a small set of simple forms
(one, two, three, etc.) and a large set of more complex forms built up from them (three million
eight hundred and fifty-five thousand four hundred and eighteen) They are most commonly
used in the role of determiners or heads in noun phrases. There are two parallel set of
numbers:

-Cardinals: Answer the question “How many?” and are most commonly used as determiners
with a following noun: Four people were given the winning lottery ticket. Also occur as heads
of noun phrases: Four of the one hundred participants won the lottery. In their nounlike use,
they can be made plural by adding –(e)s: Winning is estimated at hundreds of millions people
per year.

-Ordinals: Answer the question “Which?” and serve to place entities in order or in a series:
first, second, third, etc. They can be used as determiners before a noun: I was finishing my
second week of work when I got fired. Like nouns as head of a noun phrase: One man was

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found in the accident. A second will be searched all night. Also used as fractions, treated as
regular nouns can take a plural –s ending: Probably two thirds of the global population is
gluten-intolerant.

UNIT 3: “INTRODUCTION TO PHRASES AND CLAUSES”

PHRASES AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS

-Words make up phrases, which behave like units.

-A phrase can consist or either one word or more than one word.

-Phrases can be identified by substitution and movement tests.

-Phrases can be embedded (i.e. one phrase can be part of the structure of another phrase).

TYPES OF PHRASES

For each class of lexical word, there is a major phrase type with that class as the head: noun
phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, adverb phrase and prepositional phrase. Factors to
recognize them:

-FORM/STRUCTURE: Identify the word class of the head of the phrase and the other elements
contained in the phrase.

-SYNTACTIC ROLE: Phrases can be described according to their function or syntactic role in
clauses (e.g. object, subject).
-MEANING: Specify and/or elaborate the meaning of the head word and its relation to other
elements in the clause.

NOUN PHRASES

A noun as its head. It can be preceded by determiners (e.g. the, a, her) and modifiers
(elements which describe or classify whatever the head refers to). E.g. a house, these houses,
many houses, her below-the-knee skirt, etc. An abstract head noun can also be followed by
complements, which complete the meaning of the noun, especially that-clauses or infinitive
to-clauses. E.g. He feels awkward about her refusal to show any sign of emotion. Noun phrases
can be headed by proper nouns, pronouns and sometimes adjectives. E.g. They said they’d got
it. If there isn’t a common noun as head, they are noun phrases because they have the
structure characteristics of a noun phrase and the syntactic roles. Noun phrases can take the
role of subject or object in a clause, the syntactic role of predicative, adverbial, or complement
(in a prepositional phrase).

VERB PHRASES

Have a lexical or primary verb as their head, it can stand alone or be preceded by one or more
auxiliary verbs which define the action, state or process denoted by the main verb itself. Finite
verb phrases show distinctions of tense (present/past) and can include modal auxiliaries. Non-
finite verb phrases do not show tense and cannot occur with modals. Verb phrases are the
essential part of a clause and determine the other clause elements that can occur in a clause.
They are often split into two parts (What’s he doing?) and their parts can be interrupted by
adverbs or other adverbials (The current year has definitely started well).

ADJECTIVE PHRASES

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An adjective as head and optional modifiers that can precede or follow the adjective. Modifiers
typically answer “How lucky/poor?”. Adjective heads also take complements (guilty of a
serious crime) answering the question “In what respect is the adjectival quality to be
interpreted?”. The most important roles of adjective phrases are as modifier and subject
predicative: as a modifier before a noun, where the adjective is called an attributive adjective
(We say a very good movie the other night) and as a subject predicative often following the
verb be (He’s totally crazy). Adjective phrases modifying nouns can be split into two parts by
the noun head (You couldn’t have a better name than that).

ADVERB PHRASES

Like adjective phrases in structure but with adverb as head. Optional modifiers may precede or
follow the adverb head typically expressing degree (so quickly you don’t even enjoy it). To
distinguish adverb phrases are structures, while adverbials are clause elements. Adverb
phrases, prepositional phrases and adverbial clauses can all function as adverbials. Adverb
phrases as a modifier (Those two were pretty much horribly spoiled) and as an adverbial on
the clause level (She smiled sweetly).

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

Mostly consist of a preposition followed by a noun phrase known as the prepositional

complement. The prepositional phrase can be thought as a link between the noun phrase to
preceding structures. E.g. in a street, in the morning, to Sue, etc. Theses phrases are often
embedded in larger phrases. E.g. on the night of the first day. They can be extended by an
initial adverbial particle which adds a meaning such as place, direction or degree (back to the
fifties) or an adverb of degree (considerably to the right). They vary in how closely they are
connected with the surrounding structure: as an adverbial on the clause level (He retired after
three minor heart attacks at the age of 36) and as a modifier or complement following a noun
(He was a poet, a teacher of philosophy, and a man with a terrible recent story). Prepositions
also occur in prepositional verbs such as look at, it is said to be stranded if it’s not followed by
its prepositional complement, generally identified as a previous noun phrase (What more
could a child ask for?) Stranded prepositions are usually found in clauses that don’t follow
normal word order, interrogative clauses and relative clauses.

CLAUSE ELEMENTS

The clause is the key unit of syntax, capable of occurring independently without being part of
any other unit. Is a unit that can stand alone as an expression of a complete thought. However,
not all utterances or sentences contain a complete clause (more sauce?) which don’t have a
verb phrase a key element of a clause.

CLAUSE ELEMENTS

VERB PHRASE(V): Is the central element of the clause, it expresses the action or state to which
other elements relate, and it controls the other kinds of elements and meanings that can be in
the clause.

SUBJECT(S): Is the second most important element, it is a noun phrase, occurs with all types of
verbs. (STRUCTURE CHARACTERISTICS) Subject pronouns are in the nominative case is used as
subject (he, she, it) while the accusative forms are used as objects (him, her). The subject
precedes the verb phrase (except in clauses with inversion, such as questions where the
subject follows the operator). It determines the number of the verb phrase, depending on

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whether the subject is singular or plural. The subject noun phrase of a transitive verb can be
moved after the verb and preceded by “by” to make a clause with a passive verb. (MEANING
CHARACTERISTICS) The subject denotes the most important participant in the action or state
denoted by the verb (with transitive verbs this is generally the “doer” or agent of the action)
and the subject generally represents the topic or the entity that the clause is about. However,
English uses a dummy pronoun (it) even if the subject has no actual meaning.

OBJECT(O): Is a noun phrase which usually follows a transitive verb. In it an object pronoun is
in the accusative case which fill the object position.

DIRECT OBJECT (DO): Follows the verb except when there is an indirect object. Its semantic
role is to denote entity affected by the action or process of the verb (He bought biscuits and
condensed milk). It also expresses abstractions which are not actually affected by the action of
the verb but grammatically are DO (take it easy Tina). It is being used as the dummy pronoun
for direct objects.

INDIRECT OBJECT (IO): Occurs after ditransitive verbs and conforms to the other criteria for
objects, they generally denote people receiving something or benefiting from the action of the
verb (I cooked the kids dinner).

PREDICATIVE (P): It can be an adjective phrase, a noun phrase or a prepositional phrase. It

follows the verb phrase and the direct object, it has the semantic role of characterizing a
preceding noun phrase. Two major types:

SUBJECT PREDICATIVES (SP) or subject complements: Characterize or specify the subject noun
phrase (his skin was very pink). It immediately follows the verb phrase and that verb has to be
a copular verb such as be, seem and become.

OBJECT PREDICATIVES (OP): They characterize or specify the DO noun phrase (Oh, I can’t get
this milk open). Some features are that main verbs have to be a complex transitive (make, find,
consider, name, etc.) and it generally immediately follows the DO.

ADVERBIALS (A):

-OBLIGATORY ADVERBIALS: Some verbs take an adverbial in order to complete their meaning
and they can occur in two patterns: the copular pattern and the complex transitive pattern.
They usually express place, direction, time or manner (E.g. Your toast is on the table). The
adverbial has to be present in order to complete the structure and meaning of the verb (E.g.
Your toast is…).

-OPTIONAL ADVERBIALS: Can be added to clauses with any type of verb, they are usually
adverb phrases, prepositional phrases or noun phrases, they can be placed in different
positions within the clause (final, initial or medial), more than one of them can occur in a single
clause and they are rather loosely attached to the rest of the clause. They add additional
information to the clause such as place, time, manner, extent and attitude (E.g. I only bought
one today).

LONG VERB PHRASES: Includes not only the verb phrase but also any other clause elements
which follow the main verb (object, predicative, adverbial). E.g. My mother was born in
Canada. But some clauses consist only of a long verb phrase, as with imperative constructions
(e.g. Look at that nice dog)

IMAGE

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TRULY PERIPHERAL ELEMENTS: These are attached to the clause in a loose way, but do not
form part of the main message of the clause.
-CONJUNCTIONS: Coordinating and subordinating conjunctions are fixed in initial position in
the clause (E.g. Because he and Jane aren’t married).

-PARENTHETICALS: Are set off from the surrounding clause by parentheses or by dashes (E.g.
One of the first to make it in modern times (some Greeks had known it long before) was
Leonardo da Vinci.

-PREFACES: Are noun phrases placed before the subject, which typically have the same
reference as a personal pronoun in the clause. E.g. This woman, she’s ninety years old.

-TAGS: Are normally added at the end of a clause and can be either a noun phrase, question
tags or declarative tasks. E.g. It’s nice that table anyway, She’s so generous, isn’t she? And
Yeah I thoroughly enjoyed it I did.

-INSERTS: Are separate family of words which can be “slipped into” spoken discourse. E.g. You
know who Stan is, right?

-VOCATIVES: Are nouns or noun phrases which generally refer to people and serve to identify
the person(s) being addressed. E.g. Mum, I’m making such a big sandwich.

UNIT 4 “NOUNS, PRONOUNS, AND THE SIMPLE NOUN PHRASE”

SIMPLE NOUN PHRASES: Consist of a head alone, or a determiner + head. Nouns or pronouns
can function as head. In addition, noun phrases can be extended by the use of modifiers and
complements.

TYPES OF NOUNS

MAIN TYPES OF NOUNS: Nouns can be grouped into a small number of classes. First, a
distinction between common and proper nouns. Common nouns can be either countable or
uncountable.

-COMMON (Take modifiers): COUNTABLE (Singular, Plural, Definite “the” and Indefinite
“a/an”) and UNCOUNTABLE (Singular and Definite “the”).

-PROPER (Take modifiers or possessive determiners, NO determiner/ Initial or Capital letter):

SINGULAR (No plural) and DEFINITE = an individual.

-CONCRETE (Physical entities or substances): COUNTABLE (Objects/Persons) OR

UNCOUNTABLE (Substances).

-ABSTRACT (Events or States).

Countability is matter of how we view the world, rather than how the world really is. English
language “sees” these items as a mass.

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Proper nouns need no article or plural form because they only name an individual whereas
common nouns denote a class. Nevertheless, proper nouns can sometimes have modifiers like
common nouns. E.g. The court heard that little Harry’s death could have been prevented if
social workers had not overruled detectives.

The adjectives add a descriptive label to someone already identified. Proper nouns sometimes
have a positive determiner. E.g. I am gonna have to phone our Sue.

Concrete nouns are more “physical” than abstract nouns, and the countable/uncountable
distinction can be better understood if we think of these distinctions for concrete nouns:

-COUNTABLE CONCRETE NOUNS refer to persons, objects and places.

-UNCOUNTABLE CONCRETE NOUNS refer to substances, material, liquids and gases.

THE SAME NOUN AS COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE

Many nouns can be both countable and uncountable, but with a difference of meaning:

-I think these are eggs from our chickens. (countable)

-Would you like some chicken for dinner? (uncountable)

UNCOUNTABLE WITH COUNTABLE USE

-I think I would like some wine though. (uncountable)

-A lot of non-alcoholic wines are expensive. (countable, = types of wine)

ABSTRACT WITH COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE USE

-What’s your highest level of education? (uncountable)

-Although she was a girl she wanted an education. (countable)

PLURAL UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

PLURAL ENDING (-S): trousers, scissors, thanks, etc. They have a plural ending –s and go with
plural determiners, but they are uncountable because there is no singular form: a thank.

PLURAL DETERMINER (Those): They are uncountable but they have no singular form.

PROPER NOUNS AS COMMON NOUNS

A PERSON OR A FAMILY (E.g. The Joneses).

A PRODUCT OF X (E.g. a Chevrolet, a Cadillac).

Types of proper nouns: Personal names, place names, organization names and time names.

Grammatically, these nouns have no determiner and do not have a contrast of number
between singular and plural in spelling, proper nouns are marked by an initial capital letter.
Proper nouns have exceptions. Many names are actually multi-word expressions, and contain
ordinary lexical words: The White House. A name may also be preceded by the, something
which can also occur with a single proper name as in the Sahara (desert). Some proper names
which “the” are plural. (E.g. the Himalayas)

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INITIAL CAPITALS – USES: PERSONAL NAMES (Sam, Jones) / GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES (Canada,
Tokyo) / OBJECTS - ESPECIALLY COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS (Chevrolet, Kleenex) / RELIGIOUS
PERIODS MONTHS AND DAYS OF THE WEEK (Ramadan, August) / RELIGIONS AND SOME
RELIGIOUS CONCEPTS (Buddhism, God, Heaven) / ADDRESS TERMS FOR FAMILY MEMBERS
(Mother, Dad) / PEOPLE OR BODIES WITH A UNIQUE PUBLIC FUNCTION (the President,
Parliament) / PUBLIC BUILDINGS INSTITUTIONS LAWS ETC (Yale University, the Fire
Precautions Act) / POLITICAL PARTIES AND THEIR MEMBERS (the Labour Party, the
Democrats) / LANGUAGES NATIONALITIES AND ETHNIC GROUPS (Arabic, Sioux) / ADJECTIVES
AND COMMON NOUNS DERIVED FROM PROPER NOUNS (Marxist, Marxism).

They can be put in a series:

PROPER NOUNS REGULARLY OCCURRING WITH THE: GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES, SUCH AS

RIVERS, SEAS, AND CANALS (e.g. the Nile, the Panama Canal, the Indian Ocean) / PLURAL
GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES / BUILDINGS WITH PUBLIC FUNCTIONS, SUCH AS HOTELS,
RESTAURANTS, THEATRES, MUSEUMS, AND LIBRARIES (e.g. the Ritz, the Metropolitan
Museum) / NAMES OF SHIPS (e.g. the Titanic, the Santa Maria) / MANY NEWSPAPERS AND
SOME PERIODICALS (e.g. The New York Times, The Guardian).

PACKAGE NOUNS

COLLECTIVE NOUNS, UNIT NOUNS, QUANTIFYING NOUNS, AND SPECIES NOUNS. They have
the function of “packaging" together a range of entities. They are often followed by of-phrases
(a load of books). The four different classes are sometimes difficult to separate.

COLLECTIVE NOUNS

Refer to groups of people, animals or things (e.g. army, family, etc.). All these nouns behave
like ordinary countable nouns, varying for number and definiteness: the team, a team, the
teams, teams. We also find proper nouns naming official bodies or organizations: the USAF,
the BBC, the Senate, the UN, etc.

One special class of collective nouns often comes before an of-phrase describing the members
of the group: groups of people, crowd of people, flock of seagulls, etc.

Nouns like group, crowd, and flock are called of-collectives because they generally precede of
+ plural noun, where the plural noun names a set of people, animals, objects, etc. Some of-
collectives, such as group, are quite general in meaning, whereas others have a more specific
application. Some typical collocations are:

collective noun - selected collocations

crowd of - demonstrators, fans, spectators, shoppers

the range of meaning that a collective noun can cover, Other examples are: herd of cows, host
of stars, pack of lies, series of accidents, shoal of fish, swarm of bees, troop of inspectors.
Some points are:

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-Bunch, group, and set are the most general words, allowing the widest range of collocations.

-Although many of these collectives have a specific range (e.g. flock refers to a group of birds
and animals), they can be extended, for special effect, to other nouns (e.g. flock of children).

-Some of the collectives frequently have a negative effect: especially bunch, gang, and pack.
Notice the contrasting effects of: A group of young men were talking eagerly. / A swarm of
panicked men, most with rifles, approached the blinding,

UNIT NOUNS

They allow us to cut up a generalized mass or substance into individual units or pieces. They
are countable nouns, but they are usually followed by an of-phrase containing an uncountable
noun.

-Like quantifying collectives, unit nouns vary in their range: loaf of bread and rasher of bacon
favor only one collocation, but bit and piece can be used very generally.

-One uncountable noun can also combine with a variety of unit nouns.

QUANTIFYING NOUNS

Used to refer to quantities, usually specified in a following of-phrase containing either a plural
noun or an uncountable noun: a pile of bricks, a kilo of potatoes

Seven kinds of quantifying nouns:

NOUNS FOR A TYPE OF CONTAINER

Basket of - eggs, flowers, bread, fruit

NOUNS FOR SHAPE

Heap of - ashes, blankets, bones, leaves, pile of - bills, bodies, bricks, rocks, rubbish, wood

MEASURE NOUNS

Like gallon, quart, liter/litre of - beer, blood, gas, milk, oil, wine. Some measure nouns are used
more generally: ounce, for example, can be used for a very small amount and ton for a very
large amount: He didn't seem to have an ounce of grown-up character to draw on. / He has
released tons of songs. for the consumption of the masses.

PLURAL NUMERAL NOUNS

Hundred, thousand, million, dozen, and score are nouns for precise numbers. But they can be
used in the plural to express an indefinitely large number: Oh goodness, darling, you've seen it
hundreds of times.

NOUNS FOR LARGE QUANTITIES

The nouns load(s) and mass(es) can also be used emotively and vaguely to refer to large
quantities: a load of - fuel, garbage, junk, money, stuff

NOUNS ENDING IN -FUL

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The noun suffix -ful (not to be confused with the adjective suffix -ful, as in careful) can be
added to almost any noun that can denote some kind of container. For example: bowlful,
earful, fistful, handful, mouthful, pocketful, spoonful, teaspoonful.

PAIR AND COUPLE

These are both nouns referring to two people, things, etc. But they are quite different in the
way they collocate: pair of - arms, eyes, glasses, gloves, hands, pants, pliers, scissors, shoes,
socks.

Pair of applies to two things which occur together, whereas couple of is used more vaguely, to
mean "two or three, a very small number'. A couple (of) is similar to a few, and can be
considered a plural quantifier.

SPECIES NOUNS

Often followed by an of-phrase, but they refer to the type rather than the quantity of
something: sort of, kinds of, types of bond energy. Species nouns can be followed by countable
or uncountable nouns. In the former case, there is a choice between singular and plural for
both nouns:

1- any make of machine <singular + of + singular>

2- what sort of things <singular + of + plural>

3- certain types of car <plural + of + singular>

4- these kinds of questions <plural + of + plural>

DETERMINERS
They are function words used to modify nouns. Determiners vary in the kind of noun head they
occur with: the three classes in question are countable singular noun, countable plural noun,
and uncountable noun.

Sometimes more than once determiners occur in the same noun phrase: e.g. all (quantifier)
the(article) books(noun). In such cases, the determiners occur in a fixed order, and for this
purpose we distinguish between central determiners (next to the noun - the most common

14
type). Predeterminers (which precede central determiners when both occur) and
postdeterminers (which follow central determiners). E.g. All (PD) the (central – CD) races
(Head) / all (PD) the (CD) four (Post D) races (Head) / the (CD) last (Post D 1) two (Post D 2)
years (Head).

SUMMARY:

DETERMINER VS NOUN

The special kinds of nouns behave in a similar way to quantifying determiners and semi-
determiners like a few, a little, a lot of, and such. Like these determiners, expressions like a
load of, a couple of, and a kind of qualify a following noun in terms of quantity or type.

In some ways, it is the noun following of, rather than the quantifying noun, that behaves like
the head of the noun phrase in these expressions.

DETERMINER V. PRONOUN

There is also a strong parallel between the different types of determiner and the different
types of pronoun. Pronouns lack the referential content provided by a noun head, and
therefore they depend much more on context for their interpretation than determiners.

Classes of determiners and pronouns

OTHER DETERMINERS

-POSSESSIVE DETERMINERS: Specify the noun phrase by relating it to the speaker/writer or

other entities and correspond to personal pronouns. (my, our, your, his, her, its, their) they
make noun phrases definite: She didn't want to spoil her shoes.

-DEMONSTRATIVE DETERMINERS: This/these and that/those are similar to the definite article
the in conveying definite meaning. However, they also specify whether the referent is singular
or plural and whether the referent is 'near' or distant' in relation to the speaker. They can
make the reference clear either by pointing to the situation (situational reference), or by
referring to the neighbouring text-either preceding (anaphoric reference) or following
(cataphoric reference).

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SITUATIONAL REFERENCE: It reflects the speaker's perception of whether the referent is near
or distant: This cake's lovely. It can also reflect emotional distance: this/these can express
greater sympathy than that/those.

TIME REFERENCE: They're buying a house this year in France.

ANAPHORIC REFERENCE: Refer back to the preceding text.

CATAPHORIC REFERENCE: To introduce/say STH for later.

QUANTIFYING DETERMINERS (QUANTIFIERS): They specify nouns in terms of quantity or

amount (all, many, much). Quantifiers can be divided into four types:

INCLUSIVE: (all, both, each, every) Refer to the whole of a group or mass.

NOTE: Each (Separate the individuals of a group) and every (highlights every one of them)

-We have two stations, but two people can work at each station.

-Every minute of every day, hundreds of millions of tonnes of coal are burned.

LARGE QUANTITY

MODERATE OR SMALL QUANTITY

AN ARBITRARY OR NEGATIVE INDIVIDUAL OR AMOUNT

-NUMERALS AS DETERMINERS: Cardinal numerals (like two) are similar to quantifiers, while
ordinal numerals (like second) are similar to the semi-determiners. Like most quantifiers,
numerals can occur in determiner position or in head position in a noun phrase
When the two types occur together in one noun phrase, ordinal numerals normally precede
cardinal numerals.
-SEMI-DETERMINERS: Words like same, other, another, last, and such have some adjective
characteristics and some determiner characteristics. These forms lack the descriptive meaning
that characterizes most adjectives, and like most determiners, they can also double as
pronouns: The same person was there with almost exactly the same message.

-WH-DETERMINERS: Are used to introduce interrogative clauses and relative clauses: Which
way are we going? / I had a girl whose dog was the bridesmaid.

THE ARTICLES

The most common determiners are the articles the and a/an. When no determiner occurs
before the noun we say that there is a zero article.

INDEFINITE MEANINGS EXPRESSED BY A/AN

Is used only with singular countable nouns. It narrows down the reference of the head noun to
one indefinite member of the class.

USES:

-Specific use of a/an: is often used to introduce a new specific entity into the discourse:
introduces a specific, but unnamed and unknown entity.

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-Unspecific use of a/an: used where the noun phrase does not refer to any specific individual:
I’m looking for a millionaire (it means “any person of that kind")
-Classifying or generic use of a/an: can also serve to classify an entity or to refer generically to
what is typical of any member of the class: My husband is a doctor.

INDEFINITE MEANING WITH THE ZERO ARTICLE

The zero article signals indefiniteness with uncountable nouns (1) and plural countable nouns
(2):

1 We have wine on the table girls, drink it.

2 We have telephones and we talk to people.

It expresses an indefinite number of amount and a non-specific or generic reference. Special

uses of zero articles with singular countable nouns:

-Meals as institutions: Are they going out for dinner or something?

-Places as institutions: The ceremony took place in church.

-Predicatives with unique reference: When a predicative noun phrase names a unique role or
job, either a zero article or the is used: Simon Burns is the chairman of the appeal fund.

-Means of transport and communication: travel by air/car.

-Times of the day, days, months, and seasons: Tomorrow at dawn we'll begin our journey.

-Parallel structures: He travelled from country to country. (identical) / Thankfully, it has turned
out all right for mother and baby. (contrasting)

-Block language (headlines): Fire kills teenager after hoax.

-Vocatives (to call or address STH): No hard feelings, Doctor.

THE DEFINITE ARTICLE “THE”

They refer to STH or SB assumed to be known.

-ANAPHORIC USE OF “THE”: After unknown entities have been introduced, they can be treated
as 'known'. Anaphora: the phrase with the refers back to a previously mentioned item. E.g. I
met a girl called July in the park yesterday. Today I found the same girl at school.

-INDIRECT ANAPHORIC USE OF “THE”: In indirect anaphora, the earlier noun is not repeated
but an associated noun is used with the.

-USE OF “THE” WITH SYNONYMS: Sometimes, indirect anaphora involves the use of a different
noun referring to the same thing or person.

-CATAPHORIC USE OF “THE”: Cataphora is something following later in the text, especially
some modifier of the noun  Followed by a phrase.

-SITUATIONAL USE OF “THE”: An entity is known from the situation. E.g. The pandemic.

NUMBER AND CASE IN NOUNS

NUMBER: SINGULAR AND PLURAL

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Number is the term for the contrast between singular and plural. The singular form of nouns is
the unmarked and most common form, and plural nouns are formed from the singular by
inflectional change (adding a suffix).

REGULAR PLURALS: The overwhelming majority of nouns form their plural by adding the
ending -(e)s.

NATIVE IRREGULAR PLURALS: A small number of native English words have irregular plurals:
man-men foot-feet tooth-teeth woman-women goose-geese mouse-mice ox-oxen child-
children calf-calves knife-knives leaf-leaves life- lives wolf-wolves shelf-shelves wife- wives
thief- thieves

LATIN AND GREEK PLURALS: curriculum- curricula appendix-appendices criterion-criteria

ZERO PLURALS

Are plural forms which do not change from singular to plural: fish, sheep, deer, salmon, dozen,
hundred, foot, mile when they are used as part of a numerical quantity (e.g. two dozen people,
two hundred kids), aircraft, dice, series, species.

PLURAL-ONLY NOUNS AND SINGULAR NOUNS IN -S

-They look singular but are actually plural, like people, police, staff, cattle.

-They look plural but are actually singular, like news, measles, mumps, checkers.

THE GENITIVE (ending 's)

THE FORM OF THE GENITIVE: The genitive is written with an apostrophe: -'s. With regular
plural nouns ending in -s, the genitive is marked by a final apostrophe: girls'. Thus the girl's
success (one girl) and the girls' success (more than one girl) are distinguished only by the
apostrophe. For irregular plurals not ending -S, the genitive is –‘s as for singular forms: men's
clothing. For singular names ending in -s, the regular genitive is usual: Davis's. But sometimes
these nouns are treated as if they were plural nouns: Davis', Charles'

GENITIVE AS DETERMINER: SPECIFYING GENITIVES

They fill the determiner slot in a noun phrase: they precede the head, and they play the role of
specifying the reference of the head noun. In this, they have the same function as the
possessive determiner. -His parents' home/ their home

Answer the question Whose X. The genitive acts as the head of its own noun phrase, which
acts as determiner for the whole noun phrase.

The genitive is often used to specify time, duration, distance/length or value (monetary): two
hours' sleep/ She had to buy fifty pounds' worth.

GENDER AND NOUN FORMATION

GENDER: MASCULINE, FEMININE, PERSONAL, AND NEUTER

English has no masculine and feminine inflections for nouns or determiners.

MASCULINE (male people), FEMININE (female people), PERSONAL GENDER nouns and
pronouns refer primarily to people, regardless of whether they are female or male and
NEUTER GENDER nouns and pronouns refer primarily to inanimates (including abstractions).

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DERIVED NOUNS can be formed through affixation, conversion (No affix is added to the base,
the base itself is converted into a different word class) and compounding (compound nouns).
TYPES OF PRONOUNS: PERSONAL PRONOUNS, REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS, DEMONSTRATIVE
PRONOUNS AND INDEFINITE PRONOUNS.

DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS (THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE): They also act as demonstrative
determiners, they can be alternatives of “it”.

INDEFINITE PRONOUNS: The COMPOUND PRONOUNS (Everybody, somebody, anyone, etc.),

the QUANTIFYING PRONOUNS/QUANTIFIERS (Some, all, any, etc.) and the PRONOUN ONE.

COMPOUND PRONOUNS

QUANTIFYING PRONOUNS (QUANTIFIERS)

Can act both as determiners and as pronouns. In general, the form of the word is identical for
both. Most quantifying pronouns are followed by of and a definite noun phrase: Bring all of
your friends.

However, quantifying pronouns can also stand alone as a noun phrase: I just want to get my
bonus, that's all.

THE PRONOUN ONE: Apart from its use as a numeral, one has two uses as a pronoun:

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SUBSTITUTE ONE, ONES: One can replace a countable noun that has been mentioned before
or is inferred from the context. A singular noun is replaced by one, and a plural noun by ones.
One and ones can follow a determiner or semi-c determiner: the one, those ones, another one,
the last one, they can even follow an adjective: the latest one. In fact, one is best seen as a
replacement for a noun, rather than for a whole noun phrase.

GENERIC ONE, ONE'S, ONESELF: One is also used as a generic pronoun referring to people in
general. In this use, one is singular and has no plural form. However, it has a possessive form
one's (and a reflexive form oneself. E.g. One doesn't raise taxes with enthusiasm. / Success and
acclaim were seen as a means of validating one's existence. / One does not wish to repeat
oneself unduly.

OTHER PRONOUNS: There are pronoun uses corresponding to Semi-determiners: others,

another, the other, the latter, the last, such. The wh-pronouns what, which, who, whom, and
whose are used to form interrogative and relative clauses.

UNIT 5 “VERBS”

Verbs provide the focal point of the clause. The main verb in a clause determines the other
clause elements that can occur and specifies a meaning relation among those elements.

VERB FUNCTIONS AND CLASSES

MAIN VERBS: They play a central role in causes, usually occur in the middle of a clause, and
they are the most important element because they determine the other clause elements. 'The
pattern of these other clause elements is called the valency pattern (what follows a DO,
Complement, etc.).

AUXILIARY VERBS: They occur before a main verb and qualify the meaning of the main verb.

Verbs can be grouped into three major classes according to their ability to function as main
verbs or auxiliary verbs:

LEXICAL VERBS: Function only as main verbs.

Primary verbs: (be, have, and do) can function as both auxiliary and main verbs.

Modal verbs: (can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must) function only as
auxiliary verbs.

The class of lexical verbs is an open class because we could add new words.

There are only three primary verbs: be, have, and do, the most common verbs in English. They
can be used either as a main verb or as an auxiliary verb.

-Main verb function: He does my washing.

-Auxiliary verb function (with main verb underlined): He doesn't look at the numbers.

SINGLE-WORD LEXICAL VERBS

SEMANTIC CATEGORIES OF LEXICAL VERBS

Seven semantic categories:

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-ACTIVITY VERBS: Usually refer to an action performed intentionally by an agent or doer. They
can be transitive, taking a direct object, or intransitive, occurring without any object:
Activity verbs are also sometimes used to express events that occur without the volition of an
agent. E.g. During that time continents, oceans, and mountain chains have moved horizontally
and vertically.

-COMMUNICATION VERBS: Are a special subcategory of activity verbs that involve

communication activities: you said you didn't have it.

-MENTAL VERBS: Refer to mental states and activities. These verbs do not involve physical
action, they involve mental states or processes (e.g. think, know) / emotions, attitudes, or
desires (e.g. love, want) / perceptions (e.g. see, taste) / the receiving of communication (e.g.
read, hear). Many mental verbs describe mental activities that are relatively dynamic in
meaning: They decided to watch TV.

Other mental verbs are more stative in meaning: that is, they describe a state rather than an
action. These include verbs describing mental states, such as believe, remember, and
understand, as well as many verbs describing emotions or attitudes, such as enjoy, fear, hate,
and prefer.

-CAUSATIVE VERBS: Indicate that some person or thing helps to bring about a new state of
affairs. These verbs often occur with a derived noun as the direct object, which reports the
action that was facilitated: This information enables the formulation of precise questions.
In other cases, the resulting action or event is expressed in a complement clause that follows
the causative verb: What caused you to be ill?
-VERBS OF OCCURRENCE: Report events that occur without an actor. Often the subjects of
these verbs are affected by the event that is described by the verb: The lights changed.

-VERBS OF EXISTENCE OR RELATIONSHIP: Report a state of existence or a logical relationship

that exists between entities. Some of the most common existence verbs are copular verbs,
such as seem and appear: All these uses seem natural and serviceable.

Other verbs in this class report a state of existence or a relationship between entities: State of
existence: I go and stay with them. / Relationship: They contained large quantities of nitrogen.

-VERBS OF ASPECT: Characterize the stage of progress of an event or activity. These verbs
usually occur with a complement clause following the verb: He couldn't stop talking about me.

VERBS WITH MULTIPLE MEANINGS

In some cases, the verb's meaning covers two or more semantic categories simultaneously.
Also, some verbs have different meanings in different contexts. The context usually makes the
intended meaning of a verb obvious.

THE MOST COMMON LEXICAL VERBS: Say, get, go, come, make and take.

LEXICAL VERBS: STRUCTURES AND PATTERNS

DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY (Marks person, tense, aspect and voice).

INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY (Shows how verbs have been created).

REGULAR AND IRREGULAR VERB ENDINGS

21
-REGULAR VERBS: They use the same inflections to mark person, tense, aspect, and voice.

-IRREGULAR VERBS: There are seven main patterns used to mark past tense and ed-participles
in irregular verbs:

Class 1: A -t or –d suffix marks past tense and ed-participles. The t may replace a final d of the
base: e.g. build - built. Or the t may be added to the base: e.g. learn-learnt. Some of the verbs
that add t to the base also have a regular form: e.g. learnt and learned.

Class 2: A -t or -d suffix marks past tense and ed-participle, and the base vowel changes: mean
/mi:n/ - meant /ment/.

22
Class 3: The regular -ed suffix marks past tense, but an -(e)n suffix marks ed-participles:
Show/showed/shown (note: showed also occurs).
Class 4: No suffix is used for the past tense, but ed-participles have an -(e)n suffix; in addition,
the base vowel changes in either the past tense, ed-participle, or both: Give/gave/given.

Class 5: The base vowel changes in the past tense, the ed-participle, or both; there are no
other changes: Begin/began/begun.

Class 6: Past tense and ed-participle forms are identical to the base form: Cut/cut/cut.

Class 7: One of the forms is completely different: Go/went/gone.

VERB FORMATION

Derivational affixes are incomplete units of language that form a new word when they are
added to an existing word (the base). Prefixes are attached to the front of the base, while
suffixes are attached to the end of the base. Verb prefixes usually do not change the word
class. Verb derivational suffixes, on the other hand, are added to a noun or adjective to verb.

VALENCY PATTERNS: The main verb in a clause determines the other elements that are
required. The patterns of clause elements are differentiated by the required clause elements
that follow the verb within the clause (e.g. direct object, indirect object, subject predicative).

All patterns include an optional adverbial that can be added.

Basic clause patterns:

-INTRANSITIVE: Subject(S)+Verb phrase(V). E.g. Sarah and Michael (S) disappeared (V).
Intransitive verbs occur with no obligatory element following the verb, they don’t need more
elements because the idea is complete: More people came.

-MONOTRANSITIVE: S+V+Direct object(DO)  A complement clause. E.g. She (S) changed (V)
her dress (DO).

-COPULAR: S+V+Subject predicative(SP). E.g. The Swiss cheese (S) has gone (V) bad (SP) /
S+V+Adverbial (A). E.g. Marc (S) was (V) in the bathroom (A). Copular verbs are followed by a
subject predicative (a noun, adjective, adverb or prepositional phrase) or by an obligatory
adverbial. E.g. Carrie felt a little less bold. / I’ll keep in touch with you.

-DITRANSITIVE: S+V+Indirect object (IO)+DO  Prepositional phrase/ Complement clause. E.g.

You (S) gave (V) her (IO) the wrong kind of egg (DO).

-COMPLEX TRANSITIVE: S+V+DO+Object predicative (OP). E.g. That (S) makes (V) me (DO) so
mad (OP) / S+V+DO+A. E.g. They (S) ‘re sending (V) us (DO) to Disneyland (A). Complex
transitive verbs occur with a direct object (a noun phrase) which is followed by either an object
predicative (a noun phrase or adjective), or an obligatory adverbial: People called him Johnny.
/ He put his hand on the child's shoulder.

Optional adverbials: S+V+(A) INTRANSITIVE  He went to the corner shop / S+V+O+(A)

TRANSITIVE He ate nearly all those ships tonight.

The valency of the verb controls the kinds of elements that follow it. All patterns which have
an object following the verb are given the generic term transitive.

VARIATIONS ON TRANSITIVE PATTERNS

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Monotransitive, ditransitive, and complex transitive patterns are the transitive patterns; they
all require some type of object. The most common structure for the objects is a noun phrase.
However, in some cases other structures can function as objects. Verbs in all patterns can
occur with optional adverbials.

VERBS WITH MULTIPLE VALENCY PATTERNS

Most common verbs allow more than one valency pattern, and some allow a wide range.
These often have different meanings with each pattern.

MULTI-WORD LEXICAL VERBS

MULTI-WORD VERBS: STRUCTURE AND MEANING

Many multi-word units’ function like single verb. These combinations usually have idiomatic
meanings. That is, their meaning cannot be predicted from the meaning of each individual
word. Four classes: phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs, phrasal-prepositional verbs and other
multi-word verb constructions.

-PHRASAL VERBS: Consist of a verb followed by an adverbial particle (e.g. carry out, find out,
or pick up). When these adverbial particles are used independently, they have literal meanings
signifying location or direction (e.g. out, in, up, down, on, off). However, in phrasal verbs they
are commonly used with less literal meanings. There are two major subcategories of phrasal
verbs: intransitive and transitive: Come on, tell me about Nick. / I ventured to bring up the
subject of the future.

With transitive phrasal verbs the particle can be placed after the direct object. In addition, a
few phrasal verbs are copular, such as turn out, end up, etc.

-PREPOSITIONAL VERBS: Consist of a verb followed by a preposition, such as talk about, listen
to. All prepositional verbs take prepositional object, i.e. the noun phrase that occurs after the
preposition. Two major structural patterns:
Pattern 1 (With a single prepositional object): NP + V + prep + NP. E.g. I've never even thought
about it

Pattern 2 (With a direct object and a prepositional object): NP + V + NP + prep + NP. E.g. He
said farewell to us [on this very spot] / The media is falsely accused of a lot of things.

Most prepositional verbs occur with only one pattern. However, some prepositional verbs
occur with both Patterns 1 and 2.

The structure of a prepositional verb can be considered a single-word lexical verb that is
followed by a prepositional phrase. The prepositional phrase functions as an adverbial.

However, the verb + preposition can also be considered as a multi-word unit - a single
'prepositional verb'. This analysis is supported by the fact that prepositional verbs often have
idiomatic meanings that cannot be derived from the meanings of verb the with two a parts.

-PHRASAL-PREPOSITIONAL VERBS: Contain both an adverbial particle and a preposition, as in

get away with. Because they are idiomatic in meaning, it is sometimes possible to replace
multi-word verbs by single-word verbs with a similar meaning: carry out – undertake / put up
with – tolerate / make off with – steal.

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-OTHER MULTI-WORD VERB CONSTRUCTIONS: They are free combinations that consist of a
single-word lexical verb followed by an adverb or preposition with a separate meaning (e.g.
come down, go back). Verbs are also used in relatively fixed or idiomatic multi-word
constructions: verb + prepositional phrase combinations, verb + verb combinations, verb +
noun phrase combinations and verb + prepositional phrase combinations.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PHRASAL VERBS AND PREPOSITIONAL VERBS

Just three criteria are usually sufficient for distinguishing among the types of multi-word
combinations:

-Whether or not there is an idiomatic meaning.

-Whether or not particle movement is possible

-How the wh-question is formed.

PRIMARY VERBS

BE (COPULAR)

-MAIN VERB BE: It links the subject noun phrase with a subject predicative (1) or an obligatory
adverbial (2): 1 Radio waves are useful / 2 She was in Ollie’s room a lot.

-AUXILIARY VERB BE: As an auxiliary verb, it has two distinct grammatical functions:
Progressive aspect (be + ing-participle): The last light was fading by the time he entered the
town / Passive voice (be + ed-participle): This system of intergovernmental transfers is called
fiscal federalism.

HAVE (TRANSITIVE)

-MAIN VERB HAVE: It can be used with many different meanings:

Linking a person to an abstract quality: I hope she has fun.

Linking an inanimate subject to an abstract quality: Stylistics can have other goals than this.

Showing that someone causes something to be done: Maybe you should have it dyed black as
well.

Occurs as part of the semi-modal have to: I'll have to blank it out.

Occurs in a number of idiomatic multi-word phrases, such as have a look.

-AUXILIARY VERB HAVE: Have is the marker of perfect aspect. Past tense had marks past
perfect, and present has/have marks present perfect.

DO

-MAIN VERB DO: As a main verb in transitive constructions, do has an activity meaning. It can
take a direct object: In that moment Franklin Field did a wonderful thing. Or an indirect object
+ direct object: Will you do me a favor?

Do more commonly combines with a noun phrase to form relatively fixed, idiomatic
expressions such as do the job, do the dishes, do time (meaning 'go to prison'), do some work,
do the wash, do your hair. In these expressions, do has little lexical content. It refers to the

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performance of an activity that is relevant to the object noun phrase, but it does not specify
that activity.
- As a transitive pro-verb: Do also commonly functions as a pro-verb, substituting for a
lexical verb. It often combines with it, this/that, or so, to form a transitive pro-verb
construction: I didn't do it.
- As an intransitive pro-verb: Provides an alternative to ellipsis (When we replace a
phrase – Substitution).

-AUXILIARY VERB DO:

Do-support in negatives and interrogatives: E.g. He doesn't smoke or drink. Called do-support,
because do is added merely to support the construction of the negative or interrogative. The
do does not contribute any independent meaning, in these constructions, present or past
tense is marked on the verb do, not on the main verb.

Emphatic do: It is used to emphasize that the meaning of the main verb (or the rest of the
clause) is positive, in contrast with what one might expect. E.g. I did have a protractor, but it
broke. It can’t be combined with another auxiliary and usually marks a state of affairs that
contrasts with an expected state of affairs marked with connectives as but, however,
nevertheless, though, and although. E.g. Nevertheless, great changes do occur and have been
well documented. A special use of emphatic do is in commands (or suggestions/invitations that
use the imperative form): Do get on with your work, Beth.

Auxiliary do as a pro-verb: The auxiliary do can act as a pro-verb, standing in for the whole
verb phrase + complement. It is used in both positive and negative clauses:

A: He doesn't even know you.

B: He does! <does = does know me>.

COPULAR VERBS

THE COPULAR BE, AND OTHER COPULAR VERBS: Are used to associate an attribute with the
subject of the clause. The attribute is usually expressed by the subject predicative following
the verb. E.g. You’re very stupid!

Many copular verbs are also used to locate the subject of the clause in time or space. Times
and places are expressed by an obligatory adverbial of position, duration, or direction that
occurs after the copula. E.g. I was in the kitchen.

Several verbs can function as either a copular verb or a transitive/intransitive verb, depending
on the context. There are many verbs that can function as copular verbs. They fall into two
main categories: current copular verbs and result copular verbs.

FUNCTIONS OF COPULAR VERBS

>CURRENT COPULAR VERBS: Two subclasses

-STATE-OF-EXISTENCE: Identifies attributes that are in a continuing state of existence. This

includes: be, seem, appear, keep, remain, stay.

-SENSORY PERCEPTION: This includes: look, feel, sound, smell, taste.

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>RESULT COPULAR VERBS: Identify an attribute that is the result of a process of change: She'll
end up pregnant. Other result copular verbs include: become, get, go, grow, prove, come, turn,
turn out, end up, wind up.

FUNCTIONS OF COPULAR VERBS

Copular verbs differ in their meanings and in the complements that they take. Overall, most
copular verbs occur with an adjective phrase as the subject predicative, but some verbs are
also strongly associated with other structures, such as a noun phrase or complement clause.
Some verbs are limited to one type of complement, while others occur with many. The most
common copular verbs and their complements:

UNIT 6 “VARIATION IN THE VERB PHRASE: TENSE, ASPECT, VOICE, AND MODAL USE”

SIX MAJOR KINDS OF VARIATION IN THE STRUCTURE OF VERB PHRASES

TENSE: PRESENT/PAST

FUTURE IS TIME, TO FORM THE FUTURE WE CAN’T USE INFLECTIONS, THERE’S NO WAY TO
MARK FUTURE TENSE IN ENGLISH. Future time is usually marked in the verb phrase with a
modal (will, shall) or semi-modal (be going to).

ASPECT: UNMARKED (SIMPLE ASPECT)/PERFECT/PROGRESSIVE/PERFECT PROGRESSIVE

VOICE: ACTIVE/PASSIVE

MODALITY: UNMARKED/WITH MODAL VERB

NEGATION: POSITIVE/NEGATIVE

FINITE CLAUSE TYPE (MOOD): DECLARATIVE/INTERROGATIVE/IMPERATIVE(SUBJUNCTIVE)

TENSE

ASPECT

Adds time meanings to those expressed by tense. Answers the question “Is the event/state
described by the verb completed, or is it continuing?”

There are four possibilities: Perfect aspect, present tense/ Perfect aspect, past tense/
Progressive aspect, present tense/ Progressive aspect, past tense.

VOICE

Most passive constructions are formed with auxiliary be and an ed- participle. Another
construction is the get-passive. There are short (Coffee is grown in Brazil – agentless passives)
and long (specifies the agent – by phrase) passives.

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 MODALITY

THERE ARE NINE CENTRAL MODAL VERBS: Can, could, may, might, must, should, will, would,
and shall.

They act as an auxiliary verb, don’t take inflections, they precede the negative particle in not
negation (e.g. I cannot go), express a wide variety of meanings related to possibility, necessity,
obligation, etc.

Semi-modals are multi-word constructions that function like modal verbs: (had) better, have
to, (have) got to, ought to, be supposed to, be going to, used to.

UNIT 7 “ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS”

CHARACTERISTICS OF ADJECTIVES

Adjectives that have all these are called CENTRAL ADJECTIVES and with fewer of them are
PERIPHERAL ADJECTIVES.

MORPHOLOGICAL: Central adjectives can be inflected to show comparative and superlative

degree.

SYNTACTIC: Central adjectives serve both ATTRIBUTIVE and PREDICATIVE syntactic roles. In
attributive position the adjective is part of a noun phrase, precedes and modifies the head
noun (full impact). Predicative adjectives are not part of a noun phrase, but instead
characterize a noun phrase that is a separate clause element (that’ll be quite impressive)
“that” is described as impressive.
SEMANTIC: Central adjectives are descriptive. They typically characterize the referent of a
nominal expression (blue and white flag). They are gradable which can take comparative and
superlative forms and can be modified by an adverb of degree, such as very.

Peripheral adjectives occur only attributive or predicative roles, but not both.

SEMANTIC CATEGORIES OF ADJECTIVES: Descriptors (Describe color, size and weight,

chronology and age, emotion, etc.) and classifiers (limit or restrict a noun’s referent, rather
than describing characteristics. E.g. complete, different, American, commercial, human, etc.)

THE FORMATION OF ADJECTIVES

They can be formed through using participial forms (-ing, –ed or a negative prefix), adding
word endings or derivational suffixes or compounding (i.e. combining two words).

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 THE FUNCTION OF ADVERBS

Two major roles: they can be integrated into an element of the clause (as a modifier), or they
themselves can be an element of the clause (as an adverbial). The same adverbs can function
as both.

THE FORMATION OF ADVERBS

Four major categories:

-SIMPLE ADVERBS: Not derived from another word (well, too, rather, quite, soon and here).

-COMPOUND ADVERBS: By combining two or more elements into a single word (anyway,
nowhere).

-ADVERBS DERIVED BY SUFFIXATION: Formed by suffixing –ly to an adjective (clearly). Other

common ones are –wise and –ward(s) added to nouns (piecewise, homewards, afterward).

-FIXED PHRASES: Their component words have lost their independent meaning (of course,
kind of, at last).

SYNTACTIC ROLES OF ADVERBS

A primary function is to modify adjectives. Usually precede them but the adverbs enough and
ago are postposed (like others).

They can modify other adverbs (really fast), noun phrases (quite a surprise), a pronoun (almost
nobody), a predeterminer (about half a side), a prepositional phrase (well into their seventies),
a particle of phrasal verb (right up), a numeral (approximately 250 people) and other
measurement expressions (roughly one-quarter to one-third).

SEMANTIC CATEGORIES OF ADVERBS

SEVEN MAIN CATEGORIES:

-PLACE ADVERBS: Express distance, direction or position.

-TIME ADVERBS: Express position in time, frequency, duration and relationship.

-MANNER ADVERBS: Express information about how an action is performed.

-DEGREE ADVERBS: Used to emphasize that a characteristic is either greater or less than some
typical level.

-ADDITIVE/RESTRICTIVE ADVERBS: Show that one item is being added to another.

-STANCE ADVERBS: Used to express three types of stance; epistemic, attitude and style.

-LINKING ADVERBS: Make conections between sections of discourse (however, thus).

COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE FORMS

Gradable adjectives can be marked to show comparative and superlative degree. These
degrees can be marked either inflectionally (using a single word) or phrasally (using a
construction of more than one word).

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