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English Grammar in English by John Dow - Page 4 - Forum
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English Grammar in English by John Dow
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| Bakhtiyor | Date: Sunday, 2012-05-27, 1:36 PM | Message # 46 |
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| 6.3 Circumstantial Adverbs
Many adverbs convey information about the manner, time, or place of an event or action. MANNER adverbs tell us how an action is or should be performed:
She sang loudly in the bath
The sky quickly grew dark
They whispered softly
I had to run fast to catch the bus
TIME adverbs denote not only specific times but also frequency:
I'll be checking out tomorrow
Give it back, now!
John rarely rings any more
I watch television sometimes
And finally, PLACE adverbs indicate where:
Put the box there, on the table
I've left my gloves somewhere
These three adverb types -- manner, time, and place -- are collectively known as CIRCUMSTANTIAL ADVERBS. They express one of the circumstances relating to an event or action - how it happened (manner), when it happened (time), or where it happened (place).
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| Bakhtiyor | Date: Sunday, 2012-05-27, 1:37 PM | Message # 47 |
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| 6.4 Additives, Exclusives, and Particularizers
Additives "add" two or more items together, emphasizing that they are all to be considered equal:
[1] Lynn's prewar success had been as a light historical novelist; he employed similar fanciful ideas in his war novels [...] Joseph Hocking's war novels are also dominated by romance and adventure [W2A-009-40ff]
[2] German firms have an existing advantage as a greater number of their managers have technical or engineering degrees. Japanese managers, too, have technical qualifications of a high order. [W2A-011-51ff]
In [1], the adverb also points to the similarities between the war novels of Lynn and those of Hocking. In [2], the adverb too functions in a similar way, emphasizing the fact that the qualifications of Japanese managers are similar to those of German managers.
In contrast with additives, EXCLUSIVE adverbs focus attention on what follows them, to the exclusion of all other possibilities:
[3] It's just a question of how we organise it [S1B-075-68]
[4] The federal convention [...] comes together solely for the purpose of electing the president [S2B-021-99]
In [3], just excludes all other potential questions from consideration, while in [4], solely points out the fact that the federal convention has no other function apart from electing the president. Other exclusives include alone, exactly, merely, and simply.
PARTICULARIZERS also focus attention on what follows them, but they do not exclude other possibilities:
[5] The pastoralists are particularly found in Africa [S2A-047-3]
[6] Now this book is mostly about what they call modulation [S1A-045-167]
In [5], it is implied that Africa is not the only place where pastoralists live. While most of them live there, some of them live elsewhere. Sentence [6] implies that most of the book is about modulation, though it deals with other, unspecified topics as well.
Other particularizers include largely, mainly, primarily, and predominantly.
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| Bakhtiyor | Date: Sunday, 2012-05-27, 1:37 PM | Message # 48 |
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| 6.5 Wh- Adverbs
A special subclass of adverbs includes a set of words beginning with wh-. The most common are when, where, and why, though the set also includes whence, whereby, wherein, and whereupon. To this set we add the word how, and we refer to the whole set as WH- ADVERBS. Some members of the set can introduce an interrogative sentence:
When are you going to New York?
Where did you leave the car?
Why did he resign?
How did you become interested in theatre?
They can also introduce various types of clause:
This is the town where Shakespeare was born
I've no idea how it works
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| Bakhtiyor | Date: Sunday, 2012-05-27, 1:38 PM | Message # 49 |
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| 6.6 Sentence Adverbs
We conclude by looking at a set of adverbs which qualify a whole sentence, and not just a part of it. Consider the following:
Honestly, it doesn't matter
Here the sentence adverb honestly modifies the whole sentence, and it expresses the speaker's opinion about what is being said (When I say it doesn't matter, I am speaking honestly). Here are some more examples:
Clearly, he has no excuse for such behaviour
Frankly, I don't care about your problems
Unfortunately, no refunds can be given
Some sentence adverbs link a sentence with a preceding one:
England played well in the first half. However, in the second half their weaknesses were revealed.
Other sentence adverbs of this type are accordingly, consequently, hence, moreover, similarly, and therefore.
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| Bakhtiyor | Date: Sunday, 2012-05-27, 1:38 PM | Message # 50 |
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| 7 Prepositions
Prepositions cannot be distinguished by any formal features. A list of prepositions will illustrate this point:
across, after, at, before, by, during, from, in, into, of, on, to, under, with, without
We can, say, however, that prepositions typically come before a noun:
across town
after class
at home
before Tuesday
by Shakespeare for lunch
in London
on fire
to school
with pleasure
The noun does not necessarily come immediately after the preposition, however, since determiners and adjectives can intervene:
after the storm
on white horses
under the old regime
Whether or not there are any intervening determiners or adjectives, prepositions are almost always followed by a noun. In fact, this is so typical of prepositions that if they are not followed by a noun, we call them "stranded" prepositions:
Preposition Stranded Preposition
John talked about the new film This is the film John talked about
Prepositions are invariable in their form, that is, they do not take any inflections.
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| Bakhtiyor | Date: Sunday, 2012-05-27, 1:38 PM | Message # 51 |
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| 7.1 Complex Prepositions
The prepositions which we have looked at so far have all consisted of a single word, such as in, of, at, and to. We refer to these as SIMPLE PREPOSITIONS.
COMPLEX PREPOSITIONS consist of two- or three-word combinations acting as a single unit. Here are some examples:
according to
along with
apart from
because of
contrary to due to
except for
instead of
prior to
regardless of
Like simple prepositions, these two-word combinations come before a noun:
according to Shakespeare
contrary to my advice
due to illness
Three-word combinations often have the following pattern:
Simple Preposition + Noun + Simple Preposition
We can see this pattern in the following examples:
in aid of
on behalf of
in front of
in accordance with
in line with in line with
in relation to
with reference to
with respect to
by means of
Again, these combinations come before a noun:
in aid of charity
in front of the window
in line with inflation
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| Bakhtiyor | Date: Sunday, 2012-05-27, 1:39 PM | Message # 52 |
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| 7.2 Marginal Prepositions
A number of prepositions have affinities with other word classes. In particular, some prepositions are verbal in form:
Following his resignation, the minister moved to the country
I am writing to you regarding your overdraft
The whole team was there, including John
We refer to these as MARGINAL PREPOSITIONS. Other marginal prepositions include:
concerning, considering, excluding, given, granted, pending
Non-verbal marginal prepositions include worth (it's worth ten pounds) and minus (ten minus two is eight).
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| Bakhtiyor | Date: Sunday, 2012-05-27, 1:39 PM | Message # 53 |
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| 8 Conjunctions
Conjunctions are used to express a connection between words. The most familiar conjunctions are and, but, and or:
Paul and David
cold and wet
tired but happy
slowly but surely
tea or coffee
hot or cold
They can also connect longer units:
Paul plays football and David plays chess
I play tennis but I don't play well
We can eat now or we can wait till later
There are two types of conjunctions. COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS (or simply COORDINATORS) connect elements of `equal' syntactic status:
Paul and David
I play tennis but I don't play well
meat or fish
Items which are connected by a coordinator are known as CONJOINS. So in I play tennis but I don't play well, the conjoins are [I play tennis] and [ I don't play well].
On the other hand, SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS (or SUBORDINATORS) connect elements of `unequal' syntactic status:
I left early because I had an interview the next day
We visited Madame Tussaud's while we were in London
I'll be home at nine if I can get a taxi
Other subordinating conjunctions include although, because, before, since, till, unless, whereas, whether
Coordination and subordination are quite distinct concepts in grammar. Notice, for example, that coordinators must appear between the conjoins:
[Paul plays football] and [David plays chess]
~*And [David plays chess] [Paul plays football]
However, we can reverse the order of the conjoins, provided we keep the coordinator between them:
[David plays chess] and [Paul plays football]
In contrast with this, subordinators do not have to occur between the items they connect::
I left early because I had an interview the next day
~Because I had an interview the next day, I left early
But if we reverse the order of the items, we either change the meaning completely:
I left early because I had an interview the next day
~I had an interview the next day because I left early
or we produce a very dubious sentence:
I'll be home at nine if I can get a taxi
~?I can get a taxi if I'll be home at nine
This shows that items linked by a subordinator have a very specific relationship to each other -- it is a relationship of syntactic dependency. There is no syntactic dependency in the relationship between conjoins. We will further explore this topic when we look at the grammar of clauses.
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| Bakhtiyor | Date: Sunday, 2012-05-27, 1:39 PM | Message # 54 |
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| 8.1 Coordination Types
Conjoins are usually coordinated using one of the coordinators and, but, or or. In [1], the bracketed conjoins are coordinated using and:
[1] [Quickly] and [resolutely], he strode into the bank
This type of coordination, with a coordinator present, is called SYNDETIC COORDINATION.
Coordination can also occur without the presence of a coordinator, as in [2]:
[2] [Quickly], [resolutely], he strode into the bank
No coordinator is present here, but the conjoins are still coordinated. This is known as ASYNDETIC COORDINATION.
When three or more conjoins are coordinated, a coordinator will usually appear between the final two conjoins only:
[3] I need [bread], [cheese], [eggs], and [milk]
This is syndetic coordination, since a coordinating conjunction is present. It would be unusual to find a coordinator between each conjoin:
[3a] I need [bread] and [cheese] and [eggs] and [milk]
This is called POLYSYNDETIC COORDINATION. It is sometimes used for effect, for instance to express continuation:
[4] This play will [run] and [run] and [run]
[5] He just [talks] and [talks] and [talks]
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| Bakhtiyor | Date: Sunday, 2012-05-27, 1:39 PM | Message # 55 |
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| 8.2 False Coordination
Coordinators are sometimes used without performing any strictly coordinating role:
I'll come when I'm good and ready
Here, the adjectives good and ready are not really being coordinated with each other. If they were, the sentence would mean something like:
I'll come [when I'm good] and [when I'm ready]
Clearly, this is not the meaning which good and ready conveys. Instead, good and intensifies the meaning of ready. We might rephrase the sentence as
I'll come when I'm completely ready.
Good and ready is an example of FALSE COORDINATION -- using a coordinator without any coordinating role. It is sometimes called PSEUDO-COORDINATION.
False coordination can also be found in informal expressions using try and:
Please try and come early
I'll try and ring you from the office
Here, too, no real coordination is taking place. The first sentence, for instance, does not mean Please try, and please come early. Instead, it is semantically equivalent to Please try to come early.
In informal spoken English, and and but are often used as false coordinators, without any real coordinating role. The following extract from a conversation illustrates this:
Speaker A: Well he told me it's this super high-flying computer software stuff. I'm sure it's the old job he used to have cleaning them
Speaker B: But it went off okay last night then did it? Did you have a good turnout? [S1A-005-95ff]
Here, the word but used by Speaker B does not coordinate any conjoins. Instead, it initiates her utterance, and introduces a completely new topic.
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| Bakhtiyor | Date: Sunday, 2012-05-27, 1:40 PM | Message # 56 |
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| 9 Minor word classes
We have now looked at the seven major word classes in English. Most words can be assigned to at least one of these classes. However, there are some words which will not fit the criteria for any of them. Consider, for example, the word hello. It is clearly not a noun, or an adjective, or a verb, or indeed any of the classes we have looked at. It belongs to a minor word class, which we call formulaic expressions.
9.1 Formulaic Expressions
To express greetings, farewell, thanks, or apologies, we use a wide range of FORMULAIC EXPRESSIONS. These may consist of a single word or of several words acting as a unit. Here are some examples:
bye
goodbye
hello
farewell
hi
so long excuse me
thanks
thank you
thanks a lot
sorry
pardon
Some formulaic expressions express agreement or disagreement with a previous speaker:
yes, yeah, no, okay, right, sure
INTERJECTIONS generally occur only in spoken English, or in the representation of speech in novels. They include the following:
ah, eh, hmm, oh, ouch, phew, shit, tsk, uhm, yuk
Interjections express a wide range of emotions, including surprise (oh!), exasperation (shit!), and disgust (yuk!).
Formulaic expressions, including interjections, are unvarying in their form, that is, they do not take any inflections.
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| Bakhtiyor | Date: Sunday, 2012-05-27, 1:40 PM | Message # 57 |
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| 9.2 Existential there
We have seen that the word there is an adverb, in sentences such as:
You can't park there
I went there last year
Specifically, it is an adverb of place in these examples.
However, the word there has another use. As EXISTENTIAL THERE, it often comes at the start of a sentence:
There is a fly in my soup
There were six errors in your essay
Existential there is most commonly followed by a form of the verb be. When it is used in a question, it follows the verb:
Is there a problem with your car?
Was there a storm last night?
The two uses of there can occur in the same sentence:
There is a parking space there
In this example, the first there is existential there, and the second is an adverb.
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| Bakhtiyor | Date: Sunday, 2012-05-27, 1:40 PM | Message # 58 |
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| 9.3 Uses of It
In the section on pronouns, we saw that the word it is a third person singular pronoun. However, this word also has other roles which are not related to its pronominal use. We look at some of these other uses here.
When we talk about time or the weather, we use sentences such as:
What time is it?
It is four o'clock
It is snowing
It's going to rain
Here, we cannot identify precisely what it refers to. It has a rather vague reference, and we call this DUMMY IT or PROP IT. Dummy it is also used, equally vaguely, in other expressions:
Hold it!
Take it easy!
Can you make it to my party?
It is sometimes used to "anticipate" something which appears later in the same sentence:
It's great to see you
It's a pity you can't come to my party
In the first example, it "anticipates" to see you. We can remove it from the sentence and replace it with to see you:
To see you is great
Because of its role in this type of sentence, we call this ANTICIPATORY IT.
See also: Cleft Sentences
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| Bakhtiyor | Date: Sunday, 2012-05-27, 1:40 PM | Message # 59 |
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| 10 Introduces phrases
We have now completed the first level of grammatical analysis, in which we looked at words individually and classified them according to certain criteria. This classification is important because, as we'll see, it forms the basis of the next level of analysis, in which we consider units which may be larger than individual words, but are smaller than sentences. In this section we will be looking at PHRASES.
10.1 Defining a Phrase
When we looked at nouns and pronouns, we said that a pronoun can sometimes replace a noun in a sentence. One of the examples we used was this:
[Children] should watch less television
~[They] should watch less television
Here it is certainly true that the pronoun they replaces the noun children. But consider:
[The children] should watch less television
~[They] should watch less television
In this example, they does not replace children. Instead, it replaces the children, which is a unit consisting of a determiner and a noun. We refer to this unit as a NOUN PHRASE (NP), and we define it as any unit in which the central element is a noun. Here is another example:
I like [the title of your book]
~I like [it]
In this case, the pronoun it replaces not just a noun but a five-word noun phrase, the title of your book. So instead of saying that pronouns can replace nouns, it is more accurate to say that they can replace noun phrases.
We refer to the central element in a phrase as the HEAD of the phrase. In the noun phrase the children, the Head is children. In the noun phrase the title of your book, the Head is title.
Noun phrases do not have to contain strings of words. In fact, they can contain just one word, such as the word children in children should watch less television. This is also a phrase, though it contains only a Head. At the level of word class, of course, we would call children a plural, common noun. But in a phrase-level analysis, we call children on its own a noun phrase. This is not simply a matter of terminology -- we call it a noun phrase because it can be expanded to form longer strings which are more clearly noun phrases.
From now on in the Internet Grammar, we will be using this phrase-level terminology. Furthermore, we will delimit phrases by bracketing them, as we have done in the examples above.
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| Bakhtiyor | Date: Sunday, 2012-05-27, 1:41 PM | Message # 60 |
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| 10.2 The Basic Structure of a Phrase
Phrases consist minimally of a Head. This means that in a one-word phrase like [children], the Head is children. In longer phrases, a string of elements may appear before the Head:
[the small children]
For now, we will refer to this string simply as the pre-Head string.
A string of elements may also appear after the Head, and we will call this the post-Head string:
[the small children in class 5]
So we have a basic three-part structure:
pre-Head string Head post-Head string
[the small children in class 5]
Of these three parts, only the Head is obligatory. It is the only part which cannot be omitted from the phrase. To illustrate this, let's omit each part in turn:
pre-Head string Head post-Head string
[-- children in class 5]
*[the small -- in class 5]
[the small children --]
Pre-Head and post-Head strings can be omitted, while leaving a complete noun phrase. We can even omit the pre- and post-Head strings at the same time, leaving only the Head:
pre-Head string Head post-Head string
[-- children --]
This is still a complete noun phrase.
However, when the Head is omitted, we're left with an incomplete phrase (*the small in class five). This provides a useful method of identifying the Head of a phrase. In general, the Head is the only obligatory part of a phrase.
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