English grammar BA1

Frank Brisard

1. Chapter 0: Introduction
Phrases and functions Language a collection of sentences words sounds Grammar ALL the rules imposed by a particular language (Phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics) Syntax those rules involved in arranging words into grammatical sentences + meaning (=Semantics) largely motivates which specific form a sentence will take Units in syntax E.g. Logan hugs Meg, because she loves him. constituents? clause o Logan hugs Meg o Because she loves him phrase (=zinsdeel) o Logan hugs Meg, who loves him. Parts of speech Logan hugs the girl who loves him Noun Verb Article Noun Noun Verb Noun

Noun Including proper names and pronouns, referring to persons, things, abstract ideas, etc. e.g. Logan, him, ... Verbs Referring to states or events (including actions) e.g. hugs, loves, ...

Adverbs e.g. hard, yesterday of course adverb = 1 word e.g. yesterday adverbial = 1 word or more (=a phrase) e.g. of course, last night Adjectives e.g. holy, violent, cute, big-ass,.. Prepositions Usually combined with noun-phrase or as a head: preposition-phrase e.g. below, with Phrases a complex constituent consists at least of a head nature of the phrase is determined by the part of speech the head belongs to (which words belong together? + Determine which makes the head of the phrase) NP (= noun-phrase) / VP (=verb-phrase) e.g. of NP that pretty girl Logan the girl who loves him hugs Meg, who loves him loves him its raining Contains a nominal head

e.g. of VP

Verb + complementation without the phrase

complementation something obligatory to make a sentence direct object indirect object prepositional object (everything else= subject or adverbial or verb) How do you recognise phrases? Substitution (vervanging) through PRO-forms (=forms that stand for something else) e.g.

Logan hugs Meg, who loves him and Michael does (so) too. Logan hugs her Logan hugs Meg, who loves him, and Larry who does not. That boy loves Meg.

Simplest English sentence NP +VP e.g. Homer sings. Logan, who loves Meg, feels hurt. Everybody cried
2

Syntactic functions agent the one who drives the process, who actively performs the action patient the one who undergoes it or who if affected by it beneficiary or target the one for whom it is intended PROTOTYPE: agent + action = active transitive sentence Subject S Predicate Direct object DO Indirect object IO - usually placed at the left of the VP - determines the number of the verb (if it is marked) - filled by a NP /nominal clause - that part of the clause that is not the subject - finite verb form + complements - placed to the right of the indirect object - no indirect object: immediately to the right of the VP - 2 NPs :the first NP to the right of the verb - to/ for phrase following the direct object (ditransitive verbs)

Basis sentence structure Phrase: NP VP (NP) NP (to/ for N) Subject Verb Optional DO IO

Passivisation In general every complement NP may fill the subject slot e.g. Logan hugs Meg Meg is hugged by Logan also prepositional objects that function as DO e.g. My father yelled at my sister My sister was yelled at by my father. BUT!! Children love their toys Their toys are loved by children = WRONG fixed expressions doesnt work e.g. Its raining cats and dogs. cats and dogs are being rained by it = WRONG NP complements Denote attributes of the referent(s) of a NP mentioned elsewhere in the sentence Subject complement Attribute is related to the subject e.g. Lindsay is a beautiful girl
3

Object complement

George Clooney is an actor Attribute is related to the object e.g. They painted the wall green They crowned Albert II king.

Prepositional complement - not real objects - no passivisation possible e.g. The crowd ran for their life Their life was run for by the crowd = WRONG Adverbial complements (adverbials) - more marginal in the sentence structure - optional (they give extra information) - different functions time place manner intensifying ... - Forms: Adverbial phrase E.g. I saw Logan yesterday AdvP Prepositional phrase E.g. She died in a horrible way PrepP Noun phrase E.g. Ive been calling you all day NP Adverbial clause E.g. He was talking on the phone when I arrived adverbial clause Clause-internal part of the predicates meaning mostly: time, manner, place e.g. I havent seen her recently Clause-external not part of the subject or predicate do something to clauses meaning, modifies it sentence/ comment adverbials e.g. Honestly, baby, I dont care about him anymore discourse markers/ indicators Indicate the relationship between thoughts/sentences e.g. Its raining. However I want to play outside. scene-setting adverbials (of time/place) Front (e.g. when) End (e.g. in 1994) Mid e.g. I was born in 1992
4

Functions within constituents/ phrases Within NPs Within AdjPs Within AdvPs Within PrepPs (F = adverbial) - adnominals= everything but the head - qualifying adverbials (e.g. quite new) - prepositional & clausal complements (e.g. anxious to get out of her) - other adverbials (very sad) - other adverbials (right clean through the calf)

2.Chapter 7: the Noun Phrase: Nouns

Semantic definition one of the major syntactic categories, comprising words that typically refer to a thing or a person

syntactic characteristics 1. head of NP 2. inherent flection (verbuiging) for number: sg vs. pl gender: masculine vs feminine vs neuter case marked vs. unmarked (morpheme that indicated a gram. F) e.g. man
vs mans ...

semantic characteristics discussion of those semantic features of nouns that have syntactic consequences: Nouns denote entities which are 1) animate / inanimate man, child house, street 2) human/ non-human man, woman dog, car 3) individuating/ collective pupils class 4) countable/ uncountable house, car wind, trash syntactic consequences 1) determines the category of gender in PRO-forms e.g. the man he, car it 2) determines the choice of relative & interrogative pronouns (human: who/ non-human: which/) (interrogative: human: who/ non-human: what) e.g. the man, who/ the book which 3) determines group of collectives (special patterning) most N= individuated or discrete entities sg + sg verb/ pl + pl verb
5

collectives/ group Ns= groups, sets speaker can choose ( as a whole/ individual item) (family, government, audience, etc.) e.g. the family is/are/ fun. 4) determines selection of some DETs & quantifiers e.g. an apple (not a)/ many pupils (not much) countable N entities that can be counted e.g. book, song, house, ... uncountable N cannot be counted e.g. milk, bread, wind, ...
I.

Only countable Ns are can be combined with numerals e.g. 3 books, 1 song, ... / five milk = WRONG uncountable Ns cannot be used with indef. art. a/an e.g. a milk, a bread, a wind = WRONG / a song, a house, ... uncountable/ countable go with different quantifiers Countable several, many, (a) few, a (large) number of uncountable much, (a) little, a(n) (large) amount, a good deal of

II.

III.

(read p.140-141)

Words that are(un)countable in Dutch arent necessarily so in English and vice versa Some English words are both countable and uncountable: e.g. fruit (vrucht and fruit) some [U] Ns = collective Ns, but: always + plural verb in BrE in Du.: + singular verb e.g. the English nobility were ... / de engelse adel was... the cattle were.../ het vee werd... some pl Ns: summation plurals behave like [U] in En They correspond to [C] in Du. e.g. een bril = glasses /een broek = trousers /een schaar = scissors/ pijama= pyjama you can add: a pair of, a set of If used as first part of compound morphologically singular (usually) e.g., trouser legs

Reference and denotation (=meaning) Ns acquire reference through being used in a NP rule: the adnominal constituents (art., adj, ...) specify the reference provide a link between the word+ its denotation/ word+ world outside e.g. daughter: N= female human offspring (denotatum) a beautiful daughter: NP=( referent)

 Common nouns and proper nouns or names common Ns vast majority reference to one or more members of a given class/ sometimes to all of them e.g. poet Proper Ns and names unique reference (such and such) NO reference to similar referents e.g. Dante, The Globe Proper names no denotation mere labels only F = refer syntactic characteristics of proper Ns are inherently sg or pl e.g. Rome: Romes = WRONG The Netherlands: the Netherland = WRONG do NOT pattern with the adnominal elements they have reference in themselves only non restrictive (do not restrict the number of potential referents) adnominals occur e.g. medieval Bruges, American-born John, ... articles, if any, are part of the name (thus also non restrictive) e.g. The Hague/ The Netherlands: Netherlands= WRONG when a particular aspect/part of the referent is involved definite adnominals (esp. art.) are possible e.g. In the Europe of 1960 ... Bushs America MIND! proper names can shift to common nouns: e.g. The world has known many Hitlers. have gender and case contrasts of common Ns Syntactic characteristics of Ns They have number, gender and case Number sg: 1 referent = unmarked pl: more than 1 referent = open/ closed Ns Formation of open class plural by addition of final morpheme <(e)s> 3 distinct realizations, conditioned by final sound of base /z/: after (non-sibilant) voiced consonants and after vowels & diphthongs e.g. beds, toes, ...
7

 /s/: after (non-sibilant) voiceless consonants e.g. beliefs, cats, ... /z/: after sibilants e.g. , wishes, judges 7.17 7.38 read thoroughly Gender based on natural gender (sex) masculine (male), feminine (female), neuter (asexual) In En.: closer correspondence than in many related languages, but gram. category leads a life of its own, partially or entirely corresponding gender: directly signalled only a few e.g. father, niece, ... - personal pronouns: she, he, it - possessive adnominals: his, her, its (possessor determines gender) - interrogative pronouns: who?, what? - relative pronouns: who, which result of these distinctions: animate vs. inanimate human vs. non human higher animals (=human being) vs. lower animals eng. gender system is marked by an entire absence of gender-marking in the adnominal group (articles, determiners, adjectives) pronominalization of the NP Case changes the shape of the words to express various syntactic relations in which these words enter 2-term contrast for sg Ns one : unmarked the other: marked = genitive GENITIVE - singular sibilant suffix added to base with the allomorphs /s/, /z/, /iz/ (cf. regular plural morpheme) in spelling <s> e.g. cats, lasss, womans - plural only apostrophe * open class Ns e.g. beds * Closed class Ns in pl ending in S e.g. wives <s> with closed class Ns e.g. mens, childrens - problem: proper Ns ending in sibilant (=sisklank) N does NOT end in /z/ + /iz/, spelled <s> e.g. Keatss, lasss, Georges
8

 N ends in /Z/ + /iz/, spelled <s>, or //, spelled <> e.g. Dickenss Dickens (in speech, there is a tendency to avoid a succession of sibilants: Jesus, Moses) Greek names in <es> get <> pronunciation /i:z/ e.g. Euripides

Genitive as a head to refer to residence e.g. Im going to Johns (= Johns place) to refer to shops and the like e.g. Im going to the butchers (=butcher shop) e.g. St Pauls = St Pauls cathedral No elliptic genitives elliptic genitives: head is deleted e.g. That is my wifes car No its Janes (car). Double genitive a ... of ...s head must be - indefinite e.g. a call of my brothers - or made definite by restrictive relative cause e.g. The smoking friend of my fathers who always signs. - introduced by this/that e.g. Ive got this friend of mines (of-NP must be definite) - 2nd noun: typically has human reference e.g. a captain of ships = WRONG

3. Chapter 8: The Noun Phrase: Pronouns

definition belong to a closed class of words most of which have phrasal rank, i.e., they typically have NP-status are referential expressions by themselves (without denotation) proper nouns: unique reference refer to anybody/anything synt: stand on their own + are a full NP Pronouns: reference - Contextual reference often anaphoric (3rd p.) to avoid repetition= Pronominalization replaces 2nd or 2 co-referential NPs e.g. Suzanne isnt here, she went to the shop.
9

- situational reference 1st and 2nd person pronouns no replacement some quantifiers (e.g. anybody) e.g. I will see you tomorrow. Classes Personal Possessive Reflexive Interrogative Relative Demonstrative/ pointer Reciprocal Quantifier She punched him below the belt Its mine She cut herself Who called me fat? That is the boy who(m)/ that/ Im in love with. I want this, not that They loved each other very much All were singing

Personal and possessive pronouns person distinctive: indicates person gender distinctive: 3rd p. sg.: she/him/it case distinctive: nom. gen. acc. (e.g. I, mine, me) e.g. She introduced me to hers. (= her children) N A G have (weak) deixis - situation deixis: 1st person (egocentric): I, we/ mine, ours 2nd person (vocative): you/ yours - contextual deixis: 3rd person pronoun - anaphoric - cataphoric: antecedent follows immediately e.g. If shes not there, Suzy must have gone home problems of case involving personal pronouns accusative normal in subject position in verb-less sentences e.g. Who took my bathrobe? Me/ I did (nl: Ik= nom) subject complement position e.g. It is me. (It is I= old) following than/as e.g. Hes bigger than me He likes her better than me. Ambiguity? use verbal construction (than I like her/ than he likes me) Reflexive pronouns pronominalization of the second of 2 referentially identical NPs in the same clause never a subject e.g. While making dinner, I cut myself.

10

 mind the forms myself/ ourselves, yourself/ yourselves, him/her/itself/ themselves read p.170-171 (8.13) ! Interrogative pronouns distinguish between the following interrogative words - pronouns: who/ which/ what what do you want? - adnominals: which/ what which book do you want? - adverbs: where/ when/ why/ how When did you want the book? inter. proN. introduce content questions (geen Ja/Nee vragen) e.g. What are you doing? Im building a house Are you building a house? Yes WHO pronoun (NOT adnominal) informal English: 2 term case = who (N/A)/ whose formal English: who (N)/ Whom (A)/ whose e.g. Who wrote that? Who did you go with? ! With whom did you go? WHO- WHICH- WHAT who only human asks for identification e.g. Who is that man? what only non-human e.g. What is that on your face? which human/ non-human asks for a selection from a given set e.g. Which apples do you want? MIND: What do you think I am, a fool?/ Who do you think I am, a fool? =WRONG a fool = a state/ quality + non-human refers to a name of the person, not the person itself (what is she called? Not: who is she called?) Where, when, why, how interrogative adverbs interrogative + EVER = colloquial (informal) = emphasizes speakers annoyance or surprise (= the hell, on earth, ...) e.g. What ever have you done to your hair? (= puts the emphasis on it)
11

= ever is usually separated (less so in present day English) Demonstrative pronouns referential function = referential function: expression of deixis - situational deixis =physically pointing that= unmarked/ this= marked for proximity (nearness to subj.) except temporal situations e.g. Those were the days ... never person reference except in subject function (this is the girl, ...) - textual deixis = pointing in sentence anaphoric reference no semantic difference between this and that (this: commonly used) e.g. I dont know what that is. cataphoric reference only This e.g. Let me tell you this ... endophoric reference only that/those e.g. I want to see that which is green Relative pronouns to relativize = to replace with a relative pronoun e.g. The student started to cry. The student was at the library The student, who was at the library, started to cry. Relative proN. student= antecedent who= replaces 2nd NP of co-referential NPs reference: established through its connection with the antecedent indirectly referential result= 1 complex Np He gave me the message that he would be there cant be replaced by which CASE-system only with who (acc: whom is slowly disappearing) no pronoun genitive only adnominal gen e.g. The woman whose husband died in a car accident. preposition stranding e.g. This is a girl you can rely on on whom you can rely ! NEVER on who Reciprocal pronouns reciprocity= wederkerigheid each other, one another replaces 2nd of 2 co-referential NPs
12

- Between whose referents theres a relationship of reciprocity - within a single clause e.g. They loved each other dearly. these pronouns are no longer different in meaning - each other= more frequent - one another= more formal Quantifiers (used pronominally) a heterogeneous (ongelijksoortig) group of pronouns quantification is common to all basic F= referential but while referring they also quantify the reference all, some, none different semantic classes (based on the way the proNs quantify the reference) 1. all inclusive quantifiers refer to all the referents of a given set e.g. all, everybody, everything, an, both, either, ... 2. exclusive quantifiers negative all inclusive exclude all the referents of a given set e.g. none, nothing, nobody, neither, ... 3. indefinite quantifiers refer to an indefinite subset of a given set (a quality but not specific) e.g. a few, many, some, ... 4. one 5. cardinal number number the members of a given set e.g. first, second, three, eight either, each, every (-body, -one, -thing) - have distributive meaning: refer to a member of a set separately - all vs. every: entire set vs. each element individually or referentially Each Dual (or multiple) reference + more strongly distributive than everycompounds e.g. Each of you has to draw a picture. Every More than 2 compounds + less distributive-stress e.g. I brush my teeth every morning. Either Dual reference (each of 2)/ 1 OR the other of the 2= arbitrary (willekeurig) (:non-inclusive, distributive) e.g. Here are two books: you can have either of them some (body/thing) / any (body/thing) - indefinite quantifiers - some: a particular but unspecified (indef.) quantity, non arbitrary, a selection (you dont have a exact quantity in mind) e.g. Would you like some milk? - any: arbitrary selection of referents e.g. Ask any man you want, they will all say the same. (doesnt matter how much/ universal)
13

 very natural in interrogative + negative expressions + expressions of doubt (you have no particular element in mind) e.g. I dont understand how anybody could be so cruel. socially out of place in invitations, offers, requests, e.g. Would you like any more wine= WRONG multal/ paucal quantifiers specifies the indefinite quantity more precisely (less indefinite than some or any) Multal: many vs. paucal: a few countable: many, (a) few, ... uncountable: much, (a) little, ... NOTE: *less - usually + mass Ns - increasingly used in informal Eng. with [C] nouns - only less is possible with plural NPs denoting quantity (mass) e.g. less than 50 feet *much (-many): - many= less restrictive + more formal - many= a lot / lots / a good many / a large number - much= plenty / a lot / a good deal / a large amount of one - indef. one - numeral - anaphoric pro-form e.g. I have a green apple and she got a red one -! Du: men one: formal/ you, people, we, ... numerals 2 classes * cardinal numbers: express a definite total (How many?) - quantifiers adnominals e.g. there are 5 apples - nominals e.g. the first four are optional * ordinal numbers: express order/ place in a series (Which?) - quantifiers adnominals e.g. The fifth assignment - nominals e.g. Take the third - nouns e.g. three fourths of a cake Use of relative pronouns (RP) restrictive vs. non-restrictive: in speech pause, a comma in writing The boy who I like is Logan. the boy is Logan= WRONG = restrictive Logan, who I like, lives in America. Logan lives in America= o.k. = non restrictive RULES
14

 who: + human which: + inhuman which for non-referential personal antecedents non-human e.g. we need a skilled leader, which he wont be. that: only restrictive clauses subject position of RP requires an over RP RP preceded by preposition : always with WH-pronoun (on whom/ NOT: on that) no preposition stranding for certain complex prepositions + figurative through e.g. this a place beyond which we have ever been Nominal relative clauses = introduced by RPs without overt antecedents e.g. I dont see what you mean The relative pronouns contain their own antecedent what= that which why= the reason why whoever= he who So: these relative clauses do not modify NPs. They are NPs themselves (have a nominal function in matrix clause) Note: This kind of RP does of course also have a function in the relative clause itself. e.g. Tell me what made you do that. different from all other rel. clauses A relative clause = a modifier (ADN) predicates a property of its antecedent Antecedent has a function in the matrix clause e.g. Girls, who wear a lot of make-up, are insecure. relative ProN. + ever universal meaning: wie ook stress on ever rel. pr. = nominal relative cp. interrogative pronoun + ever emphatic meaning: wie verdorie stress on both interrogative pronoun + ever

15