English Grammar

• How language should be
• Prescribing rules for the use of language: what you allegedly should or should not do

• How language is
• Describing how language is actually used
• What you find in practice

Structure of words

Structure of sentences and phrases

Meaning of words and sentences

Meaning in context

• Words can often be divided into smaller units of meaning.
• A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning.

• Bound morphemes: cannot exist on their own
• Free morphemes: can exist in isolation

• Stems (or roots) to which bound morphemes can attach
• e.g: help

Often express lexical meaning

• Affixes, prefixes, suffixes and infixes
• e.g: un, ful

Often express grammatical meaning

Adding bound inflectional morphemes to a free morpheme ddoes not change the category

Adding morphemes together derivationally has a more dramatic effect on the category of meaning on the word

There are two types, affixation and compounding

• Words can be built by adding bound morphemes to free morphemes.
• Affixation modifies the meaning of the element to which it is attached, and almost always changes the category.

Words can be built by adding a free morpheme to another free morpheme

Compounding is always derivational, always changes the meaning and sometimes changes the category. 

• Groups of words which go together within a sentence
• Can form a new, larger constituent by combining with other elements.

• When a sentence has more than one meaning
• Each meaning is associated with a different grouping of words, i.e. a structure

If the string under test can be replaced by a single word (and the overall structure is preserved) it is probably a constituent.

• Nobody gets up [so long before breakfast]
• Nobody gets up [then]

• Semantic test-assumes a syntactic until will usually be a semantic unit (and unit of sense)
• Sentence fragment test- based on whether you can ask a grammatical question which contains everything in the sentence apart from the string being tested, and where the string itself forms a sensible answer.

• If the string under investigation can be moved to another position in the sentence, we know that it is a constituent.
• ....if the string can be moved to the beginning of the sentence

• The lecturer presented [strange examples] to the students
• [Strange examples] the lecturer presented to the students

• If the string under investigation can be co-ordinated with a string of words of the same category, we know that the string is a constituent
• Always co-ordinate the string with another string of words from the same category

• The lecturer presented [strange examples] to the students
• The lecturer presented [strange examples and interesting tests] to the students

• Same as substitution, but the word being substituted is already present within the sentence.
• Can the string be reduced to just one word that is in the string?

The lecturer presented [strange examples] to the students

If the string can be omitted from the sentence, it is a constituent.

• Not all constituents can be omitted, however. 
• Failure of the test doesn't prove a string is not a constituent.

• Nobody gets up [so long before breakfast]
• Nobody gets up

Phrases can be inserted at the boundaries of larger consituents so they indicate where a constituent begins or ends.

• Nobody gets up [so long before breakfast]
• Nobody gets up, if you ask me, [so long before breakfast]

• Major: noun, verb, adjective, adverb
• Minor: prepositionm determiner, conjunction, interjection

• What words/phrases are
• A word/constituent belongs to a certain category, e.g. noun (phrase)

• What words/phrases do
• A word/constituent plays a certain role within a sentence, e.g. subject

Words in the same category will often take the same sorts of affix (e.g. adjectives.... -y)

Words in the same category will fill the same basic positions in a sentence

• Inflectional morphology:
• -number: plural -(e)s suffix
• -case: only in pronoun system  (e.g. he vs. him)

• Derivational morphology:
• -ness and -ity make nouns from adjectives
• -er, -ee, -action, -ment make nouns from verbs

Nouns combine with the to give a (noun) phrase

• Names of persons, places, organisations
• Always spelt with a capital
• Cannot usually be modified
• Generally no plural

Combine with the to form a phrase

• Count nouns:
• -can occur with indefinite article a/an
• -can occur with cardinal numbers (e.g. 3 dogs, 8 cats)
• -can be plural

• Non-count nouns:
• -indivisible masses of material e.g. furniture, rubbish, evidence

Can substitute for an entire noun phrase

• Personal: i, me, we, us, you, he, she, it, they, them
• Indefinite: everything, nobody, many, some
• Reflexive
• Reciprocal: each other, one another
• Possessive: my, mine, your, yours, his, hers, its
• Demonstrative: this, that, these, those
• Interrogative: who, which, what, where
• Relative: who, which, what, where, that

• Inflectional morphology:
• -base from (no ending) e.g. walk
• -3rd sg. pres. (-s) e.g. walks
• -past tense (-ed (regular verbs only)) e.g. walked
• -past participle (-ed (regular verbs only)) e.g. walked
• -ing form (-ing) e.g. walking

• Derivational morphology:
• -lexical verb + -ee, -er, -ment = noun
• (employ vs. employer, employee)

• -lexical verb + -able, -ing = adjective
• (annoy vs. annoyable, annoying)

• Lexical verb is the central part of the sentence (the head of the sentence)
• The lexical verb decides which other parts are possible or required [Don put the car in the garage]

Often able to add -ly to an adjective to form an adverb, e.g. generous-generously

Most adjective inflect for degree

• Absolute:         tall         kind        good
• Comparative:   tallER    kindER    better
• Superlative:      tallEST  kindEST  best

• Attributive: a delicious pie, the young boy
• Predicative: the pie is delicious, the boy is young

• Inflectional:
• hardly any, most gradable adverbs take more or most, e.g. more quickly

• Derivational:
• large proportion of adverbs have -ly ending, e.g. happily

Express relationships between things and events (behind, below, near to, opposite)

• Invariable
• Not any derivational or inflectional morphology by which to identify them
• Can be simple (e.g. between, by, to) or complex (e.g. next to, infront of)

• Combine with nouns phrases to form preposition phrases
• Rarely allow modification

• Function words within NPs (e.g. any, that, the, those)
• Mark the NP that they are part of as definite or indefinite

• [That dog] bit me (definite)
• [A dog] bit me (indefinite)

• Cannot be modified
• Obligatory with singular count nouns

Link phrases or clauses together

Link units of the same category/type e.g. and, but, or

• [Mr Jones] and [Dr White]
• [Slowly] and [steadily]

Link a clause to some other element

[If your phone rings], I won't answer it.

Also known as complementisers.

Express a wide range of emotions 

(e.g. Surprise... Oh!, Disgust... Ugh!)

• Category:
• what words/constituents ARE
• a word/constituent belongs to a certain category e.g. noun (phrase)

• Function:
• what constituents do
• a constituent can play a certain role within a sentence, e.g. subject

Words belong to a certain (lexical) category

document= noun (common, count)

Words combine to form phrases. Belong to certain phrasal categories.

[the document on government policy]

A phrase can be a constituent of a sentence

[the document on government policy] caused a row

Constituents fulfil a certain function within a sentence

Categories and functions are different: what the item is vs. what it does.

(Usually) everything in the sentence except the subject

e.g. The document of government policy caused a row.

• Subject: the document on govenment policy
• Predicate: caused a row

• Phrasal category is always a VP
• Verb or verb string is the core, obligatory part of the predicate

Predicative complements are co-referential with another phrase in the sentence.

• My sister is a student (predicative complement)
• We declared Mary the winner (predicative complement)

Co-referential with the subject

My sister is a student

Co-referential with the object

We declared Mary the winner (object complement)

Usually agree in number with the constituent they co-refer with

• My sister is a student
• The man called the protesters idiots 

Constituents that function as predicative complements are usually noun phrases of adjective phrases

A subject complement usually comes immediately after the verb

An object complement usually comes immediately after the object.

Constituents functioning as adverbials are usually optional

Tom often buys a paper in the morning

The position of constituents which function as adverbials is fairly flexible

• A couple of days ago that driver was drunk
• That driver was drunk a couple of days ago

Constituents that function as adverbials typically say something about when, where or how something happened.

A couple of days ago an old lady fainted at the bank

Unfortunately, yesterday he intentionally complained in a loud voice at the party about his wages for the third time.

Constituents that function as adverbials can belong to a variety of phrasal categories: AdvP, PP, NP, clause.

• Optional
• Circumstantial informations
• Answer questions such as How? Where? Why? etc

• Attitude markers
• Provide comment on the whole sentence
• Typically occur sentence-initially but can also occur in sentence-final position

• Function as connective phrases
• Connect the clause to what has gone before
• Increase textual cohesion
• Often marked off by a comma in writing

• Obligatory!!
• Typically express a location or time

Operator precedes subject

Types:

• Yes-no interrogative
• Alternative interrogative
• Tag interrogative
• Wh-interrogative

Optional subject (you) with predicate (including base for of verb)

•               Give me a break!
• You        be careful!

wh-phrase precedes subject, which precedes the rest of the predicate.

• What a mistake     that        would be!
• What a tall man     I             saw!

• Exclamatives (like interrogatives) start with a wh-phrase.
• Exclamative (unlike interrogatives) don't have subject-operator inversion.

• An echo is like an interrogative, but with the wh-phrase left in its original place rather than fronted
• Usually 'echoes' another utterance

• He        ate WHAT?
• You      WHAT?

• Informative: provides the addressee with the information
• Typically declaratives

• Used when seeking information
• Typically interrogatives

• Used when trying to get someone to do something
• Typically imperatives

• Used to express a strong emotional reaction
• Typically exclamative

• Declarative      -     Statement
• Interrogative    -     Question
• Imperative       -     Directive
• Exclamative     -     Exclamation

Decides what other elements the sentence may, must or must not contain

• *Charlie hit
• Charlie hit Joe

• In a verb string the last verb is always the lexical verb
• The head of a verb phrase is a lexical verb

• 'Helps' another verb (is semantically dependant)
• Can function as an operator, but a lexical verb cannot

Verbs other than last in a verb string are auxiliary verbs

Can be distinguished from lexical verbs based on their properties of form and distribution

Can combine with a VP to form a larger VP

Modify the meaning of the lexical verb in some way

Function OPERATOR can only usually be filled by an auxiliary verb

• Negation- they can occur with negation
• Inversion- they can invert with the subject (subject-operator inversion)
• Code- the can occur on their own when the lexical verb has been omitted
• Emphasis- can be used for emphasis

An operator must be finite

• Finite V: carries tense so is morphologically marked
• Finite verb forms in English: Present, past
• Most verbs have finite (present/past) and non-finite (tenseless) forms
• Operators do not have non-finite forms

• Perfect aspect          = have
• Progressive aspect    = be
• Passive voice            = be
• Dummy auxillary       = do

• Promote the active object to the subject of the passive
• Insert the auxiliary of the passive
• Change the form of the following verb to its past participle form

• The police stopped the car                 [active]
• The car was stopped (by the police)   [passive]

• The verb immediately following a modal auxiliary must appear in its bare infinitive
• Modal auxiliary verbs only have a finite form
• Modal auxiliary verbs only have one present-tense form

Do not require of indeed permit any objects or predicative complements

• He apologised
• The dog barked

Some intransitive verbs take a cognate object, which has a meaning closely related to that of the verb and which is lexically related to it. 

• He sighed a great sigh.
• I dreamt a very strange dream.

Requires one object- a direct object

• The interviewer interrupted the politician
• Who can answer the next question?

Direct object can be a noun phrase, a clause or what looks like a preposition phrase.

Requires two objects: an indirect and a direct object (in that order)

• They offered        him               a job
• He gave               the man        his ticket.

In some cases, (usually the indirect object) can be omitted.

She passed           the chocolate

Requires a subject complement

He often gets angry

• Subject complements are co-referential with the subject
• An adjective phrase, a noun phrase, or a clause can function as a subject complement

Require a direct object and an object complement.

• Most people consider            the film          a classic
• His constant nagging drove     her                mad

• Intransitive            - none
• Monotransitive      - one phrase or clause functioning as direct object
• Ditransitive            - two phrases functions as indirect object + direct object
• Intensive               - one phrase or clause functioning as subject complement
• Complex transitive - two phrases functioning as direct object + object complement