A Student's Introduction to English Grammar. Second Edition. Summary Chaps 1-5

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several, many, much, more, most, few, fewer, little, less, enough, sufficient, some, somebody, someone, something, interrogative which, whichever, what, or whatever, and one, two, three, four, five, etc. iv. Determiners/modifiers DPS AS DETERMINERS ia. [The better one] had been sold. ii a. Who's [that tall guy over there]? iii a. [Very many people] were disgusted. b. Determinative phrases containing dependents: DPS AS MODIFIERS b. I feel [all the better] for my holiday. b. Nobody should be [that tall]. They listed [its very many failings]. ● i [Not many] people turned up. ii [Almost every] copy was torn. iii [Some thirty] paintings were stolen. iv There were [at most fifty] applications. We have [hardly any] milk left. v vi I don't need [very much] money. Chap 3. Pronouns A sub class of nouns Don't take determiners (She likes him, *The she likes the him) i. Deictic vs anaphoric • The term deixis applies to the use of expressions in which the meaning can be traced directly to when and where the act of utterance takes place, and who is involved as speaker and addressee • The term anaphora applies to the use of expressions in which the meaning is derived from another expression in the surrounding linguistic material. That other expression is called the antecedent. I, we, you are deictic English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 18 He infofrmed me that the secondary had resigned (transitive) Although the subordinate clauses are non-canonical, the larger clauses containing them are here canonical. Part 5. Nouns & determinatives Chap 1. Nouns i. Functions Some NPS can also function as adjunct in clause structure, as in I saw him this morning, though this function is more often filled by adverb phrases. NPS in determiner function are always in genitive form. ii. Forms One distinctive property of nouns is their inflection. Nouns typically inflect for number (sing. or plu.) and case (plain or genitive): SINGULAR PLURAL PLAIN CASE student students GENITIVE student's students' iii. Dependents i DETERMINATIVES (OR DPS) ii ADJECTIVES (OR ADJPS) iii RELATIVE CLAUSES the door, which paper, every boy, hardly any tea young boys, a big hole, the precise length the guy who fainted, the book which she wrote iv. Functions of dependents i DETERMINERS the news, a pear, some cheese, so many new films, absolutely no reason, your jacket ii COMPLEMENTS repairs to the house, a ban on smoking, the fact that she's alive iii MODIFIERS a young woman, a friend from the Netherlands, people who study fungi • Complements in the nominal have to be licensed by the head noun. English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 14 • Modifiers are the default type of dependent, lacking the above special features; our examples show the most common types of modifier in nominals: an AdjP, a PP, and a relative clause. v. Subclasses of nouns i COMMON NOUNS cat, day, furniture, activation, fact, truth, perseverance,... ii PROPER NOUNS Denzel, Jones, Beethoven, Boston, Canada, Nile, Easter, iii PRONOUNS I, me, my, mine, myself, you, he, she, it, who, what, ... vi. Number and countability COUNT NON-COUNT SINGULAR WITH NUMERAL one PLURAL WITH NUMERALS one ovation two ovations the ovation the ovations "one applause two applauses the applause the applauses vii. Nouns with both count and non-count uses COUNT INTERPRETATION ia. Would you like a cake? ii a. We'll have to borrow a football. iii. The cover of this book is torn. iv a. I suggested a few improvements. I'll have a beer. V a. SINGULAR WITH the viii. Subject-verb agreement sing subj/sing verb - plur subj/plur verb Some intricacies o Measure expressions: English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos PLURAL WITH the When we talk about countability, it might be best to make clear that we mean nouns as used with a count or non-count interpretation. b. NON-COUNT INTERPRETATION Would you like any more cake? b. We're going to play football. b. The awning provides some cover. b. There's been little improvement. b. I like beer. 15 English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos Part 1. Introduction Chap 1. The english language English may not have been the right language to pick as a global language • complex consonants clusters stress in words spelling irregular verbs • syntactic complexities i. Standard english Everyone speaks a dialect Standard english is least likely to draw attention to itself ii. Written and spoken english Some aspects are specific to speech (like intonation and stress) or limited to writing (like punctuation) iii. British and American subvarieties BrE: British, Australian and South African AmE: Canadian and American iv. Formal and Informal Level of formality is known as register Chap 2. Describing and advising The aim can be either to describe, which means trying to characterize the grammatical system, or to advise, which means trying to influence the way in which English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 1 • Examples of anaphoric pronouns-see below i Alex said she was unavailable. ii The client's daughter didn't come to the meeting. Alex said she was unavailable. iii When I last saw her, Alex seemed to be extremely busy. ii. Personal pronouns on inflection I we he she they PLAIN NOMINATIVE ACCUSATIVE 1ST PERSON I we 2ND PERSON you you 3RD PERSON he, she, it they you me us him her them SINGULAR English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos PLAIN GENITIVE it its one one's GENITIVE your DEPENDENT INDEPENDENT my our her PLURAL their GENITIVE REFLEXIVE itself oneself yours DEPENDENT INDEPENDENT mine his ours hers theirs REFLEXIVE yourself (singular) yourselves (plural) REFLEXIVE myself ourselves himself herself themself (singular) themselves (plural) 19 4 i ii نها a. Ten days is a long time to be on your own. b. Twenty dollars seems far too much to pay for a takeaway pizza. a. That ten days we spent together in Paris was unforgettable. b. Another three eggs is all we need. o quantificational nouns SINGULAR i [A lot of money] was wasted. ii [The rest of the meat] is over there. iii (impossible) the head of the bracketed NP in each case is marked by double underlining. Notice that each head is singular, but the number of the bracketed NP depends on the single-underlined NP embedded within it o collective nouns nouns that denote a collection, or set, of individuals. SINGULAR INTERPRETATION i a. The committee has interviewed her. b. iia. The jury is still deliberating. o any, no, none/ either, neither i a. ii a. PLURAL [A lot of things] were wasted. [The rest of the eggs] are over there. [A number of faults] were found. Chap 2. Determiners PLURAL INTERPRETATION The committee have interviewed her. b. "The jury are still deliberating. SINGULAR INTERPRETATION I don't think [any of these keys] is the right one. [None of the copies] was as legible b. as the original. English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos b. PLURAL INTERPRETATION I don't think [any of these keys] are going to work. [None of the copies] were legible enough to be handed out. 16 lexemes that denote properties of persons, animals, and other physical objects • Most adjectives (or rather, the AdjPs that they head) can function either as pre- head modifier in an NP or predicative complement in a VP ● ii. Adverbs • AdvPs mostly function as modifiers in VPs, AdjPs, or AdvPs Function is the major factor distinguishing adverbs from adjectives. The two main functions of AdjPs are as modifier in an NP and predicative complement in a VP with a head verb like be, become, or seem. AdvPs do not normally occur with these functions: *a jealously husband and *He became very jealously are ungrammatical. ● Many of the adjectives that are most typical of the category show inflection for grade, with a contrast between three forms. • The great majority of adverbs are derived by adding the suffix -ly to the plain form of an adjective Chap 7. Prepositions Most of the commonest prepositions express (or are capable of expressing) meanings that involve relations in space or time. ● Prepositions occur as heads of preposition phrases (PPS), which function as dependents in constructions headed by any of the three largest categories, verbs, nouns, and adjectives. • The clearest members of the preposition category are followed by NP complements Chap 8. Adjuncts Adjuncts comprise a highly diverse range of optional dependents that modify the meaning of a clause in a large number of ways. • Not being complements, they can always be omitted regardless of what the head verb is; and they can pretty much be added to any clause - though of course if their meaning is inappropriate, the clause may sound strange. • We distinguish two types of adjunct: modifiers, which are fully integrated into the syntactic structure, and supplements, which are more loosely attached English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 5 you use it. i. Technical terms for grammatical description Morphology: deals with the internal form of words Syntax: deals with the principles governing how words can be assembled into grammatically well-formed sentences Semantics: deals withe the principles by which sentences are associated withe their meanings Chap 3. The structure of sentences Sentences are the largest units that have syntactic structure. Sentencecs are composed of parts which we will call constituents i. Constituents Parts in which sentences are composed ii. Categories Constituents are classified into categories: nouns, determinatives, articles, noun phrases, verb phrases iii. Functions Subject, determiner, object, predicate, modifier, head... Part 2. Overview of the book Chap 1. Word forms and lexemes Lexemes: number of different words that you know/can find in a dictionary e.g. We love our cat, and she loves ger cats • Lexemes: and, cat, love, she, we • word forms: our, loves, her, cats i. Lexeme categories Verb, noun, determinative, adjective, adverb, preposition, subordinator (that, whether, it), coordinator (and, or, but), interjection English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 2 • reflexive forms: complement vs emphatic COMPLEMENT USE i a. Sue harmed herself. b. ii a. Jill was talking to herself. b. ● • reflexivewith non-reflexive reflexive semantics with 1st and 2nd person singular o to convey formality case contrasts (inflecton, and style too...) o nominative and accusative i They wrote the editorial. ii Kim met them in Paris. iii I was talking to them yesterday. iv It was they/them who complained. EMPHATIC USE Sue designed the house herself. Jill herself admitted it was a mistake. iii. Reciprocal pronouns Each other and one another Regarded as pronoun lexemes E.g. The men cursed each other / The men cursed one another (same meaning [subject: nominative case] [object in VP: accusative case] [object in PP: accusative case] [PredComp: either case] iv. Genitive pronouns The dependent forms of genitive pronouns (my, theri, etc) like wise serve as heads od genitive NPs functioning as the determiner within a larger NP: my car and their son are comparable to the teacher's car and these people's son NPS that have pronoun head can function as subject, object, complement in a PP, or determiner withina larger NP, so we want to treat these cases in parallel ways i SUBJECT Bill complained. They met Bill. ii OBJECT iii COMPLEMENT IN A PP They spoke to Bill. iv DETERMINER [Bill's son] arrived. English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos I complained. They met me. They spoke to me. [My son] arrived. 20 in syntactic terms, and are generally set off by commas, dashes, or parentheses in writing Chap 9. Negation One way in which a clause can depart from being canonical involves polarity. We only count positive clauses like He resigned as canonical. But a clause can be negative like He didn't resign. Chap 10. Clause type Declarative, exclamative, interrogative and imperative Chap 11. Subordinate clauses The clauses we call canonical are, by stipulation, main clauses. But a clause can be included or embedded as a subpart of a larger clause. Such clauses are called subordinate clauses • The default kind of subordinate clause is called a content clause and may differ from canonical clauses in various ways, one of them being the presence of a member of the subordinator category: that, whether, and a few others. Chap 12. Relative constructions Can be used to modify an NP, as a candidate who they had never even thought of. The relative clause functions as a modifier, fully integrated into the syntactic structure of a clause. Other relative clauses can function as supplements, which are much more loosely attached: Susan Jones, who they had never even thought of. Chap 13. Comparative and superlative constructions There are comparative clauses that occur in comparatives making statements of inequality like taller than I had expected, superlative expressions like the tallest that I had ever seen, comparisons of equality like as tall as I had expected, and statements about similarity like the same as I had expected. Chap 14. Non-Finite Clauses we define a class of finite clauses, which includes the ones with tensed verbs and certain others, and then consider the others, the ones that are non-finite. ● English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 6 ● They are of five types: to-infinitival (for you to be in danger), bare infinitival (lest you be in danger), gerund-participial (your being in danger), past- participial (had you been in danger), and verbless (with you in danger). Chap 15. Coordination • Words like and, or, but, and nor are coordinators. • They function as markers of the joining together of two or more constituents having equal syntactic status. Chap 16. Information Packaging Languages always allow for distinct ways of saying essentially the same thing using syntactically different constructions • Canonical clauses, by our definition of them, package the information in the syntactically most elementary and basic way. Part 3. Verbs and verb phrases Chap 1. Verb inflection i. Verb paradigm Set of inflectional forms ● primary form: with tense inflection o plain present o 3rd person singular present o preterite secondary form: no tense inflection o plain form o gerund participle o past participle ii. Verb forms vs shape sharing English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 7 i. Perfective vs. perfect ● ii. Time vs. tense • time: moment on a timeline (past time, present time, future time) • tense: grammatical term (only 2 primary tenses: present, preterite) perfective: kind of semantic interpretation perfect: a term in a grammatical system, a type of past tense Chap 4. Primary tense: presnt and preterite i. The present tense • present time: I am hungry • future time: the lesson starts in 5 hours (futurate) • past time (historic present, story telling) • 'always' type of present: i love dogs ii. The preterite tense ● • modal preterite use: I wish she lived closer (situation is not a fact) reported speech backshift: I told ira that Dee had a great voice past time: He left an hour ago Chap 5. Secondary tense: the perfeect i. The present perfect tense past time with current relevance e.g. She has lived in Paris for ten years ● ii. The preterite perfect • past time (past in the past): She had already gone to bed when we arrived • modal remoteness (covers cases where the situation described is not presented as a fact): It would have been better if she had gone to bed reported speech backshift: you say she had gone to bed English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 9 iii. Perfect with no primary tense .e.g. We believe her to have been in Bonn e.g. having reached agreement today, we don't need to meet tomorrow ● Chap 6. Progressive aspect i. The concept of aspect The progressive is formed by means of auxiliary be followed by a gerund-participle: She was writing a novel (progressive), she wrote a novel (non-progressive) • used to indicate hhow the speaker views the temporal structure of a situation • it has duration: I'm searching for my key • it is dynamic: she's learning new things everyday ii. The progressive futurate There are certain cases where clauses with progressive form do not have the ususal 'in progress' meaning e.g. I see my therapist today Chap 7. Modality and the modal system Several lexical categories can express modality. Its modality can be expressed by an adverb, an adjective or a noun. i. Meanings of the modal auxiliaries epistemic: must be true or could be true given what we know • deontic: requires or permitted • dynamis: related to physical capabilities Sometimes difficult to choose the interpretation • with can we find clear cases where both a dynamic asnd an epistemic or deontic interpretation are possible ii. Preterite forms of the modals can (could), may (might), will (would), shall (should) English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 10 iii. Futurity and modality e.g. Sam will be here soon I shall carry on no matter what happens The train is about to leave iv. Irrealis were e.g. If he were in love with Ty, he would go to the party. Part 4. Complements in clauses Chap 1. Introduction i. Functions and categories Focus on canonical clauses Subject (NP) and predicate (VP) Predicate: head of the clause, semantically predicated of • A large % of the verbs in english license an object (e.g. I like chocolate) • Some do not license an object (e.g. The dog vanished) • Some verbs require a constituent with some function other than object (e.g. Tom seemed very angry (PredComp) ii. Complements vs. modifiers Modifiers can always be omitted without making the sentence ungrammatical Complements are often obligatory, omitting it yields ungrammatical results. Chap 2. The subject i. Distinctive syntactic properties • basic position (before VP) case: nominative ● subject-verb agreement English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 11 Chap 2. Phrases and clauses i. Heads and dependents A phrase is a constituent with a word functioning as a head and some number of dependants. Every non-head constituent in a phrase functions as a dependant ii. Phrasal categories Verb phrases (swept the floor) Noun phrases (the third problem) Adjective phrases (very cute) Determinative phrases (almost every) Adverb phrases (very probably) iii. Clauses Type of phrase that has a VP as its head Only category that can function as a predicate Shortest possible clause is an imperative (e.g.: Run!) Chap 3. Verbs and verb phrases transitive → allows an object # instansitive inflection → new forms of the same word (do → doing) derivation → new words (do→ redo) REDOING derivation inflection i. Subcategories Auxiliary verbs (do, can, shall, will...) Lexical verbs (eat, sing, sleep, write...) ii. Verb meanings Some verbs have different meanings depending on their category Chap 4. Complements in the clause subject is the only complement that is not inside the VP English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 3 ● • plain present (primary form) and plain verb (secondary form):2 different verb forms but same shape (e.g. walk) preterite (primary form) and past participle (secondary form): 2 different ver forms but same shape (e.g. walked) substitution test: we select a verb in which preterite anad psat participle are distinct and substitute it in the example to see which shape is required. Chap 2. Auxiliaries: modal and non-modal • modal: may, can, must, shall, will, ought, need, dare • non modal: be, do, have ● the plain verb form is used in three syntactically distinct clause constructions: nimperative, subjunctive, and infinitival. Infinitival clauses have two subtypes, the to-infinitival and the bare infinitival i. Distinctive properties of auxiliary verbs subject/auxiliary inversion possible in interrogative clauses negation: simple addition of 'not' ii. Modal auxiliaries • modals (+auxiliary do): lack of secondary verb form • modals (except 'have to') no 3rd singular form in the present • bare infinitival complement (except for have to and ought to) iii. Dually classified verbs can be auxiliary and lexical •do (I don't do that) • have (i have never had enough money) ● Chap 3. Perfective vs imperfective interpretations perfective: presents the event as a whole (e.g. Alex wrote a novel) imperfective: focuses on one part (e.g. Alex was writing a novel) Semantically, progressive clauses are almost always interpreted imperfectively lex aux English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 8 Chap 3. The object i. Distinctive syntactic properties • it is a complement, so it must be licensed by the verb, sometimes obligatory • corresponds to the subject when passive clause immediately after the head verb ● can usually take the form of a personal prounoun, which must be in the accusative case (me, him, her, us, them) ii. Types of object • verbs license complements but no verb licenses (requires/forbids) adjuncts • direct and indirect o indirect object cannot occur on its own o when they co-occur in canonical clauses, the indirect object precedes the direct object o e.g. Sue gave Max the photo iii. Alternation with a PP construction Most verbs that license two objects also admit a different construction where there is a direct object and a PP serving in complement function (Comp PP) headed by to or for e.g. Sue gave the photo to Max We bought shoes for them indirect object direct object Chap 4. Predicative complements The predicative complement NP does not refer to another person; it denotes a property that is ascribed to the subject e.g. Stacy was a good friend (PredComp) Stacy found a good speaker (obj) The objects denote participants but the PredComp don't i. PredComp can de AdjP, bare role NPS English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 12 In addition to its primary use in marking the determiner in NP structure, genitive case is also used in the following constructions: i SUBJECT ii FUSED DETERMINER-HEAD iii COMPLEMENT IV PREDICATIVE COMPLEMENT V MODIFIER I didn't like [his being given a second chance]. They accepted Kim's proposal but not Pat's. The fight was due to a casual remark of Kim's. Everything in this room is Mary's. They've just moved to an old people's home. Huddleston, R., Pullum, G. K. and Reynorlds, B. (2022). A Student's Introduction to English Grammar. Second Edition. Cambridge University Press. English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 21 the others are internal complements Canonical clause+- positive declarative (not interrogative) active non-coordinate main clause usual default order of English (subject NP + head verb + object NP) Chap 5. Nouns and noun phrases i. Nouns Words that directly denote kinds of physical objects - such as persons, animals, plants, and artifacts • Nouns primarily function as the lexical heads of NPS, and NPS have their own specific range of functions, including subject in a clause (Most pigs like acorns) and object in a VP (Acorns please most pigs). They display an inflectional contrast between singular and plural forms: cat / cats; day / days; man / men; woman / women; child / children; stimulus / stimuli; phenomenon / phenomena; etc. ii. Determinatives • Every member of the determinative category can head phrases that function as determiners in NP structure: the dog, a cat, some milk, any errors, several days, etc. • determinative (category) # determinor (function) • The articles show no inflectional contrasts and are ungradable, like most determinatives. This and that, however, inflect for number (these and those are the plural forms), while others inflect for comparative grade: many (many / more / most), much (much / more / most), few (few / fewer / fewest), and little (as in little patience). Chap 6. Adjdectives and Adverbs i. Adjectives English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 4 i. Functions The determiner function in an NP is usually filled by one or other of two kinds of expression: a determinative phrase (DP), consisting of a head determinative either alone or accompanied by a modifier • A genitive noun phrase (NP) ● DP: very few new books the city GENITIVE NP: the senator's young son Deepak's car ii. Definiteness: definite vs indefinite Definiteness is a semantic property of NPS, typically marked by a determiner. Definite article: i [The president of France] has appointed a new prime minister. ii Where did you put [the key]? hardly any eggs your income A speaker's use of the definite article signals that the speaker is presupposing that the head of the NP will in the given context, identify the referent • Indefinite article the indefinite article indicates that the head nominal is not being presented as providing a defining description. The description is not presented as unique in the context. i [A cabinet minister] has been arrested. ii I'll give you [a key]. iii. Definite and indefinite determinatives English Grammar - Emma Calderón Ramos 17