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A SHORT OVERVIEW OFENGLISH SYNTAX
Based onThe CambridgeGrammar of the English Language
RodneyHuddleston
The University of Queensland
This paper presents abrief account of English syntax based onThe Cambridge Grammar of theEnglish Language,[1] providing an overview ofthe main constructions and categories in the language. The present version isintended primarily for members of the English Teachers' Association ofQueensland (ETAQ), offering an alternative approach to that presented in the2007 volume of their journalWords`Worth by Lenore Ferguson under the title`Grammar at the Coalface' - in particular the articles `The structural basics'(March 2007) and `Functional elements in a clause' (June 2007). I make use ofconcepts discussed in my ownWords'Worth paper `Aspects of grammar:functions, complements and inflection' (March 2008), and take over FunctionalGrammar's useful convention of distinguishing between functions and classes byusing an initial capital letter for the former: thus Subject is the name of afunction, noun phrase the name of a class.
1 SENTENCE AND CLAUSE
We distinguish two maintypes of sentence: aclausal sentence, which has the form of a singleclause, and acompound sentence, which has the form of two or morecoordinated clauses, usually joinedby acoordinator (such asand,or,but):
[1] i Suewent to London last week. [clausalsentence]
ii Suewent to London last week and her father went with her. [compoundsentence]
Note that such an exampleasWe stayed at the hotel which you recommended is also a clausal sentence eventhough it contains two clauses. This is because one clause,which you recommended, ispart of the other, rather thanseparate from it (more specifically, thewhich you recommended is part of the nounphrasethe hotel which you recommended); the larger clause is thusWestayed at the hotel which you recommended, and this does constitute the wholesentence, like that in [i].
The fact that the twotypes of sentence are distinguished in terms of clauses implies that we takethe clause to be a more basic unit than the sentence, which reflects the factthat in speech it tends to be more difficult to determine the boundariesbetween sentences than the boundaries between clauses. For most of thisoverview we will focus on clauses: we return to coordination in Section14.
2 CANONICAL AND NON-CANONICAL CLAUSES
We can describe thestructure of clauses most economically if we distinguish between the most basicand elementary kinds of clause, which we callcanonical clauses, and the rest. The ideais that we can present the analysis more clearly if we begin with canonicalclauses, describing them directly, and then deal in turn with the various kindsof non-canonical clause, describing these indirectly, in terms of how theydiffer from canonical clauses.
The following pairedexamples will give some idea of what is involved in this distinction:
[2] Canonical Non-canonical
i a. Shehas read your article. b. Shehasn't read your article.
ii a. Sueis coming for dinner. b. IsSue coming for dinner?
iii a. Theyknew the victim. b. Shesaidthat they knew the victim.
iv a. Hemissed the train. b. Eitherhe missed the trainor it is late.
v a. Thesecretary took the key. b. Thekey was taken by the secretary.
These illustrate thefollowing properties of canonical clauses:
o Theyarepositive;negative clauses like [ib] are non-canonical.
o Theyaredeclarative;interrogativeslike [iib] are non-canonical, as arethe other clause types:imperatives (e.g.Please stand up) andexclamatives (What a fool I'vebeen).
o Theyaremain clauses; the underlined clause in [iiib] issubordinate and hence non-canonical.
o Theyarenon-coordinate; the two underlined clauses in [ivb] arecoordinated and hence each of themis non-canonical.
o Theyareactive;passive clauses like [vb] are non-canonical. This is a matter ofinformation packaging and we can say, more generally, that canonical clausespackage the information in the grammatically most basic way. ThusI have nowread most of them is canonical butMost of them I have now read is not.
There are two furtherpoints that should be made at this point.
(a) In all the aboveexamples the non-canonical clauses differ in their structure from canonicalclauses, but this is not always so. In [iiib] the subordinate clause isintroduced bythat but we could omit this, givingShe saidthey knew thevictim,where the underlined clause is identical with [iiia]; nevertheless it is stillsubordinate and hence non-canonical. It is subordinate by virtue of beingComplement of the verbsaid, but the subordination happens not to be marked inthe internal grammatical structure of the clause itself.
(b) A clause isnon-canonical if it lacks at least one of the above properties. It may ofcourse lack more than one of them. ThusWasn't the key taken by thesecretary?has three non-canonical properties: it is negative, interrogative and passive.In the discussion below we will take the non-canonical properties in turn withthe understanding that they can combine.
3 INITIAL LISTING OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH
We distinguish nineprimary word classes, or parts of speech, to use the traditional term. In thisoverview we needn't worry about interjections (wow,ah,hello, and the like), whichleaves us with eight classes. They are named and exemplified in [3]:
[3] i Verb Heis ill. Sheleft early. Wewant tohelp.
ii Noun Thedog barked. Suewon easily. Iloveyou.
iii Adjective He'sveryyoung. I've got asoreknee. It lookseasy.
iv Adverb Shespokeclearly. You'reextremelyfit. He worksveryhard
v DeterminativeThe dogbarked. I've gota soreknee. We needsome milk.
vi Preposition He'sin the garden. It'sfrom your uncle. Wewentto Paris.
vii Coordinator Wesaw Kimand Pat. Hurryor we'll be late. It'scheapbut good.
viii Subordinator I knowthatit's true. Askwhether it's true. Iwonderif it's true.
Note that we use`determinative' as the name of a class and `Determiner' as the name of afunction;[2] we need to invoke theclass vs function distinction here to cater for the construction illustrated inthe doctor's car. Herethe doctor'shas the same function, Determiner,astheinthe car, but it is not a word and hence not a determinative: as far as itsclass is concerned it's a noun phrase.
The above scheme differsfrom that of traditional grammar in three respects:
o Wetake pronouns to be a subclass of nouns, not a distinct primary class.
o Traditionalgrammars generally take our determinatives to be a subclass of adjectives,though some recognise a class of articles consisting ofthe anda. Our determinative classis much larger, containing not justthe anda, but also words likesome,any,all,each,every, no, etc.; these are verydifferent from words like those underlined in [iii].
o Wehave coordinator and subordinator as distinct primary classes, whereastraditional grammar has a primary class of conjunctions subdivided intocoordinating and subordinating conjunctions.
4 PHRASES
For each of the first sixof the word classes in [3] there is a corresponding class of phrases whose Headbelongs to that class. In the following examples, the phrase is enclosed inbrackets and the Head underlined:
[4] i Verbphrase She[wrotesome letters]. He[is still in London].
ii Nounphrase [The newlodger]is here. [Theboss] wants to see[you].
iii Adjectivephrase It'sgetting[ratherlate]. I'm[glad you couldcome].
iv Adverbphrase Ispoke [toosoon]. It's[quiteextraordinarily]good.
v Determinativephrase Isaw [almostevery]card. We've[verylittle]money left.
vi Prepositionphrase They're[inthe garden]. Hewrote a book[on sharks].
5 THE STRUCTURE OF CANONICAL CLAUSES
5.1 Subject and Predicate
A canonical clauseconsists of a Subject followed by a Predicate. The Predicate is realised by averb phrase; the Subject is mostly realised by a noun phrase, but there areother possibilities too, most importantly a subordinate clause:
[5] Subject Predicate
i Oneof his friends | called a doctor. [nounphrase as Subject]
ii Thathe was lying | was obvious. [subordinateclause as Subject]
In canonical clausesdescribing an action the Subject will be associated with the semantic role ofactor, or agent, as in [5i]. But many clauses don't express actions:weheard an explosion, for example, describes a sensory experience, and here theSubject is associated with the role of experiencer. There are numerousdifferent kinds of semantic role that can be associated with the Subject: whatthe role is in a particular instance will depend on the meaning of the clause,especially of the verb.
Meaning therefore doesnot provide a reliable way of identifying the Subject. But this function has agood few distinctive grammatical properties which together generally make iteasy to identify. Here are some of them.
(a)Position. Itsdefault position - the one it occupies unless there are special reasons forplacing it elsewhere - is before the Predicate.
(b)Formation ofinterrogatives. You can generally change a declarative clause into aninterrogative by inverting the Subject with the first auxiliary verb; if thereis no auxiliary in the declarative you need to insert the appropriate form ofdo.In either case the Subject ends up following the auxiliary verb:
[6] Declarative Interrogative
i a. Theboss is in her office. b. Isthe boss in her office?
ii a. Everyonesigned the petition. b. Dideveryone sign the petition?
(c)Interrogative tags.To seek confirmation of a statement you can add an interrogative tag,consisting of an auxiliary verb and a personal pronoun Subject which relatesback to the Subject of the clause to which the tag is attached:The bossis in her office, isn'tshe?;Everyone signed thepetition, didn'tthey?
(d)Subject-verbagreement, Where the verb has person-number properties (in the presenttense and the past tense ofbe), they are normally determined byagreement with the Subject:
[7] a. Hersonplays the piano. b. Hersonsplay the piano.
5.2 Predicator,Complements and Adjuncts
At the next layer ofstructure below the Predicate we distinguish three functions. The Predicator isthe function filled by the verb. The verb is the Head of the verb phrase, andPredicator is the special term used for the Head of the verb phrase forming thePredicate of a clause. Thus in [7b]play the pianois a verb phrasefunctioning as Predicate whileplay is a verb functioning asPredicator.
Complement and Adjunctare different kinds of Dependent, distinguished by thelicensing condition. Complementscan occur only if they are licensed by the Head verb: the verb must belong to asubclass that permits (or requires) a Complement of the type in question.Adjuncts are not subject to this restriction. Compare:
[8] Imowedthe lawnbefore it started to rain.
Herethe lawn is admissible becausethe verbmow (unlikedisappear, for example) allows a Dependent ofthis kind, sothe lawn is a Complement. But a Dependent indicating time can occurwith any verb, sobefore it started to rain is an Adjunct.
We will look further atComplements in the next subsection. As for Adjuncts, they are usually realisedby adverb phrases, preposition phrases, subordinate clauses, or a very narrowrange of noun phrases. They can be divided into various semantic subtypes, suchas Adjuncts of time, place, manner, etc., as illustrated in [9]:
[9] i Shespokevery clearly. [adverbphrase as Adjunct of manner]
ii Asa result of his action, he was fired. [prepphrase as Adjunct of reason]
iii Wecycle to workto save the busfare. [subordinateclause as Adjunct of purpose]
iv Theyleft the countrylast week. [nounphrase as Adjunct of time]
5.3 Object andPredicative Complement
Two important subtypes ofComplement are the Object and the Predicative Complement:
[10] a. Object:Edblamedthe minister. b. PredicativeComp:Edwasa minister..
While thousands of verbslicense an Object, only a fairly small number license a Predicative Complement,and of thesebe is by far the most common: others includebecome,remain,appear,seem, etc. The term `PredicativeComplement' is most easily understood by reference to the construction withbe: the verb has littlemeaning here (it is often called just a `linking verb'), so that the mainsemantic content of the Predicate is expressed by the Complement.
There are severalgrammatical properties that distinguish Objects from Predicative Complements,of which the two most important ones are illustrated in [11]:
[11] i a. Edblamedthe minister. [Object] b. Theminister was blamed by Ed.
ii a. Edwasa minister. [Pred Comp] b. *Aminister was been by Ed.
iii a. Edwasinnocent. [Pred Comp] b. *Edblamed innocent.
o TheObject of an active clause can usually become the Subject of a correspondingpassive clause, but a Predicative Complement never can. Thus the Object ofactive [ia] corresponds to the Subject of passive [ib], whereas [iib] is not apossible passive version of [iia]. (Here and below the asterisk indicates thatwhat follows is ungrammatical.)
o APredicative Complement can be realised not only by a noun phrase, as in [iia],but also by an adjective phrase, as in [iiia], whereas an Object cannot berealised by an adjective phrase, as evident from the ungrammaticality of[iiib].
5.4 Direct and IndirectObject
A clause may contain twoObjects, distinguished as Direct and Indirect. In canonical clauses, theIndirect Object always precedes the Direct Object, and typically (but notinvariably) is associated with the semantic role of recipient or beneficiary:
[12] i Hegavethe prisonersome water. [IndirectObject (recipient) + Direct Object]
ii Shebakedmea cake. [IndirectObject (beneficiary) + Direct Object]
5.5 Subjective andObjective Predicative Complements
The PredicativeComplements in [10b] and [11iia/iiia] are related to the Subject, but it is alsopossible for a Predicative Complement to be related to the Object: weaccordingly distinguish two subtypes, Subjective and Objective. Compare:
[13] SubjectivePred Comp ObjectivePred Comp
i a. Hebecameangry. b. Thismade himangry.
ii a. Hewasa charlatan. b. Theyconsidered hima charlatan.
5.6 Five canonical clausestructures
On the basis of thepresence or absence of the Complement types considered so far we candistinguish the following canonical clause structures:
[14] Example Structure Name
i Theydisappeared. S-P (Ordinary)intransitive
ii Theywere ecstatic. S-P-PCs Complex-intransitive
iii Theybought a house. S-P-Od (Ordinary)monotransitive
iv Theykept it warm. S-P-Od-PCo Complex-transitive
v Theysent her some flowers. S-P-Oi-Od Ditransitive
In the representations ofthe structures, S stands for Subject, P for Predicator, PCs forSubjective Predicative Complement, Od for Direct Object, PCofor Objective Predicative Complement, and Oi for Indirect Object.The names reflect the fact that there are two dimensions of contrast:
o Onehas to do with Objects: an intransitive clause has no Object, a monotransitiveclause has a single Object, and a ditransitive clause has two Objects.
o Theother has to with Predicative Complements: if a clause contains a PredicativeComplement it is complex, otherwise ordinary, though the latter term is oftenomitted (as it is in [v], since there is no possibility of adding a PredicativeComplement to a ditransitive clause).
Thenames apply in the first instance to the clause constructions, and thenderivatively to the verbs that appear in these constructions. Thusdisappear is an (ordinary)intransitive verb,be a complex-intransitive one, and so on. But it mustbe borne in mind that the majority of verbs can appear in more than one of them,and hence belong to more than one class.Find, for example, commonlyappears in [iii] (We found the key), [iv] (We found herco-operative), and [v] (We found her a job).
5.7 Prepositional andclausal Complements.
The Complementsconsidered so far have been noun phrases or adjective phrases, but these arenot the only possibilities. Complements often have the form of prepositionphrases or subordinate clauses:
[15] i a. Shewentto Paris. b. Shetook himto Paris.
ii a. Shereliedon her instinct. b. Hecongratulated heron her promotion.
iii a. Hesaidhe was sorry. b. Hetold herhe was sorry.
iv a. Weintendto leave on Tuesday. b. Iadvise youto leave on Tuesday.
In the [a] examples herethe underlined preposition phrase ([i-ii]) or subordinate clause ([iii-iv]) isthe only Complement, while in the [b] ones it follows an Object. We look atdifferent kinds of subordinate clause in Section13, but there is one point tobe made here about the prepositional constructions. In [i]to contrasts with otherprepositions such asover,from,via,beyond, etc., but in [ii]on is selected by the verb: anyadequate dictionary will tell you (if only by example) thatrely takes a Complement withon,consist withof,refer withto, and so on. Verbs likethese that take as Complement a preposition phrase headed by some specifiedpreposition are called `prepositional verbs'. Most ditransitive verbs alsobelong to this latter class by virtue of licensing a preposition phrase withto orfor instead of the IndirectObject: compareHe gave some waterto the prisoner andShe baked a cakeformewith[12] above.
6 VERBS
6.1 Verb inflection
The most distinctiveproperty of verbs is their inflection: they have a number of inflectional formsthat are permitted or required in various grammatical constructions. Thepresent tense formtakes, for example, can occur as the verb of a canonical clause,whereas the past participletaken cannot:She takes care,but not *She takencare.
The great majority ofverb lexemes have six inflectional forms, as illustrated in [16]:
[16] i Preterite checked Shechecked the figures herself.
ii 3rdsingular present checks Shechecks the figures herself.
iii Plainpresent check Theycheck the figures themselves.
iv Plainform check Shemaycheck the figures herself.
v Gerund-participle checking Sheischecking the figures herself.
vi Pastparticiple checked Shehadchecked the figures herself.
It will be noticed thatalthough we have distinguished six differentinflectional forms, there are only fourdifferentshapes:checked,checks,check andchecking. By `shape' we mean thespelling or pronunciation. Thus the preterite and past participle of the lexemecheck have the same shape, as do the plain present tense and the plain form.The same applies to all otherregular verbs, i.e. verbs whoseinflectional forms are determined by general rules. But there are a good numberof irregular verbs where the preterite and past participle do not have the sameshape:take, for example, hastook as its preterite andtaken as its past participle.
This means that it isvery easy to decide whether any particular instance of the shapecheck is a preterite form or apast participle. What you need to do is ask which form of a verb liketake would be needed in theconstruction in question. Consider, then, the following examples:
[17] i Shemay havechecked the figures herself.
ii I'mnot sure whether shechecked the figures herself or not.
If we substitutetake forcheck in [i] the form we needis the past participletaken:She may havetaken a break. So thischecked is likewise a pastparticiple. And if we make the substitution in [ii] we need the preterite formtook:I'm not sure whethershetook a break or not. So thechecked of [ii] is the preterite form. Notethat when making the substitution you need to keep constant what precedes theverb (e.g.She may have in [i]) since this is what determines the inflection thatis required: what follows the verb is irrelevant and hence can be changed tosuit the verb you are substituting.
Let us now briefly reviewthe six forms.
(a)Preterite.This is a type of past tense: the type where the past tense is markedinflectionally rather than by means of an auxiliary verb. Many grammars use themore general term `past tense': we prefer the more specific term to distinguishit from the construction where the auxiliaryhave marks the other kind ofpast tense, as inShe has checked the proofs.
(b)-(c)The presenttense forms. There are two present tense forms, one which occurs with a 3rdperson singular subject, and one which occurs with any other subject: 1stperson (I check), 2nd person (you check) or plural (they check). We could call thislatter form `non-3rd person singular', but `plain present' is simpler. `Plain'indicates that it is identical with the morphologicalbase of the lexeme, i.e. thestarting-point for the rules that produce the various inflectional forms byadding a suffix, changing the vowel, and so on.
(d)The plain form.This is also identical with the base, but it is not a present tense form. It isused in three constructions:
[18] i Imperative Checkthe figures yourself!
ii Infinitival It'sbetter tocheck the figures oneself.I willcheck themmyself.
iii Subjunctive It'sessential that shecheck the figures herself.
The infinitivalconstruction is very often marked byto, but it is also found withoutto after such verbs ascan,may,will,do (She didn'tcheckthe figures herself),make (They made mecheck thefigures myself), etc. The subjunctive is much the least frequent of the threeconstructions and belongs to somewhat formal style.
There are two majorfactors that distinguish the plain form from the plain present:
o Theverbbe is highly exceptional in its inflection in that it hasthree present tense forms instead of the usual two (is,am,are) and all of these aredifferent in shape from the plain formbe. It's the latter form that appearsin the three constructions shown in [18]:Be quiet (imperative);It'sbetter tobe safe than sorry,I willbe ready in time (infinitival);It'sessential that shebe told (subjunctive). So we can tell whether a giveninstance ofcheck, say, is the plain present or the plain form by using thesubstitution test illustrated above, but this time substituting the verbbe. Thus thecheckofWe must check thefiguresis a plain form, not a plain present tense because we need the plain form ofbe in this position:Wemustbe careful.
o Theplain present doesn't occur with 3rd person singular Subjects, but the plainform does. CompareShechecks the figures herself(not *She check thefigures herself) andShe willcheck the figures herself (not *She willchecksthe figures herself).
(e)Thegerund-participle. This form always ends with the suffix@ing. Traditional grammardistinguishes two forms with this suffix, the gerund and the presentparticiple:
[19] i Checkingthe figures can be onerous [traditionalgerund]
ii Peoplechecking the figures must be alert [traditionalpresent participle]
The idea was that agerund is comparable to a noun, while a participle is comparable to anadjective. Thus in [i]checking the figuresis comparable tosuch checks, wherechecks is a noun; in [ii]checkingthe figures is Modifier topeople and was therefore considered adjective-like sincethe most common type of Modifier to a noun is an adjective.There is, however, no verb in English that has distinct forms for theconstructions in [19], and so there is no basis for making any inflectionaldistinction here in Present-day English: we thus have a single form and thename `gerund-participle' indicates that it covers both traditional categories.
(f)The pastparticiple. This is used in two main constructions, the perfect and thepassive:
[20] i Perfect Shehaschecked the figures.
ii Passive Thefigures must bechecked by the boss.
The perfect is a pasttense marked by the auxiliary verbhave, while the most straightforwardcases of the passive involve the auxiliary verbbe. We retain thetraditional term `past participle', though the `past' component of meaningapplies just to the perfect construction.
6.2 The inflectionaltense system
We have seen that thereare two inflectional tenses in English: preterite and present; we review nowthe major uses of these tenses.
(a)Preterite.Three uses can be distinguished, as illustrated in [21]:
[21] i Pasttime a.Hearrived yesterday. b.Sheknew himwell.
ii Backshift a.Edsaid hewas ill. b.I thought itstartedtomorrow.
iii Modalremoteness a.Iwish Iknew the answer. b.I'd do it if youpaid me.
o In[i] we see the basic use, indicating past time. The event of his arriving tookplace in the past, and the state of her knowing him well obtained in the past(it may still obtain now, but I'm talking about some time in the past). This ismuch the most frequent use, but it's important to be aware that the preteritedoesn't always have this meaning.
o Example[iia] could be used to report Ed's saying `I am ill': present tenseam is shifted back topreteritewas under the influence of the preterite reporting verbsaid. In [iib] my originalthought was `It starts tomorrow': again present tensestarts is shifted back topreteritestarted. This example shows very clearly that the backshift use isnot the same as the past time use, for clearly the starting is not in the past.
o In[iii] the preterite has a modal rather than temporal meaning: it has to do withfactuality, not time. In [iiia] the subordinate clause has a counterfactualmeaning under the influence ofwish: you understand that I don't knowthe answer. The time is present, not past: I don't know it now. The conditional[iiib] is not counterfactual (it doesn't rule out the possibility of yourpaying me), but it envisages your paying me as a somewhat remote possibility -rather less likely than with the present tense counterpartI'll do it if youpay me.Note that the time of your possibly paying me is in the future. We usethe term `modal remoteness' to cover both these interpretations (as well asothers mentioned briefly in Section6.5).
(b)The present tense.The two most important uses are seen in [22]:
[22] i Presenttime a.Ipromise I'll help you. b.Shelives in Sydney.
ii Futuretime a.Examsstart next week. b.I'll go home when itgetsdark.
o In[i] we again have the basic and much the most common use: to indicate presenttime. In [ia] the event of my promising is actually simultaneous with theutterance, for I perform the act of promising by saying this sentence. In [ib]we have a state, and the present tense indicates that the state obtains at thetime of speaking.
o In[ii] the time is future. In main clauses this is possible only when the eventis in some way already scheduled, as in [iia]. But this constraint does notapply in various kinds of subordinate clause such as we have in [iib].
6.3 Auxiliary verbs
We turn now to theimportant subclass of verbs calledauxiliary verbs, orauxiliaries: they are quite markedlydifferent in their grammatical behaviour from other verbs, which are calledlexicalverbs.
6.3.1 Membership of theclass
The main members of theauxiliary class are shown in [23], where they are divided into two subclasses,modal andnon-modal:
[23] i Modalauxiliaries can,may,must,will,shall,ought,need,dare
ii Non-modalauxiliaries be,have,do
(Could,might,would andshould are the preterite formsofcan,may,will andshall respectively, thoughthey differ considerably from other preterites, as we shall see.)
6.3.2 Distinctiveproperties
There are severalconstructions which require the presence of an auxiliary verb, the two mostfrequent of which involve Subject-auxiliary inversion and negation.
(a)Subject-auxiliaryinversion. We have seen that in canonical clauses the Subject precedes theverb whereas in most interrogative main clauses the Subject follows the (first)verb. The verb that precedes the Subject, however, must be an auxiliary verb:only auxiliaries can invert with the Subject. Compare:
[24] Auxiliaryverb Lexicalverb
i a. Shehas taken the car. b. Shetook the car. [declarative]
ii a. Hasshe taken the car? b. *Tookshe the car? [interrogative]
If the declarativedoesn't contain an auxiliary, as in [ib], it is necessary to insert theauxiliarydo so that inversion can apply:Did she take thecar?Thisdo has no meaning: it is simply inserted to satisfy thegrammatical rule requiring an auxiliary.
(b)Negation. Theconstruction wherenot is used to negate the verb likewise requires that the verbbe an auxiliary:
[25] Auxiliaryverb Lexicalverb
i a. Shehas taken the car. b. Shetook the car. [positive]
ii a. Shehas not taken the car. b. *Shetook not the car. [negative]
Again, if there is noauxiliary in the positive,do must be inserted to form thenegative:Shedid not take the car.
A further, related, pointis that auxiliaries, but not lexical verbs, have negative forms ending in thesuffixn't: a more informal variant of [25iia] isShehasn't taken thecar.
6.3.3 Auxiliaries as Heads
It is important toemphasise that auxiliaries contrast with lexical verbs, not with what somegrammars call `main verbs'. Auxiliaries function as Head, not Dependent, inverb phrase structure. They mostly take non-finite clauses as Complement, likemany lexical verbs. Compare the examples in [26], where the verb phrase isenclosed in brackets, the Head is in capitals and underlining marks thenon-finite clause functioning as its Complement:
[26] Auxiliaryverb as Head Lexicalverb as Head
i a. They[OUGHTto accept the offer]. b. They[INTENDto accept the offer].
ii a. We[CANanswertheir queries]. b. We[HELPanswer their queries].
iii a. She[WAScheckingthe figures]. b. She[BEGANchecking the figures].
iv a. He[WASattackedby a dog]. b. He[GOTattackedby a dog].
The particular type ofnon-finite clause that is used depends on the Head verb, whether auxiliary orlexical.Ought andintend license infinitivals withto,can andhelp infinitivals withoutto;be, in one of its uses, andbegin license a non-finite clause with a gerund-participle form of the verb;be, in a second use, andget license one with a pastparticiple form of the verb.
Note, then, that the verbphrase in [iiia], say, is divided intowas +checking the figures, notwas checking +the figures, just as that in [iiib]is divided intobegan +checking the figures, notbegan checking +the figures. And similarly with theother examples.
6.4 The non-modalauxiliaries,be,have,do
Little further need besaid aboutdo: it is used in constructions like Subject-auxiliaryinversion and negation when required to satisfy the requirement that theconstruction contain an auxiliary. There is also a lexical verbdo used in clauses likeShedid her best,Idid him an injustice, etc.; here, then,auxiliarydo must be added to form interrogatives and negatives:Didshedo her best?,Ididn'tdo him an injustice.
(a)Be. Three uses ofbe can be distinguished,illustrated in :
[27] i Progressivemarker a.Theyare watching TV. b.I'vebeen working all morning.
ii Passivemarker a.Itwas taken by Jill. b.Hemaybe arrested.
iii Copula a.Shewas a friend of his. b.Thatis very likely.
o In[i], wherebe is followed by a verb in the gerund-participle form, it isa marker of progressive aspect. It generally serves to indicate that thesituation - the action, event, state, or whatever - was, is or will be inprogress at the time in question.
o Theclauses in [ii] are passive; [iia] is the passive counterpart of activeJilltook it,the presence ofbe being one of the major differences between the two forms.There is no active counterpart of [iib] because the latter has noby phrase (cf. Section15).
o In[iii]be is the only verb, but it still behaves as an auxiliary.Thus the interrogative of [a] isWas she a friend of his? and the negative of [b]isThatisn't very likely. In these examples the auxiliaryhas as its Complement not a non-finite clause but a noun phrase (a friend ofhis) andan adjective phrase (very likely).
(b)Have. This verb belongs toboth lexical and auxiliary classes. InShehad a swim it is a lexical verb,for the interrogative and negative counterparts areDid she have a swim? andShe didn't have aswim.The auxiliary uses are seen in [28]:
[28] i Perfectmarker a.Hehas broken his leg. b.He mayhave taken ityesterday.
ii Statichave a.Shehasenough credit. b.Wehave to invite them all.
o Theperfect is marked by auxiliaryhave + a past participle. It is bestregarded as a secondary past tense - the primary past tense being theinflectional preterite. Note, for example, that the preterite is found only infinite constructions such asHetook it yesterday, so it can't occur aftermay (cf. *He maytook it yesterday:may takes an infinitivalclause as Complement), and perfecthave is then used instead, as in [ib].Sincehave itself can inflect for tense, [ia] is doubly marked fortense: it is `past in present', the past being marked by the lexemehave and the present by theinflection onhave. This reflects the fact that while the event of hisbreaking his leg is located in past time it is seen as having relevance to thepresent. The most likely scenario is that his leg has not yet healed, so thathe is at present incapacitated. The present tense component also explains whyit is not normally possible to add an Adjunct likeyesterday: *He has broken hisleg yesterday.
o Have in [ii] denotes a state,unlike that of the aboveShe had a swim, which is dynamic, denoting anevent. Usage is divided as to whether statichave is an auxiliary or alexical verb. Those who sayShehasn't enough credit orHave we toinvite them all? and the like are treating it as an auxiliary, while those who sayShedoesn't have enough credit orDo we have to invite them all?are treating it as alexical verb. Many people use both constructions, though the lexical verbtreatment has been gaining ground for some time. Note that in [iia]have, likebe in [27], doesn't have anon-finite clause as Complement.
6.5 The modal auxiliaries
In this section we firstnote thatneed anddare, likedo andhave above, belong to bothauxiliary and lexical verb classes; we next set out the main grammaticalproperties that define the class of modal auxiliaries, then consider thepreterite forms, and finally look at the kinds of meaning they express.
(a)Need anddare. These are auxiliariesonly when followed by an infinitival construction withoutto, as inNeed Ibother?andIdaren't tell them, etc. Thus inIneed a haircut,Ineed to getmy hair cut,Idare you to repeat that, etc. we have lexical verbs.
(b)Distinctivegrammatical properties of modal auxiliaries
o Theyhave only tensed forms: no plain form, no gerund-participle, no pastparticiple. Hence the impossibility of *I'd like tomay go with you; *We'remustinginvite them all, *She hascould speak French since she was a child.
o Theyare invariable in the present tense instead of having a distinct form in@s used with 3rd personsingular Subjects:Shecan swim, not *Shecans swim, etc.
o Withone exception they license a following infinitival Complement withoutto:She can swim, not *She can to swim. The exception isought:They ought to acceptthe offer(=[26ia]).
Note that althoughWehave to invite them all has essentially the same meaning asWe must invite themall,thishave is not a modal auxiliary: it has none of the above threegrammatical properties. It is a special case of the statichave, illustrated in [28ii],and as such it is for many speakers not an auxiliary at all, but a lexicalverb.
(c)The preteriteforms.Could,might,would andshould are the preterite forms ofcan,may,will andshall respectively, but theuse of these preterites differs from that of other preterite forms inPresent-day English.
o Onlycouldandwould have the basic preterite use of indicating past time:Icoulddo it easily when I was younger;I asked him to help but hewouldn't.
o Thestatus ofmight andshould as preterites is established by their use in certainconditional constructions and in those cases of reported speech or thoughtwhere present tense forms are excluded. Thus though we can havemay inIf you come backtomorrow youmay find him in, we needmight inIf you came backtomorrow youmight find him in. And if atsome time in the past I had the thought `Ishall easily finish beforeshe returns' I would report this withshould, as inI knew I should easilyfinish before she returned (not *shall).
o Themajor difference is that while with other verbs the modal remoteness use of thepreterite is restricted to certain kinds of subordinate clause, with the modalauxiliaries it occurs in main clauses and with a wider range of interpretation;withmight andshould it is overwhelmingly the most frequent use. Thepreterites tend to be weaker, more tentative or polite than the present tenseforms.
(d)Types of modalmeaning. The modal auxiliaries express a considerable variety of meanings,but they can be grouped into three major types.
o Epistemicmodality.Here we are concerned with what is necessary, likely or possible:Hemusthave overslept;Dinnershould be ready in a few minutes;Shemay beill.
o Deonticmodality.Here it is a matter of what is required or permitted:Youmust workharder;Youshould be studying for your exam;Youcan/may go withthem if you like.
o Dynamicmodality.Here it is a question of properties or dispositions of persons or otherentities involved in the situation:Shecan speak very persuasively (ability),Willyou help me? (willingness). This kind of meaning is mainly found with justcan,will anddare.
In some cases there is aclear ambiguity as to which type of meaning is intended.You must be verytactful,for example, can be interpreted epistemically (I'm inferring from evidence thatyou are very tactful) or deontically (I'm telling you to be very tactful).Shecan't be serious may be understood epistemically (She is obviously not beingserious) or dynamically (She is unable to be serious).
7 NOUNS AND NOUN PHRASES
7.1 Distinctiveproperties of nouns
Nouns form much thelargest word class. It contains all words that denote physical entities, butalso great numbers of words that do not have this semantic property: in orderto be able to identify nouns we therefore need to examine their grammaticalproperties. We consider them under three headings: inflection, function anddependents.
(a)Inflection.Nouns generally exhibit inflectional contrasts ofnumber andcase:
[29] Number Case
Plain Genitive
i Singular student student's
ii Plural students students'
School grammars commonlyuse the term `possessive' instead of `genitive', but that term is far toospecific for the wide range of relationships covered by this case: compare, forexample,Kim's parents,the boys' behaviour,the train's arrival,the mayor's obituary,the sun's rays,today's news.
(b)Function. Nounscan function as Head in noun phrases that in turn function as Subject orComplement in clause structure, or Complement of a preposition, as illustratedin [30], where nouns are underlined and noun phrases bracketed:
[30] i Subjectin clause [Onestudent]was arrested.
ii Complementin clause Theyinterviewed[all thestudents].
iii Complementin prep phrase Thetalk was given by[astudent].
(c)Dependents.There are some kinds of Dependent that occur exclusively (or almostexclusively) with a noun as Head:
[31] i Certaindeterminatives the student,a school,every book,which exam
ii Pre-headadjectives. maturestudents,anew book,aneasy exam
iii Relativeclauses thestudentwho directed the play,a bookI'm reading
7.2 The structure of nounphrases
Noun phrases typicallyconsist of a Head noun alone or accompanied by one or more Dependents. TheDependents are of three main types: Determiners, Complements and Modifiers.
(a)Determiners.These are found uniquely in the structure of noun phrases. They have the formof determinatives (or determinative phrases, as inalmost allstudents,not many people,too few volunteers) or genitive noun phrases (thegirl's voice,some people's behaviour,my book).
Determiners serve to markthe noun phrase asdefinite orindefinite.
[32] i Definite thePremier of NSW,the key,this book,both copies,theman's death
ii Indefinite a politician,some keys,any seriousbook,enoughcopies,threedogs
We use a definite nounphrase when we assume that its content is sufficient,in the context, to identify thereferent. There's only one (current) Premier of NSW, so the definiteness in thefirst example is unproblematic, but with the second example there is of coursevery heavy reliance on context to make the referent clear.The is a pure marker ofdefiniteness, known asthe definite article. Its use effectively pre-empts awhich question: if I sayWhere'sthe key?I assume you won't need to askWhich key? Note that a genitive Determinerconfers definiteness on the noun phrase:the man's death means `the deathof the man', anda man's death likewise means `the death of a man'. Nounphrases likeblack coffee andfriends, which have a common noun as Headand no Determiner are normally indefinite.
(b)Complements.The clearest cases of Complements involve preposition phrases where thepreposition is specified by the Head noun, and certain types of subordinateclause:
[33] i Prepositionphrases herreviewof the play,a banon alcohol, his marriageto Sue
ii Subordinateclauses theideathat he might be ill,an opportunityto make friends
Note that nouns, unlikeverbs, do not take Objects: we sayShe reviewed the play, but not *her reviewthe play;instead we needof the play. Withbanandmarriage the prepositionsrequired areon andto. The subordinate clauses in [ii] clearly satisfy thelicensing test: only a fairly narrow range of nouns can take Complements likethese.
(c)Modifiers. Thetypical pre-Head Modifier is an adjective or adjective phrase:agoodbook,avery serious matter. But those are not the only possibilities. In particular,nouns can also function as Modifier to a Head noun:aschool play,theunemploymentsituation,etc. Post-Head Modifiers are typically preposition phrases and subordinateclauses that occur more freely than Complements in that they do not have to belicensed by the Head noun:a manof honour,the houseoppositethe post office,the playthat she wrote,the guywho spokefirst.
It is also possible tohave Modifiers that precede the Determiner:all the books,both theseplays,toosmall a car for our needs. Note that adverbs can occur in this position, but notafter the Determiner:absolutely the best solution, but not *anabsolutelysuccess. Instead of the latterwe need an adjective,an absolute success.
7.3 Number andcountability
(a)Nouns with fixednumber. Although most nouns have an inflectional contrast between singularand plural, there are a good few that do not - that have only singular or onlyplural forms:
[34] i Singular-onlynouns crockery,dross,harm,nonsense;news,mumps,physics, ...
ii Plural-onlynouns belongings,clothes,genitals,scissors;cattle,police, ...
Note that the last threeitems in [i] end in@s but are neverthelesssingular, as evident, for example, from the agreement inThis newsisgood.Conversely, the last two items in [ii] don't end in@s, but are nevertheless plural: cf.Thesecattleare in good health.
(b)Count andnon-count nouns. Related to the distinction between nouns with variablenumber and nouns with fixed number is that betweencount andnon-count nouns. Count nouns cantake cardinal numerals (one,two,three, etc.) as Dependent, whilenon-count nouns cannot. Compare countstudent (one student,two students) and non-countharm andclothes (*one harm/clothes, *two harms/clothes).
However, most nouns canoccur with either a count or a non-countinterpretation:
[35] Countinterpretation Non-countinterpretation
i a. Hepulled out a whitehair. b. Hehas whitehair.
ii a. Haveanothercake. b. Havesome morecake.
iii a. CanI borrow yourfootball. b. Let'splayfootball.
The interpretations in[a] allow for a contrast between one and more than one (cf., for example,Hepulled out two white hairs), but those in [b] do not. When we speak of count and non-countnouns, therefore, we are referring to nouns as used with a count and non-countinterpretation. Thushair is a count noun in [ia], a non-count noun in [ib], and soon.
(c)Subject-verbagreement. We noted in Section5.1 that where a verb has person-numberproperties they normally agree with those of the Subject noun phrase, moreparticularly with those of the Head noun of that noun phrase:Thedogis barking vsThedogsare barking. There are, however,certain semantically-motivated types of departure from this pattern, asillustrated in [36]:
[36] i Measureexpressions Twohoursisn't long enough for such a job.
ii Quantificationalnouns Alot of peoplelike it.
iii Collectivenouns Thejuryhaven't yet reached a decision.
o In[i] the hours aren't thought of individually but as making up a single period,so the Subject is treated as singular.
o In[ii] the verb-form is determined not by the Head nounlot but bypeople, which is embeddedwithin the Subject noun phrase.
o Withcollective nouns likejury in [iii] there is divided usage, with singularhasn't also used.
7.4 Subclasses of noun
There are three mainsubclasses of noun:common noun,proper noun andpronoun. Common noun is thedefault subclass and needs no further comment here.
(a)Proper nouns.This subclass includes nouns such asJohn,Mary,Smith,Beethoven,Sydney,Egypt,Nile,Easter, Friday, etc. They characteristicallyfunction as Head of noun phrases serving asproper names, names individuallyassigned to particular people, places, festivals, days of the week, and so on.Note, however, that they also occur, derivatively, in other kinds of nounphrase:That's notthe Smith I was referring to,Let's listen tosomeBeethoven. Conversely, not all proper names contain proper nouns: cf.CentralAvenue,NewYear's Day,and so on. And some proper names contain more than just a proper noun:theNile,MtEverest,King John.
(b)Pronouns. Thegrammatically distinctive property of pronouns is that they do not normallycombine with Determiners:He arrived, not *Thehe arrived. There are severalsubtypes of pronoun, including:
[37] i Personalpronouns I,we,you,he,she,it,they,one
ii Reciprocalpronouns eachother,one another
iii Interrogativeor relative pronouns who,what,which,whoever, etc.
We will comment here ononly the first of these categories. Personal pronouns are those where we findcontrasts ofperson.I andwe are first person, used to refer tothe speaker or a group containing the speaker. (`Speaker' is to be understoodas covering the writer in written texts.)You is second person, usedto refer to the addressee or a group containing one or more addressees. Theothers are third person: this doesn't encode reference to speaker or addresseeand therefore usually refers to entities other than the speaker or addressee.But I can refer to myself or to you in the third person:The writerhasnoticed ...;The reader may recall ...
The personal pronounshave five inflectional forms:
[38] i Nominative I,we,you, ... Idid it. It wasI who did it.
ii Accusative me,us,you, ... Itbitme. It wasme who did it.
iii Dependentgenitive my,our,your, ... Myson is here. I sawyour car.
iv Independentgenitive mine,ours,yours, ... Minewas broken. That'smine.
v Reflexive myself,ourselves, ... Ihurtmyself. We talk toourselves.
Nominatives occur mostlyas Head of a Subject noun phrase. In formal style they can also occur incertain types of Predicative Complement, with the accusative as a less formalvariant:It wasI/me who did it. In other types, however, only theaccusative is possible:The victim was me, not *The victim was I, and the like. Dependentgenitives occur when there is a following Head in the noun phrase, independentones when there isn't. Reflexives usually relate back to the Subject nounphrase, as in the above examples.
8 ADJECTIVES AND ADJECTIVE PHRASES
8.1 Two major functionsof adjectives
Most adjectives can beeitherattributive orpredicative:
[39] i Attributive ahot day,somenew DVDs,thisexcellent play,lonely people
ii Predicative It'shot. These looknew. I found itexcellent. They seemlonely.
Attributive adjectivesare pre-head Modifiers in noun phrase structure; predicative adjectives arePredicative Complements in clause structure (see Section5.5).
There are, however, someadjectives that are restricted to one or other of these functions:
[40] i Attributive-only themain speaker,amere child,theonly problem,myown car
ii Never-attributive I'mafraid. She'sasleep. He lookscontent. It'sliableto flood.
8.2 Gradability and grade
The most centraladjectives aregradable: they denote properties that can apply in varying degrees.As such, they can be modified by adverbs of degree and (under conditionsrelating to length and form) be inflected forcomparative (e.g.taller) andsuperlative(e.g.tallest)grade:
[41] i Degreemodification very good,quite hot,rather young,too old,incredibly bad
ii Inflectionfor grade hotter,younger,older,better;hottest,youngest,oldest,best
Gradable adjectives thatdon't inflect mark comparative and superlative degree by means of the adverbsmore andmost respectively:moreintelligent,most intelligent.
There are also a goodnumber of adjectives that denote non-scalar properties and hence arenon-gradable:alphabeticalorder,thechief difficulty,thefederal government,herright eye,third place. Some adjectives,moreover, can be used in two different senses, one gradable, the othernon-gradable (and usually the more basic). InThe door isopen, for example,open is non-gradable, but inYoushould be moreopen with us it is gradable.
8.3 The structure ofadjective phrases
Adjective phrases consistof an adjective as Head, alone or accompanied by one or more Dependents, whichmay be Complements or Modifiers:
[42] i Complements goodat chess,gratefulfor yourhelp,fondof animals,keenon golf,
gladthat you likedit,unsurewhat had happened,eagerto help
ii Modifiers very bad,morally wrong,this good,most useful,much better,two
days long,a bit old,cautioustoexcess,dangerousin the extreme
The Complements arepreposition phrases or subordinate clauses; in the former case the adjectiveselects a particular preposition to head the Complement:fond takesof,keen takeson, and so on. The Modifiersare adverbs (e.g.very), determinatives (this), noun phrases (two days) or post-Headprepositional phrases. Adjective phrases containing post-Head Dependents cannotnormally be used attributively:He's good at chess, but not *a good atchess schoolboy.
9 ADVERBS AND ADVERB PHRASES.
9.1 Adverbs in relationto adjectives
The majority of adverbsare derived from adjectives by adding the suffix@ly:common-commonly,rare-rarely, etc. There are a goodnumber of adverbs not formed in this way, some of them very common (e.g.almost,always,often,quite,rather,soon,too,very), but these are normallyrecognisable as adverbs by virtue of being replaceable by ones with the@ly suffix: compareIt'sverygood andIt'sextremely good;Shealways wins andShefrequently wins;It'll be oversoonandIt'll be overshortly, and so on.
The major differencebetween adverbs and adjectives has to do with their functions. We have seenthat adjectives function attributively or predicatively, but adverbs do notnormally occur in these functions: compare attributiveasuccessfulmeeting,not *asuccessfully meeting, and predicativeThe meeting wassuccessful, not *The meeting wassuccessfully. Adverbs function asModifier to a wide range of word or phrase classes, as illustrated in [43],where underlining marks the modifying adverb and capitals what it modifies:
[43] Adverbmodifying:
i Verb SheSPOKEclearly. ShePLAYEDwell.
ii Adjective It'saremarkably GOOD play Itlooksvery GOOD
iii Adverb Hespokevirtually INAUDIBLY. TheyalmostNEVER reply.
iv Determinative NearlyALL copies were sold. TooFEW copies were printed.
v Prepphrase Sheiscompletely IN CONTROL. It'squiteBEYOND BELIEF.
vi Restof clause Surprisingly EVERYONE AGREED Frankly,IT'S USELESS.
In general adverbs thatcan modify adjectives and other adverbs can also modify verbs, but there aresome exceptions, most notablyvery andtoo (in the sense`excessively'). CompareHe'svery FOND of her and *HeveryLOVES her(we needHe loves hervery MUCH).
A few adverbs inflect forgrade (soon,sooner,soonest), but for the most part comparatives andsuperlatives are marked bymore andmost:more carefully,most carefully.
9.2 The structure ofadverb phrases
The structure of adverbphrases is broadly similar to that of adjective phrases, but simpler: inparticular, very few adverbs license complements.
[44] i Complements Luckilyfor me,it rained. We handled it similarlyto the others.
ii Modifiers Shesangvery well.It won't endthat soon.We lefta bitlate.
10 PREPOSITIONS AND PREPOSITION PHRASES.
The most central membersof the preposition class have meanings concerned with relations in time orspace:after lunch,at school,before the end,in the garden,off thebridge,onthe desk,etc. In this section we look at the function of prepositions and then at theirComplements, and finally consider the phenomenon of preposition stranding.
(a)Function ofprepositions. Prepositions function as Head in preposition phrases, andthese in turn function as Dependent (Complement or Modifier) to any of the fourmajor parts of speech:
[45] Prepphrase dependent on:
i Verb SheWENTto London. TheyAREin the garden.
ii Noun He'sa MANof principle. It'son the WAYto Paris.
iii Adjective She'sINTERESTEDin politics. I'm RESPONSIBLEfor them
iv Adverb LUCKILYfor me, no-one knew. I saw her LATERin the day.
(b)Complements ofprepositions. Usually (as in all the examples in [45]) prepositions take anoun phrase as Complement. There are, however, other possibilities:
[46] i PrepositionphraseHeemerged[fromunder the bed. I'll stay[untilafter lunch].
ii Adjectivephrase Thatstrikes me[asunfair]. Itook him[fordead].
iii Adverbphrase Ididn't know[untilrecently ]. Ican't stay[forlong].
iv Clause Itdepends[onwhat she says]. I told her[beforeshe left].
(c)Prepositionstranding. In a number of clause constructions the Complement of apreposition is placed at the front of the clause or omitted altogether, leavingthe preposition `stranded':
[47] i a. Whatare you lookingat? b. It'ssomething[whichI can dowithout].
ii a. Thisis the book [I was referringto]. b. Hewent to the same school as [I wentto].
The construction ischaracteristic of relatively informal style, but it is a serious mistake to saythat it is grammatically incorrect.
11 NEGATION
(a)Clausal vssubclausal negation. Negation is marked by individual words such asnot,no,never, or by affixes such aswe have inuncommon,non-compliant,infrequent,careless,isn't,won't, etc. We need todistinguish, however, between cases where the negative affects the whole clause(clausal negation) and those where it affects just a part of it (subclausalnegation):
[48] i Clausalnegation a.Heis not well. b.Surprisingly, hewasn't ill.
ii Subclausalnegation a.Heis unwell. b.Not surprisingly,he was ill.
The clauses in [i] arenegative, but those in [ii] are positive even though they contain a negativeelement within them. We say this because they behave like obviously positiveclauses with respect to the constructions shown in [49]:
[49] Interrogativetags Andsovsand nor
i Positive a.He is well,isn'the? b.Surprisingly,he was illand so was she.
ii Negative a.He is not well,ishe? b.Surprisingly,he wasn't illand nor was she.
iii Positive a.He isunwell,isn't he? b.Not surprisingly, he was illandso was she.
o In[a] we have a clause followed by an interrogative `tag' used to seekconfirmation of what has been said. The usual type of tag reverses the`polarity' of the clause to which it is attached - that is, it is negative ifattached to a positive clause, as in [ia], and positive if attached to anegative clause, as in [iia]. And we see from [iiia], therefore, thatHe isunwellcounts as positive since the tag is negative: the clause is no more negativethanHe is sick.
o Inthe [b] examples we have added a truncated clause introduced byand so orand nor. We get and so after a positive clauseandand nor after a negative one. AndNot surprisingly, he was ill is shown to be a positiveclause because it takesand so.
(b)Non-affirmativeitems. There are a number of words or expressions that occur readily innegative or interrogative clauses but generally not in positive declaratives.Compare:
[50] Declarative Interrogative
i Negative a.He didn't findany cracks. b. Didn't he find any cracks?
ii Positive a. *He foundanycracks. b.Didhe find any cracks?
Instead of [iia] we sayHefoundsome cracks. Such items asany in [50] are callednon-affirmative (with `affirmative'understood as combining declarative and positive). They include compounds withany@, such asanybody,anyone,anything, etc.,at all,either,ever,yet,budge,canbear,canstand,givea damn,lifta finger, etc. More precisely,these are non-affirmative in at least one of their senses: some of them alsohave senses in which they can occur in affirmative constructions. Theany series of words, forexample, can occur in affirmative constructions when the meaning is close to`every', as inAnyone can do that.
12 CLAUSE TYPE AND SPEECH ACTS
We use sentences to makestatements, ask questions, make requests, give orders, and so on: these aredifferent kinds ofspeech act (a term understood, like `speaker', to cover writingas well as speech). The grammatical counterpart isclause type, where we distinguishdeclarative, interrogative, and so on. The main categories we recognise hereare illustrated in [51]:
[51] i Declarative Youare very tactful.
ii Closedinterrogative Are you very tactful?
iii Openinterrogative How tactful are you?
iv Exclamative Howtactful you are!
v Imperative Bevery tactful.
We use different termsfor the clause types than for the speech acts because the relation between thetwo sets of categories is by no means one-to-one. Consider such examples as[52]:
[52] i You'releaving already?
ii Iask you again where you were on the evening of 14 July.
iii Ipromise to help you.
iv Wouldyou mind opening the door for me?
Grammatically, [i] isdeclarative, but it would be used as a question: a question can be marked byrising intonation (or by punctuation) rather than by the grammatical structure.Example [ii] is likewise declarative but again it would be used as a question(perhaps in a court cross-examination): the question force this time comes fromthe verbask, in the present tense with a 1st person Subject.Promise in [iii] works in thesame way: this example would generally be used to make a promise. Thisillustrates the point that although we have just a handful of different clausetypes there are a great many different kinds of speech act: one can apologise,offer, congratulate, beseech, declare a meeting open, and so on. Finally, [iv]is a closed interrogative but would characteristically be used to make arequest. In this use it is what is called anindirect speech act: although it isliterally a question it actually conveys something else, a polite request.
All canonical clauses aredeclarative and we need say no more about this type, but a few comments are inorder for the remaining four types.
(a)Closedinterrogatives. These are so called because they are typically used to askquestions with a closed set of answers. Usually these areYes andNo (or their equivalents),but in examples likeIs it a boy or a girl? they derive from the terms joinedbyor:It's a boy andIt's a girl. Grammatically they are marked by Subject-auxiliaryinversion (though such inversion is not restricted to interrogatives: in thedeclarativeNever had I felt so embarrassed it is triggered by the initialplacement of the negativenever).
(b)Openinterrogatives. These are typically used to ask questions with an open setof answers (e.g.very,quite,slightly, etc. in the case of [51iii]). They are marked bythe presence of an interrogative phrase consisting of or containing a so-called`wh-word':who,what,when,where,how, etc. This phrase may beSubject (Who said that?), Complement (What do you want?) or Adjunct (Whendid he leave?). If it is Complement or Adjunct it normally occurs at the beginning ofthe clause, which has Subject-auxiliary inversion, as in the last two examples.It is possible, however, for it to remain in post-verbal position, as inAndafter that you wentwhere? (a construction most likely to be found in a contextof sustained questioning).
(c)Exclamatives.These have, at the front of the clause, an exclamative phrase containing eitherhow,as in [51iv], orwhat, as inWhat a fool I've been!
(d)Imperatives.The most common type of imperative hasyou understood, as in [51v], orexpressed as Subject (as inYou be careful;Don'tyouspeak to me like that). The verb is in the plain form, butdo is used in the negative:Don't move. We also have 3rd person imperatives likeSomebody open the window, distinguished from thedeclarative precisely by the plain form verb. 1st person plural imperatives aremarked bylet's:Let's go!,Don't let's bother.
13 SUBORDINATE CLAUSES
Subordinate clausesnormally function in the structure of a phrase or a larger clause. Whereas mainclauses are almost invariably finite, subordinate clauses may be finite ornon-finite.
13.1 Finite subordinateclauses.
The most central type offinite clause istensed, i.e. contains a verbinflected for tense (preterite or present tense), and most finite subordinateclauses are of this type. There is, however, one construction containing aplain form of the verb that belongs in the finite class, thesubjunctive:
[53] i Shesaysthat he is kept well-informed [tensed:is ispresent tense verb]
ii Sheinsiststhat he be kept well-informed [subjunctive:be isplain form]
Subjunctive is thus thename of a syntactic construction, not an inflectional category, as intraditional grammar. It has a plain form verb and when the Subject is apersonal pronoun it appears in nominative case.
We distinguish three maintypes of finite subordinate clause:content clauses,relative clauses andcomparativeclauses.
13.1.1 Content clauses
These usually function asSubject or else Complement of a verb, noun, adjective or preposition:
[54] i Thatthey accepted the offer is very fortunate. [Subject]
ii IKNOWshe likes it. [Complementof verb]
iii TheFACTthat it's so cheap makes me suspicious. [Complementof noun]
iv Westayed in BECAUSEit was raining. [Complementof preposition]
Like main clauses theyselect for clause type, except that there are no subordinate imperatives:
[55] i Declarative Hedidn't knowthat everybody supported the proposal.
ii Closedinterrogative He didn't knowwhether everybodysupported the proposal.
iii Openinterrogative He didn't knowwhichproposal everybody supported.
iv Exclamative Hedidn't knowwhat a lot of them supported the proposal..
o Declarativesare often marked by the subordinatorthat; and sincethat occurs in both thetensed clause and the subjunctive in [53] we include both in the declarativeclass.
o Closedinterrogatives havewhether orif instead of the Subject-auxiliaryinversion found in main clauses (compare the main clause counterpart of thesubordinate clause in [ii]:Did everybody support the proposal?).
o Openinterrogatives have the interrogative phrase in initial position and normallyno Subject-auxiliary inversion (again compare the main clause counterpart ofthat in [iii]:Which proposal did everybody support?).
o Exclamativesmostly have the same form as their main clause counterparts, as with [iv].
13.1.2 Relative clauses
(a)Relative clausesas Modifier. The most central kind of relative clauses functions asModifier in noun phrase structure:
[56] i a. Iagree with[the guywho spoke last]. b. Iagree with[the guythat spoke last].
ii a. Helost[thekeywhich I lent him]. b. Helost[thekeyI lent him].
Such clauses contain anovert or covert element which relates back to the Head noun, so we understandin [i] that some guy spoke last and in [ii] that I lent him a key. This`relativised element' is overt in [ia] (the relative pronounwho) and [iia] (which), but covert in the [b]examples. This is obvious in the case of [iib], and in [ib]that, although traditionallyclassified as a relative pronoun, is better regarded as a subordinator, thesame one as is found in declarative content clauses like [55i]; on thisanalysis there is no overt relativised element in [ib] any more than in [iib].
The relativised elementcan have a variety of functions in the relative clause: in [56i] it is Subject,in [56ii] Object, and so on.
(b)Supplementaryrelative clauses. The relative clauses in [56] are tightlyintegrated into the structure ofthe sentence, but it is also possible for relative clauses to be set off bypunctuation or intonation, so that they have the status of more looselyattachedSupplements, as in:
[57] i I'velent the car to my brother,who has just come over from New Zealand.
ii Heoverslept again,which made him miss the train.
In this type therelativised element is almost always overt, and doesn't relate back to a nounbut to a larger unit, a whole noun phrase in [i] (my brother) and a clause in [ii],wherewhich is understood as `(the fact) that he overslept again'.
(c)The fused relativeconstruction. This is structurally more complex than the aboveconstructions:
[58] i a. Whoeverwrote this must be very naive. b. You can invitewhoyou like.
ii a. Hequickly spentwhat she gave him. b. Whatbooks he has are in the attic.
The underlined sequenceshere are not themselves clauses but noun phrases: clauses don't denote entitiesthat can be naive or be invited or spent or located in the attic. Note,moreover, thatare in [iib] agrees with a plural noun phrase Subject, whereasSubjects with the form of clauses take 3rd person singular verbs, as in [54i].Whoever in [58ia] is equivalenttothe person who andwhat in [iia] tothat which, and so on. This is whywe call this construction `fused': the Head of the noun phrase and therelativised element are fused together, instead of being separate, as in[56ia/iia].
These constructions maylook superficially like open interrogative content clauses. Compare [58iib],for example, withI asked herwhat she gave him. The meaning is quitedifferent: the latter, where the underlined clause is interrogative, can beglossed as `I asked her the answer to the question, `What did she give him?'',but there is no such question meaning in [58iia]. Similarly compare [58iib],meaning `The (few) books he has are in the attic', withWhat books he hasis unknown,where the underlined clause is interrogative and the meaning is `The answer tothe question `What books does he have?' is unknown'; note that this time themain clause verb is singularis, agreeing with the clausal Subject.
13.1.3 Comparative clauses
Comparative clausesgenerally function as Complement to the prepositionsas andthan:
[59] i a. I'mas ready asI ever will be. b. Aswas expected, Sue won easily.
ii a. Morepeople came thanI'd expected. b. Hehas more vices thanhe has virtues.
The distinctive propertyof such clauses is that they are structurally incomplete relative to mainclauses: there are elements understood but not overtly expressed. In [ia] and[iia] there's a missing Complement and in [ib] a missing Subject. Even in [iib]there's a missing Dependent in the Object noun phrase, for the comparison isbetween how many vices he has andhow many virtues he has. The fact thatthere's some kind of understood quantifier here is reflected in the fact thatwe can't insert an overt one: *He has more vices than he has ten virtues.
13.2 Non-finitesubordinate clauses
There are three majorkinds of non-finite clause:
[60] i Infinitival a.Hewantsto see you. b.Ican'thelp you.
ii Gerund-participial a.Buyinga car was a mistake. b.He's the guystandingup.
iii Past-participial a.Allthings considered, it's OK. b.We gottold off.
Infinitivals contain aplain form of the verb, with or without the special markerto; gerund-participials andpast-participials have verbs in the gerund-participle and past participleforms; for further examples, see [26] above.
Most non-finite clauseshave no overt Subject, but all three kinds allow one under certain conditions.
o Ininfinitivals, it occurs in theto-variant with initialfor as subordinator:Forthem to be so late is very unusual.
o Ingerund-participials a personal pronoun Subject usually appears in accusativecase, but genitives are found in relatively formal style:We objected tothem/their being givenextra privileges.
o Example[iiia] is a past-participial with an overt Subject.
Infinitivalsare much the most frequent of the three classes of non-finite clause, andappear in a very wide range of functions. These include Subject (To erris human),Complement of a verb (as in [60ia/b]: the Head verb determines whetherto is included), Complementof a noun (I applaud[her willingnessto compromise]), Complement of anadjective (She's[willingto compromise]), Adjunct (She walks to worktokeep fit), Modifier of a noun (I need[an albumto keep the photosin]).In general, prepositions take gerund-participials rather than infinitivals asComplement (He left [withoutsaying good-bye]), but the compoundinorderandso as are exceptions (She stayed at home [in orderto study for theexam]).
14 COORDINATION
Coordination is arelation between two or more items of equal syntactic status, thecoordinates. They are of equalstatus in the sense that one is not a Dependent of another.
(a)The marking ofcoordination.Coordination is usually but not invariably marked by thepresence of a coordinator, such asand,or,nor,but; the first three of these may alsobe paired with a determinative,both,either andneither respectively. The mainpatterns are seen in [61]:
[61] i Wehave no milkand the shops aren't open yet.
ii Herbrothercame too,but didn't stay long.
iii Wecan meeton Monday,on Thursdayor at the week-end.
iv Wecan meeton Monday,or on Thursdayor at the week-end.
v BothJilland her husband attended the meeting.
vi Hewasself-confident,determined,egotistical.
Examples [i]-[iii]illustrate the most usual case: a coordinator in the last coordinate. In [iv]there is a coordinator in all non-initial coordinates, in [v] a determinativein the first, and in [vi] no overt marking of coordination at all.
(b)Functionallikeness required between coordinates. Coordination can appear at more orless any place in the structure of sentences. You can have coordination betweenmain clauses (giving a compound sentence, as in [61i]), between subordinateclauses, between phrases, between words (e.g.Have you seen myfatherand mother?). But the coordinates need to be grammatically alike.Usually they belong to the same class, as in all the examples in [61]. They donot have to be, however: the crucial constraint is that they be alike infunction. Compare, then:
[62] i Sheisvery brightand a good leader.
ii Idon't knowthe cause of the accidentor how much damage was done.
iii *We'releavingRomeand next week.
o In[i] we have coordination between an adjective phrase and a noun phrase, and in[ii] between a noun phrase and a subordinate clause (an open interrogativecontent clause). These are acceptable because each coordinate could stand onits own with the same function: inShe isvery bright andShe isa goodleaderthe underlined units are both Predicative Complements, and inI don't knowthecause of the accident andI don't knowhow much damage was done they are bothComplements.
o But[iii] is unacceptable, even though the coordinates are of the same class, nounphrase, because the functional likeness condition is not met. The function ofRome inWe're leavingRome is Complement, whereasthat ofnext week inWe're leavingnext week is Adjunct.
(c)Joint coordination.One special type of coordination is seen in [63]:
[63] a. Samand Pat are a happy couple. b. SamPatand Alex like each other.
What is distinctive aboutthis type is that the properties concerned, being a happy couple and likingeach other, apply to the coordinates jointly rather than separately. So wecan't say *Sam is a happy couple or *Pat likes each other. The functional likenessin this type is that the coordinates denote members of a set to which therelevant property applies. The construction is more restricted than the typeillustrated in [61] in that it excludes determinatives (*Both Sam and Patare a happy couple), doesn't allowbut as coordinator, and does requirelikeness of class between the ccoordinates.
15 INFORMATION PACKAGING
The grammar of the clausemakes available a number of constructions that enable us to express a givencore meaning in different ways depending on how we wish to to present or`package' the information. For example,Kim broke the vase,The vase was brokenby Kim,Thevase Kim broke, It was Kim who broke the vase,What Kim broke was the vase all have the same coremeaning in the sense that there is no situation or context in which one of themwould be true and another false (assuming of course that we are talking of thesame Kim and the same vase). The first of them,Kim broke the vase, is the syntacticallymost basic, while the others belong to variousinformation-packagingconstructions. The most important of these constructions are illustrated by theunderlined examples in [64]:
[64] Name Example Basiccounterpart
i Preposing a.Thisone you can keep. b.Youcan keep this one.
ii Postposing a.I'velent to Jill the only copy b. I've lent the only copy that
thathas been corrected. hasbeen corrected to Jill.
iii Inversion a.Inthe bag was a gold watch. b.A gold watch was in the bag.
iv Passive a.Thecar was driven by Sue. b.Sue drove the car.
v Existential a.Therewas a doctor on board.b.A doctor was on board.
vi Extraposition a.It's clear thatshe is ill. b.Thatshe is ill is clear.
vii Cleft a.It was Kim thatsuggested it. b.Kim suggested it.
viii Pseudo-cleft a.What I need is acold drink. b.I need a cold drink.
ix Dislocation a.It'sexcellent, this curry. b.Thiscurry is excellent.
Inthe first three we are concerned simply with the order of elements, while the othersinvolve more radical changes.
o Thebasic position for the Complementthis onein [i] is after the verb, but in [a]it is preposed, placed at the front of the clause.
o In[ii] the basic position for the Object,the only copy that has been corrected, is just after the verbbut long or complex elements like this can be postposed, placed at the end.
o In[iii] the positions of the Subject and Complement of the basic version [b] arereversed in the inversion construction [a]. (More precisely, this is Subject-Dependentinversion, in contrast to the Subject-auxiliary inversion constructiondiscussed earlier. The Dependent is usually a Complement but can also be anAdjunct, as inThree days later came news of her death.)
o In[iv] (the only one where the basic version has a distinct name, `active') theObject becomes Subject, the Subject becomes Complement ofby and the auxiliarybe is added.
o Theexistential construction applies mainly with the verbbe: the basic Subject isdisplaced to follow the verb and the semantically empty pronounthere takes over the Subjectfunction.
o In[vib] the Subject is a subordinate clause (that she is ill); in [a] this isextraposed, placed after the verb phrase and this time the Subject function istaken over by the pronounit.
o In[vii] the cleft clause is formed by dividing the basic version into two parts:one (Kim) is highlighted by making it Complement of a clause withit as Subject andbe as verb, while the otheris backgrounded by relegating it to a subordinate clause (a distinct subtype ofrelative clause).
o Thepseudo-cleft construction is similar, but this time the subordinated part isput in a fused relative (what I need) functioning as Subject ofbe.
o Dislocationbelongs to fairly informal style. It differs from the basic version in havingan extra noun phrase, set apart intonationally and related to a pronoun in themain Subject-Predicate part of the clause. In theleft dislocation variant the pronounoccurs to the left of the noun phrase; inright dislocation it is the other wayround, as inHis father, she can't stand him.
There are two furthercomments that should be made about these constructions.
(a)Basic counterpartneed not be canonical. For convenience we have chosen examples in [64]where the basic counterparts are all canonical clauses, but of course they donot need to be. The basic (active) counterpart of passiveWas the car drivenby Kim?isDid Kim drive the car?, which is non-canonical by virtue of being interrogative.Likewise the non-cleft counterpart ofIt was Sue who had been interviewed bythe policeisSue had been interviewed by the police, which is non-canonical by virtueof being passive: note then that certain combinations of theinformation-packaging constructions are possible.
(b)Theinformation-packaging construction may be the only option. The second pointis that under certain circumstances what one would expect to be the basiccounterpart is in fact ungrammatical. Thus we can sayThere was an accident, but not *An accidentwas:here the existential construction is the only option. One difference betweenactives and passives is that theby phrase of the passive is anoptional element whereas the element that corresponds to it in the active,namely the Subject, is generally obligatory in finite clauses. Compare, then:
[65] i Passive a.Some mistakes weremade by Ed. b.Some mistakes were made.
ii Active a.Edmade some mistakes. b. *Madesome mistakes.
Passives like [ib] - calledshort passives - thus have no active counterpart. They are in fact themore common type of passive, allowing information to be omitted that would haveto be expressed in the active construction.
Written by Rodney Huddleston & GeoffreyK. Pullum in collaboration with a team of thirteen linguists and published byCambridge University Press in 2002. A shorter version, designed as anundergraduate textbook, appeared in 2005 asA Student's Introduction toEnglish Grammar. I amgrateful to Geoff Pullum and Anne Horan for comments on an earlier draft ofthis paper.
In myWords'Worth paper I relied simply on the convention ofupper vs lower case initial to distinguish `determiner' as a class term and`Determiner' as a function term.
We use bold italics for lexemes; lexeme isa more abstract concept than word as it ignores inflection, so thatdo,does,did, etc. are all forms of a single lexeme,do.
Traditional grammar also classifies asparticiples verb-forms which it regards (mistakenly, in our view) as part of acompound verb, such aschecking inShewas checking the figures (cf. Section6.3.3).
In fact there is divided usage here, andsome speakers do allowmayin this construction. For them it would seem thatmay andmight are no longer treated as present and preterite formsof a single lexeme, but as present tense forms of distinct lexemes.
This is the standard terminology, but notethat Functional Grammar uses `Attribute' for the most common type ofPredicative Complement.
In traditional grammar it is notsheleft butbefore sheleft that is analysed as aclause, withbeforebeing here a subordinating conjunction rather than a preposition. We presentarguments in favour of our analysis on pp. 1011-14 and 129-30 respectively ofthe two books mentioned in footnote 1. We also depart from traditional grammarin treating words like those underlined inComein orI felloff as prepositions rather than adverbs.
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