Chapter 1: Elements of Grammar

1. Parts of a sentence
- Subject + Predicate
+ Subject: What is being discussed (the theme of a sentence)
+ Predicate: Something new about the subject
→ It is a general characteristic and not a defining feature
→ The S determines concord (the relationship between words which
determines whether they should be singular or plural… and what the form of
the verbal group should be)
→ The S is the part of a sentence that changes its position as we go from
statement to question.
- Operator, auxiliary, and predication
Sentence = Subject + auxiliary as operator + predication
This division helps to understand:
+ How interrogative and negative sentences are formed.
+ How certain adjuncts are positioned
+ How certain types of emphasis are achieved.
- Range of operators
+ Verb expression with several auxiliaries: first auxiliary acts as operator.
+ Verb expression with no auxiliary in positive declarative sentence: “do” is
used when operator is required.
+ Verb be and have acting as operator whether it is an auxiliary or not.
- Sentence elements: S, V, C, O, A
+ S, O, A have internal constituents of sentence (= dependent clause)
+ O: - direct object (Od)
- indirect object (Oi)
+ C: - subject complement (Cs)
- object complement (Co)
2. Categories of Verb
- Types of verb corresponding closely to the different types of O and C:
+ Intensive V: V + Cs
+ extensive V: - intransitive (no O, C)
- transitive (with O): - monotransitive (Od)
- ditransitive (Od and Oi)
- complex transitive (O and Co)
- Types of verb corresponding to aspectual contrast of “progressive” and “non-
progressive”
+ Stative (non-progressive)
+ Dynamic (progressive)
3. Categories of Adverbial
+ Time
+ Place
+ Process (progressive aspect)
4. Types of sentence structure (see diagram and examples in 2.10 )
5. Element realization types
+ Verb element: (always a verb phrase):
  Finite: showing tense, mood, aspect, voice
 Non-finite: showing aspect, voice only
+ S: realized by:
 noun phrase (simplest form: pronoun)
 a clause
+ Cs, Od, Co: realized by same range of structures as S
+ Cs, Co: also realized by adjective phrases
+ Oi realized chiefly by noun phrases and not realized by “that” clauses
+ A: realized by adverb phrases, noun phrases, prepositional phrases, clauses
(finite/ non-finite)
6. Parts of speech
+ Open-class items
 Noun
 Adjective
 Adverb
 Verb
+ Closed-system items
 Article
 Demonstrative
 Pronoun
 Preposition
 Conjunction
 Interjection
+ Stative and dynamic
STATIVE noun ↔ adjective
↕ ↕
DYNAMIC verb ↔ adverb
Notes: Exceptions within the class of verbs: stative Vs
Exceptions in the other directions within the class of nouns and
adjectives.
7. Pro-forms
 ‘one’ replaces a noun in a noun phrase
 Pronouns replace noun phrases
 Proforms for place, time, and other adverbials: there, then, so
 ‘so’ replaces – along with the pro-verb ‘do’ – a predication
 The pro-predication is achieved by the operator alone
8. Questions and negation
+ Wh-questions
Pro-form = we know what this item refers to, so I need not state it in full
‘wh’forms = It has not been known what this item refers to and so it needs
to be stated in full
+ Yes-No questions
+ Negation and non-assertion
Sentence: - assertion: – positive and declarative
- non-assertion: - interrogative: - positive
- negative
 - negative

Chapter 2: Verbs and Verb Phrase

1. Types of verb
- Lexical
- Auxiliary: - Primary (do, have, be)
- Modal (can, may, shall, will, could, might, should,
would, must, ought to, used to, need, dare)
2. Verbal forms and the verb phrase
- 5 forms: base, -s form, past, -ing participle, -ed participle.
(see the table in 3.2)
3. The morphology of lexical verbs
 Regular lexical verbs
+V BASE
+ V-ing -ING PARTICIPLE
+ V-s -s FORM
+ V-ed PAST/-ED PARTICIPLE
- The -ing and -s forms
- The past and the -ed participle
 Further inflectional spelling rules
- Doubling of consonant
- Treatment of -y
- Deletion of -e
 Irregular lexical verbs (7 classes)
 The auxiliaries do, have, be
 The modal auxiliaries
4. Finite and non-finite verb phrases
- finite verb phrases have tense distinction
- finite verb phrases occur as the verb element of a clause. There is
person and number concord between the S and the finite verb
- finite verb phrases have mood
- the non-finite forms of the verb are the infinitive, the –ing
participle, and the –ed participle. Non-finite verb phrases consist
of one or more such items.
5. Order in the complex verb phrase
a. MODAL
b. PERFECTIVE
c. PROGRESSIVE
d. PASSIVE
6. Contrasts expressed in the verb phrase
a. Voice, involves the active-passive relations (this is dealt with in 7.5 and
12.14-32)
b. Questions requiring subject movement involve the use of an auxiliary as
operator. (this topic is dealt with in 7.44-57)
c. Negation makes analogous use of operators (this is dealt with in 7.33-
42)
 d. Emphasis, which is frequently carried by the operators is treated in
14.35
e. Imperatives are discussed in 7.58-62
7. Tense, aspect and mood
a. Tense and aspect
+ The present and past tenses in relation to the progressive and perfective
aspects

Simple Complex
progressive
Present Write am writing Present
was writing Past
perfective
have written present perfect
Past Wrote had written past perfect
perfective progressive
have been writing present perfect
had been writing past perfect
+ The future
b. Mood
+ The subjunctive mood: 3 categories of subjunctive:
 The mandative subjunctive in that-clause has only one form, the
base (V).
→ can be used with any verb in subordinate that-clauses when the main
verb contains an expression of recommendation, resolution, demand, and so
on
→ occurs chiefly in formal style (in less formal contexts should or to-
infinitive is used)
 The formulaic subjunctive: consists of the base (V) but is only
used in clauses in certain expressions which have to be learnt as
whole,
 The subjunctive were: hypothetical in meaning; used in
conditional and concessive clauses and in subordinate clauses
after optative verbs like wish
+ Modal past
+ The uses of the modal auxiliaries: (see 3.48-53)
+ The modal and aspect
When the modal expresses ‘ability’ or ‘permission’ and when shall or
will express ‘volition’ → the perfective and progressive aspects are excluded
but are used with other modal meanings (possibility, necessity, prediction).

Chapter 3: Nouns, Pronouns, and the Basic Noun Phrase

1. The concept of the basic noun phrase:
Nouns with articles or other closed-system items that can occur before
the noun head, such as predeterminers like all
 2. Proper nouns and common nouns
3. Types of N:
- non-count N
- singular (count) N
- plural (count) N
4. Determiners
A determiner is a word used before a noun to select which instance of the N
you are talking about or to identify it.
With respect to their co-occurrence with the noun classes, there are 6
classes of determiners:
a. Co-occurring with 3 classes:
‘the’, ‘possessive: my, our…’, ‘whose’, ‘which’, ‘what’, ‘some’, ‘any’
(stressed), ‘no’
b. with plural and non-count N:
zero article, ‘some’, ‘any’ (unstressed), enough
c. with singular and non-count N:
‘this’, ‘that’ (demonstrative)
d. with plural N: ‘these’, ‘those’
e. with singular N:
‘a(n)’, ‘every’, ‘each’, ‘either’, ‘neither’
f. with non-count N: ‘much’
5. Predeterminers:
a. all, both, half
- singular N: half, all
- plural N: half, all, both
- non-count N: half, all
 Can occur only before articles or demonstratives but since they are
quantifiers, they do not occur with such quantitative
determiners as ‘every’, ‘(n)either’, ‘each’, ‘some’, ‘any’,
‘no’, ‘enough’
 Have ‘of’ constructions, which are optional with Ns and obligatory
with personal pronouns
 Can be used pronominally.
 ‘all’ and ‘both’ can occur after the head, either immediately or
within the predication
 ‘both’, ‘either’, ‘neither’ refer to 2 (both is emphatic compared
with 2)
 ‘all’ is rare with singular concrete Ns though less rare with
contrastive stress
 Before certain singular temporal Ns, esp in adjunct phrases, ‘all’ is
used with zero article
 There is also an adverbial ‘half’ which occurs in familiar emphatic
negation and can precede ‘enough’
b. ‘double’, ‘twice’, ‘three/four… times’
Occur with non-count and plural Ns, and with singular Ns denoting number,
amount, etc…
Three, four, … times and once + a, every, each, per (less commonly) to form
‘distributive’ expressions with a temporal N as head
Fractions (1/3, 2/5 …) can occur with all types of N and have ‘of’ construction.
6. Postdeterminers
+ Numerals: - cardinal numbers
- ordinal numbers
+ Ordinals usually precede cardinal numbers
+ General ordinals (next, last …) may be used freely before or after cardinals
according to the meaning required.
7. Quantifiers
- with plural count Ns: ‘many’, ‘(a) few’, ‘several’
- with non-count Ns: ‘much’, ‘(a) little’
- Phrasal quantifiers
- ‘plenty of’, ‘a lot of’, ‘lots of’ + plural and non-count Ns
- ‘a great deal/good deal of’, ‘a large/small quantity/amount of’ +
non-count Ns
- a great/large/good number of + plural Ns
- Phrasal quantifiers provide a means of imposing countability on
non-count Ns:
a. general partitives

two pieces News

a bit Info
Of
an item Furniture

b. typical partitives

a slice Cake
a roast Meat
a few loaves Of Bread
a bowl Soup
a bottle Wine
c. measures

a pint Beer
a spoonful Of Medicine
a pound Butter

8. Reference and the articles

+ Reference: - specific
- generic
+ Article: - definite
- indefinite
+ Systems of article usage: two difference systems of article use depending
on the type of reference:
Definite Indefinite
Specific the tiger the ink a tiger some ink
the tigers some tigers
Generic the tiger Ink
a tiger
tigers
→ with definite specific reference, the definite article is used for all noun
classes.
→ with indefinite specific reference, singular count nouns take the
indefinite article a(n), while non-count and plural count nouns take zero
article or unstressed some (any in non-assertive contexts)
+ Generic reference
- Nationality words and adjectives as head: 2 kinds of adj acting as noun
phrase head with generic reference:
a. plural personal
b. singular non-personal abstract
(See 4.18)
- Non-count and plural count nouns:
→ Used with zero article when having generic reference
→ Postmodification by an ‘of’ phrase requires the definite article with head
noun, which thus has limited generic (partitive) reference.
→ where the reference of head noun is restricted by premodification, zere
article is used.
→ The zero article is also used with other plural nouns that are not
unambiguously generic.
+ Specific reference
- Definite and indefinite
- Common nouns with zero article
- Article usage with common Ns in intensive relation
+ Unique reference
- Proper Ns: main classes of proper Ns:
 Personal names
 Calendar items (festivals, months and days of the week)
 Geographical names (continents, countries, counties, states,
cities, towns, lakes, mountains …)
 Name + common Ns
9. Number
+ Invariable and variable Ns (see 4.31, Figure 4:1 Number classes)
10. Gender (see 4.58, Figure 4:2 Gender classes)
11. Case
12. Pronouns:
+ features
a. They do not admit determiners
b. They often have an objective case
c. They often have person distinction
d. They often have overt gender contrast
e. Singular and plural forms are often not morphologically related
 We can broadly distinguish items with specific reference with those with
more indefinite reference (see Figure 4:3 Pronouns and see 4.83-97)
+ Case (subjective, objective, genitive)
+ Person (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
+ Gender (masculine, feminine, non-personal)
+ Number (singular, plural)
Chapter 4: Adjectives and Adverbs
1. Characteristics of Adjectives
- can be both attributive and predicative
- is attributive only
- is predicative only
- can be premodified by the intensifier ‘very’
- can take comparative and superlative forms (by means of
inflection or by the addition of the premodifiers ‘more and
most’).
2. Adjective phrase: = phrase with an adjective as head
3. Syntactic functions of adjectives
+ Attributive and predicative (major syntactic functions)
- attributive when premodifying nouns (ie appearing between the
determiner and the head of the noun phrase)
- predicative adjectives can be Cs, Co
+ Postpositive (ie they can sometimes follow the item they modify → regarded
as a reduced relative clause)
- Indefinite pronouns ending in -body, -one, -thing, -where, can be
modified only postpositively.
- Postposition is obligatory for a few adjectives, which have a
different sense when they occur attributively or predicatively
- In several compounds (mostly legal and quasilegal), the adjective
is postposed
- Postposition (in preference to attributive position) is usually for a
few a-adjectives and for ‘absent’, ‘present’, and ‘concerned’,
‘involved’, which normally do not occur in the relevant sense
- Some postposed adjectives (esp those ending in ‘able’, ‘ible’)
retain basic meaning in attribute position but convey the
implication that what they are denoting has only a temporary
application.
- Postposition is normally not allowed if an adj is alone or
premodified by an intensifier but if the NP is generic and
indefinite, coordinated adj or adj with a clause element added can
be postposed, though such constructions are not frequent.
- Adj with complementation is postpositive but it’s usual to
prepose the adj and postpose the complementation
- If adj is modified by ‘enough’, ‘too’, ‘so’, the modified adj
normally cannot be separated from its complementation.
+ Head of a noun phrase
 - Adj can function as heads of NP → do not inflect for number or
the genitive case; must take a definite determiner; have personal
reference; have generic and plural reference.
- Adj denoting nationalities can be NP heads
- Some adj can function as NP heads when they have abstract
reference → take singular concord; a few are modifiable by
adverbs (superlatives).
+ Verbless adjective clause
- Adj can function as a verbless clause → the implied subject is
usually the subject of the sentence
- If the clause contains additional clause constituents, its implied S
can be other than the S of the sentence.
- The implied S of the adj can be the whole of the superordinate
clause
- An adverb may replace (with little difference in meaning) an adj
functioning as a verbless clause.
+ Contingent Adjective clause
- The implied S of the contingent adj clause is normally the S, but
can also the O, or can be the whole of the superordinate clause.
+ Exclamatory adjective sentence
- An adj or an adj as head of an adj phrase can be an exclamation
4. Syntactic subclassification of adjectives
a. Attributive only
- Adj that characterize the referent of the noun directly are termed
‘inherent’; those that do not are termed ‘non-inherent’
- Some non-inherent adj can occur predicatively
+ Intensifying adjectives: (= adj having a heightening or lowering effect on the
noun they modify)
- two types: emphasizers (having a general heightening effect)
amplifiers (scaling upwards from an assumed norm,
denoting the upper extreme of the scale or a high point on the scale)
+ Limiter adjectives (= adj particularizing the reference of the noun)
+ Adj related to adverbials
- Other adj that are attributive only can be related to adverbials
- If the adj premodify agentive nouns, the latter suggests a
relationship to the verb base
- Some of these adj have a temporal meaning
+ Denominal adjectives
- some adj derived from nouns are attributive only
b. Predicative only
- most like verbs and adverbs → tend to refer to a condition rather
than to characterize (most common are those referring to health
or lack of health)
- A large group comprises adj that can or must take
complementation; many closely resemble verbs semantically.
5. Semantic sub-classification of adjectives
a. Stative / dynamic
- Adj are characteristically stative, but many- Adj are
characteristically stative, but many can be seen as dynamic (adj
that are susceptible to subjective measurement; adj that can be
used with the progressive aspect or with the imperatives)
b. Gradable / non-gradable
- Most adj are gradable (can be modified by adverbs which convey
the degree of intensity of the adj)
- Gradability includes comparison and other forms of
intensification.
- All dynamic adj are gradable
c. Inherent / non-inherent
6. Semantic sets and adjectival order
Semantic sets have been proposed to account for the usual order of
adjectives and for their co-occurrence
a. intensifying adj
b. postdeterminers, and limiter adj
c. general adjectives susceptible to subjective measure
d. general adjectives susceptible to objective measure, including
those denoting size or shape
e. Adj denoting age
f. Adj denoting colour
g. Denominal adj denoting material, and denoting resemblance to a
material
h. Denominal adj denoting provenance or style
7. Characteristics of the adverb
- most common characteristic: morphological (having suffix -y)
- Two types of syntactic function that characterize adverbs, but an
adverb need have only one of those: adverbial and modifier of
adjective and adverb
8. Adverb as adverbial
- An adv may function as adverbial, a constituent distinct from S,
V, O, C
- Three classes of adverbials (adjuncts, disjuncts, conjuncts) are
discussed in Chapter 8
9. Adverb as modifier
a. Modifier of adjective
- An adv may modify an adj
- Most commonly, the modifying adv is an intensifier
- Adv as premodifier of adj may also be ‘viewpoint’
b. Modifier of adverb
- An adv may premodify another adv, and function as intensifier
c. Modifier of prepositional phrase
- The few adv that premodify particles in phrasal verbs also
premodify prepositions or prepositional phrases
d. Modifier of determiner, predeterminer, postdeterminer
 - Intensifying adv can premodify indefinite pronouns,
predeterminers, and cardinal numerals
e. Modifier of noun phrase
- A few intensifiers may premodify noun phrases
10. Adverb as prepositional complement (see the diagram in 5.30)
11. Comparison and intensification
a) 3 degree of comparison
b) Basis of comparison
c) Gradability
d) Unmarked term in ‘how’ questions and measure phrases
e) Inflection of adj for comparison
f) Inflection of adv for comparison
g) Modification of comparatives and superlatives
12. Correspondence between Adj and Adv
13. The Adj and other word-classes
a) Adj and Adv
b) Adj and N
c) Adj and participle
14. The Adv and other word-classes
a) Conjunct and conjunction
b) Reaction signal and initiator
Chapter 5: Preposition and Prepositional Phrases
1. Prepositional Phrase: consisting of a preposition followed by a
prepositional complement (a NP or a wh-clause or V-ing clause)
2. Postposed prep.
3. Simple and complex prep
4. Prep and prepositional adverbs
5. Syntactic functions of prepositional phrases: may function as
a) Adjunct
b) Disjunct
c) Conjunct
d) Postmodifier in a NP
e) Complementation of a verb
f) Complementation of an adj
6. Prepositional meanings: Place
a) Dimension
b) Positive position and direction
c) Negative position and direction
d) Relative position
e) Relative destination
f) Passage
g) Direction
h) Orientation
i) Resultative meaning
j) Pervasive meaning
k) Seven senses of over
l) Verbs containing prepositional meaning
m) Metaphorical or abstract use of place prep.
7. Time
8. Prepositional phrase chiefly as adjunct
9. Prepositional phrase chiefly as postmodifier
10. Prepositional phrase chiefly as disjunct or conjunct
11. Prepositional phrase chiefly as complementation of verb or
adjective
12. Modification of prepositional phrases