Grammar

subject problematic

the subject is difficult to define clearly. Do we mean the grammatical subject (that which is connected to the predicator), the psychological subject (that which comes first in the sentence and is topical) or the logical subject (the person or thing that performs the action)?

pronoun

GRAMMAR The relatively small word class of words that can be used to substitute for a noun or a noun phrase. They include: -personal pronouns -possessive pronouns -demonstrative pronouns -interrogative pronouns -relative pronouns -indefinite pronouns -reflexive pronouns -reciprocal pronouns -quantifiers They aid in the overall cohesion of a text.

syntax

GRAMMAR The rules for sequencing words so as to show their relationships of meaning within sentences. Contrasts with morphology. Together these make up what is traditionally known as grammar. Traditionally taught by the process of parsing sentences.

objective-unmarked/ subjective-marked

GRAMMAR The unmarked (simple) form of the verb refers to objective facts. The marked (aspectual or modal) form of the verb refers to subjective interpretation of reality

deixis

GRAMMAR The way language points to spatial, temporal and personal features of the context. The speaker's location is the _____ center, and these expressions distinguish between 'near' the speaker and 'away' from the speaker. Can be expressed by certain verbs, which have direction built into their meaning: come, go, bring, take.

aspect

GRAMMAR The way the speaker's 'view' of an event is expressed by the verb phrase, regardless of the time of the event itself. 2 of these in English: progressive and perfect.

word order

GRAMMAR The way words are sequenced, particularly with regard to the sequencing of elements in a clause or sentence. A frequent source of learner error. As an uninflected language, English ___ ___ is generally less flexible than that of many languages.

parsing

GRAMMAR The process of analyzing sentences into their component parts. Once a staple activity in traditional grammar teaching. Also the term used to describe the largely unconscious mental processes by which a reader or listener works out the grammatical structure of sentences or utterances.

function words

GRAMMAR Those words which have a mainly grammatical function (also called grammar words). Includes auxiliary verbs, determiners, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and some adverbs. Contrast with content words. Of the 50 most common words in English, 49 are these.

modal verb

GRAMMAR A class of auxiliary verb. There are nine 'pure'. Pure in the sense that they fulfill the formal requirements of auxiliary verbs: form their negatives with 'not'; form questions by inversion with their subject; no infinitive forms, participles or the 3rd person; always 1st in the verb phrase. Can express 2 kinds of meaning: likelihood/possibility (extrinsic) or speaker's attitude (intrinsic). A number of other single-word and multi-word verbs that combine with other verbs to express modal meaning. Semi-___ or marginal ____.

non-finite clause

GRAMMAR A clause which has a participle or infinitive as its verb. e.g.: To open the door, use a key.

phrasal verb

GRAMMAR A combination of a verb and one or two particles. The particle is either an adverb or a preposition, or both. Four types: prepositional verbs: V + Prep. particle + object 'Can you deal with it?' intransitive phrasal verbs: V + adv. particle 'A storm blew up.' transitive phrasal verbs: V + adv. particle + object 'I'll pick you up at 8.' phrasal prepositional verbs: V + adv. particle + prep. + object 'We've run out of gas.'

lexical verb

GRAMMAR A content verb, not a function verb. It has a dictionary meaning, rather than serving any sort of grammatical function.

phrase structure grammar

GRAMMAR A grammar which analyses a sentence in terms of the interrelations between its constituent parts

word class

GRAMMAR A group of words that, from a grammatical point of view, behave in the same way. The ___ of pronoun, determiner, preposition and conjunction are called closed classes because they cannot readily be added to. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are open.

noun

GRAMMAR A member of the largest word class. These refer to people, creatures, places, things, and abstract entities.

long passive

GRAMMAR A passive construction followed by a by-phrase, identifying the agent.

short passive

GRAMMAR A passive construction without a by-phrase. Used when the agent is not known, is obvious or because the speaker doesn't wish to identify the agent.

reported clause

GRAMMAR A type of subordinate clause which refers to the thoughts or actions of the object e.g.: I don't remember what she said

concord

GRAMMAR Also called agreement. The name given to the grammatical relationship whereby the form of one word requires a corresponding form in another. In English, it's the case with subjects and verbs (I like, He likes...).

notion

GRAMMAR Categories of meaning to which grammatical structures may be assigned and around which a descriptive grammar or language syllabus may be designed (e.g. "the future" - will, going to, pr. cont.; "possibility" - may, might, could)

passive

GRAMMAR Contrasts with active, and together they make up the system called voice. Voice is the way that the relationship between the subject and the object of the verb can be changed without changing the basic meaning of the sentence. Many reasons for this: to distribute information according to what is not known and what is known. Only transitive verbs can take this voice. Much more common in written language.

reported speech

GRAMMAR Direct spoken language converted into a subordinate clause without necessarily using the same words. This clause is preceded by a ________ verb.

non-finite verbs

GRAMMAR Do not show person, number or tense contrasts. The infinitive, present and past participles are forms of these. "Before working for his uncle, Brad used to work for his father."

noun-verb analogy

GRAMMAR Leech: the notion that stative and dynamic verbs can be analogised to nouns in the present simple; the former being "uncountable" insofar as impossible to subdivide or individuate, the latter being uncountable insofar as describable as "singular" or "plural" (habitual)

participle

GRAMMAR Non-finite forms of verbs. That is, they don't show contrasts of tense, number or person, and they can't occur alone as the main verb of the sentence. There are two types: present and past. Generally, present ___ expresses the course of a process; past ___ describes its result or effects.

non-finite verb phrase

GRAMMAR Not showing tense or mood, but capable of showing aspect and voice

perfect

GRAMMAR One of the two verb aspects in English, the other being the progressive. It combines with tense. The basic meaning is 'before--and connected to--a point in time.' At least 2 reasons to view an event in this retrospective way: 1. although finished, it is still relevant. 2. to indicate that an event is unfinished. Why it often combines with expressions of duration.

progressive

GRAMMAR One of the two verb aspects in English. Combines with tense to tell us what an action is/was like. The event is viewed as being 'in progress' (in the present or in the past, depending on the tense). Not usually possible with stative verbs.

utterance

GRAMMAR One speaker's turn or a stretch of speech between pauses, or one that falls under a single intonation contour, or one that fulfills a single function. Now generally accepted as preferable to sentence when talking about spoken language.

subordination

GRAMMAR One way of linking clauses so that one clause is embedded in another. This embedded clause is said to be dependent on the other clause. The conjunctions when, even if, although, because, while, after, unless are all used for this. There are 3 clauses: -adverbial: act like an adverbial in a sentence and give extra info about time, manner, reason, conditions, etc. -relative: attached to a noun phrase, which they modify by providing extra information. -reported: report statements, questions, thoughts and which typically begin with that or if or a wh word.

stative verbs

GRAMMAR Refer to states: I am curious. It's a wonderful life. Refer to inactive emotional, cognitive or perceptual processes: I want to live. I know what you did last summer. These cannot normally be used in the continuous. Contrast with active verbs.

tense

GRAMMAR Refers to the way that verbs are inflected to express a relation with time. The relation between time and __ is not an exact match. Grammatical ___ and notional time are not the same thing. There are only really 2 of these in English: the present and the past. This combines with aspect to create the variety of verb structures in English that are commonly mistaken as its different ___s. A focus on them has traditionally dominated course design.

spoken grammar

GRAMMAR Shares the same basic structure as that of written English, but because of its on-line production, there are some significant differences. Speech is built up clause by clause and phrase by phrase, rather than sentence by sentence. Utterance boundaries are less clearly defined in spoken language, and why co-ordination is preferred to subordination. Typically consists of frequent sequences of short clauses joined by and, but, then, because. In utterances, content can be added before or after (heads and tails) the main body of the message in ways that sentence grammar does not allow. Also shows a preference for direct speech rather than reported speech. There is also the use of vague language.

finite verbs

GRAMMAR Show that they are related to a subject by having person, number and tense. "Brad works for his uncle."

semi-modal

GRAMMAR Single or multi-word verbs which express modality but are not pure modals e.g.: need (to), be able to, be going to, used to

question

GRAMMAR The basic distinction between asking and telling. This is the main way of performing the asking function. Contrasts with statements. Classified as: -yes-no (closed/polar) -wh (interrogative pronouns) -alternative (Shall, Did) -tag -declarative: "You're sure you're okay?" -rhetorical -indirect "can you tell me.." -reported "she asked if..." Basic operation in forming questions in English is the inversion of the subject and the (first) auxiliary of the verb

transitivity

GRAMMAR The capacity of a verb to take an object. Verbs with this capacity can be used in passive constructions. Some verbs can take two objects: a direct and an indirect object. These verbs are called ditransitive: 'Give me some light.' Verbs can be used both ___ and in____. These are sometimes called ergative verbs. Linking verbs (be, feel, seem) take complements, so they don't have this capacity.

prepositional

GRAMMAR The combination of a preposition and a noun phrase. These typically function as the adverbial element in a clause structure

object complement

GRAMMAR The element in the predicate which is directly equated to the direct object by the verb

operator

GRAMMAR The first auxiliary in a verb phrase; that which marks the change from statement to question

syntactic environment

GRAMMAR The immediate context in which a word might find itself (e.g. "problem" may precede (i) of + noun/gerund, (ii) that + relative clause, (iii) be + that + noun clause, (iv), be + that + noun/gerund, etc.)

phrase

GRAMMAR The level of the grammatical hierarchy between words and clauses. There are five types, associated with five word classes: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition

modality

GRAMMAR The lexical and grammatical ways used by speakers to express their attitude to what they are saying. Can be divided into two groups: extrinsic and intrinsic. intrinsic: reflects speaker's attitude to the necessity or desirability of the situation; allows us to express a range of interpersonal meanings. extrinsic: the speaker's assessment of the likelihood of the situation; allows us to talk about 'the world out there.'

timelessness / non-past tense

GRAMMAR The notion that the present simple refers not to present time but to the irrelevance of temporal reference, the factuality of the action and its immediacy

object

GRAMMAR The person or thing in a sentence or clause that is affected by the action of the verb. Usually a noun phrase or a pronoun.

quanitifiers

GRAMMAR Words or phrases which specify quantity or amount. They either precede nouns (as determiners) or stand on their own (as pronouns). The choice of these is often determined by whether the noun that follows is countable or uncountable; and if, countable whether it is singular or plural. These can be categorized as being: -inclusive (all, both, each, every) -an indefinite quantity (some, several, any) -a large quantity (most, much, lots of) -a small quantity (a few, a little, a bit of) -a comparative quantity (more, less) -negative quantities (no, neither, none) -numbers -partitives (a piece, a bottle)

preposition

GRAMMAR ________ are a word class which show a relationship between two parts of a sentence, such as how they are related in space, time, and means. They also have a number of metaphorical meanings and can consist of more than one word. e.g.: out of Africa

relative clause

GRAMMAR a clause which modifies a noun or noun phrase. -defining= identifies or defines noun -non-defining= adds nonessential information

proper noun

GRAMMAR a noun which refers to a uniquely identifiable thing or person (e.g. London, Ghandi, The North Sea)

polar / closed question

GRAMMAR a yes/no question: one which has only two answers.

parts of speech

GRAMMAR are ten: noun; adjective; adverb; verb; article; demonstrative; pronoun; preposition; conjunction; interjection

order of auxiliaries

GRAMMAR modal - perfective - progressive - passive

open class items

GRAMMAR of parts of speech, those with an infinite number of instances (e.g. nouns and verbs)

complex transitive

GRAMMAR of verbs, having a direct object and an object complement

reflexive pronoun

GRAMMAR pronoun preceded by its antecedent within the same clause, e.g. "I see MYSELF"

predicate

GRAMMAR that part of a sentence in which all obligatory constituents other than the subject are considered together, and which represents new "comment" on the "topical" subject

subject

GRAMMAR that which, in the sentence, determines concord, and denotes the "theme" in opposition to the predicate, or the "comment", which says something new

subject complement

GRAMMAR the element in the predicate which is directly equated to the subject by the copula

sentence

GRAMMAR the largest purely grammatical unit in a language. Everything beyond the ___ is only weakly linked in grammatical terms. In speaking, speech is sometimes broken into utterances instead.

predication

GRAMMAR the predicate minus the auxiliary as operator

vocative

GRAMMAR the use of a direct (deictic) reference to a person, often as the theme of a spoken utterance

pre-modified proper nouns

GRAMMAR typical of journalism: "American transport millionaire Laurie Van Truck"

periphrasis

GRAMMAR use of verb phrase with multiple auxiliaries to express time or mood, as opposed to simple inflection of the verb.

relative pronouns

GRAMMAR words which serve to introduce relative clauses (that, which, who, whom)