Makalah Comminicative Grammar

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

a.      Background

Communicative grammar is based on the communicative approach to the Teaching of second/foreign languages. Language structures must not be taught in isolation but integrated to the four skills of language: listening, speaking, reading and writing. In this way a structure is practiced orally and In written form. Grammatical patterns must not only be learned at the utterance level but at the discourse level; the main objective focuses on the development of communicative grammatical competence, which is understood as the ability to use and understand a structure in a variety of situations spontaneously.

Then approach calls for a certain balance between pre-communicative and communicative activities: the first prepare the learner to handle the language rules for actual communication and the latter enable him to use the structures in real communication. The students must not only do drills and precommunicative exercises in class, but they must interact and communicate with other speakers when they use the patterns they are studying. Classes are planned in a way that the students use the structures naturally and not artificially, and they require time and practice to internalize those patterns by using a process in which grammatical structures are recycled with more complex variations.

This course provides a systematic description of English grammar. There is both a theoretical and a practical aim of the course. The theoretical aim is that you should gain a better understanding of English grammar as a system. The practical aim is that by using your theoretical knowledge of grammar you should become considerably more proficient in writing and speaking English. To describe and analyze grammar, we need terminology. Some of the terms used in the course you will probably recognize immediately, for example noun, verb, subject, object, and sentence, others may be new to you, for instance antecedent, restrictive clause and partial inversion. The use of this terminology is, of course, meant to facilitate the understanding of the concepts in question. So, what kind of questions should you be able to answer at the end of the course?

examples:

Why can the definite article not be used with coffee in Coffee has gone up?

Why is there used as an Anticipatory Subject in There seem to be other problems as well?

What kind of word order is the underlined part of the following sentence and why is it used? Not until yesterday did I realize my mistake. Before you set about studying .

English grammar in earnest, it is a good idea to browse through the course material to form a rough idea of the contents of the course. You will certainly find many things that you are already familiar with to some extent, but you will also come across things you did not know before or only had little knowledge about. Organize your studies from the very beginning and do not postpone revising what you have read until the course is over.

b.      Formulation Of The Problem

1.      What is adjectives?

2.      What the different  adjective and adverb?

3.      What is determiner ?

4.      What is the meaning of the modal auxiliary should in You should eat more fruit?

c.       The Purpose Of Writing

1.      To know the defenition of adjectives.

2.      To know the different between adjectives and adverb.

3.      To know the defenition of determiner.

4.      to know the meaning of the modal auxiliary should  in you should eat more fruit.

CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

How to use Compendium

This grammatical Compendium covers all the important areas of English grammatical form and structure, and is arranged alphabetically under topic headings. The arrangement is alphabetical because the Compendium is primarly meant to be used for reference.

Even so, some students may wish to study the structures of English grammar systematically and many others may find it generally helpful to see how the topics relate to one another in an overall logical plan. For this reason, we present a visual guide to the Compendium, showing related topics grouped in boxes and dependences of one topic on another by arrows. You can, if you wish, see the diagram as a suggested plan for reading the Compendium in a logical order. If you do, notice that diagram offers you a chooice of orders, since often two or more topics lead equally naturally to or from another topic. For example, after reading ‘sentence’and ‘Clauses’, you could go to any of the groups containing ‘suborination’ and ‘Coordination’; ‘Negation’, ‘Questions’, etc. ‘Verb Phrases’, etc. There is no single ‘best way’ of putting the topics in a natural sequence.

Another thing to bear in mind is that the diagram attempts to show only the more important relations between topics. Some connections have not  been indicated; others, it could be argued, might be just as well shown by arrows pointing in the opposite direction. We have simplified the ‘map’  in order to make it reasonably easy to follow. Each entry in the Compendium has a reference to the most relevant sections of R Quirk et al, A Grammar of Contemporary English, (Longman 1972), so that if required, a more detailed treatment of the topic can be consulted in that book.

1. Adjective Pattern

Adjective can have three type of complement (A) Prepositional phrase, (B) that-Clause, and (C) to-infinitive.

Adjectives with a prepositional phrase

Adjectives can have different prepositional complement : good at, afraid of, ready for, keep on, etc. Usually, a particular adjectives requires a particular preposition. Here are some examples :

1. They were terribly worried about you.

2. She was awfully bad at mathematics.

3. We were all annoyed at his behaviour.

A.    Adjectives with a that-clause

a personal subjects

some adjectives and adjectival pariciples have a finite that-clause as complement (where that can usually be omitted) :

I’m sure (that) he’ll be late.

We’re glad (that) you can come.

When the that-clause expresses a ‘putative’ idea, it contains should :

We’re surprised that he shoul resign.

I’m amazed that he should get the post.

B.     Adjectives with a to-invinitive

There are different types of adjectives with to-infinitive constructions, for example :

He was spelndid to wait.

He is hard to convine.

He was furious to hear about it.

He was slow to react.

2. Adjectives

a.       Most adjectives can be both attributive (acting as premodifiers of nouns, and predicative (acting as complements of verbs).

She’s a pretty girl.                   (Attributive)

All the girls here are pretty     (predicative)

b.      Most adjectives can be modified by degree adverbs like very, quite, rather, etc.

She looks quite young for her age.

c.       Most adjectives can take comparative and superlative forms. Regular comparason may be expressed a by adding the endings –er and –est to the adjective :

The Browns seema lot happier now than they used to.

They are the kidnest people I know, too.

Attributive Adjective

Although most adjectives can be either attribute or predicative, some can only be used in attributivve position. One group of them can be related to adverbials :

Adjectives                                                       adverbials

My former friend                                            he was formerly my friend

An occasional visitor                                      she was occasionally a visitor

The late president                                            he was till lately the president

(now dead)

A hard worker                                                            a worker who works hard

A big eater                                                      someone who eats a lot

Other adjectives are derived from nouns, for example :

Criminal law = ‘law concerning crime’

An alomic scientic = ‘a scientist specialising in atomic science’

A medical school = ‘a school for student’s of medicine’

Predicate adjectives

Adjectives can be used predicatively as subject complement after linking verbs like be, seem, look, fell.

I feel awful this morning.

Or a subject complement after verbs like consider, believe, find.

we found the place absolutely delightful. (= we found that the place was absolutely delightful.

Adjectives can be complement to a subject which is a finite clause, wheter the minister will resign is still uncertain.

Or a noun infinitive clause.

Driving a bus isn’t so easy as you may think.

Similiarly adjectives can be object complement to clauses :

                                                            what he did

They considered                                                                      follish

 working so hard

whereas the adjectives like awful, delightful, uncertain, easy, and foolish can be used coth attributively and predicatively, some groups of adjectives are usually restricted to predicative position. One such group is ‘health adjectives’:

            she felt faint.

            You look well.

            He’s seriously ill (sick)

In attributive, however, sick is common in both (BrE) and (AmE) :

            He’s a very sick man.

Another group of predicative adjectives includes the following, many of which are regular followed by phrases or clauses.

            We are very fond of her = we like her very much

            He is ready to do it     = he is prepared to do it.

            I’m afraid that you’re mistakem. = I fear that you’re mistaken.

            Most of the committee members were present at the meeting.

Postmodifier adjectives

            Adjectives especially predicative adjectives are sometimes postmodifiers, ie they follow the item they modify. Such an adjectives can usually be regarded reduced relative clause :

            The people (who were) inrolred were reported to the police.

            The man (who were) present were his supporters.

            Is the anything (which is) interesting in the papers?

Adjectives participles

there are many adjectives that have the sam form as-ing or –ed participles.

            He seems quite satisfied with his new job.

These adjectives can also be attributive :his surprising views. The –ed participle of intransitive verbs can also be used attributively

; the escaped prisoner = the prisoner who has (had) escaped).

            Sometimes a verb corresponding to the adjective has a different meaning. We can therefore have ambiguous sentences like they were relieved, where we  cannot tell wheter relieved is a participle or an adjective. The ambiguity disappears with more context :

            ADJECTIVE they were very relieved to find her at home.

            PARTICIPLE They were soon rellieved by the next group of sentrics.

            The difference between the adjectives and the participle is not always obvious. It is clear that an –ing form is a present participle and not an adjective when a direct object is present :

            He was entertaining the guests with his stories.

Similiarly, the verbal force is explicit for the –ed form when a personal by agent is present :

            The man was offended by the policeman.

For both –ed and –ing participles, modification by the adverb very clearly indicates that the forms are adjectives :

            His views were very alarming

            The man was very offended

But sometimes we find a construction with both very and a by-agent :

            I was very irritated by the man in the blue suit.

            She was very shaken by the news.

In these ‘mixed’ constructions, we cannot say whether the –ed form is a participle or an adjectives.

3. Adjectives or adverb ?

Many adverb in English are derived from adjectives by the addition of –ly; quick,, quickly.,, careful-carefully, etc. Some adverbs, however, do not end in –ly but with a different meaning :

Adjective                                                        adverb

An early train                                                  the train arrived early;

A hate dinner                                                  I’ve been working late

A straight line                                                 he went straight to the door

A hard task                                                     we tried hard to convince them

A direct hit                                                      we flew direct to stuttgart

A wrong answear                                            you have got it all wrong (informal)

A short distance                                              the arrow fell short of the target

These adverbs are mostly connected with time, position and direction. In some cases, there is also an adverb in –ly (lately, harly, directly, shortly, etc.) but with a different meaning :

He drove home directly after arriving = immediately

I haven’t seen him lately =recently

4. Adjectives as heads

Adjectives can function as heads of noun phrases. Such adjectives normally tak a definite determiner, usually the definite article, and they have no plural inflection. There are two kinds of such adjectives both with generic reference, those denoting a class of people, and those denoting an abstract quality.

a. class of people (plural) : the rich = those who are rich.

            There is often a lack communication between the young and the old.

            The unemployed cannot be expected to live on their savings.

For the difference between the English and Englishmen

b. an abstract quality (singular) : the absurd = that which is absurd.

            Some people enjoy the mystical and the supernatural in literature

            He went from the sublime to the ridiculous

c. but the article is sometimes omitted before adjective heads in paralel phrases where the adjectives are linked by a conjuction or a preposition :

            education should be for both young and old

            things went from bad to worse.

5. Adverbials

Adverbials can heve a number of different structure. They can be

(A) ADVERBS :  peter was playing well.

(B)  PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES : peter was playing with great skill.

(C)  FINITE CLAUSES : peter was playing well, althogh he was very tired.

(D) NON-FINITE CLAUSES , in which the verb is

a an infiniteve :

peter was playing to win.

b an  -ing participle :

being captain of the tem, peter played to win.

c an  -ed partiiple :

when urged by his friends, he agreed to play again.

(E)  VERBLESS CLAUSES :  pEter was playing , unaware of the danger.

(F)   NOUN PHRASES : peter was playing last week.

(G) NOUN PHRASES FOLLOWED BY ago, long, etc :

Three years ago, peter was playing football regularly.

Adverblias usually tell something extra about the action , happening , or state described by the rest of the sentence. For example, the time, place, manner :

            TIME               My father is working today

 PLACE             My father is working in the kitchen

 MANNER       My father is working hard

A sentence can have more than one adverbial :

             My father is working hard in the kitchen today.

Adverbial position

Although some adverbials can only occur in fixed position, most adverbials are mobile, ie they can come at different places in the sentence. We need to distinguish three main positions :

FRONT-POSITION        Now susan is very happy.

MID-POSITION             Susan is now very happy.

END-POSITION             Susan is very happy now.

Long advebials rarely occur in mid-position , which is usually restriced to certain short adverbs such as almost, hardly, just , never :

            The chairman almost resigned.

            We’ve just returned from Italy.

Advebials denoting manner, means, and instrument

Manner , means, and instrument adverbials usually have end-position :

            They live frugally.

            The children go to school by bus.

            They examined the specimen microscopically.

In the passive, however, mid-position is common :

            Discussions were formally opened here today on the question of international disarmament.

Contrast the position of well in the following active and passive sentence :

            He put the point well              The point was out well.

            He well put the point              the point was well put.

Place adverbials

Place adverbials, both those denoting location and those denoting derection,usually have end-position :

            The meeting will be upstairs.

            He managed to kick the ball into the gol.

Some location advebials , particulary prepositional phrases and cluses, can easily apper in front-position :

            Outside, the boys were jumping and skipping.

            They boys were jumping and skipping outside.

To place adverbials can occur together in end-position , usually with the smaller unit before the large unit :

            Many people eat in chinese restaurants in London.

Only the large unit can be moved to front-position :

            In london many people eat in chinese restaurant.

            In chinese restaurant many people eat in London.

Time adverbials

Time adverbials can be divided into three classes accordinng to their meaning  : adverbials denoting time-when, duration and frequency.

Time –when adverbials

We may distinguish two groups of time-when adverbials .

Group A adverbials denote a point or period of time :

            Do come and see us again.

            We lived in Baltimore last year.

            The meeting starts tomorrow at 8 o’clock.

Group B adverbials denote a point of time but also imply the point from which that time is measured. Most of these adverbials occur either in front, mid, or end-position :

            Recently they had an accident .

            They resently had an accident.

            They had an accident recently.

Time duration adverbials

Time duration adverbials denote (A) length of time or (B) durtion from some preceding point of time. Both groups normally heve end-position :

(A) I’ll be in California for the summer.

They were on duty all night long.

(B)  Britain has had decimal currency since 1971.

I’ve been staying here since last Saturday.

Time frequency adverbials

There are two groups : (A) Those denoting definite frequency and (B) those denoting idenfinete frequency.

(A) Definite frequency adverbials usually heve end-position :

Committee meetings take place weekly.

(B)  Idenfinite frequency adverbs normally have mid-position :

He generally leaves home at seven in the morning.

Degree adverbs

Degree adverbs have a heigtening or lowering effect on some part of the sentence. Many of them occur in mid-position :

            He’s definitely going to emigrate.

            So they really want him to be elected ?

            I much prefer the old methods.

End-position is also possible for many of these adverbs :

            He completely ignored my request.

            He ignored my request completely.

Mid-position can come , for positive or negative emphasis , before the operator :

            I simply don’t believe what she said.

            You really will have to be more careful.

Sentence adverbials

The adverbials we have discussed so far are integrated to some extent in the structure of the sentence . for example , they can modify the verb , and be affected by negation .

            I alwasy drive carefully.

            I don’t always drive carefully.

6. Adverbs

Most adverbs are formed from djective with the suffix  -iy : frank, frankly.

Adverbs have two typical funtions :

(A) As adverbial: he always drive carefully .

(B)  As modifinier of a adjectives, b adverbs, or c a member of other contructions :

a He is an exremely careful driver.

b  He drives extermely carefully.

c  He lives in a house just outside the town.

(C)  As a complement of a preposition : I haven’t been here before NOW.

7. Apposition

Two or mor noun phrases which occur next to each other and refer to the same person or thing are said to be in APPOSITION :

            A neighbour of yours, fred long, will be visiting us this evening .

The elements in apposition can also occur in a diferent order :

            Fred long, a neighbour of yours, will ......

Restrictive and non-restrictive apposition

A distinction similar to that between restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses can be applied to apposition :

            ( Which Mr smith do you mean ? ) Mr smith the architect or Mr smith the electrician ? ( RESTRICTIVE ).

8. Articles

The articles are a subclass of the delerminers, There are two articles in English, the definite and the infinite. Sometimes nouns require no article at all.

The forms of the articles

The spelling of the indefinite article and the pronunciation of  both the definite

and indefinite articles depend on the initial sound of the following word. Articles are  normally unstressed, but may be stressed for special emphasis.

The untressed definite article is always written the but is pronounced /öə/

before consonants and /öI/ before vowels. The indefinite article is a /ə/ before consonants and an /ən/  before vowels.

Article Usage

The general grammatical rules are as follows :

The definite article can be used with all kinds of noun except most proper nouns:

SINGULAR COUNT NOUNS                     the ball/child/exam

PLURAL COUNT NOUNS                          the balls/children/exams

(SINGULAR) MASS NOUNS                     the gold/milk/knowledge

The indefinite article, on the other hand, can normally only be used with singular count nouns; for other nouns the zero article (or unstressed some/səm/) is used for indefinite  meaning.

The general rules  of meaning for the use of articles with common nouns discussed in part three. Here we shall add to that information by discussing some groups of common nouns, and the use of count nouns as complement.

Common nouns without article

-          *Institutions*

Go to bed = lie down on the bed

-          Means of transport

Travel by bus = sit in the bus

-          Times of the day an night

They met at night, by night = wake up in the night

-          Meals

She arrived at dinner = she was preparing the dinner

-          Paralel phrase

They walked hand in hand = what have you got in your hand

            Count nouns as complement

Unlike many other languages. English requires an article with singular count nouns as complements. With indefinite reference, the indefinite article is used :

Bill become a successful businesman

But no article is required after turn :

He has turned traitor.

9. Auxiliary Verbs

Auxiliary verbs are as their name suggest, ‘’helping verbs’’. They do not maku up a verb phrase on their own,but must usually be accompanied by a following main verb. Auxiliary verbs are a small class of words, made up of primary auxiliaries like be and modal auxiliaries like can.

            Auxiliary verbs are structurally necessery for certain constructions ( especially negative and question clauses ), and these constructions enable us to distinguish them from main verb :

(A) Auxiliary verbs can be placed before the negative word not :

I am not working today.

(B)  Auxiliay verbs can be placed before the subject in question :

Can I help ?

 An auxiliary verb can occur without a main verb, but only where the main verb is omitted because it is supplied by earlier context :

                  I can speak french as well as she can.

Some auxiliary verbs have contracted positive forms which can be used after a pronoun ( He’s leaving tomorrow, what’ll you have ? etc ), a short noun ( The dog’s borking, The soup’ll be cold ), or the words here, there and now ( There’s going to be trouble, Now’s the time ).  In addition, most auxiliary verbs have contracted negative forms, isn’t, can’t, etc . Contracted forms frequently occur in ( spoken ) and ( informal ) English.

The primary auxiliary verbs ( can, have, be )

Do

The auxiliary do has the following forms :

	Non-negative	Uncontracted  Negative	Contracted  Negative
Present       3rd person past            other	Does      Do      Did	Does not      Do not      Did not	Doesn’t     Don’t     Didn’t

Note : Do is also a a main verb (=’perform’) and b a subtitute verb with the full range of forms like other main verb, including the present participle doing and the past participle done :

a     What heve you been doing today ?

b     (A) You said you would finish it.

   (B)  I have done .( I heve done so )

Have

          The modal auxiliares

The modal auxiliaries do not have  –s  forms  –ing forms , or –ed participles. Can,may,shall,will have special past forms ( could,etc), but the remainder ( sush as must ) do not.

Non-negative	Uncontracted Negative	Contracted Negative
Can      Could       may       might       shall      should      will,’ll      would,’d     must     ought to     used to     need     dare	Cannot,can not Could not May not Might not Shall not Should not Wiil not,’ll not Would not,’d not Must not Ought not to Used not to Need not Dare not	Can’t Couldn’t (mayn’t) Mightn’t Shan’t Shoudn’t Won’t Wouldn’t Mustn’t Oughtn’t to   Didn’t use(d) to   Usedn’t to Needn’t Daren’t

Note

(a)   Sometimes there is a choice between two contracted forms , eg won’t and ‘ll not

(b)   Mayn’t is restricted to < BrE >, where it is rare

(c)    Shan’t is rare in < AmE > 

(d)   Ought regulary has the to-infinitive,but occasionally in < AmE > THE bare infinitive is used in negative sentences and in questions ( although should isbcommoner in both cases):

     You oughtn’t smoke so much.

     Ought you smoke so much ?

10. Case

In English, the personal pronoun I,he,she,we,they  have three case forms,subjective,objective, and genitive. But nouns and other pronouns have only two cases : the common case ( the boy ) and the genitive case ( the boy’s ) . which has no special ending, is the case which is found in all circumstances except where the genitive is requered .

11. Clauses

Clauses are the principal structures of which sentence are composed. A sentence may consist of one, or more than one clause. There are three infortant ways in which clauses my be described and clasified :

(A) In terms of the CLAUSES ELEMENT ( subject, verb,etc ) from which they are constructed, and the VERB PATTERNS which are formed from these elements.

(B)  In terms of the amount of use which a clause makes of verb phares structure. On this ground , we distinguish between FINITE CLAUSES, NON-FINITE CLAUSES, and VERBLESS CLAUSES.

(C)                        In terms of CLAUSES FUNCTION , the function a clause performs in a sentence ; eg whether it is a NOMINAL CLAUSE ( acting as an noun phrase ), an ADVERBIAL CLAUSE ( acting as an adverbial element ).

12. Cleft Sentences

 (A) The it –type cleft sentences

A single clause, for example,

            John bought an old car last week.

Can be divided into two separate parts , each with its own verb :

            It was John who bought an old car last week.

Sentences John bought an old car last week can be changed into different cleft sentences depending  on what element is considered the most impoetant in the sentence :

            |It was an old car | that John bought last week.|

            |It was last week| that John bought an old car.|

The second part of a cleft sentence is very similar of a restrictive relative clause : the relative pronouns are also used in cleft sentences.

(B) The wh-type cleft sentence

Besides the it-type , there is also a wh-type of cleft sentence.

            |What John bought last week| was an old car.|

Cleft sentences are to be contrasted with sentences with introductory there and introductory it . in introductory it-sentences ,in introduces a clause, and there is no emphasised clause element to act as focus :

            It’s no use trying to wake him up.

13. Commands

2nd person command

A command is usually a sentence with  an imperative verb, ie the base form of the verb, without endings for number or tense.

             Come here 

Commands are apt to sound abrupt unless they are toned down by signals of politeness such as please :

    Please eat up your dinner.

    Shut the door, please.

There are no auxiliary verbs in commands except do, which must occur in negative commands, and may also occur in positive commands:

Don’t stay too late, John.                    ( NEGATIVE COMMAND )            

Do sit down.                       ( EMPHATIC OR PERSUASIVE COMMAND )

Notice that in commands,but not elsewhere, do can be followed by be:

   Don’t be noisy.                                        But : they weren’t noisy.

   Do be careful.                                           But : they are careful.      
     Although commands usually have no subject , we can say that, when the subject is missing, there is an IMPLIED subject you . This is evident when a reflexive pronoun or tag is used :

 Be quiet, will you!

 Be heve your self .

However , a subject you does sometimes occur in commands :

   You just listen to me.

   you go ahead.

Here you is always stressed, wheres in statements it is not stressed:

  ‘ you’ put it down.                ( COMMAND)

    You ‘ put it down.                ( STATEMENT )

                          

Its and 3rd person commands

Its person 3rd person commands also occur, but less frequently than 2nd person commands.

   A its person commands begins with let followed by me in the singular, or us ( normally abbreviated to’s) in the plural :

    Let me have a look at your essay. 

   Let’s heve dinner. ( informal )

A 3rd person command has a 3rd person subject, which is precedetd by let in ( fomal ), often ( elevated ) style :

                                        

          Somebody let me out. ( informal )

         Let somebody else attempt this task.

14. Comment clauses

Comment clauses are so called because they do not so much add to the information in a sentence as comment on its truth, the manner of saying it, or the attitude of the speaker.  They are only loosely related to the rest ofthe main clause they belong to, and function as sentence adverbials, They are usually marked of' from the other clause, in (written)-English by commas, and in <speech> by having a separate tone unit. Comment clauses can freely occur in front-, mid- and end-positions in the clause, but the end-position is mainly restricted to <informal speech).

            At the time, I believe, bill worked as a mechanic.

            What’s more, we lost all our belongings.

Comment clauses are of varied types, as these examples show. The most frequent types is probably that of finite clauses without any introductory word : you see, you know, i think, etc. These are closely parallel to main clauses introducing a that-clause. Compare :

                        I see that the joneses have a new pet.

                        The joneses have new pet, I see.

15. Comparison

Comparison is expressed either by the endings –er and –est or by the words more and most :

ADJECTIVES

ADVERBS

tall beautiful

soon easily

taller more beautiful

sooner more easily

tallest most beautiful

soonest most easily

COMPARATIVE

SUPERLATIVE

                   

Comparison of adjectives

The endings are generally used with

a.        Adjectives consisting of one syllable :

grent                greater             greatest

b.      Adjectives consisting of two syllables and ending in –y, -ow, -le, -er, and –ure :

funny (funnier, funniest), friendly, lively, etc

hollow (hollower, hollowest), narrow, shallow, etc

c.       Some common two syllable adjectives, for example common, handsome, polite, quiet, which can have either type of comparison :

common

commoner more common

commonest most common

 

Comparison of adverbs

Adverbs have the same general rules comparison as adjectives. (This is of course true also for adverbs that are identical in form with adjectives, early, etc) :

            early                earlier              earliest

Comparison of quantifiers

The quantifiers much, many, little and few (see 766, 733) also have special comparative and superlative forms, as follow :

            much               more                most

            many               more                most

Comparative clauses

The comparative form of adjectives and adverbs is used when we want to compare one thing with another in order to point out some difference .For this purpose, a subclause beginning with than can be added after the comparative word :

            His most recent book is more interesting than his previous ones

                    were                                                                                           [1]

worse less well

            She can knit better than she can                                                        [2]

            Bill speaks French                      that be writes it.                             [3]

Comparative phrases

In addition, other elements of a subclause can be omitted if they repeat the information in the main clause.

            There are more pubs than shops in this village

I.       <formal> me    <informal>

            Jack is five years older than his sister ( = than his sister is)

they.     <formal> them     <informal>

            Bill can speak French more fluently than

            We scored three more goals than

     In <informal> English such clauses can be ambiguous :

            Mr Pettigrew is fonder of his secretary than his wife

The most likely meaning is :

            Mr Pettigrew is fonder of his secretary than he is (fond) of his wife

But another possible meaning is :

            Mr Pettigrew is fonder of his secretary than his wife is

     Adverbials (Such as ever, usual, in the water) can follow than in comparative phrases :

ever usual in the water

 

            There were more people on the beach than

One type is illustrated in :

            There were fewer than twenty people at the meeting.

Another type of construction is not so much concerned with comparison of degree and amount as with comparison of descriptions :

They pulled him out of the water more dead than alive.

            The performance was more good than bad

            (not . . . better than bad)

The constructions we have discussed here are found not only with unequal comparisons (more, less), but with ‘equal’ comparisons (as much as etc)

16. Complements

We distinguish three types of complement : (A) CLAUSE COMPLEMENTS, (B) ADJECTIVE COMPLEMENTS, and (C) PREPOSITIONAL COMPLEMENTS.

(A)  Clause Complements

The complement of a clause can be

a  a noun phrase :  Mary is a capable girl.

b  an adjective :                 Mary is capable

c  a nominal clause

the complement can be distinguished from the subject of a clause in that it normally comes after the verb. The complement normally comes after the object :

            Bad jokes make John angry.

The complement cannot normally by omitted. If we take away the complement, the remaining part does not make a good English sentence :

            Bad jokes make John angry.

Bad jokes make John.

(B)  Adjective Complements

glad glad (that) you are coming. (that-CLAUSE) glad to hear the good news. (to-INVINITIVE) glad of your success.            (PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE)

Adjectives and adjectival participles may take different complements

                  She’ll be

(C)  Prepositional Complements

The charge What was to be changed. Changing the agreement

A Prepositional phrase consist of a preposition and its complement, which is usually a noun phrase, a wh-clause, or an –ing clause:

                  She’ll be

17. Concord

(A) Concord of number

a.       Subject-verb concord

In English, the question of number concord arises only with present tense verb, and with the past tense of be : He KNOWS / They KNOW ; He WAS / They WERE. A clause acting as subject counts as singular:

            To tread them as hostages is criminal.

b.      Pronoun concord

A pronoun which refers back to singular noun phrase is in the singular and a pronoun which refers back to a plurar noun phrase is in the plural :

            The boy likes HIS toys

            The boy likes THEIR toys

National concord

We find for example that the singular form of a group noun like government can be treated as plural in

HAVE has

THEIR its

 

            The government                   broken all                   promises

Concord with group nouns

Group nouns occur with either grammatical or national concord in examples such as :

            The public IS/ARE tired of demonstrations

            The audience WAS/WERE enjoying every minute of the show

            Our Planning Committee HAS/HAVE considered your request

            The yast majority of the students NEEDS/NEED increased financial support

When the group is being considered as a single undivided body, the singular is used.

            The public CONSIST of you and me

Concord with coordinated subjects

When a subject consist of two or more noun phrases coordinated by and, the verb is usually in the plural if the coordination is taken to be a reduction of two difuses:

            Tom and Mary ARE ready

            (= ‘Tom is ready and Mary is ready.’)

But a singular verb is used

            The hammer and sikle WAS flying from a tall flagpole.

When two noun phrases are joined by or or either . . . or, the general rule is that the number of the verb is determined by the number of the last noun phrase (PROXIMITY) :

            Either your brakes or your eyesight IS at fault                               [1]

            Either your eyesight or your brakes ARE at fault                          [2]

To avoid the awkwardness, it is usually possible to use an auxiliary verb which has the same form in the singular and the plural, for example :

            Either your brakes or your eyesight MUST be at fault.

            Concort with indefinite expressions of amount

Indefinite expression of amount, especially no, none and any, often cause concord problems :

            So far no money HAS been spent on repairs                            (MASS)

            No person of that name LIVES here              (SINGULAR COUNT)

            No people of that name LIVE here                      (PLURAL COUNT)

            I’ve ordered the cement, but none (of it) HAS yet arrived      (MASS)

            I’ve ordered the shrubs, but none (of them)

              HAVE/HAS yet arrived           (SINGULAR OR PLURAR CONT)

In the last example, grammatical concord insist that none is singular, but notional concord invites a plural verb. Has is typical of <written, formal> style, whereas have is more idiomatic in <informal> English.

The same rule also aplies to neither and either :

            I sent card to Mavis and Margery but neither (of them) HAS/HAVE replied. In fact. I doubt if either (of them) IS/ARE coming.

The plural pronoun they is often used in <informal> style as a replacement of everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, anyone, anybody, no one, nobody :

            Everyone thinks they have the answer.

            Has anybody brought their camera?

In <formal> English, the tendency is to use he when the sex is not stated :

            Everyone thinks he has the answer.

(B)  Concord of person

Be (the present tense) : I AM, he is, they ARE

                                      He (our friend, etc) COMPLAINS

                                      I (you. \ we \ they, \ our friends, etc) COMPLAIN

MODAL AUXILIARIES : I (we, you, he, our, friend, our friend, etc) CAN come

18. Coordination

Coordination of clauses

Clauses or phrases may be linked together (coordinated) by the conjunctions and, or, but. In these examples, the conjuntions are used to link clauses :

            John plays the piano and his sister plays the guitar          [1]

            They may complain but (they) haven’t said anyting yet    [2]

Here are some further examples of coordinated clauses, with the parts that are usually omitted in brackets :

            He found his key and (he) opened the door

            I’m selling the car and (I’m) buying a new one

            He may have received the letter but (he may have) forgotten to replay.

Coordination can be used to link parts of clauses (eg subjects, verb phrases, objects) rather than whole clauses. We can say, as above, that these are cases of clause coordination in which repeated elements are omitted. For example, the meaning of [4] can be expanded as in [5] :

            I bought some bacon and a loaf of bread  [4]

            I bought some bacon and I bought a loaf of bread  [4]

But in other cases we cannot reconstruct two complete clauses :

            My closest friends are Fred and his wife

This does not mean

            My closest friend is Fred and my closest friend is his wife

In addition, there are cases of coordination which may indicate a ‘reciprocal’ relationship :

            Roderick and Mabel are in love (= Roderick is in love with Mabel, and Mabel is in love with Roderick.’)

Because of these different functions of coordination in phrases we shall treat coordination of phrases in therms of what elements are linked, rather then what moments are omitted.

            Coordination of clause elements

Some example are :

SUBJECTS                                                                                                               Fred and his wife are my closest friend.

VERB PHRASES

            He speaks, or used to speak, with a very strong accent.

COMPLEMENTS

            The hotel was very expensive but rather dirty.

ADVERBALS

            You can wash this sweater by hand or in the washing machine.

PREPOSITIONAL COMPLEMENTS

            Our learn plays in red shirts and white shorts.

            Coordination of words

Coordination can also link two words of the same word class.  For example :

NOUNS

            Many boys and girls prefer to dress in the same way nowadays.

ADJECTIVES

            The house was so old and dirty that no one wanted to buy it.

CONJUCTIONS

            If and when the agreement is signed, we can look forward to a period of peace and coorperation.

            Coordination of combinations and parts of phrases

In addition, coordination can link combinations of phrases (eg combinations of sentence elements). Even where these do not occur next to one another in the sentence :

SUBJECT AND VERB PHRASE

            The papers say, and most people believe, that Democrats will win the next election

SUBJECT AND COMPLEMENT

            Martha is secretary and John chairman.

Also combinations of words which do not make a complete phrase can be linked :

            The fund gives help to many orphan children and unmarried mothers.

In this example, we have a single noun phrase (many . . . mothers) within wich the adjective + noun sequences are coordinated. Another example, in which parts of and adjective phrase are linked, is :

            He is very friendly and willing to help

Here very modifies (we assume) both friendly and willing to help.

But notice that sentences can be ambiguous, depending on what parts are understood to be coordinated :

She’s wearing a while scarf and gloves.

            Omission of conjuctions

When more than two items are coordinated, the conjuction is normally amitted before each item except the last :

            I would like a ham sandwich, an ice-cream and a cup of tea.

Elsewhere the conjuction can be omitted especially in a rather <literary> style, or where the list of items is understood to be incomplete :

            The woods were alive with the call of blackbirds, thrushes, finches, wood-pigeons.

            Correlative coordination

Sometimes the coordination of two structures is made more emphatic by the addition of a word at the beginning of the first structure : both x and y, either x or y, etc. This is called CORRELATIVE coordination. The most important correlatives in English are illustrated in these examples :

            Both America and Russia realise the need for an arms agreement.

            Either the pump’s broken or there’s a blockage in one of the pipes.

            His doctor allows him neither to drink nor to smoke.

            She’s not only an excellent housewife, but (also) a first class mathematician.

19. Demonstratives

The words this, that, these and those are called DEMONSTRATIVE. They have number contrast (singular and plural) and can function both as determiners and as pronouns The general meanings of the two sets can be stated as ‘near’ and ‘distant’) :

            .                Singular    Plural

            ‘near’       this           these

            ‘distant’   that           those

This book / these books That book / those books

 

            Like

20. Determiners

            Determiners are words which specify the range of reference of a noun in various ways, by making it definite (the boy), indefinite ( a boy), or by indicating quantity (many boys).

            Determiners always precede the noun they determine, but they have different positions relative to one another. The most important category is that of CENTRAL DETERMINERS, including articles these may be preceded by PREDETERMINERS and/or followed by POSTDETERMINERS (see Table 1).

Table 1

DETERMINERS

PREDETERMINERS	CENTRAL DETERMINERS	POSTDETERMINERS
a.       All, both, half (see 559) b.      Double, twice, etc (see 560) c.       One-third, etc (see 561) d.      What, such, etc (see 562)	a.       Articles : the, a(n) (see 492-6) b.      Demonstratives : this, these, that, those (see 548-9) c.       Possesives : my, your, etc (see 688-9) and genetives (see 570-2) d.      Quantifiers : some, any, no, every, each, either, neither, enought, much (see 765-76) e.       Wh- determiners : What (ever), which (ever), whoever, whose	a.       Cardinal numerals : One, two, etc (see 564) b.      Ordinal numerals : First, second, etc (see 565) c.       General ordinals : Next, last, others, etc (see 565) d.      Quantifiers : many, few, little, several, more, less, etc

            Central determiners

The central determiners form six groups (A-F) as follows :

(A) DETERMINERS WITH ALL THREE CLASSES OF NOUN (Singular or plural count nouns and mass nouns) :

a.       The  :

      I’ve lost the pen / the gloves / the money

b.      Possessives:

      Have you seen my pen / my gloves / my money?

c.       Whose, which (ever), what (ever:

      Whose pen / whose gloves / whose money did you borrow?

d.      Stressed some and any

Any pen / any pens / any information will do

e.       no

He’s got no friend / no friends / no news at all.

the girl’s her

The genitive functions like a possessive determiner. Compare :

            I liked                           new dress.

(B)  DETERMINERS WITH PLURAL COUNT NOUNS OR MASS NOUNS ONLY :

            a zero article

            they need tractors/help from us.

(C)  DETERMINERS WITH SINGULAR COUNT NOUNS OR MASS NOUNS ONLY

a.       this

      this lecture / this (type of) research is very interesting

b.      that

      i find that poem / that (type of) poetry difficult to understand.

(D) DETERMINERS WITH SINGULAR COUNT NOUNS ONLY :

a.       a(n) (see 492-3)

      Wait a minute!

b.      Every (see 62, 766-7)

      He comes here almost every day

c.       Neither (see 633, 766)

      Neither method is right

(E)  DETERMINERS WITH PLURAL COUNT NOUNS ONLY

a.       These (see 548) :

      I dislike all these meetings

b.      Those (see 54 :

      In those days life was enjoyable.

(F)   DETERMINERS WITH MASS NOUNS ONLY :

            Much (see 769) :

                            We don’t have much news of him.

21. Exclamations

An exclamation is a type of sentence which is used to express the speaker’s feeling or attitude. Notice, however, that the exclamation type of sentence is only one way of showing enthusiasm, etc. The exclamation as a sentence type begins with what as determiner in noun phrases or how as a degree word with adjectives or adverbs. To form an exclamation, put the element of the sentence containing what or how al the front of the sentence, as with wh-questions, but do Not alter the order of subject and operator:

She cooked such a good diner.                                               SVO

What a good dinner she cooked                                             OSV

Your son is clever.                                                                  SVC

How clever your son is!                                                          CSV

He tells such awful lies.                                                          SVO

What awful lies he tells!                                                         OSV

22. Gender

          Gender in english applies strictly only to certain pronouns, where the categories masculine/feminie and personal/non-personal can aply, for example :

         

Noun, Adjectives, and articles, have no genderndistinctions, although in asmall number of words the femine ending –ess marks a noun having female reference: actors/actress, manager/manageress.

23. Genitive

          In <spoken> english, the genetive case of regular nouns is pronounced only in the singular, where it takes one of the forms /Iz/, /z/, /s/ following the rules for s inflection generally.

In <written> english, the inflection of regular nouns is written in the singular’s, and in the plural s’ by putting an apostprophe after the plural s. In the plural, the genitive is pronounced.

Regular –s plural

            An irregular plural

In addition to its use with regular plurals, the ‘zero’ form occurs with some singular nouns ending in –s :

a     with greek names of more tah only syllable, as in euripides’ /-di;z/ plays.

b     with certain fixed expressions as for goodness’ sake, for conscience’ sake.

            The of-constrction

In many insances a noun in the genetive case in similar in function to the same noun as head of a noun phrase following of:

            What’s the ship’ name?

            What’s the name of the ship?

Usually either the –s genetive or the of-phrase is preferred in a given case : with people and things, respectively. In numerous context only one one construction is grammatically acceptable; eg we can say the leg of the table but not a table’s leg. We can say john’s car of john.

           

The genetive as a feature of noun phrase

            Although the genetive is generally discussed as a case of nouns, in some respects it is better to regard it as an ending belonging to noun phrase rather than of nouns. In the following examples, preceding determiners and premodifiers belong to the genetive noun phrase rather than to the noun which is head of the whole phrase:

The genetive noun phrase occupies determiner position in the main noun phrase. This is seen more clearly when we compare equivalent of-phrases:

                        The hind leg of                                    a horse

                        The oppinions of                                 some people

The  Group genetive

In postmodified noun phrase it is necessary to add an –s genetive to the end of the postmodification (rather than to the head noun itself):

UNMODIFIED NOUN:        the cairman’s business

POSTMODIFIED NOUN:    the cairman of the finance committe’s business

Also:                someone’s house

            The genetive with ellipsis

The noun modified by the –s genetive may be ommited if the context makes its identity clear:

            My car is faster than John’s car, too.

            But john’s ia a car, too.

An of-phrase can be combined with an –s genetive into a double genetive. The noun with the –s genetive must be both definite and personal:

            This is an opera of verdi’s ( =’one of verdi’s operas)

24. Interrogatives

          Interrogatives are words which introduce wh-questions and interrogative subclauses. The interrogative words of English are who,whom,whose,which,what,where,when,how, why, whether, if(=’whether’). They belong, with relative pronouns, to the class of words we call for convenience wh-Words. Whether and if are restricted to interrogative subclauses.

25. Introductory it

          The regular word order in english is subject + verb :

                        Her appearance doesn’t mattter.

            When the subject is a clause, however, the order is normally changed:

                        What she looks like doesn’t matter.

                                It doesn’t matter what she looks like.

 The subject clause is placed at the end of the sentence, and the subject position is filled by  the introductory it.

The new sentence contains two subjects: the introductory subject (the pronoun it) and the postponed subject (the clause what she Iooks like),

Here are some more examples of sentences with introductory it:

it’s said that she slipped arsenic into his tea.

It’s actually been suggested that income tax should be abolished.

It  a pity make a fool of yoursef

It surprised me to hear him say that,

It makes her happy to see otherr enjoying themselves.

It was considered impossible for anyone to escape.

it was easy getting the equipment loaded.

it's no use telling him that.

it would be no good trying to catch the bus now.

Sentence with introductory it must be distinguished from sentence where it is a personal pronoun which acts a replacement for a noun phrase in the contex, for example:

            I don’t like the look of this fish, but it’s good to eat.

Where it refers back to fish. Similarly:

It’s  too wet to play tennis.

Where the infinite clause is the complement of the adjectives phrase too wet.

26. Introductory there

          In english sentence like A book in on the desk is possible but uncommon. The natura; way of putting it to begin the sentence with an unstressed three and thus postpone the indefinite subject (a book):

            There is a book on the desk.

This is called a sentence with introductory there. All main verb patterns can be turned into such sentences with there, so long as the subject is indefinite and the verb phrase contains be:

            Pattern [I] :                   A bus is coming

                                                There’s a bus coming

            Pattern [L]:                  Something must be wrong

                                                There must be something wrong

            Pattern [L]:                  Was anyone around?

                                                Was there anyone around?

            Pattern [T]:                  Plenty of people are getting promotion.

                                                There are plenty of people are going to promotion.

            Pattern [X]:                 Two bulldozers have been knocking the place flat.

                                                There have been two bulldozers knocking the palce

                                        flat.

            Pattern [D]:                 Something is causing her distress.

                                                There is something causing her distress.

Passive sentences sometimes occur:

                                                A whole box has been stolen.

                                                There’s been a whole box stolen.

Introductory there differs from there as a front-placed adverb both in lacking stress, and in behaving in most ways like the subject of the sentence:

a          In <informal> English, there often determines concord so that the verb is singular even when the postponed subject is plural:

There`s Two Patiens in the waiting room. informal

occurs alongside the regular <formal> plural:

There are Two PATIENTS in the waiting room.

b          There can act as subject in yes-no questions  and tag questions.

Is there ANY MORE soup?

There’s NOTHING wrong, is there?

c          There can act as subject in infinitive and -ing clauses:

I don‘t want there to be any misunderstanding.

He was disappointed at there being so little to do.

There is another type of introductory-there sentence which consists of there+be+ a noun phrase+a clause which is like a relative clause. Here the verb need not be a form of be (and, although there must be an indefinite clause element, it need not be the subject):

Something keeps upsetting him.

            There is something that keeps upsetting him.

Is there anyone that you want to speak to?

Another common sentence pattern with introductory rhere is'there+be+noun phrase + to-infinitive clause:

There was No one for us to talk to.

There is also another type which is most likely to occur in <literary> contexts where there is followed by a verb other than be (such as lie, stand, exist):

There may come A TIME (= 'A time may come`) when Europe will be less fortunate.

With a place adverbial in front-position, there may be omitted in <lilerary> style:

In front of the carriage (there) rode Two MEN in magnificent uniforms.

27. Irregular verbs

The irregular main verbs of English form a rather sma|l,'but important group of verbs. They are like regular verbs in having regular -s and -ing forms, for

example, walks, walking and spends, spending. But they differ from regular verbs in that we cannot predict their past form and or their past participle from the base , We distinguish three types of irregular verbs:

(l)         Verbs in which all these three parts (the base, the past, the past participle) are identical, for example, cut-cut-cut.

(ll)        Verbs in which two of the three parts are identical, for example, spend-spent-spent and come—came-come.

(Ill)      Verbs in which all three parts are different, for example, speak-spoke-spoken

Within each type, the verbs are here arranged according to similarity, for example, ‘the spend-group‘, `the speak group`, etc.

28. Main Verbs

Regular and Iregular Verbs

There are two types of verbs : Main verbs and Auxiliary Verbs. Main Verbs are either regular or Irregular.

            A regular  English Verbs has the following four forms :

                        The Base                     Call                  The –ing form             Calling

                        The –s Form                Calls                The –ed Form              Called

The vast majority of english verbs are regular. Furthermore, all new verbs that coined or borrowed from other languages adopt this pattern, for example : xerox, xeroxes, xeroxing, xeroxed.

The –s Form

The –s form, also called the 3rd person singular present, of both regular and irrregular verbs is formed in <written> english by adding s or es to the base. In <Spoken> English, the –s form is pronounced /Iz/,/z/, or /s/,

Base                                                    -s Form

Press /pres/                                          presses / pressIz/

Play /pleI/                                            plays / pleIs/

Help / help/                                          helps / helps/

The –Ing Form

The –ing form, or the present participle, of both regular and irregular verbs is formed by adding –ing / Iŋ/ to the base :

Press /pres/                                          pressing / pressIŋ/

Play                                                     playing

Help                                                    Helping

On change in spelling, for example beg/ begging

The –ed Form                       

The –ed Form of regular  verbs is formed by adding –ed to the base. It corresponds to two forms of many irregular verbs : The past form and the past participle (for –ed participle) Compare :

Regullar verbs

Base                            Past Form                                Past Participle

Press                            Pressed                                                Pressed

Play                             Played                                                 Played

Help                            Helped                                                Helped           

Irregular Verbs

Base                            Fast Form                                Past Participle

Drink                           Drank                                      Drunk

Know                          Knew                                      Known

Hit                               Hit                                           hit

The –ed form is pronounced / Id/ , /d/ , or / t/:

Pat                               Patted

Praise                           Praized

Push                            Pushed

The Uses of the verb forms

After Stating what the form of english verbs are, we shall now the describe how they are used. The uses are further discussed in the sections referred to below.

The Base form is used

            a    in all persons of the present tense except the 3rd person singular

            b    in the imparative :

                                    Phone him at once

            c   in the present subjunctive :

                        It is necessary that every member inform him self of these rules

            d     in the invinitive

                                    We saw them leave an hour ago

                                    I want you to type this letter

The –s form is used in 3rd person singular of teh present tense, ie the only person where the base form is not used :

He/She/It (the boy, the cat. Etc.) likes milk

The –ed form corresponds to both the past tense and the past participle of many irregular verbs. Unlike the present tense, the past tense has only one form in all person :

I/ you/ he liked milk.

29. Nationally Words

            When speaking about english people in general we can say either the english (Adjective as head) or englishmen (plural noun witout teh article) :

The English drink beer in pubs

Englishman drink beer in pubs

We referring to same particular English person we say :

The Englishman (who lived here) drink tea in the garden every day.

Wa call these two types of reference Generic adn Specific, resvectively. In some cases, such as with English/Englishman there are different  forms for different types of reference. Where nationality words have no sevarate generic form, the +plural can be both generic and specific

The Germans are musical

The Germans that I know are musical

The following table show the name of same countries and continents and the corresponding adjectives and nouns :

Name of country of continet	Adjective	Specific singular	Specipfic Plural	Generic plural
China Japan Portugal Iraq Wales	Chinese Japanese Portuguese Iraqi Welsh	A Chinese A japanese A portuguese An iraqi A waleshman	Chinese Japanese Portuguese Iraqis Waleshman	The Chinese The  Japanese The  Portuguese The  Iraqis The  Waleshman

30. Negation

Not-negation

To negate a finite clause, you place not (or, in <informa|> use, its contracted form -n’t) immediately after the operator

Positive                                   Negative

He is Coming.                                     He is not/  isn`t Coming.

We may win the match.          We may not win the match,

We have been defeated.         We have not/ haven’t been defeated.

ln these instances, there is an auxiliary (be, may, have) in the positive sentence that can serve as operator. When there is no such operator present, the auxiliary do has to be introduced. This ia called the do constructio. Like modal auxiliaries, do is followed by the bare infinitive :

She enjoys reading.                             She does not / doesn`t enjoy reading.

They understood the problem. They did not/ / didn't understand the problem.

(On the constructions with be and have as main verbs in negative sentences and on the forms of the modal auxiliaries.

Contarcted Negation

As well as the contracted negative, English has contracted verb forms, which can be tagged on to the subject, There are thus two forms of (informal) negation possible, one with a contracted verb, and one with a contracted negative :

Contracted  Verb                                            Contracted Negative

He`s not coming.                                             He isn’t coming.

We‘re not ready.                                             We aren’t ready.

Both sets of contracted forms are used in <informal> English, In <formal> English, the full forms are used: he is not coming, etc.

AS there is no widely acceptable contraction for am not, only the verb contraction is possible in a sentence like l`m not ready,

In questions with inversion, not can be placed either after the auxiliary in its contracted form –n’t, or after the subject in its full form not.

Haven’t you heard the news? informal

Have you not heard the news?

Negative Pronouns and Determiners

lnstead of the following sentence with not-negation:

There isn’t any butter left.

we may equally well say:

There is no butter left.

No is a negative determiner, and is one of a number of negative items in English with different functions,

Other negative items

Other negative items beginning with n- are:

nowhere (adverb of place)

never (adverb of time when or frequency)

neither (adverb of additio)

(neither) ..... not (coordinating conjunction)

Also, there are certain words which are negative in meaning and behaviour, although they do not appear negative in form:

hardly, scarcely, barely.

few, Iittle

rarely, seldom

The grammatical behaviour of negative items

The usual effect of all these negative items is to make the whole clause in which they occur negative, This means that certain characteristics of negative clauses are found not only with not, but also with other negative items:

(A) After a negative item, normally any-words occur instead of some-words.

No one has any doubts about his ability

I seldom get any sleep after the baby wakes up

l’ve spoken to hardly anyone who desagrees with me on this point.

(B)  A negative item at the beginnig of a clause brings about the inversion of subjec\ and operator, ie the order is operator+subject (unless the negative item belongs to the subject. Thus construction can sound rather <elevated> and <rhetorical>

Only afler along argument  did he agree to our plan,

(C) Negative words are followed by positive rather than negative tag-questions :

|she never/scarcely  seems to care| does she?\

You won't forget the shopping | will you?|

Com pare :

            You’ll remember the shopping | Won’t You?

Negation in phrases and non-finite clauses

Sometimes the word no is attached not to the verb phrase of a clause, but to another element of the clause, such as a noun phrase. Not then comes before the word or phrase which it negates. There is no inversion when the negated noun phrase is itself subject :

Not all of the passengers escaped unhurt,

Not a single word did he uttter.

To negate non-finitee clauses, we place the negative before the verb  phrase:

Not  having read the book. I can‘t tell you whether it is worth buying.

I asked him not to interfere.

He told her never to do it again.

Transferred Negation

After some verbs like believe, suppose, and think, a not which belongs, in terms of meaning, to a that-clause is usually transferred to the main clause :

I don’t believe (that) you two have met, have you?

(=`I believe you two haven't met`)

I don’t suppose (that) anyone will object to my absence.

(=’ I suppose no one will object)

I don’t think (that) you need worry’

(=’ i think you needn’t worry)

31. Nominal Clauses

Nominal clauses function like noun phrases . Just as noun phrases may occur as subject, object, complement, appositive, and prepositional complement, so every nominal clause may occur in some or all of these roles:

SUBJECT                   Whether we need it is a different matter

OBJECT                     I don’t know whether we need it.

COMPLEMENT        The problem is whether we need it.

APPOSITIVE             That, Question, Whether we need it, has not yet been

Considered.

            PREPOSITIONAL    The dicison must depend on whether we need it.

               COMPLEMET

There are five main types of nominal clause;

That clauses

lnterrogative subclauses

Nominal relative clauses

Nominal to-infinitive clauses

Nominal -ing clauses

That-Caluses

            That clauses can occur as :

            Subject                        That she’s still alive is sheer luck.

Direct Object              I told him that he was wrong

Subject Complemet     The assumption is that things will improve

Appositive                   Your assumption, that things will improve, is not well-founded

Complemet of an

Adjective                    I’m sure that things will improve.

When the that-Clause is object or complement or postponed subject that is frequently omitted in <informaI> use:

            I told him        he was wrong

            I’m sure           he was wrong

Wh-Introgative Subclauses

Interrogative subulauses are introduced by wh- introgative words. and occur in the whole range of functions available to that-clauses, ln addition they can act as prepositional complement.

Wh-interrogative clauses are like wh-questions in that the wh-word is placed first. We have in the wh-interrogative subclause, the same choice between intial and final prepositions where the prepositional complementis the wh-elemet.

An Infinitive Wh-clauses can be formed with all wh-words except by:

Yes-No Interrogative Subclauses

Yes-no interrogative subclauses are formed with or whether :

            Do you know if/whether the shops are open now?

The Alternative questions has if/whether .... or :

            I don’t care if/whether your car breaks down or not.

Only Whether can be directly followed by or not :

            I don’t care whether or not your car breaks down.

Nominal Relative Clauses

            Nominal relative clauses, also introduced by a wh-word, can act as

            SUBJECT                   What john realy needs is a wife.

            DIRECT OBJECT      I want to see whoever deals with complaints.

            INDIRECT OBJECT She gave whoever came to the door a winning smile

            SUBJECT COMPLEMENT Home is where your friends and family are.

            OBJECT COMPLEMENT You can call me what(ever) names you like.

            APPOSITIVE             Let us know your college adress, that is where you  

                                             live during  the term.

            COMPLEMENT OF  You should vote for which(ever) candidate you like

      A PREPOSITION       best

            These clauses are introduced by a wh-pronoun or wh-determiner. which combines the  functions of the relative pronoun with that of the determiner and/or head of the whole noun phrase. For example, the proverb

Whoever laughs last, laughs longest.

can be put in the form:

Those who laugh last, laugh longest.

in which whoever is replaced by a demonstrative pronoun and a relative pronoun.

Who hardly occurs in contemporary English in this nominal relative function:

Who told you that  was lying.. Other expressions are used:

Whoever

The Person Who          told you that was lying

Anyone who

As these examples show, a nominal relative clause can be introduced by a wh-word ending in -ever (whatever, etc). These words have general or inclusive meaning. Thus the pronoun whatever means roughly 'anything which’.

Nominal to-invinitive Clauses

Nominal to-invinitive Clauses  can occur as :

SUBJECT       for a bridge to collapse like that is unlikely

DIRECT OBJECT   He likes everyone to be happy

SUBJECT COMPLEMET His ambition is to be a pilot

APPOSITIVE His ambition, to be a pilot, was never fulfilled

COMPLEMENT OF AN

     ADJECTIVE   I’m glad to be of help.

The subject of a to-infinitive is normally introduced by far. A pronoun subject is here in the objective case.

Nominal ing-clauses

The nominal –ing participle clause can act as :

            Subject                                    Telling lies is wrong

            Direct object               no one enjoys being disturbed in the middle of the

                                             night

            Subject Complement       What he likes best in playing practical jokes.

            Appositive                   He was absorbed in his hobby, collecting stamps

            Complement of

            A Preposition              I’m tired of being treated like a child

            Complement of

            An Adjective              The children were busy building sand castles.

When the -ing clause has a subject there is sometimes a choice bctwecn genitive case in <formal> style:

l`m surprised at his|John`s making that mistake.

and, In <informal> style, objective case (for personal pronouns) or common case (for nouns):

l`m surprised at him/john making that mistake.

32. Noun Phrases

A noun phrase is a phrase which can act as subject, object, or complement of a clause, or as prepositional complement. it is called a noun phrase because the word which is its head (ie main part) is typically a noun, In the following sentence:

John found the new secretary in his officce a very atractive woman.

John, secretary, office, and woman are nouns. The subject john, the object the new secretary in his office, the object complement a very atractive woman are noun phrase. Also part of the object, his office, is a prepositional complement, constituting yet  another noun phrase.

The head noun can be accompanied by determiners (the, his, etc) and one or more modifiers. Modifier which precede the head are called premodifiers (eg new, very atractive), and those which follow the head are called postmodifiers (eg in his office).

33. Numbers

Singular and Plural Number

ln English, number is a feature of nouns, demonstratives, personal pronouns and verbs. Nouns have singular or plural number and verbs in the 3rd person vary for singular and plural agreement with the subject noun. The nouns  which, according to the main rule, are singular are

a          singular count nouns. ie nouns denoting ‘one': a boy, the table, etc.

b          mass nouns : advertising, our music, etc.

C         proper nouns : John, Cairo, Marx, etc.

The only nouns which normally occur in the PLURAL. are plural count nouns, ie nouns denoting `more than one’: the boys, the table, etc.

The regular plural is formed by adding -s or -es to the singular. But

special mention must be made of :

(A) some nouns which end in –s but are singular, and

(B) some nouns which occur only in the plural.

(On the number of adjectives as head, as in the. Supernatural and the rich, )

a.        A singular nouns ending in –s

-          News

-          Some diseases

-          Subject namesnin –ics

-          Some Games

-          Some proper nouns

b.      Noun which occur only in the plural

a.       Cattle :

Many cattle have died in the drought.

People as the plural of person :

            There were a great many people waiting at the airport.

(people is however regular in the sense of ‘natio’ : the peoples of Afrika.)

b.      Some nouns denoting a tool, instrument or  article of dress consisting of two equal part which are joined together. These are always plural, but can be turned into ordinary count nouns by means of pair of:

(A)  ‘ where are my trousers ?                         (B)  They are here

‘I’d like a pair of scissors, please.

There are two pairs of glasses on the table. Which pair do you want?

c.       There are also many other nouns which. In a given sense, only occur in the plural, for example contents :

Have you stadied the contents of the book?

In many cases they have a singular form (without –s), with a different meaning ( which a dictionary will explain), for example :

What is the silver content of this coin?

Here are further examples of plural nouns :

The middle ages

Archieves

Odds (in betting)

Thanks (‘Many Thanks?’)

34. Numerals

Cadinals and Ordinals

The cardinal numerals (one, two, etc) and the ordinal numerals (first, second, etc) are shown in the following list. Both types can function as pronouns or as determiners. The ordinal are normally proceded by another determiner, usually the definite article:

            They are ten on the list, so you are the eleventh.

            They are have five children already, so this will be their sixth child.

            CARDINALS                                                                        ORDINALS

0                      nought                                     1st                   first

            1                      one                                          20th                 twentieh

21                    twenty-one                              50th                 fiftieh

200                  two hundred                           200th               two hundred

1,000,000        one million                              1,000,000th     (one) millionth

Fraction and Decimals

Fractions are read out in full as follows :

½  a half

¼   a quarter

1 ½ one and a half

Decimals are read out in full as follows :

            3.5       two point five

            3.14     three point one four

Times of the clock are read out in full as fellows :

            At 5                 at 5 (o’clock)

            At 5.15            at five fiftinth, at a quarter past five, at a quarter after five

Date are written and read out as fellows :

            <writtten>       He died on  :   - 5 May 1974.

                                                -  May 5th 1974.

<Spoken>        : - on the fifth of May, nineteen seventy-four

                          - on my May the fifth, nineteen seventy-four

                          - on May fifth, nineteen seventy-four

           

CHAPTER III

CLOSING

Conclusion

Grammar can be defined as a systematic description of a language. It is traditionally divided into twobranches, morphology and syntax.

Morphology is the study of the structure or forms of words. For example, in English the ending –s may be used to form the plural of nouns (teacher vs teachers) or the present tense, 3rd person singular, of verbs (I play vs she plays). Another ending, -ed, is added to verbs to form the past tense (I play vs I played) or the so-called past participle (The role of Dracula was played by Christopher Lee).

Syntax is the study of the rules governing the way words are combined to form sentences. One such rule says that in English (and many other languages including Swedish) the normal word order should be Subject + Verb + Object (Elvis has left the building, not *Elvis the building has left (an asterisk is used to show that the sentence is ungrammatical)).

We should distinguish between descriptive grammar on the one hand, and prescriptive grammar on the other. Descriptive grammar, which this course is about, attempts to describe how the forms and constructions in spoken and written language are actually used, and avoids rules of correctness. The latter is, instead, the concern of prescriptive grammar, which states what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in language use. For example, in prescriptive grammar of English, the so-called split infinitive, a construction with a word between to and a verb (To boldly go where no man has gone before) is branded as incorrect and should therefore be avoided. (In actual fact, this construction is very common and is sometimes the only natural choice.)

REFERENCE

http://wps.pearsoned.co.uk/ema_uk_he_nelson_enggram_3/

Leech, geoffrey and Jan svartvik. Communicative Grammar of English