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Introduction Grammar is the study of the structure of the sentence and their parts. Its study can provide the terminology we need to talk about sentence structure in an informed way. It allows speakers to analyse and describe their own use of language. The knowledge of grammar enables us to produce grammatical sentences that clearly convey our meaning. Prescriptive grammar (the one thought in terms of ‘rules’) is not so used in our century. Contemporary grammarians prefer a descriptive approach.This approach focuses on structures rather than rules
1 Introducing sentence structure
1.1 The constituents of the sentence A sentence is composed of units that can be formed by one word or more. Regardless of their length these are the ‘building blocks’ of the sentence and they are known in grammar as the constituents. A constituent is a word or a string of words that behaves grammatically and semantically as a unit. ex. [My father] [retired] [when he was sixty]. Subject Adjunct Each constituent has a complete meaning in itself, and that’s why every constituent, except the verb, can be replaced by a single word (ex. [He][retired][then].). It is useful to apply the one-word substitution test because it provides an initial overview of the sentence constituents. 1.2 The Grammatical Hierarchy In grammar there are only three types of constituents: words, phrases and clauses. The Grammatical Hierarchy provides a summary of how these three types go together to form a sentence. SENTENCE (consist of one or more c.) CLAUSES(consist of one or more p.) PHRASES(consist of one or more w.) WORDS The structure of the sentence involves the embedding of constituents inside other constituents. Even a simple looking sentence can have many layers of constituents. ex.[Amy] [works] [in the centre of London]. – [She][works][there]. N.P. V.P. P.P. (Prepositional) 1.3 Form and function in grammatical description The approach used is Form-Function: form refers to the shape of a sentence constituent. Ex. [The old man] [is walking] [his dog] S:NP V DO:NP ‘The old man’ can be described in terms of its function (=the grammatical role that it plays in the sentence). In this case it plays the function of Subject. This constituent has the form of a
noun phrase and the function of Subject in the sentence. ‘His dog’ is also a noun phrase but in the function of Direct Object. 1.4 Subject and verb The simplest sentence is made by a verb only. These are called imperative sentences and are used to give orders or instructions. More commonly a sentence has a Subject and a verb.The verb is often expanded to form a verb phrase (ex. [Amy] [is a nurse]). The form of the verb phrase depends on the type of verb it contains. 1.5 Identifying a Subject In a sentence the subjects comes before the verb, but it’s not necessarily the first constituent in the sentence. Ex. When she finally understood the joke, Amy laughed. The S. is preceded by the Adjunct. Sometimes the Subject is defined as ‘doer of the action’, but this definition is too simple and not always correct, especially in relation to passive sentences. The properly defined ‘doer of the action’ is the agent. Agent and Subject may coincide sometimes, but not in all cases A reliable way to identify the S. is the inversion test. It consists in turning a statement into a question, inverting the position of the S. and the verb Ex. James is at school (statement) Is James at school?(question) James inverts with the verb ‘is’ so James is the subject. If there are two verbs present the S. inverts with the first one (operator) Another way is the tag question. It’s a question which is added to the end of the statement. Ex. Paul is getting old, isn’t he? The last word in the tag question refers to the S. of the statement, and this helps us identify the S. This sort of test can be used to identify the S.in more complicated sentences, such as the ‘there sentences’ (ex. There was a storm last night, wasn’t there?) or cleft sentences (ex. It was on Monday that we met Amy, wasn’t it?). The subject of a sentence agrees in number with the verb that follows it. The form of the verb is determined by whether the subject is singular or plural. This is known as S-V agreement. It only applies when the sentence is in present tense, while in the past tense it remains the same regardless of the S. It applies only when the S. is in third person, and with all the other S the same verb form is used whether the S is I or we. The S-V agreement doesn’t apply if the first verb is a modal such as can or will (they don’t change their form). So this is a limited way of identifying the subject. 1.6 Verb types and sentence patterns The structure of the sentence is determined by the type of verb it contains. There are three main types of verbs: intransitive, linking and transitive. Transitive ones can be subdivided into monotransitive, ditransitive and complex transitive. ● Intransitive verb : needs only a S. to form a complete sentence. Each sentence contains just a S. and a V. (sentence pattern= S.V. Amy laughed) ● Linking verbs and Subject Complements : verbs that don’t denote any action, but links the S to another constituent following the verb. The constituent after the linking verb is called Subject Complement (SC) and it’s required to form a complete
1.9 Peripheral constituents in sentence structure Like A they can be optionally added and many of them are used in conversations. ● Tag question= added to the end of the sentence to seek the hearer’s agreement with a statement. If the sentence is negative then the corresponding tag question is positive and vice-versa, but sometimes a positive t.q. Can be used with a positive sentence. ● Comment clause= a brief clause inserted into a sentence expressing the speaker’s attitude towards what is being said ● Parenthetical = a complete sentence inserted ‘parenthetically’ into another sentence. In writing they are marked off by eclosing them in brackets or dashes. ● Sentential relative clause= introduced by the rel. Pron. which, used to add a comment about what has just been said ● Vocative = used to identify the person(s) to whom a sentence is addressed 1.10 Fragments and non-sentences A great deal of spoken communication consists of fragments or incomplete sentences. We refer to these as fragments because we can interpret them in the same way as grammatically complete sentences. Non-sentences have no structure at all and generally occur without any surrounding context.
2 Words and word classes
2.1 Open and closed word classes Words are divided in word classes: nouns, pronouns, determiners, main verbs, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions. Some of them are open, which means they admit new words (ex. noun class is potentially infinite, numerals is open, adjective and verb also admit new members but less prolifically than nouns) (preposition is a closed class) 2.2 Nouns and determiners They denote both abstract entities and concrete objects. Many of them can be identified by their characteristic endings: -ence, -ment, -tion, -ism, -ist Most nouns have a singular and a plural form. Regular nouns add an -s to their singular, but some quite frequent nouns have an irregular plural. Singular nouns denote just one instance, plurals denote more than one: these are called countable nouns. Some other nouns can’t be counted in ‘one, two, ecc’ so they are uncountable nouns. Proper nouns are names of individuals, places, names of institutions, languages, days of the week, months and other periods of the calendar. The genitive is formed by adding ‘s to the singular form, if the noun already ends with -s we only add the apostrophe to form the genitive.
3 Phrases
3.1 Definition of phrase In grammar the term ‘phrase’ also includes single words, because one word can be expanded to form larger constituents. Ex. books, expensive books, expensive books about gardening= noun phrases There are five major phrase types: noun phrase (NP), adjective phrase (AdjP), adverb phrase (AdvP), prepositional phrase (PP), verb phrase (VP). 3.2 Basic structure The phrases don’t always have three parts, but they will at least have the main one: the Head. It determines the phrase type. The pre-Head constituent is called Premodifier and the post-Head constituent is called Postmodifier. Prepositional phrases don’t take Postmodifiers but Complements. (Head, Premodifier and Postmodifier are grammatical functions, not forms). The Head of a phrase is the only constituent that can be omitted, without it the phrase is incomplete. In PP only the Premodifier can be omitted, both Head and what follows are obligatory constituents. 3.3 Adverb phrases Adverb phrases are the simplest because they usually consist of just a Head (always an adverb). The Head can be premodified by another AdvP and it can also take a Postmodifier, again an AdvP. With comparative adverbs the Premodifier ‘more’ can have ‘much’ as a Premodifier. The words ‘enough’ and ‘indeed’ can function as Postmodifiers in an AdvP. Postmodifiers in an AdvP are common in comparative constructions. Adverbs always function as the Head of an AdvP, AdvP have these major functions: ● Adjunct (there, usually, soon ecc) ● Premodifier of an adjective (very, rather ecc) ● Premodifier of an adverb (quite, so, totally, very ecc) ● Premodifier of a preposition (exactly on time ecc) 3.4 Adjective phrase The Head is always an adjective. The phrase may also contain an AdvP as Premodifier, which is most commonly a degree adverb. AdjP can take AdvP as Postmodifiers and with some adjectives a Postmodifier is usually required. In expressions of measurement and age a NP may function as a Premodifier in an AdjP. Simple comparatives= -er ending Standard comparison= Postmodifier required than… (these are PP) Head can take a Premodifier= much, slightly, two inches ecc Some adjectives don’t require -er form= more, less, as They can also have their own Premodifier= much, slightly, just as. They premodify the adverb, not the adjective. They form an AdvP with more, less, as If the Head has ‘too’ or ‘so’ as a Premodifier it take a clause as a Postmodifier= to-clause or that-clause (too old to dance, so old that he cannot dance)
Both tests show that the first noun is the H , specifically, it is the first one when the NP has the structure: noun1+preposition+noun2 (ex. pair of shoes). These are type 1 NPs. Type 2 NPs have a different structure: noun1+noun2 (school uniform). In this last case the same tests can be applied to identify the H. Number test: in the plural form of the phrase the H is the one that changes to plural (ex school uniform- school uniforms) Agreement test: when the NP is the subject of a sentence the H is the noun that agrees with the verb. Type 2 NPs can be re-written as type 1 by inverting the order of the nouns and inserting a preposition. Determiners and determinatives Usually a determiner is the first constituent in a NP. genitive nouns are classified as determiners on the basis that they can be replaced by a possessive pronoun which occupies the same position in the phrase. The maximum number of determiners before a noun is three, nut is not often reached. Determiners are classified into three subtypes based on the position relative to each other (Predeterminers, Central determiners, Postdeterminers). All Determiners function as the H of a DP which in turn functions as a DVE Determinative in a NP.Most DP consists of one word only but some can have Premodifiers. Two-word DPs are found when one of the Dets is a genitive noun. [guarda gli esempi p100] Det phrases cannot occur independently as other phrases do, but only as constituents of a noun phrase. Dets come before any Prem. present with an exception: if the adjective has ‘too’ or ‘so’ as a Prem. the Det and and Prem. switch places. Noun phrases Premodifiers The most common Prem. are: ● Adjective phrases. There can be more than one in one NP, and each of them separately modifies the H ● Noun phrases. In this case it creates a type2 NP, and a NP that is being a Prem can have its own Prem. A NP can co-occur with an AdjP as a Prem but the AdjP always comes first. Noun phrase Postmodifiers ● Prepositional phrases (ex the castle on the hill ) ● Clauses: Relatives (ex the food that he cooked ), -Ing clauses (ex. Anyone carrying a knife ), -Ed/-En clauses ( decision made/taken by the president ), To-clauses (the right thing to do), ● AdjP (something stupid) ● AdvP (generally denote place or direction) Sequential and embedded Postmodifiers NPs can have more than one Postm (ex a holiday [for two][in Paris]). These are called sequential Postm because they occur in sequence and separately modify the H. Ex. a movie about the Queen of England= a movie [about the Queen [of England]] The H has one modifier (about…England) and the modifier Queen has its modifier (of England). The order of embedded Postm cannot be reversed.
Postmodifiers and Complements Complements, a type of NP Postm, have a closer link with the noun than ordinary Postm. Ex. (postmodifier): The news that he gave us today was welcomed by everyone (complement): The news that he intends to resign was welcomed by everyone ‘That he gave us today’ doesn’t define the content of the news, while the Complement ‘that he intends to resign’ has a defining role because it tells the content of the news. Beside the difference of meaning, Postm and Compl have a grammatical difference: in Postm ‘that’ can be usually replaced with ‘which’. Ex ‘the news which he gave us today was welcomed by everyone’, the news which he intends to resign ..’ The word ‘that’ in the Complement is called Complementizer that , while ‘that’ in the Postm is the relative pronoun. It is important to remember that a Complement is necessary to define the H. if Compl and Postm co-occur in the same NP , Compl is closest to the H and is followed by the Postm. Independent genitive constructions involve Compl and not Postm. The function of noun phrases: ● Subject (four people entered the room) ● Subject Complement (he is my husband) ● Direct Object (i bought a jar of coffee) ● Indirect Object (i offered the girl beside me a drink) ● Object Complement (she called him a loser) ● Adjunct (one day I’ll move out) In phrase structure: ● Prepositional Complement (at the cinema) ● Premodifier in another noun phrase (a school uniform) ● In quantifying or measuring expressions, NP functionsì as Prem in an AdvP Apposition: relationship between two NP which have identical reference (ex the duke, Simon Hastings). It is often used to clarify the meaning of the first NP. 3.7 Verb phrases They don’t have H, Prem or Postm. The main verb function as the Predicator in the VP. VPs function is to be the ‘engine room’ of the sentence. The auxiliary verb (the first, or the only) functions as the Operator OP, which has many important grammatical roles in the VP. all other auxiliary verbs are simply marked as Aux (auxiliary). The DO is a constituent of the VP, because it is required to complete the meaning of the main verb and for the same reason SCs, IOs, OCs are also constituents of the VP. The Operator It is the first or only auxiliary verb in a VP, if there’s no auxiliary verb then there’s no operator. Ex She was reading When an OP is present it carries the tense marking of the VP. If there’s no auxiliary the marking is carried by the main verb. When an OP is present all other verbs have the base form, the -ing form or the -ed/-en form. When there’s a modal verb it always comes first in the VP and it always functions as the OP. the OP has other four functions summarised by the acronym NICE: N egation, I nversion, C ode, E mphasis.
Movement A significant difference between VPs and other phrases is the process of movement , which refers to the fact that constituents of the VP often move outside the phrase (ex when forming a question from a statement, the Sub and the OP change places). Tense It refers to the way in which a language expresses the concept of time. In other words, it refers to the absolute location of an event in time. In English there are just past and present tenses. In regular verbs the present is expressed by the -s form when the Sub is 3rd person singular. For all other Sub it is used the base form. The base form is also used in non-finite VP where it doesn’t carry the tense. The past tense is indicated by the -ed ending regardless of the Sub. when an Aux is present the tense is indicated by the first or only auxiliary verb and not by the main verb. Expressing future time It is incorrect to speak of a ‘future tense’, since there’s no ending to indicate the future. In fact, future time is often expressed by the present tense form of a verb. There are many ways to express future time in English: ● Modal auxiliary ‘will’ (contracted form ‘ll) ● Semi-auxiliary ‘be going to’ ● Progressive auxiliary ‘be’ (present tense)+ -ing verb Aspect It refers to how an event is to be viewed with respect to time. The idea of ‘relevance’ is important when it is necessary to distinguish between tense and aspect. Tense is exemplified in the sentence ‘David broke his leg when he was 12’[1]. The event described is in the past, with no current relevance implied. Both tense and aspect are exemplified in [1] and in ‘David had broken his leg’ [2a]. In both cases, the event described has ‘relevance’ in the present or at some point between the event and the present. Mood It refers to the distinctions in the form of a VP that express the speaker’s attitude towards what is said. The moods are three: indicative, imperative, subjunctive. ● Indicative - in declarative, interrogative and exclamative sentences ● Imperative - used in issuing orders or instructions ● Subjunctive - used when referring to a non-factual or hypothetical situation. The mandative subjunctive is used after a small number of verbs (ask, decide, recommend, suggest…) when these are followed by ‘that’. It is also used after adjectives (like crucial, essential, important, necessary, vital). This mood is also used in many formulaic expressions (ex come what may, wish you were here, so be it …).
4 Clauses and sentences
Definition It’s a sentence-like structure that can be analysed in the same way of a full sentence, although it may not contain all the constituents of a complete sentence. It must contain a verb. Clauses consists of one or more phrases. As a consequence of this definition a sentence is also a clause. The simplest sentence contains only a verb phrase, and like a clause it can be expanded with constituents. Every sentence contains a verb phrase, so every sentence is a clause. The term ‘sentence’ only applies to writing (starts with an upper-case letter and ends with a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark). In speech these are absent, from the point of view of grammar a sentence is a clause. Subordination This term refers to the use of subordinate clauses as constituents in sentences or phrases. They perform a wide range of functions both at sentence level and ar phrase level. Finite and non-finite subordinate clauses The most common pattern is finite sentence + finite/ non finite subordinate clause. Ex. He left work [finite] feeling terrible.[non-finite] He left work [finite] because he felt ill.[finite] Sub clauses can be finite or non-finite, but sentences are generally finite. Non-finite sentences are actually fragments that can be understood from the previous context. The three non-finite clauses name three sub clause types: ● To-clauses. Ex The road was widened to improve the traffic flow ● -ed/-en clauses. Ex Deprived from oxygen , plants will quickly die ● -ing clauses. Ex Michelangelo painted lying on his back Adjunct clauses These are sub clauses that function as Adj in sentence structure and they can be finite or non-finite. Finite sub clauses are introduced by a sub conjunction (although, because, if, when, while). The subordinating conjunction carries the function label SUBD (=Subordinator) and the form label Conj (=conjunction). Meanings of adjunct clauses [p 138] When clauses function as adjuncts they express more meanings (not just time, place and manner). The main types of meaning are: ● Time ● Condition ● Concession ● Reason ● Result ● Purpose
Coordination types Syndetic coordination : with a coordinating conjunction actually present (and, or, but) Asyndetic coordination: without a coordinating conjunction When three or more Conjoins are coordinated the conjunction is usually placed between the final two conjoins only. Polysyndetic coordination: used for effect, to express repetition or coordination Unlike ‘and’ and ‘or’, ‘but’ can link a maximum of two conjoins, usually clauses. The meanings of coordinators AND : expresses inclusive meaning, all the conjoins are to be considered equally valid. It has other meanings supported by ‘so’ or ‘yet’: ● Result ● Temporal sequence, with this one the order cannot be reversed: ● Concession ● Positive condition OR : expresses exclusive meaning, only one conjoin is valid. With imperatives it expresses a negative condition, while ‘and’ expresses a positive one. BUT : expresses contrast or concession. It can also be used as a preposition with no coordinating function. Correlative coordinators They are: either…or neither…nor both…and not only…but also EITHER…OR: exclusive meaning, in that only one option applies. ‘Either’ is optional, it’s used for emphasis. It can be used to link clauses. NEITHER…NOR: inclusive meaning; both options are out. It cannot be used to coordinate whole clauses, only phrases. ‘Neither’ cannot be omitted, so it’s similar to ‘not’ and functions as the Negator of the sentence. This expression is the negative of both…and. BOTH…AND: it coordinates smaller constituents. ‘Both’ is used for emphasis and can be omitted. NOT ONLY…BUT ALSO: inclusive meaning, both options are valid. ‘Also’ can be omitted and mobile. It can move to the end of the sentence. ‘But’ is the coordinator and ‘also’ functions as an adjunct. ‘Not only’=constituent Quasi-coordination as well as as much as in addition to rather than They don’t produce a genuine coordination. They have a specific discourse function: putting focus on the first NP, which has emphatic stress in speech.
SENTENCE TYPES
Declarative sentences : used to convey informations or to make a statement. Sometimes they can have the force of a question if pronounced with rising intonation or written with a question mark. Interrogative sentences : used in asking question and seeking information or confirmation. There are yes/no interrogatives, alternative interrogative, wh- interrogative. ● Yes/no: forming it, involves Sub-Op Inversionand movement. (guarda esempio e schemino p.153). There are also neutral yes/no interrogatives (they use any - set of pronouns) and conducive yes/no interrogatives (they use some - set of pronouns). ● Alternative interrogatives: offer two or more alternative answers. They have the same grammatical form as yes/no interrogatives with sub-op inversion. ● Wh- interrogatives: introduced by a word beginning with wh- or ‘how’ and expect an open-ended response. This type also involves sub-op inversion, but no movement is involved when the wh-word functions as the subject. Imperative sentences : used in giving orders or information. They don’t usually have a subject, but the understood sub is the addressee. When the understood sub is more than the addressee we use the ‘let’ imperative. Exclamative sentences : introduced by ‘how’ or ‘what’. They also involve movement of constituents from their usual position in the declarative. The word ‘what’ functions as a Determinative (in the NP ‘what a mess!’). Positive and negative sentences The distinction between is called polarity. The word not perform the function of Negator in most negatives. Apart from this, there are other grammatical differences: ● Tag questions– a positive sentence takes a negative tag q., a negative one takes a positive tag q. ● Positive sentences coordinate with ‘so’ ● Negative sentences coordinate with ‘neither’ From these two differences derive two tests that can be used to determine the polarity of a sentence: the Tag Question Polarity Test and the Coordinator Polarity Test. they are needed because ‘not’ may not always be present. In relation to the polarity, there is a pair of determiners used differently. ‘A few’ and ‘few’ are used with countable nouns. With the polarity tests we figure out that ‘a few’ occurs in positive sentences and ‘few’ in negative ones. ‘A little’ and ‘little’ are used with uncountable nouns. The polarity tests show that ‘a little’ is used in positive sentences and ‘little’ in negative ones. Inverted sentences In the order of elements, the Sub comes after the verb. This type is commonly used in informal style and narration. When two sentences are joined together by ‘so’, ‘and’ and ‘neither’, the second sentence is inverted. Extraposition and postponement When a to-clause functions as the sub of a sentence, it’s normally moved to the end. The result is an extraposed sentence. The position of the sub is occupied by anticipatory ‘it’ , which anticipates the to-clause. The anticipatory it functions as the Provisional Subject
-Listing (first, firstly, to begin with, secondly, finally, lastly ecc) -Adding (in addition, moreover, on top of that, as well as that ecc) -Summing up (in conclusion, overall, to conclude ecc) -Exemplifying (for example, for instance, namely ecc) All connectors function as Adjuncts in sentence structure, and they are grammatically optional and mobile within the sentence, but usually it is best to put them at the beginning of the second sentence. Referring expressions In continuous discourse there is a lot of cross-referring from one sentence to another. Antecedents and bla bla, anaphoric reference/anaphora bla bla
