THE GRAMMAR OF ENGLISH CHAPTER 3

WHAT IS “GRAMMAR”? Different meanings: ETYMOLOGICALLY LINKED TO “WRITTEN LETTERS”, BUT GRADUALLY HAS ACQUIRED A WIDER MEANING IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE OF HOW LANGUAGE WORKS EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE OF HOW LANGUAGE WORKS THE RULES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF CORRECT LANGUAGE DIFFERENT TYPES OF GRAMMAR: PEDAGOGICAL/NORMATIVE, DESCRIPTIVE, THEORETICAL (e.g. Halliday’s systemic grammar)

WHAT IS “GRAMMAR” MADE OF? Grammar= language Phonology Morphology Word-formation Syntax Lexis and phraseology Semantics Text and discourse Punctuation The central core of grammar= morphology inflectional (and derivational, see Chapter 4) syntax

MORPHOLOGY THE STUDY OF THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF WORDS e.g. the plural –s inflection for nouns and the –ed inflection for verbs

SYNTAX THE WAY IN WHICH WORDS COMBINE TO FORM LARGER UNITS OF MEANING e.g. phrases, clauses, sentences Example: word order in a noun phrase or in statements and questions e.g. She is a beautiful girl NOT She is a girl beautiful

IN PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH… limited presence of inflectional morphology compared to Old English (and other languages such as Italian or German) and greater importance of syntax and word order in signalling grammatical relations

GRAMMATICAL UNITS TEXT SENTENCE (frase complessa) CLAUSE (frase semplice /principale o subordinata) PHRASE ( *not frase but sintagma/gruppo) WORD MORPHEME

What is a MORPHEME? Unhappy un-happy Cats cat-s Lexical e.g. pen, book A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning or grammatical function Lexical e.g. pen, book Functional or grammatical e.g. if, the free: can stand alone as a word e.g. basket, woman bound: cannot stand alone and must be linked to another morpheme (called base or root) e.g. -ly, un-, -able, -ee

MORPHEMES and MORPHS WORDS MORPHS MORPHEMES (concrete) (abstract) Played play-ed PLAY+ past Unhelpful un-help-ful negative+HELP+ adjective WORDS MORPHS MORPHEMES (concrete) (abstract)

ALLOMORPHS -ed the morph that indicates past tense can be realised phonetically in different ways (allomorphs) depending on the phonological context: e.g. Raised [d] looked [t] decided [Id]

TWO BRANCHES OF MORPHOLOGY INFLECTIONAL : DEALS WITH CHANGES THAT HAVE GRAMMATICAL MEANING e.g. –est signalling the superlative of adjectives DERIVATIONAL: DEALS WITH THE PROCESS OF NEW WORD FORMATION e.g. un-happ(y)i-ness (see Chapter 4)

Mary’s brother-in-law lost his identity card during the week-end WHAT IS A WORD? Mary’s brother-in-law lost his identity card during the week-end How many words are there in this clause?

HOW MANY ‘WORDS’ ARE THERE IN THIS SENTENCE? I asked him to list all his books, but instead of listing them all, he listed only his favourite book 20 or 14 or a number in between?

IT DEPENDS ON THE CRITERIA OF “WORDHOOD” USED Phonological : a word is preceded and followed by pauses Orthographic : a word is preceded and followed by spaces or punctuation marks Prosodic : a word takes one main stress Internal integrity : a word is an indivisible unit Semantic : a word has a single meaning

Word/word forms/lexemes List/listing/listed = 3 word forms of the LEXEME TO LIST Book/books = 2 word forms of the LEXEME BOOK He/him = two word forms of the LEXEME HE

WORDS IN DICTIONARIES ENTRY: an independent lexical unit in alphabetical order HEADWORD: the main word of the entry LEMMA: the canonical form, e.g. the singular for nouns

Words are traditionally grouped into WORD CLASSES OR PARTS OF SPEECH

HOW MANY AND WHAT ARE THEY? NOUNS VERBS ( LEXICAL vs. AUXILIARY VERBS) ADJECTIVES ADVERBS ARTICLES or DETERMINERS PRONOUNS CONJUNCTIONS PREPOSITIONS INTERJECTIONS/INSERTS e.g. oh, yes, right

OPEN AND CLOSED CLASSES open-class words  lexical or content words: wide and open membership; mixed etymological origin ; 4 classes: nouns, (lexical) verbs, adjectives, adverbs closed-class words  grammatical or function words: limited membership and high frequency of use; short; usually of Germanic origin; 5 classes: pronouns, determiners, auxiliaries, prepositions, conjunctions

MULTIPLE CLASS MEMBERSHIP the same word form may belong to more than one word class e.g. fast (adj.), fast (adv.), fast (n.) park (n.), to park (v.) can (n.), can (aux.) only the co-text, i.e. the surroundings of the word, allows the reader/listener to understand the difference word stress helps disambiguation e.g. rebel (n.) [], rebel (v.) []

NOUNS Open class with a naming function common (city, house) or proper (London, Mary, the White House) Concrete (bread) or abstract (love) Countable (book/books) and uncountable or mass (milk, furniture, information) may take the ‘s genitive case (genitivo sassone)

VERBS: lexical and auxiliary verbs open class denoting actions or states lexical /main / full verbs e.g. I like English He walked to school auxiliary verbs (or auxiliaries) are added to lexical verbs for various purposes e.g. I could go faster. (modality) John is going nowhere. (progressive aspect) Do you go to school? (question) I do love him! (emphasis)

LEXICAL VERBS dynamic: referring to physical processes= allow the progressive form e.g. to play, to walk, to drink Stative/state : referring to states and conditions = do not allow the progressive form e.g. to know, to love, to believe Some can be both , e.g. to feel

ADJECTIVES Open-class with a descriptive function attributive function, before a noun e.g. the extraordinary boy predicative function, after copular verbs (to be, to seem, to appear) e.g. John is tall some adjectives are only used in either attributive or predicative function e.g. the child is afraid (predicative) *the afraid child but the freightened child e.g. the main task (attributive) *the task is main but the task is crucial / important

GRADABILITY OF ADJECTIVES most adjectives are gradable it is possible to indicate to what extent the quality referred to by an adjective applies by using intensifiers e.g. lucky very lucky extremely lucky some adjectives are not gradable e.g huge *extremely huge unique *very unique

ADVERBS A very heterogeneous class Fortunately, today the dog has eaten his food very quietly outside comment when how / how /where …provide information about how, when, and where …allow the speaker to comment on the whole utterance …express degree with adjectives or other adverbs

Subclasses of adverbs Circumstance adverbs or adjuncts: give additional information about an element of the sentence e.g. The surgeon completed the operation carefully Stance adverbs or disjuncts: provide a comment on the sentence e.g. Frankly, I should have told her what happened Linking adverbs or conjuncts: connect one sentence or part of a sentence to another e.g. She wasn’t free to go to New York at Christmas and besides she couldn’t afford it.

CONJUNCTIONS … join linguistic elements coordinating conjunctions, or coordinators e.g. and, but, or subordinating conjunctions, or subordinators - simple, e.g. because, although, when - complex, e.g. as far as, in order to

PREPOSITIONS show the relationship between two items typically followed by a noun phrase with which they form a Prepositional Phrase (PP) e.g. the dog ran under the table simple: single word e.g. under, over, at, on complex: more than one word according to, on behalf of, with regard to

DETERMINERS Function words used before a noun to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness, quantity, possession e.g. all these sugary cookies filled with jam and cream The main subclasses are : Articles (indefinite and definite): a, an, the demonstratives: this, that, these, those possessives: my, your, his, her, their, our, its etc. quantifiers: all, few, many, several, some, every, each, any, etc. cardinal numbers: one, two, fifty, etc. ordinal numbers: first, second, third, etc.

PRONOUNS closed class of words which replace words thus avoiding repetitions e.g. Michelle was offered an exciting new job and she decided to take it Main subclasses : personal pronouns e.g. They love football (subject) She loves them (object) possessive pronouns e.g. This book is mine Demonstrative pronouns e.g. This is my friend Tom reflexive pronouns e.g. She hurt herself interrogative pronouns e.g. Whose car is this? relative pronouns e.g. This is the car which/that I want to buy

AUXILIARIES A closed class of verbs which accompany lexical verbs Two subclasses: primary auxiliaries have, be, do e.g. Liz is looking for a job, Do you speak English? She has studied a lot modal auxiliaries (modality) can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must, e.g. I must go now! Would you like a cup of coffee?

WH-WORDS A frequently used expression to refer to function words beginning with wh-: adverbs (interrogative, relative, exclamative) e.g. When did you call her? pronouns (interrogative, relative, exclamative) e.g. Whose car is that? determiners (interrogative, relative, exclamative) e.g. Which book did you choose?

NUMERALS cardinal, e.g. one, two, three, etc. ordinal, e.g. first, second, third, etc. numerals may function as nouns e.g. The Magnificent Seven

PDE REGULAR INFLECTIONS NOUNS - s plural, NOUNS -’s possessive or genitive case VERBS - s 3rd pers. sing. VERBS - ed past tense, VERBS - ed past participle VERBS -ing -ing form, gerund ADJECTIVES -er comparative ADJECTIVES -est superlative

NUMBER in English NOUNS Most nouns add -s e.g. girls, toys, cars some nouns add -es e.g. tomatoes, branches, knives the pronunciation of the inflectional ending -s/-es depends on the phonetic context, i.e. there are three allomorphs of the plural morpheme -s e.g. cakes = /s/ (preceded by the voiceless consonant /k/) beans = /z/ (preceded by the voiced consonant /n/) judges= /iz/ some nouns have irregular plural endings e.g. children, teeth, mice, oxen, curricula, sheep (see p. 131) uncountable nouns: e.g. evidence, advice, equipment, information

POSSESSIVE CASE IN ENGLISH NOUNS The ‘s genitive versus the of-form POSSESSIVE CASE IN ENGLISH NOUNS The ‘s genitive versus the of-form. Synthetic versus analytic option SAY WHETHER THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLES ARE ALL ACCEPTABLE AND DISCUSS THE RULE OF THE ‘s GENITIVE versus THE “OF FORM” John’s car is fast the car of John is fast the students’ protest is still going on the protest of the students is still going on the car of the friend who is visiting me was stolen last night The friend who is visiting me’s car was stolen last night yesterday’s newspaper the newspaper of yesterday the journey’s end The end of the journey The legs of the table the table’s legs

‘S or of GENITIVE John’s car is fast NO the car of John is fast the students’ protest is still going on the protest of the students is still going on the car of the friend who is visiting me was stolen last night NO The friend who is visiting me’s car was stolen last night yesterday’s newspaper NO the newspaper of yesterday the journey’s end The end of the journey The legs of the table NO the table’s legs

VERB INFLECTIONS MOST ENGLISH VERBS ARE REGULAR AND HAVE A PARADIGM OF 5 WORD FORMS and 4 VERB INFLECTIONS e.g. Love/loves/loved/loved/loving THERE IS A SMALLER NUMBER OF VERY FREQUENTLY USED IRREGULAR VERBS e.g. put, put, put lose, lost, lost take, took, taken speak, spoke, spoken go, went, gone AUXILIARIES ARE VERY IRREGULAR, e.g. The verb to be has forms that differ from one another , e.g. am, are, is, was, were, been ( PROCESS OF SUPPLETION) MOST MODAL VERBS DO NOT INFLECT AND HAVE ONLY TWO FORMS, e.g. may, might, can, could

GRADABILITY OF ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS Synthetic comparison: -er ending (comparative) e.g. warmer -est ending (superlative) e.g. finest versus phraseological/analytic comparison (for polysyllabic words) more and most e.g. more/ most interesting more quickly irregular comparison (process of suppletion) e.g. good better best; little, less, least; much, more, most; well, better, best; bad, worse, worst

PRONOUN INFLECTION Pronouns, and personal pronouns in particular, have retained a certain degree of inflection in PDE. e.g. personal pronouns express NUMBER, GENDER and CASE often through suppletive forms I-me; we-us, you-you, he-him, she-her, it-it, they-them

PHRASE ( SINTAGMA/GRUPPO) a unit of syntax made up of one or more words it contains an obligatory head and optional modifiers The black labrador (NP) was chewing (VP) a juicy bone (NP) very noisily (AdvP)

TYPES OF PHRASES NOUN PHRASE (NP) my friend Paul / Tom VERB PHRASE (VP) is/ is laughing ADJECTIVE PHRASE (AdjP) very tall/ absolutely brilliant ADVERB PHRASE (AdvP) quietly, never PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE (PP) in the garden/ on Monday except for prepositional phrases (PP) phrases can be constituted by a single lexical item all phrases can be extended by pre-modification or post-modification

TYPES OF NOUN PHRASES determiner pre-modifier HEAD post-modifier - John my leather (n.) suitcase a large, old, blue (size, age, colour) with wheels

MORE NOUN PHRASES det. pre-modifier HEAD post-modifier The London experience - London’s churches I know

AMBIGUITY in NPs The French history teacher the (det.) French (pre-mod.) history (pre-mod.) teacher (head) [the] [French] [history teacher] (the teacher of history is French) [the] [French history] [teacher] (the teacher teaches French history)

The French history teacher tree diagram The French history teacher : the teacher of history is French NP det. Pre-mod.:Adj head:NP mod:N + head :N The French history teacher

The French history teacher tree diagram The French history teacher = the teacher teaches French history NP det. Pre-mod.:NP Head:N Pre-mod:Adj. Head:N The French history teacher

COMPLEX POST-MODIFICATION The proposal for a new building which the committee put forward last week -for a new building (PP) -which the committee put forward last week (relative clause)

TREE DIAGRAM “An interesting government report about air pollution” NP Det. Mod.(adj.) Mod.(N.) Head:N Post-Mod:PP Head:Prep C :NP Mod.:N Head:N An interesting government report about air pollution

FREQUENCY OF NPs IN ENGLISH PRE-MODIFICATION IS MORE COMMON THAN POST-MODIFICATION IN ALL REGISTERS COMPLEX PRE- AND POST-MODIFICATION IS TYPICAL OF SOME REGISTERS SUCH AS WRITTEN ACADEMIC PROSE AND NEWSPAPER HEADLINES

ENGLISH/ITALIAN NPs Il Dipartimento di Polizia di Los Angeles Translate these noun phrases into Italian and notice the differences between the two languages 1. The Los Angeles Police Department Il Dipartimento di Polizia di Los Angeles 2. Air pollution L’inquinamento dell’aria/atmosferico 3. The Birmingham train Il treno per/da /di (?) Birmingham 4. The proposal of a national curriculum La proposta di un curricolo nazionale 5. The country’s leading expert on youth culture Il maggior esperto del paese sulla cultura giovanile /Il maggior esperto di cultura giovanile del paese

Italian versus English NPs English favours premodification (to the left of the head). NPs are concise and at times ambiguous Italian favours postmodification (to the right of the head) and the use of prepositional phrases. NPs are longer and more explicit

VERB PHRASEs : finite/ non-finite finite verbs or VPs: marked by tense e.g. John plays the guitar I enjoyed the concert non-finite verbs or VPs: not marked by tense, person or number e.g. To arrive on time was their objective She traveled accompanied by her father She broke her leg while skiing

VERB PHRASES: TENSE versus TIME TENSE: property allowing the verb to differentiate between present and past TIME e.g. Jane likes music / Jane liked music Unlike in Italian, there is no morphologically marked form to express future time in English (but a range of forms such as will/shall+ infinitive, going to, simple present, present progressive etc. see 148-149)

VERB PHRASE : ASPECT Property allowing the verb to give information about the state or the action Progressive ( or continuous) : the action is in progress at the time of utterance Sarah is helping her sister perfect: the action is complete, that is it occurred at an earlier time and continues to the time of utterance or is relevant to it Sarah has helped her sister when she was in her teens perfect+progressive: ( often called ‘duration form’) stresses continuity in the past and includes the time of utterance Sarah has been helping her sister since she was 12

Translate into Italian and identify the main differences between the two languages Sarah helps her sister every Thursday Sara aiuta sua sorella tutti i giovedì Lately Sarah is helping her sister a lot Ultimamente Sara sta aiutando/aiuta molto sua sorella Sarah has helped her sister to recover from her illness Sara ha aiutato sua sorella a riprendersi dalla malattia Sarah helped her sister one year ago when she was ill Sara ha aiutato/aiutò sua sorella un anno fa quando era malata Sarah has been helping her sister since last May Sara sta aiutando/aiuta/sua sorella dal maggio scorso.

Translate from Italian into English Sono andata a Londra molte volte I have been to London several times Vivo a Londra I live in London Vado a Londra ogni anno I go to London every year Vivo a Londra da 5 anni e continua a piacermi molto I have been living in London for 5 years and I still enjoy it a lot Ho vissuto a Londra per 5 anni prima di tornare in Italia I lived in London for 5 years before coming back to Italy Vivevo a Londra quando ho incontrato John I was living in London when I met John

VERB PHRASE : VOICE The singer performed the song The song was performed by the singer NP1+VP+ NP2  NP2 +be+VPed+ by+NP1 The singer was performing the song The song was being performed by the singer

FUNCTIONS OF THE PASSIVE the agent is unknown or irrelevant Mr Constable has been murdered the focus is on the process to convey objectivity, especially in academic prose The results of the tests have been checked several times to disclaim responsibility He is said to be a womanizer More frequent in scientific writing and in the Press

MODAL VERBS AND MODALITY MODALS ARE FREQUENTLY USED IN ENGLISH AND BELONG TO THE GERMANIC CORE OF THE LANGUAGE. THEY EXPRESS A WIDE RANGE OF MEANINGS referring either to actions controlled by humans ( DEONTIC MODALITY) or to the levels of certainty of an event (EPISTEMIC MODALITY). The same modals can express different meanings. The same meanings can be expressed in different ways.

THE MAIN MEANINGS OF MODAL VERBS PERMISSION e.g. Can I go to the loo? Could I borrow your notes? (Am I allowed to ask a question?) ABILITY e.g. I can ski, (I know how to do it) POSSIBILITY e.g. She may be ill . She might be ill (Perhaps she is ill) OBLIGATION e.g. You must stop talking. You should pay attention, You have to do it. This needs to be done LOGICAL NECESSITY e.g. She must be ill (She is very likely to be ill) VOLITION e.g. I’ll do it for you PREDICTION e.g. It will rain tomorrow

WHAT ABOUT MODAL VERBS IN ITALIAN? Translate the following expressions into English: Devi smettere di fumare You must stop smoking Dovresti smettere di fumare You should stop smoking Posso fumare? Can I smoke ? May I smoke? Potrei fumare? Could I smoke? Might I smoke? Domani può piovere It may rain tomorrow Domani potrebbe piovere It might rain tomorrow Domani pioverà It will rain tomorrow Sa sciare molto bene She can ski very well Sapeva sciare bene quando era giovane She could /was able to /ski very well when she was young In Italian there are the verbs potere, sapere e dovere Some modal expressions are expressed in Italian through the conditional mood or the future tense, which do not exist as morphologically marked forms in English

OTHER PHRASES ADJECTIVE PHRASE e.g. Beautiful/ (really) beautiful ADVERB PHRASE e.g. Slowly/ (fairly) slowly PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE at University / at (Turin) University ( see pp. 153-158)

Analysis of prepositional phrases in the classroom In ( Head: prep) + the classrom (C: NP) near Rome Near ( Head: prep) + Rome (C : NP)

HOW CAN A CLAUSE BE ANALYSED? First into Subject + predicate John ( what is talked about) is English (what is said about the topic) Then into the 5 main functional elements of the clause: S (Subject), V (Verb or Verb Phrase or Predicator ), O (Object) complemento oggetto C (Complement) predicato nominale, del soggetto o dell’oggetto A (Adverbial) vari tipi di complementi . They are often optional.

WORD ORDER in PDE Translate the following clauses into English: Seguiranno alcuni esempi Some examples will follow Nel capitolo 3 verrà presentata la grammatica Grammar will be presented in Chapter 3 Giovanni parla molto bene l’italiano /l’italiano molto bene John speaks Italian very well Odio stirare I hate ironing Piove forte da molte ore It’s been raining heavily for many hours C’è un gatto in giardino There is a cat in the garden CONCLUSION: The unmarked word order in English in SVO, while in Italian this order can vary to a certain extent The subject is compulsory in English , and not in Italian. If there is no subject, a ‘dummy’ (empty) subject will be used (it/there).

THE VERB …IS THE CENTRAL PART OF THE CLAUSE SINCE IT DETERMINES THE OTHER ELEMENTS ( e.g. verb complementation or valency) She was laughing one-place verb She was playing the piano two-place verb She was very beautiful two-place verb She gave him a kiss three-place verb She made him happy three-place verb

CLAUSE ELEMENTS S V O C A He (NP) put (VP) the keys (NP) in his bag The black labrador (NP) has bitten (VP) Mr Allington (NP) He (NP) put (VP) the keys (NP) in his bag (AdvP) Sue (NP) is feeling (VP) very sleepy (AdjP)

S V O C A It (dummy subject) is going to rain (VP) Armstrong (NP) became (VP) the first man on the moon (NP) Chris (NP) made (VP) Sara (NP) really angry (AdjP) yesterday (AdvP) What I don’t understand (clause) is (VP) Why you lied to me ( clause)

S+V+Oi+Od S V Oi (Indirect Object) Od (Direct Object) a kiss She gave me a kiss her sister a glass of wine to her sister

the black labrador was barking SV (intransitive verb). No complementation The black labrador was barking clause S:NP P:VP det. mod.(adj.) head (n.) aux. head (v.) the black labrador was barking

SVOd (monotransitive) Andrew bought a sports car clause S:NP P:VP V Od:NP head (n.) head (v.) det. mod. (n..) head (n.) Andrew bought a sports car

SVOd (monotransitive) Andrew bought a sports car clause S:NP P:VP V Od:NP head (n.) head (v.) det. mod. (adj.) head (n.) Andrew bought a sports car

SVA (+ an obligatory Adverbial) The taxi is waiting outside clause S:NP P:VP V A:AdvP det. head (n.) aux. head (v.) head (adv.) The taxi is waiting outside

SVCs (copular verb) The weather has turned very nasty clause S:NP P:VP V C:AdjP det. head (n.) aux. head(v.) mod.(adv.) head(adj.) The weather has turned very nasty

Copular verbs be, feel, seem, appear, look, remain, stay, become, sound, taste e.g. I am / feel rather tired (C: AdjP) She became a nurse (C:NP) You look extremely happy (C:AdjP) Mary appeared in good health (C:PP) That is what I mean (C: clause)

SVOiOd (di-transitive) Gill told her child a bedtime story clause S:NP P:VP V Oi:NP Od:NP head(n.) head(v.) det. head(n.) det. mod.(n.) h(n.) Gill told her child a bedtime story

Di-transitive verbs Give, tell, bring, buy, show e.g. John showed me (Oi) his new car (Od) They bought him (Oi) a new racket (Od) Tell us (Oi) the truth (Od)

SVOdCo (complex transitive) The judges declared Jackie the winner clause S:NP P:VP V O:NP Co:NP det. head (n.) head (v.) head(n.) det. h(n.) The judges declared Jackie the winner

SVOdA Terry put the rubbish in the dustbin clause S:NP P:VP V O:NP A:PP head (n.) head(v.) det. h(n.) h (prep) C:NP det. h(n.) Terry put the rubbish in the dustbin

Adverbial Optional elements added to the obligatory elements of the clause Circumstance adverbial: additional information e.g. The taxi is waiting outside Stance adverbial: speaker’s feeling / attitude e.g. Hopefully I will pass all my exams in June Linking adverbial e.g. In conclusion, all’s well that ends well.

Obligatory adverbial Adverbials that are required to complete the meaning of the verb E.g. Sally put the bread on the table (obligatory Adverbial) vs. Sally cut the bread on the table (optional Adverbial) Verbs: put, last, live

Adverbials vs. complements John was very quiet (C) John was in bed (A) They are in good health (C) They are in the garden (A) You should stay sober (C) You should stay here (A) Complements describe or characterize the S (or O) Adverbials typically express place or direction.

TO SUM-UP THE CLAUSE ELEMENTS : S/V/O/C/A The baby is crying S+V+A The concert lasted three hours S+V+Od She is playing tennis S+V+Od+A She put the rubbish in the dustbin S+V+Cs She is Indian S+V+Oi+Od He gave her a kiss S+V+ Od+Co They elected her dean of the faculty

MAIN AND SUBORDINATE CLAUSES Mary had been waiting for more than an hour Suddenly, she stood up and went out She said that she was not feeling well because the air in the room was stuffy She wanted to get some fresh air a main clause always contains a finite verb and typically contains an overt subject a subordinate clause cannot stand alone and needs to be attached to a free-standing clause a non-finite clause is always subordinate simple clauses consist of a clause, compound clauses consist of two coordinate clauses, complex clauses consist of a main and one or more subordinate clauses.

TYPES of CLAUSES TYPICAL FUNCTIONS OF CLAUSE TYPES FORM FUNCTION declarative statement interrogative question imperative directive exclamative exclamation She’s wearing a new dress. Is she wearing a new dress? Buy yourself a new dress! What a lovely dress she’s wearing!

DECLARATIVE CLAUSES declarative clauses are normally used to make statements declarative clauses typically have an overt subject, a verb element and any necessary verb complementation and may also have optional adverbials Philip will visit his dentist in London today

INTERROGATIVE CLAUSES yes-no questions: Are you happy? wh- questions: Where do you live? Question-tag : She’s Australian, isn’t she? She doesn’t love him, does she? So, you have changed your mind, have you/haven’t you? the interrogative structure implies a subject-operator inversion any auxiliary which is used to make interrogative sentences is labelled operator (be, have, do) Questions tags may have contrastive or constant polarity ( p. 166)

MARKED SENTENCE STRUCTURES This book, I really liked it EMPHASIS IN SPEECH Terry plays jazz piano for fun. It is Terry who plays jazz piano for fun. It’s jazz piano that Terry plays for fun It’s for fun that Terry plays jazz piano It-CLEFT I would like a book for my birthday What I would like for my birthday is a book WH-CLEFT CLEFTING to highlight a particular element of the sentence the focussed element is introduced by a dummy Subject and followed by a relative clause

SENTENCE the largest unit of syntactic structure I agreed to go with them (main clause) although I wasn’t really happy with the idea. (subordinate clause) the largest unit of syntactic structure a sentence must consist of at least one clause (main clause) in writing, a sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop in speech sentences are not always complete

TYPES OF SUBORDINATE CLAUSES NOMINAL I just hope (that) they will understand RELATIVE The man who is sitting next to Tom is John ADVERBIAL Call me as soon as you get home (time) because I have to talk to you (reason) .The boy stood on the box so that he could see better (purpose). Even though I am tired (concession), I’ll do it. 4. COMPARATIVE This hotel is not so nice as I expected

TYPES OF RELATIVE CLAUSES IN WHAT WAYS DO THE FOLLOWING RELATIVE CLAUSES DIFFER? WHICH RELATIVE PRONOUNS CAN BE USED IN EACH CONTEXT? This is the best hotel (that, which, who, whom, whose, zero pronoun) I was able to find This hotel, (which, that, who, whose, whom, zero pronoun) was renewed last year, is one of the best in the city The man (which, that, who, whose, whom, zero pronoun) you see in the photo is my brother The man (which, that, who, whose, whom, zero pronoun) is coming towards us is my brother The music (that, which, who, whose, whom, zero article) we are listening to is Mozart We stayed in a lovely hotel, (which, that, who, whom, whose) owner is a good friend of mine We spent the night in a farm, (which, that, who, whom, whose) was very relaxing

Accepted options This is the best hotel (that, which, zero pronoun) I was able to find This hotel, which was renewed last year, is one of the best in the city The man (that, who,whom, zero pronoun) you see in the photo is my brother The man (that, who) is coming towards us is my brother The music (that, which, zero article) we are listening to is Mozart We stayed in a lovely hotel, whose owner is a good friend of mine We spent the night in a farm, which was very relaxing

RULE OF RELATIVE CLAUSES Relative clauses can be either defining ( or restrictive) or non-defining (non-restrictive) depending on whether they define the antecedent or add extra information. Commas are required for defining clauses. The use of relative pronouns is conditioned by the antecedent , whether it is human ( who,whom, whose, that) or non-human ( that, whose, which), whether it plays the role of subject (who, that, which) or object (whom, that, which, zero pronoun), whether it is defining ( who, whose, whom, that, which) or non-defining (who, whose, which). There are some fuzzy areas of usage (e.g. who/whom)

CONDITIONAL SENTENCES (periodo ipotetico) 1) If the weather is nice, tomorrow we will go to the seaside (it is an open possibility) NO * If the weather will be nice, … 2) If the weather were/was nice, we would go to the seaside ( it is unlikely) 3) If the weather had been nice, we would have gone to the seaside (it did not happen)

Activity 1: build acceptable noun phrases filling all the boxes determiner pre-modifier HEAD post-modifier MY BEST FRIEND IN TURIN THESE ELEGANT FLATS IN THE CITY CENTRE A NEW BOOK ABOUT SHAKESPEARE

ACTIVITY 2: Give a top-down scale of the main grammatical units with an example for each SENTENCE Call two taxis, please, because there are ten of us CLAUSE (main clause) Call two taxis ( subordinate clause) because there are ten of us PHRASE Noun phrase: two taxis or Verb phrase: call WORD taxis, call, two, please MORPHEME taxi (free lexical morpheme) , -s (bound grammatical morpheme)

Last night Mary showed us a very interesting documentary ACTIVITY 3: Give examples of declarative clauses containing the given verbs and having the patterns indicated 1. Show = A time S V Oi Od Last night Mary showed us a very interesting documentary 2. Make = S V Od Co You have made me very happy 3. Be /seems = S V Cs I am Italian or This seems a good idea

ACTIVITY 4: Identify the clause elements in the following examples 1. I am getting really angry I (S) am getting (V) really angry (Cs) 2. Perhaps we should invite Mary Perhaps (A) we (S) should invite (V) Mary (Od) It’s going to rain It (S)’s going to rain (V)

The woman hit the boy with the umbrella Use a tree diagram to show that this clause is ambiguous The woman (S) hit (V) the boy with the umbrella (Od) Or The woman (S) hit (V) the boy (Od) with the umbrella (A)