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Advanced Certificate in English Grammar

Contents

1.1 GRAMMAR

1.1.1 PARTS OF SPEECH

1.1.2 AUXILIARY & MODAL VERBS

1.1.3 Verbs: CLASSES & TENSES

1.1.4 Verbs: COMPLEX VERB PHRASES

1.1.5 Determiners

1.1.6 Adjectives

1.1.7 Pronouns and proforms

1.1.8 Prepositions

1.1.9 Conjunctions

2.1 .Transformational Grammar

2.1.1 Transformational Grammar

1.1 GRAMMAR

1.1.1 PARTS OF SPEECH

The traditional classes of noun, verb, adjective, preposition, conjunction and interjection on

the whole serve quite well. Adverb tends to be the net which catches whatever cannot be

assigned to the other classes. Pronouns are less satisfactory.

While it is useful to see the pattern in I - me - my - mine - myself it is clear that I and

me function like nouns (pro-nouns), while my and mine are like other possessives and

function like adjectives, one being attributive and one being predicative :

The blue book is on the table. The book on the table is blue.

My book is on the table. The book on the table is mine.

Though they are not called pro-adjectives the whole class are nowadays sometimes called

proforms.

Similarly with demonstratives, such as that:

That is my book. (pro-noun) That book is mine. (pro-adjective)

There are problems with articles. Traditionally the only articles are a, and its other form an,

and the (and also Ø, the zero article with plurals, as in: Ø Violets are blue.) But the plural of

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Give me a pencil, would seem to be Give me some pencils,

not Give me pencils.

But some was not considered an article.

These and other problems led to general agreement on having a class of words called

determiners. These include articles, possessive pronouns, demonstrative adjectives and other

words which not only go before the noun but before the adjectives modifying the noun.

These are discussed briefly in 4.4.4.

Classifications are not always satisfactory. Some adjectives seem to have a lot in common

with verbs:

I feared him. active verb

He frightened me. active verb

I was frightened by him. passive verb

I was frightened of him. participle as adjective

I was frightened. verb? or adjective?

I was afraid of him. adjective.

Yet the participles can be used attributively but the adjectives cannot:

a frightened rabbit a scared rabbit * an afraid rabbit

For teaching purposes we may prefer to treat be afraid of as a verb phrase. Similarly be fond

of: I like my rabbit. I am fond of my rabbit.

English quite readily accepts nouns used as adjectives and verbs, adjectives used as verbs and

nouns and so on. Most languages do this though not many to such an extent. Some usages

are more acceptable than others, perhaps, but there is virtually no limit to the possibilities.

There was a time when motor was not really acceptable as a verb, though it certainly is now.

Well accepted Not yet fully accepted

Adjective as noun: a putting green he's a real stupid, he is

the mentally ill a video nasty

wearing shorts

Verb as noun: make a good living get a look-in

Where are the drinks? Where are the eats?

a high turnover

Adjective as verb: I dried the clothes He jollied us up

we're blacking Iranian goods It was poorly Englished

Noun as verb: He radioed H.Q. We don't party much

They policed the area He rubbished the report

We homed in quickly

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Verb as adjective: an exciting story

a spent force

a see-through nightie

Noun as adjective: a polythene bag I'm not a wholefood

a picture book person, myself

a good party worker

English is not always consistent - see the examples above with drinks and eats. But there

nothing wrong with the principle. So if a student uses a verb as a noun in a way a native

speaker would not do, say that it is not normal rather than wrong.

A present participle of a verb used as a noun, like living above, is called a gerund in

traditional grammar books. In view of all the other possibilities, we do not see much use in

this term for the teacher. You may even see the word gerundive applying to a verb used as an

adjective.

Nouns used as adjectives are often called modifiers, as opposed to adjectives proper, though

both modify the noun. Most participles can be used as adjectives. Where straight verb forms

(not participles) are used to modify a noun they tend to be absorbed into it, often with a

hyphen:

drawbridge, kickstand, washroom, pushchair

hang-glider, pay-phone, kill-joy, stretch-mark, jump-lead.

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PARTS OF THE SENTENCE

We all know what a sentence is, at least most of the time, yet no definition is very

satisfactory. In writing it is what exists between full stops. Speech often consists of long

successions of clauses, often disjointed, with barely a discernible 'sentence'.

A clause is a group of words with a finite verb, that is, a verb displaying tense or a modal or

auxiliary verb. A clause can be co-ordinating, where it is of equal status to other parts of the

sentence; or subordinating, where it is subordinate to the main clause. Some grammars call

co-ordinating clauses 'sentences', and subordinating clauses 'embedded sentences'.

A phrase is a group of words without a finite verb.

Phrases acting as nouns are called noun phrases (NP). The noun can be premodified: ten

green bottles,

postmodified: bottles with a silver label and gold cap,

or both: those ten green bottles hanging on the wall.

Phrases acting as adverbs are called adverbial phrases or just adverbials (A):

once upon a time, since 1970 (time phrases)

at the top of the building, on the left (place phrases)

as fast as he could, with an arrow (manner phrases)

on the whole, as well as all this (sentence modifiers)

Phrases acting as verbs are called verb phrases (VP):

would have eaten (modal + auxiliary + participle)

look up to (phrasal verb)

started trying to eat (complex VP with more than one main verb)

Phrasal Verbs: These are verbs with a preposition or adverbial particle. In these examples of

the distinctions in usage, note the impossible forms.

Verb + prep: We looked after our colleague. * We looked our colleague

after.

We looked after her. * We looked her after.

(Prepositions, as the name implies, go before the noun or pronoun.)

Verb + adv pt: We looked up our colleague. We looked our colleague up.

* We looked up her. We looked her up.

(If it can go after the noun or pronoun, it cannot be a preposition. It is like an

adverb, so it is called an adverbial particle.)

Look after has a single meaning (guard, tend) not really the same as look + after. So we

consider it a phrasal verb (verb + preposition) taking an object, i.e.

looked after their colleague rather than looked after their colleague

VP NP V A

Note that a meaning of We looked up her is possible, though odd, if considered as verb +

preposition + NP. (It is often simpler to regard a pronoun as a noun phrase.)

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1.1.2 AUXILIARY & MODAL VERBS

The auxiliary verbs are be (& am, is, are, was, were, being, been),

have (& has, had),

do (& does, did).

The modal verbs are can, could, will, would, shall, should, may, might, must;

ought to, have (got) to, need, dare don't obey every criterion.

Modal and auxiliary verbs can be recognised in several ways.

1 They take n't: isn't, didn't, can't, won't, daren't, oughtn't to, mightn't, shouldn't

But: amn't is not possible; the form is ain't but this is not generally accepted.

mayn't is rare.

haven't to, hasn't to, hadn't to are rare; don't/doesn't/didn't have to are

commoner. In British English the form with got is common: hasn't got to.

2 They invert for questions.

She has passed. She will pass. He worked. = He did work.

(emphatic)

Has she passed? Will she pass? Did he work?

She daren't fail. They ought to come.

Dare she fail? Ought they to come?

But note that He could cannot give * Did he can?

3 Modal verbs do not take the 3rd person present simple tense -s morpheme.

* She cans and wills.

But can and will can be full verbs meaning put things in cans and wishes.

need and dare can be used as full verbs with the same meaning:

She needs to pass her exam. She need pass her exam.

The latter is rare except in questions, negatives and conditionals:

She doesn't need to pass. She needn't pass.

Does she need to pass? Need she pass?

4 Modals precede the infinitive form of a verb. If auxiliaries follow, the first will be

the infinitive:

can swim, might have eaten, might have been eaten, ought to be seen.

5 Modals do not occur with other modals.

* should ought to, * must have to, * will can

But need, dare and have (got) to can operate as full verbs and take a modal:

might have to, may need to, wouldn't dare to.

The latter does occur as a double modal: You wouldn't dare eat that!

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AUXILIARY VERBS

The auxiliary verbs be, have & do are used in the basic tense system (4.4.3) as functional

words with little intrinsic meaning. Be and have as in

I am to give a speech tomorrow

He has to give a speech tomorrow

can be considered as the modal verbs be to and have to, though (against criterion 3 above)

present tense forms are used. Have to can be used with other modals, especially may and

might (against criterion 5) to express possibility + obligation:

She may have to give a speech tomorrow.

Be, have and do can be full lexical verbs:

I am an actor I have 47 rabbits I can do it.

Some grammarians have considered will and shall as auxiliaries of future time. We see a

difference more of degree than of fundamental meaning between the expression of futurity

and predictability, so we have included the future use under modal verbs. As they behave

like modal verbs, it should be easier for learners too.

MODAL VERBS

The modal verbs are can, could, will, would, shall, should, may, might, must;

plus ought to, have (got) to, need, dare.

Need, dare and have to can operate as full verbs with no change of meaning:

Modal: You needn't eat it. Full: You don't need to eat it.

Dare you eat it? Do you dare (to) eat it?

Have I to eat it? Do I have to eat it?

But have got to does not occur in the full form, nor does ought to except in dialects.

Have I got to eat it? * Do I have got to eat it?

Ought I to eat it? * Do I ought to eat it?

Ought I to have eaten it? (*) Did I ought to have eaten it?

Had better can be considered a modal phrase, though the n't form is not common:

You'd better not touch it,

You hadn't better touch it,

while (*) You bettern't touch it, can sometimes be heard.

Used to can be considered modal, though the modal form

Used he to play tennis? is less common than

Did he use to play tennis? or

Did he used to play tennis. Both of these are seen in writing, though

in speech they sound the same: /dId hI ju:stu pleI tenIs/.

Be going to can be considered a modal phrase, with the be element functioning as an

auxiliary:

They are going to build their own house.

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The use of the past forms could, would, should, might generally indicates less certainty, or

makes the speaker more remote. It reduces permission to suggestion, insistence to obligation,

or predictability to possibility.

Except for have to, the past time reference is normally given by the present perfect tense, in

those cases where a past meaning is possible:

You should speak to Jim. You should have spoken to Jim.

The past tense forms always occur in reported speech when the main verb is in the past tense

and the verb within the clause also refers to the past:

'I can't swim.' He said he couldn't swim.

(He said he can't swim refers to the present: he still can't swim.)

WILL: past form WOULD

1 Futurity: unstressed, or 'll

In the present there is little difference between this use and that of predictability:

One day I will die. One day I will be Prime Minister.

There is a related future in the past:

Within five years he would be Prime Minister.

These meanings contain a sense of destiny.

2 Predicatability: unstressed, or 'll

These meanings have more a sense of deduction.

They'll be home by now.

If the action expressed by the verb is past, the perfect form is used:

They'll have reached home by now.

3 Willingness, weak volition: unstressed, or 'll

Who will come with me? Would you come too?

Would is somewhat tentative in questions.

4 Intention, intermediate volition: unstressed, or 'll

I will see you tomorrow.

5 Insistence, strong volition: stressed

She will keep contradicting me. She would keep contradicting me. (past)

Will indicates volition on the part of the subject (3 - 5); shall indicates volition on

the part of the speaker. When these are the same (with I and we) will and shall

can equally be used.

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SHALL: past form SHOULD

1 Futurity: unstressed; only with I or we as subject

We shall reap our rewards in the life to come.

2 Predictability: unstressed; only with I or we as subject

We shall be home by six o'clock.

3 Willingness, weak volition on the part of the speaker: unstressed; with 2nd and

3rd person subjects; nowadays rare

You shall have as many icecreams as you like.

4 Intention, intermediate volition on the part of the speaker: unstressed; with I or

we as subject

I shall be in touch.

5 Insistence, strong volition on the part of the speaker: stressed; rare nowadays

You shall not contradict me!

MAY: past form MIGHT

1 Permission given by the speaker

You may unfasten your seatbelt.

Not used with I or we, as one does not give oneself permission, except in

questions. Not used in the past, as permission applies only to present and future

situations, but is sometimes used in questions to add tentativeness.

May I smoke? Might I smoke?

Might can be used in reported speech:

We asked if we might smoke.

Can and could are equally acceptable in these uses.

2 Possibility

You may be right. That might be true.

Can is impossible in place of may here, except in questions. Might is more

tentative than may, while could can replace might with little change of meaning.

The past uses the perfect forms may have been, might have been.

3 Benediction and malediction: formal and rare

May you come to no harm! May you rot in hell!

No past tense; no question form.

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CAN: past form COULD

1 Permission

You can unfasten your seatbelt.

May suggests the speaker gives specific permission; can indicates more general

permission - it is allowed, rather than 'I allow you to'.

2 Willingness

Can you read this to me?

Can is replaceable here by will but not may.

3 Ability

I can read Chinese.

Can is replaceable by a form of be able to.

4 Sensation

I can hear a cuckoo.

Can can be omitted without change of meaning.

5 Possibility

Chipped cups can harbour germs.

Can is usually replaceable by may here.

6 Characteristic

Kids can be difficult at that age.

MUST

1 Obligation or compulsion imposed by the speaker

You must finish this before you go.

I must finish this before I go.

The speaker imposes the obligation: if have to is used, the obligation is likely to come from

outside. There is no past form. Must cannot be used in

I had to finish it before I left.

The negative of must is needn't. Mustn't does not just negate must, it expresses

a positive denial or opposition. Need is used in questions, equally with must.

Must/Need I do it now? Yes, you must. / No, you needn't; you can ....

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2 Factual necessity

That must be where the old doorway was.

This implies there are no plausible alternatives. The negative is needn't; the

opposite is can't. The past is must have.

The rabbit must have eaten it.

OUGHT TO

1 Obligation by the speaker

He ought to go by train.

This is less dogmatic than must; it can be replaced by should (meaning 3, weak

volition reduced to obligation). The past is ought to have.

2 Logical necessity

That ought to be the No 7, as the 16 bus has just gone.

Again, not as strong as must; it can be replaced by should (meaning 2,

predictability reduced to deduction). The past is ought to have.

HAVE (GOT) TO

Have got to is common in British English, but have to is used in American English.

The past is had to, or less commonly had got to. The got form is not used in other

uses, such as

You will have to see the doctor,

I like having to cook all the meals.

1 Obligation or compulsion

You have to take four tablets a day.

2 Theoretical necessity

That just has to be a misprint.

Just as have to suggests more general obligation than must, it here suggests

more general deduction: must carries a little more the meaning 'my interpretation

is ....'

HAD BETTER

1 Obligation

You'd better finish it by lunchtime.

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Similar to ought to but stronger. It is present in meaning though past in form.

There is also a 'past in the future' meaning:

You'd better have finished it by lunchtime.

1.1.3 Verbs: CLASSES & TENSES

There are a number of ways of classifying verbs. We shall mention a few which are relevant

to teaching.

Many verbs can be both INTRANSITIVE (with no object) and

TRANSITIVE (with an object):

He ate slowly. He ate his dinner slowly.

A few are always intransitive: disappear, lie,, emigrate

Some are normally intransitive but may be transitive:

He ran a race. He ran an errand.

He ran a mile. (but a mile possibly adverbial?)

Some may be causative when transitive (see below):

She walked the dog.

A few are always transitive: discover, contain

Some are normally transitive but have an intransitive use:

She wouldn’t tell. The vaccine took.

A few are reflexive instead of intransitive: enjoy____self

Some verbs are CAUSATIVE when used transitively.

The paper burned. I burned the paper. (= caused the paper to burn)

The door closed. I closed the door. (= caused the door to close)

Other causative verbs are drop. change, shine, weigh, hang, stretch, bend, shake, tear,

spill, move, stop, open, shut, empty, fill, improve. Different verbs in a causative relation

are rise-raise, fall-drop, eat-feed, teach-learn.

The passive is similar in meaning to the active, suggesting only an agent, who may or may

not be expressed.

The paper was burned. The paper burned.

The door was opened. The door opened.

In some languages, such as Russian or Hindi, there is a grammatical way of expressing

causation.

Verbs may be STATIVE or DYNAMIC. Stative verbs do not take continuous tenses. Most

verbs are dynamic and many stative

verbs can be dynamic on occasions.

Dynamic: activity: tell, eat, read, drive, work etc.

continuous suggests continued activity.

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process: grow, change, improve, soften etc.

continuous suggests process incomplete.

sensation: feel, hunt and a few others,simple & continuous

have little difference in meaning.

transitional event: fall, arrive, leave, shut, die etc.

continuous suggests the start of the

transition.

momentary: hit, kick, slam, jump etc.

continuous suggests repeated action.

Stative: perception & cognition: like, love, hate, prefer, know, think, believe,

understand, remember, realise etc. Some of these,

like think, can be used in continuous tenses

to suggest current activity.

relation: be, belong, own, cost, deserve, contain, seem, include,

matter etc.

these rarely occur in the continuous.

It is generally accepted that there is no real future tense in English, though the will, shall and

going to forms are often referred to as future tenses.

Will and shall are modal verbs with the meanings besides futurity outlines in 4.4.2. Am/ is/

are going to are present tense in form, but future in meaning. The past form was/ were going

to is a future in the past, but only of intention.

They were going to take the next flight to New York

does not necessarily mean that they ever flew.

The future can also be expressed by:

present simple: We leave for London tomorrow;

present continuous: We are leaving for London tomorrow;

present simple of be + to: We are to leave for London tomorrow;

Note that We were leaving/We were to leave with a future adverbial implies that the plan has

changed and the action will not take place. Most of the modal verbs can refer to the future:

We can/could/may/might/must/should/would/have to/ought to/needn’t/daren’t

leave tomorrow.

Even the past simple, in subordinate clause, can refer to the future:

It’s time you improved you spelling.

If you left, I don’t know what I should do.

There is no reason to consider will, shall or going to as a more natural or neutral future tense.

In a sense, the present simple is the most neutral in that it is less influenced by the attitude of

the speaker or the participant - in Leech’s terms, the most certain. But in order of importance,

he place it no.5:

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1. will/shall,

2. be going to,

3. present continuous,

4. will/shall + continuous,

5. present simple

USES OF TENSES

SIMPLE PRESENT

1 Unrestrictive use: with stative verbs (see 4.4.4)

Generally the time reference extends indefinitely into the

past and future, but the extent can be limited by adverbials

such as nowadays. It includes the ‘eternal truths’ use.

Ten minus seven leaves three.

Mount Everest rises to a height of 29,028 feet.

People are so selfish these days.

2 Instantaneous use: with dynamic verbs

Used especially in commentaries and travelogues.

Norman gently nudges the ball - and misses the putt!

Here comes the bus at last.

Also performatives - the uttering actually performs the

action. They only occur with a first person subject.

I challenge you to a duel.

I don’t accept your apology.

I sentence you to 25 years’ hard labour.

3 Habitual use: with dynamic verbs

The use suggests a repeated event; after when or if it happens every time it

is done.

I drink a lot of milk.

He swims every morning.

If you touch it, the leaf retracts.

4 Future

We celebrate Divali next week.

5 Historic present: with verbs of communication

I hear you passed your driving test.

Past simple and present perfect can be used> The sequence I heard - I’ve heard

- I hear brings the effect of the verb more into the present.

This use occurs with actions that clearly took place in the past.

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Here Homer writes with an almost 20th century touch.

6 Narrative present

So she looks me straight in the eye and says ...

Comparatively rare in careful speech, it is sometimes used in literature

for heightening the dramatic effect. It is also frequently used in

elementary EFL readers - and in children’s stories such as Rupert Bear -

where the use is quite unnatural.

The thief hears the fat man. He opens his eyes and sees Tom on the boat.

(LSR, stage 1, ‘Green Island’)

7 Directions

You take the second road on the right, go over the bridge ...

First I fry the onions until golden, and then I add the spices ...

SIMPLE PAST

1 Past time reference

Refers to a happening at a definite time in the past, which may or may

not be expressed.

I worked in Poland for five years ( in the late 50s)

I bought an iron (yesterday)

It can be used with stative verbs, but the meaning becomes dynamic.

Memphis lay on the Nile.

The simple past is the narrative tense and so is used even if the story

is set in the future.

2 Habitual past

I drank a lot in those days.

This can be replaced by the used to past.

3 Hypothetical: used in subordinate clauses

If you won $1,000,000, what would you do with it?

I wish you were more sensible.

4 Present use

As with modal verbs, the past makes a request more tentative and so more

polite.

I wondered if you could translate this for me.

CONTINUOUS TENSES

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The continuous tenses provide a certain aspect or point of view to the activity denoted by the

verb. The feature is called the continuous in progressive aspect.

1 Temporariness

Continuous tenses indicate a limited duration, and often

suggest an activity is not complete.

What’s Joe doing? He’s catching snails.

The temporary nature is seen in the contrast of the present tense.

I work as an office cleaner. (habitual, a permanent job)

I am working as an office cleaner. (a temporary job)

The incomplete aspect is seen better in the past:

She painted the living room.

She was painting the living room. (Did she finish it?)

2 Habitual use a) over a period of time

I’m attending the pre-natal clinic. (Not at this moment, but from time to time)

b) at particular times

Whenever I see him he’s carrying an umbrella.

The present simple suggests he carries it as a result of seeing me:

Whenever I see him he carries an umbrella.

3 Anticipation or future plan

We’re having a goose for Christmas.

Some contrasts with the simple tenses

Momentary verbs: She’s hitting him round the head.

Implies repeated action where the simple implies habit.

Transitional event verbs: The train was leaving.

Implies incompleteness in contrast to the simple tense implying

completeness.

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Process verbs: Sales are increasing.

The present simple tense is rare except when modified by if or when

clauses, or adverbials implying condition:

Sales increase during wet weather/whenever it rains.

PERFECT TENSES

The perfect tenses also provide an aspect. The present perfect is a past tense with some

relevance to the present:

a) it may extend in time to the present,

b) some effect may be felt in the present.

The past perfect has relevance to a point in the past: up to then instead of up to now. But it

can refer to a specific time in the past, as the present perfect cannot. It acts as a past in the

past tense.

The two senses of the past perfect can be seen in

He had telephoned the police at 5 p.m. but they had still not arrived.

The first past perfect is past in the past, the other is perfect in the past. If brought up to the

point of view of the present, one verb will be past tense, the other present perfect:

He telephoned the police at 5 p.m. but they have still not arrived.

Here are the main uses of the present tense.

1 Time extending to the present: with stative verbs

I’ve had this job for six months. (I have it now) Contrast

I had that job for six months. (I no longer have it)

Usually occurs with an adverbial expressing duration.

2 Indefinite past: dynamic verbs

Have you ever eaten snails?

I have never seen a sea eagle. Contrast

Did you see a sea eagle? (on a particular trip)

I didn’t eat snails. (on that occasion)

The reference in the present perfect is to a happening at an

indefinite time before the present.

3 Habitual use: dynamic verbs

A series of repeated events performed up to the present.

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I have always cooked the breakfast. (and still do) Contrast

I always cooked the breakfast. (when Harry was alive)

4 Resultative use: dynamic verbs

The effect of a past event is still felt.

I have eaten a worm! (and am still afraid of the effect)

She has lost her passport. (and is still without it)

I’ve hit my thumb with a hammer (it still hurts) Contrast

I ate a worm! (but came to no harm)

She lost her passport. (but found it/replaced it etc.)

I hit my thumb with a hammer. (it’s OK now)

Note: Present perfect is not normally used with adverbials

expressing a point of time.

I have seen her - last Tuesday, I think.

This might be heard in speech, but has I saw her omitted.

The present perfect is used particularly with

ever

adverbs of frequency: always ... often ... rarely ... never ...

just, already, yet

American English often uses the past tense for the present

perfect.

1.1.4 Verbs: COMPLEX VERB PHRASES

In complex verb phrases lexical verbs can be followed by other verbs in 4 ways.

1 V + V 2 V + to + V 3 V + V -ing 4 V + V-en

With verbs used intransitively:

1 help; and let in fixed phrases like let go, let fly; also make do.

help also takes construction 2.

We helped (to) push the car.

2 Future reference: agree, want, decide, expect, hope, offer, promise ...

Manner: happen, seem, appear, tend, proceed, omit ...

Effort: attempt, manage, fail, strive, learn ...

We decided to turn back. They happened to strike lucky.

3 keep, finish, risk, avoid, practise, miss, consider, enjoy, deny ...

He risked losing everything. I don’t mind hearing some more.

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2 & 3 Some have little difference in meaning: like, hate, prefer, intend,

propose, can’t bear, begin, start, continue ...

We started to move. We started moving.

Some have great differences: remember, forget, regret, stop, try

I remembered to meet Jones. I remembered meeting Jones.

We stopped to look at the sea. We stopped looking at the sea.

need has a different voice:

The chair needs to be mended. The chair needs mending.

4 get: She got bitten. The car got stolen.

If a noun phrase intervenes, there are many more possibilities

1 I saw her launch the ship. 2 I told her to launch the ship.

3 I saw her launching the ship. 4 I saw the ship launched.

If 1 has the first verb in the passive, it take construction 2.

I helped him push the car. He was helped to push the car.

I saw her launch the ship. She was seen to launch the ship.

If 1 has the second verb in the passive, it becomes 4.

If 3 has the second verb in the passive, it becomes

I saw the ship being launched.

Some verbs in 2 can take the second verb in the passive (as 4)

I wanted her to launch the ship. I wanted the ship launched.

I got her to launch the ship. I got the ship launched.

But I asked her to launch the ship. * I asked the ship launched.

I asked the ship to be launched.

4.4.5 Nouns

Nouns of unique reference are PROPER nouns:

Beethoven, Vienna, Friday, Harrods, Jim, Newsweek, Hitachi

Other nouns can be used uniquely:

Uncle, Government and vocatives: Colonel, Headmaster.

Other nouns are COUNT (Countable or Unit) and can be singular

or plural;

or MASS (or Uncountable) and take a singular

verb.

Many abstract nouns are mass: honesty, strength, information;

but some are count nouns; remark, idea, attitude.

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Students may be confused by mass nouns which can actually be counted: furniture; most

students can accept that rice is not worth counting.

Many nouns can be both count and mass, indicating a substance and an item of the substance:

a cake - some cake: chocolate, icecream, fish, lamb, hair.

Note: Would you like some fish? may mean Would you like a portion of fish? or

Would you like some of these fishes (in this tank)?

That is, it may be uncountable, or a zero plural.

Many meats have separate names from the animal, a point many

students find tricky: calf - veal.

In other nouns the distinction may be between a particular item or quality and a general:

light, paper, talk, experience, spirit,

A mass noun may be used as a count noun, meaning types of.

They sell so many coffees there.

Mass nouns can generally be made countable with

partitives: an amount, a lot, a great deal ... of (useful with

a piece, a bit, an item ... of abstract nouns)

a slice, a loaf, a bar ... of

containers: a cup, a bottle, a bucket ... of

measures: a pound, a litre, a metre ... of

Sometimes the partitive or container is omitted, but this is not yet fully accepted in formal

writing:

Three black coffees please

COLLECTIVE nouns can take a singular or plural verb:

staff, army, audience, orchestra, public, government.

This usually depends on whether it is imagined as a unit, or they are thought of as a collection

of individuals.

The team was selected purely on merit.

The team was paid according to length of service.

The pronouns it or they are used accordingly.

Police is always plural, as are a few other words like vermin, cattle. People is plural when

meaning persons, but has a plural peoples when meaning races. In the latter meaning it is

rarely used singularly.

There are other classifications of nouns, though with fewer applications for teaching. For

example, nouns may be EVENT or NON-EVENT.

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Event nouns occur across a copulative verb from a time adverbial. We can ask, When is the

_____?

The race was at 2.30.

* The carpet was at 2.30.

Nouns may be DIVISIBLE or INDIVISIBLE. Most nouns are indivisible and require

agreement across a copulative verb,

singular - singular or plural - plural.

Sparrows are annoying birds. (all plural)

The Duke of Wellington was a national hero. (all singular)

Divisible nouns do not require number agreement.

Sparrows were a menace in the Old Crystal Palace. (pl - sing)

The Duke of Wellington’s suggestion was sparrowhawks. (sing - pl)

Some classes are well known, such as CONCRETE and ABSTRACT. Only abstract nouns

can occur across a copulative verb from a nominalized clause or phrase.

Making music is a good activity.

* Making music is a violin.

Others are more obvious, such as HUMAN and NON-HUMAN. Human nouns are replaced

by the relative pronouns who, whom and whose. Nouns can also be classed by gender.

J.C.Catford suggested a 7 gender system for English:

he/who postman, king

she/who maid, queen

he/she/who person, teacher, doctor

it/which cabbage, bottle, beetle

it/he/which bull, stallion, drake

it/she/which cow, mare, hen, car, ship

It/he/she/which Baby, child, cat, dog, duck

1.1.5 Determiners

Words such as some, any, this, those are not articles, yet are more like articles than

adjectives. Nowadays these are usually called determiners. A determiner is always followed

by a noun, and precedes adjectives. Some, like some and each, can occur alone as pronouns.

Determines include

identifiers: articles: a, an, the

possessive pronouns: my, her, our ...

demonstratives: this, that, these, those

interrogatives: which, whose, what

quantifiers: quantitives: some, any, few, much, each, neither, all...

numerals: fifty, two hundred and seven ...

Quantifiers can take of, so that they are then technically pronouns:

Some of the books were missing. (/s m/)

c.f. Some books were missing. (‘/s m/) quantifier

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Some books were missing. (/s m/) “ akin to article

Some were missing (/s m/) pronoun

This is seen clearly with no, which has the pronoun form none:

None of the books were missing.

None were missing.

No books were missing.

Some people insist that the verb should be singular:

None of the books was missing. (as none = not one)

The plural verb is more commonly heard, which suggests that most English speakers perceive

none of as a DETERMINER PHRASE. We suggest that for teaching purposes the forms with

of can be treated as determiner phrases rather than as pronouns. (Determiner phrases are not

recognized in most grammars.)

The following pairs of phrases are virtually equivalent in meaning:

We heard much information/ We heard a lot of information.

I ate many peanuts/ I ate a lot of peanuts.

So we might wish to consider partitives as determiner phrases too. They certainly quantify

the noun in the same way:

a good deal of, a jug of, a kilo of ..

Note that the quantifier can precede an identifier, joined by of, but before a pronoun the of

form is obligatory:

All of the cheese has been eaten.

All of it has been eaten.

All the cheese has been eaten.

* All it has been eaten.

Multipliers and fractions can also be regarded as determiners phrases, though normally

considered adjectives and nouns: double, twice, three times ...; a third, three quarters ...

of ...

We will take hat as a typical count noun and wool as a typical mass noun. The determiners

which each can take are as follows.

SINGULAR PLURAL MASS

the

my, our, his ...

whose, which, what

some, any, no(ne) (of) hat hats wool

all, half, (of)

a third of, three quarters of ...

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(zero article)

some, any (of) hats wool

enough (of)

this, that hat wool

these, those

many, (a) few, several (of)

both, two, three ... (of) hats

each of, either of, neither of

a(n)

one

each, every, either, neither hat

much of, a little of

much, (a) little (of) wool

The use determiners with count and mass nouns accounts for most of the problems learners

have with English noun phrases.

1.1.6 Adjectives

Adjectives occur in two positions:

before a noun - attributive: a blue coat

without a noun - predicative: the coat is blue

In the predicative position they occur after copulative verbs, mainly be, seem, look, appear,

sound, taste, smell, feel.

That looks marvellous.

That sounds reasonable.

Also after verbs indicating change: become, get, go, turn, fall.

The milk has gone bad.

Some adjectives only occur predicatively: ill, well, asleep, awake, afraid, alive. Some have

attributive counterparts:

sleeping, live (/laiv/).

Some adjectives only occur attributively: old (= longstanding, as in an old friend);

emphasizers such as utter, outright, and real, perfect, complete as in a perfect fool; former,

latter, late (= dead); and some derived from nouns in certain meanings: medical school, civil

law.

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Some adjectives may be better taught as verb phrases: be fond of, be afraid of, be aware of.

Adjectives may be polar or non-polar. Most adjectives are non-polar or gradable, and can be

qualified by very, rather, quite etc. Polar adjectives include such as dead - alive, masculine -

feminine, British, wooden, sulphuric. There is no gradation: a person is either British or not,

an acid is either sulphuric or not, and not alive = dead, not male = female etc., whereas not

big does not necessarily = little.

Adjectives may be stative or dynamic. Most adjectives are stative but many can be dynamic

with rather different implications:

She is generous. (stative) She is being generous (dynamic)

Stative adjectives cannot occur with continuous tenses, or with the imperative:

* He is being old. * Be hungry.

The order of adjectives is given below:-

A real beautiful long old red woollen

Kashmir scarf

Determiner: A

Intensifier: real

Subjectively measurable quality: beautiful

Objectively measurable quality,size,shape etc: long

Age: old

Colour: red

Material: woollen

Source/style: Kashmir

1.1.7 Pronouns and proforms

We have mentioned that the pronoun is not totally satisfactory as a word class. Possessive

pronouns like mine, ours are the predicative equivalent of the possessive adjectives my,

our, which are themselves considered determiners.

It was our fault. The fault was ours.

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We have suggested that some pronouns be considered determiner phrases.

Neither of them behave(s) properly.

The indefinite pronouns.

no one anyone someone everyone

nobody anybody somebody everybody

nothing anything something everything

are similar to the indefinite adverbs,

nowhere anywhere somewhere everywhere

(never) anytime sometime (always)

nohow (?) anyhow somehow

True pronouns stand in place of a noun, as one does in

We bought a new car but kept the old one.

We can consider other pronouns too.

Pro-adverbs: place: My cousin is in Canada, and his wife is there, too.

time: We left at 7.30, and Henry left then, too.

manner: Tom drove fast, Henry less so.

Tom drove fast, Richard likewise.

Pro-adjective: Tom is stupid, and so is Richard.

Pro-verb: We left at 7.30 and so did Henry.

Even pro-sentences: Yes.

No.

Why not?

Certainly not.

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1.1.8 Prepositions

Prepositions express relationships in space and time mainly, but also of instrument, cause,

possession etc.

Space: almost all may relate to movement, and some to position; they may be in relation to

a point: to, from, away from, towards, back to, at, near, by, past,

beyond, as far as, over, under, above, below, underneath,

beneath, with, in front of, behind, beside, next to,

opposite, (a)round; between (two points), among (several)

a surface: on, onto, off, along, across, up, down, against

a space: in, into, out of, inside, outside, through

For a good scheme of symbols illustrating the prepositions, see Close, Reference Grammar,

pp166-170: e.g.

past outside (of)

Many prepositions have related adverbs.

Stay away from the railway line. Stay away.

She walked past the post office. She walked past without looking.

Time: these may relate to a point or a period.

Unit Day Month Year Date Event: -time:

of meal bedtime

time festival teatime

the race etc.

etc.

Point: at

on

past

before, after, by

until, till, since

around, about

2 points: from-to, between-and

Period: in

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within

during, through(out)

over

for

Other prepositions include:

about, on, as to, concerning, considering, for, over, against, according

to, due to, owing to, up to, regardless of, with regard to, as for, in

accordance with, despite, in spite of, apart from, except (for), but(for)

besides, as well as, out of(=lacking), with, without, from, through,

because of, by means of, in view of, as, than, like, unlike, rather than

1.1.9 Conjunctions

The traditional classification of conjuctions contains

coordinating: and, but, or, either - on, neither - nor ... and

subordinating: because, so, before, after, although, since, until, that, when, where,

why, how ...

Coordinators can join nouns, adjectives and adverbs as well as phrases and clauses: slowly

but surely, a green or blue speckled tie.

If verbs are joined it is the same as joining two clauses with subject ellipsis (omission of the

subject):

She sat down and wrote a letter.

Notice that and sometimes implies a time sequence:

She wrote a letter and sat down, is different in meaning.

But I have driven aeroplane and driven racing cars, means the same as

I have driven racing cars and flown a aeroplane.

But and or are also sequential.

But has a counterpart in although, which allows the clauses to change places:

We left early but still missed the train.

* But we still missed the train, we left early.

Although we left early, we still missed the train.

We still missed the train, although we left early.

Notice that ellipsis of the subject is not possible with subordinators like although.

Many subordinators are related to prepositions:

We waited until 3 o’clock. We waited until he left.

We’ll eat after dusk. We’ll eat after they’re all gone.

He cried because of the pain. He cried because his big toe hurt.

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many adverbs, sometimes called conjuncts, perform the function of joining sentences

together. They are clearly related notionally to conjunctions, and both are sometimes referred

to as conjuntives. There are at least 4 types.

Additive: and, or, nor, besides, in addition, furthermore, by the way, for instance, in

other words, similarly, on the other hand ...

Adversative: but, yet, although, only, however, nevertheless, instead, on the contrary,

at least, either way, anyhow ...

Causal: so, because, therefore, as, since, consequently, hence, in that case, as

a result, under the circumstances ...

Temporal: before, after, since, until, when, while, then, next, first, finally, at last,

meanwhile, previously, in the end ...

Learning the relationships implied by these joining words constitutes much of the learning

required by advanced students.

A note on CONDITIONALS

There are three types of conditionals, real, unreal and impossible

Real conditions have normal time reference implied by the tense.

Unreal conditions have past tense in the if clause.

Impossible conditions have past tense in the if clause.

Real conditions may have the same tense in both clauses:

If you work hard you achieve success.

If you like you can go now.

If you liked you could go now. (more tentative and polite)

If he’s finished it, he’s done very well.

But will does not occur after if:

If he’s finished it, it is a miracle.

If he’s failed, Big Jim will murder him.

(He knew that) if he failed, Big Jim would murder him.

The last sentence is narrative past tense of the real condition

If he fails, Big Jim will murder him.

It has the same form as the unreal condition below.

Unreal, or a better term would be unlikely, conditions:

If he failed, Big Jim would murder him.

The narrative past tense relates the event from the point of view of the past. The unreal

conditional past tense relates the event from the point of view of the present: our hero has not

failed yet, indeed he has not attempted yet, and he is not expected to fail.

Impossible conditions:

If he had failed, Big Jim would have murdered him.

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The statement expressed in the if clause is untrue: our hero did not fail. A better term might

be false or imaginary conditional.

Further examples of the three types

If I win a fortune, I’ll spend it on fast cars.

If I won a fortune, I’d spend it on fast cars.

If I’d won a fortune, I’d have spent it on fast cars.

2.1 .Grammar

2.1.1 Transformational Grammar

We do not intend to go into the relative merits of different linguistic theories. We would just

like to point out one insight which may be due to Transformational Generative grammar. This

is that the observable structure of a sentence, the surface structure, is not a guide to the

underlying meaning.

Chomsky’s famous example was

1 John is easy to please;

2 John is eager to please.

Both have the same surface structure: N + be + Adj + to + V.

But that the meaning is fundamentally different (apart from the lexical difference easy/eager )

can be seen from the transformations which are possible:

It is easy to please John.

* It is eager to please John.

Somewhere are the underlying meanings.

John is eager

Something (but not John) is easy.

In sentence 1 above, John appears to be the subject of the sentence, but ‘really’ or

‘fundamentally’ or ‘deep down’ it is the object of please. TG represents these meanings in the

deep structure and uses transformations to arrive at the surface structure, the sentence we

speak.

It is not clear that there are any implications for teaching except that we should beware of the

relations we draw between structure and meaning. It is not much help for example to say that

the subject of a sentence ‘performs the action of the verb’ or ‘does the doing’. It possibly

implies strategies for encouraging comprehension, e.g. in questions:

Who is eager? compared to What is easy?

Sentence complexity

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Teachers need to judge the complexity of language, of their own speech and of teaching

materials. This is so that they can give students language at the right level. We do not think it

is necessary for the teacher to be able to make a rigorous grammatical analysis of a sentence.

We suggest here an approach for analyzing sentence complexity.

The three main things to look for are

1 The number and length of adverbials;

2 The number and type of embedded sentences;

3 The verb phrase.

The verb phrase means basically the difficulty of the tense, because in complex verb phrases

we shall consider second and further verbs to be embedded sentences. Indeed embedded

sentences are recognized by the presence of a main verb; a finite verb indicates a clause, a

non-finite verb, a phrase.

EXAMPLE

Alice waited a little, half expecting to see it again, but it did not

appear, and after a minute or two she walked on in the direction in

which the March Hare was said to live.

It is possible to analyze the sentence in various ways to highlight the complexity. Here is one

way:

Alice waited a little ING[ Alice half expected TO(Alice saw it

again)] + but it did not appear + and after a minute or two she

walked on in the direction PASS[ people said THAT TO( the

March Hare lived in that direction)]

+ indicates coordination; [], () subordination.

CAPITAL LETTERS indicate how the verb is transformed:

passive, infinitive with to, the -ing form etc.

We can see that the Alice passage has three main sentences (shown by +) two with doubly

embedded sentences (shown by ( ) within [ ]. One embedded sentence is transformed into an -

ing structure, and itself has an embedded infinitive with to; the other is transformed into the

passive where a construction which normally takes that is changed to an infinitive with to. A

highly complex sentence. Overleaf we give an alternative tree analysis.

Note:

This kind of tree diagram with its indications of transformations of structure looks

superficially like the way Transformational Generative grammar analyzes the structure of a

sentence to find the deep structure, a representation of the underlying meaning. There are

often many similarities, but this analysis is not the same as TG. It is only applied to the

surface structure to unravel the complexity of a sentence and is for pedagogical purposes

only.

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Alice waited a little

N V A

S intr

Alice half expected SOMETHING : -ing

N A V N DELETE SUBJECT

S tr o

Alice saw the Cheshire Cat again :INFINITIVE

N V N A DELETE SUBJECT

PRONOUN FOR

object (refer to

previous sentence)

+ but the cat appeared :NEGATIVE

N V pronoun for subject

S intr (refer to previous sentence)

+ and after a minute or two Alice walked on in a direction

A N V A A

:DEFINITE ARTICLE

(cataphoric reference –

to the following embedded sentence)

People say SOMETHING :PASSIVE

N V N DELETE SUBJECT

S tr o & replace by subject of

embedded sentence

The March Hare lived in that direction

N V A

S int

:WH

INDEFINITE

DELETE ADVERBIAL

(refer to adverbial in head sentence)

N = Noun phrase subject

S

N = Noun phrase object

O

V = intransitive verb

Intr

V = transitive verb

Tr

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A = adverbial

+ ____ = coordinating conjunction

: = transformations applied to the verb and other parts of the sentence

One advantage of the tree diagram is that it shows clearly the number of adverbials and how

far embedded they are. Notice that sentences can be embedded below verbs, nouns,

adverbials, or indeed adjectives.

In the simplest kind of analysis sentences can be reduced to

N V (N ) i.e. N V or N V N

s o s intr s tr o

or to

N V (c) V = copulative verb ( be, seem, look,

s cop cop sound,

smell etc.)

C = complement - a noun or adjective

Adverbials may be sprinkled almost anywhere. The brackets indicate the item is optional.

Sentences with indirect objects can be considered a second sentence type

N V N N or a transformation of

s 2tr o2 o,

He gave the dog a bone

He gave a bone to the dog; i.e. N V N A

s tr o

There have been several analyzes of the sentence patterns of English Sentences, Harcourt

Brace, 1962, has 10; Gleason in Linguistics in English Grammar, Holt etc, 1965, has 16;

Hornby in A Guide to Patterns and Usage in English, OUP, 1954, has 25. These last can be

found revised in The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. One of the simplest

analyses which may be more useful to the language learner has been developed by Peter Hill

and others at the Institute of Education at London University. (Our tree diagrams on the

previous page also closely follows their model.) Hill has 7 patterns.

1 N V Monkeys howl.

s intr

2 N V N Monkeys like bananas.

s tr o

3 N V N to/for N Monkeys give bananas to their young.

s io o io

N V N N Monkeys give their young bananas.

s io io o

4 N V N prep N The monkey mistook his tail for a banana.

s 2tr o o

5 N V N Monkeys are a problem.

s cop comp

6 N V Adj Monkeys seem intelligent.

s cop comp

7 N be A The monkeys were all over the place.

s comp

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In teaching, if a sentence proves too complex for the students to understand, the teacher can

reduce it by these techniques to known patterns and then rebuild it with the students able to

understand each stage. Obviously the techniques are not shown to the students, the teacher

keeps them in his head.

ESSAYS AND WORK TO BE SUBMITTED

1) What is the place of grammar in language teaching?

How necessary is it for a teacher of English as a Foreign

Language to have a knowledge of English grammar? How necessary

is it for the teacher to have a knowledge of the grammar of

the students’ language or languages?

2) How many embedded sentences are there in the following

sentences? If you can, analyze them by means of a tree diagram or any other way.

Comment on the overall complexity

i) Alice was just beginning to think to herself, ‘Now, what

am I to do with this creature when I get it home?’ when

it grunted again, so violently, that she looked down into

its face in some alarm.

ii) This time there could be no mistake about it: it was

neither more nor less than a pig, and she felt that it

would be quite absurd for her to carry it any farther.

3) Are there any differences between the italicized words?

You have made absolutely no progress.

If you want to progress, you’ll have to work harder.