memi usmeni

Verb classes

Verb classes

intransitive, transitive, copular

intransitive verbs

verbs that don’t need to be followed by an obligatory element; they can stand on their own

transitive verbs, types of transitive verbs

• verbs that must be followed by an obligatory element, such as an object, object complement and adverbial

• monotransitive (subject-verb-object),

• ditransitive (subject-verb-object-object),

• complex transitive (subject-verb-object-complement/adverbial)

copular verbs

verbs followed by a subject complement or an adverbial

directives

primarily used to instruct somebody to do something, typically take the form of an imperative sentence, generally have no subject and the verbs is in its base form

directives without a subject

• they can include objects and complements

• the passives with be usually occur in negative directives where they generally have the meaning “Don’t allow yourself to be…“

directives with a subject

• the subject is usually the second person you, and is usually omitted; when it’s included, it’s usually demonstrated by the occurrence of you as a subject of a following tag question (Be quiet, will you?), by the occurrence of yourself/selves as the reflexive (Be yourself) and by the occurrence of the empathetic possessive your own (Use your own comb.)

• sometimes a stressed you can be added as a free variation or as an emphasis in the form of a warning or reprimand

recoverability in ellipsis and pro-forms, the three types of recoverability

• in order for ellipsis and pro-forms to be understood and interpreted correctly, the full form must be recoverable

• textual (from a neighboring part of the text), situational (from the extra-linguistic situation) and structural (from the knowledge of grammatical structure)

syntactic types, explain them

• declaratives (sentences in which it is normal for the subject to be present and to precede the verb; usually statements)

• interrogatives (sentences which are formally marked in one of two ways: yes-no interrogatives, when an operator is placed in front of the subject, and wh-interrogatives, when an interrogative wh-element is positioned initially and there is generally a subject-operator inversion)

• imperatives (sentences which normally have no overt grammatical subject and whose verb has the base form)

• exclamatives (sentences which have an initial phrase introduced by a what or how, usually with subject-verb order)

four major classes of discourse function, explain them

• statements (used to convey information)

• question (used to seek information on a specific point)

• directives (used to tell somebody to do something)

• exclamations (used for expressing the extent to which the speaker is impressed by something)

grammatical concord

• subjects and verbs must agree with one another in number: if a subject is singular, so is the verb, and if the subject is plural, so is the verb —> singular subject requires a singular verb (same for plural)

• number of a noun phrase depends on the number of its head word

• clause, adverbs and prepositional phrases functioning as subject count as singular

• nominal relative clauses may have a plural or a singular concord

notional concord

agreement according to the idea of number rather than the presence of grammatical marker - The government have broken all their promises

principle of proximity

denotes agreement of the verb with a noun or pronoun that closely precedes it in preference to with the head of the noun phrase - One in ten take drugs

collective nouns and concord

• they are treated as notionally plural if the group is considered as a collection of individuals (The audience were enjoying the show)

• if the group is being treated as a single undivided body it is considered a singular (The audience was enormous)

exclamatives

• restricted to types of exclamatory utterances introduced by what or how; what as a predeterminer in a noun phrase, how as an intensifier of an adjective or adverb, or as a degree adverbial

• interrogative in structure, but it has a rising tone at the end

pro-forms

• word or phrase that can take place of another word (or word group) in a sentence

• most common pro-forms in English are pronouns, but other words can serve as pro-forms as well (here, there, so, not, do)

proformation

process of substituting pro-forms for other words

antecedent

a word or word group that’s referred to by the pro-form

examples of pro-forms

Is Connie still trying to light the stove? She should’ve done it by now.

They planned to reach the top of the mountain, but nobody knows if they did (so).

explain the segregatory meaning of

• there are certain markers in English that explicitly indicate that the coordination is segregatory, avoiding possible ambiguity

• e.g. “John and Mary won a prize.” is ambiguous, so adverbs like each or both makes the sentence less ambiguous: “John and Mary each won a prize.“ “Both John and Mary won a prize.“

• the adverbs indicates which elements go with which of the parallel sets of conjoint phrases

  • e.g. John, Peter and Robert play football, basketball and baseball respectively.

correlatives

• a word that is paired with another word with which it performs a single function, but it is separated from it in the sentence

• examples: either-or; both-and; neither-nor

either-or

• emphasizes the exclusive meaning of or, e.g. You may either sit down or stand up —> exclusionary

• is equivalent to neither-nor when within the scope of negation, e.g. saying “He hasn’t met either her mother or her father“ is equivalent to saying “He has met neither her mother nor her father“

both-and

• emphasizes the additive meaning of and, e.g. Both Mary and Peter washed the dishes

• it also singles out the segregatory meaning of and, e.g. Both David and Joan got divorced.

• cannot link complete clauses

neither-nor

• emphasizes that the negation applies to both units, e.g. Neither Peter nor his wife wanted the responsibility.

• cannot link complete clauses

• both neither and nor can be used without their pair

• can be linked to a previous clause by and or but

ellipsis

• grammatical omission

• requires verbatim recoverability: the actual word or group of words implied must be precisely recoverable

initial ellipsis

(I) hope he’s there.

medial ellipsis

Jill owns a Volvo and Fred (owns) a BMW.

final ellipsis

I know that we haven’t yet set the record straight, but we will (set the record straight).

recoverability types of ellipsis

• situational ellipsis

• structural ellipsis

• textual ellipsis

situational ellipsis

the interpretation may depend on knowledge of the extra-linguistic context, e.g. Did you get it? (the letter) vs. Did you get it? (Do you understand?)

structural ellipsis

the interpretation depends on knowledge of grammatical structure, as in ellipsis of the conjunction that and the preposition for, e.g. I believe (that) you’re mistaken. We’re staying there (for) another three weeks.

textual ellipsis

• the interpretation depends on what is said or written in the context

• two kinds according to the relative positions of the ellipsis and its antecedent:

  • anaphoric - I’m happy if you are (happy).

  • cataphoric - Those who prefer (to stay indoors) can stay indoors.

wh-questions

• formed in the aid of simple interrogative words, or wh-words: who, whom, whose, what, which, when, where, why, how

• the wh-element comes first in the sentence