Living Lingo:

VCE English Language Units 3 and 4

Introduction
Kate Burridge
Debbie de Laps
with Michael Clyne

Introduction

Introduction
English consists essentially of a lot of words, tens of thousands of words in fact, some rules
for making up new words, and some rules for putting words together into phrases
and sentences. (Blake 2008:1)

Language is never haphazard. The English you speak has a highly organised structure and set
of rules. We learn and internalise these rules unconsciously by simply being part of a speech
community. We may not be able to say what these rules are, but we do know when something
goes wrong. The following is clearly not a well-formed sentence of English.
English consists words of essentially of a lot.
There is a trick to our language that you will encounter again and again it is the infinite use of
finite means. Linguist Dwight Bolinger (1975:16) once described it this way:
Dozens of distinctive sounds are organised into scores of syllables, which become the carriers
of hundreds of more or less meaningful segments of words, and these in turn are built into
thousands of words proper. With thousands of words we associate millions of meanings, and on
top of those millions the number of possible sentences and discourses are astronomical.
This tremendous resourcefulness of our language (as Bolinger put it) is obvious at a number
of levels.

Phonetics and phonology sounds of English

Lets start off with sounds. The branch of linguistics that looks at the sounds of speech is
phonetics. The way languages organise sounds is another branch that is known as phonology.
Part of speaking Australian English is knowing the 44 speech sounds in the language. Other
varieties you will find have more or fewer sounds. Clearly our alphabet of only 26 letters cant
capture all these different sounds, so we need a separate phonetic alphabet with additional
symbols. This is called the International Phonetic Alphabet.
At some level we also know the rules that describe all the possible and impossible combinations
of sounds. This means that in addition to the tens of thousands of words that do exist, there
are thousands of ones that could potentially exist, such as comedian Rich Halls word charp to
describe that green inedible potato chip that you discover lying at the bottom of every bag of chips.

Morphology and lexicology words of English

As speakers of English we have also internalised the rules of word formation, or morphology.
Lexicology relates to the study of the words themselves. The concept of the word turns out
not to be a terribly workable one when it comes to description and analysis. More useful are
morphemes. These are the smallest units of meaning in the structure of the language. We can

Introduction

divide a word like painters into three morphemes: paint + er + s. A word like mothers divides
into only two: mother + s. The er in mother has a meaning that is totally unrelated to mother
we wouldnt divide this word into two morphemes moth + er!
Even very tiny children know that the plural of an imaginary animal called a wug is wugs, while
the plural of bik would be biks. In other words, they can give the correct plural form [z] after
a voiced sound (the [g] at the end of wug) and [s] after a voiceless sound (the [k] at the end of
bik). Clearly theyre not simply imitating words that theyve heard before. They know the rule of
plural formation and are extending it to words theyve never heard before.
Morphemes like the plural marker in English are inflectional morphemes. When it comes
to this kind of grammatical morphology, English is rather impoverished there remain, as
youll see later, only seven endings. However, when it comes to the morphemes used to create
brand new words , the language fares a little better. English has close to 200 derivational
morphemes that attach themselves to words in order to make (or derive) other words. The
potential for combining and creating in this way is huge. In fact, there is no theoretical limit to
the number of words we can create. It is infinite. There is though a practical limit: we certainly
wouldnt want to add much more to a word such as floccinaucinihilipilificationalizationalise to
cause something to pertain to the act of causing something to pertain to the act of estimating
something as worthless!

Syntax sentences of English

The engineering trick behind human language its being a discrete combinatorial system is
used in at least two different places: sentences and phrases are built out of words by the rules of
syntax and the words themselves are built out of smaller bits by another set of rules, the rules of
morphology (Pinker 1994:127)
That part of linguistics that studies how words relate to each other and combine to form
sentences is called syntax. This involves yet another level of structure that we as native
speakers take completely for granted. Bolinger (1975: 17) illustrates what we can do with two
simple words red and brick in answer to the question Describe the house. With a rule of
modification, we can get four very different meanings.
Its brick; Its red; Its brick red; Its red brick.

Most of the time we dont notice the complicated structural designs that underpin even the
most basic of sentences. And the trick again is that there is no limit to the number of new and
novel utterances that we can create. Its this open-endedness that makes human language very
different from other forms of animal communication.

Discourse texts of English

Sentences rarely appear in isolation, but as part of connected speech and writing. Discourse
is language beyond the humble sentence and discourse analysis studies how the stretches of
language that make up our texts and conversations are organised. Any discourse is just like a

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Introduction

story. Shifts in focus, changes of players, beginnings and ends of scenes need to be signaled and
for this we have a number of special discourse strategies. These may involve all linguistic levels;
for example, syntax (eg word order, special constructions), morphology (eg specific markers),
lexicon (eg expressions like yeah-no, like), phonology (eg intonation, pausing) and even
elements of body language (eg gesture, eye contact).

Semantics and pragmatics meanings of English

Semantics is the study of meaning (and related notions). It is considered to be a separate
subsystem, even though meaning clearly forms an integral part of all components of the
language sounds, words, phrases and sentences.
In any semantic analysis the focus is on the conventional (or agreed-upon) meanings. Individual
speakers arent free to change these meanings or communication would soon grind to a halt. You
might remember the character Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carolls Through the Looking Glass.
He has a rather idiosyncratic approach to meaning and language.
When I use a word, Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, it means just what I
choose it to mean neither more nor less.
The question is, said Alice, whether you can make words mean so many different things.

Humpty Dumpty has just explained here what he meant by the word glory: I meant theres a
nice knock-down argument for you!. Alice of course immediately responds by objecting that
this isnt the meaning of glory, and she points out that we are not free to change meanings in
this way. This famous scene has even given rise to a new word humpty dumptyism the practice
of insisting that a word means whatever one wishes it to. Needless to say, semantics deals with
agreed-upon meanings, not humpty dumptyism.
However, in some respects Humpty Dumpty is perfectly correct. There are aspects of
communication that fall beyond the conventional meaning of words and sentences. Like Alice,
we all have to be able to recognise what people actually mean when they interact. Language has
to cover a huge range of social behaviour and there is always so much that goes well beyond
the literal meaning and that is never subject to precise definition. When someone stops you in
the street and asks, Do you have the time? you have to be able to interpret that this person is
actually asking you what the time is. You wouldnt reply, Yes, and walk on. Context and the
communicative intentions of people affect the meanings of their words and sentences and are
all-important when it comes to successful communication. All this involves a different field
of study, namely, pragmatics. Pragmatics looks at what governs peoples choice of language
during social interaction and what they mean by their utterances. It is not part of the rules
for making up new words, and putting words together into phrases and sentences (in other
words, the rules of phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics), but it is so fundamental to
language structure that we cannot ignore it. So, even though pragmatics goes beyond the levels
of language (or subsystems) that feature in the curriculum for this subject, we think youll find
it a useful (and exciting) field of study. Certainly, as youll discover, there are many occasions in
this book when we need to refer to the different pragmatic factors that guide peoples choices of
words and grammatical structures.

Introduction

Basic linguistic concepts and terminology

The following is an account of some of the linguistic concepts you might find helpful in using
this book effectively. Now, we dont want to panic you (or turn you off the subject). We do
realize, that while there are some people who love doing English grammar (and these are people
who otherwise lead perfectly normal lives!), there are also many who do not. Rest assured, you
will not need to digest all these new terms and ideas. These are sections for dipping into. Use
them, together with the glossary at the end of the book, whenever you encounter something that
puzzles you or something you just want to know more about.
We also need to emphasise, that human language is complex and we are simplifying things
greatly here. So if you are interested, we recommend you also have a look at some of the excellent
accounts of English structure that are now available. (See recommended reading for these.)

Vowels and consonants of English

The following are the symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) that we use for
representing English consonants and vowels and these are the ones well be using in this book.
The descriptions of the sounds that follow have been adapted from Burridge & Mulder (1998:
Chapter 3).
Symbols for transcribing English consonants
stops

fricatives

pat

fine

bat

vine

ton

thin

done

then

curl

soon

girl

zoom

shine

beige, genre

hoon

nasals
m

moon

noon

ring
approximants

raw

your

war

affricates
tS

chive

dZ

jive
laterals

live

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Introduction

Place of articulationfor English consonants

Manner of
articulation

bilabial

labiodental

dental

alveolar

alveopalatal

palatal

velar

glottal

stop
voiceless

voiced

nasal
fricative

voiceless

voiced

affricate
voiceless

tS

voiced

dZ

lateral
approximant

l
w

Places of articulation
The following terms describe the different places of articulation for English consonants:
bilabial: using both lips. Look in a mirror and say Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
You should be able to see and feel how the lips come together for the first sound in each of the
words of this tongue twister.
labio-dental: using the lower lip and the upper teeth. Again look in a mirror, but this time say
Freaky Fred found fifty feet of fruit. When you make the first sound in each of these words, your
lower lip will be raised until it touches the upper front teeth.
dental: using the tongue tip between the teeth or the tongue tip or blade close behind the upper
teeth. Say Think thankfully of those three things and feel where your tongue is when you make
the first sound in each of these words. It might be between the teeth or behind the upper teeth
(or perhaps varies between the two positions).
alveolar: using the tip or blade of the tongue and the teeth (or alveolar) ridge this is the
bump behind your teeth. Say Do tongue twisters twist talkers tongues and again feel where the
tongue is when you make the sounds at the start of these words.

Introduction

alveo-palatal: using the blade of the tongue and the back of the alveolar ridge. Say Sure, the
ships shipshape. To feel the place of articulation more easily, hold the position of the first sound
in each of these words and breathe in. You should be able to feel the cool air rushing across the
blade of the tongue and back of the teeth ridge.
palatal: using the front of the tongue and the hard palate. Now say Yikes, yelling yokels
yodeled yesterday. It you again hold the position of the first consonant and breathe in, you
should be able to feel the air cool the front of your tongue and your hard palate.
velar: using the back of the tongue and the soft palate (or velum). Say crisp crusts crackle and
crunch and feel how the tongue touches the fleshy part of your palate when you say the first
sound of each word.
glottal: using the space between the vocal folds. Finally, say In Hertford, Hereford and
Hampshire, hurricanes hardly happen and listen to the friction as the air rushes between
the slightly open vocal folds. The [h] sound is a weakly articulated sound, and an endangered
species in the dialects of English

Manners of articulation
Weve just seen how consonants are made at different locations in the vocal tract. There are
also six manners of articulation depending on how the airflow is obstructed. With one group of
consonants, the nasals, the soft palate is lowered (so the air passes through the nose), whereas
with all the other sounds it is raised. If the vocal cords are vibrating, then the sounds will be
voiced. In English the stops, fricatives and affricates can be either voiced or voiceless, whereas
nasals, laterals and approximants are all voiced.
stop: a complete closure in the oral cavity. You should be able to feel the pressure build up
when you say the initial sounds in pill, bill (bilabial closure); till, dill (alveolar closure); and
kill, gill (velar closure). In each of these pairs the initial sound of the first word is voiceless,
whereas the initial sound of the second is voiced.
nasal: a complete closure in the oral cavity with the soft palate is lowered so that air flows
through the nose. All three nasals of English are voiced: mill (bilabial closure), nil (alveolar
closure) and at the end of the word rang (velar closure; note the velar nasal is a fairly new
sound in English, so it still doesnt appear in the range of positions that other sounds do).
fricative: two speech organs come close enough together to partially block the airflow and
create friction. When you say the sounds at the start of words like the following, you should
be able to feel an almost tickling sensation: fine, vine (labiodental); thin, then (dental), soon,
zoom (alveolar); and bash, beige (alveo-palatal). As before, the highlighted sound in the first
word is voiceless and in the second it is voiced.
affricate: first a complete closure is made in the oral cavity (as for a stop) and then there is
a slow release of air so that a fricative sound is made. Go to say the sound at the beginning of
the word chum but hold it you should be able to feel the pressure building up, and hear the
friction as you release the air. There are two affricates in English both are alveo-palatal but
they differ in voicing. The affricate at the start of chum is voiceless, and the affricate at the
beginning and end of judge is voiced.

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Introduction

lateral: a partial closure is made by the blade of the tongue against the teeth ridge so that air
can flow along sides of the tongue and the roof of the mouth. English only has one lateral, and
it is alveolar and voiced. You can feel how the air flows around your tongue when you say lovely
lemon liniment you can feel it even more if you hold the [l] sound and breathe in while you
do so. Your tongue will feel the cool air on the sides.
approximant: two speech organs come close to each other, but not close enough that any
audible turbulence is produced (which is why these sounds are sometimes called semi-vowels
or semi-consonants). English has three approximants and all are voiced. They are found at the
beginning of the words yes (palatal), west (lips are rounded and there is a narrowing in the
velar region), and rest (tongue tip close to the teeth ridge for most Australian English speakers).
Symbols for transcribing Australian English vowels
simple vowels (monophthongs)

diphthongs

been aI buy

bin eI bay

(e) bet

OI boy

bat a bow

about** o bow

burn

barn eE bear

bus

boss

bought

book

boot

IE beer

E boor, tour*

* This sound has disappeared for many speakers; you may well pronounce the vowels in
boor and tour as [O].
** This sound is such an important vowel in English that it has its own name schwa. In
Australian English all vowels that are unstressed tend to reduce to schwa.

Vowels
When you say a vowel, the air escapes through the mouth in a relatively unimpeded way. The
different vowel sounds are created by varying the shape of the mouth cavity and, when we
describe the vowels of English, we need to specify the position of the tongue and the shape of the
lips. Stand in front of a mirror and say he and then ha. The vowel in he is high and close to the
roof of your mouth, whereas with the vowel in ha the tongue is lower. (Watch as your jaw lowers
when you move from he to ha.) We can describe the vowel in he as a high vowel and that in ha as
a low vowel. Now say the vowel sound in he followed by the vowel in who and feel your tongue
move back in your mouth as you say the second vowel. In both vowels the tongue is close to the

Introduction

top of the vocal tract, but in the first vowel the tongue is toward the front of the mouth whereas
in the second it is more towards the back. We describe the vowel in he as a front vowel and that
in who as a back vowel. Finally, say hot and feel where your tongue is as you say the vowel this
sound is a low back vowel.
While saying these vowels, you may have noticed that sometimes the lips were involved. The
vowels in who and hot have rounded lips, whereas for the other two vowels they are unrounded.
In sum there are three parameters for describing English vowels:

height of the body of the tongue

the front-back position of the tongue

degree of lip rounding (rounded or unrounded)

Diphthongs
Diphthongs are really like long vowels. When you produce one, the tongue moves from one
position to another (which is why these sounds are sometimes called glides). The first part of a
diphthong is longer and also slightly louder. In a very slow and exaggerated way, say the vowel
in word right. You should be able to feel the movement of your tongue.

Structure of English words

An important concept for you to grasp here is the morpheme. Now, there are all sorts of
different morphemes, but there are two types in particular that you need to take note of.
Morphemes, like the plural marker in English, are called inflectional morphemes. This
involves the modest little group of suffixes (or endings) that you see below:
Stem

Suffix

Function

jump -s 3 person singular

present

Example
He jumps every day.

jump -ed past tense

She jumped
yesterday.
jump
-ing
progressive
He is jumping right
now.
beat
-en/-ed
past participle
She has beaten
everyone.
chair -s plural The chairs are new.
man -s possessive
The mans leg is
broken.
fast (adj/adverb) -er
comparative
She eats faster than
me.
fast (adj/adverb) -est
superlative
She is the fastest
eater of all.

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Introduction

In contrast to these grammatical morphemes, English has quite a lot of derivational

morphemes that attach themselves to words in order to make (or derive) other words. For
instance you could take a word (adjective) like pure and create another adjective impure or a
noun impurity.
Derivational prefix

Derivational suffix

Inflectional suffix

impure (adjective)

impurity (negative + noun)

impurities (noun + plural)

Derivation differs from inflection in that it has a more dramatic effect on the category or
meaning of the word. Take the words clean and dog: we see that adding the inflections -ed and
-s, respectively, gives us words cleaned and dogs which basically refer to the same thing,
the activity of cleaning or the animal dog in general. If instead a derivational affix is added to
form cleaner or dogged, then the meaning changes. Cleaner does not refer to an activity, but to
a person who performs that activity, and dogged as in dogged resistance does in fact no longer
have anything to do with dogs. More formally, we can say that whereas inflection always leaves
the word in the same word class, derivation may change the word class; clean is a verb and dog
is a noun, the derived cleaner is a noun and dogged is an adjective.
Derivation does not, however, have to change the word class. Take a derivational prefix like
un- or im-, for example, both clean and unclean are adjectives and so are both possible and
impossible, but the meaning change within the two pairs is very drastic, in fact the meaning
after derivation becomes the opposite of the original. The examples given in this paragraph
also illustrate another difference between inflections and derivational affixes in English.
Whereas inflections are always suffixes, we have both derivational prefixes (like un- and im-)
and derivational suffixes (like -er and -ed). Note also that inflections always appear after the
derivational affixes have been added, as in the example impurities above.

Word classes of English:

When we study language we need to recognise that vocabulary items are grouped into classes or
categories, known as either word classes or more traditionally as parts of speech.

Nouns and noun phrases

Semantics
Proto-typical nouns refer to things such as people (student), physical objects (television),
creatures (lion), abstract ideas (happiness), phenomena (cyclone) and qualities (softness). There
are all sorts of ways they can be classified, but there are only two subclasses that have some
bearing on the linguistic behaviour of nouns and that is count nouns (like bath, apple) versus
mass nouns (like water, fruit).

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Introduction

Morphology
Nouns can have a possessive form; ie s, Prototypical nouns also express number obligatorily
in their morphology. The singular is unmarked; the plural carries a marker -s. As far as
derivational morphology goes, the most frequent noun-forming suffixes are -ness and -ity (from
adjectives) and -er, -ee, -ation, ment etc. (from verbs)

Syntax
Syntactically nouns are the heads of noun phrases (the old man in the moon) and
characteristically function as subjects, objects, complements of verbs like seem, be, etc. and
complements of prepositions. They occur in construction with dependents like adjectives (small)
and determiners (the, a, that).

Verbs and verb phrases

Semantics
In general terms, verbs are those words denoting actions (run), processes (become), states (be)
or events (erupt).

Morphology
Verbs can also be readily identified in terms of their morphology; in fact, most morphological
complexity in English is associated with the verb. In addition to derivational affixes like -ee, -er
and -ment (verb > noun) and -able, -ing and -ive (verb > adjective), the most distinctive
property of the English verb is its ability to inflect.
Most English verbs follow the inflectional pattern of 1 of the 3 verb types given below:
Tensed forms:

take

walk

shut

Past tense

took

walked

shut

Present tense
general
3rd singular

take
takes

walk
walks

shut
shuts

Base form/infinitive

take

walks

shut

Present participle

taking

walking

shutting

Past participle

taken

walked

shut

Non-tensed forms:

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Introduction

Be aware that there are a number of departures from this basic pattern. One important group
contains the so-called auxiliary (or helping) verb. The class falls into two main groups:
primary auxiliaries be, have and do and modal auxiliaries can, could, shall, should, will,
would, may, might, and must. These verbs all determine the inflectional form of the verb that
follows them. Modal auxiliaries and do take the infinitive or base (she will eat; do eat!); have
and (passive) be take the past participle (he has died; the cake was eaten); and (progressive) be
takes the present participle (they are running).
Primary auxiliaries
1. BE
Finite forms:

Positive

Negative

Past tense 1st / 3rd singular

was

wasnt

general

were

werent

Present tense 1st singular

am

arent
(in questions)

3rd singular

is

isnt

general

are

arent

Non-finite forms: Base (Infinitive)

Present
participle

Past
participle

being

been

be

2. HAVE
Finite forms:

Positive

Negative

Past tense

had

hadnt

Present tense 3rd singular

has

hasnt

general

have

havent

Non-finite forms: Base (Infinitive)

Present
participle

Past
participle

having

had

have

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Introduction

3. DO
Finite forms:

Positive

Negative

Past tense

did

didnt

Present tense 3rd singular

does

doesnt

general

do

dont

Non-finite forms: Base (Infinitive)

Present
participle

Past
participle

doing

did

do

MODAL AUXILIARIES
Finite forms:

Positive

Negative

will, must, can

wont, mustnt,
cant

As you can see, auxiliary verbs are distinctive by having negative as well as positive finite forms.
Note also that the verb be has extra person and number contrasts in the past and present tenses.
The characteristic verbal inflection is totally lacking in the modal auxiliaries. These verbs have
very complicated semantics and with these we can distinguish between actual and non-actual
events; for example, modals express notions such as potentiality, contingency, hypothesis,
conjecture, unreality, wishing, desiring and even prohibition (meanings that were once conveyed
by the old subjunctive).

Syntax
The syntax of verbs is complicated. For the moment, all you need to know are two basic
patterns of behaviour. There are intransitive verbs where the action doesnt transfer across to
another entity; for example The boy slept, drank, ate, jumped etc. Most verbs of English can be
transitive (the action transfers across to some other entity): The boy kicked, caught, threw,
saw the ball etc.

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Introduction

Adjectives
Semantics
The core members of the class of adjective typically denote properties or states (relating to
shape, size, colour, evaluation etc.).

Morphology
The typical adjective is gradable which means that they denote properties etc. that can be
possessed in varying degrees. Morphologically this is reflected in their ability to inflect for grade;
eg tall taller tallest. As far as derivational morphology goes, there are suffixes deriving
adjectives from nouns (-ful, -less, -ly, -ish, -al) and from verbs (-able).

Syntax
Adjectives are the head of adjective phrases and have two important functions:
Typical adjectives occur as a modifier within noun phrases; eg The sick child.
Typical adjectives can occur as complements after verbs like to be, become, look, feel, appear;
eg He became/looked/was sick.
Adjectives take various modifiers. Being gradable, they can take a range of degree expressions
such as more, most, too, very, much.

Adverbs
Semantics
Traditionally, adverbs are defined as words that modify verbs, adjectives or adverbs. Prototypical adverbs express things like time, manner and place. (In truth the class of adverbs is a real
mixed bag and is a very difficult class to define.)

Morphology
As far as inflectional endings go, adverbs fare rather badly. Many are gradable, but only a
handful can inflect for grade; eg soonsooner. As far as derivational morphology goes, a large
proportion of adverbs are derived from adjectives with -ly suffix. Other affixes include suffixes
-wise and -wards and prefix a- .

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Introduction

Syntax
Adverbs are the head of adverbial phrases functioning as modifiers of verbs, adjectives, other
adverbs and even entire clauses. For example:
Verbs

He ran fast (how did he run?)

Adjectives

He was very/exceedingly tall

Adverbs

He ran rather fast

Clauses

Frankly/Surprisingly/Really, he is a total idiot

Some adverbs are gradable - they can be modified by other words. They take the same range of
dependents as adjectives (eg degree adverbs like too, very etc.); eg He behaved rather badly.
But on the whole, adjectives take a much wider range of dependents than adverbs.

Prepositions
Semantics
Most prepositions express spatial relations; eg at, in, on, under, over, to etc. There are a few
which have a more grammatical meaning, eg:
the infinitive marker to; eg To err is human.
the agent marker by in a passive clause; eg The dog was hit by the man.
possessive marker of; eg the cover of the book.

Morphology
With the exception of a tiny handful of prepositions (eg near, nearer, nearest the fireplace),
there is nothing in the way of morphology.

Syntax
Prepositions function as heads in prepositional phrases and occur in a range of functions, most
notably as dependents:
of verbs; eg He relied on me; He ran in the morning
of nouns; eg cover of the book; the man in the moon
of adjectives; eg fond of meat; tall for his age.

Prepositions take noun phrase complements; eg he ran up the hill. Generally though, they allow
much less in the way of modification than of the other classes we have discussed.

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Introduction

Pronouns
Personal pronouns make up the central class of pronouns and these are the ones well
focus on here:
Subjective case

Objective case

First person
singular I me
plural we us
Second person
singular/plural

you you

Third person

singular
masculine

feminine she her

non-personal

he him

it it

plural they them

Conjunctions
Conjunctions link clauses or parts of clauses together. Coordinators link units that are of equal
status in the sentence like two noun phrases, two clauses and so on. The central coordinators
are and (expresses addition), but (expresses contrast) and or (expresses alternatives), but they
can also be reinforced with additional words eg either ..... or; not only ..... but also; both ..... and.
Subordinators also link units but these do not have the same grammatical status; for example,
one clause could be subordinated to another; eg in The cake will be cooked, if it sounds hollow
the subordinate clause is joined to the main clause by if. Meanings expressed by subordinators:
time, place, purpose, condition, reason, concession.

Determiners
Determiners express notions like definiteness, quantity, number and possession. In other
words, they determine what kind of a noun follows is it definite or indefinite, count or mass,
concrete or abstract. There are a number of subclasses, but the most important are the articles.
The meanings involved have to do with notions of reference and are notoriously difficult to
define. Basically, the definite article the signals that a noun phrase is definite, perhaps
because it refers to something in the immediate context (Have you put the cat out?); or it
might refer back to an earlier noun (Put the cat out the here refers back to the cat that was

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Introduction

mentioned earlier); or perhaps an object that has become part of our shared general knowledge
(I love the animal programs on TV). The indefinite article a is used when a noun has not
already been specified (He gave me a cat for Christmas); it can refer also to a general state of
affairs (Im learning to be a vet).

Clauses
There are a number of basic functions that a clause can have. Most useful to you will be the
following:
Subjects: Traditionally, subjects have been described as what the sentence is about (actor/
performer etc.), but they are best defined in terms of a cluster of grammatical features:
word class subjects are noun phrases;
verb ending subjects determine the inflection on the verb (she runs vs they run);
pronoun form subject pronouns have a distinctive shape (She saw him vs He saw her);
basic position subjects occur before the verb (She doesnt come by train);
question position subjects occur after the tensed verb (doesnt she come by train?);
subjects are obligatory in basic clauses.

Objects: Traditionally, objects have been described as those entities which are most linked
semantically to the verb (e.g. the dog has the role of patient in the sentence Fred kicked the
dog). In fact, objects cover such a wide range of semantic roles that this is not a terribly helpful
description; more useful is to look at how they behave grammatically:
words class objects are noun phrases;
passive objects becomes the grammatical subject in passive (He was kicked);
basic position objects typically follow the verb.

Adverbials: These are typically peripheral elements (expressing such things as location, time,
manner, attitude etc.).
words class adverbials are usually adverbial phrases/preposition phrases;
position adverbials are flexible in where they occur in the clause;
adverbials are typically optional and can be freely added or removed from a clause.

Complements: Complements appear superficially like objects; however, they differ according
to the following features:
complements pick out entities that are already mentioned in the clause;
class equals noun phrase and adjective phrase (She is tall / a teacher);
only objects are eligible for passive (A teacher was seen by Fred);
complements occur after copulative verbs like be, seem (She seems tall);
complements agree in number with the subject (He was a qualified lawyer).

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Introduction

Here are two examples to show these functions at work (these come from The Big Issue
(Melbourne) 47:9):
[The brides mother] threw [a large pickled gherkin] [at the tormented lover]
subject object adverbial
[The other guests] pelted [the weeping Lothario] [with an assortment of crustless
sandwiches].
subject object adverbial
[He] [eventually] collapsed [under a welter of pastries]
subject adverbial adverbial

Combining clauses
Sentences can be what we call simple sentences. All of the examples above (involving the
hapless Lothario) comprise a single main (or independent) clause and are of this type. Here they
are again in full:
The brides mother threw a large pickled gherkin at the tormented lover.
The other guests pelted the weeping Lothario with an assortment of crustless sandwiches
and condiments.
He eventually collapsed under a welter of pastries and stewed fruit.

Sentences can also be made up of a number of clauses. In such sentences the relationships
between the clauses may be of two kinds: coordination (where the clauses are equal in status)
and subordination (where a clause functions as part of another clause).
Coordination will always involve the combination of equivalent structures you can have
coordinated words, phrases and also clauses. In coordinated clauses, the crucial thing is that the
clauses are able to appear on their own; they are known as independent (or main) clauses. In
English, coordination is signalled by coordinators (or coordinating conjunctions) like but,
and, or. In the following examples, the two main clauses are in square brackets.
[I gave her my heart] but [she threw it back in a mushroom vol-au-vent]
[I gave her my heart] and [she threw it back in a mushroom vol-au-vent]

Another thing about coordination is that you can often reverse the order of the clauses without
affecting the grammaticality or the sense. (You cant, though, if there is a temporal or causal
relationship between the clauses, as there is in this example.)
Coordination is relatively straightforward. Subordination is far trickier. It implies the
combination of clauses that are syntactically non-equivalent. One clause, the subordinate clause,
forms part of the main clause. So it is very different from coordination where we have linked
clauses that are of equal status. Heres an example where there are two subordinate clauses (in
square brackets):

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Introduction

[When you end up pelted with pretzels and smoked salmon sandwiches], you know
[Destinys really got it in for you].

Here, this sentence is built around the verb know. This main clause verb takes a subject, you
and an adverbial expression (a clause) when you end up pelted with pretzels and smoked
salmon sandwiches, as well as an object (a clause) Destinys really got it in for you. Note, that
the main clause is the whole sentence, not just you know. Sentences like this one differ from
the earlier two in that these subordinate clauses actually form part of the other clause they
are not independent.
In this example when explicitly marks the beginning of the first subordinate clause, namely
when. This is known as a subordinator (or subordinating conjunction). Other
subordinators include that, if, whether, after, because, until, while and although, or relative
pronouns such as who, whom, whose, what and which. In some subordinate clauses, you can
omit the subordinator altogether and the second subordinate clause in sentence above is an
example of this. We can easily restore its subordinator that:
you know [that Destinys really got it in for you].

The following (rather rough) tree diagrams indicate the difference between these two types of
clause linkage.

Coordination:
Sentence

Main Clause

I gave her my heart

Main Clause

and

she threw it back

In the above example, we have whats called a compound sentence made up of two conjoined
independent clauses one is not subordinate to the other. Note, you can even leave out the
coordinator.

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Introduction

Subordination:
Sentence

Subject

Verb

gave

Subject

Adverbial

my heart Subordinate Clause

When I could

Here we have a complex sentence where one clause is embedded within another clause
(the main clause) and is dependent on it; in other words, the clause when I could cannot stand
on its own.
It is also quite possible for a clause to be subordinated within another clause that is itself a
subordinate clause. Things can get really complicated with subordination! Have a look at
the following example (from the Melbourne Big Issue 73: 38). It looks like a straightforward
sentence, but when you analyse it, you uncover three subordinate clauses (given in square
brackets):
She looked at me [as if I had just told her [I was starting up my own sect and wanted [to use
her cat as the supreme being and her hubby for the first offering]]].

There is also a coordinated clause here linked by and. So this is an example of a compoundcomplex sentence (these can have two or more coordinated clauses and one or more
subordinate clauses).
As we described earlier, the ability to keep creating longer and longer sentences by adding new
coordinate and subordinate clauses illustrates the engineering trick of languages like English.
We can make up a new sentence by simply embedding a new clause within an existing sentence,
and we can keep doing this repeatedly so theoretically sentences can be infinitely long. We
will see some spectacularly complicated examples of this later when we look at some of the
super-literate varieties of English, such as Legalese. But even something as simple as the Mother
Goose rhyme The House that Jack Built can illustrate this point. Here each verse builds upon
the previous verse by adding another clause (in this case a subordinate clause called a relative
clause). Heres the last verse to remind you:

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Introduction

This is the farmer sowing his corn,

That kept the cock that crowed in the morn,
That waked the priest all shaven and shorn,
That married the man all tattered and torn,
That kissed the maiden all forlorn,
That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,
That tossed the dog,
That worried the cat,
That killed the rat,
That ate the malt
That lay in the house that Jack built.

Passive versus active sentences

Look at the sentence below. It shows the neutral word order of Subject-Verb-Everything Else
pattern that we expect of a basic English clause. It has an actor/agent subject and a patient
object. This is the so-called active version.

Our master coffee makers in Switzerland blend

the beans.

Subject Verb
Object

Agent Patient

What the passive version of this sentence does is reverse this order, so that the original patient
becomes the grammatical subject and the original agent gets moved into a prepositional phrase
headed by by. (This is the sentence as it appeared in the original advertisement.)

The beans

are blended

by our master coffee makers in Switzerland.

Subject Verb Adverbial
Patient

Agent

When we make a passive sentence, we promote an object to a subject and simultaneously

demote the subject to a by-phrase or we leave it out all together. But we also need to insert
the appropriate form of the verb to be and change the original verb following into its past
participle form. We can show this process in the following diagram.

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Introduction

Subject of active cause

Subject of passive

Verb

BE+PAST PARTICIPLE of verb

Object of active cause

(by Object)

Types of sentences
Text types are often distinguishable on the basis of the sentence types they show. English has
four main types of sentences that can be distinguished structurally. They are:
Declaratives
Esther Luer discovered a giant arachnid in her weekly groceries.
Imperatives
Discover arachnids in your weekly groceries!
Interrogatives
Did Esther Luer discover a giant arachnid in her weekly groceries?
What did Esther Luer discover?
Where did she discover this arachnid?
Exclamatives
And what an arachnid it was!

We also distinguish four different uses of sentences. Of course we can make much finer
divisions, but these are the ones that are standardly assumed:

Statement: to tell the hearer or reader about something.

Question: asking the hearer or reader for information about something, this can
be either about whether something is or isnt true or it can be a request for more
specific information.

Directive: a cover term for issuing commands, requests, instructions, prohibitions,

permission and even providing advice.

Exclamation: to express surprise, disgust, annoyance at something.

For each of the structural sentence types, these then are the typical functions. Declaratives
are usually used to make statements, interrogatives normally pose questions, imperatives
issue directives and exclamatives make exclamations. However, this is just the typical
correspondence between form and function. For example, interrogatives can be used for
purposes other than posing a question (Could you pass the salt is a yes-no interrogative but does
not require an answer yes or no; why dont you jump in the lake is not seeking information!).
Questions can also be asked without using an interrogative structure (the declarative Im cold
could be a subtle way of asking someone to shut the window). It is for this reason that we need
to distinguish form and function.

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Introduction

Here is a very brief account of the structure of each of these sentence types:

Structure of declaratives
These are the most basic of clauses and weve already touched on their structure earlier in
this Introduction (i.e. subject + verb + object/complement; adverbials show more flexibility
with their positioning, though they often follow the verb). Usually declaratives are described
negatively; that is, they lack specific grammatical properties that distinguish the more marked
clause types that we discuss below.

Structure of imperatives
The following are examples of the most central type of imperatives:
Be brave!
Dont be silly!

The subject of imperatives is the second person pronoun (you), which is either understood
(therefore absent) or present as in You be brave! The verb is in the base form (infinitive). The
negative imperative is always formed with do (*Be not silly!).

Structure of interrogatives
There are three main types of interrogatives:
Open interrogatives seek information. They contain one of the interrogative words: who(m),
which, whose, what, where, why, how; for example, Who did you see? What will you do? and
so on. If you work from the structure of a basic clause, then there are three simple steps in
forming an open interrogative:
1.

Front the wh-word (this always appears initially in the sentence).

2.

Where there is no auxiliary, add do.

3.

Invert the subject and auxiliary.

Closed interrogatives seek comment on the degree of truth. These are the most basic type
of interrogative. They includes examples such as Are you bored?/ Arent you bored (here there
are two possibilities yes/no this is why they are called closed interrogatives). To form these
interrogatives you only need to follow steps 2. and 3. above.
Tag interrogatives request the hearer to express agreement or disagreement (the intonation
can be either rising or falling on the tag the former indicates more doubt, the latter is more
confirmation-seeking). For example:
Youre going, arent you?
Youre not going, are you?

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There are three basic steps for forming neutral tags:

1.

Convert the declarative into its closed interrogative counterpart.

2.

If the declarative is positive make the tag negative and if its negative then make it positive.

3.

Delete everything except the auxiliary (and negative if present) and the subject.

Structure of exclamatives
Exclamatives are similar in form to interrogatives (but note, there is no subject-auxiliary
inversion):
What a clever fellow Wim is! How smart he is!

They can also be similar in form to declaratives. Often only prosody distinguishes them,
as in the following:
Wim is such a good historian! Hes so smart!

There are some linguists, however, who would claim that these two examples are not
exclamatives, because they are identical in structure to declaratives. In other words, prosody
is not enough to make them a separate sentence type.

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