I. O.

Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

5. Word Classes

All English words belong to one or another of the major or minor word classes (see 2.7.). A word
is assigned to a particular class according to its role in a phrase: nouns are the heads of noun
phrases, verbs of the verb phrases, adjectives of the adjective phrases, adverbs of the adverb
phrases. Prepositions are obligatory constituents of prepositional phrases, determiners (including
the articles “a” and “the”) are obligatory with count nouns. Pronouns stand either for single
nouns or whole noun phrases. Conjunctions connect phrases, clauses, sentences or even larger
units, such as paragraphs.
There is a close connection between functions and their realisations or, put differently, between the
eight word classes and phrases and between phrases and the five clause elements - subjects, verbals,
objects, complements and adverbials. The various types of word classes have different functions in
the phrases, and, in turn, phrases function as one or another clause element. Noun phrases, for
example, can function as subjects, objects, or, sometimes, adverbials; either noun phrases or adjective
phrases can function as complements; (only!) verbs function as parts of the verb element of a clause
(see 2 and 3).

5.1. Lexical and function words

5.1.1. Definitions and classification

Most grammars organize the lexicon - according to the grammatical behaviour and main function
of its words - into lexical words and function words, but there is more than one classification of
the word classes inside these two categories. This happens due to gradience 1 , an important
principle in grammar that leads to boundary fuzziness, generated in morpho-syntax by the fact
that word classes share characteristics among them.
Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002, p. 16) identify inserts as a third class (see 2.7.) whose members
occur mainly in spoken language and are peripheral to grammar Inserts have the following
characteristics:
 They are often marked off by a break in intonation in speech, or by a punctuation mark in
writing: e.g. Well, we made it.
 They generally carry emotional and discoursal meanings, such as oh, ah, wow, used to
express a speaker's emotional response to a situation, or yeah, no, okay, used to signal a
response to what has just been said.
 Inserts are generally simple in form, though they often have an atypical pronunciation
(e.g. hm, uh-huh, ugh, yeah). Example: Hm hm, very good!

1
Gradience [mass noun] Linguistics = the absence of a clear-cut boundary between one category and another, for
example between cup and mug in semantics (Oxford Dictionaries).
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

5.1.2. Characteristics of lexical words

According to Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002, pp. 15-6), lexical words, the main carriers of
information in a text, are subdivided into the following word classes (or parts of speech): nouns,
lexical verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
They share the following characteristics:
 Lexical words are members of open classes.
 Lexical words are the most numerous, and their number is growing continuously.
 They often have a complex internal structure and can be composed of several parts: e.g.
unfriendliness = un +friend + li + ness.
 Lexical words can be heads of phrases.
 They are generally the words that are stressed most in speech.
 They are generally the words that remain if a sentence is compressed in a newspaper headline: e.g.
Elderly care crisis warning.
Nouns typically refer to concrete people and things as well as to abstract ideas and phenomena
(John, teacher, book, land, peace, rain).
Lexical/main verbs typically denote actions (work, write, play), processes (change, develop,
increase) or states (sleep, fear, amaze).
Adjectives typically describe qualities, characteristics, and properties of objects, people and
phenomena expressed by nouns. (nice, difficult, easy)
Adverbs specify the circumstances (place, time, manner) in which an action takes place (here,
now, slowly).

5.1.3. Characteristics of function words

Function words have little or no lexical meaning. The same Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002, p.
16) note that there are seven classes of function words: determiners, pronouns, auxiliary
verbs, prepositions, adverbial particles, coordinators, and subordinators.
The major classes in this category are prepositions, coordinators, auxiliary verbs, and pronouns.
Their main role is to indicate meaning relationships and to facilitate the interpretation of units
containing lexical words, by showing how the units are related to each other.
They share the following characteristics:
 Function words belong to closed classes, which have a very limited and fixed
membership. For example, English has only four coordinators: and, or, but and (rarely)
nor.
 Individual function words tend to occur frequently, and in almost any type of text.
Function words can be conveniently grouped according to the lexical word to which they are
associated:
grammatical unit function words
clause subordinators, wh-words, the negator not, the infinitive marker to
clause/ phrase coordinators
verb phrase auxiliaries, modals, adverbial particles
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

noun phrase determiners, pronouns, numerals, prepositions

5.1.4. Word-class ambiguities

In English there are many words with multiple memberships, that is, they belong to more than
one class. For instance, without a context, progress may be either a noun (the rate of progress)
or a verb (her ambition to progress). Under the same circumstances, only can be:
 an adverb: I only ate the egg on the plate.
 an adjective: She was an only child.
 a conjunction: I’d like to, only I’m not sure how you feel about it.
That is an extreme example, as it can belong to five different classes.
 a determiner (preceding a noun): I know that girl.
 a demonstrative pronoun: Who gave you that?
 a conjunction (connecting two clauses): She claimed that she was innocent.
 a relative pronoun (functioning as the subject, object, or complement of a relative clause): It's a
book that I used to read once.
 an adverb (before an adjective or adverb): I’m not that desperate.
Unlike such words, homonyms share the same form, but they are not related in meaning at all.
As Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002, pp. , 35) note, some word-class ambiguities are systematic (see
5.1.1., gradience). They give the example of the class of quantifiers (e.g. all, some, any, much), which
can function with similar meanings as determiners, pronouns or adverbs:
 as determiners:
He kept whistling at all the girls.
 as pronouns:
Is that all I've got dad?
 as adverbs:
Don't get all mucky.
They also provide a table of words with multiple memberships.
form noun verb adj adv prep sub examples
before ● She had never asked him that before.

● He was there before her.

● They'd started leaving before I arrived.

early ● Steele kicked an early penalty goal.

● He has also kicked a penalty goal early in the match.

fight ● There was a hell of a fight.

● They're too big to fight.
narrow ● He plans to narrow his focus to certain markets.
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

● Current review programs are too narrow.

as ● This was the beginning of his life as a cultivator.

● As they watched, a flash of fire appeared.

outside ● You can open the outside window.

● He's gone outside.
● It's sitting outside your house.

Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002, p. 35) enumerate the word classes which are not easily classified or
which cut across other categories: wh-words, existential there, the negator not, the infinitive marker
to, and numerals.

5.2. Grammatical categories of word classes

According to Stekauer (Essentials of English Linguistics, 1993, p. 48), the term grammatical
category refers to a group of elements recognized in the description of particular languages. There
are authors who refer to the parts of speech as categories, but others, who follow a more traditional
usage, restrict the application of the term to features associated with the parts of speech such as
person, tense, mood, number, case, etc.
A grammatical category is defined in English linguistics as a property of items within the
grammar of a language. It has a number of possible values (called exponents/grammemes), which
are normally mutually exclusive within a given category. Examples of frequently encountered
grammatical categories include tense (which may take values such as present, past), number (with
values such as singular and plural), and gender (with values such as masculine, feminine and
neuter). (Grammatical category)
The definition of category in Romanian2 is much fuzzier, which makes it quite useless for the current
discussion, though, paradoxically, the grammatical categories of all the ten parts of speech recognized
by Romanian mainstream grammar are widely present even in school textbooks.
Inflectional/grammatical morphemes (see 2.1.) express grammatical meaning such as number or
tense, traditionally called grammatical categories. They may be either free morphemes (function
words) or bound affixes (inflectional suffixes). In synthetic languages 3 , such as Romanian, the
grammatical categories are expressed almost exclusively by inflectional endings, whereas in analytic
languages, such as Modern English4, the grammatical categories are expressed primarily by function
words and only infrequently by a few inflections.

2
Categorie gramaticală = noțiune gramaticală fundamentală care exprimă relații stabilite de vorbitorii unei limbi între
elemente ale limbii obiective (ex. gen, număr, persoană, comparație) sau între ei și lumea obiectivă (ex. timp, mod).
C.g. reprezintă modul de organizare internă a materialului de forme ale unei limbi.
3
In linguistic typology, a synthetic language is a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio, as opposed to a
low morpheme-per-word ratio in what is described as an isolating language. (Synthetic language)
4
An analytic language is a language that conveys grammatical relationships without using inflectional morphemes.
A grammatical construction can similarly be called analytic if it uses unbound morphemes, which are separate
words, and/or word order. Analytic languages are in contrast to synthetic languages. However, English is also
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

Brinton and Brinton note that the grammatical category is a linguistic, not a real-world category,
and that there is not always a one-to-one correspondence between the two types of categories,
though they are usually closely related. They illustrate this observation with “tense” - which is a
linguistic category, versus “time” – which is a category of the world. (2010, p. 114)
The authors also point to the fact that grammatical categories can be identified either by formal or
by notional means. If the formal distinctions are exclusively made by means of inflection, English
has only two tense distinctions - past and present, as in work/worked. By notional means, the
existence of a universal set of grammatical categories and terms is assumed, which for tense are
past, present, and future. These are expressed in English by means of inflection and, in the case of
the future, by periphrasis5 (as in will work). The same observations are true about Romanian, even
though the range of past tense inflections is much wider. The authors also differentiate between
overt and covert categories. Overt categories have explicit or formal realization on the relevant part
of speech, such as past tense in English (the -ed inflection on the verb), while covert categories are
expressed only implicitly by the co-occurrence of particular function words, such as the future
tense in English (the will auxiliary occurring with the verb) (2010, pp. 114-5). Again, the remarks
apply to the Romanian verb as well.
Because terminology is not always consistent, we should not mistake grammatical categories
(tense, number, case, etc.) for lexical categories, which are closely synonymous with word
classes/parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.).
In The Linguistic Structure of Modern English, Brinton and Brinton group the grammatical
categories into two classes: number, gender, person, case, degree and definiteness are
recognized as nominal categories, while tense, aspect, mood and voice are verbal categories
(2010, pp. 115-32). They also note which different word classes each of the grammatical
categories is relevant to:
nouns: number, gender, case, (person), and definiteness;
pronouns: number, gender, case, and person;
adjectives and some degree;
adverbs:
verbs: number, person, tense, aspect, mood, and voice.
prepositions and no grammatical categories are relevant to prepositions and
conjunctions: conjunctions, which are invariable.
The subsequent discussion in 5.2.1. and 5.2.2. is mainly based on their observations.

5.2.1. Nominal grammatical categories

5.2.1.1. Number
There are two terms of the category of number in both English and Romanian: singular (the
concept of „one‟) and plural (the concept of „more than one‟). In English, number is expressed
by inflection in:
 count nouns, generally by -s (dog/dogs)

not totally analytic in its nouns as it does use inflections for number, e.g. "one day, three days; one boy, four
boys". (Analytic language)
5
A phrase containing a function word which is functionally equivalent to an inflection is called a periphrasis, or
periphrastic form. (Brinton & Brinton, 2010, p. 114)
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

 demonstratives (this/these, that/those)

 the 1st and 3rd p (but not in the 2nd p) of pronouns
• personal pronouns (I/we)
• possessive determiners (my/our)
• possessive pronouns (mine/ours)
• reflexive pronouns (myself/ourselves)
 certain pronouns and adjectives:
• singular: every, each, someone, anybody, a/an
• plural: all, many, few, several, most
 in verbs, indicated by the singular -s of the 3rd pers., which occurs in the present but not
in the past tense (he writes versus they write, he wrote). Number is expressed more fully
in the inflected forms of the verb be (singular am, is, was, plural are, were), which
because of its high frequency, tends to preserve inflections more fully than do other
verbs.
In Romanian, number is marked in all the situations above, plus several others (such as in the
large majority of adjectives, more extensively in verbs etc.).
The concept of generic number incorporates singular and plural and is used when the speaker
does not want to specify number. It is expressed in English in three ways6:
1. the definite article + singular noun (The tiger may be dangerous)
2. the indefinite article + singular noun (A tiger may be dangerous)
3. Ø article + plural of count nouns or singular of mass nouns (Tigers may be dangerous or Gold
is valuable).
In both English and Romanian, 1st person personal pronouns present a usage peculiarity which
has become out-dated: the so-called “royal we” or “editorial we” (pluralul de majestate in
Romanian) which is a situation of the utilization of the plural when singular is denoted. Another
situation when the plural replaces the singular occurs in Romanian with the politeness plural,
used with the personal pronouns for social purposes, to signal the relations between people
(acquaintance vs. stranger, superior vs. inferior, etc.).
5.2.1.2. Gender
English has a rather straightforward system of gender called natural gender7, in which gender
distinctions made in language depend upon the sex of the object in the real world. English
distinguishes masculine, feminine, common gender (masc. or fem.), and neuter (sexless)
genders.
At first sight, this is an odd perspective for a Romanian, in whose native language gender
appears to be a central grammatical category, important for noun declension8 and for the noun‟s
agreement with pronouns, adjectives and articles. The relation between natural gender and

6
The same ways are possible in Romanian, as well.
7
natural gender = grammatical gender that reflects, as in English, the sex or animacy of the referent of a noun rather
than the form or any other feature of the word. (Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th
Edition. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Natural gender)
8
declension = the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and articles that indicates number, gender and case.
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

grammatical gender9 is obvious in many of the animate nouns in Romanian, as there is a certain
correlation between their grammatical gender and the gender of the being they denote (o vacă
albă (fem.) vs. un bou alb (masc.), o fată harnică (fem.) vs. un băiat harnic (masc.), etc.)10.
Gender appears to be arbitrary - not related to the sex of the object denoted - for the inanimate
nouns (o zi (fem.), un pat (masc.), etc.). Actually, Romanian grammars distinguish between two
classes of nouns:
 nouns with motivated gender – animate nouns for which there is a correspondence
between the grammatical gender and the natural gender of the being denoted by the noun
 nouns with unmotivated gender, that include all inanimate nouns, but also animate
nouns that denote both genders with only one form, either masculine (elefant, șoarece,
tânțar, etc.) or feminine (balenă, furnică, rândunică, rudă, etc.)
Unlike Romanian, modern English no longer distinguishes nouns and determinatives on the basis
of grammatical gender. The effect of this development is the lessened place of gender in English
nouns. According to Close, ”cow is not „feminine gender‟ as opposed to the „masculine‟ bull.
Cow and bull are two separate words, one referring to a female of a species of animal, the other
to the male. Both words can be preceded by a set of determiners, such as a, any, each, either,
every, my, the, this, that, each of which has one form only (Close 1992: 1).
Old English had grammatical gender, but by the 11th century, during the Middle English period
its use started to decline. Towards the end of the 14th century some English dialects had almost
completely lost grammatical gender, and in Modern English words are not normally assigned
gender according to their inflectional class. The features that have survived into Modern English
are related to natural gender, such as the use of certain nouns and pronouns (such as queen,
knight, he, she, etc.) to refer specifically to persons or animals of one sex.
Thus, gender is expressed by inflection only in the 3rd person personal pronouns, singular he,
she, it. According to Brinton and Brinton (2010, pp. , 116-7), nothing about the morphological
form of nouns such as boy and girl indicate that they are masculine or feminine gender, and
gender is shown only by the co-occurrence of relevant pronouns, he and she, which refer back to
the noun: the boy … he, the girl … she. The authors note that this makes gender a covert11
category of the noun; they also observe that there are limited ways in which gender may be
expressed overtly on the English noun:

9
In the system of grammatical gender, every noun (either animate or inanimate) is treated as masculine, feminine
or neuter.
10
Gender distinctions are normally expressed in such pairs that contrast feminine and masculine nouns.
11
”Whorf (1956) draws the important distinction between overt and covert grammatical categories: an overt
category is one having a formal mark that is present in every sentence containing a member of the category
(e.g., English plural); a covert category includes members that are marked only in certain types of sentences.
(Whorf labels the distinctive treatment required in such environments “reactance.”) In English, gender is a
covert category marked only by the reactance of singular third-person pronouns and the relative pronouns
who/what/which (which indicate animacy). Despite this limited presence in the surface structure of English
syntax, gender is nonetheless a grammatical category and requires a systematic analysis of the patterns of
anaphoric pronoun use for clues about the structure of the categories within the system. Intuitive assumptions
about the relationship between sex and gender are not sufficient, for while biological sex is a good indicator of
gender class, it is not absolutely predictive. ” (Curzan)
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

 by derivational suffixes, such as the feminine suffixes -ine (hero/heroine), -ess (god/goddess), -
rix (aviator/aviatrix), and -ette (suffragist/suffragette) or the common gender suffixes -er
(baker), -ist (artist), -ian (librarian), -ster (prankster), and -ard (drunkard);
 by compounds, such as lady-, woman-, girl-, female-, -woman (lady friend, woman
doctor, girl friend, female fire fighter, chairwoman) or boy-, male-, gentleman-, -man (boy
friend, male nurse, gentleman caller, chairman);
 by separate forms for masculine, feminine, and common genders, such as boy/girl/child
or rooster/hen/chicken;
 by separate forms for masculine and feminine genders, such as uncle/aunt, stallion/mare,
bachelor/spinster and proper names such as Joseph/Josephine, Henry/Henrietta.
None of these means is systematic and the feminine is always derived from the masculine12.
Also, the masculine form typically doubles as the common gender form13, as with dog (feminine,
bitch).
A source of difficulty is the fact that a common gender for the 3rd person singular to be used
after a singular indefinite pronoun such as each or every does not exist in English. The traditional
use of the masculine form for the generic (e.g. From each according to his ability, to each
according to his needs14), tends to be currently replaced by the use of the plural their, which is
gender-neutral but which violates number agreement (e.g. From each according to their ability,
to each according to their needs). Brinton note that forms like his or her, his/her, s/he (e.g. From
each according to his or her ability, to each according to his or her needs) are newer attempts to
correct this deficiency.
5.2.1.3. Person
Person can be defined as the relationship between a subject and its verbal, showing whether the
subject is speaking about itself (1st person - I and we); being spoken to (2nd person – you singular
and plural); or being spoken of (3rd person - he, she, it, and they).
In both Romanian and English there are three persons: 1st person (the speaker), 2nd person (the
person spoken to) and 3rd person (the person or thing spoken about).
The pronouns to which the grammatical system of person applies are called personal pronouns,
and as Brinton & Brinton (118) observe, person distinctions are expressed by the inflected forms of
the pronouns:
1st pers. 2nd pers. 3rd pers.
personal pronouns: I you he, they
personal possessive determiners: my your his, their
personal possessive pronouns: mine yours his, theirs
personal reflexive pronouns: myself yourself himself, themselves

12
The case of widow (fem.)/widower (masc.) is an exception, explained by Brinton and Brinton (2010, pp. , 117) as
the result of the fact that women generally outlive men. Another exception is the pair ballerina/ballet dancer,
but here the masculine is a compound, not a simple form.
13
In the case of cow/bull, goose/gander or drake/duck, the feminine form is the common gender form, presumably
because the female is more important in the barnyard economy (Brinton and Brinton, 2010, 117).
14
A slogan popularised by Karl Marx in Critique of the Gotha Program (1875).
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

The same authors (Brinton & Brinton, 2010, p. 118) note that nouns are all 3rd person, and this is
shown only covertly by the co-occurrence of pronouns: the house … it (I, you), the houses …
they (we, you).
They also enumerate other forms that express generic besides the use of the rather formal one
that expresses generic person (all persons) and note that the generic you is the most common in
informal usage.
1st pers. pl we We're often misinformed by the media.
2nd pers. sg and pl you You never can tell.
3rd pers. sg one One doesn’t do that in polite company.
3rd pers. pl they They’ll find a cure for cancer soon.
In both English and Romanian another person than the expected one may be used in certain
situations:
 3rd pers. for 1st pers. – in very young children (Mary wants cake – where Mary is the
speaker), in official statements (Your boss clearly forbids such behaviour – where the
boss is the speaker), in academic style (This author aims at …. – written by the author
himself/herself), etc.
 1st pers. for 2nd pers. - spoken by a parent to a young child (We’ll stop that now, will
we?).
The grammatical category of person is also marked inflectionally, by the -s affix added on the verb.
Note that this happens exclusively with the verbs in the present indicative, singular, 3rd person. Be
is an exception as it preserves inflections in other persons (1st pers. am, 2nd and 3rd pers. are, 3rd
pers. is), and with the past tense as well (was, were).
As O‟Grady et al note, “a widely attested type of verbal inflection in human language involves
person--a category that typically distinguishes among the first person (the speaker), the second
person (the addressee), and the third person (anyone else). In many languages, the verb is marked
for both person and number (singular or plural) of the subject. When one category is inflected for
properties (such as person and number) of another, the first category is said to agree with the
second. [...]. Modern English has a [comparatively] impoverished system of person and number
agreement in the verb, and an inflectional affix is used only for the third person singular in the
non-past tense” (2001, pp. , 168-9).
5.2.1.4. Case
In many languages, Romanian included, case is another type of inflectional contrast associated
with nouns. O‟Grady et al describe it as “a category that encodes information about an element‟s
grammatical role (subject, direct object, and so on). In Modern English, this information is
expressed largely through word order and the use of prepositions” (2001, pp. , 166).
According to Brinton and Brinton (2010, pp. , 119), case is an indication of the function of a
noun phrase, or the relationship of a noun phrase to a verb or to other noun phrases in the
sentence. Case is most fully expressed in the personal and interrogative/relative pronouns, which
distinguish nominative case (the function of subject), genitive case (the function of possessor),
and objective case (the function of object) by different inflected forms:
nominative: I we you he, she, it they who
genitive: my/mine our/ours his, her/hers, its their/theirs whose
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

objective: me us you him, her, it them whom

The genitive includes forms which function as predeterminers, such as my and our, as well as forms
which function as pronouns, such as mine or ours.
Crystal (1996, p. 74) maintains that there are only two cases in contemporary English: the
common case, where the noun has no ending, and the genitive case formed by adding an „s to
the singular form of the noun and an apostrophe only for the plural form. One reason for this
terminological simplification is that there is no inflectional mark that distinguishes, for example,
a noun in the nominative case from one in the accusative case.
sg. pl.
common case cat cats
genitive case cat‟s cats‟
Brinton and Brinton (2010, p. 119) note that, though orthographically there are four distinct
forms of nouns when singular and plural, common and genitive case are considered, the
apostrophe is merely orthographic so that the forms cats, cat’s, and cats’ are phonologically
indistinguishable. Only irregular plurals such as the noun man actually distinguish four forms
both orthographically and phonologically.
sg. pl.
common case man men
genitive case man’s men’s
Even on certain pronouns the distinction between the nominative and objective forms has
disappeared, as with it and you:
nominative: it you
genitive: its your
objective: it you
The two authors (2010, p. 120) point to other case distinctions which can be made, such as the
dative case (the function of indirect object), but consider it a subcategory of the objective case,
shown by periphrasis with to or for or by word order (V iO dO):
He gave Jane the book.
He gave the book to Jane.
Other traditional cases, such as the “instrumental” case, are expressed only periphrastically in
English nowadays, for example, with the prepositions with or from (I broke the glass with a
rock).
In order to account for the case contrasts found in English nouns and pronouns, O‟Grady et al (2001, p.
261) propose a set of rules that associate case with specific syntactic positions. The case rules for
English NPs:
a. The complement of V receives accusative case.
b. The complement of P receives accusative case.
c. The specifier of N receives genitive case.
d. The subject receives nominative case.
According to the rules, a sentence such as Mary saw him is well-formed, since the pronoun in
the complement NP is accusative, as required by rule a. In contrast, Mary saw he is
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

ungrammatical, since the pronoun in the complement NP has the nominative form, in violation of
the same rule.
Brinton and Brinton (2010, p. 120) illustrate the conventional uses of cases with the use of the
nominative case after the verb be (e.g. It is I) and maintain that the same function can be
expressed by different cases, as in instances where the concept of possession is expressed by
either the genitive or dative case (e.g. The book is mine, The book belongs to me).
The same case can express different functions or meanings, and this is obvious in the behaviour
of the genitive case, which does not simply express possession. The following types of genitives
have been identified (Brinton & Brinton, 2010, pp. 120-1), based on the meaning relationship
between the noun in the genitive and the head noun:
 possessive genitive: Felix’s car (Felix owns his car)
 subjective genitive: the movie star’s entrance (the movie star enters - the same relation as
a subject does to a verb)
 objective genitive: the city’s reconstruction (X reconstructs the city - the same relation as
a direct object does to a verb)
 genitive of origin: Shakespeare’s plays, the baker’s cakes (expresses the source, person,
or place from which something originates)
 descriptive genitive: man of wisdom, a woman of courage (usually expressed
periphrastically, it is often equivalent to a descriptive adjective, as in man of wisdom =
„wise man‟)
 genitive of measure: an hour’s time, a stone’s throw (expresses an extent of time or space)
 partitive genitive: a member of the crowd, a spoke of the wheel (expresses the whole in
relation to a part)
 appositive genitive: the city of Vancouver, the state of California (renames the head noun)
Quite often the of-genitive/ prepositional genitive can replace the ‘s genitive in many usages, or
at least double it. Leech (2006, p. 47) notes the speakers‟ tendency to use the of-construction
where the genitive would cause too much complexity in front of the head noun, and illustrates it
with the following illustration: the night train to Edinburgh’s departure is less likely to occur
than the departure of the night train to Edinburgh. He also points to the fact that the placing of
the ’s at the end of Edinburgh is perfectly acceptable, even though the genitive indicates the
departure of the train, rather than the departure of Edinburgh, and labels it as an example of the
so-called group genitive, where the genitive phrase contains postmodification. Other examples
are: [the mayor of Chicago’s] re-election campaign, [someone else’s] fault. (Leech 2006: 47).
Brinton and Brinton (2010, p. 121) suggest that, though the inflectional genitive (with ‘s) and the
periphrastic form (with of + NP) are normally interchangeable, it is not always possible to
substitute one means of expression for the other. “For example, while the Queen’s arrival is
interchangeable with the arrival of the Queen, a person of integrity is not interchangeable with
an integrity’s person nor is a stone’s throw interchangeable with a throw of a stone. Certain types
of genitives, such as the partitive, descriptive, or appositive, are typically expressed only
periphrastically”.
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

The authors (Brinton & Brinton, 2010, p. 121) also point to various types of ambiguities that
appear in the genitive structures, such as the phrase the shooting of the hunters, which is
ambiguous between subjective and objective genitive readings because it can mean either „the
hunters shoot X‟ or „X shoots the hunters‟. The child’s picture is also ambiguous, since we do not
understand whether the child has drawn the picture or someone else has taken the picture of the
child. The same applies for the woman’s book - ambiguous between the possessive genitive and
the genitive of origin – as the woman may either own the book or she may have written it.
The double genitive is another complex aspect of the genitive mentioned by Brinton and Brinton
(2010, p. 121), in which periphrastic and inflectional forms co-occur: a friend of Rosa’s, no fault of
his. The double genitive is always indefinite (the friend of Rosa’s) and a human inflected genitive (a
leg of the table’s). It normally has a partitive sense (‟one friend among all of Rosa‟s friends), though
it is also possible to use it when Rosa has only one friend. A portrait of the king’s („one among all the
portraits (of others) that the king owns‟) can be contrasted with a portrait of the king („a portrait
which depicts the king‟).
Leech sees the genitive as “the only remnant in modern English of the case system of nouns,
prevalent in Old English, and also in classical Greek, Latin and many modern European languages.
[…] The genitive form of a noun typically comes before another noun, the head of the noun phrase of
which the genitive is part, for example Robert’s desk ” (2006, p. 46). He also notes that, strictly
speaking, this mark is no longer a case-ending in modern English, but an ending added to noun
phrases, such as [the bride’s] in [the bride’s] arrival, or [my father’s] in [my father’s] favourite
breakfast. In his view, because the genitive fills a determiner slot in the larger noun phrase of which
it is part, the function of the bride’s above is similar to that of her in her arrival or the in the arrival”.
The same author remarks the occurrence of what he calls group genitive15:
The ‘s genitive is normally used when the possessor is a proper noun, preferably the name of a
person: Mary’s house, John’s job, etc. However, it is possible with other animate noun classes:
 nouns denoting humans: the boy’s aunt
 collective nouns: the government’s announcement
 higher animals: the horse’s neck
The of-genitive is normally used with inanimate nouns and with lower animals, but many of the
inanimate nouns also take the ‟s genitive as well: the car’s maker/the maker of the car, the novel’s
title/the title of the novel, etc.
The following inanimate noun classes commonly take the ‟s genitive:
 geographical names (proper names):
 continents: Europe’s population
 countries: Romania’s politicians
 cities/towns: Bucharest’s transportation system
 universities: Cuza’s Language center
 nouns denoting space or locations (regions, institutions, etc.: the world’s most famous writer, the
Church’s finances, the country’s policy, etc.

15
1 A phrase containing a function word which is functionally equivalent to an inflection is called a periphrasis, or
periphrastic form. For example, in English, we can express the possessive either by an inflection -‟s (as in Alicia’s
cat) or by a periphrasis with of (as in the leg of the table). (Brinton & Brinton, 2010, p. 114)
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

 nouns denoting time: yesterday’s newspaper, this year’s events, etc.

 nouns denoting weight or value: a pound’s weight, two euros’ worth of coffee, etc.
5.2.1.5. Degree
Degree is a nominal category that relates to adjectives and adverbs and has three terms:
 positive degree (expressing a quality)
 comparative degree (expressing a greater degree or intensity of the quality in one of two
items)
 superlative degree (expressing the greatest degree or intensity of the quality in one of
three or more items)
Brinton and Brinton (2010, pp. 121-2) note that the positive degree is expressed by the root of
the adjective (e.g. big, beautiful) or adverb (e.g. fast, quickly) – that is, it is null-realized – while
the comparative and superlative degrees are expressed either by inflection (by means of -er, -est)
or by periphrasis (using more, most):
positive Ø big fast beautiful quickly
comparative -er, more bigger faster more beautiful more quickly
superlative -est, most biggest fastest most beautiful most quickly
The inflection is used with:
 monosyllabic forms neater, thinner, wider
 certain disyllabic forms – adjectives ending in –y: holy →holier; -le: little → littler; -er:
bitter → bitterer; -ow: narrow → narrower; -some: handsome → handsomer.
The periphrasis occurs in all other forms, including adverbs ending in -ly (e.g. quicklier).
Lesser degree can be expressed periphrastically with less and least, as in less big, least
beautiful.
Brinton and Brinton (2010, p. 122) explain that, for semantic reasons, some adjectives cannot be
inflected for degree. Thus, adjectives such as perfect, unique, round, full, empty, married, and
dead are incomparable because they express absolute qualities. The authors illustrate such
qualities with a two examples – dead and unique. About the former, they comment that
something is either „dead‟ or not; it cannot be more or less dead. As for superlatives such as most
unique, they are logically impossible, though one frequently hears such forms. The explanation is
that either most can be understood as an emphatic element or unique can be understood as
meaning „unusual‟.
The concept of superlative is rather easy to comprehend for the Romanian speaker since the rules
are identical, even stricter, in Romanian grammar. That is, an example like the most perfect day,
as well as the second proposed above, would be totally unacceptable in Romanian (cea mai
perfectă zi, cel mai unic). Forăscu (Forăscu) identifies two classes of incomparable adjectives in
Romanian:
1. adjectives that originally were old comparative and superlative forms (exterior, interior, superior,
inferior, optim, excelent, etc.) or those in the positive form with a superlative meaning
(supraaglomerat, ultrasensibil, excelent, admirabil, splendid, perfect, etc.).
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

Some speakers no longer perceive such adjectives as comparatives or superlatives and tend to
use them with the comparative or superlative degrees (cel mai superior, foarte inferior, condiţiile
cele mai optime, etc.). Such forms must be avoided.
2. adjectives that express an absolute quality which cannot be compared (complet, mort, viu,
pulmonar, principal, perfect, etc.). It is thus wrong to say cel mai principal lucru, o listă foarte
completă.
Brinton and Brinton (2010, p. 122) point to another peculiarity of English adjectives: forms such
as best time, rudest remark, or closest of friends often express a high degree rather than a true
comparison, with the superlative equivalent to „very‟. Finally, it is also common to hear the
superlative used in the comparison of two items, as in put your best foot forward, the most
advantageous of two alternatives, even though the rule imposes the structure the + comparative
(put your better foot forward, the more advantageous of two alternatives). The discussion of the
comparative is continued in 5.5.
5.2.1.6. Definiteness
The concepts of definiteness and indefiniteness are seen by Brinton and Brinton (pp. 122-3) as
intuitively quite simple: definite denotes a referent (a thing in the real world denoted by a noun)
which is known, familiar, or identified to the speaker and hearer, while indefinite denotes a
referent which is unfamiliar or not known.
These concepts have been adopted by some Romanian grammars as well, especially due to the
linguistic school of Bucharest (Diaconescu, Manoliu Manea, Guţu Romalo, Coteanu, Coja, etc.).
They view definiteness (determinarea) as the fourth grammatical category of the noun.
If nouns are considered on their own, definiteness is a covert category, because it is obvious
only in the co-occurrence of either the definite article the or the indefinite article a/an with a
noun, though all proper nouns and most pronouns are intrinsically definite.
However, definiteness can be quite confusing in actual practice, because, on the one hand, it
intersects with the category of specificity16 and, on the other hand, article usage in English is
complex and in many instances arbitrary. Thus, each article has several different uses (some of
which are dialectal) and articles are often omitted, which makes article usage a difficult area of
grammar for non-native speakers.
Brinton and Brinton (2010, p. 123) identify the following major uses of the:
1. for something previously mentioned: yesterday I read a book … the book was about space
travel (This is the anaphoric, or „pointing back‟, function of the definite article);
2. for a unique or fixed referent: the Prime Minister, the Lord, the Times, the Suez Canal;
3. for a generic referent: (I love) the piano, (We are concerned about) the unemployed;

16
Specific, nonspecific, and generic. Information is specific if it denotes a particular entity in the real world, while it
is nonspecific if it denotes no particular entity in the real world. HINT: Pronouns and proper nouns are usually
specific, though some pronouns, such as general you, one, or they, are nonspecific, as in You never can tell, One
must consider all options, They never tell you anything, where no person is being referred to.(Brinton and
Brinton, 328).
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

4. for something which is part of the immediate socio-physical context or generally known: the
doorbell, the kettle, the sun, the weather;
5. for something identified by a modifying expression either preceding or following the noun: the gray
horse, the house at the end of the block;
6. for converting a proper noun to a common noun: the England he knew, the Shakespeare of our
times, the Hell I suffered.
The two authors point to the fact that article usage with proper nouns often depends on the
category of proper nouns (e.g. Lake Superior vs. The Red Sea; The Mississippi River vs. Cache
Creek) or even on the specific example within a category (e.g. The Sudan vs. Ethiopia; Sears
Tower vs. The Eiffel Tower; Washington Monument vs. The Lincoln Memorial). They propose a
very useful rule of thumb: proper nouns with -s (in the plural form) generally take the definite
article: The Everglades, The Great Plains, The Rocky Mountains, The Seychelles.
Brinton and Brinton also list a number of instances in actual usage where the definite article is
omitted when it would be expected:
 with institutions (e.g. at school)
 with means of transportation (e.g. by car)
 with times of day (e.g. at noon)
 with meals (e.g. at breakfast)
 with illnesses (e.g. have malaria).
The major uses of a/an identified by the same authors (2010, pp. 123-4) are the following:
1. for something mentioned for the first time;
2. for something which cannot or need not be identified: (I want) a friend;
3. for a generic referent: (He is) a teacher;
4. equivalent to „any‟ : a (any) good book;
5. equivalent to „one‟ : a week or two; and
6. for converting a proper noun to a common noun: a virtual Mozart, a real Einstein.

EXERCISES

Exercise 5.1 Noun suffixes

Convert the following words into nouns by adding noun suffixes and making any other
consequent changes. Some words may take more than one noun suffix.
1. perform
2. able
3. conceive
4. speak
5. construct

*Exercise 5.2 Noun classes

 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

Construct two sentences for each of the following nouns. Use the noun in the (a) sentence as
a count noun and the noun in the (b) sentence as a non-count noun.
1. beer
2. beauty
3. sound
4. sugar
5. paper

Exercise 5.3 Number

Supply the plural form for each of the singular nouns listed below.
1. analysis
2. thief
3. criterion
4. deer
5. stimulus

Exercise 5.4 Dependent and independent genitives

Specify whether the underlined genitives are dependent or independent by putting „D‟ or „I‟
in the brackets that follow each genitive.
1. In a recent poll 48 per cent of Americans thought that Japan‟s ( ) economy is bigger than
America‟s ( ).
2. The British government‟s ( ) £50 billion sale of state-owned housing is going at a snail‟s ( )
pace.

*Exercise 5.5 Dependent and independent genitives

Construct two sentences for each of the following genitives. Use the genitive in the (a)
sentence as a dependent genitive and in the (b) sentence as an independent genitive.
1. the neighbours‟
2. Russia‟s

Exercise 5.6 Verb suffixes

Convert the following words into verbs by adding verb suffixes and making any consequent
changes. Some words may take more than one verb suffix.
1. real
2. hyphen
3. ripe
4. margin

Exercise 5.7 Classes of irregular verbs

Give the three principal parts for each of these irregular verbs.
1. grow
2. put
3. drive
4. send
5. break
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

Exercise 5.8 Adjective suffixes

Convert the following words into adjectives by adding adjective suffixes and making any
consequent changes. Some words may have more than one adjective suffix.
1. style
2. cycle
3. wish
4. allergy
5. care

*Exercise 5.9 Adjective classes

Construct three sentences for each of the following central adjectives. Use the adjective in
the (a) sentence as a pre-modifier of a noun, in the (b) sentence as a subject complement, and
in the (c) sentence as an object complement.
1. useful
2. foolish
3. difficult

Exercise 5.10 Gradability and comparison

Give the inflected comparative and superlative of each of these adjectives.
1. pure
2. cruel
3. easy
4. narrow
5. happy

5.13 Adverb suffixes

Convert the following words into adverbs by adding - ly or - ically and making any consequent
changes.
1. genetic
2. realistic
3. lazy
4. specific

Exercise 5.14 Pronoun classes

Circle the antecedents of the underlined pronouns and possessive determiners.
1. Scientists have discovered that pets have a therapeutic effect on their owners.
2. A dog, for instance, can improve the health of the people it comes in contact with.
3. In a recent study, the blood pressure of subjects was measured while they were petting their
pets.
4. In general, an individual‟s blood pressure decreased while he was in the act of petting his pet.

Exercise 5.15 Personal pronouns

Specify the person (first, second, or third), number (singular or plural), and case (subjective or
objective) of the underlined personal pronouns. If the pronoun has a form that neutralizes the
distinction in number or case, state the alternatives, and if only one of the alternatives fits the
context underline that alternative.
 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

1. Most of us don‟t have the time to exercise for an hour each day.
2. We have our hearts in the right place, though.
3. I think „diet‟ is a sinister word.
4. It sounds like deprivation.
5. But people who need to lose weight find that they need to lose only half the weight if they
exercise regularly.

Exercise 5.16 Possessives

Indicate whether the underlined words are possessive determiners or possessive pronouns.
1. Can you tell me your address?
2. You‟ve made a mistake. The phone number is not his.
3. This is Doris and this is her husband David.
4. Justin borrowed one of my videos, but I can‟t remember its title.

Exercise 5.17 Reflexive pronouns

Fill in each blank with the appropriate reflexive pronoun.
1. We congratulated ____________ on completing the job in good time.
2. I ____________ have arranged the meeting.
3. I wonder, Tom, whether you wouldn‟t mind helping ____________.
4. I hope that you all enjoy ____________.

Exercise 5.18 Demonstrative pronouns

Specify whether the underlined word is a demonstrative pronoun or a demonstrative determiner.
1. This happens to be the best meal I‟ve eaten in quite a long time.
2. Put away those papers.
3. That is not the way to do it.
4. You‟ll have to manage with these for the time being.

Exercise 5.19 Relative pronouns

Indicate whether the underlined clause is a relative clause or a nominal relative clause.
1. We could see whoever we wanted.
2. They spoke to the official who was working on their case.
3. This is the bank I‟m hoping to borrow some money from.
4. You can pay what you think is appropriate.

Exercise 5.20 Pronouns

Indicate whether the underlined pronouns are personal, possessive, reflexive, demonstrative,
reciprocal, interrogative, relative, or indefinite.
1. Nobody has ever seen a unicorn.
2. I intend to collect beetles.
3. What do you want me to do?
4. He can resist everything except temptation.
5. She did it all by herself.

Exercise 5.21 Indefinite pronouns

 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

Indicate whether the underlined determiners are definite articles, indefinite articles,
demonstratives, possessives, interrogatives, relatives, or indefinites.
1. His parents would not let him see the video.
2. Many applicants were given an interview.
3. Whose shoes are those?
4. What plans have you made for the weekend?

Exercise 5.22 The articles and reference

Indicate whether the underlined phrases are generic or non-generic.
1. There is no such beast as a unicorn.
2. The train is late again.
3. The dinosaur has long been extinct.
4. Teachers are poorly paid in this country.
5. He came on a small market where women were selling dried beans.

Exercise 5.23 The articles and reference

Indicate whether the underlined phrases are specific or non-specific.
1. Can you find me a book on English grammar?
2. Here is a book on English grammar.
3. I‟d like a strawberry ice cream.
4. He says he hasn‟t any stamps.
5. Who is the woman you were talking to at lunch?

Exercise 5.24 Meanings of the modals

Paraphrase the meanings of the underlined modals in the sentences below.
1. If you hit volleys like this you will have lots of success.
2. In addition to the basic volley, you may have to play half-volleys.
3. If played badly, a half-volley can have drastic consequences.
4. The grip must be firm on impact.
5. Although you can use a two-handed volley, the major disadvantage is one of reach.

*Exercise 5.25 Meanings of the modals

Explain the ambiguity of the underlined modals in the following sentences by paraphrasing the
different meanings.
1. They may not smoke during the meal.
2. Could you explain these figures to the tax inspector?

*Exercise 5.26 Conjunctions

Examine the sentences below. Then explain the differences in the uses of the coordinators (and
and or) and the subordinator when
1. The election was held last month, and the government was decisively defeated.
2. The election will be held in June or in July.
3. I intend to travel where I like and when I like.

Exercise 5.26 Prepositions

 I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 8 sem I, 2014

Indicate whether the underlined words are subordinators or prepositions by putting „S‟ or „P‟ in
the brackets that follow each word.
While ( ) he developed the theory of special relativity in ( ) about 1905, Albert Einstein lived
with ( ) a fellow student of physics who became his first wife. Some researchers believe that ( )
his wife Mileva should get at least some of the credit for ( ) the theory, since ( ) there are letters
from ( ) Einstein to her that refer to „our work‟ and „our theory‟.

Exercise 5.27 Word classes

At the end of each sentence you will find a label for a word class. Underline all the words in the
sentence that belong to that word class.
1. It is remarkably difficult to define what literature is. – main verb
2. Some definitions of literature say that it is language used for making fiction. – noun
3. Other definitions say that it is language used for the purpose of pleasing aesthetically. –
preposition
4. However, some critics have shown convincingly that the two definitions are necessarily
connected. – adverbs