Unit 1

History of Grammatical Study

Traditional grammar (5th century BC / early 20th century)
The primary goal of traditional grammar is description (taxonomy) rather than explanation.
Antiquity
* The earliest grammar is one of Sanskrit language of ancient India, created during the 5th century B.C by
the Indian grammarian Panini.
* In Europe this study began with the ancient Greek, they introduced the concept of grammatical
categories. The Greek grammatical tradition was passed on to the Romans, who translated the Greek
names for the part of speech and grammatical endings into Latin.
* Before medieval times, Arabs started the grammatical study of their language.
Middle Ages: (5th – 15th)
* Earlier Middle Ages: Because of the spread of Christianity and the translation of the Bible, written
literatures began to develop among non-literate peoples.
* Later Middle Ages: this access to several languages made people to think about the question of
universals. This event was intensified by the invention of printing in the 15 th century because the
comparison between languages was easier.
Renaissance
* 15th – 16th century: consolidation of European vernacular (colloquial speech) languages.
* In 17th and 18th centuries grammarians tried to discover logical rules of syntax and usage which are
almost invariably prescriptive, admitting that the structure of Latin is universally valid canons of logic.
The comparative studies in those times led to determine which language might be the oldest. In the early
18th century, Leibniz suggested that most European, Asian and Egyptian languages might have a
common ancestor, which is called Indo-European language.
* By the 19th century, neogrammarians made known a method of comparing and relating the forms of
speech in numerous languages which is known as Indo-European grammar and it used Panin’s work as a
guide. This method made possible the creation of language families.

Structural grammar (1920’s – 1970’s)

After the early 20th century, grammarians began to describe languages on purely linguistics terms. As a
result, three grammars were produced:
- Traditional grammar: took place in the first part of the 20th century occupying Poutsma and Kruisiga a
central position, their works are conservative, very detailed and thoroughly documented.
- Descriptive grammar: Jespersen one of the earliest linguistics described the formal structural units on
the spoken aspect of language rather than written documents.
- Structural grammar:
* Europe: structure meant a whole made up of parts which were related to each other in specific
ways. The key figure from 19th to 20th century was Saussure. The publication of the “Cours” has been
linked to “Copernican Revolution” in the subject; Saussure’s teachings revolved around three main
concerns:
1. Langue as an abstract system of language structure. It is the linguistics proper object of study.
Parole is considered as the actual instances of speech. The data can be directly analysed by
linguistics.
2. Synchronic study (descriptive), in which languages are treated as self-contained systems of
communication at particular time in history.
Diachronic study (historical) in which the changes undergone by languages in the course of time
are treated historically

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 3. According to Saussure’s point of view, linguistics terms must be defined relatively to each other, not
absolutely. So, langue is structure made up of elements identified and characterised by their place in the
whole system of language. The interrelations, which serve to identify these elements, take place at two
dimensions:
- The syntagmatic one represents the lineal succession of elements typical of human utterances.
- The paradigmatic one or associative one represents systems of contrastive elements or categories.
Hjelmslev defines form as the interrelations of elements and believes that the analysis of semantics
and grammar must be independent of extra-linguistic existential criteria (substance). He believes that the
relations between elements are the object of a science. The linguistic sign is made up of both, expression
and content.
* America: structure meant form, the surface level of language. Boas and Sapir described non-Indo-
European languages with no written records. They saw grammar as a description of how human speech is
organised in a language, postulating that a descriptive grammar (descriptive linguistics) should describe
the relationships of speech elements in words and sentences. According to that, Bloomfield described the
relationships which underlie all instances of speech in a particular language. They concentrated on the
utterances of speech, while descriptive grammar described the elements of transcribed speech. They
considered the phoneme and morpheme as the fundamental units of grammatical structure.
Both schools of structural grammar were a reaction against Comparative Philology, which study the history
of words in isolation. However, since the mid 20th century, Modern Comparative Linguistics has been
concerned with establishing language families. So, they are interested in a search for linguistics universals.
Traditional Grammar Structural Grammar
It is notional because it is based on the assumption
It is formal because it claims to describe the
that, there exits universal grammatical categories which
structure of language in its own terms.
stands on meaning.
Prescriptive because it prescribes how the members of Descriptive because it describes how the
a speech community should speak and write their members of a speech community actually speak
language. and write.
Humanistic their explanation are based on non- Empirical in the sense that it insists that its
linguistic correspondences. staments are verificable and refutable.
It often confuses levels of analysis. It distinguishes various levels of analysis.
They give pseudo-explanations of selected sentences, They explain their methodological
artificially manufactured to fit their rules. assumptions.
They take into account semantics. They pay no attention to semantics features.
Subjective, it is related to the individual who uses the Objective: showing how the different elements
language. of language are related to one another

Functional Grammar (1930’s/1970’s - nowadays)

In the1930’s, Prague school attempted to explain the relation between what is spoken and the
context, functionalists analyses why the speaker produced a particular wording rather than any other in a
particular context. Its linguists stressed the function of elements within a language and emphasised that
the description of a language must include how messages are put across.
Functions are grouped into three kinds of metafunctions:
• Experimental is related to the way the human beings represent the world and organise it in their
minds.
• Interpersonal refers to the manner in which human beings use language to interact and relate with
each other.
• Textual deals with the organization of the message in ways which indicate how they fit in with the
others messages around them and with the wider context in which the communicative events take
place.
Generative grammar (1957 - nowadays)
By the mid-20th century, Chomsky considered grammar as a device for producing and understanding
sentences in all languages. He proposed that linguistics should provide an explanation of how sentences in
any language are derived and interpreted and they should go further than describing the structure of
languages. Consequently, he believed in a universal human grammar, being Generativism a cognitive
approach.
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According to Generativism, language acquisition is not a matter of applying general mechanisms; it has
to do with a property of the mind that differentiates humans from animals. Before 1960’s the study of
children language was dominated by the Behaviourist. As regard this, language acquisition was
understood as a habit system which was determined by available evidence. However, this approach has
some inadequacies. Sometimes language acquisition occurs in an exceptional speed which cannot be
explained by habit formation alone. What’s more, speakers have a competence that allows them to create
and understand a great variety of utterances which would not depend on behaviour.
Language as a system of knowledge results from the interaction of experience and the
organism’s method of dealing with it. In order to improve the cognitive system, we should specify the innate
donation that joins the gap between experience and knowledge acquired. The nature of the human
language faculty is a matter of Universal Grammar; this means a framework of principles and elements
which is common to all human languages.
Generative Grammar Functional Grammar
Syntax is autonomous; a module that interfaces Grammar is semantically and pragmatically
with other components, but it is independent of grounded. It should always be studied with context
context. taken into account.
Syntax exists not for communication per se. It is Grammar and language are used to convey
related to the ability to compute and to compose. meaning and to communicate.
Humans have a language acquisition device Language acquisition takes place by general
UG, genetically and biologically designed for learning principles. No special cognitive properties
language learning per se. need to be postulated for language.
All languages may be different. The only
There is UG that contains the basic syntactic
universal principle is cognitive principle and the
properties that all languages share.
patterns that are repetitively found in discourse.
Syntax is about structures. It is separable from
Grammar is also a mapping of form and
meaning or semantics. It is also different from lexical
meaning. It could be seen as an extended lexicon.
items.
Hierarchical organization in human world may
Syntax has endocentric and hierarchical
have contributed to the hierarchical structure in
structures.
language.
Assumes that performance and competence
Competence and performance are inseparable,
are two separable levels of language analysis in the
and that performance shape how language looks.
study of language evolution.

Grammar and Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of language, which means that its investigation is done by means of
controlled and empirically verifiable observations and with references to some theoretical framework.
• As one of the humanities, it is concerned with the historical development of a particular language
or language family or with the relation between language and literature.
• As a social science, describing language as part of culture, psychology, and as a kind of human
behaviour or as a cognitive system.
• As a natural science, taking into account phonetics.
• As an applied science.
• As a formal science in relation with math and formal logic.
Fields
Psycholinguistics studies the connections between first language growth, second language acquisition
and foreign language learning.
Semantics analyses the logical aspects of language as used in thought, in science or in art.
Pragmatics specifies the uses which the elements of language are put to in social interchange.
Sociolinguistics is the study of how language functions in society. It attempts to describe the human
ability to use the rules of speech appropriately in different situations.
Chomskyan linguistics tries to gain insight into human thought and linguistic competence in order to
discover the abstract principles governing their structures.
History of language the origin of the elements of language and the changes they undergo in history.
Applied linguistics the findings of scientific language study for specific purposes.
Grammar Morphology It deals with the form and structure of words. Words vary their shape according

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 to their function in the sentence.
Its principles are the restrictions that every language has on how words must be
Syntax
arranged to build up sentences.

Unit 2
Categories are a class of lexical items sharing a common set of grammatical properties.
Jespersen’s theory of Ranks = degree of dependence between words.
Rank 1 = Noun (never modifier)
Rank 2 = Verb / Adjective (modifies primary).
Rank 3 = Adverb (modifies secondary).

Grammatical units
Sentence is a sequence of words between two pauses which forms a group knows as
constituents. A predicate can be a VP, whose finite V agrees in number and person with the nominal
construction which functions as subject. When initial position is taken by the expletive ‘there’, there is
concord or agreement between the V and the ‘notional subject’ which follows it.
* Simple. ‘It is a cat.’
* Compound. ‘[It is my cat] and [I love it].’
* Complex. ‘[It is my cat (which I found in the street].)’
Clauses is a dependent syntactic construction with an overt referential subject and a finite verb; it
can be embedded or subordinated to a main clause, in which case its meaning is not a complete.
* Main or matrix: ‘It is my cat.’
* Subordinate. ‘It is my cat which I found in the street.’
- Noun (Interrogative)
- Relative
- Nominal- relative
- Adverbial
Phrases: NP – DP – PP – AdjP – AdvP – VP.
Verb phrases: * Finite: ‘She went out last night.’
* Non-finite: ‘Walking down the street, she came across her friend.’
Words: nouns, verbs, etc.
Morphemes designate the smallest group of phonemes with meaning. It cannot be subdivided into smaller
grammatical units with semantic content.
* Free = stem are independently, the main part of a word to which an inflectional affixes can be
added. E.g.: HIT + S = HITS / WORD + S
* Bound are dependently, they must be attached to another morpheme forming part of a larger unit.
(Affixes) E.g.: COOK + -ER / HAPPY + -NESS .
Definition for lexical categories.
Linguistics categories are diagnostically described because in terms of linguistic
Structuralists. properties common to their members, we can identify categories. All forms having
the same syntactic functions constitute a form-class (word-class).
In theory, categories are defined in terms of syntactic distinctive features, in
Generative.
practice they are identified by syntactic behaviours.
A category is defined in terms of functions. This definition defines categories in a
Functionalist.
circular way and they are explanatory.

Morphology - Processes of word formation -

• Inflection is the name given to a set of features which affect the meaning of lexical items in any
language, without changing their category. E.g. ‘loves = inflection of 3º person singular.’
Morphological inflection can be either regular or irregular = internal inflection: which is realised by means of
phonological changes operated within the stem. ‘Man / men’ - ‘break / broke’

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Lexical inflection occurs when a grammatical feature is not manifested of morphological affixes to internal
changes in the stem, but by addition of or substitution for a separate lexical item, such as auxiliaries (walk
+ lexical inflection for paste tense, imperfective aspect, indicative mood = would walk). E.g., good/better -
I/we - am/ was.
Non-finite inflections affect the verb in order to form its non-finite forms.
• The infinitive, in which the functional category infinitive particle ‘to’ precedes the uninflected verb
stem. ‘to walk’
• The gerund / present participle, in which the bound suffix –ing follows the stem. ‘Walking’
• The past participle (= -n or -d ) or some internal change take place. ‘tired- broken’

Category Inflect for

Number Case Gender
Pronoun
These, those He – him - his She – he
Number Case (unproductive) Gender
Noun
Books, churches Paul’s car Paul’s car.
Degree
Adverb Easy / easier/
easiest
Degree
Adjective
Fast/ faster/ fastest
Number and person Tense/ mood/ aspect Non-finite
Verb
(he) plays (he) played To sing/ singing/ sung

• Derivation is one of the processes of word formation which involves a change in the
word class of the stem to which a derivational bound morpheme is attached. ‘Danger /
Dangerous - asleep / sleep’
Morphological process:
Syntactic process: changing Semantic process:
Changing the shape of a word
the part of speech of a word producing a new sense.
by adding an affix.
Laugh – Produce a word denoting
Add suffix –ter Change verb to noun.
Laughter an act.
Teach - Produce a word denoting
Add suffix –er Change verb to noun.
Teacher an agent.
Red - Produce a word denoting
Add suffix -ness Change adjective to noun.
Redness a property
Cardinal numbers are nouns when they refer to the mathematical figures (one, ten, twenty) and
they are determiners when preceding a noun to indicate quantity. What’s more, they form ordinal numbers
(tenth, ninth, twentieth) adding a derivational suffix “th”, and as such, they are share syntactic functions
with adjectives.
Category Suffixes
Noun-formation -er / or, -ment, -tion, -ity, -dom, -ness.
Adjective- -y, -able, -ful, -less, -ical.
formation
Verb-formation -ise / ize, -en, -ify, -ate.
Adverb-formation -ly.
• Composition at least two free morphemes get together to form another word.
E.g. Bedroom - Football
• Acronyms initials or initial syllables from different words are joined to form a single word.
E.g. UFO - AIDS - asap (as soon as possible)
• Clipping part of a word is clipped and the resulting segment becomes another word.
E.g. (News) paper - Phone - Congrats
• Blending segments from two or more words are joined to form a single word.
E.g. Brunch (breakfast & lunch) - sitcom (situation & comedy)
• Borrowing: foreign words are incorporated into the morphological system of a language.
E.g. Chatear - Golear - Genre

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 Determiners Adjectives
- Can’t be stacked (pile). - Can be stacked.
* This is A THE cat. A TINY BEAUTIFUL LIGHT butterfly.
- Positioned in front of the noun which they modify. - Distribution: attributive or predicative.
* I have car A. I have A car. * An awful girl. The girl is awful.
- Singular count nouns cannot stand on its own. - In this case, we need a determiner too.
* I sit on ? chair. I sit on A chair. A FAST track.
- Grammatical restriction. - Semantic restrictions.
The car / A car / *Some car - Some cars. A funny person /? A funny chair.
Pronouns.
- Nouns-P has no descriptive content on its but it
Those flowers are green but this ONE is red.
takes it from its antecedent.
- Determiners-P are prenominal determiners, which
I prefer THAT (those, this, these)
modifies the following noun.
- Quantifiers-P modify and quantify the following I need SOME money –prenominal-
noun expression. I give you SOME. -pronominal-
Auxiliary verbs Lexical verbs
- Allow verbal complements - Different types of complement.
She HAS GONE. I WANT SOME MONEY.
- Carry grammatical properties. - Carry meaning
Tense –did, do / Aspect –has, had I help you.
- Do not themselves permit inversion
- Can undergo inversion.
Does he understand the speech?
Can you speak loudly?
* Understand he the speech?
- Direct negation. - Indirect negation. (Do-support)
You can’t swim. You don’t want to do it.
- Can appear in sentence-final tags. - Can’t themselves be used in tags.
You can do it, can’t you? She swims, * swim she? / DOES she?
Infinitival ‘to’ ‘to’ preposition
- Bare infinitives as complement - Nominal or gerundial complements.
We finished TO WORK. He goes to the cinema. I prefer walking to climbing.
- Not intensified - Can be intensified.
* He was trying right to study. He goes RIGHT to the cinema.
- Ellipsis of its complement. Do not permit the ellipsis of its complement.
Do you want to swim? I want to (swim). * He goes to.
- Bears similarities with auxiliaries, such as verbal
----
complement.
‘for’ complementiser ‘for’ preposition
- Cannot be intensified. - Can be intensified.
* It’s vital right for us to study. He goes STRAIGHT to the police.
- Can be subject of a sentence. - Can’t be subject of a sentence.
FOR us to study is important. For me grammar is difficult.
- Verbal complement. - They are followed by a gerund.
It’s important for us to work harder. Thanks FOR COMING.
- Can be replaced by a ‘that-clause’. - Can’t be replaced by a ‘that-clause’.
It’s important that students work harder.
‘that’ complementiser ‘that’ determiner
- Reduced phonetic form - Unreduced phonetic form
There are two pencils THAT we can use. I don’t want to use THAT.
- No substitution for any determiner. - Can be substituted by another one.
There are two pencils this we can use. I don’t want to use this / that.
- Can’t be use pronominally. - Prenominal and pronominal distribution.
*I hope that. / I hope that she had passed the exam. I want to do THAT WORK. I want to do THAT.
Complementiser ‘if’ Interrogative adverbs.
- Can be used in finite clauses, but not in non-finite
- Can be used in non-finite and finite clauses.
clauses.
I don’t know what to do/ we can do.
I don’t know if we travel. * You’ll fail if to study.
- Can’t be complements to prepositions. - Complements to prepositions

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* I’m concerned over [if taxes are going to be
I’m not certain of [whether to go].
increased].
- Doesn’t admit coordination. - Admits coordination.
I don’t know if or not she’ll come. I don’t know whether she’ll come.

Verbs are a category which denotes actions. The inflectional affixes attached to verbs express the
following grammatical features: person, number, tense, aspect, mood and voice. According to their
derivational morphology, verbs are classified into simple -go / do-, derivate -shorten / simplify-, compound
–undergo / overcome-.
* Finite verbs are limited by agreement and tense features and in English; they always take an overt
subject. E.g., ‘She looks tired.’ ‘He went back home.’
* Non-finite verbs (infinitive, gerund, past/present participle) forms form part of non-finite clauses, with
different syntactic positions within the sentence, but they occur in finite clauses as complement to auxiliary
verbs.
* An infinitival clause is a tenseless functional phrase headed by an overt/covert infinitive particle,
whose complement is a lexical verb phrase headed by an uninflected base verb form. Its subject is often
realised by PRO. ‘He expects [PRO to call you].’
* A gerundial clause is a tenseless lexical verb phrase headed by a verb in its –ing form. These
clauses take the same sentence positions as a noun construction. ‘[Smoking] is bad for you.’
* A present participle clause is a tenseless lexical verb phrase headed by a verb in its –ing form.
Its subject is often a non-overt element. It can occur in different position within the sentence. ’[Walking
down the street] I came across with Peter.’
* A past participle clause is a tenseless lexical verb phrase headed by a verb in its past participle
form. Its subject is often a non-overt element. ‘He was [tired of his boss].’
Abridge Purpose
Infinitival
clause adjunct Complement
Extraposed Complement
Complement Theme in Subject to transitive
subject to adjectives
Gerundial to a existential verbs.
preposition sentences Main
Adjective predication
Present Abridge
pre- Adjuncts Predication Pre-
participle clauses
modifying Free in non- finite modifying a
with overt
Past adjuncts clause. noun.
subject
participle
Intransitive verbs have been described as one-place predicates, denoting actions which involve a single
entity, with their sole argument -theme- taking the syntactic position of subject.
Unaccusative Unergative
Inherit Ergative It may select locative / goal PP complement.
‘The window broke’
Presentational ‘appear’ - THEME
Being denominal, they can be paraphrased by
Motion ‘go’ - Existential ‘[The children] AGENT
transitive construction in which the nominal object
‘exist’ - Spatial broke PREDICATE
MONOTRANSITIVE incorporates into the verbal head.
configuration ‘stand’-
(the window) THEME’
Take an overt locative complement, which is
generally realised by a prepositional or an adverbial May have transitive behaviour.
construction or an adverb.
The entity is not assigned accusative case
Do not take an accusative complement
features (it’s not a direct object to the verb)
E.g., They have arrived here. E.g., He gave a laugh - He laughed loudly.
THEME PREDICATE LOCATION AGENT PREDICATE ADJUNCT

Transitive verbs can be:

Two place verbs. Three place verbs
Two arguments, the external one experiencer or
agent and the internal one theme, patient or Involves 3 arguments, one external and two internal.
percept = DP - CP - TP
Monotransitive Ditransitive
Internal can be realised by a DP with accusative External arg. = agent DP subject

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 Internal arg. = theme DP direct object +
case feature.
benefactive / recipeint DP / PP
* Mary found [that attitude strange]. * She gave me [a present].
AGENT PREDICATE THEME AGENT PREDICATE RECIPIENT THEME

Subject Control Object control predicates

Take as complement either a non-finite clause with
a PRO or an overt subject.
Agent Predicate Theme
* He expects ([PRO] to call you).
Agent Predicate Recipient
ECM = Exceptional Case Marking
Take non-finite / small clauses with an overt
accusative subject as complement.
*He expects you to call him.
External arg. = agent DP subject
Internal arg. = theme DP/ IP/ CP direct object +
goal / recipeint DP / PP
They have an element of modality -Advise, Tell,
Ask-
* I persuade him to buy this house.
Locative three place verbs.
External arg. = agent DP subject
Internal arg. = patient DP direct object + goal /
source AdvP / PP /CP locative complement.
* He put the book on the table

Middle verbs are transitive verbs whose objects cannot become the subject in the passive voice.
Another characteristic of them is that the noun construction realising their complement do not always carry
accusative case feature. Only when, those complements following the verbs to marry, to resemble, to fit
and to have can be realised by pronouns with accusative case features. ‘It takes two hours to get to the
airport.’
Nouns
Criteria for definition of noun.
Logical-objective The name of a living being or thing.
Logical-conceptual A word with which we name an object thought of as an independent concept.
Morphologically and A lexical word which may follow a noun determiner is inflected by the plural
distributionally and genitive morpheme.
Structural grammar. A word that can be used as subject of a sentence.
Formal (Morphological) characteristics:
• Nouns determiners and quantifiers are function words typically used with nouns.
• Inflection nouns markers: plural suffix /s/ and genitive suffix /’s/.
• Derivational nouns makers:
Deverbal suffixes Deadjectival suffixes Denominal suffixes
-al,- ance, -ee, -er, -ment,
-ce, -cy, -ity, -ness. -ian,- ism, -shio, -er, -ist, -ster
-ure.
Arrive + -al = arrival Happy + -ness = happiness. Flower + -ist = florists
Countable and uncountable nouns:
Uncountable nouns. Countable nouns.
Individual nouns denoting
Can be used
Number No plural form Plural inflection singular or plural individual
when they refer
items: cats, men, a field.
to a particular
Null Collective nouns denote
Determiners. substance Overt determiners
determiner groups taken as a whole.
Quantifiers Much cheese, noise Many boys, books Some of them can be used
(some ones are (a) little water, milk (a) few flowers as individual, two families,
used to singular Less money, progress Fewer student but certain collective nouns
portions) Some, any, no, more, a lot of... plenty of... are never pluralised, police.
Exclamations Such – what success Such a/what a party
Abstract nouns denote entities which do not occupy a volume in the physical world. -happiness-power-
* Personified in literature and then they are spelled like proper names.
* Usually, they are uncountable nouns; therefore, they do not occur as complement to certain overt
determiners. However, they admit the /s/ affix, if they are countable.
Proper nouns are names of something specific.

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 • No semantic content of their own, they acquire meaning in context.
• They have unique reference.
• They denote, they do not connote, whereas common nouns denote and connote.
• They inflect for genitive case and they accept non-restrictive modifier. However, they take
restrictive modification, by means of which they get partitive meaning.
• Its plural form requires an overt determiner or quantifier, keeping the initial capital letter. E.g. The
Flintstones
* Personal names (without / with title) Mr Johnson, Napoleon.
* Calendar items: names of festivals, of months and days of week, which can be used as countable nouns.
* Geographical names when they premodified by a noun or an adjective, these names do not take an
overt determiner, ancient Rome, but some of these names take an overt determiner as part of them, the
Netherlands.
* Ordinary common nouns are used as proper nouns when:
- The unique reference of the noun has been institutionalized.
- used in a particular context, a Ford.
- denoting personified things, a Napoleon.
Number
The English number system comprises:
Singular Dual Plural
Includes common non-count Some non-count nouns like diseases, fields of
nouns and proper ones. Both In the case of study practical skills take only an invariable plural
concrete and abstract non-count the pronouns: form, though they do not always follow a fixed
nouns occur in their singular both, neither subject-verb inflection agreement pattern. In case
invariable form and agree with either these nouns modify another noun, they do not take
singular V inflection. the plural form.
Count nouns are variable, occurring with singular or plural (boy / boys) number or invariable, as in
the case of collective nouns (people / folk) which have singular form but always express plurality.
Gender has been traditionally traded as a system of sub classification of nouns and nominals. It
is often said that Modern English has no grammatical realization of gender. The morphology of English
makes very few gender distinctions.
Classification of nouns based on meaning and pronoun substitution.
Masculine and feminine personal nouns admit pronoun substitution by the following personal,
relative and indefinite pronouns.
- Nouns denoting natural sex distinction although morphologically unmarked for gender. E.g. Mum-dad.
- Nouns whose opposite gender forms have a derivational relationship, E.g. Actor-actress.
Dual-gender personal nouns admit pronoun substitution by the following personal, relative and
indefinite pronouns. When used generically, these nouns agree in gender with both 3º person sg and
plural pronouns (artist, teacher) but when they are used with specific reference in singular, gender
correlation must be either masculine or feminine.
Collective personal nouns have singular form and sg/pl meaning, agreeing both with singular and
plural verbs. They admit pronoun substitution by the following personal, relative and indefinite pronouns.
- Specific collective nouns can co-occur with determiners and quantifiers alike (crowd, family).
- Generic collective nouns are usually determined by the definite article and do not allow quantifiers (public,
aristocracy).
Nouns denoting animal species admit pronoun substitution by the following personal, relative and
indefinite pronouns.
• Denoting animal sex. E.g. Cow-bull.
• Whose opposite gender form have a derivational relationship. E.g. lion-lioness.
• Dual gender nouns denoting animal species admit pronoun substitution.
• Collective nouns denoting groups of member of an animal species have sg form and sg/pl meaning.
Nouns denoting inanimate entities admit relative and personal pronoun substitution, depending on
each case.
• Generally, admit pronoun substitution by the neuter-gender pronoun.
• Names of countries as political, economic or cultural entities are treated as sg feminine pronoun.
• Teams and armies are treated as collective personal nouns.

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Genitive case
* The mark of it is /‘s/, added to the base of the noun.
* /‘s/ is realized only in the singular of regular nouns and irregular ones. However, in plural nouns, it is
only attached /‘/ and in the spoken form is the same as plural. In case of proper nouns ending in s occur
the same.
* In case of more than one genitive case it is advisable to use the ‘of’ genitive instead of a series of /‘s/.
* In compound nouns, it is added in the last term.
- Absolute genitive, no head mentioned with nouns denoting place, therefore these genitive nouns
function always as locative with ‘to’ or ‘at’. (We are at Peter’s.)
- Double redundant pleonastic genitive. This form is used with noun determiner + of + ‘s. E.g. The
favourite daughter of Moore’s.
*It can be used with inflected forms of nouns not denoting animate beings expressing:
- Time: a minute or two’s meditation.
- Space: a boat’s length.
- Size: a needle’s point.
- Value: his money’s worth.
- Weight: a pound’s weight.
Use of prepositional or uninflected genitive -OF-
 With nouns denoting inanimate things. ‘The windows of all the houses were closed’
 With plural and collective nouns. ‘I think they are members of the police.’
 Adjectives and non-finite used as head.
 With names of animals. ‘The tail of the cat.’
 Nouns modified by adjuncts that cannot precede the head. ‘It’s difficult to sum up the life of Dr.
Bridget.’
 Nouns having many modifiers on the left. ‘He was the son of the well known politician.’
 When it is objective. ‘A detailed staments of the witnessed facts will follow.’

Adjectives
Morphosyntactic properties
1. They can freely occur in attributive function, they can premodify a noun, appearing between the
determiner and the noun. The beautiful house.
2. They can freely occur in predicative function, being predicative complements in finite and non-
finite clauses. She is nice.
3. They can be premodified by the intensifier very. She is very beautiful.
4. They can take comparative and superlative form. It can be realised by means of morphological
inflection (-er & -est) or lexically (more & most). Older - Oldest / More beautiful - Most beautiful.
However, not all adjectives possess all of these properties. E.g., Afraid can only occur attributively in
exceptional cases.
Adjectives & adverbs
* The regular case, where there is a morphological variation between them, the adverb is formed by the
derivational suffix –ly. Slow - Slowly.
* Adj/Adv homomorphs are exceptional, and many such uses in adverbial function occur chiefly in fixed
expressions. A fast car - she drives fast.
* Adj ending in –ly denote frequency, and can function as Adv. When we required adverbs corresponding
to –ly Adj, we normally use either a prepositional construction including an Adj in order not to avoid the
double suffix-lily. She received us in a friendly way; instead of she received us friendlily.
* Adj/Adv beginning with a- function predicatively only after be, but only a few can be freely used
attributively. Adj refers to temporary states cannot be part of the predication after verbs of motion.
Adjectives & nouns
* Nouns functioning attributively, but they posses some properties (inflection of number, genitive case,
take determiners) which distinguish them from adjectives. ‘The bus station’
* Like Adj, nouns can function as predicative complement after linking verbs, particularly after be. That
man is a fool. - The noise you heard was thunder.
Adjectives & Participles
* Participial Adj has the same suffixes as participles. ‘Surprising - Surprised’
* The form is not participles when there are no corresponding verbs. When there is a corresponding verb,
the meaning is different. Adj: She is calculating but Peter is frank. Participle: She is calculating our salaries.

10
* The presence of a direct object makes clear the difference between them. ‘They are insulting us’ Part.
* The participle reached full Adj status when it is compound with another element. E.g. Heart-breaking
Adverbs in traditional grammar are defined as a word that modifies any part of speech, except nouns
and pronouns. According to structuralism, they also modify others adverbs, occasionally, they can modify a
noun.
Morphological classification
Many adverbs have distinctive morphological characteristics, namely certain derivational suffixes.
Simple A free morpheme. Well, still, yet
Derivative With affixes. Slow + ly, after + wards.
Compound A single lexical item Some + where, some + times.
Two or more lexical
Group adverb. Inside out, here and there
items
Derivative Adverbs
* Deadjectival adverbs of manner are usually formed by adding the suffix –ly to an adjective.
* Some adverbs have the same form as the corresponding adjective.
* There are adverbs with two forms. E.g. Wrong / Wrongly However, there could be a difference in
meaning or distribution.
* It may function as nominal. E.g., Today is my birthday.
* With sensorial perception verbs, an Adj is used instead of an adverb. ‘It smells awful.’
Inflection of adverbs
* Monosyllabic adverbs form their comparison and superlative form by adding suffixes -er/-est.
* Some adv have either irregular or lexical inflection for degree. E.g. Far - further - furthest.
* Adv ending in –ly formed its superlative and comparison form by adding most and more.
Functional classification
Verb modifiers.
Syntactic Adjective modifiers.
function. Adverbs modifiers.
Sentence modifiers.
Essential
They cannot be omitted. All kind of adv which modifies the
components of the
verb.
sentence
Manner of
Incidental They can be omitted without altering the meaning at all.
modification.
components Adverbs of manner which modify the sentence.
When they mark the question and act as an adverb in the
Interrogative
question. Wh-operators.
American structuralist proposed another sub-classification, almost the same as the traditional
ones. The difference roots on incidental components, which they named it as conjunctive adverbs that
connect independent clauses. They look like coordinating conjunction but they are not as strong as that
ones.
Semantic classification
Time When? Soon, just, now, yet, still,
Duration How long? Long, a day, several weeks.
Frequency How often? Sometimes, frequently, once.
Place Where? Here, there, anywhere, at, in.
Direction Whence/ Whither? Forwards, down, away, off.
Manner How? Well, wrongly, fast, slowly.
Intensifiers modify Adv and Adj, so that it is a
Degree Very, less, almost, extremely.
criterion to classify adjectives from participles.
Quantity Much, a little, more, enough.
Affirmation Yes, of course, really, indeed.
Negation Not, no, no way, at all.
Probability Perhaps, maybe, probably.
Interrogative When, how long / often.
Relative When, where, why, whence.

11
 Order of adverbs
1. Two adverbials of place, the smaller unit is usually placed first.
2. Two adverbials of time, the smaller unit is usually placed first. However, if the largest unit is considered
more important, or if the smaller unit is an afterthought, this order is reversed.
3. The order of adverbs is MANNER + PLACE + TIME.
4. With verbs of motion and position, the order is PLACE + MANNER.
Position of adverbs
Front:
- Sentence modifiers: express the speaker’s attitude towards the likehood of what follows; they are marks
of epistemic modality. E.g., ‘Yes, I accept it.’ ‘Luckily, she won the competition.’
- Exclamatory sentences: ‘Here we go!’ ‘How nice it is’
- Interrogative sentences. E.g., ‘When did you arrive?’ ‘Where did you go?’
- Advs. of time are often place at the very beginning of the sentences. E.g., ‘Yesterday, I went out.’
- Negative adverbs are used in inversion. E.g. ‘Never have I seen such an expression.’
Mid is usually in front of the lexical verb or the adjectival/nominal predicate. E.g., ‘I nearly miss the train.’
Prequalificative Adverbs or intensifiers are modified by adjectives or other adverbs. E.g., ‘He can swim
very well.’ ‘She is really clever.’
End adverbs of frequency do not take end position. The general order is MANNER + PLACE + TIME.
However, many unaccusative and transitive verbs select locative complements, so the adverb follows
immediately the verb. E.g., He was born at 6 o’clock on Christmas morning in 1995.
Gerund is a verb with non-finite inflectional morphology. They denote an action or a state of being.
Gerunds always occur in positions usually occupied by noun construction; infinitives sometimes also take
these positions.
Gerund TP Gerund DP
As it is the subject of the sentence, it takes as its
As it is the subject of the sentence, it takes fully
complement a VP headed by a lexical finite
nominalised VP’s as its complement.
verb.
The making of the film was expensive.
Being the boss made jenny feel uneasy.
It is the direct object of transitive verbs.
X
I hope that you appreciate my offering.
It is the nominal predicate of the sentence.
X
He has been giving playing all day.
Is the complement of the preposition ‘for’ Is the complement of the preposition ‘of’.
You might get in trouble for faking an illness. I’m afraid of his questioning.
• Certain sense verbs select an ECM non-finite TP complement headed by either a gerund or an
uninflected base form (bare infinitive)
• In non-finite TP’s, the use of the gerund indicates imperfective continuous action, while the use of
the bare infinitive indicates perfective point in time action.
• A gerund with nominal distribution should be transferred into Spanish either by a finite clause with
its verb carrying subjunctive mood inflection, an infinitive TP, or even a noun construction.
Participle is a verb that carries non-finite –ing (present) or -n, -en, -ed, -d, -t (past) inflections and
sometimes has the same distribution as an adjective, so they modify nouns and pronouns. They are verbs
and therefore denote actions or states of being.
 A participial TP takes as its complement a lexical VP headed by a V with some participial inflection.
‘Walking down the street, she came across with Peter.’
 A participial free adjunct TP must have its PRO subject co-indexed with the matrix subject. When it
been topicalised, a comma should be placed after the TP.
 Abridge non-restrictive relative clauses may surface as participial TP’s, but they should always be
set off with commas. If it is an abridged restrictive relative clause, no commas should be used.

12
 Unit 3
Empty categories (constituents) have no overt phonetic form.
1. PRO is the null subject of infinitive clauses. It has the same grammatical and referential features as
pronouns. The overt subject of the matrix clause is the controller or antecedent of PRO. Subjectless
infinitive clauses have an implicit subject which can be overt if we paraphrase the clause.
There are cases in which the reference of the PRO is discourse-determined; it has no obvious
controller within the sentence containing it. E.g., “It’s important [PRO to study harder]”. In other cases,
the antecedent is any arbitrary person you care to choose, so it is uncertain.
2. Null auxiliaries/ Null T have not phonetic forms but retain its grammatical and semantic properties. E.g.,
‘She could have helped her.’ The T constituent undergoes a particular form of ellipsis called gapping;
when the head of a phrase is given a null spellout. A further argument comes from cliticisation; a process
by which one word attaches itself in a leech-like fashion to another. E.g., “You should have been there”. In
clauses containing an auxiliary, the auxiliary is directly merged with the tense affix to form an auxiliary +
affix structure; in auxiliariless clauses, the tense affix is lowered onto the main verb by an Affix Hopping
operation, so forming a verb + affix structure. All finite and infinitival clauses contain a TP, and that T is
overt in clauses containing a finite auxiliary or infinitival to, but is null elsewhere.
3. Null Complementiser; All finite clauses whether main clauses or complement clauses, are CPs
headed either by an overt or null complementiser which marks the force of the clause.
4. Null determiners when a noun expression contains no overt determiner or quantifier the expression
is called bare nominals. All nominals and pronominal expressions are D-expressions.
5. Unfilled infl. E.g., ‘He loves maths.’ In this sentence, the tense and agreement properties of the head V
of VP infect up to INFL. Percolation is an operation by which a feature which is attached to one category
comes to be attached to another category higher up in the structure.
Theta theory
Argument structure determines how many participants are involved in the activity expressed by the
predicate (the lexical item that specifies the argument structure). These elements specify the scenario;
they are explicit and must be distinguish from adjuncts, which are not selected by the verb. The
subcategorization determines the internal structure of the VP.
There are 3 way of referring to arguments of a given verb.
• Theta roles = Semantic function.
• Grammatical features = Subject, Direct Object;
• Syntactic categories = NP, PP;
The principle that governs the mapping between theta-roles and clausal arguments is the theta-
criterion.
* The relation between arguments and theta-role must be one to one. Allows us to decide whether a given
argument belongs to a matrix or embedded clause
E.g., John loves [Math and English]. * John loves [English] [animals]
AGENT PREDICATE THEME AGENT PREDICATE THEME THEME
* It involves the existence of empty categories.
Theta-grid: theta-roles assigned to the items in the context. The information in the theta-grid may
be derivable from the semantic representation. It carries information about how many, which theta-roles
are arguments of X, which are assigned directly and which are optional.
*Nouns, verbs, prepositions and adjectives may have Argument-structure.*
The relationship between NPs in a sentence and thematic roles is not one to one.
to
Sue sold a car for $2000
Mike
Agent Goal
Source Theme Theme
Source
Goal
All theta-roles are assigned within the VP, that is, an argument must c-command the head from
which it receives a theta-role; and a theta-role cannot be assigned outside of the maximal projection of the
head in which it originates.
The relation between the head and the phrases can be:

13
External relations: they are unique. It is impossible for an anaphor or a copy of movement to have more
than one antecedent.
Internal relations: a head may assign theta-roles to more than one internal argument and it may
subcategorize more than one internal argument.
Thematic relations.
Agent Doer of the action, capable of volition. Susan hit Emily.
Patient An entity which undergoes an action. The dog bit the child.
Experiencer Who feel or perceives the event. Anne likes flowers.
Benefactive The one for whose benefit the event took place. I cooked him a cake.
Percept An entity which is experienced or perceived. John saw the eclipse.
Theme What moves or what is located where described. She gave me a book.
Instrument The object with which an action is performed. We cut it with a knife.
Location The place, concrete or abstract where sth is. I’m living in Tandil.
Source Entity from which motion takes place. She went from angry to furious.
Goal Entity towards which motion takes place. She went from angry to furious.
It is a subtype of goal. With verbs denoting
Recipient She gave me a book.
change of possession.

Unit 4
Syntax
Tree diagrams (phrase-markers) are used to represent syntactic structure. Trees represent how
sentences are build up out of various different kinds of constituents. Only constituents of the same type can
be coordinated.
Node represents a different kind of constituent of the sentence.
• Terminal nodes are at the bottom of the tree, which carries a single lexical item.
• Non-terminal nodes. DP- PP-NP-T’-V’.
• Root, the topmost node in any tree structure.
Projection is a larger expression formed by merging the head verb with another constituent of an
appropriate kind.
• Maximal projection: the largest projection expression headed by; TP
• Intermediate projection: T’ (tee-bar)
• Minimal projection: it is called head (the key word which determines the grammatical and semantic
features of the phrase)
Recursion is the property of allowing structures to contain more than one instance of a given category.
Headedness Principle / Endocentricity: every binary phrase formed by the process of merger is a
projection of a head word.
Binarity Principle: A principle of UG specifying that all non-terminal nodes are binary-branching. Merger
combines two categories at a time never more.
Extended projection principle / EPP: A finite tense constituent ‘T’ must be extended into a TP projection
containing a subject. In order to satisfy this principle expletives are sometimes used.
Hierarchical structure relations within the structure of a phrase which specify which constituents are
contained within which ones. It is used to represent sentences because linear information is redundant.
Constituent-Command (C-Command): A constituent X c-command its sister constituent Y and any
constituent Z which is contained within Y. The mother of the constituents must be the same.
Affix Hopping an unattached tense affix is lowered onto the closet overt head c-command by the affix.
Case Assignment Conditions: a noun or pronoun expression is assigned case by the closet case
assigner which c-commands it and is assigned:
• Accusative case if c-command by a transitive head
• Nominative case if c-command by an intransitive finite complementiser.
• Null case if c-command by a null intransitive non-finite complementiser.
C- Command.
Any; two uses:
o Universal quantifier with meaning similar to every / all. E.g., “Any policeman can tell you the time.”
o An existential quantifier with a meaning similar to some. E.g., “Is there any coffee left?”

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Words like ‘any’, ‘if’, ‘whether’, ‘too’, ‘nobody’ share a common grammatico-semantic feature known as
affective. As a result, these words are affective constituents. E.g., I doubt whether he would lift a finger to
help you.
Expressions which are restricted in this way, e.g., “He would do something to help you” are referred
to as polarity expressions, because they seem to have an inherent affective polarity, this means that they
are restricted to occurring in affective contexts. E.g., “The fact that he has resigned won’t change
anything”. *“The fact that he hasn’t resigned will change anything”. It is ungrammatical because “hasn’t”
does not c-command “anything”. A polarity item must fall within the scope (context of influence) of an
affective constituent; and it has been suggested that the relative cope of constituents can be defined in
terms of the structural relation c-command.
C- Command condition on polarity expressions: A polarity expression must be c-commanded by
an affective constituent.
Anaphors have the property that they cannot be used to refer directly to an entity in the outside
world, but rather must be taken their reference from an antecedent elsewhere in the same sentence. These
include reflexives and reciprocals. E.g., “He can feel proud of himself.”
C-command condition on binding: A bound constituent must be c-commanded by an appropriate
antecedent. As a result, it defines the right position for the antecedent.

Coordination consists in arranging elements of the same grammatical value into groups joined
by a conjunctions or punctuation marks. Sometimes coordinating conjunctions are used to introduce a
sentence and to coordinate two different clauses.
Type Meaning Conjunction
Copulative Addition AND, besides, furthermore, moreover.
Adversative Contrast BUT, yet, still, however
Alternative Choice OR, NOR, either...or, neither...nor
Illative Consequence-Cause SO, therefore, then, consequently, for
Explanatory Paraphrasing THAT IS, such as, namely
Asyndetic Addition / Consequence ,-;-

Unit 5
Aspect refers to the different ways in which the temporal constituency of a situation can be
described by the speaker.
Perfective aspect: the speaker views an event in its entirety, as a whole, without showing its internal
temporal structure. (Witness)
• Prospective aspect describes a state relative to some future event.
• Perfect aspect is retrospective; it indicates the continuing present relevance of a past event. It may
express a past experience, a result, a recent event or an ongoing event. It is expressed by the
English perfect tense, which is used to present events which have taken place before another time
or events whose exact time of occurrence is not important. However, past perfect can refer to
definite time.
• Perfective aspect might be used with internally complex events, it has phases and it is not viewed
as a single whole.
Imperfective aspect occurs when the speaker presents the internal temporal constituency of an event as
if she/he were placed inside it.
• Habitual aspect describes the successive occurrence of several instances of a given event. It is
compatible only with dynamic verbs and the event refers to a feature of a whole period.
• Continuous aspect. The speaker views an event in its duration. If the event is presented as
continuous it is stative aspect (permanent situation), but if the event is presented as in progress
during a given period the aspect is called progressive. The use of stative verbs in progressive
aspect may denote the annoying effect of an event, distorted perception or momentary states.
Although the –ing form is an essential ingredient of the English Progressive, in non-finite
constructions without the auxiliary be the –ing form does not necessarily have progressive meaning;
in fact they indicate simultaneity with the situation of the main verb.
The perfective and progressive aspects are normally excluded when the modals express ‘ability’ or
‘permission’, and when ‘shall’ or ‘will’ expresses ‘volition’. A telic situation is one that involves a
process that leads up to a well-defined terminal point, beyond which the process cannot continue.

15
 Of inert perception & cognition Like, Doubt, Smell, * Do not denote change.
Stative * Denote a permanent state.
verbs. Of relation Be, Seem, Belong, * Don’t appear in pseudo-cleft
sentences.
Of transitional event Arrive, Leave, Fall, * Can occur as imperatives.
Of activity Ask, Call, Drink, * Co-occur with adverbs of manner.
Dynamic
Of process Change, Grow, * Appears in pseudo-cleft
verbs. sentences.
Of bodily sensation Ache, Feel, Hurt,
Of momentary events. Hit, Jump, Knock, * Can appear in DO constructions.

Events: Actions & States.

Factual: Aspect. Non factual: Mood & Modality.
Perfective Imperfective Deontic Epistemic
The distinction between relative and absolute tenses lies on whether a verb includes as part of its
meaning the present moment as deictic centre. In general, finite verbs denote absolute tense and non-finite
verbs denote relative tense.
Present Perfect has four uses:
* Past experience: it is used to express an action or state which takes place in the past and is now finished,
but we are not interested in when it took place. ‘We have never visited her.’
* Ongoing events: refers to an action which started in the past and still continues. ‘I have lived here since I
was ten.’
* Present results: refers to a past action and implies the result of the action in the present. ‘She has
broken her leg.’ (This is the reason why she cannot walk correctly.)
* Recent event: express an event, which has taken place immediately before the time of the utterance.
‘They have just arrived from Europe.’
Tense is defined as the grammaticalisation of location in time. It is expressed by the verb or by
grammatical words adjacent to the verb, that is to say auxiliaries. Tense is deictic as its reference point in
time is present, however, aspect is non-deictic, since the internal temporal constituency of a situation is
independent of its relation to any other time point.
Tenses have meanings definable independently of a particular contexts; it is possible for a given tense to
have more than one meaning, in which case some meanings may be more basic than others.
Absolute tense is a tense, which includes the present moment as part of its meaning.
* Present. It means location of a situation at that point.
- Performative sentences: ‘I promise to pay you ten pounds’.
- Simultaneous reports of an ongoing series of events, there is a coincidence between the time location of
a situation and the present moment, ‘Red cover crosses the finishing line’.
- Situations that occupy a much longer period than the present moment: ‘The author is working on chapter
two’.
- Habitual meaning: ‘She goes to work at eight o’clock everyday’. It lies on the boundary of the three
systems of:
◦ Tense since it involves the location of a situation across a large slice of time.
◦ Aspect as it refers to the internal temporal line of a situation.
◦ Mood as it involves induction from limited observations about the actual world to a generalisation about
possible worlds.
* Past tense locates the situation in question prior to the present moment without saying if the situation
continues to the present or the future. It is immutable. ‘John lived in France from 1987 to 1990.’
* Future the situation is at best an implicature. The future is more speculative because it may be change
by any intervening event. ‘Peter will be leaving his house when you call on him.’
Relative tense is a tense that does not includes the present moment, as deictic centre, in its
meaning. The reference point for location of a situation is some point in the time given by the context, such
as adverbs like on the day before, on the next day.
Modality refers to the ways the speakers express their attitudes and opinions, and the ways in
which others may report their expressions of them, too. It is characterised of expressing two basic features
of meaning subjectivity and non-factual. It has to do with the capacity the speaker has to assert, question,
deny, or merely suppose the content of a proposition –a state of affairs which may or may not involve the
speaker him/herself-.

16
English modality is mainly conveyed by modal auxiliaries, which are considered anomalous or defective
verbs. However, it can be expressed by other categories such as adverbs (perhaps, probably, maybe);
adjectives (likely, possible); nominal constructions (there’s a chance that...) and even some verbal phrases
(I’m supposed to...)
Epistemic modality
Logical necessity:
Deductions made in the light of
factual data.
Factual Possibility:
What the speaker believes to be a
fact.
Theoretical Possibility:
What the speaker believes to be a
fact.
Ability:
Some personal skill possessed by
the doer licenses the action
Deontic modality.
Willingness:
Someone wishes to do
something.
Negative form:
Refusal to do something.
Permission:
Someone is allowed or permitted
to do something.
Negative form:
Permission no granted on a
particular occasion.
Obligation:
Someone is compelled to do sth.
Prohibition:
Someone is compelled not to do
sth on a more permanent scale.
‘Can’ refers to something which is permitted or allowed or which is possible to happen in certain context.
* It is concerned with matters of knowledge, certainty, belief or
opinion rather than fact.
* It is associated with the speaker’s attitude concerning the truth or
falsehood of the information given in the proposition.
I finished school last year, so he must do so this
Must
one.
Can’t She is late, so we can’t go to the cinema.
Should I should be at the congress.
Ought to The classes ought to take 3 hours daily.
Will The part will be finished by now.
Would She would be her teacher.
Could The road could be blocked.
May (not) She may be here.
Might (not) What she told you might not be true.
Can It can be raining there, so take an umbrella.
Can / Can’t She can play the guitar very well, but she can’t sing.
Could (n’t) He could never play football very well.
* It is concerned with the necessity or possibility of acts performed by
morally responsible agents.
Will Will you have another cup of tea?
Won’t We won’t go there.
Would Would you open the door?
Shall We shall go to the cinema.
Should I should agree his proposal.
May (old use) May God help us.
Can Can I go to the toilet?
Can’t You can’t walk on the grass.
Could Could I leave some minutes before?
May You may borrow my t-shirt if you like it.
May not You may not tell him about that.
Might Might I ask something?
Compulsion:
Must You must be here in ten minutes.
Mustn’t You mustn’t go out at night.
Have to You have to use this uniform.
Need to You need to be on time.
Shall (legal) The officer shall inform of any change.
Reasonable Obligation:
Should You should do what he ordered.
Shouldn’t He shouldn’t react in that way.
Ought (n’t) to The rich ought to be heavily taxed.
Lack of obligation:
Needn’t You needn’t have to bring me a present. (made it)
Don’t have to You don’t have to bring me a present. (not made it)
You didn’t have to go to the market; they send the
Didn’t have
products.
Needn’t have I needn’t have gone to the market.
17
 1. Permission afforded by a volitional entity.
• Deontic: the entity that allows someone to so sth is a 2º or 3º person.
• Could is a less formal form of can.
• Its past form is ‘was/were allowed to’
* You can borrow my car, but be careful.
2. Possibility licensed by circumstance;
• Epistemic modality of theoretical possibility: the event is an outcome of a given
circumstance; it is hypothetical.
• There is no past form.
• It includes general truth.
* It can rain quite a lot in Ireland in August.
3. Possibility licensed by some personal skill possessed by the doer;
• Epistemic: it requires ability.
• Could is the past form of can when the ability is expressed as an imperfective event. To
express perfective ability we use construction such as ‘was/were able to’, ‘managed to’, and
‘succeeded in’.
* Mary can speak English very well.
4. Can / Can’t
• Epistemic, logical necessity: when it expresses the interrogative and negative form of
epistemic ‘Must’
* That can’t be right. There must be some mistake.
‘Could’
1. Epistemic modality, factual possibility, present or future. Similar to ‘Might’ or ‘May’.
• The past form of ‘could’ is ‘could have + past participle’.
* I think that this could be the solution of our problems.
• It can expresses:
- Suggestions: ‘I could just cook dinner tonight and the he could cook it some other night.’
- Criticism: ‘You could have told me...’
- Request: ‘Could you just shut up for a minute?’
2. Deontic when it is more polite alternative to ‘can’ to express permission.
* ‘Could I talk to you for a moment?’

Mood is one of the categories of the verb, which denotes the style or manner of the action.
* The Indicative mood indicates that the action is a fact, in close relation to reality.
- ‘She plays tennis every week.’
* The Imperative mood expresses order and commands for actions, which may or may not be carried out
later on. It is non-factual and its subject it is always the 2º person singular without phonetics realization.
- ‘Don’t touch this picture.’
* The Subjunctive mood represents a desire; a plan, a demand, or a thought, which may or may not have
occurred. So, it is non-factual, it describes the action as a conception of the mind, it does not guarantee the
truth. The formal mark in the present tense is the absence of the inflection for the 3º person singular, so it
resembles the uninflected verb form of a bare infinitive. Its use is rather formal and quite frequent in
literary, scientific or legal language.
- ‘They asked that she be there on time...’
In present day, there are three substitutes for the Subjunctive mood.
- Functional categories: modal verbs: may-might; shall-should; will- would. ‘May we find peace.’
- Infinitive verb form: ‘He told him to leave home.’
- Conditional sentences: According to the degree of probability of the occurrence of the action
involved, they are divided into 3 types:
* PROBABILITY -real conditions-: something will happen only if a certain condition is fulfilled. ‘If it
rains, he will stay at home.’
* IMPROBABILITY: the action expressed in the if-clause is not carried out, but it is possible to
imagine a probable result. ‘They would be pleased if he came.’
* IMPOSSIBILITY -unreal conditions-: the condition expressed by the verb in the past perfect from
was not completed. It is Non-factual. ‘He would have met you if you had stayed at home.’

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Uses of the subjunctive:
- The mandative subjunctive. It can be used with any verb in a that-clause when the superordinate clause
satisfies the requisite semantic condition.
- The formulaic subjunctive. It is used in certain set expressions chiefly in independent clauses.

Unit 6
Subordination is the process by means of which a clause is embedded within a sentence.
Embedding principle: any grammatical sentence may be embedded in another sentence becoming a
subordinate clause.
Relative clauses:
 It is part of a DP and modifies or qualifies either the whole phrase or just the noun within that
phrase. The phrase qualified is called antecedent.
 They are attached by iterating NP or DP
 It can be introduced by a relative pronoun or by a relative adverb, which always refers back to the
antecedent.
- ‘That is the man who bought your car.’
Antecedent Relative clause
Restrictive relative clause. Non-restrictive relative clause.
* Always modifies a nominal construction * Always modifies a noun construction
whose reference is not definite. whose reference is already definite.
* It cannot be omitted because the * It can be omitted.
meaning of the clause might change.
* They define the antecedent. * They qualify the antecedent.
* Do not follow proper names. * Usually written between commas.
* Are often contact clauses. ****
‘That’s the man whose father won the ‘The red Ferrari, which I love, is being
lottery.’ removed from the market.’
Contact relative clause: when the relative operator function as object, locative complement or
adjunct within the relative clause, its phonetic features can be generally omitted. ‘Give me the tapes (you
bought yesterday).’
Finite Relative clause: CONTACT
- Null operator as a subject
Non-finite Relative clause: CONTACT
Double binding: the relations similar to the one established in an interrogative sentence / clause,
where the operator combines a variable element.
The connectives = Relative Operators
 Links the subordinate clause with the main clause.
 Refers back to / are co-referential with their antecedent.
 Functions as a constituent within the clause they introduce.
 Their phonetic realization can be omitted, in this case the complementiser ‘that’ may introduce the
clause - ‘Thanks for the help (that) you have given me.’ -, but it cannot be omitted when they are:
- Determiners.
- The subject of the clause.
- Preceded by a pied- piped preposition.
- In a non-restrictive relative clause.
 Can be:

Relative Pronouns: Who - Whose - Which - Whom

Persons & (Animals) Things Persons & Things.
Nominative case Who Which Ø
Genitive case Whose Whose Whose
Objective case. Whom Which Ø
Of whom / Who ... to Of which... to Ø ... of (stranded)
Oblique case.
To whom / who ... to To which ... to Ø ... to (stranded)
Relative adverbs: - When - Where - Why - How -

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 * The antecedent will always be nominals denoting place, time, reason and manner.
* If the relative adverb is covert, when their antecedent is a DP such as the place, time, reason or way, the
complementiser that can be overt or covert.
* ‘How’ is only an interrogative adverb, since it cannot introduce a relative clause. It does not have an
antecedent.
* If the antecedent is a specific noun denoting place or time, the relative adverbial clause will be non-
restrictive.
* If the antecedent is a generalised noun the relative will be restrictive, because it identifies which place,
time, reason is meant.

‘That-relatives’
• Can occur in finite relative clauses.
• Does not allow pied-piping of a preposition.
• Involve movement of a wh-pronoun to spec-CP, with the wh-pronoun obligatory receiving a null
spellout in consequence of the MFCF -Multiply Filled COMP Filter, any CP which contains an
overt complementiser with an overt specifier is ungrammatical-.

Noun clauses refer to the declarative and interrogative embedded finite clauses which have the
same syntactic distribution as DP nominals.
• They are CP, headed by a null or overt complementiser, which occupies the slot Cº.
• ‘He felt [that the party had suddenly gone wrong.]

Declarative Noun Clauses are constructions which share the semantic and syntactic characteristics of a
matrix sentence, except for the fact that they are dependent.
• Introduce by C ‘that’ either overt or covert.
• Do not involve any operator movement, no Wh-movement inside the clause.
• Cannot occur as complement to a preposition unless an accusative-case-marked expletive
introduces it.
• Syntactic distribution: It could be direct object of a transitive verb, complement to a noun /
adjective, initial subject in matrix, or subject in extraposition.
• Contact Declarative Noun Clauses: the complementiser can be covert only when the declarative
noun clause is a complement to a transitive verb.
o ‘I wish [Ø I’d bumped into you this afternoon.]
o There are certain adjectives of frequent occurrence which admit contact declarative noun
clauses as complement in oral speech. ‘I am sorry [Ø you won’t come.]’
Interrogative Noun Clauses
• Without movement. They are the YES/NO questions.
o Null operator with the same features as the interrogative adverb whether. This adverb
merges directly onto his initial position, without undergoing movement.
o Introduced by the complementiser ‘If’
o ‘I wonder [if she wants us to stay].’
• With Wh-operator movement.
o The Wh-operator cannot be omitted or covert.
o Can be complement to a preposition, but the preposition is not part of the subordinate
clause.
o ‘They asked my sister [who t had arrived late].’
Interrogative Operators.
Pronouns Who - Whom - Whose / What - Which Moved argumental or adjunct
When - Where - Why - How constituents within the clause.
Adverbs
Whether Merges at Spec-CP (no movement)
If an interrogative pronoun/adverb is preceded by a preposition, it can occur:
* Prepositional Phrase = Preposition + Noun Clause. The preposition phrase will take the syntactic position
of complement to a Noun.
- ‘We all have our opinions about [what t is the best pronunciation in English].’

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 * Prepositional interrogative noun clause. Here we have a prepositional phrase whose complement is the
wh-pronoun/adverb. Separation of the preposition and its pronoun/adverb complement is more likely to
occur than PIED-PIPING of the preposition along with operator movement.

Free Relatives Clauses refers to a special type of embedded finite clause which has the
same syntactic distribution as DP nominals, but whose internal syntactic structure is that of a Restrictive
Relative Clause, except for the fact that lacks an overt antecedent.
 They are always CPs. Its head is always occupied by a covert complementiser [that] to which a
Relative Affix R is head-adjoined.
 The Spec-CP is occupied by an over Wh-Relative Pronoun.
 Syntactic distribution: it could be matrix subject in initial position, matrix nominal predicate, matrix
(notional) subject in extraposition, predicate in small clauses, complement to (di) transitive verbs,
adverbial adjuncts, or complement to a preposition.
• When free relative clauses are complement to a preposition they appear as locative
complement of an unaccusative verb, complement to different kinds of three-place verbs,
adjuncts to VP, complement to a Noun, complement to a predicative Adj or Past Participle,
or adjunct to a VP containing a predicative Adj or past participle.
 WHAT and HOW can serve as free relative operators, but not as restrictive / non-restrictive relative
operators.
Relative Operators without antecedent.
Pronouns Adverbs
- What - Which - Who - Whom - Whose - Where - When- Why - How -
* Existential quantifiers. Without -ever: * Without -ever are often definite, but
definite but unspecified reference. only unspecified.
* Moved
‘Tell me what you know.’ ‘Look where you’re going.’
argumental
* With -ever indefinite and unspecified or adjunct
* The form with -ever is unspecified
reference. It can be substitute by constituent
and indefinite.
indefinite pronouns -anything-all-nothing- within the
‘Whatever he did it, it’s over and clause.
‘Whoever told you is wrong.’
done.’
* HOW alone introduce Interrogative
* WHAT can be replaced by ‘that [thing]
Noun Clauses, but not relative or
which’ = ‘lo que’.
free relative clauses.

Adverbial Clauses are finite TPs and certain CPs classified as subordinated.
• They determine the manner in which the clause they introduce modifies the main clause.
• When they are introduced by a preposition, it functions as a conjunction.
• When it is introduced by a C or a Wh- element their adverbial meaning is provided either by their position in
the sentence or by the co-occurrence of other elements within the constituent, they form part of.
• They are introduced by subordinating conjunctions, complementisers or interrogative adverbs.
• It functions as complements to verbs, adj, adv, or whole sentences.
• ‘The flowers were still fresh [when we arrived].’ -Adverbial clause of time-
• Semantic classification:
o TIME: when, whenever, while, as, since, before, after, until, as soon as.
o PLACE: where, wherever.
o MANNER: comparison as, like.
o CAUSE: because, since, as, for lest.
o PURPOSE: so that..., in order to...
o RESULT: so + adj/adv + that ...
o CONDITION: if, unless, lest, in case..., on condition..., provided..., whether, 3 types of
conditionals.
o CONCESSION: although, though, even though, even if, yet, however, nevertheless.
o REJECTED COMPARISON: as if..., as though..., (AmE)
o DEGREE: as...as..., so...as... (-er/more...) than, the... the..., so/as far as..., so/as long as...,
insofar as..., insomuch..., in as much as...

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 Complementary Object to:
VERBS may have the form of a:
- PP with a DP complement.
‘I convinced her [of his capacity].’
- PP with a Free Relative Clause as
complement.
‘He accused me [of what I had not done t].’
- Declarative Noun Clause.
‘I reminded him [that he had to see Jane].’
ADJECTIVES may have the form of a:
- Interrogative noun clause as complement.
‘She was doubtful [whether he would accept or refuse].’
- PP with an interrogative or exclamative noun clause as
complement.
‘He is conscious [of (what opportunity he has t)].’
- Declarative Noun Clause.
‘I’m aware [Ø it’s really dangerous].’
- PP with a Free Relative Clause as complement.
‘She is afraid [of (what he can do)].’
- PP with a DP complement.
‘I’m sure [of his capacity].’

Cleft Constructions gives both thematic and focal prominence to a particular element of the
clause, because it divides a single clause into two separate sections, each with its own verb. It can be
reconfigured a Pseudo-Cleft sentence. However, not all pseudo-cleft sentences admit recasting into the
cleft configuration.
• The operator introducing the end-clause in Cleft Sentences is generally covert.
• Form: It + be + X (middle focus) + (Restrictive relative clause) Free relative clause.
PREDICATE EXTRAPOSED SUBJECT
‘It is a girl that I was complaining about.’
• Its structure can be used in questions, exclamations and subordinate clauses.
‘Who was it who interviewed you?’
‘What a wonderful mess it was you made!’
• A wh-pronoun cannot be used at all in cleft sentences where the focal element is an adverbial.
Whom and which are only marginally possible, and it is virtually impossible to use whom or which
proceeded by a preposition. * ‘It was the dog to which I gave the water.’
‘It was the dog which I gave the water to.’ (Cleft sentence)
• What-clause is freely transformed with the cleft sentence.
• It puts the main focus near the front of the sentence.

* Pseudo-Cleft Constructions make explicit the division between given and new parts of the
communication. They contain at least one free relative clause as subject or as predicate.
• They occur more often with the wh-clause as subject.
‘A good nap is what you need most.’
• It is less restricted in the use of the substitute verb DO:
- Normally is in the infinitival form with or without ‘to’.
- When the verb in the wh-clause has progressive aspect, the complement matches with an -ing
clause.
- Perfect aspect + -ed clause.
• Clauses with who, where, and when are sometimes acceptable, but mainly when the wh- clause is
subject complement.
• It used to postpone the focus to the end position of the sentence.

Reduced, Abridge or Abbreviated Clauses are simpler forms of expression than full finite
clauses.
 They are either non-finite or verbless embedded clauses which may be introduced by a
subordinator.
 The subject is usually omitted and the finite TP is replaced by a non-finite TP or by a verbless.
 It deals with the omission of some of their constituents.
 In Reduced Relative clauses the relative operator, the subject and the finite inflection is omitted.
‘It is a night [not to stay outside].
 In Reduced Noun clauses the interrogative operator is kept. ‘I wonder [what e to do t this evening]
 In Reduced Adverbial clauses may retain or not the subordinating element.
Elliptical clauses have the same structure as full clauses, but the lexical verb is suppressed or omitted.
‘She might sing, but I don’t think she will.’ It is used to reduce redundancy.

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Features
The categorical features are the set of head features carried by each lexical element. Head features are
already valued (checked) when the lexical item enters a syntactic derivation. Each lexical item also carries
a set of contextual features which determines the type of constituent this item may merge with. These
contextual features are unvalued (unchecked) at the moment the item enters a derivation.
The merger and movement operations affecting the position of the subject in a sentence will be determined
by T’s contextual features and by the head features carried by the closet nominal c-command by T.
Thus, in the derivational process, the T-probe will search its c-command domain for a nominal-goal whose
features match its unvalued contextual features. Once the T-probe has found it, feature copying will take
place; the contextual features of the nominal will be copied onto the probe and subsequently valued.
After that, the probe’s and the goal’s contextual features will be deleted, this operation is called Feature
Deletion.
EPP-FEATURE: requires that every finite T have an overt Specifier, and this requirement may be fulfilled
either via merger of an expletive, or movement of the closet argument from the thematic domain.
Nominative case is assigned to a nominal whose phi-features match its own contextual features,
once they have been copied and values.
Feature Value Correlation
Interpretable features enter the derivation already valued: TENSE features on T.
Uninterpretable features enter the derivation unvalued: CASE features on nominals.
Some of the features carried by lexical items are semantically interpretable (number, person,
degree), and some are semantically uninterpretable (contextual features).
The difference between Feature Deletion operation and Trace Copy Deletion is that the former
makes the affected features invisible to the semantic component (LF), but are visible in the syntax and
Phonological components. While the second one make traces of moved constituents invisible to the
phonological component (PF); while leaving them visible in the semantic component (LF).
* The Inclusiveness Condition bars the introduction of new elements (features) in the course of a
derivation.
* Phase Impenetrability Condition argues that ‘any goal within the c-command domain of the
phase CP is impenetrable to further syntactic operations. Once a phase has been completed, its
complement is unable to undergo any further syntactic operations’.
* In sentences with unaccusative VPs, the Spec-VP is dethematised and vacant, therefore the EPP
requirement may be satisfied either by moving one of the internal argument of V to Spec-TP, or by merging
an expletive at Spec-TP.
* A constituent is active if it contains one or more features uninterpretable features.
ATTRIBUTE in the sense that it is the property being described: number, person.
To VALUE a feature is to assign it a value: singular, third.
English pronominal (closed) system
Case Singular Plural Q/R
1 2 3M 3F 3N 1 3
Nominative (Subject Pronoun) I You He She It We They Who
Objective (Objective Pronoun) Me You Him Her It Us Them Whom
My Yours His Her Its Our Their Whose
Genitive (Possessive Pronoun)
Mine Yours His Hers Its Ours Theirs Whose

Unit 7
Inversion refers to an element which is proposed to the subject. Inversion of subject or auxiliary in a
finite clause generally co-occurs with a number of words or expressions that count as NEGATIVE or
RESTRICTIVE.
1. Locative inversion with unaccusative verbs. ‘Along the lighted shore moved a wild and gorgeous
apparition of a woman.’
2. Reporting/quoting expressions with transitive verbs. ‘I’ve enough’ said John/ John said.
3. Certain adverbials with restrictive or negative meaning. It can be topicalised for emphasis, but then
the finite AUX must move to head of ToP. ‘Someone opened the door just after she rang the bell.’
‘Hardly had she rung the bell when someone opened the door.’
4. Inversion in concessive clauses: adjectival predicate, verb predicate, introduced by ‘wh’ + ever, or
in apposition, ‘He will never succeed although he tries hard.’ ‘However hard he tries, he will never
succeed.

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 5. Inversion in conditional clauses: ‘should’. ‘If you should see Jane gives him my best wishes.’
‘Should you see Jane give her my best wishes.’
Should in subordinate clauses:
1. Expressing epistemic modality in declarative noun clauses occurring as extraposed subjects,
following adjectival or nominal matrix predicates. ‘I was shocked that he should have not invited
me.’
2. As an optional auxiliary expressing epistemic modality in declarative noun clauses occurring as
complement to Deontic verbs. ‘He suggested to me that we should talk about the salary.’
3. As an optional auxiliary expressing epistemic modality in declarative noun clauses occurring as
extraposed subjects, following deontic adjectival or nominal matrix. ‘It’s essential that municipalities
should embrace proposed impact fee.’
4. Expressing epistemic modality in conditional clauses. ‘If you should see Mary, give her my best
wishes.’
5. In adverbial clauses of result. ‘I’ll give you his phone number so that you can phone him in case you
should need anything.’
Voice is a grammatical category which makes it possible to view the action of a sentence in either of two
ways, without change in the facts reported. The difference between the two voices is that the passive adds
a form of the auxiliary verb BE followed by the past participle of the main verb. This change in the sentence
may well make a difference not only in the emphasis, but also to the scope of negatives and quantifiers.
Active-passive correspondence: the active subject becomes the passive agent, the active object
becomes the passive subject and the preposition BY is introduced before the agent if it is relevant in the
action.
Copula and intransitive verbs, which have no object, cannot take passive form, some transitive
verbs, called ‘middle’ verbs, do not occur at least in some senses in the passive.
Semi-passives sentences are the ones which their members have both verbal and adjectival
properties. ‘Peter was interested in Grammar.’
Pseudo-Passive sentences are the ones whose superficial form of verb + -ed participle
recommends them for a consideration as passives. ‘The building is already demolished.’

Order of words
English is an S.V.O language. There are three relative positions of subjects and verbal predicate:
Normal order: in declarative sentences.
S P
‘The woman is looking through the window.’
This form can appear in both kinds of sentences
Sentences with an object (or a similar adjunct to the verbal predicate) opening with another
P S P
than a negative adjunct.
‘Many rabbit had he snared, without the game-keeper noticing it.’
Inversion: interrogative sentences
It’s normally used sentences beginning with the expletive ‘there’
It can be used by declarative sentences when there is another element as an object or
adjunct introduced.
P S Sentences without an object often show this order, when the subject is more important than
the verbal predicate
The most common form causing inversions are negative and restrictive adverbials,
interrogatives, exclamatives, thematization or topicalization.
‘It was difficult for me to solve this problem.'

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