Chapter I A description of the noun phrase

1.1. Highlights of the issue

A phrase is a construction which contains obligatory and optional elements and which is named after the part of speech which has a primary function within the respective phrase. It is a stretch of language which constitutes a semantic whole. There are five phrase types, functioning as clause elements. The types are named below and the corresponding clause elements are underlined in the examples provided by their side. (a) noun phrases, e.g. Her father was an overworked business man. (b) verb phrases, e.g. She never signs herself Brown. (c) adjective/adjectival phrases, e.g. Tired of playing fairy, the child was now sitting with her head on my shoulder. (d) adverb/adverbial phrases, e.g. Quite normally, late nights have a bad effect on people. (e) prepositional phrases, e.g. In terms of the financial estimates, the company was far from bankruptcy. The semantic whole to which we made reference above can be a grouping of lexical items (such as in the previous examples) or a single word, the lexical item functioning as head of the phrase. Examine this simple illustration of all those types of phrase: John never plays and people think he is dumb. We have underlined, in this order, a noun phrase, an adverb phrase, a verb phrase, a noun phrase, a verb phrase, a noun phrase (the head being a pronoun instead of a noun), an adjective phrase. The NP structure can also be described as follows: nouns, sometimes pronouns, occupy the head position and refer to the participants in the situation described in the clause. The head takes a wide range of dependent items: (1) determiners in the form of (a) determinatives (the, some, which, etc.); (b) possessive constructions (the cats..., my daughters..., a years..., the Member of Parliaments..., etc.); (c) numerals; (2) adjectives as modifiers, (3) restrictive relative clauses as qualifiers. Those are the most distinctive dependents. What is mentioned as (1) and (2) precedes the head; what is enumerated as (3) follows/succeeds the head. Consider the example with two terminological sets and suggested abbreviations: the last two unkept promises
HEAD HEAD

that I could hear from you

POSTMODIFIER QUALIFIER + [Q]

DETERMINERS PREMODIFIER DETERMINATIVES MODIFIER [DET] + [M]

[H]

It should be noted that only prepositional phrases have two compulsory elements - the preposition and the central constituent of the noun phrase to follow (further down the basic concept of this course, the noun phrase, will be abbreviated to the capitals NP). Hence one can see the importance of NPs in English sentences as a consequence of this multiplicity of functions: subject, object, complement, adverbial. We should specify a couple of things about the reference of a NP. The concept of reference points to the relation between a semantic unit and an 1

object in real life: this can be expressed as the relation between language and non-language. (In metalinguistic reference, for instance our presentation now, language refers to language as an object of study by virtue of its property called reflexiveness.) We shall be interested in more specific aspects of reference, classified as exophoric vs. endophoric (as established by the criterion distance from reality), generic vs. non-generic (the criterion is degree of generality of the statement), divided vs. undivided (the material essence of the object referred to). NPs refer semantically to aspects of the experience of a speaker which are perceived as things or entities. Thing is a vague term indeed, but it is generally considered to cover persons, objects, names of actions, places, institutions, relationships, abstractions, emotions, phenomena and possibly other classes of entities. Coreferentiality is reference to the same entity as distinct from reference to different entities. For example, if the subject and the direct object in a sentence are co-referent, reflexive pronominalization occurs: Mary expressed Mary in French Mary expressed herself in French In modifying elements, the items of information usually describe inherent, more permanent qualities of the head, whereas in qualifying elements the information is of a temporary, extrinsic kind. Compare navigable rivers to rivers navigable at this time of year. The post-head specification is potentially of a greater length (an embedded group or clause) than the pre-head one. When personal pronouns are seen as heads of NPs, they are interpreted by means of identification in the text of the noun or noun phrase for which they substitute. Exceptions are the first and second persons - I, YOU, WE, US - since they refer to participants in the speech situation. Any elements of NPs can be achieved recursively, within the process of expanding linguistic units. Each element of structure may occur more than once. Recursion/recursiveness is the property of language to repeat any unit. It is creative use of language, but it cannot be abused. The speaker obtains a complex, such as pre- and post-operative care; happy though poor; many undergraduates and a number of graduates; over the wall and into the garden. Inside recursive formulas, the relationships established can be either paratactic or hypotactic. The former is a coordinating relationship and the elements are of equal grammatical status; the latter is a subordinating relationship and the elements are of unequal grammatical status. Both relationships can be realised syndetically (by a conjunction) or asyndetically (without a conjunction; instead, in writing, a comma is necessary or, in speech, a slight pause). Let us illustrate the expansion of each element of a NP by means of recursion: (a) recursive determiner, e.g. half this last chapter (b) recursive modifier, e.g. an unattractive yellowish Venetian manuscript (c) recursive qualifier, e.g. everything most interesting to remember Finally, a recursive head can be (a) asyndetically coordinated ( Her brother is my boss, my worst enemy, my bad dream) and (b) syndetically coordinated (You or I or someone will be made to feel guilty). There are cases when an element of the NP conflates its own function and the function of the unexpanded head element. Thus, an elliptical head is found in the following example:The girl cared for yellow roses, but her sister said she preferred red . (= red roses) __________________________________________________________ 2

When determiners such as those, each, many, twenty, etc. stand alone, they are used pronominally and they are heads themselves and not elliptical heads, according to most grammarians. Then, there is the case of the conversion of adjectives, such as the humble, for which the head people is not named, but if named, this head leads to the omission of the definite determiner. There has been signalled the tendency of heads and postmodifiers to be ellipted, and this has been called final ellipsis. For example: Although Marys world of daydreams seemed to vanish, they were left with Lilys. The grammar rule of ellipsis states that some items in the antecedent are repudiated or semantically cancelled out. The two constructions - one with a full form, the other one elliptical - must have a degree of parallelism; in the most appropriate manner, they should have a contrastive relationship. In the particular case of genitive constructions, a sentence like I have to admit that your photos are as good as Toms is interpreted to be an example of ellipsis. At the same time, ... are as good as his is said to have a possessive pronoun functioning as head, so strictly speaking this is an example of substitution. The sentence Its about time you went to the barbers is treated as situational ellipsis, because the genitive does not have an antecedent for its ellipted head. Sometimes cataphoric ellipsis occurs: My first was a failure but my second essay brought such praise that I was thrilled to bits. Grammars do not treat an example such as You are my favourite as ellipsis, in spite of appearances. The last item is said to be a noun derived from an adjective by conversion, and this interpretation is supported by the behaviour of the last item when it is inflected for the plural number: You are my favourites said by a teacher to one of his classes of pupils. Substitution of H can be described in the following way: in a stretch of language, a previously mentioned noun is referred to by a word which has no semantic identity of its own, but only the grammatical function of substituting for that noun. Grammars call the items such, same, one/ones substitute heads, the first two displaying the additional semantic feature of comparison. We shall deal with them in turn. (a) THE SAME substitutes for a whole NP: The streets are infested with a band of religious beggars. They wear loose black gowns and sandals, and their wives the same (= loose black gowns and sandals) THE SAME here expresses similarity. In What make of car are you going to buy? The same as I always buy (= the same make of car) THE SAME is an elliptical adjectival head and it expresses identity. In this case THE SAME can be followed by ONE. In other examples, THE SAME extends beyond NPs and substitutes for a whole clause: The exam lasted too long. I think the same. The broad scope of reference has led to the use of THE SAME in a number of colloquial expressions: Its all the same (= it doesnt matter); Just the same... ( = Nevertheless...);Same to you! (= I wish you the same thing); Same again! (customer to bartender). 3

(b) SUCH refers anaphorically or cataphorically to a noun phrase (Is this what you call the house of my dreams? I wouldnt consider it as such = as the house of my dreams) or it substitutes for a previous clause ( Someone left a small parcel twisted up in thin white paper; such was the surprise he had promised = that was the surprise). When SUCH expresses similarity, it substitutes for a noun similar in meaning with other nouns in the context: The windows were open to admit the sun-warmed air, and also flies, bees or some such. SUCH can be analysed here as an elliptical determinative head. The implied head should be a hyperonym of the preceding nouns, such as insects. An exophoric type of reference for SUCH can be found in the following text, where there is no clue about what the item can cover: He advised me to take such and such into account. SOME SUCH above means quantification, and so do MANY SUCH and NONE SUCH: Boas grow to a great length. Many such have frightened the locals. But none such survived their guns. (c) ONE does not replace a whole antecedent NP, but only part of it and is also accompanied by a determiner, a modifier or a qualifier. We shall illustrate with the longest NP to include them all: She was overwhelmed by the verdict, that unjust, belated one which you didnt know how to take. ONE refers to a singular count noun and can be used alone: These are interesting books. Ill have one. ONES cannot be used alone: ...Ill have the most recent ones. To use this one is correct, but not the plural these ones. Compare: Ill take this one. Ill take these. ONE/ONES can be omitted after superlatives: Ill choose the most promising (ones). Pre- and post-modifiers can be described either as restrictive or nonrestrictive. In the first case, the head is viewed as linguistically identified only through the modification supplied by the respective NP: The big bottle was set in a corner and the one smaller and half-empty on the window-sill. Additional information which is not essential for identifying the head is called nonrestrictive: Helen, who is half an angel already, is an example to all of us and I couldnt ask anything better than to have my naughty daughter take pattern after her. A difference in emphasis can be pointed out: restrictive modification is given more prosodic emphasis, with the differentiating nuance that nonrestrictive premodification seems to signal a speakers wish to be taken for granted in what he informs us about, whereas restrictive premodification, just like restrictive postmodification, is interpreted as a specific means of identification. When the head-modifier relation is parenthetic, the written message is enclosed by commas and the spoken message gets a separate tone unit. Greenbaum & Quirk (l99l:366) comment on the higher degree of explicitness that goes with postmodification. We can exemplify starting from the contrast between the most envied person on earth and the person on __________________________________________________________ 4

earth whom she most envied, the latter example improving the message when it ascribes the action to a specified human being. On the other hand, postmodification itself can be shown to cover stages in ever more severe reduction of explicitness: the schemes which were rioting in her brains (a) the schemes rioting in her brains (b) the schemes in her brains (c) When compared to (c), (b) benefits from the indication contained in specified action and (a) adds the information on tense and also gender agreement of the relative pronoun with the head of the NP. Another aspect of explicitness is the ambiguity that arises in premodification and is worked out in postmodification. Thus, the NP mysterious confabulation can be paraphrased as: - conversation that is confidential, therefore inaccessible to an outsider; - conversation that sounds strange; - conversation that is kept secret by the interlocutors; - conversation that is personal and on an inexplicable topic. Or we can come across examples which are ambiguous not in point of effects, but of actions performed. For example: news room can be paraphrased as - the room in a library where you can consult newspapers; - the room in an editorial office where they write the news; - the stall where you can buy the press. A problem of syntagmatic arrangement is put forth by discontinuous NPs. Let us exemplify: the city of London proper; the best idea possible; a larger house than theirs; the easiest lesson to teach; too boring a book to read; daring enough a manager to test the market now; comparable mistakes to mine; an attractive proposal financially. These are examples (most of them comparisons) of postponement achieved for end-focus or end-weight. They can be referred to as internal discontinuities, since elements within the NP are affected and in order to make our grammar point we were not forced to intervene with material not forming part of the NP. But there are cases when postmodifying clauses are postponed: Children, the time has come to decorate the house for Christmas. To this, we add the case of postmodifying phrases of exception: All of them wanted to return except the youngest child. The subject NP in apposition with an emphatic reflexive pronouns allows nuclear stress to fall on the postponed pronoun: I showed him the mice myself. Another pronominal apposition involving all, both, each postpones the second member of the apposition to a position immediately following the operator: The stockings had all been filled by Santa Claus. When adjectives take complementation in the form of prepositional phrases, discontinuity takes place by the frequent insertion of degree adverbials: She was to be pitied, though some were fond to some extent of her early paintings. I have my hands full with Cathy and she is different in many respects from what you might expect. Due to the fact that an apposition is primarily a relation between NPs, we shall define it here and have a summary treatment of a number of 5

aspects.Two linguistic units called appositives must be identical in reference. The relationship denoted by apposition is analogous to a copular relationship: appositive l is appositive 2. (l) Mrs Worrett, an old friend of Aunt Izzies, was in the habit of coming for luncheon, on days when business brought her into town. (2) Mrs Worrett, who was an old friend of Aunt Izzies, was in the habit of ... (3) Mrs Worrett was in the habit of ... (4) An old friend of Aunt Izzies was in the habit of ... Sentence (l) is the original statement. Sentence (2) shows that appositive 2 in sentence (l) may be considered to be the reduction of a relative clause. There are grammarians who include nonrestrictive relative clauses among appositives, as long as the coreference between the WH-word in the clause and the antecedent NP is obvious. Sentences (3) and (4) are meant to show how the appositives - units of the same rank - can be omitted each in turn and the reference of the two resultant sentences is the same. Grammar books describe apposition in detail, recording the combinations of appositional types introduced as full vs. partial, strict vs. weak, nonrestrictive vs. restrictive. We shall not insist here. We will only wish to call attention upon the presence of one appositive acting as the defined element (in our example, Mrs Worrett) and the other one with a defining role (= the definer) (in our example, an old friend of Aunt Izzies). We must add that in our example, which is nonrestrictive, we find two more restrictive appositions, namely two pairs of appositives: Mrs and Worrett; Aunt and Izzie. They belong to the class of appositives with names of persons. Greenbaum & Quirk (l99l:383) caution against believing that appositives need be noun phrases exclusively, and they exemplify with the following statements having the appositives underlined: She is bigger than her brother, heavier, that is. Sixthly and lastly, I reject the claim on ethical grounds. We will eventually refer to such sentences as syntactically anomalous to some extent. Consider the examples: Like master, like man. More haste, less speed. The less said, the better. Out of sight, out of mind. No work, no money. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. They appear to be elliptical, retaining the nominal part. Their pattern is the structural balancing of two equivalent constructions. These verbless proverbs are dubbed aphoristic sentences by syntacticians. The list of verbless clauses can be lengthened with such illustrations as existential patterns in colloquial English: (l) The aunt gave the little scamps such a shake, and no mistake. (2) She might have made no promises, and nobody the less happy. (3) Aunt Ann rapped her over the head with a thimble, and she so sensitive. (4) Who wiser than you? (5) Just my luck, your forgetting about my debts. The examples above evince various logical relationships: coordination of the basic statement with a comment - and there was no mistake about that(l); nobody would have been less happy than they are now - implicit conditional in (2); ... although she is so... - concession in (3); who should be... - the rhetoric of a hypothetical subjunctive transmitting the meaning of a __________________________________________________________ 6

superlative in (4); the first appositive member in an apposition producing an identification in (5). In informal conversations, exclamatory NPs are also called nonsentences. They generally communicate scorn and disapproval as shown below: Dirty place! The fuss you can make! The way they beat the child! Him and his upsetting grin ! Of all the hobbies you might have taken up! Another type of nonsentences, by contrast, can show total approval: Good girl! A perfectly lovely person! These can easily acquire ironical overtones. NPs can convey sheer information: That way! Fire! No more noise! They can request information: Your name? Tasty? The category of case, the vocative in particular, will later resume this problem in our investigation.

1.2. Applications
I. A. Stating the problem If the sentence is considered the maximal unit in grammatical analysis, in one voice with syntax, we intentionally overlook the practical fact that there are larger constructions than the sentence, called utterances, paragraphs, texts, discourse. There are also lower units than the sentence, called a clause (consisting of one or more phrases), then a phrase (consisting of one or more words), then a word (consisting of one or more morphemes). Thus, we have reconstituted the hierarchy of constituents and constructions in language. Can you talk about this hierarchy as visible in the following example? The teacher noticed an outrageous mistake. B. Solving the problem This is a sentence and, at the same time, a finite clause which can be broken up into a noun phrase (the subject) and a verb phrase (the predicate or the verb). The NP is of the simple type being made up only of a determinative and a head noun. The VP is expanded owing to the fact that it is expressed by a transitive verb as head, requiring a completion (noticed what?). The continuation which satisfies transitivity is a new NP (an outrageous mistake). It is the extended or expanded type of noun phrase because, beside indefinite determination (an), it contains a premodifier, the epithet outrageous. It is worth remembering that it is possible for an NP of a higher rank to be embedded (that is, included) in an NP of a lower rank. II. A. Stating the problem Related to the manner of grouping words while trying to understand what message they transmit, there can be frequent cases of ambiguity in a particular stretch of language. Disambiguate the following by making use of phrase analysis: Her eyes first caught sight of the man on board the steamer. B. Solving the problem If we are to simplify the expression while trying to make sense of the situation, we can simply state what happens in the form <she saw him>; this is beyond any doubt. The metonymic solution <her eyes> is a feature of the style adopted by the transmitter of the information: a female catches sight of a male, not an autonomous pair of eyes the literal meaning is precluded. Ambiguity arises with the adverbial phrase <first>. Possible interpretations 7

are: first caught sight of the man..., next caught sight of the landscape...; or, first caught sight of the man on board the steamer, next caught sight of the man on the shore. We continue the analysis signalling the occurrence of the idiomatic verbal phrase <caught sight of> and we plunge into a new ambiguity: a prepositional phrase <of the man> (the preposition of has one grammatical tie to its left and another tie to its right, it is doubly functional), then <on board the steamer> making reference to the place where the act of catching sight happened. Yet we can perceive another type of continuity, <the man on board the steamer> in which case the prepositional phrase is a postmodifier or qualifier of the verb phrase complement man. In the former interpretation the question starts with where, in the latter case with who (who did she catch sight of?) Therefore, in the second part of the statement under discussion we can operate two different ways of keeping together those words which form a stable constituent.

1.3. Self-evaluating tests

Choose the correct answer: 1. The words within a noun phrase structure A. recompose the message of the headword B. cluster around the head word C. isolate themselves from the rest of the sentence D. postpone the head to the end of the sentence 2. Premodification A. excludes the use of postmodifiers B. imposes the use of postmodifiers C. never happens to items before the head D. always happens to items before the head 3. Postmodification A. is sometimes essential for identifying an apposition B. is often called a nonfinite clause C. is often called a finite clause D. is sometimes essential for identifying the head 4. Consider the sentence The tall girl, who is a singer, is Mary Brown. The information meant to identify who the sentence is about A. is a reference to somebody being called Mary B. is a reference to somebody whose surname is Brown C. is a reference to somebody being a tall girl D. is a reference to somebody being a singer 5. The example The man writing the note is my cousin contains A. postmodification B. appositives C. a finite clause D. an exophoric reference __________________________________________________________ 8

6. When one says You will see a lady carrying a large umbrella one means to say A. You will see that a lady carried a large umbrella B. You will see a lady who will be carrying a large umbrella C. You will see a large umbrella carried by a lady D. You will see the lady carrying an umbrella which is large 7. The phrase 'a girl resembling Joan' means A. a girl who resembles Joan B. a girl who is resembling Joan C. a girl and Joan may resemble D. a girl who is not Joan 8. 'This book on grammar' is A. a nonfinite phrase B. one embedded phrase C. two embedded phrases D. a phrasal title 9. The phrase 'his really amusing son' contains A. double modification B. recursive modification C. modification of the modifier D. coordinated modification 10. One of these grammatical statements is wrong. Find it: A. In spoken language the positions before and after the verb are occupied by a single noun. B. The head noun must always be present in the form of a naming word or a pronoun. C. The majority of noun phrases consist of a head noun plus one or several of the optional elements. D. The head word may be replaced by a pronoun, but never deleted.

1.4. Subjects for a check-up/ examination

What is a noun phrase? Is such a phrase the constituent of phrases or of sentences? What is the difference between a noun phrase and a prepositional phrase? What do they have in common? What is the connection between noun phrases and appositions? How do you distinguish between premodifying and postmodifying elements? Is coreferentiality used and analyzed in spoken or written expression for the sake of simplicity of the message or for the sake of clarity of ideas? Can you exemplify the case of final ellipsis of the head of a noun phrase? Can you exemplify the substitution of a headnoun by the item 'one'? Does a 'verbless clause' mean a 'nominal clause' or a 'nonsentence'?

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CHAPTER II Features of nominal categories in English

2.1 Highlights of the issue
A grammatical category is a set of elements recognized in the description of a language. D. Crystal (l992:49) specifies that, as a general term used in linguistics, CATEGORY occurs at varying levels of abstraction. In the field of grammar as such, categorization refers to the establishment of a set of classificatory units or properties used in the description of language, which have the same basic DISTRIBUTION. In some approaches, the term category refers to CLASSES (noun, verb, etc.), in others to FUNCTIONS (subject, object, etc.) or to defining PROPERTIES (number, gender, etc.). Lyons, as quoted by Dutescu Coliban (l986:149), has set up three kinds of such classes of elements: (a) primary categories, coinciding with the parts of speech system; (b) secondary categories, marked by inflectional morphemes (tense, mood, case, etc.); (c) functional categories, showing the function of certain words or groups in a sentence (syntactic roles). In Chomskys and his followers view, grammatical categories with which GTG works are symbols: sentence (S), noun phrase (NP), verb phrase (VP), noun (N), verb (V), preposition (Prep.), determiner (Det.), etc. The English language has formal realization for eleven morphosyntactic categories. The first six on the list are nominal, therefore of interest to us here: number, gender, person, case, determination, comparison. The other five are verbal categories: voice, transitivity, tense, aspect and mood. The properties of lexical categories are called features. Their function is that of characterizing the lexical item they are appended to, as we shall see below. Some features are said to be overt, while others are covert. This pair of opposites refers to the relationship between linguistic forms and the surface structure of a sentence. Covert forms/features are not observable in the surface structure, but they emerge to the surface when linguistic units are brought into relationship with each other. Convention has established that the manifestation of a feature should be marked by a positive sign [+F], the absence or non-manifestation by negative specification [-F], an optional presence by [+/-F], a feature that, in context only, obligatorily becomes either + or - is represented as [oF]. We shall preface the category of number by the idea that the cluster of items called determiners and modifiers accompany a noun, which is the head of the complex, and which is the only member of the English NP overtly marked for number. Note how in Romanian determiners, modifiers and substitutes are also overtly marked for number: Cei civa cini ri pe care ia ndeprtat cu un ciomag... Those few vicious dogs he drove away with a club... Romanian is much richer in number inflections than English. English has a vast majority of count nouns, with the singular as the unmarked form, and the plural, for the most part, formed in the regular way with the help of the inflectional morpheme -s, in sound /s/, /z/, /iz/ phonologically conditioned by the ending of the singular form. In fact, there are quite a number of points at issue: 10

_____________________________________________________________ (l) features characterizing NUMBER as a grammatical category; (2) forms and usage in expressing number; (3) types of countability; (4) stylistic recategorizations. We shall deal with them in turn. Syntactically, number will be interpreted in the light of the features [+COUNT], [-COUNT] and [+PL], [-PL]; semantically, we are interested in the features [+SET], [-SET], [+ABSTRACT], [-ABSTR] and [+UNIQUE], [-UNIQ]. [+PL],[-PL] is directed to the act of choice between a singular and a plural form. This syntactic feature is obligatory: all NPs have to be classed as either [+PL] or [-PL], even in those cases when the semantic component of the word makes the choice seemingly inappropriate, for example Four cups isnt enough. We can imagine the context of situation: I have asked six people over to afternoon tea. I might have said arent, to have concord applied in consequence of numerical four, which is more than one, and as a response to the marker -s in the head noun. But the singular used first refers to a semantically singular concept - the set prepared for a hosts entertaining activities. We can devise a second context of situation: I mean to fill up a pot with water. I pour four cups and find out its only two-thirds full.This time the singular form sends us to the singular idea of quantity held by the cup filled four times in a row and poured into the pot. The other way round, when a singular form in the subject attracts a discordant form in the verb ( The jury have not reached a decision), we have to do with the semantic interpretation (= several members) overriding the grammatical singularity, and this is valid for collective nouns. The distinction between oneness and plurality makes sense only in the case of countable objects (members of discrete sets, with contours in space, with inalienable parts, with parts not preserving the properties of the whole). Within plurality, duality is singled out as existing in such lexical items as: both, either, neither, couple, pair, each other, etc. The absence of a plural morpheme is the result of either (a) an object being uncountable or (b) an object being single. The presence of the plural morpheme results both from (a) the object being countable and (b) the existence of a plurality of such objects as mentioned. The feature [+SET],[-SET] becomes relevant only when a [-PL] nominal agrees with a plural verb, otherwise it is superfluously mentioned. More precisely, [+SET] is redundant for a [+COUNT][+PL] noun and [-SET] is redundant for a [+COUNT][-PL] noun. In [+SET] and [-SET], the speaker has a collection of entitites in mind . E.g. The wounded were left unattended [+SET] The girls who had been summoned for witnesses missed from the courtroom [+SET] The team are on the list of promotions [+ SET] [+UNIQ],[-UNIQ] make a tandem with [+COMMON],[-COMMON]. They apply to terms with divided reference, denoting unique objects or not, function of the context of occurrence in most cases. For example, ideas in Ideas have to be correlated with facts is [-UNIQ], whereas in His ideas proved priceless, it is [+UNIQ] with the help of the possessive determiner. 11

_____________________________________________________________ Finally [+ABSTR],[-ABSTR] is entailed by the possibility of perception by the senses or by the mind alone. Again, context of use is all-important, for example to raise the dust [-ABSTR] versus to throw dust in the eyes of [+ABSTR] (particles of matter deposited on the ground vs. deceitful action). There are miscellaneous deviant forms of the plural in English . (a) One compact group brings together the so-called mutation plural nouns having resulted from a vowel change ( goose - geese, etc). If we think of a more comprehensive group preserved from Old English, we may discuss the subgroup of plurals in -en : ox-oxen, child-children, brother-brethren, with the additional comment that, in the last two pairs, the base is changed as well. (b) The so-called foreign plurals are loan-words that have retained their original plural forms. The natural tendency of the language is to get rid of them, that is why the subgroup with two plural forms is on the increase (aquarium - aquaria/aquariums; fungus - fungi/funguses; formula formulae/formulas, etc.). The two plural suffixes sometimes differentiate two quite distinct meanings, e.g. index - indices (math term) / indexes (in books and registers). (c) The zero allomorph is identified in sheep, fish, deer, grouse, mackerel, series, species, etc., and also in names of nationalities ending in -ese, such as Chinese. A note can be made on those few French loans ending in mute -s and which remain unchanged in spelling, but for the plural meaning add /z/ in pronunciation. Check how the plural is sounded for corps, patois, chamois. It is a peculiarity of English again to use the zero allomorph in a hunting context even for those nouns having an ordinary plural form as well. For example, They shot a few duck. Sometimes zero forms just indicate that the animals are found in flocks or groups: We saw a great many antelope side by side with There are several antelopes in the London Zoo. (d) When a noun is preceded by a numeral higher than one, it normally requires the plural marker. On the one hand, we have the attributive noun which drops -s ( ten miles, a ten-mile distance; two hundred million people; three dozen knives, two score of eggs). On the other hand, indefinite indications of number (several, a few, many, some) can be illustrated with both a zero plural and a regular form: many thousand = many thousands. If a noun follows, it can be added directly only to the first combination, whereas the second requires the use of the preposition of (some hundreds of times). (e) When numbers, symbols, letters of the alphabet have to be used in the plural, the presence of an apostrophe is required. For example, Dot your is, will you?; You have to cancel your 4s; Three ands in this sentence will ruin your style. When pluralized, abbreviations follow the regular way, e.g. lb. (= pound) lbs.; ms. (= manuscript) mss. Initials are doubled in ff.= following pages, pp. = pages, ll. = lines. (f) In compound nouns, the basic rule is that -s is added to the main word: toothbrushes, goings-on, outbreaks, housewives. A second useful rule says that when no word is felt to be the head word (especially when there is no noun in the group), the inflection goes to the final element: good-for-nothings, grown-ups, have-nots, etc. In a few cases, both elements are made plural: women doctors, lords-justices ,knights-templars, men servants. Countability as a feature is an inherent component of meaning. The vocabulary of the language contrasts notions such as food vs. meal, travel 12

_____________________________________________________________ vs. journey, rain vs. shower, in point of perception by the speaker: one and indivisible or unbounded vs. more than one, divisible, bounded. In grammatical description, we are obliged to say that music, for instance, has singular form, even though the plural form musics is non-existent. The grammatical markers for [+COUNT] nouns are: (1) the singular form of the head noun is determined by A(N), EACH, EVERY. ( Ive had a good day. Each day is different. Every day I go through the same routine). (2) the plural form is invariable or with -s suffix, both preceded by determiners in the plural or zero determination. (These aircraft are fine products of our new thechnology.) (3) the occurrence of the plural number concord with the verb or a pronominal form. ( Those people have been warned, havent they?) The grammatical markers for [-COUNT] nouns are: (1) the singular form preceded by zero determiner or predeterminer ALL. ( Sincerity should rank first with friends. Im telling you this in all sincerity.) (2) quantification is achieved by means of (A) LITTLE and MUCH. ( I dont have much room in my flat and I have little furniture.) (3) the reinstatement of the semantico-grammatical idea of the singular-plural contrast by lexical means: partitive items in OF- constructions ( a pane of glass, a speck of dust, a pint of beer, etc.). Quirk (l99l:247) introduces the concept of nouns with dual class membership in order to analyse such pairs of sentences as follows: She was a beauty in her youth [+COUNT] ; She had great beauty [-COUNT]. Shes had many difficulties [+COUNT] versus Shes not had much difficulty [-COUNT]. Shell give a talk on Chinese art [+COUNT] versus Thats foolish talk [-COUNT]. The illustrations are proof of linguistic possibilities of looking upon some objects from the point of view of both count and noncount descriptions. There are cases when this duality is achieved through different lexical items; for example, work has for a countable singular either a job or a task ; in the same way, we come across luggage vs. a suitcase, laughter vs. a laugh, arms vs. a weapon, etc. An interesting set of oppositions for us Romanians, in the area of both countability and gender, because of the supplementary animate-inanimate contrast, is made up of words denoting live animals and other words denoting the same animals slain for food: cow, ox, calf, pig, sheep, hen/cock vs. beef, veal, pork, mutton, chicken, respectively. Grammar books today prefer to discuss the distinction count/mass in English rather than the count/noncount one. The modern concept of fuzziness in the language can be analysed in the sphere of countability as well. There are varying degrees of countness and massness, as shown by Downing & Locke (1992:424 ff.). A. Banta (l993:45-8) has his own way of summing up the discussion, providing a scale of nouns seen in terms of countability, for the variety of situations existing in English: normally countable nouns; countable by special means (like the pluralia tantum); partially countable (countable in some meanings, but not in all of them); countable with changes of meaning) (Banta exemplifies with E. premise = R. premis/ a proposition from which an inference or conclusion is drawn, and E. premises = R. local, a building with its adjuncts); stylistic plurals (intensive, e.g. ecstasies, and extensive, 13

_____________________________________________________________ e.g. snows); uncountable (singularia tantum, pluralia tantum); exceptionally countable (possibly countable nouns). Tentatively, Bantas goes on to classify nouns in a more succint manner, putting together several criteria, pluralization, singularization, countability, numericalization: (A) nouns of unqualified/unrestricted countability; (B) nouns of qualified/restricted countability; (C) nouns impossible to count. Examples for each class: (A) book(s), idea(s); apparatus/apparatuses; syllabus/syllabi; sheep; series; gallows; (B) scissors, clothes, cattle; the Dutch; knowledge; measles; soap, punch; chicken, salt; compass/compasses; manhood; singing; (C) mankind; north; dregs; thanks; nature. The concept of recategorization can be explained as the case when an element usually assigned to a subclass borrows the behaviour of another subclass, that is to say that it is recategorized as an element of the latter. The result is always an increased power of description. An example: The Romania were living in now would be hard to recognize for those who knew it a decade ago. Romania, a proper noun, has been recategorized as [+COMMON] and thus has changed its meaning from a certain country to appearance of a certain country at a certain moment. Proper names which take the zero article owing to the unique reference they make are recategorized in special communicative situations when they are specified / limited / restricted. To the example above, we add: This is a good Bob (talking to a child called Bob). There were three Johns in our class. The John I remember well is now a good surgeon. The reverse may happen: a noun which is usually actualized as a common noun is used as a proper noun on occasion. Particularly the denotations of family relations undergo this type of recategorization: mother, father, aunt(ie), cook, nurse, etc., with optional capitalization. E.g. Nurse has told me not to ruin my frock. The [+PL] [-PL] distinction operates in English in a number of cases in which it is neutralized in Romanian. One can compare All the gentlemen were wearing hats and Toi domnii purtau plrie; They are capable of giving their lives for an ideal and Sunt n stare s-i sacrifice viaa pentru un ideal. It looks as if our linguistic code takes a step towards abstracting an essence, towards conferring the status of a symbol on the notion maintained as a singular entity. Certainly, one can disprove this hypothesis by invoking other cases, for instance plurals in both languages (to rake ones brains / wits about something = a-i stoarce / frmnta creierii cu o problem); an English singular against a Romanian plural (theres a black sheep in every flock = nu e pdure fr uscturi); the alternative singular/plural in English and the plural in Romanian (out at heel(s) = (fig.) pe drojdie /cu ghetele sclciate). A safe conclusion could be that the singular, whether in one language or another, tips the balance to a dematerialized outlook, whereas the plural tips it to intensity of outlook. The intensive plural, which cannot anyway be used when a small quantity is involved, can be illustrated with the waters of the Danube (but not the waters of the ditch), the snows on mountain tops (but not the snows on my window-sill). In expectations, fears, hopes, regrets, raptures, etc., -s as an indicator of great intensity verges on idiomatic use. [+PL] may be recategorized, when it is a feature of proper nouns, as [+COMMON], for example, one or two Van Goghs (= paintings by...). Stylisticians speak of antonomasia, a special form of metonomy, the figure 14

_____________________________________________________________ of speech consisting in the use of a proper name instead of a common one. Further examples are: He is a Shylock (= an exacting creditor), None of you is a Hercules (= very strong), Being a new Shakespeare is an impossibility (= a playwright of genius). One should note the difference between It is a Rembrandt and He is a Rembrandt. The former is simply recategorization and simultaneously ellipsis (the same case as a Kent cigarette reduced to a Kent; the latter is the figure of speech discussed above. GENDER presupposes the use of the description MALE and FEMALE in reference to this covert nominal category. It is overt in the case of pronouns. Gender is manifest mainly in substitution by the pronouns he, she, it. The sex specification is a manifestation on the plane of content in every language, and it has traditionally required a classification of entities on the basis of their biological nature. Grammarians try to find out to what extent the semantic distinctions corresponding to reality are doubled by grammatical evidence. The following three major features and a fourth minor one express gender: [+/- HUMAN], [+/- ANIMATE], [+/- MALE], [+/- YOUNG] Nouns obligatorily substitutable by either he or she and nouns substitutable by it possibly but not obligatorily provide a contrast that corresponds to the feature [+/- HUMAN]. The sociological factor that accounts for relevance through substitutability is the degree of interest that a human/speaker takes in fellow human beings, on the one hand, and animals or lifeless objects, on the other hand. It is generally vexing for the master of a pet-animal or unusual or surprising for a farmer or a vet to hear that it is used for the animal in question, precisely because that pronoun may show lack of interest, even disregard. When relative pronouns are used, who substitutes for [+ HUM] nouns, while which substitutes for [- HUM] nouns. The opposition is neutralized in whose, the genitive form that is being promoted by present-day usage as grammatical for both humans and non-humans. A second case of neutralization, to be found in non-restrictive relative pronouns, is the form that standing for both humans and non-humans. Nouns with the feature [+ ANIM] are substituted by he or she, and [ANIM] nouns are substituted by it. This substitutability is trespassed against in three particular cases: (a) Sex is impossible to detect, for example in insects; speakers use it. (b) Sex is unknown or ignored, for very young children, especially when the reference is to baby or infant; speakers use it. (c) Affection or economic reasons prevail in connection with animals, so they are he or she. The opposition [+ ANIM] [- ANIM] is to be discussed in genitive markers: the 's genitive marker is attached to nouns characterized as [+ ANIM], whereas the of genitive marker operates for [- ANIM] nouns. [+ MALE] vs. [- MALE] holds between the third person personal pronouns he and she. Their opposition is neutralized when the speaker is not interested or does not know the sex of a human referent (e.g. doctor), and then the recommended pronoun is he. [+ ANIM] [- HUM] nouns may neutralize the opposition he-she and use it in what Greenbaum & Quirk (I99I:l00) understand by common gender. They write about baby and exemplify with The baby lost its parents when it was three weeks old. They explain dual gender (the same as common gender in other grammars) as manifested when a personal noun can be male or female in reference, as 15

_____________________________________________________________ required. It is the case of guest, parent, person and many nouns of agency such as artist, librarian, speaker, singer, inhabitant, professor, student, etc. [o MALE]. [+/- YOUNG] serves to isolate certain members of the same gender, for instance boy [+ YOUNG] vs. man [-YOUNG], girl [+ YOUNG] vs. woman [YOUNG], lamb vs. sheep, gosling vs. goose, etc. Marking of the gender of nouns is managed less often with derivational means and more often with specialized words. Without insisting, we shall only remind readers about the bound morphemes -ess, -a, -ix, -ine, -ette appended to a masculine base. It is striking to see rare examples of gender marking coming down from Old English, with the feminine base for the masculine term, such as widower [+ MALE] widow [- MALE] and bridegroom [+ MALE] bride [- MALE]. The better represented and more widespread use of composition is achieved with cock/hen, he/she, male/female, man/woman, bull/cow, boy/girl, and many other free morphemes entering certain compounds of singular occurrence. We shall restrict our illustrative material to only one example for each modality of marking gender: god-goddess, sultan-sultana, testator-testatrix, heroheroine, usher-usherette, protege-protegee, cock-sparrow - hen-sparrow, hecousin - she-cousin, male engineer - female engineer, milkman - milk woman/maid, bull elephant - cow elephant, cash-boy - cash-girl, buck rabbit - doe rabbit, jack-ass - jenny-ass. Finally, we shall tackle a number of stylistic problems. When personified, nouns denoting things and abstract notions belong to the masculine or feminine gender, for example moon and earth are referred to as feminine; sun is masculine; the names of vessels are feminine, and the same happens occasionally to other vehicles (coach, car, carriage); names of countries are feminine; striking objects in nature and stronger forces are considered masculine (the seasons, the ocean, the storm, thunder, mountains, etc.); violent passions and actions are masculine (love, fear, despair, war, murder, Death, Sleep, Time). Among the feminine personifications, one must include gentler feelings (Hope, Mercy, Charity, Faith, Modesty) and fertile elements (Nature, Spring). As for the affective side of linguistic expression, to what we have already explained (the choice of pronouns), we can add the morphological markers -ling and -let, even -ette, with diminutive force that in itself is ambiguous, oscillating between endearment (duckling, piglet, kitchenette) and contempt (weakling, leaflet, suffragette). Even the most productive suffix -ess may sound derogatory, indelicate, contemptuous, imposed as such by social practices. We are warned against the terms of Jewess and Negress, in this respect. A way out of risky circumstances is the paraphrase a Jewish/negro woman. The downgrading authoress can be compared to the Romanian doftoreas, doctori or primri. They connote lack of skill in an activity at which men are best performers thanks to a biased, andocentric interpretation prompted by tradition. A specification can be made in connection with the degree of fusion between the two constituents of a compound with -man which may happen to lose its gender-marking power. If the singular Frenchman is still felt as [+ MALE], Frenchmen has become [o MALE]. We should remember that [o MALE] were, long ago, occupational terms such as writer and others. When man is common gender, it is used in the singular for the human being as a species (Man is mortal) and in the plural as meaning human beings or 16

_____________________________________________________________ mankind (All men must die). Generally, there is much sensitivity nowadays about gender marking, and the accusation of sexism may hover on many instances. It is funny to think that even such a harmless compound as mankind can cause an argument because it suggests for feminists that men are more important than women. When women began to do a job that was previously done by men alone, the word ending in -man is still used, though not in all cases. A new word, for example, is policewoman, but an improvement seems to be police officer instead of both policeman and policewoman. Likewise, head teacher is a good term, better today than headmaster or headmistress of the old days. In order to avoid bias, American linguists especially have made attempts to introduce formal tricks such as s/he or wo/man, by the side of reformulation of Congressman as Member of Congress, postman as mailperson, spokesman as spokesperson, foreman as supervisor etc. The modifying adjectives male and female ( in Romanian, mascul/femel) are used to talk in English about either people or animals. We have to remark upon the distinctly zoological colouring they take in Romanian, which makes them offensive if talk is about humans. However, there are restrictions of usage in English, too. One can use the noun male to refer to animals (e.g., The males will establish their territories for breeding.), but one shouldnt use it, unless with much caution, to talk about men or boys. At the same time, masculine, which means typical of men, rather than women, is not used to talk about animals. A woman referred to as a female may find this address term offensive. Though democratic levelling has been aimed at even in matters of language, the semantic changes recorded illustrate mostly pejoration and not amelioration, and mostly affecting terms for women rather than terms for men. Handy examples can be found in metaphors, for instance cat and dog. Lexicographers state that cat originally meant any spiteful person, but specialized to refer only to women. It remains an abusive term for backbiting women. Historians of the language signal the meaning of prostitute in the distant past, but the sexual taint was lost in the nineteenth century; this partial amelioration has not taken effect on the insult of spitefulness surviving to this day. Dog can be used contemptuously for male beings, but rarely enough. Speakers prefer a tone of friendly mockery, to be detected in You, sly dog! or the admiring exclamation Youre a clever dog! To sum up the material on gender paradigms, which are lexical paradigms, we can compile the following list of terms evincing gender: pronouns (personal, third person singular; possessive; reflexive and emphatic; indefinite, compounds of -thing, -body, and -one; relative and interrogative), corresponding adjectives, where the case is, and studied as determiners in our next chapter, and nouns, for which possibilities of marking gender display a variety of aspects. The category of case indicates the relation in which a noun stands to some other word. Case forms have been greatly reduced in Modern English: the nominative and the objective cases - always identical in form with the English noun in dictionary form - and the genitive case (sometimes called the possessive). The first two are said to be unmarked (the common case), whereas the third has a marking by an inflection 's, phonologically identical with the regular plural inflection. Thus, a neutralization happens of the genitive case distinction in the plural. The case of a N is determined by the syntactic function of the NP of which the noun is the head word, since the morphological structure of the English noun is uniform irrespective of the words it combines with in NPs. In 17

_____________________________________________________________ the sentence, order is crucial and we can switch NPs to show how drastically the meaning will change. The nominative / subjective case has the function of naming the subject of a finite verb, the subjective complement of a finite verb, the appositive of a noun in the nominative, the nominative absolute as a special English construction (in the denomination of which, the etymology of absolute is Latin, absolvere = to untie, to unloose) and direct address, otherwise known as the vocative case. Vocative forms are optional elements, usually NPs, denoting the one or more persons to whom an utterance is addressed. Actually, three functions instead of one can be pointed out in a more minute approach: (l) to denote the addressee(s); (2) to signal the fact that the message is meant for them; (3) to express the attitude of the addresser towards the addressee(s). Quirk et al. (l99l:773-5) perform an exhaustive overview of problems connected with the vocative. They classify vocatives into calls and addresses (drawing attention / singling out persons vs. indicating a relationship / attitude). Besides optionality of occurrence, freedom of position is signalled: initial, medial, final. Such facts make vocatives look like adverbials more than any other elements of clause structure. The intonation sets them off from the rest of the sentence, characteristically by means of a fall-rise (mostly initial calls) and rise (addresses). The pronoun you preceding the verb neutralizes the distinction between a vocative and an appositive (in writing, though not in speech): You, Mary, are bound to have an opinion! vs. Someone was looking for you, Mary! The forms taken by vocatives can be summed up as: names, standard appellatives (such as titles of respect, terms for family relationships), terms for occupations, epithets (subdivided into favourable and unfavourable), items expanded. Most vocatives realized by unmodified common nouns do not require a determiner. Professional vocatives are used infrequently today, doctor, vicar, professor, counsellor and a few others excepted. In neutral interchange with strangers, speakers generally rely on Excuse me! or I beg your pardon! when they want to gain attention. Hey fulfills the same purpose, but it is impolite when addressed to strangers. Sociolinguists have stipulated many other cases of social implications in the use of vocatives, but we shall insist upon them in our morpho-syntactic study. The objective case functions as a direct object, an indirect object or the object of a preposition. In English there is no difference in form between a noun in the nominative case and the same noun in the objective case. Therefore we shall deal only in passing with the dative and the accusative in the light of syntax. The dative as defined by traditional grammar (Levitchi, l970) is the case which shows direction, that is to say towards whom or towards what the action denoted by the verb is directed. Syntactically, the dative discharges the function of an indirect object and is expressed by one of three alternatives: the noun itself (its position is decisive), the preposition to and the preposition for: I gave a book to John/ I gave John a book. I bought a book for John/ I bought John a book. To occurs after (1) nouns (This is a comfort to me); (2) pronouns (It means nothing to us); (3) adjectives (He is kind to them); (4) verbs (It belongs to them). When discussing the regimen of the specialized preposition to, the following situations can be synthetically put down: 18

_____________________________________________________________ A. The dative with TO after an accusative (Give this to your manager, please.) when it is stressed (They brought news to Mary, not to her sister.) compulsorily after some verbs (announce, declare, deliver, propose, submit, etc.) B. The dative without TO before an accusative ( Show the class how you can sing!) C. Either A or B above the accusative is an interrogative or relative pronoun (What did he give (to) the boy?) the verb is in the passive - to is preferred (The book was lent (to) my sister.) To the basic theory of the dative , we would like to add a couple of things that refine interpretation in context: There is an abstract-concrete contrast evinced by cases such as: (a) We sent a book parcel to our aunt. The directional meaning associated with change of possession is abstract. (b) We sent a book parcel to Madrid. The directional meaning associated with the destination point is concrete. There is a so-called internal dative, denoting abstract relations between two notional words. E.g., appear to, seem to, occur to, happen to; a benefit to, a comfort to, a pleasure to, a satisfaction to; inferior/superior to, indispensable/necessary to. There is a so-called dative of reference, when the object denotes a personal point of view with respect to the propositional content of the sentence: (a) with be predicates (For him to submit would be shameful. To me, he is a hero. To submit would be, for him, quite a disgrace. That is nothing to me.) Note that the sentential dative object is movable in the sentence. (b) with verbs of seeming and sense perception (It looks to me as if ...etc.) There is a so-called dative of interest, denoting the person to whose advantage or disadvantage an action takes place (He has done a good deal of harm not only to me but to many others. Will you run an errand for me? Hes setting up a trap for you). Sometimes from is used to express more clearly the idea of disadvantage (He stole the purse from an old woman). One more prepNP has come to specialize for the idea of loss or disadvantage, the so-called ON dative phrase (He shut the door on me. Every three years hes raised the rent on us). The prepositional variant is assimilated with oblique objects of various kinds. A prepositionless NP is a GT surface structure transformationally derived from the prepositional one. The dative of interest often occurs as a prepositionless NP: He has done me a lot of harm. John lent Susan his dictionary. She made her boy a new coat. There is a so-called ethical dative, a prepositionless form frequent in older English. It denotes the person who is likely to have an emotional or sympathetic interest in the statement. It is of limited usage, e.g., Whip me such honest knaves (Othello); Now heed me what I say. The accusative has been traditionally defined (see Levitchi, l970) as denoting the object (being, thing) towards or against whom or which is 19

_____________________________________________________________ directed the action expressed by a transitive verb. The accusative is the specific case of all English prepositions. There is a pattern called double accusative (He taught his pupils history) which follows certain verbs: ask, envy, excuse, forgive, save, strike. Here are some notes on special linguistic operations involving an accusative: Sometimes an intransitive verb is used transitively, accompanied by the so-called accusative of content (syntactically, a cognate object) in its turn accompanied by an adjective (attribute). The meaning of the accusative is akin to that of the verb. Some grammar books call this type of accusative internal accusative. E.g., to smile a sad smile, to laugh a loud laugh, to die a heroic death, to sing a merry song, to live a miserable life, to fight a terrible fight. Preposition Deletion is explained as a Prep NP occasionally losing its preposition and becoming a direct object, e.g., jump a fence (over deletion); smear the wall with paint (upon deletion). DO Deletion occurs (a) free of context ( He is just looking instead of ...looking at smth.); (b) conditioned by context ( Under the circumstances, she will have to cut). The object to be recovered is expenses. Deletion can be applied upon indefinite or generic NPs, e.g. the primary (a) and the metaphorical (b) meaning of the verb see: (a) Blind men cannot see. (DO = visible things; (b) Blind men can see. (DO = abstract things). An important type of semantically motivated deletion applies with verbs having specific objects, e.g. to write (letters, literature); to spend (time, money, energy); to borrow / lend (money, possessions); to pack (clothes, a suitcase); to hear (noises, sounds). The genitive case receives greater attention from every grammarian than any other case. This is so because one remnant of the former case system of the English noun is retained here. The genitive ending 's is always spelled with an apostrophe: before the ending for the singular, after it for the plural. The use of the genitive case is strictly conditional upon the category of gender: the genitive is associated with nouns that are [+ ANIM], especially those having personal reference (the cats name; the manufacturers precious possessions; the committees decisions). Geographical names take the genitive inflections preponderently when they imply the human presence, the community (Spains policy as more plausible than Spains sea-coast). Other inanimate nouns may have relevance to a human activity or concern, too and thus enter genitive constructions (the hotels guests rather than the hotels furniture). Usage must also decide in the matter, for example: we can say a winters day (or a winter day, the implicit/ juxtaposed/ unexpressed genitive) and a summers day ( or a summer day), but spring and autumn are left out of the pattern unless they are personified (Autumns return). Speakers can frequently choose between using a premodifying genitive and a postmodifying prepositional phrase with of. There is a similarity in meaning, yet there is advice to this effect: for literal possession, consider the synthetic genitive more suitable; for attribution and partition, the analytical construction is more appropriate. Note that when the 's is used, the article before the person or thing possessed disappears (the daughter of the farmer = the farmers daughter). The decision - when both genitives are grammatically possible - often follows the principle of end-focus or endweight (my daughters WEDDING the wedding of my DAUGHTER). The 20

_____________________________________________________________ genitive proper tends to give information focus to the head noun, whereas the of-construction tends to give focus to the prepositional complement. The apostrophe is not always written in nouns denoting time, measures or values (in ten years time, thirty miles march). The apostrophe is omitted in some names of towns called after their patron saints (St. Andrews, St. Albans), in names of department stores, publishing firms, etc. (Woolsworths, Longmans), in the spelling of compounds that are hardly perceived as containing a genitive ending in the middle, nowadays (statesman, sportsman, salesman, tradesman, kinsman, townspeople). Consider the following cases: (a) Johns house: the noun in the genitive refers to a specific person; (b) a fools errand : the noun in the genitive refers to no specific person. We have thus shown the difference between a specifying genitive (the/that childs play) and a classifying genitive (a childs play). It is sometimes difficult to draw the line between the of-genitive and other constructions with the preposition of, e.g. a work of art; the writing of a book; the whole of England. Are they genitives, as long as such constructions cannot be replaced by a genitive? Englands whole, arts work. Genitive meanings have been conveniently shown by grammarians through the operation of paraphrase, as given below: (a) possessive genitive e.g. the old mans coat = the old man owns a coat (b) partitive g. e.g. the hearts two ventricles = the heart contains ... (c) g. of attribute e.g. the soldiers courage = the soldier was courageous (d) descriptive g. e.g. a childs language = the language typically used by (the genitive of characteristic) a/any child (e) g. of origin e.g. the bosss reply = the reply is from the boss (f) subjective g. e.g. Elizabeths reign = Elizabeth reigned/reigns (g) objective g. e.g. their kingdoms loss = they lost their kingdom Of - constructions indicate relations, some of them as suggested below: (a) ownership/possession e.g. a relative of my fathers = my father has relatives (b) quantity - e.g. seven of my pals = I have more than seven pals, but Im speaking of only seven now (c) partition e.g. a flock of sheep = a flock that is made up of sheep (d) temporal e.g. scholars of the Middle Ages = scholars who lived in the Middle Ages (e) quality e.g. the virtue of thrift = the virtue that qualifies as thrift (f) subjective e.g. the envy of the world = the world envies (g) objective e.g. the girl of his dreams = he sees that girl in his dreams What is an independent genitive? It is the genitive without a head word; it is frequently an elliptical variant of the NP in which the genitive has its habitual determinative function. The headword is supplied by the context in some cases and the genitive is semi-independent. (a) independent , an example : Well meet at Toms. (It could be Toms house or apartment or professional establishment - commercial firm, lawyers office, restaurant, etc.). (b) semi-independent, two examples: from Cobb & Gardiner (l994:l04), Chamberss is the only Encyclopaedia that is always up to date. The one from Quirk et al. (l99l:329) is advanced as simply independent, in fact: If you cant afford a sleeping bag, why not borrow somebody elses? When a comparison is worded, a demonstrative pronoun is required with the of21

_____________________________________________________________ construction: The population of New York is greater than that of Chicago or ...greater than Chicagos. What is a local genitive ? It designates places in the following cases: (a) normal residence, e.g. The French girl is staying at my aunts. (b) an institution (college, palace, cathedral, etc.), e.g., He graduated at Queens. They visited St James. We had no guide in St Pauls. (c) the location of business, e.g., His wife left the dressmakers shortly afterwards. Lets have dinner at Torellis. Ive been shopping in Macys. The complement is not expressed anywhere in the text, the reference of the genitive being clear from ones cultural background, or less clear when, for instance, the restaurant could be a diner, a bar, a pub or someones home could be a flat, a bedsitter, a cottage etc. For this reason, Quirk et al. (l99l) upholds that the term ellipsis is not applicable, strictly speaking. What is a double genitive ? It refers to those cases when both the inflectional and the prepositional means are being applied in order to designate one particular person or object, e.g., a niece of Uncle Bens; any colleague of my fathers; that pet of yours; a portrait of Luchians; two friends of Jacks. We have shown by such examples that before of one can use a noun with a variety of determinatives, in the singular or in the plural; after of one can use a proper name, a common noun or even a possessive pronoun. Quirk et al. (l99l::329) call the double genitive post-genitive and bring out the contrast between the definiteness of that irritating habit of her fathers and the indefiniteness of some friends of Jims. The double/post genitive is useful when it disambiguates certain expressions, such as Rembrandts portrait, with its three likely interpretations: (a) a portrait owned by Rembrandt = a portrait of Rembrandts; (b) a painting portraying Rembrandt = a portrait of Rembrandt; (c) a portrait painted by Rembrandt = a portrait of Rembrandts. We can notice that ambiguity persists between (a) and (c), that is between possession / ownership and authorship, and only the relation in (b) is clearcut, but no longer a double genitive. Zdrenghea & Townson (l995:24) comment on the difference between a criticism of Shaw = opinion about Shaw, and a criticism of Shaws = opinions by Shaw. What is a group genitive ? Quirk et al. (l99l:328) also call it embedded genitive and explain it as the instance when the genitive ending is added to a postmodifier which is part of a name or a compound NP. It can be illustrated with [[her mother-in-law]s]love; [[the Museum of Modern Art]s]Director; [[the Duke of York]s] eldest son. This should not be taken for the case of joint possession for two persons, when the apostrophe is placed on the last element of the series: Tom and Marys child, Beaumont and Fletchers plays. Another possibility, still not considered group-genitive is individual possession, when the apostrophe is required by each possessor not sharing the possessed: Americas and Englands future. What is a zero genitive ? It is common with names ending in -s or -es, pronounced / -i(:)z/, in which case the phonetic addition of the genitive ending is avoided for reasons of euphony. The zero genitive is signalled in the case of a few expressions such as for goodness sake, a few proper names in the genitive, such as Guy Fawkes day, St Giles hospital and foreign names that could be less easily recognizable with the genitive sounded, for example Cervantes works, Pythagoras theorem, Hercules labours, Moses laws. Note: in cases when the first noun ends in -s, the same genitive meaning and the same reading may get three written forms: a girls school, a girls school, a girls school. 22

_____________________________________________________________ The problem of defining the pronominal head of a NP has been dealt with in a variety of ways. Let us examine the following survey: l. Pronouns are words ... used in a sentence like noun groups containing a noun. Some pronouns are used in order to avoid repeating nouns (Collins, l995: 540). 2. Pronouns are used in referring to people and things without naming them. They replace nouns or noun phrases. They make texts less repetitive and contribute to cohesion (Vere et al., l996: 369). 3. The class of pronouns belongs to the broader category of substitutes or proforms, i.e., words referring through substitution to certain terms which, as a rule, have already been mentioned in the context (anaphoric reference) or are to be mentioned (anticipatory reference) (Banta et al., l993: 82). 4. The pronoun has no meaning of its own, it does not name in the strict sense of the word; it only makes references to somebody or something already mentioned in a text, during the conversation, etc., thus forming preeminently part of the theme. Sometimes, however, it refers to somebody or something that is going to be mentioned, in which case it forms part of the rheme. More often than not, the pronoun is a noun-substitute... (Levichi, l970: l00). According to Lyons (1968), the category of person is clearly definable with reference to the notion of participant-roles: the first person is used by the speaker to refer to himself as a subject of discourse; the second person is used to refer to the hearer; and the third person is used to refer to persons or things other than the speaker and hearer. Person is a deictic category since it can only be defined in direct relation with the speaking ego. There are cases, analysed as stylistic uses of person, when noncorrespondence is signalled between morphologic and semantic person: (a) the attempt to attenuate unpleasantness: Mother to Child, Lets go to bed now (first person plural instead of second person singular); (b) wish to persuade: Teacher to Students, Why shouldnt we take the test as soon as next week? (first person plural instead of second person plural); (c) manifestation of sympathy: Doctor to Patient, And how are we today? (first person plural instead of second person singular); (d) manifestation of love: Aunt to Niece, Aunt Mary loves you so much. (third person singular instead of first person singular); (e) pre-stage of consciousness of self: very young children about themselves, Bob is hungry (third person singular instead of first person singular); (f) formal communication (on behalf of an organization) when the precise identity of the addressee(s) is unknown: the Management to Client(s), Any inconvenience to clients is regretted during repair work to the premises ( no reference to Addresser and third person plural instead of first person plural and second person singular). Social convention regulates understanding of the involvement of participants in at least two other instances of communication: on the telephone, when the identification by third person of both addresser and addressee usually prefaces discourse and when both participants are implicit in wishes (Good luck! interpreted as I wish you good luck!). Generic person is a term used in connection with certain uses of the pronouns one, we, you, they. The choice between them depends on an emotional factor, namely the wish of the speaker to be included or not in the general assertion. The speaker can be looked upon as totally detached from 23

_____________________________________________________________ the context of situation in one, included in we, making a special appeal to the audience in you and keeping himself in the background in they. To round up the discussion of person, we shall say about this category that it is inherent with nouns and pronouns (nominals) and introduced by an agreement transformation with verbs.

2.2. Applications
I. A. Stating the problem The following examples with nouns in bold need interpreting in the light of countability. They went to Africa to hunt lion. After a few more washes, these clothes will be absolutely clean. Her offspring was out of the will. B. Solving the problem In the first sentence, the noun referring to an animal outside any given context is normally taken to be countable: one lion, two lions. In this particular context, however, being used in connection with a hunting activity, it gets recategorized as 'mass', similarly to contextualizations in fishing (e.g. He collected worm for fish baits). In the second sentence above, the noun is called a deverbal noun, because it has been obtained from the respective verb; nominalization has been associated with countability through the marker of the plural and the plural determinative. In the third sentence, the noun is invariable in form, always in the singular but with a plural meaning as well as with a singular meaning, such as dictated by the real situation. The noun offspring may refer to someones descendents collectively, or it may refer to one child or several children in relation to their parents.Yet, as a matter of form, it never changes. II. A. Stating the problem How can modern grammar explain what the following contrastive pairs all share, with a focus of attention upon the direct object / the accusative in the first sentence of each pair? The poet read his poem The poet read from his poem. The farmer plowed the field The farmer plowed in the field. Jim loaded the van with goods Jim loaded the goods onto the van. The men drained the tank The men drained the water from the tank. B. Solving the problem On our left hand, the verb is transitive and, together with its direct object, it makes reference to the entity suffering the complete action denoted by the verb. On our right hand, structurally we see the use of prepositional NPs instead of their opposed simple or basic NPs and, at the same time, the semantic shift is to a partial action denoted by the verb an action partially suffered by the entity which previously functioned as a direct object.

2.3. Self-evaluating tests

Find out the right answers: 1. The difference between They went from one house to another and They went from house to house is A. the contrast between 'house' as count and 'house' as noncount B. the count-mass opposition, while recategorizing the noun 'house' 24

_____________________________________________________________ C. the former includes information on quantity/number of houses and the latter case overlooks the problem of number D. the former uses ordinary language and the latter uses a clich 2. The wrap1 of this book is already shabby versus It was a mistake to resort to wrap2 A. wrap1 is a noun, whereas wrap2 is a verb B. wrap1 is a countable noun, whereas wrap2 is an uncountable noun C. wrap1 means a jacket, whereas wrap2 means a concealment of facts D. wrap1 is a noun, whereas wrap2 is a verb Last year I couldnt handle too much office. A. The NP with 'office' as head makes mass reference. B. The NP with 'office' as head makes a mistake about its grammar. C. The NP with 'office' as head ellipted the noun jobs. D. The NP with 'office' as head uses wrong determinatives. The plural form of painting is A. non-existent; B. the same with the singular; C. paints; D. paintings The head of the NP the morning frosts A. is an intensive stylistic plural B. is a mass noun C. is an ungrammatical recategorization of some weather manifestation D. is a misspelt term Indicate what way of speaking is detected in the exclamation This room smells of cat! A. informal; B. loaded with affective value; C. deviant in one respect; D. insulting Where is the mistake? A. ruffian [+MALE]; B. siren [-MALE]; C. buddy [-MALE]; D. minx [-MALE]. Consider the phrase: for goodness sake. What does it put forth? A. a prepositional modification B. nouns in apposition C. an unmarked head D. omission of the genitive suffix Contrast these two phrases: the passengers luggage the luggage of the passengers What statement is incorrect? A. In speech, they are identical in sound. B. In speech, it is a disadvantage to use the longer wording. C. In speech, the plural noun preferably selects the second variant. D. In speech, the hearer can only guess from the situation where there is one passenger or more than one.

3.

4. 5.

6.

7. 8.

9.

10. Find the wrong statement: A. All nouns denoting animals may be considered neuter. 25

_____________________________________________________________ B. Some nouns acquire a gender through their qualities that make them closer to the feminine or to the masculine gender. C. Most commonly the feminine is obtained from the masculine by adding the suffix ess. D.The above-mentioned suffix is not productive anymore.

2.4. Subjects for a check-up/ examination

Why does universal grammar need 'grammatical categories'? Illustrate deviance in matters of pluralizing English nouns. How do you point out the distinction between plurality and countability? What features have been developed for describing the gender of nouns? What cases are marked in the declension of English nouns? Where do English cases and syntactic rules meet? What peculiar types of dative do you know? What peculiar types of accusative do you know? What peculiar types of genitive do you know? One current type of genitive has the status of a determiner and the other current type of genitive has the status of a modifier. When can either of them be used with no change of meaning?

CHAPTER III Features and types of determiners

3.1. Highlights of the issue
Our present focus is the category of determination. There are grammars to use the terms determiner and determinative indiscriminately, while others apply each with a difference that is carefully pointed out: the former term sends to the functional category, while the latter to the very words that belong to the syntactically distinct class whose characteristic function is determination. In our presentation, we shall simply adopt only the term of determiners - items that can boast the status of words, not bound morphemes, occurring left of the head and of the modifier and contributing specifications about the main nominal element. Grammar books distinguish three classes of determiners, on the basis of their position within the NP in relation to each other: central determiners or determiners proper; predeterminers; postdeterminers. Central determiners / determiners proper form a closed class with mutually exclusive members, arranged into several subgroups: articles : a , the , some , {zero} demonstratives : this, these, that, those [-PRO] possessives : my , your , his , her , its , our , their indefinites : assertive, nonassertive, negative and quantitative indefinite adjectives wh-determiners : relative and interrogative adjectives Predeterminers (pre-article position) include three mutually exclusive subclasses: closed system predeterminers: all, both, half multipliers: double, twice, three...etc. times fractions: one third, etc. Postdeterminers (post-article position) include three subclasses as well, which are not in a choice relation, that is mutually exclusive, since they can all occur within the same NP. 26

_____________________________________________________________ closed-system postdeterminers (postdeterminers proper): same, selfsame, very, only ordinals: (a) closed system - other, next, first, last (b) ordinal numbers - second, third, etc.

27

_____________________________________________________________ quantitative postdeterminers (quantifiers): (a) closed system - several, many, few, little (b) cardinal numbers - one, two, etc. (c) open class - a bunch of, a yard of, a mouthful of... It is by the use of determiners that the vague images acquire precision and refer to real objects: my house, that house, etc. The features that characterize the meaning and use of determiners are listed below, with examples appended: [GENERIC] , when marked with [+], shows that the whole class of objects is intended by the speaker. There are also abstract statements about typical characteristics or habitual activities. The following structures can make the backbone of [+GEN] statements: a(n) + [-PL] [+COUNT] nouns : They say a teenager never forgets. the + [-PL] [+COUNT] nouns : They say the teenager never forgets. {zero} + [+PL] [+COUNT] nouns : They say teenagers never forget. {zero} + [-PL] [+MASS] nouns : They say charity begins at home. Comparing [-DEF] and [+DEF] central determiners, we find that the tends to generalise more than a(n). There is also a distinguishing nuance when the speaker has recourse to the in generic statements and the in generalising statements, in the latter case the article being followed by a singular count noun: An unhappy child will cry versus Why do you play the unhappy child? Even in such cases as Do you play the piano?, the definite article is said to determine a noun phrase of generalised meaning. The generic/generalising interpretation can be strengthened by modifiers (All happy children are beautiful), qualifiers (The child taken ill can be fussy) or a clausal adjunct such as usually (A young child usually cries a lot). The zero article with plural nouns is the most frequent type of genericity, and speakers discriminate between a generic and an indefinite reading, such as in Frogs have long hind legs [+GEN] vs. He catches frogs [-DEF]. A mass noun with zero article can be considered generic even if it is modified or qualified, e.g. Columbian coffee is said to be the best. Almost every smoker likes coffee without sugar. Going beyond the use of articles, one can find generic meaning in the following areas: sentential subjects expressed by generic pronouns: You never can tell about wives. determination expressed by the subclass of generic indefinites: Any watchdog is vigilant. generic restrictive relative clauses: Those who have sown the wind shall reap the storm. generic present tense: One nail drives out another. generic sentences: Iron is heavier than wood. In contrast with the feature [+GEN], [+DEF], that is definiteness, pertains only to arguments, never to predicates, therefore it is essentially a nominal feature. The main function of [+DEF] is to indicate co-reference, that is reference to an item already identified. Grammarians have introduced the notion of promotion of indefinites about a construction proceeding from the known to the unknown, e.g. They saw a crocodile and the crocodile saw them. In other words, an indefinite referent undergoes a promotion on the second occasion it is referred to. Syntactically, definiteness is a compulsory feature, because a singular NP must have either a definite or an indefinite marker: a crocodile or the crocodile. Semantically, the relation between the 35

two is that of hyponymy or inclusion, they are not incompatible. They killed the crocodile entails They killed a crocodile. Cases of ambiguous reading of determiners can be signalled, for instance examples (a) below are existentially asserted and examples (b) are existentially hypothesized with the help of one and the same determiner, a on the one hand, and many on the other hand. (a) A stray dog came to my door. Many neighbours fed it before me. (b) A stray dog barks a lot, but the caravan goes on. Many people throw things at stray dogs. The symbols [ANA(PHORIC)], [CATA(PHORIC)] and [EPI(PHORIC)] show that the reference is directed backwards, forwards or it is nondirectional, respectively. When reference is made to previous discourse (not to shared knowledge), we speak of an antecedent of the item under discussion with which it is coreferent. Besides the definite article, other items with anaphoric reference are personal pronouns, demonstratives, pro-verb phrases (e.g.do so),pro-relative clauses ( e.g. such). For the feature [+CATA], a frequent case is reference of the determiner to a postmodifying prepositional phrase or relative clause (e.g. the wines of France, the wine he was telling them about ).Other items with possible cataphoric reference are the demonstratives. The feature [+EPI] is linked to the reference of an object introduced in communication for the first time. Uniqueness [+/-UNI] is a feature that acquires sense within the universe of discourse - though the latter is a notion difficult to define from a purely linguistic point of view. However, in most cases we do not refer to the whole world, but to the relatively small and circumscribed part of the world in which each of us moves. Thus, in England people speak about the Queen, and it is understood that the queen of England is intended; when we say the moon, we mean the moon circling the Earth and not one of the moons of Venus, and so on. The condition of uniqueness is not an absolute matter, it is actually defined by the verbal context or by the socio-physical context, maybe by the two in interaction. The classes of expressions most commonly used to achieve unique reference are: the definite descriptions of NPs including a definite article, a modifier, a qualifier; proper names; singular personal pronouns; singular demonstrative pronouns. Specificity is the feature [+/-SPEC(IFIC)] that distinguishes between the NP which carries with it a presupposition of existence of a referent from the one which does not. Thus, His partner is a thief by introducing the noun thief does not refer to an existing individual, but rather to a quality of the dishonest partner. It is [-SPEC]. A thief came in through the basement window refers to a thief as a concrete individual, so it is [+SPEC]. Specific NPs are used by speakers to enable an audience to pick out whom or what they are talking about, while non-specific NPs state something about whoever or whatever is so-and-so. There are sentences ambiguous between the two readings, (a) with a [-DEF] NP and (b) with a restrictive relative clause following the NP. Consider the examples: (a) John contemplates marrying a girl his parents dont approve of. The NP a girl is [+SPEC] if the girl referred to is, say, Mary Brown. It is [-SPEC] if the decision about the individual is not made yet, it can be Mary, Jane or Jill, the only selectional criterion is the disapproval of the parents. (b) John contemplates murdering the man who throws wild parties in the flat above his. 36

_____________________________________________________________ Substitutability with whoever disambiguates. Thus, ...murdering whoever throws wild ... [-SPEC] versus ...murdering the man called Jim Brown and who is the organizer of wild parties [+SPEC]. Deixis with the labeled feature [+DEI(CTIC)] supplies reference to the non-linguistic context, being also called situational or indexical reference. In particular, in the act of uttering, the speaker is anchored in a situation joining three elements - ego, hic, nunc (I - here - now) - which are different for each instance of communication. The coordinates mentioned mark the zero point of the deictic system and help in the classification of deixis into three types: person deixis, place deixis and time deixis. Elements that can have deictic reference are the personal pronouns, the demonstratives, the definite article. We shall group together three less extensively applied features, proximity, distribution and quantification. [+/-PROX(IMITY)], used to differentiate between this & that, these & those (also, now & then, here & there). [+/-DISTR(IBUTIVE)], characterizing items like every, any, either, each, all [+DISTR], as against other items like one, two..., several, many, a few which are [-DISTR]. The former enumeration shows that reference is made equally and separately for all the members of the set designated by the following headword. [+/-QUANT(IFIER)], characterizing items with quantitative reference. In connection with quantifying determiners, we would like to expand here on the modification that such determiners can get. Modification is performed by adverbs of degree expressing notions such as the following: intensification : a good half hour ; over forty yards ; all of six weeks ; quite half the work ; the very first opportunity; fully ten days. approximation : virtually the whole community ; roughly a hundred years ; some ten thousand bucks. comparison : as many as a thousand votes ; less than ten MPs ; fewer than six issues ; more than twenty messages. restriction : only three survivors. Determiners used as elliptical heads is worth signalling here as a case that does not change the class of the items under discussion from determiner to pronoun, but simply their function from determiner elements to head elements. As such, they continue to express a determinative feature of the presupposed noun which has been ellipted. For instance, Ill go this way and you go that. If you need a map, I can give you one. Theres tea and coffee, in case we get thirsty; you may have either. The new head element can be: a wh-head: Heres the list; whose won the prize? (whose novel, song, etc.) genitive constructions: The teachers criticism was tough, but the headmasters was scorching. a demonstrative: This painting shows the effects of mixing oil colours, what can show that? a locative head: We decided to hike to a nearby lake and the woods beyond; the former place sounded more attractive than the latter on a day for bathing. a distributive head: We sent out the questionnaires, but not each was clearly printed. a quantity: Which are your seats? These two. When the items both, either, neither, each are used as elliptical heads, they may refer to a hyperonym of the antecedent noun. For example, A good 37

writer should have intuition as well as style, and she has neither ( = neither quality). The indefinite article is not used elliptically; as head element, it is represented by one, e.g. If you can use a tip, Ill give you one. Plural and mass nouns are presupposed by elliptical some, e.g. If you need spice, the waitress will get you some. Any can refer elliptically to singular, plural, and mass nouns with the meaning of it doesnt matter which, e.g. Bring me (a)(some)...; any will do. The negative determiner no is not used elliptically. Elliptical quantitative heads can enter a variety of structures in the newlyobtained NP: det + H (Who has finished writing? Those four); det + H + Q (What weeks will they be away? The first three in May); M + H + Q ( It seems they havent got a lot of money, but quite enough to live on). The typical meanings of articles (central determiners) can be stated as follows: The associates with previous experience, adding special traits to the general meaning of a word; it is used with words denoting both discrete and continuous entities. A(n) bears no relation to past experience; when used with words denoting discrete entities, its function consists in stressing the element of unity already inherent in the word itself. {zero article} stands for a general idea when used with words denoting continuous entities (mass nouns); the same is true of plurals. It indicates the absence of both familiarity and discreteness. The definite article has three allomorphs in English, conditional upon the initial consonant phoneme of the word following it, the initial vowel phoneme or a prolonged final sound /i:/ when the article receives more emphasis. This happens when a specimen par excellence is denoted (the best, the well known, the only one worth mentioning), e.g. He is the man for the job. And Id also like you to meet Professor Jones. You mean the Professor Jones? Occasionally, when a speaker hesitates about what noun to use, the article has no special stress, but its vowel sound is a great deal laxer than the usual, e.g. After making inquiries in the - er - vicinity, they extended their activities. 7.1.1 The definite article is typically used in an anaphorical relation. L.Levitchi (l970:61) explains that anaphorical elements belong to the theme of a sentence, viz. to the known part of an utterance - in contrast with its rheme, the new part of it. The antecedent of the definite article may be found in the same sentence, in previous discourse or in the nonlinguistic context, in which case we have to do with so-called indexical use. Quirk et al. (l99l:266-8) analyse this basic use of the under four headings: Immediate situation, Larger situation (general knowledge), Anaphoric reference: direct, Anaphoric reference: indirect. We shall consider each in turn. The article reference is derived from the extralinguistic situation in cases such as the following: Have you visited the castle? - when being a tourist in a given town; Nobody has fed the cat this morning - at home, where the interlocutors keep their pet; How much is the melon? - before a fruitstall at the market; Listen to the radio! - you are in the room where the radio set has been turned on. General knowledge may extend to the whole of human history, to the population of the earth, to the inhabitants of a country, and this can usually help with the decoding of notions always preceded by the: the sea, the 38

_____________________________________________________________ Renaissance, the Equator, the Greek gods. Their unique denotation makes them resemble proper nouns. As for the cases represented by the Italians, the masses, the aristocracy, Quirk interprets that his larger situation label overlaps with the generic use. Direct anaphoric reference occurs when the determined noun has already turned up in the text. Coreference is a clear phenomenon: One night a wolf fell in with a dog. The wolf was all skin and bones, while the dog was as fat as he could be (a Fable). Indirect anaphoric reference involves general knowledge or life experience in a way. So, the decoder combines two kinds of recoverability: anaphoric and cataphoric, on the one hand, combined with the cultural background, on the other hand. For example: John bought a new bicycle, but found that one of the wheels was defective (Quirk). The wheels are taken for granted because of the mention of a bicycle. Consider the following text: John told me that, whenever he travelled aboard a plane, he handed the stewardess a small envelope for transmission to the planes captain without divulging the content to her. There are two new pieces of information here two rhemes, plane and envelope. The former once introduced, the presumption of a stewardess and a captain explains the subsequent use of the definite article; the latter once mentioned, we accept beyond any doubt the existence of a content and its determination by the definite article. Or, as Quirk (l99l:268) puts it, once we have introduced the topic of an orchestral concert, we can go on to talk about the programme, the audience, the conductor, the second oboe, etc.. We emphasize once again the fact that in frequent cases when a message gets decoded, identification of reference depends on assumptions about knowledge in general more than on the specific experience of the particular speaker and listener. Thus, if the former mentions a book, he can next speak about the author, the pages, the content by using a definite description. The semantic relation between a book and the author, for example, is known as partonomy, that is the semantic relation between a whole and its constitutive parts. Associative anaphoric processes may involve (l) permanent associations and (2) temporary / non-characteristic associations. If the indefinite NP introducing a notion for the first time in discourse has played the role of antecedent, the definite NP resuming the notion that has become familiar can be called anaphor. By the illustration below, we mean to show once again how anaphora works, namely a definite description is used as an anaphor to an indefinite description: There was a princess who lived in an enchanted kingdom. ANTECEDENT 1 ANTECEDENT 2 The princess was beautiful and the kingdom prosperous. ANAPHOR 1 ANAPHOR 2 The cataphoric use of the definite article could be illustrated with the following beginning of the text above: The John you have in mind told me that, whenever he travelled...etc. So this use is seen when the speaker/writer provides a definite description with a postposed modifier. Here is another example: The idea occurred to him that they should cancel the flight. Other instances of cataphoric use are: superlative constructions (the nearest approximation of the truth), constructions with ordinal numbers (the third attempt), combinations of the with the postdeterminers same, only, next. In all these cases, the definite article is obligatory. Quirk (l99l:269) upholds that this is the logical use of the because those postdeterminers (or adjectives 39

in traditional terminology) have a meaning inalienably associated with uniqueness: This is the only remaining copy or Of the three newspapers we have in town, this is the best. Still Quirk (ibid.) finds it necessary to point out another use, which he dubs sporadic reference. He means those instances when reference is made to an institution which is not necessarily confined to one building or one point in time. Thus, when you send a letter through the mail or put it in the post, when you want to know whats on the radio or speak on the phone, the event can be observed recurrently at various places and times. It is admitted that the sporadic use is sometimes close to the generic use. Contrast I go to the theatre as often as I can <sporadic> with I believe myself an expert on the Elizabethan theatre <generic>. Another contrast can be brought out when examining Quirks examples Theres a vase of flowers on the television (set) <situational> versus Theres an interesting play on (the) television <sporadic>. Sporadic reference to place also exists in the barbers and anything similar, and sporadic reference to time, in particular seasons and festivals, such as the New Year. The generic use of the definite article in English is similar to its use in Romanian. The following subclasses of nouns take it: abstract categories (the new, the sublime, the unusual) social classes or groups (the clergy, the middle-class, the nobility) community of humans sharing a certain property (the Dutch, the destitute, the blind ) feature [+SET] A number of NPs with the same structure are full conversions (what is exemplified above is partial conversion), consequently adopting also the form characterised as [-PL] [-SET]. Compare : The drunk are always right [+GEN] versus The drunk was right, it is midnight. In the latter sentence, the article gets an anaphoric reading. In fact, all three major forms of article can be used generically. Quirk provides the following set of generic statements to refer to the members of a class IN TOTO: The bull terrier makes an excellent watchdog. A bull terrier makes an excellent watchdog. Bull terriers make excellent watchdogs. The definite article with a singular noun indicates the class as represented by its typical specimen. The indefinite article picks out any representative member of the class. The generic use of zero article with plural nouns and noncounts identifies the class considered as an undifferentiated whole. The demonstrative power of the anaphoric definite article is shown when it is interchangeable with a demonstrative determiner, with no change of meaning: Under the / these circumstances, it would be foolish to evade the truth. At the / that time he was nobody. I know that nothing of the / this kind may happen to you. The is also believed to discharge the function of a demonstrative in John the Great, Richard the Lion-Hearted, Ivan the Terrible. The definite article in set phrases must also be mentioned here and its compulsory presence can be illustrated with an endleess number of expressions. Here is an edifying list: to be on the run, to tell the time, on the whole, quite the thing, to come out in the wash, to stay the course, to send somebody to the devil, to answer the purpose, the Lord knows! The indefinite article has four allomorphs: a, pronounced with a central midopen short sound, when the next word begins with a consonant or a semivowel; a, pronounced with a falling narrow closing glide, when the article is stressed (I said a man ); an, before vowels; an, with the initial sound not central and mid-open like before, but front and open when preceding an 40

_____________________________________________________________ emphasized notion beginning with a vowel. The emphatic forms before consonants and vowels are normally italicised or underlined in the printed text. Its typical use is called epiphoric. The head noun has a referent in the speakers reality, and that is why the fundamental use of the indefinite article has also been known as referential use. Owing to the presupposition of existence of the referent, the sentences with referential indefinite NPs are paraphrasable wih existential sentences of the type there is. The textual function of a is to introduce a new item of information, that is one yet unknown to the reader. A special literary effect is obtained when the first nominal group opening a story is marked by the: this is a tactic designed to puzzle the reader and stimulate his interest. Downing & Locke (1991:431) exemplify with the following beginning: Towards the end as Christmas approached... ( a story by Fay Weldon). It is natural to ask the question: the end of what? The reader is expected to make the best of the information given. A/an or a certain plus NP will be used when reference is not uniquely identifiable in the shared knowledge of writer and reader. But another widespread case is when a NP is not paraphrasable with certain or there is, e.g. His father was a joiner or Jim wants a toy-train. The latter case could be paraphrased by a cleft construction: it is a ... that... To the case of representatives of a profession, rank, title, one can add uncountables made countable by phrases ( to catch a chill, to have a go at something, to have a soft spot for somebody), nonrestrictive appositions ( A.B., a playwright, was born in ...), prepositional objects ( As a friend, I advise you ...). This use is recorded by Levitchi (1970:70) under the same heading - the anticipatory / epiphoric article, but Quirk et al. (1991: 273) decide that it deserves a separate paragraph and calls it nonreferring use. Examples in the latter work are We found Lisbon a delightful city (descriptive a), Her appointment as a lecturer was uncertain ( unique role), What a fool (he is)! - an exclamation that is also descriptive, but can be changed into a definite construction (The fool!) that is like a parenthesis with the intonation at a low pitch. The indefinite article can have a numerical function, widespread with nominals that enjoy divided reference (the countables). In a way, we can say that, by virtue of its use with nouns in the singular, this article is implicitly numerical in all instances of use. We can test the context in which the indefinite is undoubtedly numerical if it can accept the adjective single added with an intensifying force: They didnt stop arguing for a single moment. The generic a is a variety of the epiphoric one and is used much in the same sense as the determiner any in affirmative sentences.The indefinite a is taken to be less indefinite than any. There are instances when a cannot be replaced by any, e.g. A warm autumn may follow a cold summer. The idiomatic use, by the side of set phrases (its a pity, to have a good time, to make a reach for something), occurs in particular syntagmatic arrangements, for instance: Theres many a slip between cup and lip. A good many travellers wanted to see that. That rascal of a son of yours! I had a bit of a shock. If the modifying adjective is preceded by quite or rather, the indefinite article may be placed either between these items and the adjective or before the whole NP: He is rather a hard man / He is a rather hard man. Note the arrangement: so, as, too, however, how + adjective + indefinite article + head noun: It was too good a chance to be missed! Another 41

succession is with attributive phrases no less, any worse, too much of + indefinite article + head noun: It was no less a person than the President. When inverted word-order is applied in clauses of concession, the indefinite article is deleted, such as in Child though he was, he saw through his scheme. The zero article refers to the absence of a definite or indefinite article before a noun. We exclude here the cases of article omission, when the article should have occurred under normal conditions of use, but was given up as a physical realisation due to various reasons, mostly economy of space dictionary entries, stage directions, headlines, advertisements, telegrams etc. The zero article is used with all categories of nouns. It functions as a generic zero form in statements about illness (She has anaemia), meals (He skips breakfast currently), time expressions (Its almost dawn), colours (Dont wear blue, it doesnt suit your complexion), games and sports (Take jogging for exercise), subjects of instruction and sciences (Buy books on art), nouns referring to location not as a building, but as an institution (Hell go to college), transport and communication (Send by telex the time of your arrival by coach). Zero articles also occur with: indications of streets, parks, ports, castles etc. in the form of compound proper nouns; the nouns book, lesson, act, scene, line, part etc., when followed by a cardinal number; in parallel / symmetrical phrases - by hook or by crook, year in year out, over mountain and plain, by day and by night, mile after mile, arm in arm, etc.; other expressions that are not binominal, but prepositional complexes - out of step, in fashion, by reason of, with intent to, in wear, on foot, in turn, etc.The zero has epiphoric (referential) function with plural NPs, corresponding to the indefinite article in the singular (There were birds in the sky). The zero article is non-significant before names (of people, of geographical notions, of the days of the week and the months of the year, of languages and in appositions). It is also met before vocatives (Man! Boy!) and a couple of nouns denoting members of the family (Dad, Mummy, Mother, Nurse). Cobb & Gardiner (l994:l22) take this zero article as a substitute for our and exemplify as follows: Cook has given notice. Nurse is cross.

3.2. Applications
I. A. Stating the problem Analyze the category of determination within the NPs underlined below. - Jack was wearing grey trousers. The pants had a big patch on them. - Jack was working at a lathe. All of a sudden the machine stopped. B. Solving the problem When communication unfolds, it is common to see indefiniteness turn into definiteness in the presentation of entities first introduced into discourse. Each statement with the subject 'Jack' displays indefiniteness of reference in the sentential object: in the first line, 'trousers' is preceded by the zero article; in the second line, 'lathe' is preceded by the indefinite article. In the first line, 'pants' in the second sentence is a synonym of 'trousers' in the previous sentence; 'pants' is said to be coreferential with 'trousers', but preceded by the definite article. Hence, the grammatical tie between the two head nouns is that of anaphora and the semantic tie is that of synonymy, whereas the discourse connection is that of coreferentiality. The same comment is correct for the sentences in the second line, with one major semantic difference: the 42

_____________________________________________________________ relation between 'lathe' and 'machine' is called hyponymy. From a specific name, communication turns to a more general and less specific term. All this interpretation is facilitated in the two examples discussed by the progression from indefinite description to definite description occasioned by the determiner slot in the NPs underlined for analysis. II. A. Stating the problem After translating intoRomanian the following word combinations, comment on the, unexpected perhaps, use of definiteness instead of zero determination. ... translated from the Romanian ... the English for... ... drink the boiled water ... like the Italian painting ... in the literature B. Solving the problem In what grammars describe as common cases, the zero article points to an abstraction, the name of a language, an entity in a general sense and so on. The examples above display definiteness instead of zero with the explanation that some words are missing and can be guessed with certainty or high probability from the situation of communication. Thus, ... translated from the Romanian (language) ~ tradus din romnete ... the English (word) for... ~ n englez la ... se spune... ... drink the boiled water (not just water) ~ bea din apa fiart, nu ap simpl ... like the Italian painting (in that painted picture) ~ precum tabloul italian, nu arta italian ... in the literature (of the field) ~ n literatura de specialitate, cea a unui anumit domeniu tiinific

3.3. Self-evaluating tests

Pick out the correct comments. 1. Consider: I paid through the nose. In Romanian: Mi-a ieit pe nas ct am pltit. Am pltit de m-am uscat. A. The idiomatic turn of the pen is visible in both languages. B. The English language uses definite description, whereas Romanian uses indefinite description for the anatomical part. C. The English language should have used a possessive determinative for the anatomical part. D. In English, the possessive referring to anatomy is substitutable by the definite article when following a preposition. 2. On and off she suffers from stomachache versus On and off she suffers from a stomachache A. The former version is said to be British English. The latter version is said to be American English. B. The former version has a [-COUNT] head noun. The latter version has a [+COUNT] head noun. C. The former version refers to a more unpleasant condition than the latter. D. The two sentences are identical in grammar and meaning.

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3. Consider the case of numerical use for the phrases to sell by the pound, to get ten dollars the day, to pay several pounds the book, to cover twenty miles the gallon. A. The is not interchangeable with each, in this context. B. The is not interchangeable with one / a, in this context. C. Grammars assign the feature [+DISTR] to the used above. D. Some grammars consider the to be a generic article in the examples above. 4. When the definite article accompanies a noun, the respective noun gets a definite meaning, that is A. the speaker and the hearer already know the thing they are talking about B. the speaker and the hearer forget their shared knowledge C. the speaker and the hearer interpret particular and general situations D. the things they are talking about are not observable or self-evident but are remembered by them 5. Where is a definite article misadvised? A. with generic reference to animals B. with words expressing unique realities C. with the names of seasons of the year D. with the second mention of something previously referred to 6. The definite article is not used with A. countable parts of the body B. uncountable abstract nouns displaying a generic meaning C. uncountable nouns in the plural D. uncountable names of institutions 7. The indefinite article is compulsorily used with A. singular countables not representing a particular entity B. exclamatory sentences referring to countables in general C. mass nouns never becoming countable D. countables in the plural 8. The indefinite article is not used with A.nouns in the plural B.abstractions in the plural C.names of meals preceded by an adjective D.parts of the body which are multiple 9. The zero article is used when the speaker A. refers to an illness B. builds parallel structures repeating the noun C. recategorizes abstract nouns as concrete nouns D. indicates the part of the day when something happens 10.One sentence below misuses articles: A. Such a clever little boy! B. I dont dare shoulder the responsibility. C. Breakfast is served at eight. D. Grigorescu? He was great painter. 44

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3.4. Subjects for a check-up / examination

Take the following sentence through all possibilities of expressing genericity: A nightingale is a singing bird. Discuss the meanings and uses of the determinatives in the following sentences: (a) The whale is in danger of becoming extinct. (b) Look, little Tom is pale with fear. Some children suffer from a fear of the dark. (c) Coffee is a common stimulant. In the past years, coffee could be bought almost everywhere. Coffee, if any available, will calm me now, Im sure. (d) How did you get the mud on your coat? Or maybe you dont know that you have mud on your hem? (e) Mary bought a camcorder last week and sold a camcorder this week. (f) The Misses Smith / 6 Bonhill Street / London EC2A 4PU (g) Oh dear, the stain hasnt come out of the carpet. (h) Of course, when travelling by overnight trains, in the dark, one gets no idea what the countryside looks like. (i) When she tried to open her front door, she couldnt get the key into the lock. (j) Would the children like to go out and play? Dont they like the yard? You know, when they design playgrounds they should ask themselves what the children would like. (k) Beware of the snake. (l) You can put your coat on the peg. Open a dictionary and find five examples of binary nouns or summation plurals in morphology. They refer to such objects as consisting of two equal parts joined together; they can express singularity by using a pair of, for instance 'tongs' [+PL], 'a pair of tongs' [-PL]. In contrast, 'a pair of ear-rings' can be said, but the case is not that of a binary noun simply because there is a singular form, 'a/one ear-ring'.

Rspunsuri la teste pentru autoevaluare

Test I (cap. I): 1. B; 2. D; 3. D; 4. C; 5. A; 6. B; 7. A; 8. B; 9. A i C; 10. A. Test II (cap. II): 1. A i B; 2. B i C; 3. A; 4. D; 5. A; 6. A, B i C; 7. C; 8. D; 9. B; 10. niciun rspuns. Test III (cap. III): 1. A, B i D; 2. A i B; 3. C iD; 4. A; 5. C; 6. B; 7. A; 8. A; 9. B; 10. D. Tests added later (on the platform PIED) 1. What is a noun phrase? A. a modified head B. a determiner phrase C. a preposition plus a noun phrase D. a noun/pronoun centered phrase ANSWER: D 2. Is a noun phrase? A. a group of words B. an inflected morphological item C. a subject for the verb D. an object for the verb ANSWER: A & C 45

3. Postmodification in an NP means: A. pronoun substitution B. headnoun deletion C. a substitute head D. final ellipsis ANSWER: no answer 4. Coreferentiality is defined as: A. reference to the world of objects B. reference to one and the same entity C. reference by pronoun substitution D. reference to prehead elements ANSWER: B & C 5. The degree of generality of a sentence may be given by the criterion A. reference to institutions B. relation to proverbs C. absolute truths D. grammatical endophora ANSWER: B & C 6. What is an illustration for the substitution of a headnoun by the item one? A. One never knows what comes next. B. Ill think of promising ones, not failures. C. This one is good, while that one is not acceptable. D. One, two or three weeks, its all the same to me. ANSWER: A,B,C 7. An apposition is A. a relation between noun phrases B. a relation between modifiers of pronouns C. a relation between a modifier and a qualifier D. a relation between two verbless sentences ANSWER: A 8. Consider the sentence Youve made mistakes, comparable mistakes to hers. What is the underlined part? A. a non-sentence B. a discontinuous modification C. an internal discontinuity of the noun phrase D. an external discontinuity of a postmodifier ANSWER: B, C, D 9. The noun phrase the large glass in the corner exemplifies A. a restrictive construction B. a non-restrictive construction C. a double identification of emphasis D. a recursive qualification ANSWER : A 10. Additional information about a noun is called A. restrictive constituent in syntax B. non- restrictive constituent in syntax C. ellipsis of identification means D. substitution of the real subject ANSWER: B

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