THE GRAMMAR OF

ENGLISH
2012
 WHAT IS GRAMMAR?
Different meanings:
ETYMOLOGICALLY LINKED TO WRITTEN
LETTERS, BUT GRADUALLY HAS ACQUIRED A
WIDER MEANING
IMPLICIT KNOWLEDGE OF HOW LANGUAGE
WORKS
EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE OF HOW LANGUAGE
WORKS
THE RULES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF CORRECT
LANGUAGE
DIFFERENT TYPES OF GRAMMAR:
PEDAGOGICAL/NORMATIVE, DESCRIPTIVE,
THEORETICAL (e.g. Hallidays systemic grammar)
 Grammar/Linguistic Modules
Phonology
Morphology (inflectional and derivational)
Word-formation
Syntax
Lexis and phraseology
Semantics
Text and discourse
Punctuation
 MORPHOLOGY

THE STUDY OF THE

INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF
WORDS
e.g. the plural s inflection for
nouns and the ed inflection for
verbs
 SYNTAX
THE WAY IN WHICH WORDS COMBINE
TO FORM LARGER UNITS OF MEANING
e.g. phrases, clauses, sentences

Example: word order in a noun phrase or in

statements and questions
e.g. She is a beautiful girl
NOT She is a girl beautiful
 IN PRESENT-DAY ENGLISH
the presence of inflectional morphology is
limited compared to Old English (and other
languages such as Romanian)

and
a greater importance is given to syntax and
word order in signalling grammatical relations
 GRAMMATICAL UNITS
TEXT
SENTENCE
CLAUSE
PHRASE ( expression/word group)
WORD
MORPHEME
PHONEME
 What is a MORPHEME?
Unhappy un-happy
Cats cat-s

A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning or grammatical

function

Lexical e.g. pen, book

Functional or grammatical e.g. if, the

free: can stand alone as a word e.g. basket, woman

bound: cannot stand alone and must be linked to another
morpheme (called base or root) e.g. -ly, un-, -able, -ee
 MORPHEMES and MORPHS

Played play-ed PLAY+ past

Unhelpful un-help-ful negative+HELP+ adjective

WORDS MORPHS MORPHEMES

(concrete) (abstract)
 ALLOMORPHS

-ed

the morph that indicates past tense can be

realised phonetically in different ways
(allomorphs) depending on the phonological
context:
e.g. Raised [d]
looked [t]
decided [Id]
 TWO BRANCHES OF
MORPHOLOGY
INFLECTIONAL : DEALS WITH CHANGES
THAT HAVE GRAMMATICAL MEANING
e.g. est signalling the superlative of adjectives

DERIVATIONAL: DEALS WITH THE PROCESS

OF NEW WORD FORMATION
e.g. un-happ(y)i-ness
 WHAT IS A WORD?
Marys brother-in-law lost his
identity card during the
week-end
How many words are there in
this clause?
 HOW MANY WORDS ARE
THERE IN THIS SENTENCE?
I asked him to list all his
books, but instead of listing
them all, he listed only his
favourite book
20 or 14 or a number in
between?
 IT DEPENDS ON THE CRITERIA OF
WORDHOOD USED
Phonological : a word is preceded and
followed by pauses
Orthographic : a word is preceded and
followed by spaces or punctuation marks
Prosodic : a word takes one main stress

Internal integrity : a word is an indivisible

unit
Semantic : a word has a single meaning
 Word/word forms/lexemes
List/listing/listed = 3 word forms of the
LEXEME TO LIST
Book/books = 2 word forms of the
LEXEME BOOK
He/him = two word forms of the
LEXEME HE
 WORDS IN DICTIONARIES

ENTRY: an independent lexical unit in

alphabetical order

HEADWORD: the main word of the entry

LEMMA: the canonical form, e.g. the singular

for nouns
Words are traditionally grouped into

WORD CLASSES
OR
PARTS OF SPEECH
 WORD CLASSES/PARTS OF
SPEECH
NOUNS
VERBS ( LEXICAL /AUXILIARY VERBS)
ADJECTIVES
ADVERBS
ARTICLES or DETERMINERS
PRONOUNS
CONJUNCTIONS
PREPOSITIONS
INTERJECTIONS/INSERTS e.g. oh, yes, right
OPEN AND CLOSED CLASSES

open-class words lexical or content

words: wide and open membership; mixed
etymological origin ; 4 classes: nouns,
(lexical) verbs, adjectives, adverbs
closed-class words grammatical or
function words: limited membership and
high frequency of use; short; usually of
Germanic origin; 5 classes: pronouns,
determiners, auxiliaries, prepositions,
conjunctions
 MULTIPLE CLASS MEMBERSHIP

the same word form may belong to more than

one word class
e.g. fast (adj.), fast (adv.), fast (v./n.)
park (n.), park (v.)
can (n.), can (aux.)
only the co-text, i.e. the surroundings of the
word, allows the reader/listener to understand
the difference
word stress helps disambiguation
e.g. rebel (n.) rebel (v.)
 NOUNS
Open class with a naming function

common (city, house) or proper (London,

Mary, the White House)
Concrete (bread) or abstract (love)
Countable (book/books) and uncountable or
mass (milk, furniture, information)
may take the s genitive case
 VERBS: lexical and auxiliary verbs

open class denoting actions or states

lexical /main / full verbs e.g. I like English

He walked to school
auxiliary verbs (or auxiliaries) are added to lexical
verbs for various purposes
e.g. I could go faster. (modality)
John is going nowhere. (progressive aspect)
Do you go to school? (question)
I do love him! (emphasis)
 LEXICAL VERBS

Dynamic: referring to physical processes= allow

the progressive form
e.g. to play, to walk, to drink

Stative/state : referring to states and conditions =

do not allow the progressive form
e.g. to know, to love, to believe

Some can be both , e.g. to feel

 ADJECTIVES
Open-class with a descriptive function

attributive function, before a noun

e.g. the extraordinary boy
predicative function, after copular verbs (to be, to seem, to
appear) e.g. John is tall
some adjectives are only used in either attributive or
predicative function
e.g. the child is afraid (predicative)
*the afraid child but the freightened child
e.g. the main task (attributive)
*the task is main but the task is crucial /
important
 GRADABILITY OF ADJECTIVES
most adjectives are gradable
it is possible to indicate to what extent the quality
referred to by an adjective applies by using
intensifiers
e.g. lucky
very lucky extremely lucky
some adjectives are not gradable
e.g huge *extremely huge
unique *very unique
 ADVERBS
A very heterogeneous class
Fortunately, today the dog has eaten his food very quietly outside
comment when how / how /where

provide information about how, when, and

where
allow the speaker to comment on the whole
utterance
express degree with adjectives or other
adverbs
 Subclasses of adverbs

Circumstance adverbs or adjuncts: give additional information

about an element of the sentence
e.g. The surgeon completed the operation carefully

Stance adverbs or disjuncts: provide a comment on the

sentence
e.g. Frankly, I should have told her what happened

Linking adverbs or conjuncts: connect one sentence or part of a

sentence to another
e.g. She wasnt free to go to New York at Christmas and
besides she couldnt afford it.
 CONJUNCTIONS

join linguistic elements

coordinating conjunctions, or coordinators

e.g. and, but, or

subordinating conjunctions, or subordinators

- simple, e.g. because, although, when
- complex, e.g. as far as, in order to
 PREPOSITIONS

show the relationship between two items

typically followed by a noun phrase with which
they form a Prepositional Phrase (PP)
e.g. the dog ran under the table
simple: single word

e.g. under, over, at, on

complex: more than one word

according to, on behalf of, with regard to

 DETERMINERS
Function words used before a noun to indicate
definiteness or indefiniteness, quantity, possession
e.g. all these sugary cookies filled with jam and cream
The main subclasses are :
articles (indefinite/definite/): a, an, the
demonstratives: this, that, these, those
possessives: my, your, his, her, their, our, its, etc.
quantifiers: all, few, many, several, some, every,
each, any, etc.
cardinal numbers: one, two, fifty, etc.
ordinal numbers: first, second, third, etc.
 PRONOUNS
closed class of words which replace words thus avoiding repetitions
e.g. Michelle was offered an exciting new job and she decided to take it

Main subclasses :
personal pronouns
e.g. They love football (subject) She loves them (object)
possessive pronouns
e.g. This book is mine
demonstrative pronouns
e.g. This is my friend Tom
reflexive pronouns
e.g. She hurt herself
interrogative pronouns
e.g. Whose car is this?
relative pronouns
e.g. This is the car which/that I want to buy
 AUXILIARIES

A closed class of verbs which accompany lexical verbs

Two subclasses:

primary auxiliaries
have, be, do
e.g. Liz is looking for a job, Do you speak English? She has
studied a lot

modal auxiliaries (modality)

can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must
e.g. I must go now! Would you like a cup of coffee?
 WH-WORDS
A frequently used expression to refer to function words
beginning with wh-:

adverbs (interrogative, relative, exclamative)

e.g. When did you call her?

pronouns (interrogative, relative, exclamative)

e.g. Whose car is that?

determiners (interrogative, relative, exclamative)

e.g. Which book did you choose?
 NUMERALS
cardinal, e.g. one, two, three, etc.

ordinal, e.g. first, second, third, etc.

numerals may function as nouns

e.g. The Magnificent Seven
 REGULAR INFLECTIONS
NOUNS -s plural
NOUNS -s possessive or genitive
case
VERBS - s 3rd pers. sing. present
VERBS - ed past tense
VERBS - ed/en past participle
VERBS -ing present participle, gerund
ADJECTIVES -er comparative
ADJECTIVES -est superlative
 NUMBER of NOUNS
Most nouns add -s e.g. girls, toys, cars
some nouns add -es e.g. tomatoes, branches, knives
the pronunciation of the inflectional ending -s/-es depends on the
phonetic context, i.e. there are three allomorphs of the plural morpheme -
s
e.g. cakes = /s/ (preceded by the voiceless consonants /k/)
beans = /z/ (preceded by voiced consonants, e.g. /n/)
judges= /iz/ (preceded by /s/, /z/, //, //, /t/, /d/)

some nouns have irregular plural endings

e.g. children, teeth, mice, oxen, curricula, sheep

uncountable nouns:
e.g. evidence, advice, equipment, information
 POSSESSIVE CASE IN ENGLISH NOUNS
The s genitive versus the of-form.
Synthetic versus analytic option
SAY WHETHER THE FOLLOWING EXAMPLES ARE ALL ACCEPTABLE
AND DISCUSS THE RULE OF THE s GENITIVE versus THE OF
FORM

Johns car is fast

the car of John is fast
the students protest is still going on
the protest of the students is still going on
the car of the friend who is visiting me was stolen last night
The friend who is visiting mes car was stolen last night
yesterdays newspaper
the newspaper of yesterday
the journeys end
The end of the journey
The legs of the table
the tables legs
 S or of GENITIVE
Johns car is fast
The students protest is still going on
The protest of the students is still going on
The car of the friend who is visiting me was stolen last
night
Yesterdays newspaper
The journeys end
The end of the journey
The legs of the table
 VERB INFLECTIONS
MOST ENGLISH VERBS ARE REGULAR AND HAVE A PARADIGM OF 5 WORD
FORMS and 4 VERB INFLECTIONS
e.g. Love/loves/loved/loved/loving

THERE IS A SMALLER NUMBER OF VERY FREQUENTLY USED IRREGULAR VERBS

e.g. put, put, put
lose, lost, lost
take, took, taken
speak, spoke, spoken
go, went, gone

AUXILIARIES ARE VERY IRREGULAR, e.g. The verb to be has forms that differ from one
another , e.g. am, are, is, was, were, been ( PROCESS OF SUPPLETION)

MOST MODAL VERBS DO NOT INFLECT AND HAVE ONLY TWO FORMS, e.g. may,
might, can, could
 GRADABILITY OF ADJECTIVES
AND ADVERBS
Synthetic comparison:
-er ending (comparative) e.g. warmer
-est ending (superlative) e.g. finest
versus
Phraseological/analytic comparison (for polysyllabic
words)
more and most e.g. more/ most interesting
more quickly

Irregular comparison (process of suppletion)

e.g. good better best; little, less, least; much, more, most;
well, better, best; bad, worse, worst
 PRONOUN INFLECTION

Pronouns, and personal pronouns in

particular, have retained a certain
degree of inflection.
e.g. personal pronouns express
NUMBER, GENDER and CASE
often through suppletive forms
I-me; we-us, you-you, he-him, she-her, it-it, they-
them
 PHRASE ( Expression/word-group)

a unit of syntax made up of one or

more words
it contains an obligatory head and
optional modifiers
The black labrador (NP) was chewing
(VP) a juicy bone (NP) very noisily
(AdvP)
 TYPES OF PHRASES

NOUN PHRASE (NP) my friend Paul / Tom

VERB PHRASE (VP) is/ is laughing
ADJECTIVE PHRASE (AdjP) very tall/ absolutely brilliant
ADVERB PHRASE (AdvP) quietly, never
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE (PP) in the garden/ on
Monday

except for prepositional phrases (PP) phrases can be

constituted by a single lexical item

all phrases can be extended by pre-modification or post-

modification
 TYPES OF NOUN PHRASES
determiner pre-modifier HEAD post-modifier

- - John -

my leather (n.) suitcase -

a large, old, blue suitcase with wheels

(size, age,
colour)
 MORE NOUN PHRASES
det. pre-modifier HEAD post-
modifier
The London experience -

- Londons churches -

The - London I know

 AMBIGUITY in NPs

The French history teacher

the (det.) French (pre-mod.) history (pre-mod.)
teacher (head)

[the] [French] [history teacher]

(the teacher of history is French)
[the] [French history] [teacher]
(the teacher teaches French history)
 tree diagram
The French history teacher : the teacher of history is French

NP

det. Pre-mod.:Adj head:NP

mod:N + head :N

The French history teacher

 tree diagram
The French history teacher = the teacher teaches French history

NP

det. Pre-mod.:NP Head:N

Pre-mod:Adj. Head:N

The French history teacher

 COMPLEX POST-MODIFICATION

The proposal for a new building which the

committee put forward last week ...

-for a new building (PP)

-which the committee put forward last week
(relative clause)
 TREE DIAGRAM
An interesting government report about air
pollution
NP

Det. Mod.(adj.) Mod.(N.) Head:N Post-Mod:PP

Head:Prep C :NP

Mod.:N Head:N

An interesting government report about air pollution

 FREQUENCY OF NPs IN
ENGLISH
PRE-MODIFICATION IS MORE
COMMON THAN POST-
MODIFICATION IN ALL REGISTERS
COMPLEX PRE- AND POST-
MODIFICATION IS TYPICAL OF
SOME REGISTERS SUCH AS
WRITTEN ACADEMIC PROSE AND
NEWSPAPER HEADLINES
VERB PHRASEs : finite/ non-finite
finite verbs or VPs: marked by tense
e.g. John plays the guitar
I enjoyed the concert

non-finite verbs or VPs: not marked by tense, person

or number
e.g. To arrive on time was their objective
She traveled accompanied by her father
She broke her leg while skiing
 VERB PHRASES:
TENSE versus TIME
TENSE: property allowing the verb to differentiate
between present and past TIME
e.g. Jane likes music / Jane liked music

There is no morphologically marked form to

express future time in English (but a range of
forms such as will/shall+ infinitive, going to,
simple present, present progressive, etc.
 VERB PHRASE : ASPECT
Property allowing the verb to give information about the
state or the action
Progressive ( or continuous) : the action is in progress at
the time of utterance
Sarah is helping her sister
Perfect: the action is complete, that is it occurred at an
earlier time and continues to the time of utterance or is
relevant to it
Sarah has helped her sister when she was in her teens
Perfect+progressive: ( often called duration form) stresses
continuity in the past and includes the time of utterance
Sarah has been helping her sister since she was 12.
 Translate into Romanian and identify the
main differences between the two languages
1. Sarah helps her sister every Thursday
2. Lately Sarah is helping her sister a lot
3. Sarah has helped her sister to recover from
her illness
4. Sarah helped her sister one year ago when
she was ill
5. Sarah has been helping her sister since last
May
 VERB PHRASE : VOICE
The singer performed the song
The song was performed by the singer

NP1+VP+ NP2 NP2 +be+VPed+ by+NP1

The singer was performing the song

The song was being performed by the singer
 FUNCTIONS OF THE PASSIVE
the agent is unknown or irrelevant
Mr Constable has been murdered
the focus is on the process to convey objectivity,
especially in academic prose
The results of the tests have been checked several
times
to disclaim responsibility
He is said to be a womanizer

More frequent in scientific writing and in the Press

MODAL VERBS AND MODALITY
MODALS BELONG TO THE GERMANIC
CORE OF THE LANGUAGE.

THEY EXPRESS A WIDE RANGE OF

MEANINGS referring either to actions
controlled/imposed by humans ( DEONTIC
MODALITY) or to the levels of certainty of an
event (EPISTEMIC MODALITY). The same
modals can express different meanings. The
same meanings can be expressed in different
ways.
 THE MAIN MEANINGS OF
MODAL VERBS
1. PERMISSION e.g. Can I go to the loo? Could I borrow
your notes? (Am I allowed to ask a question?)
2. ABILITY e.g. I can ski, (I know how to do it)
3. POSSIBILITY e.g. She may be ill . She might be ill
(Perhaps she is ill)
4. OBLIGATION e.g. You must stop talking. You should
pay attention, You have to do it. This needs to be done
5. LOGICAL NECESSITY e.g. She must be ill (She is very
likely to be ill)
6. VOLITION e.g. Ill do it for you
7. PREDICTION e.g. It will rain tomorrow
 OTHER PHRASES
ADJECTIVE PHRASE
e.g. Beautiful/ (really) beautiful
ADVERB PHRASE

e.g. Slowly/ (fairly) slowly

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE

at University / at (Ploieti) University

 HOW CAN A CLAUSE BE ANALYSED?

First into Subject + predicate

John ( what is talked about) is English (what is
said about the topic)
Then into the 5 main functional elements of the
clause:
S (Subject),
V (Verb or Verb Phrase or Predicator ),
O (Object),
C (Complement),
A (Adverbial) They are often optional.
 THE VERB
IS THE CENTRAL PART OF THE
CLAUSE SINCE IT DETERMINES THE
OTHER ELEMENTS (e.g. verb
complementation or valency)
She was laughing one-place verb
She was playing the piano two-place verb
She was very beautiful two-place verb
She gave him a kiss three-place verb
She made him happy three-place verb
 CLAUSE ELEMENTS

S V O C A

The black has bitten Mr

labrador (VP) Allington
(NP) (NP)
He (NP) put (VP) the keys in his bag
(NP) (AdvP)

Sue (NP) is feeling very

(VP) sleepy
(AdjP)
S V O C A

It (dummy is going to
subject) rain (VP)

Armstrong became the first

(NP) (VP) man on the
moon (NP)

Chris (NP) made Sara (NP) really angry yesterday

(VP) (AdjP) (AdvP)
What I dont is (VP) Why you
understand lied to me
(clause) ( clause)
 S+V+IO+DO
S V IO DO
(Indirect (Direct
Object) Object)
She gave me a kiss

She gave her sister a glass of

wine

She gave DO IO
a glass of to her
wine sister
 SV (intransitive verb). No complementation
The black labrador was barking

clause
S:NP P:VP

det. mod.(adj.) head (n.) aux. head (v.)

the black labrador was barking

 SVDO (monotransitive)
Andrew bought a sports car
clause

S:NP P:VP

V DO:NP

head (n.) head (v.) det. mod. (n..) head (n.)

Andrew bought a sports car

 SVDO (monotransitive)
Andrew bought a sports car
clause

S:NP P:VP

V DO:NP

head (n.) head (v.) det. mod. (adj.) head (n.)

Andrew bought a sports car

 SVA (+ an obligatory Adverbial)
The taxi is waiting outside
clause

S:NP P:VP

V A:AdvP

det. head (n.) aux. head (v.) head (adv.)

The taxi is waiting outside

 SVSC (copular verb)
The weather has turned very nasty
clause
S:NP P:VP

V C:AdjP

det. head (n.) aux. head(v.) mod.(adv.) head(adj.)

The weather has turned very nasty

 Copular verbs
be, feel, seem, appear, look, remain, stay,
become, sound, taste

e.g. I am / feel rather tired (C: AdjP)

She became a nurse (C:NP)
You look extremely happy (C:AdjP)
Mary appeared in good health (C:PP)
That is what I mean (C: clause)
 SVIODO (di-transitive)
Gill told her child a bedtime story
clause

S:NP P:VP

V IO:NP DO:NP

head(n.) head(v.) det. head(n.) det. mod.(n.) h(n.)

Gill told her child a bedtime story

 Di-transitive verbs
Give, tell, bring, buy, show

e.g. John showed me (IO) his new car (DO)

They bought him (IO) a new racket (DO)
Tell us (IO) the truth (DO)
 SVDOOC (complex transitive)
The judges declared Jackie the winner
clause

S:NP P:VP

V O:NP OC:NP

det. head (n.) head (v.) head(n.) det. h(n.)

The judges declared Jackie the winner

 SVDOA
Terry put the rubbish in the dustbin
clause
S:NP P:VP

V O:NP A:PP

head (n.) head(v.) det. h(n.) h (prep) C:NP

det. h(n.)

Terry put the rubbish in the dustbin

 Adverbial

Optional elements added to the obligatory

elements of the clause

Circumstance adverbial: additional information

e.g. The taxi is waiting outside
Stance adverbial: speakers feeling / attitude

e.g. Hopefully I will pass all my exams in June

Linking adverbial

e.g. In conclusion, alls well that ends well.

 Obligatory adverbial
Adverbials that are required to complete the
meaning of the verb

E.g. Sally put the bread on the table (obligatory

Adverbial)

vs. Sally cut the bread on the table (optional

Adverbial)
Verbs: put, last, live
 Adverbials vs. complements
John was very quiet (C)
John was in bed (A)

They are in good health (C)

They are in the garden (A)

You should stay sober (C)

You should stay here (A)

Complements describe or characterize the S (or O)

Adverbials typically express place or direction.
 TO SUM-UP THE CLAUSE
ELEMENTS : S/V/O/C/A
1. S+V
2. The baby is crying
3. S+V+A
4. The concert lasted three hours
5. S+V+DO
6. She is playing tennis
7. S+V+DO+A
8. She put the rubbish in the dustbin
9. S+V+SC
10. She is Indian
11. S+V+IO+DO
12. He gave her a kiss
13. S+V+ DO+OC
14. They elected her dean of the faculty
 MAIN AND SUBORDINATE
CLAUSES
1. Mary had been waiting for more than an hour
2. Suddenly, she stood up and went out
3. She said that she was not feeling well because the air in the
room was stuffy
4. She wanted to get some fresh air

a main clause always contains a finite verb and typically

contains an overt subject
a subordinate clause cannot stand alone and needs to be
attached to a free-standing clause
a non-finite clause is always subordinate
simple clauses consist of a clause, compound clauses
consist of two coordinate clauses, complex clauses consist
of a main and one or more subordinate clauses.
 TYPES of CLAUSES
TYPICAL FUNCTIONS OF CLAUSE TYPES

FORM FUNCTION
declarative statement
interrogative question
imperative directive
exclamative exclamation

Shes wearing a new dress.

Is she wearing a new dress?
Buy yourself a new dress!
What a lovely dress shes wearing!
 DECLARATIVE CLAUSES

declarative clauses are normally used to

make statements
declarative clauses typically have an overt
subject, a verb element and any necessary
verb complementation and may also have
optional adverbials
Philip will visit his dentist in London today
 INTERROGATIVE CLAUSES

yes-no questions: Are you happy?

wh- questions: Where do you live?
Question-tag : Shes Australian, isnt she?
She doesnt love him, does she?
So, you have changed your mind,
have you/havent you?
the interrogative structure implies a subject-operator
inversion
any auxiliary which is used to make interrogative sentences
is labelled operator (be, have, do)
Questions tags may have contrastive or constant polarity
 MARKED SENTENCE
STRUCTURES
This book, I really liked it
EMPHASIS IN SPEECH

Terry plays jazz piano for fun.

It is Terry who plays jazz piano for fun.
Its jazz piano that Terry plays for fun
Its for fun that Terry plays jazz piano
It-CLEFT
I would like a book for my birthday
What I would like for my birthday is a book
WH-CLEFT

CLEFTING
to highlight a particular element of the sentence
the focussed element is introduced by a dummy Subject
and followed by a relative clause
 SENTENCE
I agreed to go with them (main clause) although I
wasnt really happy with the idea. (subordinate
clause)
the largest unit of syntactic structure
a sentence must consist of at least one clause
(main clause)
in writing, a sentence starts with a capital
letter and ends with a full stop
in speech sentences are not always complete
 TYPES OF SUBORDINATE
CLAUSES
1. NOMINAL I just hope (that) they will
understand
2. RELATIVE The man who is sitting next to
Tom is John
3. ADVERBIAL Call me as soon as you get
home (time) because I have to talk to you
(reason) .The boy stood on the box so that
he could see better (purpose). Even
though I am tired (concession), Ill do it.
4. 4. COMPARATIVE This hotel is not so nice
as I expected
 TYPES OF RELATIVE CLAUSES
IN WHAT WAYS DO THE FOLLOWING RELATIVE CLAUSES DIFFER? WHICH
RELATIVE PRONOUNS CAN BE USED IN EACH CONTEXT?

This is the best hotel (that, which, who, whom, whose, zero pronoun) I
was able to find
This hotel, (which, that, who, whose, whom, zero pronoun) was renewed last year,
is one of the best in the city
The man (which, that, who, whose, whom, zero pronoun) you see in the photo is
my brother
The man (which, that, who, whose, whom, zero pronoun) is coming towards us is
my brother
The music (that, which, who, whose, whom, zero article) we are listening to is
Mozart
We stayed in a lovely hotel, (which, that, who, whom, whose) owner is a good
friend of mine
We spent the night in a farm, (which, that, who, whom, whose) was very relaxing
 Accepted options
This is the best hotel (that, which, zero pronoun) I was
able to find
This hotel, which was renewed last year, is one of the best
in the city
The man (that, who,whom, zero pronoun) you see in the
photo is my brother
The man (that, who) is coming towards us is my brother
The music (that, which, zero pronoun) we are listening to
is Mozart
We stayed in a lovely hotel, whose owner is a good friend
of mine
We spent the night in a farm, which was very relaxing
 RULE OF RELATIVE CLAUSES
Relative clauses can be either defining ( or restrictive) or
non-defining (non-restrictive) depending on whether
they define the antecedent or add extra information.
Commas are required for defining clauses.
The use of relative pronouns is conditioned by the
antecedent , whether it is human ( who,whom, whose,
that) or non-human ( that, whose, which), whether it
plays the role of subject (who, that, which) or object
(whom, that, which, zero pronoun), whether it is
defining ( who, whose, whom, that, which) or non-
defining (who, whose, which).
There are some fuzzy areas of usage (e.g. who/whom)
 CONDITIONAL SENTENCES
1) If the weather is nice, tomorrow we will go
to the seaside (it is an open possibility)
2) If the weather were/was nice, we would go
to the seaside ( it is unlikely)
3) If the weather had been nice, we would
have gone to the seaside (it did not
happen)
 Activity 1: build acceptable noun
phrases filling all the boxes
determiner pre-modifier HEAD post-modifier

MY BEST FRIEND IN TURIN

THESE ELEGANT FLATS IN THE

CITY
CENTRE
A NEW BOOK
ABOUT
SHAKESPEARE
ACTIVITY 2: Give a top-down scale of the
main grammatical units with an example for
each

SENTENCE Call two taxis, please, because there

are ten of us
CLAUSE (main clause) Call two taxis ( subordinate
clause) because there are ten of us
PHRASE Noun phrase: two taxis or Verb phrase:
call
WORD taxis, call, two, please
MORPHEME taxi (free lexical morpheme) , -s
(bound grammatical morpheme)
 ACTIVITY 3: Give examples of declarative clauses
containing the given verbs and having the patterns indicated

1. Show = A time S V IO DO
Last night Mary showed us a very interesting
documentary

2. Make = S V DO OC
You have made me very happy

3. Be /seems = S V SC
I am Romanian or This seems a good idea
 ACTIVITY 4: Identify the clause elements in the
following examples

1. I am getting really angry

I (S) am getting (V) really angry (SC)
2. Perhaps we should invite Mary
Perhaps (A) we (S) should invite (V) Mary
(DO)
3. Its going to rain

It (S)s going to rain (V)

 The woman hit the boy with the
umbrella
Use a tree diagram to show that this
clause is ambiguous

The woman (S) hit (V) the boy with the

umbrella (DO)
Or
The woman (S) hit (V) the boy (DO) with
the umbrella (A)