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Ludmila Veselovská
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Ludmila Veselovská
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................ 7
Working with this text................................................................................................................................ 7
The Topics and Background Philosophy................................................................................................... 7
1 COMMUNICATION (REVISION)....................................................................................................... 9
1.1 MODEL OF COMMUNICATION ........................................................................................................... 9
1.2 HUMAN LANGUAGE .......................................................................................................................... 9
1.3 LINGUISTICS ................................................................................................................................... 10
1.4 EXERCISES ...................................................................................................................................... 11
2 LINGUISTICS AS A SCIENCE .......................................................................................................... 13
2.1 HOW TO EVALUATE DATA (ACCEPTABILITY VS. UNACCEPTABILITY) ............................................ 13
2.2 STATING THE RULES / PRINCIPLES .................................................................................................. 14
2.3 EXERCISES ...................................................................................................................................... 15
3 MORPHOLOGY................................................................................................................................... 18
3.1 MORPHEME .................................................................................................................................... 18
3.2 LEXICAL AND NON-LEXICAL MEANING OF MORPHEMES ................................................................ 18
3.3 CRITERIA FOR DIVIDING MORPHEMES ............................................................................................. 19
3.4 MORPHEMES AS THINGS OR AS RULES?.......................................................................................... 20
3.5 EXERCISES ...................................................................................................................................... 22
4 WORD-FORMATION ......................................................................................................................... 26
4.1 LEXICON ......................................................................................................................................... 26
4.2 KINDS OF WORD-FORMATION (REVISION) ..................................................................................... 26
4.3 BACK FORMATION .......................................................................................................................... 27
4.4 EXERCISES ...................................................................................................................................... 28
5 DERIVATION....................................................................................................................................... 30
5.1 THE OPEN-ENDEDNESS OF THE LEXICON ........................................................................................ 30
5.2 CONSTRAINTS ON PRODUCTIVITY ................................................................................................... 30
5.2.1 Blocking Effect .......................................................................................................................... 30
5.2.2 Phonological Factors................................................................................................................ 31
5.2.3 Morphological Factors ............................................................................................................. 31
5.2.4 Semantic Factors ...................................................................................................................... 32
5.2.5 Aesthetic Factors ...................................................................................................................... 32
5.3 EXERCISES ...................................................................................................................................... 32
6 COMPOUNDING ................................................................................................................................. 35
6.1 ORTHOGRAPHY............................................................................................................................... 35
6.2 PHONETICS ..................................................................................................................................... 36
6.3 MORPHOLOGY ................................................................................................................................ 36
6.4 SYNTAX .......................................................................................................................................... 36
6.5 SEMANTICS ..................................................................................................................................... 38
6.6 HEADEDNESS OF COMPOUNDS ........................................................................................................ 39
6.7 RIGHT-HAND HEAD RULE............................................................................................................... 39
6.8 LEFT-HAND HEADED COMPOUNDS (IN ENGLISH) ........................................................................... 39
6.9 HEADLESS COMPOUNDS (EXOCENTRIC COMPOUNDS).................................................................... 40
6.10 EXERCISES ...................................................................................................................................... 40
7 SOME SPECIAL KINDS OF ENGLISH COMPOUNDS................................................................. 42
7.1 NOMINAL COMPOUNDS: BRACKETING PARADOX ........................................................................... 42
7.2 VERBAL COMPOUNDS..................................................................................................................... 42
7.2.1 Incorporation of Object/ Adverbial into Verb........................................................................... 42
7.2.2 Phrasal Verbs (Verbs with Particles) ....................................................................................... 43
3
7.3 SOME OTHER KINDS OF (ENGLISH) COMPOUNDS ............................................................................ 43
7.3.1 Rhyming Compounds ................................................................................................................ 43
7.3.2 Cranberry Words (analogical formations) ............................................................................... 43
7.3.3 Neoclassical Compounds .......................................................................................................... 44
7.3.4 Quotational Compounds ........................................................................................................... 44
7.4 EXERCISES ...................................................................................................................................... 44
8 MORPHOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY OF LANGUAGES ................................................................... 46
8.1 INDEX OF SYNTHESIS ...................................................................................................................... 46
8.1.1 Isolating Languages.................................................................................................................. 47
8.1.2 Polysynthetic and Incorporating Languages ............................................................................ 47
8.2 INDEX OF FUSION ........................................................................................................................... 48
8.2.1 Agglutinating Languages .......................................................................................................... 48
8.2.2 Fusional Languages.................................................................................................................. 49
8.3 EXERCISES ...................................................................................................................................... 50
9 PARTS OF SPEECH / WORD CATEGORIES................................................................................. 57
9.1 THE NATURE OF CATEGORIES ........................................................................................................ 60
9.2 SEMANTIC-NOTIONAL CRITERIA FOR ESTABLISHING A CATEGORY ............................................... 61
9.3 MORPHOLOGICAL CRITERIA FOR ESTABLISHING A CATEGORY ...................................................... 61
9.3.1 Derivational Morphology ......................................................................................................... 61
9.3.2 Inflectional Morphology ........................................................................................................... 61
9.3.3 Grammaticalisation ............................................................... Chyba! Záložka není definována.
9.3.4 Types of Features...................................................................................................................... 63
9.4 EXERCISES ...................................................................................................................................... 64
9.5 SYNTACTIC CRITERIA FOR ESTABLISHING A CATEGORY ................................................................ 65
9.6 HEADS AND PHRASES ..................................................................................................................... 65
9.7 CATEGORIAL PROTOTYPICALITY .................................................................................................... 66
9.8 SOME MINOR PARTS OF SPEECH ...................................................................................................... 67
9.9 EXERCISES ...................................................................................................................................... 67
10 SEMANTICS AND MORPHOLOGY OF NOUNS ........................................................................... 71
10.1 CASE .............................................................................................................................................. 71
10.1.1 The Repertory and Realization of Morphological Case............................................................ 71
10.1.2 The Source and Function of Case ............................................................................................. 72
10.2 COUNTABILITY AND NUMBER ........................................................................................................ 74
10.2.1 Countability .............................................................................................................................. 74
10.2.2 Singular vs. Dual vs. Plural Number ........................................................................................ 75
10.3 DETERMINATION ............................................................................................................................ 76
10.3.1 Classification of Determiners w.r.t. Distribution...................................................................... 76
10.3.2 Articles ...................................................................................................................................... 77
10.3.3 Types of Reference .................................................................................................................... 77
10.4 ANIMACY AND GENDER ................................................................................................................. 78
10.4.1 Animacy .................................................................................................................................... 78
10.4.2 The Gender Category................................................................................................................ 79
10.5 EXERCISES ...................................................................................................................................... 81
11 SYNTACTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NOUN ..................................................................... 86
11.1 INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF NOUN PHRASES..................................................................................... 86
11.1.1 N-premodifiers .......................................................................................................................... 86
11.1.2 N-postmodifiers......................................................................................................................... 87
11.2 DISTRIBUTION AND FUNCTIONS OF NOUN PHRASES ....................................................................... 87
11.3 EXERCISES ...................................................................................................................................... 88
12 PRONOUNS .......................................................................................................................................... 93
12.1 PERSONAL PRONOUNS .................................................................................................................... 93
12.1.1 Interpretation of Personal Pronouns ........................................................................................ 93
12.1.2 Function and Form ................................................................................................................... 94
12.1.3 One............................................................................................................................................ 95
4
12.2 RELATIVE PRONOUNS ..................................................................................................................... 95
12.2.1 The form of the relative Pronouns ............................................................................................ 95
12.2.2 Omitting the relative Pronoun .................................................................................................. 96
12.3 INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS ........................................................................................................... 97
12.3.1 The form of the interrogative Pronouns.................................................................................... 97
12.3.2 The position of the WH-Pronouns............................................................................................. 97
12.4 EXERCISES ...................................................................................................................................... 99
13 ANAPHORS (REFLEXIVES AND RECIPROCALS) .................................................................... 102
13.1 REFERENCE .................................................................................................................................. 102
13.1.1 Co-reference (Antecedents and Indices) ................................................................................. 102
13.1.2 The linear position of an antecedent (above all with pragmatic anaphors)............................ 103
13.2 THE FORM AND INTERPRETATION OF ENGLISH ANAPHORS .......................................................... 103
13.2.1 Antecedents of anaphors ......................................................................................................... 103
13.2.2 Binding of Anaphors ............................................................................................................... 104
13.2.3 Reciprocals ............................................................................................................................. 104
13.3 THE DISTRIBUTION/ USE OF REFLEXIVE/ RECIPROCAL PRONOUNS .............................................. 105
13.4 EXERCISES .................................................................................................................................... 105
14 MODIFIERS........................................................................................................................................ 107
14.1 SEMANTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ADJECTIVES/ ADVERBS ............................................................ 107
14.2 ADJECTIVAL / ADVERBIAL MORPHOLOGY .................................................................................... 107
14.2.1 Derivational Morphology ....................................................................................................... 107
14.2.2 Inflectional Morphology ......................................................................................................... 108
14.3 EXERCISES .................................................................................................................................... 108
15 SYNTAX OF ADJECTIVES.............................................................................................................. 109
15.1 ADJECTIVE PHRASE ...................................................................................................................... 109
15.2 DISTRIBUTION/ FUNCTIONS OF ADJ PHRASES ............................................................................... 110
15.3 ADJECTIVAL PREDICATES ............................................................................................................. 110
15.4 ADJECTIVE PRE-/POST-MODIFIERS OF A NOUN ............................................................................. 111
15.4.1 Pre-modifying Adjectives ........................................................................................................ 111
15.4.2 Post-modifying Adjectives....................................................................................................... 111
15.5 SUBJECT/OBJECT COMPLEMENTS (SECONDARY PREDICATES) ..................................................... 112
15.6 CENTRAL AND PERIPHERAL ADJECTIVES...................................................................................... 113
15.6.1 Secondary Adjectives .............................................................................................................. 113
15.7 EXERCISES .................................................................................................................................... 114
16 ADVERBS............................................................................................................................................ 117
16.1 VERBAL, TEMPORAL, SENTENTIAL AND GRADING ADVERBS ......................................................... 118
16.2 NEGATIVE, PARTIAL NEGATIVE, POSITIVE ADVERBS ..................................................................... 118
16.3 ADVERBIALS AS COMPLEMENTS, ADJUNCTS, DISJUNCTS, CONJUNCTS ........................................ 119
16.4 EXERCISES .................................................................................................................................... 119
17 SEMANTICS AND MORPHOLOGY OF VERBS.......................................................................... 121
17.1 SEMANTIC SPECIFICATION AND CLASSIFICATION ......................................................................... 121
17.2 VERBAL PARADIGMA (VERBAL MORPHOLOGY)........................................................................... 122
17.3 TENSE ........................................................................................................................................... 123
17.4 ASPECT ......................................................................................................................................... 123
17.5 COMBINATIONS OF ASPECT & TENSE ........................................................................................... 124
17.6 MOOD, SENTENCE MODALITY ...................................................................................................... 125
17.7 VOICE ........................................................................................................................................... 126
17.8 SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT ........................................................................................................ 126
17.9 EXERCISES .................................................................................................................................... 127
18 SYNTAX OF VERBS.......................................................................................................................... 130
18.1 VERB PHRASE ............................................................................................................................... 130
18.2 DISTRIBUTION AND FUNCTIONS OF VP......................................................................................... 132
18.3 EXERCISES .................................................................................................................................... 132
5
19 AUXILIARIES AND MODALS ........................................................................................................ 133
19.1 SEMANTIC SPECIFICATION ............................................................................................................ 133
19.2 TWO KINDS OF MODALITY AMONG THE MODALS ........................................................................ 133
19.3 PHONETIC REDUCTIONS OF AUXILIARIES, MODALS AND LEXICAL VERBS .................................... 134
19.4 MORPHOLOGICAL PROPERTIES ..................................................................................................... 134
19.5 EXERCISES .................................................................................................................................... 135
20 SYNTAX OF AUXILIARIES, MODALS AND VERBS ................................................................ 137
20.1 QUESTION FORMATION: MODAL/*VERB - SUBJECT - ................................................................... 137
20.2 NEGATION (POSITION OF NOT)...................................................................................................... 138
20.3 QUESTION TAGS, SHORT ANSWERS, QUESTIONS OF SURPRISE ..................................................... 138
20.4 NEGATIVE QUESTIONS (TESTING THE PROPOSED VERBAL STRUCTURE)........................................ 139
20.5 EXERCISES .................................................................................................................................... 140
21 THE ENGLISH VERBS DO, BE AND HAVE ............................................................................. 143
21.1 SPECIFICITY OF BE ....................................................................................................................... 143
21.2 SPECIFICITY OF HAVE ................................................................................................................... 144
21.3 EXERCISES .................................................................................................................................... 146
22 APPENDIX: LIST OF SOME ENGLISH BOUND MORPHEMES.............................................. 150
22.1 NEGATIVE AFFIXES ....................................................................................................................... 150
22.2 SOME OF THE MORE FREQUENT ENGLISH SUFFIXES ...................................................................... 150
22.3 PREFFIXES OF GERMANIC ORIGIN ................................................................................................. 154
22.4 NON-GERMAN PREFFIXES ............................................................................................................. 154
22.5 SOME MORPHEMES OF GREEK ORIGIN........................................................................................... 158
RELATED LITERATURE.......................................................................................................................... 159
6
INTRODUCTION
This text has been written to assist students of English in their work in Morphology
and Morpho-Syntax courses in the programme of English philology. It assumes a solid
working knowledge of English grammar and of the traditional grammar at the level
assumed for the Grammar school courses of Czech language.
This text, however, is in no way intended to replace any textbook specified in a
course description, nor does the amount of material cover all of what students need to read
for their exams. Instead, it provides syllabi for the lectures with many schemes and
examples commented on and discussed in the course. Without a commentary some of them
may be difficult to understand, so the students are strongly encouraged to make their own
notes and remarks during the classes. Enough space is given between the paragraphs and on
the margins so that such additions are possible. Some students may still have problems with
English terminology and structuring their study - this text should also provide them with
the main terms used, and the sections basically follow a pattern that can be used in
preparing for English grammar exams, though not all topics are covered to the same extent
and some require more individual reading.
Apart from syllabi, the following text also contains a number of exercises. The
function of the exercises is twofold. First, they introduce some new aspects or problems of
the proposed analyses not mentioned in detail during the lectures. Second, they allow
students to test their understanding of the topics under discussion. In some cases, however,
there is no generally agreed solution to the problem and the exercise provides more data for
discussion of alternatives than a simple minded test of knowledge.
The text in this volume is divided into two parts, each of which can be covered in
some 10-13 two-hour classes (in the existing system in a semester).
The first part of the volume constitutes a general introduction to the study of
morphology as a part of linguistics. It deals with the most standard and frequent processes
of English word-formation concentrating mainly on derivation and compounding. At the
end of this section some general principles of the morphological typology of languages are
introduced and discussed. The text goes into some detail establishing morpho-syntactic
criteria for English parts of speech, providing a universal introduction for the next part of
the volume.
The second part of the course concentrates in detail on the characteristics of the main
lexical categories (and also Pronouns) in English. Special attention is given to the forms
and functions of Nouns, Adjectives, Adverbs and Verbs, including Auxiliaries and Modals.
In this part many syntactic terms are introduced as far as they are relevant as categorial
characteristics. Because the assumed readers are Czechs and many of them intend to
translate or interpret in their future careers, English grammar is usually compared with its
Czech formal and/or pragmatic equivalents. Some other languages are also occasionally
mentioned, to provide a more universal background for the topic under discussion.
Each part contains an introductory Revision section testing the assumed preliminary
knowledge, and a final Revision section which summarizes the basic topics covered in the
course.
7
The text concentrates on topics which the author finds most important, most
interesting and sometimes neglected in other study materials. To complement these
individual choices, at the beginning of most sections there are some bibliographical
references to the literature which are recommended as study material for the course. The
students are expected to go through at least some of the materials mentioned.
The author of the following text believes in linguistics, above all in grammar, as an
autonomous science. Therefore the analyses here assumed that human language is a system
which can be studied by applying scientific methods, with the result of acquiring some
descriptively adequate and as explanatory as possible generalized hypotheses. Empirical
data and argumentation are thus strongly preferred to the memorizing of any listed
classifications, and no a priori analysis or theory is taken for granted or as definitive.
Nonetheless, the presentation and hypotheses here, such as in the choices of categories, are
based on traditional functional and structuralist grammar (which the students used during
their pre-university education) and only slightly influenced by current theoretical proposals.
Recent functional and generative approaches typically present themselves as return-
ing to the empirical concerns of traditional grammar and at the moment provide a wide
range of plausible frameworks. The grammatical analyses introduced in this course assume
the need for empirical and scientific understanding of human language and although it
concentrates on formal grammar, it assumes interactions with other disciplines such as a
theory of communication, literary study, psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc. The
author hopes that discussing and trying to understand basic grammar in a more universal
and open-minded way turns out to be useful for all students of English language, who can
then go on in their studies in whichever field or framework suits their fancy.
Ludmila Veselovská
8
1 COMMUNICATION (REVISION)
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 2-16, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp. 1-10;
Akmajian, Demers, Farmer & Harnish (1990) pp. 1-10; Crystal (1987) pp. 395-414.
REALITY
CONCEPT of reality
CODING DECODING
transmitter receiver
speaker/ writer CODE hearer/ reader
9
1.3 Linguistics
Some levels of Linguistics are more autonomous, e.g. independent, they have their own
definable topic, deal with specific elements and apply their own rules which are less
derived from other fields (Phonetics/ Phonology, Semantics, Pragmatics) than others, e.g.
Morphology + Syntax (= Grammar) use similar elements, apply similar rules and discuss
the same or similar topics.
(e) h i z f a đ ə i z t ai ə d
(e) phoneme (distinctive features) / allophone / sound (the symbols are only illustrative)
(d) syllable
(c) phonetic word (stress pattern, …)
(b) phonetic phrase
(a) phonetic sentence (intonation pattern, …)
10
(6) Levels of Morpho-Syntactic (Grammatical) Structure
1.4 Exercises
11
(9) EXERCISE ===========================================
Discuss the main topics (units, terms) of the following sciences. What does it mean to
say that phonetics and semantics are autonomous parts of linguistics?
(a) lexicology
(b) semantics
(c) pragmatics
(d) phonology/ phonetics
(e) morphology
(f) syntax
(g) communication theory
(h) semiotics
(i) stylistics
(e) m y b [o+ y] f r [ i+ e] n d
(a) .........................................................................................................................................
(b) .........................................................................................................................................
(c) .........................................................................................................................................
(d) .........................................................................................................................................
(e) .........................................................................................................................................
(a) Můj starší bratr šel rychle do školy a vrátil se v pět hodin.
(b) My father went to the cinema.
(c) He went quickly and came back tired.
(d) This lazy brown dog jumped over five green hedges.
12
2 LINGUISTICS AS A SCIENCE
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 17-42, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp. 11-28.
(1) Linguistics
(i) observes/studies data within one or many language(s) (i.e. Parole),
(ii) describes them (classifies their parts),
(iii) looks for generalizations and
(iv) creates a model of grammar.
Model of Grammar
(a) Observationally/ Descriptively adequate: the model must reflect the data correctly.
(b) Explanatory: individual rules are to be related to the whole system.
"We may make an intuitive judgment that some linguistic expression is odd or deviant. But
we cannot in general know, pretheoretically, whether this deviance is a matter of syntax,
semantics, pragmatic, belief, memory limitations, style, etc., or even whether these are
appropriate categories for the interpretation of the judgment in question. It is an obvious
and uncontroversial fact that informant judgments do not fall neatly into clear categories:
syntactic, semantic, etc."
(Chomsky: Essays, 1977:4)
13
(4) (a) ? an honest geranium.
(b) ? the man next door says she never looses her temper with anyone
(c) ? the tree who we saw
(d) ? Human beings have two or three eyes.
(e) ? William was pregnant but he had a miscarriage.
(f) ? The umbrella is flying with the bathroom.
(g) ?Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
(h) ?I’m thinking of the sonata I hope to compose someday.
Semantic Competence
(5) (a) I thought that Elisabeth was there, but it turned out that she wasn't.
(b) ! I realized that Elisabeth was here, but it turned out that she wasn't.
"The borderline between grammar and semantics is unclear, and linguists will draw the
line variously... Similarly the borderline between grammar and pragmatics (and even more
between semantics and pragmatics) is unclear." (Quirk et al. 1985:16)
Grammaticality
The reason for the ungrammaticality has to be found, defined and explained, referring to
some rule and/or principle, which the ungrammatical sentence violates.
14
Compare the following examples in (11). Discuss how each or them 'demonstrates' the rule
for the order of Subject – Verb – Object in English and Czech (and or these fixed vs. free
??? ), considering also the style, frequency, special interpretations, etc.
(11) SVO (a) Mary wrote a letter. (a') Marie napsala dopis.
SOV (b) *Mary a letter wrote. (b') % Marie dopis napsala.
OVS (c) *A letter wrote Mary. (c') Dopis napsala Marie.
OSV (d) A letter Mary wrote. (d') % Dopis Marie napsala.
VSO (e) *Wrote Mary a letter. (e') % Napsala Marie dopis.
VOS (f) *Wrote a letter Mary. (f') % Napsala dopis Marie.
2.3 Exercises
15
(13) EXERCISE ==========================================
Decide on the well-formedness of the following examples. Use the correct symbols
for deviant sentences (choosing among ?/ !/ *).
16
(16) EXERCISE ===========================================
Give examples which illustrate the facts about English Subject-Verb agreement and
try to state the rule for the agreement as precisely as possible (e.g. 'English Verbs show
Subject-Predicate agreement only in 3rd person singular present tense'). Recall that your
examples are to illustrate all possibilities including the ungrammatical ones. However, try
to express yourself as economically as possible!
................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................
(a) * I be at home.
(b) * The teacher musts read their papers.
17
3 MORPHOLOGY
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 1567-1579, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp.
264-290; Crystal (1987) pp. 88-100; Dušková (1994) pp. 13-22; Akmajian/ Demers/
Farmer/ Harnish (1990) pp. 11-52; Finegan & Besnier (1989) pp. 85-124; Fromkin &
Rodman (1990) pp. 122-157; Katamba (1993); Matthews (1974); Spenser (1991).
3.1 Morpheme
Bloomfield (1933):
‘A morpheme is the smallest element of a language which carries a meaning.’
Which kind of meaning? SIGN = form + meaning. (In a language everything has ‘some’
meaning = reason/ function/ role in the system)
(Phoneme: can distinguish the meaning, but it does not carry it itself.)
Discussing the meaning of all the parts of the words below, we need to refer not only to the
lexical meaning of the stem, but also to the other parts of the word.
Lexical morphemes (stems/ bases) have a huge number of meanings – they reflect existing
reality: boy, believe, age, evolution, game, tree, vacuum, China, Christmas, Islam
Non-lexical morphemes are not infinite in number. They are the core of the grammar of a
language, i.e. their number, form, position, combinations etc. define the specific typological
characteristics of the language (e.g. Czech vs. English).
For some morphemes, to assign a category and to be itself a member of a category is its
'meaning/ function':
18
(4) vysok-á dívka
The morpheme –á on vysok-á is a morpheme of agreement (in Gender), which signals that
the expression is related to a feminine Noun. (Note that the final vowel height of vysoká is
itself in some sense feminine compared with vysoký.)
-m in him marks the Object function of he w.r.t. the Verb kill or the Preposition with. Such
a function is interpreted as an affected Object (of a Verb/Preposition): the meaning includes
that (i) he is dead, (ii) he was (spoken) with...
(c) hi-s/Mary-'s only recent picture
-s in his marks the function of he w.r.t. to the Noun picture and such a function is
interpreted as the Agent, Patient, or Possessor role of he.
-s in reads does not modify the lexical meaning of the stem, i.e. the reading activity is
identical with or without the morpheme –s. The morpheme –s is configurational; it shows
agreement, i.e. it signals that the Verb read is related to a Subject and the Subject is 3sg.
19
(9) (a) governor+s, book+s, N (plural)
(b) pretti+er, Adj (comparative)
(c) stopp-ed, is read+ing V (Tense, Aspect)
20
View I: Morphology = concatenation of morphemes = ‘things’ / adding material
Which ‘things’?
WRIT + ER + S = writers
BUT ! There are other examples which make this simplified view implausible. See below.
(14) suppletion go > went, good > better > best, she > her, is > are, two > second
partial suppletion France > French > franco-phile, Franco-American
stop > stopp-ed, find > finds, nice > nic-er, city > cities, tomato >tomatoes
(19) Null/ Zero affixation = CONVERSION For partial conversion see (18).
21
3.5 Exercises
e) What does the word mean? (Give its Czech equivalent/ translation)
...................................................................................................................................................
22
(24) EXERCISE ===========================================
Give two examples (one English and one Czech) of the types of morphemes. Write a
complex word and underline the relevant morpheme.
ENGLISH CZECH
bound morpheme.......................................................................................................................
free morpheme..........................................................................................................................
stem ................................................................................................................................
base ................................................................................................................................
function word.............................................................................................................................
prefix ................................................................................................................................
in(ter)fix ................................................................................................................................
suffix ................................................................................................................................
circumfix ................................................................................................................................
read ................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................
act ................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................
light ................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................
waiters ................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................
modernizeable ..........................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................
cranberry ................................................................................................................................
re-reads …............................................................................................................................
spoke ................................................................................................................................
(he) was ................................................................................................................................
23
he's reading
will be written
24
(30) EXERCISE ===========================================
How can you show /argue/ prove that the bold element in (a) is a morpheme while in
(b) it is not? Apply similar arguments to (c), is the part in bold a morpheme?
(a) She is much nic-er than Mary. (a') She is more beautiful than Mary.
(b) I stopp-ed at the traffic lights. (b') I will stop at the traffic lights.
(c) Jill does-n't want to come. (c') Jill does not want to come.
(d) Chod-íš do parku. (d') You go to the park.
(e) On chod-í do lesa. (e') He go-es to the forest.
(a) big, big-er, the bigg-est (b) clever, more clever, the most clever
(c) This dwarf is much bigg-er than that dwarf, but neither of them is big, of course.
(d) Though Barbara is much more clever than Grace, they are both pretty stupid, in fact.
25
4 WORD-FORMATION
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 1623-1695, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp.
264-290; Quirk/ Greenbaum/ Leech/ Svartvik (2004) pp. 1515-1586.
4.1 Lexicon
Word: A word is a minimal free form. Lexeme: Words are listed in lexicon. A lexical
entry is comprised of the form + the meaning, i.e. it includes all specific (idiosyncratic)
phonological/ morphological/ syntactic/ semantic properties of a word.
.
(1) Center/ Core vs. Periphery of the lexicon.
(4) Abbreviation: (a) Initial abbreviations: IBM, MP, p.m., SOB, UN, EU, w.r.t.
(b) Acronyms: UNESCO, radar, WASP, NASA
(c) Clipping: mike (<microphone), bike, fridge, info, hype (<hyperbole)
(6) Conversion: (a) true conversion (null affixation?): fast, hard (ADJ=ADV)
(b) ‘partial’ conversion (phonological change / alternation)
26
(i) stress: transport, contrast, increase, torment, record
(ii) vowel length/tone or quality (= ablaut/apophony): sing>sang>sung>song
(iii) consonant mutation: advice>advise, belief>believe, use, house, mouth
To claim that some word has been back-formed, we have to provide arguments about the
likelihood of the steps in the process of the word formation. The arguments may result from
(a) more detailed morphological analysis; see (8),
(b) knowledge of some specific morphological (word-formation) process; see (9),
(c) knowledge of historical data; see (10).
(8) tele – vis – ion regular complex word consisting of existing morphemes
tele- e.g. tele-phone, tele-graph
vis- e.g. vis-ibility, in-vis-ible
-ion e.g. locat-ion, nat-ion, criter-ion
televise which morphemes does it consist of ???
(a) tele- e.g. tele-phone, tele-graph
(b) vis- e.g. vis-ibility, in-vis-ible
(c) *-e .... such →V morpheme does not exist
or (b) *-v- .... such morpheme doesn't exist
(c) -ise e.g. modern-ise, legal-ise
Conclusion: the word 'televise' couldn't be formed in a normal way. It must have been
backformed by speakers assuming the analogy with the words ending on –ion which have
the verbal source on –ise (modern-ise → modernisat-ion; re-vise → revis-ion).
(9) baby – sit –ing regular (old, Germanic) process of incorporating compounds
the structure is [N+ [V + er/ing ]] , never [N+V]. Exceptions
are assumed to follow the regularity, not the opposite.
(a) make a coffee → coffee making, coffee maker BUT * to coffee make
(b) make shoes → shoe making, shoe maker BUT * to shoe make
(c) lay bricks → bricklaying, bricklayer BUT * to bricklay
(d) sit (at) a baby → baby sitting, baby sitter EXCEPTION!!! baby sit
27
4.4 Exercises
René, IBM, teepee, zoo, vacuum, Dolores Ibarruri, Ghana, tsunami, knedlich, gnocchi
28
(l) WIN ......................................................................................................................
(m) RIP ......................................................................................................................
(n) SUNY ......................................................................................................................
(o) CUNY ......................................................................................................................
(p) nylon .....................................................................................................................
(q) dederon ......................................................................................................................
(r) PC ......................................................................................................................
(s) .........................................................................................................................................
(t) .........................................................................................................................................
29
5 DERIVATION
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 1666-1720, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp.
264-290.
(1) (a) blue-print, word-stock, trigger-happy, dry clean, offshoot, back formation
(b) writ-er, invest-ment, final-ize, near-ly, mis-calculate, re-invent, trilion-th
(c) read-s, John-’s, stopp-ed, spok-en, nic-er, frend-li-est, re-low-er-ing
A more specific (idiosyncratic) form takes preference over (blocks the existence and use of)
a less specific (regular) form. (Aronoff, 1976)
(3) (a) write > writ-er
steal > *steal-er (blocked by semantically more specific ‘thief’)
(b) help > help-ed
write > *writ-ed (blocked by irregular 'wrote')
(c) book > book-s
man > * man-s (blocked by irregular 'men')
30
5.2.2 Phonological Factors
(6) (a) fast > fasten, soft > soften, dark > darken, loose > loosen, tough > toughen
(b) dry > *dryen, blue > *bluen, low > *lowen, fine > *finen, lame >*lamen
(c) stupid >*stupiden, morose >*morosen, urgent >*urgenten, alive >*aliven
The order of morphemes is fixed. English tolerates only one inflectional morpheme.
Class I: (a) -ion, -ity, -ous, ... (b) in-, sub-, re-, ...
Class II: (a) -hood, -ful, -ly, ... (b) un-, sub-, re-, ...
Class III: regular inflection (=endings)
(8) Therefore Class I affixes always precede Class II affixes and Class III endings.
(= Stems precede suffixes which precede endings.)
31
(9) Compounds do not take derivational morphology, once created.
Class I undergoes special phonological processes, Classes II/III are phonologically inert.
The use of specific parts is often defined with respect to (w.r.t.) the their meaning.
5.3 Exercises
32
(c) unemployment .............................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
(d) governmental .............................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
(e) modernize .............................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
(f) privatization .............................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
(g) generalizations .............................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
(h) immortal .............................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
(i) transportation .............................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
(j) co-operatively .............................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
(k) subversive .............................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
(l) hypothermic .............................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
(m) monothematic .............................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
(a) *girls’s room (where girl’s has a second syllable with a reduced vowel)
(b) Charles → Charles-e-s, → Charles-’s / Charles’ book
(c) children / woman
→ children's room, women’s dress,
33
(18) EXERCISE ===========================================
Referring to the constraints on productivity, explain the (un)grammaticality.
(a) V → N .............................................................................................................................
(b) V → A .............................................................................................................................
(c) A → V .............................................................................................................................
(d) N → N .............................................................................................................................
(e) N → A .............................................................................................................................
34
6 COMPOUNDING
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 1644-1666, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp.
264-290.
6.1 Orthography
This is the main (necessary and sufficient) criterion in Czech but not in English.
In English orthography is a sufficient but not necessary criterion. Many compounds are
hyphenated or separate.
(4) (a) Rohrer (1974): Some Problems of Wordformation.
(b) Aronoff (1976): Word Formation in Generative Grammar.
(c) Bauer (1983): English Word-formation.
35
6.2 Phonetics
6.3 Morphology
Thus, spelling the couple as a one word is a sufficient but not necessary criterion for an
English compound.
6.4 Syntax
Testing whether the complex behaves as one unit or as a syntactic phrase consisting of
several separable parts.
We can test whether the structure can be changed by some regular syntactic process.
Idioms: undergo (to various degrees) syntactic operations.
Compounds: are inert / frozen with respect to (w.r.t.) syntax (syntactic atoms).
(a) Enlarging the complex by additional material: e.g. Nouns in a syntactic complex
(phrase) can be premodified by semantically compatible Adjectives rather freely.
(b) Passivization: A syntactic complex [Verb +Object] can be passivised.
36
In (8) adding Adjectives and passivization do not change the meaning, while in (9) they do.
(* here means the loss of the idiomatic reading.)
(11) (a) break the ice (a') The ice was finally broken by Mary.
(b) keep tabs on someone (b') Tabs are being kept on new students.
(c) take someone for a ride (c’) The owner has been taken for a ride.
Premodifying Adjectives can be used as Predicates after a copula and in a relative clause.
With idioms the same changes in the structure causes the loss of the idiomatic meaning.
See also section 6.5.
(14) a colorful/ blue/ black bird (after copula) The bird is colorful/ blue/ black.
(relative clause) The bird which is colorful /blue/ black
37
6.5 Semantics
Remember that transparent meaning includes the syntagmatic information, i.e. hierarchy,
with the kind of relation expressed in some formal way (word order, morphology, etc.).
bird BLACKBIRD
BLACK
+ modification
Consider the following couple of words: it is not enough to know the meaning of both, we
must also know how they are related (which ONE is hierarchically higher and/or which
kind of function does the subordinate element fulfill).
Semantic relations between elements can also be transparent in idioms, to a certain extent,
especially if one of the elements is a Verb.
(21) (a) playmaker ‘a person who makes plays’ (team leader in football, hockey)
(b) man-eater ‘an animal that eats people’
(c) housecleaning ‘activity of professionally cleaning houses’
(d) ball park ‘a park or grassy stadium where ball games are played’
(e) underground ‘(something) which is under the ground’
38
6.6 Headedness of Compounds
The HEAD is the most important part of a compound. What does ‘most important’ mean?
In semantics we can consider the meaning.
In grammar we take for the head the element which assigns a category to the larger unit,
i.e. the one which takes relevant inflection and determines about the distribution.
See also above in (6).
(a) velké město (a') velk-o-město
(b) ve velk-ém měst-ě (b') ve velk-o-měst-ě
(c) black bird (c') blackbird(s)
Consider the following compounds consisting of distinct categories. Which of them decides
about the category of the complex?
39
6.9 Headless Compounds (Exocentric Compounds)
In English the headless compound appear headless only w.r.t. to semantics/ meaning, but
syntactically (and morphologically) the unit almost always has a (usually right-hand) head.
6.10 Exercises
(a) Mary held her/ his head. (b) Mary held her/*his tongue.
(c) His head was held by Mary. (d) *His tongue was held by Harry.
40
(32) EXERCISE ===========================================
Paraphrase and translate the examples below. Consider all types of arguments
showing that the following are/ are not idioms/ compounds. Recall that the arguments are
to be (i) phonetic, (ii) morphological, (iii) syntactic, (iv) semantic.
41
7 SOME SPECIAL KINDS OF ENGLISH COMPOUNDS
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 1644-1666, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp.
264-290.
English compounds of the form N+N are recursive, i.e. an already compound Noun can
modify a Noun and there can be Adjectives involved, too, which can be related to any of
the Nouns. The interpretation is therefore vague, it depends on how the listener relates the
elements (which hierarchy is assigned to the structure). In Czech the translation must
disambiguate the structure.
(c) new government fund reserve ... new is the government, fund, or reserve?
(d) next lid cover steam box ... next is lid, cover, steam or box?
Their basis is a Verb plus its argument. The (post verbal) argument is preposed
(incorporated) and the complex is deverbalized by some derivational suffix (nominal or
adjectival). It is an old, productive Germanic derivational process.
(2) lend money, make shoes, sell books, make hay, lay bricks….
42
Apart from arguments (Objects) of the Verb, the initial element can also be an adjunct of
time/ place/ manner/etc. as well, especially when the N suffixes -er/-ing are not used.
(See also section 4.3 about Backformation.)
Phrasal Verbs are special kinds of compounds, more semantic than actually syntactic. Their
head is not the right member, but the Verb, and the two elements can be separated. The
process of word formation with phrasal Verbs is matter of diachrony; some are well
established, others are more recently created and becoming productive.
(6) (a) I locked him out. There was a lock-out after the strike.
(b) They took their coats off outside. The take-off was rough. (intransitive)
(c) I phoned my order in to the restaurant. ?They no longer accept phone-ins.
Typical for nursery rhymes, child language, slang, etc. (special stylistic value)
(7) (a) Black-Jack, claptrap, night-light, hocus pocus, honky tonk, hanky-panky
(b) goody-goody (good in sentimental or naive manner)
(c) namby-pamby (weak, ineffective--a person, or as adjective)
(d) wishy-washy, tick-tock, ding-dong (=ABLAUT, high/front + low/back vowels)
43
7.3.3 Neoclassical Compounds
7.4 Exercises
44
(l) to hit the bull's eye make an exact remark
(m) to hit the nail on the head say something exactly true
(n) to hit some place e.g. London become the fashion there, e.g. in London
(o) to hit a sore spot say something really bothering somebody
(p) to hit on someone to interact with someone with a sexual intent
(q) to hit it off get on together really well
(r) to hit the dirt get on the ground to avoid shooting
45
8 MORPHOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY OF LANGUAGES
See also: Comrie (1989) pp. 33-54, 210-226; Crystal (1987) pp. 84-86, 283-341;
Greenberg (1961).
3,000 - 10,000 languages (alive/ dead, language/ dialect, pigeon/ Creole, style/ slang)
Ranked in terms of numbers of speakers: Chinese, English, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic,
Bengali, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, German, French, Punjabi....
46
Most/ All major category words in Czech have more than one morpheme. In English
monomorph(emat)ic words are more frequent due to the lack of inflection.
Vietnamese Khi toi den nhá ban toi, chúng toi bát dau lám bái.
when I come house friend I PLURAL I begin do lesson
'When I came to my friend's house, we began to do lessons.'
Compared with typical Indo-European languages, these highly isolating languages have:
- many monosyllabic, invariable words (larger phonetic repertory, e.g. tonic vowels),
- many non-categorial stems (since they do not fit I.-E. “standard” with its Latin-based
terminology, many of these are called 'particles'),
- fixed orders of elements/ words,
Isolating/ analytic characteristics are far more frequent in English than in Czech, but both
languages have numerous free grammatical morphemes.
(5) (a) to read, will have been reading, woman-doctor, take advantage of
(b) by šel, smál se, budu číst
Polysynthesis: the number of compound morphemes is large and a single word may form a
rather complex sentence. In such words, only one of the morphemes, however, is lexical.
Incorporation: a number of lexical morphemes combine into one word. This is possible in
many languages (compounds), but if it prevails, the language is taken for incorporating.
47
(8) Tiwi (aboriginal) ngi - rru - unthing - apu - kani
I PAST for some time eat repeatedly
'I kept on eating.'
modern ise - er - s
BASE M-1 M-2 M-3
Individual morphemes are clearly separable (sometimes with some regular changes at the
borders). Each has one function/ meaning, often identical with distinct parts of speech.
48
8.2.2 Fusional Languages
BASE M1/2/3
(14) He read-s
(a) Person: 3 [BUT: they read / *they reads]
(b) Number: singular [BUT: one book / *one books, I read / *I reads]
(c) Tense: present [BUT: we read / *we reads]
Regarding English inflection, recall example (7) on page 31.
The agglutination/ fusion contrast can be considered with (a) distinct kinds of morphemes,
(b) the same kind of morphemes.
In Indo-European languages (both English and Czech) the standard word template consists
of 1(2) stems, 1(x) derivational morpheme(s), 1(x) inflectional morpheme(s) in this order.
Observing the following examples, check that the distinct kinds of morphemes usually do
not fuse. Notice that fusion is a phenomena concerning mainly inflection.
49
8.3 Exercises
CZECH ENGLISH
analytical /isolating .................................................... ....................................................
.................................................... ....................................................
agglutinating .................................................... ....................................................
.................................................... ....................................................
fusional .................................................... ....................................................
synthetic .................................................... ....................................................
(a) In January I will have been living in this town for ten years.
(b) The building had been being built for two years already when the fire happened.
50
(e) two derivational morphemes ..............................................................................................
(f) two inflectional morphemes …….......................................................................................
51
(27) EXERCISE ===========================================
Discuss the internal structures of the following complex words. Divide them into
morphemes and state (in detail) the types of the morphemes. Find other words comprised of
the same morphemes.
Example: underemployment = under+employ+ment
under - derivational prefix, ‘low, less’ (e.g. under-graduate, under-mine)
employ – root/ stem, ‘give work’ (e.g. employ-er, employ-ee)
ment – derivational suffix, V→N, ‘institution/ abstract’ (e.g. govern-ment, improve-ment )
readers ................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................
nationalize ................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................
cranberry ................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................
writes ................................................................................................................................
went ................................................................................................................................
(he) was ................................................................................................................................
will be introduced
52
(30) EXERCISE ==========================================
Give examples of derivational morphemes with the following specifications.
(a) V → N .............................................................................................................................
(b) V → A .............................................................................................................................
(c) A → V .............................................................................................................................
(d) N → N .............................................................................................................................
(e) N → A .............................................................................................................................
(f) N → V → A ...................................................................................................................
(g) A → V → N .....................................................................................................................
53
(35) EXERCISE ===========================================
Each of the following words in Telugu (a Dravidian language spoken in India) is
translated into English by an entire sentence. Analyze the words by identifying the
morphemes occurring in each word - fill in the right column.
(See Demers & Farmer 1991, pp 25-28)
54
(36) EXERCISE ===========================================
The following words are in Swahili (a language of the Niger-Congo family).
(i) Identify the morphemes occurring in each word - fill in the right column.
(ii) What is the order of the main sentence members in Swahili?
(iii) Which type of language is Swahili?
(See Demers & Farmer 1991, pp 29-32.)
55
(37) EXERCISE ===========================================
The following words are in Classical Nahuatl (a Uto-Aztecan language spoken in
Mexico). (i)Identify the morphemes occurring in each word - fill in the right column.
Recall that some morphemes can be phonetically empty (Ø).
(ii) What is the word order in Nahuatl?
(iii) Which type of language is Nahuatl?
(See Demers & Farmer 1991, pp 33-36.)
56
9 PARTS OF SPEECH / WORD CATEGORIES
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 22.
Table 1.
Table 2.
57
(3) EXERCISE ===========================================
Define the criteria applied in the division in Tables 3-6. State the properties of the
elements appearing in the leftmost/ rightmost group. Which division do you prefer? Why?
Table 3.
Table 4.
58
(5) EXERCISE ===========================================
Compare Table 5 and Table 6. Which is ‘better’? Why? State all the reasons.
Table 5.
Table 6.
59
9.1 The Nature of Categories
The label for a part of speech expresses a number of properties shared by the specific
group of words. Many specific structural relations can be derived from the categorial status
of a given word. Therefore from the beginning of the theoretical study of language in
ancient Greece, words were grouped into several categories according to various criteria.
1. SEMANTIC - notional - based on the meaning of the word and/or its function
2. MORPHOLOGICAL - based on the inner word-structure,
some morphology is typical for each category:
(a) derivational morpheme(s)
(b) inflectional morpheme(s)
3. SYNTACTIC - (a) based on distribution in a sentence
(b) co-occurrence restrictions (includes modification)
4. PHONETIC - complementary criterion mentioning e.g. an particular stress pattern
or some specific phoneme. E.g. in Classical Greek Nouns had variable stress, while
Verbs and Adjectives had a fixed rule for penult/final stress placement. In Igbo
(Nigeria), Verbs begin with consonants while Nouns typically begin with vowels.
In an ideal case all the criteria applied to one lexical item agree, but they need not. In this
situation some of the criteria are taken for more important, according to the kind of
grammatical theory used and specific characteristics of the studied language. The
definitions of word categories may therefore vary in different theoretical frameworks.
In traditional grammar the notional and morphological criteria prevailed, e.g. in
Czech the following traditional grammar word categories are used: Nouns, Adjectives,
Pronouns, Numerals, Verbs, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, Particles and
Interjections, and for English the categories of Articles (Determiners) and Modals could
be added. The criteria for inflecting words (word categories) are mainly morphological,
while with non-inflecting words (word categories) syntactic and semantic criteria prevail.
The notion of a word category is closely related to the notion of a ‘word’ and may
differ in different languages as well.
The existence of the major lexical categories seems to be quite universal, but the
importance and role of their members may differ substantially. Also the number and
character of minor lexical categories may differ and so may the nature of non-lexical
categories. The awareness of some universal and some language-specific categorial
features is also highly relevant when language acquisition is taken into account.
60
9.2 Semantic-Notional Criteria for Establishing a Category
(8) Prototypical correlations of syntactic categories (Croft 1991, p.55, 65, 79)
Noun Adjective Verb
Semantic class object property action
Valency 0 1 >1
Stativity state state process
Persistence persistent persistent transitory
Gradability nongradable gradable nongradable
Pragmatic function reference modification predication
(a) derivational affixes............................. create a new word usually with a new category
(b) inflectional endings........................... create a new form within a paradigm
(a) nation-al =A
(b) nation-al-ise = *A / V
(c) nation-al-is-ation = *A / *V / N
61
The (universal) morphological/inflectional (paradigmatic) complexity of categories
9.3.3 Grammaticalization
Inflection encodes the meaning/ features which a language has grammaticalized.
Grammaticalization of a lexical (auto)semantic feature is a diachronic process.
Semantic meaning/ feature which becomes (in a given language) grammaticalized is:
(i) simplified (appears only as a choice between a limited number of options)
(ii) regular (has a canonic representation with a limited number of exceptions),
(iii) productive (frequent, can be used with new words)
The lexical morphemes (independent words) like tiny/ small/ little or female/ woman/ she
can diachronically lose the semantic (lexical) richness and become simplified into
productive grammatical formatives, in the extreme case becoming a regular/predictable/
productive bound morpheme.
Grammatical morphemes are nonetheless semantic in some sense, i.e. related to aspects of
reality which can also be expressed lexically. They represent some simplified version of it.
(a) Time, an infinite line: E.g. Future time: tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next year,
the next century, Dec.7, 2110...
(b) Tense, Grammaticalized: established points (with respect to the speech act)
Past vs. Present vs. Future Tense (= what precedes/ occurs with/ follows a speech act)
He stopped. (-ed means preceding the speech act)
He will come. (will means following the speech act)
Languages can differ as to which categories use which grammaticalized features (have
specific kinds of inflectional morphology). Compare these English and Czech examples
w.r.t. the formal realization/ grammaticalization of (a/b) Gender and (c/d) Countability:
62
(14) (a) The Great Emper-ess [Fem] was sitting on the throne.
The Great Emper-or [Masc] was sitting on the throne.
(b) Velk-á císař-ovna seděl-a na trůně.
Velk-ý císař seděl na trůně.
Inflectional morphology on a lexical entry reflects features which can be of the following
three types
(b) Julie bought [Past]/ will buy [Fut] a book [Sing] / many books [Plur]
- the choice of Tense in bought/will buy depends on the speaker.
- the choice of Number in book/books depends on the speaker.
63
Inflectional morphology is a strong signal of categorial status.
In a language with rich inflectional morphology (e.g. Czech) each major class lexical item
can have some typical inflectional ending, which identifies the part of speech rather
unambiguously. However, in a language with poor inflectional morphology (e.g. English)
the morphological signal is usually absent and co-occurring elements decide the category.
9.4 Exercises
-en .............................................................................................................................................
-er .............................................................................................................................................
-ing ...........................................................................................................................................
64
9.5 Syntactic Criteria for Establishing a Category
Syntactic criteria for establishing the category of an item are based on its distribution, i.e.
co-occurrence restrictions. Each part of speech appears in some typical environments.
There are typical elements which are subordinate to it (lower in a hierarchy) and typical
elements which are superordinate to it (higher in a hierarchy).
E.g. with Nouns: subordinate elements (what depends on N?) are Adjectives, Articles, etc.
while superordinate elements (what does the N(P) depend on?) are Verbs, Prepositions, etc.
Every part of speech can become a head of a more complex structure = phrase.
brother
that big of mine
The form of a pre-/post-modification is typical for a specific head/part of speech. Some can
be more/less obligatory.
In a sentence, a constituent (phrase) can appear as (i) simple/ bare, or (ii) complex.
Generally we can say that a sentence consists of phrases, not of words. Sentence functions
like ‘Subject’, ‘Object’, ‘Attribute’ and ‘Predicate’ are phrases although they can be bare
phrases (i.e. they can look like one word only) or clauses.
(24) (a) We saw a boy / [NP the little boy of mine ] Object is NP
(b) This boy is small / [AP much smaller than Adam ] Predicate is
AP
(c) I want to read it. / [VP to quickly read the article ] Object is VP
(d) He went up. / [PP right up the hill ] Adverbial is PP
(e) This is a big step / [AP an extremely big] step Attribute is AP
The main or major parts of speech N, V, A, P (in fact their phrases NP, VP, AP, PP)
typically have PROFORMS: grammatical words which can replace them. The kind of
proform used for such substitution is in itself a signal of the kind of phrase. (Pronouns
replace NPs, Adverbials like there, then replace PPs, do so replaces VP, such replaces AP.)
65
(25) The little boy was already running in the city's only park at 8 o’clock.
(a) NP [NP He ] was already running in the city's only park at 8 o’clock.
(b) VP She wonders if [the little boy ] [VP did so ].
(c) PP The little boy was running [PP there ] at 8 o’clock.
(d) NP The little boy was running in [NP our ] only park at 8 o’clock.
(e) PP The little boy was running in the city's only park [PP then ].
(f) AP [AP Such] a boy was running in the city's park at 8 o’clock.
(g) [NP He] is [VP dong so ] [PP there] [PP now].
Ideally the words belonging to the same part of speech have the same (general)
meaning, the same (predictable) forms and the same distribution/ function/ pragmatics.
Grammatical categories have ‘best case’ members and members that systematically
depart from the ‘best case’. The optimal grammatical description of morpho-syntactic
processes involves reference to the degree of categorial deviation from the ‘best case.’
To ‘know' the characteristics of a specific part of speech means to know to which extent the
members of the category are ‘the same’ (what they have in common) and to which extent
they can differ (what are the frequent exceptions).
66
9.8 Some minor parts of speech
Greenbaum & Quirk (1990) pp. 188-203; Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik (2004)
pp. 393-398; Dušková (1994) pp. 136-140, 273-306; Svoboda and Opělová-Károlyová
(1989) pp. 138-162; Crystal (1987) pp. 91-93
Minor parts of speech (closed categories) have a limited, essentially fixed number of
members. They are lists of specific expressions. They can be
(i) grouped together with some mayor category, or more traditionally
(ii) kept separate because of some special property.
(31) Numerals
(a) I can see those three hundred and thirty-three silver fire-brigade vehicles.
(b) The fifth one I see twice or three times a day.
(c) The purpose of their presence is twofold. First, they have nothing to do; second….…
(d) Many of them are ugly but a few are not so bad.
(e) They drank a barrel of beer. Mike drank a lot of wine, too.
9.9 Exercises
use .............................................................................................................................................
love ...........................................................................................................................................
top .............................................................................................................................................
after ..........................................................................................................................................
back ..........................................................................................................................................
book ..........................................................................................................................................
open...........................................................................................................................................
.
67
(34) EXERCISE ===========================================
Recall the (semantic-notional) definitions you were using at primary school to
characterize the category (part of speech):
“Nouns are names of people, animal and things.” Verbs express ??... Pronouns ??....
(a) Jan a Marie jd-ou do kina. (d) John i-s in the garden.
(b) Zelen-ou si neber. (e) There we-re some boys there.
(c) Petra js-em viděl-a já. (f) The man who-m I gave it to.
(a) The other young girls came back from Prague very tired.
(b) Ty druhé mladé dívky se vrátily z Prahy velmi unavené.
68
(c) (i) Bill was shoot-ing the rabbits.
(ii) His shoot-ing (of the rabbits) went on and on.
(iii) Those shoot-ing sounds/ stars surprised me.
(d) (i) The staff was soon retir-ed (by the management).
(ii) My father is happily retir-ed (*by the management).
(iii) A retir-ed (*by Harriet) person (*by the management).
69
(43) EXERCISE ===========================================
Consider the underlined words. Decide about their category and explain which
criteria from those given in (7) on page 60 were the most important for your decision.
for, since, out, after, alongside, towards, within, (un)till, owing to, in spite of, despite,
besides, beyond, by means of, according to, with respect/reference to, as opposed to,
(al)though, as if, provided that, supposing for the moment that, lest, unless, whereas.
70
10 SEMANTICS AND MORPHOLOGY OF NOUNS
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 323-524, 1585-1595, Huddleston & Pullum
(2005) pp. 82-111, 264-290; Greenbaum & Quirk (1990) pp. 70-107; Quirk, Greenbaum,
Leech & Svartvik (2004) pp. 241-332; Dušková (1994) pp.35-100; Svoboda and Opělová-
Károlyová (1989) pp. 50-83; Leech & Svartvik (1975).
Revise Section 9.1 above, especially topics mentioned in (7) on page 60.
The above division is based on semantic properties but in the same time each group has
some formal characteristics (e.g. spelling conventions, lack of Article). Purely semantic
divisions can be found in e.g. synonymic dictionaries but have no use in grammar.
10.1 Case
71
(4) Classification of Cases in English
(5) (a) číst [NP dlouhou knih-u] / *čist kniha / *číst knihou
(b) bez [NP našeho dom-u] / *bez dům / * bez domem
In (5) the Verb číst and Preposition bez are Case assigners. They are superordinate (higher
in hierarchical structure) to the NPs velkou knihu / našeho domu, and they assign (‘give’)
them Case. The Case shows that the two (Case assigner and Case-marked NP) are related.
With Prepositions Case is marking a simple relation (esp. in English), with Verbs the Case
can also signal a specific meaning (semantic role).
(6) The Czech Preposition ‘za’ can combine with the Nouns Petr/ hora in two ways:
(a) Zaplatil za PetraACC. (b) Přišel za PetremINSTR.
(c) Měsíc zapadl za horuACC. (d) Město leží za horouINSTR.
(7) The Verb ‘watch’ can combine with David and Mary in two ways:
(a) DavidNOM viděl MariiACC. (b) MariiACC viděl DavidNOM.
(c) MarieNOM viděla DavidaACC. (d) DavidaACC viděla MarieNOM.
There are two main semantic roles (relations) with the Verb ‘watch’:
(a) Agent (the person performing the action) and
(b) Patient (the person who is affected by the action).
A language must make clear which is which. Compare the Czech above with the following
English.
72
Canonical Formal Realization of the main semantic roles
To ‘know’ a language means to know how the language expresses/ realizes/ encodes
distinct ‘relational meanings’, e.g. the semantic roles. The semantic roles of a Verb are
realized as specific sentence members, and these sentence members are signaled by
specific Cases or by other means, e.g. word-order. In Czech morphological Case prevails;
in English word order is primary.
In the diagram below, the Verb send combines with several NPs (Peter, a parcel, John,
afternoon). Each of the NPs is related to the Verb (= interpreted) in a distinct way. Some
interpretation can be guessed from the meaning of the words (e.g. afternoon will probably
be the time) but some cannot (Peter or John could be the sender).
(9)
verbal event
action complementary conditions
(manner/place/time)
1st participant 2nd participant 3rd participant
(Agent) (Patient) (Recipient/Beneficiary)
What (which part of speech) can be a Case assigner? Are they the same in all languages?
(11) (a) Poslal dopis. Transitive Verb assigns ACC to its
(direct/structural) Object
(b) Pavel spal. Finite Verb assigns NOM to its Subject
(c) Bál se duchů /jich. Verb assigns OBL to its indirect Object
(d) Šel cestou přes les/něho. Preposition assigns Case to its Object
(e) Vidím přítele své sestry. Noun assigns GEN to its Object
(f) Vidím sestřina/jejího přítele. Possessive Adj agrees with the Noun
(g) Viděl osm obrazů /jich. Numeral assigns PART to its Object
(h) Je věrný své ženě. Adjective assigns OBL to its Object
73
Case assigners in Czech: V, Vfin, P, N, Q, A (all major parts of speech).
Case assigners in English: V, Vfin, P, N
(12) (a) to see him Verb assigns OBJECT Case to its Object
(b) about him Preposition assigns OBJECT Case to its ‘Object’
(c) He sleeps Finite Verb assigns SUBJECT Case to its Subject
(d) his book Noun assigns POSSESSIVE/ GENITIVE Case
10.2.1 Countability
Countability is an inherent feature of the nominal category. (Countability is a property of a
given lexical item, the speaker cannot change it without changing the lexical entry.)
Prototypical people/ animals/ objects (=Ns) are countable (can appear in smaller or larger
Number). In reality apart from individual discrete (=countable) items we also distinguish
mass / continuum phenomena (scalar, measurable but not countable). Only countable
Nouns can be counted, i.e. have Number. Noncountable nouns can only be measured.
(14) (a) boy, rabbit, tree, song (b) water, love, justice
(c) two boy-s, a million tree-s, five song-s (d) a pint of water, a lot of love, no justice
(15) [±COUNTABLE]
[+] [-]
NUMBER
[+] [-]
book-S book justice/ oxygen/ courage
childr-EN child (*-s)
74
In English Countability is a relevant formal feature because it affects the choice of articles
and (some) Quantifiers. Compare these characteristics with the formal realization
(visibility) of Countability in Czech.
(a) both (vs. all), either (vs. any), neither (vs. none)... ?each other (vs. one another)
(b) a pair of scissors/ binoculars/ trousers IS here
(c) vezmi si *dvě / dvoje nůžky, koupil si ?pět kalhot / patery kalhoty
(a) [-z] assimilation to [+ Voice] ...... all vowels and voiced consonants
(b) [-s] assimilation to [- Voice].......... [p], [t], [k], [f], [th]
(c) [-iz] insertion of a reduced vowel after fricatives/ affricates.
(20) Blocking Effect (the irregular inflection blocks the regular interpretation)
glass, colour, iron vs. glasses, colours, irons
(21) Zero plural: (a) animals: sheep, deer, moose, shrimp, fish
(b) affricate/fricative nations: Chinese, Portuguese, Sudanese,
French, Polish, Swiss, Dutch
(c) measure phrases: two dozen(*s) (of) eggs
a five-meter(*s)-long rope
(22) Collective Nouns
(a) police, audience, senate, clergy
(b) china, linen, pottery, cutlery, jewelry
(c) folk (vs. folks), people (vs. peoples)
75
bread/ honesty/ Wales/ loud
THIS / *THESE (a game of) billiards/ darts IS/*ARE EXCELLENT
acoustics/ news
pyjamas/ measles
*THIS / THESE acoustics/ homeless/ pins *IS/ ARE AWFUL.
annals/ surroundings
10.3 Determination
(25) (a) I saw a/ the/ some boy. (a') Viděl jsem nějakého/ toho chlapce.
(b) *I saw boy. (b') Viděla jsem chlapce.
76
10.3.2 Articles
(35) Cats are better than dogs. = “Cat is better than dog”.
vs. A cat is better than a dog = the cat is better than the dog.
A. Indefinite Reference
77
B. Definite Reference
10.4.1 Animacy
(38) Semantic scale of Animacy (Universal) . The break is English/Czech specific option.
78
Animate are animals a human can relate to (can be loved, hated) who are ‘equal’ to human.
The grammatical feature Gender is related to the semantic notion of sexual dichotomy with
many living creatures (above all humans).
Gender is an inherent feature: lexical items have it either because of their meaning
(semantic Gender) or because of their form (grammatical Gender).
English expresses Gender above all (a) lexically, (b) by compounds (two morphemes, one
of which is a simplified standard), or (c) with some non-productive morphology.
(a) Special lexical entry: muž vs. žena vs. dítě (děcko)
stroj vs. květina vs. město
(b) Compounds: ?? žena lékař
(c) Derivation: sportovk-yně, doktor-ka,
(c) Inflection (agreement): T-a kniha ležel-a na stole otevřen-á na str. 4.
While in English Gender remains mainly a semantic concept realized through lexical
means, Gender is highly grammaticalized in Czech.
(i) [+human] Nouns have Gender assigned according to the real sex,
(ii) [-human] inanimate nouns take Gender based on their morphology (ending),
(iii) there are productive [Fem] Gender suffixes –ka, -yně, etc, and
(iii) Gender appears as a configurational (agreement) feature in pronominal, adjectival and
verbal paradigms).
79
(42) (a) pán, muž, předseda, soudce // hrad, stroj, les .... consonantal
(b) žena, růže... vocalic
(c) město, moře vocalic
Both English and Czech have a two level structure for the features of Animacy/ Gender.
[±HUMAN] [±HUMAN]
Gender with inanimate nouns in English (more usual in poetic or figurative language)
Traditional Gender, transfer from Classical/ French languages, also folk thinking, applied to
some mythology or human-like gods.
(47) ‘Why do hurricanes have girls' names, because actually they are bad things?’
80
10.4.2.2 Inflectional Morphology of Nouns (Summary)
The following table shows possibly universal features which appear with the category of
Nouns. All of those features can be expressed in both English and Czech in some way (e.g.
using some Adjective), but not all are grammaticalized (= obligatory and regular). Some
are grammaticalized in both languages (e.g. Number), some are more grammaticalized in
English (e.g. Reference), some more in Czech (e.g. Gender), some are grammaticalized in
neither English nor Czech (e.g. Shape).
category example
bound/free Grammatical inherent/optional
morpheme YES/ NO /configurational
Number Eng. book-s bound suffix YES optional
Cz. muž-i bound fused suffix YES optional
Case Eng. Mary's, him bound suffix YES configurational
Cz. mužů, dítěte bound fused suffix YES configurational
Gender Eng. she-student compounding % inherent
tigr-ess % suffix
Cz. doktor-ka suffix YES inherent
Size Eng. John-ie* suffix rare optional
Cz. Jení-ček suffix YES optional
Definiteness Eng. the book free morpheme YES optional
Cz. ta kniha demonstrative NO lexical feature
Alienability Eng. my hands possessive NO lexical feature
Cz. (moje) ruce zero morpheme rare lexical feature
Shape Eng. round table lexical morpheme NO lexical feature
Cz. kulatý stůl lexical morpheme NO lexical feature
* doggie, veggie, and also A→NSMALL –ie/y: quickie, fishy, cookie etc.
10.5 Exercises
(i) Nové kolo koupil tatínek bratrovi po Vánocích, ale mně už ho nekoupil nikdy.
(ii) He saw Emily's brother introducing Bill to them.
(iii) His book was written by her and her sister.
81
(50) EXERCISE ===========================================
State which (i) semantic roles the underlined NPs have w.r.t. the Predicate,
(ii) what their syntactic functions are (which sentence member they are),
(iii) which constituents they are (NP/Pronoun, PP,VP, clause).
(a) .........................................................................................................................................
(b) .........................................................................................................................................
(c) .........................................................................................................................................
(d) .........................................................................................................................................
(e) .........................................................................................................................................
(f) .........................................................................................................................................
(g) .........................................................................................................................................
(h) .........................................................................................................................................
82
(g) window -[......]+S = ..................................................................................................
(h) brigade -[......]+S = ..................................................................................................
83
(60) EXERCISE ===========================================
Explain the reason for the ungrammaticality of
(a) He received a book from my mother. (a') Dostal jakousi knihu od mé maminky.
(b) *He received book from my mother. (b') Dostal knihu od mé maminky.
(c) I gave the present to Adam. (c') Dal jsem ten dárek Adamovi.
(d) *I gave present to Adam. (d') Dal jsem dárek Adamovi.
Do the same with English translation of the above sentences and discuss the distinction.
What does it show about which nominal features are used English and Czech?
(i) .........................................................................................................................................
(ii) .........................................................................................................................................
84
(65) EXERCISE ===========================================
Fill in the missing feminine (or neuter) Forms
(a) stallion vs. ....................... vs. .........................
(b) bull vs. ....................... vs. .........................
(c) rooster vs. ....................... vs. .........................
(d) father vs. ......................... (k) brother vs. ............................
(e) steward vs. ......................... (l) traitor vs. ............................
(f) master vs. ......................... (m) heir vs. ............................
(g) sportsman vs. ......................... (n) man servant vs. ............................
(h) male readers vs. ......................... (o) gentleman vs. ............................
(i) laundryman vs. ......................... (p) turkey-cock vs. ............................
(j) tom-cat vs. ......................... (q) doctor vs. .............................
85
11 SYNTACTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NOUN
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 323-524, 1585-1595, Huddleston & Pullum
(2005) pp. 82-111, 264-290; Greenbaum & Quirk (1990) pp. 363-393; Svoboda (2004) pp.
18-23; Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik (2004) pp. 1235-1352.
Syntactic properties concern above all distribution, i.e. co-occurrence of the lexical item,
that is, its ‘context’, (i.e. what does it combine with, in which order, with which hierarchy).
all the three [very tall] white city towers of Mordor [with black spires]
11.1.1 N-premodifiers
(5) (a) a/ the/ my/ a friend’s book (d) *I bought expensive book.
(b) *the my book/ *the John’s book (e) [NP my brother John]'s book
(c) the big hairy barking stupid... dog (f) govern-ment funds. iron bridge
86
With the exception of recursive Adjectives (which follow a semantically determined order
according to their scope), there is a strictly fixed order among the pre-modifiers of N.
(6) (a) the big green monster (a') ta velká bílá kniha
(b) *big the green monster (b') * velká bílá ta kniha
(c) ? the green big monster (c') ? ta bílá velká kniha
(d) an old French book (d’) *nějaká francouzská stará kniha
11.1.2 N-postmodifiers
(7) Postmodification
(a) complex adjectival phrases a student [AP more intelligent than Einstein]
(b) of-phrase (unique, adjacent) the brother of mine from Brooklyn
(c) other PPs (multiple) the student of philosophy with long hair
the letter for John from Bill
(d) V-ing, V-inf the student reading philosophy, a man to watch
(e) clauses (relative clause)... the book which you gave me, the place you live
(f) etc the travel abroad, the way home
(8) The order of postmodifiers is correlated with their scopes (in the same way as the
order of A premodifiers) with the exception of the of-phrase, which must be adjacent.
(a) the student of math with long hair (a') student chemie s aktovkou na zádech
* the student with long hair of math *student s aktovkou na zádech chemie
(b) the letter for John from Bill (b') dopis od Petra pro Janu
? the letter from Bill for John dopis pro Janu od Petra
(c) a book of stories for Bill with a white cover
The distribution of NPs (and their sentence functions) is very diverse. An NP of any
complexity can be any sentence member. Some positions are more typical than others.
The sentence functions illustrated above are syntagmatic relations, i.e. the sentence function
is a relation between two members of a syntactic couple. The only exception is the
‘Complement’, which is a ternary relation (there are three related constituents).
87
11.3 Exercises
Q D/Poss Q A A N/A N P = of PP XP
each --- --- tall blond play BOY in a Fiat
girl
love
Mary
story
air
Prague
reading
(i) The tall boy with long hair was irritated by the next question.
(ii) To read some old novel would not please my beloved little brother.
(iii) The fact irritated me that my little brother would not read such a nice book.
he (i) ……………………………………………………………………..............……
(ii) ……………………………………………………………………..............……
(iii) ……………………………………………………………………..............……
one (i) ……………………………………………………………………..............……
(ii) ……………………………………………………………………..............……
(iii) ……………………………………………………………………..............……
it (i) ……………………………………………………………………..............……
(ii) ……………………………………………………………………..............……
(iii) ……………………………………………………………………..............……
88
(12) EXERCISE ===========================================
Discuss (i) the terminology, (ii) the obligatory or optional ordering and (iii) unique
or multiple occurrence of separate pre-/post-modifiers.
(a) the two tall city towers (a’) the two the large city tall towers
(b) the two towers of city (b’) the two towers of the large city
(c) chudák ženská (c’) město věže
89
(16) EXERCISE ===========================================
Complex compounds with N/A (Adv) chains: Discuss the interpretation of the
following ‘Bracketing paradoxes’. Translate the examples into Czech.
90
(21) EXERCISE ===========================================
In the following syntagmas (phrases): which elements are higher (superordinate) and
which elements are lower (subordinate)? How do we decide about this? Are the signals of
hierarchy the same in Czech and in English? Make your own examples to test your claim.
(a) to see Mary / *Mary to see - vidět Marii / *vidět Marií / Marii vidět
(b) this book / *these book /*book this - tato kniha /*touto kniha / ? kniha tato
(c) about him / *about he / *him about - o něm / *o ním / *něm o
(d) she arrives / *she arrive / *her arrives - ona přijela /*ní přijela / přijela ona
91
(27) EXERCISE ===========================================
Are the sentence functions of Subject and Object phrasal constituents (NPs) or are
they heads (Ns)? Give examples to prove your claim.
Example: Several new ORGANIZATIONS of young people took part in the program.
92
12 PRONOUNS
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 425-430, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp. 100-
¨107; Greenbaum & Quirk (1990) pp. 108-128; Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik
(2004) pp. 333-398, 817-822; Dušková (1994) pp.101-135; Svoboda and Opělová-
Károlyová (1989) pp.84-112.
In (3) (a) is true no matter who says so only when James Bond actually did so.
(b) is true if the person, who pronounces it, did so.
(3) (a) James Bond was flying to Hawaii.
(b) I was flying to Hawaii.
Contrary to referential Nouns, Pronouns do not have independent reference. Their semantic
interpretation can be defined only in the terms of discourse, i.e. according to the conditions
and circumstances of the specific speech act.
93
(5) Discourse bound interpretation of personal Pronouns
(a) I (=1sg) = the speaker (= the person who performs the speech act)
(b) you (=2sg) = the hearer (= the intended addressee of the speech act)
(c) (s)he (=3sg,m/f) = the ‘other’ (human non-participant of the discourse)
(d) it (=3sg) = non-human non-participant
(e) we (=1pl) = a set of people one of which is the speaker. The hearer can
be a member of the group (inclusive we) or not (exclusive we)
(f) you (=2pl) = a set of people including the hearer, not the speaker
(g) they (=3pl) = the ‘others’ (non-participants of the discourse)
(9) Case: (a) SUBJECT (I, you, he, she, it, we, they)
(b) SAX-GEN (my/mine. your/yours, her/hers, their/theirs...)
(c) OBJECT (me, you, him, her, it, us, them)
Subject Case in English is more marked (less used) than the nominative is in Czech.
Consider the Case on the English Pronouns below. Compare with the Czech translations.
(12) (a) Who did it? - Me. It was me. (c) Mary and him often go abroad.
(b) It was she/ her that Adam criticised. (d) Nobody but she/ her can do it.
94
Recall which part of a structure is replaced by (which) Pronouns.
(13) [The smart girl] with [the two foreign friends] was awarded [the first prize]
SHE THEM IT
Personal Pronouns replace Noun Phrases (not Nouns). See also (11) on page 88.
Pronouns therefore can express nominal functions. See section 11.2.
There are some distinction between Ns/NPs/and pronominals.
12.1.3 One
(16) Numeric one (pro-Q) (a) I met one boy / two boys.
(b) One / many of the boys arrived at five.
(17) Substitute one (pro-N) (a) I'd like another steak /another one.
(b) Those red cars / red ones I like most.
(18) Generic one (pro-NP) (a) One / they would assume that...
(b) She makes one / my brother Adam feel well.
The wh-Pronouns show (agree with) the morphological features of Nouns and Adjectives.
The agreement is built with two elements:
95
(a) Gender (Animacy)/ Number features depend on the head Noun (in the main clause).
(b) Case depends on the function of the Pronoun in the relative clause.
(b) I know her /the womanACC , whoNOM /*whomACC (=the womanNOM) wears scarves.
[human, ACC]
(a) animate/human
(b) NOM
The Object Case of the relative Pronoun is more likely to appear overtly in English if the
Pronoun is close/ adjacent to its Case assigner (Verb/ Preposition) and less likely if the
Case assigner is dissociated/stranded from the Pronoun.
(23) (a) I know the man who/ %whom you met yesterday.
(b) I know the man who/ %whom everyone says they like.
(c) I know the man to whom/ %who you were talking. Preposition
(d) I know the man who/ *whom you were talking to. stranding
Only those relative Pronouns can be deleted in English which neither have the function of a
Subject nor follow a Preposition.
(24) (a) I know the man whom you invited for dinner.
(b) I know the man --- you invited for dinner.
(c) Can you give me the book which is laying on the table?
(d) *Can you give me the book --- is laying on the table?
(e) Show me the man at whom you are looking.
(f) *Show me the man at --- you are looking.
(g) Show me the man -- you are looking at.
96
12.3 Interrogative Pronouns
Interrogative Pronouns are elements used in WH-questions, i.e. questions which ask to
identify some sentence constituent. The form of the Pronoun depends on the constituent it
replaces. The repertory and forms are like relative Pronouns plus how (many/ Adjective),
why but not including that or 0.
(a) Who met her yesterday in front of their new school twice?
(b) Whom/ Who did he meet yesterday in front of their new school?
(c) When did he meet her in front of their new school?
(d) Where did he meet her yesterday twice?
(e) In front of which school did he meet her yesterday? - In front of their new school.
(f) In front of whose new school did he meet her yesterday? -In front of their new school.
(g) How many times/ often did he meet her yesterday in front of their new school?
(h) How did he meet her yesterday in front of their new school?
(i) Why did he meet her yesterday in front of their new school?
As with relatives, the Case marking of the interrogative WH Pronouns depends on their
sentence function, i.e. on the function of the sentence member they are asking about. In
Modern English overt Case marking is most likely if the Pronoun is adjacent to the Case
assigner. (The same phenomenon as in (23) above.)
The interrogative Pronoun in the WH-question is moved from its position, it is fronted.
Notice that the size of the fronted interrogative element (the material preceding the inverted
Auxiliary and containing some interrogative WH element) can be far bigger that one word.
It is a phrase (it replaces the whole sentence member we are asking about).
97
(28) He bought [OBJECT NP the three books] [ADVERBIAL PP in the new shop on the square].
(a) [OBJECT NP What ] did he buy in the new shop?
(b) [OBJECT NP How many books ] did he buy in the new shop?
(c) [ADVERBIAL PP Where ] did he buy the three books?
(d) [ADVERBIAL PP In which shop on the square] did he buy the three books?
If there is more than one WH Pronoun (in so called Multiple Wh-questions), only the
hierarchically highest is fronted in Standard English. The other(s) remain in the position of
the sentence member they represent, i.e. they remain ‘in situ’.
(29) [SUBJECT NP Emily] bought [OBJECT NP several books] [ADVERBIAL PP in the new shop].
(a) Who bought what where?
(b) What did Emily buy where?
(c) *Where did Emily buy what?
Notice that in English the interrogative element can appear in a clause which it does not
belong to (often an initial main clause). Consider the sentence functions of the WH
Pronouns in such Long-distance WH-Movement:
While the long distance WH-questions appear often in English, in Czech this kind of WH
question is 'substandard' and their frequency is highest with Adverbials.
(31) (a) Kdo si myslíš, že Marušce pomohl? (O kom so myslíš, že Marušce pomohl)
(b) Kam si myslíš, že Petr řekl, že to Jana dala.
(c) ??Který kabát se Petr ptal Marie že si Jan vzal na výlet?
(33) (a) What's the name of this tune? *Which is the nature of music?
(b) What / Which conductor do you like best?
(c) What / Which newspaper do you read?
(d) Which (of these) do you prefer? *What of these do you prefer?
98
12.4 Exercises
(a) I do not want this one, but you can give me one from that counter.
(b) I do not want this …………, but you can give me …………from that counter.
ANIMATE INANIMATE
Gender marked no Gender
personal
possessive
reflexives
emphatic
relative
interrogative
Yesterday our little Emily passed well both the difficult tests at school.
99
(c) .................................................................................................? - Yesterday.
(d) .................................................................................................? Our (little) one.
(e) .................................................................................................? - Two.
(f) .................................................................................................? - The two tests.
(g) ..................................................................................................? - Well.
(h) ..................................................................................................? - Passed well both.
(a) Benjamin saw the book ....................... you ordered last month.
(b) Benjamin saw the book ........................ was lying on the window sill.
(c) Benjamin saw the book ......................... title I have forgotten.
(d) Benjamin saw the book, the title of ......................... I have forgotten.
(e) Benjamin saw the book about .................... you were writing your essay.
(f) Benjamin met the man ........................... you invited for dinner.
(g) Benjamin met the man ........................... was looking out of the window.
(h) Benjamin met the man ........................... name I have forgotten.
(i) Benjamin met the man the name of .......................... I have forgotten.
(j) Benjamin met the man about ...................... you were writing your essay.
(k) Benjamin met the man ....................... Hillary asked me to introduce to her.
100
EXERCISE ===========================================
Consider the forms of the WH-questions asking for Subject. Give examples of (a)
a direct WH-question, (b) an indirect WH-question, (c) an echo WH-question.
(a) .........................................................................................................................................
(b) .........................................................................................................................................
(c) .........................................................................................................................................
Translate the examples to English and explain the distinction, referring to the structure of
the Nominal Phrase (see (3) on page 86), namely to its potential to be split when
questioned or topicalised.
(ii) Translate the above sentences to Czech and discuss the distinction(s).
101
13 ANAPHORS (REFLEXIVES AND RECIPROCALS)
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 1451-1565.
13.1 Reference
(1)
"James Bond"
[A] R-expression
[B] pronominal
[C] anaphor
Nominal elements can be divided according to their reference into three groups.
102
(d) Hei was looking at himselfi/*j in the mirror.
(e) PitJ described Patriciam to himselfj / herselfm.
13.1.2 The linear position of an antecedent (above all with pragmatic anaphors)
(6) (a) anaphor Johni came late, because hei had missed the train.
(b) cataphor Before hei joined the Navy, Geraldi made peace with his family.
Distinguish (a) unmarked reading vs. contrastive reading (= it can be so and so)
(b) obligatory reading vs. impossible reading (= it must be so and so)
(9) (a) John arrived. I love him. him can be John. (Construct a context for this.)
(b) John saw him. him must NOT be John
(c) John saw himself. himself must be John
(10) Bill met John. He didn't see him. He was looking at himself (in the window glass).
Bohuš potkal Jendu. Neviděl ho. Díval se na sebe (do výlohy).
103
- If (b) follows (a), the most salient (pragmatically probable) reading is that He in (b) is
co-referential with Bill in (a). With marked stress it can, however, also be John and if more
sentences preceded and the discourse suggests it, it can be anybody else as well.
- In any case, whoever is He in (b), it is not the same person as him in (b) = He and him
in (b) can not be co-referential.
Look at the scheme (1) on page 102, and consider the place in the structure where we find
the antecedent of the anaphor. (What is the domain in which the antecedent appears? How
far away is the antecedent from the anaphor?)
13.2.3 Reciprocals
(14) (a) John and Mary introduced them. ......... ≠ John, ≠ Mary
(b) John and Mary introduced themselves.
(c) John and Mary introduced each other.
(b) themselves = [John→John + Mary→Mary] or [John+Mary→John+Mary]
(c) each other = [John→ Mary + Mary →John]
104
13.3 The Distribution/ Use of Reflexive/ Reciprocal Pronouns
13.4 Exercises
105
(22) EXERCISE ===========================================
Translate into English. Discuss the meanings/ the distinctions.
106
14 MODIFIERS
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 525-596, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp. 112-
126; Greenbaum & Quirk (1990) pp. 129-157; Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik
(2004) pp. 399-474; Dušková (1994) pp. 141-164; Svoboda and Opělová-Károlyová
(1989) pp.113-134; Leech & Svartvik (1975) pp.189-203.
(a) value (good, bad, important) (g) dimension (big, long, large)
(b) similarity (different, similar, other) (h) position (high, low, near)
(c) age (old, new, young, ancient) (i) color (red, dark, black)
(d) quantification (whole, numerous, third) (j) qualification (true, possible, plausible)
(e) physical property (hard, wet, open) (k) human quality (happy, clever dead)
(f) speed (fast, slow, rapid) (l) nationality etc (English, Slavic, Asian)
(a) focusing (also, even, too, just, only) (e) frequency (never, always, often)
(b) degree (very, well, how, as, really) (f) modal (perhaps, actually, obviously)
(c) aspectual (still, yet, already) (g) temporal (soon, late, long, sudden)
(d) connective (however, thus, indeed) (h) manner (quickly, easily, well)
(6) (a) bad-ly, clever-ly, legal-ly .... synthetic way: bound suffixes
(b) up-wards, back-wards, home-wards
(c) clock-wise, time-wise, weather-wise
(d) in an interesting /fast way .... analytic/ periphrastic way
107
14.2.2 Inflectional Morphology
Features: (i) INTRINSIC ...0
(ii) OPTIONAL ...Grading (comparative, superlative)
(iii) DERIVED ...N features (‘secondary’ agreement) (in Czech, not English)
(7) (a) synthetic (bound morphemes): -er, (the) –est: nice, nicer, the nicest
(b) analytic (periphrastic): more, (the) most
(i) important, more important, (the) most important
(ii) ... in a more interesting way, in the most interesting way
(c) irregular (i) good/ well, better, the best
(ii) bad/ badly, worse, the worst
14.3 Exercises
(a) The child has a high temperature. (d) Elisabeth likes hard work.
(b) The airplane flies really high. (e) He likes to work hard.
(c) Marcel is highly experienced. (f) Mary hardly ever works
108
15 SYNTAX OF ADJECTIVES
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 525-596, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp. 112-
126; Greenbaum & Quirk (1990) pp. 129-157; Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik
(2004) pp. 399-474; Dušková (1994) pp. 141-164; Svoboda and Opělová-Károlyová
(1989) pp.113-134; Leech & Svartvik (1975) pp.189-203.
(5) good at, afraid of, ready for, keen on, worried about/over, bad at, annoyed at/with,
successful in, interested in, conscious of, convinced of, based on, dependent on,
subject to, compatible with, disappointed with, etc.
(ii) A + that-clause:
(6) (a) I'm sure (that) you can come.
(b) He seems glad / surprised / amazed / certain / confident / proud/ sad/ alarmed/
annoyed / astonished / disappointed / pleased / shocked (that) you can come.
109
(iii) A + to-infinitive:
(8) (a) He was ready / splendid / proud to help his neighbors.
(b) He was furious / slow / eager to react.
(c) They were careful / wrong / clever / cruel / kind / rude / silly not to follow us.
(9) Some complex structures related to modifiers (both pre- and post-modifying):
Adjectives Adverbs
(a) he is as big as ... (a') she runs as quickly as ...
(b) he is bigg-er than ... (b') he runs quick-er than ...
(c) he is not as/ so dangerous as ... (c') she runs not as/ so quickly as ...
(d) he is far from dangerous ... (d') she runs far from well ...
(e) the bigg-er they are, the more stupid... (e') the high-er they fly, the less fuel ...
(f) It is too heavy to fly. (f') She runs too well to be defeated.
There are 3 main functions of Adjective Phrases, all related to a nominal category.
(A) ADJECTIVAL PREDICATE (copula-AP) ... Predicate Nominal
(B) ADJECTIVAL PRE-/POST-MODIFIERS (N-AP) ...Attribute
(C) ADJECTIVAL COMPLEMENTS ...Subject/ Object Complements
SUBJECT - copula - AP
(12) (a) The boy is a student. (a') The boy saw a student.
(b) Chlapec je student(em)NOM-INSTR. (b') Chlapec viděl studentaACC.
(c) John is quick. (c') John runs quickly.
(d) Jenda je rychlýADJ.NOM (d') Jenda běhá rychleADV.
A copula: (a) has two arguments referring to the same entity (it expresses identity),
(b) does not assign Object Case (to Nouns),
(c) can be followed by an Adjective (agreeing with the Subject).
How many Verbs have these properties of a copula? (One in Czech, several in English.)
110
How complex can a Predicate Adjective be? Discuss the ‘complexity’ of the Predicate
Adjectival Phrases in English in (13) in terms of (1) on page 109.
(13) (a) Emma is/ sounds silly / very silly / unbelievably silly.
(b) Samuel is/ seems to be foolishly proud of his few achievements.
(c) Helen got/ grew/ became about twice as mad at her mother as Piers did .
The most standard function of Adjectives is to modify the meaning of some Noun – they
are Noun modifiers. They can appear both in front of and after the head N.
The position of the AdjP with respect to the head Noun depends on
(a) the characteristics of the Adj,
(b) the complexity of the AdjP.
In the following examples notice that Adjective modifiers are phrases (APs), because they
can be enlarged. See adjectival phrase in terms of the scheme (1) on page 109.
Premodifying APs are syntactically "simpler"; they can be either bare (most often) or
premodified themselves (e.g. by very/ extremely/ how/ two-meter etc. (i.e. they are complex
phrases). However, they canNOT have their own postmodifying PPs or clauses (e.g. -of
monsters, -to her husband, -of his achievements, -glad we arrived, -eager to react.
111
(17) Romance loans (French) (a) Court Martial
(b) Princess Royal, battle royal
(c) attorney general, postmaster general
(d) notary public
(18) (a) un file gentille (b) un livre cher (c) un pierre lourde
Det girl nice Det book expensive Det rock heavy
'the nice girl' 'the big book' 'big rock'
(19) (a) la niña bonita (b) el libro grande (c) gran piedra /piedra grande
Det girl nice Det book big big rock / rock big
'the nice girl' 'the big book' 'big rock'
Even Germanic-based English Adjectives must appear in the postnominal position if they
are ‘complex’. Compare (14)/(15) with (20)/(21) and discuss the ‘complexity’ of the post-
modifying adjectival phrase in terms of (1) on page 109.
Syntactic relations (involving phrases) are typically binary (e.g. V +Object, N + attribute).
Complement (doplněk), however, enters into a ternary relation.
Compare with (11) on page 110 and (a/c) with (b/d) below.
(23) (a) John painted the door green. V > Obj (painted → the door)
V +Obj > Object Complement
(painted→green, the door → green)
112
(b) Mary came back very tired. Subj > Vfin
V + Subj > Subject Complement
BUT: The distinction between 'copula' and 'lexical Verb' is fuzzy, and so many Czech
Adverbials can be analysed as Complements in English (alternatively several English Verbs
can be called "semicopulas" i.e. they are followed by a correferrential Adjective.)
Not all Adjectives are prototypical. There is a ‘gradient’ between CORE vs. PERIPHERAL
members of the ADJ class. (See categorial prototypicality in section 9.7.)
(28) (a) those tall city towers (b) the new government project
(c) another top model (d) an inside story
(e) the [stick-in-the-mud] attitude (f) the stay-at-home American
113
(a) * those tall cities towers ........................................ cannot take plural (N morphology)
(b) * citi-er towers, *more government project .......... cannot take Adj morphology
(c) * some interesting [a new government] project .... cannot form a full NP
(d) * some interesting [very government] project ....... cannot form a full AP
(iii) ‘A - one’ (d) Electric engines are cheaper than steam ones.
Assuming 'one' combines with Adjectives, (d) suggests that steam is an Adjective.
15.7 Exercises
114
(j) nearly .......................................................................................................................
(k) clearly .......................................................................................................................
(i) (a) A (very) hungry child... (ii) (a) A (*very) infinite mercy…
(b) Adam seems (so) hungry. (b) God's mercy seems (*very) infinite.
(c) He is more hungry than me. (c) *God's mercy is more infinite than mine.
(iii) (a) ? (Rather) afraid people... (iv) (a) a (*rather) utter fool
(b) People seem (rather) afraid. (b) * Bob’s foolishness seems (rather) utter.
(c) He is more afraid than me. (c) * Bob’s rashness is more utter than hers.
(v) (a) * that (so) asleep baby (vii) (a) * The (very) abroad country.
(b) The patient seems (*so) asleep. (b) * The place seems (very) abroad.
(c) * He is more asleep than me. (c) * Korea is more abroad than Slovakia.
A B C D E category?
hungry
infinite
afraid
utter
asleep
abroad
115
(34) EXERCISE ===========================================
Fill in the blaks for complex APs (inside the complex NP):
D/Poss AP AP N AP
Adv A Adv A PP
a tall extremely nice MAN more thoughtful than X...
BOOK
LOVE
(i) AP Predicate
(a) Josephine is clever. (c) ...........................................................
(b) ......................................................... (d) ...........................................................
(ii) Premodifying AP
(a) It was a clever proposal. (c) ...........................................................
(b) ......................................................... (d) ...........................................................
(iii) Postmodifying AP
(a) * She is a girl clever. (c) ...........................................................
(b) ......................................................... (d) ...........................................................
(iv) Complement AP
(a) Josephine appeared clever. (c) ...........................................................
(b) ......................................................... (d) ...........................................................
116
(39) EXERCISE ===========================================
Discuss the syntactic relations of the underlined elements in the structures below.
Which sentence members are they? (What are they related to?)
(a) Marion likes girls. (d) Samuel painted the floor.
(b) He knows many blond girls. (e) He likes dark floors.
(c) He likes his girlfriends blond (f) He painted the floor dark.
16 ADVERBS
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 525-596, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp. 112-
126; Greenbaum & Quirk (1990) pp. 158-187.
Semantic specification: modifiers. See section 14.1 on page 107.
Adverbs are modifiers which do not combine with nominal features.
Typically the modification concerns Manner, Place, Time, Frequency, etc., i.e. adverbs
modify a verbal action (i.e. Adverbs are typically related to the Verbs).
But consider also other parts of speech modified by Adverbs (notice their positions).
(2) Adj. (a) We are very/ so/ too/ rather/ somewhat late.
(b) He is more/ less clever than her.
(c) I saw the three most/ least beautiful girls in London.
(d) a tall very/ more/ strikingly beautiful girl
(3) Adv. (a) He runs very quickly.
(b) She will do it probably slowly but certainly well.
(c) The airplane flew very/ more/ extremely far.
(4) Prep. (a) He ran right up/ down the hill.
(b) He put them directly into the boxes.
(c) They were sitting just outside the hut.
(5) Nouns (a) There is the road upwards.
(b) His travel abroad lasted more than a year.
(c) The sideways movements were most unpleasant.
(6) Pronouns hardly anybody , precisely that , almost nothing
(7) Clause Well, I will do it. Of course, he did arrive. Perhaps I can help you.
117
16.1 Verbal, temporal, sentential and grading adverbs
(a) Sentential Adv: usually precede the Verb or are at the very end.
(b) Temporal Adv: rather free, especially Adverbs of frequency.
(c) Verbal/Manner Adv: must be close to the Verb.
(d) Grading Adverbs: Adverbial/ Adjectival pre-modifier; see also (1) and (2) on p. 109.
Compare the adverbs often, never and hardly w.r.t. their positive/negative meaning and
formal scope properties. Notice that positive/negative polarity of the sentence is signaled
with (i) the presence of not,
(ii) pronouns (some- vs. any-),
(iii) positive vs. negative question tag and
(iv) neg inversion after ADV fronting.
(11) (a) He often says something stupid, doesn't he. / *does he.
*He often says anything stupid...
(b) Often John helped Mary with her homework.
*Often did John help Mary with her homework. ....... often is a positive ADV
118
(12) (a) He never says anything stupid, does he. / *doesn't he.
*He never says something stupid....
(b) *Never John helped Mary with her homework.
Never did John help Mary with her homework. .......never is a negative ADV
(13) (a) He hardly says anything stupid, does he. / *doesn't he.
*He hardly says something stupid..
(b) *Hardly John helped Mary with her homework.
Hardly did John help Mary with her homework.
.......hardly is a partially negative ADV: its meaning is ±positive but formally it is negative
(it negates the clause in the same way as never does)
(14) (a) She runs there on Sundays. *She runs on Sundays there.
(b) He runs quickly to school every day. ?He runs every day quickly to school.
(c) Probably he runs to school quickly. *He runs probably to school quickly.
16.4 Exercises
1
Notice that Complement here does not mean 'doplněk' but is closer to the notion of Object because it is the
subcategorised (obligatory) element required by the lexical Verb.
119
(i) Emily painted the door green (j) Emily can run most quickly.
(k) Emily can certainly answer. (l) Emily can certainly answer rather well.
(m) Emily is so extremely beautiful. (n) Of course I arrived soon enough.
ADJECTIVE ADVERB
e.g. –able, V→Adj, : read-able, vis-ible
................................................................ ................................................................
................................................................ . ...............................................................
120
17 SEMANTICS AND MORPHOLOGY OF VERBS
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 71-212, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp. 29-62;
Greenbaum & Quirk (1990) pp. 24-69; Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik (2004) pp.93-
240; Dušková (1994) pp. 165-272; Svoboda and Opělová-Károlyová (1989) pp. 7-50;
Leech (1971), Leech & Svartvik (1975); Svoboda (2004) pp. 24-36.
(1) VALENCY (a Verb and its arguments, verbal action and its participants)
verbal event
action complementary conditions
(Manner/ Place/ Time)
1st participant 2nd participant 3rd participant
(Agent) (Patient) (Recipient/ Beneficiary)
121
(iii) Telic vs. atelic (a) There arrived three men.
(b) There came several students to the party.
(a) (to) choose / (to) have chosen present/ past (bare) infinitive
(b) stopping / having stopped present/ past participle (or gerund)
122
17.3 Tense
Time and Tense: Tense refers to the main pragmatic/ semantic notions of Time. Real Time
is an open and infinite phenomenon. Language works uses a simplified (=grammaticalized)
version of Time = Tense which is related to the moment of the speech act.
Tense is an optional verbal feature, i.e. a standard Verb can take any of the Tenses
depending on the intended meaning.
(a) Saying good bye, Hugo drove/is driving off in his car.
(b) Having said good bye, Hugo drove/is driving off in his car.
(a) ‘the same’ (as the related finite form) to finish - finish-ing
(b) ‘preceding’ (the related finite form) to have finish-ed - having finished-ed
17.4 Aspect
Aspect is added to the main Tense system providing additional conditions for the action.
(a) Progressive Aspect: continuation/ repetition, etc.,
(b) Perfective Aspect: reference to another Tense/ finishing, telicity, etc.
123
Aspect is an optional verbal feature. The Verb can occur with no Aspect (simple Tenses), or
it can have one Aspect or two Aspects.
124
17.6 Mood, Sentence Modality
The category of Mood refers to the framing of the speech act (sentence) w.r.t. its intended
communicative function.
In English the main sentence modality is not a part of verbal morphology. There is no
verbal inflection signaling sentence modality that is encoded syntactically (by bound
morphemes or in periphrastic way).
Compare the following English and Czech examples.
The category of Mood refers also to the concept of probability of the action. This feature
is optional and it does have a morphological representation in English.
(a) simple conditional (past, present)
(b) perfect conditional (past, present)
(28) Conditional clauses. A realis main clause is indicative; an irrealis main clause uses
the conditional.
(a) Bernard will come tomorrow if you ask him within the next hour.
(b) Bernard would come tomorrow if you asked him within the next hour.
(c) Bernard would have stayed here if you had asked him politely.
125
17.7 Voice
The category of Voice is related to the distribution of the semantic roles among verbal
arguments (sentence members). See (9) and (10) on page 73 and (3) and (4) on page 121.
English Voice is an optional feature of the V. Verbs can take active or passive morphology.
Verbal morphology related to the characteristics of the Subject in English is not very rich.
In Czech the complex verbal morphology allows dropping the Subject (pro-drop language).
(31) (a) Naše malá Jana/Ona šl-a domů. (a') Our little Jane/She goe-s home.
(b) Šl-a domů. (b') *Goe-s home.
Still, language is pro-drop because of the whole complex system of characteristics; not only
morphology. Not every type of overt morphology allows dropping the Subject.
(35) What is -s? .... 3 sg. present. (a) Person BUT - they call(*s)
‘a fused morpheme’ of two features (b) Number BUT - I read(*s)
and - book vs. book-s
(c) Tense BUT - he wa-s
126
Think about the following examples of (dis)agreement:
semantic
(36) (a) His only success was his short stories. vs. formal agreement
(b) His short stories were his only success.
(c) What we need most is/ are sufficient funds.
(d) Two years is a long time to wait.
(e) Bread and butter is a nice breakfast.
(f) A large number of students are granted scholarships.
(g) Every year, a group of excellent students is/ are granted scholarships.
(h) Either he or you are/ *is mistaken.
(i) Either you or he is/ *are mistaken.
(j) For a birthday, flowers or a book is/ *are a good present.
(k) For a birthday, a book or flowers is/ are a good present.
(l) The police is/ are looking for the criminal.
17.9 Exercises
(b) Say briefly what is the most common/ general interpretation of the feature
[+PROG] in English. (What do all progressive Tenses have in common?)
127
(40) EXERCISE ===========================================
Fill in all finite verbal forms of the English Verb arrive. Mark with distinct colours:
(a) Tense morphemes,
(b) the Progressive Aspect circumfix,
(c) the Perfect ASPECT circumfix.
..................................................................................................................................................
a) Tense ................................................................................................................................
b) Aspect ................................................................................................................................
c) Voice ................................................................................................................................
128
(44) EXERCISE ===========================================
Write these forms of the English Verb ‘help’ (underline the inflectional morphemes).
129
18 SYNTAX OF VERBS
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 71-212, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp. 29-62;
Greenbaum & Quirk (1990) pp. 335-362.
(4) Some obligatory verbal complementation. See verbal valency in (3) etc. on page 121.
(5) Some optional modification of the Verb. See also (1) etc. on page 117.
The main formal classification of Verbs is based on the specification of the obligatory
complementation of the Verb (i.e. the number and characteristics of its complements).
130
The complementation of the Verb is stated in terms of the function or a category (part of
speech) of the following selected phrasal constituent(s): Object/NP, Adverbial/PP, etc.
(7) Kinds of lexical Verbs w.r.t. their obligatory complementation (their selection):
Many Verbs can select (are followed by) other Verbs (VPs). This is typical for Auxiliaries
and Modals but also for many other Verbs. The selected VP is in the form of an infinitive
(bare or with to) or an –ing form. These infinitival structures are often called semi-clauses.
131
18.2 Distribution and Functions of VP
Typical function: (A) Finite Verb = Predicate: see above in (23) on page 124.
(B) Infinitive = -ing form, to-infinitive, bare infinitive
Both infinitives (–ing and to-infinitives) can appear in any sentence function.
(9) (a) To read so many books to Adam every day must be maddening.
(b) To read (such books) is to know (many facts about life very soon).
(c) I like to read/ reading (books at night).
(d) A letter to read (quickly/ to Adam/ *a paragraph).
(e) Reading (books to Adam every day ) is easier than writing (poems every day).
(f) Saying good bye to Bill, he left.
(g) Hillary went to the pub, having finished her work.
(h) We asked (her) when to read to Adam.
(i) We talked to Adam about studying hard.
18.3 Exercises
132
19 AUXILIARIES AND MODALS
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 71-212, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp. 29-62;
Dušková (1994) pp. 165-272; Greenbaum & Quirk (1990) pp. 24-46; Quirk, Greenbaum,
Leech & Svartvik (2004) pp. 93-172; Leech (1971).
Assuming that the main property of Modals and Auxiliaries is their lack of lexical meaning,
then Auxiliaries are part of verbal paradigms and Modals express modality (they have
rather idiosyncratic behavior). There are several distinguishable groups of these Verbs; see
(2) below. Each group has special formal characteristics which can be contrasted.
Some of the non-lexical Verbs have their lexical counterparts. Compare the paradigm of
the Modals need/ dare in (a/b/c/d) below with the Verbs need/ dare illustrated in (e/f/g/h).
133
There is not much formal distinction between the deontic and epistemic Modals in the
Present Tense (but compare the influence of Aspect/ Negation with may). However, the
distinction is clear in Past Tense. In the past the more ‘verbal’ element which is marked for
Tense: the Modal (periphrastic) with deontics, the infinitive with epistemics.
(8) Modal (a) I can/ will > *I'n/ I’ll > I can't/ I won’t
(b) he must > *he'st > he mustn't
(9) Lexical Verb (a) I read/ I kill > *I'd/ *I’ll > *I readn’t/ *I killn’t
(b) he goes > *he's > *he goesn’t
The above examples show a growing level of standard phonetic reduction which appears
(a) in declarative sentences between the Subject and the first verbal element,
(b) in negative contexts with the bound form of the particle not = -n't.
The Auxiliaries have and be have reduction in both cases, the Modals have only some
reductions, and lexical Verbs usually do not reduce (in standard speech).
(10) Auxiliary
134
(11) Modal (a) *William is can-ing/ must-ing/ will-ing .... (visit his parents).
(b) *William has can-ed/ must-ed / will-ed ... (visit his parents).
(c) I want * to can/ * to must/ * to shall... (visit my parents).
(13) Aspect
(a) Constantine is marching again. (b) *Constantine is canning march again.
(c) Constantine has marched again. (d) *Constantine has canned march again.
(14) Voice (a) Better novels were written/ *canned/ *musted by new authors.
Mood (b) New authors (would) write/*can/ *must better novels.
With respect to morphology, the main Auxiliaries group together with the lexical Verbs,
because both have full verbal paradigms including infinitival forms.
Central Modals (and Modal Idioms) are unique, because they lack verbal morphology.
19.5 Exercises
135
(f) Hillary was able to climb the mountain.
(g) Hillary must sing a song.
(h) Hillary has to sing a song.
(i) Hillary must have sung a song.
136
20 SYNTAX OF AUXILIARIES, MODALS AND VERBS
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 71-212, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp. 29-62.
Simply referring only to the ’Verb’ is not enough to describe (the word order of) main
clause structures in English. The Predicate is analytic. We must divide the Predicate
(‘Verb’) into several elements making up complex verbal forms/ complex Predicates.
How many and which elements are involved?
Assuming the (d) example is showing the hidden structure of an English clause with no
Aux/Mod, we can propose the following scheme.
Notice the importance of the first phonetically present Mod/Aux, and that is distinct from
VLEX. This first element inverts with Subject, not the Verb.
(3) Question Inversion: the first Aux/Mod moves in front of the SUBJECT.
137
20.2 Negation (Position of not)
Clausal Negation: inserting the particle NOT. What is the position of not?
(4) (a) Marcel canNOT be reading. (b) ?Marcel can be NOT reading.
(c) *Marcel can be reading NOT. (d) *Marcel NOT reads.
(e) *Marcel reads NOT. (f) Marcel does NOT read.
The negative particle not appears in front of some Verbs but after others. Assuming the
structure proposed in (3) on page 137, we can propose the following uniform scheme.
Notice the importance of the first phonetically present Mod/Aux, distinct from VLEX. This
element precedes the particle not (or its bound form -n't ).
(5) Negative particle (+negative/ short Adverbs) follows the first Aux/Mod : Ω
The role of Ω ‘operator’ (the first Mod/Aux) is again crucial. DO-support reappears.
(6) (a) John can see us, can't he? - Yes, he can. - Can he?
(b) John has been reading, hasn't he? - Yes, he has. - Has he?
(c) *John reads them, reads he not? - *Yes, he reads. - *Reads he?
(d) John reads them, doesn't he? - Yes, he does. - Does he?
Conclusion:
With respect to their distribution/ syntax, MOD/AUXs form a special group within the
category of VERBS and their characteristics can be stated as in (9) on page 139.
138
For syntactic analysis, however, i.e. when discussing the word order of English clause, the
2-slot Predicate is sufficient as well as more elegant. The first slot is the ‘operator’ Ω (=
the ‘first’ Modal MOD/AUX , preceding any NEGATION); the others are all the following
Aux/Vs.
The above allows us to define Central Modals in English in a more precise way.
(11) The specific properties of 'the first modal/auxiliary' position (here as Ω):
Huddleston & Pullum (2002) : NICE (NICCEE)
Notice the pattern, referring to (3) on page 137 and (5) on page 138.
Negative questions should (i) have inversion, and (ii) contain the particle not (or -n't ).
Discuss in more detail which element (how many of them) inverts with a Subject, reflecting
on the categorial status (= particle) of not (or -n't ).
139
(12) (a) Marcel will often be reading. (b) Will Marcel often be reading?
(c) *Will be Marcel often reading? (d) *Will often Marcel be reading?
(e) *Will be reading often Marcel?
(13) The above issues are clarified by the possible morpho-phonetic contraction of not:
(a) David won't be reading. (e) David will not be reading.
(b) Won't David be reading? (f) *Will not David be reading?
(g) Will David not be reading?
(c) David doesn't read. (h) David does not read.
(d) Doesn't David read? (i) *Does not David read?
(j) Does David not read?
20.5 Exercises
(a) *A lot of guests arrives today. (e) *Bill wills read a journal.
(b) *Their type arrive pretty often. (f) *Knows John about the situation?
(c) *Mary or John are reading the book. (g) *Do John knows about the situation?
(d) *Bill will reads a journal. (h) *Do John know about the situation?
(a) *Can be John running? (f) *Will not John come soon?
(b) *John not reads much. (g) *John reads never novels.
140
(c) Does he understand? - *Not (so). (h) *John don't reads good books.
(d) *Can Mary haven’t read that book? (i) *Needs Bill do anything about this?
(e) *Dare John to notify the police? (j) *Does John will know about it soon?
141
(c) Livia does not read. (c') ??Livia does never read.
(d) Will Livia not read? (d') Will Livia never read?
(e) Won't Livia read? (e') *Will never Livia read?
(f) *Not will he help her. (f') Never will he help her.
(g) Will you help? - *Not. (g') Will you help? - Never.
(h) *Livia not does read.. (h') Livia never does read.
2-slot-model
142
21 THE ENGLISH VERBS DO, BE AND HAVE
See also: Huddleston & Pullum (2002) pp. 71-212, Huddleston & Pullum (2005) pp. 29-62;
Greenbaum & Quirk (1990) pp. 24-69; Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik (2004) pp.93-
240; Dušková (1994) pp. 174-180; Svoboda and Opělová-Károlyová (1989) pp. 7-50;
Leech (1971).
Every English Auxiliary and Modal is rather idiosyncratic (= specific, “sui generis,” with
some unpredictable property or properties). Recall the following:
The following examples illustrate that apart from the Auxiliary "do", there also exists in
English a lexical Verb "do". Considering all the distinction(s) among Aux/Mod/Lexical
Verbs discussed in the above sections, the two kinds of "do" are distinct lexical items, each
of which behaves regularly with respect to its characteristics.
(a) Emma did her homework. (a') Emma did read the novel.
(b) Did he do his homework? (b') *Did he do read the novel?
(c) *Did he his homework? (c') Did he read the novel?
(d) He wants to do his homework. (d') *He wants to do read the novel.
(e) Don’t do your homework again. (e') *Don’t do read the novel again.
(f) *She didn’t her homework yet. (f’) She didn’t read the novel yet.
(g) *Do not your homework here! (g’) Do not read the novel here!
21.1 Specificity of be
The English Verb be can be analyzed as several different elements, depending on its
complementation.
(3) Kinds of be
(a) He is reading some novel, isn't he? be (+ing) = progressive Aux
(b) It is written in English, isn't it? be (+en) = passive Aux
(c) Peter is a teacher/ silly, isn't he? be (+NP/AdjP) = Copula
(d) Mary is at home, isn't she? be (+PP/AdvP) = location
(e) There is a man in the garden, isn't there? there construction = existential be
(f) I am to read this article by next week. be (+ to-infinitive) = Modal
143
(4) (a) Is he at home?
(b) *Does he be at home? be inverts like an Aux/Mod.
(c) He is not reading any books.
(d) *He does not be reading any books. be precedes NEG like an Aux/Mod.
(e) We arranged for it to be translated.
(f) I want to be a teacher. be can be non-finite like Lexical Vs.
(g) There are men here. There is a man here. be has inflection like an Aux.
(h) He can/ will (not) be (*not) at home. be can appear after Mod/Aux.
(i) Don't be silly! be co-occurs with Aux do.
As schematically illustrated in (3) on page 137 and (5) on page 138, a standard Predicate in
an English sentence has (at least) two syntactic positions: Ω (an ‘operator’, the first
Mod/Aux) and a second V position for (Aux and Lexical) Verbs.
The Verb be is special, because it can occupy both positions.
(5) Schematic structure for all uses of the Verb be (within the analytic Predicate)
analytic Predicate
Note: It seems that only one use of be, Modal be, occurs only in the Ω position:
*We may be to read that article next week. *I wouldn’t want to be to report to the office.
The Verb be occupies (in some abstract sense) the position of the lexical Verb, i.e. is NOT
followed by another (bare) V. In a sentence, however, unlike any other V, any be can also
appear in the position of the Ω when this position would otherwise be empty.
Another way to say this: In finite ( non-imperative) clauses with be, there is no do-support.
Using the 2-slot Predicate model (8) on page 139, compare the examples of the Verb have
below with the structure of be in (5) above.
144
The Predicate in Old English was not as analytic as in Modern English, and the examples
above suggest that the archaic usage of the stative (possessive) Verb have is structurally
similar to the Verb be, i.e. have
(a) is NOT followed by another V
(b) is able to move to the position of the AUX/MOD (in front of negation) whenever
possible/ needed.
Languages, however, have a tendency to get rid of irregularity and Modern English does
not freely use the archaic form of have as illustrated above. Look below at the strategies
applied in Modern British and American English.
The following examples (7) show that British English has made stative (possessive) have
into a non-lexical element, Auxiliary. The position of the lexical Verb is represented by got.
(a) I (*will) have got new books. (a') I (will) have received new books.
(b) Have you got a new book? (b') Have you received a new book?
(c) * Do you have got a good book? (c') * Do you have received a good book?
(d) I haven't got any books. (d’) I haven't received any books.
(e) * I don't have got any books. (e') * I don't have received any books.
(f) You’ve got new ones, haven’t you? (f’) You’ve received them, haven’t you?
The following example (8) shows that in contrast to the British usage, American English
treats stative (possessive) have as a lexical Verb.
(Consider its similarities with standard lexical Verb receive.)
(8) (a) Do you have new books? (a') Do you receive new books?
(b) Yes, I (do) have new books. (b') Yes, I (do) receive new books.
(c) No, I don't have any books. (c') No, I don't receive any books.
(d) You (do) have some, don’t you? (d’) You do receive some, don’t you?
Apart from stative/ possessive have, English uses other kinds of have, too. In these usages,
British and American are the same. The following examples show that have can be Aux,
Mod, and Lexical Verb as well.
145
(10) Perfective have: You (may/ *can) have written a letter.
(a) Have you written a letter? (a') * Do you have written a letter?
(b) I haven't written a letter. (b') * I don't have written a letter.
(c) You have written one, haven’t you? (c’) * You have written one, didn’t you?
(d) For Jane to have written a letter would surprise me.
(a) *Had you a look around? (a') Did you have a look around?
(b) * I haven't a look around often. (b') I don't have a look around often.
(c) * Had they some good times later? (c') Did they have some good times later?
(d) * I haven't good times lately. (d') I don't have good times lately.
(e) * Have you lunch with Joe today? (e) Did you have lunch with Joe today?
(f) * I hadn't lunch with Joe. (f') I didn't have lunch with Joe.
(g) * She often has lunch, hasn’t she? (g’) She often has lunch, doesn’t she?
21.3 Exercises
146
ii) w.r.t. the characteristics of the finite verb (see criteria (8) on page 139 and (10) on
page 139).
iii) Explain the distinction in making the past tense of the two forms.
(a) He must be at home ... (...every day / - mustn't he? / -Isn't he?)
(b) He has to be at home...
Which of the verbs “be“ illustrated in (3) on page 143 is in which position?
How would the same exercise look assuming the 2-slot predicate model?
(a) I am (not) to leave at six o'clock. (a') He is (not) to leave at six o'clock.
(b) I was (n't/ not) to leave before six. (b') They were (n't/ not) to leave before six.
(c) Am I (not) to leave at six o'clock? (c') Were they (not) to leave at six o'clock?
(d) *He will be to leave at six o'clock. (d') *They had been to leave at six o'clock.
(e) * To be to leave at six a.m. is irritating.
147
(e) *For him to haven’t written yet worries me.
I. Agentive: Tourists (can) have a look around the museum before they leave.
(a) *Have you often a look around it? (a') Do you often have a look around it?
(b) *I haven't always a look around it. (b') I don't always have a look around it.
(c) .........................................................................................................................................
II. Causative: You (can) have somebody help you with the homework.
(a) *Had you somebody help you? (a') Did you have anybody help you?
(b) *They haven't anybody help them. (b') They don't have anybody help them.
(c) .........................................................................................................................................
III. Concern: They (will) have their house repainted every year.
(a) * …, haven’t they? (a') …, won’t they?/ …, don’t they?
*Have they really? Will they really?/ Do they really?
(b) *I haven't ever mine repainted.
(b'). I didn't/ won’t ever have mine repainted.
(c) .........................................................................................................................................
148
(23) EXERCISE ===========================================
In (substandard) spoken American English the possessive Verb ‘have’ (see (8) on
page 145 above) is often replaced by 'got', especially in a positive declarative context.
Consider the examples below. Notice that this paradigm of ‘got’ looks like a ‘lexical Verb’
paradigm, but because of example (d), it cannot be taken for a regular type.
(a) I/ You/ We/ They got a new book. = I/ You/ We/ They have a new book.
(b) I/ You/ We/ They don't got a new book. = I/ You/ We/ They don't have a new book.
(c) Do I/ you/ we/ they got that book? = Do I/ you/ we/ they have that book?
(d) *He gots a new book. (d') He's got a new book.
(e) He hasn't got a new book.
(f) Has he got a new book?
Notice that the form used is "got" not "get" (Standard English: to get to V = to have of
advantage of V-ing)
(g) We get to (can, manage to) visit the museum free every Wednesday.
(a) His younger brother saw your friend in front of the main building.
(b) I introduced Mary's boyfriend to my grandfather.
(c) They were determined to put all the exercise books to the bottom shelves.
(d) The free people of Uganda will be electing their President soon.
(e) To read all those huge books of short stories every day is more than extremely
boring.
(f) While at school, all the students must respect the official rules.
149
22 APPENDIX: LIST OF SOME ENGLISH BOUND MORPHEMES
Discuss the distinction between the NEGATIVE PREFIXES w.r.t. their origin and
diachronic/synchronic productivity .
150
-age carriage, courage(ous), outrage(ous-ly), marriage, marriage(able),
envisage, damage, salvage, storage, pillage, visage
151
-ful frightful, careful, doubtful, graceful, grateful, fearful, beautiful, dutiful,
helpful, joyful, pitiful, restful, shameful, tearful, tactful, worshipful
-fy diversify, fortify, ratify, simplify, terrify, testify, verify, unify, amplify,
solidify, intensify, modify, typify
-ile domicile, docile, agile, fertile, fragile, imbecile, juvenile, infantile, mobile,
projectile, senile, reptile, sterile, volatile, versatile
152
-ive explosive, declarative, affirmative, additive, aggressive, assertive,
authoritative, cohesive, abusive, cooperative, exhaustive, expletive
-y cheery, catty, arty, crafty, furry, dreary, faulty, dirty, foxy, hairy, itchy,
misty, rosy, salty, sleepy, wary
N→A tends/inclines to have the property of the N
153
22.3 Prefixes of Germanic origin
154
de- deprive, defend, depend, deform, decay, debark, denude, depose
ex- (i) extract, exclaim, extend, exclude, exit, exact, excel, excite, expression,
e- excavate, exception
ec-/ef- (ii) elaborate, eject
(iii) eclipse, eccentric, efficient, effort, effect, effervescent
re- rebuild, recall, reflect, refold, regain, reiterate, rejoin, relate, relive,
remind, remarry, repay, resell, return, reverse, rewarm, rewrite
155
(26) SOME OF THE MORE FREQUENT ROOTS OF LATIN ORIGIN
-fin- final, finish, finite, affinity, confine, define, definitive, infinite, finance
Lat. finis (→ end)
156
N→ ADJ ‘practitioner of X’ (violinist, *drumist)
‘advocating X’ (sexist)
-vis- visa, vis-à-vis, visage, visible, vision, visionary, visit, visitor, vista, visual,
visualize, invisible, evident, provide, provisional, providential
Lat. visus (→ see)
157
-viv(i)/-ta vital, vitamin, vivacity, revive, survive, vivisection
Lat. vita (→ alive, life)
158
RELATED LITERATURE
(A) The list A below gives practical manuals of English grammar which can help
students not fully familiar with the pratical usage of the structures discussed. The working
knowledge of this manuals is assumed for the course.
(B) The list B provides bibliography for the more theoretical manuals covering the topics
in more detail. They provide some discussion of the phenomena, provide much more data
and demonstrate alternative terminologies and analyses.
(C) The list C provides bibliography for the cited works and some additional literature
related to the topics discussed in the course.
A. PRACTICAL MANUALS
Alexander, L.G. (1993): Longman Advanced Grammar. Reference and Practice. Longman.
Hewings, Martin (2005): Advanced Grammar in Use (2nd edition) with answers and CD
ROM. CUP.
Jones, Leo (1991): Cambridge Advanced English. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
Leech, Geoffrey & Svartvik, Jan (1975) A Communicative Grammar of English.
Longman, London.
Murphy, Raymond (2004): English Grammar in Use With Answers and CD ROM : A
Self-Study Reference and Practice Book for Intermediate Students of English. 3rd
edition. CUP.
Svoboda, Aleš & Opělová-Károlyová, Mária (1998) A Brief Survey of the English
Morphology. Filozofická fakulta Ostravské univerzity, Ostrava.
B. THEORETICAL MANUALS
Dušková, Libuše (1994) Mluvnice současné angličtiny na pozadí češtiny. Academia Praha,
Prague.
Huddleston, Rodney and Pullum, Geoffrey K. (2002) The Cambridge Grammar of the
English Language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Huddleston, Rodney and Pullum, Geoffrey K. (2005): A Students Introduction to English
Grammar. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Leech, Geoffrey (1971) Meaning and the English Verb. 3rd edition. Longman, London
2004.
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. & Svartvik, J. (2004) A Comprehensive Grammar
of the English Language. Longman, London
Quirk, R., and Greenbaum, S. (1991): A Student´s Grammar of the English language.
Longman1991.
159
C. FURTHER RELATED / CITED LITERATURE
Akmajian, A., Demers, R.A., Farmer, A.K. & Harnish, R.M. (1990) Linguistics: An
Introduction to Language and Communication. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Chomsky, Noam (1981), Lectures on Government and Binding. Foris, Dordrecht.
Comrie, Bernard (1989) Language Universals and Linguistic Typology. Blackwell,
London.
Croft, William (1991) Syntactic Categories and Grammatical Relations. Chikago:
University of Chikago Press.
Crystal, David (1987) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge.
Demers, Richard A. & Farmer, Ann K. (1991) A Linguistics Workbook. The MIT Press,
Cambridge, Mass.
Finegan, Edward & Besnier, Niko (1990) 'Structured Meaning in Words.' In: Language:
Its Structure and Use. HBJ.
Fromkin, Victoria & Rodman, Robert (1990) 'Morphology : The Words of Language.'
In: An Introduction to Language. HBJ.
Katamba, Francis (1993) Morphology. The Macmillan Press Ltd.
Matthews, P.H. (1974) Morphology. Cambridge University Press.
Spenser, Andrew (1991) Morphological Theory. Blackwell, Oxford UK & Cambridge
USA.
160