1

author: Renaat Declerck

title: A comprehensive descriptive grammar of English
publisher: Kaitakusha (Tokyo)
ISBN: 4-7589-0538-X
595 pages

This is a preliminary version. Its page numbers are different from those in the published book.

This book was revised for later editions

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PREFACE

When, in 1970, I started teaching English to undergraduates, I could not find any grammatical
handbook that corresponded exactly to what I thought the students ought to know. Although there were
quite a few good grammars available, I found none of them completely satisfactory as regards the
selection of data to be presented, the organization and structure of the work, and the formulation of the
rules. I therefore set out to write a textbook of my own. The first version drew heavily on the well-known
traditional grammars of people like Jespersen, Poutsma, etc., but also incorporated a number of insights
and terms from structuralist and transformational grammar. Since then I have never stopped revising and
updating the book. The final revision took place in 1990, after Prof. Shigeki Seki, who was then spending
a year at my university, informed me that (without my knowing about it) he had sent the work to
Kaitakusha Co. in Tokyo and that they were interested in publishing it.
The fact that the work has been devised as a textbook for university students has some important
consequences for its form and contents.
To begin with, the book clearly has a double purpose. It aims not only to help the students to learn
English but also to make them gain a clear insight into the structure of the language. This means that
apart from offering a host of practical rules, it also introduces a lot of linguistic concepts. In fact, it aims
to make the reader acquainted with all the basic linguistic terminology that is used in descriptive
linguistics. In this way it should provide him with the necessary basis for tackling linguistic literature of a
more theoretical nature.
A second aspect of the book that is explained by its being written as a coursebook is its structure, i.e. the
ordering of the chapters. This order is not determined by linguistic considerations, but simply reflects the
order in which I like students to tackle the various subjects. The result is that chapters dealing with
elements of the verb phrase are intermixed with chapters treating elements of the noun phrase. This kind
of presentation may be unusual in the tradition of English grammars, but I deem it convenient from a
pedagogical point of view. Apart from the introduction (which is purely theoretical), the early chapters of
the book are those that are most essential for building up a working knowledge of the language. For
example, students need to learn the tense and aspect systems of the language as soon as possible. A
detailed knowledge of the modal system is less pressing: the chapter going into this can be placed after
more urgent ones, such as those dealing with the use of adverbs, articles, nouns and pronouns. The fact
that there is a detailed table of contents and an extensive index makes sure that subjects can be looked up
quickly anyhow: the book can easily be used as a reference grammar.
Another aspect of the book that is related to its genesis is the relative weight that has been assigned to
the various areas of English grammar. This weight, which is reflected in the length of the chapters, is
mainly determined by the book’s aim to be usable as a practical grammar. Areas of the grammar which
are interesting from a theoretical point of view but present no practical problems are only treated
summarily. For example, the book does not go into the rules of word-formation (except the ones that
have to do with inflection) because a language learner does not need to be able to use these rules
consciously: complex and compound words are normally learnt as a whole, not derived from other words
by the conscious application of rules of derivational affixation or compounding. By contrast, the book
pays considerable attention to the English systems of tense, aspect and modality. These systems are
notoriously complex and difficult to learn, yet in virtually all English grammars that I know they receive
a treatment that is very much simplified. The Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (Quirk
et al. 1985), which is the most prestigious English grammar at this moment, devotes only 71 pages to
tense, aspect and modality together. This is roughly the same number of pages as are devoted to word-
formation, viz. 4.33% of the entire book. By contrast, the chapters dealing with the same subjects in the
present grammar take up almost 50% of the whole work. This is a deliberate choice, since the systems of
 3

tense, aspect and modality are not only extremely intricate but also play a crucial part in English
grammar. I have chosen to describe them in detail, rather than offer a simplified set of rough-and-ready
rules.
It follows that the book is not ‘comprehensive’ in every sense of the term. It is comprehensive in the
sense that the subjects that are dealt with are given a thorough treatment (even if it has sometimes proved
impossible to avoid simplification); it is not comprehensive in the sense that all areas of the grammar are
fully gone into. Some major areas which are not treated in this book are phonetics, phonology, lexicology
and derivational morphology. It should also be noted that the book is only concerned with grammatical
structure; it contains no sections that are concerned with such things as punctuation or essay-writing.
Since there are many varieties of English, I have had to make a choice as to the variety I was going to
describe. The kind of English that is treated in this book is ‘Standard English’ as it is used in Great
Britain today. As is well-known, there are a number of respects in which this English differs from the
other major variety, viz. American English. Although the most obvious differences concern the choice of
lexical items, there are also some differences in grammatical structure. The most important of these are
pointed out in the book.
As I am not a native speaker of English, my knowledge of the language is the result of teaching,
observation and reading. Over the past twenty years I have read a lot of works on English grammars, and
many of them have contributed greatly to my knowledge of the language. It is impossible, however, to
say for each area of the grammar which has been the specific contribution of these various works. For
this reason I have conformed to the well-established tradition of writing a grammar without references
and of adding a bibliography that lists the works that I feel especially indebted to.
My final remark concerns the index. When compiling it, I became increasingly aware of the fact that I
would have to make a choice between two possibilities. On the one hand I could give, for each entry in
the index, an exhaustive list of the pages on which the term was used. If I did this, the result would be an
index that was comprehensive but unwieldy, because many entries would be followed by dozens of page
numbers. On the other hand, I could restrict the page numbers listed in the index to just those that
referred to the places where the term was defined or where the concept in question was directly
discussed. If I did this, the index would be less comprehensive, but it would be perfectly usable as a
means of looking up information quickly. Since I intend the book to be usable as a reference grammar, I
have chosen the second option. The index at the end of this book is therefore a selective one.

Kortrijk, June 1991

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1 Linguistics 1
1.2 Semantics 3
1.3 Morphemes 4
1.4 Words 8
1.5 Parts of speech 10
1.6 Syntax 12
1.7 Noun Phrases 21
1.8 Prepositional phrases 33
1.9 Verb phrases 37
Chapter 2. Morphology
2.1 The plural of nouns 49
2.2 The genitive 52
2.3 The formation of verb forms 54
2.4 Formation of comparative and superlative 62
2.5 Formation of adverbs 65
Chapter 3. The tenses
3.1 Introduction 69
3.2 The absolute tenses 71
3.2.1 The present tense 71
3.2.2 The past tense 74
3.3.3 The present perfect 77
3.3.4 The future tense 88
3.3. Temporal relations in a domain 93
3.3.1 Relations in a past time-sphere domain 94
3.3.2 Relations in a pre-present sector domain 97
3.3.3 Relating a situation to a present TO 100
3.3.4 Relations in a post-present domain 102
3.4 Sloppy simultaneity 104
3.5 Alternatives to temporal subordination 105
3.6 Different ways of establishing a domain 112
3.6.1 Direct and indirect binding 113
3.6.2 Temporal focus 114
3.6.3 Implicit time of orientation 117
3.6.2 Adverbial time clauses 118
Chapter 4. Progressive Aspect
4.1 Durative or progressive aspect 122
4.1.1 General meaning 122
4.1.2 Normal uses of the progressive 123
4.1.3 Special uses of the progressive 127
4.1.4 Conditions for the progressive 131
4.2 The use of nonprogressive tense forms 138
Chapter 5. The Auxiliary do
 5

5.1 Introduction 145

5.2 Sentences involving inversion 145
5.3 Negative Clauses 148
5.4 Do for emphasis 148
5.5 Do substituting for a lexical verbs or VP 149
5.6 Notes on the use of do with have 155
Chapter 6. The Passive Voice
6.1 Introduction 157
6.2 The passive transformation 160
6.3 The use of the passive 166
Chapter 7. The Adverbials
7.1 Introduction 168
7.2 Classes of adverbials and their positions 172
7.2.1 Adjuncts 172
7.2.2 Subjuncts 178
7.2.3 Disjuncts 182
7.2.4 Conjuncts 183
Chapter 8. The Noun
8.1 Number 185
8.2 Case 198
8.3 Gender 202
Chapter 9. Pronouns and Pronominal Determiners
9.1 Introduction 205
9.2 The personal pronouns 206
9.2.1 Person 206
9.2.2 Gender 213
9.2.3 Case 214
9.3 The compound personal pronoun 215
9.4 The demonstrative pro-forms 218
9.5 The interrogative pro-forms 211
9.6 The possessive pro-forms 223
9.7 The indefinite pro-forms 225
9.7.1 One 225
9.7.2 Either, neither 229
9.7.3 All, each, every, both 230
9.7.4 Some, any 235
9.7.5 Other 241
9.7.6 No, none, nothing, nobody, no one 242
9.7.7 Few, little, many, much 244
9.7.8 Such, so 247
9.7.9 Half, double, twice, one third, etc. 249
9.8 The numerals 250
Chapter 10. The Article
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10.1 Introduction 254

10.2 The use of the definite article 259
10.3 The use of the indefinite article 268
Chapter 11. The Adjective
11.1 The use of comparative and superlative forms 272
11.2 Further syntactic characteristics 275
Chapter 12. The modal system
12.1 Introduction 279
12.2 Inflectional modal forms 280
12.2.1 The subjunctive 280
12.2.2 Modal indicative forms 282
12.3 Modal auxiliaries 286
12.3.1 Volition 286
12.3.2 Permission 293
12.3.3 Prohibition 296
12.3.4 Compulsion, necessity 298
12.3.5 Absence of compulsion or necessity 307
12.3.6 Ability 309
12.3.6 Possibility 315
12.3.7 Impossibility 321
12.3.8 Epistemic necessity 323
12.3.8 Probability, expectation, belief 327
12.3.9 Wish 330
12.3.10 Habit 330
12.3.11 The verb dare 332
12.4 Modal auxiliaries in subclauses 333
12.4.1 Noun clauses 333
12.4.2 Conditional clauses 336
12.4.3 Subclauses after expressions of wish or hope 348
12.4.4 Subclauses after expressions of fear 349
12.4.5 Clauses of purpose 350
12.4.6 Concessive clauses 352
Chapter 13. The Participle
13.1 Morphological characteristics 355
13.2 Syntactic characteristics 358
13.3 Function of the participle in the sentence 359
13.3.1 Prenominal modifier 359
13.3.2 Postnominal modifier 360
13.3.3 Subject complement 361
13.3.4 Supplementive clause 362
13.3.5 Object complement 363
13.3.6 Absolute participial clause 366
13.3.7 Unrelated participle 367
Chapter 14: The infinitive
 7

14.1 Morphological and syntactic characteristics 368

14.1.1 Morphological characteristics 368
14.1.2. Syntactic characteristics 369
14.2 Function of the infinitive in the sentence 370
14.2.1 Infinitive with to 370
14.2.2 The infinitive without to 387
Chapter 15. The gerund
15.1 Morphology 391
15.2 Syntactic characteristics 393
15.3 Functions of the gerund in the sentence 397
15.3.1 Subject 397
15.3.2 Subject complement 398
15.3.3 Direct object 398
15.3.4 Object complement 408
15.3.5 Object of a preposition 408
15.3.6 Complement of an adjective 410
15.3.7 Gerund after as, than, but, except 411
Chapter 16. Indirect speech and thought.
16.1 Introduction 412
16.2 Indirect speech and thought 412
16.2.1 Statements 412
16.2.2 Questions 417
16.2.3 Commands 419
16.2.4 Exclamations and yes/no 419
16.2.5 Stretches of discourse 419
16.2.6 Free indirect speech 420
Chapter 17. Relative clauses
17.1 Introduction 421
17.2 The relative connectives 423
17.3 Complex constructions 434
17.4 Word order in the relative clause 435
 8

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Am.E. American English

Br.E. British English
O object
DST direct speech and thought
fml formal
FPS future perspective system
infml informal
N noun
NP noun phrase
OC object complement
OP object of a preposition
P preposition
PO prepositional object
pp past participle
pf perfect
PP prepositional phrase
PPS present perspective system
RST reported speech and thought
SC subject complement
S subject
TO time of orientation
TS time of the situation referred to
TU time of utterance
V verb
VP verb phrase
 9

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1 LINGUISTICS

A. Linguistics can be defined as the science that studies human language (natural language). Within
linguistics several approaches are possible. One of them is descriptive linguistics, which aims at
providing rules that describe and analyse the well-formed (grammatical) sentences of a language. Such a
description is possible because the infinite number of possible sentences in any language appear to be
built after a restricted number of patterns: the system underlying a potentially infinite number of
utterances can be described by means of a limited number of rules.

B. A descriptive grammar of English will contain several sections in which different types of structure
are examined: 1
1. The first level of analysis is concerned with the system of speech sounds that are used by the
speakers of English:
a. In that part of linguistics that is called phonetics, the linguist makes an inventory of the speech
sounds that are employed by speakers of the language and describes them:
1) In the branch of phonetics that is called articulatory phonetics the phonetician examines
how speech sounds are produced by the human speech organs and in which ways they
differ from each other.
2) In acoustic phonetics the phonetician examines how speech sounds are conveyed from the
speaker to the hearer by means of sound waves.
3) In auditory phonetics the phonetician examines how the speech sounds are received by
the human ear and conveyed to the brain so as to be decoded.
b. In phonemics (or phonology) the linguist concentrates on those speech sounds that are
phonemes and studies the phonemic system of the language. (A phoneme is a speech sound
that is capable of distinguishing meaning. For example, /r/ and /l/ are phonemes because there
are minimal pairs like rid vs lid, which are recognizable as different words (with different
meanings) because of the phonemic difference between /r/ and /l/.)
2. The next higher level is concerned with morphemes (meaningful combinations of phonemes) and
shows how one or more morphemes can constitute a word. This part of linguistics is called
morphology. (The study of words is also called lexicology.)
3. The third level deals with the ways in which words can be arranged to form larger combinations, viz.
phrases, clauses and sentences. This is the realm of syntax.

C. That part of linguistics that is concerned with the meaning of sentences is called semantics.

D. Recent linguistics also involves a branch (called pragmatics) which studies those aspects of meaning
that are not inherent in the utterance itself but have to do with how we use language in conversation (e.g.
how we use language in order to get people to do things).

E. The term grammar usually refers to a linguistic work that deals both with syntax and with some
morphological questions (more specifically, inflection and conjugation). 2 However, the term may also

1. All the terms introduced in this section and left unexplained here will be defined in some later section.
2. The terms inflection and conjugation are explained in section 1.3.,E.
 10

indicate a linguistic theory (e.g. ‘Transformational Generative Grammar’) which aims at dealing with
every level of structure, including phonology and semantics.

F. It should be noted that spelling (orthography) is not one of the levels of linguistic analysis. Indeed,
the spelling system used by the speakers of a language has nothing to do with the system of the language
itself: language is by definition oral. Writing is no more than a conventional way of recording language in
a visual form. There are a great many languages spoken by tribes that do not even use a form of writing.
(Of course, this does not mean that spelling is irrelevant. Misspellings should be avoided because they
will mostly be considered as marks of illiteracy or ill-breeding.)
The spelling system used by speakers of English is a very imperfect phonemic (alphabetic) system: in
an ideal alphabetic system one letter would always stand for the same phoneme and one phoneme could
only be represented by one letter. In fact there is not a single letter in the English alphabet that cannot
stand for more than one phoneme, and most phonemes can be represented in a variety of ways. For
example, the letter a can represent at least seven different phonemes (can, father, orphan, cane, bare,
small, village) while the phoneme /i:/ can be spelt in at least eleven different ways (margarine, retrieve,
anaemic, foetus, he, receipt, steam, sleep, key, quay, people).

G. When studying a language like English, we must keep in mind that languages are not normally
uniform but consist of a number of varieties:
1. Most languages show regional varieties. For English we must reckon with varieties spoken in
different parts of the world (United Kingdom, U.S., Australia, Canada, Zimbabwe, etc.) and with
further dialectical variation within these varieties. Regional varieties may differ in:
a. pronunciation (e.g. new is pronounced as /nju:/ in Br.E. and as /nu:/ in Am.E.)
b. orthography (e.g. Br.E. humour, theatre, realise, 3 offence, judgement, likeable, travelling vs.
Am.E. humor, theater, realize, offense, judgment, likable, traveling)
c. vocabulary (e.g. in pairs like the following the first word is the Br.E. term, the second its Am.E.
equivalent: railway/railroad, allege/claim, liquidizer/blender, pavement/sidewalk, taxi/cab,
mad/crazy, angry/mad, engine/motor, flat/apartment, tin/can, petrol/gas, main road/highway,
film/movie, etc.)
d. grammar (e.g. in Br.E. we say I have just seen him, not I just saw him; in Am.E. either form is
good.)
2. There are social varieties (studied in sociolinguistics), which are related to the social class or
education of the speaker. The English which is accepted as ‘good English’ by everybody is called
Standard English. The English of the uneducated is nonstandard or substandard English (slang).
An example of nonstandard English is the word ain’t, which is very common in dialects and in
‘uneducated’ English. It is used as a contracted form of either am not, are not, is not, have not or has
not.
e.g. I ain’t going to do it.
You ain’t a teacher.
I ain’t got any more money.
She ain’t been here for weeks.
Slang differs from standard English not only in pronunciation and vocabulary but also in its syntax.
e.g. One of the syntactic peculiarities of slang is that in negative sentences there is more than one
marker of negation: I don’t need no doctor ; You ain’t seen nothing yet ; She ain’t never said
nothing to nobody.4

3. In Br.E. we can write either -ize or -ise.

4. The following example (uttered by a New Yorker) was recorded by W. Labov: There ain’t no cat can’t come
in no coop (= There is no cat that can get into one of the coops).
 11

3. There are ‘register’ varieties, which have to do with

a. the situation of speaking: much depends on the degree of distance (formality) between the
speaker/writer and the listener/reader. For example, we will not use the same register when
addressing the Prime Minister as we do when speaking to a relative or intimate friend.
b. the subject matter (e.g. the archaic and stilted language of legal texts vs. a commentary on a
baseball match)
c. the mode of discourse (e.g. oral vs. written, monologue vs. dialogue, spontaneous vs. prepared
speech)
d. the purpose of the act of speaking or writing: the speaker may want to set out facts, to teach, to
persuade, to exhort, to establish social relationships, to entertain, to exchange arguments, to
describe something, etc. (For example, the language of advertising and propaganda certainly
forms a register of its own.)
All these factors together lead to a distinction between several registers, which, for our purpose, may
be brought together under three headings: formal English, informal English, and a neutral register
in between the two.
e.g. The verb to die belongs to the neutral register; to pass away is formal, to kick the bucket is
informal.

1.2 SEMANTICS

In recent linguistics a distinction is made between different categories of meaning:

1. Implication or entailment
An implication is a proposition which is logically entailed by a sentence. For example, I have killed
him logically entails ‘He is dead’. Since an implication follows necessarily from the truth of a
sentence, it cannot be denied without semantic inconsistency: !I have killed him, but he is not dead is
semantically anomalous.
2. Presupposition
A presupposition is a condition which has to be fulfilled if a sentence is to make sense as a
statement, order, etc. For example, the sentence Close the door! logically presupposes ‘The door is
not closed now’; if this presupposition is not true, the sentence cannot be used in an appropriate way.
Unlike implications, presuppositions are not cancelled by negation: whereas the addition of not to I
have killed him takes away the implication ‘He is dead’, the addition of not to Close the door! does
not affect the presupposition: Don’t close the door! still presupposes that the door is open now.
3. Implicature
An implicature is something which is suggested by a sentence or other type of linguistic expression
(and which the hearer has a right to accept as true) unless there is an indication to the contrary. For
example, the sentence Someone has cleared away the glasses implicates that ALL the glasses have
been cleared away, but this implicature can be cancelled by the context, as in The person who has
cleared away the glasses has left some on the window-sill.
Implicatures have to do with ‘pragmatic meaning’, not with ‘semantic meaning’. An implicature is
something that can be inferred from the USE of a certain linguistic expression, although it does not
belong to its proper MEANING. 5 Implicatures are the result of the fact that speakers conventionally
observe certain rules when using the language. One of these rules is that a (co-operative) speaker
gives all the information that is necessary for a correct interpretation of his sentence. (H.P. Grice has

5. At least, this is true of conversational implicatures, not of conventional implicatures (see below).
 12

dubbed this principle ‘the Maxim of Quantity’: “Make your contribution as informative as required
for the current purposes of the exchange”.) For example, the sentence I have three children is
misleading (though strictly speaking true) if the speaker actually has five children. This is because I
have three children implicates ‘I have no more than three children’. This implicature follows from
the principle that the speaker should be maximally informative, i.e. should not hold back any
relevant information.
The following are a couple of further examples of implicatures that follow from the Maxim of
Quantity:
e.g. When a speaker uses an indefinite NP (e.g. a woman) he implicates that the referent is not
identifiable to the hearer. For, if the referent is identifiable to the hearer (and the speaker knows
this), the speaker should use a definite NP (e.g. the woman, my sister, Betty), since a definite
NP is more informative than an indefinite one. The following is an example of how violation of
this implicature can lead the hearer to draw false conclusions:
A. Have you heard? They’ve stolen a car in the street.
B. I’m pleased to hear that. I don’t like all those strangers parking their cars in our street.
There’s hardly any space left for parking our own.
A. Don’t be too pleased. It’s your car that has been stolen.
In his first sentence speaker A violates the definiteness implicature: he should not speak of a
car if he knows that the car in question belongs to the hearer.
e.g. In many contexts some implicates ‘not all’. Thus, it is deceiving to say Some pupils are absent
if all the pupils (of the relevant set) are absent. In that case the speaker should use the more
informative expression all the pupils (or simply the pupils -- see above).
Another principle of conversation which a (co-operative) speaker will observe is what Grice calls
the ‘Maxim of Relation’: the speaker should only say things that are relevant to the conversation he
is having.
e.g. Consider the following scrap of conversation:
A. Jack doesn’t seem to care for his children much.
B. He took Janice to the playground yesterday and bought her a kite.
Speaker B implicates that Janice is Jack’s daughter. If this is not the case, his sentence is not a
relevant reply to A’s remark.
e.g. Sentences like I was going to resign or I had intended to resign implicate that the speaker no
longer intends to resign. This is because the intention is located in the past and not in the
present. Since, other things being equal, statements about the present are more relevant than
statements about the past, we should expect the speaker to locate his intention in the present (I
am going to... or I intend to...) if he has the intention at the moment of speech. (As usual, the
implication can be cancelled by the context. This is the case in He was going to resign, and
perhaps he will.)
Apart from conversational implicatures there also exist conventional implicatures. A
conventional implicature is an implicature which has come to be part of the meaning of the
expression used. This means that it arises whenever the expression is used and is, therefore, not
cancellable. For example, the verb phrase manage to do X conventionally implicates ‘It is difficult to
do X’. In He even invited John the word even conventionally implicates that John was the least
likely person to be invited.

1.3 MORPHEMES
A. Although a phoneme functions as a signal of meaning, it has no meaning itself. Only combinations of
phonemes can have a meaning. The smallest such meaningful combinations are called morphemes. We
 13

can define a morpheme as a linguistic unit that answers the following requirements: (a) it is a word or
part of a word which has a meaning that remains the same when the morpheme is used in different
environments (combinations); (b) we cannot split it up into further meaningful parts without violating its
meaning.
e.g. The word strip is a combination of phonemes. Its basic meaning is something like ‘to undress’. It
retains this meaning in different environments, e.g. in stripped, stripped off, strips, stripping, strip-
tease. Dividing it further (s-trip, st-rip) is not possible without violation of its meaning (trip and rip
are not semantically related to strip) or without leaving meaningless remainders (s, st). Strip is
therefore a (single) morpheme.
e.g. The verb weaken consists of two morphemes: weak and -en. The latter means something like ‘to
make/render’ and also occurs in other combinations: darken, deepen, ripen, strengthen, madden,
cheapen, soften, lengthen, brighten, stiffen.
e.g. Words like product, cartoon, capsize, etc. consist of two syllables but only one morpheme. (The
verb capsize is not a combination of the morphemes cap and size because it is semantically unrelated
to these.)
e.g. Quickly, softly, slowly, etc. consist of two morphemes; only and silly consist of only one.

B. When we speak of the meaning of a morpheme, this does not necessarily mean that that meaning can
be found in a dictionary (lexicon). Morphemes such as cat, dog, eat, night, etc. which can be found there
are said to have lexical meaning. 6 They have referents that exist outside the world of language.
Morphemes such as -s in books, -ed in played, -ly in quickly, etc. have a grammatical meaning only.
They refer to concepts that exist in linguistics only.
e.g. The -s morpheme in books means ‘nominal plural’. (It is homophonous with two other -s
morphemes, which mean ‘genitive of noun’ and ‘third person singular present tense of lexical
verb’.)
e.g. -ed in played is either the ‘past tense’ or ‘past participle’ morpheme.
e.g. -ly in quickly has the grammatical meaning of ‘adverb marker’.

C. Morphemes are either free or bound. They are free if they do not need to combine with other
morphemes to be uttered in a meaningful way. Free morphemes can always be used as full words, but
many of them can also combine with other morphemes to constitute a word.
e.g. undeniable, idolize, overview, bookish, improper.
A morpheme is bound if it can only be used as part of a word, i.e. in combination with one or more other
morphemes.
e.g. replay, nicely, bookish, comes, speaker, petrodollar, kingdom, selective, dreamed, undo
Note:
1. Grammatical morphemes are by definition bound.
2. Most words consist of, or contain, at least one free morpheme. But words like combine, consume,
admonish, interrupt, convert, etc. (which are loanwords) contain only bound morphemes. The reason
why we can look upon com, con, ad, inter, bine, rupt, vert, etc. as morphemes is that they are clearly
morphemes in the language from which these words are borrowed. If we did not take this diachronic
evidence into account, 7 we could not regard inter, con, etc. as meaningful elements.

6. Strictly speaking, morphemes should be represented phonemically, since they are combinations of phonemes.
However, for technical reasons they will be represented here by the usual spelling symbols (i.e. by
graphemes).
7. By diachronic evidence is meant evidence from the history of the language.
 14

D. When several morphemes combine to form a word we can distinguish between the base (or root) and
the affixes: the base is the morpheme with the principal meaning, the other morphemes are affixes.
e.g. undeveloped, revitalization, impolitely, ungraciously, wilfulness, disbelief, erroneously, endanger,
advisable, childish
With the exception of word compounds like boy-friend (which are discussed below), a word will contain
only one base, which is usually a free morpheme, but sometimes a bound one (assent, avert). On the
other hand, there may be several affixes in a word, all of which are bound morphemes. We call them
prefixes if they precede the base and suffixes if they follow it.
e.g. prefixes: pre/destin/ation, in/just/ice, un/mis/tak/able, contra/cept/ive
e.g. suffixes: natur/al/ly, stat/ist/ic, special/iz/ation/s, contra/dict/or/i/ly, fertil/iz/er/s, in/access/ibil/ity

E. Affixes are either derivational or inflectional:

1. Derivational affixes are used for deriving new words from existing ones.
e.g. devilish, grammarian, refreshment, honestly
2. Inflectional suffixes are used in building the possible forms of a verb, noun, adjective or adverb.
e.g. look, look/s, look/ed, look/ing
mother, mother/s, mother/’s, mother/s/’
quick, quick/er, quick/est
often, often/er, often/est
Note:
1. We speak of inflection to indicate that nouns, adjectives and adverbs can take different forms
through the addition of different inflectional suffixes. In the case of verbs we speak of
conjugation. (In older grammars, the term accidence was used as a cover term. The word
flection is sometimes used similarly.)
2. The forms to which inflectional suffixes are added are called stems. They include the base(s)
and the derivational affixes, if any.
e.g. equations (base: equate, stem: equation)
fantasizing (base: fantasy; stem: fantasize)
abnormalities (base: norm; stem: abnormality)
3. A group of words involving the same stem but different inflectional suffixes is called an
inflectional paradigm.
e.g. pay, pays, paid, paying
brother, brothers, brother’s, brothers’
soft, softer, softest
A group of words involving the same base but different derivational affixes is called a
derivational paradigm.
e.g. light, lighter, lightly, enlighten, lightness, lighten, relight
play, playful, playfully, playfulness, replay, player, playable
live, alive, enliven, lively, relive, liveable, livelihood
4. There are no more than eight inflectional suffixes:
-S noun plural
-S noun genitive
-S 3rd person singular present tense verb
-ING present participle
-D past tense
-D past participle
-ER comparative
 15

-EST superlative
5. Apart from their different functions, inflectional and derivational suffixes differ in the
following ways:
a. The selection of derivational suffixes is an unpredictable matter: there is no accounting for
the fact that, in order to derive an activity noun from the verb, we have to add -al to
appraise, -ment to improve, -ure to fail, -y to discover, -age to shrink, -ion to select, etc.
The selection of inflectional morphemes, by contrast, is not arbitrary at all: each
inflectional suffix can be added to (in principle) all and only the members of a particular
part of speech (word class), and different inflectional suffixes can never have the same
function.
b. The addition of a derivational suffix often entails a change of part of speech.
e.g. The addition of -able to the verb play yields an adjective: playable.
hang/er, power/ful, love/ly, natur/al/ly, bright/en, quiet/ly, re/new/al
Inflectional suffixes can never entail a change of part of speech.
c. With the exception of the noun plural morpheme and the genitive morpheme, which can
co-occur (children’s, fathers’), it is impossible to have more than one inflectional suffix in
a word. Derivational suffixes, on the other hand, may pile up:
e.g. e-norm-ous-ly (enormously), equal-ize-er-s (equalizers), norm-al-ize-ation
(normalization)

F. Every word consisting of two or more morphemes naturally falls apart into two parts, which we call
its immediate constituents (I.C.s). These I.C.s may themselves consist of two I.C.s, etc.
e.g. The word unquestionably consists of the I.C.s unquestionable and -ly; unquestionable itself has as
I.C.s un- and questionable; questionable falls apart into question and -able.
In making these divisions we primarily rely on the meaning: the meaning of a construction is normally
the sum total of the meanings of its I.C.s. Thus, unquestionable is semantically a combination of un (=
not) and questionable, not a combination of *unquestion and -able (= possible). Apart from semantic
considerations, the following instructions can help us to exercise the I.C. division:
1. If possible, one of the I.C.s should be a free form (i.e. an existing word).
e.g. anti/nuclear, powerful/ness, un/friendliness, improve/ment, in/accessible
2. If the word in question contains an inflectional suffix, this suffix will belong to the highest pair of
I.C.s.
e.g. reservation/s, disabl/ed, gentleman/’s
Further examples:
e.g. intolerably = intolerable + ly (intolerable = in + tolerable; tolerable = toler + able)
e.g. unfriendly = un + friendly; friendly = friend + ly

G. One and the same morpheme can sometimes have different phonemic forms. These variants are called
allomorphs.
e.g. The morpheme LONG is pronounced differently in the words long, longer and length.
e.g. The morpheme SENT takes on different phonemic forms in assent, resent, sentient and sentiment
e.g. chaste - chastity
e.g. compare - comparable - comparatively
Different phonemic forms are allomorphs if they have the same meaning and are in complementary
distribution (i.e. if only one of them can be selected when the morpheme is to be used in a particular
environment or combination).
e.g. The -S morpheme of the 3rd person singular present tense consists of three allomorphs, as it is
pronounced differently in takes, runs, and kisses. These different phonemic realizations are
 16

allomorphs because they have the same (grammatical) meaning and are in complementary
distribution (/s/ only after voiceless non-sibilants, /z/ only after voiced non-sibilants, etc.).
e.g. The plural -S morpheme has at least five allomorphs: cf. cats, dogs, houses, oxen, sheep. (In sheep
the morpheme is realized as the so-called zero allomorph.)
e.g. A and an are allomorphs of the indefinite article morpheme: they have the same meaning and are in
complementary distribution. (Roughly, a is used before consonants, an before vowels.)
Note that the fact that morphemes often have more than one allomorph means that we have to revise the
notions of ‘bound’ and ‘free morphemes’ discussed above: it is really not the morpheme but its
allomorphs that can be called free or bound. For example, the morpheme deep has two allomorphs: the
free allomorph /di:p/ (as in deeply) and the bound allomorph /dep/ (in depth). We find a similar
alternation of a free allomorph and a bound one in the following pairs: wide - width, broad - breadth,
supreme - supremacy, fame/famous - infamy/infamous, atom - atomic, divine - divinity.
It follows that a morpheme (like a phoneme) is an abstraction: the concrete entities which we utter are not
morphemes but allomorphs.

H. When we add an allomorph to a stem or base to form a different word or word form, we normally get
the structure ‘stem/base + allomorph’, as in books, played, etc. In that case we say the allomorph is
additive. Sometimes, however, the addition of an allomorph does not result in a form with an additional
morpheme but entails a change within the stem to which it is added.
e.g. cp. look - looked, play - played, nod - nodded, lead - led.
In each case we add the past tense morpheme to a verb stem. With look, play and nod this
results in a form with an additional morpheme, but in the case of lead the result is a
replacement within the verb stem itself. This means that there is a replacive allomorph (/i:/ is
replaced by /e/) which has the same meaning as the other past tense allomorphs and is in
complementary distribution with them. In fact, the past tense still has other replacive
allomorphs, as appears from cling - clung, bite - bit, blow - blew, ride - rode, find -found, take -
took, wear - wore, give - gave, hold - held, spin - span, lie - lay, etc.
e.g. When we add the plural morpheme to mouse and louse we realize a replacive allomorph, cf. mice,
lice.
Replacive allomorphs are sometimes called infixes because they occur in the middle of the word (by
analogy with ‘prefixes’ and ‘suffixes’, which occur at the beginning and end respectively).

1.4 WORDS
A. In general, a word can be defined as the smallest portion of a sentence that can be used as a free form
and can be preceded and followed by a pause. Thus, in A man came into the house the forms a, man,
came, into, the and house are words because they are free (combinations of) morphemes and can be set
off by pauses.

B. Phrasal verbs like come in, call up (= telephone), turn down (= reject), fall through (= fail), etc. are
borderline cases: their two constituents may be used on their own, but if they follow each other it is not
possible to pause between them. Some grammars treat phrasal verbs as single words (‘two-part verbs’),
others as combinations of words (‘two-word verbs’).

C. Like morphemes, words may have a lexical meaning or a grammatical meaning. Words with a purely
grammatical meaning are often called function words.
e.g. a(n) and the are noun markers
to is an infinitive marker
have is the perfect tense auxiliary
 17

be is a voice or aspect auxiliary

The lexical meaning of a word is often called its denotation. Apart from their denotation, words often
have a connotation, i.e. a meaning suggested by the word in addition to its denotation.
e.g. The words economical and stingy have a similar denotation: they can both be said of people that do
not spend much. However, economical has a good connotation (‘not wasteful’), whereas stingy has a
bad connotation (i.e. it is derogatory or depreciatory): stingy is interpreted as ‘too economical’,
‘unwilling to spend, even if spending is justified’.
e.g. Someone who writes for a newspaper can be called a journalist or a hack. The latter term has a
derogatory connotation: it implies that the person in question has to work hard and that his work is
rather uninteresting.

D. Words are either simple, complex or compound:

1. Simple words consist of only one morpheme.
e.g. book, dog, make, round, yet, hygiene, capsize, public, police, mercantile
2. Complex words consist of a base and at least one derivational affix.
e.g. charm/er, psych/olog/y, re/mov/al, advis/er, public/ly, revis/ion
3. Compound words are combinations of two or more free forms.
e.g. ground floor, sponge cake, blackbird, forget-me-not, greenhouse, apple juice, overflow

E. Noun compounds (i.e. compound words that function as nouns) can have an internal structure of
different kinds:
– Noun + noun (e.g. bookshop, dinner-party, car park, death certificate, corner stone, income tax,
electronics group)
– Adjective + noun (e.g. secondary school, diplomatic bag, solar energy, medical building)
– Genitive + noun (e.g. bishop’s hat, bull’s eye, hornet’s nest, cat’s eye, gentleman’s agreement)
– Gerund + noun (e.g. firing-line, riding-school, climbing-frame, boiling-point, whipping-boy,
drawing-room, sleeping-pill, selling price)
– Participle + noun (e.g. whipped cream)
– Noun + particle (e.g. passer-by, sit-in)
– Verb + particle (e.g. set-back, breakthrough, set-up)
– Particle + noun (e.g. onlooker, in-laws, inmate)
– Particle + verb (e.g. income, uptake, downpour)

F. Noun compounds are often similar in form to noun phrases (groups of words) (cp. a blackbird -- a
black bird). However, they differ from such grammatical structures in at least the following ways:
1. Unlike grammatical structures, compound words cannot be split by the insertion of other words.
e.g. Compare I built a greenhouse with I built a green country house.
e.g. a retail shop -- *a retail old shop
2. The components of a compound word cannot be individually modified, whereas the components of
the homophonous grammatical structure can.
e.g. cp. a red head -- a very red head
a redhead -- *a very redhead
e.g. *Phil’s father-in-civil-law
*a soundly sleeping-pill
3. Noun compounds that are homophonous with grammatical structures of the type ‘modifier + noun’
differ from these in that they normally have their nuclear stress on the first component (while the
corresponding grammatical structures have it on the noun head).
 18

e.g. cp. a REDhead -- a red HEAD; a HOThouse -- a hot HOUSE, a COOKing apple -- a cooking
APPLE, a DIVing instructor -- a diving inSTRUCtor
Note:
Combinations of the form ‘noun + noun’ also mostly have their main stress on the first noun (e.g.
raincoat, housework, table leg, shoe-repairer), but some have even stress on the two nouns (e.g.
gentleman-farmer) and quite a number of them have final stress (e.g. front door, garden gnome,
Oxford station, car keys, afternoon tea, child care, woman driver, river bank, Sunday paper, apple
pie, apple tart, holiday plans, adult education, car door, garden gate, etc.). 8

1.5 PARTS OF SPEECH

A. Words can be classified in classes, which are called parts of speech (or word classes). The
traditional parts of speech are: noun, verb, pronoun, pronominal determiner, adverb, numeral, adjective,
conjunction, preposition, article, interjection. This classification is based on two criteria:
1. Form
Members from four parts of speech can be identified as such because they take affixes that are
typical of the part of speech in question:
a. Some derivational suffixes are typical of nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs.
e.g. nominal derivational suffixes: supporter, acceptance, deprivation, participant, renewal,
supremacy, linguist, fitness, improvement, confidence, bachelorhood, automatism,
length, chancellorship, volatility, tension, departure, blockade, delivery, saviour, etc.
e.g. verbal derivational suffixes: amplify, realize, deepen, amalgamate, modernize/modernise,
etc.
e.g. adjectival derivational suffixes: beloved, prudish, fishy, consular, suspicious, causal,
prophetic, momentary, legitimate, generous, preparatory, picturesque, redeemable,
conducive, worldly, woollen, wilful, hopeless, childlike, troublesome, etc.
e.g. adverbial derivational suffixes: quickly, clockwise, northwards.
b. Nouns, verbs and adjectives have their own inflectional suffixes:
1) nouns: the plural morpheme and the genitive morpheme.
2) verbs: the past tense morpheme, the past participle morpheme, the present participle
morpheme, the morpheme of the third person singular present tense.
3) adjectives: the comparative morpheme and the superlative morpheme (which, however,
can only be added to gradable adjectives (see below), and can also be added to a couple of
adverbs, e.g. soon, often, late, early, deep, hard, far, fast).
2. Position and function
a. The different parts of speech can fulfil different functions, which are linked up with particular
positions (often called slots) in the sentence.
e.g. Conjunctions (i.e. words like and, but, because, although, if, when, etc.) always have the
function of connectives and are therefore typically found before the second of the two
constituents (e.g.clauses) which they connect.
e.g. Nouns may fulfil various functions (subject, direct object, indirect object, etc.) and may
therefore fill various slots.
b. The slots that are typically filled by nouns can sometimes also be filled by other forms (i.e. members
from other parts of speech, or phrases or clauses). Elements like these, which are not nouns but fill a
slot that is typical of nouns, are said to be used as nominals.

8. Because of their abnormal intonation pattern, combinations like these are sometimes called ‘false compounds’.
 19

e.g. The direct object of the verb remember is usually a noun (as in I remember that evening), but it
may also be a pronoun (I remember him/that) or a clause (I remembered to answer the letter /
meeting him / that I had met him / when it had happened / why I had done it / who had been
there / what to do).
e.g. In Now is the moment to take legal action! the adverb now has a nominal function, viz. that of
subject.
e.g. In In the water is better than on the beach when it is that hot the two nominal positions (subject
and subject complement) of the head clause are filled by a prepositional phrase.
Not only the nominal positions but also the positions that are typical of adjectives or adverbs can be
filled by other elements. We call them adjectivals and adverbials, respectively.
e.g. In each of the following phrases the italicized constituent is an adjectival because it modifies
the noun head (which is an adjectival function): that swimming boy, the floor above, it is time
to leave, the contract that he signed, a broken vase, the entrance of the building, the one who
said that.
e.g. The following phrases and clauses are used as adverbials: (He saw Freddy) at night / that week /
two years ago / when he visited Glasgow / after going to Jill’s place / without speaking to him /
by accident. -- (He held the gun) in his left hand / that way.
Note:
Strictly speaking, the term ‘nominal’ applies to constituents that are not nouns but fill a nominal slot.
However, the term is more often used to denote any constituent that is found in a nominal position,
irrespective of whether it is a noun or not.
The same remark can be made in connection with the terms ‘adjectival’ and ‘adverbial’.

B. One and the same word form can be a member of two or more parts of speech.
e.g. The climbers are now coming down. ( adverb)
You should take the down train. (adjective)
She climbed down the ladder. (preposition)
Everybody has ups and downs. (noun)
The government easily downed the opposition. (verb)
e.g. You are getting it all wrong. (adverb)
Don’t make the wrong decision. (adjective)
They are trying to put their leader in the wrong. (noun)
He was greatly wronged by his girl-friend. (verb)

C. Parts of speech are open or closed classes. In the open classes (noun, verb, adverb, adjective), new
members may be formed (neologisms) and existing members may get out of use. In the closed classes
(the other parts of speech), the number of members is small and invariable.

D. Within a part of speech we can often find marked forms and unmarked forms. A form is marked if
it makes a distinction which the unmarked form does not make. We can find markedness on different
levels:
1. Morphologically: a marked form involves a morpheme which the unmarked form does not have.
e.g. Plural nouns like books, dogs, etc. are marked for number, whereas singular nouns are not. A
word like sheep is said to have an unmarked plural.
e.g. The stem of a verb is the unmarked form of the verb. Other forms of the verb may be marked
for tense (present, past, future, etc.), voice (active or passive), person and/or number.
e.g. A verb like hit, set, etc. is said to have an unmarked past tense and past participle.
 20

e.g. A word like heiress or heroine is morphologically marked for feminine gender. Words like
mare, woman, aunt are not.
2. Syntactically:
e.g. A passive verb form is marked by be and a past participle. There is no marker for voice in the
active.
e.g. In I got him to do it the infinitive is marked (i.e.to is added to it). In I let him do it we use an
unmarked infinitive.
3. Semantically:
e.g. Words like elephant or cattle are unmarked for gender (i.e. their referents may be either male,
female or neuter), whereas words like stallion, mare, bull, cow are marked for gender.
e.g. The stem of a verb is unmarked, not only morphologically but also for certain semantic
distinctions. For example, it can be used irrespective of whether there is singular or plural
reference; it can be used for more than one person.
e.g. A progressive form is semantically marked for aspect. A nonprogressive form is semantically
neutral on that score.
e.g. Adjectives like big, deep, high, old, tall, etc. can be used with a marked meaning (expressing
the opposite of small, shallow, low, young, short) but can also be unmarked (semantically
neutral) with respect to these distinctions. Thus, in the following examples old does not contrast
with young but has the unmarked meaning ‘having a certain age’: How old/*young is the boy?
He’s two years old/*young. My daughter is as old as yours.

E. Words from various word classes can be used as pro-forms, i.e. forms that are substituted for other
elements (mostly in order to avoid repetition of these elements).
e.g. To avoid repetition of a noun or NP we normally use a pronoun:
e.g. John won’t be there. He cannot come.
Susan worried about herself.
e.g. The verb do may be used as a pro-form for the VP of a clause: Janet didn’t read the letter, but I did.
e.g. So, not and to can be used as pro-forms for clauses.
e.g. Will he come? - I think so / I hope not / He refuses to.
e.g. Then and there are used as pro-forms for time and place adverbials.

1.6 SYNTAX
A. Syntax is the branch of linguistics that is concerned with the components of sentences and the
relations between them. It describes how words can be combined into phrases, clauses and sentences.

B. A phrase is a group of words organized round a headword (head, nucleus). According to the part of
speech to which the headword belongs we can speak of noun phrases (NPs), verb phrases (VPs),
adjective phrases and adverb(ial) phrases. Apart from these there are also prepositional phrases
(PPs). These consist of a preposition (P) and an NP.
e.g. The sentence This exciting book on medieval history could win the most important prize contains the
following phrases: this exciting book on medieval history (NP), the most important prize (NP),
medieval history (NP), could win the most important prize (VP), on medieval history (PP), most
important (adjective phrase).
e.g. The sentence That entirely pointless quarrel about the ownership of the brook must have started a
very long time ago contains the following phrases: that entirely pointless quarrel about the
ownership of the brook (NP), the ownership of the brook (NP), the brook (NP), must have started a
 21

very long time ago (VP), entirely pointless (adjective phrase), very long (adjective phrase), a very
long time ago (adverb phrase), about the ownership of the brook (PP).
Note that a phrase is only potentially complex. In some cases it consists of one word only:
e.g. John smokes. (We can refer to John as ‘the subject NP’ and to smokes as ‘the VP of the sentence’.)

C. A clause is a combination of a NP functioning as subject and a VP functioning as predicate. The

predicate can be defined roughly as ‘what is said (or asked) about the subject’.
Note:
1. Because the verb is the most important word in the predicate it is sometimes called the predicator.
2. We speak of ‘concord’ or ‘agreement’ to indicate that the number of the subject NP is adopted by
the verb, the subject complement, and sometimes other constituents of the VP.
e.g. Jill is a girl / *Jill is girls / *Jill are a girl.
A lot of soldiers lost their lives.
They usually come in their own cars.
3. Although the subject and the predicate are necessary elements for a syntactic structure to be a clause,
they do not always have to be realized overtly:
a. In imperatives the subject is mostly omitted, but we can always assume it is you.
e.g. (You) be careful!
Note that the use of you before an imperative often has an undertone of warning or anger:
e.g. You mind your own business!
You leave her alone!
Don’t you tell them!
If the subject is not you, it must be overtly expressed:
e.g. Somebody open the door!
Mabel come with me; the rest of you carry on with what they are doing.
Everybody come over here and listen carefully.
Nobody move!
b. In informal spoken English, the subject is often omitted at the beginning of the sentence if its
meaning is clear from the context.
e.g. Wonder where she is now.
Hope to see you again some day.
Heard from her? (= Have you heard from her?)
I don’t like the chap. Reminds me of his father.
Won’t do, I guess.
c. Subject deletion also frequently occurs in infinitival clauses, gerund clauses and participial
clauses (provided they have the same subject as the head clause).
e.g. I don’t remember meeting her.
Not realizing the man was hurt, the policeman ordered him to stand up.
He was beginning to stop trying to avoid running into her. (This sentence involves four
object clauses with a covert subject.)
d. In some types of adverbial clause, both the subject and the verb can be deleted:
e.g. When alone, she starts brooding and thinking.
Though a good student, Jimmy failed to pass his English exam.
When a child, he had been taught to listen rather than speak.

D. A sentence is a clause or a combination of clauses that does not function as a constituent of a larger
construction, i.e. that forms a self-contained syntactic unit and can therefore be fully analysed
syntactically without reference to what precedes or follows.
 22

e.g. Bill isn’t finished yet.

He was worried that the problem would not be solved before the holidays began.
Because a sentence is a relatively independent and self-contained unit, it is normally delimited by pauses
and marked by a falling or rising tone at the end.
Note:
1. With the exception of exclamatory infinitives (e.g. Me further stay in this dirty place? Not me!),
nonfinite clauses (i.e. clauses whose verb is an infinitive, gerund or participle -- see below) cannot
be used as sentences.
2. Some utterances that are not clauses (i.e. which fail to show the structure ‘subject + predicate’) all
the same appear to answer the definition of a sentence.
e.g. Good evening!
What a nuisance! -- Yes.
Much ado about nothing.
Such sentences are verbless sentences. Their common feature is the absence of a predicator.

E. Sentences have a so-called thematic structure (communication structure): they always consist of a
theme (or topic) and a rheme (or comment). The theme is what is talked about in the sentence, the
comment is what is said about it.
e.g. The man is in the kitchen. (theme: the man; comment: is in the kitchen)
Since the speaker is usually thinking of the topic when he starts his sentence, the topic is nearly always
the initial element. It follows that the topic (which is sometimes referred to as the ‘psychological
subject’) very often coincides with the grammatical subject. In some cases, however, the topic is another
element:
e.g. It’s snowing. (Since it has no referent, the verb is the topic.)
Yesterday things looked quite different. (The topic is yesterday. The sentence makes a statement
about what was the state of affairs yesterday.)
When the theme is an NP which is not the grammatical subject, it means that the NP in question has been
fronted:
1. There is wh-fronting when the initial position is filled by a wh-word (question word) which is not
the subject.
e.g. Who did you give it to? (derived from You gave it to who?)
To whom did you give it? (fml) (id.)
Which girl do you love? (derived from You love which girl?)
Whose car is this? (derived from This is whose car?)
2. Otherwise we speak of topical fronting (thematic fronting, topicalization). This type of
construction can be used for a double reason:
a. The speaker may topicalize an NP because he wishes to put emphasis on it by moving it into an
unusual position.
e.g. A lot of nonsense it was!
Lily everybody used to call her.
He bought the syringe in Morocco; the drug he had brought from Naples. (topicalization entailing
contrastive emphasis)
Great performance that was!
In such sentences the choice of NP to fill the topic position is a marked choice. The result is
that the NP in question receives an emphasis which it would not have if it were not fronted.
b. Another reason for topicalizing an NP may be that the NP in question picks up a theme from
the preceding context and is therefore very suitable to become the theme of the sentence, even
 23

though it is not the subject.

e.g. He knew he might run into an acquaintance if he went back to London, and such an encounter he
wanted to avoid at all costs.
The term topicalization is also used to refer to cases where an adjective or verb is fronted:
e.g. Faithful she was, but not very clever.
Exhausted though he was, he kept on working.
Young as she was, she did not suspect that he might be a fortune-hunter.
Even more important is the reaction of the local peasants.
He tried to stay on good terms with the girl. But fully accept her he never did.
Note:
1. If the first NP in the sentence is the grammatical subject, the sentence is said to have the unmarked
word order. When an NP (or adjective) has been fronted, the sentence has a marked word order.9
2. In this section the word ‘topic’ (or ‘theme’) has been used in the sense of sentence topic, i.e. topic
of the sentence of which it forms part. The word ‘topic’ is also often used in the sense of discourse
topic, i.e. the topic that is being talked about in a stretch of discourse. (The term discourse (or text)
denotes a continuous piece of spoken or written language, i.e. a sequence of sentences.)
e.g. The house was built by a merchant in 1911. He lived in it till he died. My parents bought it in
1946. I inherited it in 1978. (The discourse topic of this text is the house: the text tells us about
its history. Each sentence has its own sentence topic. In this case the sentence topic is each time
also the grammatical subject.)
3. Left dislocation (which is an operation that moves an NP into pre-clause position and leaves behind
a pronoun as ‘trace’ -- cf. below) also turns the moved NP into sentence topic.
e.g. That boy, I can’t stand him. (topic: that boy; subject: I)
The addition of as for (sometimes as to) to the dislocated NP marks it as a new topic:
e.g. The children can sleep in the bedroom. As for John, he can sleep on the couch.

F. Sentences have an information structure. This means that the information they convey can be
characterized as either old (known, presupposed) or new. The new information is called the focus, the old
information is the presupposition. Most sentences have a focus and a presupposition, but sentences that
are uttered out of the blue (i.e. as discourse openers) only contain new information.
In English there is a strong tendency to express the presupposition before the focus. For this reason the
presupposition is very often the theme and the focus is very often the rheme. 10
Under neutral (i.e. non-contrastive) sentence intonation, the nuclear accent of the sentence is always
located within the focus.

G. Sentences can be classified in various ways:

1. There are simple sentences and multiple sentences.
a. We speak of a simple sentence when it consists of only one clause.
e.g. At the end of the meeting the chairman tendered his resignation.
b. A multiple sentence consists of two or more clauses. There are two types:
1) A compound sentence consists of two or more clauses that are co-ordinate (conjoined),

9. Unmarked is here roughly equivalent to ‘most normal’; marked means ‘special’.

10. This frequent correspondence has led many linguists to equal thematic structure with information structure, i.e.
to treat the distinction topic/comment (theme/rheme) as identical to the distinction given/new
(presupposition/focus). Needless to say, this has been the cause of a great deal of confusion. In the second
sentence of the following example, the comment (killed it) is given information, whereas the topic (Bill) is the
focus:
e.g. Mary killed the rat. -- No, Bill killed it.
 24

i.e. of equal rank.

e.g. He shouted at the passers-by and insulted them, but nobody paid any attention to him.
I haven’t gone to the library yet, nor do I intend to go in the near future.
Note:
1. All the clauses of a compound sentence can function as independent clauses, i.e. as
sentences.
2. The connectors (connectives) that link co-ordinate clauses to each other (e.g. and,
but, for, nor, or, so, yet) are called co-ordinating conjunctions (co-ordinators).
e.g. I was getting nervous, for it was almost time to leave and I was still waiting for
an answer.
3. Some conjunctions occur only in pairs, e.g. not only ... but also, either ... or, neither
... nor, both... and, whether... or. We call them correlative conjunctions.
e.g. Either you apologize at once or this is the end of our business relations.
Not only did he run off with my wife but he took my car as well.
I didn’t know whether to tell her or to keep it to myself.
4. Not only clauses but also clause constituents (i.e. NPs, VPs, adjectives, adverbs,
prepositions and PPs) can be conjoined.
e.g. He was not at home nor at his office.
I practise both the hurdles and the long jump.
He is not only friendly but also hospitable.
The girl moved slowly and elegantly.
Our landlord neither liked the way we had redecorated the flat nor approved of
the people we invited.
Was the cat on or under the table?
Co-ordinated constituents must always belong to the same grammatical category:
e.g. She both plays the cello and sings. (VP + VP)
She plays both the cello and the piano. (NP + NP)
*She both plays the cello and she sings. (VP + clause)
*She both plays the cello and the piano. (VP + NP)
Co-ordination is said to be syndetic (linked) when there is a conjunction between the
two constituents and asyndetic (unlinked) when there is none.
e.g. I bought potatoes and rice and coffee. (syndetic)
I bought potatoes, rice, coffee, etc. (asyndetic)
5. A verb or NP which occurs in both (or all) the co-ordinate clauses of a sentence is
often expressed only once. If the deleted element is the verb, we call this phenomenon
gapping; if it is an NP, we speak of conjunction reduction.11
e.g. William offered her red roses and Jack asters. (gapping)
Stan washed and Naomi wiped the dishes. (conjunction reduction)
I prefer Beethoven, Jim Brahms and Nick Mozart. (gapping)
Angela will sleep and Jesse mount guard. (gapping)
I like maths but hate geography. (conjunction reduction).
The last example poses a problem of analysis: should we analyse it as a simple
sentence with two conjoined VPs or as a compound sentence? Most linguists favour

11. Some people use a slightly different terminology:

e.g. Ted was reading a poem and Jill [was reading] a novel. (verb gapping)
John liked [the book], and Kate disliked, the book. (backward gapping)
Bill came to us and [he] told us the news. (subject deletion)
 25

the former analysis. This is in keeping with the fact that not all utterances with co-
ordinated elements can be seen as a reduction from a compound sentence: Ann and
Betty meet regularly cannot be derived from *Ann meets regularly and Betty meets
regularly.
2) A sentence is complex if it consists of a head clause (main clause, principal clause,
superordinate clause) and at least one subordinate clause (subclause, dependent
clause, embedded clause). A main clause is one that does not form part of, or depend on,
another clause (and can therefore often be used on its own). A subclause is a clause that is
a constituent of, or depends on, another clause (and can therefore not be used on its own).
Most subclauses have a nominal, adjectival or adverbial function. We speak of noun
clauses (nominal clauses), adjective clauses (adjectival clauses) and adverbial clauses
accordingly.
e.g. That’s the girl I told you about. (adjectival clause)
I don’t know if I can believe that. (noun clause)
I’ll do it if I have time. (adverbial clause)
Subordinate clauses are often introduced by such connectors as after, although, as, as if, as
soon as, because, before, if, lest, once, provided (that), since, so as to, that, though, unless,
when, where, in case (that), in order that/to, etc. We call them subordinating
conjunctions (subordinators).
Note:
1. Some conjunctions can introduce different types of subclause.
e.g. cp. He didn’t tell me when he will come home. (noun clause functioning as
direct object)
You will have to tell him (the news) when he comes home. (adverbial time
clause)
e.g. cp. I didn’t know where the road ended. (noun clause functioning as direct
object)
They met where the road ended. (adverbial clause of place)
Relative clauses are usually adjectival clauses, but they are nominal clauses when
they have no antecedent:
e.g. He didn’t tell me that which I wanted to know. (adjectival relative clause)
He didn’t tell me what I wanted to know. (nominal relative clause)
2. There are five main kinds of noun clause:
- that-clauses (dependent statements): I think that he is ill.
- wh-clauses (dependent questions): I don’t know who did it.
- infinitive clauses: I would like to leave now.
- gerund clauses: I hate walking in the rain.
- nominal relative clauses: I don’t believe what he told me.
3. In a complex sentence, subordination and co-ordination can be combined to form a
compound-complex sentence.
e.g. I didn’t go to his room because I knew she would be there and I couldn’t bear the
sight of them being together.
4. Subclauses can be embedded not only in head clauses but also in other subclauses.
e.g. I am sure he will attempt to do it himself. (The subclause depending on am sure
functions as head clause for the infinitive clause.)
The fact that a clause may be at the same time an embedded clause and an embedding
clause entails that multiple clause structures are possible:
 26

e.g. I am afraid he will try to escape having to do his share of the work.
5. One of the differences between complex sentences and compound ones concerns the
behaviour of pro-forms. In a complex sentence, it is possible for a pro-form to
precede the word to which it refers, provided the pro-form occurs in a subclause.
e.g. If he had been more careful, John would not have had an accident.
In a compound sentence, a pro-form has to follow its referent.
e.g. John must be working overtime, for he’s not come home yet. (he = John)
He must be working overtime, for John has not come home yet. (He is not
coreferential with John.)
2. Most sentences are either statements (declarative sentences) or questions (interrogative
sentences). Statements give information, questions ask for information. Minor sentence types are
directives, wishes and exclamations (exclamatory sentences).
e.g. You are mistaken. (statement)
Who did it? (question)
Please tell me the truth. (imperative).
What a lovely garden you have! (exclamation)
Long live the queen! (wish)
Note:
1. A directive typically uses the imperative form. It can express a command (order), an
instruction, an invitation, an offer, a request, a warning, a good wish or advice.
e.g. Please help me. (request)
Be careful. (warning)
Come in. (invitation)
Have some coffee. (offer)
Cut the onion fine and add it to the stew. (instruction)
Have a nice trip! (good wish)
Have a cup of tea. That will make you feel better. (advice)
2. Questions may be used as requests, questions asking for information, speculations, questions
asking for instructions or advice, offers of service, invitations, offers or suggestions.
e.g. Where will we be in ten years’ time? (speculation)
Shall I shine your boots? (offer of service)
Shall we have a rest? (suggestion)
Will you have a cup of tea? (offer)
When did the accident happen? (informative question)
Will you please turn down the volume? (request)
What shall I say to the police? (asking for instructions)
Won’t you come in? (invitation)
What should I do about it? (asking for advice)
Why don’t you tell him the truth? (suggestion for action)12
A special type of question asking for information is the echo question:
e.g. He didn’t capitalize on her mistake. -- He didn’t what?
Did you like their puns? -- Did I like their bums?
3. A question is called a rhetorical question if it really functions as a forceful statement and
therefore does not invite an answer.

12. Suggestions for action in the form of a wh-question are sometimes called ‘whimperatives’ (e.g. Why
worry?; Why wait any longer?).
 27

e.g. Is that a reason to throw him out of the house? (message: Surely, that is not a reason to
throw him out of the house.)
What can one do about it? (message: One cannot do anything about it.)
Who shall say that this is impossible? (message: Nobody can say that this is impossible.)
Isn’t there something we can do? (message: Surely, there must be something we can do.)
As appears from the examples, positive rhetorical questions are like strong negative assertions
and negative rhetorical questions are like strong positive assertions.
4. Statements, questions, exclamations and imperatives that appear in the form of a subclause are
called dependent or indirect statements/questions/exclamations/imperatives.
e.g. I don’t know who did it. (dependent question)
He said that he could not trust anybody. (dependent statement)
He told me what a shame it was. (indirect exclamation)
The robber told/ordered her to open the safe. (dependent imperative)
When an indirect statement (i.e. a that-clause) depends on a prepositional verb,13 the
preposition is deleted:
e.g. We agreed/insisted that the flat should be refurbished.
I complained that it was not my turn to do the washing-up.
When an indirect question depends on a prepositional verb, the preposition can sometimes be
dropped, sometimes not.
e.g. She must now decide (on) what her line of action is going to be.
We hesitated/agreed/wondered (about) what we should tell the police.
Joan will consult a lawyer on how she can get part of that heritage.
We haven’t yet looked into what they are proposing this time.
I wondered (*about) where he could have hidden it.
5. There are four (syntactic and semantic) types of question:
a. Content questions or wh-questions are questions beginning with a question word (e.g.
what, who, whose, where, which, why, when, how...).
e.g. How many times have I told you not to do that?
What did she say?
b. Yes/no questions or truth questions ask whether the contents of the sentence are true.
e.g. Did she tell you anything?
Such questions can have narrow scope or wide scope:
a) narrow scope: only the constituent carrying the nuclear accent is the point of the
question.
e.g. Did BILL buy that house? (implies: Or was it someone else?)
Did Bill BUY that house? (implies: Or did he only rent it?)
Did Bill buy that HOUSE? (implies: Or did he buy something else?)
b) wide scope: the truth of the whole sentence is questioned.
e.g. Is John ill? (= Is it true that John is ill?)
DID Bill buy that house? (= Is it really true that Bill bought that house?)
c. Alternative questions invite the hearer to choose between several possibilities.
e.g. Will you write a letter or send a telegram?
d. Tag questions (appended questions, tail questions).
e.g. You don’t trust her, do you?
There’s nothing lost, is there?

13. A prepositional verb is a stereotyped (fixed) combination of a verb and a preposition (e.g. look at, listen to, insist on, object to...).
 28

You’ll look after the children this afternoon, right?

6.. There are several types of exclamatory sentence:
a. Exclamations are often introduced by how or what.
e.g. How lovely it was!
What a nice present it was!
Such sentences differ from wh-questions in that they do not show inversion. 14 They are
often used in an elliptical form (e.g. What a nice present!).
b. Negative yes/no questions can often be used as exclamations. Their meaning is
affirmative.
e.g. Gosh! Doesn’t she look wonderful!
Wasn’t it an exciting evening!
c. Affirmative yes/no questions can also be used as exclamations. This is especially common
in Am.E.
e.g. Boy, am I thirsty!
Did she look bored during that lecture!
d. Infinitive clauses are sometimes used as exclamations:
e.g. Me work together with that creep, not me!
e. Exclamatory clauses can also be introduced by if only:
e.g. If only you would not believe those rumours!
f. NPs (whether preceded by a question word or not) and adjectives can be used as verbless
exclamatory sentences.
e.g. What a nice present!
Fire!
Brilliant!
3. Sentences are either affirmative (positive) or negative.
e.g. Bill has been lying to me. (affirmative)
Neither of them has seen her yet. (negative)
Negation can have wide scope or narrow scope:
a. wide scope: the negation bears on the whole clause.
e.g. John is not the one who did it. (= It is not true that...)
b. narrow scope: the negation bears on a particular word or phrase (which is heavily accented).
e.g. TOM didn’t give her a cake. (Someone else did.)
Tom didn’t GIVE her a cake. (He only lent it to her.)
Tom didn’t give HER a cake. (He gave it to someone else.)
Tom didn’t give her a CAKE. (He gave her something else.)
4. Sentences are either assertive or nonassertive. They are assertive if the message they convey is
both affirmative and not interrogative. Otherwise they are nonassertive.
e.g. John believes me. (assertive: affirmative statement)
You did not trust me. (nonassertive: negative statement)
Did John believe you? (nonassertive: question)
I haven’t seen any films lately. (nonassertive: negative)
Note that whether a sentence is assertive or nonassertive does not depend on whether it is
affirmative, interrogative, etc. in form. It is exclusively the tone (message) that is decisive.
Sentences that are negative and/or interrogative in form may therefore be assertive:

14. Inversion is the phenomenon that the subject follows the verb (or the first verb form if there are several). For
more details, see chapter 4.
 29

e.g. Wouldn’t you do something to get me out of here? (= Do something!)

Didn’t I warn you against him? (= I did warn you against him.)
Some words and phrases can only occur in assertive clauses. We call them assertive items. Words
and phrases that require a nonassertive context are nonassertive items.15
e.g. When denoting an indefinite amount, number or quantity, some requires an assertive context,
whereas any requires a nonassertive one. (The two words are therefore in complementary
distribution.)
e.g. I have lent him some books. (*any)
I haven’t lent him any books. (*some)
Have you lent him any/some books? (Some is used when the speaker expects a positive
reply; otherwise any is used.)
e.g. Already and yet are similarly in complementary distribution:
cp. I have already visited him. (assertive)
I have not visited him yet. (nonassertive)
Have you already visited him? (assertive: expects positive reply)
Have you visited him yet? (nonassertive: open question)
e.g. I have not done anything at all. (nonassertive: *I did something at all.)
I haven’t done anything whatsoever. (nonassertive)
He still hasn’t come. (assertive)
He hasn’t come yet. (nonassertive)
He is (*not) far from satisfied. (assertive)
I don’t mind if she has a limp. (nonassertive: *I mind if he has a limp.)
Have you ever seen anything like that? (nonassertive)
He was not in the least satisfied. (nonassertive)
Nobody lifted a finger to help us. (nonassertive)
Note that assertive items can occur in negative sentences provided they do not fall within the scope
of the negator:
e.g. He will certainly/surely/perhaps not help us. (= It is certain/sure/possible that he will not help
us.)
*He won’t certainly/surely/perhaps help us.
e.g. I haven’t spoken to some pupils because I am seeing them tomorrow. (= There are some pupils
that I haven’t spoken to...)

1.7 NOUN PHRASES

A. A noun phrase (NP) is a phrase whose head is a noun or another type of nominal (e.g. pronoun,
gerund).
e.g. none of my acquaintances in London (head: acquaintances)
everybody in this town (head: everybody)
that ruthless handling of the situation by John (head: handling)
For convenience, the term NP is normally used to cover not only such word groups but also one-word
nominals like John, students, he, etc.
Note: In transformational grammar, the term NP also covers noun clauses.

15. In the linguistic literature assertive items are sometimes called ‘positive polarity items’, whereas nonassertive
items are referred to as ‘negative polarity items’.
 30

B. Every constituent of the NP that is not the head is an adnominal. Adnominals are prenominals or
postnominals according to whether they precede or follow the head.
Note:
1. An adnominal constituent may be a word, a phrase or a clause.
e.g. that beautiful nineteenth century house in Brook Street that belongs to Lord Edgeware (head:
house; adnominal words: that, beautiful; adnominal phrases: nineteenth century, in Brook
Street; adnominal clause: that belongs to Lord Edgeware)
2. The head is the most essential element in the NP. It is also the constituent that determines the
number of the verb.
3. Some older grammars speak of ‘adjuncts’ instead of ‘adnominals’. However, the term ‘adjunct’ is
now normally used to refer to a particular type of adverbial (see chapter 6).

C. Prenominal constituents can occur in one of seven positions in the NP.

e.g. (1) nearly (2) all (3) these (4) five (5) old (6) silk (7) man’s shirts
1. In position 1 we find such adverbs as almost, especially, even, just, merely, nearly, only, which are
called focusing adverbs (see chapter 6).
e.g. nearly all the pupils
especially the people living close to the motorway
only one false start
even those people that look down on us
2. In position 2 we find the predeterminers. We can distinguish four small classes:
a. such and what
e.g. such a nice book, what a charming garden
b. the quantifiers all, both and half
e.g. all/both/half these ripe apples, both the old houses
c. the multipliers: double, twice, three times, four times, etc.
e.g. It costs twice / thrice / four times that amount.
I want double the sum they are offering me.
d. the fractions: two-fifths, one-third, etc.
e.g. One-third the population rejects this policy.
3. Position 3 is that of the determiners. Here we can find:
a. the articles (a/an and the)
b. the possessive pronominal determiners (my, your, his, etc.)
c. the demonstrative pronominal determiners (this, that, these, those)
d. the interrogative pronominal determiners (which, whose, etc.)
e. some indefinite pronominal determiners (e.g. another, any, each, either, enough, much, neither,
no, some)
f. proper names in the genitive (e.g. John’s car)
g. defining genitives of common nouns (e.g. the doctor’s car) 16
Note:
Unlike the other determiners, indefinite and interrogative pronominal determiners cannot be
preceded by predeterminers:
e.g. *Half whose money was lost?
*I want three times some amount.
*Double what sum do you want?
4. In position 4 we find the postdeterminers. This position can be filled by

16. The term defining genitive is explained in chapter 7, section II.

 31

a. the cardinal numerals (one, two, three, etc.) and the ordinal numerals (first, second, third,
etc.)
e.g. the two houses, every second house, the first three candidates
b. some indefinite pronominal determiners (e.g. few, little, many, other, same, several)
e.g. the few/many/other/several poems I’ve read, the little money he earns
Note:
For ease of reference, the term ‘determiner’ is often used as a cover-term for predeterminers,
postdeterminers, and ‘real’ (i.e. ‘central’) determiners.
5. Position 5 is that of the modifying adjectives and participles.
e.g. quite a spacious/modern/comfortable flat
a threatened/disappearing species
Some adverbs, indications of place or time and other phrases can also be used as premodifiers and
fill this position.
e.g. the then President of the United States, a nearby village, the Liverpool fans, the 1968 riots, an
across-the-board wage increase
6. Position 6 is occupied by nouns (e.g. material nouns) functioning as premodifiers.
e.g. these two lovely copper statuettes
the two brass kettles in the scullery
7. In position 7 we find constituents which form a compound with the noun head. These constituents
are either classifying nouns, classifying genitives or classifying adjectives.17
e.g. my former college friends, a nice corner house, an impertinent young baker’s boy, black
printer’s ink, a new concrete veterinary school, cheap solar energy
If position 7 is filled, the nuclear stress of the NP usually falls on the word filling position 7.

D. Adnominals occurring in positions 5 and 6 belong to the class of modifiers. Modifiers are adnominals
that denote a property of the head noun and which therefore have a predicate-like function.
e.g. a cheap book (cp. The book is cheap.)
an oak door (cp. The door is made of oak.)
Modifiers that are put before the noun head are prenominal modifier or premodifiers.
Note:
1. The term ‘modifier’ is sometimes used in the wider sense of ‘adnominal’.
2. If the NP consists of only the head, or only of the head and a determiner, we call it a simple
noun phrase. If it also contains other constituents, we speak of a complex noun phrase.

E. Adnominals that follow the head noun are either complements or postmodifiers (postnominal
modifiers):
1. A constituent is a complement of the noun head when it stands in a kind of verb-object relation to
that noun (see below).
e.g. their fear of social unrest, his attempt at convincing her, her hope of success, the rumour that
he is ill
2. Postmodifiers can be adjectives, PPs, adverbs, NPs or adjectival clauses.
e.g. the cloth on this table, the meeting last week, the rooms downstairs, the plants that he has
grown, the creatures living on this planet, all the goods available
e.g. He is the artist for you to imitate.
I have no reason to believe that.
Note:

17. The term classifying is explained in chapter 8, section 8.2.

 32

1. Postmodifying NPs that are coreferential with the noun head and have the same syntactic
function in the clause are called appositives (nouns in apposition).
e.g. The body was found by a Mr Simpson, a taxi-driver from London.
Tell me something about your friend the doctor.
We can also speak of appositives in cases like the following:
e.g. He’s a pugilist -- that is, a professional boxer.
I made the acquaintance of Mr Harris, a rather boisterous type.
2. When a postmodifier is relatively long it is often extraposed from the NP and placed at the end
of the clause. This phenomenon, which results in a discontinuous NP, is called extraposition
from NP.
e.g. There are few people in the village who can read and write.
I wonder if there will be anything left of what they bought yesterday.
There’s no mention in the newspaper of yesterday’s riots in Peking.
3. A postmodifying of-PP is sometimes fronted.
e.g. Of the 28 athletes that took the start only five reached the finish.

F. A modifier is restrictive (defining) if it is necessary to identify the noun head, i.e. if it helps to make
clear which member of a set is being referred to; otherwise it is nonrestrictive (nondefining) (i.e. it just
gives additional information).
Nonrestrictive modifiers that follow the head do not belong to the same tone unit as the rest of the NP.
In written language they are therefore enclosed within commas.
e.g. cp. A cottage which was built at the beginning of this century is less comfortable than one which
was built ten years ago. (restrictive )
A cottage, which is fairly small, is less expensive than a country house, which usually has a lot
of bedrooms. (nonrestrictive)
e.g. cp. The bed he sleeps in used to be mine. (restrictive)
He has sold his saloon car, which he no longer needs now. (nonrestrictive)
e.g. The abbey at Battle was built by William the Conqueror. (restrictive)
He lives in Harrow, a suburb of London. (nonrestrictive)
The boy in front has bad eye-sight. (restrictive)
Do you know my cousin Mabel? (restrictive)
This book, on Persian art, was given to me on my birthday. (nonrestrictive)
The Chinese are said to be unable to pronounce the letter R. (restrictive)
I want the green apples, not the red ones. (restrictive)
Note:
1. As a rule, restrictive premodifiers are more likely to be accented than nonrestrictive ones.
e.g. The clever girl had already looked up the answer. (nonrestrictive if the main accent of the NP
is on girl; restrictive if the main accent is on clever)
2. Nonrestrictive premodifiers precede restrictive ones.
e.g. cp. the mysterious third man (= the third man, whose identity is unknown)
the third mysterious man (= the third of the mysterious men)

G. Occasional examples can be found of modifiers that partly precede and partly follow the noun head.
We call them discontinuous modifiers. (See also chapter 10.)
e.g. This is a different problem from last time.
It was an easy problem to solve.
She is a cleverer girl than you are.
 33

H. Predeterminers, determiners and postdeterminers can be subdivided into identifiers and quantifiers
according as they help us to identify the referent of the noun head or indicate quantity.
e.g. identifiers: a, the, his, John’s, this, another...
quantifiers: three, much, many, some, any, all, few, several...

I. Determiners and predeterminers are either definite or indefinite:

1. They are definite if the following conditions are satisfied: (a) the NP refers to a specific entity or
group, and (b) the speaker assumes that this referent is uniquely identifiable to the hearer.
e.g. They want to cut down the/that tree.
Beware of the dog.
Where is your house?
I didn’t live in England at the time.
2. Otherwise the determiner is indefinite.
e.g. They want to cut down a/some tree.
Cheese is made from milk. (zero article)
Some/most/many people do not like wine.
He wants another car.
The whole NP is also called definite or indefinite accordingly.

J. NPs have not only a lexical meaning (denotation) but also a referential meaning (reference). The
denotation of an NP can be seen as a property (or set of properties) that is typical of a particular set of
entities. Thus, the denotation of boy is the characteristic ‘male human being who is not yet grown up’,
which is shared by a set of beings. The referential meaning of an NP like the boy is then a particular (and
identifiable) member from that set (which we can refer to as the referent).

K. An NP is said to have generic reference if it is used to refer to a class (genus) as a whole. This is
possible if the determiner is a, the or zero.
e.g. A/the beaver builds dams.
Beavers build dams.
Children can be very noise.
A good teacher knows his subject well.
The lecture was about the hyena.

L. Nongeneric reference can be specific or nonspecific:

1. An NP is specific (or rather, has specific reference) when the speaker has a particular individual or
group in mind.
e.g. I have bought a/the/this/his car.
Neil wants to employ a private detective. He is talking to him over the phone now.
I have bought some flowers.
Suddenly an old woman rose from her seat and started railing at the speaker.
Some teacher must have told them that they shouldn’t use split infinitives.
2. An NP has nonspecific reference if it refers to an arbitrary member or subset of the set of entities
corresponding to its denotation.
e.g. She needs a psychiatrist. (The speaker is not thinking of a particular psychiatrist. Any
psychiatrist will do.)
We’ll have to buy some wine.
Please fetch me a drink.
Neil wants to employ a private detective, but he hasn’t found a suitable one yet.
Needless to say, definite NPs can never have nonspecific reference.
 34

M. NPs can fulfil several functions in a clause:

1. Subject (S)
e.g. The girl is in love with him.
That night he ran away from home.
Note:
1. In some cases the NP or nominal which is the real subject is shifted backwards and replaced in
the subject position by a dummy (expletive, replacive, anticipatory) pronoun. There are two
such constructions:
a. When the dummy subject is there, we speak of an existential construction:
e.g. There are two girls in the lounge. (We may call there the syntactic subject and two
girls the notional subject.)
There’s a photo of her in the drawer.
There were a couple of girls polishing their nails behind the desk.
b. When the notional subject of a copular sentence is a subclause,18 it will normally be
shifted to the end of the head clause and replaced in subject position by it. This operation
and its result are called extraposition.
e.g. cp. ?To prevent side-effects is difficult.
It is difficult to prevent side-effects.
e.g. It is clear that he is too old to do it.
It is not always easy to be an unmarried woman.
It’s no good/use talking about your problems to her.
It would be nice if you could visit us next summer.
It is not known whether he was successful.
It doesn’t matter what she believes.
With some verbs and adjectives, extraposition can be followed by raising. This means that
an NP from the extraposed clause is ‘raised’ so as to become the subject of the head
clause:
1) We speak of subject raising when the subject of the extraposed clause is raised so as
to become the subject of the head clause. Subject raising is possible
a) with adjectives like sure, certain, likely, etc.
e.g. It is sure/certain/likely that she will win. ---- She is sure/certain/likely to
win.
b) with verbs like seem, appear, happen, etc.
e.g. It seems/appears that he is dead. ---- He seems/appears to be dead.
It happened that I was there. ---- I happened to be there.
c) in the passive, with verbs of saying and thinking.
e.g. It is said/thought that he is clever. ---- He is said/thought to be clever.
2) We speak of object shift when it is the object of the extraposed clause that is raised
so as to become the subject of the head clause.19 Object shift is possible when the
head clause involves such an adjective as easy, difficult, hard, pleasant, dangerous,
impossible, tough, etc.
e.g. It is easy/difficult/hard to beat him. ---- He is easy/difficult/hard to beat.
It is impossible for us to understand their motives. ---- Their motives are
impossible for us to understand.

18. A copular sentence is a sentence whose main verb is the copula (linking verb) be (e.g. John is ill).
19. In early transformational grammar the term ‘tough-movement’ was often used for this.
 35

2. In some sentences there is no notional subject (theme). In that case an empty (or impersonal) it
will fill the subject position. (This it has no referent.)
e.g. It is a quarter to six.
It is snowing.
It is a long way to Tipperary.
It looks bad for our future.
2. Direct object (direct O)
e.g. I met the boy on my way home.
Verbs that take a direct object are used transitively. Some verbs can only be used transitively (e.g.
mend, make). We call them transitive verbs. Other verbs (e.g. go, die, arrive, seem) cannot be used
with a direct object. We call them intransitive verbs. There are also verbs that can be used
transitively in one sense but not in another (She’s expecting a letter vs She’s expecting), while some
verbs can be used both ways without a change of meaning (e.g. eat, drink, sing, smoke, write). The
latter are sometimes called pseudo-transitive verbs. (However, they are also often included in the
class of transitive verbs.)
Note:
1. We can distinguish between an affected direct object and an effected one. The former denotes
the entity that undergoes the activity; the latter refers to the entity that comes into being as a
result of the activity.
e.g. I’ve bought a house. (affected)
I’ve built a house. (effected)
The factory produces glass. (effected)
2. Some verbs that are basically intransitive can be used transitively
a. with a cognate object (i.e. a noun that repeats the meaning (and often also the form) of the
verb).
e.g. All of them died a terrible death.
They lived a long and happy life.
She dreamt a startling dream that night.
b. with causative meaning.
e.g. Let’s walk the lady who is tired home.
The cowboys have to swim the cattle across the river.
If there is enough wind, we will fly the kite this afternoon.
3. Some verbs that are basically transitive can be used intransitively in a passive sense.
e.g. The novel reads/sells well.
The car no longer drives smoothly.
Do nylon clothes wash/iron easily?
This expression does not translate easily into French.
4. Object clauses must normally undergo extraposition when there is an object complement. 20
e.g. *He made that he did not agree clear. ---- He made it clear that he did not agree.
Do you find it advisable to notify the police?
I think it a shame that all this material is wasted.
I would regret it if I introduced you to the wrong person.
5. In some idiomatic expressions the direct object is an empty it.
e.g. Oh, blow it! He’s done it again.
You’ll catch it when the headmaster finds out about this!

20. The term object complement is explained on one of the next pages (section 5.).
 36

I’ll have it out with you!

The rescuers did not make it in time.
3. Indirect object (indirect O)
e.g. I gave Mary a bunch of roses.
I baked Jake a cake.
Sentences like these can often be reworded with to or for.
e.g. I gave a bunch of roses to Mary.
I baked a cake for Jake.
It cost me five pounds. (*to me, *for me)
I asked him some questions. (*to him, *for him) (not impossible but rare: of him)
After a number of verbs the indirect O is obligatorily constructed with to.
e.g. acknowledge, admit, affirm, announce, attribute, communicate, complain, confess, confide,
declare, dedicate, deliver, demonstrate, describe, detail, devote, dictate, disclose, explain,
express, indicate, introduce, mention, name, propose, put a question, read, relate, reply, report,
reveal, say, state, suggest...
e.g. I explained the problem to him. (*I explained him the problem.)
Describe to me what the cottage looks like.
4. Subject complement (complement to the subject, subjective complement) (SC)
An NP is SC when it follows a linking verb (e.g. be, seem, taste, etc.) and says something more
about the referent of the subject (i.e. it either denotes a quality of that referent or identifies the
person or object in question).
e.g. John is a plumber.
He seems a reliable man.
The chairman is that man over there.
Note:
1. Older handbooks use the term nominal part of the predicate or predicate nominal.
2. The linking verb (or copula) after which the SC occurs can be
a. a verb of ‘being’: be, prove (e.g. He proved a good teacher.)
b. a verb of ‘becoming’: became, get, go, grow, turn, etc.
c. a verb of ‘remaining’: remain, stay, keep...
d. a verb of ‘impression’: seem, appear, look, feel, sound, smell, taste
3. The SC need not be an NP. It can also be a nominal (pronoun, infinitive, gerund, finite clause),
an adjectival, a PP or an adverbial.
e.g. The fence was painted red.
One of them is already at liberty / out of prison.
This is what I want you to do.
It sounds extraordinary / all right to me.
The Government stood firm.
The soup didn’t taste good.
4. An NP used as SC must agree with the subject in number and gender.
e.g. Mary wants to become a seamstress.
The two girls are heiresses.
5. In some sentences involving a SC the V is not really a copula but a lexical verb or even a VP.
e.g. He went home a disillusioned man.
Her parents died young.
I would be disappointed if we did not part good friends.
The applicant left the office disappointed.
 37

The others stood waiting for me at the entrance of the museum.

The cat lay motionless on the TV.
He earns a living selling newspapers.
In such examples, the adjective (phrase), participle (clause) or NP in the predicate will also be
analysed as a SC because it stands in a be-relation to the subject. This is clear from paraphrases
like
e.g. He was a disillusioned man when he went home.
Her parents were young when they died.
In traditional grammar this kind of SC (which does not follow a true copula) is usually called a
predicative adjunct to the subject.
In some cases the ‘prepositional copula’ as has to be inserted before this kind of SC.
e.g. He began his career as a shoeshine boy.
The measures struck me as unfair.
6. SCs of this type can often be separated from the rest of the sentence by a break, represented by
a comma in the written mode. Traditional grammars call such SCs free adjuncts. Modern
grammars often speak of supplementive clauses.
e.g. The old lady, uncomprehending, repeated that she wanted to go home.
A true Christian, he goes to church every Sunday.
Supplementive clauses are verbless or non-finite clauses which have no overt subject but which
are interpreted as having the same subject as the clause on which they depend. They can
precede or follow that subject. They are interpreted as having an adverbial meaning, which can
be stressed by the use of a conjunction or preposition.
e.g. When a baby, he had fallen from his chair and lost an eye.
These issues, though very important, will not be discussed at this week’s summit.
The dog kept on barking, as if trying to convey some message to us.
If elected, he will do a lot to develop this region.
Convicted for armed robbery, he spent a long time in jail.
7. Clauses of this type are sometimes given a subject of their own. We then speak of absolute
clauses (absolute free adjuncts). They are sometimes introduced by with.
e.g. The short break over, the pupils went back to the class-rooms.
With Alice at my side, I will never be lonely any more.
The huge wolf, its eyes gleaming in the dark, approached us menacingly.
With the Soviet Union willing to negotiate, the chances of a peaceful solution have
increased.
5. Object complement (complement to the object, objective complement) (OC)
The OC completes the sequence ‘V + direct O’ by describing or identifying the referent of the direct
O.
e.g. The cricket team chose Botham captain.
We called him Jim, not James.
Everybody seemed to think the decision a mistake.
Who did they select (as) their spokesman?
We found it a satisfactory solution.
Note:
1. An OC can never become subject of a passive sentence.
e.g. *Captain was chosen Botham by the cricket team.
2. The OC always indicates a property of the referent of the direct object. In fact, the relation
between a direct O and an OC is similar to the relation between a subject and a SC.
 38

3. When the direct object becomes subject of a passive sentence, the OC becomes SC.
e.g. Botham was chosen captain by the cricket team.
Who was appointed the committee chairman?
4. In older grammars, the OC is called the predicative adjunct to the object.
5. The OC need not be an NP. It can also be an adjective, participle or PP.
e.g. She always drinks her coffee black / with sugar.
I should have thought her much older.
You have never seen her angry / in such a state before, have you?
She always keeps this window closed.
The police have left no stone unturned to find the murder weapon.
6. OCs often have a resultative meaning.
e.g. They’ve painted the walls white. (The walls are white as a result of the action.)
We had better wipe the windscreen clean.
The wind blew the door open.
7. An OC is sometimes introduced by as or for.
e.g. They took me for a clergyman.
The committee appointed Scrooge (as) secretary.
We all regard him as / consider him (as) / look upon him as a cunning person.
Mozart was not recognized as (being) a great composer until after his death.
They will never accept a foreigner as their leader.
6. Object of a preposition (complement of a preposition, prepositional complement) (OP)
Any NP depending on (governed by) a preposition may be called an OP.
e.g. We are looking for more support.
Note:
1. The OP need not actually follow the preposition. In some cases the preposition remains in final
position when the rest of the PP (i.e. the OP) is fronted. In that case we speak of a stranded
preposition.
e.g. What are you hinting at?
There comes the man that I am waiting for.
2. If the P is part of a prepositional verb (i.e. a fixed V + P combination), the OP is often called
the prepositional object (PO).
e.g. What are you hoping for?
I object to the measures you propose.
Do you look forward to their coming?
3. In a sentence like I gave the message to John, the NP John can be said to function as OP, but
the whole PP to John will be considered as indirect O.
4. The OP may occasionally be an adjective (e.g. in short, for sure, by far, at best), an ordinal
numeral (e.g. at first), a PP (e.g. It came from behind the couch) or an adverb (e.g. since when,
before long, in there, till then).
7. Adverbial adjunct
e.g. He went there last week / every morning / two times.
I prefer to do it my way.
She left the very same day.
8. Nominal modifier (appositive)
e.g. Your friend the doctor has asked for you.
the River Thames
 39

N. NPs or nominals that are used as direct O, indirect O, SC, OC or PO are said to be complements to
the verb. 21 Not only verbs but also adjectives and nouns may take complements.
e.g. cp. I hoped that he would give in.
I was hopeful that he would give in.
My hope that he would give in...
e.g. I was sure of that.
She expressed her determination to divorce her husband.
e.g. cp. She hesitated to join the others.
She was hesitant to join the others.
Her hesitation to join the others surprised us.
e.g. He’s good at linguistics.
That-clauses, infinitive clauses and prepositional constructions following such nouns and adjectives as
hope, hopeful, forgetful, desire, etc. can be considered as complements because the nouns and adjectives
in question are related to, or resemble, transitive verbs, i.e. because they have the force of predicators.
Note:
1. An infinitive clause or PP following a noun is not necessarily a complement of the noun; it may also
be a postnominal modifier.
e.g. cp. My refusal to give in to blackmail greatly pleased Nancy. (complement)
I’m not a man to give in to blackmail. (modifier)
e.g. The prospect of meeting some old friends cheered him up. (complement)
The hat on the peg belongs to Mr Rye. (modifier)
Infinitive clauses and PPs that are modifiers can always be replaced by relative clauses; the nouns on
which they depend do not have the force of predicators.
2. A that-clause following a noun that has no corresponding verb is often hard to analyse. In some
cases we will be inclined to speak of ‘complement’ (e.g. John’s idea that he can win the race is
ridiculous) but in other cases the that-clause is probably better analysed as an appositive (e.g. The
fact that their leader has died changes everything). The that-clause is certainly in apposition if it is
nonrestrictive, as in
e.g. Their suggestion, that we should buy another car, didn’t please my wife.

O. An NP is sometimes moved out of the clause, leaving behind a pro-form as trace. This phenomenon is
called dislocation.
e.g. That man, I don’t trust him. (left dislocation)
I don’t know him, that guy over there. (right dislocation)
These foreigners, they don’t understand the problems we have to cope with. (left dislocation)
We’re used to it in this job, people arriving at all sorts of odd hours. (right dislocation of a gerund
clause functioning as OP)
Since a dislocated NP belongs to a different intonation unit from the clause out of which it has been
moved, it is separated from the latter by a pause (marked by a comma).

P. Nouns can be classified in sundry ways:

1. Nouns are either proper nouns (proper names, names) or common nouns.
e.g. proper: John, England, Tuesday, Oxford, Greek, June, the Museum of Modern Art...
common: girl, sky, love, beauty, picnic, politician...
Proper names are by definition definite because they have unique reference: they refer to one
specific and identifiable person, country, place, month, day, etc.

21. Some grammars use the term complement in a more restricted sense: a complement is either a SC or an OC.
 40

A name is no longer used as a proper noun when it is preceded by a(n) or by a quantifier, or when
it is restrictively modified. In that case it is used as a common noun, with non-unique reference.
e.g. This is not the Peter Thompson I knew at school.
He thinks himself a second Nasser.
I like Fridays.
One Eiffel Tower is enough in Europe.
2. Nouns are either singular (sg) or plural (pl), according as they refer to one entity or to more than
one. This characteristic of nouns (which is also shared by pronouns) is called number.
3. Nouns are either used as count nouns (countable nouns, countables) or as mass nouns
(uncountables).
a. A mass noun refers to a continuous (homogeneous) entity. This means that the referent is ‘the
same all the way through’, so that the noun can be used not only to indicate the referent as a
whole, but also to refer to portions of it.
e.g. beer, money, gold, love, light, English, work, news, advice, courage, information,
knowledge, gold...
A singular count noun refers to a discontinuous (heterogeneous) object. This means that the
noun can refer to the object (unit) as a whole, but not to parts of it.
e.g. book, bill, chair, John, pencil...
b. It follows that quantification has a different meaning with the two types of noun:
1) With count nouns, quantification means reference to a number of units. Count nouns can
therefore occur in the singular or in the plural.
2) With mass nouns, quantification means reference to a certain quantity or amount, not to a
certain number. For that reason mass nouns cannot be put in the plural.
c. Quantifiers like many or fewer (which express number) can only be used before count nouns.
Quantifiers like much or less (which express quantity) can only be used before mass nouns.22
d. Mass nouns cannot be preceded by a or the, except if they are restrictively modified and thus
reclassified as count nouns.
e.g. What we need most of all is peace. (*a/the peace)
A peace like the one we know now is exceptional in history.
By contrast, a singular count noun cannot normally be used without a determiner.
e.g. *Boy will take dirty cup to kitchen.
e. The same noun can sometimes be a count noun in one meaning and a mass noun in another.
e.g. cp. Window-panes are made of glass. (mass noun)
The table was full of empty glasses. (count noun)
e.g. cp. There is a little truth in this theory. (mass noun)
This theory runs counter to the fundamental truths of modern science. (count noun)
e.g. They had a coffee, because coffee aids digestion after a copious meal.
4. Nouns are sometimes called animate or inanimate according to the nature of their referents.
Animate nouns are either human (personal) nouns or nonhuman (nonpersonal) nouns.
e.g. John (human); book (inanimate); cow (nonhuman)
Only human nouns can be followed by who; only nonhuman nouns can be followed by which.
5. Nouns are either masculine, feminine or neuter, according as their referent is a male person or
animal, a female person or animal, or an inanimate being.
e.g. masculine: waiter, boy, John, tomcat, gander...
feminine: waitress, girl, Mary, mare...

22. Less is also used in examples like He did it in less than two weeks, where two weeks is interpreted as indicating
a single timespan (see chapter 8, §7, VII).
 41

neuter: book, goodness, construction...

This characteristic of nouns (also shared by pronouns) is called gender.
Note: Some nouns can have both male and female referents.
e.g. student, doctor, singer, nurse, dean, rabbit, cat, customer, player, athlete, horse, visitor, friend,
neighbour, cousin...
6. Nouns are either individuating or collective. A noun is collective if it is singular in form but refers
to a group (not to a single individual).
e.g. individuating: pupil(s), minister(s), soldier(s), parent(s), child(ren)...
collective: class, government, army, family, Parliament, police...
7. There are concrete nouns and abstract nouns. The former denote physical entities (persons,
animals or things) that can be seen and touched; the latter denote notions that cannot be thus
perceived because they have no physical shape.
e.g. concrete: tape, John, table, cow, daisy, sky
abstract: love, trouble, heat, misery, hope

Q. Adjectives can be used in three ways:

1. as noun modifiers: in that case the adjective is used attributively.
e.g. a big house
2. as SC: we say that the adjective is used predicatively.
e.g. John is ill.
He seems/remains/appears exhausted.
This dish smells/looks/tastes bad.
3. as OC
a. in constructions in which to be can be inserted.
e.g. I consider that solution (to be) inadequate.
This use too is predicative.
b. in constructions in which to be cannot be inserted.
e.g. They painted the house beige.
Someone pushed the gate open.
He knocked his opponent unconscious.
Don’t worry about him. He’ll sleep himself sober.
In such constructions the adjective mostly indicates the result of the activity referred to by the
verb.

R. Adjectives, nouns, verbs and adverbs are either gradable or nongradable. They are gradable if they
denote a quality of which there are different degrees.
e.g. gradable: rich, foolish, fresh; a fool, a miser; to prefer, to hate; well, slowly
nongradable: atomic, perfect, unique; a table, a tree; to see, to build, to fall; perfectly, absolutely
The following tests can help us to make the distinction:
1. Gradable adjectives and adverbs allow comparison, nongradable ones do not.
e.g. more/most foolish, more/most carefully
*more/most atomic, more/most absolutely
The same applies to verbs and nouns:
e.g. He is more of a miser than his father was.
I liked/*built the house more than John.
2. Only gradable adjectives and NPs containing a gradable noun or adjective are likely to be followed
by result clauses.
e.g. He was such a fool/*boy that I felt sorry for him.
 42

He was fool(ish) enough to go skating on thin ice.

The branch was too high to reach.
3. Only gradable nouns and adjectives will enter into a construction like
e.g. He was unwise to deny the accusation.
You are cruel to treat your dog like that.
He is an idiot/fool to underestimate them.
*He was a teacher to know all the answers.
In sentences like these the quality denoted by the gradable noun or adjective is predicated both of the
subject and of the action expressed in the infinitive clause.
4. Only gradable verbs can combine with very much or so much that + result clause.
e.g. I like/*built it very much.
She hated him so much that she would not see him.

1.8 PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

1. Prepositions are words like at, in, of, through, from, etc. which are followed by an NP (i.e. a noun,
modified noun, gerund clause or pronoun), together with which they constitute a PP (prepositional
phrase).
e.g. She came in through the backdoor.
The child is afraid of dying in her sleep.
2. In spite of what is suggested by the label ‘preposition’, prepositions do not necessarily precede an
NP. Most of them can be found at the end of the clause in the following cases:
a. in relative clauses
e.g. The flat I live in is not very large.
That’s the solution (that) the journalist referred to.
b. in questions (both direct and indirect)
e.g. What were you looking at?
I wanted to know where it came from.
Note that, in elliptic questions, the preposition can have end position only if the question word
is a pronoun.
e.g. She’s engaged. -- Who to? / To whom? / To which boy? / *Which boy to?
I’ll have the kitchen refurbished. -- Who by? / *What money with? / *What permission
with?
c. in passive clauses
e.g. The remaining questions will be looked into next time.
These data will have to be checked up on.
d. in infinitive clauses that function like relative clauses
e.g. This is not a suitable house for a large family to live in.
Some older grammars state that a preposition is not a suitable word to end a sentence with.
e. in exclamatory clauses
e.g. What a surprising result we arrived at!
f. in comparative clauses
e.g. She talks to more people than I talk to.
g. when the NP functioning as OP is topicalized
e.g. Some of his music I can listen to, but not all.
Note:
 43

1. In transformational grammar, such prepositions having end position are called stranded
prepositions. (They are called ‘stranded’ because they stay behind when a transformation
moves their object NP to the beginning of the clause.)
2. Stranded prepositions are never pronounced weakly.
3. Some prepositions are not single words but combinations of words (sometimes called complex
prepositions).
e.g. instead of, ahead of, together with, apart from, next to, aside of, in spite of, in front of, in
addition to, by way of, in case of, with respect to, on behalf of, etc.
4. Some words that were originally participles are now commonly used as prepositions.
e.g. during, granted, considering, according to, concerning, regarding...
e.g. All the bills, including the two we received this morning, will be paid before the end of the
month.
The exhibition will be open during the week-ends, beginning next Saturday.
Granting/considering your interest in the case,...
5. Many prepositions (e.g. in, about, above, after, since, on, off, down, across, over, by, up, along, past,
etc.) are homophonous with adverbs (adverbial particles, prepositional adverbs).
e.g. cp. John walked in the house. (preposition)
John walked in. (adverbial particle)
e.g. cp. He jumped off the roof. (preposition)
He jumped off. (adverbial particle)
Unlike prepositions, adverbial particles do not govern an NP.
Words like into, onto, against, at, like, out of, for, from, with, etc. are prepositions only; words like
away, aback, ahead, out, back, aside, etc. are adverbial particles only.
6. In the PP it is normally the NP that is the more strongly accented constituent.
e.g. Did you come with JOHN?
However:
a. Prepositions in end position are more strongly accented.
e.g. Where’s that man from?
That’s the handbook I was speaking of.
What’s this appliance for?
b. Disyllabic prepositions receive the accent if the head of the PP is a personal pronoun.
e.g. cp. We sailed across the CHANnel.
We sailed aCROSS it.
cp. He discovered the truth about MAry.
He discovered the truth aBOUT her.
cp. We climbed into a TREE.
We climbed INto it.
c. The preposition can always receive contrastive accent.
e.g. The papers were beHIND the desk, not ON it.
The fact that prepositions are mostly weakly accented can help us to distinguish them from their
adverbial homophones, as the latter are normally heavily accented.
e.g. cp. He fell down the STAIRS. (preposition)
He fell DOWN. (adverb)
7. It is possible for a preposition to form a stereotyped (fixed) combination with a verb.
e.g. to look at, listen to, insist on, believe in, account for, object to, agree with, approve of, comment
on, consent to, refer to, take to, allow for, accuse of, charge with, aim at, appeal to, apply for...
 44

Such verbs followed by a fixed preposition are called prepositional verbs. In most cases the
combination is not only stereotyped but also idiomatic (figurative), i.e. the meaning of the
combination as a whole is not the sum total of the meanings of the individual constituents (verb and
preposition).
e.g. go into (a problem) (= examine)
look after (someone) (= take care of)
look upon (someone as) (= consider as)
call on (someone) (= visit)
At first sight, prepositional verbs bear a strong resemblance to phrasal verbs, i.e. combinations of a
verb and an adverbial particle (e.g. sit down, look up, make up, turn over). But the two types of
construction can be distinguished by a number of tests which show that prepositions behave
differently from adverbs:
a. Prepositions cannot follow their object NP directly:
e.g. We objected to the proposal. (*We objected the proposal to.)
Adverbial particles, on the other hand, can often follow (as well as precede) the object of the
phrasal verb (provided that object is a short phrase).
e.g. He took off his coat. -- He took his coat off.
I picked up the coin. -- I picked the coin up.
They passed some questions over. (phrasal verb)
Aunt Jane brings the children up. (id.)
The distinction is clearest when the object is a personal pronoun: in that case the preposition
must precede, the adverbial particle must follow.
e.g. We went into it. -- *We went it into.
*We called up him. -- We called him up.
The car ran over him. -- *The car ran him over.
Note:
Transformational grammar considers the order ‘V + adverb + NP’ as basic and the order ‘V +
NP + adverb’ as derived. The transformation deriving the latter from the former is called
particle movement.
b. It is not normally possible to insert an adverb (especially of manner) in between the verb and
the adverbial particle of a phrasal verb.
e.g. *We gave quickly/soon/therefore up the project.
*The child that had been lost turned suddenly up in the evening.
*This brought quickly on a lot of misery.
Inserting an adverb is, however, possible if the combination consists of a verb and a
preposition, especially if the combination is not a prepositional verb.
e.g. We went carefully into all possibilities.
The car drove slowly down the country road.
The man walked quietly down the driveway.
c. Prepositions can precede relative pronouns or (clause-initial) interrogative pronouns, adverbs
cannot.
e.g. cp. This is the room in which I study.
Where are the men that the police have just run in? (run in = arrest)
*Where are the men in which the police have just run? (id.)
e.g. cp. This is the number to which she referred.
This is the number which I jotted down during the interview.
*This is the number down which I jotted during the interview.
 45

e.g. What did the girl bring in? (*In what did the girl bring?)
Note:
1. Phrasal verbs sometimes enter into a stereotyped combination with a preposition. In that case
we speak of a prepositional phrasal verb.
e.g. get on with (one’s work), do away with (= kill), put up with (=endure), break in on (a
convention), check up on (= investigate), come up with (an idea), cut down on (expenses),
face up to (a problem), look in on (= visit), get down to (serious talk), look up to, look
down on, get along with, stand in for (a sick actor), go back on (a promise), come up to
(one’s expectations)...
2. The NP following a preposition is normally called the object of the preposition (OP). If the
preposition belongs to a prepositional verb (or prepositional phrasal verb), we may call the NP
the prepositional object (PO).
3. The term ‘phrasal verb’ is sometimes used in a different sense from the one defined above:
some grammars and dictionaries use the term to indicate any stereotyped combination involving
a verb, i.e. not only verb-adverb combinations, but also prepositional verbs, and sometimes
even larger combinations like put an end to, make a point of, take care of, pay attention to,
make fun of, get hold of, etc.
4. The term multi-word verb can be used as a cover term for phrasal verbs, prepositional verbs,
prepositional phrasal verbs and combinations like put an end to.
8. A PP can have various functions in the clause:
e.g. Give the money to the treasurer. (indirect O)
I will not apply for the job. (PO)
She’ll arrive in the morning. (adverbial)
A test that can help us to decide whether a given PP is PO or adverbial adjunct is that a PO can
never be used as an elliptic answer to a question with an adverbial question-word.
e.g. cp. What did they go into? -- Into the problem of acid rain. (PO)
Where did they go? -- *Into the problem of acid rain. (PO)
Where did they go? -- Into the chapel. (adverbial)
cp. Who did you call on? -- (On) Iris.
When did you call? -- On Tuesday.

1.9 VERB PHRASES

A. A VP consists of a verb head and other word groups clustering around it.
e.g. John was talking about the accident with Mary.
For convenience, the term VP is also used when the predicate consists solely of one verb form, as in John
came.

B. Different grammars sometimes ascribe a different meaning to the term ‘VP’.

1. Many grammars use ‘VP’ as a synonym of ‘predicate’, i.e. as referring to any constituent of the
clause that does not belong to the subject NP.
2. Some grammars use the term in a much narrower sense, to denote no more than the main verb with
its auxiliary form(s). (In this book we call such a combination a verb or verb form. The verb of a
clause may thus consist of several verbal constituents, e.g. may have been going to rain.)
3. Another convention is to see the VP as comprising the verb form(s), the complement(s) and the
necessary adverbial adjuncts. Apart from the VP, the predicate can then also contain optional
adverbial adjuncts.
 46

An adverbial adjunct is optional when it just gives circumstantial information that can be dispensed
with. It is necessary (obligatory) if it cannot be omitted without the sentence becoming
ungrammatical or undergoing a drastic change or loss of meaning.
e.g. John went to a museum in Oslo. (predicate: went to a museum in Oslo; VP: went to a museum)
What about John? -- He decided to quit last week. (Last week is an optional adverbial.)
I put it in the cupboard. (obligatory adverbial)
To check whether an adverbial adjunct belongs to the VP one can paraphrase the sentence by means
of the construction ‘What + subject + form of do + X + is + nonfinite clause’. If an adjunct can fill
position X in this paraphrase, it is optional.
e.g. cp. What John did in Oslo was go to a museum.
*What John did to a museum was go in Oslo.
e.g. What John did last week was open another shop.
Another difference is that necessary adverbials cannot normally be put at the beginning with
intonational separation from the rest of the clause, whereas optional adjuncts can:
e.g. cp. In Oslo, John went to a museum.
*To a museum, John went in Oslo.
e.g. Last week, John decided to quit.
Notice that the same adverbial adjunct can be optional in one context and necessary in another:
e.g. When did John decide to quit? -- He decided to quit last week. (Last week is necessary here
because it provides the information asked for.)
e.g. cp. John went to America in 1950 because he wanted to visit his uncle. (optional)
John went to America in 1950 because it was in that year that he finally got a visa.
(obligatory)
e.g. cp. He slowly went up the stairs. (optional)
He went up the stairs slowly, not quickly (necessary)
He went up the stairs slowly because he wanted to avoid making any noise. (necessary)

C. A verb that is not intransitive always requires some complementation. This means that it must be
followed by a direct O, indirect O, SC, OC, PO or obligatory adverbial. If the constituent in question is a
clause, the conjunction introducing it is called the complementizer.
e.g. I know that he is lying.
I doubt/wonder if you can understand that.

D. A VP is nonfinite if its verb head is an infinitive, a participle or a gerund.23 Otherwise it is finite.

Finite VPs differ from nonfinite ones in the following respects:
1. Only finite VPs can contain a finite verb form, i.e. a verb form that is inflected for one or more of
the categories person, number, and tense.
e.g. He speaks Swedish. (finite: 3rd person singular present tense)
He was happy. (finite: past tense)
He stood looking at the body. (nonfinite: participle)
I’d like to become a doctor. (nonfinite: infinitive)
She remembered seeing the film when she was young. (nonfinite: gerund)
2. Only finite VPs can occur as the VP of a main clause. (Exclamatory infinitives form an exception to
this.)

23. We call a verbal -ing form a gerund if it is used as a nominal (e.g. I hate swimming) and a present participle when it is used as an
adjectival (e.g. I looked at the swimming children).
 47

3. Only finite VPs can express modality. (Modality is the expression of the speaker’s attitude toward
the contents of his utterance.) That is, only finite VPs can belong to one of the three moods (viz. the
indicative, imperative or subjunctive) or contain a modal auxiliary. 24
e.g. He insists that I should help him. (modal auxiliary)
I wish I were in your place. (subjunctive mood)
John was coming. (indicative mood)
Come here! (imperative mood)

E. We must make a distinction between two classes of verbs: lexical verbs (full verbs) and auxiliaries.
The lexical verbs form an open (unlimited, productive) group, the auxiliaries form a closed (strictly
limited) set. The two groups show differences on various levels:
1. There is a semantic difference: lexical verbs have a full lexical meaning, some auxiliaries have little
or no lexical meaning.
e.g. John has left. (Leave has a lexical meaning, have does not.)
The man is being treated for arthritis. (Is being has a grammatical meaning (viz. passive) but
no lexical meaning.)
2. There are syntactic differences:
a. Unlike a full verb, an auxiliary cannot be used as a main verb (i.e. as the only or last verb form
in the VP), except in code (see below):
e.g. I studied / worked / *had to / *could yesterday.
e.g. cp. Shut up!
*Should! / *Can! / *Will!
cp. (What did you do?) -- Run away.
(What did you do?) -- *Can / *Must.
b. Unlike lexical verbs, auxiliaries have the so-called NICE-properties. (NICE is an acronym
consisting of the initial letters of the terms negation, inversion, code and emphatic affirmation.)
This means that there are four cases in which auxiliaries are used independently, whereas
lexical verbs require so-called do-support:25
1) Negation: we simply add not to an auxiliary; full verbs require the insertion of do.
e.g. He may not be there.
He did not do it.
2) By inversion we mean the phenomenon that the subject must sometimes follow the verb (see
chapter 4). In such cases lexical verbs require do-support, whereas auxiliaries don’t:
e.g. Rarely can we observe that kind of thing in this area.
Rarely did we observe that kind of thing in this area.
3) By code we mean the use of a verb form as a pro-form, i.e. as a substitute for a VP mentioned
before. Auxiliaries can be used as pro-forms, lexical verbs have to be replaced by do.
e.g. I can swim across the river in ten minutes. -- I cannot.
I studied a lot last week, but John did not.
4) Emphatic affirmation can be achieved by placing a heavy accent on an auxiliary, but not on a
lexical verb. In the latter case do is added and receives the accent:
e.g. But I HAVE warned the police!
But I DID warn the police immediately after the accident!

24. There is one exception: the modal auxiliary have to can occur in nonfinite VPs: He hates having to get up early.
25. There are a couple of exceptions. The lexical verb be shares the NICE-properties of the auxiliaries
(i.e. it does not normally have do-support), whereas the modal auxiliary have to may or may not have
do-support (see chapters 4 and 11).
 48

3. There are also differences as to form:

a. Lexical verbs have a whole system of forms (inflectional forms and phrases), which we call
conjugation. Auxiliaries (with the exception of have, be and do) are defective verbs, i.e. they
have only one or two forms.
e.g. go, goes, went, is going, has gone, will be going, had gone, having gone, etc.
e.g. must, can/could, ought to, may/might...
b. Most auxiliaries have contracted forms in spoken English.
1) In the negative we normally use forms with contracted not.26
e.g. shan’t, won’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t, can’t, couldn’t, mightn’t, mustn’t, oughtn’t,
needn’t, daren’t
Note the difference between formal and informal style:
e.g. infml: Couldn’t they be present?
Couldn’t somebody here come with me?
Isn’t that man your nephew?
He must die, mustn’t he?
fml: Could they not be present?
Could somebody here not come with me? (or: Could not somebody here come with
me?)
Is that man not your nephew?
He must die, must he not?
2) In some cases the auxiliary itself is contracted.
e.g. I’ll come. (shall/will)
I’ve done it. (have)
He’s read it. (has)
You’d better leave. (had)
I’d never do that. (should/would)
I’m being ignored. (am)
You’re being ill-treated. (are)
There’s a man in our garden. (is)
Note:
a) These contracted forms are incapable of receiving any accent at all and will therefore
never be used at the beginning or end of a sentence, or as pro-forms.
e.g. Has he come? -- Yes, he has.
I haven’t seen it but he has.
b) Has is not normally contracted to ‘s when have is a full verb.
e.g. He has a scooter.
c) In questions we do not use amn’t I? but aren’t I? (infml) or am I not? (fml).
e.g. I’m being ignored, aren’t I? (infml)
Am I not being deceived? (fml)
d) Isn’t and ‘s not are equally acceptable. The forms ‘ll not and I’ve not are less usual
alternatives to won’t and I haven’t.
e.g. He isn’t being ill-treated. / He’s not being ill-treated.
I won’t help you. / (I’ll not help you).
I haven’t seen her. / (I’ve not seen her.)

26. The contracted form mayn’t is very rarely used in modern English.
 49

F. Auxiliaries are ‘verb markers’: they signal that a verb is about to follow. When there are several
auxiliaries in a VP (as in He is being tortured or He may have been being tortured), the first auxiliary is
called the operator. It is this verb form that may be inflected for person and number. We can distinguish
between two classes of auxiliaries:
1. Auxiliaries that have a purely grammatical function:
a. the tense auxiliary have (used in forming perfect tense forms)
b. the voice auxiliary be (used in the passive)
c. the aspect auxiliary be (used for building progressive verb forms)
d. the periphrastic auxiliary do (which is added when a verb phrase that does not contain an
auxiliary is used in a construction that requires an operator, e.g. I don’t love her, Do you love
her?, I do love her, etc.)
2. Modal auxiliaries. These are auxiliaries that assign special shades of meaning to the verb head,
such as volition, possibility, permission, necessity, intention, obligation, expectation, inference,
ability, determination, etc.
e.g. must, ought to, can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, need, dare, be to, have to.
The modal auxiliaries differ from the first group in that (a) they have a lexical meaning (not only a
grammatical function) and (b) they are more clearly defective (i.e. most of them have one or two
forms only).

G. Lexical verbs refer to events, actions, processes or states. We will use the term situation as a cover-
term for these.
1. Verbs that refer to an action, event or process are called dynamic verbs.
a. We speak of a process when the situation described involves a change of state or a transition
into a state.
e.g. process verbs: change, grow, mature, die, widen, slow down, improve, thicken, deteriorate,
strengthen, diminish, darken, deepen, develop, increase...
b. A dynamic situation which is not a process is an action or an event according as it is or is not
controlled by an agent. (The agent is the person who is responsible for the action, i.e. who
consciously performs it himself or has it performed by somebody else.)
e.g. action verbs: walk, read, drink, look at, write, eat, abandon, ask, play...
e.g. event verbs: explode, burst, take place, occur, happen, break down, befall...
e.g. cp. John broke the window. (action)
The window broke. (event)
e.g. The opportunity presented itself. (event)
2. A situation that is not dynamic is a static situation (state, state of affairs). Unlike a dynamic
situation, a state is conceived of as existing (rather than happening) and as being homogeneous and
unchanging throughout its duration.27
e.g. need, cost, contain, seem, hear, mean, believe, consist of, resemble...
Verbs referring to static situations are normally stative. A verb is stative if it has the following
characteristics:
a. A stative verb cannot be used in constructions that require a dynamic verb form:
1) They are not (normally) used in the progressive.
e.g. *I was knowing the answer.
*She is being fat.
2) They are not used in pseudo-cleft constructions involving do: 28

27. By ‘homogeneous’ is meant that every part of the state is like any other part and like the state as a whole. In other words, states remain the
same all the way through.
 50

e.g. *What I did was know the answer.

*What she does is be fat.
3) They cannot be replaced by do so, do it or do this/that.
e.g. *If you knew the answer, you did so because you had listened at the door.
(She is fat.) *She does so to annoy her husband.
4) They cannot be replaced by do in the than-clause of a comparative construction if the two
clauses have the same subject.
e.g. cp. Bill studies/complains/travels more than he’s ever done before.
*Bill owns/weighs/knows more than he’s ever done before.
e.g. *She is fatter now than she did last year.
5) They cannot occur in the construction do + gerund.
e.g. cp. Bill does more worrying/travelling/complaining now than before.
*Bill does more knowing/weighing/owning now than before.
b. Stative verbs are not used in constructions that imply that the situation is controlled by an
agent:
1) in imperatives
e.g. *Know the answer!
*Be fat!
2) as complements of verbs like persuade, order, urge, convince, command, etc.
e.g. *I persuaded her to know the answer.
*I ordered her to be fat tomorrow.
3) with adverbials like intentionally, enthusiastically, for John’s sake, reluctantly,
consciously, etc.
e.g. *She is reluctantly fat.
*I resemble my mother for her sake.
Note:
The distinction between stative and nonstative verbs does not quite coincide with the distinction
between static and dynamic situations. Some verbs that refer to a static situation pass some of the
tests for nonstativeness. For example, the verb sleep can be used in the progressive, in the imperative
and in the constructions involving do. So-called verbs of stance (stand, sit, lie, hang) and verbs like
wait, stay, live are fully nonstative in spite of the fact that they refer to a static situation.

H. Lexical verbs refer to situations that are either durative or punctual (nondurative, momentary). We
speak of ‘durative verbs’ and ‘punctual verbs’ accordingly.
e.g. durative: walk, read, change, grow, know, expect, exist, increase...
punctual: hit, kick, nod, die, arrive, reach, shoot, tap, knock...
Note:
1. Only dynamic situations can be punctual.
2. A punctual verb cannot co-occur with a duration adverbial, except if repetition is implied or if the
duration adverbial expresses the duration of the resultant state (i.e. the state resulting from the
performance of the action).
e.g. cp. *Jill has arrived for three hours.
Jill has come for three hours. (= She will stay here for three hours.)
e.g. The clown jumped up and down for several minutes. (repeated jumps)

28. A pseudo-cleft is an identifying construction of the following type:

e.g. What John bought was a book.
What John did was run away from school.
The one who has said that is John.
 51

Mother has left for two hours. (= Her absence will last two hours.)
3. An action can be called an act if it is punctual and an activity if it is durative.

I. The system of forms which a full verb can have is called its conjugation. Conjugation means that the
verbal system has special forms or phrases to express five notions: modality, voice, finitude, tense and
aspect.
1. By modality is meant the expression of the speaker’s attitude towards the contents of his utterance.
a. We will say that an utterance is nonmodal
1) when it is in the imperative mood.
e.g. Come here!
2) When the speaker represents a situation as a fact, thus committing himself to the truth of
what he says. In this case he has to use the indicative mood.
e.g. John went / did not go to Italy in 1990. (= real past)
My mother-in-law is coming tomorrow. (represented as factual)
b. An utterance is modal if the speaker represents the situation, not as a fact, but as uncertain,
doubtful, contrary to fact, necessary, possible, obligatory, etc.
To express such modal implications, the speaker can use
1) the subjunctive mood
e.g. I wish I were a girl. (counterfactual)
2) a modal past or past perfect (of the indicative mood)
e.g. I wish I knew. (= a modal past, not referring to past time but expressing present
unreality)
If only you had informed me! (but you did not)
3) modal auxiliaries
e.g. He may not be able to help us. (= Perhaps he is not able...)
He must be quite old now. (inference)
4) modal adverbs
e.g. Perhaps he does not live here any more.
He will probably stay away from us for some time.
5) phrases like it is possible/necessary/probable that...
2. Voice is the phenomenon that when the speaker wants to describe a situation he can often use
different constructions involving exactly the same words. English sentences are either in the active
or in the passive voice. A passive verb form involves a form of be (sometimes get) and a past
participle.
e.g. They cut down the tree. (active)
The tree was (being) cut down (by them). (passive)
3. The concept finitude refers to the phenomenon that verb forms can be finite or nonfinite. The term
finite (which means ‘limited’) is used in linguistics to refer to a verb form that is (potentially)
marked for number, person, tense and mood (and which is therefore limited in its use).
e.g. is (3rd person singular indicative, present tense)
worked (indicative, past tense)
Infinitives, participles and gerunds are marked for none of the categories person, number, tense or
mood. They are therefore called nonfinite verb forms.
Note: The distinction between a present participle and a gerund is that the former is used as an
adjectival, the latter as a nominal.
e.g. I hate sleeping in a tent. (gerund)
Please do not disturb the sleeping soldiers. (participle)
 52

4. Tense
a. It is important not to confuse tense with time. Time is an extralinguistic category, i.e. it exists
independently of language. Tense is a linguistic concept: it denotes the form taken by the verb
to locate the situation in time, i.e. to express the temporal relation between the situation in
question and the time of utterance (TU) (moment of speech) or some other time of
orientation (TO).
e.g. In the sentence John had left when I arrived the past tense form arrived locates the
situation in the past, i.e. it expresses that my arrival took place before the time of utterance
(TU). The past perfect form had left expresses that John’s leaving took place before my
arrival; my arrival is thus the time of orientation (TO) to which John’s leaving is
represented as anterior.
The traditional names for the tenses in English are:
- present tense (e.g. I live here.)
- past tense (or preterite) 29 (e.g. I lived there.)
- future tense (e.g. I’ll go there.)
- present perfect (e.g. I’ve come here.)
- past perfect (or pluperfect) (e.g. I had lived there.)
- future perfect (e.g. I will have left by then.)
- conditional tense (e.g. We would soon find out.)
- conditional perfect (e.g. She would have left by then.)
Note: Many people hold that there are only two tenses in English, viz. present and past, because this is
the only distinction that is expressed morphologically (i.e. by means of verb endings). However,
there is no a priori reason for assuming that tense can only be expressed morphologically (and not
by the use of auxiliaries).
b. A situation can be related to a TO in three different ways:
1) anteriority: the situation precedes the TO.
2) simultaneity: the situation is simultaneous with the TO. (Two time intervals are
simultaneous not only if they coincide but also if they partially overlap.)
3) posteriority (futurity): the situation follows the TO.
c. In modal sentences, some of the indicative tenses (viz. the past and the past perfect) do not
express the usual temporal relations.
e.g. cp. He says I didn’t know his number. (nonmodal past tense expressing that the situation
held before TU)
I wish I didn’t know his number. (modal past; the situation is simultaneous with the
TO indicated by I wish)
e.g. If I was a rich man, I would travel a lot. (modal past: the reference is not to the past but to
the present)
d. Even in nonmodal sentences the English tenses do not always express the normal time relations.
The present tense, for example, can refer not only to the present, but also to the past and to the
future.
e.g. present: Something is happening in the street.
past: in a narration we may find the ‘historic present’.
e.g. I’m standing in the yard, waiting for the first drops of rain to fall, when up comes
Lydia and shouts at me and accuses me of stealing her doll.
future: I’m leaving in a minute.

29. In Am.E. the term preterite is spelled preterit.

 53

e. Sentences in the present tense sometimes refer to a state which holds at all times or at every
time in the existence of the referent of the subject. Such sentences are called gnomic sentences.
(If the state holds at all times, the term universal statement is often used.)
e.g. Two and two is four.
The sun rises in the east.
Note: Gnomic sentences that predicate a typical characteristic of a kind (species) are called generic
sentences.
e.g. A/The horse is a four-footed mammal.
Horses do not eat meat.
Sentences that predicate a typical characteristic (e.g. a habit) of an individual are also often called
generic.
e.g. Bill’s cat chases bikes.
5. Aspect
The verb may have one or more special forms to express one of the aspects. Aspects are different
ways of viewing a situation. The speaker may refer to a situation in its entirety (perfective aspect), or
he may represent it as ongoing (progressive aspect), or as beginning (ingressive aspect), continuing
(continuous aspect), ending (egressive aspect), repeating itself on the same occasion (iterative
aspect) or on different occasions (habitual aspect).
In more detail:
a. Perfective versus imperfective aspect.
We speak of perfective aspect when we refer to the situation in its entirety, i.e. when we view
it as an indivisible whole. This means that we do not refer to the situation as having an internal
structure (with a beginning, middle and end).
e.g. I wrote an essay last night.
I’ll read a book on the subject.
We speak of imperfective aspect when we refer explicitly to the internal temporal structure of
the situation, i.e. when we do not refer to the complete situation.
e.g. I was writing an essay when Henry came in. (= I had begun and was in the middle of
writing...)
I have been working on a dissertation.
Since English has no special verb forms to focus on the beginning or end of the situation, the
opposition perfective/imperfective in English coincides with the opposition momentaneous
(nonprogressive, nondurative) versus progressive (durative) aspect. We have progressive
aspect when we focus on the middle of the situation (and therefore on its duration) and
momentaneous aspect when we do not.
Note: Representing a situation as complete is not necessarily the same thing as representing it as
completed (finished). The two notions only coincide for situations that are located in the past (e.g.
He crossed the street). In sentences like Here comes the winner! or I will write a memoir the
situation is not yet completed, but it is referred to in its entirety.
b. Ingressive, inceptive or inchoative aspect
There is ingressive aspect when the situation is represented as just beginning. In English this
aspect is not expressed by the use of a special verb form (whether inflectional or built with the
help of an auxiliary) but by means of a lexical verb (e.g. begin, start, commence) which is
placed before the verb (e.g. She began to cry).
c. Terminative or egressive aspect
 54

Here the speaker focuses his attention on the end of the situation. For lack of special verb
forms, English expresses this aspect too by the addition of a lexical verb (e.g. stop, finish, end,
break off, complete, leave off, conclude, cease...) to the verb (e.g. They have stopped working).
Note: Lexical verbs like begin and stop which are used to express aspect are called aspectualizers.
d. Habituality
There is habitual aspect when the situation is described as being characteristic of an extended
period of time. (In many cases the situation repeats itself throughout that period.) English has
no special verb suffixes to express habituality, but it has special auxiliaries to express this
aspect in the past: would and used to.
e.g. Simon used to be afraid of mice.
He would often come and talk to her when he had finished working.
e. Iterative or repetitive aspect
Here we express the repetition of a situation on a particular occasion, i.e. the successive
occurrence of several instances of the situation. In English, repetitive aspect is not expressed by
special verb forms but by the use of repetitive adverbials accompanied by simple (i.e.
nonprogressive) tenses.
e.g. The murderer repeatedly coshed his victim on the head.
However, when the reference is to a punctual situation, iterative aspect may be expressed by a
progressive verb form without a repetitive adverbial.
e.g. All the time I was speaking John was nodding assent. (repeated movements of the head)
Someone was tapping on the window.
Note:
1) Aspect should be distinguished from Aktionsart.30 Aspect is the expression of the speaker’s
viewpoint or perspective on a situation by means of the use of a particular kind of verb form.
We have a different aspect according as the verb form chosen refers to the situation in its
entirety or represents it as just beginning, as ongoing, as ending, etc. Aktionsart, on the other
hand, has to do with how the lexical material inherently represents the situation: a situation is
either stative or dynamic, punctual or durative, telic or atelic, continuous or iterative. In other
words, Aktionsart has to do with the inherent nature of the situation, whereas aspect is a matter
of how the speaker views the situation in question.
Note:
a) There is telic Aktionsart when the situation referred to tends towards a goal, i.e. tends
towards a necessary terminal point, without which the situation is not complete.
e.g. Sentences like John pushed the car and Betty ran are atelic, because they do not refer
to any point of completion; sentences like John pushed the car into the garage and
Betty ran three miles are telic, because they involve reference to a point of completion
beyond which the situation cannot continue.
b) There is iterative Aktionsart if the situation portrayed consists of a number of subsituations
of the same kind.
e.g. Verbs like scramble, stutter, rattle, twinkle, etc. express iterative Aktionsart.
c) The aspectual interpretation of a sentence depends on an interaction between Aktionsart
and aspect. (The term aspectual can be used as a cover-term for aspect and Aktionsart.) An
example of this is the interpretation of sentences like He is being a fool (= He is behaving
foolishly). The verb be is usually stative, and stative aktionsart is incompatible with
progressive aspect because states involve no change and hence cannot be seen as

30. Unfortunately, this distinction is frequently ignored in the Anglo-Saxon linguistic literature.
 55

developing or ongoing, and because all states are in a sense complete: a state exists as a
whole during each and every instance of its duration. When be is nonetheless used in the
progressive, the progressive wipes out the stative aktionsart and imparts a dynamic reading
to the sentence.
2) Apart from the aspects referred to above, some grammars also speak of perfect and imperfect
aspect. These terms are introduced to capture the observation that when one of the perfect
tenses is used the situation referred to (which is anterior to some TO) is often understood as
yielding a result that is still relevant at the TO. In this terminology I have closed the door
expresses perfect aspect, because it suggests ‘The door is closed now’, while I closed the door
expresses imperfect aspect because it does not suggest this.
However, the concepts ‘perfect’ and ‘imperfect aspect’ are suspect, for two reasons:
a) They do not answer the above definition of aspect, because they are not concerned with
different ways of representing the internal temporal constitution of a situation. (When
there is ‘perfect aspect’ the speaker is not concerned with the situation itself but with the
state that has resulted from it.)
b) As we will see in chapter 3, the suggestion of a resultant state is no more than a
conversational implicature accompanying a particular use of the perfect. It is not an
inherent part of its meaning.
Note:
In some recent linguistic works the terms ‘perfective’ and ‘imperfective’ are used to indicate
what others claim to be ‘perfect’ and ‘imperfect’ aspect. This is a serious mistake, for it is
obvious that the perfective/imperfective distinction does not coincide with the distinction
between perfect tenses and other tenses.
e.g. John has been painting his house. (perfect tense with a suggestion of present result
(John’s house is partly painted now), but imperfective aspect: the situation is not referred
to in its entirety: it is represented as in progress (and hence as incomplete))
e.g. On his desk we found fragments of a novel that he had been writing. (perfect tense, with
(what some would call) ‘perfect aspect’: the work has resulted in the existence of a partly
finished novel; but there is imperfective aspect because the writing of the novel is not
represented as complete: he was still in the middle of writing it)

J. A further distinction that is important for describing the use of certain tense forms is the distinction
between bounded and unbounded sentences. A sentence is bounded if it represents a situation as
reaching a terminal point. Otherwise it is unbounded.
e.g. cp. John read the letter. (bounded: the situation comes to an end when the end of the letter is
reached)
John was reading a letter. (unbounded: the sentence does not say that John finished his letter:
he may or may not have done so)
e.g. cp. John drank whisky. (unbounded: no reference to a terminal point)
John drank five glasses of whisky. (bounded: the action terminates when the fifth glass is
empty)
John drank glasses of whisky. (unbounded: since the number of glasses is not specified, there
is no reference to a terminal point. This situation can in principle go on indefinitely.)
Note:
1. The various sentences in the above examples can all be used to report the same situation. This
means that a situation is not inherently bounded or unbounded; it is represented as bounded or
unbounded by a particular sentence.
2. It follows that we can apply the labels ‘bounded’ and ‘unbounded’ both to sentences and to
 56

situations. A bounded situation is a situation which is represented as bounded by a sentence. A

bounded sentence is a sentence which represents a situation as bounded.
3. There are several tests that can help us to make the distinction:
a. Sentences expressing imperfective (progressive) aspect are by definition unbounded (since
imperfective aspect means that no reference is made to the end of the situation).
This also provides us with a test for checking the (un)bounded character of nonprogressive
sentences:
a. If we make an unbounded nonprogressive sentence progressive, this has no effect on its unbounded
character.
e.g. The sentence Bill will sleep in the attic remains unbounded when we substitute will be
sleeping for will sleep.
b. If we make a bounded nonprogressive sentence progressive, it loses its bounded character.
e.g. Whereas Bill ran the 100 metres is bounded, Bill was running the 100 metres is unbounded.
It follows that a nonprogressive sentence must be unbounded if its truth follows from the truth
of the corresponding progressive sentence.
e.g. John drew a triangle is bounded because we cannot infer from the truth of John was drawing a
triangle to the truth of John drew a triangle; but John drank coffee is unbounded, since we can infer
from the truth of John was drinking coffee to the truth of John drank coffee.
b. Unbounded sentences are typically compatible with duration adverbials answering the question
For how long?, while bounded ones are typically compatible with duration adverbials
answering the question Within what time?:
e.g. cp. John was running for hours. (unbounded)
*John was running in an hour.
John ran a mile in an hour. (bounded)
*John ran a mile for hours. (ungrammatical unless repetitive)
It follows that only bounded verb phrases can be used after clauses of the type It took X an hour
to...:
e.g. cp. It took John an hour to run a mile.
*It took John an hour to run.
c. An unbounded sentence represents a situation as homogeneous, whereas a bounded sentence
does not. A homogeneous situation is one that remains unchanged from beginning to end, so
that the same description can be used to refer to the situation as a whole and to any part of it.
That is, any sentence that represents a particular situation as unbounded can also be used to
refer to portions of that situation. Thus, if we can use the sentence John drank whisky to report
what John did from 2 o’clock till 4, we can also use this sentence to report what he did between
2 o’clock and 3, or to report what he did from 2.30 to 3.30, etc. Bounded sentences, on the other
hand, refer to heterogeneous situations. That is, if the sentence can be used to portray a
situation as a whole, it cannot be used to refer to any part of this situation. Thus, if we can use
John drank six glasses of whisky to report what John did from 2 o’clock till 4, we cannot use
this sentence to report what John did between 2 and 3, or to report what he did from 2.30 to
3.30, etc.
d. Only a bounded clause can be the complement of the verb finish.
e.g. cp. He finished writing the report at 11.34 p.m.
He stopped/*finished being their leader in 1988.
4. The bounded/unbounded distinction is very often identified with the telic/atelic distinction.
However, there is evidence that these two distinctions had better be kept apart. A VP like run five
miles is telic (because of five miles), but it can be used both in a bounded sentence (Bill ran five
 57

miles) and in an unbounded one (Bill was running five miles). This shows how aspect can interact
with Aktionsart: imperfective aspect removes the reference to a terminal point effected by the telic
Aktionsart of the VP, so that the result is an unbounded sentence.
5. The distinction between bounded and unbounded sentences is similar to the distinction between
count and mass nouns. Like bounded sentences, count nouns represent their referents as delimited;
neither unbounded sentences nor mass nouns represent their referents as having boundaries. It
follows that both bounded situations and countable entities are heterogeneous, whereas unbounded
situations and uncountable entities are both homogeneous.
6. The following are some further examples of bounded and unbounded sentences:
e.g. cp. They built a house / several houses. (bounded)
They are/were building a house. (unbounded)
cp. Bill handed out the Labour Party badge to a party activist / to every party activist present.
(bounded)
Bill handed out the Labour Party badge to 112 party activists. (bounded)
Bill handed out the Labour Party badge to party activists. (unbounded)
cp. A litre / three litres of water ran out of the tap. (bounded)
(Litres of) water ran out of the tap. (unbounded)
cp. Bill read a poem / three poems last night. (bounded)
Bill read poetry last night. (unbounded)
cp. Puttemans ran the 5,000 metres at the Olympic Games in Moscow. (bounded)
Puttemans ran the 5,000 metres for years. (unbounded)
Puttemans was running the 5,000 metres (when he sprained his ankle). (unbounded)
 58

CHAPTER 2

MORPHOLOGY

(Notes on the use of some grammatical morphemes)

§ 1. THE PLURAL OF NOUNS

I. Plural in -s or -es

A. SPELLING
If we take the -s spelling as general rule, we can point out the following exceptions:
1. The plural morpheme is spelled -es if the noun ends in a sibilant in pronunciation and is not
spelled with a final -e.
e.g. buses, churches, fishes, boxes, rhinoceroses, patches, badges, changes
The graphemes s and z will be doubled before -es if they are preceded by a stressed vowel that
is spelt with a single letter.
e.g. quiz -- quizzes
Exceptions: bus -- buses, gas -- gases
2. Nouns spelled with final -o:
a. if the -o is preceded by a consonant in spelling:
1) most of them take -es
e.g. echoes, heroes, Negroes, potatoes, tomatoes, embargoes, torpedoes, vetoes, noes
2) some take -s
e.g. ghettos, virtuosos...31
3) some of them take either -es or -s
e.g. tornados/tornadoes, mosquitos/mosquitoes...32
No strict rules can be given here, except that it is normally -s that is used
a) with abbreviations
e.g. photo(graph)s, piano(forte)s, memos (= memoranda), hippo(potamuse)s, kilos (=
kilograms), pros (= professionals)
b) with proper names
e.g. Neros, Michael Angelos, Filipinos, Eskimos
b. if the -o is preceded by a vowel grapheme, the plural morpheme is spelled -s
e.g. embryos, radios, scenarios, folios, studios, trios, Romeos
All nouns in -oo belong here:
e.g. cuckoos, Hindoos, kangaroos, shampoos, zoos, taboos, bamboos
3. Nouns spelled with final -y:
a. when preceded by a consonant: -ies
e.g. armies, lobbies, daisies, delicacies, ladies, colloquies
Exception: words like stand-bys, lay-bys, etc.
b. when preceded by a vowel grapheme: -ys

31. The following are some further examples: intermezzos, manifestos, tangos, tobaccos, concertos, lavabos, quartos, egos, solos, sopranos,
dynamos, mottos.
32. Other examples: cargo(e)s, banjo(e)s, buffalo(e)s, archipelago(e)s, commando(e)s, flamingo(e)s, volcano(e)s.
 59

e.g. plays, valleys, boys, guys

c. proper names: -ys
e.g. Henrys, Marys, Pollys, the Kennedys, the two Germanys, these cold Februarys

B. SECONDARY PHONETIC CHANGES

In some cases the final voiceless fortis consonant becomes voiced and lenis when the plural
morpheme is added:
1. The final /s/ of house is replaced by /z/ in the plural form houses.
2. A final /f/ is sometimes replaced by /v/:
a. With some nouns this change is obligatory both in pronunciation and in spelling.
e.g. calf - calves, elf - elves, half - halves, knife - knives, loaf - loaves, leaf - leaves, life -
lives, self - selves, shelf - shelves, thief - thieves, wife - wives, wolf - wolves
b. With a few nouns the change is optional:
e.g. scarf - scarfs/scarves, dwarf - dwarfs/dwarves, wharf - wharfs/wharves, hoof -
hoofs/hooves
c. The change does not occur
1) when the noun ends in -iff
e.g. cliffs, mastiffs, sheriffs...
2) in some other nouns
e.g. chief - chiefs, mischief - mischiefs, grief - griefs, fife - fifes, belief - beliefs,
strife - strifes, relief - reliefs, gulf - gulfs, proof - proofs, reef - reefs, safe - safes,
roof - roofs, staff - staffs
But roofs and handkerchiefs are sometimes pronounced with final /vz/.
3. /T/ becomes /D/
This is a change which is not reflected in spelling. It is obligatory in mouths and is optional in
the plural forms of some other words (e.g. bath, berth, birth, oath, youth, sheath, truth, wreath).
In the other cases (e.g. month) it does not occur.

II. Plural in -en

A. Without mutation of the root vowel: ox - oxen
B. With mutation (in fact double plurals): child - children. 33

III. Mutation (change of the root vowel)

e.g. foot - feet, goose - geese, tooth - teeth, forefoot - forefeet
e.g. louse - lice, mouse - mice, titmouse - titmice
e.g. man - men, woman - women

IV. Foreign plurals

Although there is a general tendency for loanwords to adopt the English plural, some of them still take a
foreign plural.
A. Nouns ending in -us
1. Some of them have preserved the Latin plural in -i (pronounced /aI/ or /i:/).
e.g. bacillus - bacilli, magus - magi, stimulus - stimuli
2. Some of them have a regular plural in -es.
e.g. bonuses, circuses, choruses, geniuses, octopuses, viruses, campuses

33. In religious language brethren is used as the plural of brother (e.g. Brethren, pray!).
 60

3. Some have a plural in either -i or -es.

e.g. cacti/cactuses, crocuses/croci, foci/focuses, syllabi/syllabuses
B. Nouns ending in -a
Some Latin words in -a can take a Latin plural in -ae (pronounced /aI/ or /i:/), next to the regular
plural in -as
e.g. formulae/formulas, antennae (of an animal or insect)/antennas (Am.E.)(aerials) 34
Larva and alga always take -ae.
C. Nouns ending in -um
1. Some of them have a regular plural in -ums.
e.g. albums, asylums, chrysanthemums, museums
2. Some have the Latin plural in -a.
e.g. addenda, bacteria, curricula, data (sometimes treated as a singular noun), desiderata, errata
3. Some can have a plural in either -ums or -a.
e.g. aquariums/aquaria, memorandums/memoranda, stadiums/(rarely: stadia),
ultimatums/(rare-ly: ultimata), symposiums/symposia
D. Nouns ending in -on
1. Some have the Greek plural in -a.
e.g. criterion - criteria, phenomenon - phenomena, automaton - automata
2. Some have a regular plural in -ons.
e.g. demons, electrons, neutrons, protons
E. Nouns in -is
As a rule, final -is becomes -es (which is pronounced /i:z/).
e.g. axis - axes, analysis - analyses, basis - bases, crisis - crises, diagnosis - diagnoses, ellipsis -
ellipses, hypothesis - hypotheses, oasis - oases, parenthesis - parentheses, synopsis - synopses,
thesis - theses, neurosis - neuroses
Exception: metropolis - metropolises
Note: The nouns series and species have a plural that is not marked morphologically. Phonetically,
the plural is marked by the fact that -ies is pronounced /i:z/.
F. Nouns in -ex and -ix
e.g. index -- indexes (e.g. table of contents) / indices (in mathematics); codex -- codices; matrix --
matrixes/matrices; appendix -- appendices (in a book) / appendixes (in anatomy)
G. French words spelt with final -s or -z
The plural is formed without a change in orthography, but /z/ is added in pronunciation.
e.g. corps, chassis, chamois, patois, pas, pince-nez, rendez-vous

V. The plural of noun compounds

A. When the two components are nouns:

1. General rule: -s is added to the second component
e.g. boy scouts, girl guides, lady passengers, flowerpots, eyewitnesses, fellow citizens,
assistant directors, fountain pens, timetables, cocktail parties, whisky-and-sodas
2. Compounds involving man or woman
a. when man/woman is the first component:
1) when man/woman indicates the sex of the person, both components are pluralized:
e.g. men-singers, men-friends, men-servants, women-doctors, women-cooks,
gentlemen farmers

34. Other examples are: nebulae/nebulas, vertebrae/vertebras.

 61

2) otherwise only the second component is pluralized:

e.g. man-eaters, man-slayers, woman-haters
b. when man is the second component:
1) as a rule man becomes men (both forms are usually pronounced weakly)
e.g. policeman - policemen, postman - postmen
2) when the word is not felt to be a compound, the plural form is in -mans:
e.g. Normans, Germans, Romans, Turkomans, caymans, talismans, dragomans,
brahmans

B. When only one of the components is a noun, the noun is pluralized

e.g. smallholders, working classes, U-boats, pickpockets, courts martial (also: court martials),
knights-errant, passers-by, lookers-on, hangers-on, consuls general, attorneys general (also:
attorney generals), notaries public
Exceptions:
1) We speak of genitive plurals, indicative presents (because in these formations the adjectives are
felt to be used as nouns).
2) Compounds in -ful can follow the general rule but more usually take -s at the end.
e.g. basketfuls/(basketsful), handfuls/(handsful), spoonfuls/(spoonsful), mouthfuls/(mouthsful)

C. When the compound has the form ‘noun + prepositional phrase’, the plural -s is added to the noun.
e.g. fathers-in-law, commanders-in-chief, coats-of-mail, men-of-war, maids-of-honour, maids-of-
all-work

D. When none of the components of the noun compound is itself a noun, we add the plural morpheme
at the end.
e.g. hold-ups, quid pro quos, forget-me-nots, breakdowns, look-outs, close-ups, good-for-nothings,
grown-ups, merry-go-rounds, lay-bys, never-do-wells, pullovers, go-betweens, take-offs, sine
qua nons, stand-bys

VI. Notes
1. Note examples like the Mr Browns, the Miss Smiths...
2. Single letters take -’s: e.g. There are two o’s in this word.
3. Letterwords and words that are not nouns take -’s or (more often) -s.
e.g. if’s and but’s / ifs and buts
VIP’s/VIPs, NP’s/NPs, PhD’s/PhDs
4. Numerals used as nouns have a plural in -s or -’s.
e.g. in the 1890’s/1890s
5. Some words have two plural forms with a different meaning.
e.g. penny - pennies (separate meaning: coins) / pence (collective meaning: value)
six pennies = six coins of one penny
most people (= most persons) - most peoples (= most races)
three sixpence = three coins of six pence
Note: a threepenny /’Trep3nI/ stamp, a twopenny-halfpenny /’tVpnI ‘heIpnI/ stamp

§ 2. THE GENITIVE

I. The genitive singular

A. SPELLING
 62

1. General rule: -’s

e.g. father’s coat, George’s car, the boy’s keys, Charles’s wife, the cook’s apron
2. The genitive singular of classical (Greek or Latin) names in -s is normally in -s’, but -s’s is also
possible (though far less usual):
e.g. Orestes’(s) speech, Aeschylus’(s) audience, Paris’(s) future, Apax’(s) relatives,
Aristophanes’(s) works
English names of famous people sometimes follow the same rule:
e.g. Keats’(s) poems, Dickens’(s) novels, James’(s) novels, Jones’(s) car, Burns’(s) works,
Guy Fawkes’ night
The -s’ spelling is also possible in religious names: St James’ church. With other names,
however, the usual spelling is -s’s: Phyllis’s coat, Mr Burns’s car.
3. groups with sake:
a. nouns not ending in a sibilant and all proper names normally take -’s:
e.g. for God’s sake, for George’s sake, for Jones’s sake
b. common nouns ending in a sibilant take the apostrophe only:
e.g. for goodness’ sake, for conscience’ sake, for peace’ sake

B. PRONUNCIATION
For the pronunciation of the genitive -’s the same rules hold good as for the pronunciation of the
plural -s.
Note:
1. The addition of the plural -s often turns the final voiceless fortis fricative of a noun into a
voiced lenis fricative. The addition of the genitive ‘s never has this effect.
e.g. calf - calves - a calf’s head
wife - wives - my wife’s fur
youth’s innocence
2. Names in -s with a genitive in -s’ may or may not take /Iz/ in pronunciation. However, the
normal pronunciation is the /Iz/ form, whereas the normal spelling is the one with an apostrophe
only.

C. THE GENITIVE SINGULAR OF COMPOUNDS AND SYNTACTIC GROUPS

In English, it is possible to add the genitive morpheme not only to single nouns but also to whole
NPs.
1. Compounds take the -’s at the end.
e.g. my father-in-law’s opinion, a woman teacher’s job
2. Phrases also take the -’s at the end (the so-called group genitive).
e.g. the late colonel Jenkins’s memoirs, the Prince of Wales’ visit, the President of France’s
arrival, the writer of the book’s aim, the chief actor in the play’s illness, a week or so’s
sunshine, an hour and a half’s discussion
Note: Charles V’s reign
3. Note the difference between
a. joint possession, i.e. one entity ‘owned’ by two persons
e.g. Edward and Mary’s reign, Beaumont and Fletcher’s plays, John and Mary’s car,
father and mother’s bedroom
b. separate possession: two entities ‘owned’ by two different persons
e.g. Edward’s and Mary’s opinions, Eliot’s and Auden’s poems, father’s and mother’s
clothes
Note: We can also say Edward’s opinion and Mary’s, Eliot’s poems and Auden’s
 63

4. Groups consisting of an NP plus an NP in apposition:

a. If the apposition is restrictive, only the second NP takes the genitive morpheme.
e.g. I bought it at Smith the chemist’s.
b. If the apposition is nonrestrictive, both NPs take the genitive morpheme.
e.g. I bought it at Smith’s, the chemist’s.

II. The genitive plural

A. Spelling
1. Plurals in -s: we add an apostrophe
e.g. the soldiers’ rifles, the boys’ belongings
2. Other plurals: we add -’s
e.g. the children’s toys, a women’s clinic, those men’s threats

B. Pronunciation: The same rules apply as hold for the plural -s morpheme.

C. Which words are used in the genitive plural?

1. In general, the genitive plural is far less frequent than the genitive singular (which is itself
restricted to (roughly speaking) names of human beings and animals).
2. Compounds that do not take the -s suffix of the plural at the end of the group (e.g. fathers-in-
law) have no genitive plural form.
3. Nouns that have plural forms only are never used in the genitive plural. We use a phrase with of
instead: the advantage of riches, the noise of the works...

§ 3. THE FORMATION OF VERB FORMS

I. The third person singular of the present tense

All English verbs, except the auxiliaries and to have and to be form the 3rd person singular of the simple
present tense through addition of an -(e)s suffix.

A. PRONUNCIATION: same rules as for plural -s and genitive -’s.

e.g. /Iz/ kisses, crushes, mixes, changes
/s/ tastes, makes, coughs, taps, cuts
/z/ obeys, goes, runs, yells, ploughs
Note the irregular pronunciation of does and says (as opposed to the regular pronunciation of vetoes,
goes, etc. and lays, pays, plays, etc., respectively).

B. SPELLING: the morpheme that is added to the stem of the verb is usually spelt -s, but there are
exceptions:
1. When the verb ends in a -y that follows a consonant, the result of the addition is -ies:
e.g. cry - cries, fly - flies, occupy - occupies
compare: play - plays, obey - obeys, buy - buys
2. We have -es after
a. verbs ending in a hissing-sound (sibilant) and not spelt with -e at the end: e.g. kisses,
catches, fixes, crushes
b. verbs ending in -o (with the exception of verbs ending in -oo): e.g. does, vetoes, echoes;
coos, shampoos
II. Forms in -(e)d: past tense and past participle of weak verbs
This morpheme is usually spelt -ed. However:
 64

1. Verbs ending in -e, oe or -ee take -d

e.g. loved, moved, agreed, freed, dyed (of the verb dye), hoed (of the verb hoe), canoed, centred
2. Verbs in -y: -y becomes -ied after a consonant
e.g. cried, occupied, tried; played, obeyed
Exceptions: paid, laid (past tense and past participle of lay), said. (Notice that only said has an
irregular pronunciation.)
3. Sometimes there is doubling of the final consonant of the verb stem:
a. As a rule, the final consonant is doubled if two conditions are satisfied: (a) it is immediately
preceded by a vowel represented by a single grapheme (letter), and (b) the syllable in which it
occurs has the word-stress.
e.g. cp. dripped, lagged, preferred, equipped, occurred
entered, repeated, zoomed
Note: A final y, -w or -x is never doubled (e.g. stayed, mowed, mixed).
b. In Br.E., the final l is always doubled after a single vowel grapheme, even if the final syllable is
not stressed. (In Am.E., l is doubled only if the syllable is stressed.)
e.g. travelled, equalled, quarrelled, signalled
c. There are some cases of doubling of the final consonant after an unstressed short vowel:
1) The p in kidnapped, handicapped, worshipped (no doubling here in Am.E.)
2) There is optional doubling of the s in bias(s)ed and focus(s)ed
3) Final c is doubled into ck
e.g. picnic - picnicked, mimic - mimicked, bivouac - bivouacked, traffic - trafficked, frolic
- frolicked
4) Final g is always doubled into gg (e.g. humbug - humbugged).
5) m is doubled in Br.E. programmed
The same rules for doubling the final consonant apply when -ing is added. In fact they apply
whenever a suffix beginning with a vowel is added. This means that final consonants may also
be doubled when adjectives, nouns, etc. are derived.
e.g. beggar, picnicker, gossipy, deterrent, panicky (but: preferable)
There are, however, exceptions to this rule:
1) final l is not doubled when such a suffix is added to adjectives in -al (e.g. loyal, real,
ideal).
e.g. idealism, idealize, idealist; loyalist; reality, realistic, realism, realize
2) final l is not always doubled: perilous, novelist, etc.
3) final r is not doubled in transferable and inferable (cp. transferred, inferring, etc.).
Note:
Besides the weak verbs, to which the above rules for forming simple past and past participle forms apply,
there are a number of strong verbs, whose past and past participle forms are irregular:35 (The numbers in
brackets refer to the notes at the end of the list.)

35. Apart from the verbs included in the list below there are some other, less common, strong verbs:
beget begot begotten
beseech besought besought
bestride bestrode bestridden, bestrid, bestrode
chide chid, chided chidden, chid, chided
gird girt, girded girt, girded
hew hewed hewed, hewn
rend rent rent
shrive shrove, shrived shriven, shrived
slay slew slain
sling slung slung
smite smote smitten
 65

abide abode, abided abode, abided (1)

arise arose arisen
awake awoke, (awaked) awoken, (awaked)
be was/were been
bear bore borne (2)
beat beat beaten
become became become
befall befell befallen
begin began begun
behold beheld beheld
bend bent bent (3)
bereave bereft, bereaved bereft, bereaved (4)
beset beset beset
bet bet bet
betted (Br.E.) betted (Br.E.)
betake betook betaken
bethink bethought bethought
bid bid, bade bid, bidden (5)
bind bound bound
bite bit bitten, (bit)
bleed bled bled
blow blew blown
break broke broken
breed bred bred
bring brought brought
broadcast broadcast broadcast
build built built
burn burnt (esp. Br.E.) burnt (esp. Br.E.) (6)
burned (esp. Am.E.) burned (esp. Am.E.)
burst burst burst
buy bought bought
cast cast cast
catch caught caught
choose chose chosen
cleave cleft, clove, cleft, cloven, (7)
(cleaved) (cleaved)
cling clung clung
come came come
cost cost cost (8)
creep crept crept
cut cut cut
deal dealt dealt
dig dug dug
dive dived dived
dove (infml Am.E.)
do did done
draw drew drawn
 66

dream dreamt (esp. Br.E.) dreamt (esp. Br.E.)

dreamed (esp. Am.E.) dreamed (esp. Am.E.)
drink drank drunk
drive drove driven
dwell dwelt (esp. Br.E.) dwelt (esp. Br.E.)
dwelled (esp. Am.E.) dwelled (esp. Am.E.)
eat ate eaten (9)
fall fell fallen
feed fed fed
feel felt felt
fight fought fought
find found found
flee fled fled
fling flung flung
fly flew flown
forbear forbore forborne
forbid forbade, forbad forbidden
forecast forecast forecast
(forecasted) (forecasted)
foresee foresaw foreseen
foretell foretold foretold
forget forgot forgotten
forgive forgave forgiven
forsake forsook forsaken
forswear forswore forsworn
freeze froze frozen
get got got
gotten (Am.E.) (10)
give gave given
go went gone
grind ground ground
grow grew grown
hang hung hung (11)
have had had
hear heard heard
heave heaved, hove heaved, hove (12)
hide hid hidden
hit hit hit
hold held held
hurt hurt hurt
keep kept kept
kneel knelt knelt
kneeled (esp. Am.E.) kneeled (esp. Am.E.)
knit knitted, (knit) knitted, (knit) (13)
know knew known
lead led led
lean leant (esp. Br.E.) leant (esp. Br.E.)
 67

leaned (esp. Am.E.) leaned (esp. Am.E.)

leap leapt leapt
leaped (esp. Am.E.) leaped (esp. Am.E.)
learn learnt learnt
learned (esp. Am.E.) learned (esp. Am.E.) (14)
leave left left
lend lent lent
let let let
lie lay lain (15)
light lit, lighted lit, lighted (16)
lose lost lost
make made made
mean meant meant
meet met met
mow mowed mowed, mown (17)
put put put
quit quit, quitted quit, quitted
read read read
rid rid, ridded rid, ridded
ride rode ridden
ring rang rung
rise rose risen
run ran run
saw sawed sawed, sawn
say said said
see saw seen
seek sought sought
sell sold sold
send sent sent
set set set
sew sewed sewed, sewn
shake shook shaken
shear sheared shorn, sheared
shed shed shed (18)
shine shone shone (19)
shoe shod shod
shoed (esp. Am.E.) shoed (esp. Am.E.)
shoot shot shot
show showed shown, (showed)
shrink shrank, shrunk shrunk
shut shut shut
sing sang sung
sink sank sunk
sit sat sat
sleep slept slept
slide slid slid
slink slunk slunk
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slit slit slit

smell smelt (esp. Br.E.) smelt (esp. Br.E.)
smelled (esp. Am.E.) smelled (esp. Am.E.)
sow sowed sown, sowed
speak spoke spoken
speed sped, speeded sped, speeded
spell spelt (esp. Br.E.) spelt (esp. Br.E.)
spelled (esp. Am.E.) spelled (esp. Am.E.)
spend spent spent
spill spilt (esp. Br.E.) spilt (esp. Br.E.)
spilled (esp. Am.E.) spilled (esp. Am.E.)
spin spun, (span) spun
spit spat spat
spit (esp. Am.E.) spit (esp. Am.E.)
split split split
spoil spoilt (esp. Br.E.) spoilt (esp. Br.E.)
spoiled (esp. Am.E.) spoiled (esp. Am.E.) (20)
spread spread spread
spring sprang sprung
stand stood stood
steal stole stolen
stick stuck stuck
stink stank, stunk stunk
strew strewed strewed, strewn
stride strode stridden
strike struck struck
string strung strung
strive strove, strived striven, strived
swear swore sworn
sweep swept swept
swell swelled swelled, swollen (21)
swim swam swum
swing swung swung
take took taken
teach taught taught
tear tore torn
tell told told
think thought thought
thrive throve, thrived thrived, (thriven)
throw threw thrown
thrust thrust thrust
tread trod trodden, trod
understand understood understood
upset upset upset
wake woke, (waked) woken, (waked)
wear wore worn
weave wove woven
 69

wed wed, wedded wed, wedded (22)

weep wept wept
wet wet, wetted wet, wetted
win won won
wind wound wound (23)
withdraw withdrew withdrawn
withhold withheld withheld
withstand withstood withstood
wring wrung wrung
write wrote written

Notes:
(1) Abide is irregular in the sense of ‘stay’, ‘remain’, ‘live’. (In this meaning the verb is literary or
archaic.) It is regular in the (more usual) sense of ‘be faithful to’, ‘obey (laws, regulations, etc.)’.
e.g. They abode at the seaside for some time.
She always abided by her promises/decisions.
(2) The normal past participle of bear is borne. But notice the form born in He was born on February 1,
1949.
(3) Bended is found only in the phrase on one’s bended knees.
(4) Only bereaved is used to speak of the death of a relative or friend.
e.g. a bereaved father/mother (= whose child has died)
The war had bereaved them of their son.
to be bereft of one’s senses
(5) Only bid, bid, bid, can be used in the meaning ‘to make an offer’, ‘to offer a price (at an auction)’.
Bade can be pronounced /beId/ or /bAd/.
(6) The verb sunburn is regular, but the corresponding adjective is sunburnt: e.g. sunburnt shoulders.
(7) Cleft and cloven are not interchangeable in the expressions a cleft palate, a cleft sentence, a cloven
hoof.
(8) Cost is regular in the meaning ‘to calculate the price to be charged for (a job, someone’s time, etc.)’.
e.g. The carpenter costed the job at about thirty pounds.
(9) Ate is pronounced /et/ or /eIt/. The latter pronunciation is less usual in Br.E. than in Am.E.
(10) Am.E. gotten is used only in some senses of the word, e.g. ‘come’, ‘acquire’, ‘cause’.
(11) Hang is a weak verb in the meaning ‘execute by hanging’ (e.g. Murderers used to be hanged).
(12) Heave is irregular only in nautical use (e.g. A ship hove in sight (= became visible))
(13) Knit is regular in its literal meaning (e.g. She knitted a sweater), but usually irregular in the meaning
of ‘(cause to) join or grow firmly together’ (e.g. a close-knit argument).
(14) Note the adjective learned (whose suffix is pronounced /Id/: a learned man.
(15) Lie is regular in the sense of ‘tell a lie’ and irregular in the sense of ‘be in a lying position’. It should
not be confused with lay (= cause to lie), which is a regular weak verb, except for the fact that we
write laid instead of *layed.
e.g. He lied to me about the cost of the project.
The gun lay in the drawer.
I laid the gun in the drawer.
(16) The past participle lighted is used only as a premodifier.
e.g. He has lit a match. The match is lit.
a lighted match
(17) Only mown is used before a noun (e.g. mown grass).
 70

(18) Shed is a weak verb when it means ‘put in a shed’.

(19) When a verb (e.g. spoil, burn, dream, learn, dwell, spell, spill...) has both regular and irregular past
tense and past participle forms, the regular forms are usually preferred in Am.E. In Br.E. the
irregular forms are preferred, unless the situation referred to has a certain duration.
e.g. cp. The oil well burned for weeks.
The coffee that was spilt burnt his legs.
cp. He learnt his lesson.
He learned what he had to know from his father.
cp. He stepped from his bike and leant it against the wall.
He leaned out of the window to see who was at the door.
Only the irregular past participle forms are normally found in adjectival use: spilt tea, a spoilt child,
a misspelt word.
(20) Transitive shine (= polish) is a weak verb.
e.g. He always shined his shoes when he went to a meeting.
(21) Only swollen is used as an adjective.
e.g. Her feet were swollen as a result of the heat.
She has had a swollen ankle for several days.
(22) In standard Br.E., the strong forms are rarely used.
(23) Wind is regular in the sense ‘to cause to be breathless’.
e.g. The blow on my chest winded me.
The brook wound through meadows and bushes.
Does that clock need to be wound (up)?

III. Forms in -ing: present participle or gerund

Some notes on orthography:
1. Final -e is normally dropped when -ing is added.
e.g. leaving, biting, managing, changing
Exceptions:
a. words in -inge: the final -e is maintained when there is a similar verb form in -ing; if there is no
such form, it is dropped.
e.g singe - singeing (cp. sing - singing)
swinge - swingeing (cp. swing - swinging)
tinge - tingeing (cp. ting - tinging)
hinge - hinging
infringe - infringing
cringe - cringing
twinge - twinging
Notice also: ag(e)ing (preferably with e)
b. verbs ending in -ee, -oe, -ye (not -ue!):
e.g. agreeing, freeing, guaranteeing
shoeing, hoeing, tiptoeing
dyeing (of the verb dye), eyeing
subduing, pursuing, continuing
2. Final -y is retained:
e.g. drying, occupying, crying, staying, buying, enjoying, obeying
3. Final -ie becomes y:
e.g. to die - dying, lie - lying, tie - tying
 71

Note: to ski - skiing

4. Doubling of the final consonant: same rules as for forms in -(e)d.

§ 4. FORMATION OF THE COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE

I. Regular forms in -er and -est

A. ORTHOGRAPHY
1. Adjectives ending in -e take -r and -st instead of -er and -est.
e.g. fine - finer - finest; noble - nobler - noblest; free - freer - freest; blue - bluer - bluest; rare - rarer
- rarest
2. The final consonant is doubled after a stressed vowel that is spelt with a single grapheme.
e.g. hotter, bigger, thinner, redder, fitter; greater, suddener
The final l is always doubled after a short vowel.
e.g. cruel - crueller - cruellest
Exception: adjectives in -al (e.g. loyalest)
3. Final y becomes ie after a consonant.
e.g. happier, deadliest, drier, driest; gayer, greyest
The y is, however, maintained in shyer, shyest and slyer, slyest.

B. WHICH GRADABLE ADJECTIVES CAN TAKE -ER, -EST?

1. Practically all monosyllabic ones
e.g. richer, harder, strongest, highest
2. Disyllabic adjectives can normally take the suffixes if the resulting comparative or superlative has
only one syllable after the word stress, or at most two. (In the latter case the first syllable has to be
very short.)
This means that -er and -est can in principle be added to
a. disyllabic adjectives with the stress on the last syllable
e.g. polite, complete, obscure, profound, concise, severe, genteel
Excluded are the adjectives that can be used predicatively only (i.e. which cannot precede a
noun). These have to be used with more and most.
e.g alive, aware, afraid, asleep, ajar, askew, content
b. disyllabic adjectives ending in -ly, -le, -er, -ow, and -y
e.g. lonely, ugly, costly; noble, simple, gentle, feeble; bitter, clever, slender; narrow, yellow,
hollow, shallow; pretty, happy, bloody, angry
But: *eagerer, *properer
c. a few other disyllabic adjectives
e.g. common, cruel, pleasant, quiet, stupid, wicked, sudden
3. Adjectives mentioned under 1 and 2 also take -er and -est when a negative prefix is added to them.
e.g. impoliter, ignobler, unhappier
But more and most are also often used.
4. Compounds like fine-looking: the adjective may sometimes take the regular endings.
e.g. finer-looking, kinder-hearted, oldest-established
II. Irregular forms
A. Note the following forms: good - better -best; bad - worse - worst; much/many - more - most
Note: The degrees of comparison of the quantifier little (= a small quantity, e.g. little milk) are: little
- less - least. The forms of the adjective (= small) are: little - littler - littlest. However, the forms
little and littlest are very unusual: people normally use smaller and smallest. There is also a
 72

(rather formal) form lesser, which means ‘not so great/much’, ‘minor’ (e.g. the lesser of two
evils, a lesser-known poet).
B. The adjective old has two forms: older/elder, oldest/eldest. The forms older and oldest are always
possible. The forms elder and eldest can only substitute for them if two conditions are
simultaneously satisfied: (1) the reference must be to a person (or persons) in family relationship,
and (2) the comparative or superlative must be used attributively (i.e. before a noun).
e.g. My eldest/oldest sister lives in Germany.
The oldest member of the committee is automatically the chairman.
My son is older than yours.
There is one exception to the second condition: elder and eldest can follow a linking verb when
preceded by the.36
e.g. His sons look very alike. Which is the elder?
C. The adjective far also allows two forms: farther/further and farthest/furthest. As a rule, farther and
farthest refer to distance only. Further and furthest can refer to distance (except in Am.E.), but can
also be used figuratively.
e.g. It is further/farther from London to Atlanta than from London to New York.
Further information will be sent to your home address. (further = ‘additional’, ‘more’, ‘extra’)
the College of Further Education (= ‘more advanced’)
D. The normal comparative and superlative forms of late are later and latest. However, there are two
other forms to be considered, viz. latter and last:
1. Later is an indication of time (the opposite of earlier).
e.g. There is no later bus than this.
2. Latter can have two meanings:
a. ‘the second (of two people or things just referred to) (= the opposite of former)
e.g. Of the magpie and the sparrow, the latter (bird) is more beautiful.
Did he buy the house or rent it? -- The latter seems more plausible.
b. ‘nearer to the end’
e.g. the latter half of the year (= the second half)
the latter years of his life
3. Latest means ‘most recent’, and is the usual form when we talk about something new.
e.g. In his latest speech he announced drastic reforms.
Have you heard the latest (news)? John’s bought a car!
She always wears the latest (fashion) in bathing-suits.
4. last can have several meanings:
a. In many cases it is the opposite of first and refers to the last item(s) of a set or to the end of
a series:
1) ‘after all others’, ‘following all the rest’, ‘final’
e.g. the last two days of the month
the second last line of the poem
Cheryl was the last to arrive.
We hope his latest novel will not be his last.
The last I heard, he was leaving for Canada.
2) ‘(being) the only remaining’
e.g. This is my last pencil.
Let’s eat the last of the pie.

36. As a matter of fact, this use is also attributive, but the headword has been deleted.
 73

3) ‘the least suitable or likely’

e.g. He’s the last person I’d invite.
b. ‘before this one’, ‘preceding’, ‘previous’
e.g. He’s been abroad for the last 4 or 5 years.
This meeting was better than last (week’s).
I do not like his latest novel as much as I liked his last one.
Last Wednesday was the 7th.
the week before last
E. The normal superlative form of near is nearest. Apart from this, there is the form next, which means
‘the following (in a sequence)’:
e.g. next Sunday, next morning
Who’s the next applicant?
We must get off the train at the next stop.
When is your next visit to this town?
We’ll have to stop at the nearest petrol station. We’re running out of fuel.
When are you coming back? -- On the Sunday nearest to Christmas.
Note: Compare the prepositions nearest to and next to:
cp. Could the person nearest to the window close it, please?
Who’s the man sitting next to the window? (= beside the window)
III. Degrees of comparison with more and most
More and most are used if there are no regular forms available. Even with adjectives that can take -er and
-est, they often present a more natural alternative.
Whereas more and most indicate comparison in positive sense, less and least can be used for comparison
in negative sense.
Note: The adjective able can take regular endings only when it is used attributively (i.e. before a noun).
When used predicatively (i.e. after a copula), its degrees of comparison are more/better able and
most/best able.
e.g. She is the ablest girl there is for this kind of job.
I don’t think anybody would be better able to do it.
IV. Latin comparatives
English contains a number of adjectives which were originally Latin comparatives: inferior, posterior,
superior, junior, senior, anterior, exterior, interior, prior. Only a couple of them can still be used with a
comparative meaning. In that case they are not followed by than but by to.
e.g. Our simple impressions are prior to their corresponding ideas.

§ 5. THE FORMATION OF ADVERBS

I. The form of the adverb

A. Some adverbs have a form of their own, without there being any corresponding adjective. Some
grammars call them primary or basic adverbs.
e.g. perhaps, sometimes, below, always, well, often, still, too, then
B. Some adverbs have the same form as the corresponding adjective.
e.g. fast (to run fast - a fast runner)
hard (to work hard - a hard worker)
long (to wait long - a long time)
early (to come early - an early call)
 74

only (once only - an only child)

kindly (to speak kindly - a kindly heart)
late (to work late - a late dinner)
daily/weekly/monthly/yearly (A daily paper is published daily.)
C. Many adverbs are derived from adjectives by means of the suffix -ly.
e.g. angrily, happily, simply, coolly, civilly
Some are similarly derived from nouns.
e.g. namely, partly, purposely
D. In some cases an adverb in -ly alternates with an adverb that has the same form as the adjective.
There is usually a difference in meaning or use. The following are some typical examples: 37
1. Close:
e.g. They guard him closely. (= in a close manner)
The bereaved followed close behind the hearse. (= near)
2. Direct:
e.g. Does this train go direct to Cambridge? (= without stopping, straight)
The butcher’s is directly opposite the post office.
Can’t you answer questions directly?
Come directly to the studio! (infml) (= at once)
3. Fair : Fair is only used in expressions like play fair, fight fair. Otherwise we use fairly.
e.g. We’ve been treated fairly by them.
4. Free:
e.g. You can eat free if you are a member of the club. (= without paying)
You can walk about freely. This is no prison (= without restriction)
5. Hard: The adverb hard has a meaning similar to that of the adjective. Hardly means ‘almost
not’.
e.g. I hit him hard in the stomach.
I’ve hardly had time to consider what to do.
6. High: The adverb high refers to height; highly is an adverb of degree (intensifier).
e.g. The kite went high into the air.
She can jump very high for her age.
This is highly intriguing.
She’s not very highly paid.
7. Late:
e.g. I went to bed late last night.
I haven’t been abroad lately.
8. Loud: Loud is often used instead of loudly after verbs such as talk, speak, shout, laugh.
9. Pretty:
e.g. Little girls like to be prettily dressed. (= in a pretty way)
It’s pretty hot in the factory. (= fairly, rather)
10. Right: Right is used in the meanings ‘just’, ‘exactly’ and ‘all the way’ (before a PP).
e.g. The car broke down right in the middle of the forest.
We’ll go upstairs right after supper.
Keep right on to the roundabout.

37. Some other instances are typical of an informal style.

e.g. quick : in informal spoken English, quick is often used instead of quickly, especially after verbs of movement.
e.g. I’ll come back as quick as I can.
e.g. real : in informal spoken English (esp.in Am.E.), real is often used instead of the intensifier really (e.g. That was real nice of her,
She sings real well).
 75

Rightly means ‘correctly’, ‘justly’. 38

e.g. I rightly assumed that he was after my money.
The referee sent him off, and rightly so.
Did I guess rightly?
Only right is possible in the sense of ‘to the right-hand side’.
e.g. At the T-junction, turn right.
11. Sharp: Sharp is used in the expression turn sharp left/right and in indications of time like at 6
o’clock sharp (= punctually). Otherwise sharply is used (e.g. look sharply at, speak sharply).
12. Short: Short is used as an adverb in the expressions stop short (= stop suddenly, abruptly) and
cut short (= interrupt). Shortly can mean ‘soon’, ‘briefly’ or ‘sharply/impatiently’.
e.g. He died shortly afterwards.
The judge kept cutting short the witnesses.
Please try to explain your problem shortly!
He answered my questions rather shortly.
13. Slow: Slow can follow verbs such as go, drive, speak. In all other cases we use slowly.
14. Tight: In informal spoken English, tight can be used instead of tightly after a verb (e.g. hold
tight, packed tight, (cp. tightly packed), shut tight).
15. Wide: Widely means ‘to a large extent or degree’ or ‘over a large area’. Otherwise wide is used.
e.g. This author is widely known/read.
I’m not one who has travelled widely, but I have read widely. (= to many different places; many
types of book)
The two of them differ widely in their opinions.
The janitor opened the door wide.
16. Wrong: Wrong can replace wrongly after a verb, esp. in informal conversation.
e.g. I thought he wouldn’t do it, but I guessed wrong(ly).
I wrongly assumed that I had to take my shoes off in the temple.
E. Adverbs may be derived by means of other suffixes as well:
1. Adverbs in -wise are derived from nouns or adjectives.
e.g coastwise, clockwise, counterclockwise, likewise, otherwise, sunwise
2. Adverbs in -wards are derived from nouns (e.g. backwards, homewards, landwards,
northwards, seawards) or prepositions/adverbs (e.g. inwards, downwards, upwards,
afterwards).
Note:
a. All these adverbs can also be built with -ward instead of -wards. In Am.E. the latter forms
are even unusual. The forms in -ward can also be used as adjectives (e.g. an upward
movement).
b. We normally use forward, not forwards.
3. Adverbs in -ways are derived from nouns (e.g. sideways, lengthways).

II. The formation of adverbs in -ly

Adverbs (especially of manner) can be derived from adjectives by the addition of -ly. The following are
some special cases:
A. When the adjective ends in -ll we add -y instead of -ly.
e.g. chill - chilly, dull - dully, full - fully
B. Adjectives in -y:

38. In informal English, right can also have this meaning, provided it follows the verb: Did I guess right?, It’ll serve him right.
 76

1. As a rule, a final y preceded by a consonant changes into i before the -ly suffix.
e.g. heavily, tastily, happily; coyly
The same thing happens in gaily and daily.
However, a few monosyllabic adjectives preserve the y: shyly, slyly, dryly (or drily).
2. Adjectives in -ly mostly have no corresponding adverb.
e.g. deadly, beastly, kindly, friendly, kingly
But those indicating time can be used as adverbs without a change:
e.g. hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, early, yearly, quarterly
C Adjectives in -e do not normally drop this -e before -ly.
e.g. palely, rarely, solely, finely, vilely, safely, fertilely
Exceptions:
1. those ending in -le
e.g. simple - simply ; noble - nobly ; gentle - gently ; idle - idly ; notable - notably
2. those ending in -ue
e.g. true - truly ; due - duly
3. the adverb wholly
D. Adjectives in -ic derive their adverbs by means of -ally:
e.g. athletic - athletically; poetic - poetically; comic - comically; tragic - tragically; systematic -
systematically; drastic - drastically; archaic - archaically
Exception: public - publicly
Note:
Some adjectives end in -ic, others in -ical:
1. Adjectives ending in -ical:
a. adjectives derived from nouns ending in -ic and some adjectives derived from nouns in -ics
e.g. critical, cynical, logical, mechanical, musical, tactical, topical, statistical,
mathematical
b. adjectives ending in -logical
e.g. biological, sociological, zoological, psychological
c. some others:
e.g. chemical, grammatical, hypothetical, lexical, medical, physical, radical, surgical,
technical
2. Adjectives ending in -ic.
e.g. academic, aesthetic, artistic, athletic, catholic, diplomatic, domestic, dramatic, emphatic,
energetic, fantastic, hygienic, lethargic, linguistic, majestic, neurotic, phonetic, prolific,
public, pathetic, schizophrenic, semantic, sympathetic, syntactic, systematic, tragic...
In older English, some of these words ended in -ical (e.g. fantastical, majestical, tragical).
When new adjectives are formed, they always end in -ic (e.g. aerodynamic, electronic) (except
for the ones in -logical).
3. A couple of adjectives can have the two forms.
e.g. egoistic(al), fanatic(al), strategic(al), arithmetic(al), geometric(al)
4. In some cases, both forms exist, but with a different meaning:
a. Classic means ‘a famous or supreme example of its type’.
e.g. Citizen Kane is a classic film of the fifties.
Classical refers to the art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, or to music of the
period 1750-1800.
e.g. Latin and Greek are the so-called classical languages.
Do you like classical music?
 77

b. Comic is the adjective that is normally used in connection with artistic comedy. Comical is
a (rather old-fashioned) synonym of ‘funny’ (= ‘amusing in an odd way’, ‘strange’).
e.g. comic opera/verse
a comical hat/expression
c. Economical means ‘careful in spending, not wasteful’. To refer to economics or to an
economy we use economic.
e.g. economic theory/progress/problems
an economical heating system/housekeeper/car
d. Historic means ‘making history’, ‘important or famous in history’; historical means ‘of,
about or related to history or the study of history’.
e.g. a historic date/building/place/event
the historical method
a historical novel
Historical is also used in the sense of ‘that has really existed or happened in the past’.
e.g. a historical figure/event/character
 78

CHAPTER 3

TENSE AND ASPECT

§ 1. TENSE AND TIME

I. INTRODUCTION
A. To locate a situation in time English makes use of various tenses. 39 When we consider the ways in
which these tenses are used, we see that English speakers conceive time as divided into two time-spheres:
the past time-sphere and the present time-sphere.
The past time-sphere is conceived as lying wholly before the time of utterance (TU). The present time-
sphere includes TU and is divided by it into three parts: the pre-present sector (that part of the present
time-sphere that lies before TU), the present sector (that part of the present time-sphere that is centred
around TU) and the post-present sector (that part of the present time-sphere that follows TU).
Situations that precede TU are located either in the past time-sphere or in the pre-present sector. If they
are located in the pre-present it means that the speaker is somehow thinking of the present when reporting
the past situation.
There are four tenses that typically represent a situation as belonging to the past time-sphere. We call
them the past (time-sphere) tenses: the past tense, the past perfect, the conditional tense and the
conditional perfect.
The other four tenses typically represent a situation as lying in the present time-sphere. We call them the
present (time-sphere) tenses: the present tense, the present perfect, the future tense and the future
perfect.
B. In a complex sentence or in a stretch of discourse (text) the situations of the various clauses are often
temporally related to each other. In that case we can speak of a temporal domain.
e.g. Jim said that he was pleased that Bill had sent him a letter and that he would write a reply as soon as
possible.
In this example the reference is to a ‘past domain’, i.e. a time interval which lies in the past time-sphere
and which comprises the times of the four situations referred to. The domain is established by the past
tense form said. The past tense form was represents the situation of John being pleased as simultaneous
with the saying; the past perfect had sent represents its situation as anterior to the situation of John being
pleased, and the conditional tense form would write represents its situation as posterior to the saying.
For ease of reference, the following terms will be introduced:
1. A situation that is represented as anterior to, simultaneous with, or posterior to another situation is
temporally subordinated to or bound by the latter. In the above example, was pleased, had sent
him a letter and would write a reply refer to temporally subordinated (temporally bound) situations.
The situation to which was pleased and would write a reply are temporally subordinated (i.e. the
binding situation) is the situation denoted by said. The situation referred to by was pleased in its
turn binds the situation referred to by had sent him a letter.
2. The situation that establishes the temporal domain will be called the central situation of the
domain. The central situation is the only situation that is not temporally subordinated to another
situation in the domain. In the above example it is the situation denoted by said.

39. The term ‘situation’ is used as a cover-term for anything that can be expressed in a sentence, viz. an action, process, event or state.
 79

3. A tense form which establishes a domain (i.e. which refers to the central situation of the domain) is
an absolute tense form. There are four absolute tenses in English: the past tense, the present perfect,
the present tense and the future tense. We use these tenses to establish a domain in the past time-
sphere, the pre-present sector, the present sector, and the post-present sector, respectively. It is
typical of absolute tenses that they relate their situation directly to TU, not to another situation.
4. Tenses that are not used to establish a domain, but rather to relate a situation to another situation, are
relative tenses. In the above example there are three relative tense forms: was (which expresses
simultaneity), had sent (which expresses anteriority) and would write (which expresses posteriority).
C. In a stretch of discourse the speaker must decide for each new clause whether he is going to
incorporate the situation in the existing temporal domain or whether he is going to have the clause
establish a new temporal domain. (In the latter case we can speak of a shift of domain.) For example:
(1) (a) I left while Bill was sleeping and Mary was having a bath.
(b) Suddenly the phone rang. Jill stood up from her chair, went over to the telephone and
picked up the receiver.
In (1,a) the three situations are simultaneous with each other. That is, left is an absolute past tense form
establishing a past domain, and the other two preterite forms are relative tense forms which represent
their situations as simultaneous with the central situation (left). 40 The three situations are thus located
within the same domain. In (1,b) the situations follow each other, but the tense forms do not relate any of
them to one of the other situations: instead of using relative tense forms expressing anteriority (viz. the
past perfect) or posteriority (viz. the conditional), the speaker each time uses an absolute past tense form.
Each new clause therefore shifts the domain (i.e. establishes a new domain).
Compare also:
(2) (a) I knew Bill had been in Yugoslavia before. He had been there when he was still a child.
(b) I knew Bill had been in Yugoslavia before. He went there when he was still a child.
In (2,a) the situations of both the clauses with had been are temporally subordinated to the situation
described by knew. In fact, all three clauses belong to the same temporal domain. In (2,b), on the other
hand, went is an absolute tense form which shifts the domain.
When there is a shift of domain within the past time-sphere (as in (2,b)), the tense forms themselves do
not express the temporal relation between the two domains. For this reason, a shift of domain within the
past time-sphere requires that the temporal order of the situations should be clear from the use of time
adverbials, from the order in which the situations are reported (as in (1,b)), from the context (as in (2,b))
or from pragmatic knowledge (i.e. our general knowledge of the world). For example:
(3) (a) The soldier got seriously wounded. He died shortly afterwards.
(b) The soldier got seriously wounded. He would die shortly afterwards.
In (3,a), where there is a shift of temporal domain (because died is an absolute preterite), the time
adverbial shortly afterwards situates the second domain relative to the first. However, the tense forms
(got wounded, died) do not provide the information that the second domain is posterior to the first; the
only information they furnish is that the two domains belong to the past time-sphere. In (3,b) the two
clauses belong to the same domain. The information that the situation of the second clause is posterior to
that of the first clause is now furnished both by the temporal adverbial and by the tense form of the
second clause (would die).
A similar illustration is provided by the following sentences:
(4) (a) In that year Gandhi died. He had been a popular hero, who had made an invaluable
contribution to the creation of modern India.

40. The past tense can be used both as an absolute tense and as a relative tense.
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(b) In that year Gandhi died. He had been a popular hero, who made an invaluable
contribution to the creation of modern India.
(c) In that year Gandhi died. He was a popular hero, who made an invaluable contribution to
the creation of modern India.
These three sentences show three different ways of locating the same three situations in time. In (4,a) the
first preterite (died) establishes a past domain, and the two situations referred to in the second sentence
are related as anterior to this central situation. In doing so they are not related to each other, but it is
pragmatically clear that the two situations can only be understood as being roughly simultaneous with
each other. Sentence (4,b) differs from (4,a) only in that the third situation (made) is now represented as
simultaneous with the second situation, instead of as anterior to the first. The information that the third
situation is anterior to the first remains recoverable from the temporal relations expressed (since the third
situation is simultaneous with the second, which is itself anterior to the first). In (4,c), finally, the second
clause (was) shifts the domain. The information that the second and third situations are anterior to the
first is no longer linguistically expressed. It is, however, still recoverable from our pragmatic knowledge
of the world.
D. In some cases a situation lying in one time-sphere or sector is represented as if it belonged to a
different time-sphere or sector. A typical example of such a shift of temporal perspective is the use of
the so-called historic present: situations from the past time-sphere are represented as if they belonged to
the present time-sphere. In oral narrative the reason for this shift of perspective is that the speaker wants
to describe events vividly, as if they were happening in his presence.
e.g. So I’m sitting there on that bench, reading my newspaper, when this guy walks up to me and starts
beating me.
Suddenly a man in uniform takes me by the arm and asks me what I’m doing there.
Sentences in the historic present are usually intermixed with sentences in the past tense. In many cases
they contain an adverbial indicating past time.
e.g. Suddenly the door swings open and a man rushes into the room. He snatches Maud’s handbag from
her hands and disappears through the French window. We were so flabbergasted that he was gone
before any one of us reacted.
Last week I’m watching Newsnight on television when suddenly there’s a terrific explosion. You’ll
never believe this, but my whole TV-set was gone; it had, as they say, “imploded”.
English frequently makes use of the possibility of shifting the temporal perspective. Further instances of
this will be pointed out below.

II. THE ABSOLUTE TENSES

A. THE PRESENT TENSE
1. The basic use of the present tense as absolute tense is to locate a situation in the present sector, i.e. to
represent it as holding at TU.
It should be noted that the present sector is a timespan whose length cannot be measured in any
objective way. The speaker is free to conceive the present sector as a period of any length, as long as
it is a period that is centred around TU. It follows that a situation located in the present sector may
be either very short or very long.
e.g. Here comes the winner!
It’s drizzling.
He works as a history teacher at the local boys’ school. (permanent situation)
Our teacher speaks Swedish fluently. (permanent ability)
I like every kind of perfume. (permanent characteristic)
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We walk to work every day. (permanent habit)

The present sector receives its maximal interpretation in so-called universal statements (expressing
an eternal truth):
The sun sets in the west.
Ice melts at zero degrees Centigrade.
Paris lies on the Seine.
2. Apart from the historic present, there are a couple of cases in which a shift of temporal perspective
underlies the use of the present tense:
a. The present tense can be used instead of the present perfect to refer to a pre-present speech act
that is still relevant at TU.
e.g. I hear you’re going to buy a new car.
My solicitor writes to me that I have inherited some money from an unknown uncle in
America.
They tell me you’ve been to Greece. (infml)
I am informed that your contribution is long overdue. (fml)
Not only verbs of communication but also cognition verbs referring to the decoding of the
message can be used in this way:
e.g. I see there’s been another earthquake in Turkey.
I gather/understand he has left the firm rather suddenly.
b. In newspaper headlines all situations are normally referred to in the present tense:
e.g. (Brighton) Man bites leopard. Both now in hospital.
Two gangsters escape from the Old Bailey.
Typhoon ravages East-Malaysia.
c. The present tense is used in the synopsis of a novel or play, in historical summaries, tables of
date, etc.
e.g. That night Cinderella goes to the ball in the clothes the fairy has given her.
It is then that David Copperfield decides to run away from his horrible stepfather.
The Book of Exodus relates how the Israelites leave Egypt, pursued by the Pharaoh, and
wander through the desert for many years.
Memlinc is one of the best known of the Flemish Primitives.
May 1940 -- Hitler invades Belgium and the Netherlands.
In his review of my book, C.N. Smith writes that he fails to see the relevance of...
d. Situations that lie in the future of TU are sometimes located in the present sector rather than in
the post-present one. This shift of perspective has semantic import, which is slightly different
according as the present tense is nonprogressive or progressive.
1) The simple (nonprogressive) present tense is used when the future situation is felt to be
completely determined by circumstances that already exist at TU.41 The simple present
therefore represents the future situation as absolutely certain, i.e. as a fact. It implies that
the speaker feels that he has no control over the future situation. Typical instances of this
use of the simple present are:
a) statements about the calendar
e.g. Next year Whit Sunday falls on 11 May.
The yearly flower show opens on the first Saturday of August.
The celebration takes place somewhere in July.
b) timetable announcements.

41. Some grammars speak of the simple present, others of the present simple.
 82

e.g. cp. The bus leaves at 4.17 p.m. (= a simple statement of fact: the future
situation is seen as unalterable, inevitable, because absolutely
predetermined)
The bus will leave at 4 p.m. (= a prediction or speculation about what the
speaker thinks will happen)
e.g. Flight 106 takes off at 11.45 p.m.
In this use the subject is mostly inanimate.
c) sentences expressing that a future situation is the result of a definite plan, agreement
or arrangement which is regarded as unalterable.
e.g. We reached an agreement with the landlord: he moves out in the beginning of
the week and we move in during the week-end.
Most of the academic people that have attended the conference leave tonight.
The chairman retires at the end of the year.
My father goes to live in Spain when he is sixty-five.
d) if the future event is felt to be certain because it results from a habitual or regular
pattern that already exists.
e.g. The gates of the park open in about fifty minutes.
The delivery van calls again tomorrow.
Dinner is served at seven.
e) in any other statements about situations that are expressed as completely determined
by present circumstances, i.e. as facts.
e.g. The sun sets at 9.36 tomorrow.
The man/plane leaves from Heathrow.
In that year Hailey’s comet is to be seen again.
But: *It snows tomorrow. (not felt to be pre-determined)
*John falls down the stairs next week. (id.)
2) When a future situation is referred to by the present continuous (the progressive form of
the present tense), it is represented as resulting from a present plan or arrangement.
e.g. I’m staying at the Gardners next week.
Next they’re playing a cello sonata by Bach.
We’re working late tomorrow evening.
He’s going to Iraq next week.
This use of the progressive differs from the ‘arranged future’ use of the simple present in
that it implies that the referent of the subject NP has control over the situation. It follows
that
a) the present continuous implies less certainty than the simple present: it refers to a
present plan which may possibly still be altered, while the simple present denotes a
plan or arrangement that is regarded as unalterable.
b) the present continuous suggests that it is the referent of the subject NP who is
responsible for the plan or arrangement, whereas the simple present suggests that it is
somebody else.
e.g. cp. I’m visiting them tonight. (= my personal planning)
I visit them tonight. (= It has been arranged (by some authority) for me to
visit them tonight.)
e.g. cp. Margaret is dining out tonight.
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Margaret dines out tonight. (This sentence sounds strange because it

suggests that someone else has decided that Margaret should dine out
tonight.)
Note:
a) For a (simple or progressive) present tense to refer to a future situation the following conditions
must be satisfied:
Ó) It must be clear from the presence of an adverbial or from the context that the situation lies in
the future.
e.g. cp. John is travelling to Greece. (interpreted as referring to the present)
John is travelling to Greece next month.
When there is no adverbial indication of future time, the present continuous normally refers to
the near future.
e.g. Mr Snowdon is leaving for New York. (= soon)
I’m taking Cheryl out to the cinema.
Tidy up this room. People are coming to dinner.
ß) The sentence must contain a suitable verb. Both uses are possible with verbs of motion
(coming and going) and a semantically mixed group of verbs of ‘doing’, but not e.g. with
stative verbs. 42
e.g. We leave / are leaving next week.
*We know / are knowing the answer next week.
*The boy is as tall as his father in a few years’ time.
However, the simple present of be can refer to the future if the state expressed is one that can
be pre-determined:
e.g. I am busy / engaged / at the office all day tomorrow.
Our daughter is eighteen next week.
But: *I’m in good spirits all day tomorrow. (not felt to be pre-determined)
Ô) The factor of plan or arrangement which is present in this use of the present continuous
restricts its use to sentences expressing an intentional situation performed by a human agent.
e.g. *I’m coughing/sneezing in a minute.
e.g. cp. These miners are going down at ten.
*The sun is going down at ten.
e.g. *He’s dying in an accident next week.
*It’s raining this evening.
The human agent need not be the subject of the sentence. It may also be implied.
e.g. I’m receiving a letter from him tomorrow. (= I know that a letter is under way.)
Examinations are beginning next week.
b) English often uses the simple present tense in wh-questions that ask for instructions or
make a suggestion.
e.g. What do we do afterwards?
Why don’t we go home?
Where do I find him?

B. THE PAST TENSE

42. Stative verbs are verbs of inert perception, verbs referring to a mental or emotional state, and verbs expressing a state of being, relation or
condition -- see §2.
 84

The past tense is used to locate a situation in the past time-sphere. The fact that the speaker locates the
situation there, and not in the pre-present sector, means that he is not thinking of TU when he utters his
sentence. That is, he is not concerned with NOW but rather with THEN. The past tense is therefore the
rule whenever the speaker is concerned with the past situation itself and is not thinking of its possible
relation to the present. This concern with the past situation itself is especially clear when the sentence is
meant to reveal when, where, how or why the situation took place. This explains why the past tense is the
rule in the following cases: 43
1. The speaker will use the past tense if he is concerned with the question of when the situation took
place. This is automatically the case if the sentence involves an adverbial referring to a specific past
time.
e.g. last week, a week ago, then, the other day, yesterday, at the time, in 1989, on Tuesday, earlier
this summer...
The speaker also has a specific past time in mind when his sentence contains a place adverbial
implying past time:
e.g. I knew him in the army. (= when I was in the army)
e.g. I met her at a conference in Oxford. (= when I was at a conference in Oxford)
When there is no explicit adverbial, the past time referred to is recoverable from the linguistic or
extralinguistic context.
e.g. Did you switch off the lights? (when we left)
I lost my car-keys. (The speaker is thinking of when and where he might have lost them.)
Did the ferry bring any visitors to the island? (when it came to the island, as it does every day)
Questions beginning with when also usually use the past tense rather than the present perfect:
e.g. When / at what time did the accident happen? (*has happened)
When did the boat arrive? (*has arrived)
It is only when the speaker is concerned with the occurrence of one or more situations in a period
leading up to TU that when is compatible with the present perfect:
e.g. I don’t believe you. You always lie to me. -- That’s not true. When have I ever lied to you?
However, examples like this are comparatively rare.
2. The past tense will be used in any other case where the speaker focuses on some aspect of a past
situation. Two possibilities can be distinguished here:
a. Sometimes the speaker is only concerned with one of the aspects of the past situation (e.g. with
the question of why, where, how, etc. the situation took place, or who was involved in it).
e.g. I can’t remember where I bought that clock.
It was you who sent me that anonymous letter, wasn’t it?
Please tell me how you did it.
I’d like to know why you came back.
In cases like these the speaker focuses on the past situation and not on the structure of the world
at TU. This is also the case in sentences that provide further details concerning a previously
mentioned situation or which explain its past origin:
e.g. How do you know she changed her will? -- I have been making enquiries. It was not
difficult. Everybody in the village knows all about it.
He’s not with us any more. -- You mean he escaped? -- No, he was stabbed in the back by
a fellow prisoner and died.

43. As we will see below, the present perfect is used when the speaker reporting the past situation is really concerned with the structure of the
world at TU. The past tense will therefore be used if the speaker focuses on some aspect of the past situation (when? where? how?
why?...), because this kind of focus means that he is not concerned with the present world structure.
 85

In many cases the speaker uses a present perfect to introduce a past situation and then switches
to the past tense when he gives further information about it:
e.g. I have already made the acquaintance of the local doctor. His car broke down in front of
the house and he asked if he could use our telephone.
Joan has moved out of the building. She said she couldn’t stand living on her own any
more.
b. Sometimes the speaker just wants to inform the hearer of the fact that the situation took place,
but without representing it as part of the structure of the world at TU:
e.g. Taking vitamin tablets is quite unnecessary when you have normal meals. A doctor friend
of mine was telling me.
You know, I nearly did forget about my wife’s birthday.
Note:
When we make a statement about a particular aspect of a past situation, we must be sure that the
situation in question is identifiable to the hearer. That is, the hearer must have the essential
information that makes it possible for him to understand the speaker’s reference to the situation.
This information may be available to him in several ways:
1) The hearer will of course know which situation is being talked about if it has already been
mentioned. This is the case, for example, in I have eaten caviar once, but I didn’t like it. We
notice a familiar pattern here: the present perfect is used to introduce the situation (i.e. to say
that it has held before TU), the preterite is used when we subsequently focus on another aspect
of the past situation.
2) When a situation that is mentioned for the first time is located in the past time-sphere, it can be
identifiable to the hearer in one of the following ways:
a) In some cases the situation is uniquely identifiable for the simple reason that it is unique:
there is no other situation that can be described in the same terms. Sentences like William
the Conqueror won the battle of Hastings or The Titanic perished refer to situations of this
type. For a full interpretation of such sentences it is required that the hearer is familiar with
the referents of the relevant NPs.
b) The situation is also identifiable if it is given in the extralinguistic context (i.e. in the
immediate situation of speaking). For example, if I see you with a broken leg, then I can
ask How did you break your leg? with the past tense form, since I am taking as already
given the fact that you broke your arm, and am eliciting further information about the
incident.
c) When the situation that is referred to for the first time is one that may in principle have
held at different times (e.g. John went for a stroll), the hearer can know which particular
instance of the situation is being referred to only if he knows on which occasion (i.e. at
which time) the situation in question held. (This is why the sentence John went for a stroll,
when uttered in isolation, automatically begs the question ‘when?’.)44 In this case
identifiability thus depends on information concerning the time of the past situation. This
information may be given by a (definite or indefinite) time adverbial in the sentence itself
(e.g. three days ago, a long time ago). If there is no such adverbial, the necessary temporal
information must be available from the linguistic or extralinguistic context in which the

44. For the same reason, a question like Did John lock the door? cannot be answered with Yes or No if the time of the situation is unknown.
Notice also that Mary did not phone is not equivalent to Mary never phoned: unlike the latter sentence, Mary did not phone asserts that
Mary did not phone at some specific time in the past.
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sentence is used or from the knowledge that is shared by the speaker and the hearer (as in I
saw your chauffeur at the races). 45
3. The past tense will also be used when the speaker explicitly contrasts a past situation with a present
one.
e.g. This country is no longer the economic superpower that it was.
Things have stopped being what they were.
He is not so brilliant as he was.
In this context we may also refer to sentences like the following:
e.g. I did not know you were a teacher.
This sentence means something like ‘I didn’t know you were a teacher until you told me so (or: until
I found out) just now’. A contrast is thus established between the past and the present. Similar
examples are:
e.g. Gosh! That girl is a regular tiger-cat. I had no idea she could be so aggressive.
I never thought she would get married.
Note:
It is often claimed that a situation that is referred to in the past tense must not be continuing any more at
TU. This is not quite correct, as appears from
e.g. Where is John? -- I don’t know. But look in the kitchen. He was there two minutes ago. Perhaps he
is still there.
The use of the past tense here means no more than that the speaker claims that two minutes ago it was the
case that the situation was (then) holding. This claim does not exclude the possibility that the situation
was holding at other times too, nor that it is still holding at TU. In other words, when uttering He was
there two minutes ago the speaker just focuses on that part of the situation that is simultaneous with the
time indicated by two minutes ago. He does not make any claims about other parts of the situation or
about the situation as a whole.
On the other hand, if there is no adverbial or contextual reference to a definite past time, the past tense
does suggest that the situation no longer holds at TU.46
e.g. I lived in a flat for ten years. (implies that I am not living in a flat any more)
Such sentences refer to a situation as a whole and locate it in the past time-sphere.
It should be noted that if a situation is represented as bounded, it is by definition referred to as a whole.
A past tense sentence representing its situation as bounded therefore automatically implies that the
situation is not continuing into the present.
e.g. John walked three and a half miles.

C. THE PRESENT PERFECT

1. The present perfect locates a situation in the pre-present sector of the present time-sphere. This means
that the speaker using this tense is concerned with the structure of the world at TU rather than with the
past situation itself: using the present perfect, the speaker is thinking of NOW, not of THEN.

45. There is, of course, a similarity here between the use of the preterite and the use of a definite NP. If used in isolation, a sentence like Did
you water the plants? presupposes some shared knowledge. To fully understand this sentence, the hearer must check his memory stock,
not only for a suitable referent for the NP the plants but also for a suitable occasion (time) for the situation to have taken place.
46. This follows from the Gricean Maxim of Relation (Relevance). Since, other things being equal, statements
about the present are more relevant than statements about the past, a situation that includes TU is normally located
in the present time-sphere, not in the past. It follows that if the speaker does locate the situation in the past, the
hearer will infer that the situation no longer holds at TU.
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2. Locating a situation in the pre-present means locating it in a timespan that began before TU and
reaches up to TU. The use of the present perfect therefore requires that the speaker should have a definite
pre-present period (timespan up to TU) in mind.
a. In many cases the pre-present period is indicated by an adverbial of the type since 1970, up to now,
so far, etc.
e.g. I have lived here since I was born.
So far nothing has happened.
b. When the pre-present period remains implicit, it is normally interpreted as the shortest timespan-up-
to-now that is in keeping with the semantics and pragmatics of the sentence.
e.g. Have you seen John? (since your arrival here)
Have you been to the Van Gogh exhibition? (since it has been open to the public)
e.g. Have you had breakfast yet? (The implicit period-up-to-now is ‘today’; an answer like Yes, I
did three weeks ago would therefore be quite inappropriate, as it would imply that breakfast is
eaten only once in three weeks.)
e.g. John has already visited Tokyo. (The timespan-up-to-now may be contextually identified as
e.g. the particular journey through Japan which John is making at this moment; otherwise it will
be interpreted as John’s lifetime.)
The idea of an implicit period-up-to-now may be excluded by certain semantico-pragmatic elements
in the sentence or in its context.
1) This is often the case when we refer to a person who is now dead or to something that no longer
exists. In such sentences the situation is usually located at a time or within a period which lies
wholly before TU, so that the past tense has to be used:
e.g. My late uncle visited the White House. (= at some time in his life)
Keats died in Italy.
My father worked in a bank all his life. (The past tense implies that my father is now dead
or has retired. At any rate, all his life refers to a timespan which is seen as completely
over.)
Did you see the Van Gogh exhibition? (The past tense implies that the time when the
hearer could go and see the exhibition is over.)
However, occasional examples can be found in which the idea of an implicit period-up-to-now
is not excluded by the fact that the reference is to people or things that no longer exist:
e.g. President Roosevelt has visited our university.
In this example the speaker may be thinking of the many famous people that have visited his
university so far; or he may be discussing the topic ‘American presidents and how many of
them have come to England over the years’, etc. At any rate, the discourse topic is not President
Roosevelt but something else, and the case of President Roosevelt is just brought up as an
example. Since this ‘something else’ implies the idea of a timespan-up-to-now (e.g. the history
of this university up to now), the speaker uses the present perfect. The following is a scrap of
discourse in which the sentence in question is completely natural:
e.g. Do you know how many American presidents have visited our university this century? -- I can’t tell
you that off-hand. But I know that Reagan has been here, and Bush, and I seem to remember that
President Roosevelt has also visited our university.
Compare also:
e.g. cp. D.H. Lawrence never lived in Brighton. (= during his life)
D.H. Lawrence has written several excellent novels. (= There exist several excellent
novels written by D.H. Lawrence.)
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2) The idea of an implicit period-up-to-now is also excluded in sentences that contain a verb of
creation (expressing the coming into existence of something) followed by a definite object NP:
e.g. cp. John wrote this poem. (*has written)
John has read this poem. (no verb of creation)
e.g. cp. Who built this wall? (*has built)
Who else has built a wall? (indefinite object NP)
Who has painted this wall? (no verb of creation)
e.g. Columbus (*has) discovered America. (This sentence refers to the coming into existence
of America in a metaphorical sense.)
The explanation of this restriction is as follows. A definite NP implies the existence of a
referent that is identifiable to the hearer. That is, a speaker using a definite NP considers the
current existence of the referent as given. This entails that when he uses a sentence involving a
verb of creation he is not concerned with the fact that the referent has come into existence and
is now part of the structure of the world. Instead he is concerned with giving new information,
i.e. information concerning one of the aspects (when?, how?, who?, etc.) of the situation that
led to the existence of the referent. Thus, in sentences like John wrote the novel, John built this
wall, Columbus discovered America, etc. the focus of interest is most likely to be on the agent
of the action (i.e. the question ‘Who did it?’). At any rate, the speaker of John wrote the novel is
not concerned with the current existence of the novel. The fact that he uses the definite NP the
novel means that he presupposes this existence. What he is concerned with is necessarily an
aspect of the (past) activity of writing the novel. He is thus concerned with THEN, not with
NOW, and this explains why he cannot use the present perfect.
Consider also:
e.g. (1) (a) Gerald Hopkins has written impressive poems. (indefinite NP)
(b) *Gerald Hopkins has written these poems.
(c) *Gerald Hopkins has written these poems in London.
(2) Rome was not built in a day. (*has been built) (Rome is a definite NP.)
In (1,a) the speaker is concerned with the fact that there exist impressive poems written by
Hopkins which now form part of the world literature. In (1,b-c) the existence of the poems
referred to is taken for granted (as is clear from the use of the definite NP these poems); the
speaker is no longer concerned with NOW but with an aspect of the situation that happened
THEN, viz. with the question of who was the agent performing the action or where it was that
the action was performed. This ‘occurrence focus’ (focus on the situation itself) requires the
use of the preterite. Sentence (2) can be accounted for in a similar way: the focus is not on the
current existence of Rome (which is taken for granted) but on the duration of the activity.
3. A situation that is located in the pre-present may or may not continue to hold at TU. From a temporal
point of view a distinction must therefore be made between two kinds of present perfect:
a. The so-called continuative perfect describes a situation or habit that started in the past and
continues into the present (and possibly extends into the future).
e.g. Mr Whorf has been our sales representative for 21 years.
I have been working in the garden since 8 o’clock.
I’ve come to this pub for as long as I can remember.
Bridget has sung in the church choir for 15 years.
Note:
1) Many languages use the present tense to refer to a situation that started in the past and is still
continuing. In English, however, the present perfect has to be used when there is an adverbial
(often with for or since) referring to a period-up-to-now:
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e.g. I have lived here since 1965. (*live)

I have known him for a very long time. (*know)
I have already been waiting for two hours. (*am waiting)
When the clause does not contain such an adverbial, both the present tense and the present
perfect are in principle possible. The latter expresses explicitly that the situation started in the
past; the former does not.
e.g. cp. I’m waiting for you.
I’ve been waiting for you.
e.g. The police have known for some time that he is in London.
2) Since the continuative perfect represents its situation as in progress at TU, it automatically
represents it as unbounded. Bounded sentences (e.g. I have written two letters) do not,
therefore, yield a continuative interpretation.
b. The so-called indefinite perfect (or existential perfect) indicates that a given situation has held at
least once (or has not held) within a period beginning in the past and continuing into the present.
e.g. Have you ever been to Nicaragua? (in your lifetime)
This is the first word he has said to me today.
I don’t believe I’ve ever heard about it before.
You’re the third student who’s fallen asleep in the language lab this week.
Fossils of this prehistoric fish have been found all over the world.
I’ve written sixteen pages today.
Bill has lived in England, Cameroon and Canada. I have only lived in England.
e.g. cp. Did you hear Sinatra sing in German? (reference to a specific performance in the past)
Have you (ever) heard Sinatra sing in German? (at any time in your life)
Note:
1) A condition for this use of the perfect is that the speaker does not specify when exactly the
situation held within the pre-present period. If the time is specified, the past tense has to be
used.
e.g. cp. I have helped him with his papers (for two years).
I (*have) helped him with his papers until two years ago.
However:
a) The indefinite perfect does co-occur with indefinite time adverbials like before (now), in
the past, etc.:
e.g. Don’t worry. I have dealt with problems of this kind before.
b) The present perfect co-occurs with five adverbials that indicate so-called ‘recent indefinite
past’, viz. recently, just, this minute, lately, latterly.47
e.g. This telegram has just arrived.
I have this minute heard that the deal is off.
I have recently met him.
On the other hand, just now is never used with the present perfect.
e.g. I heard just now that the deal is off. (*have heard)
2) An indefinite perfect is normally a simple (nonprogressive) perfect.
e.g. I have met that girl before. (*have been meeting)
This is the first time he has spoken to me. (*has been speaking)
I’ve gone to Greece only once. (*have been going)

47. As we will see below, Br.E. does not use the past tense with just, this minute and latterly. With recently and lately both the preterite and
the present perfect may be found. American English frequently uses the past tense with all five adverbials.
 90

I haven’t eaten duck for a long time. (*haven’t been eating)

The reason is that an indefinite perfect is normally used to refer to complete (bounded)
situations.
Note:
a) Sometimes the indefinite perfect refers to a series of situations, the last of which is in progress at
TU. In that case too the perfect is nonprogressive.
e.g. This is the first decent meal I’ve had today. It tastes delicious.
b) The speaker will use a progressive indefinite perfect only if he wants to represent the situation
(which is over at TU) as in progress, i.e. as incomplete. However, this use of a progressive perfect is
rather unusual, because a progressive perfect is automatically interpreted as a continuative perfect,
unless the sentence contains a word (e.g. ever, never, always) that enforces the indefinite
interpretation.
e.g. Have you been working on a dissertation? (continuative)
Have you ever been working on a dissertation? (indefinite) (= Has there ever been a period in
your life when you were working on a dissertation?)
c) When the indefinite perfect expresses that the situation has not held within the pre-present period,
the progressive form cannot be used.
e.g. I haven’t spoken with him yet. (*haven’t been speaking)
d) When addressing someone who was absent until a moment ago, we typically ask questions like
Where have you been? (not: Where were you?) or What have you been doing? (not: What have you
done? / What did you do?).
3) The indefinite perfect very often implicates resultativeness. That is, it often suggests that the
past situation has yielded a result which obtains in the present. In that case the present perfect
sentence is used as an indirect way of conveying a message concerning the present.
e.g. Your boy has fallen off the swing. (= He needs your help; or: That’s why he is crying /
why his clothes are dirty, etc.)
A parcel has arrived for Gordon. (= There is a parcel for Gordon.)
He has learnt to type. (= He can type.)
They’ve cut off the electricity. (= We don’t have any electricity.)
I’ve been to the hairdresser’s. (= My hair looks nice now; I don’t need to have my hair
done for some time.)
I’ve finished my homework. (= Can I go out to play now?)
e.g. cp. She’s been hurt by what you told her. (= She still feels hurt.)
She was hurt by what you told her. (but that feeling is over now)

Note:
a) Because the indefinite perfect can be used in this way to refer to a present state of affairs,
it is often used to give news.
e.g. An American oil tanker has been attacked by an Iraqi fighter in the Gulf of Oman.
Robert has failed his exam. He’s feeling depressed.
I’m sorry to hear that the journal has rejected your paper.
One of the puppies that were born this morning has died.
b) There are a couple of verbs that also allow another construction to signal resultativeness:
e.g. cp. Jill has gone (home).
Jill is gone (to home).
cp. Jim has finished (his translation).
Jim is finished (with his translation).
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cp. Jim has done the job.

Jim is done (with the job).
c) If the situation referred to is telic and bounded, the resultative reading concerns the state of
affairs that comes about when the terminal point is reached.
e.g. I have written a book. (= There now exists a book of which I am the author.)
Ian has shut the window. (= The window is shut now.)
I have learned to drive. (= I can drive.)
If the situation referred to is atelic or/and unbounded, the resultative reading can only be
suggested by the context or the pragmatics of the situation.
e.g. John has been in the cellar. (atelic) (This sentence may, according to context,
suggest ‘So he must be dirty’, ‘So he must be cold’, ‘So he must have found out our
secret’, etc.)
I have been writing a book. (telic but unbounded) (This sentence may, according to
context, suggest ‘That’s why I am so tired’, ‘That’s why I have seldom come to the
pub recently’, etc.)
d) Resultativeness is not an inherent part of the meaning of the indefinite present perfect: it is
only implicated. This implicature results from the fact that the choice of the present perfect
means that the speaker is primarily concerned with NOW. However, the implicature arises
only when the lapse of time between the past situation and the present is relatively short,
so that, failing any indication to the contrary, the speaker may assume that the result which
the past situation has produced is still holding.
e.g. You’ve never done your homework yourself. You’ve always copied it from someone
else. -- That’s not true. I HAVE done it myself. More than once. (no resultative
reading)
Because it is an implicature, resultativeness can be cancelled by the context.
e.g. We can get in through this door. I have unlocked it. -- How strange. It is locked again
now.
These books have belonged to my father, they have been mine, and now they are
yours.
4) One of the typical uses of the indefinite perfect is as a so-called perfect of experience.
e.g. He has read a lot about their culture. (= He knows their culture.)
Have you read Dante’s ‘Hell’? (= Do you know...?)
She hasn’t had the flu yet this winter. (= So she can still catch it.)
Have you ever been to Casablanca?
In such sentences the reference is to past situations which are not recent but which are still
‘with us’ as part of our experience and knowledge. (The indefinite perfect here implicates
resultativeness.)
Note: Have gone cannot be interpreted as a perfect of experience. We use have been instead.
e.g. cp. Have you ever been to Japan? (= Have you ever paid a visit to Japan?)
He has gone to Japan. (resultative meaning: he is in Japan or on his way to Japan)
5) Clauses involving an indefinite perfect mostly contain an adverbial of one of the following
kinds:
a) adverbials specifying a period that continues into the present
e.g. up to now, so far, since 1978, today, this week, in my life...
e.g. She wrote us a letter four weeks ago. We haven’t heard from her since.
Most of these children have been abroad several times in the last year.
He has played truant regularly this term.
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I’ve added three pages to my novel today.

b) adverbials referring (in an indefinite way) to the occurrence(s) of some situation within an
implicit period-up-to-now.
e.g. already, yet, ever, never, always, before (now)
e.g. I’ve never seen him before / in my life.
I don’t think we have won the war yet.
c) An indefinite perfect can co-occur with a duration adverbial:
e.g. We’ve lived in London for ten years.
However, in sentences like these the perfect is more likely to be interpreted as
continuative. (The use of a progressive perfect even enforces the continuative
interpretation.)
6) Many present perfect forms can in principle receive either the indefinite or the continuative
interpretation. In that case the hearer will automatically select the continuative interpretation if
there is an adverbial specifying a period-up-to-now, unless that interpretation is unlikely or
impossible because of the context. If there is no such adverbial, the hearer will automatically
select the indefinite interpretation.
e.g. cp. Since 1982 John has lived in Paris. (interpreted as continuative)
Since 1982 John has lived in Paris, and in Moscow, and in several other places too.
(indefinite interpretation enforced by the context)
John has lived in Paris. (indefinite)
7) The indefinite perfect must be used after expressions of the type ‘it/this/that is the + NP
involving a superlative or ordinal numeral + relative clause’ if the reference is to a series of
instances of a situation, the last of which holds at TU.
e.g. This is the first time (that) she has gone out for months. (*goes out)
This is only the second time (that) I have paid a contribution. (*pay)
That’s the fifth glass of champagne (that) he’s drunk today. (*drinks / *is drinking)
This is the last visit I have paid you. (*pay / *am paying)
8) As a rule, we use the indefinite perfect when a past situation that is relevant to the present is
referred to for the first time. We do not use it to talk about the past origin or cause of a situation
that the hearer is already familiar with. Sentences in which this is done concentrate on the past
situation itself, and therefore have to make use of the past tense.
e.g. Some idiot has put diesel in the tank instead of petrol. Which of you did that? -- I did.
It follows that the present perfect is often used to introduce a topic into a conversation; the next
sentence(s) then use(s) the past tense to give further details about the situation in question.
e.g. I have tried using that kind of detergent, but the result was not satisfactory.
Have you ever considered growing roses there? -- Yes, I have. But my wife decided
against it.
I’ve lived in China. -- When was that?
I have drunk champagne a couple of times, but I didn’t like it much.
I’ve visited the ESA headquarters. It was fascinating.
I’ve just moved your trunk into another room. It was surprisingly heavy.
I’m throwing up my job. -- So I’ve heard. -- When did you hear about it? -- The milkman
told me this morning.
In some cases the fact that the situation has held is obvious from the extralinguistic context:
e.g. You should be glad that you were born rich. (*have been born) (Self-evidently, the hearer
already knows that he was born rich.)
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How did you get that scar? (The use of the definite NP that scar makes clear that the
speaker knows that the hearer has got a scar: he can see it.)
The fact that the hearer is already familiar with the situation is sometimes clear from the use of
a definite NP. This explains why the use of the indefinite perfect can be prevented by the
presence of a definite NP in the sentence:
e.g. cp. He says that he has witnessed a terrible accident (at some time).
He says that he witnessed the accident that is reported in today’s newspapers.
e.g. These flowers are lovely. Who did you get them from? (*have got)
This cake tastes wonderful. Did you bake it yourself? (*have baked)
I have been to a bullfight once, but I did not enjoy it.
(This does not mean, however, that any definite NP excludes the present perfect. We are only
referring to those definite NPs that entail occurrence focus, i.e. that make clear that the speaker
is talking about some aspect of a past situation that the hearer is already familiar with.)
4. The choice between the past tense and the present perfect is often determined by the presence of an
adverbial of time:
a. With some types of adverbial the present perfect must be used:
1) with adverbials specifying a period up to TU.
e.g. up to now, so far, hitherto, within the last four days, from a child, in the last year, always,
since...
With such adverbials we find either a continuative perfect or an indefinite perfect.
e.g. He went to his study after dinner and has been working since. (continuative)
In 1988 he was on an airplane that had to make an emergency landing in a field. He has
not travelled by air since. (indefinite)
Three of them have had a salary increase within the past month. (indefinite)
Note:
a) Since can be used as a preposition, as an adverb and as a conjunction. In all three cases the
reference is to a period starting before and continuing up to some time of orientation. If the
time of orientation in question is TU, the present perfect has to be used.
e.g. I met him at the races, but I haven’t seen him since (then).
When since is used as a preposition, the PP always indicates the starting-point of a period.
To refer to a whole period we have to use for. (In other words, since locates a situation in
time and implies duration; for just expresses duration.)
e.g. cp. He has lived here since before the war.
He has lived here for 40 years.
e.g. He has been ill for/*since some time.
I haven’t seen a film for years. (*since years)
She hasn’t written to me since Christmas.
When since is used as a conjunction and the since-clause indicates a period-up-to-TU, the
use of the tenses is as follows:
Ó) The present perfect has to be used in the head clause.
ß) In the since-clause we use either the present perfect or the past tense, depending on
whether the situation expressed in this clause is or is not continuing at TU. (In other
words, the past tense is used when the since-clause situation marks the beginning of
the period-up-to-now; the present perfect is used when the since-clause situation lasts
throughout the period-up-to-TU.)
For example:
e.g. He has been worried since he received that threatening letter.
 94

Since she was kidnapped, the girl has been having nightmares.
We’ve only been to the zoo once since we’ve no longer had a car.
We’ve had no serious problems since we’ve installed a central heating.
Since they have had a garden, they have grown all their vegetables themselves.
I haven’t spoken English since we moved to Madrid.
I haven’t spoken English since we have lived in Madrid.
We’ve been feeling better since we’ve been taking more exercise.
We’ve been feeling better since we started taking more exercise.
However, the present tense can be used instead of the present perfect in the main clause of
sentences of the type ‘it is + period of time + since-clause’:
e.g. It is a good three weeks since I paid that bill.
It’s (been) at least 10 years since those riots took place.
It’s (been) a long time since we received a salary increase.
When is is used in the head clause, it is not impossible to use the present perfect in the
since-clause, provided there is no adverbial that is incompatible with this tense:
e.g. It’s a good three weeks since I (have) paid that bill.
b) Prepositional phrases with for just express duration and may therefore be found with any
tense. The present perfect must of course be used if the timespan referred to starts in the
past and continues into the present.
e.g. We have been using this kind of machine for three weeks. (continuative perfect)
You have done enough for today. (indefinite)
When the timespan indicated may or may not reach up to TU, the present perfect is
ambiguous between a continuative and an indefinite interpretation. In that case the
continuative interpretation is the unmarked one.
e.g. We have used this kind of machine for three weeks. (continuative or indefinite; the
former interpretation will predominate if there is no indication to the contrary)
c) The adverbials nowadays and these days are used with the present tense, not with the
present perfect.
e.g. We’re caring more for our environment these days.
Professional snooker players earn a lot nowadays.
2) The present perfect is also obligatory with adverbials referring to the (non)occurrence of a
situation within a period starting in the past and leading up to TU.
e.g. I have already paid the bill.
The opposition has not yet reacted to Mr Major’s speech.
I have never heard such nonsense before.
Have you ever heard such nonsense?
Have you (ever) received such a letter before?
Indefinite time expressions like already, yet, (n)ever, before imply ‘within a period up to a TO’.
If the TO in question is TU, they naturally collocate with an indefinite perfect.48
3) The present perfect is the rule with just, latterly and this minute (if they refer to a time closely
preceding TU).
e.g. Jenny isn’t at home. She’s just gone out.

48. Am.E. here often uses the past tense, especially in spoken language. In colloquial Br.E. too, the past tense is sometimes used with always,
ever and never:
e.g. I (have) always said he was not to be trusted.
Graham has always been / always was a dry stick.
Have you ever seen / Did you ever see such a beauty?
I (have) never eaten Peking duck before.
 95

But the present perfect never collocates with just now.

e.g. I found the missing papers just now. (*have found)
4) Unlike the past tense, the present perfect can be used with adverbials that refer directly to TU:
e.g. At present I have finished the first two chapters of the book.
b. Only a past tense can be used with an adverbial specifying a time interval that does not include TU.
e.g. We were at university from 1966 to 1970.
(speaking in the evening) The plumber came this afternoon.
He took the train to London this morning but came back before noon. (The morning is over.) 49
With such a time adverbial referring to past time the past tense has to be used, even if there is a clear
idea of resultativeness.
e.g. I know what it means to be in the army. I did military service during the Falklands war.
e.g. cp. Can we enter the building? -- Yes, the janitor has opened the door.
Can we enter the building? -- Yes, the janitor (*has) opened the door a minute ago.
c. With some adverbials the speaker can use either the present perfect or the past tense:
1) With adverbials like today, this week/month/year/century, lately, recently, the past tense is used
if the reference is to a situation which happened within the specified period but is not
continuing into the present and is not seen as having any relevance to the present; the present
perfect is used to express a continuative or resultative meaning.
e.g. I (have) recently seen a picture of him in the paper.
He has been considering changing his job recently. (continuative)
I went to the museum today, but it was closed.
His financial situation has not been too bad this year.
I went / have been to a psychiatrist this week.
Have you been to the dentist lately?
2) The adverb once goes with the preterite when it means ‘on a certain occasion’, ‘at one time’; if
it means ‘one time’ (as against twice, 3 times, etc.) it may collocate with any tense, including
the indefinite perfect.
e.g. I have read the book only once.
He was once an influential politician.
He once promised to help me when I was in trouble. (= at a certain time)
My late Uncle Harry saw the sea only once in his lifetime.
3) Adverbs like already, always, before, ever, never, yet, now, since do not inherently refer to a
particular time, and are therefore compatible with more than one tense.
e.g. The trees are already shedding their leaves.
The trees were already shedding their leaves.
The trees will already be shedding their leaves (when we go there).
The trees have already shed their leaves.
The trees had already shed their leaves (when we arrived).
The trees will already have shed their leaves (when we arrive).
e.g. cp. I have never spoken to a professor. (perfect of experience: never = ‘never in my life
up to now’)
I never spoke to a professor. (requires reference to past time in the context, e.g.
‘when I was a student there’)
e.g. cp. Have you ever beaten him? (= up to now)

49. A sentence like I have overslept this morning requires that the morning is not yet over. On the other hand, I overslept this morning does
not require that the morning is over. The sentence can be used in the morning, if the speaker is not concerned with the structure of the
world at TU but rather with the situation itself, which is completely over.
 96

Did you ever beat him? (e.g. when both of you were still professional players) 50
e.g. cp. I still haven’t seen him (now).
(At the time) I still did not know him.
4) With the adverbial until now we use the past tense if the situation is felt to be over at TU.
Otherwise we use the present perfect.
e.g. We have had a small car until now. (= We still do.)
We had a small car until now. (= But that has now changed or is now going to change.)
5) Adverbials referring to a timespan which lies wholly before TU (e.g. at five o’clock) are
normally incompatible with the present perfect. Still, there are exceptions:
e.g. I think I’ve met him some time or other.
You don’t believe I’ve ever got up at two a.m.? I can assure you, I HAVE got up at two
a.m. Several times.
The use of an adverbial excluding TU (some time or other, at two a.m.) does not rule out the
present perfect because the times indicated are clearly conceived as intervals within a period-
up-to-now. (In both examples this period is likely to be the speaker’s lifetime.) What is
uppermost in the speaker’s mind is not the time when the situation held but the fact that it has
held at a certain time in a period up to TU. To see this better, compare:
e.g. (1) John HAS left the office at five o’clock.
(2) John left the office at five o’clock.
In (2) at five o’clock is a definite time indication because it is interpreted in relation to a
particular time (day) that is identifiable from the context. In (1), in contrast, at five o’clock is
not a definite indication of time because it is not interpreted in relation to any particular day
referred to in the context. Whereas (2) states that five o’clock was the time of the situation of
John leaving the office, (1) states that the situation of John leaving the office at five o’clock has
held in the past (i.e. within an unspecified period up to now). That is, the situation that is
located in time in (2) is John’s leaving the office, whereas in (1) it is the situation of John
leaving the office at five o’clock. In (1) the element ‘at five o’clock’ thus belongs to the
description of the situation that is being located in time, rather than indicate the time at which
the situation is located.
This semantic difference between (1) and (2) has a syntactic correlate in the fact that at five
o’clock is a necessary adjunct in (1) whereas it is an optional one in (2) (unless it is the only
constituent there that expresses new information). This appears from the fact that at five o’clock
can be fronted in (2) but not in (1):
e.g. At five o’clock John left the office.
*At five o’clock John HAS left the office.
Present perfect sentences of the kind exemplified by (1) often involve a repetitive time
adverbial:
e.g. John has often gone swimming at six o’clock in the morning.
Many a time, passengers have been terrified when their plane began to lose height.
I have occasionally left before Tom (did).
However, the sense of repetition does not come exclusively from the adverbial. Even if the
latter is dropped (in which case have normally receives the nuclear accent), there is a sense of
(at least potential) repetition. The following sentences suggest paraphrases like ‘It has happened
on occasion that...’ or ‘It has happened at least once that...’:
e.g. John HAS gone swimming at six o’clock in the morning.

50. In Am.E. the past tense is often used instead of the present perfect with ever, never and always. In Br.E.
too examples of this are not uncommon.
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Passengers HAVE been terrified when their plane began to lose height.
I HAVE left before Tom (did).
It is precisely the lack of information concerning the temporal location of the situation(s) that
produces this potentially repetitive reading. Sentences like the above ones express no more than
that, in a period up to now, there has been one or more instances of a situation of the type
‘swimming at 6 a.m.’ or ‘leaving before Tom’. No information is given concerning the precise
temporal location of these instances, nor about their frequency.
5. When a sentence referring to a past situation does not involve any adverbial of time, both a past and a
present perfect are often possible. The past tense is used when we are thinking of the time of the past
situation or when we are concerned with the occurrence of the situation itself (i.e. with the question of
when/where/why/how the situation took place, or who was involved in it). The present perfect is used
when the speaker wishes to announce the occurrence of the situation as news or when he is thinking of its
current relevance.
e.g. cp. Have you seen ‘King Lear’? (= Have you ever seen it?)
Did you see ‘King Lear’? (= e.g. Did you see the production on TV the other day?)
cp. The French Revolution changed the course of history in Europe. (The author might be engaged
on a historical work. He is concerned with what happened then.)
The French Revolution has changed the course of history in Europe. (The author is concerned
with the effect of the French Revolution on Europe now.)
e.g. cp. Imagine the difficulties he got me into! (The emphasis is on what happened then: that was a
very difficult time.)
You can’t imagine the difficulties he has got me into! (Stresses the result now: ‘You can’t
imagine the difficulties that I am having because of him’.)
e.g. cp. Did you get a reply to any of your letters of application? -- Yes, I did. A Canadian firm offered
me a job in Toronto, but I declined because I would rather stay in Britain. (The offer has only
historical significance. The speaker has already lost interest in it.)
Did you get a reply to any of your letters of application? -- Yes, I did. A Canadian firm has
offered me a job in Toronto. Isn’t that splendid? (The speaker is still excited about the offer
and clearly intends to accept it.)
e.g. The Napoleontic reforms (have) had an important effect on our legal system.
The puppy you gave me has grown into a magnificent collie.
(at breakfast) Did you sleep well? (*have slept) (The speaker is thinking of the preceding night, not
of a period up to TU.)

D. THE FUTURE TENSE

1. The distribution of shall and will

a. The future tense normally involves will. Shall is possible only in the first person, where it is a formal
alternative to will. (It is rare in Br.E. and very rare in Am.E.)
b. In questions, shall I/we...? is used to inquire about a person’s will. Will is the more normal auxiliary
in questions asking for information about the future.
e.g. cp. Shall I help you? (= Would you like me to help you?)
Mummy, will I be as ugly as aunt Emma when I grow up?
e.g. cp. What time shall I collect you tonight? (= What time do you want me to come?)
What time will I be in Leeds if I take the 6.33 train?
e.g. Shall I lend you my tools? (offer of service)
How will I get there if I cannot use the car?
 98

c. Shall is not used when the subject is a phrase like you and I or both of us.
d. The above distribution also holds for shall and will in the future perfect and for the (nonmodal)
conditional forms should and would.
e.g. cp. He does not know yet what he will do about it.
He didn’t know yet what he would do about it.
e.g. I realized I would/(should) arrive late.
2. The use of the future tense (shall/will + infinitive)
Shall and will can be used both as future tense auxiliaries and as modal auxiliaries.
a. As tense auxiliaries they express pure (neutral) future: the speaker merely predicts something or
assumes that something is likely to happen; he does not represent the future situation as depending
on the volition or intention of the subject of the sentence. This sense of neutral prediction without
attitudinal implications is clearest when the future situation depends upon external factors. This is
the case e.g. in sentences containing or implying a conditional or temporal clause.
e.g. You’ll change your mind after you’ve read this letter.
We’ll go camping next week if the weather is fine.
Don’t go near the puma. It’ll bite you. (implicit condition: if you go near it)
Why don’t you invite a couple of friends? It’ll cheer you up. (implicit condition: if you invite
them)
I’ll tell her everything about it when she comes tomorrow.
Tomorrow it will be rainy but warm. (weather forecast)
b. As modal auxiliaries, shall and will can express various meanings, all of which have to do with
volition. According to context, they can express willingness, a promise, a desire, a wish, a threat, a
warning, intention, insistence, determination, etc.51
Because will can express volition, it is better avoided for future time reference in cases where its use
would create ambiguity:
1) With volitional (intentional) verbs, will not can often be understood as expressing a refusal. In
that case it is better to use the future continuous to express pure future.
e.g. He won’t lend you his bike after what you’ve done to him. (refusal)
He probably won’t leave his house. (ambiguous)
He won’t be leaving his house before eight o’clock. (pure future)
2) With volitional verbs, questions introduced by will you are normally understood as expressing a
request, an offer, or an invitation. It is then better to use the future continuous for pure future
and be going to for future with intention.
e.g. cp. Will you use this towel? (probably a request)
Will you be using this towel? (pure future)
Are you going to use this towel? (intention)
e.g. Will you come inside? (invitation)
Will you be all right tomorrow? (pure future)
Will you have some cocoa? (offer)
Will you please stop shouting? (request)
Will you be safe in there? (pure future)
3. Other means of referring to future time
a. The simple present: see above.
b. The present continuous: see above.

51. The modal uses of shall and will are dealt with in detail in chapter 11.
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c. The auxiliary be going to.

This auxiliary is used to express that the future situation is predictable at TU because its origin lies
in the present or because there is present evidence that the situation is going to actualize. Several
possibilities can be distinguished, but they can be roughly subsumed under the following two
headings:
1) future actualisation of present intention
Be going to can express that the subject (or, in passive sentences, the implied agent) has the
present intention of doing something in the future.
e.g. Cheryl is going to marry Gordon when she has graduated. (present intention or decision)
These trees are going to be cut down.
Next year we’re going to employ more workers.
When are you going to speak to him again?
Note:
a) We have observed that will can also represent the future as depending on a present
intention. The difference between will and be going to is not always clear, but we can
accept the following as a rule:
Ó) Be going to has to be used when the intention is clearly premeditated, i.e. when the
speaker has already made up his mind about what he proposes to do (e.g. when he is
already preparing for it).
e.g. I’ve bought a typewriter. I’m going to do the paperwork myself in future.
Why have you written to a solicitor? Are you going to make a will?
It follows that sentences with be going to often express strong determination.
e.g. I’m going to wait for her, even if it means sitting here all night.
I’m going to keep talking to him until he changes his mind.
I’ve told you before and I’m telling you again: I’m not going to marry your
daughter. (This comes close to the expression of a refusal.)
I’m going to get out of here if it kills me!
ß) Will has to be used when the intention is clearly unpremeditated, i.e. when the subject
has only just thought of performing the action, when the action is an immediate and
spontaneous reaction to something that has been said or that has happened.52
e.g. Would you like some biscuits? -- Oh, yes. Thank you. I’ll take two if you don’t
mind.
It’s dark in here. -- Don’t worry. I’ll fetch a torch.
I’m fed up with reading. I think I’ll write some letters now.
Look! She’s beckoning us. I’ll go and see what she has to tell us.
Make up your mind! -- OK. I’ll wear the blue dress.
The tap is leaking. -- I’ll have a look.
e.g. cp. What are you going to do with it? (The speaker assumes that the hearer has
already given thought to this question.)
What will you do with it? (The speaker assumes that the hearer has not
considered this question yet and asks him for an instantaneous reaction to
it.)
b) Be going to implies a strong expectation that the intention (plan, decision) will be carried
out. On the other hand, in unembedded clauses was going to and have been going to
implicate nonfulfilment of the intention:53

52. Shall is rarely used in this sense.

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e.g. He was going to throw these papers away, but I told him we might need them again
some day.
You have been going to buy a tennis racket of your own for years, but you still come
to borrow mine.
I was just going to lock the door when someone tapped on it.
You’ve been going to talk to the landlord for months (but you still haven’t done it).
c) Questions beginning with will you are normally understood as requests, offers or
invitations rather than as questions about intentions for future action. The latter are,
therefore, more normally expressed by are you going to?:
e.g. Are you going to have a word with Tom?
We certainly use are you going to? when the intention is premeditated.
e.g. You aren’t dressed up yet. Aren’t you going to attend the meeting?
2) present predictability of future situation
This use of be going to implies that the speaker makes a prediction on the basis of present
evidence or knowledge. The following possibilities can be distinguished:
a) The future situation is predictable because there are signs in the present of what is going to
happen.
e.g. There’s going to be a row in a minute. (= I see that some people are getting angry...)
The little girl showed her drawings to the visitors. Everyone agreed that she was
going to be a real artist. (= The girl was already showing signs of being a gifted
artist.)
Look out! We’re going to bump into that van!
b) The future situation is predictable because its origin or beginning lies in the present.
e.g. Oh no! She’s going to sing. (= She has taken the microphone.)
I think I’m going to be sick. (= I’m feeling queasy.)
Lemond is now five lengths clear of the others. Lemond is going to win the race!
c) Be going to is also used in other cases in which the prediction is based on present
knowledge or on a present expectation.
e.g. Iraqi troops have invaded Kuwait this morning. Surely, the United States is not going
to accept this.
That musical is going to be a great success. (= I’m sure...)
Many people are convinced that the project is going to be a gigantic financial disaster.
The personal computer is going to oust the use of typewriters.
I’m sure they’re going to try and leave without paying.
Note:
a) Be going to is seldom possible with stative verbs.
e.g. *We’re going to see the finish soon.
?You’re not going to like this review of your book.
?The boy is going to be taller next summer.

53. The implicature arises as follows. If, at a certain time in the past, the subject had the intention of doing something later, then there are two
logical possibilities as regards the time of actualization: the situation was intended to take place either before or after TU.
1) In the former case, fulfilment of the intention means that the situation takes place before TU. In that case the speaker will normally
represent the situation as actualized (factual) by using the past tense. If he does not do this but refers to the intention instead (by using was
going to or have been going to) this will have the effect of suggesting that the situation itself cannot be referred to because it did not take
place as expected.
2) If the situation is intended to take place after TU, then the speaker will normally represent it as a present intention (using is going to).
This is in keeping with the Maxim of Relation (Relevance) since, other things being equal, statements about the present are more relevant
than statements about the past. If the speaker explicitly locates the intention in the past by using was going to, this can only mean that he
thinks the intention is (or may be) no longer valid, i.e. that it will not be carried out.
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?Are you going to remember this?

b) The fact that be going to represents a future situation as related to the present entails that
the situation referred to usually lies in the immediate or near future:
Ó) Be going to will automatically be interpreted as referring to the immediate or near
future, unless there is a time adverbial or context indicating otherwise.
e.g. We’re going to have the chimney repaired.
Be careful. The bath-tub is going to spill over.
What are you going to read to us today?
ß) Because of this implicature of immediacy, it is often impossible to use shall/will
instead of be going to.
e.g. I hear you’re going to make a speech tonight? (?will)
e.g. A sentence like It will freeze is not normally used to speak about the near future
and is therefore pointless without an adverbial or contextual specification of
future time.
This difference between be going to and will is also clear when the reference is to the
past:
e.g. The cat went to the edge of the roof and looked down, as if it was going to jump
off. Then it turned its head and walked back to the middle of the roof. (*would)
c) Be going to always presupposes that all conditions for the future situation have been met.
It is not used, therefore, to refer to a situation that depends on the future fulfilment of a
condition. Will is therefore the normal auxiliary if the context refers to (or implies) a
condition which is not yet fulfilled.
e.g. If you ever go to France, you will no doubt enjoy your meals there. (*are going to
enjoy)
You will learn to drive a car proficiently if you take this course. (*are going to learn)
Let’s sit on that bough. -- No, it’s not strong enough. It’ll break. (implicit condition:
if we sit on it) (*is going to break)
e.g. cp. (1) The glue will be dry in half an hour.
(2) The glue is going to be dry in half an hour.
(In (1) there is the implied condition ‘if you let it dry without interfering’. In (2) there
is a suggestion of inevitability: all the conditions for the future situation have been
met, so the situation is inevitable, unless something interferes with the necessary
conditions before it is too late. It follows that the speaker will choose sentence (1) if
he wishes to advise the hearer to be patient, and sentence (2) if he wishes to warn the
hearer that he should do something quickly if he is to prevent the relevant objects
from being glued together.)
Notice, however, that be going to can be used in the head clause of a conditional sentence
if the condition expressed is treated as already fulfilled in the present. In such sentences
the if-clause can be paraphrased as ‘if it is the case that’ or ‘let’s assume that’.
e.g. If he has sprained his ankle, he is not going to compete in the race tomorrow.
If you have lost your passport, you’re going to have a lot of trouble with the police.
If you have come here to find out more about our plans, you’re going to be
disappointed.
You are going to be late if you don’t hurry. (Fulfilment of the condition is taken for
granted.)
Don’t always go to your mother if you have a problem. If you never try to solve a
problem yourself, life is going to be very difficult for you when your mother has died.
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d) In informal English, be going to may be used even if the sense of present predictability is
very weak, viz. in sentences in which the speaker just says what he thinks will happen. In
more formal English, only will/shall will be used for such predictions.
e.g. Do you think Leeds will / are going to beat Crystal Palace?
Tomorrow’s weather will / is going to be mild and dry. (Be going to may be used in
colloquial English, will is more formal and will be used e.g. in weather forecasts.)
The Prince of Wales will / is going to attend the concert next Sunday.
What will / is going to happen to us?
However, be going to is never used when there is (explicit or implicit) reference to a
condition that is not yet fulfilled at TU.
e.g. You’ll only meet a lot of boring people if you accept that invitation.
e) The use of be going to is rather unusual before go and come. People normally use the
present continuous instead.
e.g. I’m studying Spanish because I’m going to Spain next month. (?am going to go)
She’s coming next week. (?is going to come)
d. The future continuous
Future time reference can also be expressed by the progressive form of the future tense. Apart from
its basic use as a progressive form (representing a situation as in progress at a future time of
orientation), there is also a special use of the future continuous, which combines the following
characteristics : (a) There is no progressive aspect implied; (b) The future continuous expresses pure
future : there is no implication of intention, plan or volition; (c) It mostly suggests that the future
situation will occur in the normal course of events, or as a matter of routine, i.e. as part of what is (or
is expected to be) the normal pattern of events.
e.g. We will not be using the gymnasium for a couple of weeks because it is being refurbished.
Bill will be driving to London tomorrow. Why don’t you ask him to deliver the parcel? (The
sentence implies that Bill drives to London regularly.)
When will you be seeing her again? (The sentence implies that you see her regularly.)
We will return to this use in §2.
e. There are still some other means of referring to the future:
1) Be about to and be on the point of (the latter with animate subjects only) express immediate
future:
e.g. Don’t interrupt me now. I’m (just) about to solve a difficult problem.
The doctor says I am on the point of having a nervous breakdown.
Hold that rope. It’s about to get loose.
2) Be to can express an arranged future. It differs from the present continuous in that it normally
denotes either an official plan or decision or a scheduled action imposed by an outside will.
e.g. The measures are to take effect next week.
(The) Prime Minister (is) to visit Australia next summer. (headline)
These collieries are to close down before the end of the year.
The ambassador is to return to Egypt tomorrow.
Apart from this use, be to can also convey modal ideas (e.g. obligation or necessity resulting
from an order or prohibition, etc. -- see chapter 11). One special use is in if-clauses referring to
a goal that the referent of the subject NP aims to reach:
e.g. We’ll have to repair the handle of this saucepan if you are to use it.
Girls have to be willing to sell their body if they are to make it in this profession.
3) As we will see in chapter 11, modal auxiliaries like may, must, can, should, need, etc. can be
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used to express present modality with future actualisation. They can therefore also be used to
make statements about the future.
e.g. The new teacher may arrive tomorrow. (= It is possible that he will arrive tomorrow.) (may = will
perhaps)
You must do it tomorrow. (= It is necessary that you do it tomorrow.)
III. THE EXPRESSION OF TEMPORAL RELATIONS IN A DOMAIN

As we have seen, there are four absolute tenses that can be used to establish a domain. A situation which
is to become the central situation of a past domain is referred to by the preterite. To establish a domain in
the pre-present, present or post-present sector we use the present perfect, present tense or future tense,
respectively. Once a domain has been established, other situations can be introduced into it. In that case
each new situation is related to (‘bound’ by) one of the situations that are already part of the domain. This
process can be referred to as temporal subordination. It is important to stress that temporal
subordination is not the same thing as syntactic subordination (of clauses). The two differ in several
respects:
(a) Subordinate clauses may or may not show tense subordination (cf. He said he would/will
come).
(b) ‘Subordinate tenses’ (i.e. relative tenses) may sometimes occur in unembedded clauses (as e.g.
when a sentence like He had worked hard all day is the opening sentence of a novel).
(c) In a sentence like The boy who told us about the accident had witnessed it himself the
subordinate clause uses an absolute tense form and the superordinate clause a subordinate tense
form.
Each kind of domain (past, pre-present, present, post-present) has its own system to express the
(domain-internal) relations that are created by the process of temporal subordination. The purpose of this
section is to investigate these systems in detail.
A. THE RELATIONS IN A PAST TIME-SPHERE DOMAIN
The system of tenses expressing relations in a past domain is relatively simple:
1. Simultaneity
To represent a situation as simultaneous with some situation in the domain we use the preterite,
irrespective of whether the binding situation is the central situation or a temporally subordinated
one:
e.g. He said that he was feeling faint.
He said he had panicked when the milk boiled over.
He said he would do it when he had time.
It follows that while-clauses use the past tense even if they depend on a head clause in the past
perfect. 54
e.g. John had been reading the newspaper while he was eating.
He had been smoking a cigar while he was waiting for Mary.
2. Anteriority
To represent a situation as anterior to some other situation (central or subordinated) in the past
domain, the past perfect is used:
e.g. He thought I had been living there for some time.
He said he would clean up the mess after the guests had left.

54. The past perfect is not quite ungrammatical, though. Examples like John had been reading while he had been eating are rather uncommon
but accepted by many speakers. (In section VII we will refer to this possibility as ‘indirect binding’.)
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He had said he had spilt some milk on the tablecloth.

Mary went to her mother after she had run away from her husband when he had slapped her in
the face when she asked him where he had been all night.
Note:
a. As is clear from these examples, the past perfect can express the same types of anteriority as are
expressed by the past tense and the present perfect:
1) The past perfect resembles the past tense when it just locates a situation in the past of the
binding TO.
e.g. cp. I sold the cottage a couple of months ago.
Two weeks ago fire destroyed the cottage that I had sold a couple of months
before.
e.g. When he had made his speech, he sat down and wiped his forehead.
2) The past perfect resembles the present perfect when it locates a situation in a period
reaching up to the binding TO. In doing so it may be an indefinite past perfect or a
continuative one.
e.g. When I found the medal in the gutter, it had apparently been lying there for some
time. (continuative)
The man had been in Lebanon several times before he was abducted. (indefinite)
I had lost the car keys. So I could not drive home. (indefinite past perfect with
resultative meaning)
b. It should be noted that the temporal relation which exists between two situations in real time is
not necessarily expressed by the verb forms reporting the situations. This explains why
sentences of the type I spoke to the boy whose father had died a week earlier can alternate with
sentences like I spoke to the boy whose father died a week earlier. In the former case the
subclause situation is temporally subordinated to the head clause situation. That is, had died is a
relative tense form expressing anteriority in a past domain. However, there is no temporal
subordination when the preterite is used: died is an absolute preterite establishing a new domain
(i.e. shifting the domain).
This kind of shift of domain is quite common in after-clauses and in clauses governing a
before-clause:
e.g. He retired soon after he became/had become 60.
Some students (had) left before the lecture ended.
The wounded pedestrian (had) died before the ambulance arrived.
The company called a press conference after the board (had) met.
It should be noted, however, that the past tense cannot be used if a resultative or continuative
meaning is to be expressed.
c. It is also worth noting that apart from the past perfect there is another tense that would seem to
express anteriority in a past domain, viz. the conditional perfect (would + perfect infinitive).
However, the conditional perfect does more than just express anteriority. It also makes clear
that the binding TO to which the situation is anterior is itself posterior to another time in the
past domain. The conditional perfect thus has a double function, which means that it does not
belong to the set of pure relative tenses but to some other part of the system (see below).
d. A sentence involving a since-clause that refers to a period that reaches up to some past TO
normally makes use of the past perfect in both head clause and since-clause.
e.g. He whispered that he had been waiting for this moment ever since he had seen her walk
past his window three years before.
He confessed that he had been thinking of suicide since he had been feeling depressed.
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There are two possible exceptions:

1) A past tense can often be used in the since-clause if the latter does not contain a time
adverbial and reports a situation which does not continue up to the binding TO.
e.g. The tree had grown a lot since it had been planted / was planted.
e.g. cp. John had been confused since he (had) met Jill.
John had been confused since he had known Jill. (*knew)
2) The past tense is found in the head clause in the pattern ‘it was + period of time + since-
clause’.
e.g. The lioness looked at us with greedy eyes. It was probably days since she had last had
a decent meal.
It was a long time since I had stopped drinking alcohol.
3. Posteriority
To represent a situation as posterior to some other situation in the past domain we often use the
conditional tense:
e.g. I thought he would help me.
He had promised that he would henceforth behave himself.
He promised that he would soon tell me when he would make his decision.
In 1975 I went to Oxford, where I should/would spend the happiest years of my life.
However, the use of the conditional tense is not the only means of expressing future-in-the-past.
Several other constructions are possible, and the speaker will select one of these according to the
type of sentence or the connotation to be expressed:
a. In indirect speech and thought we can use all the past time versions of the verb forms and
auxiliaries that can locate a situation in the post-present (with their own typical aspects of
meaning).
e.g. He did not know what his father would say.
The librarian did not notice that the pile of books was going to fall over.
He saw there was going to be a sand storm.
You might have told us in advance you were coming.
It was announced that the Prime Minister was to visit Australia in spring.
I sensed that he was about to do something stupid.
Our coach told us their goalkeeper was injured and would not be playing.
The same forms can be used in ‘free indirect speech’ (Erlebte Rede) (where someone’s words
or thoughts are reported without there being an introductory verb of saying or thinking).
However, in that case informal English will sometimes use was going to instead of would.
e.g. She girl was trembling with fear. The burglar would have no hesitation about killing her if
he spotted her in her hiding-place.
They felt hungry and cold, but did not lose heart. Surely, it would not be long now before
they were found.
The procession had now begun to climb the hill. Soon they would reach the little church at
the top.
b. If the speaker wants to express that a situation which did not yet hold at a past TO did actually
hold later (but still before TU), he may use would or was to:
e.g. Ten years later, Percy would be / was to be the most popular actor in London.
Soon after that war ended, another one would / was to begin.
He entered Parliament at the age of 31. Five years later he would be / was to be the
youngest Prime Minister the country had ever had.
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This use of would is formal and typical of narrative style. In spoken English was to will more
often be used. 55
c. If the speaker wants to express that a situation which did not yet hold at the past TO was at that
time predictable or expected to happen later, he will normally use was going to:
e.g. I was looking for my racket because I was going to play tennis at ten o’clock.
He told me confidentially that he was going to leave the firm.
Was going to is certainly the only possible form if the reference is to a past intention that was
never fulfilled.
e.g. I was going to pay you a visit this afternoon, but I’ll have to attend an emergency meeting
of the board.
You were going to give me your hairdresser’s telephone number. (used as a reminder)
d. To refer to an arranged-future-in-the-past we normally use the past continuous.
e.g. Mary was cleaning the house. She was having guests that evening.
There was no point in inviting the Robinsons, as they were leaving the day before the
party.
When she accosted me I hardly had time to listen to her, because I was taking the ferry in
half an hour.
The man was very nervous. He was getting married that morning.
I didn’t call him up to tell him the news because I was calling at his office the next day.
This use of the past continuous is possible even if the context makes clear that the action
planned was not actually performed.
e.g. He was leaving the country in June, but his accident has made this impossible.
However, this idea of unreality is more frequently expressed by was going to.
e. The past tense of be to can be used for official arrangements.
e.g. There were a lot of plainclothes policemen in the hotel where the conference was to take
place.
In the afternoon the Princess left for New Zealand, where she was to join her husband.

B. THE RELATIONS IN A PRE-PRESENT SECTOR DOMAIN

A pre-present domain is always established by a present perfect. The expression of temporal relations in
such a domain is different according as the perfect is an indefinite perfect or a continuative one.
1. As noted above, an indefinite perfect is normally only used to introduce a situation (i.e. to establish a
domain in the pre-present sector), not to go on speaking about it after this has happened. In order to
do that we normally switch to the past tense. This means that an indefinite perfect can only refer to
the central situation of a pre-present domain. If we wish to relate other situations to the central one,
we shift the temporal perspective. That is, what is initially a pre-present domain is reinterpreted as a
past domain, and the system used to express domain-internal relations is that typical of a past
domain. For example:
e.g. I have tried doing it differently, but I didn’t like the result.
The clause I have tried doing it differently locates a situation (which does not reach up to TU) at
some indefinite time within a period reaching up to TU (i.e. within the pre-present sector). However,
once the speaker has done this and wishes to say more about the situation in question, his next
sentence shows a shift of temporal perspective: the speaker now concentrates on the situation itself,
which lies wholly before TU, and disregards the link with TU. This link with TU, which is
expressed in the first clause (where the speaker is not thinking of the past time-sphere but is

55. This use of would is more common in Am.E. texts than in Br.E. ones.
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concerned with the state of the world at TU) is no longer relevant in the next part of the discourse.
The speaker now concentrates on the past situation itself. It follows that the domain, which was
initially established in the pre-present sector, is further developed as if it were a past time-sphere
domain. There is thus a shift of temporal perspective from the pre-present sector to the past time-
sphere. Whereas the central situation of the domain is referred to in the present perfect, the other
situations introduced into the domain are referred to by means of past time-sphere tenses.
Similar examples:
e.g. That man has been at my door before. He tried to talk me into buying an encyclopedia.
He’s been here once or twice, while his wife was on holiday.
They have eaten everything while you were out.
Sentences like these clearly show the shift of interest from the fact that the situation has taken place
to the occasion when it took place, and the corresponding shift of temporal perspective from the
present time-sphere to the past time-sphere.
It follows from this shift that not only the preterite but also the other tenses typical of the past time-
sphere can be found in subclauses relating a situation to a situation described by means of an
indefinite perfect:
e.g. I have never promised that I would join you.
I have never denied that I had opened the envelope.
I have seen her a couple of times, when we were both waiting for the bus.
Has she ever come to you after she had quarrelled with her husband?
I have just found a bracelet. It was lying in the corridor.
It goes without saying that this shift of temporal perspective can only occur if the situation
introduced in the present perfect sentence lies wholly before TU, i.e. if the perfect is an indefinite
perfect. If it is a continuative perfect, the temporal perspective remains within the present time-
sphere (see below):
e.g. I have been reading this serial since it started and I have enjoyed / am enjoying it very much.
I have been swotting up on my geometry, while you have been lying in your bed.
There are two further things to be noted:
a. Sometimes the indefinite perfect establishing the pre-present domain refers to a repetitive
situation that consists of an indefinite number of subsituations. In that case the domain is felt to
be a domain that reaches up to TU, even if the individual subsituations belonging to it lie before
TU. When adding a new clause, the speaker may be guided by either of these factors, so that
there are two possibilities as far as the tense is concerned:
1) In most cases the speaker makes use of the possibility of shifting the temporal perspective
and uses one of the tenses typical of the past time-sphere:
e.g. I have often rung him up when I was feeling lonely.
I have often been comforted by Mum when I had been laughed at by the others.
His lawyer has been able to visit him in prison as often as he wanted.
You know that I have never refused you anything that you really needed.
She has often been very aggressive when she expected that she wouldn’t get what she
wanted.
2) If the two situations are simultaneous, both can be referred to by means of the present
perfect:
e.g. I have often rung him up when I have felt lonely.
John has served well when he has played.
I’ve always been very satisfied with the men that have worked for me.
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In such sentences both the head clause and the subclause establish their own pre-present
domains. (These domains happen to be simultaneous, but this is often the case when the
domain is shifted -- see below.)
b. When the shift of temporal perspective (from the pre-present to the past) takes place, the
speaker just relates the subclause situation to the pre-present binding situation. In this way no
relation is expressed between the bound situation and TU. However, in some cases the speaker
may wish to represent a relation of some kind between the subclause situation and TU. He may,
for example, wish to represent the subclause situation as still relevant to the structure of the
world at TU. In that case he does not relate the subclause situation to the head clause situation
but rather relates it to TU. That is, instead of applying the temporal subordination process
(involving a shift of temporal perspective) he shifts the domain, i.e. he has the subclause
establish its own domain relative to TU (i.e. its own pre-present domain). This is the case in
examples like the following:
e.g. The press attaché at the Palace has already confirmed that the King has sent the Russian
President a personal message.
The news agency has reported that the plane has not reached its destination.
The present perfects in the subclauses of these examples are absolute tense forms. Other
absolute tenses, such as the preterite or the future tense, can be found too:
e.g. The doctor has said that Bill will perhaps have to be operated on because he has probably
broken his ankle.
The doctor has already confirmed that Bill broke his ankle yesterday.
There have been times in my life when I felt depressed, and then I have found that good
friends are invaluable. (This example illustrates both temporal subordination and domain
shifting. The perfect have been establishes a pre-present domain and the preterite felt
expresses simultaneity within this domain. Then there is a shift to a new pre-present
domain, established by have found. 56 This domain is not further expanded, for the present
tense form are again shifts the domain, this time to the present sector.)
It should also be noted that the fact that a subclause uses a present perfect to establish its own
pre-present domain means that no direct temporal relation is expressed between the situation of
the head clause and that of the subclause. This is in keeping with the principle that only past
time-sphere tenses can be used to express relations within a domain established by an indefinite
present perfect.
2. When the present perfect has continuative meaning, the domain which it establishes in the pre-
present sector includes TU. In that case there is no special system of tense forms to represent
domain-internal relations. Since the domain includes TU, all relations must start from TU, i.e. they
must be ‘absolute relations’ of the kind that establish domains. This gives the following results:
a. Reference to an anterior situation
A situation that is anterior to a situation that is located in the pre-present sector necessarily lies
wholly before TU. To refer to it the speaker can therefore make use of the two possibilities
which he generally has to refer to situations that are over at TU: he can use a preterite to locate
the situation in the past time-sphere or he can use an indefinite perfect to locate it (as lying
wholly before TU) in the pre-present sector. For example:

56. The presence of the adverb then entails that the domain established by have found is actually interpreted as simultaneous with the domain
established by the first clause. There is nothing unusual about this. It often happens that two independently established domains are felt to
cover the same time interval. What is important is that have found does not express simultaneity within the domain established by have
been. That the new domain which it establishes happens to be simultaneous with the other domain is immaterial to this.
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e.g. I have known since last week that Jim has passed all his exams.
I have known for some time that it was not Bill who stole the money.
Since then I’ve felt I’ve missed a golden opportunity.
In such sentences the subclause establishes a domain of its own. That is, there is a shift of
domain rather than temporal subordination.
b. Reference to a simultaneous situation
It goes without saying that a situation can only be conceived as simultaneous with a situation
reaching up to TU if that situation itself also includes TU. Because of this, two tenses can be
used to refer to the situation in question, viz. the present perfect (as a continuative perfect) or
the present tense. The former will be used if the speaker wants to explicitly represent the
situation as starting in the past and continuing into the present; 57 if this is not the case, the
present tense is more natural. For example:
e.g. Ever since this morning I have been scrubbing floors while you have been lolling around
the house.
The sheriff has known for some time that Big John has been / is in town.
He has always maintained that he doesn’t like mushrooms.
You know, ever since we have been working on this project, I’ve had the strangest feeling
there is something wrong with it.
The house has been deserted all the time I’ve been away.
Have all these things been lying in here while we’ve been away? Suppose they’d been
stolen.
In some cases the present tense is the only possibility because the present perfect would have
indefinite rather than continuative meaning:
e.g. I have suspected for some time that you wish to marry her.
For how long have I been telling you that he loves another girl?
If the perfect refers to a repetitive situation, there are often two possibilities. Compare:
e.g. (1) He has always told me that he is a geologist.
(2) He has always told me that he was a geologist.
In (1) has always told is treated as a continuative perfect, whereas in (2) it is treated as an
indefinite perfect. It follows that the subclause situation (which is simultaneous with the head
clause situation) is referred to in the present tense in (1) and in the past tense in (2). This double
possibility follows from the fact that the head clause situation consists of a number of
subsituations. The situation as a whole reaches up to TU (hence the possibility of interpreting
has told as a continuative perfect), but the various subsituations lie completely before TU
(hence the possibility of treating has told as an indefinite perfect). The same two possibilities
are also to be observed in the following examples:
e.g. ‘I have always known that you loved me’, she whispered as he pulled her gently to him.
I have always known that you love me.
c. Reference to a posterior situation
Since a continuative perfect establishing the central situation of a domain represents this
situation as including TU, any situation that is posterior to the central situation must also be

57. It is worth stressing that in such cases the present perfect or present tense is not a relative tense. (There is only one relative tense that can
express simultaneity in a pre-present domain, viz. the preterite.) Rather the relevant present perfect and present tense forms in these
examples are absolute tense forms, which each establish a domain which is (roughly) simultaneous with the head clause domain (since
both domains cover a timespan which reaches up to TU).
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posterior to TU. To refer to such a situation we therefore use the future tense (i.e. the absolute
tense used for establishing a post-present domain):
e.g. Ever since this morning he has repeated that he will complain to the manager.
However, if the perfect establishing the domain represents the situation as repetitive, there is
again the possibility of treating the perfect as an indefinite perfect (referring to subsituations
that lie wholly before TU). In that case there is a switch of temporal perspective to the past
time-sphere, so that the tense used for posteriority is the conditional tense (or another form with
a similar function):
e.g. He has been telling me for months that he was going to return the books to me, but he still
has not done it.
This example (in which the that-clause is temporally subordinated) should be compared with
the following, where the speaker treats has been telling as a purely continuative perfect and has
the that-clause establish its own post-present domain:
e.g. He has been telling me for months that he is going to return the books to me.

C. RELATING A SITUATION TO A PRESENT TIME OF ORIENTATION

If the present tense is used as an absolute tense, it establishes a present domain, i.e. a domain whose
central situation coincides with TU or is centred around it. The expression of temporal relations is then as
follows:
1. Simultaneity
The present tense is used to represent a situation as simultaneous with the central situation, or with
any other situation that includes TU.
e.g. I am studying, while he is doing nothing.
I am just saying that I believe that John is lying to us about what he intends to do.
It should be noted that, in a present domain, simultaneity is the only temporal relation that can be
expressed by means of a finite verb form. Since the central situation of a present domain coincides
with TU or includes TU, reference to an anterior or posterior situation by means of a finite verb form
will automatically mean that the situation is located in one of the other absolute sectors.58 Needless
to say, the verb form in question is then an absolute tense form (which creates its own domain).
However, things are different when a nonfinite verb form is used, as in He seems to have been ill.
Nonfinite verb forms cannot establish domains; they can only express temporal relations. In He
seems to have been ill the perfect infinitive thus expresses anteriority in a present domain.
2. Reference to an anterior situation
What is anterior to a situation including TU will be referred to by either the past tense or the present
perfect, depending on whether the speaker wishes to locate the situation in the past time-sphere or in
the pre-present sector:
e.g. You know that I finished the work last night.
You know that I have not been able to do it yet.
As noted above, these that-clauses involve an absolute tense form establishing a new domain. If this
domain is expanded (i.e. if another situation is temporally subordinated to the that-clause situation),
the tense to express this relation will be in accordance with the systems typical of past and pre-
present domains, respectively:
e.g. You know that I have not been able to do it because I have been too busy.
You know that I have not been able to do it because I was too busy (when I had to do it).

58. For convenience, the term ‘absolute sectors’ is used as a cover-term for the past, the pre-present, the present and the post-present.
 111

You know that I did it last night because I had time then.
You know that I have always said that I will/would support the Liberals.
I admit that I doubted if John would be up to the job.
I know that you told John that you had used his bike.
I appreciate that you have always told me what marks you (had) got for your homework.
In these examples some of the subclauses shift the domain, whereas others exhibit temporal
subordination. For instance, in the first example the head clause establishes a present domain, the
that-clause shifts the domain (by establishing a pre-present domain) and the because-clause again
shifts the domain (by establishing another, but simultaneous, pre-present domain). The second
example is like the first, except for the fact that the because-clause now exhibits temporal
subordination. In the third example there is a shift from a present domain (know) to a past one (did),
and then temporal subordination (had).
3. Reference to a posterior situation
In order to represent a situation as posterior to a situation that includes TU we will make use of the
future tense (which is the absolute tense that is normally used to refer to the post-present) or some
other expression establishing a post-present domain:
e.g. I know John will be in London tomorrow.
Why don’t you admit you are selling your house?
I think it’s going to rain.
To relate another situation to the bound post-present situation we will use the tenses that are
typically used to represent relations in a post-present domain (see below).

D. RELATIONS IN A POST-PRESENT DOMAIN

When the speaker wishes to express a domain-internal relation in the post-present sector (i.e. when he
wishes to relate a situation to another situation in a post-present domain rather than to TU), there is
normally a shift of temporal perspective: the binding TO in question behaves as if it were TU. This opens
up all sorts of possibilities, for TU is the time from which the four ‘absolute sectors’ (viz. the past, the
pre-present, the present and the post-present) are defined. The same thing now becomes possible in the
post-present domain: the central time of the domain can become the point from which four different
sectors are defined, and the systems of expressing domain-internal relations in these sectors are exactly
the same as those observed above in connection with the absolute sectors (which are directly related to
TU). This gives the following results:
1. Anteriority
As we have seen, a situation that is anterior to TU is located either in the past time-sphere or in the
pre-present sector. Since a post-present binding TO behaves as if it were TU, the same two
possibilities are available when a situation is to be represented as anterior to it. That is, the
expression of anteriority to a post-present TO involves a shift of temporal perspective to either the
past time-sphere or the pre-present sector.
a. When there is a shift of temporal perspective to the past time-sphere, the bound situation is
represented as lying completely before the binding TO and is not represented as lying in a
period leading up to that time. This is the case in the following examples: (Note that the
situation in question is anterior to TU in (1), simultaneous with TU in (2), and posterior to TU
in (3). This means that the position of the situation relative to TU is irrelevant to this system.)
e.g. (1) This will make the police believe that he was killed yesterday.
(2) This will make the police believe that you were staying here today, and not in
London.
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(3) (said while planning someone’s murder) The police will believe that he was killed
tonight.
It should be noted that the use of the past tense here does not entail a shift of domain because
the past tense does not relate the subclause situation to TU. It relates it to a post-present TO
which merely behaves as if it were TU. In other words, because the binding TO is a ‘pseudo-
TU’, the past tense is a ‘pseudo-absolute’ tense, which actually serves to express anteriority in
the post-present domain.
The pseudo-past subclause situation can serve as binding TO for other situations that are
introduced into the domain. The latter situations are then referred to by means of the tense
system that is typical of the past time-sphere. That is, the preterite is used for simultaneity, the
past perfect for anteriority, and the conditional tense for posteriority:
e.g. (said when planning someone’s murder) The police will think that he was killed when he
entered the flat that he had been told to go to. They will believe that he was murdered
because he had ferreted out where the heroin would be taken.
I will make them believe that when I asked for the letter it had already been thrown away.
b. When a situation is located in the time-interval leading up to the central situation of the post-
present domain, this time-interval is treated as if it were the pre-present sector. This means that
the present perfect is used to locate situations in it:
e.g. He will soon find out that you have been leading him up the garden path.
Who will look after you when Brad and Sybil have left?
John is joining us when he has finished his homework.
If the present perfect is of the ‘indefinite’ type, any situation that is related to the situation
referred to by the present perfect will again be represented as if it belonged to a past domain:
e.g. He will wonder if she has ever told anybody that she knew he was the thief.
The police will want to know if anybody has ever heard her say that she had discovered
that she would inherit a fortune when her husband died.
If the present perfect represents its situation as continuing up to the post-present binding TO,
we will use the same system for relating a situation to this continuative situation as we use for
relating a situation to a situation referred to by an absolute continuative perfect (i.e. a present
perfect which represents its situation as continuing up to TU):
1) Simultaneity: If not only the binding situation but also the bound one continues into the
relevant post-present situation, the bound situation is expressed by either the present
perfect or the present tense:
e.g. If someone asks us what we’ve been doing in the kitchen, I will say that I have been
doing the washing-up while you have been preparing dinner.
She will probably tell you that she has realized for some time that you love her.
2) Anteriority: If the new situation is to be represented as anterior to the situation that reaches
up to the post-present binding TO, there will be a shift of perspective to either the past
time-sphere or the pre-present sector:
e.g. Tomorrow we will tell the police that we have known for some time that it was Bill
who mugged the old lady.
Tomorrow we will tell him that we have known for some time that he has not told us
the truth.
3) Posteriority: If the new situation is posterior to the situation which reaches up to the post-
present binding TO, it is represented as if it belonged to the post-present sector:
e.g. He will probably tell you that he has known for some time that you will fire him.
2. Simultaneity
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A situation that is simultaneous with the post-present binding TO is represented as if it were lying in
the present sector. This means that the present tense is used.
e.g. If the weather is fine tomorrow, father will say that it is time for a picnic.
He will steal the diamonds while his accomplice diverts the guard’s attention.
It should be noted that sentences like these are potentially ambiguous, because the present tense in
the complement clause can often also be interpreted as an absolute tense (shifting the domain to
TU). This is not surprising, because it is a general characteristic of such complement clauses that
they can easily shift the domain to a sector which is different from that in which the head clause
domain is located (e.g. I believe that he was / has been / is / will be here).
Since the post-present binding TO behaves as if it were TU, the bound situation which is
represented as simultaneous with it also behaves as if it were TU. This means that any of the four
absolute tenses can be used to relate another situation to it:
e.g. Next time you make a business trip everybody will say that you are having a holiday while your
wife is staying behind to look after the shop.
Mary’s father will certainly be very angry with you if you tell her that her mother was a
prostitute before she got married.
(Do not say anything to Gladys, or) she will go and tell everybody that she knows why Tim has
been fired.
(Do not say anything to Gladys, or) she will go and tell everybody that she knows that Tim will
be fired.
3. Posteriority
To represent a situation as posterior to a post-present binding TO the speaker will use the future
tense (or a similar expression), thus representing the situation as if lying in the post-present sector
(i.e. in the future of TU).
e.g. He will swear that he will never tell her the ugly truth.
The situation which is posterior to the central situation of the post-present domain may then in its
turn bind other situations that are introduced into the domain. In that case it also behaves as if it
were TU, so that all the shifts of temporal perspective noted above may again take place. That is, the
situations related to this situation may be represented as if they belonged to the past time-sphere, the
pre-present, the present, or the post-present:
e.g. She will think that you will tell her parents that she played truant today.
She will think that you will tell her parents that she has not told them the truth.
She will think that you will tell her parents that you love her.
She will think that you will tell her parents that you will accompany her.
In the last example, the situation of the most deeply embedded clause may again bind another
situation, in which case it again behaves as if it were TU, etc.

IV. SLOPPY SIMULTANEITY

When the tense of a clause represents a situation as simultaneous with a binding TO, this does not
necessarily mean that the binding situation and the bound one must be strictly simultaneous. There is
strict simultaneity if the two situations either coincide or overlap:
e.g. He was in America when she died.
You will still be in bed when I take the train.
However, there is only ‘sloppy simultaneity’ in sentences like the following:
e.g. When the Iraqis attacked Israel, the Israelis did not retaliate at once.
(Be careful about what you tell her.) She will report everything you say to the police.
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When the shot was fired, everybody ran out of the bar in panic.
If the old woman dies (before she changes her will), her estate will be sold and the money given to
the Red Cross.
Each of these examples refers to two situations which do not overlap but follow each other. Still, the
tense used in the subordinate clause is each time the tense that is typically used to express simultaneity,
not anteriority. Anteriority would be expressed as follows:
e.g. When the Iraqis had attacked Israel, the Israelis did not retaliate at once.
(Be careful about what you tell her.) She will report everything you have said to the police.
When the shot had been fired, everybody ran out of the bar in panic.
If the old woman has died (before she changes her will), her estate will be sold and the money given
to the Red Cross.
It appears, then, that the tense forms expressing simultaneity can be used in cases where there is ‘sloppy’
rather than strict simultaneity. In these cases the speaker disregards the fact that the two situations do not
really overlap but concentrates on the fact that they follow each other closely and that there is some
logical relation between them. The use of a tense form expressing simultaneity then means that the
speaker treats the two situations as belonging to the same ‘occasion’ and hence as falling within the same
time interval.59 Another clear illustration of such a use is provided by examples like the following, where
the relevant verb form is a form whose basic meaning is the expression of simultaneity, viz. a present
participle:
e.g. Opening the drawer he took out a booklet.
Raising the lid of the well she pointed to the green water.
The lorry skidded off the road, narrowly missing a couple of cottages, and ended up in a field.
The fact that verb forms expressing simultaneity can be used in a sloppy way illustrates the fact that
simultaneity is the unmarked relation of the three that can be expressed by verb forms. This is especially
clear in conditional sentences referring to the future, where the expression of a temporal relation between
the two clauses is less important than the expression of the logical link (‘if p then q’). In such conditional
sentences the if-clause is therefore likely to express anteriority only if it contains a relational adverbial
like by 5 o’clock (as in I will go home if she has not arrived by 5 o’clock). Otherwise it normally involves
a tense form expressing simultaneity. This may even be the case when the two clauses contain adverbials
referring to different times, as in If you don’t tell her today, I will tell her myself tomorrow. In such a
sentence the speaker represents the two situations as if simultaneous if he is just thinking of them as two
post-present situations that are logically connected with each other.60 It is only when he wants to draw
explicit attention to the fact that one situation is over when the other takes place that he selects the verb
form expressing anteriority (If you haven’t told her today, I will tell her myself tomorrow).
When-clauses constitute another type of subclause in which the expression of sloppy simultaneity is
particularly frequent. In fact, when-clauses are often used to define ‘occasions’ (‘cases’) rather than to
express a temporal relation. They can therefore be used irrespective of whether their situation precedes,
follows or overlaps the head clause situation. This is what happens in the following examples, where it is
only our pragmatic knowledge of the world that suggests an interpretation in terms of simultaneity,
anteriority or posteriority:
e.g. When he lived in the country, Gerald always had a walk after supper.

59. In fact, this also holds for the absolute use of the present tense, which represents a situation as simultaneous with (i.e. as including) TU.
Even the ‘instantaneous’ use of the present tense does not require that the situation is strictly simultaneous with TU. A sentence like Now I
open the door may be uttered seconds before the action takes place. It is therefore subjective rather than objective simultaneity that is
conveyed.
60. The fact that conditional sentences represent the contents of the two clauses as simultaneous is also apparent from the fact that the head
clause can be introduced by then. This use of then may not be purely temporal, but it is reminiscent of the temporal meaning of the adverb,
which is ‘at that time’, i.e. ‘at the time referred to in the if-clause’.
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When Joe received a letter, he usually wrote a reply the very same day.
When Tracy went for a stroll, she turned on the burglar alarm.
When Mr Harris made his speech, Bryan introduced him.
In each of these sentences when means something like ‘when it was the case that’ and refers to a situation
that is represented as (sloppily) simultaneous with the main clause situation.
The concept of sloppy simultaneity also accounts for the fact that the present tense can be used instead
of the future tense after the verb hope and after the (informal) expression I bet.61
e.g. I hope the weather doesn’t / won’t change.
I bet I (will) get there first.
I hope they (will) support us.

V. ALTERNATIVES TO TEMPORAL SUBORDINATION

When the speaker utters more than one clause, the result is what we may call a text or a stretch of
discourse. When combining clauses, the speaker has to decide, for each clause that is added, whether he
is going to use a relative tense form (incorporating the new situation into an existing domain) or an
absolute tense form (creating a new domain). In section III we explored the former possibility (temporal
subordination); let us now have a look at the latter.
When a new situation is referred to, it is not always incorporated into the current domain (i.e. temporally
subordinated), even if it belongs to the same absolute sector. Instead it may be related again to TU, i.e. it
may again be located in the sector in question (which is defined relative to TU). There appear to be three
typical ways in which this may be done: by shifting the domain, by establishing a simultaneous domain,
and by re-establishing the domain. As we will see, all three operations are possible in some types of
clause only. They are not normally possible in dependent clauses whose situation is automatically related
to the time of the head clause situation (e.g. time clauses introduced by when or while, conditional
clauses), but they can occur in unembedded clauses and in subclauses whose situation is not
automatically felt to be related to the time referred to in the head clause (e.g. relative clauses, subclauses
of reason, etc.). In such clauses the situation may often be directly related to TU.

1. Shifting the domain

We are not talking here about such shifts of domain as are due to a shift of absolute sector (as in He says
that he was ill), but about shifting the domain within the same absolute sector. Such a shift occurs when a
domain has been established and a new situation is introduced in such a way that it is not incorporated
into the existing domain but rather becomes the central situation of a new domain. The following (a)
sentences are examples of this. They are contrasted with the (b) sentences, in which there is no shift of
domain because the new situation (described in the second clause) is incorporated into the domain
established by the first clause:
e.g. (a) The thief managed to escape but was caught again soon after.
(b) The thief managed to escape but would be caught again soon after.
e.g. (a) John firmly believed that nobody saw him enter the house.
(b) John firmly believed that nobody had seen him enter the house.
e.g. (a) I knew Graham well. I met him several times before.
(b) I knew Graham well. I had met him several times before.
Other examples of a shift of domain are:
e.g. The spokesman of the Home Office has just denied that the decision has already been made.

61. However, sloppy simultaneity cannot be expressed after other, similar verbs: *I expect / am sure / suppose / am afraid I get there before
the others.
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I will keep you informed of the decision we will make.

Her mother tried to stop the bleeding herself before she called in a doctor.
Pam understood what he meant before I did.
In such examples the speaker just locates the two situations in a sector without stating the temporal
relationship between them. (Of course, we know from pragmatic considerations that one situation is
anterior to the other, but this anteriority is not expressed by the tense form.)
Because it follows from a shift of domain that no temporal relation is expressed between the relevant
situations, a co-operative speaker will only make use of the possibility of shifting the domain if the shift
does not obscure the temporal relations between the situations or if these relations are deemed irrelevant
(cf. Grice’s Maxims of Quantity and Relation). Thus, we may say either (1,a) or (1,b) (because the
temporal relation is anyhow expressed by after), but we cannot replace (2,a) with (2,b) without
suggesting a different meaning (because when is temporally vague):
e.g. (1) (a) I always felt miserable after I had visited her.
(b) I always felt miserable after I visited her.
e.g. (2) (a) I always felt miserable when I had visited her.
(b) I always felt miserable when I visited her.

2. Establishing a simultaneous domain

As we have seen, the expression of domain-internal relations in the pre-present or post-present sector as
a rule involves a shift of temporal perspective to another sector:
a. We use the tenses typical of the past time-sphere to relate a situation to a pre-present sector situation
that does not include TU:
e.g. I have never felt happy when/while I did that kind of work.
I have never felt happy after I had done that kind of work.
Israel has always said that it would strike back if it was attacked.
b. When a new situation is related to a post-present one, there is a shift of temporal perspective
entailing that the tenses used are those typical of the past or pre-present sector (for anteriority), the
present sector (for simultaneity) or the post-present sector (for posteriority):
e.g. Tomorrow he will say that he was ill after he had drunk too much tonight.
(We will meet tomorrow, but) when asked questions she will not admit that we have met.
You know what will happen if you fire him. He will complain to everybody that he can no
longer support his family because you have fired him.
If you tell him off now, he will know that he will have to be more careful next time.
In examples like the above ones the shift of perspective to another sector creates no problem of
interpretation, because the subclauses are of the suitable type: the situation expressed in a temporal clause
or complement clause is most naturally interpreted as temporally subordinated to the situation of the head
clause (although exceptions remain possible, see below). However, in clauses which do not evince this
temporal dependency, the shift to another sector can result in ambiguity:
e.g. When your father comes back, he will not understand what is going on.
The police will no doubt know everything that is said.
You will be met by a woman whose hair is dyed black.
I’ll get there faster than you do.
Sentences like these are ambiguous because the situation in the subclause can be interpreted either as
simultaneous with the situation of the matrix (embedding clause) or as holding at TU. In order to rule out
the second interpretation, the speaker may prefer to use the future tense:
e.g. When your father comes back, he will not understand what will be going on.
The police will no doubt know everything that will be said.
You will be met by a woman whose hair will be dyed black.
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I’ll get there faster than you will.

It appears from these examples that there are two systems to refer to a situation in a post-present
domain. Let us call them the Present Perspective System (PPS) and the Future Perspective System
(FPS), respectively. The PPS consists of relative tenses and is used to relate a situation to a post-present
binding TO which behaves as if it were TU. This means that the PPS involves a shift of temporal
perspective and uses either the preterite or the present perfect for anteriority, the present tense for
simultaneity, and the future tense (or an equivalent expression) for posteriority. The FPS, in contrast,
involves tenses that establish post-present domains, viz. the future tense (as absolute tense) and the future
perfect. (As we will see below, the latter combines the function of absolute tense (establishing a domain)
with that of a relative tense (expressing a relation within the domain)). Since unembedded clauses
referring to the post-present normally require absolute tenses, it is the FPS that is used in them:
e.g. There will be major festivities next summer. All the people will be singing and dancing in the
streets. Their country will have existed then for twenty-five years.
The use of the FPS in the second clause of this example is an instance of what we could call
‘establishing a simultaneous domain’. In the first clause a situation is located in the post-present sector. In
doing so it becomes the central situation of a post-present domain. The second clause introduces a new
situation, but it is not incorporated into the domain. That is, it is not related (in terms of simultaneity) to
the situation of the first clause. Because no domain-internal relation is expressed, there is no shift of
perspective, hence no use of the PPS. Instead, the situation of the second clause is again located in the
post-present sector by the use of the future tense. It thus establishes a new post-present domain. However,
it is clear from the pragmatics of the sentence and its context that this new domain is in fact not
temporally different from the old one: it coincides with it. For this reason we can speak of ‘the
establishment of a simultaneous domain’.
The following are some further examples of tense forms establishing a simultaneous domain:
e.g. He watched the spectacle but did not enjoy it.
Someone has used my bike and has damaged it (while doing so).
She will read the letters over and over again, as they will be her only consolation.

3. Re-establishing the domain

Consider again the following example:
(1) There will be major festivities next summer. All the people will be singing and dancing in the
streets. Their country will have existed then for twenty-five years.
The third clause of (1) refers to a situation which is anterior to the central situation of the current domain.
However, this relation of anteriority cannot be expressed by the use of the present perfect (which
expresses anteriority in the PPS) because the third clause is an unembedded clause. In unembedded
clauses we cannot use the PPS to refer to the post-present. If we did, the situations referred to would be
interpreted as temporally related to TU rather than to some post-present TO. In an unembedded clause,
locating a situation in the post-present sector requires the use of a tense form which makes clear
explicitly that the domain belongs to the post-present sector. Only the tense forms of the FPS come up to
this requirement: the future tense forms in the first two clauses of (1) establish two simultaneous post-
present domains; the future perfect in the third clause both re-establishes the domain (by the use of will)
and expresses anteriority in it (by means of have). The future perfect thus combines the functions of
absolute and relative tense; we can call it an absolute-relative tense.
Re-establishing a domain is not the same thing as establishing a simultaneous domain. A simultaneous
domain is established by representing a new situation as the central situation of a new domain. The future
perfect in (1) does not do this. It represents a new situation as anterior to the central situation of an
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already existing domain. However, in doing so it also re-establishes the domain, because it re-affirms (by
the presence of will in the tense form itself) that the domain is located in the post-present sector. This re-
affirmation is necessary because the kind of clause in which the future perfect can be used is the kind in
which the domain can easily be shifted, viz. unembedded clauses and subclauses whose situation need
not be temporally subordinated to the situation of the matrix (e.g. relative clauses, subclauses of reason,
concession, comparison, place...). The future perfect cannot be used to represent a situation as anterior to
a post-present situation referred to in a superordinate clause. Thus, we can say John will have left when
you arrive but not *You will arrive when John will have left. 62, 63
The fact that the FPS is used to establish or re-establish a domain, whereas the PPS is used to express
domain-internal relations, entails that they have the following distribution:
a. In unembedded clauses the FPS is used:
e.g. You will hear about it tomorrow. (*hear)
You will have heard about it by tomorrow. (*have heard)
Note that the use of the present tense in sentences like I am leaving tomorrow or The train leaves in
an hour does not run counter to this. The present tense here results from a shift of perspective and
also functions as an absolute tense form establishing a post-present domain (see above).
b. Only the PPS can be used in subclauses whose situation is represented as temporally related to that
of the matrix (i.e. the superordinate clause). Conditional clauses and adverbial time clauses are
nearly always of this type:
e.g. cp. By the end of this year we will have been living here for fifteen months.
Food supplies will be running out when the war has lasted for half a year.
e.g. cp. He won’t write to her until he has received a letter from her.
He will have received a letter from her before he writes to her.
e.g. cp. The shopkeeper will leave when/after he has locked up. (*will have locked up)
The shopkeeper will have locked up when/before he leaves. (*will leave)
e.g. If John is in trouble, I will help him. (*will be)
I will go to bed at once when/after they have left. (*will have left)
Send me a postcard when you arrive on Ibiza. (*will arrive)
I will not leave the house until she comes back. (*will come back)
The escaped convict will no doubt be caught before he has left the country. (*will have left)
(As will be noted in section X, adverbial time clauses introduced by until or before use verb forms
expressing a temporal relation with an implicit posterior TO rather than verb forms expressing a
relation with the head clause situation. This explains the use of the present tense (rather than the
future tense) in the above example with until and of the present perfect (rather than the future
perfect) in the above example with before.)
Note:

62. This does not mean that the future perfect cannot appear in a subclause. Sentences like John will say that he will have left are impeccable,
but they form no exception to the rule, because the situation of the head clause is not the time interval to which the subclause situation is
represented as anterior: the time before which John will have left is not the time referred to by will say but some other time, which is not
specified in the sentence itself.
63. Apart from the future perfect there are a couple of phrasal forms that also belong to the FPS, viz. the phrases ‘will be going to + infinitive’
and ‘will be about to + infinitive’:
e.g. At this time tomorrow the team will be checking their equipment, as they will be going to start climbing the mountain in half
an hour.
She will be about to go to bed when we get there.
Like the future perfect, these phrases are absolute-relative forms because they both establish a post-present domain (by the use of will) and
indicate a relation (in this case: posteriority) in it. However, they cannot always be used to express future-in-the-future, because both be
going to and be about to have a particular semantic import and are not normally used to express unqualified posteriority. Moreover, both
forms have a very low frequency.
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1)Clauses introduced by in case, as long as, supposing, let’s suppose, suppose, assuming, let’s
assume, assume and imagine also use the PPS.
e.g. She’s brought her swim-suit in case there is time for a dive into the pool.
Supposing / Let’s suppose / Suppose that you do not get the support you need -- what will
you do then?
Just imagine we have a puncture. Do you know how to change a wheel?
I don’t care where we go on holiday as long as I don’t have to drive the car.
2) This rule also applies to relative clauses depending on an NP denoting time, if the latter behaves
like a temporal conjunction.
e.g. This tree is too small to plant. We will be dead by the time it is ten foot high.
You must stop the engine the moment (that) it begins to make a strange noise.
3) The rule does not apply to temporal clauses that are not adverbial clauses.
e.g. cp. The Prime Minister will be informed when the man is arrested. (adverbial clause)
The Prime Minister will be told when the man will be arrested. (object clause)
e.g. Can you tell me the date when the festival will take place? (relative clause)
4) The present tense is also used in noun clauses depending on expressions like it doesn’t matter, I
don’t care, I don’t mind, it’s not important, etc.
e.g. It doesn’t matter much who we hire for this job.
I don’t care what you do with these animals, as long as you keep them out of my house.
c. In subclauses whose situation is not represented as temporally dependent on that of the matrix, the
FPS is used. Nonrestrictive relative clauses are always of this type:
e.g. I will write a letter to John, who will be back in England by the end of the week. (*is)
I will write a letter to John, who will have returned to England by the end of the week. (*has
returned)
Note that when-clauses too can be used as nonrestrictive relative clauses:
e.g. We had better put off discussing this matter until next week, when we will have more
information.
Wait till Sunday, when you will see the result for yourself.64
Other types of subclause in which we use the FPS are subclauses expressing reason, concession,
purpose, result, etc.
e.g. She will no doubt be disappointed, although she will not admit that to you.
d. In some types of subclause (e.g. restrictive relative clauses) the situation may or may not be
represented as temporally dependent on the situation of the matrix:
e.g. And afterwards I will tell him that I will buy a car with the money he has given / will have
given me.
You will live to see the day when China will be an economic superpower. (or: is)
Whether such a relative clause uses the PPS or the FPS depends on whether or not the speaker finds
it necessary to express explicitly in the subclause that the subclause situation belongs to a post-
present domain. And this in its turn may depend on how much is clear from the use of adverbial
indications of time and from the pragmatics of the situations referred to.
Because-clauses may also make use of either of the systems:
e.g. By that time the baby will be crying because she will be hungry.
By that time the baby will be crying because she is hungry.
However, the FPS has to be used if the forms from the PPS would naturally be interpreted as relating
the situation to TU rather than to a post-present binding TO:

64. The FPS appears to be obligatory in nonrestrictive relative time clauses. This means that the when-clause of sentences like I will repair the
car tomorrow, when I have more time is not a relative clause but an adverbial one (which is used as a kind of appositive to tomorrow).
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e.g. Bruce will be very busy tomorrow because his shop assistants will be absent. (Are would
suggest that they are already absent.)
Bruce will be very busy tomorrow because his shop assistants will have left. (Have left would
suggest that they have already left.)
Note:
1) Restrictive relative clauses tend to use the PPS if it is clear from the context that the reference is
to the post-present.
e.g. There’ll be a medal for every competitor who reaches the finish.
The man who is able to escape from this prison must still be born.
The first bomb that is dropped will start a war.
We must tell the police anything we know.
Headless relative clauses follow the same rule:
e.g. He will go wherever the others go.
The new town council will perhaps give us what we want.
Sleep on it and tell me tomorrow what your decision is.
The soldiers will shoot at whoever is in the street during the curfew.
e.g. cp. He’ll be upset by what is going on. (interpreted as referring to TU, unless the context
indicates otherwise)
He’ll be upset by what will be going on.
2) Dependent wh-questions also tend to use the PPS.
e.g. Please let me know from time to time what progress you are making.
3) The PPS is often found in subclauses of comparison.
e.g. She’ll be in the same group as I am/will.
We’ll probably stay away longer than you are/will.
You can drink as much alcohol as you like after we have arrived there.
Note:
(a) The statement that the future perfect is an ‘absolute-relative tense’ should not be misunderstood. It
must be stressed that the future perfect is only an absolute tense in the sense that it re-establishes the
domain (i.e. re-affirms the post-present location of the central situation of the domain) into which it
introduces the new situation. It is not an absolute tense in the sense that it makes explicit the
temporal relation that holds between the new situation and TU. In fact, the future perfect does not
tell us anything about this temporal relation at all, and can therefore be used irrespective of whether
the new situation holds before, at, or after TU:
e.g. If there is a strike tomorrow, we’ll have worked in vain yesterday.65
If there is a strike tomorrow, we’ll have worked in vain today.
If there is a strike the day after tomorrow, we’ll have worked in vain tomorrow.
e.g. By next Sunday I’ll be fed up with social dinners. I’ll have gone to three last week and to
another three in the coming week.
(b) The anteriority relation expressed by the future perfect may be of two types: the anterior situation
may or may not be located in a period that reaches up to the binding TO. If it does, the future perfect
can have either indefinite or continuative meaning (like the present perfect):

65. Imagine the following setting for this sentence: Yesterday it was Saturday, but the workers of a particular firm worked all the same
because they were behind schedule and wanted to catch up. Today, however, they hear on the radio that there may be a strike tomorrow in
one of their supply companies. If the strike goes through, they will soon be unable to continue working and will be behind schedule again.
Under these circumstances, one of the workers might remark If there’s a strike tomorrow, we’ll have worked in vain yesterday.
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e.g. By the time the missile reaches its goal the population will have been warned and will have
sought shelter. (indefinite future perfect with resultative meaning)
Next month John will have been our chairman for ten years. (continuative)
The work will just have been finished when the holidays begin. (recent indefinite past-in-the-
future)
At the end of this month the choir will have existed for five years. (continuative)
(c) Unlike the future tense (shall/will + nonprogressive infinitive), the future perfect invariably
expresses pure future, not future with volition.
(d) The dual function of the future perfect is shared by the tense which is the past time-sphere
counterpart of the future perfect, viz. the conditional perfect. Consider:
e.g. Scott said he would have finished the work before the end of the week.
The conditional perfect represents its situation as anterior to a past TO which is itself posterior to the
central situation of the domain. The conditional perfect thus has a double function: it locates a
situation as anterior to some other situation in the past domain (by using the perfect infinitive), and
at the same time it makes clear (by the use of would/should) that the latter situation is posterior to
the central situation (or to some other situation or TO) in the domain. This double function is similar
to what we have observed in connection with the future perfect. There is one difference, however.
The future perfect locates its situation as anterior to a situation that is directly related to TU (viz. the
central situation of the post-present domain). For this reason we have called the future perfect an
‘absolute-relative tense’ and have said that it re-establishes a post-present domain. We cannot make
similar remarks in connection with the conditional perfect. The binding TO to which the situation is
represented as anterior is here no longer a time that is directly related to TU (i.e. the central situation
of the domain). It is a time which is itself temporally subordinated. For this reason the conditional
perfect cannot be said to re-establish the domain -- though it does ‘re-affirm’ it in the sense that it
makes reference to TOs that must necessarily belong to a past domain. The conditional perfect is
therefore a ‘doubly relative’ tense rather than an ‘absolute-relative’ one.
For the rest, however, the conditional perfect is very similar to the future perfect. This becomes
clear when we consider its distribution. The conditional perfect alternates with the past perfect in the
same way as the future perfect does with the present perfect. This means that the conditional perfect
is the appropriate tense in unembedded clauses and in subclauses whose situation is not represented
as temporally dependent on that of the matrix (e.g. nonrestrictive relative clauses), whereas the past
perfect is used in subclauses whose situation is represented as temporally dependent on that of the
head clause (e.g. adverbial time clauses, conditional clauses):
e.g. He would have left the hotel before the end of the day. (Had left is not ungrammatical, but
it does not express ‘anteriority in the future-in-the-past’.)
The mayor told the press that the curfew would probably have been lifted before the end of
the week.
It was essential that they kept on walking. If they did not, it would be dark before they had
reached their destination. (*would have reached)
I said I would tell everything to Phil, who would have returned by then. (*had returned)
He whispered that he would tell me all about it when the meeting was over. (*would be)
Joan decided to go into the waiting-room. It would be another twenty minutes before the
train arrived. (*would arrive)
Joan decided to go into the waiting-room until the train arrived. (*would arrive)
If I were you, I would tell the truth to anybody that asked for it. (?would ask)
I would never do anything that you didn’t approve of. (?wouldn’t approve of)
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VI. DIFFERENT WAYS OF ESTABLISHING A DOMAIN

Up to now we have pointed out two ways in which a domain can be established. The first, which is by
far the commoner of the two, is the establishment of a domain by the use of an absolute tense form; the
second is the re-establishment of a domain by the use of an absolute-relative tense like the future perfect.
We will now consider two further possibilities. The first is illustrated by the following sentence:
e.g. I know that the manager had left the office by five o’clock.
In this sentence the head clause establishes a present domain, which is not expanded by the subclause.
The subclause shifts the domain, i.e. it establishes a new domain in the past sector. However, it does not
do so in the usual way, i.e. by using a past tense form describing the central situation of the new domain.
Rather the tense that is used is a relative tense (had left), describing a situation which is represented as
anterior to the central TO. The central TO itself is not a time at which a situation is located. That is, the
central TO is not established by a verb form (referring to a situation). Instead, it is indicated by the
adverbial by five o’clock. However, it is clear that the adverbial does not do this on its own (since five
o’clock could also indicate a time that lies in the future of TU). The tense form had left also plays a part
in the identification of the central TO: it not only expresses anteriority but also conveys the information
that the binding TO (which is the central TO here) belongs to the past time-sphere. The adverbial and the
tense thus co-operate to establish the central TO: the tense makes clear that the central TO belongs to the
past time-sphere, the adverbial specifies where exactly it is located in that time-sphere.
A further possibility of establishing a domain is illustrated by the following sentence:
e.g. I expect that the weather will have changed soon / before tomorrow morning.
This sentence differs from our previous examples involving a future perfect in that the future perfect can
no longer be said to ‘re-establish’ the domain here. Clearly, the post-present domain is established for the
first time. Again, the tense and the adverb co-operate to specify the central TO: the future perfect reveals
that the central TO is a time interval that lies in the post-present sector, the adverb further specifies its
location in that sector.

VII. DIRECT AND INDIRECT BINDING

We have noticed above that, when two clauses follow each other, the second may or may not be bound
by (i.e. temporally subordinated to) the first. If it is not bound by it, it is related to TU and hence
establishes a domain (i.e. it either shifts the domain or establishes a simultaneous domain or re-
establishes the domain). The two possibilities (binding or no binding) are illustrated by the following
sentences:
e.g. The girl has told her friends once or twice that she was afraid. (temporal subordination)
John has been expelled from the club because he has behaved badly. (no temporal subordination)
In a similar way, there are often two possibilities when the speaker develops a past domain. Compare:
e.g. (1) The police knew that the girl had told her friends once or twice that she was afraid.
(2) Mary knew that John had thrown up his job because he had not been up to it.
Sentence (1) illustrates what I will call ‘direct binding’: each subclause is temporally subordinated to its
matrix (superordinate clause). This means that the situation of the second that-clause is represented as
simultaneous with that of the first, which is itself represented as anterior to the situation of the head
clause. The fact that the situation of the second that-clause is also anterior to that of the head clause is not
expressed by its tense form. In (2) temporal subordination happens differently: here not only the that-
clause but also the (more deeply embedded) because-clause represents its situation as anterior to that of
the head clause. The temporal relation between the situations of the two subclauses is therefore left
unexpressed. This means that only the that-clause is bound directly (i.e. bound by its matrix). The
because-clause is bound indirectly (i.e. temporally subordinated to a clause which is not its matrix).
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A further illustration of the difference between direct and indirect binding is offered by the following
sentences:
e.g. (3) (a) We expected that Elsie would still be in bed when we arrived. (*would arrive)
(b) I promised I would tell the news to John, who would be interested to hear it. (*was)
(c) She had been to London for a brief visit to a niece of hers who was staying / had been
staying at the Savoy.
(4) (a) We hoped that the kidnappers would release the girl after the ransom had been paid.
(*would have been paid)
(b) What we hoped was that we would be freed by the police, who would have been notified
by then. (*had been notified)
Whereas the time clauses of (3,a) and (4,a) must be bound directly (i.e. temporally subordinated to the
that-clause), the nonrestrictive relative clauses in (3,b) and (4,b) must be bound indirectly, while the
restrictive relative clause in (3,c) allows the two possibilities. This means that the speaker cannot always
choose freely between direct and indirect binding: the choice depends in the first place on the kind of
clause that is used to describe the bound situation.66 It is also worth noting that the choice between direct
binding (with the preterite in (3,a) and the past perfect in (4,a)) and indirect binding (with the conditional
tense in (3,b) and the conditional perfect in (4,b)) is the past time-sphere counterpart of the choice
between the PPS and the FPS in a post-present domain. Thus, (3)-(4) run completely parallel to (5)-(6):
e.g. (5) (a) We expect that Elsie will still be in bed when we arrive. (*will arrive)
(b) I promise I will tell the news to John, who will be interested to hear it. (*is)
(c) She has been to London for a brief visit to a niece of hers who is staying / has been staying
at the Savoy.
(6) (a) We hope that the kidnappers will release the girl after the ransom has been paid. (*will
have been paid)
(b) What we hope is that we will be freed by the police, who will have been notified by then.
(*has been notified)
As we have seen, the use of the FPS in such sentences means that the speaker establishes a simultaneous
domain or re-establishes the existing post-present domain. In (3,b) and (4,b) the conditional and the
conditional perfect do not (re)establish a domain but effect what we may call ‘rebinding’: the relevant
subclause is not bound by its matrix (head clause) but by the TO that already binds its matrix. Rebinding
is thus a special case of indirect binding. 67
Direct and indirect binding are also to be observed in post-present domains:
e.g. After your visit there you will admit that you have not always felt at ease when you were walking on
your own through the deserted streets.
e.g. After your visit there you will admit that you have not always felt at ease when you have been
walking on your own through the deserted streets.
There is direct binding of the when-clause in the first example and indirect binding (more specifically,
rebinding) in the second (where the when-clause is represented as anterior to the time denoted by you will
admit (i.e. the time which behaves as if it were TU) rather than as simultaneous with that of you have not
felt at ease).

66. Temporal clauses do not normally allow indirect binding in a past domain. Still, occasional examples can be found:
(i) The police said the man had waited in the car while the others had robbed the bank.
(ii) Penelope had been biting her nails while she had been waiting.
This use of the past perfect with while is comparatively rare; the preterite is normally used instead. With other temporal conjunctions,
however, indirect binding by means of a past perfect is not really exceptional:
(iii) As he had walked back to the hotel, he had considered what he should do next.
67. In the same way as adverbial time clauses do not normally allow the FPS, they do not normally allow rebinding by means of the
conditional or conditional perfect. Still, occasional exceptions can be found:
(i) ...so I suggested she should come down the week-end after Christmas while the family would still be there. (A. Christie,
4.50 from Paddington, London: Fontana, p.92.)
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VIII. TEMPORAL FOCUS

As we have seen, a head clause referring to a situation that includes TU will normally use a tense that
represents the situation as including TU (usually the present tense, sometimes the present perfect). Thus,
since it is presently the case that the British Museum stands in London, this fact will normally be reported
as (1) rather than as (2):
e.g. (1) The British Museum stands in London.
(2) The British Museum stood / had stood / will stand / etc. in London.
Similarly, when a clause is temporally subordinated to another and the bound situation is simultaneous
with the binding TO, then the relation expressed will normally be that of simultaneity, not anteriority or
posteriority. Thus, (3) is a quite normal sentence, but (4) would wrongly suggest that the British Museum
did not stand in London when Bill told his children about it: 68
e.g. (3) Bill told his children yesterday that the British Museum stood in London.
(4) Bill told his children yesterday that the British Museum had stood / would stand in London.
To capture these observations we can introduce the notion of ‘temporal focus’. In (1) and (3) the
temporal focus is ‘unmarked’, i.e. it is in accordance with the following principle:
The temporal focus is unmarked in the following cases: 69
(a) in clauses that are not temporally subordinated: if the way in which the tense locates the
situation in a particular absolute sector corresponds with the situation’s actual location in
time (i.e. if a past situation is located in the past or pre-present, a present situation in the
present and a future situation in the post-present).
(b) in clauses that are temporally subordinated: if the temporal relation expressed corresponds
to the actual location of the situation relative to the binding TO (i.e. if a situation that held
before the binding TO is represented as anterior to it, etc.).
In sentences like (2) and (4) the temporal focus is ‘shifted’. That is, the way the situation is located in
time is not the unmarked way described above. This entails that the sentences suggest a reading which is
actually false: (2) suggests that the assertion ‘The British Museum stands in London’ is not true at TU,
and (4) suggests that the same assertion was not true at the time when Bill spoke to his children.
The possibility of shifting the temporal focus in order to suggest that a situation no longer holds (or may
no longer hold) at TU is explicitly made use of in sentences like the following:
e.g. I was going to visit you tomorrow. (suggests: But now that I have seen you that will no longer be
necessary.)
He was going abroad on business tomorrow.
These sentences refer to an intention or arrangement whose actualisation lies in the post-present. By
locating the intention/arrangement in the past rather than in the present, the speaker suggests that the
intention/arrangement is, or at least may be, no longer valid at TU. In this way he avoids having to
commit himself to a positive assertion concerning the future actualisation of the situation referred to.
It is important to see that what we observe in such sentences is a shift of temporal focus, not a shift of
temporal perspective. A shift of perspective would mean that the past tenses were understood as referring

68. Since not only the head clause situation but also TU is included in the subclause situation, the speaker may also say Bill told his children
yesterday that the British Museum stands in London. In that case there is a shift of domain from the past to the present sector.
69. ‘Unmarked’ is to be understood here as ‘temporally unmarked’. I am not claiming that the tense that is unmarked in this sense is also the
tense that is preferably used in a particular sentence. There are sentence types in which the shift of focus has become conventional to a
point that using the unmarked tense is distinctly odd. Thus, when someone that I do not know has just left the room I am more likely to
say Who was that? than Who is that?
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to a situation which actually belongs to a nonpast sector. This is not what we observe here. What we
observe is that the focus is placed on the pastness of the intention rather than on its present relevance.
In the above examples a marked temporal focus is used in order to suggest that the intention may no
longer be valid. This kind of effect is not always present. Some kinds of shift of temporal focus are
conventionalized and are not felt to have any bearing on the truth value of the sentence. For example,
when my secretary comes into my office just as a visitor is leaving it, I can use either of the following
sentences to inform her (a minute later) of the identity of the person who has just left:
e.g. That is my nephew.
That was my nephew.
Since the man in question is still my nephew at TU, the former sentence is the one with the unmarked
temporal focus. In the second sentence the temporal focus is shifted to the moment when the secretary
saw my nephew and perhaps wondered who he was. This kind of shift is quite normal in present-day
English. The following is a similar example:
e.g. (1) A. Let’s rehearse the concerto we are playing tonight.
B. We can’t do that here! Don’t you remember that notice on the receptionist’s desk that
stated that no musical instruments could be played in the hotel rooms?
If the speaker of (1,B) had said ...that states that no musical instruments can be played in the hotel rooms,
he would have placed the temporal focus at TU (the time of his utterance). Instead, he has preferred to
shift the temporal focus to the time when he and the addressee checked in at the hotel and read the notice
on the receptionist’s desk. In this way the situations are located in the past time-sphere rather than in the
present one.
The above examples illustrate the possibility of a marked temporal focus in clauses that are not
temporally subordinated. The following is an example in a clause that is temporally subordinated:
(2) After we had unpacked, Bill suggested that we should rehearse the concerto we were playing
that evening. I pointed out that we could not do that there, as there had been a notice on the
receptionist’s desk which had stated that no musical instruments could be played in the hotel
rooms.
In the same way as the preterite stated in (1,B) locates the situation (which still holds at TU) at some time
before TU, had stated in (2) represents the situation as anterior to the relevant binding TO rather than as
simultaneous with it. The same is true of had been.
In narrative, the main reason for shifting the temporal focus is that the narrator or author wishes to
represent the situation from the point of view of someone else. (As is well-known, the reader more easily
identifies and empathizes with a character if the events are told from that character’s point of view.)
Thus, in the following examples the subclause situations are described as they were perceived or
experienced by the people who participated in them:
e.g. They were brought to the capital, which lay in the middle of the forest.
They had difficulty in climbing, for the hill was very steep.
We had to talk to the policeman in French because he didn’t understand English.
In each of these sentences the italicized preterite could be replaced by a present tense. That the speaker
prefers to use a past tense means that he wants to assume the temporal standpoint of the relevant
participants in the events: he wants to express that it was they who observed there and at that time that
the situation referred to in the subclause was holding. (If the speaker had substituted present tense forms
for the preterites, he would have represented the situations from his own temporal standpoint, i.e. as
simultaneous with TU.)
The speaker’s freedom to choose the temporal focus is also clear from sentences like the following,
which involve a modal auxiliary or semi-auxiliary:
e.g. (1) The man had to be lying. What he told us could not be the truth.
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(2) The man must have been lying. What he told us cannot have been the truth.
Each of the clauses in these examples expresses a conclusion which is presented as the only possible
interpretation or explanation of some situation. In (1), this conclusion is represented as one that was
arrived at in the past and concerned a situation that was then holding; the speaker therefore assumes the
temporal standpoint of the person drawing the conclusion, i.e. he locates the situation of drawing a
conclusion in the past (had to, could not) and represents the situation that is being interpreted as
simultaneous with this (be lying, be the truth). In (2), in contrast, the speaker expresses his own present
conviction that a situation must have held in the past; he therefore locates the conclusion in the present
sector (must, cannot) and represents the situation interpreted as anterior to it (have been lying, have been
the truth). In other words, in both examples the temporal focus resides with what we might call the
‘evaluation time’ (i.e. the time when the inference is made), but this time is a past interval in (1) and a
present one in (2).
There is a similar difference between a past focus (past evaluation of a situation that was then holding)
and a present focus (present evaluation of a past situation) in pairs like the following:
e.g. (a) He seemed/appeared/happened to be a reliable worker.
(b) He seems/appears/happens to have been a reliable worker.
e.g. (a) What Gordon did was warn the headmaster.
(b) What Gordon did is warn the headmaster.
e.g. (a) It was Bill who made the news public.
(b) It is Bill who made the news public.
e.g. (a) It was true / a fact that the population was starving.
(b) It is true / a fact that the population was starving.
e.g. (a) It was interesting/puzzling that the dogs did not bark.
(b) It is interesting/puzzling that the dogs did not bark.
In each of these examples the speaker uses the present tense in the head clause to express his own current
evaluation of the subclause situation and the preterite to express how the subclause situation was
appreciated in the past. The function of the tense of the head clause is thus to place the temporal focus on
the time that is to be interpreted as the time at which the subclause situation is evaluated.
Examples involving an alternation of a present focus and a post-present focus are also available:
e.g. (a) It is John who will be appointed.
(b) It will be John who is appointed.
e.g. (a) It is a fact that these weapons will soon be obsolete.
(b) It will soon be a fact that these weapons are obsolete.
In the (b) examples there is reference to a post-present evaluation time. The subclauses refer to
situations that will be evaluated at those times and are therefore simultaneous with them. In the following
example (already discussed above) the situation to be evaluated is anterior to the post-present evaluation
time:
e.g. If there is a strike tomorrow, we’ll have worked in vain yesterday.
This sentence involves a shift of temporal focus, because the conclusion expressed in the head clause is
represented as a future conclusion, although it is actually reached at TU. That is, the head clause situation
is represented as anterior to a post-present TO, although it could also have been expressed as anterior to
TU. (In the latter case the sentence would have been If there is a strike tomorrow, we worked in vain
yesterday.) This kind of shift of temporal focus from TU to some future evaluation time is also illustrated
by the following example:
e.g. (spoken while President Bush is still in office) President Bush will not have been the first American
president to start a war in order to protect the economic interests of the Unites States.
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IX. IMPLICIT TIME OF ORIENTATION

When a tense relates a situation to a TO, this TO is normally expressed either by a clause (in which case
it is the time of a situation) or by an adverb. When this is not the case, the TO in question is usually
recoverable from the context. This is the case in examples like the following:
e.g. We must hurry up or the train will have left. (before we reach the station)
Mary is still angry because she had not been warned. (prior to a TO given in the preceding context)
However, there are cases in which the relevant TO is not recoverable from the preceding context.
Consider:
e.g. Those missiles will have cost a fortune to develop.
As noted above, such sentences show a shift of temporal focus from the present to the post-present sector:
a situation which lies before TU, and which could therefore be represented as temporally related to (and
hence as evaluated at) TU, is actually related to some post-present TO. Since the TO in question is not
identified, sentences of this kind illustrate the use of an ‘implicit’ TO.
The following is a further illustration:
e.g. When Sybil had finally got out of bed, her husband had left for the office.
This sentence does not represent one situation as anterior to another, but represents two situations as
anterior to an implicit TO. (This is an example of what we have called indirect binding.) What is
expressed is that there was a time at which it was the case both that Sybil had got out of bed and that her
husband had left for the office. The time in question remains implicit because no situation is located at it,
whereas it is not indicated adverbially either.
There is also an implicit TO in sentences like the following:
e.g. I was going to ski this afternoon (but this storm makes it impossible).
Here the situation is represented as posterior to a TO which remains unidentified.

X. ADVERBIAL TIME CLAUSES

A. When-clauses
As a rule, an adverbial when-clause is temporally subordinated to its head clause:
1. If the situations of the two clauses are simultaneous, the when-clause must express simultaneity.
This means that it cannot establish its own domain or be bound indirectly.
e.g. I had done it when I was back home.
I will do it when I am back home. (*will be) (We must use the PPS, since a FPS form
establishes a domain.)
I said I would do it when I was back home. (*would be) (We must express simultaneity
between the two clauses, thus binding the time clause directly; using the conditional tense
would be an instance of indirect binding.)
Note:
a. The only case in which the when-clause can be bound indirectly is when its head clause is in the
past perfect:
e.g. When he had lived in London he had often visited Tate Gallery.
However, this is only possible when it is clear from the context that the two situations were
simultaneous. Moreover, indirect binding is never obligatory. The past tense can always be
used instead of the past perfect; in most contexts it is more natural than the latter.
b. There is one case in which the when-clause establishes its own domain, viz. when it is a
‘narrative when-clause’. This is a when-clause which does not specify the time of the head
clause situation but ‘pushes forward’ the action. For example:
e.g. Yesterday evening I was sitting in the living-room, watching TV, when suddenly a policeman came
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in.
I was just having a chat with the vicar when he was called away.
I know Tom. Hardly will he have left the country when he will already regret his decision.
In examples like these it is the head clause situation that functions as time indication (e.g.
background) for the when-clause situation, rather than the other way round.
2. If the when-clause situation is anterior to the head clause situation, it is normally bound by the latter.
This means that it does not establish its own domain and is not normally bound indirectly.
e.g. I cleared the table when we had finished breakfast.
I said I would clear the table when everybody had finished eating. (*would have finished) (The
conditional perfect would effect indirect binding.)
I will clear the table when everybody has finished eating. (*will have finished) (The future
perfect would establish a domain.)
B. After-clauses
1. The conjunction after has developed from the PP ‘after the time that’. This prepositional origin is
still visible from the fact that the tense in the after-clause can express simultaneity with the implicit
TO indicated by the word time in the paraphrase ‘after the time that’:
e.g. I will do it after I come home.
However, it is more normal for the after-clause to use a tense form which ‘copies’ the anteriority
relation intrinsically expressed by after:
e.g. I will do it after I have come home.
I did it after the others had left.
I would do it after the others had left.
Note, however, that in such examples the after-clause is always bound by its head clause. Indirect
binding is never possible.
e.g. John would come in after the others had left. (*would have left)
2. When the after-clause situation took place in the past, the after-clause can also establish its own
temporal domain (by using an absolute past tense form). This possibility is more frequently made
use of in spoken English than in written texts.
e.g. John bought a gun after somebody broke into his house.
We had a party after he passed his exams.
Note:
a. There is no similar possibility as regards the post-present:
e.g. *John will buy a gun after somebody will break into his house.
b. When the speaker uses a past tense form in both the head clause and the after-clause, he just
represents the situations as two factual situations that took place in a particular order. If the
after-clause situation is to be interpreted as either resultative or continuative, he will not use a
past tense in the after-clause, but a past perfect.
e.g. The old man died after he had been ill for a long time. (*was)
We could only get in after John had opened the door. (past tense less likely)

C. Before-clauses
Before-clauses in principle allow three possibilities:
1. The head clause may express anteriority:
a. When both situations belong to the past, the head clause can be in the past perfect, while the
before-clause is in the past tense:
e.g. He had left before I arrived.
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He had been living there for many years before everybody accepted him.
This is the construction we will choose if the head clause situation is to be represented as
resultative or continuative.
b. When both situations belong to the post-present, the head clause can be in the future perfect,
whereas the before-clause is in the present tense.
e.g. He will have left before I arrive.
He will have been living there for a long time before everybody accepts him.
Note:
1) This is the construction we will choose if the head clause situation is to be represented as resultative
or continuative.
2) As is clear from the examples, the head clause establishes the domain whereas the before-clause
expresses simultaneity with the implicit central TO of the domain.
2. If both situations held in the past, the speaker can use two absolute past tense forms:
e.g. Jim arrived before the others came.
In such sentences the speaker just reports that two situations actualized in a particular order. The
head clause situation is not continuative and holds no resultative implication.
It should be noted that a similar use of two tense forms establishing their own domains is not
possible if the reference is to the post-present: we cannot use the FPS in a before-clause.
e.g. Jim will leave before the others arrive. (*will arrive)
3. Since before has developed from the PP ‘before the time that’, it is also possible to relate the before-
clause situation to the TO which is implicit in the meaning of the conjunction. The relation
expressed is then either simultaneity or anteriority:
e.g. We wanted to reach our destination before it was night. (*would be)
We wanted to reach our destination before night had fallen. (*would have fallen)
e.g. We would have reached our destination before it was night. (*would be)
We would have reached our destination before night had fallen. (*would have fallen)
e.g. They will want to reach their destination before it is night. (*will be)
They will want to reach their destination before night has fallen. (*will have fallen)
e.g. They will have reached their destination before it is night. (*will be)
They will have reached their destination before night has fallen. (*will have fallen)
As is clear from these examples, a before-clause cannot relate its situation directly to the head clause
situation in terms of posteriority. Rather it relates it to an implicit TO, which is itself posterior
to the head clause situation. This posteriority relation is expressed by before, which is therefore
paraphrasable as ‘before a/the time when’. In the first sentence of each pair the relation
expressed is that of simultaneity; in the second it is anteriority. In the latter case the reference is
not so much to the situation itself as to the resultant state which it has produced.
Note:
a. As is clear from these examples, a before-clause cannot establish a post-present domain and
cannot use a tense expressing posteriority.
b. One of the consequences of relating the before-clause situation to the implicit TO is that the
before-clause situation is not represented as a fact but rather as something which was or is
expected to take place at some time later than the head clause situation. From this it follows that
this type of construction is often used to express nonfactuality, i.e. to stress that the before-
clause situation has not yet actualized at the time of the head clause situation. For example:
(a) Mary recognized the visitor before he had entered the house.
(b) Mary recognized the visitor before he was in the house.
These sentences are interpreted as:
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(a’) Mary recognized the visitor, and when she did the visitor had not yet entered the house.
(b’) Mary recognized the visitor, and when she did the visitor was not yet in the house.
Note that these sentences do not represent the before-clause situations as actualizing. In fact,
this type of before-clause often occurs in a context making clear that the before-clause situation
did not actualize at all:
e.g. I saw him before he had seen me. So I had time to conceal myself.
The letter was destroyed before I had read it.
Alternatively, the context may also make clear that the before-clause situation eventually did
actualize:
e.g. They wanted to leave before the sun had gone down.
Note:
1) In the above examples it is the context that makes clear whether the before-clause situation ever
actualized or not. The before-clause itself does not tell us anything about this. It just expresses that
its situation is still nonfactual at the time of the head clause situation. 70
2) When the before-clause can only be interpreted as counterfactual (because of the context), the past
tense can often be substituted for the past perfect with no apparent difference: The letter was
destroyed before I read it. (But: Before we had gone / *went far the car broke down.)
3) When the head clause situation does not pragmatically exclude the subclause situation, the past
tense and the past perfect suggest different interpretations. Compare:
e.g. (a) John read the letter before I had read it.
(b) John read the letter before I read it.
(c) John will read the letter before you have read it.
(d) John will read the letter before you read it.
Sentence (a) states that I had not (yet) read the letter when John read it. It does not say anything
about whether or not I did read it afterwards. Sentence (b) suggests that I read the letter, but only
after John had read it first. Similarly, (c) expresses no more than that John will read the letter at a
time when I have not read it yet; (d) suggests that I will read the letter too, but only after John.
(Since the suggestion is cancellable, as in The letter will be destroyed before I read it, the
‘suggestion’ is an implicature, not an implication.)
4) If the before-clause contains a duration adverbial which indicates the lapse of time between the two
situations, and if moreover the verb form itself is to make clear that the before-clause situation
(which was still nonfactual at the time of the past head clause situation) in fact never actualized, we
use the conditional perfect instead of the past perfect:
e.g. Bill died two months before he would have retired.
We paid the gas bill a short time before the company would have cut our supply.

D. Until-clauses.
Until-clauses allow the following possibilities:
1. Both the head clause and the until-clause can create their own domains if the reference is to the past,
not when it is to the post-present:
e.g. I was there until Bill came back. (two situations represented as factual)
*I will be there until John will be back.
2. The until-clause situation may be related to the TO which is implicit in the meaning of the
conjunction (since until is equivalent to ‘until the time that’):
e.g. I was waiting until the others came back. (*would come)

70. The nonfactuality of such before-clauses is also clear from the use of nonassertive words like any :
e.g. The police intervened before anything serious had happened.
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Bill intended to wait until the clock had struck twelve. (*would have struck)
I will wait until everybody is back. (*will be)
I will stay in the house until it has been sold. (*will have been sold)
In these sentences, the until-clause situation is not represented as a fact but as something which is
expected to happen in the future. Notice also that the relation expressed has to be either
simultaneity or anteriority. The verb form cannot express posteriority.
E. Other adverbial time clauses
It is typical of all other adverbial time clauses that they cannot establish a domain (hence cannot use the
FPS), and that they cannot involve a tense form expressing posteriority.
e.g. I will stay there as long as the children have not come back. (*will not have come back)
I will stay there as long as the trouble lasts. (*will last)
I would stay there as long as the children had not come back. (*would not have come back)
I would stay there as long as the trouble lasted. (*would last)
e.g. I was going to read a book while I was waiting. (*would be waiting)
Tomorrow it will be three months since the war started. (*will have started)
Note: The same rules apply in relative clauses depending on an NP denoting time or duration:
e.g. By the time you get there, the shops will have closed. (*will get)
Tomorrow it will be three months that we haven’t heard anything from her. (*won’t have
heard)
I would tell her the truth the moment she entered the house. (*would enter)
§ 2. ASPECT

I. DURATIVE OR PROGRESSIVE ASPECT

A. GENERAL MEANING
The following aspects of meaning are typical of progressive forms in general:
1. The progressive represents the situation as being in progress at or throughout some TO.
e.g. John is having a walk outside. (activity in progress at TU)
The customs of the native population have been changing for a couple of decades. (process in
progress throughout a period up to TU)
What’s going on in that room? (event in progress at TO)
They’ve been living in Nebraska for some time. (state in progress throughout a period up to
TU)
2. Using the progressive, the speaker just refers to the middle of the situation, disregarding its
beginning and end. Because of this, the progressive invariably represents a situation as unbounded: a
situation cannot be represented as bounded if its terminal point is not referred to.
e.g. The girl was reciting a poem.
The ice on the lake was already melting, so we didn’t dare to skate on it.
The woman is baking a cake.
One of the patients was dying.
It should be noted that the use of the progressive (which implies that the reference is to a stage at
which the situation is still incomplete) does not exclude the possibility that the situation is completed
at some later stage (not referred to). Thus, the sentence John was reading a book does not imply that
John never finished his book. It just refers to a stage at which this had not yet happened (thus
leaving vague whether it ever happened or not).
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3. The progressive represents a situation as temporary, i.e. as having limited duration. For this reason
it is incapable of representing situations as permanent, i.e. as having unlimited or indefinite
duration.
e.g. cp. The sun sets in the west. (permanent characteristic; there is no reference to a single
instance.)
The sun is setting in the west. (reference to a single instance in progress)
It is important to realize that the notion of ‘limited duration’ is a purely subjective one. For the use
of the progressive it is totally irrelevant whether the duration of the situation is short or long in
objective terms. We often find a progressive to refer to situations that have hardly any duration at all
(e.g. John was closing the door) and a simple verb form to refer to situations with a considerable
duration (e.g. They stayed in the mountains for several days). What matters is whether the speaker
wants to represent the situation as having a certain duration or not, and whether in his opinion that
duration is or is not limited.

B. NORMAL USES OF THE PROGRESSIVE

1. The progressive can be used to represent a situation as being in progress at some TO (i.e. at TU or at
some past, pre-present or post-present TO).71
e.g. What’s John doing? -- He’s polishing his boots.
This morning they were demonstrating for peace again.
She’s wearing a black hat today.
From two o’clock to three I will be chairing a meeting.
Note:
a. If the situation is not a continuous (uninterrupted) one, it need not actually be in progress at the
TO itself. It is sufficient that it is a temporary situation taking place over a period including the
TO.
e.g. John is reading a novel by Iris Murdoch. (John need not actually be reading at TU.)
b. Since there are two elements in the meaning of the progressive (viz. ‘limited’ and ‘duration’),
the progressive can be used to bring out either of these in contexts where the other is taken for
granted:
1) When the reference is to a single situation which in any case involves a limited timespan, the effect
of the progressive is to emphasize the relative duration of the situation.
e.g. John was opening the door.
2) With many verbs the use of a nonprogressive form entails that the situation is interpreted as
something permanent (i.e. as having unrestricted duration). The progressive will then be used to
restrict the duration.
e.g. cp. She worked in a pub. (permanently)
She was working in a pub. (temporarily)
cp. She wears a wig. (always or normally)
She is wearing a wig. (today or these days)
cp. She still lives in the village where she was born.
She has been living here only since last year.
e.g. Water drops are falling from the trees that line the road.

71. Although the idea of a future situation in progress is normally expressed by a future continuous, be going to can occasionally also be
found with the progressive infinitive. In that case be going to has its basic meaning of ‘future seen from the point of view of the present’,
and the construction cannot express the other meanings which the future continuous can have.
e.g. If you don’t stop teasing the children, you’re going to be dealing with me!
I’m going to be studying all afternoon, so I won’t have time to watch TV.
Look at those black clouds. It’s going to be raining soon.
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c. As regards the TO, there are two possibilities:

1) When the TO is a point of time (rather than a timespan), the progressive represents the
situation as a background situation, i.e. as a situation that started before that point of time
and, in most cases, continues after it.
e.g. At 7 a.m. they will still be sleeping.
We left the village after breakfast. Soon we were trudging through the desert sand.
(soon = ‘a short time later’. It indicates the TO at which we were trudging through the
desert sand.)
Had she been lying there long? (implied TO: ‘before somebody found her’)
In many cases the point of time is indicated by a clause in a simple tense:
e.g. I ran into him when I was shopping.
She was changing the bulb of her reading-lamp when she received an electric shock.
We had been living in a bed-and-breakfast hotel for two months before we found a
suitable house to rent.
The bells will already be ringing when the procession reaches the chapel.
It follows that, in narrative, the past continuous is often used for descriptions (setting the
scene), and the simple past for events and actions.
e.g. There was a man in the corner who was observing us and listening to what we were
saying. He was wearing an old jacket and dirty trousers. Suddenly he stood up and
came to our table.
As we were climbing the mountain, it was raining heavily. Suddenly there was a flash
of lightning.
2) When the TO is a length of time, the progressive represents the situation as continuous
throughout that timespan. (In fact, the situation may even have begun before the period in
question and may continue after it.)
e.g. cp. Last summer I was travelling through Morocco. (throughout the summer)
Last summer I travelled through Morocco. (= I travelled through Morocco for
some time during the summer.)
cp. From two to three I read a magazine. (= I started reading at two and finished the
magazine at four.)
From two to three I was reading a magazine. (I may have been reading before
two and/or after four o’clock as well.)
e.g. We’ll be working on it all week. (= throughout the week)
When a time clause (introduced by as, when or while) thus represents its situation as in
progress throughout a TO, there are two possibilities as regards the head clause:
a) The head clause situation may be completed within the timespan indicated by the time
clause (which thus serves as ‘background’). In that case the head clause is in a simple
tense.
e.g. We will get some sleep while the others are doing some sightseeing.
Our man will contact you while you are staying in Baghdad.
Some hooligans broke into my house while I was working in the library.
b) The head clause situation may be in progress while the time clause situation is. In that
case it also uses the progressive:
e.g. While she was peeling potatoes, her husband was mowing the lawn.
While you’ve been sleeping, I’ve been waiting for you to wake up.
While you are lying on the beach, we will be travelling through Norway.
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However, we use simple tenses instead of two progressive forms if the two situations
do not take place independently of each other:
e.g. While my wife washed her hair, I looked after the baby. (Two progressive forms
would suggest that we were acting independently, each unaware of what the
other was doing.)
e.g. I’ll peel the potatoes while you make up the beds.
d. There are cases in which the speaker could refer to a situation as a whole (using a simple tense
form) but prefers to use a progressive form in order to emphasize that the situation is
continuous (uninterrupted) throughout the timespan that functions as TO. (In that case the
timespan in question is considered as having a considerable length.)
e.g. We were playing bridge all evening.
I have been living in this village for almost 30 years.
I will be helping my father in the garden all day next Saturday.
What have you been doing all these days? (The speaker is not only interested in the nature
of the activity; he also stresses that that activity seems to have taken a long time. Sentences
like these often imply impatience: ‘Where have you been all these days?’)
This use of the progressive is particularly common with perfect forms that have a continuative
meaning. With many verbs (e.g. sit, stand, lie, sleep, rest, wait, etc.) a simple perfect tense is
rarely used in this meaning. Time adjuncts with all (e.g. all day, all morning...) are also
typically found with progressive perfect forms.
e.g. She’s been sulking all day about what you said to her.
The artist had been looking forward to this moment for a great many years.
The company had been rehearsing all day and were at last satisfied with the result.
She has been cleaning the kitchen all afternoon.
2. The progressive can express a temporary habit, i.e. it can represent a situation as typical of (e.g.
repeating itself over) a period of limited duration.
e.g. We’re having lunch on the patio during this beautiful weather.
John was using my tennis racket until he could afford to buy one.
Chris is getting up at 6 o’clock every day this week to have a run in the park.
I’m reading novels instead of watching TV these days.
At that time he was driving a Ford.
The Smiths have been visiting the zoo every day since it opened. (suggests that the zoo has not
been open long)
The children will be staying at their uncle’s while their mother is in hospital.
I’ll be using this bike until they bring mine back.
e.g. cp. Bill has beaten that professional squash player. (= once)
Bill has beaten that professional squash player for years. (permanent habit)
Bill has been beating that professional squash player recently. (temporary habit; implies
that John used not to beat the player in question.)
A temporary habit may form the ‘background’ for some other situation.
e.g. I was dating Madge at the time Jill took a fancy to me.
The accident happened when I was driving to London regularly.
3. If the corresponding sentence in the simple is bounded, the progressive renders it unbounded. That
is, unlike the simple, the progressive fails to represent the situation as complete (terminating).
Because of this it implies incompleteness in one (or both) of the following senses:
a. The situation is not yet finished at the relevant TO.
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e.g. I was painting that shutter this morning. (Painted would imply that the painting was
completed.)
The building company were building several houses near the river when it went bankrupt.
I’ve been writing a thriller. (suggests that the book is not finished yet)
Note:
1) As far as the perfect tenses are concerned, incompleteness is the same thing as a
‘continuative’ meaning:
a) Whereas a simple present perfect can only be continuative if there is an appropriate
adverbial of time or duration, the present perfect continuous can do without such an
adverbial.
e.g. cp. Bill has consulted a fortune-teller. (one situation: indefinite perfect)
Bill has been consulting a fortune-teller. (continuative temporary habit)
cp. I have read a novel by P.D. James. (indefinite perfect)
I have been reading a novel by P.D. James. (continuative perfect)
It follows that
Ó) a continuative perfect must be progressive if there is no time adverbial
suggesting a continuative interpretation: a sentence like I have lived in London
automatically yields an indefinite interpretation.
ß) the present perfect form of a verb that cannot be used in the progressive cannot
be interpreted as a continuative perfect if there is no appropriate adverbial.
e.g. For several years now they have had three dogs. (continuative)
They have had three dogs. (indefinite)
*They have been having three dogs. (continuative) (we must have recourse
to the present tense: They have three dogs)
They tell me you have needed fresh money recently. (indefinite or
continuative)
They tell me you have needed fresh money. (indefinite)
They tell me you need fresh money. (*have been needing)
b) With verbs like lie, sit, stay, sleep, wait, etc., a continuative perfect is usually in the
progressive form, especially in colloquial English.
e.g. Get up! You’ve been lying in your bed for hours now.
The doctors have been waiting for a suitable donor for months.
2) When the situation is a transitional event (i.e. an event resulting in the transition from one
state into another), the use of the progressive indicates movement towards the transition
but not (completion of) the transition itself.
e.g. cp. The plane took off. (implies that the plane no longer touched the ground)
The plane was taking off. (means only that the plane was approaching the point
at which it would no longer touch the ground; the sentence does not tell us
whether this point was actually reached.)
e.g. The puppy was dying when we found it.
Look! That wall is falling down. We must shore it up quickly.
Even with verbs like finish, end, complete, etc. the situation is not represented as (quite)
completed when the progressive is used.
e.g. Bill is finishing his historical novel. (means no more than that he is in the throes of
bringing his novel to an end; there is nothing to guarantee the final completion of the
work.)
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b. Incompleteness also means that, at the relevant TO, the situation has not yet produced certain
results which can only be obtained if the situation has reached its terminal point (point of
completion). Progressive forms therefore often express lack of success or result, especially in
the perfect tenses.
e.g. cp. The boy has learned how to swim. (implies: he can swim now.)
The boy has been learning how to swim. (suggests: but he cannot swim yet.)
e.g. The child was run over, though her parents had been telling her for years not to play in the
street.
I’ve been trying to get her on the phone all day.
4. With verbs or verb phrases that normally refer to a nondurative (punctual, momentary) situation, the
progressive entails one of the following interpretations:
a. a frozen action interpretation
e.g. In this photograph John is winking at the camera. (The action, which is usually treated as
nondurative, has been ‘frozen’ here in its middle.)
b. the idea of repetition over a period of limited duration
e.g. Gordon was nodding his head. (repeated movements of the head)
John was winking at her, but she didn’t notice it at first.
Someone was beating a drum frantically.
Note:
1) It does not follow from this that the progressive has to be used with momentary verbs if
the action is repeated:
e.g. The lights went out several times when we were at table.
In general, the use of the simple tenses does not deny duration (or, in this case, repetition).
It simply does not indicate it.
2) As will be noted below, the use of a progressive form can be prevented by the presence of
an adverbial of duration, repetition or frequency. This is also true of progressive forms that
imply repetition.
e.g. He hit the target several times. (*was hitting)
The lights went on and out for some time.

C. SPECIAL USES OF THE PROGRESSIVE

1. The progressive past tense
The past continuous is sometimes used to represent an action as casual (depending on chance) rather
than deliberate. This may be done for two reasons:
a. In questions the progressive may be used to represent the speech act itself as casual, because
this renders the question less direct and therefore more polite. For example:
(a) How were you solving such problems before you called in this expert? (more polite than How did
you solve...?)
b. In statements, the progressive may be used to suggest that the action referred to was accidental
rather than deliberate. For example:
(b) I was meeting the mayor last night and he told me that there are plans for building an airport in the
neighbourhood.
This derived use of the progressive is somewhat similar to the use of the progressive with cognition
verbs in examples like the following:
(c) I was hoping she would be there too.
(d) I’m hoping you’ll consider our offer seriously.
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As will be explained in one of the later sections, the progressive can be used with cognition verbs in
order to suggest that the speaker feels rather doubtful or uncertain about his statement, as in (c),
or in order to make the sentence more tentative, hence more polite, as in (d). What all the
examples (a)-(d) have in common is that the speaker uses the progressive to tone down his
responsibility (i.e. his responsibility for the contents of his remark or for making it).
2. The progressive present perfect tense
When an indefinite perfect is interpreted as resultative, the result in question is usually that which is
typically produced by the completion of the situation. (For example, I have closed the door
suggests ‘The door is closed now’.) It follows that a resultative perfect usually refers to a
bounded (complete) situation and is therefore usually in the simple form. This means that the
progressive can be used to express the situation itself, but not to refer to its result or product.
e.g. A. What have you been doing today? (= Tell me about your action(s).)
B. I have been studying. (describes the action)
e.g. cp. I have been redecorating the drawing-room. (refers to the action)
I have redecorated the drawing-room. (refers to the result: the drawing-room is
redecorated now)
e.g. cp. I have answered all these letters this morning. (stresses the result: these letters do not need
answering any more)
I have been answering letters this morning. (tells the hearer what I have spent this
morning doing, i.e. what my action has been)
However, we do use the progressive perfect when the result referred to does not presuppose
completion of the situation:
e.g. It’s been freezing! (= Look, the road is covered with frost.)
You’ve been working too fast. (That’s why the result is not good.)
I’ve been waiting for Jack. (That’s why I am late.)
How come you’re so dirty? -- I’ve been cleaning the cellar.
You’ve been drinking again! (reproach)
You look tired. -- Yes, I’ve been working too hard lately. (explaining)
Where have you been? -- I’ve been cleaning the kitchen.
What have you been doing? -- I’ve been shopping.
What have you been using this knife for? It’s got blunt and rusty.
Who’s been watering the plants? (There’s water spilt on the floor.)
A couple of things should be noted here:
a. Examples like these have the following characteristics:
1) They express that a situation that took place in the recent past has produced a result which is still
apparent at TU.
2) The result in question is not one that follows from the completion of the situation. It is a result that
was produced by the past situation as it was in progress. (In most cases it is an unintended side-
effect.)
3) Sentences like these are mostly used as an explanation, excuse or reproach. Because of this, some
grammars speak of the ‘explanatory-resultative’ use of the perfect continuous.
b. This is the only use of a progressive perfect form that does not entail a continuative meaning.
The implication is that the situation continued up to the recent past and is not in progress any
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more at TU. 72
c. If the corresponding sentence in the simple perfect tense is bounded, the perfect continuous can
only be used if the effect which the speaker wants to express does not presuppose completeness
(termination) of the situation. The use of the progressive, indeed, does not guarantee that the
situation has been properly completed. Thus, I’ve been planting shrubs can suggest ‘That is
why I am tired’ but it need not suggest ‘All the shrubs are planted now’. The latter idea requires
I’ve planted the shrubs.
e.g. cp. Why haven’t you eaten yet? -- I’ve been watching a special news bulletin on the BBC.
How come you know all about it? -- I’ve watched a special news bulletin on the BBC.
3. The progressive future tense
The future continuous can be used to refer to the post-present without implying progressive aspect.
In that case it has two characteristics:
a. It expresses pure future: there is no implication of volition, intention or willingness.
b. It often suggests that it is the normal course of events (or a matter of routine) for the future
situation to actualize. That is, the future situation is seen as forming part of the normal or
expected pattern of events.
e.g. He won’t be defending his title this year, because he is injured.
It’s a holiday tomorrow. Everybody will be going to the seaside.
I’ll be meeting the Home Secretary next week. (implies that I meet him regularly)
Note:
a. Because of this ‘matter of course’ meaning, the future continuous will not normally be used to
refer to situations that are unusual or unacceptable.
e.g. ?I’ll be poisoning my wife tonight.
?We’ll be catching a huge pike tomorrow.

b. One of the possibilities subsumed under this use of the future continuous is that this tense is
often used to suggest that something has already been fixed or decided.
e.g. Your son will be staying with the other first formers in block D.
Shall I take you to the station? -- Oh, I don’t want to trouble you. -- That’s all right. I’ll be
driving past it anyway.
I don’t know if he’ll be attending your lecture. Perhaps he’ll be going to the seminar.
The future continuous is therefore often used as a polite way of asking about somebody’s plans.
(By using the future continuous to ask ‘What have you already decided?’ we make clear that we
do not want to influence the hearer.)
e.g. Will you be using your ladder this afternoon? If not, could I borrow it?
Will you be working in the library today?
c. When the ‘matter of course’ implication is not explicitly present, the future continuous
expresses no more than pure future. In fact, since ‘shall/will + infinitive’ is mostly ambiguous
between a simple future interpretation and one or other modal reading, there is a marked
tendency in present-day English to use the future continuous instead of the simple future to
express pure future.
e.g. Goodbye. I’ll be joining you soon. (I will join you sounds more like a promise.)
You’ll be hearing more about this in our next programme.
I can’t tell you if he’ll be coming to see you next week.

72. It follows that some progressive present perfect sentences are ambiguous between a continuative and an
indefinite interpretation. Thus, I’ve been digging the garden can refer either to a situation which is still in progress
or to a completed situation which the speaker refers to as an explanation or excuse for some present resultant state.
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The University will be organizing an international linguistic conference in December.

The band will be touring Europe next summer.
Using the future continuous makes it possible to avoid ambiguity whenever ‘will + infinitive’
yields a modal interpretation:
1) Questions beginning with will you + the simple infinitive of a dynamic verb are most
likely to be understood as offers, requests or invitations.
e.g. Will you (kindly) tell me what is going on? (request)
Will you have some custard? (offer)
The future continuous will therefore normally be preferred if the speaker merely wants to
ask for information about the future activities of the person addressed.
e.g. Will you be going to the library this afternoon?
The speaker will typically use such a question if he wants to prepare the ground for
making a request or suggestion:
e.g. Will you be seeing her tomorrow? -- Yes, I will. -- Well, in that case, could you ask
her to call me up one of these days?
2) Statements with ‘will + simple infinitive’ often yield a volitional interpretation
(willingness, promise, intention). Using the future continuous rules out such an
interpretation.
e.g. cp. Will he tell us why he did it? (may express willingness)
Will he be telling us why he did it? (pure future)
cp. Don’t worry! I will speak to your boss tomorrow. (a promise)
Don’t worry! I will be speaking to your boss tomorrow. (neutral)
3) With animate subjects, there is often a difference of meaning between ‘will not + simple
infinitive’ and ‘will not + progressive infinitive’. The latter structure merely expresses that
a particular event will not take place; the former may also express a refusal.
e.g. cp. We won’t pay your expenses. (possibly a refusal)
We won’t be paying your expenses. (pure future)
4) Using the future continuous is often more tactful than using the simple future (especially in
questions). Compare:
(i) Goodbye. Will you be coming back to England next year?
(ii) Goodbye. Will you come back to England next year?
Sentence (i) can only be understood as a question asking for information: the speaker
expresses polite interest in the hearer’s plans for next year. Sentence (ii), on the other
hand, can be understood as ‘Are you willing to come back next year?’, which puts some
pressure on the listener. Sentence (i) is therefore more tactful than (ii).
Similarly:
(iii) I’ll be going to the post-office this afternoon. Shall I post your letters?
(iv) I’ll go to the post-office this afternoon. Shall I post your letters?
In (iv) I’ll go to the post-office can be interpreted as implying intention or willingness.
This means that the listener may get the impression that the speaker proposes to go to the
post-office in order to do him a favour. Sentence (iii) cannot have this effect because it
represents the future situation as independent of the intention or willingness of the speaker.
(iii) is therefore more tactful than (iv) because it makes clear that the hearer has no reason
to feel indebted: ‘I’ll be going there anyway, so it will be no trouble for me to post your
letters’.
5) There is no such difference between the simple future and the future continuous if a
volitional or intentional reading is ruled out.
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e.g. It will freeze / will be freezing tomorrow.

This horse will soon leave / be leaving our stud farm.
Here the only possible difference lies in the presence or absence of a ‘matter of course’
interpretation.
d. When used out of context, a sentence in the progressive future tense may be ambiguous
between a progressive interpretation and a reading of the kind discussed here.
e.g. I will be flying to London at 5 p.m. (means either ‘At 5 p.m. I will be on the plane to London’ or ‘I
will take the plane to London that leaves at 5 p.m.’) 73

D. CONDITIONS FOR THE USE OF THE PROGRESSIVE

1. The progressive can normally only be used in sentences that express a dynamic situation, i.e. an
action, event or process.
e.g. These men are building a house in the forest. (action)
Most of these customs are changing now. (process)
The engine is stopping. (event)
It should be noted that a process interpretation can be entailed not only by the use of a process verb
but also by the use of a comparative and by some adverbial adjuncts.
e.g. More and more people are buying expensive cars.
Since she has been studying less, her results have been getting worse.
The patient was recovering rapidly.
His eyesight was gradually getting worse.
Verbs that are used statively are not normally used in the progressive.74 Three classes of stative
verbs can be distinguished:
a. verbs of inert perception
This group contains the ‘sensory verbs’ see, hear, smell, feel, taste, notice and observe, which
refer to an involuntary reaction of the senses.
e.g. I noticed her leave the shop. (*was noticing)
Do you hear the sound of the sirens? (*Are you hearing...?)
The reason why the progressive form is unusual here is the semantic clash between inert
perception (which is beyond the control of the subject) and the dynamic meaning of the
progressive (i.e. the fact that a progressive with a human subject expresses that the subject is
doing something).
To express continuing inert perception we use a construction with can/could:
e.g. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but I can see that they’re very excited. (*I am seeing)
I can feel an insect crawling on my back.
b verbs of cognition
Under this label we can bring together the following two classes:
1) verbs referring to a state of the mind, a feeling (emotion) or a reaction of the mind.
e.g. abhor, admire, adore, agree, appreciate, assume, believe, care for, consider, desire,
detest, disagree, dislike, doubt, envy, esteem, expect, fancy, fear, feel (= think), find
(= consider), forget, forgive, gather (= understand), guess (= think), hate, hope,
imagine, intend, judge (+ that-clause), know, like, love, mean, mind, miss, need, plan,
prefer, presuppose, promise, realize, recall, recognize, recollect, refuse, regard, regret,

73. Only the former reading is available when the adverbial is fronted: At five p.m. I will be flying to London.
74. The term ‘stative’ is explained in section IX, G, 2. of chapter 1.
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remember, respect, satisfy, see (= understand), suggest, suppose, think (+ that-clause),

trust, understand, want, wish, etc.
The progressive is not normally used with these verbs (unless they are used with a
dynamic meaning -- cf. below).
e.g. I love you. (*I am loving you.)
I understand his reaction. (*am understanding)
I wish I could help him. (*am wishing)
I’ve forgotten his address. (*have been forgetting)
2) verbs referring to what causes such a mental state, reaction or feeling.
e.g. astonish, frighten, impress, irritate, please, shock, surprise, etc.
e.g. The news astonished us all. (*was astonishing)
Cognition verbs refer to a state, not to an action. This explains why they resist the use of the
progressive form. (As noted above, a progressive with a human subject expresses that the
subject is doing something.)
c. Relational verbs or verbs of state
These are verbs referring to a relationship, a condition or a state of being.
e.g. apply to, be, belong to, comprise, concern, consist of, contain, cost, depend on, deserve,
differ from, equal, exist, fit, have, include, interest, involve, lack, matter, mean, need, owe,
own, please, possess, remain, require, resemble, satisfy, suffice, suit, tend, weigh...
e.g. It depends on you whether we will succeed. (*is depending)
He has a nice wife. (*is having) (cp. the use of have as activity verb in He’s having a good
time (= he is enjoying himself), They were having supper, etc.)
The water surrounds the entire castle. (*is surrounding)
He belongs to a rightist organization. (*is belonging)
These plastic bags contain cocaine. (*is containing)
He owns a couple of horses. (*is owning)
The reason why relational verbs are not normally used in the progressive is that they do not
have a dynamic meaning. Moreover, in most cases they refer to a situation that is conceived as
permanent (unchanging) rather than temporary.
Note:
a. Even when it refers to a temporary situation, a verb in stative use does not normally take the
progressive form:
e.g. I’m disappointed. (*am being)
I forget what I paid for it for the moment. (*am forgetting)
We don’t have a solution yet. (*are not having)
There are, however, some exceptions to this rule. See below.
b. There is a small group of verbs referring to an ‘internal bodily sensation’ (e.g. hurt, ache, itch,
tingle, feel...) which can be used in either the progressive or the nonprogressive form if the
reference is to a sensation in progress.
e.g. My right ear itches / is itching.
He said his stomach hurt / was hurting.
I felt / was feeling sick/hungry/exhausted.
My arm ached / was aching after the fight.
Note:
1) In this use, feel does not always express internal sensation in the strict sense of the word. It
has the general meaning of ‘experiencing the condition of one’s mind or body’.
e.g. I felt / was feeling better when I had drunk some whisky.
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How does she feel / is she feeling today? Does she still feel / is she still feeling
depressed?
If you feel / are feeling cold, I can give you an extra sweater.
Note the difference between this meaning of feel, which is a question of internal sensation,
and the meaning of feel as a ‘verb of inert perception’, denoting external sensation:
e.g. I can feel a nail in my right boot. (*I’m feeling)
2) The expression look forward to follows the same rule.
e.g. I look / am looking forward to meeting her.
c. Some of the verbs listed above as stative verbs can also be used with a dynamic meaning, in
which case they can be used in the progressive:
1) Verbs referring to the senses can be used in different ways:
e.g. (a) I (can) taste the vinegar in the sauce.
(b) The cook is tasting the dough to see if there is enough salt in it.
(c) The scones taste superb.
In (a) the sensation is involuntary: it simply happens to me. Taste is therefore used as a
verb of inert perception, which cannot be used in the progressive. In (b), on the other hand,
the subject is consciously doing something in order to have the sensation. Taste is now
used as a dynamic verb (verb of active perception) and can therefore be in the progressive.
In (c) taste is used intransitively, as a verb referring to a state (viz. the state of being
characterized by a certain taste). Because of this it cannot be used in the progressive.
Summing up:
(a) = verb of inert perception (meaning: to perceive unintentially): no progressive forms
(b) = activity verb (referring to active perception) (meaning: do something in order to
perceive): progressive forms are possible
(c) = verb of state (meaning: produce a sensation): no progressive forms
This distinction applies to each of the five senses:
(a) (b) (c)
taste taste taste
smell smell smell
feel feel feel
hear listen sound
see look look
The only exception to the system is that look in meaning (c) is occasionally found in the
progressive. (But nonprogressive forms are more usual.)
e.g. (a) I (can) smell the smoke of the camp-fire.
(b) She’s smelling the fish to see if it is still fresh.
(c) The fish smells all right.
(c) The room smelt of beer and tobacco.
e.g. (a) I (can) hear the children’s voices in the distance.
(a) I overheard their conversation.
(b) I’m listening to the music.
(c) He sounds as if he’s quite exhausted.
(c) You sound angry.
(c) That sounds like John’s car coming up the driveway.
e.g. (a) I don’t see the cobwebs in the dark but I (can) feel them.
(b) The blind boy was feeling the ground with his stick.
(b) The woman was feeling inside her handbag.
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(c) Her forehead feels feverish.

(c) Her body felt cold against mine.
e.g. (a) I (can) see a ship in the distance.
(b) I’m looking at the spectacle.
(c) He looks / (is looking) all right.
(c) You look / (are looking) quite exhausted.
Note:
a) The verbs in meaning (c) behave as copulas. They are followed by adjectives, not by
adverbs of manner.
e.g. cp. She was looking angry. (*angrily) (c)
She looked at me angrily. (*angry) (b)
e.g. That meat tastes bad/good. (*badly/*well)
b) The verbs seem and appear behave exactly like the verbs in meaning (c). The only
difference is that the latter refer to a particular kind of perception, whereas the former
have a more general meaning.
e.g. He seems/appears very angry. (*is seeming/appearing)
c) The verb see is dynamic in the following cases:
Ó) when it means meet or interview.
e.g. I’m seeing the boy’s mother in about ten minutes.
I can’t disturb the manager now. He’s seeing an important visitor at the
moment.
ß) when it is used in the sense of watch (which is usual when we talk about public
performances of plays and films).
e.g. Will you come with me to the cinema tonight? -- Depends on what film you
are seeing.
Ô) in the expression to see sights:
e.g. We were seeing the sights of the town when the bad news reached us.
d) The verb hear is dynamic in examples like the following:
e.g. His case is still being heard in court.
We’ll no doubt be hearing from her / about it soon. (= receiving news)
(operator speaking) I’m hearing you badly. (= I have difficulty in receiving your
message; communication is difficult.)
e) Apart from the three uses of feel considered here, feel is also used in the following
ways:
Ó) in the sense of ‘experiencing the condition of one’s own mind or body’ (cf.
above).
ß) as a cognition verb (when followed by that or like):
e.g. I have always felt (that) he was an unreliable fellow.
I feel like having a swim, but I forgot to bring my swim-suit.
I feel sure I’ve heard this before.
f) All the perception verbs can be used in the progressive in sentences expressing (the
beginning of) a process.
e.g. I’m hearing the signal better now. We must be getting nearer.
The food they serve us here is tasting more and more awful.
Night was falling and we were seeing things less clearly.
2) Some verbs which are normally used as verbs of cognition (referring to a state of the mind)
can also be used as dynamic verbs
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a) referring to an activity of the mind

e.g. cp. I think we shouldn’t do it. (= be of opinion that...)
I’m thinking about our future. (= give thought to, turn over in one’s mind)
cp. I plan to visit India on my own. (= intend)
I’m planning the work for the coming weeks. (= make arrangements)
cp. We consider him an honest man.
We’re considering their latest proposal. (= examine)
cp. I expect you’re satisfied now.
I’m expecting an important call. (= wait for)
cp. He imagines his wife is unfaithful to him. (= believe)
You’re just imagining this, David. It’s not really happening. (= Your
imagination is overactive.)
cp. I admire your talents. (= have admiration for)
I’m admiring your garden. (= look at + have admiration for)
e.g. I don’t think the children are liking this kind of trip. -- No, they’re hating it. (=
(not) enjoy)
Who’s minding the baby now? (= look after)
The performance is a great success. The youngsters are loving every moment of
it. (= enjoy)
b) referring to (the beginning of) a gradual process
e.g. We’re understanding these phenomena better now.
I’m already forgetting what I was taught this morning.
Note:
a) Most of these verbs are normally used statively when followed by a that-clause.
b) The cognition verb enjoy is a dynamic verb.
3) Some verbs that are normally used as relational verbs can also be used as dynamic verbs
a) referring to an activity
e.g. cp. Does that rule apply to us too?
The poor are applying to us for help.
cp. It depends on you whether we will succeed.
We’re depending on our jetfighters to protect the bombers. (= count on)
Note:
Ó) Even the verb be can be used as a dynamic verb:
- in the passive
e.g. These youngsters are being tried for mugging.
The house is still being refurbished.
- in the meaning ‘to act in a certain way’
e.g. Stop doing that. You’re being childish.
The police are being careful.
- in the meaning ‘to act the part of’, ‘to pretend to be’
e.g. Don’t mind my husband. He’s being grumpy again.
He’s being sick. (= He is vomiting.)
Today my little son is being Buffalo Bill.
ß) The verb have is stative when it means ‘own,’, ‘possess’; it is dynamic when it
means ‘take’, ‘receive’, etc.
e.g. Many of them have no colour TV. (stative)
She was typing a letter when the door-bell rang. (dynamic)
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The farmer is having trouble with his tractor. (dynamic)

We’re having the Parkinsons down today. (dynamic)
Have can also be used in the progressive when it has causative meaning:
e.g. Are you having the lock replaced?
The auxiliary have to (which expresses obligation or necessity) is usually in a
simple tense form, though progressive forms are not uncommon in spoken
English.
e.g. She has to / (is having to) look after herself now.
b) referring to (the beginning of) a gradual process
e.g. He is resembling his grandmother more and more as he is growing older. (=
become like)
Petrol is costing more since the beginning of the month.
The colour of your skin is again mattering more these days. (= become more
important)
d. Even some verbs in stative use can sometimes be found in the progressive:75
1) when there is special emphasis on the duration of the situation or on its application to the
TO:
e.g. He is nearly 35, but he is still hoping to get into the A-team of his club.
When there is no adverbial like still, this use is normally impossible, except when the verb
form is a continuative perfect.
e.g. cp. What a wonderful necklace! I’ve been wanting/needing one like this for ages.
I can’t let you have it. My husband needs/wants it.
cp. You can’t talk them out of it. They’ve been meaning/intending/wanting to do it
for a long time.
I don’t mean/intend/want to let her get involved.
e.g. I’ve been owing them money since I lost my job.
Examples in the future tense can also be found.
e.g. Don’t throw the receipt away. I will be needing/wanting it later.
2) With a small number of stative verbs the progressive is used to suggest that the behaviour
of the referent of the subject NP on this occasion is different from his normal behaviour.
e.g. Gordon is / was / has been forgetting his place. (said of someone who normally
knows his place)
She’s so volatile! She’s now thinking that we should not do it after all.
When this abnormal behaviour continues for some time, we get an idea of temporary habit.
e.g. The Unions have been refusing to discuss proposals for closing more collieries.
Mother has been forgetting things lately.
3) A limited number of verbs of cognition can be used in the progressive to express greater
tentativeness, modesty, tact, politeness. (Tentativeness follows from the fact that the
progressive form suggests that the feeling expressed is only temporary, passing.)
e.g. cp. (a) I hope you’ll consider our offer seriously.
(b) I’m hoping you’ll consider our offer seriously.

75. With some stative verbs, the progressive form (which turns what is normally thought of as a state into an activity) can be used in order to
create a dramatic effect.
e.g. I’m hearing strange noises in the attic.
The soprano has been sounding a bit husky recently.
Don’t listen to her. She’s only seeing what she wants to see.
He’s a regular workaholic. He’ll be forgetting to eat soon.
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(The use of a tentative form in (b) leaves the hearer ample room for a polite
refusal. The speaker implies that his hope is not final, i.e. that he will abandon it
if the hearer says ‘No’. Sentence (b) thus differs from (a), which asserts the
speaker’s hope much more strongly, and which is more or less equivalent to ‘I
reckon on you to...’.)
e.g. I was hoping she would be there too. (Tentativeness here means that I did not feel
very certain about her being there.)
e.g. We’re wondering if we could see your garden.
Were you wanting to speak to me?76
You are forgetting that our resources are not unlimited. (tactful: suggests ‘I know you
are normally mindful of that, but this time you are forgetting about it.’)
4) English speakers frequently use progressive forms (even with stative verbs) when they feel
strongly about what they are saying.
e.g. Please come back home. I’m missing you terribly.
This use is particularly common in sentences in the present perfect which have an
undertone of complaint or disapproval.
e.g. Who’s been drinking my whisky?
Someone has been using the tin-opener and has mislaid it.
Who’s been fooling around with this stick?
What have you been doing to that poor man?
(This use is related to the ‘explanatory-resultative’ use of the perfect continuous referred to above:
what the speaker is complaining about is an unintended side-effect of a past action.)
2. The use of the progressive form is normally prevented by the presence of adverbials that are
incompatible with the idea of limited duration:
a. adverbials expressing unlimited or indefinite duration
e.g. always, for ever,77 eternally, usually, normally, everlastingly, generally, etc.
b. adverbials expressing repetition or frequency
e.g. often, from time to time, continually, repeatedly, time and again, usually, normally,
seldom, rarely, occasionally, now and then, once in a while, etc.
Adverbials like these seldom collocate with progressive forms because repeated situations are
usually viewed in their entirety (rather than as being in progress).
e.g. cp. He often comes to see me. (*is coming)
At this time of the night he is often watching TV. (= Watching TV is often in progress at this
time of the night.)
e.g. cp. He seldom waits for me when I am late.
He is seldom waiting for me when I arrive.
e.g. cp. Sometimes he doesn’t sleep all night.
Sometimes he is still sleeping at 11 o’clock.
c. adverbials representing a situation as punctual
e.g. suddenly, all of a sudden, all at once
Note:
In spite of this, adverbials such as always, continually, constantly, everlastingly, forever, perpetually
do combine with the progressive if there are special aspects of meaning:

76. Tentativeness is achieved here by two different means: the use of the past tense (which represents a shift of temporal focus) and the use of
the progressive.
77. Also spelt forever.
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a. The progressive is used with these adverbs to express persistent or uninterrupted repetition of a
situation. This repetition is seen as characteristic of the referent of the subject NP.
e.g. Mrs Caldwell is for ever complaining about the weather.
The dishwasher is always breaking down.
Tom was always ordering us about when we played with him.
We are constantly being told that tobacco is poison.
She is always losing her gloves. (= She keeps losing them.)
e.g. cp. He always reads thrillers. (= Whenever he reads a book, it’s a thriller.)
He is always reading thrillers. (= He never stops reading thrillers.)
cp. She always cleaned the house when she expected a visitor.
She was always cleaning the house. (not only when she was expected to do so)
b. One of the aspects of meaning of sentences like these is that it is quite unpredictable when the
situation will repeat itself. For this reason the progressive cannot be used when there is an
adverbial specifying when instances of the situation can be observed: only simple tenses can
represent the repeated situations as forming a regular pattern (i.e. as happening at set times).
e.g. cp. I’m always meeting that girl in the museum. (= I meet her there often, but not at set
times. I meet her there by accident.)
We always meet at the museum. (= That is our regular meeting-place.)
e.g. It always begins to rain when I go for a walk. (The instances are predictable; there is a
regular pattern.)
It follows that the reference is often to an unexpected event or to ‘incurable’ behaviour.
e.g. cp. She’s always complaining. (incurable habit: She can’t help doing so, it’s her nature.)
She always complains. (= She does so deliberately; so her complaints are
predictable.)
e.g. She’s always imagining everybody is looking at her.
He’s continually smoking.
You’re always refusing to help me!
The poor girl is always hearing burglars.
As is clear from these examples, even stative verbs can be used in this way.
c. Such sentences usually have an undertone of annoyance, irritation, impatience, amused
disparagement or disapproval.
e.g. What a horrible man! He’s always railing at us. (expresses surprise or annoyance at the
unexpectedly high frequency of the situation)
Your son is always making a confounded nuisance of himself.
My boss is always smoking cigars in my presence. (disapproval)
He is continually talking about the end of the world.
Do you realize you are perpetually grumbling over the treatment you get?
He was always calling me up at home instead of at the office. (= That was an annoying
persistent habit of his.)

II. THE USE OF SIMPLE (NONPROGRESSIVE) TENSE FORMS

Simple tense forms are used when there is no progressive aspect to be expressed, i.e. when the speaker
does not want to represent the situation as being temporarily in progress at (or throughout) some TO. In
other words, simple forms are used when the speaker conceives of the situation as a whole, when he
wants to refer to it in its totality.
A. We do not use the progressive when the situation is not represented as in progress:
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1. A situation that is punctual is not normally represented as in progress, unless the speaker wants to
express repetition or refers to a ‘frozen action’.
e.g. I reached the hotel in time for lunch. (*was reaching)
The boy has shot a magpie with his air rifle. (*has been shooting)
Suddenly the rocket exploded.
This photograph shows John while he is sneezing. (frozen action)
cp. I arrived early. (*was arriving)
The guests were already arriving. (repetition: there are as many arrivals as there are
guests.)
However, a verb expressing an ‘achievement’ (i.e. a punctual change of state) can be used with
progressive aspect to describe the terminal phase of a process which naturally issues in the
achievement that is denoted by the verb.
e.g. The train is now arriving at platform 6.
The climbers are now reaching the top.
2. Sometimes a situation which has a certain duration is not represented as in progress.
a. When the speaker talks about situations that follow each other in such a way that one begins
only after another has come to an end, he will represent the situations as complete (bounded) by
using nonprogressive verb forms.
e.g. She got out of the taxi, paid the driver, went up the driveway to the house and rang the bell. A
maidservant came to open the door and let her in.
In many examples the reference is to a rapid series of short situations. This is typically the case
in commentaries, where the simple present is used for the quicker situations (which are finished
before the sentences describing them), whereas the present continuous is used for longer
(background) situations.
e.g. (commentator speaking) And Brown passes to Atkins, Atkins to Bundy, Bundy across to
Steward -- who loses the ball to Smith, Smith crosses to Moore -- and Moore shoots -- and
it goes in! Leeds are leading by one goal to nil after thirty-one minutes in the first half.
e.g. (someone demonstrating the use of a computer) First I turn on this switch. The machine
starts buzzing and I have to wait a little, while it checks all its functions. Then I insert the
system disk into disk drive A and press the spacebar. The computer is now reading the
disk. Now it tells us it has finished doing so. I therefore remove the system disk and insert
my program disk. I type the key word and press ‘enter’. The computer loads the program
and there we are, ready to start working.
e.g. (someone looking through a pair of binoculars and reporting what he sees) A big car is
driving up to the house. It stops. The door swings open and an elderly lady gets out. She
walks up the steps to the house. She presses the bell. Now she is waiting. She is still
waiting. She presses the bell again. The door goes open now. The lady steps inside. The
door closes.
b. Simple tenses are used in step-by-step instructions.
e.g. First assemble parts A and B; then take part C and fold it, as shown on the drawing. Glue
C to the basic structure. Next cut out the wings and paint them. Paint the body of the plane
too and stick the wings to it...
In examples like these, the speaker is concerned with the structure of some complex situation
(in the above example: the situation of building a model plane). The various subsituations
which make up this complex whole and which follow each other immediately must be referred
to in their entirety.
c. Simple tenses are used in exclamations introduced by here, there or an adverbial particle:
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e.g. Here he comes!

There/up we go!
Down came the baby, cradle and all.
In came the next one.
d. We normally use simple tense forms in so-called performative sentences, i.e. in sentences
where the words themselves form part of the situation which they report. Such a sentence
typically has a first person subject and is uttered precisely in order to perform the action that it
reports. The progressive is not used because the action is conceptualized as punctual, i.e. as
beginning and ending at TU itself.
e.g. I name this ship ‘the King Arthur’. (I perform the action by pronouncing these words.)
We gladly accept your invitation.
I declare the discussion closed.
I acknowledge receiving your payment.
I advise/beg/urge you to see a doctor.
I suggest you go home and forget all about it.
I propose a change of policy.
I pronounce you man and wife.
I wish you a merry Christmas.
I swear by almighty God to tell the truth...
Note that sentences like these should be distinguished from sentences in which the speaker
explains, or elaborates on, a previous statement. In the latter kind of sentence we always use the
progressive.
e.g. A. (child) I want to go home.
B. (mother, anxious that this remark may seem rude) What she is saying is that she has
enjoyed coming here very much, but that she is now feeling tired and would like to go
home.
e. Even when the situation referred to has a certain duration, the speaker will use a simple tense
form if he does not wish to focus on the middle of the situation (i.e. if he does not think of the
situation as something that is going on). This is the case
1) if the speaker merely wants to express that the situation has taken (or will take) place, or
when he is concerned with some other aspect of the situation (e.g. when?, where?, why?,
how?, who?, etc.)
e.g. At the time the film caused a regular scandal.
The house was pulled down ten years ago. (when?)
I read an article on it in the waiting-room of the hospital. (where?)
Why do you close the door?
He behaved abominably yesterday.
The entire team played superbly.
I lived in the country until I got married. (where? or when?)
Note:
The use of simple tenses in both a when/as-clause and a head clause expresses either
simultaneity of punctual or bounded situations or, more commonly, immediate succession.
e.g. cp. When I called him, he was running away. (background)
When I called him, he ran away. (succession)
e.g. As the clock struck one, a shot was fired. (simultaneity)
When John found that necklace, he showed it to his wife.
In some examples the expression of immediate succession can suggest a causal link:
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e.g. The girl started screaming when the lights went out.
2) The situation is also referred to by a simple tense form if, for some reason, it is to be
represented as bounded (complete).
e.g. My wife will sew on these buttons. (There is no point in representing the action as
incomplete.)
The tank is empty now. All the water has run out of it.
He wrote a novel when he was only fourteen.
It follows that the speaker will use simple tense forms in sentences that ‘measure’ a
situation, i.e. which specify (by means of a quantifier) the number of (complete)
subsituations that follow each other. In order to measure such a situation it is necessary to
consider the situation up to the terminal point, i.e. to represent it as bounded.
The surgeon has performed seven operations today.
How many times did you do it?
We’ve spent a lot on buying petrol since we’ve had that car. (*have been spending)
It follows that a sentence referring to a repetitive situation that consists of (complete)
subsituations that follow each other must be bounded if there is a frequency adverbial
specifying (or inquiring into) the number of subsituations.
e.g. I called his name several times, but he did not react. (*was calling)
How many times did I ask her to shut up before I sent her out of the class-room?
(*was I asking)
However, sentences involving quantifying elements can be found in the progressive
a) if the speaker’s knowledge of the quantity is not the result of measuring the situation
but is given in advance.
e.g. cp. The tank got damaged and 50 gallons of petrol ran out of it. (Here the
speaker ‘measures’ the quantity of petrol that got lost. The tank may have
contained more than 50 gallons.)
The tank got damaged and 50 gallons of petrol were running out of it.
(Here we know that there were 50 gallons in the tank. The speaker does not
say how many gallons actually got lost.)
e.g. John was running 6 miles. (implies that the distance that John was expected to
run was measured (fixed) beforehand)
b) if the situation can be measured without reference to the terminal point. This is the
case if the subsituations do not follow each other but hold at the same time.
e.g. They’re building several wastewater treatment plants in our county, but none of
them is finished yet.
Fourteen horses are competing in this race.
John drank six glasses of whisky. (The progressive would be acceptable only if
John was sipping whisky from six glasses at the same time or if it had been fixed
in advance how many glasses he was to drink.)
c) if the quantifier does not specify the total number of subsituations.
e.g. cp. The club played 13 games in one month. (total number: 13)
At that time the players were playing three times a week. (= The situation
of playing three times a week repeated itself over a period of limited
duration which is not specified. The total number of games is not given.)
cp. I lent her money four times last week. (total number for last week: 4)
In those days I was lending her money at least four times a week. (The total
number remains indefinite because the number of weeks is unspecified.)
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3) Repetitive situations of which the total number of subsituations is not specified may be
referred to by either simple or progressive tense forms.
a) As a rule we use a progressive tense form to represent such a situation as temporary
and a simple tense form to represent it as permanent.
e.g. I go to see her whenever I have time.
For the moment I am not leaving the house because I am not feeling well.
Note that the progressive is only possible when the reference is to one particular
instance of a temporary habit, not when the temporary habit is repeated an indefinite
number of times. For this reason adverbials like generally, usually, normally, as a
rule, every day, repeatedly, frequently, often, regularly, seldom, never, etc. exclude
the use of the progressive to refer to a temporary habit.
e.g. I sometimes walk to work when my car is being repaired. (*am walking)
John regularly goes for a walk in the city.
The chairman does not usually ask such pertinent questions.
As a rule my father does not read books.
There’s a nurse comes to help her every day.
Her children seldom come to see her.
b) The progressive is also used when the individual subsituations are viewed as in
progress:
e.g. Whenever I saw him he was wearing a hat. (Here there is indefinite repetition of
a durative situation which serves as a background for another situation.)
In that pub they are telling each other about their plans every night again.
Whenever it is snowing the pupils sit looking through the window instead of
paying attention.
This use of the progressive to refer to a repetitive situation is rather exceptional. It is
normally prevented by the use of adverbs like repeatedly, frequently, often, etc.78 On
the other hand, it is not uncommon in habitual sentences that imply repetition but do
not contain a repetitive adverbial.
e.g. I don’t want to be interrupted when I’m interviewing somebody.
You look silly when you’re wearing that hat.
The roof of the car is damaged. So we cannot use it if/when it is raining.
You’re a danger on the roads if you make up your face while you are driving.
In this use the progressive can collocate with adverbs like normally, usually, often,
etc.
Don’t come before 9 a.m. I am usually seeing patients then.
At sunrise the farmer was normally milking his cows.
Often when I go to my grandmother she is playing chess with her landlady.
4. Duration adverbials can in principle collocate with both progressive and simple tense
forms. However, it should be noted that, in the same way as sentences can represent
situations as (un)bounded, duration adverbials can represent a timespan as (un)bounded:
a. Adverbials like for hours represent the timespan as homogeneous, 79 and therefore as
unbounded.
b. Adverbials indicating a specific timespan (e.g. for two hours, all day long) represent the

78. However, the progressive can be used with adverbs like always, continually, for ever, etc. in order to express special meanings (cf. above).
79. That is, the adverbial can indicate not only the timespan as a whole but also parts of it.
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timespan as heterogeneous, 80 and therefore as bounded.

Bounded duration adverbials that specify the duration of the situation as a whole represent the
situation as bounded and are therefore incompatible with the use of the progressive. Compare:
(a) They talked about the accident all afternoon.
(b) All afternoon they were talking about the accident.
Only (a) could be used in answer to How long did they talk about the accident? In this
context, in which all afternoon presents new information, the adverbial measures the
situation: all afternoon is presented as indicating the duration of the complete situation. (In
other words, the speaker asserts that the situation did not start before the afternoon and did
not continue beyond it.) In this case the duration adverbial renders the situation bounded
and therefore excludes the use of the progressive.
On the other hand, only sentence (b) could be used in answer to What were they doing all
afternoon? In this context it is not excluded that the situation already held before the
afternoon and/or continued beyond it. In other words, the adverbial does not render the
situation bounded, and therefore does not exclude the progressive. Sentence (b) expresses
no more than that the situation was holding throughout the afternoon; it does not imply
that the end of the afternoon was also the terminal point of the situation. (It is possible that
this was actually the case, but the speaker does not represent it this way. Using the
progressive, he is not thinking of the situation as terminating.)
The above two sentences should be compared with the following:
(c) They talked about the accident for two hours.
(d) *They were talking about the accident for two hours.
Whereas all afternoon specifies both duration and time, for two hours specifies duration only. In the
above examples the duration in question can only be the duration of the situation (since no other
timespan is referred to). The adverbial thus renders the situation bounded, which means that the
verb cannot be progressive.
This does not mean, however, that bounded duration adverbials like for two hour are always
incompatible with the progressive. They can be used together with a progressive form if they do not
indicate the duration of the situation but of some other timespan. This is the case when the verb is a
perfect form with continuative meaning:
(e) We have already been waiting for two hours.
The duration adverbial here specifies the time that has passed between the beginning of the waiting
and TU. TU is thus the right bound (terminal point) of the timespan indicated. The situation,
however, is not represented as coming to an end at TU: the waiting may continue beyond TU. This
means that the situation is not rendered bounded by the bounded adverbial.

B. Progressive forms will not be used when there is an idea of unlimited or indefinite duration, i.e. when
the situation is represented as permanent (rather than temporary).
e.g. cp. (a) What does your friend do? -- He works for an insurance company.
(b) What’s your friend doing? -- He’s drafting an insurance policy for my parents.
There are two differences between (a) and (b):
1. The present continuous refers to a situation that is going on during a period of limited duration
which includes TU. The simple present, on the other hand, refers to a situation that is conceptualized
as going on for an indefinite time rather than as being restricted in its duration.

80. That is, the adverbial can only indicate the timespan as a whole. No subpart of the timespan indicated by for
two hours can itself be indicated by for two hours.
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2. Unlike the present continuous, the simple present does not refer to a dynamic situation. It refers to a
characteristic, i.e. to a state. This characteristic is in principle instanced by a number of dynamic
situations, but the simple present does not actually refer to any of these.
e.g. cp. John plays the guitar. (The speaker just expresses that it is characteristic of John that he
can play the guitar. He does not refer to any particular instance(s) of John making use of
this ability.)
John is playing the guitar. (The speaker refers to a particular dynamic situation that
instances John’s ability to play the guitar.)
The following are some typical cases in which an otherwise dynamic verb is used to express a state (and
is therefore in the simple form):
1. Sentences expressing a typical (and therefore permanent) characteristic of a species or kind. (As
noted before, such sentences are called generic sentences.)
e.g. Cats do not eat grass.
A chameleon lives in trees.
Fundamentalist Muslims take the Koran literally.
Reed bends but does not break in the wind.
2. Sentences expressing a permanent characteristic or ability of an individual or group of individuals.
(Such sentences are also sometimes called generic.)
e.g. Do you sing / play the recorder?
Chris understands / speaks Japanese.
I run the 100 metres in 11.65 seconds.
A subtype of such sentences is formed by those that express a permanent habit (i.e. the idea that a
situation is characteristic of a period of unlimited or indefinite duration):
e.g. The children go to bed at nine and get up at seven-thirty.
Mary always dyes her hair.
e.g. cp. Does she smoke? (= Is she in the habit of smoking?)
Is she smoking? (right now)
3. Universal statements (expressing an eternal truth)
e.g. Cutting up onions makes one’s eyes water.
London lies on the Thames.

CHAPTER 4

THE AUXILIARY DO

I. INTRODUCTION

In English there are a number of patterns that require the presence of an auxiliary as operator. If a
sentence that does not contain an auxiliary is used in one of these patterns, we have to insert do as
dummy operator. The patterns in which we may thus find do as ‘periphrastic auxiliary’ are the
following:
1. There are three structure patterns requiring an operator:
a. sentences involving inversion (i.e. sentences in which the operator precedes the subject) (e.g.
Did he come?).
b. sentences that are made negative by the addition of not to the operator (e.g. He didn’t come).
c. sentences whose operator is a pro-form for a verb or verb phrase (e.g. John didn’t come but
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Mary did).
2. There is one accentuation pattern requiring an operator: sentences with an emphatic accent on
the operator (e.g. He did come).

II. SENTENCES INVOLVING INVERSION

We speak of subject-verb inversion (or subject-operator inversion, or simply inversion) when the
subject follows the verb or operator instead of preceding it. In sentences that do not involve an operator
(auxiliary) or form of be, inversion usually means that the verb do must be added to serve as operator.
For example, the interrogative counterpart of John arrived late is not *Arrived John late? but Did John
arrive late?
Inversion occurs in a number of cases:

A. QUESTIONS
1. Interrogative main clauses (independent questions) and tag questions normally involve inversion.
This means that the subject is preceded by the operator or, in the absence of an auxiliary, by a form
of do.
e.g. What can I do?
Why should he have lied to me?
How much did he tell you?
However:
a. Do is not used if the verb is a form of be:
e.g. Is he safe now?
b. Do is not used if the question word is, or belongs to, the subject NP.
e.g. Who answered the phone?
Which boy won the competition?
c. Do is not used in so-called declarative questions. These are questions that do not involve
inversion, i.e. whose word order is that typical of declarative sentences (statements). This type
of question is quite common in spoken English. It is especially used in two cases: when we
wish the hearer to confirm something we think we know already and when we want to express
surprise.
e.g. cp. He’s the captain? (= I suppose he’s the captain, is he?)
HE’s the captain? (surprise)
Is he the captain? (‘open’ question asking for information)
e.g. You don’t know who did it, of course?
JOHN told you that?
d. There is no inversion when the clause beginning with a wh-word is not a question but an
exclamation.
e.g. What nice people they are! (cp. What people are they?)
How young she is! (cp. How old is she?)
2. Dependent (indirect) questions do not involve inversion.
e.g. He asked me how much money I earned.
I wonder who was the winner.
I have no idea why he reacted that way.
B. SENTENCES WITH A FRONTED CONSTITUENT
1. Inversion is obligatory in statements beginning with a negative, near-negative or restrictive adverbial
which affects the entire sentence:
e.g. seldom, rarely, only, barely, little, never, no sooner...than, hardly/scarcely...when, not for an
 155

instant, not until...

e.g. Only when I found these hotel bills did I realize she was leading a double life.
Hardly/scarcely had we arrived when the storm broke.
Nowhere was the key to be found.
Note:
1. Such a construction is literary, or at least formal, in tone.
2. Note the difference between the following sentences:
(a) Not until this morning did we discover the truth.
(b) Not many hours later we discovered the truth.
There is inversion in (a), but not in (b), because it is only in (a) that the negator affects the
whole predicate. This is clear from the following paraphrases:
(a’) We did not discover the truth until this morning.
(b’) We discovered the truth not many hours later. (= few hours later)
Similarly, compare:
(c) On no account did he want to go back home. (implies that he did not want to go home)
(d) For no reason at all he wanted to go back home. (implies that he wanted to go home)
2. When the clause opens with another adverbial, with a complement NP or with a PP, the
following rules apply:
a. There is no inversion when a complement NP (other than a wh-phrase) is fronted (i.e. when
there is topicalization).
e.g. ‘Pagan Morse’ they used to call him at Oxford.
I’ve forgotten her face, but her name I still remember.
However, inversion is the rule when the sentence begins with a topicalized constituent
involving such or so and followed by a result clause.
e.g. So long / such a long time did he stay inside that we all wondered what he was doing.
So rapidly did the water rise that a lot of people were trapped on their roofs.
So plausible was his explanation that most people believed him.
b. There is inversion when all of a progressive or passive VP except the auxiliary is fronted:
e.g. Sitting on the bench was Mary Poppins.
Approaching was a young boy carrying a huge portmanteau.
Hidden behind the laurel trees was a lovely cottage.
Adjoining the kitchen is a small scullery.
This type of construction is typical of literary English and is used to introduce a new character
or object on the scene.
c. In exclamations we can easily front here, there or an adverbial particle. In that case there is no
inversion when the subject NP is a personal pronoun. Otherwise there is inversion, but without
do-support.
e.g. Here comes Lilian. (*Here Lilian comes / *Here does Lilian come.)
Here she comes. (*Here comes she.)
There goes the burglar!
There he goes.
In/up/down they went.
In/up/down went the rest of them.
d. Other obligatory adjuncts and PPs are seldom fronted. If fronting does occur, there is no
inversion.
e.g. To this list we still have to add Bill and Susan.
However, when the subject NP is longer or more complex than the verb form we usually apply
 156

complex NP shift (heavy NP shift) to the subject. This operation shifts the subject NP to the
end of the clause:
e.g. To this list must be added a number of other names.
On these experiments depends the future of our research.
Over the bridge moved the colourful pageant.
On the doorstep was sitting one of the prettiest girls I had ever seen.
He is the person in whose hands lies the fate of an entire nation.
Note:
1) As we will see in chapter 6, complex NP shift can also apply to a complement NP (e.g. He wrote
down in a small notebook everything that I said and which he did not want to forget). Like
‘extraposition from NP’ (cf. chapter 1), complex NP shift is an instance of the so-called principle
of end weight, according to which relatively long and heavy constituents are best placed at the end
of the clause.
2) One of the differences between inversion and complex NP shift is that the former operation places
the subject NP after the operator, whereas the latter places it after the whole VP. Compare:
To this list a number of other titles must still be added.
To this list must still be added a number of other titles. (complex NP shift)
*To this list must a number of other titles still be added. (inversion)
e. There is no inversion when an optional adverbial adjunct is fronted:
e.g. Last week he gambled away all his money. (no inversion)
However, in literary English inversion (with do) is not impossible in exclamations.
e.g. Well do I remember them! They were a perfect couple. (fml)
How bitterly do I now regret my decision!
When there is no inversion, complex NP shift is obligatory if the verb is a form of the lexical
verb be.
e.g. Behind the house was a lovely garden.
Under the castle must have been a number of secret passages.
But in spoken English such sentences usually undergo there-insertion:
e.g. Behind the house there was a lovely garden.
Under the castle there must have been a number of secret passages.
C. In the reporting clause of a direct speech construction, the subject can follow the verb. In that case
there is no ‘do-support’.
e.g. ‘I like you’, whispered Bill.
‘I’m not going to take it lying down’, said John.
Note:
1. The subject more often precedes the verb. This position is obligatory when the subject is a personal
pronoun or when the predicate contains other elements besides the verb of saying.
e.g. ‘Just wait and see’, I answered.
‘Forget about it,’ Bertram said, ‘It’s not important.’
‘My son shares my tastes’, the woman told her friend.
‘Look here,’ John would say, ‘I’m old enough to know what’s good for me.’
2. When the reporting clause is in initial position, there is not normally inversion, except in journalese
or when a facetious or surprising remark is announced.
e.g. Pam said: ‘I’ve had enough of this’.
Says the President: ‘We are not considering a military intervention yet’.
Says Minny: ‘I’m going to tell the vicar a dirty joke’.
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III. NEGATIVE CLAUSES

1. Do will be used in statements, questions and imperatives that are made negative by not if the VP
does not involve an auxiliary or be.
e.g. I do not believe your story.
I saw nothing.
We no longer accept this hypothesis.
You should not have run away.
He is not to be trusted.
Note:
a. A sentence is not negative if its verb is not within the scope of not. It follows that in that case
do is not inserted.
e.g. He likes not only tennis but also rugby and soccer.
He gave not the least sign of recognition.
b. Do does combine with be in negative imperative sentences.
e.g. Don’t be such a nuisance / spoil-sport!
c. Do can combine with let’s in the negative, but the construction without do is considered more
correct and is the more common in written English.
e.g. Let’s not get euphoric. / Don’t let’s get euphoric.
2. Do is not used in nonfinite clauses.
e.g. He was told off for not doing his homework.
It’s difficult to get used to not having a job any more.

IV. DO FOR EMPHASIS

Do (with heavy accent) is used to mark emphasis in statements and imperatives:
1. It can be used for emotive emphasis, i.e. to show that the speaker feels strongly about what he is
saying.
e.g. Your wife does look dazzling tonight.
I do hate you!
She does sweep you off your feet, doesn’t she?
Do shut up!
In imperative sentences, do can make an offer or invitation more pressing and therefore more
friendly or polite.
e.g. Do come in! / Do sit down. / Do be seated.
Do have another chocolate.
2. Do can be used for contrastive emphasis, to show a contrast between e.g. present and past, true and
false, a rule and an exception.
e.g. Why didn’t you warn them? -- I did warn them.
I don’t often listen to my old records any more, though I do play Louis Armstrong occasionally.
But I did pay for the damages, even if I can’t find the receipt just now.
3. Do is also often used when we say that something we were expecting actually happened.
e.g. The crew waited anxiously for the ship to run into an iceberg. Finally she did hit one, but
without being seriously damaged.
Note:
a. Do is not used when there is an auxiliary. In that case emphasis is expressed by placing the
nuclear accent on the auxiliary.
e.g. But I HAVE paid the fine!
 158

He WILL talk about it to everybody, even if you’ve asked him not to.
b. Do does not combine with be except in imperative sentences. 81
e.g. Please do be here at five o’clock!
Do be sensible/quick/careful/quiet, for god’s sake!

V. DO AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEXICAL VERBS AND VERB PHRASES

To avoid repetition, English speakers will normally replace a lexical verb or even an entire VP by a pro-
form on its second occurrence. The following pro-forms can be used: do, do so, do it and do that/this.
A. A general condition for the use of any of these pro-forms is that the VP for which they substitute
should not involve an auxiliary. If the VP contains an auxiliary, the auxiliary will be used as pro-form. 82
e.g. Gary can ride a horse. -- I think Clive can too.
Will she help me? -- No, she won’t. But I will.
Was the attempt successful? -- Yes, it was.
Has the manager left already? -- He may have.
Note:
1. The verb be is used as a pro-form not only when it is an auxiliary but also when it is used as a
linking verb.
e.g. I’m impatient. -- I am too.
The lexical verb have is sometimes used as a pro-form as well.
e.g. Who has an explanation? -- I have/do.
2. If the VP involves more than one auxiliary, it may be possible or necessary to repeat several
auxiliaries.
e.g. Should all the students have been taking that course? -- Yes, they should (have (been)).
John can’t have been eavesdropping on our conversation, but Cyril could (have (been)).
I wonder if the bill has been paid yet. It certainly ought to have been.
Did you ever wear that kind of dress when you were a little girl? -- I suppose I must have
(done).
Your car hasn’t been damaged, but mine has (been).
The auxiliaries of tense and aspect can be used as sole pro-form only if they occur in the preceding
clause.
e.g. In my opinion the proposal should have been put to the vote. -- It has been. (been cannot be
omitted)
I haven’t cleaned the car yet, but I will do it tomorrow.
3. The copula be is normally repeated after an auxiliary, except in some of the clause types in which
we can use do but not do so (cf. below).
e.g. cp. Is he a good teacher? -- He may be. I don’t really know.
Will he be a good teacher? -- He probably will.
e.g. If they’re not gone by now, they should be.
B. The selection of one of the pro-forms do, do it, do so and do that/this depends on the following rules:

81. In informal English do is sometimes also used in why- and if-clauses that have the value of imperatives.
e.g. Why don’t you be an honest man? (infml)
Why don’t you be a good boy and leave us alone? (infml)
If you don’t stop doing that I’ll smash your face! (infml)
82. In Br.E. (not in Am.E.), occasional examples can be found where do is added redundantly to a modal auxiliary or to the perfect auxiliary
have.
e.g. Will you come to the barbecue tonight? -- I may (do). Depends on my wife.
I didn’t open that window. You can ask Fred. He was watching me all the time. But the children might have (done).
Frank says he will help me. I doubt if Harry will (do) too.
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1. Do is used without so/it/that/this in the following structures:

a. Short answers:
1) Short answers to yes/no questions or wh-questions.
e.g. Don’t you go to church on Sundays? -- Yes, I do / No, I don’t.
Shouldn’t we congratulate him? -- Of course we should.
What made you so nervous? -- That girl beside me did.
How many of you live in this town? -- We all do.
Who must take this medicine? -- I must.
2) Short answers expressing agreement or disagreement with the preceding remark.
e.g. He planted this shrub last year. -- Yes, he did / No, he didn’t.
I think she will approve. -- Of course she will.
We mustn’t leave her alone. -- No, we mustn’t.
John likes fish. -- No, he doesn’t.
They’ve changed their minds. -- Oh, no, they haven’t.
Why is she so worried? -- But she isn’t.
I must help him. -- No, you needn’t.
Ann doesn’t understand this. -- Oh, yes, she does.
You dropped your wallet from your pocket. -- Good heavens, so I did. (So expresses
surprised agreement.)
3) Reply questions, i.e. short responses in the form of a question which are meant to confirm
that the speaker is listening or to express his reaction (which may be one of interest,
delight, sympathy, concern, surprise, irony, sarcasm, etc.).
e.g. He didn’t say anything about my letter. -- Didn’t he?
He doesn’t appreciate what I’m doing. -- Doesn’t he? That’s a pity.
I got a splendid idea last night. -- Did you?
It wasn’t an agreeable visit. -- Wasn’t it? You must be very disappointed.
b. Do is used without so/it/that/this in appended clauses
1) Appended questions (i.e. question tags) asking for confirmation.
e.g. He refused to pay, didn’t he?
He didn’t pay for it, did he?
Notice that a negative question tag will be used after a positive statement and a positive question tag
after a negative or near-negative statement:
e.g. She scarcely seems to realize what she is doing, does she?
You must think of everything, mustn’t you?
Nothing went wrong, did it?
There was hardly any one present at the meeting, was there?
You never raise your voice, do you?
A special subtype of this construction is the structure consisting of a negative statement and a
positive tag question which is used to ask for information or help:
e.g. You haven’t met my girl-friend before, have you?
You couldn’t tell me his address, could you?
You don’t know who she is, do you?
2) ‘Same-way’ tags, i.e. positive tags that are added to positive statements.
Such a question tag is normally added to a statement that echoes the preceding sentence or
expresses a conclusion that the speaker has just arrived at. It implies surprise or interest.
e.g. So you’re going to become a doctor, are you? That’s splendid. (The speaker has learnt
something he didn’t know.)
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You think you’re funny, do you?

So she hopes to marry into our family, does she? Well, well.
Your sister’s in her room, is she?
You’ve been fighting, have you?
So you have come here to vent your gall, have you?
In negative sentences, such ‘same-way’ tags usually sound aggressive or threatening.
e.g. So you don’t approve of my methods, don’t you?
3) Reinforcement tags. These are appended statements in which the subject and the auxiliary (or do)
are repeated.
e.g. I’m getting tired, I am.
You’ve gone too far, you have.
He likes his booze, he does.
You’re really smart, you are.
This construction is typical of informal spoken English. It is more common in Br.E. than in Am.E.
Occasionally, the subject of the main clause is ellipted:
e.g. Likes his booze, Calvin does.
Making a nuisance of yourself, you are.
c. Do is used without so/it/that/this in statements added to remarks made and expressing similarity
or dissimilarity.
1) After an affirmative clause
a) similarity is expressed by a clause introduced by so and involving inversion.
e.g. They often go to the seaside, and so do we.
My husband likes football. -- So does mine.
Howard will be promoted next month and so will Cheryl.
Sam might be fired. -- So might we all.
An alternative to this construction is using too at the end of the clause (without
inversion). In that case the pro-form do so is possible next to do.
e.g. Edward drinks too much and his brother does (so) too.
Bill sent her a threatening letter this morning. -- Yes, he did last week too.
b) dissimilarity is expressed by a clause introduced by but and not involving inversion.
e.g. Mr Finch likes bowling, but his wife and children don’t.
The second chapter should be revised, but the others needn’t.
2) After a negative clause
a) similarity is expressed by a clause introduced by neither or nor and involving
inversion.
e.g. He doesn’t want to talk about it. -- Neither/nor do I.
In British English nor and neither can be preceded by and:
e.g. I didn’t want to live abroad and nor/neither did my wife.
I needn’t listen to such nonsense, and neither need you.
Instead of neither we can use not...either. In that case there is no inversion.
e.g. I don’t want to leave the cottage, and my wife doesn’t either.
The manager wasn’t very helpful. -- His assistant wasn’t either.
b) dissimilarity is expressed by a clause introduced by but and not involving inversion.
e.g. Steve doesn’t play golf, but his wife does.
You needn’t be there tonight, but I must.
d. Do is used without so/it/that/this in sentences in which a comparison is made.
e.g. He enjoyed the trip more than we did.
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Do you go there as often as your father did?

We renewed our annual subscription before/after you did.
The others have paid less than she has.
They still say their prayers four times a day, as they have always done.
Because he feels tired, he won’t run as many miles as he does otherwise.
It continued to rain for three months, as it had not done since 1830.
e. Do is used without so/it/that/this in short clauses in which do is emphatic and is not followed
by a complement or adverbial adjunct.
e.g. She threatened to tell on me and she did.
It’s important to inspire confidence in a customer, and I usually do.
Do you mind if I open the window? -- Please do.
f. Do is used without so/it/that/this in clauses whose verb has been fronted (topicalized).
e.g. He had a very rough time in that Turkish prison. But survive he did.
2. In other types of clause we may find do, do so, do it, do this or do that. There are, however, a
number of restrictions:
a. While do can substitute for any lexical verb except be, do so and do this/that are only used with
action verbs and process verbs (i.e. not with stative verbs);83 do it is only used with action verbs
(which presuppose an agent).
e.g. I bought a watch-dog yesterday. -- I can guess why you did (so/that/it).
John beat up his wife last night. -- I wonder why he did (so/that).
Some people might like an autograph. -- Perhaps Billy does.
Why is she wearing a wig? -- She always does (so/that/it) when she goes to a party.
I feel terrible. -- I know you do.
Some people may not know who she is. -- I certainly don’t.
I like listening to such music. I have always done.
These symptoms needn’t mean that the patient has cancer. They may do, of course, but
there are numerous exceptions.
b. The use of do it has the following characteristics:
1) It is only used for specific actions performed by a conscious agent and at some specific
time.
e.g. She decorated the church. I think the vicar asked her to do it.
Unfortunately, I can’t play the trumpet. If I had been able to do so/*it, I could have
joined your band.
Yesterday she lost her keys. -- It’s not surprising that she did (*it).
Why do human beings destroy so much? -- They do so/*it because they think only of
themselves. (generic sentence)
2) Because do it refers to a specific action at a specific time, it is not normally used when the
reference is not to the same action but to the same kind of action (i.e. to similar actions
performed at different times and/or places).
e.g. cp. I’ve dropped some sauce on my suit. -- Never mind. I’ve done it too. (= I’ve just
done the same thing.)
I’ve dropped some sauce on my suit. -- Never mind. I’ve done that too. (can
mean: at some other time)

83. In Br.E. occasional examples can be found of do so replacing a stative VP (especially with verbs of relation). In such examples do so often
replaces the entire VP and is followed by an adverbial adjunct.
e.g. The estate belongs to him now. It does so by the terms of this will.
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cp. Have you spoken to your solicitor? -- Not yet. I will do it tomorrow. (same
action, same lawyer)
I’ve spoken to my solicitor. -- Have you? I don’t think I will do that. (similar
action, probably a different solicitor)
cp. Esther is painting her gate. She does it every four or five years.
Esther is painting her gate. -- That’s just because her neighbour did so last week.
e.g. These people eat caterpillars and locusts. -- How disgusting! I would never do that. (*do it)
c. Do that can refer to a specific situation (at a specific time) or to a situation in general (at any
time), and can consequently refer to the same situation or to a similar situation.
e.g. cp. John has nailed a bat onto the door. -- Why did he do that? (specific; same action)
John has nailed a bat onto the door. -- Farmers used to do that when I was young.
(general; similar action)
e.g. I thought you were going to clean the bedroom today. -- No, I’ll do that tomorrow.
(specific)
Ants can apparently communicate with each other, but we don’t know how they do that.
(general)
I’m sorry to say I left the service early. -- You’d better not do that again. (general; similar
situation)
d. In do that and do this the pronoun retains its basic demonstrative meaning. This accounts for
the fact that do that is the form that will be used if the speaker distances himself from the action
referred to:84
e.g. Why don’t you leave her if she gives you such a rough time? -- Oh no, I couldn’t do that.
Not after thirty years of marriage.
Do that is also the normal pro-form when the action referred to causes surprise or irritation.
e.g. cp. That woman grows bamboo in her front garden. -- What does she do THAT for?
That woman grows bamboo in her front garden. -- I wonder how she does it in our
climate.
e.g. Where is Betty? -- I sent her home. -- Why on earth did you do that?
In such sentences that is often strongly accented (whereas it, so and this never are):
e.g. They say he eats his potatoes raw. Why ever does he do THAT?
e.g. cp. Is Mary still trying to light the stove? She should have DONE it by NOW.
Are you going to light the fire with petrol? I wouldn’t do THAT if I were you.
e. Do this is rarer than do that.
e.g. Whales give birth to live young. -- Are they the only fish to do this?
f. Do so is rather formal; do that and do this are rather informal. Do it is neutral to the
formal/informal contrast.
g. In a couple of constructions do cannot be used without so, it or that/this (even when it replaces
a stative VP):
1) in nonfinite clauses.
e.g. Walter sometimes kisses her. -- Yes, I’ve noticed him doing so/that. (*doing)
I didn’t repair the lock because mother wanted Bill to do so/it/that.
I never contradict him, because it is useless to do so.
Note that in relative clauses it is the relative pronoun (that, which, as, zero, etc.) that functions as
object of do, so that we cannot add so/it/this/that:

84. As noted in §4 of chapter 8, the demonstrative that often implies psychological distance (i.e. disapproval, contempt, etc.)
 163

e.g. Soldiers at war are prone to do things that they would not dream of doing in times of
peace.
Banning all cars, as some conservationists propose doing, is not a practicable
solution.
2) in clauses in one of the perfect or future tenses.
e.g. This woman actually witnessed the murder, but she didn’t realized she had (done so)
until she read about it in the newspaper. (*had done)
I haven’t talked to her yet, but I will do it/so tonight. (*will do)
You’ve promised to repair the vacuum cleaner. -- I will do it/so as soon as I have
time. (*will do)
The Government had at last taken measures to stop inflation. It was a pity they had
not done so earlier.
3) when the pro-form replaces the entire VP of the preceding clause and is followed by an
adverbial adjunct:
e.g. cp. He switched off the lights. I guess he did so out of habit. (did so = switched off
the lights)
John buys a newspaper out of habit, but I do because I really like reading it. (do
= buy a newspaper)
e.g. The estate belongs to him now. It does so by the terms of his father’s will.
Have you locked up the house? -- I did it at once when you had come home.
When I went up the stairs I did so as quietly as possible.
She asked him to read out the letter to all of them, and he did so in a faltering voice.
Do so is the most usual pro-form in such examples. Do it/that/this can only be used if the specific
conditions for their use are satisfied.
4) in temporal as-clauses. (Here the usual pro-form is do so.)
e.g. Elspeth opened the door and went into the hall. As she did so, Robert appeared at the
top of the stairs.
h. Do so can only be used if it has the same subject as the VP it replaces, except if too is added.
e.g. I always have tea in the afternoon. My secretary never does. (*does so)
I can’t fill in this form. -- Then who’s going to do it? (*do so) (Note that do cannot be used
on its own either because of the future tense.)
Today he paid for the drinks, but he doesn’t usually do so. (Do so is all right because it
has the same subject as the head clause.)
I ate snakes when I was in Africa. -- Good lord! I would have hated to do that. (*do so)
(Note that we cannot use do on its own because of the nonfinite clause; do it cannot be
used either because the reference is not to the same action.)
i. Only do can be used when the pro-form is followed by a complement (NP or PP).
e.g. He visits her more often than he does his own parents.
She insists on treating her children as she does her guests.
This kind of music appeals more to the youngsters than it does to the older generation.

VI. NOTES ON THE USE OF DO WITH HAVE

1. The modal auxiliary have to (expressing obligation or necessity) is normally used with do, but some
structures without do are also possible in Br.E.
e.g. I don’t have/(haven’t) to obey you.
Do you have/(Have you) to get up so early?
Note:
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a. The forms without do are seldom used and often sound clumsy, especially in questions.
b. Do must be used in sentences reporting a repetitive, general or habitual situation.
e.g. I don’t have to clean the office myself. There’s a cleaning woman does that. (*haven’t to)
c. Have got to may substitute for have to (without do):
e.g. I haven’t got to answer your question. (*don’t have got to)
Have you got to leave already?
He said he’d got to catch the 5.35 train.
However, have got to is normally used only (a) in the present tense and (b) in indirect speech
sentences in the past tense. It is not used for general or habitual situations.
e.g. We’ve got to find a way out of here.
I have to see my oculist regularly. (*have got to)
Some politicians often have to travel abroad. (id.)
I don’t normally have to give her a hand. (id.)
He said he had got to do it for his children’s sake.
2. When used as a causative verb, have is used with do and cannot be replaced by have got:
e.g. I didn’t have the gardener trim the hedge.
I didn’t have the hedge trimmed.
Will you have the lorry served before you leave?
I will try to have the landlord redecorate the flat before I take it.
3. When used as a lexical verb, have is normally used with do, but in Br.E. some structures without do
can be found.
a. Do must be used
1) when have is used in a VP with a dynamic meaning.
e.g. to have breakfast / lunch / tea / dinner / a meal / a beer / a drink / a glass of wine
to have a bath / a swim / a wash / a shave / a rest / a shower / a sleep / a lie-down / a
dream
to have a holiday / a day off / a good time / a nice evening / a bad day
to have a talk / a chat / a conversation / a row / a quarrel / a fight
to have a swim / a walk / a try / a go / a look
to have a baby / guests / a letter
to have difficulty (in + gerund)
e.g. Did you have the chance of speaking to him in private?
We didn’t have any guests last night.
We were having a good time when that accident happened.
In such expressions it is not possible to use have got instead of have. The use of the
progressive form is possible. Contracted forms of have cannot be used.
2) when have is used in a stative VP, but there is an idea of habit or repetition.
e.g. Do you have your identity card with you when you go to town?
A sparrow does not usually have white feathers.
I seldom have a sore throat.
The shop doesn’t have any strawberries in winter.
Again we cannot use have got, progressive forms or contracted forms.
b. In other stative VPs (i.e. when have refers to a (temporary or permanent) state, but without
there being an idea of habit or repetition), forms without do can sometimes be found in Br.E.
(not in Am.E.). However, it is much more common to use do, except when have got is used.
e.g. Do you have / Have you got / ?Have you a credit card?
A rectangle doesn’t have / hasn’t got / (hasn’t) equal sides.
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Do you have / Have you got / ?Have you cold feet today?
I don’t have / haven’t got / (haven’t) anything in my handbag.
?Had you a flat of your own?
This use of have (got) covers not only (temporary or permanent) possession or characteristics
but also the various kinds of state, condition or relation that VPs with have can express.
e.g. I’ve got earache. (illness)
Have you got any brothers? (family relationship)
I haven’t got any real friends.
Note:
1) Such VPs are not normally used in the progressive.
2) Have got has a limited number of forms: it can be used without restrictions in the present
tense, but the past tense had got is normally used in reported speech only; it cannot be used
in any of the future or perfect tenses; the infinitive can be used after some lexical verbs
(e.g. He seems to have got a lot of money) but not after an auxiliary; there are no other
nonfinite forms.

CHAPTER 5

THE PASSIVE VOICE

I. INTRODUCTION

A. The passive voice is a device to change the word order of a clause in order to turn a different NP into
topic (theme) or in order to put end focus on the agent NP (cf. below).
Syntactically, a passive construction differs from its active counterpart in two respects:
1. In the active voice the agent NP is the subject. In the passive the agent is referred to in a by-PP or is
not referred to at all.
2. In the active voice the NP expressing the ‘patient’ or ‘receiver’ of the action is one of the
complement NPs. In the passive it is the subject (and hence the topic) of the clause.
e.g. cp. (active) The rebels are attacking the city.
(passive) The city is being attacked by the rebels.
It follows that the two basic reasons for using a passive construction are (a) the wish to turn a
complement NP into clause topic, and (b) the wish to express the agent NP at the end of the clause
(where it receives end focus) (cf. section III below).
B. As a rule, passivization is only possible when the situation referred to is dynamic and moreover
controlled by an agent, i.e. when the reference is to an action (act or activity) or to a process controlled by
a human agent.
e.g. The firm has been greatly expanded by the new manager. (agent-controlled process)
Passivization is not normally possible in the following cases:
1. when the reference is to a process not controlled by an agent:
e.g. The country has changed its appearance. (no passive)
The hurricane has now reduced its speed. (no passive)
2. when the reference is to an event (i.e. to something that is not done but happens):
e.g. Mabel has inherited some money. (no passive)
John received an anonymous letter yesterday. (id.)
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A strange adventure befell him when he was in Lybia. (id.)

e.g. cp. Jill has caught a cold. (event) (no passive)
The police have caught the thieves. --- The thieves have been caught. (act)
e.g. cp. Bill met Roger at the station. (= either an act or an event, i.e. the meeting was either
intentional or accidental)
Roger was met at the station by Bill. (act only)
3. when the verb is a relational verb (expressing a relation, condition or state of being):
e.g. This bucket contains petrol! (no passive)
I have no answer to that. (id.)
Bill seems to lack confidence. (id.)
The auditorium holds eight hundred people. (id.)
That orange dress does not become her. (id.)
He resembles his grandfather. (id.)
Verbs like these, which resist passivization for lack of a dynamic meaning, are often called middle
verbs.
Note: The verb own can be found in the passive if the subject NP denotes a firm or company.
e.g. This office-block is owned by Harper & Co.
4. when the verb is a cognition verb.
e.g. He likes you. (no passive)
She didn’t really mean that. (id.)
However, there are numerous exceptions here:
a. Passivization is possible with most verbs expressing that something causes a mental state,
reaction or feeling.
e.g. I was surprised/pleased/frightened/impressed/irritated by what she said.
b. Even verbs expressing a mental reaction, a state of the mind or a feeling can often passivize.
e.g. admire, appreciate, forget, hope, think, remember, trust, respect, want, etc.
e.g. She is admired by everybody in her class.
It is hoped/thought that there will be no problems.
Note: Verbs of inert perception normally allow passivization too.
e.g. The intruder was not seen by anybody.
C. Not all VPs of the form ‘be + past participle’ are passive structures. When the VP denotes a situation
which produces a state when it is completed, such a structure is ambiguous between a passive (dynamic)
interpretation and an active (stative) one. In the latter case the past participle is used as an adjectival.
e.g. cp. They were married by a missionary in Uganda. (passive)
They were married when they came back to Europe. (no passive: reference to a state)
They were married last year. (ambiguous)
cp. The captain of the team was injured by his own goalkeeper. (passive)
The captain of the team could not play because he was injured. (no passive)
The captain of the team was injured. (ambiguous)
e.g. The window was closed. (ambiguous)
I think your ankle is broken. (stative)
In many cases the stative structure is semantically equivalent to the corresponding perfect passive.
e.g. The doors have been locked. = The doors are locked.
Note:
1. The term pseudo-passive is sometimes used to refer to such a stative structure.
e.g. The papers are all mixed up. What shall I do now?
My reputation is ruined now.
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These seats are reserved for the dean and his family.
2. There are a number of characteristics which can help us to distinguish between a pseudo-passive and
a true passive.
a. Only a true passive can involve a by-adjunct indicating the agent.
e.g. cp. I was annoyed by the dog barking all night. (true passive)
I was very annoyed with him. (pseudo-passive)
cp. I was interested by what I read in the paper.
I’m very interested in Irish poetry.
cp. They were surprised by the guard suddenly entering the room.
She seemed surprised at your behaviour.
b. The construction cannot be a true passive if the past participle has one of the following
adjectival characteristics:
1) when it is preceded by an intensifier like very (without much), rather, quite, too,
somewhat, more, most, etc.
e.g. She was very upset about her losing her job.
The girl was quite satisfied/overwhelmed/frightened.
It should be pointed out, however, that the rule that a passive past participle can be preceded by
much or very much, but not by very, is no longer strictly observed today.
2) when it is followed by a PP as complement.
e.g. I was very disappointed/surprised at her rejecting my offer.
3) when it is used as SC after a copula other than be or get.
e.g. John seemed relieved to hear from us.
This kind of work is becoming increasingly specialized.
4) when it is conjoined with an adjective.
e.g. The drink is made up of gin and whisky and very strong because of that.
5) when it can be replaced by so.
e.g. He isn’t really satisfied. He just seems so because he doesn’t complain.
c. On the whole, pseudo-passives are not very common in English. In most cases a dynamic
passive (i.e. a perfect form) will be used instead.
D. In informal English, a form of get is often used instead of be.
e.g. The only key of the closet we had got lost last week.
More and more people are getting mugged in the underground.
These words got introduced into the English language in the twelfth century.
Note:
1. Get differs from be in that it always emphasizes the state resulting from the action.
e.g. The police arrest the small dealers regularly, but the big ones never get caught.
Fred got seriously hurt in a car accident last night.
We’re getting a little depressed by all this bad news.
If you don’t want to have flu it’s high time you got vaccinated.
All these debts will eventually get paid.
2. Get cannot be used with stative verbs and even with many dynamic verbs.
e.g. *The news got known/believed by everybody.
*?The forbidden literature got read by most of the students.
*His theories got understood by the most famous scientists only.
*She got hated for her arrogance.
*The bridge got built in 1980.
3. Get is very seldom used when there is an expressed animate agent.
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e.g. *The new Post Office got opened by the Minister last week.
This is in keeping with the fact that the get-passive is usually a pseudo-passive.
e.g. to get bored / carried away / interested / tired / confused...
4. Get married is equivalent to (and more usual than) the intransitive verb marry.
e.g. They got married last month.
E. If the verb form to be passivized involves an infinitive preceded by an auxiliary, only the infinitive
becomes passive. The auxiliary remains unchanged.
e.g. They used to treat him badly. --- He used to be treated badly.
You had better not inform him. --- He had better not be informed.
We’ve got to pay for it. --- It’s got to be paid for.
The same rule applies to constructions involving semi-auxiliaries (quasi-auxiliaries) like begin to, come
to (= happen to), get to, happen to, fail to, tend to, turn out to, be apt to, be bound to, be certain to, be
liable to, be (un)likely to, be sure to, appear to, seem to, need to, tend to, be about to, etc.
e.g. The police are bound to find the murderer. --- The murderer is bound to be found.
Somebody happened to have seen the girl going in. --- The girl happened to have been seen going in.
They failed to recognize me. --- I failed to be recognized.
The workers began/started pulling down the building. -- The building began/started being pulled
down.
Most of us got to like him. --- He got to be liked by most of us.
F. Some verbs can receive a passive interpretation even if they are in the active voice. This phenomenon
is called the medio-passive.
e.g. This kind of cloth washes easily.
The play reads well, but it doesn’t act.
This dress does up at the back.
His latest novel is selling badly.
G. In early transformational grammar it was assumed that passive clauses were derived from their active
counterpart by a transformation. This kind of analysis is unsound from a theoretical point of view, since
there is often a difference of meaning between the active and the passive and since some passive clauses
do not have an active counterpart (e.g. Our solar system was formed billions of years ago). On the other
hand, the best way to teach students the various passive structures that exist in English is to start from
active clause patterns and to show how the corresponding passive structures look like. Speaking of a
‘passive transformation’ is therefore useful for didactic purposes.

II. THE PASSIVE TRANSFORMATION

A. NP1 + V + NP2
An active structure of this form is transformed into the passive structure ‘NP2 + be + past participle (+ by
+ NP1)’.
e.g. I painted the garage last year. --- The garage was painted last year.
The agent is expressed (in the form of a by-PP) only if it is relevant to do so (i.e. not when the identity of
the agent is self-evident or irrelevant).
Note:
There are quite a number of cases of active structures of the form under discussion that have no regular
corresponding passive:
1. Passive progressive forms of perfect and future tenses are theoretically possible but hardly used:
e.g. ?He has been being treated for cancer for some time.
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??It
will be being done tomorrow.
2. The passive transformation is blocked if there is coreference between the subject NP and the object
NP of the active structure. This is the case if the object is a reflexive or reciprocal pronoun and if it
contains a coreferential possessive determiner.85
e.g. The wounded soldier lifted his arm. --- *His arm was lifted by the wounded soldier.
She killed herself. --- *Herself was killed.
We could hardly understand each other because of the noise. (no passive)
3. The regular passive transformation is blocked when NP2 is an infinitive clause or gerund clause.
e.g. He attempted to escape. --- *To escape was attempted by him.
In many cases we can, however, use a passive construction with extraposition of the nonfinite
clause.
e.g. They attempted to open the door with a crowbar. --- It was attempted to open the door with a
crowbar.
They decided to leave the problem unsolved. --- It was decided to leave the problem unsolved.
But this construction (which is sometimes called the impersonal passive) is often impossible too.
e.g. She likes to go to bed early. --- *It is liked (by her) to go to bed early.
He wants to go.--- * To go is wanted. / *It is wanted to go.
It is not permitted/*allowed to smoke in the library. (Better: Smoking is not permitted/allowed
in the library or People are not permitted/allowed to smoke in the library.)
4. The regular passive transformation is difficult or impossible when NP2 is a that-clause:
e.g. The morning papers reported that the rebels had attacked the capital. --- ?That the rebels had
attacked the capital was reported by the morning papers.
Two alternative constructions are available:
a. Sometimes we can use the extraposition construction (i.e. the impersonal passive):
e.g. It was reported that the rebels had attacked the capital.
This is not, however, possible with all verbs:
e.g. They complained it was too expensive. --- *It was complained (by them) that it was too
expensive.
They remarked that all the shutters were down. (no passive)
b. In many cases subject raising can be applied to the impersonal passive construction. This
means that the subject of the that-clause becomes the subject of the head clause and the
remainder of the that-clause becomes an infinitive clause.
e.g. It is said that elephants are afraid of mice. --- Elephants are said to be afraid of mice.
It wasn’t expected that he would come back. --- He wasn’t expected to come back.
e.g. He is supposed/thought to be a good researcher.
Note:
1) This construction is possible with verbs of saying and thinking, such as acknowledge,
assume, believe, claim, consider, declare, expect, feel, find, know, report, say, see,
suppose, think, understand, etc.
2) It is important to express the temporal relations correctly.
e.g. cp. They say that he is ill. --- He is said to be ill.
They say that he was ill. --- He is said to have been ill.
They said that he was ill. --- He was said to be ill.
They said that he was ill the day before. --- He was said to have been ill the day
before.

85. A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun like myself which refers back to the subject of the clause. The only reciprocal pronouns in English are
each other and one another.
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5. The passive transformation is blocked when NP2 is the ‘empty’ pronoun it:
e.g. You’ll catch it when your parents find out about this. --- *It will be caught when your parents
find out about this.
She queens it over the other girls. (no passive)
6. The passive transformation is blocked when the verb is a ‘converted intransitive’, i.e. a verb which
is basically intransitive but which can be followed by an object in certain idiomatic expressions.
e.g. It rained cats and dogs that day. --- *Cats and dogs were rained that day.
He doesn’t look his age. (no passive)
Let’s talk business. (id.)
He always goes his own way. (id.)
He looked daggers. (id.)
She smiled her thanks. (id.)
She bowed gratitude. (id.)
He nodded assent. (id.)
Verbs that take a cognate object also belong here.
e.g. They lived a quiet and uneventful life. (no passive)
I dreamed a very strange dream last night. (id.)
7. Some transitive verbs allow the passive transformation in one sense but not in another:
e.g. cp. The Rev Mr Brooks married them. --- They were married by the Rev Mr Brooks.
Bill married a Swedish girl. --- *A Swedish girl was married by Bill.
cp. No one equals her in kindness. --- She is equalled by no one in kindness.
Two and two equals four. --- *Four is equalled by two and two.

B. NP1 + V + NP2 + NP3

1. When NP2 and NP3 are direct O and OC, respectively, the passive transform is ‘NP2 + be + past
participle + NP3 (+ by + NP1)’.
e.g. The board appointed Graham chairman. --- Graham was appointed chairman.
They called him a sneak. --- He was called a sneak.
We have a similar construction if the OC is not an NP but an adjective:
e.g. The mayor considered the situation serious enough for the police to intervene. --- The situation
was considered serious enough for the police to intervene.
2. When NP2 and NP3 are indirect O and direct O, respectively, two transforms are possible:
a) NP2 + be + past participle + NP3 (+ by + NP1)
e.g. They gave her a salary increase. --- She was given a salary increase.
He was left a small legacy.
He wasn’t allowed the chance of defending himself properly.
b) NP3 + be + past participle (+ P) + NP2 (+ by + NP1)
e.g. A present was given to him.
Note:
a. The former construction is generally preferred in English. The choice, however, depends on
how the speaker wants to structure his utterance in terms of topic and comment. In most cases
the speaker will prefer to use an animate NP as clause topic and will therefore turn the indirect
O into subject. However, he may decide to leave the indirect O at the end of the clause because
it is a rather long or complex NP or because it requires special emphasis (cf. section III below).
e.g. The prize was awarded to JANE. (contrastive emphasis: not to anyone else)
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The prize must be awarded to an artist who is not yet well-known but who obviously has
great talent. (the indirect O is a complex NP)
If the direct O or indirect O is already a topic in the preceding discourse, it will preferably
become subject in the following clause. (This is in accordance with the principle of topic
continuity --- cf. section III below.)
e.g. The secret documents were taken from the safe and handed over to an accomplice who
was waiting outside of the window.
b. The indirect object cannot become the subject if it is obligatorily constructed with to. This is the
case after a number of verbs:
e.g. acknowledge, admit, affirm, announce, complain, confess, declare, dedicate, deliver,
demonstrate, describe, devote, explain, introduce, mention, point out, propose, remark,
reply, report, reveal, say, signal, state, suggest...
e.g. They didn’t mention the problem to us. --- The problem wasn’t mentioned to us. / *We
weren’t mentioned the problem.
*The family were announced their engagement.
*She was said/explained that her husband was seriously ill.
c. An indirect O that corresponds to a for-PP will not normally become the subject of a passive
clause.
e.g. We bought her a dress. --- A dress was bought for her. / *She was bought a dress.
d. When the direct O becomes the S, the indirect O is nearly always constructed with to or for.
The construction without the preposition is rarely used, and is sometimes even unacceptable.
e.g. A copy of the insurance policy was given to us by the clerk. (rarely: was given us)
*A new dress was bought her.
e. There are a couple of verbs that do not allow their indirect O to become the S of a passive
clause: bring, do, get, pass, telegraph, write.
e.g. They passed/brought her the sugar. --- *She was passed/brought the sugar.
He wrote her a letter. --- *She was written a letter.
He did me a favour. --- *I was done a favour.
They got her another glass. --- *She was got another glass.
3. When NP3 is a clause, the following rules apply:
a. When NP2 is clearly direct O or indirect O of the main verb, it can become S.
e.g. They told/warned him that it would not be easy. --- He was told/warned that it would not
be easy.
Someone helped him (to) do his homework. --- He was helped to do his homework.
Several people saw/heard him knocking on the door. --- He was seen/heard knocking on
the door by several people.
Someone advised him to take legal advice. --- He was advised to take legal advice.
They chose/appointed him to be their leader. --- He was chosen/appointed to be their
leader.
e.g. I was asked to fill in the application forms.
He was aided/assisted/helped to take off his suit of armour.
He was forced/persuaded/pressed/invited/prompted to leave the house.
b. When NP2 is not direct O or indirect O of the main verb:
1) Passivization is not possible if NP3 is a gerund clause.
e.g. He remembered John saying that. (no passive)
2) If NP3 is an infinitive clause, passivization is sometimes possible, sometimes not:
e.g. They made her write the letter. --- She was made to write the letter.
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They got her to open the door. --- *She was got to open the door.
They wished me to stay. --- *I was wished to stay.
The authorities could not allow the riots to get worse. --- The riots could not be
allowed to get worse.
However, NP2 can always become the S of the passive head clause if the main verb is a
verb of saying or thinking.
e.g. We believe/consider this to be important evidence. --- This is believed/considered to
be important evidence.
Note: It can be argued that This is believed to be important evidence is actually the
passive version of People believe that this is important evidence (derived via
extraposition and subject raising). This analysis is corroborated by the fact that
sentences like We want him to leave, where there is no corresponding version with a
that-clause (cf. *We want that he leaves), cannot passivize (cf. *He is wanted to
leave).
cp. They claim him to be innocent. / They claim that he is innocent. --- He is
claimed to be innocent.
I’d hate you to do that. / *I’d hate that you should do that. --- *He’d be hated to
do that.
c. NP3 (i.e. the clause) will not normally become S. Even structures with extraposition seem
ungrammatical.
e.g. They allowed me to go. --- I was allowed to go. / *To go was allowed to me. / *It was
allowed to me to go.
They told her to shut up. --- She was told to shut up. / *It was told (to) her to shut up.
They told her that her jewels were fake. --- She was told that her jewels were fake. / ??That
her jewels were fake was told her. / ?It was told her that her jewels were fake.

C. NP1 + V + particle + NP2

(By ‘particle’ we here mean words like up, down, in, over, on, etc. which can be used either as
prepositions or as adverbial particles.)
1. When the structure ‘V + particle + NP2’ consists of a phrasal verb (verb-adverb combination) with
its direct O, a regular passive is nearly always possible:
e.g. The teacher left out the most difficult exercises. --- The most difficult exercises were left out by
the teacher.
The priest was knocked down by two hooligans.
Not a single question has been passed over.
I was put through to the head of the department.
No new problems were brought up at the meeting.
2. When the structure ‘V + particle + NP2’ consists of a prepositional verb with its PO (prepositional
object), the passive transformation is sometimes possible, sometimes not:
e.g. We’ll have to account for these losses. --- These losses will have to be accounted for.
I’m afraid a different line of action is called for.
The terms of the contract were consented to by both parties.
The old man was nearly run over by a car.
No other solutions appear to have been hinted at.
e.g. Many elderly people have to live on a small pension. --- *A small pension has to be lived on by
many elderly people.
Nobody agreed with the speaker. --- *The speaker was not agreed with by anybody.
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*My daughter’s finals were not succeeded in by her. (cp. What did your daughter succeed in?)
*Drink was taken to by Gordon when he was still at school.
The following are some prepositional verbs that allow passivization:
e.g. account for, agree on, aim at/for, allow for, apply for, approve of, attend to, ask for, believe in,
call on, care for, cater for, comment on, deal with, decide on, interfere with, listen to, look
at/into/after/for, object to, pay for, refer to, rely on, stare at, talk about/of/to, wonder at...
Passivization is not possible with expressions like
e.g. agree with, fail in, live on, succeed in, occur to, take to, take after...
3. When the structure ‘V + particle + NP2’ consists of a verb and a PP functioning as adverbial adjunct,
passivization is impossible, except in a couple of idiomatic cases.
e.g. Nobody has come to the flat. --- *The flat has not been come to. (cp. No conclusion was come
to.)
*The church was gone into by the tourists. (cp.The problem has not yet been gone into.)
This room hasn’t been played in yet.
*The station was arrived at early. (cp. The expected result was arrived at.)
e.g. Nobody slept in this bed last night. --- This bed was not slept in last night.
This chair hasn’t been sat on.
The cottage hasn’t been lived in for some time.
Success is something that must be worked for.
My hat was ruined after it had been sat on.

D. NP1 + V + NP2 + P + NP3

1. When the sequence ‘V + NP2 + PP’ as a whole does not constitute an idiom, normal
passivization is possible. This means that NP2 becomes S.
e.g. They took the money out of my purse. --- The money was taken out of my purse.
Prepositional verbs that have a direct O belong here:
e.g. advise NP about, accuse NP of, congratulate NP on, compare NP with/to, convince NP of,
excuse NP for, inform NP of, prevent NP from, remind NP of, persuade NP of, spend NP on,
warn NP against...
e.g. We congratulated him on his success. --- He was congratulated on his success.
We must convince him of the necessity of these reforms. --- He must be convinced of the
necessity of these reforms.
Note that NP3 can never become S.
e.g. The girl reminds me of her grandmother. --- I am reminded of her grandmother. / *Her
grandmother is reminded me of.
2. When the sequence ‘V + NP2 + PP’ constitutes an idiom:
a. In some cases two transforms are possible:
1) NP2 + be + past part. + P + NP3 (+ by + NP1)
2) NP3 + be + past part. + NP2 + P (+ by + NP1)
e.g. People did not take advantage of the situation. --- No advantage was taken of the situation.
/ The situation was not taken advantage of.
e.g. The guests had made a mess of the drawing-room. --- A mess had been made of the
drawing-room by the guests. / The drawing-room had been made a mess of by the guests.
e.g. They pay no attention to me. --- No attention is paid to me. / I am not paid any attention to.
The first construction (in which the idiom is broken up) is more formal than the second.
However, it will often have to be used when NP2 is premodified.
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e.g. The new regulations will make considerable allowance for such cases. --- Considerable
allowance will be made for such cases. / ?Such cases will be made considerable allowance
for.
Examples of expressions that allow the two alternatives are:
e.g. take notice/note of, pay attention/heed to, make allowance for, (make fun of), make a mess
of, make a fuss of, (set fire to), find fault with, take advantage of, take care of
b. Most idioms of the type ‘V + NP + PP’ can only have the passive construction in which the
idiom is not split up.
e.g. Students very often make use of this possibility. --- This possibility is very often made use
of. / ?Use is very often made of this possibility.
e.g. They will have to put an end to these riots. --- These riots will have to be put and end to. /
*?An end will have to be put to these riots.

c. Some idioms of the type ‘V + NP + PP’ cannot passivize at all.

e.g. pay court to, keep company with, give ear to, set eyes on, set foot on, join hands with, take
leave of, take refuge in, bear witness to...
e.g. We kept company with the girl while she was waiting. --- *Company was kept with the
girl. / *The girl was kept company with.
e.g. I took leave of them before I went to the office. --- *Leave was taken of them. / *They
were taken leave of...

III. THE USE OF THE PASSIVE

The following factors may influence or determine our choice of an active or passive construction:
1. A passive construction may be preferred when the active alternative would involve the use of an
indefinite or vague subject.
e.g. I’ve been insulted! (cp. Someone has insulted me!)
Too many songs have been written about love.
We have been told lies.
It is assumed that... (cp. People assume that...)
The trees had to be cut down. (cp. They had to...)
This church was built around 870 AD.
2. A passive construction will be used if the speaker prefers not to mention the agent (for instance
because he is himself the cause of a situation which is unpleasant to the hearer).
e.g. When announcing that the secretarial staff of the company will be reduced, the management
will prefer to use (a) rather than (b):
(a) There will be some redundancies as a result of the fact that new computer programs will be
introduced.
(b) There will be some redundancies as a result of the fact that we will introduce new
computer programs.
e.g. All necessary information will be sent to you. (The speaker escapes having to say who will be
responsible for this.)
e.g. I can assure you that this new medicine has been successfully tested. (by whom?)
In cases where there is no identifiable agent the passive is even the only possibility:
e.g. The solar system to which the earth belongs was formed billions of years ago.
3. Conversely, a passive can be used to put emphasis on the agent: if the agent (in the form of a by-
adjunct) is put at the end of the clause, it receives end-focus (because the unmarked place for the
nuclear accent to fall is on the last open class constituent that gives new information).
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e.g. The order to arrest the leader of the Opposition was given by the Prime Minister himself.
The documents were not undersigned by the Minister.
Passive sentences are therefore quite common when the agent represents the most important piece of
new information.
e.g. Why are you so attached to that drawing? -- It was made by my father.
4. Because the passive turns NP2 into the topic of the clause, a passive construction will be used when
the speaker is interested in what happened to NP2 rather than in what NP1 did.
e.g. The escaped leopard was caught again two hours later. (cp. They caught the escaped leopard
again two hours later.)
The child was stung by a wasp.
The crime was never discovered.
5. We usually begin a sentence with what is already known (‘old’ or ‘given’ information) and put
‘new’ information later in the sentence. This is because the theme is preferably old information. The
choice of an active or passive construction may be determined by this principle (which is often
referred to as the information principle).
e.g. cp. (a) Bill has just scored a goal.
(b) A goal has just been scored by Bill.
(Sentence (a) is much more natural than (b) because it starts with given information: Bill is
somebody that the hearer knows. The new information is that he has just scored a goal.)
e.g. cp. (a) What happened to that car? It was hit by a falling tree.
(b) What happened to that car? A falling tree hit it.
(Sequence (a) is more natural than (b) because the definite NP it expresses known information -
-- the car has just been mentioned --- whereas the new information is that it was hit by a falling
tree.)
e.g. The painting in question was probably made by Margritte. (The hearer already knows about the
painting --- cf. the definiteness of the NP.)
Another illustration of this general tendency is the principle of theme continuity (topic continuity).
According to this principle, clauses that have the same discourse topic preferably also have the same
clause topic, and the clause topic in question is preferably related to the discourse topic.
e.g. cp. (a) The Pope arrived in Madrid this morning and was immediately besieged by reporters.
(b) The Pope arrived in Madrid this morning and reporters immediately besieged him.
(The discourse topic is the Pope’s visit to Madrid. The clause topic of the first clause relates to
this. Sentence (b) is less natural than (a) because it involves an awkward change of clause topic
in the second clause.)
6. Using a passive construction can also be the result of the speaker’s tendency to put ‘heavier’ (longer
or more complex) NPs at the end of the clause.
e.g. I was surprised by John’s decision to join the army.
We were told this by a civil servant who is on intimate terms with the mayor.

CHAPTER 6

THE ADVERBIALS

I. INTRODUCTION
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A. On the basis of their function, adverbs and adverbial phrases can be divided into four classes:
adjuncts, subjuncts, disjuncts and conjuncts. The term adverbial can be used as a cover term.
1. An adjunct contributes directly to the description of the situation that is being referred to: it
‘modifies’ what is expressed by the verb and its complement(s). Syntactically, it forms an integral
part of the VP. This means that an adjunct has the following characteristics:
a. An adjunct cannot normally be used in initial position and separated from the rest of the
sentence by a break in intonation (comma).
e.g. cp. He hurriedly disappeared into the house.
*Into the house, he hurriedly disappeared.
b. An adjunct can be the sole element that is questioned or that is within the scope of a negator.
e.g. Did he walk to the church (or somewhere else)?
He didn’t walk to the church (but somewhere else).
Were they standing outside (or inside)?
c. An adjunct can be the focus of a cleft sentence.
e.g. It was to the church that he walked.
Was it outside that they were standing?
It was with great pride that he showed the trophy to the photographers.
d. An adjunct is, or can be, included in the reference when the VP is replaced by a pro-form or is
ellipted.
e.g. John arrived yesterday but Mary did not. (= ...but Mary did not arrive yesterday.)
John arrived yesterday, but not Mary. (= ...but Mary did not arrive yesterday.)
2. Subjuncts, disjuncts and conjuncts do not basically serve to modify the verb and its
complement(s).
a. A subjunct is an adverbial that plays a subordinate role to one of the constituents of the clause
or to the clause as a whole: it is a scope adverbial, i.e. an adverbial that bears on one particular
constituent or on the whole clause.
e.g. Even Brian was not happy about it.
Linguistically, orthography is not very important. (= from a linguistic point of view)
John was deeply disappointed.
b. A disjunct is an adverbial which expresses the speaker’s comment on the sentence. Disjuncts
may comment on the form of the utterance, or express the speaker’s evaluation of the situation
referred to, or express under what conditions he is speaking.
e.g. Briefly, you’d better not come back here. (speaker’s comment on the form)
Fortunately, no one was injured. (speaker’s evaluation of the situation)
I don’t trust her, confidentially. (expresses under what conditions the utterance is made)
c. A conjunct is an adverbial that functions as a connective, i.e. that expresses the logical link
between two clauses, sentences or paragraphs.
e.g. Jenny refused to speak to Bess. Jeremy, however, was friendly to her.
They haven’t finished counting the votes yet. It looks bad for the Conservatives, though.
I didn’t try to talk her round. She wouldn’t have listened, anyway.
If you won’t stop driving so recklessly, (then) you can stop the car and let me out.
3. Because of their different functions, subjuncts, disjuncts and conjuncts do not share the syntactic
characteristics that have been pointed out in connection with adjuncts:
a. As a rule, disjuncts and conjuncts can be used in initial position and separated from the rest of
the clause by a break in intonation. The same is true of subjuncts that relate to the entire clause.
e.g. Frankly, I didn’t like that film. (disjunct)
However, they came too late. (conjunct)
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Morally, you are under no obligation to do anything. (subjunct)

b. A subjunct, disjunct or conjunct cannot normally be the only element that is questioned or that
is within the scope of a negator. Because of this it cannot normally be contrasted with another
adverbial in interrogative or negative clauses:
e.g. ?*Is he certainly or possibly unemployed?
?*He isn’t probably ill, but he is possibly ill.

*Don’t you like that film frankly or honestly?

However, subjuncts that relate to the entire clause form an exception to this:
e.g. Have they been defeated psychologically or militarily?
c. A subjunct, disjunct or conjunct cannot normally be the highlighted constituent of a cleft.
e.g. *It is honestly that I don’t know anything about his plans.
*It was even that John was not happy about it.
*It is however that they came too late.
Again, subjuncts that relate to the clause as a whole form an exception to this:
e.g. It is psychologically that they have been defeated, not militarily.
d. A subjunct, disjunct or conjunct is not included in the reference when the VP is replaced by a
pro-form or is ellipted.
e.g. John probably arrived yesterday but Mary did not. (= ...but Mary did not arrive
yesterday.)
John probably arrived yesterday, but not Mary. (= ...but Mary did not arrive yesterday.)
John hardly knew the answer but Bill did. (= ...but Bill knew the answer.)
Even John was there, but not Mary. (= ...but Mary was not there.)
B. Adverbials can occur in different positions. We will use the following terms to refer to these:
1. pre-clause position: the adverbial precedes the entire clause and is separated from it by a break in
intonation (marked by a comma in the written mode).
e.g. Obviously, he wasn’t interested in cricket.
2. post-clause position: the adverbial follows the entire clause and is intonationally separated from it.
e.g. I don’t believe these rumours, personally.
3. initial position: the adverbial is integrated within the clause and precedes the subject.
e.g. Afterwards he refused to admit he had panicked.
4. end position or final position: the adverbial follows the verb and the complements (if any).
e.g. He left the house quickly.
He looked at us defiantly.
5. pre-verb position: the adverbial precedes the verb.
e.g. He often goes to the library.
John also believes that. (*Also John believes that.)
Note:
a. There are some classes of adverbials that typically fill the pre-verb position (cf. below). We call
them pre-verb adverbials.
b. Pre-verb adverbials do not precede but follow the simple forms of be (i.e. am, are, is, was,
were).
e.g. cp. He often goes there.
He is often late for dinner.
e.g. He is never at ease.
c. If the verb involves one or more auxiliaries, the pre-verb adverb follows the operator (i.e. the
first auxiliary).
e.g. He has often come here.
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He has never been to Italy.

She should perhaps have stayed in Vienna.
I don’t usually drink so much.
He may also have been staying at her aunt’s.
She could also have informed the police.
However:
1) Pre-verb adverbs will precede the auxiliary
a) if the auxiliary is used independently (i.e. as a pro-form in code).
e.g. She has never paid a contribution, but I always have.
When can you see her? -- I always can.
My sister never goes to the cinema, but I sometimes do.
b) if the auxiliary is heavily accented.
e.g. You never prepare your lessons. -- That’s not true! I always DO prepare them
carefully.
He said he would never leave her, and he never HAS left her.
He really HAS been giving you a lot of trouble, hasn’t he?
The same holds good for be:
e.g. I don’t think professor Beardsly is ever mistaken. -- In my opinion, he often IS
mistaken.
c) if the adverb must precede a contracted not that is added to the auxiliary.86
e.g. I probably won’t be at home then.
I simply can’t believe that she did that.
If not is not contracted, the pre-verb adverb will most often follow the auxiliary
(while preceding not). However, some pre-verb adverbs can also precede the
sequence ‘auxiliary + not’, and this word order is the only one possible if the
auxiliary is do/does/did.
e.g. cp. I will probably not be there.
I probably will not be there.
He probably does not live here.
*He does probably not live here.
e.g. cp. I certainly do not agree.
*I do not certainly agree.
*I do certainly not agree.
2) The pre-verb adverbials precede the auxiliaries used to, need to, and have to (but not be to
or ought to):87
e.g. You always used to / had to work late.
You ought/are always to knock before you come in.
I never need to help her.
3) Adverbs of degree always precede the main (lexical) verb, even if there are several
auxiliaries.
e.g. cp. The plans have often been changed since then.
The plans have been considerably changed since then.
e.g. cp. The house must have been completely refurbished.
He must sometimes have been recognized.
e.g. He may have been deeply distressed.

86. The adverb must precede not if it is to remain outside of the scope of the negator.
87. In informal English, pre-verb adverbials are sometimes placed before ought to.
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Note:
a. The pre-verb position is normally filled by adverbs (single word adverbials) only. Very few PPs and
no adverbial clauses can be put there.
b. As a rule, it is not possible to put an adverbial between the verb and its object in English.
e.g. cp. I very much enjoy singing and dancing.
I enjoy singing and dancing very much.
*I enjoy very much singing and dancing.
e.g. *He answered carefully all the questions.
*I saw yesterday John.
There is one exception to this rule. When the direct O is long or complex it may (and often must) be
shifted to the end of the clause. (As noted before, this phenomenon is called complex NP shift or
heavy NP shift.)
e.g. You will find in the kitchen everything you need to prepare dinner and breakfast.
She read carefully the Greek and Hebrew inscriptions on the brass door.
He mentioned briefly the many difficulties we were likely to encounter if we accepted the offer.
C. This chapter will mainly be concerned with the question of which position(s) can be filled by the
various types of adverbial. Since this problem does not arise for adverbial clauses (which can only be
found outside the clause or in end position), clause adverbials will be disregarded. It is useful, though, to
know that adverbial clauses that function as adjuncts can be subclassified as follows on the basis of their
semantic content:
1. adverbial clauses of space (place)
e.g. You will find the box of sugar where you left it this morning.
2. adverbial clauses of time
e.g. I’ll come after Jill has left.
3. subclauses of cause and reason
e.g. As/Since/Because you said nothing, I thought you were not interested.
4. subclauses of goal (purpose)
e.g. She locked the door carefully so that nobody could enter.
You’d better leave now, so you don’t miss your bus. (So is infml.)
5. subclauses of result
e.g. He had a broken leg, so that he could not walk without crutches.
It was so hot that we took off our jackets.
6. conditional clauses
e.g. I promise not to come back if you let me go.
He won’t do it, unless you pay him. (unless = ‘except if’)
7. concessive clauses
e.g. Though she was old, she was perfectly capable of looking after herself.
8. conditional-concessive clauses
e.g. You can’t help them now, even if you gave them all the money you have.
9. comparative clauses
e.g. She’s not as pretty a girl as I had expected.
I think he knows more than he’ll admit.
10. subclauses of manner (similarity)
e.g. He ran as if his life depended on it.
These aborigines still live and work as their ancestors did.
Why didn’t you go home as I told you to?
11. adverbial clauses expressing contrast
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e.g. John thought the performance excellent, whereas/while Gilbert found it boring.
12. adverbial clauses expressing proportion
e.g. The more I think about it, the less I like it.
As the deadline comes nearer, (so) he will become more nervous.
13. adverbial clauses expressing preference
e.g. I’d prefer to leave now, rather than wait for the others.
14. adverbial clauses expressing an exception
e.g. The two solutions are equally satisfactory, except that one is much more expensive than the
other.
15. respect clauses
e.g. The two solutions differ in that one is more expensive than the other.

II. CLASSES OF ADVERBIALS AND THEIR POSITIONS IN THE SENTENCE

A. ADJUNCTS
1. Manner adjuncts
a. Adverbials of manner (i.e. answering the question how?) normally follow the verb and its
complement(s), but precede optional space adjuncts and time adjuncts.88
e.g. Gladys sang beautifully in the concert hall yesterday.
The child behaved well during the visit to the museum this morning.
b. A manner adverb can be put in pre-verb position, provided the following conditions are
fulfilled: (a) the adverb is used as an optional adjunct, (b) it ends in -ly, and (c) the verb is
followed by a complement NP or by an obligatory adverbial. When placed in pre-verb position
the manner adverb receives slightly more emphasis than it does when it follows the verb.
e.g. The boy quickly hid the book when he heard footsteps approaching.
*He fast ran into the house. (ungrammatical because the adverb does not end in -ly)
*He quickly left. (ungrammatical because there is no complement)
She slowly spelt out her name to the shopkeeper.
Adverbials of manner must have end position if they give important new information (i.e. if
they are obligatory adjuncts).
e.g. cp. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around him.
The fog was so thick that he had to drive his car slowly.
e.g. He has treated all of us badly.
Note: Adverbs which are used to evaluate (i.e. to say how well something is done) are always
obligatory.
e.g. *The man badly spoke Swedish.
*You’ve badly/well explained the problems to them.
c. In passive constructions, the adverb of manner usually precedes the past participle. If it is an
obligatory adjunct, it can often also follow the participle, but this position is the less usual.
e.g. The child was quickly examined by a physician who happened to pass by.
The concert was badly organized / (organized badly).
The building was well designed.
d. After a prepositional verb, the adverb of manner may precede or follow the PP:
e.g. cp. We looked for the missing papers carefully.
We looked carefully for the missing papers.

88. For the distinction between optional and necessary adverbial adjuncts, see Chapter 1, section IX, B.
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cp. The actors would like to run quickly through Act 2.

The actors would like to run through Act 2 quickly.
e. Manner adverbials will not normally separate the two components of a phrasal verb:
e.g. cp. He walked on quietly.
*He walked quietly on.
cp. He looked up the new words quickly.
He quickly looked up the new words.
*He looked quickly up the new words.
*He looked the new words quickly up.
However, prepositional phrasal verbs may sometimes allow an adverb of manner to precede the
adverbial particle:
e.g. cp. Go on with this quietly.
Go quietly on with this.
e.g. cp. He looked forward to the trip impatiently.
?He looked impatiently forward to the trip.

e.g. *They went quietly through with the business.

f. Some adverbs of manner ending in -ly can occasionally be found in initial position.
e.g. Slowly he made his way to the top of the hill.
Gently he took her in his arms.
g. If there are two adverbs of manner we put the shorter first and join it to the longer by means of
a conjunction:
e.g. The girl moved lightly and gracefully.
He spoke these words softly but distinctly.
2. Means and instrument adjuncts
Means and instrument adjuncts have end position, but (like manner adjuncts) normally precede
optional space adjuncts and time adjuncts. They follow obligatory space adjuncts.
e.g. He goes to school by bus. (*He goes by bus to school.)
The patient will have to be treated surgically.
The police had the hair examined microscopically.
He was stabbed with a knife in his bathroom yesterday.
Note: The term process adjuncts is sometimes used as a cover term for adverbials expressing
manner, means, instrument or the agent of the action (in the passive).
3. Adverbials that have to do with time
a. The following subclasses must be distinguished here:
1) Time-specifying adjuncts: answer the question ‘when?’, ‘since when?’ or ‘until when?’
2) Duration adjuncts: answer the question ‘for how long?’
3) Frequency and repetition adjuncts: answer the question ‘how often?’ or ‘how many times?’.
4) Relative time adjuncts: these do not specify a time but just express the relationship between a
situation and a time of orientation.
b. Such adjuncts indicate time, duration, etc. in a definite way or in an indefinite way:
1) definite time-specifying adjuncts.
e.g. now, yesterday, then, tomorrow, at 3 o’clock, today, after that, since (then), etc.
2) indefinite time-specifying adjuncts.
e.g. some day, long ago, before, once (= at some time in the past), etc.
3) definite duration adjuncts.
e.g. all night long, throughout that afternoon, for 2 hours, since this morning, etc.
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4) indefinite duration adjuncts.

e.g. still, continuously, long, for a long time, for some time, for ever, momentarily,
temporarily, permanently, etc.
5) definite frequency or repetition adjuncts.
e.g. hourly, daily, nightly, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, yearly, biannually, again
(= another time), once (= one time only, on one occasion), twice, three times, on four
occasions, etc.
6) indefinite frequency or repetition adjuncts.
e.g. always, nearly always, ever, hardly ever, scarcely ever, constantly, continually,
frequently, generally, habitually, incessantly, invariably, never, normally,
occasionally, ordinarily, often, perpetually, rarely, (ir)regularly, seldom, repeatedly,
sometimes, usually, several times a week, from time to time, etc.
7) relative time adjuncts are by definition indefinite.
e.g. already, just, lately, recently, so far, soon, yet, of late, etc.
c. These adjuncts are found in the following positions:
1) Time-specifying adjuncts and definite adjuncts are normally put at the very end of the
clause.
e.g. I went to Ireland last summer. (time-specifying)
I’d like to go there again. (definite repetition)
The staff meetings take place weekly. (definite frequency)
I’ve been in New York once. (id.)
If they are not obligatory, they can also be put in initial position. (This may be done in
order to turn them into topic, or in order to put emphasis on them (by placing them in a
less usual position) or because there are already several other adverbials at the end of the
clause.)
e.g. Shortly before midnight I heard footsteps in the courtyard.
All afternoon she was chatting with another woman.
On several occasions he forgot to keep his appointments.
2) Other adjuncts also take end position or initial position when they are phrases.
e.g. She goes to the beauty parlour several times a week.
The meeting has been postponed for at least another week. (initial position
impossible)
3) With the exception of time-specifying adjuncts, indefinite adjuncts that are adverbs (one-
word adjuncts) are normally put in pre-verb position.
e.g. He was momentarily taken aback by her impertinence.
His eyesight has been permanently damaged by the accident.
English museums are usually/always worth visiting.
She never asks me any questions about my past.
They have already decided to buy the shares.
I once met a girl who was writing a dissertation on this subject.
I have recently been reading Irish poetry.
The shop is temporarily closed for repairs.
The elderly seldom/occasionally/usually like this kind of music.
She hadn’t long left university.
Note:
a) Some combinations with an intensifier (e.g. so far, very often, nearly always,
scarcely/hardly ever) are also found in pre-verb position.
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e.g. I have so far read two of the six novels we have to read.
She doesn’t very often leave London.
b) The time-specifiers now and then also allow pre-verb position.
e.g. I have now finished about half of the work.
c) Some of the pre-verb time adverbs can also be given end position. (Yet even favours
this position.)
e.g. She has been taking sleeping-pills lately.
We haven’t spoken to anybody yet.
There’ll be no elephants left soon.
At five o’clock they had already left / (had left already).
However, end position is mostly impossible:
e.g. *I’ve spoken to him just.
*I listen to such music never.
d) A couple of pre-verb time adjuncts (e.g. soon, sometimes, occasionally, once, often,
usually, generally, so far, normally) can also be found in initial position.
e.g. Soon there will be no elephants left.
Sometimes/occasionally/often/usually a student comes in late and disturbs the
lecture.
Generally/normally, parents do not accept this kind of behaviour from their
children.
In formal English, negative or near-negative time adjuncts (e.g. never, seldom, hardly
ever, rarely, etc.) can be placed in initial position, where they trigger inversion. (cf.
chapter 4).
e.g. Seldom/rarely is she to be seen in public.
Never does he lift a finger to help us.
e) When a time adjunct takes pre-verb position in a negative sentence, there are two
possibilities:
Ó. if the adjunct is within the scope of the negator, we have the order ‘operator +
not + adjunct’.
e.g. These tactics don’t always work.
I don’t usually/normally talk to strangers in the train.
You should not always insult other people.
Surely, he’s not still sleeping at this hour?
ß. if the negator is within the scope of the adjunct: if not is contracted, we get the
order ‘adjunct + operator + not’; if not is not contracted, we get the order
‘operator + adjunct + not’, except if the operator is do.
e.g. I still don’t understand it. / I still do not understand it.
Even after your explanation they may still not understand it.
The shop sometimes doesn’t have any bread. / The shop sometimes does not
have any bread.
The train may sometimes not have arrived in time.
In many cases both constructions are possible, but with a slightly different meaning.
e.g. cp. Ted doesn’t often write in ink. (= It is not often that Ted writes in ink; it is
not normal for Ted to write in ink.)
Ted often doesn’t write in ink. (= It often happens that Ted does not write
in ink (although it would be normal for him to do so).)
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cp. He frequently isn’t here all day. (= It frequently happens that he isn’t here
all day.)
He isn’t frequently here all day. (= It does not frequently happen that he is
here all day.)
cp. He doesn’t usually leave early. (= It is not usual for him to leave early.)
He usually does not leave early. (= The usual thing is for him not to leave
early.)
4) When several time adjuncts have end position, those with wider temporal scope will
follow those that have narrower scope.
e.g. I went to my grandmother’s for a couple of days every month last year.
He has already phoned me three times today.
He practises playing the piano for three hours every day.
The plane took off at 6 a.m. on 25 June, 1987.
He has gone to Sweden in August every year for as long as I can remember.
Note:
a) Only the adjuncts that have widest scope can be fronted:
e.g. cp. She visited us quite frequently last year.
Last year she visited us quite frequently.
*Quite frequently she visited us last year.
b) The tendency to place adverbials that have wider scope later may conflict with the tendency to
place shorter adverbials (especially adverbs) before longer ones. In that case more than one
word order may be possible.
e.g. He died at half past two yesterday.
He died yesterday at half past two.
5) Ordinal numerals and last can be used as adverbs indicating order in time. They take end position.
e.g. Bill won the race and John came in second. Herb finished last.
4. Space adjuncts
a. Adverbials of space can be subdivided into
1) locative adjuncts (place adjuncts, adjuncts of position): these answer the question ‘at
what place?’.
e.g. I met him at the opera.
You’ll find the sugar where it always is, viz. in the cupboard.
2) direction adjuncts: these answer the question ‘towards what place?’.
e.g. The boy was running towards the village.
3) adjuncts of source or goal: these imply both direction and resultant location.
e.g. The boy jumped off/onto the platform. (implies that the boy was (not) on the platform
as a result)
He swam across the river. (As a result he was across the river.)
The horse will jump over the fence.
They went right into the house.
4) adjuncts of distance: these answer the question ‘how far?’
e.g. Timothy drove (for) fifteen kilometres.
b. Adjuncts of direction, source and goal are obligatory (necessary) adjuncts: they cannot be
omitted without a drastic change of meaning (i.e. the sentence will refer to an entirely different
situation if they are left out).89

89. See chapter 1 for a couple of syntactic tests to distinguish between necessary and optional adjuncts.
 185

e.g. cp. The suspect was taken/driven to the place of the murder.
*The suspect was taken/driven.
Adverbials indicating location or distance may be obligatory or optional:
e.g. cp. Did you see Mary yesterday? -- Yes. I happened to meet her in the park at lunchtime.
(optional)
We lived in Brighton at the time. (obligatory)
The road goes through the village. (obligatory)
e.g. The children were playing noisily in the garden. (The locative adjunct is optional if the
sentence answers the question ‘What were the children doing?’; it is obligatory if the
question is ‘Where were the children playing?’.)
e.g. The money lay/was in the safe. (obligatory)
c. The position of space adjuncts in sentences appears to be determined by the following rules:
1) Space adjuncts normally follow the verb and the verb complement(s).
e.g. Who carried the trunk to the station?
Note: The direct object follows the space adjunct when it has undergone Complex NP
shift.
e.g. I want you to take to the library all the books that you have borrowed and that
you do not need any more.
2) Obligatory space adjuncts follow the verb complement(s) at once. This means that
a) adverbials of direction/source/goal precede position adverbials.
e.g. cp. He was thrown overboard near the shore.
*He was thrown near the shore overboard.
cp. He came out of a nightclub in Soho.
*He came in Soho out of a nightclub.
cp. The dog jumped over the bench in the garden.
*The dog jumped in the garden over the bench.
b) obligatory space adjuncts precede manner and instrument adjuncts.
e.g. We went home by train. (*We went by train home.)
They left for the hospital in a hurry ten minutes ago.
The man went to the station by taxi at about 8 a.m.
However, an adverb of manner can sometimes precede an obligatory space adjunct,
especially if the latter is rather long.
e.g. I walked angrily out of the office and slammed the door behind me.
I walked out of the office angrily and slammed the door behind me.
3) Optional space adjuncts follow adverbials of instrument or manner but normally precede
adjuncts of time. 90
e.g. I broke the news to her quietly in her house last week.
They have been working hard in the garden all morning.
4) When there are several locative adjuncts, the adjuncts with narrower scope precede those
with wider scope.
e.g. We lived at number 13, Church Street, Northiam.
He had spent the night on a bench in a public park in Hastings.
5) Optional locative adjuncts can often also occur in initial position. In that case they provide
a setting for what is expressed in the rest of the sentence.

90. In formal English, the adverbs here and there sometimes take pre-verb position.
e.g. They there witnessed a very curious ceremony.
We are here living a different kind of life.
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e.g. cp. In Paris I ran into a former colleague of mine. (optional)

*In Paris we stayed for a while. (obligatory)
cp. In Amsterdam, many people live in boat-houses.
*In boat-houses many people live in Amsterdam.
cp. In the park the dog jumped over the bench.
*Over the bench the dog jumped in the park.
If there is more than one optional space adjunct, only the one with widest scope can be
fronted.
e.g. cp. He found a ten pound note on the floor in Mrs Hare’s kitchen.
In Mrs Hare’s kitchen he found a ten pound note on the floor.
*On the floor he found a ten pound note in Mrs Hare’s kitchen.
cp. I met her in a museum in London.
In London, I met her in a museum.
*In a museum I met her in London.
6) If there are several direction adjuncts, the order in which they are mentioned reflects the
chronological order of the situations described.
e.g. He ran from his home down the hill over the bridge to the village.
7) The preposition with expresses accompaniment rather than one of the notions that have to
do with space. Such an adjunct mostly follows the direction or goal adjunct.
e.g. He went to the pub with Tom.
5. Respect adverbials
Respect adverbials answer questions like ‘with respect to what?’ or ‘concerning what?’.
e.g. He has written widely about these phenomena.
She quarrelled with her roommate about/over the rent of the room.
6. Adverbials of cause and reason
e.g. I did it for the children’s sake / because of the children.
7. Concessive adverbials
e.g. He went through with his plan in spite of our warnings.

B. SUBJUNCTS
1. Viewpoint adverbials
Viewpoint adverbials answer the question ‘From what point of view?’
e.g. cp. The problem will be approached scientifically. (manner adverb: ‘in a scientific way’)
Scientifically, the problem we are referring to is highly interesting. (viewpoint adverb:
‘from a scientific point of view’)
Viewpoint adverbs normally have pre-clause position. They can also occasionally be found in post-
clause position.
e.g. Theoretically (speaking), these measures should be amply sufficient.
The soldiers are exhausted, both mentally and physically.
Technically, there should be no problem connecting this printer to your personal computer.
Linguistically, questions of spelling are not particularly relevant.
2. Subject-oriented adverbials
Subject-oriented adverbials are adverbials that express the attitude or feeling of the referent of the
subject NP with respect to (and at the time of) the situation referred to.
e.g. Enthusiastically, he mounted the platform and addressed the crowd. (= He was enthusiastic
when he mounted...)
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Sadly, he tore up the cheque and threw it into the waste-paper basket.
Proudly / with great pride, he announced that his manuscript had been accepted for publication.
(= He felt very proud when he announced...)
Intentionally, he kept us in the dark until it was too late to act.
Adverbial phrases functioning as subject-oriented adverbials have pre-clause position.
e.g. With great reluctance, she called the police to arrest her guest.
One-word subject-oriented adverbials (i.e. adverbs) can also be put in pre-clause position, but they
more often occur in pre-verb position.
e.g. cp. Deliberately, he told us nothing about it. (= He was being deliberate when...)
He deliberately told us nothing about it.
e.g. The young man resentfully/reluctantly followed the policeman.
The chairman consistently ignores the remarks we make.
A subject-oriented adverb that is obligatory because it expresses important new information will be
given end position:
e.g. You did it deliberately, to provoke me!
He left the room reluctantly because he would have liked to have heard what was said.
Finally, note the difference between a subject-oriented adverbial and a manner adjunct:
e.g. cp. Carefully, she checked whether the door was locked. (= She was being careful when...; She took
care to...)
She locked the door carefully. (= in a careful way)
3. Focusing adverbs
a. Focusing adverbs draw attention to a particular constituent of the sentence. They can do so in
two ways:
1) They can make clear that what is said applies only or specifically to the constituent in
question. Such focusing adverbials are called restrictive adverbials or restricters.
e.g. alone, chiefly, especially, exactly, exclusively, just (= no more than), largely, mainly,
merely, mostly, notably, only, particularly, precisely, primarily, principally, purely,
simply, solely, specifically, at least, in particular...
e.g. I am not complaining. I am simply/merely/just/only telling you what happened.
The charge was based exclusively/purely/mainly on Diana Cooper’s statements.
2) They can make clear that what is said also applies to the focused constituent or does not
apply to it either.
e.g. also, either, equally, even, neither, nor, too, as well...
e.g. We took some apples as well.
Bill did not say anything either.
Even Jason turned up.
Focusing adverbs of this type can be called adding adverbs.
b. Focusing adverbials can be found in various positions:
1) They often precede the constituent that they bring into focus.
e.g. Especially Alison was unhappy about the decision.
Note:
a) Also never precedes the subject.91
e.g. JOHN also tried one of the pills. (*Also John tried one of the pills.)
b) Only can precede or follow the constituent in focus.
e.g. Only two people know the answer.

91. Also can open the sentence if it is used as conjunct (in the meaning of moreover) rather than as focusing adverbial.
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Two people only know the answer.

c) Alone, too and as well always follow the focused constituent.
e.g. The Bible says one cannot live on bread alone.
John too wants a piece of cake. / JOHN wants a piece of cake too.
We’d better buy some honey as well.
2) Several focusing adverbials (e.g. also, especially, even, mainly, merely, mostly, primarily,
principally, only, etc.) can be put in pre-verb position. In that case they can focus on nearly
any constituent of the sentence, provided that constituent receives the nuclear accent.
e.g. Bill only borrowed a book this morning. (The focus can be on Bill, borrowed, a book
or this morning.)
He also gave me some FLOWERS.
They only sell FURNITURE. (= They sell only furniture, They sell furniture only.)
Mary was particularly worried about the DRESSES.
4. Intensifiers
a. Intensifiers serve to strengthen or weaken the meaning of a particular part of the sentence. We
can distinguish two subclasses:
1) Degree adverbials
a) Adverbials of degree mostly answer the question ‘To what extent?’.
e.g. absolutely, almost, altogether, barely, by no means, completely, considerably,
enormously, entirely, extremely, far, fully, greatly, hardly, highly, immensely, in
no way, largely, little, more, most, much, nearly, perfectly, partially, partly,
practically, perfectly, quite, rather, scarcely, slightly, so, somewhat, strongly,
terribly, thoroughly, to some extent, totally, utterly, virtually, wholly...
e.g. They partly/quite agree with what you say.
She much prefers jazz music.
My final decision has been somewhat influenced by your remarks.
b) Degree adverbials can modify several kinds of constituent: adjectives (e.g. very nice),
adverbs (e.g. too soon), PPs (e.g. just before noon), pronouns (e.g. too much),
determiners (e.g. so little money), conjunctions (e.g. just before I came in), VPs (e.g. I
quite agree with you).
c) As a rule, a degree adverbial precedes the constituent which it modifies. The only
exception is enough, which always follows its constituent (e.g. fast enough).
Degree adverbials that modify the entire VP come in the following positions:
Ó) If they are adverbs (i.e. one-word adverbials), they are normally put in pre-verb position.
e.g. I quite forgot sending you this postcard.
They absolutely refused to eat Chinese food.
We fully appreciate the gravity of the situation.
I can perfectly understand why you don’t like him.
Occasionally, end position is possible:
e.g. If only he didn’t cheat so!
I don’t like poetry much.
I remember her perfectly/vividly.
Degree adverbs that are comparatives or superlatives always take end position.
e.g. I like her more/most/better/best.
Completely normally has end position when it retains its literal meaning.
e.g. I haven’t yet painted the ceiling completely.
They shared the flat completely.
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He completely disregarded my orders.

ß) Degree adverbials that are phrases usually have end position, but some of them (e.g. by
no means, in no way, very much, more or less, to some extent) can have pre-verb
position.
e.g. I like him very much.
I very much like him.
I don’t mind having to wait at all / in the slightest.
c) Some degree adverbials can only occur with particular verbs.
e.g. I badly need a hot bath.
She was deeply interested/distressed/wounded/impressed.
He always works/tries hard. (pre-verb position impossible)
2) Emphasizers
e.g. actually, certainly, clearly, definitely, frankly, honestly, indeed, just, literally,
obviously, plainly, really, simply, surely...
Nearly all of these can also be used as disjuncts, asserting the truth of the sentence.
However, when they are used in pre-verb position, they just serve to emphasize.
e.g. I honestly don’t think that’s true.
He actually took me by the arm and tried to lead me away. (implies: ‘surprising as it
may seem’)
I just/simply can’t understand why he should have left her.
She will surely kick up a fuss.
They have obviously been misled by her.
She definitely ruined his chances to be elected president.
She doesn’t seem to enjoy the performance. -- No. She’s literally bored to death.
It should be noted that emphasizers like actually, definitely, really may or may not fall
within the scope of clause negation.
e.g. cp. I really don’t know. (= It is really true that I don’t know.)
I don’t really know. (= It is not really true that I know.)
In affirmative sentences, really can also precede all the verb forms:
e.g. You really should look after your children better.
5. Markers of politeness
Adverbs like please and kindly render a request, invitation, instruction, etc. more polite. Kindly
normally has pre-verb position. Please can also have initial or final position.
e.g. Will you kindly/please sit down and wait here?
Please, sit down and wait here.
Sit down and wait here, please.

C. DISJUNCTS
Disjuncts express the speaker’s or writer’s attitude or approach to the statement he is making. There are
two main classes:
1. Style disjuncts express the speaker’s comment on the form of the utterance or make clear under
what conditions he is speaking.
e.g. In short, she hates him.
Seriously, do you intend to move to Spain?
In a word, she’s as mad as a hatter.
To cut a long story short, there was a terrific plane crash and they all died.
Style disjuncts normally occur in pre-clause position. Post-clause position is often also possible:
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e.g. Personally, I find it difficult to believe her.

I find it difficult to believe her, personally.
Strictly speaking, we are all of us to blame for what happened.
I won’t second the motion, confidentially.
With respect, you have no right to attend this meeting.
You look rather dishevelled this morning, if I may say so.
2. Content disjuncts (which are sometimes called attitudinal disjuncts) express the speaker’s
comment on the contents of his utterance. The following subclasses can be distinguished:
a. Truth-evaluating disjuncts express the extent to which the speaker is certain that what he is
saying is true:
e.g. actually (= in actual fact, really), admittedly, apparently, allegedly, arguably, basically,
certainly, conceivably, decidedly, definitely, essentially, evidently, fundamentally, indeed,
indisputably, perhaps, obviously, surely, undeniably, supposedly, really...
e.g. Obviously/evidently, he had forgotten about the appointment.
Really, I find your behaviour disgusting! (Really is often used when the speaker is
shocked by, or disapproves of, the situation referred to.)
Surely, there must be a mistake somewhere!
You will probably/perhaps/undoubtedly be asked to stay with her.
Actually, this is only half the answer. (or: This is only half the answer, actually.)
Arguably, euthanasia should not be considered a crime.
I trust you didn’t tell your father? -- As a matter of fact, I did.
b. Fact-evaluating disjuncts express the speaker’s evaluation of a situation.
e.g. amazingly, amusingly, annoyingly, appropriately, astonishingly, conveniently, curiously,
(un)fortunately, funnily enough, inevitably, naturally, oddly, (un)luckily, mercifully, predictably,
remarkably, sadly, preferably, strangely, regrettably, unexpectedly...
e.g. Naturally/understandably, they were deeply distressed to hear about her death.
Funnily enough, he didn’t seem to mind being beaten.
Luckily for me, the bullet merely grazed my cheek.
What’s even more remarkable, he has sold most of his shares in the company.
c. Subject-evaluating disjuncts express an evaluation or comment which applies at the same
time to the situation referred to in the sentence and to the referent of the subject NP:
e.g. cleverly, correctly, cunningly, foolishly, justly, prudently, reasonably, rightly, sensibly, shrewdly,
stupidly, (un)wisely, unjustly, wrongly...
e.g. Stupidly, she refused to take his advice.
Rightly, the servant complained about the incident.
Note:
a) Content disjuncts are often called sentence adverbials because they comment on the
contents of an entire clause. The comment in question can also be paraphrased by a clause.
e.g. He wisely refused to be involved. (= It was wise of him to refuse to be involved; He refused to
be involved, which was wise of him.)
b) It is important to distinguish between subject-evaluating disjuncts and what we have called
subject-oriented adverbials (which are subjuncts). In a sense both characterize the (referent
of) the subject with respect to a given situation. However, subject-evaluating disjuncts
express the speaker’s appraisal (evaluation) of the situation and the subject, whereas
subject-oriented adverbials express the subject’s attitude or feelings with respect to the
situation.
e.g. cp. Reluctantly, she opened the door. (subjunct) (= She opened the door + she felt reluctant
 191

to do so.)
Wisely, she opened the door. (disjunct) (= She opened the door + I think it was wise of
her to do so.)
c) Content disjuncts normally have pre-clause position. Most of them, especially the truth-
evaluating ones and the subject-evaluating ones, can also take the pre-verb position.
e.g. Wisely, he locks the door whenever he leaves his room.
He has wisely decided to keep his mouth shut.
He wisely did not say a word to anybody.
They quite rightly dismissed the servant after this incident.
My wife had naturally asked for further details.
She may unfortunately have got the number wrong.
In the class of disjuncts that express the extent to which the sentence is true there is a subclass of
adverbs (often referred to as probability adverbs) that are normally placed in pre-verb position.
e.g. doubtless, possibly, probably, undoubtedly, certainly, definitely, no doubt, perhaps
e.g. He will probably try to talk you over.
He has no doubt got wind of what they intend to do.

D. CONJUNCTS (CONJUNCTIVE ADVERBIALS, LINKING ADVERBIALS)

1. Conjuncts are used to express the logical relation between what the speaker is saying now and the
preceding context. Conjuncts may be
a. adverbs:
e.g. alternatively, besides, otherwise, even so, instead, alternatively, further(more), first(ly),
second(ly), meanwhile, likewise, otherwise, consequently, however, moreover,
nevertheless, now, anyway, namely (viz.), therefore, so, still, yet, consequently, similarly...
e.g. It’s not really a nice neighbourhood. Still, she apparently likes living there.
Aren’t you going to attend the conference in Paris? -- No, I don’t like flying. And it didn’t
seem to be a very interesting conference, anyhow.
See you later, then. -- Yes. Oh, incidentally / by the way, don’t forget to bring your photo-
album.
The tickets for the concert are rather expensive. -- None the less, I think we should attend
it.
This is settled, then. Now, there is one more problem to solve... (Now marks a change of
subject.)
b. prepositional phrases:
e.g. as a result, in any case, in addition, in that case, on the other hand, in the first place, for
instance, by the way, in other words...
e.g. Why doesn’t she look for a holiday job? After all, she’s old enough to start looking after
herself.
He can’t learn anything from you. On the contrary, he could teach you quite a lot of
things.
c. other phrases
e.g. all in all, last of all, all the same
d. nonfinite clauses:
e.g. considering all that, to begin with, to conclude, to start with, to summarize...
e.g. Talking about handbags, do you think you could lend me your white one for the wedding?
e. finite clauses:
e.g. that is (to say) (i.e.), what is more, as regards...
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e.g. As far as Sarah is concerned, I think it’s time we had a serious talk with her parents.
2. Most conjuncts are normally placed in pre-clause position:
e.g. I don’t think we should accept his offer. For one thing, it is not a very generous offer. For
another, I am not sure he is to be trusted. Furthermore, I have just received another offer from
Lloyd’s, which I think is more interesting.
Anyway/anyhow, it’s too late to save the firm from bankruptcy now.
Post-clause position or end position is possible for some conjuncts (e.g. anyway, anyhow, otherwise,
though...) but not for others (e.g. besides, consequently, moreover, nevertheless, still...):
e.g. The weather looks like lasting. -- I’ll take my umbrella, though.
I have asked Timothy to send us some more of his drawings. -- You like his work, then, do
you?
He may not like my suggestion, but I’ll make it anyhow.
Some conjuncts can follow the subject or take the pre-verb position:
e.g. We have, however/therefore, decided to adopt a different policy.
Jim is not a particularly good student. His sister, by contrast, is one of the best.
The most urgent question, though, is that of political reforms.
Note: When occurring in the middle of the sentence, a conjunct like however, though, on the other
hand, etc. forms a separate intonation unit and is therefore enclosed within commas.

CHAPTER 7

THE NOUN

I. NUMBER
A. INTRODUCTION
1. The English use of number is based on a two-term system. This means that most English nouns have
two forms:
a. the singular form (which is usually the stem) refers to one item: e.g. book.
b. the plural form (consisting of the stem plus one of the allomorphs of the plural morpheme)
refers to more than one item: e.g. books.
Unlike some other languages (e.g. ancient Greek), English has no ‘dual’ form to refer to two items.
2. The number of the noun can determine the number of other constituents in the sentence:
a. It determines the number of the determiner preceding the noun.
e.g. this book, these books
b. When the noun is the head of the NP functioning as subject of the sentence, its number
determines the number of the verb (or operator), the SC, and sometimes also the number of the
verb complements.
e.g. The boy has had to leave.
The boys have had to leave.
Twenty people lost their lives.
They came in their own cars.
This number relationship is called agreement or concord.
3. We can distinguish between three types of concord:
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a. We speak of formal concord if the number of the verb, etc. depends on whether the subject NP
is morphologically singular or plural.
b. When the subject NP is singular in form but has multiple reference, the verb, SC, etc. are often
in the plural. In that case there is referential concord.
e.g. A group of students are not here.
The family have not eaten yet.
c. When the subject is a complex NP involving several nouns, concord is sometimes not
determined by the noun head but by that noun that is closest to the verb. This type of concord,
which is typical of informal English but is condemned in writing, is called concord of
proximity (proximal concord).
e.g. Neither of them know the truth.
One in five pregnancies are still unwanted in this country. (very infml)
4. Some practical notes on concord:
a. An NP that functions as SC and which is used predicationally (i.e. which denotes a
characteristic and therefore comes close in meaning to an adjective) is often singular.
e.g. Children can be a nuisance.
Scientific books are a rarity in such countries.
b. When the subject consists of two or more NPs conjoined with and or both ... and, the verb is
usually plural.
e.g. You and I are no relations of his.
Both the boy and the girl were anxious to know what happened.
However, there are exceptions to this rule:
1) When the NPs are closely related (semantically), a singular VP is often used.
e.g. Law and order is/are highly valued by the inhabitants of this city.
The splendour and wealth of the Catholic church was/were a thorn in the side of many
reformers.
2) A singular VP must be used when the compound subject is a stereotyped combination with
single reference.
e.g. bacon and eggs, bread and butter, hammer and sickle, horse and cart, bow and
arrow...
e.g. Bread and butter is not the only thing you get when you have breakfast in an English
hotel.
Whisky and soda is something I don’t like.
3) A singular VP is used when the compound S begins with each or every.
e.g. Each remark and (each) complaint is taken down in this book.
Every student and professor is expected to attend this ceremony.
4) When the sentence begins with there and the first NP of the subject is singular, the VP is
mostly singular (i.e. there is proximal concord).92
e.g. His house is very big. There is a billiard room and a library in it.
There is a lot of generosity and hospitality in these people.
c. When the subject consists of NPs conjoined with or, nor, either...or, neither...nor and not
only...but also, the verb takes the number (and person) of the NP that is nearest to the verb (=
proximal concord).93

92. In informal English, there is also often proximal concord in questions beginning with where.
e.g. Where’s your sister and her husband? (infml)
93. In some cases either...or and neither...nor have an ‘inclusive’ meaning (like and) rather than an ‘exclusive’ meaning (like or). A plural VP
(i.e. referential concord) is then often found in an informal style.
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e.g. Either you or he is mistaken.

Not only the boy but also his parents need help.
John or Bill has said that.
Neither he nor the others are aware of the danger.
Either John or I have to be there tomorrow. (*has)
Note:
1) When one NP is singular and one is plural, the plural NP is normally placed second.
e.g. cp. ?Neither they nor Bertram wants to participate.
Neither Bertram nor they want to participate.
2) In less formal English, NPs with (n)either...(n)or are often referred to by they. In that case
the VP following they must be plural.
e.g. cp. If either Harry or Rita suspects something, he or she may go to the police. (fml)
If either Harry or Rita suspects something, they may go to the police. (not fml)
d. We use a singular verb after more than / half of + a singular NP and a plural verb after more
than / half of + a plural NP (= proximal concord).
e.g. cp. More than one pupil has seen the headmaster’s office from the inside.
More than twenty pupils have been punished.
This rule also applies to other fractions:
e.g. Two thirds of the bucket was full.
Two thirds of the workers are in favour of a strike.
e. Parenthetical additions to the subject introduced by as well as, (together) with, no less than, etc.
are normally written within commas in formal English and do not influence the concord. In
informal English, the commas are sometimes dropped and the addition can help to determine
the number of the verb.
e.g. That man, as well as his wife, is not to be trusted.
That man as well as his wife are not to be trusted. (infml)
John, with a couple of friends, is going to the concert tonight.
f. In English there is also number agreement between the subject and the verb complement if both
NPs refer to a set and there is an individual relationship between each member of the subject set
and a member of the verb complement set.
e.g. All the passengers lost their lives when the plane crashed.
The players picked up their hockey-sticks.
These people were chased out of their houses.
The boys put on their coats before they went out.
Some men like showing their wives off.
e.g. cp. Jack and Jill gave their father a present. (same father)
Jack and Jill gave their fathers a present. (different fathers)
This rule is fairly strict when there is inalienable (inherent, necessary) possession. Otherwise,
it is not always observed.
e.g. They all waved their hands at me.
They both have a mountain bike. (Using mountain bikes would mean that they each have
several mountain bikes.)
We can no longer defer making up our minds.
The children shook their heads in unison.
Tell the children to blow their noses.

e.g. Fruit juice or bitter lemon have to be served fresh. (infml)

Neither Clarissa nor Bill have ever gone to the opera. (infml)
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g. When the subject consists of a singular noun head and a postmodifier involving a plural NP,
one often feels tempted to use a plural VP (= proximal concord). However, this tendency
(sometimes called attraction) usually leads to an ungrammatical sentence:
e.g. It is believed that the cost of the cars and the spare parts is/*are enormous.
However:
1) Attraction is not ungrammatical after one of + plural NP:
e.g. He is one of those youngsters who only likes/like pop music.
2) Attraction is the rule after phrases like a group of, a number of, the majority of, etc. (cf. below).
e.g. A number of trees were uprooted by the storm.
5. After the words kind, type and sort, the NP in the of-PP may be either singular (= more fml) or plural
(= more infml).
e.g. There are several types/kinds of relative clause(s).
cp. This kind of theory is very speculative.
These kinds of theories are very speculative. (informal and not considered correct by everyone)
6. With some nouns, the morphological system to express number is anomalous:
a. Some nouns (e.g. sheep) have an unmarked plural, i.e. they use the zero allomorph of the plural
morpheme.
b. Some nouns (e.g. means) take the plural morpheme when there is singular reference.
Both kinds of noun are invariable, i.e. they have only one form. When used as subject, they usually
trigger referential concord instead of formal concord.

B. NOUNS THAT HAVE AN UNMARKED PLURAL

1. A small number of nouns always have an unmarked plural:
e.g. deer, dice, grouse, neat, offspring, reindeer, sheep, trout
Such nouns trigger referential concord and can be preceded by a plural determiner.
e.g. This sheep is mine.
Those sheep are mine.
All their offspring are good at sport. (fml)
2. Some nouns denoting animals (esp. fish and insects) do not usually change in the plural, except if
the reference is to different kinds of animal or to individual insects.
e.g. cp. He caught several salmon/plaice/mackerel.
He spoke about the Atlantic and Pacific salmons, which are closely related.
cp. The shrub was covered in greenfly.
There are two greenflies on that leaf.
3. The quantifier nouns hundred, thousand, million, billion, trillion, dozen, gross, head, brace, ton,
couple, stone, hundredweight and yoke have an unmarked plural when they follow a numeral or
another quantifier (a few, several, etc.). They have a marked plural when used as head of an NP.
e.g. two/several dozen books; three hundred books; two dozen of these books
dozens of books (Dozens is used as noun head.)
I’ve told you hundreds of times.
How many people were killed? -- Two hundred.
There were millions of starlings in the air.
a few/eight ton of coal; several hundred fish
A gross is 12 dozen.
He weighs 11 stone.
There’s a gap of three million (pounds) in the budget.
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Note:
a. When preceded by a quantifier, dozen, hundred, thousand, million, billion and trillion are not
followed by of, except if the NP following of is a definite NP.
e.g. She had at least two hundred (*of) dresses.
She has a lot of dresses. At least two dozen of them are hanging in this wardrobe.
I’d like to buy three hundred of these napkins.
Note, however, that we say many hundreds/thousands of victims rather than *many
hundred/thousand victims.
b. After how many these words can have a marked plural.
e.g. cp. How many hundred do you want?
How many hundreds do you want? (= how many sets of 100?)
c. The nouns foot and pair can sometimes be found with a zero plural:
e.g. The wall is nine foot/feet high.
I have three pair(s) of boots.
4. Other nouns denoting quantity, measure, weight, value, etc. are regular, i.e. they take the plural
morpheme when there is plural reference.
e.g. The sea is twenty fathoms deep here.
I need fifty-six pounds/dollars.
The tank contains a hundred gallons (of petrol).
She was absent for five weeks and a half / (five and a half weeks).
The length of the street is one and a half kilometres.
However, the plural is always unmarked
a. when the quantifier noun is preceded and followed by a cardinal numeral.
e.g. I want two pound fifty of sugar.
The hole is eight foot two deep.
b. when the quantifier noun is (part of) an adnominal preceding a noun head.
e.g. cp. a cave eleven feet deep
an eleven-foot-deep cave
e.g. a ten-minute call, the forty-hour week, a five-pound note, at twenty-minute intervals, a
twopenny piece, a fivepenny ticket, a four-storey house, a two-hundred-page book, a ten-
year-old girl, a forty-foot flagpole, a two-mile walk, a three-bedroom house
5. With all the nouns denoting quantity, weight, measure, etc. there is referential concord.
e.g. There are some dozen species of monkeys living on this island.
It should be noted that a plural noun sometimes refers collectively (instead of referring to separate
items). In that case it is used with a singular VP and a singular determiner. Pro-forms that substitute
for it will also be singular.
e.g. cp. Twelve long years have passed since her arrest.
Twelve years is a long time.
cp. Five workers are adequate for doing this. (= Each of them can do it.)
Five workers is adequate for doing this. (= No more than five workers are needed for this.)
e.g. This ten pounds was stolen from the bookshop. (= this sum)
A lucky two minutes was sufficient for England to win the game.
Fifty miles is a long way. (= that distance)
He needs an extra ten pounds. (or: another ten pounds / a further ten pounds)
The ceremony lasted a good twenty minutes.
Five buckets is enough to fill the bath-tub.
Where’s that five pounds you were going to lend me?
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6. Some technical terms (viz. aircraft, craft, spacecraft, hovercraft, sail and the military terms foot (=
infantry) and horse (= cavalry)) have a zero plural. There is referential concord.
e.g. The horse were ordered to attack at dawn.
The foot were hardly numerous enough to defend the stronghold.
A fleet of many sail/craft appeared on the horizon.
Two aircraft have crashed this month.
The nouns cannon and microfiche prefer a zero plural:
e.g. The whole text has been reproduced on 20 microfiche. (seldom: microfiches)
We saw some very old cannon when we visited the castle. (seldom: cannons)
7. Some animal names are mostly used with an unmarked plural when they are used in the context of
hunting. In that case there is referential concord.
e.g. antelope, duck, pike, carp, fish, herring, buffalo, snipe, fowl, waterfowl...
e.g. cp. Together, the anglers caught ninety-three fish yesterday.
The fishes of this lake are seldom big enough to eat.
e.g. Over twenty antelope(s) were killed by lions that week.
The natives used to hunt buffalo(es)/duck(s)/snipe(s)/lion(s), which were plentiful at the time.
Note:
a. Nouns like cat, dog, bird, elephant, mouse, tiger, shark, monkey, rabbit, sparrow, etc. always
have a marked plural.
b. The nouns cattle, poultry, vermin and wildfowl have a collective meaning. They cannot have a
marked plural but combine with plural determiners and a plural VP.
e.g. He has 15 (head of) cattle / a lot of wildfowl / a lot of fowl(s) on his farm.
In spring these cattle are allowed to leave their stables.
Those vermin are destroying the hedge.
Note that poultry is a mass noun (and therefore singular) when it refers to meat.
e.g. cp. Our poultry are not kept inside all day.
Poultry is excellent food at a reasonable price.

C. NOUNS THAT ALWAYS TAKE THE PLURAL MORPHEME

Two groups of nouns cannot be used in the singular form:
1. A first group consists of such (semantically unrelated) nouns as barracks, gallows, (golf)links,
headquarters, works, means, mews, crossroads, general stores. These nouns trigger referential
concord. Moreover, this is the only group of nouns lacking a singular form that can be preceded by a
singular determiner.
e.g. Originally, a mews was an open space surrounded by horse stables.
At the bottom of the hill there is a dangerous crossroads.
Richard works at a gasworks somewhere in the north.
There’s a small general stores in the village where you can get anything from books to
vegetables.
Is there no means of solving this problem?
All the London mews have been transformed into flats.
2. Nouns denoting objects consisting of two equal parts:
a. names of clothes
e.g. bermudas, braces, breeches, flannels, jeans, knickers, nylons, pants, pyjamas, shorts,
suspenders, tights, trousers
b. names of tools or instruments
e.g. bellows, binoculars, glasses, handcuffs, irons, pincers, pliers, reins, scales, scissors, shears,
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spectacles, tongs, tweezers

These nouns (sometimes called summation plurals) are used like ordinary plural nouns, i.e. with
plural determiners and with a plural verb.
e.g. These trousers are too tight for you.
Your pyjamas have not been ironed yet.
However, they do not allow all of the uses of ordinary plural nouns. For example, we do not
normally utter sentences like *Trousers are seldom cheap or *Both trousers are too small. Phrases
like my other trousers, some more trousers, these trousers may mean one garment or more than one,
but all my trousers clearly means more than one. To refer to one or more separate pieces of clothing
or tools we have to use a phrase with pair:
e.g. I need another pair / two more pair(s) of trousers.
She has a new pair of glasses / ??new glasses.

D. MASS NOUNS
1. The semantic opposition singular - plural is not applicable to some nouns, because they do not admit of
a plural meaning. Such nouns are called uncountables or mass nouns. They are mostly abstract nouns or
material nouns.
2. Most mass nouns are singular in form (e.g. charity, faith, courage, gold, milk, etc.), but there are two
groups that are used with the plural morpheme only:
a. nouns in -ics
e.g. acoustics, aesthetics, athletics, economics, ethics, gymnastics, linguistics, mathematics,
metaphysics, phonemics, phonetics, physics, politics, pragmatics, statistics, tactics...
These nouns can be used in two ways:
1) When they are used without adnominals, they denote a subject, a science or a branch of study.
In that case they take a singular VP.
2) When used with adnominals, they denote some practical application or manifestation of the
subject, etc. In that case they combine with a plural VP.
e.g. cp. Politics is not the kind of thing he wants to read about in his newspaper.
A person’s politics are his own affair.
cp. Economics is an important subject at this school.
The economics of the situation are being studied by experts.
cp. Linguistics is not an exact science, as mathematics is.
His mathematics are rather weak.
b. a semantically undefined group of nouns (sometimes called pluralia tantum):
e.g. the Middle Ages, amends, the Antipodes, archives, arms, arrears, ashes, assets, auspices, banns,
belongings, billiards, bounds, bowels, checkers (Am.E.), clothes, the Commons,
congratulations, contents, credentials, customs, damages, darts, dominoes, draughts (Br.E.),
dregs, earnings, entrails, fireworks, funds, goods, greens, gums, guts (infml), heads (in: heads
or tails), intestines, Letters, lodgings, looks (= attractive appearance), the Lords, manners,
measles, misgivings, mumps, oats, odds, outskirts, pains (e.g. take (great) pains, be at (great)
pains), particulars, premises, proceeds, quarters, regards, remains, resources, riches, savings,
shortcomings, spirits, stairs, suds, surroundings, thanks, troops, the tropics, tidings, valuables,
wage(s), waters, weeds, whereabouts, whiskers, etc.
Note:
1) Words like these are used only in the plural, with a plural verb. However, their meaning is not
the plural of the meaning of the corresponding singular form (if the latter exists at all). This
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means that they are mass nouns, and because of this they cannot be preceded by words that
impose a count reading on the noun (e.g. numerals, adjectives like single, determiners like a,
each, another, many).
e.g. The whereabouts of the escaped convict are still unknown.
In those days weeds had to be worn for at least a year.
However, a singular verb is normal after names of diseases (e.g. measles, mumps) and games
(e.g. billiards, darts, draughts, bowls, dominoes).
e.g. (The) mumps is an infectious disease.
(The) measles has broken out in the kindergarten.
It is dominoes that is my favourite game, not chess.
Billiards is played with billiard balls on a billiard table.
Note: These nouns are singular in compounds.
e.g. billiard balls, draughtboard (Br.E.), checkerboard (Am.E.), dartboard
2) For several of these nouns there is a corresponding singular noun with a different meaning.
e.g. cp. Half of the village was burnt to ashes.
Please don’t drop your cigarette ash on the floor. Use the ash-tray.
cp. a man of loose morals
the moral of the story
cp. our troops defended the fort
a troop of schoolchildren
cp. All of us envy Mary’s good looks.
She gave me a funny look.
e.g. contents -- content (as opposed to form)
damages (money claimed or paid for damage, injury or loss) -- damage
funds (financial resources) -- fund (e.g. the International Wildlife Fund)
manners (e.g. table manners) -- manner (e.g. her manner of doing things)
pains (e.g. to take pains to) -- pain (suffering)
spirits (e.g. to be in high spirits, to drink spirits) -- spirit (e.g. the spirit of the law; God is
pure spirit.)

E. COLLECTIVE NOUNS
Some nouns refer to a set or whole consisting of a number of entities. Such nouns are called collective
nouns. Most of them are singular in form (e.g. clergy, audience, Labour, Parliament, etc.) but
geographical names are often used in the plural only.
e.g. The Alps / Pyrenees / Andes / Rocky Mountains...
the Hebrides / Azores / Bahamas / Canaries / West Indies...
the United States, the Netherlands
The concord system with collective nouns is somewhat intricate:
1. Some collective nouns allow a double system. They are followed by a singular verb and singular
pro-forms when the speaker refers to the set as a whole rather than to the individual entities in it. But
they are followed by a plural verb and plural pro-forms when the reference is to the individuals
within the group. (In some contexts either system is possible.)
To this class belong:
a. names of boards, committees, communities, institutions, etc.
e.g. The B.B.C. is/are producing a new series of documentaries on the Middle East.
The Foreign Office is/are unwilling to negotiate with the Iraqi government.
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Our Safety Committee has/have decided to urge the management to buy more fire
extinguishers.
The Inland Revenue wishes/wish to know everything about our income.
The board is/are in agreement. (Are is used to express that the members of the board agree
with each other; is is used to express that the board as a whole agrees with something
suggested by others.)
b. names of firms and businesses that are not genitives:
e.g. Eastern Merchant Company has a vacancy for a typist. (plural unlikely)
c. most common nouns denoting a group of people:
e.g. admiralty, aristocracy, army, audience, choir, class, club, committee, company, congress,
council, crew, crowd, Episcopacy, family, government, group, jury, left, management,
nobility, orchestra, peasantry, population, public, royalty, staff, team, youth...
e.g. The audience were very enthusiastic about the magician’s act. (The plural is preferred
here because the reference is to the individual reactions of the members of the audience.)
The audience was small. (No plural: the plural would refer to an audience consisting of
small people.)
The Navy pride themselves on a new battleship. (no singular)
The audience repeatedly clapped their hands. (no singular)
The crowd was rapidly dispersed when the police started using tear-gas.. (no plural)
The public is/are not allowed to visit the gardens.
The team are apparently playing well today.
The team is in danger of being relegated from the second division.
Our firm is building a new factory in Birmingham. (no plural)
The youth of this country is/are dissatisfied with the political system.
The government are trying to attract more foreign companies.
Note:
1) This general rule applies only when these nouns are preceded by the.94 If there is a
singular or plural determiner, the verb will be singular or plural accordingly.
e.g. This crowd is not so large as to be impossible to control.
However, only a couple of these collective nouns can be preceded by plural determiners or
numerals. The most important are crew and staff.
e.g. Six crew were injured when fire broke out on board a Liberian tanker. (also: six
crewmen)
He is one of about twenty staff.
those staff/crew
2) In Am. E. these nouns usually trigger formal concord (i.e. they are used with a singular VP
and singular pro-forms).
2. The following collective nouns normally combine with a plural verb and plural pronominal forms:
a. When a genitive is used as the name of a firm or business, it normally triggers plural concord:
e.g. Selfridge’s have shown their new summer collection to the public today.
Garfunkel’s are a large chain of cheap restaurants in Britain.
b. As a rule, the plural is used when the name of a sports club or team is used as a collective noun.
e.g. Oxford have won the latest boat race.

94. As a rule, the same number (singular or plural) must be maintained throughout the sentence. However, examples can be found where a
singular VP is followed by a plural pro-form.
e.g. The firm is transferring Mr Simpson and his secretary to their London subsidiary.
This shift is due to the fact that the tendency to use referential concord instead of formal concord becomes stronger as the distance
between the S and the pro-form becomes greater.
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Will Liverpool be able to win their match?

c. The plural system must be used after the collective nouns folk, people and police.
e.g. Some folk are a real danger on the road. (in Am.E. usually: folks)
These/two people helped us.
Twenty police came to their assistance. (or: twenty policemen)
d. The plural is normally used after plural or collective nouns preceded by such phrases as a group
of, the majority of, the rest of, a number of, the greater part of, a couple of...
e.g. The majority of the team/players want a new coach.
The first set of data we have collected do not support our hypothesis.
Three quarters of the population are not interested in this question.
A minority of MPs have criticized the bill.
e. Geographical names in the plural behave like normal plural nouns, but some names of countries
(e.g. the United States, the Netherlands) are more often found with the singular system.
e.g. Every year again the Himalayas attract several mountaineering expeditions.
The Netherlands have/has always had a lot of good skaters.
The Bahamas are an archipelago in the West Indies.
The Alps are crowded with skiing tourists every winter.
The U.S. are/is negotiating with Canada about the problem of acid rain.
Note: Flanders always triggers singular concord: Flanders is the country where I was born.
(*are)
3. A couple of collective nouns referring to people are used with the singular system only.
e.g. bureaucracy, church, electorate, nation, opposition, organization, society
e.g. The Church has never been a democratic institution.
Is Western society going downhill?
The Opposition has tried to get the bill amended.

F. DE-ADJECTIVAL NOUNS
Some words which occur primarily as adjectives (i.e. noun modifiers) can sometimes be found as the
head of an NP. In that case we call them de-adjectival nouns.
1. De-adjectival nouns denoting abstract ideas are mass nouns. This means that they cannot be used
with the plural morpheme, nor with a plural verb.
e.g. The very best is yet to come.
What do we know about the supernatural?
She is fascinated by the mystical/exotic.
Have you heard the latest?
2. De-adjectival nouns referring to human beings:
a. Those that do no indicate a nationality can be subdivided into three groups:
1) A limited number of adjectives that can modify a personal noun can be used as head of an
NP provided the meaning is generic or inclusive (i.e. the reference is to the whole set of
people satisfying the description). These de-adjectival nouns are followed by a plural verb
but cannot have a marked plural.
e.g. the blind/brave/dead/deaf/elderly/handicapped/helpless/injured/innocent...
the infirm/needy/old/poor/rich/sick/unemployed/unscrupulous...
the young/weary/wounded/mentally ill...
e.g. Are there any evening classes for the unemployed?
This kind of tour is not too exhausting for the elderly.
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The Red Cross aims at taking care of the wounded.

Note:
a) Such de-adjectival nouns can only be preceded by determiners that allow a generic
interpretation, not by determiners that imply selection.
e.g. The organization provides meals for the/*those needy.
London’s poor can get a free meal once a week.
b) Such de-adjectival nouns can take restrictive modifiers (establishing generic reference
to a subset).
e.g. the very old, the young in spirit, the poor who live in the street, the old who
cannot look after themselves, the very wise
c) Many adjectives that can modify a personal noun cannot be used as nouns. If we want
to use them to refer to persons we have to add a noun head (which may be the prop-
word one(s)).
e.g. the little ones (*the little)
*the foreign/happy/loved/ill/disgusting...
d) In some stereotyped co-ordinate structures the article is often omitted:
e.g. He is liked by both young and old.
The Queen Mother talked to both rich and poor on her birthday.
e) To refer to one or more individuals we have to supply a headword after the adjective:
e.g. Several wounded soldiers died before the convoy reached the field hospital.
(*several wounded)
five deaf people, some blind men, a poor one
f) With the definite article, young means ‘young people’. With a possessive determiner,
it usually means ‘young animals or birds’.
e.g. Snooker is now also a game for the young.
Most animals look after their young with great care.
2) A couple of adjectives (mainly participles) can be used as noun heads if they refer either to
the whole set or to a definite member of the set, not if they refer to two or more individual
members. These de-adjectival nouns cannot have a marked plural and cannot be preceded
by the indefinite article.
e.g. accused, anointed, bereaved, chosen, deceased, departed, fallen, defunct, insured,
undersigned, ordained...
e.g. cp. The accused says he’s innocent.
(All) the accused say they’re innocent.
* An accused says he’s innocent.
One of the accused says he’s innocent.
* Three accused say they’re innocent.
e.g. If his house is burgled, the insured receives damages.
The undersigned confirm they owe £1,000 to Sarah Wilkins.
The undersigned confirms he owes £1,000 to Sarah Wilkins.
The bereaved spoke to the press about the death of his wife.
The bereaved spoke to the press about the death of their child.
Note: Participles like injured, wounded, handicapped do not belong to this group.
3) Some words can be used both as adjectives and as regular nouns (i.e. they can refer either
to the set as a whole or to one or more individuals; they take the plural morpheme when
there is plural reference). In that case we can speak of ‘nouns that are converted from
adjectives’.
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e.g. adult, catholic, conservative, criminal, fugitive, individual, liberal, native, official,
radical, twelve-year-old...
e.g. A criminal / The criminal was arrested.
The/Some/Three criminals were arrested.
A couple of fugitives managed to cross the border.
The bomb was thrown by a fourteen-year-old.
Some others behave in the same way but are seldom used in the singular.
e.g. blacks, mortals, nobles, notables, newly-weds, reds, whites, coloureds, grown-ups...
e.g. This film is for grown-ups only.
b. Some de-adjectival nouns denote nationality. In general, a person of a certain nationality can be
referred to in English either by means of a regular noun (e.g. Swede, Spaniard) or by means of a
de-adjectival noun. We can make a distinction between four groups:
1) The adjectives Cornish, Dutch, English, French, Irish and Welsh can be used as nouns
(though without the plural morpheme) provided the reference is generic. To refer to one
individual we use a compound in -man or -woman. To refer to two or more individuals we
use a compound in -(wo)men.
e.g. The French were defeated by the Germans in 1940.
That Frenchwoman speaks English well.
There were three Frenchmen arrested for smuggling heroin.
Note:
a) There is generic reference not only if the noun refers to all the inhabitants of the
whole nation but also if it refers to all the members of a definite subset.
e.g. The British have torpedoed an enemy destroyer. (= the British aboard the
submarine)
The Germans have won more gold medals than the Russians. (= the
German/Russian team)
b) Generic reference can also be expressed by the compound in -men, provided there is
no determiner.
e.g. Frenchmen are used to drinking coffee. Englishmen prefer tea.
2) For some nationalities there is a regular noun (which is different from the adjective) to
indicate one, more than one, or all the inhabitants. In some cases (viz. when the adjective
ends in -ish) the adjective can also be used as a noun, provided the meaning is generic.
(The de-adjectival noun is then even the more usual generic expression.)
The following list gives (a) the name of the country, (b) the corresponding adjective, (c)
the noun used to refer to one inhabitant (this noun can be pluralized to refer to several
inhabitants), and (d) the noun or de-adjectival noun used for generic reference to the
inhabitants:
Arabia, Arabic/Arabian/Arab, an Arab, the Arabs
Cyprus, Cyprian/Cypriot, a Cypriot, the Cypriots
Denmark, Danish, a Dane, the Danes/Danish
Finland, Finnish, a Finn, the Finns/Finnish
Flanders, Flemish, a Fleming, the Flemings/Flemish
Iceland, Icelandic, an Icelander, the Icelanders
Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein, a Liechtensteiner, the Liechtensteiners
Luxemburg, Luxemburg, a Luxemburger, the Luxemburgers
New Zealand, New Zealand, a New Zealander, the New Zealanders
The Philippines, Philippine, a Filipino, the Filipinos
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Poland, Polish, a Pole, the Poles/Polish

Scotland, Scottish/Scotch/Scots, a Scots(wo)man/Scot, the Scots
Spain, Spanish, a Spaniard, the Spaniards/Spanish
Sweden, Swedish, a Swede, the Swedes/Swedish
Turkey, Turkish, a Turk, the Turks/Turkish
United Kingdom/Great Britain, British, a Briton/(Brit/Britisher), the British
Yugoslavia, Yugoslavian, a Yugoslav, the Yugoslavs
Note:
a) Arabic means ‘of or concerning the language or writing of the Arabs’; Arabian means
‘of Arabia’; the adjective Arab is used in connection with the people and their culture.
e.g. the Arabic language/literature, Arabic numerals
an Arabian Sheik(h)/camel, the Arabian nights, the Arabian Desert/Sea, an
Arabian horse (also: an Arab horse, an Arab)
the Arab peoples/world/countries/traditions/customs, the Arab League
b) The adjective Scotch is used before nouns indicating certain products (e.g. Scotch
whisky/wool/plaid) and in set phrases like Scotch terrier. Scottish is used of people
and things of Scotland. Scots is used only of its people, its law and language.
e.g. a Scottish accent
a Scots lawyer, the Scots law
a Scottish company/university, the Scottish Highlands
c) The nouns Brit, Britisher and Briton are rarely used by British people. Britisher is
used in Am.E. and often has a derogatory connotation (‘not American’). Briton is
mainly used in journalese and in statistical information.95 Brit has a jocular or
derogatory connotation.
e.g. Four Britons held hostage in the Lebanon.
Professor Tubbit’s investigation has revealed that many Britons do not have a
proper breakfast before leaving home.
In fact, British people do not really have a noun to refer to their nationality. They
normally use a construction involving the adjective British.
e.g. She’s British.
the British, somebody British
d) To this list we could add the adjective Jewish and the noun Jew.96
e.g. a Jewish name, a Jew, the/some Jews (not: *the Jewish)
3) The words Bantu, Swiss and nationality names in -ese can be used as adjectives or as
regular nouns, but they have an unmarked plural.
e.g. Burmese, Chinese, Congolese, Gabonese, Guyanese, Japanese, Lebanese, Maltese,
Nepalese, Portuguese, Senegalese, Sin(g)halese (refers to the largest group of people
living in Sri Lanka), Sudanese, Surinamese, Togolese, Vietnamese
e.g. a Swiss/Burmese village
He is a Swiss/Burmese.
I admire the Swiss/Chinese.
some Swiss/Chinese
4) Some nationality names can be used as adjectives or as nouns without any restriction (so
with -s in the plural):

95. Briton is also used of the early inhabitants of Britain: the ancient Britons.
96. The adjective Judaic refers to the religion of the Jews.
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e.g. We have met an Iraqi / an Iraqi tourist / three Iraqis.

To this group belong:
a) those in -an, -ian and -ean
e.g. Afghan, Albanian, Algerian, American, Angolan, Argentinian (or: Argentine),
Australian, Austrian, Belgian, Bolivian, Brazilian, Bulgarian, Burundian,
Cameroonian, Canadian, Chadian, Chilean, Colombian, Costa Rican, Cuban,
Dominican, Ecuadorian, Egyptian, Salvadorean, Ethiopian, Formosan, German,
Ghanaian, Gibraltarian, Guatemalan, Guianan (of French Guiana), Guinean (of
Guinea), Haitian, Honduran, Hungarian, Indian, Indonesian, Iranian, Italian,
Jamaican, Jordanian, Kampuchean, Kenyan, Korean, Laotian, Liberian, Libyan,
Malaysian, Mauretanian, Mexican, Mongolian, Moroccan, Mozambiquean,
Namibian, Nicaraguan, Nigerian, Norwegian, Palestinian, Panamanian,
Paraguayan, Peruvian, Puerto Rican, Rhodesian, Romanian, Rwandan, Saudi
Arabian, Somalian, Russian, Sri Lankan, Syrian, Tahitian, Tanzanian, Tunesian,
Ugandan, Uruguayan, Venezuelan, Zairean, Zambian, Zimbabwean
b) those in -i
e.g. Iraqi, Israeli, Kuwaiti, Omani, Pakistani, Swazi, Thai, Yemeni
c) some others:
e.g. Czech, Walloon (of Wallonia), Saxon, Greek, Breton (of Brittany), Basque,
Eskimo
Note:
Ó. Grecian refers to ancient Greece (e.g. Grecian art/temples)
ß. Czechoslovak and Czechoslovakian are less common alternatives to the adjective
Czech. Czechoslovak can also be used as a noun (next to Czech).

II. CASE

A. INTRODUCTION
1. Case is a morphological variation to indicate the function of the noun in the clause. In present-day
English we have a two-term system: a common case and the genitive. The former is not expressed
morphologically: the noun retains its uninflected (unmarked) form. The genitive is made by the
addition of an inflectional suffix (cf chapter 2). In English all functions must be expressed with the
help of these two cases.
2. Not any noun can be used in the genitive. The following restrictions should be noted:
a. In spoken English the use of the genitive is largely restricted to nouns that have animate
(especially human) referents:
1) With human nouns, the genitive must normally be used instead of an of-PP, except if the
NP is syntactically complex or if the relation expressed cannot be paraphrased by means of
have.
e.g. my father’s sister (not: of)
Jack’s sister (not: of)
the Queen’s arrival / the arrival of the Queen
the crowd’s enthusiasm / the enthusiasm of the crowd
the friends of Jack’s grandchildren
2) The genitive often occurs with nouns denoting ‘higher’ animals.
e.g. cp. the dog’s kennel
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the sound of the mosquito

3) Words with inanimate reference are often put in the genitive when they bear some
relationship to human activity.
e.g. the board’s decision, the government’s plans, the church’s position, our country’s
future, the book’s author, the plan’s importance, the report’s conclusions, the
university’s president, the ship’s doctor/company
4) Place-names can often be genitivized.
e.g. Liverpool’s early history, Asia’s future, London’s theatres, America’s leadership,
Japan’s industry
5) Nouns indicating time are mostly genitivized. The construction with of is hardly possible.
e.g. yesterday’s/today’s paper, next Sunday’s concert, tomorrow’s programme, last
week’s happenings, today’s events
6) The genitive can be found with nouns denoting duration, value or distance (= the so-called
genitive of measure). There is no alternative construction with of.
e.g. a mile’s walk, a moment’s hesitation, in a month or two’s time, a week’s holiday, the
Hundred Years’ war, their money’s worth, a stone’s throw away, keep someone at
arm’s length, within arm’s reach, a boat’s length, a hair’s breadth, an hour and a
half’s drive, a day’s rest, a pound’s worth, three dollars’ worth of beer
When such a phrase begins with the indefinite article, the latter is a determiner to the noun
in the genitive, not to the noun head. Since this is not possible when the genitive is a
plural, phrases consisting of a followed by a plural genitive phrase and a noun head (e.g. a
five minutes’ talk) are not normally used. (They are occasionally found but not generally
considered ‘correct’.) Instead we normally use the construction in which the noun is
uninflected (cf. above):97
e.g. a ten-minute rest, a five-day week, a three-mile walk, a two-hour day, a three-month-
old baby, a five-litre can
e.g. You owe me (*a) three days’ pay.
7) The genitive is also found in some fixed expressions:
e.g. for goodness’ sake (or: of), for clarity’s sake (or: of), at his wit’s end (or: of), to do
something to one’s heart’s content, to keep out of harm’s way, to be at death’s door
b. A noun that is derived from a verb and expresses an action can often be preceded by a genitive
expressing either the agent of the action or the ‘patient’ (i.e. the entity undergoing the action).
We speak of a subjective or objective genitive, respectively.
e.g. subjective genitive: Edgar’s reaction, Mary’s protest, John’s help
e.g. objective genitive: the murderer’s imprisonment, Kennedy’s murder(er), M.L. King’s
assassination, my neighbour’s cremation, the prisoner’s release
cp. the love of power (*power’s love) (Love is not an action noun.)
c. The genitive plural is comparatively seldom used, except (a) with nouns that do not take -(e)s in
the plural and (b) if the genitive is a classifying one (cf. below).
e.g. the children’s gloves
a boys’ school, men’s wear (classifying genitive)
3. The genitive is most commonly used adnominally, i.e. before a noun head. In some cases, however,
the genitive is used on its own, without a headword (e.g. I am going to the butcher’s).

97. Occasional examples can be found of expressions of distance or duration in which an uninflected plural NP is
used instead of a singular NP (e.g. the five and a half miles course).
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B. THE ADNOMINAL USE OF THE GENITIVE

1. An adnominal genitive is either defining (specifying, individualizing) or classifying (nondefining,
descriptive).
e.g. George’s book (defining)
a children’s book (classifying)
The distinction can be made
a. semantically:
A defining genitive refers to a specific person, thing or group and thus identifies the referent of
the noun head (which stands in a particular relation to that specific person, thing or group); a
classifying genitive, by contrast, identifies the class to which the referent of the headword
belongs.
e.g. defining: your neighbour’s house, John’s car
classifying: a baker’s boy, a bird’s nest, a women’s college, a cowboy’s walk, a fool’s
cap, a cat’s eye, a witches’ sabbath, a swan’s neck, a children’s game, a doctor’s
degree, an artist’s model, a man’s voice, camel’s hair, printer’s ink, calf’s liver,
the servants’ quarters, cow’s milk...
b. phonetically:
A defining genitive is about equally strongly accented as the headword; a phrase consisting of a
classifying genitive and a noun head shows the stress pattern of word compounds (i.e. primary
stress on the genitive, secondary stress on the head).
c. syntactically:
1) Because a classifying genitive does not refer to a particular entity, it cannot be replaced by
a possessive determiner (whereas a defining genitive can).
2) If the genitive is preceded by the indefinite article, it will be interpreted as a classifying
genitive.
e.g. a mother’s heart, a cardinal’s hat
3) A classifying genitive forms a compound with its noun head and cannot, therefore, be
separated from it.
e.g. *a women’s new college
A defining genitive can be followed by modifiers to the head.
e.g. my father’s new car, my husband’s old aunt
4) Determiners and modifiers preceding a defining genitive bear on the genitive, not on the
head or on the whole group.
e.g. my old father’s brand new car, your neighbour’s house
Determiners preceding a classifying genitive do not qualify the genitive but the whole
group.
e.g. my many children’s diseases, that women’s college, his child’s face
Modifiers preceding a classifying genitive can qualify either the genitive or the entire
group.
e.g. an old man’s coat (denotes either a man’s coat that is old or a coat designed for an
old man)
e.g. old women’s talk (means either ‘talk typical of old women’ or ‘women’s talk that is
not recent’)
2. Defining genitives can indicate a variety of different semantic relationships with the head:
a. possession (e.g. Mrs Broody’s passport)
b. origin (e.g. Shakespeare’s plays)
c. measure (e.g. an hour’s walk)
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d. subject of the action (e.g. his parents’ answer, Mary’s protest)

e. object of the action (e.g. John’s punishment)
f. other kinds of relation (e.g. John’s friend, the book’s 17 chapters, the company’s board of
directors)
3. Since a defining genitive is a determiner, it cannot co-occur with another determiner, except when
the latter is an adnominal to the genitive and not to the noun head.
e.g. *the Jack’s new girl-friend
the Smiths’ house (= the house belonging to the Smiths)
(*the) Smith’s house (= the house belonging to Smith)

C. THE GENITIVE WITHOUT A HEADWORD

1. The simplest case of a genitive without a headword (elliptic genitive, independent genitive) is
when the headword is omitted in order to avoid repetition.
e.g. The car over there is my sister’s [car].
He picked up his own shoes but not his sister’s [shoes].
The missing headword is normally recoverable from the preceding context. In some cases, however,
it is the context following the genitive that supplies the headword:
e.g. Hitler’s [mind] was a megalomaniac mind.
When an elliptic genitive occurs in an of-PP (e.g. of my father’s) we get a construction which is
traditionally called the double genitive (post-genitive). This construction can be used in two ways:
a. It can be used with partitive meaning, i.e. expressing that one member or subset is picked out
from a set.
e.g. The bike belonged to some friend of Tom’s. (= one of Tom’s friends)
There are two restrictions on this use of the double genitive:
1) The genitive NP following of must be definite and have a human referent.
e.g. cp. an idea of Tom’s
an acquaintance of my neighbour’s
*an opera of a teacher’s
*a door of the house’s
cp. Any daughter of my neighbour’s will tell you that.
*Any daughter of a neighbour’s will tell you that.
2) The head of the NP as a whole must be indefinite, unless it is followed by a restrictive
relative clause.
e.g. cp. A friend of Mr Brown’s wants to see you.
*The friend of Mr Brown’s wants to see you.
This is the friend of Mr Brown’s who wants to see you.
e.g. That is the colleague of my father’s who left his wife recently.
Note:
1) Of can also be followed by a possessive pronoun or by the group ‘possessive determiner + own’. In
that case the meaning is no longer partitive.
e.g. Jim is a friend of mine. (*of me)
This is a composition of my own. (*of myself)
2) A double genitive can sometimes be interpreted as a subjective genitive, but never as an objective
genitive.
e.g. cp. a painting of Gandhi/me (objective interpretation: a painting representing Gandhi/me)
a painting of Gandhi’s/mine (= made or owned by Gandhi/me)
a painting by Gandhi/me (= made by Gandhi/me)
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b. When the NP that is followed by the of-PP is premodified by this/that/these/those, there is no

partitive meaning, but an emotion is often expressed:
1) That and those imply psychological distance, i.e. disapproval, contempt, irritation, anger,
disparagement...
e.g. That dog of yours has trampled down my flowers again. (means ‘that animal which is
your dog’, not ‘that one of your dogs’)
That crazy friend of Alice’s is going to betray us!
I don’t look forward to meeting that girl-friend of yours again.
2) This and these connote affection, pride, admiration, etc.
e.g. How cute she is, this darling little baby of yours!
This car of yours is really the tops!
2. In some cases the genitive has become completely independent. Although the headword may still be
recoverable, it would be very unusual to add it to the genitive. The genitive has become headword
itself. Since this kind of genitive is used exclusively to refer to places (more specifically, buildings),
some grammars speak of a local genitive.
The following cases can be distinguished:
a. A genitive is frequently used to denote a public building which is so well-known that the
addition of a headword has become superfluous.
e.g. St. Paul’s [Cathedral], Queen’s [College], St. James’s [Palace], All Saints’ [Church], St.
Bartholomew’s [Church/Hospital], Madam Tussaud’s [Museum], All Souls’
[Church/College]
Note: Genitives in names referring to places that are not buildings (e.g. streets, roads, parks,
etc.) cannot be used without a headword.
e.g. St. James’s Park, Regent’s Gardens, King’s Road
b. The genitive of a proper name can be used as the name of a shop or firm.
e.g. Smith and Son’s [bookshop]
My wife always buys her meat at Johnson the butcher’s. (restrictive apposition)
My wife always buys her meat at Johnson’s, the butcher’s. (nonrestrictive apposition)
In recent years the -s of the genitive has often been reinterpreted as the -s of the plural, so that
we often find a genitive plural or even simply a plural instead of a genitive singular. (Many
banks and businesses have dropped the apostrophe from their name, e.g. Barclays, Lloyds,
Harrods.)98
c. The genitive of common nouns denoting professional people or tradesmen refers to their
business. 99
e.g. I’m going to the chemist’s/baker’s/butcher’s/barber’s.
There is no tobacconist’s/cobbler’s/greengrocer’s/florist’s in our street.
d. The genitive of a proper name or name of relationship can denote the house where the referent
lives or his domestic circle.
e.g. My wife worked as a maidservant at the Robinsons’ for some time.
The meeting was to take place at the Lord Mayor’s.
I intend to return to my nephew’s as soon as possible.
Only definite NPs in the genitive can be used in this way:
e.g. He’ll be staying at his friend’s / *at a friend’s.

98. The apostrophe is also frequently dropped from genitives on signboards (e.g. Mans shop; the name St Paul’s is
spelt St Pauls in the London underground.)
99. In colloquial English, an uninflected noun can be used in the same way: She’s at the hairdresser.
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We spent some time at Jim and Harriet’s.

III. GENDER

A. English has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. In general, we can say that nouns
denoting sex are masculine or feminine and that other nouns are neuter.
B. Some nouns are morphologically marked for gender by special affixes:
1. suffixes indicating gender
e.g. count - countess, hero - heroine, usher - usherette, bride - bridegroom, widow - widower
The -ess suffix is the most productive of these suffixes.
e.g. goddess, empress (cp. emperor), stewardess, waitress, hostess, baroness, countess, heiress,
Negress, princess, actress, lioness, duchess (cp. duke), tigress, abbess (cp. abbot),
(post)mistress, authoress...
2. prefixes or prefixed words indicating gender
e.g. he-goat -- she-goat, he-wolf -- she-wolf, he-bear -- she-bear, etc.
billy-goat -- nanny-goat, cock-pheasant -- hen-pheasant
manservant, woman doctor/artist/clerk/driver/teacher
boy-friend -- girl-friend, boy-scout -- girl-guide
lady cashier/doctor/teacher
male nurse, female patient
C. Sometimes there is a different word for male and female referents:
e.g. man - woman, husband - wife, son - daughter, brother - sister, father - mother, uncle - aunt, boy
- girl, king - queen, wizard - witch, nephew (= son of one’s brother or sister) - niece (=
daughter of one’s brother or sister) (cp. cousin = son or daughter of one’s uncle or aunt),
bachelor - spinster, gentleman - lady, monk - nun.
e.g. cp. generic term: cat, cattle, chicken, dog, deer, horse
male: tom(cat), bull, cock/rooster, dog, stag, stallion
female: queen, cow, hen, bitch, hind, mare
Note: Some compound words in -man have feminine forms (e.g. policewoman, chairwoman).100
Others (e.g. postman, frogman) do not.
D. Pro-forms often have to express gender:
1. Nouns intrinsically denoting male persons (e.g. man, boy, John, uncle) have masculine pro-forms:
he/his/him/himself.
e.g. Who is that boy with his red bicycle? -- He is a friend of mine.
2. Nouns intrinsically denoting female persons have feminine pro-forms: she/her/herself.
e.g. The girl lent me her ruler.
3. Some nouns have dual gender, i.e. they can refer to the two sexes.
e.g. citizen, cook, cousin, dean, doctor, engineer, teacher, singer, nurse, foreigner, guest, neighbour,
lecturer, author, person, speaker, writer, dancer, driver, prisoner, reader, servant, artist, parent,
student, professor, friend, customer...101
When using such a noun, the speaker will normally use pro-forms that are in keeping with the sex of
the referent.

100. We always use chairman when addressing someone: Madam Chairman.

101. Because a compound in -man is awkward to refer to a position that can also be filled by a woman, some
compounds in -person have been coined: chairperson, spokesperson, salesperson.
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e.g. A friend of mine broke her leg last week.

When the noun is used generically or when the speaker does not know or does not want to reveal the
sex of the referent, he will use he/him/his/himself or, less usually, the phrases he or she, him or her,
his or her, himself or herself. (The latter system is formal and is awkward in sentences that contain
several pro-forms.) 102
e.g. A customer is to be treated respectfully so that he / he or she will feel inclined to come back.
When the NP referred to involves an indefinite quantifier (some, any, every, no) or is an indefinite
pronoun (everyone, everybody, whoever, someone, somebody, anyone, no one, none, nobody) the
speaker can also use they/their/them/themselves.
e.g. He observed everybody who came in as they took their seats.
Whoever phones, tell them/him I’m not at home.
Nobody should suffer from crimes which his/their parents committed.
Each of them spent most of his/their wages on alcohol.
Everybody wanted to show him his drawing / his or her drawing / their drawings.
Anybody can be polite if they want to. (or: if he wants to)
Note:
a. The use of plural pro-forms is generally restricted to informal English, but there are a couple of
cases in which we cannot avoid using them:
1) when there is a clear idea of plurality.
e.g. When every pupil was in the class-room, the teacher gave them their exam papers.
The headmaster had a word with every pupil before they were allowed to leave the
school.
2) in question tags.
e.g. Everyone has filled in an identification slip, haven’t they?
No one has been in this room, have they?
Anyone can apply for a locker, can’t they?
Somebody has tampered with this, haven’t they?
b. Generic NPs also often allow plural pro-forms.
e.g. When a person has no trust in doctors, they are often very difficult to treat.
c. When writing, some people use the form s/he (which means ‘he or she’).
d. In some contexts (e.g. official reports, scientific prose), the nouns child and baby are sometimes
referred to by means of it/its. (This is not normally done in spoken English.)
e.g. During the first weeks of his life a baby gradually develops his/its eyesight.
4. The usual pro-forms for nouns denoting higher animals are it/its/itself. However, the speaker can
also use masculine or feminine pro-forms if he is aware of the sex of the animal.103
e.g. She was very fond of the dog and frequently played with her/it.
They did not see the shark until it attacked them.
Note:
a. The use of masculine or feminine pro-forms is particularly common when the animal is
considered as having human characteristics (personality, intelligence, feelings). It follows that it
is especially the owners of the animals that use these pro-forms.
e.g. cp. Please let the cat in and give him/her something to eat.
The dog was shot because it was believed to have rabies.

102. In writing we can use the sex-neutral form s/he.

103. Some people use not only it but also he when no sex distinction is made. She can be used similarly as a pro-form for cat and parrot (e.g. A
cat always finds her way back).
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b. Lower animals (e.g. snakes, insects) are normally referred to by means of it/its/itself.
5. Nouns denoting whatever is inanimate are referred to by means of it/its.
e.g. Where is the suitcase? Someone must have taken it away. (*her)
However, as an expression of familiarity or affection, such nouns may sometimes be treated as
feminine. This is especially the case with nouns denoting vehicles (cars, ships, planes...) and names
of countries (when the country is treated as a political or economic entity rather than as a
geographical unit).
e.g. cp. Our country has been surprised by the enemy, but now she is fighting back. Let us pray
that she may be successful!
Sweden does not have a warm climate, as it is one of the Scandinavian countries.
e.g. The pupils watched a programme about nineteenth century Britain, her Empire and the way she
ruled the seas.
Italy is famous for her wines.
He told us about Switzerland and its mountains.
Is there something the matter with the car? -- Certainly not. She never lets me down.

CHAPTER 8

PRONOUNS AND PRONOMINAL DETERMINERS

§ 1. INTRODUCTION

A. Pronouns and pronominal determiners are both pro-forms for nouns or noun phrases. The
difference is that a pronoun functions as an NP or as the head of an NP, whereas a pronominal determiner
functions as a determiner (i.e. as an adnominal).
B. Pronouns are traditionally defined as ‘noun substitutes’, i.e. as words replacing a noun that has been
mentioned before or is still to come. In reality, however, pronouns can have all kinds of referents:
1. Though it is not impossible for a pronoun to replace only the noun head of an NP (or only the
head and the determiner), most pronouns replace the NP as a whole. This appears from the fact
that these pronouns cannot normally collocate with determiners or modifiers (although there are
exceptions -- cf. below).
e.g. That old book is (*the) mine. (Mine is coreferential with that old book.)
That car, I’d like to have it / *that beautiful it.
When John bought a red sports car, Bill immediately wanted to buy one too. (One means either
‘a red sports car’ or ‘ a sports car’.)
2. In some cases a pronoun replaces not an NP but a VP, an adjective or an entire clause.
e.g. Why did you mow the lawn? I wanted to do it/so/that. (= mow the lawn)
Our garden is bigger than yours. -- So it is. I had never noticed that before. (pro-form for a
clause)
He tried to deceive us, which was stupid of him. (id.)
She is satisfied, but I am less so. (pro-form for the adjective)
3. Some pronouns have a referent that is to be found in the extralinguistic context (the situation of
speaking). In that case the referent in question could also be indicated by an NP.
e.g. Look at that! (deictic use)
Don’t listen to him. (deictic use)
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4. Some indefinite and interrogative pronouns have very general reference: the referent remains
indefinite.
e.g. Have you seen anyone/anything? -- No, nobody/nothing.
I’ve got something to tell you.
Who/what did you see?
5. The pronoun it can even be used without there being any referent at all. In that case we call it an
empty it.
e.g. I’ll have it out with you!
He lorded it over the other servants.
It’s been raining. (cp. *What’s been raining?)
It’s half past six.
However, all pronouns share the grammatical feature that they can fulfil nominal functions (subject,
object, etc.).
C. Pronominal determiners are determiners that are closely related to pronouns in function (since their
referent is an NP) and in form (since most pronominal determiners are homophonous with pronouns).
Unlike pronouns, however, they do not function as headwords.
e.g. no/this/every/each/either/some/any car
Note: In this chapter the term determiner will be used in its broad sense i.e. as a cover-term for
predeterminers, (central) determiners and postdeterminers.
D. We can distinguish the following classes of pronouns and pronominal determiners:
1. personal pronouns: I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it, we, us, they, them
2. possessive
a. pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs
b. pronominal determiners: my, your, his, her, its, our, their
3. demonstrative pronouns and pronominal determiners: that, this, these, those
4. interrogative
a. pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, what
b. pronominal determiners: which, what, whose
5. indefinite
a. pronouns: all, any, both, each, either, enough, few, less, little, many, much, neither, none, one,
other, same, some...
b. pronominal determiners: all, any, both, each, either, enough, every, few, less, little, many,
much, neither, no, other, same, such...
6. relative
a. pronouns: who, whom, whose, that, which, what, why...
b. pronominal determiners: which, whose
7. compound personal pronouns:104 myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves,
themselves
8. reciprocal pronouns: each other and one another.
E. The personal, possessive and reflexive pronouns together form the group of central pronouns. They
differ from the others (the peripheral pronouns) in that they can express three distinctions: number,
gender, and person. (In addition, personal pronouns can express case: there are subject forms (subjective
forms) and object forms (objective forms). Note that the genitive forms are not treated as personal
pronouns: my, your, etc. are possessive determiners, whereas mine, yours, etc. are possessive pronouns.)

104. These are often referred to as reflexive pronouns. However, we will see that they have three different uses: as reflexive pronouns, as
reciprocal pronouns and as emphasizers.
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F. The personal, possessive, demonstrative and reflexive pronouns and determiners have a definite
meaning. There is one other word that can also be used as a definite determiner or pronoun, viz. same
(e.g. I’ve done the same (thing) as you). However, same does not belong to any of the traditional classes
of pronouns and determiners.
G. The relative pronouns and determiners are not treated in this chapter but in chapter 14.

§ 2. THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS

I. PERSON
The personal pronoun has three persons: in the first person the reference is to the speaker (I/me) or to a
group including the speaker (we/us); in the second person (you) the referent is the addressee(s); in the
third person the reference is to the entity or entities spoken about (he/him/she/her/it/they/them). 105
In this section we will concentrate on the use of personal pronouns with indefinite meaning, and on the
use of it, so and there.
A. PERSONAL PRONOUNS WITH INDEFINITE MEANING
When predicating something of an indefinite number of people, an English speaker can use an active
sentence with people or one (= more fml) as subject, or a passive construction.
e.g. People seldom understand this.
One seldom understands this. (fml)
This is seldom understood.
In some cases the speaker can also use one of the personal pronouns you, we or they:
1. You has much the same meaning as one, but is less formal and less abstract. It can be paraphrased as
‘anyone, including you and me’.
e.g. You can always count on Jim to tell a good joke.
You have to work hard if you are to make it in this business.
2. We stresses the fact that the statement is also applicable to the speaker and the addressee.
e.g. We must be careful not to jump to conclusions.
A century ago many parts of the world had not been explored yet. Now we are walking on the
moon. (The speaker is not personally walking on the moon, but he is conscious of his
membership of the human community which have had astronauts do so.)
3. They shows that the reference is to a group of people to which neither the speaker nor the person
addressed belong.
e.g. They don’t make this kind of stove any more.
They say it’s going to be a hot summer this year.
B. THE USE OF IT
1. It can be used as pro-form for a neuter NP.
e.g. Have you seen my wallet? I have lost it.
Note that we use it in question tags as a pro-form for the pronouns nothing and everything and for all
when used in the sense of everything.
e.g. Nothing went wrong, did it?
Everything is all right, isn’t it?
All seems well now, isn’t it?
2. It can also be used to refer back to verb phrases or clauses.

105. Religious language still uses the forms thou (subject form) and thee (object form) instead of you.
(Similarly, it uses thy, thyself and thine instead of your, yourself and yours.)
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e.g. I’m going to learn to dance. I think I’ll enjoy it. (it = learning to dance)
I’d like to go to Egypt, but I can’t afford it.
Note:
a. After verbs of saying and thinking, the normal pro-form for a clause is not it but so (cf. below).
However, it is found after doubt.
e.g. Is he ill? -- I think/hope/believe so.
Will she come? -- I doubt it.
b. After a number of verbs (e.g. ask, forget, know, matter, mind, remember, try) the pro-form for a
clause is usually zero.
e.g. Will he come? -- I don’t know/remember.
You’d better forget all about this nasty business. -- I’ll try.
If you can’t find the way, ask a passer-by.
Will you tell him? -- If I don’t, he’ll never know.
Of course, it is used if the referent is not a clause but a NP.
e.g. I went to a nice restaurant called the green parrot last night. Do you know it?
3. It can be used as an expletive pronoun, i.e. as a dummy (functional) subject or object in
extraposition constructions (where the real (notional) subject/object is a clause which has been
shifted to the end).
e.g. It was hard to have to keep the secret to myself.
It is quite all right for you to wear shorts.
It was nice of her to send you a birthday present.
It was not clear whether he was speaking the truth.
It should be noted that an object clause can only undergo extraposition if the verb complement also
involves an OC or PO.
e.g. She thought it peculiar that she did not receive an invitation. (Peculiar is OC.)
*I cannot bear it to see an animal ill-treated. (no OC or PO)
We owe it to our children to make this world a better place to live.
We leave it to her to cut the knot.
The fact that she was so rude made it easier for me to fire her.
But: We’ll see (to it) that all necessary precautions are taken.
4. The dummy pronoun it is also found in cleft sentences.
e.g. It was Jill who heard the yells.
It was last Thursday that he left hospital.
It was James that he was trying to avoid running into.
Note:
a. A cleft construction is a device to highlight (focalize) a particular constituent. Clefts are always
specificational: they specify a value for a variable.
e.g. It was a book that he gave me. (variable: ‘the X that he gave me’; value: ‘a book’)
b. Clefts occasionally use this/that instead of it:
e.g. Was that a girl that you were talking with?
I know we should be patient with the boy. But this was my boss that he was insulting!
c. The pronoun it is always followed by a singular verb, even when the focalized constituent is
plural.
e.g. It is they who are responsible for this chaos. (*it are)
It was his employees that did the dirty work, not himself.
It is usually the American athletes that dominate the sprint races.
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5. We speak of an ‘empty’ it when it is used as functional subject or object without lexical meaning or
referent.
e.g. It is raining.
Isn’t it quiet here?
C. THE USE OF THERE AS A PRONOUN
1. There is used as dummy subject in so-called existential clauses.
e.g. There is nothing more refreshing than a cold shower. (= Nothing more refreshing exists than a
cold shower.)
There’s nothing wrong, is there?
There was no doubt about the winning horse, was there?
2. We can distinguish the following types of existential clause:
a. Clauses with be
1) Clauses involving an indefinite subject and the lexical verb be will sound better with
there. 106
e.g. cp. ?Three parrots are in that cage.
There are three parrots in that cage.
e.g. There should not be anybody left in the house.
Was there anyone interested?
There is even required in nonfinite clauses involving lexical be and in clauses that consist
only of a subject NP and the lexical verb be.
e.g. cp. There was no doubt about it.
*No doubt about it was.
cp. It is a shame for there to be no zebra crossing in the street.
*It is a shame for no zebra crossing to be in the street.
e.g. There have always been accidents.
I’d like there to be a photocopier in the library.
He was dismayed at there being so little interest in his work.
There being no telephone in the cottage, it took some time before we could reach a
doctor.
I don’t mind there being no milk in the kitchen.
2) Progressive clauses with an indefinite subject can often be rearranged with there.
e.g. cp. No one was helping him with the washing-up.
There was no one helping him with the washing-up.
e.g. There will be a speech therapist helping the children who have problems.
There is something preying on her mind.
There’s a lady calling your name outside.
This construction is occasionally also found with stative verbs, which do not allow the progressive
version without there:
e.g. There was a huge tower overlooking the market-place. (cp. *A huge tower was
overlooking...)
3) Passive clauses with an indefinite subject can often be rearranged with there.
e.g. cp. A statue was erected in honour of the fallen soldiers.
There was a statue erected in honour of the fallen soldiers.
e.g. There was an important document stolen from the office yesterday.

106. Be is used as a lexical verb whenever it is not used as a copula (followed by a SC (which may be an NP, an adjective, a PP or an adverb))
or as an auxiliary (of progressive aspect or passive voice).
 217

There was an article published on that subject in Linguistic Inquiry.

Note:
a) In English, passive clauses with there are ungrammatical if the notional subject is not
overtly expressed.
e.g. *There has been referred to the next election.
e.g. *There was sung and danced.
b) We use it, not there, when the notional subject of the passive verb is a clause (because
we then have extraposition).
e.g. It/*there was said that we didn’t need to worry.
e.g. It/*there was agreed that we would sit on the fence for the time being.
c) However, there can become the subject of a passive clause if it is raised from an
extraposed subject clause.
e.g. It is believed that there is evidence against him. --- There is believed to be evidence
against him.
4) When we count the number of people, things, etc. in a group, we normally express the
result with there are...of...
e.g. There are five of us in my family. (or: We are five in my family.)
The street is full of reporters. There are at least ten of them.
How many children were there? -- There were twelve of them.
b. Existential sentences with relative clauses
Sentences that do not involve a form of be but contain an indefinite NP can often be
transformed into the pattern ‘there + form of be + indefinite NP + relative clause’. The
indefinite NP need not be the subject of the original sentence.
e.g. cp. You could give her something from me.
There is something you could give her from me.
e.g. There are some bouquets of flowers (that) I’d like you to put into vases.
There must be something that he has told her inadvertently.
c. Existential sentences with verbs other than be
In more literary English it is possible to find existential sentences with verbs of existence,
position and movement.
e.g. Once upon a time there lived a fairy queen...
There remained only two people in the room.
There will come a time when you will regret your decision.
In front of the door there stood/sat a couple of bodyguards.
There does not exist a satisfactory explanation of these phenomena.
There rode a little boy behind the carriage.
At the beginning of the century there occurred a revolution in artistic taste.
3. As a rule, an existential clause cannot have a definite notional subject.
e.g. There is a/*the man in the study.
*There is John working in the library.
There are, however, exceptions to this rule. A definite subject is possible
a. when be has no complement. This is often the case in enumerations.
e.g. Who else should be informed? -- Well, there’s Susan, and Jack, and Barbara or Joan.
What’s left to pack? -- There’s the book I borrowed from your mother and the dishes we
need for tonight.
b. when the existential sentence serves to remind the hearer of the existence of someone or
something.
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e.g. I’m surprised she can afford to buy a cottage of her own.-- There’s that legacy she got
when her aunt died, remember?
I’ve finished doing the washing-up. Can I go home now? -- Don’t forget there’s the table
to be laid. We’re having guests tonight.
c. when the relevant NP is definite in form but not in meaning.
e.g. There wasn’t the slightest difference between them. (The NP must use the because of the
superlative, which implies that the referent is unique; but the referent is not definite
semantically, because it is not identifiable to the hearer.)
4. As a rule, the number of the verb following there depends on the number of the notional subject.107
e.g. There were a host of problems to be solved.
There are two people in there.
When the notional subject consists of two conjoined NPs there is proximal concord:
e.g. There is a hammer and a screwdriver in the car.
There is a hammer and two screwdrivers in the car.
There are two screwdrivers and a hammer in the car.
5. Syntactically, there behaves as an NP. This explains why it can undergo subject raising:
e.g. It seems there is a problem here --- There seems to be a problem here.
It is said/believed there is a problem here --- There is said/believed to be a problem here.
It was supposed there was no cure for the disease --- There was supposed to be no cure for the
disease.
D. THE USE OF SO AS A PRONOUN
1. So can be used as an anaphoric pronoun substituting for a clause. It is used in the following cases:
a. It is used as a clause-substitute after if and why:
e.g. Will he come? -- If so, you’ll have to keep him company.
Will she resign? -- Why so? There is no reason why she should.
Note that we use not instead of not so in the negative.
e.g. Will he come? -- If not, we’ll be on our own tonight.
Will you give us a hand? -- Why not? I’ve got plenty of time.
b. After some verbs of speaking and belief, we use so (not it) as a pro-form for a that-clause
functioning as direct O.
e.g. assume, be afraid, believe, decide, dream, expect (= suppose, suspect), fancy, fear, find (=
experience), gather (= understand), guess, hear, hope, imagine, inform, notice, pray,
presume, reckon, say, see, suppose, suspect, tell, think, trust, understand, wish...
e.g. Will he come tomorrow? -- I hope so. / He told me so. / I expect so. / I am afraid so.
Note:
1) After some similar verbs it is not possible to use so:
e.g. You must help me! You promised you would. (*You promised so.)
2) So can only replace a that-clause. This explains why it is not used after verbs that are
followed by indirect questions or infinitive clauses:
a) After some verbs the pro-form for a dependent question is zero.
e.g. Who else will be there? - I forgot. / I don’t mind. / I didn’t ask. / I don’t know. /
They didn’t tell me. / I can’t remember, but it doesn’t matter.
b) After doubt the pro-form for an if/whether-clause is it or that/this.
e.g. Will he come? -- I doubt it.

107. However, in an informal style there’s is often used instead of there are.
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c) The pro-form for an infinitive clause is usually to. After some verbs zero is (or may
be) used.
e.g. He didn’t come, although he had promised to.
You can leave now if you want (to) / if you like / if you choose.
Why didn’t you help him? -- He didn’t ask me to.
He wanted to open the parcel, but I told him not to.
You have posted the letter? -- No, I forgot to.
He can certainly do it if he tries.
3) A couple of verbs (viz. guess, understand, see) are sometimes used with so, sometimes
with zero.
e.g. I’ve come to you for help. -- (So) I see. What can I do for you?
The situation has changed. -- So I understand.
His lordship will not receive you. -- I don’t understand. I had an appointment with
him.
Note that so has to be used when an affirmative answer is given to a question.
e.g. Will he be there? -- So they told me. / I guess so.
4) So is sometimes found in initial position:
a) So must have initial position with verbs like see, hear, notice, understand.
e.g. I’m in trouble. -- So I see. / *I see so. / So I’ve heard. / *I’ve heard so.
The chairman is in bad spirits. -- So I understand. / So I’ve noticed.
There is no negative form of this structure.
b) With the other verbs, so can sometimes take initial position in short responses and co-
ordinate clauses.
e.g. Mary is expecting a baby, or so she tells me.
Will he be the next dean? -- So all my friends say.
Inversion can occur in such sentences if the verb is one of saying. It is not uncommon
with the verb say itself.
e.g. Is she rich? -- So say all my friends.
5) The fact that so replaces a that-clause entails that so is often used with a verb of saying in
utterances that are concerned with the credibility of a statement (i.e. with the authority for
the statement).
e.g. Harry is gay. -- Who says so? -- Jenny does.
The way you drive, it won’t be long before you have an accident. Everybody says so.
Note:
a) The above examples should be compared with the following:
e.g. Harry is gay. -- Who said that? -- I did. (Who said that? = ‘Who pronounced
those words?’)
b) The expression I told you so is used to express ‘I warned you about what would happen, but
you wouldn’t listen’.
e.g. Mummy, Billy has hit me. -- I told you so. You shouldn’t tease him all the time.
6) In the negative, two constructions are possible:
a) negative verb form + so
e.g. I don’t think/expect/believe/suppose so.
b) affirmative verb form + not
e.g. Is there enough money? -- I fear/think/expect/suppose not.
However,
a) With some verbs the two constructions have a slightly different meaning.
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e.g. cp. Will he come? -- I was not told so. (= I was not told that he would come.)
Will he come? -- I was told not. (= I was told he would not come.)
b) The construction with not...so is rare with fancy, guess and hope and impossible with
be afraid, fear and trust. The construction with not is not used after say or tell (except
in the passive).
e.g. Will she come? -- I hope not. / (I don’t hope so). / I trust not. / *I don’t trust so. /
I am afraid not. / *I am not afraid so.
c) On the whole, the construction with not is rarely used after verbs of saying.
7) An alternative to using so, not...so or not is using a that-clause with a verbal pro-form.
e.g. I’m sure you’ll find somewhere to spend the night. -- I hope I will.
Jim put in a lot of work on this. -- Yes, I believe he did.
Is this the road to Bodiam? -- I don’t think it is.
c. So, not and not...so can be used instead of an extraposed that-clause after it seems and it
appears.
e.g. Will there be a strike soon? -- So it appears. / It appears so. / It appears not. / It doesn’t
appear so.
Are things going to be difficult for him? -- It would seem so.
d. The clause-substitute so is also found in examples like the following:
e.g. He was praised, and rightly so. (= and it was right that he was praised.)
2. So is used as a pro-form for a VP (rather than a clause) if it follows do or opens a clause expressing
agreement with the speaker or similarity.
e.g. When you ask him to scrub the floor he will do so without grumbling.
John can swim very well. -- So he can.
John should be proud of his parents, and so should Nancy.
3. So can also be a pro-form for an adjective used as SC or OC.
e.g. She’s pretty clever but her sister is less so.
He is very happy to have found a job -- the more so because none of his friends have managed
to find one. (= He is the more happy because...)
The work is rather tedious. At least, I find it so.
New Beat music was popular in Belgium before it became so in the rest of Europe.
Note:
a. So can occasionally be found in SC position as a pro-form for a property NP (i.e. an NP which
does not refer but expresses a property).
e.g. cp. My mother was a very pious woman, but I have never been so.
I believe she is a teacher. -- Yes, she has been one/*so for twenty-two years.
e.g. At first he was an honest man, but he did not remain so.
b. So is not used as the pro-form for an adjective in clauses with be that merely express
(dis)agreement or (dis)similarity.
e.g. Do you think she is reliable? She certainly is (not).
John is not a born leader, but Bill is.
John is not stupid, and Bill isn’t either.
4. In formal English, so can sometimes be found as a pro-form
a. for a manner adverbial:
e.g. I had expected my daughter to be treated with respect in your house. However, your
servants do not treat her so.
b. meaning something like ‘as has just been said’:
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e.g. They say that all Italians are liars and thieves, but it isn’t so.
God said, ‘Let the dry land appear’. And it was so. (from the Bible)

II. GENDER

The gender system of pronouns was dealt with in the previous chapter. However, one problem remains:
in some cases it is possible or necessary to use it rather than he/she/they with reference to persons. This is
possible only in sentences with be that give specificational (identifying) information.
e.g. Who is at the door? -- It is a friend of mine. / It is the neighbours.
Such sentences with it is are instances of cleft constructions with ellipted relative clauses:
e.g. It is a friend of mine (who is at the door).
In sentences like these, it is not possible to use he/she/they because the preceding sentence contains no
information about the sex or number of the referent. If the preceding sentence does contain such
information there are two possibilities:
1) It is is used in sentences providing specificational information.
e.g. Who’s your friend? -- It is the son of professor Williams.
In this example, speaker B interprets the question Who’s your friend? as ‘Who is it who is your
friend?’ (i.e. as ‘Who is it who satisfies the variable ‘the X who is my friend’?’). He therefore gives
a specificational reply: ‘X = the son of professor Williams’.
e.g. There’s someone at the door. Who is it? (= ‘the X who is at the door = who?’)
2) He/she is and they are are used in sentences providing predicational (descriptive) information.
e.g. Who’s your friend? -- He is the son of professor Williams.
In this example, speaker B interprets the question Who’s your friend?, not as ‘Who is it who is your
friend?’, but as ‘Can you tell me something more about your friend?’.
e.g. Who are those people? -- They’re friends of mine.
Who was Jimmy Carter? -- He was president of the USA from 1977 to 1981.
Note that in examples like these the question cannot be clefted: *Who is it who are those people?,
*Who is it who is Jimmy Carter? This proves that no specificational (identifying) information is
asked for.
Note: A copular sentence in which be is followed by a pronoun or proper name is always
specificational.
e.g. Who’s there? -- It’s me.
Who is that man over there? -- It’s Mr Brown.

III. CASE

Most personal pronouns occur in two forms: a subject form (nominative form) and an object form
(accusative form). We can speak of the I-group and the me-group, respectively. The following rules
govern their use:
1. In subject position we find the I-group in finite clauses and the me-group in exclamatory infinitive
clauses.
e.g. He is a nice fellow.
Me let myself be ordered about by that slut? Not me!
Him come and insult me in front of the others!
2. Only the object form can be used as direct O or indirect O.
e.g. We helped him to get out of the country.
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He gave her a bunch of flowers.

3. As SC after be, the subject form should be used in very formal speech and writing; otherwise the
object form is usual.
e.g. cp. What would you do if you were he? (very fml)
What would you do if you were him? (not fml)
However, if the pronoun in question is the antecedent of a restrictive relative clause, there are two
possibilities:
a. In formal Br.E., the form of the antecedent pronoun depends on the function (subject or object)
which the relative pronoun fulfils in the relative clause. (This rule is often called relative
attraction.)
e.g. It was she who did it, wasn’t it? (Who is S of did.)
It was her (that) you had in mind, wasn’t it? (That is direct O of had in mind.)
It is I who am to pity. (Who is S of am.)
Was it they who sent you away? (Who is S of sent.)
It was her (that) he tried to call up, not me. (That is direct O of call up.)
b. In (very) informal Br.E. and in Am.E., the object form is used. In that case the relative pronoun
is normally that.
e.g. It was me that did it. (very infml)
We can avoid being too formal or too informal by using a different construction (e.g. an inverted
pseudo-cleft):
e.g. I was the one who did it.
4. After a preposition the object form has to be used.
e.g. I received a parcel from him.
Note that except, but (= except) and like are prepositions.
e.g. Nobody but her can tell us what to do.
A boy like him should go to college.
He speaks as if there were no one that knew the answer but/except him.
5. After a conjunction, the form of the pronoun normally depends on its function in the sentence.
e.g. She and I are in love with one another.
They invited her and me.
The conjunctions as and than often introduce elliptic clauses, i.e. clauses from which all constituents
except the personal pronoun are dropped. In that case the rules are as follows:
a. In (very) formal English, the form of the pronoun depends on its function in the elliptic clause.
e.g. He is taller than I [am]. (fml)
I like him more than [I like] her.
However, the subject form is never used before both and all.
e.g. He is richer than them both/all.
b. In neutral and informal English, the object form is always used after as/than.
e.g. He is younger than me. (not fml)
For such as us, a small car will do.
A man such as him is not easy to deceive.
When in doubt, we can avoid the problem by using a verbal pro-form after as/than:
e.g. He works faster than I do.
6. The verb let is normally followed by the object form, but the group let you and I can be used besides
let you and me.
e.g. Let us pray.
Let you and I/me be friends.
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7. When the pronoun is (part of) an NP that is used by itself (as the only overt constituent of an elliptic
clause), it is normally in the accusative case.
e.g. Who said that? -- Me.
Poor me!
It was she who insulted us, not him.
However, in very formal English, the subject form will be used when the pronoun is the subject of
the ellipted clause.
e.g. Ted is a spoil-sport. -- Yes, but not I. (very fml)
It was she who insulted us, not he. (very fml)

§3. THE COMPOUND PERSONAL PRONOUN

The set of compound personal pronouns comprises the following forms:

myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself
ourselves, yourselves, themselves (not: *theirselves)
oneself
These pronouns are used in the following ways:
I. AS REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS
A pronoun is reflexive if it is coreferential with (i.e. has the same referent as) the subject of the clause in
which it occurs. (In technical terms: a reflexive pronoun is bound by the subject NP; the latter is called
the binding NP or antecedent NP.)
Reflexive pronouns are either (simple) personal pronouns or compound personal pronouns.
1. (Simple) personal pronouns are used with reflexive meaning
a. in adverbial adjuncts of space (i.e. location, goal, source, or direction) and accompaniment.
e.g. He let the door open behind him/*himself.
I like having my family around/by/near me.
I’m going to take her with me.
She threw the blankets off her.
Place it beside / in front of / behind you.
I did not have enough money on me.
He pushed the intruder from him.
She was looking about her. (direction)
b. after between and among expressing the idea of co-operation or shared activity.108
e.g. Between them they collected a nice sum of money.
We divided the apples between us.
They couldn’t raise ten quid among them.
They had better do the job between them.
I guess we drank two bottles of wine between us.
2. In all other cases, reflexive meaning will be expressed by means of a compound personal pronoun:
a. direct object
e.g. She saw herself in the mirror.
She knew him better than he knew himself.
Notice that after a great many verbs the reflexive pronoun is normally ellipted.

108. Between is used when there are two participants in the action; among is used when there are three or more.
 224

e.g. assemble, bend, feel, feed, move, open, prepare, hide, show, spread, stir, submit, surrender,
wash, shave, expand, (un)dress, worry, develop, apologize, abstain...
e.g. How long will it take you to wash, shave and dress?
That looks like a nice place to hide. (cp. a nice place to conceal ourselves)
Workers of all countries, unite!
After some other verbs the pronoun cannot be ellipted. Such verbs are called reflexive verbs.
e.g. absent oneself, betake oneself to, pride oneself on, bethink oneself, avail oneself of,
perjure oneself, busy oneself, occupy oneself, conceal oneself...
e.g. She is constantly priding herself on her aristocratic descent.
The family betook themselves to a well-known restaurant. (fml)
It is not wise of the students to absent themselves from the classes.
b. indirect object
e.g. He would like to build himself a mausoleum.
She poured herself a glass of whisky.
I have given myself a great deal of trouble to help you.
c. subject complement
e.g. She does not seem to be quite herself these days.
Please allow me to be myself.
d. prepositional object
e.g. He looked at himself in the mirror.
e. prepositional adjunct other than adjunct of space or accompaniment
e.g. He was beside himself with rage. (figurative meaning)
I had dinner all by myself.
You’re asking too much of yourself.
Note:
1) The use of a compound personal pronoun instead of a (simple) personal pronoun to express
reflexive meaning is called reflexivization.
2) In most contexts, the term ‘reflexive pronouns’ is used to refer to compound personal pronouns
only.
3) Reflexivization cannot happen across a clause boundary. (In other words, the reflexive pronoun
and the subject NP with which it is coreferential must be constituents of the same clause.)
e.g. John is convinced that he/*himself is liked by everybody.
He knew they were laughing at him/*himself/themselves.
4) Pronouns that have been raised out of a subclause can reflexivize:
e.g. Mary believes herself to be ugly.

II. THE COMPOUND PERSONAL PRONOUN AS EMPHASIZER

1. The compound personal pronoun can be added to an NP in order to emphasize it.
e.g. The discussion that followed the lecture was even more boring than the lecture itself.
How can you say these conclusions are wrong, when you yourself were part of the research
team who formulated them?
I myself reported the theft to the police.
If it is the subject of the clause that is emphasized, the pronoun does not need to follow the NP. In
most cases it can be shifted to the end of the clause (where it receives end focus).
e.g. cp. He himself does not deal in drugs, but his children do. (fml)
He does not deal in drugs himself, but his children do.
e.g. I told you myself.
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In some cases the shift is virtually obligatory:

e.g. cp. ??Why don’t you yourselves do it?
Why don’t you do it yourselves?
The compound personal pronoun can also be dislocated:
e.g. Myself, I do not go in for that kind of thing.
2. When an emphasizing compound personal pronoun is added to a personal pronoun, the latter must
be ellipted, except when it functions as subject. The following are some typical cases in which a
compound personal pronoun is used in this way:
a. after prepositions like as, but (= except), like, than, except, including, etc.
e.g. He isn’t any better informed than myself. (*me myself)
It is such people as yourselves that are ruining our environment.
Everybody believed her except/but myself.
To someone like myself this came as a great shock.
b. as subject complement
e.g. I realized that the person they had in mind was (no other than) myself.
c. when the pronoun is the head of one of two conjoined PPs or NPs
e.g. Please send the report either to my secretary or to myself.
Please send the report to either my secretary or myself.
There was no love lost between himself and his son.
d. in supplementive clauses
e.g. Himself a passionate chess player, he always assumed that everybody knew how to play
chess.
Myself a man of action, I have always found it difficult to accept laziness and inertia.
Note: In some cases even a subject pronoun is ellipted:
a. when the pronoun is one of two conjoined NPs that together form the subject.
e.g. My brother and myself did not know anything about this arrangement.
b. when the pronoun is subject of a co-ordinate clause introduced by and. (In this case the ellipsis
is not obligatory.)
e.g. The pupils were very enthusiastic about the project and (they) themselves raised the
money that was necessary to realize it.

III. THE COMPOUND PERSONAL PRONOUN WITH RECIPROCAL MEANING

1. There is reciprocal meaning when something is given and received in return or is exchanged
between two or more people or groups. The pronouns which normally express this meaning are each
other and one another.
e.g. Kitty and Rupert like each other.
The murder and the burglary took place within a few days of each other.
The children deliberately trod on each other’s / one another’s feet.
2. One another is preferred when there is no reference to particular people.
e.g. The translation of French se parler is to talk to one another.
3. After the prepositions between (referring to two people or things) and among(st) (referring to more
than two), the reciprocal meaning must be expressed by means of a compound personal pronoun.
e.g. cp. They are always quarrelling with each other / with one another.
They are always quarrelling among/between themselves.
e.g. We discussed the various proposals among ourselves.
4. After some verbs the reciprocal pronoun is, or can be, dropped.
e.g. The members of the society meet once a month.
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They kissed before they parted.

My cat and my dog do not fight when I put them together.

§ 4. DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS AND PRONOMINAL DETERMINERS

A. There are four demonstratives: the singular forms this and that and the plural forms these and
those. 109 They are invariable (i.e. they do not have different case forms), and they can be used both as
pronouns and as determiners. They are used to express a contrast between ‘near’ and ‘distant’.
B. The basic difference between this/these and that/those is that the former refer to what is nearer to the
speaker, whereas the latter imply a certain distance (either spatially, temporally or psychologically):
1) Spatially
e.g. cp. Get that animal off the car!
Get this animal off my head!
e.g. I wonder what this appliance is for.
What’s that thing over there?
2) Temporally: we use that/those to speak about the more distant past and future, and this/these to
speak about the present, the recent past and the near future.
e.g. That was very nice of her.
This will be interesting.
Have you heard anything from that man who came to your office some time ago?
I did not have a proper breakfast this morning.
e.g. cp. Things are different these days.
Things were different in those days.
3) Psychologically: that/those connote disapproval, dislike, contempt, irritation, etc.; this/these connote
affection, interest, pride, etc.
e.g. He’s one of those modern painters!
Who’s this Miss Potts?
Damn. There’s that inspector again!
This firm of ours is becoming one of the biggest in the country.
C. The demonstratives can be used in the following ways:
1. Deictic (pointing) use
A demonstrative is used deictically when it relates the referent to the here-and-now of the speaker
(i.e. to the speaker’s ‘deictic centre’).
e.g. This is my bike.
That is yours.
These are my parents.
Those are my neighbours.
This is the time to do it. (This refers to the NOW of the speaker.)
Note:
a. When used as pronouns, the deictic demonstratives can only have human reference if they are
used as subject of an identifying sentence.
e.g. cp. This is the Chief Constable.

109. In spoken English, these/those are often used instead of this/that before kind/sort of + plural NP.
e.g. Those kind/sort of questions are very difficult. (infml)
However, this use of these/those is mostly considered incorrect, and one should certainly use this/that in writing.
e.g. That kind/sort of question is very difficult.
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Listen to this! (no human referent)

cp. That looks like William!
*That believes in ghosts!
There is no such restriction when the demonstrative is used as a determiner.
e.g. cp. *That believes in ghosts!
That one believes in ghosts!
I met this man in Paris. (cp. *I met this in Paris.)
b. On the telephone, British speakers use this to introduce themselves, and that to ask who the
hearer is.110
e.g. Hullo! This is Gladys. Is that Mildred?
2. Anaphoric use
A pronoun or determiner is anaphoric if its referent is identified in the preceding linguistic context.
e.g. Do you remember that man who came to see you yesterday? He is in the lounge. He wants to
see you again.
All four demonstratives can be used anaphorically. They can be coreferential with an NP or a clause.
e.g. He wanted me to find his blue tie. He insisted that this was the only tie he could wear if he put
on his best suit.
Bill tells me Joan will be given the part of Lady Macbeth. If this/that is so, I quit.
He’s a sneak. That’s why I can’t stand him.
The inspector said he wanted to have a word with the Robinsons. However, these/those seemed
to have disappeared into thin air.
I don’t know about his latest novel, but I did read his first. In my opinion, that (one) was
excellent.
However, the pronouns this and that cannot be used to refer back to a person, except as the subject
of an identifying sentence. (There is no such restriction on the determiners this and that.)
e.g. In 1970 Churchill died. He / (the latter) / *this had been Prime Minister during the war.
e.g. John Smith! That’s the man I was looking for. (identifying)
3. Cataphoric use
A pronoun or determiner is cataphoric if it points forward to something in the context that follows.
This and these are the only demonstratives that admit this use. The referent of this is usually a whole
sentence.
e.g. Listen to this! Hillman’s daughter has been arrested!
The solution to your problem is simply this: you must find a partner who can put some money
into the firm.
These chapters must be studied by the students by next week: the chapter on the articles and the
chapter on modality.
4. Determinative use
A demonstrative is used as a determinative pronoun if it is restrictively modified. It is used as a
determinative determiner if its noun head is restrictively modified. That and those are the only
demonstratives that have a determinative use. The restrictive postmodifier can be
a. an adjective or participle
e.g. All those involved in the argument raised their voices.
The MOMI (Museum Of the Moving Image) is quite interesting for those interested in the
early history of the film business.
Don’t pay attention to those complaining about the heat.

110. Americans often use this in both cases.

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b. an adverb
e.g. I like the paintings in his house, particularly those downstairs.
c. a PP
e.g. The army of Iraq is superior in striking force to that of Israel.
He is fond of children and often plays with those in his street.
d. a restrictive relative clause
e.g. Those who liked pottery were interested to see the exhibition at the local museum.
Note:
1) When the determinative is a pronoun followed by a relative clause, the only possible
combinations are that which, those which, those that and those who:
a) That which is used with a nonpersonal referent. It is a formal alternative to what.
e.g. You should only remember that which is most important.
He prefers not to talk about that which he doesn’t understand.
Note that *that what and *that that are impossible combinations.
b) Those which/that has a plural nonhuman referent.
e.g. The basic principles they believe in are no longer those (that) were accepted ten years
ago.
If you cannot find your own keys, you can ask Mary to lend you those that/which I
have given her.
c) Those who is used to refer to a set of persons.
e.g. The number of those who believe in a peaceful solution is rapidly decreasing.
Note that they who is no longer used, except in relics like the proverb They laugh best who
laugh last. In the singular we do not use *that who or the archaic he/she who. Instead, we
use whoever or anyone who, anybody who, the one who.
e.g. Whoever believes that had better see a psychiatrist.
This jobbing gardener works faster than the one we had last time.
Just give it to the one/person who asks for it.
Just give it to whoever asks for it.
2) There is an exceptional determinative use of the determiner this in sentences like
e.g. Who’s this Jack she keeps talking about?
Who’s this millionaire you claim to know?
This use of this implies that the referent has already been mentioned, but not in the immediately
preceding context.111
5. In informal English, this is often used as an alternative to a(n), to introduce a new topic.
e.g. ...and then this girl -- I’ve no idea where she is now -- came up to me and asked...
6. In informal English, this and that can be used with the meaning of the degree adverb so before
adjectives and adverbs.
e.g. I hadn’t meant your paper to be this long. (= as long as this)
If she is that clever, why does she need your help?
How was the concert? -- Not all that good. (= not very good)
But this/that cannot replace so if there is a result clause.
e.g. It was so/*that hot in the room that I was wet all over with perspiration.
§ 5. INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS AND DETERMINERS

111. In highly informal speech this is often used even if the referent has not yet been mentioned. In that case
its function is not unlike that of the indefinite article.
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A. The interrogative pronouns and determiners are used in the following ways:
1. Who and whom are used as pronouns only. They always refer to persons. In careful and formal
English, who is used in subject function and whom in the other cases (direct object, object of a
preposition). In informal English, whom is only used if the pronoun follows a preposition.
e.g. Beside whom were you standing?
Who are you referring to? (Whom is formal.)
Who broke the window?
I don’t know who to invite. (dependent question)
Note that we do not find who(m) as indirect O: a PP with to is used instead.
e.g. To whom have you given the flowers? (fml)
Who have you given the flowers to?
2. Whose can be used as a pronoun or as a determiner.
e.g. Whose (house) is this?
I wonder whose (house) this is. (indirect question)
Whose is this coat?
Whose hat was he wearing?
3. What can be used either as a pronoun with a nonhuman referent or as a determiner before a human
or nonhuman noun.
e.g. What will you do with it?
What time will she arrive?
What idiot told you that?
Note:
a. When used as a determiner, what means ‘what in general’ or ‘what kind of’.
e.g. What colour is it?
What (kind of) literature do you like?
I’ve no idea what records she buys.
b. When used as subject, what combines with a singular verb, except before a form of be followed
by a plural noun.
e.g. What is needed for the garden party?
What are the basic ingredients of this cake?
c. The determiner what can precede either a singular or a plural noun head.
e.g. What materials/people do you need?
What proof have you got?
d. As a determiner, what is not followed by a, except in exclamations (where it has a different
meaning).
e.g. cp. What man is he?
What a handsome man he is!
4. Which can be used either as a pronoun or as a determiner. In both cases the reference may be
singular or plural and human or nonhuman. Which always implies that a choice is to be made from a
limited set of things or people which is identifiable to the hearer.
e.g. cp. What people watch these programmes? (= what kind of people)
Which students watched the programme? (= which students from a contextually given set
of students)
e.g. cp. What club do you belong to? (very general: it could be any club.)
Which club do you belong to? (The speaker has a specific set of clubs in mind.)
e.g. cp. What boys does she like best? (= What’s her type?)
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Which boys does she like best? (= Which boys [from a contextually given set] are her
favourites?)
e.g. Which do you want, port or sherry? (*what)
Note:
a. When the referent is countable, one can be added redundantly to the interrogative pronoun
which. This is often done to make clear whether the reference is singular or plural.
e.g. Which (one) do you want?
Some of these books are very old. -- Which ones?
b. The pronoun which will refer to a person or persons only if followed by a human noun, by
one(s) or by an of-PP containing a human noun or pronoun.
e.g. cp. Ask him which he wants. (no human reference)
Ask him which one he wants. (The referent may be human.)
e.g. cp. Which girl / Which one / Which of the girls won the tournament?
*Which won the tournament?
c. Which (one) must be used instead of who before an of-PP.
e.g. I don’t really know which/*who of them to believe.
Which/*who of them said that?
d. When used as subject, the pronoun which triggers referential concord.
e.g. Which of you was/were present? (The speaker uses was if he thinks that one of the
addressees was present; if he assumes that several of them were present, he uses were.)
Which of us is never mistaken?
5. The interrogative adverbs where, when, why and how can also be considered pronouns because they
replace (adverbial) NPs or PPs.
e.g. when? = (at) what time?
where? = (to/at) what place (e.g. Where have you been (to)?; Where do you come from?)
how? = in what way / by what means?
why? = for what reason?
B. In colloquial English, ever is often used after who, what, and after the interrogative adverbs.112 It
expresses surprise (sometimes mixed with anger, admiration or other emotions).
e.g. Who ever is ringing us up at this hour?
How ever did you manage to talk her round?
Where ever can she have hidden it?
Why ever didn’t you tell the police the truth?
In informal English, phrases like on earth or the hell are used similarly.
e.g. What the hell are you talking about?
Where on earth have you been? We’ve been looking for you all day.
C. The interrogative pronouns are homophonous with the relative pronouns. It may therefore be difficult
to distinguish between them if the relative clause does not fulfil its usual function of adjectival clause but
functions as a nominal clause.
e.g. cp. What they are doing is no concern of mine. (The subclause is a dependent question functioning
as S. Compare: ‘What are they doing? -- That’s no concern of mine.’)
What they are doing is disgraceful. (= that which they are doing...) (nominal relative clause)

112. Who ever, what ever, etc. are sometimes written whoever, whatever, etc., but this is not considered good English. (As we will see in
chapter 14, whoever, whatever, etc. are relative pronouns, not interrogative ones.)
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§ 6. POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS AND DETERMINERS

1. The possessive pronouns are mine, yours, his, hers, ours and theirs. They cannot combine with
determiners or modifiers.
e.g. This book is mine/*the mine.
There is no pronoun its, as its can only be used as a determiner before a zero head followed by
own. 113
e.g. That’s the dog’s bone. It’s its own. (*It’s its.)
2. The possessive determiners are my, your, his, her, its, our and their. They can express relations such
as possession, origin, subject of the action, object of the action, etc.
e.g. his car/novel/criticism/nomination/friend
3. Possessive determiners are seldom coordinated. Instead of your and my children we normally
say your children and mine.
4. The possessive determiners (not the pronouns) can be intensified by own.
e.g. The house they live in is not their own.
Note:
a. Because there is a zero headword, we cannot add one(s) as a dummy noun head:
e.g. *The house they live in is their own one.
b. Note the use of own in the expression ‘on my/your/etc. own’ (= by myself/yourself/etc.).
e.g. They can’t manage on their own.
She’s living on her own now.
Phrases like my own are often part of a double genitive.
e.g. Mangos have a taste of their own.
She has no opinion of her own. (*no own opinion)
I’d like to have a car of my own. (*an own car)
5. In some cases English uses the instead of a possessive determiner.
e.g. He shot himself through the heart.
She slapped him on the face.
I took her by the arm.
He was hit on the head.
Someone shot him in the back.
A boulder fell him on the head. (fml)
He was given a box on the ear.
The use of the in such sentences is subject to severe restrictions:
a. The must follow a preposition.
e.g. cp. The tomato hit him in the eye.
The tomato hit his/*the eye.
e.g. He shrugged his/*the shoulders.
He lost his/*the balance.
He shook his/*the head.
He bit his/*the lips with fury.
b. The PP must refer to some part of the body.
c. The ‘owner’ of the body must already have been referred to in the same clause (as S or direct
O).

113. Be careful not to misspell its as it’s. (The latter can only be a contraction of it is or it has.)
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d. The person in question must be the ‘patient’ of the situation (i.e. the one who receives or
undergoes it, or is affected by it). This means that the is only possible in some expressions:
1) when the speaker is talking about blows, pains and similar things.
e.g. cp. She had a pain in the shoulder.
She had a cat on her/*the shoulder.
e.g. She fell on her/*the nose.
He sat down on his/*the knees.
He was hit on the head.
I received a blow on the chin.
He’s got a strange look in his/*the eyes.
2) some other expressions:
e.g. I have a cold in the head.
She became red in the face.
6. In English, we cannot use a phrase involving of and a personal pronoun to indicate possession. A
possessive pronoun or determiner must be used instead.
e.g. my car (*the car of me)
This car is mine. (*This car is of me.)
Is this your book or hers? (*Is this your book or that of her?)
Note:
a. The same rule holds for names (and other nouns that are readily put in the genitive).
e.g. John’s car (*the car of John)
b. When the NP involves another determiner, a double genitive construction will be used
(provided the conditions for using one are satisfied -- cf. chapter 7):
e.g. some friends of mine/John’s (*some friends of me/John)
those friends of yours/*you that live in London
That lady is a cousin of mine/*me.
Who’s that boy-friend of hers/*her?
He’s no relative of ours/*us.
c. There are, however, a number of idiomatic expressions in which of is followed by a personal
pronoun.
e.g. I couldn’t tell him that for the life of me!
Your frivolity will be the end of me!
She can’t bear the sight of them.
That’ll be the end of her/it.
On the face of it, everything is all right.
It’s not really difficult once you have the knack of it.

§ 7. INDEFINITE PRONOUNS AND DETERMINERS

A miscellaneous group of pronouns and determiners are traditionally called indefinite.114 Most of them,
indeed, have an indefinite meaning, but some of them (e.g. both, each) do not. Nearly all of them are
quantifiers.
I. ONE
A. THE PRONOUN ONE

114. The word determiner is used here as a cover-term for predeterminers, (central) determiners and postdeterminers.
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1. One can be used with the indefinite meaning of ‘people in general’, ‘any person, including the
speaker’. It is more formal than you.
e.g. One should not say such things unless one is really certain.
Note:
a. In this use, one has the genitive form one’s and the reflexive form oneself. 115
e.g. One should always have respect for one’s parents.
One ought not to think too highly of oneself.
One cannot do that kind of thing by oneself.
b. The use of one is likely to be avoided if the indefinite pronoun is repeated several times.
e.g. If one prefers not to use the restaurant, one can cook one’s own meals in one’s room.
In such sentences you will normally be used.
c. One cannot be used
1) when the reference is specific rather than general.
e.g. Someone/*one is knocking at the door. (= a particular person)
*One is serving me. (cp. I’m being served.)
2) when the speaker is not included in the reference.
e.g. *One speaks English here. (cp. We speak English here; English is spoken here.)
In the Middle Ages, people/*one still thought that the earth was flat.
2. One is used as a dummy head in noun phrases like the little ones (= the children), the young ones,
his dear ones, etc.
e.g. Don’t you look forward to seeing your dear ones again?
Grandpa loves romping with the little one.
This book is about the great ones of this earth.
This use sounds rather pompous or humorous. It is possible only with a small number of adjectives
(e.g. beloved, dear, great, little, young).
3. The phrase the one(s) can be used as a kind of determinative pronoun referring to a person or group.
(The pronoun those also admits this use; that does not.)
e.g. Their left half is the one who scores most of their goals. (*that who)
Are you the one who handed out these pamphlets?
My boys are those / the ones in the corner.
However, the one(s) is not normally used before of.
e.g. The mountains of Switzerland attract more tourists than those of Scotland. (*the ones of
Scotland)
The task of the vice-president is as difficult as that of the president. (*the one of the president)
The one(s) will definitely not be used if the ‘count’ characteristic of the NP it stands for is weak, e.g.
if the NP will seldom or never be preceded by a numeral.
e.g. The population of Belgium is smaller than that/*the one of the Netherlands.
The clothes that fashion designers make today resemble those of the fifties.116 (*the ones)
4. When one is not preceded by an article and is followed by a restrictive modifier, it means ‘the sort of
person who/that’. The phrase in question always has a predicational function (i.e. it is used to
predicate a characteristic of the referent of the S).
e.g. Miss Pebmarsh is not one to gossip.
She works like one possessed.
I’m not usually one to be taken in easily, but this time I believed his story.

115. In Am.E. it is also correct to use his and himself.

116. Note that we can speak of three articles or three pieces of clothing, but not of *three clothes.
 234

He’s a great one for telling amusing stories. (= one who is very good at...)
In this meaning one is referred to by his and himself, not one’s and oneself.
e.g. He isn’t one who can sell himself at a job interview.
A merchant is one who sells goods on a large scale.
5. In informal English, the phrase a one can be used after be to express shocked or amused surprise at
someone’s behaviour. It means something like ‘a bold amusing person’.
e.g. Oh, you are a one, telling that joke in front of Sister Mary!
He is a one, your son. Always ready to put the cat among the pigeons.
6. One(s) can be used as an anaphoric pro-form. (Traditional grammars speak of the prop-word one.)
e.g. Do you have an encyclopaedia? I need one to look up how an episcope works.
The goal he scored was a splendid one.
His aim is a noble one, but the means he uses to realize it are objectionable.
Note:
a. Only count nouns can be replaced by one(s). Mass nouns are either repeated or (in some cases)
replaced by some or a zero-form.
e.g. Do you have any milk? I want to borrow some/*one.
If you haven’t got time to make fresh soup you can serve them some tinned.
b. One(s) can replace an entire NP, or its noun head only.
e.g. cp. I have several books on painting. I can lend you one if you like. (one = a book on
painting)
I already have several books on painting. I’d rather get one on sculpture now. (one =
a book)
It follows that one(s) can be used either on its own or as the head of an NP involving a
determiner and/or a modifier.
e.g. Are those your books? I want to borrow one on botany / this one / some good ones / one.
The modifier can be a noun.
e.g. The degree he got was not a university one.
Is your house a corner one?
Note that a(n) can be used only if one is premodified.
e.g. cp. He ate a big one with mustard on.
He ate (*a) one with mustard on.
c. In a number of cases we can or must use zero instead of one:
1) In more formal speech and writing ones is not used after these/those.
e.g. Do you prefer these roses or those?
2) After this and that, one is only used when the phrase picks out a referent from a set (i.e.
when there is an idea of selection or comparison).
e.g. cp. That’s my bike, not yours.
Which of these bikes is yours? -- That one.
e.g. I’m looking for a car. -- What do you think of this one?
That house is nicer than this (one).
3) One is not used after own.
e.g. I’d rather not use your car if you don’t mind. I prefer to use my own.
4) One is not used after genitives and possessives, unless they are followed by an adjective.
e.g. This is my drawing and that is Mary’s.
This sweater is not as nice as yours /John’s / your red one / John’s green one.
My car has run out of petrol. Let’s use yours / *your one / your new one.
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5) One is normally omitted (except in informal English) after an adjective which is used in an
enumeration or which is contrasted with another adjective.
e.g. If you use the red pencil, I’ll take the blue.
He asked me a direct question, not an indirect.
My right eye is better than my left.
The Cuban team stayed away from the opening ceremony, and so did the Angolan,
the Chadian and the Moroccan.
6) One is not normally used after a cardinal or ordinal numeral (unless the numeral is
followed by an adjective), but it may be found after first and second.
e.g. Two of the passengers were killed on the spot. Only the third survived the crash.
Do you have any apples? -- Yes, I have three / three big ones / *three big / *three
ones.
I have only one assistant, although William and Ted have two.
7) One is rarely used after superlatives.
e.g. Of all the goals I have scored this header was the most beautiful.
You’re going to miss your plane. -- Never mind. I’ll take the next.
I’ve taken this flat because it was the cheapest I could get.
One is also often left out after comparatives that are preceded by the and function as SC.
e.g. Which of them is the cleverer?
8) One is optional after some indefinite determiners (see below).
d. Some indefinite or interrogative pronominal forms can be followed by one(s):
1) One(s) can be used after interrogative which to distinguish singular reference from plural.
e.g. cp. Here are the blankets. Which one will you take?
Here are the blankets. Which ones will you take?
2) One(s) must be used after every if there is no other noun head. (In other words, every
cannot be used as a pronoun.)
e.g. The children have been very helpful. Every one of them will be given a present.
(*every of them)
3) One(s) can be added redundantly to each, either, neither, other, another, and any.
e.g. I don’t like this book. Please give me another (one).
You can take either (one).
These are precious books. Each (one) is very old.
These jeans are dirty. I’ll change into my other ones / others.
She held the boy with one hand and pulled off his shorts with the other (one).
One of the passengers was killed. The other / other one / others / other ones, however,
did not even get hurt.
The addition of one(s) to any may be necessary to show the number of the NP.
e.g. You can use any one/ones of these tools.
Note: One(s) cannot be added to the other indefinite pronouns (e.g. few, some, many, both,
all).
e.g. I like some of these sketches. (*some ones)
B. ONE USED AS A DETERMINER
1. One can be used as a numeral.
e.g. The auditorium is not big enough to seat one/a thousand people.
Only one customer has protested.
2. One can be used with the meaning of ‘a certain’, especially
a. before indications of time.
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e.g. The children announced one sunny April morning that they were going to take a dip in the
pool. (*on one sunny April morning)
One day you’ll regret this decision.
b. before names (not preceded by Mr, etc. or by a title)
e.g. There was one Mabel West living in the village where we spent our holidays.
One Charlie Brown wanted to see you.
This use of one as an equivalent of ‘a certain person named’ is formal, even somewhat old-
fashioned. The indefinite article is more often used instead.
3. One can be used as a determiner in correlation with other.
e.g. I’m afraid I can’t accept your invitation. For one thing, I’m not free that evening, and for
another I never go to a party in the middle of the week.
I see you use move the cursor around by pressing these keys. That’s ONE way of doing it.
(implies that there is another and possibly better way)
C. ONE USED AS A POSTDETERMINER
With strong accent, one can follow the definite article in the meaning of ‘only’.
e.g. Inspector Dalgliesh is the ONE person that can solve this murder case.
The ONE way to succeed is to work hard and live a healthy life.
The ONE tulip that grew in the garden was trampled by two fighting dogs.

II. EITHER, NEITHER

A. Neither can be used as a pronoun or as a determiner meaning ‘not the one and not the other (of
two)’.
e.g. Which of the applicants will be accepted? -- Neither (of them). The manager says they are both
too old.
Neither road goes to Hastings. This one goes to Bodiam, the other (one) to Tenterden.
I read two short stories, which were neither of them very good.
I read two short stories, neither of which was very good.
Neither man said anything to defend himself.
Not...either can be used instead of neither, provided not precedes either and is added to the operator.
e.g. cp. Neither of them said anything.
*Either of them did not say anything.
*Not either of them said anything.
e.g. He’s lived in Japan and Taiwan, but he doesn’t like either country very much.
B. Either can also be used as a pronoun or as a determiner. It refers to one person or object out of a set
of two, usually with the connotation that it does not matter which one of the two it is.
e.g. Ask for Robert or Albert. Either is usually there. (= either the one or the other)
Which solution should I choose? -- You can choose either. It does not matter which.
Either of you can do it. (= no matter which one of you)
Either of these sauces can be eaten with fish.
Note that we use either if one member from a set of two is referred to and both if both members are
referred to. (In other words, either has an ‘exclusive’ meaning (i.e. it excludes one of the two
members from the reference), whereas both has an ‘inclusive meaning’ (i.e. it includes both
members in the reference).)
e.g. You can ask either of them. They are both competent to advise you.
Either artist might have been given the part of King Lear.
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However, there are a couple of fixed expressions in which either can be used in the sense of ‘both’
or ‘each’:
e.g. There are lamp-posts on either side of the street. (= on each side, on both sides)
There was a flight of stairs at either end of the corridor.
C. As determiners, either and neither are followed by a singular noun and a singular verb.
e.g. It doesn’t matter which of them you send. Either of them is OK.
Neither solution is without its problems.
When used as pronouns, they also take a singular verb in formal English. In spoken English, a plural
verb is often used after the group ‘neither of + plural NP’ (= proximal concord).
e.g. Neither of these proposals is/are worth considering.
Informal English also often uses a plural verb after ‘either of + plural NP’, but only in negative and
interrogative sentences.
e.g. Either of the children is/*are capable of doing these exercises.
I don’t think either of them is/are at home now. (are = infml)
Is/are either of you ready to come with me? (id.)
Either of these boxes is/*are big enough to put the linen in.

III. ALL, EACH, EVERY, BOTH

A. These four indefinite quantifiers all effect inclusive reference, i.e. they refer to all the items of a set.
The quantifiers all, each and every are often called universal quantifiers.
B. Meaning and use of these quantifiers:
1. Every is a determiner whose meaning is ‘one as well as the others’, ‘without exception’. It is used
with a singular noun (which triggers singular concord when used as S) and can be used only if the
reference is to more than two persons or things (hence not with mass nouns).
e.g. You can get diesel fuel at every petrol station in this town.
Every word in this statement has been carefully chosen.
Every time I meet him he is smoking a big cigar.
I enjoyed every minute of my visit to the Johnsons.
I have worked hard for every single penny I have earned.
Unlike all and each, every cannot be used as a pronoun. The corresponding pronoun is either
everything, everybody, everyone or every one. Note the distinction between everyone and every one:
a. Of the two, only every one can be used anaphorically, i.e. to refer back to a set of persons or
things:
e.g. I have three sisters/pictures. Every one of them is beautiful.
She’s eaten all the plums. -- What? Every one? -- Every single one!
b. Only every one can be used before of.
e.g. Every one / *everyone / *everybody of the children is very hungry.
Every one of these loaves is stale.
Go to hell, every one of you!
They have accepted every one of my suggestions.
Before other prepositions, everyone and everybody will be used when the reference is to
persons.
e.g. Everyone in the room stopped talking when she came in.
Everybody in the village knows her well.
Note:
a. The same distribution applies to the pair any one vs. anyone/anybody.
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e.g. You can invite any / any one / *anybody / *anyone of them.
Ask anyone / anybody / *any one in your class.
b. Everyone and anyone have their nuclear stress on the first syllable. In every one and any one,
the two constituents receive equal stresses.
c. Every is occasionally used after a possessive determiner: He watched my every movement.
d. Notice the following secondary meanings of every:
1) ‘once (in) each’
e.g. He calls on her every morning / every 4 days / every other day (= every second day) /
every third Monday.
There was a telephone call every three or four minutes.
The car needs to be serviced every ten thousand miles.
2) ‘as much (hope, chance, reason, etc.) as possible’
e.g. She has made every attempt to escape doing her share of the work.
He always gave us every assistance/encouragement.
You have every reason to feel disappointed.
The project has every chance of success.
This use is possible with abstract nouns only. It represents the only case in which every
can be followed by a mass noun.
3) every time (that) = ‘whenever’
e.g. They beat us every time we play.
4) every inch/bit (+ predicational phrase) = ‘completely’
e.g. He is every inch a gentleman.
They are every bit as rich as you are.
2. All can be used as a (pre)determiner or pronoun.
a. It can be used as a (pre)determiner before a plural count noun:
e.g. All those petrol stations have raised their prices.
In many cases the use of all implies that the speaker considers a number of persons or things as
a group rather than as a number of individuals. In other cases, however, this implication is
absent and all is simply equivalent to every or every one of.
e.g. All these forms must be filled in. (= every one of these forms)
Not all girls like playing with dolls.
Note the difference between ‘all + N’ and ‘all the + N’: in the absence of another determiner,
the definite article is used when there is definite reference to a specific group, not when the
reference is general.117
e.g. cp. All children like going to the zoo.
All the children wanted to go to the zoo. (= of a specific set)
e.g. At all times and in all countries there has been corruption and abuse of power.
You can’t go home until all the forms have been filled in.
However, the can be omitted before a numeral.
e.g. The police have already interrogated all (the) seven witnesses.
b. All can be used as a (pre)determiner before a singular noun (which is usually a mass noun,
occasionally a count one). It then means ‘the complete amount or quantity of’, ‘the whole of’,
‘every part of’.
e.g. They have eaten all the fudge.
We had to walk all the way.

117. Some people (esp. Americans) sometimes use all even when the reference is definite.
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She seems to have lost all/any interest in her children.

We spent all last week attending a conference in London.
Here again, the is used only when the reference is definite, not when it is general.
e.g. All the milk has gone sour.
All milk contains calcium.
Do you think the devil is the source of all evil?
He didn’t say a word all the time he was here.
However, before certain temporal nouns (day, week, morning, night, year, summer, month...),
the article is not used, unless the reference is to a specific day, week, etc., in which case it is
sometimes added.
e.g. Has he been working all morning / (all the morning)?
They waited all night for their children to come home.
The article is never used in negative contexts.
e.g. I haven’t seen a soul all day.
c. When used as a predeterminer, all is often interchangeable with all of or with a construction
with whole:
1) All of can replace all. It is especially common in Am. E. It is generally preferred to all
before singular count nouns.
e.g. Has he eaten all (of) the loaf/bread?
I have been away all (of) the time.
Note that the NP following all of must be definite.
e.g. Have you read all of the/*a book?
2) Whole and all are interchangeable (but with a different word-order) before singular count
nouns.
e.g. He’s been away all (of) the time / the whole (of the) time.
I won’t work for you all my life / the whole of my life / my whole life.
e.g. cp. all this confusion -- this whole confusion
Note:
a) Whole cannot be used if there is no determiner.
e.g. *Whole France was occupied. (cp. the whole country / the whole of France)
b) Whole is not used with mass nouns.
e.g. *The whole (of the) money/wine is lost.
c) With singular count nouns, whole is generally preferred to all.
e.g. The whole house / (all the house) was damaged.
d) With plural nouns, whole means ‘entire’, ‘complete’, whereas all has a meaning
similar to that of every.
e.g. cp. All forests will have disappeared by 2100 AD.
Whole forests were cut down in the 1980s.
e) The whole of can only be followed by a singular definite NP.
e.g. the whole of the surface / this village / the week / my life
*the whole of a surface
*the whole of the students
d. All can be used as a pronoun.
1) When the referent is nonhuman, the pronoun all means either ‘everything’ or ‘the only
thing(s)’.
e.g. All that she says is pertinent.
All I want is somewhere to stay the night.
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That is all I can promise you.

All’s well that ends well. (proverb)
All is not gold that glitters. (proverb)
In modern English, this use is common only if all is followed by a restrictive relative
clause. In older English, all could be used on its own, as in All is lost or Tell me all. This
use still persists in newspaper headlines (e.g. Gambling minister loses all) and in the
expression all about (e.g. I know all about her, Let’s forget all about it).
2) With a human referent, the pronoun all means ‘everybody’ or ‘every one’.
e.g. All agree that he deserves to be given a medal.
All who are late will have to stay outside.
This use of all is formal. Instead of all who people more often say all those who or all the
people who.
e. All can be used as an adverb meaning ‘completely’.
e.g. Can I tell you now? -- Go ahead. I’m all ears.
I’m all for adopting the kind of policy that the Prime Minister suggests.
She’s all right, even if she’s all by herself.
It was all too soon that we had to pack our bags again.
Some sentences are ambiguous because all can be interpreted as an adverb or as a pronoun:
e.g. They were all covered with mud. (= either ‘they were wholly covered’ or ‘all of them
were covered’)
3. Each can be used as a pronoun or as a determiner. Unlike all and every, it does not tend to gather the
separate items into a whole but focuses on them individually. We can therefore paraphrase each as
‘every (one) separately’.
e.g. cp. Every teacher has to maintain discipline.
Each teacher has his own way of maintaining discipline.
cp. Every student has to study the material for the examination.
Each student needs to find which is the best way for him to study.
cp. Every applicant had to answer the same questions.
The manager interviewed each applicant in turn before making his decision.
e.g. Each petrol station in this town sells petrol of a different trade mark.
The director told each of the actors what he had to do while the protagonist was reciting his
monologue.
Note:
a. In some expressions, each and every do not really have a different meaning.
e.g. She looks the same every/each time I see her.
b. Unlike every, each is not used after restricters like almost, practically, nearly, etc., which stress
the idea of a whole group.
e.g. She gets a parcel almost every/*each month.
Nearly every/*each boy in the school failed the fitness test.
I have warned every/*each single one of them.
c. Unlike every and all, each can be used if the set referred to comprises only two elements:
e.g. There was a ditch on each side of the road. (= on either side, on both sides)
d. Unlike everybody and everyone, each always refers to some definite set of referents, which
must either be identified in the preceding context or be introduced in the NP of which each
forms part.
e.g. cp. I went into the room and had a word with everybody/*each.
There were several people in the room. I had a word with each (of them).
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I went into the room and had a word with each of the people that were there.
e. Like every (and unlike all and both), each is followed by a singular noun and a singular verb.
However, the verb will be plural when each follows a plural subject. 118
e.g. Each of them has two pair of gloves.
They each have two pair of gloves.
4. Both can be used as a pronoun or as a (pre)determiner referring to two persons or things. Unlike
each, which focuses on the items separately, both tends to take the two items together (in the same
way as all often indicates totality when the reference is to more than two). It is always followed by a
plural verb.
e.g. Both these drawings are mine.
I don’t know which method is the better. I’ll try both (of them).
I have two sisters. They are both engineers.
Which of the two films have you seen? -- Both (of them).
He is blind in both eyes.
You can’t have it both ways.
Note:
a. The definite article can be omitted after both:
e.g. Both (the) witnesses were unreliable.
b. Both differs from either in that it has an inclusive meaning (‘both A and B’), whereas either has
an exclusive meaning (‘either A or B’).)
e.g. Which film would you advise me to go and see? -- You can see either. They are both
excellent. (Only one film will be seen.)
You can use either method to solve the problem. To see this for yourselves, you can try
both.
C. All, each and both can enter into various constructions:
1. They can be used on their own, as (unmodified) anaphoric pronouns.
e.g. There were a lot of children in the tent and all appeared very happy.
I keep repeating to the boys that each must learn to look after himself.
You see those cars? Both are mine.
2. They can combine with a noun or pronoun. The possible combinations are:
a. when combining with a (modified or unmodified) noun:
1) All/each/both can precede the noun as determiners or predeterminers.
e.g. Each man has his own character.
Both these students wish to attend your lecture.
All my friends have congratulated me.
2) All/each/both can be used as pronouns, followed by of and a definite NP.
e.g. All of the chairs were broken.
All (*of) children like this kind of music. (indefinite NP)
3) If the NP is S, all/each/both can fill the pre-verb position. 119
e.g. John and Mary have both written love poems.
The trees have all lost their leaves.
The girls have each received a necklace.
In these sentences all/each/both are pronouns.

118. In informal English the plural is sometimes found when each is followed by of and a long plural NP (= proximal concord). However, most
speakers do not consider this as correct.
119. Each is occasionally found after the S: The workers each have done their share of the work.
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b. when combining with a personal pronoun:

1) pronoun + all/each/both
e.g. I told them each what they had to know.
You haven’t lost it all, have you?
Note:
a) Each can follow a pronoun only if it is indirect O.
e.g. cp. She sent them each a present.
*She had a word with them each.
*She kissed them each.
b) All and both do not follow pronouns that are S or SC.
e.g. *They all/both have lied to us.
*This is it all.
He has insulted them all.
We are all satisfied with the result. (cp. *We all are satisfied.)
Best wishes to you all.
c) All/each/both do not follow but precede demonstrative pronouns.
e.g. I stopped believing in all that / *that all / all of that when I was fifteen.
2) all/each/both + of + pronoun
e.g. All of them were there.
You haven’t lost all of it, have you?
Each of them had something to say.
3) When the pronoun is S, all/each/both can also fill the pre-verb position.
e.g. They have all/each/both made the same mistake.
They were each quite unaware of the distress they had caused.
4) When the pronoun is S, all and both (but not each) are also sometimes found in the
construction ‘pronoun + all/both + of + pronoun’.
e.g. They all of them dreamed of becoming actresses.
We both of us hesitated to comply with that request.
Note:
a) In formal English, the same type of construction is occasionally found with other
quantifiers too.
e.g. We most of us believe in a peaceful solution.
They neither of them have a computer at home.
b) This construction is comparatively rarely used.120
c. With distributive meaning, each can be moved out of the subject NP to the position after the
verb complement.
e.g. Jim and Minny have two raincoats each.
They have had to answer three questions each.
They have won a prize each.
Note: The phenomenon that a quantifier belonging to the subject NP is moved to the pre-verb
position or to the end of the clause is called quantifier shift or quantifier movement.

120. Examples can be found in which the group ‘quantifier + of + pronoun’ has been shifted into the pre-verb position.
e.g. They have both of them left for America.
We have most of us worked hard to secure our future.
They could neither of them understand Swahili.
We are none of us willing to take your word for it.
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IV. SOME, ANY

A. Some can be used as a pronoun:
1. The pronoun some can refer to, or substitute for, an indefinite mass noun. In that case it expresses an
indefinite but restricted quantity or amount and triggers singular concord.
e.g. He asked me for chewing gum and I gave him some. (= a small or certain amount)
It was not easy to buy fresh fruit, but I managed to get some when I went to market.
Only some of the work I have to do is interesting.
I like some of their music, but not all.
2. The pronoun some can refer to, or substitute for, a plural count noun. In that case it expresses an
indefinite but restricted number, and it patterns with a plural verb.
e.g. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
(Shakespeare)
Some of us tend to believe him, some are sceptical.
If you haven’t got any envelopes I’ll give you some.
3. The pronoun some cannot refer to, or substitute for, a singular count noun. Instead we use one (if the
reference is anaphoric or cataphoric) or someone/somebody/something (if the reference is to an
unknown or unstated person or thing).
e.g. I’m sure I lost one/something.
There’s someone waiting for you.
One/*Someone/*Somebody of them disappeared without a trace.
B. Some can be used as a determiner:
1. It can be used before a mass noun or plural count noun to make clear that the reference is to an
indefinite but restricted quantity or number. (In this respect some resembles a(n), which makes clear
that the reference is to an indefinite singular entity.)
e.g. cp. There is a dog in the kitchen.
There are some people in the lounge.
There is some beer in the cellar.
e.g. I need a car / some money / some aspirins.
We had a storm / some rain yesterday.
Note:
a. In this meaning we use the weak form of some, not the accented form.
b. The element ‘indefinite quantity or number’ is essential to this use of some (and the
corresponding use of any).
e.g. cp. The boy has dirty finger nails. (The reference is to all the boy’s finger nails, whose
number is definite.)
The boy has some dirty finger nails. (The reference is to an indefinite number of
finger nails, i.e. not to all ten.)
cp. We drank some beer. (an indefinite quantity)
He never drinks beer. (no reference to a specific quantity)
Beer may or may not contain alcohol. (reference to beer in general)
cp. I have some really old comics.
All children like comics.
c. Because some effects indefinite reference to a restricted quantity or number, there is felt to be a
contrast between the quantity or number referred to and the mass or entities not referred to. In
other words, some is felt to contrast with determiners like other, all, much/many or enough.
This is especially the case when some is accented.
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e.g. Some people are amused at his behaviour, others are indignant at it.
We’ve got some support, but not enough.
Some of them were rescued. (implicates ‘not many’ and hence ‘not all’)
2. Some can precede a singular count noun in the sense of ‘an unknown or unstated one’. It often
suggests lack of interest, or contempt.
e.g. Some idiot has started this rumour.
Surely, there must be some task we could give her.
She says she doesn’t want to spend her life in some mouldy office.
She’s always having trouble with some man or other.
I will answer that question some other time.
3. Before a numeral, some means ‘about’, ‘approximately’.
e.g. There were some 40 or 50 people in the hall.
It happened some twenty years ago.
Note that a is dropped after some before hundred and thousand.
e.g. There were some hundred/thousand people demonstrating in the street. (= about a/one
hundred/thousand)
C. Both some and any refer to an indefinite quantity or number. However, whereas some implies that the
quantity or number referred to is restricted, any implies either that the reference is not restricted or that
the quantity or mass referred to is zero. This means that we have to use any rather than some in
nonassertive contexts: in questions like Do you need any of it/them? there is no clear idea of restriction
(that is, it is not clear to the speaker whether the hearer needs some, all or none of the quantity or number
referred to by it/them), whereas in negative sentences like I do not need any of it/them the quantity or
number referred to is zero.
In more detail:
1. In affirmative statements we use some, not any, to express the meanings indicated sub A. and
B. above.
2. We also use some in sentences that are negative in form but assertive (positive and declarative) in
meaning or expectation, because in such sentences the reference is to a restricted quantity or
number:
a. Some is used in negative questions that have the value of a positive statement (i.e. in negative
rhetorical questions).
e.g. Isn’t there someone who could help us? (= I am sure there is someone who could help us.)
Why don’t you go to someone else? (= You should go to someone else.)
Didn’t someone leave his room? (= I am sure someone did.)
Why don’t you do something about it? (= Do something about it!)
b. Some can be used in negative statements if it does not fall within the scope of the negation. It
then means ‘a particular one’ or ‘particular ones’.
e.g. cp. I’m not going to interview some of the candidates because I have already spoken with
them. (= There are some candidates that I am not going to...) (= I do intend to
interview candidates, but not those particular ones.)
I’m not going to interview any of the candidates. (= There aren’t any candidates that
I am going to interview.)
e.g. Some boys do not like playing football. (= There are some boys that don’t like...)
This is not something to be afraid of. (= This is something that you should not be afraid
of.)
3. Some will be found in yes/no questions that are assertive in expectation. (This means that the speaker
has a certain quantity or number in mind and/or expects a positive answer to his question.)
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e.g. Was there a phone call for me? (The speaker expects a positive answer, perhaps because he is
expecting some specific phone call.)
Are you going somewhere this afternoon? (implies: ‘I think you do’; The speaker may have a
particular place in mind.)
It follows that the speaker will always use some (not any) in questions that are really requests,
invitations, offers or commands. In all these cases he naturally implies that he expects an affirmative
reply.
e.g. Would someone open the door for me, please?
Some more whisky?
Will you kindly tell us something more about the project?
4. Some is used in wh-questions that presuppose the existence of the entity to which the wh-word
pertains.
e.g. Who’s eaten some of this cheese? (presupposes the existence of at least one person who has
eaten some of the cheese)
What was it that the police sprayed on some of the demonstrators? (presupposes that the police
sprayed something on some of the demonstrators)
5. Some is used in conditional clauses that represent a hypothetical situation as quite possible or even
likely (rather than as improbable or counterfactual).
e.g. Don’t shoot if you see someone approaching. (The speaker more or less expects that someone
will come; he may be thinking of a particular person.)
If someone comes to see me, show him into the library. (The speaker is expecting someone.)
D. Unlike some, any can be used in nonassertive contexts. In negative statements it implies that the
quantity or number referred to is zero; in questions it makes clear that the speaker does not have a
specific or restricted quantity or number in mind.
e.g. I haven’t encountered any problems so far.
Has any (of the) fruit juice been spilt over the carpet?
Note:
1. When any of is followed by a plural NP, the verb can be singular or plural. In formal English, a
singular verb is more common.
e.g. If any of the workers is/are absent, let me know.
I doubt if any of them is/are going to work that fast.
2. Neither some nor any can replace the indefinite article before a singular count noun. 121
e.g. I have a/*some car.
I haven’t got a/*any car.
3. The nonassertive context in which any replaces some can be one of the following kinds:
a. Any is used in NPs that fall within the scope of a negator (not, never, no, neither, none, nor).
e.g. I don’t want to say anything. (= There is not anything that I want to say.)
It won’t make life any easier for me. (= It is not the case that it will...)
I’ve never seen anybody mugged in this building.
Nobody would give us any help.
Notice that, after some verbs, the negator is transferred from the that-clause to the main clause.
In that case too, any is used in the that-clause.
e.g. I don’t suppose anyone will help us? (from: I suppose that no one will help us?)
We don’t expect he’ll do anything about it.
I don’t think anyone will sympathize with her if she gets punished.

121. In informal English, any is sometimes used instead of a(n) in nonassertive contexts. However, this is not generally considered correct.
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Transferred negation (also referred to as negative raising) is possible (and almost the rule)
with think, believe, expect, fancy, imagine, reckon and suppose but not with other verbs of
belief or assumption, like assume, hope, presume and surmise. The verbs seem and appear also
allow it when they are followed by an infinitive.
e.g. cp. My dog doesn’t seem to like any of you.
My dog seems not to like any of you. (fml)
e.g. cp. I hope that nobody will ever hear of this.
*I don’t hope that anybody will ever hear of this.
e.g. She doesn’t believe that there is anything to be done about it.
b. Any is used in NPs that fall within the scope of near-negative adverbs (e.g. barely, hardly, only,
rarely, scarcely, seldom) or prepositions (e.g. without, for lack of, in the absence of).
e.g. There was hardly any hope left of finding the missing papers.
I have rarely met any tourists in this part of the country.
He tried hard, but without any success.
There was seldom anybody in the library.
I’ve scarcely done any work at all.
c. Any is used in an NP that falls within the scope of a determiner, adjective, noun or verb that has
a negative implication:
- impossible, unknown, unlikely, improbable, uncertain, doubtful, etc.
- difficult, hard, few, least, little, reluctant, etc.
- too + adjective + to-infinitive
- avoid, deny, discourage, doubt, fail, forbid, hinder, miss, prevent, refuse, etc.
- denial, failure, refusal, reluctance, etc.
e.g. There was little chance that anybody would hear the shot.
It was too late to do anything about it.
She discouraged us from reading any modern novels.
I doubt if she has anything interesting to tell us.
He denied taking away any money.
The noise made it impossible/hard/difficult to hear anything.
His problems were unknown to any(one) but himself.
His failure to solve any of the problems did not come as a surprise. (cp. some = some
particular ones)
d. Any is used in before-clauses which are nonfactual or have another negative implication.
e.g. I tore up the letter before anyone had read it.
It lasted a long time before anybody/somebody reacted. (Using anybody, the speaker
stresses that no one reacted for a long time; using somebody, he stresses that someone did
react in the end.)
e. Any is used in two types of conditional clause:
1) Any is used in conditional clauses that represent a hypothesis as doubtful, impossible or
contrary-to-fact
e.g. If you should have any difficulty, let me know.
You could have had some biscuits if there had been any left.
I would give you some advice if I had any.
2) Any is used in conditional clauses expressing an ‘open condition’ (i.e. when the speaker
makes a hypothesis concerning a future situation without implying whether or not he
expects that the situation will actualize. In such clauses the speaker does not have a
specific quantity or amount in mind.)
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e.g. Come and see me if you have any time.

Don’t shoot if you see anyone coming.
Your tutor will help you if there are any problems left.
Note:
a) In such if-clauses there is often very little difference between some and any. Some has
a slightly more positive meaning.
e.g. If I have some/any news, you’ll be the first to hear it.
If you want some/any help, let me know.
I will punish you if you read some/any of his work.
b) On the other hand, it is normal to use the forms something/somebody/someone in such
clauses expressing an open condition.
e.g. If someone found these letters, our affair would no longer be a secret.
Don’t disturb me unless you’ve got something important to say.
We’d better take the first-aid kit with us in case someone gets hurt.
But what if someone has overheard your conversation?
In such clauses, anything/anybody/anyone would suggest a different meaning: ‘no
matter which thing/person’.
e.g. If anyone is interested, they can read this brochure.
If anyone attacks me, I’ll use this knife to defend myself.
If you throw a party or anything, put up a notice. (or anything (infml) = ‘or
another thing similar to that mentioned’)
f. Any (and its compounds) will be used in yes/no-questions that expect a negative reply or are
neutral (i.e. the speaker does not particularly expect a positive or negative answer).
e.g. cp. Did you meet anybody on your way home? (neutral question)
Did you see somebody on your way home? (positive reply expected)
e.g. cp. Have you spent any money yet?
Have you already spent some money?
e.g. Is anybody listening?
The same rule holds for dependent questions.
e.g. I wondered if he had any friends.
I’d like to know if there are any letters for me to sign.
g. Any is used in wh-questions that do not presuppose the existence of the entity to which the wh-
word pertains.
e.g. Who’s eaten any of this cheese? (The speaker does not presuppose that anybody has eaten any of
the cheese; he just thinks that this might be the case.)
h. Any is used in comparative clauses that have a negative implication.
e.g. cp. Bill is taller than any other pupils. (= No other pupil is as tall as Bill.)
Bill is taller than some other pupils. (= He is taller than certain pupils (but smaller than
others).)
E. In nonassertive sentences, any can be used adverbially before comparatives and with the words
different, good and use.
e.g. I won’t tolerate this any longer!
Is she any better now?
We couldn’t reach you any sooner.
If I were any taller, I wouldn’t have to stand on a chair.
She says she doesn’t feel any better for having had a rest.
He hardly looks any different from how he did when he was at school.
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Is it any use trying to pacify her?

No can be used similarly as an adverb of degree, but some cannot.
e.g. Was the performance any good? -- No, no good at all.
She is no better today.
Stay away from him. He’s no good.
F. Because it implies that the speaker is not thinking of a restricted quantity or number, any can also be
used in assertive contexts in order to explicitly deny the idea of restriction:
1. Like every and all, any can be used with a mass noun to mean ‘as much as possible’. In that case the
noun is usually postmodified.
e.g. He was given any/all/every help he needed.
2. Any can mean ‘no matter which’, ‘one/some of whatever kind’. If there is a relative clause following
the NP, the relative pronoun is usually that (or zero), not which or who.
e.g. They are mine, but you can use any (of them) you like.
There are some peaches on the table. You can take any (one) of them.
He will eat anything when he is hungry.
We don’t buy just any old cars. They have to be in good repair.
Anyone interested can attend the lecture.
This is the only use in which any can precede a singular count noun.
e.g. I’ll take any seat but that one.
He buys any book he can find on the subject.
Call me up at any time.
Any suggestion is welcome.
Any child could do that!

V. OTHER
A. Other can be used as a pronoun or as a (post)determiner. It can have the following meanings:
1. When preceded by a definite determiner it means ‘the remaining (one/ones) of the set’.
e.g. She’s richer than (any of) the others.
The other five boys didn’t dare to come nearer.
Where are your other clothes?
Note that the others can refer to things as well as to persons.
e.g. There are only two bikes/children in here. Where are the others?
2. Without a definite determiner, other(s) has one of the following meanings:
a. ‘additional (one/ones)’
e.g. I don’t have the key of the front door. -- Never mind. There are plenty of other ways of
getting in.
John and some others were absent yesterday.
Some of them are white. Others are grey. (= some others; cp. the others = the rest)
b. ‘not the same’, ‘not this/oneself/one’s own etc.’, ‘different (one/ones)’
e.g. He is always trying to spend other people’s money. (= not his own)
Others may condemn her, but I don’t.
I don’t like these biscuits. Have you got any others?
B. Another means either ‘an additional one’, ‘a different one’ or ‘someone else’.
e.g. Sheila has already made two trips abroad and now she is talking of making another (one).
Note that another can be followed by a numeral or few + a plural NP.
e.g. Another few people can still join the group if they like.
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We need another four or five workmen.

C. Notice the use of other in the following groups:
1. To refer to an unspecified entity, we can use the following constructions involving other:
a. when used adnominally: one or other X or some X or (an)other.
e.g. I’m sure one or other friendly person will help us.
We’ll do it some time or (an)other.
He’s staying with some friend or (an)other / some friends or other.
Note:
1) Self-evidently, another is possible only when the referent is singular and countable.
2) We use the one or other X when there exist only two entities satisfying the description X.
e.g. The teacher told us about the rules that English speakers observe when choosing the
one or other article before a count noun.
b. when used as a pronoun and followed by of: one or other.
e.g. The box was left here by one or other of the workmen.
We were received by one or other of his assistants.
c. when used as a pronoun and not followed by of: somebody or other, something or other,
somewhere or other.
e.g. There was always something or other that bothered him.
Who told you? -- Oh, somebody or other, I’ve forgotten who.
I’m not making this story up; I must have heard it somewhere or other.
Note that the addition of or other is typical of informal English.
2. To refer to different entities belonging to the same set, we can use the following correlative
constructions:
a. We use one...another if we are not thinking of a definite set of entities:
e.g. When we went to France we visited one castle after another.
One government after another was installed in the space of very few years.
b. We use one...the other if we are thinking of a definite set and refer to one member at a time:
e.g. They’re all so much alike. I can’t tell one from the other.
The guests arrived one after the other.
c. We use (the) one...the other if we are thinking of a definite set consisting of two entities:
e.g. The two courses are for quite different people: (the) one for people that are not assertive
enough, the other for people who have problems educating their children.
The twins are so alike that it is difficult to tell (the) one from the other.
D. Every other can be used with the meaning of ‘every second’.
e.g. At the time I visited London every other year: I went there in 1982, 1984 and 1986, and I was
going again in 1988, when I had my accident.
E. The other day/afternoon/evening/night means ‘on a recent day/afternoon/evening/night’.
e.g. Guess who I met on the train the other night.
F. Other than can be used as a connector in nonassertive contexts. It can mean
1. ‘except’
e.g. There’s nobody here other than us.
2. ‘not’, ‘anything but’
e.g. She can hardly be other than angry with him.
3. ‘otherwise than’, ‘in any other way than’
e.g. You can’t get there other than by car.
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VI. NO, NONE, NOTHING, NOBODY, NO ONE

A. No can be used as a determiner, not as a pronoun. It is synonymous with not any (before a mass noun
or plural noun) or not a (before a singular count noun).
e.g. I have no patience left. (= not any)
He is no hero. (= not a)
There is no bathroom in this house. (= not a)
There are no taxes to pay. (= not any)
Note:
1. The use of no is more restricted in English than the use of not...any. In colloquial English, no is
common only at the beginning of a sentence and after there is/are. The same applies to nobody, no
one, nothing.
e.g. I’ve read no book so far. (rare)
I’ve spoken with nobody. (id.)
2. No is used adverbially before comparatives, before the adjective different, and in the expression it is
no good/use. In all these cases it is interchangeable with not...any.
e.g. I’m feeling no more relieved than before I heard the news. (= I’m not feeling any more
relieved than...)
I envy people who can eat anything they like and get no fatter.
He no longer trusts her.
I had wondered whether I would recognize him after all those years, but he was no different.
I don’t think he looks any different from how he did when we knew him at school. (transferred
negation)
I’m no good at football.
It’s no use complaining to her.
Note: When not is used without any in a sentence involving a comparative, it means that the
negation has wide scope (i.e. the sentence as a whole is negated, not just the comparative).
e.g. You’re getting fatter. -- That’s not true. I’m not getting fatter! (= It is not true that I’m
getting fatter.)
B. None is a pronoun meaning ‘not one’, ‘not any’, ‘no one’ or ‘no quantity, amount or part’. It refers
(either cataphorically or anaphorically) to an NP that is either human or nonhuman and which is either a
singular mass NP or a plural count NP. In the latter case it can be followed by a singular or plural verb.
(The singular is often considered more correct, but the plural is preferred in speech, certainly if none is
followed by ‘of + plural NP’.)
e.g. None of the children was/were familiar with these facts.
If you need a seamstress, there is none better than my neighbour. (fml)
None of the seats is/are occupied.
None of the others has/have ever attained the same level.
None of this food looks fresh.
None but the best is deemed good enough for her. (= only the best)
Note:
1. Before of we have to use none instead of nobody or no one. None of is often used instead of nothing
of.
e.g. None of us is/are interested. (*no one of us)
What I do is none/*nothing of your business.
Nothing/none of this is true.
None of its former glory remains.
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None of the money we have been given has to be returned.

2. None can also be used adverbially:
a. in the construction ‘none + the + a comparative + (usually) for’
e.g. He has taken a couple of days off, but he is feeling none the better for it.
I am none the wiser for having interviewed the Prime Minister.
I can’t say my car is none the worse for wear.
b. in the construction ‘none + too + adjective/adverb’ (= ‘not very’ or ‘not at all’)
e.g. The sheets on the bed were none too clean. (or: The sheets weren’t any too clean.)
The children behaved none too well in church yesterday. (or: didn’t behave any too well)
The boy was punished for his none-too-exemplary conduct.
3. In informal English, nothing like/near or not anything like is sometimes used instead of not.
e.g. The journey was nothing like so exhausting as we had expected.
It seems she paid £100,000 for it. -- Oh no. It was nothing like/near as much as that.
She isn’t anything like as confident as the others believe.
4. Note the use of none other than (for emphasis) in examples like
e.g. The new arrival was none other than the Archbishop of Kent.
C. None, no, nothing, nobody and no one must be used (instead of not...any, not a, not...anything,
not...anybody/anyone) at the beginning of a sentence. Otherwise, the latter are more usual.
e.g. No alcoholic drink is completely harmless.
I can’t function properly if I get no coffee.
None of the existing theories can account for these data.
No one would give me a hand.
As usual, nothing came of it.
No one in their senses would think of doing that.
Nowhere else can you see such beauty.
I’ve told her nothing. (less usual than I haven’t told her anything)
I have none. (less usual than I don’t have any)
Note:
1. Not a is occasionally found at the beginning in the emphatic sense of ‘not a single’.
e.g. Not a penny did I get from her!
2. Any, etc. can of course be used in initial position if not any is not synonymous with no (i.e. if any
means ‘no matter who/which/etc.’):
e.g. Anyone who says that isn’t honest.
Not anyone can say he has been invited to Buckingham Palace.

VII. FEW, LITTLE, MANY, MUCH

A. All four of them can be used both as pronouns and as determiners. The same is true of the
comparatives and superlatives less, fewer, more, most, fewest and least.
e.g. Has he eaten many (apples) / few (apples) / much (cheese) / little (cheese)?
There were many more (supporters) than usual. (*much more supporters)
He has said much less/more than he had intended to.
Few of the students understand this.
As pronouns, all of them can be followed by ‘of + definite NP’.
e.g. You can’t have any more (of this) pie.
I’d like some more (of that wine), please.
I don’t think any more (of them) are interested.
Few, little and many can also be used as postdeterminers.
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e.g. Only a few people know about it.

Gwen made the fewest mistakes.
A great many people do not trust banks.
The many foreigners that visit the town bring in a lot of money.
The little wine that was spilt ruined the tablecloth.
Which of you has the most patience?
He told us about all his many friends in the City.
The child has drunk only a little (milk).
In formal English, many can be used as a predeterminer followed by a(n).
e.g. Many a firm has gone bankrupt through mismanagement.
B. Few (fewer, fewest) and many (more, most) refer to, or combine with, plural count nouns (i.e. they
denote number). When used in subject position, they are always used with a plural verb.
e.g. Many/few problems remain.
Many are called but few are chosen.
A great many (of the) soldiers had deserted.
However, the group many a is always followed by a singular count noun and consequently by a singular
verb.
e.g. Many an actor has dreamed of playing the part of Othello. (fml)
Many a day has passed since then. (fml)
C. Little (less,least) and much (more, most) refer to, or combine with, singular mass nouns (i.e. they
denote quantity, not number). When used in subject position, they always combine with a singular verb.
e.g. Little has been done to help these people.
Much (work) remains to be done.
They should try and make less noise.
Of all the children, Jill gives me the least trouble.
In this country people have little interest in politics.
Note:
1. In informal English, less and least are often used instead of fewer and fewest before a plural count
noun. However, this usage is not generally considered correct.
e.g. You should tell fewer/?less people about your troubles.
Who’s written the fewest/?least letters?
On the other hand, less has to be used if the reference is collective, i.e. in expressions denoting
periods of time, weight, sums, etc.
e.g. He was abroad for less than three weeks, which is not a very long time.
This car costs less than a thousand pounds.
2. Least can be used before a singular count noun in the sense of ‘smallest’.
e.g. Mother gets sick at the least sign of blood.
I haven’t the least idea where I have met him before.
3. Exceptionally, much can precede a singular count noun, as in
e.g. There’s not much point in telling the police.
He’s not much of a tennis player. (= no good tennis player)
I’ve never been much of a correspondent. (= I rarely write letters.)
He’s not much of a success/gentleman.
4. A little and a bit (infml) can be used as adverbs of degree.
e.g. She’s a little angry.
Couldn’t they be a bit more polite?
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She’s getting a little old to wear these clothes, isn’t she?

The teacher wasn’t a bit satisfied.
There is a similar use of a bit of before nouns.
e.g. He’s a bit of a fool.
I’m afraid we’ve got a bit of a problem here.
5. The opposite of too much is enough, which can also be used either as a determiner (e.g. enough
books) or as a pronoun (e.g. I’ve had enough).
D. When used without the indefinite article, few and little have a negative sense, suggesting ‘too
few/little’, ‘almost no/none’. A few and a little have a more positive sense, suggesting ‘at least some’,
‘more than none’.
e.g. cp. Few people know this, as the papers give little information on the subject.
A few people know this, as the papers have written a little about it.
cp. The formula is rather long. Few pupils know it by heart yet.
The formula is rather long but a few pupils already know it by heart.
cp. Little has been said yet about the cost of the scheme.
A little has already been said about the cost of the scheme.
e.g. She is a woman of few words. She says very little.
However, the idea of ‘too small a number/amount’ is more commonly expressed by only a few/little or
very few/little or not much/many than by few/little.
e.g. There was (only a) little time / not much time left before the arrival of the guests.
Not many / only a few / very few of these trees were pruned last year.
E. Few, many, little and much are the only pronouns that can be premodified. 122
1. Few (as the head of an NP) can be preceded by the articles, by some intensifiers (too, very, quite,
so...) and by some adjectives.
e.g. I do not belong to the happy few that can afford a yacht.
Only the few are likely to watch this programme. (the few = the minority, the small number of
people who have special needs or desires)
The Queen consulted a select few of her usual advisers.
The situation is not likely to change for a good few weeks. (or: quite a few weeks)
Very few of us know about his problems.
2. Many can be preceded by the articles, some intensifiers and some adjectives.
e.g. A great many people think the Prime Minister is the richest man in the country. (or: a good
many people)
The many are not likely to watch this kind of programme. (the many = the large number of
people who have ordinary needs or desires)
I hadn’t expected to see so many of them rallied here tonight.
3. Much can be preceded by some intensifiers and by this/that. In the latter case the reference is to a
particular amount or to particular words.
e.g. I’ll admit this much: the person I have in mind is not one of you.
That much seemed clear from the debate.
Have you drunk too much?
4. Little can be preceded by the articles, by some intensifiers and by this/that.
e.g. He’s written little, but that little belongs to the best that can be found in the world literature.
We know very/so little about these things.

122. Pronouns are usually postmodified: something strange, nothing exceptional...

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F. In spoken English, much and many are not normally used in affirmative statements, except when they
are subject pronouns or when they are premodified.
e.g. cp. She has much courage. (not normally used in spoken English)
Much remains to be done.
She has too much confidence.
There are several expressions that can be used instead of much or many:
1. Much can be replaced by a good/great deal (of), a large amount/quantity of.
2. Many can be replaced by a good/great many (of), a large number of.
3. Both much and many can be replaced by plenty (of), a lot (of), and by lots (of) (infml).
e.g. Has he lost much money? -- Yes, he has lost plenty / a lot / a great deal.
There’s still lots of snow in the air. (infml)
There were a large number of printing errors in the text.
You need a great deal of energy to produce aluminium.
Jenny knows a lot about modern music.
If you want any bottles of wine, there are plenty in the cellar.
These animals find lots of food in the forest. (infml)
In formal English, much and many are more freely used in affirmative statements, although such
sentences (especially with much) easily sound awkward.
Note: Not only much and many but also far and long show this tendency to be replaced by longer forms
in affirmative statements (at least, in informal English and provided they are not premodified); they
are replaced by a long way and a long time, respectively.
e.g. Will you be there (for) long? -- Yes, I think I may have to be there for a long time.
The soldiers have marched a long way today.
My house is a long way from the station.
Don’t be too long about it. (= Do it soon.)
This dress is three inches too long.
Where they live, the capital is a long way off.
He hasn’t been here long. (= He arrived here only a short time ago.) (cp. He hasn’t been here
for a long time = It is a long time since he has been here.)
You’ll have to wait (for) a long time.

VIII. SUCH, SO
1. Both such and so can be used with the meaning ‘to such a degree’. Such is a determiner, and must
therefore form part of an NP. So is a degree adverb, and must therefore be followed by an adjective
or by another adverb.
e.g. The homework was so easy (that) it could be done in five minutes.
He made such beautiful paintings that everybody was impressed.
Note:
a. Such is a predeterminer when it precedes a(n).
e.g. Such a (nice) girl cannot be a thief!
Note that such a can only be used before a singular count noun.
e.g. I don’t believe such rumours. (*such a rumours)
I’ve seldom seen such beauty. (*such a beauty)
b. Such can follow some quantifiers. In that case it is a postdeterminer.
e.g. There is no such thing as the Abominable Snowman.
It’s ‘Butterworth’, or some such name.
You shouldn’t listen to any such nonsense.
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Two more such cocktails and I won’t be able to stand on my feet any more!
c. Only so can be used before a predicative adjective. 123 Such must be followed by a noun head.
e.g. The necklace is so/*such beautiful that I’d like to buy it.
She is so foolish! (cp. She is such a fool!)
d. So cannot be used before an adjective that is followed by a plural noun head.
e.g. I’ve never seen such beautiful pearls / *so beautiful pearls.
So can precede an adjective that is followed by a singular noun head, but only in formal (even
rather literary) English and provided the word order is ‘so + adjective + a(n) + noun’.
e.g. I’ve never seen such a beautiful house / *a so beautiful house / *so a beautiful house / so
beautiful a house (fml).
e. In modern English, such is normally used to emphasize (intensify). It is most often used before
an adjective premodifying a noun head (e.g. such a lovely day). When there is no adjective, the
noun is normally gradable.
e.g. What a pity we’ve got to go home. We were having such fun. (= such great fun)
They’re such fools, these girls!
I’ve got such a headache. (= such a terrible headache)
I’d never heard such a (strange) story before.
It wasn’t such a difficult problem after all.
The fair was such a success!
Having to mark examination papers is such a nuisance.
Such is not often used nowadays in the sense of ‘of the/that kind’, except when the noun head is
preceded by an adjective and/or followed by as, or in a more formal style.
e.g. I’d like to have a face like that. (more fml: such a face)
This sort of music is very popular. (seldom: such music)
I admire such people as yourself. (or: people such as yourself)
People such as them do not read such a paper as the Guardian.
f. In formal English such can also be used as SC.
e.g. His enthusiasm was such/*so that it inspired everybody.
I may have offended you, but such was not my intention. (fml)
Such is life, my friend! (literary)
g. Note the following expressions:
1) as such (= ‘in that form or kind’)
e.g. Joan is a flirt, and is known as such by the whole neighbourhood.
It’s not a contract as such, but we will comply with it all the same.
2) and suchlike
e.g. I do not enjoy concerts, plays, and such(like). (or: and the like)
You can buy postcards, envelopes, stamps and suchlike (items) at the post office.
3) such as it is / such as they are (= ‘for what it’s worth’) (= although it is / may not be of
much worth)
e.g. I’ll give you my advice, such as it is.
You’re welcome to join us for breakfast such as it is -- we’re only having bread and
marmalade.
4) such-and-such, so-and-so
e.g. One of the objects of the course is to teach you that such-and-such a problem calls for
such-and-such a solution.

123. A predicative adjective is one that is used as SC or OC.

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Let’s suppose a Mr So-and-so proposes buying the house.

She’s an old so-and-so. (infml) (replaces a swearword or insult; derogatory meaning)
2. Both so and such can be followed by a subclause of result introduced by that.
e.g. He is so old that he cannot walk without a stick.
She is such a good cook that she can prepare any kind of meal.
The subclause may also be an infinitive clause introduced by as to, provided that the unexpressed S
of the infinitive is controlled by the S of the clause in which so/such occurs.
e.g. He was such an important man / so important a man as to be protected by the police night and
day. (fml)
His handwriting is so small as to be virtually illegible. (id.)
Her talent was such as to make us all admire her. (id.)
This structure is rather formal, and not often used.
3. Such can occur as (part of) the antecedent of a relative clause introduced by as.
a. The usual meaning of such in this construction is ‘to so great a degree’ or ‘of the kind’.
e.g. He is such a good player as I have seldom seen in this country.
We do not listen to such rumours as go about in the village.
You should teach them such things as will be useful for them in later life.
This artist mixes colours in such a way as no one else appears to do.
In this structure, such can follow the noun head.
e.g. I have never heard of such a secret organization as you are referring to.
This seems to me to be a knot such as is made by a sailor.
b. In formal English, such...as can also be used with the meaning ‘any...that’ or ‘the
few/little...that’.
e.g. Such people as believe that are very naive.
They feed on such food as you can buy in a snack-bar.
In sentences like these, as fulfils a syntactic function in the subclause. It is therefore not a
conjunction but a relative pronoun.

IX. HALF, DOUBLE, TWICE, THREE TIMES, ETC., ONE THIRD, ETC.
1. Half can be used as a predeterminer before any noun, whether it is singular or plural, count or mass.
e.g. I want half a bottle / half the butter / half those records.
Half the boys are ill.
I’ve looked forward for this moment for half my life.
Half his paper was copied from unmentioned sources.
Half can also be used as a pronoun.
e.g. Where are the girls? -- Half (of them) are in here.
Note:
a. Before a definite NP, the predeterminer half is interchangeable with half of.
e.g. More than half (of) her friends are elderly people.
She spends half (of) her time gossiping.
More than half (of) the cheese is moulded.
Half must be followed by of before a personal or demonstrative pronoun.
e.g. Only half of them accepted the invitation.
Only half of you can stay at my house.
Half of this is illegible.
Half of is not used before indefinite NPs.
e.g. The station is about half a mile from here. (*half of a mile)
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Half a pound of butter and half a dozen eggs, please.

b. As a pronoun, half is not preceded by an article.
e.g Bill gave me half and kept half for himself.
The definite article is, however, used when half is restrictively modified (in which case it can
be considered as a noun).
e.g. Bill gave me (one) half and kept the other half for himself.
The bigger half of the cheese has been eaten.
Mary is in the top half of her class.
c. The phrase one and a half is followed by a plural noun.
e.g. The car broke down after one and a half miles.
You’ve kept me waiting for one and a half hours.
However, this structure is less usual nowadays than the alternative structure (one mile/hour and
a half).
d. Instead of half a pint, half an hour, etc. we can also say a half-pint, a half-hour, etc.
2. The multipliers (i.e. double, twice, thrice (becoming rare), three times, four times, etc.) are used as
predeterminers.
e.g. Twelve is double six.
I would be able to buy that car only if I earned twice/double my present salary.
The Concorde project cost five times the amount that was assumed at the beginning.
The weight of the baby is double what it was eight weeks ago.
They want double the amount of money you promised them.
He carries twice/double what you carry. (or: twice/double the weight that you carry)
3. Fractions like one third, two fifths, three quarters, etc. can also precede a determiner. They have an
alternative construction with of (+ definite NP).
e.g. He managed to run the distance in one third (of) the time that was allowed him.
This building is three-quarters the height of our parish church.
Two thirds of the pudding is left.
Two fifths of the students have not studied this chapter.

X. NUMERALS

A. CARDINAL NUMBERS
1 one 11 eleven 21 twenty-one 31 thirty-one
2 two 12 twelve 22 twenty-two etc.
3 three 13 thirteen 23 twenty-three
4 four 14 fourteen 24 twenty-four
5 five 15 fifteen 25 twenty-five
6 six 16 sixteen 26 twenty-six
7 seven 17 seventeen 27 twenty-seven
8 eight 18 eighteen 28 twenty-eight
9 nine 19 nineteen 29 twenty-nine
10 ten 20 twenty 30 thirty
10 ten 100 one/a hundred 1,000 one/a thousand
20 twenty 200 two hundred 2,000 two thousand
30 thirty 300 three hundred 3,000 three thousand.
40 forty etc. etc.
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50 fifty
60 sixty
70 seventy 100,000 one hundred thousand
80 eighty 1,000,000 one million
90 ninety
100 a/one hundred
Note:
1. In Br.E., and is used before the last two figures (tens and units) of a number higher than 100.
(In Am.E. this is unusual)
e.g. 647 = six hundred and forty-seven
5,463 = five thousand four hundred and sixty-three
73,921 = seventy-three thousand nine hundred and twenty-one.
2. We use a decimal point in decimal fractions and a comma to indicate thousands.
e.g. 2,400 = two thousand four hundred
3.5 = three point five
0.5 = (nought) point five
3.375 = three point three seven five
3. The figure 0 is usually read as nought or naught in Br.E. and as zero in Am.E. However,
a. we only speak of ‘zero’ in measurements (e.g. of temperature)
e.g. Zero degrees Fahrenheit is equivalent to 17.8 degrees below zero Centigrade.
b. Br.E. uses nil to indicate a zero score in a team-game.
e.g. Manchester two, Arsenal nil.
c. The figure 0 is pronounced like the letter O when numbers are said figure by figure.
e.g. My telephone number is two one eight five o six nine.
4. The words hundred, thousand and million cannot be used in the singular without a, one or a
numeral before them. A is more common than one in informal English; one is used when we are
speaking more precisely.
e.g. He’s healthy enough to live for a hundred years.
The dress cost exactly one hundred pounds.
Note that only one is used before thousand + a number of hundreds.
e.g. cp. 1,081 = a/one thousand and eighty-one
1,281 = one thousand two hundred and eighty-one
5. We can say eleven hundred, twelve hundred, etc. instead of one thousand one hundred, etc.
This is most common with round numbers between 1,100 and 1,900.
6. Numerals like twenty, thirty, etc. can be used as nouns to indicate a period (from (19)20 to
(19)29, etc.).
e.g. The price of petrol rose enormously in the seventies.
7. The following are the usual ways of expressing a calculation:
a. addition
In small additions, we say and for +, and is/makes/make for =.
e.g. Two and two is/makes/make four.
Five and four is nine.
What’s seven and six?
In larger additions (and also in a more formal style) we say plus for +, and equals for =.
e.g. Six hundred and eleven plus a hundred and thirteen is/equals seven hundred and
twenty-four.
b. subtraction
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In informal English, dealing with small numbers, we use expressions like the following:
e.g. Two from five is/leaves three.
Five take away two is/leaves three.
In a more formal style, or dealing with larger numbers, we use minus and equals.
e.g. Three hundred and eighty-two minus thirty-five equals three hundred and forty-seven.
c. multiplication
Small calculations can be expressed as follows:
e.g. Three fives are fifteen.
Four sevens are twenty-eight.
Twice two is four.
In larger calculations we can use times for x, and is/makes for =.
e.g. Fifteen times two hundred and twenty-three is/makes three thousand three hundred
and forty-five.
In a more formal style, we use multiplied by and equals.
e.g. 15 multiplied by 223 equals 3,345.
d. division
Dealing with small numbers, people might say
e.g. Four into twelve goes three (times).
But the most usual way is to use divided by and equals.
e.g. Four thousand seven hundred and twelve divided by thirty-eight equals one hundred
and twenty-four.
8. To refer to a sum of money, the following conventions are used:
e.g. 1 p = one penny (infml: one p)
5 p = five pence (infml: five p)
£3.75 = three pounds seventy-five
a five-pound note
a fivepenny stamp
B. ORDINAL NUMBERS
1 first 11 eleventh 21 twenty-first 31 thirty-
first
2 second 12 twelfth 22 twenty-second etc.
3 third 13 thirteenth 23 twenty-third
4 fourth 14 fourteenth 24 twenty-fourth
5 fifth 15 fifteenth 25 twenty-fifth
6 sixth 16 sixteenth 26 twenty-sixth
7 seventh 17 seventeenth 27 twenty-seventh
8 eighth 18 eighteenth 28 twenty-eighth
9 ninth 19 nineteenth 29 twenty-ninth
10 tenth 20 twentieth 30 thirtieth
10 tenth 100 (one) hundredth 1,000 (one) thousandth
20 twentieth 200 two hundredth 2,000 two thousandth
etc. etc. etc.
101 one hundred and first
4,792 four thousand seven hundred and ninety-second
64,498 sixty-four thousand four hundred and ninety-eighth
Note:
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1. Ordinal numbers are used after names of kings, queens, etc.

e.g. Henry VIII = Henry the Eighth
Louis XIV = Louis the Fourteenth
Catherine II = Catherine the Second
2. There are two ways of saying dates and several ways of writing them:
e.g. We write: 1 June, 1980 or 1st June, 1980 or June 1, 1980 or June 1st, 1980. (The former
two are more usual in Br.E., the latter two in Am.E.)
We read: the first of June or June the first
In Br.E., 4.8.81 means ‘August the fourth, 1981’; in Am.E. it means ‘April the eighth, 1981’.124
The numbers of the years are usually said in two halves.
e.g. 1042 ten forty-two
1682 sixteen eighty-two
963 nine sixty-three
3. To represent ordinal numbers by figures, we add the last two letters of the written words to the
figures.
e.g. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 30th, 32nd, 61st, 143rd, etc.

CHAPTER 9

THE ARTICLE

I. INTRODUCTION
1. The article is the most important determiner in the English noun phrase. There are three possibilities
as far as its use is concerned: the, a(n) and zero.
e.g. the book/milk, a book, books/milk
A(n) is called the indefinite article; the is the definite article.
2. The definite article can be pronounced in three ways:
a. /D3/ is the normal pronunciation before a word beginning with a consonant or one of the semi-
vowels /j/ and /w/.
e.g. the boat, the use, the wine, the one, the horse
b. /DI/ is the normal pronunciation before a word beginning with a vowel, a diphthong or a silent h.
e.g. the aunt/orbit/oak/NP/honour/hour/heir/ancients
c. In emphatic slow speech, the pronunciation can be /Di:/. This is more usual in Am.E. than in
Br.E.
3. The indefinite article is spelt a before a word beginning with a consonant or semi-vowel and an
before a word beginning with a vowel, diphthong or silent h.
e.g. a sheep, a university, a horse, a once famous city, a historical novel, a hotel 125
an ant, an ace, an authority, an oak, an honour
The usual pronunciation is /3/ or /3n/. In slow or emphatic speech /eI/ and /An/ are used. The hesitation
form is /eI/.
e.g. She has bought a, er, a -- Buick, I think. (hesitation form)
The use of /eI/ is certainly more common in Am.E. than in Br.E.

124. In English it is not conventional to abbreviate dates as follows: 2/4/89.

125. An used to be possible before words like hotel and historical. Nowadays this sounds rather old-fashioned.
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4. In general, the articles do not have any lexical meaning (though they can be used with special
meanings -- cf. below). However, they have a grammatical meaning:
a. Both a(n) and the serve the grammatical function of marking the headword of the phrase as a
noun (or nominal).
b. The indefinite article signals that the noun is a singular count noun. In other words, its
grammatical meaning is ‘reference to a single member of a set’.
c. The definite article signals definite reference. This means that the use of the is an indication
that the hearer should be able to identify the person, thing or set that is being referred to. The
definite article is an indication that the referent is identifiable from
1) the preceding linguistic context (= anaphoric reference)
e.g. Have you heard about Tom? The poor boy has fallen down the stairs.
When I bought my bible I did not notice that one of the pages was torn.
Note that in the second example there is no direct anaphoric reference, since there is no prior
mention of the pages. However, there is indirect anaphoric reference, as the pages are understood
as being the pages of the book that has just been mentioned. In this case the interpretation of the
definite NP thus requires making an inferential bridge (on the basis of our knowledge that every
book has pages).
2) the linguistic context following the noun (= cataphoric reference)
e.g. The girl who left just now is John’s daughter. (The postmodifying relative clause
gives the identifying information.)
3) the extralinguistic context (situation of speaking)
e.g. Do not feed the animals.
Didn’t the phone ring?
Can I have the car tomorrow?
Beware of the dog.
4) The hearer’s general knowledge of the world.
e.g. How deep is the Mediterranean?
Where’s the town hall?
Have you heard about the Prime Minister?
The earth is smaller than the sun but bigger than the moon.
Note:
a) Because the definite article functions as an instruction to look for a suitable referent, it is a
deictic element (like the demonstratives).
b) It is inherent in the use of proper names like John, Mary Poppins, etc. that the referent is
regarded as uniquely identifiable, i.e. that the reference is definite. This explains why
proper names are used without the definite article (unless they are restrictively modified --
cf. below).
c) Since a definite NP is more informative than an indefinite one, the Maxim of Quantity
stipulates that the speaker should use a definite NP whenever the conditions for using one
are satisfied. It follows that the use of a(n) or zero implicates that the referent is not
uniquely identifiable to the hearer (= indefinite reference).
d) Not only the but also possessive and demonstrative determiners render an NP definite.
5. Indefinite NPs can have specific or nonspecific reference:
a. Specific reference is reference to a specific (but not specified) element or subset of a set.
e.g. I’ve bought a new car. (specific but not specified)
A man entered the room.
Some people seem to think so.
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We’ve eaten some pudding.

b. Nonspecific reference is reference to an arbitrary element or subset of a set.
e.g. I’d like to have a cup of tea.
Please fetch me a chair.
We need some wine.
They had better send over some soldiers to control the crowd.
6. There is a similar distinction to be made in connection with definite NPs. In the linguistic literature
this distinction is mostly referred to as ‘Donnellan’s distinction between referential and attributive
noun phrases’.126
a. A definite NP is referential (in Donnellan’s sense) if the identity of the referent is assumed to
be known, i.e. if the hearer is assumed to be able to pick out the referent from a set.
e.g. I’d like to hear more about the trip you’ve made.
Who’s the man standing in the corner?
In this case the NP is only one of several possible descriptions. That is, the speaker could also
choose other NPs to refer to the person or thing in question. (For example, he might use your
trip to Italy instead of the trip you’ve made; or he could speak of the man in the brown jacket
instead of the man standing in the corner.)
b. A definite NP is attributive (in Donnellan’s sense) if it gives a description that both speaker
and hearer are familiar with, but which is not sufficient for either to pick out the referent.
e.g. The person who did this must have been out of his mind. (Both speaker and hearer are
familiar with the fact that someone did this, but they do not know who it is, i.e. they do not
know which person fits the definite description the person who did this.)
e.g. The police think that the thief was a child (but they don’t know who it is).
e.g. The winner of the Grand National is a lucky man. (If the speaker knows of a particular
person that he won the Grand National and he uses the NP the winner of the Grand
National to refer to this person, then he uses the NP referentially; if he only knows that the
Grand National took place but does not know who won it, he uses the NP attributively:
‘the winner of the Grand National, whoever he may be’.)
e.g. cp. Who’s the man with the glass eye? -- It/*he is that man over there. (Speaker A knows
about the existence of a particular man with a glass eye, but he does not know who it
is. He therefore asks for identifying information, using an attributive NP. Speaker B
offers him that information. His sentence is therefore specificational, not
predicational.)
Who’s the man with the glass eye? -- He/*it is a friend of Tom’s. (Speaker A knows
which particular man it is that has a glass eye. He therefore uses the NP referentially.
This means that he is not asking for specificational information but for predicational
information.)
If the NP is used ‘attributively’, it means that the speaker has no alternative ways of referring to
the person or thing in question.
7. Both definite and indefinite NPs can also have generic reference. In that case they refer to a class
(genus, species) as a whole. NPs with the zero article can also be used generically.
e.g. A/the dog is a pet animal.
Dogs are pet animals.
The/an elephant is said to have a very good memory.

126. The distinction was first made by K. Donnellan in his article ‘Reference and definite descriptions’ (in the Philosophical Review 75 (1966),
pp.281-304.)
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Lizards are harmless to man.

Milk is white.
There is a slight difference of meaning between a, the and zero:
a. The is used when the speaker is thinking of the ‘prototype’.
e.g. The fox is a cunning animal. (The speaker is thinking of the ‘concept’ fox, i.e. of the
mental picture that the word fox calls up: ‘an animal with such-and-such characteristics’.)
The rose is the symbol of love.
b. A(n) picks out an arbitrary (but typical) member of the genus.
e.g. A fox is a cunning animal. (= Take a fox, no matter which one, and you will see that it is a
cunning animal.)
c. When the zero article is used, the speaker is thinking of the referent(s) of the NP in general.
e.g. Foxes are cunning animals. (= I’m speaking about foxes in general, not about some
particular fox or group of foxes.)
This difference of meaning entails that a, the and zero are not always interchangeable.
e.g. The/*an elephant is dying out.
*Elephants are dying out.
The/*a cat was one of the first animals to be kept as a domestic pet.
Cats have been domestic pets for a very long time.
The/*an elm tree has almost disappeared on the continent.
Jill prefers the/*a cinema to the/*a theatre.
Manfred is learning the/*a guitar.
The invention of the/*a chip has revolutionised electronics.
The/an Englishman loves animals.
Englishmen / the English love animals.
The education of the young child / a young child / young children is of crucial importance.
The/*an oak is to be found all over the world.
8. In certain cases the and a have a special meaning:
a. The indefinite article can be used
1) with the meaning of ‘a certain person named’:
e.g. A Mr Smith won the first prize.
This use of the article often has a derogatory connotation.
e.g. “My landlady knocked at the door and said, ‘A Mr Parkis to see you’, thus indicating
by a grammatical article the social status of my caller”. (G. Greene, The end of the
affair)
2) with distributive meaning (a = per)
e.g. The car ran at 90 miles an hour. (written: 90 mph)
My car does about 30 miles a gallon (written: 30 mpg)
The number of people requesting political asylum has increased by about 12 a day.
In this factory everybody still works forty hours a week.
A is usually used in speaking; per is often used in writing.127
3) with the meaning of the numeral one:
e.g. A dozen/hundred/thousand people have protested.
Not a penny was left of the legacy she had got the year before.
Not a trace was there to be found of the lost child.
4) with the meaning of ‘same’:

127. But per cannot substitute for a in examples like They were sitting four a side.
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e.g. The two boys were of a size.

What they sing are all songs of a type.
But this use is becoming rare.
5) with the meaning of ‘someone having the characteristics of’, ‘one like’, ‘another’:
e.g. She may look like a Marilyn Monroe, but she’s got the brains of an Einstein.
My son is a (second) Mozart. He’s only three but already composes music.
6) with the meaning of ‘a work by’:
e.g. The painting on this wall has all the characteristics of a Rembrandt.
b. Special meanings of the definite article:
1) possessive meaning
e.g. The janitor was coshed on the head by a burglar.
Is the arm better today? (= your arm)
Sorry I’m late. The car wouldn’t start. (= my car)
2) distributive meaning (the = per)
e.g. These mangos sell at 2 pounds the dozen.
The plums cost 85 pence the kilo.
This rope is sold by the yard or the metre.
Eggs are usually sold by the dozen.
Our car does 30 miles to the gallon.
Note that we use the (not a) after a preposition; otherwise a is the usual article and the is
mostly ungrammatical.
3) indicating excellence or superiority:
e.g. Their engagement party will be THE event next week.
Brussels claims to be THE business centre of Europe.
This is THE life for somebody like me.
4) indicating that the referent is regarded as very well-known. (honorific use of the article)
e.g. May I ask who you are? -- I’m doctor Samuels. -- Not THE doctor Samuels, the one
who got the Nobel Prize? -- That’s me, yes.
You are THE Judge Atkinson, are you?
5) demonstrative meaning:
e.g. I didn’t realize that at the time.
Will you give him a loan? -- I will do nothing of the kind. He must manage on his
own.
I can’t think of any better excuse for the moment.
6) adverbial meaning:
a) The is used before each of a pair of comparative adjectives or adverbs, to show that
two things increase or decrease together (correlative use):
e.g. The more one has the more one wants.
The fewer trees we have to cut down, the better.
b) The is used before a comparative adjective or adverb, to mean ‘on that account’,
‘because of that’:
e.g. She’s received psychiatric treatment and looks the better for it.
Their situation is the more desperate because it has not rained for twenty-two
months.
Grandpa will be the better for this change.
His death leaves our country much the poorer.
c) The is used before a superlative adjective, to mean ‘above all others’, ‘very’:
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e.g. He has had the greatest difficulty finding a substitute. (= very great difficulty)
Whose work was the best?
This was the least interesting of his lectures so far.
Note that the is normally obligatory when the superlative is (part of) an NP
functioning as SC. When the superlative is (part of) an NP functioning as direct O, the
can often be dropped. The often has to be dropped when the superlative is interpreted
as an adverbial.
e.g. Food and medical help is what they need most.
Who can shout loudest / (the loudest)?
I like her best.
The gaffer is the one who works least / (the least).
Which of you has (the) most money?
You’re the person with the most to gain from this.
Note that, in this type of sentence, the is never used before ordinal numerals and last:
e.g. Which boy finished his work first/last?
9. The zero article can have two meanings:
a. generic
e.g. Mangos are a kind of fruit.
b. referring to a number of indefinite members of a set:
e.g. Please don’t lock the door yet. There are still other people to come.

II. THE USE OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE

The is used to signal that the reference is definite. In practice, this means that there are two conditions for
its use:
(a) The referent must be identifiable for the hearer (in the ‘referential’ or ‘attributive’ sense of
Donnellan).
(b) The referent must be thought of as a set or mass with clearly defined limits or boundaries, because
identification is otherwise impossible.
e.g. cp. I like records. (= ‘records in general’: No specific set is delimited.)
I like the records you gave me. (clearly delimited set)
cp. He drank tea. (no limit is defined)
The tea that was served was made by Jenny. (clearly delimited mass)
In more detail:
A. THE USE OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE WITH MASS NOUNS
1. As a rule, the definite article is not used before mass nouns, unless there is definite reference (in
which case the mass referred to has clearly defined limits).
This rule applies to the following types of noun:
a. Abstract nouns
e.g. cp. Patience is a virtue.
The patience of these nurses is astonishing.
cp. Honesty is something he has never heard of.
I admired him for the honesty he displayed.
e.g. Human nature can be quite surprising.
Fate has decided otherwise.
These businessmen believe in Progress.
It took some time for the excitement to subside.
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Note:
1) Not all abstract nouns are mass nouns. Some (e.g. crime, ability, belief, murder, life, etc.)
can be preceded by the indefinite article and are therefore count nouns. But this makes no
difference to the use of the.
e.g. cp. Crime/murder is a real problem in this city.
The crime/murder is still being investigated, but the police have no clues yet.
e.g. cp. Life can be hard in these hills.
The life of an artist is often turbulent.
2) Even when the abstract NP has definite reference, the is often omitted if the NP in question is
subject and the referent has not yet been mentioned:
e.g. Tension is mounting in the capital as a result of the new regulations.
Everybody was in high spirits after the meeting. Conversation was lively and rather noisy.
3) Adjectives used as abstract nouns take the definite article,128 except in some set
expressions.
e.g. What do we know about the supernatural?
Everything will surely turn out for the best.
through thick and thin
from bad to worse
from grave to gay
b. Names of substances, liquids and gases
e.g. Iron is a hard metal.
Pass me the margarine, please.
Butter is more expensive than margarine.
South Africa is one of the countries that produce gold.
We were offered bread, marmalade and cream cheese. The marmalade was excellent, but
the cream cheese was rather tasteless.
Water contains hydrogen and oxygen.
Note that names of animals can be used as substance nouns.
e.g. The aborigines eat both meat and fish.
I have never tasted antelope.
Is this meat beef or horse? -- Neither. It’s pork.
Note: The nouns pig, sheep, calf and cow/ox are not used in this way. We use pork, mutton,
veal and beef instead.
c. Names of colours
e.g. cp. He uses a lot of orange in his paintings.
The red of this sunset is wonderful.
e.g. A waitress dressed in black brought me a cocktail.
d. Names of languages
e.g. cp. Latin is one of the classical languages.
The Latin of Tacitus is more difficult than the Latin written by Cicero.
e.g. English prefers the use of short sentences.
However, the may be used after translate from and translation from.
e.g. Unfortunately, his book has never been translated from (the) Swedish into English.
This is a translation of ‘Oblomov’ from the original Russian.

128. The definite article is necessary to show that the word is used as a noun.
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e. Collective nouns such as Congress, Labour, Parliament, humanity, society, posterity, mankind,
royalty, etc.
e.g. Criminals are often claimed to be the victims of society.
Nothing interesting has happened in Parliament today.
f. Names of games
e.g. Cricket is a game whose rules have remained a mystery to me.
g. Names of diseases
e.g. The child is still recovering from bronchitis/mumps.
Jaundice is a disease that can keep one in bed for a long time.
I went to the dentist because I had bad toothache.
Susan has got a fever because she has got measles/pneumonia/scarlet fever.
However:
1) We speak of the plague (or the pest). The is optional before flu : to have (the) flu.
2) The nouns headache and cold are treated as count nouns and are therefore preceded by the
indefinite article, although a is sometimes dropped in the expression to catch a cold.
2. When the mass noun is accompanied by a modifier, the latter can have the effect of creating definite
(rather than general) reference, provided the modifier is restrictive.
a. Prenominal modifiers can restrict the reference from ‘general’ to ‘half-general’, but this is not
sufficient to use the definite article.
e.g. I don’t care for 20th century art.
Our company produces stainless steel.
Danish cheese is no more expensive than French cheese.
Professor Gleason teaches medieval history.
We must be careful not to lose touch with modern youth.
But: the Christian religion, the English language
b. Restrictive relative clauses usually render the reference definite.
e.g. The art exhibited at the museum is of a low standard.
The gold we use in Belgium is imported.
However, the relative clause does not entail definite reference when it helps to describe a
particular kind of object (rather than a particular object).
e.g. Steel that has been produced in this way is very strong.
Beer that contains no alcohol is becoming fashionable.
Behaviour that is based on aggression is socially unacceptable.
c. Postnominal PPs do not normally entail definite reference, except when the preposition is of
and the PP has the same meaning as a genitive or possessive.
e.g. Life at sea is not as idyllic as you think.
Today’s programme is about literature in the 18th century / the literature of the 18th
century.
What we want is gasoline of a superior quality.
The steel of the gun barrels was rather rusty.
Trade in Europe is facing its worst crisis for fifty years.
This is a dissertation on nature in Shakespeare’s work.
This book is called ‘Life in modern Britain’.
Excitement of this sort is bad for a cardiac patient.
Of course, a postmodifier that is a reduced relative clause can entail definite reference.
e.g. cp. Steel (that comes) from Germany is cheaper than steel (that comes) from France.
Let us first use the steel (that came) from France.
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B. THE USE OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE WITH PLURAL COUNT NOUNS

Plural count nouns behave much like mass nouns. The is used when the reference is definite, not when it
is general (i.e. when the reference is to an indefinite number or when it is generic).
e.g. Dutch books are often expensive.
Do we have to buy the books we have to read or can we go to the library?
In Europe most of the forests have been cut down.
(Old) stamps have always fascinated collectors.
Please hurry up. There are people waiting for you at home.
This is a book on Indian butterflies / the butterflies of India.
Houses of concrete and glass were fashionable in the sixties.
These are obviously the shares to buy.
Note:
1. When the plural NP has specific indefinite reference, some is often preferable to the zero
article.
e.g. There are some policemen controlling the crowd in front of the church.
I have read some articles on the subject.
2. Even when the reference is definite, the is often dropped when the NP is subject and its referent
set is being introduced for the first time.
e.g. (The) European stock markets have reacted favourably to this decision.
(The) protests against the measures have been particularly fierce.
(The) emotions ran high after the riots.
C. THE USE OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE WITH SINGULAR COUNT NOUNS
As a rule, singular count nouns readily combine with the, but are incompatible with the zero article.
e.g. Can you give me the book back? (*Can you give me book back?)
There are, however, a number of cases where zero can or should be used because the noun has lost its
count characteristic or because the is unidiomatic:
1. Man and woman can be found without the in a generic sense.
e.g. Woman has fascinated man since the beginning of the world.
To express a general or half-general meaning, there are in fact several possibilities:
a. When the reference is to a man or woman as a typical instance of his or her class, we use a man
and a woman.
e.g. It’s difficult for a man to do anything when he is physically attacked by a woman.
I don’t think a man would have been able to describe a woman’s emotional world the way
Jane Austen has.
b. Men and women mean ‘men/women in general’.
e.g. Men and women are treated alike in this country. Women are no longer discriminated
against.
Men always think they are better technicians than women.
In general, men like football more than women do.
c. Man is used in the generic sense of ‘the human race’, ‘all mankind’.
e.g. Man threatens his own existence by destroying his environment.
Prehistoric man lived in caves.
Man is a social being.
d. Woman can be used to refer generically to female human beings. Man can be used similarly to
refer generically to male human beings.
e.g. Woman plays an essential part in our economic system.
 269

Woman is said to be weaker than man.

According to the bible, God created man before he created woman.
However, the is usually added when there is a modifier or adjunct limiting the reference.
e.g. The liberal-minded woman will not accept discrimination in favour of men.
The ads are trying to make us believe that the successful businessman / the modern man
has such-and-such a car and uses such-and-such a brand of aftershave.
In that tribe the woman works in the field and the man goes hunting.
e. We use human being(s) or people when we wish to stress the contrast with animals or things.
e.g. Some people treat their pet animals better than they treat people / human beings.
Note that we also use human being rather than man in sentences like
e.g. I cannot describe the feeling I had when I was released from prison and was treated as a
human being again.
2. The definite article is dropped before some common nouns (e.g. father, mother, aunt, uncle, cook,
nurse, teacher; heaven, hell, purgatory) when they are used like proper names.
e.g. I’ll tell father.
Please ask cook to have dinner ready in an hour.
You’ll never go to heaven. -- Go to hell!
He believes in neither heaven nor hell.
3. Nouns denoting some buildings, objects and places (such as bed, table; campus, chapel, church,
class, college, court, exchange, hall, home, hospital, jail, market, prison, school, town, university;
sea...) are used without the after the prepositions at and to (some of them also after other
prepositions, e.g. in, into, from, out of).129 In that case the speaker is not thinking of the building,
object or place as a member of a set but refers to its function, the use made of it, or what happens
there.
e.g. He went to school/class/bed/college/university/church/town.
The wounded are in hospital now.
The sheriff is back in town.
As a youngster he dreamed of going to sea.
We will talk about it after church / in court.
The murderer will be in/out of prison/jail soon.
He went to town to buy a raincoat.
He is at home/school/college/university/sea now.
I don’t like to disturb you when you’re at table.
Note:
a. A couple of these nouns can be used similarly even if there is no preposition.
e.g. For most children here school begins at the age of three.
During the long hours of church I let myself be carried away by my imagination.
b. The definite article is used when the reference is definite, i.e. when one identifiable building,
object or place out of many is referred to.
e.g. There’s an elm tree beside the church.
Is this the entrance to the school?
There were four men sitting at the table.
e.g. cp. All the town council visited the local prison this morning.
He’s in prison now.

129. In Am.E. the is used before hospital and university.

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4. Names of meals are used without the definite article, unless the reference is made definite by a
restrictive postmodifier.
e.g. At that moment we were having breakfast/lunch/tea/dinner/supper.
The doctor says breakfast is an important meal.
The breakfast they served us at the hotel was excellent.
Will you be back for dinner?
Dinner/tea will be served in half an hour.
There was a lively conversation at/during lunch.
5. The names of some periods of the day are used without the definite article, except after in and
during.
e.g. I saw her at dawn/daybreak/sunrise/sunset/noon/midday/midnight/dusk/nightfall/twilight.
The children seldom wake up in/during the night.
Most predators hunt by night and sleep by day.
People usually lock their doors before/at nightfall.
Night is falling early today.
The streetlamps burn from sunset to sunrise.
Morning and evening normally require the article:
e.g. The enemy’s attack is not expected before the evening.
I’ll ring you first thing in the morning.
6. Names of seasons are normally used without the definite article, but the can be used if a particular
season is distinguished from (or contrasted with) another, and it is normally used when the reference
is quite definite.
e.g. These people move from Britain to Spain in winter.
Swallows fly south in (the) winter and come back in (the) summer.
She’ll be home by spring.
The summer of 1976 was a very hot one.
7. Nouns referring to a means of transport do not take the definite article if they are preceded by by.
e.g. cp. I seldom travel by bus/car/boat/plane/coach/underground.
Did you see anyone you know on the plane?
Did my mother sit on the bike/bus?
The minister took a nap in the car.
8. The zero article is found before a singular count noun in the vocative case (i.e. when the noun refers
to the hearer and is used to address him directly).
e.g. Tell me, captain, what I should do now.
Look at this, doctor.
9. The definite article is optional in a complex NP that is in nonrestrictive apposition to another NP.
e.g. Mr J. Smith, (the) author of ‘The ugly room’, was a good friend of mine.
10. The nouns radio and television are not preceded by the when they are used in a general sense.
e.g. He earns a living writing plays for television and for radio.
Note that we say watch television and on television (on TV), but listen to the radio/wireless, on the
radio/wireless.
11. The must sometimes be dropped before last/next + a noun like night/week/month/term/year/Monday:
a. The is dropped when last means ‘preceding this night/week/etc.’ and when next means
‘following this night/week/etc.’.
e.g. I bought it only last week.
Goodbye! See you next week!
 271

Did you attend the lecture last Tuesday morning?

I got that sweater as a present last Christmas.
Another earthquake is expected next Thursday.
b. The is not omitted
1) when next means ‘following some past or future time of orientation’.
e.g. He was operated on on 7 May and left hospital the next month.
They started building the bridge in 1984 and finished it the next year.
2) when last refers to a period continuing up to the present moment, and when next refers to a
period starting at the present moment.
e.g. The next month will be decisive for our future. (= the 30 or 31 days beginning now)
I’ve had influenza for the last week.
I’m going to be abroad for the next week. (= for the 7 days beginning today)
A lot of things have gone wrong during the last few months.
3) when last means ‘the last in a series’, and next means ‘the next in a series’.
e.g. Betty broke her arm during the last week of the holidays.
It was the last summer before his death.
12. Sometimes an NP is not used as a referential NP (i.e. to refer to a person, thing or set) but as a
predicational NP (i.e. to express a property). This is the case if the NP functions as OC or as SC of
a predicational copular sentence. In that case there are two possibilities:
a. The property may be one that marks the referent of the S as unique, i.e. it is a property that is
not shared by anybody or anything else. In that case the definite article is normally used.
e.g. Martin is the cleverest boy in this school.
Who’s the odd job man in this village?
Bill is the friendliest man on campus.
However, when the predicational NP expresses a title, role, function or office which can only
be held by one person at a time, the following rules hold:
1) The definite article is normally dropped when the predicational NP is used as SC after a copula:
e.g. Who is Professor of History in your university?
When the predicational NP involves a postmodifying of-PP, the article is optional:
e.g. Tom will have to cut the knot, for he is (the) captain of the team.
De Gaulle wasn’t (the) king of France.
Gromyko was (the) President of the Soviet Union for two years.
Bill is (the) friendliest man on campus. 130
2) The definite article is never used when the predicational NP is OC (in the passive: SC) after a verb
expressing a change of state.
e.g. They crowned her Queen of England.
Who was appointed captain of the team?
The shareholders elected Charles president.
b. Sometimes the property does not uniquely determine the referent of the S (i.e. it is a property
that is also shared by at least one other person or thing). In that case the predicational noun is
preceded by the indefinite article.
e.g. cp. They elected Mr Gimson president of the company.
They elected Mr Gimson a director of the company. 131
e.g. cp. Mr Lorrimer is a professor in the University of London.

130. The sentence Bill is friendliest man on campus is only acceptable if there has been a competition resulting in the election of Bill as the
friendliest man on campus. Only in that case does the NP describe a position or status.
131. A company has a board of directors, but only one president.
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Mr Wilson was Prime Minister of Britain in 1969.

However, no indefinite article is used in an NP that is SC after turn and go, nor in the
expressions take someone prisoner and ordain someone priest.
e.g. Why did he turn catholic/traitor/linguist?
He was ordained priest in 1978.
He has gone socialist.
Note: Predicational NPs are normally used either as SC or as OC. However, they can also occur in
some other contexts. The rules concerning the use of the articles are then the same.
1) A predicational NP can be used in apposition.
e.g. The two men, one a factory hand and the other a tobacconist, have been charged with
sexual assault.
Mr Bristle, chairman of the Board, is throwing a party tomorrow. (reference to a
unique office)
2) A predicational NP may be a reduced supplementive clause.
e.g. A man of strict morals, he handed over the money he had found to the police. (=
Being a man of strict morals, he...)
3) Predicational NPs can follow the ‘prepositional copulas’ as and of. 132
e.g. All his life he had carried on business as a greengrocer.
The job of a janitor does not appeal to me.
He was famous as a barrister.
Of course, I can only speak as a layman.
He is known as the father of the new constitution.
Note that the is unusual after as/of when the predicational NP expresses a role, function or office:
e.g. Mr Heseltine was expected to be given the post of Home Secretary.
As Prime Minister, she was able to leave her mark on Britain’s foreign policy.
As chairman of the jury I must ask this question.
13. The is often omitted before conjoined NPs referring to a couple or pair.
e.g. Father and son worked on the same farm.
The documents were kept under lock and key, day and night.
husband and wife; body and soul
14. The is often omitted in enumerations.
e.g. The whole house has been given a facelift: dining room, kitchen, drawing room, bedrooms,
everything has been redecorated.
15. When two definite NPs are conjoined with and, the definite article is often dropped from the second:
e.g. He has never forgotten about the fear and guilt he felt after breaking Aunt Emma’s mirror.
The researchers were struck by the intelligence and communicativeness of the dolphins.
16. The is not used in a great many idiomatic expressions.
e.g. in time of need, in case of an emergency, arm in arm, hat/hand in hand, drop by drop, bit by bit,
day by day, from bottom to top, most of (+ NP), from north to south, face to face, from
beginning to end, from head to toe/foot, from right to left
D. THE USE OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE WITH PROPER NAMES
Before a proper name, the definite article is sometimes used, sometimes not. The following rules can be
pointed out:
1. Names of persons

132. However, the rule seems to be less strict after of, so that examples can be found in which of is not followed by a(n).
 273

Names of persons, preceded by a title or not, usually take no article.

e.g. Bill, Queen Victoria, Prince Charles, Dr Peacock, President Bush, Professor Chomsky, Lady
Churchill, Chief Superintendent Dalgliesh, Admiral Nelson
But: the Reverend Mr Jones, the Reverend H. Jones (not: *the Reverend Jones)
Exceptions:
a. Titles involving an of-PP usually take the definite article, except in nonrestrictive appositions.
e.g. the king of Spain
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
Have you ever heard of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster?
b. The is used if the name is preceded by a foreign title.
e.g. the Emperor Joseph, the Czar Iwan, the Caliph Ahmed
c. The definite article is used before proper names that are restrictively modified and therefore
acquire a contrastive meaning.
e.g. Are they talking about the same Charlie Brown?
That’s not the John Hurt I know.
the present Queen Elisabeth, the young Shakespeare, the older Professor Brown, the Mr
Porter who lives next door to you
The is not used if there is a nonrestrictive modifier only, except when the proper name is
preceded by a title.
e.g. young Billy, 4-year-old Terry, American-born Bill, old Tom; the popular Duchess of Kent, the evil
Lady Macbeth
d. Honorific use of a name requires the article.
e.g. You say Agatha Christie was born here. Do you mean THE Agatha Chistie or someone
else? (= the very Agatha Chistie everyone knows)
e. The definite article is used before a family name in the plural.
e.g. The Joneses live next door to us. (or: the Jones family)
2. Geographical names and other place-names
a. Geographical names consisting of only one proper name usually have no article.
e.g. Japan, Israel, Flanders, Kent, Asia.
Exceptions:
1) Regular exceptions are the Sahara, the Tyrol, the Crimea, the Argentine,133 (the) Sudan,
(the) Lebanon, (the) Congo, the Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the Hague and plural
names like the Netherlands, the United States, the Philippines, the Midlands.
2) The article is used if the name is restrictively modified.
e.g. The Germany of 1960 was smaller than the Germany of before the war.
This is no longer the London that is described in the works by A. Conan Doyle.
The England of Cromwell was one of terror and famine.
3) The definite article is normally used before names of
a) rivers
e.g. the (River/river) Nile/Amazon/Thames, the Danube
b) seas and oceans
e.g. the Mediterranean (Sea), the Baltic (Sea), the Atlantic (Ocean), the Pacific
(Ocean)
c) mountain ranges
e.g. the Alps/Appenines/Pyrenees/Andes/Himalayas

133. However, the usual name is now Argentina.

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But names of mountains do not usually have the article.

e.g. Mount Everest, Kilimanjaro, Etna, Vesuvius
d) groups of islands
e.g. the Hebrides/Canaries/Bahamas/Shetlands/Philippines/West Indies/Azores
b. Geographical names consisting of a proper name and a common noun sometimes take the
article, sometimes not.
1) Names of hotels, theatres, clubs, museums, etc. usually take the article.
e.g. the Hilton/Savoy, the Lyceum (theatre), the Marlborough (club), the Tate (Gallery), the
Bodleian (Library), the British Museum, the National Gallery, the Albert Hall, the Royal
Exchange
2) Names of seas, canals, etc. take the article:
e.g. the Bristol Channel, the Suez Canal, the Yorkshire Moors
3) Most other place names have no article.
e.g. Westminster Abbey, London Bridge, Kew Gardens, Hyde Park, Oxford Street,
Piccadilly Circus, Lake Victoria, Windsor Castle, Yale University, Buckingham
Palace, Victoria station, Lake Michigan
c. Geographical names involving a genitive have no article. 134
e.g. Land’s End, St. Michael’s Mount
d. Geographical names involving an of-PP take the.
e.g. the Isle of Wight/Man, the Bay of Biscay, the Mount of Olives, the Lake of Geneva (or:
Geneva Lake), the Cape of Good Hope
e. Geographical names preceded by an adjective take the article only when the adjective modifies
the name restrictively.
e.g. This is the new South Korea that was built after the war.
Economic life in this country depends entirely on almighty Japan.
This is a book on Central Asia / medieval Europe / ancient Rome.
At the time a lot of people left the old London and went to live in the suburbs.

III. THE USE OF THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE

A. MASS NOUNS
The basic function of the indefinite article is to signal that the noun head is (or is used as) a singular
count noun. A(n) will, therefore, never be found before a noun that is used in an uncountable (mass)
sense.
e.g. All you need is love and patience.
He usually gives me excellent advice. (*an excellent advice)
That Frenchman thinks he can speak very good English. (*a very good English)
That shareholder shows striking originality in his suggestions. (*a striking originality)
Note:
1. We normally use some/any rather than the zero article when the reference is to a limited indefinite
quantity.
e.g. We put some cognac into the sauce.
We will need some more fuel.
Did you buy any milk?
2. Nouns that are mostly used as mass nouns can often also be used in a count meaning. In that case
they take the indefinite article.

134. The reason, of course, is that the genitive is itself a determiner.

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a. Some nouns can be used either as mass nouns or as count nouns without any restriction.
e.g. cp. Beer is not expensive in this country.
After the work was finished we had a beer.
cp. These window-panes are made of plastic, not glass.
Another glass has been broken.
However, the number of nouns that allow this double use is very restricted in English. A great
many nouns that can be used as count nouns in other Germanic languages are exclusively mass
nouns in English.
e.g. advice, business, clothing, damage, equipment, evidence, fun, furniture, health,
information, knowledge, luck, luggage, music, news, originality, progress, remorse,
research, travel, weather, work...
e.g. My mother has always enjoyed (*a) good health.
The children appear to have (*a) great fun.
I’m afraid I’m bringing you (*a) bad news.
We usually had (*a) terrible weather on those visits.
You can’t derive (*a) great pleasure from work of this kind.
These students seem to have made (*a) good progress.
Before such nouns we use some to indicate an indefinite quantity and a phrase like a piece/bit of
when we want to ‘individualize’ them.
e.g. a piece of advice/information/good news/music/luggage/equipment, an article of clothing,
a piece/bar of soap, a good piece of work, a lump of sugar, a loaf of bread, an act of
cruelty, a stroke of luck, an article/piece of furniture, a lock of hair, a block of ice, a sheet
of paper
Note:
1) Nouns like piece, bit, etc., which enable us to divide a mass into countable units, are called
unit nouns.
2) Although the word headache is a count noun, nouns indicating other aches (toothache,
earache, stomachache, backache...) are uncountable nouns.135
e.g. I often have headaches, but I haven’t got one now.
Why don’t you go to a dentist if you have toothache?
I’ve had toothache several times this year.
3) The noun dress is count when it indicates an article of women’s clothing, not when it
indicates a special kind of clothing.
e.g. She’s wearing an expensive dress.
Do you ever need to wear national dress / evening dress / battledress?
b. Abstract nouns that are restrictively modified take the indefinite article. In that case a(n) is
equivalent to ‘a kind/degree of’.
e.g. The rescuers displayed an almost supernatural courage.
The poet expresses his vision of a beauty/love that lasts for ever.
However, we cannot speak of *a good advice, *a wonderful news, etc. (cf. above).
B. SINGULAR COUNT NOUNS
Singular count nouns require an article: the if the reference is definite, a(n) if it is not. There are,
however, some special cases in which zero is found:
1. As a rule, the nouns part and half are not preceded by a(n) if they are followed by of and are not
premodified.

135. In Am.E. the latter are count nouns when they refer to a particular attack of pain: I’ve had a toothache three times this year.
 276

e.g. He spent half/part of the summer in Devon. (cp. a large part of the summer)
The exhibits on display here are only part of the collection we have.
Part of the problem is that Miss Burns is not liked by the others.
2. After kind of and sort of the indefinite article is not used, except in nonstandard English.136
e.g. That kind of work is not too difficult.
What kind of man was he?
3. Singular nouns that precede enough have an adjectival meaning and do not take a(n).
e.g. The headmaster was man/coward/fool enough to give in. (= manly/cowardly/foolish enough)
The Prime Minister is statesman enough to be aware of these dangers.
4. The indefinite article is often omitted in newspaper headlines, telegrams, notices, etc.
e.g. Van collides with lorry on motorway.
Private road!
5. Predicational NPs sometimes have no article -- cf. section II, C, 12.
6. The indefinite article is sometimes ellipted before the second of two conjoined NPs.
e.g. a cup and (a) saucer, a hat and (a) coat, a raincoat and (an) umbrella, a knife and (a) fork
Such ellipsis is possible only if the two objects referred to are naturally associated with each other.
e.g. There was a notebook and a stapler in his drawer. (no ellipsis)
C. THE POSITION OF THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE IN THE NP
1. Because it is the determiner, a(n) precedes the modifiers.
e.g. a black leather boot
2. Rather and quite precede (a)n if there is no other premodifier:
e.g. He’s rather a fool.
That was quite a party!
If there is an adjective, a(n) can precede or follow quite/rather. The latter construction is the more
usual.
e.g. quite a difficult homework -- a quite difficult homework
rather a heavy responsibility -- a rather heavy responsibility
3. The indefinite article follows such, many and what:
e.g. such a nice girl
many a young woman
What a wicked thing to do!
Note:
a. What a is possible only in exclamations.
e.g. cp. What a fool you are!
What fool did that?
b. What a is impossible before a mass noun or plural count noun.
e.g. What friendly people!
What an exciting performance!
What nice weather! (mass noun)
What good advice! (id.)
What wonderful news! (id.)
What nonsense/impudence/originality! (id.)
4. The indefinite article does not precede but follows the group ‘as/so/how/however/too + adjective’.
e.g. However intelligent a man he may be, he won’t be able to solve this problem.

136. However, a is acceptable if it entails a different meaning.

e.g. cp. What kind/sort of car is it? (= Is it a Ford, a Mercedes, etc.?)
What kind/sort of a car is it? (= Is it any good?)
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I’ve never seen so large a patio.

How fretful a child she is!
He is as courageous a man as the others.
It’s too cold a day to go for a swim.
Note:
a. This type of structure is always formal. In spoken English, what a is used instead of how, and
such a instead of so.
e.g. I’ve never seen such a large patio.
What a fretful child she is!
b. It is not possible to use the sequence ‘as/how/so/however/too + adjective’ before a mass noun
or plural noun (i.e. without a(n)).
e.g. *They are too intelligent people to do such a thing.
What/*how nice people they are!
*However sophisticated equipment you have, scuba diving in these waters is not without
any risks.
*Gilbert and Ted are so timid boys.
They seem to be such/*so strange stories.
*They are too tactful men to offend anybody.
What/*how big feet she has!

CHAPTER 10

THE ADJECTIVE

I. THE USE OF COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE FORMS

There are three degrees of comparison. They are found with both adjectives and adverbs.
A. THE POSITIVE DEGREE (COMPARISON TO THE SAME DEGREE)
1. Similarity or equality is expressed by ‘as + adjective/adverb + as + NP/clause/adjective’. 137
e.g. My son is as tall as an adult / as tall as I am. (*so tall as)
You’d never think she could work as fast as that.
The inspector worked as thoroughly as he did quickly.
This kind of pike can be as long as four feet long.
Go home as quickly as possible.
The first as can be preceded by a restricter or predeterminer:
e.g. She’s just as uncooperative as ever.
We found ten times as many potsherds as we had expected.
She is twice as tall now, but she is still every bit as elegant.
2. Dissimilarity or inequality is expressed by ‘not so/as + adjective/adverb + as’.
e.g. He is not so/as attractive as his brother (is).
He was not so self-confident then as he is now.
Note:
a. We use as, not so, when the first as is preceded by a restricter or predeterminer.

137. The first as is sometimes dropped in informal speech, esp. in Am.E.: She is hard as nails.
 278

e.g. You’re not half as/*so funny as you believe you are.
It’s not nearly as/*so late as it usually is.
She’s nothing like as/*so generous as she used to be.
b. As is the usual form before much and many.
e.g. He hasn’t got as much money as people believe.
But we use not so much...as in sentences like the following:
e.g. I bought that record not so much because I like the music as because it is a local band.
I didn’t so much like the book as find it interesting.
B. THE COMPARATIVE DEGREE
1. A comparative form expresses comparison to a higher or lower degree. It is followed by than, not by
as.
e.g. Nobody could propose a better solution than/*as John (did).
This is a less interesting episode than the previous one.
August is generally hotter than June.
More aid was sent than had been asked for.
2. To suggest a continuous process (gradual increase or decrease), the comparative is repeated with
and.
e.g. The balloon is getting bigger and bigger. (not: *always/ever bigger)
We’re progressing more and more slowly.
His behaviour is becoming less and less acceptable.
The kite rose higher and higher.
3. Proportional increase or decrease is expressed by ‘the + comparative (...) + the + comparative’.
e.g. The sooner we can leave this area, the better.
The more flour you spill, the less dough we’ll have for the pancakes.
The less is known about it, the better.
The more you lie, the less likely you are to be believed.
The more time was wasted, the smaller the chances were of finding the burglar.
Note the word order in
e.g. The more silly a programme is, the more I like it. (not: *The more a programme is silly...)
Another construction expressing proportional increase or decrease is the structure ‘(all) the +
comparative (+ as/because/for)’.
e.g. It seems that he also hit her, which makes the charge against him all the more serious.
I was (all) the more upset because/as I had the impression they were putting the blame on me.
I’ve been to Barbados and feel (all) the better for it.
Her attitude is the more regrettable as she has no real reason to be angry with us.
I feel all the better for having taken my medicine.
He is rather pleased with himself. The more so as he has just received congratulations from the
Prime Minister himself.
4. To negate a comparative we use no or not any. None is used before ‘the + comparative’.
e.g. No fewer than four people got sick because of the heat.
He says using cocaine does not make a man any worse.
He’s had a rest, but he’s none the better for it.
I overheard their conversation, but I’m none the wiser for it.
5. Any is often added before a comparative in questions.
e.g. Are you any more reassured now?
Do you feel any better today?
6. A comparative can be preceded by an intensifier.
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e.g. rather more quickly, a little less beautiful, a bit more difficult, a lot easier, very much cheaper
Note:
a. Very cannot be used in this way. Instead, we use far or much (sometimes very much, a lot or
(infml) lots).
e.g. He is much/far/*very more intelligent than I am.
He is a lot better / very much better now.
You’re far wealthier than I am.
b. Fairly and quite cannot be used before a comparative.
e.g. This is rather/*fairly/*quite more difficult than I had expected.
An exception is the expression quite better, which means ‘quite recovered (from an illness)’.
c. When more is followed by a plural noun, we use many instead of much.
e.g. You ‘ll have many more / *much more / far more chances of speaking to him.
But neither much nor many can precede fewer.
e.g. cp. far/much less confidence
far/*much/*many fewer books
7. We have to use more (not a comparative in -er) when two qualities of the same person or thing are
compared.
e.g. She is more lazy than tired. (*lazier)
8. There are a couple of idiomatic structures involving comparatives.
e.g. She’s gone? So much the better/worse for you!
I think the boy suspects something. -- All the more reason for keeping an eye on him.
C. THE SUPERLATIVE DEGREE
1. A superlative expresses comparison to the highest or lowest degree.
e.g. This is the most/least interesting lecture so far.
2. A superlative used without a noun head is often followed by an of-PP.
e.g. He is the cleverest of the group.
She is the most intelligent of the pupils.
But we use in rather than of with NPs referring to places.
e.g. That man is the most influential man in town.
This is the largest building in the world.
The teacher said that Mont Blanc was the highest peak in the Alps.
This tree is the thickest in the whole forest.
3. When comparison is made between different parts or states of the same referent, two constructions
are possible (though not always interchangeable):
a. ‘be + superlative’
e.g. Here the river is broadest.
He is happiest when he has his family gathered around him.
The Prime Minister was angriest when he was attacked by a backbencher from his own
party.
b. ‘be + at + possessive determiner + superlative’
e.g. This kind of air pollution is not necessarily at its highest when there’s fog.
Many actors are not at their best during the final rehearsal.
The latter construction is possible with some adjectives only.
4. The superlative can have the meaning of very + positive degree.
e.g. What we learn from these data is most interesting.
Harry is most intelligent. (cp. Harry is the most intelligent (of the students).)
Astrology has always seemed to me to be a most difficult subject.
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Note:
a. This so-called absolute superlative (which implies no comparison but expresses that a quality
is present in a high degree) is possible only with adjectives and adverbs that are subjective
(coloured by feeling and/or opinion).
e.g. most wonderful, most certainly, *most tall, *most slowly
b. When the superlative is preceded by the, it is a relative superlative (implying comparison).
e.g. Who has drunk the most wine?
Of all of them, Jean is the tallest.
Bill is the most cunning of them.
She’s got the least courage of all of us.
5. When two things or persons are compared, correct choice English will use the comparative instead
of the superlative.
e.g. Which of these two cars is the faster?
Of the two boys, John is the politer.
Roger is the smaller / the less tall of the two players.
The bunch of flowers is the cheaper / the less expensive of the two presents.
In informal speech, however, the superlative will often be used, except in idiomatic groups like
upper/lower lip.
6. There are a few idiomatic structures with superlatives.
e.g. The next best thing would be to replace the dog by another.
I think we approached them in the best possible way / in the best way possible.

II. FURTHER SYNTACTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ADJECTIVE

A. Adjectives can be used in two ways:
1. We speak of attributive or adnominal use when the adjective is used as modifier to the head of an
NP.
e.g. This is not a good enough excuse to turn him over to the police.
What a beautiful sketch!
2. We speak of predicative use when the adjective is used as SC or OC.
e.g. The scones are/taste/smell delicious.
He stood motionless in the corner, waiting for the verdict.
If you do not pull your belt tight your trousers will fall off.
Did you think it foolish of me to tell him everything?
My skin feels dry.
She fell unconscious on the pavement.
It’s getting late.
B. Unlike predicative adjectives, attributive adjectives can sometimes be interpreted as picking out a
subclass of the class of referents referred to by the noun head. (This is only possible with some kinds of
adjective, not e.g. with evaluating adjectives.)
e.g. The adjective is so obviously classifying in combinations like medical building, chemical
engineer, solar energy, etc. that such phrases are usually treated as word compounds.
e.g. There is a difference between an old friend and a friend who is old. The former refers to a
particular kind of friend, the latter refers to a particular friend who happens to be old.
e.g. There is no semantic difference between a boring book and a book that is boring, because
boring is an evaluating adjective.
The fact that prenominal attributive adjectives may be interpreted as (more or less) classifying is related
to the fact that postnominal and predicative adjectives often express a temporary characteristic, whereas a
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more permanent characteristic is more normally expressed by an attributive adjective. (Note, however,
that this is a tendency, not a strict rule. Moreover, it holds only for adjectives that can denote either a
permanent or a temporary characteristic.)
e.g. cp. a beautiful garden vs the garden is beautiful
I like tepid beer vs I like my beer tepid
I saw the happy girl vs I saw the girl happy
C. Attributive adjectives normally precede the noun head. There are, however, a number of exceptions.
1. The adjective follows the noun in a number of set expressions that have a French origin.
e.g. president elect / sum total / court martial / Poet Laureate / States General / Secretary General /
blood royal / God Almighty / notary public
2. Present follows the noun in the sense ‘here’ or ‘there’ and precedes it when it refers to the present
time.
e.g. The motion was accepted by the MPs present. (= the MPs who were present at the meeting)
The average age of the present MPs is sixty-two. (= those who are MPs now)
3. Proper follows the noun when it means ‘itself/themselves’; it precedes the noun when it means
‘genuine’, ‘right’, ‘suitable’, ‘correct’, etc.
e.g. Do you live in Brussels? -- Yes. At least, I live in one of the suburbs, not in the city proper.
There will be a fifteen-minute introduction before the meeting proper.
I can’t find a proper word to express my feelings.
The book is not very long, but it is a proper novel, not a novella.
4. Pronouns with some-, every-, any-, and no- are always followed by their adnominal adjectives.
e.g. There is nothing surprising about this.
Something unexpected has happened.
Let’s go somewhere quiet.
Has anything substantial changed?
Some other indefinite words (e.g. matters, things, times) can be used similarly in formal English if
there is more than one adjective.
e.g. She is fascinated by all things strange and exotic.
Our host adroitly steered the conversation away from matters religious or political.
all creatures great and small
5. Adjectives in -ible and -able can follow the noun.
e.g. The amount of money available is £3,000.
It’s the only way/solution possible. (or: the only possible way/solution)
Who’s the nurse responsible?
It was the most extraordinary sight imaginable.
6. In formal English, nonrestrictive adjectives can follow the noun head, especially if they are
themselves modified or are part of a co-ordinate structure.
e.g. The problem, extremely complicated, took a long time to solve.
His shirt, scarlet and exotic, made everybody stare at him.
Such structures can be considered as reduced relative clauses. If they are detached from the noun
head, they are supplementive clauses:
e.g. Nervous, the woman spilt some coffee on her dress.
Anxious to find out the truth, the police questioned everybody in the area.
7. An adjective that has a complement normally follows the noun.
e.g. What you say is not a thing likely to happen soon.
Gossiping is an activity typical of old spinsters.
Any boy good at athletics should come to our school.
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people indifferent to such problems, a glass full of milk, a book worth reading, a river six feet
deep, a remark unworthy of our attention, fruit as hard as stone
However, some adjectives (e.g. different, similar, easy, hard, difficult, impossible) can precede the
noun whereas the PP follows it.
e.g. a different behaviour from this (or: a behaviour different from this)
an easy/difficult problem to solve
a similar example to this (or: an example similar to this)
D. Some adjectives can only be used attributively or predicatively:
1. The following adjectives can only be used attributively: 138
a. adjectives in -ly referring to time
e.g. a weekly magazine, a daily newspaper, his monthly visit to his aunt
b. adjectives denoting materials
e.g. This is a plastic knife. vs *This knife is plastic.
That is a wooden/iron hammer. vs *That hammer is wooden/iron.
c. the adjectives northern, eastern, southern, western
e.g. That’s an eastern custom. vs *That custom is eastern.
d. comparatives like former, latter, inner, outer, upper...
e.g. the upper/lower lip vs *the lip that is upper/lower
the inner tube vs *the tube that is inner
e. adjectives that have an adverbial meaning
e.g. a hard worker (= who works hard)
new students (= who have newly arrived)
a heavy drinker (= who drinks heavily)
an old acquaintance (= who has been an acquaintance from of old)
an occasional visitor, my former colleague, the wrong candidate, the present chairman,
an indoor game...
f. limiter adjectives, i.e. adjectives that limit the scope of reference of the NP.
e.g. certain, chief, favourite, main, only, particular, prime, principal, same, sole, specific...
e.g. This was our main concern. vs. *This concern was main.
You’re the very person I was waiting for.
Do you have any particular/specific reason to believe that?
the main reason, the prime suspect, the main/principal clause, the only problem
g. adjectives that are used as intensifiers
e.g. complete, definite, exact, mere, outright, perfect, plain, real, regular, sheer, thorough, total,
true, utter...
e.g. the mere mention of his name, sheer/pure nonsense, a total surprise, a true hero, utter
folly, a perfect gentleman, a sheer waste of money, of the utmost importance...
Note that some of these adjectives can be used predicatively when they are not intensifiers.
e.g. The story is true.
The meaning of this is plain.
His behaviour was perfect.
h. adjectives used as classifying adjectives.
e.g. polar bear, musical comedy, criminal law, chemical plant, Civil Rights, medical school,
solar energy, social life, short story, atomic scientist, chemical engineer, medical
building, bodily harm, educational psychologist...

138. Note that none of these adjectives denotes a gradable characteristic.

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i. some other adjectives

e.g. a live performance, the average number (of unemployed), the contemporary novel, our
joint opinion, a spare tyre, various people, a little house
2. The following adjectives can only be used predicatively:
a. adjectives beginning with a-
e.g. afraid, afloat, asleep, awake, alone, alive, ashamed, askance, ablaze, afire, adrift, ajar,
alight, aghast...
e.g. a floating/*afloat object
a frightened/*afraid girl
two similar-looking/*alike daughters
a sleeping/*asleep baby
the lonely/*alone cowboy
The girl was fast asleep / wide awake.
I feel very much alone / very lonely.
She’s very much afraid.
b. some other adjectives
e.g. content, exempt, ill, proof, sorry, unable, unwell, worth, faint...
e.g. a satisfied man vs. *a content man
*a sorry girl, *an ill woman
E. The order of premodifying adjectives
When several adjectives are used as prenominal modifiers, they occur in the following order:
1. limiter adjectives, superlatives and ordinal numerals
2. evaluative (subjective) adjectives (and participles) (e.g. nice, beautiful, disappointing, crazy,
lovely)
3. descriptive adjectives (When there are several descriptive adjectives, they normally occur in the
following order: characteristic - size - shape - age - colour - origin - material.)
4. classifying adjectives.
This order reflects the tendency for modifiers that express an inherent or visible property of the referent
of the noun to be placed as close to the noun as possible.
e.g. a certain Belgian medical school, an ugly/depressing new concrete office block, a lovely large
oval mahogany table, a small red Persian rug, a huge brick conference hall, a modern silver
and black Jewish chandelier, black Italian leather shoes, some rather exhausted elderly French
tourists, an impudent young English boy, a soft new green scarf, a famous American medical
school, a stolen white sports car
F. The use of nouns as premodifiers
It is typical of English that not only adjectives but also nouns can be used as premodifiers. This is
especially true of nouns denoting
1. material (e.g. cotton pants, an iron hook, an oak chest, rubber gloves, a brick wall, a copper kettle,
etc.)
2. sex or age (e.g. a woman driver, boy actor)
3. relational position (e.g. the front door, the bottom drawer, the top shelf)
4. time or place (e.g. a Sunday paper, Renaissance art, the London theatres, a seaside holiday)
In such examples the nuclear stress is on the noun head, not on the adnominal noun. This means that such
phrases do not have the stress pattern that is typical of noun compounds.
Note: For some materials there is an adjective in -en, e.g. a wooden table, woollen stockings, etc..
However, some of these adjectives are used only figuratively. To refer to the material we use
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the corresponding noun:

e.g. a silk dress -- a silken skin
a lead pipe -- a leaden sky
silver cutlery -- silvery hair
a gold brooch -- golden memories/hair
a brass plate -- a brazen voice
flax sacks -- flaxen hair

CHAPTER 11

THE MODAL SYSTEM

§ 1. INTRODUCTION

1. Modality is the expression of the speaker’s opinion on, or attitude towards, the situation that he
speaks about. When referring to a situation, the speaker has the choice between two possibilities:
a. He may represent the situation as something which is simply true (factual) and abstain from
expressing his own opinion or feelings with regard to it. In that case his utterance is nonmodal.
e.g. Nobody was there when it happened. (mere statement of fact)
My son is coming back today. (id.)
b. The speaker may also imply that he does not look upon the situation as a mere fact. For
example, he may make clear that he thinks the situation is rather unlikely (e.g. If someone
should ask for me...); or he may make clear that the situation referred to in his utterance is
something that he himself wishes to see realized (e.g. You must stop insulting her). In cases like
these the speaker’s utterance is a modal one.
2. Modal utterances fall apart into two major classes: some express epistemic modality, the others
express root modality (nonepistemic modality):
a. Epistemic modality is concerned with the degree to which a proposition is true or false. When
the speaker does not represent the situation as a fact, this means either that he represents it as
counterfactual (untrue) or that he refers to one of the gradations that lie in between the extremes
‘true (factual)’ and ‘false (counterfactual)’, viz. probability, possibility, improbability, etc. The
following sentences all express epistemic modality:
e.g. He may be at home now. (= It is perhaps true that...) (epistemic possibility)
He must be at home now. (epistemic necessity)
I wish I knew the answer. (unreality)
b. Root (nonepistemic) modality is concerned with the occurrence of situations (actions, events,
states, processes) rather than with the truth of propositions. It is the expression of such notions
as obligation, permission, ability, nonepistemic (im)possibility, nonepistemic necessity,
volition, willingness, etc.
e.g. This problem can be solved quite easily. (root possibility)
We all need to work very hard. (root necessity)
He won’t do as I tell him. (refusal)
Root modality that has to do with the expression of obligation or permission is sometimes
called deontic modality.
e.g. You must leave now.
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You may leave now.

3. The terms ‘mood’ and ‘modality’ are not always kept apart. Strictly speaking, however, mood is the
grammatical term which is used to indicate the inflectional verbal categories whose function it is to
express (non)modality, viz. the indicative (mood), the subjunctive (mood) and the imperative
(mood). 139 Modality is a semantic term relating to the meanings which are usually associated with
mood. The relation between mood and modality is therefore similar to that between tense and time.
4. In English the use of one of the three moods is not the most important means of expressing modality.
This is because all three of them are very restricted in their possibilities and uses: the imperative
mood can only express one kind of modality (viz. the idea that the speaker wants the hearer to do
something or to refrain from doing it); the subjunctive has only a couple of forms, which can be used
in a limited number of cases only (cf. below); and the indicative has very few modal uses, since it is
basically used in nonmodal utterances. The usual means of expressing modality in English is by
using a modal adverb (e.g. perhaps, surely, possibly, necessarily, probably...) or a modal auxiliary
(shall, should, will, would, can, could, may, might, must, ought to, need, dare, used to, be going to,
be to, have to).
5. The English subjunctive has a limited number of forms only:
a. The present subjunctive has the form of the infinitive (i.e. the verb stem) in all persons, both in
the singular and in the plural. This means that only the 3rd person singular differs from the
indicative, in that it has no -s suffix. Only the verb be (which also uses the infinitive form as
present subjunctive) has a completely different array of indicative forms.
b. Be is the only verb that has a past subjunctive form: we use were for both numbers and all
persons.
c. All verbs have a present and past subjunctive in the passive and in the progressive, because
passive and progressive forms are built with the help of be.
d. There are no other subjunctive forms in English: the subjunctive has no future or perfect tenses.
6. We will treat the forms could, would, should and might as past tense forms of the auxiliaries
can, will, shall and may. It will become clear, however, that the former have little to do with
past time, except in indirect speech. They most often refer to the present or future.

§ 2. INFLECTIONAL MODAL FORMS

I. THE SUBJUNCTIVE
A. THE PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE
The use of the present subjunctive is restricted to the following cases: 140
1. It is used in a few standing expressions, mainly wishes and imprecations.
e.g. God save the Queen!
Heaven preserve us from that!
Suffice it to say that we lost.

139. Some languages have other moods besides these. For example, ancient Greek also has an ‘optative’ and a ‘conjunctive’.
140. Apart from the three cases mentioned here, the present subjunctive can also be found in conditional and concessive clauses. However, this
use is extremely formal (even archaic) in Br.E. (though it is somewhat more common in Am.E.).
e.g. Whatever be the origin of the unrest, we must see what we can do about it.
If this be what they want, they must be stopped at all cost.
If she ever change her will, she will tell her children about it.
This use of the present subjunctive especially survives in some stereotyped expressions:
e.g. Be it as it may, we cannot simply ignore the problem.
Come what may, we will continue our efforts to get the prisoners free.
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Far be it from me to spoil the fun.

Long live the King!
(God) bless you.
The devil take that man.
So be it then.
How come I never see you here any more? (infml)
God help you.
Heaven forbid that...
2. In formal English, the present subjunctive can replace ‘should + infinitive’ in two types of noun
clause:141
a. after verbs of volition such as ask, agree, arrange, command, decide, demand, desire, insist,
intend, propose, recommend, require, suggest, urge, etc. (but not wish).
e.g. The council has decided/decreed/insisted that a special committee be set up to investigate
the matter.
I suggest that you say nothing to her about it.
b. after adjectives like anxious, desirable, determined, eager, essential, important, necessary,
vital, etc.
e.g. It is essential that there be no shortage of food.
They are anxious that this infamous letter remain unpublished.
Note:
1) This use of the present subjunctive is very formal (and therefore far less usual than the use of
should) in Br.E. In Am.E., however, should is not used in these two cases, so that the
subjunctive is quite common in written language, especially in journalese.
2) Note that we use the present subjunctive, not the past subjunctive, in these two cases, even
when the head clause is in the past tense.
e.g. The speaker demanded that the listeners be quiet.
It was essential that the patient be operated on as soon as possible.
3. In formal English, the present subjunctive can also be found after whether...or.
e.g. Whether the antecedent be animate or inanimate, we can always use the relative determiner
whose.

B. THE PAST SUBJUNCTIVE

The past subjunctive form were is used to express unreality in four types of subclause:
1. Conditional clauses: were indicates a rejected hypothesis, an unfulfilled condition.
e.g. If I were you, I should not trust her too much.
You could vote if you were naturalized.
2. Noun clauses after wish: were expresses an unfulfilled wish.
e.g. I wish I were living on some desert island.
He wished he weren’t thinking of her all the time.
It should be noted that were expresses simultaneity with the main verb and cannot, therefore, be
used if the wish is about the future. (We have to use would instead, cf. section III of §4.)
3. Conditional-concessive clauses introduced by even if: here too, were expresses that the contents of
the subclause are unreal, contrary to fact:
e.g. She would never confide in me, even if I were her best friend.

141. These two uses of should are treated in section I of §4.

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4. Subclauses of manner (similarity) introduced by as if or the more formal conjunction as though:

were implies unreality.
e.g. He behaves as if he were the best player in the world.
Note: In most sentences of these types were can be replaced by a modal past form. However, using was
instead of were is typical of informal English only. Moreover, the use of were has virtually become
stereotyped in some expressions (e.g. if I were you, as it were...).

II. MODAL INDICATIVE FORMS

Only two indicative tenses can be used with a modal meaning, viz. the past tense and the past perfect. In
that case the verb form loses part of its normal temporal meaning: it just expresses one temporal relation.
That is, a modal preterite always expresses simultaneity and a modal past perfect always expresses
anteriority. Both can be used irrespective of the tense of the head clause.
e.g. I wish I knew him better. (The head clause is in the present tense; since knew expresses
simultaneity, it refers to the present, not to the past.)
I wished I knew him better. (The head clause is in the past tense; since knew expresses simultaneity,
it also refers to the past.)
I wish you had told me the truth. (present unfulfilled wish concerning the past)
I wished you had told me the truth earlier. (past unfulfilled wish concerning an anterior situation)
Modal past and modal past perfect forms can be found both in main clauses and in subclauses:
A. MODAL INDICATIVE FORMS IN MAIN CLAUSES
1. Modal had is found in the idioms had better and had best.
e.g. We’d better get up early tomorrow morning.
You’d better leave her alone.
You’d best consult a solicitor before making a decision.
You’d better be doing your homework when your father comes home.
Had better/best is used in sentences that recommend an action or offer advice. (I’d better is used to
give advice to oneself; we’d better is more or less equivalent to let’s.) 142
Note:
a. The structure ‘had better/best + present infinitive’ cannot refer to a past situation.
e.g. You’d better tell her now / at once / tomorrow / *yesterday.
Unreal past is not expressed by ‘had better/best + perfect infinitive’ but by other constructions:
e.g. It would have been better not to pick / not to have picked these apples so early.
You would have done better not to have picked these apples so early.
b. In negative statements we add not to the infinitive, not to had.
e.g. You’d better not bungle the job this time. (*You hadn’t better...)
Let’s accompany them. -- No, we’d better not.
However, in negative questions not is added to had.
e.g. Hadn’t you better write a reply?
Hadn’t she better make another attempt?
c. Better precedes had if the latter is more strongly accented:
e.g. I promise I won’t touch alcohol any more. -- You better had.
2. Modal had is also found in the idiom had rather.
e.g. I’d rather go on with my work.
She’d rather marry anybody than become an old spinster.

142. In very informal speech, had is sometimes dropped: You better keep your mouth shut, I better go home now.
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The meaning of ‘d rather is more or less the same as that of would prefer to.
Note:
a. Had rather alternates with would rather, which is far more common. (In fact, only would is
usual in spoken Br.E. on the rare occasions when the verb is not contracted to ‘d. In written
Br.E. too, would is the more common form nowadays, but instances with had can occasionally
be found. In Am.E. had is more frequent than in Br.E.)
b. ‘d rather always refers to the present: its meaning is something like ‘would [now] prefer to’. It
can be followed by a perfect infinitive expressing anteriority:
e.g. I’d rather have heard about that before the meeting.
c. In negative statements, not is added to the infinitive:
e.g. I’d rather not stay at that hotel.
Join us? -- No, thanks, I’d rather not. I’ve got work to do.
I’d rather not reply to this accusation.
In negative questions, not is added to would:
e.g. Wouldn’t you rather borrow my car?
Who wouldn’t rather have a Ferrari than a Ford?
d. Would rather is more or less equivalent to would sooner and would just as soon:
e.g. I’d sooner die than marry that bitch.
Will you climb the tower? -- I’d just as soon not, if you don’t mind.
e. The construction I’d rather leave should not be confused with a construction of the type I’d
rather enjoy that kind of job. In the latter structure rather is added as an intensifier (with a
meaning similar to that of quite or very much) to an infinitive (e.g. appreciate, enjoy, like...)
which is preceded by would.
e.g. I’d rather like an ice-cream now. -- Oh, would you? I’d rather have a drink. (The first
rather is an intensifier added to would like; the second forms part of the idiom ‘d rather
and means ‘would prefer to’.)
3. Modal past forms can be used in questions and requests to express a tentative or polite attitude. (This
is often called the attitudinal use of the past tense.)
e.g. Did you want me? -- Yes, I hoped you could help me clean up this mess. (The use of hoped
rather than hope renders the request indirect, and therefore more polite. The speaker implies
that he is not necessarily committed to his hope, i.e. that he is prepared to give it up if the hearer
should prefer not to give him a hand. Using I hope would be rather more pressing: it would
make it difficult for the hearer to refuse to comply with the request without seeming impolite.
Similarly, did you want me? is more tentative, and therefore more polite, than do you want me?)
e.g. I wondered if you would hold this painting for me while I look for my hammer.
I thought you might lend me your camera. (tentative suggestion)
I wanted to ask you a favour.
Note:
a) This modal use of the preterite could be analysed as resulting from a shift of temporal
perspective. The mechanism is simply that the speaker locates his hope, wonder, thinking, etc.
in the past in order to suggest that he is not necessarily committed to them at the time of
utterance. This is a means of making a request less pressing or of forestalling severe criticism in
case the statement made turns out to be incorrect (e.g. I thought you might be mistaken).
b) The implication of politeness can still be enhanced by the use of the progressive:
e.g. I was wondering if you could give me a hand.
I was hoping we could have dinner together.
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In such sentences the suggestion that the speaker is not necessarily committed to the feeling at
TU is still strengthened by the fact that the progressive represents the feeling as temporary
(fleeting) rather than permanent.
4. The past perfect of verbs such as expect, hope, intend, mean, suppose, think, want implicates
nonactualisation of the situation referred to by the infinitive clause:
e.g. She had intended to buy a ticket. (suggests that she did not buy a ticket after all)
I had hoped to go abroad next summer. (suggests: but I won’t be able to)
They hadn’t meant to offend anybody. (suggests: but they did/do/will)
We had expected the delivery to be made in time.
Note:
a. The suggestion of nonactualisation is an implicature, as it can be cancelled by the context.
e.g. I had hoped to be able to come here today, and I have managed to do so after all.
b. We do not need to use the past perfect if unreality (nonactualisation) is clear from the context.
e.g. I hoped/intended/wanted to come, but I couldn’t.
c. If there is an idea of nonactualisation, the past perfect can also be followed by a perfect
infinitive:
e.g. She had intended to have gone to him today. (suggests that she will not go to him after all)
I had hoped to have gone abroad next summer. (suggests: but I won’t be able to)
They hadn’t meant to have offended anybody. (suggests: but they did/do/will)
However, the perfect infinitive is less usual than the present infinitive if the situation in
question lies in the present or future.
d. With some verbs (e.g. like, hate, prefer, love) we use a different construction to express
unreality: instead of using a past perfect we use ‘should/would + perfect infinitive’: 143
e.g. cp. I had intended to attend yesterday’s/tonight’s meeting. (*would have intended)
I would have liked to attend yesterday’s/tonight’s meeting. (*had liked)
There are two (less usual) alternatives. Next to (a), we can also use (b) or (c):
(a) I would have liked to attend yesterday’s/tonight’s meeting.
(b) I would like to have attended yesterday’s/tonight’s meeting.
(c) I would have liked to have attended yesterday’s/tonight’s meeting.
This gives us the following possibilities:
(a) I would like [now] to see him [now or later]. (no unreality)
(b) I would have liked [at that time or now] to see him [before that time or at that time or later
(possibly now or in the future)]. (unreality)
(c) I would like to have seen him [id.]. (unreality)
(d) I would have liked to have seen him [id.]. (unreality)
Further examples:
e.g. My sister would have preferred to be a boy.
My sister would prefer to have been a boy.
My sister would have preferred to have been a boy.

B. MODAL INDICATIVE FORMS IN SUBCLAUSES

1. Modal indicative forms are used after the verb wish to denote unreality, i.e. to represent the wish as
unfulfilled. Irrespective of the tense of the main verb, the preterite expresses simultaneity, the past
perfect anteriority. (It follows that neither of them can be used if the wish concerns the future: in that
case we have to use would -- cf. §4, III.)

143. Should can only be used in the first person. Would can be used in all three persons.
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e.g. I wish I had time to see her more often.

I wish I had had time to see her off at the station.
Don’t you ever wish you had a sister?
She wished she had paid more attention to what the teacher had said.
Note:
a. After the verb wish, the modal preterite was alternates with the subjunctive form were (cf.
above).
b. Unfulfilled wishes can also be introduced by wish to God, would that or if only:
e.g. If only I could remember her name!
Wish to God you took more interest in your work!
Would that I could help you!
If only he had not written that letter!
Wish to God he didn’t believe all those rumours!
2. Modal past and modal pluperfect forms express simultaneity and anteriority, respectively, after ‘d
rather, ‘d sooner, ‘d just as soon.
e.g. I’d rather you kept out of it.
I’d rather you had not disconnected the plug from the socket.
I’d sooner the problem had been put before the board.
She’d rather you stopped treating her like a child.
Note:
a. These expressions cannot be followed by a finite clause whose subject is the same as that of the
main clause. An infinitive clause is used instead.
e.g. cp. I’d rather you went into hiding now.
I’d rather go into hiding now. (*I’d rather I went into hiding now.)
e.g. She’d just as soon go home and forget about it.
b. Generally speaking, the form ‘d is short for either had or would. Both forms are possible with
rather (though would is far more frequent in Br.E.); only would is used before sooner and just
as soon; only had is used before better. 144
3. Modal past forms can be found after it is/was (high) time.
e.g. It is time we stopped poisoning our environment.
Don’t you think it’s high time you went home?
Again, the implication is that of unreality: It’s time you changed your attitude implies that the
subclause situation has not yet actualized. In consequence, we will use a modal past if we want to
suggest that the action should already have been performed, that it has been delayed too long. If we
do not want to suggest this, we use either an infinitive or a construction with should:
e.g. It is time we should do something about it.
She’s a grown woman now. It’s time for her to marry.
4. In subclauses of manner introduced by as if or as though (= more fml), we use the normal indicative
forms to express what is possibly or probably true and modal indicative forms to express unreality.
e.g. She looks as if she is worried about something. (She probably is.)
That man talks as if he knows all about the subject. (Perhaps he does.)
It’s awkward when visitors behave as if they owned the place. (They do not.)
He talks as if he had witnessed the accident himself. (But he did not.)
This puppy looks as if it is really sick. We’d better take it to a vet.
If the verb is be, three forms can be used:

144. In Am.E. better can be preceded by would.

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e.g. Ted walks as if his right leg is/was/were injured. (Is suggests that the speaker believes Ted’s
leg is injured; was suggests that there is only a slight chance that it might be; were suggests that
it is not.)
He treats me as if I was/were his slave. (unreality)
5. Modal tenses can be used in conditional clauses.
In a sentence like If he comes I’ll be happy, nothing is said about whether I expect the person in
question to come or not: the condition is represented as an ‘open’ one. That is, the speaker does not
express whether he deems it probable, doubtful, impossible, etc. that the condition will be fulfilled.
He just states a connection between someone’s coming and his own happiness. This is no longer the
case when a modal tense form is used. The implication then is that of a weak potentiality or unreality
if a modal past is used and that of unreality if a modal pluperfect is used.145
e.g. I should be amazed if he believed that. (weak potentiality)
If I knew his address, I would write him a letter. (unreality)
Things would have been different if my husband had still been alive. (unreality)
Supposing we sent him an invitation, would he come?
Just imagine the police had suspected us.
Suppose your mother saw you in that outfit. (present unreality or future possibility)
Note: Verb forms are used similarly in
a. concessive-conditional clauses introduced by even if:
e.g. cp. Even if we win the game, we will still be in danger of being relegated. (open
condition)
Even if we won the game, we would still be in danger of being relegated. (weak
potentiality)
Even if we had won the game, we would still have been in danger of being relegated.
(unreality)
b. hypothetical relative clauses:
e.g. cp. (a) A baby that is hungry will not stop crying.
(b) A baby that was hungry would not stop crying.
These relative clauses have the value of conditional clauses: (a) and (b) are roughly equivalent
to (c) and (d):
(c) A baby will not stop crying if it is hungry.
(d) A baby would not stop crying if it was hungry.
Relative clauses that have a conditional connotation use the indicative verb forms that are
typical of normal conditional clauses. The following are some further examples:
e.g. She wouldn’t dream of giving money to charities that she did not know were above board.
She would not support a candidate that had no chance of winning.

§ 3. MODALITY EXPRESSED BY MODAL AUXILIARIES

I. VOLITION (DETERMINATION, WILLINGNESS, INTENTION, INSISTENCE)

A. BE GOING TO
1. Be going to can be used as an auxiliary expressing premeditated intention (cf. chapter III).
e.g. I am going to buy a new car.

145. For further details, see section II of §4.

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He says he’s going to be a dentist.

Like will, be going to can get the force of an instruction if it has a second person subject. The
implication is that the speaker will see to it that the addressee performs the future action.
e.g. You’re going to help me paint the wall without any more argument.
You’re going to take the car and drive me to the station.
However, will is far more usual in such sentences.
In the negative, be going to comes close to a refusal if it expresses a firm intention on the part of the
speaker.
e.g. This is my little brother. You’re not going to make a butt of him! (warning)
Nobody’s going to order me about! (= I refuse to be ordered about; don’t try to...)
I’m not going to apologize to him for what I did. He deserved it.
2. The past tense form was/were going to expresses a past intention.
e.g. When I met him last year he was going to change his job.
Was/were going to often implicates unreality (i.e. the idea that the past intention has not been carried
out).
e.g. I was going to write the letter last night. (suggests that I did not)
You were going to send me a copy. (used as a reminder: you haven’t sent me a copy yet)
When the intention concerns a post-present action, was/were going to implicates the speaker’s
expectation that the action will not (or may not) be performed.
e.g. He was going to come and help us tomorrow. (But he probably won’t.)

B. WILL
1. The auxiliary will has a couple of uses which have to do with volition:
a. Strong volition
If used with this meaning, will has to be accented (except in the negative, where a strong accent
may fall on the negator). In the affirmative, it cannot be shortened to ‘ll.
‘Strong volition’ comprises the following meanings:
1) in affirmative sentences: obstinate insistence, persistent habit
e.g. He WILL do everything himself, although he has a secretary. (= He insists on...)
If you WILL get drunk every other night, no wonder you are not feeling well.
When the subject is in the second or third person, this use of will often implies annoyance
or exasperation on the part of the speaker.
e.g. He WILL throw his empty bottles into my garden. (and I don’t like that)
He WILL do it, no matter what I say.
Why WILL you keep teasing the other children?
With a first-person subject, the speaker expresses his own strong determination.
e.g. I WILL apply for that job, and you shall not stop me!
2) in negative sentences: refusal
e.g. He won’t talk about it to a solicitor. (= He insists on not talking...)
You would like him to cut his hair short, but he will never do that.
In this use the subject may be inanimate:
e.g. I can’t open the door. The key they’ve given me won’t go into the lock.
b. Willingness
With this meaning, will is unaccented and often shortened to ‘ll.
e.g. Who will give me a hand in the kitchen? (= Who is willing to...?)
He’ll do anything to please her.
He’ll no doubt help you if you ask him kindly.
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If you like, my daughter will accompany you.

It should be noted that what will expresses here is in fact not just willingness but a combination
of willingness and future actualization. The sentence I will help you not only implies ‘I am
willing to help you’ but also expresses the speaker’s promise that he will do it. For this reason
the idea ‘He is willing to help me but he can’t’ cannot be expressed as *He will help me but he
can’t.
In the interrogative form, this use of will expresses a request, offer or invitation.
e.g. Will you have a look at this, please? (request)
Will you have a scone? (offer)
Will you / Won’t you come in? (invitation)
Will you kindly wait until my husband comes back?
If there is no marker of politeness such as please, kindly, etc., such a question is often merely a
polite substitute for an imperative.
e.g. (to student) Jane, will you come to the blackboard?
Will you stop fidgeting and pay attention? (rebuke)
The question tag will you? is often added as a marker of politeness to an imperative.
e.g. Close the door, will you?
c. Intention
Several meanings can be subsumed under this heading: depending on the context, will can
express a promise, a guarantee, a suggestion, a threat, an unpremeditated intention or a decision
that has just been made.
e.g. I will pay you a visit next week. (promise)
I’ll hit you if you do that again! (threat)
We will only take a couple of minutes of your time. (promise)
We will call in the police if you do that! (threat)
I’d like another slice of cake. -- I’ll get it for you. (unpremeditated intention)
We will stay the night here if you like. We won’t go back to the hotel. (suggestion)
You lay the table and I will make the tea. (suggestion, promise)
As is clear from the examples, the subject is nearly always in the first person. In all cases there
is a clear feeling that the fulfilment of the intention is guaranteed. This follows from the fact
that will does not merely express an intention but rather future actualization depending on a
present intention.
2. In these uses will is always subject-oriented: it expresses the will, willingness or intention of the
referent of the subject. In consequence, passivization (which involves a change of S) is not possible
without a change of meaning. Thus, Terry won’t be helped by Mildred is not equivalent to Mildred
won’t help Terry.
3. Unlike the future tense auxiliary will, this will regularly occurs in conditional clauses.
e.g. If everybody will do his share of the work, we should have finished by tonight.
I will try and talk Margaret round if you will talk to Donald.
When asking for co-operation we often use a conditional sentence with will in both clauses: in the if-
clause will expresses willingness, in the head clause it expresses a promise.
e.g. If you will write the foreword, I will correct the galley proofs.
4. If volitional will is negated, the negation usually bears on the modality:
e.g. They won’t let me in because I’m too young. (= They are not willing to...)
On the other hand, examples in which it is the situation expressed by the infinitive that is negated
can occasionally be found:
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e.g. I won’t tell your parents if you promise never to come back here. (= I am willing not to tell..., I
promise not to tell...)
5. The preterite form would can be used in two ways:
a. It may be a ‘real past’ form locating insistence, refusal or willingness in the past.
e.g. I told him it was dangerous to thwart the mayor, but he WOULD do it. (insistence)
I needed new clothes but he wouldn’t buy any. (refusal)
She WOULD rummage in the cupboards. (persistent annoying habit)
He was very greedy. He would do anything for money. (habitual willingness)
Note: Would cannot express willingness with actualization on a specific past occasion, except
in reported speech.146
e.g. cp. I asked him to lend me a fiver and he was willing to (do so).
*I asked him to lend me a fiver and he would (do so).
I asked him to lend me a fiver and he said he would (do so).
Whenever I asked him to lend me a fiver, he would do so. (habitual action)
I asked him to lend me a fiver but he would not (do so). (negative)
All he would do for me was lend me a fiver. (near-negative)
However, there is no such restriction when would expresses insistence:
e.g. I asked him not to burn the weeds but he WOULD do it.
It’s your own fault. You WOULD climb the mountain on foot instead of taking the
cable-lift.
b. Would can also be used as a modal past expressing hypothetical or counterfactual willingness.
e.g. She could buy the house if her parents would give her a loan, but they will not. (would =
were willing to)
Of course she would never admit doing that in front of her husband. (= would not be
willing to)
I would give you more information if I could.
This would is often used in polite requests, offers and invitations.
e.g. Would you excuse me for a moment?
Would you come inside now?
6. Questions with a volitional (intentional) verb and beginning with will you are most likely to be
understood as requests, offers or invitations (rather than as questions for information).
e.g. Will you tell us why you voted against the proposal? (request)
Will you have dinner with me tonight?
Will you please put this envelope into the post-box?
Substituting tentative would for will renders such a request, offer or invitation more tentative, i.e.
more diffident, tactful, polite.
e.g. Would you please tell me your name?
Would you kindly fill in this form?
7. Will not and would not expressing a present or past refusal can occasionally be found with inanimate
subjects.
e.g. This microwave oven won’t work.
The lorry wouldn’t start.
8. Apart from the modal uses of will considered above, there is another modal use that has to do with
volition, viz. the use of will for giving instructions:
e.g. You will come to my room after the classes.

146. There is a similar restriction on could (for past permission or ability) -- cf. below.
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The missiles will be launched as soon as the radar spots a plane.

You will accompany me if I say so!
None of you will leave the hotel until the murderer is found.
You will go home immediately.
This use of will has developed from its use as a future tense auxiliary: a prediction is used as a way
of giving an order. Instead of using an imperative, the speaker just states that the action will be
performed. This is a very confident and rather high-handed way of giving an order: it seems
unthinkable to the speaker that the hearer should protest or disobey.
It goes without saying that will is not subject-oriented in this use: it expresses the will of the speaker.

C. SHALL
1. The basic difference of meaning between shall and will is that the latter is subject-oriented,
whereas the former is discourse-oriented (i.e. shall expresses volition on the part of the speaker (in
statements) or of the addressee (in questions)).
2. Like will, shall can express various shades of meaning:
a. Strong volition or determination, insistence 147
e.g. You shan’t escape being punished for this! (= I am determined that...)
No one shall tell me what I ought to do!
He shall come with me, whatever you say. (= I insist on his coming with me)
You shall pay for this!
We shall overcome!
Some day that post shall be mine.
Shall he do it at once? (= Do you want him to do it...?)
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be! (Churchill)
Note:
1) This use of shall is formal.
2) In the first person, both shall and will can be used to express determination or insistence,
because in that case the speaker is also the referent of the subject of the sentence.
However, the tone of obstinacy will be strongest if shall is used.148
e.g. Please don’t shout. -- I shall shout if I want to!
3) As shall does not express the volition of the referent of the S (except in the first person),
passivization is possible.
e.g. I shall revenge her. -- She shall be revenged.
b. Willingness
Again, the difference between shall and will is that shall expresses willingness on the part of
the speaker, not on the part of the referent of the S.
e.g. He shall be handsomely rewarded if he agrees to support us. (= I’m willing to reward him)

147. When the sentence involves an intentional verb and the subject is you, this use of shall comes down to the expression of an order
(prohibition) or threat.
e.g. You SHALL do your homework now, whether you like it or not!
You SHALL wear the jacket that we have bought for you!
Sentences like these sound very imperious and high-handed. They suggest that the speaker has every power to decide what the listener
should do. Because of this, they are not very common in present-day English. However, in the archaic language of official regulations and
other formal and legalistic documents, this kind of shall-imperative is still commonly found with third person subjects.
e.g. Murderers shall be imprisoned for life.
If the president resigns, the board shall elect a new president within thirty days.
148. The use of shall not in the first person comes down to a strong refusal.
e.g. I shall NOT give in!
I shall NOT ask her to dance!
This use occurs in Br.E. only and is much less frequent than the use of will not.
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Do not worry about these reforms. You shall not lose your privileges.
If he wants a kite, a kite he shall have!
With second and third-person subjects, this (rather fml) use of shall comes down to the speaker
promising or guaranteeing something.
e.g. You shall not be bothered by anyone. (promise)
He shall get his money if he is patient. (guarantee)
Well-done! You shall have an ice-cream when we get home. (promise)
Note:
1) Promises in the form of you shall... are not very common, because they sound unpleasantly
condescending: they clearly imply that the speaker is granting a favour.
2) We use you will, not you shall, in clauses depending on I promise/guarantee/assure:
e.g. I promise/assure you that you won’t have to work overtime.
Next time it will be you, I promise/assure you.
c. Intention on the part of the speaker
e.g. I shall write a letter to the BBC to protest.
I shan’t be away for a long time.
We shall get in touch with you as soon as we have news.
We shall withdraw your allowance if you do not stop gambling.
Since shall expresses intention on the part of the speaker, it can only be used with a first-person
subject. Moreover, since speaker and S coincide in this case, shall is interchangeable with will.
On the whole, however, I shall is more formal and much less frequent than I will. It is not used,
for example, to express unpremeditated intention, to make an offer, to volunteer or to insist.
e.g. There’s someone at the door. -- I’ll go. (= I will go; not: I shall go.)
I will pay my debts. I really will. (*shall)
No, no. I’ll do the washing-up. You did it yesterday. (*shall)
3. In questions, shall can only be found with a first or third-person subject. (Shall you...? is always
ungrammatical). The following uses can be distinguished:
a. Because shall is hearer-oriented in questions, it can be used to inquire about the hearer’s desires
or wishes. In many cases this boils down to a question asking for instructions. (Shall I...? = ‘do
you want me to...?’, ‘would you like me to...?’)
e.g. Shall I answer the phone?
Shall the curtains be drawn now?
Will you have a drink? What shall it be?
b. This can easily become an offer of service.
e.g. Shall I carry the trunk for you?
Shall my secretary look it up for you?
Let me explain to you how it works, shall I?
Shall Bill pick the apples for you? (said e.g. by a mother offering the services of her son
to someone)
c. First-person questions with shall can be suggestions, even tactful commands.
e.g. Shall we go home now?
Let’s go on with the work, shall we?
Shall we change the subject?
Note, however, that we use will, not shall, for a suggestion in the form of a statement.
e.g. Look at those strawberries! We will buy some, shall we?
Chris is being a martyr again. We will ignore him, shall we?
d. In rhetorical questions we have to use shall instead of will.
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e.g. The people living here feel strongly about this, and who shall say that they are wrong?
e. Note also the phrase shall we say, which is inserted in an utterance when the speaker wishes to
apologize for his choice of words or for the inaccuracy of his formulation.
e.g. Most of the natives have left their villages as a result of, shall we say, the march of
Civilization.
4. Unlike the preterite form would, which can express some of the volitional meanings of will (either as
a ‘real past’ or as a modal past form), should has no uses similar to the above uses of shall.

D. CAN
The basic meanings of can are ability, possibility and permission. However, some volitional meanings
have developed from these:
1. When the speaker says that he can do something, this should sometimes not be understood as an
expression of ability (‘I am able to do that’) but as an expression of willingness (‘I am willing to do
that’).
e.g. Why can’t he be on time, like the rest of us? (= Why isn’t he willing...?)
Questions involving this can are very often requests; statements involving it are mostly offers of
service.
e.g. I can take these letters to the post office if you like. (offer of service)
Can you help me with my paper? (request)
Can you pass me the honey, please?
Don’t bother to fill in the form. I can do it myself.
Can you hold on a minute, please?
I can take care of the children for a couple of days, if that will help.
Can’t you give me some more details?
In such sentences we can also use the modal past form could, which is more tentative, deferential,
tactful, polite.
e.g. I could look after your parrot while you are abroad.
Could you pass me the apple sauce?
I could do the ironing if you’re too tired.
2. In spoken English, can is very often used to express a suggestion for future action.
e.g. We can talk about that next time.
Can’t we go to a solicitor and ask him what we should do?
Again, could is a more tentative alternative.
e.g. If you’re free now, we could have lunch together.
What shall I do to mollify her? -- You could send her some flowers.
3. With second and third-person subjects, can can express an order.
e.g. (casting the parts for a theatrical production) Nancy and Helen, you can play the parts of the
two witches, and Sybil can be the good fairy.
Kevin can write the addresses, and I’ll put the letters into the envelopes. Brad can put the
stamps on them.
You can begin by cleaning the toilets, and then you can hoover the fitted carpet in the corridor.
Such commands with can are typical of a familiar style. They are usually polite and not very
coercive, but they may also be rather impatient and even aggressive:
e.g. If your results aren’t better next time, you can forget about going to Greece during the holidays.
Oh, you can put the blame on me, thank you very much!
If you can’t be silent you can go elsewhere.
What about that lady who wants to see you? -- She can wait.
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Even if you’re not interested, you can still be so polite as to be quiet until I’ve finished!
If he doesn’t like my car, he can go there on foot.
4. First-person questions with can asking for permission can sometimes be used for making requests:
e.g. Can I have the margarine?
Can I leave now?

E. MAY
1. In statements, the meaning of may for permission, (=‘I allow you to...’) can easily shift to that of a
suggestion or weak imperative.
e.g. You may have a try now.
You may take it from me that it won’t last another week.
You may rest assured that everything has been taken care of.
2. A similar meaning may also develop from the use of may for epistemic possibility (may =
‘perhaps’ -- see below).
e.g. You may want to think about it again before rejecting the offer.
3. In first-person questions the meaning of permission may shift to that of a polite request.
e.g. May I go on, please?

II. PERMISSION

A. MAY
1. We can distinguish between two kinds of permission:
(a) permission given by the speaker or (in questions and if-clauses) asked from the addressee (in
other words: discourse-oriented permission)
(b) permission without reference to the source (no orientation)
English uses may for (a) and can for (b).149
e.g. cp. May I say something? (= Do you allow me to say something?)
Can I park my van here? (= Is it allowed to park a van here?)
e.g. cp. You may decide for yourself. (= I give you permission to...)
You can decide for yourself. (= You have permission; you’re free to make your own
decision.)
Note:
a. Statements starting with you may are not very common, because they are not felt to be very
polite. On the other hand, the use of may is quite all right in sentences like the following:
e.g. What right do we have to tell these people where they may or may not go? (The speaker
does not assert his right to grant permission but questions it.)
b. In some cases we have to use may even for unoriented permission, because can would be
interpreted as expressing ability or possibility.
e.g. cp. Everybody may hear what you say. (= permission: I have no objection if they hear
it.)
Everybody can hear what you say. (= ability: everybody hears it.)
c. Because may is discourse-oriented, it is normally used only to request permission and to give or
refuse it. It is not used to express other kinds of permission.

149. In formal English, the use of can tends to be avoided, so that may is used for both (a) and (b).
e.g. (guidebook) Children may ascend the tower only if they are accompanied by an adult.
(regulations) Students may borrow three books at a time from the library.
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e.g. The police can/*may arrest whoever they like.

Can/*May you feed the animals in this zoo?
Why can’t I swim in the lake? The other boys can/*may, and they’re younger than me.
d. The use of may in questions is heavily restricted: it is only possible in positive questions with a
first person subject: 150
e.g. *May he/you come in?
*May I not use your bike?
e. In many cases a question with may I does not really ask for permission but is used as a ‘hedge’
(i.e. as a device for toning down the statement or reducing the speaker’s responsibility with
respect to it).151
e.g. Is it really necessary to take these measures? And may I say that it is not the police but the
town council that has to take this decision?
May I ask you whether you intend to go through with that plan of yours?
May I take this opportunity to draw attention to some interesting figures?
Might I suggest a Château Pétruce?
f. May cannot be interpreted as expressing permission when it is followed by a progressive
infinitive.
e.g. cp. The children may watch TV tonight. (permission)
The children may be watching more TV than is good for them. (epistemic possibility)
2. The past tense form might is not used as an expression of real past, except in reported speech. 152
e.g. cp. *The pupils might dance at yesterday’s party.
The pupils asked me if they might dance.
e.g. cp. *Yesterday they might stay up late.
They wanted to know if they might stay up late.
3. The modal past form might can be used as a tentative alternative to may in requests, but not in
statements giving permission. However, this use of might is rather unusual, as it is more formal and
is often felt to be a little too polite (i.e. servile).
e.g. Might I have a word with you, please?
I wonder if I might ask you a favour?
Might I come in too?
Unlike the modal past form could (cf. below), might cannot express hypothetical permission (i.e.
permission depending on a hypothetical condition).
e.g. If you stayed at our hotel you could / would be allowed to / *might use our swimming-pool.
You could / would be allowed to / *might leave the country if you had a passport.
4. May always refers to the present, i.e. it expresses that permission is now being asked for, given or
refused. The permission in question concerns the actualisation of a situation in either the present or
the future:
e.g. You may open the door now. (present permission, present actualisation)
You may open the door in half an hour. (present permission, future actualisation)
May cannot be used to express future permission (i.e. the idea that permission will be given at some
future time). We use will be allowed (or a similar expression) instead.
e.g. You will be allowed to see these films when you are sixteen. (*may)

150. In formal English, where the use of can is avoided, may can occasionally be found with a third person subject:
e.g. Is there any point in building a golf-course here? And may a bird sanctuary be sacrificed for that?
151. Phrases like I think, I believe, so to speak, as it were, etc. are typical examples of hedges.
152. It is typical of reported speech that the modal auxiliaries may, can, shall and will can always be ‘backshifted’ after a main verb in the past
(even if the preterite form cannot otherwise express the modal meaning in question).
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B. CAN
1. In spoken English, can is more frequent than may as an expression of permission because its
meaning is less specific (‘permission exists’ rather than ‘I give you permission’) and because may is
often felt to be more formal. 153
e.g. You can go and see for yourself if you like.
Can I use your bathroom?
Note:
a. In questions, the meaning of can I and may I is often very weak. The speaker asks for
permission only for the sake of politeness.
e.g. Can I fetch you a glass?
May I give you my card?
May I offer you a cup of tea?
Can I give you a hand? (offer of service)
May I ask you what’s your name?
b. Only may is usual in the first person after if:
e.g. What you are doing is, if I may/*can say so, putting the cart before the horse.
I’ll pour you your tea, if I may/*can.
I’d like to come back tomorrow, if I may.
c. Like may, can is not interpreted as expressing permission when it is followed by a progressive
infinitive.
e.g. cp. Can he use your car? (permission)
Can he be using your car? (epistemic possibility: ‘Is it possible that he is using...?’)
2. Can always expresses present permission (possibly concerning the future actualisation of a
situation). It is not used to refer to permission which is still to be given.
e.g. You can leave now. (present permission, present actualisation)
You can throw a party next Sunday, but not tomorrow. (present permission, future
actualisation)
We will be allowed to make drawings on the walls when it is time to have the room
redecorated. (*can/*may) (future permission, future actualisation)
3. The past tense form could can be used in the following ways:
a. Could can be used as a real past tense:
e.g. When I was young I could play outside whenever I wanted to.
In those days only the adults could talk at table.
There is a restriction on this use (except in reported speech/thought): as a real past form, could
can only express ‘general’ (temporally unrestricted) permission, i.e. the idea that the referent of
the subject was free to perform the action referred to at any time. This means that could is not
used to talk about permission for one particular action in the past.154
e.g. I was allowed to / *could stay out until after midnight yesterday.
Exceptionally, he had permission to / *could use his father’s car.
b. Like might, could can be found as a modal past in requests. It is rather more tentative than can,
suggesting that the speaker is not quite sure that he will get permission. (Because of this
tentative meaning, could/might will not be used in statements asserting that permission exists or
is being granted.)
e.g. Could I sleep on your couch tonight?

153. As noted before, can tends to be avoided in formal and polite usage, because may is felt to be the more respectable form.
154. As noted above, this restriction also applies to the use of would for past willingness. Other areas where it holds will be pointed out below.
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Could I do it now? -- Yes, you can/*could.

I wonder if I could have the room to myself this afternoon.
Could I just let my parents know where we are?
c. Unlike might, modal could can also be used in the sense of ‘would be allowed to’. As such it
can have the following meanings:
1) counterfactual permission: permission would be granted or obtained if a condition were
satisfied, but this is not the case.
e.g. If you had more experience, you could mount one of these horses.
You could / would be allowed to / *might play outside if it were not raining.
2) permission with hypothetical actualisation: permission exists but its actualisation is
represented as hypothetical.
e.g. The customs officers are being nice to us. They won’t confiscate the goods, although
they could do so quite legally.
d. When followed by a perfect infinitive, could expresses imaginary past (unreal past). Again,
there are two possibilities, as the counterfactual meaning may be related either to the modality
(the permission) or to the actualisation of the situation denoted by the infinitive:
1) Permission would have been granted if it were not for the fact that some necessary
condition was not satisfied.
e.g. He could have used my racket if he had asked.
2) Permission existed but was not made use of.
e.g. You could have used my racket. I had told you so.
I could have had your house searched. I had a search-warrant.
Note that might cannot replace could in such sentences.

III. PROHIBITION

Under this heading we can take together two slightly different meanings:

A. ABSENCE OF PERMISSION

Absence of permission is expressed by either may not (which is used exclusively to refuse permission) or
cannot (which expresses no more than that there is no permission and can therefore be used in all
circumstances).
e.g. You cannot smoke in this compartment.
Can I use your towel? -- No, you may not / cannot use it.
You can’t open these letters without his permission!
You can’t watch that programme while the children are here! (= It would be unacceptable to do
that.)
You may not watch that programme! (= I won’t have you watching it.)
You can’t keep that gun if you have no licence. (The law forbids it.)
The remarks made in connection with the use of can and may for permission also obtain here. For
example:
1. In colloquial English, cannot is the more commonly used auxiliary. It has the quite general meaning
of ‘there is no permission to’ (often weakened to something like ‘it would not be decent to’, ‘it is not
socially acceptable to’). May not on the other hand, is used when the speaker refuses to grant
permission. For this reason, may not will not often be found in spoken English, as it is felt to be
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unpleasantly personal and high-handed. However, in formal English may not is often preferred to
cannot.
2. Only could not can be used as a real past form. 155 It expresses ‘general prohibition’ and is not used
to refer to a specific occasion.
e.g. Her parents have always been very strict with her. She could not go to the cinema until she was
18.
3. May not and cannot do not express a prohibition when followed by a progressive infinitive.
e.g. cp. You cannot / may not use his car. (prohibition)
You can’t be using his car. (epistemic impossibility: ‘It is impossible that you’re using...’)
You may not be using his car. (negative epistemic possibility: ‘It is possible that you aren’t
using...’)

B. THE NECESSITY OF NONACTUALISATION

We can also speak of ‘prohibition’ (albeit of a somewhat different kind) when the speaker expresses that
it is necessary or obligatory to omit doing something. 156 Sentences of this type express a more severe
prohibition than those expressing absence of permission. They are negative sentences involving either be
to or must: 157
1. Not be to is the weaker expression with this meaning.
e.g. I am not to disturb the manager during the meeting.
When we were children we were not to speak at table.
You aren’t to drink so much. (= It is necessary for you not to drink so much.)
2. Must not can express strong speaker-oriented prohibition (‘I order you not to’), but like must, it can
also express weaker (and not so clearly speaker-oriented) meanings (e.g. advice).
e.g. You mustn’t try to set my partner against me! (strong prohibition, clearly speaker-oriented)
You mustn’t believe these rumours. (less strong: The speaker recommends something rather
than give an order.)
You mustn’t take it badly. We all get told off now and again. (advice, consolation)
One mustn’t jump to conclusions. (weak: It’s important not to...)
He mustn’t touch this switch, must he?
The doctor told him that he mustn’t leave the house for at least three days. (indirect speech)
Because of its basic meaning ‘it is obligatory not to...’, must not is frequently found in official
prohibitions.
e.g. Cars must not be parked on the pavement.
(notice on board at the entrance of church) Tourists must not walk about the church during the
services.
The police must not search a house without a search-warrant.
Note: Of course, mustn’t does not have this meaning when it occurs in a question tag after a main
clause with must:
e.g. You must go home now to look after the children, mustn’t you?

155. Of course, might not can be used in reported speech.

156. In such sentences the negation concerns the actualisation of the situation, not the modality: You mustn’t do that means ‘it is obligatory for
you not to do that’. (Compare: You cannot do that means ‘there is no permission for you to do that’. The negation here bears on the
modality.)
157. There are two other forms that can in principle also express prohibition, viz. shall not and needn’t:
e.g. You shall NOT open another bottle. You’ve had enough for today.
And you needn’t shout at me!
However, both forms are very seldom used. Like shall expressing a command, shall not is very coercive and sounds overbearing, so that it
is not felt to be very polite. The use of needn’t for a prohibition is a derived use which is restricted to sentences of a very specific type.
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IV. COMPULSION, OBLIGATION, NECESSITY

A. BE TO
1. Be to can express different kinds of obligation or necessity:
a. Be to can represent the future as determined by fate.
e.g. Several years later I was to meet him again at a conference in Amsterdam. (destiny’s
arrangement)
Plans were made which were never to be carried out. (were to = were destined to)
The wreck of the plane was not to be found until many years later.
This ambitious young politician was later to become the leader of the nation.
Note:
1) There is little difference between this use of was/were to and the use of would for ‘future
in the past’, but was/were to stresses the idea of destiny. (Also, would is more formal.)
2) This usage belongs to a literary style which is typical of historical writing and narrative.
3) A present tense form of be to will very seldom have this meaning.
e.g. Are we never to see each other again?
I have no idea what is to happen to these children. (future in the hands of fate)
b. Sometimes be to simply expresses what is fitting, suitable.
e.g. Both the players and the coach are to be congratulated on their great victory.
Drug addicts are to be helped rather than arrested.
This use is typical of a formal style of English.
c. Be to can express compulsion resulting from an arrangement, a plan, an agreement.
e.g. He is to appear on television tomorrow.
The award was to be presented the following week.
Every one of us is to give his opinion on the project.
I’m to leave for Cambridge next Monday.
d. Be to can express compulsion resulting from a formal order.
e.g. Our instructions were explicit. We were to shoot at anything that moved.
I’m to be in the barracks before midnight.
e. Be to can also express the formal order itself.
e.g. You are to return to your post at once.
You can’t go home yet. You are to stay here till the police arrive.
2. The construction ‘was/were to + perfect infinitive’ expresses imaginary (unreal) past: there was an
obligation (order, arrangement, etc.) for a certain situation to actualize, but in spite of this there was
no actualization.
e.g. He was to have read a paper at the conference.
You were to have had him fill in an application form. Why didn’t you?
When he was forced to resign, Nixon was to have been President of the U.S. for one more year.
Occasionally, reproach may be implied in such sentences, but this construction is not one of the
normal means of expressing reproach.
Notice also that modal past forms of be to can combine with adjuncts referring to the post-present.
e.g. He was to have run the 100 metres in Rome next week, but he has sprained his ankle.
The Prime Minister was to have opened the exhibition tonight, but he has had to call an
emergency meeting of the Cabinet.
3. Be to can be used in if-clauses where the hypothesis that is made concerns a goal which the referent
of the S may wish to attain.
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e.g. If we are to make any progress at all, we must set about finding a solution to this problem.. (=
in order to make...; if we intend to make...)
If you are to learn more about it, you must ask Mr Broth for details.
If you are to become a pro, you’ll have to work very hard.
4. Be to has a rather limited range of tense forms: it can only be used in the present tense and in the
preterite. It has no future, perfect or nonfinite forms.

B. HAVE (GOT) TO
1. Have to is probably the auxiliary that is most widely used to denote compulsion or necessity. It
refers to compulsion or necessity without implying a particular kind of source (e.g. agreement,
order, moral duty, etc.), so that it can be used in a wide array of contexts.
e.g. Every one of us has to earn his living. (most neutral expression of necessity)
You’ll have to hurry up if you are to be on time.
You may be reluctant to take these measures, but you will have to if the riots do not stop.
I have to leave now. My train leaves in fifteen minutes.
She had to defend herself, didn’t she?
A married woman often has to choose between her career and her family.
You virtually have to be starving before you can get an allowance from them.
2. In colloquial English, have got to is often used as an alternative to have to. It is sometimes felt to be
more forceful than have to.
e.g. I’ve got to go now.
You’ve got to take this medicine, whether you like it or not.
The use of have got to is restricted in two ways:
a. Have got to can only be used with reference to a single occasion; it cannot be used when the
situation is habitual or repetitive.
e.g. cp. Have you got to be at your office by 8 o’clock? (= today or tomorrow) (Have to can
also be used.)
Do you have to be at your office by 8 o’clock every day? (*have got)
e.g. I don’t usually have to do this kind of work. (*haven’t usually got to)
b. Have got to has a limited number of tense forms: it is normally used in the present tense only.
Past tense forms are only possible in reported speech. There are no future, perfect or nonfinite
forms. Have got to is never used in the progressive either.
3. In interrogative and negative sentences, have to normally takes do, whereas have got to never
does.158
e.g. Do they have to pay a fine? -- No, they don’t have to / haven’t got to.
Do you have to / have you got to be back before midnight?
4. See below (section E) for the difference between have to and must.

C. SHOULD AND OUGHT TO

1. The basic meaning of these two auxiliaries is something like ‘it is right/proper/correct/
decent/righteous to’, i.e. compulsion with more or less strong moral implications.159

158. In formal Br.E., have to is sometimes used without do in questions: Have I to see him?
159. Although should and ought to are often interchangeable, there is a slight difference of meaning between them. When using should the
speaker expresses his own subjective view; ought to is more objective and is used when the speaker wants to represent something as a law,
duty or regulation. For this reason ought to may sound more emphatic than should.
e.g. You should / ought to congratulate her.
I ought to congratulate her, but I don’t think I will. (Should would sound odd here: it would be strange to give yourself advice and
then add that you were not going to follow it.)
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e.g. Children should / ought to be taught to be polite.

He is -- or should we say was? -- England’s most popular cricket player.
You should act according to your conscience.
What do you mean, you don’t know? A referee should know the rules!
Teachers ought to spend more time on teaching grammar.
2. Because they merely express a moral obligation (rather than an objective necessity), ought to and
should are more tentative than must or have to. They imply that the speaker feels doubtful about the
actualisation of the situation. In many cases they even suggest nonactualisation.
e.g. I ought to send her some money. (But I am not sure I will actually do so.)
Most of them park their cars here, but they should really park them in the yard.
All these students should attend the seminar. (implicates that not all of them do)
In this respect the two auxiliaries differ from must, which cannot express escapable obligation.
e.g. He ought to / *must punish her, but he won’t.
When using must, the speaker clearly implies that he expects to be obeyed.160
The implication of ‘unfulfilled obligation’ is most obvious in clauses with should/ought to that refer
to the present moment. Here the meaning is automatically counterfactual.
e.g. These books should not be lying about your room. They should be in the library.
You must excuse me. I should not be phoning you in the middle of the night.
3. The meaning of obligation often shifts to that of desirability, suggestion, recommendation, advice.
Should and ought to then mean something like ‘it would be wise to’.
e.g. You ought to go and see a priest.
You shouldn’t set about it without reading the instructions first.
You should be patient with him.
You ought to be less impetuous, you know.
4. Ought to has the following forms:
a. The negative form is ought not to (which can be contracted to oughtn’t to).161
e.g. He oughtn’t to go. / He ought not to go.
b. The question forms are as follows:
e.g. Ought we to go?
Oughtn’t we to go? / Ought we not to go?
Note: These question forms are formal (especially the noncontracted form ought we not).
c. To is often dropped in code:
e.g. We ought to go and so ought you. (*and so ought you to)
He doesn’t work as hard as he ought (to).
d. The form used in question tags is ought.
e.g. We ought to go, oughtn’t we?
However, people often prefer to use should instead of ought in question tags:
e.g. We ought to go, shouldn’t we?
5. Should and ought to always refer to an obligation which is felt to exist at the moment of speaking
(except in reported speech). To locate an obligation in the past or future, we have to use other forms
(such as had to and will have to).

160. The forms want to and be supposed to are sometimes used with roughly the same meaning as should / ought to.
e.g. You want to see a solicitor about your divorce.
This porcelain wants to be treated very cautiously.
You’re supposed to be loyal to the firm. (escapable obligation)
You’re not supposed to know about this.
161. The form didn’t ought to is occasionally used, but is generally considered to be nonstandard.
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e.g. cp. You should do it tomorrow. (present obligation, future actualisation)

You’ll have to do it tomorrow. (future obligation)
6. Should and ought to can be followed by a perfect infinitive expressing anteriority. In that case there
may or may not be an implication of unreality (nonactualisation):
a. no implication of unreality: 162
e.g. To be eligible for the post you should have worked for the firm for at least ten years.
In order to understand his latest book you should have read his previous publications.
b. with an implication of unreality (imaginary past):
e.g. I think you should have been more patient.
It was only at the examination that we found out which chapters we should have studied.
The children should have been at school instead of roaming the streets.
This construction is the most normal means of expressing reproach in English.
e.g. You ought to have consulted the board before declining to accept their offer.
He shouldn’t have left his camera in his car.

D. MIGHT AND COULD

1. In affirmative sentences (not in negative ones), might and could can be used to advise someone or to
make a request, a suggestion or even a command. Might is more formal than could.
We can distinguish the following cases:
a. Might and could can be used to express advice, or to make a kind suggestion.
e.g. You could/might hold this ladder while I climb up it.
You could/might see if the baby’s all right.
We could ask that constable to show us the way.
You might tell us who is your fiancé.
Perhaps you could/might try another job.
The meaning of could/might in such sentences is something like: ‘the possibility is there, so
why not make use of it?’
b. You could/might can express a casual order or request. The construction is more or less
equivalent to an imperative followed by will you?
e.g. You could/might type this letter for me. (= Type this letter for me, will you?)
If you’re driving to the station, you could/might drop me at the supermarket.
You could/might call up Mr Berowne and tell him he needn’t come today.
Sentences like these are typical of an informal and familiar style.
c. Might/could can also be used in complaints, rebukes and requests implying that the speaker is
irritated because some action has not been performed yet.
e.g. You could/might tell me what’s on your mind. (= Please tell me; it’s annoying that you
haven’t told me yet.)
You could/might be a bit more thankful!
You might/could say something nice about him for a change!
Could/might can also express this sort of irritation with third person subjects:
e.g. He might/could mind his own business. (= We are annoyed that he doesn’t mind his own
business.)
Your mother might/could stop lecturing me!
The construction ‘might/could + perfect infinitive’ expresses unreal past and implies at least
mild reproach.

162. In such sentences should is a weaker alternative to must.

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e.g. She could/might have told me she was going to throw these away.
You could/might have known it wouldn’t work.
You could at least have waited for the others, couldn’t you?
I might have known he wasn’t to be trusted. (self-reproach)
2. The expressions may as well and might as well (which are simply interchangeable) are used in
informal English to express that something had better be done, since there is nothing better, more
useful, more interesting, etc. to do.
a. When the subject is I, the expression may/might as well is a casual way of expressing what the
speaker intends to do. When the S is we, it either expresses an intention or makes a suggestion.
e.g. I may/might as well phone her now.
It’s beginning to rain. We may/might as well go home.
We may/might as well buy some food before the shops close.
Shall we move to a bench in the shade? -- OK, might as well.
b. With other subjects, may/might as well is used to suggest or recommend an action.
e.g. You may/might as well tell her the truth.
He said that I might as well believe him. (indirect speech)
3. The phrase might just as well means ‘it would be equally good to’ and is used to suggest an
alternative to a previously suggested course of action.
e.g. Go and see him at four o’clock. -- Why at four? I might just as well see him at six. That would
suit me much better.
We could buy a moped with that money. -- Are you sure that’s a good idea? I think we might as
well use it to repair the roof.
4. The phrases might as well and might just as well are also used to compare one unpleasant situation
with another (unreal) one.
e.g. This wine has an awful taste. We might (just) as well be / have been drinking vinegar.
You never say anything. I might (just) as well talk to a statue.
No one will buy this old furniture. We might just as well burn it in the stove.
This lecture is awfully boring. We might (just) as well not have come at all. -- Yes, we might
(just) as well have read the text at home. We would not have missed anything.

E. MUST
The compulsion implied by must is not always equally strong. Several shades of meaning can be
expressed by it:
1. In most cases must expresses that something is necessary in the speaker’s opinion.
e.g. We must have these figures checked before we draw any conclusions. (= I think it is necessary
to...)
When visiting Canterbury, one must of course see the cathedral. -- Yes, that’s a must.
You really must pull yourself together.
2. Must can express emphatic advice. (It is a little more pressing than should / ought to.)
e.g. You must see the exhibition if you go to town.
If you worry about the future, you must take out a life insurance.
3. Must can also be used in instructions (orders).
e.g. All passengers must now fasten their seatbelts.
Dogs must be kept on a lead in the gardens.
The spectators must be quiet while play is going on.
You must give me your answer now.
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4. When heavily accented, must can express a sense of inner compulsion, an irresistible inward urge.
e.g. I simply MUST have that necklace. I will not go home without it.
I MUST find her and say I’m sorry. I can’t risk losing her.
We MUST get out of here before the police arrive. They’ll never believe us.
In if-clauses in the second person, this use of must is often sarcastic.
e.g. If you MUST break wind, go outside! (= If you are under compulsion to...)
You’d better let out that dress if you MUST wear it.
If you MUST see such films on television, at least make sure the children are in bed.
This kind of must is virtually interchangeable with will (expressing ‘obstinate insistence’).
5. When weakly accented, must can express a kind offer or invitation.
e.g. You must send us a letter soon.
You must tell me what is bothering you.
You must have some more tea. It will do you good.
6. The sense of obligation is also very weak if must is used before a verb of saying (e.g. ask, admit,
confess, concede, mention, say...) or before a cognition verb (e.g. realize, remember, understand...):
e.g. I must say, I wasn’t prepared for that.
I must confess that I was taken by surprise.
You must understand that this is going to upset her a lot.
Note:
1. These various meanings of must all have in common that must is discourse-oriented: in statements it
expresses what the speaker wants or deems necessary; in questions it refers to the authority or
opinion of the hearer.
e.g. You must leave now. (= ‘I think so’, or ‘I want you to’)
MUST you use that kind of language? (= Do you really insist on using it?)
Must he keep an eye on the others? (= Do you want him to...?)
Note:
a. There is one exception to the rule that must is discourse-oriented: in if-clauses must expressing
an inward urge is subject-oriented.
e.g. If he MUST behave like a clown, he can do so at home.
b. The fact that must is basically discourse-oriented distinguishes it from have to, which has a
more objective meaning. That is, we use have to (not must) in the following cases:
1) if the source of the obligation or necessity is not the speaker (in statements) or the hearer
(in questions), but someone else:
e.g. cp. Must I sign this letter personally? (= Do you want me to...?)
I have to sign this letter personally. (= Those are the instructions I’ve been
given.)
I must sign this letter personally. (= I think that’s necessary.)
e.g. cp. These papers must be sent off as soon as possible. (expresses the speaker’s
conviction)
You have to write a long paper. (= Such are the requirements imposed by the
examiners.)
Why must you always wipe your dirty hands on your trousers? (hearer-oriented)
2) if the necessity arises by force of circumstance (circumstantial necessity)
e.g. cp. Must I look into this matter? (= Are these your orders?)
I have to look into this matter myself because my partner is on sick-leave.
e.g. In the army, you have to wear your hair short.
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We have to get up early tomorrow. (= Circumstances or arrangements make that

necessary.)
You have to leave at once if you don’t want to miss your train.
3) if the source of the obligation or necessity remains unspecified.
e.g. Man is mortal. We all have to die.
c. As noted above, have got to is an informal alternative to have to.163
d. Because it is speaker-oriented in statements, must can be used for giving instructions. Have to
and have got to cannot be used in this way: they are never ‘performative’ (i.e. used to perform
an imperative speech act).
e. Since ‘deontic’ modality is by definition discourse-oriented, only must can be said to express
deontic necessity.
2. Another difference between must and have (got) to is that have (got) to implies actuality
(actualisation, realized action), whereas must does not. 164
e.g. cp. He has (got) to be careful. (implies that he is actually being careful)
He must be careful. (This sentence expresses no more than necessity. Since there is no
implication of (non)actuality, the necessity cannot concern a present situation. The
situation is therefore interpreted as lying in the future: the speaker asserts the necessity of
the referent of the S being careful in the future.)
3. If there is a habitual meaning, neither must nor have got to will be used. Only have to is possible.
e.g. I have to / *must / *have got to take these pills every day.
He has to report to the probation officer once a week. (*must / *has got to)
4. Must is not used to refer to a future situation that has already been planned or arranged.
e.g. We have to / have got to / *must be at the airport at 11.30 a.m.
5. Must always expresses an obligation that exists at the time of utterance. The obligation in question
concerns the present or future actualisation of a situation.
e.g. We must talk about it now/later/tomorrow.
We must try to buy a streetmap when we get there. (present modality; post-present
actualisation)
To refer to an obligation which does not exist at the time of speech but may arise in the future (often
dependent on the future fulfilment of a condition) we use shall/will have to.
e.g. If you forget to take your passport, you’ll have to come back for it. (*must)
If there is a bus strike tomorrow, I’ll have to take a taxi. (*must)
To refer to a past obligation we use had to.
e.g. In the beginning I had to water the trees regularly, but now it’s no longer necessary.
However, must can be retained in reported speech after an introductory verb in the past.
e.g. He said we must / had to obey him.
6. Must has no preterite, perfect, future or nonfinite forms. We have to use forms of have to instead.
e.g. I’ve had to move to another flat.
I didn’t like having to do my military service.
You would have to tell the police if they asked you.

163. Though have got to basically means the same thing as have to, it is sometimes found in examples where we could also use must, but not
have to.
e.g. All you’ve got to do is send him a letter.
We’ve got to bear in mind that he’s been here only for a couple of days.
This use of have got to is typical of an informal style. Its meaning is more or less speaker-oriented (subjective) because the speaker is to a
certain extent involved in these utterances. A suitable paraphrase is ‘it is essential/vital that...’.
164. Self-evidently, this difference shows up in the present tense only, because have to is the only auxiliary that can be used in the other tenses.
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7. If must is followed by a perfect infinitive, it nearly always expresses epistemic necessity (inference)
(cf. section IX).
e.g. There’s a dog in the garden. Someone must have let it in. (epistemic necessity)
We can, however, find occasional examples where must expresses root necessity and the perfect
infinitive expresses anteriority (i.e. the idea that some obligation should already have been fulfilled):
e.g. To be granted tenure in this university you must have been on the staff for at least eight years.
Foreign football players must have played in Belgium for at least five years before they can get
the Belgian nationality.
8. As a rule, must has to be used in an assertive way. When used in a nonassertive sentence, it is the
situation (referred to by the infinitive) that is nonassertive, not the modality (i.e. must itself remains
assertive):
a. When must is used in a negative sentence, it is the situation, not the modality, that is negated.
That is, mustn’t does not express absence of necessity but a prohibition:
e.g. cp. He mustn’t tell anybody. (= It is obligatory for him not to...)
He needn’t / doesn’t have to / does not need to / hasn’t got to tell anybody. (absence
of necessity: It is not necessary for him to...)
b. In questions (conveying the idea ‘Is it necessary/obligatory for X to...?’), we normally use need,
have to or need to:
e.g. Need I answer all these questions?
Do you need/have to get up that early?
Must is used in some types of question only:
1) Must is used in questions that are strongly hearer-oriented (i.e. refer to obligation imposed
by the addressee).
e.g. Must I enter my name into the register? (= Do you want me to...?)
Such questions are assertive in that they expect a positive answer. In many cases there is a
context in which it has already been suggested or implied that there is a necessity.
2) Must is interchangeable with need and have to in questions that are used to complain or to
make ironic remarks:
e.g. MUST you wear those silly clothes?
NEED/MUST you watch this dreadful programme? (querulous question)
Do we HAVE to / MUST we / NEED we eat this stuff?
Note: We could not use have got to here; a question with this auxiliary merely asks for information.
e.g. Have we got to eat this stuff? (= Is it necessary for us to...?)
3) Mustn’t is used in tag questions that are appended to a statement involving must. (It is a
general rule that tag questions repeat the modal auxiliary, even if the combination
‘auxiliary + not’ has a different meaning from the modal used by itself.) 165
e.g. He must do it, mustn’t he?
He mustn’t do it, must he?

F. NEED
The auxiliary need is a nonassertive word: it can only be used in interrogative and negative sentences. In
negative sentences it expresses absence of necessity (cf. below). In interrogative sentences it is more
common than must, from which it differs in two respects:

165. In short answers too, the modal auxiliary is sometimes repeated:

e.g. He must be informed. -- Oh no, he mustn’t.
However, it is better to use needn’t in such sentences, since mustn’t could be interpreted differently.
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1. Must is more strongly discourse-oriented and is therefore more likely than need if it is understood
that the addressee has the power to impose the obligation.
e.g. Must/(need) I eat it all?
2. Unlike must, need suggests that a negative answer is expected.
e.g. Need I ring you tomorrow? (implies: I don’t expect I will have to ring you.)
I beckoned to him, but he pretended not to see it. Need I say more?
Need I have a medical certificate? -- Yes, I’m afraid you must.
On the other hand, need and must have some characteristics in common:
1. Neither of them is used to talk about habitual (‘general’) necessity.
e.g. cp. Need I have a bath? I’m not dirty.
Does one need to get a visa if one goes to Sweden?
2. In spoken English, neither must nor need is used to express ‘external’ or ‘circumstantial’ necessity.
e.g. I wonder if we have to / need to wash these pots before we use them.
In formal English, however, need can be used in such sentences:
e.g. I wonder(ed) if we need notify the police. (fml)
Need I come back this afternoon? (fml)

G. TO NEED TO
The full verb to need to can be used as a semi-auxiliary with the meaning ‘it is necessary to’.
e.g. Do I need to accept this invitation? Aunt Georgina is so boring!
I’ll need to work overtime tonight.
She needs to come at once.
In the above examples, need to is simply interchangeable with have to. However, it should be noted that
in affirmative sentences need to is not a very common means of expressing external or circumstantial
necessity: it is far less usual than have to. In fact, when to need to appears in an affirmative sentence it
usually expresses one of the following ideas:
1. the idea that something is necessary for a particular purpose:
e.g. He needs to earn more money if he is to buy a car.
She needs to practise several hours a day (if she is to become a professional violinist).
In order to understand this you need to have studied the manual very carefully.
2. the idea that something is required for personal reasons, i.e. the idea of internal necessity: this is a
necessity whose origin lies in the referent of the S himself, or in his own situation.
e.g. cp. She needs to take pills every day. (= Her state of health makes it necessary for her to take
pills every day.)
She has to take pills every day. (= She is obliged to.)
e.g. cp. You need to have a bath. (= It’s for your own sake that I am saying this: you look untidy.)
You must have a bath. (= I want you to.)
e.g. He needs to talk to others about his work. (because of his character)
Children need to learn to respect the property of others. (because this is an essential aspect of
their education)

V. ABSENCE OF COMPULSION OR NECESSITY

When an auxiliary expressing compulsion, necessity, etc. appears in a negative sentence, the negation
sometimes bears on the modality, sometimes on the situation:
1. When must, be to, should or ought to is used in a negative context, the negation bears on the
situation:
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a. Mustn’t and not be to express a negative restraint, a prohibition, i.e. the idea ‘it is compulsory
not to’:
e.g. You mustn’t / aren’t to leave before five o’clock. (= It is compulsory for you not to...)
b. Shouldn’t and oughtn’t to express negative advice, i.e. they recommend the hearer to abstain
from doing something. (Mustn’t can also be used in this sense.)
e.g. You shouldn’t / oughtn’t to / mustn’t drink so much coffee.
2. Some auxiliaries express absence of compulsion/necessity when used in a negative context:
a. have (got) to
e.g. You don’t have to pay yet. (= It is not yet necessary for you to pay.)
She hasn’t got to attend the meeting if she doesn’t feel well.
Note: In Br.E. have to can occur without do in negative sentences. However, the phrases with do are
strongly preferred, especially in questions.
e.g. You don’t have to / (haven’t to) eat this if you don’t want to.
Don’t you have to / (Haven’t you to) go to the bank today?
b. to need to
e.g. You don’t need to wash your hair yet.
Applicants do not need to come personally. They can write a letter.
Note:
1) Need to is the normal auxiliary when the reference is to absence of internal necessity.
2) Need to is much more frequent in negative sentences (where it is freely interchangeable
with have to) than in affirmative ones.
e.g. We don’t need / don’t have to have the same opinion.
You didn’t need / didn’t have to remind him of his accident. He’s never stopped
thinking about it.
c. need
1) The auxiliary need can be used both in negative sentences and in sentences that have a
negative implication (often produced by a near-negative adverb such as hardly, scarcely,
only...):
e.g. He needn’t accompany us.
I’m not sure that I need study this.
That threat is not one that I think we need take seriously.
Nobody need pity us.
You need have no fear.
You need read only the first half of the book. (only = no more than)
All you need do is convince him you’re right. (= You need do no more than...)
He need paint it but once.
I scarcely/hardly need say how grateful I am.
Only the use of needn’t is common in spoken English. The use of need in (near-)negative
statements without not is decidedly formal.
2) There is a distinction in usage between needn’t on the one hand and not need to and not
have to on the other, which runs parallel to the distinction between must and have to:
a) Neither not have to nor not need to is discourse-oriented. They express absence of
circumstantial necessity or absence of obligation imposed by someone who is neither
the speaker nor the hearer. By contrast, needn’t is usually discourse-oriented (like
must), although it can also be used otherwise.
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e.g. We needn’t bother to answer such silly questions. (= I don’t think it is necessary
to...)
Must/Need I pay for this? -- No, you needn’t.
You don’t need to wear a bandage any more. The wound has healed.
You needn’t water the garden. They say it’s going to rain.
We needn’t / don’t need to tell them in advance we’re coming. They’re always at
home on Sundays.
b) Needn’t expresses present modality: at the time of his utterance the speaker is
convinced that the (present or future) actualisation of a situation is unnecessary.
e.g. You needn’t help me tomorrow. (= My opinion is that it is not necessary that
you should...) (present modality, future actualisation)
To express future absence of necessity we use the future tense of have to or need to:
e.g. When we get an assistant, you will no longer have to do this kind of work. (The
absence of necessity is located in the future because it depends on the future
fulfilment of a condition.)
When the bridge is finished, we won’t need to use the ferry-boat any more.
c) In reported speech, needn’t can be left unchanged after a main verb in the past (as can
any auxiliary that has no past tense form).
e.g. I told him he needn’t come if he didn’t want to.
d) We use the simple present tenses don’t have to and don’t need to rather than needn’t
to refer to
Ó) a situation that is habitual or recurrent:
e.g. I never have to tell her what to do.
The pupils don’t have to wear their uniforms all the time.
She doesn’t need/have to do anything on Sundays.
ß) a future situation that has already been planned or arranged:
e.g. Don’t forget that you don’t have to come to work tomorrow.
e) Needn’t is a defective verb. If we need a form that is not in the present tense, or a
nonfinite form, we must use either not have to or not need to. One consequence of
this is that speakers do not always carefully distinguish between these verbs in the
present tense. For example, in negative questions the verbs are virtually
interchangeable.166
f) Unlike nonepistemic must, needn’t can combine with a perfect infinitive to express
unreality. It then combines the idea of absence of necessity with that of actualisation:
He needn’t have done that means ‘he has done it, but it appeared afterwards that his
action was unnecessary’, ‘what he did turned out to be useless’. 167
e.g. You needn’t have helped him. He’s paid for doing it himself. (present modality
+ anteriority: It now appears unnecessary that some action was performed in the
past.)
He needn’t have bought a doll for my daughter. She doesn’t like playing with
dolls.
Note:
Ó) Need to and have to cannot similarly combine with a perfect infinitive to express
imaginary past.

166. In Am.E. need and needn’t are not used in questions.

167. We can speak of unreal past here. However, it should be recognized that it is the modality that is counterfactual, not the actualisation.
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ß) The construction ‘didn’t need to + present infinitive’ expresses absence of

necessity without implying anything concerning actualisation: He didn’t need to
do it means no more than that it was not necessary for him to do it.
e.g. He didn’t need to walk all the way from the station, as there was a taxi
waiting for him.
I didn’t need to work last Thursday. So I took my car and drove to the
seaside.
I didn’t need to work last Thursday. But I went to my office all the same
because I wanted to finish a report.
In sum, while He needn’t have done it implies that he did do it, He didn’t need to do it
leaves vague whether he did it (and can therefore be used irrespective of whether he
did it or not).
e.g. cp. Did you buy these chocolates for me? Oh, you didn’t need to do that. (= It
was not necessary to do that.)
Did you buy these chocolates for me? Oh, you needn’t have done that. (=
You have bought them unnecessarily.)

VI. ABILITY

A. DEFINITION OF ‘ABILITY’
1. The term ‘ability’ in this context covers two meanings:
(a) capability : the (inborn or acquired) capacity or power to do something physical or mental
e.g. I can drive a car. (= I know how to drive a car.)
I can speak Russian.
John can solve the most difficult cross-word puzzles.
A leopard can climb a tree, a tiger can’t. (physical ability)
Can you tell me how to use this photocopier?
(b) opportunity : the idea that the necessary physical circumstances for doing something are
present (i.e. that the action is not prevented by material or circumstantial factors)
e.g. Thanks to the proceeds of the bazaar we can restore the church. (= We are in a position
to...)
Now that I am out of hospital, I can start seeing people again.
Come tomorrow. I can receive you between two and four p.m.
We can have tea at the office. We have cooking facilities there.
Both meanings can be expressed by can or could, but it is not always possible to use these
auxiliaries. It is therefore sometimes necessary to have recourse to a form of be able to (or some
other expression, such as know how to, be capable of, succeed in, manage to).
2. It is not always easy to tell the difference between ability and what will be called ‘theoretical
possibility’ in section VII (i.e. the idea ‘it is possible for...to...’). Thus, I can see you tomorrow can
be paraphrased as either I’m able to see you tomorrow or It is possible for me to see you tomorrow.
a. Capability can be seen as a particular kind of theoretical possibility: we speak of capability
when the possibility of the action is determined by intrinsic properties of the referent of the S.
(If that referent is human, the properties in question may be innate or acquired.)168

168. The various uses of can discussed in this chapter all have to do with possibility in some form or other:
permission is possibility granted by somebody else or by a rule; ability is possibility depending on inherent
properties or on circumstances. When used out of context, sentences with can are often ambiguous. For example,
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e.g. Take apart the gun and reassemble it as quickly as you can.
The child can already toddle about without any help.
I can only say a few words in Spanish, as I have only just started taking the course.
Miss Blakemore is very old, but she can still get about on her own.
It follows that we will normally speak of capability when the referent of the S is animate
(especially if it is human) and of possibility when it is not.
e.g. cp. Doctors can cure this disease only if the patient is not too old. (capability)
This disease can only be cured if the patient is not too old. (possibility)
cp. Only the best gardeners can grow this flower in our climate. (capability)
In our climate, this flower can only be grown by the best gardeners. (possibility)
However, a sentence with an inanimate subject can occasionally express capability:
e.g. This car can reach a maximum speed of 120 mph.
Apparently this kind of charity can still appeal to a great many people.
b. In cases of what we have referred to as ‘opportunity’ the basic criterion is no longer satisfied.
We could therefore consider such sentences as cases of possibility, if it were not for the fact
that they can involve the expression be able to if the sentence is in the active voice and has a
human subject:
e.g. In this way we can / are able to cope with most problems in spite of being understaffed.
Thanks to our new computer we can / are able to work much more efficiently.
3. For the description of the use of can and could it is necessary to make a distinction between two
different ways of talking about ability:
a. mere ability
e.g. I can swim.
I could already swim when I was three years old.
In such sentences the speaker merely refers to the subject’s ability to do something. He does not
refer to any specific instances of actualisation, i.e. to occasion(s) on which the ability is made
use of.
b. actualised ability
e.g. The chest was very heavy, but I was able to push it aside.
Can you see what is happening out there?
In such sentences the reference is to a specific instance of actualisation, i.e. to a particular
occasion on which the ability is made use of.

B. THE USE OF CAN AND COULD

1. Present ability
a. The present existence (or absence) of ability is expressed by can.
e.g. Who can open this safe? (capability, mere ability)
Can you speak Italian? (capability, mere ability)
Listen! That man can speak Swedish! (capability, actualised ability)
Those who have got a car can drive to the seaside as often as they like. (opportunity)
You can certainly do this exercise, even if the others are too difficult for you. (capability).
b. The modal form could is used
1) to express present capability with hypothetical or counterfactual actualisation.

John can leave hospital may mean that it is physically possible for John to leave hospital (= capability: his state of
health allows it), or that it is circumstantially possible for him to do so (= opportunity: he has a place to go to and a
vehicle to take him there), or that he is allowed to do so (= permission).
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e.g. Could you lift up that trunk? (implicit condition: if you had to, if I asked you to, etc.)
I could cut her throat! (= I feel capable of cutting her throat, but I will not do so.)
Our firm specializes in synthetic fibres. We could produce the fibre that you need.
Note that could will only be used if it is the performance of a specific action that is
represented as hypothetical (i.e. if there is reference to hypothetical or counterfactual
‘actualized ability’). If it is the ability itself that is hypothetical or counterfactual (i.e. if the
reference is to ‘mere ability’), we use would be able to:
e.g. You would be able to dance properly if you took lessons. (*could)
He would be able to write a Ph.D. if he really set his mind to it. (*could)
I would be able to lift heavier weights if I weren’t injured. (*could)
However, could can express counterfactual capability in if-clauses.
e.g. I would certainly accept that offer if I could speak English as well as you do.
2) to express counterfactual opportunity:
e.g. I don’t think I could manage without her help.
You could have more leisure time if you came to live in London instead of
commuting from Ashford.
We could go and visit her if there wasn’t a bus strike.
It would be a good thing if you could examine these proposals before the next
meeting.
c. Can and tentative could can express present ability with future actualisation:
1) present capability with possible or hypothetical future actualisation:
e.g. Oxford have an excellent crew now. I think they can/could win the Boat Race this
year.
We could finish the work by midday if we had another trench digger.
I think you can/could improve your personal best by some five seconds this year.
2) present opportunity with possible or hypothetical future actualisation:
e.g. I have no time today, but I can/could fix it tomorrow. (expresses present belief in the
opportunity of doing something in the future)
Can/Could you come and visit us next Saturday?
We can/could see to all that later.
The next time you can visit the castle is in April.
Do you think you could deliver the goods next week?
I can/could see you tomorrow, if that would suit you.
2. Future ability
If the ability itself is located in the future (i.e. if the referent of the S is not felt to have the ability
now but may have it in the future), we have to use shall/will be able to.
e.g. In a few decades man will be able to land on Mars. (capability)
One day people will be able to run a kilometre in two minutes. (capability)
I’ll be able to use the word processor perfectly after a few more lessons. (capability)
She’ll be able to type these letters when she has finished writing the report. (opportunity)
He’ll be able to save a lot of money by living close to his work. (opportunity)
Hypothetical or counterfactual future ability is expressed by would be able to.
e.g. I would be able to read Chinese in two years’ time if I took that course.
Note:
a. Future ability is by definition mere ability: there is no reference to actualisation on specific
occasions.
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b. It is important to distinguish clearly between future ability (for which we use will/would be able
to) and present ability with future actualisation (expressed by can/could).
3. Past ability
Past ability can be expressed by could, but this use is subject to a severe restriction. The restriction is
that could cannot be used to assert that the referent of the S made use of his ability by performing a
particular action on one specific occasion. If we want to assert this, we have to use a past tense form
of be able to, be capable of, manage to or succeed in. The latter two differ from the former two in
that they conventionally implicate achievement in spite of difficulties, i.e. they suggest that great
efforts had to be made to perform the action.
e.g. In spite of the bad weather conditions they succeeded in swimming across the Channel.
(*could)
I ran as fast as I could and was able to catch the thief. (*could)
For several weeks he tried to talk her into buying the encyclopaedia, and in the end he managed
to sell it to her. (*could)
Of the many drivers that took the start only three were able to reach the finish. (*could)
Note:
a. There are four elements in the restriction on could: could cannot be used to ASSERT the
PERFORMANCE of a DYNAMIC situation on a SPECIFIC OCCASION in the past. When
one of these elements is lacking, could is the normal auxiliary to express past ability:
1) Could is used when there is no reference to performance, i.e. when ‘mere ability’ is
expressed:
a) general ability without reference to actualisation:
e.g. My teacher could speak eleven languages.
I could run a mile in less than six minutes before my accident.
He was a terrific liar. He could make anybody believe him.
She could endear herself to everybody when she was a kid.
b) temporary ability without reference to actualisation:
e.g. I was really worried. She seemed so depressed that I believed she could actually
commit suicide.
2) Could can be used to refer to habitual or repeated performance, i.e. when there is no
reference to a specific occasion:
e.g. I used to watch out for shoplifters and could usually catch them in the act.
(capability)
My father was a man who could always lay hands on what he wanted. (capability)
Because of these cooking facilities I could have a cup of tea whenever I wanted to.
(opportunity)
The canteen was open all day. We could have a drink at any time. (opportunity)
Note: If the reference is to several occasions, was/were able to will often be preferred to
could, because it emphasizes actualisation.
e.g. cp. As a result of his training John could repair cars and mopeds. (but perhaps he never did)
As a result of his training John was able to repair cars and mopeds. (implies that he did)
3) Could is used when the actualised situation is not a dynamic one.
e.g. cp. The closet was so big that it could contain all my belongings. (stative situation)
I managed to / *could be there in time after all. (dynamic situation in spite of be:
I had to do something in order to be there in time.)
It follows that we use could, not was/were able to, before verbs of inert perception and
stative cognition verbs:
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e.g. In spite of the mist I could see the lights of the ship in the distance.
The witness insists that she could hear the screams from her flat.
I did not approve of his behaviour, but I could understand it.
Standing on the beach, we could smell the ozone in the air.
4) Could is used when the performance of the dynamic situation is not asserted but
questioned or denied:
a) Could can be used in questions.
e.g. Could you finish the article in time?
How could you say such a thing?
b) Could is the normal auxiliary in negative or near-negative sentences.
e.g. I could not prevent it, could I?
He could scarcely keep his eyes open.
She could only express her sympathy.
All I could say was that I felt disgusted.
I could almost/just reach the ledge.
It was so dark that I could hardly find the keyhole.
Nobody could tell me more about it.
In such sentences, there is reference to an action which either was not performed or
was almost not performed (i.e. was performed under difficult circumstances). A
similar negative implication renders the use of could possible in some types of
subclause:
e.g. I broke the news to her as diplomatically as I could. (implies: even if my efforts
didn’t amount to much)
He did what he could to save the firm. (even if it was not much that he could do)
I was the only one who could answer that question.
I’m surprised you could make it!
e.g. cp. She looked out for a job everywhere before she could / was able to find one.
She looked out for a job everywhere and she was finally able to find one.
(*could)
b. In code, we can always use could if couldn’t is used in the preceding clause:
e.g. Bill couldn’t tell me how to use the washing-machine, but his daughter could.
You couldn’t really help her, could you?
c. Imaginary past is expressed as follows:
1) We use would have been able to if it is the ability itself that is represented as imaginary,
i.e. if we wish to express the idea that the referent of the S did not have some ability but
would have had it if some necessary condition had been fulfilled:
e.g. I would have been able to type if I had taken lessons. (mere ability)
With a little more practice you would have been able to speak Russian more fluently.
2) We use the construction ‘could + perfect infinitive’ if it is not the ability but the
actualisation that is represented as imaginary, i.e. if the referent of the S had the ability and
could have made use of it, but didn’t.
e.g. I could have visited any country I wanted to. (= I had the opportunity of visiting any
country I wanted to, but I didn’t visit them.)
I could have slapped her face! (= I was so angry that I was capable of slapping her
face, but I didn’t do it.)
I could have won if I hadn’t had a puncture. (= I had the ability to win, but the
necessary conditions were not fulfilled.)
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You could have kept him out of prison. (= You were able to keep him out of prison;
why didn’t you?)
3) In negative sentences, the idea that there was no actualisation on a specific occasion
because the ability was lacking is expressed by either ‘would not have been able to +
present infinitive’ or ‘could not + perfect infinitive’:
e.g. I didn’t really go in for the race, because I wouldn’t have been able to win / couldn’t
have won anyhow.

C. FURTHER NOTES ON THE USE OF BE ABLE TO

1. Be able to (or a similar expression, like know how to, manage to, etc.) is used whenever can lacks
the necessary verb forms (which is the case when a future, perfect, conditional, or nonfinite verb
form is needed).
e.g. I’ve never been able to stand on my hands.
Would you know how to ask the way in Russian?
2. Be able to can express both capability and opportunity.
e.g. You’ve got to be able to speak several languages if you want to get that job. (capability)
Thanks to your generosity we’re able to help those people. (opportunity)
However, be able to is very seldom used for capability if a form of can is available. (Moreover,
there are contexts in which it cannot be used at all -- cf. below.)
3. If both can and be able to can be used, be able to will emphasize actualisation. This means that
a. Be able to will not normally replace can/could to express mere ability.
b. Be able to is preferred to can/could if there is a strong implication of actuality.
e.g. Thanks to the new machines we are now able to produce more, and at a cheaper price.
As we have seen, this preference becomes a rule in sentences asserting the performance of a
single action in the past:
e.g. The ball was deflected off a defender, but the goalkeeper was able to reach it all the same.
(*could)
Note: The statement that be able to is preferred to can if the reference is to actualised ability
does not run counter to the observation that can is the normal form to indicate present
ability with future actualisation:
e.g. The former tenants have left the house. We can move into it as soon as we like.
The point is that actualisation is not asserted in such sentences: the situation may or may
not actualise in the future.
4. Because of this implication of actuality, be able to has a dynamic meaning, so that it will not
normally replace can/could before a stative verb. (The same is true of manage to, succeed in and be
capable of.)
e.g. I can / *am able to see what you mean.
5. Because of this dynamic meaning, the subject of be able to, manage to, succeed in, be capable of or
know how to must be the agent of the situation referred to by the infinitive or gerund that follows.
This entails that the latter verb form cannot normally be passive.
e.g. cp. I was able to make myself respected by the pupils.
*I was able to be respected by the pupils.
I know how to be elected President. (= agentive: ‘I know what I must do in order to be elected’, ‘I
know how to get myself elected.’)
By contrast, can/could can be followed by a passive infinitive:
e.g. This instrument has been so designed that it can be fitted into nearly any kind of dashboard.
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VII. POSSIBILITY

A. MEANS OF EXPRESSION POSSIBILITY

Possibility is normally expressed by either can or may. In passive sentences it is sometimes also possible
to use be to.
e.g. The safe can only be opened if you know the combination.
She may die any moment now.
There’s a lot of fine Persian art to be seen at the National Museum.

B. KINDS OF POSSIBILITY
Two kinds of possibility should be distinguished:
1. Can and be to express what we might call mere possibility or theoretical possibility: they just
express that it is theoretically possible (conceivable) for some situation to actualize; they do not refer
to any actual instances of actualization.
e.g. Aerosols can explode if you do not treat them properly. (= It is theoretically possible for
aerosols to explode.) (There is no reference to one or more actual explosions.)
How many suitcases can fit into the boot of your car?
Anybody can make mistakes.
You can get into trouble if you mess around with that girl. (= a theoretical, conceivable
happening)
A lot of modern paintings are to be seen in Tate Gallery.
2. May indicates a possibility which is factual rather than theoretical: the speaker says that there is a
chance that a situation has held, is holding or will hold in the future. In other words, may expresses
the possibility of actualization and is therefore roughly equivalent to perhaps. 169
e.g. We may go to Amsterdam next week. (= Perhaps we’ll go.)
He may be right. (= Perhaps he is right.)
He may never find another job if he throws up his present one. (= There is a chance that he will
never find...)
Unfortunately, it may be too late by then.
The children may be back any moment.
Note:
1. Factual possibility is epistemic: the speaker expresses his lack of confidence in the truth of his
proposition. Theoretical possibility is nonepistemic (root) possibility. Whereas factual possibility
can be paraphrased with ‘it is possible that’, theoretical possibility can be paraphrased with ‘it is
possible to’.
e.g. cp. His work can still improve. (= It is still possible for his work to improve; it is not yet as
good as it could be.)
His work may still improve. (= It is possible that his work will still improve; his work will
perhaps/maybe/possibly still improve.)
cp. Accidents can happen to anybody.
An accident may happen if you ignore the traffic lights.
cp. This evolution can be stopped. (= This evolution is not irreversible.)
This evolution may be stopped. (= Maybe they’ll stop it.)

169. In formal English the use of can is sometimes avoided. May is then used for both meanings.
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cp. A pet animal can cheer you up if you feel depressed. (A pet animal and you have generic
reference)
Give her a pet animal. That may cheer her up. (no generic reference)
cp. The problem can be solved. (= The problem is solvable.)
The problem may be solved.
2. The tentative modal past form could (see below) can be used for both theoretical and factual
possibility.
e.g. That could/may/*can be my train that is pulling into the station. (factual)
I wonder if that kind of fruit could/can/*may be grown in Britain. (theoretical)
It could take him a long time to recover if he turns out to have jaundice.
You could be right, you know.
However:
a. Could is less usual than might before dynamic verbs because its use will be avoided whenever it
could be misinterpreted as expressing ability. (This problem does not arise if the dynamic verb
form is progressive.)
b. Could cannot replace might in negative sentences (nor, for that reason, in the collocation might
or might not). The reason is that could not expresses impossibility, whereas might not expresses
the possibility of nonactualisation (cf. below).
e.g. cp. He might not be in London. (= There is a slight possibility that he is not in London.)
He couldn’t be in London. (= It is impossible that he is in London.)
e.g. This conclusion might or might not be correct. (*could or could not)
3. Both can and may can be used when theoretical and factual possibility are hardly distinguishable
from each other or when either interpretation is in keeping with the context.
e.g. An accident of this kind can/may sometimes happen.
The temperature in which they are kept can/may influence the quality of these pharmaceutical
products.
4. May and might are not normally used to express possibility in questions.170
e.g. Where is the dog? Where can/could/*may/*might he be?
Can/Could/*May/*Might he have left us in the lurch?
Can/Could/*May/*Might that man be a plain-clothes policeman?
Can/Could/*May/*Might this be what she really wants?
Such sentences form the only case in which can can express epistemic possibility.
5. The adverbs perhaps and possibly are often added redundantly to may. (The latter tends to weaken
the possibility.)
e.g. If you do not stop fighting, the headmaster may perhaps feel obliged to interfere.
May/might can also be used in noun clauses depending on expressions like possible, possibility, not
very likely, etc.
e.g. He won’t accept any invitation if there’s even the slightest possibility that he might have to
spend some money.171
Is it possible that we may have to pay a charge for parking?

170. May and might are occasionally found in wh-questions denoting surprise or sarcasm.
e.g. What may he want?
And what may/might this mean?
Who might you be?
Such questions typically sound uncertain or superior. In fact they represent a use which is becoming rare (and which is anyhow restricted
to wh-questions).
171. Note that we cannot use should in the noun clause.
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6. Note the use of the idiomatic expression How can...?, which is used to accuse the hearer of being
unreasonable:
e.g. How can you be so stubborn?

C. TEMPORAL AND MODAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE USE OF CAN AND MAY

1. Present possibility
a. Simultaneity
Simultaneity (i.e. the present possibility of a present situation) is expressed by ‘can/may +
present infinitive’.
e.g. You can fly from Brussels to New York in less than twelve hours. (theoretical)
Be careful, that dog may have rabies. (factual)
What he told you may or may not be true. (factual)
One person out of ten can have a heart attack at any time. (theoretical)
Note:
1) The ‘remote forms’ could and might can be used with three meanings:
a) Could and might may be tentative alternatives to can and may. They imply less
assurance and are therefore more diffident and often more tactful.
e.g. You might/could be wrong about that, you know. (factual)
The housing situation in this town could certainly be improved. (theoretical)
This man might/could be an industrial spy. (factual)
I think it’s unlikely, but he might/could be doing it right now. (factual)
Herbert might like to have lunch with us. (factual)172
This might/could be a very important clue. (factual)
Note: In present-day English, many speakers tend to use might even if there is no clear
tentative meaning. This may be a sign that might is going to supersede may as the basic
marker of epistemic possibility.
b) Could and might can represent a theoretical or factual possibility as hypothetical, i.e.
as a possibility which does not yet exist but would exist if some condition were
fulfilled. (In this use there is always an overt or implicit conditional clause involving
a modal past or past subjunctive.)
e.g. If you concentrated on your own work for a while I could get on with mine.
(theoretical: It would be possible for me to...)
His work could improve if he had a better tutor. (theoretical: It would be
possible for his work to improve)
It could/might be advisable for her to contact him through her solicitor. (factual:
It is possible that it would be...)
You might not be so nervous if you drank less coffee. (factual: It is possible that
you would not be...)
It might not be a bad idea if we took a day off tomorrow. (factual: Perhaps it
would not be...)
That might/could be quite interesting. (that = if that happened)
c) Might and could can represent a factual possibility as contrary to present fact.
e.g. The way they’re staring at me, I might be an alien coming from outer space. (=
It would be possible that..., but this is not the case.)

172. Before verbs like like, hate, prefer, etc. we normally use might instead of may (in the same way as we use would instead of will). In this
case could is no valid alternative to might.
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What a wonderful evening! We might/could be in Africa. (= The temperature

suggests this possibility, but it is not true.)
Since the rejected possibility here concerns the present, we could speak of imaginary
present.
2) Remember that may and might are not used in questions. Instead we use could. (In Br.E.
can can be used too, but it is far less usual.)
e.g. Could/(Can)/*May/*Might his book become a best-seller?
b. Anteriority
If there is anteriority, the present possibility must necessarily be factual (= ‘it is possible that +
past or perfect’). 173 This means that the normal construction is ‘may + perfect infinitive’.
e.g. They may have left the room in the afternoon. (= It is possible that they left the room.)
She doesn’t answer the phone. -- She may have gone out to do some shopping.
Might and could can be used as ‘remote’ forms in this construction. They can express
1) tentativeness: the use of remote forms renders the assertion that it is possible that some
past situation actualised more tentative.
e.g. There’s no need to worry yet. He could/might have missed his train and taken the
next one. (= It is just possible that he missed...)
This cigarette ash might/could have been dropped by the murderer.
The girl has not been found yet. The police think she might/could have been
kidnapped.
2) unreality: two kinds of unreality can be distinguished here:
a) The speaker may assert the possible truth of a statement that has the form of a
counterfactual conditional sentence:
e.g. If I hadn’t thrown a blanket over the fire, the whole house might/could have
burnt to the ground. (= It is possible that the whole house would have burnt to
the ground if I hadn’t thrown...)
Perhaps we should have taken another road. It could/might have been quicker.
(= Perhaps it would have been quicker if we had taken...)
Fortunately we didn’t lend him any money. We might never have got it back. (=
If we had given him some money, we would perhaps never have got it back.)
b) The speaker may express that what might seem a possible interpretation of a past
situation is actually mistaken:
e.g. This poetry looks so modern. It could have been written yesterday. (But actually
it was written over fifty years ago.) (= It would have been possible for it to have
been written yesterday; it looks as if it had been written yesterday.)
Note: Since neither may nor might are normally used in questions, the usual form there is
‘could + perfect infinitive’. In Br.E., ‘can + perfect infinitive’ is also occasionally found
(in statements where no tentativeness or unreality is expressed), but it is far less usual:
e.g. Could/(Can)/*May/*Might he have arrived by now?
Where could/(can)/*may/*might she have hidden the bottle?
Could/(Can) you have met her before?
c. Posteriority

173. When anteriority or posteriority is expressed, the present possibility must necessarily be epistemic, for what is anterior or posterior can
only be the actualisation of the situation. Theoretical possibility does not refer to actualisation at all.
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If there is posteriority, the present possibility must necessarily be factual (‘it is possible that +
future tense’). This means that we use may (+ present infinitive) or the remote (tentative or
hypothetical) forms could/might. Only could is possible in questions.
e.g. He may/might/*can/could be chosen chairman of the jury tomorrow.
Could/*Can/*May/*Might she win the race next Saturday?
The unions may/might call a general strike if the government does not give in.
Well, we may/might/could/*can have better luck next time.
2. Future possibility
Future possibility (i.e. the idea ‘it will be possible for/that’) cannot be expressed by
can/may/could/might. We have to use shall/will be possible instead.174
e.g. It will be possible to go skiing only after more snow has fallen.
3. Past possibility
a. Past theoretical possibility (the idea ‘it was possible to’) is expressed by could:
e.g. At that time the problem could still be solved. (= It was still possible to...)
In the late sixties a plane could/*might already fly from Brussels to New York in less than
twelve hours.
You could nearly always find him in the library.
Anteriority (the idea ‘it was possible to + perfect infinitive’) is expressed by ‘could + perfect
infinitive’:
e.g. In those days a village could have been cut off from the world for several days before any
help arrived. (= It was possible for a village to have been cut off...)
The same construction can also express unreality, i.e. the idea that a possibility existed in the
past but did not actualise.
e.g. I could have got a job at Woolworth’s. (= It would have been possible for me to get a job;
the possibility existed but was not taken advantage of.)
b. If the speaker locates factual possibility in the past, there is always an implication of unreality.
The idea is that at a certain time in the past it seemed possible that some situation would
actualise, but in fact it did not. To express this idea we use ‘might/could + perfect infinitive’.
e.g. Yesterday I was walking down the street when a tile fell to smithereens right before my
feet. I still shudder to think of it. I might/could have been killed! (= There was a
possibility that I would be killed, but I wasn’t.)
You should not have left your handbag in here. It might/could have been stolen. (= The
possibility that the handbag would be stolen existed but did not come true.)

B. FURTHER REMARKS
1. Can and may can always be ‘backshifted’ in reported speech and thought after an introductory verb
in one of the past tenses. Could and might can always be retained.
e.g. He thought that the witness might be unreliable.
She said she might wish to go to bed early.
We don’t know the answer, but we thought perhaps you might/*could know it. (cp. direct
speech: Perhaps you may/*can know the answer.)
According to the weather forecast, there might/could be a heavy frost tonight. (cp. direct
speech: There may/might/could be...)

174. As noted before, modals that have no future tense form (e.g. can, must, need, may) always express present modality (possibly with future
actualisation); they cannot express future modality.
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The architect explained that the roof was badly damaged but could/*might still be repaired.
(cp. direct speech: The roof can/*may still be repaired.)
2. Constructions with could or might may be ambiguous, especially when a perfect infinitive follows.
Thus the structure ‘could + perfect infinitive’ can express no fewer than six different ideas that have
to do with possibility:
a. past theoretical possibility concerning an anterior situation:
e.g. In those days a village could have been cut off from the world for several days before any
help arrived. (= It was possible for a village to have been cut off...)
b. past theoretical possibility with unreality (i.e. without actualisation):
e.g. I could have got a job as a gardener. (= It would have been possible for me to get a job;
the possibility existed but was not taken advantage of.)
A better goalkeeper could have stopped that ball. (= It would have been possible for a
better goalkeeper to stop that ball.)
c. present theoretical possibility with unreality: the speaker expresses that what might seem a
possible interpretation of a past situation is actually mistaken:
e.g. This poetry looks so modern. It could have been written yesterday (but actually it was written over
fifty years ago). (= It would have been possible for it to have been written yesterday; it looks as if it
had been written yesterday.)
d. tentative present factual possibility with anteriority: the speaker tentatively says that it is
possible that a situation actualised in the past:
e.g. There’s no need to worry yet. He could/might have missed his train and taken the next one. (= It is
just possible that he missed...)
Who do you think did the guy in? -- It could/might have been his wife. (= It is not
impossible that it was his wife.)
e. present factual possibility with unreality: the speaker asserts the possible truth of a statement
that has the form of a counterfactual conditional sentence:
e.g. If you hadn’t divorced your wife, you could/might have been elected president. (= It is
possible that you would have been elected president if you hadn’t divorced...)
f. past factual possibility with unreality: the speaker expresses that at a certain time in the past it
seemed possible that some situation would actualise, but in fact it did not.
e.g. Can’t you look where you are driving? You could/might have run over me. (= There was a
possibility that you would run over me, but you didn’t.)
You should not have come home through the woods. You might/could have got lost. (=
The possibility that you would get lost existed but did not come true.)
It was foolish of you to throw the empty bottle out of the window. It could/might have hit
somebody.
Note: Apart from alternating with could have in the latter three cases, might have can also be the
‘backshifted’ version of may have (expressing present factual possibility with anteriority) in
reported speech:
e.g. I thought she might have been persuaded into doing it by someone else.
3. To express a negative possibility (‘it is possible that...not’), we have to use may not or might not.
Cannot and could not express impossibility (which can be epistemic as well as nonepistemic).
e.g. cp. These rumours may not be true. (= Perhaps they are not true.)
Surely, these rumours cannot be true. (= It is not possible that...) (epistemic impossibility)
This door cannot be locked from the inside. (= It is impossible to...) (root impossibility)
e.g. cp. He may not be serious. (= Perhaps he is not serious.)
He cannot be serious. (= either ‘It is impossible that he is serious’ or ‘It is impossible for him to be
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serious (because of his character)’)

e.g. We may not be able to reach them in time.
I think she may not be strong enough to bear this responsibility.
If they had used the fire extinguishers, the fire might not have spread so rapidly.
The fact that may not cannot be used to express impossibility follows from the fact that the
possibility expressed by may must always be assertive. If may is found in a nonassertive context, it is
not the possibility but the situation that is negated or questioned:
a. The idea ‘it is possible that...not...’ can be expressed by may not because it is the situation that
is negated, not the modality. By contrast, may not cannot express the idea ‘it is not possible
that...’, in which the modality is negated.
b. May cannot occur in any other negative or near-negative context where the negative implication
applies to the modality.
e.g. He can/*may hardly be enthusiastic about this. (= It is hardly possible that he is...)
c. May and might cannot express possibility in (direct or indirect) questions.
e.g. Could/(Can)/*May/*Might he be in his office now?
I wonder/doubt if he could/(can)/*may/*might be in his office now.
4. In affirmative statements, may expressing possibility is normally relatively accented, whereas may
expressing permission is normally unaccented. May not usually takes the accent on may if it
expresses a negative possibility and on not if it expresses prohibition. Can for possibility is usually
unaccented.

VIII. IMPOSSIBILITY

A. ROOT IMPOSSIBILITY
There are two ways of expressing theoretical (nonepistemic) impossibility:
1. ‘be to + not + passive infinitive’
e.g. French books are not to be found in this bookshop. (= It is impossible to...)
He was nowhere to be seen.
He was not to be seen anywhere.
The bereaved are not to be comforted.
Note: In existential sentences, this construction sometimes expresses absence of necessity rather
than impossibility:
e.g. cp. There is nothing to be done about it. (= Nothing can be done about it.)175
There’s plenty of work to be done. (= There’s plenty of work that needs doing.)
There are no other arrangements to be made. (= No other arrangements need be
made.) 176
2. cannot and could not
a. The construction ‘cannot + present infinitive’ expresses the speaker’s present conviction that it
is impossible for the situation referred to by the infinitive to actualise now or in the future.
e.g. I cannot give you that information now. (= It is impossible for me to give...)
I cannot see him tonight. (= It is impossible for me to see him tonight.) (present modality,
future actualisation)
If he is ill he can’t fly to Vancouver tomorrow.

175. Compare with There’s nothing to do, which means ‘There’s nothing that needs doing’.
176. Compare with There are no arrangements to make, which means ‘There are no arrangements that should be made’.
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Note: Cannot (and its remote form could not) cannot express future impossibility, i.e. the idea
that the possibility of a future situation will or may be excluded in the future.
e.g. If your father is not any better next week it will be impossible for us to leave on
holiday. (*cannot/*could not)
b. The structure ‘could not + present infinitive’ can be used in two ways:
1) It may be a real past form locating impossibility in the past (= ‘it was impossible to’).
e.g. In those days a novelist couldn’t be successful if he didn’t write romantic stuff. (= It
was not possible for a novelist to be...)
They could not be saved because the sea was too turbulent.
2) Couldn’t can also be used as a remote form with tentative or hypothetical meaning.
e.g. You couldn’t join the Navy. You can’t swim.
I couldn’t do anything without your help.
You couldn’t help him, even if you wanted.
c. The sequence ‘couldn’t + perfect infinitive’ expresses imaginary past:
e.g. Why didn’t you read for the Bar? -- I couldn’t have put up with all those years of study. (=
It would have been impossible for me to...[even if I had tried].)
I don’t believe him. He could hardly have seen it from where he was standing, could he?

B. EPISTEMIC IMPOSSIBILITY
We speak of epistemic (factual, logical) impossibility when the speaker states that a particular statement
cannot be true. The auxiliary we use for this is again cannot. Could not can be used as a tentative or
hypothetical alternative.
1. Cannot and tentative could not express that the speaker rejects a statement concerning the present or
future.
e.g. Jill can’t/couldn’t be Laurel’s sister. They don’t resemble each other a bit.
The Prime Minister can’t/couldn’t open the exhibition tonight. He’s in Peking at the moment.
2. Anteriority is expressed by a perfect infinitive.
e.g. He can’t/couldn’t have seen us yesterday. (= It is not possible that he saw us yesterday.)
3. Epistemic impossibility can be the negative counterpart of either epistemic necessity (expressed by
must) or epistemic possibility (expressed by may).
e.g. cp. That man must be Tom’s father. -- He can’t be. Tom’s father is no longer alive.
That man may be Tom’s father. -- He can’t be. Tom’s father is no longer alive.

IX. EPISTEMIC NECESSITY

We say that a sentence expresses epistemic necessity (inference, logical necessity) when it expresses
knowledge which is the result of inference or logical deduction rather than of direct experience.

A. MUST
1. Must is used to express what the speaker considers as the only possible or plausible interpretation or
explanation of a present or past situation.
e.g. He must be stuck in a traffic jam. (= No other explanation of his being late seems possible.)
There must be some mistake.
You must have misunderstood what she said. (anteriority: present conclusion concerning a past
situation)
John has not come home yet. He must have had to work overtime.
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2. This basic meaning can be weakened to that of ‘logical assumption’.

e.g. You must be Mr Pascoe’s daughter. (= I assume that..., I take it that...)
You must be hungry after such a long day.
Must can even be used in estimating statements, where it just expresses a guess.
e.g. He must be slightly taller than myself.
Your brother must be at least sixty.
There must be at least two hundred people waiting to get in.
3. Like must expressing root necessity, must expressing epistemic necessity is basically assertive. This
means that it will not be used in negative or interrogative sentences in which it is the modality that is
negated or questioned.
a. In negative sentences we use can’t (or tentative couldn’t) 177 to express logical impossibility and
needn’t to express absence of logical necessity. 178 (In both cases the idea of logical necessity is
rejected.)
e.g. She can’t be the one who did it. She hasn’t got the nerve.
It needn’t be anybody’s fault.
Where’s that dog? It can’t have slipped past me.
This pottery must be at least five thousand years old! -- Don’t exaggerate. It can’t/couldn’t
be anything like as old as that.
If he isn’t in his office, he must be at home. -- He needn’t be at home. There are plenty of
other places where he could be.
However, mustn’t is used
1) in rhetorical questions
e.g. Mustn’t there be a rational explanation for these psychic phenomena? (= Isn’t it the
case that there must be...?; Surely, there must be...)
Such sentences are assertive in meaning.
2) in negative statements where it is not the modality that is negated, i.e. statements that
express the idea ‘The only possible conclusion is that...not...’ (rather than ‘It is not a
possible conclusion that...’ or ‘The conclusion that... is not a logically necessary one.’)
e.g. So, our interpretation mustn’t be correct after all.
Such sentences are, however, very seldom used.
Note: Self-evidently, mustn’t is also used in tag questions that are added to sentences with epistemic
must:
e.g. He must be quite exhausted, mustn’t he?
b. In questions we usually use need or have to in the sense of ‘is it logically necessary that...?’:
e.g. I’m not sure about his age. I know he walks with a stick, but need that mean that he is old?
However, we use must when the question is meant to challenge an (explicit or implicit)
affirmative statement with must:
e.g. Well, obviously the girl isn’t here, so we’d better look for her on the campus. -- Must she
be on the campus? She could have gone to Pete’s digs.
Here must means something like ‘You suggest that the girl must be on the campus, but I am
asking you to reconsider that view’.
This use of must is particularly frequent in questions beginning with why:
e.g. Why must he be at least 60? I’m sure he’s much younger.

177. In Am.E., mustn’t can more easily be used instead of can’t.

178. Because there is a certain tendency for an auxiliary to be mechanically repeated in short answers, mustn’t can occasionally be found
instead of needn’t in replies that specifically deny a statement with epistemic must.
e.g. He must be very happy with his work. -- Oh no, he mustn’t. It’s not really as interesting as it may seem.
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4. Further remarks:
a. To express epistemic necessity in near-negative sentences we use can or could.
e.g. If that’s his name, he can only be Jewish.
He can hardly be happy if he’s married to that bitch.
b. Must/can’t/couldn’t/needn’t can be followed by a perfect infinitive expressing anteriority.
e.g. This victory must have meant a lot to him.
It needn’t have been sabotage. It may have been an accident.
You can’t/couldn’t have paid attention to what was said.
She can’t have received my letter. Otherwise she would have answered by now.
There’s a smell of tobacco in here. Somebody must have been smoking.
c. Must/can’t/couldn’t/needn’t will not normally suggest an epistemic interpretation if followed
by a nonprogressive present infinitive with dynamic meaning. Examples like the following will
receive a root interpretation:
e.g. He must work in the garden.
He can’t write poetry.
She needn’t cheat on you.
He must die.
She needn’t study.
To suggest an epistemic interpretation, we use a progressive infinitive:179
e.g. He must be working in the garden.
He can’t be writing poetry. He abhors poetry.
She needn’t be cheating on you. Perhaps there is a very simple explanation for her
behaviour.
He’s badly wounded. He must be dying.
She needn’t be studying. The fact that there’s a light on in her study does not mean
anything.
d. Must always expresses present modality. To express an inference that was made in the past we
have to use had to.
e.g. The knife had to be there somewhere. The murderer could not have left the building with
it. (= The only possible conclusion was that it was there.)
One of them had to be their leader.
But must can of course occur in (free) indirect speech.
e.g. I thought that something must have happened, because all the servants were so excited.
e. Because must implies that the speaker has confidence in the truth of his utterance, it is not
normally used when the logical conclusion concerns a future situation (since we can never be
quite certain about the future). Instead, we use should or ought to, which are more tentative (cf.
below).
e.g. The parcel should/?must reach her tomorrow.
If we wish to make more confident statements about the future, we can use the phrase be bound
to, whose meaning is something like ‘there is no doubt that (+ future tense)’, ‘it is inevitable
that...’.
e.g. He’s spending so much money that he is bound to get into financial difficulties. (?must)
The kind of education that he receives is bound to turn him into a timid boy without any
self-confidence. (?must)

179. It is only exceptionally that ‘must + progressive infinitive’ can be interpreted in terms of nonepistemic
necessity: We must be going now.
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The truth is bound to come out.

If the government deals with pollution realistically the cost is bound to be enormous.

B. SHOULD AND OUGHT TO

1. Should and ought to are weaker than must because they imply that the speaker is not quite convinced
of the soundness of his conclusion.
e.g. This is where we should / ought to find her. (This is a more cautious statement than This is
where we must find her; the speaker acknowledges that there might be something wrong with
his assumptions or calculations.)
Whereas the meaning of must is ‘the only possible conclusion is that...’, the meaning of should and
ought to is rather ‘it seems reasonable to conclude that...’.
e.g. The children should/ought to be at school by now.
Our problems should be over soon.
I haven’t seen the girl for a long time. In fact, she should be a married woman by now.
According to the weather forecast it should be raining tomorrow.
Because they express a less confident conclusion, should and ought to allow of the possibility that
the speaker explicitly denies or doubts the truth of the conclusion that he himself has arrived at.
(Must does not allow this possibility.)
e.g. If we can go by these indications, the treasure ought to/should be buried under that tree. But I
still have my doubts. (Must will not be used in this context.)
We could therefore say that should and ought to are the tentative markers of epistemic necessity.
Because of this, they will not be used in situations where tentativeness is not suitable.
e.g. You must/*should be out of your mind to suggest such a thing. (When you reproach someone
with something, you will not imply that you are not certain about what you are saying.)
On the other hand, we will use should or ought to rather than must if the conclusion concerns the
future, because we naturally feel some doubt about the future: the future is never quite certain.
e.g. If you take this pill now, your tootache should/?must be over in an hour.
The restoration of the church should/?must take about a year.
I sent off my manuscript a couple of days ago. You should get it soon.
2. In some cases the idea ‘it is reasonable to conclude that’ is weakened to ‘it is (highly) probable that’,
‘it may reasonably be expected that’.
e.g. Now that the new regulations have also been discussed on television, everybody ought to be
informed about them.
It’s a novel by David Lodge. It should be amusing.
He’s an intelligent person. He should be aware of the problems that may crop up.
3. Unlike must, the auxiliaries should and ought to can also express logical necessity in negative
sentences (where they are weaker than cannot).
e.g. You ought not to have any difficulties finding a hotel. (if my calculations are correct)
We needn’t drive to the station yet. Charles shouldn’t be arriving for another hour.
Note that what is negated here is not the modality (i.e. the fact that a conclusion has been reached)
but the situation (i.e. the contents of the conclusion).
4. Should and ought to resemble must in that they will not normally be interpreted as expressing a
logical conclusion concerning the present if they are followed by a nonprogressive dynamic
infinitive.
e.g. cp. The boy should drive home now. (root necessity)
The boy should be driving home now. (epistemic necessity or root necessity)
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The boy should drive home tomorrow. (logical conclusion about the future or root
necessity)
5. A perfect infinitive after should and ought to expresses anteriority.
e.g. With her talent, she should have got the job. (= I expect she has got it.)
It’s two o’clock. The train should have crossed the border by now.
It should be noted that sentences like these are ambiguous because they also yield an imaginary past
interpretation in which should expresses root necessity (rather than a present logical conclusion).
e.g. With her talent, she should have got the job. (can be interpreted as ‘It would have been normal
for her to get the job, but she didn’t get it.’)
6. In general, should is more frequently used than ought to. Because of this, ought to is often felt to be
stronger. This is in keeping with the fact that ought to is mostly accented, while should is more often
unaccented.
7. Should and ought to are normally only used for things that are viewed favourably.
e.g. cp. This statement should be easy to verify.
??This statement should be hard/difficult to verify.

This statement should not be difficult to verify.

C. HAVE (GOT) TO
1. Since must is a defective verb, we have to use a form of have to if we need a past or future tense
form.
e.g. The statements made by the two witnesses didn’t tally. So one of them had to be lying.
There will be only three people on the island when the murder takes place. So one of them will
have to be the murderer.
2. Have (got) to can also be used to refer to a present logical conclusion.
e.g. There has to be some reason for his absurd behaviour.
Someone has got to be pulling the strings.
You have to be joking.
There has to be a misunderstanding.
That has (got) to be the answer.
The elderly lady standing beside Jim has (got) to be his mother.
Note:
a. Have (got) to has a rather strong meaning: it implies that it is simply inconceivable that the
conclusion expressed should not be correct. Because of this, have (got) to cannot express the
weaker meanings that can be expressed by must (e.g. logical assumption, guess).
b. Have (got) to can only be interpreted as expressing a present conclusion if it is followed by be
or by a progressive infinitive. Moreover, it will only suggest such an interpretation if it cannot
be interpreted as expressing root necessity.
c. In Br. E., this use of have (got) to is rare. The construction is clearly felt to be an Americanism.
Such examples as can be found in Br.E. belong to the informal register.
d. All this shows that have to is not the normal means of expressing logical necessity in Br.E. This
is illustrated by the fact that Br.E. speakers will normally interpret the following sentences
differently:
(a) You must be mad to be a member of that club. (= epistemic: The only possible conclusion
from the fact that you are a member of that club is that you are mad.)
(b) You have to be mad to be a member of that club. (= nonepistemic: Being mad is a
necessary condition for being a member of that club; the club is for lunatics only.)
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X. PROBABILITY, EXPECTATION, PREDICTABILITY, BELIEF, CONJECTURE

A. SHOULD AND OUGHT TO

As noticed above, should and ought to can not only express logical necessity but also convey weaker
meanings, such as probability, expectation.
e.g. Let’s not wait any longer. The roads should be less crowded now.

B. BE GOING TO
Since be going to expresses a prediction based on present evidence, it can be used to refer to a future
situation whose actualisation is expected or deemed probable.
e.g. That novel is going to be a best-seller.
His lecture is going to be a boring one. You may be sure.

C. WILL
Will can express a number of ideas which are more or less related:
1. Probability, assumption, belief, conjecture, predictability
e.g. This will be the document they were referring to.
Anyone who reads this will wonder what it is all about.
Few people will understand this right now.
This will be exactly what he had hoped for.
Sentences like these are assertions which are no less confident than similar sentences with must, but
which are not so clearly based on inference (deduction). In other words, whereas must is equivalent
to ‘I conclude confidently that’, will just means ‘I state confidently that’.
e.g. The neighbours will be at home now. -- Yes, their car is standing in the street, so they must be
at home.
Would can be used as a tentative form. It is more often used than will in questions (which naturally
imply some lack of certainty).
e.g. This wouldn’t be your doing, I suppose?
That would be John’s car. He’s the only one I know who can afford a Ferrari.
Would you be living in Grosvenor Street, by any chance?
That remark would be meant for me, wouldn’t it?
I suppose this would be your manuscript, sir. Would that be right?
Will and tentative would always express a present expectation. If the expectation concerns the past
(i.e. if there is anteriority) they are followed by a perfect infinitive.180
e.g. You will have heard of the Beatles, of course.
I saw a beautiful blonde in the church this morning. -- Oh, you did, did you? That will have
been Patricia. -- Wouldn’t it rather have been that Swedish au pair girl that is staying at the
Bensons’?
The person referred to in this document will have been one of his ancestors.
The poor child will have been about a month old when she died.
When heavily accented, would (followed by a present infinitive) is used to comment on (present or
past) characteristic behaviour:
e.g. My husband was/is quite good at solving crossword puzzles. -- Of course, he WOULD be,
being a teacher.

180. Occasionally, ‘would + present infinitive’ is found instead of ‘will + perfect infinitive’:
e.g. That would be in the year 1958.
The child would be about three years old then.
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I don’t approve of that kind of behaviour. -- No, you WOULDN’T. You never let yourself go.
You remember the Bordon case? No, you WOULDN’T. That was before your time.
In many cases there is an implication of disapproval, annoyance or exasperation:
e.g. It was Miss Fleet who spread the news. -- It WOULD be! That old gossip!
It WOULD rain on the day of our marriage!
That’s what those moralists WOULD say.
2. Characteristic behaviour
On the basis of his experience, the speaker makes a prediction or a generalization about someone’s
behaviour.
e.g. People like him will swindle you all the time if you are not careful. (characteristic and
therefore predictable behaviour)
Children will manipulate their parents if the latter are not sure of their ground.
Boys will be boys. (proverb) (= it is typical of boys that they behave like boys.)
Most predators will kill other animals only when they are hungry.
Accidents like these will happen.
Truth will out. (proverb) (= It is typical of truth that it comes out.)
Would can be used to express typical behaviour in the past.
e.g. He would often work all night without resting.
When he caught one of the boys smoking, he would punish him severely.
When she felt depressed she would lie in her bed until noon and walk about in her night-dress
for the rest of the day.
Note:
a. This use of will is not unrelated to its use as future tense auxiliary. This is clear (among other
things) from the fact that it is incompatible with adverbials that exclude a prediction
interpretation (e.g. adverbials that express repetition over a period including the time of
utterance).
e.g. He goes / *will go to the library every day.
b. Will/would will not normally express characteristic behaviour in negative sentences.
e.g. cp. He would go for a long walk every morning. (characteristic behaviour)
He wouldn’t go for a long walk every morning. (refusal)
c. Will is heavily accented to indicate that a persistent pattern of behaviour is felt to be annoying.
e.g. You WILL keep rummaging in the cupboards.
(Of course there is little or no difference between this use of will and the use that has been
labelled ‘obstinate insistence’.)
Stressed would is used to criticise a single action. The meaning is ‘that’s typical of...’:
e.g. Of course, he WOULD impose his will when it came down to choosing a car.
You WOULD tell Betty about the present she was going to get. I wanted it to be a surprise.
You’ve soiled the tablecloth! You WOULD do that, just as we’re expecting guests!
That’s exactly like Mary. She WOULD dial the wrong number.
3. Inherent quality or capacity of things
Will can be used to ascribe an inherent characteristic to an inanimate referent.
e.g. The biggest auditorium will seat about 800 people.
Petrol will float on water.
Prolonged exposure to intense noise will damage a person’s hearing.
This wardrobe is fairly big. It will hold all our clothes.
Will that skylight open? (= Can it be opened?)
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Note:
a. Will can also yield this interpretation in negative sentences:
e.g. This carriage will not seat four people in comfort.
Grease won’t dissolve in cold water.
b. Would can be used to talk about some inherent capacity that existed in the past:
e.g. A pension will no longer enable you to save the amount of money that it would 10 years
ago.
c. In this sense, will and would can appear in conditional clauses.
e.g. You can all come, provided the car will seat all of us.
d. The use of will for inherent capacity contains an element of future time reference: it implies ‘as
you will see when it is put to the test’. This use therefore requires that the truth of the statement
can be proved by experimentation. For example, it is possible to say Water will freeze at 0°C
because the situation will actualize if the conditions are met: if we subject water to a
temperature of 0°C, it will freeze. In other words, the generalization expressed in this kind of
sentence is a kind of prediction. It follows that will cannot be used for generalizations that do
not naturally allow the idea of future instantiation:
e.g. The sun sets / *will set in the west.
The River Mersey flows / *will flow into the Irish Sea.

D. CAN / COULD
1. In affirmative sentences, can can express a general characteristic, i.e. a characteristic or quality
that may show itself from time to time. In that case can is more or less equivalent to sometimes.
e.g. Life can be hard for people living in slums.
She can become very nervous when she fails to understand something.
A lion can be as much as ten feet long.
In this city, even an old house can be very expensive to rent.
He can tell wonderful stories.
New York can be very cold in winter.
This use of can is clearly related to its use for theoretical possibility. A particular fact or behaviour is
said to be theoretically possible because it has frequently been observed.
2. Could can be used to express real past.
e.g. When I was young, winters could be much colder.
Dinosaurs could no doubt be dangerous.
Our history teacher could be very angry with us when we neglected to study our lessons.
3. In the negative, can’t can only express the idea of ‘never’. To express ‘sometimes...not’ we have to
use may not.
e.g. cp. Such people can be spiteful. (= Such people are sometimes spiteful.)
Such people cannot be spiteful. (= They are never spiteful.)
Such people may not be spiteful. (= Sometimes they are not spiteful.)

E. MAY WELL & MIGHT WELL

1. The idea of factual possibility expressed by may can be strengthened by the addition of well:
e.g. If you don’t drive more carefully you may well have an accident.
What’s wrong with the engine? -- Judging from the sound it makes, one of the cylinders may
well be missing a bit.
This use of may well conveys a meaning which comes very close to that of probability.
e.g. This sword may well date from the ninth century.
Arsenal may well have beaten Tottenham this afternoon, but I haven’t heard the results yet.
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He looks so different now that he’s got a beard that you may well not recognize him.
2. Both could well and might well are often used instead of may well:
e.g. The explanation of these phenomena could/might well be that... (= It is likely that...)
If the Government does not change its policy, inflation could/might well rise steeply in the
coming year.
3. The construction ‘might/could well + perfect infinitive’ expresses imaginary past.
e.g. Davis lost the game, but he might/could well have won if Hendry hadn’t profited from that
fluke. (= he would probably have won...)

XI. WISH

In a main clause, a wish (malediction or benediction) is introduced by may.

e.g. May God bless all of you throughout the coming year.
May the best player win!
May that man never come back here again!
Note:
1. This use of may is very formal and rarely found in modern English, except in standing expressions.
2. May always expresses a present wish with future actualisation.
3. Might cannot be used in a similar way.

XII. HABIT

We speak of a habit (or of ‘habituality’) when a situation is characteristic of an extended period of time.

A. WILL / WOULD
The use of will/would for ‘characteristic behaviour’ often implies the idea of habituality.181
e.g. After supper she will go for a short walk. Then she will sit down and watch TV until it is time for
her to go to bed.
My father was a very creative person. He would invent all sorts of appliances which were meant to
make life easier for his wife, even though they usually failed to work.
My grandparents would often come and spend their evenings with us.
This (rather formal) use of will/would necessarily implies repetition and is therefore seldom found with
stative verbs.
e.g. He used to be a notorious womanizer before he got married. (*would)
He used to like/know/need the girl long before he proposed to her. (*would)
I used to have a black Mercedes before I bought this Ford. (*would)
He could not make up his mind about the boy. Sometimes he would trust him, but mostly he would
not believe him.
This splendid theatre used to be a dilapidated building until it was completely rebuilt. (*would)
cp. He would live at the Savoy whenever he came back to England.
*He would live at the Savoy in those days.

181. Might is occasionally found as an alternative to would if the idea of habit combines with that of factual possibility (might = ‘would
perhaps’).
e.g. When the weather was good we might go for a swim in the lake.
On rainy days Mildred might do some painting.
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Notice, finally, that statements with would very often have an undertone of nostalgia. Would is less likely
to be used in purely factual statements.

B. USED TO
Used to expresses habitual past. 182 Moreover, if the context does not explicitly state that the habitual
situation is or may be still holding, used to suggests that it does not hold any longer. In other words: used
to carries the implicature of ‘discontinued habit’.
e.g. cp. (a) Bill used to smoke a pipe.
(b) Bill used to smoke a pipe. In fact, he still does.
(c) Bill used to smoke a pipe. Perhaps he still does.
In the absence of any indication to the contrary, sentence (a) will be taken by the hearer to imply that Bill
no longer smokes a pipe. This implicature of discontinued habit is cancelled in (b) and (c).
The implicature of discontinued habit distinguishes used to from would, which is simply vague on this
point.
e.g. cp. I remember you used to listen to reggae. (implicates: I assume you don’t have that habit any
more.)
I remember you would listen to reggae. (suggests nothing as to whether the habit has stopped
or still exists)
e.g. He used not to go to church. (but now he does)
He is living in the same house as he used to live in when he was young. (suggests that he lived in
another house for some time)
Note:
1. Neither would nor used to can be used with adverbials that specifically say how often something
happened.
e.g. I went / *used to go / *would go to Venice three times as a student.
Used to cannot co-occur either with definite indications of duration.
e.g. cp. I lived / *used to live abroad for one and a half years.
For many years Billy used to believe in Santa Claus.
My wife always used to be afraid of frogs.
2. The term ‘habit’ is actually a bit too strict to capture the meaning of used to precisely. Whereas an
expression like to be in the habit of can only be followed by dynamic verbs, used to can also be used
with statives. In that case it denotes little more than a contrast between past and present.
e.g. Until a few years ago we always used to have fish for lunch on Fridays. (*were in the habit of
having)
This building used to be a brewery.
Before 1970 building a house used to be comparatively cheap.
There used to be violent demonstrations in the capital before the government changed its
policy.
Edward used to like his coffee black. (*was in the habit of liking)
3. In negative and interrogative sentences, we normally use did (not) use to: 183
e.g. Did he use to like jazz?
He didn’t use to be an obedient child.
Didn’t she use to stay at the Metropolitan?

182. Note the pronunciation of used in this combination: it is /ju:st/, not /ju:zd/.
183. Forms without do can be found in very formal or obsolete language (e.g. Used he to smoke?; He usedn’t to smoke; There used to be a pub
here, use(d)n’t there?). In very informal (and practically substandard) English, do sometimes combines with used to (rather than with use
to) (e.g. Did he used to smoke a pipe?; I didn’t used to smoke a pipe).
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He didn’t use to like custard, did he?

In the negative, never used to is a good alternative:
e.g. Maggie never used to like plum pudding.
4. Used to can be used as a pro-form (in code) if it does not occur in the VP that is being replaced. If it
does occur in that VP, the pro-form will be do.
e.g. I would be surprised if he didn’t like whisky. He certainly used to.
I used to like westerns, and so did/*used she.

XIII. THE VERB DARE

Both the full verb to dare to and the auxiliary dare can be used to express the idea ‘to have the courage
to’, ‘to be brave (or rude) enough to’.

A. THE AUXILIARY DARE

1. As an auxiliary, dare takes no -s in the 3rd person singular; it does not combine with do, and it is
followed by an infinitive without to.
e.g. He daren’t tell you in your face.
2. The auxiliary dare is used only in nonassertive sentences (i.e. in questions, negative clauses and
clauses with a negative implication).
e.g. Dare he come in?
He hardly dare open his mouth.
I daren’t ask to tell mother about the broken vase. Will you tell her?
No student dare stay away from my lectures.
I’m not sure I dare tell her that.
Fifty pounds is as much as I dare ask for it.
I wonder whether he dare repeat that in front of the judge.
What’s the matter? Daren’t you go in?
However, the idiomatic expression I dare say (sometimes spelt I daresay) is found in affirmative
statements.
e.g. I dare say her story may be true. (= I suppose/believe that, maybe)
There’s going to be a storm, I daresay.
I would imagine he’s forgotten all about it. -- I dare SAY!
3. The auxiliary dare is only used in the present tense.184
4. The idiom How dare you/he/she/they? is used as an indignant exclamation. 185
e.g. How dare you disobey my orders!
How dare you? Give that back to me at once!
How dare he use my camera without even asking!

B. THE FULL VERB TO DARE TO

1. The full verb to dare to means ‘to have the courage to’ and is more common than the auxiliary in
this meaning. Because it is a normal lexical verb, it can be used in any tense.
e.g. I do not dare to wear such conspicuous clothes.
He didn’t dare to attack us.
Would you dare to go there on your own?

184. The past form dared not is rare or formal. It is sometimes spelt daren’t.
185. The full verb to dare to is not used in this way.
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I’ve never understood how he dares to behave like that in public.

2. In negative and interrogative sentences, even the full verb is sometimes followed by an infinitive
without to.
e.g. We did not dare (to) look up.
Do you dare (to) leave the house during the curfew?
I’ve never dared (to) tell my father the truth.
I wonder how he dared (to) bring out these secrets.
3. The expressions You dare! and Don’t you dare! are used to prohibit somebody from doing
something.
e.g. Mummy, can I use this towel to rub the paint dry? -- You dare! / Don’t you dare!

§ 4. MODAL AUXILIARIES IN SUBCLAUSES

In many types of subclause the use of modal auxiliaries is exactly the same as that in head clauses.
However, there are some types of subclause that have their own ways of expressing modality. This
section will especially concentrate on these.

I. NOUN CLAUSES

A. In that-clauses depending on expressions of volition or necessity (indicating that something must be

done or is important) the auxiliary that is normally used in Br.E. is should: 186
e.g. It is important that you should not touch the body before the police have arrived.
This use of should is very common (although it is somewhat formal) and is possible after any tense. The
expression of volition (order, necessity, advisability, suggestion, etc.) can be:
1. a verb
e.g. advise, agree, arrange, ask, authorize, command, consent, decide, decree, demand, desire,
dictate, direct, disagree, grant, insist, intend, order, permit, propose, recommend, request,
require, suggest, urge, etc.
e.g. The commission favour that the present import restrictions should be abolished.
My brother suggested that I should take legal advice before doing anything.
The law requires that all motorists should take out an insurance policy.
The king pleaded that the capital should not become a battlefield.
I demand that he should be arrested at once.
Note: The verbs want and wish are never followed by should (cf. below): 187
e.g. I want you to do it. (*I want that you should do it.)
I wish he may/*should succeed.
I wish you didn’t/wouldn’t/*shouldn’t say such things.
2. an adjective
e.g. anxious, desirable, determined, eager, essential, important, necessary, urgent, vital, etc.
e.g. It is desirable that the matter should be settled here and now.

186. In very formal (especially official and legalistic) texts shall is often used instead of should :
e.g. The council hasn’t decided yet which firm shall build the bridge.
The committee have agreed that the agenda shall be changed.
I demand that the existing rules shall be observed.
This use of shall is only possible if the head clause is not in one of the past tenses.
187. As a matter of fact, want is never followed by a that-clause at all (except in pseudo-cleft constructions -- cf. chapter 12).
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It was preferable that the call for strike should be suspended for another week.
It had become necessary that Mrs Thatcher should be removed from office.
3. a noun
e.g. He ignores his wife’s appeals that he should be at home more often.
The orders were that the demonstrators should be kept away from Downing Street.
It is of crucial importance that you should not ignore these signs.
Note:
a. In (very) formal English, the present subjunctive can be used instead of should.
e.g. Both parties are anxious that the deal remain confidential.
The Chancellor expressed her determination that inflation be kept in check.
b. In Am.E., should is not normally used in this way. The present subjunctive is therefore more
common there than in Br.E. However, its use seems to be increasing in Br.E. at present.
c. In some cases (viz. after expressions of necessity), indicative forms are also possible. There is,
however, a difference of meaning. When an indicative form is used, the subclause situation is treated
as a fact. When should (or the subjunctive) is used, the situation is represented as a future
contingency.
e.g. cp. It is better that she hears / should hear nothing about it.
They all agree, and it is very important that they do, because... (present fact)
It is important that any future decision of the board should be / ?is unanimous. (future
contingency)
It is in keeping with this that the indicative is not normally used after expressions of volition that
imply future actualisation.
e.g. The order was that the gate should be / *was opened when the carriage was approaching.

B. Should is also used in that-clauses depending on expressions denoting a personal opinion (value
judgment, appreciation), reaction or feeling (emotion). It is found after both present and past tenses.
e.g. It’s a shame that we should not have thought of this before.
I couldn’t think why she should have wanted to see me.
The worst that can happen is that it should rain on the day of the final.
I regret that she should disregard my orders.
Note:
1. This construction is especially common after predicative adjectives:
a. in copular clauses with a personal subject:
e.g. amused, ashamed, astonished, vexed, content, pleased, shocked, sorry, surprised...
e.g. I was sorry that I should be away just then.
She was relieved that the police should take her story seriously.
I’m amused/astonished/ashamed/concerned/pleased that it should be Fred who wins the
quiz game.
I was shocked/dismayed that they shouldn’t have taken the necessary precautions.
b. in copular clauses with an impersonal subject:
e.g. appropriate, absurd, amazing, characteristic, curious, deplorable, natural, surprising,
understandable, odd, improbable, logical, ridiculous, sad, inevitable, strange...
e.g. It was characteristic of Bill that he should have spent all his money at once.
It is unusual that we should not have received a letter from him yet.
It’s surprising/astonishing that he should try to make friends with someone like Nancy.
It was strange that emotions should run so high at the debate.
2. In this use, should cannot be replaced by the subjunctive.
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e.g. I was anxious that he should be well cared for. (*that he be...)
3. The effect of using should rather than an indicative form is that the noun clause gets a theoretical or
putative meaning rather than a factual one.
e.g. cp. (a) It’s ridiculous that John refuses to help his son. (= factual: It is a fact that John
refuses to help his son, and that fact is ridiculous.)
(b) It’s ridiculous that John should refuse to help his son. (= putative: The very idea that
John should refuse to help his son is ridiculous; it is ridiculous to suppose such a
thing.)
cp. (c) I’m surprised that she has failed the exam. (= factual: I’m surprised at the fact that
she has failed the exam.)
(d) I’m surprised that she should have failed the exam. (theoretical: I couldn’t imagine
her failing the exam, and so the news that she did comes as a surprise to me.)
Whereas a factual sentence is truth-committed (i.e. implies that the statement is true), a theoretical
sentence is truth-neutral (i.e. leaves the question of truth and falsehood open). Thus, the speaker
of (a) presupposes that it is a fact that John refuses to help his son, while the speaker of (b) need
not know whether John refuses to help his son or not. In some cases, however, the should-
construction can only be interpreted as truth-committed because of the main clause. For
example, not only (c) but also (d) implies that the girl referred to has failed her exam.
4. This use of should does not occur in Am.E. (which only uses the indicative).
5. Apart from the that-clauses considered above, putative should is also found
a. in why-clauses depending on expressions like do not know, can’t think, see no reason, etc.
e.g. I see no reason why she should keep this to herself.
I can’t see why he should reject our offer.
I couldn’t think why she should have left so early.
b. in independent why-clauses and how-clauses (expressing surprise, irritation, lack of interest,
disbelief, inability to understand, etc.):
e.g. Why should the citizens of this country have to pay for the pollution caused by industry?
What’s a Ouija board? -- How should I know?
Why should you have tried to deceive me? (Unlike Why did you try to deceive me?, this sentence is
not only concerned with the reasons for the hearer’s behaviour; it is uttered in the first place to
question (reject) that behaviour.)
Speak to her. She will believe you. -- Why should she? She hardly knows me at all.
Why should the police have released their suspect? The evidence against him is
overwhelming.
How should he have escaped from prison without help from outside?
Did I really write that? Now, what should I have meant by that?
c. in independent wh-questions and exclamatory that-clauses (expressing surprise, often mixed
with irritation, anger):
e.g. We were walking there quietly, looking at the shop windows, and who should we run into
but our old friend Tom?
That the constable should be ill just now, when we need him!
That he should want to marry Jill, of all people!
I opened the door and who should be standing on the threshold but the Queen herself!

C. Other modal auxiliaries can be found in noun clauses, provided their meaning is in keeping with that
of the introducing expression.
e.g. I was going to suggest that we might have a picnic this afternoon.
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It is possible that he may/*should not remember me. (cp. It is impossible that he should/*may
remember me.)
The Conservatives insist that the bill must be voted as soon as possible.

II. CONDITIONAL CLAUSES

A. INTRODUCTION
1. Conditional clauses are introduced by conjunctions and phrases such as if, unless (= ‘except if’),
providing/provided (that) (= ‘if and only if’), on condition that (id.), on the understanding that, as/so
long as, in case.
e.g. You can use my camera as long as you pay for the films yourself.
I will not report this to the boss on condition that / provided that you promise never to do it
again.
Note:
a. The meaning of unless is ‘except if’, ‘but not if’.
e.g. I’ll be back tomorrow unless there’s a plane strike.
Grammatical handbooks often state that unless has the same meaning as if not. This is not
correct, although the two often seem to be interchangeable:
e.g. cp. The theatre will go bankrupt unless another sponsor is found.
The theatre will go bankrupt if no other sponsor is found.
cp. You won’t get there in time unless you take a taxi.
You won’t get there in time if you don’t take a taxi.
cp. Don’t do anything unless I tell you to.
Don’t do anything if I don’t tell you to.
However, in spite of the fact that unless has the same truth conditions as if not, there is a slight
difference of meaning between the two. Sentences with if not have the logical form ‘if not p,
then q’, while sentences with unless have the logical form ‘q, except if p’. This means that
unless can be used in sentences that say ‘A will happen if it is not prevented by B’, but cannot
be used if the meaning is ‘A will result from B not happening’.
e.g. Let’s have a walk after supper, unless you’re feeling too tired.
The book would be better if it weren’t so long-winded. (*unless it were...)
You wouldn’t get so exhausted if you weren’t so nervous. (*unless)
I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t smash up the car. (*unless)
If she weren’t so self-centred, she would see that there’s something preying on his mind.
(*unless)
You’re bound to be convicted unless you have a really good lawyer.
I’ll be quite relieved if the computer doesn’t break down before I have finished. (*unless)
As is clear from the examples, unless-clauses have the positive function of restricting a
possibility and are therefore assertive (whereas negative if-clauses are not). It follows that
unless-clauses use assertive items, whereas negative if-clauses use nonassertive ones:
e.g. cp. I’ll have to go to the fair, unless I can find someone to go in my place.
I’ll have to go to the fair myself if I can’t find anyone to go in my place.
e.g. Please sign this document, unless there is something in it that you cannot approve of.
Because it typically restricts a possibility, unless will not normally be used in counterfactual
conditionals.
b. In case is not simply equivalent to if (except sometimes in Am.E.). It is used in two ways:
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1) to refer to a situation which the subject of the main clause wants to prevent (in case = ‘for
fear that’, ‘so that...not’).
e.g. She never let the child play in the street in case he was/ should be run over.
I don’t dare (to) tell him the truth in case he holds / should hold me responsible.
Note: The conjunction lest is a very formal (even archaic) alternative to this in case.
2) to refer to a situation which may occur and which the referent of the S of the head clause is
therefore preparing for or is taking precautions against (in case =
‘because...perhaps/might’).
e.g. I always have my credit card in my pocket in case there’s a bargain. (*will be)
I carried a couple of magazines in my bag in case I had / should have to wait a long
time at the airport. (*would have)
I’m thinking of insuring my car in case it gets stolen. (*will get)
I’ll bring some whisky from the supermarket in case your father pays us a visit.
As appears from the examples, in case is followed by the same nonmodal relative tense forms
as are used in if-clauses. However, in more formal English, the modal auxiliary should can also
be used (especially in type (1)), provided the subclause situation is posterior to the head clause
situation.
e.g. He didn’t answer the phone in case it was / *should be the bailiff.
c. It should be noted that when cannot be used to introduce a conditional clause, because it implies
factuality.
e.g. cp. I’ll deliver the goods if you pay me. (The speaker is not quite sure he will be paid.)
I’ll deliver the goods when you pay me. (The speaker takes it for granted that he will be paid.)
d. Whether...or can be used to express alternative conditions.
e.g. Whether you are overweight or not, it is always better to watch your diet.
2. In formal English, it is possible to find constructions with a zero-conjunction and inversion,
provided that the verb of the conditional clause is a modal form.
e.g. Should someone ring up, tell them I’ll be at the office till six.
Had the body been discovered sooner, the police would no doubt have found more clues.
Were he to try that again, I’d go to the police.
3. Clauses introduced by supposing, assuming, let’s suppose/assume and the imperative forms
suppose/imagine use the same system of verb forms as conditional clauses.
e.g. Imagine you were the murderer. Where would you have hidden the knife?
Just suppose someone had overheard that conversation!
Let’s suppose / supposing we had run into our neighbours. What would we have said to them?
4. The condition expressed by a conditional clause may be of different kinds:
a. A condition is closed if its fulfilment is taken for granted.
e.g. The picture you are now looking at is the famous Mona Lisa. -- Well, if this is the Mona
Lisa, I can’t say I feel much impressed by it.
My secretary’s going to have a baby. -- That’s nice for her. -- Yes, but if she’s going to
have a baby I will have to do all the paperwork myself.
If they were late yesterday, it cannot have been because of the weather.
b. An open condition is one whose fulfilment is not certain but quite possible.
e.g. Has John spoken to the police? -- I don’t know. But if he has, we’re in big trouble.
If it rains tomorrow, we may have to cancel the trip.
If you park your car here, it may be damaged by those playing children.
c. A hypothetical condition is one whose future fulfilment is seen as unlikely (but not
impossible).
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e.g. If you were to pull down this supporting wall, the whole building would collapse.
d. A condition is counterfactual if it is rejected, i.e. if the speaker makes clear that the condition
was not, is not or could not be fulfilled.
e.g. If you had told them the truth, they would not have believed you.
If I were you, I should not tread on her corns.
Note: Unless-clauses normally express an open condition.

B. VERB FORMS
The main problem in connection with conditional sentences is the correct use of the verb forms. In many
cases there is a special relationship between the verb form in the subclause and that in the main clause.
Handbooks often reduce conditional sentences to three canonical types:
1) type 1: If she comes I will/shall be happy.
2) type 2: If she came I would/should be happy.
3) type 3: If she had come, I would/should have been happy.
Such a classification is useful (we will refer to it later) but very much simplified. There are in fact plenty
of possibilities:
1. Closed conditions
A conditional clause expressing a closed condition uses an indicative tense form.
e.g. John is ill. -- That’s terrible. If John is ill, who will keep the shop open?
Note:
a. When both clauses involve an indicative form, all sorts of tense combinations are possible,
depending on the time reference.
e.g. The conditional clause If he met them last night can combine with any of the following head
clauses:
...he knows what happened.
...he has known them for some time.
...he told them everything.
...they had certainly made an appointment.
...he will meet them again.
...he will have met them again by next Sunday.
...he must/may/will/should know what happened.
...he must/may/will/should have informed them.
b. As is well-known, the future tense and the future perfect cannot be used in the conditional
sentence of a conditional belonging to the canonical type 1 (i.e. the type expressing an open
condition concerning the future, e.g. If she comes I will tell her everything). They can, however,
be used in closed conditionals (which treat the future if-clause situation as a present fact rather
than as a future possibility). The following two cases can be distinguished:
1) Consider the following examples (which have the logical form ‘if p, then q’):
e.g. If all the letters will be finished by 4 o’clock, why don’t you ask Gordon to post them
on his way home?
If he will be abroad for the next two months, then we had better try and see him now.
What point is there in saving up for a trip if you will be unable to make it anyhow?
If, as you say, the cloth will not shrink when washed, it can’t be genuine cotton.
If the water level will rise as high as this, then we had better evacuate these houses.
If Bill will be here tomorrow, there’s no need to ring him now.
In these sentences, the if-clause usually echoes a statement which has just been made and
which the present speaker assumes to be true. Because of this, the condition represented by
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p is not an open one: the condition is represented, not as possible, but as a fact (i.e. it is a
closed condition): the speaker knows or assumes that the condition will be fulfilled. The if-
clause can therefore be paraphrased as ‘if it is true that’ or ‘if it is the case that’. The head
clause expresses a conclusion (concerning the future or the present) which the speaker has
reached on the basis of his assumption that p will certainly actualise. This conclusion may
concern a present or future course of action or may be a conclusion concerning the truth of
q.
Note: Be going to is generally preferred to will in the if-clause of such a conditional.
2) The condition is also a closed one in examples like the following:
e.g. If you will be all by yourself on Christmas Day, write us a letter and we will arrange
for somebody to visit you.
If you won’t stay up to watch the late news, goodnight.
If you will not receive a scholarship or award, please tell us how you intend to meet
the expenses of living in London and taking our course.
The speaker here assumes that there are addressees for whom this condition is fulfilled
(closed). The head clause situation (which follows logically if the condition is fulfilled in
the present) can therefore be a present situation.
c. Closed conditions are sometimes called factual conditions. It should be noted, however, that
closed conditions are not factual in the sense that they imply that the fulfilment of the condition
is a fact: they only imply that the speaker takes this for granted. That is, the speaker assumes
that the condition is fulfilled but he does not really know it for certain. This is clear from
examples like the following:
e.g. A. Mummy, the milkman is there.
B. If the milkman is there, open the door for him.
Though speaker B accepts that it is a fact that the milkman is there, she does not do so on the
basis of first-hand knowledge (i.e. her own perception): she relies on the information given by
A. If speaker B herself saw the milkman at her door, she could not utter the sentence If the
milkman is there...
2. Open conditions
A condition is open if the speaker treats its fulfilment as a real possibility. We can distinguish the
following cases:
a. An open condition may concern a past or present situation, provided the speaker is not certain
about its actualization.
e.g. I don’t know if John has notified the police. If he has, they will no doubt come and question us.
(The speaker treats the fulfilment of the condition as a possibility, not as a fact.)
I wonder if Bill is already back in England. If he is, he will come and see us shortly. (id.)
b. The condition is also open if it refers to the possible instantiation of a general principle:
e.g. If water boils, it changes into steam.
If you throw a piece of foam rubber into water, it does not sink.
Indoor plants die if the air in the room is too dry.
This kind of conditional sentence expresses cause and effect and makes a statement of universal
truth or general validity. However, the if-clause does not refer to a present fact. Thus, the claim
made in the first example is valid even if there is no water boiling at TU. The if-clause refers to
possible instances of the situation referred to -- if comes close in meaning to when(ever) -- and
thus expresses an open condition.
c. The most common type of open conditional is the canonical type 1, in which the if-clause
expresses the possible future actualization of a situation:
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e.g. If he does not pay us soon, we will have to sue him.

Note:
1) A variant of this type is the conditional in which the if-clause situation is represented as anterior to a
future TO:
e.g. If he has not paid us before the end of the month, we will have to sue him.
2) The future tense and the future perfect cannot normally be used in the if-clause of an open
conditional, because they are tenses that belong to the Future Perspective System (FPS). In the if-
clause of an open conditional we normally use the Present Perspective System (PPS) (cf. chapter 3).
e.g. If she asks / *will ask me for an explanation, I will tell her everything.
If she has finished / *will have finished before six o’clock, she will have time to do some
shopping.
However, there are exceptions to the rule that conditional clauses do not use the FPS. In fact, the
rule appears to be that if-clauses expressing an open condition and referring to a future situation
must use the PPS only if the conditional sentence has the logical form ‘if p, then q’. In such
conditionals there is felt to be a close logical link between p and q: the possible actualization of p
entails the actualization of q. The linguistic means of expressing this link is the use of the PPS,
which represents the if-clause as temporally dependent on (i.e. temporally bound by) the head
clause. The logical link is thus expressed as if it were a temporal one.
When this condition is not satisfied, the FPS is used. This is the case when the conditional has the
logical form ‘q, if p’ rather than ‘if p, then q’.
e.g. If it will make any difference to you, I will change my attitude towards her. (= I will change
my attitude towards her if it will make any difference to you if I do that.)
I will give her a loan only if that will solve all her problems.
I will come if my presence will be of any use to you.
If it will make you feel less worried, I’ll warn the police.
I can lend you a couple of quid, if that will help.
I’ll come down to your office after one o’clock, if that will suit you.
Such sentences are paraphrasable as ‘I promise to do q provided that I get the assurance that q will
entail p’. The head clause expresses a present decision concerning the future and the speaker says
that the fulfilment of this decision depends on whether the addressee can now confirm that some
future situation will result if the decision is carried out.
3) In open conditionals of the type If he leaves I will be disappointed the actualization of the head
clause situation (q) is represented as following automatically from the actualization of the if-clause
situation (p). However, we can also express the idea that q will perhaps follow from p. In that case
we use may, might or could in the head clause instead of will.
e.g. If John is feeling better today, he may/might/could be allowed to leave the hospital.
If there’s a sharp frost tonight, we may/could/might be able to go skating tomorrow.
3. Hypothetical conditions
The standard way of expressing a hypothetical condition (i.e. a condition whose fulfilment is not
impossible but unlikely) is the use of a conditional that belongs to the canonical type 2.
e.g. If he went to the police, we would be in trouble.
Such conditionals have the following characteristics:
a. They use a modal past in the subclause and one of the auxiliaries should, would, could or might
in the head clause.
Note: We use might to express factual possibility. Could can express theoretical or factual possibility, or
ability.
e.g. If the enemy attacked, the bridge might be blown up. (might = would perhaps)
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If the enemy attacked, the bridge could be blown up. (could = ‘it would be possible to...’ or
‘would perhaps’)
If you stepped aside, I could enter the lift. (could = would be able to)
b. The if-clause concerns the (remote) possibility of the future actualization of a situation.
e.g. If I came into a fortune, I would give up working. (But I don’t really expect to come into a
fortune.)
If he took a taxi, he would have a better chance of getting there in time. (But I don’t suppose he
will take a taxi.)
If he shaved off his beard, he would have a real baby-face.
In sentences that suggest a course of action, a hypothetical conditional is often preferred to an
open conditional for reasons of tentativeness (modesty, tact, politeness):
e.g. If we left immediately after breakfast we would reach the cottage by lunch-time.
It would be nice if you helped your mother clean the house.
Would it be all right if I borrowed your typewriter for half an hour?
If we phoned the police they might tell us something more about the accident.
Why take a taxi? It would be much cheaper if you used the underground.
c. The past subjunctive were can be used instead of the modal past was in the if-clause. It is
preferred to the latter in formal and written English.
e.g. It wouldn’t be good for the country’s economy if that man were elected president.
d. Instead of the modal past we can also use ‘were to + infinitive’ in the if-clause.
e.g. If he were to see me in your arms, he would kill me.
If I were to shave off my moustache, the scar on my upper lip would become visible.
I’d be a fool if I were to sell these shares now.
This use of were to is related to the use of be to which represents the future as determined by
fate. Because of this, were to usually has the effect of representing the supposition as more
remote, less certain, more tentative. In other words, were to can have the effect of making the
future possibility sound even less probable or of making a suggestion even more tentative.
e.g. If you were to take off your hat, we could see the screen completely.
If our message were to be delivered punctually, we should perhaps have an answer tomorrow.
However, this emphasis on improbability (moving towards unreality) is not necessarily present.
Sometimes there is no significant difference between were to and the modal past.
e.g. What would you say if I were to tell / told you that Fred has divorced his wife?
Note:
a) This use of were to is somewhat formal.
b) In very formal English were to can be used in a construction with zero-connection and inversion.
e.g. Were he to suspect anything, he would no doubt start an investigation.
Note that not can never be contracted in this construction:
e.g. Were he not to come... (*Weren’t he to come...)
Had he not been there... (*Hadn’t he been...)
c) In less formal English, was to can be used instead of were to. 188
4. Counterfactual conditions
a. There are two basic types of counterfactual conditional:
1) Type 2 conditionals are counterfactual if the if-clause refers to the present.
e.g. I would tell you the answer to that question if I knew it.
If I had a computer, I could get on with my work much more quickly.

188. Was to does not allow the construction with zero-connection and inversion.
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I wouldn’t know all these things if I wasn’t writing a dissertation on the subject.
In such sentences, the if-clause refers to a counterfactual present situation, whereas the
head clause refers either to the present or to the future. The construction cannot be used to
refer to counterfactual past situations (i.e. to express imaginary past).
Note:
a) If the conditional clause is stative or progressive, it usually refers to the present and is
therefore interpreted as counterfactual. If it is nonstative and nonprogressive, it usually refers
to the future and is therefore interpreted as hypothetical.
e.g. cp. You wouldn’t be here if you were waiting for her. (counterfactual)
She would be thankful if you waited for her. (hypothetical)
b) Like hypothetical conditionals, counterfactual conditionals of type 2 allow the use of the
subjunctive form were instead of the modal past form was in the if-clause.
e.g. If Bill was/were here, he would say the same thing.
If it was/were not for the fact that he is older and bigger than me, I would smash him.
(or: Were/*was it not for the fact that...)
If it weren’t for our help, you’d never have finished the book in time.
This were is commonly used in the phrase if I were you, which is used in conditional sentences
that are meant to give advice. In such sentences we normally use should (rarely would) in the
head clause:
e.g. If I were you, I shouldn’t take that threat too seriously.
I should reconsider my assumptions if I were you.
The expression if I were you is sometimes left out:
e.g. I shouldn’t worry.
I should check those data again before jumping to conclusions.
In sentences like these, I should has much the same meaning as you should (although it is
perhaps somewhat weaker than the latter).
c) Unlike hypothetical conditionals, counterfactual conditionals of type 2 do not allow the use of
‘were to + infinitive’ instead of a modal past in the if-clause.
e.g. If I knew / *were to know his telephone number, I’d give it to you.
Life would be easier for me if I had / *were to have a car.
2) Conditionals of the canonical type 3 always express unreality.
Conditionals of type 3 use a modal past perfect in the conditional clause and
‘would/should/might/could + perfect infinitive’ in the main clause. Both clauses invariably express
unreality. Both clauses can refer to present, past or future time.
e.g. If there had been general elections last year, Labour would probably have won. (past + past)
If you had been an engineer, you would have known what is wrong with this engine. (present
+ present)
If you had come tomorrow instead of today, you wouldn’t have found me at home. (future +
future)
If it hadn’t been for Mary’s help I could never have done it. (past + past)
If I had seen the accident myself I could have told you now who was responsible. (past +
present)
If I had won at betting, I would have spent last summer in America. (past + past)
If I had won at betting, I would have gone to America next month. (past + future)
Note:
a) Since both type 2 and type 3 conditionals can represent p and/or q as counterfactual, we can
sometimes combine verb forms from the two constructions:
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Ó) If the conditional clause refers to a past counterfactual situation and the head clause to a
present counterfactual situation, the if-clause must belong to type 3, but the head clause
can be of type 2 or 3.
e.g. If we hadn’t missed the train, we would not be standing / would not have
been standing here in the rain.
If we had read the instructions more carefully we would know / would have
known what to do now.
If you had gone to the police at once, you wouldn’t be / wouldn’t have been
in trouble now.
ß) If the conditional clause refers to a present counterfactual situation and the head clause to
a past counterfactual situation, we use either a sentence of type 3 or a combination of an
if-clause of type 2 and a head clause of type 3.
e.g. If John hadn’t been / weren’t / wasn’t such a nice chap, he’d never have
helped us.
You wouldn’t have beaten me at tennis just now if I had been / were / was
less tired.
If I knew the answer to that question, I would have told you a long time ago.
b) A conditional of type 2 or 3 makes use of tenses that are otherwise used to express relations in
a past temporal domain. Like the present tense in the if-clause of type 1, the past tense in the
conditional clause of type 2 expresses sloppy simultaneity. 189 When the conditional sentence
involves still other clauses, they will also use the past tense to express simultaneity.
e.g. If I knew the answer, I would tell you what it was.
I think the metrical foot used in this poem is a dactyl. -- Do you think so? I would say it
was a catalectic trochee.
If we hadn’t missed the tram, we wouldn’t have to wait here while the others were
already having dinner.
c) Though the preterite and the past perfect are usually modal forms when used in a conditional
clause, they can also be found there with a nonmodal (i.e. purely temporal) meaning:
e.g. cp. If he was there last night, he must have seen everything. (nonmodal past
referring to a past situation) (closed condition)
If I understood your question, I would perhaps be able to answer it. (modal
past representing a present situation as counterfactual) (counterfactual
condition)
cp. He said that if I hadn’t finished the work before the end of the week he
would refuse to pay me. (nonmodal past perfect expressing anteriority in a
past temporal domain)
If the squatters hadn’t left before Christmas, they would be removed from
the building by force. (id.)
If you had finished the work in time, I would not have refused to pay you.
(modal past perfect representing a past situation as counterfactual)
5. Modal auxiliaries in conditional clauses
a. Will in the conditional clause
If the verb of the main clause is in the present or future tense, modal will can be used in the
conditional clause
1) to express willingness in polite requests and invitations:

189. The term ‘sloppy simultaneity’ is explained in section IV of chapter 3.

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e.g. If you will kindly take your clothes off, the doctor will examine you in five minutes.
If you will book seats today, we shall be sure of sitting in one of the front rows.
Such an if-clause with if you will often combines with a head clause with I/we will (making
a promise or guarantee). The result is a sentence in which the speaker invites the hearer to
co-operate.
e.g. If you will bake a cake, I will bring a bottle of wine.
If you will be kind enough to pay the taxi driver, I’ll carry your luggage to your room.
2) to indicate willingness on the part of some person other than the addressee:
e.g. If he’ll listen to you, you can explain to him what he should do.
I’ll give you a fiver if you’ll keep this secret.
3) to express a refusal:
e.g. If the plumber won’t come we’ll ask an odd job man to repair the sink.
You’ll have to marry me if Fred won’t take you.
4) to indicate obstinate insistence:
e.g. If you WILL smoke cigarettes all day, no wonder you are always coughing. (= If you
insist on...)
If he WILL go out every night, he can’t expect to pass his exams.
If you WILL give the children whatever they ask for, it’s not surprising that they are
spoilt.
5) to indicate an inherent quality or capacity of a thing:
e.g. If the boot of your car will hold everything, we shan’t need the roof rack.
If the boat will sleep eight people, none of us will have to go to a hotel.
b. Would in the conditional clause
1) Volitional would can be used freely in conditional clauses:
a) It can be used to express a polite request in if-clauses of type 1 or 2. (In type 1 we can
also use will, but would is more tentative and therefore even more polite.)
e.g. If you would listen to me for a moment, I could tell you some important news.
(type 2)
If you would kindly give me the car keys, I will drive your car into the garage.
(type 1)
If you would come and help me do the washing up this afternoon, I could do
something else this morning. (type 2)
If you would stand in for me tomorrow, I could take the children to the circus.
(type 2)
I’d be grateful if you would go home now. (type 2)
Put it down in that corner if you wouldn’t mind. (similar to type 1)
Give me the towel, if you would. (id.)
b) Would can be used in type 2 conditionals to indicate willingness on the part of a
person other than the addressee.
e.g. If he would tell his dog to be silent we wouldn’t have to shout to each other.
2) If-clauses normally represent their situation as temporally subordinated to the head clause
situation. In doing so they express either anteriority or simultaneity (which may be sloppy
simultaneity -- cf. chapter 3); they cannot express posteriority (since it is logically
impossible for a cause (condition) to be posterior to its effect (consequent)). For this
reason the conditional tense and the conditional perfect cannot be used to express temporal
relations in if-clauses. However, when the two tenses are used as modal tenses, they can
occur in conditional clauses:
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a) We use would/should before like, hate, love, prefer and care in conditional clauses
expressing an open or hypothetical condition: 190
e.g. If you’d like to come, I’ll see that you get an invitation. (*If you’ll like to...)
I’ll choose the menu, unless you’d prefer to do it yourself. (*unless you’ll
prefer...)
I would be grateful if you would consider accepting my article for publication.
However, would/should will not be used before these verbs if they do not have a
direct object of any kind (an NP, an infinitive clause or the pro-form to):
e.g. cp. You can go home now if you like. (*if you’d like)
You can join us if you’d like to.
e.g. cp. If you like, I’ll buy you an ice-cream. (*If you’d like,...)
I’ll buy you an ice-cream if you’d like me to.
I’ll buy you an ice-cream if you’d like one.
b) Would can be found as a tentative alternative to (nonmodal) will in sentences like the
following (see above):
e.g. I’d like to see the doctor, if that would/will be possible.
I could lend you my car, if that would/will help.
I’ll collect them tonight -- if that would/will suit you.
c) Would is also used in conditional clauses that themselves contain or imply a
conditional clause.
e.g. If John would have succeeded (had he tried), why shouldn’t I succeed?
If a loan would have saved him, why didn’t you give him one? (= If it would
have saved him if you had given...)
If John would be able to break the record (if he really tried),
we can certainly break it.
we would be able to break it too.
we could have broken it a long time ago.
If, as you say, that man would be able to open our safe (if he had the right
instruments), it is high time we bought another, more sophisticated one.
c. Should in the conditional clause
1) Should can be used in clauses expressing an open or hypothetical condition to suggest that
the situation that may or may not actualise depends on chance or on some other
unpredictable factor. It renders the condition more tentative.
e.g. If anyone should come to the house, tell them I’m away.
If this appliance should fail to work, we will replace it with another.
Should you have second thoughts about it, you’ll always be welcome.
If the police should find out about this, they may/might suspect you of being the
murderer they are looking for.
What a pity it would be if John should leave our team!
Note:
a) Should cannot be used in conditional clauses with a counterfactual meaning.
e.g. *I’d be happier if I should have a steady job.
*If I should know the truth I would tell you.
b) This use of should is especially common when we are giving orders, advice or
suggestions (often with the head clause in the imperative form).

190. Should is only possible in the first person.

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e.g. Don’t hesitate to ask for my help if you should have any trouble doing your
homework.
If the car should run out of petrol, please fill her up and I’ll pay you back.
2) Should can be found similarly in relative clauses with a conditional connotation.
e.g. Any spelling mistake you should have made is corrected by this program.
Anyone who should wish to take a shower can do so after supper.
3) As noted before, should can substitute for would before like/hate/love/prefer when the
subject is in the first person.
e.g. If I should hate to do something, would you oblige me to?

C. SUPPRESSED CONDITIONS
A hypothetical verb form normally requires the presence of an accompanying conditional clause. For
example, a clause like I would be happy is not a complete sentence on its own. It will automatically
suggest the question ‘if what?’ on the part of the hearer.
There are, however, some special circumstances in which hypothetical main clauses can stand on their
own, and one can often explain such cases by positing a suppressed (implicit) condition.
e.g. Susan would not panic like that [if she found herself in a similar situation].
I could have answered that question [if I had wanted to / if I had been asked to].
The following are the most important types of sentence in which a conditional form is found in the head
clause without there being an accompanying if-clause:
1. Should or would is used before like/prefer/hate/love (cf. above):
e.g. Jeremy would/*will like to leave early.
Bill would like (to have) a moped.
We could say that such sentences imply something like ‘if that would be possible’. An alternative
explanation for the use of would could be that the infinitive clause in fact itself expresses a
condition: ‘If Jeremy could leave early, he would like that’, ‘If Bill was given a moped, he would
like that’. The latter explanation actually seems the only plausible one in cases like the following:
e.g. I’d hate to have to live with him.
She’d prefer not to have been born in that ghetto.
2. Would/should can also be found with some other expressions. It makes for greater tentativeness.
(Again, should requires a first person subject.)
a. with expressions of volition
e.g. Would you mind opening the door for me?
I should wish to voice a different opinion.
Would you be interested in doing my job for a couple of weeks?
Would you care for a drink?
b. before verbs like say, think, know, imagine, seem, appear, etc.: the addition of should/would
renders the statement more tentative.
e.g. He must be at least 45. -- I should imagine so.
It would seem/appear that there will be no more buses to town today.
I should think/say we can get at least 200 pounds for this.
I wouldn’t know how to cope with such problems.
It was a very embarrassing situation, it would seem.
I should have thought he could have left something for us, at least. (= a criticism)
As a first step to the new life you desperately need, I’d suggest assertion training.
If you’re not happy with the prospect of your surroundings, then I’d advise you not to go.
3. I should (seldom I would) is found in clauses where if I were you is implied.
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e.g. I shouldn’t count on his help. There is no reason why he should be interested.
I shouldn’t worry about these stains. They’ll disappear in the washing.
I shouldn’t be too confident of winning the game. They have an excellent team.
4. A condition may often be implicit in a nominal (noun, pronoun, gerund or infinitive).
e.g. In my days a lady would not have married a stable-boy. (= A lady would not have married a
lad if that lad had been a stable-boy.)
If a whisky will make you feel better, I’ll buy you one. (= If you will feel better if you have a
whisky...)
I’d be glad to thwart him. (= I’d be glad if I could thwart him.)
That would be quite interesting, yes. (= if that happened, etc.)
Doing it with one’s own hands would be more satisfactory.
That wouldn’t be a solution.
Conversely, if-clauses sometimes appear to function as nominals:
e.g. It would be nice if everybody minded their own business.
It would make her anxious if she knew about these problems.
In such sentences, the if-clause could be analysed as an extraposed subject clause.

III. SUBCLAUSES AFTER EXPRESSIONS OF WISH OR HOPE

A. EXPRESSIONS OF HOPE
1. Verbs like hope, pray, trust, etc. are normally followed by nonmodal indicative tense forms.
e.g. I hope the weather forecasters have made a mistake.
I trust we will be safe once we are out of the country.
We pray that God will be merciful to these innocent souls.
Head clauses in one of the past tenses trigger sequence of tenses:
e.g. We all hoped that the meeting would not be fruitless.
She trusted that her husband would look after the children while she was away.
Note:
a. After the verb hope we can use the present tense instead of the future tense if it is clear that the
statement is about the future. (The present tense then expresses ‘sloppy simultaneity’ -- cf.
chapter 3.)
e.g. I hope the plane isn’t / won’t be late.
I hope my headache is / will be over tomorrow morning.
b. It is unusual to use shall (instead of will in the first person) after these verbs.
2. In formal English we can substitute may for will (and might for would) after these verbs.
e.g. We hope everybody may find this proposal acceptable. (fml)
Let us pray that God may protect them.
They trust that the police may soon find out who took away the papers.
Everybody hoped that the project might be a success.

B. EXPRESSIONS OF WISH
Expressions of wish (like the verb wish or if only) cannot be followed by nonmodal forms.
1. We use may after the verb wish if the wish concerns the present or future and is one that could be
fulfilled.
e.g. We wish that you may arrive safely in Japan. (*arrive / *will arrive)
We wish that the weather may remain good for the rest of the week.
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There is sequence of tenses after a past tense form:

e.g. We wished they might be happy together.
2. Would is used as a modal auxiliary after wish and after if only to express a wish which is not very
hopeful, i.e. a wish whose future fulfilment is doubtful because it depends on the volition of
someone or something else.
e.g. We wish our neighbours would not make so much noise.
I wish you would not tell anybody about it.
If only he would stop drinking!
As noted above, wish and if only can also be followed by a modal past. The two constructions differ
in the following ways:
a. Whereas a modal past expresses a counterfactual wish, would expresses a wish whose
fulfilment is unlikely but not impossible.
e.g. cp. I wish I knew how to comfort her.
I wish he would give up that silly plan of his.
b. Since a modal past expresses simultaneity, it denotes a wish concerning the present after a
present tense form of wish and a wish concerning the past after a past tense form; would, on the
other hand, is used with wishes that concern the future or the present and the future.
e.g. I wish I were / *would be twenty years younger. (present unreality)
e.g. cp. I wish there wouldn’t be / *weren’t any fog tomorrow morning (but the weather
forecasters say there will be).
I wish it wasn’t/weren’t snowing. (now)
cp. I wish the central heating worked. (now)
I wish the central heating would work. (from now onwards)
cp. I wish you knew / *would know my brother. (present unreality)
I wish you would meet / *met my brother. (future contingency)
Note:
1) It follows that we cannot combine would with a perfect infinitive to express unfulfilled wishes
concerning the past.
e.g. I wish the old woman had told / *would have told me the truth.
2) If the clause depending on wish is bounded, it cannot be interpreted in terms of simultaneity. For
this reason it cannot be in the past tense.
e.g. cp. I wish you had a house. (unbounded) (present unreality)
I wish you would build yourself a house. (*built) (bounded) (future contingency)
I wish you were building yourself a house. (unbounded) (present unreality)
c. Unlike a modal past, would implies volition (willingness or insistence).
e.g. If only she would be sensible! (= If only she were willing to...!)
I wish he wouldn’t leave his dirty underwear in the bathroom. (insistence)
I wish you’d pay attention to what I’m saying. (willingness)
Because of this, the use of would often means that the speaker makes a request or gives an
indirect order (implying at the same time that he hardly expects to be obeyed).
e.g. I wish you’d stop blowing that trumpet.
I wish your children would stop picking flowers in my garden.
Note:
1) Willingness can be ascribed to inanimate subjects:
e.g. I wish the weather would be better this afternoon.
If only the boot of the car would hold everything!
I wish it would stop snowing.
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2) Because would indicates that the fulfilment of the wish is doubtful because it depends on
the volition of other persons or things which are not willing to co-operate, this use of
would usually has strong emotional overtones: the speaker deplores that another person
acts in a way he disapproves of; he is annoyed at the fact that people do not behave as he
would like them to do. It follows that would cannot be used as a neutral marker of mere
futurity.
e.g. cp. I may see him tonight. I hope I will.
*I may see him tonight. I wish I would.
3. After wish and if only we can use could to express counterfactual ability or possibility.
e.g. I wish I could help you.
If only this material couldn’t burn!

IV. SUBCLAUSES AFTER EXPRESSIONS OF APPREHENSION AND FEAR

Subclauses after expressions of apprehension and fear are introduced by that (which is often omitted) or
by the formal conjunction lest.

A. NONMODAL INDICATIVE TENSE FORMS

That-clauses following an expression of apprehension or fear mostly use a nonmodal indicative tense
form.
e.g. They fear that the help will come too late.
We were worried that we would run out of petrol before we reached a petrol station.
I’m afraid he hasn’t done anything about it yet.

B. MODAL AUXILIARIES
1. That-clauses following an expression of apprehension or fear can use some of the modal auxiliaries
that can be used in head clauses.
e.g. Need I ask him for permission? -- Yes, I’m afraid you must.
Since the object of apprehension is very often the possible actualisation of a situation, may and
might are frequently used in such that-clauses. (May is used after a present tense, might after a past
tense.)
e.g. We were afraid that the curfew might be lifted. (factual possibility)
I’m worried that she may not have received my letter.
Read the instructions again for fear (that) you may do something that damages the machinery.
They were concerned that he might have forgotten to warn the others.
He told them a lie for fear they might not believe him if he told the truth.
2. The formal conjunction lest is usually followed by should, sometimes by might. 191
e.g. They are always afraid lest the child should/might be kidnapped.
The Prime Minister seemed uneasy lest the journalist should ask him embarrassing questions.

V. ADVERBIAL CLAUSES OF PURPOSE

191. Lest is occasionally followed by the present subjunctive: I fear lest she suspect the truth.
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Subclauses of purpose are normally introduced by so that (sometimes shortened to so in informal

English). Other possible conjunctions are in order that (which is more formal and suggests a more
deliberate purpose) and lest (which is very formal and means ‘so that...not’, ‘for fear that’). 192
The choice of auxiliary depends on two parameters:
1. The temporal or modal meaning of the subclause: the subclause may just express posteriority or it
may imply the idea of theoretical possibility.
2. The register: formal verb forms have to be used after the formal conjunctions in order that and lest;
so is not followed by formal verb forms; so that is insensitive to register and can be followed by
either informal or formal verb forms.
This yields the following possibilities:
A. WILL / WOULD
1. Will and would are the most neutral auxiliaries in subclauses of purpose: they express little more
than posteriority. However, they are normally used only after so and so that, not after the formal
conjunctions. 193
2. Will is used after one of the present tenses, would after one of the past tenses.
e.g. I’m watering / have watered / will water the flowers so (that) they will not be dead when we
come back from Spain.
We’ve left for the office early so (that) we’ll not be late if we get stuck in a traffic jam.
He had the car overhauled so (that) it would not cause any problems during the journey.
Mary gave the boy a lift so (that) he wouldn’t have to walk all the way to the station.
B. CAN / COULD
Subclauses of purpose very often imply the idea of theoretical possibility: a particular action is performed
in order to render something possible. Can and could are the usual auxiliaries to express this possibility,
but, like will and would, they are not used after in order that or lest.
e.g. There will be emergency telephones by the new motorway so that drivers can ask for help when
their car has broken down. (= so that it will be possible for...)
I took my gun so that I could defend myself if necessary.
The instructions were written in several languages so that everybody could understand them. (= so
that it would be possible for...)
C. MAY / MIGHT
1. In (very) formal English, may can be used to express not only factual but also theoretical possibility.
In consequence, may and might can be found in subclauses of purpose, where they are more formal
alternatives to can and could. It follows that they can be used after so that and in order that, but not
after so.
e.g. They’re getting up early tomorrow so that they may see the sunrise. (fml)
2. In formal English, may and might can also be used without there being a clear implication of
theoretical possibility:
e.g. I’ll give him a ring so that he may know what has been decided.
They went to Spain in order that they might see a bullfight.
The landlord has already sent us a letter in order that we may have plenty of time to look for
another cottage.
These soldiers died so that we might/would all live in freedom.
D. SHOULD

192. In poetry and very dramatic speech or writing we can also find that : Move a little to the right, that we can pass.
193. Would is sometimes found after in order that.
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Should is a formal alternative to either will or would. 194

e.g. He didn’t switch on the light of the bedroom so that he shouldn’t wake up his wife.
He cut down the tree in order that it should/would/might not fall onto the house.
I’ll spell out the name to you slowly in order that you should not write it incorrectly.
Note:
1) The conjunction lest (which is very formal and has a negative meaning (‘so that not’, ‘for fear that’))
is usually followed by should, occasionally by might, never by another auxiliary.
e.g. We hired a guide lest we should/(might) get lost in the jumble of alleys. (= so that we should
not be lost...)
Mr Rushdie decided to go into hiding lest he should be killed by a Muslim.
2) So that and so can also introduce clauses of result. The use of verb forms and auxiliaries in result
clauses is the same as in head clauses.
e.g. We put a lot of work into refurbishing the cottage, so that a couple of months later it had
improved out of all recognition.
There was no petrol station in the village, so that I couldn’t fill up the car.
cp. We will ring up your parents, so that they don’t worry about you. (result)
We will ring up your parents so that they won’t worry about you. (purpose)

VI. ADVERBIAL CLAUSES OF CONCESSION

A. CONJUNCTIONS
1. Concessive clauses are usually introduced by though or although. But there are other possibilities:
a. Even though is a stronger variant of (al)though. (Even emphasizes the concessive meaning.)
e.g. He opened the letter, even though I had told him not to.
Even though the operation is not without any risk, I intend to have it done.
b. Even if introduces a ‘conditional-concessive’ clause.
e.g. Even if I were the King himself, I wouldn’t be able to save her.
We’ll go through with our plan, even if the board refuses to back it.
In fact, such even if-clauses are ordinary conditional clauses to which even adds a concessive
connotation. The verb forms they use are those typical of conditional clauses: 195
e.g. Even if he should win all the remaining races, he can’t be this year’s champion any more.
Even if he were here, he couldn’t help us.
I’ll get there, even if I have to walk all the way.
c. If is occasionally used concessively.
e.g. If she’s ill-mannered, at least she’s honest. (If expresses a closed condition.)
The deficit, if a little lower than two months ago, is still considerable.
d. Clauses introduced by whether...or and expressing alternative conditions often have a
concessive connotation.
e.g. Whether you do it now or you do it during the holidays, it remains a fact that you cannot
escape doing it.
You’ll have to go to the police, whether you like it or not.

194. There is a similar use of shall (after a present tense), which is now archaic: He always bolts the door so that nobody shall enter.
195. Even if is occasionally used as an alternative to even though.
e.g. I’m not afraid of her, even though/if she can be very overbearing.
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e. Clauses introduced by whoever, whatever, whichever, however (+ adjective or adverb),

whenever, wherever, or by no matter who/what/which/when/where/how also have a concessive
meaning.
e.g. Whatever / no matter what caused the delay, we will have to make up for it.
Whatever you tell her, it’s unlikely that she will believe you.
I’ll see to it that the culprits are punished, whoever they are.
Whoever was to blame, it was not the actor.
No matter where you go, you’ll be annoyed by mosquitoes.
Note:
1) However and no matter how can actually be used in two ways:
a) as restricters (before an adjective or adverb) with the meaning of ‘even if...very...’:
e.g. However poor these people are, they are always hospitable.
No matter how hard he tries, he will not be able to solve this puzzle.
However much / No matter how much support you give her, she keeps feeling
uncertain.
b) as adverbs of manner or means (= ‘in whatever way’):
e.g. However you approach her, she’s always very suspicious.
You can organize your work however you like.
2) Concessive clauses introduced by a wh-word or by no matter normally use the PPS.
e.g. No matter who asks for me, tell them I’m not at home.
Whenever you come, you’re always be more than welcome.
You’ll never lose your accent, however hard you try.
2. In formal English, concessive clauses can have fronting of an element (the SC, VP, or an adverbial).
In that case the conjunction can be though or as, occasionally even that. The construction entails a
very emphatic concessive meaning.
e.g. Satisfied as/that/though he was, he could not prevail upon himself to praise or thank them.
Tempted though they were to open the parcel, they waited patiently until everybody was
present.
Early though we left, we did not arrive in time.
Fail though he did, he was not blamed for it by anybody.
Freezing as it was, we went for a walk.
Much as I regret your decision, I will not challenge it.
Well though they played, they did not stand a chance against the first division team.
Weak as she is, she will pull through.
Note: In this position, as and that do not always have concessive meaning. They can also express
cause or circumstance.
e.g. Brad, foolhardy as/that he was, climbed onto the roof of the building.
Happy as she was, I didn’t want to break the news to her then.
B. VERB FORMS
1. The vast majority of concessive clauses refer to a fact and therefore use an indicative tense form.
e.g. Though the concert is sold out, you can still buy tickets on the black market.
He did well at the tournament, even if he lost in the second round.
In concessive clauses introduced by (al)though, the use of emphatic do enhances the concessive
meaning.
e.g. I wouldn’t say the chairman is a dictator, though he does behave rather high-handedly
sometimes.
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2. Some of the modal auxiliaries that can be used in head clauses can also be used in concessive
clauses.
e.g. We can’t ignore this anonymous letter, even though what it says may not be true. (factual
possibility)
Though I can read Italian, I prefer to read her books in translation.
3. English speakers frequently use may/might in concessive clauses to represent the situation as
putative (theoretical) rather than factual. In this way the assertion made in the concessive clause is
more tentative.
e.g. Caricatures as these drawings may be, the people they represent are easily recognizable.
Whichever solution we may adopt, the Unions will not be satisfied.
Find her and bring her back home, wherever she may be.
Don’t trust him, whatever he may say.
Note:
a. A sentence consisting of a concessive clause with may and a head clause can often be
rearranged so as to become a compound sentence. The clause with may then becomes a head
clause and the second clause is introduced by but.
e.g. cp. Though he may be clever, I doubt if he’ll be successful this time.
He may be clever, but I doubt if he’ll be successful this time.
e.g. Mr James may not be the ideal chairman, but we don’t see which of us would do a better
job than him.
You might think you can bully people because you’re rich, but don’t think you can do that
to me!
b. The system of verb forms in concessive clauses with may/might is as follows:
1) When there is reference to present or future time in the other clause:
a) Simultaneity is expressed by ‘may + present infinitive’.
e.g. My car may be very old, but it is still in good repair.
It’s not true, whatever they may say.
Might can be used as a modal form to heighten the tentative or putative connotation:
e.g. Though theoretically it might be illegal to tap a private telephone line, in fact the
police are doing it all the time.
b) Anteriority is expressed by ‘may + perfect infinitive’.
e.g. However ill he may have been last summer, he looks quite healthy now.
The use of might again renders the statement more hypothetical, doubtful.
e.g. Though he might have been a hooligan when he was young, he is a quite
respectable father of a family now.
2) When the clause accompanying the concessive clause refers to past time:
a) Simultaneity is expressed by ‘may (or tentative might) + perfect infinitive’.196
e.g. Reading that book may have been interesting, but it hasn’t helped me to get on
with my dissertation.
Whatever his intention may have been, he didn’t think of overthrowing the
government.
b) Anteriority is expressed by ‘might + perfect infinitive’.

196. Might is occasionally used with the present infinitive:

e.g. Impatient though they might be to go home, they did not say anything.
The trip might be expensive, but it was extremely interesting.
Try as he might, he couldn’t save the patient.
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e.g. The police believed her story, though she might have proved unreliable on
previous occasions.

CHAPTER 12

THE NONFINITE VERB FORMS

§ 1. THE PARTICIPLE

I. MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

A. There are two participle forms in English: the so-called present participle and the past participle.
These names are labels only: the participles are not present or past tense forms, and they do not
necessarily refer to present or past time.
1. The present participle
The present participle is derived from the verb stem by the addition of an -ing morpheme. It should
be distinguished from two other forms which are also derived with the help of an -ing morpheme:
a. Like the present participle, the gerund is formed through the addition of an inflectional -ing
morpheme to the verb stem. The present participle and the gerund are therefore homophones
and can be distinguished only on the basis of their syntactic behaviour: the participle either fills
an adjectival position (e.g. a striking resemblance) or helps to build a progressive or perfect
verb form (e.g. I’m playing; I have played); the gerund can only occupy nominal positions (e.g.
I like swimming). In other words, we can speak of a ‘verbal’ or an ‘adjectival’ participle, but a
gerund is always a nominal.
b. Next to the inflectional -ing morpheme, English has a derivational -ing morpheme, which is
used for deriving nouns from verbs: wedding, meeting, painting, clipping, building...
2. The past participle
a. The past participle of strong verbs is formed by means of several devices:
- a nasal morpheme (e.g. beaten)
- an alveolar morpheme (e.g. kept)
- a zero morpheme (e.g. hit)
- mutation (change of the root vowel) (e.g. spun)
- a change in the consonantism (e.g. built)
b. Weak verbs form their past participle with the help of an alveolar morpheme (with several
allomorphs): kissed, remained, wounded.
Note: Apart from this inflectional morpheme, English has a homophonous derivational morpheme,
which is added to nouns to form adjectives. Its meaning is something like ‘provided with’: a
talented artist, a blue-eyed girl, a four-engined aircraft, a long-legged animal, moneyed people, a
four-footed animal, the diseased / cultured / left-handed...
Note: Some adjectives ending in -ed (not all of them derived from nouns) have a special
pronunciation: -ed is pronounced /Id/ instead of /d/ or /t/. Examples of such adjectives are:
beloved, blessed, crooked, dogged, learned, ragged, wicked, wretched, naked, aged.
3. Next to these basic (simple) forms, English has a number of phrasal participles: being painted,
having been painted, having painted, having been painting.
Note: Unlike some other languages, English has no future participles.
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B. Although it is a verb form, the participle does not have all the morphological characteristics that are
typical of lexical verbs (and which are summarized under the label of ‘conjugation’):
1. Because they are nonfinite verb forms, the participles cannot express person or number.
2. The participles cannot express mood: they do not belong to the indicative, imperative or subjunctive
mood, and they cannot express modality. 197
3. The participle does express voice: there are active and passive participle forms:
- active: striking, having struck, having been striking
- passive: struck, being struck, having been struck
4. The participle lacks tense: no participle form can be said to belong to the present tense or preterite.
On the other hand, adjectival participles do express temporal relations:
a. As a rule, the present participle expresses simultaneity.
e.g. The guards stood on the landing, watching the people below.
The young man, being mistaken for a sniper, was shot by the soldiers.
b. Participles involving the perfect tense auxiliary have express anteriority:
e.g. This material is extremely light, having been invented to be used in spacecraft.
Having stolen the jewels, the thief had to think of a means of smuggling them out of the
building.
Note:
1) When a simple past participle (e.g. struck) is used as an adjectival, it is a reduction of either a
passive perfect participle (having been struck) or of a passive present participle (being struck).
In the former case it expresses anteriority, in the latter simultaneity.
e.g. Astonished by this announcement, the audience were silent for a couple of seconds. Then
everybody started speaking at once. (simultaneity: astonished = being astonished)
Hit by a fierce blow in the stomach, the boxer went down. (anteriority: hit = having been
hit)
2) As noted in chapter 3, present participles often express ‘sloppy simultaneity’:
e.g. Opening the door, she saw a stone stairs leading into the cellar.
Suddenly the car left the race-track, narrowly missing a couple of officials standing near it.
5. The participle can express a couple of aspects:
a. progressive aspect: present participle forms of dynamic verbs express progressive aspect (and
can therefore be seen as reductions of a phrasal participle involving being):
e.g. I noticed him leaving the room. (= *I noticed him being leaving the room.) (Compare with
the nonprogressive aspect of leave in I noticed him leave the room.)
With her husband waiting for her, she had to hurry up. (= *With her husband being
waiting...)
b. perfect aspect: participles involving the perfect auxiliary have express perfect aspect.198
e.g. The gates having been locked by the janitor, no one could leave.
C. Although the participle cannot be inflected for comparison, it may allow adverbial comparison:
e.g. I would like to find a more striking example.
It’s the most striking example I have ever seen.
In this respect the participle shows an adjectival behaviour.
D. There are a few past participle forms that are relics from an older stage of the language and which can
now only be used as adjectives. (This means that we have to use a different form when we need a verbal
past participle, i.e. when the participle is part of a perfect or passive verb form.)

197. With the exception of have to, modal auxiliaries have no participle forms.
198. However, as noted in chapter 1, it is doubtful whether we can really speak of ‘perfect aspect’ in such cases.
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regular past old participle old participle

participle used as used as
(verbal or ad- attributive predicative
jectival) adjective adjective

blessed /blest/ blessed /blesId/ blest

bound bounden
clothed /kl3UDd/ clad clad
drunk drunken
melted molten
proved proven proven
rotted rotten rotten
shaved shaven
shrunk shrunken
struck stricken stricken
sunk sunken

e.g. A clean-shaven man is one who has (been) shaved.

Wood that has rotted is rotten (wood).
cp. the Blessed Virgin, Our Blessed Lord, a moment of blessed calm (attributive adjective)
I can’t see a blessed thing without my spectacles. (id.)
I’m blest if I know that woman. (= I really don’t know her.) (predicative adjective)
a man of proven ability
The girl was clad in a black mackintosh. (literary)
a poorly clad old man (id.)
Note:
1. The adjectives shrunken, stricken and sunken are only used metaphorically.
e.g. sunken cheeks/eyes, a sunken garden; sunk ships
thunder-struck; her stricken face, stricken by debts, stricken with arthritis, grief-stricken, terror-
stricken, fall down like a stricken bird
shrunken limbs; woollens shrunk in the wash, shrunk clothes
2. In older English, drunken was used in attributive position.
e.g. What shall we do with the drunken sailor?
The sailor seems to be drunk again.
However, drunken is now rather unusual (except in stereotyped phrases like drunken driving), and
drunk is normally used in both attributive and predicative position.
e.g. Her child was run over by a drunk driver.
3. Bounden is used only in the expression bounden duty (cp. in duty bound).
4. Molten is only used of materials that are very hard and melt only at a very high temperature.
e.g. molten lava/rock/steel/metal/lead; melted ice/chocolate/snow/butter
E. There are instances of adjectival participles with the prefix un- where the corresponding verb cannot
begin with un-:
e.g. It is very unfeeling of her to dispute her father’s will. (*to unfeel)
That sneering remark was uncalled for. (*to uncall for something)
His behaviour was unheard of.
an unfinished novella, unbelieving listeners, an unbroken record, untiring efforts
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Such participle forms show a curious mixture of adjectival and verbal characteristics: on the one hand,
the prefix un- is a derivational affix that is typically used to derive a new adjective from an existing one
(as in undeep, unkind, unwise, unclear, etc.); on the other hand, past participles of this kind behave
syntactically as verb forms in that they can be followed by a by-adjunct expressing the agent:
e.g. This is one of the few islands that are still untrodden by tourists.
The financial crash of October 1989 was unexpected by most investors.
Apparently unsurprised by our visit, the vicar ushered us into his study.
He used to travel unaccompanied by his wife.
The poor girl lived on, unloved by her unfaithful husband.
Did she really go to Ibiza? Her legs are untanned by the sun.
In the calm peace of a summer morning the little room seemed untouched by the tragedy that had
taken place in it.
Note: This combination of un- and by is only exceptionally possible.
F. CONCLUSION: The participle shares some morphological characteristics with the verb and some
with the adjective.

II. SYNTACTIC CHARACTERISTICS

A. The participle can fill all the typical adjectival positions:
- prenominal modifier: wounded soldiers
- postnominal modifier: a girl wearing velvet trousers
- postmodifying a pronoun: something unexpected
- subject complement: The resemblance is striking.
- object complement: I found her sleeping on the couch.
B. Like a finite verb form, the participle can be found with a subject, one or more verb complements and
one or more adverbial adjuncts. It therefore seems warranted to speak of participle clauses (or
participial clauses).199
e.g. The chairman said that, the issue having been raised, the board had to take a stand on it.
I saw her giving something to the boy.
C. Like finite clauses, participial clauses can be introduced by conjunctions.
e.g. Any man would have done the same thing if treated as she treated me.
Though upset by the accident, he wouldn’t hear of breaking off the journey.
However, unlike finite clauses and like prepositional phrases, sequences involving a participle can also be
introduced by a preposition.
e.g. On arriving home from Canada I discovered someone had broken into the house.
With the rest of the party waiting for me, I had no time to say goodbye to Alice.
D. When a past participle is followed by by, it is clearly part of a passive clause (i.e. the participle is a
verbal form and refers to a dynamic situation: by introduces the agent NP); when the participle is
followed by another preposition, it is used as an adjective (describing a state).
e.g. cp. The children were so excited by the prospect of going to the zoo that we could not keep them
quiet.
She’s excited about the possibility of visiting some old friends of hers in Japan.
cp. He was frightened by the arrival of the soldiers.
He’s always been terribly frightened of being buried alive.
cp. I was annoyed by the things she said to me.

199. In spite of this, some older grammars object to the term ‘participle clause’ because the participle is not a finite verb form. They use the
term ‘participle phrase’ instead.
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I’m annoyed with her behaviour.

E. It follows that participles can be modified by verbal intensifiers like much or very much, as well as by
adjectival intensifiers like very.
e.g. cp. I was very much surprised by that news. (cp. That news surprised me very much / *surprised
me very.)
I was very surprised at her sudden departure.
e.g. Their trade position was (very) much strengthened by the unification of Germany.
Note: As a rule, much should be used before verbal participles. However, in informal English, very is
preferred with verbs that express a personal reaction.
e.g. The teacher was very shocked by your behaviour.
Tim seemed to be very amused by the child’s babbling.
F. In some cases the complement of the adjectival participle is constructed with a preposition, whereas
the complement of the corresponding finite verb is a normal direct object.
e.g. cp. It would disturb our schedule if we accepted your proposal.
It would be disturbing to our schedule if we accepted your proposal.
cp. That hat doesn’t become you.
That hat isn’t becoming to you.
cp. These workers deserve praise.
These workers are deserving of praise.
Of course, complementation in the form of a PP is typical of adjectives.
G. In sum: syntactically speaking too, the participle has both verbal and adjectival characteristics.

III. THE FUNCTION OF THE PARTICIPLE (CLAUSE) IN THE SENTENCE

A verbal participle is used for building a progressive or perfect verb form. An adjectival participle
(clause) can be used in one of the following ways:
A. PRENOMINAL MODIFIER
1. A participle that is used as a prenominal modifier usually has no complement or adjunct:
e.g. a flowering tree, a typewritten letter; *the reading-a-book students
However, prenominal participles can sometimes be preceded by their direct O or by an adjunct,
provided that O or adjunct is a single word.
e.g. a time-saving device, a breath-taking adventure, the above-mentioned point, a well-
finished/badly-finished/half-finished job, a well-built/badly-built cottage, well-behaved boys
In many cases it is the presence of the object or adjunct that renders such a construction possible. If
it were not for it, the participle could not be used as a premodifier.
e.g. a newly-arrived visitor --- *an arrived visitor
2. In some (more or less stereotyped) cases, a prenominal participle can be preceded by an NP with
adverbial meaning.
e.g. a time-honoured custom, government-controlled companies, leather-bound books, a night-
blooming plant, an ocean-going steamer, home-made marmalade, handmade carpets
3. Past participles that are used attributively normally have a passive meaning.
e.g. a broken arrow, an injured player, a closed museum, an organized attempt
However, occasional examples can be found of attributive past participles that have active meaning
because they are reductions of active perfect participles. (In that case the verb is always used
intransitively.)
e.g. an escaped prisoner (= *a having escaped prisoner), vanished civilizations, a retired minister, a
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well-read student, a much-travelled woman, a faded flower, fallen leaves, a grown man, a
burnt-out cigar
Note: Even when the past participle has passive meaning, it can often not precede the noun head: *a
heard remark, *the asked sum, *a ridden horse. When a past participle is used as premodifier it
usually expresses the state that the referent of the noun head is in as a result of undergoing the
action. This means that a premodifying past participle usually has an adjectival function.
Participles whose function is felt to be verbal rather than adjectival are placed after the noun
head.
B. POSTNOMINAL MODIFIER
A modifying participle (clause) is placed after the head of the NP
1. if the head is a pronoun
e.g. She never speaks of her ex-husband or anybody related to him.
Something unexpected forced us to change our plans.
2. if the participle has a verbal rather than an adjectival function. This is automatically the case
when the participle is followed by a verb complement and/or adverbial adjunct.
e.g. He was the last member of the family really deserving the epithet of ‘writer’.
A shot heard at a distance can be mistaken for the noise of an exhaust.
Such postmodifying participle clauses can be analysed as reduced relative clauses if they have
progressive or passive meaning: they are derived through the deletion of the relative pronoun and the
auxiliary be.
e.g. None of the people [who were] living in the area heard her cry.
The people [who were] questioned did not know anything.
It follows that present participles of dynamic verbs normally have progressive meaning.
e.g. cp. Who is that postman (who is) bringing our mail today?
The postman who normally brings / *is bringing our mail is on holiday now.
*The postman normally bringing our mail is on holiday now.
cp. The sniper who shot / *was shooting three soldiers managed to escape.
*The sniper shooting three soldiers managed to escape.
Note:
1. When the noun head has a more general (less definite) meaning, the dynamic present participle need
not have progressive meaning.
e.g. Nurses looking after elderly patients need a lot of patience. (= Nurses who look...)
2. Present participles of stative verbs can also be used as postmodifiers. Since their meaning is neither
passive nor progressive, such participle clauses resist being analysed as reduced relative clauses.
e.g. The students wishing to take the examination next week must write their names on this sheet of
paper.
Tourists intending to stay in the country for less than a month do not need to fill in this form.
Anyone knowing this should have gone to the police.
Our mantelpiece is a famous work of art. We often get visitors wanting to see it.
Note: The participle being is not normally used as postnominal modifier.
e.g. cp. Everyone (*being) in this room will confirm my story. (postmodifier)
Did you see that boy being beaten up by the police? (participle clause functioning as OC)
3. Perfect participles are not normally used as postmodifiers.
e.g. Do you know anyone who has lived / *anyone having lived in Bangkok?
C. SUBJECT COMPLEMENT
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1. The simple participles can occur as SC after the regular copulas (be, become, get, appear, look,
seem, prove, remain...):
e.g. All these instructions are confusing rather than helpful.
We got talking and forgot about the time.
Was the letter you received typewritten or printed?
The old man seemed very embarrassed.
Isn’t it time you got going?
2. The participle can also be used as SC after a number of other verbs, which then function as if they
were linking verbs:
e.g. They stood/lay/sat talking about what should be done.
Some Turkish migrants came living in our street.
The boy stood fascinated by the spectacle.
The old women kept (on) talking to each other without looking at us once.
Suddenly a couple of sparrows came hopping towards us.
Will you come swimming with us this afternoon?
Note:
a. The construction ‘go + present participle’ is only possible with some verbs (which usually have
to do with sport and physical action).
e.g. to go boating/climbing/dancing/skiing/fishing/hunting/riding...
to go sailing/shopping/skating/swimming/shooting/walking...
With other action verbs we use the construction go for a...:
e.g. We went for a drive in Betty’s sports car.
They went for a stroll/ride/walk.200
b. After the position verbs sit, stand and lie, the present participle construction alternates with a
construction with and:
e.g. The old men sat/stood/lay and talked about the war.
Don’t just stand there and cry. Do something! (or: Don’t just stand there crying.)
3. In some cases the participle clause is SC, not after a linking verb, but after a whole VP (including a
verb complement and/or adjunct) which functions as a kind of copula:
e.g. He spends every evening working on his dissertation.
Can you earn a living writing poetry?
The guests were still busy unpacking.
They amused themselves reading comics.
Note:
a. Intonationally, such participial constructions form a unity with the rest of the sentence.
b. They invariably have end position.
c. After some verbs, the SC will be introduced by as:
e.g. Your suggestion strikes me as being inspired by a lack of confidence in the police.
d. Some grammars use the term predicative adjunct to denote such SCs. (But in other grammars
the same term is used to denote an adverbial adjunct following a copula, as in The staff meeting
will be upstairs.)
D. SUPPLEMENTIVE CLAUSE
The participle clause is a supplementive clause (some grammars speak of a free adjunct) in examples
such as the following:

200. You go for a drive in a car and for a ride on a bike.

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e.g. Upset by the news of the revolution, they decided to fly home as soon as possible.
The constable, not knowing who had started the fight, ordered everybody to accompany him to the
police station.
Trembling with fear, she recoiled into the bedroom.
Used economically, one tube of toothpaste should be sufficient for at least three weeks.
Not wishing to get involved with the police, I left the pub immediately after the fight started.
The paint dripped onto the floor, completely ruining the fitted carpet.
Putting down my scissors, I stood up from my chair and answered the telephone.
Misled by the clothes he was wearing, the patrol believed he was a policeman.
Opening the closet, he took out a bottle of whisky.
Having known him so well, I was very distressed to hear he had had an accident.
In the courtyard a couple of pigeons stalked about, ruffling their feathers as if they felt cold.
Such supplementive clauses have the following characteristics:
1. They have no subject of their own: the notional subject of the supplementive clause is the same
as the S of the finite clause to which it is added. (In technical terms: the non-lexical subject
position is controlled by the subject of the higher clause.)
2. There is often a break in intonation (marked by a comma) between the supplementive clause
and the rest of the sentence.
3. Supplementive clauses occur in the following typical positions : (a) initial, (b) final, (c)
immediately after the subject NP of the main clause.
4. The meaning of the clauses is adverbial (reason, time, condition, manner...). This adverbial
meaning is often underscored by the addition of a conjunction or preposition.
e.g. He closed the lid quickly, as if wanting to hide from us what was inside the box. (manner)
She was very relieved on being told that she was no longer needed. (= When she was told...)
Though suspected of being the murderer, he stubbornly refused to say where he had been when
the gardener was killed.
Once accepted, the manuscript will be made ready for publication by a desktop editor.
Where known, this kind of animal has invariably been hunted for its fur.
While visiting Rome I met a friend of yours.
When interviewing the applicants, the manager suddenly felt faint.
If examined carefully, the whole business will no doubt turn out to be a hoax.
Note:
a. When has to be added if the reference is to a habit.
e.g. When using this glue be careful not to touch it with your hands.
When filling the oil stove make sure that it is not burning.
b. On is used to express an action performed immediately before or at the same moment as the
situation expressed in the head clause.
e.g. On seeing the body she started screaming.
On opening the coffin the police found nothing but stones inside.
c. After is usually followed by a present (rather than perfect) participle.
e.g. After visiting Venice and Rome we travelled on to Naples.
Father is always in good spirits after receiving his wages.
d. By indicates the method that is used to do something or the way in which it happens; through
expresses how, indirectly or unintentionally, a result comes about.
e.g. You can stop the conveyor belt by pressing this button.
He always begins his sermon by clearing his throat.
He finished his talk on generic sentences by summing up the many issues that still defy explanation.
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This kind of incentive can do harm indirectly, by putting up one worker against another.
Through sharing their lives he has come to understand their feelings and attitudes.
He ruined the party through starting a dispute over the legalization of abortion.
e. In can have the meaning of ‘in the process of’, ‘while’.
e.g. In trying to convince her, you’ve given away information that was supposed to be
confidential.
In can also express that a particular situation is tantamount to another.
e.g. In reacting like this he has made clear that he is a bad loser.
Are you sure you’re not making a big mistake in selling these shares?
In helping the rebels, the U.S. has shown once again that it does not care for true democracy in
South America.
f. The participle being is sometimes dropped from supplementive clauses.
e.g. When [being] at University, he had come into contact with heroin dealers.
A brilliant player, he was included into the A-team at the age of sixteen.
Such skirmishes, though not infrequent, do not really mean a serious threat to peace.
If in doubt, consult your dictionary.
g. Some supplementive clauses do not have an adverbial meaning.
e.g. He went to university at the age of 17, graduating six years later as a civil engineer. (= and
graduated...)
The suspect has now given his version of the facts, admitting only that he was near the place of the
crime when it was committed.
The boy came into the room, looking anxiously at the adults that had turned their attention to him.
Below the tree, almost hidden by the long grass, was a wooden bench.
h. There are occasional examples of supplementive clauses whose subject is controlled by the
direct object of the head clause:
e.g. Leave the meat on the fire until thoroughly cooked.
E. OBJECT COMPLEMENT
A participle clause functions as OC if it has the following characteristics:
(a) It follows a direct object or prepositional object.
(b) That direct O or PO is also the notional subject of the participle.
(c) The present participle has active meaning; the past participle has passive meaning.
(d) The present participle has progressive meaning and must therefore refer to a dynamic situation.
The following examples illustrate these points:
e.g. I caught him stealing fruit.
They watched the dancer slowly taking her clothes off.
I heard it said only this morning.
No dog should be kept chained up all day.
She had heard it rumoured that there were clinics where you could get your baby aborted.
Only a limited number of verbs can be followed by a participle construction as OC:
1. A present participle is possible with a number of verbs that have causative meaning : get, keep,
leave, send, set, start, take, have. (It should be noted, however, that some of these verbs are only
found in some more or less stereotyped combinations.)
e.g. The police were doing their best to get the spectators moving from the scene of the accident.
His jokes and puns set us all laughing.
Only after the banquet will they start the music playing.
Reasonable interest rates and low inflation will keep our economy going.
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The girl asked me to take her hunting.

The driver was desperately trying to get/start/set his car/engine going.
The Golf conflict sent oil prices soaring.
We left the others standing in front of the church.
Note:
a. Have someone doing something means ‘succeed in making someone do something by acting in
a particular way’. The construction have someone do something (which will be discussed in §2)
expresses a somewhat different causative meaning, viz. ‘to order or arrange that somebody does
something’.
e.g. In less than no time he had the whole audience singing.
I had only some of them laughing at my jokes.
Don’t worry. Dr Ackroyd will have you walking again in a couple of days.
The customs officer had us empty our suitcases.
Have the servants bring in the drinks at nine.
b. Some of these causative verbs (viz. get, have, keep, leave) can also be followed by a past
participle as OC.
e.g. It’s high time we got those rumours stopped.
We got the door safely locked and bolted.
The police had a photograph of the bank robber published in the national papers.
For a long time she managed to keep the Jewish family hidden from the Gestapo.
No stone will be left unturned to find the culprit.
Get your hair cut!
Why not get our picture taken in that garden over there?
She always keeps the front door locked.
John had some yew-trees planted in his garden.
I’d like you to have the work finished by five o’clock.
c. After make only a past participle can function as OC.
e.g. King John made his name feared by everybody in England.
After a couple of days hunger began to make itself felt.
The death of the princess has not been made known yet.
2. Present and past participles can function as OC after a couple of verbs denoting experience or
involvement (i.e. expressing that the subject is in some way affected by something). The verbs in
question are catch, find, get and have.
e.g. She had the lights of the car shining in her eyes.
We found the village deserted.
My mother had/got the same thing happening to her.
How did he die? -- He had/got his head bashed in.
We had/got our chimney blown off in yesterday’s storm.
The club will have its books checked by a special committee.
We found him lying on his back in the dormitory.
The police have caught a boy throwing stones at the mayor’s house.
One of the workers got a finger crushed in that machine.
Do you realize we have the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads?
Note:
a. Sentences with get and have may often be ambiguous between a causative reading and an
‘involvement’ interpretation:
e.g. John had his lawn dug up. (means either ‘he arranged for his lawn to be dug up’ or ‘it happened to
 369

him that someone dug up his lawn (without his permission)’)

e.g. cp. He had his hair cut. (ambiguous)
The former president had his throat cut. (presumably ‘involvement’)
b. Yet another interpretation is given to sentences like the following (also involving have and an
OC):
e.g. He has his bag already packed in case he has to leave suddenly.
I have some fine old whisky locked away in that cupboard.
c. When the verb is have, the sentence sometimes has the same presentative function as an
existential construction.
e.g. You have a button missing on your raincoat. (= There is a button missing...)
She has at least five maidservants working for her.
3. A present or past participle is possible as OC after some verbs of order or wish: desire, have (in the
progressive or preceded by will not or cannot), see (= ‘see to it that’), want, wish...
e.g. The Unions do not wish that question discussed yet.
We won’t/can’t have you leaving your things about everywhere. (= We can’t allow that.)
I want you standing up until I have finished speaking.
Our solicitor will see her last wish carried out.
I won’t have such a lie told of my wife!
I prefer/want the window shut, if you don’t mind.
We’d like to see the baby looked after by someone who is really reliable.
I won’t have them attacking me slanderously!
Just a minute! I’m not having you playing football in the drawing-room.
4. Both present and past participles can function as OC after the perception verbs feel, glimpse, hark at,
hear, listen to, look at, notice, observe, perceive, see, smell, spot, watch, discover.
e.g. She could feel her heart beating in her throat.
The rebels feel themselves betrayed by the rest of the world.
I noticed you admiring our paintings.
My char heard it said just now. (not: *heard it say)
We haven’t seen Edberg beaten yet this year.
We could hear the hymn being sung in the chapel.
Passivization of the head clause is possible (in which case the OC becomes SC).
e.g. The police say that the boy was last seen crossing the road to Newhaven.
The hot-air balloon was seen rising over the mountain last night.
A similar present participle construction is also possible after the perception nouns
sight/sound/feel/smell/taste + of:
e.g. I like listening to the sound of the waves splashing onto the quayside.
The smell of onions being cut up pervaded the small kitchen.
She gets irritated by the feel of sweat running down her back.
He is fascinated by the sight of dogs mating.
Note:
a. Sentences with a present participle following the direct O may be ambiguous because the
participle can in principle be either an OC or a postmodifier to the O.
e.g. I caught the girl smoking a pipe. (means either ‘I caught the girl in the act of smoking a pipe’
(participle as OC) or ‘I caught the girl who was smoking a pipe’ (participle as postmodifier))
b. Sentences like I saw Ted doing it are superficially similar to sentences like I remember Ted
doing it. However, in the former sentence, Ted is direct O and doing is a participle functioning
as OC; in the latter sentence, Ted doing it is a gerund clause with Ted as subject. In order to
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keep the two structures apart one can try putting the NP preceding the -ing form in the genitive
(possessive) form: with gerunds this is usually possible; with participles this is always
impossible (since the NP in question is direct O).
e.g. cp. I remember him/his telling that story. (gerund)
I heard him/*his telling that story. (participle)
cp. I won’t risk you/your running away. (gerund)
I won’t have you/*your running away. (participle)
c. Present and past participles can also be used as OC after some verbs expressing an opinion
(judgement, etc.), but in that case they must usually be preceded by as.
e.g. cp. They regarded the investigation as closed.
They looked upon the investigation as closed
They considered the investigation (as) closed.
Note:
1) In such participle clauses, the verb can be stative.
e.g. The newspaper represented the President as being an utter fool.
2) The participle being is often omitted:
e.g. Those politicians didn’t yet think of Europe as (being) a single federal nation.
The ancients conceived (of) the world as (being) flat.

F. ABSOLUTE PARTICIPIAL CLAUSE

Absolute clauses differ from supplementive clauses only in that they have a S of their own:
e.g. No further points being raised, the chairman declared the meeting closed.
A little boy went past us, his scarf dragging behind him on the pavement.
Everything considered, it seemed best to give up the whole project.
A wounded soldier was brought in, blood streaming down his face.
Minerals are the country’s chief source of income, copper and cobalt ore being worth 2.5 billion
dollars a year.
The general gone, the soldiers relaxed.
His prayers finished, he got into his bed and switched off the light.
The plumber repaired the sink and the bath. That done, he turned his attention to the drainpipe.
Note:
1. This construction generally requires that the subject of the participle should have some
connection with the subject, object or action of the main clause.
2. The meaning of absolute participial clauses is generally that of reason or circumstance.
3. With can mostly be added to the participle clause, and is sometimes even required.
e.g. It was an extraordinary sight, with all the men of the village wearing huge masks and dancing.
They came out of the court-room one after another with not a single word spoken.
A truck roared past with black smoke pouring from the exhaust.
Professor de Saussure died with none of his lectures published.
With no complaint having been lodged, no enquiry could be opened.
With everybody watching her every move, she became extremely nervous.
Note:
a. This use of with-clauses is comparable to the use of with-PPs expressing cause or reason.
e.g. With all these strangers in the town, I feel unsafe in my own house.
With these new players in our team, we simply cannot lose the game.
With a knife in his right hand and a stick in his left, the boy looked really scary.
b. When more than one cause is mentioned, what with can be used:
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e.g. What with the snow and my bronchitis, I haven’t been out for weeks.
It was impossible to have any intimate conversation with her, what with the char hoovering away,
and the children round her feet all the time.
4. If the S of the participle is a pronoun, it is normally in the subject form:
e.g. He waiting for her in the hall below, she had to find another way of leaving the hotel.
She being the next of kin, she inherited everything.
However, sentences like these are formal. A construction with with is usually preferred.
5. An existential construction is required if the participle is a form of lexical be and the S is an
indefinite NP:
e.g. There being no doctor in the village, we drove the wounded man to the nearest hospital. (*No
doctor being...)
6. In absolute clauses, being is often dropped or replaced by as:
e.g. The winter over, the beaver wakes up from his winter sleep.
With inflation higher than ever, public purchasing power is constantly declining.
You cannot get lost with Hoggett as your guide.
G. UNRELATED PARTICIPLE
A participle clause is unrelated (unattached, dangling) if two conditions are satisfied:
(1) The participle clause is separated from the rest of the sentence by a break in intonation (marked
by a comma).
(2) Its subject is not identified: unlike supplementive clauses, unrelated clauses are not interpreted
as having the same S as the main clause, and, unlike absolute clauses, they do not have a subject
of their own.
As a matter of fact, clauses without an identifiable subject are usually ungrammatical. Sentences like the
following are grammatical only if the participle is interpreted as having the same S as the head clause,
which is nonsensical:201
e.g. !Jogging through the park, a brilliant idea suddenly came to me.
!Since seeing her off at the station, life has been dreary and unbearable.
!(On) opening the wardrobe, a corpse fell into my hands.

Sentences like these (which involve an unrelated participle) are normally considered as incorrect and
should be avoided. On the other hand, there are many examples of unrelated participles that have become
fully acceptable idioms:
e.g. Judging from President Hussein’s latest statement, the threat of war in Kuwait is not likely to
decrease soon.
Barring fog, the plane will land at 7.23 p.m.
Granted/granting that you are cleverer than myself, you’re not infallible, are you?
Talking of teachers, Mr Smith is going to retire at the end of this year.
Strictly speaking, this claim is not quite correct.
This factory employs 745 workers, not counting the cleaning service and the maintenance crew.
Taking everything into account/consideration, we didn’t do too badly.
Leaving aside the details, it comes down to this.
Generally/broadly speaking, this is correct.
All things considered, it wasn’t a bad holiday.
(Re)turning to the subject of the environment, how does the Council intend to tackle the problem of
water pollution?

201. An exclamation mark before an example means that the sentence is grammatically correct but semantically anomalous.
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Diachronically speaking, there are quite a few unrelated participles that have developed into prepositions
(e.g. during, according to, regarding, including, notwithstanding...) or into conjunctions (e.g. seeing
(that), provided (that), providing (that), assuming (that), supposing (that)...).
e.g. According to the president, the escalation will soon stop.
He will forgive you provided you promise never to do it again.
All his cattle were slaughtered, seeing (that) this was the only way of stopping the disease from
spreading.
Supposing you are offered the job, will you accept it?

§ 2. THE INFINITIVE

I. MORPHOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTIC CHARACTERISTICS

A. MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
The infinitive has morphological characteristics of only one part of speech, viz. the verb. However, it
does not have all the morphological characteristics that finite verb forms can have:
1. Being a nonfinite form, the infinitive cannot express person or number.
2. The infinitive does not have different moods.
3. The infinitive cannot express tense in the absolute sense of the term. However, it does have
different forms to express temporal relations:
a. Simultaneity is expressed by present infinitive forms.
e.g. He seems to live abroad / to be working / to be troubled by something.
He appeared to be in good spirits / to be brooding over something / to be haunted by nightmares.
b. Anteriority is expressed by perfect infinitive forms.
e.g. He seems to have left / to have been working all day / to have been killed with a dagger.
He appeared to have resigned the day before / to have been working too hard / to have been shot
through the heart.
c. English has no regular future infinitive forms to express posteriority, although constructions
with be going to or be about to can occasionally be found.
e.g. It seems/seemed to be going to rain.
The visitor seemed to be about to leave.
In most contexts where an infinitive is used to refer to a posterior situation it is a present
infinitive that is used. (In such cases we can speak of ‘sloppy simultaneity’ -- cf. chapter 3.)
e.g. I hope/expect/intend to see him soon.
4. The infinitive can express voice: it has active and passive forms.
e.g. cp. She wants to leave now.
She wants to be left alone now.
In some cases the active infinitive is used with passive meaning:
e.g. Who is to blame for the delay?
Truth is far to seek in his version of the facts.
5. The infinitive can express (non)progressive aspect:
e.g. cp. He appears to have been playing cards at the time of the murder. (progressive)
He appears to have written a novel. (nonprogressive)

B. SYNTACTIC CHARACTERISTICS
1. Like the gerund, the infinitive can be used as a nominal. As such it can fulfil various syntactic
functions:
a. S: e.g. It is unwise to do that. (extraposed subject clause)
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b. SC: e.g. The problem is to find a way of preventing hooliganism.

c. direct O: e.g. I want to have a car of my own.
Unlike the gerund, the infinitive will not fulfil the functions of
a. indirect O: e.g. We didn’t give doing that a second thought. (*to do)
b. OC: e.g. I call that beating about the bush. (*to beat)
c. OP: e.g. I object to being held responsible. (*to be held)
2. The infinitive can be the verbal nucleus of a nonfinite clause which can have all the usual
constituents of a clause (viz. a subject, verb complements, adverbial adjuncts):
e.g. It is not easy for them to find a job after they have left prison.
Note that the S of the infinitive (if it is expressed) normally has the form of a PP with for.202
e.g. For her to behave like that is rather surprising.
It is fashionable nowadays for women to wear tight skirts.
The plan was for Mrs Beatty to leave the bomb under her seat when she got out in Paris.
We’re hoping for the problem to be solved quickly.
We will try to arrange for the contract to be ready this afternoon.
I’m longing for the children to go back to school.
There is enough water for everybody to have a shower.
For all these people to be evacuated before midnight is simply inconceivable.
It never suits you for us to pay you a visit!
However, with very few exceptions (e.g. after hope and arrange), for is obligatorily omitted when
the infinitive clause is direct O.
e.g. cp. He wants/expects us to go and see him next Tuesday. (Compare with the pseudo-cleft construction:
What he wants/expects is for us to...)
We arranged/hoped for the meeting to be held on the following Wednesday.
3. An infinitive clause can exceptionally be used as an exclamatory sentence:
e.g. Me marry that slut? You must be joking!
In such sentences, the subject pronoun is in the object form.
4. In English, the infinitive is often preceded by to. This to may be a kind of conjunction introducing a
nonfinite adverbial clause, as in
e.g. He went to Cambridge University to study English literature. (purpose: to = so as to, in order
to)
The ice-box is not big enough (for us) to put all the food in. (result)
However, in most cases to is no more than an ‘infinitive marker’, i.e. a lexically empty function
word signalling that an infinitive is about to follow:
e.g. I want to go home now.
The group ‘to + infinitive’ is a very close one:
a. It cannot be split up by the negative particle not:
e.g. The wisest policy would be not to do anything at all. (*to not do)
b. It is not often split up by an adverb. In fact, many people still consider it bad style to ‘split the
infinitive’ by putting an adverb between to and the infinitive. These people will reject sentences
like (a) in favour of (b):
(a) He was too short-sighted to clearly see the figure.
She began to slowly take her clothes off. (esp. infml)
(b) He was too short-sighted to see the figure clearly.

202. However, we will see below that we use of , not for, when the infinitive depends on certain adjectives (as in It was wise of you to warn the
police).
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She began slowly to take her clothes off.

In some cases, however, it is difficult to avoid using the split infinitive without building an
ambiguous or clumsy sentence. There is no satisfactory alternative to the split infinitive in
examples like the following:
e.g. We will do everything we can to really give them a drubbing. 203
I am trying to consciously stop feeling guilty about her death.
Our aim, as Christians, should not be to really understand God’s ways. We should simply accept
them and put our faith in Him.

II. THE SYNTACTIC FUNCTION OF THE INFINITIVE CLAUSE IN THE SENTENCE

A. THE INFINITIVE WITH TO (OR ‘MARKED INFINITIVE’)

1. Subject
a. As we will see, not only infinitive clauses but also gerund clauses can be found in subject
position. In many cases the two are simply interchangeable.
e.g. To be / Being poor need not mean that one is unhappy.
Protecting / To protect people is the chief task of the police.
In some cases, however, there may be a slight difference of meaning, due to the fact that infinitive
clauses often have a putative (theoretical) meaning, whereas gerund clauses mostly refer to a
general factual situation.
e.g. To steal from the poor is disgraceful. (= It is disgraceful that one should steal from the poor.)
Stealing from the poor is disgraceful. (= It is disgraceful when people steal from the poor.)
It follows that a gerund clause may be preferred when the speaker talks about a factual situation in
general, whereas an infinitive clause will be the more usual construction when we are talking
about a particular situation, especially if the latter has not yet actualised at the time of the head
clause situation.
e.g. Correcting galley proofs is not a very interesting work.
It wasn’t easy to find a place to park the coach.
To be accused like that was quite a shock to him.
To be left alone is all that I am asking for.
For Mary to be sent off would be a shame.
b. When an infinitive clause is S of a sentence, it is often preferable or necessary to apply
extraposition:
1) Extraposition is very common with linking verbs such as be, remain, seem, appear, especially
if the infinitive clause is relatively long compared with the VP of the head clause.
e.g. It is a pity for there to be no time to go more fully into this subject.
It is for the jury to decide now.
It seemed unnecessary to take further precautions.
It must be difficult to survive in this desert.
2) Extraposition is also possible after some other verbs.
e.g. It requires a lot of skill to perform this kind of operation.
It will need some time to form a government after the elections.
It will take me at least three days to redecorate the rooms.

203. In this sentence really is an emphasizer to give them a drubbing. There is no alternative construction in which it can have this function.
Inserting really into We will do everything we can would change the meaning, while *We will do everything we can to give them a
drubbing really and *We will do everything we can to give them really a drubbing are ungrammatical.
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It hurt to read those lies about my late husband in the newspaper.

It will cheer him up to receive a visit from some friends.

2. Subject complement
e.g. Our first aim is to restore peace and quiet. After that we will see.
The latest trend in fashion is for ladies to wear colourful kimonos.
The rule was for men to sit to the right and for ladies to sit to the left.
Pseudo-clefts beginning with what typically involve an infinitive clause as SC:
e.g. What you should do is (to) have your children help you more often.
Note:
a. To is optional in such pseudo-cleft constructions.
b. When the infinitive is a progressive form, (to) be is obligatorily deleted:
e.g. What he is doing now is working on a novella. (*What he is doing is (to) be working...)
c. In pseudo-clefts the infinitive clause must express the same aspect (progressive or
nonprogressive) as the head clause.
e.g. What he always does is study/*studying hard.
What he is doing is working/*work in the garden.

3. Direct object
We can distinguish between three types of construction: (a) ‘V + to-infinitive’, (b) ‘V + NP + to-
infinitive’, and (c) ‘V (+ NP) + to-infinitive’.
a. V + to-infinitive
The following verbs can be followed by a to-infinitive clause whose subject is not expressed:
Note: The figures added within brackets have the following meanings:
(1) = The verb also enters into the construction ‘V + NP + to-infinitive’
(2) = The verb can also be followed by a gerund, without any difference of meaning or use.
(3) = The verb can also be followed by a gerund, but with a difference of meaning or use (cf. below).
(4) = The verb can also be followed by a that-clause.
(5) = The verb can also be followed by a that-clause, provided its subject is the dummy it.

abide (2) (fml) (e.g. I can’t abide to see/seeing anyone suffering.)

ache
afford (always nonassertive and preceded by can)
be afraid (3)
agree (4)
aim (also: at + gerund)
appear (5)
apply oneself
arrange (4)
ask (1) (4)
aspire
attempt
can’t bear (1) (3)
beg (1) (4)
begin (3)
bother (2)
not care
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cease (3) (fml)

chance (3) (5)
choose (1)
claim (4)
come (= to reach a certain stage) (e.g. She came to hate him; I’ve come to see the problem in
another light; Now that I come to think of it...)
condescend
consent
continue (3)
contract (e.g. The firm has contracted to build a hotel in the mountains.)
contrive
counsel
dare (1)
decide (4)
decline
deign
demand (3) (4)
deserve (3)
design (2)
desire (1) (4)
determine (4)
disdain (2)
dread (3) (4)
elect (1) (fml) (e.g. He elected to become a dentist.)
endeavour
endure (2)
fail
fear (4)
forbear (2) (fml) (e.g. He forbore to broach / broaching the subject at the meeting.)
forget (3) (4)
get (1) (= to reach the stage of) (e.g. We got to be friends; I got to like him.)
go on (3)
guarantee (4)
happen (5) (e.g. I happened to see her in the street.)
hasten
hate (1) (3)
help (1) (3)
hesitate
hope (4)
intend (1) (2)
learn (1) (3) (4)
like (1) (3)
long
love (1) (3)
manage
mean (1) (3) (4)
merit (3)
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need (3)
neglect (2)
offer
omit (2)
plan
pray (4)
prefer (1) (3) (4)
prepare (1)
presume (1) (4)
pretend (4)
proceed
profess (4) (e.g. I don’t profess to be an expert on literature.)
profit
promise (4) (1)
propose (3) (4) (+ inf.: = intend)
prove (1) (4)
purport
purpose (2) (fml)
reckon (1) (4)
refuse
regret (3) (4)
rejoice (more often used with at/in + gerund)
remember (3) (4)
request (1) (4)
resolve (4)
say (4) (e.g. He said not to worry.)
scorn (3)
seek
seem (5)
not stand (3)
start (3)
strive
struggle
swear (4)
tend
threaten (4)
trouble (2)
try (3)
turn out (5)
undertake (= to promise, agree)
venture
volunteer
vow (4)
want (1) (3)
warrant (1) (3) (4) (fml)
wish (1) (4)
yearn
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Note:
1) Among these verbs that can be followed by an infinitive clause as direct O we notice not only
transitive verbs (e.g. afford, choose, expect...) but also verbs that are otherwise intransitive (e.g.
come, go, hesitate, hasten, proceed...) and prepositional verbs (e.g. agree to, aim at, bother
about, care for, condescend to, consent to, forbear from, hesitate about, fail in, long for,
proceed to, rejoice at, trouble about...).
Note that after some of these prepositional verbs, the construction ‘preposition + gerund’ is also
possible:
e.g. The government has forborne to tackle / tackling / from tackling the problem seriously.
2) After all these verbs the (unexpressed) subject of the infinitive clause is controlled by the
subject of the higher clause. The verbs in question are therefore sometimes called control
verbs.
3) A great many verbs that can be followed by an infinitive or by ‘NP + infinitive’ allow the use
of to as a pro-form for the infinitive clause, provided the latter is recoverable from the
preceding context.
e.g. You mustn’t use my bike again. -- All right, I promise not to.
Do you think you will succeed? -- All I can say is that I hope to.
I don’t often ride any more, but I used to a lot.
Why did you buy mussels for dinner? I particularly asked you not to.
Did you visit the Tower? -- No, I wanted to but it was closed.
After the verb try, to can be dropped as well.
e.g. I don’t know if I can beat him in straight sets, but I’ll try (to).
After some other verbs (like, want, choose, wish) to can be dropped in some types of subclause
only:
e.g. Bill asked me to stand in for him but I didn’t want to. (To is required.)
Join us if you like/choose/want (to).
You can leave when you want.
They can do what/as they like.
I’ll stay with you if you wish.
You can stay at our place as long as you like. (*would like)
It should also be noted that the pro-form to cannot stand for an infinitive clause with be. (In
other words, be cannot be omitted.)
e.g. Are you at home tomorrow? -- No, but I’d like to be.
Has he been inoculated against cholera yet? -- No, he doesn’t want to be yet.
b. V + NP + to-infinitive
e.g. I don’t want anyone to help me.
The Speaker requested the MPs to be silent.
The judge ordered the accused to stand up.
Who taught you to ride on horseback?
1) The following verbs can be followed by an NP + to-infinitive. (The addition of (1) marks those
verbs that can also enter into the construction ‘V + infinitive’ (without NP).):
e.g. advise
aid
allow
appoint (e.g. We appointed Jenny to act as treasurer.)
ask (1)
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assist
authorize
beg (1)
beseech
bribe
cause
challenge
command
commission
compel
condemn
dare (1)
defy
desire (1) (e.g. She desires us to be there too.) (fml)
direct
drive
educate
elect (1)
empower
enable
encourage
entice
entitle
entreat
excite (= to cause someone to do something by raising strong feelings)
expect (1)
forbid
force
get (1) (= causative meaning)
hate (1) (e.g. I would hate you to think I wasn’t to be trusted.)
help (1)
impel
implore
incite
induce
inspire
instruct
intend (1)
invite
lead (e.g. This led us to believe that...)
learn (1)
leave (e.g. You can leave me to solve that problem.) (usually with extraposition: You can
leave it to me to...)
like (1)
loathe
love (1)
mean (1)
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oblige
order
permit
persuade
pledge
prefer (1)
press
promise (1)
prompt
provoke
recommend
remind
request (1)
require
rule
sentence )
stimulate
summon
teach
tell
tempt
trust
urge
want (1)
warn
2) Some verbs allow the construction ‘V + NP + infinitive’ only if the infinitive is be or have :
a) Some verbs of communication (saying and hearing):
e.g. acknowledge, admit, confess , confirm, declare, demonstrate, deny, disclose, grant, hear,
maintain, report, reveal, show, state
e.g. I deny this to be correct.
b) some cognition verbs (verbs of thinking, etc.)
e.g. apprehend (old use)(= understand), assume, believe, consider, discover, doubt, estimate, fancy
(= imagine), feel (= be of opinion), feign, find (= think), guess, hold (= consider), imagine,
judge, know, presume (= to assume), reckon, recognize, regard, see (= realize), sense (= be
aware of), suppose, suspect, take (= understand), think, understand
c) a couple of other verbs:
e.g. prove, warrant
e.g. I can’t warrant it to be genuine. (fml)
Note:
1) In most cases the NP is at the same time S of the infinitive and direct O or indirect O of the
preceding finite verb.
e.g. The king appointed Columbus to lead the expedition.
I asked Ben to lend me some money.
However, the NP is not the subject of the infinitive after promise, and it does not function as direct
O or indirect O after verbs such as cause, expect, get, hate, intend, like, love, mean, need, prefer,
promise, recommend, want, wish.
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e.g. cp. I persuaded her to go. (entails ‘I persuaded her’)

I’d love her to go. (does not entail ‘I’d love her’)
e.g. I meant/expected Sally to be my secretary.
2) The construction in which the only possible infinitive forms are be and have is rather
formal or literary and not very common (except in the passive). These verbs are more often
followed by a that-clause.
e.g. I had never thought him to be a lawyer. (fml) (= I had never thought that he was a lawyer.)
Scientists have found this hypothesis to be the correct one. (= Scientists have found that...)
3) Most verbs that can be followed by infinitives other than be and have cannot be followed
by a that-clause.
e.g. I want him to change his job. (*I want that he changes his job.)
We allowed/permitted him to watch the film on television. (*that)
Those that can be followed by a that-clause can be subdivided into three classes:
a) Most verbs of volition (e.g. ask, beg, desire, entreat, expect, command, direct, implore, mean,
order, prefer, request, require, trust, wish...) can be followed by a that-clause but not by an
NP + that-clause:
e.g. cp. The sergeant ordered that we should take no prisoners.
*The sergeant ordered us that we should take no prisoners.
e.g. I asked/begged him to forgive me. (*I asked/begged him that...)
As noticed before, a that-clause after such a verb often uses should.
b) After persuade and remind the that-clause must be preceded by an NP.
e.g. He tried to persuade her that he was innocent.
c) After instruct, teach and warn, the that-clause may or may not be preceded by an NP.
e.g. The Prime Minister warned (the Unions) that higher wages would stimulate inflation.
4) In most cases the NP can become the S of a passive sentence.
e.g. They allowed the children to play outside. ---- The children were allowed to play outside.
Mother warned us not to do anything stupid. ---- We were warned not to do anything stupid.
However, passivization is impossible if the NP is not interpreted as direct O or indirect O of the
verb.
e.g. They wished me to join their team. ---- *I was wished to join their team.
We’d hate you to leave now. ---- *You’d be hated to leave now.
5) Those verbs that can only be followed by be or have always allow passivization.
e.g. He is believed to have committed suicide.
The escaped convict is not considered to be dangerous.
However, examples like these do not always have an active counterpart:
e.g. He is said to be gay. ---- *People say him to be gay.
The reason is that, when a sentence with a verb of saying or thinking and a that-clause
passivizes, there is often extraposition followed by raising, so that the result is also a
structure of the form ‘passive V + to-infinitive’ (cf. chapter 5):
e.g. They say that he is ill ---- ?That he is ill is said ---- It is said that he is ill ---- He is said to be
ill.
People thought that she was a gypsy ---- ?That she was a gipsy was thought ---- It was thought
that she was a gipsy ---- She was thought to be a gipsy.
It follows that the verbs that cannot be followed by an infinitive other than be or have but which can
be followed by a that-clause, can be followed by an infinitive when they are passivized:
e.g. cp. *They suppose you to be there at nine.
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You’re supposed to be there at nine. (derived from They suppose that you will
be there at nine via ?That you will be there at nine is supposed and It is supposed
that you will be there at nine.)
e.g. cp. *People know him to hold moderate opinions.
He is known to hold moderate opinions.
6) If the infinitive is lexical be and the NP preceding it as S is indefinite, an existential
construction has to be used:
e.g. I want there to be no doubt about it. (*I want no doubt about it to be.)
They expect there to be no resistance.
None of us would like there to be another civil war.
I’d hate there to be a misunderstanding.
7) After some verbs there is a difference of meaning between an infinitive clause and a that-
clause:
e.g. cp. We expect (that) he’ll resign. (= We think he’ll resign.)
We expect him to resign. (= either ‘We think he’ll resign’ or ‘We want (order) him to
resign’)
cp. I wish he would help us. (= a wish)
I wish him to help us. (fml) (= an order)
8) Next to the above mentioned cases of ‘V + NP + to-infinitive’ we notice two similar
constructions:
a) V + PP + to-infinitive
This construction is found
Ó) after some prepositional verbs (e.g. appeal to, apply to, call upon, look to, nod to, prevail
upon...):
e.g. I rely upon you to settle the matter discreetly.
The vicar could not prevail upon himself to sell the silver chandeliers.
The Speaker nodded to him to go on.
ß) after the verbs arrange, hope, long, prepare, provide, send, vote, wait, wish. After these
verbs the NP that is the S of the infinitive is preceded by for:
e.g. We have arranged for you to stay at the Savoy.
The children longed for their father to be released from prison.
The project provides for eight sewage treatment plants to be built in three
years’ time.
The expedition waited in vain for the weather to change.
The expectation is that the Queen will send for Mr Heseltine to form a new
government.
The verb ask is used similarly if the NP is not its indirect O:
e.g. I had asked for the fish to be deep-frozen.
b) V + (NP +) wh-infinitive
In some cases the infinitive clause can be introduced by a question word:
Ó) The construction ‘V + NP + wh-infinitive’ is possible if the NP is indirect O of the main
verb and controls the unexpressed S of the wh-infinitive.
e.g. Please tell/instruct the children where to go. (= where they should go)
The glassblower showed the apprentice how to colour the glass.
He told me when to switch off the central heating.
No one has taught him (how) to drive a tractor.
Our man in Budapest will tell you how to get in touch with Mr Boronow.
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ß) The construction ‘V + wh-infinitive’ is possible

(a) if the S of the V controls the unexpressed subject of the infinitive.
e.g. I didn’t know whether to cry or laugh.
Ask that policeman where to park the car.
I wonder who to appoint as my secretary.
I forgot where to go for that cheese.
Did you find out how/where/when to contact Moscow?
(b) when the covert S of the infinitive clause has indefinite reference for lack of
an overt controller.
e.g. I’ll have to inquire how to start this computer. (= how one can...)
I wonder how to make her happy. (= how one can...)
9) It should be noted that an infinitive clause cannot be used as direct O in the pattern ‘V +
direct O + OC’ unless extraposition is applied.
e.g. *We consider to give up the project a mistake. (should be reworded as We consider giving up
the project a mistake or as We consider it a mistake to give up the project.)
The new law makes it impossible for a suspect to be detained for longer than 48 hours without
being interviewed by an examining magistrate.
We considered it best for the decision to be postponed.
Mother doesn’t think it advisable for me to see Betty again.
The curfew made it necessary to do the shopping in the afternoon.

4. Object of a preposition
As a rule, the gerund is the only nonfinite verb form that can depend on a preposition. However, it is the
infinitive that is used in the following two prepositional constructions:
a. As noted above, the construction ‘V + PP + to-infinitive’ is possible.
e.g. They waited patiently for the scouts to come back.
He nodded to me to go on with my work.
b. If the OP is a dependent question, we cannot use a gerund, but a wh-infinitive is possible:
e.g. His inquiry about how to make an atomic bomb alarmed the university staff.
I have no idea of what to tell them if they ask for an explanation.

5. Adverbial infinitive clauses

a. Infinitive clauses can be used as adverbial adjuncts with various meanings:
1) purpose, goal
e.g. I hope you haven’t come to question me.
Here are some potatoes for you to peel.
We’d better stop to ask somebody the way.
They ran to save the drowning child.
To get a visa for the U.S. one must fill in a lot of forms.
Note:
a) When the S of the to-infinitive is coreferential with the S or direct O of the main verb, it is not
normally expressed. Otherwise it is expressed in the form of a for-PP.
e.g. We got up early to catch the first boat.
I sent Billy to the grocer’s to buy some tea.
For the work to be finished in time, everybody will have to pull their weight.
b) The meaning of purpose can be stressed by the use of so as to or in order to. (The latter is more
formal and suggests a more deliberate purpose.) So as to cannot be followed by for.
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e.g. He replaced the bulbs so as to save electricity.

The hunters encircled the deer in order for the animal not to escape. (*so as for...)
c) In negative sentences, we normally use so as not to. 204
e.g. He turned into a side-street so as no to have to walk past us.
d) The construction ‘for + gerund’ is never a possible alternative to an infinitive of purpose.
e.g. I went to London to learn English. (*for learning English)
e) After come, go, hurry up, run, stay, stop and a couple of other verbs, a co-ordinate clause with and
can be used instead of an infinitive of purpose. 205
e.g. Let’s stop to/and have a rest.
They ran to help the wounded soldier. --- They ran and helped the wounded soldier.
He seldom stays and has a drink when the meeting is over. (or: stays to have a drink)
I went and played tennis with Jim yesterday. (or: went to play)
Do you dare to go and/to tell them to make less noise?
The to-infinitive is the less usual construction of the two, and cannot be used after hurry up.
e.g. Hurry up and finish your dinner. (*Hurry up to finish your dinner.)
2) (unexpected) result, outcome
e.g. He rushed to her bedroom, only to find that it was empty.
She only has to look at the boy for him to be quiet.
The next thing I knew, I woke to find myself in jail.
Your father will no doubt live to be ninety.
He rose to be Chief Superintendent.
You will live to regret this foolish decision.
Infinitival result clauses depending on phrases with so or such are introduced by as to:
e.g. The house is so dilapidated as to need major repairs.
He is such a dear as to be loved by everybody.
3) reason
e.g. I’m glad to have been invited.
I’m sorry to hear he’s not well.
4) time
e.g. To hear him talk you’d think he’s the boss here.
5) condition
e.g. He’d be stupid not to report the incident to the police.
You have to be headstrong to make it in this profession. (purpose + condition: = if you are to make
it)
For a decision to be valid, more than half of the members must support it.
b. Adverbial infinitive clauses are either adjuncts or disjuncts. If they are disjuncts they are separated
from the main clause by a break in intonation (marked by a comma). In that case they are either
supplementive clauses or unrelated clauses:
e.g. To tell the truth, I hadn’t expected to be elected. (supplementive clause)
To tell you the truth, he only thinks of beer and women. (unrelated clause)
To be quite honest with you, I’m convinced it won’t work. (supplementive clause)
To cut a long story short, he got the girl he wanted and married her. (unrelated clause)
To speak frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea. (supplementive clause)

204. Not to is mostly ungrammatical. In order not to is rarely used, though one has to use it when the S of the infinitive is constructed with for
(e.g. She lied in order for her friend not to be blackmailed).
205. In informal Am.E. and is often omitted after go (e.g. Go hang yourself!, Go jump in the river!)
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To begin with, who will believe we didn’t do it on purpose? (unrelated clause)

6. Infinitive clauses depending on adjectives

An infinitive clause following an adjective can fulfil various functions:
a. In examples like I was afraid to do it the infinitive clause is best analysed as a complement of
the adjective (in the same way as it is a complement in I fear to do it).
b. In some other cases the infinitive clause rather functions as an adverbial adjunct:
e.g. He’d be unwise to leave her after all those years. (= if he left her)
I’m sorry to have caused a misunderstanding. (= because I have caused...)
c. Sometimes the infinitive is equivalent to a postmodifying relative clause:
e.g. He was the first person to get up this morning.
Whatever the function of the infinitive clause,206 we can distinguish the following patterns:
a. The type You are silly to do that
This pattern has the following characteristics:
1) The S of the copula is also the notional S of the infinitive.
2) There is an alternative construction of the type It is silly of you to do that. This alternative is
itself the result of applying extraposition to For you to do that is silly. (Note that this is the only
case where extraposition involves the substitution of of for for.)
3) In transformational terms, the type You are silly to do that is the result of applying subject
raising to the extraposition construction.
4) The reason why subject raising is possible is that the evaluation expressed by the adjective
applies not only to the situation denoted by the infinitive clause but also to the referent of the S
of are silly.
5) In the extraposition construction we can replace it is by how to create an exclamatory sentence:
How silly of you to do that! 207
Some further examples:
e.g. You are careless not to lock the door. -- It is careless of you not to lock the door.
He is very stupid/unwise not to believe these rumours. -- It is very stupid/unwise of him not to
believe these rumours.
You are wonderful/good/splendid/kind to give me a hand. -- How
wonderful/good/splendid/kind of you to give me a hand! -- It is wonderful/good/splendid/kind
of you to give me a hand.
The following adjectives can appear in this pattern:
e.g. absurd, ambitious, bold, brave, careful, careless, civil, clever, (in)considerate, courageous,
cruel, decent, foolish, friendly, generous, good (= kind, well-behaved), (un)grateful, honest, ill-
natured, impudent, (un)kind, naughty, nice, (im)polite, rash, reasonable, right, rude, saucy,
selfish, silly, spiteful, sensible, splendid, stupid, thoughtful, thoughtless, wicked, (un)wise,
wonderful, wrong...
Note: Some gradable nouns can also occur in this construction:
e.g. You are a fool to think you can beat him.
He is a gentleman to offer us his help.
You are an angel to look after the children while we are away.
b. The type He is likely to succeed

206. Most grammars analyse any infinitive clause depending on an adjective as a complement to the adjective.
207. In such exclamations the infinitive clause is sometimes deleted:
e.g. Did you really find the answer? How very clever of you!
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This structure is the result of applying subject raising to an extraposition construction with a that-
clause. This is possible only after a few adjectives: likely, sure, certain; (un)fortunate,
(un)lucky.
e.g. It is sure/certain/likely that John will resign. --- John is sure/certain/likely to resign.
It is fortunate/lucky she has not been killed --- She is fortunate/lucky not to have been killed.
c. The type It is important to act quickly
In this structure, the infinitive clause is the notional S of the head clause but has normally undergone
extraposition. It can have a S of its own with for, but this S cannot be raised so as to become the
S of the head clause.
e.g. It is important for you to make a good impression at the interview. (*You are important to
make...)
In this type we find adjectives that express
1) importance or urgency (e.g. crucial, essential, (un)important, (un)necessary, pointless, vital)
e.g. It’s pointless (for you) to try and convince her.
It’s essential for the essay to remain readable.
2) frequency (e.g. (un)common, (ab)normal, (un)usual, rare)
e.g. It’s not unusual for a hedgehog to be killed while crossing the road.
Do you think it’s normal for children to torture animals?
d. The type This is easy to understand
This pattern has the following characteristics:
1) It results from applying Object Shift to an extraposition construction:
e.g. ?To understand this is easy --- It is easy to understand this --- This is easy to understand.
2) It follows that the S of the copula is the notional direct O of the infinitive.
3) Throughout the derivation the S of the infinitive can be expressed in the form of a for-PP.
e.g. ?For me to correct the mistake was difficult --- It was difficult for me to correct the mistake --- The
mistake was difficult for me to correct.
4) The evaluation expressed by the adjective applies only to the situation denoted by the infinitive,
not to the S of the main clause: He is difficult to satisfy does not imply ‘He is difficult’
(whereas You are unwise to turn down the offer does imply ‘you are unwise’).
Some further examples:
e.g. ?(For us) to study their customs is interesting --- It is interesting (for us) to study their customs -
-- Their customs are interesting (for us) to study.
?To talk to John is pleasant --- It is pleasant to talk to John --- John is pleasant to talk to.
Only a couple of adjectives can appear in this pattern. They belong to two semantic groups: (a) easy,
difficult, hard, tough, impossible, hopeless; (b) agreeable, amusing, interesting, nice, pleasant.
e. The type The manuscript is ready (for you) to publish
This pattern has the following characteristics:
1) The S of the main clause is again interpreted as notional direct O of the infinitive.
2) However, the sentence is not derived through Object Shift, because there is no equivalent in the
form of an extraposition construction (*It is ready (for you) to publish the manuscript). (This
itself follows from the fact that the structure *(For you) to publish the manuscript is ready is
both ungrammatical and nonsensical.)
Some further examples:
e.g. Up there the air is too thin/frosty to breathe. (cp. *To breathe the air is thin/frosty. / *It is
thin/frosty to breathe the air.)
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This paper is rather greasy/flimsy to use for wrapping up the present.

The fish in the fridge was no longer fit to eat.
f. The type I am happy to hear this
In this pattern the infinitive clause has the following characteristics:
1) It depends on an ‘attitudinal’ adjective or past participle.
2) Semantically, it expresses something like the cause of the attitude or feeling expressed.
(Syntactically, it is the complement of the adjective.)
3) It can have a S of its own with for (provided this S is not corefential with the S of the main
clause).
Some further examples:
e.g. I was furious/indignant to discover the theft.
I was afraid for her to lose her earrings.
She is worried for her hair to turn grey.
They were anxious/impatient for their parents to see what they had built.
I’m sorry to have caused you inconvenience.
She does not seem eager to please her teachers.
This type of structure is possible with adjectives and participles like the following:
e.g. afraid, angry, anxious, content, curious, eager, furious, glad, grateful, happy, impatient,
indignant, keen, mad, proud, sad, sorry, thankful, wild...
e.g. amazed, annoyed, ashamed, astonished, bored, concerned, contented, delighted, depressed,
disappointed, disgusted, dissatisfied, surprised, thrilled, embarrassed, excited, fascinated,
grieved, honoured, horrified, infuriated, overwhelmed, perturbed, pleased, puzzled, relieved,
satisfied, shocked, worried...
g. The type I am willing to help you
This type is found with ‘volitional’ adjectives and participles like hesitant, prone, reluctant, willing,
inclined, induced, disinclined, disposed... The infinitive expresses the object of the volitional
attitude in question.
e.g. John is reluctant to pay the fine.
I was not inclined to let you have your way.
One is more prone to work hard when one feels happy.
I do not feel disposed to do the dirty work for him.
The infinitive clause can have a S of its own with for:
e.g. I’m quite willing for her to have a couple of days off.
The artist was prepared for a painting of his to be raffled during the church bazaar.
h. The type I am able to do it
This type contains a miscellaneous group of adjectives that are followed by an infinitive
representing one of various functions (S, object, adverbial). The S of the infinitive clause cannot
be expressed (in the form of a for-PP) because it is coreferential with that of the head clause.
e.g. This kind of sole is apt to be slippery.
She is liable to cheat when playing cards.
She was prompt/quick/ready/slow to spot the mistake.
You are bound to fail if you get no financial support.
They worked till they were fit to drop. (infml)
i. The type He was the first guest to leave
In this pattern the infinitive clause has the same postmodifying function as a restrictive relative
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clause. The only adjectives that can be used in this way are only, superlatives and ordinal
numerals.
e.g. Mr Hilary was the first man to climb Mount Everest.
Michael Chang was the youngest ever player to win at Roland Garros.
She’s not the only one to aspire to the job.
The last person to leave the room should switch off the lights.
The next coach to arrive was full of American tourists.
This is the third girl to be strangled in this neighbourhood in the last few weeks.
j. The type You are too old to play with dolls
Semantically, the infinitive clause is a result clause here. The pattern is possible with any adjective
that is modified by too, enough, or sufficiently.
e.g. She was too upset to understand what you said.
He is sufficiently trained to do the job.
He is shrewd enough to see what she is up to.
The infinitive clause can have a S of its own, expressed with for:
e.g. The weather was too fine for us to keep the children inside.
When the infinitive clause has a pronoun as complement (direct O or OP) and this pronoun is
coreferential with the S of the head clause, the pronoun in question is normally ellipted: 208
e.g. The wall is too thick for the drill to pierce through.
The bridge was not strong enough for the tank to cross.
The water was not clean enough to swim in.
That boulder is too heavy for you to lift.
Note:
1) When the ellipted pronoun is direct O, the result of the ellipsis is that the (active) infinitive is
interpreted as having a passive meaning:
e.g. It is too small to see without a microscope. (= to be seen)
2) It follows that an active infinitive clause is sometimes ambiguous between an active and a
passive meaning:
e.g. He is not strong enough to fight. (= (a) Because he lacks strength he will not fight anybody; (b)
Because he lacks strength he is not a suitable opponent for anyone who wants to fight.)
She is too nasty to help. (She is coreferential with either the unexpressed S or the unexpressed
direct O of the infinitive.)
The animal is too full of drugs to eat.
Such ambiguity can be avoided by making the infinitive clause passive:
e.g. The animal is too full of drugs to be eaten.
Note:
An infinitive clause is not the only kind of complement that adjectives can have:
a. There are two adjectives (viz. worth and worthwhile) that can be (directly) followed by a
gerund:
e.g. These arguments are not worth going into.
I think it would be worth/worthwhile trying to make friends with him.
b. After a great many adjectives the complement is introduced by a preposition. (If the
complement is a clause, it must be a gerund clause.)
e.g. at is used after annoyed, good, bad, delighted, pleased...

208. Examples where the pronoun is not deleted can occasionally be found.
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in is used after accurate, experienced, inherent, successful...

of is used after afraid, ashamed, convinced, ignorant, typical...
e.g. She was alarmed at finding the house empty.
I’m not really interested in (listening to) classical music.
c. Many adjectives can be followed by a that-clause.
e.g. I am confident that the culprit will be found.
She was delighted that he had given up smoking at last.
Note:
1) It is unusual for that to be deleted after an adjective, except after afraid and sorry.
e.g. I’m afraid/sorry I’ve made a bad impression.
2) A that-clause can never be preceded by a preposition. This means that there are three
possibilities when an adjective that is normally followed by a preposition takes a clause as
complement:
a) After some adjectives the preposition can be deleted, so that a that-clause can be used.
e.g. I am aware (*of) that it’s getting late.
b) If the preposition cannot be dropped, a gerund can be used.
e.g. I’m not interested in reading poetry.
c) If the clause depending on the adjective is factive (i.e. presupposed to be true), the preposition can
be followed by the fact that:
e.g. I am aware of the fact that it’s getting late.
d. Some adjectives can be followed by wh-clauses (indirect questions). In this construction, the
preposition can or must sometimes be dropped.
e.g. Are you sure (of) where they went?
I’m worried about what’ll happen to the house.
We’re not certain (of) what it means.

7. Infinitive clauses depending on nouns

a. Most nouns corresponding to verbs that can be followed by a to-infinitive can take the same
type of complement.
e.g. Another attempt to blow up the dam will be made next week. (also: another attempt at blowing
up...)
She expressed the wish to have more pocket-money.
His refusal to sell the shares disappointed his partners.
There have been frequent demands for the remaining dunes to be legally protected.
There are, however, a couple of exceptions.
e.g. There is no hope left of finding any survivors. (*to find)
The twins have a preference for getting up early. (*to get up)
I have no intention of marrying her. (*to marry)209
b. Some nouns corresponding to adjectives or participles that can be followed by an infinitive can
likewise take an infinitive as complement.
e.g. He showed a clear determination/reluctance/willingness to tackle the problem.
His readiness/inclination/anxiety to listen to her stories rather surprised me.
However, a great many similar nouns can only be followed by a preposition:
e.g. Is there a possibility of the weather improving? (*a possibility for the weather to improve)

209. Nouns like these can, however, be followed by an infinitive if the latter is not a complement clause but a SC or extraposed subject clause:
e.g. My intention/hope was to leave early.
It was my intention/hope to leave early.
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His excitement/pride/relief/delight/pleasure/surprise at seeing himself on the screen was very

great.
The possibility of consulting a solicitor never occurred to him. (*to consult)
c. Some nouns have no corresponding verb or adjective but can nonetheless be followed by a to-
infinitive clause completing their meaning.
e.g. The police have had no occasion yet to use tear gas or rubber bullets.
There are sufficient opportunities for the athletes to work out in the gymnasium.
We arrived just in time to see the parade.
The practice for witches to be burned died out in the seventeenth century.
After some nouns followed by a preposition, a wh-infinitive is possible:
e.g. My inquiry about how to rent a car aroused my father’s suspicion.
Do you have any idea (of) how to cross the river if the bridge is closed?
d. Some nouns (and pronouns) can be followed by an infinitive clause functioning like a relative
clause.
e.g. Harrop’s is the place to go to if you want to buy fresh meat. (= the place you should go to)
The way to stop the engine is to pull this handle. (= the way in which you can/must stop it)
There are several bills for us to pay.
Is he really someone / a man to trust? (or: to be trusted)
Please give me the names of the people to contact / to be contacted.
The time to arrive is 8 p.m.
In many cases the relative clause connotes necessity or obligation. This is always the case when the
noun follows have.
e.g. I’ve got a couple of questions to ask.
He has a reputation to live up to.
I have a lot of work to do.
Note:
1) The fact that this construction connotes obligation entails that there is little difference of
meaning between I have some work to do and I have to do some work.
2) The infinitive is never passive in this pattern: *I have some work to be done.
3) There is also a connotation of obligation when the noun follows there is/are. In this case the
infinitive may be either active or passive, with little difference of meaning. (The active
infinitive suggests that the speaker is thinking of the person who has to perform the action
rather than of the action itself.)
e.g. There are still many problems to solve / to be solved.
There are several applicants to interview / to be interviewed this morning.
There’s plenty of work to do / to be done first.
There is a clearer difference of meaning between something/anything/nothing to do and
something/anything/nothing to be done:
e.g. cp. I’d like to go home. There’s nothing to do in this place. (= There is nothing we can do; there
is no work or entertainment.)
There’s nothing to be done (about it). We’ll have to make do without. (= It cannot be mended
or put right.)
e. Some nouns can be followed by an infinitive clause with adverbial meaning (expressing something
like purpose or result, i.e. the infinitive clause expresses what will be done with something, or what
effect it will have).
e.g. We need a box to put these diskettes in.
I can’t give you anything to cure your cold.
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I am looking for somebody for my husband to play cards with.

You need someone to look after your garden.
Note:
1) The noun may be interpreted as fulfilling various functions in the infinitive clause. In none of
these functions do we use a pro-form for it in the infinitive clause.
a) S: e.g. I need a box to hold my diskettes.
b) direct O: e.g. I gave her a comic to read (*it).
c) PO: e.g. This is just something to look at (*it); you can’t play with it.
d) OP: e.g. They need a room to play in (*it).
2) If the noun is OP in the infinitive clause, there is a (formal) alternative structure with a relative
pronoun following the preposition:
e.g. My husband needs somebody with whom to play cards. (fml) (= somebody to play cards with)
I’m looking for a product with which to remove these stains. (fml)

B. THE INFINITIVE WITHOUT TO

The infinitive without to has been given various names in the linguistic literature: ‘plain infinitive’,
‘bare infinitive’, ‘unmarked infinitive’, even ‘naked infinitive’. It is found in the following types of
structure:
1. It is used in independent infinitive clauses introduced by why (not):
e.g. Why notify the police? Why not keep it secret?
Why not let me give you a hand?
2. The plain infinitive is found as verb complement in the following cases:
a. after had better, had best, would rather, would sooner, would just as soon (cf. chapter 11).
b. after the verb help: we can use either a plain infinitive or a to-infinitive:
e.g. Can you help (me) (to) repair the car?
Shall I help you (to) do the washing-up?
I’ll help you (to) answer the letters.
However, to is not normally omitted if help does not have its most literal meaning, i.e. if the
referent of the S of help does not himself perform the situation denoted by the infinitive.
e.g. cp. Jill helped me (to) lay the table. (Jill was one of the persons performing the action.)
The BBC commentary helped us to see the gravity of the situation. (The commentary is not
one of those that see the gravity of the situation.)
e.g. This prosthesis will help him to walk.
Perhaps a journey abroad might help you to get over your grief.
To is also required after a passive form of help.
e.g. He was not helped to dig the garden.
c. after let:
e.g. He let go the rope.
She never lets the children play in the drawing-room.
Ken is letting his beard grow.
My motto is: ‘Live and let live!’
Don’t let go (of my hand)!
Note:
1) The phrases let go, let fall and let slip resemble phrasal verbs in that they allow the direct O to fill
two alternative positions, except when it is a pronoun.
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e.g. He let fall the cup. --- He let the cup fall. --- He let it fall. (*He let fall it.)
2) Let does not normally passivize. We use be allowed to instead.
e.g. I wasn’t allowed/*let to enter the church because my dress had no sleeves.
On the other hand, let can be followed by a passive infinitive.
e.g. He let himself be put to bed.
Let justice be done.
Let the door be opened immediately. (request or order)
3) The construction ‘let + NP + plain infinitive’ usually has a permissive meaning. In the imperative, it
can also express a request, command, suggestion or exhortation.
e.g. Let my people go.
Let the girl speak for herself!
Let’s tell them the truth.
Let me have a look at your leg.
When expressing a suggestion or exhortation, let us usually appears as let’s in spoken English.
When it really expresses permission (as in Please let us defend ourselves), it cannot be thus
contracted.
4) The negative version of let’s is either let’s not or (less usually) don’t let’s.
e.g. Let’s not / (Don’t let’s) put all our eggs in one basket.
d. Make can be followed at once by the bare infinitives do (= ‘be sufficient’) and believe.
e.g. The robber was let into the house because he succeeded in making believe he came to check the gas
meter.
We must make do with whatever food we’ve got. (= We must manage with...)
Other bare infinitives can follow make if they are preceded by an NP.
e.g. What made you change your mind?
Don’t make me cry.
To is required in the passive.
e.g. She was made to open the safe.
e. Most perception verbs can be followed by an NP and a bare infinitive.
e.g. I heard a horse approach.
He felt the chocolate become sticky in his hand.
She saw/watched the girl light a fire.
Note:
1) If the bare infinitive is progressive, be must be dropped. The result is the construction ‘perception
verb + NP + present participle’ which was discussed in §1 of this chapter. That construction is
therefore the progressive counterpart of the construction with the bare infinitive.
e.g. cp. I noticed the vicar speak to Miss Brims. (nonprogressive: reference to the action as a
whole)
I noticed the vicar speaking to Miss Brims. (progressive: reference to a temporary
situation in progress) (= I noticed that the vicar was speaking to Miss Brims.)
cp. I watched the tank cross the bridge. (reference to the complete action: from one side to
the other)
I watched the tank crossing the bridge. (= I saw the tank in the middle of the bridge, on
its way across.)
cp. Did you hear that dog bark? (= once or repeatedly)
Did you hear that dog barking? (= repeatedly)
e.g. I heard him fire/*firing a shot. (nonprogressive because the reference is to a single punctual
situation)
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2) The perception verbs smell and hark at can be followed by a participle clause, but not by an
infinitive clause. The verb look at can take an infinitive clause in Am.E., but not in Br.E.
3) To must be added before the infinitive when the perception verb is passivized:
e.g. Nobody was seen to enter the lab after 5 o’clock.
Few of these patients are ever heard to say ‘thank-you’ to the nurses that care for them.
However, such a passive construction is impossible with notice and with verbs denoting active
(rather than inert) perception (e.g. listen to, watch, look at).
e.g. The man was watched crossing / *to cross the street.
4) In informal English hear can be directly followed by say end tell.
e.g. I heard say/tell he is going to leave her.
Have you ever heard tell of Captain Blackbeard?.
5) When a perception verb is followed by a passive infinitive, be must be deleted.
e.g. We saw the dog (*be) run over by a lorry.
I’ve never heard it (*be) said before.
She could hear the hymn (being / *be) sung by the choir in the chapel.
6) The construction with the plain infinitive can only be used when ‘direct’ (physical) perception is
denoted. ‘Indirect’ (mental, cognitive) perception requires a that-clause:
e.g. I saw at once that he had drunk too much. (= On the basis of what I saw (viz. his behaviour) I
concluded that he had drunk too much.)
In (very) formal English, indirect perception (i.e. inference on the basis of direct perception) can
also be expressed by a to-infinitive, provided the infinitive is be or have been. However, this
construction is not very common.
e.g. I noticed her to be very weak and pale.
I saw the figure to be that of a woman.
He noticed her to be preparing the meal.
I saw the house to have been repainted.
f. In Br.E., to can be omitted in the construction ‘have known + NP + to-infinitive’, except in the
passive. (In this construction have known means ‘have seen, heard, etc.’.)
e.g. We have known him (to) deceive us before.
Has she ever been known to be satisfied? (passive)
I have never known it (to) freeze in June before.
He’s sometimes been known to recite poetry to an audience of admirers. (passive)
g. The construction ‘have + NP + bare infinitive’ can be used in a couple of ways:
1) In most cases it has causative meaning:
e.g. I had the hairdresser cut my hair.
I had an architect examine the foundations.
I’ll have you know who I am! (infml)
Why don’t you have someone else do the paper work?
Note:
a) Causative meaning can also be expressed by the expression get someone to do something.
However, this is a slightly different causative meaning. Whereas have someone do something
means ‘to ask or order someone to do something, or arrange for him to do it’, get somebody to
do something usually means ‘to persuade somebody to do something’.
e.g. I got the neighbours to cut down the tree that deprived us of the sunlight.
How can one get this machine to start?
You’ll never get her to understand that.
b) Both have and get also allow the NP to be followed by a past participle with passive meaning:
 394

e.g. I had my hair cut last week.

It’s time you had the lawn mown.
Where can I get these scissors sharpened?
2) The construction ‘have + NP + bare infinitive’ can also express experience or involvement. In this
case the bare infinitive is the nonprogressive counterpart of the present participle.
e.g. Anyone would feel mortified to have this happen/happening to him. (Happening is
progressive, happen is not.)
With his long hair, John has often had people mistake him for a girl.
He’s had three wives run out on him.
Note: Another construction with have that is worth knowing is that in which have is followed by the
indefinite article and a nominalized verb stem (e.g. to have a swim/walk/ride/wash/ talk/try...).
e.g. I had a swim before breakfast.
Let’s have a look at your hand.
She’s exhausted. We had better let her have a lie down.
Such a construction is used to refer to the performance of a single action on a specific occasion.
3. There are a couple of cases where to is deleted after a conjunction or preposition:
a. To is often dropped in the second of two co-ordinate to-infinitive clauses:
e.g. I’d like you to have a look at this and tell me what you think of it.
Would you like to see her now or wait until later?
b. To may or may not be retained after as, than, except and but (= except):
e.g. It is more tiring for her to show her children how to do it than (to) do it herself.
There seems to be no choice but (to) force people to use public transport by making petrol more
expensive.
They don’t want to do anything except (to) play football.
There’s nothing so exhausting as (to) look after a group of children.
Note:
1) To is normally deleted after can’t but, after nothing/anything but and after nothing/anything except.
e.g. She couldn’t do anything except/but hope someone would come to the house and find her.
I can’t but feel sorry for her. (= I can’t help feeling sorry for her)
She never does anything but/except complain.
He’ll do anything but go back to his parents.
2) Only the plain infinitive is used after rather than and sooner than:
e.g. Sooner than buy a car, he preferred to buy a motor cycle.
They want to make their own decisions rather than be told what they have to do.
Let’s tell her the bad news now rather than risk/risking her hearing it from somebody else.
4. To is often dropped from a to-infinitive that follows be in a specificational sentence whose S is a
clause with do:
e.g. All you need to do to get the job is (to) pass the test.
What the bastard did was (to) steal money from his own children. (pseudo-cleft)
What this machine does is (to) purify the blood of the patients whose kidneys are no longer
working.
When the sentence is inverted (so that the infinitive clause takes initial position) to has to be
omitted:
e.g. Tell her a few jokes was all I had to do to make her feel better.
Remove the old paint is what should be done first. (inverted pseudo-cleft)
5. The plain infinitive is also used in exclamatory questions.
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e.g. Show mercy to him? Why should I?

Bill join a sports club? Never!

§ 3. THE GERUND

I. MORPHOLOGY

A. FORMS
1. The gerund is formed by the addition of the morpheme -ing to the verb stem. It has four forms:
a. The simple gerund (or active present gerund):
e.g. Please go on working.
b. The passive present gerund:
e.g. I don’t like being told off in front of the others.
c. The perfect gerund:
e.g. She will not admit to having been in the pantry.
d. The passive perfect gerund:
e.g. He was disappointed at having been beaten by a player ranked lower than himself.
2. These gerund forms are homophonous with the forms of the present participle. We can distinguish
between the two of them exclusively on the basis of their different syntactic behaviour: whereas the
present participle functions as an adjectival or is used in building progressive verb forms, the gerund
always functions as a nominal. 210
e.g. cp. The policeman tried to separate the fighting soldiers. (participle)
He enjoys fighting. (gerund)
B. MORPHOLOGICAL CONNECTIONS WITH NOUN AND VERB
1. Morphological characteristics of the noun
Nouns may have special morphemes to denote number, gender and case. Because the gerund is used
as a nominal, we might expect it to share one or more of these morphological characteristics.
However, this expectation is not borne out. The gerund cannot take nominal morphemes. 211
2. Morphological characteristics of the verb
Verbs may have special morphemes to indicate finitude, mood, tense, voice and aspect. The gerund
does not share most of these morphological characteristics:
a. Because it is a nonfinite form, the gerund cannot express person or number.
b. The gerund has no moods and cannot express modality. 212
c. The gerund has no absolute tense forms, but it can express temporal relations:
1) The present forms of the gerund basically express simultaneity. However, this simultaneity may be
of the ‘sloppy’ kind (cf. chapter 3), so that the present gerund in fact often denotes a situation that is
posterior or anterior to the situation of the clause to which it is temporally subordinated.
e.g. He resented being laughed at. (can mean either ‘He resented that he was being laughed at’ or
‘He resented that he had been laughed at’)
Accepting this plan means getting up very early tomorrow. (posterior situation)

210. Because the gerund and the present participle cannot be distinguished on any formal basis, some recent grammars speak of ‘participle’ in
both cases and merely distinguish between a nominal and an adjectival use.
211. It is true that there are a number of ing-forms that are derived from verb stems and that can take the nominal plural morpheme:
e.g. building(s), cutting(s), clipping(s), earnings, painting(s), meeting(s), savings, shavings, surroundings, wedding(s)...
However, these forms do not share any of the syntactic characteristics of the gerund and should therefore be considered true nouns, not
gerund forms.
212. However, there is one modal auxiliary that can appear in the gerund, viz. have to (e.g. I resent having to pay taxes).
 396

He denied telling me. (anterior situation)

Note: The gerund is actually very seldom used to refer to a posterior situation (cf. below).
2) The perfect forms of the gerund express anteriority.
e.g. She blamed herself for having been so blind.
I don’t remember inviting / having invited you.
Note: In general, a perfect gerund will only be used if using a present gerund would obscure the
anteriority relation or entail ambiguity.
d. The gerund has active and passive forms.
Note: An active gerund may sometimes have a passive meaning (cf. below).
e.g. This room needs cleaning. (= needs to be cleaned)
I wonder if that old bike is worth repairing.
e. The gerund has no progressive forms.
e.g. He always enjoys (*being) working on a difficult problem.

II. SYNTACTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GERUND

A. The gerund forms of both transitive and intransitive verbs can be used on their own, i.e. without a
subject, verb complement, or adverbial adjunct.
e.g. Gossiping is her main delight.
Seeing is believing.
Fred has given up smoking.
In such examples the gerund just functions as a nominal. It shows no verbal syntactic characteristics.
B. A gerund can also be the verbal nucleus of a clause. In that case it can take a S, one or more verb
complements and/or adverbial adjuncts.
e.g. I was dismayed at the editor rejecting my article.
I wouldn’t like the idea of you travelling to some exotic country on your own.
This possibility of functioning as verbal nucleus of a clause shows that the gerund has the same syntactic
potentialities as a finite verb form. However, the gerund also shares some syntactic characteristics with
the noun, since some of the constituents of the gerund clause can take the form of adnominals. For
example:
1. The S of the gerund is sometimes a genitive or possessive:
e.g. I don’t mind your/John’s using my bedroom.
2. The way in which the action is performed is sometimes expressed by an adjective (rather than
by an adverb of manner):
e.g. cp. That endless gossiping of theirs is driving me crazy.
I don’t like them gossiping endlessly.
3. The (notional) direct O of the gerund is sometimes expressed in the form of a postmodifying of-
PP.
e.g. cp. This continuous breaking of the rules is irritating.
We should avoid breaking the rules all the time.
We must conclude that, syntactically speaking, the gerund can behave either as a verb or as a nominal. In
fact, it can behave as a verb and as a nominal at the same time. The following is a further illustration of
this:
e.g. This painting represents the killing of Caesar by Brutus. (The is an adnominal; by expresses the
agent of the action expressed by the verb.)
On the other hand, not any combination of verbal and nominal syntactic characteristics is acceptable:
e.g. I was surprised at Bill leaving (*of) the room.
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It is therefore necessary to explore the possibilities and restrictions.

1. It is important, first of all, to see that there are two semantic types of gerund clause:
a. The gerund clause may have factive meaning. In that case it can usually be paraphrased with
either a that-clause or an indirect question:
e.g. I don’t deny being there yesterday. (= I don’t deny that (it is a fact that) I was there yesterday.)
We doubt being able to finish in time. (= I doubt if I will be able...)
b. The gerund clause may refer to the actualisation itself of a situation. In that case there are no
paraphrases in the form of a finite clause. 213
e.g. The building of the Great Wall must have taken a very long time. (The reference is to the
performance of the action itself, not to the fact that it has been performed.)
I hate swimming. (= Swimming is an action that I don’t like.)
The shooting of wild geese is not allowed during this part of the year. (= That action is not
allowed.)
For ease of reference we will use the terms factive gerund and action gerund to refer to these two
semantic types.
2. Gerund clauses also fall apart into two syntactic types:
a. In some cases the gerund is fully nominalized, i.e. it behaves exactly like the head noun of an
NP. The following sentences exemplify this use:
e.g. The piercing screeching of the monkeys woke him up.
Their constant changing their minds is very irritating.
Mrs Thatcher’s ruthless handling of the situation did not meet with general approval.
In such sentences the gerund is the head of an NP:
1) It is preceded by a determiner (e.g. the/their).
2) It is premodified by an adjective (e.g. piercing/constant/ruthless).
3) It is postmodified by an of-PP.
We will therefore refer to this type as the nominalized gerund. The following are some further
examples:
e.g. Father Brown holds old-fashioned opinions concerning the wearing of the habit.
After this he turned away and recommenced his pacing of the pavement. (fml)
The teacher told us about the relentless burning of the rain forest by settlers. (*the burning of the
rain forest relentlessly)
I disapprove of this useless questioning of the rules.
He could tell at a glance that the letter was not from his wife. The envelope was too official-
looking, the typing of his name and address too professional.
For several days the convoy continued its steady traversing of the desert.
What shocked me most was the gratuitousness of that giving of herself to a stranger.
b. In some cases the gerund behaves as the head of a VP rather than as the head of an NP:
e.g. I distinctly remember the crowd yelling in time to wake him up.
One can spoil one’s business relations by constantly cancelling orders.
I haven’t forgotten Mary/Mary’s coming to see me.
In these examples the gerund shows only one nominal syntactic characteristic: its S can
sometimes appear in the genitive or possessive form. For the rest, the gerund behaves as a verb
form:
1) In this pattern the gerund cannot be preceded by an article or pronominal determiner (apart from the
possessive).

213. This type of gerund is sometimes referred to as the ‘action nominal’.

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2) The gerund cannot be premodified by an adjective, but it can be modified by the corresponding
adverb.
4) The gerund cannot be postmodified by an of-PP expressing the S or direct O of the gerund clause.
Instead, the S precedes the gerund and the direct O follows it, just as in finite clauses.
We will use the term nonnominalized gerund to refer to this type. 214 The following are some
further examples:
e.g. I was annoyed by her waiting so long.
Do you mind my glancing through the text rapidly?
She is worried by his being ill so frequently.
Note: Since not only nominalized gerunds but also nonnominalized ones can be preceded by a genitive
or possessive, and since not all gerund clauses contain an adjective or adverb, the ultimate syntactic
criterion for deciding whether a gerund is nominalized or not is the presence or absence of an of-PP
(expressing the S if the gerund is intransitive and the direct O if it is transitive).
3. A nominalized gerund is always an action gerund. A nonnominalized one may be either a factive
gerund or an action gerund.
e.g. John’s questioning of Bill’s leadership has caused a lot of concern. (nominalized action
gerund: John’s action has caused concern.)
Jack’s handling of the situation was not very tactful. (nominalized action gerund: The way in
which Jack handled the situation was not very tactful.)
We’d like to avoid people opening this door during the party. (nonnominalized action gerund:
We want to avoid the performance of that action.)
His being a policeman alters everything. (nonnominalized factive gerund: The fact that he is a
policeman alters everything.)
e.g. cp. Their leaving the country at that time surprised the police. (nonnominalized factive gerund: The
fact that they left the country at that time surprised the police.)
Their leaving of the country was the only part of the plan that did not go off without any difficulties.
(nominalized action gerund: They encountered problems when performing the action of leaving the
country.)
4. The nominalized gerund construction is relatively seldom used, because it is quite formal and
because it is subject to several restrictions:
a. As noted before, the gerund is always an action gerund in this structure. Because of this,
nominalized gerunds are restricted to those environments in which nouns like activity, event,
act, process, etc. can occur.
e.g. The boy’s stealing of the bike was noticed/*written down by the janitor. (One can notice an action
but one cannot write down an action; only facts can be written down.)
Mary’s leaving her husband and joining her family in New Zealand caused a great deal of
controversy.
The refurbishing of the kitchen will cost a lot of money.
e.g. cp. I was surprised at John’s speaking English so proficiently. (factive gerund: I was surprised at
the fact that...)
*I was surprised at John’s proficient speaking of English. (One cannot be surprised AT an
action.)
Everybody was surprised by John’s proficient speaking of the English language. (One can be
surprised BY an action.)

214. Admittedly, this term is not quite accurate, because even a ‘nonnominalized’ gerund is partly nominalized if it is preceded by a genitive or
possessive determiner.
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e.g. cp. The shooting of starlings is not forbidden. (nominalized action gerund: One can forbid an
action, but not a fact.)
Shooting starlings is not forbidden. (nonnominalized action gerund)
b. Nominalized action gerunds always refer to a dynamic situation.
e.g. *John’s knowing of the robber’s face was very helpful to the police.
*His close resembling of his nephew surprised us.
c. Nominalized action gerunds are awkward with a great many verbs. With prepositional verbs
and idioms the construction is virtually impossible.
e.g. *His making of friends with the Russian team displeased the secret police.
*Bill’s keeping of company with Jill made Betty jealous.
5. As noted before, some adverbial ideas (e.g. manner) are expressed in the form of an adjective if the
gerund is a nominalized gerund and in the form of an adverb if it is a nonnominalized one.
e.g. cp. The loud shouting of the children kept him awake.
I was annoyed at the children shouting so loudly.
6. The semantic subject (i.e. the agent) of a nominalized gerund can be expressed in various ways:
a. In most cases the agent is expressed in the form of a determiner, viz. a genitive or possessive.
e.g. The new chairman’s chairing of the meeting was not satisfactory.
If a construction with a genitive is not available, the agent can be expressed in the form of a by-
PP.
e.g. Smoking by pupils will be severely punished.
b. Sometimes we cannot use a genitive or possessive because the gerund is already preceded by a
determiner. In that case we have the following possibilities:
1) If the gerund has no direct O we will use an of-PP to express the agent.
e.g. The cooing of the pigeons distracted her from her work.
That sobbing of hers is getting on my nerves. (double genitive)
The coming of the Prince of Wales threw the village into commotion.
2) If the gerund is used transitively, the of-PP expresses the direct O. In that case the agent is
expressed in the form of a by-PP.
e.g. The climbing of Mont Blanc by a solitary girl is an incredible performance.
That criticizing of the chairman by Bill was embarrassing.
It is an exciting experience to witness the filming of a spaghetti western by an Italian director.
The extirpating of six million Jews by the Germans during World War II is one of the darkest
pages of history.
However, both the direct O and the S of the gerund can be expressed as of-PPs if a double genitive
construction is used:
e.g. That blowing of the trumpet of his is driving me crazy.
7. The semantic subject of a nonnominalized gerund is expressed by an NP that precedes the gerund. If
the head of the NP is a noun, it can in principle be either uninflected or in the genitive; if it is a pro-
form, it may be either a pronoun in the object form or a possessive determiner.
e.g. I don’t mind John(‘s) knowing the truth.
I don’t like the idea of us/our having to come to their assistance.
I’m looking forward to Mary’s/Mary coming.
Please excuse his/him being late.
There are, however, a couple of restrictions:
a. Formal English uses the genitive/possessive form; informal English uses the object form.
b. When the gerund clause is subject of the sentence, its own subject (expressing the agent) will
 400

not occur in the object form, except in cleft sentences. 215

e.g. His/*him being too credulous often gets him into trouble.
It was Mary’s/Mary coming that I looked forward to.
His/*him knowing about our relation meant that he had us in his power.
c. Only the genitive/possessive form can be used if the subject of the gerund is coreferential with
that of the main clause. (However, in that case the gerund normally has a zero-subject.)
e.g. I remember (?my/*me) warning you against him.
d. The genitive form is not used if the NP is a quantifier or a complex NP.
e.g. We can’t risk somebody/everybody hearing about it.
You must avoid your teacher of English getting suspicious.
e. As noted in chapter 7, only some classes of nouns (basically proper names and animate nouns)
can be used in the genitive.
e.g. I remember the charwoman(‘s) / the radio / *the radio’s making a lot of noise.
f. After the following verbs the subject of the gerund is normally in the possessive form: avoid,
consider, defer, postpone, delay, deny, enjoy, put off, risk, suggest.
e.g. Give that letter to me. I won’t risk your/*you losing it.
I did not really enjoy his reciting that poem.
8. When a nonnominalized gerund has no overt subject, it is usually controlled by its matrix (head
clause), i.e. it is understood as having the same subject as that matrix. This is not necessarily true of
a nominalized gerund.
e.g. cp. I am considering building a kennel. (I is interpreted as the semantic subject of building.)
I am thinking about the building of a kennel. (The semantic subject of building is undefined.)
However, even a nonnominalized gerund is sometimes not controlled.
e.g. He suggested looking for another job.
Revising a book may take a lot of time. (indefinite or generic subject)
C. The previous section has made clear that a gerund can take a subject NP, any of the verb complements
(direct O, indirect O, OC, SC, PO), and adverbial adjuncts (including the possibility of a by-adjunct
expressing the agent). This means that a gerund has the same syntactic potentialities as a finite verb form,
so that we can really speak of a gerund clause if it appears with one or more of these verbal syntactic
characteristics.
On the other hand, the gerund behaves like a noun in that (a) it can be preceded by a determiner (article,
genitive or pronominal determiner), (b) it can be premodified by an adjective and (c) it can be post-
modified by an of-PP. If a gerund has one or more of these nominal syntactic characteristics but none of
the verbal ones (as in All this is a dream of your own fashioning) it no longer seems warranted to speak of
a gerund clause. The term gerund phrase is better suited to refer to an NP of this type whose headword is
a gerund.
D. The gerund behaves exclusively like a noun if it is one of the constituents of a word compound:
1. the type ‘N + gerund’:
e.g. money-making, bull-fighting, sight-seeing, leave-taking, horse racing, goldmining, fortune-
hunting...
In this (productive) type, the first component mostly expresses the direct O of the gerund.
2. the type ‘gerund + N’ (with the word stress on the gerund):
e.g. bathing-cap, swimming-suit, working-clothes, writing-paper, boiling-point, living-room,
chewing-gum, laughing-gas, riding-horse, bowling-ball, shaving-cream, sleeping-pill, drinking-
water, dressing-room, sneezing-powder, whipping-boy, swimming-pool, selling-price, drawing-

215. In spoken English this rule is often not observed.

 401

teacher, spinning-wheel, washing-machine, walking-stick, driving-licence, looking-glass,

racing-car, hearing-aid, knitting-needle...
Such a compound should not be mistaken for a construction ‘present participle + N’ (such as boiling
water (= water which is boiling), hardworking secretary, living creature, etc.)

III. THE POSSIBLE FUNCTIONS OF A GERUND CLAUSE IN A SENTENCE

A. SUBJECT
1. A gerund clause can function as S:
e.g. There being no handle to the suitcase makes it difficult to carry. 216
Your having met him is rather remarkable.
Talking about it will not solve the problem.
2. When the verb of the head clause is a copula, the gerund clause is often extraposed, especially
if the predicate of the head clause is relatively short.
e.g. It is hopeless trying to escape from her.
It was nice visiting Oxford with them.
Since an infinitival subject clause can also be extraposed, the two constructions are often
interchangeable. In that case the use of a gerund is rather informal.
e.g. It is fun playing / to play in such an excellent team.
It has been a great pleasure meeting / to meet you.
It seems extravagant to pay / paying £500 for a visit to Athens.
It will be a sad thing to have / having to leave the dog behind.
In sentences like these the use of an infinitive clause is far more common than the use of a gerund
clause. On the other hand, there are contexts in which only an extraposed gerund clause can be
used:
a. after it is no use and its variants (it is not any/much use, it is (of) little use...):
e.g. It is no use crying over spilt milk.
Is it any use trying to talk him round?
b. after it is no good:
e.g. It is no good repairing the sink with adhesive tape.
c. after it is worth and it is worthwhile:217
e.g. It is worth/worthwhile scrutinizing these data.
3. Unlike infinitive clauses, gerund clauses can be dislocated:
e.g. We’re used to it in this job, people arriving at all sorts of odd hours.
It was a real shock, seeing her picture in that gossip paper.
Didn’t you think it was odd, his throwing up his job like that?
4. The expletive there functions as dummy subject in the construction ‘there is no + gerund’ (= ‘It
is impossible to...’ or ‘It is not allowed to...’).
e.g. There is no accounting for tastes.
There’s no persuading her into helping us.
Sorry, sir -- there’s no smoking in this compartment.
There’s no telling which of them will win.

B. GERUND CLAUSES FUNCTIONING AS SUBJECT COMPLEMENT

Only clauses with a simple gerund can be used as subject complement.

216. As in finite clauses, existential there will be used in gerund clauses if the conditions for its use are satisfied.
217. The phrase it is worthwhile is occasionally found with a to-infinitive.
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e.g. Going to London is not making a real journey.

Perhaps this is expecting too much of her.
His main occupation is riding on horseback.

C. GERUND CLAUSES FUNCTIONING AS DIRECT OBJECT

1. Both simple and phrasal gerunds can occur in gerund clauses functioning as direct object.
e.g. He denies hiding / having hidden the truth from us.
He admits being paid / having been paid for helping them.
2. After a great many verbs, the present gerund will be used even if the situation of the gerund clause is
anterior to that of the head clause.
e.g. Please excuse my calling on you at such a late hour.
John regrets attending last night’s meeting.
But after several verbs (e.g. admit, deny, dislike, forget, can’t help, imagine, recollect, regret,
remember...) a perfect gerund can be used too:
e.g. I regret attending / having attended the meeting.
I don’t remember confiding / having confided in him.
As a rule, the present gerund is preferred, unless the use of a perfect gerund is required in order to
signal the anteriority relation.
3. The use of a gerund clause as direct O is strictly conditioned by the main verb. A nonfinite object
clause has to be a gerund clause after some verbs and an infinitive clause after others. Still other
verbs admit both constructions. Although it is impossible to give strict rules predicting these
constructions, we can say that a gerund usually refers to a situation in a general way, while an
infinitive usually refers to the possible future actualisation of a situation. This means that the gerund
is more likely to be used when the reference is to a (present, past or temporally unspecified)
experience, whereas the infinitive is the more likely form when the speaker talks about a potential
future situation.
e.g. cp. He enjoys listening / *to listen to jazz. (= He generally likes the experience of listening to jazz.)
He expects to see / *seeing her tomorrow.
cp. I am / would be very interested to meet prof. Chomsky in person. (reference to a specific possible
future action)
I am interested in reading romantic novels. (reference to a kind of action which has already
actualised and may do so again in the future)
4. A gerund clause as direct O is possible after a great number of verbs:
a. Verbs implying that the situation of the object clause is discontinued are followed by a gerund,
not by an infinitive. (The only exception is cease, which can also be followed by an infinitive --
cf. below).
e.g. abandon, abolish, break off, complete, cut out (infml), discontinue, drop, end, finish, give over
(infml), give up, knock off (infml), lay off (infml), leave off (infml), quit (infml), stop
b. Most verbs implying nonactualisation of the situation of the object clause are followed by a
gerund. For example, the following verbs can be followed by a gerund, but not by an infinitive:
e.g. avoid, ban, bar, defer, delay, dodge, eliminate, escape, forfeit, forswear (fml), funk (= avoid
because of fear), impede, miss, obviate, postpone, preclude (fml) (see note below), prevent (see note
below), prohibit (id.), put off, reject, rule out, save, shirk, shun, skip, stop (see note below), veto
e.g. If you go to the supermarket for me, it’ll save (me) going into town.
I always try to avoid running into her.
Note:
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1) After the verbs preclude, prevent, prohibit and stop the preposition from can be inserted after the
NP denoting the notional subject of the gerund clause.
e.g. They tried to stop our leaving / us (from) leaving early.
You can’t prevent my telling / me (from) telling the truth.
2) Some verbs implying nonactualisation can or must be followed by an infinitive clause:
a) A couple of verbs can be followed by an infinitive but not by a gerund: decline, fail, refuse.
e.g. He declined/refused to set out his plans.
She failed to understand the message.
b) The verbs disdain, forbear, omit and neglect can be followed by either a gerund or an
infinitive.
e.g. The article is not very good because you have omitted to do / doing the necessary
research.
Don’t neglect writing / to write to me when you have arrived.
He disdains talking / to talk to people like us.
c) The verbs forbid and forget are followed by a gerund in some contexts and by an infinitive in
others -- see below.
c. The gerund is found after a number of verbs that imply a negative attitude (e.g. dislike or
disapproval) towards the contents of the object clause.
1) The following verbs are followed by a gerund, not by an infinitive:
e.g. abhor, abominate, begrudge, criticize, curse, deplore, deprecate (fml), despair, despise, detest,
disclaim, discountenance (fml), dislike, dispute, disregard, envy, grudge, ignore, loathe, mind,
oppose, overrule, query, question, resent, resist, restrict, undervalue, withstand
2) The following verbs are followed by either a gerund or an infinitive, but with a difference
of meaning (cf. below): be afraid, can’t bear, condemn, discourage, dread, forget, hate,
regret, can’t stand
3) The verbs hesitate and fear (= fml) are followed by an infinitive clause.
4) The verbs deny and doubt are normally followed by a gerund, but they can also appear in the
(formal) pattern ‘V + NP + be/have’.
d. The gerund is the rule after a number of verbs expressing that the referent of the S supports or
likes the idea expressed in the object clause.
e.g. accept, admire, adore, advocate, appreciate, back, cherish, commend (fml), countenance, defend,
endorse (fml), enjoy, favour, forgive, glorify, praise, prescribe, support, overprize, prize, relish,
tolerate, value, welcome (= to receive (the idea of...))
Note:
1) There are semantically similar verbs that are only followed by the infinitive: ache, agree, aim,
choose, consent, desire, long, tend, wish, etc.
2) Some semantically similar verbs can be followed by either a gerund or an infinitive, but with a
difference of meaning or construction: like, love, prefer, scorn; encourage, stimulate, urge; propose
-- see below.
e. The gerund is the rule after phrasal verbs (e.g. carry on, set about, take up, etc.).
f. The gerund is the rule after the following (semantically unrelated) verbs:
e.g. accompany, anticipate, attend (fml), attribute, celebrate, commemorate, compare, conceal, condone,
connote, contemplate, debate, denote, discuss, disguise, emphasize, endanger, ensure, entail,
envisage (= to picture in the mind as a future possibility; imagine), excuse (also: excuse someone
for doing something), explain, face, facilitate, foresee, foreshadow, imitate, imply, include, intimate,
involve, justify, legitimize, mention, necessitate, organize, overlook, overshadow, pardon (also: to
 404

pardon someone for doing something), picture, postpone, practise, precipitate, predict, publicize,
recall, recollect, record, recount, rectify, register, repent (fml), report, represent, resume, ridicule,
risk, sacrifice, sanction, signify, simulate, spoil, square, stress, study, substantiate, suggest, survive,
treat, view, visualize, cannot help
e.g. Do you anticipate there being any problems?
Try to visualize crossing the desert on a flying carpet.
I can’t face telling her the truth.
I can’t envisage the plan(‘s) working.
I can’t help feeling sorry for her.
g. The following verbs can be followed by either a gerund or an infinitive, without any difference
of meaning: abide, endure; bother, trouble; design, intend, purpose.
h. The following verbs that can appear in the (formal) pattern ‘V + NP + be/have’ are followed by
a gerund if there is no NP functioning as S of the object clause:
e.g. acknowledge (e.g. They acknowledged having been beaten.)
admit (sometimes followed by to before the gerund)
confess (sometimes followed by to before the gerund)
confirm
consider (e.g. We are considering rebuilding our house.)
After some other verbs (viz. fancy, imagine, report, understand) the gerund can have an
expressed subject.
e.g. cp. Can you imagine John cleaning the garage?
Would you have imagined him/his becoming a dentist?
Imagine yourself to be/being famous and rich.
e.g. Fancy her being so friendly!
He reported (his) having seen the fugitive.
I quite understand your wanting to have a holiday abroad.
i. Many verbs can be followed by either a gerund or an infinitive, but without these two structures
being interchangeable:
1) With the verbs begin, start, continue and the formal verb cease the following rules appear
to hold: 218
a) The infinitive is used to refer to an unintentional situation:
e.g. The engine of my car has suddenly started to make a strange noise.
Smallpox is said to be a disease that has ceased to exist.
It has just started to hail.
The ice cream began/started to melt as we were waiting.
Only the infinitive will therefore be used with stative verbs:
e.g. These painters have never ceased to be inspired by Picasso.
We began/started to wonder if we were waiting on the wrong platform.
b) When the reference is to an intentional action, the gerund has progressive meaning (i.e. it
represents the action as going on for some time) and is therefore the commoner form when we
are talking about a long or habitual activity.
e.g. He was still an infant when he started playing the guitar.
The shop assistants here start working at 8 o’clock.
Cease firing! (or: Cease fire!)
Will you continue writing this afternoon?

218. These rules are not always strictly observed. Perhaps we had better speak of tendencies.
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It’s time they ceased panicking and started doing something.

He started to dig the garden but had to stop almost at once because a storm broke. (The
situation of digging started but did not continue beyond that point.)
c) When the complement clause implies repetition, the rule is as follows:
Ó) We use the infinitive to express a habit, i.e. the repetition of situations of the same kind
on different occasions over an unspecified period.
e.g. Two years ago John began to walk to work. He still does. (cp. John began
walking to work refers to a particular occasion.)
ß) We use the gerund to express repetition of a situation within a single period of time.
e.g. After dinner John continued writing letters.
Note:
a) In general, start is most frequently followed by a gerund, whereas begin is most frequently
followed by an infinitive. The speaker’s choice of one of these verbs will often be in
accordance with these preferences.
b) The verbs begin, start, continue and cease belong to the class of aspectualizers, i.e. the class
of verbs that represent a situation as beginning, continuing or ending. Other aspectualizers are
commence, keep (on), stop, finish, etc. One of the peculiarities of this class is that a
construction in which both the aspectualizer and the complement verb are -ing forms is
virtually unacceptable. This means that those verbs that can in principle be followed by either
an infinitive or a gerund will not take a gerund when they are themselves progressive.
e.g. Speakers will definitely prefer It is beginning to rain (or even It is starting to rain) to ?It
is starting raining or *It is beginning raining.
Mildred is continuing to read / ?reading the newspaper.
The unions are now ceasing to support / ?supporting these actions.
*The unions are now stopping supporting / to support these actions.
2) A number of verbs can only be followed by an infinitive if the latter is preceded by an NP.
These verbs are:
- allow, authorize, permit, forbid
- advise, encourage, recommend, stimulate, urge
- provoke
In fact, there are three possible constructions:
a) V + gerund clause without subject
e.g. We do not allow playing football on the lawn.
The teacher recommends using this grammatical handbook.
She encouraged taking ballet lessons.
The law forbids smoking marihuana.
b) V + NP + to-infinitive
e.g. I don’t allow my children to drink alcohol.
The teacher recommends us to use this grammatical handbook.
He encouraged us to write poetry.
I have forbidden her to open this drawer.
c) V + gerund clause with subject of its own.
e.g. In the US, the law allows people possessing a gun.
I did not encourage his helping her.
I recommend your having a shower after the game.
Who urged your going?
Note:
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a) The third construction is less usual than the one with the infinitive (especially with urge).
b) Unlike the infinitive construction, it stresses the action rather than the person(s)
performing it.
c) The S of the gerund is normally a genitive or possessive form.
d) Provoke does not enter into this construction but into a slightly different one: provoke
someone into doing something.
e.g. His behaviour finally provoked his wife to leave / into leaving him.
3) After learn and teach, the infinitive implies (intended) success:
e.g. He learnt to read when he was an adult. (= He can read now.)
She’s learning to be a teacher. (= She intends to be a teacher.)
Where have you learnt to play the violin?
The gerund, on the other hand, implies no more than that the person in question is learning or is
being taught a subject:
e.g. I taught her reading in the evenings. (= I taught her that subject.) (The sentence does not
imply that she can read now.)
The gerund is therefore only possible with a couple of verbs indicating subjects, like reading,
writing, drawing, painting, singing, swimming, riding. Moreover, the gerund has to be used alone
(at least, there must be no complements or adjuncts changing the nature of the subject).
e.g. He taught me to read Russian/fast. (*reading Russian/fast)
He learnt riding on horseback for some time.
4) With like, love, hate, prefer and the formal verb scorn (= to reject something one is too
proud to do) the distinction is as follows:
a) The gerund is used when the speaker expresses that he enjoys (or does not enjoy) a particular
kind of situation, or that he finds (or does not find) a situation of that kind satisfactory or
pleasant.
e.g. It’s raining. Shall I give you a lift? -- No, I like walking in the rain. (= I am fond of
walking in the rain.)
I wouldn’t like staying the night in this sordid room. (= I wouldn’t find that experience
pleasant.)
I like having a shower at the end of a hot day.
I like driving to work. It’s more fun than sitting in a train. -- Personally, I prefer taking
the bus.
I prefer walking to taking the bus. (= I find walking more pleasant or more satisfactory.)
I don’t like driving at night. It’s tiresome. (= dislike)
You wouldn’t like having such neighbours.
The children love going to their parents.
I have always scorned telling lies. (fml)
She likes driving fast cars and going to wild parties.
I hate being called by my nickname.
In all these examples the speaker refers to a kind of situation, not to a particular instance
(actualisation) of the situation in question.
c) The gerund is also used to express that one finds a present situation enjoyable (pleasant,
satisfactory):
e.g. I love visiting this place. It stirs a lot of memories.
c) Otherwise the infinitive is used:
Ó) The infinitive is used to talk about a particular (present or future) instance of the
situation, i.e. when the speaker says that he wishes (or does not wish) the situation to
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actualize on a particular occasion.

e.g. I hate to disappoint you, but I can’t lend you any money for the time being.
Shall I drive you to the station? -- No, thanks. I prefer to walk.
Why didn’t you tell me? -- You seemed so happy, and I didn’t like to
distress you. (= I was unwilling to...)
Now that all the work is done I prefer to go home.
It follows that the infinitive is the normal form after would like/love/hate/prefer to refer
to the possible future actualization of a situation.
e.g. I’d like to buy a new dress.
I’d love to visit Janice when she’s back from Italy.
I’d prefer to be on my own now if you don’t mind.
ß) The infinitive is used if there is an idea of habitual actualization, i.e. when the speaker
expresses that the referent of the S regularly chooses (not) to do something (often in a
context specifying the reason for this choice).
e.g. I like to sleep late on Sundays.
I like to use a word processor. It makes writing much easier.
I prefer to buy my meat at Jempson’s because it’s cheaper there.
I hate to wake up the morning after a party. I usually feel awful.
We like to start early, so that we arrive before midday.
I wouldn’t like to eat the things that they eat. (= I wouldn’t wish to...)
Note:
a) In Am.E., the infinitive is often used instead of the gerund.
b) There is a similar difference of meaning between a gerund and an infinitive after dread,
can(not) stand and can(not) bear.
e.g. I can’t bear listening to Greek music. (= I don’t find that pleasant.)
How can you bear to eat that awful stuff? (actualisation)
She can’t bear/stand being ordered about.
She got angry because she couldn’t bear/stand being told what to do by a stranger.
I can’t bear/stand being laughed at.
I dread to think what will happen when he finds out the truth.
I dread having to face people that bully me.
c) The verbs dislike and (infml) loathe can only be used in the meaning of ‘not enjoy’, ‘not be
fond of’, ‘find unpleasant’ (without reference to actualisation). For this reason they are always
followed by a gerund.
e.g. She dislikes / doesn’t like / loathes plucking chickens.
I wouldn’t like / *would dislike to lose now.
d) In the construction ‘prefer NP to NP’ both NPs can be gerund clauses. When the first NP is an
infinitive clause, to must be replaced with rather than (which is followed by a bare infinitive).
e.g. cp. He prefers whisky to gin.
I prefer working to doing nothing.
I prefer to work rather than do nothing.
e.g. I should prefer to seek shelter rather than spend the night in the open.
5) After deserve, demand, need, merit, want, take, require and doesn’t bear, the active gerund
has a passive meaning:
e.g. Such poetry doesn’t bear reading aloud before an audience.
The washing machine needs/wants repairing.
The oil of the car requires replacing regularly.
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That story takes some believing. (= That story is hard to believe.)

That bitch deserves shooting!
This problem demands looking into carefully.
Of course these new conditions will take some getting used to.
What he said doesn’t bear repeating in front of the children.
Do your socks require washing?
I’m sure you don’t want reminding of your behaviour last time.
After some of these verbs (viz. want, deserve and need), a passive infinitive is also possible.
e.g. This proposal needs/wants/deserves to be examined carefully.
6) After forget, regret and remember, the gerund represents the situation as actualizing before
or at the time of the head clause situation. The infinitive represents it as not yet actualized
at that time.
e.g. Hardly had they left when they already regretted leaving the children behind. (= that they had
left...)
With the price of petrol going up every day, don’t you regret having such a large car? (= that
you have...)
I regret to say that your suggestion has not been accepted. (= I am sorry that I must now tell
you...)
I remember reading about it in the newspaper.
He remembered to thank her for everything. (= that he should thank her)
I’ll never forget spending five wonderful days with her.
I must remember / mustn’t forget to pay that bill.
The same rule distinguishes between the following pairs:
remind someone of + gerund ---- remind someone to + inf.
thank someone for + gerund ---- thank someone to + inf.
swear to + gerund ---- swear to + inf.
be ashamed of + gerund ---- be ashamed to + inf.
e.g. cp. He can’t swear to having locked the door.
He has sworn to speak the truth / to rescue her.
cp. This reminds me of visiting Vietnam during the war.
Please remind me to fill up the car tomorrow.
cp. I still have to thank you for coming to this meeting / for attending last night’s meeting.
I’ll thank you to wipe your feet when you come in!
cp. Aren’t you ashamed of wearing such shabby clothes?
Aren’t you ashamed of telling such lies when your father asked you what you had done?
I’m ashamed to tell him the truth, but I’ll have to.
It follows that none of these seven verbs can ever be followed by a perfect infinitive. A perfect
gerund is possible, but less usual than a present one.
7) The verb help is followed by the gerund only in examples like I can’t help laughing.
Otherwise we use either a to-infinitive or a plain infinitive (cf. §2).
8) When followed by the gerund, the verb mean means ‘to signify, imply, entail, involve,
have as a consequence’:
e.g. Giving up now means losing the result of two months’ work.
If we spend our money on buying a new car, it’ll mean spending the holidays at home.
When followed by the infinitive, mean means ‘to intend’:
e.g. I doubt if he really meant the cue ball to hit the pink.
She didn’t mean you to know about it.
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He (had) meant to buy a new coat, but the shops were closed.
He meant to send off the manuscript the next day, even if it meant working on it all night.
9) Try is followed by an infinitive clause when it means ‘to attempt’, ‘to make an effort’.
e.g. You should try to find a better job.
We tried to open the door, but it was locked and barred.
Try is followed by a gerund clause when it means ‘to make an experiment’. That is:
a) when someone does something just to see what it is like.
e.g. Have you ever tried eating snails? I have, but I wouldn’t recommend you to try it too.
I think we should try using another knife. This one needs sharpening.
b) when someone does something in order to see what the consequences are. In this case the
experiment is made because the subject hopes that it will help him to achieve something.
e.g. I’ve tried cutting her nails very short, but even that couldn’t stop her from biting them.
I always come late to work, even if I take the underground. -- Perhaps you should try
going on foot. After all, it’s not very far.
These blood stains won’t wash out. -- Try using that new washing-powder they advertise
on TV.
If they don’t understand English, try speaking French to them.
Note: The structure ‘try and + infinitive’ can be used instead of ‘try to + infinitive’:
e.g. Try and eat all of it.
However, using and is possible only after the form try (i.e. the infinitive or imperative), not
after tried, tries or trying:
e.g. We’ll try and do better tomorrow.
Try and get me some fresh vegetables.
You really must try and refute their arguments.
*He tried and did it.
*He always tries and escapes doing his share of the work.
10) Unlike phrasal verbs in general (which are normally followed by the gerund only), go on
can be followed by the gerund or the infinitive:
a) The gerund expresses the continuation of an existing situation:
e.g. He went on complaining, even after I had told him it was not my fault. (= He kept (on)
complaining.)
b) The infinitive refers to a new situation, or to the next in a series:
e.g. After briefly discussing the possibility of snap elections, the Cabinet went on to talk of
other, more urgent matters. (= proceeded to talk of...)
11) The (formal) verb chance is followed by the gerund when meaning ‘risk’ and by the
infinitive when meaning ‘happen to’:
e.g. We can’t chance being considered accessories after the fact.
Mary chanced to be taking a bath when the phone rang.
If you buy these shares, you chance losing a lot of money.
12) The (formal) verb warrant is followed by the gerund when it means ‘justify’. It enters into
the pattern ‘V + NP + to be/have’ when it means ‘guarantee’:
e.g. The subject of tenses is important enough to warrant us devoting a long chapter to it.
I can’t warrant these jewels to be genuine.
The ribbon I have bought for my typewriter is warranted to be pure silk.
13) Propose is followed by the gerund when it means ‘make a proposal, suggest’ and by the
infinitive when it means ‘plan, intend’:
e.g. I propose bringing the meeting to a close now and going on with the discussion next time.
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I suspect he proposes to resign if he does not get his way. -- Well, we will see tomorrow if you
are right.
14) When followed by a gerund, condemn means ‘express strong disapproval of’, ‘pronounce
as wrong or evil’:
e.g. In his speech the Pope once more condemned (catholics) using contraceptives.
In the pattern ‘V + NP + to-infinitive’ condemn means ‘state as a punishment for someone’ or
‘force someone into an unhappy state of affairs’:
e.g. The military court condemned him to be executed by hanging.
After his fall he was condemned to go about on crutches.
15) The verb leave is followed by a gerund when it means ‘postpone’:
e.g. Let’s leave discussing that for next time.
When leave means ‘leave in the charge of’, it is followed either by a gerund or by a (usually
extraposed) infinitive clause:
e.g. cp. I’ll leave writing the letter to you.
I’ll leave it to you to write the letter. (seldom: I’ll leave you to write the letter.)
cp. He always left reading galley proofs to his assistant.
He left it to his assistant to read galley proofs.
(He left his assistant to read galley proofs.)
e.g. We’d better leave her to solve her own problems.
Note:
a. If a verb cannot be followed by an infinitive clause as direct O, this need not mean that it
cannot be followed by an infinitive clause at all. Some verbs can be directly followed by an
adverbial infinitive clause (cf. §2).
e.g. cp. Jill stopped consulting / *to consult the street map of London a long time ago. (object clause)
Jill stopped to consult the street map of London. (adverbial clause of purpose)
b. English speakers often use the construction ‘do + gerund’ instead of a single verb form. In this
pattern the gerund must be preceded by a determiner and must refer to an action (not to a state,
process or event).
e.g. I hate doing the proofreading.
Who will do the washing/ironing/sewing/shopping/cooking for the children?
This construction is particularly common with quantifying determiners expressing the
frequency with which a habitual action is performed.
e.g. Maud used to do a lot of riding before she got married.
I’m saving up in order to be able to do some travelling.
He is old now, but he still does a little painting.
c. In sentences like They kept (on) singing or She burst out laughing the -ing form is not a gerund
functioning as direct O but a present participle functioning as SC (cf. §1).

D. GERUND CLAUSES FUNCTIONING AS OBJECT COMPLEMENT

Examples can be found of gerund clauses that function as OC:
e.g. I call that way of representing things bending the truth.
We consider his so-called advice as meddling in our affairs.
I wouldn’t call that lying. The girl is only telling innocent fibs.

E. GERUND CLAUSES FUNCTIONING AS INDIRECT OBJECT

The referent of an indirect O is normally a person or a thing, not an action. For that reason a gerund will
not normally function as indirect O, although it does in examples like the following:
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e.g. He didn’t give helping her a second thought.

F. GERUND CLAUSES FUNCTIONING AS OBJECT OF A PREPOSITION

1. An infinitive can never follow a preposition, but a gerund frequently does. In that case the
gerund clause is part of a PP which fulfils one of the following functions:
a. prepositional object (i.e. object of a prepositional verb)
e.g. He insists on being left alone.
I have never felt more like crying.
He does not talk of giving up yet.
b. adverbial
e.g. He tried to persuade us by referring to what the others had done.
I was glad to be allowed to go out after being confined to my room for several days.
Note: After the prepositions beyond and past the active form of the gerund may have passive meaning:
e.g. The thought tormented her beyond bearing.
e.g. cp. People like him are past praying for. (passive meaning)
I’m past caring what she says. (active meaning) (= I no longer care.)
c. complement or modifier of a noun:
e.g. Fear of the fortress being reduced weighed on the morale of the troops.
My aim in doing this is to draw attention to the bad influence of these video clips on children.
d. complement to an adjective:
e.g. He is fond of playing with the dog.
Mildred has never been good at cooking.
2. After some verbs, adjectives and nouns we can use either a to-infinitive or a ‘preposition + gerund’
construction:
a. the verbs aim (at) and decide (on):
e.g. They have decided to back / on backing the project.
The colliery aims to increase / at increasing production by fifteen per cent.
b. the nouns attempt (at), chance (of), opportunity (of):
e.g. Nobody has ever made a serious attempt to decrease / at decreasing the number of cars on our
roads.
I have had no chance of reading / to read about it yet.
We’ll have plenty of opportunity to discuss / of discussing that later.
Why not take this opportunity to visit / of visiting the castle?
There is no chance of that happening.
There will be no chance/opportunity for us to have a drink while we are there.
Note: We could not use the word occasion in the above examples. The (formal) expression to have
occasion to means ‘to have a reason for’, ‘to find it necessary to’:
e.g. The privates have every occasion to hate sergeant Mills, as he is always harassing them.
Does she have any occasion to steer clear of you?
c. the adjectives content (with), determined (on):
e.g. These people don’t want to leave their slum dwellings. They are content to stay / with staying
where they are.
The headmaster was determined to get to the bottom of the mystery of the missing chalk.
3. After certain adjectives, there is a difference of meaning between a to-infinitive and a ‘preposition +
gerund’ construction:
a. certain, sure:
e.g. cp. Stephen Hendry is certain/sure to win the tournament. (derived from, and hence synonymous
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with, It is certain that Stephen Hendry will win...)

Stephen Hendry is sure/certain of winning the tournament. (= He is certain/sure he will win.)
cp. He is sure to be there. (= I’m sure he’ll be there.)
He is never sure of saying the right thing.
b. afraid:
1) In the sense of ‘frightened’ both afraid of and afraid to can be used.
e.g. I’m afraid to touch / of touching a spider.
He travels by train because he is afraid to fly / of flying.
2) To express that fear inhibits the subject from doing something we usually use the infinitive.
e.g. Mother was afraid to contradict the stranger in case he became angry. (= Mother chose not to
contradict him for fear he might become angry.)
I’m afraid to go into the streets at night. (= I prefer not to go into the streets when it is night.)
In this use afraid cannot be followed by a that-clause.
3) The idea ‘worried or anxious about the possible result of something or about what might happen’ is
expressed by afraid of:
e.g. I don’t like to use appliances that I am not familiar with because I’m afraid of damaging them.
Whenever he is drunk his wife is afraid of being molested by him.
I didn’t tell him about the accident because I was afraid of upsetting him.
In this use afraid can also be followed by a that-clause.
c. interested
1) interested in (+ gerund) means ‘showing curiosity or concern about’.
e.g. She hasn’t decided yet what to do, but she’s interested in joining the Voluntary Service
Overseas.
2) interested to (+ infinitive) means ‘interested by what one learns or experiences’.
e.g. I was interested to hear about her troubles from the vicar.
Bill seemed particularly interested to read the financial column of ‘the Times’.
I’ll no doubt be interested to know what happened.
d. sorry:
1) We use a to-infinitive after sorry when we apologize for something we are doing or are about to do.
e.g. I’m sorry to say that we can’t help you.
Sorry to interrupt -- there’s a phone call for John.
2) When apologizing for something that we have done, we can use ‘to + perfect infinitive’, or ‘for +
gerund’, or a that-clause.
e.g. I’m sorry to have overlooked this / for overlooking this / for having overlooked this / that I’ve
overlooked this.
3) Otherwise, sorry is followed by a to-infinitive or by a that-clause.
e.g. I’m sorry to hear your sister has had an accident..
She seemed sorry that she hadn’t been there herself.
4. It is important to see that to is followed by a gerund, not by an infinitive, if it is used as a
preposition:
e.g. I hope you are not averse to sleeping in a sleeping-bag.
My grandparents are now reconciled to living in a flat.
Your suggestion amounts to starting the discussion all over again.
I object to being kept in the dark.
We had better confine ourselves to studying the general outlines.
Percy has taken to playing squash. (take to = begin as a habit or practice)
She is not yet accustomed to having to wear a veil.
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Note:
a. We can find out whether to is used as a preposition by placing a noun after it. If the result is
grammatical, to is a preposition:
e.g. cp. I’m looking forward to her visit.
I’m looking forward to reading your book. (*to read)
cp. She’s not accustomed to this climate.
She’s not accustomed to living in this climate.
b. This test enables us to distinguish between two particularly confusing phrases, viz. used to and
be used to:
1) Used to is an auxiliary which is used to refer to a habitual past situation. It can only be followed by
an infinitive.
e.g. When I was young I used to spend the holidays in the country.
2) The phrase be used to consists of three elements: the copula be, the adjective used (which is roughly
equivalent to accustomed), and the preposition to. (The phrase is parallel in structure to phrases like
be interested in, be good at, etc.)
e.g. I’m used to hard work / to working hard.
After a couple of days I was used to (working in) the extreme heat of the steel foundry.
c. To is optional after admit and confess: 219
e.g. He admitted/confessed (to) writing the anonymous letter.
d. Although agree can be followed by ‘to + NP’, it is not followed by ‘to + gerund’:
e.g. I agreed to pay his debts / to the idea of paying his debts / *to paying his debts.

G. A GERUND CLAUSE AS COMPLEMENT OF AN ADJECTIVE

There are only two adjectives that can be directly followed by a gerund as complement, viz. worth and
worthwhile. 220
e.g. These poems are worth publishing.
It is worth/worthwhile publishing these poems.
I think this is a suggestion that is really worth considering.
The incident was so unimportant that it was not worth getting upset about.
Note:
1. Worthwhile is only followed by a nonfinite clause in sentences beginning with it is. (In other
words, the gerund clause is always an extraposed subject clause.)
2. The gerund clause following worth may or may not be an extraposed subject clause. If it is not,
it receives a passive interpretation if the object of the gerund is left unexpressed and is the same
as the subject of the head clause.
e.g. cp. The car is not worth repairing. (passive interpretation)
It’s not worth repairing the car. (no passive meaning because extraposed subject clause)
I can’t imagine that she has much to say that is worth straining one’s ears for. (no passive
interpretation because the gerund has an object of its own)
e.g. When my wife died, life ceased to be worth living. (passive interpretation)

H. A GERUND CLAUSE FOLLOWING AS, THAN, OR EXCEPT/BUT

1 As and than are basically conjunctions, but they may behave like prepositions when they are
followed by pronouns from the me-group. The same ambiguity appears from their use with

219. The (now dated) verb own (= admit, confess) is followed either by to + gerund or by a that-clause.
220. The phrase it is worthwhile is occasionally followed by a to-infinitive.
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nonfinite clauses: they can be followed not only by the infinitive (as noticed above) but also by
the gerund:
e.g. There is nothing so humiliating as being / (to) be rejected when one proposes to a girl.
I’d rather sing than play(ing) the guitar.
There’s nothing more satisfactory than seeing / than (to) see a dream come true.
But only the infinitive will be used when the reference is to future actualization:
e.g. There remains no more than to say goodbye.
e.g. cp. Driving a car is safer than riding a bike. (the speaker compares two kinds of action; there is no
reference to actualization)
You’ll find it safer to use the car than (to) go by bike.
2. But (= except) and except are basically prepositions, not conjunctions. (For this reason they cannot
be followed by pronouns from the I-group.) In spite of this, they can be followed not only by a
gerund (as is typical of prepositions) but also by an infinitive (which is typical of conjunctions). The
gerund is used to refer to a general and temporally unspecified situation; the infinitive is used to
refer to a specific future situation.
e.g. In their world there is nothing but eating, drinking, copulating and sleeping.
We have no choice but (to) go to the police.
What can they do except surrendering / (to) surrender?

CHAPTER 13

INDIRECT SPEECH AND THOUGHT

I. INTRODUCTION

A. There are two ways of reporting what a person has said:

1. One way (called direct speech) is to start with a clause of the type He said or He asked and
then to quote the utterance, i.e. to repeat the original speaker’s exact words. If we choose this
way, we incorporate the utterance within a reporting sentence by means of quotation marks, so
that a head clause retains its status as a head clause.
e.g. He said, ‘I have unlocked the door’.
2. The second way (called indirect speech or reported speech) is to start with a clause of the
type He said or He asked and to render the original utterance in the form of an object clause. In
this kind of report we express our own interpretation of the original utterance and do not
necessarily use exactly the same words.
e.g. He said (that) he had unlocked the door.
B. The two ways of reporting utterances can also be used to report thoughts:
e.g. ‘This report is unsatisfactory’, she thought to herself.
She thought to herself that the report was unsatisfactory.
C. Since the two systems we can use to report speech can also be used to report thought, we shall refer
to them as direct speech and thought (DST) and indirect speech and thought (IST).
D. For ease of reference we will introduce the following conventions:
1. The person whose utterance or thought is reported will be referred to as speaker A. The person
reporting speaker A’s utterance or thought will be referred to as speaker B.
2. We will speak of the reported utterance even if what is reported is really a thought.
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3. We will call speaker B’s utterance a report. A report is either a DST report or an IST report.
4. We will use the term reporting clause to refer to clauses like He said or She asked, which form
part of reports.
E. When we use IST, we have to adapt the reported utterance. Apart from the fact that head clauses
must be reformulated so as to become subclauses, we may have to adapt the deictic elements (i.e. the
tense forms, the pro-forms and the deictic adverbs). The fact that the system of tenses used in
subclauses is partly different from that used in head clauses may also necessitate adaptation of the
tense forms.

II. INDIRECT SPEECH AND THOUGHT

A. REPORTING A STATEMENT
1. The choice of tense forms
Statements become that-clauses in IST. As noted in chapter 3, there are two possibilities as regards
the use of tense forms in that-clauses:
a. That-clauses are usually temporally subordinated. Since at least the head clause of a reported
utterance is not temporally subordinated, this means that the report may have to use a different
tense from the one used in the reported utterance.
1) If the reporting clause is in the present tense, the that-clause situation is related to TU in exactly the
same way as the situation of the reported utterance is. There is therefore no adaptation of the tense
form in IST.
e.g. The shop is closed. --- He says that the shop is closed.
The shop will be closed. --- He says that the shop will be closed.
John looked distressed. --- Bill thinks that John looked distressed.
I’ve lost my key. --- Bill says he’s lost his key.
2) If the reporting clause is in the future tense, temporal subordination does not entail a change of
tense because the central TO (time of orientation) of a post-present domain behaves as if it were TU
(cf. chapter 3).
e.g. The shop is closed. --- He will complain that the shop is closed.
The shop will be closed. --- Someone will say that the shop will be closed.
John looked distressed. --- They will say that John looked distressed.
I’ve lost my key. --- He won’t admit that he’s lost his key.
3) If the reporting clause locates its situation in a past time-sphere domain, temporal subordination
may entail an adaptation of the verb forms. This adaptation is known in the literature as sequence
of tenses or consecutio temporum.
e.g. The shop is closed. --- He complained that the shop was closed.
The shop will be closed. --- Someone said that the shop would be closed.
John looked distressed last time. --- They thought that John had looked distressed the previous
time.
I’ve lost my key. --- He admitted that he’d lost his key.
I’ll have left the house before 8 o’clock. --- He promised he would have left the house before 8
o’clock.
When we compare the tenses in the reported utterance with those in the IST that-clause, we see that
the tense forms are ‘backshifted’. This shift is an automatic consequence of the fact that the
situation which was originally related to TU is now related to a past TO.
Note: Self-evidently, there is no backshifting if the temporal relation is not affected by the change
from DST to IST:
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e.g. I had already seen him. --- She said she had already seen him. (In both the reported
utterance and the report the situation of seeing is represented as anterior to a past TO.
Both sentences therefore use the past perfect.)
It follows that tense forms expressing a relation in a past domain are not backshifted, because
the same relations are expressed in IST as in DST.
e.g. Bill said that Betty was in love with him. ---- Mary told us that Bill had said that Betty
was in love with him.
George was no longer there when I arrived. ---- I told them that George had no longer
been there when I arrived.
4) When the reporting clause is in the present perfect, there will be no change of tense if the perfect is
a continuative one. However, if the perfect is an indefinite one, temporal subordination means that
past time-sphere tenses are used in the that-clause, i.e. that there is backshifting.
e.g. I feel unhappy. --- He has been telling me for some time that he feels unhappy.
I feel unhappy. --- He has told me a couple of times that he felt unhappy.
b. Under certain conditions, that-clauses can shift the domain (i.e. establish a new temporal
domain). This often happens when the reporting clause is in the indefinite perfect or in one of
the past tenses.
e.g. I will do it tomorrow. --- He (has) promised that he will do it tomorrow. (shift to the post-present)
I work in a bank. --- He (has) often told me that he works in a bank. (shift to the present)
I have succeeded in solving the problem. --- Your father told me that you have succeeded in solving
the problem. (shift to the pre-present)
Such a shift of domain means that the that-clause situation is related to TU (by the use of an
absolute tense) rather than to another TO (by the use of a relative tense). It is therefore not
surprising that the principal reason for using an absolute tense is present relevance of the that-
clause situation: 221
1) The speaker will often use an absolute tense to make clear that he believes in the truth of the
statement.
e.g. cp. Bill told me that he has a house in New York. (Speaker B apparently believes Bill’s
story.)
Bill told me that he had a house in New York. (Speaker B does not express his own
opinion concerning the truth of Bill’s statement.)
e.g. The ancient Greeks did not know yet that the earth is/was round. (Is shows that speaker B
believes that the earth is round; was is just non-committal: speaker B does not affirm that he
believes this (even though he probably does).)
The teacher said that the beaver builds dams. (Built would suggest doubt or disbelief.)
She told me she’s eighteen in August. (implies that I believe her)
She told me she was eighteen in August. (I am just reporting what she told me, without
implying anything about whether I believe her or not.)
2) The speaker may shift the domain to the present in order to make clear that the that-clause situation
and its implications are still holding.
e.g. Jack told me that his roommate has a limp. (Has suggests that the person in question is still
Jack’s roommate.)
Note:
1) When both the reported utterance and the reporting clause are in the past tense, the that-clause can

221. In sentences like the following we cannot have a shift to the present because there is no present relevance:
e.g. My late husband always said that he was/*is broad-minded.
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establish its own past domain, provided no confusion is possible about the relative times of the
situations. This possibility is especially made use of in spoken English.
e.g. Andy left on Monday. --- He said that Andy (had) left on Monday. (Had left is preferred in
formal English.)
She said she had been thinking of buying a horse. (Here we could not substitute was thinking
for had been thinking without blurring the temporal relation, since was thinking would be
interpreted as a relative tense form expressing simultaneity.)
2) When the that-clause itself contains a subclause, this subclause must be temporally subordinated if
it is a conditional clause. It is also normally temporally subordinated when it is an adverbial time
clause. In other types of subclause it is sometimes possible to shift the domain.
e.g. We were happier when we lived in Ashford. --- She said that they were / had been happier
when they lived in Ashford.
I often went to the beach when it was deserted. --- He said that he often went / had often gone
to the beach when it was deserted.
I’ll be angry if you do that. --- She said that she would be angry if he did that.
I lived with my aunt for some time because I’m an orphan. --- The child explained that he had
lived with his aunt for some time because he was/is an orphan.
I decided not to rent the flat because there was a school next to it. --- She said she had decided
not to rent the flat because there was a school next to it.
3) Auxiliaries that cannot be backshifted usually remain unchanged. The same holds good for past
subjunctives and modal pasts after wish, ‘d rather, it is time, etc.:
e.g. The work must be finished in two months. --- The instructions were that the work must be
finished in two months.
I wish I knew what to say. --- He said he wished he knew what to say.
He used not to eat meat. --- She said he used not to eat meat.
I’d rather you left now. --- She said she’d rather I left at once.
He wondered whether he ought to / should notify the police.
Note:
a) Only the modal auxiliaries that have a past tense form (viz. can, shall, will and may) can
undergo backshifting. This backshifting is a mechanical operation, in which semantic
considerations play no role. That is, can, may, etc. are backshifted (when necessary) even
when they express meanings which could, might, etc. cannot express in direct speech.
e.g. You may go now. --- He said I might go at once. (In DST might cannot be used to
express past permission.)
b) Auxiliaries that cannot be (further) backshifted are normally retained in IST (even in a context
that normally requires backshifting). However, some of them can also be replaced by other
phrases:
Ó) Speaker B can often use the past perfect of be able to, be possible to or be allowed to
instead of retaining could or might.
e.g. I could swim when I was six months old. --- He boasted that he could swim
/ had been able to swim when he was six months old.
As a child I couldn’t choose my own clothes. --- He said that as a child he
couldn’t / hadn’t been allowed to choose his own clothes.
ß) Need and dare can also be replaced by a form of need to (or have to) and dare to:
e.g. I daren’t go out on my own. --- He said he daren’t go out / didn’t dare (to)
go out on his own.
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You needn’t help me. --- He told me I needn’t help / didn’t need to help /
didn’t have to help him.
Need I give aunt Laura a kiss? ---- Billy asked if he need give / had to give
aunt Laura a kiss.
Ô) Must is normally retained in IST. Had to can also be used, but is really the
preterite of have to, not of must. For that reason, had to cannot be used when
must expresses a meaning that is not normally conveyed by have to (e.g.
inference, inner compulsion, invitation, advice...).
e.g. He must be mistaken. --- She said that he must be mistaken.
I must decide now. --- He said he must decide at once.
You must see the musical. It’s really worth going to. --- She said that I must
see the musical, adding that it was really worth going to.
I must see a doctor. It’s really urgent. --- She said she must see a doctor and
that it was really urgent.
4) Conditional sentences of type 2 (e.g. If she came I would be happy) are reported as follows:
a) If the conditional clause expresses weak potentiality (i.e. expresses a supposition or a tentative
suggestion concerning the future) the tenses remain unchanged in both clauses:
e.g. If we went by car we’d get there in time. --- I said that if we went by car we’d get there
in time.
If you moved your chair a little I could also sit at the table. --- She said that if I moved
my chair a little she could also sit at the table.
Backshifting the tense forms in such sentences would shift the meaning from potentiality to
that of unreality:
e.g. I said that if we’d gone by car, we’d have got there in time.
b) If the conditional sentence represents a situation as contrary to fact, the tenses will be
backshifted (in both clauses) if the counterfactual statement no longer holds good at TU (i.e. if
we refer to past unreality); otherwise, the tenses more often remain unchanged:
e.g. If I had a car, I could lend it to you. --- I told him that
(a) if I had a car, I could lend it to him. (I still don’t have a car.)
(b) if I had had a car, I could have lent it to him. (The speaker may have a car
now.)
5) As an introductory verb, say is mostly used without an indirect object (tell being preferred if there is
one). If an indirect O is expressed, it must be preceded by to. (This also holds good for verbs like
announce, confide, declare, describe, detail, explain, express, mention, put a question, relate,
reveal, suggest, etc.)
e.g. He said / (said to me) / told me / *said me that the sparking plugs needed replacing.
She explained to me that she couldn’t act otherwise. (*explained me)
By contrast, the verb tell requires an indirect object, except in two cases:
a) when tell means ‘narrate’, ‘relate’ and is followed by how:
e.g. He told (us) how he had ridden to the pyramids on a camel.
b) in the phrases tell stories/tales/lies/the truth:
e.g. I still believe he was telling (us) lies / the truth.

2. Other changes
a. Some introductory verbs (e.g. reply, telegraph...) require that after them. Others (e.g. say, think,
suppose, tell...) are frequently used without that.
e.g. He said (that) he had caught a pike.
b. Deictic words (i.e. words that refer to the here-and-now of the speaker) must often be adapted:
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1) Personal pronouns and possessive pro-forms must be adapted from speaker A to speaker B (except
if B is the same person as A):
e.g. I have finished my dinner. --- He said he had finished his dinner.
2) Demonstratives and deictic adverbs referring to place or time must be adapted to the position of
speaker B and to the time of reporting (unless the utterance is reported at once and in the same
place):
a) Demonstratives change as follows:
Ó) In time adverbials this and these usually become that and those:
e.g. She is moving this week. --- He said she was moving that week.
ß) Otherwise this/that/these/those normally become the when used as determiners and
it/they/them when used as pronouns.
e.g. I bought this vase for my sister. --- He said he had bought the vase for his
sister.
He showed two banknotes and said, ‘I found these in the closet.’ --- He
showed two banknotes and said he had found them in the closet.
Ô) In some cases a more explicit phrase must be used:
e.g. I’ll take this one. --- He said he would take the one that was nearest to him.
b) Adverbials of time are adapted as follows:
e.g. today --- that day, the same day
now --- then, at that time; immediately, at once
yesterday --- the day before, the previous day
the day before yesterday --- two days before
tomorrow --- the next day, the following day, the day after
the day after tomorrow --- in two days’ time
next week/year etc. --- the following week/year etc.
last week/year etc. --- the previous week/year, the week/year before
a year ago --- a year before, the previous year
Note, however, that deictic adverbials like today, now, yesterday, etc. can occur in IST after a
main verb in a past tense, provided they relate to the here-and-now of speaker B:
e.g. They told me yesterday that the exhibition will open tomorrow. (The adverb tomorrow
denotes the day after the day of speaker B’s report; it was not used by speaker A in the
reported utterance. This shift of ‘deictic centre’ from A to B is also reflected in the fact
that B uses will, thus shifting the temporal domain to the post-present, i.e. to a time later
than B’s utterance.)
cp. She said the ship (had) arrived two days before. (= two days before speaker
A’s utterance)
She said the ship arrived two days ago. (= two days before speaker B’s
report)
c) Here can become there, but only when it is clear what place is being referred to. Otherwise a
more explicit phrase must be used.
e.g. You can leave your hat here. --- She told me I could leave my hat on the
table/rack/couch...

B. QUESTIONS
1. Questions are normally reported in the form of subclauses depending on a verb of inquiry (e.g.
ask, inquire, wonder, want to know, etc.) and introduced by a question word or by if/whether:
e.g. Where did she leave it? --- I wondered where she had left it.
I’m not sure whether/if she’ll agree.
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He wanted to know if/whether John would be there too.

Note:
a. There is no inversion in such indirect questions.
e.g. Is anyone absent? --- She asked if anyone was absent.
b. The use of the tenses in indirect questions is the same as in indirect statements: there is either
temporal subordination or a shift of domain. (The latter possibility is subject to restrictions, the
former is not.)
e.g. Is John ill? --- Betty asked me just now if John was/is ill.
c. The conjunctions whether and if are not always interchangeable:
1) Only whether can be used after a preposition:
e.g. We haven’t yet answered the question of whether the membership fee should be raised.
2) Only whether can be used when the indirect question takes the form of a to-infinitive clause:
e.g. He doesn’t know whether to accept or reject the proposal.
He’s not sure whether to resign or stay on.
3) Certain verbs cannot be followed by if:
e.g. They are discussing whether/*if they should ask for a salary increase.
4) Whether is more common than if when both sides of an alternative are given (esp. in formal
English).
e.g. They don’t know yet whether they will be hanged or shot.
It was not predictable from the public-opinion poll whether/(if) the Conservatives would win
or Labour.
Only whether can be immediately followed by or not:
e.g. Please tell me whether or not you agree. (*if or not)
5) Only whether can be used when the indirect question precedes the main clause.
e.g. Whether he really intends to help you, I cannot say.
2. Questions beginning with shall I or shall we are reported as follows:
a. If they are speculations or questions asking for information about a future situation, they follow
the general rule. Speculations are usually introduced by wonder.
e.g. When shall I know if I get the job? --- She asked when she would know if she got the job.
Where shall/will we be this time tomorrow?--- She wondered where they would be at the same time
the next day.
b. Requests for instructions are reported with should or be to.
e.g. Shall I let in the next patient? --- The nurse asked whether she should / was to let in the next patient.
c. Requests for advice are reported with should:
e.g. (What do you think?) Shall I invite him to dance? --- She asked her friend whether she should invite
him to dance.
d. Offers of service and suggestions can be reported with should but are more often rendered by a
nonfinite clause following such verbs as offer, suggest, propose...
e.g. Shall I draw the curtains? --- He offered to draw the curtains / asked if he should draw the curtains.
Shall we throw a party? --- He suggested/proposed throwing a party. (or: He suggested that they
should...)
3. Requests beginning with will you, would you or could you can follow the general rule (i.e. they can
be reported in the form of an if/whether-clause). However, it is more usual to use the construction
‘ask + NP + to-infinitive’.
e.g. Will you step aside, please? --- He asked me to step aside / (if I would step aside).
Could you fetch a chair? -- He asked me to fetch a chair / (if I could fetch a chair).
Similarly, offers and invitations with will you...? can be reported either with ask (+ would) or with
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offer or invite.
e.g. Will you have some tea? --- He asked (me) if I would have some tea. / He invited me to (have)
some tea. / He offered me some tea.
Note: The verb ask can normally be used with or without an indirect O, but it requires one when
followed by a to-infinitive reporting a request:
e.g. cp. He asked (me) for advice.
He asked (me) who was responsible.
He asked me not to leave him behind.
4. The construction used for reporting a question can also be used to report the answer to a question. In
that case the introductory verb is not a verb of inquiry.
e.g. I told him how much I had paid for the dress.
I explained what the trouble was.
He didn’t say why he wouldn’t sign the letter.
I don’t know if/whether I can do it.
It all depends on whether/*if our calculations are correct.

C. COMMANDS
Commands can be reported in three ways:
1. The most usual construction is ‘tell/order/command/instruct/warn + NP (+ not) + to-infinitive’:
e.g. (Don’t) close the window! --- He told me (not) to close the window.
Arrest their leader. --- The general ordered/commanded his men to arrest the leader of the
group.
Don’t lie about it! --- He told/instructed/warned me not to lie about it.
Will you shut up? ---- He told me to shut up.
2. A second possibility is to use the auxiliary be to in a that-clause depending on tell (+ NP) or say.
e.g. Use a dictionary! --- The teacher said that I was to use a dictionary.
You mustn’t invite Polly. --- He said that she mustn’t / wasn’t to invite Polly.
This construction is preferred to the infinitive construction if the reporting clause is in the simple
present tense.
e.g. Introduce me to the manager. --- He says that I am to introduce him to the manager. (?He tells
me to introduce him to the manager.)
3. We also report a command when we use should (or the present subjunctive) in a that-clause
depending on such verbs as ask, decree, demand, dictate, command, insist, order, direct, urge, etc.
e.g. Please, don’t interrupt me. --- He asked/urged that we should not interrupt him.
Write to your MP now! --- He insisted that I (should) write to my MP at once.
Note:
a. This construction cannot be used when the reporting clause contains an indirect O.
e.g. cp. We asked/urged/ordered them to ignore the threats.
We asked/urged/ordered (*them) that they should ignore the threats.
b. Should can be similarly used after say and tell, but it then expresses advice rather than an order:
e.g. He said that I shouldn’t use my bike as long as the light hadn’t been mended.

D. EXCLAMATIONS AND YES / NO

Exclamations and short answers can be reported in two ways:
1. as head clauses interpreting speaker A’s speech act:
e.g. Thank you. ---- He thanked me.
Bastard! --- He called me a bastard.
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Good evening! ---- He greeted me / wished me a good evening.

My goodness! ---- He gave an exclamation of surprise. / He exclaimed with surprise.
Damn! ---- He swore.
2. as indirect statements or questions:
e.g. Did you see her? -- No. ---- He asked (me) if I had seen her and I said I hadn’t.
Did you tell her? -- Yes. ---- He asked (me) if I had told her and I said I had.
What a shame! ---- He said/exclaimed it was a shame. / He told me what a shame it was.

E. STRETCHES OF DISCOURSE
Stretches of discourse may consist of sentences of different types (statements, questions, commands,
exclamations). In that case we must see to it that the reported version of each clause depends on an
appropriate reporting clause.
e.g. Your father is coming. Hide that bottle. ---- He said that my father was coming and told me to
hide the whisky bottle.
I don’t know the answer. Do you? ---- He said he didn’t know the answer and asked if I did.
Damn! It’s a corpse. Don’t touch it! ---- He swore saying that it was a corpse and warned us not to
touch it.
The phrase adding that is often a useful device to introduce an indirect statement in such a sequence.
e.g. What are you going to do about it? I’m going to write to my MP. ---- He wanted to know what I
was going to do about it, adding that he was going to write to his MP.

III. FREE INDIRECT SPEECH

Free indirect speech is a literary way of reporting a person’s words or (more often) thoughts, which
combines characteristics of both DST and IST. 222 It is a form of IST (thus involving backshifted verb
forms and adaptations of deictic elements (pronouns, determiners and adverbials)), but there is no such
reporting clause as He said or He thought, and the reported utterance retains most of the typical
characteristics of a DST clause: it can have the form of a direct question (i.e. with inversion) or of an
exclamation, it can be followed by a question tag, etc.
e.g. So, that was what they were going to do, was it? He would never have believed it if he hadn’t
heard them say it with his own ears. Thank goodness he had happened to pass by the window
and overhear their conversation, otherwise he would have been taken by surprise. But now that
he knew what they were up to, he could make sure that they did not get their way.
The constable looked at me uncomprehendingly. Why ever did I insist on being arrested?
A feeling of excitement surged within him. The murderer had finally made a mistake. It wouldn’t be
long now before he was arrested.
The manager began his speech to the players by analysing last Saturday’s game. On the whole he
was not dissatisfied with the players’ performance, but it was disappointing that they had won
only one point. The defenders had done a good job, but the rest of the team had seemed a bit
sluggish. However, he was sure the team would put things right next time, and, anyhow, they
hadn’t lost, and that was the most important thing, wasn’t it?

CHAPTER 14

RELATIVE CLAUSES

222. Other terms for ‘free indirect speech’ are ‘erlebte Rede’ and ‘represented speech and thought’.
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I. INTRODUCTION

1. Relative clauses can fulfil three functions:

a. Most relative clauses are adjectival clauses, i.e. they (post)modify a noun head (the
antecedent):
e.g. The trees that were uprooted by the storm have been removed.
b. When the antecedent is not an NP, the relative clause has a function similar to that of a co-
ordinate clause:
1) In some cases the antecedent is a (finite or nonfinite) clause. Some grammars then speak of a
sentential relative clause. 223
e.g. We told him to give up his plan, which he reluctantly did. (= and he reluctantly did so)
She signed the letter herself, which was a serious infringement of the rules. (= and that was...)
2) The antecedent can be an adjectival.
e.g. He made her believe he was wealthy, which he was not.
c. When there is no (overt) antecedent, it is the relative clause itself that fulfils the function of S,
direct O, etc. in the main clause.
e.g. What you say is alarming. (what you say is S of is alarming)
Whoever can solve this puzzle will get a reward.
She can do whatever she likes.
Such relative clauses are called nominal relative clauses (because they fulfil a nominal
function) or headless relative clauses (because they have no overt antecedent). They should
not be mixed up with indirect (dependent) questions, which have the same formal
characteristics.
e.g. cp. She intentionally broke what I had made for her. (nominal relative clause)
She asked me what I had made for her. (dependent question)
2. That-clauses which are added to a noun head are not necessarily relative clauses. They may also be
complement clauses (appositive clauses).
e.g cp. The suggestion that he made was worthless. (relative clause)
The suggestion that he might be an actor seemed unbelievable. (the that-clause expresses the
content of the concept indicated by the noun)
cp. They didn’t believe the rumour/story/news that went about. (relative clause)
They didn’t believe the rumour/story/news that he had murdered someone. (appositive)
In a relative clause, that is a pronoun, i.e. it fulfils a nominal syntactic function in the relative clause
and may therefore be replaced with either who or which. When that introduces a complement
clause, it is a conjunction, i.e. a mere connective, which does not fulfil any other syntactic
function in the clause and is therefore not replaceable by who or which.
3. Like other modifiers, adjectival relative clauses are either restrictive (defining) or nonrestrictive
(nondefining):
a. A restrictive relative clause is one that gives information which is necessary to identify the
referent of the noun head among other members of the same class.
e.g. The essay I read yesterday was interesting. (picks out one essay from the class of essays)
A nonrestrictive relative clause merely gives additional information about a referent that is
already identified. Omitting it therefore does not affect the identification of the referent.

223. Sentential here means that the antecedent is a clause (cf. transformational grammar, where each clause is called a ‘sentence’).
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e.g. My sister, whose name is Maud, lives in Newenden.

b. Because of its semantic function, a restrictive relative clause belongs to the same information
unit as its antecedent; a nonrestrictive relative clause never does. This means that, unlike a
restrictive relative clause, a nonrestrictive relative clause is always preceded and followed by a
juncture (pause). In written English, nonrestrictive relative clauses are therefore enclosed within
commas, while restrictive ones are not.
4. Some older grammars use the term continuative relative clause to refer to a nonrestrictive relative
clause whose situation is represented as following that of the head clause, as in the following
example:
e.g. I gave the book to Bill, who sold it to Betty, who read it and then gave it to me for my birthday.
5. In suitable contexts, nonrestrictive relative clauses may be interpreted as having an adverbial
connotation (usually that of reason).
e.g. Betty’s children, who are still very young, did not understand most of the jokes. (reason)
My father, who is eighty-six, still goes swimming every day. (concessive)
Conversely, some types of adverbial clause (viz. clauses introduced by if or when) may sometimes
have a restrictive rather than an adverbial function. The sentences of the following pairs are
roughly synonymous:
e.g. cp. If/when a boy is continually told off and punished, he may lose all his self-confidence.
A boy who is continually told off and punished may lose all his self-confidence.
cp. Children are orphans if/when they have no parents.
Children that have no parents are orphans.
Such if/when-clauses are called restrictive if/when-clauses. (Note that restrictive when-clauses do
not refer to time.)
6. Relative clauses are introduced by relative words (such as who, whom, whose, that, which, what...)
or by a ‘zero relative’ (Ý). These relative words not only function as connectives but also fulfil a
syntactic function in the relative clause:
a. Some of them (e.g. who, whom, which, that...) can be used as relative pronouns and can fulfil
various nominal functions in the relative clause.
e.g. The one who has written this must be out of his mind. (S)
We moved to London in 1989, before when we were living in the country. (OP).
The wine (that) you have brought with you is really excellent. (direct O)
The girl (that) the policeman was talking to seemed very nervous. (PO)
He seemed reliable, which in fact he was not. (SC)
There are two nominal functions which a relative pronoun will not normally fulfil: indirect O
and OC. (In the former case a construction with to or for is strongly preferred: That’s the boy I
have given the ball to.)
b. Two of the relative words, viz. whose and which, can be used as relative determiners.
e.g. The jeweller was knocked unconscious by someone whose face was hidden under a mask.
He may protest, in which case we will have to try and talk him round.
What can also be used as a determiner, but then before the antecedent:
e.g. Just tell me what information you have been able to obtain.
c. Some of the relative words (viz. where, when, why, that and zero) can be used as relative
adverbs.
e.g. It happened at the time that/when/Ý we were staying at the Hilton.
The shop where I bought it no longer exists.
Today is the sort of day when everything goes wrong.
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I am pleased by the way (?that) he treats her.

7. The choice of the relative connective depends primarily on the following three parameters:
a. the (restrictive or nonrestrictive) nature of the relative clause:
e.g. Some relative connectives (e.g. that, Ý) are used only in restrictive relative clauses.
e.g. Some relative connectives (e.g. the pronoun what) are only used without an antecedent.
b. the antecedent:
e.g. The relative pronoun who requires a human antecedent; which requires a nonhuman one.
e.g. Most relatives cannot have a clause as antecedent.
c. (if the relative word is a pronoun:) the function and/or position of the relative pronoun in the
relative clause:
e.g. The relative pronoun whom cannot be S.
e.g. The relative pronoun that can be OP but it cannot be preceded by the preposition.
8. Relative clauses are usually finite clauses, but in some cases they can also be infinitival clauses:
e.g. cp. The poor child has no place that she can go to.
The poor child has no place to which she can go. (slightly more fml)
The poor child has no place to go to.
The poor child has no place to which to go. (very fml)
e.g. She has no children to look after. (*no children after whom to look)
These young people need an idol to look up to.
They had a nice garden to walk, sit and play in.

II. THE RELATIVE CONNECTIVES

A. WHO AND WHOM

1. Who(m) can be used in restrictive relative clauses as well as in nonrestrictive ones.
e.g. Bill is the player who scored the goal.
That artist, who I had not heard of before, has a lot of talent.
2. The antecedent is an NP with a human referent.
Note:
a. We can sometimes use she or her to indicate the referent of an inanimate noun (such as a car,
ship, etc. -- cf. chapter 7). However, such nouns cannot be followed by who.
e.g. The captain told us about the ship which/*who(m) he commanded.
b. In informal English, who can substitute for which/that when the antecedent refers to a pet
animal.
e.g. This is the puppy who/that/which we found on the rubbish dump. (who is informal)
c. There is only one pronoun that is regularly found as antecedent of who, viz. those. (As noted in
chapter 8, combinations like *this who and *these who are impossible because this and these
are not used as determinative pronouns. The combination *that who is equally ungrammatical.
The combination he who is now dated and survives only in proverbial sentences.)
e.g. She is not one of those who can afford to buy jewels.
He who fears nothing will not be just. (proverb)
He who helps the poor deserves respect. (archaic)
3. Who can be used as S or as direct O. It is occasionally found as OP:
e.g. I need someone who can help me clean the house. (S)
This is Joy Wilkins, who I came to know in Paris. (direct O)
The boy who you spoke to a moment ago is my boy-friend. (OP) (This construction is informal
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and rather unusual.)

Note:
a. Who can only be OP when the preposition is stranded (i.e. has end position).
b. The use of who as direct O or OP is rather uncommon. Spoken English prefers that or zero
instead. Formal English prefers whom (with the preposition before it if whom is OP).
c. Who is not used when the antecedent is SC and expresses a property rather than referring to a
person.
e.g. He is not the athlete that/*who he was when he was at college.
She’s no longer the bashful girl that/*who she was when she was living in our village.
4. Whom can only be used as direct O or OP. Unlike who, it can follow a preposition directly.
However, the use of whom is always formal.
e.g. The girl whom you met yesterday is my cousin. (very fml)
Who was that woman whom you spoke to after church? (very fml)
I am still thinking of the girl opposite whom I was sitting in the underground. (fml)
5. Who can be used as SC in a nominal relative clause functioning as SC.
e.g. You’re not who people think you are.
In nominal relative clauses that fulfil a function other than SC we have to use whoever instead of
who. (Another possibility is using a relative clause with the one as antecedent.)
e.g. Whoever / *who / the one who opened the window might have closed it again!
Note:
a. In such nominal relative clauses, whoever can effect two types of reference:
1) reference that is definite but attributive in Donnellan’s sense (cf. chapter 9): whoever = ‘the person
who (whoever he may be)’.
e.g. I’ll give a lift to whoever wants to go. (can mean: ‘I’ll give a lift to the person who wants to
go, whoever he may be’, ‘I’ll give a lift to whoever it is that wants to go’)
2) inclusive reference to the set defined by the relative clause: whoever = ‘any person that’, ‘all the
persons who’.
e.g. I’ll give a lift to whoever wants to go. (can mean ‘I’ll give a lift to any person or any persons
that want to go’)
b. Whoever has no object form.
e.g. Vote for whoever you find most capable. (*whomever)
I’d like to have a word with whoever broke the window.
c. Nominal clauses that are not relative clauses but dependent questions can be introduced by who,
but not by whoever :
e.g. cp. Whoever/*who robbed the safe must have known the combination. (whoever = ‘the person
who’)
Who/*whoever robbed the safe is still a complete mystery. (= the answer to the question ‘who
robbed the safe?’ is still a complete mystery) (who is an interrogative pronoun here; it does not
mean ‘the person who’)
e.g. I don’t know who they were talking about. (dependent question)
In such interrogative subclauses ever can be added as a separate word to the question word to
suggest surprise, irritation, etc. (cf. chapter 8). 224 In informal English ever can be replaced by
on earth ; slang often uses the hell.
e.g. Who ever robbed the safe is still a complete mystery.

224. Forms like who ever, what ever, etc. are sometimes written in one word, but this practice had better be avoided.
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What ever / what on earth caused this panic, nobody knows.

The same use is possible in direct questions:
e.g. What ever / what on earth / what the hell are you talking about?
d. Neither who nor whoever is used if the nominal relative clause forms part of a pseudo-cleft
construction. Instead, we use the more definite phrase the one who or the person who.
e.g. The one who brought us the message was Jill. (*who(ever))
Bill appears to have been the person who could answer the most questions. (inverted pseudo-cleft)

B. WHOSE
1. Whose can be used in both restrictive and nonrestrictive relative clauses.
2 Unlike its interrogative homonym, the relative word whose can only be used as a determiner, not as
a pronoun.
e.g. The girl whose handbag was snatched away is suffering from shock.
3. The head word following whose may have an inanimate referent.
e.g. The airplane whose door wouldn’t close completely had been overhauled only two weeks
before.
The theatre company, whose actors are mostly fairly old, is trying to find some promising
young actors.
Some speakers still object to this use of whose in the sense of of which. However, there is not always
a good alternative, since constructions with of which are usually stiffly formal, especially in
restrictive relative clauses.
e.g. cp. He referred to an article by Halliday, whose title I cannot remember right now.
He mentioned an article by Halliday, the title of which I cannot remember right now. (fml)
cp. The flat whose wallpaper was damaged has been refurbished.
The flat of which the wallpaper was damaged has been refurbished. (more fml)
It should be noted, however, that whose cannot replace of which in partitive constructions (i.e. when
of which follows a quantifier pronoun or a word like part, half, etc.):
e.g. She has written several books, most of which have been quite successful.
One of the students made several remarks, all of which were quite pertinent.

C. WHICH

1. As a pronoun, which can be used in both restrictive and nonrestrictive relative clauses.
e.g. The dress which we sent to the laundry has not been returned.
This theatre, which is no longer used, was built in 1944.
As a determiner, which can only be found in nonrestrictive relative clauses. The construction is
restricted to (very) formal English.
e.g. He suggested selling the house, which idea shocked his parents.
He failed to pass most of the exams, which fact came as no surprise to his fellow-students.
After the war he went to Rome, in which city he lived for three years before moving to Paris.
2. The antecedent of which can be
a. an NP with a noun as head. This noun usually has a nonhuman referent. However:
1) The nouns child and baby can also (but seldom) be found with which (in the same types of context
in which it is used to indicate the referent -- cf. chapter 7).
e.g. Which is the baby/child which suffers from haemophilia?
2) In a nonrestrictive relative clause, we use which (not who) if the relative pronoun does not refer to a
specific person (or group of persons) but is used predicationally (i.e. denotes a quality or
characteristic). This is the case
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a) if the relative pronoun is SC in the nonrestrictive relative clause.

e.g. The witness says the robber was a tall man, which this suspect is not.
In many examples of this type the antecedent is a predicational NP.
e.g. They called him a coward, which he was not.
We all believed he was a policeman, which in fact he was not.
b) when the antecedent is an indefinite NP with nonspecific reference.
e.g. What we all need is a loving partner, which you don’t have.
I am looking for a specialist, which you do not happen to be.
b. The antecedent of which may be a pronoun:
e.g. These roses are not as beautiful as those which I bought in Holland.
His best poetry is that which he wrote in exile.
In pseudo-clefts, that which is very formal and better replaced by what:
e.g. What I can’t understand is why you don’t use a chisel for this work.
c. The antecedent of which may be an adjective, provided the relative clause is nonrestrictive and
which functions as SC:
e.g. He accused me of being sneaky, which I am not.
d. In nonrestrictive relative clauses, the antecedent of which may be a clause:
e.g. The girl was very well-behaved, which is quite exceptional these days.
He runs the 5,000 metres in 14 minutes, which is pretty good for an amateur athlete.
The directors meet every two months, which is not very often.
3. The pronoun which can function as S, direct O, OP or SC.
e.g. The snow which had fallen during the night made it difficult to walk. (S)
Henry was worried about the possibility of a devaluation, rumours of which were going around.
(OP)
She appears to have been upset by a letter which she received yesterday. (direct O)
We are looking for a computer specialist, which you are not. (SC)

D. THAT

1. That can be used as a relative pronoun, not as a determiner.

2. That cannot be used in nonrestrictive relative clauses.
e.g. Please do not damage the books that you borrow from our library.
They are pulling down the building opposite the church, which/*that was built only fifteen
years ago.
3. The antecedent of that is a constituent of one of the following types:
a. The antecedent may be an NP with a noun or pronoun as head. The noun in question can have a
human or nonhuman referent.
e.g. I don’t like men that use aftershave.
I added the empty bottles to those that already filled most of the cellar.
Since that can be substituted for either who or which, it is particularly useful when the
antecedent refers to a set consisting of both human and nonhuman entities.
e.g. He seemed fascinated by the soldiers, horses and cannon that filled the valley.
b. The adverbs anywhere and everywhere may be the antecedent of that:
e.g. Please follow the guide anywhere (that) she leads you to.
Note: Instead of the sequences anywhere that and everywhere that we more often use wherever.
c. In a cleft construction, not only NPs but also VPs, PPs and adverbials can be the antecedent of a
that-clause.
e.g. From the sentence Yesterday John was explaining the rules to Mary we can derive the following
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cleft sentences:
It was John who/that was explaining the rules to Mary yesterday.
It was the rules that John was explaining to Mary yesterday.
It was yesterday that John was explaining the rules to Mary.
It was to Mary that John was explaining the rules yesterday.
?It was explaining the rules to Mary that John was doing yesterday.
Note: Although the wh-clause of a cleft has the same formal characteristics as a restrictive
relative clause, it differs from a normal restrictive relative clause in that it does not have
the same restrictive function. That is, it does not serve to identify the referent of the
‘antecedent’. This appears from observations like the following:
a) The ‘antecedent’ of a cleft can be an NP whose referent is already identified (e.g. a proper
name without a determiner). This is impossible when the wh-clause is a true restrictive relative
clause.
e.g. cp. It was John who left first.
*This man is John who left first.
b) The ‘antecedent’ of a cleft need not be an NP at all.
e.g. It was there/then that I proposed to her.
It was because the guide was ill that we had to return.
4. When the antecedent is an NP, that alternates with either who or which. However, this alternation is
not completely free:
a. Although who and that are mostly interchangeable in restrictive relative clauses depending on a
human antecedent, they are not always equally appropriate:
1) In subject position, who is preferred to that, except when the antecedent refers in a vague or general
way (e.g. when it refers to unidentified people).
e.g. The nephew who/(that) sent us this postcard is my sister’s son.
She’s the sort of woman who/that will gloat over other people’s misery.
The terrorists that/who smuggled the bomb into the building have not been caught yet.
Students who/that become unwell during the dissection are kindly requested not to fall onto
the corpse.
I have someone who/that answers the phone for me.
2) That (or zero) is strongly preferred to who(m) as direct O and OP.
e.g. The man (that) you see over there caused a row in the hotel yesterday. (whom is very fml;
who is rare)
Susan is a girl (that) you can rely on.
3) After some types of antecedent, that is more usual than who:
a) after superlatives (including last, only and ordinal numerals):
e.g. Peggy was the first/only student that/(who) took the exam.
b) after the indefinite pronouns and determiners any, some, few, no, none and every and their
compounds in -body/one:
e.g. No one that/(who) has seen these pictures will ever forget them.
The inhabitants of the village are forbidden to leave their houses after 7 p.m. Any that
ignore the curfew risk being shot.
There is none / no one that can help me.
The few (people) that like this programme are usually very young.
c) after the (pre)determiner all:
e.g. All the apples that are rotten should be thrown away.
All the girls that I know like being taken out.
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However, when used as a pronoun, all is more often followed by who (because in many
contexts all that will naturally be interpreted as ‘everything that’):
e.g. A free ticket was given to all who asked for one.
4) In cleft constructions, both who and that can be used in subject position. That is very strongly
preferred when the relative is direct O or OP. Cleft constructions with whom following a
preposition are very seldom found.
e.g. It was John who/that made the suggestion, not Mary.
It’s Betty that/??who I am in love with, not Jane.
It was a friend of mine that/?who I met there.
When the focus of the cleft is a personal pronoun and the relative pronoun is S of the wh-clause,
there are two possibilities (cf. chapter 8): we use either who or that, according as the focalized
pronoun is in the subject form or in the object form. The former construction is typical of formal
English, the latter of informal English.
e.g. cp. It was I who was responsible. (fml)
It was me that was responsible. (infml)
b. That and which are sometimes, but not always, interchangeable:
1) Both are equally appropriate in the subject slot:
e.g. I cannot believe in a doctrine that/which promises happiness for everybody.
But that is preferred to which when the antecedent is SC.
e.g. It’s a book that will be very popular.
2) In spoken English, that is more usual than which as direct object.
e.g. He did not tell me about the accident (that) he had had.
3) That (or zero) is strongly preferred when the pronoun is OP of a stranded preposition:
e.g. The painting (that) you are looking at is worth a small fortune.
4) In the following cases, which is unusual or not used at all (except after a preposition, because that is
then ruled out):
a) Which is not normally used after superlatives (including last, only and ordinal numerals):
e.g. This is the worst article that/??which has ever been published in this journal.
The first/next/only thing that/Ý/??which you have to do is apologize to the teacher.
b) Which is not normally used after the indefinite pronouns and determiners all, any(thing),
every(thing), few, little, much, many, no(thing), none, some.
e.g. This is all (that) I’ve been able to find. (*all which)
The little (that) he’s said hasn’t helped the police much. (*the little which)
You will find everything (that) you need in that cupboard. (*everything which)
You can’t just say anything (that) comes into your head. (*anything which)
However, which is quite acceptable if the relative clause is extraposed from the indefinite
antecedent NP:
e.g. Why don’t you go to the police? They have anything at their disposal that/which is
needed to solve your case.
After some and something the pronoun which is not impossible, but that is preferred.
This is something (that) I had never expected. (more usual than something which)
c) Which is seldom used in cleft constructions.
e.g. It is the car (that) I would like to use, not the bike!
However, which is not quite unacceptable in subject position.
e.g. It is the house that/(which) needs repainting, not the garage!
It is this which is the essential difference between the two. (that will be avoided here
because the sequence this that is awkward)
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c. Apart from the use of who in headless relative clauses (cf. above), who and which are not used
as SC or OC in a restrictive relative clause.
e.g. She is not the cheerful woman (that) she was before she married. (*who)
He is not the fool that you thought him. (*who)
My lawn-mower is no longer the reliable machine it used to be. (?which)
d. When the restrictive relative clause is an existential construction, it cannot be introduced by
who or which. We normally use zero instead.
e.g. The number of dead trees there are in this forest is alarming. (*which there are)
It’s the only one there is in the wardrobe.
e. When the antecedent is a collective noun referring to a body of people, we use either who or
which/that, according as the verb of the relative clause is plural or singular (cf. chapter 7).
e.g. They form a family who enjoy themselves very much. (*that/*which)
It’s a family that/which has lived in this area for three centuries.
5. That can fulfil various functions in the restrictive relative clause:
a. That can be used as S.
e.g. I had no choice but to kill the animals that were too ill to be cured.
b. That can be used as direct O.
e.g. These are the books that I read last week.
c. That can be used as OP, provided the preposition has end position in the relative clause. (Unlike
which, that cannot follow a preposition directly.)
e.g. cp. This is the room that I work in.
This is the room in which I work. (*the room in that I work)
d. In some contexts that can function as an adverbial adjunct. In that case it is equivalent to a
relative adverb or to a PP consisting of a preposition and a relative pronoun.
1) That functions as an adverbial when the antecedent is an NP denoting time:
e.g. The local inhabitants invariably clam up the moment (that) you broach the subject of the
disappearance of Joe Finn.
By the time (that) we had found all the children it was getting dark.
I got married in the year that Aunt Charlotte died.
This construction can alternate with other constructions:
a) The relative clause can be introduced by when :
e.g. That was the year when Kennedy got murdered.
There haven’t been many occasions when I’ve seen her happy.
b) The relative clause can begin with a preposition followed by which :
e.g. That was the year in which Kennedy got murdered.
However, this construction is quite formal and will not normally be used when the antecedent
is an adverbial.
e.g. ?Bill and Jill got married in the year in which Kennedy got murdered.
?He died on the day on which he became eighty-four.
c) The relative clause is only marginally acceptable if it begins with that or zero and has a
stranded preposition at the end:
e.g. ?What’s the time (that) he normally leaves the office at?
?That was the day (that) we got married on.
This construction is quite ungrammatical when the antecedent is an adverbial adjunct:
e.g. He started complaining the moment (that) he came in (*at).
She broke her leg the day (that) she married (*on).
2) That also functions as an adverbial when it depends on everywhere or anywhere.
 432

e.g. The bird follows the rhinoceros everywhere (that) it goes. (= wherever it goes)
Note:
a) That is usually omitted in such sentences.
b) After other antecedents denoting place, the preposition cannot be dropped, unless where is
used.
e.g. That’s the house where he lives / (that) he lives in / in which he lives (fml) / which he
lives in (rare) / *(that) he lives.
3) When the antecedent is way, that is often used instead of in which (which is more formal).
e.g. She cooks mutton in the way (that) I do it myself. (no preposition at the end)
4) A that-clause is possible after reason. In that case there is no real alternative with for : the sequence
the reason for which is clumsy and unnatural, and if we use that, for will not be retained at the end.
On the other hand, the combination the reason why is a good alternative.
e.g. That’s the reason that/why/Ý he came.

E. AS
1. As can be found in both restrictive and nonrestrictive relative clauses.
2. As to the antecedent:
a. In restrictive relative clauses, as will only be found after NPs involving same or such and after
as or so followed by an adjective or adverb.
e.g. I know we need new regulations, but I cannot possibly accept such as were suggested by Mr
McPhilomy just now. (fml)
I want the same (thing) as you.
We will never again have so excellent a chance as we have now. (fml)
She was as helpful as could be.
Teachers should teach them such things as they can use in later life.
Note that it is not impossible to use that after same, but it is considered better English to use as.
e.g. You’re making the same mistake as/(that) you made last time.
b. In nonrestrictive relative clauses, as can be used after any antecedent (i.e. an NP, adjective, VP,
adverbial, clause).
e.g. The guide explained that the building had once been a brewery, as it was still called by the local
people.
Anyone with some feeling for the past will want to go to Compostella, as so many pilgrims have
done since the middle ages.
Gordon felt very guilty, as he often did where his children were concerned.
Note:
1) Such as-clauses can be analysed as sentential relative as-clauses, i.e. as relative clauses whose
antecedent is a clause. On the other hand, some grammars prefer to analyse them as comment
clauses. (Comment clauses are short clauses (such as I think or you know) which add a comment to
the head clause or to the rest of the sentence.) Whichever analysis is correct, as-clauses share with
comment clauses the feature that they can appear in various positions. That is, if they are relative
clauses, they are special in that they do not need to follow the antecedent clause.
e.g. (Just) as he had feared would happen, his car broke down on the way home.
He is, as Mr Harris has told you, a man with a lot of talents.
As was natural under the circumstances, he changed his will.
2) Unlike which (which can also introduce a sentential relative clause), as necessarily expresses some
kind of agreement or similarity between the contents of the relative clause and those of the head
clause. For this reason, negative as-clauses are mostly unacceptable.
 433

e.g. John is very intelligent, as everybody/*nobody knows.

The girl is clever, which/*as is an advantage.
As often/*seldom happens at such parties, a lot of people drank too much.
3. As can fulfil various nominal functions in the relative clause:
e.g. This is the same book as lay on the table this morning. (S)
This is the same book as I read last summer. (direct O)
This is the same book as I told you about last week. (OP)
I’m not such a coward as you are. (SC)
Like that, as cannot follow a preposition directly.

F. WHAT
1. As a pronoun, what can only be found in nominal relative clauses.
e.g. You need study only what is most important. (that which is a more formal alternative)
What John gave me was a book. (pseudo-cleft)
What he was doing was cleaning the car. (pseudo-cleft)
Note: Since what can never follow an antecedent, combinations like *that what or *something what
are quite impossible.
e.g. *You need study only that what is most important.
2. What can also be used as a determiner. In that case it is not found in the relative clause but precedes
the antecedent.
e.g. I let him have what money I had.
I gave him what information I had been able to find.
This use has the following characteristics:
a. The NP with what usually has the connotations of ‘all’ and of ‘little/few’. The latter
(depreciatory) connotation can be made explicit by the overt use of little or few :
e.g. I’ll give her what (little) assistance I can. (= all the assistance I can give, but it is not much)
He mentioned what reasons he could to justify his deed. (= such reasons as...)
What (few) relatives she has live abroad.
These arrests broke down what resistance remained.
b. This use of what is impossible before a singular count noun:
e.g. Give me what books/information/*book you have on the subject.
c. The connotation of ‘all’ entails that there is little difference of meaning between what and
whatever in such sentences. However, whatever lacks the depreciatory connotation which what
often has.
e.g. You must give them what(ever) support they need.
The boot of the car is large enough to hold whatever luggage you want to take with you.
d. If the antecedent is determined by what(ever), the relative clause following it cannot be
introduced by an overt relative pronoun:
e.g. This will stimulate what(ever) research (*that/*which) is being carried out at our university.

G. BUT
Grammars traditionally treat but as a relative pronoun (with the meaning ‘who/that...not’) in examples
like the following (which are very formal, even somewhat archaic):
e.g. There was not a youngster but wanted to emigrate.
There is hardly anybody here but distils brandy illegally.
There is not one of them but wishes he could help you.
 434

The reason why but is treated as a relative pronoun is that it is apparently the S of the relative clause
(since there is no other element that fulfils this function).225

H. WHERE, WHEN, WHY

1. When, where and why are relative adverbs that can be found in both restrictive and
nonrestrictive relative clauses.
e.g. There are few bookshops where you find scientific books.
He spent the summer in Canada, where his son has a farm.
2. The antecedent
- of when is an NP denoting time or a time adverbial.
- of where is an NP denoting place or a place adverbial.
- of why is an NP whose head is the noun reason.
However, all three of them can also introduce a headless relative clause:
e.g. Next Thursday is when we have to pay.
This spot on the map is where I live.
Put these back where they belong.
That’s why I did it.
3. Note that where can mean both ‘to which place’ and ‘at which place’.
e.g. Let’s take him to the hospital where John is being treated / where John has been taken.
4. Next to its use as an adverb, when has a nominal use: in a nonrestrictive relative clause it can be
used as OP.
e.g. He will graduate next year, by when he will be twenty-four. (by when = ‘by which time’)
Where too can be used as OP:
e.g. This is the place from where the shot was fired.

I. ZERO
1. Since a zero relative pronoun can only be used as an alternative to that, it is found exclusively
in restrictive relative clauses. Such relative clauses are often called contact clauses.
2. Zero can be used in exactly the same cases as that, except for the fact that its use as S is restricted to
a couple of cases:
a. In spoken English, zero is preferred to that as S of an existential relative clause:
e.g. They say swimming is the healthiest sport there is.
This is not the only book there is on the subject of clefts.
b. In informal English, the S of the relative clause can be zero when the antecedent follows there
is/are or here is/are.
e.g. The next day there was a policeman came to ask questions about the woman who had disappeared.
Where can I buy these things? -- There’s a supermarket down the road sells them.
There was a man asked for you five minutes ago.
By the way, here’s one little fact might interest the police. The girl was not at home at the time of
the murder.
c. In informal English, the S of the wh-clause of a cleft can be zero.
e.g. It was only our relentless efforts made success possible.
It was Stephan Edberg won the finals in 1989.

J. WHOEVER, WHATEVER, WHICHEVER, WHEREVER, WHENEVER

225. One could argue, however, that but is really a conjunction, after which the S is obligatorily deleted.
 435

Ever can be added as a kind of suffix to who, what, which, where and when. It has the meaning of ‘no
matter (who/what, etc.)’.
e.g. Whoever made this decision was extremely short-sighted.
We feel like prisoners. We cannot go wherever we like.
Wild boars eat whatever (food) they can find.
You can take the examination whenever you like.
Note:
1. These relatives always introduce nominal relative clauses.
2. Whichever differs from whatever and whoever in that it implies a restricted choice from an
identifiable set.
e.g. cp. You can use whatever tools you like.
You can use whichever of these tools you like. (*whatever of these tools)
e.g. cp. I’ll engage whoever wants to do the job.
I’ll engage whichever of them wants to do the job. (*whoever of them)
e.g. Whichever party accedes to power will have to tackle this problem.
Just write down whatever crosses your mind.
3. Which cannot introduce a nominal relative clause. We use whichever instead.
e.g. Whichever/*which of them is the last to leave must lock up.
You can take whichever/*which you like best.
Whoever is used similarly, but we must use who when the relative pronoun is SC in a nominal
relative clause which is used as SC (cf. above).
e.g. Whoever/*who breaks a window has to pay for it.
What do you mean when you say that she is no longer who/*whoever she was?
4. Subclauses introduced by whoever, whatever, etc. are not necessarily relative clauses. The same
words can also introduce adverbial clauses of concession:
e.g. The police will find the murder weapon, wherever you may have hidden it.
Whoever says that, it’s a lie!
She’s never satisfied, whatever I do.
5. In nonassertive sentences, whatever (and also whatsoever) can also follow an NP as a kind of
emphasizer (with the same meaning as ‘at all’):
e.g. I have no intention whatever/whatsoever of throwing up my career.
None of them has paid any contribution whatever.
There can be no doubt whatever about it.
Has he given you any assistance? -- None whatsoever.

K. WHENCE, WHITHER, WHEREAT, ETC.

A number of relative adverbs have now come to be very formal or even archaic: whence (= from where),
whereat (= at which), wherein (= in which), whereof (= of which), whereon (= on which), whereto (= to
which), whither (= to which), whereby (= by which). The least archaic (but still formal) adverb in this list
is whereby :
e.g. They are working out a plan whereby the factory will be taken over by a foreign company.

III. COMPLEX CONSTRUCTIONS

A. When two relative clauses postmodify the same antecedent, they are co-ordinated. In that case the
second relative clause normally uses which/who rather than that.
e.g. This is the car that he bought sixteen years ago and which he is still using.
 436

He told me about the many elm trees that were affected by the disease and which had to be cut
down.
B. In some cases the different relative clauses do not modify the same antecedent because they have
different scope. In that case they are not co-ordinated.
e.g. ‘Apocalypse now’ was the first war film he saw that really shocked him.
In this example the first war film is the antecedent of (that) he saw, whereas the first war film he saw
is the antecedent of that really shocked him. The second relative clause thus has wider scope
than the first.
Relative clauses that have different scope are called stacked relative clauses.
C. In some cases the relative pronoun fulfils a syntactic function, not in the clause which it introduces,
but in a subclause of that clause, or in a subclause of a subclause (etc.) of that clause.
e.g. Is that the man that you said you wanted to see? (that is direct O of see, not of said or wanted)
This phenomenon is best explained in transformational terms. In Transformational Generative
Grammar, each sentence is considered as consisting of a complementizer (COMP) and a clause.
In subclauses, the COMP is either a conjunction or a relative; in head clauses the COMP
position remains empty. In underlying structure, the wh-element (relative pronoun) fills the
position that is typical of its syntactic function. Relativization is a process that moves the wh-
element, first to the COMP-position of its own clause, then to that of the next higher clause, etc.
until it fills the COMP position of the first clause following the NP with which it is coreferential
(i.e. the antecedent). If the COMP position of one of the clauses is already filled (by a
conjunction), this ‘wh-movement’ cannot take place.
e.g. The underlying structure of the sentence He is the man that I want to avoid running into looks
something like this:
COMP He is the man [COMP I want to [COMP PRO avoid [COMP PRO run into WH]]]
Note: PRO is the pro-form for I (which surfaces as zero in the nonfinite clauses), and WH is the wh-
element that is coreferential with the man and which will surface as that. Wh-movement moves WH
from COMP to COMP until it takes the COMP position of the first embedded clause.
Wh-movement can move relative pronouns out of embedded clauses of various types:
1. The wh-element can be moved out of an object clause, provided the latter is not introduced by
an overt conjunction (since wh-movement is blocked if the COMP position of the embedded
clause is already filled by the conjunction that).
e.g. We did not see any of the edelweiss that all the brochures say grow on the slopes of the mountains.
(that is subject of grow)
The essay (which/that) you thought (*that) was written by Tim was in fact mine.
We found ourselves in one of those storms which any sailor knows the Cape of Good Hope is
notorious for.
We were shown a sapphire which they said (*that) was worth a million pounds.
The doctor prescribed a medicine which he claimed (*that) would stop my migraine.
Lack of medical care is only one of the reasons for the high mortality that we have shown (*that)
exists in this area.
This is the man who they say will be the next President. (cp. *the man of whom they say that he...)
They have developed a drug which they believe can cure multiple sclerosis. (cp. *a drug of which
they believe that it can cure...)
2. The wh-element can be moved out of an infinitive clause functioning as S, direct O, OP or
adverbial clause of purpose.
e.g. He has a dish which he claims to be a piece of genuine Chinese porcelain.
The only thing you are required to do is to appear in our talk show three or four times a year.
 437

Did you commit any crime that you thought party policy required you to commit?
Where’s that cat we climbed onto the roof to rescue?
She is a teacher who it is not advisable to contradict.
3. The wh-element can be moved out of a gerund clause functioning as direct O or OP.
e.g. Is she the girl you are trying to avoid running into?
This man is not anyone I remember meeting before.
Influenza is one of the diseases that elderly people should consider being inoculated against.
This is something that hardly anyone is capable of seeing to properly.
I wonder who is the boy that she is afraid she risks having to dance with if she goes to the ball.
4. The wh-element can be moved out of a participle clause functioning as SC or OC.
e.g. Where are the flowers that I saw you picking this morning?
The book will not treat all of the subjects that we are spending our time discussing.
Who’s the girl whose name he lay mumbling in his sleep?
Who wrote the poem that we’ve just heard Tim reciting?

IV. THE WORD ORDER IN THE RELATIVE CLAUSE

Since the relative word has a connective function, it normally opens the relative clause. There are,
however, a couple of exceptions:
1. Some relative words (viz. whom, which, whose and what) can be preceded by a preposition.
e.g. She won’t tell me next to whom she was sitting.
The book to which I am referring can be obtained from the local library.
The man in whose house they are staying is an archaeologist.
Tell me something more about what happened.
But, like who, as, that and zero, these relative words also allow the preposition to occur at the end of
the relative clause. In many cases the two constructions are equally possible, but there are a
couple of restrictions:
a. In restrictive relative clauses, constructions with a preposition preceding whom or which are
more formal than constructions with a stranded preposition.
e.g. cp. The man about whom I told you... (fml)
The man I told you about...
e.g. This is not the pen (that) I usually write with.
The coffee mug (that) you’re drinking out of is very old.
When the preposition is stranded, the most usual relative pronoun is zero, although that is also
quite acceptable. Which and who, by contrast, are rarely used in this way.
e.g. cp. That’s the man I referred to.
That’s the man that I referred to.
That’s the man who I referred to. (rare)
That’s the man to whom I referred. (fml)
Note:
1) Front position of the preposition is not normally possible (except in very formal English) when the
preposition forms part of a prepositional verb.
e.g. She was a girl (that) you would never have thought of as a nymphomaniac. (*of whom you
would have thought)
The hobby that he has gone in for is stamp-collecting. (*for which he has gone in)
He is a man that most people look down on. (?on whom most people look down)
There are a lot of questions that we still need to go into. (*into which we still need to go)
 438

What is it that your house looks onto / looks out over / looks out on?
2) A number of prepositions cannot normally be found at the end of the relative clause.
e.g. around, beside, beyond, concerning, despite, down, during, except, near, inside, opposite,
outside, regarding, round, since, up...
e.g. The knight suddenly opened the door outside which the jester was listening.
A lot of tourists were staring at the slope down/up which the man was climbing.
3) End position of the preposition is unusual if the PP is a manner adverbial.
e.g. The tenacity with which he followed the scent was remarkable.
I could not agree with the way (in which) they intended to reorganize the firm.
The mood in which he received us did not bode well for the company’s future.
b. In nonrestrictive relative clauses it is almost a rule for the preposition to precede the relative
pronoun, except when it forms part of a prepositional verb.
e.g. He was an inscrutable person, about whom journalists could only speculate.
My secretary, who I can always count on, has drawn up all the necessary papers.
He loves a girl called Helen, for whom he buys flowers every time he goes to see her.
The topic of the debate was euthanasia, about which every one of them had interesting things to say.
No one gives any credence to the local council’s promises, which they have so often gone back on
in the past.
The use of complex sentences like these is typical of a formal style.
2. The relative word can occur in an of-PP modifying a noun head. In that case there are two
possibilities:
a. The noun head can open the relative clause (even if it is not the S) and be followed by the of-
PP.
e.g. He has lost a lot of money, most of which he had borrowed.
All this happened at Venice, a visit to which is certainly worth its while.
We discussed the subject of psychic phenomena, the interest in which is very great at the moment.
This construction is the only one available if the noun head that is modified by the of-PP
depends on a (not stranded) preposition.
e.g. He was a member of the IRA, in the power of which he had great confidence. (we can also say in
whose power he had great confidence, which is less formal)
b. The of-PP can precede the noun head.
e.g. He has lost a lot of money, of which most was borrowed.
In nonrestrictive relative clauses, this construction is the less usual of the two. It is even less
usual with of whom than with of which.
e.g. There were a great many casualties, many of whom / ?of whom many were civilians.
The document proved the existence of a secret organization, whose members / the members of
which / (of which the members) were former Nazis.
She has two servants, each of whom / *of whom each has a room of her own.
The Russian team consists of sixteen athletes, all of whom / *of whom all are said to be students.
In restrictive relative clauses, by contrast, the second construction is more usual than the first.
e.g. Where are the books of which many / (many of which) are said to be very old?
This is the book of which some pages / some of whose pages / (some pages of which) are missing.
This is a phenomenon of which we don’t know the origin / (the origin of which we don’t know).
I won’t buy a bike of which a number of spokes are missing.
 439

INDEX

As explained in the preface, this is a selective index. The numbers refer to the pages. As a rule, the
number of the page on which the definition of a term is to be found is given first.

a, see indefinite article

a- 349
abandon 503
abhor 168, 504
abide 70, 75, 469, 505
ability 389-397
able 80
be able to 390-397, 483, 524
abnormal 481
abolish 503
abominate 504
about
be about to 116, 138, 203, 465
absence
of epistemic necessity 407
of root necessity 386-389, 405
of permission, see prohibition
absolute
clause 36
free adjunct, see absolute clause
participle clause 461-462
sector 127
superlative 345
tense 87, 89-117
absolute-relative tense 137, 141
abstract noun 40, 247, 327, 339
absurd 422, 481
accept 504
accidence 8
accompaniment adjunct 227, 275-276
accompany 505
accurate 485
accusative, see object form
accused (noun) 249
 440

ache (verb) 169, 469, 505

achievement verb 176
acknowledge 34, 205, 207, 475, 505
acoustic phonetics 1
act 53
action 51, 53
action gerund 496-498
active
perception, see perception
voice 53
activity 53
actualization
of ability 391-397
of necessity 383, 389
of possibility 397-405
future actualization of present modality 362-364, 371-372, 383-384, 388, 392-393, 396, 401, 405,
416
actually 231-232
addendum 64
adding adverb 229
additive allomorph 10
adjectival 14-15, 447, 449-454
clause, see adjective clause
adjective 13-14, 28-29, 41-42, 84-85, 342-350
degrees of comparison of 77-80, 342-345
see also: attributive, de-adjectival noun, predicative
adjective clause 22, 532
see also: relative clause
adjective phrase 17
adjunct 27, 37, 209, 214, 219-227, 478-479
see also: adverb, adverbial, fronting, obligatory, optional
admire 168, 504
admit 34, 207, 475, 503, 505, 517
admittedly 232
adnominal 27-31, 346
adore 168, 504
adult (noun) 249
adverb
formation of 80-85
classification of 214-235
position in clause of 216-235
adverb clause 22, 218-219
see also: cause, comparative, concessive, conditional, contrast, conditional-concessive, exception, goal, manner, preference, proportion,
result, reason, respect, space, time
adverb phrase, see adverbial phrase
adverbial 14-15
adjunct, see adjunct
 441

clause, see adverb clause

infinitive clause 478-480, 487, 514
particle 43-45, 177, 186
phrase 17
advice 374, 378-379, 381, 431
question asking for, see question
advise 420, 507
advocate (verb) 504
affected direct object 34
affirm 34, 207
affirmative sentence 25
affix 8, 258-259
afford 469
afraid 271, 469, 483, 485, 504, 516, 524
after (conjunction) 119, 135, 152, 457
aged 448
agent 51-52, 93, 200, 211-212, 221, 499
agree 168, 353, 420, 469, 505, 517
agreeable 482
agreement
clause expressing 190-191, 272
subject-verb agreement, see concord
aid (verb) 473
aim (verb) 469, 505, 515
ain’t 3
aircraft 242
Aktionsart 57-58
see also: atelic, durative, dynamic, iterative, nondurative, stative, telic
album 64
alga 63
all 160, 296-298, 541-542, 294-298
allegedly 232
allomorph 10
allow 473, 507, 524
alone (adverb) 229
alphabetic spelling 2
already 26, 106-107, 222
also 229
alternative question 24
alternatively 234
although 443
always 101, 106-108, 174, 222
amazed 483
amazing 422
amazingly 233
ambitious 481
among(st) 276, 278
 442

amused 422
amusing 482
amusingly 233
an, see indefinite article
anaphoric (reference) 280, 288, 321
see also direct anaphoric reference, indirect anaphoric reference, pro-form, pronominal determiner, pronoun
and 237, 278, 479
angry 483
animal name
and gender 260-261
animate noun 40
announce 34, 207, 525
annoyed 483, 485
annoyingly 233
another 290, 306-307
one another 278
one ... another 307
anointed (noun) 248
antecedent
of bound pronoun 275
of relative clause 532
antenna 63
anteriority 55, 118-119, 125, 127-130, 141-142, 355, 358, 379, 384, 389, 400-402, 406-408, 411, 446,
448, 465, 494, 503
anticipatory pronoun, see expletive
anticipate 505
anxious 354, 421, 483
any 290, 293, 300-305, 343-344, 541-542
any one 293
anybody 293, 304
anyone 293, 304
anything 304, 542
anyway 234
anywhere 540, 544
apostrophe 66, 68
apparently 232
appeal to 477
appear 33, 35, 170, 203, 271, 303, 437, 468-469
appended
clause 191-192
question, see tag question
appendix 64
apply oneself 469
apply to 477
appoint 473
apposition 30, 37-38, 67, 333, 335-336
appositive
 443

noun phrase, see apposition

clause 38, 533
appreciate 168, 504
apprehend 475
apprehension
subclause depending on expression of 440-441
appropriately 233
apt 203, 483
aquarium 64
arguably 232
around 552
arrange 353, 420, 466, 469
arranged future 91-93, 116-117, 121, 375
article 28, 320-341
see also: definite article, indefinite article, zero article
articulatory phonetics 1
as
conjunction 178, 196, 274-275, 340, 342, 444, 491, 518
preposition 35, 37, 277, 335, 456, 462, 491, 518
see also: prepositional copula
relative 315, 545-546
as for 20
as if 354
as long as 139, 423
as though 354, 359
as to 20, 314
as well 229
as well as 238
ashamed 422, 483, 485
ask 265, 353, 420, 469, 473, 475, 477, 528-529
aspect 55-58, 157-183
see also: egressive, habitual, imperfect, imperfective, inceptive, nonprogressive, perfect, perfective, progressive, repetitive
aspect auxiliary 50
aspectual 57
aspectualizer 56, 507
aspire 469
assertion, see declarative sentence
assertive (item/sentence) 26-27, 301, 305, 384, 404, 407, 424
assist 473
assume 139, 168, 205, 303, 425, 475
assuming 139, 425
assumption, see logical assumption, probability
assure 366
astonish 168
astonished 422, 483
astonishingly 233
asylum 64
 444

asyndetic co-ordination 21
atelic (Aktionsart) 57, 60, 101
attempt
noun 515
verb 470
attend 505
attitudinal
disjunct 232-234
use of past tense 356-357
attraction
of number 239
relative attraction, see relative
attribute (verb) 34, 505
attributive
adjective 346-350
definite noun phrase, see Donnellan’s distinction
auditory phonetics 1
aunt 331
authorize 420, 473, 507
automaton 64
auxiliary 48-50, 184, 188-189, 203, 524
see also: aspect auxiliary, modal auxiliary, tense auxiliary, voice auxiliary
avoid 303, 500

baby 260, 538

bacillus 63
back (verb) 504
background situation 159, 161, 176
backshift
of modal auxiliary 370, 402, 404, 524-525
of tense form 522
bacterium 64
bad 78, 485
ban (verb) 503
bar (verb) 503
bare infinitive, see plain infinitive
barracks 242
barely 230, 303
base (morpheme) 8
basic adverb 80
basically 232
be 352, 354, 429-431, 475-476
auxiliary 49-50, 53, 172, 190
copula 35, 185, 188-190, 202, 217, 272-273, 359, 468, 472
lexical verb 48, 187, 267, 472, 476
be to 116-117, 120-121, 217, 374-376, 386, 397-405, 430, 528-529
see also: able, about, afraid, bound, going to, point, were
 445

bear (verb) 70, 75

can’t bear 470, 504, 510
doesn’t bear 510
because-clause 140-141
become 35
bed 331
beef 328
before
adverb 106-107
conjunction 119, 152-155, 303
see also: nonfactual before-clause
beg 470, 473, 475
begin 203, 470, 506-507
begrudge 504
belief, see probability
believe 168, 205, 303, 475
beloved 287, 448
bend (verb) 70, 75
bereave 70, 75
bereaved (noun) 248
beseech 473
beside 552
besides 234
bet (verb) 134
better 359
between 276, 278
better 359
beyond 515, 552
bias (verb) 69
bid (verb) 70, 75
billion 240
binding
situation 87
of pronoun 275
temporal binding, see temporal subordination, direct binding, indirect binding
blacks 249
blessed 448, 450
blest 450
blind (noun) 248
-body 541
bodily sensation, see internal sensation
bold 481
bonus 63
bored 483
both 292, 297-299
both...and 21, 237
bother 470, 505
 446

bound
be bound to 203, 409, 483
bound
morpheme 7, 10
pronoun 275
bounded
duration adverbial 181-182
sentence/situation 58-60, 97, 100-102, 163-164, 176, 178, 181-182, 439
see also: unbounded
bounden 450
brace (noun) 240
brave 248, 481
break off 503
brethren 63
bribe (verb) 473
bring 207
burst out 514
bus 61
but
preposition 274, 277, 491, 518-519
relative 547
by 457, 499
by no means 231

cactus 63
calf 62
call upon 477
campus 63, 331
can 117, 168, 367-369, 371, 373, 389-408, 415-416, 441-442, 524
cannon (noun) 242
capability 389-397
capable 390, 393, 396
cardinal numeral 28, 289, 316-319
care (verb) 168, 434, 470
careful 481
careless 481
case
in case 139, 423-424
case
of noun 252-258
see also: genitive, object form, subject form, vocative
of pronoun 264, 273-275
cat 260
cataphoric (reference) 281, 321
catch (verb) 459
catholic (noun) 249
cattle 242
 447

causative 34, 172, 458-459, 490

see also: have
cause (verb) 473
cause
adverbial of 227
subclause of 218, 444
cease 470, 503, 506-507
celebrate 505
central
determiner 28, 263
pronoun 264
situation (of temporal domain) 87
certain 33, 203, 481, 516
certainly 232, 234
challenge (verb) 473
chance
noun 515
verb 470, 513
chapel 331
characteristic 422
characteristic behaviour 413-414
cherish 504
child 63, 260, 538
choose 470, 472, 505
chorus 63
chosen (noun) 248
chrysanthemum 64
church 331
circus 63
circumstance
subclause of 462
circumstantial necessity 383, 385-386
civil 481
clad 450
claim (verb) 205, 470
class 331
classic(al) 84
classifying
adjective 29, 346, 349-350
genitive 29, 254-255
noun 29
clause 17
see also: absolute participle clause, adverb clause, adverbial infinitive clause, appended clause, appositive clause, comment clause,
copular clause, existential clause, independent clause, noun clause, object clause, pro-form, relative clause, subclause, subject clause,
superordinate clause, supplementive clause, unrelated clause
cleave 71, 75
cleft (construction/sentence) 266, 214-215, 272-273, 540-543, 548
 448

clever 481
cleverly 233
close(ly) (adverb) 81
closed
class 15, 48
condition 425-427
code 48-49, 189-197, 217, 379, 395, 418
codex 64
cognate object 34, 206
cognition verb 90, 163, 168, 171-173, 201, 382, 394, 475
cold 328
collective
noun 40, 242, 245-247, 328, 543
reference 241, 310
college 331
coloureds 249
come 116, 470, 479
come to 203
comic(al) 85
comma 30, 38, 214, 235, 238, 456, 463, 533
command (verb) 353, 420, 473, 475, 529
command 364-365, 367-369, 375, 379-381, 383, 488, 529
see also: directive, imperative, instruction
commemorate 505
commend 504
comment 18, 20
comment clause 545
commentaries 176
commission 473
common 481
common
case 252
noun 39
communicate 34
communication structure 18
communication verb 90, 475
see also: saying
comparative
clause 138, 141, 193, 219, 304
degree/form 76-80, 290, 304, 308, 343-344
compare 505
comparison
degrees of 76-80, 342-345
see also: comparative degree, positive degree, superlative degree
subclause of, see comparative clause
compel 473
complain 34, 207
 449

complement
of adjective 37-38
of noun 29, 37-38, 533
of preposition, see object of preposition
of verb 37
clause, see object clause
to the object, see object complement
to the subject, see subject complement
see also: complementation
complementary distribution 10
complementation 47
complementizer 47, 550
complete (verb) 162, 503
complete (situation), see perfective aspect
completely 230
complex
noun phrase 29
preposition 43
sentence 22-23
word 12
see also: complex NP shift
complex NP shift 187, 218
compound
noun, see noun compound
personal pronoun 264, 275-279
sentence 20-23
word, see word compound
compound-complex sentence 22
compulsion, see necessity, inner compulsion
conceal 505
conceivably 232
concerned 483
concessive
adverbial 227
clause 138, 140, 219, 443-446, 549
concord 17, 35, 236-240, 269
of proximity, see proximal concord
see also: formal concord, referential concord
concrete noun 40
condemn 473, 504, 513
condescend 470
condition
on condition that 423
condition, see closed condition, counterfactual condition, hypothetical condition, open condition
conditional
clause 139, 142, 189, 218-219, 270, 302-304, 354, 359, 363, 371, 376, 382, 415, 423-437, 524
verb forms in 423-437
 450

see also: condition, conditional sentence, conditional-concessive clause

perfect (tense) 86, 142, 155, 434
sentence 115, 133, 525
tense 86, 120-123, 126, 129, 434
conditional-concessive clause 219, 354, 360, 443
condone 505
confess 34, 207, 475, 505, 517
confide 34, 525
confirm 475, 505
conjecture, see probability
conjoined, see co-ordinate
conjugation 8, 49, 53-58
conjunct 215-216, 234-235
conjunction 21-22
see also co-ordinating conjunction, subordinating conjunction
conjunction reduction 21
connective 21
connector, see connective
connotation 11-12
connote 505
consecutio temporum, see sequence of tenses
consent 420, 470, 505
consequence, see result
consequently 234
conservative (noun) 249
consider 168, 205, 475, 500, 505
considerate 481
constantly 174, 222
contact clause 548
contemplate 505
content
adjective 422, 483, 515
noun 244-245
content disjunct 232-234
content question, see wh-question
contented 483
context 88, 92, 94-96, 102
continually 174, 222
continuative
perfect 100, 103-106, 119, 125-127, 130, 141-142, 161, 522
relative clause 533
continue 470, 506-507
continuous
entity 39
tense form, see progressive
continuously 222
contract (verb) 470
 451

contracted form 49-50, 217, 224, 430, 488

contrast
adverb clause expressing 219
see also: contrastive emphasis
contrastive emphasis 19, 44, 189
contrive 470
control 314, 456, 458, 472, 477, 500
control verb 472
conveniently 233
conventional implicature 6, 393
conversational implicature 6
see also: implicature
converted intransitive 205-206
convinced 485
cook (noun) 331
co-operation
sentence asking for 363, 433
co-ordinate
clauses 20-22, 278, 549
noun phrases 335, 340
sentence 20-22
co-ordinating conjunction 21
co-ordination 20-22, 237-238, 269
see also: asyndetic, syndetic
co-ordinator, see co-ordinating conjunction
copula 35, 170, 190, 334-335
copular clause 32, 272-273, 334-335
correctly 233
correlative
conjunction 21
constructions with other 307
use of the 325, 343
cost (verb) 71, 75, 168
could 168, 353, 368, 372-373, 379-381, 389-408, 415-416, 429, 431, 440-442
could well 416
counsel (verb) 470
count noun 39-40, 60, 289
and use of article 329-336, 339-340
countable (noun), see count noun
countenance (verb) 504
counterfactual
condition 425, 430-433, 435
meaning, see unreality
couple (noun) 240
courageous 481
court (noun) 331
craft 242
 452

creation, verb of 98-99

crew 246
criminal (noun) 249
cringe 76
criterion 64
criticize 504
crocus 63
crooked 448
crossroads 242
crucial 481
cruel 481
cunningly 233
curious 422, 483
curiously 233
current relevance 90, 110
curriculum 64
curse (verb) 504
cut out 503

daily 83
damage(s) (noun) 244-245
dangerous 33
dangling clause, see unrelated clause
dare 418-420, 470, 473, 524
datum 64
dead (noun) 248
de-adjectival noun 247-252
deaf (noun) 248
deal
a great/good deal of 312
dear 287
debate (verb) 505
deceased (noun) 248
decent 481
decide 353, 420, 470, 515
decidedly 232
declarative
question 185
sentence 23
declare 34, 205, 207, 475, 525
decline (verb) 470, 504
decree (verb) 420, 529
dedicate 34, 207
deer 240
defective verb 49
defend 504
defer 500, 503
 453

defining
genitive 254-256
modifier, see restrictive
relative clause, see restrictive
definite
article 285-286, 294, 320-338, 343
duration adjunct 221-222, 224
frequency adjunct 222, 224
noun phrase, see definite reference
reference 31, 264, 321-322
repetition adjunct 222, 224
time-specifying adjunct 221-222, 224
definitely 231-232, 234
definiteness implicature 5
defunct (noun) 248
defy 473
degree adverbial 218, 230-231
degrees of comparison 77-80
deictic
centre 280, 527
use of demonstrative 280
word 321, 256, 521, 526-527, 530
deign 470
delay (verb) 500, 503
deletion
of article 248, 340
of be 454, 458, 461-462, 469, 489-490
of infinitive clause 480
of noun head after genitive, see elliptic genitive
of noun phrase 21
of personal pronoun 277-278, 484
of preposition 24, 485
of reflexive pronoun 276
of relative clause of cleft 272-273
of subject 17-18, 21, 547
of that 440, 485, 256
of to 379, 491-492
of verb 18, 21
of verb phrase 214-215
see also: zero
delighted 483, 485
deliver 34, 207
demand (verb) 353, 420, 470, 510, 529
demonstrative
pronominal determiner 263, 279-282, 526
pronoun 195, 263, 279-282, 526
demonstrate 34, 207, 475
 454

denotation 11
denote 505
deny 303, 475, 500, 503-504
deontic modality 352, 383
departed (noun) 248
dependent
clause, see subclause
exclamation 24, 529-530
imperative 24, 529
question 24, 185, 270, 304, 477-478, 485, 527-529, 537
statement 24, 521-527
deplorable 422
deplore 504
deprecate 504
depreciatory connotation 12
depressed 483
derivational
affix 8
see also: suffix
paradigm 8
derogatory connotation 12
describe 35, 207, 525
descriptive
adjective 350
genitive, see classifying
linguistics 1
deserve 168, 470, 510
desideratum 64
design (verb) 470, 505
desirable 354, 421
desire (verb) 168, 353, 420, 460, 470, 473, 475, 505
despair (verb) 504
despise 504
despite 552
detail (verb) 35, 525
determination 361, 365
determinative 281-282, 288
determine 470
determined 354, 421, 515
determiner 28, 31, 241
see also central determiner, definite article, indefinite article, pronominal determiner
detest 168, 504
devote 35, 207
diachronic 7
dice 240
dictate 35, 420, 529
different 305, 308, 348
 455

difficult 33, 348, 482

direct(ly) (adverb) 81
direct (verb) 420, 473, 475, 529
direct
anaphoric reference 321
binding 144-146
object 33-34, 206-207, 273, 276, 495
clause, see object clause
perception 490
speech and thought 187, 520
direction adjunct 225-227
directive 23
disagree 168, 420
disagreement
clause expressing 190-191, 272
disappointed 483
disclaim 504
disclose 35, 475
discontinue 503
discontinuous
entity 39
modifier 31
noun phrase 30
discountenance 504
discourage 303, 504
discourse 20, 87, 134, 530
discourse opener 20
discourse-oriented modality 365-367, 369, 374, 382, 384-385, 388
discourse topic, see topic
discover 460, 475
discuss 505
disdain (verb) 470, 504
disguise (verb) 505
disgusted 483
disinclined 483
disjunct 215-216, 232-234, 479
dislike (verb) 168, 503-504, 510
dislocation 20, 38, 277, 502
disposed 483
dispute (verb) 504
disregard (verb) 504
dissatisfied 483
dissimilarity
clause expressing 192-193, 272, 342
distance adjunct 225-227
distributive
do
 456

auxiliary 48-52, 184-199, 217, 224, 377, 387, 445

with gerund as object 52, 514
with nominalized verb stem as object 514
in pseudo-cleft 51, 492
do so 51, 190-197, 271
dodge (verb) 503
dogged 448
domain, see temporal domain
Donnellan’s distinction 322-323, 536
do-support, see do (auxiliary)
double 316
double genitive 256-257, 286, 499
doubling (of final consonant) 69-70, 77
doubly relative tense 142
doubt (verb) 168, 265, 270, 303, 475, 504
no doubt 234
doubtless 234
down (preposition) 552
dozen 240
dread (verb) 470, 504, 510
dress (noun) 339
drily 83
drive (verb) 473
drop (verb) 503
drunk(en) 450
dryly 83
DST, see direct speech and thought
dual
number of noun 236
gender 259-260
dummy
noun head 287-290
pronoun, see expletive
operator, see periphrastic auxiliary
duration
adjunct/adverbial of 52, 59, 174, 181-182, 221-224
durative
Aktionsart 57
aspect, see progressive
situation 52
verb 52
during 552
dwarf 62
dynamic (verb/situation) 51-52, 167, 169-172, 394, 396, 398

each 237, 290, 296-299

 457

each other 278

eager 354, 421, 483
eastern 348
easy 33, 348, 482
eat 71, 75
echo question 24
economic(al) 85
educate 473
effected direct object 34
egressive aspect 56
either
determiner 291-292, 297
pronoun 290-292, 297
either...or 21, 237-238
not ... either 193, 291
elder/eldest 78
elderly (noun) 248
elect (verb) 470, 473
elf 62
eliminate 503
ellipsis, see deletion, elliptic
elliptic
answer 46
clause 274-275
genitive 256-258
question 42
embarrassed 483
embedded clause, see subclause
embedding clause, see superordinate clause
emotive emphasis 188
emphasis, see contrastive emphasis, emotive emphasis, emphasizer, emphatic
emphasize 505
emphasizer
adverb 231
compound personal pronoun 277-278
do 188-189
emphatic
accent 184
affirmation 48-49, 184, 188-189
empower 473
empty it 33-34, 205, 263, 266
enable 473
encourage 473, 507
end (verb) 162, 503
end focus 200, 212, 277
end position (of adverbial) 216, 220-224, 228, 230-231, 235
end weight 187, 213
 458

endanger 505
endeavour (verb) 470
endorse 504
endure 470, 505
enjoy 172, 500, 504
enough 311, 340, 484
ensure 505
entail 505
entailment 4
entice 473
entitle 473
entreat 473, 475
envisage 505
envy 168, 504
epistemic
impossibility, see impossibility
modality 351
necessity, see necessity
possibility, see possibility
equality 342
erlebte Rede, see free indirect speech
erratum 64
escapable (obligation) 378
escape (verb) 503
especially 229
essential 354, 421, 481
essentially 232
esteem 168
estimate (verb) 475
eternal truth, see universal statement
evaluating
adjective 349
adverb 220
evaluation time 149-150
evaluative, see evaluating
even 6, 229, 443
even if 354, 443
even so 234,
even though 443
event 51, 200-201
ever
added to question word 284
added to relative 537
adverb of time 26, 101, 106-108, 222
everlastingly 174
every 237, 292-293, 296, 541-542
every one 293
 459

everybody 293
everyone 293
everything 293, 542
everywhere 540, 544
evidently 232
except (preposition) 274, 277, 491, 518-519, 552
exception
adverb clause expressing an 219
exchange (noun) 331
excite 473
excited 483
exclamation
dependent exclamation, see dependent
independent exclamation, see exclamatory sentence
exclamatory sentence 23, 25, 185-187
infinitive clause 273, 467, 492
question 185, 422-423
that-clause 423
exclusive reference 238, 292, 297
excuse (verb) 505
existential
clause/construction/sentence 32, 187, 237, 266-269, 405, 460, 462, 476, 487, 502, 543, 548
perfect, see indefinite perfect
expect 168, 205, 303, 357, 473, 475
expectation, see probability
experience
verb denoting 459-460, 490
perfect of 103
experienced 485
explanatory-resultative (use of perfect tense) 164-165, 174
explain 35, 207, 505, 525
expletive 32, 266, 502
express 35, 525
extent
to some extent 231
external necessity 382, 385-386, 388
extralinguistic context 94-95, 104, 321
extraposition 32-34, 266, 268
from NP 30, 542
of finite clause 205, 208, 437
of gerund clause 501-502
of infinitive clause 204-205, 208, 468, 477, 482

face (verb) 505

facilitate 505
fact-evaluating disjunct 233
factive
 460

meaning 485
gerund 496-497
factual
meaning 53, 91, 351, 421, 424, 427, 444
possibility, see possibility (epistemic)
fail 203, 303, 470, 504
fair (adverb) 81
fairly 81, 344
fallen (noun) 248
false compound 13
fancy (verb) 168, 271, 303, 475, 505
far
adjective 78, 313
adverb 344
farther/farthest 78-79
fascinated 483
father 331
favour (verb) 504
fear (verb) 168, 271, 470, 504
fear
subclause depending on expression of 440-441
feel 35, 167-171, 205, 460-461, 475
feign 475
feminine (gender) 40, 258-261
few 309-312, 344, 541-542, 546
a few 311
figurative 44
final position (of adverbial), see end position
find 168, 205, 459, 475
finish (verb) 162, 503
finite (clause/verb/verb phrase) 47-48, 54
finitude 53-54
first(ly) 234, 289
fit 482-483
Flanders 247
flection 8
flimsy 482
flu 328
focus
noun 64
verb 69
focus
of sentence 20
temporal, see temporal focus
focusing adverb 228-229
folk 247
foolish 481
 461

foolishly 233
foot 63, 241-242
for 34, 37, 59, 105, 466
forbear 470, 504
forbid 303, 474, 507
force (verb) 474
foresee 505
foreshadow 505
forever 174, 222
forfeit (verb) 503
forget 168, 265, 470, 503-504, 510
forgive 168, 505
formal
concord 236, 240, 246
register 4
formula 63
forswear 503
fortunate 481
fortunately 233
FPS, see Future Perspective System
fraction 29, 238, 316
free(ly) (adverb) 81
free
adjunct, see supplementive clause
indirect speech 120, 530-531
morpheme 7, 10
relative clause, see nominal relative clause
frequency
adjunct/adverbial of 174, 178, 221-224
frequently 180, 222
friendly 481
frighten 168
fronting 19, 30, 185-188, 224, 444
see also: topicalization, wh-movement
frosty 482
frozen action interpretation 162, 175
fugitive (noun) 249
-ful 65
full verb, see lexical verb
function word 11
fundamentally 232
fund(s) 244
funk (verb) 503
furious 483
further/furthest 78-79
furthermore 234
future
 462

perfect (tense) 86, 137-138, 141-142, 426-428

Perspective System 136-141, 428
tense 86-87, 110-117, 126, 128-132, 165-167, 426-428
futurity, see posteriority

gaily 83
gallows 242
gapping 21
gas 61
gather 168
gender
of noun 40, 258-259
of pro-form 259-261, 272-273
general
ability 394
characteristic 415
permission/prohibition 372-373
general stores 242
generally 174, 180, 222-223
generic
NP/reference 31, 248-250, 259-260, 323-324
sentence 55, 183
generous 481
genitive
formation of 66-68
use of 246, 252-258, 289, 495, 499-500
genitive of measure 253
see also: classifying genitive, defining genitive, double genitive, elliptic genitive, group genitive, local genitive, objective genitive,
subjective genitive
genius 63
geographical name
and concord 247
and use of the 336-338
gerund 54, 204-205, 208, 447, 493-519
get 72, 75
auxiliary of passive voice 53, 202-203
causative 458-460, 474, 490
copula 35
denoting experience/involvement 459-460
with indirect object 207
+ to-infinitive 203, 470
get-passive 203
give over 503
give up 503
given information, see old information
glad 483
glimpse 460
 463

glorify 505
gnomic sentence 55
see also: generic sentence, universal statement
go
copula 35, 335
followed by present participle 455
followed by and + infinitive 479
be going to 112-116, 120-121, 138, 158, 360-361, 412, 465
go for a + verb stem 455
go on 470, 512
goal
adjunct of 225-227
finite subclause of 140, 218, 441-443
infinitive clause of 478-479
going to, see go
golflinks 242
good 78, 305, 481, 485
it is no good 308, 502
goose 63
governing (of preposition) 37
gradable 41-42, 349, 481
grammar 2
grammatical
meaning 7
morpheme 7
sentence 1
subject 18
grant (verb) 420, 475
grapheme 7
grateful 481, 483
greasy 482
great 287
Grecian 252
grieved 483
gross (noun) 240
group genitive 67
grouse 240
grow (copula) 35
grown-ups 249
grudge (verb) 504
guarantee (verb) 366, 470
guess (verb) 168, 270-271, 475

habit 56-57, 416-418

and use of modal auxiliaries 377, 383, 385, 388, 394, 416-418
see also: permanent habit, persistent habit, temporary habit
habitual (aspect), see habit
 464

habitually 222
had
had best 355, 488
had better 355, 488
had rather 356, 358-359
half 62, 238, 315-316, 339
hall 331
handicapped (noun) 69, 248-249
hang 52, 72, 75
happen 33, 203, 470
happy 483
hard
adjective 33, 348, 482
adverb 81
hardly 81, 303
hark at 460, 489
hasten 470
hate (verb) 168, 357, 399, 434, 436, 470, 474, 504, 508
have (got)
causative verb 172, 197, 459-460
expressing experience/involvement 459-460
expressing order/wish 460
lexical verb 50, 168, 172, 190, 198-199, 486-487
tense auxiliary 49-50
and do-support 197-199
followed by nominalized verb stem 491
verb + NP + to have 475-476
have (got) to 48, 172, 197, 217, 376-378, 382-384, 386-389, 408, 411-412, 487, 494, 525
he 259-260, 264
he or she 259
he is vs. it is 272-273
head (quantifier) 240
head (of phrase), see headword
head clause, see superordinate clause
headache 328, 339
headless relative clause, see nominal relative clause
headline 90, 295, 340
headquarters 242
headword (of phrase) 16, 256-258
hear 167, 170-171, 270, 460, 475, 489
hearer-oriented modality, see discourse-oriented modality
heave (verb) 72, 75
heaven 331
heavy NP shift, see complex NP shift
hedge 370
hell 331
help (verb) 471, 474, 488
 465

cannot help 503, 505, 511

helpless (noun) 248
her
personal pronoun 259-261, 264
possessive 285
here 177, 186, 226, 527
here is/are 548
hers 285
herself 275-278
hesitant 483
hesitate 471, 504
heterogeneous
entity 39
situation 60, 181
see also: bounded
high(ly) (adverb) 82
him 259-260, 264
himself 275-278
hinder 303
hinge 76
his 285
historic(al) 85
historic present 89
hold (verb) 475
home 331
homogeneous
entity 39
situation 51, 59, 181
see also: unbounded
honorific use of the 325
honest 481
honoured 483
hoof 62
hope
noun 485-486
verb 134, 168, 271, 303, 357, 438, 466, 471
hope
subclause depending on expression of 438
hopeless 482
horrified 483
horse 242
hospital 331
hovercraft 242
how 284, 341
however 234-235, 341, 443-444
human being 331
human noun 40
 466

gender of 258-261
hundred 240
hundredweight 240
hurry up 479
hurt (verb) 169
hypothetical
ability 392-393
condition 425, 429-430, 435, 525
(im)possibility 399-401, 406
permission 370, 372
relative clause 360, 436
willingness 364

I 264
I-group, see subject form
-ics 243
identifier 31
idiom 44
if
introducing conditional clause 189, 270, 371, 382, 423-437
introducing concessive clause 443
introducing noun clause 527
restrictive if-clause 534
if only 438-440
even if 443
see also: as if
if-clause, see conditional clause
ignorant 485
ignore 504
ill-natured 481
imaginary
past, see unreality
present 400
imagine 139, 168, 303, 425, 437, 475, 503, 505
imitate 505
immediate
constituent 9
future, see near future
impatient 483
impede 503
impel 474
imperative
form/mood 23, 53, 352
dependent imperative, see dependent
independent imperative, see command
imperfect aspect 58
imperfective aspect 56, 58-60
 467

impersonal
it, see empty it
passive 205
implication 4
implicature 4-6, 101-103, 113, 115, 321, 357, 361, 393, 417
see also: conventional implicature, conversational implicature
implicit
condition 436-437
time of orientation 150-155
implore 474-475
imply 505
impolite 481
important 354, 421, 481
impossibility
epistemic impossibility 406-407
root impossibility 405-406
impossible 33, 348, 482
impress 168
improbable 422
impudent 481
in 457-458
see also: case, order, way
inability
inalienable possession 239
inanimate noun 40
gender of 261
inceptive aspect 56
incessantly 222
inchoative aspect, see inceptive aspect
incite 474
inclined 483
include 505
including 277
inclusive reference 238, 248, 292, 297, 537
incompleteness 161-162
see also: unbounded
inconsiderate 481
indeed 232
indefinite
article 320-325, 338-341
duration 182-183
duration adjunct 222-224
frequency adjunct 222-224
noun phrase, see indefinite reference
perfect 100-106, 119, 122-124, 126, 130, 141-142, 522
pronominal determiner 260, 263, 287-316
pronoun 260, 263, 287-316
 468

reference 31, 264-265, 321

repitition adjunct 222-224
time-specifying adjunct 221-222, 224
independent
genitive, see elliptic genitive
clause 136-138, 142
see also: superordinate clause
index 64
indicate 35
indicative mood 53, 352
modal indicative, see modal
indignant 483
indirect
anaphoric reference 321
binding 144-146, 151
exclamation, see dependent exclamation
imperative, see dependent imperative
object 34, 37, 206-207, 273, 276, 514
perception 490
question, see dependent question
speech and thought 520-531
use of tenses in 120, 521-523, 527
use of modal auxiliaries in 370, 524-525, 384, 388, 402, 404
statement, see dependent statement
indisputably 232
individual (noun) 249
individualizing genitive, see defining genitive
individuating noun 40
induce 474
induced 483
inequality 342
inert perception, see perception verb
inevitable 422
inevitably 233
inference, see necessity (epistemic necessity)
inferential bridge 321
infinitival clause, see infinitive, noun clause
infinitive 54, 204-205, 208, 465-492
with to 465-487, 518-519
depending on adjective 480-485
depending on noun 485-487
depending on verb 469-478
infinitival relative clause 486-487, 535
see also: adverbial, markedness, noun clause, perfect infinitive, present infinitive, split infinitive, unrelated clause
without to, see plain infinitive, exclamatory sentence
infinitive marker 467
infirm (noun) 248
 469

infix, see replacive allomorph

inflection 8
inflectional
paradigm 8
suffix, see suffix
informal (register) 4
information
question asking for, see question
information principle 212
information structure 20
see also: new information, old information
information unit 533
informative question, see question
infringe 76
infuriated 483
ingressive aspect, see inceptive aspect
inherent 485
inherent
capacity 414-415, 433
possession, see inalienable possession
quality, see inherent capacity
initial position (of adverbial) 216, 221-224, 231
injured (noun) 248-249
inner compulsion 382
innocent (noun) 248
inquiry, verb of 527-528
inside (preposition) 552
insist 353, 420, 529
insistence 361, 364-365, 433, 439
inspire 474
instead 234
instruct 474, 476, 529
instruction 177, 360, 364-365, 381, 383
question asking for 367
see also: command
instrument adjunct 221
insured (noun) 248
intend 168, 353, 357, 420, 471, 474, 505
intensifier
adjective 349
adverb 230-231, 452
intention 485-486
intention 112-113, 360-363, 366, 381
intentional situation 93, 364
interested 516
interesting 482
internal
 470

necessity 386-387
bodily sensation 169
interrogative
adverb 284
pronominal determiner 263, 282-283
pronoun 263, 282-284
sentence, see question
intimate (verb) 505
intransitive (use of) verb 33-34
introduce 35, 207
invariable (form/word) 240, 279
invariably 222
inversion 48-49, 184-188, 192-193, 271, 425, 430, 527
invitation 166, 189, 362, 364, 382, 433
invite 474
involve 168, 505
involvement
verb expressing 459-460, 490
inward urge, see inner compulsion
irrealis, see unreality
irregular verb, see strong verb
irritate 168
-ish 250
it
personal pronoun 264-266
expletive 32, 266, 272-273
empty it 33-34, 205, 263, 266, 268
it is vs. he is 272-273
itch 169
iterative
Aktionsart 57
aspect, see repetitive aspect
its 285
itself 275-278

jail 331
joint possession 67
judge (verb) 168, 475
just
emphasizer 231
relative time adjunct 101, 106, 222
restricter 229
just now 101, 106
might just as well 389
justify 505
justly 233
 471

keen 483
keep 35, 458-459
keep on 514
kidnapped 69
kind
adjective 481
kind of 239, 279, 340
kindly 231
knife 62
knit 72, 75
knock off 503
know 168, 205, 265, 437, 475
know how to 390, 396
have known + NP + bare infinitive 490

laid 69
larva 63
last
adjective 79, 333, 541-542
adverb 224
late (adverb) 82
lately 82, 101, 107, 222
later/latest 79
latter 79
latterly 101, 106
lay off 503
lead (verb) 474
leaf 62
learn 471, 474, 508
learned (adjective) 75, 448
least 310-311
leave 458-459, 474, 513
leave off 503
legitimize 505
less 39, 238, 310
lest 424, 440-443
let (verb) 275, 488
let’s 188, 489
lexical
meaning 7
verb 48-53
lexicology 2
liable 203, 483
liberal (noun) 249
lie (verb) 52, 72, 75, 160-161, 455
life 62
light (verb) 72, 75
 472

like
preposition 274, 277
verb 168, 357, 399, 434, 436, 471-472, 474, 508
likely 33, 203, 399, 481
likewise 234
limited duration, see temporary situation
limiter adjective 348-349
linguistics 1
linked co-ordination, see syndetic co-ordination
linking verb, see copula
links (noun) 242
listen (to) 170, 460, 489
little
adjective 287, 546
adverb 230
determiner/pronoun 78, 309-312, 542
a little 311
live 52
loaf 62
loathe 474, 504, 510
local genitive 257-258
locative adjunct 225-227
logical 422
logical
assumption 407
conclusion 406-412
impossibility 406-407
necessity 406-412
long
adjective 313
adverb 222
verb 471, 505
as/so long as 423
look (verb)
copula 35
perception verb 170, 460, 489
look forward to 169
look to 477
lot
a lot of 312
a lot (adverb of degree) 344
lots of 312
loud(ly) (adverb) 82
louse 63
love (verb) 168, 357, 434, 436, 471, 474, 508
lucky 481
luckily 233
 473

-ly 81, 83

mad 483
magus 63
main
clause, see superordinate clause
verb 48
mainly 229
maintain 475
make (verb) 459, 489
man 63, 65, 259, 330
-man 65, 249
manage 6, 390, 393, 396, 471
manner
adjunct 219-221, 552
subclause of 219, 354, 359
many 78, 309-313, 542
many a 310, 340
a good/great many 312
intensifier 344
marked
infinitive 16, 467-487
plural 15, 236, 240
temporal focus 146-148
word order 19
see also: markedness
markedness 15-16
market (noun) 331
masculine (gender) 40, 258-261
mass noun 39-40, 60, 243-245
and use of article 327-329, 338-339
material noun 29, 327-328
matrix 64
matrix, see superordinate clause
matter
verb 168, 265
no matter who/what/when... 443-444
Maxim
of Quantity 5, 135, 321
of Relation 6, 97, 113, 135
of Relevance, see Maxim of Relation
may 49, 117, 369, 371, 373, 397-404, 415-416, 429, 438, 440, 442, 445, 524
may as well 380-381
may well 416
me 264
me-group, see object form
mean (verb) 168, 357, 471, 474-475, 511
 474

means (noun) 242

by no means 231
means adjunct 221
meanwhile 234
measuring (of situation) 178-179, 181
medio-passive 203-204
memorandum 64
mention (verb) 35, 207, 505, 525
mercifully 233
mere
ability 391-396
possibility, see possibility (root possibility)
merely 229
merit (verb) 471, 510
metropolis 64
mews 242
microfiche 242
middle verb 201
might 353, 370, 373, 379-381, 397-404, 417, 429, 431, 438, 440, 442, 445
might as well 380-381
might just as well 381
might well 416
million 240
mind (verb) 26, 168, 265, 504
mine (possessive pronoun) 285
minimal pair 2
miss (verb) 168, 303, 503
modal
adverb 53, 352
auxiliary 50, 53, 352, 360-446
see also: be going to, be to, can, could, dare, have (got) to, may, might, must, need, ought to, shall, should, used to, will, would
indicative 53, 55, 354-360, 429, 431, 438-439, 524
past 53, 55, 354-360, 429, 438-439, 524
past perfect 53, 55, 355-360, 431
utterance 53, 55, 351
modality 48, 53, 351-446
see also: ability, absence of necessity, characteristic behaviour, deontic modality, determination, discourse-oriented modality, epistemic
modality, escapable obligation, general characteristic, habit, impossibility, inherent capacity, insistence, intention, modal adverb, modal
auxiliary, modal past, modal past perfect, necessity, possibility, probability, prohibition, root modality, subject-oriented modality,
subjunctive mood, unoriented modality, willingness, wish
modification 28-31
by adverbial 214, 219-227, 230
of noun head 28-31
see also: modifier
modifier 28-31, 41
see also: discontinuous, modification, nonrestrictive, premodifier, postmodifier, restrictive
molten 450
 475

moment of speech, see time of utterance

momentaneous aspect, see nonprogressive
momentarily 222
momentary situation, see nondurative situation
mood 48, 352
more
adverb 77-78, 80, 202, 344
determiner/pronoun 238, 309-310, 344
more or less 231
moreover 234
morpheme 2, 6-11
morphology 2, 6-11
inflectional 61-85
morphological characteristics of gerund 493-494
morphological characteristics of infinitive 465-467
morphological characteristics of participle 447-451
mortals 249
most 77-78, 80, 309-310
mostly 229
mother 331
mouse 63
mow 73, 76
much 309-313
adverb 202, 452
determiner/pronoun 78, 542
very much 452
multi-word verb 45
multiple sentence 20-23
multiplier 28, 316
museum 64
must 117, 374, 378, 381-386, 406-410, 525
mutation (of root vowel) 63
mutton 328
my 285
myself 275-278

N, see noun
naked 448
naked infinitive, see plain infinitive
name (verb) 35
name, see proper name
narrative when-clause 151
narrow scope, see scope
nationality name 249-252
native (noun) 249
natural 422
natural language 1
 476

naturally 233
naughty 481
near
adjective 80
preposition 552
near future 93, 114-115
near-negative
adverbial 186, 303, 387
sentence 387, 395, 408
neat 240
necessary 53, 354, 421, 481
necessary
adverbial, see obligatory adverbial
possession, see inalienable possession
necessitate 505
necessity
epistemic necessity 406-412
root necessity 375-386, 486-487
subclause depending on expression of 420-421
see also: absence of necessity, circumstantial necessity, external necessity, inner compulsion, internal necessity
need
auxiliary 117, 384-385, 387, 408, 510, 524
need to 168, 203, 217, 384-389, 471, 524
needy (noun) 248
negation 48, 185-186, 188, 307-309, 343
see also: scope
negative
adverb 186-187
polarity item, see nonassertive
raising, see transferred negation
sentence 25
see also: negation
negator, see negation
neglect (verb) 471, 504
neither
determiner/pronoun 290-292, 302
conjunction 192
neither ... nor 21, 237-238
neologism 15
neuter (gender) 40, 258-261
neutral
future, see pure future
question, see open question
register 4
never 101, 106-108, 180, 222-223, 302
nevertheless 234
new information 20, 212
 477

newspaper headline, see headline

next (adjective) 80, 333
nice 481-482
NICE-properties 48-49
no 302, 308-309, 343, 529-530, 541-542
see also: doubt, matter
no one 308-309
nobles 249
nobody 308-309
nod to 477
nominal 14-15, 27
clause, see noun clause
part of the predicate, see subject complement
relative clause 22, 141, 532, 536, 546-548
nominalized gerund 496-500
nominative, see subject form
nonactualisation, see unreality
nonassertive (item/sentence) 25-26, 301-305, 385, 419, 549
nonbounded, see unbounded
nondefining
genitive, see classifying
modifier, see nonrestrictive
relative clause, see nonrestrictive
nondurative
Aktionsart 57
aspect, see nonprogressive
situation 52, 57, 162-163, 175-177
none 302, 308-309, 343, 541-542
nonepistemic
impossibility, see impossibility (root impossibility)
modality, see root modality
necessity, see necessity (root necessity)
possibility, see possibility (root possibility)
nonfactual before-clause 154-155, 303
nonfinite (clause/verb/verb phrase) 54, 127, 195-196, 204-205, 447-519
nongeneric (NP/reference) 32
nongradable, see gradable
nonhuman noun 40
nonmodal utterance 53, 351
nonnominalized gerund 497, 499-500
nonpersonal noun, see nonhuman noun
nonprogressive (aspect/form) 56, 101, 175-183, 465
see also: progressive
nonrestrictive
modifier 30
relative clause 140, 142, 533
nonspecific (NP/reference) 32, 322, 539
 478

nonstative (verb phrase), see dynamic

nor, 192, 238, 302
see also: neither
normal 481
normally 174, 180-181, 222-223
northern 348
not 48, 50, 188, 217, 223-224, 270-271, 291, 302
notables 249
nothing 308-309, 542
notice (verb) 167, 270, 460, 489
notional subject 32-33
noun 13-14, 38-40, 236-261
see also: abstract noun, animate noun, collective noun, common noun, concrete noun, count noun, de-adjectival noun, gradable noun,
human noun, inanimate noun, individuating noun, invariable noun, mass noun, material noun, personal noun, proper name
noun clause 22
modality in 353, 399, 420-423, 438-441
tense in 139-140
see also: dependent, gerund, infinitive, nominal relative clause, object clause, subject clause, that-clause
noun compound 12-13, 29, 64-65, 67, 255
noun phrase 17, 27-38
now
time adverb 107, 223
conjunct 234
nowadays 106
NP, see noun phrase
nuclear stress (of word) 13, 29, 293, 350
nucleus (of phrase) 16
number
of noun 39, 236-252
of verb, see concord
numeral 28, 316-319
see also: cardinal numeral, ordinal numeral
nurse (noun) 331

object
of verb, see direct object, indirect object, prepositional object
of preposition 37, 45, 478, 514-517
see also: complement, object clause, object complement, object form, object shift
object clause
gerund clause 502-514
infinitive clause 469-478
modality in 420-422, 438-441
see also: noun clause, that-clause
object complement 34, 36-37, 41, 206, 334-335, 458-461, 514
object form (of pronoun) 273-275, 467, 499-500
object shift 33, 482
 479

objective
complement, see object complement
genitive 254, 257
obligation, see necessity
see also: escapable
obligatory adverbial 46-47, 186, 220, 225-226, 228
oblige 474
observe 167, 460
obviate 503
obviously 232
OC, see object complement
occasion (noun) 515
occasionally 174, 222-223
occurrence focus 99, 104
octopus 63
odd 422
oddly 233
of 286, 335, 480, 499, 553
offer (verb) 471
offer 166, 189, 362, 364, 382
of service 367-368, 528
official (noun) 249
offspring 240
often 174, 180-181, 222-223
old (noun) 78, 248
old information 20, 212
omit 471, 504
on 457
once 107, 223
one 287-290
determiner 290-291
numeral 290
pronoun 248, 265, 283-290
a one 288
one another 278
one ... another 307
one or other 306
(the) one ... the other 307
-one 541
oneself 275-278, 287
only
adjective 484, 541-542
adverb 229, 303
not only ... but also 21, 238
OP, see object of preposition
open
class 15, 49
 480

condition 304, 425, 427-429, 435

question 304
operator 50, 184, 187, 217, 223-224
opportunity 515
opportunity (form of ability) 390-397
oppose 504
opposite 552
optional adverbial 46-47, 187, 220, 225-227
or 238
ordained (noun) 248
order
verb 420, 474-475, 529
in order that 441-443
in order to 478
order, see command
ordinal numeral 28, 224, 289, 319, 484, 541-542
ordinarily 222
organize 505
orientation
see discourse-oriented modality, subject-oriented modality, time of orientation, unoriented modality
orthography, see spelling
other 290-291, 305-307
one or other 306
(the) one ... the other 307
see also: another
otherwise 234
ought (to) 217, 377-379, 386, 409-412
our 285
ours 285
ourselves 275-278
outside (preposition) 552
overlook 505
overrule 504
overshadow 505
overwhelmed 483
own
adjective 257, 285, 289
verb 201, 517
ox 63

P, see preposition
paid 69
pain(s) 244
pair (noun) 241
pardon (verb) 505
parenthetical addition 238
parrot 260
 481

part (noun) 339

part of speech 13-16
participle 54, 447-464
see also: past participle, present participle
particle, see adverbial particle
particle movement 45
partitive 256, 538
pass (verb) 207
passive (voice) 200-214, 220, 267-268, 276, 452, 489
see also: get-passive, voice auxiliary
past (preposition) 515
past
domain 86-87, 118-121, 432, 522-525
participle 69-76, 447-464
perfect (tense) 86, 118-119, 122-123, 129, 432
subjunctive 352, 354, 429-431, 524
tense, see preterite
time-sphere 86-87
time-sphere tenses 86
penny 66
people 66, 247, 331
perceive 460
perception
noun 461
verb 167-171, 460-461, 489-490
of active perception 169-170, 489
of inert perception 167-171, 394
see also: direct perception, indirect perception, internal bodily sensation
perfect
aspect 58, 449
gerund 493-494, 503
see also: gerund
infinitive 465
see also: infinitive
tense, see conditional perfect, future perfect, past perfect, present perfect
see also: continuative perfect, experience, indefinite perfect, resultative
perfective aspect 56, 58
performative sentence 177
perhaps 232, 234, 399
peripheral pronoun 264
periphrastic auxiliary 50, 184-199
see also: do
permanent
characteristic 346
habit 183
situation 182-183
 482

permanently 222
permission 369-373, 488
absence of, see prohibition
permit (verb) 420, 474, 507
perpetually 174, 222
-person 259
persistent habit 361, 363
person 264
personal
noun, see human noun
pronoun 263-275, 526
see also: compound personal pronoun, object form, subject form
persuade 474, 476
perturbed 483
phenomenon 64
phoneme 2
phonemics, see phonology
phonetics 1
phonology 1
phrasal verb 11, 44-45, 208, 220, 505
phrase 16-17
see also: adjective phrase, adverbial phrase, noun phrase, prepositional phrase, verb phrase
picture (verb) 505
place
adjunct of, see locative adjunct
adverbial clause of 138, 218
plague 328
plain infinitive 487-492
plan (verb) 168, 471
pleasant 33, 482
please
adverb 231
verb 168
pleased 422, 483, 485
pledge (verb) 474
plenty (of) 312
pluperfect, see past perfect
plural (of noun) 39, 61-66, 236-252
see also: concord
pluralia tantum 244
PO, see prepositional object
point
be on the point of 116
point out 207
point of orientation, see time of orientation
point of view 148
pointless 481
 483

polarity item, see assertive, nonassertive

police 247
polite 481
politeness 163, 165, 173, 356-357, 364, 368, 429, 434
marker of 231-232, 362
see also: tentativeness
poor (noun) 248
pork 328
position
verb of, see stance
adjunct of, see locative adjunct
positive
degree 342
polarity item, see assertive
sentence, see affirmative sentence
possession
see also: inalienable possession, joint possession, separate possession
possessive
pronominal determiner 263-264, 285-286, 495, 499-500, 526
pronoun 263-264, 285, 289, 526
possibility 399
possibility 397-405
epistemic possibility 397-405
root possibility 390-391, 397-405, 441-442
see also: impossibility
possible 53, 398-399, 524
possibly 234, 399
post-clause position (of adverbial) 216, 228, 232, 235
postdeterminer 28, 31, 263
posteriority 55, 120-121, 126-128, 130-132, 401, 441, 465
post-genitive, see double genitive
postmodifier 27, 29-30, 38, 454, 484
postnominal 27
modifier, see postmodifier
postpone 500, 503, 505
post-present
domain 128-132
sector 86-87
poultry 242
PP, see prepositional phrase
PPS, see Present Perspective System
practise 505
pragmatic knowledge 88, 96, 102, 321
pragmatics 2
praise (verb) 505
pray 438, 471
precipitate 505
 484

pre-clause position (of adverbial) 216, 228, 232-233, 235

preclude 503-504
predeterminer 27-28, 31, 263
predicate 17, 46
predicate nominal, see subject complement
predicational
noun phrase 237, 288, 334-335, 538
sentence 273, 323
predicative
use of adjective 41, 346, 349
adjunct to the object 36
adjunct to the subject 35, 456
predicator 17
predict 505
predictability 114-115, 412
see also: probability
predictably 233
prefer 168, 357, 399, 434, 436, 471, 474-475, 508
preferably 233
preference
adverb clause expressing 219
prefix 8, 258-259
premeditated intention 112-114, 360
premodifier 28-29, 346-350, 453-454
prenominal 27-29, 350
modifier, see premodifier
prepare 471
preposition 42-46
in relative clause 551-553
see also: stranded preposition
prepositional
adverb, see adverbial particle
complement, see object of preposition
copula 35, 335
object 37, 45-46, 209, 277
phrasal verb 45, 221
phrase 17, 42-46
verb 37, 44-45, 209-210, 220, 477, 552
pre-present
domain 121-127
sector 86-87
prescribe 505
present (adjective) 346
present
domain 127
gerund 493-494, 503
infinitive 465
 485

see also: infinitive

participle 54, 133, 447-464
perfect (tense) 86-87, 95, 97-110, 121-127, 129-130, 163-165, 522
see also: continuative perfect, experience, indefinite perfect, resultative perfect
Perspective System 136-141, 428, 444
sector 86-87
subjunctive 352-354, 421
tense 68-69, 86-87, 89-93, 105-106, 125-128, 130-131
time-sphere 86
time-sphere tenses 86
presupposition
of sentence 20
vs. implication 4
presume 303, 471, 475
press (verb) 474
presuppose 168
pretend 471
preterite
formation of 69-76
meaning and use of 86-87, 93-98, 101, 104-110, 118, 121-123, 125, 127, 129, 163, 432, 522-525
see also: modal past
prett(il)y (adverb) 82
prevail upon 477
prevent 303, 503-504
pre-verb
adverb(ial) 216-218, 220
position (of adverbial) 216-218, 223-224, 228-231, 233-235
primary adverb 80
primarily 229
principal clause, see superordinate clause
principally 229
principle of end weight, see end weight
prison 331
prize (verb) 505
probability
modal form expressing 412-416
adverb expressing 234
probability adverb 234
probable 53
probably 234
proceed 471
process 51, 167
process adjunct 221
profess 471
profit 471
pro-form 16, 23
for adjective 272
 486

for adverbial 16, 272, 284

for finite clause 16, 265, 269-271
for infinitive clause 270, 472
for noun phrase, see pronoun, pronominal determiner
for verb phrase 49, 184, 189-197, 214-215, 265, 271-272
gender of 259-261
programmed 69
progressive (aspect/form/meaning) 56, 59, 101, 157-175, 267, 357, 409, 449, 454, 465, 489
prohibit 504
prohibition 373-375
promise (verb) 168, 366, 471, 474
promise 362, 366
prompt (verb) 474, 483
prone 483
pronominal determiner 262-316
pronoun 16, 259-316
see also: antecedent, binding, central pronoun, compound personal pronoun, demonstrative pronoun, determinative pronoun, expletive,
indefinite pronoun, interrogative pronoun, object form, peripheral pronoun, personal pronoun, possessive pronoun, reciprocal pronoun,
reflexive pronoun, relative pronoun, subject form
proper 347
proper name 38-39, 290, 321
and use of article 336-338
see also: geographical name, nationality name
proper noun, see proper name
proportion
adverb clause expressing 219
proportional increase/decrease 343
propose 35, 207, 353, 420, 471, 513
prop-word, see one
proton 64
proud 483
prove 35, 471, 475
proven 450
provided/providing (that) 423
provoke 474, 507
proximal concord 237-239, 269, 292
prudently 233
pseudo-absolute tense 128-132
pseudo-cleft 51, 469, 537, 539
pseudo-passive 202-203
pseudo-time-of-utterance 128-132
pseudo-transitive verb 34
psychological subject 18
publicize 505
publicly 84
punctual
situation, see nondurative situation
 487

verb 52
pure future 111, 116, 142, 165-166
purgatory 331
purport (verb) 471
purpose (verb) 471, 505
purpose, see goal
put off 500, 504-505
putative meaning 422, 445, 468
puzzled 483

quantification 39
quantifier 31, 39
quantifier movement, see quantifier shift
quantifier shift 299
quasi-auxiliary, see semi-auxiliary
query (verb) 504
question (verb) 504
question 23-25, 184-185
asking for advice 528
asking for co-operation 363
asking for information 111-112, 165-167, 528
asking for instructions 367, 528
see also: declarative, dependent, echo question, reply question, rhetorical question, scope, tag question, wh-question, yes/no question
question tag, see tag question
quick 81, 483
quit 503
quite 202, 344

radical (noun) 249

radio 333
ragged 448
raising
of not, see transferred negation
of object, see object shift
of subject, see subject raising
rare 481
rarely 174, 222-223, 303
rash (adjective) 481
rather 202, 230
had/would rather 356, 358-359, 488
rather than 491
read 35
ready 482, 483
real 81
realize 168
really 231-232
reason 545
 488

reason
adverbial of 227
subclause of 138, 140, 218, 462
reasonable 481
reasonably 233
rebinding 145
recall 168, 505
recently 101, 107, 222
reciprocal pronoun 278-279
reckon 303, 471, 475
recognize 168, 475
recollect 168, 503, 505
recommend 353, 420, 474, 507
record (verb) 505
recount 505
rectify 505
reduced relative clause 347, 454
reds 249
re-establish a temporal domain 137-138
reference 31
see also: definite, generic, indefinite, nongeneric, nonspecific, specific
reference time, see time of orientation
referent 31
referential
concord 236, 238, 240-242, 284
definite noun phrase, see Donnellan’s distinction
meaning 31
noun phrase 334
reflexive
pronoun 204, 264, 276-277
verb 276
reflexivization 277
refusal 166, 361-362, 364, 433
refuse (verb) 168, 303, 471, 504
regard 168, 475
regarding 552
regional varieties 3
register (verb) 505
register 3-4
see also: formal, informal
regret (verb) 168, 471, 503-504, 510
regrettably 233
regular verb, see weak verb
regularly 180, 222
reindeer 240
reinforcement tag 192
reject 504
 489

rejected hypothesis, see counterfactual condition

rejoice 471
relate 35, 525
relation, see temporal relation
relational verb 168-169, 172, 201
relative
adverb 534, 543-544, 547
attraction 274
clause 22, 138-142, 156, 315, 486-487, 532-553
see also: contact clause, continuative relative clause, hypothetical relative clause, infinitive, nominal relative clause, nonrestrictive
relative clause, reduced relative clause, restrictive relative clause, sentential relative clause, stacked relative clauses
determiner 263, 534, 537-538, 546-548
pronoun 263, 487, 534-549
superlative 345
tense 87, 136
time adjunct 221-224
relativization 550
relevance
of anterior situation, see current relevance
Maxim of, see Maxim of Relation
relieved 483
relish (verb) 505
reluctant 483
remain (verb) 35, 468
remark (verb) 207
remarkably 233
remember 168, 265, 471, 503, 510
remind 474, 476, 510
repeatedly 174, 180, 222
repent 505
repetition adjunct 174, 221-224
repetitive
adverbial, see repetition adjunct
aspect 57
and (non)progressive aspect 162-163, 174-176, 178, 180
and modal auxiliaries 377, 383, 388, 394, 417-418
and tense 123, 126
replacive
allomorph 11
pronoun, see expletive
reply (verb) 35, 207
reply question 191
report (verb) 35, 205, 207, 475, 505
report 520
reported
speech, see indirect speech and thought
utterance 520
 490

reporting clause 521

represent 505
represented speech and thought, see free indirect speech
reproach 379-380
request (verb) 420, 471, 474-475
request 166, 362, 364, 367-372, 379-380, 433-434, 488, 528
require 168, 353, 420, 474-475, 510
resent 504
resist 504
resolve 471
respect 168
respect adverbial 227
respect clause 219
rest (verb) 160
restrict 504
restricter 185, 229
restrictive
adverbial, see restricter
if/when-clause 534
modifier 30, 39-40, 281, 329, 336-339
relative clause 140-141, 274, 329, 533
result
perfect of, see resultative perfect
subclause of 140, 218, 314, 442-443, 484
unexpected result 479
see also: resultant state, resultative
resultant state 52, 58
resultative
meaning 37, 101-103, 107
perfect 101-102
resume 505
reveal 35, 207, 475, 525
rheme, see comment
rhetorical question 24, 301, 367, 407
rich (noun) 248
ridicule 505
ridiculous 422
right
adjective 481
adverb 82
rightly 82, 233
risk (verb) 500, 505
root (morpheme) 8
root modality 351-352
see also: absence of necessity, impossibility, necessity, possibility
rotten 450
round (preposition) 552
 491

rude 481
rule (verb) 474
rule out 504
run (verb) 479

S, see subject
sacrifice (verb) 505
sad 422, 483
sadly 233
said 69
sail (noun) 242
sake 66
same 545
same-way tag 191-192
sanction (verb) 505
satisfy 168
satisfied 483
save (verb) 504
saucy 481
say 35, 205, 207, 271, 437, 460, 471, 525, 529
saying, verb of 33, 90, 205, 208, 270-271, 382, 475
SC, see subject complement
scarcely 303
scarf 62
school (noun) 331
scope
of question 24, 214-215
of negator 25, 188, 214-217, 223-224, 231, 301-303, 308, 363, 386-387, 404, 411
of relative clause 549
of space adjunct 227
of time adjunct 224
scope adverbial 215
scorn (verb) 471, 508
sea 331
second(ly) 234, 289
sector
see also: post-present, pre-present, present
see 167-168, 170, 205, 270, 460, 475
seek 471
seem 33, 35, 170, 203, 271, 303, 437, 468, 471
seldom 174, 180, 222-223, 303
self 62
-self/selves 275-278
selfish 481
semantics 2, 4-6
semi-auxiliary 203
send 458
 492

sense (verb) 475

sensible 481
sensibly 233
senses, verb of the, see perception verb
sensory verb, see perception verb
sentence (verb) 474
sentence 18-27
sentence adverbial 232-234
sentence topic, see topic
sentential relative clause 532, 545
separate possession 67
sequence of tenses 522
series 64
set (verb) 458
shall 110-111, 115, 365-367, 420, 442, 524, 528
sharp(ly) (adverb) 82
shaven 450
she 259-261, 264
shed (verb) 73, 76
sheep 240
shelf 62
shift
of temporal domain 87-88, 119, 124, 131, 134-135, 522-524, 527
of temporal focus 147-148
of temporal perspective 89, 122-123, 126, 128-131, 135-136, 138, 357
shine (verb) 73, 76
shirk 504
shock 168
shocked 422, 483
short(ly) (adverb) 82
should 111, 117, 353, 367, 377-379, 386, 409-412, 420-423, 429, 431, 435-437, 440, 442, 528-529
show (verb) 475
shrewdly 233
shrunken 450
shun 504
shyly 83
sick (noun) 248
sight 461
signal (verb) 207
signify 505
silly 481
similar 348
similarity
head clause expressing 192-193, 272, 342
subclause of 219, 354
similarly 234
simple
 493

gerund 493
noun phrase 29
personal pronoun, see personal pronoun
sentence 20
tense form, see nonprogressive
word 12
simulate 505
simultaneity 55, 118, 125, 127, 130-131, 354-355, 358, 399, 432, 446, 448, 465, 494
see also: sloppy simultaneity
simultaneous domain 135-137, 138
since
adverb 105, 107
conjunction 105, 119
preposition 105, 552
singe 76
singular 39, 236-252
sit 52, 160-161, 455
situation 51
ski 77
skip (verb) 504
slang 3
sleep (verb) 52, 160-161
sloppy simultaneity 132-134, 432, 449, 494
slot 14
slow(ly) (adverb) 82, 483
slyly 83
smell
noun 461
verb 35, 167, 170, 460-461, 489
so
adverb 186, 282, 312-315, 341-342, 479, 545
conjunct 234
conjunction 441-443
pronoun 202, 265, 269-272
do so 51, 190-197, 271
so as to 478
so far 222-223
so long as 423
so that 441-443
sociolinguistics 3
some 5, 289, 299-302, 304, 541-542
somebody 299, 304
someone 299, 304
something 299, 304, 542
sometimes 222-223
somewhat 202
soon 222-223
 494

would sooner/just as soon 356, 358-359, 488

sooner than 491
sorry 422, 483, 485, 516
sort (of) 239, 279, 340
sound
noun 461
verb 35, 170
source adjunct 225-227
southern 348
space
adverbial clause of 218
space adjunct 225-227, 275-276
spacecraft 242
speaker-oriented modality, see discourse-oriented modality
speaking, verb of, see saying
species 64
speech sound 1
specific NP reference 32, 322
specificational 266, 272-273, 323, 491-492
specifying genitive, see defining genitive
speculation 528
spelling 2, 61-62, 66, 68-69, 77
spirit(s) 244
spiteful 481
splendid 481
split infinitive 467
spoil (verb) 74, 76, 505
spot (verb) 460
square (verb) 505
stacked relative clauses 549
stadium 64
staff 246
stance, verb of 52
stand (verb) 52, 160, 455, 471, 504, 510
Standard English 3
start (verb) 458, 471, 506-507
state (verb) 35, 207, 475
state 51-52, 58, 182-183
of the mind, see cognition verb
verb of, see relational verb
statement
dependent, see dependent
independent, see declarative sentence
static situation, see state
stative (Aktionsart/verb) 51-52, 57-58, 93, 114, 167-174, 394, 396, 417, 454
stay (verb) 35, 52, 161, 479
stem 8
 495

still
adverb 26, 222
conjunct 234
stimulate 474, 507
stimulus 63
stone (quantifier) 240
stop (verb) 479, 503-504
stranded preposition 37, 43, 536, 544, 552
strange 422
strangely 233
stress (verb) 505
stress, see nuclear stress
stricken 450
strive 471
strong verb 70-76
struggle 472
study (verb) 505
stupid 481
stupidly 233
style disjunct 232
subclause 22
nominal, see noun clause
adjectival, see relative clause
adverbial, see adverb clause
modality in 420-446
subject 32
of gerund 495, 499-500
of infinitive 466, 477-478, 480-484
of participle 461-462
see also: concord, grammatical subject, notional subject, psychological subject
subject clause
gerund clause 501-502
infinitive clause 468
modality in 421-422
see also: noun clause, that-clause
subject complement 35-36, 41, 273-274, 276, 278, 334-335, 455-456, 466, 469, 502
subject-evaluating disjunct 233
subject form (of pronoun) 273-275, 462
subject-operator inversion, see inversion
subject-oriented
adverbial 228, 233
modality 363, 365
subject raising 33, 205, 208, 268-269, 480-481
subject-verb inversion, see inversion
subjective
complement, see subject complement
genitive 254, 257
 496

subjunct 215-216, 227-232

subjunctive mood 53, 352-355
see also: past subjunctive, present subjunctive
subordinate
clause, see subclause
tense, see relative tense
subordinating conjunction 22
subordination
syntactic 22
temporal, see temporal
subordinator, see subordinating conjunction
substance noun, see material noun
substandard English 3
substantiate 505
substitute, see pro-form
succeed (in) 390, 393, 396
successful 485
such 186, 312-315, 340, 479, 545
sufficiently 484
suffix 8
derivational 8-9, 13, 258-259
inflectional 8-9, 14
suggest 35, 168, 207, 353, 420, 500, 505, 525
suggestion 362, 367-369, 378-379, 381, 488, 528
summation plural 243
summon 474
sunburnt 75
sunk(en) 450
superlative (degree/form) 76-80, 290, 326, 344-345, 484
superordinate clause 22
see also: independent clause
supplementive clause 36, 278, 335, 347, 456-458, 479
support (verb) 168, 205, 303, 357, 505
suppose 139, 203, 425, 475
supposing 139, 425
supposedly 232
suppressed condition 436-437
sure 33, 203, 481, 516
surely 232
surmise 303
surprise 168
surprised 422, 483
surprising 422
survive 505
suspect (verb) 475
swear 472, 511
swell (verb) 74, 76
 497

swinge 76
syllabus 63
symposium 64
syndetic co-ordination 21
syntactic subject, see grammatical subject
syntax 16

table 331
tag question 25, 184, 191-192, 260, 375, 384-385, 408
see also: reinforcement tag, same-way tag
tail question, see tag question
take (verb) 458, 475, 510
taste
noun 461
verb 35, 167, 169-170
teach 474, 476, 508
teacher 331
telegraph (verb) 207
television 333
telic (Aktionsart) 57, 60, 102
tell 271, 474, 525, 529
temporal
adjunct/adverbial, see time
binding, see temporal subordination
clause, see time clause
domain 87, 134-144
focus 146-150
relation 55, 88, 117-132
subordination 87, 117, 521-522, 524, 527
temporarily 222
temporary
characteristic 346
habit 160-161, 173
situation 157-158
tempt 474
tend 203, 472, 505
tense 54-55, 86-156, 521-525
tense auxiliary 50
tentativeness 163, 173, 356-357, 364, 368, 370, 372, 378, 392, 398-401, 406, 410, 413, 429-430, 434-
437, 445
terminative aspect, see egressive aspect
text 20, 134
than 52, 274-275, 277, 343, 491, 518
thankful 483
thank 511
that
adverb of degree 282
 498

conjunction 440, 444, 525

demonstrative 257, 266, 270, 279, 289, 526, 539
relative 274, 533, 539-545, 549, 552
see also: that-clause
that-clause
depending on adjective/noun 38, 399, 485
depending on verb 420-422, 438-441, 469, 475-476, 490, 521-525
exclamatory that-clause 423
relative that-clause 533, 539-545
and passivization 205
modality in 353, 399, 420-423, 438-441
pro-form for 270-271
see also: dependent statement, noun clause, object clause, subject clause
the, see definite article
thee 264
their 285
theirs 285
them 264
thematic
fronting, see topicalization
structure 19
see also: comment, topic, topicalization
theme, see topic
theme continuity, see topic continuity
themselves 275-278
then 223
theoretical
meaning, see putative meaning
possibility, see possibility (root possibility)
there
deictic adverb 177, 186, 226, 527
existential 32, 187, 237, 266-269, 405, 460, 462, 476, 487, 502, 543, 548
there-insertion, see there (existential)
therefore 234
these
demonstrative 257, 279, 289, 526
these days 106
they 265
thief 62
thin 482
thine 264
think 168, 205, 303, 357, 437, 475
thinking, verb of 33, 205, 208, 270-271, 475
see also: cognition verb
this
adverb of degree 282
demonstrative 107, 257, 266, 270, 279, 289, 526
 499

this minute 101, 106

those 257, 279, 289, 526
thou 264
though
conjunct 235
conjunction 443-444
even though 443
see also: as though
thoughtful 481
thoughtless 481
thousand 240
threat 362
threaten 472
thrilled 483
trouble 472
through 457
thy 264
thyself 264
tight(ly) (adverb) 82
till (conjunction), see until
time (noun)
it is (high) time 359
time
adjunct/adverbial 221-224, 524, 527-528
and tense 94, 96, 103-109
see also: relative time adjunct, time clause
clause
adverbial time clause 133, 139, 142, 145, 151-156, 218
see also: after, before, until, when, while
nominal time clause 139
relative time clause 139-140
of orientation 54
of utterance 54, 86
time-specifying adjunct 221-224
time-sphere
see also: past time-sphere, present time-sphere
tinge 76
tingle (verb) 169
titmouse 63
to
before infinitive 207, 467
preposition 34, 517
pro-form for infinitive clause 270, 472
TO, time of orientation
today 107
tolerate 505
ton (quantifier) 240
 500

too 202, 229, 303, 341, 484

tooth 63
topic
of discourse 20, 104, 212-213
of sentence 19-20, 200, 206-207, 212-213, 282
see also: topic continuity, topicalization
topic continuity 206-207, 212-213
topical fronting, see topicalization
topicalization 19, 186, 193
tough 33, 482
tough-movement, see object shift
town 331
transferred negation 303
transitional event 162
transitive (use of) verb 33-34
translate (from) 328
translation (from) 328
treat (verb) 505
trillion 240
trouble (verb) 505
trout 240
trust (verb) 168, 271, 438, 474-475
truth question, see yes/no question
truth-evaluating disjunct 232-233
try (verb) 265, 472, 511
TU, see time of utterance
turn (copula) 35, 335
turn out 203, 472
twice 316
twinge 76
type (noun) 239
type 1 (conditional) 426, 428-429, 434
type 2 (conditional) 426, 429-432, 434, 525
type 3 (conditional) 426, 431-432
typical 485

ultimatum 64
unattached clause, see unrelated clause
unbounded
duration adverbial 181
sentence/situation 58-60, 100, 102, 157, 161-162, 181
see also: bounded
uncle 331
uncommon 481
uncountable (noun), see mass noun
undeniably 232
undersigned (noun) 248
 501

understand 168, 205, 270, 475, 505

understandable 422
understanding
on the understanding that 423
undertake 472
undervalue 504
undoubtedly 234
unembedded clause, see independent clause
unemployed (noun) 248
unexpectedly 233
unfortunate 481
unfulfilled condition, see counterfactual condition
ungrateful 481
unimportant 481
unique
property 334
reference 31, 39, 321
unit noun 339
universal
quantifier 292
statement/truth 55, 90, 183, 428
university 331
unjustly 233
unkind 481
unless 423-424
unlikely 203
unlimited duration 182-183
unlinked co-ordination, see asyndetic co-ordination
unlucky 481
unmarked
infinitive, see plain infinitive
interpretation 16, 106
morphologically 15, 252
plural 15, 239-242
temporal focus 146-148
temporal relation 133
word order 19
unnecessary 481
unoriented modality 369
unpremeditated intention 113, 362
unreality 121, 351, 354-361, 364, 372-373, 376, 378-381, 389, 392-393, 395, 400-402, 406, 411, 416,
430-433, 435, 439, 525
see also: counterfactual, imaginary
unrelated clause
participle clause 463-464
infinitive clause 479-480
unscrupulous (noun) 248
 502

until 155
until now 108
unusual 481
unwise 481
up (preposition) 552
urge (verb) 353, 420, 475, 507-508, 529
urgent 421
us 264-265
use
it is no use 305, 308, 502
used (to) (adjective) 517
used to (auxiliary) 217, 417-418, 517
usual 481
usually 174, 180-181, 222-223

V, see verb
value (verb) 505
veal 328
venture (verb) 472
vermin 242
very 202, 344, 452
very much 202, 231, 452
veto (verb) 504
verb 13-14
formation of verb forms 68-77
see also: auxiliary, cognition verb, communication verb, concord, control verb, copula, creation, defective verb, dynamic, finite, full verb,
inquiry, intransitive, lexical verb, main verb, middle verb, multi-word verb, nonfinite, perception verb, phrasal verb, prepositional
phrasal verb, prepositional verb, pseudo-transitive, reflexive verb, relational verb, saying, semi-auxiliary, stance, strong verb, thinking,
transitive, verb phrase, weak verb
verb-adverb combination, see phrasal verb
verb marker 50
verb phrase 17, 46-48
verb stem, see stem
verbless sentence 18
vexed 422
view (verb) 505
viewpoint adverbial 227-228
virus 63
visualize 505
vital 354, 421, 481
vocative case 333
voice 53, 200-213, 448, 465, 494
see also: active, passive, voice auxiliary
voice auxiliary 50
volition 166, 360-369
verb/expression of 353-354, 420-421, 437, 439, 460, 475, 483
see also: determination, insistence, intention, willingness
 503

volunteer (verb) 472

vow (verb) 472
VP, see verb phrase

wait 52, 160-161

want 168, 357, 378, 420, 460, 472, 475, 510
-ward(s) 83
warrant (verb) 472, 475, 513
warn 475-476, 529
watch (verb) 460, 489
way 544
in no way 231
-ways 83
we 264-265
weak verb 69-76
wed 74, 76
welcome (verb) 505
were (subjunctive) 352, 354, 429-431
were to 430-431
western 348
wharf 62
what
exclamatory 340-341
interrogative 283-284
relative 539, 546-547, 551
what with 462
whatever 443, 546, 548-549
whatsoever, see whatever
when
temporal conjunction 133, 135, 151-152, 178, 424, 457, 534
interrogative 94, 284
relative 140, 544, 547
see also: narrative when-clause
whence 549
whenever 443, 540, 548
where
interrogative 284
relative 547
whereat 549
whereby 549
wherein 549
whereof 549
whereon 549
whereto 549
wherever 443, 548
whether 527-528
whether ... or 21, 354, 425, 443, 527
 504

wh-fronting, see wh-movement

wh-infinitive 477-478, 486
wh-movement 19, 550-551
wh-question
dependent 141, 422
independent 24, 93, 302, 304, 398, 422-423
which
interrogative 283-284, 290
relative 538-539, 542, 544-545, 548-549, 551-552
whichever 443, 548
while 118, 145
whimperative 23
whites 249
whither 549
wh-movement 550-551
who
interrogative 282, 284
relative 535-537, 540, 549, 552
whoever 443, 536, 548
whole 295
wholly 84
whom
interrogative 282
relative 535-537, 551-552
whose
interrogative 283
relative 537-538, 551
why
interrogative 189, 270, 284, 487
relative 547
wicked 448, 481
wide(ly) (adverb) 83
wide scope, see scope
wife 62
wild 483
wildfowl 242
will (auxiliary) 110-112, 115, 361-365, 382, 412-417, 433, 441, 524
willing 483
willingness 362-364, 366-367, 433-434, 439
wind (verb) 75-76
-wise 83
wise 481
wisely 233
wish (verb) 168, 353-354, 420, 438-440, 460, 472, 475, 505
wish to God 358
wish
independent clause 23, 416
 505

subclause depending on expression of 438-440

with 36, 227, 462
within 59
without 303
withstand 504
wolf 62
woman 63, 65, 330
-woman 249
wonder 528
wonderful 481
word 11-13
word class 13-16
word compound 8, 12, 501
see also: false compound, noun compound
word stress, see nuclear stress
works (noun) 242
worried 483
worshipped 69
worth 485, 502, 518
worthwhile 485, 502, 518
would 111, 353, 363-364, 413-418, 429, 431, 433, 436-439, 441
would that 358
see also: rather, sooner
wounded (noun) 248-249
wretched 448
write 207
wrong
adjective 481
adverb 83
wrongly 83, 233

yearn 472
yes 529-530
yes/no question 24, 301, 304
yet 26, 106-107, 222-223, 234
yoke 240
you 265
young (noun) 248, 287
your 285
yours 285
yourself 275-278
yourselves 275-278

zero
allomorph 10
article 320, 323-324, 326-340
conjunction 425, 430, 525
 506

noun head after genitive, see elliptic genitive

noun head after own 285
plural morpheme, see unmarked plural
pro-form for clause 265, 270
relative pronoun 534, 543-544, 548, 552
subject of gerund clause 500
subject of infinitive clause 466