Chapter

Other Question
13 Types

MODERN
Mr. Eric V. Marasigan THEORIES
OF
Discussant GRAMMAR
TAG QUESTIONS

A short question which is

appended to a
statement when the
speaker seeks
confirmation of his/her
statement. CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
(1) John will go, won’t he?
(2) John won’t go, will he?
Notice that question tags
have both an affirmative
and a negative form.
NEG RESPONSE – employ a
negative statement with an
affirmative question tag
POS RESPONSE – use an
affirmative statement with a CHAPTER 13
negative question tag 10-9-19
 Why tag questions
are problematic?
People tend to
overgeneralize “isn’t it”
and use it for all cases.

*You’re coming today, isn’t it?

CHAPTER 13
10-9-19

*They were in New York, isn’t it?

“ The tag formation
convention merely consists
of adding equivalent for no
or yes with rising
intonation to a statement.

*Mr. Johnson is a teacher, no?

CHAPTER 13
*We don’t have homework 10-9-19

today, yes?
The two sentences may
serve communicative
function, they are
expressed in
unidiomatic ---if not
downright
ungrammatical. CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
INTONATION IN TAG QUESTIONS
Several grammars provided
descriptions of two intonation
patterns that occur with tag
questions---the first pattern is
generally acknowledged as
being by far the more frequent
one:
(1) rising-falling CHAPTER 13
10-9-19

(2) rising
Rising-falling
Marge has a car, doesn’t she?

Marge doesn’t have a car, does she?

Rising
Marge has a car, doesn’t she?

Marge doesn’t have a car, does she?

CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
“ Huang (1980) feels that
the speaker’s intonation
indicates how strong his or
her presupposition is that
the original statement -
affirmative or negative – will
be confirmed by the listener.
CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
Rising-falling intonation
PRESUPPOSITION
(strong)

Rising intonation
PRESUPPOSITION
(weak) CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
Huang, 1980
A syntactic analysis of tag questions

(1) John has gone, hasn’t he?

(2) John hasn’t gone, has he?

(3) You are the teacher, aren’t you?

(4) You are not the teacher, are you?

(5) Paul will go to Europe, won’t he?

(6) Paul won’t go to Europe, will he?
CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
“ In forming a question tag, we
must do the following:
1. Copy the subject, any tense
marker, and the first
auxiliary verb BE copula
after the main sentence. If
there is no auxiliary verb or
copula be, DO must be
added. CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
“ 2. Make the tag negative if
the sentence is affirmative,
and make the tag affirmative
if the sentence is negative.
3. Pronominalize the subject
(if it is not already a
pronoun)
4. Invert the order of the
subject and the auxiliary in
the tag. CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
 If we consider the following
examples, we can observe
certain parallels between tags
and yes-no questions:

(1) John isn’t going, is he?

Is John going? Is he going?

(2) John is going, isn’t he?

CHAPTER 13
Isn’t John going? Isn’t he going? 10-9-19
“ In the tags the pronominalized
subject and the auxiliary verb are
in precisely the same slots they
would fill in a yes-no question.

Second, the negative element in

the tag question must be
contracted with the auxiliary if it
precedes the subject NP, just as it
must when it precedes the
subject NP in a yes-no CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
question.
 Thus, the example below is a
formal version of a tag question in
which the uncontracted negative
appears in the tag, but once, the
order of the elements is identical
with that of yes-no question.

(1) *John is going, is not he?

*Is not John going? *Is not he going?

(2) *John is going, is he not?

CHAPTER 13
*Is John not going? Is he not going? 10-9-19
“ Since tag questions
seem to be syntactically
comparable to yes-no
questions in many ways,
we can make use of
several of our previous
transformational rules
to generate them. CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
“ A “TAG” sentence modifier (SM) is
what indicates that the tag question
transformation will take place. This
transformational rule actually
performs three operations:

1. Copy the subject, any tense, and – if

present – the first lexical auxiliary or
the copula BE
2. Pronominalize the subject (if it is not
already a personal pronoun or an
impersonal it or there)
CHAPTER 13
3. Move the Q marker to a position 10-9-19
between the statement and the tag.
“Operation 3 is necessary
because we want the
subject/auxiliary inversion
rule to apply to the tag,
not to the statement.

CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
“ In such tags the decision as to
where the NOT placement rule
should put the NOT is
semantically motivated.

If the speaker’s assumption is

negative, the NOT is placed in the
nucleus.

If the speaker’s assumption is

affirmative, the NOT is placed CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
in the tag.
Consider this sentence and the tree diagram:
(1) John won’t go, will he?
S

SM SM SM NUC

NOT tag Q NP AUX VP

[+NUC]
N M V

John will go
Output of the base: NOT [+NUC] Tag Q
John will go
Tag: NOT [+NUC] John will go Q he will
NOT placement: John will + NOT go Q he
will
NOT contraction: John will +N’T go Q he
will
Subject/Auxiliary inversion: John will +
N’T go will he
Morphological rules: John won’t go, will CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
he?
Just as with yes-no question and wh-questions, DO support is necessary when a
question tag is adjoined to a sentence containing no auxiliary verb or copula
BE:
(2) John doesn’t go to school, does he?

SM SM SM NUC

NOT tag Q NP AUX VP

[+NUC]
N T V PP

John pres go P NP

N
to
school
Output of the base: NOT [+NUC] Tag Q John pres go to
school
Tag: NOT [+NUC] John pres go to school Q he pres
DO support: NOT [+NUC] John pres go to school Q he
pres do
NOT placement: John pres NOT go to school Q he pres
do
DO support: John pres DO NOT go to school Q he pres
do
NOT contraction: John pres DO + N’T go to school Q he
pres do
Subject/Auxiliary inversion: John pres DO + N’T go to
school pres he do
Affix Attachment (2x) : John DO + N’T + pres go to
school do + pres he CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
Subject-Verb Agreement (2x) and Morphological
rules: John doesn’t go to school, does he?
MARKED TAG QUESTIONS
The preceding derivations have
dealt with normal “unmarked”
tag questions, where the tag is
negative if the nucleus is
affirmative and vice versa.

(1) So you’re a student, are you?

CHAPTER 13
(2) Oh, I can’t, can’t I? 10-9-19
“ In the first type of marked
tag, the absence of NOT
signals some emotion on
the part of the speaker.
Intonation is crucial.
POSITIVE – the speaker is
friendly, interested
NEGATIVE – expresses speaker’s
CHAPTER 13
disbelief or sarcasm 10-9-19

(1) So you’re a student, are you?

“ In the second type, which
occurs very rarely, the
speaker is challenging
something negative that
someone else has just said.

CHAPTER 13
10-9-19

(2) Oh, I can’t, can’t I?

IDIOSYNCRATIC AND UNSYSTEMATIC TAGS

One further note should be

made here with regard to
question tags. This has to do
with certain idiosyncratic forms
such as:
(1) Let’s go, shall we?

(2) We ought to go, shouldn’t we? CHAPTER 13

10-9-19

(3) I am going, aren’t I?

“ These tags are idiosyncratic in
that there is no rule-based way of
predicting the form of the tag
given the form of the statement.
There are also numerous
unsystematic lexical-type that are
used in informal conversation
(1) That’s a nice painting. Do
you agree
Don’t CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
“ Semantically, it seems that such
lexical tags and full-question
confirmers can function as
requests for confirmation just as
regular question tags do.
We don’t have syntactic rules to
predict their form, however, and
therefore regard them as
syntactically exceptional, though
not necessary semantically
CHAPTER 13
unusual cases. 10-9-19
DISCOURSE FUNCTION OF TAG QUESTIONS

In her study of tag questions

that occurred in a large corpus
of spoken and written
American English, Brown
(1981) found empirical
evidence for the claim that tags
are primarily an informal,
conversational device. CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
DISCOURSE FUNCTION OF TAG QUESTIONS

Brown also found that tags

have five major functions and
several minor ones.
1. Indicating inference
2. Seeking agreement
3. Inviting confirmation
4. Expressing doubts
5. Expressing opinion CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
Indicating Inference
43 cases
So that proves malice, doesn’t it?

Seeking Agreement
43 cases
They keep coming back, don’t they?
Inviting Confirmation
36 cases CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
Science is your favorite subject, isn’t it?
The speaker is checking information.
Expressing doubt
21 cases
They can’t get that big, can they?

Expressing Opinion
21 cases
But that makes a mockery of belief, doesn’t it?

CHAPTER 13
10-9-19

The speaker is expressing feelings or opinions.

RESPONSES TO TAG QUESTIONS

Another finding that Brown made

which is of interest to ESL/EFL
teachers is that tags are different
from other questions in that they
do not necessarily have to be
answered.

29% Tags in her corpus were

not answered
CHAPTER 13

71% Responses to tags did

occur
10-9-19
RESPONSES TO TAG QUESTIONS

1. Affirmative agreement – 17.5%

2. Negative agreement – 7.5%
3. Agreement statement – 6%
4. Disagreement statement – 2.5%
5. Agreement with modification – 22.5%
6. Disagreement with modification – 10%
7. Contradiction of inference – 5%

CHAPTER 13

71% Responses to tags did

occur
10-9-19
“ Furthermore, Brown
pointed out that the
traditional Yes, he is or No,
they can’t responses to
tags that get presented in
most ESL/EFL texts are
very rare. In fact they
occurred only 5% of the
CHAPTER 13
time in her corpus. 10-9-19
ALTERNATIVE QUESTIONS

In this type of question, the speaker

offers the listener a choice of answers.

(1) Will you go to Stanford or Berkeley?

Although this question appears to

take the form of yes-no
question, it would be obviously
inappropriate to answer with a CHAPTER 13
“ye” or “no”. 10-9-19
ALTERNATIVE QUESTIONS

In many other languages, such as

question does not take a form
similar to a yes-no question; it
would take the form of a
wh-question followed by the
choices in tag form.
(1) Where will you go to school – Stanford
or Berkeley?
It would be difficult to write rules to generate all CHAPTER 13
possible alternative questions, since the 10-9-19
elements which are deleted are variable and
may be deleted before or after the “or”.
ALTERNATIVE QUESTIONS

It would be difficult to write rules

to generate all possible alternative
questions, since the elements
which are deleted are variable and
may be deleted before or after the
“or”.

(1) Will you go to Stanford or (will you go

to) Berkeley?
CHAPTER 13
(2) Are you coming or aren’t you (coming)? 10-9-19
ALTERNATIVE QUESTIONS

From these fully expanded

alternative questions, we note that
in English alternative questions
result when two or more yes-no
questions are structurally
conjoined in a single utterance
with or functioning as the
conjunction.
(1) Will you go to Stanford or (will you go CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
to) Berkeley?
(2) Are you coming or aren’t you (coming)?
ALTERNATIVE QUESTIONS

From these fully expanded

alternative questions, we note that
in English alternative questions
result when two or more yes-no
questions are structurally
conjoined in a single utterance
with or functioning as the
conjunction.
(1) Will you go to Stanford or (will you go CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
to) Berkeley?
(2) Are you coming or aren’t you (coming)?
“Yes-no questions are used
in situations where the
speaker wants to know
whether the answer to the
question is “yes” or “no”.

“Alternative questions are used

in situations where the speaker
wants to force the listener to
make a choice between two or CHAPTER 13
more alternatives. 10-9-19
ALTERNATIVE QUESTIONS

However, since intonation is as

important as syntax in
determining the meaning of
alternative questions, we must
await the results of a thorough
discourse analysis that
includes both parameters
before we can draw any CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
conclusions.
POTENTIAL AMBIGUITY: YES-NO QUESTIONS AND
ALTERNATIVE QUESTIONS

Another point we should make

is that sometimes questions
which on the surface appear to
be alternative questions are
really not alternative questions
at all, but simple yes-no
questions with conjoined
objects. CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
(1) Would you like coffee or tea?
POTENTIAL AMBIGUITY: YES-NO QUESTIONS AND
ALTERNATIVE QUESTIONS

Fortunately, this sentence is

ambiguous only in writing. In
speech, the distinction would be
clear, because the intonation
patterns for the two possible
questions are completely different.

(1) Would you like coffee or tea?

CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
(2) Would you like coffee or tea?
EXCLAMATORY QUESTIONS

It is not a real question,

although it may appear to be
one, because the string has
undergone subject/auxiliary
inversion.
(1) Isn’t that grand!
This has the form of a yes-no
question, but it’s not really a CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
question, since it has the force and
intonation of an exclamation.
RHETORICAL QUESTIONS

It is not a question in the usual

sense, since it requires no
response from the listener.
Here the speaker uses stylistic
device to make an assertion or
point.
The speaker’s message here is “Surely, no –
that is no reason to give up.” Sometimes, CHAPTER 13
the speaker actually answers the questions 10-9-19
as part of a monologUE.
Chapter The

14 Article
System

MODERN
THEORIES
OF
GRAMMAR
STRUCTURAL FACTS ABOUT ARTICLES

Both structural and

transformational grammarians
have been largely unsuccessful
with regard to explicating article
usage.
REASON: Neither the school of
analysis goes beyond the sentence
level, and in article usage – to a
great extent – we depend on the CHAPTER 14
discourse context to determine 10-16-19

what is definite and indefinite.

STRUCTURAL FACTS ABOUT ARTICLES

CHAPTER 14
10-16-19
STRUCTURAL FACTS ABOUT ARTICLES

A very important factor in

correct-article usage is the
lexical classification of
English nouns into mass vs.
count.

CHAPTER 14
10-16-19
STRUCTURAL FACTS ABOUT ARTICLES

There are also many

idiosyncratic meaning
relationship involving mass
and count nouns that must be
learned independent of any
such regular semantic
patterns; these are cases
where there is no predicate CHAPTER 14
mass count shift. 10-16-19
STRUCTURAL FACTS ABOUT ARTICLES

CHAPTER 14
10-16-19
ARTICLE USAGE

As Brown’s matrix indicates,

the definite article is used
properly only when the noun
discussed has a specific
referent (from the speaker’s
POV) for both the
speaker/writer and the
listener/reader. CHAPTER 14
10-16-19
ARTICLE USAGE

CHAPTER 14
10-16-19
DEFINITE ARTICLE USAGE

Brown (1973) suggests eight circumstances

under which a noun may have specific
reference for the speaker and the hearer alike

1. Unique for all: the moon, the earth, the sun

2. Unique for a given setting: the blackboard, the
ceiling, the floor
3. Unique for a given social group: the car, the dog,
the baby
4. Unique by pointing, nodding: the book, the chair
5. Unique because of characteristics that get
attention: the explosion, the streaker
6. Unique by entailment: the windows, the garden
7. Unique by definition: the house with a view CHAPTER 14
8. Unique by prior utterance: I saw a funny-looking 10-16-19
dog today. The dog…
DEFINITE ARTICLE USAGE

Some of Brown’s categories correspond

closely to concepts long used in
traditional grammar.

Category 8 – Unique by prior utterance

(ANAPHORA)
Category 4 – Unique by pointing,
nodding (DEIXIS)
CATEGORY 10 – Unique by anticipation
(CATAPHORA)
CHAPTER 14
10-16-19
Chapter

15 Measure Words, Collective

Nouns,
and Quantifiers

MODERN
THEORIES
OF
GRAMMAR
MEASURE WORDS

These measure words are used to

make mass nouns countable or
more precisely quantifiable.
A can of…
A bottle of…
A jar of…
A carton of…
A slice of...
A piece of… CHAPTER 15
A bit of… 10-16-19
A pinch of…
MEASURE WORDS

There are some idiomatic measure

words that are used to quantify
certain mass or plural nouns.

A head of lettuce, cabbage

A stalk of celery
An ear of corn
A clove of garlic
A hand of bananas CHAPTER 15
10-16-19
A bunch of grapes
COLLECTIVE NOUNS

There is a parallel between

collective nouns and measure
words in that for collective phrases
such as:

A team of hockey players

A group of children

CHAPTER 15
10-16-19
COLLECTIVE NOUNS

The singular or plural number of

pronouns (or the other anaphoric
item) provides the clue (Celce,
1970)
(1) I saw the mob; it was on the
verge of rioting.

(2) I saw the mob; they were on

the verge of rioting. CHAPTER 15
10-16-19
QUANTIFIERS

It is not easy for ESL/EFL students

to learn how to use the number
like quantifiers, which are another
type of pronominal modifier. These
quantifiers are words/phrases
which indicates the amount,
number of proportion of the noun
which follows.
CHAPTER 15
10-16-19
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE CONNOTATIONS

CHAPTER 15
10-16-19
Chapter

16 Preverbal Adverbs
of Frequency

MODERN
THEORIES
OF
GRAMMAR
Introduction

If we want to be precise, we can

refer to such adverbials as
‘adverbials of specific or general
frequency’. These adverbials tend
to occur at the end or it may occur
initially if the adverbial of
frequency is in focus.
(1) Helen does the dishes once in a
while. CHAPTER 16
10-16-19
(2) Every now and then you should
write your parents.
Introduction

Note that whereas adverbials of

specific or general frequency
tend to phrases, preverbal
adverbs of frequency tend to
be single words, although they
may take intensifiers (very
often, almost always)
CHAPTER 16
10-16-19
The semantics of preverbal adverbs
of frequency

Resemblance to quantification
Similar to the quantifiers
described in the preceding chapter,
preverbal adverbs of frequency fall
along either the positive or the
negative continuum of a scale on
which always constitutes the
positive extreme and never the CHAPTER 16
negative one. 10-16-19
The semantics of preverbal adverbs
of frequency

CHAPTER 16
10-16-19
The semantics of preverbal adverbs
of frequency

Note that many sentences with

preverbal adverbs can in fact be
paraphrased with sentence-final
adverbials containing semantically
related quantifiers.

(1) John always gets up at 7 am.

John gets up at 7 am all the CHAPTER 16
time. 10-16-19
Negative preverbal adverbs

As Klima (1964) has pointed out,

we can verify the negative or
affirmative nature of preverbal
adverbs by observing their
behavior in unmarked tags, since
an affirmative preverbal adverb co-
occurs with a negative tag and vice-
versa.
CHAPTER 16
(1) John is always late, isn’t he? 10-16-19
(2) Mavis never goes out, does
she?
Negative preverbal adverbs

In those cases where lexically

negative preverbal adverbs occur
as single lexical items, a phrasal
counterpart is also available:

(1) We have never gone to New

York. (lexical)

We haven’t ever gone to New CHAPTER 16

10-16-19
York (phrasal)
A syntactic analysis of preverbal
adverbs of frequency

The phrase structure rules,

therefore, should generate it as a
sentence modifier in the base
structure:
(1) Gerald seldom does the
shopping.

CHAPTER 16
10-16-19
(1) Gerald seldom does the shopping.

SM NUC

seldom NP AUX VP

N T V NP

do det N
Gerald pres
the shopping
Output of the base: seldom Gerald pres
do the shopping
Preverbal adverb placement: Gerald
seldom pres do the shopping
Affix attachment (1x): Gerald seldom do
+ pres do the shopping
Subject-verb agrement and
morphological rules: Gerald seldom
does the shopping.

“ This rule of preverbal adverb

placement accounts for all
sentences without auxiliary verb.
CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
A syntactic analysis of preverbal
adverbs of frequency

When the nucleus has a BE copula

or one or more auxiliary verbs with
reduced stress, place the preverbal
adverb after the BE copula or the
first auxiliary verb.

(1) Mickey has always been on

time. CHAPTER 16
10-16-19
(1) Mickey has always been on time.

SM NUC

always NP AUX VP

N T perf BE PP

P NP
Mickey pres HAVE EN
N
on
time
Output of the base: always Mickey pres
HAVE EN BE on time
Preverbal adverb placement: Mickey
pres HAVE always EN BE on time
Affix attachment (2x): Mickey HAVE +
pres always BE + EN on time
Subject-verb agrement and
morphological rules: Mickey has
always been on time

CHAPTER 13
10-9-19
Interaction with NOT

The semantically negative

preverbal adverbs of frequency
may not occur with the negative
particle NOT if the NOT derives
from the sentence modifier.
Once we stipulate that negative
phrasal preverbal adverbs
beginning with not follow the same CHAPTER 16
placement rules as NOT itself. 10-16-19
(1) Mort doesn’t always do his homework

SM NUC

not always NP AUX VP

N T NP
V
det N
Mort pres do
on homework
Output of the base: not always Mort pres do
his homework
Negative preverbal adverb placement: Mort
pres not always do his homework
Do support: Mort pres DO not always do his
homework
NOT contraction: Mort pres DO + N’T always
do his homework
Affix attachment (1x): Mort DO + N’T + pres
always do his homework
Subject-verb agrement and morphological
rules: Mort doesn’t always do his
CHAPTER 13
homework. 10-9-19
Chapter

17 Passive Voice

MODERN
THEORIES
OF
GRAMMAR
A review and an analysis of the
passive
Most grammarians agree that
passive sentences imply an agent
but that explicit identification of
the agent is either unnecessary or
impossible.

(1) The picture was sketched in

fifteen minutes. CHAPTER 17
10-16-19
 (1) The picture was sketched in fifteen minutes.
S
NUC

AUX VP Advl
NP

det N T pass V PP

the picture past P NP

BE EN sketch
in det N pl

fifteen minute
Active and Passive Sentences

The structural differences between A and P are

as follow:

1. Addition of BE…EN
2. Inversion of the nouns signifying the agent
3. Although pronominal agents are fairly rare in
the passive, when they do occur, the case of
the pronoun changes from subject to object.
4. Insertion of the preposition by before the
denoted agent.
CHAPTER 17
(1) I drew Mary’s portrait. 10-16-19

Mary’s portrait was drawn by me.

Agentless Passive

The ESL/EFL must know that

majority of the passive
sentences that occur in speech
and writing do not have an
explicit agent.

(1) Grapes are grown in the valley.

CHAPTER 17
(2) The papers have been destroyed. 10-16-19
Different kinds of passives

1. Simple passives with BE…EN

2. Simple passives with GET…EN
3. Complex passives with BE…EN
4. Complex passives with HAVE…
NP…EN
(1) Mary was hit by John.
(2) Barry got invited to the party. CHAPTER 17
(3) It is rumored that he will get the job. 10-16-19
(4) Hal had his car stolen last weekend.
Chapter

18 Sentences with
Indirect Objects

MODERN
THEORIES
OF
GRAMMAR
The structure of sentences with IO

The verb that take IO in

English share certain
similarities and differences.
The IO is indispensable to the
meaning and structure of the
sentence.
(1) John gave a book to Mel. CHAPTER 18
John gave Mel a book. 10-16-19
The structure of sentences with IO

In such instance, the DO is the

most important NP in the
predicate and the IO is not closely
linked to the meaning of the verb.
Thus, we can capture this
association in such cases by
making the IO a part of VP in the
underlying structure.
CHAPTER 18
10-16-19
(1) I handed the note to him.
(1) I handed the note to him.
S
NUC

AUX VP
NP

Pro T V NP PP

I past hand det N P NP

the note to Pro

him
The IO movement transformation

Indirect object movement

transformation, then, is an
optional transformation applied if
the verb in question permits such
movement and if the speaker
chooses to make the DO
dominant.
CHAPTER 18
10-16-19
(1) Joe gave Sally a book.
(1) Joe gave Sally a book.
S
NUC

AUX VP
NP

N T V NP PP

Joe past give det N P NP

a book to N

Sally
Output of the base: Joe past give a book to
Sally
Indirect object movement: Joe past give Sally a
book
Affix attachment (1x): Joe give + past Sally a
book
Morphological rules: Joe gave Sally a book.

“ The IO Movement
transformation then dictates the
preposition before the IO and has
the IO exchange places with the Do. CHAPTER 18
10-9-19
Sentences with IO in the passive voice

The basic structure of such

sentence can be
represented as follows,
with agent being
considered optional.

CHAPTER 18
10-16-19
(1) This dress was made by Alice.
(1) This dress was made by Alice.
Chapter

19 Prepositions

MODERN
THEORIES
OF
GRAMMAR
Introduction: Why preposition is
problematic
Preposition emerged as a
serious problem and are
mentioned almost as
frequently as articles: feel
that prepositions are the
second most difficult aspect
of the English language for
CHAPTER 19
their students. 10-16-19
Introduction: Why preposition is
problematic
Many factors support this
perception of difficulty.
1. Information that is signaled by a
preposition in English is often
signaled by an inflection on a
noun or an article in a highly
inflected language.
2. Some languages like Japanese
CHAPTER 19
have postpositions instead of 10-16-19
prepositions.
A closer look at the structure of
prepositional phrases
Deletion of Preposition
1. When the preposition for expresses
a span of time
2. When the preposition on is used
before days of the week
3. In responses to questions that
would cue temporal use of in, at on, or
for
(1) We have lived here (for) twelve years.
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(2) He went surfing (on) Saturday. 10-16-19
(3) How long have you lived here?
(For) two years.
Lexical idiosyncrasies of prepositions
Incorporation
An issue related to the deletion of
prepositions was raised by Gruber
(1965) when he pointed out that
certain prepositions are sometimes
incorporated into verbs and are
superficially lost in the process of
relexification. Meaning, the result is a
shorter sentence and a verb that
conveys more information.
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(1) John went across the street. 10-16-19
John crossed the street.
Lexical idiosyncrasies of prepositions
Co-occurrence with verbs and
adjectives
Many English verbs and adjectives
occur with one and only one
preposition. Such a preposition must
be entered in the lexical entry of the
verb or adjective concerned.

Verb + Prep Adj + Prep

to rely on to be afraid of
to detract from to be interested in CHAPTER 19
to consist of to be common to 10-16-19
Functions of preposition at
1. To locate an object in space
2. To locate an object in time
3. To indicate a state, condition, or
engagement
4. To indicate a cause or a source of an
action
5. To indicate direction toward a goal
6. To express skill
7. To indicate relative amount
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10-16-19
Semantic case functions
1. by (agentive) – I was done by John
2. by (means) – We went there by bus
3. for (benefactive) – I bought the gift for Mary.
4. for (proxy) – He manages the store for Mr. Smith
5. from (ablative, source) – Joe bought the car from Bill
6. of (eliciting) – He asked a favor of us.
7. of (separation) – He robbed us of our jewelry.
8. to (dative) – I gave the book to John.
9. to (direction, goal) – We drove to Boston.
10. with (instrument) – He broke the window with a
rock.
11. with (comitative) – I went to town with Jack
12. with (joining) – We presented him with a gift. CHAPTER 19
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Chapter

20 Phrasal verbs

MODERN
THEORIES
OF
GRAMMAR
Syntactic analysis of phrasal verbs

A PV is made up of two or more

parts that function as a single
verb. Phrasal verbs are
sometimes called two-word verbs
because they usually consist of a
verb plus a second word, the
latter often referred to as an
adverb.
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Syntactic analysis of phrasal verb

“ The PV category is then

expanded in a new phrase structure
rule as a verb and a particle.
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10-16-19
Phrasal verb that requires preposition

“ Like single-word verbs,

adjectives, and nouns, many
phrasal verbs take a specific
preposition.
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10-16-19
The separability of phrasal verbs

“ There is one syntactic characteristic

peculiar to transitive phrasal verbs:
sometimes the particle can be separated
from the verb by the DO. However, there
is also with an inseparable phrasal verb.
CHAPTER 20
10-16-19
Reference
The Grammar Book (An ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course), pp.
160-265

CHAPTER 13-
20
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