GRAMMAR

CHAPTER 7
WHAT IS GRAMMAR
 ‫‪Could we communicate without grammar, using just lexical‬‬
‫?‪items‬‬
‫هل يمكننا التواصل بدون قواعد ‪ ،‬باستخدام عناصر معجمية فقط؟‬
‫‪- Actually, using lexis alone allows us to label people, things‬‬
‫‪and actions, but not to show how they relate to each other.‬‬
‫ف ي الواق ع‪ ،‬يتي ح لن ا اس تخدام المعج م وحده تس مية األشخاص واألشياء ‪-‬‬
‫‪.‬واإلجراءات ‪ ،‬ولكن ليس إلظهار كيفية ارتباطهم ببعضهم البعض‬
‫‪-‬‬
‫‪- The two features of adding affixes to words and putting‬‬
‫‪words in order are both aspects of grammar; they are called‬‬
‫‪morphology and syntax.‬‬
‫‪ -‬س متا إضاف ة األلقاب إل ى الكلمات وترتي ب الكلمات هم ا جانبان م ن جوان ب‬
‫القواعد ؛ يطلق عليهم علم التشكل وبناء الجملة‪.‬‬
‫‪ -‬الميزتان اللتان تمثالن اإلضافات إل ى الكلمات وترتي ب الكلمات هم ا جانبان م ن‬
‫جوانب القواعد النحوية‪ ،‬يطلق عليهم المورفولوجيا وبناء الجملة‪.‬‬
Compare the pairs of sentences below. How does the
meaning change in each pair:
‫يف تغير ا لمعنىف يك لزوج‬
‫ ك ي‬. ‫ق ارنب ينأزواج ا لجملأدناه‬:
1- a) When are you going to open your present?
- b) When are you going to open your presents?
2- a) She used to be fat, but now she’s thin.
b) She used to be fat, but now she’s thinner.
3- a) He restores antique cars.
b) He restored antique cars.
• These sentences illustrate the use of inflectional
affixes. In Sentence 1 the addition of -s to present
changes it from singular to plural. In Sentence 2,
the addition of -er to thin changes it to a
comparative form. In Sentence 3, the verb restore
appears with two different affixes: the present
tense -s indicates something that is true now, and
the past tense -ed indicates something that is over
and done with.
• You may wonder why in the present tense, we
add -S- with he, she, or it, but not with I, you, we
or they, he restores, but not I restores or they
restores. The reason is that Old English had a
different ending for every person, but most of
these have disappeared over time. The possessive
affix -es and the plural affix -as have lost their
vowels in modern English; as a result we now
have the same form -S to indicate /two different
grammatical functions, so we distinguish the
possessive 'with an apostrophe: the angel's, as
opposed to the angels.
• The case of the possessive in English shows us how
the same job may be done by either morphology or
syntax. Can you identify which is which in the
following two phrases?
• the Chief Justice's wig
• the wig of the Chief Justice
• To show that one person or thing belongs to another,
we can either add (' ) an inflectional affix to the
possessor — the Chief Justice’s — or we can put of
after the possession and in front of the possessor.
The first involves morphology (word structure), and
the second involves syntax (word order).
• To describe syntax as word order this is an oversimplification, as
syntax involves not just the way words are arranged in sequence,
but also how they are grouped together. You can see the
significance of this by considering how questions are formed in
English.
• Syntax involves words that go together in groups, and then
groups that go together with other groups. But how do you know
which words go together, and which groups go together? This is
something that you pick up as you acquire a language. You know
how the grammar of your own language works, even though you
may not be able to explain the rules. For native speakers of
English, the vast majority of the grammar comes so easily that
they don't even need to think about it. When they worry about
grammar, it tends to be over a few very minor rules that only
apply in formal situations. For foreign students of English, of
course, it's a different matter, as they have to learn to operate a
system that is different from what they are used to.
• Grammar involves both morphology and
syntax, which together share the responsibility
for indicating the relationships between
meanings in a sentence. It is generally believed
that grammar is a unique property of human
communication. Other animals can use
symbols to convey meaning, but do not have
morphology or syntax to show how these
meanings relate to each other.
 Chapter 8: Clause by clause
This chapter investigates some of the most
important patterns that allow us to produce
sentences in English. Although the sentences
you hear and read can be enormously varied
and often complex, almost all of them are
built from only five basic elements. You will
learn how to identify these elements,
together with some basic technical terms that
enable you to talk about sentence structure.
• The first term we need is clause. A clause is the basic building
block of sentences. The simplest sentence consists of just one
clause, but clauses can be combined in many different ways to
form more complex sentences. At the heart of each clause is a
verb — it is in fact the only compulsory element in a clause,
although there are four other elements that may also be
present.
• First, look at the clauses listed below and try to identify a
pattern that fits all of them.
1. A young man entered a corner shop
2. He was wearing a motorcycle helmet
3. He demanded money
4. The terrified shopkeeper handed over all the takings
5. The robber asked for some of the whisky behind the counter
6. She wouldn't serve him
• In each case, the pattern involves three elements:
(i) somebody; (ii) doing something; (iii) to
somebody/something. The center of each clause is
a verb that provides the information about 'doing
something': entered, was wearing, demanded,
handed over, asked for and wouldn't serve. Before
the verb comes the subject; this tells you who or
what is doing something.
• Who entered a corner shop? A young man
• Who handed over all the takings? The terrified
shopkeeper
• Finally, after the verb there is an object, this tells
you who or what was affected by the action.
• What was he wearing? A motorcycle helmet
• What did the robber ask for? Some of the whisky
behind the, counter.
• The basic pattern subject — verb — object (SVO)
allows us to produce clauses like He demanded
money. However, these three elements don't have
to be just one word. By packing in more
information about the subject, verb or object, we
can produce much more complex clauses that still
have the same pattern, see p. 54.
• Now see clauses 7-11 below, How would you
describe this new pattern?
• 7 You don't look old enough to buy alcohol
• 8 I don't feel happy about serving you
• 9 I am old enough!
• 10 This is my driving license
• 11 My date of birth is 1989
Clauses 7—11 still begin with a subject and a
verb, like clauses 1—6. However, they are not
about 'doing something', but about 'being
something'.
• Each of clauses 1—6 involves two participants
(whether people or things). For example He
demanded money involves both He and money, and
She wouldn't serve him involves both She and him.
But in clauses 7—11 there is only one participant.
For example, I am old enough involves only I. Old
enough is not a different participant, it's just a
description of I. So although clauses 7—11 have a
subject and a verb, like clauses 1—6, the third
element is not an object. Instead, it is called a
complement. An alternative term that you may come
across is 'predicative'. A complement is an element
that does not bring in a new participant, but
describes an existing participant.
• In the SVC clause pattern, the most common verb is
be in its various forms (is are was were, have been,
e.tc.) There are a few other verbs that can also be
used to relate the subject to the complement,
including seem, look and feel. Other examples include:
• She's becoming a bit of a handful It's getting hot in
here Those flowers smell lovely.
• You can check whether a clause is SVO or SVC by
trying to change it to the passive. With an SVO clause,
this is possible, but the object now turns into the
subject, as shown below:
• He was wearing a helmet —> A helmet was being
worn (by him)
• Sometimes these clauses may sound a little odd — such as A corner
shop was entered by a young man — but they are still grammatical.
On the other hand, an SVC clause cannot be made passive at all.
• While SVC clauses involve only one participant, there are other
clauses that involve three.
• 12 She wouldn't give him any alcohol
• 13 He showed the shopkeeper his driving license
• 14 It told her his name and address
• 15 She gave the information to the police
• These clauses involve something which is passed from one
participant to another, "whether a physical object (like his driving
license) or a message, comment or idea (like his name and address).
As in clauses 1—6, there is a subject and verb, but there are two
objects: the direct object (which is affected by the action), and the
indirect object (which receives or benefits from the action). Notice
the two different ways that the indirect object may appear in the
SVOO pattern:
• The indirect object may either appear before
the direct object, or after it. When it comes
after, it is introduced by the preposition to (for
a recipient) or for (for a beneficiary). If you can
transform a clause from one of these patterns
to the other, then you know you have an
indirect object as in
• Jozef made her a cake —> Jozef made a
cake for her
• He sent Peggy a postcard —> He sent a
postcard to Peggy
• Here's another set of clauses for you to consider. This time,
they do not all follow the same pattern, as some of them
include an optional element.
16. The shopkeeper screamed
17. The robber ran down the street
18. He was panicking
19. She was shouting as loudly as she could
• In clauses 16 and 18 there are no further elements, so the
basic pattern is just SV. In clauses 17 and 19, there is a
third element: down the street and as loudly as she could.
This element is called an adverbial; it provides additional
information about when, where, how and why. Adverbials
have some special properties: they can occur in any clause
pattern, there may be several of them in one clause and
they may appear in different positions in the clause!
• So far you have analysed simple sentences consisting of
only one clause. But clauses can be joined together to
create more complex sentences. This can be done by
coordination, where the clauses are of equal status, or
by subordination, where one clause is dependent on
another. As the name suggests, a dependent clause (also
called a 'subordinate clause') is usually unable to stand
on its own. It does not make sense on its own, and
leaves you waiting for something more. An independent
clause, on the other hand, does make sense on its own.
• A very rough test to check whether a clause is
dependent or independent is to ask whether it is true or
false. If the clause doesn't make sense on its own, then
the question becomes ridiculous.
• Clauses are joined together by conjunctions, which may be
either coordinators or subordinators. Coordinators link
independent clauses, while subordinators link dependent
clauses to independent ones. There are several
subordinators in English, but only three major coordinators:
and, but, or. So can also be used as a coordinator when it
means and so, but not when it means so that.
• One way to distinguish coordinators from subordinators is
by shifting the clauses around. A subordinator and its
dependent clause can usually occur either before or after
the main clause.
• It should hold together even if it rains. Even if it rains it
should hold together.
• However, this is not possible with a coordinate clause.
• Not every seed will be successful, but enough will survive.
• Chapter 9: Verb phrases: what's going on?
• This chapter outlined the key features of tense
and aspect. Tense is a system of modifying the
form of a verb to show distinctions of time
(present and past). Whereas features like perfect
and progressive are optional, the main verb in an
English sentence must be either present or past.
There is one exception to this: in a command, the
verb does not have any tense — there is no way
to change a command like Go away! into the past.
• Not all the verbs in the clause need to be marked
for tense. A verb that is marked for tense is called
a finite verb, and a verb that is not marked for
tense is called a non-finite verb. Clauses are
named in the same way, depending on the kind of
verb they contain. For example, look at the
clauses below. Which are finite clauses and which
are non-finite clauses? (Remember that you can
check by trying to change them from present to
past, or vice versa.)
• have you ever washed a cat? finite
• I just had to do it for the first time. finite
• to get rid of these fleas. non-finite
• playing with the other cats in the road. Non-
finite
• Verbs like control and wind up, which take an
object, are called transitive. Verbs like struggle
and fall, which do not Jake an object, are called
intransitive.
• Many English verbs can be either transitive or
intransitive, such as cook, open, play, smell.
Sometimes this involves a change of meaning.
For example, we use play intransitively to talk
about the way children amuse themselves. When
we use it transitively, though, the meaning is
rather different, depending on the object; playing
the violin, playing football and playing Hamlet all
retain some sense of recreational activity, but
otherwise are not much like children's games.
• There is another common clause pattern where
the verb is followed not by an object but by a
complement which describes the subject.
• Here are some examples, with the complement
in italics.
• The director is a friend of mine.
• You look rather out of sorts.
• We're keeping busy.
• Verbs that fit this pattern, like be, look and
keep, are known as copular verbs. Copular
verbs link the subject to the complement.
Again, some of these verbs can multitask, and
may change meaning depending on the clause
pattern involved.
• Aspect on the other hand, provides a particular
viewpoint, looking at an event from within (as it is in
progress), or retrospectively (occurring in a previous
period of time). A finite verb phrase, whether it is
perfect or progressive, it must still also be marked
for tense. So, for example, you can have verb
phrases that are:
• Present perfect has eaten
• Past perfect had waited
• Present progressive is struggling
• Past progressive was lying
• Present perfect progressive: has been sleeping
• Past perfect progressive: had been gardening.
• Using perfect and progressive aspect are choices that a
speaker makes in order to present an idea in a particular
way. It is therefore rarely the case that their use is
grammatically compulsory. A change in aspect usually
produces not a grammatical error, but a slight change in
meaning. Compare, for example:
• Have you ever been to the circus?
• Did you ever go to the circus?
• Both sentences are asking a question about the past. The
difference is that Sentence 1 is located in the present, and
takes a retrospective view from now, while Sentence 2 is
located in the past. Sentence 1 would be appropriate when
you are interested in your listener's experiences up to now;
Sentence 2 would be appropriate if you are talking about a
fixed period of time which is over and done with.
• To conclude, tense is a compulsory feature, marked on the first
word of a finite verb phrase, to show whether it is present or
past. Aspect, on the other hand, is an optional feature that may
or may not be present in a verb phrase.) Perfect and
progressive aspect both provide a particular viewpoint on an
event — progressive from within, as something is in progress,
and perfect in retrospect, looking at what has happened
previously.
• It is difficult, though, to specify exactly how these meanings
will be interpreted on all occasions. Understanding the
meaning of present, past, perfect and progressive verb forms
depends on the context. What kind of action, event or situation
are you talking about? Who's talking, when, where and why?
What else has been said? We can identify a basic underlying
meaning for tense and aspect, but in deciding on the exact
meaning, speakers and listeners also draw on all these factors.