The Smallest Unit of Language That Has A Meaning of Its Own
The Smallest Unit of Language That Has A Meaning of Its Own
The Smallest Unit of Language That Has A Meaning of Its Own
o Clause
o Phrase
o Word
o Morpheme: The smallest unit of language that has a meaning of its own:
cat – one morpheme
Cats – two morphemes (s – meaning of its own, either shows
plural or third person singular)
Mice – two morphemes: mouse and plural.
Morphemes can be free and bound. A free morpheme for instance is ‘cat’, ‘dog’,
‘girl’. A bound morpheme has to be attached to free morphemes to make sense, for
instance ‘-ed’, ‘-lly’, ‘-ing’.
Word: a linguistic unit that is made up of morphemes. Only words can form a
sentence, morphemes cannot.
Phrase: a linguistic unit that is situated between a word and a clause. A phrase has
a head (most important element, can be a noun, a verb or adjective, an adverb or a
preposition). If the head is a noun, the phrase is called a noun phrase, if the head is
a verb, then it’s a verb phrase, and so on. (adverbial, adjective, prepositional)
Structure:
a.) Determiners are a set of items that belong to a closed class, that occur before
the head and can limit the meaning (ex. This, my). They are sometimes called
limiting adjectives. Determiners very often give information about the head noun
(definitiness, indefiniteness, possession, quantity, etc.)
b.) Modifiers describe properties of the head noun. (age, colour, origin, material
and so on). Adjectives can occur one after the other, determiners can not.
Adjectives have superlative and comparative forms.
Demonstratives: this, that, those, but they can also be classified as pronouns.
The meaning distinction applies to four aspects:
o The physical distance: this, these (close) that, those (more distant)
o The dimension of time: We bought a car this summer. (more immediate)
We bought a car that summer. (more distant in time)
o Information packaging: ‘this’ and ‘these’ often introduce new
information ( ‘There is this hotel in London, where…’ - to convey
something new to the listener). ‘That’ and ‘those’ constitute information
that the speaker presumes is familiar to the listener. (‘John kept on saying
all those dirty jokes.’)
o Relevance (high or low): ‘this’ and ‘that’ precede nouns that have high
relevance for the speaker. (‘The police know where this terrible crime
was committed’). ‘That’ and ‘those’ – low relevance (‘The country where
that crime was committed…’)
Ordinal numbers are preceded by central determiners: He is the first student who
signed up for this course.
Fractions cannot precede a noun, so they are followed by an article: This statue is
half the size of the big one.
Modifiers: a word that affects the meaning of another element, usually the head. In
a phrase we identify the head noun, the modifier that comes before the head (pre-
modifier) and if it follows the head it is a post-modifier.
John is a teacher. Mary looks happy (adj.). This coffee tastes bitter (adj.)
Ex.: They elected John president. – The subject is ‘they’ and ‘president’ does
not complete their meaning. ‘President’ is an object complement, because it
completes the meaning of the object that is John.
An away game.
Post modifiers:
- adjectives ending in –able, -ible: the type of government imaginable, the only
person visible, the only thing notable.
2. The adverb as post modifier: some adverbs denoting place and time post-modify
noun phrases; the room upstairs, the sentence below, the night before.
NP
HEAD: NOUN; PRONOUN; ADJECTIVE
Antecedent pronoun
Cataphor/-ic: the use of a word to point to a later word, phrase or clause. (usually a
pronoun or a pro-form)
This – cataphor
Deixis/deictic: the process of showing time and place in relation to the utterance. A
deictic word is the unit that has the function of relating to the utterance to its extra
linguistic context. Prime deictics include demonstratives, adverbs (here, there,
today) and personal pronouns.
Pro-form: a linguistic unit that can substitute for another word or a linguistic unit.
Dummy word: a word that has a grammatical position but no meaning, it is also
called empty it.
THE NOUN
A word that:
A noun is the name of anything that is the subject of discourse. A noun is a naming
word. A part of speech that names beings, things, objects, concepts, phenomena
that can be described by means of grammatical categories of case, number and
gender.
Classfication:
Phrasal: mother-in-law
Common: includes objects that belong to the same class. A common noun is a
noun that is not the name of any particular person, place, thing, quality, etc.
Proper: refer to a particular, unique person, place, object etc. They do not freely
allow determiners.
Abstract: an action, an idea, a quality, a state, things that are perceived by our
mind.
Common nouns, both concrete and abstract can be individual and collective.
Individual: in their singular form, they denote one object (idea, joy, husband)
Countable: nouns that can be counted, they have singular and plural forms.
Uncountable: nouns which have no plural form and cannot be used with numeral
values.
In other classifications, words like singularia tantum and pluralia tantum are used.
Pluralia tantum: we include nouns that have plural meaning and the agreement
with the verb is in plural. Ex. Summation plurals (objects that are made up of two
parts: trousers, scissors, shorts, pyjamas; parts of the body: bowels, tonsils) Verbal
nouns, -ings: surroundings, doings, etc.; substantivized nouns; collective nouns.
CASE
The Case of English nouns refers to the function/role of a noun or a noun phrase in
relation to other words. There are two identified cases:
a.) Common – the normative, prepositional genitive, the dative, the accusative.
b.) Genitive/possessive
Other grammarians identify 3 cases: nominative, genitive and the objective cases
(dative and accusative).
The nominative is used for the subjects of the sentence (subjective case), its
primary function is to name the subject of a finite verb or the subject complement
of a verb apposition (John, the butcher has just left. The butcher – apposition).
It may also be the subject in a construction called absolute nominatives: His work
done, John left the room.
The dative case expresses an indirect object or recipient. This case is marked by
prepositions such as ‘to’, ‘for’ or ‘by’. It has a strict word order, SWD.
This case can be governed by verbs (A new idea came to him. Much has happened
to John.) It can also be governed by nouns (This may cause injury to people.). It
can also be governed by adjectives (John was rather cold to his mother.).
There are cases when the dative case can modify a whole sentence – sentence
dative:
The genitive case designates the case of nouns that shows possession. From the
point of view of its form, there are two types:
-synthetical genitive/ ‘s’ genitive/ inflected genitive
-analytical genitive/ ‘of’ genitive/ prepositional genitive
e. Subjective genitive – expresses the subject of the action when it has verbal
origin.
John’s arrival, The crying of the baby.
f. Objective genitive – expresses the object of a noun of verbal origin.
The child’s education, a reader of poetry.
i. Genitive of gradation – the song of songs, the poem of poems, the king of kings.
j. The synthetical genitive: this type of genitive is the result of an Old English
genitive and it is closely related to the gen. in ‘-es’. Can be rendered in two ways:
a. apostrophe + s (sg)
My son’s name
Irregular plural: children’s toys.
b. apostrophe only:
The students’ boots
With proper and an animate nouns that occur in complex noun phrases:
1. The plays of Shakespeare – emphasizing the head noun
2. Shakespeare’s plays – both nouns are equally important.
3. The struggle of the poor – with substantivized adjectives denoting a group of
people
4. The murder of Caesar – with objective genitive
5. A friend of my mother’s. –double genitive
THE ARTICLE
The article is considered to be a type of adjective. There are two articles, ‘a’and
‘the’. It is also considered a class of determiners. Types:
a. definite
b. indefinite
c. zero article
Functions:
2. The definite article may be used with specific reference, suggesting that the
following noun refers to a definite or a particular person or object, distinct from all
other persons or things of the same kind.
We may distinguish between situational specific reference and linguistic specific
reference.
Situational specific reference: implies the use of the definite article with nouns
whose reference is immediately understood from the context. One type of
situational use of the definite article is with nouns considered unique (the sun, the
moon, the West, the East). Another type of situational use of the definite article is
with nouns that denote parts of the body.
Linguistic specific reference: can be anaphoric if the definite article refers to a
noun already mentioned it is said to have an anaphoric function. If it has a forward
reference it has cataphoric reference.
3. The definite article can be used with generic reference – it suggests that the noun
it determines is used in its most generic sense, so the definite article may perform a
generic function before a singular countable noun.
Ex. The dog is my favourite animal.
-before collective nouns: The poor
-before nationalities: The French, The Irish
- ‘of’ constructions: The rivers of Romania
4. Distributive function – used with nouns that express a unit. Ex.: I am paid by the
hour.
5. The definite article may be used with nouns that have unique reference. Proper
nouns: The Alps, The Himalayas.
Functions:
1. Numerical function: There was a table and four chairs in his room.
2. The indefinite article may be used with specific reference. The noun it
determines is considered as a single indefinite specimen or a sample of a class. Its
most frequent indefinite specific reference is cataphoric: The is a boy outside.
The cataphoric function can also be shown in sentences where the indefinite article
determines a subject complement or an object complement, denoting a profession,
trait, class, religion, and so on. Ex.: John is a teacher. Mary called John a fool. He
was taken for a linguist.
The indefinite article may also be used cataphorically in appositions: John, an old
friend of mine, came rather late.
In certain structures the definite article may aslo have an anaphoric function,
referring together with the noun it determines to an anticident implied: What a nice
person. What a great idea.
The form without the definite article (John was manager) indicates a tone of full
consideration, the form with the definite article is nothing but a simple statement,
an assertion.
3. The indefinite article may be used with generic reference assigning a person, a
thing or an object to a class or a type, and considering it in its most generic sense:
What a dog.
4. The indefinite article may be used with nouns that have unique reference.
-With proper names to show that the person is unknown to the speaker: I’m
looking for a Mr. Smith.
-to show that the person in case is a member of a family: He is Johnson.
-to show that it has the qualities or characteristics typical of someone else: He
thinks he is a Da Vinci.
For emphasis, or in cases where the nouns or adjectives denote different things the
article is repeated: My car is the best and the smartest in the world.
Cases of zero determination should not be mixed up with cases of article omission,
where the article is intentionally left out from the noun phrase, and can be easily
supplied. The omission of the article may occur: in newspaper titles, in stage
directions and even in literary writings.
The zero article is used:
1. With nouns denoting family relations with unique reference. These nouns
behave like proper nouns and take the zero article: Uncle is late. Dad has just left.
2. The nouns ‘man’ and ‘woman’ when used generically in the sense of the human
race or in the sense of female sex, take the zero article: Man is mortal, Woman is
stronger than man.
3. The zero article is used with subject complements, object complements when
they denote a profession or office, normally held at one time by one person only:
Mary is secretary of our school.
John is captain of…
4. The zero article is used with appositive nouns denoting title, rank, office.
He married Mary Brown, daughter of John Brown.
There are nouns that take the zero article in abstract or specialized use, mainly in
certain expressions, containing the verb ‘be’ or other verbs of movement: names of
meals, names of meals denoting the meals.
I usually have breakfast late.
Stay for sinner.
Note: Stay for the dinner I have cooked – specific reference
Nouns like ‘bed’, ‘can’, ‘church’, ‘school’, ‘hospital’, ‘work’, ‘town’ used in an
abstract sense, they take the zero article: Stay in bed.
If these nouns are used in their concrete meaning, definite articles are used: I put
the book on the bed.
Nouns denoting time division preceded by ‘last’ and ‘next’ take the zero article, if
‘next’ and ‘last’ express time relations. If they express order, we use the definite
article:
John arrived last night.
I will go there next week.
The last month of the year is December.
Sentence
S – NP+V P
VP – AUX+VB (notional verb)
AUX – (MODAL) (TENSE) (ASPECT)
TENSE – (PRESENT) (PAST)
ASPECT – (BE+-ING – PROGRESSIVE) (HAVE+PP – PERFECT ASPECT)
MODAL VERBS
Mood – grammatical category that shows the degree of reality of a proposition as
perceived by the speaker. Indicative, imperative and subjunctive. The indicative
mood has to do with factual assertions, the subjunctive has to do with non-factual
assertions. Mood distinctions are expressed by:
a. Verb inflections
b. The use of specialized lexical items, called modals.
Modality – A synonym for mood, but a distinction between the two is not clearly
observed. Modality is used a semantic term.
Proposition – refers to the unit of meaning that forms the subject matter of a
statement.
These beautiful black Italian leather jackets are expensive – 5 propositions.
Defective – refers to a lexical item that does not have the grammatical forms
usually shown by members of its class. For example, ‘must’ does not have a past
form, it is a defective verb.
In A1, B1 the speaker conveys his subjective opinion. In A1, B1 the concern is
with knowledge and belief - EPISTEMIC modality has to do with KNOWLEDGE
and BELIEF. – possibility, probability, certainty.
In A2, B2 the concern is with permission, obligation and prohibition – DEONTIC
modality has to do with PERMISSION, OBLIGATION an PROHIBITION.
The car must be ready – can be both
She loved him so much so she must miss him a lot – epistemic
MODAL MEANINGS
CAN
1. Ability (in general): ex.: My students can speak English
- Used to show that someone is in a position to perform an activity:
Ex.: I can give you an answer if you want.
I can take care of it myself.
- Both of the two refer to the potential performance of an action. The two
examples do not refer to an actual performance of the action.
Ex.: John could speak English fluently, when he was young. – refers to
the possession of the ability to speak English, not the actual performance
of speaking.
- If you refer to the actual performance of an activity, we use ‘be able to’
- Verbs of perception (see, hear, understand) form a special class, because
the ability to see, to hear, to understand and the performance of the
activity are inseparable.
‘I can remember’ and ‘I remember’ are hardly different, same with ‘I
cannot understand’ and ‘I do not understand’
2. Permission: in everyday speech, ‘can’ means you have permission, I give you
permission. Ex. You can smoke here.
MAY
3. Concessive use:
Not very frequent, colloquial use.
Ex. Mary may not be pretty, but at least she knows her job.
4. Benediction/Malediction.
- exclamatory sentences (usually)
-very formal
- not very productive, rarely found in English.
Ex. May God grant you happiness. – benediction
MUST
WILL
‘Used to’ is used for states, ‘would’ is used for characteristic behaviour, past
habits. Do not use ‘would’ or ‘used to’ to say how often something happened.
SHALL
Marginal modals:
DARE
Can be a regular verb (He does not dare to say…) or a modal verb (How dare you
say that?)
As a modal verb this marginal verb is rare, usually in questions and negative
statements. When used in questions, the meaning is advice (Dare I tell her?). In
negative statements ‘dare’ has two extended meanings:
1. Warning, reproach, admonition
2. Impossibility: I dare not to tell my mom about it.
The modal verb ‘dare’ must be distinguished from 1. The intransitive verb ‘dare’
(the meaning is ‘have the courage to’: he does not dare to hit me), 2. The transitive
verb ‘dare’ (meaning to challenge somebody to do something)
NEED
-expresses necessity
Ex. Need I remind you that…? (Is it necessary for me to remind you?)
You needn’t tell her. (it is not necessary)
‘Need’ can be a regular verb and a modal verb. ‘Need’ as a modal is usually in
questions and negative structures:
The effect of negation on the meaning of sentences that contain modal verbs is
complex. There are two elements available for negation:
1. the action, activity, event, state (main verb) can be considered as negative
2. the modality (modal verb meaning) can be considered as negative.
Aspect: refers to the way in which the speaker sees the event, describes the quality
of an event as observed by the speaker. In English two constructions are identified:
PROGRESSIVE (be + ‘-ing’) and PERFECT (have/participle).
PROGRESSIVE NON-PROGRESSIVE
PERFECT He has been writing. He has written.
NON-PERFECT He is writing. He writes.
Voice: grammatical category which shows two different ways in which the action
can be viewed: ACTIVE and PASSIVE.
Middle voice: I bought myself a book.
-EN-form (3rd participle): a way of referring to the past participle of any verb.
-ED-form: a way of referring either to the past tense or the past participle form.
Compatible:
A.) Momentary verbs (temporary, quick, short): jump, kick, knock, hit.
B.) Transitional event verbs: arrive, fall, leave, stop
C.) Activity verbs: read, write, play, work, drink
D.) Process verbs: change, grow, widen
Not compatible:
E.) Verbs of perception: hear, see, smell, taste
F.) Verbs of cognition: to know, imagine, understand, believe
G.) Verbs of HAVING and BEING: consist of, contain, belong to, be, have
Both simple and progressive:
H.) Verbs of physical sensation: hurt, ache, feel
EXCEPTIONS:
- Verbs in class E can show perception but also active perception:
I smell perfume – perception
I’m smelling perfume – active perception
I’m hearing you – only acceptable if said by a radio operator.
-Verbs in class F are rarely used with the progressive aspect:
I’m thinking about what happened – activity verb
-Verbs in class G are used with the progressive aspect when there is activity
meaning:
John is rude – in general, by nature
John is being rude – activity in this situation, in this moment.
I’m walking to school these days, because… - habit that exists over ‘these days’, a
limited time.
Occurs in sports, for example comments. Ex.: X passes the ball to Y, who scores
the first goal.
The use here makes the gain more dramatic.
It also occurs in tricks made by magicians: Take this card…
In demonstrations: Pour some milk, mix together the flour and the…
The person who demonstrates concentrates on each step of the process that is seen
as a whole/unit.
If you use the progressive, you focus on the actions of the demonstrater.
The verbs are event verbs.
-Subjective
3. Habitual use
John begins the letter for half an hour – acceptable in one condition: the beginning
is repeated during that half an hour.
He’s playing the piano in the afternoon. X – the progressive is incompatible with
the idea of repetition (associated with durative verbs)
- Simple present: He plays the piano in the afternoon.