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A Terminological Comparison of
English Grammar Frameworks
Introduction: A terminological comparison
between Longman Student Grammar of
Spoken and Written English (Biber, 2002) and
A Student's Grammar of the English Language
(Greenbaum and Quirk, 1990)
LSGSWE vs. SGEL
Links (LSGSWE) vs. conjunctions (SGEL) CLAUSE ELEMENTS : subject (S) subject predicative (SP) vs. subject complement (Cs) indirect object (IO) vs. indirect object (Oi) object predicative (OP) vs. object complement (Co) verb phrase (V) vs. verb (V) direct object (DO) vs. direct object (Od) prepositional object (Oprep) Adverbial (A) vs. adverbial (A) STRUCTURE OF THE CLAUSE : subject long verb phrase vs. predicate (S+Predicate) and predication (S+Operator+Predication) TYPES OR CLASSES OF ADVERBIALS : circumstance adverbials vs. adjuncts stance adverbials vs. disjuncts linking adverbials vs. conjuncts AT SENTENCE LEVEL : Subordination (of clauses) vs. Complex sentence Coordination (of clauses) vs. Compound sentence ELEMENTS OF SUBORDINATE CLAUSES : Complementizer vs. Nominal clause subordinator Relativizer vs. Relative pronoun and relative adverb Noun complement clause Appositive clause
EXERCISES
subject complement (Cs): "His wife seemed in great shape" prepositional object (Oprep): "I've never thought about it" object complement (Oprep): "Many consider these gates something of a menace" Object and Predicate : "Peter ate the food", "have read this book"
circumstance adverbial : "She looked at him coldly" stance adverbial : "frankly, I'm tired" linking adverbial : "However, we went to the park" complementizer : "They told us that the situation was serious" relativizer : "The boy that is playing the piano is my friend", "That is the place where I was born" apposition : "The belief that no one is infallible is well-founded"
UNIT 1: Coordination
SYNDETIC, ASYNDETIC AND POLYSYNDETIC
COORDINATION
Coordination conjunctions : and, or, but Syndetic : the coordinator is explicit (slowly and calmly) Asyndetic : there is no conjunction (slowly, calmly) Polysindetic : the coordinator is repeated (the wind, and the lighting, and the clouds...) Multiple coordination : more than three elements (does not have to be polysindetic coordination necessarily)
COORDINATION AND SUBORDINATION
Both involve linking units In coordination, the linked units are on the same syntactic level (she tried hard and she managed to get the job) In subordination, one of the units is a constituent of a superordinate unit (when she found out about her opponent, she tried very hard) Similar semantic relationships can be expressed through coordination and subordination: He tried hard but he failed (coordination) Although he tried hard he failed (subordination)
SYNTACTIC FEATURES OF COORDINATORS
Clause coordinators are restricted to second clause-initial position (Jhon plays the guitar, and his sister plays the piano) Coordinated clauses are sequentially fixed, they cannot reverse the order Coordinators are not preceded by a conjunction, but they can precede conjuncts (He was unhappy about it, AND YET he did as he was told) Coordinators can link clause constituents smaller than the clause, and omit the subject (I may see you tomorrow or may phone late in the day) Coordinators can link subordinate clauses, but BUT is restricted to link a maximum of two clauses Coordinators can link more than two clauses (multiple coordination), and all but the final AND, OR can be omitted
TYPES OF SIMPLE COORDINATION
COORDINATION OF CLAUSES :
Independent clauses: The winter had come at last, and snow lay thick on the ground Subordinate finite clauses: If you pass the examination and (if) no one else applies, you are bound to get the job Subordinate nonfinite clauses: I've asked him to come this evening or (to) phone us tomorrow Verbless clauses: With George ill and (with) the children at home, Jenny is finding life very difficult COORDINATION OF PREDICATES : Peter [ate the fruit] and [drank the beer] I [send you my very best wishes], and [look forward to our next meeting]
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Coordination of Predications
Coordination of Predicates and Predications
In coordination, the subject is shared, and the reduced form of the sentence is preferred. For example: "Most people will have read the book or will have seen the film" (coordination of predicate). Adverbials often stand outside the structure of coordination, and the conjoins are within the scope of the adverbials. For example: "Unfortunately, we [missed the train] and [had to wait six hours]" (coordination of predicate). The more complex example of predication coordination takes place within the scope of three adverbials: "In those days they often used to [shoot the birds], [bring them home], [cook them] and [eat them] on a single day" (on a single day affects all conjoints).
Coordination of Noun Phrases and their Constituents
Two or more phrases may be conjoined to form a conjoint noun phrase: "Some of the staff and all the students have voted for these changes" (as subject) "On this farm, they keep [cows, sheeps, pigs and a few chickens]" (as direct object)
"We had [no friends, no family, no material resources]" (as predicate complement, asyndetic)
Coordination within Noun Phrases:
Coordinated noun heads: "His wife and child" (where 'his' has been omitted in the second noun-head)
Coordinated modifiers: "Old and new furniture" (old furniture and new furniture), "Workers from France and from Italy" (workers from France and workers from Italy), "Old and valuable furniture" (ambiguous) Coordinated noun phrases as premodifiers in a noun phrase: "Gender and humor styles" ('styles' is the Noun Head, 'humor' and 'gender' are nouns but are acting as adjectives)
Coordination of Other Constituents
Verb Phrases: "Good cooking can disguise, but cannot improve the quality of the ingredients" (not coordination of predicates because we have a common subject and also common complements) Main Verbs: "Many people might have been killed or injured by the explosion" (all of it is common but the verbs, which form part of the conjoinct) Auxiliaries Adjective Phrases: "the journey was long and extremely arduous" (same subject) Adjective Heads: "I'm feeling younger and healthier than I felt for years" (the conjoint is formed by the adjective heads only) Adverb Heads: "She made the announcement quietly but very confidently" (the subject is the same) Prepositional Phrases and Prepositions: "He spoke for the first motion but against the second motion", "She climbed up and over the wall" Coordination of Subordinators and Other Clause-Introducing Words: "I am prepared to meet them when and where they like", "I am determined to find out who or what caused this uproar"
Complex Coordination
Type I: Each conjoin consists of contiguous elements, and the conjoins are combined in final position in the clause. Indirect Objects + Direct Object: "We gave William a book on stamps and [] Mary a book on painting" Object + Object Complement: "Jack painted the kitchen white and [] the bathroom blue"
Object + Adverbial: "you should serve the coffee in a mug and [] the lemonade in a glass"
Type II: The conjoins are not in final position.
"Gregory Peck always was, and always will be, her favorite Hollywood star"
"Richard admired, but Margaret despises, the ballyhoo of modern advertising"
Gapping: Complex coordination with a medial ellipsis in the second or subsequent conjoin.
They have limited mobility and may have a prepositional or subordinating role. Examples: "She publishes as well as prints her own books." "As well as printing the books, she publishes them." "I'm going to forget the whole affair, rather than cause trouble." Quasi-coordinators are not fully coordinative, as they normally do not cause plural concord if the first noun phrase is singular: "John, as much as his brothers, was responsible for the loss."
Layered Coordination
Not a type of coordination, but something that can happen with other types of it. Examples: "You can have pancakes or eggs and bacon." Conjoint 1: conjoin 1 PANCAKES, conjoin 2 EGGS AND BACON Conjoint 2: conjoin 1 EGGS, conjoin 2 BACON "Kim works in a bank and Pam is a teacher but Sam is still unemployed." Conjoint 1: conjoin 1 KIM WORKS IN A BANK AND PAM IS A TEACHER, conjoin 2 SAM IS STILL UNEMPLOYED Conjoint 2: conjoin 1 KIM WORKS IN A BANK, conjoin 2 PAM IS A TEACHER
Examples
"Diabetes [is a serious disease] and [is becoming more common]" (Coordination of predicates, AND of addition) "She is both [a single] and [a dancer]" (Coordination of noun phrases, AND of addition) "I have [washed] and [dried] the dishes" (Coordination of main verbs, AND of addition) "You must [take the course] and [pass the examination]" (Coordination of predications, AND of sequence) "Your [son] and [daughter] look so much alike" (Coordination of noun heads, AND of addition)
Quiz 4
"Gonzi plays guitar beautifully and Fernanda terribly" (Complex coordination Type III Gapping) "I can and will help you" (Simple coordination of auxiliaries) "She heard rather than saw the back door open and close" (Quasi- coordination of verb Phrases) "She is brilliant, but not her husband" (Appended coordination) "She dressed her Spaniel in purple and her beagle in violet" (Complex coordination type I)
Subordination in English
Formal Indicators of Subordination
Subordination in English can be indicated by several formal devices:
A subordinating conjunction (e.g. that, after, although) The word 'that' A wh-element (e.g. who, what, where) Subject-operator inversion in declarative clauses Absence of a finite verb Relative pronouns
Subordinators
Subordinators are the most important device for indicating subordination, especially in finite clauses. They can be:
Single-word subordinators
Examples: that, after, although
Multi-word subordinators
These function as a single conjunction: - Ending with 'that': but that, in that, order that, such that, save that - Ending with optional 'that': assuming (that), given (that), supposing (that), except (that), for all (that), now (that), so (that) - Ending with 'as': according as, as far as, as long as, as soon as - Others: as if, as though, in case
Correlative subordinators
These combine two markers of subordination, one being a subordinator: - as...so, as/so/such...as, less/more (-er)...than, no sooner...than, the...the
Marginal subordinators
Habitual combinations of a subordinator with a preceding or following adverb: even if, if only Temporal noun phrases: the moment (that), every time (that) Prepositional phrases ending in 'the fact that': because of the fact that, in spite of the fact that
Other Indicators of Subordination
Wh-elements in subordinate interrogative clauses, subordinate exclamative clauses, wh-relative clauses, and conditional-concessive clauses The relative pronoun 'that' in restrictive clauses
Bare Infinitive Clauses
In pseudo-cleft sentences as Cs or S
Adverbial Clauses
Adverbial clauses can function as:
Adjuncts (circumstancials): Predicational (obligatory or optional)
Sentential
Disjuncts (stance adverbials):
Style disjuncts (modality and manner/respect) Content disjuncts (certainty/evaluation)
Adverbial clauses of time can be finite (introduced by subordinators like AFTER, AS, BEFORE, WHEN) or non-finite (-ing, -ed, verbless).
Adverbial clauses of place are introduced mainly by WHERE (specific) or WHEREVER (non-specific), and can indicate position or direction.
Conditional Clauses
Open and Hypothetical Condition
Open Conditions : These conditions leave unresolved the question of the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of the condition. Example: "If he is in London, he is undoubtedly staying at the Hilton" (the speaker does not know for sure). Hypothetical Conditions : These conditions convey the speaker's belief that the condition is not fulfilled, will not be fulfilled, or was not fulfilled. Example: "They would be here with us if they had the time."
Rhetorical Conditional
Rhetorical conditionals give the appearance of expressing an open condition, but they actually make a strong assertion:
If the proposition in the matrix clause is patently absurd, the proposition in the conditional clause is shown to be false. Example: "If they are Irish, I'm the Pope." If the proposition in the conditional clause is patently true, the proposition in the matrix clause is shown to be true. Example: "He's ninety if he's a day."
Concessive Clauses
Concessive clauses are introduced by subordinators such as ALTHOUGH, THOUGH, WHILE, WHEREAS, and EVEN IF. They indicate that the situation in the matrix clause is contrary to what one might expect in view of the situation in the concessive clause. Example: "Though well over eighty, she can walk faster than I can."
Alternative Conditional-Concessive Clauses
The correlative sequence WHETHER...OR combines the conditional meaning of IF with the disjunctive meaning of EITHER...OR. Example: "He's getting married whether or not he finds a job."
Universal Conditional-Concessive Clauses
These clauses indicate a free choice from any number of conditions. They are introduced by WH-WORDS that combine with -EVER. Example: "Whatever I say to them, I can't keep them quiet."
Contrastive Clauses
Contrastive clauses are introduced by WHEREAS, WHILE, and WHILST. They convey a mixture of contrast and concession. The contrastive meaning can be emphasized by correlative antithetic conjuncts such as "in contrast" and "by contrast" when the contrastive clause is initial. Example: "She teaches physics, while her husband teaches chemistry."
Exception Clauses
Exception clauses are introduced by BUT THAT, EXCEPT, EXCEPT THAT, ONLY, EXCEPTING THAT, SAVE, and SAVE THAT. Example: "I would pay now except that I don't have money on me."
Reason Clauses
Reason clauses are introduced by BECAUSE, SINCE, AS, FOR, and SEEING THAT. They convey a direct relationship with the matrix clause, such as cause and effect, reason and consequence, motivation and result, or circumstance and consequence. Examples: - "He's thin because he hasn't eaten enough" (cause and effect) - "He was fired because the company he worked for went bankrupt" (reason and consequence) - "I lent him the money because he needed it" (motivation and result) - "Since we live near the sea, we often go sailing" (circumstance and consequence)
Supplementive Clauses
Supplementive clauses are adverbial participle and verbless clauses without a subordinator. They do not signal specific logical relationships, but such relationships are generally clear from the context. Example: "Reaching the river, we camped for the night" (temporal).
Comment Clauses
Comment clauses function as parenthetical disjuncts. They may occur initially, finally, or medially, and they can be either content disjuncts (expressing the speaker's comments on the content of the matrix clause) or style disjuncts (conveying the speaker's views on the way they are speaking). Examples: - "There were no applicants, I believe, for that job." - "I'm working the night shift, as you know." - "What was more upsetting, we lost all our luggage."
Adnominal Relative Clauses
Adnominal relative clauses function as postmodifiers in noun phrases. They can be restrictive (using THAT) or non-restrictive (using WHO/WHICH and commas). Example: - Restrictive: "Then he met the woman who had won her life as a chessplayer." - Non-restrictive: "Then he met Barbara, who had won her life as a chessplayer."
Sentential Relative Clauses
Sentential relative clauses have no function within the noun phrase. They refer back to a predication of a clause, a whole clause or sentence, or even a series of sentences. They use WHICH, not WHAT. Example: "Things then improved, which surprises me."
Comparative Constructions
Comparative constructions compare a proposition expressed in the matrix clause with a proposition expressed in the subordinate clause. Words that are repeated in both clauses may be omitted in the subordinate clause. Examples: - "Jane is as healthy as her sister (is)." - "Jane is healthier than her sister (is)."
Comparison can express equivalence, non-equivalence, sufficiency, or excess. Comparative constructions with ENOUGH and TOO can express sufficiency and excess, respectively.
Information Structure
Given and New Information
When constructing a message, we need to provide the point of the message with enough context for it to be clearly understood. We typically start with given information to link it to the previous sentence, and then provide the new information.
End-Weight Principle
When new information needs to be stated more fully than the given information (with more words), it is preferable to place it at the end of the sentence, following the end-weight principle. Example: "She visited that very day an elderly and much beloved friend" (the weight of the object noun phrase makes it preferable to have the adverbial at mid-position, not the typical clause-final position).
Theme and Focus
Theme
The theme is the initial part of any structure when considered from an informational point of view. When it occurs in its unmarked form, it has a direct relation to given information, indicating that the starting of the message is established and agreed upon. The term 'theme' is usually established as the first element of the clause.
Focus
The focus is the new information in the message. It is regarded as most naturally and normally occurring at the end of the information unit. In an unmarked message, the given-new information corresponds to the extralinguistic concepts as they refer to reality, while the theme-rheme corresponds to the linguistic as it refers to position, and the focus corresponds to the linguistic as it refers to prosody.
Devices to Give Prominence to Focalize or
Mark the Focus in Written Language
Fronting
Fronting involves placing an element in the initial position that would normally follow the verb. This is common in speech and conventional written material, often serving the function of arranging clause order in such a way that end-focus falls on the most important part of the message, as well as providing a direct linkage with what has preceded. With obligatory
When the object is an –ing clause in SVOC and SVOA clause types, it can undergo extraposition.
When the object is a to-infinitive clause or a that-clause, it must undergo extraposition.
Postponement of objects in SVOC and SVOA clauses:
When the object is a long and complex phrase, final replacement for end-focus or end-weight is possible in SVOC and SVOA clause types. This does not involve an it-substitution.
Discontinuous Noun Phrases
To achieve end-focus and end-weight, only part of an element is postponed. The most commonly affected part is the postmodification of a noun phrase, and the units most readily postponed are nominal clauses.
Other examples of discontinuity include: - Postponement of postmodifying phrases of exception - Postponement of postmodifying clauses in complement or object positions - Postponement of comparative clauses and degree adverbials - Postponement of correlative items - Simultaneous function of some adjectives as premodifiers and taking complementation
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Structural Compensation
We usually have the expectation that the V element will be a transition point towards a high degree of communication dynamism. This expectation has the effect of making the simplest realization of the SV clause type sound oddly incomplete: "Mary sang." Consequently, it is more usual to find such sentences augmented by an adverbial: "Mary sang for hours." Alternatively, we make intransitive verbs bipartite, with an auxiliary serving as a transition between theme and focus: "Mary was singing." Such rephrasing is obviously context-dependent. There are other means to 'stretch' the predicate into a multi-word structure, such as replacing the intransitive verb by a transitive one of a very general meaning, and giving it as an object a nominalization of the intransitive item. The general verbs DO, MAKE, GIVE, HAVE, TAKE are widely used in this construction: "My friend cooked" - "My friend did the cooking." "He ate" - "He had a meal."
Existential Sentences
A sentence begins with reference to 'given' information and proceeds to provide 'new' information.
But there are many occasions when we must make statements whose content does not fall neatly into these two categories: "A car is blocking my way." "Many students are in financial trouble." These sentences may oblige the recipient to interpret a theme as entirely new and unconnected with anything previously introduced. There are devices for providing some kind of 'dummy theme' which will enable the originator to indicate the 'new' status of the whole clause, including its subject: "There is a car blocking my way." "There are many students in financial trouble." The resultant constructions are known as 'existential sentences', the commonest being the type introduced by unstressed 'there', accompanied by the simple present or past of 'be'.
Existential 'There'
The subject of the original clause may be called the 'notional subject' of the 'there-sentence', so as to distinguish it from 'there' itself, which for most purposes is the 'grammatical subject'. The 'THERE' of existential sentences differs from 'there' as an introductory adverb lacking stress, in carrying none of the locative meaning of the place adjunct 'THERE', and in behaving in most ways like the subject of the clause. It follows the operator in yes-no and tag questions: "Is there any more soup?" It can act as subject in infinitive and -ing clauses: "I don't want there to be any problems."
Existential Sentences with Relative Clauses
An additional type of existential sentence consists of 'THERE + BE + NOUN PH + RELATIVE CLAUSE'. It resembles the cleft sentence in its rhetorical motivation: "Two students would like to see you" = "There are 2 students (who would like to see you)." The relative pronoun can be omitted even when it is the subject of the relative clause. This is something not permissible according to the normal rule for relative clause formation and is a sign of the special status within the main clause. The existential-with-relative construction is particularly common as a means of emphasizing a negative: "I can do nothing about it" = "There's nothing I can do about it."
Existential Sentences with Verbs Other Than 'Be'
The presentative role of the existential sentence seems especially clear in a rather less common, more literary type in which 'THERE' is followed by a verb other than 'BE'. The present construction requires that the verb be intransitive and of fairly general presentative meaning: verbs of motion (arrive, enter, pass, come), of inception (rise, emerge, spring up), of stance (live, remain, stand, lie).
contains a co-referential pronoun: "They are all the same, THESE POLITICIANS."
Numeratives and Epithets
Numeratives
Numeratives are expressed by numerals or other quantifying words, such as:
Ordinals (e.g., "No thanks, that was my third.") Cardinals (e.g., "The indefinite quantifiers are items such as MUCH, MANY, MORE, MOST, FEW, SEVERAL, A LITTLE, LOTS, A BIT, HUNDREDS, etc.") Indefinite quantifiers (e.g., "MUCH, MANY, MORE, MOST, FEW, SEVERAL, A LITTLE, LOTS, A BIT, HUNDREDS, etc.")
Epithets
Epithets are typically adjectives working as nouns, such as:
"Apples are the cheapest in Autumn" (presupposed item: fruit) "Mary is the cleverer" (the... -est of two) "I like strong tea."
Verbal Ellipsis
Lexical Verbal Ellipsis
Lexical verbal ellipsis involves the omission of the lexical verb from the verbal group, as in: "John couldn't have been going to be consulted, could he?"
Operator Verb Ellipsis
Operator verb ellipsis involves the omission of only the operators, while the lexical verb remains intact, as in: "What have you been doing? Swimming."
Clausal Ellipsis
The clause in English has a two-part structure consisting of a modal element and a propositional element, for example: "[The priest was] [going to raise money for a new church]" (modal element + propositional element).
The modal element consists of the subject and the finite element in the verbal group. The propositional element consists of the rest of the elements. One of these elements can be omitted, as in:
"Raise money for a new church." (The modal element is omitted, and there is also verbal operator ellipsis.)
"Who was going to raise money for the new church?" (The propositional element is omitted, and there is also lexical ellipsis in the verbal group.)
Lexical Cohesion
Reiteration
Reiteration is an instance of lexical cohesion where the same word, a synonym or near-synonym, or a superordinate is used, as in:
"the boy's going to fall if he doesn't take care." "the lad's going to fall if he doesn't take care." "the child's going to fall if he doesn't take care."
It is not necessary for two lexical occurrences to have the same referent in order for them to be cohesive, as in the following examples:
"the boy's going to fall if he doesn't take care" "those boys are always getting into mischief" "and there's another boy standing underneath"
Collocation
Collocation is a type of lexical cohesion achieved through the association of lexical items that regularly co-occur, such as:
Synonyms and near-synonyms: "climb...ascent" Superordinates: "elm...tree", "boy...child", "skip...play" Complementaries: "boy...girl", "stand up...sit down" Antonyms: "like...hate", "wet...dry", "crowded...deserted", "Tuesday...Thursday", "dollar...cent", "north...south", "colonel...brigadier" Unordered lexical sets (semantic fields): "basement...roof", "road...rail"
Conjunctions (Linkers)
Conjunctions, also known as conjunction adjuncts or discourse adjuncts, are semantic linkers that establish relationships between sentences. These conjunctions can be classified according to the meaning they convey, such as:
Additive
"and", "and also" (simple) "likewise", "in the same way", "by contrast", "on the other hand" (comparison) "furthermore", "besides", "in addition", "alternatively", "incidentally", "by the way" (emphatic) "in other words", "thus", "for instance", "that is", "I mean" (apposition)
