lectures 7, 8 - word classes + exercises

7/22/2019 Lectures 7, 8 - Word Classes + Exercises

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Lecture 7

5. Word Classes

All English words belong to one or another of the major or minor word classes (see 2.7.). A word is assigned

to a particular class according to its role in a phrase: nouns are the heads of noun phrases, verbs of the verbphrases, adjectives of the adjective phrases, adverbs of the adverb phrases. Prepositions are obligatory

constituents of prepositional phrases, determiners (including the articles a and the) are obligatory withcount nouns. Pronouns stand either for single nouns or whole noun phrases. Conjunctions connect phrases,clauses, sentences or even larger units, such as paragraphs.

There is a close connection between functions and their realisations or, put differently, between the eight word

classes and phrases and between phrases and the five clause elements - subjects, verbals, objects, complements

and adverbials. The various types of word classes have different functions in the phrases, and, in turn, phrasesfunction as one or another clause element. Noun phrases, for example, can function as subjects, objects, or,

sometimes, adverbials; either noun phrases or adjective phrases can function as complements; (only!) verbs

function as parts of the verb element of a clause (see 2 and 3).

5.1. Lexical and function words

5.1.1. Definitions and classification

Most grammars organize the lexicon - according to the grammatical behaviour and main function of its

words - into lexical words and function words, but there is more than one classification of the word classes

inside these two categories. This happens due to gradience1, an important principle in grammar that leads to

boundary fuzziness, generated in morpho-syntax by the fact that word classes share characteristics among

them.

Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002, 16) identify insertsasa third class (see 2.7.) whose members occur mainly

in spoken language and are peripheral to grammar Inserts have the following characteristics:

They are often marked off by a break in intonation in speech, or by a punctuation mark in writing:e.g. Well, we made it.

They generally carry emotional and discoursal meanings, such as oh, ah, wow, used to express aspeaker's emotional response to a situation, or yeah, no, okay, used to signal a response to what has

just been said.

Inserts are generally simple in form, though they often have an atypical pronunciation (e.g. hm, uh-huh, ugh, yeah). Example: Hm hm, very good!

5.1.2. Characteristics of lexical words

According to Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002, 15-6), lexical words, the main carriers of information in a text,are subdivided into the following word classes (or parts of speech): nouns, lexical verbs, adjectives, and

adverbs.

They share the following characteristics:

Lexical words are members of open classes. Lexical words are the most numerous, and their number is growing continuously.

1Gradience[mass noun]Linguistics = the absence of a clear-cut boundary between one category and another, for example

between cupand mugin semantics (Oxford Dictionaries n.d.).


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They often have a complex internal structure and can be composed of several parts: e.g. unfriendliness= un+friend+ li+ ness.

Lexical words can be heads of phrases. They are generally the words that are stressed most in speech. They are generally the words that remain if a sentence is compressed in a newspaper headline: e.g.Elderly care

crisis warning.

Nouns typically refer to concrete people and things as well as to abstract ideas and phenomena (John,

teacher, book, land, peace, rain).Lexical/main verbs typically denote actions (work, write, play), processes (change, develop, increase) orstates (sleep, fear, amaze).

Adjectives typically describe qualities, characteristics, and properties of objects, people and phenomena

expressed by nouns. (nice, difficult, easy)

Adverbs specify the circumstances (place, time, manner) in which an action takes place (here, now, slowly).

5.1.3. Characteristics of function words

Function words have little or no lexical meaning. The same Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002, 16)note that

there are seven classes of function words: determiners, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, adverbial

particles, coordinators, andsubordinators.

The major classes in this category are prepositions, coordinators, auxiliary verbs, and pronouns. Their mainrole is to indicate meaning relationships and to facilitate the interpretation of units containing lexical words,

by showing how the units are related to each other.

They share the following characteristics:

Function words belong to closed classes, which have a very limited and fixed membership. Forexample, English has only four coordinators: and, or, but and (rarely)nor.

Individual function words tend to occur frequently, and in almost any type of text.Function words can be conveniently grouped according to the lexical word to which they are associated:

grammatical unit function wordsclause subordinators, wh-words, the negator not, the infinitive marker to

clause/ phrase coordinators

verb phrase auxiliaries, modals, adverbial particles

noun phrase determiners, pronouns, numerals, prepositions

5.1.4. Word-class ambiguities

In English there are many words with multiple memberships, that is, they belong to more than one class.

For instance, without a context, progressmay be either a noun or a verb and that - a pronoun, a determiner,or a conjunction. Unlike such words, homonyms share the same form, but they are not related in meaning at

all.As Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002, 35)note, some word-class ambiguities are systematic (see 5.1.1., gradience).

They give the example of the class of quantifiers (e.g. all, some, any, much), whichcan function with similar

meanings as determiners, pronouns or adverbs:

as determiners:He kept whistling at all the girls.

as pronouns:Is that allI've got dad?

as adverbs:Don't get all mucky.


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They also provide a table of words with multiple memberships.

orm noun verb adj adv prep sub examples

before She had never asked him that before.

He was there beforeher.

They'd started leaving beforeI arrived.

early Steele kicked an earlypenalty goal.

He has also kicked a penalty goalearlyin the match.

fight There was a hell of a fight. They're too big tofight.

narrow He plans tonarrowhis focus to certain markets.

Current review programs are toonarrow.

as This was the beginning of his lifeasa cultivator.

Asthey watched, a flash of fire appeared.

outside You can open theoutsidewindow.

He's goneoutside.

It's sittingoutsideyour house.

Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002, 35) enumerate the word classes which are not easily classified or which cut

across other categories: wh-words, existential there, the negator not, the infinitive marker to, and numerals.

5.2. Grammatical categories of word classes

According to Stekauer (1993, 48), the term grammatical categoryrefers to a group of elements recognized in

the description of particular languages. There are authors who refer to the parts of speech as categories, but

others, who follow a more traditional usage, restrict the application of the term to features associated with theparts of speech such as person, tense, mood, number, case, etc.

A grammatical category is defined in English linguistics as a property of items within the grammar of a

language. It has a number of possible values (called exponents/grammemes), which are normally mutually

exclusive within a given category. Examples of frequently encountered grammatical categories include tense(which may take values such as present, past), number (with values such as singular and plural), and gender

(with values such as masculine, feminine and neuter). (Grammatical category n.d.)

The definition in Romanian2 is much fuzzier, which makes it quite useless for the current discussion, though,paradoxically, the grammatical categories of all the ten parts of speech recognized by Romanian mainstreamgrammar are widely present even in school textbooks.

Inflectional/grammatical morphemes (see 2.1.) express grammatical meaning such as number or tense,

traditionally called grammatical categories. They may be either free morphemes (function words) or bound

2Categoriegramatical= noiune gramatical fundamental care exprim relaii stabilite de vorbitorii unei limbi ntreelementeale limbii obiective (ex. gen, numr, persoan, comparaie) sau ntre ei i lumea obiectiv (ex. timp, mod). C.g. reprezintmodul de organizare intern a materialului de forme ale unei limbi.


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affixes (inflectional suffixes). In synthetic languages 3 , such as Romanian, the grammatical categories are

expressed almost exclusively by inflectional endings, whereas in analytic languages, such as Modern English4,

the grammatical categories are expressed primarily by function words and only infrequently by a few inflections.

Brinton and Brinton note that the grammatical category is a linguistic, not a real-world category, and that

there is not always a one-to-one correspondence between the two types of categories, though they are usually

closely related. They illustrate this observation with tense - which is a linguistic category, versus time which is a category of the world. (2010, 114)

The authors also point to the fact that grammatical categories can be identified either by formal or by notional

means. If the formal distinctions are exclusively made by means of inflection, English has only two tense

distinctions - past and present, as in work/worked. By notional means, the existence of a universal set ofgrammatical categories and terms is assumed, which for tenseare past, present, and future. These are expressed

in English by means of inflection and, in the case of the future, by periphrasis 5(as in will work). The same

observations are true about Romanian, even though the range of past tense inflections is much wider. Theauthors also differentiate between overt and covert categories. Overt categories have explicit or formal

realization on the relevant part of speech, such as past tense in English (the -ed inflection on the verb), while

covert categories are expressed only implicitly by the co-occurrence of particular function words, such as the

future tense in English (the will auxiliary occurring with the verb) (2010, 114-5). Again, the remarks apply to

the Romanian verb as well.

Because terminology is not always consistent, we should not mistake grammatical categories (tense,

number, case, etc.) for lexicalcategories, which are closely synonymous with word classes/parts of speech

(noun, verb, adjective, etc.).

InThe Linguistic Structure of Modern English, Brinton and Brinton group the grammatical categories intotwo classes:number, gender, person, case, degree anddefinitenessare recognized as nominal categories,

while tense, aspect, mood and voiceare verbal categories (2010, 115-32). They also note which different

word classes each of the grammatical categories is relevant to:

nouns: number, gender, case, (person), and definiteness;

pronouns: number, gender, case, and person;

adjectives and some adverbs: degree;verbs: number, person, tense, aspect, mood, and voice.

prepositions and conjunctions: no grammatical categories are relevant to prepositions and conjunctions,

which are invariable.

The subsequent discussion in 5.2.1. and 5.2.2. is mainly based on their observations.

5.2.1. Nominal grammatical categories

5.2.1.1. Number

There are two terms of the category of number in both English and Romanian: singular (the concept of

one) and plural(the concept of more than one). InEnglish, number is expressed by inflection in:

count nouns, generally by -s (dog/dogs) demonstratives (this/these, that/those)

3In linguistic typology, a synthetic languageis a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio, as opposed to a low morpheme-

per-word ratio in what is described as an isolating language. (Synthetic language n.d.)4 An analytic language is a language that conveys grammatical relationships without using inflectional morphemes. A

grammatical construction can similarly be called analytic if it uses unbound morphemes, which are separate words, and/or

word order. Analytic languages are in contrast to synthetic languages. However, English is also not totally analytic in its nouns

as it does use inflections for number, e.g. "one day, three days; one boy, four boys". (Analytic language n.d.)5A phrase containing a function word which is functionally equivalent to an inflection is called a periphrasis, or periphrastic form.

(Brinton and Brinton 2010, 114)


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the 1st and 3rd p (but not in the 2nd p) of pronouns personal pronouns (I/we) possessive determiners (my/our) possessive pronouns (mine/ours) reflexive pronouns (myself/ourselves)

certain pronouns and adjectives: singular: every, each,someone, anybody, a/an plural: all, many,few,several, most

in verbs, indicated by the singular -s of the 3rd pers., which occurs in the present but not in the pasttense (he writes versus they write, he wrote). Number is expressed more fully in the inflected forms

of the verb be (singular am, is, was, plural are, were), which because of its high frequency, tends to

preserve inflections more fully than do other verbs.In Romanian, number is marked in all the situations above, plus several others (such as in the large majority

of adjectives, more extensively in verbs etc.).

The concept of generic numberincorporates singular and plural and is used when the speaker does not want

to specify number. It is expressed in English in three ways6:

1. the definite article + singular noun (The tigermay be dangerous)

2. the indefinite article + singular noun (A tigermay be dangerous)3. article + plural of count nouns or singular of mass nouns (Tigers may be dangerous or Gold isvaluable).

In both English and Romanian, 1stperson personal pronouns present a usage peculiarity which has become

outdated: the so-called royal we or editorial we (pluralul de majestatein Romanian) which is a situationof the utilization of the plural when singular is denoted. Another situation when the plural replaces the

singular occurs in Romanian with the politeness plural, used with the personal pronouns for social purposes,

to signal the relations between people (acquaintance vs. stranger, superior vs. inferior, etc.).

5.2.1.2. Gender

English has a rather straightforward system of gender called natural gender7, in which gender distinctions

made in language depend upon the sex of the object in the real world. English distinguishes masculine,

feminine, commongender(masc. or fem.), and neuter(sexless) genders.

At first sight, this is an odd perspective for a Romanian, in whose native language gender appears to be a

central grammatical category, important for noun declension8and for the nouns agreement with pronouns,

adjectives and articles. The relation between natural gender and grammatical gender9is obvious in many of

the animate nouns in Romanian, as there is a certain correlation between their grammatical gender and the

gender of the being they denote (o vac alb (fem.) vs.un bou alb (masc.), o fat harnic (fem.) vs. un biat

harnic (masc.), etc.)10. Gender appears to be arbitrary - not related to the sex of the object denoted - for the

inanimate nouns (o zi (fem.), un pat (masc.), etc.). Actually, Romanian grammars distinguish between two

classes of nouns:

nouns with motivated gender animate nouns for which there is a correspondence between thegrammatical gender and the natural gender of the being denoted by the noun

nouns with unmotivated gender, that include all inanimate nouns, but also animate nouns that6The same ways are possible in Romanian, as well.7natural gender = grammatical gender that reflects, as in English, the sex or animacy of the referent of a noun rather than the form

or any other feature of the word. (Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Natural gender)8declension = the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and articles that indicates number, gender and case.9In the system of grammatical gender, every noun (either animate or inanimate) is treated as masculine, feminine or neuter.10Gender distinctions are normally expressed in such pairs that contrast feminine and masculine nouns.


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denote both genders with only one form, either masculine (elefant, oarece, tnar, etc.) or feminine

(balen,furnic, rndunic, rud, etc.)Unlike Romanian, modern English no longer distinguishes nouns and determinatives on the basis of

grammatical gender. The effect of this development is the lessened place of gender in English nouns.

According to Close, cowis not feminine gender as opposed to the masculine bull.Cowand bullare twoseparate words, one referring to a female of a species of animal, the other to the male. Both words can be

preceded by a set of determiners, such as a, any, each, either, every, my, the, this, that, each of which has one

form only (Close 1992: 1).Old English had grammatical gender, but by the 11

thcentury, during the Middle English period its use started

to decline. Towards the end of the 14thcentury some English dialects had almost completely lost grammatical

gender, and in Modern English words are not normally assigned gender according to their inflectional class.

The features that have survived into Modern English are related to natural gender, such as the use of certain

nouns and pronouns (such as queen, knight, he, she, etc.) to refer specifically to persons or animals of onesex.

Thus, gender is expressed by inflection only in the 3 rd person personal pronouns, singular he, she, it.

According to Brinton and Brinton (2010, 116-7), nothing about the morphological form of nouns such as boy

andgirl indicate that they are masculine or feminine gender, and gender is shown only by the co-occurrence

of relevant pronouns, he andshe, which refer back to the noun: the boy he, the girl she. The authorsnote that this makes gender a covert11category of the noun; they also observe that there are limited ways in

which gender may be expressed overtly on the English noun:

by derivational suffixes, such as the feminine suffixes -ine (hero/heroine), -ess (god/goddess), -rix(aviator/aviatrix), and -ette (suffragist/suffragette) or the common gender suffixes -er (baker), -ist (artist), -ian (librarian), -ster (prankster), and -ard (drunkard);

by compounds, such as lady-, woman-,girl-,female-, -woman (lady friend, woman doctor, girl friend,female fire fighter, chairwoman) or boy-, male-,gentleman-, -man (boy friend, male nurse, gentleman

caller, chairman);

by separate forms for masculine, feminine, and common genders, such as boy/girl/child orrooster/hen/chicken;

by separate forms for masculine and feminine genders, such as uncle/aunt, stallion/mare,bachelor/spinster and proper names such asJoseph/Josephine,Henry/Henrietta.

None of these means is systematic and the feminine is always derived from the masculine12

. Also, themasculine form typically doubles as the common gender form13, as with dog (feminine bitch).

A source of difficulty is the fact that a common gender for the 3rd person singular to be used after a singular

indefinite pronoun such as each or everydoes not exist in English. The traditional use of the masculine form

11Whorf (1956) draws the important distinction between overt and covert grammatical categories: an overt category is onehaving a formal mark that is present in every sentence containing a member of the category (e.g., English plural); a covert

categoryincludes members that are marked only in certain types of sentences. (Whorf labels the distinctive treatment required

in such environments reactance.) In English, gender is a covert category marked only by the reactance of singular third-person pronouns and the relative pronouns who/what/which (which indicate animacy). Despite this limited presence in the

surface structure of English syntax, gender is nonetheless a grammatical category and requires a systematic analysis of the

patterns of anaphoric pronoun use for clues about the structure of the categories within the system. Intuitive assumptions about

the relationship between sex and gender are not sufficient, for while biological sex is a good indicator of gender class, it is not

absolutely predictive. (Curzan n.d.)12The case of widow (fem.)/widower(masc.) is an exception, explained by Brinton and Brinton (2010, 117) as the result of the fact

that women generally outlive men. Another exception is the pair ballerina/ballet dancer, but here the masculine is a

compound, not a simple form.13In the case of cow/bull, goose/gander or drake/duck, the feminine form is the common gender form, presumably because the

female is more important in the barnyard economy (Brinton and Brinton, 2010, 117).


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for the generic (e.g. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs14), tends to becurrently replaced by the use of the plural their, which is gender-neutral but which violates numberagreement (e.g. From each according to theirability, to each according to theirneeds). Brinton note thatforms like his or her, his/her, s/he (e.g.From each according to his or herability, to each according to his orherneeds) are newer attempts to correct this deficiency.

5.2.1.3. Person

Personcan be defined as the relationship between a subject and its verbal, showing whether the subject isspeaking about itself (1stperson -I andwe); being spoken to (2ndpersonyou singular and plural); or beingspoken of (3rdperson - he, she, it, and they).

In both Romanian and English there are three persons: 1st person (the speaker), 2nd person (the person

spoken to) and 3rd person (the person or thing spoken about).

The pronouns to which the grammatical system of person applies are called personal pronouns, and asBrinton & Brinton (118) observe, person distinctions are expressed by the inflected forms of the pronouns:

1stpers. 2n pers. 3r pers.

personal pronouns: I you he, they

personal possessive determiners: my your his, their

personal possessive pronouns: mine yours his, theirspersonal reflexive pronouns: myself yourself himself, themselves

The same authors (Brinton and Brinton 2010, 118) note that nouns are all 3rd person, and this is shown only

covertly by the co-occurrence of pronouns: the house it (I, you), the houses they (we, you).

They also enumerate other forms that express generic besides the use of the rather formalone that expressesgeneric person (all persons) and note that the genericyou is the most common in informal usage.

1stpers. pl we We'reoften misinformed by the media.2

npers. sg andpl you Younever can tell.

3r

pers. sg one Onedoesnt do that in polite company.3rdpers. pl they Theyllfind a cure for cancer soon.

In both English and Romanian another person than the expected one may be used in certain situations:

3rdpers. for 1stpers.in very young children (Mary wants cakewhereMaryis the speaker), inofficial statements (Your boss clearly forbids such behaviour where the boss is the speaker), in

academic style (This author aims at .written by the author himself/herself), etc.

1stpers. for 2ndpers.- spoken by a parent to a young child (Well stop that now, will we?).The grammatical category of person is also marked inflectionally, by the -s affix added on the verb. Note thatthis happens exclusively with the verbs in the present indicative, singular, 3 rdperson.Be is an exception as it

preserves inflections in other persons (1stpers. am, 2ndand 3rdpers.are, 3rdpers.is), and with the past tense as

well (was, were).

As OGrady et al note, a widely attested type of verbal inflection in human language involves person--acategory that typically distinguishes among the first person (the speaker), the second person (the addressee),

and the third person (anyone else). In many languages, the verb is marked for both person and number

(singular or plural) of the subject. When one category is inflected for properties (such as person and number)

of another, the first category is said to agreewith the second. [...]. Modern English has a [comparatively]impoverished system of person and number agreement in the verb, and an inflectional affix is used only for

the third person singular in the non-past tense (2001, 168-9).

5.2.1.4. Case

14A slogan popularised by Karl Marx in Critique of the Gotha Program(1875).


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In many languages, Romanian included, caseis another type of inflectional contrast associated with nouns.

OGrady et al describe it as a category that encodes information about an elements grammatical role(subject, direct object, and so on). In Modern English, this information is expressed largely through word

order and the use of prepositions (2001, 166).

According to Brinton and Brinton (2010, 119), case is an indication of the function of a noun phrase, or the

relationship of a noun phrase to a verb or to other noun phrases in the sentence. Case is most fully expressedin the personal and interrogative/relative pronouns, which distinguish nominative case (the function of

subject), genitive case (the function of possessor), and objective case(the function of object) by differentinflected forms:

nominative:I we ou he,she, it they who

genitive: my/mine our/ours his,her/hers, its their/theirs whose

objective: me us ou him,her, it them whom

The genitive includes forms which function as predeterminers, such as my and our, as well as forms which function as

pronouns, such as mine or ours.

Crystal (1996, 74) maintains that there are only two cases in contemporary English: the common case,

where the noun has no ending, and the genitive caseformed by adding an s to the singular form of the nounand an apostrophe only for the plural form. One reason for this terminological simplification is that there is

no inflectional mark that distinguishes, for example, a noun in the nominative case from one in theaccusative case.

sg. pl.

common case cat cats

genitive case cats cats

Brinton and Brinton (2010, 119) note that, though orthographically there are four distinct forms of nouns

when singular and plural, common and genitive case are considered, the apostrophe is merely orthographicso that the forms cats, cats, and cats are phonologically indistinguishable. Only irregular plurals such as the

noun man actually distinguish four forms both orthographically and phonologically.

sg. pl.common case man men

genitive case mans mens

Even on certain pronouns the distinction between the nominative and objective forms has disappeared, as

with itandyou:

nominative: it you

genitive: its your

objective: it you

The two authors (2010, 120) point to other case distinctions which can be made, such as the dative case (the

function of indirect object), but consider it a subcategory of the objective case, shown by periphrasis with to

orfor or by word order (V iO dO):He gave Janethe book.He gave the book to Jane.

Other traditional cases, such as the instrumental case, are expressed only periphrastically in Englishnowadays, for example, with the prepositions with orfrom (I broke the glass with a rock).

In order to account for the case contrasts found in English nouns and pronouns, OGrady et al (2001, 261) propose aset of rules that associate case with specific syntactic positions. The case rules for English NPs:

a. The complement of V receives accusative case.


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b. The complement of P receives accusative case.

c. The specifier of N receives genitive case.

d. The subject receives nominative case.

According to the rules, a sentence such as Mary saw him is well-formed, since the pronoun in thecomplement NP is accusative, as required by rule a. In contrast, Mary saw he is ungrammatical, since thepronoun in the complement NP has the nominative form, in violation of the same rule.

Brinton and Brinton (2010, 120) illustrate the conventional uses of cases with the use of the nominative caseafter the verb be(e.g.It is I) and maintain that the same function can be expressed by different cases, as ininstances where the concept of possession is expressed by either the genitive or dative case (e.g. The book ismine, The book belongs to me).

The same case can express different functions or meanings, and this is obvious in the behaviour of the

genitive case, which does not simply express possession. The following types of genitives have beenidentified (Brinton and Brinton 2010, 120-1), based on the meaning relationship between the noun in the

genitive and the head noun:

possessive genitive:Felixs car (Felix owns his car) subjective genitive: the movie stars entrance (the movie star enters - the same relation as a subject

does to a verb)

objective genitive: the citys reconstruction (X reconstructs the city - the same relation as a directobject does to a verb)

genitive of origin: Shakespeares plays, the bakers cakes (expresses the source, person, or place fromwhich something originates)

descriptive genitive: man of wisdom, a woman of courage (usually expressed periphrastically, it isoften equivalent to a descriptive adjective, as in man of wisdom = wise man)

genitive of measure: an hours time, a stones throw (expresses an extent of time or space)

partitive genitive: a member of the crowd, a spoke of the wheel (expresses the whole in relation to apart)

appositive genitive: the city of Vancouver, the state of California (renames the head noun)Quite often the of-genitive/ prepositional genitive can replace the s genitive in many usages, or at least

double it. Leech (2006, 47) notes the speakers tendency to use the of-construction where the genitive wouldcause too much complexity in front of the head noun, and illustrates it with the following illustration: thenight train to Edinburghs departure is less likely to occur than the departure of the night train to Edinburgh.

He also points to the fact that the placing of the s at the end of Edinburgh is perfectly acceptable, even

though the genitive indicates the departure of the train, rather than the departure of Edinburgh, and labels itas an example of the so-called group genitive, where the genitive phrase contains postmodification. Other

examples are: [the mayor of Chicagos] re-election campaign, [someone elses]fault. (Leech 2006: 47).

Brinton and Brinton (2010, 121) suggest that, though the inflectional genitive (with s) and the periphrastic

form (with of + NP) are normally interchangeable, it is not always possible to substitute one means of

expression for the other. For example, while the Queens arrival is interchangeable with the arrival of theQueen, a person of integrity is not interchangeable with an integritys person nor is a stones throw

interchangeable with a throw of a stone. Certain types of genitives, such as the partitive, descriptive, or

appositive, are typically expressed only periphrastically.

The authors (Brinton and Brinton 2010, 121) also point to various types of ambiguities that appear in thegenitive structures, such as the phrase the shooting of the hunters, which is ambiguous between subjective

and objective genitive readings because it can mean either the hunters shoot X or X shoots the hunters.


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The childs picture is also ambiguous, since we do not understand whether the child has drawn the picture or

someone else has taken the picture of the child. The same applies for the womans book - ambiguous betweenthe possessive genitive and the genitive of origin as the woman may either own the book or she may havewritten it.

The double genitiveis another complex aspect of the genitive mentioned by Brinton and Brinton (2010, 121), in

which periphrastic and inflectional forms co-occur: a friend of Rosas, no fault of his. The double genitive isalways indefinite (the friend of Rosas) and a human inflected genitive (a leg of the tables). It normally has a

partitive sense (one friend among all of Rosas friends), though it is also possible to use it when Rosa has onlyone friend.A portrait of the kings (one among all the portraits (of others) that the king owns) can be contrastedwith a portrait of the king (a portrait which depicts the king).

Leech sees the genitive as the only remnant in modern English of the casesystem of nouns, prevalent in OldEnglish, and also in classical Greek, Latin and many modern European languages. [] The genitive form of anoun typically comes before another noun, the head of the noun phrase of which the genitive is part, for example

Roberts desk (2006, 46). He also notes that, strictly speaking, this mark is no longer a case-ending in modernEnglish, but an ending added to noun phrases, such as [the brides] in [the brides] arrival, or [my fathers] in [my

fathers]favourite breakfast. In his view, because the genitive fills a determiner slot in the larger noun phrase of

which it is part, the function of the brides above is similar to that of her in her arrival or the in the arrival. Thesame author remarks the occurrence of what he calls group genitive

15:

The s genitive is normally used when the possessor is a proper noun, preferably the name of a person: Maryshouse, Johns job, etc. However, it is possible with other animate noun classes:

nouns denoting humans: the boysaunt collective nouns: thegovernmentsannouncement higher animals: the horsesneck

The of-genitive is normally used with inanimate nouns and with lower animals, but many of the inanimate nouns

also take the s genitive as well: the cars maker/the maker of the car, the novels title/the title of the novel, etc.

The following inanimate noun classes commonly take the s genitive:

geographical names (proper names): continents:Europes population countries:Romaniaspoliticians cities/towns: Bucharests transportation system universities: Cuzas Language center

nouns denoting space or locations (regions, institutions, etc.: the worlds most famous writer, theChurchs finances, the countrys policy, etc.

nouns denoting time:yesterdays newspaper, this years events, etc. nouns denoting weight or value: a pounds weight, two euros worth of coffee, etc.

5.2.1.5. Degree

Degreeis a nominal category that relates to adjectives and adverbs and has three terms:

positive degree (expressing a quality) comparative degree (expressing a greater degree or intensity of the quality in one of two items) superlativedegree (expressing the greatest degree or intensity of the quality in one of three or more

items)

151 A phrase containing a function word which is functionally equivalent to an inflection is called a periphrasis, or periphrastic

form. For example, in English, we can express the possessive either by an inflection -s (as inAlicias cat) or by a periphrasiswith of (as in the leg of the table). (Brinton and Brinton 2010, 114)


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Brinton and Brinton (2010, 121-2) note that the positive degree is expressed by the root of the adjective (e.g.

big, beautiful) or adverb (e.g. fast, quickly) that is, it is null-realized while the comparative andsuperlative degrees are expressed either by inflection (by means of -er, -est) or by periphrasis (using more,

most):

positive big fast beautiful quickly

comparative -er, more bigger faster more beautiful more quickly

superlative -est, most biggest fastest most beautiful most quickly

The inflectionis used with:

monosyllabic forms neater, thinner, wider certain disyllabic forms adjectives ending in y: holy holier; -le: little littler; -er:bitter

bitterer; -ow:narrow narrower; -some:handsome handsomer.

The periphrasisoccurs in all other forms, including adverbs ending in -ly (e.g. quicklier).

Lesser degreecan be expressed periphrastically with less and least, as in less big, least beautiful.

Brinton and Brinton (2010, 122) explain that, for semantic reasons, some adjectives cannot be inflected for

degree. Thus, adjectives such as perfect, unique, round, full, empty, married, and dead are incomparable

because they express absolute qualities. The authors illustrate such qualities with a two examplesdead andunique. About the former, they comment that something is either dead or not; it cannot b e more or lessdead. As for superlatives such as most unique, they are logically impossible, though one frequently hears

such forms. The explanation is that either most can be understood as an emphatic element or unique can be

understood as meaning unusual.

The concept of superlative is rather easy to comprehend for the Romanian speaker since the rules are

identical, even stricter, in Romanian grammar. That is, an example like the most perfect day, as well as the

second proposed above, would be totally unacceptable in Romanian (cea mai perfect zi, cel mai unic).

Forscu (Forscu n.d.)identifies two classes of incomparable adjectives in Romanian:

1. adjectives that originally were old comparative and superlative forms (exterior, interior,superior, inferior, optim,

excelent, etc.) or those in the positive form with a superlative meaning (supraaglomerat, ultrasensibil, excelent,

admirabil,splendid,perfect, etc.).

Some speakers no longer perceive such adjectives as comparatives or superlatives and tend to use them withthe comparative or superlative degrees (cel mai superior, foarte inferior, condiiile cele mai optime, etc.).

Such forms must be avoided.

2. adjectives that express an absolute quality which cannot be compared ( complet, mort, viu, pulmonar,

principal, perfect, etc.). It is thus wrong to say cel mai principal lucru, o list foarte complet.

Brinton and Brinton (2010, 122) point to another peculiarity of English adjectives: forms such as best time,rudest remark, or closest of friends often express a high degree rather than a true comparison, with the

superlative equivalent to very. Finally, it is also common to hear the superlative used in the comparison of

two items, as input your best foot forward, the most advantageous of two alternatives, even though the ruleimposes the structure the + comparative (put your better foot forward, the more advantageous of two

alternatives).

5.2.1.6. Definiteness

The concepts of definitenessand indefinitenessare seen by Brinton and Brinton (122-3) as intuitively quite

simple: definitedenotes a referent (a thing in the real world denoted by a noun) which is known, familiar, or

identified to the speaker and hearer, while indefinitedenotes a referent which is unfamiliar or not known.

These concepts have been adopted by some Romanian grammars as well, especially due to the linguistic school

of Bucharest (Diaconescu, Manoliu Manea, Guu Romalo, Coteanu, Coja, etc.). They view definiteness


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6. for converting a proper noun to a common noun: a virtual Mozart, a real Einstein.


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Lecture 8

5.2.2. Verbal grammatical categories

5.2.2.1. Tense

Tense is defined by Brinton and Brinton (2010, 124) as the linguistic indication of the time of an

action/event in respect to the moment of speaking (or some other reference point).

Time is a nonlinguistic concept that exists independently of human language, while tense is the linguisticexpression of time relations realized by verb forms.

According to Downing and Locke (2006, 352), tenseis the grammatical expression of the location of events

in time, which anchors an event to the speakers experience of the world by relating the event time to a pointof reference. They call the universal, unmarked reference point the moment of speaking - speech time. Innarrative, a point in past time is usually taken as the reference point.

This point of reference is the point versus which some events are anterior (i.e. they take place before it),

posterior (i.e. they will take place after the moment of speaking), or simultaneous with the moment of

speech (i.e. they happen at the same time)

In English there are only two inflectional tense distinctions, that is only two tenses - present and past - have

marked rather than combined (with auxiliaries) forms). Compare call(present tense), called(past tense) andwillcall (future tense). The only tense distinction expressed inflectionally is that between call and called,while will callis a periphrastic structure.

On a time line like the one below, for example, a past time statement, such as It rained, or a future-timestatement, such asIt will rain, denotes a situation held before the present moment or that will hold after the

present moment, respectively:

------------------------------------x------------------------------------->

past time now future

speech time

present moment

Thus, verbs in the present tense normally refer to 'now' (indicated above by the x), while verbs in the past

tense normally refer to 'before now'.

According to Hasselgrd, Lysvg and Johansson (Hasselgrd, Lysvg and Johansson n.d.), the present tense can

alternatively express directness or closeness in time and/or reality (Since you are rich, you can buy that house),while the past tense expresses distance (If youwererich, you could buy that house).

Brinton and Brinton (2010, 124-6) argue that, in fact, the present progressive is used to denote actions goingon at the present time (as in I am reading at this moment, notI read at this moment). They list a number of

uses of the PRESENT TENSE form in English which are actually employed for the expression of other

types of temporal as well as nontemporal situations17

.

1. habits:I walkto work everyday. She smokes. We eatdinner at 6:00.

A habit such as the one expressed in She smokes can be figured as a series of separate events that are

characteristic of a period and that together constitute a whole.

------------------------------->

Habits exist even if the event is not actually going on at the present moment; that is to say, the fact that she

smokes( = she is a smoker) is true even if she is not actually smoking a cigarette at the present moment.)

17For such uses, the term nonpast is preferred topresent.


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2. states: She livesat home. I l ikechocolate. I believeyou. I havelots of work to do. The dog seeswell. I feelsick. States include nondynamic situations such as:

emotional states (love) cognitive states (understand) perceptual states (feel) bodily sensations (ache) expressions of having and being (own, resemble).

3. genericstatements:Beavers builddams. Tigers areferocious.

A generic statement says something about a class of things (beavers build..., tigers are ferocious). Brinton andBrinton point to the difference between a state such as I amhappy and a generic statement such as Tigers areferocious, in addition to the nongeneric (I) vs. generic (tigers) subject. This means that the state refers to aspecific situation and can occur with adverbs such as still, already, not yet (e.g.I amstill happy/Tigers are stillferocious).

4. timelessstatements: The sun setsin the west. Summer beginson June 21st. Two plus two isfour.

Timeless statements express eternal truths and laws of nature.

5. gnomic (proverbial) statements:A stitch in time savesnine. Haste makeswaste.

Gnomic statements express proverbs, which are not necessarily timeless.

6. futurestatements: We leavetomorrow. I seethe doctor this afternoon.

Future expressed with the simple present generally refers to situations predetermined and fixed, such as flighttimetables, schedule appointments, etc.

7. instantaneouscommentary:He shoots; he scores. Now I beatin two eggs. He pullsa rabbit out of thehat.

Instantaneous commentary occurs in sports reporting, cooking demonstrations, magic shows, etc. This is the

only use of the nonpast form for actions actually going on at the current moment.)

8. plotsummary:Hamletdiesat the end of the play. Emma marriesMr. Knightley.The present is used in summarizing works of literature and in talking about artists as artistic figures.

9. narration in the present (the historical present): Then he says

The historical present is the use of present tense for narrating informal stories and jokes, though it is used

increasingly frequently in serious literature.

10. informationpresent:I hear/seethat Manfred has been promoted.

The information present is the use of present tense with verbs of hearing or seeing where one might expect

the past tense.

Conveniently enough, all the ten uses of the English present tense above have corresponding counterparts in

the use of the Romanian timpul prezent.

The uses of the PAST TENSE:

1. an event or a state in past time:Haydn composedthe symphony in 1758 orHandel livedin England fora number of years;

2. narration: Two days after the war ended, my sister Laura drovea car off a bridge (Atwood, 2000, p. 1)

3. pasthabit:I droveto work last year.


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The past tense is the tense of narration, but if the simple past denotes a past habit, an appropriate time

adverbial is required. However, there is a special past habitual form - used to, as inI usedtodrive to work,which does not normally require a time adverbial.

4. politeness:I was hopingyou would help. Didyou wantto talk to me?

The past tense may also be used nontemporally, as a means to express politeness or to denote the unreal:

present hope; future help.

5. hypothetical:If you studiedmore, you would do better.These are modal uses of the past, where the subjunctive mood replaces the indicative.

There are several Romanian corresponding past forms for each of the uses above are:

1. perfect compus for an event or a state in past time:Haydn a compus...

2. perfect simplu or perfect compus for narration:Dou zile dup ce sesfrirzboiul, sora mea....

3. imperfect for pasthabit:Anul trecut mergeamcu maina la serviciu.

4. imperfect for politeness: Speramc m vei ajuta.

FUTURE TIMEis usually marked in English with modals or semi-modals in a variety of periphrases (see

5.4.), as well as by the inflected simple tense.1. will/shall + infinitive:I willhelpyou tomorrow.

2. the simple present: The party beginsat 4:00.

3. the present progressive: Werehavingguests for dinner.

4. be going to, be about to + infinitive: The child is going tobe sick. The boat is about toleave.

5.shall/will + the progressive:I will be moving next week.

Brinton and Brinton remark (2010, 126) that the forms of the future are subtly different in meaning, andillustrate this with the following examples:

- Itsgoingtorain today orItsabouttorain might be uttered while looking up at a threatening raincloud, while It will rain today could only be the prediction of the meteorologist or a report of thispersons prediction.

- It rains today is distinctly odd because it denotes the future as fact, or predetermined, and aspunctual.

- the progressiveItsrainingtoday could not function as a future in this instance either.- It will be raining today (when you want to mow the lawn) is possible if it denotes a situation

surrounding another event.

They argue that commands (e.g. Wash the dishes!) always carry a future meaning, as one cannot command

someone else to perform an action in the past nor to be performing it at the present moment. Thus, theimperative places the action at a future moment/time and it has a closer relation to modality than to tense,

since it expresses something that is not (yet) fact.Tense in reported speech

Biber, Conrad and Leech (2002: 152-3) highlight the special use simple past tense has in reported speech or

thought. In reports, even if the original speech or thoughts were in present tense, past tense is usually used.

1.Then the next day he said he no longer loved me. (direct speech: 'I no longer love you.')

2.And I thoughtI wasgoing to go home early. (direct thought: 'I am going to go home early.')

3. Abbey said there was a meeting planned to discuss the contract this week. (direct speech: 'There is ameeting.')


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The tense of the verb in the subordinate that-clause agrees with the past tense of the reporting verb (e.g.said-

loved in 1.). If a speaker is reporting the speech of someone else, there is also a corresponding shift inpronouns, for example fromIto he in 1.

The authors also point to the fact that the circumstances may still be continuing even though past tense is

used (as in 3, for example, wherethe meeting may still be planned).

An additional variation in tense in reported speech, used mainly in conversation, is the situation in which

present tense is used for the reporting verb and past tense for the indirect quote:

He says he bought another Amiga.

5.2.2.2. Aspect

Brinton and Brinton define aspectas the view taken of an event, or the aspect under which it is considered,basically whether it is seen as complete and whole (perfective aspect) or as incomplete and ongoing

(imperfective aspect).

Downing and Locke (2006, 370) contrast the categories of tense and aspect and maintain that, while tense is

used to locate events in time, aspect is concerned with the way in which the event is viewed with regard toduration and completion. They compare the two examples below and observe that both are in the past tense

and both locate the situation in past time. The difference is in aspect, expressed by the verbal form was

locking as opposed to the ordinary past locked.

1.He lockedthe safe. 2.He waslockingthe safe.

They point to the basic aspectual distinction of perfectivity vsimperfectivity:

Perfective: the situation is presented as a complete whole, as if viewed externally, with sharpboundaries, as in 1. (Note that perfectivity is not the Perfect aspect!)

Imperfective: the situation is viewed as an internal stage, without boundaries and is conceptualised asongoing and incomplete; the beginning and end are not included in this viewpoint we see only theinternal part, as in 2. The Progressive is thus a kind of imperfectivity.

Especially for the Romanian speakers of English, aspect can be a difficult concept, which poses

comprehension and usage difficulties, since traditional Romanian grammars do not recognize this verbal

grammatical category18. However, Irimia (1997, 118-20) notes that in Romanian as well, the grammaticalcategory of aspect develops in the opposition perfective- imperfective19, an opposition best represented in

the Romanian past tenses:

perfective imperfective

perfectul compus imperfectul

perfectul simplu

mai mult ca perfectul

Irimia maintains that aspect is marked inflectionally in the Romanian verbs, and proposes the verb a coboras an illustration.

perfective imperfectivecobor+ t perfectul compus cobora + m imperfectulcobor + + i perfectul simplucobor + se + m mai mult ca perfectul

Confusion between the categories of tense and aspect arises because they both are related to time. However,

while tense relates the time of a situation to some other time, commonly the time of speaking, aspectconveys other temporal information, such as duration, completion, or frequency, as it relates to the time of

18Aspect is not marked through auxiliary verbs in Romanian.19Irimia coreleazopoziia perfectiv- imperfectivcu opoziiamplinitnemplinit.


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action. Thus tense refers to temporally whenwhile aspect refers to temporally how. Aspect can be said to

describe the texture of the time in which a situation occurs, such as a single point of time, a continuous rangeof time, a sequence of discrete points in time, etc, whereas tense indicates its location in time. (Grammatical

aspect n.d.)

In a series of examples such asI read,I am reading, I have read, andI have been reading, all the verbals are

somehow related to the present time. The difference is that, even if they all describe the present situation,each conveys its own information about or points of view on the way the action relates to present time. This

is to say, they differ in aspect.

Brinton and Brinton (2010, 127) find it useful to treat the so-called compound tenses the perfect and theprogressive as expressions of the category of aspect. They explain that simple past tense in English isperfective in aspect since it views events as complete and whole, e.g. Yesterday, I drove to town, ran someerrands, and visited with my friends. on The progressive periphrasis (be + the present participle) expresses

imperfective aspect, because it renders actions in progress, ongoing, and incomplete (not yet ended). This isthe usual way to denote a situation happening at the very moment of speaking, which by definition is

incomplete.

Depending on the temporal nature of the situation expressed by the verb punctual or durativethe authorsabove (Brinton and Brinton 2010, 127) identify the following situations in which the progressive is used:

a continuous activity: She isreading. He washavinga bath when I called. a repeated activity (iterative aspect):He waskickingthe ball against the wall. a process leading up to an endpoint:He iswalkingher home.

An important observation is that the progressive is generally incompatible with static situations. This is due to

the fact that nondynamic situations cannot be seen as ongoing or in progress (I am liking music,I am having a

car.).

There are however some special uses of the progressive with state verbs:

to change a state verb into a dynamic one (You arebeingnaughty = behaving badly). to indicate a temporary state (He is teaching French this year = he normally teaches another

subject).

to refer to an increasing or decreasing trend (Gas iscostinga lot these days = it costs more than it used tocost).

to say something politely (Im not recall ingyour name, can you give me a clue?).According to Brinton and Brinton (2010, 127-8), both the meaning and categorization of the perfect (theother periphrasis in English, consisting of have + the past participle) pose difficulties for linguists, but it is

widely agreed that the perfect is an aspect category rather than a tense category. It presents the currentrelevance of a past event which is relevant either by its continuation into the present or by its results in thepresent.

When a state or event that has duration (i.e. that extends over a period of time) is expressed in the perfect, it

denotes a situation that began in the past but continues to the present and possibly beyond (e.g. she has

stayed for a week). This is called a continuative perfect.

Continuative perfectstate I havelivedhere since childhood.habit She hassungin the choir for ten years.activity(continuous) The preacher hastalkedfor the last hour.activity(iterative) The child hascoughedall night.

When an event that is punctual or has a necessary endpoint is expressed in the perfect, it denotes a situation

that is completed but has results in the present (e.g. she has opened the door). This is called the resultative

perfect.


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Resultativeperfectactivity with a necessary endpoint I havereadthe novel.punctual event I havelostmy keys.

The table below shows the major ways in which the Present Perfect differs from the Past Tense (Downing

and Locke 2006, 362).

Present Perfect Past Tense

a. The activity/state is placed in the extendednow(a period of time which extends up to speech time.)

Its time-frame is the past, which is viewed as a separatetime-frame from that of the present.

b. The event occurs at some indefinite andunspecified time within the extended now. The

Present Perfect does not point to a specific time, but

relates to a relevant time.

The event is located at a specific and definite time in thepast. The Past tense points to a specific time in the past.

As we have seen in 4.4., tense is expressed on the auxiliary verb beor have, thus resulting the following

forms:

form description example

present progressive action in progress at the moment ofspeaking

I am readinga novel.

present perfect past action with results in the present I have read this novel.

present perfect progressive action which has been in progress from

some moment in the past up to speech time(and possibly beyond).

I have been reading a novel forthe last hour.

past progressive action in progress at some moment in the

pastIwas reading a novel at that time.

past perfect past action with results at some past moment

or completed before some past momentI had read that novel before Ibought it .

past perfect progressive action which had been in progress from

some moment in the past up to some other

past moment closer to speech time

I had been reading the novel foran hour before calling her.

future progressive action in progress at some futuremoment Iwil l be reading a novel by then.

future perfect future action with results at some future

moment or completed before some future

moment

I will have read a novel for anhour by then.

future perfect progressive future action in progress up to a particular

event or time in the future; the duration stopsat or before a reference point in the future

I wil l have been reading a novelfor an hour by the time she arrives.

Finite verbs, and therefore also finite clauses, are marked for tense. Tensed forms distinguish the presenttense (walk, walks) from the past tense (walked); the same applies to the distinction regular verbs - irregular

verbs, as in begin - began,gowent, etc. There are, nevertheless, irregular verbs which have the same form

for the present and past tenses, such as cost, cut, etc. Person and number are marked only on the 3 rdpersonsingular of the present tense indicative (walks, begins)except for the verb be, which has more forms. Tenseis also carried by the finite operators. (see 2.4.2.)

5.2.2.3. Mood

Moodis the verbal grammatical category that indicates the way in which the speaker regards his/her message, i.e.

whether he/she considers the event factor nonfact (for example, whether it is intended as a statement of fact, of

desire, of command, etc.). This indication is normally realised by verbal inflections.

In both English and Romanianmoodis closely related to tenseand aspectand the same word patterns are

used to express the three grammatical categories at the same time.


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If we accept the definition above, then we also have to accept the view that, because mood involves the

verbal expression of the speakers attitude, only finite verbs can be assigned to a certain mood. Thisdescription is actually very similar to the definition for mood in Romanian grammar provided by Irimia20,

who argues that the traditional distinction between finite moods non-finite moods21is unfounded, as the

non-finite forms22

(the infinitive, gerund, participle, supine) are actually either nonverbal or not exclusivelyverbal (Irimia 1997, 123).

Akmajian et al. note that traditional grammars say that a verb is in, for example, the subjunctive mood if it

has a certain inflection (verbal morphology) and a sentence is in that mood if its main verb is in that mood;however, they suggest that moods are best analyzed sententially

23, as forms with certain conventional

communicative functions (2001, 249).

The same authors distinguish between major moods(1. the indicative mood, 2. the imperative mood, 3. the

subjunctive mood) and minor moods (1. tag declarative, 2. tag imperative, 3. pseudo-imperative, 4.

alternative questions, 5. exclamative, 6. optative, 7. "one more" sentence)24

.

According to them, there are three majormoodsin English:

realis/fact mood the indicativemood is used to make factual statements or pose questions

irrealis/ nonfact moods the imperative

mood

to express a request or command

the subjunctive

mood

to show a wish, doubt, or anything else contrary to fact

Minor moods are illustrated by the following examples:

Tag declarative You've been drinking again, haven' t you.

Tag imperative Leave the room, will you!

Pseudo-imperative Moveand/or I'll shoot!Alternative questions Does John resemble his father or his mother? (with rising intonation on father

and falling intonation on mother)

Exclamative What a nice day!

Optative Mayhe restin peace.

"One more" sentence One more beer and I'll leave.

Curse You pig, bag of wind, . . .!

Akmajian et al. point to the fact that the distinction between major and minor mood is not clear-cut; they

identify the following features that intuitively characterize minor moods: are highly restricted in their productivity are peripheral to communication are probably low in their relative frequency of occurrence vary widely across languages." (2001, 249-50)

1.The indicativeis the mood of fact, of real situations, that indicates that something is actually the case or

actually not the case. It is expressed by the simple and compound tenses of the verb.

20Modul este o categorie gramatical prin care se exprim implicarea subiectului vorbitor n desfurarea raportului semanticdintre verb (realitate lingvistic) i o aciune (stare etc.) (realitate extralingvistic), interpretat prin enunul sintacticobiect

al procesului de comunicare (Irimia 1997, 122).21n gramatica romn se modurile predicativese mai numesc i personale, iar cele nepredicativese numesc i nepersonale.22nonfinite verb = a verb form that is not restricted for person, number, and tense, including infinitives, gerunds, and participles

(Brinton and Brinton 2010, 406)23sentential (adj.) = pertaining to or of the nature of a sentence.24The conditional is not normally distinguished as a mood because it does not appear as a morphologically distinct form.


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The indicative is the most common mood and is used in factual, objective statements. A verb in the

indicative is marked for tense and aspect and in the present tense shows grammatical concord with thesubject:

The major nonfact moods - the imperativeand the subjunctive- indicate that something is not actually the

case or a certain situation or action is not known to have happened.

2.In both English and Romanian, the imperative moodis used to express direct commands. It has a special

syntactic form - it is a subjectless sentence - because a direct command can only occur between the speaker(the 1stperson) and the hearer (the 2ndperson) - see 2.4. and 3.2.

The imperative consists of the bare form of the verb, as in Shut up!,Keep quiet!,Dont look at me like that!.

In English, there is another imperative with lets addressed either to the 1stperson plural, to the 1stperson

singular and to the 3rd

person, as a kind of suggestion and an imperative with let addressed to the 3rd person.

imperative

1stperson 3r person

sg pl sg pl

Let me see. Lets keep calm. Let him wait. Let them see to that.

The Romanian correspondent for this form of the imperative is normally the conjunctive mood.

imperativ

persoana I persoana a III-a

sg pl sg pl

(Stai) s vd. (Hai) s ne pstrm calmul. S atepte. (Las) s se ocupe el de asta.

Two more forms of the English imperative can be mentioned (2005, 268-9):

Emphatic imperative (Do sitdown!) Passive imperative (Get vaccinated!)

3. The subjunctive expresses wishes, desires, requests, warnings, prohibitions, predictions, possibilities, and

contrary-to-fact occurrences. It occurs only rarely in main clauses in English today, especially in the form of set

formulas such asfarbeit from me, sobeit,sufficeit tosay, comewhatmay,bethat as itmay,LonglivetheQueen!Godforgiveyou!Cursethis day! etc.

The subjunctive is includes verb forms that are mainly used in dependent clauses (conditional clauses, that-clauses, etc.). The subjunctive form of a verb often coincides with a corresponding indicative form, such as

bare infinitive, present tense, past tense and past perfect indicative.

Subjunctive forms

English has synthetic and analytical subjunctive forms. Thesynthetic subjunctiveis identical in form with the past

simple and the past perfect of the indicative, and the difference between these two forms lies in their time reference:

example time reference

present subjunctive I wish you told me the truth. present or future

past subjunctive I wish youhad told me the truth. past

Beis the only verb which has a special present subjunctive formwere, which is used for all persons:

If I wereyou, I wouldnt go in there.

The present subjunctive expresses wishes, possibility, uncertainty present unreality, i.e. actions contrary topresent fact:

after its time Its time wewentback.after the verb wish I wish you were here.

in conditional clauses If hehad beenasked, he would have come.


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in concessive clauses Even though sheapologized, I would notforgive her.in comparative clauses He treats her as if shewerea child.

The analytical/periphrasticsubjunctiveexpresses unreality by means of a variety of modal auxiliaries +

infinitive:

shall/should+ infinitive They decided that we should be there before 9.

may/might+ infinitive We stepped carefully for fear wemightslip andfall.

would+ infinitive I wish itwouldgetwarmer.could+ infinitive What interviewers wish they could tell every job candidate(http://www.linkedin.com)

The analytical subjunctive should+ infinitiveis used after adjectives, verbs and nouns that express a wish, asuggestion, a desire, etc.:

after it is/was+ adjective (crucial,necessary, essential,

natural, surprising, odd, absurd, strange, urgent)

It is crucial that theyshould f ini shtheproject.

after the verbs ask, command, insist, order,

propose, recommend, require,suggest:

He suggested that weshouldcallher without delay.

after the nouns suggestion, proposal, idea, wish,

recommendation, desire:

My proposal is was that sheshouldvotetoday.

in purpose clauses I finished the presentation earlier so that everybodyshouldgetto the meeting in time.

in negative purpose clauses after lest in

expressions of fear

She was moving carefully lest theyshould wakeup.

conditional clauses (the action is unlikely to

occur)

If Jackshould call, tell himIll get back to him.

The analytical subjunctivemay/might+ infinitiveis used in the following contexts:

after the verbsorder, request, desire: He ordered that theymight beready at once.after expressions of fear Im afraid hemaysackme.

in clauses of purpose She gave me his number so that Imight callhim.in clauses of concession No matter how hard hemay try,hell neverwin their trust back.

More traditional grammars recognize a fourth major mood, the conditional which occurs in independentclauses by means of the modal auxiliary would+ the bare infinitive of the main verb, as in Iwould come,but I'm very busy.

The conditional mood is more frequently used in the main clause of conditional sentences to render open

and closed conditions.

main clause if-clause (introduced by if, unless, in case)

open

condition

present conditional(would+ verb)

present synthetic subjunctive

Iwould join you on the trip if Ihadtime.closed

contion

pastconditional(would+have+past participle

25)past synthetic subjunctive

Iwould have joined you on the trip if Ihad hadtime.

5.2.2.4. Voice

25would + have + past participle is the structure of the bare perfect infinitive.


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Voiceis traditionally considered a grammatical category of the verb, but it is actually relevant to the entire

sentence, because it indicates the semantic role of the subject. Thus, the subject is an agent(the doer of theaction) in active voice and a patient(the person or thing acted upon) in the passive voice.

In both English and Romanian, the passive voiceis expressed periphrastically.

English: A wonderful messagewas sentto her (byJohn).

Romanian: Un mesaj minunat i-a fost trimis (de ctre John)26

.

The English canonical passive voicethe be-passive- has the following structure:

auxiliary be

+

past participle of verb

+

(by-PpP containing the agent)

A wonderful messagewas sentto her (byJohn).

Another passive form in English is the get-passive(get+ past participle of verb), as in He gets paideverytwo weeks (by his employers).

The difference between the be-passive and theget-passive is that the former focuses on the result, while the latter

focuses on the action bringing about the result.

A construction which is passive in meaningisget/havesomething done. It describes two types of situations:

1. when we want someone else to do something for us, as inI must get/have my hair cut. (= my hair must becut by somebody)

2. when the verb refers to something negative/unwanted, as in She had his flat broken intolast night.(= herflat was broken into)

With this construction, the focus is on the resultof the activity, not on the person or object that performs theactivity.

In the same way, the construction something/somebody needs doinghas a passive meaning, as in The wallsneedpainting(= the walls need to be painted).

The focus here is on the person or thing that will experience the action.

In the passive, the logical subject/ the agent moves out of the position of grammatical subject and goes to the

by-PpP. Nonetheless, the by-PpP is commonly omitted in the passive, especially when it brings no relevant

information or when the doer of the action is unknown or unimportant.

Brinton and Brinton (2010, 321) notice a form which is called notionalpassive (a sentence which is activein form but passive in meaning) and exemplify it with sentences such as:

The shirt washes easily. = the shirt is easily washed

These oranges peel easily. = these oranges are easily peeled

The cake should cook slowly. = the cake should be slowly cooked

Notional passives usually contain a manner adverb and differ from regular passives in that they occurwithout explicit agents and, moreover, there is never even an implicit agent (these oranges peel easily by

you).

26The Romanian word order is much freer, so that the version I-a fost trimis un mesaj minunat (de ctreJohn) is not only possible,

but even more probable.


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EXERCISES

Exercise 5.1 Noun suffixes

Convert the following words into nouns by adding noun suffixes and making any other consequent

changes. Some words may take more than one noun suffix.1. perform

2. able

3. conceive

4. speak

5. construct

*Exercise 5.2 Noun classesConstruct two sentences for each of the following nouns. Use the noun in the (a) sentence as a count

noun and the noun in the (b) sentence as a non-count noun.

1. beer2. beauty

3. sound4. sugar

5. paper

Exercise 5.3 Number

Supply the plural form for each of the singular nouns listed below.1. analysis

2. thief

3. criterion

4. deer

5. stimulus

Exercise 5.4 Dependent and independent genitives

Specify whether the underlined genitives are dependent or independent by putting D or I in thebrackets that follow each genitive.

1. In a recent poll 48 per cent of Americans thought that Japans( ) economy is bigger than Americas( ).2. The British governments ( ) 50 billion sale of state-owned housing is going at a snails( ) pace.

*Exercise 5.5 Dependent and independent genitivesConstruct two sentences for each of the following genitives. Use the genitive in the (a) sentence as a

dependent genitive and in the (b) sentence as an independent genitive.

1. the neighbours2. Russias

Exercise 5.6 Verb suffixes

Convert the following words into verbs by adding verb suffixes and making any consequent changes.Some words may take more than one verb suffix.

1. real

2. hyphen

3. ripe

4. margin

Exercise 5.7 Classes of irregular verbs

Give the three principal parts for each of these irregular verbs.

1. grow2. put

3. drive4. send

5. break

Exercise 5.8 Adjective suffixes

Convert the following words into adjectives by adding adjective suffixes and making any consequentchanges. Some words may have more than one adjective suffix.

1. style

2. cycle3. wish

4. allergy

5. care


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*Exercise 5.9 Adjective classes

Construct three sentences for each of the following central adjectives. Use the adjective in

the (a) sentence as a pre-modifier of a noun, in the (b) sentence as a subject complement, andin the (c) sentence as an object complement.

1. useful

2. foolish3. difficult

Exercise 5.10 Gradability and comparison

Give the inflected comparative and superlative of each of these adjectives.

1. pure2. cruel

3. easy

4. narrow

5. happy5.13 Adverb suffixes

Convert the following words into adverbs by adding - ly or - ically and making any consequent

changes.1. genetic

2. realistic

3. lazy4. specific

Exercise 5.14 Pronoun classesCircle the antecedents of the underlined pronouns and possessive determiners.

1. Scientists have discovered that pets have a therapeutic effect on their owners.

2. A dog, for instance, can improve the health of the people it comes in contact with.

3. In a recent study, the blood pressure of subjects was measured while they were petting theirpets.

4. In general, an individuals blood pressure decreased while he was in the act of petting his pet.

Exercise 5.15 Personal pronounsSpecify the person (first, second, or third), number (singular or plural), and case (subjective or

objective) of the underlined personal pronouns. If the pronoun has a form that neutralizes the

distinction in number or case, state the alternatives, and if only one of the alternatives fits thecontext underline that alternative.

1. Most of us dont have the time to exercise for an hour each day.2. We have our hearts in the right place, though.3. I think diet is a sinister word.4. It sounds like deprivation.

5. But people who need to lose weight find that they need to lose only half the weight if they

exercise regularly.

Exercise 5.16 Possessives

Indicate whether the underlined words are possessive determiners or possessive pronouns.1. Can you tell me your address?

2. Youve made a mistake. The phone number is not his.


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3. This is Doris and this is her husband David.

4. Justin borrowed one of my videos, but I cant remember its title.

Exercise 5.17 Reflexive pronouns

Fill in each blank with the appropriate reflexive pronoun.

1. We congratulated ____________ on completing the job in good time.2. I ____________ have arranged the meeting.

3. I wonder, Tom, whether you wouldnt mind helping ____________.4. I hope that you all enjoy ____________.

Exercise 5.18 Demonstrative pronouns

Specify whether the underlined word is a demonstrative pronoun or a demonstrative determiner.

1. This happens to be the best meal Ive eaten in quite a long time.2. Put away those papers.3. That is not the way to do it.

4. Youll have to manage with these for the time being.

Exercise 5.19 Relative pronouns

Indicate whether the underlined clause is a relative clause or a nominal relative clause.

1. We could see whoever we wanted.2. They spoke to the official who was working on their case.

3. This is the bank Im hoping to borrow some money from.4. You can pay what you think is appropriate.

Exercise 5.20 Pronouns

Indicate whether the underlined pronouns are personal, possessive, reflexive, demonstrative,

reciprocal, interrogative, relative, or indefinite.1. Nobody has ever seen a unicorn.

2. I intend to collect beetles.

3. What do you want me to do?

4. He can resist everything except temptation.5. She did it all by herself.

Exercise 5.21 Indefinite pronounsIndicate whether the underlined determiners are definite articles, indefinite articles,

demonstratives, possessives, interrogatives, relatives, or indefinites.

1. His parents would not let him see the video.2. Many applicants were given an interview.

3. Whose shoes are those?

4. What plans have you made for the weekend?

Exercise 5.22 The articles and reference

Indicate whether the underlined phrases are generic or non-generic.

1. There is no such beast as a unicorn.2. The train is late again.

3. The dinosaur has long been extinct.


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4. Teachers are poorly paid in this country.

5. He came on a small market where women were selling dried beans.

Exercise 5.23 The articles and reference

Indicate whether the underlined phrases are specific or non-specific.

1. Can you find me a book on English grammar?2. Here is a book on English grammar.

3. Id like a strawberry ice cream.4. He says he hasnt any stamps.5. Who is the woman you were talking to at lunch?

Exercise 5.24 Meanings of the modals

Paraphrase the meanings of the underlined modals in the sentences below.

1. If you hit volleys like this you will have lots of success.2. In addition to the basic volley, you may have to play half-volleys.

3. If played badly, a half-volley can have drastic consequences.

4. The grip must be firm on impact.5. Although you can use a two-handed volley, the major disadvantage is one of reach.

*Exercise 5.25 Meanings of the modalsExplain the ambiguity of the underlined modals in the following sentences by paraphrasing the

different meanings.

1. They may not smoke during the meal.2. Could you explain these figures to the tax inspector?

*Exercise 5.26 ConjunctionsExamine the sentences below. Then explain the differences in the uses of the coordinators (and

and or) and the subordinator when

1. The election was held last month, and the government was decisively defeated.

2. The election will be held in June or in July.3. I intend to travel where I like and when I like.

Exercise 5.26 PrepositionsIndicate whether the underlined words are subordinators or prepositions by putting S or P inthe brackets that follow each word.

While ( ) he developed the theory of special relativity in ( ) about 1905, Albert Einstein livedwith ( ) a fellow student of physics who became his first wife. Some researchers believe that ( )

his wife Mileva should get at least some of the credit for ( ) the theory, since ( ) there are letters

from ( ) Einstein to her that refer to our work and our theory.

Exercise 5.27 Word classes

At the end of each sentence you will find a label for a word class. Underline all the words in the

sentence that belong to that word class.1. It is remarkably difficult to define what literature is.main verb2. Some definitions of literature say that it is language used for making fiction.noun


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3. Other definitions say that it is language used for the purpose of pleasing aesthetically.preposition

4. However, some critics have shown convincingly that the two definitions are necessarily

connected.adverbs

lectures 7, 8 - word classes + exercises

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