SEMINAR 1 – NOUNS – INTRODUCTION (SGEL 5.1 – 5.2; LEG – 2.12 – 2. 19;

Chalker - ex. 46,47; Grammar I – ex. 27 – 29, 30, 33)

Nouns: proper v. common - countable v. uncountable – abstract v. concrete

Partitives: quantity v. quality; Determiners with countable and uncountable nouns

I. BASIC DISTINCTIONS Proper – e.g. Indonesia, Chicago

Concrete – e.g. a bun, a pig, a book Nouns Countable (count)

Abstract – a difficulty, a remark, an idea Common

Concrete – butter, gold, clothing Uncountable

(noncount) Abstract – music, business, courage

Proper nouns

- have unique reference – are used for a particular person, thing, place or idea – determiner and number contrast cannot occur e.g. personal names – Andrew, Mr. Smith, President Kennedy forms of address – Mum, Dad, Auntie geographical names – Asia, India, Wisconsin place names – Madison Avenue, Regent Street months, days of the week, festivals and seasons – April, Sunday, Easter

Common nouns - any noun that is not the name of a particular person, place, thing, etc. - may be either countable or uncountable or both!

Countable nouns (also called count) – denote individual countable entities

- we can use a/an in front of them - a book, an envelope - they have a plural form and can be used in the question How many…? - can be used with numbers – one stamp / two stamps

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Uncountable nouns (also called non-count) – denote undifferentiated mass or continuum

- are not normally used with a / an – Sugar is expensive. - do not normally have a plural form and can be used in the question How much…? - are not normally used with a number in front of them

Concrete nouns

- are accessible to senses, observable, measurable - can be countable: persons – a girl, a tulip

objects – a bottle groups – an army, a crowd units of measurement – a franc, a kilo parts of a mass – a bit, a piece, a slice

- can be uncountable: materials, liquids, gases – cotton, milk, air ‘grains’ and ‘powder’ – barley, rice, dust, flour activities – camping, drinking, eating languages – Italian, Turkish - some concrete nouns can be used as countable or uncountable:

e.g. glass - a) substance (material) – Glass is made from sand. /U/ b) a unit made of the substance – I broke a glass this morning. /C/ (i.e. a particular thing) c) st specific – I heard a strange noise. d) st in general – Noise is a kind of pollution (for more examples and details see below – the section on Countability)

Abstract nouns

- nonobservable, nonmeasurable – countable: a hope, an idea, a situation, a denial; also uncountable: honesty, anger, equality

II. COUNTABILITY

- the distinction between countable and uncountable nouns has a semantic (=is related to meaning, e.g. glass U v. a glass C – different meaning) and grammatical (= different determiners) significance

- countable nouns – must have a determiner (a, one, this, my…) in the singular,

it is not necessary in the plural: a book, books but not book on its own without a determiner

- uncountable nouns do not need a determiner

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The following table illustrates the range or determiners used with nouns:

Common Proper

Countable Uncountable C or U a) Mark

book

music

brick (material)

b) the Mark

the book

the music

the brick

c) a Mark

a book

a music

a brick (one)

d) some Mark

some book

some music

some brick

e) Marks

books

musics

bricks

a) without a determiner b) with the definite article c) with the indefinite article d) with the ‘partitive’ some e) plural without a determiner

Note: there are some exceptions:

a) the Chicago of my youth (not Chicago in general as in – He lives in Chicago.) b) The Kate I know wouldn’t do such a thing. (in special grammatical contexts) c) A Mrs Tadley is waiting to see you. (= a certain person I don’t know)

Nouns which can be either countable or uncountable A) countable v. uncountable

- as countable nouns they are used to refer to single items, things or st specific - as uncountable nouns they refer to substances, materials, st in general

C U a) He ate a whole chicken. Would you like some chicken? b) I had a boiled egg for breakfast. There’s egg on your face. c) I broke a glass this morning. Glass is made from sand. d) I’ve got a new iron. Steel is an alloy of iron. e) What do the papers say? Paper is made from wood. f) A good education is expensive. Education should be free. g) Try not to make a noise. Noise is a kind of pollution. h) I need a light by my bed. Light travels faster than sound. i) Are these drawings by Goya? I’m no good at drawing.

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j) She has a painting by Turner. Painting is my hobby. k) She gave a reading of her poems. Reading is taught early. l) There’s a hair in my soup. She has blonde hair. m) The lambs were eating quietly. There is lamb on the menu today. n) A coal fell from the fire and burnt the rug. They mine coal in this area. In some cases there is little difference in meaning between the C and U noun e.g. The house is built of brick. He used bricks to build the house. But! In some cases there is a notable difference in meaning: e.g. I want an evening paper, please. (= a newspaper) Wrap the parcel up in brown paper. Sometimes the distinction is achieved by separate lexical items: C U a garment - clothing a permit (a work permit) - permission a weapon - arms a suitcase - luggage a machine - machinery a household chore / chores - housework a job - work a note / coin - money B) normally uncountable nouns (e.g. wine) used as countable

- if we refer to particular varieties, the noun is often preceded by an adjective - a nice wine

- or there is some kind of specification - a wine of high quality - plural is possible here – This region produces some awful wines as well as good ones.

- many words for drinks are uncountable when we think of them as substances (a)

but we can make them plural and use a / an to mean ‘a glass of…’ or use them with numbers (b)

a) Beer / Coffee / Tea is expensive these days. / Do you want tea or coffee? b) A beer / One beer, please.

Two teas and four coffees, please. This is a nice coffee. I like Brazilian coffees best.

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C) Nouns not normally countable in English (are often countable in other languages) - the verb is singular, e.g. The news is rather bad today. accommodation, advice, applause, assistance, baggage, camping, cash, chaos, chess, clothing, conduct, courage, cutlery, dancing, dirt, employment, equipment, evidence, fun, furniture, harm, health, homework, housing, information, leisure, litter, luck, luggage, machinery, money, mud, music, news, nonsense, parking, pay, permission, photography, poetry, pollution, produce, progress, publicity, research, rubbish, safety, scenery, shopping, sightseeing, sunshine, transport, underwear, violence, weather, work Note the differences: C U a) He gave her a box of chocolates. I love chocolate. b) Don’t raise his hopes. There’s not much hope. c) There are some differences. I don’t see much difference. d) There was a sudden silence. We listened in silence. e) I felt a pain in the knee. I didn’t feel much pain. e) These facts show that…. The story is based on fact. f) Don’t omit a single detail. He explained it in great detail. g) She’s an old gossip. She is fond of gossip. h) She was an old love of his. Love always forgives. i)… many needlessly lost lives… He’s a man full of life. Careful: Some normally uncountable nouns, esp. nouns referring to human emotions and mental activity, can be used countably but only in the singular, e.g. knowledge, importance, education, resistance e.g We need a secretary with a first-class knowledge of German. My parents wanted me to have a good education. She has always had a deep distrust of strangers. But mot uncountable nouns cannot be used with a / an at all. So, it´s wrong to say: * a good health, a terrible weather, an excellent English, etc. Task (prepare sentence of your own illustrating the differences in meaning, use a dictionary if you like) C U

1. fruit 2. glass 3. paper 4. iron 5. toast 6. matter 7. rule 8. lace 9. work 10. experience

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III. PARTITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

- using ‘partitives’ we can refer to a single item (a loaf of bread) or a part of a whole (a slice of bread) or a collection of items (a packet of biscuits)

- both countable and uncountable nouns can be used with them - they may relate to a) quantity

b) quality - the partition can be singular or plural – it affords a means of imposing number on uncountable nouns – the partition is expressed by a countable noun (e.g. piece, item) + an of-phrase (see below)

a) Quality partition

- mostly with ‘kind’ and ‘sort’, also ‘type’, ‘variety’ and ‘blend’ (e.g. coffee, tobacco) e.g. a new kind of computer – several new kinds of computer (s) one sort of silk tie – two sorts of silk tie (s) a delicious kind of bread – some delicious kinds of bread a fashionable sort of wallpaper – fashionable sorts of wallpaper Note: two coffees might mean a) two cups of coffee b) two types of coffee (depending on the context)

b) Quantity partition

e.g. a piece of cake - two pieces of cake an item of clothing – several items of clothing a blade of grass some specks of dust two slices of meat / bread a flock of sheep / pigeons a page of a book two acts of a play a kilo of potatoes a yard of cloth

Some quantity partitives are general and some are specific (more descriptive and restrictive): General

- a piece of … - the most widely used partitive, either with concrete nouns (bacon, chalk, paper) or abstract nouns (advice, information, news, research)

- a bit of … - generally implies a small quantity – a bit of rice - an item of … - usually with abstract nouns (piece is also possible), it is not

generally used with concrete nouns – an item of cake (but an item of clothing), an item of news = a news item

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Specific – typical with specific nouns

- an act of friendliness / mercy / malice/ cruelty / kindness - an atom of truth (also: a grain of truth) - a bag of flour - a ball of string - a bar of chocolate / soap - a blade of grass - a book of stamps - a box of matches / tissues / chocolates - a burst of applause / laughter / energy / thunder - a carton of cigarettes - a cloud of dust - a crust of bread - a cube of ice - a dash of soda - a drop of water / rain - a fit of anger / energy / enthusiasm - a flake of snow - a flash of lightning - a game of darts, chess - a grain of rice / truth / sand / salt - an item of news / clothing - a jar of jam - a joint of meat - a jug of water - a loaf of bread - a lump of sugar - a make of car / computer - a metre of cloth - a mug of cocoa - a pair of gloves / jeans / pliers - a peal of thunder - a period of calm - a pile of rubbish / books / plates - a pinch of salt - a pot of tea - a rasher of bacon / ham - a roll of paper / film / cloth - a scrap of paper - a sheet of paper - a sip of tea - a slice of bread / meat - a species of insect - a speck of dust - a spoonful of medicine - a square of chocolate

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- a stroke of luck - a tube of toothpaste - a wink of sleep - a wisp of smoke / steam / hair collective nouns - an army of soldiers - a bouquet of flowers - a bunch of flowers - a bunch of grapes - a bunch of keys / radishes - a crew of sailors - a flock of sheep / birds - a herd of cattle - a hive of bees - a mob of hooligans - a pack of cards / a pack of wolves - a panel of experts - a set of cutlery - a string of pearls - a swarm of bees / tourists

measure partitives – denote length, area, volume, weight, etc.

- an acre of land - a metre of cloth - a mile of cable - a pint of milk / beer

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QUESTIONS – NOUNS - INTRODUCTION (to answer after you have studied the seminar handout carefully)

1. Explain the main differences between proper and common nouns, give examples illustrating the differences and supporting your explanation.

2. What are the characteristic features of countable and uncountable nouns, give examples.

3. What kinds of determiners can be used with a countable noun in the singular? Do we need a determiner with a singular countable noun or not?

4. Some nouns can be both countable and uncountable, give an example and explain the difference.

5. Some nouns are normally uncountable (e.g. wine, coffee). Explain in what context they are used as countable, give examples and explain them.

6. What are the roles of ‘partitives’? What is the pattern of a phrase with ‘a partitive’?

7. We differentiate two main types of ‘partition’. Give examples.

8. The quantity ‘partitives’ are of two kinds. Which ones? Give examples.

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SEMINAR 2 B – DETERMINERS – INTRODUCTION (SGEL 5.3 – 5.10; LEG – 5.1. – 5.30; Chalker – ex. 48 – 51; Grammar I. – 223 – 229, 232) - 3 basic kinds of determiners: predeterminers (e.g. all, both, half)– central det. (e.g. the, a, zero article) – postdeterminers (e.g. many, few, little) - Nouns appear in noun phrases and the kind of reference depends on the accompanying determiners – they affect the meaning of the noun, i.e. make it clear which particular thing(s) we are referring to or how much of a substance we’re talking about.

e.g. Have you seen a bicycle? – indefinite reference Have you seen the bicycle? – definite reference - We distinguish 3 main classes of determiners – depending on their position in the noun phrase in relation to each other:

1) predeterminers: e.g. half, double, all (as e.g. in all the people) 2) central determiners: e.g. the, a, this 3) postdeterminers: cardinal (e.g. seven) and ordinal (e.g. first) numerals, few, many (as

e.g. in the many passengers) - If there are more determiners in one noun phrase – the order is 1) 2) 3) e.g. all the five boys, all their trouble, all these last few days - Some determiners help us to classify or identify, e.g. articles, demonstratives, possessives and some help to indicate quantity, e.g. numerals, quantifiers (many, much) I. CENTRAL DETERMINERS 1) the, a, zero

- the definite and indefinite article are the most common determiners - relating definiteness to number we have the following system for C and U

common nouns

countable uncountable

definite the book the music singular indefinite a book music (zero art.)

definite the books / plural

indefinite books (zero art.) /

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- singular countable nouns must normally have a determiner in front of them (except e.g. ‘parallel constructions’ such as Man or boy, I don’t like him. Or ‘vocatives’ such as Look here, man.)

- coordinated noun phrase heads can share a determiner placed before the

first head, e.g. the boys and (the) girls; a knife, (a) fork and (a) spoon - the indefinite article a/an can be regarded as an unstressed numeral ‘one’:

e.g. a pound or two = one or two pounds

- the pronunciation, not the spelling determines the form of the indefinite article a / an

→ a bird – an owl / an hour, a UNESCO official, an MP, an RP accent, a European car - the → the same spelling, but two pronunciations - /ə/ or /i/

!! when the articles are stressed for any reason (e.g. in slow speech and esp. in AmE), they are pronounced /ði/, /ei/ or /æn/ - regardless of the 1st sound of the noun e.g. He would be the /ði/ man for the job.

- the indefinite article may mean ‘certain’, ‘a person giving his name as’, e.g. in A Mr. Johnson came to see you last night.

2) Other central determiners - are mutually exclusive, i.e. there cannot be more than one occurring before the noun head, e.g. a the boy, a some boy but e.g. ´all the many white houses’ is OK a) demonstratives - this, that – with singular C or U nouns – this picture, that music - these, those – with plural C nouns – these desks, those tables

compare: What’s that thing over there? (a determiner) That’s our computer. (a pronoun)

b) possessives – my, our, your, his, her, its, their c) wh-determiners – which, whose, whichever, whatever, whosever as relatives, indefinite relatives or interrogatives e.g. Please come at noon, by which time I shall be back in my office. The woman whose book you reviewed is on TV tonight.

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They will disapprove of whatever music is played. Which house do you prefer? / What time is it? d) negative determiner no e.g. He has no car / no children. Some determiners co-occur only with sg C nouns:

a) universal determiners ‘every’ and ‘each’ e.g. Each student is required to write two essays. b) non-assertive dual det. ‘either’ e.g. There is no parking permitted on either side of the street. /You can park on either side. Note: Either day is OK. (sg) But: I don’t think either of them is / are at home. (with the ´of phrase´ both sg and pl verb can be used, the sg forms are preferred in careful written English; the same rule applies to ´neither of ´… ) c) negative dual det. ‘neither’

e.g. Parking is permitted on neither side of the street. Can I come on Monday or Tuesday? – I’m afraid, neither day is possible. !! Careful about ‘neither of…’ – Neither of my sisters is /are married. (the sg form is fml) Note: With subjects made of two or more items joined by (either) … or … or (neither) … nor the number (sg or pl) depends on the last element: e.g. Either the station or the cinema is a good place to meet. (´are´ in infml. Engl.) Neither the president nor his representatives are to attend the meeting. If the last item is singular and the previous item plural, we can use both a sing. or pl verb e.g. Either the teachers or the principal is (or are) to blame for the accident. Some determiners co-occur only with U and plural C nouns: a) general assertive det. ´some´ e.g. I’d like some bread / rolls. We have some nice bookshops here. (in the sg. : We have a good bookshop here.)

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But: 1) ‘some’ meaning ‘a certain’ can also co-occur with sg C nouns, e.g. in: Some old person asked for you on the phone. 2) stressed some + sg C (especially temporal), e.g. in: Some day he will get his scholarship. b) general non-assertive det. ´any´ e.g. We haven’t any bread / rolls left. c) quantitative ´enough´

e.g. We have enough equipment / tools for the job.

Note: When stressed in some circumstances, any can occur with sg. C nouns, as in: e.g. She will consider any offer – however small. II. PREDETERMINERS

- precede those determiners with which they can co-occur - are mutually exclusive (e.g. all both girls) - have to do with quantification

We can distinguish the following sets:

a) all, both, half b) the multipliers (double, twice, three times) c) fractions (one third, one fifth) d) such, what (as in Such a surprise. or What a fine day.)

Note the exception to the rule: ‘such’ and ‘what’ refer rather to quality than quantity, it’s possible to combine , e.g. all such problems Predeterminers in detail a) All, both, half

- can occur before the articles (all the time, half a day), demonstratives (all this time) and possessives (all my time)

- as they are themselves quantifiers, they do not occur with quantitative

determiners: every, each, (n)either, some, any, no, enough

- they can be used pronominally – as independent pronouns (on their own) e.g. All / Both the students sat for their exam all / both passed.

- can be followed by ‘an of-phrase’ which is optional with nouns but obligatory with pronouns!!

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e.g. All / Both / Half (of) the students passed the test. All of them / Both of them / Half of them failed.

+ all – occurs with pl. C nouns and U nouns

e.g. all the books / all books; all the music / all music

both – occurs only with pl. C nouns e.g. both the books / both books

(both, and also either and neither are dual – i.e. they can refer to only two entities) half – occurs with sg. and pl. C nouns and U nouns

e.g. half the book(s) / half a book; half the music but not half music - half an hour = a half hour (little difference in meaning) but: half a bottle of wine (= half of the contents) a half bottle of wine (= a small bottle holding half the contents of an ordinary bottle)

! all and both, but not half – can appear after the operator: e.g. The students were all / both sitting for the exam. Note: ‘Half ‘and articles Normally we do not put ‘a’ or ‘the’ before ‘half’ (but there are exceptions) e.g. He spends half (of) his time playing football. Half (of) my students don’t understand this. He works half a mile from the village. How much is half a loaf of bread? I’ve bought some chocolate. You can have half. But: Would you like the big half or the small half? (=a particular half) Could I have half a pound / a half pound of oranges? (with measurement) I’ve been waiting for an hour and a half / one and a half hours. All v. whole

- all + noun with no article usually has generic reference e.g. All men are created equal. but All the men in the mine wore helmets. (=specific)

but not always! : I will see all students at 11 a.m. (this can’t be generic ref.) - all (the) day / morning / week = the whole day / morning / week

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But: 1) in the negative- I haven’t seen him all day. (= zero article) 2) with the indef. article only ‘whole’ can be used – I spent a whole morning studying. (not ‘an all morning’)

- with abstract nouns the whole is often preferable to all the e.g. the whole truth / distance

- with proper nouns without the definite article e.g. all (of) Finland / London but the whole of Finland / London

b) Multipliers

1) multipliers + def. article (double the amount) , demonstrative (three times this amount) or possessive (twice her age) – the multiplier applies to the noun so determined (quantity) e.g. twice / double the length (= a length twice as great) three times her salary (= a salary three times as large)

2) multiplier + indef. art., each, every – the multiplier applies to a measure (frequency) e.g. once a day four times every year three times each year also with every: We stopped once every mile. once every three months twice every hundred miles

c) Fractions (other than half)

- are usually followed by an of-phrase and are normally preceded by a numeral or the indefinite article

e.g. She read half the book. / She read a quarter of the book. She read two quarters of the book.

He did the work in one / a third (of) the time it took me.

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III. POSTDETERMINERS

- are used immediately after central determiners, if such determiners are present e.g. The two young women were successful.

We distinguish the following classes:

a) cardinal numerals– e.g. my three children, the two books b) ordinals –ordinal numerals e.g. first, fourth; and the so-called general ordinals:

last, other, another, additional c) quantifiers – e.g. many, few, plenty of, little, a lot of

Where they co-occur, items from b) usually precede items from c) – e.g. last few days, my last few possessions When there are more numerals in a noun phrase – ordinals precede cardinals! – e.g. first three days, the first two poems, another three weeks Quantifiers

- (a) few, many, several + pl. C nouns - (a) little, much + U nouns - comparatives – fewer / the fewest;+ less / the least

Note: In an informal style ‘less’ is often used instead of ‘fewer’ with C nouns eg. I make less mistakes now than I used to make. Some people consider this

incorrect. many – can be used in all kinds of sentences, i.e. positive, negative, questions much – usually only in Q and N, not in positive sentences unless they are modified by ´so, too´ , etc. a lot of - is like ´many´- possible in all kinds of sentences few v. little

- with a they have a positive meaning – e.g. I play a few games. (=several) She ate a little bread (=some)

- without a they have a negative meaning – e.g. I play few games. (=hardly any) She ate little bread. (hardly any)

Note: ‘quite a few’ is similar in meaning to ‘rather a lot’

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e.g. He speaks quite a few languages. Other quantifiers

- plenty of, a lot of, lots of + C or U nouns – a lot of friends / time - a great deal of, a large quantity of, a small amount of + U nouns – a great deal of

time not: a great deal of students

- a great / large number of + C nouns – a large number of students

Note!!: if we say ´a number of ´ we use a plural verb But if we say ´the number of´ we use a singular verb e.g. A number of refugees have been turned back at the border. The number of books in the library has risen to over five million. Assertive v. non-assertive

- some items are predominantly assertive – plenty of, a few, a little - some items are predominantly non-assertive – much, many

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SEMINAR 2 – DETERMINERS – INTRODUCTION QUESTIONS (to answer after you have studied the seminar handout carefully)

1. Give an example of a sentence including a noun phrase which has a) definite reference b) indefinite reference

2. In two cases ‘the’ is pronounced as /ði/, explain when and why.

3. Explain why the noun phrases in italics do contain or do not contain indefinite article: a) She is looking forward to being a grandmother. b) We’re having terrible weather. c) A child needs plenty of love. d) Take a hat and coat with you. e) A Mr Wingate phoned and left a message for you.’

4. Explain the use of a/ an in: a house v. an heir

5. Determiners such as ‘this, every, each’ are mutually exclusive. What does it mean?

6. We can say ‘either man’ but not ‘either music’ – explain why:

7. What nouns are used with ‘both’ and ‘neither’, and ‘every’ and ‘each? Consider the following sentences: a) Every / Each student will be interviewed today. b) Both the suggestions were accepted. c) Both his brothers speak Spanish. d) Each student has to buy this book. d) Neither applicant was successful.

8. Multipliers refer to quantity or frequency. Give examples.

9. What kinds of nouns are used with ‘a great deal / amount / number of’?

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SEMINAR 3 – ARTICLES with COMMON NOUNS (SGEL 5.11 – 5.24; LEG – 3.1.- 3.29; Chalker – ex. 52 – 54; Grammar I – ex. 1 – 8, 19 - 20) - the indefinite article – the definite article – zero article In discussing the use of the articles, we must distinguish between specific and generic reference:

e.g. A lion and two tigers are sleeping in the cage. (= specific r. – we have in mind something specific)

X Tigers are dangerous animals. (=generic r. – not particular tigers, but tigers in general) Note: generic ref. can be expressed in the following ways: a) A tiger can be dangerous. (=any tiger in general)

But not! A tiger is becoming extinct. → The tiger is becoming extinct. or Tigers are becoming extinct.

b) Tigers can be dangerous. c) The tiger can be dangerous. (´the´- the representative of the species) But not! Tiger can be dangerous. – zero article is possible only with U nouns:

Velvet makes an excellent curtain material. Research is vital for human progress. Also: Mary is studying dance. I. THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE – A / AN 1) Classification

a) general statements e.g. An architect is a person who designs buildings. / A rose is a flower.

b) definitions e.g. A cat is a domestic animal. (or Cats are domestic animals. – is also possible)

c) origins e.g. He’s a Frenchman. / an American. (also: He’s French / American. )

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d) occupation e.g. She’s a doctor. / My father is an architect. She became a linguist.

e) religion e.g. She’s a Catholic. (also: She’s Catholic. = an adjective)

f) politics e.g. He’s a Republican. (also: She’s Republican. = an adj.)

Exceptions – zero article: - the verb ‘turn’ expressing a change of state, e.g. in He turned traitor. (not ‘a traitor’) - some idioms, e.g. They took him prisoner. - the verb ‘become’ if there is only one person in such position, e.g. He became general director. 2) Quantity – a / an is used to mean ‘only one’

a) one – we are not specifying any particular thing or person e.g. I’d like an apple. I met a friend of hers. (= one of her friends)

!! b) when st is mentioned for the first time – since it hasn’t been mentioned before, it is unfamiliar to the speaker or hearer e.g. looked up and saw a plane. The plane flew over the trees. (anaphoric ref.) Compare: I am just about to move into an apartment quite near where you live. (= an apartment – there are more apartments like that) I am just about to move into the apartment directly above yours. (= we know exactly which – the one above yours) c) reference to measurement - price – e.g. 80 p a kilo / per kilo - distance + speed – e.g. 40 km an hour / per hour - frequency – twice a day / per day Note: a) We walked for a mile or two. / We walked one or two miles. b) The water is only a foot and a half deep. / …. only one and a half feet deep. Other uses:

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- a / an after what / such with C nouns - exclamations – e.g. What a surprise! What an interesting story! But! What beautiful weather! (‘weather’ is uncountable) What lovely shoes! (plural) - to emphasize degree – e.g. My boss is such an idiot! - what a lot … in exclamations – e.g. What a lot of flowers! What a lot of trouble! - pairs of nouns

– the nouns are considered to accompany each other naturally – a / an is used before the first noun of a pair

e.g. a cup and saucer a hat and coat a knife and fork - body parts - if they are multiple, they can be individually referred to with a: e.g. Jack has a broken finger. but Jack has bumped his head. - illnesses / conditions

1) the use of a / an is compulsory with: cold, headache, sore throat, broken leg, fever, temperature – e.g. I’ve got a cold.

2) the use of a / an is optional with: catch (a) cold; have (a) backache, stomach ache,

toothache, earache

3) in the plural – no article is used e.g. measles, mumps

4) uncountable illnesses – no article is used e.g. flu, hepatitis, cancer, pneumonia, diabetes, appendicitis

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II. THE DEFINITE ARTICLE – THE - the marks a phrase as definite – i.e. we refer to st that can be identified uniquely thanks to the knowledge of context or general knowledge shared by the speaker and hearer e.g. immediate situation – the reference of ‘the’ is derived from the ‘extralinguistic ‘ situation (st is visible, present, obvious) as in: The roses are beautiful. (= said in a garden) Have you visited the castle? (= said in a given town) Have you fed the cat? (= our cat) Beware of the dog! (it doesn’t have to be visible at the moment of speaking) or larger situation – the reference is based on general knowledge of the ‘larger situation’ that speaker and hearer share as in: the Prime Minister (in a particular country everyone knows who we mean) the Pope, the moon, the sky, the sun, the Equator, the world, the Navy, etc. 1) Classifying

a) general statements e.g. The cobra is dangerous. (= a certain kind of … / as a species) also: Cobras are dangerous. (= the whole class) A cobra is a very poisonous snake. (= as an example of the class)

b) the group as a whole – the + nationality adj.

e.g. The British prefer staying at home. (= the British people in general) The Japanese admire the traditions of the Chinese.

c) the group as a whole – the + plural names e.g. The Price sisters have opened a boutique. The Europeans are a long way from political unity. The Liberals want electoral reform.

d) specified groups – the + collective noun or plural C

e.g. the police, the public, the unions

e) the + adjective e.g. the blind, the rich, the unemployed, the homeless, the disabled, the poor, the elderly, the sick, the injured, the deaf, the dead, the young

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2) Specifying

- we use ‘the’ when the listener or reader can already identify what we are referring to, i.e. ‘the’ shows that the noun has been specified by the context / situation or grammatically (anaphoric and cataphoric reference)

a) anaphoric reference – ‘anaphora’ (=back reference) ←

e.g. Singleton is a quiet village near Chichester. The village has a population of a few hundred people.

In the first sentence the village was mentioned for the first time – a quiet village In the following sentence we already know which village we are talking about – we have already specified it in the first sentence. (=direct anaphora) the anaphoric ref. can also be indirect as in: e.g. I lent Bill a valuable book but when he returned it, the cover was filthy and the pages were torn. (= we didn’t mention a cover and pages before, but we know that a book has a cover and pages)

b) cataphoric reference (is ‘the opposite’ of anaphoric = the identity will be established by what follows the head noun, i.e. an of-phrase, a relative clause or non-finite clause:

→ e.g. I am trying to find the book that I wanted to show you. Where’s the magazine I brought this morning? The letters on the shelf are for you. The girls sitting over there are my cousins. The wines of France are among the best in the world. c) specifying with a limited context - the context is limited enough for the listener (or reader) to identify who or what is referred to e.g. people: Who’s at the door? – It’s the postman. places: Where’s Jenny? – She’s gone to the butcher’s / to the supermarket. things: Pass me the salt, please. parts of a whole: a human body – He has a pain in the chest. / I grabbed her by the arm.

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a room – the ceiling, the door, the floor an object – the back, the centre, the top a town – the shops, the station an appliance – the on/off switch Note: We also use the when we do not refer to a specific place or thing: e.g. go to the cinema / theatre / doctor’s the country / mountains / seaside, sea (go to sea = become a sailor) the paper (=newspaper) as in You’ll probably see it in the paper tomorrow. the news / the radio / the press Do you prefer the town or the country? I love listening to the wind.

Compare: He lives near the sea. Is it dangerous to swim in the sea? He works on ships. He’s at sea most of the time. I listen to the radio a lot but I don’t watch television. I heard it on the radio, and then I watch the news on television. Locations which are ‘one of a kind’: e.g. the earth / sky / sun / moon / solar system / the galaxy , the universe But: There are millions of starts in space. (not ´the space´) Uniqueness: e.g. the Pope, the President , the government, the Equator

Other uses: - the in time expressions – e.g. the beginning, the middle, the end, the first / last, the next, the following day, in the morning / afternoon / evening - seasons – the is optional – e.g. We usually have a holiday in (the) summer. But: if we refer to a particular season – The spring of last year was cold. - dates – the is spoken but not written e.g. I’ll see you on May 24th. (spoken as May the 24th)

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I’ll see you on 24th May. (spoken as the 24th of May) - fixed time expressions e.g. all the while, at the moment, for the time being, in the end, in the meantime, etc. - superlatives e.g. It’s the worst play I have ever seen. - musical instruments – I play the piano. - fixed phrases – The sooner the better. - fixed expressions – do the shopping - restrictive items – e.g. sole, only, same – She was the sole survivor of the crash. - the + adjective – the blind, the unemployed - ordinals – the first But! Let me have a third guess. III. ZERO ARTICLE - with plural countables: Girls do better than boys at school. - uncountables – Butter makes you fat. - proper nouns – John lives in London. - noun + number – Room 12, Platform 5, Size 43 The class as a whole – general statements a) zero article + plural C nouns people: Women are fighting for their rights. places: Museums are closed on Mondays. food: Beans contain a lot of fibre. occupations: Doctors always support each other. nationalities: Italians make delicious ice cream. animals: Cats do not like cold weather. insects: Ants are found all over this area. plants: Trees don’t grow in the Antarctic. products: Watches have become very accurate. b) zero article + U nouns (always singular) food: Refined foods like sugar should be avoided.

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drink: Water must be pure if it is to be drunk. substances: Oil is essential for the manufacture of plastic. collections: Money makes the world go round. colours: Red is my favourite colour. activities: Smoking is bad for the health. other activities: Business has been improving steadily this year. sports, games: Football is played all over the world. abstract: Life is short. / That’s life. politics: Capitalism is by-product of free enterprise. languages: English is a world language. Unique items - first names – e.g. Elizabeth was my mother’s name. - surnames – e.g. These tools are made by Jackson and son. - full names –e.g. Elizabeth Brown - titles – e.g. May I introduce you to Captain / Colonel / Major Rogers? - days, months, seasons, holidays (Christmas) - subjects – e.g. Biology, Physics, Geography Other uses of zero article - times of day and night, esp. after the prepositions at, by, after, before e.g. at dawn / daybreak, sunrise, noon, midnight, dusk, from dawn to dusk by day, at night But! during the day, in the night, in the day time before morning - meals – breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, supper e.g. Dinner is served. / Michael’s at lunch. / Let’s have breakfast. Will you stay for breakfast? I’ll work on it after breakfast. But! When a meal is specified, we use articles as in: The breakfast I ordered still hasn’t arrived. That was a very nice dinner. We had a nice dinner, just the two of us. (= a particular meal) - man – as the ‘human race’ or ‘mankind’, also ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in a general sense: e.g. This book is an attempt to trace the history of man / mankind.

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Man and woman were created equal. (or the plural Men and women…) - nouns like school, hospital, etc. (in British English!)

: bed, church, class, college, court, hospital, market, prison, school, sea, town, university, work - these nouns have the zero article when we refer to their primary purpose (= the activity that is associated with them – we do not refer to actual buildings or places but to the ‘institutions’ associated with them: e.g. He was sent to prison for 7 years. The children went to school. He had an accident and was taken to hospital. It’s time to go to bed now. But! When specified, we use articles as in: Ken went to the prison to visit his brother. Alison’s mother went to the school to see her daughter’s teacher. Jill has gone to the hospital to visit Jack. I sat down on the bed. Compare: I met her at college. v. I met her at the college. (=when we were students) (= meeting place) - means of transport and communication e.g. travel by bicycle, bike, boat, bus, car, coach But! be on the bus, on the train travel by land, air, sea go on foot But! When the means of transport is specified, we use articles as in: I came here on the local bus. You won’t go far on that old bike. communicate by radio / phone but be on the phone / talk on the radio - zero article in fixed phrases – parallel structures – two nouns placed together in a parallel structure e.g. arm in arm inch by inch face to face day by day side by side man to man

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hand in hand eye to eye - ‘pairs’ joined by ‘and’ e.g. day and night father and son husband and wife light and dark pen and ink sun and moon - other phrases with zero article from top to bottom in terror by reason of in haste keep in mind in trouble in case of in fear in turn in danger come to light in memory of by heart from father to son But: there are phrases where we use ‘a’, e.g. in a hurry - what / such + plural nouns or U e.g. What freedom young people enjoy nowadays! We had such problems getting through Customs. - unspecified quantity e.g. I have news for you. I have presents for children. Zero article with definite meaning - when a phrase specifies a unique role or task, e.g. only one person holds the particular position e.g. Mary is (the) captain of basketball this year.

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As (the) chairman, I declare this meeting closed. John F. Kennedy was (the) President of the United States in 1961. Careful about names! Compare: Prime Minister Blair v. the Prime Minister Queen Elizabeth II v. the Queen - articles are usually omitted in headlines or on official forms e.g. ‘Crew deserts ship in harbour’ Please state reason for application and give ………. - fixed phrases v. a particular thing Compare:

be in town v. The town is very old. be in bed v. It’s on the bed. go to church v. How far is the church? go to sea v. The sea looks calm. travel by bus v. She was on the bus. send it by post v. The post is late today.

- abstract nouns e.g. She is studying European history. X …. the history of Europe. ………………. human evolution X …. the evolution of man ………………. medieval art X …. the art of the Middle Ages Further notes: a) uncountable nouns treated as countable - some normally uncountable nouns can be used with ‘a’ in the singular (=the meaning is particular, not general) , but the plural form is not possible e.g. Mary has a good education. But: She speak very good English. She felt a certain impatience. I need a good sleep. You’ve been a great help. The nouns refers to a quality or other abstraction attributed to a person, or the nouns is premodified or postmodified.

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Careful: not all uncountable nouns can be used like that, most remain uncountable in all contexts, e.g. weather, progress, money, information, luck, music, etc.

b) TV What’s on TV tonight? v. Look! The cat’s sitting on the TV. c) parts of the body - normally we use ‘possessives’, not ‘the’ e.g. Katy broke her arm climbing. (not ‘the arm’) He’s cut his finger when he was cooking. He stood in the doorway, his coat over his arm. Jack bumped his head. She has sprained her ankle. - we prefer ‘the’ in prepositional phrases related to the object e.g. She hit him in the stomach. Can’t you look me in the eye? He was shot in the leg. d) nouns functioning as adverbials – without a / an e.g. They welcomed her with genuine pleasure. (how? = adverbial) d) after linking verbs –without a / an e.g. It seems great fun. I don’t call that friendship.

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SEMINAR 3 – ARTICLES with COMMON NOUNS

QUESTIONS (to answer after you have studied the seminar handout carefully)

1. Generic reference - the following example is wrong. Explain why and rephrase the sentence in 3 possible ways:

Mobile phone has become an inseparable part of modern life.

2. Give examples of your own (in sentences) where ‘a’ expresses: a) quantity b) price c) distance d) frequency

3. Compare the use of ‘a’ and ‘the’ in the following sentences. What’s the difference

in meaning:

a) A house on the corner is for sale. b) The house on the corner is for sale.

4. Some exclamatory sentences contain ‘a’, others don’t. Give examples. 5. What are the rules for using articles (a / an) with illnesses? Give examples:

6. Sometimes the definite reference is derived from ‘immediate situation’. Give an example and explain what is extralinguistic context:

7. Explain the difference between anaphoric and cataphoric reference, give examples to support your explanation:

8. Explain the usage of articles in the following sentence:

When she tried to open the front door, she couldn’t get the key into the lock.

9. ‘Meals’ are not used with articles, but not always. In what context can we say ‘a

dinner’ and ‘the dinner’? Give examples:

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10. Explain why we say:

a) Her children go to school. but b) Their mother went to the school to meet. the headmaster. Which other nouns are like ‘school’? 11. Do we use articles with various means of transport? Give examples.

12. Give examples of the so-called ‘parallel structures’:

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SEMINAR 4 – PROPER NOUNS (SGEL – 5.25 – 5,34; LEG 3.31 ; Chalker – ex. 55, Grammar I – ex. 9; 15 – 17 + Nationality words ex. 21 – 26) - proper nouns – grammatical features; names with the definite article – names with no article; nouns relating to region and nationality - proper nouns are basically names: of specific people (Kennedy), places (Tokyo) and institutions (The South China Morning Post), months, days, festivals, magazines, etc. - names can be single word nouns (London) or quite lengthy phrases (often including a definite article and premodifying items e.g. The New York Times) - names reflect their uniqueness of reference in writing by our use of initial capitals. If we so wish, we can raise to the uniqueness of proper-noun status such concepts as Fate, Heaven, Truth, Man, Paradise, Hell, (spelled with capital letters), etc. GRAMMATICAL FEATURES - most proper nouns are singular and have no plural (Indonesia), or they have a plural but no singular (the West Indies) - proper nouns do not normally have determiner and number contrast, but there are many exceptions to these restrictions – in special circumstances proper nouns are reclassified as common nouns, so they no longer have unique denotation:

a) it is only the referent that is unique, and different referents may share the same name (i.e. several people or places may bear the same name) – e.g. there are several places called Richmond:

e.g. There is a Richmond in the south of England and a Richmond in the north, not to mention a dozen Richmonds outside the British Isles.

or I’m trying to find Philip Johnson in the phone book unless he’s one of the several P. Johnsons he’s not in.

The nouns conveying the name are used as though they were common nouns, they can have their meaning varied by articles and other determiners:

e.g. a Shakespeare ( = an author like Shakespeare) or his new Shakespeare (= his copy of the works of Sh.) It’s a Rembrandt painting. (also: It’s a Rembrandt.) He’s not a Paganini. Also: e.g. I used to know a Mary Roberts, too. (=a person called Mary Roberts) The doctor Brown I know comes from Australia.

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She’s the second Mrs. White. (the first one died) Is there a William in this class? He doesn’t look like a Burton. (i.e. a member of the B. family) Compare: a) the young Shakespeare / the old Shakespeare = one person b) young Johnson / old Johnson = two men of the same name (probably father and son) Further notes: - the definite article with nuclear stress before a name has the special meaning of ‘the well known person / place named…’: e.g. A: I used to know John Lennon quite well. B: Surely you can’t mean the /ði/ John Lennon?

- the use of ‘one’ proves the status of the proper noun becoming a common noun as in:

e.g. I knew a / one John Lennon, but not the famous one. - ‘this’ and ‘that’ are also possible: e.g. Who’s this Mrs Robertson that phoned? Oh, you mean that Mr. Phillips (= a particular person) ´that´ can have a negative meaning in some contexts, e.g. e.g. That Mr. Phillips has been on the phone again! (but it is not negative in the example above) - possessives and genitives – denote close family relationships: e.g. Is your Jennifer still at school? (=your daughter Jennifer) Did you know that your Mrs White has been arrested for shoplifting? (= the one you know) Granny is delighted with Peter’s Jane. (= Peter’s girlfriend) John and Mary are very anxious about their Tom. (=son/ bother)

b) number and determination with the names of days, months, festivals, etc.

e.g. She’ll be here on Monday. (specific reference – a particular time of a particular week, year, etc.) but there is a Monday every week = Mondays necessarily have st in common (=the first working day of each week) e.g. She’s always here on Mondays. (not a specific reference)

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c) a married couple can be referred to as the Johnsons (it may also embrace their

whole household) d) we can use a famous name to mean the type that made it famous

e.g. There were no Shakespeares in the 19th century. (=no writers of that quality – like Shakespeare) Lu Xun is revered as the Chinese Gorky.

Or we can use partitive restrictive modification:

e.g. The Dublin of Joyce is still there for everyone to experience. (=the features of Dublin reflected in Joyce’s writing)

unique meaning partitive meaning

during Easter during the Easter of that year in England in the England of Queen Elizabeth in Denmark in the Denmark of today Chicago the Chicago I like (=the aspect of Ch.) ARTICLES WITH PROPER NOUNS I. NAMES WITH THE DEFINITE ARTICLE

1) some titular names e.g. the King of Sweden, the President of General Motors, the Queen, the Marquis of Salisbury, the Pope, the President,

2) geographical names of plural form, especially:

a) groups of islands – the Hebrides, the Bahamas, the Shetlands, the Canaries, the Seychelles, etc.

b) mountain ranges – the Himalayas, the Alps, the Andes, the Pyrenees, the Rockies

Also: nonplural mountain ranges: the Sierra Nevada, the Caucasus Also: the Netherlands, the Midlands, the Great Lakes

3) other geographical names:

a) rivers: the Avon, the Danube, the Rhine b) seas, oceans: the Pacific (Ocean), the Baltic Sea, c) canals: the Suez Canal, the English Channel

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d) other geographical names: the Isle of Man, the Gulf of Mexico, the Bay of Biscay, the Cape of Good Hope (but: Hudson Bay, Long Island)

e) areas of territory: the Sahara Desert but not! lakes – Lake Huron f) the Far East, the Middle East

4) public institutions, facilities, etc.

a) hotels, restaurants: the Grand (Hotel), the Waldorf Astoria, the Hilton (but: Tony’s Bar, Macy’s - named after people – no article)

b) theatres, opera houses, cinemas, clubs: the Globe (Theatre), the Odeon c) museums, galleries, libraries, hospitals: the British Museum d) the Eiffel Tower, the Tower of London, the Great Wall of China, etc.

5) names of ships: the Queen Mary, the Mayflower, the Titanic

6) newspapers and periodicals: the Economist, the New York Times, the Observer,

the Providence Journal

!!but not magazines: Time, Punch, New Scientist 7) political parties: the Labour party Note:

a) when the name of a public institution begins with a genitive, the is not used: e.g. St John’s College Gaylord’s (Restaurant) McDonald’s Harrod’s

b) exception: the Hague, the Vatican c) the University of London but London University

II. NAMES WITH NO ARTICLE

1) personal names

First names (forenames): Margaret Surnames (family n.) alone: Smith First n. and surname together: Margaret Smith Names as these may be prefaced by the normal titles (Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms) or those indicating the person’s status: e.g. Dr Brown General MacArthur Captain O’Connor Professor Smith

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Private Walker Cardinal Spellman Lord Nelson Judge Fox Lady Churchill

- Sir + first name: Sir John Sir + first name + surname: Sir John Smith but not! Sir Smith - the Lord = God, e.g. Praise the Lord. But: Good Lord! / Oh, Lord, I forgot! 2) temporal names

a) festivals, religious periods: Christmas (Day), Good Friday, New Year, Ramadan

b) months, days of the week: January, Tuesday

unless they refer to individual periods: e.g. She left on the next Sunday. (the context determines which Sunday, e.g. the Sunday after the accident.) He left on a Sunday. (=as far as I can remember) He left on Sunday. (=last S.)

3) geographical names:

a) extraterrestrial: Jupiter, Mars (but the moon, the sun) b) continents: Asia, South America, Antarctica but: the Antarctic (the region of the world around the South Pole) the Arctic (the region of the world around the North Pole) c) countries/ states: Canada, France, Ohio

but! the Crimea (the) Sudan (the) Ukraine (the) Sinai + when the names end with a compass point: e.g. the Far East, the Midwest, the North Pole

d) cities, towns: Boston, Rome but! the Hague, the Bronx, the City (of London) e) lakes: Lake Michigan, Loch Ness f) mountains: Mount Everest, Mont Blanc, Ben Nevis (exceptions: the Jungfrau,

the Matter horn) g) streets, buildings: Park Lane, Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn Bridge, Scotland Yard h) airports, train stations: Gatwick Airport, Charing Cross Station,

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but! the Mall, the Strand (streets in London)

Note: - Br. E. – the University of London v. London University - Am. E. – the University of California v. California State University - universities named after a person have only one form: Yale University - Oxford university, Cambridge University

- the north of France v. northern France the south east of Spain v. south-eastern Spain III. NOUNS RELATING TO REGION AND NATIONALITY e.g. Russia - Russian

1) general adjective – Both the men are Russian. 2) language name – She speaks Russian fluently. 3) sg. noun with specific reference – He is a Russian, I think. 4) pl. noun with specific reference – There are several Russians among my

students. 5) pl. noun used generically – The Russians are a deeply patriotic people.

1) and 2) are always identical!

Note: a few examples

1 + 2

3

4

5

the Netherlands Dutch a Dutchman Dutchmen the Dutch Denmark Danish a Dane Danes the Danish Sweden Swedish a Swede Swedes the Swedish Finland Finnish a Finn Finns the Finnish Poland Polish a Pole Poles the Polish Spain Spanish a Spaniard Spaniards the Spanish Britain British a British British the British

Scotland Scots or Scottish

a Scotsman or a Scot

Scotsmen or Scots

the Scots

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Also: Briton(s) as forms 3 + 4, informally Brit(s) Scotland: the use of Scotch, Scotchman, etc. is controversial; Scotch tends to be limited only to whisky.

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SEMINAR 4 – PROPER NOUNS

QUESTIONS (to answer after you have studied the seminar handout carefully)

1. a) What do the initial capitals in writing reflect? (e.g. Mount Everest) b) Consider also words such as Hell, Fate, etc. and the following sentence – ‘How did Man first discover fire?’

2. Some proper names can be ‘reclassified as common nouns’. How do you understand this statement? Give examples referring to places and people.

3. Consider the meaning of and differences between the following noun phrases: a) Shakespeare b) young Brown a Shakespeare (two meanings) old Brown the old Shakespeare the Browns the young Shakespeare

4. Explain the use of ‘the’ in the following sentence: ‘Is he the Newman who went to school with Tom?’

5. The use of articles can be important also semantically. What’s the meaning of ‘Mississippi’ and ‘the Mississippi’?

6. Explain the use of articles and other determiners in the following sentences:

a) Do you know that your Mr Wingate has been accused of fraud? b) The Johnsons are giving a party next week. c) That Mr Phillips has been on the phone again! d) The flower arrangement was done by a Miss Hilton in Park Road. e) This is a photo of me and Bill Clinton. – Do you mean the Bill Clinton?

7. What’s the difference in reference between the following phrases: a) England v. the England of Queen Victoria b) Brno v. the Brno of my youth

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8. Give an example of a name containing a genitive. Do we use ‘the’ in such a phrase?

9. Which of the following phrases are wrong?

a) the Lord Nelson a) Sir James b) the Captain Smith b) Sir James Wilson c) the President c) Sir Wilson

10. Explain the difference between:

a) He arrived on Sunday. b) He arrived on a Sunday.

When do we use ‘the’ with days? Give an example.

11. Names of streets and cities are used without articles, but there are some exceptions. Which ones?

12. Names of countries can be used with or without ‘the’. Give examples.

13. What’ s the meaning or reference of the word ‘Italian’ in the following sentences:

a) The new Italian government decided to raise taxes. b) She speaks Italian fluently. c) I met an Italian in Prague once. I showed him around the city. d) The Italians at the next table are rather noisy. e) The Italians are an energetic people.

14. Both the following phrases are correct and there’s no difference in meaning.

Explain the use of the article. She’s American. = She’s an American.

Think of some similar examples, other than nationality.

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SEMINAR 5 – NOUNS – NUMBER (SGEL 5.35 – 5.44; LEG – 2.20 – 2. 38; Chalker ex. 56 – 58, Grammar I – ex. 27, 28, 31, 39, 43) - Three main number classes of nouns: singular invariable, plural invariable, variable nouns; irregular plurals; foreign plurals – Compounds - Collective nouns The grammatical category of number (operating for example through subject-verb concord) requires that every noun form is understood grammatically as either singular (=denotes ‘one’) or plural (denotes ‘more than one’). - singular = ‘one’ for C nouns; most proper nouns and undifferentiated mass for U nouns e.g. This suit fits me and I’ll buy it. How much money is there in my account? - plural = ‘two or more’ for C nouns; some proper nouns (the Alps), and individual units that are seen as reflecting plural composition (binoculars, goods) e.g. Three students are hoping you will see them. Those trousers are too small for you. We distinguish three main number classes of nouns:

I. Singular invariable nouns = they have only singular form (+ sg verb) i.e. U nouns (gold, music) and most proper nouns (Thomas, Henry)

II. Plural invariable nouns = they occur only in the plural (+ pl. verb), i.e. people, scissors; also some proper nouns (the Alps); adjective heads – the rich

III. Variable nouns = occur with either singular or plural number; they form the

plural either regularly (-s) or are irregular (foot – feet; child – children), esp. nouns of foreign origin (foreign plurals)

↓ I. SINGULAR INVARIABLE NOUNS - abstract nouns normally have no plural – dirt, homework, music (but there are exceptions: regrets, pleasures, etc. - some can be reclassified as C nouns with specific meanings, e.g. beer – a beer (=a glass) - some plurals express intensity, great quantity, e.g. ´snow´ is normally U, but the plural is e.g. in …the snows of Kilimanjaro…. or ´regret´ (U) but: He sends his regrets.

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- proper nouns – the Thames, Jane - these nouns take a singular verb! i) news – always sg

e.g. What’s the news today? / Here is the news from the BBC.

ii) nouns ending in –ics denoting subjects, sciences e.g. mathematics ethics phonetics athletics gymnastics linguistics classics physics But! some can be sg or pl –they can denote both one’s knowledge of the subject and the practical application of results, as in: e.g. Politics is said to be the art of the impossible. His politics are rather conservative. (= his political views) Acoustics is a branch of physics. The acoustics in the Festival Hall are very good. Statistics is useful in language testing. The unemployment statistics are disturbing. iii) names of certain diseases ending in –s are usually treated as sg + a sg verb e.g. measles, mumps, shingles iv) names of games ending in –s + a sg verb e.g. billiards, darts, draughts Darts is becoming very popular. v) names of cities – Athens / Brussels/ Naples has grown rapidly. II. PLURAL INVARIABLE NOUNS

A) the so-called ‘summation plurals’ – denote tools, instruments, some clothing consisting of two equal parts

i) tools and instruments – e.g. glasses, spectacles, binoculars, scissors, tweezers, pincers, shears, compasses, ii) articles of dress – e.g. braces, briefs, jeans, knickers, pants, pyjamas, shorts, tights, trousers, trunks

We can count them using partitives, e.g. a pair of……, two pairs of… e.g. I like these trousers. They are just my size.

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I have a new pair of jeans. – How much was it? / were they? B) the so-called ‘pluralia tantum’ – nouns that, in a given sense, occur only in the plural and end in –s; they have plural concord! They have no sg form with the same meaning, but some can also have a different meaning and then they have both sg and pl forms: e.g. a custom / customs – a tradition customs (only plural) – the place at an airport / border e.g. archives funds minutes (=the m. of a meeting) arms (=weapons) goods savings belongings looks spirits (=be in good spirits) clothes manners surroundings congratulations odds thanks ashes outskirts valuables contents premises customs remains earnings e.g. She has her father’s good looks. The house was burnt to ashes. ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’ / Her ashes were scattered at sea. His remains lie in the churchyard. She is always in good spirits. Could you take the minutes, John?(said at a meeting) C) Unmarked plural nouns: people, police, etc. i) people e.g. How many people are there in the world today? There was only one person in the room. There were many people in the room. !! When ‘people’ means ‘nation’ it is a regular C noun: e.g. The Japanese are an industrious people. (or: ….are industrious people) The English speaking peoples share a common language.

ii) folk – used in certain phrases (e.g. country folk, island folk) e.g. They are just simple country folk. (=people) Some folk are just so rude. - but also in casual style (marked plural) e.g. That’s all, folks. Also: my folks = my parents e.g. I’d like you to meet my folks. iii) police + pl

e.g. The police have caught the burglar.

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He wants to join the police. But! individual police officers: a police officer a policeman / policemen a policewoman / policewomen iv) cattle – e.g. All his cattle are grazing in the field. / The cattle are in the shed.

v) livestock (=animals kept on a farm) - e.g. Our livestock are not as numerous as they used to be. vi) vermin – e.g. These vermin cause disease.

III. VARIABLE NOUNS

A) REGULAR PLURAL

- regular –s – three pronunciations (z, s, iz) - spelling -es – e.g. boxes, churches - nouns in –y with a preceding consonant – e.g. sky – skies but day – days (exception – the two Germanys – proper nouns have pl –ys) - the apostrophe + -s is used in some nouns of unusual form or numerals: e.g. in the 1980’s, some PhD’s

- nouns in –o have plurals: a) –os – e.g. bamboos, embryos, kangaroos, radios, studios, zoos, pianos, dynamos, kilos, solos, sopranos, photos b) –oes – e.g. dominoes, echoes, heroes, potatoes, tomatoes, torpedoes, vetoes, embargoes, negroes c) –os or –oes – both plurals – banjo, cargo, motto, volcano, tornado, buffalo, mosquito

B) IRREGULAR PLURALS

1) Voicing and –s plural - / θ/ → / ðz/ e.g. path / θ / - paths / ðz/ mouth / θ / - mouths / ðz / ! but with a consonant before –th the pronunciation is regular / θs / - births, berths, lengths - nouns in –f or –fe → / vz/

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e.g. calf – calves life – lives thief - thieves half – halves loaf – loaves wife - wives knife – knives self – selves wolf - wolves leaf – leaves shelf – shelves sheaf - sheaves ! both regular and irregular pl. are possible with: dwarf wharf scarf hoof handkerchief ! other nouns ending in –f (fe) have regular pl.: belief, chief, proof, safe, roof, cliff 2) Mutation (=change of vowel) e.g. man – men woman - women foot – feet tooth - teeth goose – geese louse - lice mouse - mice !! Compounds Englishman / Englishmen – have no difference in pronunciation = / ə / !! German is not a compound – therefore the pl is Germans (not: *Germen) 3) The –en plural e.g. child – children ox – oxen brother – brethren – used in a religious context = a fellow member of a religious society (e.g. Czech / Moravian Brethren) but: when addressing: Brothers and Sisters 4) Zero plural

- these nouns have the same spoken and written form in both sg and pl – the verb is singular or plural e.g. This sheep is ours. These sheep are ours. i) animal names - regular plural – bird, hen, monkey - usually reg. plural – crab, duck

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- both reg. and zero pl. – fish, herring, reindeer, data, offspring - usually zero – bison, salmon - always zero – sheep, deer, cod

ii) nationality nouns in -ese e.g. one Chinese – five Chinese or Japanese, Vietnamese iii) quantitative nouns (e.g. dozen, hundred, thousand, million) e.g. three dozen glasses, two hundred people !! but dozens of glasses, hundreds of people, millions of inhabitants iv) nouns which have plural same as singular – some words ending in –s do not change in the plural e.g. barracks - This barracks is new. These barracks are new. crossroads – This is a busy crossroads. There are several crossroads here. series – This new series is good. These new series are good. species – This species is now extinct. These species are now extinct. works = factory (e.g. steelworks) means = A new means of communication has been developed.

The quickest means of travel is by plane. There are several means of transport on the island.

C) FOREIGN PLURALS (from Latin, French, Greek, Italian,….) i) nouns in –us /əs/ → plural –i /ai/

e.g. stimulus, alumnus, bacillus, locus, focus, fungus, syllabus, nucleus, cactus

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some can have both plurals: focus, fungus, cactus ii) nouns in –a /ə/ → plural –ae /i:/

e.g. alumna, formula, antenna, vertebra, alga

iii) nouns in –um /əm/ → plural –a /ə/ e.g. curriculum, bacterium, erratum, stratum, some can have both plurals: maximum, medium, memorandum, symposium, millennium iv) nouns in –ex, -ix → plural –ices /isi:z/ e.g. appendix, index, matrix !! appendix – appendixes or appendices index – indexes or indices v) nouns in -is → plural –es /i:z/ e.g. analysis, basis, crisis, hypothesis, thesis, axis, diagnosis, synopsis vi) nouns in –on /ən/ → plural –a /ə/ e.g. criterion, phenomenon, automaton vii) French nouns either retain their French plural or have regular English plurals: e.g. bureau – bureaux /əu/ or bureaus /əuz/ viii) Italian nouns in –o → plural –i /i/ e.g. tempo, virtuoso, libretto ix) Hebrew nouns e.g. kibbutz – kibbutzim or kibbutzes cherub – cherubim or cherubs seraph – seraphim or seraphs

COMPOUNDS

- consist of more than one base – these nouns form the plural in different ways

a) plural in the last element e.g. babysitters take-offs

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breakdowns forget-me-nots close-ups spoonfuls grown-ups merry-go-rounds sit-ins lay-bys b) plural in the first element e.g. commanders-in-chief mothers-in-law men-of-war coats-of-arms coats-of-mail lookers-on passers-by runners-up c) appositional compounds either both elements are plural if the second is man, woman e.g. a woman doctor – women doctors a manservant - menservants or just the last element is plural e.g. a lady singer – lady singers a boy friend - boy friends a fountain pen – fountain pens

COLLECTIVE NOUNS

Singular words such family, team, government (refer to groups of people) can be used with singular or plural verbs. e.g. This team is / are going to lose.

Plural forms – usu. when the group is considered as a collection of people doing certain personal things (deciding, hoping, wanting) Singular forms – usu. when the group is seen as an impersonal unit

e.g. The government, who are hoping to ease export restrictions, ……….. The government, which is elected ……….. My family have decided to move to ….. The average British family has 3 – 6 members.

Other collective nouns: choir, class, club, committee, firm, jury, orchestra, public, staff, union

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Football teams: Arsenal is / are playing on Saturday.

Some nouns have another meaning in the plural! e.g. colour – colours (barvy v. prapor) custom – customs (zvyky v. clo) iron – irons (žehličky v. pouta) pain – pains (úsilí) minute – minutes (minuty v. zápis ze schůze) manner – manners (způsoby v. společenské chování) picture – pictures (obrázky v. kino) spirit – spirits (nálada) Further notes: Numbers - singular forms (hundred, thousand, million etc.) have plural meanings – they have no final –s and of is not used: e.g. five hundred pounds (but hundreds of pounds) a few million years (but millions of years) three thousand people (but thousands of people) Also: a five-pound note (not * pounds) six two-hour lessons Also: dozen – three dozen cookies half a dozen eggs (but dozens of times) Quantifying expressions - many can be used with plural nouns, pronouns; plural verbs are normally used: e.g. A number of people have tried to find the treasure, but they have failed. A group of us are going to travel about Europe. The majority of criminals are non-violent. Half of his students don’t understand a word he says. Careful about the influence of Czech! e.g. There were a hundred people. (not *was) Amounts and quantities - we usually use sg determiners, verbs, pronouns e.g. Where is that five pounds I lent you?

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Twenty miles is a long way to walk. Two hundred pounds is a lot to spend on a dress. Countries

- The United States is anxious to improve its image in Latin America.

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SEMINAR 5 – NOUNS - NUMBER QUESTIONS (to answer after you have studied the seminar handout carefully)

1. Explain the term ‘subject-verb concord’ and give at least two examples (sg and pl) in sentences.

2. Which three main number classes do we distinguish? Name them and give examples of each.

3. Give at least three examples of a) regular plurals b) irregular plurals c) foreign plurals

4. All the following nouns belong to the so-called singular invariable nouns. What

does it mean? Do they take singular or plural verbs? Use them as subjects in sentences. news, aerobics, politics, measles, billiards

5. Plural invariable nouns include the so-called ‘summation plurals’. What are they? + Choose the correct form in the following sentences:

a) This / These trousers is / are too small for me, so I won’t take it / them. b) That / Those pair of trousers is / are bigger, I’ll try it / them on.

6. Explain the term ‘pluralia tantum’ referring to nouns and give examples.

7. Give examples of unmarked plural nouns.

8. In certain circumstances the word ‘people’ is a regular C noun, so it can be used with ‘a’ and has a regular plural form. Give examples in sentences.

9. What’s the plural of the following nouns:

a) February, Kennedy, donkey b) radio, piano, photo c) echo, hero, potato d) tornado, volcano, buffalo

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10. Which nouns ending in –f (e) have plurals in:

a) –ves b) regular plural –s c) both

11. Some irregular plurals involve a change of the vowel. Which ones?

12. The word ‘penny’ has got two plurals. What’s the difference between ‘pence’ and

‘pennies’?

13. ‘The word ‘brother’ has two plurals. Besides the usual ‘brothers’, there is one more used in specific context. Which one?

14. Why do we say ‘Englishmen’ but not ‘Germen’?

15. Using the example of ‘sheep’ explain what is ‘zero plural’ + give examples in sentences. What verb (sg or pl) is used with them? Can you name some other similar nouns?

16. How do we use words such as ‘hundred’ and ‘thousand’. Do they have plural forms? Give examples.

17. What do the following nouns have in common? Give examples in sentences: means, species, series. Can you name any others like that?

18. Foreign plurals:

a) analysis – e) medium - b) appendix - f) phenomenon - c) bacterium - g) stimulus - d) crisis - h) fungus -

19. Some compounds take plural –s in the last element, some in the first element.

Give examples of each.

20. When do collective nouns have a singular and when a plural verb?

21. Give examples of ‘appositional compounds’.

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SEMINAR 6 – NOUNS – GENDER and CASE (SGEL 5.45 – 5.47 + 5.48 – 5.55; LEG – 2.39 – 2.52, Chalker: ex. 59-60, GRAMMAR I –ex. 34 + 36; 45-49) Gender: nouns with personal reference (male, female, dual, common gender, collective nouns), nouns referring to animals and inanimates Case: genitive v. the of-construction, genitive meanings GENDER In English gender is not a feature of nouns themselves, it rather relates directly to the meanings of nouns with particular reference to biological sex. Unlike many other languages, in English nouns, determiners and adjectives have no inflectionally-marked gender. Gender in English may be described as ‘notional’ or ‘covert’ whereas in other languages gender is ‘grammatical’ or ‘overt’. Gender is important for selection of reference pronouns – relative (who, which), personal (he, she, it) and reflexive (himself, herself) Male – Please, help my husband; he has hurt himself. personal (human) Female – Please, help my wife; she has hurt herself. Gender nonpersonal (nonhuman, including animals) e.g. That is the cow which he has just bought. There is a rather complex pattern of gender classes in English (see the table below): gender example pronouns male boy who, he female girl who, she dual doctor who, he / she personal common baby who, he / she / it which, it animate collective family which, it who, they familiar animal: (= higher) bull which, he / it male (who), he nonpersonal (animals) female cow which, she / it (who), she dual cat which, he / she /it who, he / she less familiar animal weasel which, it / he (she) (=lower) inanimate window which, it I. NOUNS WITH PERSONAL REFERENCE

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1) Personal male / female nouns - male nouns have pronoun coreference with who – he - female nouns have pronoun coreference with who –she they are: a) morphologically unmarked for gender e.g. bachelor – spinster king – queen man - woman father – mother monk – nun husband - wife uncle – aunt nephew – niece gentleman - lady boy – girl brother - sister lad – lass (lassie) witch - wizard b) morphologically marked for gender (the male noun takes an ending to form a female noun; except widower and bridegroom – the base is female and the male noun is marked)

e.g. host – hostess hero – heroine master - mistress prince – princess waiter – waitress traitor - traitress steward – stewardess duke - duchess god – goddess usher - usherette count – countess emperor - empress heir - heiress

Some male / female pairs denoting family relationship have dual gender terms: e.g. parent – father, mother sibling – brother, sister

In order to avoid sexual bias in language, there have been attempts (esp. in AmE) to introduce sex-neutral forms:

e.g. s / he for both he and she wo / man for both man and woman = these are only written forms

or: firefighter for fireman chairperson for chairman spokesperson for spokesman mail carrier for mailman flight attendant for air hostess

2) Personal dual gender

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- they can be male or female in reference as required (he or she corefrence) e.g. librarian friend typist member teacher doctor writer author student guest professor artist cook singer musician assistant - if it is felt desirable to give information on the sex of the person, a gender marker may be added:

e.g. male student / female student (compare men teachers / women teachers) male readers / female readers

a nurse (typically woman) – a male nurse a model – a male model an engineer (typically man) – a woman engineer a judge – a woman judge a wrestler – a woman wrestler 3) Common gender - nouns such as baby, infant, child – refer to male (he) or female (she), but they can also be used as nonpersonal - when the gender is irrelevant we can use the neuter pronoun it e.g. A child learns to speak the language of its environment. The baby lost its parents when it was three weeks old. Every child reacts in its own way. 4) Collective nouns - they can take singular or plural pronouns and both relatives (who or which) - the sex of the persons is irrelevant: e.g. The committee, which met soon after it was appointed, had difficulty in agreeing its method of procedure. - the verb may be singular or plural: e.g. The committee has met and it has rejected the proposal. The committee have met and they have rejected the proposal. → sg stresses the nonpersonal collectivity of the group pl stresses the personal individuality within the group Other collective nouns: army, board, class, commission, corporation, crew, enemy, federation, gang, group, jury, opposition, staff, association, cast, club, community,

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council, crowd, generation, majority, team, audience, college, company, department, family, government, institute, university Some occur in the singular only with ‘the’: e.g. the aristocracy the public the clergy the press the elite the laity the church the intelligentsia the gentry Some collective nouns are proper names: Congress, Parliament, the United Nations II. NOUNS REFERRING TO ANIMALS AND INANIMATES - familiar (‘higher animals’) – those in which human society takes a special interest, domestic pets, etc. – coreference which, he / she / it e.g. buck – doe tiger – tigress drake - duck bull – cow lion – lioness stag - hind gander – goose stallion – mare boar – sow ram – ewe cock – hen dog – bitch fox – vixen tomcat - cat

This is the bull which has a brand mark on his /its back. Also: it is possible to use he- / she (stressed) as a prefix, e.g. he-goat, she-goat wolf , she-wolf

- unfamiliar (‘lower animals’) - majority of creatures in the animate world e.g. beetle, butterfly, snake, toad, etc. - it - inanimate nouns – box, idea, car – it, which - ‘he’ and ‘she’ are likely to be used for animals with which man has the closest connections CASE ( In English we distinguish only two cases of nouns:

a) common – boy, boys (in Czech all cases except the genitive)

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b) genitive – boy’s, boys’ (sometimes called ‘possessive case’ because of its main function)

In spoken form the genitive inflection –‘s / s’ is identical with the regular plural, the written forms differ: e.g. The spies were arrested. / spaiz/ The spy’s companion was a woman. The spies’ companions were women. !But not with irregular nouns – they preserve a number distinction:

e.g. compare: boy’s or boys’ = / boiz/ but! child’s v. children’s Note: - in postmodified noun phrases, there is a difference between the plural and genitive endings – the genitive ending is added to the end of the phrase (not the head noun): e.g. The palace was the King of Denmark’s. (genitive) They praised the Kings of Denmark. (plural) Also: e.g. Paul and Mary’s dog v. Paul’s and Mary’s dogs Henry the Eighth’s wives - zero genitive = identical with the regular plural; it is used with names ending in /z/ - especially foreign names, e.g. Socrates’ Using zero genitive we avoid repetitive or awkward combinations of sounds:

a) with Greek names of more than one syllable which end in –s: Euripides’ plays, Socrates’ wife, Achilles’ heel

b) with many other names ending in /z/ , pronunciation is /iz/: Dickens’ , Burns’, Jones’ (but also Dickens’s, Burns’s, Jones’s)

c) with fixed expressions of the form ‘for ….. sake’ as in: for goodness’ sake, for conscience’ sake

No matter how we write the genitive (St James’ or St James’s), we pronounce /iz/. The genitive and the of-construction - sometimes both forms are possible with a similarity in meaning and function” e.g. the island’s inhabitant or the inhabitants of the island

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a man’s voice or the voice of a man - often we have to select one form, only one of the two is ‘preferred’ – appropriate: e.g. These are father’s trousers. (not the trousers of father) Let’s go to the front of the house. (not the house’s front) John’s school (not the school of John) We may use ‘s or s’: 1) with living things

a) personal names: Jim’s car, Jones’s house b) personal nouns: the doctor’s surgery, man’s future c) indefinite pronouns: anyone’s guess, someone’s responsibility, someone else’s duty d) collective nouns: the committee’s decision e) higher animals: the horse’s stable f) some lower animals: a bee’s sting (also: a bee sting)

2) With non-living things a) geographical reference: America’s policy b) institutional refer. : the European Economic Community’s exports c) place noun+ superlative: New York’s tallest skyscraper d) churches and cathedrals: St Stephen’s Cathedral e) time references: an hour’s delay, two days’ journey f) money’s worth: twenty dollars’ worth of gasoline g) fixed expressions: to keep someone at arm’s length to be at death’s door (but: on his death bed) the earth’s surface for goodness’ sake We normally use the of-construction when referring to: a) things: the shade of a tree b) parts of things. the bottom of the box c) abstract reference: the cost of living Genitive meanings

a) possessive g. e.g. Mr Johnson’s coat (=Mr Johnson has / owns this coat) (=’have’) the earth’s gravity / the gravity of the earth

b) subjective g. e.g. the boy’s application (= the boy applied for …)

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(=subject) her parents’ consent (=her parents consented) but: the decline of trade

c) objective g. e.g. the boy’s release (= …. released the boy) (=object) the family’s support (…. supports the family) but: a statement of the facts

d) genitive of origin e.g. the girl’s story (= the girl told a story)

the general’s letter (= the general wrote a letter)

e) descriptive g. e.g. children’s shoes (=the shoes are designed for children) a women’s college (= college for women)

a doctor’s degree or the degree of doctor

f) genitive of measure e.g. ten days’ absence, three weeks’ holiday

g) genitive of attribute e.g. the victim’s courage (=the victim was courageous) the party’s policy or the policy of the party

h) partitive g. e.g. the baby’s eyes

the earth’s surface Gender and the genitive

- the genitive is not used with all nouns equally - it tends to be associated with those of animate gender (personal nouns, those referring to human beings, higher animals and collective nouns) - geographical names take the genitive inflection when they imply human collectivity: e.g. China’s policy ! but not really *China’s mountains - also: the hotel’s occupants! but not really *the hotel’s furniture These nouns classes frequently take the genitive: a) personal names e.g. Washington’s statue / Carol’s children b) personal nouns e.g. the boy’s bicycle

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c) animal nouns (higher animals) e.g. the horse’s mane, the dog’s name d) collective nouns e.g. the nation’s resources the company’s director the committee’s decision + certain kinds of inanimate nouns (see: e, f, g below) e) geographical names: continents – Europe’s future countries – China’s people states – Maryland’s Senator cities / towns – London’s water supply universities – Harvard’s Department of Linguistics f) locative nouns = denote regions, institutions,… e.g. the world’s economy the world’s best universities the city’s atmosphere the country’s only university g) temporal nouns e.g. the decade’s events a day’s work yesterday’s paper an hour’s delay this year’s sales a month’s salary today’s paper ten minutes’ walk (also: a ten–minute walk) tomorrow’s programme two days’ journey (also: a two-day journey) three months’ salary (also: a three-month salary) With periods of time, there are more possibilities: e.g. a week’s holiday v. two weeks’ holiday (without ‘a’), but: a two-week holiday a month’s salary v. three months’ salary = a three-month salary The grammatical status of the genitive 1) As a determiner - mostly genitives function exactly like central definite determiners: e.g. John’s new briefcase (=his) my cousin’s new house (=his or her)

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that old gentleman’s son 2) As a modifier - there are occasional cases where the genitive acts as a modifier - where the genitive is used descriptively (e.g. children’s shoes = shoes designed for ch.) – genitive functions as a modifier with a classifying role determiner ↑

e.g. They attend a women’s university in Kyoto. ↓ modifier but: we can’t say: She is a John’s friend. (both are central determiners which are mutually exclusive) → She is a friend of John’s. She is one of John’s friends. 3) The independent genitive - we omit the noun following the genitive if the reference is contextually clear e.g. Jennifer’s is the only face I recognize here. (=Jennifer’s face) My car is faster than John’s. Mary’s was the prettiest dress. - with the of-construction ‘that’ or ‘those’ usually replace the corresponding item: e.g. The wines of France are more expensive that those of California. - when the unexpressed item refers to homes or businesses: e.g. When I arrived at Fred’s, I found…. My butcher’s stays open till late on Fridays. She’s staying at my aunt’s. Also: for institutions: We met near St Paul’s. (=St Paul’s Cathedral) 4) the ‘post-genitive’ = double genitive - we can’t use two central determiners together e.g. *that Tom’s idea → that idea of Tom’s e.g. some friends of Jim’s (also: some of Jim’s friends)

that irritating habit of her father’sseveral pupils of his a neighbour of his (also: one of his neighbours)

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a good idea of Tom’sa friend of my sister’s (also: one of my sister’s friends)

Be careful when using ‘that’ – the meaning is negative, e.g. in. That son of yours has broken our kitchen window again. or it can suggest criticism, e.g. That silly uncle of yours has told me the same joke five times. Compare: e.g. George’s sister is coming to stay with us. (= implies definiteness, he has 1 sister) If it needs to be understood that George has more than one sister: One of George’s sisters……. A sister of George’s …… A play of Shakespeare’s (=one of Shakespeare’s plays) Further notes: - two genitives are also possible e.g. My brother’s neighbour’s sister is a nurse. John’s parents’ house was destroyed by the storm. - with compounds e.g. My sister-in-law’s father is a pilot.

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SEMINAR 6 – NOUNS – GENDER and CASE QUESTIONS (to answer after you have studied the seminar handout carefully)

1. Explain how English and Czech differ in gender (i.e. notional v. grammatical gender, covert v. overt g.).

2. Gender is reflected in pronouns – which types of pronouns?

3. Give examples of animate and inanimate gender.

4. Give examples of personal nouns which are morphologically (i.e. in form):

a) unmarked for gender b) marked for gender

5. To avoid sexual bias certain sex-neutral nouns have been invented and are becoming more and more common. Give examples.

6. Explain what ‘dual’ gender is, and give examples of the so called gender markers with these nouns.

7. Which 3 nouns have the so called ‘common’ gender? Explain how we use them and what pronouns can refer to them.

8. Collective nouns can take both singular and plural verbs. Explain when and why.

9. Give examples of ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ animals. What pronouns are used to refer to them? What about pets?

10. Which two cases do we distinguish in English?

11. The spoken form /girlz/ can have three different meanings clear from the written form. Which ones?

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Is it the same with ‘irregular’ plural nouns (e.g. child)?

12. Use the following phrase in the plural and with the possessive case the Queen of England

13. What is the so called ‘zero genitive’? Give examples.

14. a ) Name various meanings of the genitive + give examples.

b) The noun phrase in ‘It’s John’s picture.’ can have 3 different meanings – which ones?

15. These nouns frequently take the genitive. Give examples: a) personal names b) personal nouns c) animal nouns d) collective nouns e) geographical nouns f) temporal nouns

16. The phrase “children’s shoes” can have two meanings. Which ones?

17. Give examples of the ‘independent genitive’.

18. What is the so called ‘double genitive’? Explain how and why it is used. 19. How do we use the possessive case with compounds, e.g. son-in-law, etc?

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SEMINAR 7 – PRONOUNS – INTROD.+ PERSONAL PRONOUNS (SGEL 6.1 – 6.12; LEG – 4.1.–4.18; Chalker – ex. 62 – 64; Grammar I – ex. 204 – 232 (all kinds of pronouns) - introduction – general characteristics and classification of pronouns - personal pronouns in detail – person, gender, number and case; specific v. generic reference; the pronoun it; modification of pronouns The most common category of pro-forms – the pronoun – is rather wide-ranging as the following example illustrates: e.g. As it turned out, somebody offered Elaine a bicycle at a price which she and her friends knew was well below that of a new one. Since the meaning of pronouns in itself is general and undetermined, in a sentence like this their referential meaning is determined purely by the linguistic or situational context in which they occur. Semantically, most pronouns function like noun phrases. We distinguish the following classes and subclasses: personal – I, me, you, they, them, …(subj. v. obj. case) 1. central reflexive – myself, themselves, … possessive – my / mine, their / theirs, … 2. reciprocal – each other, one another 3. relative – which, that, who, whose, … 4. interrogative – who, what, which, , … 5. demonstrative – this, these, that, those, … universal – both, each, every, everybody, all,… positive assertive – some, several, half, one, … 6. indefinite non-assertive – any, either negative – nobody, neither, none, no on, nothing … Some pronouns have morphological characteristics that nouns do not have:

1) case: a contrast between subjective v. objective case (I / me, she / her) 2) person: a contrast between 1st, 2nd and 3rd persons 3) gender: personal v. nonpersonal; masculine v. feminine 4) number: I / we, he / they

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CENTRAL PRONOUNS (i.e. personal, reflexive, possessive) I. PERSONAL PRONOUNS - like all central pronouns, personal pronouns have a person contrast (i.e. separate 1st, 2nd and 3rd person forms) - in the 3rd person there are three genders – masculine, feminine, nonpersonal - there are also number contrasts (sg. v. pl.) - in the personal subclass – 1st and 3rd person also have a contrast in case (subjective v. objective), 2nd person forms are in both cases identical (you) A) PERSON - 1st person = the speaker / writer - 2nd person = the addressee - 3rd person = the persons/ things which are neither of the previous two - if more pronouns are coordinated, the sequence is considered: 1st person – You and I can go together, can’t we? 2nd person – You and Gillian / she agree with that, don’t you? 3rd person – Fred / he and Mona / she met in Tunis, didn’t they? The order of pronouns (important from the viewpoint of style and courtesy) - 1st person comes last (especially if it is the singular) - 2nd person usually comes first e.g. You, Jack and I will still be at work. Why didn’t they invite you and her? / you and John? - in the 3rd person – usually the masculine comes before the feminine e.g. He and she were both elected. - the pronoun comes before the noun phrase e.g. She and another student were expelled from school. - we can use ´it´ to identify people – Who is it? – It’s the postman. It’s our neighbour, Mrs Smith. B) GENDER

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- gender distinctions are largely restricted to 3rd person singular of personal, possessive and reflexive pronouns – masculine, feminine and nonpersonal forms e.g. He has hurt his hand. She asked herself why she had bought it. The dog hurt itself … Personal v. nonpersonal gender - personal – not only human beings, also supernatural beings (the Deity, gods, angels) and higher animals - the pronoun it can be also used to refer to e.g. babies - personification – a computer = he, a car = he or she - a ship – usually ‘she’, but the relative is ‘which’ - if we do not know the gender as for example in: Someone is knocking so I’d better go and let ____________ in. (him or her?)

→ the masculine can be used as the unmarked form but many people prefer to use reference to both sexes as in:

An ambitious player must discipline himself or herself. Someone is knocking so I’d better go and let him or her in. - often the gender-neutral plural can be used (when we do not have to express number concord strictly), usually with indefinite pronouns – someone, somebody, anyone, anybody, no one, nobody e.g. Everyone thinks they have the right to be here. Someone has parked their car under the ‘No parking’ sign. Has anybody brought their dictionary? Everybody said that they enjoyed themselves. Somebody died here, didn’t they? Compare: A teacher should know his or her pupils’ names. Teachers should know their pupils’ names. - the personal / nonpersonal contrast is also found in relative pr. (who v. which) and indefinite pr. (somebody v. something) C) NUMBER

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- with the 2nd person there is number contrast only in the reflexive pronoun (yourself v. yourselves) e.g. Look at your hand, Jack. You’ve cut yourself. Keep your voices down, children, you must behave yourselves. - also: demonstratives: this / these indefinite pronoun one / ones used as a substitute D) CASE - personal pronouns (although not all) have a distinction between subjective (I), objective (me) and genitive (my / mine – called possessive pronouns) - so, unlike nouns, the personal pronouns involve a distinction between the subject and object: e.g. The policeman interviewed the woman. → He interviewed her. The woman resisted the policeman. → She resisted him. → he and she = subjective forms v. him and her = objective forms The choice of the form is based on the pronoun’s function in the clause – we make a distinction between the so-called ‘subject territory’ (=the pre-verbal part of the clause) and ‘object territory’ (=the post-verbal part) But in informal style we also find objective forms in sentences such as: e.g. Whoever left the door unlocked, it certainly wasn’t me.

I am taller than her. Also: I am taller than she is. (if we use the subj. case, we add the operator) In informal style the objective form is found also in the subject complement (with linking verbs such as ‘to be’): e.g. Who said it? – It was he. (subjective form is formal)

It was him. (objective form is felt natural) e.g. Who said that? – He did. (not just: *He.) / It was him. Who’s there? – Me. / It’s me / him / us. Who wants a ride on my bike? – Me. / Not me. Indefinite pronouns (nobody, everybody, all) + but or except - except – is always a preposition, so it is followed by objective case

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e.g. Nobody except her objected to the proposal. - but (=except) used as a preposition – many people prefer the subjective form if it is in the subject territory: e.g. Nobody but she objected. Nobody but she can solve the problem. Usually, we use objective forms, subjective forms are possible in a more formal style. However, in object territory both forms are possible: e.g. Nobody objected but she / her. Nobody can solve the problem but her. We can also avoid this saying: Nobody said anything but myself. Specific reference - central pronouns – usually have definite meaning and specific reference, in the 3rd person the identity of reference is supplied by the linguistic context either anaphorically (a) or cataphorically (b)

a) There is an excellent museum here and everyone should visit it. My brother is afraid that he will fail the test.

b) When she had examined the patient, the doctor picked up the telephone.

Note: With anaphoric reference (which is more common than cataphoric) it does not have to be always clear to what / which person we refer: e.g. Mrs Fairweather asked Janice if she could come into her room; she seemed to be more upset than she had ever seen her.

→ the pronouns have sg feminine reference – they do not determine the specific identities – it depends on the larger context or situation; to avoid ambiguity or confusion we may use the nouns again

Generic reference - in certain cases the reference is rather generic, especially with relative clauses, as in:

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e.g. He who hesitates is lost. (i.e. he = anyone) Ever since he found a need to communicate, man has been the ‘speaking animal’.

- for ordinary purposes the pronouns such as ‘we, you, they’ can be used as generics: e.g. These days you have to be careful with your money. We live in an age of moral dilemmas. They will soon find a cure for cancer. They say it’s going to snow today. - the pronoun ‘they’ is especially convenient when we express regret or disapproval: e.g. I wonder why they don’t repair the roads more often. I see they are raising the bus fares again. What will they be doing next? - the pronoun ‘we’ implies the 1st person involvement - the pronoun ‘you’ implies special interest in the addressee Special uses of 'we’

a) How are we feeling today? - a doctor talking to his patient b) We’re in a bad mood today. – one secretary talking to another about the boss c) As we saw in chapter 3 …. – in serious writing ‘we’ seeks to involve the reader in

a joint enterprise d) As we showed a moment ago, …. – in formal writing – the writer wants to avoid

‘I’ which might be felt somewhat egoistical The pronoun it - any sg noun phrase that does not determine reference by ‘he’ or ‘she’ is referred to by ‘it’ – collectives, nouncount concretes, singular abstractions e.g. The committee met soon after it had been appointed. He bought some salmon because it was her favourite food.

When you are ready to report it, I would like to know your assessment of the problem.

The last example shows that ‘it’ can refer to the content of whole sentences and sequence of sentences: e.g. I don’t like to say it but I must. You have lost your job because you didn’t

work hard enough. You have only yourself to blame.

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It is also possible to use the so-called ‘extra positional it’ (=end focus), i.e. ‘it’ is the grammatical subject - the actual subject is expressed either by a clause or infinitive (or genrund)

↓ e.g. It has to be said that you have lost your job because …………. Isn’t it a shame that they lost the game? It doesn’t matter what you say. The so-called ‘anticipatory it’ is used in cleft sentences (tzv. vytýkací konstrukce) e.g. It was only last week that the death was announced. It was John that told me about her failure. It was Paul that I saw there last night. It was I who put the envelope on the desk. It’s her I feel sorry for. ‘It’ is also used as the so-called ‘prop’ (or ‘dummy’ or ‘empty’) subject, especially denoting time, distances and atmospheric conditions: e.g. If it stops raining, we can go for a walk. It’s getting dark. What time is it? How far is it to York from here? ‘It’ is found not only in the subject position: e.g. I take it that she has declined the invitation. ‘It’ is often found in idioms:

e.g. He had a hard time of it in the army. (= to find life difficult) At last we’ve made it. (= achieved success) How’s it going?

‘It’ can also be used as a substitute for a predication: e.g. She was a rich woman and she looked it. (=a rich woman) Modification of pronouns - is generally limited - concerns mainly personal pronouns with the objective case a) adjectives (esp. in informal exclamations)

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e.g. Poor you! Silly me! Clever you! Poor us! b) appositive nouns, with plural 1st and 2nd person e.g. Will you others please wait here? We doctors think that ……….. c) ‘here’ and ‘there’ with 1st and 2nd person e.g. Whatever you others do, we here would be willing to leave now.

Could you there collect your passports at the desk? (!this tends to sound rude!) d) prepositional phrases e.g. It is very much the concern of you / us in the learned professions. You in the rain coat ………. (impolite!) e) emphatic reflexives e.g. I myself would not do that. They themselves said so. She herself wanted to ………… f) universal pronouns with plurals e.g. We all accept responsibility. You both need help. They each took an apple. g) relative clauses, mainly in formal style e.g. We who fought for this principle will not lightly abandon it. He or she who left a case in my office should claim it as soon as possible. Note: - combination ‘they that’ is rare, ‘those who’ is preferred (‘they who’ is not possible)

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SEMINAR 7 – PRONOUNS – INTRODUCTION + PERSONAL PRONOUNS QUESTIONS (to answer after you have studied the seminar handout carefully) 1. Give a few examples of the following pronouns:

a) relative b) interrogative c) demonstrative d) personal e) possessive f) indefinite assertive g) indefinite non-assertive h) indefinite universal i) reflexive j) reciprocal

+ Which of them are called ‘central pronouns’? 2. Which of the following sentences are right? (consider the order of the pronouns):

a) She and he were late for the meeting. b) I and you can work together on the project. c) She and her children were invited to a party. d) His wife and he are fluent in English. e) Did they tell you and her about the meeting? f) Why don’t I and you go away for the weekend?

3. Sometimes we do not know the gender. How can we solve this problem? e.g. A good student will spend a lot of ____________ time doing homework. Which personal pronoun is common to use with indefinite pronouns? e.g. Every person made __________ own travel arrangements. Has everybody got ____________ ticket / tickets? Not every drug addict can solve _________ problem so easily. Someone died here yesterday, didn’t __________? 4. Explain the terms ‘subject’ and ‘object territory’. How is this distinction important with pronouns? Is it the same with nouns? 5. Is there any difference between the following reactions? Are they both correct?

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Who’s that? – It’s I. / It’s me. 6. Change the following sentences making them a bit more formal:

a) My sister is nearly as tall as me. b) I can run faster than her.

7. What forms do we use after ‘except’ and ‘but (used as a preposition)? Choose the correct form: a) Everybody but I / me understood. b) Everybody except he / him can come. c) We are all ready except she / her. d) Nobody but she / her would do such a thing. 8. Do the following sentences contain anaphoric or cataphoric reference?

a) When he finished his work, John went home. b) George was the best student, so he was expected to pass the exam with flying

colours. c) On his arrival in the capital, the Secretary of State declared support for the

government. d) Jacqueline thinks she understands me. e) She thinks that Jacqueline understands me.

Consider the meaning of d) and e) – do they mean the same? 9. The following sentence is ambiguous. Explain why and suggest how we could avoid ambiguity here: e.g. When Carol arrived in Mrs White’s house, she was so upset that she couldn’t get to sleep, so she had to give her a sleeping pill. 10. Write sentences using the pronouns ‘we, you, they’ as generics (= pronouns with a generic reference. 11. Give examples of sentences where the pronoun ‘it’ is used as an ‘empty’ (or ‘prop’) subject. 12. Give examples of modification of pronouns.

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SEMINAR 8 – PRONOUNS 2 (SGEL 6.13 – 6.20; LEG – 4.19 – 4.36) (Chalker: ex. 61, 65 - 66, GRAMMAR I – ex. 204 – 232 (all kinds of pronouns) ) - reflexive (basic v. emphatic use) - reciprocal pronouns (each other, one another) – possessive pronouns –– relative pronouns – interrogative pronouns – demonstrative pronouns I. REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS

- are always co-referential with a noun or another pronoun and agree with it in gender, number (i.e. end with –self or –selves) and person

- there is also an indefinite reflexive pronoun oneself - they have two distinct uses:

a) basic – e.g. They helped themselves. She allowed herself a rest. He is not himself today. (= He doesn’t feel well) The café pays for itself.

I cut myself shaving this morning. Talking to oneself is the first sign of madness. I love you for yourself, not for your money.

b) emphatic – We couldn’t come ourselves.

We ourselves couldn’t come. Myself, I feel quite happy about the plan. (fml) The house itself was nice, but the garden was rather small. A) Basic use

- the basic reflexive pronoun always co-refers to the subject of its own clause - it may function as an object, a complement or a prepositional complement, but

cannot itself be a subject! Compare: He saw himself in the mirror. (reference to the subject) He saw him in the mirror. (reference to some other person)

He and his wife poured themselves a drink. He and his wife poured them a drink. Kathy begged Jane to look after her. (=Katy) Kathy begged Jane to look after herself. (= Jane)

- the imperative clauses are understood to involve 2nd person e.g. Look at yourself in the mirror. Help yourselves. / Help yourselves to some more cake.

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- in non-finite clauses the reflexive ‘oneself’ may be used

e.g. Voting for oneself is unethical. (also: yourself) Pride in oneself was considered a deadly sin. (also: yourself)

Obligatory reflexive pronoun Many verbs are not reflexive in English, but their equivalents are reflexive in Czech: e.g. Hurry. Try to concentrate. We met a few days ago. I feel nervous. I can’t relax. Also: The book is selling well. Suddenly the door opened. Some verbs are reflexive only in some contexts, e.g. hurt sb and hurt oneself. If you are not sure whether to use the reflexive pronoun with a particular verb, you have to consult a good, preferably monolingual dictionary. ↓ 1) Some verbs require the reflexive pronoun:

a) reflexive verbs – have a reflexive object e.g. She always prides herself on her academic background. absent oneself (from) – e.g. He absented himself from a meeting. avail oneself (of) - e.g. I availed myself of this opportunity to improve my English. demean oneself (formal) – e.g. Don’t demean yourself by answering him. b) semi-reflexive verbs – the reflexive pronoun may be omitted with little or no change of meaning e.g. Behave yourself now! Behave now! adjust (oneself) to identify (oneself) with hide (oneself) prove oneself (to be) wash (oneself) dress (oneself) Compare: Jane’s mother dresses her before 8 a.m. (=Jane)

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Jane’s mother dresses (herself) before 8 a.m. (= mother) She is old enough to dress herself.

c) nonreflexive verbs – verbs which are transitive but are not particularly associated

with the reflexive pronoun – e.g. blame, accuse, admire, amuse, dislike, feed, dry, hurt, persuade, introduce, defend, etc.

e.g. Williams publicly blamed himself for the accident. Nobody blamed him for the accident. You have to be able to defend yourself if somebody attacks you. Who will defend us? She introduced her. v. She introduced herself. This will amuse you. v. I’ll be able to amuse myself for a few hours. We fed the dogs. v. The baby will soon learn to feed himself. Note: Many verbs can have different constructions, e.g. enjoy: e.g. I enjoyed myself. (=I had a good time) I enjoyed the party. (= I took pleasure in it.) I enjoyed the guests. (=liked, esp. AmE)

2) Some prepositions require reflexive pronouns

a) with prepositional objects, where the preposition has a close relationship with the verb:

e.g. Mary stood looking at herself in the mirror. Do look after yourselves! He thinks too much of himself.

Janet took a photo of herself (=Janet) x Janet took a photo of her. (someone else) She is very pleased with herself. X. She is very pleased with her. (someone else)

b) with prepositional phrases following a noun which refers to a work of art, a story, etc: e.g. Every writer’s first novel is basically a story about himself. Rembrandt painted many remarkable portraits of himself. Do you have a recent photograph of yourself?

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Optional reflexive pronoun (= it may be replaced by objective pronouns)

a) in some spatial prepositional phrases e.g. She’s building a wall of Russian books about her. (herself) He stepped back, gently closed the door behind him (himself), and walked down the corridor. (= the reflexive expresses emphasis) But: many prepositional phrases that are adverbials of space or time require the object pronoun: e.g. He looked about him. She took her dog with her. Have you any money on you? I have my wife with me. She pushed the cart in front of her. We have the whole day before us. On the other hand, there are idiomatic phrases where we must use the reflexive: e.g. They were beside themselves with rage. I was sitting by myself. (=alone) b) after the prepositions ‘like, than, as, but (for), except (for), as for’- both forms

are possible, reflexives are quite common e.g. For someone like me / myself, this is a big surprise. Except for us / ourselves, the whole village was asleep. According to the manager, no one works as hard as him (himself).

c) when a reflexive pronoun is coordinated with another phrase

e.g. They have never invited Margaret and me / myself to dinner. There will be four of us at dinner: Robert, Alison, Jane and me / myself / I.

B) Emphatic use

- reflexive pronouns in emphatic use occur in apposition and have nuclear stress - may be used in different positions:

e.g. I myself wouldn’t take any notice. I wouldn’t take any notice myself. → all these mean - speaking personally

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Myself, I wouldn’t take any notice of her.

- in other context, the meaning can be ‘X and nobody else’: e.g. Do you mean that you spoke to the President himself?

II. RECIPROCAL PRONOUNS

- i.e. each other (= more common in informal style) and one another (=more common in formal contexts (it is preferred in general statements and when we are not talking about particular people) e.g. Meg and Bill are very fond of each other. All the children trust one another. The party leaders promised to give each other their support. They each blamed the other. The passengers disembarked one after another. (or one after the other)

- they have genitive forms e.g. The students can borrow each other’s / one another’s books. They will sit for hours looking into each other’s eyes.

- express a ‘two-way reflexive relationship’ but have a different meaning than

reflexive pronouns Compare:

Adam and Eve blamed themselves. X Adam and Eve blamed each other.

(A. blamed himself, E. blamed herself). (he blamed her, and she blamed him) III.POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS

- differ in form – may function as determiners: my, your, his, her, its, our, their - or as independent items: mine, yours, his, hers, (its), ours, theirs Compare:

These are her books. These books are hers. That is my bicycle. That bicycle is mine. Which are their clothes? Which clothes are theirs? Is this his car? Is this car his?

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- ‘its’ is extremely rare in independent function - the independent possessive also occurs as a prepositional complement in: e.g. I have been talking to a friend of yours. (= one of your friends) The only opera of his I know is …….. - the only form of modification of possessive pronouns is ‘own’

e.g. This book doesn’t belong to the library – it’s my own copy. Sam cooks his (own) dinner every evening. (=cooks dinner for himself) Do you like this cake? It’s my own recipe.

- the combination ‘your own, her own’ etc. can follow ‘of’ in: e.g. I would like to have a home of my own. Have you got a car of your own / your own car? (but not: an own car) He’s got no ideas of his own.

- there is no difference between determiner and independent function:

e.g. That is my own car. That car is my own. (not: mine own) IV. RELATIVE PRONOUNS

- introduce relative clauses: who (whom), whose, which, that, (-) = zero

e.g. The man who we met at the party was Jane’s cousin. I’d like to come and see the house which / that you have for sale. I’d like to come and see the house you have for sale. (=zero)

!!We distinguish two basic types of relative clauses:

a) restrictive(or defining / identifying) – define the person or thing they refer to; can contain all kinds of relative pronouns or zero; do not have commas

e.g. The man who / that was standing on the corner was waiting for his friends.

b) non-restrictive (or non-defining / non-identifying) – describe but do not define the person or thing; can contain ‘who, which, whose’ but not ‘that’ or zero; contain commas

e.g. Mary’s father, who is a writer, is very famous. (there is only one such person, so it is not necessary to define him)

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Compare: John’s sister, who lives in Prague, is expecting a baby. (=his only sister) John’s sister who lives in Prague is expecting a baby. (= one of his sisters whose name I can’t remember, so I define her by saying that she lives in Prague).

The pronouns

- who / whom - personal gender

e.g. The man who greeted me is a neighbour. (who = subject) The man who / whom I greeted is a neighbour. (who / whom = object) The man to whom I spoke is a neighbour. The man (who) I spoke to is a neighbour. whom – is largely restricted to formal style when it functions as the object of the relative clause, but (!) it must be used if a preposition follows (e.g. ‘to whom’ not *‘to who’)

- which – non-personal gender - whose – usually personal, but can also be non-personal e.g. That is the doctor whose number I gave you. That is the hospital whose phone number I gave you. (= That is the hospital the number of which I gave you.)

- that – has no reference to gender but cannot be preceded by a preposition and

can be used only in restrictive relative clauses e.g. The play that pleased me is new to London. The actor that I admired …… The play that I told you about was ……….. (but not: about that I told you)

- ‘that’ is especially common and more natural after: ‘all, every (thing), some(thing), any(thing), no(thing), none, little, few, much, only’ and also after superlatives:

e.g. Is this all that’s left? Have you got anything that belongs to me? It’s the best film that’s ever been made on this subject. All that you need is here. (not: what) I hope the little that I’ve done has been useful.

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- pet animals can be regarded as ‘personal’ esp. by their owners:

e.g. Rover, who was barking, frightened the children.

- human babies can be regarded (although rarely by their parents) as non-personal

e.g. This is the baby which needs inoculation.

- collective nouns can be regarded personal (+ plural verb) or non- personal (+sg verb):

e.g. The committee who were responsible for this decision ……. The committee which was responsible for this decision …….

Zero = omitting the pronouns

- we can leave out the relative pronoun, but only when it refers to the object and only in restrictive relative clauses

e.g. The man (who) I phoned didn’t help me at all. The girl (who) he came with was very attractive. The story (that) he told me was really incredible. But! The man who phoned in the morning wanted to order some goods. (subject) The girl who was waiting for me was my sister. (subject)

Further notes:

- ‘when’ and ‘where’ can be used after nouns referring to times and places instead of

‘at which’ or ‘in which’: e.g. I know a wood where you can find wild strawberries. (=in which) Can you suggest a time when it will be convenient to meet? the day when = the day on which a shop where = a shop at which the reason why = the reason for which - sometimes the relative clause refers not just to the noun before it, but to the whole

sentence before:

compare: He showed me a photo that upset me. (=the photo was upsetting) He tore up my photo, which upset me. (the fact that he tore it up was upsetting)

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i.e. which = ‘což’

- with determiners (e.g. all, many, few, none) we can use ’of whom’:

e.g. It’s a family of eight children, all of whom / two of whom / some of whom are studying music. We tested three hundred types of boot, none of which is completely waterproof.

V. INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS = who, whom, whose, which, what

- who, whom, whose – refer only to items of personal gender - ‘whom’ can function only as the objective case - ‘who’ can be both subjective and objective except after a preposition

e.g. Who owns this house? Who(m) does this house belong to? To whom does this house belong (=formal!) / Who does this house belong to? Whose is this house?

- ‘which’ – reference can be personal or non-personal e.g. Of these cars, which is best? Of these students, which do you like most? Which of us (not! who of us) is going to do the washing up? - ‘what’ used as a pronoun – the reference is assumed non-personal

e.g. What is in that box?

But! What and which can also be determiners – in this function the noun phrase can be personal or non-personal, ‘which’ assumes a limited choice of known answers: e.g. What doctor(s) would refuse to see a patient? Which doctor(s) gave an opinion on this problem? (i.e. of those we are discussing) Also: Which is you? (a person looking at an old photo) Which of the three girls is the oldest? (= ‘of’ phrase indicates definite number) Compare:

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Who is his wife? – The novelist Felicity Smith. What is his wife? – A novelist. Which is his wife? – The woman nearest the door. VI. DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS

- ‘this / these’ – suggest relative proximity to the speaker - ‘that / those’ – suggest relative remoteness - they can refer both to countable and uncountable nouns

e.g. We shall compare this (picture) here with that (picture) over there. We shall compare these (pictures) here with those (pictures) over there.

- they can be used as pro-forms as substitutes for a noun phrase:

e.g. This chair is more comfortable than that. (or that one) Those apples are sweeter than these. (or these ones) I attended to that patient but not this (one).

- they can refer to some unspecified object(s): e.g. Come and have a look at this. Have you heard this? (=this joke, this piece of news) Can I borrow these? (i.e. these books)

- the demonstrative pronouns can be a subject of a ‘be-clause’:

e.g. That is my kitten. These are the children I told you about. This is Mr. Jones. That’s my stepmother. (pointing to a photograph) This is Sid. Is that Paul? (on the telephone)

- ‘this v. that’ can refer not only to space, also time

e.g. this morning (refers to today) that morning (refers to a more distant morning, past or future)

- ‘this / these’ tend to be associated with cataphoric reference

e. g. Watch carefully and I’ll show you: this is how it’s done.

This is the news . / Here is the news. - ‘that / those’ with anaphoric reference:

e.g. So now you know: that’s how it’s done.

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And that was the six o’clock news.

- ‘that’ refers to degree or measurement in contexts such as:

e.g. My brother is six feet tall, but yours must be even taller than that.

Note: Especially in informal English ‘this / these’ tend to indicate the speaker’s approval, whereas ‘that / those’ indicate the speaker’s disapproval e.g. How can this intelligent girl think of marrying that awful bore? Did she bring that husband of hers? I don’t like that new boyfriend of hers. X Tell me about this new boyfriend of yours.

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SEMINAR 8 – PRONOUNS 2 - QUESTIONS (to answer after you have studied the seminar handout carefully)

1. The reflexive pronouns have two uses. Which ones? Give examples in sentences.

2. Explain the difference in meaning between the following sentences:

a) She poured herself a glass of wine. b) She poured her a glass of wine.

c) Paul told John to look at him. d) Paul told John to look at himself.

3. Which reflexive pronoun is ‘indefinite’ and when can we use it? 4. Give examples of the following verbs in sentences and explain whether we use

reflexive pronouns with them:

a) a reflexive verb b) semi-reflexive verb c) nonreflexive verb (can take a reflexive pronoun, but doesn’t have to)

5. Do we need to use reflexive pronouns with the verb ‘enjoy’?

6. Choose the right pronouns:

a) I don’t have any money on me / myself. b) She was sitting by her / herself. (=on her own) c) I was sitting by her / herself. d) He was beside him / himself with rage. e) She looked about her / herself. f) She had to look after her / herself when her parents died.

7. Which of the following sentences illustrate the emphatic use of the reflexive

pronouns? What’s the meaning of the reflexive pronouns? Can we change their position within the sentence in this use?

a) John himself told me about the meeting. b) Carol dressed herself and put on some make up. c) I myself would never do it. d) Did you talk to the manager himself?

8. Explain the difference between the following sentences:

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a) Mary and Jane stood in front of the mirror and looked at themselves. b) Mary and Jane looked at each other.

9. Explain the two main uses of possessive pronouns, give examples in sentences.

10. We can modify the possessive pronouns using only one word. Which one? Give a few examples in sentences.

11. Explain the difference between restrictive and nonresrictive relative clauses – see the examples. Could we use other relative pronouns in them?

a) My house, which I bought last year, has got a lovely garden. b) Is that the woman who you met at the concert?

12. Which of the following sentences are wrong? Correct them.

a) The man who wants to buy our car phoned yesterday. b) The man that we saw running from the bank was a robber. c) The woman with whom he came to the party was his cousin. d) The girl about that he told me the other day was waiting for him in front of

the school. e) The students which don’t pass the test will have to take it again.

In which of these sentences can we leave out the relative pronouns?

13. Consider the following sentences and explain how we use the interrogative pronouns.

a) What director do you like best? b) Which director do you like best?

c) Who is your favourite actor? d) Which is your favourite actor?

14. Demonstrative pronouns do not refer only to space. What else do they refer to?

Give examples.

15. What’s the difference between the following sentences?

a) This is my friend Charlie. b) That is my friend Charlie. c) This is how it’s done. d) That is how it’s done.

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16. What does ‘that’ imply in the following sentences?

a) Janet is coming. I hope she doesn’t bring that husband of hers. b) She’s awful, that Mabel.

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SEMINAR 9 - PRONOUNS 3 (SGEL 6.21 – 6.28; LEG – 4.37 - 5.17 ) (Chalker: ex. 67 - 69, GRAMMAR I – ex. 204 – 232 -all kinds of pronouns) Indefinite pronouns – compound v. of pronouns; universal – assertive – non-assertive - negative Indefinite pronouns - express quantity, from totality (‘all’) to its converse (‘nothing’) - reference sometimes reflects gender, i.e. items in –body are personal, items in –thing are nonpersonal - quantification – reflects countability and number, e.g. each+ sing C nouns (e.g. each boy), both + dual C nouns( both her parents), some + U or C pl nouns (some water, some students) - they can sometimes combine with elements of definite meaning, e.g. the ones, the few, the other - the indefinite pronouns are quantitative - they have universal or partitive meaning Major indefinite pronouns

a) universal – everyone, everybody, everything; each, every, all, both b) assertive – someone, somebody, something, some c) non-assertive – anyone, anybody, anything, either, any d) negative – no one, nobody, nothing, none, neither, no

Compound pronouns - are composed of two morphemes: a determiner morpheme every-, some-, any-, or no- and a nominal morpheme –one, -body, -thing - all the compound pronouns are singular and so take singular verbs, although notionally they may denote more than one thing or person: e.g. Everybody / Everyone over eighteen now has a vote. Nobody / No one was willing to get up and speak. Has anybody / anyone got anything to say? - the forms in –one are more common in written usage, in speech the forms in –body are more frequent - the pronouns in –one and –body have a genitive e.g. Safety is everyone’s responsibility. It seems to be nobody’s fault. There’s somebody’s glove on the floor.

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- a postmodifier ‘else’ can be added to the compound pronouns –e.g. everyone else, nobody else; the genitive ending is added to else, not the pronoun itself: e.g. I must be drinking someone else’s coffee. Her hair is longer than anybody else’s. Note: Notice the difference between everyone (=everybody) v. every one Compare:1) Everyone enjoyed the party. X He is invited to a lot of parties and he (=everybody) goes to every one. (= every party.) 2) Every v. each The rooms weren’t the same. Have you read all those books? Each (or Each one) was different. Yes, every one. (*not: Yes, every.) I have read each of them. I have read every one of them. (*not: each one of them) (*not: every of them) I have read each of the books. I have read every one of those books. Of- pronouns The remaining indefinite pronouns which are not compounds are by some grammarians called Of-pronouns (all, each, both, some, many, more, most, few, one, either, none, neither, little + (of))

a) they can be followed by a partitive of-phrase e.g. Some of us were tired and hungry. (*not: Somebody of us…) None of them wanted to help me. (*not: Nobody of us…)

b) they can be used as substitutes for nouns phrases:

e.g. Many children learn to read quite quickly, but some need special instruction. UNIVERSAL PRONOUNS

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All and both - with ‘all’ we make plural reference = more than two - with ‘both’ dual reference = two only - ‘all’ and ‘both’ have a predeterminer function: e.g. All these cars are for export. Both the suspects were arrested. - the converse of ‘all’ is ‘no’ (‘none’); the converse of ‘both’ is ‘neither’, usually with sg verb concord: e.g. The two suspects were interviewed but neither was arrested. or Neither suspect was arrested. ! with the ‘of-phrase’ + a plural nouns both the sg and pl verb forms are possible compare: Neither restaurant was expensive. Neither of the restaurants was / were expensive. - ‘all’ and ‘both’ (and ‘each’) can appear medially (= in mid-position) – after the subject if there is no operator, or after the operator e.g. The cars were all for export. X The cars all cost more than ... The two suspects were both arrested. The suspects both denied … - ‘all’ and ‘both’ when used with ‘the’ can be followed by of, but don’t need to! e.g. All (of) the boys want to become football players. Both (of) the boys want to become football players. - used alone, ‘all’ can be equivalent to everything, but not always, normally, we don’t use ‘all’ alone: e.g. All is not lost. = Everything is not lost. e.g. He thinks he knows everything. (*not: all) but: He is a real know-all. (=an idiomatic phrase) - we don’t normally use ‘all’ to mean everybody / everyone: e.g. Everybody liked the party much. (not: All liked….) All the guests liked the party. - before a sg countable noun ‘all’ is formal and is frequently replaced by a construction with ‘whole’:

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e.g. The whole (of) civilized world denounced the invasion. They weren’t able to stay for the whole concert. - the phrase ‘both the boys’ can be replaced by ‘the two boys / both boys’ Each and every( + none) - they have singular reference, can be used irrespective of gender (people or things) - they are singular in number e.g. Many members hesitated but although each was pressed to act, none was in the end willing. - ‘each’ (but not ‘none’) can also function as a determiner: e.g. Each (Every) candidate will be individually interviewed. - ‘each’ is more targeted on the individual among the totality whereas ‘every’ on the totality itself - with ‘almost, nearly, virtually, etc. we use ‘every’ not *‘each’ e.g. Almost every visitor stopped and stared. - ‘every’ is used to say how often something happens: e.g. Ann gets paid every four weeks. There’s a bus every ten minutes. - ‘none’ can also be used with plural, although some users object to that, singular form is usually more formal (BrE): e.g. Hundreds were examined but none were acceptable. None of the parcels have / has arrived. None of the children was / were awake. None of my friends live / lives here. ASSERTIVE PRONOUNS - these pronouns are used in the ‘assertive territory’

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e.g. I can see someone / somebody climbing that tree. There’s something I want to tell you. There are nuts here; please, have some. All the students speak French and some speak Italian as well. - ‘some’ occurs typically with plural and uncountable nouns: e.g. Some rolls have been eaten. / Some bread has been eaten. Some (of the rolls) have been eaten. / Some (of the bread) has been eaten. - as a determiner, ‘some’ can occur with singular countable nouns, especially temporal nouns: e.g. Some day, I’ll tell you a great secret. (= one day) - with other singular nouns, ‘some’ has the meaning of ‘a certain’: e.g. I hear that some rare animal has escaped from the zoo. Some man stopped me to ask the way. - assertive forms can be used in non-assertive territory – i.e. ‘some’ in questions or requests or offers – when the presupposition is positive (i.e. we expect a positive answer) e.g. Can you see someone in the garden? (=there is someone, can you see him/her?) v. Can you see anyone in the garden? (=neutral) Would you like some wine? (=I invite you to have some wine) = offer Can I have some water? = request Quantifiers - increase or decrease the implications of ‘some’ - many (= a large number) v. a few (=a small number) - much (=a large amount) v. a little (= a small amount) e.g. I know many / a few people in Boston. Many (of my friends) were there. I have eaten too much / a little (of the food). Much has been said about the cost of medicine. - ‘much’ is used rather in non-assertive territory – questions and negatives, i.e. not in affirmatives, unless it is accompanied by a modifier, e.g. too much, very much, so much - ‘many’ can be used in assertive territory (i.e. in all kinds of sentences)

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e.g. She has many / a lot of good ideas. ….. a lot of / lots of / plenty of good ideas. – ‘a lot of / plenty of’ are normally preferred She has a lot of money. (but not: *She has much money.) She has very much / too much money. - there are objections against the use of ‘less’ and ‘least’ with plural nouns, but they are widely used in informal English: e.g. There used to be more women than men in the country, but now there are fewer / less. There were less / fewer than 20 students at the lecture. Many, much, etc. as intensifiers - many / much / a few / a little can precede the comparative forms more, fewer and less: e.g. We have many more apples this year. / much more time We have had a few more plums ……………. It was much / far better. We have had much less rain ………. It is a bit cheaper / a bit more expensive. / a little cheaper / slightly cheaper With superlatives we can use ‘by far’ e.g. It is by far the best film I have ever seen. One ‘One’ in its numerical sense fits into the list of indefinite pronouns at this point, but it is a versatile word that has a number of different functions

a) numerical one – one b) substitute one – one, ones c) generic one – one, one’s, oneself

↓ a) numerical one

- the cardinal numeral ‘one’ is naturally singular and countable - can occur as a determiner (one boy = a boy) or the head of a nouns phrase (one of the boys) - it also occurs in contrast to ‘the other’ or ‘another’ in correlative constructions - ‘one … the other’ is used with reference to two: e.g. I saw two suspicious-looking men. One went this way, the other that.

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One of his eyes is better than the other. - ‘one … another’ or ‘one …. the other’ is used with reference to more than two: e.g. We overtook one car after another / the other. I’ve been busy with one thing or another.

b) substitute one

- the substitute pronoun ‘one’ has the plural ‘ones’ and is used as a substitute for a countable noun: e.g. I’m looking for a book on grammar. – Is this the one you mean? I’d like a drink, but just a small one. - it can be easily combined with determiners and modifiers: e.g. those ones I like the old one in the kitchen - the combination ‘ a one’ can occur when ‘one’ (=jednička) is used as a noun: e.g. I couldn’t make out whether the number was a seven or a one. (=number one)

c) generic one

- occurs chiefly in the singular and with personal gender - it has the genitive one’s and the reflexive ‘oneself’ - its meaning is ‘people in general’, often with particular reference to the speaker e.g. I like to dress nicely. It gives one confidence. - the use of generic ‘one’ is chiefly formal, it is often replaced colloquially by ‘you’: e.g. One would think they would run a later bus than that. (or You would think)

Half, several, enough - ‘several’ is always plural, indicates a number slightly greater than ‘a few’ - ‘enough’ contrasts with ‘too little’ and ‘too few’ e.g. Half (of) the class / children were girls.

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I’ve only read half (of) the book. We had to wait for half an hour. Several (of my friends) attended the conference. There is enough water to last several weeks. Other and another - ‘other’ as a postdeterminer follows other determiners, including quantifiers, also numerals e.g. all the other women several other trees two other letters many other ideas - as a pronoun, it can occur with the same determiners, and it also occurs in a plural form: e.g. Some people complained, but others were more tolerant. (not ‘the’ others – it’s general) Where are all the others? (people, books, etc., ‘the’ means that the number is limited and somehow determined) - ‘others’ is also used in an absolute sense: e.g. We should be considerate to others. (=other people generally) ‘another’, although spelt as a single word, is a combination of ‘an’ and ‘other’! – therefore, ‘another’ is not normally used with plural nouns (*another students) unless we refer to periods of time, money, etc. as one entity (i.e. another three weeks) e.g. I’ve sold my bicycle and bought another (one). - apart from its usual meaning, ‘another’ also means ‘a further’ or ‘one more’; in this sense, ‘another’ can be followed by a numeral and a plural noun: e.g. May I borrow another piece of paper? They decided to stay for another three days. - ‘other, others and another’ can be used with of-constructions, although rather rarely: e.g. I saw another of those yellow butterflies yesterday. Some members of our expedition wanted to climb to the summit, but others of us thought it too dangerous. - the genitive is not common with ‘another’: e.g. She has another person’s coat. (instead of another’s coat)

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NONASSERTIVE PRONOUNS - in addition to the compound pronouns ‘anybody, anyone, anything’ there are two non-assertive pronouns – any and either Besides ‘not’, the negative forms whose scope favours non-assertive forms includes:

a) words negative in form: never, no, neither, nor b) words negative in meaning:

i) adverbs, determiners – hardly, little, few, only, seldom ii) the ‘implied negatives’- fail, deny, prohibit; reluctant, unlikely

Compare: There was a good chance somebody would come. There was little chance anybody would come. John was eager to read some (of the) books. John was reluctant to read any (of the) books. Some v. any - some contexts are considered non-assertive (negative, interrogative and conditional) and yet assertive forms are possible in them; it is the meaning that governs the choice of ‘some’ or ‘any’ e.g. Freud contributed more than anyone to the understanding of dreams. (= Nobody contributed as much to the understanding of dreams as Freud.)

Did somebody telephone last night? (= ‘somebody’ suggests that the speaker expected a telephone call)

- we often use ‘any’ after ‘if’, or if the sentence has the idea of ‘if’: e.g. Let me know if you need anything. I’m sorry for any trouble I’ve caused. (= If I have caused any trouble…) We apologize for any inconvenience …. The following examples are superficially non-assertive and yet ‘some’ is appropriate:

e.g. If someone were to drop a match here, the house would be on fire in two minutes.

But what if somebody decides to break the rules? Will somebody please open the door? Why don’t you ask some other question?

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Any and either - any – the choice is between three or more - either – the choice is limited to two (similarly to ‘both’ and ‘neither’ it has dual meaning) e.g. I haven’t written to any of my relatives about the marriage. I haven’t written to either of my parents. You can ask either of us to help you. - ‘any’ in its stressed form occurs in ’assertive territory’ with the meaning ‘it doesn’t matter which / who / what: e.g. He will eat any kind of vegetables. / He will eat anything. Any dog might bite a child if teased. Any offer would be better than this. Anyone who tells lies is punished. NEGATIVE PRONOUS - the compound pronouns – nobody, no one, nothing - negative determiners and pronouns – none, neither - also ‘few’ and ‘little’, although not morphologically negative, are negative in meaning and syntactic behaviour, they can be intensified by ‘extremely’ and ‘very’: e.g. I have received no urgent messages. None (of the students) has / have failed. Neither accusation is true. That’s none of your business. I said nothing about it. There were few visitors at the exhibition. (=not many) Little of the original building remains today. (=not much)

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SEMINAR 9 – PRONOUNS 3 QUESTIONS (to answer after you have studied the seminar handout carefully)

1. Do any of the indefinite pronouns reflect gender distinctions?

2. How does countability influence the use of pronouns? Consider especially: each, both, some, either, neither, none.

3. Name some compound pronouns. What verb (sg or pl) do they take? What’s their notional meaning?

4. Is there any difference between ‘everyone’ and ‘every one’?

5. Is there any difference between forms in –one and –body?

6. The compounds can take the ‘s genitive, give examples. + Is it the same when the

compound is post-modified by ‘else’?

7. Which of the following sentences are not right?

a) I didn’t see anybody of them. b) Students at secondary schools usually learn English, but some don’t. c) Noone wanted to help me. d) Every of the students were asked to come and see the teacher individually.

8. Consider the meaning of the following sentences. One sentence is not correct.

Which one?

a) All boys play football. b) All the boys play football. c) All of the boys play football. d) All of boys play football.

9. What verbs (sg or pl) are used after neither and none?

10. ‘Some’ is common with uncountable nouns and plural countable nouns. In some contexts it can also be used with sg countable nouns. Give examples.

11. Is it possible to say this?

Less changes were made than expected.

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12. Make sentences using:

a) one ….. the other b) one …… another

13. Give examples of ‘substitute’ one in sg and pl.:

14. Explain the use of ‘generic’ one. What can we use instead in informal contexts?

15. Consider the meaning of the underlined pronouns in the following sentences:

a) Some people like the sea, others prefer the mountains. b) I have just one photo. Where are the others? c) He never thinks of others. d) Jake’s arrived – I must tell the others.

16. Explain why the following sentence is wrong and correct it:

There are more people than we expected. We need another chairs.

17. What pronouns should be used in the following sentences?

a) Can I get you ____________ to drink? b) Let’s go ____________ nice for dinner. c) There’s hardly ______ tea left. d) There is little point in doing ______ more work now. e) If you want ___________ help, let me know.

18. ‘Any’ and ‘either’ are both used in non-assertive territory but not in the same

contexts. Explain the difference.

19. Give 2 examples of ‘any’ (in sentences) used in assertive territory.

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SEMINAR 10 – ADJECTIVES and ADVERBS 1 (SGEL 7.1 – 7.16) (Chalker: ex. 70 – 74; GRAMMAR I: Adjectives – ex. 50 – 68, Adverbs – ex. 176 -203) General characteristics of adjectives (attributive v. predicative, central v. peripheral) – gradability – adjectives v. adverbs– adjectives and adverbs beginning with a- - adjectives and nouns – adjectives and participles – syntactic functions of adjectives Characteristics of the adjective Four features are considered to be characteristic of adjectives (but not all adjectives share all four features!)

a) they can occur in ATTRIBUTIVE function – they premodify a noun as in: an ugly painting, the round table, dirty linen

b) they can occur in PREDICATIVE function – they function as subject

complement (e.g. The painting is ugly. / His trousers were dirty. ) or object complement (e.g. He thought the painting ugly.), usually used after ‘be, seem’

!! Some adjectives have both attributive and predicative function – these are called CENTRAL (e.g. happy, infinite). !!Some adjectives – called PERIPHERAL - can be only attributive - e.g. utter nonsense, utter waste of time; but not: *The nonsense was utter. or only predicative - e.g. afraid She was afraid. but not: * The afraid girl clung on to her mother.

c) they can be premodified by ‘very’, e.g. The children are very happy. BUT! not all adjectives

d) they can take comparative and superlative forms – either by means of inflections

(-er, -est) or by adding premodifiers (more and most) BUT! not all adjectives ↓ !! Features c) and d) depend on a semantic feature – the so-called GRADABILITY (some adjectives are gradable, others are non-gradable) i.e. if the adjective is non-gradable – we cannot modify them using ‘very, too’ and we cannot make a comparative and superlative from them – e.g. atomic, dead, perfect, unique, medical, daily e.g. an atomic scientist - atomic scientist, more atomic scientist a disastrous mistake a terrible experience – very terrible experience

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Note: Some suffixes are found only, or typically with adjectives, but many adjectives have no identifying form, e.g. good, bad, young, nice, etc. adj. suffixes: -able (comfortable, capable, washable) -al (seasonal, mechanical) -ful (playful, careful, painful) -ic (scientific, energetic) -ish (greyish, foolish, eightish ) -less (useless, lifeless, childless) -ous (dangerous, humorous, spacious) -y (dirty, rainy, sleepy) The adjective and other word classes A) Adjectives and adverbs Normally, there is a regular difference between an adjective (a rapid car) and adverb (He drove rapidly.) e.g. He is a slow reader. v . He reads slowly. He speaks fluent English. v. He speaks English fluently. She is a careful driver. v. She drives carefully. !!But:

a) there are words which have the same form in adjective and adverb functions – e.g. fast, wide, late, long, deep, close(in stay close), direct (in fly direct),

e.g. Bill drove a fast car. (adj.) v. Bill drove fast. (adv.) She arrived in the late afternoon. v. She arrived late in the afternoon. I haven’t seen him for a long time. v. Have you been waiting long? ... a wide variety ... v. ´Open wide´ said the dentist.

b) sometimes there is also an –ly adverb but with a different meaning – e.g.

lately, nearly (=almost), hardly, freely, highly, widely, etc.

e.g. Have you seen her lately? (=recently) He hardly ever works. It’s nearly ten o’clock. It is widely known that ... You can speak quite freely about ....

c) sometimes there are two forms, e.g. deep (both an adj. and adv) and deeply

adj. - Take a deep breath. / a deep hole / a deep cut / deep sleep adv.- Breathe deep. (esp. informal) / It was deep in the forest. / be deep in debt adv.- Breathe deeply. / deeply rooted customs / be deeply in love / to sleep deeply

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Sometimes, especially in non-standard and very familiar English, adjectives instead of adverbs are used: e.g. She played real good. / That tastes real good. / He´s a real nice guy. = very I am real sorry. (= very sorry) - informal He spoke to John sharp. d) there are some words in –ly that can function both as adjectives and adverbs!

e.g. I caught an early train. v. We finished early today. That was a kindly gesture. v. Will you kindly refrain from smoking?

(kind is also possible) + other words denoting time: monthly, daily, hourly, weekly e.g. Exercise has become part of my daily routine. (adj) She gets paid daily. (adv) It’s a daily paper. (adj.) v. It comes out daily. (adv.) !!Note: - words ‘daily’ and ‘monthly’ , also ´ weekly´,´ quarterly´ are also nouns: e.g. The story was covered in all the national dailies.

- if the adjective ends in –ly (friendly, lively, masterly, lonely, cowardly, deadly), we normally form the adverb meaning using an adjective construction: e.g. She received us in a friendly way / manner. (not: friendlily) - after certain verbs we use adjectives (in Czech often adverbs) – smell nice / bad, look good, sound good, seem angry, appear nervous, etc. Compare: She looks good. (=appearance) v. She looks well. (=health)

I feel good. v. I feel well / unwell.

B) Adjectives and adverbs beginning with a- - some words beginning with a- are adjectives – they can be used predicatively with ’be’ and other copular (linking) verbs - adverbs beginning with a- can be used only with ‘be’ (out of the copular verbs) e.g. The patient was asleep / hungry. (adj) The patient was abroad / there. (adv) The patient seemed asleep / hungry. But not! The patient seemed abroad /there.

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- a- adjectives refer to temporary states – they cannot be used after verbs of motion! - a- adverbs denote direction after such verbs:

e.g. Jane went asleep. - Jane went abroad / away. (adv)

Common a- adjectives include: ablaze, alive, alike alight, afloat, afraid, alone, ashamed, asleep, aware, awake, aghast, → they are used predicatively:

e.g. The house was quickly ablaze. The two brothers are very much alike.

The children were asleep. Not! The asleep children …. → The sleeping children The girl was afraid. Not! The afraid girl… → The frightened girl…. Help me get the boat afloat. V. the floating boat Everything that is alive… v. All living things…. The buildings are alight… v. The burning buildings…

Note: - two a-adjectives ‘alert’ and ‘aloof’ can occur attributively: ‘an alert mind’; ‘aloof character’ (=reserved) - most other a- adjectives can occur attributively only when modified: e.g. a somewhat afraid soldier the fast asleep children a really alive student (lively) the wide awake patient C) Adjectives and nouns - nouns commonly function as premodifiers of other nouns: the bus station, a business friend, student grants - unlike adjectives, nouns:

a) have no corresponding predicative function. (The station was bus.) b) cannot be modified by ‘very’ c) cannot take comparison

Nouns have other features that distinguish them from adjectives: article contrast, number contrast, genitive inflection, etc.

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!Some items can be both adjectives and nouns (=conversion) e.g. criminal (adj) v. noun

a) attributive adj – a criminal attack b) predicative adj – The attack seemed criminal to us. (=very bad or morally wrong) c) noun – The criminal pleaded guilty.

Other examples of conversion from adjective to noun: Adj. Noun a black student There was only one black in my class.

a classic book You won’t find many classics in our library. intellectual interests She considers herself an intellectual. a noble family The king greeted his nobles. a six-year-old boy Our six-year-old is at school.

Note: - like adjectives, nouns can function as subject complement after copular verbs: e.g. That man is a fool. / She became a nurse. - some nouns can also be used ‘as subject complement after seem’: e.g. He seems a fool. Your remark seems (complete) nonsense to me. His friend seems very much an Englishman. (=very English) D) Adjectives and participles - there are many adjectives that have the same suffixes as participles - -ing or –ed – these are called participial adjectives: e.g. His views were surprising. (predicative use) His surprising views were….. (attributive use) The man seemed very offended. (predicative use) The offended man refused ………(attributive use) - they include forms in –ed that have no corresponding verbs (e.g. to unexpect, to talent) e.g. The results were unexpected. v. the unexpected results …. All his friends are talented. v. his talented friends… His lung is diseased. v. his diseased lung… Since there are no corresponding verbs, the forms are obviously not participles!

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- when there is a corresponding verb, attributively used –ed forms usually have a passive meaning (but not always!) e.g. lost property = property that has been lost (passive) the escaped prisoner = the prisoner who has escaped (active) Adjective or participle? Often the difference between the adj. and participle is not clear-cut, but the grammatical context distinguishes the verbal and adjectival use: Compare:

a) His views were alarming the audience. (since ‘alarming’ is followed by an object – it is participle) b) His views were very alarming. (intensifier ‘very’ – ‘alarming’ is an adjective) c) The man was offended by the policeman. (‘by’ indicates there is a corresponding active form – ‘offended’ is participle) d) The man was very offended. (‘very’ – ‘offended’ is an adjective) However, without any such indicators (very, by, ‘objects’), the meaning is not clear – the sentence can be interpreted in two ways: participle = focus on the process e.g. The man was offended. adjective = focus on the state resulting from the process Note: - some verbs have different participle forms for verbal and adjectival use: e.g. You have drunk too much. v. drunk / drunken driver Have you shaved? v. a clean-shaven man This shirt has shrunk. v. a shrunken shirt - pronunciation –ed = /id/ in some adjectives ending in –ed – e.g. a beloved son a naked body, a crooked street, a wicked sense of humour; wretched, learned, ragged, Careful about ‘aged’ - /eidžid/ - very old – e.g. an aged man, two aged aunts /eidžəd/ - at the age of – e.g. a man aged 50,

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SYNTACTIC FUNCTIONS OF ADJECTIVES 1) Attributive v. predicative - adj. are attributive when they premodify the head of a noun phrase: e.g. a small garden, popular ballads - adj. are predicative when they function as subject or object complement: e.g. He seems careless. (subj. compl.) v. I find him careless. (obj. compl) - adj. are subject complement to noun phrase, and also to finite clauses (see a below) and non-finite clauses (see b below):

a) That you need a car is obvious. Whether she will resign is uncertain.

b) To complain may be dangerous. Playing chess can be enjoyable.

- adj. can also be object complement to clauses: e.g. I consider what he did foolish. I consider taking such risks foolish. 2) Postpositive - adj. can sometimes be postpositive = they can immediately follow the noun or pronoun they modify - we many have 3 positions of adjectives:

a) predicative – The information is useful. b) attributive – useful information c) postpositive - something useful

→ a postpositive adj. can usually be regarded as a reduced relative clause: e.g. something useful = something that is useful

- compound indefinite pronouns and adverbs ending in –body, -one, -thing, -where can be modified only postpositively! e.g. Anyone (who is) intelligent can do it. I want to try on something (that is) larger. We’re not going anywhere exciting. Where shall we go on holiday? – Let’s go somewhere hot.

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Obviously, adj. that can occur only attributively cannot be used in this way: e.g. something (that is) main Note: - there are several institutionalized expressions (mostly in official designations, names, titles) where the adjective is postpositive:

e.g. the president elect(i.e. elected but not yet officially placed in the function), heir apparent, attorney general, notary public, proof positive

- adjectives in –able and –ible can be postpositive or attributive when they are modified by another adjective in the superlative degree or by certain other modifiers (e.g. first, last, next, only) e.g. The best use possible is to ……… (also: the best possible use) The greatest insult imaginable…. The only actor suitable was Henry. Or The only suitable actor was Henry. (but: The only actor suitable for the part was….) The choice of attributive or postpositive position can involve an important difference in meaning!! e.g. the stars visible (= stars visible at a time specified, now, etc. = temporary!) the visible stars (= stars that can generally be seen) the members present (= the members who were at the meeting) the present members (= those are members now) !Postposition is usual for: ‘absent, present, concerned, involved’- when they refer to temporary attributes!! temporary e.g. an involved explanation (=complicated) v. the person involved… the concerned mother (=anxious, worried) v. the person concerned an adopted child v. the solution adopted (=chosen) 3) Adjectives with complementation - normally, these adjectives cannot have attributive position – they require postposition: e.g. an actor suitable for the part Not! a suitable for the part actor - the complementation can be a prepositional phrase or infinitive: e.g. They have a house larger than yours. (or: They have a larger house than yours.) The boys easiest to teach were in my class. (or: The easiest boys to teach were…)

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4) Adjectives as heads of noun phrases (e.g. ‘the poor’) - can be subject, complement, object, prepositional complement - do not have plural inflection or genitive case - refer to certain well-established classes of persons: ‘the brave, the innocent, the elderly, the weak, the sick, the unemployed, the blind, the poor, the rich, the young, the deaf, the injured, the homeless, the disabled, etc.’ - we can distinguish 3 types:

a) adj. which can premodify personal nouns (e.g. young people – the young) – have plural and generic reference:

e.g. The poor are causing the nation’s leaders great concern.

The extremely old need a great deal of attention. The young in spirit enjoy life.

- instead of ‘the’, which is the most common, possessives are also possible: e.g. It is the duty of the Government to care for our poor, our unemployed.

b) adj. denoting nationalities ending in -ish (e.g. British, Spanish, Welsh), -ch (Dutch, French), -ese (Chinese, Japanese) and the adj. Swiss

e.g. The industrious Dutch are admired by their neighbours. You French and we British ought to be allies.

c) adj. with abstract reference (unlike a) and b), these have singular concord!) e.g. The very best is yet to come. - this category is restricted to certain fixed expressions: the unknown, the unreal, the exotic, the supernatural

Note: - there are some set expressions in which the adj. with abstract reference is the complement of a preposition: e.g. He left for good. (= for ever) in short in common nothing out of the ordinary He enjoyed it to the full. from bad to worse

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5) Verbless clauses - adjectives can function as the sole realization of a verbless clause: e.g. The man, quietly assertive, spoke to the assembled workers. Unhappy with the result, she returned to work. Long and untidy, his hair played in the breeze. Anxious for a quick decision, the chairman called for a vote. - the clause is mobile:

e.g. The chairman called for a vote, anxious for a quick decision. - sometimes the adjective phrase can be replaced by an adverb phrase with little change of meaning: e.g. Rather nervous, the man opened the letter. The man opened the letter, rather nervous. The man, rather nervous, opened the letter. Rather nervously, the man opened the letter. - the adjective clause can be dependent – such verbless clauses express circumstance or condition under which what is said in the superordinate clause applies: e.g. When fit, the Labrador is an excellent retriever. If wet, these shoes should never be placed too close to the heat. (Whether) right or wrong, he always fails to communicate his ideas. When (it is) necessary, he can be taken to the doctor. - or it can be in final position: e.g. You must eat it when fresh. 6) Exclamatory adjective clauses - adjectives can be exclamations, with or without the initial wh-element: e.g. Excellent! (How) wonderful! (How) good of you!

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SEMINAR 10 – ADJECTIVES and ADVERBS 1 QUESTIONS (to answer after you have studied the seminar handout carefully)

1. Explain the difference between attributive and predicative use of adjectives. Give examples.

2. Some adjectives are called central and some are called peripheral. Explain and

give examples. 3. Explain the feature of gradability. Give examples.

4. Name some typical adjectival suffixes + give examples. 5. The normal adjective – adverb distinction (e.g. slow –slowly) does not work

always. Make sentences using the following words as adjectives and adverbs:

fast, late, early, + is ‘lately’ also possible?

6. Are both the following sentences correct?

a) I talked to that kind old man. b) I talked to that kindly old man.

+ Use ‘kindly’ as an adverb in a sentence of your own

7. Words such as ‘daily’ or ‘monthly’ can belong to more word classes. Which ones? Give examples in sentences.

8. Adjectives that end in –ly do not take another –ly ending. How do we express the adverb meaning?

9. Give examples of adjectives beginning with a-. Are they typically used attributively or predicatively?

10. Give examples of conversion from adjective into noun. 11. There are many adjectives that have the same endings as participles (-ing, -ed).

All the following sentences contain adjectives, not participles. Are they attributive or predicative?

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a) Her children must be downhearted. b) Her downhearted children sat quiet in the room. c) The escaped prisoner hasn’t been arrested yet.

12. Are the underlined words adjectives or participles?

a) She is very calculating but her husband is frank. b) She is calculating our salaries, so don’t disturb her. c) You are frightening the children. d) You are very frightening. e) The window was broken by our neighbours’ sons. f) The window was broken.

13. Explain the term ‘postpositive adjective’ – give examples.

14. What’s the difference between the following? Are they both correct?

a) This is the best use possible. b) This is the best possible use.

15. With some expressions the attributive v. postpositive adjective involves a change

in meaning. Explain the difference:

a) The present members agreed. b) The members present agreed.

16. Give examples of adjectives used as heads of noun phrases.

17. Change the underlined clauses into verbless clauses:

a) As she was bored with the film, she went to bed. b) Being glad to accept, he nodded his agreement.

18. Verbless clauses can also be subordinate. Change the following sentences:

a) When he is asked for help, he always tries to do his best. b) If they are dirty, these clothes should be dry-cleaned.

19. Give examples of exclamatory adjective clauses with and without the initial wh-element.

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SEMINAR 11 – ADJECTIVES and ADVERBS 2 (SGEL 7.17 – 7.26) (Chalker: no exercises; GRAMMAR I: Adjectives – ex. 50 – 68, Adverbs – ex. 176 -203) SYNTACTIC SUBCLASSIFICATION OF ADJECTIVES I. ATTRIBUTIVE ONLY - in general, adjectives that are restricted to attributive position (or that occur predominantly in attributive position) do not characterize the referent of the noun directly (see b)

a) can be a central adjective –Attrib. - that old man (the opposite – young) e.g. old Predic. or that man is old

b) can be restricted only to attributive position – an old friend of mine (the opposite – new) – not the person but the friendship is old

↓

a) adjectives that characterize the referent of the noun directly are termed INHERENT

b) adjectives that do not characterize it directly are termed NONINHERENT, e.g. my old friend

Intensifying adjectives

- some adjectives have a heightening effect on the noun they modify, or the reverse – a lowering effect

- we can distinguish three main semantic subclasses:

a) emphasizers b) amplifiers c) downtoners

↓ a) emphasizers – have a general heightening effect and are generally attributive

only: e.g. a true scholar a sure sign a clear failure the simple truth a certain (= sure) winner pure fabrication, nonsense plain nonsense sheer madness sheer arrogance, nonsense

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utter nonsense Also ‘very’ is used as an adjective in fixed expressions like: the very end the very limit the very thing I wanted I found it at the very bottom of the box.

b) amplifiers – scale upwards from an assumed norm, and are central adjectives if they are inherent and denote a high or extreme degree e.g. a complete victory v. The victory was complete. great destruction v. The destruction was great.

- when they are noninherent, amplifiers are attributive only e.g. a complete fool but not! The fool was complete. a firm friend but not! The friend is firm. a close friend an extreme enemy a great supporter Compare: total nonsense – not! The nonsense was total. = emphasizer total destruction or The destruction was total. = amplifier (= destruction of everything)

c) downtoners – have a lowering effect, usually scaling downwards from an assumed norm. They are relatively few (slight, feeble), generally they are central adjectives

e.g. a slight effort a feeble joke

Restrictive adjectives

- restrict the reference of the noun exclusively, particularly or chiefly

e.g. a certain person (=particular) x a certain winner (sure) – intensifier! a particular child the same student the only occasion the chief excuse, complaint my main concern the exact answer the sole argument, my sole interest the specific point the principal reason the present chairman

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the late president / her late husband (= a person no longer alive, it is used only before a noun in this meaning) Adjectives related to adverbs

- some noninherent adjectives that are only attributive can be related to adverbs, even though they are not intensifying or restrictive e.g. my former friend (= formerly my friend) past students (= students in the past) a possible friend (= possibly a friend) the present king (= the king at present) an occasional visitor (= occasionally a visitor) Compare: the late president (=a person who was formerly the president and now is dead) – attributive only

v. the late bus – a central adjective

- if the adjectives premodify agentive nouns, the noun suggests a relationship to an associated verb: e.g. a big eater (=someone who eats a lot) a clever liar (= someone who lies cleverly) a hard worker (= someone who works hard) a heavy smoker (= someone who smokes heavily) a sound sleeper (=someone who sleeps soundly) a fast car (= a car that can go fast) a fast road (=a road on which one can drive fast)

Adjectives related to nouns

- adjectives derived from nouns (=denominal adj.) by means of suffixes tend to be restricted to attributive position e.g. an atomic scientist a criminal court (= a court dealing with crime) a polar bear (= a bear living near the pole) a medical school (= a school for students of medicine) musical comedy (=a comedy accompanied by music) a tidal wave (=a wave produced by the tide)

II. PREDICATIVE ONLY

- adjectives that are restricted, or virtually restricted, to predicative position are most like verbs and adverbs

- they tend to refer to a (possibly temporary) condition rather than a characteristic

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- the most common are those referring to the health (or lack of health) of an animate being e.g. He felt ill / poorly. He was ill. *But not in the attributive use: The ill man …. (= the sick man) On the other hand, the attributive use is possible with a change of meaning of the word ill, e.g. ‘ill health’, ‘ill humour’ (=bad)!

- the adjectives restricted to predicative position also comprise those which can

take complementation:

e.g. able (to+inf) fond (of) afraid (that, of, about) glad (that, to) answerable (to) happy (that, to, with, about) aware (of) subject (to) conscious (that, of)

SEMANTIC SUBCLASSIFICATION OF ADJECTIVES a) stative v. dynamic - adjectives are characteristically stative - some adjectives, however, can be seen as dynamic e.g. stative - tall - it cannot be used with progressive aspect or imperative dynamic – funny – e.g. I didn’t realize he was being funny. Adjectives that can be used dynamically: brave, calm, careful, cheerful, conceited, cruel, foolish, friendly, funny, good, greedy, helpful, jealous, naughty, noisy, stupid, tidy, witty b) gradable v. nongradable (ungradable) - most adjectives are gradable, i.e. they can take comparisons and can be modified by intensifiers e.g. tall taller tallest beautiful more beautiful most beautiful very tall (but not: very impossible- nongradable) so beautiful extremely useful

- all dynamic and most stative adjectives are gradable

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- some stative adjectives + denominal adj. are nongradable – e.g. an atomic scientist, hydrochloric acid) + adjectives denoting provenance (British)

Gradability also influences what kind of adverbs we may use to modify adjectives: 1) gradable adjectives – e.g. angry, big, busy, quiet, rich, strong, important, etc. – can go with the following adverbs (although not all the adverbs given go with all the adjectives given): extremely, deeply, fairly, hugely, immensely, pretty (inf.), rather, really, reasonably, slightly, very 2) nongradable adjectives – e.g. amazed, awful, terrible, furious, huge, impossible, wonderful, etc. – can go with these adverbs: absolutely, completely, entirely, pretty, really, simply, totally, utterly but not: very !!note: really and pretty are universal – they can go with both types of adj. c) inherent v. noninherent - most adjectives are inherent e.g. a wooden cross (the adj. applies to the referent of the object directly - material) but! a wooden actor – noninherent – the actor is not made of wood, we describe his acting other examples: inherent noninherent a firm handshake a firm friend a perfect alibi a perfect stranger a certain result a certain winner a true report a true scholar Ordering of adjectives in premodification

- adjectives are placed between the determiners and the head of the noun phrase, we can distinguish four zones:

a) pre-central (after determiners) – peripheral, nongradable adjectives, esp.

intensifying adj., e.g. certain, definite, sheer, complete, slight b) central – e.g. hungry, ugly, funny, stupid, silent, rich, empty

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c) post-central – participles – e.g. retired, sleeping, + colours d) pre-head – denominal adjectives denoting nationality, ethnic background

(Austrian), and denominal adjectives with the meaning of consisting, involving, relating to, e.g. experimental, statistical, political

The usual order of adjectives in attributive position quality size age shape colour origin participle classification NOUN (opinion) or material (purpose) beautiful big new round brown Spanish wooden table small black plastic bag old white cotton shirt nice new white leather dancing shoes green wine bottle enormous brown German glass mug Note: - the more particular the quality, the closer the adjective is to the noun - adjectives of size and length usually go before adjectives of shape and width e.g. a tall thin girl a long narrow street a large round table - when there are two or more colours , adj., we use ‘and’ e.g. a black and white sweater a red, white and green flag

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SEMINAR 11 – ADJECTIVES and ADVERBS 2 QUESTIONS (to answer after you have studied the handout carefully)

1. Use the adjective ´old´ illustrating the difference between its central and peripheral (only attributive use).

2. Using the following adjectives explain the difference between inherent and

noninherent adjectives: a) heavy – a heavy bag v. a heavy smoker b) sick - a sick room v. a sick child c) difficult - a difficult problem v. a difficult child

+ Give examples of your own using these adjectives and illustrating the difference: true, firm, certain

3. Give examples of: a) emphasizers b) amplifiers c) downtoners

4. Explain what two different meanings can functions the word ´certain´ can have

using the following examples:

a) The army marched off to face certain death. b) A certain Mr Jones phoned you in the morning.

5. Give examples of restrictive adjectives. Are they only attributive, only predicative or both?

6. Paraphrase the following: a) a big eater b) a sound sleeper c) an early riser d) a French teacher (2 meanings)

7. Explain the meaning of ´late´ in these sentences:

a) The late Mr Hawkins was one of the best scientists in this country. b) Mr Hawkins, the scientist, was late.

8. What are the meanings of the underlined words in the following sentences:

a) The poor boy was hungry. b) The boy was poor.

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9. The following adjectives are predicative only – asleep, alike, ashamed. Use them

in sentences.

10. Explain how some adjectives can be used dynamically. Use the following examples:

a) I am being thorough. b) I am thorough.

+ add other adjectives like that

11. Give examples of gradable v. nongradable adjectives + the adverbs used with

them.

12. Consider the order of the adjectives in the following sentences. Correct the wrong ones:

a) a brown wooden round table b) an old nice small clock c) interesting new scientific advances d) that fat silly cat e) beautiful leather Italian courtshoes f) an old Victorian wonderful house g) a fat old white horse

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SEMINAR 12 – ADJECTIVES and ADVERBS 3 (SGEL 7.27 – 7.45; LEG 6.17 – 7.59) (Chalker: ex. 75 - 78; GRAMMAR I: Adjectives – ex. 50 – 68, Adverbs – ex. 176 -203) adverbs (characteristic features) – adverb formation – adverb v. preposition – syntactic functions of adverbs – comparison of adj. and adv. – articles ADVERBS Characteristics of the adverb

- there are two syntactic functions that characterize adverbs: a) clause element adverbial e.g. He quite forgot about it. b) premodifier of adjective and adverb e.g. They are quite happy. They are quite happily married.

Morphologically, we can distinguish 3 main types of adverb (a+b are closed classes, c is an open class) a) SIMPLE adverbs – e.g. just, only, well - many of these denote position and direction: back, down, near, out, under b) COMPOUND adverbs – e.g. somehow, somewhere, therefore c) DERIVATIONAL adverbs - the majority of these adverbs have the suffix –ly. Other common suffixes are: -wise (clockwise/ anticlockwise, likewise) -style (cowboy-style) -ways (sideways, lengthways) -fashion (schoolboy-fashion) -ward(s) (northward(s), forwards, onwards) Note: Rules for forming open-class –ly adverbs from adjectives: 1) adj. ending in consonant + le → ly e.g. simple – simply whole – wholly 2) adj. ending in consonant + y → i e.g. happy – happily dry - drily / also: dryly sly - slily / also: slyly 3) adj. ending in –ic and –ical → -ically e.g. economic / economical – economically

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tragic – tragically 4) –ed participles form adverbs in –edly (pronunciation is /idli/)

e.g. marked – markedly assured – assuredly

The adverb and other word classes

Conjunct adverb (so, yet) and conjuction

- similarly to conjuctions, also adverbs can express semantic relationship between two utterances or two parts – therefore, they are called conjunct adverbs:

e.g. We paid him a very large sum. So he kept quiet about what he saw.

- these conjunct adverbs can also be preceded by a coordinator – and so, and yet

Adverb and preposition

- there are various combinations of verbs + particles - a preposition is normally followed by its complement - if the verb is intransitive, the particle is an adverb

Compare: e.g. I ran down the road. (prep) v. Please sit down. (adverb) He is in his office. (prep) v. You can go in. (adverb) Something’s climbing up my leg. (prep) v. She is not up yet. (adverb) Phrasal verbs: If they are separable, the particle is an adverb: e.g. They turned on the light. / They turned the light on. If they cannot be separated, the particle is a preposition: e.g. They took to John. She looked after her children well. SYNTACTIC FUNCTIONS OF ADVERBS I. Adverb as adverbial - we distinguish 4 categories according to grammatical functions (will be studied later in syntax) a) adjunct – Slowly they walked back home. b) subjunct – Would you kindly wait for me? c) disjunct – Frankly, I’m tired.

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d) conjunct – She has bought a big house, so she must have a lot of money. II. Adverb as modifier A) Modifier of adjective - most commonly the adverb is an intensifier or emphasizer e.g. extremely dangerous really beautiful deeply concerned very good perfectly reasonable just impossible awfully sorry highly intelligent - also downtoners are modifiers e.g. a bit dull relatively small almost impossible pretty rare nearly dark rather late fairly small - some premodifiers are related to adverbs that express manner or means, and also have some intensifying effect e.g. easily debatable openly hostile readily available - some pre-modifiers express ´viewpoint´ e.g. theoretically sound economically weak technically possible ethically wrong Note:

- enough may postmodify an adjective: e.g. old enough or an adverb: e.g. carefully enough - quite has two meanings: a) She’s quite right / sure. (= absolutely, completely) b) That’s quite good. (=fairly, rather) - fairly is typically used to modify an adj. (or adv.) that denotes a desirable quality e.g. It’s fairly warm in here. (=warm enough, I feel comfortable in a warm

room) v. It’s rather warm in here. (= too warm)

+ we usually say: fairly clean v. rather dirty - pretty is informal and stronger than rather or fairly e.g. we can say: pretty clean (+) v. pretty dirty (-)

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B) Modifier of adverb and preposition - an adverb may premodify another adverb e.g. very heavily surprisingly well extremely quickly so clearly

- ‘enough’ and ‘indeed’ can post-modify an adverb: e.g. She spoke clearly enough. She spoke very clearly indeed. - a few intensifying adverbs (right, well) premodify prepositions: e.g. The nail went right through the wall. His parents are dead against the trip. / He was dead certain that he knew

her. C) Modifier of pronoun, determiner, numeral

- intensifying adverbs can premodify: i) indefinite pronouns – e.g. Nearly everybody came to our party. ii) predeterminers – e.g. They recovered roughly half their equipment. Virtually all the students passed the test. iii) cardinal numerals – e.g. Over / Under 200 deaths were reported. As many as 500 candidates have applied for the post. iv) ordinals and superlatives – e.g. We counted approximately the first thousand

votes. She gave me almost the largest piece of cake.

D) Modifier of noun phrase - a few intensifiers may premodify noun phrases and precede the determiner (quite, rather)

e.g. She gave quite a party. They were quite some players. It was rather a mess. It is rather a big / a rather big table. (notice the two possible position of the

indef. article)

- if the indefinite article is equivalent to ´one´- some intensifiers precede it: e.g. They will stay for about a week. Nearly a thousand demonstrators attended the meeting. I didn’t have more than a dollar on me.

- ´kind of´ and ´sort of´ (both infml) usually follow the determiner e.g. This must be a sort of joke. / sort of a joke (infml) - other of-phrases precede the determiner

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e.g. I had a bit of a shock. - some time / place adverbs postmodify nouns: e.g. the meeting yesterday the hall downstairs the meal afterwards the quotation above / below the day before that man there

- others may either pre- or postmodify nouns: e.g. the downstairs hall or the hall downstairs the above quotation or the quotation above the upstairs neighbour or the neighbour upstairs - ´else´ can postmodify: i) indefinite compound pronouns – e.g. somebody else, nothing else ii) interrogative pronouns and wh- adverbs – e.g. who else, what else, how else iii) singular all (=everything), much, a great / good deal, a lot, little – e.g. much

else, all else

E) Adverb as complement of preposition - some place and time adverbs function as complement of a preposition e.g. over here near there from behind for ever till then Note: Certain verbs are followed by adjectives, not adverbs: look, feel, seem, smell, sound, taste e.g. This tea tastes a bit strange. The idea sounds quite interesting. The dinner smells good. The cloth feels smooth. COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS

- with gradable adjectives and adverbs there are 3 types of comparison: a) to a higher degree – inflectional comp. (-er, -est) or periphrastic (more, most) e.g. Anna is cleverer / more clever than Susan. She arrived sooner than you. b) to the same degree – as … as ( not as… as / not so …as) e.g. Ann is as tall as Bill. Ann is not as tall as Bill. or Ann is not so tall as Bill. c) to a lower degree – less and least

e.g. This problem is less difficult than the previous one. This is the least difficult problem of all.

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Note: - comparatives of adj. and adv. can be modified by intensifiers:

e.g. much easier / far easier somewhat shorter (= a little shorter) much more difficult a lot more convenient very much better a good deal sooner - also superlatives can be modified by intensifiers:

e.g. the youngest candidate ever by far the best solution the most absurd answer by far

- inflected superlatives (-est) can be modified by ´very´: e.g. the very youngest

- ´more´ and ´most´ have other uses: e.g. He is more than happy about it. He is more keen than wise. He is more good than bad. She is more lazy than stupid. - ´most´ can have an intensifying meaning: e.g. Della is a most efficient publisher. (= very, extremely efficient) COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES I. Regular forms 1) One-syllable adjectives - er, -est e.g. old, tall, long, young, cheap, late, nice, big, slow, fast, 2) Two-syllable adjectives a) –er, est - adj. ending in –y: e.g. happy, easy, lucky, noisy, busy, etc. + adj. ending in an unstressed vowel - /l/: feeble, gentle, noble, simple + adj. ending in –ow: mellow, narrow, shallow Also: unhappy, untidy b) more and most - other two-syllable adj. ending in –ing, -ed, -ful, -less !! With some two-syllable adjectives both ways are possible: e.g. polite, common, clever, narrow, simple, quiet, shallow 3) Three-syllable and longer adj. – more and most e.g. intelligent, practical, beautiful, interesting, expensive, comfortable, etc.

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Note: - Some compound adjectives, like good-looking or well-known have two possible forms: e.g. good-looking better-looking / more good-looking best-looking / most good-looking well-known better-known / more well-known best-known / most well-known - more and most with short adjectives instead of –er, -est - when a comparative is not followed immediately by than, forms with –er are also possible e.g. The road is getting more and more steep. (also: steeper and steeper) also: John is more mad than Bob is. But not with: bad, great, old, thin, big, hard, young, wide, etc. II. Irregular forms

- some adjectives have irregular comparative and superlative forms: e.g. good better best bad worse worst

ill worse worst far farther farthest (usually about physical distance, further is also possible) further furtherst (in all senses) old elder eldest

- the determiners little and much / many have irregular forms: e.g. little less least

much / many more most Note: - ´old´ - is regularly inflected as ´older´ and ´oldest - in attributive position, particularly when referring to the order of birth of members of a family – the irregular forms elder / eldest are normally used: e.g. My elder / older sister is an artist. My eldest / oldest sister is an artist. - but!! elder is not used with ´than´ e.g. My sister is three years older than me. (not: elder)

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- elder / eldest require personal reference, they are not used to talk about things e.g. This viola is the older one. (not: elder) - ´further´ has one more meaning, it is not comparative - ´more´, ´additional´, ´later´ e.g. Any further questions? We intend to stay for a further two months. (*not: farther)

Changes in spelling and pronunciation

- with regular inflections there are certain changes in spelling or pronunciation a) a single consonant at the end is doubled if the preceding vowel is stressed and spelled with a single letter

e.g. big bigger biggest / fat fatter fattest but not with: neat, thick, etc. b) a consonant is followed by –y → ier, iest e.g. angry angrier angriest c) if the base ends in mute/ silent (=unpronounced) –e, this –e is dropped before –er, -est e.g. brave braver bravest pure purer purest free freer freest d) if –r is not pronounced in base, we pronounce it before the inflection e.g. poor poorer poorest clear clearer clearest e) final ng /ŋ / is pronounced /ŋg/ before the inflection e.g. long longer longest young younger youngest strong stronger strongest Note:

- repeated and coordinated comparatives indicate gradual increase: e.g. She is getting better and better. They are becoming more and more difficult.

- comparatives with the ..... the – to say that things change or vary together

e.g. The warmer the weather, the better I feel. The sooner we leave, the sooner we will arrive. The younger you are, the easier it is to learn. The more I study, the less I learn. The more I thought about it, the less I liked it.

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The more expensive the hotel, the better the service. How do you like your coffee? – The stronger the better.

COMPARISON OF ADVERBS

1) most adverbs take more and most (esp. those ending in –ly cannot take another inflection – er, est)

e.g. Could you talk more quietly /slowly / clearly?

2) the adverbs that have the same form as adjectives (fast, hard, late, long, early) – take –er,-est

e.g. Can you drive a bit faster? 3) the irregular forms- the same as with adjectives e.g. badly worse worst well better best little less least (lesser – in a rather formal style – the lesser of two evils) far farther farthest further furthest much more most Note: often can have both forms – oftener / more often; oftenest / most often – the forms with more and most are more common! ARTICLE USAGE WITH COMPARATIVES AND SUPERLATIVES 1) there is no article in a ´than construction´: e.g. Jane is cleverer than all the other girls in the class. 2) ´the´ with the superlative +of-construction: e.g. Jane is the cleverest of all the students in the class. 3) ´the´ with comparative – we compare two persons, items, etc. e.g. He is the younger (of the two brothers) John is the more polite (of the two boys) v. … the most polite (of the three boys) 4) if the superlative is used attributively, ´the´ is required: e.g. Ann is the youngest child. (or: their youngest child) 5) if the adjective is not attributive - ´the´ is optional! e.g. Ann is (the) youngest (of all). Della is (the) most efficient (of all).

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!!! Without a definite determiner, the construction with most is ambiguous: e.g. Della is most efficient. = the most efficient of all or extremely efficient With the indefinite article (or zero), ´most´ is always interpreted as an intensifier e.g. She is a most efficient publisher. = very, extremely They are most efficient publishers. = very, extremely

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SEMINAR 12B – ADJECTIVES and ADVERBS 3 QUESTIONS (to answer after you have studied the handout carefully) 1. Give examples of adverbs in sentences illustrating the two main syntactic functions of adverbs: a) clause element adverbial b) adj. / adv. modifier 2. What three main morphological categories of adverbs do we distinguish? Give examples: 3. Make adverbs out of the following adjectives: simple, easy, dry, true, typical, marked, early, friendly 4. Give examples of conjunct adverbs in sentences. 5. Read the following sentences – are the underlined words adverbs or prepositions? a) He looked the word up in a dictionary. b) She looks after her children very well. c) They called off the meeting. d) I could easily do without a mobile phone. e) He got on the bus and left. f) She walked along the road. 6. Give examples of adverbs which can modify the following adjectives: a) dangerous b) impossible c) rich d) useless 7. How can an adverb modify another adverb? Give examples modifying quickly, well, enough 8. Give examples of prepositions modified by adverbs. 9. How can the following words modify a noun / noun phrase? rather, quite, sort of, above, below 10. What words can be modified by ´else´? Give examples. 11. Name the 3 main types of comparison + examples.

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12. What different functions do the underlined words have in these sentences? a) I haven’t got much work. b) It was much easier than I expected. c) I expected something much more complicated. d) She has a lot of friends. e) It was a lot more complicated. 13. What’s the difference between: a) I consider Jane the most intelligent student. b) I consider Jan a most intelligent student. 14. ´Old´ can have regular inflected forms and irregular as well. Explain when we use them and if there are any restrictions. 15. What changes in spelling (or pronunciation) are necessary (if any at all) when the following adjectives take comparative and superlative inflections?

sad, lucky, wide, grey, rare, strong, thick

16. Which adjectives can take both types of comparison? 17. What are the comparative forms of the following adverbs? badly, far, fast, easily, hard, quietly 18. Fill in the articles if necessary: a) Carol is _____ most intelligent. b) John is _____ tallest of all. c) Peter is _____ youngest student in the course. d) Jane is ______ cleverer of the two sisters. e) We stayed in ____ most comfortable hotel.

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SEMINAR 13 – PREPOSITIONS (SGEL 9.1. – 9.16; LEG – 8.1. – 8.30) (Chalker: ex. 85 – 92 ; GRAMMAR I: ex. 233 -243) characteristics of prepositions – deferred prepositions – simple prepositions – complex prepositions; prepositions: space, time, cause and purpose, accompaniment, concession - summary of the most common prepositions

- prepositions are a closed class of items connecting two units in a sentence and specifying a relationship between them

e.g. I don’t like to drink out of a cracked cup. (the link is to the verb phrase) He was very grateful for her help. (the link is to an adjective phrase) The elderly man in the raincoat looks ill. (the link is to a noun phrase)

- a prepositional phrase may act as a postmodifier in noun-phrase structure, or as an

adverbial e.g. In a few minutes, we’ll know the result of the blood test.

- prepositions may be: a) simple – e.g. at, or, down, during, without, etc.

b) complex – e.g. owing to, by means of, as a result of, etc.

- the complements of prepositions are usually noun phrases, but they can also be non-finite (-ing) clauses, or nominal (wh-) clauses e.g. near the small town from scrutinizing the results from where I was sitting

Deferred prepositions

- prepositions are normally followed by their complements, but in certain cases this is not possible, for example

a) passive constructions – e.g. We have paid for the car. → The car has been paid for.

b) the prepositional complement is at the beginning of the sentence e.g. It is unpleasant to work with that man. → That man is unpleasant to work with. It is not worth listening to his advice. → His advice is not worth listening to.

c) in questions – e.g. What are you looking at? Who is she talking about? Who did you sell your house to?

d) in relative clauses – e.g. The building (that) you are standing in front of was

designed

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by Wren. Simple prepositions

- monosyllabic items – at, for, in, on, to, with; typically unstressed (!) except when they are deferred: compare: e.g. She looked at me. /ət/ v. What are you looking at? /et/

- other simple prep. of more than one syllable: inside, during, despite, except Complex prepositions

- owing to, away from, because of, etc. - in charge of, by means of, at variance with, in addition to, as a result of, etc.

Prepositional meanings

- positive v. negative (e.g. off = not on) - destination (=movement to an intended location) v. position (static location) - dimension types – e.g. My coat is in the wardrobe.

They were alone on the tennis court. I. SPACE a) Position and direction - positive v. negative e.g. Jack ran to the corner and then stood at the corner. (positive prepositions) v. Kate moved from Bloomsbury and enjoys living away from the city centre. (negative prep.) - a point on the route (or institution) v. residence

e.g. Does this train stop at Lincoln? (station) v. I’ve never lived in Lincoln. (town)

Our daughter is at Oxford studying art. v. They didn’t live in Oxford. - surface v. the notion of enclosing

e.g. They were rowing on Lake Windermere. v. I was swimming in Lake

Windermere. I’ll lie on the bed for a few minutes. v. The was a child asleep in the bed. b) Relative position

- rather than absolute position, many prepositions indicate the position of something relative to the position of something else:

e.g. The police station is opposite my house. My house is opposite the police station.

- some prepositions form antonymic pairs (=one is the opposite of the other)

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e.g. above v. below over v. under (=directly above, directly below) in front of v. behind before v. after - like under, there are the less common beneath (formal) and underneath

- close to and near to can have comparisons: e.g. Please move this desk close(r) to the wall. Please move this desk near(er) (to) the wall.

- between (two objects, groups of objects) v. among / amid / amidst

- esp. in BrE, about is like around: e.g. She put her arms about him. c) Passage - the notion of passage combines position and motion, disregarding destination

e.g. I love walking through woods in spring. - other prep. used for passage: by, over, under, across, past Compare: on the grass v. in the grass across the grass v. through the grass Be careful as you drive round corners. The children were playing around the park. d) Metaphorical extension with spatial prepositions

- with many spatial prepositions, metaphor enables similar but abstract relations to be expressed

e.g. in the room : in this book, in some difficulty out of the bottle : out of danger, out of the competition beneath the branches : beneath contempt under the floorboards : under suspicion up the hill : up the social scale downhill : down market beyond the post office : beyond endurance over the mountain : (she’s getting) over her illness from Boston to Bangor : from generation to generation between the trees : between ourselves through the tunnel : go through the ordeal

II. TIME a) Time position

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- the question is When? – at, on, in

- ´at´ - points of time: e.g. The film begins at 7.30. What are you doing at the weekend? I saw her at Christmas. … at that time / at noon / at midnight

- ´in´ - time is regarded as a period e.g. In the evening, I listened to music. Where did he live in his childhood? I saw her in March / in 1998. - ´on´ - in expressions referring to days: e.g. We can come on Monday / on Tuesday afternoon. I was born on July 12th.

Note: I cannot sleep at night. v. We heard her coughing several times in the night. b) Time duration - the question is How long? - for

e.g. We stayed in a rented cottage for the summer. - throughout and all through – express emphasis on the duration

e.g. Try to stay alert throughout the entire ceremony. - during indicates a stretch of time within which a more specific duration can be indicated: e.g. During the summer, we stayed in a rented cottage for a month. - over – e.g. stay overnight, over the weekend, over the Christmas period - from … to… - reference to the beginning and ending

e.g. The office will be open from Monday to Friday. (also: between Monday and Friday) - duration specifying only a starting point (or only a terminal point) is expressed by phrases with: by, before, from, after, since, till, until, up to

e.g. She will be here by Friday night. She will not be here before Friday night. I worked from 8 o’clock (onwards). He did not set out till / until Monday afternoon. You can stay here till / until / up to lunch time. Note: ´prior to´ and ´in advance of´ can replace ´before´ in formal style

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III. CAUSE and PURPOSE - ´cause, reason, motive´ - because of, on account of, for, out of, etc. e.g. He lost his job because of his laziness. She was fined for dangerous driving. The plane crashed through some navigational error.

- the notion of ´motive´ shades into ´purpose, goal and target´- for all of these prepositions for is common: e.g. They are appealing for donations. We had better set out for home. She is applying for a better job. He built a play-pen for the little girl.

- ´at´ - the goal or target is usually viewed with hostility:

e.g. He shouted at them. (=he was angry) v. He shouted to them. (=called) but in other cases it is quite neutral: e.g. She smiled at the child. She laughed at the idea. Note: X lends st to Y v. Y borrows st from X

´as´ = in the role of: e.g. As a subscriber, I ought to have been consulted. IV. From MEANS to STIMULUS (means, instrument, agency, stimulus) - the question is How? – by (means), with (instrument) e.g. I go to work by car. Please send this to the London office by telex. She won the match with her fast service. He managed to open the door without a key. - the agent is expressed by the preposition by: e.g. This picture was painted by Degas. I was bitten by a neighbour’s dog. - ´stimulus´ and ´reaction´ are chiefly expressed by at, but also others, e.g. about, in, of, to e.g. I am surprised at her attitude. I was pleased about the choice of the date. Are you interested in astronomy? I think he is jealous of her. To me, her proposal is broadly acceptable.

- with means of transport, ´on´+article can be used instead of ´by´+zero:

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e.g. I often go to work on the 8.15 train. V. ACCOMPANIMENT - with = in the company of v. without e.g. I hope you will come to dinner with your husband. For once, Jill went without her husband. What will you drink with your meal? I cannot concentrate without silence.

- the accompaniment may become a circumstance and the phrase will then connote ´manner´: e.g. He entered the room with a worried look.

- ´manner´ is also expressed with (un)like:

e.g. Fred, (un)like his brother, is trusted by few. VI. CONCESSION and other relations

- ´concession´- is expressed by prepositions: in spite of, despite, notwithstanding (fml),

and informal for all, with all: e.g. The article is being published in spite of her disapproval. / for all her disapproval.

- ´exception´ - the chief prepositions are: except (for), excepting, with the exception of,

excluding, apart from, aside from, but e.g. Except for the weather, our stay in Scotland was enjoyable. Everyone seemed tired but me.

- ´addition´- is expressed by: besides, as well as, in addition to

e.g. The orchestra was disappointing as well as the soloist. - ´negative condition´ - is expressed by: but for

e.g. But for me, the case would have been lost. (i.e. If it hadn’t been for me)

- ´respect´ - is expressed by: as for, as to, about, on the matter of, concerning, as regards, with regard to, with respect to

e.g. Now, about your application, are you sure you would like a job of this kind? - as for is often used to indicate a change of topic: e.g. The coat is splendid but as for the hat I don’t think it suits you.

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Modification

- both prepositions and prepositional adverbs can be modified in terms of ´measure´ and ´degree´ by being accompanied by intensifiers:

e.g. She arrived shortly after ten. She arrived at ten or shortly after. He expected to be well ahead of Compton but he finished in fact just behind. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following section (page 7-12) is a summary of the most common prepositions and prepositional phrases. SUMMARY OT THE MOST COMMON PREPOSITIONS TIME AT (time)

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- at 5 o’clock, at 11.30 - at midnight, at lunchtime, at night, at noon, at the weekend - at sunset - at Christmas, at Easter - at the moment, at present, at the same time

ON (time)

- on Friday, on Monday morning, - on Christmas Day - on my birthday - on March 14th 1990

IN (time)

- in October, in 1980, in the 1970s - in the 18th century, in the Middle Ages - in the past, in (the) future, in winter - in four weeks (in four weeks´ time)

Note:

- on time = punctual, not late, e.g. The 11.45 train left on time. (at 11.45) the opposite of on time is late, e.g. Be on time. Don’t be late.

- in time (for something / to do something) = soon enough e.g. Will you be home in time for dinner? I want to get home in time to see the football match on television. the opposite of in time is too late, e.g. I got home too late to see the football match. - at the end of st = at the time when st ends

e.g. at the end of the month, the film, January, the concert, the course the opposite of at the end is at the beginning - in the end = finally; we say what the final result of a situation was

e.g. We had a lot of problems with our car. In the end we sold it and bought another one. the opposite of in the end is at first, e.g. At first I didn´t like her, but in the end we became good friends

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PLACE IN (place)

- in the room, in the building, in the garden - in your hand, in your mouth, in a box - in Italy, in a small village - in the mountains, in the sea, in the river - in a line, in a row, in a queue, in a street - in a photograph, in a picture, in a mirror - in the sky, in the world - in the sea (We were swimming in the sea) - in a newspaper, in a magazine, in a letter - in the basement - in the corner (in a room) - in the front / back of the car - in bed, in hospital, in prison - in a car, taxi

AT (place) - at the bus stop, at the door, at the window - at the traffic lights, at the church, - at the end of the street, at reception (hotel) - at the back of a building - at the front, at the cinema, - at the corner / on the corner (outside) - at school, at home, at work, at university, at college - at sea (=on a voyage) e.g. We were at sea for 30 days. - at a party, at a meeting, at a concert, at a football match - at the hairdresser’s, at the doctor’s - at Judy’s (her place) - at the station, at the airport - at the Odeon (cinema), at the Royal Festival Hall

ON (place)

- on the ceiling, on the door, the wall, - on the grass, on your nose, on your shirt - on the notice board - on an island - on the left - on the second floor - on a farm, on a map, on the menu, on a list - on the river Thames, on the south coast of England - on the way to London

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- on the front / back of the letter/ envelope/ piece of paper - on a bus, a train, plane, ship - on a bicycle, on a motorcycle, on a horse - (you will find the article) on page seven (of a newspaper)

Compare: I was sitting in the back of the car. v. The garden is at the back of the house. Let’s sit at the front (of the cinema). v. Let’s sit in the front row. There is some water in the bottle. v. There is a label on the bottle. Tom’s parents live in Nottingham. v. Does this train stop at Nottingham? (=at N. station) I was at Jane’s house last night. v. The rooms in Jane’s house are very small. There were a lot of people in the shop. v. Turn left at the shop. There is somebody at the door. V. Can you read the sign on the door? OTHER PREPOSITIONS / OTHER USES TO

- go to America, to bed, to the bank, to a party, to a concert - return to Italy - go to a party x we will meet at the party - drive to the airport - a journey to…, a trip to…, welcome to … - get to work, the theatre, London - I’ve been to London, to a football match - get to a place x arrive in / at

Compare:

- get into the car v. get out of the car - get on the bus v. get off the bus, train, plane

ON

- on holiday, on business, on a trip, on a tour, on a cruise - on television, on the radio, on the phone - on a diet - on strike - on fire

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IN - in the rain, in the sun, in the dark, in the shade, in bad weater - in ink, in pencil - in words, in figures, in block letters - in cash x by cheque, by credit card - in my opinion

AT

- at the age of 17 - at a speed of…, at a temperature of.., at 120 miles an hour

BY

- by post, by hand - by cheque - by mistake, by accident, by chance - by road, rail, air, sea, underground - by train, plane, boat, ship, bicycle - a play by Shakespeare - by 20% - her salary has increased by 20%

Compare:

- by car v. in my car, in a taxi - by train v. on the train

NOUNS + PREPOSITIONS

- a cheque for £ 100 - a reason for the delay - an advantage of living alone - a cause of the explosion - a photo of her family - an increase in the number of accidents / a decrease in / a rise in / a fall in - damage to the car - an invitation to a party - a solution to a problem - a key to the door - an answer to a question / a reply to a question - an attitude to a job (also: towards) - a relationship with parents - differences between two brothers

ADJECTIVES + PREPOSITIONS

- nice, kind, good, generous, stupid of somebody to do something

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- be nice, kind, good, generous to somebody - angry / annoyed / furious about something + with somebody for doing

something - excited, worried, upset, nervous, happy about - delighted, pleased, satisfied, disappointed with - surprised, shocked, amazed, astonished at / by something - impressed with / by somebody, something - fed up / bored with something - sorry about something – I am sorry about the noise last night. - sorry for doing something – I am sorry for shouting at you. - sorry – I am sorry I shouted at you - feel sorry / be sorry for somebody – I feel sorry for George. He has a lot of

problems.

- afraid / frightened / terrified of

- fond / proud / ashamed / jealous / envious of his wife, friends - suspicious / critical / tolerant of - aware / conscious of - capable / incapable of passing the exam - full of mistakes / short of money - typical of this job - tired of waiting - certain / sure of / about - good, bad, excellent, brilliant, hopeless at - married /engaged to - similar to - different from - interested in - keen on - dependent on - independent of - crowded with - famous for - responsible for

VERBS + PREPOSITIONS

- look, have a look, stare, glance at - laugh / smile at - aim / point at something - shoot / fire (a gun) at - talk / speak to (with is also possible) - listen to - write a letter to

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- phone somebody (no preposition) - invite st to a party - shout at (angry) v. shout to (call to sb) - throw st at sb, st in order to hit it / them – He threw an egg at the minister - throw st to sb (to catch) it – He threw the keys to me from the window. - explain st to sb - apologise to sb for doing st - thank for - ask for st (to be given) v. ask about st ( I want to know)

- talk about / tell sb about - discuss something (no preposition) - do st about st (a problem) - care about st / sb – think that it is important - care for – a) like st - Would you car for a cup of coffee?

b) look after – She cares for her younger sister. - take care of - wait for

- search a person, place, a bag for st - leave for another place

compare: She left home. V. She left (work) for home.

- look for = search for - look after = take care of

- dream about – while asleep - dream of – to imagine st - remind sb about a meeting (not to forget) - remind sb of st (cause somebody to remember) - complain about (you are not satisfied) - complain of (say you have a pain) - accuse / suspect sb of st - approve of - die of (an illness) - pay for st v. pay a bill, a fine, a tax, rent - thank / forgive for - blame sb for - suffer from (an illness) - protect st / sb from / against - depend on / rely on - live on (money) - congratulate on - believe in

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- specialize in - succeed in - break into (a house to steal st) - crash/ bump / run into - divide / split st into - translate a book from one language into another - collide with - fill st with - provide / supply sb with - prefer st to st - concentrate on - insist on - spend money on

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SEMINAR 13 – PREPOSITIONS QUESTIONS

1. Name some simple v. compound prepositions.

2. Give examples of deferred prepositions (i.e. the preposition is not followed by its complement)

3. Is there a difference in pronunciation between the prepositions in the following sentences?

a) This present is for you. b) Who is this present for?

4. Explain the use of different prepositions in the following sentences: a) We arrived at York at 7.00. b) We lived in York for 5 years. c) She is in Oxford. d) She is at Oxford. e) on the bed v. in the bed f) on the lake v. in the lake g) on the desk v. in the desk h) on the grass v. in the grass i) at school v. in the school 5. Fill in the prepositions: a) ____ the morning v. ____ Monday morning b) ____ Christmas v. ____ Christmas Eve c) ____ March v. ____ March 5th

d) I work ____ 5 ___ 8. v. I will work _____ 5 today. 6. What’s the difference between: a) She shouted at him. v. She shouted to him. b) She threw an apple at him. v. She threw an apple to him. 7. Complete the missing words where necessary: 1. We played tennis in spite ____ the rain. 2. Apart ____ baseball, he loves basketball and ice hockey. 3. With the exception ____ John, everyone passed the exam. 4. He didn’t get the job despite ___ experience. 5. Everything was quiet, aside _____the occasional sound of a car ____ the distance. 6. ____regard ___ your application, I am afraid we are unable to offer you a job. 7. Who did you borrow the book_____?

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