VAN LANG UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

;;,.;;;.*""""""

MORPHOLOGY & SYNTAX

(Selected and compiled)

2020
For internal use only
 NOTATIONAL SYMBOLS

Most of the symbols used in this text follow conventions, but since conventions
vary, the following list indicates the meanings assigned to them here.

n =noun
[U] = uncountable
[C] = countable
pl =plural
sing = singular
adj = adjective
adv =adverb
prep = preposition
v =verb
phr v = phrasal verb
sth = something
sb = somebody
mono-trans = mono-transitive verb
complex trans = complex transitive verb
etc = et cetera meaning "and other similar things" or "and so on"
fig = figurative
esp = especially
usu = usually
fml =formal
infml = informal
derog = derogatory, insulting
attrib = attributive
pred = predicative
Brit = British
abbr = abbreviated
I = intransitive verb
Ipr = intransitive verb + prepositional phrase
Ip = intransitive verb + adverbial particle
La= linking verb + adjective (phrase)
Tn = transitive verb + noun (phrase)
Tn.pr = transitive verb +noun (phrase)+ prepositional phrase
Tn.p = transitive verb +noun (phrase) +adverbial particle
Cn.t = complex transitive verb + noun (phrase) + to-infinitive
I phrase

..
II
 NOTATIONAL SYMBOLS·
Most of the symbols used in this text follow conventions, but since conventions
vary, the following list indicates the meanings assigned to them here.
A = adjective iO = indirect object
Adv = (general) adverb M =modifier
ART = article ModN = pre-modifying noun
AP = adjective phrase monotrans = monotransitive verb
AdvP =adverb phrase monotrans-prep = monotransitive
C = complement prepositional verb
ComN = compound noun monotransVAC = monotransitive verb-
Camp = complementizer adverbial composite
complex = complex transitive verb N =noun
Conj = conjunction N' = N-bar
Co-P = a coordination of Prepositions nC = noun complement
Co-PP = a coordinate Prepositional NP = noun phrase
phrase NUM = numeralm.umber
Co-NP = a coordinate noun phrase opA = optional adverbial adjunct
Co-AP = a coordinate adjective phrase obA = obligatory adverbial ~djunct
DEG = degree adverb oC = object(ive) complement
DEM = demonstrative oP = object-predicative
DET = determiner POST-MOD =post-modifier
dO = direct object POST-DET =post-determiner
ditrans = ditransitive verb PRE-MOD = pre-modifier
ditrans-prep = ditransitive PRE-DET = pre-determiner
prepositional verb PRO = pronoun
EmACl = embedded adjective clause PropN = proper noun
EmAdvCl = embedded adverbial clause Poss = possessive
EXCLAMATORY DET = exclamatory PossA = possessive adjective
determiner PossPropN = possessive proper noun
[ ] = empty/covert/zero/implicit subject D. - "'

H =the head PossMarker = possessive marker

headN = the head noun PossNP = possessive noun phrase
headPRO = the head pronoun predC = predicator complement
headPropN = the head proper noun P = preposition
he adA = the head adjective prep = prepositional verb
headGer = the head gerund prepO = prepositional object
IC = immediate constituent prepC = complement of a preposition
InfP = infinitive phrase PP = prepositional phrase
intens = intensive verb PartP = participial phrase
intrans = intransitive verb Q = quantifier
in trans VAC = intransitive verb- QA = quantifying adjective
adverbial composite RESTRIC = restricter
S =sentence

Ill
S'= 8-bar Prt = adverbial particle
sC = subject(ive) complement VAC = verb-adverbial composite
sP = subject-predicative * = unaccepted form
SubACI = subordinate adjective clause ? = doubtfully acceptable form
SubAdvCI = subordinate adverbial clause [ ] = embedded unit
VP = verb phrase I= or
Vgrp =verb group ¢=unfilled
V-Part = verb participle => = one-way dependence
V-Ger gerund two-way denen"

iv
Unit 1: Morphemes

Morphology

In many languages, what appear to be single forms actually turn out to contain a
large number of "word-like" elements. For example, in Swahili (spoken throughout
East Africa), the form nitakupenda conveys what, in English, would have to be
represented as something like I will love you. Now, is the Swahili form a single
word? If it is a "word," then it seems to consist of a number of elements which, in
English, turn up as separate "words." A rough correspondence can be presented in the
following way:

ni- ta- ku- penda

"I will you love"

It would seem that this Swahili "word" is rather different from what we think of as an
English "word." Yet, there clearly is some similarity between the languages, in that
similar elements of the whole message can be found in both. Perhaps a better way of
looking at linguistic forms in different languages would be to use this notion of
"elements" in the message, rather than depend on identifying only "words.''
The type of exercise we have just performed is an example of investigating basic forms
in language, generally known as morphology. This term, which literally means "the
study of forms," was originally used in biology, but, since the middle of the nineteenth
century, has also been used to describe the type of investigation that analyzes all those
basic "elements" used in a language. What we have been describing as "elements" in the
form of a linguistic message are technically known as "morphemes."

Morphemes

We do not actually have to go to other languages such as Swahili to discover that "word
forms" may consist of a number of elements. We can recognize that English word
forms such as talks, talker, talked and talking must consist of one element talk, and a
number of other elements such as-s, -er, -ed and -ing. All these elements are described
as morphemes. The definition of a morpheme is "a minimal unit of meaning or
grammatical function." Units of grammatical function include forms used to indicate
past tense or plural, for example.
In the sentence The police reopened the investigation, the word reopened consists of
three morphemes. ·one minimal unit of meaning is open, another minimal unit of
meaning is re- (meaning "again") and a minimal unit of grammatical function is -ed
(indicating past tense). The word tourists also contains three morphemes. There is one
. l The Study of Language

minimal unit of meaning tour, another minimal unit of meaning -ist (marking "person
who does something"), and a minimal unit of grammatical function -s (indicating
plural).

Free and bound morphemes

-----·
From these examples, we can make a broad distinction between two types of mor-
phemes. There are free morphemes, that is, morphemes that can stand by themselves as
single words, for example, open and tour. There are also bound morphemes, which are
those forms that cannot normally stand alone and are typically attached to another form,
exemplified as re-, -ist, -ed, -s. These forms were described in Chapter 5 as affixes. ~o, we
can say that all affixes (prefixes and suffixes) in English are bound morphemes. The free
morphemes can generally be identified as the set of separate English word forms such as
basic nouns. adjectives, verbs, etc. When they are used with bound morphemes
attached, the basic word forms are technically known as stems. For example:

undressed carelessness
un- dress -ed care -less -ness
prefix stem suffix stem suffix suffix
(bound) (free) (bound) (free) (bound) (bound)

We should note that this type of description is a partial simplification of the morpho-
logical facts of English. There are a number of English words in which the element
treated as the stem is not, in fact, a free morpheme. In words such as receive, reduce and
repeat, we can identify the bound morpheme re- at the beginning, but the elements
-ceive, -duce and -peat are not separate word forms and hence cannot be free mor-
phemes. These types of forms are sometimes described as "bound stems" to keep them
distinct from "free stems"' such as dress and care.

Lexical and functional morphemes

What we have described as free morphemes fall into two categories. The first category
is that set of ordinary nouns, adjectives and verbs that we think of as the words that
carry the "content" of the messages we convey. These free morphemes are called
lexical morphemes and some examples are: girl. man, house, tiger, sad, long, yellow,
sincere, open, look, follow, break. We can add new lexical morphemes to the language
rather easily, so they are treated as an "open" class of words.
Morphology L__

Other types of free morphemes are called functional morphemes. Examples are
and, but, when, because, on, near, above, in, the, that, it, them. This set consists largely
of the functional words in the language such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles and
pronouns. Because we almost never add new functional morphemes to the language,
they are described as a "closed" class of words.

Derivational and inflectional morphemes

The set of affixes that make up the category of bound morphemes can also be divided
into two types. One type is described in Chapter 5 in terms of the derivation of words.
These are the derivational morphemes. We use these bound morphemes to make
new words or to make words of a different grammatical category from the stem. For
example, the addition of the derivational morpheme -ness changes the adjective good
to the noun goodness. The noun care can become the adjectives careful or careless
by the addition of the derivational morphemes -ful or -less. A list of derivational
morphemes will include suffixes such as the -ish in foolish, -ly in quickly, and the
-ment in payment. The list will also include prefixes such as re-, pre-, ex-, mis-, co-, un-
and many more.
The second set of bound morphemes contains what are called inflectional mor-
phemes. These are not used to produce new words in the language, but rather to
indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word. Inflectional morphemes are
used to show if a word is plural or singular, if it is past tense or not, and if it is a
comparative or possessive form.
English has only eight inflectional morphemes (or "inflections"), illustrated in the
following sentences.

Jim's two sisters are really different.

One likes to have fun and is always laughing.
The other liked to read as a child and has always taken things seriously.
One is the loudest person in the house and the other is quieter than a mouse.

In the first sentence, both inflections (-'s, -s) are attached to nouns, one marking
possessive and the other marking plural. Note that-'s here is a possessive inflection
and diffe~:ent from the-'s used as an abbreviation for is or has (e.g. she's singing, it's
happened again). There are four inflections attached to verbs: -s (3rd person singular),
-ing (present participle), -ed (past tense) and -en (past participle). There are two
inflections attached to adjectives: -er (comparative) and -est (superlative). In English,
all the inflectional morphemes are suffixes.

3
. The Study of Language

Noun + -'s, -s
Verb + -s, -ing, -ed, -en
Adjective + -er, -est

There is some variation in the form of these inflectional morphemes. For example, the
possessive sometimes appears as -s' (those boys' bags) and the past participle as -ed
(they have finished).

Morphological description -----·--·-------·--···-- .. , .. _, ______________ --·

The difference between derivational and inflec~ional morphemes is worth emphasiz-

ing. An inflectional morpheme never changes the grammatical category of a word. For
example, both old and older are adjectives. The -er inflection here (from Old English
-ra) simply creates a different version of the adjective. However; a derivational mor-
pheme can change the grammatical category of a word. The ve'rb teach becomes ihe
noun teacher if we add the derivational morpheme -er (from Old English -ere). So, the
suffix -er in Modern English can be an inflectional morpheme as part of an adjective
and also a distinct derivational morpheme as part of a noun. Just because they look the
same (-er) doesn't mean they do the same kind of work.
Whenever there is a derivational suffix and an inflectional suffix attached to the
same word, they always appear in that order. First the derivational (-er) is attached to
teach, then the inflectional (-s) is added to produce teachers.
Armed with all these terms for different types of morphemes, we can. now take most
sentences of English apart and list all the "elements." For example, in the sentence The
child's wildness shocked the teachers, we can identify eleven morphemes.

The child -'s wild -ness shock

functional lexical inflectional lexical derivational lexical
-ed the teach -er -s
inflectional functional lexical derivational inflectional

A useful way to remember all these different types of morphemes is in the following chart.

(child, teach I

(and, the)

""- _ - derivational (re-, -ness)

"·bound..,....:.::.:·-
·-·----......... _ inflectional 1-'s, -ed)
Figure 6.1
 Morphology

Problems in morphological description

The rather neat chart presented here conceals a number of outstanding problems in the
analysis of English morphology. So far, we have only considered examples of English
words in which the different morphemes are easily identifiable as separate elements.
The inflectional morpheme -s is added to cat and we get the plural cats. What is
the inflectional morpheme that makes sheep the plural of sheep, or men the plural
of man? And if -al is the derivational suffix added to the stem institution to give us
institutional, then can we take -al off the word legal to get the stem leg? Unfortunately,
the answer is "No."
There are other problematic cases, especially in the analysis of different languages,
but the solutions to some of these problems are clearer in some instances than in
others. For example, the relationship between law and legal is a reflection of the
historical influence of different languages on English word forms. The modern form
law is a result of a borrowing into Old English (lagu) from a Scandinavian source over
1,000 years ago. The modern word legal was borrowed about 500 years later from the
Latin form legalis ("of the law"). Consequently, there is no derivational relationship
between the noun law and the adjective legal in English, nor between the noun mouth
(from Old English) and the adjective oral (a Latin borrowing). An extremely large
number of English words owe their morphological patterning to languages like Latin
and Greek. Consequently, a full description of English morphology will have to take
account of both historical influences and the effect of borrowed elements.

Morphs and aUomorphs

One way to treat differences in inflectional morphemes is by proposing variation in

morphological realization rules. In order to do this, we draw an analogy with some
processes already noted in phonology (Chapter 4). Just as we treated phones as the
actual phonetic realization of phonemes, so we can propose morphs as the actual
forms used to realize morphemes. For example, the form cats consists of two morphs,
cat + -s, realizing a lexical morpheme and an inflectional morpheme ("plural"). The
form buses also consists of two morphs (bus+ -es), realizing a lexical morpheme and
an inflectional morpheme ("plural"). So there are at least two different morphs (-sand
-es, actually jsj and jnj) used to realize the inflectional morpheme "plural." Just as
we noted that there were "allophones" of a particular phoneme, so we can recognize
the existence of allomorphs of a particular morpheme. That is, when we find a group
of different morphs, all versions of one morpheme, we can use the prefix allo·· ( ~ one
of a closely related set) and describe them as allomorphs of that morpheme.

5
__ :-~The Study of Language

Take the morpheme "plural." Note that it can be attached to a number of lexical
morphemes to produce structures like "cat+ plural," "bus + plural," "sheep+ plural,"
and "man + plural." In each of these examples, the actual forms of the morphs that
result from the morpheme "plural" are different. Yet they are all allomorphs of the one
morpheme. So, in addition to jsj and /n /, another allomorph of "plural" in English
seems to be a zero-morph because the plural form of sheep is actually "sheep + 0."
When we look at "man + plural," we have a vowel change in the word (<e--+ c) as the
morph that produces the "irregular" plural form men.
There are a number of other morphological processes at work in a language like
English, such as those involved in the range of allomorphs for the morpheme "past
tense." These include the common pattern in "walk + past tense" that produces
walked and also the special pattern that takes "go + past tense" and produces the
"irregular" past form went.

Other languages

When we look at the morphology of other languages, we can find other forms and
patterns realizing the basic types of morphemes we have identified. The first example
below is from English and the second from a language called Aztec (from Central
America). In both cases, we attach a derivational morpheme to a stem, then add an
inflectional morpheme.

Stem Derivational Inflectional

dark + en ("make") + ed ("past") ~ darkened
mic ("die") + tia ("cause to") + s ("future") ~ mictias ("will kill")

Different patterns occur in other languages. In the following examples, from a range of
languages originally described in Gleason (1955), we can try to work out how different
forms in the languages are used to realize morphological processes and features.

Kanuri
This first set of examples is from Kanuri, a language spoken in Nigeria.

Adjective Noun
("excellent") karite ngmkarite ("excellence")
("big") lwra n;,mkura ("bigness")
("small") gana ngmgana ("smallness")
("bad") dibi n;,mdibi ("badness")

b
Morphology

From this set, we can propose that the prefix n:;,m- is a derivational morpheme that can
be used to derive nouns from adjectives. Discovering a regular morphological feature
of this type will enable us to make certain predictions when we encounter other forms
in the language. For example, if the Kanuri word for "length" is n:;,mkurugu, then we
can be reasonably sure that "long" is kurugu.

Ganda

Different languages also employ different means to produce inflectional marking on

forms. Here are some examples from Ganda, a language spoken in Uganda.

Singular Plural
("doctor") omusawo abasawo ("doctors")
("woman") omukazi abakazi ("women")
("girl") omuwala abawala ("girls")
("heir") omusika abasika ("heirs")

From this small sample, we can observe that there is an inflectional prefix omu- used
with singular nouns, and a different inflectional prefix aba- u.sed with the plural of
those nouns. If you are told that abalenzi is a Ganda plural, meaning "boys," you
should be able to work out the singular form meaning "boy." It is, of course, omulenzi.

Hocano

When we look at Ilocano, a language of the Philippines, we find a quite different way of
marking plurals.

Singular Plural
("head") lila ululo ("heads")
("road") ddlan dalddlan ("roads")
("life") bfag bibiag ("lives")
("plant") mula mulmula ("plants")

In these examples, there seems to be repetition of the first part of the singular form.
When the first part is bi- in the singular, the plural begins with this form repeated bibi-.
The process involved here is technically known as reduplication ( ~ "repeating all or
part of a form"). There are many languages that use this repetition device as a means of
inflectional marking. Having seen how plurals differ from singular forms in Ilocano,

7
rne Study of Language

you should be able to take this plural form taltdlon ("fields") and work out what the
singular ("field") would be. If you follow the observed pattern, you should get tdlnn.

Tagalog
Here are some other intriguing examples from Tagalog, another language spoken in the
Philippines.

basa ("read") tawag ("call") sulat ("write")

bumasa ("Read!") tumawag ("Call!") sumulat ("Write!")
babasa ("will read") tatawag ("will call") susulat ("will write")

, If we assume that the first form in each column can be treated as a stem, then it appears
that, in the second item in each column, an element -um- has been inserted after the
first consonant, o'r more precisely, after the syllable onset. It is an example of an infix
(described in Chapter 5). In the third example in each column, note that the change in
form involves, in each case, a repetition of the first syllable. So, the marking of future
reference in Tagalog appears to be accomplished via reduplication. Using this infor-
mation, you should be able to complete these examples:

lakad ("walk") ("Walk!") ("will walk")

lapit ("come here") ("Come here!") ("will come here")

In the second column, with an infix, you'll have lumakad and lumapit, while in the
third column, with reduplication, you'll have lalakad and lalapit.
As we have been exploring all these different morphological processes, we have
moved from the basic structure of words to a consideration of some topics traditionally
associated with grammar. We will focus more fully on issues relating to grammar in the
next chapter.

. ~-
Morphology

----------- - - -
--l
_Study questions _
1 What are the functional mowhemes in the following sentence?
l
Whenhearrived in the morning, the oldman had an umbrella and a largepla$tic
bag full of books.

2 (a) List the bound morphemes in these words: fearlessly, misleads, previewer,
shortened, unhappier
(b) Which of these words has a bound stem: construct, deceive, introduce;
repeat?
. . '·. ·-
'

(c) Which of these words. contains an allomorph of the morpheme ''pasttense~':

are, have, must, sitting, waits?
3 What are the inflectional morphemes in these expressions?
(a) Haw you eaten yet?
(b) Do you know how long I've been waiting?
(c) She's younger than mecmd always dresses in the latest style.
(d) We looked through m)l grandmother's old photo albums.--
4 What are the allomorphs of themorpheme "plural" in this set.of English words:
criteria, dogs, oxen, deer, judges, stimuli?
5 What is reduplication?
6 Provide equivalent forms; in the languages listed, for the English translations
shown on the right below.

Ganda omulo7Jgo ("twin") ("twins")

Ilocano tawtawa ("windows") ("window")
Kanuri n-;;,mb]i ("sweetness") ("sweet")
Tagalog bili ("buy") ("will buy")
Tagalog kain . ("eat") ("Eat!")

Tas!«s
A What is "suppletion"? Was there an example of an English suppletive fprm
described in this chapter?
B The selection of appropriate allomorphs is based on three different effects:
lexical conditioning, morphological conditioning or phonological conditioning.
What type of conditioning do you think is involved in the relationship between
the words in each of the following pairs?
1 stitch - stitches
2 exclaim - exclamation
3 child - children

g
EXERCISES
A. THE EXERCISES OF MORPHEMES

EXERCISE 1: Identify the number of the morphemes in each of the given words.
Complete the table given below.

1 play 1 11 keeper

2 replay 2 (re- and play) 12 able

3 date 13 unable

4 antedate 14 mahogany 1

5 hygiene 15 rain

6 weak 16 rainy

7 weaken 17 cheap

8 man 18 cheaply 2 (cheap and -ly)

9 manly 19 cheaper

10 keep 20 honest

EXERCISE 2: Identify the bound morpheme(s) in of each of the given words.

Complete the table given below.

1 speaker -er 6 delivery

2 kingdom 7 intervene inter-, -vene
3 phonemic 8 revise
4 idolize 9 dreamed
5 selective 10 undone

~0

. ~.
 EXERCISE 3: Underline the base in each of the given words. Complete the table
given below.
1 womanly 6 lighten 11 unlikely
2 endear 7 enlighten 12 pre-war
3 failure 8 friendship 13 subway
4 famous 9 befriend 14 falsify
5 infamous 10 Bostonian 15 unenlivened

Identify the meaning of the affix in of each of the given words.

EXERCISE 4:
Complete the table given below.

1 antedate The prefix ante- means 'before'.

2 replay
3 manly
4 keeper The suffix -er means 'a person who ... '.
5 unable
6 rainy
7 cheapest
8 subway
9 import
10 maltreat

:Li
 EXERCISE 5: Identify the meaning of the bound base in the given sets of words.
Complete the table given below.
audience, audible, audition
1 The bound base audi- means 'hear'.
and auditorium
suicide, patricide, matricide The bound base -cide means 'killing'.
2
and infanticide
oral, orate, oration, oracle
3
and oratory
aquaplane, aquarium,
4
aquatic and aquaduct
mortuary, moribund, mortal
5
and immortal
corporation, corporeal,
6
corps and corpse
tenable, tenant, tenure and
7
tenacious
pendulum, suspender,
8
pendant and impending
manuscript, manacle,
9
manual and manicure
10 eject, inject, inject, reject
and projectile
UNIT TWO

.DERIVATION AND INFLECTION

1. DERIVATION
1.1. DEFINITION: Derivation is 'the formation of new words by adding
affixes to other words or morphemes. For example, the noun insanity is derived
from the adjective sane by addition of the negative prefix in- and the noun-
forming suffix -ity' [Richards, Platt & Weber, 1987: 77].
1.2. TYPES OF DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES: There are two subgroups:
• Class-changing derivational affixes change the word class, (also called the
grammatical category or the part of speech) of the words to which they are
attached.
Thus, when a verb is conjoined with the suffix -able, the result is an
adjective, as in desire + -able or adore + -able.
A few other examples are:
noun to adjective verb to noun adjective to adverb noun to verb
boy + -ish acquit(t) + -al exact+ -ly mortal + -ise
virtu(e) + -ous clear + -ance quiet+ -ly vaccin(e) + -ate
Elizabeth + -an accus(e) + -ation beauty+ -fy
• Class-maintaining derivational affixes do not change the word class of the
words to which they are attached.
Many prefixes fall into this category:
a- +mortal mono- + theism
auto- + biography re- +print
ex- +wife semi- + annual
super- + human sub- + minimal
There are also suffixes of this type:
vicar+ -age New Jersey+ -ite
Americ(a) + -an pun+ -ster
1.3. MORPHOLOGICAL RULES: New words may enter the dictionary in this
fashion, created by the application of morphological rules. A few of them are:

(1) VERB +-able ='able to be VERB-ed'

ACCEPT + -able = 'able to be ACCEPTed'

A3
 The derivational class-changing adjective-forming suffix {-able) has three
allomorphs:
(i) /-6bl!, which occurs at the end of English words: visible
!'vlz6bl!, desirable !d6'za16r6bl I;
(ii) /-6b/, which occurs before the adverb-forming suffix {-ly1 ):
visibly /'vlz6bll/, desirably /d6'za16r6bll/;
(iii) /-6'bll!, which occurs before the noun-forming suffix {-ity):
visibility /,vlz6'bll6tl/, desirability /d6,za16r6'bll6tl/.

(2) un- + ADJECTIVE = 'not + ADJECTIVE'

un- +TRUE = 'not + TRUE'

Among the words which have been derived from this morphological rule are
unjust, unkind, unfair, unfit, unavoidable, unrelieved, u~Jscientific,
unshrinking, unskilled, etc.

(3) un- + VERB = 'do the opposite of+ VERB+ -ING'

= 'reverse + VERB+ -ING'
un- + LOCK = 'do the opposite of+ LOCKING'
= 'reverse + LOCKING'
Among the words which have been derived from the this morphological rule
are unnerve, unlock, untie, undo, untread, unzip, unfasten, undress, uncurl,
unfold, etc.

NOTES:
<D Added to a verb base, the prefix 'un..! meaning 'reverse' or 'do the opposite
of is not too difficult to be identified:
1. nerve /n3:v/ v [Tn.pr, Cn.t] - sb/oneself for sth give
sb/ oneself the courage, strength, self-
control, confidence, or determination to
do sth: Her support nerve her for the
fight. I nerved myself to face my ·'
accusers.
unnerve I,An'n3:v/ v [Tn] cause sb to lose courage, strength,
self-control, confidence, or determination:
His encounter with the guard dog had
completely unnerved him.
2. lock /14k/ v [Tn] fasten (a gate, door, lid, etc.) with
a lock: Be sure to lock your bicycle.
unlock /,All'l4k/ V [Tn] unfasten the lock (of a door, gate,
lid, etc.) using a key: He failed to
unlock the gate.
3. tie /tall v [Tn] fasten or bind (sth) with rope,
string, etc.: Shall I tie the parcel or use
sticky tape?
untie /,An'tall v [Tn] unfasten knots, buttons, a parcel,
an envelope, etc.: Could you untie this
apron for me?
4. undo /,An'du:/ v [Tn] 1. reverse doing; untie or unfasten
knots, buttons, etc.: I can't undo my
shoelaces; 2. reverse doing; destroy the
effect of sth: He undid most of the good
work of his predecessor.
5. tread /tri:d! v [I] set one's foot down; walk or step:
Explorers were going where no man
had trod before.
untread I,An'tri:d! v [I] go back through in the same steps:
She trod and untrod lightly so as not to
wake the baby.
@ Also added to a verb base, the prefix 'un-' may have another meaning:
'remove from' or 'deprive of:
1. earth /3:8/ sth up [phr u] cover sth (the roots of a plant,
etc.) with earth: He earthed up the
celery.
unearth I,An'3:8/ v [Tn, Tn.pr] - sth (from sth) dig up,
uncover sth from the ground by
digging: The dog has unearthed some
bones.
2. mask /ma:sk! u [Tn] cover the face (of sb) with a mask;
(fig.) conceal sth: The thief masked his
face with a stocking. She masked her
fear by a show of confidence.
unmask /,An'ma:skl v [Tn] remove a mask from (sb); (fig.)
reveal the true character of (sb/sth):
Who will unmask his plot?
3. load /l6ud/ u [Tn] put a load in or on sth: They
loaded bricks onto the lorry.
unload /,An'l6ud/ u [Tn] remove a load from sth: Dockers
started unloading the ship.
4. plug /plA9/ phr u [Tn] sth in connect (sth) to the electricity
supply with a plug: Plug in the radio,
please. The recorder wasn't plugged in.
[Tn] disconnect (an electrical appliance)
by removing its plug from the socket:
Please unplug the TV before you go to
bed.
5. YJ1[rock /,An'fr4k/ u [Tn esp. passive] deprive (a cleric) of
ecclesiastic rank, dismiss (a priest
. guilty of bad conduct) from the
priesthood: The uicar of the church has
been YJ1[rocked.
(Notice that 'frock' as a verb does not
really exist in English.)
® Unfortunately, it is not always easy to identify the meaning of the prefix
'un-': if the suffix '-Bn' in 'unloosen' means 'make', then what does the
prefix 'un-' mean? Compare:
Can you loosen the lid of the jar?
Can you unloose the rope around the victim's waist?
Can you unloosen his collar?
loosen /'lu:snl u 1. [I] become loose or looser: This knot
keeps loosening; 2. [Tn] make (sth) loose
or looser: medicine to loosen a cough.
unloose /,An'lu:s/ u [Tn] make (sth) loose: After the huge
meal, he unloosed his belt and go to
sleep.
unloosen I,An'lu:sn/ u [Tn] make (sth) loose: After the huge
meal, he unloosened his belt and go to
sleep.
This phenomenon can be used to support Fromkin's and Rodman's following
statement [1993: 50-51]: 'It is true, however, that one cannot always know. the
meaning 6f the words derived from free and derivational morphemes from the
morphemes themselves ... Therefore, although the words in a language are not

lib
the most elemental sound-meaning units, they (plus the morphemes) must be listed
in our dictionaries. The morphological rules also are in the grammar, revealing the
relation between words and providing the means for forming new words.'

2. INFLECTION
2.1. DEFINITION: Inflection is 'the process of adding an affix to a word or
changing it in some other way according to the rules of the grammar of a
language. For example, English verbs are inflected for 3rd_person singular: I
work, he works and for past tense: I worked. Most nouns may be inflected for
plural: horse - horses, flower -flowers, man - men' [Richards, Platt & Weber,
1987: 77].
2.2. VARIOUS KINDS OF INFLECTION
2.2.1. NOUN INFLECTION
Almost all English nouns have two forms: the plain form (also called the
unmarked form) used in the constructions like 'a book' or 'the book' and the
inflected form (also called the marked form) which is formed by adding
inflectional suffixes to the plain form. The plain form and its three inflected
forms together make up a four-form inflectional noun paradigm, which is a set
of relative forms of a noun. Not all nouns have three inflected forms:

one plain form three inflected forms

(=the stem) (=the stem +inflectional suffixes)
mother (singular noun) mothers (plural noun)
mother's (singular-possessive noun)
mothers' (plural-r:lOssessive noun)

2.2.2. VERB INFLECTION

The inflections of a verb are more complicated than those of a noun. The
paradigm of an irregular verb has four inflected forms: breaks, breaking,
broke, and broken.
Although the past simple and the past participle inflected forms of a regular
verb are just the same, they carry quite different meanings.
Therefore, it is much more convenient to assign all English verbs to a five-
form inflectional paradigm.
one plain form four inflected forms
(=the stem) (=the stem+ inflectional suffixes)
work works, working, worked, worked
 break breaks, breaking, broke, broken

2.2.3. ADJECTIVE INFLECTION and ADVERB INFLECTION

There is a three-form inflectional paradigm for adjectives of one or two
syllables and for monosyllabic adverbs though it does not apply to all
members of either the adjective or the adverb class.
Most one-syllable adjectives and adverbs and many two-syllable adjectives
have a comparative form with an '-er' inflection and a superlative form with
an '-est' inflection.
one plain form two inflected forms

(=the stem) (=the stem+ inflectional suffixes)

. POSITIVE COMPARATIVE SUPERLATIVE

short shorter shortest

big bigger biggest
ADJECTIVES
happy happier happiest
·pure purer purest
fast faster fastest
ADVERBS
hard harder hardest
-

3. HOW TO DISTINGUISH DERIVATION FROM INFLECTION

3.1. DERIVATION
3.1.1. Derivation can be observed in the following formula:

A BASE (also called A ROOT) + DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES -> NEW DERIVED WORDS

3.1.2. DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES serve to supply the base with 'components

of lexical and lexica-grammatical meanings, thus form different words' [Arnold,
1986: 87]. Adding derivational affixes to English base morphemes (which are
of various grammatical categories! word classes/ parts of speech), we have
various DERIVATIONAL PARADIGMS: mother, motherhood, mother);y, motherli
ness, motherless and mother/ike form a derivational paradigm; break,
breakable, unbreakable, breahabil ity, unbreak. abil i!:y, breakage and breaker
form another derivational paradigm; pure, pure!y, purist, purism, purify, puri
fie ation, pureness (= puri!y), impure, and impuri!y form still another
derivational paradigm.
 3.1.3. THE BASE (also called THE ROOT) of a derivational paradigm is 'the
ultimate constituent element which remains after the removal of all functional
and derivational affixes and does not admit any further analysis' [Arnold, 1986:
78]. Thus, HEARTen, HEARTen ed, disHEARTen, disHEARTen ed, HEARTy,
HEART! lY., HEART! ness HEARTless, HEARTless lY., and HEARTless ness, all
share the same base: HEART.
3.1.4. A DERIVATIONAL PARADIGM is 'a set of related words composed of
the same base morpheme and all the derivational affixes that can go with this
base' [Stageberg, 1965: 97].

3.2. INFLECTION
3.2.1. Inflection can be observed in the following formula:

A STEM + INFLECTIONAL SUFFIXES -> INFLECTED FORMS OF

ONE AND THE SAME WORD

3.2.2. INFLECTIONAL (also called GRAMMATICAL or FUNCTIONAL)

SUFFIXES 'serve to convey grammatical meaning. They build different forms of
one and the same word' [Arnold, 1986: 87]. Adding inflectional suffixes to
English stems (which are only nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs), we have
INLECTIONAL PARADIGMS: mother, mothers, mother's and mothers' form an
inflectional noun paradigm; break, breaking, breaks, broke and broken form
an inflectional verb paradigm; long, longer and longest form an inflectional
adjective or adverb paradigm.
3.2.3. THE STEM (of an inflectional paradigm) is the part of a word that
remains after the removal of all inflectional suffixes. In other words, the stem
is that part of a word that is in existence before any inflectional suffixes. The
stem of the inflectional adjective paradigm HEARTy-HEARTier-( the) HEARTiest
is HEARTy. It is a free stem, but it consists of A BASE and an affix; it is not
simple but derived. Thus, a stem containing one or more affixes is 'a derived
stem' [Arnold, 1986: 78].
3.2.4. AN INFLECTIONAL PARADIGM is a set of related words composed of
the same stem and all the inflectional suffixes that can go with this stem.
EXERICES
EXERCISE 1: Gille as many words with the same bound base as you can, using
the given prefixes and bound bases.

Prefixes Bound bases

ad- (ac-, at-): to, toward 1. -tain hold
com- (con-): with, together, jointly, in 2. -ceive
de-: from, down, away -cept take
dis- (dif-): apart -ceit
carry,
ex-: from, out from, out of 3. -fer bear
shut,
in- (im-): in, into, within, toward, on 4. -elude close
per-: through, thoroughly 5. -port carry
pre-: before, in advance
inter-: between
pro-: forward, before, forth, for
re-: back, again
sub- (sup-): under
trans-: across, beyond, through

EXERCISE 2: Identify all the possible the suffixes in each of the given words.
Complete the table given below.
1 organists

2 personalities

3 flirtatiously 3 suffixes -ation, -ous, -ly

.
4 atomizers

5 contrad ictori/y

6 trusteeship

7 greasier

8 countrified

9 friendliest

10 responsibilities

).,0
 EXERCISE 3: Identify the meaning of the prefix in each of the given words and then
give as many words with the same prefix as you can. Complete the table given below.

anti- = 'against' anti-aircraft, ant1body,

1 antidote
antipersonnel, anl!hero

circum-= circum-navigate, circumference,

2 circumvent 'around' circumlocution, circumspect

co-curriculum, co-operate, co-

co-pilot
co-, col-, ordinate
co/lapse
com-, con-, conide, collision, collect
3 compact
cor- = 'with' comply
convene
consonant, convoke
corrode
correlate

4 contradict

deactivate, decentralize,
de-=
5 devitalized dehumanize, deform,
'do the opposite' denationalize, decolonize, decode

dehorn, defrost, deice, deflower,

6 delouse de- = 'remove'
deforest

7 devalue de- = 'reduce': degrade, debase, decline, decrease

8 disunion

9 disagreeable

insecure
imperfect
10
illegible
irreverent

inspire inspiration, inspirational,

in-, im- = 'in' or inspiring, inspired, inspect,
 6 pressure+

7 extinguish +
I
.

8 orientate+

9 friendly+

10 noisy+

EXERCISE 7: You are given here five bases, or words with their bases italicized.
Give all the words in the derivational paradigm. Do not include words with two bases,
like 'manhunf or 'manpower'. Complete the table given below.

1 sin sinful, sinfulness, sinless, sinlessness, sinner

-

2 kind

3 live (adj)llal/

4 transport

5 audience
 Unit 3: Word Formation

Compound words, blends

and phrasal words

6.1 Compounds versus phrases

In the last chapter, we looked at words (that is, lexemes, not word forms)
formed from other words, mainly by means of affixes. In this chapter we
will look at compounds, that is words formed by combining roots, and
the much smaller category of phrasal words, that is items that have the
internal structure of phrases but function syntactically as words. As we
will see, some types of compound are much commoner than others.
There are also some styles of writing (for example, newspaper headlines)
in which compounds are especially frequent. But first we must deal with
an issue that has not arisen so far, because until now all the complex
words that we have looked at have contained at least one bound
morpheme. Roots in English are mostly free rather than bound. How can
we tell, then, whether a pair of such roots constitutes a compound word
or a phrase, that is a unit of sentence structure rather than a complex
word?
A definite answer is not always possible, but there are enough clear
cases to show that the distinction between compounds and phrases is
valid. Consider the expressions a green house, with its literal meaning, and
a greenhouse, meaning a glass structure (not usually green in colour 1)
where delicate plants are reared. There is a difference in sound corre-
sponding to the difference in meaning: in the first expression the main
stress is on house, while in the second the main stress is on green. This
pattern of semantic contrast between expressions stressed in different
places is quite common, as in the following examples:
( 1) black board blackboard
'board that is black' 'board for writing on'
(2) silk worm silkworm
'worm made of silk (e.g. a soft toy)' 'caterpillar that spins silk' .
. (3) hairnet hairnet
·'net made of hair' 'net for covering hair'

2.5
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

(4) white house (the) White House

'house that is white' 'residence of the US
President'
(5) toy factory toyfoctory
'factory that is a toy 'factory where toys are made'
(e.g. in a model city)'
The items on the left in (1)-(5), like green house, are phrases, because it is
characteristic of phrases in English to be stressed on the last word, unless
some contrast is being stated or implied (e.g. They live in a white house, not
a yellow one/'). The items on the right, stressed on the first element like
greenhouse, are generally classified as compounds - though this stress
pattern applies consistently only to compound nouns, not to compounds
in other word classes.
Apart from stress, a second criterion traditionally used for dis-
tinguishing compounds from phrases is semantic: a compound tends
to have a meaning that is more or less idiosyncratic or unpredictable.
This is true of most of the compounds in ( 1)-( 5). This criterion must be
treated with caution, however, because, as we noted in Chapter 2, being
semantically unpredictable does not correlate exactly with being a word.
All the same, it is true that words are more likely to be lexical items
than phrases are, so treating semantic idiosyncrasy as an indicator of
compound status will not often be misleading.
All the compounds in (1)-(5) are nouns, and compound nouns are
indeed the commonest type of compound in English. We will examine
them in detail in later sections. Meanwhile, Sections 6.2 and 6.3 will deal
with compound verbs and adjectives.

6.2 Compound verbs

Verbs formed by compounding are much less usual than verbs derived
by affixation. Nevertheless, a variety of types exist which may be dis-
tinguished according to their structure:
(6) verb-verb (VV): stir-fry,freeze-dry
(7) noun-verb (NV): hand-wash, air-conditio11, steam-clean
(8) adjective-verb (AV): dry-clean, whitewash
(9) preposition-verb (PV): underestimate, outrun, overcook
Only the PV type is really common, however, and some compounds
with under-, over- and out- do not need to be classed as lexical items. For
example, out- can create a transitive verb meaning 'outdo in Xing' from
any verb denoting a competitive or potentially competitive activity (e.g.
 COMPOUND WORDS, BLENDS AND PHRASAL WORDS

outsail, outsing, outswim), while new words with over- can also be created
freely (e.g. overpolish, overcriticise, overbleach).
You will notice that all these compounds have a verb as the rightmost
element, and also that, with most of them, the activity denoted by the
compound as whole is a variety of the activity denoted by that right-
most element. Let us call these compounds right-headed, the rightmost
element being the head. Most English compounds are right-headed, but
not all, as we shall see in Section 6.6.

6.3 Compound adjectives

On the analogy of (6)-(9), here are some examples of right-headed com-
pound adjectives: ·
(10) noun-adjective (NA): sky-high, coal-black, oil-rich
( 11) adjective-adjective (AA): grey-grem, squeaky-clea1~, red-hot
(12) preposition-adjective (PA): U11der[ull, ovemctive
As with verbs, it is the type with the preposition over as its first element
that seems most productive, in that new adjectives of this type, with the
meaning 'too X', are readily acceptable: for example, overindig1~ant, over-
smoot!?. In overactive at (12), the head of the compound is the adjective
active derived from the verb act in the fashion described in Section 5.7.

...
In structure, therefore, this adjective is not a mere string of morphemes
(over+ act+ -ive), but rather a nested structure: [over[ act-ive]]. More
~~~~~~~~~
Adjectives with a VA structure, corresponding to the VV verbs at
(2), would resemble a hypothetical 'float-light' 'light enough to float'
or 'sing-happy' 'happy enough to sing'. One actual example is fail-saft
'designed to return to a safe condition if it fails or goes wrong'. However,
other such compounds scarcely exist, even though it is easy enough to
find plausible meanings for them. This reflects the relative reluctance of
verbs to participate in compounding generally in English.
All the compounds in (10)-(12) are right-headed. There are also a few
compound adjectives that are not right-headed, but we will discuss them
along with all headless compounds in Section 6.5.

6.4 Compound nouns

It is with nouns that compounding really comes into its own as a word
forming process in English. That is not surprising. Cultural and tech-
nical change produces more novel artefacts than novel activities or novel
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

properties. These changes therefore generate new vocabulary needs

that (despite the reservations expressed in Chapter 5 about semantic
definitions for word classes) are more readily answered by new nouns
than by new verbs or adjectives. Examples can be found with each of the
other main word classes supplying the left-hand element:
(13) verb-noun (VN): swearword, drop hammer, playtime
( 14) noun-noun (NN): hairnet, mosquito net, butterfly net, hair restorer
(15) adjective-noun (AN): blackboard, greenstone,fointheart
(16) preposition-noun (PN): in-group, outpost, overcoat
All of these have the main stress on the left- a characteristic identified
in Section 6.1 as important for distinguishing compound nouns from
noun phrases. (The fact that hair restorer, butterfly net and mosquito net are
spelled with a space does not affect the fact that, from the grammatical
point of view, they each constitute one complex word.) Most of these are
also right-headed, although we will defer further discussion of headed-
ness to Section 6.6.
If you try to think of more examples for the four types at (13)-(16),
you will probably find the task easiest for the NN type at ( 14). In fact,
almost any pair of nouns can be juxtaposed in English so. as to form
a compound or a phrase - provided that there is something that this
compound or phrase could plausibly mean. The issue of meaning turns.
out to play an important part in distinguishing two kinds of NN com-
pound. Consider the four examples at (14). Does each one have a precise
interpretation that is clearly the most natural, on the basis of the mean-
ings of their two components? For hair restorer, the answer is surely yes:
it most naturally denotes a substance for restoring hair growth. On the
other hand, for hairnet, butterfly net and mosquito net the answer is less clear.
What tells us that a hairnet is for keeping one's hair in place, while a
butterfly net is for catching butterflies and a mosquito net is for keeping
mosquitoes away? This information does not reside in the meaning of
net, nor in the meanings of hair, butterfly and mosquito. The most that one
can conclude from these individual meanings is that each is a net that
has something to do with hair, butterflies and mosquitoes respectively.
Arriving at the precise meanings of these compounds depends on
our knowledge of the world (that some people collect butterflies, and
that mosquitoes can carry disease) rather than on purely linguistic
knowledge.
The difference in precision with which we can interpret hair restorer on
the one hand and hairnetetc. on the other hinges on the fact that restorer
in hair restorer is derived from a verb (restore). Verbs, unlike most nouns
and adjectives, impose expectations and requirements on the noun
 COMPOUND WORDS, BLENDS AND PHRASAL WORDS

phrases that accompany them in the sentence. For example, with the
verb sleep we expect to find one noun phrase as subject; with eat we expect
to find also a noun phrase as object; and with give we expect to find, or at
least to be able to identify from the context, a third 'indirect object' noun
phrase denoting the recipient of the gift. These expected or required
nominal concomitants to a verb are called its arguments. For present
purposes, what matters is that, when the head of a NN compound is
derived from a verb, as restorer is, the most natural way to interpret the
whole compound is quite precise: the first element expresses the object
argument of the verb (that is, the person or thing that undergoes the
action). For example, an X-restorer, whatever X is, something or some-
one that restores X.
Here are some more compounds whose second element is derived
from a verb:
( 17) sign-writer, slum clearance, crime prevention, wish-fulfilment
For all of these, the most natural interpretation is clear. To interpret any
of them some other way - for example, to interpret crime prevention as
meaning not 'prevention of crime' but 'use of crime for preventive
purposes'- seems contrived and unnatural.
It is time to introduce some terminology, for convenience. Let us call
a NN compound like hairnet or mosquito net, in which the right-hand
noun is not derived from a verb and whose interpretation is therefore
not precisely predictable on a purely linguistic basis, a primary or root
compound. (The term 'root compound' is well established but not par-
ticularly appropriate, because primary compounds include many, such
as climbing equipmmtor fitness campaigner, neither of whose components is
a root in the sense of Chapter 2.) Let us call a NN compound like hair
restorer or slum clearance, in which the first element is interpreted as the
object of the verb contained within the second, a secondary or verbal
compound. (Yet another term sometime used is synthetic compound.)
Paradoxically, then, although verbs are relatively rare as elements in
compounds in English (the swearword pattern is unusual), verbal com-
pounds, in the sense just defined, are common.
Secondary compounds are certainly right-headed, in that (for
example) crime prevention denotes a kind of prevention and wish-fu!jiJment
denotes a kind of fulfilment. In this respect they are like most NN
compounds and most compounds generally- but not all, as we shall see
in the next section.
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

6.5 Headed and headless compounds

The AN compounds given at (15) includedfoimheartalongside blackboard
and greenstone. However, whereas a greenstone is a kind of stone and a
blackboard is a kind of board, a faintheart is not a kind of heart but a kind
of person- someone who has a faint heart, metaphorically. So, although
heart is a noun, it is not appropriate to call heart the head of the com-
pound. Rather, fointheart is headless, in the sense that its status as a noun
is not determined by either of its two components. Similar headless AN
compounds are loudmouth and redshank (a kind of bird that has red legs),
and headless NN compounds are stickleback (a kind of fish with spines on
its back) and sabretooth.
A few VN-type compound nouns resemble secondary compounds in
that the noun at the right is interpreted as the object of the verb:

( 18) pickpocket, killjoy, cutpurse

These too are headless, in that a pickpocket is not a kind of pocket, for
example. An implication of these analyses is as follows: if the fact that
heart and pocket are nouns is really irrelevant to the fact thatfointheartand
pickpocket are nouns too, we should expect there to be some headless
nouns in which the second element is not a noun at all - and likewise,
perhaps, headless adjectives in which the second element is not an adjec-
tive. Both expectations turn out to be correct. Some nouns consist of a
verb and a preposition or adverb:
(19) take-off, sell-out, wrap-up, sit-in

In Chapter 5 we saw that nouns are sometimes formed from verbs

by conversion, that is with no affix. The nouns at (19) can be seen as a
special case of this, where the base is a verb plus another word (some-
times constituting a lexical item), as illustrated in (20):

(20) a. The plane took off at noon.

b. The chairman wrapped the meeting up.
c. The students sat in during the discussion.

As for headless adjectives, there are quite a number consisting of a

preposition and a noun:
(21) overland, in-house, with-profits, offshore, downmarket, upscale,
underweight, over-budget
The adjectival status of these compounds can often be confirmed by their
appropriateness in comparative contexts and with the modifier very:

:50
 COMPOUND WORDS, BLENDS AND PHRASAL WORDS

(22) a. They live in a very downmarket neighbourhood.

b. This year's expenditure is even more over-budget than last
year's.
The fact that .the word class of these headless compounds is not deter-
mined by any element inside them (that they have no internal 'centre',
one might say) has led some grammarians to call them exocentric -
that is, having a 'centre' outside themselves, figuratively speaking.
According to this approach, headed compounds would be regarded as
having an internal 'centre'; and, sure enough, they are sometimes called
endocentric.

6.6 Blends and acronyms

In all the examples that we have examined so far, the whole of each
component root (or base) is reproduced in the compound. Sporadically,
however, we encounter a kind of compound where at least one com-
ponent is reproduced only partially. These are known as blends. A
straightforward example is smog, blended from smoke and fog; a more elab-
orate one is chortle (first used by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking
Glass), blended from chuckle and mort.
Examples of partial blends, where only one component is truncated,
are talkathon (from talk plus marathon) and cheeseburger (from cheese plus
hamburger). The ready acceptance of cheeseburger and similar blends such
as beefburger and vegeburger may have been encouraged by a feeling that
hamburger is a compound whose first element is ham - scarcely appro-
priate semantically, since the meat in a hamburger (originally a kind of
meat pattie from Hamburg) is beef.
The most extreme kind of truncation that a component of a blend can
undergo is reduction to just one sound (or letter), usually the first. Blends
made up of initial letters are known as acronyms, of which well-known
examples are NATO (for North At!amic Treaty Organisation), ANZAC (for
Australia1z and New Zealand Army Corps), RAM (for random access memory),
SCSI (pronounced scuzzy, from sma!! computer systems imerface), and AIDS
(from acquired immune deficiency syndrome). Intermediate between an
acronym and a blend is sonar (from sound 1zavigation arzd ranging).
The use of capital letters in the spelling of some of these words
reflects the fact that speakers are aware of their acronym status. It does
not follow that any string of capital letters represents an acronym. If the
conventional way of reading the string is by pronouncing the name
of each letter in turn, as with USA and RP (standing for the 'Received
Pronunciation' of British English), then it is not an acronym but an
abbreviation.
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

It is clear from these examples that blending· and acronymy are

in active use for the creation of new vocabulary. However, they differ
from derivational affixation and normal compounding in being more
or less self-conscious, and are concentrated in areas where the demand
for new noun vocabulary is greatest, such as (currently) information
technology.

6.7 Compounds containing bound combining forms

Most of the compounds that we have looked at so far involve roots that
are free forms. But the vocabulary of English, especially in scientific and
technical areas, includes a huge repertoire of compounds that are made
up of bound roots, known as combining forms, already alluded to in
Chapter 3. Here are just a few:
(2 3) anthropology, sociology, cardiogram, electrocardiogram, retro-
grade, retrospect, plantigrade
For most of these, the meaning Of the whole is clearly determinable from
that of the parts: for example, anthrop(o)- 'human' plus -(o)logy 'science or
study' yields a word that means 'science or study of human beings', and
planti- 'sole (of foot)' and -grade 'walking' yields a word meaning 'walk-
ing on the soles of the feet'. This semantic predictability is crucial to the
coining of new technical terms using these elements.
Apart from containing bound roots, anthropology differs in two other
ways from most compound nouns. Firstly, it has a central linking vowel
-o- that cannot conclusively be assigned to either root. In this respect it
resembles many combining-form compounds. Secondly, although it is a
noun, its stress is not on the first element- unless the linking -o- belongs
there. In this respect it resembles e.g. monogamy, philosophy and aristocracy.
In Chapters 3 and 5 we encountered bound roots that could function
as the base for derivational affixation, such as aud- in audible, audition etc.
Not surprisingly, some combining forms can function in this way too
(in other words, the dividing line between combining forms and other
bound roots is not sharp): for example, soci- and electr(o)- from (2 3) also
occur, indeed much more commonly, in social and electric.
Given that combining forms, and the compounds that contain them,
are so untypical of compounds in general, it is natural to ask how English
has come to acquire them. In fact, they come mostly from Greek or
Latin, through deliberate borrowings to supply new needs for technical
vocabulary that arose partly from the revival of learning in western
Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries known as the Renais-
sance, and partly from the industrial revolution of the eighteenth
 COMPOUND WORDS, BLENDS AND PHRASAL WORDS

century and its scientific spin-offs. We will have more to say about these
circumstances in Chapter 9.

6.8 Phrasal words

In some of the compounds that we have looked at so far, relationships are
expressed that are the same as ones expressed in syntax: for example, the
verb-object relationship between hair and restore in hair restorer. On the
other hand, the way in which the verb-object relationship is expressed
in this compound is quite different from how it is expressed in syntax, in
that the two words appear in the opposite order: we say This substance
restores hair, not • This substance hair-restores. There is a clear difference
between compound word structure and sentence structure here. But
there are also complex items that function as words, yet whose internal
structure is that of a clause or phrase rather than of a compound. There
is no standard term for these items, so I will introduce the term phrasal
words.
An example of a phrasal word is the nounjack-in-the-box. Structurally
this has the appearance of a noun phrase in which the head noun, jack, is
modified by a prepositional phrase, in the box, exactly parallel to the
phrases people i11 the street or (a) book on the shelf However, it forms its plural
by suffixing -s not to the head noun (as in book.r on the shelf) but to the
whole expression: not 'jacks-in-the-box' but jack-in-the-boxes, as in They
jumped up and down like jack-in-the-boxes. Though structurally a phrase,
then, it behaves as a word. Contrast this with another item which is at
least as idiosyncratic in meaning and which has a superficially similar
structure: brother-in-law. A crucial difference is that brother-in-law forms
its plural by affixing -s not to the whole expression but to the head noun:
brothers-in-law. Despite its hyphens, therefore, brother-in-law is not a word
at all but a phrase (although also a lexical item- a combination discussed
in Chapter 2).
Can phrases other than noun phrases constitute phrasal words? The
answer is yes. Adjectival examples are dyed-in-the-wool (as in a dyed-in-
the-wool Republica1z) or couldn't-care-less (as in a couldn't-care-less attitude).
Syntactically, dyed-i1z-the-woollooks like an adjective phrase consisting
of an adjective (died 'artificially coloured') modified by a prepositional
phrase, just like suitable for the party or devoted to his clzildrm. However, such
a phrase cannot entirely precede the noun it modifies (we say a man
devoted to his children or suitable music for the party, not 'a devoted to his
children man or 'suitable for the party music); therefore the behaviour of
dyed-in-the-wool is that of a word rather than aphrase. As for couldn't-care-
less, its structure is that of a verb phrase, but again its behaviour is that

33
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

of an adjective (e.g. Your attitude is evm more couldn't-care-less than hers!).

This seems an appropriate point to mention a small and rather old-
fashioned class of lexical items exemplified by governor general, attorney
general, court martial and lord lieutenant. How do they form their plural: like
attorney generals, or like attorneys general? If you prefer the former, then
these items may seem at first like further phrasal words- except for the
fact that they differ from normal English noun phrases in having an
adjective following the noun rather than preceding it. It seems better,
therefore, to treat them as examples of something that we have not so far
encountered: endocentric words which, untypically, have their head on
the left rather than on the right. On the other hand, if you prefer the
latter sort of plural (attorneys general), they seem more akin to brother(s)-
in-law: not words but lexicalised phrases. If, finally, neither kind of plural
sounds quite right to you, that is not surprising, because however these
items are analysed, their structure is unusual.

6.9 Conclusion
This chapter has illustrated various ways in which an English word may
itself be composed of words. In Chapter 7 I will have more to say about
a fact that I have not emphasised so far: one or both of the component
words in a compound may itself be a compound, so there is in principle
no upper limit to the size of compounds. We have also seen that at least
one syntactic relationship can be expressed within compounds just
as well as within sentences, namely the verb-object relationship (or
perhaps one should say the action-goal relationship), as in hair restorer.
One might ask, then, why English, or any language, needs both com-
pound word -structure and clause-structure side by side: could not just
one do the work performed in actual English by both? That is an import-
ant question, but unfortunately one for which there is no generally
agreed answer. Further discussion of it is therefore a task for research
papers, rather than for an introductory textbook such as this.

Exercises ( -¥>k) f· {q- o .

~0\'Yb
1. Which of the following are compound words, which are phrases, and
which are phrasal words?
(a) moonlight, moonscape, harvest moon, blue moon (as in once in a blue moon)
(b) blueberry, bluebottle, greybeard, sky-blue, blue-pencil (as in they blue-
pencilled the script heavily)
(c) pencil case, eyebrow pencil, pencil sharpener, pencil-thin, thin air (as in
they vanished into thin air)

34
 COMPOUND WORDS, BLENDS AND PHRASAL WORDS

(d) airport, Royal Air Force, air conditioni11g, Air Fra11ce

(e) silkworm, silk shirt, T-shirt
(f) stick-in-the-mud, lady-in-waitirzg,forget-me-not, has-bem, wannabe
(g) overrun (verb), 6verru1z (noun, as in a big cost overrun), undercoat
(noun), undercoat (verb, as in We U71dercoated the walls i11 white), under-
hand, handover
2. Of the compounds (not the phrases or phrasal words) in Exercise I,
which are endocentric and which are exocentric?
3. Of the compound nouns in Exercise I, which are primary (or root)
compounds and which are secondary (or verbal) compounds?
4. Identify (with the help of a dictionary, if necessary) the sources of the
following blends or acronyms: brunch, motel, radar, modem, laser.
5. Each of these words is a compound containing at least one bound
Graeco-Latin combining form. With the help of a dictionary if necess-
ary, identify a meaning for each such combining form, and find anpther
word that contains it:
nanosecond, protoplasm, mdocmtric, polyphony, leucocyte, omnzvorous,
octahedron

Recommendations for reading

On compounding, see Adams (1973) for a description of the varieties
that occur and Selkirk ( 1982) for a more theoretically adventurous,
though now somewhat dated, discussion. Be warned, however, that these
writers treat as compounds some noun-noun collocations that I analyse
as phrases. One reason seems to be that they, like many linguists, are
reluctant to analyse nouns as modifiers (like adjectives) within a phrase,
so that they are prevented from distinguishing structurally (as I do)
between the compound toy foctory ('factory for making toys') and the ·
phrase toy foctory ('factory which is a toy'). A similar view is taken by
Bauer ( 1998), who cites, for example, the apparent arbitrariness of treat-
ing apple pie (with stress on the second element) as a phrase, if dpple cake
(with stress on the first element) is a compound. Also, some writers blur
the difference in status between lexemes and lexical items, discussed
in Chapter 2, and hence analyse as a compound word any noun-noun
collocation with an idiosyncratic meaning, such as spaghetti western.
The view that there is really no fundamental difference between
word -structure and sentence-structure :c. a view that blurs fund amen-
tally the distinction between compounds and phrases - is espoused by

35
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

Lieber (1992). However, this is not the dominant view among con-
temporary morphologists. For an opposed view, see Anderson ( 1992),
reviewed by Carstairs-McCarthy (1993).
A classic discussion of secondary compounds is Lieber (1983). See
also section 4.4 in Carstairs-McCarthy ( 1992).
@ A word and its structure

7.1 Meaning and structure

In Chapter 2 it was pointed out that many words have meanings that are
predictable, more or less, on the basis of their components. Sorrie words
are so predictable, indeed, that they do not have to be listed as lexical
items. This predictability of meaning depends on how the structure of
complex word forms guides their iriterpretation. Even with words that
are lexically listed, unless their meaning is entirely different from what
one might expect, such guidance is relevant. This chapter is about how
it operates, and also (in Section 7.5) about circumstances under which
meaning and structure appear to diverge.
In some words, structure is straightforward. For example, the lexeme
HELPFUL, already discussed in Chapter 5, is derived from the noun base
HELP by means of the adjective-forming suffix -Jul. Because there are
only two elements in this word form, it may seem there is not much to
say about its structure. Even with just these two components, however,
there is clearly a distinction between the actual word form helpful and the
ill-formed one • -ful-help- a distinction that will be discussed in Section
7.2. Sections 7.3 and 7.4 deal with affixed words and compounds that
have more than two components, such as unhelpfulness and car insura11ce
premium. Finally, in Section 7.5, we will confront a dilemma posed by
items like French history teacher in its two interpretations ('French teacher
of history' and 'teacher of French history').

7.2 Affixes as heads

Chapter 5 showed how, in English derivational morphology, suffixes
heavily outnumber prefixes. In Chapter 6 we saw that most compounds
are headed, with the head on the right. Superficially these two facts are
unconnected. Consider, however, the role played by the head house of a
compound such as greenhouse. As head, house determines the compound's
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

syntactic status (as a noun), and also its meaning, inasmuch as a green-
house is a kind of house for plants. This is very like the role played by
the suffix -er in the derived word teacher. it determines that teacher is a
noun, unlike its base, the verb teach, and it contributes the meaning
'someone who Xs', where the semantic blank X is here filled in by teach.
Many (though not all) linguists therefore treat -eras the head of teacher
in just the same way as house is the head of greenhouse. This is relevant to
the distinction between helpful and • -ful-help. In helpful, the affix is what
determines that the whole word is an adjective, and so counts as its head.
Accordingly, • -ful-help violates English expectations not just because the
affix is on the wrong side, but also because the rightmost element is not
the head. In the derived words teacher and helpful, therefore, the two
components are not equal contributors, so to speak; rather, the righthand
element (as in most compounds) has a special status.
Superficially, this view of affixes as heads leads us to expect that
prefixed words should be as rare in English as left-headed compounds
are (items such as attorney genera!). Yet prefixes, though fewer than
suffixes, include some that are of very common occurrence, such as un-
'not' and re- 'again'. Is our expectation disappointed, then? Not really,
despite first appearances. Consider the relationship between helpful and
unhelpful. In helpful, -fulhas a clearly wordclass-determining role because
it changes a noun, help, into an adjective. In unhelpful, however, un- has no
such role; rather, it leaves the wordclass of helpful unchanged (see Section
5.6). This characteristic of un- is not restricted to adjectives, moreover.
Verbs to which un- is prefixed remain verbs (e.g. untie, unfosten, unclasp),
and those few nouns to which un- is prefixed remain nouns (unease,
unrest). This strongly suggests that the head of of all these words is not
un- but the base to which un- is attached (helpful, tie, ease etc.)- and which
is the righthand element.
Similar arguments apply to re-: rearrange, repaint and re-educate are
verbs, just as arrange, paint and educate are. These prefixed verbs, there-
fore, are right-headed also. The only prefixes that are unequivocally
heads are those that change word class, such as de- in delouse (deriving
verbs from nouns) and en- in enfeeble and enslave (deriving verbs from
nouns and adjectives) (see Section 5.9). So, while left-headed derived
words do exist, just as left-headed compounds do, they are also not so
numerous as may at first appear.

7.3 More elaborate word forms: multiple affixation

Many derived words contain more than one affix. Examples are unhe!p-
fulness and helplessness. Imagine now that the structure of these words is
 A WORD AND ITS STRUCTURE

entirely 'flat': that is, that they each consist of merely a string of affixes
plus a root, no portions of the string being grouped together as a sub-
string or smaller constituent within the word. An unfortunate con-
sequence of that analysis is that it would complicate considerably what
needs to be said about the behaviour of the suffixes -ful and -less. In
Chapter 5 these were straightforwardly treated as suffixes that attach
to nouns to form adjectives. However, if the nouns unhelpfulness and help-
lessness are flat-structured, we must also allow -ful and -less to appear
internally in a string that constitutes a noun - but not just anywhere in
such a string, because (for example) the imaginary nouns 'sadlesmess and
• meanlessi1~gness, though they contain -less, are nevertheless not words,
and (one feels) could never be words.
The flat-structure approach misses a crucial observation. Unhelpfulness
contains the suffix -ful only by virtue of the fact that it contains (in some
sense) the adjective helpful. Likewise, helplessness contains -less by virtue
of the fact that it contains helpless. Once that is recognised, the apparent
need to make special provision for -ful and -less when they appear inside
complex words, rather than as their rightmost element, disappears. In
fact, both these words can be seen as built up from the root help by
successive processes of affixation (with N, V and A standing for noun,
verb and adjective respectively):
(1) helpN + -ful --<> helpfulA
un- + helpful --<> unhelpfulA
U1thelpful + -ness --<> unhelpfulnessN
(2) help N + -less --<> helplessA
helpless + -1zess --<> helplesmessN
Another way of representing this information is in terms of a branching
tree diagram, as in ( 3) and (4), which also represent the fact that the
noun help is formed by conversion from the verb:
(3)
N

A
I
\A

un
(\
help ful ness

39
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

(4)
N

I
A

N
I
I
v
help less ness

(The term 'tree diagram' is odd, because the 'branches' point downwards,
more like roots than branches 1 However, this topsy-turvy usage has
become well established in linguistic discussions.) The points in a tree
diagram from which branches sprout are called nodes. The nodes in (3)
and (4) are all labelled, to indicate the wordclass of the string (that is, of
the part of the whole word) that is dominated by the node in question.
For example, the second-to-top node in (3) is labelled 'A: to indicate that
the string unhelpful that it dominates is an adjective, while the topmost
node is labelled 'N' because the whole word is a noun. The information
about structure contained in tree diagrams such as ( 3) and (4) can
also be conveyed in a labelled bracketing, where one pair of brackets
corresponds to each node in the tree: [[un-[[helpv]wful]A]A-ness]N,
[[[helpv ]wless ]A-ness ]N.
One thing stands out about all the nodes in (3) and (4): each has no
more than two branches sprouting downwards from it. This reflects the
fact that, in English, derivational processes operate by adding no more
than one affix to a base- unlike languages where material may be added
simultaneously at both ends, constituting what is sometimes called a
circumfix. English possesses no uncontroversial examples of circum-
fixes, and branching within word-structure tree diagrams is never more
than binary (i.e. with two branches). (The only plausible candidate for a
circum fix in English is the en- ... -en combination that forms enliven and
embolden from live and bold; but en- and -en each appears on its own too,
e.g. in enfteble and redden, so an alternative analysis as a combination of a
prefix and a suffix seems preferable.) The single branch connecting N to
V above help in (3) and (4) reflects the fact that the noun help is derived
from the verb help by conversion, with no affix.
At (5) and (6) are two more word tree diagrams, incorporating an
adverbial (Adv) node and also illustrating both affixal and non-affixal
heads, each italicised element being the head of the constituent domi-
nated by the node immediately above it:
 A WORD AND ITS STRUCTURE

(5)
Adv

A
I
II\
un assert ive ly

(6)
v
\v

re
/)\
de class ify

Some complex words contain elements about which one may reasonably
argue whether they are complex or not. For example, the word rejlecti01~
is clearly divisible into a base reflect and a suffix -ion; but does reflect itself
consist of one morpheme or two? This kind of uncertainty was discussed
in Chapter 2. But, if we put it on one side, then any complex word form
consisting of a free root and affixes turns out to be readily analysable
in the simple fashion illustrated here, with binary branching and with
either the affix or the base as the head. (I say 'free root' rather than 'root'
only because some bound roots are hard to assign to a wordclass: for
example, matem- in maternal and maternity.)
Another salient point in all of (3)-(6) is that more than one node in a
tree diagram may carry the same wordclass label (N, V, A). At first sight,
this may not seem particularly remarkable. However, it has considerable
implications for the size of the class of all possible words in English.
Linguists are fond of pointing out that there is no such thing as the
longest sentence of English (or of any language), because any candidate
for longest-sentence status can be lengthened by embedding it in a
context such as Sharon says that __ . One cannot so easily demonstrate
that there is no such thing as the longest word in English; but it is not
necessary to do so in order to demonstrate the versatility and vigour of
English word-formation processes. Given that we can find nouns inside
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

nouns, verbs inside verbs, and so on, it is hardly surprising that (as was.
shown in Chapter 2) the vocabulary of English, or of any individual
speaker, is not a closed, finite list. The issue of how new words can be
formed will be taken up again in Chapter 8.

7.4 More elaborate word forms: compounds within compounds

In the previous section, we saw that the structure of words derived by
affixation can be represented in tree diagrams where each branch has at
most two branches. The same applies to compounds: any compound has
just two immediate constituents. In Chapter 6, all the compounds that
were discussed contained just two parts. This was not an accident or an
arbitrary restriction. To see this, consider for example the noun that one
might use to denote a new cleaning product equally suitable for ovens
and windows. Parallel to the secondary compound hair restorer are the
two two-part compounds oven cleaner and window cleaner. Can we then
refer to the new product with a three-part compound such as window
oven cleaner? The answer is surely no. Window oven cleaner is not naturally
interpreted to mean something that cleans both windows and ovens;
rather, it means something that cleans window ovens (that is, ovens that
have a see-through panel in the door). This is a clue that its structure is
not as in (7) but as in (8):

(7)
N

N N N
window oven cleaner

(8)
N

I N

N
1\
window
N
oven
N
cleaner

fro2--
 A WORD AND ITS STRUCTURE

The structure at (8) seems appropriate even for complex compounds

such as verb-noun comrasts and Reagan-Gorbachev mcoumers. As simple
compounds, verb-noun and Regan-Gorbachev certainly sound odd. Never-
theless verb-110u11 contrasts denotes crucially contrasts between verbs and
nouns, not contrasts some of which involve verbs and others of which
involve nouns; therefore verb-noun deserves to be treated as a subunit
within the whole compound verb-noun contrast. Likewise, a Reagan-
Gorbachev encounter necessarily involves both Reagan and Gorbachev,
not just one of the two, so Reaga11-Gorbachev deserves to be treated as a
subunit within Reaga11-Gorbachev mcounters.
In Chapter 6 we concentrated on compounds with only two members.
But, given that a compound is a word and that compounds contain
words, it makes sense that, in some compounds, one or both of the
components should itself be a compound- and (8), with its most natural
interpretation, shows that this is indeed possible, at least with compound
nouns. Moreover, the compound at (8) can itself be an element in a larger
compound, such as the one at (9) meaning 'marketing of a product for
cleaning window ovens':

(9)
N

N
I
I
N

N
1\ N N N
window oven cleaner marketing

At this point, it is worth pausing to consider whether these more elab-

orate examples comply with what was said in Section 6.1 about where
stress is placed within compound nouns. Wi11dow oven, if it is a com-
pound, should have its main stress on the lefthand element, namely
window- and that seems correct. The same applies to window oven cleaner.
its main stress should be on wi11dow ovm, and specifically on its lefthand
element, namely window. Again, that seems correct. So we will predict
that the whole compound at (9) should have its main stress on the left-
hand element too - a prediction that is again consistent with how I, as
a native speaker, find it most natural to pronounce this complex word. It
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

is true that other elements than window can be emphasised for the sake
of contrast: for example, I can envisage a context at a conference of sales
executives where one might say We are concerned with wi11dow oven cleaner
marketing today, not with manufacture. Nevertheless, where no contrast is
implied or stated (such as between marketing and manufacture), the
most natural way of pronouncing the example at (9) renders window the
most prominent element.
Can we then conclude that all complex compound nouns follow the
left-stressed pattern of simple compound nouns? Before saying yes, we
need to make sure that we have examined all relevant varieties. It may
have struck you that, in (8) and (9), the compounds-within-compounds
are uniformly on the left. We have not yet looked at compounds (or
potential compounds) in which it is the righthand element (in fact, the
head) that is a compound. Consider the following examples:

(10) ( 11)
N N

\ N

N
holiday
N
trip
N
holiday
N
1\
car
N
trip

( 12)
N

\ N

\ N

I N

N N N
1\ N N
holiday car sight seeing trip

4Lf
 A WORD AND ITS STRUCTURE

Native speakers are likely to agree sith me that, whereas in (10) the main
stress is on holiday, in ( 11) it is on car. (Again, we are assuming that no
contrast is implied- between a holiday trip and a business trip, say.) This
is consistent with car trip being a compound with car as its lefthand
element, but not (at first sight) with an analysis in which holiday car trip is
a compound noun with holiday as its lefthand element. The stress on the
righthand element in holiday car trip makes it resemble phrases such as
greei~ house and toy factory, discussed in Section 6.1, rather than com-
pounds such as greenhouse and t6y factory. Yet it would be strange if a
compound noun cannot itself be the head of a compound noun, given
that any other kind of noun can be.
The best solution seems to be to qualify what was said in Chapter 6
about stress in compound nouns. The usual pattern, with stress on the
left, is overridden if the head is a compound. In that case, stress is on the
right- that is, on the compound which constitutes the head. Another way
of expressing this is to say that the righthand component in a compound
noun gets stressed if and only if it is itself a compound; otherwise, the
lefthand component gets stressed. This is consistent with the examples
in Chapter 6 as well as with native speakers' intuitions about pairs such
as (10) and (11). It is also consistent with a more complex example such
as (12), involving internal compounds on both left and right branches.
If you apply carefully to (12) the formula that we have arrived at, you
should find that it predicts that the main stress should be on sight- which
seems correct.

7.5 Apparent mismatches between meaning and structure

Earlier, the point was made that the reliable interpretation of complex
words (whether derived or compounded) depends on an expectation that
meaning should go hand in hand with structure. So far, this expectation
has been fulfilled (provided we ignore words with totally idiosyncratic
meanings). The meaning of a complex whole such as unhelpfulness or
holiday car trip is built up out of the meanings of its two constituent parts,
which in turn are built up out of the meanings of their parts, and so on
until we reach individual morphemes, which by definition are seman-
tically indivisible. In this section, however, we will discuss a few in-
stances where this expectation is not fulfilled. Discussing these instances
leads us to the question of whether a unit larger than a word (that is, a
phrase) can ever be a constituent of a compound word. There is no
agreed answer to these questions, but the kinds of English expression
that give rise to them are sufficiently common that they cannot be
ignored, even in an introductory textbook.
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

Consider the expression nuclear physicist. Its structure seems clear:

it is a phrase consisting of two words, an adjective nuclear and a noun
physicist. So, if the interpretation of linguistic expressions is always
guided by their structure, it ought to mean a physicist who is nuclear. Yet
that is wrong: a physicist is a person, and it makes no sense to describe a
person as 'nuclear'. Instead, this expression means someone who is an
expert in nuclear physics. So we have a paradox: in terms of morphology
and syntax, the structure of the expression can be represented by the
bracketing [[nuclear] [physicist]], but from the semantic point of view a
more appropriate structure seems to be [[nuclear physic-J-ist]. We thus
have what has come to be called a bracketing paradox. In this instance,
the meaning seems to direct us towards an analysis in which the suffix
-ist is attached not to a word or root but to a phrase, nuclear physics. Is it
possible, then, for a word to be formed by adding an affix not to another
word but to a phrase?
A similar problem is presented by the expression French historian. This
has two interpretations: 'historian who is French' and 'expert in French
history (not necessarily a French person)'. The first interpretation pres-
ents no difficulty: it is the interpretation that we expect if we analyse
French historian as a phrase, just like green house (as opposed to greenhouse).
This implies a structure [[French] [historian]]. However, the second
interpretation seems to imply a structure [[French histori-]-an], in
which a phrase is combined with an affix. We are faced with a dilemma.
Should we acknowledge the second structure as the basis for the second
interpretation? Or should we say that, with both interpretations, the
structure of the expression is the same (namely [[French] [historian]]),
but that for one of the interpretations this structure is a bad guide?
Without putting forward a 'right answer', I will mention two further
observations that must be taken into account- two observations that, it
must be said, pull in opposite directions.
Examples of other adjective-noun combinations whose meanings
diverge from their structure are plastic surgeon (denoting not a kind of
doll, but an expert in cosmetic surgery) and chemical engineer (denoting an
expert in chemical engineering, not a person who is 'chemical'). These
differ from nuclear physicist, however, in that there is no way of bracket-
ing them so as to yield a structure that corresponds closely to the mean-
ing. So, even if the meaning of nuclear physicist can be handled by the
paradoxical bracketing [[nuclear physic-J-ist], no such device is avail-
able for plastic surgeon and chemical engineer. This means that some other
way of reconciling their structure-meaning divergence must be found. It
does not matter for present purposes how that reconciliation is achieved.
What does matter is that, however it is achieved, the same method will
 A WORD AND ITS STRUCTURE

presumably be available to handle nuclear physicist, and also French his-

torian in the sense 'expert in French history'. This weakens the argument
for recognising a 'semantic' bracketing distinct from the 'grammatical'
one. Rather, we can simply say that, for example, [[French] [historian]],
so structured, has two interpretations.
Those examples all involve derivation. What about any apparent
bracketing paradoxes involving compounding? Consider the item French
history teacher. In the sense 'French teacher of history', this is a phrase
consisting of an adjective and a noun, just like French painter, the only
difference being that the noun in French history teacher is the compound
history teacher, just like the noun portrait painter in French portrait painter.
But what about the interpretation 'teacher of French history'? Is this
a compound noun with the structure [[French history] teacher]? The
trouble with that analysis is that French history, with its stress on history,
seems clearly to be a phrase, not a word; yet, if a phrase such as French
history is permitted to appear as a component of a compound word, we
are faced with explaining why phrases cannot appear inside compounds
generally- why, that is, we do not encounter compounds.such as event-
ful history teacher, with the phrase eventful history as its first element, and
with the meaninging 'teacher of eventful history', or history skilled teacher,
with the phrase skilled teacher as its head. Perhaps, then, we should say of
French history teacher essentially the same as what was suggested concern-
ing French historian: it has only one structure, that of a phrase ([French
[history teacher]]), even though it has two interpretations, one of which
diverges from that structure.
Some implications of that analysis are unwelcome, however. Consider
the expressions fresh dir fanatic and open door policy. Their main stress is
on air and door, as indicated, and their meanings are 'fanatic for fresh air'
and 'policy of maintaining an open door (to immigration, for example)'.
These are parallel to the meaning 'teacher of French history', which, we
have suggested, diverges from its structure [French [history teacher]].
But, whereas French history teacher has a second meaning that corresponds
exactly to that structure, fresh dir fimatic and opm door policy have no such
second meaning; one cannot interpret them as meaning 'fresh fanatic
for air' or 'open policy about doors'. So a bracketing such as [fresh [air
fanatic]] would diverge not just from one of the meanings of fresh air
fanatic, but from its only meaningl
A clue to a way out of this problem lies in comparing the actual ex-
pressions at (13) with the non-existent or ill-formed ones in (14):

( 13) a. fresh air fanatic

b. open door policy
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH MORPHOLOGY

c. French historia1z 'expert in French history'

d. nuclear physicist
e. sexually transmitted disease clinic
(14) a. cool air fanatic 'fanatic for cool air'
b. wooden door policy 'policy on wooden doors'
c. suburban histon·an 'expert on the history of suburbs'
d. recentphysicist'expert on recent physics' (not 'recent expert on
physics')
e. easily transmitted disease clinic
The phrases fresh air and cool air differ in that fresh air is a cliche, even
if not precisely an idiom; that is, fresh air recurs in a number of stock
expressions such as get/ need some fresh air and get out into the fresh air,
whereas there are no such stock expressions containing cool air. Similarly,
French history is a cliche in that the history of France is a recognised
specialism among historians; on the other hand, the history of suburbs is
not recognised as a specialism to the same degree, so the phrase suburban
history, though perfectly easy to interpret, is not a cliche. The same
goes for open door versus wooden door, nuclear physics versus recent physics,
and sexually transmitted disease versus easily transmitted disease; the first ex-
pression in each pair is an idiom or cliche, while the second is not. What
we need to say, it seems, is that a phrase can form part of a compound or
derived word provided that the phrase is lexicalised or in some degree
institutionalised, so as to become a cliche.
From the point of view of the distinction carefully drawn in Chapter
2 between lexical items and words, this is a surprising conclusion. On the
basis of the facts examined in Chapter 2, it seemed that there was no firm
link between lexical listing and grammatical structure. Now it appears
that that view must be qualified: lexically listed phrases (i.e. idioms)
or institutionalised ones (i.e. cliches) can appear in some contexts where
unlisted phrases cannot. Whether we should analyse these contexts as
being at the word level, so as to treat nuclear physicist and fresh air fanatic
as words rather than phrases, is an issue that beginning students of word-
structure should be aware of but need not have an opinion about.

7.6 Conclusion: structure as guide but not straitjacket

It is not surprising that the structure of complex words should guide us
in their interpretation. What is perhaps surprising is the uniformity of
this structure in English: no node ever has more than two branches, and
the element on the righthand branch (whether a root, an affix or a word)
is usually the head. What is more, the freedom with which complex
 A WORD AND ITS STRUCTURE

structures can be embedded in larger complex structures, especially

within compounds, provides great scope for the generation of new
words; and, since lexical items are typically though not universally
words, this freedom facilitates vocabulary expansion too- an issue that
we will take up again in the next chapter.
Despite the general conformity of meaning with structure, there are
occasions where meaning gets the upper hand, so to speak. French
history and nuclear physics being institutionalised domains of study, we
need terms to denote the people who engage in them; and, since the
words historian and physicist exist, Frmch historian and 1zuclear physicist
come readily to hand as labels for the relevant specialists. This seems
a good way to make sense of the mismatches discussed in Section 7.5.
However these examples are to be analysed structurally, their existence
seems to show that, in derivation and compounding as ")Veil as in inflec-
tion, semantic pressures can sometimes enforce the· existence of an
expression with a certain meaning, and the expression chosen for that
meaning need not be structurally ideal. The language's acceptance·
of this expression, neverth.eless, shows that, although word-structure
guides interpretation, it does not dictate it.

Exercises
1. Draw tree diagrams to illustrate the structure of the following words,
assigning appropriate word class labels (N, A or V) to the roots and to the
nodes in the trees, and identifying heads:
greediness cabin crew
deconsecration cabin crew training
incorruptibility cabin crew safety training
enthronement cabin crew safety training manual
re-uncover airline cabin crew safety training manual
redecompartmentalisation (a1z example from Exercise 8 in ChapterS)
2. Compare the structure of unhappiness and unhappiest. Does either of
them show a mismatch between meaning and structure?
3. Discuss the grammatical structure of the following, and whether each
one is a phrase or a compound word:
income tax rate
high tax rate
value added tax
·goods and services tax
Thouoh the Dulc:h \II.:C:rl:~ onlv a passing political presence in Amet·ica, their linguis.tic lega~y is
itlll·nen:~e. From their e~lrlicht d<:lys of contact, Americans freelv ap1:;ropriated Dutch terrns
i.:!ur,derf 1 i.IS:..~· (litt..:t"illly "thtmdc:r qun") as ectr·!y i:l~.~ lf3f)"1, scnvv in 16\-30, sleigh in ·1703. By the rnid
C'i~:)Ueenth CC: 111U!V Du·!r::h 1/·!0rds flooded il)~() American f:nglish: stoop, span. coleslaw. L•oss, pit
;;1 ti>t' s~·;n;::(' 'JI Lht~ slc•~e- of a fruit het~oan. i. 1edspraact {pre\;iously kiiOVVIl as a counterpane).
(;ookie. vvr.d!/o, ninvir (from thf) colloqu!iJI Dutch lk nic.?t weet. rne~JninrJ "I don't know"), the-)
distinct.ive ;\rnericun interroiJdlivo hoi'l/ c:orne? (a liter~1l tr.:mslation of the Dutch twekom).
poppi cock (lrorn pappekak, "soft dung"}. dundet17ead, and probably the caboodle in kd and
1

r:.:·r1boodle.
Tvvo particularly durable Americanisms thr~t emanate from Dutch nre Santa Claus (out of
S'inter .Klaas, a farnilf<.lr form of St Nicholas}. first recorded in American English in '1773. and
l<:mkee (prob~Jbly frorn either Janke. a dirnin utive equivalent to the English Johnny, or Jan Kaas.
·'John Cheese," intended originally as c1 mi!d insult). Bryson (1994)

Around 1900, in New Berlin, Ohio, a department-store worker named J. Murray Spangler
invented a device which he called an electric suction sweeper. This device eventually became
very popular and could have been known as a spangler. People could have been spanglering
their floors or they might even have spanglered their rugs and curtains. The use could have
extended to a type of person who droned on and on (and really sucked), described as
spanglerish, or to a whole style of behavior called spanglerism. However, none of that happened.

50
 Word formation

Instead, Mr. Spangler sold his new invention to a local businessman called William H. Hoover,
whose Hoover Suction Sweeper Company produced the first machine called a "Hoover." Not
only did the word hoover (without a capital letter) become as familiar as vacuum cleaner all over
the world, but in Britain, people still talk about hoovering (and not spanglering) their carpets.
The point of this small tale is that, although we had never heard of Mr. Spangler before, we
really had no difficulty coping with the new words: spangler, spanglerish, spanglerism,
spanglering or spanglered. That is, we can very quickly understand a new word in our
language (a neologism) and accept the use of different forms of that new word. This ability
must derive in part from the fact that there is a lot of regularity in the word-formation
processes in a language. In this chapter, we will explore some of the basic processes by
which new words are created.

Etymology
- - - --------------------------------------------------
The study of the origin and history of a word is known as its etymology, a term which,
like many of our technical words, comes to us through Latin, but has its origins in
Greek (etymon "original form" + logia "study of"), and is not to be confused with
entomology, also from Greek (entomon "insect"). When we look closely at the etymol-
ogies of less technical words, we soon discover that there are many different ways in
which new words can enter the language. We should keep in mind that these processes
have been at work in the language for some time and a lot of words in daily use today
were, at one time, considered barbaric misuses of the language. It is difficult now to
understand the views expressed in the early nineteenth century over the "tasteless
innovation" of a word like handbook, or the horror expressed by a London newspaper
in 1909 overthe use of the newly coined word aviation. Yet many new words can cause
similar outcries as they come into use today. Rather than act as if the language is being
debased, we might prefer to view the constant evolution of new words and new uses of
old words as a reassuring sign of vitality and creativeness in the way a language is
shaped by the needs of its users.

Coinage

One of the least common processes of word formation in English is coillag;c, that is, the
invention of totally new terms. The most typical sources are invented trade names for
commercial products that become general terms (usually without capital letters) for
any version of that product. Older examples are aspirin, nylon, vaseline and zipper;
R_ -~The Study of Language

more recent examples are granola, kleenex, teflon and xerox. It may be that there is an
obscure technical origin (e.g. te(tra)-fl(uor)-on) for some of these invented terms, but
after their first coinage, they tend to become everyday words in the language.
The most salient contemporary example of coinage is the word google. Originally a
misspelling for the word googol ( ~ the number 1 followed by I 00 zeros), in the creation
of the word Googleplex, which later became the name of a company (Coogle), the term
google (without a capital letter) has become a widely used expression meaning "to use
the internet to find information." New products and concepts (ebay) and new activities
("Have you tried ebaying it?") are the usual sources of coinage.
New words based on the name of a person or a place are called eponyms. When we
talked about a hoover (or even a spangler), we were using an eponym. Other common
eponyms are sandwich (from the eighteenth-century Earl of Sandwich who first
insisted on having his bread and meat together while gambling) and jeans (from the
Italian city of Genoa where the type of cloth was first made). Some eponyms are
technical terms, based on the names of those who first discovered or invented things,
such as fahrenheit (from the German, Gabriel Fahrenheit), volt (from the Italian,
Alessandro Volta) and watt (from the Scottish inventor, James Watt).

Borrowing
As Bill Bryson observed in the quotation presented earlier, one of the most common
sources of new words in English is the process simply labeled borrowing, that is, the
taking over of words from other languages. (Technically, it's more than just borrow-
ing because English doesn't give them back.) Throughout its history, the English
language has adopted a vast number of words from other languages, including
croissant (French), dope (Dutch), lilac (Persian), piano (Italian), pretzel (German),
sofa (Arabic), tattoo (Tahitian), tycoon (Japanese), yogurt (Turkish) and zebra
(Bantu).
Other languages, of course, borrow terms from English, as in the Japanese use
of suupaa or suupaamaaketto ("supermarket") and taipuraitaa ("typewriter"),
Hungarians talking about sport, klub and futbal, or the French discussing problems
of le stress, over a glass of le whisky, during le weekend. In some cases, the borrowed
words may be used with quite different meanings, as in the contemporary German use
of the English words partner and look in the phrase im Partnerlook to describe two
people who are together and are wearing similar clothing. There is no equivalent use of
this expression in English.
A special type of borrowing is described as loan-translation or calque (/kaolk/).
In this process, there is a direct translation of the elements of a word into the
 Word formation

borrowing language. Interesting examples are the French term gratte-ciel, which
literally translates as "scrape-sky," the Dutch wolkenkrabber ("cloud scratcher") or
the German Wolkenkratzer ("cloud scraper"), all of which were calques for the
English skyscraper. The English word superman is thought to be a loan-translation
of the German Ubermensch, and the term loan-word itself is believed to have come
from the German Lehnwort. The English expression moment of truth is believed to
be a calque from the Spanish phrase el momenta de Ia verdad, though not restricted
to the original use as the final thrust of the sword to end a bullfight. Nowadays,
some Spanish speakers eat perros ca.lientes (literally "dogs hot") or hot dogs. The
American concept of "boyfriend" was a borrowing, with sound modification, into
Japanese as boyifurendo, but as a calque into Chinese as "male friend" or nan
pengyu.

Compounding

In some of the examples we have just considered, there is a joining of two separate
words to produce a single form. Thus, Lehn and Wort are combined to produce
Lehnwort in German. This combining process, technically known as compounding,
is very common in languages such as German and English, but much less common in
languages such as French and Spanish. Common English compounds are bookcase,
doorknob, fingerprint, sunburn, textbook, wallpaper, wastebasket and waterbed. All
these examples are nouns, but we can also create compound adjectives (good-looking,
low-paid) and compounds of adjective (fast) plus noun (food) as in a fast-food restau-
rant or a full-time job.
This very productive source of new terms has been well documented in English and
German, but can also be found in totally unrelated languages, such as Hmong (spoken
in South East Asia), which combines hwj ("pot") and kais ("spout") to produce hwjkais
("kettle"). Recent creations are paj ("flower") plus kws ("corn") for pajkws ("pop-
corn") and hnab ("bag") + rau ("put") + ntawv ("paper" or "book") for hnabraun-
tawv ("schoolbag").

Blending

The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term is also present in
the process called blending. However, blending is typically accomplished by taking only
the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word. In some parts of the
USA, there's a product that is used like gasoline, but is made from alcohol, so the
"blended" word for referring to this product is gasohol. To talk about the combined

5.3
~~~ The Study of Language

effects of smoke and fog, we can use the word smog. In places wheFe they have a lot of
this stuff, they can jokingly make a distinction between smog, smaze (smoke + haze)
and smurk (smoke + murk). In Hawai'i, near the active volcano, they have problems
with vag. Some other commonly used examples of blending are bit (binary/digit),
brunch (breakfast/lunch), motel (motor/hotel) and telecast (television/broadcast).
The activity of fund-raising on television that feels like a marathon is typically called
a telethon, while infotainment (information/entertainment) and simulcast (simulta-
neous/broadcast) are other new blends from life with television. To describe the
mixing of languages, some people talk about Franglais (French/ Anglais) and
Spanglish (Spanish/English). In a few blends, we combine the beginnings of both
words, as in terms from information technology, such as telex (teleprinter/exchange)
or modem (modulator/demodulator). There is also the word fax, but that is not a
blend. It's an example of our next category.

Clipping

The element of reduction that is noticeable in blending is even more apparent in the
process described as clipping. This occurs. when a word of more than one syllable
(facsimile) is reduced to a shorter form (fax), usually beginning in casual speech. The
term gasoline is still used, but most people talk about gas, using the clipped form. Other
common examples are ad (advertisement), bra (brassiere), cab (cabriolet), condo
(condominium), fan~· flu (influenza), perm (permanent wave), phone, plane
and pub (public house). English speakers also like to clip each other's names, as in AI,
Ed, Liz, Mike, Ron, Sam, Sue and Tom.
There must be something about educational environments that encourages clipping
because so many words get reduced, as in chem, exam, gym, lab, math, phys-ed, poly-
sci, prof and typo.
A particular type of reduction, favored in Australian and British English, produces
forms technically known as hypocorisms. In this process, a longer word is reduced
to a single syllable, then -y or -ie is added to the end. This is the process that results
in movie ("moving pictures") and telly ("television"). It has also produced Aussie
("Australian"), barbie ("barbecue"), bookie ("bookmaker"), brekky ("breakfast")
and hankie ("handkerchief"). You can probably guess what Chrissy pressies are.

Backformatmon

A very specialized type of reduction process is known as hackfonnation. Typically, a

word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to form a word of another type (usually a
 Word formation

verb). A good example of backformation is the process whereby the noun television
first came into use and then the verb televise was created from it. Other examples of
words created by this process are: donate (from "donation''), emote (from "emotion"),
enthuse (from "enthusiasm"), liaise (from "liaison") and babysit (from "babysitter").
Indeed, when we use the verb back form (Did you know that "opt" was backformed from
"option"?), we are using a backformation.
One very regular source of backformed verbs in English is based on the common
pattern worker - work. The assumption seems to have been that if there is a noun
ending in -er (or something close in sound), then we can create a verb for what that
noun -er does. Hence, an editor will edit, a sculptor will sculpt and burglars, peddlers
and swindlers will burgle, peddle and swindle.

Conversion

A change in the function of a word, as for example when a noun comes to be used as a
verb (without any reduction), is generally known as conversion. Other labels for this
very common process are "category change" and "functional shift." A number of
nouns such as bottle, butter, chair and vacation have come to be used, through
conversion, as verbs: We bottled the home-brew last night; Have you buttered the
toast?; Someone has to chair the meeting; They're vacationing in Florida. These con-
versions are readily accepted, but some examples, such as the noun impact being used
as a verb, seem to impact some people's sensibilities rather negatively.
The conversion process is particularly productive in Modern English, with new
uses occurring frequently. The conversion can involve verbs becoming nouns, with
guess, must and spy as the sources of a guess, a must and a spy. Phrasal verbs (to
print out, to take over) also become nouns (a printout, a takeover). One complex verb
combination (want to be) has become a new noun, as in He isn't in the group, he's
just a wannabe.
Verbs (see through, stand up) also become adjectives, as in see-through material or a
stand-up comedian. Or adjectives, as in a dirty floor, an empty room, some crazy ideas
and those nasty people, can become the verbs to dirty and to empty, or the nouns a crazy
and the nasty.
Some compound nouns have assumed adjectival or verbal functions, exemplified by
the ball park appearing in a ball-park figure or asking someone to ball-park an estimate
of t11e cost. Other nouns of this type are carpool, mastermind, microwave and quarter-
back, which are all regularly used as verbs. Other forms, such as up and down, can also
.become verbs, as in They're going to up the price of oil or We downed a few beers at the
Chimes.
55

I
f"L_ The Study of Language

It is worth noting that some words can shift substantially in meaning when they
change category through conversion. The verb to doctor often has a negative sense, not
normally associated with the source noun a doctor. A similar kind of reanalysis of
meaning is taking place with respect to the noun total and the verb run around, which
do not have negative meanings. However, after conversion, if you total ( = verb) your
car, and your insurance company gives you the runaround ( = noun), then you will
have a double sense of the negative.

Acronyms

Acronyms are new words formed from the initial letters of a set of other words. These
can be forms such as CD ("compact disk") or VCR ("video cassette recorder") where
the pronunciation consists of saying each separate letter. More typically, acronyms are
pronounced as new single words, as in NATO, NASA or UNESCO. These examples
have kept their capital letters, but many acronyms simply become everyday terms such
as laser ("light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation"), radar ("radio
detecting and ranging"), smba ("self-contained underwater breathing apparatus")
and zip ("zone improvement plan") code. You might even hear talk of a snafu,
which is reputed to have its origins in "situation normal, all fouled up," though there
is some dispute about the appropriate f-word in there.
Names for organizations are often designed to have their acronym represent an
appropriate term, as in "mothers against drunk driving" (MADD) and "women against
rape" (WAR). Some new acronyms come into general use so quickly that many
speakers do not think of their component meanings. Innovations such as the ATM
("automatic teller machine") and the required PIN ("personal identification number")
are regularly used with one of their elements repeated, as in I sometimes forget my PIN
number when I go to the A TM machine.

Derivation
In our list so far, we have not dealt with what is by far the most common word-
formation process to be found in the production of new English words. This process
is called derivation and it is accomplished by means of a large number of small
"bits" of the English language which are not usually given separate listings in
dictionaries. These small "bits" are generally described as affixes. Some familiar
examples are the elements un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less, -ish, -ism and -ness which
appear in words like unhappy, misrepresent, prejudge, joyful, careless, boyish,
terrorism and sadness.
Word formation

Prefixes and suffixes

Looking more closely at the preceding group of words, we can see that some affixes
have to be added to the beginning of the word (e.g. un-, mis-). These are called
prefixes. Other affixes have to be added to the end of the word (e.g. -less, -ish) and
are called suffixes. All English words formed by this derivational process have either
prefixes or suffixes, or both. Thus, mislead has a prefix, disrespectful has both a prefix
and a suffix, and foolishness has two suffixes.

Infixes _________________________
______ ,_,

There is a third type of affix, not normally used in English, but found in some other
languages. This is called an infix and, as the term suggests, it is an affix that is
incorporated inside another word. It is possible to see the general principle at work
in certain expressions, occasionally used in fortuitous or aggravating circumstances by
emotionally aroused English speakers: I-Iallebloodylujah!, Absogoddamlutely! and
Unfuckinbelievable!. In the film Wish You Were Here, the main character expresses
her aggravation (at another character who keeps trying to contact her) by screaming
Tell him I've gone to Singabloodyporel. The expletive may even have an infixed
element, as in godtripledammit!.

Kamhmu
We could view these "inserted" forms as a special version of infixing in English.
However, a much better set of examples can be provided from Kamhmu, a language
spoken in South East Asia.

Verb Noun
("to drill") see srnee ("a drill")
("to chisel") toh trnoh ("a chisel")
("to eat with a spoon") hiip hrniip ("a spoon")
("to tie") hoom hrnoom ("a thing with which to tie")

From these examples, we can see that there is a regular pattern whereby the infix -rn-
is added to verbs to form corresponding nouns. If this pattern is generally found in the
language and we know that the form krnap is the Kamhmu noun for "tongs," then we
[.""~~~---. ] The Study of Language

can work out the corresponding verb "to grasp with tongs." According to Merrifield
et al. (2003), the source of these examples, it is kap.

Multiple processes
----·-------·

Although we have concentrated on each of these word-formation processes in isola-

tion, it is possible to trace the operation of more than one process at work in the
creation of a particular word. For example, the term deli seems to have become a
common American English expression via a process of first borrowing delicatessen
(from German) and then clipping that borrowed form. If someone says that problems
with the project have snowballed, the final word can be analyzed as an example of
compounding in which snow and ball were combined to form the noun snowball,
which was then turned into a verb through conversion. Forms that begin as acronyms
can also go through other processes, as in the use of lase as a verb, the result of
backformation from laser. In the expression waspish attitudes, the acronym WASP
("white Anglo-Saxon Protestant") has lost its capital letters and gained a suffix (-ish) in
the derivation process.
An acronym that never seems to have had capital letters comes from "young
urban professional", plus the -ie suffix, as in hypocorism, to produce the word
yuppie (first recorded in 1984). The formation of this new word, however, was
helped by a quite different process, known simply as analogy, whereby new
words are formed to be similar in some way to existing words. Yuppie was
made possible as a new word by analogy with the earlier word hippie and another
short-lived analogy yippie. The word yippie also had an acronym basis ("youth
international party") and was used for some students in the USA who were
protesting against the war in Vietnam. One joke has it that yippies just grew up
to be yuppies. And the process continues. Another analogy, with the word yap
("to make shrill noises"), helped label some of the noisy young professionals as
yappies.
Many of these new words can, of course, have a very brief life-span. Perhaps the
· generally accepted test of the "arrival" of recently formed words in a language is their
published appearance in a dictionary. However, even this may not occur without
protests from some conservative voices, as Noah Webster found when his first dic-
tionary, published in 1806, was criticized for citing words like advocate and test as
verbs, and for including such "vulgar" words as advisory and presidential. It would
seem that Noah had a keener sense than his critics of which new word-forms in the
language were going to last.
 Word formation

· - - - , - - - ---------
Study questions
1 What is the difference between etymology and entomology?
2 Which of the following pairs contains an example of calque? How would you·
describe the other(s)?
(a) footobooru (Japanese) --'football (English)
(b) tnining (Hungarian) -training (English)
(c) luna de miel (Spanish "moon of honey") - honey17Won (English)
(d) jardin d'enfants (French "garden of children:') -Kindergarten (German
"children garden")
3 Can you identify the different word-formation processes involved in producing
each of the underlined words in these sentences?
(a) Don't you ever worry that . you
. might get -
AIDS?
-
(b) Do you have a xerox machine?
(c) That's really fandamntastic!
(d) Shiel still parties every Saturday night.
(e) These new skateboards from Zee Designs are kickass.
(f) When I'm ill, I want to see a doc, not a vet.
(g) The house next door was burgled when I was babysitting the Smiths' children.
(h) I like this. old sofa- it's nice and comfy.
4 Identify the prefixes and suffixes used in these words:_ misfortune, terrorism,
carelessness, disagreement, ineffective, unfaithful, prepackaged, biodegradable,
reincarnation, decentralization
5 In Kamhmu, the word sal means "to put an ornament in the ear." What would
be the word for ''an ear ornament"?
6 Mote than one process was involved in the cr.eation of the forms underlined
in these sentences. Can you identify the processes involved in each case?
(a) Are you still using that old car-phone?
(b) Can you FedEx the books to me today?
(c) ·Police have reported an increase in carjaclcings in recent months.
(d) Welcome, everyone, to karaokenight at Cathy's Bar and Grill!
(e) Jeeves, could you tell the maid to be sure to hoover the bedroom carpet?
(f) Would you prefer a decaf?

A What are "initialisms"? Were there any examples in this chapter?

B Who invented the term "portmanteau words"? How many examples were included
. in. this cl1;apter? ·
. ··r.::h .
.. . 0 :J
1The Study of Language

C Using a dictionary with etymological information, identify which of the

following words are borrowings and from which languages they were
borrowed. Are any of them eponyms?

assassin, clone, cockroach, denim, diesel, horde, kayak, kiosk, nickname, penguin,
robot, shampoo, sherry, slogan, snoop, taboo, tea, tomato, umbrella, voodoo

D There are a lot of new words in English from IT (an acronym for "information
technology") and the widespread use of the internet (a blend from
"international" and "network"). Using a dictionary if necessary, try to describe
the worMormation processes involved in the.creationof the underlined ~ords
in these sentences.
(l) There are some teenage netizens who rarely leave their rooms.
(2) How much RAM do you have?
(3) I can't get some of the students to keyboard more carefully.
(4) Your friend Jason is such a techie!
(5). Doesn't every new computer have a we beam now?
(6) You should bookmark that site.
(7) We're paying too much attention to bloggers.
(8) Subscribers have unlimited downloads.
(9) You should check the faq because the information is usually helpful.
(10) Hey, just heard about the accident, ruok?
E Another type of affix is called a circumfix. Here are some examples from
Indonesian.

("big") besar kebesaran ("bigness")

("beautiful") indah keindahan ("beauty")
("healthy'') ............ kesehatan ("health")
("free") ············ kebebasan ("freedom")
("kind") baik ........ " .......... ("kindness")
("honest") jujur ..... ········· ...... ("honesty")

1 Can you provide the missing forms in these examples?

2 What is the circumfix illustrated here?
3 For what type of word-formation process is the circumfix being used here?
4 Given the words tersedia ("available"), sulit ('~difficult"), sesuai("suitable")
and seimbang ("balanced"), how would you translat~ ''availability,"
"difficlll ty, '' ''s lli tabllity" and. "balance"?
5 Consider the following examples:
ketidakjujuran ("dishonesty")

foO
Word formation

ketidaksenangan ("unhappiness")
ketidakadilan ("injustice")
ketidakpuasan ("dissatisfaction")
What do you think the corresponding Indonesian words would be for
"happy," "justjfair" and "satisfied"? . .
F When Hmong speakers (from Laos and Vietnam) settled.in .the USA, they had ·
to create some new words for the different objects and experiences they
encountered. Using the following translations (provided by Bruce Downingand
Judy Fuller), can you work out the English equivalents of the Hmong
expressions listed below?

chaw ("place") kho("fix") hlau ("iron"). cai ("right")

dew ("bird") muas ("buy") hniav ("teeth") daim ("flat").
hnab ("bag") nres ("stand"} looj ("cover") mob ("sickness")
kev ("way") ntaus ("hit") ntoo ("wood") nqaj ("rail")
kws ("expert:') tos ("wait") . ntawv ("paper") tshuaj ("medicine")
tsheb ("vehicle") zaum ("sit") tes("hand"}
chawkhomob kwshlau
chawnrestsheb kwskhohniav
chawzaumtos kwsntausntawv
davhlau kwsntoo
hnabloojtes kwskhotsheb
kevcai kwstshuaj
kevkhomob tshebnqajhlau
kevnqajhlau daimntawvlimastshuaj

Discussion topmcs/pwjects
When we form compounds in English, how do we know whether to join the
words (hairspray), join them with a hyphen (hair-spray) or leave a space between
them (hair spray)? Using the examples below, and any others.that you want to
inclnde in the discussion, try. to decide if there ai'e any typical patterns in the way we •
form. compounds.

backpack, back-pedal, back seat. blackboard, black hole, black-tfe affair, bulletin
board, double bed, double-cross, house husband, house-warming, lwnsewife,
life-saving, lifestyle, life inSltrance, mother-in-law, mother tongue, postcard, Post-
its, post office, workbook, work experience, work-to-mle

(For background reading, see chapter 3 of Penning, Kessler and Leben, 2007 .)

Gi
.____ The Study of Language

II When we derive new words with a suffix such as -able, there seems to be some
type of constraint 6n what is permitted, The words intheleft column below are
"acceptable"(that's one!), lmt the fmrtis In the othertwotol~mns don't seem to
be current Engllshwords.Theyare marked with ~n asterisk to show that we
think they are"uriacceptable" (there's another one!). From these examples, and
any others that you think might be relevant to the discussion, can you work out
what therule(s) might be for making new adjectives with the suffix -able?

breakable *carable *dieable

doable *chairable *disappearable
downloadable *.diskable *downable
inflatable *hairable *pinkable
movable *housable *runable
understandable *pencil able *sleepable
wearable *quickable *smilable

(For background reading, see File 4.4 of Language Files, 2007;)

further reading
Basic trt:.:atrnents .
Denning, K., B. Kessler and W. Leben (2007) English Vocabulary Elements (2nd edition) Oxford
University Press
Minkova, D. and R. Stockwell (2009) English Words: History and Structure (2nd edition)
Cambridge University Press
More detailed treatments
Adams, V. (2001) Complex Words in English Longman
Plag, I. (2003) Word-formation in English Cambridge University Press
Etymology
Crystal, D. (2003) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (chapters 10-12) (2nd
edition) Cambridge University Press
Googling
Vise, D. and M. Malseed (2005) The Coogle Story Delacorte Press
Borrowtng
Stubbs, M. (2001) Words and Phrases (chapter 8) Blackwell
Cont[JOU!J.din.g
Fabb, N. (1998) "Compounding" In A. Spencer and A. Zwicky (eds.) The Handbook of
Morphology (66-83) Blackwell
Hypocorisnts
Allan, K. (1986) Linguistic Meaning Routledge
Conversion
Aitchison, J. (2003) Words in the Mind (part 3) (3rd edition) Blackwell
Unit 4: Word Classes

4.1 What are word classes?

In the preceding chapters, we have used terms such as 'noun', 'adjective',
'adverb', 'verb' and 'preposition' without defining them. The terms are in
everyday use and everyday definitions are available, such as nouns being
the names of persons, places and things and ~erbs being the names
of actions or states. These definitions contain a grain of truth but are
inadequate for serious investigation of English or any other language.
One weakness is that they appealin a superficial way to only one part of
meaning, the kind of things that a given word denotes. As we will see in
Section 4.2.4, 'Semantic criteria', it is important to take account of what
speakers and writers actually do with verbs, nouns and so on. (The term
'denote' is used for the relationship between a given word and the set of
entities, in the broadest sense, to which it can be applied. Traditional
dictionary explanations of the meaning of individual words can be
thought of as embryo descriptions of denotations. In the last section
of this chapter (4.2.5), we see that, for example, nouns are the centre of
noun phrases, by means of which speakers and writers refer to entities.)
Another weakness is that they ignore the business of where a given
word is placed in a clause or phrase, a topic which was introduced in
the discussion of phrases in Chapter 2 but which is also important for
the analysis of words. For a given word, we can investigate what words it
typically combines with in phrases, what types of phrase it occurs in and
where these types of phrase occur in clauses. For instance, nouns can be
preceded by words such as the, a and this but verbs cannot. Adjectives can
precede a noun, as in new books, or follow certain verbs, as in is new, seemed
new. Verbs occur in different slots in the clause. That is, we transfer from
humans to words the precept that you know them by the company they
keep and group them into classes, hence the term 'word classes'.
We appeal first to a very old distinction between words that have a
denotation and words that do not. Words that have a denotation apply to
£3
 WORD CLASSES

people, places, things (in the broadest sense), actions, states and proper-
ties. They are known as lexical or content words, and in English include
nouns (e.g. villa, baby, idea), verbs (e.g. buy, destroy, think), adjectives (e.g.
woodm, strmzg, abstract) and adverbs (e.g. rapidly, hopefully). Words that do
not refer are known as grammatical or form words. ('Lexical' usually
contrasts with 'grammatical', 'content' with 'form'.) Grammatical or
form words in English are the definite and indefinite articles the and
a, the demonstrative adjectives this, these, that and those, the auxiliary
verbs is, has and so on (as in is reading a book, has read this book). (The term
'auxiliary' reflects the fact that these verbs do not refer to actions or
states but 'help' main verbs such as read to build a construction.)
Many accounts of word classes in English treat verbs such as may, could
and must and prepositions such as with,from and bjl as grammatical words,
but these seem to be on the borderline. In the days before widespread
telephone communication and before the invention of fax machines and
e-mail, urgent messages were sent by telegram. Each word cost a certain
amount, and to keep down the cost of the whole telegram people put in
only those words essential for the message to be interpreted correctly.
For instance, instead of We are arriving on Tuesday at Spm the telegram
would read Arriving Tuesday Spm. The words that typically turned up
in telegrams were nouns, verbs and (less often) adjectives and adverbs,
namely content words. Articles, demonstratiye adjectives, auxiliary verbs
and prepositions were typically left out.
The problem is that, in spite of the telegram test, the distinction
between Press the button above the green light and Press the button below the
green light is rather important; the prepositions above and below cannot be
left out, because a wrong interpretation might lead to just as regrettable
consequences as the difference between Press the red butto1z and Press the
green button. What the telegram test shows is that some missing words can
be easily guessed while others cannot. Prepositions such as o1z and at in
time phrases have no competitors - the sender of the telegram might
have meant after Spm, but we would expect after or before to be stated
explicitly in the message. Prepositions such as below have competitors
such as above, next, by, opposite; recent analyses of prepositions have shown
that many have major meanings and can only be described as words with
denotations. Equally, we must concede that the meaning of a preposition
such as. of is hard to establish. For these reasons, and in spite of the
telegram test, prepositions (along with modal verbs such as can and must)
will be regarded as lexical or content words. In this class of lexical items,
they are not as central as nouns, say, but they are not grammatical items
either such as the and a.
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SYNTAX

4.2 Criteria for word classes

Four types of criteria are employed to s·et up word classes - syntactic,
morphological, morpho-syntactic and semantic. (Semantic criteria
have to do with meaning.) We begin with a brief explanation of morpho-
logical and morpho-syntactic criteria, which have to do with what is
called inflectional morphology. Consider the English examples The
tiger is smiling and The tigers are smiling. The contrast between tiger
and tigers shows that tigers can be split into tiger and -s. Tiger is the stem
and -sis the suffix added to the end of the stem. The stem tiger is a noun
and the addition of -s does not affect this property. In contrast, the addi-
tion of -ish does affect it; tiger is a noun but tigerish is an adjective. In
dictionaries of English, tigerish and tigers are treated differently. Tigerish
is listed as a separate lexical item, that is, it might be listed in the same
entry as t(gerbut appear in bold and with a short explanation of its mean-
ing; tigers has no entry at all, since the makers of dictionaries assume that
users will know how to convert the singular form of a given noun to a
plural form.
Suffixes such as -ish that derive new lexical items are derivational
suffixes; suffixes that express grammatical information, such as 'plural',
are inflectional suffixes. (The term comes from the Latin verb flectere 'to
bend' and is connected with the idea that, in languages such as Russian
with a multitude of inflectional suffixes, nouns, verbs and adjectives have
a basic form that is bent by the addition of a suffix.) There is one more
property of inflectional suffixes: in the tiger clauses above, tiger combines
with is smiling and tigers combines with are smiling. That is, there is link-
age between subject noun and verb. Traditionally, a distinction is drawn
between agreement and government; these topics will be discussed in
Chapter 9.

4.2. 1 Morphological criterion

The singular form criterion is used in the heading because what is at stake
is simply whether a given word allows grammatical suffixes or not. This
criterion is the least important of the four listed above and is more rei-
evant to some languages than others. It is of the greatest interest with
respect to languages such as Russian, in which nouns have different
suffixes ('endings' in the traditional, informal terminology) depending
on their relationship to the verb. Examples are given i~ ( 1).
( 1) a. Sobaka lajala
dog barked 'The dog barked.'

r;,S
 WORD CLASSES

b. Koshka tsarapala so baku

cat scratched dog 'The cat scratched the dog.'
c. Petr dal sobake kost'
Peter gave dog bone 'Peter gave the dog a bone.'
The noun sobaka in (I a) splits into the stem sobak- and the suffix -a, which
here signals the animal doing the barking. In (I b), sobak- has its direct
object suffix -u, which here marks the animal being scratched; in (I c),
it has its oblique object suffix -e, which here marks the recipient of the
bone. A few nouns in Russian take no suffixes, for example taksi (taxi), kofe
(coffee) and kakadu (cockatoo). (Such nouns do not vary their shape and
are called invariable words.) English does not have the same range
of grammatical suffixes as Russian, but English nouns typically take a
plural ending- fish-fishes, cat-cats and dog-dogs. (The -srepresents differ-
ent suffixes in speech -in cats it represents the initial sound of speed, in
dogs the initial sound of zap.) Some nouns in English do not take a plural
suffix- for example sheep, deer- and are said to be invariable.

4.2.2 Morpho-syntactic criteria

These criteria have to do with inflectional suffixes, as described above in
connection with the tiger examples, and the information signalled by
them, and were developed on the basis of languages such as Classical
Latin and Classical Greek. We looked at Russian examples above
because Russian is not only very like Latin and Greek in its richness of
inflectional suffixes but is also a living language. It will be helpful to take
a further look at Russian before returning to English.
Examples (la-c) show that nouns in Russian take different suffixes
which signal the relationship between the nouns and the verb in a clause.
(See Chapters I 0 and II for a discussion of these relationships.) These
relationships are known as case, and nouns are said to be inflected for
the category of case. ('Case' derives from the Latin word for a fall, casus.
The basic form of a noun, such as sobaka in (I a) - the subject form;
see Chapter 8 - was thought of as upright, and the other forms were
thought of as falling away from the subject form.) Other information is
signalled by case suffixes in Indo-European languages. Consider (2).
(2) a. Sobaki lajur
dogs bark 'The dogs are barking.'
b. Petr dal kost' sobakam
Peter gave bone to-dogs 'Peter gave a bone to the dogs.'
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SYNTAX

In (2a), sobaki is the subject but also plural, and it has a different suffix,
-i. In (2b ), sobakam refers to the recipient and is plural and it too has
a different suffix from the one in (!c), -am. That is, the case suffixes
actually signal information about case and about number.
Verbs in Russian signal information about time, person and number, as
illustrated in ( 3).

(3) a. govorit 0 Moskve

speaks about Moscow 'He/she is speaking about Moscow.'
b. govorjat 0 Moskve
speak about Moscow 'They are speaking about Moscow.'
c. govorJU 0 Moskve
speak-! about Moscow 'I am speaking about Moscow.'
d. govorili 0 Moskve
spoke about Moscow 'They were speaking about Moscow.'

Examples (3a-d) all refer to an event of speaking about Moscow: (3a)

and (3b) place that event in present time; the speaker, as it were, says
'I am speaking to you now and they are speaking about Moscow'.
Example (3d) presents the event in past time; the speaker can be
imagined as saying 'I am speaking to you now and at some before this
they were speaking about Moscow'. Information about the time of an
event is signalled by the difference in form between govorit and govorjat
on the one hand and govori!i on the other, the ! in govori!i indicating past
time. Such differences in verbs are said to express tense.
Example (3a) contains govorit, and (3b) contains govorjat. Both are said
to be in the third person; in the traditional scheme, first person is the
speaker, at the centre of any piece of interaction by means of language;
close to the centre is second person, the person( s) addressed by the
speaker. Other participants, or other people or things talked about by
the speaker, are third persons. The contrasts in form are said to express
person. (The term 'person' is not entirely appropriate for animals or
inanimate objects, but human beings tend to place human beings at the
centre of their thinking about the world; typical conversation is taken to
be by human beings about human beings.)
Returning to (3a) and (3b), (3a) presents the speaking as being done
by one person, (3b) presents it as being done by more than one person.
These contrasts are said to express number (as does a different set of
contrasts in the shape of nouns, as illustrated in(!) and (2).
In the languages regarded as native to Europe (belonging mostly to the
Indo-European and Finno-Ugric families), the words classed as nouns
 WORD CLASSES

carry information about number and, in some languages, about case;

words classed as verbs carry information about tense, person and num-
ber (and some other types of information not mentioned here- for a
more detailed discussion, see Chapter 13 ). In traditional terms, nouns
are inflected for case and number, and verbs are inflected for tense,
person and number. In some languages, adjectives too are inflected for
case and number. Adverbs and prepositions are typically not inflected,
though some prepositions in the Celtic languages (Scottish and Irish
Gaelic, Welsh and Breton (also Cornish in Cornwall and Manx in the
Isle of Man) do have inflected forms as a result of historical change. It is
as though in English the sequences to me and to you had coalesced into
what were perceived as single words, tme and tyou (the latter probably
pronounced chew). ·
English does not have the rich system of inflections possessed by
languages such as Russian, but English nouns do take suffixes expressing
number (cat and cats, child and children and so on), and English verbs do
take suffixes expressing tense: putt and putts vs putted. There are of cour:se
nouns, such as mouse-mice, that express number by other means, and
there are verbs, such as write-wrote, eat-ate, that express tense by other
means. Person is expressed only by the -s suffix added to verbs in the
present tense -putts, writes and so on. Of course, English verbs cannot
occur on their own in declarative clauses but require at least one noun
phrase, which could consist of just a personal pronoun- I, you, he, she, it,
we, they. To the extent that English verbs require a noun phrase, which
is often a personal pronoun (in 65 per cent of clauses in spontaneous
spoken English), we are entitled to regard person as a category intrinsic
to the verb in English. (Non-personal pronouns, that is nouns, are by
definition third person.)
English adjectives are not associated with number or case, but many
of them take suffixes signalling a greater quantity of some property (for
example bigger) or the greatest quantity of some property (for example
biggest). These morpho-syntactic properties of English words, signalling
information about tense, person and number, are presented in this
chapter as relevant to the recognition of different word classes, but as we
will see in Chapter 8 they are also relevant to linkage (agreement and
government), as mentioned at the beginning of this chapter.

4.2.3 Syntactic criteria

The syntactic criteria for word classes are based on what words a given
word occurs with and the types of phrase in which a given word occurs.
Syntactic criteria are the most important. They are important for
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SYNTAX

English with its relative poverty of morpho-syntactic criteria, and they

are crucial for the analysis of word classes in general because there are
languages such as Mandarin Chinese which have practically no inflec-
tional suffixes (such as plural endings); in contrast, all languages have
syntax.
The recognition of syntactic criteria as central is a major step forward,
but the application of these criteria is not straightforward. Consider the
English words that are called nouns. They all have several properties in
common, namely they can occur in various positions relative to the verb
in a clause. Examples (4a-c) are instances of the [NON-COPULA,
ACTIVE, DECLARATIVE] construction described in Chapter 3.
(4) a. The dog stole the turkey.
b. The children chased the dog.
c. The cook saved no scraps for the dog.
Dog occurs to the left of stole in (4a), to the right of chased in (4b ), and to
the right of saved in (4c) but separated from it by the intervening word
for. Dog also occurs in a noun phrase and can be modified by a word such
as the- The dog stole the turkey- or by an adjective- Hungry dogs stole the
turkey- or by the and an adjective together- The hungry dogs stole the turkey.
All other nouns in English can occur to the left of the verb in an active
declarative clause, but not all nouns combine with an article, or combine
with articles in the same way as dog does. (This property of nouns has
already been mentioned in Chapter 1 in connection with dependency
relations and the idea that different nouns require or allow different
types of word inside a noun phrase.) Dog stole the turkey is unacceptable
(assuming Dog is not a proper name), whereas Ethel stole the turkey is
not. The difficulty is that the class of English nouns is a very large class
of words that do not all keep the same company (or, to use another
metaphor, do not all behave in the same way). All nouns meet the criteria
of occurring to the left of a verb in an active declarative clause, of occur-
ring immediately to the right of a verb in an active declarative clause or
of occurring to the right of a verb but preceded by a preposition. These
are major criteria, but there are the minor criteria mentioned above, such
as combining with an article, or being able to occur without an article, or
not allowing a plural suffix (' Ethe!s). These split the class of nouns into
subclasses.
A sufficiently detailed examination of the company kept by individual
nouns would probably reveal that each noun has its own pattern of
occurrence. Thanks to very large electronic bodies of data and the
search power of computers, analysts are beginning to carry out such
examinations and to find such individual patterns. For the purposes of
 WORD CLASSES

analysing syntax, however, it is not helpful to gather information about

individual nouns and it is impossible to produce a useable analysis of
English syntax (or the syntax of any other language) with, say, 20,000
word classes. To analyse and discuss the general syntactic structure of
clauses and sentences, we need fairly general classes, and analysts try to
keep to major criteria plus those minor criteria that lead to relatively
large classes of words. For other purposes, such as compiling a diction-
ary, smaller classes are required, down to information about individual
words. (See Chapter 5 on the lexicon.)
A concept that is central to discussion of word classes, and indeed
to any class of items, linguistic or non-linguistic, is that of the central
and peripheral members of a class. Consider the adjective tall in the
examples in (5).
(5) a. a tall building
b. This building is tall.
c. a very tall building
dl. a taller building
d2. a more beautiful building
There are two criteria labelled 'd' because some adjectives take the
comparative suffix -er while others do not allow that suffix but require
more. Some adjectives, like tall, meet all the criteria in (5) and are central
or prototypical members of the class. Some adjectives fail to meet all
the criteria. Unique satisfies ( 5a-c), as in a unique building, This building is
unique and a very unique building. (Publishers' copy-editors might object
to very unique, but the combination occurs regularly in speech and in
informal writing and even in newspapers.) Unique does not combine
with -er or more: • a uniquer building, • a more unique building. In the class
of adjectives, unique is slightly less central than tall. Woollen meets even
fewer criteria. A woollm cloak and This cloak is woollm are acceptable, but
•a wool/mer cloak, •a more woollen cloak and • a very woollen cloak are not.
Woollen is less central than unique, which in turn is less central than
tall. Right at the edge of the class is asleep, which meets only one of the
criteria in (5), namely (5b). The child is asleep is acceptable but not 'the
asleep child, 'the very asleep child, 'the more asleep child. On the other hand,
asleep meets none of the criteria for nouns, verbs, prepositions or adverbs;
it is a peripheral adjective.

4.2.4 Semantic criteria: what words mean

There are no semantic criteria, aspects of the meaning of the different
classes of words, that would enable us to decide whether any given word
JO
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SYNTAX

is a noun, adjective, verb, adverb or preposition. We must accept right

here that meaning cannot be exploited in this way. The traditional defi-
nition of nouns as words denoting people, places or things does not
explain why words such as anger, idea or death are classified as nouns. Race
the noun and race the verb both denote an event, as do the verb transmit
in They transmitted the concert live and the noun transmission in The live
transmission of the concert.
On the other hand, this book is based on the view that grammar is
interesting because it plays an essential role in the communication of
coherent messages of all sorts. It has been demonstrated many times that
humans cannot (easily) remember meaningless symbols such as random
sequences of words or numbers, like telephone numbers and PIN
numbers. Psycho linguists know that children cannot learn sequences of
symbols without meaning. It would be surprising were there no parallels
at all between patterns of grammar and semantic patterns; we abandon
the traditional notion that classes of words can be established on the
basis of what words denote, but careful analysis does bring out patterns.
The analysis uses the ideal of central, prototypical members of word
classes as opposed to peripheral members, and it focuses on what speak-
ers and writers do with words rather than on the traditional dictionary
meamngs.
The key move in the investigation of word classes is to accept that
word classes must be defined on the basis of formal criteria - their
morphological properties, their morpho-syntactic properties and their
syntactic properties. Only when these formal patterns have been estab-
lished can we move on to investigate the connection between meaning
and word classes.
How do formal criteria and the concept of central members of a word
class help the investigation of meaning? Interestingly, the traditional
description of nouns as referring to persons, places and things turns
out to be adequate for central nouns. Nouns such as girl, town and car
combine with the and a, take the plural suffix -s, are modified by adjec-
tives and occur to the left or the right of the verb in [NON-COPULA,
ACTIVE DECLARATIVE] clauses. They also refer to observable
entities such as people, places and things. What is significant is the
combination of syntactic and morpho-syntactic properties with the
semantic property of referring to people, places or things.
Many analysts argue that nouns such as anger, property and event do
not denote things. However, these nouns do possess all or many of the
syntactic and morpho-syntactic properties possessed by girl, town and
car: a property, the properties, a11 interesting property, invent properties, This
property surprised us and so on. Anger meets some of the major criteria -
 WORD CLASSES

T!Je a11ger frig!Jtmed !Jim [subject, and combination with t!Je] but not • an
anger. The fact that the major formal criteria for prototypical nouns
iipply to words such as property and a?tger is what justifies the latter being
classed as nouns. On the assumption that these formal properties are not
accidental, it also suggests that 'ordinary speakers' of English treat anger
as though it denoted an entity.
A discussion of the linguistic and cognitive issues would be inappro-
priate here. What cannot be emphasised enough is that a word's classifi-
cation as noun, verb and so on is on the basis of formal criteria; the terms
'noun', 'verb' and so on are merely labels for classes which could be
replaced by neutral labels such as 'Class 1', 'Class 2' and so on. Words
apparently very diverse in meaning such as anger and dog share many
major syntactic and morpho-syntactic properties, and this raises deep
and interesting questions about how 'ordinary speakers' conceive the
world. It leads to the unexpected conclusion that the traditional seman-
tic definitions of word classes, while quite unsatisfactory as definitions,
nonetheless reflect an important fact about language and how ordinary
speakers understand the world around them.
The need for both formal and semantic criteria becomes quite clear
in comparisons of two or more languages. Descriptions of Russian, say,
contain statements about the formal properties of nouns and verbs in
Russian; descriptions of English contain statements about nouns and
verbs in English. But formal criteria do not allow the English words
labelled 'noun' to be equated to the Russian words labelled 'noun'; the
formal criteria for the English word class are completely different from
the formal criteria for the Russian word class. In spite of this, analysts
and learners of Russian as a second language find no difficulty in talking
of nouns in English and nouns in Russian and in equating the two.
The basis for this behaviour must be partly semantic; central nouns in
Russian (according to the Russian formal criteria) denote persons, places
and things, and so do central nouns in English.

4.2.5 Semantic criteria: what speakers do with words

Even more important is what speakers and writers do with language.
When they produce utterances, they perform actions. They act to pro-
duce sounds or marks on paper, but the purpose of produci~g the sounds
(in many situations) is to draw the attention of their audience to some
entity and to say something about it, to predicate a property of it.
Examples of acts -let us use the generally accepted term 'speech acts'
- are making statements, asking questions and issuing commands (in
the broadest sense). These speech acts are prominent in and central to
?'.t
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SYNTAX

human communication and are allotted grammatical resources in every

language- see Chapter 3 on constructions. Other acts are not so promi-
nent but are no less central to human communication and relate directly
to the different parts of speech.
Two such speech acts are referring to entities and predicating
properties of them. In English, the class of nouns, established on formal
criteria, contains words denoting entities, and nouns enter into noun
phrases, the units that speakers use when referring to entities. This is not
to say that every occurrence of a noun phrase is used by a speaker to
refer to something; nor is the difference between nouns and other word
classes connected solely with referring; nonetheless, speakers require
noun phrases in order to refer, and noun phrases can be used to refer
only because they contain nouns.
The notion of predication as a speech act is prevalent in traditional
grammar and is expressed in the formula of 'someone saying something
about a person or thing'. Predication has been largely ignored in d)s-
cussions of speech acts, perhaps because it is always part of a larger
act, making a statement or asking a question or issuing a command. In
English, verbs, including BE, signal the performance of a predication.
Whether adjectives and adverbs are associated with a speech act is a
question that has not received much discussion. It is interesting, however,
that in traditional grammar adjectives are also labelled 'modifiers', a
label which reflects the function of these words in clauses. Speakers and
writers use verbs to make an assertion about something, and the asser-
tion involves assigning a property to that something. They use adjectives
not to make an assertion but merely to add to whatever information is
carried by the head noun in a given noun phrase.
Explaining the different word classes or parts of speech in terms of
speech acts offers a solution to one difficulty with the traditional defi-
nitions; the class of things is so wide that it can be treated as including
events; even properties, which are said to be referred to by adjectives, can
be thought of as things. In contrast, different speech acts correspond
to different word classes. The speech-act explanation also provides
a connection between word classes in different languages. Assuming
that basic communicative acts such as referring and predicating are
recognised by speakers of different languages (communication between
speakers of different languages would otherwise be impossible), the
words classed as nouns in descriptions of, say, Russian, and the words
classed as nouns in descriptions of, say, English, have in common
that speakers pick words from those classes when referring. Similarly,
speakers and writers pick what are called verbs when predicating, adjec-
tives when adding to the information carried by a noun (that is, when
 WORD CLASSES

they perform the speech act of modifying) and adverbs when they add to
the information carried by a verb or an adjective.
We end this chapter with a comment on terminology. Linguists nowa-
days use the term 'word classes' and not the traditional term 'parts of
speech'. 'Word classes' is neat and self-explanatory but is associated with
the idea of words pinned down on the page or in the transcript of speech.
'Parts of speech' is not self-explanatory, but it does have the merit of
reminding us that we are dealing not with dead text but with speakers
and writers doing things with language.

Summary
The different classes of words - for example nouns, verbs, adjectives,
~ .
people, places and things (nouns), actions \verbs) and propernes
(adjectives). This definition is inadequate, although meaning still has an
important part to play. Reliable definitions are based on formal criteria-
morphological (does a given word take inflectional suffixes or is it invari-
able?), morpho-syntactic (does a given word take suffixes having to do
with person and number, or with case?) and syntactic (where in a phrase
or clause does a given word occur?). Once formal criteria have been set
up, the connection between word classes and meaning can be studied.
This bears not just on what a given word or class of words refers to but
also on what speakers and. writers do with it- refer, predicate or assert,
modify.

Exercises
I. Underline eight adjectives in the following passage.
Decrepit Victorian mansions loomed out of the snowfall on the town's
sporadic hills. Beyond them, cedars wove a steep mat of still green ...
The wind drove snow/lakes steadily inland, hurling them against the
fragrant trees, and the snow began to settle on the highest branches
with a gentle implacability.
Underline seven verbs in the following passage.
By two o'clock on the first afternoon of the trial, snow covered all
the island roads. A car pirouetted silently while skating on its tires,
emerged from this on a transverse angle, and slid to a stop with one
. headlight thrust into the door of Petersen's Grocery, which somebody
opened at just the right moment- miraculously- so that no damage
befell car or store.
 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH SYNTAX

Both passages are from Dan Guterson, S1zow Falting on Cedars.

2. We have seen that we can recognise a single class of verbs in English.

In the neutral declarative construction, all verbs can occur to the right of
a subject noun phrase (and, with a minute number of exceptions, verbs
can be preceded by the infinitive marker to or be marked for tense, on
the pattern of either play-played or wn.te-wrote). Closer scrutiny reveals
subclasses of verb. What constructions do the following verbs occur in?
Think up examples using each verb and see how many different patterns
you can devise. For example, if we were considering the verb HANG, we
could devise examples such as They hung the pictures on the wall opposite the
window or They hung the wall with pictures or These curtains arm"t hanging
properly.
MEET SCATTER COLLIDE CRASH

And the following verbs?

MIX BLEND STIR

3. Classes of words consist of prototypical central members, peripheral

members and some members that are neither one nor the other.
For adjectives, we recognised four criteria exemplified in (5) above:
occurring in a noun phrase (as an attributive adjective), occurring as
the complement of a copula (as a predicative adjective), occurring with
words such as very and occurring in the comparative, either with the
suffix -er or with more. Of the adjectives listed below, which are central,
prototypical adjectives, which are peripheral adjectives and which are in
between?
RICH AWAKE WOODEN MAJOR
 Unit 5: TYPES of PHRASES, CLAUSES and SENTENCES
3 Phrases vs. clauses
3.1 "Sequences of words that can function as constituents in the
structure of sentences are called PHRASES." [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 14]
· · For example, 'the woman in that 1978 Lincoln Continental' is a phrase
because it can be the subject in (1) and the direct object in (2):
(1) The woman in that 1978 Lincoln Continental
IS possibly wANTED by the police.
(2) DO you SEE the woman in that 1978 Lincoln Continental?

"Phrases form not only SYNTACTIC UNITS (constituents in the

structural form of sentences) but also SEMANTIC UNITS. By this I mean that
they form identifiable parts of the MEANING of sentences; they form
coherent units of sense." [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 18]

3.2 CLAUSES are "constructions with one phrase constituent, typically a

noun phrase that bears the subject relation, and another constituent,
the verb phrase, bearing the predicate relation [Jacobs, 1995: 49]."
For example, 'the woman in that 1978 Lincoln Continental' cannot be a
clause because it lacks a verb phrase while 'You must follow the woman in
that 1978 Lincoln Continental' is.
Note also that the phrasal constituent bearing the subject
relation is not always obligatory, e.g. in the case of imperative sentences,
and that the phrasal constituent bearing the predicate relation may be
finite or non-finite.

4 Adjective phrases vs. adverb phrases

4.1 As far as its internal structure is concerned, a typical ADJECTIVE
PHRASE (AP, for short) has as its head an adjective. The HEAD ADJECTIVE
(headA, for short) may optionally be pre-modified: rather dubious,
somewhat noisy, quite acceptable, too modest, ffa colorful, really
demanding, extremely subtle, terribly sorry, awfully slow, fairly good,
highly recommended, moderately easy, amazingly warm, beautifully cool,
annoyingly simple, disgustingly rich, incredibly polite, extraordinarily
rude, theoretically untenable, oddly inconclusive, diabolically tinted,
immediately recognizable, horribly burnt, etc.
An ADJECTIVE (A, for short) is the minimal form of an AP; indeed
many adjective phrases occur in the minimal form:
very enthusiastic ---7 enthusiastic.
The head adjective may be pre-modified by:
CD degree adverbs, which are also called intensifying adverbs,
(DEG, for short; -ly or without -ly adverbs which specify the degree of the
attribute expressed by the adjective): very, highly, extremely, terribly,
awfully, completely, much, quite, so, too, rather, somewhat, hardly,
fairly, moderately, partially, slightly, increasingly, incredibly, etc.
aJ qeneral adverbs, which are also called non-intensifvinq adverbs,
(Adv, for short; -ly adverbs which typically have other adverbial functions
as well): frankly, potentially, enthusiastically, immediately, annoyingly,
oddly, disgustingly, amazingly, suspiciously, awkwardly, beautifully, etc.

------
DEG
I
very
AP

head A
I
enthusiastic
----
Adv

I.
beauttfully
AP

head A
I
cool
4.2 As far as its internal structure is concerned, a typical ADVERB PHRASE
(AdvP, for short) has as its head an adverb. An ADVERB (Adv, for short) is the
minimal form of an AdvP; indeed many adverb phrases occur in the minimal
form: very enthusiastically ---7 enthusiastically.
An adverb may, however, be pre-modified; though post-modification is
not found in all adverb phrases. The only kind of pre-modifier occurring
in adverb phrases is another adverb, usually of the same restri~ted set of
adverbs of degree, which are also called intensifying adverbs, as found
in the pre-modification of adjective phrases, e.g. very quickly, quite
wonderfully, somewhat fleetingly, and extremely faithfully.
However, as with adjectives, other adverbs may function as pre-
modifiers in adverb phrases, e.g. amazinqly well, understandably badly,
horribly fast, incredibly gracefully This kind of modifying adverbs
appears to be either directly (amazinqly) or indirectly (horribly) an
expression of persoqal evaluation.

----------
DEG

I
very
AdvP

headAdv

I
----
Adv

I
enthusiastically understandably
AdvP

headAdv

I
badly

5 Attributive vs. predicative adjectives/adjective phrases

5.1 Adjectives or adjective phrases have two uses or functions: the
attributive function and the predicative function.
"The attributive function is when adjectives or adjective phrases are
found in the pre-modification of a noun phrase, as for example in an
interesting story, a somewhat anxious mother...
The predicative function of an adjective phrase is its occurrence after a
'copula' such as be, seem, sound, feel; for example, Naomi IS anxious
about Jim's health, Jim SEEMS concerned that Naomi WILL WORRY too
much." [Jackson, 1980: 24-25]
· 5.2 When an adjective or adjective phrase is functioning attributively, it
may not, in any case, be followed by a post-modifier. That is to say,
adjective phrases containing post-modifiers may function only
predicatively:
(l)a. *She IS a somewhat anxious about his son's health mother.
b. She IS somewhat anxious about his son's health.

5.3 There is a small set of adjectives restricted to predicative position and

called 'predicative adjectives' and likewise a small set restricted to
attributive position and called 'attributive adjectives'.
ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES PREDICA TIVE ADJEC7TVES
(2)a. The main reason IS his laziness. (3)a. *The reason IS main.
b. He's a mere youth. b. *This youth IS mere.
c. *He IS a faint patient. c. He FEELS faint.
d. *This IS an asleep boy. d. The boy IS asleep.
 But the vast majority of adjectives may function either attributively or
predicatively:
ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES PREDICA TIVE ADJECTIVES
(4)a. The charming girl ATTRACTS his attention. (4)b. The girl IS charming.
(5)a. She'S a lonely wife. (5)b. I sometimes FEEL lonely.

6 Noun phrases vs. verb phrases

6.1 A NOUN PHRASE (NP, for short) in English consists of a nominal head
(normally a noun or a pronoun) with or without the modifiers that accompany
it, before or after.

AP
I
Relative Clause

ART A AP 2 N'•
I
I I M!dN headN
sh i ~t 1.'--'h-a-t_I_B_O-'RR_O_Wi_'E._D_fr_o_m_m_y_b_r_o-th_e__,_r
(1) the blue cotton

In the noun phrase marked (1), shirt constitutes the head; the, blue
and cotton belong to the pre-modification; and that I borrowed from my
brother is the post-modification.
The word blue is called a modifier because it describes 'the shirt': it
limits by excluding other colours and it adds to the plain meaning of 'shirt'.

A modifier may sometimes be separated from the head by intervening

words, like the relative clause in the following NP:
(2) a butterfly in the garden which WAS FLUTTERING among the flowers.

When there is nothing else in the noun phrase, nouns or pronouns are
also complete noun phrases, like 'cabbages' and 'Aiken' in the two following
sentences which are marked (3)a-b:
(3)a. The truck wAS LOADED with cabbages.
b. They FLEW down to Aiken, South Carolina.
 6.2 The one constituent that a VERB PHRASE (VP, for short) must contain is
the VERB GROUP (Vgrp, for short) [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 78]. The Vgrp, in
its turn, contains one lexical verb and "may have up to four auxiliary
verbs, besides the negative word not:
may not have been being interrogated" [Jackson, 1980: 18]

The verb phrase in English consists of a Vgrp and all the words and
word groups which belong with the Vgrp and cluster around it. The Vgrp
itself is called the head, and the other words and word groups are the
modifiers and/or the complements of the head.
The modifier is the generic term for all the adverbial adjuncts that
optionally provide circumstantial information about the action, the process,
the event, etc. talked about in the clause in which they occur. Soundly
optionally describes the manner in which the baby sleeps and beside a
stream optionally describes the place at which Phil had lost his leather
wallet; the two adverbial adjuncts can be omitted without disturbing the
proposition of the two following sentences, which are marked (4)a-b:
(4)a. The baby WAS SLEEPING (soundly).
b. Phil HAD LOST his leather wallet (beside a stream).

The relation between the Vgrp (was sleeping or had lost his
leather wallet) and the adverbial adjunct (soundly or beside a stream)
is one of modification: there is a one-way dependency between the Vgrp.
(as head) and the adverbial adjunct (as modifier). Thus, the use of the
Vgrp without any adverbial adjunct is grammatically acceptable.

The complement is the generic term for all the completers of the
verb [Stageberg, 1965: 165], which are usually known as the direct
object, the indirect object, the subjective complement, the objective
complement, and also the predicator complement [Downing and Locke,
1992: 55-56).

There exist functional relations between the Vgrp and other

constituents that appear in the basic VP. In Phil had lost his leather wallet,

zo
had lost is the Vgrp. The relation between the Vgrp (had lost) and the NP
(his leather wallet) is one of complementation: there is a two-way
dependency between the Vgrp (as head) and the NP (as complement).
The use of had lost without a following NP is ungrammatical, and so is the
use of the NP without had lost.

"Some verbs require an adverbial without which the proposition is in

complete". [Biber et al, 1999: 143] The adverbial adjunct of place in (5)a
is not optional but obligatory. In other words, the relation between the Vgrp
(was lying) and the adverbial adjunct (on his back) is one of
complementation: there is a two-way dependency between the Vgrp (as
head) and the adverbial adjunct (as complement). The use of was lying
without any adverbial adjunct of place is ungrammatical.
(5)a. The baby wAS LYING on his back.
b. *The baby WAS LYING.

In the VP had lost his leather wallet beside a stream, had lost
is the Vgrp, his leather wallet is the complement and beside a stream
is the modifier of the Vgrp.
s
NP
I
PropN adverb phrase
[optional Adjunct of Location]

---------------
Vgrp
[transitive]
NP
[direct object] pp
I
~~ ~
(6) Phil HAD LOST his leather wallet beside a stream.

7 The N-bar (N') as level of NP-structure that is intermediate between the

phrasal (NP) level and the lexical (N) level
Since the one may substitute for the lonely man, we have shown that-
lonely man is indeed a constituent, one that is a sister of the determiner on
the tree-diagram. Clearly, lonely man is not a full noun phrase, since it needs
a determiner; but neither is it a single noun - an intermediate category
is needed, one higher than noun and lower than noun phrase. We will
show it here as N', and call it 'theN-bar.'
NP

DET ----------- N'

I
the lonely man

8 Types of pre-nominal modifiers

The noun head in a noun phrase can be pre-modified by:

8.1 DETERMINERS (DET, for short):

Articles, demonstratives and possessives are mutually exclusive
in English: only one of them can occur in any noun phrase.

8.1.1 Below are the determiners that may be preceded by one of the
pre-determiners (PRE-DET, for short), which are all, both and half
[Stageberg, 1965: 235]:
CD articles: the and a/an;
~possessives: her, his, its, their, your, John's, the book's, etc.;
® demonstratives: this, that, these, and those.
NP 1 NP 1 NP 1
~ ~ ~
PRE-DET NP2 PRE-DET NP 2 PRE-DET NP2
~ ~
DET N'
I
DET
I
N', --------------
DET N',
I ~ I /"---...
ART headN PossA AP N'• PossPropN AP N' 2

~
I I I I
a I the men I hea~N f heldN
(l)a. both my studious roommates half Harry's n~w books
(1)b. (1)c.

8.1.2 There are determiners that are not preceded by pre-

determiners [Stageberg, 1965: 239]. Some of these determiners are
called QUANTIFIERS (Q, for short): some, any, no, each, enough, either,
neither and another, the others are often known as interrogative or
exclamatory determiners: what (alan)\ which 2 and whose 3 •
NP NP NP
~ ~ ~
DET N' DET N' DET N'
I I I I I
Q herdN INTERfOG. DET heafN EXCLAM. DET headN
I
(2)a. some mistakes (2)b. which .I
platform (2)c. whlat a vtew

8.1.3 A POSSESSIVE (Poss, for short) can consist of either a possessive

adjective (my, your; his, her, etc.), or a possessive proper noun
(Johns, A/ices,- Doriss, etc.), or a full NP + -s, which is called THE
POSSESSIVE MARKER (PossMarker, for short).

1
what lw4t! (det.) =the thing(s) which, the person or people who:
What money I have will be yours when I die.
I spent what little time with my family.
What family and friends I still have live a broad.
what lw4t/ (exclamatory det., used in making exclamations):
What awful weather we're having!
What beautiful flowers! What a (lovely) view!
what lw4t! (interrogative det., used to ask sb to specify one or more things, places, people,
etc. from an indefinite number):
Guess what famous writer said this.
I asked her what experience she has had.
What books have you got to read on the subjects?
What woman are you thinking of?
2
which lw I tfl (interrogative determiner, used to ask sb to specify one or more things,
places, people, etc. from a limited number):
Which way is quicker- by bus or by train?
Ask him which platform the London train leaves from.
which lw I tfl (interrogative pronoun) = which person or thing:
Which is your favourite subject?
Here are the recently published books. Tell me which are worth reading.
The twins are so much alike that I can't tell which is which.
3
whose /hu:z/ (interrogative determinerltnterrogative pronoun)= of whom:
Whose Chouse) is that? I wonder whose (book) this is.
 DET

DET N'
I
PossNP
I
headN 1
I I ~
PossA/PossPropN headN PossMarker
I I
(3)a. his/Johns cover DET N'2

A~T
(3)b. the s cover
8.1.4 The determiner position may be UNFILLED (r/J, for short). Although
the noun phrases marked (4)a-b contain just one word, they should still be
analyzed as having a DET + N' structure:
NP NP
~ ~
DET N' DET N'.

I
HeadN heJdN
I I
(4)a. rjJ essays (4)b. rjJ smoke
(a plural countable noun) (an uncountable noun)

The two reasons for this 'unfilled determiner' analysis are:

CD These NPs could take a determiner: the smoke, my essays.
CD The unfilled determiner in these NPs has an effect on their
interpretation. An unfilled determiner gives these NPs an indefinite and more
general intemretation. The NP marked (4)b is indefinite and more general
than the definite NP the smoke. It is also more general than the indefinite
NP some smoke.

8.2 QUANTIFYING ADJECTIVES (QA, for short) are expressions of

indefinite quantity. Burton-Roberts [1997: 161] includes among the pre-
modifiers in the N-bar the quantifying adjectives much, many, few and
little.
8.2.1 Quantifying adjectives share some important features with
adjectives:
 Like adjectives, they co-occur with and follow determiners: those
G)
many books, the little butter that I have, some few successes, etc.,
including an unfilled determiner: ~many books, ~much garlic, etc .
. a>
Like adjectives, they are gradable: VERY many books, TOO much
garlic, so few ideas, VERY little tact, where they are modified by A DEGREE
ADVERB.

-------NP NP
~
DET N', DET N',
I ~ ............---
QJ'bEM/ART AP
I
N'z
__.............
AP N'z
I
QA hea1N DEG QA headN
I I I I I
(5)a. ·some few successes (5)b. ~ so few ideas
a;. those many books b'. ~ TOO much garlic
a". the little butter b". ~ VERY many books
a"'.~ much garlic b'".~ VERY little tact
8.2.2 A WORD-GROUP QUANTIFYING ADJECTIVE like plenty of, a lot
of, lots of, a great/good deal of, a (small, large, great, considerable,
etc.) amount of, considerable numbers of, etc., which may include
FRACTIONAL NUMERALS: one-third of, two-thirds of, three-fifths of,
etc., may be the only pre-modifier in an NP:
NP
DET N',

lp -------- f•
QA headN
....--- I
(6)a. ~ a small amount of people
b. ~ considerable numbers of war victims
c. ~ a great/good deal of money/trouble
d. ~ one-third qf time
e. ~ three-fifths of students
8.3 NuMBERS or NUMERALS (NUM, for short) are expressions of
definite quantity. They are of two kinds:
og!)
 CD CARDINAL NUMERALS: one, two, three, ... , and ninety_-nine.
aJ ORDINAL NUMERALS: first, second, third, fourth, ... , and last.

8.3.1 Numerals "should be treated as quantifying adjectives"

within the N-bar, "since they follow DET, including unfilled DET" [Burton-
Roberts, 1997: 161].

NP NP

DET ------------------N't DET-------------N',

~ ~
AP N'2 AR~ AP N'2
/'---.. I I I
DEG QA headN NUM headN
I I I I I
I
(7)a. ¢ VERY ·many mistakes (7)b. the one mistake

8.3.2 More than one expressions of quantity may occur in a noun

phrase, though there are a restricted number of possible combinations.
"Favorite sequences are ordinal number (especially 'first'. and 'last') +
indefinite quantifier, e.g. the first few hours; ordinal + cardinal, e.g.
the second five days; indefinite quantifier + cardinal number
(especially round number), e.g. several thousand people, many score4 of
ants." [Jackson, 1980: 13]

8.3.3 Stageberg [1965: 240-241] includes numerals to his list of

POST-DETS: "This is an untidy class. Not all post-determiners follow all
determiners, but each one follows at least one determiner. And within the
group, there are complicated orders of precedence. For example, ordinals
usually precede cardinals, as in the first three students, this order
may be reversed, as in the two first prizes ... The whole jungle of
determiners and post-determiners is a terra incognita that has not been
mapped out with complete success. For our purpose it will suffice to
recognize the class as a whole without exploring its internal complications."

4
score [C., pl. unchanged] set or group of twenty: g_ score of people, three score and ten
 NP

Dr-----N'
ART --------
AP 1
1

N'z ART AP 1
I /~
NUM 1 AP2 N'• Nk, N'•
[ordinal] I I [cardinal]
I
NUM 2 headN headN
[car~inal] I [ordinal]
l I
(8)a. the first three students (8)b. the two f1rst prizes

8.3.4 Adjective phrases with numerals as heads always precede

other Adjective phrases in the N-bar:
NP NP
~
-----------
DET
I
DET
I~
N',

ART AP 1 DEM AP, N'z

I I~
NUM 1 APz NUM APz N'3
[ordinal] I [cardinal] I I
NUMz AP3 headN 1 I A headComN
[cardinal] ModComN I ~
A ~eadN2 (9)b. these two aimless playfellows

(9)a. the last three rdd cabbage pickles

1

8.4 ADJECTIVE PHRASES (AP, for short):

A typical attributive adjective phrase has as its head an adjective.
The HEAD ADJECTIVE (headA, for short) may optionally be pre-modified
either by a degree adverb (DEG, for short), which are also called
intensifying adverbs [Jackson, 1980: 25], as in (lO)c, or by a general
adverb (Adv, for short), which are also called a non-intensifying adverb,
as in (lO)d. One adjective phrase as in (lO)b and two or more adjective
phrases as in (lO)a in the minimal form may all function attributively.
DET DET
I I
DEM AP 1 N'•
I ~
NUM N'a

D~dA A~N'4
l ~N
l
those two very cha mtng atbmic sciektists
(lO)c.
he

PRE-DET------ NP 1

DET
~
I~
NP2

N'
PRE-DET

----------
DET
NP2

EXCLAMATORY DET AP N' 2 AP N'

I I ~ 12
A headN Adv headA headN
I I I I
tjJ WHAT A lovely view beautifully cool weather
(10)b. (lO)d.

8.5 PRE-MODIFYING NOUNS (ModN, for short):

8.5.1 "Nouns themselves may act as pre-modifiers of head nouns. The
relationship between a head noun and a pre-modifying noun is much closer than
that between a head and any other pre-modifier. The combination of modifier
noun and head noun is referred to as A COMPOUND NOUN (ComN, for short) and
is not treated as a phrasal constituent at all, but as a compound word. Notice, for
example, that in a sequence of modifiers that includes a noun modifier, it is the
noun modifier that must appear last - it cannot be separated from the head
noun." [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 163]
 NP NP

Q
---------
DET
I~
AP
N' 1

N'2
DET

PossPropN
....------------
I~
AP
N' 1

N'2

I
ComN
I
ComN
~ ~
ModN headN ModN headN
I I I I
(ll)a. some expensive roof maintenance (ll)b. George's two wool neckties

8.5.2 It is not unusual for more than one modifying noun to occur in a
noun phrase. "A complication arises from the fact that noun modifiers can
themselves be modified." [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 163]

DET
11
~
NP

N' DET
I~
--------
NP

N'

ART headComN 1 ART AP N'2

I

/\
ModN 1 headComN,
~
ModNP

DET N's
I
1\ ModN 2 headN
~
ModN 1 headN 1 ModN 2 headN,
I I I I I I
(12)a. the child safety harness (12)b. the ¢ child poverty action group

8.5.3 "The modifying noun does not accept post-modification" [Burton-

Roberts, 1997: 164]. Thus the NP marked (13) is grammatically incorrect:
(13) *some [Japanese print after Kunisada] collectors
I t J
8.6 POSSESSIVE COMMON NOUNS (PossCommN, for short):
According to Stageberg [1965: 238], "the possessive of common
· nouns can occur anywhere between the determiner and the head noun."
Thus (14)a-b and (15)a-b are all accepted:
 DET N',
I
ART A~N'2
PossCommN
I AP~s
1 I
1 Aif2
~
N's

~ headN PossCommN heddN

I I ,
(14)a. the summer's red roses (14)b. the red summers roses

Note that (14)a-b both mean 'the roses which are red and which bloom
in summer'. Similarly, (15)a means 'the garden roses which bloom in summer'
while (15)b means 'the garden roses which are red and which bloom in
summer'.
NP NP
~ ~
DET DET
I I
ART ART

N'
13
PossCammN PossCommN

ModN
A headN
A

ModN
A headN
I I
(15)a. the summer's gdrden rosks (15)b. the summer's red garden roses

The active present participle

8.7 VERB PARTICIPLES (V-Part, for short):
and the passive past participle may appear as pre-modifiers within the
N-bar.

D1T
DEM
NP
_.....,.....---
~
AP N'. ART
-------
DrT
NP

AP
~
~

V-Part headN
A
DEG head A headN
I I I I I
(16)a. those. departed guests (16)b. a quite unexpected ending

90
 5 PASSIVE PAST PARTICIPLES
ACTIVE PRESENT PARTICIPLES
the preceding statement a broken heart
melting snow sliced cake
falling leaves photocopied materials
those leaping/dropping clicks these departed guests

8.8 GERUNDS (V-Ger, for short) may also appear as pre-modifiers within
the N bar, but they should be carefully distinguished from active present
participles:
ACTIVE PRESENT PARTICIPLES GERUNDS
Iiv ing organisms living rooms
the sleeping guard ·the sleeping car
a drinking horse drinking water
The combination of gerund and head noun is also referred to as A
COMPOUND NOUN. The compound noun sleeping car. should be dominated in
ComN as in (17)b:
NP NP

DET---------------N' 1 DET ---------------N'

I~ I
ART ComN
I
ART AP N'z
I I ~
V-Part headN V-Ger headN
I I I I
(17)a. the sleeping guard (17)b. the sleeping car

5
Note that:
CD Certain true adjectives look very much like verb participles. tiring, tired,
(un)interesting, (un)interested, bored, boring, devoted, relieved, unexpected,
surprising, charming, demanding, pleasing, etc. However, since they are gradable (i.e.
they can be modified by degree adverbs) they are easily distinguished from verb
participles: rather pleasing, very interesting, quite unexpected, extremely devoted, etc.
Q> Since the present and past participles are verbal rather than adjectival,
they are not gradable: *the very leering manager, *a slightly forgotten valley,
*rather sliced cake, etc. They may, however, be modified by general adverbs: in
the rapidly congealing gravy, rapidly modifies congealing resulting m 'rapidly
congealing', which is an AP.

01
 8.9 RESTRICTERS (RESTRIC, for short): are really a small number of
adverbs with or without -ly like just, only, even, quite, especially,
merely, and particularly [Stageberg, 1956: 242] which can:
<D modify the head noun alone- just girls, even water, especially
candy, etc.;
~
precede the pre-determiner and/or the determiner, modifying
the whole noun phrase and simultaneously restricting its meaning to some
extent-only ten short minutes, just college girls, just romantic
college girls, just another romantic college girl, especially all our
guests, even the empty box, just some white athletic socks,
particularly her spotted kitten, quite a few 6 people, quite a lot of
wine, quite some7 car, quite a party, etc.

NP 1 NP 1
~ ~
RESTRIC NP 2 RESTRIC NP2
~ ~
DET N' DET N' DET N'
I I I
headN headN headN

.1 I I
(18)a. just t/J glrls (18)b. even t/J water (18)c. especially t/J candy
NP 1
~
RESTRIC NP 2 RESTRIC
~
PRE-DET NP3 DET
/"'--. I ~
DET N' FossA APJ:'' 2
I I I I
PossA headN V-Part headN
I I
(19)a. especially all our guests (19)b. particularly her spotted kitten

6
'Quite a few' or 'quite a lot (of)' both means 'a considerable number or amount (of)'.
7
'Quite some' or 'quite a' is used to indicate that a person or thing is unusual.
9 Types of post-nominal modifiers
PosT-MODIFIERS (POST-MOD, for short) in an NP are the categories
that follow the head noun and modify it in some way.

9.1 PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES (PP, for short) are common post-nominal

modifiers:
(l)a. an I e~pedition to the I p~b (l)b. th' f."':" ;~the ~on~ask

9.1.1 Using tree-diagrams to re-draw the two above-mentioned

upsidedown-T diagrams, we have (1)a'-b':
NP 1
~
NPz AP
NP2 AP ~I
~ I
pp
DET1
I
N',
I~
PP
DET 1 N',
I I ~ ART 1 headN 1 P
ART 1 headN, p NPs
~ DETz N'z
DETz N'z
I I A1Tz cJN
ARTz headN 2
I I Mo~dNz
I I
(1)a'. an expedition to the pub (l)b'. the man in the iron mask

Accepting this way of analysis, I strongly believe that the PP post-

modifier in the two NPs marked (1)a'-b' can easily be omitted without
interfering with the rest of the NPs, which is in fact a well-formed NP by
itself: 'an expedition' or 'the man'.

9.1.2 When a given NP includes both a pre-modifying AP and a post-

modifying PP, the pre-modifying AP belongs to the N-bar of the given NP
but the post-modifying PP does not:
 AP,
I
pp pp
DET N'
/~ I ~
ART APz N'z P NP 3 PossPropN AP2 N'z p NPa
I I I I
1 headN PropN A headN
I
the nuclear scientist from Germany Larry's neat summary of the argument
(2) (3)

9.1.3 As a post-modifier, a PP may sometimes be reduced to an

adverb:

DET N\ pp DET
~
NPz --------
N\
NP1

AP
I
Adv
I I ~ I I
ART headN p NPs ART headN
I I
~ I I
(4)a. the time before this one (4)a'.the time before
b. the morning after the wedding b'. the morning after
c. the bus behind our car c'. the bus behind
d. the room above us d'. the room above
9.2 ADJECTIVE PHRASES
9.2.1 "A few adjectives (including present, absent, responsible and
visible) may pre-modify or post-modify the head noun ... To a greater or
lesser extent, a difference in meaning is associated with the
difference of position." [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 171] Post-modifying APs
does not belong to theN-bar though pre-modifying APs does.
 ---------
NP NP 1

DET
--------- N', NP2 AP
I
ART ---------
AP N'. DET -------------N'
I I
I
A

J A I I
headN ART headN
I
(5)a. t w present membJrs (5)a'. tAe members prelnt
b. the responsible men b'. the men responsible
c. the visible stars c'. the stars visible

9.2.2 There is a circumstance when the post-modifying AP itself

contains material following the headA, as in (6)a-b:

AP NP2
~ ~
DET N' headA· AdvP DET N' headA AdvP
I I ~ II~
ART headN ~ ART headN ~
1 I I I
(6)a. the chef responsible for the sauces (6)b. a tree safe to climb up

9.2.3 There is another circumstance when the post-modifying AP itself

contains material preceding the headA, as in (7)a-b:
NP1
~

DET N' Adv he adA

I
I'
ART headN

(7)a. the mailman, exuberantly happy, [whistled merrily]

---------
NP 1

AP
~
DET N' DEG he adA
I I
ART headN
I I
(7)b. [he had never seen] a woman more lovely
 9.2.4 There is still another circumstance when the post-modifying AP
itself contains two or more adjective heads linked by a coordinate

--------
conjunction, as in (8)a-b:
NP 1

NP2 AP
~ ___..-;---.....
' • 0

DET N' headA 1 ConJ headA 2

•
I I
ART headN
I I :
(8)a. the mailman, tired and wet, [trudged along in the rain]
b. a woman, old and gaunt, [stood at the door]
9.3 PARTICIPIAL PHRASES (PartP, for short):
Participial phrases can be subdivided into two sub-categories:
participial phrases with inq as iH (9)a e aHa j38Pticij3ial j3hPases with
ed as iH (9)e Ei:
NP 1
~
NP2 AP
A
DET N' PartP
I A
DET N'
I
PartP
I~ I I __:...-------._
ART headN V-part AdvP ART headN V-part AdvP
I I
~ M~

~
the car coml!Jg down the road the man expected to arrive at any moment
(9)a. (9)b.
9.4 INFINITIVE PHRASES (InfP, for short):
An Infinitive phrase can play the role of an adjective, post-modifying
anNP .

~
DET
N~ ........-------
N' lntp
AP
I
D~'
---------
N~ q
I
Intp

+T heddN ~ A~T he+N ~

(lO)a. the man to answer this question (lO)b. a scheme to win Kathy's heart
 9.5 SUBORDINATE ADJECTIVE CLAUSES (SubACl, for short)
The adjective phrases in (6)a-b, (7)a-b and (8)a-b, the participial
phrases in (9)a-b, and the infinitive phrases in (lO)a-b are often regarded
as the reductions of the following subordinate adjective clauses,
either restrictive or non-restrictive:
NP1

~-------~SubACI
[POST-M] .

DET N'

A~T hea~N ~
(6)a'. tAe chJf that is responsible for the sauces
(6)b'. a tree which is safe to climb up
(7)a'. the mailman, who was exuberantly happy.
(8)a'. the mailman, who was tired and wet,
(9)a'. the car that is coming down the road
(9)b'. the man who is expected to arrive at any moment
(lO)a'. the man whom you should ask about this question
(lO)a". the man who should answer this question
"One striking fact about these different kinds of phrasal/clausal post-
modification emerging from our discussions is the degree of explicitness
associated with each of them. As one passes from relative clauses to
prepositional phrases, so one finds a gradation from most to least explicit;
cf the cow which is standing in the meadow, the cow standing in the
meadow, the cow in the meadow." [Jackson, 1980: 16]

10 Noun complements vs. optional post-nominal modifiers

10.1 A noun-complement (nC, for short) is A PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
(PP, for short), as in (l)a-c, or AN EMBEDDED ADJECTIVE CLAUSE (EmACl, for
short), as in (2)a-c, that follows a noun phrase the head of which is an
abstract noun such as fact, belief, rumour, story, news, etc: "A noun-
complement is also known as a contentive, so called because the complement
clause (or phrase) normally specifies the content of its head noun." [Jacobs,
1995: 100] .
NP1

NP2
~

~
DET N'

ART
I headN
(1)a. her belief in God
b. the rumour of an impending merger
c. the news of where she is staying
NP1

EmACl [nC]

DET N'
I
ART headN
I I
(2)a. this beliefthat the company WAS NOT making a profit
b. the rumour that Ed's wife FALLS in love with his brother
c. the news (hat the enemy WERE near

10.2 Compare (3)a with (3)b:

(3)a. the story that Eleanor HAD MET with the senator
b. the story that Eleanor had given to the senator

As a noun complement, that Eleanor had met with the senator in

(3)a completes the meaning of 'the story': it tells us what 'the story' is
about. 'That Eleanor had given to the senator' in (3)b does not supply the
content of the story. Instead, it functions as a modifier identifying the story.
The same phenomenon can be found in (4)a-b and (5)a-b:
(4)a. the fact that rain MAY FALL in deserts [IS NOT unknown]
b. [I DISAGREE with] the fact which your argument rs BAsED-:
(5)a. the news of her marriage [HAS just BEEN ANNOUNCED]
b. the news on the notice-board [IS completely IGNORED]
 Note that SUBORDINATE ADJECTIVE CLAUSES (SubACl, for short),
either restrictive or non-restrictive, are not noun complements; they are
optional post-nominal modifiers (POST-M, for short) in the noun phrases
marked (6)a-h: NP,

~
NPz SubACI [POST-M]
~

~
DjT N'
I
headN
(6)a.1:e ch~f that is responsible for the sauces
b. a tree which is safe to climbed up
c. the mailman, who was exuberantly happy,
d. the mailman, who was tired and wet,
e. the car that is coming down the road
f. the man who is expected to arrive at any moment
g. the man whom you should ask about this question
h. the man who should answer this question

Note also that there is a two-way dependency of complement and head

noun (3-S)a and a one-way dependency of modifier and head noun in (3-5)b
and in (6)a-h. Thus, it is crucial to distinguish post-nominal modifiers from
complements.
"When a head DEMANDS a further expression... , that other
(OBLIGATORY) expression is said to COMPLEMENT the head ... Complements
typically follow their heads in English. Modifiers, by contrast, can precede
or follow their head ... " [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 43]

11 Classification of English verbs/verb phrases

"Verbs are sub-categorised according to what other elements
must appear with them in the VP. In other words, they are sub-categorised
in terms of their COMPLEMENTATION types (in terms of what complement
they must take." [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 80]

gg
 There are s1x mam categories of English verbs: monotransitive,
intransitive, ditransitive: intensive, complex transitive, and
prepositional. The six categories of English verbs result in six types
of English verb phrases.

11.1 INTENSIVE (intens, for short) verbs/verb phrases

11.1.1 Intensive verbs "require a single complement, which can take the
form of an Adjective Phrase, or a Noun Phrase, or a Prepositional Phrase ... As
the most central example of the intensive sub-category of verb, be is called
'the copula:" [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 85] Other intensive verbs are: become,
seem, appear, prove, turn, get, remain, look, taste, feel, smell, sound,
etc. In these following diagrams,CD THE VERB GROUP (Vgrp, for short) IS
CAPITALISED for better identification and<£> a triangle notation shall be used to
represent the structure of the Vgrp since it is not analyzed here.
s

PropN Vgrp AP/NP/PP [sP/sC]

(intens]

----------=---- ~
(l)a. Ed IS rather extravagant. (APl
b. Tom WAS an auctioneer. (NPl
c. Oscar SHOULD BE in the engine room. (PP)
11.1.2 The complement of an intensive verb group functions (more
specifically) as a SUBJECT-PREDICATIVE (sP, for short), which is also called a
SUBJECT(IVE) COMPLEMENT (sC, for short). "When a verb is complemented
just by an AP (Vgrp+AP), it is certain that this is the case of an
intensive verb +an sP, because [intensive] is the only sub-category of verb
that can take just an AP complement." [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 85]

11.1.3 Realisations of the subject(ive) complement.

Downing and Locke [1992: 51-52] subcategorize the subject(ive)
complements according to CD their syntactic realizations and <£>the semantic
meanings thev•
provide to complement the subject.
 (i) Attributive Subject{ive) Complements
AP Mountaineering CAN PROVE very dangerous indeed
She IS twenty-two years old
NP John IS a very lucky man.
Two brothers ARE pilots.

(ii) Identifying Subject{ive) Complements

NP The Robinsons ARE our next-door neighbors.

Finite clause Ken's belief IS that things CAN'T GET any worse.
He HAS BECOME what he always WANTED to be.

Non-finite clause The only thing I did wAS [ ] TELL him to go away.
My advice IS [ ] TO WITHDRAW.
The best plan IS for you TO GO by train.
What I don't enjoy IS [ ] STANDING in queues.
What most people prefer IS others DOING the work

(iii) Circumstantial Subject{ive) Complements

NP The exam IS next Tuesday.
AdvP The amusement park IS over there.
PP The manager IS in a good mood
Finite clause This IS how you SHOULD DO it.

11.1.4 No passive counterpart of (1)a-c has ever been found in English.

11.2 COMPLEX TRANSITIVE (complex, for short) verbs/verb phrases

The complex transitive verb "take two elements: a direct object
(NP) and an object-predicative." [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 88]
11.2.1 Obviously, "the predicative in a complex transitive VP
characterises (attributives a property to) the direct object, not the subject,
hence the name 'object-predicative'." [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 89] The
object predicative (oP, for short), which is also called the object{ive)
complement (oC, for short) are in italic while the dOs are underlined in the
following examples:
s
NP VP

Vgrp NP[dO] AP/NP/PP/non-finite Cl[oP!oC]

(2) a. The teacher

~ /~
MADE the lesson
L_===========-
extremely interesting. (APJ
b. Beth IS MAKING Stella her spokesperson. CNPJ
c. Party members REGARDED him as the only possible candidate. (PPJ
d. The policeman GOT the traffic [ ] moving. (non-finite C/)
e. An official HAS DECLAIRED the place [ ] to be free from infection.
(non-finite c/)

11.2.2 Realisations of the object(ive) complement.

Downing and Locke [1992: 54-55] subcategorise the object(ive)
. complement according to <D their syntactic realisations and q)the semantic
meanings thevprovide to complement the object.
'
Attributive Object(tive) Complements
(i)
AP She DYED her hair blond.
The government's imports policy HAS MADE the farmers furious.
I IMAGINED him a bit older/much taller than that.

Indefinite NP DOES he CONSIDER himself a geniuS?

Fellow sportsmen REGARD him a world class player.

pp They DON'T ACCEPT him as honest.

They previously coNSIDERED this painting as worthless.

Non-finite clause We BELIEVED him [ ] to be honest.

We CONSIDER this [ ] to be very important.

Finite clause DYE your hair whatever color you LIKE.

A 0 2..
 (ii) Identifying Object(tive) Complements
Definite NP CAN you IMAGINE yourself the owner of a luxury yacht?
They ELECTED her Miss Universe.

Finite clause Our supporters" enthusiasm

HAS MADE the club what it IS today.
Note that some verbs require their adiectival and nominal
object(ive) complements to be introduced by as, the complements are then
analysed as Prepositional Object(tive) Complements. With other verbs, this
is optional:
as+ AP The police DIDN'T ACCEPT the story as genuine.
I REGARD your suggestion as worthy of consideration.

as+ NP Doctors RECOGNISE Johnson as a leading authority.

I coNSIDER you as my best friend
(iii) Circumstantial Object(tive) Complements
PP The burglar LEFT the house in a mess.
We FOUND the Dean in a good mood
CONSIDER yourself under arrest.
Non-finite clause
-ing He KEPT us [ ] waiting.
as+ -ing I REGARD that as [ ] asking for the impossible.
-ed She LEFT me [ ] stunned.
The authorities ORDERED hundreds of demonstrators
[ ] placed under house arrest
11.2.3 Relationship between the direct object and its object(ive)
complement.
There is a special semantic relationship between the two NPs following
the verb. " The second noun phrase after the verb is semantically a
predicate that is about the noun phrase before it. This semantic relationship is
often close to, but not identical with, that between the subject of a clause with
be, the copular verb, and the predicate noun phrase following the
copular verb." [Jacobs, 1995: 59] That is the reason why the second NP in
(3)a-b is called an Object-Predicative or an Object(ive) Complement.
(3)a. We DECLARE Frank Wilson the winner.
(cf. Frank Wilson IS the winner.)
b. The club ELECTED Mr. Jones membership secretary
(cf. Mr. Jones WAS the membership secretary of the club.)

This explains why it is often possible to insert to be or as in front of the NP

or AP constituent being the attrtbutive or tdentifying object(tive) complement.
(4)a. The court CONSIDERED Smith to be a trustworthy witness.
b. The club WON'T APPOINT a teenager as the committee treasurer.
c. The extra money HELPED John to be independent.
d. We REGARD your action as criminal.

11.2.4 Many complex transitive verbs can be made passive. The direct
object of an active verb became the subject of the same verb in the passive:
s
NP

VP• pp
--------------- [opA of Agent]
Vgrp [oP/oC] ~

!=--------,---' ~ L~ ~
(2)a'. The lesson WAS MADE extremely interesting (by the teacher).
b'. Stella IS BEING MADE Beth's spokesperson.
c'. He WAS REGARDED as the only possible candidate (by party members).
d'. The traffic WAS GOT moving (by the policeman).
e'. The place HAS BEEN DECLARED to be free from infection
(by an official).
11.3 DITRANSITIVE (ditrans, for short) verbs/verb phrases
11.3.1 A ditransitive verb is "one which requires two NPs as its
complementation [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 83]." A few examples of
ditransitive verbs are give, send, and buy.
 11.3.2 In (5)a-c, the first complement NP, which 1s in italic,
functions as the INDIRCT OBJECT (iO, for short) of the ditransitive verb. The
second complement NP, which is underlined, functions as the DIRECT OBJECT
(dO, for short) of the ditransitive verb. The indirect object NP in (5)a-c
corresponds to a PPin a position following the direct object in (5)a'-c'. The
PPs that correspond in this way with indirect objects are always introduced
by to or for:

~ ~
r~
Plro Vgrp ~A) r
Pro
~
Vgrp NP[dO] ~)
. ~s) . I [~) ~ ~
(5)a.They GAVE Steven a prize. (5)a'.They GAVE a prize to Steven.
b. I 'LL BUY you some toys. b'. I 'LL BUY some toys for vou.
c. Ed HAS SAVED me a place. c'. Ed HAS SAVED aplace for me.

Note that with ditransitives, a PP follows the direct object NP as in

(5)a'-c' is part of the complementation of the verb. With monotransitives,
however, when a PP follows the direct object NP as in (8)a, it is only an
optional modifier.

11.3.3 "The Prepositional Object (prepO, for short) contains to

when the participant is Recipient and for when it is Beneficiary and this
difference is determined by the verb.
Verbs which take Recipient Indirect Objects and alternative to
prepOs are typically verbs of transferring goods, services or information
from one )erson to another. They include:
gzve grant hand leave offer owe pass
promise read send show teach throw write
We are offering our clients a unique opportunity. (... to our clients)
He owes several people money. (... to several people).
I handed Jennifer the pile of letters. (.. .to Jennifer)
He teaches medical students English. (. ..to medical students)
Do you send your net_9hboursChristmas cards? (.. .to your neighbourS)

~os
 Verbs which take Beneficiary Indirect Objects, with alternative
for constructions, are verbs which carry out an action on someone' s behalf.
They include:
book bring build buy cash cut fetch find
get keep leave make pour reserve save spare write
Book me a seat on the night train. (... for me)
Would you cash me these traveler checks? (... for me)
She cut the boy some slices of ham. (.. .for the boj)
I've kept you a place in the front row. (.. .for you)
He got us a very good discount. (.. .for uS)
She made all the family a good paella. (.. .for all the familY>

Certain verbs such as bring, read and write admit either to or for as
alternatives, depending on the interpretation. With.to as in bring it to m_e, read
it to me, write it to me, I receive the thing, either physically or mentally. With
for as in bring it for me, read it for me, write it tor me, the thing is brought,
read or written on my behalf." [Downing and Locke, 1992: 87]
11.3.4 Structures with a ditransitive verb+ its iO Recipient+ its dO like
(5)a admit two passives while those with a · ditransitive verb· + its iO
Beneficiary + its dO like (5)b admit only one passive because "Beneficiary
Objects do not easily become Subject in a passive clause, although this
restrictive is not absolute" [Downing and Locke, 1992: 47]:
(5)a". A prize WAS GIVEN to Steven.
b". Some toys WILL BE BOUGHT for YOU.
c". A place HAS BEEN SAVED for me.
(5)a"'. Steven WAS GIVEN a prize.
b"'. *You WILL BE BOUGHT some toys.
c"'. ?I HAVE BEEN SAVED a place.

11.3.5 A number of ditransitive verbs take a Direct Object + a

Predicator Complement. "Usually only the Object constituent can
become Subject in a passive clause ... Both Direct and Indirect Objects share
this potential." [Downing and Locke, 1992: 88] The following underlined
items in (6)a-b meet this requirement to be called an Object; however, they
do not fulfil the second criterion for Indirect Objects, that of substitution
by a phrase with to or for as in (6)a'-b'. We will therefore call them Direct
Objects:

(6)a. We'LL ALLOW everybody a ten minute break.

b. The shop assistant CHARGED me too much for the toothpaste.

( 6)c. Everybody WILL BE ALLOWED a ten minute break.

d. I WAS CHARGED too much for the toothpaste.

(6)e. *We WILL ALLOW a ten minute break to everybody.

f. *The shop assistant CHARGED too much to me for the toothpaste.

Neither the word group in bold in (6)a-b are Indirect Objects

because they "cannot become Subject in a passive clause and there is no
prepositional alternative to the Object." [Downing and Lock, 1992: 89]
(6)g. *A ten minute break WILL BE ALLOWED to everybody.
h. *Too much wAS CHARGED to me for the toothpaste.

(6)i. *We WILL ALLOW everybody to a ten minute break.

j. *The shop assistant CHARGED me to too much for the toothpaste.

Downing and Locke [1992: 55-56, 88-92] call these obligatory

constituents that are not classed as Objects 'Predicator Complements'
(predC, for short). Below are the verbs which take a Direct Object followed
by a Predicator Complement: allow, ask, bet, charge, cost, deny,
forgive, grudge, wish, refuse and 'empty' uses of give. It is clear that
these verbs are not passivised. A few more examples are given below for
further consolidation:
s
NP VP

1\
(7)a. He
b. He
Vgrp
[ditrans]

----------=---=
WISHED
GAVE
~~
NP[dO]

a happy day.
·me
the door
NP[predC]

a push.

101
 c. [Let]'s ASK someone the way.
d. The bank HAS REFUSED me a loan.
e. They GRUDGED him his pocket money.
(7)a'. *He WISHED a happy day to me.
b'. *He GAVE a push to the door.
c'. *Let's ASK the way to someone.
d'. *The bank HAS REFUSED a loan to me.
e'. *They GRUDGED his pocket money to him.
(7)a ". *A happy day WAS WISHED to me.
b". *A push WAS GIVEN to the door.
c". *The way IS ASKED to someone.
d". *A loan HAS BEEN REFUSED to me.
e". *His pocket money WAS GRUDGED to him.

11.4 MONOTRANSITIVE (monotrans, for short) verbs/verb phrases

11.4.1 A monotransitive verb "requires a single Noun Phrase to
complement it ... The NP that complements a transitive verb is said to
function as its DIRECT OBJECT (dO, for short) ... Since the V grp and the NP are
in functional relationship, the NP needs to be represented as a sister of the
V grp (and therefore as a daughter of the VP)." [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 82]
______s...........____

----------
NP VP

A ~~
Vgrp

(8)a. The police HAVE IDENTIFIED the victim.

NP[dO]

b. I USED TO SPEND all my money.

c. The frost HAS KILLED off the bud.

11.4.2 "The semantic role realised by the Direct Object can be realised
by the Subject in a passive clause ... After passivisation, the meaning remains
unchanged." [Downing and Locke, 1992: 41-42] A noun phrase is a typical
realization of the subject of a passive monotransitive verb which may be post-
modified by AN OPTIONAL ADVERBIAL ADJUNCT(opA, for short) of Agent.

Ao Z
 s
NP VP

VP AdvP
I [ opA o~ Agent]
Vgrp
[monotrans] pp

(8)a'. The victim HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED by the police.

b'. All my money USED TO BE SPENT (by me).
c'. The bud HAS BEEN KILLED off (by the frost).

11.4.3 In some cases, a monotransitive verb must be complemented by

an obligatory adjunct (obA, for short). In (9)a-h, for example, the NP subject
refers to "a doer of something" must be [+animate] and [+human] and the
action done with intention must be expressed by a monotransitive verb which
is [+dynamic], [+active] and [+affecting]:
(9)a. He JUMPED the horse over the fence (obA of Path).
b. The sergeant MARCHED the soldiers along the road(obA of Path).
c. I'LL wALK you home ( obA of Terminus).
d. You COULD BRING it to the kitchen(obA of TerminuS).
e. I always GET off ILEA VE the bus at 4Z'd street( obA of Location).
f. Liza HAS BEEN PUTTING the liquor under the bed(obA of Location).
g. She PLACED the baby on the blanket(obA of Location).
h. He PUT his arms around me (obA of Location)
andWALKED me awav(obA of Direction).
· Note that in his argument, which is an optional adverbial adjunct
of Location, can be easily removed from (10):
(10) He HAS JUMPED several steps (in his argument).

However, the removal of over the fence and along the road from
(9)a-b is impossible because these PPs are two obligatory adverbial
adjuncts of Path:
(9)a'. *He JUMPED the horse.
b'. *The sergeant MARCHED the soldiers.

Ao9
 The same result will be found out with (9)c-d, (9)e-g and (9)h when
they respectively lose their obligatory adverbial adjunct of Terminus,
Location or Direction:
(9)c'. *I'LL WALK you.
d'. *You COULD BRING it.
e'. *I always GET /LEAVE the bus.
f'. *Liza HAS BEEN PUTTING the liquor.
g'. *She PLACED the baby .
. h'. *He [PUT his arms around me and] WALKED me.
As an obliqatorv adverbial adjunct of Terminus in (ll)a, home
can neither be moved out of its fixed position at the end of this English
sentence, i.e. after the direct object 'you' of the monotransitive verb
WALK. That's why (ll)b-c are not grammatically correct:
(ll)a. I'LLWALKyouhome.
b. *I homeWILL WALK you.
c. *I'LL home wALK you.
As an optional adverbial adjunct of Time in (12)a-c, soon is free to
move to other typically adverbial positions within a sentence:
CD at the end of the sentence, i.e. after the complement (the direct
object, the indirect object, the subjective complement, or the objective
complement) of the lexical verb;
~ after the NP subject; and
® after the auxiliary verb or the first auxiliary verb:
(12)a. I'LL SEE you soon.
b. I soon WILL SEE you.
c. I'LL soon SEE you.
The above illustrations prove that although it is not always easy to
distinguish obliqatorv adverbial adjuncts from optional adverbial adjuncts,
this can successfully be done with some care.

11.4:4 "Certain verbs take an obligatory complement but do not

passivise or, if they do, the same relationship is not maintained." [Downing
and Locke, 1992: 55-56] This obligatory complement is called PREDICATOR
COMPLEMENT (predC, for short), which does not fulfill the criteria used to
define the two types of objects (i.e. the· direct object and the
indirect object) and the two types of complements (i.e. the
subject(ive) complement and the object(ive) complement. The predC
follows one of the following subcategories of monotransitive verb:
(i) RELATIONAL VERBS: have, possess, lack, suit, contain and fit
(13)a. We HAVE plenty of time.
b. I DON'T POSSESS any valuables.
c. His argument LACKS force.
d. WILL 5 o'clock SUIT yoU?
e. This jar CONTAINS nails.
f. These gloves DON'T FIT me.
(13)a'.*Plenty of time IS HAD.
b'. *No valuables ARE POSSESSED.
c'. *Force IS LACKED by his argument.
d'. *WILL you BE SUITED by 5 o'clock?
e'. *Nails ARE CONTAINED in this jar.
f'. */AM NOT FITTED by these gloves.

(ii) VERBS OF MEASUREMENT: measure, cost, take and weigh

(l3)g. The window MEASURED 1m by 2m.
h. Each ticket COSTS two dollars.
i. This suitcase WEIGHS 20 kilos.
j. The flight to Tokyo TOOK 21 hours.
(13)g'. *1m by 2m WAS MEASURED by the window.
h'. *Two dollars ARE COST by each ticket.
i'. *20 kilos ARE WEIGHED by this suitcase.
j'. *21 hours WERE TAKEN by the flight to Tokyo.

(iii) VERBS OF EQUAL RECIPROCITY: marry and resemble

(13)k. Sam MARRIED Susan last May.
l. Joe RESEMBLES his father.
(!3)k'.*Susan WAS MARRIED by Sam last May.
!'.*His father IS RESEMBLED by Joe.
 (iv) VERBS completed by means of a finite or non-finite clause
which cannot be replaced by a noun phrase or by the pronoun 'it': complain,
wonder,jancy, bother, wish, etc.
(13)m. He COMPLAINS that he is never consulted about anything.
n. I WONDER jfyou would like to join us for tea.
o. Don't BOTHER [~] to clear away the dishes.
p. FANCY[~] getting into a panic over a silly thing like that.

(13)m'. *That he is never consulted about anything IS COMPLAINED.

n'. *If you would like to join us for tea IS WONDERED.
o'. *[~] to clear away the dishes Is NOT BOTHERED.
p'. *[~] Getting into a panic over a silly thing like that
IS FANCIED.
Note that:
CD The sentences beginning with a star (*) are all grammatically incorrect.
a> "The reason for non-passivisation in examples such as these is that the
relationships expressed by these verbs are by nature not extensive. Verbs of
possession and non-possession (lack), of suitability, resemblance and
measure are essentially processes of being. And the semantic structure
shows that the nominals which follow them cannot be considered as
Direct Objects." [Downing and Locke, 1992: 56]

11.5 PREPOSITIONAL (prep, for short) verbs/verb phrases

"Glance, reply, refer, and look are examples of PREPOSITIONAL
VERBS-they must be complemented by a Prepositional Phrase [Burton-
Roberts, 1997: 90]." The PPthat complements a prepositional Vgrp is called
A PREPOSITIONAL OBJECT (prepO, for short). Take glance, for example:
(14)a. *Max GLANCED.
b. *Max GLANCED the falling acrobat.
11.5 .1 MONO TRANSITIVE PREPOSITIONAL (monotrans-prep, for
short) verbs/verb phrases

11.5.1.1 "Prepositional verbs are counted as monotransitive (i.e.

what follows the verb is a Prepositional Object) if (a) their cohesion is such
that without the preposition the verb is either meaningless (e.g. account
for) or has a different meaning (e.g. allow, allow for); and (b) if the verb
can passivise with the completive of the preposition at Subject (The
loss can't be accounted for). In addition, such verbs can typically answer a
question beginning with what or wh(om) (What/Who must I see to?). A
short list of some common verbs of this kind is given below. Many verbs,
such as think or hear, admit more than one preposition with a slight
difference of meanin :
account bank admit talk
mm consen /about
on to think
hope keep
long resort

get deal
. >at recko~ with"
hmt reason7
[Downingand Locke, 1992: 75-76]
s
NP VP

~
Vgrp PP[prepO]

~
[monotrans-prep]

(15)a. Max GLANCED at the falling acrobat.

b.He WOULD never RESORT to cheating.
c. You ARE HINTING at me?
d. I DON'T BELIEVE in him.
e. Linda IS THINKING of/about changing her job.
f. She HAS DISPOSED of her art treasures.
g. You CAN'T RELY on Kevin.
h. The minister REFERED to the importance of exports.
i. The organizers HADN'T RECKONED with a strike.
j. The manager IS DEALING with a critical client.
k. The Prime Minister CAN'T ACCOUNT for the loss of votes.
 11.5.1.2 Some of the verbs in this case can be made passive. The
noun or noun phrase following the preposition in the active pattern becomes
the subject of the passive one:
s
NP
---------------~---w
Vgrp P
[monotrans-prep]

~
(15)f'. Her art treasures HAVE BEEN DISPOSED of.
g'. Kevin CAN'TBERELIED on.
h'. The importance of exports wAs REFERED to
i'. A strike HADN'T BEEN RECKONED with
j'. A critical client IS BEING DEALT with
k'. The loss of votes CAN'T BE ACCOUNTED for
11.5.2 DITRANSITIVE PREPOSITIONAL (ditrans-prep, for short)
verbs/verb phrases
11.5.2.1 Some prepositional verbs are ditransitive, i.e. what follow
the verb are a dO noun phrase and a prepO prepositional phrase. The
direct object "is affected in some way by the action" and the prepositional
object "may be an entity, an abstraction or a situation" [Downing and
Locke, 1992: 89].
s
NP

6
(16)a. They
b. They
BLAMED
BLAMED
Vgrp
[ditrans-prep]
....-----=-:---
the fire
~~
NP[dO] PP[prepO]

on the gardener.
the gardener for fire.
c. That firm SUPPLIES the university with paper.
d. He CONVINCED the jury of his innocence.
e. The government SHOULD INFORM the public of the consequences.
f. I WILL INTRODUCE you to my friends.
g. I CONGRATULATED Janet on her success.
 h. It REMINDS of Italy.
i. They ROBBED of her watch and jewels.
11.5.2.2 The subject and the direct object of the verb may refer to
the same person, in which case a reflexive pronoun is used.
( 16)k. Why DON'T you HELP yourself to wine?
1. He CONVINCED himself of the rightness of his actions.
11.5.2.3 Note that CD both the NP direct object and the PP
prepositional object are obligatory in this case and that C£i the ditransitive
prepositional verb is frequently used in the passive, with the dO constituent
becoming the subject in the passive clause:
s

D
NP~VP

~ep]
-------
Vgrp
~·
PP [prepOJ ·

(16)a'. The fire WAS BLAMED on thegardener.

b'. The gardener WAS BLAMED for fire.
c'. The university IS SUPPLIED with paper.
d'. The jury WAS CONVINCED of his innocence.
e'. She WAS ROBBED of her watch and jewels.
f'. The public SHOULD BE INFORMED of the consequences.
g'. You WILL BE INTRODUCED to my friends.
h'. Janet WAS CONGRATULATED on her succeSS.
i'. l AM REMINDED of Italy.
11.5.2.4 Some of the verbs taking this construction are listed here
according to preposition [Downing and Locke, 1992: 89]:

for from of to with on in

blame pervert accuse confine charge blame interest
thank protect convict help compare compliment
convznce introduce supply congratulate
deprive refer
remind sentence
rob treat

A xS"
 11.6 INTRANSITIVE (intrans, for short) verbs/verb phrases
11.6.1 An intransitive verb "does not require any further constituent as
sister in the VP" [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 83]. In other words, "verbs used
intransitively don't take objects." [Jacobs, 1995: 247]

)\
----------
s
VP
I
Vgrp
[intrans]
p -------
s

'r
Vgrp
[in trans]
_,......------- ----=====-==-=-
(l7)a. Phil SUNBATHED. (17)i.We ' RE GOING TO EAT
b. The ball ROLLED. j. Phil HAS SHOWN
c. The door WON'T OPEN. k. My children HAVE GROWN
d. Lightning FLASHED. !. That old man DOES CARRY
e. The Bengal tiger DIED. m. Her father PASSED
f. Nobody APPEARED. n. Nobody TURNED
g. A tourist COLLAPSED. o. A tourist FELL
h. One of the tires EXPLODED. p. One of the tires BLEW

11.6.2 An intransitive verb is frequently modified by one or more

optional adverbial adjuncts (opA, for short). Adjuncts "provide circtimstantial
information about the action, process or event talked about in the clause in
which they occur. Circumstantial information includes information about the
place, time, manner, etc. of the action, process or event." [Jackson, 1980: 25]
They commonly are in form of adverbs or adverb phrases, prepositional
phrases, infinitive phrases, participial phrases and subordinate
clauses.
s s
......--------- ...---------...VP
lp ~ NP 1

........-----..VPz
PropN VJ?2 AdvP AdvP
I [opA of Location] [opA of Manner] 1
Vgrp I I Vgrp
[intrans] PP Adv [intrans]
_,......-------_ ~-
I -------=---=-=
(18)a. Phil SUNBATHED beside a stream. (18)b. A tourist suddenly COLLAPSED.
 11.6.3 Adverbial adjuncts are usually CIRCUMSTANTS or NON-
INHERENT ROLES [Halliday, 1970: 150], i.e. they optionally occur in a large
number of VPs; they can be omitted without disturbing the grammaticality of
the whole VPs that include them. However, they are ACTANTS or INHERENT
ROLES, i.e. their occurrence is obligatory in other VPs, when they accompany
a number of verbs:
(i) INTRANSITIVE VERBS of movement , in many cases together the
manner of moving, such as race, creep, slip, slide, flow, steal, walk,
stroll, trudge, run, plunge, swim, fly, sail, ride, etc. typically require an
obligatory adverbial adjunct of Location, Source, Direction, Terminus
or Path [Biber et al, 1999: 143]; [Downing and Locke, 1992: 56]:

(19)a. A veiled moon RODE in the high heavens(Location).

b. A large policeman WAS WALKING round the corner(Path).
c. An old man STROLLED towards the bar(Direction).
d. We STOLE out of the lecture-room (Source).
e. The students RACED across the campus(Path).
f. The boys TRUDGED up the Steep path (Direction).
g. The ship SAILED out of the harbor(Source).
h. I'LL SLIP into something more comfortable (Terminus).
(ii) INTRANSITIVE VERBS of position or existence such as stand,
live, hang, stretch, etc. typically require an adverbial adjunct of
Location [Downing and Locke, 1992: 74].
(20)a. The National Theater STANDS near the river(Location).
b. Your rain coat IS HANGING in the hall (Location).
c. Her paintings HANG in the National Gallerv(Location).
d. A vast plain STRETCHES below the castle (Location).
e. The book IS still SITTING on mv shelf(Location).
f. There EXISTS a king in Sweden(Location).
g. One of the biggest men I'd ever seen WAS LYING
ofl the beach (Location).
h. The baby WAS LYING on his front(Location =>Manner).
 (iii) INTRANSITIVE VERBs of occurrence· such as break out, pick
up, take place, emerge, arise, ascend, follow, etc. typically require an
adverbial adjunct of Location, Source, Extent in Time, Point of Time,
Manner or Role.
(2l)a. The market PICKS in the spring (Point qfTime)
b. A desperate hope AROSE somewhere deep inside her(Location).
c. No new evidence EMERGED during the enquiry(Extent in Time).
d. The funeral TOOK PLACE on 24 April at Jpm (Point of Time).
e. The mist ASCENDED from the vallev below(Source).
f. Rioting BROKE between rival qroyps of fws([qcqtjgg?
g. He EMERGED as leader at the age of thirty(Manner or Des guise).
h. [I don't see) how that FOLLOWS (Manner).

11.6.4 Two obligatory adverbial adjuncts may co-occur in a VP of this

type, usually an obligatory adiunct of Terminus following one of
Direction:
(22)a. The diver PLUNGED down (Direction)
to the bottom of the sea(Terminus).
b. The frightened villagers RAN out (Direction) into the field (Terminus).
c. The fully recovered whale SWAM out(Direction)
to the open sea (Terminus).
An obligatory adjunct of Path sometimes precedes one of Terminus.
(22)d. The Thames FLOWS through London(Path)
to the North Sea(Terminus).

11.7 Summary of the classification of English verbs/verb phrases.

Q) INTENSIVE [intens]:
svsP!sC
The reason WAS simple. (attributive).
Mary IS the most beautiful girl. (identifying)
The truck drivers ARE on strike. (circumstantial)
subject- Vgrp - subject predicative/subject(ive) complement
S [intens] sP /sC
~COMPLEX TRANSITIVE [complex]:
SVdOoP/oC:.
HOLD your hand tight.
'Be CALLED her an angel
I PREFER i1 ... withwater.
He MADE the team what it is today.
subject-Vgrp-direct object-object predicative/object(ive) complement
S [complex] dO oP/oC
® DITRANSITIVE [ditrans]:
®a. SVdOiO: I 'LL ORDER a taxi (or you.
subject- Vgrp- direct object- to/for indirect object
S [ditrans] dO iO

®b. SViOdO: I GAVE Esther a present.

subject- Vgrp- indirect object- direct object
S [ditrans] iO dO

®c. SVdOpredC: It COST John an effort.

subject- Vgrp- direct object- predicator complement
S [ditrans] dO predC
@ MONOTRANSITIVE [monotrans]:
@a. SVdO: I'VE SEEN that film.
I RAN a former school friend..
subject- Vgrp- direct object
S [trans] dO

@b. SV dOobA: You COULD BRING ll to the kitchen.

subject-Vgrp-direct object-obligatory adjunct
S [monotrans] dO obA of Terminus
@c. SV predC: The window MEASURED 1m by 2m.
Sam MARRIED Susan (last May).
subject-Vgrp-predicator complement-( opA of Time)
S [trans] predC
~PREPOSITIONAL [prep]:
~a. MONOTRANSITIVE PREPOSITIONAL [monotrans-prep]:
SVprepO Max GLANCED at the falling acrobat.
subject - Vgrp - prepositional object
S [montrans-prep) prepO
~b. DITRANSITIVE PREPOSITIONAL[ditrans-prep]:
SVdOprepOThey BLAMED the fire on the gardener.
He REMINDED her of the time.
subject-Vgrp-direct object-prepositional object
S [ditrans-prep] dO prepO
@INTRANSITIVE [intrans]:
®a. SV: He TURNED UP(= appeared).
He IS LYING(= is telling lies).
subject-Vgrp
S [intrans]

®b. SV obA: He · IS LYING in a hammock

subjec(- Vgrp- obligatory adjunct
S [intrans] obA of Location
11.8 Troublesome verbs
A verb can belong to various sub-categories, making it rather difficult
to identify its major functions in English sentences. Feel, stretch, erupt, stay,
sound, appear and make are among these troublesome verbs:
(23)a. The trumpet SOUNDED. (sounded= gave out a sound or sounds)
S Vgrp
[intrans]
b. The doctorSOUNDED the patient's chest. (sounded sth =tested sth)
S Vgrp dO
[monotrans]
c. She SOUNDED just the person we need for the job.
opA of Degree of Certainty
S Vgrp sP/sC
[intens)
(sounded= gave a specific impression when heard that she is just ... )
(24)a. The water FEELS warm.
S Vgrp sP/sC
[intens]
(jeels warm= is warm, is in a specified physical state referred to as warm)

b. I COULD FEEL the tension in the room.

S Vgrp dO
[monotrans] (jeel sth = be aware of sth, experience sth)

(25)a. The long summer holiday STRETCHED ahead of them.

S Vgrp obA of Location
[intrans]
(stretched= spread out over an area or a period of time)

b. The pullover STRETCHED after I had worn it a few times.

S Vgrp opt Adjunct of Time
[intrans]
(stretched= was elastic, became longer, wider, etc. without breaking)

(26)a. Violence HAS ERUPTED on the street.

S Vgrp obA of Location
[intrans] (has erupted= has broken out suddenly and violently)

b. The demonstration ERUPTED into violence.

s Vgrp prepO
[monotrans-prep] (erupted= suddenly changed)

(27)a. I HAVE TO APPEAR in court on a charge of drunken driving.

S Vgrp obA of Location opA of Reason
[intrans]
(appear= arrive/ present myselfpublicly and formally at the court)

b. The street APPEARED deserted

S Vgrp sP/sC
[intens]
(appeared deserted= seemed (to be) or gave the impression of being deserted)
(28)a. The doctor CAN only STAY the progress of this disease.
opA of Manner
s Vgrp dO
[mono trans] (stay= delay, make (sth) slower)

b. They STAYED friends for years. (stayed= remained)

s Vgrp sP/sC opA of Extent in Time
[intens]

(29)a. I 'LL MAKE some tea. b. I 'LL MAKE a p1zza (or you.
S Vgrp dO S Vgrp dO iO
[monotrans] [ditrans]
(make sth [for sb] =prepare sth [for sb])

c. I 'LLMAKE the question easy.

S Vgrp dO oP/oC
. [complex]
(make the question easy= cause the question to become easy)

d. They MAKE a good couple.

S Vgrp sP/sC
[intens]
(make= are or become)

12 Types of clause links

Clauses can be linked to each other in a variety of ways. Among the
principal types of structural links are coordinators as in (l)a-b,
subordinators as in (2)a-b, wh- words as in (3)a-b, and complementizers
as in (4)a-c. There may be no clause link at all as in (5):

(l)a. The doctor WAS tired, and he just SAID nothing.

b. I LIKE you very much, but I DON'T LOVE you.

(2)a. He WAS SCREAMING because he HAD TO GO home.

b. Since nobody WAS there, I LEFT for home too.
(3)a. They HAD no idea what it WAS.
b. The two people who FOUND it
ARE EXPECTED to receive the value of the brooch.

(4)a. For Sharon's car TO BREAK WOULD BE unfortunate_

b. The police REPORTED that Sharon's car HAD BROKEN
c. That the problem IS immense IS obvious.

(5) I KNOW. I SAW it this morning. It's really smart, ISn't it?

13 Types of clauses
13.1 Finite clauses vs. non-finite clauses
The distinction between finite and non-finite clauses depends on
the form of the verb chosen: "If the speaker wishes to express tense,
person or number, a 'finite' form of the verb is chosen, such as eats, locked,
went and the clause is then called a finite clause." [Downing and Locke,
1992: 11]
All of THE FOLLOWING VERB FORMS, which are capitalized, and
therefore the following clauses, are finite:
(1) She BROKE the dish.
(2) He HAS GONE.
(3) It IS unnecessary.
Accordingly, if the verb form does not express this type of information
about the verbal 'process', the verbs and the clauses are classed as 'non-
finite'. In the following non-finite clauses, THE NON-FINITE VERB FORMS
are capitalized and italicized:
(4)a. For Sandra TO DELAY her qraduation IS unnecessary. (to-infinitive)
b. I LET him DO it by himself (bare infinitive)
c. Mary DOESN'T TOLERATE
Anna CHATTING with the construction workers.(active present participle)
d. He LEFT tne STUNNED. (passive past participle)
e. The light HAVING GONE , we LIGHTED candles.
(active perfect participle)
 Briefly, "a non-finite clause is a clause with a non-finite
( tenseless) Verb group. MAIN clauses are always finite. So non-finite
clauses can only be SUBORDINATE." [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 250]
Independent clauses vs. dependent clauses
13.2
A necessary distinction is that between INDEPENDENT CLAUSES, which
are also called MAIN CLAUSES, and DEPENDENT CLAUSES (which can be
subdivided into EMBEDDED CLAUSES and SUBORDINATE CLAUSES).
13.2.1 INDEPENDENT CLAUSES
"A clause that can stand alone as a sentence is called a main clause or
sometimes an independent clause. The latter designation is often used
when the clause is the only one in its sentence." [Jacobs, 1995: 65]
An independent clause "does not depend on another clause, although
it may be linked to another independent clause, or to a dependent clause"
[Richards, Platt and Weber, 1987: 77]:
(1) Sharon's car HAD BROKEN down, and this ASTONISHED the mechanic.
(2) Sharon's car HAD BROKEN down before she ARRIVED at the airport.
An independent clause can be used on its own:
(3) Sharon's car HAD BROKEN down.
(4) This ASTONISHED the mechanic.
(5) Sharon ARRIVED at the airport.

13.2.2 DEPENDENT CLAUSES

"Dependent clauses, on the other hand, do not stand on their own as
sentences." [Jacobs, 1995: 65]
A dependent clause is "a clause which must be used with
another clause to form a complete grammatical construction. It
depends on the other clause and is subordinate to it" [Richards, Platt
and Weber, 1987: 77]:
(6) For Sharon's car TO BREAKdown WOULD BE unfortunate.
(7) The police REPORTED that Sharon's car HAD BROKEN down.
(8) They MISSED the flight because Sharon's car HAD BROKEN down.
Note that for and that in (6-7) "have little or no special meaning of
their own, and they are referred to as complementizers" while because in
(8) "has a specific meaning, one something like 'the reasons is'. Introducers
such as because, although, and since, all of which have quite specific
meanings, are subordinators.

Complementizers and subordinators are associated with two distinct

kinds of dependent clauses: EMBEDDED CLAUSES and SUBORDINATE CLAUSES.
Both kinds of clauses have a special slot before the subject, one in which the
complementizers and subordinators occur. This slot, known as the caMP slot
(after 'complementizer'), turns out to be a very important one." [Jacobs,
1995: 65-66]
Note also that dependent clauses can be either finite a,s in (7-8) or
non-finite as in (6). Independent clauses can only be finite like (3-5).

13.3 Subordinate clauses vs. embedded clauses

According to Jacobs [1995: 66-69], the following difference between

embedded and subordinate clauses is an important one.
13.3 .1 "If embedded clauses are omitted from a sentence containing
them, the sentence is usually ungrammatical. This is because embedded
clauses are arguments of a higher predicate, very often the subjects or
objects of their container clauses. Any finite sentence that loses its subject
or object argument becomes ungrammatical. So the embedded clauses
are indispensable for grammaticality." [Jacobs, 1995: 68]
8

NP
I

--------
S'[embedded finite clause] ------
Vgrp
[monotrans]
VP

~
DET
NP [dO]

N'
COMP·~6 I
ART
I
headN
I I
(1) That Sharon's car HAD BROKEN down ASTONISHED the mechanic.
 s
NP
~
DET N' Vgrp NP [dO]
I [monotrans] I
ART headN 1\ ~finite clause]

~ COMP S
I
(2) The police REPORTED that Sharon's car HAD BROKEN down.

13.3.2 "Subordinate clauses, clauses with subordinators in the

COMP slot, differ from embedded clauses in that they are not required
arguments of a predicate. They are thus not used as subjects or objects"
[Jacobs, 1995: 65]. Subordinate clauses are adjuncts which can be omitted
without making their sentence ungrammatical. "Just as adverbs and prepositional
phrases can be omitted, so can subordinate clauses." [Jacobs, 1995: 68]
(3)a. The family returned to the villa after Sharon's car HAD BROKEN down.
(4)a. Pavlova found the children where Sharon's car HAD BROKEN down.
(5)a. Lord Aston only used his Rolls Royce f! Sharon' car BROKE down.
Note that "non-finite subordinate clauses often lack an overt
subordinator" [Jacobs, 1995: 67].

NP

Pro~N
--------- s

VP2
~
AdvP
[optional~djunct of Purpose]

( \ S' [non-finite subordinate clause]

[z] {i c,m, ~~=s====V=P========-

Vgrp P[dO] -----------

(6) She LOCKED the door so as [1:] TO PREVENT any moreintrusions.

(7) She LOCKED the door r/J [1':] TO PREVENT any more intrusions.
 Also note that the sentences marked (3-S)a are well-formed even without
their subordinate clauses, resulting in (3-S)b:
(3)b. The family RETURNED to the villa.
(4)b. Pavlova FOUND the children.
(S)b. Lord Aston only USED his Rolls Royce.

14 Covert subjects vs. overt subjects

14.1 All of the non-finite clauses in (l)a-e have an overt subject.
(l)a. For Sandra TO DELAY her qraduation IS unnecessary. (to-infinitive)
b. I LET him DO it by himself (bare infinitive)
c. Mary DOESN'T TOLERATE
Anna CHATTING with the construction workers.
(active present participle)
d. He LEFT me STUNNED. (passive past participle)
e. The light HAVING GONE out, we LIGHTED candles.
(active perfect participle)
14.2 However, "non-finite clauses frequently lack an overt subject"
[Burton-Roberts, 1997: 250]. Consider the italicized non-finite clauses in
(2)a-d. They lack an overt subject and their non-finite verbs (to avoid,
chatting, pushing, and battered) are tenseless:
(2)a. Beth LEFT early SO as ['E] TO AVOID the police.
b. Anna ENJOYS ['.E] CHATTING with the construction workers.
c. ['E] PUSHING him aside, Carol JUMPED onto the platform.
d. ['E] BATTERED by the heavy storm,
the ship LIMPED into Southampton harbour.

A subject is always understood in the non-finite clauses. The

symbol ['E) (for empty, covert, zero, or implicit) is used to mark where a
subject might occur if the grammar allows it. In (2)a-d, English
speakers understand Beth, Anna, Carol and the ship respectively to be the
subject of the four non-finite clauses '['E] TO AVOID the police'·, '['E]
CHATTING with the construction workers', '['E] PUSHING him aside' and
'['E] BATTERED by the heavy storm'. Such understood though not
physically present subjects are referred to as covert subjects.
AoZ-1
 "Covert subjects are cognitively real, that is, real in the English
speaker's consciousness, despite the lack of words standing for them."
[Jacobs, 1995: 72]
Although the non-finite clauses in (2)c-d "seem like modifiers of the
noun phrase following them, both their position and their function show that
they are not. They are non-finite subordinate clauses marking a perspective.
Sometimes, a more explicit marking of perspective appears:
After [1:] BEING BATTERED by the heavy storm,
the ship LIMPED into Southampton harbour." [Jacobs, 1995: 72]

15 Types of finite dependent clauses

"A finite dependent clause contains a verb phrase which is marked

for tense or modality. There is regularly a subject except under conditions of
ellipsis. Finite dependent clauses are regularly marked by a clause link .. " ·
[Biber eta!, 1999: 193]
Finite dependent clauses may be either subordinate or
embedded Below are some common finite dependent clauses.
15.1 Nominal clauses
A nominal clause can be the subject, the direct object, the indirect
object, the retained object, the subjective complement, the objective
complement or the complement of a preposition in an English sentence:
(1)a. That rain MAY FALL in deserts IS true.
b. They BELIEVE that the minimum wage COULD THREATEN their jobs.
c. She GIVES whomever she MEETS a warm greeting.
d. I AM always GIVEN whatever IS the cheapest.
e. My question IS whether(or no{) you WILL PAY for such a loss.
f. We HAVE MADE them what they ARE.
g. We'D LIKE to work with whom we CONSIDER the best.

15.2 Relative clauses

A relative clause,
also called an adjectival clause, 1s
characteristically a post-modifier in a noun phrase. "It is introduced by a
wh-word, which has a grammatical role in the relative clause in addition to
its linking function" [Biber et al, 1999: 195]. Relative clauses may be either
restrictive as in (2)a or non-restrictive as in (2)b.
(2)a. We HAVE 30 men who ARE WORKING from 6am to Jlpm.
b. He WANTED the public not to approach the men,
who ARE armed and dangerous.
15.3 Adverbial clauses
"Adverbial clauses are used as adverbials in the main clause,
generally as circumstance adverbials... they are optional and have some
freedom of positioning; both initial and final placement are common.
Adverbial c~auses are regularly marked by a subordinator indicating the
relationship to the main clause". [Biber et al, 1999: 194]
(3)a. Most ions ARE colorless, although some HAVE distinct colors.
. b. !f you ARE in a hurrY, you CAN LEAVE.

15.4 Reporting clauses

A reporting clause, which "accompanies direct reports of somebody's
speech or thought", "may be placed in initial, medial, or final position"
[Biber et al, 1999: 196]:
(4 )a. They SAID, "Yes, sir," and saluted.
b. "Please come too," she BEGGED.
c. "Everything," he SAID, "is snafu."

15.5 Comment clauses

"Comment clauses are similar in stmcture to reporting clauses: they
are loosely connected to the main clause, they normally lack explicit link, and
they are usually short and can appear in a variety of position... They are
usually in the present rather than the past tense, first or second rather than
third person, and comment on a thought rather than the delivery of a
wording" [Biber et al, 1999: 197]:
(5)a. MINDyou, he was probably still as sound as a bell.
b. The conclusion, it SEEMS, is intolerable.
c. It's a nice approach, I THINK.
16 Types of non-finite clauses
"Non-finite clauses are regularly dependent. They are more
compact and less explicit than finite clauses; they are not marked for tense
and modality, and they frequently lack an explicit subject and
subordinator." [Biber et al, 1999: 198]
Below are some main types of non-finite clauses, each containing a
different type of verb phrase:

16.1 Infinitive non-finite clauses

16.1.1 An infinitive non-finite clause can play the role of a nominal
to be:
• the subject: ['E] TO DENY that gift IS to deny God's will.
• the extra-posed subject: It IS NOT easy ['E] TO MAINTAIN a friendship.
• the direct object: I HATE ['E] TO SEE that.
• the subjective complement: My goal now IS ['E] TO LOOK to the future.

16.1.2 An infinitive non-finite clause can play the role of an

adverbial to be:
• the adjunct of purpose:
['E] TO SUCCEED again they WILL HAVE to improve their fitness.
• the adiective complement:
That old man IS a bit afraid ['E] TO GO into hospital.

16.1.3 An infinitive non-finite clause can play the role of an

adjectival to be:
• the post-nominal modifier:
He IS the third man ['E] TO BE MURDERED right on this corner.
• the objective complement:
Some of these issues dropped out of Marx's later works because
he CONSIDERED them ['E] TO HAVE BEEN satisfactorily dealt with.

16.2 Gerund non-finite clauses can only play the role of a nominal to be:
• the subject: ['E] HAVING a fever IS unpleasant.
 • The extra-posed subject:
There are only around five tons of newsprints left and
it's very difficult [20] GETTING supplies into Sarajevo.
• the direct object: I STARTED [20] THINKING about Christmas.
• the subjective complement: The real problem IS
[20] GETTING something done about the cheap imports.
• the complement of a preposition: I EARN my living by [20] TEACHING.

16.3 Participial non-finite clauses

16.3.1 A Participial non-finite clause, which is an -ING clause, can
play the role of an adjectival to be the post-nominal modifier:
There WERE two cars [20] COMING down the road.

16.3.2 A Participial non-finite clause, which is an -ING clause, can

play the role of an adverbial to be:
• the circumstance adjunct: He STOOD on the veranda,
[20] LISTENING to the wind.
• the adjective complement: It MIGHT BE worth
[20] GIVING him a bell to let him know what's happening.

16.3.3 A participial non-finite clause, which is an -ED clause, can

play the role of a nominal to be the direct object: God, you've gone mad
with the sugar in yours. DO you wANT it TOPPED up?
16.3.4 A participial non-finite clause, which is an -ED clause, can
play the role of an adverbial to be:
• the circumstantial adjunct:
When [20] TOLD by the police how badly injured his victims were
he SAID: "Good, I hope they die."
• the adjective complement: That old man IS a bit afraid
into hospital.
[20] TO GO
16.3.5 A participial non-finite clause, which is an -ED clause, can
play the role of an adjectival to be the post-nominal modifier:
There wASN'T a scrap of evidence
to link him with the body [20] FOUND on the Thames at low tide.
 16.4 Verbless clauses
Among non-finite clauses may also be verbless clauses such as:
- She HAD also BEEN TAUGHT, when in difficulty, to think of a good
life to imitate.
-Although not a classic, this 90-minute video IS worth watching.

17 Classification of sentences according to their structure

"In many traditional grammars three major sentence types are
distinguished. A simple sentence consists of a single clause that stands alone
as it own sentence. In a coordinate sentence (called "compound" in
traditional grammars), two or more clauses are joined by a conjunction in a
coordinate relationship. A complex sentence combines two (or more) clauses
in such a way that one clause functions as a grammatical part of the other
one." [Finegan, 1994: 122]

17.1 The following are a number of typical examples of simple sentences.

5

NP VP
~
(1)a. Tom DISAPPEARED.
b. He CREPT into a cave.
c. My father IS GOING TO BUY a car.
d. The flight to Tokyo TOOK 21 hours.
e. You CAN RELY Gina.
f. Ed HAD GIVEN her a ring.
g. We WILL ALLOW everyone a ten-minute break.
h. Albert HAS MADE Susan angry.
i. Susan IS unhappy.

Each of the above sentences contains a VP. The VP contains a Vgrp.

The Vgrp can consist.of a single word (as in disappear, crept, took, and is)
or of more than one word (as in is going to buy, can rely, had given, will
allow, and has made). "In English and in many other languages, the central
element in a clause is the verb; each clause - and therefore each simple
sentence- contains just one verb." [Finegan, 1994: 119]
 17.2 The following are a number of typical examples of compound sentences.

Conj 52
_.............-
, NP2 VP2
: /"=-, ~:::::::::=========-
(2)a. Karen ASSEMBLED the new grill and Joe COOKED the hot dogs.
b. She IS rich and famous but I DON'T FIND her talented.
c. You SHOULD TRY to work hard or you 'LL GET fired.
d. Roses ARE red but violets ARE blue.

Each of the above sentences consists of "two clauses joined by a word

such as and, but, or or, which are called coordinating conjunctions, or
simply conjunctions ... The clauses in a coordinate sentence hold equal status.
Neither clause is part of the other clause, and each could stand by itself as an
independent sentence." [Finegan, 1994: 119]

It is necessary to confirm that in the above examples and, but, or or

does not form a constituent with either of the clauses it conjoins.

Last but not least, co-ordinate constructions are not limited to two items
of equal value:
55

(2)e. Roses ARE red but violets ARE blue and sugar IS sweet and so ARE you.

17.3. The following are a number of typical examples of complex sentences.

(3)a. f!you WASH the sweater, it WILL STRETCH.
b. An aquarium IS a place which fish IS KEPT.
c. While he WAS SITTING in his chair, he HEARD a noise
which SEEMED TO COME from a distance.
 d.Although I DID NOT WANT to leave my bed, the wind BLEW so strong
that I WAS at last COMPELLED to get up to shut the window.
"Unlike coordinate sentences, which contain clauses of equal status,
complex sentences contain clauses of unequal status. In the complex
sentence we have been examining, one clause is subordinate to another
clause and function as a grammatical part of that clause. We call the
subordinate clause an embedded clause and the clause into which it is
embedded a matrix clause. Every subordinate clause is by definition
embedded in a matrix clause, in which it serves in a grammatical function
such as subject, direct object, or adverbial." [Finegan, 1994: 122]

"Complex sentences contain sentences inside them ... Embedded

clauses typically ... function as subjects and direct objects and as sentence-
adverbial phrases." [Kaplan, 1989: 267]

17.3.1 EMBEDDED NOMINAL CLAUSES (EmNCl, for short):

17.3,1.1 The subject can be realised by either a finite clause or a
non-finite clause. "Constituents functioning as subjects are always analysed
as NPs" [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 197], so we shall analyse any clausal subject
as dominated by NP.
17.3.1.1.1 Subject finite clauses can be that-clauses or Wh-
c/auses, i.e. finite clauses preceded by either the introductory word that or
the subordinate conjunction what, where, when, why, who, how, etc. This
construction "is generally used in formal written English" [Stanley, 1989: 2]:
Sr

NP1
I
S'[finite clause]
---------------82
---------
Comp
NP2 VPz

--------===-=-= ~
(4)a. That the problems ARE immense IS obvious.
b. That rain MAY FALL in deserts IS true.
c. That Einstein IS a great scientist IS understandable.
d. That he FAILED to turn up SURPRISED nobody.
 e. That Columbus WAS an
Italian IS sometimes DISPUTED.
f. That the computer revolution IS in its infancy frequently ESCAPES comment.
(5)a. Whether it IS CAUSED by rain or wind IS unknown .
. b. How they MANAGED to survive IS a mystery.

c. When it WAS DONE SEEMS quite obvious to me.

d. Where he GOES IS no business of yours.
e. Why the library WAS CLOSED for months WAS NOT EXPLAINED.
f. What he SAID SHOCKED me.
g. When I GO DEPENDS when the train leaves.
17.3.1.1.2 When the introductory expression 'the fact that
replaces the introductory word 'that as in (4)a-f, the EmNCiis syntactically
changed to a finite adjectival that-clause being the obligatory complement
of the NP 'the fact':
s,

-------
NP 1 VP 1

~N'
DET
I
NP

I
ART headN
--------
Comp
S'[finite thai-clause]

NP-
82

2 ------
VP2
I I -------==--==- ~
(4)a'. The fact that the problems ARE immense IS obvious.
b'. The fact that rain MAY FALL in deserts IS true.
c'. The fact that Einstein IS a great scientist IS understandable.
d'. The fact that he FAILED to turn up SURPRISED nobody.
e'. The fact that Columbus WAS an Italian IS sometimes DISPUTED.
f'. The fact that the computer revolution IS in its infancy
frequently ESCAPES comment.

17.3.1.1.3 Subject non-finite clauses "are of two types,

depending on the VG (verbal group) they contain: to-infinitive, which can
be introduced by a Wh-word, and ing clauses. 'Bare' iHfiHitive clauses
(without to) occur as Subject only in equative (Wh-cleft) sentences:

'
 ['£] 8 TO TAKE such a risk WAS rather foolish. ( to-inf. clause)
Where ['E] TO LEAVE the dog Is the problem. ( Wh- + to-inf. clause)

['E] RUN for President IS what he may do. (bare inf. clause)

['E] HAVING TOGO back for the ticketsWAS a nuisance.

(-ing clause)
To-infinitive and -ing clauses at Subject can have their own
Subject; bare infinitive clauses cannot. A to-infinitive clause with its
own Subject must be introduced by for.
s,
NP 1 VP,

I ~
S' [non-finite clause] Vgrp AP /NP[sP /sC]
----1 [intens]

1
~
NP 2 VP 2
~~
For everyone TO ESCAPE wAS practically impossible.
rjJ Sam HAVING TO GO back for the tickets wAS a nmsance.

The Pronominal Subject of an -ing clause can be in the

possessive or the objective case. The objective form is the less formal:
Him/His HAVING TO GO back for the tickets wAS a nuisance.
Of all embedded clauses, only that-clauses introduced by the fact, finite
nominal relative clauses and non-finite -ing clauses are sufficiently
nominal to be able to invert with the operator in interrogative clauses:
DID what he SAID SHOCK you?
WAS Sam HAVING TO GO back for the tickets a nuisance?

8
Note tlrat ['E] is the symbol to stand for the empty/covert/zero/implicit subject in
non-finites clauses.
 *WAS TO TAKE such a risk rather foolish?
*DID that he FAILED to turn up SURPRISE everybody?
DID the fact that he FAILED to turn up SURPRISE everybody?"
[Downing and Locke, 1992: 34-35]

17.3.1.1.4 "Examples such as that he failed to turn up

surprised nobody and for everyone to escape was practically
impossible have as an alternative structure the following:
It surprised nobody that he failed to turn up.
It was practically impossible for everyone to escape.
in which the finite or non-finite clause realizing the Subject is said to
be extra posed, that is, placed after the Complement or 'Object. The initial
Subject position is filled, obligatorily, by the pronoun it (usually called
'anticipatory it'), acting as a kind of a substitute for the 'postponed' Subject.
It is commonly used in both speech and writing, especially when the Subject
is longer than the Complement and is better placed at the end of the sentence,
in accordance with the information and stylistic principle of 'end-weight' 9."
[Downing and Locke, 1992: 35]

In other words, "the extraposed subject has a clausal subject

displaced to the end of the sentence and explicit it in the normal subject
position, dominated directly by NP." [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 198]

9 "In any clause, elements are frequently of different size and complexity, or weight ...
There is a preferred distribution of elements in the clause in accordance with the weight
called the principle of end-weight: the tendency for long and complex elements to be
placed towards the end of a clause [Biber eta!, 1999: 898]." Compare:
(1) I FOUND the man guilty.
(2) I FOUND guilty the man who has scars on his cheeks.
. A31
 s,
NP1 VP 1 NP1 bis [real subject]
[anticipatory /'-..._ I
subject] / "'-._ . S'[finite clause]
I Comp ~s.

PRIA)6
Vgrp AP/NP[sP/sC)

--------
NP 2
----------==-=-
~
VPz

(4)a".It IS obvious that the problems ARE immense.

b".lt IS true that rain MAY FALL in deserts.

(5)a'. It IS unknown whether it IS CAUSEDby rain or wind

b'. It IS a mystery how they MANAGED to survive.

(6)a. It IS a pity (fhaf) you · the company.

ARE LEAVING
b. It IS a bore when people CAN'T MAKE UP their minds.
c. It IS no concern of mine when she DOES outside working hours.
d. It IS time fjJ he STOPPED fooling around

Note that the subjective complement of the copular verb be is, quite ·
often, realised by an NP, as in (6)a-d. Also note that embedded clausal
subjects can be extraposed from various sentence structures, with (S + be +
sP/sC) the most common:
(7)a. [ ] TO SEE such poverty MAKES one sad.
a'. It MAKES one sad [ ] TO SEE such poverty.
(S +complex transV +dO+ oP/oC)
b. Where you SIT DOESN'T MATTER.
b'.lt DOESN'T MATTER where you SIT. (S+ intranV)
c. (The facf) that the number-plate HAD BEEN CHANGED STRUCK me.
c'. It STRUCK me that the number-plate HAD BEEN CHANGED.
(S + monotransV +dO)
d. (The facf) that you ARELEA VIN7
the company SHOULDN'T COME as a surprise.
d'.lt SHOULDN'T COME as a surprise (thaf) you ARE LEAVING the company.
(S + intensV + sP/sC)
 17.3.1.2 The direct object (dO, for short) or the predicator
complement (predC, for short/ 0 can also be realised by either a finite
clause or a non-finite clause:
17.3.1.2.1 The dO/predC finite clause of a monotransitive
verb can be a that-clause or a Wh-clause. "Since clausal functioning
objects in active sentences can become subject NPs in the passive, I shall
analyse them as being dominated by a NP node, just like the clausal
subjects." [Burton-Roberts, 1997: 200]
S'

Comp ------------
___---....:.__
51

NP 1 • VP 1

Vgrp ---------------
[monotrans]
.
NP[dO/predC}
I
~clause]
Camp · . s.
NP 2 VP 2
~ ~~~==-
(8)a. DO you UNDERSTAND why I DO that?
b. HAVE you DONE what I HAVE TOLD yolf?
c.¢ He DID NOT SEE where I HAD GONE.
d. ¢ They DID NOT REALISE how we DO it.
e. ¢ I DON'T KNOW if/whether he HAS DONE it yet.
f. ¢The class DOESN'T KNOW what time it HAS TO BE in Schoo/.
g. ¢ Bill DISCOVERD who he HAD TO GIVE the money to.
h. ¢The students HAVEN'T LEARNT Which tutor they CAN RELY
i. ¢The authorities CLAIM that everything possible HAS BEEN DONE.
j. ¢ They FEAR that there MAY BE no survivor.
k. ¢ Peter DENIED that he HAD LEFT the light on all night.
l. ¢ We REALISED that he WAS just under great strain.
m. ¢ Officials ARGUE that their public image Is unfair.

10
Also see 6.2, 11.3.5, 11.4 and Downing and Locke [1992: 55-56] for further consideration.

1133
 Again, passivisation can be used to test whether or not an embedded
finite clause is a dO.
(9)a. Most people RECOGNISE that some form of taxation Is necessary.
b. That some form of taxation IS necessary IS RECOGNISED
by most people.
c. It IS RECOGNISED by most people that some form of taxation IS necessary.

(lO)a. Nobody KNOWS whether it IS CAUSED by rain or wind

b. Whether it IS CAUSED by rain or wind IS NOT KNOWN/IS unknown.
c. It IS NOT KNOWN/IS unknown whether it IS CAUSED by rain or wind

For the passive construction with that-clauses, the semantically empty

pronoun it may be required with "a verb of low communicative dynamism
like say" [Downing and Locke, 1992: 43]:
(ll)a. They SAY that he IS MOVING to New York.
b. It IS SAID that he IS MOVING to New York.

17.3.1.2.2 The dO/predC non-finite clause of a monotransitive

verb can be a Wh-clause.
s,

---------
NP,--------------- VP 1

Vgrp NP[dO/predC]
[monotrans] 1

S'[non-finite clause]
r----------_ 82
Cotnp
............---
NP2 VP 2
/"-:>.
(8)k'. The class DOESN'T KNOW what time [ ] TO BE in school.
g'. Bill DISCOVERD who [ ] TO GIVE the money to.
h'. The students HAVEN'T LEARNT which tutor [ ] TO RELY
The passive construction with the semantically empty pronoun it is also
preferred with that-clauses, either finite or non-finite:
(12)a. We HADN'T DECIDED I what we OUGHT TO DO next.
what[ J TO DO next.
b. It HADN'T BEEN DECIDED I what we OUGHT TO DO next.
what[ J TO DO next.
17.3.1.2.3 The dO/predC non-finite clause of a monotransitive
verb in this case is a to-infinitive or an -ing form with a covert subject
which is the same as the subject of the main clause:

---------
s,
NP, VP 1

--------------
Vgrp
·[monotrans)
NP[dO/predC]
I
S'[non-finite clause]

Co;;;-\2
~
---------
NPz VPz

(13)a. Bill LIKES ¢ [ l TO ARRIVE early for meetingel'S.otc.- - - - -

b. The laboratories FAILED ¢ [ ] TO PRODUCE useful results.
c. Jane WANTS ¢ [ l TO FINISH the job by tomorroH71PPt-.- - - - -
d. Peter EXPECTS ¢ [ ] TO BE PROMOTED soon.
e. The janitor REFUSED ¢ [ ] TO LOCK the door.
(14)a. Peter ENJOYS ¢ [ ] PLAYING football
b. Fred STARTED ¢ [ ] ARGUING.
c. This airline WILL FINISH ¢ [ ] OPERATING next year.
d. I CAN'T HELP ¢ [ ] THINKING he must be crazy.
e. The laboratories CEASED ¢ [ l PRODUCING useful results.
Note that:
CD Many dO/predC embedded clauses occur with either the to-
infinitive or the -ing form without changing their lexical meaning:
(15)a. Many Londoners PREFER 1/J [ J. TO TRAVEL/TRAVELLING by trat''n.:-----~==
b. Mary HATES 1/J [ ] TO DRIVE/DRIVING in the rush-ff7t7Citltl'f"i--__,.=~
c. Tom LOVES 1/J [ ] TO DO/DOING the housework. -----.,.......,
d. He DOESN'T BOTHER 1/J [ ] TO CHANGE/CHANGING the sheee~ts.r.-.---==

ALf-~
 ~After remember and forget, the contrast between the to-infinitive
or the -ing form corresponds to a difference of meaning:
(13)f. I REMEMBERED[~] TO POST your letters.
(=I didn't forget to post them.)
(14)f. I REMEMBERED[~] POSTING your letters.
(=I recalled having posted them.)

aJ After need, require and want; the -ing form of the verb can be
replaced by the passive to-infinitive:
(13)g. The children still NEED[~] TO BE LOOKED after.
(14)g. The children still NEED[~] LOOKING after.
® The verbs in this case cannot be made passive:
(13)f'. *[~]TO POST your letterS WAS REMEMBERED (by me).
(14)f'. *[~] POSTING your letterSWAS REMEMBERED (by me).
(13)g'. *[~]TO BE LOOKED after IS still NEEDED (by the children).
(14)g'. *[~] LOOKING afteriS still NEEDED (by the children).

17.3.1.2.4 The dO/predC non-finite clause of a monotransitive

verb in this case is a to-infinitive or an -ing clause with an overt /explicit
subject of its own:
s,

---------------
NP 1 VP 1

Vgrp NP[dO/predC]
[mono trans] I
S'[non-finite clause]
Comp--------------- 8 2

---------------
NP,
~ ~~========-
VP 2

(16)a. Tony PREFERS rjJ his wife/her TO DO the house work

b. The boss LIKED rjJ the staff/them TO ARRIVE early for work
c. Julia HATES rjJ her husband/him TO LOSE his temper.
d. The teacher WANTS rjJ her class/them TO FINISH the job by Friday.
(17)a. I DON'T LIKE rjJ him/John INTERUPTING all the time.
b. Jill HATES rjJ him/her COMING home late.
c. We ANTICIPATED rjJher/Mary('S) TAKING over the business.
d. The employers RESENTED rjJ the staff( 'S)/their BEING CONSUL TED.

Note that <D the overt subject of the non-finite clause must be an object
personal pronoun (e.g. him, her, and them), a noun phrase (e.g. the staff> or~
possessive (e.g. Mary's, their, and her) and that(£) the verbs in (17)e cannot
normally be made passive while some of the verbs in (16)e can:

( 16)e. I EXPECT the parcel TO ARRIVE tomorrow.

e'. The parcel IS EXPECTED TO ARRIVE tomorrow.
(17)e. I DISLIKE us/our WORKING late at night.
e '. *Our WORKING late at niqh tIS DISLIKED (by us).

Also note that ® many dO/predC embedded clauses occur with an

overt subject of their own; otherwise their cover subject is the same as
that of the main clause:

(18) a. The villagers WANT rjJ the soldiers TO LEAVE immediately

a'. The villagers WANT rjJ ['E] TO LEAVE immediately.
b. I DON'T MIND ¢ ['E] WAITING a few minutes.
b'. I DON'T MIND ¢me WAITING a few minutes.
c. He HATES rjJ ['E] TO TELL/TELLING lies.
c'. He HATES rjJ people TO TELL/TELLING lies.

17.3.1.2.5 The dO/predC non-finite clause of a monotransitive

verb in this case is an -ing clause with an overt subject of its own. Most of
the verbs in this case are verbs of 'perception'. Of these, see, hear, feel,
watch, notice, overhear and observe also allow their dO/predC non-
finite c!a_use to take a bare infinitive after its overt subject:
 NP, ----- s,

---------
Vgrp
VP 1

NP[dO/predC]
(monotrans] I
8' [non-finite clause]

s.

~
NP.
--------------VP 2

(19)a. We WATCHED rjJ the men DESTROY(ING) the furniture.

b. The porter HEARD rjJ someone SLAM(MING) the door.
c. The children SAW rjJ the cat STEAL(ING) the meat.
d. He NOTICED rjJ a child ENTER(ING) the court.
e. The rescuersFELT rjJ John LOS(ING) his grip of the rope.

Note that:
CD The verbs in (l9)a-e can be made passive:
( l9)b'. Someone WAS HEARD SLAMMING/TO SLAM the door (by the porter).
c'. The cat WAS SEEN STEALING/TO STEAL the meat (by the children).

<?l The overt subject of the non-finite clause must be a noun

(e.g. John), a noun phrase (e.g. the cat) or an indefinite pronoun
(e.g. someone).
Gl The bare infinitive in 'the rescuers felt John lose his grip of rope'
implies that John fully lost his hold of the rope while the rescuers were in
contact with him. The -ing form in the rescuers felt John losti?g his grip of
rope does not imply that.

® Unfortunately, not all the dO finite or non-finite clause of the

active monotransitive verbs in the cases that have been presented so far can
become passive. "With many verbs which do not passivise, the predication is
completed by means of a fti?ite or non-fti?ite clause. When this cannot be
replaced by a Nominal Group or by it, we classify it as Predicator
Complement" [Downing and Locke [1992: 56], abbreviated as predC.
 17.3.1.2.6 Many ditransitive verbs of communicating (assure,
inform, tell, notify, etc.) and of causing someone to think or believe or know
something (convince, persuade, remind, teach, etc.), and the performative
verbs such as bet, promise, and warn can take a dO finite that-clause
after an iO pronoun or noun phrase.

----------
51

NPI VPI

Vgrp KJP[iO] NP[dO]

[ditrans] I

.......--------.s.
S'[finite that-clause]

(20)a. The teacher ASSURED us

i. ~

that she
NP2 ~-~~===V~P~2~=­
IS in no danger.
b. I BET you that no one WILL ACCEPT the offer.
c. He finally CONVINCED the jury that he WAS TELLING the truth.
d. The police NOTIFIED my friend that his car HAD BEEN FOUND.

e. They PERSUADED me that the plan WAS feastb/e.

f. ['E] REMIND your father that we HAVE visitors tonight.
g. Experience HAS TAUGHT them that a back-up copy IS essential.
h. No one HAS ever TOLD me that I AM beautiful.

17.3.1.2.7 Advise, ask, remind, show, teach, and tell are some
common ditransitive verbs which introduce indirect interrogatives. Most of
these can take a dO Wh-finite or non-finite clause after an iO pronoun or
noun phrase. Remind is commonly used with a non-finite.
 NP1 VP 1

Vgrp NP[iO] NP[dO]

[ditrans] I

---------
S'[(non-)finite clause]

i
(2l)a. I who(m) we CAN GIVE it to.
- --

b. ¢ TELL me
who(m)
how
[ ] TO GIVE it to.
I CAN SWITCH it
-I

I
how [ ] TOSWITCHit -j
I
I
c. No one CAN ADVISE you what you SHOULD DO. !

what [ ] TO DO.
d. ¢ REMIND me when [ ] TOSWITCHit
e. Tom WILL SHOW you where you CAN SEND it.

51.3.1.2.8 Indirect commands, requests and other directives are

introduced by the following ditransitive verbs: advise, allow, ask, beg,
challenge, enable, encourage, forbid, force, get, help, lead, order,
persuade, tell, trust, and urge. The direct object of a ditransitive verb
in this case is a to-infinitive non-finite clause with a covert subject
which has the same reference with the indirect object:
Exercises 1
The following exercises contain sentences consisting of two or more clauses. Analyse each
sentence into its clauses and state the type of each clause - main clause, adverbial clause
(of reason, concession and so on), relative clause, complement clause. The examples in
Exercises 1-3 are either made up or adapted from 'real' sentences. The examples in
Exercise 4 are from a magazine article.
1.
a. Jane believes that the earrings she got from Susan are real silver.
b.I' II believe it when I see it.
c.Ifyou think Scotland are ever going to win the European Championship, you must
be a real optimist.
d. The article in which the theory was put forward is now unobtain-able.
e. That Helen is to marry the man she met on holiday has surprised all her friends.
f. Celia did not say that you could keep the book that you borrowed.
g. Because you are flying non-stop, you will probably have severe jet-lag.
h.He promised that he would be here on time, though I find it diffi-cult to rely on him.
i. The woman whose car you think you have dented is our MP.
j. That you don't like my home-made vodka I find difficult to believe.
\cSince you think you are ready to sit the test, come along to-morrow.
I. That the club regained the trophy dismayed the teams that had better players.
2.
a. We regret that the plan is impracticable.
b. They accept the theory that the world is f1at.
c. They accept the theory that the group proposed.
d. Did Fiona say who would be at the party?
e. Which of the candidates will be elected is quite unpredictable.
f. It is believed by some historians that Napoleon was poisoned.
3.
a. Kirsty went out and forgot to switch off the gas fire.
b. We know that she wrote several novels and threw them away.
c. The editors who ignored the ban and printed the story might find themselves in
pnson.
d. If you go walking on the hills in winter and do not take proper equipment, you are
asking for trouble.
4.
a. They are pioneering a new geography in which they will establish when. new races
settled in particular regions.
b. A geneticist says the Pacific islands are an ideal testing ground for the theory that
the Pacific was colonised from west to east.
c. The history begins with the day when the chief medical officer for Vanuatu noticed
that a large number of people there suffered from anaemia.
 d. He was advised to treat them with iron supplements so he con-tacted scientists at .
Oxford who found that half of the donors suffered from alpha-thalassaemia, which 1

is usually linked to the presence of malaria.

e. It seems that the gene protects against malaria, since carriers of the alpha 3.7 mutant
will not die of malaria even if they contract a severe bout.
f. Although anthropological studies have been inconclusive, previous biological
research has suggested that there was no contact while the Melanesians were
moving east.

Exercises 2

I. Pick out the non-finite clauses in the following examples. Say whether each non-finite
clause is an infinitive, a gerund or a free par-ticiple and what the understood subject is.
I. She tried to learn two languages simultaneously to a high level inside three
months.
2. I hate travelling to Glasgow by the M8 at this time of year.
3. Having looked at all the exercises very carefully, we concluded that the marking
had been too lenient.
4. Sheila quickly hiding something under the chair when I came in, I assumed that
she had been buying my Christmas present.
5. I don't understand Imogen's being so keen to spend her holidays tramping
tirelessly round art galleries.
6. With all the children coming home for Christmas and the New Year, I'm going to
take the dogs for long walks.
7. His car sold, he set off on foot for Tighnabruaich.

II. Indirect questions

English has two types of interrogative constructions: direct questions and indirect
questions. Direct questions are, as the name suggests, put directly: for example, When did
you phone?, Did you remember to buy potatoes?, How long is this essay?, Who paid for
the meal? In indirect questions, inter-rogative structures such as the above are the
complement of verbs such as , , and so on. Some of the examples below are taken from
grammars of English, while other examples are taken from various types of spontaneously
produced English (spontaneously in the sense that they were not thought up for the
purposes of tutorial material but were used by speakers of English in the ordinary course
of speaking or writing.)
!.Describe the syntax of the indirect questions - that is, specify the type of question
(WH or yes-no) and whether the word order is direct or indirect.
2. Try to decide which indirect question constructions
a. you have heard used in speech or seen in writing;
b. you would accept in a piece of written work (say, from a someone learning
English as a second language);
c. you would use in formal writing (say, an essay or a job appli-cation).
 1) I wondered when the plane would leave.
2) They were trying to decide where the best place was to go on holiday.
3) We still have the problem of how we are to fund the extra resources.
4) John asked me whether I was ready yet.
5) Mary told him how brave he was.
6) I can't remember now what was the reason for it.
7) If they got a carpet, they had to decide where was the best place to put it.
8) No one is sure how long are the passages leading off from this centre. ·;
9) But the thought did cross my mind as to what is the rate of burglary per hour in
Edinburgh.
lO)The question arises as to what language should they be literate in.
ll)The problem still remains of what is the resource-holding body.
12)You were shouting at me about why had I not done something.
13)We would like them to share what are their forecasts.
14)The real issue is whether this institution is governed dictatorially from the top or
do we have a democratic college.
In the diagram on the next page I have tried to represent my own personal opinion about
whether these verbs can take a human subject and if so do they necessarily require an
object which is either water or another liquid.
References
Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy (2002). An Introduction to English Morphology: Words and
their Structure. Edinburgh University Press Ltd.
Thanh To (2003). Hinh thai h 0 c Tdng Anh. Nhil xu~t ban D<!-i h9c Qu6c gia TP Hb Chi
Minh.
Thanh To (2005). English Syntax. Nha xu~t ban D<!-i hc.>c Qu6c gia TP Hb Chi Minh.
George Yule (20 I 0). The Study ofLanguage. Cambridge University Press
Jim Miller (2002). An Introduction to English Syntax. Edinburgh University Press

iv