FACTA UNIVERSITATIS Series: Linguistics and Literature Vol. 3, No 2, 2005, pp. 209 - 226 MORPHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF ENGLISH ADJECTIVAL COMPOUNDS: CORPUS ANALYSIS UDC 811.111'366 Vladimir Ž. Jovanović English Department, Faculty of Philosophy Niš Abstract. The paper considers the main formal characteristics of English compound words in adjectival sentence positions, systematized and based on language corpus analysis. The analysis of the compounds along the lines of their composite form, the constituent elements of these words, their interrelationships and other features is accompanied by numerous contextualized examples. The paper provides a statistical confirmation of the fact that compound adjectives make the most prominent group of adjectival compounds (65%), as well as it makes a statement about certain important orthographic implications. Further on, the typical English adjectival compound would be the one with a noun as the first and past participle as the second element of the compound. On the basis of the research conducted here, it can be also concluded that the presence of inflectional morphemes in adjectival compounds is semantically conditioned, and that derivatives only infrequently serve as elements of compound adjectivals. Key words: English language, Morphology, adjectival compounds, language corpus 1. INTRODUCTION This paper stands for a report on the empirical part of a research undertaken as regards compound words in adjectival sentence positions in English and Serbian. More specifically, the part presented here refers to the analysis of certain formal qualities of adjectival compounds in English based on gleaning data from a language corpus, as one of the most authentic and reliable methodological tools of obtaining scientific facts. It is a means of providing exact statistic verification of certain hypotheses, and is therefore better founded than any conjectures or assumptions that can sometimes be come across in linguistic and philological literature. The special-purpose corpus of language data that has been collected for this research into compound words of English and Serbian is composed of integral texts of several books which belong to different fields of social sciences and humanities. The volume of Received September 27, 2005 210 V. Ž. JOVANOVIĆ written language includes almost 2. 500 pages of text, or around 950.000 words. The time frame of the corpus texts encompasses the three central decades of the second half of the 20th century. The emphasis was put on the diversification of texts along the line of registers in order to obtain a quality set of established and new words as a basis for a relevant and reliable analysis of a complex morpho-syntactic phenomenon. However, since this research is a part of a larger-scale contrastive analysis of compounds in English and Serbian, the genre variation of corpus texts is necessarily limited due to the unavailability of Serbian translations for particular genres. The language which served the purpose of describing and commenting on historical events, as well as the language for considering social theory contribute their share of specific adjectival compounds almost as much as the language of creative writing or fiction. The largest portion of the corpus material is composed of two novels by a prolific American writer with a praised and well-defined style of writing, our contemporary Stephen King. The other significant section is represented by works in literary criticism, psychology, sociology and history. This insistence on separating fiction and non-fiction English presents the starting point for analysing the quantity ratio of adjectivals in the language. In connection to this, it is worth saying that the number of examples of adjectival compounds from fiction books approaches one per every 350 words, whereas this number is twice smaller when it comes to analysing words from non-fiction texts. This can help deducing that adjectival compounds in language usage are more characteristic of creative, artistic expression through language than it is the case with the language of science. Collecting data and words from this corpus which would be used as the basis of a qualitative examination, precisely 1584 examples of compound words on adjectival sentence positions in sentences have been discovered. The results of the analytic approach to the corpus of language data will be put forth classed according to different criteria in the text to follow: according to the orthographic features of adjectival compounds of the English language in the corpus, the type of compound that is found in an adjectival sentence position, as well as the class that the elements of the compounds belong to, which, in a way, outlines the fundamental interests of this inquiry. The generalizations concerning these issues have been amply illustrated with authentic language fragments from the corpus. The marks and numbers in parentheses after the actual quotation refer to the initials of the author and the page number of the book in which the said example was detected. The corpus consisted of the complete texts from the following works: 1. Stephen King (1981) Cujo, The New American Library, New York. 2. Stephen King / Peter Straub (1985) The Talisman, Berkley Books, New York. 3. C. Wright Mills (1971) The Sociological Imagination, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth. 4. Nick Heather (1978) Radical Perspectives in Psychology, Methuen, London. 5. Raymond Williams (1973) Drama from Ibsen to Brecht, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth. 6. G. M. Travelyan (1965) English Social History, Longmans, Green and Co., London. Morphological Aspects of English Adjectival Compounds: Corpus Analysis 211 2. ORTHOGRAPHIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH ADJECTIVAL COMPOUNDS At the very beginning, perhaps something should be said about the basic observations concerning the orthography which accompanies the examples of adjectivals from the corpus. An account was taken of the way the compounds were spelt, i.e. of the way in which the elements were brought into lexical connection: connected writing of elements, elements written separately or the use of the orthographic symbol of hyphen. The results obtained after the analysis of the examples suggest a supremacy of compounds written with a hyphen. However, the supremacy now has a quantitative expression: of the 1584 cases of compounds on adjectival positions, a total of 1441 words were spelt with the help of a hyphen. (1) the saw-toothed blades of grass... (SKPS, 93) (2) and her still-dazzled son had gone into Portland... (SK, 69) (3) the mile-long Canongate... (GMT, 437) It has also been confirmed that there exists a separate type of orthography when coordinated adjective compounds are written without doubling the first or the second element, where the composition chain formed with the help of hyphens is broken in front of the coordinating conjunction, which indicates that the word is not a simple compound, only to be continued immediately after the conjunction. In this elliptic way, any simple piling of words is avoided, as well as any possible repetition of the first, often modifying element in a number of compound adjectives obtained in this way: (4) where something furry and sharp-toothed and-clawed waited. (SK,10) The following set of examples can vouch for the fact that the break can occur after the coordinating conjunction, particularly when a balance is to be maintained between the first two elements of the phrasal compound. (5) Rudolph raised one water-and detergent-reddened fist... (SKPS,400) (6) the muddy, wood-and barrel-littered stretch of road... (SKPS,131) (7) in a two-or three-column review. (CWM,126) The overwhelming preponderance of writing ACs by means of hyphens (90,97%) implies that we could freely deduce that adjectival compounds are spelt with hyphens in the English language (as opposed to some other languages, such as Serbian), except for the exceptions in the volume of less than 10%. The exceptions include 136 examples of connected writing, which has been illustrated by a series of fragments given here. Aside from the commonest English compounds, this orthographic manner is found with several unorthodox examples: (8) the teacher had been as easygoing as Joe had expected. (SK, 121) (9) the way a thoroughbred horse might tremble... (SK, 323) (10) or of freebooting clans... (GMT, 155) Compound adjectivals in prenominal attributive functions are spelt as separate words in minimal numbers and only 7 such cases were identified in the corpus. This can only consolidate the fact that the basic way of spelling ACs in the English language is by means of a hyphen, where this type of spelling could be deemed as an aberration from the norm. 212 V. Ž. JOVANOVIĆ (11) It was a gray, paint-peeling, roof sagging shambles... (SK, 33) (12) This conception of the sociologist, well housed in research institutes... (CWM, 75) (13) touch the almost empty bottle... (SKPS, 257) When we take into consideration the example numbered as (13), which is the only non-participial adjectival spelt with no hyphen, a question may be posed whether this is a matter of exception from the rule or not. However, it has to be borne in mind that in this structure the adverbial element almost quite clearly functions as a modifier of the adjective empty, and not the noun bottle. On the other hand, similar compounds with the first adverbial element and adjective as the second are invariably spelt with a hyphen: (14) those two moments of near-perfect communication. (SK, 104) In our corpus, there have been established certain doublets which in a way point to the relevance of certain criteria and orthographic rules. It has been found that the spelling of some compounds does not have to be rule-governed when different functions of the word are involved. It is even possible to postulate that the predicative function somehow implies that the word is compressed to the extent that is presented in the example (16), which indicates a higher level of integration of elements: (15) Structural antagonisms, large-scale revolts, revolutions... (CWM, 52) (16) This apparatus has now become largescale, and many signs point... (CWM, 66) That this is not a solitary example can be supported by another couple of examples from the corpus in the fragments (17) and (18), respectively. It is symptomatic that both of these pairs are by the same authors, which somehow vouches that this is a kind of regularity: (17) a life-like mask... (RW,251) (18) was really lifelike and free from any tiresome moralizing... (RW,109) Thus, based on everything said so far, it can be underlined that it has been indubitably confirmed that when it comes to the spelling of adjectivals, it is closely related with prenominal modifying function, since the percentage of these two categories in the corpus is quite similar and reaches around 90% of the total.1 3. FORMAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ADJECTIVAL COMPOUNDS The first parameter according to which we will be viewing adjectival compounds is the type of compound words they belong to. In this respect, all the compounds could be grouped into four major sets, compound adjectives, compound nouns, adjectival phrase compounds and all other compounds in adjectival sentential positions and modifying functions. 3.1 Adjective compounds As it had been assumed in the preliminary stages of this research, compound adjectives made the largest group of the total number of compound word forms that could be 1 See the corresponding part of the doctoral dissertation „Adjectival Compounds in English and Serbian" defended at the English Department of Nis University in 2004. Morphological Aspects of English Adjectival Compounds: Corpus Analysis 213 found in adjectival positions in English. The dominance of this word class can be expressed in quantitative terms in the following manner: almost two thirds of all such adjectivals would be compound adjectives, or more precisely put 1029 words. The percentage of 64.96% of adjective compounds proper is perhaps larger than expected. The variety of present combinations of elements and their semantic and functional relations can be even on the basis of the few examples given below: (19) a beer belly, slab-muscled arms and legs... (SK,25) (20) and impromptu-looking wooden huts... (SKPS,98) (21) we may take a general, culture-free theory of human nature... (NH,76) The morphemes half-, self- well-, are among the most prominent first elements of adjective compounds in English, whereas -like occurs as probably the most frequent second element. 3.2 Noun compounds Compound nouns present the second most important contingent of words when it comes to adjectivals of compound structure. In the corpus, exactly 413 items were detected in several different classes. The part that this group takes of the whole is 26,07%, but perhaps more significant is the fact that these lexical items together with adjective compounds make as much as 91,03% of the total number of adjectival compounds registered. Some of the authentic examples of attributively used compound nouns are: (22) value patterns with the internalized need-disposition structure... (CWM, 39) (23) it had the mouldy yellow-newspaper smell... (SKPS, 655) (24) who had been whole-time servants... (GMT, 361) It can be stated here that a number of nominal elements of the compound nouns retain their grammatical category markers. It is not the case with most of the noun elements in the corpus elsewhere, nor is it characteristic of nouns to carry inflectional morphemes in prenominal modification. However, in a limited number of cases, but present anyhow, there occurred the regular plural suffix for nouns in English, namely the ending –s. Since the second element of the compounds is the head, the inflectional marker is on this element, even though both elements can be with flection, as can be seen in (26). (25) courtesy of the special-effects people. (SK, 26) (26) the city's automobile junkyards or used-parts outfits. (SK,62) (27) Atari video-games setup... (SK,168) When we analyse these text fragments more closely, the conclusion that can be reached is that pluralizing nominal elements in compounds is semantically conditioned. Let us consider the example in (25). If the noun people had a premodifying compound in special-effect, the meaning which would be attained could be interpreted as »people who themselves have special effects on others«, and not the interpretation we would expect, for instance »people who deal with special effects in films«. The same can be claimed for other example, with different interpretation and rationale. Thus, the irregularity in the occurrence of grammatical morphemes on noun elements of compounds has a well-founded motivation. Further on, around ten of the compound nouns from the corpus bear the marking for the category of case. It is mainly singular nouns that obtain the case suffix, but also it is 214 V. Ž. JOVANOVIĆ not unlikely to encounter an adjectival compound of coordinated plural nouns with the mark for genitive case, as in the example (30). The said example is also one of the few where not only the last element of the compound gets the inflection, but also the first one. (28) up the market-town's main thoroughfare... (SKPS,224) (29) version of a deliveryboy's bicycle-cart... (SKPS,542) (30) the hunched, courters'-and-rabbits' wood... (RW,241) In the following sentence fragments, as it can be seen, the marked noun is the first element of the compound, be it of a singular or plural number. (31) up to some gull's-eye view... (SKPS,16) (32) and the men's-room door jerked open... (SKPS,159) (33) it is very much a boy's-eye view... (RW,245) Declining nominal parts of compounds is not typical of the English language. When the quantity of the marked nouns is taken into account, we obtain the result that somewhat over 3% of all cases of compound nouns belong here. It is perhaps worth saying that all of the cases refer to the language of creative writing. 3.3 Phrasal compounds in adjectival positions The next group that could be distinguished on formal grounds is the one which would encompass a series of words of rather complex lexical structure, most often termed phrase or phrasal compounds, which is largely suggestive of their internal organization. These compounds lag considerably behind the first two groups of adjectivals in terms of their number. Only 108 examples of compounds which have more than two elements can be treated as phrasal compounds in adjective functions. Expressed in percentage, this means that they form only 6.81% of the total corpus, largely in the genre of creative writing. The most prominent section of adjectival phrase compounds are examples of coordinated nouns or adjectives illustrated by the fragment in (36). (34) the boom in do-it-yourself therapy... (NH, 102) (35) the take-it-or-leave-it confession of disturbance... (RW, 315) (36) This ridge-and-furrow draining... (GMT,380) Three examples of adjectival compounds in the corpus had a conjunction or subordinator as the first element. These are primarily subordinators which serve to introduce dependent clauses, coordinate independent clauses or present a part of the adverbial modification of adjective heads. (37) in the same indulgent but-isn't-he-cute voice. (SKPS, 212) (38) her as-yet-incomplete set of Depression glassware... (SK, 181) (39) To act in this as-if-I-were-a-human-engineer manner... (CWM, 129) Also, three examples contained the negative particle »not«, used to negate adjectives or verbs, as in the next group of fragments. (40) Tears of relief began to roll down her not-yet-dry cheeks.. (SK,172) (41) two or three not-so-nice houses... (SK, 144) (42) a final, not-to-be-refused offer... (SKPS, 629) Morphological Aspects of English Adjectival Compounds: Corpus Analysis 215 3.4 Other compounds in adjectival sentence positions The last subsection within the whole of adjectival compounds is concerned with all those compounds that formally do not belong to any of the previous classes. Such lexicofunctional constructs in the corpus were identified in 34 cases, or 2.16%. Those are predominantly verb compounds, either lexicalized phrasal verbs or any other phrase structure used in attributive prenominal function. 10 cases of adverbs or reduced adverbial phrases can be counted among the latter. (43) a hell of a lot spryer than that long-ago yellow dog. (SK,110) (44) was a small and tumble-down building... (GMT,440) (45) and dirty button-down shirt... (SKPS,621) The summary overview of adjectival compounds according to the type of compounds in the corpus is presented on the table 3.1. Table 3.1 Number and percentage of compound types in the total of adjectival compounds in the corpus. Type of compound No. % 1. COMPOUND ADJECTIVES 1029 64,96 2. COMPOUND NOUNS 413 26,07 3. ADJECTIVAL PHRASE COMPOUNDS 108 6,81 4. OTHER ADJECTIVAL COMPOUNDS 34 2,16 Total: 1584 100 In terms of categorially marked forms, the first element of adjectival compounds was in the comparative form in 8 examples, either for adjectives or adverbs. We can say that when the first part of the compounds is independently marked for category, it is a case of compound word with no firm internal structure. Otherwise, it would not be possible to alter the form only of the first element. Two of these words in the corpus were instances of adverbial comparison of the irregularly compared adverb well: (46) Many of the better-to-do gentry... (GMT,308) (47) to win recognition by his criticism of an older and better-known man. (CWM,126) whereas the other examples are with elements of the regular comparison paradigm for adjectives: (48) any detailed studies of smaller-scale areas... (CWM,77) (49) to turn the troubles of lower-class people. (CWM,96) (50) Longer-term trends are usually needed... (CWM,168) In yet some other cases from the corpus, the comparative forms of adjectives would make first elements of tripartite compound nouns, where link has been established with yet another compound, namely middle-class. In two different texts, there occurred examples for which we could say that they have a complementary relationship in terms of meaning. (51) had entrenched herself in her upper-middle-class suburban life... (SK,257) (52) Lower-middle-class idea merchant! (RW, 300) 216 V. Ž. JOVANOVIĆ Far less frequent are superlative forms in the first compound element as graded common adjective compounds with the adverb well- or adjective bad-. The following illustrative examples follow this suit: (53) Pirandello's best-known and most challenging play. (RW,173) (54) are the best-tasting cereals in America... (SK,27) (55) Better to make what Vic called a worst-case analysis... (SK,240) Compounds can be found as elements of other adjectival compound words, either on the first or second position. In the research corpus, however, more compounds were detected in the initial position, some 10 examples. Judging by word class, these were predominantly nouns, although there are other classes, as can be viewed from the illustration (58), which is a compound preposition proper: (56) in one of the toothpaste-spotted mirrors... (SK,189) (57) Another root floated down, cobweb-light, and tried to snatch... (SKPS,138) (58) whistling, out-of-breath voice... (SKPS,295) As can be seen from the given, it is characteristic of compounds as first elements to be spelt integrally, only two examples of compound first elements were spelt with a hyphen. The second element had a compound form mainly in lexicalized phrasal verbs, the parts of which were generally linked with a hyphen. Adverbial modification is not uncommon with such constructs: (59) The change was [...] long-drawn-out through centuries... (GMT,16) (60) a few well-brought-up young people... (GMT,261) 3.5 Elements of adjectival compounds according to word class This part of the analysis is supposed to take into consideration the structure of the adjectival compounds from the corpus as for the class to which the words employed in the lexicalization process belonged. The most explicit way to present the results would be by a table which makes a difference between classes of words and the part they take in representing the first element of the compound. This should give us a better insight into the nature of compounding when compounds in attributive functions are taken. Table 3.2 Number and percentage of word classes as first compound elements of adjectival compounds in the corpus. First element Word class No. % NOUN 621 42,07 ADJECTIVE 415 28,12 ADVERB 178 12,05 PAST PARTICIPLE 98 6,64 NUMERAL 95 6,44 VERB 25 1,69 PARTICLE/PREPOSITION 23 1,56 PRESENT PARTICIPLE 19 1,29 PRONOUN 2 0,14 TOTAL: 1476 100 Morphological Aspects of English Adjectival Compounds: Corpus Analysis 217 The class to which the elements of compounds belong, naturally, is not the sole criterion for comparing words along the lines of their structure. Also, the total number here mentioned is understandably reduced for the number of adjectival phrase compounds in the corpus, the first elements of which were not taken as relevant. 3.5.1 Past participle Formally looking, past participle is the single most present element of compound adjectivals, counting as both the first or the second element, which indirectly may serve as an indicator of the clausal source of most adjectival compounds. As for the initial position in compound words, past participle is second to some other formal elements. In the research corpus, 98 words, or around 6.6% of compound adjectives found, were those that expressed a lexicalization of phrasal construction of different sorts. In certain cases, it is a combination of subject and its complement, formulated by a past participle. Those are clausal matrices of the type »N copula ADJ«, as in the example scorched-earth landscape or landscape in which the earth is scorched. Of the total above-mentioned number, 14 belonged to these words, which could be illustrated with the following fragments: (61) There was a long Quonset hut with a rust-splotched corrugated-tin roof.. (SK,25) (62) the framed-stage theatre... (RW,399) (63) Etheridge had been sitting in advanced-math class... (SKPS, 697) Yet in certain other instances the combining involves elements from verbs and adverbial particles. This is by far the most dominant group of participle-based adjectival compounds. In other words, 70% of adjectival compounds with past participle as first is a lexicalization of a phrasal verb, with a particle or preposition. (64) according to agreed-upon rules... (CWM, 130) (65) by the hard, mask ridden, uproariously laughed-at world... (RW,246) (66) The soaped-over windows actually seemed... (SKPS,662) It should be particularly stressed here that only two verbs were prefixed with a negative or reversative prefix un-. Those were the forms unlooked-for (RW, 24) and uncared-for (GMT, 192), which could point to a more complex process of reaching at the level of obtaining a compound adjectival. The third group could be made out of the compounds that have a past participle as the modifying element of the basic structure. The second element is a verb with -ing ending, which may function as the predicator of the original pre-lexicalized structure. Without exception these are compounds based on –looking and –sounding. Thus, deformed-looking beasts are actually beasts which/that look deformed. The only somewhat different adjectival was the one with a proper adjective in the second element, as in: ...led up to a propped-open screen door. (SKPS, 154) The examples are the following: (67) in hot regular agitated-sounding spurts. (SKPS, 324) (68) long, peeled-looking sides of beef... (SKPS, 94) (69) Donna uttered a short, cracked-sounding shuckle. (SK, 185) Past participle is far more frequent as the second element of a compound in language generally, so this was reflected in the corpus, as well. Of the number of examples where it is possible to speak of the second element, 478 had this form in the second part of the 218 V. Ž. JOVANOVIĆ compound, which is exactly 32.38% of the whole. The following are among the more interesting words from the corpus: (70) She lay hot-eyed and straight in bed... (SK,86) (71) the thin formality or even emptiness of these fact-cluttered studies... (CWM,81) (72) His face wore the dismayed, slack-jawed expression... (SK, 229) 3.5.2 Present participle/gerund Another quite frequent formal element in a compound word is present participle, with its strongly active verbal component and meaning. Being a non-finite form, it is suitable for combining with other word classes, mostly with nouns, then adjectives and adverbs. The contribution of present participle as the first element to compounds is rather modest in comparison to the cases when it is used as the second element to form a compound word. The number of only 19 cases of all from the corpus, which makes only one tenth of the use of present participle in the second element speaks enough in favour of this remark. At times, it can be problematic to establish whether we have an instance of present participle or gerund, the verbal noun, in the first position. As already known, these two non-finite verb forms in the English language have identical forms. Only by function can it be determined what the actual form is. For the same reason, it is probably better to speak in terms of the so-called –ing form, as can be found in literature,2 not making an essential distinction. Concerning the fact that the functional characteristics of the elements in a compound are somehow suspended and cannot be effective unless the basic, "unfurled" structure is viewed, it is necessary to examine each case separately. In a prevailing percentage of 90%, the present participle compounded with nominal elements, and only in one case with an adjective. The rest refers to adverbial particles. Here are some of the words in the context in which they appeared: (73) That ripping-bedsheet sound grew louder... (SKPS, 590) (74) Lying-in hospitals were founded... (GMT, 345) (75) the contrasting-type approach often requires... (CWM, 237) As a part of noun compounds in adjectival use the present participle is relatively frequent, even in the commonest of nouns, such as washing-machine, living-room or shopping- center. In some 5 examples, the present participle is the opening of a phrasal compound, having a propensity of combining easily with full infinitives: (76) Joe Camber's rusting-around-the-edges station wagon... (SK, 195) (77) Her beginning-to-dream mind saw... (SK, 166) (78) a day during the learning-to-drive experience... (SK, 218) The research corpus contained a total of 193 examples of words which had a present participle form as the second free morpheme, which is obviously over 10% of the total number, a comparatively small portion. This qualification acquires its full sense when taken in account together with the importance given to present participle-based words in descriptions of compound.3 This formal element combines in compounds with many 2 R. Quirk, et al. (1972) A Contemporary Grammar of English, Longman group, London. 3 V. Adams (1976) An Introduction to Modern English Word-Formation, Longman group, London. Morphological Aspects of English Adjectival Compounds: Corpus Analysis 219 different word classes, but mostly with nouns. There are certain words which have been in use for a long time in English and which we regard as something quite common: (79) a hard-working farmer. (GMT,242) (80) requires a very deep-going historical analysis. (CWM,172) (81) many minute, careful, and time-consuming investigations. (CWM, 76) but also there are some other examples which are very characteristic, such as: (82) itself contains stigma-arousing properties... (NH,88) (83) the other moostrooping clans... (GMT,155) (84) were now lined with dusty, heat-drooping maples... (SK,145) 3.5.3 Adjective As a repository of lexical combinatory elements in the formation of compounds, the class of adjectives plays a significant part, as mirrored by the data obtained from the analysis of a specific language corpus. They are the second single largest group of words when the first adjectival compound position is considered. As illustration we could view the next few segments from the corpus: (85) He was a thin man with a scrawny-strong physique... (SK, 80) (86) the features are not clinical but phenomenological-existential. (NH,95) (87) by those liberal-minded, open-hearted aristocrats... (GMT, 405) (88) climbed a tall, rickety-looking tower... (SKPS,225) There occurred a compact group of derivatives on the basis of proper nouns, the number of which is 13 compounds, predominantly consisting of well-established lexical items, such as the example selected here. It is a noticeable feature of these combinations that they most often contain second participial elements and other adjectives derived from proper nouns: (89) the English were still a French-hating... (GMT,95) (90) a stock-company of English-trained artists... (RW,126) (91) the Scottish-American trade... (GMT, 456) Several adjectival words with the linking vowel -o- were registered, more precisely put 12 of them, which suggests that this model of formation within adjectival compounds is not prominent enough in the English language (as compared to Serbian), or that perhaps this is the right proportion of its impact in forming compounds. Also, it can be stated that this way of putting together elements in compound words is specific of the language of science, as can be perceived from the sources of the ensuing examples. They stem from all the domains, except for the creative writing. (92) it cannot be read as a politico-historical play.(RW,27) (93) The ecclesiastico-political controversies... (GMT,265) (94) quite spongy »indices« of »socio-economic status« have served. (CWM,64) An important issue with morpho-semantic implications that may rise here is confronting the example (93) with the one numbered as (95), both of which have their source in sociological texts. Is there any objective motivation for the author to use two different forms of the same formative element socio- in the first case and social- in the second? 220 V. Ž. JOVANOVIĆ (95) conceptions that usually relate to social-historical structures. (CWM,77) Apparently, the answer is yes, and the reasons for this phenomenon may be classed as semantic ones. When two categories are considered at the same level as in (95), thus both the elements of equal status and the structure as coordinated, it is easy to conceive the formal or morphological identity of the elements. In the other example, however, one category is regarded in the framework of another, in our example the second element within the first. Proper non-derived adjectives as second elements of compound words with adjective function are less present than in the first position, which is understandable since they serve as modifiers in attributive noun compounds. In comparison to past participle, they are less used, only in 20% of adjectival compounds. The fragments to exemplify would be: (96) a drawing of the hotel on eggshell-thin paper... (SKPS,76) (97) but stung the eyes like August-mad sweat instead... (SK,12) (98) But the two clay-cold bodies... (RW,78) Among these words, we shall also focus our attention on the ones that have derivatives from proper nouns in the second element, of which some make classic examples for instancing compound adjectives on a general scale. A common morphological feature is the composition of two adjectives of the same rank, as is seen in the example (99), always by means of a linking vowel infix, one should think. (99) the Graeco-Roman ways of life... (GMT,140) (100) The first great Anglo-Indian statesman... (GMT,216) (101) The Franco-Prussian war... (GMT,357) Another noteworthy observation is the fact that less than a quarter of this word group, apparently words which have an adjective as the second compound element, have another adjective as a co-occurring element in the compound, in which we should count the just mentioned compounds. In a much larger percentage, the second adjective element is bound to nouns or adverbs. When we say this, we actually have in mind the following cases, among the rest: (102) The rich-proud cost of outworn buried age... (GMT,99) (103) a convention of late-Victorian poetry... (RW,129) (104) The odor of long-dead flowers overlaid the land... (SKPS,550) The adjectives that are the second part of the compound adjectivals of the corpus are dominantly simplex adjectives, since one third belong to the ones obtained through derivation. For the most part, these are qualifiers which characterize a noun in terms of certain traits such as: thin, long, wide, deep, free, and open, whereas among the complex ones, the most frequent derivational suffixes were: -al, -an, -ent, and –ous. 3.5.4 Noun It is not unusual for nouns to occupy the central position more often in comparison to other word classes when the first element of adjectival compounds is considered. Being individually the largest group of words when all other classes are taken, nouns appeared to be the class with the strongest formative and combinatory potential, which was maniMorphological Aspects of English Adjectival Compounds: Corpus Analysis 221 fested in the research corpus, as well. To a large extent, certain features of entities are determined on the basis of nominal parameters, so that we can say that nouns have a very important role in the semantic and morphological structure of compounds. Thus, examples such as needle-sharp (SKPS, 672) or bowl-shaped (SKPS, 673) owe a considerable part of their expressive power to the noun which helps orientate the entire compound, in the sense that only with the noun can we have a precise and more specific meaning with which to characterize an entity from the extra linguistic reality. On the other hand, the various syntactic and functional relations among words in higher rank organizational units of language structure which are to be lexicalized enable the nominal elements to appear on primary positions in compounds, even though in the basic, unlexicalized structures they can be used differently. All this has been made possible by the astute nominal inflection of the English language, since the results of a similar analysis in Serbian would be, quite likely, completely opposite. All the 621 words from the corpus, which makes more than 40% of the total number of examples, had nouns in primary compound positions. Some of these are quoted here: (105) in a socially adapted, law-abiding fashion... (NH, 47) (106) our storm-beaten ships... (GMT, 500) (107) even the gold-embroidered coat tails... (RW, 329) Nouns which are engaged in the process of word composition vary in terms of type and characteristics, which makes reaching any more important generalizations very difficult. Among these, there are countable and uncountable, mass and abstract, common and proper nouns, the position of which is in the original relative clause or as subject, or within a prepositional phrase. When it comes to proper names, the following examples were found: (108) a Wolf-decimated loaf of bread... (SKPS, 370) (109) in the back of a Wolf-driven Cadillac... (SKPS, 691) where Wolf is a personal name, but acronyms can also be used to label certain wellknown institutions: (110) CIA-supported rebels training for takeovers of ... countries... (SKPS, 582) (111) Men in FBI-agent black suits... (SKPS, 591) Nouns as the second element of the compound, thus in the majority of the cases the compound head element, determine the status of the compound as noun compound in the classification according to word class. Obviously, these cases appear first of all with the attributive function of compound nouns, since the portion of adjectival noun compounds in predicative function is minimal. Our research corpus contained over 400 examples with the noun as the second element in the compound word. (112) Anyone with first-hand knowledge of the workings... (NH,73) (113) its patent-leather shoes... (RW,80) (114) the waz the sheared-copper smell of his blood... (SK,126) Another valid inference that can be drawn here on the basis of the analysis is that derived nouns rarely make a second compound element. Otherwise, the derivational morphemes that do appear in such derivatives are agentive nominal suffixes, a fact that can 222 V. Ž. JOVANOVIĆ be seen in the examples of these synthetic compounds: troublemaker, sleepwalker's and critical-naturalist. 3.5.5 Verb Verbs can largely be seen as first elements of compound adjectival words, because they do not tend to appear so often as second elements in their finite forms. When we analyse verbs here, we consider only those verb forms which have not been encompassed by the two previous overviews regarding participle forms, that is uninflected verb forms. In the corpus, these cases were reserved for lexicalizations of phrasal verbs with adverbial particles or prepositions, but there are some other types, as well. Of the total number of words in the corpus, 25 have a verb in its finite form as the first element. (115) and when the wake-up call came on Thursday... (SK,179) (116) woman with her stick-out hair... (SKPS,636) (117) pulled back into the breakdown lane... (SKPS,145) The biggest number of other verb structures which can be reduced to the level of compound words belongs to verbs in combinations with complements and modifiers, (118) poem about a make-believe Chink whorehouse... (SKPS, 700) (119) the »know-nothing« ideology of the politically quiescent. (CWM, 162) (120) of his father's rolltop desk... (SKPS, 50) There is a particular verb-based compound adjectival that deserves our special attention. The combination of the modal verb would and lexical be is an infrequent example of verb phrase lexicalization in order to obtain compound adjectivals. This form is characteristic of attributive function and as such was identified in the language corpus. (121) Fay Wray's would-be rescuers... (SK, 177) 3.5.6 Adverb Along the lines of their functional nature of adjective and verb attributes, adverbs are possible to appear only as first elements of adjectival compounds. Our corpus appears to have acknowledged this issue, since there were 178 adverbs registered in the corpus, composing compound words with adjectives and participles. Even though the adverb form of first compound elements in many of the examples is identical with the adjective one, these two should not be mixed. This proves that it is necessary to have an insight into the whole process of generating a compound word, so as to be able to penetrate into the exact structure of the compounds. Every attempt of classifying the element perfect from the words such as perfect-fitting into adjectives would most likely be wrong. Judging by the type of adverbs that partake in the formation of compounds with adjectival use, the dominant are adverbs of manner, making approximately 75% of all examples. Time adverbs trail, then there are directional adverbs and finally intensifiers, such as so or too. A particular segment of the group of adjectivals which have adverbs as the first compound member is the one composed by means of well- or ill-. Concerning the fact that it is a semantically well-rounded whole with important implications as to the meaning of compounds, perhaps it deserves a separate survey. Twenty-one compound adjectivals have been composed with adjectives, several of which we offer here for illustration purposes: Morphological Aspects of English Adjectival Compounds: Corpus Analysis 223 (122) that was a deadly-false bit of reasoning... (SK, 216) (123) and felt the now-familiar impotent hate (SKPS, 252) (124) blood on his once-spotless white silk shirt... (SKPS, 720) Furthermore, 23 combinations with present participle were registered: (125) the far-spreading code... (GMT, 264) (126) reviewers and right-thinking men of the day... (RW, 17) (127) Eastward-bearing traffic on the road... (SKPS, 126) Most of the compounds had an adverb first element, and past participle as second. Such formations numbered 111 in the corpus. Almost half of them are cases of participles qualified by well- or ill-. (128) the fully-furnished family play... (RW, 79) (129) Some highly-paid engineers... (GMT, 478) (130) in addition it was double-barred across the inside... (SKPS, 581) Of the 5 words which were adjectival in nature, but are intrinsically lexicalizations of other, non-adjective syntagms, more frequent are the ones the first element of which is the adverb after. (131) when the Tap's after-work crowd started to come in... (SKPS, 180) (132) the difficult after-school age... (GMT, 192) Among more prominent examples in this section, we can single out the group with all- and ever-, as adverbs represented with 17 out of the total number of examples. Other observations would include the one that this kind of composition is typical of the style of writing in the scientific discourse. (133) the key of the all-important trunk... (GMT, 223) (134) developed into an all-embracing vision of a future society.(NH, 15) (135) the ever-recurring problem... (GMT, 449) (136) the ever-present problems of technical education... (GMT, 192) 3.5.7 Particles / prepositions Even though adverbial particles are in essence adverbs, here they have been considered separately, together with prepositions. When it comes to adverbial particles or prepositions in the corpus,4 we could contend that their presence in adjectival compounds is rather limited. This is particularly true of those situations when particles appear as the first element in compounds having been preposed in the process of lexicalizing phrasal verb structure with adverbial extension. Therefore, it is no surprise that of the 23 examples which the corpus contained, 18 had one of the two simple participial forms on the surface of the compound as the second element. It is much commoner to have a past participle, as shown by the 83% such cases of corpus instances, and much less present participle. 4 Adverbial particles and prepositions in English share the same formal identity, so that only by means of function and usage in particular contexts can we decide which form is in question. Of all such words: about, across, along, around, away, back, by, in, off, on, out, over, past, through, under, up, only away and back can be treated solely as particles. 224 V. Ž. JOVANOVIĆ (137) confusion of overturned furniture. (SKPS, 484) (138) swung into one of the outbound lanes... (SKPS, 258) (139) a pair of yellow, up-slanted eyes... (SKPS, 491) All of the other 5 cases that had no participial forms in the second element, were compounded by means of nouns, the reason which makes it understandable to say that we could speak of lexicalization of prepositional phrases, such as in the next few sentence fragments: (140) what should have been their at-home season... (SK, 32) (141) for whom life is especially uphill struggle. (NH, 79) (142) on the inland side of the beach road... (SKPS, 690) It is well-known that it is sometimes difficult to draw a distinction line between certain prefixes and prepositions or adverbial particles as over- or under-. In this we could rely on the meaning of the elements themselves. Prefixes as bound morphemes have mainly meanings which imply a level of intensity, whereas free formative elements have more of spatial implications. This can be confirmed by the examples quoted here, regardless of the fact that the first example is a word with powerful nominal connotations: (143) an underground room... (SKPS, 316) (144) imitated him in a slow-moving, underwater fashion. (SKPS, 567) Particles, however, were four times more present as the second part of compound adjectivals. Since these are particles, it is quite conceivable that the starting pre-adjectivization structure must have been »verb + particle«, so that the first element is a finite or nonfinite verb form. It should be noted that the particle with the greatest formative potential appears to be up with the occurrence of 30% in compounds on adjectival positions. (145) a good jumping-off point for an escape... (SKPS, 371) (146) use the politically washed-out notion of »cultural lag«... (CWM, 102) (147) evidence of poverty: of a starved, showing-off imagination...(RW, 165) This pattern is short of only 3.65% from a hundred percent presence in the domain of particle-based adjectivals. The insignificant percentage of exceptions concerns three adjective/ adverb forms in the first element: far-off mountain, close-up scenes and white-out sky. Also, a certain small number of other elements could be treated as prepositions, since the structure and meaning of compounds suggest a lexical transformation of the socalled »prepositional phrasal verbs«, with an obligatory object of the action expressed by the verb. (148) with widely believed-in moral symbols... (CWM, 45) (149) «compounded« sets of facts and relations as well as merely guessed-at factors and observations... (CWM, 43) Determiners of the quantifying type serve for the purpose of negative quantification of countable and uncountable, such as the English no, which appeared in the corpus in three cases within compounds which originated through lexicalization of nominal phrases. (150) playing the no-name game... (SK,123) (151) It explained Richard's iron, no-compromise insistence on reality...(SKPS, 489) Morphological Aspects of English Adjectival Compounds: Corpus Analysis 225 Seemingly, the quantifier has the role close to that of any of the negative prefixes as a-, dis-, in-, un-, particularly visible in (151). The question which would not be easy to answer here is what motivation lies behind the formation of such adjectivals, when there are prefixed forms at disposal in language production with almost identical meaning of »Not willing or seeking to compromise«, as the adjective uncompromising. As it can be assumed, the greatest number of compounds in language, be that English or Serbian for that matter, are products of the process of compounding formally independent morphemes. Furthermore, it can be said that compounds present semantically composite structures, since they stand for combining two sets of sememes upon different principles. 3.5.8 Pronouns Only two of all first elements can be counted as pronouns in the basic structure of compounds, in the words of the corpus all-embracing (NH,15) and all-pervading (RW,131). Table 3. Number and percentage of each word class item as a second compound element in adjectival compounds. Second element word class No. % PAST PARTICIPLE 478 32,38 NOUN 413 27,98 ADJECTIVE 309 20,93 PRESENT PARTICIPLE 193 13,07 PARTICLE/PREPOSITION 83 5,62 Total: 1476 100 4. CONCLUSION Analyzing the phenomenon of adjective compounds, which is positioned somewhere within the overlapping section of morphology and syntax, was meant to provide an insight into the structural features of compound words that are used as modifiers. This paper stands as a confirmation of certain presupposed matters about using compound words in adjectival positions, as well as a presentation and interpretation of their formal characteristics. Having taken into consideration the orthography, the conclusion reached is that hyphen plays a decisive part in determining compound words in prenominal modifier functions, since ninety percent of the adjectival compounds are spelt with the symbol. As pointed out in the paper, this functional slot would be most often occupied by compound adjectives proper to the extent of two thirds of all cases, whereas one fourth of the instances had noun compounds functioning as nominal modifiers. Further on, most of the first elements of the compounds from the research corpus belonged to the class of nouns, while past participle was the dominant second element of the corpus examples. Thus, it can lead us to the inference that a typical English adjectival compound could be viewed as a compound word consisting of a noun and past participle, like weather-beaten. Finally, when it comes to preserving categorial markers with compound elements, it can be said that it is largely semantically conditioned when nouns are second elements, and that only 3% of nouns in adjectival compounds possess any inflection endings. More gener226 V. Ž. JOVANOVIĆ ally speaking, compounding involves non-derived words as elements much more often than not. The facts discovered here could have practical significance for learning English as a foreign language and for general descriptions of English, as well. REFERENCES 1. V. Adams (1976) An Introduction to Modern English Word-Formation, Longman group, London. 2. S. Gramley, K. Patzold (1992) A Survey of Modern English, Routledge, London and New York. 3. O. Jespersen (1965) A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles, Vol. 6-Morphology, George Allen & Unwin / Ejnar Munksgard, London / Copenhagen. 4. C. F. Meyer (2002) English Corpus Linguistics, CUP, Cambridge. 5. Oxford English Dictionary 2 on CD-ROM (1992), version 1.01, OUP, Oxford. 6. R. Quirk, et al. (1972) A Contemporary Grammar of English, Longman group, London. 7. G. Yule (2003) Explaining English Grammar, OUP, Oxford.. MORFOLOŠKI ASPEKTI ENGLESKIH ADJEKTIVALNIH SLOŽENICA: ANALIZA JEZIČKOG KORPUSA Vladimir Ž. Jovanović Rad je u osnovi pregled formalnih odlika koje karakterišu različite tipove složenica na funkcionalno adjektivalnim pozicijama. Pregled je sistematizovan i baziran na istraživanju uzoraka primera iz jezičkog korpusa posebno formiranog za ovo proučavanje. Analiza po formi, elementima koji ulaze u sastav složenica, njihov medjusobni odnos i drugo, upotpunjena je obiljem primera koji ilustruju konkretni jezički kontekst u kojem se mogu naći adjektivalne složenice u engleskom jeziku. U radu su iznete statističke potvrde o tome da su složeni pridevi one složenice koje u engleskom jeziku najčešće obavljaju tu funkciju (65%), da su adjektivalne složenice u ogromnoj većini pisane crticom, da je tipična složenica na adjektivalnim pozicijama ona koja ima imenicu u prvom i particip prošli kao drugi element složenice. Pored toga ,na osnovama rezultata analize nameće se zaključak da je prisustvo flektivnih morfema u složenicama semantički uslovljeno, kao i da je prisustvo izvedenica kao elemenat složenih reči veoma ograničeno. Ključne reči: engleski jezik, morfologija, adjektivalne složenice, jezički korpus. Dr. Johanna Rubba English Department (Linguistics) Cal Poly State University San Luis Obispo Last updated 2/8/05 © 2003 Johanna Rubba Syntax: Terms and Concepts The tenses and aspects of English English verbal expressions (often called verb phrases in traditional grammar) can be thought of in additive fashion—take several basic components and add them up to produce the various possible verbal expressions of English. Five verb forms participate in verbal expressions: the base form (the verb with no suffixes, e.g. have, be, eat, play), the present-tense form (has the '-s' suffix for 'she, he, it' forms, e.g., has, is, eats, plays), the past-tense form (with the suffix '-ed' or an irregular past form, e.g. had, was, ate, played), the present participle (with '-ing', having, being, eating, playing), and the past participle (with '-ed' or '-en', e.g., had, been, eaten, played). These combine with each other and with auxiliary verbs to render the tense/aspect constructions of English. Their meanings can be gauged and understood by looking at the kinds of modifier phrases they can occur with -- phrases indicating present or past time, habituality, etc. (See examples in the second table below.) The first table presents the forms that make up the different tense/aspects, their grammatical names, plus an example using the verb walk. Table 1: Forms and names of English Verbal Constructions Component form(s) Name of tense/aspect Example present-tense-marked form alone (simple) present tense Karen walks. past-tense-marked form alone (simple) past tense Karen walked. will + base (unmarked/unsuffixed) form of verb future tense Karen will walk. presen-tenset form of AUX be + present participle of verb present progressive or present continuous Karen is walking. past-tense form of AUX be + present participle of verb past progressive / past continuous Karen was walking. will + base AUX be+ pres. part. future progressive / future continous Karen will be walking. present AUX have + past participle form of verb present perfect Karen has walked. past AUX have + past participle past perfect Karen had walked. will+ base AUX have + past participle future perfect Karen will have walked. pres. AUX have + past participle + AUX be+ pres. participle present perfect progressive Karen has been walking. past AUX have + past participle + AUX be + pres. participle past perfect progressive Karen had been walking. will + pres. AUX have + past part. + AUX be + pres. part. future perfect progressive Karen will have been walking. The next table presents the names of tense/aspects with example sentences, plus their functions/meanings, plus some sample adverbial modifiers that help verify the functions/meanings. Table 2: Forms and Functions of English Verbal Constructions FORMS FUNCTIONS SAMPLE ADVERBIALS Simple present tense Children play. Birds fly. Cows eat grass. Karen swims three times a week. Cal Poly plays SF State next Saturday. I see a hummingbird. She likes dogs. To state general truths. To describe habits. To indicate future action. To indicate present time for stative verbs and verbs of perception. typically, generally speaking usually, every week tomorrow, next year right now, as I speak, at this very moment Simple past tense The children played in the sandbox. Indicates an event, action, or state that happened or was true in the past. Yesterday, five years, ago, when I was small ... Future tense The children will play in the sandbox. For an action, event, or state projected to take place after the moment the sentence is created. Tomorrow, next week, in five years, later ... Present progressive The children are playing in the sandbox. We are leaving for France tomorrow. Indicates action underway at the moment the sentence is created. Future action/event. 1. Right now, as I speak, at this very moment ... 2. tomorrow, later today, next week, etc. Past progressive The children were playing in the sandbox. Indicates action underway at a past moment. Yesterday, when I got home, at 4 o'clock Future progressive The children will be playing in the sandbox. Indicates action expected to be underway at a future time. When I get home, later today, in the future, next month ... Present perfect The children have played here often. The Pope has died. The President has just vetoed the bill. Lou has played soccer since she was 8. I have lived here for four years. Indicates events that took place one or more times in the past. Announces a newsworthy event. Indicates actions/events that began in the past and are still happening/still true. Once, several times, often, never ... just With phrases indicating periods of time: for a long time, for 5 years, since 1990, etc. Past perfect The children had fallen asleep by the time we got home. We had already eaten by then. Used for actions/events that took place before another past event. Already, by a certain time, before X ... Future perfect The children will have gone to bed by 9 o'clock. We will have finished this paint job by next weekend. To indicate future events that will be completed by a certain time. by then, by 5 o/clock, by next June Present perfect progressive The children have been playing in the sandbox since 3 o'clock.. These tense/aspect expressions combine the meanings of perfect with progressive. Past perfect progressive The mess indicated that the children had been playing in the sandbox. Future perfect progressive The children will have been playing in the sandbox for an hour by the time you get here. This table does not exhaust the inventory of constructions used in English to express nuances of time and aspect. Here are just a few more verb forms and their meanings. Table 3: Some Examples of Other English Verbal Constructions Meaning Form Future be going to + verb The children are going to play in the sandbox later. Past habit used to + verb We used to swim a mile every day. Past habit would + verb Kevin would smile every time he saw me. 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Author logo The Structure of English Language Navigation Home page Contents Forum Maximize Search Comment Mail me Author Introduction to this page Index of tables Sources of language information Morphology Inflection and derivation Closed and open word classes Problems of classification Word classes Nouns and articles Pronouns Verbs Adjectives and adverbs Conjunctions Prepositions Syntax Phrases Sentences and clauses Clauses Clause elements Clause types Clause functions The sentence Sentence types Sentence functions Other sentence types Special and minor sentence types Structure and style Index of tables Introduction This web page is intended for students who are following GCE Advanced level (AS and A2) specifications in English Language. This resource may also be of general interest to language students on university degree courses, trainee teachers and anyone with a general interest in language science. It contains a basic guide to the structure of the English language. Please note that I have not set down prescriptive rules which must be obeyed. I have described language, using both traditional terms and some of the categories and descriptions of modern grammar. English is not “derived” from Latin (whatever Prince Charles thinks) but has a Germanic origin, although much of our lexicon comes from French and the classical languages of Greek and Latin. None of this classical lexis was found in Old English, of course - it has entered English from the Renaissance onwards, most of it in comparatively modern times, thanks to its extensive use in science. Some of the language categories of traditional grammar have more coherence than others. Nouns and verbs are fairly coherent, while adverbs (or all the words classed by lexicographers as such) are certainly not. If you have any comments or suggestions about the guide, please contact me. Back to top We can study the structure of language in a variety of ways. For example, we can study classes of words (parts of speech), meanings of words (semantics), with or without considering changes of meaning, how words are organised in relation to each other (syntax), how words are formed (morphology), the sounds of words (phonology) and how written forms represent these (lexicography). There is no universally accepted model for doing this, but some models use the notion of a hierarchy, and this may prove fruitful for you. The framework (description of structure) you will study here is written to be comprehensive yet succinct. Elsewhere, in studying language theory, you will focus on a selective area, and investigate this in more detail. Back to top of page The most basic units of meaning are simple words (e.g.: dog, yes and swim) or the elements of complex words (e.g.: un- -happi- and -ness in unhappiness). These basic elements are called morphemes, and the study of how they are combined in words is morphology. The study of how words are organised into phrases, clauses and sentences is usually referred to as syntax. A longer stretch of language is known as discourse, the study of its structure as discourse analysis. This hierarchy is partly explained by the table below, from David Crystal's The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. The right hand column should be read upwards, in the direction of the arrow. Back to top Outline structure of English sentences are analysed into clauses are analysed into phrases are analysed into words are analysed into morphemes ↓ ↑ sentences are used to build clauses are used to build phrases are used to build words are used to build morphemes Back to top The following table shows a three-part model of the structure of English. Three-part model of English Morphology Syntax Discourse morphemes ↓ words phrases ↓ clauses ↓ sentences relationships between sentences in longer stretches of language Back to top Morphology This is the study of the structure of words. The name comes from Greek morphos (=shape or form). The smallest units of meaning may be whole simple words (e.g. man, run, big) or parts of complex words (e.g. un-, -faith- and -ful in unfaithful) which are called morphemes. Some morphemes, such as faith in un-faith-ful or dream in dream-ing can stand alone as words which make sense. These are known as free morphemes. You will see how very many simple words are free morphemes, but can combine with other morphemes, both free and bound (see below) to form complex words. Where two simple words are joined together to form a new complete word, this is called a compound word. Examples include teapot, starlight and careworn. When these terms are first coined, they are shown in some dictionaries with a hyphen, as light-house or fish-finger. Back to top Other morphemes, such as prefixes and suffixes (collectively called affixes), cannot stand alone - they need to be part of a complex word to make sense. Examples are dis- in dis-miss, dis-pute or dis-grace, -ing in dream-ing, -ness in happi-ness or sad-ness and even -s used to form plurals, as in boy-s or horse-s. These morphemes are said to be bound morphemes. Inflection and derivation Bound morphemes are traditionally divided into two further classes. Sometimes a word is changed in its form to show the internal grammar of a sentence (&#quot;agreement&#quot;). Examples would be plural forms of nouns (dog + s → dog-s) or past (imperfect) tenses of regular verbs (want + ed → want-ed). The study of such changes is inflectional morphology (because the words in question are inflected - altered by adding a suffix). Back to top Other compound or complex words are made by adding together elements without reference to the internal grammar of a sentence. For example, the verb infect suggests a new verb disinfect (=to undo the action of infecting). New words are often formed by noun + -ize, noun + ism, or verb + able (scandalize, Stalinism, disposable). The study of such words, "derived" from existing words or morphemes is derivational morphology. The elements of which the word is made may have a grammatical relationship within the word (you may find this idea difficult), but their formation is independent of the syntax of the clause or sentence in which they occur. If you find this puzzling, two things may help: Inflectional morphology is much easier to recognize. A relatively small number of types of inflection (showing number or tense, say) covers most cases. All compound and most complex words show derivational morphology. If a complex word does not show inflection it will show derivation. But note: a complex word may show both inflection and derivation! A derived word may be inflected to show, for example, tense or number: deported or disposables (as in nappies or diapers). Back to top of page This table shows how the most common kinds of inflection are found in three word classes: Inflection of nouns, verbs and qualifiers Nouns Verbs Adjectives and adverbs Addition of terminal s to show plural (one cat; two cats); Addition of 's to show possession (Henry's cat). Ending shows tense (wanted) or person ([she] wants). Addition of -er → comparative (hotter; likelier); Addition of -est → superlative (coldest; soonest). Back to top This table illustrates how derivation can occur: Derivational morphology in complex words Prefix Base of Word Suffix Complex Word Bi cycl(e) ing Bicycling Dis grace ful Disgraceful In tolera(te) able Intolerable Re vision ist Revisionist Un, co operat(e) ive, ly Uncooperatively Un likely (y becomes i) hood Unlikelihood Back to top Remember that morphology is the study of the structure of words. The structure of words can also be studied to show how the meaning of a given morpheme, or its relation to the rest of the word, varies from one complex word to another. Consider how sun works in the following words: sunbeam, sunburnt, sundial, sunflower, sunglasses, sunlight, sunrise, sun-spot (scientific sense), sun-spot (tourist sense), suntan. Inflection does not really yield “new” words, but alters the form of existing ones for specific reasons of grammar. Derivation, on the other hand, does lead to the creation of new words. David Crystal (Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language; p. 90) lists four normal processes of word-formation, of which three are examples of derivation: Back to top Four kinds of word-formation Prefixation (derivational) Suffixation (derivational) Compounding (derivational) Conversion (not derivational) Affix placed before base of word, e.g. disobey Affix placed after base of word, e.g. kindness Two base forms are added together, e.g. blackbird Word changes class, without any change of form, e.g. (the) pet (n) becomes (to) pet (vb.) Back to top Words considered as wholes can be categorized according to how they work within phrases, clauses or sentences. These categories, traditionally called parts of speech are now more usually known as word classes. Parts of speech are labels for categories in which words are usually placed. But in a given sentence a word from one category may behave as if it were in another. A dictionary will only record established or standard usage. The traditional parts of speech were of eight kinds, excluding the two articles (a/an, the). These were nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, and interjections. Modern linguists prefer to list words in classes that are coherent - all the words in them should behave in the same way. But if this principle were applied rigidly, we would have hundreds of classes, so irregularities are tolerated! Back to top Closed and open word classes Table of closed word classes | table of open word classes Some classes of words are called closed because they contain a relatively small number of items to which no new words can normally be added. These are words (prepositions and conjunctions) which make connections (connectives or connectors), pronouns and words (including articles) like the, some, each that co-occur with nouns - these are called determiners. Other classes of word are constantly being added to. Each contains a vast number of terms already. They are open to new words being introduced. The open classes are nouns, verbs and the words which qualify them, adjectives and adverbs. These form the bulk of a language's vocabulary or lexis (also lexicon, though this sometimes refers to a published version). These classes may be called lexical whereas the closed-class words are structural or functional. These tables illustrate the two kinds of word class. Back to top Closed word classes Determiner Pronoun Preposition Conjunction A, the, any, my, those, which She, them, who, that, himself In, across, at, by, near, within And, but, if, or, while, unless Back to top Open word classes Noun Verb Adjective Adverb Abstract: fear, joy Concrete: chair, mud Common: boy, town Proper: Fred, Hull Transitive: bite, steal Intransitive: live, cry Modal: can, will, may Auxiliary: be, have, do Descriptive: lazy, tall Comparative: lazier Superlative: tallest Manner: reluctantly, keenly, easily, softly Time: soon, often Place: here, there Back to top Problems of classification Some words are difficult to classify. Not all grammatical descriptions will place them in the same word class. This, these or those are sometimes classified as demonstrative (or distinctive) adjectives or pronouns. Possessives, like my, his, their, are sometimes classified as pronouns (showing the word from which they are formed), sometimes as adjectives, showing their grammatical function of qualifying nouns: usually they are pronouns when alone (I like that) and adjectives when they precede a noun (I like this weather). Traditional lists of adverbs contain words like very which qualify other adverbs or adjectives. This word class is sometimes called a "dustbin" class, because any word which defies classification will be put in it! Among words which have sometimes been classified as adverbs are the following: however, just, no, not, quickly, tomorrow and when. This incoherence has long been recognized by grammarians who subdivide adverbs into further categories, such as adverbs of time, place or manner. In trying to organize words into coherent classes, linguists will consider any or all of the following: what they mean (semantics), their form (morphology), provenance (historical origin) and function in a phrase, clause or sentence (syntax). Back to top Some words, such as numbers, do not fit in any of the word classes given above. They can behave as adjectives (one loaf or two?) or pronouns (I want one now!). And no one description of word classes is regarded as finally authoritative. Some classes (such as verbs or conjunctions) are fairly coherent. You should be able to discuss the problems of how or where to classify words which seem not to "fit". Also note that a dictionary does not (or should not) prescribe, but indicates the word class or part of speech where a word is usually placed. But in a given sentence, if the speaker or writer has used it as if it were in a different class, then this is where it should be placed. For example, toilet is usually classified as a noun. But UK primary school teachers often speak of toileting children (I had to toilet John twice today). In describing such a sentence, you should be guided by the internal grammar of the sentence (syntax) rather than the dictionary. Here toilet is a transitive verb. If this usage becomes standard, lexicographers will record it. This kind of word formation is called conversion, a self-explanatory name. Back to top Kinds and Functions of Words: Word Classes or Parts of Speech Every statement is a combination of words, and every statement says something to communicate information. The simplest possible kind of statement - for example, Dogs bark - has two kinds of words in it. It has a what word, dogs, and a what happens word, bark. These kinds of words are the most basic parts of any statement. If a person only says dog, no statement is made, and no information is conveyed. A sound is made that calls to mind a common, four-footed animal, but nothing regarding it is learned. The what words are called nouns. They tell what is being talked about. They are identifying words, or names. Nouns identify persons, places, or things. They may be particular persons, places, or things: Michael Jackson, Reykjavik, World Trade Center. Or they may be general nouns: singer, town, building. Concrete nouns indicate things that can be seen such as car, teapot, and potato. Abstract nouns denote concepts such as love, honesty,and beauty. It is rather odd that English grammar should retain this abstract-concrete distinction for nouns. It appears to be a survival from the philosopher Plato, who divided the world into mind and matter. If it has any value it is in the philosophical field of epistemology (theory of knowledge). It does not really reveal anything for linguists beyond itself. That is, we can, if we wish, try to place nouns in the sub-categories of concrete and abstract, but once we have done so, this categorization has no further value for the study of language. Moreover, modern science confuses the issue, since it shows that many things we once supposed to belong to mind, are in fact, embodied in matter. A thrill is not only abstract, since it involves matter at the level of biochemistry. Back to top The what happens words are called verbs. They are the action words in a statement. Without them it is impossible to put sentences together. It is the verb that says something about the noun: dogs bark, birds fly, fish swim. Verbs are the important words that create information in statements. Although nouns alone make no statement, verbs can occasionally do so. Help! gives the information that someone is in trouble, and Go away! tells someone or something emphatically to leave. Besides nouns and verbs there are other kinds of words that have different functions in statements. They are pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, articles, prepositions, and a very few words that can be called function words because they fit into none of the other categories. All of these kinds of words together are called parts of speech. They can just as well be called parts of writing because they apply to written as well as to spoken language. Back to top Nouns and articles Nouns can be particular or general: the house, a house. The words the and a are articles, or, in more technical terms, determiners. A house can be any house, but the house is a quite definite building. When a noun begins with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u, and, occasionally, y) the indefinite article a becomes an for the sake of easier pronunciation - an apple, an elephant, an orange. Sometimes an is used before words that start with h, especially if the h is silent: an honorary degree. If the h is sounded a is the standard form: an 'otel, a hotel. Nouns can be singular or plural in number: cat, cats. In some cases es is added to make nouns plural: dress, dresses. Some nouns change their forms in the plural, without adding an s but by changing or mutating a vowel: foot, feet; man, men; mouse, mice; goose, geese. Some nouns do not change at all in the plural: sheep, fowl. There are also group nouns, called noun phrases. This means that two or more nouns, or a noun and an adjective, are put together to form what amounts to, or works like, one noun: football stadium, rock concert, orange tree. In each case certain nouns - football, rock, orange - are attached to other nouns, and each modifies or describes the second noun in some way to convey a different kind of object. A football and a football stadium are two entirely different things, though they both have to do with the same game. Some nouns are one-of-a-kind names: Suez Canal, Elvis Presley, Empire State Building. Also called proper nouns, they are capitalized to set them off from general nouns. Sometimes adjectives (words that describe nouns) are also capitalized. This normally happens when the adjective is made from a proper noun, especially a place or person: American literature, English countryside, Elizabethan theatre. Back to top Proper nouns are contrasted with common nouns (naming words for general classes of things which contain many individual examples). In fact many of the nouns that we consider proper are still names for more than one individual, as with the name of a model of car (like Ford Escort or VW Beetle, which might have been produced in the millions). Like the abstract-concrete distinction, the common-proper categories may originate in Platonic philosophy, which contrasted the many things in the real world with unique ideal originals of which they are imperfect copies. It is of more practical concern, since it is meant to inform the written representations of words (whether or not to use an initial capital). Unlike German (which uses a capital for all nouns) or Norwegian (which never does), English has a mixed and inconsistent system which changes over time, and which is confused by the individual tendencies of writers. One problem is that a descriptive phrase (like the second world war) can become petrified into a title, so that we write Second World War or World War Two. And Queen Juliana is or was the queen of the Netherlands, but Queen Elizabeth II is, to many of her subjects, simply the Queen, or even The Queen. In these cases, the "correct" forms are not universally standard for all writers of English, but more a matter of publishers' house styles. Many introductions to English grammar for schoolchildren are to blame for presenting this common-proper distinction as if it were very straightforward - by referring only to well-behaved kinds of proper noun, such as personal names or the names of cities, rivers and planets. In such introductions the distinction is introduced chiefly to lead onto instruction about the use of capital letters in writing such nouns. Nouns are used in different ways: The dog barks. The man bit the dog. In the first case, dog is the actor, or the one that initiates the action of the verb. In the second, dog is acted upon. In The dog barks, dog is the subject of the verb. In the other sentence, dog is the object of the verb. Sometimes a noun is the indirect object of a verb: He gave the dog a bone. Bone is the direct object; it is what was given. Because it was given to the dog, dog is considered the indirect object of the action. Back to top Nouns can also be objects of prepositions - words like to, in, for, and by - so the above sentence could read: He gave a bone to the dog. The words to the dog are called a prepositional phrase. Some verb forms take nouns as objects: Drinking milk is good for you. In this sentence, milk is the object of the verbal form drinking. Such a combination of verb and noun is called a verbal phrase. Nouns can show possession: The dog's collar is on the table. The collar is possessed, or owned, by the dog. All possession does not indicate ownership, however. In The building's roof is black, the roof is on, but not owned by, the building. Adding an apostrophe and an s to a noun shows possession ('): the cat's tongue, the woman's purse. If the noun is plural or already has an s, then often only an apostrophe need be added: the mothers' union (that is, a union of many mothers). The word of may also be used to show possession: the top of the house, the light of the candle, the Duke of Wellington. Back to top Pronouns Personal pronouns | Demonstrative pronouns | Indefinite pronouns | Relative and interrogative pronouns There are several words that are used to replace nouns. They are called pronouns. Pro in Greek means "for" or "in place of". Personal pronouns Some pronouns are called personal pronouns because they take the place of specific names of persons, places, or thing, as in: Has Fred arrived? Yes, he is here. Here he is the personal pronoun that replaces Fred. As indicated in the table, there are both subject and object personal pronouns as well as those that show possession. In His house is the white and green one, his is a personal possessive pronoun. Personal pronouns: subjects, objects and possessives Singular Subject Object Possessive First person I me my, mine Second person you you your, yours Third person he, she, it (one) him, her, it (one) his, her, hers, its (one's) Plural Subject Object Possessive First person we us our, ours Second person you you your, yours Third person they them their, theirs* Back to top *Some authorities give my, your, his, her, our, your and their as possessive adjectives or pronominal adjectives, as they qualify nouns. Some personal pronouns are formed by the addition of -self or -selves as a suffix: myself, ourselves, yourself, himself, herself, itself, and themselves. Demonstrative pronouns Some pronouns - this, that, these, those - refer to particular people or things: This is mine, and that is yours. These are demonstrative pronouns. The demonstrative words can also be used as adjectives: this house, those cars. Indefinite pronouns Pronouns that refer to people or things in general are called indefinite pronouns. Like the demonstrative pronouns, they can be used as adjectives: another day, both animals, many weeks. Relative and interrogative pronouns The words who, whose, whom, that, which, and what are called relative pronouns. (The word that can be a demonstrative or a relative pronoun.) They create relative clauses in a sentence: The committee, which met last night, discussed your report. The words which met last night form a relative clause that describes the subject of the main clause, the committee. Sometimes a relative pronoun is used as the subject of a question such as Who ate the pizza? Here it is classed as an interrogative pronoun. Interrogate means "ask" (questions). Back to top of page Verbs Verbs are the action words in a statement. They tell what is happening - what a noun is doing or what is being done to it, or the state of being, becoming, thinking or feeling. A verb with a subject, which will be in a particular tense is a finite verb. Without a subject it will be the infinitive form (for example, to think, to dream) or a gerund (the present participle, used as a noun: smoking is bad for you). When a verb denotes what a noun is doing, the noun is said to be the subject of the verb: The man speaks. When the verb denotes what is being done to a noun, the noun is the object of the verb: The man eats jelly. The noun jelly is the direct object of the verb. Verbs can also take indirect objects: Parents give children toys. In this sentence, toys is the direct object, (what is given) and children is the indirect object. The parents do not give children but toys. Verbs that take objects are called transitive verbs, and those that normally do not take an object are intransitive verbs (but note that an intransitive verb may be used transitively in non-standard speech or writing). Some common transitive verbs are: tell, give, show, eat, buy, take, and see. Some verbs can be both transitive and intransitive: Tell a story (transitive), andTime will tell (intransitive). Verbs like sleep, walk, rest, come, and go are nearly always intransitive. The most common verb of all, to be, is intransitive in all of its forms: am, are, is, was, were, and been. Back to top of page Tenses (time signals): Verb tenses tell the time when an action takes place. Any action or condition may be in the past, present, or future: he was, he is, he will be. Most common verbs simply add an -ed to show the past time, or form the past tense, as it is normally called. Thus walk becomes walked. Other verbs, sometimes called irregular (or strong) verbs, do not add -ed. Instead they undergo an internal change: sing, sang, sung; fly, flew, flown; go, went, gone. Auxiliary verbs: In the sentence She will sing even though he cannot stay, the verbs will and cannot are called auxiliary, or helper, verbs. Other auxiliary verbs are the incomplete or modal verbs: can, could, may, might, shall, should, and would. The various forms of the verb to be can also be used as auxiliaries: I am going. He was singing. They have been shopping. The verb have - and its other forms has and had - are also common auxiliaries to indicate past action. Participles: The verb form used with auxiliaries is the participle. There is a present participle, talking, and a past participle, talked. Thus, a person can say either I talk (present tense) or I am talking (present continuous) to show present action and I talked (imperfect), I have talked (perfect), or I had talked (pluperfect) to show past action. When a present participle is used with an auxiliary verb, the purpose is to show continuing or ongoing action. She is doing the laundry. He was speaking when someone interrupted him. Note that this uses a present participle with a past tense auxiliary verb (was) to indicate continuous past action. Back to top of page Verb flexibility: Verbs and verb forms can be used in a number of ways in sentences. A verb can be the subject of a statement (To walk is good exercise) or its object (I like to walk). In each case, the infinitive form to walk is used as a noun. Participles can be used in the same way: He likes swimming. Flying is great sport. In the first sentence, swimming is the object of the verb, and in the second, flying is the subject. Verb forms can also be used as adjectives, or words that describe nouns. In a wrecked car, the word wrecked is a past participle used as an adjective. Occasionally a verb form or verb phrase can be used as an adverb: He was pleased to meet her. The phrase to meet her modifies the adjective pleased. Adjectives and adverbs Adjectives and adverbs are descriptive words, sometimes called modifiers because they restrict meaning. They add detail to statements. The difference between the two is that adjectives modify only nouns, pronouns, and verb forms used as nouns; adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Back to top Adjective function: An adjective may be a single word: blue, tall, funny, warm. As a single word, it may come before the noun - the blue sky - or after the verb - the sky is blue. Adjectives may be positive (tall), comparative (taller) or superlative (tallest). Adjective phrases usually follow the noun they describe: the girl with blond hair. The phrase with blond hair describes girl. Adjective clauses also usually follow the noun: The child who finds the most Easter eggs wins. The clause who finds the most Easter eggs modifies child. Adverb function:The most common use of an adverb, of course, is to describe verbs: He ran quickly. Actually, however, adverbs can modify anything but nouns or verb forms used as nouns. Typically adverbs express: time (now, then) manner (happily, easily) degree (less, more, very) direction and place (there, up, down) affirmation or negation (certainly, not) cause and result (thus, consequently), and qualification or doubt (however, probably). Back to top Although many adverbs are formed by adding -ly to adjectives (quick, quickly; happy, happily), adverbs have no characteristic form. They must be identified by the function they perform in a sentence. In the sentence That is a fast car, fast is an adjective. But in He ran fast, it is an adverb. Certain adverbs (how, when, where, why, whenever, and wherever) are called relative adverbs because they introduce relative clauses in a sentence: The keys are upstairs where you left them. The clause where you left them modifies the adverb upstairs. Other adverbs are called conjunctive adverbs because they join one clause with another. Some of these adverbs are: therefore, accordingly, besides, furthermore, instead, meanwhile, and nevertheless.In the sentence He was tired; therefore he stayed home, the word therefore modifies the clause of which it is a part and connects that clause to the previous part of the sentence. Note that therefore is not to be used as a conjunction, hence the semi-colon. Back to top Conjunctions Conjunctions are joining words: they connect words, phrases, or entire clauses. There are two general kinds of conjunctive words: coordinate and subordinate. Coordinate conjunctions join elements that are grammatically the same: two or more words, two equivalent phrases, or two equivalent clauses. The most common coordinate conjunctions are: and, but, or, for, nor, so, yet. Red and white (two equal words joined in a phrase). Taking walks and looking at nature (two equal phrases in a relative clause). She ran to the corner, but she missed the bus (two equal clauses in a complete sentence). A correlative conjunction is a special kind of coordinate conjunction. It connects equivalent elements, but it works in pairs of words: both, and; either, or; neither, nor; whether, or; not only, but also. He wants both money and power. Neither money nor power matters. Either she will go, or she will stay. Back to top Subordinate conjunctions. While coordinate conjunctions connect equal grammatical elements, subordinate conjunctions introduce dependent or conditional clauses. Although she has money, she buys few luxuries. Because he was late, he missed the train. After the movie is over, we shall have dinner. Other word uses. Words that operate as conjunctions can often be used in other ways: as adverbs, prepositions, adjectives, or even pronouns. We have met before (before is an adverb). Before they leave, let us have dinner (before is a conjunction). Back to top There are other words besides conjunctions that serve as connectors (or connectives) in sentences. The relative pronouns who and which are often so used. That is the man who was speaking to her. The dessert is strawberries, which give him a rash. Some of the conjunctions work both as adverbs and conjunctions in the same sentence. This is often true of consequently, however, therefore, and nevertheless. He was ill; nevertheless he went to work. She disliked work; consequently she lost her job. Note the semi-colon (;). This is standard here but is non-standard before but or and. (This appears to be changing, as speakers and writers treat words like nevertheless as conjunctions.) It is possible to make clauses with conjunctions into separate sentences, especially when writing for literary effect. He did it. And he was glad. Stay away from here. Unless you want trouble. In the second case the clause is so obviously dependent that it would not stand alone as a sentence and make sense. It can only be written that way for emphasis or some other effect. Back to top Prepositions Prepositions are words or groups of words, that introduce phrases; and these phrases modify some element in a sentence. What follows a preposition is normally a noun, pronoun, or noun clause. A word that follows a preposition is its object, and, in the case of pronouns especially, this affects the form of the word. He walked near her (never He walked near she). He gave them to her and me (never He gave them to she and I or He gave them to her and I). One of the problems in spotting prepositions in a sentence is that many of the words that are usually prepositions can also be used as adverbs. He never saw them before (here before is an adverb). They sat before the counter (before is a preposition,and the whole prepositional phrase serves as an adverb, modifying sat). Back to top Parts of speech: a summary Noun: A noun is a name for someone or something. It can be someone or something in particular, or someone or something in general. Pronoun: A pronoun is a substitute for a noun or a noun phrase. Verb: A verb is the action word in a statement. Some verbs link the subject to a noun, pronoun, or adjective. Adjective: An adjective is a modifier. Usually it modifies, or makes more exact, the meaning of a noun or pronoun. Adverb: An adverb is a modifier. Usually it modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Conjunction: A conjunction is a connector. A coordinate conjunction connects words or groups of words that are grammatically the same. A subordinate conjunction connects a subordinate, or dependent, clause to a main clause. Preposition: A preposition is a connector that introduces a prepositional phrase. It usually connects a noun or noun phrase to the part of the sentence modified by the whole prepositional phrase, and it shows the relation between the two. Back to top Modern language scientists have devised other categories of word in relation to syntax, which you should know. A few of these are explained in the table below. New word classes Auxiliary: A word whose function is to assist the main verb in a clause to express basic grammatical contrasts such as person, number and tense. The primary auxiliaries are forms of be, have, do. The modal auxiliaries are such verbs as may, might, should. Connective: A word which links language units, such as conjunctions and some adverbs Determiner: A word which co-occurs with a noun to show meanings such as number, quantity or identity (the, some, each) Head: The main element in a phrase; it may be pre- or post-modified Intensifier: Traditionally classed as an adverb; a word which adds force or emphasis to a qualifier (extremely stupid, very cleverly) Modifier: Word or phrase which gives more information about the head element in a phrase (All the beautiful (pre-modification) fish (head) in the ocean (post-modification) Back to top Syntax and syntactic structures Parts of speech, or word categories, indicate what words usually do, or may be expected to do. Some of these categories - such as nouns and pronouns - make sense when we consider words in isolation. Others - such as conjunctions or prepositions - only make sense within a longer structure, a phrase, clause or sentence. Note that these three terms are traditional, and do not easily describe how strings of language work. All are broad categories. The sentence, especially, is much more characteristic of written than of spoken English, and of formal rather than informal usage. Alternatively, we may say that spoken English contains sentence types not usually found in writing. The internal grammar of phrases, clauses and sentences refers to the principles (sometimes mistakenly called “rules”) of structure and organization. Be aware of the tension between model structures devised for textbooks and guides for learners of the language, and the syntax of real sentences (those you have found in speech or writing), which you are subjecting to analysis. Back to top A phrase is a useful all-purpose name for any short sequence of words (or even a single word, considered as an element in the structure of a clause or sentence), especially a grouping which could be replaced by a single word. A phrase which works like, or equates to, a noun is a noun phrase, one which qualifies a verb is an adverb phrase and so on. A clause may be short or long, but must contain at least one main, finite verb. A short clause may in fact be identical with a verb phrase: the two terms reflect differences of emphasis or analysis in regard to the language string in question. If you are analysing a sentence, you will look first for clauses; if you wish to see how words have been combined in simple sequences, you will look for phrases. Phrases are especially important for analysing spoken data, and some kinds of written text (such as advertisements or information leaflets) where (written) sentence forms are not considered essential. Back to top Phrases Noun phrases | Adjective phrases | Adverb phrases | Pronoun phrases | Prepositional phrases | Verb phrases Noun phrases The noun phrase (NP) is the main construction which can be the object, subject or complement of a clause. It must contain a noun or noun-like word (such as a pronoun) which is the main element, and which is called the head. It may contain other elements, either before or after the head. These could include predeterminers, determiners, postdeterminers, premodifiers and postmodifiers. The examples in the table below show how noun phrases can grow in length, while their structure remains fairly clear. Noun Phrases Noun phrase structure Verb phrase Predeterminer Determiner Postdeterminer Premodifier Head Postmodifier (not part of noun phrase) Buns are for sale. The buns are for sale. All the currant buns are for sale. Not quite all the currant buns are for sale. Not quite all the hot tasty currant buns are for sale. Not quite all the hot tasty currant buns on the table are for sale. Not quite all the many hot tasty currant buns on show on the table are for sale. Not quite all the very many fine hot tasty currant buns which I cooked are for sale. Back to top Adjective phrases These are usually formed from an intensifier, followed by the head (an adjective, shown in bold below). Examples include very happy, not too awkward, and cold enough. They may also be formed from an adjective and a verb construction, such as easy to please, loath to do it. Back to top Adverb phrases These are intensifying expressions formed from an intensifier (optional), followed by the head (an adverb, shown in bold below), followed by a postmodifier (optional). Examples would be: terribly slowly, very happily indeed, exceptionally carefully, completely utterly dangerously, quite often and very soon. Back to top Prepositional phrases (adverbials/adjectivals) These are formed from the head (a preposition, shown in bold in the examples), followed by a noun phrase. Examples of prepositional phrases are in the teapot, on the bog, and round the bend. They may be called adverbials since their usual function is to qualify a verb in the same way as an adverb does. You can test this by replacing a given prepositional phrase with an adverb - for example: Fred swam in the river and Fred swam swiftly. Both of these are grammatically standard forms. They may also function as adjectives: the pirate with the wooden leg. Back to top Pronoun phrases These are restricted to a small number of constructions, and are sometimes regarded as a minor type of noun phrase. They are formed from a head (a pronoun, shown in bold below) with a pre- or postmodifier. Examples would be: Silly me! You there! she herself, we all, nearly everyone, and such relative clause types as those who knew Fred. Back to top Verb phrases These are quite simple syntactically, although the verb in them may contain important grammatical information, such as tense, number, active or passive voice and so on. (All of these are explained above in the section on word categories). One or more auxiliaries may precede the head (a verb participle, shown in bold below). Examples would be: has died, may have gone, might have been listening. You may be puzzled by the simplicity of these models. Don't be. In order to explain the more complex function of verbs in the predicates of sentences (what they say about their subject), we use the structural model of the clause. Back to top Sentences and clauses In the syntax of English and other modern European languages, such as Dutch, French, German or Italian, the two most important structures are almost certainly clauses and sentences. Please note that: the sentence as we know it, is not found in all languages the sentence is not a necessary structure in natural language many written texts and most spoken data are not organized into regular sentence forms Back to top Before you look at descriptions of either structure, you may wonder why they appear together in the heading above. This is because neither makes sense without the other. Writers of language textbooks may put either of them ahead of the other, depending upon whether their structural model builds (or synthesises) smaller structures into larger ones (“bottom up”) or analyses larger structures into smaller ones (“top down”). This is explained at the start of this guide, and briefly again below, under the heading Building or analysing? This guide places clauses before sentences, in keeping with its "bottom up" or synthetic approach. You should try to explain the subject with both synthetic and analytic models. Back to top Clauses We can understand a clause in several ways. Simply it can be seen as a verb and the words or phrases which cluster round it. Professor Crystal (The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, p. 449) describes it as "a structural unit smaller than a sentence but larger than phrases or words". The problem here is that in some cases a clause may appear identical with a sentence or phrase, but the term we use tells us about a different structural feature. A more difficult explanation to follow is that a clause is a syntactic unit consisting of a verb, together with its associated subject, objects or complements and adverbials. Note that the only obligatory ("must have") elements are the subject and the verb (usually, but not always, in this order). So before you can go further, you need to know about these different clause elements (parts of the clause). Back to top Clauses and clauses You may have met the term clause in other contexts - it is used to identify short passages within longer ones (such as paragraphs) in such texts as legal or parliamentary documents. The writers of these will often construct artificial sentences which are broken into a series of clauses, so that these can be named. This allows us to write such things as "Paragraph x , clause y of the Sale of Goods Act, 1979 protects consumers." Here clause identifies the unit of syntax (and its meaning or semantic content) but may not in every case exactly match the models explained here or in grammatical reference works. Back to top Clause elements Subject | Object | Verb | Complement | Adverbial | Vocatives These are well worth learning about, as you will certainly want to use them to explain the syntax of language data you are studying in exams or investigations. If you are not able to describe or identify clause types, it is usually acceptable and always helpful to consider how these elements work together. You may use them to explain how sentences work, also. They are: subject (S), object (O), verb (V), complement (C), adverbial (A) Back to top Subject The subject is a noun or noun phrase, pronoun or subordinate clause. The dog was sick. Fred felt funny. (n) Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. (NP) I am happy. They are jealous. (pn.) What she said is untrue. (sub.clause) In this kind of analysis a series of noun phrases is a single clause element. Pronouns used as subject are in the subject case (I, she, they not me, her, them) The subject controls singular-plural verb agreement (You go; she goes) and agreement of reflexive pronoun objects (I injured myself; they amused themselves) A subject is usually present in a clause, but it may be omitted in non-standard (especially spoken) structures (Drinks like a fish. Gets here when?) or imperatives (Listen to this). Back to top Object Objects usually follow the verb. They may be direct or indirect. Direct object: Fred bit his thumb. The chimpanzees groomed each other. Indirect object: Jane gave the gorilla a kiss. Jane gave a kiss to the gorilla. (Note that here there is also a direct object = a kiss) Just as with subjects, they may be nouns, noun phrases, pronouns or subordinate clauses. Just as subjects are, pronouns are in the appropriate (object) case (me, her, them). As above, reflexive pronoun objects agree with their subjects (They amused themselves). But unlike subject, the object has no effect on agreement of verb. Back to top Verb This is the central and obligatory element. A clause must contain at least one verb phrase, which may be a single verb: Jesus wept. They are drowning. The cow jumped over the moon. The choice of verb will largely determine what other elements are in the clause. The verb usually has a subject. A transitive verb is one which takes a direct object. (Strictly this is a tautology since transitive = "taking a direct object") Back to top Complement Complement (verb) means "go with". (Do not confuse with compliment). In clause syntax, the complement is anything which adds to the meaning of the subject (subject complement) or object (object complement). Subject complement usually follows the verb. The most common verb for a subject complement is the verb to be, but some other verb may be substituted where the meaning of be is expressed. These are called copular (= linking) verbs or simply copulas. In the examples complements are in bold, copular verbs underlined: She is a doctor. That smells heavenly. The students are feeling dazed and confused. Object complement usually follows the direct object: Football makes me very happy. The voters elected Clinton president of the USA. Back to top Adverbials These clause elements add to or complete the meaning of the verb element. They may be single adverbs. But they also include nouns, noun or verb phrases and subordinate clauses: They ran quickly. He went home twice nightly. We walked on the playground. My girlfriend phoned me this morning. I was happy when I saw her again. Adverbials may appear in several positions in the clause, but are most common at the end: Often I dream. I often dream. I dream often. Adverbials may perform different functions: Adding information: I walked quietly. Linking clauses: The bus was full. However, Fred found a seat. Adding a comment on what is expressed: Quite frankly we disapprove of violence. Some verbs (like put) must have an adverbial to complete their meaning: Please put the gun down. The path runs around the field. Back to top Vocatives These are optional elements used to show the person to whom a sentence is addressed. They may occur in various positions in the clause. They include names, titles, evaluative labels, the pronoun you and certain kinds of clause: John, it's me. It's me, darling. Hello, Susan, how are you? You daft git, what do you mean? Honey, I shrank the kids. Come out, whoever you are. Come in, ladies, and sit down. Madam Speaker, I will give way. Back to top Clause types Clause elements combine to form clauses. The number of patterns is small. According to David Crystal (The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, p. 221) there are only seven basic types. S + V: I / yawned S + V + O: Fred / opened / the door S + V + C: The dinner / is / ready S + V + A: Dick Whittington / went / to London S + V + O + O: Romeo / gave / Juliet / a kiss S + V + O + C: Henry / got / his feet / very wet S + V + O + A: Sam / put / the bottles / in the cellar Back to top We can vary these patterns using directives (such as advising, instructing or commanding): Turn left at the junction. Help yourself to a drink. Go to hell! You be quiet. We can also vary the patterns through pro-forms (words which replace long constructions) and ellipsis (omitting an understood element). Pro-forms: I've got a lovely cold drink and you've got one as well. (Here one is the pro-form, understood to mean a lovely cold drink.) Ellipsis: I'd like to drink some tea, but I won't. (Here drink some tea is understood to follow but I won't.) Back to top Building or analysing? These are contrasting ways of organizing the same theoretical model. We may either analyse long structures (and find the smaller elements in them) or think of how smaller elements are combined to form longer structures. The second approach has been seen as akin to what really happens in speech and writing (phrase structure grammar). Noam Chomsky argues that real language users start with longer structures and alter these by means of transformations (transformational grammar). For example, a model or paradigm with an active verb is changed by a transformational rule into a structure with a passive verb. To understand the contrast in these approaches, see the table at the start of this guide to structure. The two approaches are shown in simple form below: "Bottom up"/synthetic model: morpheme è word è phrase èclause è sentence "Top down"/analytic model: sentence è clause è phrase è word è morpheme Back to top Clause functions and sentence structures Coordinate clauses The simplest sentences may contain a single clause. (Simple is a standard description of one kind of sentence.) Where a sentence contains more than one clause, these may be considered of equal grammatical importance. If this is so, these are coordinate clauses. They are joined by a coordinating conjunction, such as and or but. (Some grammarians call the first clause of the sentence the main clause, and the others coordinate clauses). Here are some examples. Apart from the conjunctions (or, so and and, everything else is a main/coordinate clause): You can travel by tube, you can drive or you can take the train. The weather was hot, so I went on my bike. Lucy opened her window, and in came Count Dracula. Back to top Subordinate clauses Sometimes the clauses are placed in a hierarchy: the more important ones are main clauses, while the less important are subordinate clauses. A main or coordinate clause could stand on its own as a sentence, but a subordinate clause works only within a sentence. A subordinate clause can do the job of other clause elements. It can work as subject, object, complement and adverbial, as in these examples: Subordinate subject clause: What you say is stupid. Clause as subject = What you say; main clause = X is stupid, verb = is Subordinate object clause: I did not know that you were here. Clause as object = that you were here; main clause = I did not know X; verb = did not know Subordinate complement clause: Your first job is learning this grammar. Clause as complement = learning this grammar; main clause = Your first job is X; verb = is Subordinate adverbial clause: Come round when you're ready. Clause as adverbial = when you're ready; main clause = Come round (X); verb = Come Back to top Clauses that function as subject, object or complement replace noun phrases, so they are called nominal clauses. Those that function as adverbs/adjectives are adverbial/adjectival clauses. Some other kinds of nominal clauses are shown below. For clarity, they are all shown in object position. This is not the only place where they may occur, but is the most common. That clause: I think (that) you know each other. (That may be omitted if understood.) Wh- clause: I know what you did last summer. (Clause introduced by who, when, what, why, whether.) -ing clause: I don't recall seeing her there. (Clause introduced by present participle.) inf. clause: I wish to confess to my crimes. (Clause introduced by to + infinitive.) Back to top Adverbial clauses These are introduced by a subordinating conjunction, which explains the adverbial meaning of the clause. These include when/before/after/while (time); because/since (reason); if/unless/lest (condition), as in these examples: When the bell sounds, you may leave the room. We cannot send you the goods, because we are out of stock. Unless you are good, Father Christmas will bring you nothing. Two minor types of adverbial clause are inf. and -ing clauses. Inf. clause: I went to the shop to buy some bread. (Clause introduced by to + infinitive.) -ing clause: Jane broke her arm while fighting. (Clause introduced by present participle.) Back to top Adjectival clauses A familiar type is the relative clause, introduced by a relative pronoun (who, whom, whose, that, which), as in these examples: Here is the woman (whom) I married. This is the book (which) I am reading. The drink (that) I most like is orange juice. The relative pronouns are in brackets, as they may be omitted if understood. Two minor types of adjectival clause are -ing and -ed clauses. -ing clause: The train now standing at platform four is the 5.30 to Leeds. -ed clause: She is the celebrity pursued by the press. Since past participles do not all end in -ed we may find other verb forms in such clauses: The tea drunk by the students or the exam taken by the pupils. Back to top Clause elements may be single words of the appropriate category, they may be phrases or even some kinds of subordinate clause. Explaining even simple structures is difficult. Verbal explanations are less easy to make than diagrams. These work best when there is a hierarchical level, as sentences are analysed into clauses, which are further analysed into (more clauses and) phrases, which are analysed into words, which are analysed into morphemes. In an exam, you are very unlikely to be required to analyse long sequences. Use clause analysis (or phrase analysis) selectively, to establish some point about language acquisition (learning to make or understand structures), about language and society (how structures embody social attitudes to language), language change (how structures or paradigms change over time) or stylistics (how structures embody style). Back to top The sentence Sentence types In many respects, sentences can be analysed in the same terms as clauses, that is separating the elements into the categories of subject, object, verb, complement and adverbial. However, sentences are also described in terms of: how clauses are arranged functions of the sentence traditional patterns which are used for particular effects in speech and writing Back to top Clause structures in sentences The most basic sentence form contains a single clause. This is known as a simple sentence: Mary had a little lamb. Chocolate is delicious. Down fell the rain. A compound sentence joins two coordinate clauses together: Mary had a little lamb and took it to school. I drank some tea and felt better. Here is a wug and here are two wugs. Back to top A multiple sentence links clauses of essentially similar type, with coordinating conjunctions. I came home, sat down, put the kettle on, lit the fire and sat down with a book. A complex sentence uses subordination to link clauses. It is not necessarily very "complex" in the everyday sense (that is, difficult to analyse), but it may be: I hope that she will come. Lest you forget, here is my address. Having played football, I sat in the bath, while the kettle boiled, thinking of how to spend the evening, which loomed before me promisingly. Back to top Functions of the sentence This is a simple kind of classification. Sentences are traditionally categorized into four types: statement, command, question or exclamation. These are readily illustrated by examples (note alternative names). Statement or declarative: This is my porridge. Command, wish, imperative or directive: Go and never darken my doors again. Question or interrogative: Who's been eating my porridge? Exclamation: How happy I feel! Back to top Other sentence types Tag questions | Exclamatory questions | Rhetorical questions | Directives | Echoes David Crystal (The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, p. 218) notes some other categories. Among these are: Tag questions Here a statement is turned into a question, with an interrogative tag at the end. Tags are typical of speech where the speaker changes the function of the sentence in mid-utterance: Jolly nice day today, isn't it? Exclamatory questions Here the structure is that of a question, but the meaning (indicated in speech by intonation) equates to an exclamation: Didn't she do well? Have I got news for you? Rhetorical questions Again the structure is that of a question, but the speaker (or writer) expects no answer. They are used as emphatic statements: How on earth should I know? Is the Pope a Catholic? Do bears crap in the woods? Back to top Directives These are akin to imperatives, but Crystal expands the category to include related functions of instruction, direction and so on. He lists: commanding, inviting, warning, pleading, suggesting, advising, permitting, requesting, meditating, expressing wish or imprecation. Crystal notes that many use the verbs let and do in non-standard ways: Let me see. Let's go. Let us pray. Do come in. Do be quiet. Don't do that again. Echoes These sentences of a special kind, which reflect the structure of a preceding sentence from a different speaker in a language interaction (usually conversation): Echo of statement: A: It took me five hours to get here. B: Five hours to get here? Echo of question: A: Have you seen my wife? B: Have I seen your lice? Echo of directive: A: Sit down there. B: Down there? Echo of exclamation: A: What a plonker! B: What a complete plonker! Back to top Special or minor sentence types Professor Crystal (The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, p. 216) records some unusual types of sentence, which cannot be analysed in a regular way. They are found in particular kinds of text and discourse - some are common in real speech or fictional dialogue, while others are found in such things as headlines or slogans, where a message is presented as a block of text. They do not follow all the rules of normal grammar, such as verb agreement. Among the types noted by Crystal are: Formulae for set social situations: Cheers, Hello, Ciao, See you, How do you do? Ta! Emotional or functional noises (traditionally interjections): Hey! Ugh! Agh! Ow! Tut! Shh! (Note how such forms are subject to change over time. Consider Tush, eh, hein?) Proverbs or aphorisms: Easy come, easy go. Least said, soonest mended. Short forms as used in messages, instructions or commentaries: Wish you were here. Shearer to Beckham. Simmer gently. Hope you are well. Elliptical words or phrases with a structural meaning equivalent to a complete exclamation, question or command: Brilliant! Lovely day! Coming? Drink? All aboard! Drink up! Back to top Structure and style in sentences Loose sentence | Balanced sentence | Periodic sentence For purposes of analysing style, sentences may be described as loose, balanced or periodic. Loose sentence Here the writer or speaker states fact after fact as they occur, seemingly freely and artlessly, as in the opening of The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe: “I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull: he got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznoer; but by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now called, nay we call ourselves, and write our name Crusoe, and so my companions always called me. ” Back to top Balanced sentence Here the writer or speaker has a concern for symmetry - the second half of the sentence contains a similar or opposite idea to the first half. These techniques are very effective in persuasion, and are sometimes known as parallelism or antithesis. Consider this from Francis Bacon (1561-1626): “Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter: they increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of death.” Or this from Viscount Grey of Fallodon, on the eve of the First World War: “The lamps are going out all over Europe: we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” Or, finally, this, spoken by President John F. Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you: ask what you can do for your country.” Back to top Periodic sentence Here the climax of the sentence comes at its end. A good example is in the opening of Edward Gibbon's 18th century Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: “It was in Rome, on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.” Back to top Studying Language: sources of information A comprehensive bibliography is published by AQA/NEAB. You and your teachers will use some of the reference works on this list. In addition you may make use of any of the following sources of help. Dictionaries are an excellent source of information. The best of these give etymologies, identify word classes, record standard and non-standard words and show variant spellings. Some modern dictionaries use a language corpus to indicate words among the thousand (or other number) most commonly used. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and The Shorter Oxford Dictionary are the traditional authorities, but there are excellent dictionaries published by Chambers, Longman, Collins, Cambridge and others. The most comprehensive reference works are The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language and The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language by David Crystal. The former can often be purchased at a discount by joining a book club. At the opposite extreme an excellent introduction to traditional grammar can be found in Dorothy Paull's The Ladybird Book of Spelling and Grammar. Back to top Broadcast material can also be helpful, and some is available on video or audio-tape from the broadcasters. This includes Professor Jean Aitchison's 1996 Reith Lectures for BBC radio: The Language Web, and Robert McCrum's TV history: The Story of English. A long-running radio series, which investigates a comprehensive range of language issues is R4's Word of Mouth. For a very full explanation of syntax, especially the function of the independent main clause, see Shirley Russell's Grammar, Structure and Style (OUP, Oxford, 1993; ISBN 0-19-831179-6) The World Wide Web has a huge range of sites dedicated to language use, too many to list here. Very helpful are translation engines (most browsers or search engines have these) which will alter a given text into English (or a different variety of English). The Web also, of course, will give you access to the language departments of many academic institutions. Click here for a link to many more on-line sources of information. Back to top Index of tables Outline structure of English Three-part model of English Morphology: inflectional Morphology: derivational Kinds of word-formation Closed word-classes Open word-classes Personal pronouns Parts of speech: summary Word-classes affecting syntax Noun phrase structure DfEE Standards Site BBC Education BBC Education's Bookcase site BBC revision site Public Broadcasting Service Public Broadcasting Service Arts site European Virtual School Virtual Library AcademicInfo LearnCo Homework High Google Excite Altavista Yahoo MSN Lycos Metacrawler AOL HotBot iWon Netscape Ask Jeeves About Monstercrawler Looksmart Dogpile Raging Search All the web Go GoTo Go2Net Please acknowledge my authorship by giving the URL of any pages you use, and/or include the © copyright symbol. Suggestions for improvement are welcome. 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