Navigating English Grammar

Anne Lobeck is Professor of English and Linguistics at Western Washington University. She is author of Ellipsis: Functional Heads, Licensing and Identification (1995) and Discovering Grammar: An Introduction to English Sentence Structure (2000), and is coeditor and co-author (with Kristin Denham) of several books, including Linguistics at School: Language Awareness in Primary and Secondary Education (2010). Kristin Denham is Professor of English and Linguistics at Western Washington University. She is coeditor (with Anne Lobeck) of two volumes, including Language in the Schools: Integrating Linguistic Knowledge into K-12 Teaching (2005) and co-author (with Anne Lobeck) of Linguistics for Everyone: An Introduction (2010).

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xv

1 What is Grammar and How Do We Study It? 1

Introduction 1

What is English? Language Change and Variation 2

What is Grammar? Prescriptive and Descriptive Grammar 4

Origins of Prescriptive Grammar 8

The Components of Grammar 10

Syntax 10

Morphology 13

Semantics 15

Phonetics and phonology 18

The Scientific Study of Language 19

Exercises 20

2 Nouns 23

Introduction 23

Semantic Features of Nouns 24

Abstract and concrete 25

Common and proper 25

Count and mass 27

Collective nouns 28

Generic nouns 29

Noun Morphology 30

Inflectional affixation 30

Plurals 30

Possessives 31

Derivational affixation 33

Other ways we form nouns 34

Summary 35

Exercises 35

3 Noun Phrases 41

Introduction 41

Categories that Precede Nouns 42

Determiners 42

Noun phrases without determiners 46

Numerals 47

Quantifiers 48

Order of D, NUM, and Q 49

Partitive, Measure, and Collective Noun Phrases 50

Possessive Noun Phrases 52

NP or N: pronoun substitution 53

Modifiers of Nouns 55

Adjectives that modify nouns 55

Nouns that modify nouns 57

Verbs that modify nouns 59

Summary 61

Exercises 61

4 Verbs 67

Introduction 67

Main Verbs 68

Main Verb Morphology 68

Derivational affixation and other ways we form verbs 69

Inflectional affixation 69

Infinitives 71

Present tense 72

Past tense 74

Past tense variation 75

Present and past participles 76

Past participle variation 77

Suppletion 79

Summary 80

Exercises 81

5 Verb Phrases 85

Introduction 85

Auxiliary Verbs 86

Morphology of have and be 87

Auxiliary have 87

Main verb have 87

Auxiliary be 88

Main verb be 88

Verb strings with auxiliary have and be 89

Modals 90

Modal meaning 90

Modal morphology and tense 92

Semi-modals 93

Future tense 94

Verb strings with auxiliaries and modals 94

Aspect 96

Progressive aspect 96

Perfect aspect 97

Combining aspectual forms 97

Habitual aspect 99

Voice 100

Direct objects and transitivity 101

Thematic roles 102

Passive voice 103

The passive verb string 105

Passive in writing 106

Summary 108

Exercises 108

6 The Clause 113

Introduction 113

Clause Structure and the TENSE Position 114

Subject–Auxiliary Inversion 117

Auxiliary Do 121

Do-insertion 123

Subjects 125

Non-agentive subjects 126

Subjects of passive sentences 127

Pleonastic subjects 127

Tag Question Formation 129

Negation 132

A Final Puzzle: Main Verb Be 137

Summary 141

Exercises 142

7 Adjectives 147

Introduction 147

Adjective Semantics 148

Adjective Morphology 151

Derivational affixation and other ways we form adjectives 151

Participial adjectives 152

Inflectional affixation: comparative and superlative adjectives 152

Adjective Syntax 154

Modifiers of adjectives 154

The degree word test for adjectives 155

Prenominal and postnominal adjective phrases 157

Some interesting exceptions 158

Adjective phrase subjective complements 159

Other subjective complements: NP and PP 160

Direct objects versus subjective complements 161

The seem test for adjectives 162

Restrictions on AP complements 163

Summary 164

Exercises 164

8 Adverbs 171

Introduction 171

Adverb Semantics 172

Adverb Morphology 173

Derivational affixation and other ways we form adverbs 173

Flat adverbs 174

Inflectional affixation 175

Adverb Syntax 176

Modifiers of adverbs 176

Adverb phrase positions 178

Adverb phrase modifiers 180

Adverb phrase complements 181

More on Modifiers 182

Summary 182

Exercises 182

9 Prepositions and Particles 187

Introduction 187

Preposition Semantics 188

Preposition Morphology 190

Preposition Syntax 191

Complements of prepositions 191

Objects of prepositions 191

Other complements of prepositions 192

Modifiers of prepositions 192

Grammatical functions of prepositional phrases 193

PP modifiers of nouns 194

PP modifiers of verbs and clauses 194

PPs as complements 195

Indirect object complements 197

Particles 200

Semantics of particles 200

Syntax of particles 201

Summary 204

Exercises 204

10 Independent, Coordinate, and Subordinate Clauses 209

Introduction 209

Independent Clauses 210

Coordination 211

Subordination 214

Clauses and sentences 215

Subordinate Clause Types 216

A brief but important aside: sentence fragments 218

Tensed clause complements 220

Bare infinitival clause complements 223

To-infinitive clause complements 224

Participial clause complements 226

Wh-clause complements 229

Wh-movement 230

Complementizers 232

Clausal Subjects 233

Summary 237

Exercises 237

11 More on Complementation and Modification 243

Introduction 243

Complementation and Modification: A Brief Review 244

Review of complements 245

Complements of verbs 245

Complements of adjectives 247

Complements of prepositions 247

Review of modifiers 248

Modifiers of nouns 248

Modifiers of adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions 249

Modifiers of verbs 249

Movable Modifiers 250

Movable PP modifiers 250

Movable NP modifiers 250

Movable AP modifiers 250

Movable VP modifiers 251

Movable clause modifiers 251

Diagramming movable modifiers 251

Final notes on movable modifiers 254

Clauses that Modify Nouns: Relative Clauses 255

Relative clauses and wh-movement 257

Tensed and infinitival relative clauses 259

Restrictive and nonrestrictive relative clauses 261

Headless relative clauses 264

Appositive NPs 265

Summary 265

Exercises 266

Epilogue: Navigating Real Language 273

Index 275