Grammatical categories of nouns and verbs Flashcards
What are the categories of definiteness (references) of nouns in English?
Generic reference and Non-generic reference. Non-generic reference is further divided into definite and indefinite.
Non-generic = definite X indefinite
definite = situational, anaphoric, cataphoric.
indefinite = specific and non-specific
EXAMPLES:
Generic: Lions are wild animals. (we refer to the whole “group”).
Non-generic:
definite-situational: Close the gate.
definite-anaphoric: She was wearing a ring with a diamond in it. Everyone was admiring the stone.
definite-cataphoric: The poet Burns.
How can a plural of a noun be formed in English?
Regular and irregular plural formation.
REGULAR: -es with word ending in “o” - potatoe -> potatoes, plural of numbers, letters and abbreviations: ‘s (several MPs).
IRREGULAR:
1) vowel change: man - men
2) vowel change + irregular ending: child - children
3) zero plural: sheep, deer, fish (!), trout, salmon
4) plural of foreign words:
Latin: alga - algae, minimum - minima, cactus - cacti
Greek: analysis - analyses, criterion - criteria, basis - bases, thesis - theses
French: chateau - chateaux, bureau - bureaux, chamois - chamois
5) plural of compound nouns: the last part is plural = forget-me-not -> forget-me-nots
6) Singular forms: a five-year plan, a five-mile race, a two-year old, a four-hour flight, three dozen bottles of wine
7) collective nouns: the audience, semantically - group (company, committee, crew, family), generic: burgeoisie, clergy, the public
8) singularia tantum: uncountable nouns (news!), proper names and geographical names, names of games
9) pluralia tantum: clothes (shorts, trousers), instruments (scissors, binoculars), geographical names (the hebrides), other nouns (archives,goods, oats, measles, acoustics, statistics,…)
10) abstract nouns: progress, information, weather, luck, music,…
What is a case in English and how many do we have?
It is a grammatical function of a noun or a pronoun.
Nouns:
Common and Genitive (přivlastňující)
Pronouns:
We have three: subjective (he), objective (him), and possessive (his). It gives us information about the role of the noun/pronoun in the sentence just from its form.
What grammatical status can a genitive case have?
It can have a specifying function and a modifying function. In the former,its role is to specify: his wife’s choices (=the choices of his wife). In the latter, it has a qualifying function (a father’s pride -> any father).
What grammatical status can a genitive have from the perspective of semantics?
Genitive meanings:
1) possessive: Jane’s ball.
2) subjective: the parent’s consent = The parents consented.
3) objective: the chairman’s election = the election of a chairman
4) genitive of origin: Jane’s letter = the letter is from Jane
5) Partitive genitive: the heart’s two ventricles = the heart contains two ventricles.
6) descriptive genitive: children’s shoes = shoes designed for children
7) genitive of attribute: the victim’s courage = the victim was courageous.
How do we use a genitive for a group of elements? How do we use double genitive? How do we use local genitive?
1) group genitive: My uncle and my aunt’s house (= 1 HOUSE BELONGS TO 2 PEOPLE).
BEWARE: My father’s and my mother’s birthday = toto není group genitive!!!
2) Double genitive: Some friends of my counsin’s, The idea of Tom’s (nelze That Tom’s idea = 2 determiners)
3) Local genitive: I was at Fred’s (=house).
at the dentist’s
How do we use zero genitive?
-obligatory with greek words which end with “s” -> Socrates’ doctrines
with English and biblical expressions can be both:
Dickens’s novels/ Dickens’ novels
What noun classes are taking the ‘s genitive?
Persons
Higher animals
collective nouns
places
institutions
heavenly bodies
temporal nouns
nouns of special relevance to human activity (the hotel’s staff)
specific nouns (-edge, end, surface, sake) - at the water’s edge
What is the general description of verbs?
-denote activities, states, occurence
- usually neutral form (xCZ), rarely suffix -ise/-ize, -ify, -en (specify, lenghten, symbolize)
-grammatical centre of a predicate
- grammatical categories: synthetic (inflectional suffixes), or analytic means (auxiliaries)
What is the morphological classification of verbs?
1) finite X non-finite
2) one-word X multi-word
3) full (lexical) X auxiliary
1) finite: agreement with subject (with the person, number and tense), predicate function (she speaks)
non-finite: (to) infinitive, gerund, present and past participle - not predicate function (to speak, asking, asked)
VP - 1st finite, than NF?
2) one-word: go, leave
multi-word: phrasal (separable or inseparable) and prepositional (inseparable) verbs: put up with, give up
3) full (lexical): open word class - bring, take, open
auxiliary: closed word class, subdivided into PRIMARY (be, do, have) and MODAL (can, may, must)
What is the syntactic classification of verbs?
Intensive (linking), extensive: transitive, intransitive, complex-transitive
Intensive: require complementation (Adj, N): She IS a doctor. He IS old. (is=copula)
-can be divided into current (be, look, feel, taste, sound, remain) and resulting (become, turn, get, grow, come).
-they form groups
Extensive:
intransitive: do not need complementation (die, leave)
transitive: require an object, can be MONOTRANSITIVE and DITRANSITIVE.
Monotransitive = one object (direct) She read a book.
Ditransitive = two objects (indirect, direct): They gave us a present.
Complex-transitive: object and its complement: They found the task easy.
Multiple membership of verbs, e.g. get
secondary predication (if predicate includes finite and non-finite predication)
no formal distinction between verbs in English (boil) X in Czech (vařit, vařit se)
What is the semantic classification of verbs?
dynamic (durative, punctual) and stative.
Dynamic = denote activities; durative: rain, play -> taking place over a period of time; punctual -> knock, tap (repeated action).
Stative = denote states, relations, attitudes, feelings; simple forms - know
some verbs can be both dynamic and stative, but they change their meaning (taste, obstinate, see)
What is the semantic classification of verbs according to Quirk and Greenbaum?
1)Stative verbs:
-states of being/having
-intellectual states
-states of emotion/attitude
-states of perception
-states of bodily sensations
2)stance verbs: lie, live,sit, stand
3)Dynamic verbs:
durative:
-activities with inanimate agents
-activities with animate agents
-changes of states
-accomplishments (a goal): finish, write
Punctual (little or no duration):
-momentary events: jump, knock, nod, tap (repetition)
-transitional events: arrive, land, leave, stop (change of state).
What is the general characteristics of VPs and what contrasts are expressed in finite VPs?
Simple X complex
finite (they play tennis) X NF (Playing tennis is good for your health)
Contrasts:
-tense: she works X She worked
- aspect: he writes X he has written X he is writting (neutral, progressive, perfect, progressive perfect)
- mood (způsob): Listen to me! He is listening to me (indicative).
-voice: active X passive
-negation: I should do it. X I shouldn’t do it.
-emphasis: The students objected X the students DID object.
- inversion (questions): I should pay X Should I pay?
What verb forms do verbs have morphologically?
regular verbs: 4 forms (base form, -s form, -ing participle, -ed form)
irregular verbs: 7 classes of irregularities, the number of forms varies among irr. verbs
What are the grammatical categories of nouns?
Number, gender, case, countability
Definiteness?
What are the functions of verb forms?
1) base form:
-finite verb (present tense apart from the 3rd person singular, imperative (listen!), present subjunctive (=It is formed by taking the infinitive form of the verb and removing to. They demand that she calls). Non-finite: bare infinitive, to-infinitive
2) -s form: 3rd pers. singular present tense
3) -ing part.:
non-finite: progressive aspect (he is watching TV), -ing participle: Calling early, he woke her up.
4) past form: finite form in the past tense
5) -ed part.: non-finite: perfect aspect
passive voice
-ed participle clause: Called early, he woke her up.
Pronunciation rules!
What are the functions of verb forms?
1) base form:
-finite verb (present tense apart from the 3rd person singular, imperative (listen!), present subjunctive (=It is formed by taking the infinitive form of the verb and removing to. They demand that she calls). Non-finite: bare infinitive, to-infinitive
2) -s form: 3rd pers. singular present tense
3) -ing part.:
non-finite: progressive aspect (he is watching TV), -ing participle: Calling early, he woke her up.
4) past form: finite form in the past tense
5) -ed part.: non-finite: perfect aspect
passive voice
-ed participle clause: Called early, he woke her up.
Pronunciation rules!
