Tài liệu Tài liệu ôn thi cao học chuyên ngành giảng dạy tiếng anh - english syntax

ÑAÏI HOÏC QUOÁC GIA THAØNH PHOÁ HOÀ CHÍ MINH TRÖÔØNG ÑAÏI HOÏC KHOA HOÏC XAÕ HOÄI & NHAÂN VAÊN Toâ Minh Thanh TAØI LIEÄU OÂN THI TUYEÅN SINH SAU ÑAÏI HOÏC CHUYEÂN NGAØNH Giaûng daïy tieáng Anh (Taùi baûn laàn thöù nhaát, coù chænh söûa) NHAØ XUAÁT BAÛN ÑAÏI HOÏC QUOÁC GIA TP HOÀ CHÍ MINH – 2008 LÔØI NOÙI ÑAÀU Thöïc teá laø khoâng phaûi saùch ngoân ngöõ cuûa taùc giaû ngöôøi nöôùc ngoaøi naøo cuõng ñaùp öùng ñuùng vaø ñuû noäi dung oân taäp thi tuyeån sinh sau ñaïi hoïc chuyeân ngaønh Giaûng daïy tieáng Anh (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) theo quy ñònh cuûa Tröôøng Ñaïi hoïc Khoa hoïc Xaõ hoäi vaø Nhaân vaên, thuoäc Ñaïi hoïc Quoác gia Thaønh phoá Hoà Chí Minh. Taøi lieäu naøy ra ñôøi nhaèm ñaùp öùng nhu caàu oân taäp thi tuyeån sinh sau ñaïi hoïc cho moân Ngöõ hoïc trong chuyeân ngaønh neâu treân. Ñeå giuùp caùc ñoái töôïng döï thi laøm quen vaø chuaån bò toát cho kyø thi cuûa mình, taøi lieäu naøy (1) bao goàm nhöõng troïng ñieåm theo ñuùng qui ñònh veà noäi dung oân taäp cuûa Ñeà cöông oân taäp Cuù phaùp cho kyø thi tuyeån sinh sau ñaïi hoïc chuyeân ngaønh Giaûng daïy tieáng Anh vaø (2) ñöôïc trình baøy thaønh boán phaàn: Phaàn 1: Caùc töø loaïi (Word Classes) Phaàn 2: Caùc loaïi ngöõ, cuù vaø caâu (Types of phrases, clauses and sentences) Phaàn 3: Caùc moái quan heä ngöõ phaùp (Grammatical relations) Phaàn 4: Moät soá ñeà thi vaø ñaùp aùn ñaõ thöïc teá ñöôïc duøng trong caùc kyø thi gaàn ñaây. Taøi lieäu naøy cuõng coù theå naèm trong thö muïc saùch tham khaûo giuùp sinh vieân heä taïi chöùc vaø heä chính quy baèng 1 vaø baèng 2 cuûa chuyeân ngaønh Ngöõ vaên Anh hoïc thaønh coâng moân Syntax trong chöông trình chính khoùa cuûa caùc heä ñaøo taïo ñaïi hoïc naøy. Ngoaøi ra, caùc hoïc vieân cao hoïc chuyeân ngaønh Giaûng daïy tieáng Anh vaø caùc thaày coâ cuûa khoùa Boài döôõng giaùo vieân taïi Tröôøng Ñaïi hoïc Khoa hoïc Xaõ hoäi vaø Nhaân vaên, thuoäc Ñaïi hoïc Quoác gia Thaønh phoá Hoà Chí Minh cuõng coù theå tham khaûo taøi lieäu naøy khi theo hoïc moân Linguistics PG trong chöông trình chính khoùa cuûa caû hai heä ñaøo taïo sau ñaïi hoïc naøy. Raát mong taøi lieäu naøy seõ giuùp caùc ñoái töôïng döï thi töï oân luyeän toát hôn duø coù ñieàu kieän hay khoâng theå tröïc tieáp theo hoïc caùc lôùp luyeän thi taïi tröôøng. Thaønh phoá Hoà Chí Minh, ngaøy 20 thaùng 1 naêm 2005. Toâ Minh Thanh vi CONTENTS Content ................................................................................................................................. i Preface.............................................................................................................................. vii Outline for revision ............................................................................................................ ix Table of notational symbols ........................................................................................... xii Section one: WORD CLASSES 1 Parts of speech, word classes and grammatical categories ............................... 1 2 Classification of word classes .......................................................................... 2 2.1 Major classes vs. minor classes ................................................................... 2 2.2 English major classes ................................................................................... 3 2.2.1 English form classes ...................................................................... 4 2.2.2 English positional classes .............................................................. 6 2.3 English minor classes ................................................................................. 10 2.4 Word-class exercises ............................................................................... 10 2.4.1 Exercises for form classes........................................................... 10 2.4.2 Exercises for positional classes ................................................... 12 Section two: TYPES of PHRASES, CLAUSES and SENTENCES 3 Phrases vs. clauses ............................................................................................... 15 4 Adjective phrases vs. adverb phrases ............................................................... 15 5 Attributive vs. predicative adjectives/adjective phrases .................................. 17 6 Noun phrases vs. verb phrases ........................................................................... 18 7 The N-bar (N’) as a level of NP-structure that is intermediate between the phrasal (NP) level and the lexical (N) level ................................ 20 8 Types of pre-nominal modifiers........................................................................... 21 8.1 Determiners .............................................................................................. 21 8.2 Quanyifying adjectives ............................................................................. 23 8.3 Adjective phrases ..................................................................................... 26 8.4 Pre-modifying nouns .................................................................................. 27 8.5 Possessive common nouns ......................................................................... 28 i 8.6 Verb participles ........................................................................................ 29 8.7 Gerunds ..................................................................................................... 30 8.8 Restricters ................................................................................................ 31 9 Types of post-nominal modifiers ......................................................................... 32 9.1 Prepositional phrases ................................................................................. 32 9.2 Adjective phrases ...................................................................................... 33 9.3 Participial phrases ..................................................................................... 35 9.4 Infinitive phrases ...................................................................................... 35 9.5 Subordinate adjective clauses .................................................................. 36 10 Noun complements vs. optional post-nominal modifiers .................................. 36 11 Classification of English verbs/verb phrases ................................................... 38 11.1 Intensive verbs/verb phrases ................................................................. 39 11.2 Complex transitive verbs/verb phrases .................................................. 40 11.3 Ditransitive verbs/verb phrases ............................................................. 43 11.4 Monotransitive verbs/verb phrases ........................................................ 47 11.5 Prepositional verbs/verb phrases ........................................................... 51 11.5.1 Monotransitive Prepositional verbs/verb phrases ................... 51 11.5.2 Ditransitive Prepositional verbs/verb phrases ........................ 53 11.6 Intransitive verbs/verb phrases ............................................................. 55 11.7 Summary of the classification of English verbs/verb phrases ............. 57 11.8 Troublesome verbs ................................................................................... 59 12 Types of clause links .......................................................................................... 61 13 Types of clauses ................................................................................................. 62 13.1 Finite clauses vs. non-finite clauses ........................................................ 62 13.2 Independent clauses vs. dependent clauses ........................................... 63 13.3 Subordinate clauses vs. embedded clauses ............................................ 64 14 Covert subjects vs. overt subjects .................................................................. 66 15 Types of finite dependent clauses .................................................................... 67 15.1 Nonimal clauses ........................................................................................ 67 15.2 Relative clauses ........................................................................................ 67 ii 15.3 Adverbial clauses ..................................................................................... 68 15.4 Reporting clauses ..................................................................................... 68 15.5 Comment clauses ...................................................................................... 68 16 Types of non-finite clauses .............................................................................. 69 16.1 Infinitive non-finite clauses .................................................................... 69 16.2 Gerund non-finite clauses ........................................................................ 69 16.3 Participial non-finite clauses ................................................................... 70 16.4 Verbless clauses ....................................................................................... 71 17 Classification of sentences according to their structures ............................. 71 17.1 Simple sentences ...................................................................................... 71 17.2 Compound sentences ................................................................................ 72 17.3 Complex sentences ................................................................................... 72 17.3.1 Embedded nominal clauses .............................................................. 73 17.3.1.1 As the subject ...................................................................... 73 17.3.1.2 As the direct object/the predicator complement ............ 78 17.3.1.3 As the indirect object ........................................................ 89 17.3.1.4 As the subject(ive) complement .......................................... 90 17.3.1.5 As the object(ive) complement ........................................... 91 17.3.1.6 As the complement of a preposition .................................... 94 17.3.2 Subordinate/embedded adjectival clauses .................................... 95 17.3.3 Subordinate/embedded adverbial clauses ..................................... 96 17.4 Compound-Complex sentences ................................................................. 97 Section three: GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS 18 Structure .......................................................................................................... 99 19 Endocentric structures vs. exocentric structures ...................................... 99 20 Types of syntactic structures ........................................................................ 100 20.1 Structures of modification ................................................................... 100 20.2 Structures of complementation ............................................................ 101 20.3 Structures of coordination .................................................................... 101 20.4 Structures of predication ..................................................................... 103 iii 21 Constructions vs. constituents ........................................................................ 104 22 Immediate constituents vs. ultimate constituents ........................................ 104 23 Immediate constituents of a sentence ........................................................... 105 24 Intervening level of organization between word and sentence ..................... 106 25 Modifiers vs. complements ............................................................................... 106 26 Types of adjective complements ...................................................................... 108 27 Pre-adjectival modifiers vs. post-adjectival modifiers ................................. 108 28 Adjective complements vs. optional post-adjectival modifiers .................... 109 29 Classification of English adjectives according to their post-modifiers ............ 111 30 Types of adverbial adjuncts ............................................................................. 112 31 Noun phrase analyses ....................................................................................... 123 32 Mis-diagraming .................................................................................................. 125 33 Structural ambiguity in English noun phrases ................................................. 126 33.1 Define a structurally ambiguous noun phrase .......................................... 126 33.2 Explain structurally ambiguous noun phrases ........................................... 128 33.3 Disambiguate structurally ambiguous noun phrases ................................. 134 33.4 Account for structurally non-ambiguous noun phrases ........................... 138 34 Verb phrase analyses .................................................................................. 140 34.1 Noun phrases as the sP/sC of an intensive verb or as the dO of a monotransitive verb ............................................................................. 140 34.2 NP direct objects of a monotransitive verb or NP adverbial adjuncts of an intransitive verb .............................................................. 141 34.3 Prepositional phrases as the sP/sC of an intensive verb or as the optional adverbial adjunct of any verb ............................................ 142 34.4 IntransVAC vs. intransV—Adv .............................................................. 143 34.5 MonotransVAC—NP vs. intransV—PP .................................................... 144 34.6 MonotransVAC—NP vs. monotrans-prepV—prepO ............................... 146 35 Sentence analyses ....................................................................................... 147 35.1 Identify the syntactic function of a PP ................................................... 147 35.2 Decide whether a PP is part of the complementation of a ditransitive verb ..................................................................................... 148 iv 35.3 Explain the difference between two sentences ...................................... 151 35.4 Re-analyse sentence pairs, using tree-diagrams .................................. 154 36 Structural ambiguity in English verb phrases ................................................ 157 37 Phrase structure ............................................................................................... 162 37.1 Definition ................................................................................................. 162 37.2 How to determine phrase structure? ..................................................... 162 37.2.1 Substitution .............................................................................. 162 37.2.2 Conjoinability ............................................................................. 165 37.2.3 Movement .................................................................................. 166 37.2.4 Checking the antecedent for a pro-form ................................ 167 37.3 Phrase structure exercises .................................................................... 167 38 Phrase structure rules ..................................................................................... 170 39 Surface structures vs. deep structures ......................................................... 172 40 Signals of syntactic structures ....................................................................... 174 40.1 Word order .............................................................................................. 174 40.2 Function words ......................................................................................... 174 40.3 Inflection ................................................................................................. 175 40.4 Derivational contrast .............................................................................. 176 40.5 Prosody .................................................................................................... 176 41 What is syntax? ............................................................................................... 177 Section four: SAMPLE TESTS IN ENGLISH LINGUISTICS ................................. 178 Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 197 v Ñaïi Hoïc Quoác Gia Tp. Hoà Chí Minh TRÖÔØNG ÑAÏI HOÏC KHOA HOÏC XAÕ HOÄI & NHAÂN VAÊN
  ÑEÀ CÖÔNG OÂN TAÄP THI TUYEÅN SINH CAO HOÏC Moân Cô sôû: LINGUISTICS (cho chuyeân ngaønh Giaûng daïy tieáng Anh) 1. Linguistics (a) Semantics - The expression of meaning in English at the word and sentence level; - The relations of different kinds of meaning; - Meaning shifts or words; - Use of language in social interaction. (b) Syntax - Word classes; - Grammatical relations; - Types of phrases, clauses & sentences. 2. Academic Writing Write an essay of 250 - 300 words on an issue of second language teaching and learning. REFERENCES Fromkin V. et al (1988) An Introduction to Language. Sydney: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Hurdford, J. R. & Heasley, B. (1984) Semantics. A Course Book. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jordan, R.R. (1990) Academic Writing Course. Collins ELT. A Division of Harper Collins Publishers. Kaplan, J.P. (1989) English Grammar. Principles and Facts. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. viii ix SEMANTICS GUIDELINES FOR REVIEW I. Semantic Properties and Semantic Fields II. Reference and Sense III. Denotation and Connotation IV. Taxonomy—Hypernyms and Hyponyms V. Multiple Senses of Lexical Items * Primary Sense * Secondary Senses (polysemy) * Figurative Senses (metaphors, similes, metonymy, synecdoche, euphemism, hyperbole, litotes, alliteration, assonance, consonance) VI. Synonymy vs. Antonymy VII. Homonyms (homophones and homograph), acronyms, anomaly VIII. Speech Acts Propositions-Utterances-Sentences Performative sentences Presuppositions and Implicatures Felicity conditions Speech events Deixis (time, place, person) Pragmatic meaning Maxims of conversation Maxims of politeness x ENGLISH SYNTAX Introduction • Syntax: “the study of how words combine to form sentences and the rules which govern the information of sentences” (Richards, Platt & Weber) • Traditional grammar — Structural grammar — Transformational grammar Five signals of syntactic structures: Word order, Prosody, Function words, Inflections, and Derivational contrast (Francis, 1958: 234) Word classes: open ad closed classes • Chapters 1 & 2 in Jackson (1980) • Chapter 5 in Francis (1958) • “The Grammar of English” by Heatherington, in Clar et al (1981: 329-42) • What do native speakers know about their language? by Jacbs and Rosenbaum, in Clark et al (1981: 343-49) • Open classes: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs (Jackson, 1980) • Closed classes: Pronouns, Numerals, Determiners, Prepositions, Conjunctions (Jackson, 1980) IC’s in Syntax Four basic types of syntactic structures: modification, predication, complementation, and coordination (Francis, 1958) Endocentric and exocentric constructions (Bloomfield, 1933; Nida, 1966) Noun phrases Types of modifiers in noun phrases • Chapter 6 in Francis (1958) • Chapter 6 in Fromkin et al (1990) • Chapter 1in Nida (1996) • John Lyons (translated version) pp. 368-70 Chapter 3 in Jackson (1980) • Premodification: identifier, numeral/quantifier, adjective, noun modifier • Postmodification: relative clauses, non-finite clauses, prepositional phrases Verb phrases: tense, aspect, mood, voice Chapter 4 in Jackson (1980) Adjective phrases, adverb phrases, and Chapter 5 in Jackson (1980) prepositional phrases Clauses • Structures and types • Dependent clauses Phrase structure rules & Transformational rules Chapter 6 & 7 in Jackson (1980) Chapter 5 in Fromkin et al (1990) xi NOTATIONAL SYMBOLS Most of the symbols used in this text follow conventions, but since conventions vary, the following list indicates the meanings assigned to them here. A = adjective iO = indirect object Adv = (general) adverb M = modifier ART = article ModN = pre-modifying noun AP = adjective phrase monotrans = monotransitive verb AdvP = adverb phrase monotrans-prep = monotransitive C = complement prepositional verb ComN = compound noun monotransVAC = monotransitive verbadverbial composite Comp = complementizer N = noun complex = complex transitive verb Conj = conjunction N’ = N-bar Co-P = a coordination of Prepositions nC = noun complement Co-PP = a coordinate Prepositional NP = noun phrase phrase NUM = numeral/number Co-NP = a coordinate noun phrase opA = optional adverbial adjunct Co-AP = a coordinate adjective phrase obA = obligatory adverbial adjunct DEG = degree adverb oC = object(ive) complement DEM = demonstrative oP = object-predicative DET = determiner POST-MOD = post-modifier dO = direct object POST-DET = post-determiner ditrans = ditransitive verb PRE-MOD = pre-modifier ditrans-prep = ditransitive PRE-DET = pre-determiner prepositional verb PRO = pronoun EmACl = embedded adjective clause PropN = proper noun EmAdvCl = embedded adverbial clause Poss = possessive EXCLAMATORY DET = exclamatory PossA = possessive adjective determiner PossPropN = possessive proper noun [E E] = empty/covert/zero/implicit subject PossCommN = possessive common noun PossMarker = possessive marker H = the head PossNP = possessive noun phrase headN = the head noun predC = predicator complement headPRO = the head pronoun P = preposition headPropN = the head proper noun prep = prepositional verb headA = the head adjective prepO = prepositional object headGer = the head gerund prepC = complement of a preposition IC = immediate constituent PP = prepositional phrase InfP = infinitive phrase PartP = participial phrase intens = intensive verb Q = quantifier intrans = intransitive verb QA = quantifying adjective intransVAC = intransitive verbRESTRIC = restricter adverbial composite S = sentence xii S’= S-bar sC = subject(ive) complement sP = subject-predicative SubACl = subordinate adjective clause SubAdvCl = subordinate adverbial clause VP = verb phrase Vgrp = verb group V-Part = verb participle V-Ger = gerund Prt = adverbial particle VAC = verb-adverbial composite * = unaccepted form ? = doubtfully acceptable form [ ] = embedded unit / = or φ = unfilled ⇒ = one-way dependence ⇔ = two-way dependence xiii SECTION 1: WORD CLASSES 1 Parts of speech, word classes and grammatical categories1 “The traditional term ‘parts of speech’ is puzzling; it’s not clear why kinds of words — really, classes of words — would be ‘parts’ of speech any more than, say, phonemes, allophones, morphemes, allomorphs, or even phrases or sentences. In fact, instead of ‘parts of speech,’ linguists usually employ the terms ‘word class’ or ‘grammatical category.’ The term ‘grammatical category’ is a useful one, since it captures an important aspect of a ‘part of speech,’ namely, that all tokens of a particular part of speech share important grammatical characteristics that other parts of speech lack. The term ‘word class,’ however, is valuable in its simplicity and is certainly an improvement over ‘part of speech’.” [Kaplan, 1989: 105] 1 “The syntactic categories of words and groups of words are revealed by the way they pattern in sentences. If you didn’t have knowledge of these syntactic categories, you would be unable to form grammatical sentences or distinguish between grammatical and ungrammatical sentences.” [Fromkin et al, 1988: 214] For example, the child belong to a family that includes the police officer, your neighbour, this yellow cat, he, and countless others. Each member of this family can be substituted for the child without affecting the grammaticality of the sentence, although the meanings of course would change. “A family of expressions that can substitute for one another without loss of grammaticality is called a syntactic category.” [Fromkin and Rodman, 1993: 79] 1 2 Classification of word classes 2.1 Major classes vs. minor classes: Kaplan, [1989: 106] divides word classes into two main groups—major and minor. major classes minor classes 1. The major classes — nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs — have a great many members, e.g. a hundred thousand nouns. 1. The minor classes — pronouns, 2. Major class words tend to have referential meanings, since they involve, or allow, reference to actual things, actions, events, or properties, e.g. “Horse means that kind of animals.” uttered while pointing to a horse. 3. Major classes are receptive to new members. As a result, major classes are also called open classes [Jackson, 1980: 7]. Originating in slang or casual contexts are the following new nouns, verbs, and adjectives (new adverbs are harder to come up with): teflon, yuppie, nerd (nouns); scam, boot up, book (verbs); rad, gnardly, killer, tubular, (adjectives). 2 numerals, determiners, prepositions, conjunctions, and so on — have few members. It’s easy to list all the articles of English: a, an, and the. There are maybe 70 prepositions and approximately a dozen subordinate conjunctions: when, since, because, after, before, while, although, as, etc. 2. Minor class words tend not to have referential meanings. That is their meanings are not easily specified by means of a neat definition, e.g. how would you define the or of? In other words, “the open classes bear the greatest load in terms of meaning, in the sense of refrence to things in the world while the function of closed classes is oriented more towards internal linguistic relationships.” [Jackson, 1980: 7] 3. Minor classes are not receptive to new members; they are closed. It’s unlikely you can think of any last new slangy article, conjunction, pronoun, or preposition you’ve learned. 2.2 English major classes: In defining major/open classes, Stageberg [1965: 191-219] presents a double-track classification, one by form and the other by position2. 2 1. House and Harman [1965] also classifies major/open classes according to their meaning. “According to the meaning they represent, nouns may be divided into several classes: common or proper, concrete or abstract, collective, individual, mass, material, etc.” [House and Harman, 1965: 22] “When classified as to meaning, adjectives are descriptive or definitive, some of each class having definite and some indefinite application.” [House and Harman, 1965: 73] 2. Fromkin et al [1988, 214-215] present three types of criteria to define major/open classes: - Form: The class of a word may be apparent from its form. Certain inflectional and derivational morphemes are associated with certain word classes. - Function: The class of words may be indicated by the way it functions in a phrase or sentence. For example, in the sentence He will not score any more runs unless he runs faster. The first runs is recognized as a noun and the second as a verb because of their function. - Meaning: Some words are commonly classified according to their semantic type, such as abstract nouns (truth, kindness, beauty) and stative verbs (be, appear, resemble). Unfortunately meaning is not a reliable guide because there are many words which belong to more than one word class (kick, love, drink), but those whose meaning remains essentially the same. Meaning is therefore best regarded as a secondary criterion, to be used to check the purely grammatical criteria of form and function. 3. Kaplan [1989:108] points out that one problem with the traditional definition of noun and verb since it is meaning-based (a noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing; a verb is a word that names an action or state), it ought to be universal — valid in all languages, that is. But concepts that are encoded linguistically as nouns in one language may be encoded as verbs or adjectives in others. In English, for example, we normally say I’m hungry, using an adjective to describe how we feel; but in Spanish one says tengo hambre — literally, “I have hunger”, using a noun, hambre, to describe the same feeling. 3 Stageberg’s four form classes are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Each form-class has its correlative position class, which will be later labelled as nominals, verbals, adjectivals, or adverbials. 2.2.1 English form classes 2.2.1.1 Nouns Noun are identified as nouns by two aspects of form, their inflectional morphemes, and their derivational morphemes. 2.2.1.1.1 The two noun inflectional suffixes in English are:
The noun plural morpheme {–S1}: book–s, apple–s, box–es, etc.  The noun possessive morpheme {–S2}: man–’s, girl–’s, students–’, Alice–’s, etc. 2.2.1.1.2 Nouns are identified not only by inflectional morphemes but also by noun-forming derivational suffixes added to verbs, adjectives, nouns, and bound forms: accept → acceptance, big → bigness, book → booklet, dent- → dentist, etc. 2.2.1.2 Verbs Verbs are identified as verbs by two aspects of form, their inflectional morphemes, and their derivational morphemes. 2.2.1.2.1 The four verb inflectional suffixes in English are:
The verb third person singular present tense morpheme {–S3}: walk–s, find–s, mix–es, etc.  The verb present participle morpheme {–ing1}: play–ing, typ(e)–ing, dig(g)–ing, etc.  The verb past simple morpheme {–D1}: flow–ed, work–ed, creat(e)–ed, drank, broke, thought, show–ed, etc.  The verb past participle morpheme {–D2}: flow–ed, work–ed, creat(e)–ed, drunk, broken, thought, show–n, etc. 2.2.1.2.2 Verbs are identified not only by inflectional morphemes but also by verb-forming derivational affixes added to nouns or adjectives: knowledge → acknowledge, bath → bathe, ripe → ripen, large → enlarge, etc. 4 2.2.1.3 Adjectives Adjectives are identified as adjectives by two aspects of form, their inflectional morphemes, and their derivational morphemes. 2.2.1.3.1 The two adjective inflectional suffixes in English are:
The adjective comparative morpheme {–er1}: small–er, saf(e)–er, thinn–er, etc.  The adjective superlative morpheme {–est1}: small–est, saf(e)–est, thinn–est, etc. 2.2.1.3.2 Adjectives are identified not only by inflectional morphemes but also by adjective-forming derivational suffixes3 added to nouns or verbs: athlete → athletic, child → childish, collect → collective, read → readable, etc. In short, “a word which is inflected with –er and –est and which is capable of forming adverbs with –ly and/or nouns with –ness is called an adjective.” [Stageberg, 1965: 202] Or, “an adjective will be any word which has one or more of the following positive attributes: i. it can occur between Article and Noun. ii. it can occur in the slot (Art) N is _____. iii. it can occur before (or contains) –er and –est, or after more and most. and in addition has all of the following negative attributes. i. it cannot occur with a plural. ii. it cannot occur with a possessive. iii. it cannot occur in the slot (Art) N _____Verb.” [Kaplan, 1989: 116] 3 There is a group of about seventy-five, mostly of two syllables, which begin with the prefix a-: afoot, aground, awake, agape, aloud, afresh, alert, adroit, etc. “These are uninflected words (UW’s) because they take no inflectional endings. Although they do have the prefix a- in common, it seems unwise to label them formally as either adjectives or adverbs since positionally they appear in both adjectival and adverbial slots.” [Stageberg, 1965: 206] 5 2.2.1.3.4 Adverbs 2.2.1.3.4.1 The two adverb inflectional suffixes in English are:
The adverb comparative morpheme {–er1}: fast–er, hard–er, etc.  The adverb superlative morpheme {–est 1}: fast–est, hard–est, etc. 2.2.1.3.4.2 Adverbs are identified not only by inflectional morphemes but also by the adverb-forming derivational suffix {–ly1}4 added to adjectives: just → justly, beautiful→ beautifully, etc. 2.2.2 English positional classes According to Stageberg [1965: 196-219], the four positional classes in English are the nominal, the verbal, the adjectival and the adverbial. 2.2.2.1 “Any word, whatever its form-class (noun, verb, comparable, pronoun, uninflected word) will be tabbed a nominal if it occupies one of the seven noun positions” [Stageberg,1965:196] listed below: 1. The position of the subject: - Upstairs IS the safest hiding place. “In the word-stock of English there are many uninflected words often employed in the adverbial positions: 1. Uninflected words used both as adverbials and prepositions: above, about, after, around, before, behind, below, down, in, inside, on, out, outside, since, to, under, up. 2. “-ward” series, with optional –s: afterward, backward, downward, forward, homeward, inward, northward, outward, upward, windward. 3. “Here” series: here, herein, hereby, heretofore, hereafter. 4. “There” series: there, therein, thereby, theretofore, thereafter. 5. “-where” series: anywhere, everywhere, somewhere, nowhere. 6. “-ways” series: crossways, sideways; also, anyway. 7. “-time” series: meantime, sometime, anytime, sometimes. 8. Miscellaneous: today, tonight, tomorrow, yesterday, now, then, seldom, still, yet, already, meanwhile, also, too, never, not, forth, thus, sidelong, headlong, maybe, perhaps, instead, indeed, henceforth, piecemeal, nevertheless, downstairs, indoors, outdoors, offhand, overseas, unawares, besides, furthermore, always.” [Stageberg, 1965:215] 4 6 - For Glenda to steal the diamond WOULD BE a shame. 2. The position of the direct object: I HATE telling lies. I WANT to think critically. 3. The position of the indirect object: She GAVE whomever she met different offers. She GAVE nobody a hand shake. 4. The position of the retained object: We WERE GIVEN the thinnest. 5. The position of the subject(ive) complement: This book IS hers. My favorite pastime IS swimming. 6. The position of the object(ive) complement: You’VE MADE me what I am. They NAMED the little dog Neky. 7. The position of the complement of a preposition: He IS interested in nothing. The elevator has been used for many years without being repaired. 2.2.2.2 “Verbals are those forms that occupy the verb positions … They come after the opening noun or noun phrase … There are four verbals in She must have been loafing last week and two in I should leave the house in ten minutes. Also, any verb form taking a subject or a complement (OV, SC, or Adj) or modified by an adverbial is a verbal, regardless of its position. 1. Becoming angry, she broke the dish. 2. Being a minister, Prentice spoke softly. 3. After having eaten the turnips, Prentice tried to look satisfied. 4. The light having gone out, we lighted candles. 7