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Extremely arbitrary and unpredictable. e.g., “He sat in the chair. He sat on the chair.” In line vs. on line Most often, they must be learned as collocations. E.g., think about or dream about 2

In English (and Spanish) prepositions are sometimes used to indicate case since English nouns have lost case markers, except for the possessive, e.g., John’s car 3

Where English distinguishes in from on when indicating location/position, Spanish does not have two prepositions. Spanish has multi-word prepositions too, e.g., en vez de, and a pesar de 4

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Compound: John likes Latin jazz but Mary likes blues. Complex: Luis got an A on the test because he listened to the professor’s presentations several times. Sonia hoped that the test would be easy. 6

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I propose that the professor postpone the test. [No –s on verb after 3rd per. Sing. Subject] I propose that the test be postponed. I wish (that) I had $1,000,000. http://www.englishpage.com/minitutorials/subjunctive.html The mood does not always match the actual intended use. E.g., when a mother “asks” her child: Would you please clean up your room? She is NOT asking a question. 9

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Grammatical Metalanguage Part 6 ENGLISH 5050: English Syntax and Morphology All quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from Chapter 2 of The Grammar Book, 2nd edition. Robert F. van Trieste, Ph.D.

Prepositions Semantic definition “any member of a class of words found in many languages that are used before nouns, pronouns, or other substantives to form phrases functioning as modifiers of verbs, nouns, or adjectives, and that typically express a spatial, temporal, or other relationship, as in, on, by, to, since.” Random House Webster’s unabridged Dictionary Like other function words, such as articles (the), it is easier to list them than to define them. Analysing Sentences, 2nd edition Structural characteristics Position “The word that follows . . . is usually a noun [phrase].” Function “connect words to other parts of a sentence . . . .” They are function “words that express relations”. Analysing Sentences, 2nd edition “can signal the grammatical category of case . . . . Case depicts the role relationship between words.”

Prepositions and Case Dative (receiver) Case Marge gave a donation to charity. Ablative (source) Case The charity received a donation from Marge.

Preposition Lists Single word prepositions after, at, before, between, by, down, during, for, from, in, of, off, since, to, towards, until, up, with, within (This is not a complete list.) Multiple word prepositions (complex prepositions) according to, instead of, in front of, in spite of, out of, on top of, on behalf of (This is not a complete list.)

Conjunctions Semantic definition “words that join.” Structural characteristics ? Function Types Coordinating “join elements that are grammatically equal.” and, but, or, (nor) Subordinating (adverbial subordinator) “join a subordinate clause to a main one.” “Any construction containing a subject-verb relationship is a clause.” because, although, etc. Correlative conjunctions “are pairs of conjunctions that work together to coordinate two items. English examples include both … and, (n)either … (n)or, and not (only) … but (also)....” "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_conjunction

Sentential Terminology Sentence Types Simple “contains at least one subject and one verb and can stand alone as an independent clause.” Compound “consists of two or more clauses of equal grammatical importance.” Complex Types “One type . . . contains a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses.” “In the second type . . . a dependent clause is embedded, or included, in an independent clause.”

The Five Basic (simple) Sentence Patterns (in English) Subject + Verb The building collapsed. Subject + Verb + Object They bought a new car. Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object She wrote him a letter. Subject + Verb + Subject Predicate (Complement) Janet is my friend. Subject + Verb + Object + Object Predicate (Complement) She makes me happy.

Sentence Moods “Moods conveys the speaker’s attitude toward the factual content of the sentence.” Main Moods Declarative (indicative) [statement] Today is Tuesday. Interrogative [question] What are you going to wear to the party? Imperative [command] Pass the milk, please. Minor Moods Exclamatory [exclamation] What a beautiful day it is! Subjunctive I wish (that) I were going with you.

Mood “Four of the five moods have sentence type counterparts (see previous slide), but the subjunctive in English can be marked only by using a different form of the verb from the form ordinarily called for. Usually, the subjunctive uses either the uninflected base form or were.” Past forms are also used to indicate subjunctive “A sentence type does not necessarily match its function.”

Markedness Marked “any exceptions from what is very typical, very predictable.” Markedness can be thought of “as a continuum from ... unmarked to ... highly marked.” want - wanted write - wrote – written book - books datum – data big - bigger - biggest good - better - best

Voice Active “In the active voice the subject functions as the theme and is most often the actor or agent of some action.” Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico in 1493. Passive “the thing acted upon by the agent has been made the theme.” Puerto Rico was discovered (by Christopher Columbus) in 1493. “The selection of the passive over the active allows the speaker or writer to thematize noun phrases other than agents.” Middle “. . . allows the subject of a sentence to be nonagentive . . . but the morphology of the verb to be in the active voice.” The glass shattered.

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