Unit 1

Content of communication (representational meaning):

- Processes
- Participants
- Attributes: qualities
- Circumstances

Interpreting clause structure:

Janice Will give Chris The bill Tomorrow

Experiential agent process recipient affected Circumstance

Interpersonal Subject Finite Object Object Adjunct

+predicator

Textual Theme Rheme --

EXERCISE 1 (participant or recipient)

1P
2P
3C
4C
5P

EXERCISE 2 (subject, object, adjunct)

1A
2S
3A
4 DO
5A

UNIT 2

Testing for constituents

1. Coordination
2. Wh- questions
3. Clefting (it+that clause)
4. Wh- clefting
5. Passivisation

Classes of clauses

A. Finite vs non-finite
- Finite (fin. cl): tensed; person and number; finite operators → marked by either tense/modality
- Non-finite (V-non-fin/non-fin. cl): infinitive; to+inf; -ing; past participle (-en)
B. Independent vs dependent
- Independent (indep.cl)
 - Dependent (dep.cl)
-
C. Finite dependent clauses
- Circumstantial clauses (subordinators)
- Relative clauses (relativisers)
- Nominal clauses (embedded as a constituent)
- That-clause; wh-nominal relative clause; wh-interrogative clause
- Comparative clauses
- Supplementative units (subordinate, note embedded; commas, dash, intonation)
- Verbless
- Abbreviated clauses

Classes of groups

Nominal group NG
- pre-modifier (m) + Head (h) + post-modifier (m)
Verbal group VG
- finite operator (o) + auxiliaries (x) + main element (v)
Adjectival group AdjG
Adverbial group AdvG
Prepositional Phrase PP

EXERCISE 3

1 2

A N N

B Y N

C N Y

D N Y

EXERCISE 4 (a. independent, b. dependent finite, c. dependent non-finite;d. abbreviated; e. verbless)

1. A
2. C xxx E
3. C
4. B
5. C xxx A
6. D
7. E
8. B
9. B
10. A

EXERCISE 5

1. NG
2. AdvG xxx AdjG
3. PP
 4. AdvG
5. VG
6. AdjG
7. NG
8. PP

UNIT 3

Finite operators:
- primary: to be + have
- modal
- do

Non-assertive words
Any words; ever; yet; hardly; etc: non-assertive + non-factual meaning, non-fulfilment/potentiality

Scope of negation: the rest of the clause that follows the negative word.
- assertive forms are outside the scope.

EXERCISE 6
1. It won't be difficult to find a nice present for harry.
Won't it be difficult to find a nice present for harry?
2. Sheila hasn't anything to tell you.
Hasn't Sheila anything to tell you?
3. No-one has left a bag on a seat in the park.
Hasn't anyone left a bag on a seat in the park?
4. He doesn't know anyone who lives in Glasgow.
Doesn't he know anyone who lives in Glasgow?
5. It isn't worth going to see any of those pictures.
Isn't it worth going to see any of those pictures?

EXERCISE 7

1. Any
2. ever // anything
3. anywhere
4. anyone

UNIT 4

Subject, predicator, object, complement, adjunct

Subject: main participant

Predicator: verbal group
Object: Od / Oi
Complement: Cs / Co

subject + predicate (predicator + objects + complements + adjuncts)

The plane landed
Tom disappeared suddenly after the concert

The students carried backpacks

Jo is a student
All the men wore dark suits
Tom sent me an email
that map was useful
We found that map useful
Ken Brown is President
they made Ken Brown President.

The adjunct:
- circumstancial: place, time, manner, etc
- stance: attitude, evulation
- connective: linking

Criteria for classification of clause elements:

- Determination by the verb:

- transitive: one or more objects (S-P-Oi-Od/ S-P-O-C)
- intransitive: no objects; some admit complements
- locative elements: predict direction and goal (Cloc)
- Copular verbs: require Subject Complement: I am cold/I feel cold
- verbs of being also predict location
- position:
- Objects after the verb: S-P-Oi-Od
- Complements after verb/object
- adjuncts: different positions, moveable.
- ability to become the subject:
- objects can normally become in passive
- realization of clausal elements
- subject + objects: NG
- Cs / Co : Adj / NG
- Circumstantial adjuncts: PP / AdvG

UNIT 5

The subject:

- semantic and cognitive features:

- primary participant, cognitive status of Topic
- voulntary verbs of action -- role of agent
- almost every other semantic role: recipient, affected, force
- syntactic features
- must be present in declarative and interrogative, not imperative
- refer to in question tags (pronoun)
- subjective case if it's a pronoun
- possessive pronouns and genitive nouns
- before finite verb
- after finite operator (y/n ; wh- not subject)
- determines concord of number and person
- determines tenese of to be
- determines number, person, gender concord with Cs and reflexive pronouns
- ellipsis after the first
- collective nouns depende on perspective
- realisation
- nominal groups + pronouns
 - finite (that and wh-clauses); non-finite clauses (ing, inf, to inf) + with own sbject
- anticipatory it + end-placed subject (extraposed subject)
- with copulative verbs: obligatory extraposition
- minor realisations:
- dummy it: non-referential, semantically empty
- unstressed there (place-holder/syntactic filler): several syntactic criteria for
subjects, but can't be replaced by pronouns; concord with NG
- Adjectival NG head: human characteristics / abstactions
The predicator
- realised by finite lexical, primary, non-fiite verbs
- finiteness carried by auxiliary verb to specify tense/voice + followed by predicator
- semantically: doing; experiencing; being

UNIT 6

Direct object:
- syntactic and semantic features:
- only in transitive verbs, after the predicator and indirect object
- realised by NG and clauses
- subject in passive
- tested by who, what, which, how much/many + wh-clefts
- semantic roles: affected, instrument, phenomenon, affected locative
- Range Ods = have a rest, take a nap -- NG = deverbal noun (derived from verb)
- realisation:
- Nominal Group
- pronoun, proper name, full NG
- non-typical direct objects: have, cost, lack, fit, contain, weigh, measure
- what, who, how much/many
- don't passive, but pass the wh-cleft test
- anticipatory it
- S-P-Od-Co ; Od = finite/non-finite clause
- I find it flattering having so many fans.
- finite clause
- nominal that-clauses (that often omitted in formal)
- wh-clauses
- both can be subject in passive and then extraposed
- non-finite clause
- infinite clauses with/without to
- ing clauses
- criteria:
- replaced by NG or it/that: prefer the train/prefer it
- focus of wh-cleft sentence
- NOT catenatives (he failed to appear)
- many embedded occur with an explicit subject:
- to + infinitive: the villagers want the soldiers to leave
- ing clause subject: do you mind my waiting here?
- prepositional phrase
- eg: just before breakfast is not a good time

Indirect Object
- syntactic and semantic roles
- only in verbs that take 2 objects
- realised by NG/wh-nominal clause/pronoun
 - semantic roles: recipient + beneficiary
- recipient = subject in passive; beneficiary not easily subject
- prepositional paraphrase -- recipient: to; beneficiary: for
- Oi can be omitted
- with some verbs, Od can be omitted
- realisation:
- NG, wh-nominal relative clauses

Prepositional verbs and the prepositional complement (PC) or object (PO)

- types of verb + preposition combinations
- type A (look+after) = phrasal verbs
- type B (rely+on) = cluster verb + prep -- not used without preposition
- type C (apply+for; approve+of) -- verb can function without prep with different
meaning
- Stranding and fronting
- stranding: preposition close to verb, displaced from position in a PC
- the music we listened to
- fronting: preposition before complement
- the music to which we listened
- Type 1 don't admit fronting, yes stranding; types 2 and 3 admit both
- the prepositional passive
- often, the NG complement of a PP = subject in passive
- preposition obligatorily stranded: Jane can be relied on
- realisation of the Prepositional Object
- Normally NG, also nominal clauses and non-finite ing clauses

Phrasal verbs: the verb + particle combination

- syntactic features:
- lexical verb + adverbial particle
- transitive / intransitive (some as both)
- noun as object: precede or follow particle // pronouns, always precede
- phrasal verbs vs prepositional verbs
- pronoun follows preposition, but precedes particle of phrasal verb
- particle is stressed, preposition is unstressed
- adverb can be placed between verb and preposition
- if adverb particle is directional, it can be fronted for rhetorical purposes
- phrasal-prepositional verbs:
- lexical verb + adverbial particle + preposition
- take a prepositional object or PC in the clause
- Many verbs can be foloows by a PP as circumstantial Locative/Goal Complement
- I'll call on Dr Jones vs I'll call on Friday.

UNIT 7 SUBJECT AND OBJECT COMPLEMENTS

The complement of the subject

- syntactic and semantic features
- obligatory constituent following a copular verb, not subject in passives
- completes the predicate
- objective case more general (it's me) except formal (it's I/I am he)
- it is Cs if verb replaced by be + can't stand alone
- problems: verbs that could be intransitive (She died young vs she died)
- wil be complements if it can be paraphrased with to be
- he died when he was young
 - normally number agreement, but frequent exceptions
- copular verbs predict attributive (not reversible) and identifying (reversible)
- realisation of the Subject Complement
- Attributive Complements (S-P-Cs) - she was ambitious
- AdjG; NG; as + NG
- Identifying Complements (S-P-Cs) - her name was Bettina
- NG; Fin. that-cl.; Nominal relative cl.; Non-fin. bare inf.cl.; Non-fin. to-inf.-S.;
Non-fin. for.+S ; Non-fin. ing cl.-S; Non-fin. ing cl.+S

The complement of the Object (Co)

- syntactic and semantic features
- completes the predicate fater verbs such as find, make and appoint
- immediately after the Direct Object: You (S) are making (P) me (Od) angry(Co).
- typically number agreement with Do (exceptions: ize, shape, colour, height, etc)
- characterise the Do; qualitative, substantive; circumstantial
- How to test: adjunct and verb to be
- they left the house in a mess ; the house was in a mess
- they left the house in 5 minutes; the house was in 5 minutes
- realisation
- Attributive Cos: AdjG; NG; Finite nomial cl.; non-finite -en cl.
- Nominal Co introduced by prepositions: regard sb as, take sb for

UNIT 8

Adjuncts
- Syntactic and semantic features
- possible to have a number of adjucnts in a clause, can be omitted
- flexibility
- main classes
- circumstantial adjuncts
- experiential details: where, when how, why, what for, etc
- SP(A) The bells rang all day long
- SPOD (A) Tom hired a car at Doncaster.
- SPPC(A) You must allow for delays in holiday periods.
- SPOiOd(A) He sends me flowers through Interflora
- SPCs(A) The weather is rather unpredictable in these parts.
- SPOdCo(A) They expected to find themselves
- can be made focus of a cleft: it was last month that Tom came.
- realisation:
- Adverb. She called me yesterday.
- AdvG. She called me too late.
- PP. She called me from the office.
- NG She called me this morning.
- Finite clause. She called me while I was out.
- Non-fin. to-inf.cl. She called to tell me the news.
- Non-fin.-ing cl. She called me, using her mobile.
- Non-fin.-en cl. She called me, scared out of her wits.
- Verbless clause. Afraid to leave the house, she called me.
- set off by comma: supplementatives (reduced clauses of
menas or reason)
- central clause elements
- status of complement, clause is incomplete without them
- location in place or time after verb of position (be, stay, live)
 - extent in place or time after verbs such as take, last
- direction and Gaol after verbs of movement
- Source
- Manner
- Stance Adjuncts
- express speaker's evaluation or comment, viewpoint
- somewhat separate from the clause, normally before or after, or between
commas
- Main kinds
- Epistemic:
- validity of content (certainty, doubt, possibility, obviousness)
- Evidential:
- source of knowledge/information
- Evaluative:
- attitudinal, reflect subjective/objective attitude of speaker
- Style and domain:
- comment on way the speaker is speaking
- realisation:
- Adverbs: surely, obviously, frankly, honestly, confidentially, hopefully,
probably
- PPs: in fact, in reality, at a rough guess, by any chance, of course
- Non-fin cl: to be honest, to tell the truth, strictly speaking
- Fin. cl: if I may be frank with you. ; don't take this personally, but
- Connective Adjuncts
- how speaker understands semantic connection between utterances
- connectors of structure
- between groups, clauses, sentences, paragraphs
- many different types: additive, contrast, causal, temporal
- realisation:
- Adverbs: nevertheless, moreover, first, therefore, next, now namely,
accordingly, consequently, alternatively
- PPs: in other words, by the way, on top of that
- AdjGs: last of all, better still
- AdvGs: more accurately
- Fin.cl: that is to say, what is more
- Non-fin.cl: to sum up, to cap it all
- Discourse markers: well, now, so, oh, right,
- double role: mark speaker's turn +management info/attitude

UNIT 9

Subject-verb
- pure intransitive pattern: one-place verb, subject, no complements
- verbs of behaviour, weather, occurrence
- idiomatic intransitive phrasal verbs

Subject-verb-locative complement (Cloc)

- other intransitives require a Complement to complete meaning
- location in place or time: be, stand, live, remain, lie
- movement + manner of movement: walk, run, stroll, crawl, fly
- pragmatic inference of circumstantial meanings
- verbs of movement/position can function as pure or followed by complement
- choice: enough context, location pragmatically inferred
Subject-verb-adjunct
- verbs like work, arrive, retire, stop: circumstantial adjunct, not requirement

Subject-verb-complement of the Subject

- copular verbs: link subject with complement that characterises the subject referent
- be + adjectives / NG
- remain, keep, taste, smeel, sound, fall, feel, come, grow, turn + limited adjectives
- verbs of being and becoming:
- being: stative, current/existing attributes
- becoming: dynamic, resulting attribute (grow: gradual; go: drastic)
- other linking verbs: normally without a complement function as copulas with specific
adjectives as Cs (The child fell flat on its face)

UNIT 10 TRANSITIVE PATTERNS

Verbs used transitively and intransitively

- with the same meaning
- types
- verbs with an implied Object: smoke, drive, drink, save, wave
- valency reduced: 2 --1
- Causatives with an intransitive counterpart, ergative pair
- She clicked the camera; the camera clicked
- Verbs with a reflexive meaning: he shaved (himself)
- With a reciprocal meaning: Tom and Jo met (each other) at a concert

Subject-verb-prepositional complement
- Prepositional verbs
- Phrasal prepositional verbs

Subject-verb-indirect object-direct object

- Verbs of transfer (give, lend) and intended transfer (buy, get)
- Basic ditransitive pattern; 3-place verbs: subject + 2 Objects
- Also act verbs: offer, promise
- Transfer: Hand, lend, offer, owe, pass, promise, read, send, show, teach, throw, write
- Have a prepositional counterpart: prepositional complement (give to; get for)
- Intended transfer: service for someone
- Book, bring, build, buy, cash, cut, fetch, find, leave, spare, keep, make, pour,
save
- Two passives
- Jo was given a copy (subject: Oi; Recipient participant)
- A copy was given to Jo (subject: Od; Recipient = prepositional complement)
- Common three-place verbs
- Explain + Od + Prepositional complement
- Announce, confess, deliver, mention, return, say
- Deliver + Od + goal complement
- Wish + Oi + Od
- Allow, cost, wish , refuse, use
- They allow a valency reduction with contextual support

Subject-verb-direct object-prepositional complement (He reminds me of you)

- PC further away from the verb; NG is not a central participant
 - The PC can be omitted in discourse: They blamed me (for something mentioned)
- Do usually a person and PC an entity or event
- Only Do can become subject in passives
- Blame: two different prepositions → two passives
- Others: supply, load, drain

Frame, perspective and attention

- Frame: what gives context to different situations [BUY]
- Variables: [SELLER][GOODS][BUYER][MONEY]
- Perspectives: point of view from which we conceptualise reality
- Tom bought some CDs from Phil for 20 euros
- Phil sold some CDs to Tom for 20 euros
- Phil charged Tom twenty euros for some CDs.

Subject-verb-direct object-object complement (He got his shoes wet)

- 3-place verbs with 1 object and 1 Complement of the the object: complex transitive
- Attribute current or resulting
- Stative: hold, keep, believe, consider, think, imagine, hold, want, prefer
- Processes: bake, drive, get, leave, make paint turn wipe, appoint elect, name
- Respect: regard, refer to, acclaim, write off + as + NG
- Complements can be AdjG or NG
- Direct object can be made subject

Subject-verb-direct object-locative complement (Hang the picture on the wall)

- Put, place, stand, lead + Locative/Goal Complement
- Golf, talk, take, bring + Attribute or Locative/Goal Complement

UNIT 11 COMPLEMENTATION BY FINITE CLAUSES

- Meanings and pattern of that-clause complements

- Express factual or non-factual reported, known, believed or perceived info
- Verb + that-clause (I think it’s beautiful)
- Facts, beliefs, doubts, perceptions (Ibelieve you’re right)
- Think, know, believe, imagine, see, doubt
- Doubt; don’t know → subordinate = if / whether
- Expect, hope, suppose, wish
- Reports (Jo says she is ill)
- Say, announce, answer, explain, mean, mention, report, admit,
confess
- Proposals (The party suggests he should call an election)
- Propose, suggest, recommend, demand
- Dropping the complementizer that (informal)
- Main verb = think/say
- Subject is same entity in main clause and that-clause
- Pronoun in the that-clause
- I think/I know not main clause:
- Can be placed after the clause
- tag -question refers to complement clause
- Retaining the complementizer that (formal)
- Coordinated-that clauses
- Passive in main clause
- NG/ PP between main clause and that-clause
 - With prepositions:
- Preposition omitted
- Anticipatory it
- The fact
- Verb + NG + that-clause (I told you I’d be late)
- Tell, inform, persuade, convince, remind, teach, promise, warn
- Say, tell
- Say:
- monotransitive, controlling a OD
- Added prepositional Complement
- Tell: ditransitive, two objects
- Meanings and patterns of Wh-clause complements
- Indirect interrogatives: V+wh-clause (ask where the station is)
- Ask, wonder, doubt, enquire, don’t know
- if/whether in yes/no questions
- Nominal relatives: V + NG + wh-clause: (give them what they want)
- Advise, give, show, teach, tell
- Wh-word can be replaced: the things, persons, place, way that
- Non-finite variants: V + NG + wh + to-inf clause (Ask him how to do it)
- Ask, know, show, tell, teach, wonder
- Indirect exclamatives V + (NG) + [what + NG]/[how + AdjG]
- I said how nice it was
- Say, tell, believe, think
-
UNIT 11 COMPLEMENTATION BY NON-FINITE CLAUSES
- Catenative complements
- Catenative verb controls a non-finite clause
- We decided to try to rent a house.
- To rent a house catenative complement of try
- To try yo rent a house catenative complement of decided
- Rent: nor a catenative verb
- Meanings expressed by to-infinitive clauses
- Type 1: V + to-infinitive ( I want to go)
- No explicit subject (that of main clause
- want , wish, intend, arrange
- Like, love, prefer, can’ts bear, hate
- Promis, agree, learn, forget, decide → that-clause equivalent
- Type 2: V + NG + to-infinitive clause with subject (I want you to go)
- Explicit subject
- Untypical direct object → testing:
- Replacement by a pronoun
- Coordination
- Clefting
- Want, like, love, prefer, can't' bear, dislike,hate, wish, arrange
- Type 3: V + NG + to-infinitive (I asked the driver to stop)
- speech-act verbs: advise, allow, ask, beg, expect, invite, tell, persuade
- NG always human → object of main verb + implicit subject of embedded clause,
subject in passive
- Meanings expressed by bare infinitive clauses
- Type 4: V + NG + bare infinitive (We let them go)
- Let, make, see, hear, feel, help
- End-point included
 - Object complement, complementing the direct object
- NG: object of matrix clause + subject of bare infinitive clause
- Meanings expressed by -ing clauses
- Factual meanings
- Non-prototypical direct objects
- Type 5a: V + -ing clause (I like listening to music)
- No explicit subject, same as of the main clause
- Type 5b: V + NG + -ing (We deplore them/their risking their lives)
- Explicit subject
- Pronominal subject: objective / genitive (more formal)
- Long NGs and titles awkward
- Type 6: V + NG -ing clause (I saw them waiting)
- Pattern I: verbs of perception and discovery
- Subject of -ing = object of superordinate = subject passive
- They caught him stealing → He was caught stealing
- Pattern II: verbs of retrospection
- Difference of time reference in relation to main verb
- To-infinitive: following mental process
- -ing: previous to mental process
- Potential and factual meanings contrasted: to-infinitive and -ing clauses
- To-infinitive: specific occasion, hypothetical/future
- -ing: factual
- Past participle clauses
- Type 7: V + NG + -en clause (We’ll get it fixed)
- S-V-Od-Co structures
- Causative verbs, volitional verbs, perception, finding and leaving

UNIT 13 SPEECH ACTS AND CLAUSE TYPES

- The basic correspondences

Clause type Basic speech act example

Declarative Statement (illocutionary) You are careful

Interrogative (y/n) Question Are you careful?
Interrogative (wh-) Question Why are you careful?
Exclamative Exclamation How careful you are!
imperative Directive Be careful!

- Directive: requests, prohibitions, instructions, orders, commands

- Direct and indirect speech acts: what the utterance counts as

- Grammatical categories: declarative, interrogative, imperative
- semantic- pragmatic categories: statement, question, exclamation, directive
- Direct speech act: clause used to carry out speech act associated with it
- Declarative: illocutionary force
- Indirect speech act: clause has other than its typical force
- Counts as an act different from typical correspondence
- So we have a deal? → counts as question

UNIT 14 THE DECLARATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE CLAUSE TYPES

- Clause types and the mood element: subject-finite variation

- Rest of predicate unchanged
 - Variation: presence/absence of subject and ordering S-F

Clause type Order example

Declarative S+F You sing.

Interrogative (y/n) F+S Do you sing?
Interrogative (wh-) Wh- + F + S Why are you singing?
Exclamative Wh- + S + F How well you sing!
imperative No S, base form Sing!

- The declarative clause type

- Subject-finite ordering
- Finite: verbal operator / tensed of lexical verb

Subject Finite Predicator

We are meeting tomorrow

You might need a holiday
She arrives tomorrow
They sell shoes here
We are late

- Interrogative clauses, negation and the do-operator

- Finite precede subject
- Do: dummy operator: Do we need milk?
- Functions of operator:
- Signal by position that the clause is interrogative
- Polarity: positive or negative
- Negation: negative particle not
- Do forms to add emphasis in declarative

- Yes/No interrogatives and their responses

- Ellipted responses: yes; it is; No; we don’t; I can’t; has she?→ abbreviated clauses
- Response to questions, statements, exclamations, directives
- AmE: copy tag → He does? (instead of does he?
- BrE: echo questions → repeat part of utterance
- I’m going to sell my car → Sell it?

- Alternative interrogatives
- Begin with an operator but present two alternatives → choose one

- Wh- interrogatives

Wh-word Finite Subject Syntactic function

What do you want? (Od)

What is it for? (complement of a prep.)
Who(m) have they appointed? (Od)
Who can it be? (Cs)
Whose dog is it? (determinative in NG)
When shall we go? (A)
How did it happen? (A)
 How old is she? (Cs)
How long have you known him? (A)
Why would I do that? (A)
Where have you most enjoyed working? (A)

- Exception to F-S order: when wh- element = subject or part of NG at subject

- Whatever is questioned comes first
- Wh- word + ever → surprise, perplexity, disbelief

- Double interrogatives: questions within questions

- Do you know what time it is?
- Knowing answer to wh- question
- Content embodied in wh-element

- Question tags
- Abbreviate y/n interrogatives: Operator + pronoun
- Attached to declarative, exclamative, imperative
- Commonly at the end, sometimes in middle
- Features of the main types of tags
- Type 1:
- Opposite polarity to main clause
- Rising tone: doubt (Am I right?)
- Falling tone: certainty, confirmation, agreement
- Type 2:
- Constant polarity: mostly positive declarative clause+positive tag
- Precede by discourse marker + rising tone → conclusion/inference
- Type 3:
- Copy tag
- Declarative form, rising tone → interest, involvement
- Can be co-referential or not
- I think/ I suppose + embedded clause → tag refers to embedded clause
- Indefinite singular pronouns → they

- Invariant question tags

- Right? Okay? → seel confirmation agreement
- Innit = isn’t it? → in declaratives, also as a negative interrogative main verb, question tag.

UNIT 15 THE EXCLAMATIVE AND IMPERATIVE CLAUSE TYPES

- The exclamative
- What + NG // How + adjective, adverb, statement
- S - F ordering → the element following the wh- brought to front
- They’ll have a shock → what a shock they’ll have

- The imperative
- No overt subject required → pragmatically understood: addressee
- Confirmation
- Reflexive pronoun (yourself, yourselves)
- Question tag (will you?
- Vocative: first names, kinship, endearment, pronouns, honorifics
- different positions, typically final
 - Interpersonal functions: getting some- one’s attention, singling out
one individual, maintaining relationships, marking distance and
respect
- Directives: orders, encouragements, request, invitation, instructions

- The verb in the imperative

- Base form
- Disambiguation with declarative form
- you form→ imperative: you is stressed
- Verb to be → base form, imperative
- 3rd person singular → -s declarative,
- Plural subject → pause, intonation, gestures for imperative

- Negative and emphatic imperatives

- Don’t → negation
- Do → emphasis

- Let’s and Let us

- 1st person plural imperative, implicit subject we
- Tag question → shall, we?
- Unanalysed pragmatic particle
- Let’s not, also don’t let’s

- Verbless and freestanding subordinate clauses

- Verbless clauses
- Ellipted clause, lack one or more structural elements
- (He is) in New York, isn't he? (question)
- What a waste of time, (it was) wasn't it! (exclamation)
- (This is) Geoff here. (self-identifying statement on the phone)
- (Are) you ready? (question)
- It's) fantastic! (exclamation)
- Invitation, encouraging suggestions, inquiry.
- Freestanding subordinate clauses
- not attached to a previous clause, freestanding intonation/punctuation.
- reinforce/give the reason for making the previous utterance.

- The subjunctive in English

- Non-factual meaning
- Uninflected VG occurring with a 3rdp person singular subject in that-clause
complements of certain verbs and adjectives
- Less formal: should + inf
- If I were you, if she were to

UNIT 16 INDIRECT SPEECH ACTS, CLAUSE TYPES AND DISCOURSE FUNCTIONS

- Performatives and the declarative

- Utterance: sentence (grammatical object) used in context
- Explicit performatives: carry out acts by naming them
- Promise, advise, warn, recommend
- 1st person speaker + present tense: performative is explicit
- Passive form / active with impersonal NG subject same effect
- Indirect performatives: modals, let, want, I’m afraid, nominalised
 - Not all verbs are performative
- Negative declaratives
- Rejection, polite question, exclamation, prohibition
- Transferred negation: particle not in the main clause
- I don’t advise you
- Some performatives carry out a different function from the one they name
- Promise → threaten; bet → strong probability
- Exclamations
- With proper intonation, all clause types can express exclamation
- Interrogative exclamations call for agreement from hearer
- So, such, intensifiers → exclamative force on declarative

UNIT 17 QUESTIONS, CLAUSE TYPES AND DISCOURSE FUNCTIONS

- Rhetorical questions
- Comment, exclamation, response not expected

- Questions as preliminaries
- y/n interrogatives → preliminary to expand speaker’s topic / veil request

- some , any, and negative forms in biased questions

- Neutral assumption about answer → non-assertive forms(any, ever,yet)
- Do you know anyone in Westminster?
- Positive assumption → assertive forms (some, always, already, too)
- Do you know someone in Westminster?
- Also for polite offers, expect it will be accepted
- Would you like some more coffee?
- Negative-interrogatives: conflicting attitudes → expect yes, then know it’s not
- conflict, surprise, disbelief, disappointment, reproach
- Nuclear negative forms (no, never, nobody)
- Is there no butter?
- Non-assertive to negative interrogative
- Isn’t there any butter anywhere
- Positive bias despite negative assumption → assertives
- Isn’t there some butter somewhere?

- Biased declaratives with attitudinal markers

- Declaratives to seek confirmation in tactful way → appropriate intonation

I suppose you've heard the news? (Epistemic verb)

I understand you're leaving your job? (hearsay verb)
I hear you've been offered a new post? (hearsay verb)
She wasn't invited to the wedding, then? (inferential connective)
So there's nothing we can do? (inferential connective)
She knows all about it, of course? (attitudinal adjunct)
But surely you can just defrost it in the microwave? (attitudinal adjunct)
So you took the documents to which Ministerial office?
And you left them where? (displaced wh-element)
 - Ellipted y/n questions → appropriate rising intonation (milk? = offer)

UNIT 18 DIRECTIVES: GETTING PEOPLE TO CARRY OUT ACTIONS

- Directives and the imperative

- Imperative: commands, but more frequently less mandatory purposes
- Depend on authority, who benefits politeness
- The more cost to addressee, the less polite it is

Get out of here! command

Keep off the grass. prohibition
Please close the window! request
Don't tell me you've passed your driving test! disbelief
Do that again and you'll be sorry. condition of threat
Pass your exams and we'll buy you a bike. condition of promise
Don't forget your umbrella! reminder
Mind the step!/ Be careful with that hot plate! warning
Feel free to take as many leaflets as you like. permission
Just listen to this! showing interest/involvement
Try one of these! offer
Let's go jogging! suggestion
Come on now, don't cry!/ Go on, have a go! encouragement
Sleep well! Have a safe journey! good wishes

- The discourse function of let’s imperatives

Let's get started a call to attention

Let's start by.. management of the topic
Let's see/let me see hesitation marker, to avoid silence and keep the
floor
Let's just stick to the main concern disallowing an interruption/topic management
More people read magazines than, let's say, giving a possible example
historical treatises.

- Politeness in directives
- Modal tag after imperative → intensifier: soften or heighten / optionality
- Rising intonation → polite, persuasive / falling intonation → insistent

Check this for me, will you? polite, anticipates willingness

Sign this for me, would you? polite, anticipates willingness
Keep this for me, can you? familiar, anticipates willingness
Hold this for me, could you? ess familiar, anticipates willingness insistent,
Keep quiet, can't you? anticipates unwillingness

- Modalised interrogatives as polite directives

- More polite, appear to give addressee option of refusing
- Could you, would yo → most polite
- Can’t, won’t → not polite
- Must → ironical
 - Declaratives as directives
- With modal auxiliaries, referring to action carried out by addressee
- Command, obligation, permission, exclamative

- Clause types and speech act force: summary table

Clause type Speech act force Example

DECLARATIVE Statement We are ready to go.

Explicit performative I beg you to reconsider your decision.
We wish to thank you for all your help.
Hedged performative So you went out with her?
You took the documents to which
Biased question ministry?
Question (displaced wh) It was so hot!

Exclamation Papers are to be in by April 15.

Directives: I wonder if you would lend me your car.
order I suppose you haven't got any change on
request you.
I'm terribly sorry, but could you...? I'd sell if
I were you.
That plate's hot!
prelude to request advice You must try one of these.
advice
warning
offer

EXCLAMATIVE Exclamation What an angel you’ve been!

INTERROGATIVE Question Who is that man over there?

Rhetorical question Who will believe that story.
rebuke How could you be so careless?
Exclamation rebuke Isn’t it wonderful!
How dare you speak to her like that!
Directives:
order Will you please be quiet!
request Could you lend me a pen . . .?
suggestion/advice Why don’t you see a doctor?
offer/invitation Won’t you sit down?

IMPERATIVE Directives:
order Shut up!
request Save some for me!
offer Have a drink!
warning Mind your head!
instructions Twist off.
 disbelief Don’t tell me you’ve passed!

- Clause combinations
- Express polite request
- The greater the imposition, the longer the combination
- Clauses without subject or finite verb
- How about a swim? Wh-questions as suggestion
- Why not start again? verbless Why-questions as inquiry
- What to do in case of fire Wh-to-inf. clauses:directive headings
- Subordinate clauses
- To think what we might have missed! to-infinitive clauses:
exclamations
- Not to worry! or as friendly advice
- If only I had taken his advice! if only clauses, indicating regret
- What if we all go for a drink? Wh-if-clauses as suggestions
- Groups and words with speech act force
- Straight ahead! Down with war! Careful! Silence! Scalpel!

UNIT 19 CONCEPTUALISING EXPERIENCES EXPRESSED AS SITUATION TYPES

- Processes, participants, circumstances

- Transitivity → verb + semantic configuration of situation types → the clause
- The process: central part of situation:
- action, state, change of state, sensing, saying, existing
- Dynamic processes
- Something occurs, happens
- Tested by question: what happened?
- Progressive + imperative
- Stative situations/processes
- Durative over time, existing
- No question: what happened?, not progressive + imperative
- Participant roles
- Between 1-3
- Humans usually primary role → agent/subject
- Also animals, things, abstractions
- Attributes ascribed to entities: Complement of the Subject and Complement
of the Object
- Circumstantial roles
- Time, place, manner, condition, others
- Optional, but inherent to some situations (be, put)

- Types of process
- Material processes: doing/happening
- Mental processes/experiencing/sensing
- Relational processes,/being/becoming/having/possessing

- Inherent participants and actualised participants

- Inherent participants: determined by the nature of the process
- Actualised participants: all participants are mentioned
- Unactualised but understood participants: understood from context, culture
- Some processes no participants: weather, time, distance
 - It’s raining → It=surface form for Subject element, no semantic funcion

Type of verb syntactically semantically

transitive One or more objects 1-3 participants

intransitive No object No participant

- Valency: number of participants → monovalent, bivalent, trivalent

- Valency reduced by one with each unactualised participant

UNIT 20 AGENT AND AFFECTED IN VOLUNTARY PROCESSES OF DOING

- Action/activity carried out by doer/agent → entity with energy, volition, intention

- Agentive subject, of a voluntary process of doing (They all left)
- Agent = Subject operating on itself
- What did X do? Who did what?

- Affected participant in a voluntary process of doing (Ted kicked the ball)

- Second participant affected by action → Affected (also: Patient, Goal)

- Affected subject in a passive clause (The ball was kicked by Ted)

- The Affected conflates with Subject
- Effected participants: when created as a result of process
- Fiona made a cake (cake didn’t exist)
- No distinction syntactically, only semantically

- Force
- Agency: animacy, intention, motivation, responsibility, control of process
- Unwitting agent: not deliberately (The horse splashed us as it passed)
- Force: inanimate entities that can’t control the process and whose power / energy is
not intentional and and affect humans and their possessions
- Earthquakes, lightning, wind, floods, psychological states: anxiety, fear

- Affected subject of involuntary processes of happening

- Jordan slipped on the ice
- Inappropriateness: what did Jordan do? What Jordan did was…
- Better: What happened to Jordan?
- Participant becomes Affected Subject

UNIT 21 CAUSATIVE PROCESSES

- Causative material processes and ergative pairs

- Transitive-causative: Pat boiled the water
- Anti-causative: The water boiled
- Ergative alternation/ergative pair: Affected object of transitive = Affected subject of
intransitive → the medium
- Not all verbs allow it

- Analytical causatives with a resulting attribute

- With verbs such as make, turn, have
Agent/Force Process Affected Resulting Attribute

They are making the road wider and safer.

Pat had her hair cut
- Often, alternative causative SPOd: they are widening the road

- Pseudo-intransitives
- Processes intrinsically transitive, constructed as intransitive with Affected Sub
- Break, read, translate, wash, fasten, lock
- Glass breaks easily, this case won’t lock properly
- General property/propensity of the entity to undergo process
- Present tense
- Negation, modal, adverb
- Agent can’t be added with by
- No corresponding transitive construction

UNIT 22 PROCESSES OF TRANSFER

- Recipient and beneficiary in processes of transfer

- Recipient: the one who receives the goods, permission, information
- Beneficiary: optional (not inherent) participant for whom some service is done
- Fetch, get, make, buy , order, verbs of cooking
- Test for distinguishing: passivisation + prepositional counterpart
- She gave me (r) a present for my daughter (b)
- Semantically: typically animate/human + syntactically: indirect object
- Some inanimate may occur

UNIT 23 CONCEPTUALISING WHAT WE THINK, PERCEIVE AND FEEL

- Mental processes
- Experiencer: participant who does the mental process
- Phenomenon: that which is perceived, known, liked
- Stative, non-volitive → simple tense
- Reversibility→ Phenomenon as Subject (passive, change of verb)
- I don’t understand his motives → his motives elude me

- Cognitive processes: know, understand, believe, doubt, remember, forget

- Phenomenon: nominal groups / finite that-clauses / finite wh-clauses
- Often unexpressed → given information

- Perception processes: see, hear, notice, feel, taste

- Non-volitional
- Can + inf instead of progressive
- See = understand; feel = believe
- Look, listen → behavioural processes
- Feel, smell, taste:
- Volitional, dynamic
- Stative, non-volitional
- Relational process
- Infinitive: completed process; gerund: not completed
- Affective processes: love, like, miss,admire
 - Phenomenon: NG (entity)/ clause(situation, event)
- Ing: actual, habitual
- To + inf potential → hypothetical
- Desiderative processes: hope, want, desire, wish
- Phenomenon: NG (entity)/ to-inf clause(situation, event)
- Wish: past tenses → states counter to reality

UNIT 24 RELATIONAL PROCESSES OF BEING AND BECOMING

- types of being
- Something, in a place, at some time, in relation of possession, in some way
- Attributive and identifying.
- Attributive pattern
- One participant = Carrier → represents an entity
- Attribute: characterises the carrier (class of entity/quality/location/possession)
carrier process attribute

Their eldest son was a musician / tall / in bed

- If attribute = NG → non-referential
- Non-reversible → no subject-complement switch
- Allow fronting
- Current attribute: existing at same time as process, with stative verbs
- Resulting attribute: existing as result of process, dynamic verbs of transition
- He kept quiet vs he fell silent
- Experiencer optional (it feels cold to me)
- Neutral carrier: the surface feels cold
- Weather: no Carrier

- Circumstantial relational processes

- Circumstance encoded as attribute:
- Location in space: The museum is round the corner.
- Location in time: Our next meeting will be on June 10.
- Means: Entrance to the exhibition is by invitation.
- Agent: This symphony is by Mahler.
- Beneficiary: These flowers are for you.
- Metaphorical meanings: Everyone’s into yoga nowadays
- Circumstance encoded by the verb: this film concerns a psychopath

- Possessive relational clauses

- Part-whole, ownership, kinship relations
- Possessor and possessed
- Possession as Attribute

Possessed/Carrier process Possessor/Attribure

The keys are Mine (pronoun)

John’s (‘s phrase)
belong (conveys poss) to me
- Possession as process
- Be, have, own, possess, have got
- Not possession, deserving, inclusion, exclusion, containment
 Possessor/Carrier process Possesed/Attribure

I own these keys

lack confidente
The price includes everything

- The identifying pattern

- Identified vs identifier → relation of symbolic correlates
- Identifier fills the wh-element of the wh-question
- What is Mont Blanc? Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in Europe.
- Reversible → what’s the highest mountain? The highest mountain is Everest.

UNIT 25 PROCESSES OF SAYING, BEHAVING AND EXISTING

- Verbal processes: Processes of saying and communicating

- Sayer, the Said, and a recipient (with tell or with others as PC : to me)
- The Said: NG, nominal what-clause
- Represent same words, or reported version
- Message encapsulated by a nominal (apology) → treated as participant
- Verb: manner of saying

- Behavioural processes: half-way between material and mental processes

- Cough, sneeze, yawn, blink, laugh, sigh
- Mostly involuntary → also deliberate with adjunct of manner
- except die, collapse, grow
- Listen, watch, and taste, feel, think, enjoy

- Existential processes: specify the quantification and/or the location of something

- Existing, happening → there + be +NG
- Also: positional verbs, occurring, coming into view
- There: syntactically Subject, textually: presentative; semantic: none
- Single participant: the Existent
- Expanding the Existent:
- Quantification + location
- Quantification +Attribute
- Quantification +clauses

UNIT 26 EXPRESSING ATTENDANT CIRCUMSTANCES

- Place, time and other circumstances

- Parallel expressions of place and time:
 - Manner:
- Manner (how?) Don’t do it that way; do it gently.
- Means (how?) It’s cheaper by bus.
- Comparison (what …. like?) She was sobbing like a child.
- Instrumentality (What... with?) He drew out the nail with a pair of pliers.
- Cause, purpose, reason, concession, condition
- Cause what cause? The child took the pen out of envy. They are dying of
hunger.
- Purpose (what... for?) He’s studying for a degree. She’s training to win.
- Reason (why?) We stayed in on account of the rain.
- Concession (despite what conditions?) Despite the delay, we reached the
concert hall in time.
- Condition under what conditions? Book an earlier flight, if necessary.
- Accompaniment → ‘togetherness’ or ‘additionality’ (positive or negative):
- togetherness positive: Tom came with his friend..
- togetherness negative: Tom came without his friend
- additionality positive Tom came as well as Paul.
- additionality negative Tom came instead of Paul.
- Degree: emphasise or attenuate the process:
- emphasis I completely forgot to bring my passport.
- attenuation You can hardly expect me to believe that.
- Role : What as? or In what capacity?
- I’m speaking to you as a friend.
- Matter: ‘with reference to . . . ’ → f simple and complex prepositions
- We have been talking about the current economic crisis.
- Is there any news of the missing seamen?
- With regard to your order of July 17 . . .
- As for that, I don’t believe a word of it
- Evidence: source of information → as x says, according to x:

- Range
- non-prototypical participant: nominal concept implied by process as its scope
- Sing a song
- Have an argument, ask a question → light verb + deverbal nominals

UNIT 27 CONCEPTUALISING EXPERIENCES FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE

 - Basic realisations and metaphorical realisations
- Active:
- Agent, Affected, Expreiencer, Carrier → NG
- Processes → VG
- Circumstantials → PP and AdvG
- Expressing situations:
- Iconic → the form mirrors meaning
- metaphorical/nominalised → grammatical metaphor

Agent Material process Time circ. Place circ. Goal circ.

we walked In the evening Along the river To Hanley

Agent Material process Affected Goal

Our evening walk took us To Henley

along the river

- Nominalisation as a feature of grammatical metaphor

- Results:
- Loss of human agency → abstraction related to original agent
- Nominal groups becoming long and heavy → distance from event
- Higher level of abstraction
- Functions realised by nominals
- Formal english
- Lexical + grammatical metaphor at same time
- Process realised as entity
- Take a breath → breathe
- Attribute realised as entity
- From adjective → abstract noun (its usefulness is decreasing)
- Circumstance as entity
- Temporal circumstance as locative Subject + find, witness, see
- Followed by a second nominalisation
- Dependent situation as entity
- Whole state of affairs
- High and low transitivity
UNIT 28 THEME: THE POINT OF DEPARTURE OF THE MESSAGE

- Theme and Theme

- Theme comes first, what follows is Rheme
- Clause constituent that is point of departure of clause as message

- Unmarked theme and marked theme in declarative clauses

- ummarked/ neutral → Subject = Theme
- Any other constituent as subject → marked
- Objects not so mobile→highly marked→additional meaning, motivated

- Theme in non-declarative clauses (interrogatives, negatives)

- Theme derives from type of clause
- Marked themes uncommon → We are going where? / You keep quiet!

- Topic , theme and subject

- Topic: what the text is about
- Global topic → paragraphs/sections → utterances/sentences
- Local topics → utterances and sentences

- Cognitive features of the topic

- Inherent
- High on empathy hierarchy (speaker>hearer>human>animal>object>abstract)
- Definiteness: if speaker+hearer establish empathy with topic → accessible, finite
- Most salient participant

- Topic and subject as theme

- Participants in transitivity structures
- Likely to be topic
- Test for aboutness → referent chains across clauses = topic continuity
- Identity chains: referent repeated → pronoun, , alternative NG, repetition

- Introducing new potential topics into the discourse

- Ways to introduce new referents:
- Present / identify new entity
- Direct object
- Unstressed there+be
- Explicit statement
- Inversion of copular clause

- Circumstantial adjuncts as themes

- Especially time and place → establish time/place-frame
- Rhemes are thematised/fronted
- Do not initiate cohesive chains, but can be referred to anaphorically: there, ther

- Objects and compliments as themes

- Motivation: contrast + retrospective linking to previous sentence/context

- Less common thematisations in declarative clauses

- Negative adverbs
- Trigger an inversion of auxiliary or do-operator
 - Emphatic, marked effect
- So / neither / nor as substitutive word: inversion + no rhetorical effect
- Negative objects
- Provoke inversion
- Adverbs followed by verbs of motion
- Up, down, in, here, there, then + motion → inversion
- Except when subject = pronoun
- Only simple tenses
- Detached predicatives
- Units headed by noun, adjective, participle
- Fronted → supplementatives, common in fiction
- A Saxon princess, she was born near Newmarket.

- Detached themes: absolute theme, dislocations, and double themes

- Absolute theme
- Definite NG or proper name, not a constituent of the clause that follows
- Dislocations
- Constituent of clause, often the subject, repeated by-coreferential pronoun
- Left-dislocation and right-dislocation
- Double detached themes
- first Aboslute+ second left-dislocated

- Non-experiential themes
- Interpersonal themes
- Continuative themes (discourse markers)
- Adjuncts of stance
- Epistemic (certainly), evidential (apparently) and evaluative (surely)
- Style adjuncts (frankly), domain adjuncts (legally) , vocatives and appellatives
- Textual themes
- Connective adjuncts (however, besides, first, etc)
- Coordination, conjunctions and relative pronouns → thematic
- Ladies and gentlemen, this afternoon we are going to visit the cathedral
which was built in 1241

- Clauses as themes
- Coordinated clauses with and → chronological order → starting point
- Subordinate clauses
- Non-finit to-infinitve clause of purpose: To cure stress, try a Jacuzzi whirlpool bath.
- Participial -ing clause: Taking advantage of his popularity, the PM called an election
- -En clause: Thwarted in the west, Stalin turned east

UNIT 29 THE DISTRIBUTION AND FOCUS OF INFORMATION

- The information unit
- Division into chunks of message → intonation system of language in spoken language
- Prosodically → tone unit: tonic prominence → focus of information
- One chunk per clause principle
- Grammatical units thay may correspond: adjuncts (initial); dependent clauses; main
clause + embedded clause; coordinated predicates with same Subject; NG subjects

- Given and new information

- Distribution of new/old → motivation for information unit
- Given → recoverable by hearer (context, knowledge, previously mentioned)
 - New element: information presented as not recoverable by the hearer.

- Unmarked focus and marked focus

- Unmarked/end-focus:last non-anaphoric lexical item/name in clause
- from given → new
- Marked focus: tonic is placed on any other syllable than that of last non-
anaphoric lexical time
- Contrast
- Emotive overlay
- Event utterances
- Short, intransitive
- NG subject receives tonic stress → whole event in focus

- Ellipsis
- Textual ellipsis
- 2 consecutive clauses have elements in common
- Omitted → end with auxiliary or pronoun
- Catenative verbs with to-infinitive retain to
- final ellipsis vs medial ellipsis
- Situational ellipsis
- Unstressed pronouns and other functional items omitted → context

- Substitution
- Replace recoverable information by filler word
- “Do so” + say, hope, think, expect, be afraid, suppose, believe
- “not”: hope, be afraid, suppose
- so/neither + inversion

UNIT 30 THE INTERPLAY OF THEME-RHEME AND GIVEN-NEW

- Thematic progression
- Unmarked correlation → Given = Theme // New = some part of rheme
- Simple linear progression
- New info in rheme of 1st clause → theme of 2nd
- Continuous progression (constant Theme)
- Same theme across a series of coordinated clauses, each with own rheme
- Derived themes
- Themes of different theme-rheme structures relate to hypertheme/global topic
- Split rheme
- Combination 1+2

- Clefting: it-clefts and wh-clefts

- Clefting: re-organise the content of a single clause into two related parts.
- Focus on the New, following the verb to be
- Lesser stress on the last word containing presupposed information
- It-cleft: pronoun it (dummy) + to be + strongly focused item + relative + clause
- Discourse functions of the it-cleft
- Contrastive focus, often implicit
- Signal beginning of an episode in discourse
- Discourse functions of the wh-cleft
- Exclusiveness
- Wh-word + clause containing Given information + to be + new info
- Thematic equative
 - Variations of the wh-cleft
- The one who/that
- All that
- Reversed wh-clefts → focus at beginning
- New info as end-focus, indicate its New status clearly +
exclusiveness
- Wh-clefts always reversible → distinguish from embedded clauses

- The active-passive alternative

- Active: agent = subject → Theme/topic // Affected = unmarked end-focus
- Passive: affected = subject // subject (if not omitted) = final position, end-focus
- Promoting one participant, demoting another
- Passive: affected/recipient → subject
- Choosing to be informative
- Reasons to keep by-phase at end of passive
- Informativeness
- Long agent → principle of end-weight
- Passives without Agent
- Agent implied by nature of verb, but unknown
- Anaphorically predictable
- General knowledge
- Universal
- Irrelevant
- Deliberately silenced
- Privacy
- Recoverable as author of text
- Some other element receives end-focus → verb, adjunct, complement
- The get-passive
- More common in speech, informal
- Affective → speaker’s involvement (be-passive: objective)
- Interest on what happens to subject (be passive: event)
- ISubject partially responsible (be-passive: neutral)
- More adverse than beneficial
- The presentative function of existential clauses
- Unstressed there + be
- Syntactic requirement of subject
- There: points to new info conveyed by NG at end of clause→and-weight+end-focus
- Reverse not allowed: basic existentials, no corresponding plain clause
- A storm was last night (no); A man was at the door (ok)
- Derived existential
- Corresponding plain clause → weightier verb than be
- There’s a dog barking → a dog is barking
- Short existentials
- Containing negative word
- Positive declaratives → factual info, predictions, assurances
- Extended existentials
- Expansion of NG
- -ing clauses, adjectives, passives, comparatives
- Bring something into cognitive awareness / onto scene of discourse
- There- structures as states of affairs
- Express events, happenings, states of affairs → no participants
- Nominalisation of verbal process
- Extraposition of clauses
- When long subject clauses → shift to end of sentence + anticipatory it as subject
- Finite-that clauses, hw-nominal clauses, to-infinitive clause
- Principle of end-wight
- -ing clauses less motivation to extrapose
- Formal language → NGs not extraposed → right dislocation in spoken English
- Raised elements as new themes
- person/thing in extraposed clause as OD bright forward → Theme
- To cook rice is easy →It’s easy to cook rice → Rice is easy to cook
- Postponement
- To avoid long, heavy units to the left of main verb
- The time when co-one will write by hand any more will come.
- The time will come when co-one will write by hand any more.
- Postponement with ditransitive verbs
- Two alternative structures