Lecture 1
Basic concepts in grammar

Components of a linguistic description:

1. Phonetics: describes how speech sounds are produced and perceived
2. Phonology: describes how speech sounds work together as a system

bed is an English word, dbe is not

3. Morphology: describes how morphemes are combined together into words
4. Syntax: describes how words are arranged to form phrases, clauses and sentences
5. Semantics: describes the meanings of phrases and sentences regardless of any context of use

! John killed Mary but she didn’t die.

6. Pragmatics: describes how non-linguistic information (context, personal beliefs, background
knowledge) influences the meaning of sentences, phrases, etc.

The enemy opened fire and our platoon commander was killed instantly.
Out platoon commander died.

(entailment, follows from the meanings of the sentences)
Our platoon commander was killed by the enemy’s fire.
(pragmatic implication, depends on context)

(Huddleston 1984)

descriptive grammar– set of rules that describe how people actually use language
prescriptive grammar – set of rules that specify which usages to adopt or avoid

Some examples of prescriptive rules:
1. Don’t end a sentence with a preposition.
INCORRECT: Where do you come from?
CORRECT: From where do you come?
2. Don’t split an infinitive.
INCORRECT: ...to boldly go where no one has gone before.
CORRECT: ...to go boldly where no one has gone before.
3. Don’t use double negatives.
INCORRECT: I don’t have nothing.
CORRECT: I don’t have anything. I have nothing.
4. Don’t use who in place of whom.
INCORRECT: Who did you see?
CORRECT: Whom did you see.
5. Use as an adjective a word that refers to a noun. Use as an adverb a word that refers to a verb.
INCORRECT: Drive slow.
CORRECT: Drive slowly.

Syntax
1. word order in phrases and sentences
the boy - *boy the
in Japan - *Japan in

I have been living here for ten years.
*I been have living here for ten years.

The boy kissed the girl ≠ The girl kissed the boy

Chłopak pocałował dziewczynę. =
Dziewczynę pocałował chłopak.

2. Relations between words

Horizontal or syntagmatic relations:
Agreement

They like me. They like us.
She likes me. They like them.
this book - these books
good book – good books
dobra książka – dobre książki
Government
They believe him to be honest.
They believe he is honest.

3. Vertical or paradigmatic relations
She

likes

me.

She

admires

me.

She

adores me.

She

loves

me.

etc.

The choice between the verbs above is a lexical phenomenon.

She

likes me.

like + s

She

liked me.

like +ed

The choice between -s and –ed is a grammatical phenomenon: –s and –ed are tense markers.

Units of grammatical description
morpheme: the smallest linguistic unit with meaning
happy – un-happy, go – go-es
word – smallest free unit; words are assigned to different parts of speech
phrase – a group of words that stick together –

- head + dependent elements

[The handsome boy] kissed [the beautiful girl].
[The students] are asleep.
[The students in the last row] are asleep.
Rupert was [very handsome].

clause – subject + predicate
He loves her.

sentence – a unit consisting of at least one clause
I know [ that Rupert loves her]. (complex)
I know [that they know [that Rupert loves her]].
I know [that Mary knows [that they know [that Rupert loves her]]].
S → NP – VP
VP → V - S
He loves her but she hates him. (compound)

Syntactic functions:
[The handsome boy] kissed [the beautiful girl].
NP – subject

NP – object

[That he kissed] her is outrageous.
Clause – subject

We saw [your brother] [this morning].

NP – object

NP - adjunct

Lecture 2
Word structure and word formation

Syntax: describes how words are arranged to form phrases, clauses and sentences

Morphology: describes how morphemes (minimal meaningful units) are combined together into
words, so it deals with the structure of words. It is the science of word forms

Word – minimal free form
Simple words – cannot be divided into morphemes
Complex words – can be divided into morphemes

Words and lexemes
Are cat and cats different words or are they the same word? They are different words but they are also
forms of the same lexeme. So a lexeme is an abstract unit which includes all inflectional forms which
are related to one another.
The lexeme cat has two inflectional forms: the singular cat and the plural cats.
The lexeme take has the following inflectional forms: take, takes, took, taken, taking.

Morphemes
A single word may consist of one or more morphemes
One morpheme: boy, desire
Two morphemes: boyish, desirable
Three morphemes: boyishness, undesirable
Morphemes can be free: boy, desire or bound:

-ish, -ness, -able, un-.

When morphemes are free, they may belong to open classes of words (nouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs) or closed classes of words (prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, etc.)


When morphemes are bound, they are called affixes. An affix precedes or follows other morphemes –
it is a prefix or suffix.

Inflectional morphemes
Inflectional morphology deals with different forms of the same lexeme. These different forms have
grammatical functions: they mark tense, case, number etc. They never change the syntactic category of
the lexeme. In modern English there are eight inflectional morphemes (suffixes):
1. -s third person singular present tense
She walks to school every day.
2. -ed past tense
She walked to school yesterday.
3. -en past participle
I have eaten ten apples.
4. -ing progressive
She is walking to school now.
5. -s plural
I have eaten ten apples.
cats, dogs, churches
6. ’s genitive / possessive
Bill’s house is very big.
English nouns can be inflected for both plural and genitive: students’ essays
7. -er comparative
Mary is taller than Bill.
8. -est superlative
Mary is the tallest girl in this class.

Creating new words
Derivation (through affixes)
Derivational morphemes are those affixes that are not inflectional. They change the word class of the
word they attach to and / or the basic meaning the word. Derivational affixes may be either prefixes or
suffixes.

Most prefixes do not change the word class of the words to which they are attached:
ex-president, ex-husband
unlock, unload
impossible, implausible
Suffixes often produce a change in word class:
employer, worker; freedom, wisdom
brighten, widen; slowly, carefully
There are some restrictions on affixation:
*ungood, *stealer, *wiseness
Polish: dom → dom-owy → domow-nik

Compounding – combining two existing words
`blackbird (A + N); life insurance (N + N)
red hot (A +A); to stagemanage (N + V)
The head of a compound is the second element.
Endocentric compounds – transparent in meaning, they can substitute for one of the component parts:
rattlesnake, girlfriend
Exocentric compounds – their meaning does not derive from the meanings of the parts: hotdog

Conversion – a word is shifted from one word class into another without the addition of a derivational
affix
bottle (noun) → bottle (verb)
I must bottle these plums. = put in a bottle, the meaning of the noun is primary
catch (verb) → catch (noun)
He took a fine catch. = he performed the action of catching, the noun is defined in terms of the verb,
the meaning of the verb is primary

fight (verb) → fight (noun)
It was a fair fight. The action of fighting was fair, the meaning of the verb is primary
to saw → a saw ?
a saw – tool for sawing

Back-formation
A word originally comprised of a single constituent is analyzed as having two constituents, one of
which is removed
peddler → peddle, editor → edit, resurrect → resurrection
Clipping – part of a word is omitted
lab(oratory), memo(randum), (air)plane
pozdro, w porzo, nara, wielka wyprz

Blending - combining parts of already existing words
motel – motor + hotel, smog – smoke + fog, infomercial – info + commercial, brunch – breakfast +
lunch
domowy + telefon = domofon

Initialism – words formed from the initials of other words
Acronyms: NATO, AIDS
Abbreviations: UCLA, UN, TV

Morphology and syntax
In some cases, the same grammatical relation can be expressed morphologically (inflectionally) or
syntactically (through sentence structure).
England’s Queen – the Queen of England
flying planes - planes which fly
simpler - more simple

There are, of course, differences between languages in this respect:
Inflectional suffix in Polish, prepositional phrase in English:
Napełniłem wiadro wodą.
I filled the bucket with water.
Inflectional suffix in Polish, word order in English:
Janek pocałował Marysię.
Marysia pocałowała Janka.
John kissed Mary.
Mary kissed John.

Lecture 3
Parts of speech

Parts of speech - traditional classification

nouns – names of persons, places, things
student, Jola, Poznań, table
pronouns – replace nouns
he, she, it
verbs – designate actions and states
swim, believe
adjectives – modify nouns
big, small, tall
a big boy
adverbs – modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs
quickly, very, not, downstairs
We finished very quickly.
It was very good.
I did not do it.
prepositions – indicate relations between nouns / pronouns and some other part of speech
the girl in the room

She went into the room.
She arrived at three o’clock.
(location, direction, time)

I am keen on sport.
I am proud of Mary.

conjunctions – join words and clauses
Bill and Mary
Bill loves Mary, but she doesn’t love him.
interjections – express emotion
wow!, oh!, ouch!

Problems with the traditional classification
1. definitions based on meaning (notional definitions) are often unreliable, they are often vague
I like a swim in the morning.
I like to swim in the morning.
He assassinated the president and that shocked the nation.
His assassination of the president shocked the nation.
Their hatred of syntax bothers me.
That they hate syntax bothers me.
2. It groups words with very different characteristics in the same class: what do quickly, very, not,
downstairs have in common?
3. Do pronouns replace nouns?
[The girl who is the corner] is very pretty. Who is she?
Nobody came.
Everything was destroyed.
It was John who did it.
4. What about articles?
a, an, the, each, some, few are in some traditional grammars classified as adjectives.

Parts of speech in modern linguistics – word classes
nouns
Distributional properties:
the - table, girl, assassination, swim, happiness
[the __ ] = [Det __ ]
[ __ VP.] John left.
Morphological properties: typical nouns can be pluralized:
tables, girls, assassinations, swims

(main) verbs
[NP __ NP.] He kicked the ball.
[NP __ .] He arrived.
[NP __ Adj.] He was / seemed happy.
Verbs are marked for tense.

adjectives
[Det__N] The main reason is...
[NP seem__.] They seem clever.
A typical adjective can take the –er or –est suffix.
adverbs
[NPVNP__ .] He treats her disgracefully.
[NP__VNP.] They never eat meat.
Typical adverbs have the –ly suffix.
prepositions
[right__ NP] He arrived right on time.
Prepositions do not take any affixes.
determiners (determinatives)
[__Nsing,count] [The thief] ran away.
[NPV__ otherN] He wrote many other works.
conjunctions
[S__S .] Bill jumped and Mary skipped.
[NP__ NP] Bill and Mary jumped.
[NPVP__VP.] Bill likes this but hates that.

The concept of prototype (Huddleston and Pullum 2005): core or central member of a category
cat, dog vs equipment
go vs must
big vs asleep
Pronouns are a subclass of nouns!
someone with talent
everything that he could find
those who know the answer
something terrible
we who survived the exam
What a lot of silly nobodies!
Coordinators vs subordinators:
I like Mary but she doesn’t like me.
I wonder if / whether Mary likes me.
The adverb class needs to be split into smaller classes, for example:
Adverbs of manner: quickly
Intensifiers: very, extremely
???: even: Even John liked it.
???: not

Lecture 4
Nouns, pronouns and adjectives

Nouns

•

Function as subject, object (function as heads of phrases that are subjects or objects):

The professor arrived yesterday.
I saw the professor yesterday.

•

Combine with determiners:

the professor

•

Typically inflect for number and case:

There are ten professors in this school.
This is the professor’s car.

Proper names and proper nouns
Proper names are names of specific entities, names individually assigned to particular people, places,
etc.: Paris, Adam Mickiewicz University, Central Park
Proper nouns are those nouns which can stand alone as proper names.
Proper names are inherently definite, and thus exclude such features as determiner and number contrast
However, some of them have the definite article an integral part of the name, eg The Hague; in certain
contexts they can take on features of common nouns:

There were two Maxes in my class.
The Max that I know comes from New York.

Common nouns
Generally speaking, a common noun is a noun that names any member (members) of a class of
entities:
table, chair, bus, question, remark
Pronouns
Can function as subject or object, have singular, plural and genitive forms, occur with similar
dependents as nouns:
something terrible; we who passed the exam
but do not combine with determiners:
*the he, *a himself

Deictic vs anaphoric uses of pronouns
A pronoun that is used deictically can be interpreted by referring to the situational context:
I like syntax. You will soon like it too.

The meaning of a pronoun used anaphorically is derived from the surrounding linguistic material:
Max said that he likes syntax.
Max hurt himself.

Types of pronouns
Personal pronouns: marked for person, number and case. They can be non-reflexive and reflexive.
Reflexive pronouns - function as complements in clause or PP structure or emphasize an NP:
I hurt myself.
I don’t want you to hurt yourself.
The manager believes that [the player blames himself].
He himself wrote that letter.
He wrote that letter himself.
Reciprocal pronouns: each other, one another
Bill and Mary love each other.

(i.e. Bill loves Mary, and Mary reciprocates.)
Relative pronouns - introduce relative clauses:
The man [whom / who we saw yesterday] is an atomic scientist.
interrogative pronouns: who, whom, which, what, whose
Who came in?
Who(m) do you want?
Whose are these?
demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those
This is cool.
These are nice.
indefinite pronouns: some, any, none or combinations of some, any, no with thing, body and one:
Some like it hot.
Someone saw you.
pleonastic / expletive pronouns - semantically empty elements which fill the subject position:
There are three prisoners escaping.
Three prisoners are escaping.
It surprised me that he had done it.
That he had done it surprised me.

Number
There are two categories in the grammatical system of number: singular and plural.

Three groups of nouns can be distinguished:
those that have separate singular and plural forms:
cat – cats, foot - feet
those that have only the singular form:
furniture, equipment, gossip
those that are always plural:
outskirts, clothes, scissors

Countability
It has to do with co-occurrence restrictions between determiners and nouns – a noun’s potential for
combining with various types of determiners (Huddleston 1984):
cardinal numerals: one, two, three, etc.
the fuzzy quantifiers many, several, few
those that take singular heads: a, another, each

Gender
Gender as a grammatical category has to do with agreement between some element X and a noun N in
respect of the lexical subclass of N. The agreement may be of two kinds (Huddleston 1984).

X is a dependent of N:
duży (X) stół (N) - masculine
duża (X) ławka (N) - feminine
duże (X) krzesło (N) - neuter

X is anaphoric to N:
stół (N) – on (X)
ławka (N) – ona (X)
krzesło (N) – ono (X)

In English there are no lexical subclasses of nouns which determine the choice of the pronoun. This is
determined semantically on the basis of the sex of noun referents.


Adjectives

1. Adjectives designate a property,
an intelligent student
2. Occupy certain positions in a phrase or sentence:
a) attributive position: when they occur as heads in phrases functioning as premodifiers in NP
structure
an intelligent student
b) predicative position: when they occur as heads in phrases functioning as predicative complements
in clause structure, eg:
John is intelligent.
c) postpositive position: when they occur as heads in phrases functioning as postmodifiers in NP
structure, eg:
anyone intelligent, someone nice, the president elect, children keen on sport
3. Take certain affixes, eg: pre-, post-, -able, -al, -less, -er, -est.

Not all adjectives can occupy all the three positions:
main, principal, mere, utter
the main reason *The reason is main.
awake, asleep, pleased
The boy was awake. *the awake boy
The customers were pleased. *pleased customers
extremely pleased customers
elect
the president elect

*the elect president *The president was elect


Adjectives that can function as attributive and predicative and which are gradable are called central
adjectives. Others are called peripheral adjectives.
Some adjectives have different meanings depending on the position in which they occur:
the late senator vs The senator was late.
a late bus vs the bus was late
a small businessman vs The businessman was small.
a beautiful dancer vs The dancer was beautiful.

1. Gradable vs nongradable adjectives
An adjective is gradable if the property that it designates can be viewed as being on a scale of degree
of intensity (a scalar property).
Gradability is manifested through comparison and through the use of intensifiers (very, extremely).
There are three types of comparison.

1. to a higher degree
Expressed inflectionally by the morphemes -er and -est, or by the premodifiers more and most:

taller, happier, commoner/more common,

more careful, more expensive

tallest, happiest, commonest / most common, etc.

2. to the same degree
Expressed by as ... as John is as tall as Bill.
3. to a lower degree
Expressed by less and least:

This problem is less difficult than the previous one. It is less cheap / cold.

Nongradable adjectives: the property designated by nongradable adjectives cannot be arranged on a
scale (a categorial property):
an atomic scientist, a polar bear, the British government,
a very British response
She is very pregnant.

2. Inherent vs noninherent adjectives
Inherent adjectives apply to the referent of the noun directly:
an old man, a heavy box

Noninherent adjectives describe some notion connected with the referent of the noun,
an old friend of mine, a heavy smoker


3. Stative vs dynamic adjectives
*Be tall!
*She is being tall at the moment.
Be polite!
He was only being polite.