There is nothing logically necessary about dividing time up into past, present, and future, and even given a three-fold distinction, there is no logical requirement that each distinction must be expressed through tense.
This assertion would not fare well if applied to romance languages that do have a clear past, present, and future forms as well as conditional. And if we used these forms following English patterns our writing would not make sense.
8a) Sorry, I will go to the party.(8b) Sorry, I’m going to the party.
“will” in the first sentence sound more like a definite, absolute while “ I am going” sounds more like you are planning on going.
Time, however, is a semantic concept that can be expressed in ways other than a grammatical marking of the verb.
In Spanish we do not have that flexibility of using any form without regards to time. Past is past tense, and so are present and future. These forms cannot be used interchangeably in Spanish.
When we use the term tense, we are referring to a grammatical form.
So tense has no direct connection to time. It is more closely associated to a point of view as in first person, third person speaking and how we decide to describe or present a situation ( present, past form).
The terms adverbial and adjectival simply tell you what sort of constituent the phrase modifies.
So this means that if prepositions modify a verb they are called adverbials because adverbs modify verbs, or adjetival if they modify a noun. It does not mean that they are adverbs or adjectives. Is just that they modify the same parts of speech as adverbs or adjectives.
We have already defined prepositions as a class of words that most commonly express relationships of space or time, or which mark syntactic functions.
how can we differentiate prepositions from adverbs that indicate when or where something is done?
These diagrams imply that we consider particles to be separate constituents within the verb phrase. Some grammar books call verb + particle combinations “multiword verbs.”
Particles can change the meaning of the verb they follow.
We will call this function the determinative.[1] In its most basic semantic role, a determinative indicates the definiteness of a noun phrase.
This is what grammar school books call Possessive Nouns. Genitive Nouns.
Mass nouns also can be either concrete (milk, wool, spaghetti, etc.) or abstract (happiness, communism, integrity). They cannot usually be made plural (*two wools), nor do they take the indefinite article (*a wool). If
Mass nouns cannot take “a” as a determiner.
The complete expressions are proper names
So a phrase containing common noun and Proper nouns can be labeled proper names?
Common nouns refer to classes of things
Saying that nouns refer to “classes of things” is more accurate than the traditional definition learned in grammar books.
Another fairly common type of NP is one containing a genitive: (7) Garth’s reply
so a genitive is what our grammar books call a possessive noun.
Because the verb determines the rest of the structure, we will say that the verb licenses (i.e., permits) these constituents, which are known as complements.
Verbs determine how the rest of the sentence will be constructed.
subject complements, because they complete (complement) the meaning of the subject.
Does this mean that Transitive Verbs and Lining verbs both have subject complements?
Because the verb determines the rest of the structure, we will say that the verb licenses (i.e., permits) these constituents, which are known as complements.
This means that any elements that the verb licenses are called complements.
re realized by different forms. The first is a noun phrase while the second is a clause (another term we’re about to get to).
What is the main difference between a phrase and a clause?
6), naïve is a one-word adjective phrase. T
does this mean that “ The young man…” is a separate phrase, a Noun Phrase, perhaps? and why is “naive” a separate phrase?
computers is a noun in a phrase with no attributes.
What would be some examples of attributes?
A phrase consists of a single main word, called the head of the phrase, and other words that modify or give grammatical information about the head.
Does this mean that a phrase has no predicate? Is a phrase an incomplete thought with certain gramatical components, but incomplete
we will consider pronouns to be a special type of noun rather than an independent word category.
Completely the opposite of what we learned in school, yet it makes sense and it clarifies the whole concept of Nouns and Pronouns as being different parts of speech.
26a) The report was completed by a committee of experts.
“by” in the second example indicates who completed the report. If we remove “by” from the sentence it would make the sense and making it hard to know how the report and the committee are connected.
In terms of their distribution, verbs are words that can appear after auxiliaries. In the frame sentence (5), repeated for convenience, can is the auxiliary: (5) She can ____.
there are verbs that can function as nouns, (i.e The can is empty. I can jump. ) In what word category do they belong?
Written language has historically been seen as a mark of prestige.
which means that war and armed conflicts put non- written languages in danger. Decimation of people by conflict could explain why some languages disappear.
This is more often true in English than in many other languages that use alphabets for their scripts; not only are the correspondences
Because of this reason many reading programs like Wilson and Fundations emphasize teaching sounds made by the letters instead of learning the letter names.
Phonetic Alphabet representations of phonemes (the sounds of language)
Phonemes are the letters that represent a sound.
Allophones are a related concept, in which a single phoneme can be produced differently in different circumstances. For example, the phoneme /k/ in the word ‘kite’ is aspirated, meaning it’s accompanied by a puff of air. But in the word ‘sky’ there is no puff of air along with the /k/ sound.
Allophones are variations of a phoneme.
Thus—to be crystal clear—phonology is more theoretical, concerning not directly with the physical nature of speech sounds, but with the unconscious rules for sound patterning that are found in the mind and brain of a person who
so, does phonology have to do with spelling rules?
a descriptive approach to language: it tries to explain things as they actually are, not as we wish them to be
Descriptive approach, refers to observation and description of language in everyday use.
Certain social circles expect you to follow the rules for table etiquette, and may exclude you if you violate them. Likewise, if you break prescriptive rules of language use, you will still be understood, but some may put you down as uneducated.
In instances like the one stated on the text we can say that grammar is used to discriminate people of a particular race or ethnic group. Many immigrants are aware of this and end up speaking only English to their children, just so they learn the language without any foreign inflections.
Language is more than a neutral medium for transmitting a message. It has washed over us like a river continually since birth. We use it constantly. It shapes who we are. Think back to your earliest memories.
Based on this statement we can say that prescribing the grammar rules used in standard English to groups of people who speak non-standard English is negating who they are.