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CONTENS

.................................................................................... 9

TEXTBOOK

Part I. MORPHOLOGY ............................................................... 13

1. NOUNS ................................................................................................ 13

1.1. Definition .................................................................................... 131.2. Semantic Classification of Nouns ........................................... 141.3. Morphological Structure of the Noun .................................... 151.4. Syntactic Functions of the Noun............................................. 161.5. Grammatical Categories of the Noun .................................... 18

1.5.1. The Category of Number ............................................... 181.5.2. The Category of Case ..................................................... 281.5.3. Gender .............................................................................. 34

2. ARTICLES ........................................................................................... 38

2.1. Articles with Common Nouns .................................................. 382.1.1. The Use of Articles with Concrete Count Nouns ....... 382.1.2. The Use of Articles with Abstract Nouns ................... 522.1.3. The Use of Articles with Concrete Non-Count Nouns ... 562.1.4. The Use of Articles with Predicative and Appositive

Nouns ................................................................................ 582.1.5. The Use of Articles in some Set Expressions ............. 602.1.6. The Use of Articles with some Semantic Groups

of Nouns ........................................................................... 622.1.7. The Place of Articles ...................................................... 662.1.8. Leaving out Articles ....................................................... 67

2.2. Articles with Proper Nouns ..................................................... 682.2.1. Personal Names ............................................................... 682.2.2. Geographical Names ...................................................... 692.2.3. Calendar Items ................................................................ 712.2.4. The Use of Articles with Miscellaneous Proper

Names ............................................................................... 71

4 5

3. PRONOUNS ........................................................................................ 74

3.1. Meaning of Pronouns ................................................................ 743.2. Morphological Structure of Pronouns .................................... 743.3. Syntactic Functions of Pronouns ............................................ 753.4. Grammatical and Lexical Categories of Pronouns .............. 76

3.4.1. The Category of Person ................................................. 763.4.2. The Category of Number ............................................... 763.4.3. The Category of Case ..................................................... 773.4.4. The Category of Gender ................................................ 79

3.5. Personal (Central) Pronouns ................................................... 803.5.1. Personal Pronouns Proper ............................................. 803.5.2. Personal Possessive Pronouns ...................................... 913.5.3. Personal Reflexive Pronouns ........................................ 94

3.6. Demonstrative Pronouns ........................................................ 1003.6.1. Demonstratives in Situational Reference ................. 1013.6.2. Demonstratives in Discourse ...................................... 103

3.7. Indefinite Pronouns ................................................................. 1043.7.1. Indefinite Pronouns Proper ......................................... 1043.7.2. Compound Pronouns ..................................................... 1123.7.3. Negative Pronouns ........................................................ 1183.7.4. Distributive Pronouns .................................................. 121

3.8. Reciprocal Pronouns ............................................................... 1303.9. Interrogative / Relative Pronouns ........................................ 131

4. NUMERALS ...................................................................................... 137

4.1. Meaning of Numerals .............................................................. 1374.2. Morphological Structure of Numerals ................................. 1384.3. Syntactic Functions of Numerals ......................................... 1414.4. Uses of Numerical Expressions ............................................ 142

4.4.1. Year Dates. Date Abbreviations ................................. 1434.4.2. Time Expressions .......................................................... 1444.4.3. Age Expressions ............................................................ 1454.4.4. Currency Statements .................................................... 1454.4.5. Vulgar (Simple) Fractions and Decimals .................. 1464.4.6. Simple Calculations ...................................................... 146

4.5. Cross-Cultural Variation ......................................................... 1474.6. Set Expressions with Numerals ............................................. 149

5. VERBS ............................................................................................... 151

5.1. Semantic Classification of Verbs ........................................... 1515.2. Morphological Structure of Verbs ........................................ 1525.3. Syntactic Functions of Verbs ................................................ 153

5.4. The Verb Phrase ...................................................................... 1545.5. Verbal Categories .................................................................... 160

6. TENSE AND ASPECT ..................................................................... 164

6.1. Present Tenses ......................................................................... 1656.1.1. The Present Simple Tense ............................................ 1656.1.2. The Present Progressive Tense ................................... 1696.1.3. The Present Perfect Tense .......................................... 1726.1.4. The Present Perfect Progressive Tense .................... 176

6.2. Past Tenses ............................................................................... 1796.2.1. The Past Simple Tense .................................................. 1796.2.2. The Past Progressive Tense ......................................... 1826.2.3. The Past Perfect Tense................................................. 1856.2.4. The Past Perfect Progressive Tense .......................... 190

6.3. Future Tenses ........................................................................... 1916.3.1. The Future Simple Tense ............................................. 1916.3.2. The Future Progressive Tense .................................... 1936.3.3. The Future Perfect Tense ............................................ 1946.3.4. The Future Perfect Progressive Tense ...................... 1956.3.5. Other Ways of Expressing Future Time .................... 1956.3.6. The Sequence of Tenses ............................................... 197

7. THE PASSIVE VOICE ..................................................................... 199

7.1. The Formation of the Passive Voice ..................................... 1997.2. Uses of the Passive Voice ....................................................... 200

7.2.1. The Appropriateness of the Passive Voice ............... 2007.2.2. Verbs that are Used in the Passive Voice .................. 200

8. MOOD AND MODALITY ................................................................ 207

8.1. The Indicative Mood ............................................................... 2078.2. The Imperative Mood ............................................................. 2078.3. The Subjunctive Mood ............................................................ 2088.4. Grammatical Forms of the Subjunctive Mood ................... 209

8.4.1. Synthetic Forms ............................................................ 2098.4.2. Analytical Forms ........................................................... 210

8.5. Temporal Characteristics of the Subjunctive Mood .......... 2118.6. Meaning and Use of the Subjunctive Mood......................... 212

8.6.1. Uses of the Present Subjunctive ................................. 2128.6.2. Uses of the Past Subjunctive ....................................... 214

9. MODAL VERBS ............................................................................... 218

9.1. Semantic Classification of Modal Verbs .............................. 2189.2. Formal Characteristics of Modal Verbs .............................. 219

6 7

9.3. Syntactic Characteristics of Modal Verbs ........................... 2209.4. Possibility ................................................................................. 222

9.4.1. Can and Could ................................................................ 2229.4.2. May and Might ............................................................... 2269.4.3. Will and Would ............................................................... 230

9.5. Necessity .................................................................................. 2349.5.1. Must ................................................................................. 2359.5.2. Have + to-infinitive ....................................................... 2379.5.3. Be + to-infinitive ........................................................... 2389.5.4. Shall ................................................................................. 2399.5.5. Should and ought ........................................................... 2409.5.6. Need ................................................................................ 243

10. VERBALS ........................................................................................ 245

10.1. The Infinitive ......................................................................... 24610.1.1. Forms of the Infinitive ............................................. 24610.1.2. Infinitive Constructions ........................................... 25010.1.3. Syntactic Functions of the Infinitive ..................... 254

10.2. The Gerund............................................................................. 26210.2.1. Forms and Uses of the Gerund ............................... 26210.2.2. Syntactic Functions of the Gerund ........................ 263

10.3. The Participle ......................................................................... 27010.3.1. Forms of the Participle ............................................ 27010.3.2. Constructions with the Participle ........................... 27010.3.3. Functions of the Participles .................................... 273

11. ADJECTIVES ................................................................................. 280

11.1. Morphological Structure of Adjectives ............................. 28011.2. Semantic Classification of Adjectives ............................... 28111.3. Comparative Constructions with Adjectives .................... 28611.4. Syntactic Functions of Adjectives...................................... 288

11.4.1. Adjectives as Modifiers of Nouns .......................... 28811.4.2. Adjectives Used as Predicatives ............................ 29011.4.3. Adjectives and Nouns ............................................... 29311.4.4. Adjective Sentences and Clauses ........................... 293

12. ADVERBS ....................................................................................... 294

12.1. Semantic Characteristics of Adverbs ................................ 29512.2. Morphological Characteristics of Adverbs....................... 299

12.2.1. Word-building Structure .......................................... 29912.2.2. Variability (Degrees of Comparison) ..................... 304

12.3. Functional Characteristics of Adverbs ............................. 30612.3.1. Interrogative / Relative Adverbs ............................ 310

12.3.2. Negative and Broad Negative Adverbs ............. 31012.3.3. Pronominal Adverbs ................................................. 31012.3.4. Prepositional Adverbs .............................................. 31112.3.5. Deictic and Anaphoric Adverbs .............................. 313

13. PREPOSITIONS ............................................................................. 315

13.1. Morphological Structure of Prepositions .......................... 31513.2. Meaning of Prepositions ....................................................... 31613.3. The Prepositional Phrase ...................................................... 320

Part II. SYNTAX ....................................................................... 324

14. THE SIMPLE SENTENCE ............................................................ 324

14.1. Communicative Types of the Simple Sentence ................. 32414.1.1. Declarative Sentences.............................................. 32514.1.2. Interrogative Sentences........................................... 32514.1.3. Exclamatory Sentences ............................................ 33014.1.4. Imperative Sentences ............................................... 33114.1.5. Negative Sentences .................................................. 333

14.2. Structural Types of the Simple Sentence .......................... 33614.2.1. Two-member Sentences ........................................... 33614.2.2. One-member Sentences ........................................... 337

14.3. Parts of the Sentence ............................................................ 33714.3.1. The Subject ................................................................ 33814.3.2. The Predicate ............................................................ 34214.3.3. Concord....................................................................... 350

14.4. The Secondary Parts of the Sentence ................................ 35314.4.1. The Object .................................................................. 35314.4.2. The Attribute ............................................................. 36014.4.3. Apposition .................................................................. 36514.4.4. The Adverbial Modifier ........................................... 36614.4.5. Independent Parts of the Sentence ........................ 373

15. THE MULTIPLE SENTENCE ...................................................... 375

15.1. The Compound Sentence ...................................................... 37615.1.1. Asyndetic Compound Sentences ............................. 37715.1.2. Syndetic Compound Sentences ............................... 38115.1.3. Meaning Relationships in Compound Sentences .... 381

15.2. The Complex Sentence .......................................................... 38615.2.1. Subject Clauses ......................................................... 39015.2.2. Predicative Clauses .................................................. 39415.2.3. Object Clauses ........................................................... 39615.2.4. Attributive Clauses ................................................... 400

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15.2.5. Adverbial Clauses ..................................................... 40915.2.6. Parenthetical Clauses ............................................... 43115.2.7. Vocative Clauses ....................................................... 434

15.3. The Compound-Complex Sentence ..................................... 434

EXERCISES

MORPHOLOGY .................................................................................... 439

1. Nouns .......................................................................................... 4392. Articles ....................................................................................... 4443. Pronouns .................................................................................... 4654. Numerals .................................................................................... 4725. Verbs ........................................................................................... 4756. Tense and Aspect ...................................................................... 4777. The Passive Voice ..................................................................... 4968. Mood and Modality ................................................................... 5069. Modal Verbs ............................................................................... 529

10. Verbals ....................................................................................... 53910.1. The Infinitive .................................................................. 53910.2. The Gerund ..................................................................... 55810.3. The Participle ................................................................. 575

11. Adjectives .................................................................................. 58812. Adverbs ...................................................................................... 59113. Prepositions ............................................................................... 595

SYNTAX ................................................................................................ 600

14. The Simple Sentence ................................................................ 60015. The Multiple Sentence ............................................................. 610

15.1. The Compound Sentence ............................................... 61015.2. The Complex Sentence .................................................. 61315.3. The Compound-complex Sentence .............................. 634

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13

P a r t I

MORPHOLOGY

1. NOUNSIn the prevailing Modern English terminology the terms noun

and substantive are used as synonyms. According to an earlier view,however, the term noun was understood to cover all nominal parts ofspeech, including substantives, adjectives, pronouns, and numerals,thus corresponding to the Russian term .

Later, classical grammar tended to include nouns in the limitedsense of the word, noun-pronouns, such as I, they, noun-numerals, suchas three in three of us, and gerunds, under the common designationnoun-words as opposed to adjective-words and verbs.

1.1. DEFINITION

As any part of speech, the noun, or substantive, is established onthe basis of semantic (notional), morphological, and syntactic crite-ria. Thus, nouns have been notionally defined as names of things,persons and places. This semantic definition is clearly inadequatebecause it excludes, for example, a number of words which denoteabstract ideas but behave grammatically and morphologically in thesame way as names of things: occupation, friendship, movement, ex-istence, etc. In more general terms, the noun may be taken to bea name of something that is viewed as substance or an object.

The morphological characteristics of nouns include two catego-ries: the category of number (singular and plural) though some nounsmay lack either the singular or the plural form; and the category ofcase (common and genitive). The grammatical category of gender isnow considered extinct for it is hardly ever expressed by grammati-cal means.

The syntactic properties of nouns can be subdivided into two types:their methods of combining with other words, and their functions inthe sentence. Nouns combine with other words to produce noun phrases.

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units of measurement, society, language, etc.: metre, hour, dollar;the individual parts of a whole: part, element, atom, piece, drop;abstractions thought of as separate wholes: family, word, idea,scheme.

Nouns normally used as non-count include the names of:

solid substances and materials: earth, bread, rice, cotton, nylon;liquids, gases, etc.: water, oil, tea, air, oxygen, steam, smoke;many abstractions: equality, honesty, ignorance, peace, safety.

Cutting across the grammatical count / non-count distinction thereis a semantic division into concrete (material) and abstract (immate-rial) nouns, though concrete nouns are mainly count and abstractmainly non-count.

1.3. MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTUREOF THE NOUN

According to their morphological structure nouns fall into threegroups: simple nouns, derivative nouns and compound nouns.

1. Simple nouns consist of only the root which very often coin-cides with the word; the usual or most favoured phonetic shape is onesingle stressed syllable: bus, bear, land, glass, wife, etc. Simple nounsare undecomposable, having neither suffixes nor prefixes.

2. Derivative nouns have affixes (prefixes or suffixes or both):worker, kindness, brotherhood, misdemeanour, ingratitude, etc.

Some word-building suffixes are unambiguous, i. e. a word con-taining one of them is sure to belong to the class of nouns; amongthem is the suffix -ity in scarcity, necessity, peculiarity, monstrosity,etc. Other suffixes are ambiguous: the morpheme is not in itself suf-ficient to point to a particular part of speech but leaves some roomfor a choice which has to be made by other criteria. Thus, the suffix-ment leaves open the choice between noun and verb (instrument to instrument, implement to implement), while the suffix -ful canform a noun (handful, spoonful, mouthful) or an adjective (useful, beau-tiful, careful).

Productive noun-forming suffixes are:

-er: worker, writer, builder, joiner;-ness: tenderness, redness, madness;

-ist: novelist, dramatist, columnist;-ism: heroism, capitalism, nationalism;-ess: actress, waitress, hostess.

As head of a noun phrase, a noun combines with determiners (theboy; these few books), a preceding adjective (large room), or occa-sionally with a following adjective (time immemorial), with a preced-ing noun in either the common case (iron bar) or in the genitive case(fathers room). Occasionally a noun may combine with a following orpreceding adverb (the man there; the then president). It may alsocombine with prepositions (in a house) and it may be postmodified bya prepositional phrase (the roof of a house) or a relative clause (theman I met yesterday). In a sentence a noun (noun phrase) may func-tion as subject, object, predicative, attribute or adverbial modifier; itis also used as vocative (direct address).

1.2. SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATIONOF NOUNS

There exist various classifications of nouns based on differentprinciples. For practical reasons the author follows the classificationof S. Greenbaum, R. Quirk (A Students Grammar of the EnglishLanguage. London, 1990).

Semantically, all nouns fall under two main groups: proper nounsand common nouns; both proper and common nouns may refer to some-thing animate or inanimate.

1. A proper noun is the name of someone or something that is usu-ally thought of as unique: Peter, London, England.

2. A common noun is a name given either to an example or a classof things or notions: table, flower, air, water, idea.

The distinction into count nouns and non-count (mass) is funda-mental in English. Nouns typically used as count include the classnames of:

persons, animals, plants, etc.: friend, cat, bird, rose;concrete objects having shape: ball, car, hat, house;

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The bungalow was very silent.The rain had ceased and the night was starry.Mary shook her head.There was not a cloud in the sky.

2. The function of the object is also typical of the noun as the sub-stance word:

He read the letter slowly and carefully.I have to show Dr. Fench his room.She turned and looked at Guy.

3. Other syntactic functions, i. e. predicative, attribute, adverbialmodifier and vocative, although performed by the noun with equalease, are not immediately characteristic of its substantive quality assuch. It should be noted that, while performing these non-substan-tive functions, the noun differs from the other parts of speech usedin similar sentence positions.

As predicatives, nouns are preceded by link verbs:

He is a doctor.She turned out a perfect hostess.

As attributes, they are followed by other nouns or preceded by apreposition:

He was a country doctor.She wore a large straw hat.The tune was coming from behind the closed doors of Mr. Cur-

rys bedroom.Will you give me a sheet of paper?The letter from her sister reassured her.

In noun + noun structures, the first noun-attribute is normally sin-gular in form even if it has a plural meaning: a shoe shop (a shop thatsells shoes), a horse race (a race for horses), a trouser pocket (a pocketin a pair of trousers). In most noun + noun structures, the main stressis on the first syllable: ` mineral water, a ` history book. However, thereare many exceptions: a garden `chair, a fruit `pie, etc. Some nouns,however, have the plural -s even when they are used attributively tomodify other nouns: a clothes shop, a customs officer, a savings de-partment. In general, the use of plural modifiers is becoming morecommon in British English. American English often has singular formswhere British has plurals:

British English American English

a greetings card a greeting carda drinks cabinet a drink cabinetthe arrivals hall the arrival hall

Unproductive suffixes are:

-hood: childhood, manhood;-ance: importance, arrogance;-dom: kingdom, freedom;-ence: reference, dependence;-ship: friendship, relationship;

There exists a correspondence between the lexico-grammaticalmeaning of suffixes and certain subclasses of nouns. Some suffixesmark abstract nouns: -age, -ance / -ence, -ancy / -ency, -dom, -hood,-ation, -ment, -ness, etc. while others distinguish personal nouns: -an,-arian, -er, -or, -ician, -ist, etc. Feminine suffixes may be classed as asubgroup of personal noun suffixes; these are few and non-frequent:-ess (duchess), -ine (heroine), -ette (coquette).

3. Compound nouns are the words consisting of at least two stemswhich occur in the language as free forms. They usually have onemain stress; the meaning of a compound is very often idiomatic incharacter, so that the meaning of the whole is not a mere sum of itselements. The main types of compound nouns are:

a) nouns with a stem modified by another noun stem; this is a mostproductive type (sunbeam, snowball, film-star);

b) nouns consisting of a verb stem and a noun stem; verbals oftenoccur as the first element (searchlight, reading-hall, dining-room);

c) nouns consisting of an adjective stem and a noun stem (black-board, blackmail, bluestocking);

d) a very large and productive group of nouns derived from verbswith postpositives, or more rarely, with adverbs (blackout, break-down, make-up, set-back).

There are no clear rules to tell when the compound noun is writ-ten as a single word, with a hyphen or as two (or more) words. Mostgrammar books state that a good modern dictionary is the only reli-able guide.

1.4. SYNTACTIC FUNCTIONSOF THE NOUN

The syntactic functions of the noun are determined by its catego-rial meaning.

1. Most common syntactic function of nouns is that of the subjectof the sentence, since the referent of the subject is the person orthing immediately named:

18 19

Count nouns denote objects that can be counted, while non-countnouns are names of objects that cannot be counted. Count nouns likebottle, chair, man, word, remark refer to individual countable enti-ties that cannot be viewed as an undifferentiated, indivisible mass.Non-count nouns like grass, warmth, humour denote, by contrast, anundifferentiated mass or continuum. Formally, the two classes areclearly distinguished. Count nouns may occur in the singular withthe indefinite article or one and may have a separate plural formwhich may be preceded by How many or by a numeral higher thanone: How many pets have you got? Two cats, three dogs and aguinea-pig. Mass nouns may occur with no article or with the indef-inite quantifier some. They cannot be preceded by one, they cannothave a separate plural form, but they can be preceded by How much:How much petrol does this car use?

The semantic difference between the two classes is clear enoughtoo. Count nouns individuate, i. e. they indicate individual specimens;mass nouns refer to a quantity that is not individuated in this way1.

Some nouns, e. g. cake, fish, stone belong to both classes, combin-ing the characteristics of count and non-count nouns. Thus, stone canbe viewed as the non-count material constituting the entity a stone which can be picked up from a pile of stones and individually thrown.

Nouns with dual class membership often manifest considerabledifference in meaning; this corresponds broadly to concreteness orparticularization in the count usage and abstractness or generaliza-tion in the non-count usage.

Names of substances can also function as count nouns, singular andplural, when they refer to a kind of substance or a part of a whole, as inBuy me a coffee (i. e. a cup of coffee), Buy me a beer (i. e. a glass of beer).Expressions like two coffees, two butters are considered to be informal.

Almost all mass nouns can be made into count nouns if a unit ofmeasurement is implied (three beers, please) or were talking aboutsorts or types.

1 The noun weather, normally non-count, takes a plural form in go out in all weath-ers. Money, normally mass, takes a plural form moneys in legal language, with themeaning sums of money.

With toponyms, there is a tendency to use proper nouns, not adjec-tives, attributively: Paris girls, California wines.

The noun is also used as an appositive, which is a special kind ofattribute used to characterize* or explain the word modified by giv-ing the person or thing another name. The appositive can be close:Uncle Roger, Aunt Molly, Doctor Crocus, Professor Brown, or loose:This is Anthony Brewster, an Englishman.

As adverbial modifiers, nouns are chiefly parts of prepositionalphrases:

She sat quietly at the table, a little dazed.After dinner we had coffee in the library.

The noun is also the regular form of direct address, or vocative;this is an independent element of the sentence structure used to getsomeones attention:

Andrew, where are you?How do you do, Miss Wigg.

Common nouns in address take no article:

Good night, mother.Operator, could you put through a call to New York, please?

1.5. GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIESOF THE NOUN

The Modern English noun has two grammatical categories num-ber and case; it does not have the category of grammatical gender.

1.5.1. The Category of Number

The English number system comprises singular, which denotes onething, person, idea, etc., and plural, which denotes more than one thing,person, idea, etc. Semantically, as some linguists point out, the ques-tion of enumeration does not seem to be a very important one. Moreimportant is, perhaps, the need to distinguish between individual (ordiscrete) and mass (or non-discrete) objects. This is a distinctionthat English makes quite clearly by means of the category of count-ability, with the noun classes of countables and uncountables, or countand mass.

* In British English, the sound [az] at the end of many verbs may be spelt -ise or-ize: realise / realize, emphasise / emphasize, characterise / characterize. In AmericanEnglish -ize is the preferred spelling.

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[tru:] or [tru:]. The voiceless [] in house becomes [] in the plu-ral: houses [h].

Some plural forms create significant spelling difficulties.

1. When a noun ends in the letter -y preceded by a consonant letter,-y is changed into -i and -es is added: country countries, fly flies,enemy enemies, cry cries. Proper names retain -y in the pluralform: Mary Marys, Kennedy the Kennedys.

If the final -y is preceded by a vowel it remains unchanged andonly -s is added: day days, key keys.

2. When a noun ends in -s, -ss, -ch and -x, the inflection -es is add-ed: bus buses, class classes, bush bushes, bench benches,watch watches, box boxes.

3. -es is also added to nouns ending in -o preceded by a consonant:echo echoes, potato potatoes, hero heroes, Negro Negroes,tomato tomatoes, torpedo torpedoes, veto vetoes.

Piano, photo, solo, kilo have plurals in -s: pianos, photos, solos, kilos.With some nouns plurals ending in -os and -oes are equally possi-

ble: cargo cargos / cargoes. It also applies to archipelago, banjo,buffalo, commando, tornado, volcano.

When the final -o is preceded by a vowel, only -s is added: cu-ckoo cuckoos, radio radios.

4. The following nouns ending in the voiceless fricative [] havevoiced plurals spelt -ves: calf, elf, half, knife, life, loaf, self, sheaf,shelf, thief, wife, wolf, e. g. half halves [h:vz].

Voiceless plurals are found with: belief, chief, proof, roof, safe, e. g.chief chiefs [:].

Both voiced and voiceless plurals are possible with: dwarf, hand-kerchief, hoof, scarf, wharf, e. g. hoof hooves, hoofs.

Irregular Plural

A number of nouns form their plural by means of vowel mutation:foot feet, goose geese, tooth teeth, man men, woman women, louse lice, mouse mice.

The plural ending -men occurs in words like: fireman firemen,gentleman gentlemen, Englishman Englishmen. These do notform pairs in pronunciation distinguishing between singular and plu-ral, while with woman women the pronunciation differs in bothsyllables: [`wumn] [`wmn].

The plural is regular in: Germans, Romans, etc. and personal nameslike the Bowmans, the Freemans.

The -en plural occurs in three nouns: ox oxen, child children(with vowel change [`tald] [`tldrn]), brother brethren (notblood relations but fellow members of a religious society).

Similarly, count nouns that refer to animals may function as massnouns to indicate the meat; we find not merely familiar usages suchas chicken, rabbit, fish but can also freely form mass nouns elephant,crocodile, etc. to refer to the meat. In many cases this type of distinc-tion between count and mass is achieved by separate lexical items:(a) sheep (some) mutton, (a) calf (some) veal, (a) pig (some)pork. A word normally used as a count noun, i. e. onion can be used asa mass noun when it refers to the substance which the thing is com-posed of, as in This soup tastes of onion.

There are corresponding count nouns for some non-count nouns:

1.5.1.1. Variable Nouns

Regular Plural

English count nouns have two forms, singular and plural. The vastmajority of nouns occur with either singular or plural number, andnormally have a plural form which is built up by means of the inflec-tion, or ending, -s: room rooms, motel motels, jeep jeeps, or-es: ax axes, bench benches. This is the regular plural.

In pronunciation, the voiceless [s] is added to any base (singularform) ending in any voiceless sound except a sibilant: desks [desks],cats [kts], jeeps [d:ps].

The voiced [z] is added to any base ending in any voiced soundexcept a sibilant: boys [bz], friends [frendz], dogs [dgz].

The syllable [z] is added to any base ending in a sibilant: buses[bsz], matches [mtz], judges [ddz], bushes [buz].

Singular nouns ending in the voiceless fricative -th have a regu-lar plural form if there is a consonant before the -th: length lengths[les], birth births [b:s]. If a vowel precedes the -th, the pluralis often regular too, as in cloth cloths [kl], death deaths[des], faith faiths []; however, in a few cases a voiced frica-tive [] in the plural is followed by [z]: mouth mouths [mz],path paths [p:z]. In several cases there are both [s] and [z] plu-rals: bath, oath, sheath, truth, wreath, youth, e. g. truth truths

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ular -s plural in everyday language and to restrict the foreign pluralto scientific contexts.

1. Latin nouns in -us.The foreign plural in -i pronounced as [a] or [i:] only: stimulus

stimuli (also bacillus, locus, nucleus).Only regular plural (-uses): bonus bonuses (also campus, cho-

rus, circus, genius, virus, etc.).Both plurals: cactus cacti / cactuses (also focus, fungus, nucle-

us, radius, terminus, syllabus).The plural forms of corpus and genus are corpora and genera.

2. Latin nouns in -um.Usually foreign plural in -a, pronounced []: curriculum curricula

(also addendum, bacterium, erratum, stratum).Only regular plural: forum forums (also stadium, ultimatum).Both plurals, normally regular: aquarium, medium, memorandum,

symposium. The plurals media (with reference to press and radio)and strata (with reference to society) are sometimes used informallyas singular. The technical singular datum is rather rare while data isused both as a mass noun and as count noun plural: The results of theexperiment are still uncertain: there is / are not enough data yet.

3. Latin nouns in -a.Only foreign plural in -ae pronounced as [a] or [i:]: alumna alum-

nae (also alga, larva).Only regular plural form in -s: antenna, formula, nebula, vertebra,

dogma.Formulas is being increasingly adopted, with formulae [-i:] re-

served for scientific contexts; antennas prevails in general use andelectronics with antennae [-i:] in biology.

4. Nouns of Greek origin may also have foreign plurals only: ba-sis bases, analysis analyses (also axis, crisis, diagnosis, ellipsis,parenthesis, thesis), phenomenon phenomena, criterion criteriaor regular plurals: demon demons, electron electrons. Informal-ly, criteria and phenomena are sometimes used as singulars.

5. French nouns ending in -eau, pronounced [] retain their origi-nal plural, e. g. bureau bureaux, tableau tableaux (also plateau,portmanteau), beside the commoner -s but the plurals are mainly pro-nounced as regular [z], irrespective of spelling.

1.5.1.2. Invariable Nouns

Unlike variable nouns occurring with both singular and pluralnumber, invariable nouns are used only in the singular or only in theplural. The singular uncountable nouns, usually referred to as singu-

The noun penny has two plural forms: pennies when referring toindividual coins and pence2 which survives only to indicate a totalamount as in The fare is now tenpence. Tenpence may refer to onesilver coin or to ten individual pennies, i. e. coins worth a penny each.

Zero Plural

Some nouns have identical forms for both singular and plural. Thus,there is no separate plural form for nouns denoting certain animals,birds and fish: deer, grouse, mackerel, plaice, salmon, sheep, trout.Thus, it is possible to say That is a deer, a sheep, etc. or These aredeer, sheep, etc.:

This sheep looks small.All these sheep are mine.

Both regular and zero plural is used with antelope, reindeer, fish,flounder, herring. The zero plural is more common in contexts of hunt-ing (We caught only a few fish), whereas the regular plural form isused to denote different individuals or species: the fishes of the Medi-terranean.

The Plural of Compound Nouns

Compounds consisting of two or more elements form the plural invarious ways. The most usual one is to make the final element plural:bookcase bookcases, grown-up grown-ups, stand-by stand-bys, boy friend boy friends.

So also: assistant director assistant directors, fountain pen foun-tain pens, breakdown breakdowns, pullover pullovers, headache headaches, take-off take-offs, forget-me-not forget-me-nots, etc.

In a number of compounds the first element is made plural: passer-by passers-by, runner-up runners-up, court martial courtsmartial, notary public notaries public, man-of-war men-of-war,mother-in-law mothers-in-law, but also mother-in-laws informally.

When the first component is man or woman, the plural is expressedin both the first and last element: manservant menservants, wom-an doctor women doctors, gentleman farmer gentlemen farmers,woman driver women drivers but: lady driver lady drivers.

The first component is always singular in: man-holes, woman-hat-ers, where emphasis is on holes and haters rather than on man andwoman.

Foreign Plurals

Foreign plurals occur in a number of words borrowed from Latin,Greek, French etc., though there is a strong tendency to use the reg-

2 Pence has also become a singular noun.

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In England bowls is played on flat greens or on sloping (crown)greens.

Darts is a traditional English game which presumably developedfrom archery.

5. Some proper nouns: Algiers, Athens, Brussels, Flanders,Marseilles, Naples, Wales; the United Nations and the United Stateshave a singular verb when considered as units:

The United States has immense mineral wealth.

There are a number of nouns ending in -s used as singular withreference to one unit, or as plural with reference to more than one:

barracks gallows golf-linksbellows gasworks headquartersinnings means specieskennels series crossroads.

We must find a means (= a way) of solving our problem.There are several means (= ways) of solving it.He gave one series / two series of lectures.

Pluralia Tantum

A number of nouns in English occur in the plural only. To this groupbelong the following nouns.

1. Nouns denoting articles of dress, tools and instruments consist-ing of two equal parts: trousers, pants, breeches, trunks, pyjamas(BrE), pajamas (AmE), drawers, braces, suspenders, tights, knick-ers; scissors, spectacles, glasses, tongs, pincers, binoculars, tweezers,pliers, shears, etc. These are called summation plurals and are usedwith a plural verb or in the construction a pair of and may be preced-ed by the plural demonstrative:

These trousers are too long for me, give me another pair, please.Is there a decent pair of scissors in this house? Take these,

they are quite sharp.

2. Miscellaneous nouns ending in -s used only with a plural verb,not with a numeral. In some cases, however, there are also formswithout -s with different meaning and use: amends (make every / allpossible amends), annals, archives, arms (= weapons, as in arms de-pot), arrears, ashes (= human remains, but tobacco ash), auspices,banns (of marriage), belongings, bowels, clothes (cf. cloths, plural ofcloth), congratulations, credentials, contents (but the silver contentof the coin), customs (customs duty), dregs (coffee dregs), earnings,goods (a goods train), lodgings, looks (= appearance), manners (= be-haviour), odds (in betting), outskirts, premises (= buildings), quar-

laria tantum, are modified by much and little and take the finite verbin the singular while the plural uncountable nouns referred to as plu-ralia tantum take the finite verb in the plural.

Singularia tantum

Singular invariable nouns occur in the singular only. Here belongnon-count nouns, concrete (gold, furniture, iron, bread, cheese, grass,oil, wine, tea, coffee, etc.) and abstract (advice, behaviour, education,homework, information, generosity, luggage, knowledge, importance,permission, progress, scenery, weather, traffic, etc.). It should be not-ed that virtually all non-count nouns denoting substances can be treat-ed as count nouns when used to distinguish between classes of ob-jects:

There are several French wines available. (= kinds of wine)This is a tea I greatly enjoy. (= kind of tea)

Some nouns which belong to the singularia tantum group are occa-sionally used in the plural form for stylistic reasons suggesting a greatquantity, or extent: the snows of Kilimanjaro, the sands of the Sahara,the waters of the Mediterranean, the blue skies of Italy.

Special attention should be paid to invariable nouns ending in -sused as singular only with a singular verb.

1. The noun news:

This is very good news.Bad news travels fast.No news is good news.

2. Names of some diseases and abnormal states of body and mind:measles, German measles, mumps, rickets, shingles, creeps (somespeakers also accept a plural verb, however):

Measles is a catching disease while rickets is not.

3. Names of sciences and subject names in -ics: classics, linguis-tics, mathematics, phonetics, etc. usually take a singular verb:

Ethics is a science of moral principles and rules of conduct.

When a word of this type is not used to refer directly to a disci-pline of study, it can take a plural verb and be preceded by a pluraldemonstrative:

The acoustics in this room are far from perfect.These statistics are unreliable.Georges mathematics is / are not so good as it was / were.

4. Names of some games: billiards, bowls (esp. BrE), darts, domi-noes, draughts (BrE), checkers (AmE), fives, ninepins:

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3. A number of collective nouns take as pronoun substitutes eithersingular (it) or plural (they) without change of number in the noun,i. e. the noun remains singular while the verb may be either in thesingular or in the plural:

The audience is / are enjoying the show.The government never makes / make up its / their mind(s) in

a hurry.

Modern English prescriptive grammar books specifically recom-mend consistent usage within the same sentence or two. Cf.: Our teamplays best on its own ground (singular) and Our team play best ontheir own ground (plural).

Among collective nouns of this type, there are many denotingclasses, social groups or referring to a group of people having a spe-cial relationship with one another, or brought together for a particu-lar reason. Three subclasses may be distinguished here:

a) specific: army, clan, class, club, committee, crew, crowd, fami-ly, flock, gang, government, group, herd, jury, majority, minority;

b) generic: the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie, the clergy, the elite,the gentry, the intelligentsia, the laity, the proletariat, the public;

c) unique: (the) Congress, Parliament, the Vatican.

In sentences with collective nouns, the choice between singular andplural verbs is based on a difference in attitude, i. e. whether the groupdenoted by the collective noun is being considered as a single undivid-ed body, or as a collection of individuals. Thus, the singular must beused in sentences like: The audience was enormous where the non-personal collectivity of the group is stressed. The plural is more likelyin sentences like: The audience were enjoying every minute of it3.

N o t e s1. Distributive Plural. To talk about several people each doing the same thing,

English prefers a plural noun for the repeated idea; plural forms are almost alwaysused in this case with possessives:

The students should hand in their essays now.Eighty-six people lost their lives in the air-crash.

2. Repeated Events. In descriptions of repeated single events, singular and pluralnouns are both possible. When no details are given, plural nouns are more natural:

She often gets headaches.

When details of the time or situation are given, singular nouns are often used:

She often gets a headache when shes been working on the computer.

To refer to the time of repeated events, both singular and plural forms are com-monly used:

She doesnt look her best in the morning(s).Hes in the habit of dropping in for dinner on Sunday(s).

3 In British English the plural verb appears to be more common with collectivenouns in speech than in writing; in American English, the singular verb is preferred.

ters (= lodgings), remains, savings, shortcomings, surroundings,thanks, valuables.

Note the difference:

May I have a look at your Shes beginning to lose herletter? looks.

How much do you pay for Come round to my lodgingsboard and lodging? and well have a party.

1.5.1.3. Collective Nouns

Collective nouns present certain difficulties in singular / pluralpronoun substitution and subject / predicate concord. They denotea number or collection of similar individuals or things regarded asa single unit. This group contains both count (army, group, class, etc.)and non-count (aristocracy, clergy, gentry, etc.) nouns. Often a specialgroup noun is used with names of certain kinds of objects: an army ofsoldiers, a crowd of people, a herd of cattle, a flock of sheep, a crew ofsailors, a gang of thieves, etc.

Collective nouns fall under the following sub-groups.

1. Nouns used in the singular only denoting a number of thingscollected together and regarded as a single object: machinery, foli-age, jewellery (jewelry AmE), etc. They take singular pronoun substi-tutes and the verb of a sentence is in the singular:

The autumn foliage is beautiful.Machinery new to the industry in Australia was introduced for

cultivating land.

2. Nouns which are singular in form though plural in meaning (un-marked plurals): cattle, folk, people, police, poultry, vermin. Thesenouns take plural pronoun substitutes and occur with a plural verb:

These cattle are on the way to the market.The poultry are in the yard.Vermin are harmful animals or insects.The police (= policemen) were checking all the cars entering

the city.Police (= policemen) are controlling the crowds.

Reference to individual members of the group is made thus:a hundred head of cattle, twenty police or twenty policemen, fiftypeople.

It should be noted that people is normally not a group noun but theplural of person; when used in the sense of nation, it takes a regularplural: the peoples of the world. Folk, meaning people, may occurin the singular and informally in the plural (folks), but only with aplural verb: Some folk(s) are

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The apostrophe is added only to regular plural nouns (boys, sol-diers) and to Greek names in -s of more than one syllable: Archimedes[:k`mi:di:z] Law, Sophocles tragedies, Euripides [ju:`rpdi:z] plays.

With other proper names ending in -s there is vacillation both inpronunciation and spelling, but most commonly the spelling is theapostrophe only while the pronunciation is [z]. Thus, Burns (or lesscommonly, Burnss) is pronounced [`b:nzz]. Cf. also Dickens novels,Jones house etc. where the pronunciation is [zz].

With compounds, the inflection -s is added to the final element:my brother-in-laws children, my brothers-in-laws children.

1.5.2.2. The Use of the Genitive

The genitive case is used to express a variety of ideas: possession,relationship, physical features and characteristics, non-physical qual-ities and measurements.

The -s genitive mainly occurs with animate nouns denoting per-sonal names (Janes brother, Mr Wilsons library, George Washingtonsstatue), personal nouns (the students answer, the girls letter) andanimals with personal gender characteristics mostly domestic, orthose that are credited with some intelligence (the dogs tail, the catspaw, the elephants trunk).

The -s genitive is not normally used with inanimate nouns. In-stead, the noun is modified by an of-phrase: the colour of the dress,the leg of the chair, etc. However, some nouns denoting lifeless ob-jects regularly occur with the -s genitive and there is tendency touse the -s forms even more extensively.

The -s genitive is optional with collective nouns that refer to agroup of people: the governments policy, the teams victory, the com-mittees meeting, the nations social security, etc.; with geographicaland institutional names: Africas future, Moscows traffic, Americasresources, the schools history, the universitys buildings etc.; withnouns considered to be of special interest to human activity: the earthssurface, natures sleep, the suns rays, sciences influence, the mindsgeneral development, etc.

The -s genitive tends to be obligatory with temporal nouns thatrefer to the length of duration of an event, and some substantivizedadverbs: a moments thought, a weeks holiday, a days rest, a yearswork, todays business, yesterdays news, an hour and a halfs drive, amonth or twos time.

Note the parallel structures:

Ive got three weeks holiday Ive got a three week holidayin August. in August.

I need eight hours sleep I need an eight hour sleep everyevery night. night.

3. Generalizations and Rules. In generalizations and rules, singular and plural nounsare both possible:

A present participle is used in a progressive verb form.Present participles are used in progressive verb forms.

Mixtures of singular and plural forms are possible:

Subjects agree with their verb.

1.5.2. The Category of Case

The category of case expresses relations between objects and phe-nomena denoted by nouns in a sentence. It is manifested by a nouninflection though it may also be a zero inflection.

In English the category of case has become the subject of livelycontroversy in linguistics. It has been discussed extensively by scho-lars, and the opinions on this subject differ widely.

The widely accepted view is that English nouns have two cases.The category of case is expressed by the opposition between the formin -s, usually called the possessive (genitive) case and the unmarkedform of the noun, usually called the common case.

Another view is that English has more than two cases. Thus, inaccordance with the theory of prepositional cases, combinations ofnouns with prepositions in certain object and attributive collocationsare treated as morphological case forms, e. g. the construction to +noun is regarded as the dative case of the noun. Obviously, on thisinterpretation the number of cases in English would become indefi-nitely large, which would mean abandoning a morphologically basedconception of case and would lead to a confusion between morpho-logical and syntactic phenomena.

A third view is that there are no cases at all in the English nounsystem. This viewpoint presents the English noun as having completelylost the category of case in the course of its historical development.On this view, the form called the genitive case by force of tradition,would be, in fact, a combination of a noun with a postpositional particle.

The present review will proceed from the assumption that theEnglish noun has a two-case system: the unmarked common case(man) and the marked genitive case (mans).

1.5.2.1. The Formation of the Genitive

The genitive case is formed by means of the inflection -s which isadded to singular nouns and to irregular plural nouns. It is pronouncedas [] after any voiceless sound except a sibilant: students [`stju:dnts],Nicks [nks], [z] after any voiced sound except a sibilant: friends[frendz], Marys [`mrz], childrens [`tldrnz] and [z] after a sibi-lant: witchs [`wtz], Georges [`d:dz].

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a scarf of silk, a bridge of stone), and it is still used in some meta-phorical expressions:

He has a heart of gold.She rules her family with a rod of iron.

A few pairs of nouns and adjectives are used as modifiers withdifferent meanings; while the noun simply names the material some-thing is made of, the adjective has a metaphorical meaning: Cf.:

a gold watch golden dreams,silk stockings silken hair,a lead pipe a leaden sky,a stone roof a stony silence.

But woollen and wooden just mean made of wool / wood.The meaning and functions of the genitive case require special

consideration.

1.5.2.3. The Dependent Genitive

A noun in the genitive case generally precedes another noun whichis its head word. This is called the dependent genitive; the actual rela-tion between the notions expressed by the two nouns largely dependson their lexical meaning.

The dependent genitive may be of two kinds.

1. The specifying genitive denotes a particular person (or thing).It has the following meanings:

a) possessive genitive (the have relation): Dr Browns son (DrBrown has a son);

b) subjective genitive (the subject-verb relation): his parents con-sent (his parents consented);

c) objective genitive (the verb-object relation): the prisoners re-lease (they released the prisoner).

There is considerable overlap in the uses of the specifying -s geni-tive and the of-phrase caused by their functional and semantic simi-larity: the childrens father the father of the children, my sistersroom the room of my sister. With proper names, however, the geni-tive case is the rule: Peters birthday, Susans address.

The genitive case is preferred for the subject-verb relation, andthe of-phrase for the verb-object relation: Livingstones discovery (thatis Livingstone discovered something) but: the discovery of Livingstone(which would usually mean that somebody discovered Livingstone).

It should also be noted that if both the subject of an action and itsobject are mentioned, the former is expressed by a noun with -s pre-ceding the name of the action and the latter by an of-phrase followingit, as in: Coleridges praise of Shakespeare. The same applies to the

The -s genitive is also common with nouns denoting distance andmeasure and also some miscellaneous nouns: a miles distance, a shil-lings worth, a rooms interior, a books title, the works popularity, theengines overhaul life, etc.

Some freely formed phrases seem to prove that it is not absolutelynecessary for a noun to denote a living being in order to be capable ofhaving an -s form. There is a considerable number of fixed expres-sions in which all kinds of nouns occur in the -s genitive: the shipscrew, the ships doctor, a needles point, dutys call, keep someone atarms length, keep out of harms way, do something to ones heartscontent, be only a stones throw away, be at ones wits end, for good-ness sake, etc.

With some nouns, both the -s genitive and the of-phrase are usedto express possession:

the Earths gravity the gravity of the Earth,the Queens arrival the arrival of the Queen,the plans importance the importance of the plan,Syrias history the history of Syria.

In place names like Cologne Cathedral or Birmingham Airport,the noun + noun structure is normal.

The -s genitive is generally used to talk about parts of peoples oranimals bodies: a mans hand, a cats tail. But to talk about parts ofnon-living things, the noun + noun structure or the of-phrase is used:the car door, a table leg, the roof of the house. Note that for words liketop, bottom, front, back, side, edge, inside, outside, beginning, middle,end, part, the of-structure is usually preferred: the top of the hill, theend of the book, the bottom of the glass. There are, however, a numberof common exceptions: the waters edge, the mountain top, etc.

The of-structure can refer to something that is used by a person oranimal; the first noun refers to the user: childrens clothes, womensmagazines, a birds nest. British and American English sometimesdiffer. Cf.:

British English American Englisha babys bottle a baby bottlea dolls house a doll housea babys pram a baby carriage

The -s genitive is also used for products from living animals:cows milk, lambs wool, sheeps wool, a birds egg (but: camel hair).Note that when the animal is killed to provide something, the noun +noun structure is generally used: calf skin, fox fir, chicken soup, tor-toise shell.

The noun + noun structure is normally used to describe what ob-jects are made of: a silk scarf, a stone bridge, an iron rod, a gold ring.In older English, the of-structure was more common in this case (e. g.

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I went to the bakers.We spent a week at our uncles.

The term genitive with ellipsis was suggested on the assumptionthat the -s form is an attribute to some noun which is supposed to beself-evident, and may be omitted: I went to the bakers shop, We spenta week at our uncles house, etc. However, certain linguists find thisinterpretation doubtful.

The independent genitive is typical of expressions relating to pre-mises or establishments. Thus, in Lets meet at Andrews tomorrow,the phrase at Andrews would normally mean where Andrew lives,even though the hearer might not know whether the appropriatehead noun would be house, apartment, or flat. It is important, how-ever, that hotel room (where Andrew could only be staying not living)is excluded. By contrast, I shall be at the dentists would refer tothe dentists professional establishment, and the same applies toproper names where they refer to commercial firms, bars and res-taurants:

Lets have lunch at Johnnys.

The genitive -s is normal in relation to small one-man businesses(I buy my meat at Browns). The genitive meaning of nouns denotinglarge businesses is expressed in writing by moving the apostrophe(at Macys).

Ellipsis is much more evident in sentences like:

Johns was a clever remark, too.This book is Susans.My house is bigger than Nicks but his car is newer than Sams.His memory is like an elephants.

Another kind of independent genitive is the double genitive, wherean of-phrase is combined with the -s genitive to form a noun phrasewith postmodification: a tragedy of Shakespeares. There are somelimitations which affect the choice of the noun with the -s genitiveinflection and the head noun preceding the of-phrase. The noun in thegenitive case must be both definite and personal while the head nounmust have indefinite reference:

A friend of the brides has just called. (but not the friend of thebrides)

A daughter of Mrs. Browns has arrived. (but not the daughter ofMrs Browns)

This is a poem of Byrons. (= one of Byrons poems)He is a relative of Mrs Bennets. (= one of Mrs Bennets relatives)

The double genitive implies non-unique meaning, i. e. that Byronwrote several poems, and Mrs Bennet has several relatives.

phrases in which the object is not a living being, as in: Einsteins the-ory of relativity, Shakespeares treatment of history.

The genitive case is common in headlines for reasons of brevity;it also gives prominence to the noun modified. Cf.: Hollywoods (orHollywood) Studios Empty and The Studios of Hollywood Empty.

2. The descriptive (classifying) genitive refers to a whole class ofsimilar objects: a womens college (a college for women), a doctorsdegree (a doctoral degree / a doctorate), etc. Unlike the specifyinggenitive, the descriptive genitive cannot be replaced by an of-phrase.

It is worth mentioning that combinations like an officers cap canbe interpreted in two different ways. It may mean a cap belongingto a certain officer, and that is the usual possessive meaning, or itmay mean a cap of the type worn by officers, and this is the de-scriptive meaning. Only the context will show what is meant; outsidethe context both interpretations would be equally justified.

1.5.2.4. The Group Genitive

The inflection -s may be added not only to a single noun but also toa whole group of words if it forms a close semantic unit. Various pat-terns can be found in this construction. Thus, in Smith and Browns of-fice not only Brown, whose name is immediately connected with the -s,but also Smith is included into the possessive relation. Cf. also: Jack andJills wedding, Mr and Mrs Carters house, Mary and Johns children.

Other examples include: the Chancellor of Exchequers speech, the Oxford professor of

poetrys lecture, where the -s inflection is added to the final elementof the postmodifying prepositional phrase rather than to the headnoun itself;

someone elses house, somebody elses turn, nobody elses busi-ness, etc., where the word immediately preceding -s is an adverbwhich could not by itself stand in the genitive case, so -s here belongsto the group someone else, etc. as a whole;

an hour and a halfs break, a week or sos sunshine where coor-dinators (and, or) are involved.

The group genitive is not normally acceptable after a clause,though in colloquial use one may hear examples like: Old man what-do-you-call-hims house has been painted or The blonde I had beendancing withs name was Bernice. Such constructions may not be fre-quent but they do occur.

1.5.2.5. The Independent Genitive

A noun in the genitive case may be used without a head word. Thisis called the independent genitive, or the genitive with ellipsis:

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When used with specific reference such nouns take pronoun substi-tutes in accordance with the biological sex of the person referred to:

I met a handsome student and heI met a beautiful student and she

When there is no need to make a distinction of sex, the masculinereference pronoun is generally used. This is the case when such nounsare used generically and neither sex is relevant:

The artist, painter, poet, or musician, by his decoration, sub-lime or beautiful, satisfies the aesthetic sense; he lays be-fore you also the greater gift of himself.

However, such usage is regarded as sexist by many people andthere is a tendency to avoid sex indicators in contexts of this type asmarks of masculine bias in Modern English. There are different waysto do this, the expression he or she (sometimes written as s/he) be-coming increasingly common, or authors may use she throughout asthe gender-neutral pronoun:

What is new to the discourse is not necessarily new to the hear-er; he or she may already have prior knowledge to the entityin question.

If a speaker evokes an entity in a discourse, s/he first hypothe-sizes the information-status of that entity in the hearers mind.

In an informal style, the plural 3rd personal pronoun they is oftenused to mean he or she, especially after indefinite words like some-body, anybody, nobody, person:

Anyone who wants to write non-sexist English will need to havetheir wits about them.

Other ways of expressing male or female reference are: boyfriend, girl friend, man student, woman student, boy scout, girl scout,lady cashier, female patient. Lady is used out of exaggerated polite-ness; female is used in an official, scientific or clinical context. Gen-erally speaking, this dual class is on the increase, but the expecta-tion that a given activity is largely male or female determines thefrequent use of sex markers: a nurse, but a male nurse, an engineerbut a woman engineer. There is a marked preference for genderspecified reference.

The wide selection of pronoun substitutes with the noun baby (he /

she / it) should not be understood to mean that all of these apply in allcontexts. A mother is not likely to refer to her baby as it, but it isquite possible for somebody who is not emotionally involved with thechild, especially when the sex is unknown or unimportant. Cf.: Dontwake the baby. Hes too old to be a baby and The baby was cryingin its cot.

The double genitive is obligatory when the speaker wishes to useseveral modifiers (including a, this, that, these, those) in the samenoun phrase:

This new car of Bills must have cost a lot.That beautiful speech of your husbands caused quite a sensation.

1.5.3. Gender

English makes very few gender distinctions. Gender applies onlyto certain gender-sensitive pronouns, where the categories of mascu-line / feminine and personal / non-personal can apply (see 3. The Pro-noun). Nouns, adjectives and articles have no gender distinctions,although in a small number of words the feminine suffix -ess marks anoun having female reference. The category of gender is chiefly ex-pressed in English by obligatory correlation of nouns with the thirdperson pronouns. These serve as specific gender classifiers of nouns.Since nouns have no grammatical gender, the choice of pronoun sub-stitutes he, she and it is based on natural distinctions of meaning.The choice between he or she, for example, is almost entirely deter-mined by sex. Thus, he refers to a man or a male animal; she to awoman or a female animal; it to an inanimate object or an animalwhich is not regarded as either male or female; the plural pronounthey is not gender specific.

The pattern of pronoun substitution is determined by the lexicalmeaning of the noun.

1. Animate personal nouns may refer to males or females. Some ofthem are morphologically marked for gender: actor actress, duke duchess, emperor empress, god goddess, host hostess, prince princess, waiter waitress. Steward and stewardess are being re-placed by other terms such as flight attendant. -Ess is practically theonly gender-forming suffix in Modern English; note also hero her-oine, usher usherette.

Some optional feminine forms (poetess, authoress) are now rare,being replaced by the dual gender forms (poet, author). A mayor canbe a man or a woman; in Britain a mayoress is the wife of a malemayor. Others are morphologically unmarked for gender and haveno overt marking that suggests morphological correspondence be-tween masculine and feminine: bachelor spinster, brother sister,father mother, gentleman lady, king queen, man woman,monk nun, uncle aunt.

2. Animate personal nouns may refer to both male or female. Herebelong artist, cook, doctor, enemy, fool, foreigner, friend, guest, musi-cian, neighbour, parent, person, servant, student, teacher, writer, etc.

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What a lovely ship. Whats she called?

The proud owner of a sports car may refer to it as she (or perhapshe if the owner is female).

With names of countries the pattern of pronoun substitution de-pends on their meaning. As geographical units they are treated asinanimate nouns:

Looking at the map we see France here. It is one of the largestcountries in Europe.

As political, economic or cultural units the names of countries of-ten take a feminine reference pronoun:

France has been able to increase her exports by 10 per centover the last six months.

England is proud of her poets.

In sports, the teams representing countries can be referred to aspersonal collective nouns taking a plural pronoun substitute:

France have improved their chance of winning the cup.

Some words ending in -man (e. g. chairman, fireman, spokesman)have no common feminine equivalent. As many women dislike beingcalled chairman or spokesman, these words are now often avoided inreferences to women or in general reference to people of either sex.In many cases, -person is now used instead of -man:

A spokesperson said that the Minister does not intend to resign.

In some cases, new words ending in -woman (e. g. spokeswoman)are coming into use. But the general tendency is to avoid what iscalled sexist usage and to choose words, even for men, which are notgender-marked (e. g. supervisor instead of foreman, ambulance staffinstead of ambulance men, fire-fighter instead of fireman). It is worthnoting that though man and mankind have traditionally been used torefer to the whole of the human race, some people find this usagesexist and use terms such as people, humanity, or the human raceinstead. Note also the increasingly common use of synthetic fibresinstead of man-made fibres.

3. In names of higher animals (animate non-personal nouns) sexdistinctions are chiefly made by people with a special concern horseand cattle-breeders, veterinarians, trainers, etc. Sex reference isexpressed morphologically in lion lioness, tiger tigress, or lexi-cally in: buck doe, bull cow, cock hen, dog bitch, stallion mare. When no sex distinction is made or known, the pronoun substi-tute he is more usual than she with animals like cat or horse.

Generally, masculine or feminine reference pronouns are used foranimals when they are thought of as having the personal qualities ofhuman beings (especially with family pets):

Have you given the dog his morning meal?

It is otherwise used for animals when their sex is unknown or un-important:

The dog was barking in its kennel.

4. Names of lower animals and inanimate nouns do not differ inthe patterns of pronoun substitution, e. g. both snake and box take itand which as pronouns. Sex differences can, however, be indicatedby a range of gender markers for any animate noun when they arefelt to be relevant: she-goat, he-goat, male-frog, hen-pheasant. Thiskind of personifying transposition affects not only animate but also awide range of inanimate nouns and is regulated in everyday languageby cultural and historical traditions. Compare the use of she in refer-ence to ships, vehicles, weaker animals, etc. and the use of he in ref-erence to stronger animals or phenomena suggesting crude strengthand fierceness, etc. A personal substitute he or she with inanimateobjects expresses an affectionate attitude to entities referred to:

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The indefinite noun phrase (NP) here suggests that the speakerhas someone definite in mind, but the persons identity is not yet knownto the hearer.

Unlike definite NPs, or definite descriptions, which tell the hear-er how to identify the object referred to, indefinite descriptions con-tain no instruction which tells the hearer which particular object ismeant. The definite article is used if the hearer is meant to identifythe object which the speaker is referring to as one that is known tohim or has already been mentioned. Conversely, the indefinite articleindicates that the hearer is not meant to identify the object the speakeris referring to on the basis of the shared speaker / hearer knowledgeor from prior mention. The indefinite description serves only to indi-cate the class of objects to which that object belongs.

1. The indefinite article in its main classifying function is used toshow that the speaker is characterizing a person, object or event onlyas a specimen of a certain class of things. The classifying indefinitearticle is mostly found with predicative and appositive nouns:

Im a critic and Im a novelist.His father was a good soldier.The cook, a bulky man who looked as though he enjoyed his

own cooking, scarcely looked around.He owes his curious name to his father, a well-read man.

Predicative and appositive nouns in the plural generally take noarticle:

They were extraordinarily nice, healthy children.Then we were joined by two women, acquaintances of Charles

and Ann.

The indefinite article is also used in predicative and adverbialphrases with like and as:

She looked like a boy with her head turned shamefacedly away.I was trembling like a leaf.The solid appearance of Julius in the same room was as deci-

sive as a dinner bell.

With plural nouns no article is used:

We stood looking at each other like children.

2. The indefinite article is used in its nominating function whenthe speaker wants to name an object or to state what kind of object ismeant. With plural nouns no article is used:

Then Robert Strickland struck a match and lit a cigarette.The night before, he had met an explorer, an actor, and a Ma-

rine sergeant at a party.

2. ARTICLESThe article is a structural word specifying the noun. Articles in

English are the most common noun determiners. Linguists recognizedlong ago that the article is essentially a functional element, acting tolink the sentence to the situation of communication. Most recent ac-counts treat the article in terms of its role in reference to things,people, events, etc.

There are two articles in English: the definite article and theindefinite article. The definite article indicates definite reference; itexpresses the identification4 or individualization of the referent denotedby the noun it determines. The indefinite article indicates indefinitereference; it is commonly interpreted as referring the object denotedby the noun it determines to a certain class of similar objects.

2.1. ARTICLES WITH COMMON NOUNS

2.1.1. The Use of Articles withConcrete Count Nouns

2.1.1.1. The Indefinite Article

The indefinite article has the forms a and an: a is used before anoun beginning with a consonant sound, an before a vowel sound.The indefinite article has developed from the Old English numerala n (one), and as a result of its origin it is used only with nouns in thesingular.

The main function of the indefinite article is to indicate indefinitereference. It means that at the moment of speech identification isimpossible or unnecessary, either for both the speaker and hearer orfor the hearer only:

I must just telephone from the station. Who to? A girl I wasgoing to meet.

4 By identification we mean the ability of the hearer / reader to understand whichparticular person or thing is meant by the speaker in the given situation.

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that the story-teller has someone definite in mind, but that the mansidentity is not yet known to the audience.

As the indefinite article often introduces new information, it iswidely used in existential sentences in which something is presentedas existent, or present:

Beyond glassy mountains and beyond silken meadows stooda dark forest.

We ate in the dining room, and there was a clean tablecloth.

4. Owing to its origin in the numeral one, the indefinite article al-ways implies the idea of oneness which may be made more promi-nent. The original numerical meaning is generally found:

a) with nouns denoting time, measure, and weight:

We stared intently at her for a minute or two;Weve only been here just under a week, my wife and I;

b) with the numerals hundred, thousand, million and the nounsdozen and score:

Ive told you a hundred times that you mustnt trust that man,Billy;

c) after the negative not (not a word, not a trace, not a thought):

Not a word was spoken in the parlour;

d) in some set phrases (at a time, at a gulp, at a draught):

He picked up his drink and drank it off at a gulp;

e) between two noun groups in expressions denoting prices, sala-ries, speeds, etc.:

90 pounds a week,12 hours a day,150 kilometres an hour.

5. In discussing the use of article it is essential to make a distinc-tion between specific and generic reference. If we say Two tigers aresleeping in the cage, the reference is specific, since we have in mindspecific specimens of the class tiger. If, on the other hand, we sayA tiger is a wild animal or Tigers are wild animals, the reference isgeneric, since we are thinking of the class tiger without referenceto specific tigers.

Sentences with the generic indefinite article express a generali-zation: what is said about one specimen of a class can be applied to allthe specimens of the class. The meaning of the article with singularnouns here is close to every / any. With plural nouns neither the articlenor some is used. Such instances are often referred to as general, oruniversal descriptions:

Sheets, shirts, pillow-cases, and night-dresses flapped anddanced in the thin breeze.

The indefinite article is often found with noun objects and in com-parison:

We must send him a telegram.She has a son and a daughter.But he is much more to me than a model or a sitter.He was a little round man, with a vest and apron, with pale,

hairy ears and a long, nervous nose.My room had a high ceiling and a tall four-poster bed which

should have had curtains around it to cut off the draft.

3. The indefinite article is used by the speaker to name an objectwhich is usually new to the hearer. This is the so-called first-mentionfunction of the indefinite article. It serves to introduce some newinformation, i. e. a new element of the sentence which is importantand attracts attention, thus becoming the centre of communicationand acquiring strong stress:

One morning a new man was sitting at the table.A car was coming. At the wheel sat a young man, his hair

blown back by the wind.

In Russian, which has no article, the centre of communication con-taining new information is usually marked by word order and alsostress:

. A girl came up to the window. . The girl came up to the window. . A boy rushed into the room. . The boy rushed into the room.

We often find the indefinite article in introductory sentences whichgenerally occur at the very beginning of a story:

One fine day a cock and a hen set off together to the woods tolook for hazel nuts.

Once upon a time a fox went up to a stork and said

These sentences are always followed by further information aboutthe person or object introduced:

A crow, perched in a tree with a piece of cheese in his beak,attracted the eye and the nose of a fox. If you can sing asprettily as you sit, said the fox, then you are the prettiestsinger within my scent and sight.

A certain is less indefinite than a (an). In A certain peasant hadthree sons, which might be the beginning of a story, certain suggests

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Theres someone at the door. Didnt you hear the bell? Perhapsits the milkman. No, its the postman.

Mr Turner is in the garden, watering the flowers.Shall I draw the curtains? It would make it more cheerful like.Lombard stared up at the sky. The clouds were beginning to

mass themselves together. The wind was increasing.

Thus, it should be noted that the definite article is often used byreason of locality, i. e. with reference to objects that surround thespeaker or the people or things described by him either indoors(the window, the door, the wall, etc.) or out-of-doors (the street, thetrees, the leaves, the birds, etc.).

After the party, Roy and I walked in the garden. The breeze haddropped, and on the great beeches no leaf stirred.

The definite article is also used with nouns denoting objects that arenormally found in a particular place. Their presence is simply taken forgranted. Thus, at home we may hear Have you fed the dog? or Ill put thekettle on and make you some tea. When we are talking about the theatreor the cinema, we say I couldnt find my seat and asked the attendant tohelp me. In a cafe or restaurant we say Lets call the waiter.

With sentences like Pass me the book we have what might be calleda visible situation use: the definite NP refers to something visible toboth the speaker and hearer. The utterance is made in a situation whenthe description used is applicable to one referent only.

Sentences like Beware of the dog or Dont feed the pony as a signon a gate would function as an immediate situation use; the referentis in the situation in which the act of reference occurs, but it is notnecessarily visible to the parties. The definite article informs thehearer of the existence of a dog or a pony and instructs him to use thesituation to find them.

The larger situation use is where a definite NP serves as a first-mention of some object in the village, country etc., where the refer-ence occurs. Members of a community share a body of knowledge ofentities existing within the bounds of that community; this knowledgeenables the inhabitants of the same village to speak of the pub, thechurch; fellow Englishmen to speak of the queen, the prime ministerwithout ambiguity. The hearer identifies the referent of the definiteNP by relying either on specific or on general knowledge about thereferent:

It must have gone ten oclock and people were coming out ofthe public house.

He had a serious disagreement with his uncle, and went off todine at the golf club.

The house was a bare three minutes from the station.

An artist should create beautiful things, but should not put any-thing of his own life into it.

If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite enough, and if he is nota gentleman, whatever he knows is bad for him.

Young men want to be faithful, and are not; old men want to befaithless, and cannot; that is all one can say.

Real friends should have everything in common.

Generic reference is used to denote what is normal or typical formembers of a class; thus it is often to be found in proverbs andsayings:

A cat has nine lives.A bad penny always comes back.A creaking gate hangs long.A drowning man clutches at a straw.Good fences make good neighbours.Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

2.1.1.2. The Definite Article

The definite article has one graphic form the, which is pronounced[] before a vowel and [] before a consonant sound. It has devel-oped from the Old English demonstrative pronoun se and in somecases this demonstrative meaning can be found in Modern English.

The definite article indicates definite reference which can be spe-cific, unique or generic.

Specific Reference. One of the chief functions of the definite articleis to indicate specific reference, i. e. to show that the speaker is re-ferring to a particular example (person, object or event) or to partic-ular examples, of a class of things as distinct from the other mem-bers of the same class.

Definite noun phrases, or definite descriptions are said to con-tain an instruction which tells the hearer what particular object ismeant. The hearer is supposed to identify the object the speaker isreferring to by means of the given definite NP either because it hasbeen previously mentioned or because its identity is made clear bythe context of utterance, or because the speaker and hearer havecertain shared knowledge which serves to make the reference un-ambiguous.

1. The pragmatic presupposition concerning the ability of the hear-er to identify the object referred to can result from the extralinguis-tic context / situation in which the utterance is made.

Definite NPs with specific reference frequently occur when thespeaker is referring to some object or person that he or she assumesthe hearer can identify in the environment they share:

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You strike me as being one of the sanest and most level-headedgirls Ive come across.

She was the most active of us.

Most in combination with an adjective can express not only thesuperlative degree of a quality but a high degree as well in whichcase it has the same meaning as very, exceedingly, and the NP is usedwith the indefinite article a most clever man, a most interestingtheory:

Caroline found that the old maid was a most devoted daughterand sister.

Note the use of articles in some structures with most. When defi-nite reference is made to people or things the noun is used with thedefinite article and most is followed by the preposition of:

Most of the gentlemen looked both angry and uncomfortable.

In the case of indefinite reference, most, not most of is used:

Most people hold the same opinion as you do.

B. Ordinal numerals:

But you should not say the great romance of your life. You shouldsay the first romance of your life.

However, when ordinal numerals are