A comprehensive grammar of the english language

DOWNLOAD CSS Notes, Books, MCQs, Magazines www.thecsspoint.com      Download CSS Notes Download CSS Books Download CSS Magazines Download CSS MCQs Download CSS Past Papers The CSS Point, Pakistan’s The Best Online FREE Web source for All CSS Aspirants Email: info@thecsspoint.com LONGMA.N GROL'r LIMITED Lon gman HOUK, Burnt Mill, Harlo,", Euu CM20 2] E, England alld A UoXla l,J e;., ,,,paltlt rll ","l~o'" rht World I COH E NT S I pllgt P R E F AC E Cl C,E, E cker $le ~ and J.M , [eke r';!e)' 1960 vu I S T RO D UCT I OS All rq:Il U rt ~ r\'td f'; o ~Il of , II i" publi~a lio n m ~) be reprod uced , slored in II relrieval w sre m or r lll n~ mIll ed" In lln~ form 01 b y ll n~ mean e"'dl"n~ me,~nical p1'1010·e for m of PronQu ns Com p,;ar i50n some Ad jecti ves, lId Person SingulAr in t he Simple Pr esent Te n , some Yer1.5, and le w re me nt of t he Suhi" ncl we ~Iood _ , -t COlllprdU"lSlt'l Eugllsh (;", m lll ll r ' rules' t hat we have g iven a re merely conclusi ons dra,\:~ h om t hese Iacts II at any t in e a ru,le docs n?t c~lIlC\llc '''l~h t he usage it is t he rule t hat is \\'r~ng , and It will ~e t he Job 01 fu ture grammarians t o change It EXERCISES I From your own experience in learning English try t~ explain how important you consider the study a grammar to be in learning a foreign language II Do you consider that st ud y of grammar IS ,~re im rant or less important m learning English an u.e it ~ ill learn ing you r own nat ive la nguage? Give reasons for your answer , • III The I nt rod uct ion t o t h is book says, on page one; 'English has changed Item a synthetic lang uage to ~ analytic one' Compare t his with wha t has 11 ~ppen in -our o n language and aay whether you t hlllk th is ch1nge has made English ea ster or more difficult for the foreign studen t t o learn does t he abandonment of bel ief In ' ' t he 1\ I n your opml0n grammatical r ules t end t owards a do;: t.enoTat lon In style and quality a langn ag,; as It IS.U&eJ III every- , • day life) C H AP T E R O:SF ( T H E P AR T S OF S P E EC H ' T he wo rds that compo!'-t' t ile English lauguago-c-or any oth er Ianguagc-c-can be classific in var ious wa~';; :'l lud l time and effort h as been spent in try ing t o se ttle what names should he given t o t hese cat egor ies I t seems t o us t hat t he re is little poi n t in giving an yt h ing bu t the mos t genera l definitions of tile Parts of Speech , in the first place because it is almost im poss ible t o give a defin ition which is exact and comprehensive, or w it h wh ic h every grammaria n wo uld agree ; second ly because it is hard ly n ecessa ry s ince t he concept ion o f ' Nou n", ' Verb' , e tc , ,,; 1\ a lm ost ce r tai nly be fam iliar t o t he s tuden t in his own language It seems t o us more important t hat the st uden t should be given e xamples of the various P a rts of Speech and sh ould sec, as he will in t he pages th at follow, e xac tly ho w t hese word s beh ave We have t herefore ad hered in the main , t o the traditional! most familiar definitions Un der t h is system all t he words in t he English language can be grouped according t o t he work they do, int o eight daSS('S TIl("SC are tilt' Parts of spe~cll They are: (!) Words that a re the names of th ings or people or places, e.g house hal, iron, Mary , Russia, London, sweetness, spuch, '" crOU'd, army \ I I \ \~orr t hat d o this wo r k a re called C,>;ouss· II W ords that c a n be used instead of nouns so that we can re er t o people or t h ings without Teall}' nami ng them and being com pelled t o repea t t he names too frequent ly, e.g I Professor C C Frle~, t hc fu rmer Director of the English Langua ge Institute of t he Universily of Michigan and per ps t he mcee iwnoclulie of modern gra m marians, writes; 'O n the bole, I beueve it wil l be found Ihat most of t he t rad itional teuns t hollJb oft en badly na med correspond to real /;tcll "",d dist llletions In the linguistic material li ma)" rea!OOll&bly be doubled whether a $.en·ic=ble gram mAr hi ,, _~ - _ _ , , Words like t hese ar4 n ERJECTfOXS J '1 ",I I" _ ,.(1 j'" , • • Thr H ITls of Spach ful.oI.j - t ~ "'TYOI,I.> ~ \ b'""cmj /lt llo/ OM A M Yl\ • OJ, ! 'f dowl _owuvIY - xC.Tl12>- Wory'y ~ c.o~ t: ~ - - I ( j I \ S S I H C \1/ S It is most important to remember that words are classified into l'a rl ~ of speech accord ing 10 tlu-ir run ct tcn that is ncconlmg to thr work t hat they and not according to their form There are in fact a grsar many words that can be two • • three or even more parts of speech arrording to the work they Take for example these sentences -( I f lie came by a Yery k ISt train -f~ ~ William ran very l p sl, ~3j They are going to 7,:!!/ for t hree days; during that time t hey won 't eat a nything (4)- At the end of his three day lfEl he will have a very light meal In (r) f ast is an adjective, in (2) it is nn a,I\'('rl1, in (3) a verb, and in (4) a noun Or note th e differing uses of wal, h in: ~ly fat her gave me a watch fo r my birrh.ln y I am going to waf,h a football ma tch Hex is a geed Tcnfdl dog Or of spring in: The sP,illg of my watch is broken The dog tried to sp ring ever the gate t Jove sp,i n~ flowers w ords like drink, look , smoke, ~as/', ~wim , J, i,,( I,)' are aljgenerally used as verbs, bu t especially in familiar ccnvcrsation , we pu t ' hI!l'( a' before t hem ('h:\\"e a drink look, t ry, etc.'), and t hey become nouns Words like shoulder, head, Jingtr, eye, elbow hand , etc arc generally nouns: but we can 'shoulder our way' , 'head a football or a procession', 'fillger an object', 'tye a person ' , 'tlb, by, kind five, ice cow, now, out, rou nd , mout h Loy, to}', noise , oil, coi n beer, ncar , beard, here , ear t here, pear, ch r, air, care 1100r, tore, roar, sh ore 10 1lf, moor cu rious [' kju;Jri;Js) :S)TE ~Ianr spl'akf'rs of R.P not use Diphthong :-: co They u se ins tead vowel XO.,7 [0 :), and p-ronounce [do :], [to :], etc @ kU>O SO>OA:;TJ Consonan ts lIlay be classified according t o t he way the}' arc l otn1l'd in t he mouth Ti le Jollowing types arc llist iul;lIisllCd ill E nglish : (t) P tosire, "DIe breath is sto pped compl etely III the mouth l!;lt l tll CII relea sed SUddenly with all e xpl osive sound r ' jcd til:! The breath is not completely stopped but the iI.I~-pac ll;ll is narrowed in t he mouth so t hat frlo.t um r an be heard ,') A rr!jC~ Similar t o a plcsive consonan t but the release o('TJ';e-l lr IS ess sudden , so that it sounds lik e a pJosive conson ant followl,d by J fricative o • 406 T he PrOl1un ciatiOil of English A ComprthCIIsiw E llglish Gralilmar @ N asal The breath is compl~ tely s t~ppcd ill t he mo uth (as for th e jSlOsive consonants) but IS permitted t o come through the nose 6) ~Ii.t!ou'el Like vowel-sounds, but so sh or t th at they form on ly a g1Tde t o the fo\luwing sound , and are t rea ted as consonant s In addition there are two English consonan t sounds whi ch cannot be placed in any of the above catego ries V OICE D A l' D V OICE L ESS SO UN DS Sounds m ay he produc ed wit h vibration of the vocal chords (voiced sounds) or w it hou t vibration (voiceless sounds) As a result the~e ar.e many pairs of consonant s which have t he same formation 11\ t he mou th but are distinguished by being voiced in one case, voiceless in t he other j "'ICd css V oicd ess P t k e s J CO~SON \ NT;; A ir-p assage na rroweil 'Ili'U II.' • Lower lip and upper teeth T ip of tongue and upper teeth Tip of to ngue and teeth ridg e Fron t of tongue and bac k of teethridge , wit h wider opening than lor [5, z] 'c C() ~ SOX XT i) Like rD and [3) but ti p of tongue touching teeth-ridge to 'make a complete stop at first Like [r] but tip of t ungue touchi ng te eth-ridge to make a comple te stop at fi rst I n [t rl the [r) also is voiceless, the ~ r] elemen t has mo re fric tiou t han (r] alone Q)( \'"ASi\ X ,'Sa.! p d~silg e ope1l Mouth stopped as Mnurh st opped as Mouth stoppell as (O,'1 S0~ A ~TS I V oiced 1/1Id for [1'], [IlJ for [t], [dJ for (kJ, [gJ m n G)[Snu-VOWELS i Like \'ery short fa] Lips rounded I lkl.' \"Cry short IilWider ope n ing than for UJ [::;J; t iP of tongue curled bac k, but retracted from the teeth-ridge so that there is littl e or no fri ction Body of tongue lowered V oiced b d g w J r @iOTIlERCO~SONA:\TS r Tip of tongue t ouching t eeth or teet h, ridge , sides of t ongu e lowered As th e body of the t ongu e is tree t o ta ke up many different positions in t he mouth , it is possible to pronounce as m any varieties of [IJ as t here are vo wel sounds In English we lIlay distinguish two vanctrcs-c-an [ij-Iike [l]th at occurs at the beginning of a word or SYllable (leilf, laugh) and a 'darker' [uJ-like [I) that occurs fi nally or before a consona nt (feel , milk) F R IC ATI V E C ONSO:-;A ~TS G:>(A FF Rl c rE tJ I B reath slopp ed by.' Lower lip against u pper lip Tongue against teeth-ri dge Back uf t U1l6tUl: against ruof of mouth @ f (P LOS1VE I • v e z d" b Note Br:ath only, the mouth ill position t articulate the foJlowing vowel a f • I [r] By speakers of RP., this sound is pronounced o.ll.zy before a ~'Ofi'el sound It docs therefore not occur in words like card, u;orth, form [kard w~:e, fo:m], in words like fathe r «car, lore pronounced III isolation ['fa:oo nia, tot], or in the Oi l Ii T he Pronunciation of Ellglish l, omprehenSwt t.ngtish Grammar sentences: ' He was near the door'; 'He tore the pa per' But [r] is pronounced in ' Father ate them'; 'far away': 'ncar and far' ; 'for e ver", since in these examples the words are pronounced without a break, and tr.e sound immediately following the let ter r is a vowel \\ 11.en a voiceless c on so~ an t closes the syllable, th ese vowels and dlph~h.ongs arc ve ry ht!le !onger th an other vowels in the same posltl?n Thus t here 1S httle difference in the lw gth of the vowels m th e following pairs of words: btat [bitt], bit [bit]; f oot [hit], boot [hu :t]: short [jo rt], shot [Jot]; bite [baitJ, bllt [b.\ t); reach Double consonants rarely occur within English words EW'Jl when two consonan t letters are written (e.g biller, banner, follo w), only a ~'i ngle consonant is pronounced, Do ubl e COI\ ' sonants mav however occur in compound words or where a word ending \\" it~ ,.,1 consonant is followed by a word beginning .ith a similar conson ant c.g pm-knife [pen-naif], full lo.ld [Iul loud], bad dream [bad drirru] In these circums tances a consonant of double length is pronounced When tw o plosive consonants are brought t ogether in th is way, there is us ually only one explosion , bu t the sto p is held longer than for a single consn nant , e.g bed time, big dog , sit dou-n, u'Jw! time.' il1hiJ2Itht~0':ii All the diphthongs, and the vowels containing the 'lengti: mark' I :] in t heir phonetic symbol ' (i:, a:, :, U:, at} m ay be given greater length in certain positions T hese are (a) when they are followed by a t'oiud sonant; (b) when they are in an open syll able at the end of the word (Note th at these arc th e only vowel sounds wh ich can occur at the end of a ' ord in a stressed syllable.) T hus the vowel in: bee [bi t] and brad [bi:d j is longer than the vowel in beat [bi: ~ : car [kai], card [kurd] is longer than the vowel in rart [kan] SII :II [sot] s!wrd [50:d] ts longer than that ill sought (so:t] bow [bau] bOlad [b uud] is longer than that in bOllt [baut] play [plei], pl'J)!cd [pleid] i~ longer than that in plate [pki ( (9 VJtu /s I The ,"'Owd j may abo be leng-then'lthe 'ro~ech of m an" speakers 409 lrutfl rich [ritfl The consonants [IJ [rn], (nJ and Inl are similarly lengthened at th e end of a word or before a fi nal voiced consonant Thus: killed [kil :dJI kill [kil:j kilt [kilt ] hummed [ha nud] hum [l1l,m:] hump [hamp] things [Bin:z] t hing [Bin:] th ink [BilJk] wind [winrd] win [wiru] wince (wins] ISTRESS] , St r~ss is th~ prominence ~ive~ to certain syllables by varianons in tile pitch of the voice (m tonation) and by the use of g~e ater brca~h for~e A syllable may have main stress, indicated m this section by th e sign (') placed before the stressed syllab le; or secondary stress, indicated by (') 0' () done di rt IS ts Heh , 'r~nmg on whether let er It high -ot -pitched or low-p itched : or it may be tlnstressed ~ • \V~lCn a syllable has main stress,.it carries on e of th e rising or fa llmg tones that character-ize th e intonatio n tunes described on pp 41 2-41 ,') ~Vhen we quote monosyllabic word s in isolation we generally give them main st ress an d say th em with a :alh ng tOIlC when \\:e quote words of two or more syllables 1I1 the same way, we gl\'C mam stress (generally with a falling : 'fhe [ :l ~s here.u si gn of extra lenl;: th - I n R \m gdon The GTOlmdu.'ork of E nglish Sire where t he sub' t IS fully tr ea ted th e t er m 'Kine ti c stress' i used fo; main st ress the " terms a rt usvn~." A Brief History of Ih,: F:1/;1i5h L.lIlg'j,lge P9 from Schleswig the Saxons from Holstein t he [utr-s from Jutland T11c lan'tl1ilge t hey al l s poke belonged to till' t cnnanic speech family, This in t urn was separated Into th ree main families: c.\ST cnmA"IC, wh ich died (ou t wah Goth ic a ho llt the l"ig-i.Ih eentury! "CIRrI! CEIi'l.-\X1C:, wl.i::h of the words adopted between I"50 a"~lIHl on!;"ln; and half of the"" were trcll wnnollS French -eren~l'~t 1;00; ,\e'l?rtlwlcss, despire this Anglo- S:lXOll for thou , " ' Englr.h fl.::mam:; fu nda nH: nta l1\· , v g I l IS casv Cll OU O"!J to m k ' OIl ordinnrv sllbJ'ects withour ' _ ", a c H~ll!l'Ill"CS • llslllg a smg c word of Pre , - , L a , In ongtn It is practi call ' im ) ' ible t ' rene I or sentence wit hour tFinS " '~ I ~,SI e ro mak e even a short , " ~ " \\" 1"( s , J he borrowlIlgs t hrow Of F'ngl lsh ~i"~ the freshness of th e assimila tum and sociai ,; cry external an d internal , politicai If a ll other Willers of know] d t lost , we could [dm ost rc -con t ecge ,I out th e Normans were t "s _rue ' Ion f the Jallgua&"c of t oda \ \' t 1e times fro m 'til un exammn., that the Norm , }- : c should kn ow, for example • ans\\ eret lC ru lm" Tace for al t 11 , ' p\ pr essing government C I ci"'" rnos a t 'i e words French origin It is t ru,ll:f lit It~g ~~;i!n!1 InCllt itself) are of words ki ll{; nIH! qf{ct:~, !o~~ Ie o~m;j I1 S l~:ft thr- Sa xon lhrone, CrOWIl , roy al, stafe, ' COtlnl~l~d~::~ieb~:~,:l1Iep e sOt.:relgl~ d li k e count, challcellor mtn i.I ' ' 11, il r I lI m e l1o, words ,arc aJI vor m an, '" s or , COlwell and m any other su ch ·0 ton nrc such wo rd , COlirteous I t P I 'tc ," u t S ;lS IO I/O/I r, "lory Call "b-orJ~ e~p~~~~;lg °t;I~' ~~~~~'t~;~:' ~~O~!~i,~';';~: ~'~~, cn,:._ , ' are In E XERCI SES I N ame in histori cal o rde r t he languages t h a t have left the deepest mark on English and ill ustrate by exam ples in w hat sections of the English voc abulary t hei r in f1uence can be m os t clear ly seen II H o w caD you s how by e xa m ples that during o ne im portant period of h istory t here ere two languages in simultaneous use in England by two di ffere nt soc ia l classes? • I n \\lI a t o t he r la ngu ag es have most ir.f1 \1 e nced E nlo:lish in the following fields of h uman activity: Go vernment, religio n , law, music, medicine? Quote severat examples of these infl ue nces for each of the above \ I V Describe t he effect o n t he English la ngu a ge of t he fac t that E nglish was for a long period in t he ~I idd : e Ages a lmO$t exclusively a spo/" la ng uage V Co m pa re a nd tras t, so Iar as m ay be po'Ssible the develo pm e n t of the Eng lish la ngu age with t hat o f j-our 0"'"'11 noting especially any sec tions o f vocabulary in w hich y our o n language and English ve been subjec t to the same influe nces VI Express your opinion fo r or against the idea tha t E nglish occu pies a unique position among langu ages in r es pec t of t he contribut ions made t o it by o th er la ngu ages and its conseque nt r ichness o f voca bu la ry o 0" ... task is simply to state how, so far as he can judge certai n people spea k and 'rite at the present time The grammar 0 1a langu age is the scienti fic record of the actual phenomena of that language. .. T1Iompson ,l Spaiu , Yorkshire, ans are not na mes t hat can be applied to any man, any count ry , a ny count y, a ny ci t y They are names of a part icular man , a particular countr ,a ar ticular count... directed at any particular examin ation, the needs of examination candidates ve been bome in mind , and it should give ample material t o prepare students for the English language papers set in any of