Doing Grammar JL Max Morenberg Doing Grammar *1 V *> > % DOING GRAMMAR MaxMorenberg INDIANA UNIVERSITY WITHDRAWN schurz library New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1991 Oxford University Press Oxford Delhi New York Bombay Petaling Jaya Nairobi Toronto Calcutta Singapore Dar es Salaam Melbourne Madras Karachi Hong Kong Tokyo '' Cape Town Auckland and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1991 by Oxford University Press, Inc Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Morenberg, Max, 1940Doing grammar / Max Morenberg p cm Includes index ISBN 0-19-506427-5 English language—Grammar—1950— I Title PEI 112.M64 1991 428.2—dc20 90-37489 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper for a rara avis * V ■» V - % Preface * Grammar! I doubt whether any school subject is so universally dreaded and loathed by students and remembered with as much discomfort by adults The term grammar will generally make people grimace and snarl When I want to free myself from a particularly obnoxious person at a cocktail party, all I have to is tell him I’m a grammarian Invariably, he’ll lower his head and sidle away, mumbling into his shirt collar, “I never did well at that in school.” When I like the person and want to continue the conversation, I say I’m a linguist If you’re one of those who would rather eat lint than grammar, I know how you feel, because I hated grammar as a kid I even failed eleventh grade English because of my animosity for the subject Gram¬ mar classes seemed an endless repetition of silly rules and mindless diagrams that took up a portion of every year from third grade to twelfth grade The lessons never stuck in your mind because nothing about grammar ever seemed to make sense Grammar was something you had to endure, a grueling initiation ceremony into adult society Then, in my junior year of college, I read a book called English Sentences by Paul Roberts and began to see grammar in a different light Roberts said that grammar is “something that produces the sen¬ tences of a language,” and he taught me for the first time how systematic and structured a language, really is He illustrated the point with a simple game You put words on twenty-five cards, one word to a card, and place the cards in a hat The words are face, my, never, his, dog, usually, car, struck, the, liked, a, washed, window, sometimes, seldom, George, stroked, He, She, Annabelle, her goldfish, often, PREFACE viii Sam, touched If you just pick the cards from the hat, one at a time until you reach five, you’ll probably never come out with an English sentence But if you arrange the cards into stacks following the pattern Edith frequently ignored her son, and pick them in order starting with the Edith stack, you’ll always produce a five-word sentence the likes of George usually stroked my goldfish or Annabelle sometimes touched her dog In fact, there are hundreds of such sentences in the hat What you’ve done by arranging the cards is to sort words into classes and subclasses, first into noun phrases and verb phrases, and then into (1) proper nouns or personal pronouns, (2) adverbs, (3) transi¬ tive verbs, (4) articles or possessive pronouns, and (5) common nouns In essence, by sorting and classifying you’ve made a grammar machine Roberts’ game is a pretty simple idea, but it opened my eyes to the structure of language When we speak or write, words aren’t simply thrown into sentences at random: they are ordered They have a GRAM¬ MAR Grammar began to make sense to me The next important revelation for me was that you can take the simple sentences produced by such a grammar machine and put them together into new and different combinations, because the grammar ofra-lan¬ guage keeps recycling material, using the same structures over and over again in new combinations In this way, grammar produces an infinite number of sentences from a small number of core structures To intro¬ duce my beginning linguistics students to that idea, I give them two sentences and ask them to combine the two in as many ways as they can My favorite two sentences for this exercise are It surprised me and Jane arrived late If you want to try, remember that you can add words like and or when or if, and you can change the forms of words, from arrive to arriving or arrival, for instance Students will typically come to the next class with 50 or 60 combinations The all-time champ was a mathematically inclined student who ran a factor analysis on the combinations and produced 467 new sentences, stopping, he said, not because he couldn’t have continued but because he finally got bored with the task Those two ideas together, the grammar machine and the combining exercise, inform everything in the book The first chapter introduces you to the core sentences—their components and how the components relate to one another The second chapter expands the definitions of the two major components, the noun phrase and the verb phrase The next V 3* Preface IX chapter shows how you can rearrange the components in the core sen¬ tences or compound them The fourth chapter introduces you to com¬ bining core sentences intd relative clauses, while the fifth describes how to reduce those clauses to phrases The sixth chapter explains how you combine core sentences into substitutes for nouns—noun clauses, gerunds, and infinitives And finally, the seventh chapter explores ways you combine sentences into nonrestrictive modifiers Don’t let the terminology throw you It’s introduced a little at a time And you already know more grammar than you suspect You speak, write, and understand language without e^yer thinking about the identity and function of grammatical components But when you study grammar in school, you become conscious of how language operates to produce sentences Grammar works by putting words, phrases, and clauses to¬ gether into sentences The grammarian’s job is to take those structures apart, identify them, and explain how the parts relate to one another Putting together is natural; taking apart and labeling is learned The idea of Doing Grammar is that if you can see how you put sentences to¬ gether, you can understand how to take them apart So, besides the explanations, each chapter has lots of exercises for you to work And I’ve spent a lot of time selecting example sentences and exercise sen¬ tences that are interesting Besides hating mindless grammar exercises, I always hated the sentences in grammar books that were so dull and lifeless that they seemed to occur nowhere in the world but in grammar books The sentences in Doing Grammar are real sentences with some vividness and life Doing Grammar is not tied to one ideology It draws upon both traditional and generative-transformational grammar in an attempt to produce a clear, understandable introduction to the subject It is rooted in the traditional principles of Jespersen as well as in the contemporary formulations of Chomsky It is nurtured through the textbook explana¬ tions of Paul Roberts and the language development research of Kellogg Hunt It assumes, loosely, that when you speak or write, you take a small number of core sentences composed of basic classes of words and combine those sentences into new, more complex sentences: little sen¬ tences grow into big sentences It also assumes that if you learn to analyze the structures and relationships in the core sentences, you will be able to analyze the structures and relationships in the new combina¬ tions After going through the book, you should be able to read and appendix: selected answers 164 Chapter Rearranging and Compounding PrepPh: Adv-time NP:Obj_£( Prep NP NP:Sub| PropN Modal Neg I | The Sox could Prep Art VT I I till n't put together a rally in I OrdNumber the ! N I fifth inning VRPred PrepPh :Adv-duration rNP:SubJ 11 I I I N 1,1 J L X°“ _ Wffl jBake I the mixture minutes VPPred PrPhrase: Adx-place NP:GramSubj / N 14 I Fish VT BE PastPart I is I featured on the menu There are two analyses of sentence 14, that it is a normal pass^ye with a deleted agent, as in Appendix: Selected Answers 165 This restaurant features fish on the menu * I Fish is featured on the menu by this restaurant Or that it is a special kind of passive in which the original subject is more like a place adverbial rather than an agent So it moves into a prepositional phrase with on instead of into a phrase with by The menu features fish Fish is featured on the menu In either case, featured would be a past participle and is a form of indicating passive be s Pronoun Modal ic 15 What vc propN ! Aai uoioomp i i could make San Antonio 22 lively? N VT NP i i i Alzheimer's strips away mind Coni i and Chapter Constructing Relative Clauses y NPiSubj I PropN MV Pres Det I I VT Meryl Streep plays Art a VPPred NP Adj NPSubi MVPres I | N RelPr romance novelist who VT _ NEDObj GenN N steals Rosanne Barr's husband NP i identity 166 appendix: selected answers s s VP:Pred PrepPh: Adv-place MV.PresCond NP:Subj NPiSubj Pron Modal I She I X)bj ^NF^DObj I VT Art N I N I I will examine the ways |in which | women N y^'obi of Prep Prep define social supporti RelPt RelPr / ' /NP~Obj of Prep Prep art I I N I j in the workplace -> Appendix: Selected Answers 167 s Chapter Reducing Relative Clauses to Phrases VPPred PresPa rtPhAdj NP.Subj MV: Past Det I I PropN VT Humphrey Bogart took Det I I Art OrdNum I J the ,1 last \ VT \ NPDObi I | N PresPart PropN I | train leaving I Paris NP: PredN PastPartPh:Adj PrepPhAdv-agency NPSubj Adj MV:Past NP Head N I I BE N NP:Obj o( Prep I 16 Early autos were machines uncomplicated by electric starters You might consider uncomplicated an adjective rather than a past participle Then by electric starters would be an adverb of manner 168 appendix: selected answers s 37 Children are unnerved by parents suffering job distress, j* Appendix: Selected Answers 169 Chapter Making i^oun Clauses, Gerunds, and Infinitives s NP:Subj I GerPh VP:Pred NP:DObj MV:Past Det I I VT Art N I I I The defense attorney's probing dismayed the witness S 12 Jane Bryant Quinn makes money make sense 170 appendix: selected answers s The diagram shows went against as a two-word transitive verb You could also argue that went is intransitive and against the master plan of the city is a prepositional phrase functioning as a negative adverb Chapter Adding Modifiers to Sentences VP.Pred Appendix: Selected Answers 171 172 appendix: selected answers s Index Absolutes, 145-49 introductory “with”, 149 placing in sentences, 148 Adjective clause See Relative clause, restrictive differentiating from present participle, 34-35 following BE or linking verb See Predicate adjective as object complement, 9-10 single word in noun phrase, 97-98 Adverb of agency, 56 clause See Clause, adverb following intransitive verb, of instrument, 154 of place, unlike indirect object, single word in noun phrase, 97-98 Adverbial infinitive See Infinitive, as adverb Ambiguity, 102-3 Answers, selected, 163-72 Appositive adjective, 145 noun, 143-45 Article See also Determiner definite, 37 indefinite, 37 Aspect, 25-26, 31-34 perfective, 31-33, 49 progressive, 33-34, 49 Auxiliary, 26-37, 51-58 BE, 33-34, 36, 49-50 have, 31-33, 49 modal, 28-31 perfective aspect, 31-33, 49 progressive aspect, 33-34, 49 tense, 25-27, 35-37 Base, form of verb See Infinitive BE See also Verbs, BE, Auxiliary, BE in auxiliary, 33-34, 37 deleting from clause, 92-95, 141 forms of, 10 in negative sentence, 49-50 in passive, 55-58 in question, 51-52 recognizing as main verb, 20-21 in relative clause, 92-93, 95 in there-sentence, 59 Brackets, labeled, 18 By prepositional phrase, 56-57 Clause adjective See Relative clause, restrictive adverb, 150-52; words that can introduce, 151 dependent, 72-73 independent, 72 matrix, 75 noun, 109-21 relative, 72-85; constructing, 77-79; differentiating from noun clause, 109; internal structure, 74-75; relation to matrix, 75-76; restrictive, 72-85 restrictive, 84-85 subordinate See Clause, dependent 173 INDEX 174 Comma in compound, 65 in nonrestrictive modifier, 136 Complement subject, 10 See also Predicate adjective; Predicate noun object, 9-10, 122, 124 Compounding, 61-66 Conjoining See Compounding Conjunction coordinate, 62-63 correlative, 63-64 subordinate See Subordinator Constituent, 13-15, 55 disjunctive, 81 problems identifying, 102-3 Core sentence, 128 Deixis, 38 Determiner, 37-42 article, 37 demonstrative, 37, 38 number, 40 pre-article, 40-42 Diagram traditional, 18 tree, 17 Diagramming, a comment on, 17-18 DO as expletive, 60 in negative, 50-51 in Wh-question, 54 in yes/no-question, 52-53 Disjunction, 81 Embedding, 72, 73-74 levels of, 99-101 why you embed, 76-77 Exercises, 20-24, 43-47, 67-71, 85- 91, 104-8, 130-35 Analyzing Sentences, 44-47, 68-71, 87-91, 105-8, 132-35, 157-61 Breaking Out Underlying Sentences, 86- 87, 104-5, 131, 156 Changing Main-Verb Forms, 44 Combining Sentences, 86, 105, 131-32, 157-61 Identifying Sentence Constituents, 22 Rearranging and Compounding Sentences, 67-68 Writing Definitions, 22, 43-44, 67, 85-86, 104, 130, 155-56 Expletive, 120 DO, 60 it, 60, 123 there, 60 Extraposition of infinitive phrases, 123 of noun clauses, 120 Function, 12 See also Complement; Object, direct; Object, indirect; Predicate; Predicate adjective; Predicate noun; Subject Genitive See also Possessive with gerund, 128 inflective, 39 phrasal, 39-40 in relative clause, 82 Gerund, 125-28 differentiating from participle, 125 functions, 126-27 with genitive, 128 as phrase, 109, 129 N as verb phrase, 126 as verbal noun, 126 Get, in passive, 57-58 Have in negative sentence, 49 in perfective aspect, 31-33 in Wh-question, 54-55 in yes/no question, 51-52 Imperative, 60-61 Infinitive as adverb, 124-25, 129 extraposition of, 123 as noun, 121-24 as object complement with Vc, 122 phrase, 109 as verbal noun, 126 Information, old, in definite articles, 37 Intensifier, It, as expletive, 60 Main verb, 20-21, 26, 35-36, 43 Matrix, 75 Modal See also Modality as indicator of mood, 28-31 in negative sentence, 48 •> in Wh-question, 53 in yes/no question, 51-52 Index Modality, 25-26, 28-31 conditional, 30 indicative, 28 Modifiers adding to sentences, 136-61 nonrestrictive, 136-61; as additional commentary, 139; difference from restrictive, 138; making statements equivalent to main clause, 138-39; moving, 137; putting together, 152-53; relative clause, 137-39; structures that can occur as, 137 restrictive, difference from nonrestrictive, 138 See also Clause, restrictive; Infinitive; Phrase, past participial; Phrase, present participial Mood See Modality Negatives, 48-51 with passive sentence, 58 Nominative absolute See Absolutes Nonrestrictive modifier See Modifiers, nonrestrictive Noun clause, 109-21; as complement to predicate adjective, 120; moving (see Extraposition); that-clause, 109-13; wh-clause, 113-19 common, 42-43 following linking verb, See also Predicate noun following transitive verb, See also Object, direct as object complement, phrase: deleting object NP in relative clause, 83-84; expanding, 37-43; head, 75 possessive, 38-40 See also Genitive proper, 42-43 types of, 42-43 Number See Determiner Object direct, indirect, 7-8, 19-22 Participle See also Phrase, past participial; Phrase, present participial past, 31-33 present, 33-34; differentiating from adjective, 34-35 175 Particle, 15 Passive See Sentence, passive Past participle See Participle, past Partitive See Determiner, pre-article Period, in compounds, 65 Phrase head of, 75, 101 noun See Noun, phrase past participial, 95-96, 139, 141 present participial, 93-95, 139, 141 punctuating, 102 reducing relative clause to, 92-108 restrictive, 102 verb See Verb phrase Possessive, 37, 38-40 See also Genitive pronouns, 38 Pre-article, 40-42 Predicate, 12-15 partial, in infinitive phrase, 124 partial, in absolute, 146-48 Predicate adjective, 5, 10 Predicate noun, 10 Preposition, 16-17 vs particle, 15-16 Prepositional phrase, 16-17, 96 adjectival, 96 nonrestrictive, 136 in passive, 56-57 in relative clause, 82-83 Present participle See Participle, present Pro-adverb, 115 interrogative, 53 Pronoun interrogative, 53 relative, 74, 78-83 Punctuation, 65-66 comma, in compounds, 65 in nonrestrictive modifier, 136 period, in compounds, 65 in restrictive phrase, 102 semicolon, in compounds, Quantifier See Determiner, pre-article Question, 51-55 with passive, 58 Rearranging, 48 Relative See Pronoun, relative Relative clause, 129 constructing, 72-91 nonrestrictive, 137-39 reducing to phrase, 92-108 restrictive, 72-85 INDEX 176 Semicolon, in compounds, 65 Sentence parts, 12-13 Sentence patterns, 19-20 Sentences core, 128 existential there, 59-60 expanding and analyzing, 128-30 imperative, 60-61 negative, 48-51 passive, 6, 55-58 question, 51-55 taking apart, a final word, 153-55 Status of main verb, 25-26, 36, 58 Structure See Constituent Subject, 12-15 of infinitive phrase, 123 Subject, grammatical in noun clause, 120 in passive sentence, 56 in there-sentence, 59 Subject, logical in noun clause, 120 in passive sentence, 56 in there-sentence, 59 Subordinator in adverb clause, 151 for to, in infinitive phrase, 123 if, in noun clause, 118 in order to, in adverbial infinitive, 124-25 to, in infinitive, 122 Wh, in noun clause, 113-18; replacing indefinite pronoun, 114, 116 whether, in noun clause, 117-18 who, what, when, where, how, how often, why, in noun clause, 115 Summary and Implications, 20-21, 43, 66, 85, 103-4, 130, 155 Tag question, 61 Tense, 25-27, 35-37 See also Auxiliary past, 26 present, 26 verb, 25-27 Tense, modality, and aspect possible combinations, 36-37 putting them together, 35-37 Verb phrase expanding, 25-26 finite, 26 in imperative, 61 as predicate, 12-15 Verbal noun See Gerund; Infinitive Verbs base form See Infinitive BE, 10, 20-21 See also BE like consider (Vc), 8-10, 129 See also Verbs, two place transitive finite, 26 like give (Vg), 6-8, 19-20 See also Verbs, two-place transitive helping See Auxiliary, modal identifying types, 3-24 infinitive, 26 intransitive, 4, 11, 15 irregular, 27 linking, 5, 11,21 main See Main verb multiple word, 15-16 regular, 27 semi-transitive, 19 transitive, 6, 11-12, 15, 21 two-place transitive, 6-10, 12, 19- 20 types of, 3, 10-12 Wh-question, 53-55 Will, in imperative, 60-61 Yes/no question, 51-53 You, understood, in imperative, 60-61 # Doing Grammar brings together insights from traditional and contemporary language studies in order to offer a lucid and practical approach to gram¬ matical analysis, an approach that actively involves readers in every step of the process, building on their knowledge of language This unique new book shows how a small set of structures and relationships within a core of sentences forms the building blocks for a comprehensive grammatical system In examples and exercises, Doing Grammar uses “real world’’ sentences from recent books, magazines, and newspapers to explain how words, phrases and clauses fit together and how language works as a whole This book provides detailed discussions on identifying verb phrases; ex¬ panding verb phrases and noun phrases; rearranging and compounding; constructing relative clauses; reducing relative clauses to phrases; making noun clauses, gerunds, and infinitives; and adding modifiers to sentences Doing Grammar offers a comprehensive overview that makes grammatical analysis clear, useful, and even interesting About the Author Max Morenberg is Professor of English at Miami University He is*the co¬ author of The Writer’s Options, Fourth Edition Cover design by Jeffrey J Faville ISBN 0-n-50bME7-S ... mindless grammar exercises, I always hated the sentences in grammar books that were so dull and lifeless that they seemed to occur nowhere in the world but in grammar books The sentences in Doing Grammar. . .Doing Grammar *1 V *> > % DOING GRAMMAR MaxMorenberg INDIANA UNIVERSITY WITHDRAWN schurz library New York Oxford... ANALYZING N - Doing Grammar V - CHAPTER Identifying Verb Types When you study grammar, you learn to “take language apart’’ so that you can begin to understand how the parts function together Grammar