COLLINS COBUILD COLLINS Birmingham University International Language Database ENGLISH RAMMAR COLLINS THE UNIVERSITY PUBLISHERS OF BIRMINGHAMVK ol on Po sos 1552" Collins ELT 5 7 5 687 8 Grafton Street London W1X3LA COBUILD is a trademark of William Collins Sons & Co Ltd © William Collins Sons & Co Ltd 1990 First published 1990 10987654321 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, 7 without the prior permission in writing of the Publisher re ISBN 0 00 370257 X Paperback ISBN 0 00 375025 6 Cased Printed and bound in Great Britain by Richard Clay Ltd, Bungay. Suffolk NOTE Entered words that we have reason to believe constitute trademarks have been designated as such. However, neither the presence nor absence of such designation should jed as affecting the VEVECKE® RATHCORN™ ¥ oLomoucl BA BARE ‘estat BRI yar ~-4524 1s at Contents Editorial Team Introduction Note on Examples Corpus Acknowledgements Guide to the Use of the Grammar Glossary of Grammatical Terms Cobuild Grammar Chart Chapter Referring to people and things Nouns Pronouns Determiners Chapter 2 Giving Information about people and things Adjectives Possessives Quantifiers Numbers Qualifiers Chapter3 Making amessage Transitivity Complementation Phase Chapter 4 Varying the message Mood Negation Modality Chapter5 Expressing time Verb tenses Adjuncts of time Chapter 6 Expressing manner and place Adjuncts Manner Place Chapter 7 Reporting what people say or think Chapter 8 Combining messages Subordination Coordination Chapter 9 Making texts Cohesion Ellipsis Chapter 10. The structure of Information The Reference Section Index ‘85 8 68¢ SEE E BERS BEYEditorial team Editor-in-Chief —_John Sinclair Managing Editor Gwyneth Fox Editors Stephen Bullon Ramesh Krishnamurthy Elizabeth Manning John Todd Assistant Editors Mona Baker Jane Bradbury Richard Fay Deborah Yuill Senjorresearcher Rosamund Moon Computer Officer Tim Lane Clerical Staff Sue Smith Jane Winn Consultants Gottfried Graustein M.A.K. Halliday Collins Publishers Annette Capel, Lorna Heaslip, Douglas Williamson ‘Many other people have been involved with the project at both fesearch and editing stages. Patrick Hanks, who was the Editorio! Director of Cobuild throughout the project, made a valuable ‘contribution both in policy and in detail. Dominic Eree. Jane Cullen, ‘8nd Care Ramsey worked as researchers in the early stages, and Ron Hardie helped from the beginning until quite late in the editing roses, Davic Brazil gave us great help and encouragement during the earty editing of the book. Without his suppor. this would have ‘been a more difficult task. Helen Liebeck ard Christina Rammell were influential in the eariy stages of editing. Michael Hoey ond Charles ‘Quen, members of the Department of English. University of ‘Sumingham, ond PhO end MA students in the department. in Particular Richard Francis, Agnes Molnar. Iria Garcia, Ramiro ‘Christepher Royal-Dawson, end Bob Walker, worked on and 1080 drafts of the text. ‘The publishers and editorial team would also Ithe t0 thank the following people who read and commented on the text: John Curtin: pee Béjoint. John Hall. Sue Inkster, and Anne Pradeilies: and Introduction This grammar is for anyone who is interested in the English language and how it works. Many people will come to this book because they are learning English and trying to master the structure of the language. As soon as they have enough practical English to master the text, they will find this grammar helpful to them, although it has been written primarily for students of advanced level. The information the book contains, however, will also engage the attention of a different sort of student—those who make a study of English because they are simply interested in language and languages. They include teachers, examiners, syllabus planners and materials writers. The grammar has several unique features which will give them very useful information. The information in this book is taken from a long and careful study of present-day English. Many millions of words from speech and writing have been gathered together in a computer and analyzed, partly by the computer and partly by a team of expert compilers. It is the first grammar of its kind, and it is different in many respects from other kinds of grammar. This grammar attempts to make accurate statements about English, as seen in the huge Birmingham Collection of English Texts. The main patterns of English are picked out and described, and the typical words and phrases found in each Pattern are listed. This is what a grammar ought to do, but only very recently has it been possible. Fora long time there has been a credibility gap between a grammar and the language that it is supposed to describe. Many of the rules seem too abstract to apply to actual examples. There is no room to show how the strong structural Patterns can be varied and developed to allow users great freedom of expression. A Grammar of Functions People who study and use a language are mainly interested inhow they can co things with the language—how they can make meanings, get altention to their problems and interests, influence their friends and colleagues andcreate a rich social life for themselves. They are only interested In the grammatical structure of the language as a means to getting things done. bs ys aN A grammar which puts together the pattems of tne language and the things you can do with them is called a functional grammar. since. OO This is a functional grammar: each chapter is built around a major language, such as ‘concept building’, ‘making up messages’, and someone said’. Each of these functions is regularly expressed in Particular structure. For example, concept building is usual structures built around a noun, called noun groups: t expressed in clauses; and reports typically Involve a a them containing a reporting verb such as ‘say’, and the oth ‘that’ or having quote marks (“ ") round it. This grammar is based on these important corresp< and function, which are set out in the Cobuild Grammar Pages. The skeleton of English giammar is seen int However, there are many minor features of English tIntroduction simple summary chart. The grammar of a language is flexible, and with the passage of time there are changes in meaning and use of grammatical forms, For example, although it is true to say that the noun group is the structure we choose for the things we want to talk about, itis not the only one. Sometimes we want to talk about an event or an idea that is not easy to express in a noun Sroup. Instead we can use a clause as the subject of another clause. All| want is @ holiday. We can also use a clause as the object or complement of another clause That's what we've always longed for. By extending the basic grammar occasionally, speakers of English can express themselves more easily and spontaneously. The same kind of extension works in the other direction also: noun groups are not only used as subjects, objects and complements. They can function as adjuncts of time, for example, among a range of minor uses. He phoned back with the information the very next day. But there is a major area of English grammar based on Prepositions (see Chapter 6), which allows noun groups to be used in all sorts of Subsidiary functions in the clause. J went to a village school. This has been my home for ten years now. With a click, the door opened. So it can be seen that the structural patterns can have more than one function. ‘and that different structures can have similar functions. This may sound confusing, and it can be Confusing if the grammar is not carefully organized ‘@round the major structures and functions. This grammar follows up each major statement (often called ‘rule’ in other Brammars) with a detailed description of the usages surrounding that ‘Statement— including ‘exceptions’. Other ways of achieving the same sort of effect are then presented, with cross-references to the main structural patterns Involved. Later in the chapter, the various extensions of use of a structure are set ae hy ‘ross-references to places where those functions are thoroughly ‘These extensions and additions to the functions of a structure are not just Tandom. Usually they can be presented as ways of widening the scope of the original function. For example, the basic, central function of reporting verbs {Chapter 7) is to introduce what someone has said. 2 He sald he would be back soon. ‘Man easily be extended to Include what someone has written: ____-His mother wrote that he had finally arrived home. _ Then it can be widened to include thoughts and feelings; these do not need to be | , but the report structure is very convenient. er | words, more general way of introducing Clause becomes a kind of preface, commenting on eS | Intro A Grammar of Examples All the examples are taken from texts, usually with no editing at all. Itis now generally accepted that itis extremely difficult to invent examples which sound realistic, and which have all the features of natural examples. | am convinced that it is essential for a learner of English to learn from actual examples, examples that can be trusted because they have been usedin real communication. From a Cobuild perspective, no argument is needed. At Cobuild there are file stores bulging with examples, and we do not need to invent any. By examining these real examples closely, we are gradually finding out some of the ways differ from made-up examples. Until we know a lot more about naturalness in language we do not think it is safe to use invented examples. There is a special note developing this point, which can be found immediately after this Introduction. A Grammar of Classes The actual words and phrases that are regularly used in each structure are printed in the grammar in a series of lists. Instead of just a few illustrative examples, this grammar gives information about the grammar of a large number of words. The student can get a good idea of how large or small a grammatical Class Is, how many words a certain rule applies to. The teacher has the raw material for making up exercises that suit a particular group of students. and can point to general features of a grammatical class. Most of these lists, as far as we know, have never been available before. They are worth detailed investigation by student and teacher, because these lists Provide the main link between the abstractions of grammar and the realities of texts. In grammar lists of this kind are called ‘classes’; a class Is the Srouping together of words and phrases which all behave in the same way. Hence this grammar is very much a grammar of classes because it features so many lists of words and phrases, The job of preparing the lists has been one of the most interesting and challenging problems in the preparation of this book. The computer does the first stage, and produces a list by searching out all the words that fit a pattem itis given. For example, it might be asked to pick all the words that end in “-ing’ and do not have a corresponding form without the ‘ing’. The first list it produces includes such words as ‘overweening’, and ‘pettifogging’, which are not very _ common, and which in our view can be left to a later stage of language fearing. Also found are ‘blithering’ and ‘whopping’, which have a special function and are treated in a separate paragraph 2.41. A few words fit the pattern well but are only found in very restricted combinations, or collocations. ‘Piping’ goes with voice’, and ‘gangling” goes with ‘youth’ or ‘boy’. Since grammar mostly deals with generalities, we feel that it could be misleading to print them in lists which are Intended to encourage composition. At oresent the computer has difficulties in detecting similarities and differences ‘of meaning. But in the Cobuild database notes on meaning are made ms Be ae!) compilers, and the computer can also report back on this information, So example, it will know that in the case of ‘fetching’, there is a verb to ‘fetch’, Dut It does not have the same meaning. In most cases we omita word lke fa i from our lists, to avoid confusion; otherwise the grammar would be ful notes. Ifwe put it in, we give an appropriate warning. In the summer of 1989 | worked with a large number of English t Europe, South East Asia and South America, to fing out their re