A university grammar of Week 1:

Elements of
English grammar
Course outline
Number of credit: 3
Duration: 9 weeks (45 hours)
Course books:
Required Textbook:
Quirk, R. Greenbaum, S., Leech (2003). A University Grammar of
English. Nxb Hải Phòng. (Students’ book and workbook) 
Recommended readings
Eastwood, J. (1993). Oxford Practice Grammar (with answers). Oxford
University Press
Quirk, R. Greenbaum, S., Leech (1973). A grammar of contemporary
English. Longman Group Limited. London
Swan, M. (1997). Practical English Usage. Oxford University Press
Course outline

Course description and objectives

 This course aims to provide university students with both basic and
extensive theoretical discussion on English grammar. The course
content focuses on the three areas: (1) Parts of speech, (2)
Grammatical units and (3) Grammatical categories.
 The course covers seven major units, each on a grammatical topic:
(1) Elements of Grammar; (2) Verbs and the Verb Phrase; (3)
Nouns, Pronouns, and the Basic noun phrase; (4) Adjective and
Adverbs; (5) Prepositions and Prepositional phrases (6) The
simple sentence; (7) The complex sentence.
Course outline

Course activities and approach to

learning
Lectures
Student discussions
Group work
Tutorials
Course outline
Content
 Week 1: Elements of grammar
 Week 2: Verbs and the verb phrase
 Week 3: Revision (chapter 1 and 2), Nouns, pronouns,
and the basic noun phrase
 Week 4: Midterm test 1 + Adjectives and adverbs
 Week 5: Prepositions and prepositional phrases
 Week 6: Prepositions (cont.) + Revision (chapter 3,4,5)
 Week 7: Midterm test 2 + The simple sentence
 Week 8: The complex sentence
 Week 9: Revision
Course outline

Assessment
 Two mid-term tests
 Bonus points for hard-working students
 Final score: Mid-term 30% + Final term paper: 70%

Penalty
 Anyone who misses more than 3 lessons (15 hours) or has
the mid-term mark of below 4 will be disqualified from
the final examination.
 Anyone who doesn’t do homework will be marked
“absent”
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
Parts of a sentence
2.2 Subject and predicate

Subject: what is being discussed (theme)

Subject determines concord
Subject changes position in questions

Predicate: What is said about the theme (subject)

Week 1: Elements of Grammar
2.3 Operator, auxiliary and predication
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
2.4 Range of operators
 If the sentence has more than one auxiliary, the first
auxiliary will function as the operator.
Eg: He should have been questioned by the police.
 Should he have been questioned by the police?
 If the sentence doesn’t have an auxiliary, “do” will
function as the operator in (?) and (-) forms.
Eg: He went to the cinema yesterday.
Did he go to the cinema yesterday?
He didn’t go to the cinema yesterday.
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
2.4 Range of operators
If the sentence has the verb ‘to be’, it will function as the
operator, whether it is an auxiliary or not.
Eg1. It is raining. (is is an auxiliary)  Is it raining?
Eg2. She is a teacher. (is is a verb)  Is she a teacher?
If the sentence has the verb ‘to have’, it can function as
the operator (esp. in British English), or ‘do’ is
introduced.
Eg1. She has a big house.  Has she a big house?
Eg2. She has a big house.  Does she have a big house?
Week 1: Elements of Grammar

2.5 Sentence elements

S: subject
V: verb
C: complement
O: object
A: adverbial
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
2.5 Sentence elements
Example:

Or
Week 1: Elements of Grammar

Objects
 Direct object
 Indirect object

E.g.

He had given the girl an apple.

O(i) O(d)
He kissed me.
O(d)
Week 1: Elements of Grammar

Complements
 Subject complement
 Object complement

E.g.
The girl is now a student at a large university.
C(s)
They make him the chairman every year.
C(o)
Week 1: Elements of Grammar

Objects and Complements

Exercise 7
Indicate, by Od, Oi, Cs or Co whether the parts
underlined in the sentences below are the direct
object (Od), the indirect object (Oi), the subject
complement (Cs) or the object complement (Co):
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
Objects and Complements
Exercise 7
1 Will someone get a doctor, quickly! Od
2 George and Paul both became famous doctors. Cs
3 Do you call yourself a doctor? Od - Co
4 May I call you Jenny? Od - Co
5 May I call you a taxi or something? Oi - Od
6 Call me anything you like.Od/ Co
7 It's so cold. I can't get warm. Cs - Cs
8 I can't get my hands warm. Od - Co
9 Keep quiet. Keep those children quiet.Cs - Od - Co
10 Can't you give them something to keep them quiet?Oi - Od - Od
 Week 1: Elements of Grammar
Categories of verbs
1) Verbs: classified on the types of complementation
 Intensive: V + C(s)/ V + A
 Extensive
 Intransitive: V
 Transitive
 Mono-transitive: V + O(d)
 Di-transitive: V + O(i) + O(d)
 Complex-transitive: V + O(d) + C(o)/ V + O(d) + A
2) Verbs: classified on whether they admit the progressive aspect
 Dynamic: admit the progressive
 Stative: not admit the progressive
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
Categories of verbs
1.Do you understand the question?  mono-transitive, stative
2.English and German are separate languages  intensive, stative
3.He appeared rather worried.  intensive, stative
4.The mist is disappearing slowly.  intransitive, dynamic
5.I see what you mean.  Mono-transitive, stative
6.You aren’t looking in the right direction.  intransitive, dynamic
Week 1: Elements of Grammar

Adverbials
 Place
 Time
 Process
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
2.5 Sentence elements: Practice 1
Divide each of the sentences below into its constituent parts, and
label each part S, V, Cs, Co, Oi, Od or A as in models a and b.
S V Cs A
a. Computers/ are/ fairly commonplace/ today
SVCsA

V- S A -V Od
b. /Did/ you/ ever/ eat/ chicken?
V-SA-VOd
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
2.5 Sentence elements: Practice 1

1.Full-scale computers have a large number of programs.

SVOd
2.We must change all the programs tomorrow.
SVOdA
3.Tomorrow will be a holiday here.
SVCsA
4.These bookshelves are becoming very popular in Sweden.
SVCsA
5.We have recently added an extra unit to them.
SV-A-VOdA
6.Will you give it a try?
V-S-VOiOd
7.On July 7th, DDT was sprayed on the marsh from a helicopter.
ASVOdAA
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
2.5 Sentence elements: Practice 2
Divide each of the sentences below into its constituent parts, and
label each part S, V, Cs, Co, Oi, Od or A as in models a and b.

a. They/ were having/ dinner/ [when I/ came/ home.]

S V Od [ S V A] (A)

b. The train had arrived before we noticed it. SV[SVOd](A)

Week 1: Elements of Grammar

2.5 Sentence elements: Practice 2

1.I don’t believe that those bookshelves are popular anywhere yet.
SV[SVCsAA](Od)
2.What that advertisement says is not true.
[OdSV](S)VCs
3.What that advertisement says, I simply don’t believe.
[OdSV](Od)SAV
4.I’ll believe it when I see the results.
SVOd[SVOd](A)
5.Can you tell us when we shall see the results?
V-S-VOi[ASVOd](Od)
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
Realization of sentence elements
Verbs
 Finite verb phrase: show tense, mood, aspect, voice
 Non-finite verb phrase: not show tense and mood but still
indicate aspect and voice
Subjects, Direct objects and Complements
 Noun phrases
 Clauses
Adverbials
 Adverb phrase
 Noun phrase
 Prepositional phrase
 Clauses
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
Linguistic structures: Some terms
a)Simple finite verb phrase: ONE WORD
b)Complex finite verb phrase: MORE THAN ONE WORD
c)Simple non-finite verb phrase: ONE WORD (V-ing/to-V/V-ed)
d)Complex non-finite verb phrase: MORE THAN ONE WORD
e)Finite clause: S + V + O/C/A
f)Non-finite clause: Ving/to-V + O/C/A
g)Prepositional phrase: prep + N/Ving
h)Noun phrase: Noun as the main word
i)Adjective phrase: adjective as the main word
j)Adverb phrase: adverb as the main word
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
Parts of speech
 Week 1: Elements of Grammar
2.12 Parts of speech
A part of speech is the
smallest unit (word) that has a
distinctive meaning.
A word can appear as more
than one part of speech.
Mean (v)
Mean (a)
A part of speech item may
consist of more than a single
word.
in spite of (prep)
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
2.14 Closed-system items

“closed” means: they cannot be normally extended.

“system” means:
-Reciprocally exclusive
-Reciprocally defining
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
2.15 Open-class items

“class” means: they have the same grammatical

properties and structural possibilities
“open” means: it is indefinitely extendable
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
Illustration of closed-system items and open-class items
Week 1: Elements of Grammar

Part of speech: Practice

What parts of speech are the underlined words?
1.Is it right to say that right wrongs no man?
adj conj N V
2.One cannot right all the wrongs in the world.
V N prep art.
3.Drink this quick!
V pro adv
4.This is a quick drink.
pro adj n
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
2.17 Pro-forms
-pro-noun: to replace a noun or a noun phrase
Eg. The man invited the little Swedish girl because he liked her.
-pro-verb: to replace a predication
Eg1. He didn’t tell her the truth but I did.
Eg2. She hoped that he would search the room carefully before her
arrival but he didn’t do so.
-other pro-forms: to replace adverbials
Eg1. Mary is in London and John is there too.
Eg2. Mary arrived on Tuesday and John arrived then too.
Eg3. John searched the big room very carefully and the small one less so.
Week 1: Elements of Grammar

Pro-forms: Practice
Replace the underlined part with a pro-form.
1.The man who has just spoken is Benjamin Hall. He
2.I never imagine that such a thing could happen. it
3.It occurred to them while Benjamin Hall was speaking. then
4.Well, I think we are not on the right road. not
5.If you haven’t renewed it, you should renew it. should
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
Question and negation
2.18 Wh-questions
-Wh-words of English are pro-forms  Wh-questions elicit
information on particular parts of a sentence.
-Structure:
Wh-word + operator + S + predication?
Eg. When do they make him the chairman?
-Exception: when the subject is questioned,
Wh-word + predicate?
Eg. Who makes him the chairman?
Week 1: Elements of Grammar

2.19 Yes-no questions

-Use: These questions seek a yes or no response
in relation to the validity of (normally) an entire
predication.
-Structure:
Operator + S + predication
Eg. Did John search the room?
Week 1: Elements of Grammar
2.20 Negation and non-assertion
-Use: to reject a predication
-Form:
S + operator + not + predication
Eg. He did not search the room.
-Note: A sentence can be non-assertive by being negative or by
being a question.