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I. O. Macari, Morpho-Syntax, Lecture 2
I. O. Macari, Morpho-Syntax, Lecture 2
I, 2020
Table of Contents
2.5. Clauses ............................................................................................................................................................ 1
2.5.1. Finite and non-finite clauses ...........................................................................................................................1
2.5.2. Subordinate clauses ........................................................................................................................................8
2.5. Clauses
1
Finite and non-finite verbs are discussed further in 4.4.
2
Some grammarians classify non-finite clauses as participial, gerund and infinitive phrases but, because in the
approach of this course, any verb phrase consists exclusively of verb words, only certain one-word (with no
modifiers or complements) participial, gerund and infinitive constructions are recognized as phrases.
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
If a participle, a gerund or an infinitive is the first or only verb in the verb phrase, the VP is non-
finite. A non-finite verb form3 functions both as a verb and as another word class.
non-finite verb form example word class grammatical
behaviour
present participle The snoring dog disturbed Tom’s reading. adjective
present participle Mumbling, he went on reading. adverb
past participle He was reading the damaged manuscript. adjective
past participle Exasperated, he resumed his reading. adverb
gerund He likes reading. noun
to-infinitive He likes to read. noun
to-infinitive He has a manuscript to read. adjective
bare infinitive He made them come, too. verb
In Strumpf and Douglas’s view, because participles, gerunds and infinitives are verb forms
(called by them ‘verbals,’), they
retain some of the abilities of verbs. They can carry objects or take modifiers and
complements. At the same time, verbals possess abilities unknown to the typical verb,
the abilities of other parts of speech. In this way, verbals may perform the duties of
two parts of speech simultaneously. (The Grammar Bible: Everything You Always
Wanted to Know about Grammar But Didn't Know Whom to Ask , 2004, p. 136)
In English, there are three types of non-finite clauses, depending on the form of the first verb in
the verb phrase:
1. -ing clauses
a. -ing participle clauses
Doug Crandell lives in Douglasville, Georgia, where his wife has crocheted him nine winter hats
while watching “The Andy Griffith Show”. (The Sun Magazine)
b. –ing gerund clauses
We’d not eaten at many fast-food restaurants, and seeing our mother in her uniform made me
feel as if we’d somehow been promoted from farm family to suburbanites. (The Sun Magazine)
2. -ed clauses/-ed participle clauses
I spotted our mother standing proudly on the front porch, dressed in her new work outfit. (The
Sun Magazine)
3. infinitive clauses
(a) with to
You couldn’t have been expected to know that. (The Sun Magazine)
(b) without to
The book helped reshape Americans’ attitudes toward this native predator […]. (The Sun
Magazine)
3
Some grammarians call participles, gerunds and infinitives ‘verbals’, but this course recognizes the verbal as the
syntactic function realized exclusively by a verb phrase (see 2.2.2. and 3.3.1.).
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
Such non-finite clauses may be regarded as reduced clauses which often lack a subject but which
can be analysed in terms of constituents/ elements of the clause. Most types can be expanded into
finite clauses.
non-finite clause constituents expanded finite clause
1. while watching “The Andy Griffith Show” V+O while she was watching “The Andy Griffith Show”
2. seeing our mother in her uniform V+O+A that I saw our mother in her uniform
3. dressed in her new work outfit. V+A she was dressed in her new work outfit.
4. to know that. V+O that you know that
5. reshape Americans’ attitudes toward this native V+O that Americans’ attitudes toward this native predator
predator are reshaped
In headlines, auxiliary verbs are usually dropped from progressive and passive structures, leaving only
present/past participles. Headlines are often expanded in the article body, as in the example below.
headline body
Great Barrier Reef damage The Great Barrier Reef will suffer “irreversible” damage by 2030 unless
‘irreversible’ unless radical action radical action is taken to lower carbon emissions, a stark new report has
taken warned. (The Guardian)
In relation to the auxiliaries and voice of non-finite clauses, Huddleston and Pullum (The
Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, 2002, p. 1174) note that modal auxiliaries and
operator do are excluded, but each of the three varieties (-ing clauses, -ed clauses and infinitive
clauses) admits one or more of the remaining three auxiliaries:
1. -ing clauses (which the authors call ‘gerund-participials’) accept have and passive be, but
not progressive be.
perfect have I regret having told them.
passive be I resent being given so little notice.
progressive be I remember being working when they arrived.
2. . -ed clauses accept progressive and passive be.
passive be Ed has been seen.
progressive be Ed has been seeing her.
3. infinitive clauses accept all the three auxiliaries.
perfect have I expect to have finished soon.
passive be I expect to be working all weekend.
progressive be I expect to be interviewed by the police.
Unlike in most finite clauses, the presence of the subject is not obligatory in non-finite clauses.
Huddleston and Pullum consider the subject “an optional element in non-finite clauses, not an
element whose presence is necessary for an expression to qualify as a clause” (2002, p. 1175).
When present, the subject makes it clear that the non-finite verbal does not have the same subject
as the finite verbal of the main clause. A characteristic of the subjects of non-finite verbals is that
normally they are not nominative. This feature becomes obvious in subjects realized by personal
pronouns, which are either accusative or genitive.
subjectless clause clause containing a subject
-ing clause a. Having agreed on all the details, we then a. He and I having agreed on all the details, the
rapidly proceeded with the preparation of draft preparation of draft contracts then proceeded rapidly.
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
contracts. b. Many teachers enjoy students’4 telling jokes in class.
b. Many teachers enjoy telling jokes in class.
-ed clauses Having been exposed, the thief turned to flee. His identity having been exposed, the thief turned to flee
infinitive a. I want to stop listening to this rigmarole. a. I want you to stop listening to this rigmarole.
clause
b. I will be happy to do the homework. b. I will be happy for my students to do5 the homework.
Huddleston and Pullum distinguish between clauses that consist only of the VP functioning as
verbal, on the one hand (Having been exposed, the thief turned to flee.), and attributive VPs6
functioning as modifiers of nouns in NPs, on the other (our rapidly approaching deadline, a
poorly drafted report).
Whenever the non-finite forms function as the verbals of clauses which also contain subjects in
the nominative, different from the subject of the main clause, they form absolute verbal
constructions. An absolute construction acts as a modifier, but it is not modifying any particular
part of the main clause/sentence; instead, it modifies the entire clause/sentence by adding
information to it. In the example below, the non-finite clause is underlined, the verbal is in bold
and the subject is double-underlined.
All things considered, I think Putin is the right man for Russia, especially in these interesting
times. (The Guardian)
The discussion of the absolute constructions is continued in 5.6.2.
a. Participial clauses (1.a and 2 above) are non-finite clauses consisting of a participle
accompanied or not by the noun phrase/phrases that function as the subject, direct object/objects,
indirect object/objects, or complement/complements of the participle verb (see examples 1 and 3
in the table above).
In English there are two participle forms:
present participle (base form + -ing).
past participle (for all regular verbs, the past participle form ends in –ed, while irregular
verbs endings vary considerably (for instance, been, brought, seen, etc.).
Both of them can function as the verbals of non-finite clauses.
example participle syntactic clause type
form function
4
The subject of a gerund must be in the possessive form, since gerunds behave like nouns and should then be
preceded by the possessive forms of nouns/pronouns (they mean whose + noun). However, in colloquial speech the
objective form is very common.
5
The for +accusative + to-infinitive structure is common after adjectives expressing wishes and personal feelings. It
is not possible after likely and probable.
6
Participial adjective is a traditional term for an adjective that has the same form as the present or past participle of
a verb, but functions as a descriptive adjective and usually exhibits its ordinary properties of a central adjective
(they have the ability to occur both attributively and predicatively, are gradable and have comparative and
superlative forms). The adjectives in this class are also called verbal adjectives or deverbal adjectives.
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
Because if F1 teams are paying £800 for a present object SV (acc, + present participle). The verbal in the main
wheel nut, then whoever they are getting participle clause (double underlined) that governs the participle
them from must have seen them coming. is a perception/cognition7 or causative8 verb.
(The Guardian)
Michael Jackson as you've never seen him past object SVA (acc. + past participle).
painted before. (The Guardian) participle
The verbal in the main clause (double underlined) that
governs the participle is a perception/cognition or
causative verb.
Robert Spencer came across picture of his present adverbial (conj.) VO
injured stepson while reading reports on participle
Just like full adverbial clauses, only more
the Santiago de Compostela crash. (The
economically, participial clauses express condition,
Guardian)
reason, cause, result or time. They can be
US ambassador says Iraqi aides will quit past adverbial introduced by subordinating conjunctions such as if,
unless granted asylum (The Guardian) participle unless, because, when, while, etc. The participle
clause normally comes in front of the main clause
The meeting ending earlier than expected, present clause/ SVA
everyone gathered their belongings and left. participle sentence
These clauses are called ‘absolute participial
modifier
clauses’ because they are not dependent on any
The meeting ended, everyone gathered their past clause/ other part of the main clause, though they cannot
belongings and left. participle sentence be used independently, as they lack a finite verbal.
modifier
One-word participle phrases usually occur as premodifiers (the crying baby), but they may,
however, occur at the beginning of a sentence – as adjuncts (Troubled, he went to…) or inside
the sentence, as parenthetical elements (His gaze, frozen, moved away from …).
Negative participle clauses are also possible, with not normally placed before the participle.
Not having time to finish my essay on time, I decided to withdraw from the contest.
Clearly not entirely convinced, he took another look at the photos.
b. Gerund clauses (1.b above) are non-finite clauses consisting of a gerund accompanied or not
by the noun phrase/phrases that function as the subject, direct object/objects, indirect
object/objects, or complement/ complements of the gerund verb (see example 2 in the table
above).
c. Infinitive clauses (3.a and 3.b above) are non-finite clauses consisting of the infinitive or bare
infinitive form of a verb accompanied or not by the noun phrase/phrases that function as the
subject, direct object/objects, indirect object/objects, or complement/ complements of the
infinitive verb (see examples 4 and 5 in the table above).
Split infinitives occur when one or more words are interposed between the particle to and the
verb (to quickly remove, to more clearly articulate, to more than double, to suddenly leave,
etc.), but they should be avoided in formal writing.
Present participle clauses vs. gerund clauses
7
Examples of perception/cognition verbs include see, hear, feel, know, believe, think, remember, recall, forget, etc.
8
Causative verbs are used to indicate that some person or thing helps to make something happen and are followed
by another verb form. Examples include cause, allow, help, have, enable, keep, hold, let, force, require, and make.
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
Because present participles and gerunds are identical in form (-ing ending), it is sometimes
difficult to distinguish between them. However, the difference becomes obvious in contexts,
since participles function as adjectives pre- or postmodifying a noun, while gerunds function as
nouns. In the examples below, the participial clause and the gerund clauses are in bold.
Mary, constantly nagging, drives him mad.
Mary’s constant nagging drives him mad.
In the first, constantly nagging is a participle which functions as an AdjP whose head is nagging,
which modifies Mary and which can be expanded into a relative clause (‘who is constantly
nagging’).
In the second, Mary’s constant nagging functions as a NP whose head is nagging and which
realizes the syntactic function of subject. In the gerund clause in this sentence, the subject
(Mary’s) of the non-finite verbal (nagging) is present.
As a rule, when the subject of the gerund occurs in the gerund clause, it is usually in the
possessive case (morphologically marked on pronouns and common or proper nouns -
Her/the woman’s/Mary’s constant nagging …). This does not normally happen with
compound subjects (Mary and her mother constant nagging …). However, when the
gerund expresses general activities (driving, teaching, diving), its subject will be elided
(Driving can be tiresome).
Gerunds vs. infinitives
Gerunds and infinitives are different in form but, because both function as nominals, usage
confusion may often arise especially for non-native speakers of English.
Confusion between gerunds and infinitives occurs primarily in cases in which one or the
other functions as the direct object in a sentence. In English some verbs take gerunds as
verbal direct objects exclusively while other verbs take only infinitives and still others
can take either. (Owl)
The examples below show one verb (agree) that can take only the infinitive as direct object and
another one that takes only gerunds.
Abbott and Obama agree to extend Australia's defence cooperation with US (The Guardian)
Abbott and Obama agree extending Australia's defence cooperation with US
PRISM scandal: tech giants flatly deny allowing NSA direct access to servers (The Guardian)
PRISM scandal: tech giants flatly deny to allow NSA direct access to servers
The same source offers a list of such verbs, organized according to which kind of verbal direct
object they take.
Verbs that take only infinitives as verbal direct objects (Owl)
agree expect hope learn neglect pretend propose
attempt hesitate intend need plan promise want
decide
Verbs that take only gerunds as verbal direct objects (Owl)
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
o Cu geana ta m-atinge pe pleoape,/Să simt fiorii strângerii în brață.(M. Eminescu, Sonet III)
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
opredicat opredicativă
Adevărul este acesta. Adevărul e că e bine pregătit.
onume predicativ
Adevărul este acesta.
oAtribut oatributivă
Apreciem faptul acesta. Apreciem faptul că e bine pregătit.
ocomplement direct ocompletivă directă
Știu asta. Știu că e bine pregătit.
ocomplement indirect ocompletivă indirectă
Ne bucurăm de pregătirea lui. Ne bucurăm că e bine pregătit.
oelement predicativ suplimentar
Este cunoscut ca specialist.
ocomplement circumstanțial ocircumstanțială
I-a uimit cu pregătirea sa. I-a uimit cu cât e de bine pregătit.
o Note that there is no subordinate clause corresponding to the Romanian nume
predicativ; for an explanation, it would be useful to resort to the definition of the subordonata
predicativă10.
o Also note that there is no subordinate clause corresponding to the Romanian element
predicativ suplimentar.
It would be more difficult to produce such a table about the English elements because of the different
approach mainstream English grammars take to the classification of the subordinate clauses. However,
the analysis of the complex sentence is not within the scope of this course.
As Downing and Locke note, “an important property of language is the fact that there is no one-
to-one correspondence between the class of unit and its function. While it is true that certain
classes of unit typically realise certain functions […], it is nevertheless also true that many
classes of unit can fulfil many different functions, and different functions are realised by many
different classes of unit.” (2006, pp. , 19). To illustrate this, they propose the following examples:
FUNCTION REALIZATION
subject Next time will be better.
adjunct I’ll know better next time.
direct object We’ll enjoy next time.
2.6. Phrases
2.6.1. Definition
In English grammar, the term phrase defines a word or group of words which can fulfil a
syntactic function in a clause. In an informal description, phrases are described as ”bloated
words, in that the parts of the phrase that are added to the head elaborate and specify the
reference of the head word” (Hasselgård, Lysvåg, & Johansson, Glossary of grammatical terms
used in English Grammar: Theory and Use (2nd edition)).
The elements of the clause in the example below (subject, verbal, subject complement) are
realised as follows: the subject is realised by the noun phrase the girl in blue, the verbal by the
10
Propoziția care îndeplinește funcția de nume predicativ se numește predicativă .
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
verb phrase was and the subject complement by the noun phrase his best friend. These
realisations can be shown by using labelled bracketing11.
[NP The girl in blue] [VP was] [NP his best friend]
As you know from the Romanian language classes you have taken until now, the phrase as such has
no correspondent in Romanian traditional grammar. However, in the more recent approaches adopted
by Gramatica Academiei (GALR 2008) and Gramatica de bază a limbii române (GBLR 2010), the
analogous unit is called grup12 (grup nominal, grup verbal, etc.), as illustrated below13.
[GN Fata în albastru] [GV era] [GN prietena lui cea mai bună]
One observation can facilitate the identification of phrases in both English and Romanian: unlike
in traditional Romanian grammar, the phrases - not the words! - fulfil syntactic functions.
11
Labelled bracketing is a method of representing the structure of a phrase by using square brackets to the left and right side
of its constituents (words). The brackets carry subscripts (labels), which state the class of the unit in question.
12
Grupul sintactic reprezintă o proiecție a unui centru, realizată pe baza disponibilităților sintacticosemantice ale
acestuia. La primul nivel de proiecție a centrului se găsesc complementele, componente obligatorii sintactico-
semantic, iar la al doilea nivel, adjuncții, componente facultative. (Nicolae, 2011)
13
They use the notation system proposed by the definition above.
14
In syntactic analysis, a constituent is a word or a group of words that functions as a single unit within a hierarchical
structure. The analysis of constituent structure is associated mainly with phrase structure grammars, although dependency
grammars also allow sentence structure to be broken down into constituent parts. (Constituent (linguistics))
15
By convention, optional elements are normally placed between parentheses or brackets.
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
2.6.3. Embedding
In a definition provided by Leech (2006, pp. , 37), embedding/nesting is seen as the inclusion of
one unit as part of another unit of the same general type. He exemplifies the embedding of one
phrase inside another with the phrase [at [the other end [of [the road]]]], where one
prepositional phrase [of the road] is embedded in another [at the other end of the road]; also,
one noun phrase [the road] is embedded in another noun phrase [the other end of the road].
The subordination of clauses is recognized as another major type of embedding by the inclusion
of one clause (a subordinate clause) inside another one (the main clause). Downing and Locke
(2006, pp. , 28; 46) use the examples below to demonstrate the embedding of clauses17 and some
syntactic functions they can fulfil as elements of the clause.
clause at S [That he left so abruptly] doesn’t surprise me.
clause at dO I don’t know [why he left so abruptly].
clause at oC He made the club [what it is today].
clause at Cs The question is [whether we can finish in time].
clause at A [After they had signed the contract] they went off to celebrate.
The same authors recognize the presence of recursive embedding “when a series of
clauses is embedded, each within the previous one: I reminded him he’d said he’d find out
about the flight schedules. Here, the that-clause direct object of remind, which comprises
the remainder of the sentence, (he’d said he’d find out about the flight schedules) contains
a further embedded that-clause he’d find out, which has a PP (about the flight schedules) as
complement” (Downing & Locke, 2006, p. 105).
Embedding enables the expansion of linguistic units. In Greenbaum and Nelson’s view (2002,
pp. , 49-50), embedding takes place in stages that are illustrated as follows:
- the first stage puts the sentence close to the noun it will be modifying:
a. He had a nasty gash. The gash needed medical attention.
- the next stage changes the noun phrase into a relative pronoun – here which:
b. He had a nasty gash which needed medical attention.
16
In some grammars, the prepositional phrase is not described in terms of head and modifier(s), one argument being
that both parts are needed in order to construct a prepositional phrase (cf. (Hasselgård, Lysvåg, & Johansson,
Glossary of grammatical terms used in English Grammar: Theory and Use (2nd edition)). Similarly, the verb
phrases as well are not normally described in terms of head and modifier(s).
17
The embedded clauses are enclosed in square brackets.
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
The relative pronoun which functions as subject in the relative clause, while the gash functions
as subject in a., 2nd clause. The relative pronoun can be replaced by relative that:
Embedding is a widespread phenomenon in English; it can be described as a type of subordination at
phrase or clause level and, by it, a clause functions as a constituent of another phrase or clause.
2.7. Words
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
In Romanian the lexeme is defined as “1. cuvânt sau parte de cuvânt care servește ca suport
minimal al semnificației; morfem lexical. 2. unitate de bază a vocabularului care reprezintă
asocierea unuia sau a mai multor sensuri; cuvânt; unitate lexicală” (ro.wiktionary).
A lexeme is a word that roughly corresponds to a dictionary entry. For instance, play would have two
entries in the dictionary, as a verb and as a noun. These are the lexemes, the basic forms. The verb
would appear in various forms when used in sentences, while the noun would have other forms:
Verb lexeme: play. Forms of the lexeme: play, plays, played, playing
Noun lexeme: play. Forms of the lexeme: plays (pl.), play’s; plays’ (genitive)
18
This class includes the elements that in Romanian are recognized either as construcții incidente or interjecții.
Construcţie incidentă = un cuvânt, un grup de cuvinte sau o propoziţie care nu are nici o legătură sintactică cu
restul enunţului, ci reprezintă o comunicare de sine stătătoare. O propoziţie incidentă (zise el, cred eu, mă gândesc)
se reduce adesea la un verb şi la subiectul acestuia, care este frecvent plasat după verb. Verbul unei propoziţii
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
All English words belong to one of these classes. Note however that the adverb class is partly
open (i.e. adverbs of manner) and partly closed (i.e. time and place adverbs).
Word classes such as noun, verb, adjective, etc., are traditionally called parts of speech. The
table below contains the two categories of the major word classes.
open classes closed classes
noun pronoun
main verb auxiliary (verb)
adverb determiner
conjunction
preposition
Minor classes include the numerals (one, twenty-three, first) and some words that do not fit
anywhere and should be treated individually (the negative not and the infinitive marker to).
Especially the words that belong to one the major word classes may have more than one
grammatical form. The noun work has the singular work and the plural works; the verb work has
the base form work and the past worked.
The discussion of word-classes should be based on the previous remarks in this section, where the
basic relationships between word, lexeme, morpheme, lexical and function words were highlighted.
For reasons of clarity and comprehensibility, we can also draw on Kies’ diagram below (Kies).
Kies notes that traditional grammar describes word classes as a combination of the bases and the
function words. The bases are called the open classes (because new words can be created in each
incidente este foarte frecvent un verb de declaraţie de tipul a spune, a zice, a răspunde, a declara sau de opinie, de
tipul a crede, a gândi, a presupune. În limba vorbită apar frecvent cuvinte sau propoziţii incidente care nu
comunică nimic, sunt golite de sens, ca: Domnule!, Soro!, Mă rog, Nu-i aşa?, Ce mai? (Forăscu)
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
of those categories), while the function words are called the closed classes, since the speakers of
a language do not normally create new vocabulary in those categories. For example, it is easy to
create new nouns, but not new pronouns. He explains that “speakers recognize word classes
through three different, but complementary, processes - the use of word endings, function
words, and word order”, but that no process is totally efficient by itself.
Thus, though English employs a great number of word endings to signal different word classes,
the employment of endings alone does not identify all members of a word class, nor do they
identify all word classes. In order to demonstrate that speakers also rely on function words and
word order to distinguish one class from another, Kies uses a quote from Anthony Burgess’ A
Clockwork Orange and another from Carroll’s "Jabberwocky"19, a nonsense verse poem in his
Through the Looking Glass that was also exploited by other linguists for discussions related to
English syntax (en.wikipedia.org).
1. The gloopy malchicks scattered razdrazily to the mesto.
2. 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gymble in the wabe
He maintains that people perceive the words brillig, slithy, gloopy, and razdrazily as modifiers
due to a combination of factors, including the suffixes -y (also spelt -i- when a second ending is
used on the same word, as in razdrazily) and -ly - two suffixes that mark adjectives and adverbs.
He also points to the fact that word endings are clues for the identification of the modifiers,
together with function words and word order. Thus, noun phrases have a predictable structure of
Determiner + Adjective + Noun (the clever children), so the combination of both determiners
(the) marking the beginning of noun phrases and word order in the sentences above help us
interpret slithy and gloopy as adjectives. Similarly, adjectives follow forms of the verb be when
the verb functions as a linking verb, as in Elizabeth is clever. So in the first sentence, the verb
was (part of the poetic fusion of it was into 'twas) helps us to interpret brillig as an adjective.
Finally, it is also common to find adverbs after verbs in English, as in Emily learns quickly,
which helps us to interpret razdrazily as an adverb in the last example sentence.
Kies concludes that speakers recognize patterns of word endings, function words, and
word/morpheme order when they ‘do grammar’, and that patterns are crucial in the discovery of
the constituents of language: “recognizing patterns in distribution and meaning becomes the
process through which humans discover the grammatical structures of their languages” (Kies).
In order to show that such recognition of linguistic patterns is not restricted to English, let us take
a look at a short text20.
Huţelu care-i huţat,
N-are fleanţă, nici cherbat.
19
A more detailed analysis of the linguistic relevance of Carroll’s poem can be found in Analyzing Grammar: An
Introduction, by Paul R. Kroeger, CUP 2005.
20
The text is taken from Nina Cassian’s Loto-Poeme (1972) and it is written in Spargă. Just like the language of
Jabberwocky, this is an imaginary language created by Nina Cassian. That is how the poet describes it: ”Limba
‘spargă’ am inventat-o în 1946 (am pomenit doar de avangardismul meu, de propensiunea mea structurală spre
‘joc’). Ion Barbu mi-a interzis să includ acele ‘exerciții’ în volumul meu de debut. Mult mai târziu le-am publicat
în volumele Loto-Poeme (1972), în Jocuri de vacanță (1983), însumând până la ora asta, circa o duzină de
‘sparguri’, ba pe unul l-am tradus și în ‘sparga’ engleză...” (Cassian, 2001).
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
The basic information about the rank scale of the units of language (discourse is not traditionally
described by grammar) can be revised as follows:
The sentence is the largest unit of language that grammar (traditionally) describes. It “is a set of
words standing on their own as a sense unit, its conclusion marked by a full stop or equivalent
(question mark, exclamation mark). In many languages sentences begin with a capital letter, and
include a verb.” (Ur 1999: 31) It is made up of one or more clauses.
The clause is a major unit of grammar, “a kind of mini-sentence: a set of words which make a
sense unit” (Ur 1999: 31), defined formally by the elements it may contain: subject (S), verbal
(V), object (O), complement (C) and adverbial (A). A clause is made up of one or more phrases.
A phrase is a shorter unit within the clause, made up of one or more words which fulfil the
grammatical function of a single word.
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Strigăturile sunt structuri simple – realizate, de obicei, în grupuri de 2-4 versuri cu exclamații introductive – cu caracter
epigramatic și adesea cu aluzii satirice sau glumețe, uneori erotice, ori cu conținut sentimental, care se improvizează și se
strigă, de obicei, în timpul executării unor jocuri populare la sate. (Lascăr, p. 4)
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I. O. Macari, Morpho-syntax, Lecture 2 sem. I, 2020
A word is the minimum normally separable form: in writing, it appears as a stretch of letters
with a space either side.” (Ur 1999: 31) Each word can be further divided into one or more
morphemes.
A “morpheme is a bit of a word which can be perceived as a distinct component” (Ur 1999: 31),
the smallest meaningful unit that cannot be further divided.
In short, a sentence consists of one or more clauses, a clause consists of one or more phrases, a
phrase consists of one or more words, and a word consists of one or more morphemes.
Downing and Locke convincingly illustrate the relationship between the units with a one-word
clause.
Looking downwards, each unit consists of one or more units of the rank below it. […]
For instance, Wait! consists of one clause, which consists of one group, which consists
of one word, which consists of one morpheme. More exactly, we shall say that the
elements of structure of each unit are realised by units of the rank below. Looking
upwards, each unit fulfils a function in the unit above it. (2006: 11)
It is important to approach one rank at a time (starting either upwards or downwards) in the
course of the analysis, because otherwise the constituents and functions would mix up. This
warning is very similar to the procedure in Romanian: you only deal with părțile de vorbire
when you perform the morphological analysis, and with părțile de propoziție when you perform
a syntactic analysis.
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