CHAPTER 7: STRUCTURE CLASSES

1. Characteristics
They are closed and small. They don’t admit new members.
They are not identified by form, they can be memorized and recognized by position.
A structure class has a stable membership.
2. Structure Classes
2.1 Qualifiers occur in the position just before an Aj or an Av.
e.g. The dinner was very good.
- They are pre-modifiers (of good).
- Most qualifiers are non-suffixing words, but some can belong to form classes.
e.g. The water is boiling hot. (V)
The position can help confirm their identity qualifiers.
e.g. She was pretty. (Aj-al)
We ran pretty fast. (Qualifier)
2.2 Prepositions are followed by a noun, noun phrase, personal pronoun, or noun-
substitute which are the objects of prepositions.
This unit (Preposition + Nominal) forms a Prepositional Phrase (PP).
e.g. George sat between the two deans.
English has a small group of prepositions.
(1) One-syllable prepositions
e.g. on, in, to, at, from, with, of, ...
(2) Two-syllable prepositions
e.g. about, against, behind, except, inside, outside, ...
(3) There is a group of -ing prepositions with a verb as stem.
concerning, during, following, including, involving, ...
e.g. Considering your loss, the bill will not be sent.
(4) The final group is composed of compound prepositions.
e.g. together with, ahead of, …
in spite of, by means of, …
2.3 A determiner is a word that precedes a noun as a noun/nominal modifier.
If a noun is preceded by adjectives or other nouns, the determiner precedes these
modifiers.
e.g. The new brick gymnasium
This is a list of determiners:
 Articles Possessive Demonstratives Possessive Nouns
Pronouns
A/an/the My, his, her, its, This/that/these/those John’s…
your…

2.4 Auxiliaries are closely associated with the verbs.

There are three kinds:
(1) The modal auxiliaries: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would,
must, ought to
(2) The two primary auxiliaries: have, be
(3) The periphrastic auxiliary: do
(1) The modal auxiliaries:
- The present tense form doesn't take -s or -es for singular verb forms.
- They don't have a present participle or past forms.
- They give the verbs some meanings: futurity, possibility, probability, permission,
necessity.
- Most of them have tense, can - could, will - would, shall - should, may - might
(must - had to
ought to/ should - ought to have/ should have + pp)
(2) The primary auxiliaries: have, be. Their forms are:
Have/has/had
Am/Is/Are
Was/Were
- Have/ Has/ Had (+ pp): perfective auxiliaries.
- Am/ Is/ Are/ Was/ Were (+ V-ing): progressive auxiliaries.
- Am/ Is/ Are/ Was/ Were (+ V-ed, 3): passive auxiliaries.
(3) The periphrastic auxiliary: do
- The auxiliary do is a “dummy” form that has a variety of uses.
- Many statements don't even have an auxiliary or a non-auxiliary form of “be” => we
insert an appropriate form of the periphrastic do.
- The auxiliary do can be inverted with the subject when there is a negative adverb at
the beginning of the sentence.
e.g. Never did I dream of such a thing.
Not only does he dream; he has nightmares.
2.5 Personal Pronouns
Subject Object Pre-nominal Substitutional
Possessive Possessive
Singular I me my mine
you you your yours
he him his his
she her her hers
it it its its
Plural we us our ours
you you your yours
they them their theirs
Interrogative who whom whose whose
Relative
1. Number:
singular (one), plural (more than one)
e.g. he/ she/ it/ him/ her: singular
we/ they/ us/ them: plural
2. Grammatical Function:
subject, object, N-al modifier
e.g. They are going to the ballet. (subject)
We saw her in the car. (object)
With my brains and your industry we could make a fortune. (N-al mod)
3. Person
The first person in the singular: the speaker; in the plural: the speaker plus anybody
else.
The second person: the person/ persons spoken to.
The third person: those other than speaker and other than those spoken to.
4. Gender Reference
Male
Female
Genderless
Interrogative Pronouns
As the first word in a question, interrogative pronouns (who, whom, which, what,
whose) can function differently.
 e.g. Who borrowed my tie? (Subject)
Who did you take to the theatre? (Object of verb)
Who are you referring to? (Object of Preposition)
Whose book is this? (Pre-nominal possessive)
Whose is this book? (Substitutional possessive)
Relative Pronouns
Functions People Things
Subject (S) who/ that which/ that
Object (O) who(m)/ that which/ tha
Object to whom to which
Determiner whose whose/ of which
e.g.
Tom is the boy who came. (S)
Tom is the boy whom I saw. (Od)
We had a beautiful maple whose leaves turned scarlet in September. (pre-modifier)
The tree which fell was a large oak. (S)
The tree which I prefer was an oak. (Od)
The flavor that pleases me the most is chocolate. (S)
The pet [which/that] he wanted to buy is a French poodle. (Od)
THE END