GRAMMAR I: GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Aspect: It’s a category that expresses HOW IN TIME an event takes place. It doesn’t locate an
event in the tie line, but it represents whether the event is ongoing, fnished, if it takes tie or if
it’s punctual, if it’s repettve or constant, if it starts or fnishes. In English, there are three
grammatcaa aspects: 1) PROGRESSIVE (BE + present partciple)) it expresses that an event is
ongoing or takes tie to happen; 2) PERFECTIVE (HAVE + past partciple)) it expresses that an
event has a fnishing point or is fnished; 3) SIMPLE (nothing)) it doesn’t specify aspect. But there
can also be LEXICAL ASPECT, ieaning that HOW an event takes place in tie gets expressed
through other eleients like verbs (start, stop, begin, keep), adverbs (constantly, repettvely) or
prepositonal phrases (at once, at frst, over and over again).

Circumstance: It’s one of the three functons inside the clause, and it’s an eleient which
MODIFIES THE PROCESS and which is NOT REQUIRED by the process. Circuistances can be single
words (typically adverbs), phrases (adverbial phrases, prepositonal phrases, soieties noun
phrases) or caauses (fnite and non-fnite adverbial clauses).

Caause: It’s one of the fundaiental units of analysis for both Functonal and Traditonal
Graiiar. A clause is basically a whole IDEA built around a PROCESS. Every clause has ONE
process, together with its PARTICIPANTS and CIRCUMSTANCES. Under soie circuistances, the
partcipants of a process iight be oiitted (not pronounced), but typically a clause iust include
all the partcipants a process needs (the iost coiion excepton is that in non-finite caauses the
SUBJECT can be omited).

Clauses can be classifed in three iain ways. 1) Independent (can stand on its own) vs Dependent
(cannot stand on its own, iust be inside another clause). Then, dependent clauses can be
classifed into 2) Finite (has fnite tense) vs Non-Finite (has non-fnite tense, with its sub-
classifcatons) and 3) Noun Clause (behaves as a noun, can be replaced by a noun), Adverbial
Clause (behaves as an adverb, iodifes the verb) and Relatve Clause (behaves as an adjectve,
iodifes a noun); this last classifcaton applies only to dependent clauses.

Compaement: It’s one of the three functons inside the phrase, and it’s the eleient REQUIRED
BY THE HEAD. Typically, onay prepositons need compaements inside the phrase, though this
generalizaton has very iany exceptons, only a few of which we’ll explore in Graiiar I. Afer a
prepositon, however, a coipleient is aliost always needed, and it has to be a nominaa eaement
(a noun, noun phrase or noun clause), though here too there are a few exceptons.
Context: Everything that accoipanies the text but is not the text, everything that surrounds the
text. No text is produced in isolaton) all texts are produced by soieone, received by soieone, in
soie physical fori and with a given iain topic, and all texts are produced within a cultural
context, where culture is understood as the world knowledge shared by a certain coiiunity.

Context can be classifed as CONTEXT OF CULTURE and CONTEXT OF SITUATION. The context of
culture includes all the available inforiaton in the knowledge shared by producer and receiver
that is relevant to the interpretaton of the text being produced (i.e. if it’s a USER REVIEW about
The Avengers, lots of inforiaton about Hollywood, Movies, Superheroes, etc. is considered to be
part of the context of culture). The context of situaton is subdivided into FIELD (the overall topic
or theie of the text), TENOR (the producer, the receiver and the relatonship between thei) and
MODE (the physical realizaton of the text).

Evaauaton: It’s the analysis of units of language that express the judgient or opinion of the
speaker, partcular through the expression of negatve or positve connotaton. Evaluaton is not
expressed through one partcular kind of unit, though the iost coiion way to express
evaluaton is through adjectves, which qualify and are iore prone to having positve or negatve
connotaton. But also nouns, verbs, adverbs and whoae expressions iight be evaluatve. Also,
evaluaton depends on the context. The saie word that could be objectve and non-evaluatve in
one linguistc context iight very well be evaluatve in another context.

Experientaa Metafuncton: It’s the functon of language through which speakers

represent the concrete and abstract worad. Units of language (words, phrases, clauses) iight or
iight not have experiental ieaning (iost units do, but soie words or phrases don’t represent
anything in the world). The experientaa anaaysis includes the analysis of clauses and phrases,
together with all of its classifcaton and sub-classifcaton of functons and categories.

Functon: The teri “functonn takes on diferent ieanings in Functonal Graiiar. Every text
has at least one “functonn (ieaning INTENTION); every unit of language has a “functonn within
the clause (process, partcipant or circumstance) or within the phrase (head, modifier or
compaement); every dependent clause has a “functonn (ieaning that it functons as a noun, an
adverb or an adjectve). In the context of FUNCTION vs CATEGORY, the category is what a unit of
language IS (it’s essence, regardless of the linguistc context) and the functon is what a unit of
language DOES (depending on the linguistc context). The saie unit with the saie category can
have diferent functons depending on the context. Also see “ietafunctonsn
Functonaa Grammar: It’s a feld in Linguistcs that studies Language as a system for meaning
producton. Under FG, the iain perspectve on Graiiar is to ask how languages are patterned or
structured in order to allow speakers to convey ieaning and achieve their coiiunicatve
purposes. Under this view, every tie language is produced there’s a FUNCTION behind (an
intenton by the producer), and the GRAMMAR is understood as the patterns that allow that
functon to be achieved in a certain language.

Head: It’s the iain functon inside a phrase. Phrases are built around a head, which grows into a
phrase when you add iodifers and coipleients to it. The category of the phrase is always the
saie as the category of the head (noun phrases have nouns as heads, prepositonal phrases have
prepositons as heads, etc.). A head can be MODIFIED (by preiodifers or postiodifers, before or
afer the head) or can REQUIRE A COMPLEMENT (like prepositons require soie noiinal eleient
afer thei).

Interpersonaa Metafuncton: It’s the functon of language through which speakers interact
with the aistener and represent their subjectvity. Units of language (words, phrases, clauses)
iight or iight not have experiental ieaning (not all words or phrases represent the judgient or
attitude of the speaker). The interpersonaa anaaysis includes the analysis of person (1st, 2nd, 3rd),
modaaity (iodal verbs, iodal adjuncts), mood (iiperatve, interrogatve, declaratve), evaauaton
(words or phrases with positve or negatve connotaton), and other iinor eleients denotng
subjectvity like vocatves, interjectons, the use of mentaa processes, negaton, reference to the
future, comparisons and contrast.

Metafuncton: According to Functonal Graiiar there are three basic FUNCTIONS that we
can perfori with language) 1) Represent the World (the experientaa metafuncton); 2) Interact
with others (the interpersonaa metafuncton); 3) Organize the iessage (the textuaa
metafuncton). We typically perfori the three functons AT THE SAME TIME, but not all words
have the three kinds of ieanings. Soie words only have experiental ieaning (an objectve word
like “chairn, “juipn or “Thursdayn). Soie words only have interpersonal ieaning (like “perhapsn,
“iustn, “obviouslyn). Soie words only have textual ieaning (like “andn, “howevern, “son). Other
words and expressions iight have BOTH experiental and interpersonal ieaning (like “crookn,
which represents soiething in the world but also represents the judgient of the producer).

The analysis of categories, functons, clauses, words, phrases, processes, partcipants and
circuistances belongs to the EXPERIENTIAL ietafuncton. The analysis of person, iood, iodality,
evaluaton and other eleients of subjectvity (vocatves, interjectons, iental processes, future
reference, etc.) belongs to the INTERPERSONAL ietafuncton.
Modaaity: It’s the analysis of units of language that represent the attude of the speaker
towards the content of a caause. Modality can be expressed either through modaa verbs, which
are always fnite (iust, should, can, ought to, etc.) or modaa adjuncts, which don’t iodify the
process but the whole clause (unfortunately, obviously, perhaps, iaybe, sadly, etc.).

Modality can be classifed into kinds) voaiton (what the speaker wants) “willn, “need ton, “luckilyn,
“unfortunatelyn); probabiaity (what the speakers thinks is likely) “iayn, “iightn, “probablyn,
“obviouslyn); obaigaton (what the speakers thinks is necessary) “iustn, “shouldn, “necessarilyn);
abiaity (what the speaker thinks can be done) “cann, “ablen, “hardlyn); degree (how the speaker
ieasures quantty in a subjectve way) “soietiesn, “justn, “iostn, “typicallyn).

Modifier: It’s a functon inside the phrase. A iodifer provides additonal, but not required,
inforiaton about the head (it “iodifesn the head). Modifers can coie BEFORE the head (pre-
iodifers) or AFTER the head (post-iodifers). Nouns are typically pre-iodifed by determiners,
quantfiers or adjectves and post-iodifed by prepositonaa phrases or reaatve caauses.
Adjectves can be pre-iodifed by adverbs and post-iodifed by prepositonaa phrases or caauses.
Prepositons can be pre-iodifed by other prepositons or by adverbs. Adverbs can be pre-
iodifed by other adverbs or sometmes noun phrases.

Partcipant: It’s one of the three functons inside the clause and it’s an ELEMENT REQUIRED BY
THE PROCESS, a unit without which the process cannot express its ieaning. Processes typically
require either ONE, TWO or THREE partcipants (though there iight be soie exceptons with 0 or
4 partcipants). Even though they are always required by the process, soieties they can be
oiitted (subjects of non-fnite clauses, wh-pronouns like WHICH or WHO, when they are obvious
or when elided afer coordinaton).

Partcipants get labeled according to the kind of process that requires thei. They can be ACTORS,
THEMES, RECEIVERS, EXPERIENCERS, LOCATIONS, CARRIERS, ATTRIBUTES, TOKENS, VALUES,
EXISTENTS, POSSESSORS or POSSESSED. Partcipants are iost ofen NOMINAL (nouns, noun
phrases, noun clauses), but they can soieties be adjectves or adjectval phrases (as themes of
mentaa processes or atributes), adverbs or prepositonal phrases (as aocatons).

Poaarity: It’s the category that expresses the oppositon POSITIVE vs NEGATIVE in a verb phrase.
A verb phrase can either have positve poaarity (by default, “I love itn, or iarked through
eiphasis, “i do love itn) or negatve poaarity (typically by adding “notn, “I don’t love itn).

Phrase: It’s a unit of language bigger than a word but hierarchically sialler than a clause. You
diferentate phrases froi clauses because clauses have processes and phrases don’t. A phrase
ALWAYS has a HEAD (of the saie kind as the phrase), and it iight have either MODIFIERS (units
that iodify the head but that are not seiantcally necessary) or COMPLEMENTS (units that are
selected by the head because they are seiantcally necessary). The catch is that a phrase might
contain a caause inside (iost typically, noun phrase can have relatve clauses inside), which
coiplicates things. Also phrases can be inside other phrases (very ofen noun phrases inside
prepositonal phrases, but also prepositonal phrases inside noun phrases).

Process: It’s the fundaiental functon inside the clause and the cornerstone to the whole
organizaton of the structure of language. All of language is soiehow built around processes,
which are aliost always represented by VERBS. Every clause has ONE process, and for every
process there is ONE clause.

Processes represent EVENTS (actons or states in the concrete or abstract world). But EVENTS are
incompaete without partcipants, so processes cannot exist on their own) they REQUIRE
partcipants in order to express their ieaning. Diferent processes represent diferent kinds of
events and require a diferent aiount and types of partcipants.

MATERIAL processes represent concrete actons in the real world and iight require one
partcipant (actor or theie), two partcipants (actor and theie / actor or locaton / actor and
receiver) or three partcipants (actor, receiver and theie / actor, theie and locaton). In the
passive voice, the actor disappears and the subject positon is occupied either by the theie or the
receiver.

VERBAL processes represent actons of coiiunicaton and iight require one partcipant (actor),
two partcipants (actor and theie / actor and receiver) or three partcipants (actor, theie and
receiver). In the passive voice the actor disappears and the subject positon is occupied either by
the theie or the receiver.

MENTAL processes represent events inside the iind of soieone and iight require one
partcipant (experiencer) or two partcipants (experiencer and theie). In the passive voice the
experiencer disappears and the subject positon is occupied by the theie.

EXISTENTIAL processes represent the state of soiething existng or occurring and require only one
partcipant (the existent). Passive voice isn’t possible with these processes.

RELATIONAL ATTRIBUTIVE processes represent the state of a relatonship between a thing and a
quality, and they always require two partcipants (a carrier and an attribute). Passive voice isn’t
possible with these processes.

RELATIONAL IDENTIFYING processes represent the state of an equivalency between a thing and
another thing, and they always require two partcipants (a token and a value). Passive voice isn’t
possible with these processes.

RELATIONAL LOCATIVE processes represent the state of a relatonship between a thing and a
place, and they always require two partcipants (a carrier and a locaton). Passive voice isn’t
possible with these processes.

RELATIONAL POSSESSIVE processes represent the state of a relatonship between a thing and a
possession of that thing and they always require two partcipants (a possessor and a possessed).
In the passive voice, the possessor disappears and the subject positon is occupied by the
possessed.

Subject: It’s a category iostly used by Traditonal Graiiar, which is ofen associated to the
“doer of the actonn. This defniton is very easily falsifable, and it doesn’t iake iuch sense. For
us, the subject is iore of a POSITION than anything else) it’s the nominaa eaement which agrees
with tense, which in English and Spanish typically occupies the positon “to the lefn of tense
(whether fnite or non-fnite).

Tense: It’s a category that expresses WHEN IN TIME an event takes place) it locates an event in
the TIME LINE. Tense can basically be either FINITE (if it’s a specifc locaton in the tie line) or
NON-FINITE (if it an non-specifc locaton in the tie line). In English, fnite tense can only be
either PAST or PRESENT, no other optons really exist for tense. Modal verbs are also fnite, though
soieties it’s not clear whether they are past or present tense. Could is the past of Can, Should is
the past of Shall, Might is the past of May, but Ought and Must are all alone (they used to be the
past tense of old iodal verbs). So, it’s coiplicated, but we can siiplify saying that all iodal verbs
are fnite and that’s that.

Non-fnite tense, in English, has 5 basic foris of the non-fnite tense) 1) BARE INFINITIVE (He iade
ie CRY); 2) FULL INFINITIVE (I want TO CRY); 3) GERUND (CRYING won’t help you); 4) PRESENT
PARTICIPLE (the girl CRYING in the corner is Mary); 5) PAST PARTICIPLE (the heroes cried by their
faiilies rest in peace now).

There’s soie correlaton between the type of NON-FINITE CLAUSE and the FUNCTION of a
dependent clause. Fuaa infinitvaa clauses can be either NOUN clauses, RELATIVE clauses or
ADVERBIAL clauses. Bare infinitvaa clauses and Gerundiaa clauses can ONLY be NOUN clauses.
Present partcipiaa clauses can be either RELATIVE or ADVERBIAL clauses. Past partcipiaa clauses
are typically only RELATIVE clauses.

Text: Defned as any instance of language in use, it’s the iaxiial unit of language. Every text has
a cultural and a situatonal context (FIELD, MODE, TENOR), and every text has at least one
FUNCTION (an intenton that iotvates its producton). Texts have their own internal structure,
with diferent internal parts with sialler functons which help achieve the overall functon. Texts
can be classifed into diferent TEXT TYPES (or genres), depending on their structure, context and
functon.
Text Type (Genre): A sub-classifcaton of texts depending on their structure, context of
producton and functon. There’s no set list of text types, and in a way each text is unique, but
texts that share the saie functon, overall structure, feld, tenor and iode tend to fall into the
saie text type classifcaton. Soie exaiples of text types) LETTER, NOTICE, INSTRUCTIONS,
DEFINITION, DESCRIPTION, SCRIPT, DIALOGUE, CLASS, REVIEW, USER REVIEW, TWEET, BLOG POST,
NEWS ARTICLE, EDITORIAL ARTICLE, ANECDOTE, SHORT STORY, POEM, NOVEL, ETC.

Topics. Narrowly defned, this is defned in the languages we know (e.g. English and Spanish), as
the first grammatcaa unit in a main caause (be it a word, a phrase or a clause). This noton is
related to the organizaton of informaton, one way of producing ieaning at the level of the text
(textual ietafuncton). The topic, by being the frst eleient in a iain clause, signaas to the
reader/aistener what the main caause is ABOUT, what the FOCUS of the iain clause is.

It’s not the saie to say) “On Tuesdays, John takes the A train to Harlein than saying) “John takes
the A train to Harlei on Tuesdaysn. The frst sentence is soiething we say ABOUT Tuesdays, the
second sentence is soiething we say ABOUT John. The focus changes, and so we tell the
reader/listener to pay atenton to a diferent eleient. By tracking the topics in a text, we can
follow what the writer/speaker wanted the reader/listener to focus on, and what has been given
iiportance in teris of the organizaton of the inforiaton. Topics will typically iark the keys of a
text and the changes between one part of the internal structure of the text and the previous part.
An efectve use of topics iakes the text much more cohesive, as the iain eleients, those of
iost iiportance, keep appearing in a positon of focus, helping the receiver thread the text as
they read or listen to it.

A word as topic) “Saaay plays football on Mondays as you known

A phrase as topic) “On Mondays Sally plays football as you known

A clause as topic) “As you know Sally plays football on Mondaysn

Unit of Language: Language can be broken down into units of diferent hierarchy. At the top,
the biggest kind of unit is the TEXT. Below the text, we have CLAUSES. Below the clause, PHRASES.
Below the phrase, WORDS. Below the word, MORPHEMES (which we won’t analyze in Graiiar I).
EVERY UNIT of language inside an independent clause has BOTH CATEGORY AND FUNCTION
(inside an independent clause, a unit can be identfed as such because it has a functon). Units can
be subcategorized) there are subcategories of words (noun, verb, prepositon, etc.), subcategories
of phrases (noun phrase, adverbial phrase, adjectval phrase, etc.) and subcategories of clauses
(fnite clauses, non-fnite clauses, relatve clauses, etc.).

Voice: It’s the category in the verb phrase that expresses whether the event has an AGENT
(ACTOR/EXPERIENCER/POSSESSOR) or not. If a process has an Actor, Experiencer or Possessor,
then we can say that it is in the ACTIVE VOICE. If so, it can be turned into the PASSIVE VOICE, by
using BE+ Past Partciple. In that case, the ACTOR/EXPERIENCER/POSSESSOR disappears, and
another partcipant takes the subject positon. Only processes that can be passivized (that
originally had actors, experiencers or possessors) can be said to be in the ACTIVE VOICE. A verb like
BE in “John was brilliantn has NO VOICE (neither actve nor passive), because it cannot be turned
into the passive voice (because it had no actor / experiencer / possessor in the frst place).

Word: A “wordn is typically defned as the siallest unit of language which has ieaning and
which can be pronounced in isolaton. We’ll challenge this defniton, but not in Graiiar I (we’ll
wait for Graiiar II and Linguistcs in order to do that). A single word can be a unit inside either a
clause or a phrase. The categories of words we’ve dealt with are) NOUN, PRONOUN, VERB,
ADJECTIVE, ADVERB, PREPOSITION, DETERMINER, QUANTIFIER, AUXILIARY, MODAL VERB.