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Aen-302-English-Grammar-And-Usage Draft KENYATTA UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF OPEN LEARNING AEN 302 ENGLISH GRAMMAR AND USAGE DR. JOYCE WANGIA DR. PHYLLIS MWANGI DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LINGUISTICS December, 2005 i TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE (i) TABLE OF CONTENTS (ii) INTRODUCTION (vi) ORGANIZATION OF THE COURSE MATERIAL (vi) RECOMMENDED READING (vii) LESSON 1: FINITE VERB USAGE 1 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 What is a Finite Verb 1 1.1.1 Tense 1 1.1.2 Number 2 1.1.3 Person 2 1.1.4 Mood 3 1.2 Summary 4 1.3 Self Assessment Questions 4 LESSON 2: NON FINITE VERB USAGE 5 2.0 Introduction 5 2.1 Types of Non-Finite Verbs 5 2.1.1 The Present participle 6 2.1.2 The past Participle 6 2.1.3 The to-Infinitive 2.1.4 The Bare Infinitive 7 2.2 Summary 8 2.3 Self-Assessment Questions 8 LESSON 3: SENTENCE FORM AND FUNCTION 9 3.0 Introduction 9 3.1 The Form of a sentence 9 3.2 The Function of the constituents of a sentence 11 3.2.1 Noun Phrase 11 3.2.2 The Verb Phrase 11 3.2.3 The Adjective Phrase 12 3.2.4 The Adverb Phrase 12 3.2.5 The Prepositional Phrase 13 3.2.6 Finite Clause 13 3.2.7 non-Finite Clause 13 ii 3.3 Summary 13 3.4 Self Assessment Test 14 LESSON 4: TRANSITIVITY AND VOICE 15 4.0 Introduction 15 4.1 Types of verbs 15 4.1.1 Intransitive verbs 16 4.1.2 Intensive Verbs 16 4.1.3 Transitive 16 4.1.3.1 Monotransitive Verbs 16 4.1.3.2 Ditransitive Verbs 17 4.1.3.3 Complex Transitive Verbs 17 4.1.4 Usage of Verbs 18 4.2 Voice 18 4.2.1 Passivization of Ditransitive Verbs 19 4.2.2 Transitive verbs that do not passive 19 4.2.3 Functions of the Passive Voice 20 4.3 Summary 20 4.4 Self Assessment Questions 20 LESSON 5: THE PARTICIPLE 22 5.0 Introduction 22 5.1 The Present Participle 22 5.1.1 Verbal Usage 22 5.1.2 Adjectival Usage 23 5.2 The Past Participle 23 5.2.1 Verbal Usage 23 5.2.2 Adjectival Usage 24 5.3 Summary 24 5.4 Self Assessment Questions 24 LESSON 6: AUXILIAR VERBS: FORM AND FUNCTION 25 6.0 Introduction 25 6.1 Primary Auxiliaries 25 6.1.1 Form 25 6.1.2 Functions 25 6.2 Modal Auxiliaries 26 6.2.1 Form 26 6.2.2 Function 27 6.3 Summary 28 6.4 Self Assessment Questions 28 LESSON 7: THE NOTION OF DETERMINER IN THE NOUN PHRASE 29 7.0 Introduction 29 7.1 The Noun Phrase Structure 29 7.1.1 Noun Phrase Constituents 30 iii 7.1.2 Finding the Head 31 7.2 Categories of Determiner 32 7.3 Predeterminers 35 7.4 Ordinals (Post Determiners) 36 7.5 Qualifiers 36 7.6 Central Determiners 37 7.7 Articles and Generic Vs Specific Reference 37 7.8 Summary 38 7.9 Revision Exercise 38 LESSON 8: DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN ADVERBIAL AND ADJECTIVAL USAGE 40 8.0 Introductions 40 8.1 Definition of Adverbs 40 8.1.1 Adverb as modifier of Adjectives 40 8.1.2 Adverb as modifier of Adverb 40 8.1.3 Adverbial 41 8.2 Position of Adverbials 41 8.2.1 General Rules 42 8.3 Classes of Adverbials 43 8.4 Summary 44 8.5 Revision Exercise 44 LESSON 9: ADJECTIVES 45 9.0 Introductions 45 9.1 Definition 45 9.2 Qualities of Adjective 45 9.2.1 Attributive versus predictive usage 46 9.3 Some syntactic functions of adjectives 46 9.3.1 Words beginning with ‘a’ 47 9.4 Adjective Comparison 48 9.5 Summary 48 9.6 Revision Exercise 49 LESSON 10: CONJUCTION USAGE 50 10.0 Introduction 50 10.1 Types of Conjunction 50 10.1.1 Coordinating conjunctions 50 10.1.2 Subordinating conjunctions 51 10.1.3 Use of a comma 52 10.2 Ellipsis in coordination 52 10.2.1 Ellipsis of identical subjects 53 10.2.2 Ellipsis of identical subjects and Auxiliaries 53 10.2.3 Ellipsis of Auxiliaries only 53 10.3 Summary 53 10.4 Revision Exercise 54 iv LESSON 11: PREPOSITION 55 11.0 Introduction 55 11.1 Definition 55 11.2 Preposition Characteristics 56 11.3 Prepositional Phrase 56 11.3.1 Function of prepositional phrase 57 11.4 Distinction Between Prepositional and Conjunctional Usage 58 11.5 Summary 58 11.6 Practice Exercise 59 LESSON 12: CASE 60 12.0 Introduction 60 12.1 The Genitive Case 60 12.2 The Meaning of the Genitive 61 12.2.1 The ‘of’ Genitive 62 12.3 Special uses of the Genitive 62 12.4 Summary 63 12.5 Revision Exercise 63 v ENGLISH GRAMMAR AND USAGE Introduction As the title suggests, this unit has two parts: English grammar and the usage of that grammar. Grammar comprises two sub-fields namely: 1) morphology (the study of the internal structure of words) 2) Syntax (the study of the arrangement of words to form a sentence) Although adequate description of the relevant categories will be made, it will be largely assumed that you have mastered substantial levels of grammar through previous units such as AEN 101, 201 and 203. Therefore, to avoid undue duplication of these units, the most attention will be given to the usage part of the course. This entails looking at how, for example, a word can be used as an adjective in one instance and an adverb in another. ORGANIZATION OF THE COURSE MATERIAL vi Each lesson begins with an introduction of the topic followed by the objectives. Then comes the exposition of the topic with plenty of illustrations. Towards the end, a summary, self-assessment questions and a list for further reading are given. It is advisable to attempt the questions only after you have gone through the entire lesson. RECOMMENDE READING Leech, G. (1989) An A-Z of English Grammar and Usage Quirk & Greenbaum (1973) A University Grammar of English Quirk et. al.(1985) A Comprehensive Grammar of English Crystal, D.(1988) Rediscover Grammar Leech and Svartvik (1975) A Communicative. Grammar of English Collins and Hollo (2000) English Grammar Kuiper & Allan (1996) An Introduction to English Language Brinton, L (2000) The Structure of Modern English Aarts, B.(2001) English Syntax and Argumentation Aarts, F. (1988) English Syntactic Structures Huddleston, R. (1984) Introduction to the Grammar of English Leech et al (1982) English Grammar for Today Newby, M. (1987) The Structure of English Burtons-Roberts, N (1986) Analysing sentences Greenbaum, S. (1996) The Exford Eng. Grammar vii LESSON 1 FINITE VERB USAGE 1.0 Introduction Finiteness is a grammatical feature that affects verbs. Whether a verb is finite or nonfinite depends on the way it is used. As will become evident later, a given verb can be finite in one construction and nonfinite in another. In this lesson, we will focus on finite verb usage. OBJECTIVES By the end of this lesson, you should be able to: • Describe the characteristics of a finite verb • Use a given verb in a finite manner 1.1 WHAT IS A FINITE VERB? The word finite means limited in some way. A finite verb is one that conveys information about tense, number, person and mood. We will look at each of these four grammatical in turns. 1.1.1 TENSE Tense relates the event or state described by the verb to a time in the past, present or future. In English we have two tenses: the present and the past since these are the only two that have a morphological marking (-s for present tense and –ed for past tense in regular verbs) If a verb is used in a finite way, we can easily tell whether it is in the present or the past tense. Let us now test this using the verbs ‘create’ and ‘write’. EXAMPLES 1a) Drought creates havoc. -present tense 1b) Drought created havoc. - past tense 2a) He writes well. -present tense 2b) He wrote well. -past tense It is clear that the verbs in the sentences above are finite since we can tell their tenses. 1 1.1.2 NUMBER Number is a grammatical category that refers to the singularity or plurality of verbs and nouns. In English, the subject and a present tense verb must agree in terms of number. That is, a singular subject goes with a singular verb. Likewise, a plural subject goes with a plural verb. Note: A singular verb always has ‘s’ at the end e.g. talks, is, was, does, has, goes, behaves. Typically, a plural verb does not end in ‘s’ e.g. talk, are, were, do, have, go, behave. A verb is finite if it is used in a context that shows whether it is singular or plural. Here are examples using the verbs ‘trade’ and ‘are’: EXAMPLES 2a) Simon trades in Isiolo. -singular verb 2b) Simon and Hassan trade in Isiolo. _plural verb 3a) Ngure is a teacher. -singular verb 3b) Ngure and Ochieng’ are teachers. -plural verb All the verbs above are therefore finite. Note: If the verb is a form of BE, it will indicate number even in the past tense. EXAMPLES 4a Ngure was a teacher. -singular 4b) Ngure and Ochieng were teachers -plural 1.1.3 PERSON Person is a grammatical category that affects nouns, pronouns and verbs. There are three persons in English: a) first person- speaker/ writer e.g.
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