Class 3:

Function words
 Syntactic categories (cont.)
(b) ‘Closed’ classes:
 ………………… (simple or complex), e.g. of, at, in,
without, in spite of
 ………………. – they have a general and undetermined
meaning; function like NPs & can serve as a substitute for
them (i.e. pro-form):
− …………………, e.g.: she/ her, it, I/ me, we/ us, you,
they/ them (the subjective or objective case)
− ………………… :
my, your, his, her, its, our, their (house)
(It’s) mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs
− ………………… pronouns: who, what, which, whose
− ………………… pronouns: this, that, these, those
− ………………… pronouns, e.g.: myself, himself, ourselves
− ………………… pronouns: each other, one another
− ………………… pronouns (introduce ………………………):
that, Ø, who(m), whose, which
− ………………… pronouns: all, both, each, every, some,
something, someone, anything, anyone; one, half,
several, enough; other, another.
 Pronouns (cont.)
► Give the Polish equivalent of each pronoun type.
 personal pronoun – …………………………………
 possessive pronoun – …………………………………
 interrogative pronoun – …………………………………
 demonstrative pronoun – …………………………………
 reflexive pronoun – …………………………………
 reciprocal pronoun – …………………………………
 relative pronoun – …………………………………
 indefinite pronoun – …………………………………
 Determiners
 Determiners – …………………… a N in a NP; specify/
determine the kind of reference of a particular NP
(…………… or …………… reference) (Quirk et al. 1989: 253).
 What type of reference do the NPs in sentences (1)-(2)
have?
(1) Have you seen the Ferrari he bought last week?
(2) Have you seen a Ferrari?
The NP in sentence (1) has …………… reference, and the
NP in sentence (2) has …………… reference.
 More than one determiner can precede a given head N:
(3) All his five cats disappeared.
(4) Half the other people didn’t know what was going on.
(5) This is the best of all those many good things that
happened.
 Determiners (2)
 Determiner types according to their position with respect
to each other/ one another:
(1) predeterminers, e.g. half, all, both; multipliers
once, twice, double, three times etc., fractions:
one-third, etc.; such, what (as in ‘What a pity!’)
(2) central determiners: ………………… the, a/an;
………………… this, that, those, these;
………………… every, each, either, neither, some, any,
no, much; ………………… determiners my, his, etc.
(3) postdeterminers: cardinal & ordinal numerals, e.g.
one, three; first, last, next, (an)other; quantifiers:
many, much, (a) few , (a) little, several
TASK 1: Identify all pronouns and determiners,
and specify their types.

a. I don’t like those!

b. His attitude is appalling.
c. What is your name?
d. What kind of skills does a candidate need to have?
e. Do you need some money? – No, I still have some.
f. This is our car.
g. This car is ours.
h. The problems which will be discussed include ….
 Function words (cont.)
 Conjunctions
− coordinating conjunctions (…………………): …………………
− subordinating conjunctions (…………………), introducing
dependent/ ………………… clauses:
→ ……………… clauses, e.g.: since, because, before,
when, if,
→ comparative (degree) clauses: as, than, that
→ nominal (complement) clauses (complementizers):
 I’m curious what they intend to do/ if they
intend to come.
 We suspect that he was lying.
 Tell me whether I should to it.
 Major verb classes
VERBS

Full/main/lexical verbs …………………… verbs

(‘helping verbs’)

…….…………… ….....…… verbs

can could be
may might have
shall should do
will would
must
 Auxiliary verbs
► Auxiliaries have the syntactic function of marking
grammatical properties associated with the main verb,
such as tense, aspect, voice, or modality.
Subgroups of auxiliaries:
► ………………… (auxiliary) verbs – can act either as main
verbs or as auxiliaries:
 ……………………… auxiliaries: be, have
(1) Jeremy is laughing.
– the Aux marks the ……………… aspect – indicates that the
action expressed by the main verb is ongoing (in progress),
i.e. takes place over a stretch of time.
Vs.:
(2) Jeremy has finished his studies.
(3) When we bought it, the house had been empty for years.
– the Aux marks the ……………. aspect – indicates that the
action expressed by the main verb is viewed as complete.
 Auxiliary verbs (2)
► Primary (auxiliary) verbs (cont.)
 the ………………….. auxiliary be
(4) The suspect was arrested last week.
The book will be published soon/ has just been published;
 the ……………. auxiliary do – used in do-support as
an ‘empty’ operator (with no individual meaning) – where
the construction requires an operator (in questions,
negatives, reduced clauses & emphatic contexts), but
where no other operator is present.
► ………………………. auxiliaries contribute modal meanings,
such as: necessity, possibility, ability, obligation, permission,
prohibition, volition, prediction, e.g.
(5) Jeremy can/ may/ mustn’t/ will laugh.
 TASK 2:
Which of instances of the verbs be, have and do
are auxiliaries and which are lexical verbs?

(a) What do you do for a living?

(b) Have you ever had a walk at dawn?

(c) The boy is being naughty again.

Do ex.9/ p.15 in Conrad et al.’s Workbook.

 The PREPOSITION category
► A preposition expresses a relation between two entities:
one represented by the prepositional complement, and the
other – by another part of the sentence (Quirk et al. 1989:
657), e.g.

He found chocolate [PP in the box].

We met [PP after the show].

(event)
Prepositions: morphological properties
► Morphological properties of prepositions
A. Prepositions are invariable forms which cannot take any
inflections – they always remain completely uninflected
(Radford 1988: 59).

B. Morphologically, prepositions can be

(a) ……………… (consisting of one word): about, across, at,
for, from, past, between, despite, through, etc.
(b) ……………… (two- or three-word sequences), e.g.
 apart from, because of, but for, close to,
 in case of, in consequence of, on top of,
in terms of (Quirk et al. 1989: 665-7).
 Prepositional meanings
► Meaning: prepositions express various types of ………………
meanings, for example:

(1) ………………… relations, e.g.:

– position (at, on, in, etc.):
Ann was on the roof.
– destination (to, into, away from, etc.):
Ann went to Oxford and moved away from him.
– movement relative to something (up, down, over,
across, through, etc.):
He jumped over a ditch.; We walked up the hill.
 Prepositional meanings (2)
(2) ………………… relations, e.g.:
– time (at, in, before, after, till, etc.)
at ten o’clock, at the weekend, in August,
before the war
– duration (for, during, through(out), etc.):
He stayed there for years.
(3) ………………… (because of, for, on account of):
She lost the job because of her age.
(4) Purpose (for): He’ll do anything for money.
(5) ………………… (with):
He broke the window with a stone.
 The internal structure of PP
► Syntactic function: prepositions function as ……………
of …………………… phrases, where they require a
complement.
► The most typical complement of the head preposition
within a PP is a …….…..…, e.g.:
in the house, after the meal
[PP = P + ………]
► Occasionally, mainly in fixed phrases, an ………… or
adjective is a complement of the head P, e.g.:
since yesterday, by now/ then, from there, at last,
at worst, before long, etc.
[PP = P + ….… / ……..]
 TASKS

► Do ex. 6-7/ p.10 from Chalker’s Workbook

► Do ex. 7-8/ p.14-15 from Conrad et al.’s Workbook

 ‘Special’ classes of function words
► Interrogative wh-words – introduce ……………………………:
 Interrogative ………………: who, whom, what, which, e.g.
What would you like to do?
 Interrogative ………………: whose, what, which, e.g.
Which car should I buy?
 Interrogative ………………: when, where, how, why
► ‘Relativizers’ – words that introduce ………………………………….:
 Relative ………………: who, ……………………………
 Relative ……………… (precede …………): ……………….., e.g.:
We booked a place in a local pub, whose existence Tom had
just discovered. I was told my work was unsatisfactory, at
which point I submitted my resignation.;
 Relative ……………… : where, when, why, e.g.: We live in a
small place where everyone knows everyone else.
 ‘Special’ classes of function words (2)
► …………… ‘there’ – functions as the grammatical ……………. of
clauses expressing existence, e.g. ………
► The ……………… not, n’t
 In clause negation, e.g.: I don’t know, I cannot come.
 In other negative uses and in set phrases: not often, not very,
not at all
► The ……………………… to
 in the to-infinitive, e.g. ……….
 in complex subordinators expressing ……………… : in order to,
so as to …
► Numerals – used as …………………. or as ………………… of NPs
 ………………… , e.g. five meetings, five of them
 ………………… , e.g. her second fiancé; The second, Tom, left
her too.
 TASKS

► Do ex. 4/ p.12, parts 2-3 in Conrad et al.’s Workbook

– identify all word classes

► Do ex. 9/ p.15, ex.11/ p.16 from Conrad et al.’s

Workbook

► Do tasks 1-2 on the extra sheet (Syntactic categories –

exercises)
 TASK
Specify the syntactic category of the underlined words:
1) The zoo is open daily.; There will be daily flights to Madrid.
2) All the dailies reported the news.
3) The retailers intend to up the prices.; We walked up the hill.
4) They have their ups and downs, like all couples.
5) Will the group record another album?; We need a new
record player.
6) He is the greatest boxer that has ever lived.
7) I know that.; I know that guy.
8) What is it?; What kind of books do you like?
9) I like the scarf that he has bought for me.
10) Do you know the place where we live? Where are you from?
11) It was extremely confusing.
12) Do you like shopping? Or do you prefer reading books?
13) I must go there.; For students, reading books is a must.
 Homework

► Please, read about and be prepared to discuss:

noun classes and gender – pp. 56-64; 85-88

from: Biber, Conrad & Leech (2002):

Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and
Written English.
Thank you very much

for your attention!