Download LECTURE 10

LECTURE 10
Finite and nonfinite verb forms
A. FINITE VERB FORMS
-
are inflected according to 6 aspects:
Person: first, second, or third
Number: singular or plural
Tense: past, present, future, and perfect tenses
Mood: indicative, imperative, subjunctive, imperative
Voice: active or passive
Aspect: simple, progressive, perfect
B. NONFINITE VERB FORMS – VERBALS
cannot act alone as the predicate of a clause.
do not have person, number, (mood, voice, tense, aspect).
less limited than finite verb forms.
1. An infinitive: the uninflected form of the verb: to think
2. A participle: as an adjective: running shoes; broken vase
:as the main verb in a verb phrase:
to have run; am walking
-present (running, walking) or past (broken, run) participle
3. A gerund: is the -ing form of a verb used as a noun
: fills a noun slot (subject, direct object....)
Examples:
Running is good exercise. (gerund)
Are those new running shoes?
(present participle)
He is running his last race today.
(present participle)
VERB MOOD
is the form of the verb that shows the manner in which a thought is expressed.
- indicates the attitude of the speaker.
English verbs have four moods:
1. Indicative - is used in statements and questions; expresses an assertion, denial, or
question.
2. Imperative - is used in requests and commands; expresses command, prohibition,
entreaty, or advice.
3. Subjunctive - expresses doubt or something contrary to fact; is used in contrary-to-fact or
hypothetical statements.
4. Infinitive - expresses an action or state without reference to any subject.
Present (tense) subjunctive
If I were king, you would be queen.
If he worked, he could earn high wages.
Past (tense) subjunctive
If I had been king, you would have been queen.
If he had worked, he could have earned high wages.
NOTES
Contrary-to-fact statements have two clauses:
A. if clause: If I were you
B. consequence clause: I would buy a car.
Note 1: The subjunctive present tense is the same as the indicative past tense.
Note 2: The subjunctive past tense is the same as the indicative past perfect tense.
Note 3: In the consequence clause, we use the conditional, which is formed with could or
would.
Infinitive mood
•
verbs in the infinitive mood can also include present and past participles.
•
verbs in the infinitive mood are not used as verbs, but as other parts of speech:
To err / Erring is human. (a noun)
He is a man to be admired. (adjective)
Grammatical aspect of a verb
- is a grammatical category that marks actions expressed by verbs as completed, ongoing,
recurrent or habitual.
A. Simple aspect – indicates a habitual or repeated action, event, or condition: works,
worked, will work
B. Progressive aspect – indicates that the event/state is in progress: is working; has been
working; was working; will be working
C. Perfect aspect – indicates that the event/state is seen from a completed, retrospective point
of view: has worked, had worked, will have worked
has been working (=PERFECT PROGRESSIVE ASPECT)
SENTENCES
A. simple – a sentence with one main clause: Suddenly she opened the door.
B. compound – a sentence with two or more main clauses: My mother was cooking dinner
and my father was sleeping on a sofa.
C. complex – a sentence with a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses: If you work
hard, you will be appreciated.
D. compound-complex sentence – combines elements of compound and complex sentences;
the most sophisticated type of sentence we can use; is comprised of at least two independent
clauses and one or more dependent clauses; as it is normally longer than other sentences, it is
very important to punctuate it correctly.
The team captain jumped for joy, and the fans cheered because we won the state
championship.
Independent Clause 1, Coordinator, Independent Clause 2, Subordinator, Dependent Clause
COORDINATION and SUBORDINATION
A. Coordination
linking of units which are on the same syntactic level
linking is made by coordinators (linkers): and, or, but, ....
They are my neighbours, but I don’t know them. (= COMPOUND SENTENCE)
Main clause
coordinator
Main clause
B. Subordination
one of the units is a constituent of a superordinate unit
I don’t know where they are staying. (= COMPLEX SENTENCE)
Main clause
where-clause (subordinate)
LINKERS
1. Coordinators
– coordinating conjunctions - can serve for many purposes such as:
addition: AND (= central coordinator)
contrast: BUT, GOOD BUT
choice: OR (= central coordinator)
reason: FOR
continuation: AND THEN
result: SO
correlation: EITHER-OR, NEITHER-NOR, BOTH-AND, NOT ONLY-BUT ALSO
(= correlatives)
2. Subordinators = subordinating conjunctions:
single-word subordinators: after, because, before, if, when, that, since, unless, while,..
multi-word subordinators: in case, as soon as, providing that, in order that, as if.....
correlative subordinators: as........as, the........the, so........that, hardly.......when/then
marginal subordinators: in spite of the fact that, every time that, even if, if only....
other indicators of subordination: wh-elements, relative pronoun that, subject-operator
inversion
3. Conjuncts
A. antithetic (however, on the contrary)
B. cause-result (therefore, hence, thus)
C. reinforcing (furthermore, moreover, besides)
D. inferential (otherwise)
E. ......
F. ......
4. Punctuation marks: semi-colons, dashes and other punctuation marks:
Some cats sleep during the night; most cats are active during the dark.
Our Head of Finance – who often loses his temper – was the calmest in the room.