Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English by Biber, Conrad, Leech

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Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English by Biber, Conrad, Leech is the book authored by Douglas Biber, Susan Conrad, and Geoffrey Leech, published in 2002 and re-published in 2003 by Longman, an imprint of Pearson Education Limited.

Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English by Douglas Biber, Susan Conrad, Geoffrey Leech, Longman (z-lib.org)

  • Accusative. The morphological form, or case, associated with object syntactic roles. Accusative case is marked only on pronouns in English: me, her, him, them.
  • Activity verb. Verbs that refer to actions and events associated with a volitional activity: buy, go, take.
  • Add-on strategy. The process of constructing conversational turns from a linear sequence of short finite clause-like segments: I think I you'll find I it counts towards your income.
  • Adjective. One of the four lexical word classes in English its most common use is modifying nouns: That's great; a bad attitude.
  • Adjective phrase. A phrase with an adjective as its head: very old; ready for lunch.
  • Adverb. One of the four lexical word classes in English-its most common uses are as an adverbial and as a modifier of an adjective: It goes fast; physically tired.
  • Adverb phrase. A phrase with an adverb as its head: pretty often; sooner than you think.
  • Adverbial. A phrase or clause that functions as a clause element answering questions such as 'When?, 'Where?', 'Why?', or 'How?'. There are three major classes of adverbial: circumstance, stance and linking.
  • Adverbial clause. A clause that functions as an adverbial element in a higher level clause: You can have it if you want.
  • Adverbial particle. A function word like on or up, that can be used as part of a phrasal and phrasal-prepositional verbs: turn on, put up with.
  • Affix. A cover term including both suffixes and prefixes.
  • Affixation. The process of adding prefixes or suffixes to a word.
  • Agent. The doer of an action: Dad bought that for us. This term is also used for the noun phrase following a passive + by: I'm influenced by all kinds of things.
  • Agentless passive. A clause with a passive voice main verb but no by-phrase; also called a short passive: It was stolen.
  • Alternative question. An interrogative clause that is structurally similar to a yes/no question but presents alternatives for the addressee to choose between: Do you want one or two?
  • Amplifier. An extent/degree adverb or adverbial that intensifies meaning: totally different, restored completely.
  • Anaphora (adjective: anaphoric). A relation between two linguistic expressions such that the second one refers back to the first: She must have cut herself.
  • Antecedent. A pronoun like he, she, and they often refers back to a noun phrase occurring earlier in the same clause, utterance, or text. This noun phrase is called its antecedent.
  • Appositive noun phrase. A noun phrase that is used as a postmodifier identifying the referent of a preceding noun: Heiko, a 19-year-old factory worker.
  • Approximator. A hedge or adverb that modifies a number, measurement, or quantity: approximately 250 people.
  • Article. The function words that signal definite or indefinite meaning: the, a, an.
  • Aspect. A choice in the verb phrase that expresses time meanings, related to whether an action is finished or still in progress: have eaten, was going.
  • Assertive form. This term is applied to a set of words such as some, somebody, something, somewhere, already, which have special behavior in negative and interrogative clauses.
  • Attitude adverbial. An adverbial that conveys an evaluation or an assessment of what is said: fortunately, surprisingly.
  • Attributive adjective. An adjective functioning as a premodifier before a noun (occurring before the head noun in a noun phrase): special skills, silent prayers.
  • Auxiliary verb. A dosed set of verbs marking meanings associated with aspect, voice, or modality: have taken, was seen, may go.
  • Backchannel. A word or minimal response used as an utterance to show that the listener is continuing to pay attention: A: Her name was Martha. B: Uh huh.
  • Bare infinitive clause. A type of complement clause with an infinitive verb form, but without the complementizer to: help resettle some of the Bosnians.
  • Base. The form of a word to which affixes are added: friendliness = the base friendly + the affix -ness.
  • Binomial phrase. Two words from the same grammatical category coordinated by and or or: black and white, presence or absence.
  • Block language. Constructions typical of headlines, titles, slogans, lists, and notices, using only words essential for the message: Waiting game. Anxious times in Middle East.
  • Cardinal numeral. A word (especially a postdeterminer) that states how many: the ten books.
  • Case. A choice of word form marking the syntactic role of a noun or pronoun, for example as subject (he), object (him), or genitive (John's).
  • Cataphora (cataphoric). A relation between two linguistic expressions such that the first one refers forward to the second: It's nice, that table.
  • Causative verb. A verb that indicates that some person or thing brings about, or helps to bring about, a new state of affairs: help, let, allow, require.
  • Central adjective. An adjective that has all the typical characteristics of form, meaning, and use.
  • Circumstance adverbial. An adverbial that describes the circumstances relating to the main clause, by answering such questions as 'Where?', 'When?', 'How?', 'Why?', 'How much?: He'd always stay [in a small hotel] [because he prefers them].
  • Classifier. A type of adjective that limits or restricts a noun's referent: additional money, particular facts.
  • Classifying genitive. A genitive that classifies the reference of the head noun, answering the question 'What kind of X?': a bird's nest, a girls' school.
  • Clause. A key structural unit of grammar, normally consisting of a verb phrase plus other elements: subject, object, predicative, adverbial.
  • Cleft. A grammatical construction with information broken into two clauses, to provide extra focus to one piece of information. It-deft: It was his voice that held me. Whcleft: What I want is something to eat.
  • Closed class. A class of words with a small number of members, such as articles or prepositions.
  • Cohesion. The pattern of relations between structures and lexical items which combine together to form a text. Pronouns like she, conjunctions like but, and linking adverbs like therefore have a particular role in cohesion.
  • Collective noun. A noun that refers to a group: army, family, herd.
  • Collocation. A combination of lexical words which frequently co-occur in texts: little + baby, small + amount, make + (a) + mistake.
  • Common noun. A noun that refers to a class rather than a specific entity: girl, city, grief.
  • Communication verbs. Verbs that refer to speaking and writing activities: tell, shout, write.
  • Comparative clause. A clause expressing comparison, normally in an adjective phrase or an adverb phrase, with a gradable word as head: better than it was, as quickly as possible.
  • Complement. A phrase or clause that completes the meaning required by some other form. For example, that-clauses can be verb complements: She said that she has changed.
  • Complement clause. A dependent clause controlled by a preceding verb, adjective, noun, or preposition: It should be easy to remember.
  • Complementizer. A type of subordinator that begins a complement clause: I said that I wasn't perfect.
  • Complex preposition. A preposition consisting of two or more words: such as, in case of.
  • Complex transitive. A transitive valency pattern that includes both a direct object and an object predicative: Some people call them sodas.
  • Compound pronoun. A pronoun that begins with one of the determiners every, some, any, or no: someone, anybody, nothing.
  • Compounding. A process that creates new words by combining two existing words: bathroom, bittersweet.
  • Concord (subject-verb). The requirement that the verb phrase in a finite clause agree with the subject in terms of number and person: he is v. they are.
  • Condensation (structural). Reducing the amount of structure needed to express a given meaning, for example by using pronouns and non-finite clauses.
  • Conjunction. A type of function word that connects clauses (and sometimes phrases or words). Conjunctions are subdivided into coordinators and subordinators.
  • Conversion. A process of creating new words by transferring an existing word to a different word class: walk as a verb + a walk as a noun.
  • Coordination. Connecting two or more clauses, phrases, words, or other structures with equivalent status: a paper in one hand and a bill in the other.
  • Coordinator. A function word used to connect (or coordinate) two or more words, phrases, or clauses with equivalent status: and, but, or.
  • Copula. The primary verb be occurring as a main verb: I am sorry.
  • Copular. A valency pattern that includes a verb and a subject predicative: He was a gambler.
  • Copular verb. Any verb that occurs with a copular valency pattern, taking a subject predicative as complement: He's American. It tastes different.
  • Co-referential. Two expressions that refer to the same entity are co-referential: Mr. Bond told journalists he was not finished yet.
  • Correlative coordinator. A combination of two separated words used to signal a relation of coordination: both . . . and; either . . . or; neither . . . nor.
  • Countable noun. A noun that refers to entities that can be counted: a cow, two cows.
  • Current copular verb. Copular verbs that refer to a continuing state of existence or report sensory perceptions: He seemed satisfied. You stay healthy.
  • Dangling participle (unattached participle). An adverbial ing- or ed-clause with an understood subject that is different from the subject in the main clause: Leaving the road, the darkness of the trees surrounded them.
  • Declarative clause. A clause (normally with subject-verb word order) that functions to make assertions or statements: I can't pay my rent. They went to Jamaica.
  • Declarative tag. A peripheral clause with subject-verb word order, added to the end of another clause: I thoroughly enjoyed it 1 did.
  • Definite article. The determiner the, which signals definite meaning.
  • Degree clause. A complement clause of an adjective or adverb that tells the extent or degree of a characteristic: strong enough to hold weight, too softly to hear. Comparative clauses are degree clauses, too.
  • Deictic words. Words that point to the situation (especially place or time) in which the speaker is speaking: this, that, these, those, now, then.
  • Demonstrative determiner. This/these and that/those acting as determiners; they convey definite meaning, and specify whether the referent is near or distant in relation to the speaker: that word, these pictures. They are deictic words.
  • Demonstrative pronoun. A demonstrative form (this, that, these, those) functioning as a pronoun: You will need those.
  • Dependent clause. A type of clause that is normally part of another clause, called its main clause: I hate to see that. We have 30 men who are working.
  • Derivation. The process by which one word is derived from another, by affixation or conversion.
  • Derivational affix. A prefix or suffix added to another word to form a longer word: happy + happiness, happy + unhappy.
  • Descriptors. A class of adjectives that describe color, size, weight, chronology, age, emotion, and other characteristics; they are usually gradable: red, old, sad.
  • Determiner. A function word that specifies the kind of reference a noun has (e.g. definite, indefinite, negative): the walls, those experiences, a bell, no time.
  • Diminisher/downtoner. An extent/degree adverb that diminishes meaning: slightly cold, almost empty.
  • Direct object. A clause element that follows the main verb, typically a noun phrase referring to the entity affected by the action or process of the verb: She broke my favorite coffee mug.
  • Directive. A speech act expecting some action from the addressee: Sit down. Can you turn down the TV.
  • Discourse marker. A type of insert used in conversation. It signals interactively how the speaker plans to steer the dialogue: Now, here's some . . .
  • Dislocation. A construction with a pronoun in the main clause and a definite noun phrase before or after the main clause, used to mark the topic or for clarification: Sharon she plays bingo. Did they have any, the kids?
  • Ditransitive. A transitive valency pattern that includes both a direct object and an indirect object: I gave her the material.
  • Do-support (or do-insertion). The addition of the operator do when it is required for questions or negation: Why do you hate it? I do not have my pencil.
  • Double genitive. A construction that includes both the genitive suffix ('s) and an of-phrase: a good idea of Johnny's.
  • Dummy pronoun. The pronoun it as a non-referential subject: It's cold in here.
  • Dynamic verbs. Verbs that express action or events.
  • Dysfluency. The way in which unplanned speech departs from smooth flowing, grammatically well-formed utterances.
  • Ed-clause. A type of non-finite dependent clause with the ed-form of a verb: Taken together, these things persuade many people.
  • Ed-form, ed-participle. A non-finite form of verbs, which in regular verbs ends in -ed (e.g. heated by gas) but in irregular verbs takes various forms, including a form ending in -en: taken, seen, sent.
  • Ellipsis. Omission of clause or phrase elements that can be reconstructed from the context: A: I have to appease you. B: No you don't A .
  • Embedded phrase (or embedded clause). A phrase or clause that is contained within a higher-level phrase or clause: [reduction [in the risk [of death [from job-related accidents]]]].
  • End-focus. The normal case in English where attention is given naturally to the last lexical item in the clause. This is signaled in speech by the strongest stress or intonation peak.
  • End-weight. A preference in English word order, whereby more complex elements of structure tend to follow less complex ones.
  • Epistemic adverbial. A stance adverbial that expresses the speaker's judgment about the certainty, or limited validity, of the proposition: You are probably correct.
  • Exclamation. A word, phrase or clause that functions like an exclamative clause, expressing strong feelings: What a miracle! Great!
  • Exclamative clause. A type of finite clause used to express strong emotion. It begins with what or how, followed by subject and verb phrase: What a tragic death it was.
  • Existential there. The word there used as subject, where it does not refer to a place, but introduces a clause expressing existence: There is no answer to that question.
  • Experiencer. The person who undergoes the sensory or cognitive experience expressed by a verb: He smelled her perfume.
  • Expletive. A 'swearword', a taboo or semi-taboo expression used as an exclamation: God! geez! bloody hell!
  • Extraposed. A complement clause is extraposed where dummy it fills the subject slot, and the complement clause is placed after the predicate: It is clear that it will not be simple.
  • Feminine. See gender.
  • Finite clause/finite verb phrase. A clause (or verb phrase) that has either present/past tense or a modal verb.
  • Free combination. A combination in which each word contributes its own meaning: He was afraid to look back.
  • Fronting. Moving a clause element to initial position: That I also like.
  • Function words. Words that express grammatical relationships and classifications, such as determiners, conjunctions, and prepositions.
  • Gap. The location of the missing constituent in a relative clause: . . . a great athlete, which I believe I am A .
  • Gender. Grammatical marking to signify female (feminine gender: policewoman, she), male (masculine gender: businessman, he), neither male nor female (neuter gender: house, it), or either male or female (personal gender: student, who).
  • Generic reference. Reference to a whole class, rather than to just one or more instances of a class: Horses are intelligent animals.
  • Genitive. The marking, or case, represented by the 's suffix on nouns (or just by ' in the plural): Henry's, teachers'.
  • Get-passive. A passive verb phrase marked by the auxiliary get rather than be: got stolen.
  • Gradable. Quality that exists to a greater or lesser extent: e.g. old represents a gradable concept: older, rather old, very old, etc.
  • Head. The required element in any phrase that specifies the type of the phrase; for example, noun phrases have a noun (or pronoun) as the head: the standard rules of behavior.
  • Hedge. A word that conveys imprecision or uncertainty, often used to lessen the force of what is said: It seems sort of a betrayal. I might need it.
  • Historic present tense. The use of a verb phrase in the present tense to refer to an event that occurred in the past: They went to some park and got an ice cream . . . So we get there . . .
  • Hypothetical condition/unreal condition. A condition that cannot be fulfilled, expressed by the past or past perfect form of the verb phrase: if I had all the money in the world . . .
  • Idiom. A fixed expression with a meaning that cannot be determined from the individual parts: kick the bucket.
  • Imperative clause. A clause with the base form of the verb, and usually no subject and no extended verb phrase markers (i.e. no modals or tense/aspect markers). Imperatives function as directives: Be quiet.
  • Indefinite article. The determiner &an that signals indefinite meaning.
  • Indefinite pronoun. A pronoun with indefinite meaning, e.g. compound pronouns (like anybody), quantifiers (like some), or the pronoun one.
  • Independent clause. A clause that can stand alone without being subordinate to another clause: She has a day off school.
  • Independent genitive. A genitive phrase standing alone as a noun phrase: She's going to a friend's.
  • Indirect object. A clause element that follows verbs like give and tell, referring to the recipient of the action: Dave gave me this stuff.
  • Infinitive clause. A non-finite dependent clause with the base form of a verb, usually preceded by to: They told her to wait six months.
  • Inflection. A morphological change in verbs, nouns, and some other word classes, that expresses a grammatical meaning such as number or tense: offices, trying, came, latest.
  • Information flow. The normal ordering of information in English discourse, moving from given information and to new information.
  • Ing-clause. A non-finite dependent clause with the ingform of a verb: I stopped going to class.
  • Ing-form, ing-participle. A non-finite form of a verb, ending in -ing: working, eating, discussing.
  • Insert. A general term for conversational words that can be positioned rather fieely in a discourse; they usually convey emotional and discoursal meanings (e.g., oh, yeah, hey, well).
  • Intensifier. An alternative term for amplifier.
  • Interjection. An exclamatory insert used in speech to express emotion or attitude: oh, ah, wow.
  • Interrogative clause. A clause marked in certain ways (inversion, initial wh-word, intonation) to show that it functions as a question: Do you want any food? What is this?
  • Interrogative pronoun. A wh-pronoun used (normally) at the beginning of a question or interrogative clause: what, which, who.
  • Intransitive. A valency pattern with no objects: She slept a lot. Michael disappeared.
  • Inversion. A reversal of the normal word order so that the a verb precedes the subject Then came the turning point of the match.
  • Irregular plural. The plural form of nouns that do not follow the regular rule of just adding -(e)s to form the plural: mouse -+ mice; child -+ children.
  • Irregular verb. A verb which does not use the regular -ed inflection for past tense and/or past participle: speak-spoke-spoken; send-sent-sent.
  • Lexeme. A word, in the sense applicable to words listed in a dictionary-a set of grammatical words sharing the same basic lexical meaning, the same basic form and the same word class: leave, leaves, left, and leaving belong to the same lexeme.
  • Lexical bundle. A sequence of words which is used repeatedly in texts.
  • Lexical verb. One of the four lexical word classes in English; e.g. come, find, overcome, magnify. Lexical verbs act as main verbs in clauses. They cannot act as auxiliary verbs.
  • Lexical word classes. The open classes of words, used to convey content meaning: lexical verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs (compare with function words).
  • Linking adverbial. An adverbial that relates a clause to preceding (or following) clauses: however, therefore.
  • Logical modal meaning. Modal verbs used to refer to the logical status of states or events, expressing certainty, likelihood, or logical necessity: We might meet them.
  • Long passive. A clause with a passive voice verb phrase plus a by-phrase as agent: The proposal was approved by the Project Coordinating Team.
  • Long verb phrase. A phrase including the verb phrase and any other clause elements which follow the main verb: My mother was born in Canada.
  • Main clause. A clause in which a dependent clause is directly embedded. In [I think [I can fix it)], the dependent clause is in I), and the main clause is in [I.
  • Main verb. The head and final verb in a verb phrase: told, have had, might be seen.
  • Mark. Indicate or express a given meaning: as in 'Stance adverbials overtly mark a speaker's attitude or judgments'.
  • Marked. A pattern that is not the most typical pattern, and therefore has some special meaning or function. For example, fronting is marked in relation to regular word order: This I do not understand v. I do not understand this.
  • Masculine. See gender.
  • Mental verb. A verb that refers to mental states or activities: know, remember.
  • Modal auxiliary. An alternative term for modal verb.
  • Modal verb. A type of auxiliary verb used to express logical or personal meanings: can, should, might.
  • Modality. The expression of logical meaning or personal meaning through the use of modal auxiliary verbs.
  • Modifier. An omissible form that specifies further meaning about the head of its phrase: very quickly, a social critic who wrote in 1933.
  • Monotransitive. A transitive valency pattern that includes only a direct object: No one ever saw them.
  • Morpheme. The smallest structural unit that has meaning. Prefixes, suffixes, and stems are morphemes.
  • Morphology. The part of grammar explaining how morphemes are put together to construct words.
  • Multiple negation. A construction with two or more negation markers: You've never seen nothing like it.
  • Negation. Forming a negative clause by adding negative elements such as not or no.
  • Negative contraction. Reduction in the spelling and/or pronunciation of not used in combination with the preceding verb (= operator): isn't, can't.
  • Neuter. See gender.
  • Nominal. Any word, phrase, or clause filling a noun phrase slot, for example, as subject or object.
  • Nominal clause. Another term for a complement clause -- a clause functioning as a nominal.
  • Nominalizations. Abstract nouns formed from verbs or adjectives through derivational morphology: educate -t education, happy -+ happiness.
  • Nominative. The morphological form, or case, associated with the subject role. Nominative case is marked only on pronouns in English: she and he v. her and him.
  • Non-assertive. This term applies to a number of words such as any, anyone, anything, ever, at all. These are commonly used to express indefinite meaning in negative and interrogative clauses.
  • Non-clausal material. The parts of a text or discourse which do not consist of clauses. See non-clausal units.
  • Non-clausal units. Structural units (most commonly found in conversation) that are not composed of clauses: e.g. With or without ice? How cool! Not a lot.
  • No-negation. Forming a negative clause by using negative words other than not, such as no, nothing, never: She had no future in Japan.
  • Non-finite clause/non-finite verb phrase. A clause (or verb phrase) that has no tense and does not include a modal verb: I want to be careful.
  • Non-restrictive modifier. A modifier that does not restrict the reference of a head noun, but rather adds elaborating, descriptive information about the noun: her husband, who is now remarried.
  • Notional concord. Subject-verb concord based on meaning rather than the actual grammatical form: Two pounds is nothing. The committee were in there.
  • Notional subject. The noun phrase coming after the copular verb in constructions with existential there; logically, it functions as the subject: There is no easy solution.
  • Not-negation. Forming a negative clause by inserting the negative particle not after the operator: It is not unusual.
  • Noun complement clauses. Clauses that act as complements of an abstract noun: the expectation that the stock will move still higher, permission to wear them.
  • Noun. One of the four lexical word classes in English, used to refer to concrete entities or substances, and abstract qualities or states: pencil, bread, friendship, joy.
  • Noun phrase. A phrase with a noun (or pronoun) as head: the standard rules of behavior.
  • Noun phrase tag. A definite noun phrase shifted to a position after the main clause: Has it got double doors, that shop?
  • Number. The choice between singular or plural forms of nouns, pronouns and other word classes: e.g. table-tables; this-these.
  • Numeral. A word that either specifies how many (cardinal numeral) or the position in a series (ordinal numeral): the past three years, the third week.
  • Object. A cover term for nominal clause elements occurring after the main verb, including direct obj- and indirect objects. Objects can usually become the subject of a passive clause.
  • Object predicative. A clause element that occurs after the direct object and characterizes the object: A jury found him guilty.
  • Open class. A term describing lexical words (verbs, nouns, adjectives, br adverbs), signifying that it is not possible to list all the members of the class and that new members are regularly added.
  • Operator. The verb used to construct negative or interrogative clauses: I win not allow you to go there. Is she walking?
  • Ordinal numeral. A number word that specifies the position of items in a series: the first day.
  • Orthographic word. A 'word' defined as such by being separated by spaces in writing.
  • Parenthetical. A element in writing 'bracketed' off by parentheses or dashes, and grammatically loosely attached to the rest of the sentence.
  • Part of speech. Another term for word class.
  • Participial. Having the form of a participle: e.g. in a sleeping child and He looked prepared, sleeping and prepared are participial adjectives.
  • Participle. The ed- and ing-forms of a verb are known as ed- and ing-participles: was sleeping, I've prepared a brief statement.
  • Participle clause. A non-finite clause with an -ing participle or an -ed participle as the main verb: I regret missing the plane. Given these obstacles, Mattel said . . .
  • Particle movement. A test for phrasal verbs, whereby the adverbial particle can be placed either before or after the following object noun phrase: get back my shirt, get my shirt back.
  • Passive clause. A clause containing a passive verb phrase.
  • Passive voice, passive verb phrase. A verb construction marked by be + past participle, and generally used to give less prominence to the agent of the clause: He was struck several times. (Compare this with its active equivalent: They struck him several times.)
  • Perfect aspect. A verb construction that describes events or states taking place in the past, but linked to a subsequent time, especially the present. The perfect aspect is formed with have + past participle have seen, had driven.
  • Perfect progressive. A verb construction that combines both perfect aspect and progressive aspect: have been seeing.
  • Peripheral adjective. An adjective with only some of the typical characteristics of adjective form, meaning, and use: mere, awake.
  • Peripheral clause. A clause, such as reporting clauses and tag clauses, on the boundary of dependent and independent status.
  • Personal gender. See gender.
  • Personal modal meaning. Modal verbs used to refer to actions and events that humans directly control, expressing personal permission, obligation, or volition (intention): Can I follow you? We should take you there.
  • Personal pronoun. The most common type of pronoun, which has different forms for first person (I, we), second person (you, yours) and third person (it, they).
  • Phrasal verb. A multi-word verb consisting of a lexical verb plus adverbial particle: turn on the television set.
  • Phrasal-prepositional verb. A multi-word verb consisting of a lexical verb plus adverbial particle plus preposition: look forward to.
  • Phrase. A structural unit built from words, consisting of a head plus (optionally) modifiers.
  • Possessive determiner. A determiner in a noun phrase that expresses possession, and is comparable to the genitive of nouns: my, your.
  • Possessive pronoun. A pronoun that expresses possession, and is comparable to the independent genitive of nouns: mine, yours.
  • Postmodification. The part of a complex noun phrase consisting of modifiers that follow it: e.g. relative clauses and prepositional phrases.
  • Postmodifier. A modifier following a head noun: the beginning of the program.
  • Postmodifier complex. The combination of all modifiers and embedded modifiers following a head noun.
  • Postposed. Placed after another element that usually follows. For example, an adjective that follows the head is postposed: everything possible.
  • Post-predicate. A complement clauses that occur after the main verb, or after a copular verb plus predicative adjective: I thought he was there. I'm sure she will.
  • Predicate. The 'logical center' of a clause, consisting sometimes of a verb, and sometimes of a copular verb plus predicate adjective. The predicate determines what elements occur as complements in the clause: I thought he was there. I'm sure she will.
  • Predicative adjective. An adjective that occurs in the subject predicative position, following a copular verb: He seems tired.
  • Predicative. A clause element that characterizes the referent of some other clause element, either the subject (subject predicatives) or the object (object predicatives).
  • Preface. A noun phrase functioning as a dislocated peripheral element, placed before the subject of a clause: This little shop - it's lovely.
  • Prefix. A morpheme added to the front of a word: reread, unsure.
  • Premodiication. Modifying structures that occur before a noun and describe it, such as attributive adjectives: all the exciting new things.
  • Premodifier. An individual modifier preceding a head noun: a homely, big child.
  • Preposition. A word that introduces a prepositional phrase, linking the following noun phrase to other elements of the sentence: locked her keys in the car, your recollection about these events.
  • Prepositional complement. The noun phrase (or nominal clause, etc.) that follows a preposition and completes the prepositional phrase: in the car.
  • Prepositional object. A noun phrase (or nominal clause, etc.) which normally follows the preposition of a prepositional verb, and which resembles the object of a transitive verb: asked for permission. (A prepositional object is a special type of prepositional complement.)
  • Prepositional phrase. A phrase consisting of a preposition followed by a noun phrase (or a nominal clause) as prepositional complement: to the train station, after this Monday.
  • Prepositional verb. A multi-word verb consisting of a lexical verb plus preposition: look at, think of.
  • Primary auxiliary. A primary verb (be, have, or do) when used as an auxiliary verb.
  • Primary verb. One of the verbs be, have, and do, which can function as either auxiliary verbs or main verbs.
  • Pro-form. A word whose function is to substitute for another, often longer, expression. (See pronoun, proverb.)
  • Progressive aspect. A verb construction describing an event or state of affairs which is in progress or continuing; formed with be + ing-participle: is staying, were flying.
  • Pronoun. A function word that typically fills the position of an entire noun phrase: a straw hat + it. Pronouns have a substitute or co-referential function.
  • Proper noun. A noun that names an individual, usually a specific person or place: Sue, Chicago.
  • Pro-verb. The verb do substituting for a lexical verb or a complete predicate: A: He doesn't even know you. B: He does!
  • Quantifier. A cover term used for quantifying determiners and quantifying pronouns.
  • Quantifying determiner. A type of determiner that indicates the amount of something: all the countries, some ideas.
  • Quantifying noun. A noun that refers to quantities: a pound of brown sugar, a pile of money.
  • Quantifying pronoun. A type of pronoun that indicates an indefinite amount of something: most of the people, I have some.
  • Question. The speech act of asking for information, associated with interrogative clauses.
  • Question tag. A reduced interrogative clause added to the end of a declarative clause, used to seek confirmation or agreement in conversation: This is a beautiful spot isn't it?
  • Reciprocal pronoun. A type of pronoun that expresses a mutual relationship between two or more parties: each other, one another.
  • Referent. The person, entity, or group of people/entities referred to by a noun phrase.
  • Reflexive pronoun. A type of pronoun that ends in -self and refers back to the subject of the clause: myself, herself, oneself.
  • Regular plural. The usual rule of adding -(e)s to form the plural of a noun: cow, cows.
  • Regular verb. A verb with the usual -ed endings for past tense and past participle: walk, walked, has walked.
  • Relative adverb. A relativizer where, when, or why, used when the relative clause has an adverbial gap: that time when you got stuck on the road.
  • Relative clause. A type of finite dependent clause used to modify a noun phrase: the team that performed the kidney transplant.
  • Relative pronoun. A relativim which, who, whom, whose, or that, used when the relative clause has a nonadverbial gap: executives who created special programs.
  • Relativizer. The word that introduces a relative clause (either a relative pronoun or a relative adverb) and relates it to the preceding noun head.
  • Repair. An utterance in conversation where a speaker repeats what was said with some sort of correction: I don't think you sh- I think you should leave . . .
  • Reporting clause. A type of peripheral clause that introduces somebody's direct speech or thought: Can we do some singing? he asks.
  • Response form. A word like yeah or no used in speech to signal a response to the listener.
  • Restrictive postmodifier. A postmodifier that restricts the intended reference of the head noun: people who want Julius dead.
  • Result copular verb. A copular verb that identifies an attribute that is the result of a process of change: become, grow, come, turn out.
  • Scope. The part of a clause whose semantic interpretation is affected by a modifier or an adverbial. See also scope of negation.
  • Scope of negation. The part of a clause that becomes negative in meaning due to the occurrence of a negative word.
  • Semantic. Having to do with the meaning of language forms.
  • Semantic categories. The meaning classes of verbs, nouns, adjectives, or adverbs: e.g. activity verbs, time adverbials.
  • Semi-determiner. Words like other and same, which share properties of both determiners and adjectives.
  • Semi-modal. A multi-word verb that shares some of the grammatical and semantic properties of modal verbs: have to, be going to.
  • Sentence. A complete structure-found in written texts, bounded by sentence punctuation such as '.', '!', '?'.
  • Short passive. Another term for agentless passive.
  • Simple aspect. Used for verb phrases that are not marked as either perfect aspect or progressive aspect.
  • Species noun. A class of nouns that identify the type of something: a kind of beer, the type of person.
  • Specifying genitive. A genitive functioning like a detemer, and answering the question 'Whose X? where X is the referent of the head noun: the girl's name (contrasted with classifying genitive).
  • Speech act. The communicative function associated with an utterance: e.g Can you tell me what to do with this? is a question, or request for information.
  • Stance. Overt expressions of personal attitudes or feelings towards the content of a clause.
  • Stance adverbials. Adverbials that express speaker judgments of the proposition expressed by the rest of the clause: It definitely is a trend.
  • Statement. A speech act used to report information, and associated with declarative clauses.
  • Stative verbs. Verbs that refer to mental states, attitudes1 emotions, perceptions, or other states of existence: know, feel, see, exist.
  • Stem. The core morpheme of a word to which affixes can be added: saintliness = stem saint + affix -ly + affix -ness.
  • Stranded preposition. A preposition that is not followed by its prepositional complement: Which order shall we go in?
  • Style adverbial. A type of stance adverbial that comments on the manner of conveying the message: But frankly I am not very impressed with it.
  • Subject. The clause element that normally occurs before the verb phrase in a clause, and is a noun phrase identifying the agent or experiencer of the verb: On Tuesday she sang the whole thing to us. Greenland is the place.
  • Subject predicative. A phrase that occurs after a copular verb and characterizes the subject of the clause: She is a singer. It feels warm.
  • Subject-operator inversion. A change in word order where the subject is preceded by the operator but the rest of the verb phrase (if any) follows the subject: On no account must he strain.
  • Subject-verb inversion. A change in word order where the subject is preceded by the verb phrase: After that comes the frog.
  • Subjunctive. The form of a finite verb that is sometimes used in hypothetical or non-factual cases: whether it be m an office or on the factory floor. If I were you . . The subjunctive is rarely used m English.
  • Subordination. The type of linkage that allows one clause to be embedded in or dependent on another clause: I thought about it after I sent the package.
  • Subordinator. A function word used to introduce subordination: because it was amazing, if he's going with me.
  • Suffix. A morpheme added to the end of a word: excitement, working.
  • Supplement clause. A peripheral type of non-finite adverbial clause that supplements the information in the main clause, without specifying the exact semantic relationship: He shook hu head, still gazing at the patterns of sunshine . . .
  • Syntactic blend. A sentence or clause that finishes in a way that is grammatically inconsistent with the way it began: That's one of the things that there is a shortage of in this play, is people who actually care. This is a type of dysfluency in speech.
  • Syntactic role. The grammatical function that a unit of grammar serves in a higher unit. For example, noun phrases have roles such as subject, direct object, and indirect object in a clause.
  • Syntax. The description of how words, phrases, and clauses are constructed and combined in a language.
  • Tag. A peripheral element added to the end of a clause: see noun phrase tag, question tag, or declarative tag.
  • Tense. Morphological marking on the verb phrase related to time distinctions: compare present tense kick(s), do(es) with past tense kicked, did.
  • That-clause. A type of finite complement clause introduced by the word that as complementizer (although that is sometimes omitted): Booker said that I should call them up.
  • To-infinitive clause. A non-finite dependent clause with the base form of a verb preceded by to: They told her to wait six months. something to consider.
  • Token. Each occurrence of a word in a text is a token of that word (compare with type).
  • Transitive. A valency pattern that includes one or more objects.
  • Type. A word considered as a distinct vocabulary item (compare with token).
  • Uncountable noun. A type of noun that refers to things that cannot be counted, and normally has no plural form: milk, equipment, leather.
  • Unit noun. A type of noun that specifies the units used to divide up a generalized mass or substance into countable parts: slice of bread, grain of salt.
  • Unmarked. The grammatical choice that is most typical, such as subject-verb-object word order in English (compare with marked).
  • Valency pattern. The pattern of clause elements that can occur with a verb: e.g. intransitive, monotransitive.
  • Verb. A class of words which have finite and non-finite forms, and normally vary for present and past tense: have, take, look. A cover term for lexical verbs and auxiliary verbs.
  • Verb contraction. Reduction in the spelling and/or pronunciation of verbs used in combination with adjacent words: I'11, he's.
  • Verb phrase. A phrase with a main verb as head: tells, was taken, has been answered.
  • Verbless clause. A type of non-finite dependent clause with no verb: The author apologizes where appropriate.
  • Verbs of aspect. Verbs that characterize the stage of progress of an event or activity: begin, continue, stop.
  • Verbs of existence or relationship. Verbs that report a state of existence or a logical relationship: appear, exist, represent.
  • Verbs of occurrence. Verbs that report events that occur without an actor's volition: become, happen, develop.
  • Vernacular. Natural spoken English associated with regional or social dialect, and often not regarded as part of the standard language.
  • Vocative. A peripheral noun phrase used to identify the person who is being addressed: These are good eggs Dad.
  • Voice. The choice in the verb phrase between active (takes) and passive (was taken) forms.
  • Volitional activity. An activity performed intentionally by an agent.
  • Wh-clause. A type of finite clause introduced by a wh-word as complementizer: She didn't ask what my plans were.
  • Wh-determiner. A determiner which is a wh-word: whose, which.
  • Wh-interrogative clause. Another term for a wh-question.
  • Wh-pronoun. A pronoun which is a wh-word: which, what, who.
  • Wh-question. A type of interrogative clause with an initial wh-word: What are these?
  • Wh-word. A word like who, what, when, and where, used in wh-questions and various types of dependent clause.
  • Word class. A class of words based on grammatical and semantic properties. Two major families of word classes are lexical word classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) and function word classes (e.g. determiners, prepositions).
  • Yes/no interrogative clause. Another term for yes/no question.
  • Yedno question. A type of interrogative clause marked only by subject-operator inversion: Is that right?
  • Zero article. The term used where there is no article or other determiner before a noun: serve dinner, drink wine.
  • Zero plural. A plural form which is identical to the singular form: sheep, deer.
  • Zero relativizer. The term used where the relativizer of a relative clause is omitted: a school <> I know.
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