Glossary

A

Active clauses

In basic (active) transitive clauses (for example, The horse ate the carrot) the grammatical subject (the horse) refers to the agent or 'doer' of the clause whereas the grammatical object (the carrot) is the semantic patient of the clause. See also passive clause.

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Active voice

Basic transitive clauses are in the active voice, in which the grammatical subject refers to the agent or 'doer' of the clause (for example, Sarah heard the shouting).

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Adjective phrases

An adjective phrase (AdjP) has an adjective as its head. An AdjP can function as a modifier within a noun phrase (for example, the hungry mice) or as a predicative complement in a verb phrase (for example, is hungry). In both cases, the AdjP ascribes a property (in these examples, hungry).

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Adjectives

Category of words that are used as modifiers to describe a property of a noun (for example, the red/old/fast car).

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Adjuncts

Adjuncts are optional elements in the grammatical structure of a sentence, clause or phrase. See also complements.

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Adverb phrases

An adverb phrase (AdvP) takes an adverb as its head. Although they may occur in many types of phrases, AdvPs typically modify a verb within a verb phrase (for example, ran much faster) or a whole clause (for example, Fortunately the rest of the team arrived just before the bus left).

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Adverbs

Category of words that can modify a verb (for example, John sang well), an adjective (for example, Mary got very angry), another adverb (for example, Joseph writes rather badly), or a clause (for example, Clearly we must disagree with the decision).

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Affixes

Morphemes can be either bases (for example, event) or affixes (for example, un-, -ful or -ness). Affixes that come before the base are called prefixes; suffixes follow the base.

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Agent

The semantic role of an agent is filled by an entity that deliberately initiates an action. Subjects in transitive clauses, for example, The cat chased the mouse are usually agents.

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Articles

Category of words that belong to the class of determiners. The definite article the specifies a particular entity which has already been referred to or is known (for example, Please move the car). The indefinite article a is used with an entity which is not known or specified (for example, Ivan wants a car).

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Aspect

Aspect refers to the internal time frame of an event or situation. It is expressed using either the verb be and the present participle for the progressive aspect (is writing) or the verb have with a past participle for the perfect aspect (has written).

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Auxiliaries

Auxiliaries are a sub-set of specialised verbs (for example, be, have, do, will, could) which combine with particular verb forms to encode modality, aspect, passive voice, interrogative clauses and negation. In constructions with auxiliaries, the auxiliary encodes the tense for the clause, and the main lexical verb is non-finite.

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B

Base

The base is the simple form of a word that can take inflectional morphology. For example, the base form of a verb is the infinitive form (for example, run) which, among other things, can take the third person singular suffix -s (giving runs).

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Base modification

Base modification is when the base of different inflectional forms of a lexeme differ, for example, sing-sang-sung and mouse-mice. This is also known as suppletion.

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Basic clause

Each complete basic clause minimally contains a subject and a predicate. Basic clauses are positive, declarative and simple. See also non-basic clause.

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Beneficiary

The semantic role of a beneficiary is filled by an entity that is intended to benefit from the action. Indirect objects in ditransitive clauses, for example, The woman cooked her children some dinner are usually beneficiaries.

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Blending

Strategy for creating new words. Blending is when part of one word is joined to part of another word (for example, gigantic + enormousginormous).

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Bound morphemes

Bound morphemes cannot stand alone; they must be attached to another morpheme (for example, the suffix -er in the word customer). See also free morphemes.

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C

Case

Case refers to the inflectional system used with nouns to mark the role of the noun phrase in the sentence. Nominative case marks the subject of the clause (I shut the door), accusative case marks the object (The car nearly hit me) and genitive case marks a possessor: Actually, it was my fault, or Actually the fault was mine, and Nick's (toys), children's (toys) and those boys' (toys).

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Clausal negation

The usual strategy for rendering a positive clause negative in English is to insert the negator (the word not) between the auxiliary and the main verb. If no auxiliary was present in the basic clause, the dummy do is used. For example, Mel has not taken units in creative writing or cake decorating. Mel does not plan to take such units in the future.

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Clause combining

Clauses can be combined by coordination (for example, Harry likes cats but Delia likes dogs) or subordination (for example, She kept running until she was out of breath).

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Clauses

Clauses are made by combining phrases into an organised, grammatically complete structure. Each complete basic clause minimally contains a subject and a predicate. Clauses can be distinguished by their structure into a number of different types depending on their transitivity, form (see clause types), polarity and status.

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Clause types

Grammatical form of the clause. The term clause type is used to refer to a range of strategies for reorganising the basic clause in order to accomplish different communicative intentions. In English grammar there are five clause types that are each associated with one typical speech act. The five clause types are: declaratives, open interrogatives, closed interrogatives, exclamatives, and imperatives.

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Cleft constructions

Cleft constructions allow the writer or speaker to foreground selected elements of the basic clause. There are two types of cleft constructions: it-clefts and pseudo-clefts.

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Clipping

Strategy for creating new words. Clipping involves omitting part of the base of a word, so the shortened version becomes a word in its own right (for example, barbequebarbie, or microphonemike).

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Closed classes of words

Classes of words that do not allow new members and usually involve grammatical rather than lexical words. They include determiners, prepositions, coordinators, subordinators and pronouns and occur in fixed syntactic positions. See also open classes of words.

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Closed interrogatives

Clause type that may only be answered by a limited range of responses, usually associated with yes/no questions (for example, Is the train on time?).

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Comparative clauses

Comparative clauses are finite subordinate clauses that are used to compare two different situations. One is encoded in the main clause and the other appears as the subordinate clause (for example, The cricket match was longer than we anticipated).

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Complements

Complements are parts of a sentence, clause or phrase that are necessary for the sentence, clause or phrase to be grammatical. See also adjuncts.

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Complex sentences

Sentences that contain a subordinate clause are called complex sentences. The subordinate clause is internal to the main clause (for example, I want [to go to the beach this weekend]).

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Compounding

Strategy for creating new words. Compounding is when two bases are joined together to make a new word. These can be the same part of speech (for example, the two verbs break and dance forming the compound verb breakdance), or different (for example, the noun stress and the adjective related forming the compound adjective stress-related).

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Compound sentences

Sentences which have conjoined coordinated clauses (for example, [Trent thought the movie was great] but [Quentin didn't like it]). See also complex sentences.

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Conversion

Strategy for creating new words. Conversion is when a word is changed from one part of speech to another without changing form or pronunciation, for example, the noun input used as a verb (to) input.

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Coordination

Coordination joins two (or more) independent clauses, usually with a coordinator; or, and or but (for example, We could go to the movies or see a show). In some cases clauses can be strung together without an intervening coordinator; this is known as apposition (for example, Emilia saw the emus, Nadine saw the pelicans, Georgia saw the snakes). The clauses which are joined by coordination have the same grammatical status; they are each independent main clauses. See also subordination.

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Coordinators

Coordinators join two or more constituents of equal status. They may be words, phrases, or clauses. English coordinators are and, or and but. See also subordinators.

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D

Declaratives

Clause type usually associated with statements (for example, The train is on time).

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Demonstratives

Category or words that belong to the class of determiners. Demonstratives specify an entity in terms of the distance (real or metaphorical) from the speaker (for example, this week, those books).

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Demonstrative pronouns

Pronouns that indicate a specific referent in terms of the distance (real or metaphorical), from the speaker (for example, Do you want these?, He didn't like that).

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Dependents

An element in the structure of a phrase other than the head word (for example, the noun phrase (NP) the fierce dragon has the noun dragon as its head with the determiner the and the adjective fierce as its dependents).

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Derivational morphemes

Derivational morphemes are affixes which are added to a lexeme to change its meaning or function. They are used to make a new, different lexeme (for example, -ly changes the adjective sad into the adverb sadly and un- changes the meaning of the adjective happy to unhappy). See also inflectional morphemes.

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Determiners

Determiners precede a noun and provide additional information about it in terms of definiteness and quantity. Determiners include articles (for example, the), demonstratives (for example, these), interrogatives (for example, what), numbers (for example, five), quantifiers (for example, some) and possessives (for example, Zac's horse, their house).

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Direct objects

The direct object in a ditransitive clause is the one most involved in the action (for example, Francis gave Sandy fifty cents). See also indirect object.

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Dislocation

Strategy for moving a noun phrase within a clause in order to highlight this element for pragmatic reasons. Dislocation involves moving an external noun phrase to the left (see left dislocation) or right hand end (see right dislocation) of the clause. The purpose of the external noun phrase is to provide information about the identity of a pronoun that has been inserted into the clause in place of the full noun phrase.

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Ditransitive clauses

In English there are some verbs that can take two objects (for example, send, make, and give). These verbs form ditransitive clauses. In these clauses, we can distinguish two types of object, the direct object and the indirect object.

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E

End focus

Principle of arranging information in a sentence such that new information, that is, the part of the sentence that deserves to be the focus of our attention will be the end of the sentence.

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End weight

Principle of arranging information in a sentence such that short and simple sequences come before long and complex (or 'heavier') elements.

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Exclamatives

Clause type usually associated with exclamatory statements (for example, How late the train is!). Exclamative clauses are typically used to allow the speaker to express a heightened evaluation of a situation. They are introduced by the forms what (for example, What a great guy Doug is!) and how (for example, How Mel told Sarah off!).

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Existential clauses

Existential clauses are used to provide information about the location or existence of particular referents (for example, There are elephants in the zoo). Existential clauses always have the dummy pronoun there in subject position. The use of the dummy pronoun there in subject position allows the referent to appear towards the end of the clause where it is pragmatically most appropriate. See also end weight and end focus.

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Extrapositioning

When a subordinate clause occurs as the subject or internal complement of a clause it can be moved out of the clause and the pronoun it is left to stand in its place (for example, That Sarah likes lollies is a minor issue (complex clause), It is a minor issue that Sarah likes lollies (extraposition). Extraposition allows for 'heavier' more complex information to come later in the clause, making it easier to process.

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F

Finite subordinate clauses

In finite subordinate clauses the verb is finite (for example, That Debbie likes cats is a well established fact). See also non-finite subordinate clauses.

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Finite verbs

Finite verbs have inflections for tense. See also non-finite verbs.

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Formal style

High degree of approximation to Standard English.

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Free morphemes

Free morphemes can stand alone as independent words (for example, custom). Many, but not all, bases are free morphemes. See also bound morphemes.

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Front focus

Principle of arranging information in a sentence such that new information is put at the front of the sentence where it is not expected. This strategy signals to the audience that the speaker has something to highlight.

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G

Gender

Inflectional system of the pronoun. The form usually reflects the biological sex of the referent, i.e. the noun or noun phrase the pronoun represents (for example, he, she, it).

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Grammar

The organisational system underlying a language.

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Grammatical categories

The kinds of elements in a sentence (e.g. parts of speech, phrases, clauses etc.). See also grammatical functions.

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Grammatical functions

Describe what role an element plays in a sentence (for example, subject, object, etc.). See also grammatical categories.

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Grammatical sentences

Sentences that are easy to parse (see parsing) and intuitively correct.

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H

Head (word)

Each phrase is named after its head (word). The head is the word that the phrase is required to have in order to exist (for example, the noun phrase (NP) the fierce dragon has the noun dragon as its head word).

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I

Imperatives

Imperatives are a clause type that is usually associated with directives, that is, commands or requests (for example, Make sure you are on time). Imperative clauses can generally be identified by omission of the second person subject, a verb in the plain form, and the use of the auxiliary do with the verb be in negation (for example, Don't be so cooperative!)

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Indefinite pronouns

Pronouns that express definiteness or quantity and come in two broad types: compounds, for example, somebody, everything, and words which often occur with the preposition of, such as much, many and all.

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Indirect objects

The indirect object in a ditransitive clause is the one less involved in the action. It often has the semantic role of recipient or beneficiary (for example, Francis gave Sandy fifty cents). See also direct object.

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Infinitive

The infinitive is the 'base' form of the verb and frequently occurs with to (for example, He wants to sing).

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Inflection

Adding of affixes to lexemes in order to mark grammatical meaning. See also inflectional morphemes. Inflection does not change the part of speech or meaning of the word; they function to ensure that the word is in the appropriate form so that the sentence is grammatically correct.

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Inflectional morphemes

Inflectional morphemes are affixes which carry grammatical meaning (for example, the plural -s in cats or progressive -ing in sailing). All inflectional morphemes in English are suffixes.

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Informal style

Low degree of approximation to Standard English. See also formal style.

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Information structure

Refers to the ways information is arranged in a sentence. The basic arrangement of information in spoken or written English is to start by referring to an established topic and then make a comment on it.

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Initialisms

Strategy for forming new words. Initialisms are formed by combining the initial letter (or sometimes letters) of a word. If the new word can be pronounced as it is spelt, it is called an acronym (for example, Aboriginal and Torrres Strait Islander CommissionATSIC). If the letter names are still pronounced, it's called an abbreviation (for example, digital video (or versatile) discDVD).

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Internal complements to the verb phrase

The verb phrase can contain one of three basic types of complements: objects, predicative complements and complements that express other types of semantic relation such as location.

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Interrogatives

Category of words that belong to the class of determiners. Interrogatives question the identity of the referent (for example, Which fence did the horse break?).

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Interrogative pronouns

Pronouns that are used in questions, and stand for the unknown entity, which can be the subject or the object (for example, Who ate my chocolate?, What did you break?).

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It-clefts

It-clefts allow the speaker or writer to select a constituent of a clause move it into a focus position as the subject of a relative clause. For example the basic clause Doug put the beer in the fridge can be reformulated to foreground any one of the participants. For example, to foreground the fridge, the sentence would read: It was the fridge that Doug put the beer into (not the eski!). See also pseudo-clefts.

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L

Left dislocation

In left dislocation a phrase from a clause is moved to the start of the sentence and established as the topic (for example, I weeded the garden [basic clause]; The garden, I weeded it [dislocated clause]). See also right dislocation.

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Lexeme

Technical term for the simple form of a word.

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M

Main clause

A main clause provides the foundation for any subordinate clauses. Main clauses are usually finite clauses that can stand as independent utterances. In the following example, the main clause is in bold typeface: We won the match even though Frances couldn't play.

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Metalinguistic knowledge

Knowledge about language.

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Modality

Modality expresses the likelihood or necessity of an event, the abilities of participants, and so on (for example, Sheila can dance). Modal auxiliaries combine with the infinitive form of the verb and express modality. The main modals are: can, could, may, might, must, will, would, shall, should and ought (to).

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Morphemes

Words are comprised of units of meaning, called morphemes. Each morpheme is a distinct unit of meaning. For example the word banana is one morpheme while the word uneventfulness contains four morphemes: un- event -ful and -ness. The meaning can be lexical (for example, banana) or grammatical (for example, the plural morpheme -s on nouns such as bananas).

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Morphology

Morphology concerns the internal structure of words. Words are comprised of units of meaning, called morphemes. Morphology also looks at the way morphemes are combined into words.

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N

Non-basic clauses

May involve any number of non-basic clause characteristics (negative polarity, interrogative utterance type, complex sentence structure).

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Non-finite subordinate clauses

In non-finite subordinate clauses the verb is non-finite. There are four kinds of non-finite clause. All of them are headed by non-finite verbs of different kinds: to-infinitival (Sandy hates to wash the cat); bare infinitival (Sandy helped wash the cat) gerund-infinitival (Sandy avoids washing the cat), and past-participle(Washed cats are rarely happy cats).

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Non-finite verbs

Non-finite verbs do not carry tense. In English the infinitive and participle forms are non-finite. See also finite verbs.

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Non-restrictive relative clauses

Non-restrictive relative clauses contain parenthetical information not necessary for understanding the main clause. Non-restrictive relative clauses are often marked by commas (or alternately by dashes or brackets) and are given distinctive prosody. For example, Close friends, who have a lot in common, sometimes still surprise each other. See also restrictive relative clauses.

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Nouns

Category of words that are used to refer to humans, animals, objects, and abstract concepts. Pronouns and proper nouns are included in the category of nouns. Nouns function as the head of a noun phrase (for example, fried green tomatoes). Noun phrases typically function as complements to the verb (for example, Jules loves fried green tomatoes).

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Noun phrases

All noun phrases (NPs) have a noun or pronoun as the head. The noun is the anchor of the phrase and the phrase will not be grammatical without it. A noun phrase (NP) can consist of one word (for example, the pronoun we or the plural noun cats), or it can consist of a noun with a number of dependents.

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Number

Inflectional system of the noun to distinguish between singular and plural (for example, one cat, three cats).

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Numbers

Category of words that belong to the class of determiners. Numbers specify the quantity of the referent(s) of the head noun, for example, nine bats.

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O

Objects

An object is a noun phrase complement required by the verb that is part of the verb phrase (for example, Henry [washed the car]VP). In basic clauses the object comes after the verb. See also subjects.

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Open classes of words

Allow new members through borrowing and derivation (see derivational morphemes). They include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs. See also closed classes of words.

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Open interrogatives

Clause type usually associated with information seeking questions (for example, When will the train come?).

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P

Parsing

Activity of analysing a sentence into its component categories and functions. See grammatical categories and grammatical functions.

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Participle

The participle forms of verbs combine with auxiliaries to encode aspect. Participle forms are also marked by inflection. The present participle has the suffix -ing. Inflection signifying the past participle varies depending on the verb. For example, the suffixes -en (for example, eaten) and -ed (for example, stopped) or stem alternation (e.g swum).

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Parts of speech

Classes of words or lexemes categorised according to the role or function they perform in grammar. We can distinguish between open classes of words and closed classes of words.

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Passive clause

In a passive clause (for example, The carrot was eaten (by the horse)) the patient of the event (the carrot) is in the role of the subject and the agent of the event (the horse) is treated as a rather peripheral piece of information (appearing in an optional prepositional phrase). See also active clause.

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Passive voice

The passive voice associates the agent and patient with different grammatical roles. Only a transitive clause (The horse ate the carrot) can be put into the passive voice (The carrot was eaten (by the horse)).

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Past tense

The past tense is used to encode past events, for example, Debbie dropped her wallet and coins rolled everywhere. In some contexts it can express counterfactuality, for example, If Sarah really cared about Mel, she'd do more of the dishes. This refers to a hypothetical state and cannot be represented on a timeline.

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Patient

The semantic role of a patient is directly affected by the action. Objects in transitive clauses, for example The ball broke the window, are patients.

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Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect is generally used for completed events. The auxiliary verb have is used with a past participle verb in the perfect aspect (for example, A message has arrived).

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Person

Grammatical system that is useful in describing pronouns. The first person refers to the speaker, I, the second person refers to the hearer, you, and the third person refers to other entities, he, she, it.

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Phrases

The phrase is an intermediate level of organisation between the word and the clause. Each phrase is made up of a head word and any dependents. A phrase is named after the part of speech of the head (for example noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, prepositional phrases).

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Polarity

Polarity refers to the grammatical systems associated with distinguishing between positive and negative clauses. Basic clauses in English are positive while negative clauses carry explicit marking using words such as not and no.

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Possessives

Category of words that belong to the class of demonstratives. Possessives modify the noun in terms of ownership, and include possessive nouns (for example, Zac's horse) and pronouns (for example, their house).

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Postposing

Strategy for moving an element within a clause in order to highlight this element for pragmatic reasons. Postposing moves 'heavy' elements to the end of the clause (for example the sentence Someone who says they've known you for years called me up can be reformulated as Someone called me up who says they've known you for years).

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Predicate

The predicate is that part of the clause that provides information about the subject. In a basic clause, the subject is the first noun phrase and the predicate corresponds to the verb phrase. In the following example, the predicate is in bold: Joanie loves to eat pickled lemons. See also subject.

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Predicative complements to the verb phrase

Complements required by certain verbs (for example, be, fell, seem, appear) that are used to identify a particular quality of the subject or object.

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Prefix

Affix that comes before the base of a word (for example, un-). See also suffix.

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Preposing

Strategy for moving an element within a clause in order to highlight this element for pragmatic reasons. Preposing moves a constituent from the comment to make it the topic (for example, I had swimming lessons as a child [basic clause]; As a child I had swimming lessons [preposed adjunct]).

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Prepositional phrases

A prepositional phrase (PP) has a preposition as its head and this is usually followed by a noun phrase (for example, on the table). The preposition relates the dependent NP to other elements in the clause and provides information about the nature of the relationships. Typically the relationship is organised around place (for example, against the wall), time (for example, since Sunday), manner (for example, with sensitivity), agency (by Vera), goals (to them), or directions (to class).

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Prepositions

Prepositions relate a dependent noun phrase to other constituents in a sentence in terms of place (for example, on the bench), time (for example, before class), manner (for example, with flair), agency (by the teacher) and goals or directions (to the child, to the supermarket). Some prepositions consist of more than one word and are called multi-word (or complex) prepositions. For example, adjacent to, in front of.

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Present tense

Present tense can be used to encode past (Doug was standing at the tram stop one day when Debbie walks up and sits down next to him), present (Sarah takes a walk outside) and future events (Mel's birthday is on a Sunday this year).

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Progressive aspect

Progressive aspect is used to draw the hearer's attention to the on-going nature of a situation. The auxiliary verb be is used with a present participle verb to express progressive aspect (for example, Deanna is running the London Marathon).

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Pronouns

Category of words that belong to the class of nouns. They represent a noun or noun phrase which has already been mentioned. Types of pronouns found in English include: personal pronouns (for example, I, you), possessive pronouns (for example, our, ours), reflexive personal pronouns (for example, herself), reciprocal pronouns (for example, each other), interrogative pronouns (for example, who?), relative pronouns (for example, the child who likes celery), demonstrative pronouns (for example, Do you want these?) and indefinite pronouns (for example, somebody).

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Proper nouns

Category of words that belong to the class of nouns. They are written with a capital letter and do not usually inflect for number. They generally denote proper names of people (for example, Maisy) or locations (for example, Launceston).

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Pseudo-clefts

Pseudo-clefts foreground information at the end of the sentence. For example: A dog bit me [basic clause]; What bit me was a dog [pseudo-cleft].

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Q

Quantifiers

Category of words that belong to the class of demonstratives. Quantifiers assign a relative quantity to the referent(s) of the head noun (for example, many people).

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R

Reciprocal pronouns

Pronouns that indicate a relationship between conjoined nouns (for example, Gerry and Hamish hate each other).

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Reduplication

Strategy for forming new words. Reduplication is the process of forming compound words by repeating all or part of a word (for example, no-no, higgledy-piggledy or mish-mash).

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Reflexive personal pronouns

Pronouns that can indicate that the subject and object are the same entity (for example, They hurt themselves).

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Relative clauses

A relative clause is a finite subordinate clause that modifies a noun and is a constituent of the noun phrase which has the noun as its head (for example, the umbrella that I borrowed). Relative clauses can begin with a relative pronoun (such as which, that or who), a preposition and a relative pronoun (for example, to whom, for which) or no subordinator (for example, the umbrella I borrowed).

To identify a relative clause without a subordinator, we can insert a relative pronoun to see if the sentence still makes sense (for example, the umbrella (that) I borrowed).

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Relative pronouns

Pronouns that introduce a relative clause (for example, the child who likes celery, the film that you recommended).

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Restrictive relative clauses

Restrictive relative clauses provide central information necessary for correct understanding of the clause. There is no special punctuation associated with this type of relative clause and it is not associated with special prosody. For example, Friends who offer cats for pets are making some pretty big assumptions. See also non-restrictive relative clauses.

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Right dislocation

In right dislocation a phrase is moved to the end of a clause and presented as new information, as part of the comment (for example, I weeded the garden [basic clause]; I weeded it, the garden [dislocated clause]). See also left dislocation.

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S

Semantic role

The term semantic role refers to the roles that each participant in the clause has in relation to the verb. Common semantic roles include agent and patient. These roles are typical of a transitive clause such as: [The dog]AGENT chased [the stick]PATIENT.

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Semantically troubling sentences

Sentences that are grammatical and therefore parsable (see parsing) but do not make sense.

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Speech act

The intended meaning of a clause in context (for example, making a command, asking a question, making a statement).

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Status

When clauses are categorised according to their status we distinguish between independent clauses, also called main clauses (for example, We decided to continue with the bike ride) and dependent clauses, also called subordinate clauses (for example, although it was raining).

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Subclausal negation

There are many negation strategies that apply to particular words within the clause but do not render the clause itself negative. In clauses of this type the negation is said to be 'subclausal'. See also clausal negation.

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Subject

A subject is a noun phrase complement that is required by the verb but is outside the verb phrase (for example, Henry [washed the car]VP). For this reason, subjects are sometimes called external complements of the verb phrase. In a basic clause the subject always comes before the verb phrase. See also object.

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Subordinate clauses

Subordinate clauses express additional information about some element of the main clause, and can function as modifiers, adjuncts or complements. Subordinate clauses often (but not always) have significant structural differences to main clauses and may not be grammatical as independent utterances. See also main clause.

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Subordination

Subordination is the insertion of a subordinate (dependent) clause into a main clause (for example, We won the match even though Frances couldn't play). See also coordination.

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Subordinators

Subordinators join two clauses which do not have equal status. They join subordinate clauses to a main clause (for example, We decided to continue with the bike ride although it was raining). See also coordinators.

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Suffix

Affix that follows the base of a word (for example, -ness). See also prefix.

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Suppletion

The use of different forms in inflectional categories of the verb that can be difficult to relate to each other. For example, the past tense of go is went. See also syncretism.

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Syncretism

The use of a single form in multiple inflectional categories of the verb. For example, the verb sing has the same form for the plain present and the infinitive form (as do all verbs except be). The verb leave has the same form for both past tense and past participle (i.e. left), and shut has the same form for the infinitive, plain present, past tense and past participle (i.e. shut). See also suppletion.

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T

Tense

Inflectional system of the verb to distinguish between present tense (for example, They walk) and past tense (for example, They walked).

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Transitivity

Transitivity describes the verb or the clause in terms of the number of basic constituents (mostly noun phrases) that are required to make the clause grammatical. The verb determines the transitivity of the clause. Verbs may be: intransitive (She is sleeping), complex intransitive (She seems nice), transitive (She ate an apple), complex transitive (She calls it her favourite fruit), and ditransitive (She gave me the apple).

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U

Ungrammatical sentences

Sentences that are not easy to parse (see parsing) and are intuitively wrong.

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V

Verb phrases

Each verb phrase (VP) contains one main verb that functions as the head of the VP. A VP can consist of only a verb (for example, slept in the clause I slept) or contain dependents such as: auxiliaries, internal complements and adjuncts.

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Verbs

Category of words that express the situation or activity which is described in the sentence or clause. They function as the predicate in the clause. This means that verbs have a central role in organising English sentences. They head the verb phrase (VP); the part of the clause that provides new propositional information.

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Voice

The parameter involved in the contrast between basic (active) clauses and passive clauses is known as 'voice'. We can talk about the active voice and the passive voice. More generally, in English grammar 'voice' is used to talk about the alignment of grammatical functions with semantic roles and information packaging (see information structure).

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W

Word formation

New words enter the English language in a range of ways. Words can be borrowed from other languages (for example, café is originally a French word). The most frequent strategy for creating new words from English language resources is the use of derivational morphology (see derivational morphemes). Other ways that words are formed include: conversion, compounding, clipping, blending, reduplication and initialisms.

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