Maturitní otázky, témata: června 2008

Semantic types of relationships expressed by prepositions

1. Spacial of different kinds
Interiority, exteriority, superiority, inferiority, proximity, continuity…
2. Temporal
A point in time, a period in time, frequency
3. Abstract
(He is good at mathematics.)
- In different context the same preposition may carry different meaning Þ may be differently classifies

· Overlap with other word-classes:

1. Prepositional overlap with adverbs
2. Prepositional overlap with conjunctions
Temporal, special prepositions (before, since, after) ® depends on the structure
3. Prepositional overlap with verbs
(regarding…)

Semantic types of relationships expressed by prepositions

Syntactic function of the prepositional group

1. At group level
- as an element of the prepositional group
§ qualifier in a nominal group (Have you got any books on mathematics?)
§ qualifier in an adjectival group (My son is brilliant at mathematics.)
§ qualifier in an adverbial group (They don’t live far from here.)
§ completive in another prepositional group (I’m free everyday except on Monday.)

2. At clause level
- as sequential element at clause with exception of predicator
§ adjunct most typical (All this happened before the war.)
§ subject (After lunch it’ll be the best.)
§ prepositional object (I don’t believe in wasting money.)
§ subject complement (Monica must be out of her mind.)
§ object complement (His illness left him without a job.)
§ predicator complement (The procession came to a holt.)
§ disjunct (In all honesty I don’t believe a word he said.)
§ conjunct (In that case I am leaving, too.)

The choice of prepositions

- Prepositions are not specific in meaning
1. Bound prepositions
Govern by the words that precede them
§ Verbs (agree on something, with someone, insist on, pay for, amount to, hope for)
§ Nouns (damage to, aliking for, attack on, confidence in)
§ Adjectives (compatible with, opposed to, free from, rich in, lacking in, good at, good for)

2. Free prepositions
The choice is determined by a kind of relationship the speaker wishes to apply
(We flew in / into / out of / through / above / beneath / close to / near to the clouds.)

· Discontinuous prepositional group:

- Preposition is separated from its completive (What are they interested in?)
§ Occurs in cleft clauses (I’m concerned about your health.
Þ to emphasize It is your health I’m concerned about.)
§ Occurs in restrictive clauses (His work is the only thing that he thinks about.)
§ Occurs in passive structures (My opinion is never asked for.)
§ Occurs in paraphrases of clauses with anticipatory it
(It’s easy to get on with my boss. Þ My boss is easy to get on with.)
§ Occurs in interrogative and relative clauses (Who can we rely on?)
(Here’s the book you were looking for.)
® There is strong tendency to perceive a preposition as part of verb

The choice of prepositions

Syntactic function of the prepositional group

The structure of the prepositional group / phrase (PrepG

- Preposition can never stand alone ® obligatory combinations with other words
- Exocentric = the head is always preposition (x endocentric = modifiers and quantifiers are optional)
§ can be preceded by optional modifier
§ can be followed by obligatory completive (obligatory because preposition can’t stand alone)
straight along this road
just at the moment
quite near here
only by studying hard

Completive
Realizations: nominal group
adjectival group (in private)
adverbial group (for ever)
prepositional group (except inhere)
finite wh- clauses (Have you decided about where you are leaving?)
non-finite wh- clauses (Have you any problems apart from where to stay?)
non-finite -ing clauses (by studying hard)

Cannot by completive: finite that clause (He was surprised at that she noticed him.)
Þ leave out the preposition
Þ change the structure (at her noticing him)
to- infinitive clause (He was surprised at to see her.)
Þ leave out the preposition
Þ change to- to –ing (at seeing her)
subjective form of pronoun (He was surprised at she.)
Þ objective case of pronoun (at her)

Modifier
Semantically can represent grading (Put the picture more to the left.)
intensification (completely out of focus, entirely beyond comprehension)
attenuation makes the meaning less intense
(partly without understanding)
quantification (20 miles from here, 20 years after his death)
focusing (mainly under the impression)
Occasionally intensification modifier can be at the end

The structure of the prepositional group / phrase (PrepG

PREPOSITIONS

- Do not denote any specific meaning, but different types of relationship between different linguistic units
- They have a different meaning in different context
- Primarily grammatical words ® express grammatical relations
- Lexical-grammatical use in language

· Lexical-morphology of prepositions:

1. Simple many of them occur in the class of adverbs
(at, by, in, of, down, up, from)

2. Participial derived from participles of verbs
(considering, regarding, concerning, notwithstanding = navzdory)

3. Compound (within, outside, underneath, throughout)

4. Two-word written as two words, but in text considered to be one preposition
combination of preposition, adjective, adverb, conjunction + preposition
(along with, except for, but for, instead of, because of, near to, far from)

5. Three-word in the text considered to be one because they express one type of meaning
preposition + noun, adjective + preposition
(by way of, by means of, on behalf of, in view of, on account of, in front of)

PREPOSITIONS

CONJUNCTIONS

- Joins together Þ belongs to syntax than to morphology

· Lexical-morphology:

1. Simple (and, but, while, as)

2. Compound (because = by cause of in the past, unless, until, wherever)

3. Groups (as if, as though, even if, even though)

4. Complex combination with verb or derived (provided that, supposing that, considering that, see that)
® that is optional
contain a noun (in case, in order that, in spite of the fact that)
® that is obligatory except in case
adverbial (so long as, as soon as, as far as, much as, as well as)

5. Conjunctive prepositions cause of overlap (before, after, since, from, by, in, with, without)

· Syntactic types:

- Determined by kind of relation they express in the sentence

1. Coordinating (and, or, nor, but, so, for = neboť)
2. Subordinating

CONJUNCTIONS

Multi-word verbs

Phrasal verbs
§ Combination of lexical verb and adverbial particle

Intransitive
§ doesn’t need an object
The injured man came to. (Přišel k sobě.)
The music died away.
Stop messing about. (Přestaň blbnout.)

Transitive
§ require object
They broke down the door.
Let’s take back the glasses.
They called off the meeting.
They ruled us about.
§ 2 possible positions of object; both acceptable
verb + adverbial particle + object
verb + object + adverbial particle
§ when object is pronoun, it is in the middle

Prepositional verbs
Lexical verb + preposition (semantically associated ® meaningful unit)
look into, call for, set about, come by, make for, see to, deal with
o Always require prepositional object; object always follow preposition

§ Difference between phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs:
o Preposition can’t be placed after object x adverbial particle can be placed after object
He broke with his girlfriend. x He broke up the party. / He broke the party up.
o Pronoun follows preposition x pronoun precedes adverbial particle
He broke with her. x He broke it up.
o Wh- interrogative preceded by preposition but not by adverbial particle
With whom did he break? x Up what did he break? - IMPOSSIBLE
The girl with whom he broke. x The party up which he broke. – IMPOSSIBLE
The party which he broke up.

Phrasal-prepositional verbs
§ Combination of phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs
§ Lexical verb + adverbial particle and preposition
look forward to, run up against, do away with, cut down on, go in for

Non-idiomatic and idiomatic combinations in all 3 types of verbs:
The boys have put up the tent.
meaning stays the same
They’re putting up new blocks of flats. shift of meaning
They’ve put the fares up. idiomatic
I can put up two of you over the week. fully idiomatic
She’ll put up the fonds. fully idiomatic
They put up the house for sale. idiomatic

o degrees of idiomaticity:
Take the cat in. - non-idiomatic
I have to take my skirt in. - half-idiom (zmenšit sukni)
I’m always taken in by foolish jokes. - idiomatic

Prepositional verbs can have 2 objects (belong to idiomaticity as well)
o 1st noun is object of the verb – idiomatic unit
o 2nd noun is object of preposition
to lose touch with somebody
to turn one’s hand to something
to set fire to the house
to lose track of something
to catch sight of something

Phased processes
§ consist of 2 lexical verbs, don’t mean action
o 1st lexical verb indicates phase of process
o 2nd lexical verb indicates process itself
It started to rain. / it continued raining. / it stopped raining.
o 1st verb in finite form always
o 2nd in infinitive with to or in -ing form
§ alternatives verb of phase admits both infinitive and -ing form

types of phase
o of initiation (the beginning of the action) begin, start
o of continuation continue, go on, proceed, carry on, keep on
o of termination (the end of the action) stop, finish, cease
o of seeming or becoming real appear, seem, turn out
o of attempting, succeeding, failing try, venture, succeed, manage, fail
o of manner or attitude happen, hesitate, regret, tend, venture

Verbs with to-infinitive
appear, chance, come, fail, happen, help, hesitate, manage, prove, regret, seem, tend, try, turn out, venture, neglect, hasten, pretend, decline
Verbs with -ing form
go on, keep on, carry on, continue
Verbs with either to-infinitive or -ing form
begin, start, cease, bother
Verbs with either to-infinitive or -ing form or -ed form
get to know somebody, get going, get started

Multi-word verbs

Verbs-Semantic classes

Stative verbs
represent states; don’t use progressive
§ Relational verbs be, seem, become (ing form)
§ Verbs of involuntary perception see, hear, feel, taste, (watch, listen – voluntary)
§ Verbs of cognition know, understand, recognise
§ Verbs of affectivity love, dislike, hate, prefer, relish
§ Verbs of position ® between stative and dynamic verbs
stand, sit, lie

Dynamic verbs
3 senses of contrasts
§ durative x punctual (activity taking time x point of time)
run x stop, write x knock
§ agentive x non-agentive ® depends on person’s volation
she is writing x it is raining
wink x she blink
§ bounded x unbounded (directed to point of time x go without stop to its aim)
die x sleep
§ progressive (-ing form) limits the verb to one point
He’s writing letters.

Verbs-Semantic classes

Structural classes of verbs

Structural classes of verbs:

Structural classes of verbs

Structural classes of verbs:

Verbs-Grammatical categories

VERBS

§ Hinge life into situations, hinge action
§ Most complex, important word class ® express great number of grammatical categories
§ Way we perceive processes:
states, activities (produced by agent), actions, acts, events, happenings (without helping by agent)
§ Semantic classification of verbs is based on our perception of 3 processes:
material process - may be observed in their progression as they happen (walk, read, write)
relational process - process established relation between entities (belong, be, depend, see)
mental process - in people’s minds; not directly observable (know, think, like, hate)

Lexical morphology:
Simple
meaning conveyed by one form
I write
I am writing / have been writing still simple; just different form of writing
Multi-word verbs
meaning conveyed by two or more forms
look up, look forward to

VERBS

The structure of adjectival group

pre-head / modifier head post-head / qualifiers
extremely hot indeed
very difficult to solve
quite fond of music
so glad that you won the match

· adjectival group doesn’t have a determiner

modifier:
intensification:
quite, most, very, pretty, fairly
o and fixed collocations (raving mad, dripping wet, boiling hot, freezing cold, blind drunk, dead straight, wide awake, fast asleep)
attenuation:
slightly, a little, a bit, kind of, sort of
quantification:
The ocean is one mile deep, The lecture was two hours
that, so, such I didn’t know he is that old.
o (something between comparison and quantification)
It was such an interesting trip.
description:
dark blue, bright red

qualifier:
o non-finite clauses
Smoking is difficult to give up.
o prepositional groups
good at mathematics, quick in though
o items of comparison
not as easy as expected, he is better than I though
o expression of sufficiency enough

The structure of adjectival group

Syntactic function of adjectives

used attributively
pre-modifiers in the nominal group (precede the noun), usually follow the determiner
that ugly modern picture.
they can be used in post-position
attribute is long adjectival phrase)
It is a house much bigger than the one we’ve got now.
in some institutional phrases; legal expressions (taken from French)
the president elect, the heir apparent

used predicatively
follow the verb in sentence; subject and object complements in a clause
The picture is ugly and modern. (subject complement)

Ordering of adjectives in multiple pre-modification:

Ordering of adjectives in multiple pre-modification:
pre-central after determiner; usually adjectives non-gradable, used for emphasis
central subjective and objective epithets; subject comes as first
post-central participial adjective
pre-head classifiers; nearest to the noun
certain (emphasis)
rich (subjective)
old (objective)
retired (participial)
American (classifier)
Overlap with other word-classes:
with adverbs
function is different (fast, high, low, far, early, likely, weekly, daily, monthly)
daily newspapers (adjective) x newspapers come daily (adverb)

with verbs
it is a process itself in a progress; can’t be pre-modified
o ing – expresses the quality during the process
o ed – expresses the quality resulting from the precess
an approaching train (it’s not adjective but present participle)
the setting sun
a dying fashion (not adjective; you can’t say “extremely dying”)
a furnished room (not adjective)
Can’t be!!! a slightly setting sun

with nouns
● adjectives become nouns = nominalization
clever x stupid, young x old, beautiful x ugly
● nouns used as adjectives; pre-modified another noun
don’t allow pre-modification
a wool dress, a bus stop, a stone wall

Ordering of adjectives in multiple pre-modification:

Syntactic function of adjectives

Adjectives-Grammatical categories, Semantic sublclasses of adj. as modifiers

· notional = derived from nouns

comparison / grading
exists only with adjectives and adverbs
means the expression of a comparison:
o to a higher degree (more, most) / positive
o to the same degree (as nice as) / comparative
o to a lower degree (less, least) / superlative

has 2 forms
inflectional
o by endings
periphrastic
o adjective is modified by more and most
o determined by the length of adjective
o two forms because of taking over from French grammar
Semantic subclasses of adjectives as modifiers:
stative x dynamic
stative = permanent quality which doesn’t allow progressive in a sentence (alive, dead, tall)
John is clever. (stative)
John has being clever. (dynamic – temporative quality)
John is a quick runner. (stative)
Be quick! (dynamic)

gradable x non-gradable
utter, top can’t be graded; express the gradable quality we can perceive
dead, optimal classes can’t be graded; express an absolute quality

inherent x non-inherent
inherent adjectives are used to denote an integral quality
non-inherent adjectives express the relationship, circumstance
a wooden cross (inherent) x a wooden actor (non-inherent)
a firm handshake (inherent) x a firm friend (non-inherent)

epithets x classifiers
epithets describe objective and subjective qualities of the entity
classifiers assign an entity to classes
beautiful music (epithet) x baroc music (classifier)
a long article (epithet) x a leading article (classifier)
a wet road (epithet) x a main roada diligent worker (epithet) x a social worker (classifier

Adjectives-Grammatical categories, Semantic sublclasses of adj. as modifiers

Notes concerning some pronouns

IT variety of functions
refer to specific object named in the context before
Where’s the book? It’s on the shelf.
refer to a situation anaphoricly described
There’s always a lot of noise in the evening. It annoys me.
refer to a process
We have to write long essays every week. It’s difficult.
refer to a fact
The bank won’t allow me a credit. It’s a problem.
refer to the subject and object of the clause
It’s obvious that they didn’t understand. extra-posed subject
They found it difficult to understand. extra-posed object

Personal pronoun functions alone as subject complement:
It’s me. general usage

ADJECTIVES

· Denote features, qualities, relationships, classes to items which are related to noun
Reference:
to state (lonely x loneliness, happy x happiness)
to qualities (nice, lovely, ugly)
to features resulting from processes (increasing, confused)
to emotional attitudes (hateful, likeable)
to evaluation (true, false, sufficient)
to features of space (northern, southern, continental)
to features of time (modern, ancient, contemporary)
to specifications (main, certain, subsidiary)
to classes (African, electric light, literary class)
Types in term of internal structure:
simple
original; often monosyllabic (nice, good, bad, ugly, quick)

derived
by suffixes able (readable, eatable)
o ible come from the verb
o ish (childish)
o ous (dangerous, mountainous)
o al (technical, legal)
o ic (heroic)
o ful (beautiful)
o less (useless)
o y (silly)
o some (handsome, fulsome)
o ant
o ive (talkative)
o most (uppermost)
o ® they have origin in other word classes

by prefixes
o a (alive, awake, alone, asleep)
o from nouns and very often from verbs, can be used only predicatively, follow be

participial
forms of the verbs -ing, -ed (interested audience, interesting book)
are converted and become adjectives

pseudo-participial
look like participles use -ing and -ed (gifted, enterprising, stilled, detailed)

compoundalways spelled with hyphen (ready-made, age-old, well-

ADJECTIVES

Notes concerning some pronouns

Different classes of pronouns

§ Important because of different functions and categories
§ Classification is different in different grammars
§ All the classes are closed classes = they contain final set of elements (thou, thee as the 2nd person disappeared)

Personal
subjective (I, you, he, she, it, we, they)
objective (me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them)

Possessive
attributive
o stand as determiner in front of the noun (my, your, his, her, its, our, their)
nominal / independent
o (mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs)

Reflexive
(myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves)
function
o coreferential
o emphasize

Reciprocal
each – other
o usually expresses relationship between two entities
one – another
o usually expresses relationship among more entities

Demonstrative
this – these
o implies nearness
that – those
o implies distance (special, psychological, in time)
o ® may be relative

Interrogative
(who, whose, whom, what, which)
where, when, why are adverbs

Relative
(who, whose, whom, what, which, that)
o conjunctive elements joining relative clause with another clause

Indefinite
universal
o (every, everyone, everybody, everything, each, all, both, enough by some grammars)
partitive
o assertive
(some, someone, somebody, something, either)
§ used in positive declarative sentences
o non-assertive (any, anyone, anybody, anything, either)
§ used in negative interrogative sentences
o negative
(no, no-one, nobody, nothing, none, neither)

Quantifying
multual
o indicate large quantities (many, much, more, most)
paucal
o indicate small quantities (little, few, less, least, fewer, fewest, several)

Substitutive
(one, ones, that, those, each, some)
o one head of the nominal group with pre-modification
o that head of the nominal group with post-modification
o each Give the boys an apple each.
o some You have so many apples. Can you give me some?

Generic
§ refer to the whole class of people (one, you, we, they)
one highly formal
you most common
(You can’t go to the party when you must write an essay. - Člověk nemůže jít na večírek…)
we more subjective attitude, the speaker is included
(We can’t smoke here.)
they implies distance
(They increase the taxes again.)

Different classes of pronouns

Pronouns are heterogeneous in grammatical cathegories

Case
relates only to personal pronouns
we distinguish subjective case (I, you, he)
objective case (me, him)

subjective (somebody, someone, one)
genitive (somebody’s, someone’s, one’s)
Gender
possessive, personal, reflexive, sometimes interrogative, relative pronouns
o masculine
o feminine with 3rd person
o neuter

o animate (who)
o inanimate (what, which)

Person
relative pronouns
o 1st speaker (I)
o 2nd addressee (you)
o 3rd content, topic of the conversation (he, she, it)

Number
singular (I, you, he, she, it, myself)
plural (we, you, they, ourselves)
o in reflexive pronouns double plural ourselves

Pronouns are heterogeneous in grammatical cathegories

NUMERALS

§ express exact quantities
§ if followed by noun ® determiner of nominal group
§ 2 subclasses
o cardinal
o ordinal

Lexical morphology of numerals:

cardinal
§ 1 – 12 separate items
§ 12 – 19, 20, 30… constructed by derivation
§ 21, 22… compounding ® we put a hyphen
§ coordination sometimes by and

ordinal
§ derivation by suffix –th
§ higher ordinal numerals
o in English derivation only at the end (-th)
o in Czech everything is derived
§ 1st, 2nd, 3rd are exception

§ other numeric expressions are created by combination of cardinal and ordinal numerals
§ ® fractions, multiplications, divisions, powers, roots

PRONOUNS

§ Similar to nouns, can have similar function
§ Highly heterogeneous word class where the individual members differ in forms, functions and ways they refer to
§ Pronomen = standing instead of noun

Different functions of pronouns:

Substitute for a noun-phrase (nominal group)
Who lent you the book? Who represents the noun-phrase
What are you eating? I am eating an apple.
Somebody has taken my umbrella. Somebody refers to a person who has taken an umbrella

Refer to an entity, which is given in the linguistic or situational context
My friend Peter is not coming. He is ill. linguistic context
Pronouns don’t refer to one entity like nouns but to different entities

Substitute for the head of a noun-phrase in the linguistic unit
I need some envelopes. Have you got any large white ones?
The appearance of brick is better than that of other building materials.

Stand for a general concept
Everyone should speak at least two foreign languages. (all people)
Everything is as it should be. (all things involved in particular situation)
One never knows. (a man)

Express semantic and syntactic relationship
Our teacher (relationship between teacher and group of people)
The book which I am reading.

Some pronouns are coreferential (=identical) with the subject of the clause
The children enjoyed themselves. (children and themselves are the same entity)

Some pronouns reinforce the entity referred to by a noun or pronoun
He himself wrote it. emphasizing he and anyone else
He wrote it himself. Without help of anybody else

Determiners in the noun-phrase (nominal group)
That green plant definite determination
Some new ideas indefinite determination
My uncle definite determination + semantic relationship

Diectic (they point to entity in space or time)
That is the key I was looking for.
Who is walking around in the attic? It’s father looking for some old books.
Used for both objects and persons

PRONOUNS

NUMERALS

Case

1. The of genitive as an alternative
With inanimates (with some exceptions)
Sometimes with animates to distinguish between subjective and objective use
His wife’s loss (his wife lost something)
The loss of his wife (he lost his wife)
Pragmatically caused by sentence structure
The grandmother of a girl in my class has died

2. Semantic types of the of genitive
Possessive are excluded of this genitive
Subjective the acquisition of knowledge
Objective the purpose of the task
Specifying the analysis of the text
Classifying word of French origin
Qualifying the humming of a bee
Partitive a class of small children
a glass of milk
a whole library of books
Descriptive a man of ambition
a woman of great beauty
Adverbial to consist of ten chapters
Causal to die of hunger
Oppositional the village of Corleone
the fool if her husband
Origin the products of the company
Content to speak of love
The legend of King Arthur

3. The grammatical function of the of genitive
It can be qualifier in the nominal group
It can never be a determiner in the nominal group
It can be prepositional object to think of one’s family
It can be predicator complement the structure consists of two parts

Case

Gender distinction

1. Male and female counterparts only to personal and higher animate nouns
brother x sister stallion x mare
mother x father dog x bitch
® named by separate lexical item

These usually have dual-gender (hyperonym) man x woman ® person
boy x girl ® child
father x mother ® parent
stallion x mare ® horse
dog x bitch ® dog
brother x sister ® sibling
son x daughter ® offspring

2. Personal counterparts morphologically marked
hero x heroin usher x usherette
waiter x waitress actor x actress

s, ed, in adopted from French
Usually it’s the feminine gender which is marked widow x widower
bride x bridegroom

3. Personal and higher animal counterparts morphologically unmarked but contain distinctive elements
of compounds
policeman x policewoman billy-goat x goat
tom cat x pussy cat boyfriend x girlfriend
gentleman doctor x lady doctor
Also used when people mean that it’s necessary to make clear who you are talking about when you call about
dual-gender nouns
In these days forms with compounds are considered as discrimination so it’s replaced by hyperonym
chairman x chairwoman ® chairperson
Þ part of political correctness in language

4. Personification
Dealing inanimates as they would be animate ® we refer to objects as he and she
Expresses emotional and personal attitude
It occurs with: machines, ships, cars ® she
natural phenomena (son, moon) ® grammatical gender derived from Latin, usually in
poetry
abstractions with positive connotations (liberty, virtue) ® she
abstractions with negative connotations (death, despair, anger) ® he

CASE

- The function is to represent relationships between nouns in sentence ® reflected in use of prepositions and by structure if the sentence
- Semantic category
- The only relic from past times (when English was more difficult) is the genitive ‘s

1. The distribution of the ‘s genitive relation to noun classes
Used with personal animate nouns, those who have reference to human features
Sometimes with low animal nouns
With inanimate – geographical, temporal nouns, locative nouns, special reference to human feature (mind, hair)
Duty and love may be signs of personification or refer to human beings

2. Semantic types of ‘s genitive
Possessive Mr. Johnson’s car
Subjective student’s application
Objective the family’s support, team’s defeat
Specifying the girl’s face
Classifying children’s clothes
Descriptive a summer’s day
Attributive the hero’s courage
Origin Byron’s poetry
Source cow’s milk
Temporal today’s work
Measure an hour’s discussion
Relational John’s train

3. Structural variant of the ‘s genitive (special use of ‘s genitive)
The independent genitive My car is faster than John’s
The local genitive Let’s meet at bill’s
The double genitive Jim’s friend – a friend of Jim’s
That dog of my neighbour’s has bitten me again

4. The grammatical functions of the ‘s genitive
Determiner (definite) in the nominal group my daughter’s new teacher
Modifier in the nominal group He wants to be a ship’s doctor
Qualifier in the nominal group a patient of Dr. Brown’s

- Genitive can be made with preposition of
- ‘s and of genitive are not equal

CASE

Gender distinction

GENDER

- semantic category
- different from the Czech language (English nouns and adjectives don’t have it)
- covered grammatical category ® we recognize male, female and neutral only by pronouns (he, she, it)
- distinguish: 3rd person singular personal pronouns (he, she, it)
3rd person singular possessive pronouns (his, her, its)
3rd person singular reflexive pronouns (himself, herself, itself)
- interrogative and relative pronouns animate (who, whom, whose)
inanimate (what, which)

Semantico-grammatical classification:

· Animate personal male (semantic) x masculine (grammatical)
female x feminine
dual x masculine or feminine (friend, teacher, parent)
– we have to know from the context

common – can be either masculine, feminine of neuter (child, infant)
collective – neuter, singular or plural (committee, family, board)

non-personal higher animals x masculine, feminine or neuter
lower animals x neuter (bee, fly, mouse)

· Inanimate always neuter

GENDER

Identification

· Identification:

endophoric within the linguistic context
anaphoric referent occurred earlier
There is a large building right opposite you.
The building used to be a school.
The school has now been abolished.
The school / it has been changed to a museum.
cataphoric referent of the noun is identified later, immediately after the noun
the bus coming now
the journey home
the ministry of Education
the book which you lend me
exophoric outside identification from the text, situational context
come to the blackboard
open the bottle (there is one bottle on the table)
from general knowledge – unique
the sun, the moon, the earth, the universe, the sky, the seaside, the President, the Government

Types of nominal groups

indefinite common nouns
specific x non-specific
Can be: count, singular, indefinite, specific I have bought a new car
count, singular, indefinite, non-specific I need a new car
Þ we can distinguish because of the verb
count, plural, indefinite, specific I have got some friends in the UK
Þ some is used rather than 0 article
count, plural, indefinite, non-specific I have got friends in the UK
Þ they aren’t really friends
mass, plural, indefinite, non-specific We have brought some food
Þ some items to eat
mass, plural, indefinite, non-specific We can’t go without food
Þ food in general

Indefinite proper nouns:
Refer to the unique entity (months, days)
Is there a John Smith in this class? Þ indefinite person
I was born on a Monday.
We had a very hot June last year.
Metonyms: I have got a Goya at home. Þ painting from him

Definite common nouns:
Implies already specific
- If a common noun represents unique social role as a subject ® the definiteness is with 0 article
He soon became director of the company.
- Common complements in minor clauses followed by when, which, if, although
While Minister, he introduced many useful reforms.

Definite proper nouns:
Are by nature already definite
The John Smith who is in my class. Þ there is more than one John Smith
The Sunday that we met.
The Christmas of last year.

Generic nouns:
Used in statements which one entity represents the whole class of entities
a / an + singular count noun An elephant never forgets.
the + singular count noun The elephant never forgets.
Þ singular form represents the whole class collection of all the possible elephant
on the world
0 + plural count noun. Elephants never forget
Þ all members posses the same quality
0 + mass count Science proceeds at a rapid pace.

Types of nominal groups

Identification

DETERMINATION AND DEFINITENESS

- Definite x indefinite
- We don’t have it in Czech language
- Distinction isn’t obligatory

· Types of selection:

deictic demonstrative pronouns (these, those)
genitive possessive pronouns and genitives (my, her, whose, Tom’s)
distributive (all, both, each, every, some, any, no)
specifying wh pronouns (what, which, whatever); followed by a noun
quantifying all numerals (three books, the first, half, many, much, little, few)
adjectival by adjectives (such, some, other, whole, certain, only, an – on the border line)
partitive of is often obligatory
some of our students – we select from already selected pair
quantifying (half of our students)
nominal (a crowd of people)
with half, both, all of is optional

Analysis of nominal:
A determiner
whole modifier determiner
library head
of
books qualifier head

· Types od definition:

definite
indefinite
generic

- subsystem of determination selection and definition go together
Þ determiners of nominal group

· Selection and definition:

- contains already determiners, some determiners imply
my book - determiners automatically (this, that, my, Tom’s, both, each, every, which)
- other need to combine other determiners to indicate definiteness
all the students, both the books, the three boys, the many, the few, the little, the other, the whole
- some imply indefiniteness
some, any, no, what, whatever, three, four, much, many, few, little
- determiner + indefinite article
a half, a few, a little, a whole, a certain, a great deal
· Definite, indefinite and zero article:

- if nominal group contains no other determiner then definiteness is indicated by definiteness of article (a, the, 0)

DETERMINATION AND DEFINITENESS

Markers of plurality

Markers of plurality:
§ Productive markers – s, es, (i)es
§ Unproductive markers – s ending accompanied by change in the noun

-s with change of voiceless to voiced consonant
· only change in spelling - lives, shelves, calves, elves
· change in pronunciation – houses, youths, mouths
· exception – beliefs, chiefs, cliffs, gulfs, proofs, roofs
· alternative forms – scarfs – scarves, hoofs – hooves
nouns changing in base vowel
men, women, mice, lice, teeth, feet, geese
–en (-r + en) – historical endings
oxen, children, brethren

zero marker
council, craft, sheep, Japanese
· measures – stone, dozen, mile (two-mile walk, ten-minute break, two-pound note)

Plurals of compounds:

not contain a noun ® plural at the end
forget-me-nots, take-offs
contain one noun ® plural comes with the noun
passers-by
contain two nouns ® plural comes with the head noun
sons-in-law, men-of-war
contain two nouns the first is modifier ® plural comes with the second one (boyfriends)
the first is man or woman ® plural comes with both (menservants, womendoctors)
the first is man or woman but it isn’t modifier ® plural comes with the second one
(woman haters)

Foreign plurals:

§ Adopted together with their original plural forms

Latin
curriculum – curricula
fungus – fungi
medium – media
stimulus – stimuli
lava - lave
Greek
analysis – analyses
basis – bases
thesis – theses
criterion – criteria
phenomenon - phenomena
French
chateaux – plural is the same only pronounced with –s
plateau

Markers of plurality

COUNTABILITY AND THE GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF NUMBER

Countability:
§ Refers to entities which can be counted or not
§ Distinction of countability and uncountability is related to the context and intention of the speaker

Countability markers:
§ Related to determination
§ Related to singular or plural of the verb

§ Contrast between using a/an with singular or zero determiner with singular
a good knowledge - knowledge
§ Using of every/each with singular or all with singular
each / every book – all happiness, all mathematics
§ Use of many/few with plural or much/little with singular
many / few students – much / little bread
§ If there is or isn’t number contrast in the form of the noun
student ® students – logic ® 0
§ Singular or plural concord or only singular concord with the verb
student is / students are – happiness is

Degrees of countability:
Fully mass – some occasionally with a/an
§ Predominantly used as uncountable
denoting activities – walking, speaking, meaning
abstractions – happiness, sincerity
luggage, information, news
sciences – physics, mathematics, logic, arithmetic
§ Some occasionally with a/an if they are specified by pre-/post-modifier
a good knowledge, a pride like his, a courage like hers, a piece of luggage, news item
§ They may also appear in other degrees but this is the most important

Fully mass – some occasionally with a/an or in plural form
phenomena of water – rain, snow, fog, frost
materials as foodstuff – water, wine, cheese
money, literature, help
states of human body – hunger, thirst
§ If they are used in plural they change their meaning
cheese – substance x cheeses – different kinds of cheese
snow – general phenomenon x snows – repetition in appearance, intensity, amount
§ They cannot take numeratives (numbers)
§ Singular with a/an – there must be a modifier
a huge hunger, a deep sleep
Fully mass and fully count
§ Changes meaning
· states of human mind
need, doubt
painting, writing – C meaning product x U meaning activity
business – C meaning company x U meaning kind of human activity
success, failure – as individual instances they are countable
· animal names
hake, salmon, deer – C meaning individuals x U meaning classes of animals
skittles, darts, bowls – C figures that you use x U games

Partially count and never mass
§ They cannot be used with singular concord verb
§ It is always a group of something or somebody
· noun from adjective
the rich, the poor, the famous
· nations
the English, the French, people (lidé – partially C x národ – fully C)
· collectives for animals
cattle, police, riches, goods, surroundings, outskirts, belongings, trousers, scissors, pliers, spectacles
· by the form they indicate they can be only used in plural
door – singular when it consists of one wing x plural when they consist of two wings

Fully count except number contrast in form, never mass
§ One form in singular and also in plural
sheep
aircraft, spacecraft
gallons, barracks, headquarters
means, offspring, series, species

Fully count and some occasionally mass
house, book
detail, advantage
§ when used with preposition they are uncountable
· method of travelling
by ship, by car, by plane
· institutions
at school, at home, in hospital
· abstractions
in detail
· means of communication
by letter, by telegram

Grammatical category of the number:
§ Singular form – unmarked (noun itself)
§ Plural form – marked