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7. Aspects of phrasal syntax of English (NPs (Countability (variable / non…
7. Aspects of phrasal syntax of English
Syntactic categories vs. grammatical functions
Category
word-level category, unpredictable from other aspects of the word itself
Function
the role a constituent plays in a syntactic context, these notions are irrelevalnt and unpredictable outside of the context
NPs
Nominative and Accusative case in nouns and pronouns
Genitive case in nouns
2 forms: inflected (Garfield's tail) and periphrastic (the centre of the city)
4 formal subtypes
simple genitive (the cat's tail)
elliptical genitive: independent (.. Garfield's) / local (the grocer's)
group genitive (The Wife of Bath's Tale)
double genitive (a friend of Jon's)
Countability
(variable / non-variable nouns)
Variable nouns=countable nouns (inflectional contrast between singualr and plural)
Non-variable nouns: fixed number
singular-only nouns=uncountable nouns (hair, furniture)
plural-only nouns (trousers, police)
Countability and number agreement between nouns and determiners
only count nouns can take cardinal numerals as determiner
only count nouns can combine with the indefinite article (a cat)
count nouns cannot build one-word NPs on their own in the singular
determiners and count nouns agree in number withing the NP
certain determiners are marked for countebility and combine with nouns accordingly (many cats, much furniture)
VPs
Verbs have two types: lexical/main/full verbs - auxiliary (modal, non-moadl)
The structure of the verb group
longest possible verb sequence (e.g. ... will have been being built..)
there can be multiple non modal auxiliaries next to each other, but modals cannot be combined
Multi-word verbs
(phrasal verbs)
verbs that consist of more than one word
phrasal verbs and prepositional verbs beehave differently: the position of the object
phrasal verb: verb+adverb (show up)
prepositional verb: verb+ preposition, all have direct objects, the object must sit after the preposition, prepositional verbs cannot be separated (look after, look up, think about)
phrasal-prepositional verb: verb+adverb+prep., have direct objects, (put up with, get on with)