-ing form

Formed by adding the suffix -ing to a verb, noun or adjective. They always express a sense of ongoing activity.Used in the following ways:present participle (non finite) (verbs)Gerunds (nouns)AdjectivesprepositionVerb in non-finite clauseparticiple in complex verb phrases

Adjective

a describing word. Many adjectives are formed from nouns or verbs by addition of AFFIXES. COMPOUND ADJECTIVESare formed of two words, while others are derived of PARTICIPLES.

It can be modified by an ADVERB (very, really)COMPARATIVE or SUPERLATIVE

When they follow a linking verb they are PREDICATIVE - The Princess is beautiful.

ATTRIBUTATIVE when precede a noun - the beautiful princess.

Adverb

Describe VERBS and ADJECTIVES. Often formed by adding "LY" to an ADJECTIVE. However, it is an enormous wordclass and when in doubt it is said to classify a word as this. Can be PREMODIFIED by other adverbs.

Meanings includemanner, place, time, degree, frequencyCan also including FOCUSING FUNCTION. - It was only 3 euros.

Most an be at beginning, middle or end of a sentence but many are limited. Never go between the verb and it's object.

Adverbial

One of five possible elements in a CLAUSE or SENTENCE. It functions like an ADVERB1. contributes circumstantial information.2. comments on what is being expressed3. links clauses or sentences

Can be single words or adverb phrasesIn winter, generally speaking, it freezes. As a result, the pipes burst.

AffixAffixation

An element (BOUND MORPHEME) that is added to aword to change its meaning. A PREFIX or SUFFIX canchange a word to ANTONYM or the WORD CLASS.Grammatical affixation changes tense.

Antonym

A word which is opposite in meaning to another word. There are degrees of oppositeness and senseshot-cold (GRADABLE)alive-dead (COMPLEMENTARY, NON-GRADABLE)buy-sell (CONVERSENESS)

Opposites also depend on contextdry-wet = weatherdry-sweet = wine

ArticleA DETERMINER placed before a NOUN that tells us whether the noun is definite (the) or indefinite (a/an).INDEFINITE - indicates it is one of many or being introduced for the first time. Only used with singularcountable nouns.DEFINITE - indicates that there is only one or shared knowledge.ZERO ARTICLE - plural or singular uncountable nouns (indefinite function)There are many idiomatic expressions that are difficult to categorise and are exceptions to the rule.

Aspect

The speaker's view of an event expressed in a verb phrase. PROGRESSIVE and PERFECT aspects exist in English. Both are formed byAUXILIARY VERBS and PARTICIPLES.Progressive = be + present participle (ing)Perfect = have + past participle (ed (usually))Difficult to teach because different languages have different systems of aspect.

Auxiliary VerbModal Auxiliary Verb

They have a grammatical function and there are two types - primary (be, do, have) and MODAL AUXILIARIES (can, willwould). The primary auxiliary verbs are used to express ASPECT and VOICE (active/passive). Change form according to TENSE, NUMBER and PERSON.The OPERATOR is the first verb and performs the following functions:negation, inversion, emphasis, ellipsis, question tagsDUMMY OPERATOR = do/didOften have weak forms (unstressed) and strong forms (stressed) and can be contracted.Ls find difficult as sometimes are difficult to spot weak forms and the dependence on auxiliaries for grammatical function isdifferent from many languages - many languages are highly inflected

CausativeA passive construction formed with have/get + noun phrase + ed.1. Used when someone causes something to be done - typically a service - by someone else.2. To talk about experiences.Also describes verbs used to talk about people causing events - started the fire, felled the treeSpoken language more often than written.

ClauseFinite and Non-Finite

The largest grammatical unit in a sentence and usually contains a verb with a few exceptions.Other elements include subject, object, complement and adverbial.FINITE = contains a FINITE VERB that is marked for tense and agrees with the subjectNON-FINITE = has a PARTICIPLE or an INFINITIVE as its verb.VERBLESS = ellipsis(?)

Cleft SentenceA sentence that is split to foreground one element in asentence in relation to others.It was Dorothy who was in the Wizard of Oz (not Jean).Relates to context.

CognateFalse Cognate

A word that has a similar meaning in another language. This isbecause the word derives from the same source.FALSE COGNATE = a word that looks the same in two languagesbut have two different meanings. eg. embarrassed and embarazada.

Collocation

Describes words that occur together more frequently than normal. (bed and breakfast/ catch and bus). Thereare strong collocations and weak collocations, grammatical collocations (i.e. verb+ preposition) and lexicalcollocations ie noun+noun). FIXED EXPRESSIONS are collocations of words that rarely or never occurwithout each other.narrow escape (lexical/strong)depend on (grammatical/strong)narrow path (lexical/weak)moot point (fixed expression)

Complement

The clause element that follows LINKING VERBS, such as "be" and"seem" and which provides further information about theSUBJECT. e.g. My brother is a nurse.Can also add more information about the OBJECT - e.g. some like ithot.

Complex SentenceA sentence that contains a main clause andone or more subordinate clauses e.g. This

is the house - that Jack built.

Compound SentenceA sentence that contains only two co-

ordinate clauses. e.g. Jack fell down andbroke his leg.

ConcordIn English, this is the agreement between

the subject and the verb, e.g. I am, you are,etc.

Conditional

Sentences that express imaginary or hypothetical situations and usuallycontain a modal verb. Consist of two clauses, main and conditional(subordinate clause) that can be real or unreal. Unreal conditional clauses arebackshifted in tense. Generally organised into 3 or 4 types for teachingpurposes but this does not include the mixed conditional clauses.CONJUNCTIONS introduce the conditional clause = if, provided that, unless.

Conjunction Co-ordinating and Subordinating

Members of a word class that join words, phrases, clauses andsentences.CO-ORDINATING - join to equal clauses together - and, but, soSUBORDINATING - join a subordinating clause to a main clause -if, because, when

ConnotationThe good, bad, humorous or other associations. Often culturallydetermined so difficult for Ls to understand. e.g. propaganda andcollaborator have negative connotations in English but theirCOGNATE forms in other languages are not so loaded.

Contraction

When a FUNCTION WORD is reduced and attached to an adjacentword, e.g. won't. Most common in spoken language and informalwritten texts. Most common contracts are subject pronoun +auxiliary and modal auxiliary verbs - but not contracted when theauxiliary is stressed.

Copular Verb(Linking Verb)

Verbs that take an obligatory complement. The complement can be either anoun phrase, or an adjective phrase and expresses a current or resultingattribute. My tailor became rich. My tailor seems rich. Common copular verbsarebe, appear, feel, look, seem, smell, become, get + adjective, go + adjective.

Declarative SentenceTakes the form of a statement as opposed to aninterrogative or an imperative. Usually subject + verb +object. Can be positive or negative.

DeixisDeictic Reference

The language points to spatial, temporal and personal features of the context.Personal deixis - I you theySpatial = here, there (near and far)Time = now and thenSensitive to perspective so changes in REPORTED SPEECH"I'll see you tomorrow" = "she said she'd see her the day after".Can be projected to the deictic centre e.g. I'm coming over tomorrow. What shall I bring? NOT I'm going overtomorrow. What shall I take?

Determiner

Words that come before nouns such as the, that, her, many andlimit the noun in some way. The choice of determiner depends onwhether the noun is countable or not. In the order of elements in aNOUN PHRASE the determiner always comes first. Manydeterminers are also pronouns e.g. Would you like some?

Finite VerbNon-Finite Verb

FINITE - shows that they are related to the subject by have PERSON, NUMBER and TENSE.She works for her father. They work for their father. They worked for their father.NON-FINITE - Infinitive with or without to or present or past participles. e.g. Before working forhis uncle, Brad used to work for his father.When there is more than one verb in a a verb phrase, the finite verb comes first.

Function Word

Words with a mainly grammatical function such as auxiliary verbs,determiners, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and some adverbs,such as adverb particles (up, down, off). They are very common andmake up to 1/3 to 1/2 of text. They carry a great deal of grammaticalmeaning because English is not a heavily inflected language.

GerundA verb form that ends in -ing but which is

used in a sentence like a noun. Forexample, "Swimming is good for you"

HomographWords that are written the same but have differentmeanings and pronunciation.A long and windy roadA dark and windy night.

Homonym

Words written and pronounced the same way but with a differentmeaning.What do you like to eat?What do you look like?Great source of jokes! English rich in homonyms.

HomophoneWords that are written differently and have different

meanings, but pronounced the same.To, two and too.

HyponymDescribes words that have a relationship with each other.A mango is a type of fruit.SUPERORDINATE is the umbrella word for a wordfamily, eg. fruit

Idiom

A word sequence whose meaning is not literal. Formulaic in that they are and understood as if they were a single unit.Metaphorical - a hot potatoRestricted collocations - pitch blackPhrasal Verbs - pick upFrozen Similes - as easy as pieBinomials and trionimals - spick and spanproverbs and catchphrases - waste not want noteuphemisms - spend a pennytrue - spill the beansUsed more often in informal and spoken than formal texts (ie. horoscopes that have a conversational tone)

ImperativeNon inflected base form of verb and normally without a subject. Negatives formed with DO NOT (DON'T)before the base form. Emphasise with DO. LET used to express first person plural meaning (suggestion).

Common in instructions, directions, suggestions.

Can be face threatening so indirect forms normally preferred with strangers. TPR is a good way of practising.

Infinitive

A non-finite form of a verb with "to" or without "to" (bare infinitive). Bare infinitive always follows modal verbs. Can bemarked for aspect and voice. Main uses:BARE INFINITIVEfollow modal verbsverbs like help, make, letverbs of perception - see, hearTO INFINITIVEsome verbs + reporting verbs - offer, remembersome nouns - It's time to be goingsome adjectives - I'm sorry to hearwh words - We don't know what to doexpress purpose - I stopped to look at the flowersSubject - To err is humanconstructions beginning "it + linking verb + adjective" - (It's easy to forget)

IntensifierAdverbs that modify adjectives and verbs by heighteningor lowering their intensity - rather, absolutely, very. Verycommon in spoken language and they signal highinvolvement on the part of the speaker.

Inversion

Where two grammatical elements are reversed, for example in a question. Less common are:after adverbial expressions of place - here comes the judge.reported speech - "You're late" said Terrycertain negative expressions - Seldom have I been so angry.substitute for if - Had I knownafter (not) only - Only then did I understandLast three uses are literary.

Lexical ItemAny item that functions as a single meaning unit,regardless of its different derived forms, or of the numberof words that make it up. e.g. idioms, phrasal verbs.

Lexical VerbDe-Lexicalised Verb

A content word that has some kind of dictionary meaning. I came, I saw, Iconquered are all lexical verbs.

A DE-LEXICALISED verb forms the verb element in a number of multi-wordexpressions and have little or no dictionary meaning - take, get, make and go.

Lexical WordContent Word

The main carriers of meaning in written and spoken texts. They belongto the four main WORD CLASSES and are the words that remain whenyou remove the FUNCTION WORDS. LEXICAL DENSITY measures theproportion of lexical words as opposed to function words. Newspaperreports often have a high density of lexical words.

Modal Verb

Most common way of expressing modality. There are 9 pure modal verbs thatdo not have infinitive forms, participles or third person "s". They are placedfirst in the verb phrase and each can express two kinds of meaning - extrinsicand intrinsic. The main meanings are possibility, volition, permission, ability,obligation, prediction, prediction, logical necessity. There are also semi-modalverbs - ought to, have to, need to, be able to, used to and be going to.

Modality

The lexical and grammatical ways speakers express their attitude to what theyare saying.EXTRINSIC = likelihood of situation (wonder, guess, think, perhaps, maybe,possibly, will, may, can)INTRINSIC = necessity or desirability (wish, promise, suggest, allow, hopefully,ideally, should, can, have to)

Modifier

Adds further information to or modifies the head of a noun phrase. It can go before or after thehead (pre-modifier and post-modifier). Pre-modifier - typical adjective, noun, possessivePost-modifier - typically prepositional phrase, of construction , non-finite clause or a relativeclause.Typical in journalism, technical and academic writing to form complex noun phrases to providea high lexical density.

MorphologyMorphology is the area of grammar concerned with the formation of words. The basic unit is the Morpheme.There are two branches:• INFLECTIONAL MORPHOLOGY describes the way that words are formed to convey different grammaticalmeaning, eg. verbs - play = she played - the addition of ed changes the meaning of the verb to past time.• DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY is concerned with the way lexical words are formed to change meaning,for example by affixation, eg. the verb help becomes an adjective with the addtion of the affix ful = helpful.

Negation

There are a variety of ways to express negation:Not negation - auxiliary + not (usually contracted)negative determiner - No thanksnot + time or quantity expression - not nownegative prounouns - nobody, nothingnegative words - never, neither, nornegative affixes - un, lessOrder of Acquisition:no + verbnot + verbdon`t + verboperator + not + verb

Noun

Largest word class in English constantly being added to. Refer to people,places, things, and abstract entities. Can occur as subject or object of verb andmost have singular/plural forms. Take 's to indicate possession. Often formedfrom affix to verb, adjective or other noun.PROPER - specific people, places,COMMON - countable and uncountable - concrete/abstract.

Noun Phrase

One of 5 types of phrase in English and typical form subject, object orcomplement of clause. Consist of a HEAD that is pre-or post-modifiedwith a determiner, adjective and other nouns. Post-modified includeprepositional phrases and relative clauses. Structure of noun phrasesdiffers from language to language and Ls have difficulty with word order.

ObjectThe person or thing in a clause that is affected by the action of the verb. It isusually a NOUN PHRASE or PRONOUN. Only TRANSITIVE verbs can takeobjects - some take two DIRECT and INDIRECT. I gave the book to Sally.An OBJECT QUESTION is a question without the object of the verb. What areyou doing later?

ParsingThe process of analysing sentences into their component parts andwas very common in traditional teaching. Used to describe theunconcious mental process a reader or listener works out thegrammatical structure of sentences/utterances.

Phrasal VerbA construction which is a combination of a verb and oneor two particles. The particle can be an adverb or apreposition or both, eg. get on, get on with.

Question Tag

A kind of yes/no question that is added to a statement. The tag consists of twowords, a subject pronoun and an auxiliary verb (or the form of the verb "tobe"). The function of question tags is to invite the addressee to respond to thestatement. A rising intonation is used when the speaker is uncertain of his/herstatement, and a falling intonation is used when the speaker expects thelistener to agree with the statement.

Relative Clause

A clause which is attached to a noun phrase, which it modifies bygiving extra information. It cannot stand alone. It is oftenintroduced by a pronoun such as who, which, that, etc. eg Therestaurant that we ate in last week has closed down; Jules, who leftbefore all the others, still had not arrived.

SubjectThe agent in a sentence or clause that causes the eventexpressed by the verb. In passive sentences, it is the thingor person affected by the action. eg. The thieves stole themoney. The money was stolen by thieves.