Grammar

1.1 Definition of "sentence"

Here are some Recursive definitions of complex sentences:
– Simple sentence:
● A sentence is a simple sentence
– The Pepsi worker allegedly assaulted the Coca-Cola employee.
– Coordinating sentence:
● A sentence is a sentence linked with a sentence by means of a
coordinating conjunction
– An assembly worker hid screws in a specially designed hiding place
and took up to 7,000 home with him every day.
– Subordinating sentence:
● A sentence is a sentence with a subordinate simple sentence
(clause) inserted into it
– e.g. relative clause, adverbial clause
– A car dealership owner killed two employees because they kept asking
for more pay.
– Exclusion condition:
● Nothing else is a sentence.

2. Syntagmatic vs. Paradigmatic Relations

From the above diagramme, we came across "Syntactic categories (parts of speech)":

● Nominal categories:
– Nouns

● Proper nouns:
– names:
● personal
● place
● product
● ...
● Common nouns:
– Countable nouns:
● knife, fork, spoon
– Mass nouns (uncountable nouns):
● bread (a slice of bread)
● butter (a piece of butter)
● jam (a spoonful of jam)

– Pronouns (special glue: co-reference)

● Personal pronouns:
– I/me, you, he/him, she/her, we/us, they
● Possessive pronouns:
– mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs
● Demonstrative pronouns
– proximal: this
– distal: that, yonder (archaic)
● Quantifier pronouns
– cardinal numerals: one, two, ...
– existential: some, several, few, many, ...
– dual: both
– universal: each, every, all, ...
● Relative pronouns
– more like conjunctions

– Determiners

● Articles:
– definite: the
– indefinite: a
● Possessives:
– my, your, his, her, its, our, their
● Demonstratives:
– proximal: this
– distal: that
● Quantifiers:
– cardinal numerals: one, two, ...
– existential: some, several, few, many, ...
– dual: both
– universal: each, every, all, ...

– Adjectives

– scalar: (can be restricted by adverbs of degree such as very, much, highly, etc.)
● small ... big
● cold ... hot
● hairless ... hairy
– polar:
● alive / dead
● married / unmarried
– appraisive (scalar or polar?):
● good
● great
● wonderful
– ordinal:
● first, second, ...

● Verbal categories:
– Verbs

● Main verbs:
– finite forms:
● person (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
● number (singular, plural)
● tense (present, past)
– non-finite forms
● infinitive
● participle:
– present
– perfect

● Periphrastic verbs (auxiliary verb + non-finite main verb):
– modal: can, may, will, shall, ought, ...
– aspectual: be+prespart(continuous), have+pastpart(perfect)
– passive: be+pastpart

*Properties of verbs

● Internal structure:

– simple:
● stem + inflection
– periphrastic:
● auxiliary verb sequence + main verb
– might have been being repaired

● External structure of verbs:

– Intransitive
– Transitive
– Ditransitive
– Prepositional
– Phrasal
– Sentential

– Adverbs

● Deictic:
– here, there; now, then
● Time:
– soon
● Place:
– source
– path
– goal
● Direction
– into, ...
– towards
● Manner
● Degree
– better dealt with in connection with adjectives

● Glue categories:
– Prepositions (intra-sentence glue)

● Basically - make nominal expressions into adverbial
expressions
● Pretty much categories as adverbs
● Except the “all purpose preposition” of

– Conjunctions (inter-sentence glue)

● Co-ordinating conjunctions:
– and, but
● Subordinating conjunctions:
– conjunction-like relative pronouns: wh- in "the table, which is in red"
● make sentences (clauses) into adjective-like noun modifiers
– basically: when in "He comes in, when the bell rings."
● make sentence (clauses) into adverb-like verb modifiers

– Interjections (dialogue glue)

● Interjections link parts of dialogues together:
– “Hi!”
– “er”
– “huh?”
● They may also be expressions of subjective reactions:
– “Ouch!”
– “Wow!”

All above are quoted from the notes of the lecture given by Dr. Gibbon.

Homework

● Describe as many syntactic facts as possible about the example text - parts of speech, sentence types, syntagmatic relations, paradigmatic relations ...

A McDonald's employee was arrested, jailed and is facing criminal charges because a police officer got sick after a hamburger he ate was too salty. The employee accidentally spilled salt on some hamburger meat and told her supervisor and co-worker, who "tried to thump the salt off." The employee was charged because she served the burger "without regards to the well-being of anyone who might consume it."
www.CNN.com, 2007-12-10

Evaluation

This lecture is not very hard for me, except the two relations seem a bit confused.

Reference

• Gibbon, Dafydd. "Grammar." 03.12.2007. University of Bielefeld. 04.12.2007 <http://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/~gibbon/Classes/Classes2007WS/HTMD/htmd08-v01-grammar.pdf>.