The Influence of Discourse Circumstances on the Grammatical Characteristics of Conversation
Conversation Takes Place in the Spoken Medium
Conversation takes place in speech - by use of an oral-auditory channel. Since the span of immediate memory in spoken language is usually somewhere in the neighbourhood of five [O.B. Sirotinina], conversation usually makes use of rather simple and short syntactic structures, e.g.:
Visitor: So if you don't have, ho, very much homework, now, what do you do when you get home from school?
Sarah: Hm. Music practice.
Visitor: On the piano?
Susan: Yes.
Sarah: Yes.
Visitor: How long do you practise?
Susan: About half an hour, er, about twenty minutes, half an hour.
Visitor: And how often do you go to music lessons?
Susan: Once ... twice a week.
Sarah: Twice a week.
Visitor: Twice a week?
Susan: Yes.
Sarah: Yes, Well, it's once a week and one extra if you're going to do exams, you see.
Visitor: Oh, I see (M. Underwood).
We are not completely at the mercy of this limited span, however, because we have a variety of techniques for getting around it [G.A. Miller]. The two most important of them are prefacing and adjunction. Both divide the clause frame into two more easily managed chunks. The preface concentrates the hearer's attention on the theme, the adjunct - on the rheme. Cf.:
And teenagers. Kissing each other on the sidewalk (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English) - preface.
I probably sounded a bit bad-tempered. But I felt a bit bad- tempered. Because he does just push on with these things. Without taking any advice (A Corpus of English Conversation) - adjunct.
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The verbal part of conversation is very important. But the verbal part of conversation is always accompanied by non-verbal behaviour. One kind of non-verbal behaviour involves the use of parts of the body, such as the face, hands, and arms. Hand movements, body postures, facial expressions, and so on either illustrate, supplement, and reinforce what we say or send their own messages of doubt or even denial of the accompanying words.
Another kind of non-verbal behaviour is melody (or intonation). It may be lively, vigorous, playful, cruel, sneering, strong, weak, angry, calm, arrogant, etc. It is the most perfect mirror of our self and our mood.
So, it is only a video recording that can give the analyst a full picture of informal conversation.
Informal Conversation is Typically Carried Out in Face-to-Face Interaction with People who Know One Another
Intimately
Hence, it is little influenced by the traditions of prestige and correctness often associated with the printed word, where the English language is 'on its best behaviour'. Instead, the style of conversation is overwhelmingly informal. The informal style of conversation finds its expression at various language levels. At the morphological level, it shows in the extensive use of verb and negative contractions and in the combination of ain 't and aren 't with the personal pronoun /. Cf.:
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That's what I've heard (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
/ don't know anything about Brazilian music (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
I ain't going to tell him (M. Swan).
I'm late, aren't 7? (M. Swan).
At the syntactic level, coordinators at the beginning of an orthographic sentence are in general much more frequent than in other registers, e.g.:
The chap lived in, erm, a semi-detached house. And next door there was a man who'd just bought a new car. And he was telling me that one morning he was looking through the window. And this man allowed his wife to drive the car very unwisely. And she was
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having a first go in it. And he backed it out of the garage, so that it was standing on the driveway. And he 'd closed the garage doors. And she came out of the house to take this car out and go shopping for the first time (D. Crystal, D. Davy).
Subject-verb discord between singular and plural, especially in the construction 'there is' with the contracted form of the verb is, is another syntactic feature which tends to attract censure in written English but is quite common in conversation, e.g.:
There's all those huge machines and stuff... (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
In some conversational material we find double negation, e.g.:
You haven't heard nothing yet (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
Conversation Takes Place in Shared Context
Since the interlocutors know each other, they share not just an immediate physical context of time and space, but a large amount of specific social, cultural, and institutional knowledge.
Consistent with the shared knowledge of the interlocutors, conversation has a high frequency of occurrence of
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1) deictic words,
2) 'sentence representatives' and "clause representatives',
3) sentencoids (especially with the syntagmatic zero),
4) 'communicatives'.
The most common deictic words are the personal pronouns / and you (because they refer directly to participants in the conversation), demonstrative determiners this/these, that/those, and pronominal numerals. Cf.:
Well, I don't know if 1 told you, ... told you that story about that woman, ... who, uh, went after that guy there? I told you that story, right*? (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
The shared context of conversation is also associated with the use of 'sentence representatives' and 'clause representatives'. Cf.:
And if you change, do people get upsefl - They do (M. Underwood) - 'sentence representative'.
Does she even have a b- a man"? - I guess she must (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English) — 'clause representative'.
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Another type of reliance on context shows in the use of sentencoids with the syntagmatic zero and 'communicatives'. Cf,:
Then how do the charges run7 - Twenty-five cents a half hour (W.F. Soskin) - sentencoid with a syntagmatic zero.
And is it noisy1? - No (M. Underwood) - 'communicative'.
Wow! What a fantastic dress (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English) - 'communicative'.
'Communicatives' cannot be fitted into canonical syntactic structures. These 'stand-alone' words rely heavily for their interpretation on situational factors, which may be expressed through language but also through other means. For example, Thanks or Sorry may be a follow-up to a non-verbal action, as well as to a verbal one.
Conversation Takes Place in Real Time
Conversation is typically spontaneous. Hence, speakers are faced with the need both to plan and to execute their utterances "on the fly'. Consequently, conversation is characterized by two features: the 'add-on' strategy [O.B. Sirotinina, D. Biber et al.] and normal dysfluency [D. Crystal, D. Davy].
Having no time to plan their utterances ahead, the participants in conversation create them step-by-step in accordance with the appearing associations, e.g.:
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Stick a label on them if necessary. When you leave (A Corpus of English Conversation).
There are different kinds of dysfluency:
1) utterance launchers,
2) silent pauses,
3) filled pauses,
4) repeats,
5) repair sequences,
6) syntactic blends,
7) utterances left grammatically incomplete.
Since the conversation is built on the principle of online production, its participants suffer from limited planning time. The use of utterance .launchers provides the speakers with a planning respite, during which the rest of the utterance can be prepared for execution, e.g.:
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Oh, I should have lei you read the paper, I never thought of it (D. Biber et al.).
The most obvious form of dysfluency is a hold-up in delivery, i.e. a hesitation.pause: a period of silence where the speaker appears to plan what to say next.
A filled...pause is occupied not by silence, but by a vowel sound, with or without accompanying nasalization, e.g.:
But, er, you 're teaching, erm, at a grammar school, aren 't you! - Yes. Yes (0. Crystal, D, Davy).
The choice between unfilled and filled pauses is conditioned by syntactic position. Unfilled pauses tend to occur at major points of transition, points where an utterance launcher (such as oh, well, or okay) is likely to occur. Filled pauses are devices for signalling that the speaker has not yet finished his or her turn, and for discouraging another speaker from taking the floor. Hence, a filled pause is most useful at a point of grammatical incompletion.
Repeats, in our opinion, can be regarded as a kind of filled pause. As a rule, one word or even less than one word is repeated, producing a momentary 'stutter' effect. Cf:
/ — / was just really amazed to hear that (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
They're made of rubber. - Th- that's it (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
The strongest tendency to recur in repeats show function words, especially personal pronouns in the nominative case, possessive determiners, and conjunctions. Prepositions form repeats much more seldom. D. Biber and his co-authors think that it is due to the fact that prepositions are often lexically predictable after a preceding noun, adjective, or verb.
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Apart from is, verbs show an extremely weak tendency to be repeated. One reason why they do not trigger repeats may be that subjects in conversation tend to be very simple, and may therefore constitute the main planning point for the whole of the subsequent clause including the verb phrase.
The repeat of is appears to be particularly prevalent when the subject preceding is is a full noun phrase and the predicate following it is a fairly heavy constituent, e.g.:
Now the problem is is that he couldn 't pass our level four (D. Biber et al.).
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Repeats of forms with verb contractions attached to personal pronouns are also frequent, e.g.:
Yes, i- it's, er, it's an enormous problem (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
D. Biber and his co-authors think that such contractions are processed by the speaker as single words.
Repair.seguerjces occur when the speaker 'erases' what has just been said, and starts again, this time with a different word or sequence of words, e.g.:
Guess kids ' bones, just like ... grow back really fast. ~ Yeah. I think they 're really soft to start with. - They 're made of rubber. Th- that's it. - That's why b-, little kids usually don 't break their legs anyway (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
The term syntactic ...blend is applied to a sentence or clause which finishes up in a way that is syntactically inconsistent with the way it began. The speaker 'switches horses in mid-stream', so to speak. The clauses concerned tend to be fairly long, which suggests that the speaker suffered from a kind of syntactic memory loss in the course of production, e.g.:
About a hundred, two hundred years ago we had ninety-five per cent of people - i - in this country were employed in farming (D. Biber et al).
Cf: About a hundred, two hundred years ago ninety-five per cent of people in this country were employed in farming.
Cf.: We had ninety-five per cent of people in this country employed in farming.
.Utt^aj^s_.J^__gr£mmatic^]y.._incsmpl[^. There are four situations where the speaker starts to utter a grammatical unit and fails to finish it.
1. Self-repair, e.g.:
That's such a neat, it's so nice to know the history behind it (D. Biber et at.).
2. Interruption, e.g.:
There 's a whole bunch of Saturdays. If you just put your ... — This is a Sunday (D. Biber et al.).
3. Completion by the hearer, e.g.:
They always have that (flexibility - I.P.), until they reach adulthood, in which case.. . - They get old and cranky like the rest of us (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
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4. Abandonment of the utterance, e.g.:
She has some kind of a... (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
Perfect fluency in informal conversation tends to produce the wrong effect - one gets labelled a 'smooth' talker, which rather suggests that dysfluency phenomena are of primary significance in determining the acceptability of conversation. Considered in its own situation (i.e. with gestures, facial expressions, and so on), conversation does not seem disjointed at all.
Conversation is Interactive
It means that the interlocutors constantly take part in the 'give and take' of the online dialogue. That's why questions and imperatives, that typically elicit a response, should be frequent in conversation. In English conversation, imperatives are few [D. Crystal, D. Davy] because English people do not think it polite to directly impose their will on the addressee [R. Wardhaugh]. As for questions, they are often used in English conversation, e.g.:
What kind of ice cream was thafl - Bad's (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
But it is hardly good manners to begin a conversation with asking a direct question. A common way of opening a conversation is to use an attention..signal, e.g.:
Say, Mom, have you got any paint rollers'? (D. Biberet. a!.),
English linguists refer to attention signals only imperative interjections. In our opinion, vocatives in the initial position also perform the function of attracting the attention of the addressee and, consequently, can be included into the class of attention signals, e.g.:
Sheila! Diner's at six o 'clock (English Course).
To attract the addressee's attention is the first step in any conversation. The main thing, however, is to keep his attention. For this purpose, the speaker resorts to response elicitors and expressions, such as you know, you see, and you understand.
Response. elicitors are question tags proper and their
inter]ectional equivalents, such as Huh? Eh? Alright? Right? Okay? Cf.:
Well, that would be nice to have a little jazz band next door, wouldn't if! - No (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
Hocano 's in the Philippines. Right! - Right (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
Phrases of the kind you know, you see, and you understand are clear indicators of the speaker's desire that the listener acknowledge that he still has his or her attention, e.g.:
And he's, you know, a year and a half year - years old. - Or two years (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
The role of the addressee in keeping the conversation going is even more important. If the speaker does not receive the so-called back channels from the addressee, the conversation gradually languishes [A. Wilkinson]. Given the interactive nature of conversation, back channels are important in indicating that speaker and addressee are keeping in touch with one another, and that communication is still in progress. Back channels are heterogeneous. The most important are:
1) attention signals,
2) agreement and approbation signals,
3) signals of emotional evaluation,
4) response elicitors.
Attention signals show to the speaker that the message is being understood and accepted, e.g.:
But we \e got quite a bright lot in our first year. The first year are much brighter, to my mind, than the second year. - Mm. - But they tell me the second year always go off (A Corpus of English Conversation).
Agreement .and..approbatiori,s.ignals show the speaker that the addressee supports his viewpoint, which is always pleasant to hear, e.g.:
What I - what I think he doesn't realize is that it's very largely because he's been building, erm, this land of peripheral thing in Appleby that it has gone down. - Yes. Yes. Yes (A Corpus of English Conversation).
Now, this isn 't according to grandpa now. - Okay (D. Biber et al.).
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Signalsjof emotional evaluation are more rare because English people are not inclined to wear their heart on their sleeve [W.J. Ball], e.g.:
I've got a big one (stamp - I.P.) which is about three inches by one inch. - Goodness me\ (M. Underwood).
Response.ehcitprs signal lack of understanding and a wish to have the message repeated, e.g.:
Look at that dead fish. - Huh! - That fish, Honey. Give me that little fish (W.F. Soskin).
If the addressee wants to change roles with the speaker, he usually begins his utterance with a hesitator or one of the above-mentioned back channels and then passes on to what he wants to say. Cf.:
I was in fact secretary to the Registrar of the Royal College of Music. And he organizes the whole set-up. Erm, so that the first week I had everyone coming in on me. - Erm, Frightful. Why did you leave? ~ Erm. Mainly cos I'd been there two - two years (A Corpus of English Conversation).
Well, I think this is a place where I-1 can get a cheap kettle. - Yes. Yes. I think I've got a plug. I'm not sure I haven't got a plug somewhere (A Corpus of English Conversation).
Conversation is Expressive of Politeness and Stance, i.e. Personal Attitudes or Feelings
Informal conversation is certainly more emotional than the other registers. In the first place, the common predicative adjectives in conversation are mostly evaluative, e.g.:
Did you hear I saw Sarah's sister's baby? ~ How is it? - She's cute, pretty really (D. Biber et al.).
In the second place, various types of intensifies are added to evaluative words. Cf.:
It's pretty funny (Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English).
Now if you've got three different age groups... It's terribly difficult (D. Crystal, D. Davy).
In the third place, endearments are rather common in conversation, e.g.:
Hello! Darling! Are you there? (BBC London Course).
At the more restrained end of the emotional spectrum are the interjections oh (often in combination with no), ah, wow and the mild expletives bloody and damn that have already turned into a kind of intensifier. Cf.:
I've forgotten my key. - Oh, no (BBC London Course). Will you lend me ten pounds'? - Not bloody likely (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).
Let's serve this damn chilli (D. Biber et al.). As for formulas of politeness, such as thanks, thank you, please, sorry, etc., and the polite openers in exchanges, such as requests, offers, etc., they do occur in informal conversation, but, in general, they are more characteristic of formal conversation. Cf: Have a good flight now. ~ Thanks (N. Church, A. Moss). Enjoy your stay here. - Thank you. (P. Viney). Two coffees and one lemonade, please. - Sorry, sir. No coffee (BBC London Course).
The bathroom light in my room doesn 't work. Could you have somebody come up and take a look at it, please1? - Oh, of course, Mr. Bourn (N. Church, A. Moss).
Telephone Conversation
Telephone conversation is, on the one hand, similar, on the other hand, different from ordinary conversation. Just like ordinary conversation, telephone conversation takes place in the spoken medium, is built on the principle of online production, and is interactive. But in contrast to ordinary conversation, which is typically carried out in face-to-face interaction with others, the participants in telephone conversation are not visible to each other. The absence of visual contact prompts speakers to assure themselves that the other person is still on the line. Similarly, it is usual for addressees to signal that they are attending to what is being said and can understand it. Visual feedback being absent, auditory cues become all-important. Anything approaching a silence on the part of one of the speakers is interpreted either as a breakdown of communication (Hello? Are you there?) or as an opportunity for interruption which may not have been desired. If delay is required, then voiced hesitation is usually introduced to 'fill the gap'.
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In view of the diminished quality of the voice over the telephone, there is a strong pressure for greater explicitness.
The conclusion that suggests itself is that telephone conversation and ordinary conversation are different only in degree, and that the former can be seen as a sub-province of the more general notion.
27. PUNCTUATION
To understand punctuation, a historical perspective is essential The modern system is the result of a process of thought over many centuries. Early classical texts were unpunctuated, with no spaces between words. The first marks were introduced in an age of oratory. They tended to reflect a division into sense-units that were expected to correlate at their boundaries with pauses in speech. Standardization gradually emerged after the introduction of printing in the 15th century. The present punctuation system for English was essentially in place during the second half of the 17th century. Still, the authors might punctuate the same text in very different ways. Some (e.g. Ch. Dickens) were very concerned about punctuation, and took great pains to check it when revising proofs; others (e.g. W. Wordsworth) left the task to their publishers. Even today, punctuation remains to some extent a matter of personal preference.
The punctuation system serves two broad purposes: separation and specification. Punctuation marks that serve the purpose of separation, in the opinion of R. Quirk and his co-authors, can be divided into two subclasses: those separating units of equal rank and those separating units of unequal rank. Punctuation marks that separate units of equal rank occur singly. Thus, in the following passage the point signals the end of the first sentence and therefore separates the two sentences:
The police asked me about him, I had never even heard of him (S. Sheldon).
Punctuation marks that set off included units (usually parenthetic) occur in pairs when the included unit is placed in the middle position and singly - when the included unit is placed either in the initial or final position within some larger unit. Cf.:
He comes, I think, tomorrow (P.H. Matthews).
To be frank, George isn 't very good at the job (Longman Essential Activator).
She's a year or two older than you, I should think (Longman Essential Activator).
Several punctuation marks have a specifying function. For example, the apostrophe is most frequently used to signal the genitive case of nouns. Cf.:
my father's car (M. Swan),
my parents' car (M. Swan).
In accordance with the two main functions of punctuation, D. Crystal suggests that two classes of punctuation marks should be distinguished: marks that separate constructions and marks that convey meaning. To the first class, he refers points, semi-colons, colons, commas, parentheses (or round brackets), square brackets, dashes, quotation marks, and hyphens. To the second class, he refers question marks, exclamation marks, and the apostrophe.
We side with S. Greenbaum, however, who thinks that most marks of specification have a dual function. On the one hand, they do specify the meaning of the construction. On the other hand, they separate one construction (or its part) from another. Thus, the point (commonly called 'full stop' in British English), the question mark, and the exclamation mark not only signal the end of a monopredicative or polycomponent syntactic unit but also tell the reader what kind of syntactic unit he has just finished reading: a statement, a question, or an emphatic expression. Statements do normally end in points, questions - in question marks, emphatic expressions - in exclamation marks. But the opposite is not true. A point may end not only statements but also inducements, polite requests, and even emphatic expressions because English people are taught to use exclamation marks sparingly. Cf.:
We do not suffer by accident (J. Austen) - statement.
Get up (D. Steel) - inducement.
Would you close the door as you leave. Fred (V. McClelland et al.) - polite request.
/ do understand what you mean (V. McClelland et al) -emphatic expression.
How nice of you to come (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English) - emphatic expression.
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A question mark may end not only questions but also polite requests, statements, and - occasionally - emphatic expressions. Cf.:
What's wrong'? (D. Steel) - question.
Will you phone me later, please? (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English) - polite request
How can I climb that? <= I can't climb it> (P.H. Matthews) -statement.
Why the hell should I got (E.A.M. Wilson) - emphatic expression.
Only the exclamation mark seems to be monofunctional Cf.:
What a tragedy that would be\ (The New Webster's Grammar Guide) - emphatic expression.
How pleased they were to see us\ (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English) - emphatic expression.
A sequence of three points is used for omissions in quotations and for hesitation or suspense. They are termed, accordingly, ellipses and hesitation points. Cf.:
I'd be happy to show... (D. Brown) - ellipses points.
What exactly were you telling me, Deanna? That it's over? -1 ... no ... 1... oh God\ (D. Steel) ~ hesitation points.
The omission may be at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the syntactic unit. If the omission comes at the end of a syntactic unit, a fourth period is commonly added (particularly in American English and for scholarly writing in British English) for the usual point, e.g.:
Fame is the spur.... (J. Milton).
Marks of Non-End Punctuation
The Semi-Colon
The semi-colon is below the point in the hierarchy. It cannot end a syntactic unit, but it can separate independent coordinate clauses closely connected in meaning when no conjunction is used, e.g.:
The sales staff meets every other Tuesday; the production staff meets only once a month (The New Webster's Grammar Guide).
The semi-colon may also be followed by a coordinator when either one or all the constituent independent clauses have internal punctuation. Cf.:
Billy, who is just three, ate his brother's candy; and this caused a terrible row when Henry got home (V. McClelland et al.) -the first clause has internal punctuation.
The president, a well-known man, predicted a cost of living increase for the first of the year; but his prediction, which spread throughout the plant, proved to be wrong (The New Webster's Grammar Guide) - both clauses have internal punctuation.
When two independent clauses are linked by conjunctive adverbs like however, therefore, in fact, on the other hand, you must use a semi-colon before the connectives. A comma usually follows these connectives, e.g.:
A new store would bring in more business; however, we just don't have enough capital to expand now (V. McClelland et al.).
Another use of the semi-colon is to separate items in a list introduced by such words as in other words, for example, for instance, that is, and namely. A comma is placed after these words. Cf.:
In one respect, government policy has been firmly decided; that is, there will be no conscription (R. Quirk et al.).
There are several good reasons; for example, you 've never seen the city, and you don't know the company (V. McClelland et al.).
If the items in a list do not make complete clauses, it is better to separate them by a comma, e.g.:
Clare has many good points, for example, poise, talent, ambition, and intelligence (V. McClelland et al.).
According to the New Webster's Grammar Guide, the use of a semi-colon in this case is also possible, e.g.:
These special artist's pencils are available in three colors; namely, red, green, and blue (The New Webster's Grammar Guide).
The Colon
The colon, a rather infrequent punctuation mark, indicates a closer interdependence between the units separated than does the semi-colon.
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In the opinion of S. Greenbaum, the colon has three major functions:
1) to introduce identifications,
2) to introduce examples,
3) to introduce, especially in formal style, quotations or direct
speech. Cf:
Today they face a further threat to their survival: starvation (S. Greenbaum).
The cake called for unusual ingredients: mace, citron, and coffee (V. McClelland et al.).
In her review of the new film, Rona Barrett says '"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is about mental institutions. By the end of the movie you will be thinking of the cuckoos in your own nest' (V. McClelland et al.).
Atkinson said yesterday: Tm happy here. * (S. Greenbaum).
A comma would be more usual than a colon in the last example, where the direct speech consists of just one short monopredicative syntactic unit and the style is not formal.
Parentheses. Dashes, Brackets
Occasionally, you may want to insert into a syntactic unit words that sharply interrupt its normal word order. In such cases, you will need stronger separators than commas. There are three special marks of punctuation you can use to set off or enclose these abrupt interruptions: parentheses (or round brackets), dashes, and square brackets.
Parentheses indicate the greatest degree of separation between the enclosed word, word group, or clause and the rest of the syntactic unit, e.g.:
Jim's wool jacket (we bought it last week) keeps him warm in sub-zero weather (V. McClelland et al.).
The dash indicates greater separation than the comma, but less than parentheses. The dash may mark an abrupt change of thought or structure in a syntactic unit, e.g.:
/ was certain that the manager - indeed all of the office force - wanted John to receive the promotion (The New Webster's Grammar Guide).
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The dash may be used to indicate a summarizing thought or an afterthought added to the end of the syntactic unit e.g.:
We 'II be arriving on Monday morning - at least I think so (M. Swan).
The dash may be used to set off a word or word group repeated for emphasis, e.g.:
We invited them for one meeting - one meeting only - not for the entire convention\ (The New Webster's Grammar Guide).
Square brackets have two common uses. First, they are used to enclose material added by someone other than the writer; for example, editorial additions or comments:
The poet [Robert Browning] did not approve of the excessive adulation during the meeting (The New Webster's Grammar Guide).
Second, square brackets are used to set off interrupting elements that occur in material already enclosed by parenthesis,
e.g.:
Your order (including items No. 391, No. 394, and No. 286 [No. 288 was out of stock/) was filled last week (The New Webster's Grammar Guide).
Commas may also be used to set off parenthetic words, word groups, and clauses. No strict rules can be stated when this or that punctuation mark should be used. The authors of The New Webster's Grammar Guide advise to use dashes for visual effect; commas — if the material is short; parentheses - when the material is long.
V. McClelland, J.D. Reynolds, MX. Steel and I. Guillory are of opinion that parentheses and square brackets tend to give our writing a scholarly formal tone. As for dashes, they suggest surprise or emotion and give our writing a more casual tone.
Quotation Marks
Direct quotations and direct speech are always enclosed in quotation marks. Quotation marks come in pairs. They may be single or double. In British English, there is an increasing tendency to employ single marks as the norm and double marks for quotations within quotations. In American English, in contrast, double marks are the norm and single marks are used for quotations
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within quotations. In British English, the closing punctuation mark is put outside the quotation marks. In American English, the final quotation marks always follow a point or a comma.
If direct speech extends over more than one paragraph, the convention is to place opening quotation marks at the beginning of each paragraph and closing quotation marks only at the end of the final paragraph. Short quotations are usually introduced by a comma, long quotations - by a colon.
The Comma
Commas are by far the most frequently occurring non-end punctuation marks within monopredicative and polycompnent syntactic units.
Commas within Monopredicative Syntactic Units
Within monopredicative syntactic units, commas fulfil two functions.
1. They separate a series of three or more words or word groups. The comma before the last item is optional provided that it is preceded by the conjunction and. e.g.:
She bought eggs, butter, cheese, bread, rice (,) and coffee (R. Quirk etal.).
But since using a comma before the conjunction is never wrong and not using it may cause problems, V. McClelland, J.D. Reynolds, ML. Steet and I. Guillory advise to put it in every time. As for the authors of The New Webster's Grammar Guide, they think that a comma should always be placed before the conjunction in joining the last two members of a series.
Some words are customarily used in pairs: ham and eggs, bread and butter, etc. When these pairs occur with other items in a series, they are set off with commas just as one item, e.g.:
Joey served soup, bread and butter, pudding, and milk (V. McClelland etal.)-
But if the items are considered separately, they are set off by commas, e.g.:
Reva bought soda, pickles, bread, and butter (V. McClelland et al).
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When all the items in a series are joined by coordinators, no commas are used, e.g.:
Rex wagged his tail and yapped and shook for joy (V. McClelland et al.).
2. The comma is used to separate adjectives which modify the
same noun and which allow the introduction of the coordinator and,
e.g.:
The mayor's sister is a tall, frail woman (V. McClelland et al.). —* The mayor's sister is a tall and frail woman.
But look at the word dark in the sentence Ettie crocheted her mother a dark green sweater (V. McClelland et al.). Here the adjective dark modifies the adjective green. That's why they should not be separated by a comma.
3. The comma is used to set off words or word groups
expressing contrast, e.g.:
It's a cat, not a dog (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).
You may be excused from the conference this time, but never again (The New Webster's Grammar Guide).
4. The comma is used to separate a word (or word group) from
the rest of the syntactic unit when it is inverted or out of its natural
order, e.g.:
For me, it will mean extra work and less pay (The New Webster's Grammar Guide).
Commas within Complicated Syntactic Units
In complicated syntactic units, commas set off non-clausal syntactic units in the function of loose parts of the sentence and parenthetic elements. Loose attributes and appositives are used after the noun they modify; loose adverbials and situational modifiers occur in the initial position. Loose adverbials and situational modifiers can be expressed by prepositional phrases, participial phrases, and participial predicative constructions. Parenthetic non-clausal units, in addition to modal and connective elements, comprise also phatic elements that do not form a separate sense-unit and lack an independent intonation contour. They include interjections., words in direct address, and formulas of etiquette. Cf:
393
The scraggly pine, grotesque and barren in the cold moonlight, leered down at the panic-stricken hikers (E. C. Aiward, J.A. Alward) - loose attribute.
Sally, my neighbour, is a teacher (B.C. Alward, J.A. Alward) - loose appositive.
Running easily, the fox outdistanced the dogs (V. McClelland et al.) - loose adverbial expressed by a participial phrase.
After a long illness, Mary returned to work (V. McClelland et al.) - loose situational modifier expressed by a prepositional phrase.
Having fatten asleep on the train, I missed my station (E.G. Alward, J.A. Alward) - loose situational modifier expressed by a participial phrase.
The rain having stopped, we went to lunch (The New Webster's Grammar Guide) - loose situational modifier expressed by a participial predicative construction.
Fortunately, Charles caught the bus (D. Crystal) - modal parenthetic element.
Nuclear power is relatively cheap. On the other hand, you could argue that it's not safe (Longman Language Activator) -connective parenthetic element.
Oh, I can't explain now (I. Shaw) - phatic parenthetic element: interjection.
My dear, you flatter me (J. Austen) - phatic parenthetic element: direct address,
Tea or coffee? - Coffee, please (P. Viney) - phatic parenthetic element: formula of etiquette.
Commas within Poly component Syntactic Units Based on Coordination and Accumulation
1. The comma is used to separate independent clauses joined by one of the coordinators (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet, while, and whereas), e.g.:
Emma's courage returned, and she walked on (J. Austen).
If the clauses of a polycomponent syntactic unit joined by coordination are very short and closely connected, the comma may be omitted, e.g.:
I play or I listen to music (I. Shaw).
394
The use of a comma without a coordinator between the independent clauses is called the comma fault. Instead of the comma in this case it is necessary to use the semi-colon.
When the independent clauses of a polycomponent syntactic unit based on coordination are very long or have internal punctuation, a semi-colon is generally used before the coordinator, e.g.:
Copyboy, take this folder to Alan Toms, the fellow in brown over there; and be sure to come back (The New Webster's Grammar Guide).
2. The comma is used to separate independent clauses joined by accumulation, for example:
a) a declarative clause and an interrogative clause in a
disjunctive question:
You don't like fish, doyou7 (M. Swan);
b) the words of affirmation and negation and 'sentence
representatives' in short answers to ''yes/no questions':
Do you know York? - Yes, Ida (P. Viney);
c) the words introducing direct speech:
He said, "They are not here' (The New Webster's Grammar Guide).
Commas within Polyprecomponent Syntactic Units Based on Subordination
Within polycomponent syntactic units based on subordination commas fulfil two functions.
1. They set off dependent clauses when they precede the
matrix clause, e.g.:
When she got home, she walked into the bedroom without saying a word, undressed, turned out the light and got into bed (S. Sheldon).
A dependent clause that follows the matrix clause is usually not set off by a comma, e.g.:
She got the job because she was the best candidate (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).
2. They set off non-restrictive relative clauses that never occur
in the initial position, e.g.:
My father, who is very sorry, can't come (P.H. Matthews).
395
According to R. Quirk and his co-authors, punctuation is governed primarily by grammatical considerations. Hence, there is less room in punctuation than in prosody for personal decision in the use of the various devices. Punctuation marks tend to be used according to fairly strict conventions.
There are two important qualifications to the foregoing generalizations. In the first place, there is a great deal of flexibility in the use of the comma: in its presence or absence, or in its replacement by other marks. The comma provides considerable opportunity for personal taste and for implying fine degrees of cohesion and separation. Secondly, the conventions as a whole are not followed as rigorously in manuscript use, especially personal material, such as private letters.
Punctuation of Words
The Apostrophe
The apostrophe has three main uses: 1) to signal the genitive case of nouns, 2) to indicate a contraction, and 3) to pluralize letters, figures, signs, symbols, and words taken out of context or referred to as words.
1. The main use of the apostrophe is to signal the genitive case of nouns. The general rule is that to form the genitive singular we add an apostrophe and an s; to form the genitive plural we add an apostrophe only. Cf.:
her daughter's career (S. Greenbaum),
my parents' car (S. Greenbaum).
If the plural does not end in an s, we form the genitive plural by adding an apostrophe and an A1, e.g.:
the people's opinions (S. Greenbaum).
There are a few exceptions to the general rules.
Singular common nouns ending in an 5 sound that combine with the word sake take the apostrophe alone, e.g.:
for goodness' sake (S. Greenbaum).
In British English, the apostrophe may be omitted.
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There is a divided usage over singular proper nouns ending in -s. Some follow the general rule for the singular: Dickens 's novels (S. Greenbaum), but make an exception for Moses and Jesus., because the two words have already two s letters: Jesus' teachings (S. Greenbaum) and traditionally also for Greek names of more than one syllable that end in -5: Socrates' death (S. Greenbaum). Others use only an apostrophe in all these cases, e.g.:
Dickens' novels (S. Greenbaum).
Plural proper names follow the general rule for plurals ending in -s by taking only the apostrophe, e.g.:
the Thompsons' new house (S. Greenbaum).
The group genitive is attached at the end of a modifying o/-phrase, e.g.:
the Queen of England's wealth (S. Greenbaum).
The genitive is also attached at the end of coordinate nouns that constitute a unit, e.g.:
Norman and Alice's wedding (G. Greenbaum).
The genitive noun may be used without a following noun, especially when it refers to a place, e.g.:
I'm going to the dentist's (S. Greenbaum).
From this use they have developed plural forms for large companies - without the apostrophe, e.g.:
They 're shopping at Harrods (S. Greenbaum).
2. The apostrophe often takes the place of missing letters in
contractions. Cf.:
I'll call the police*. (D. Brown).
I'm trying to check my email (H. Fielding).
Don't be sulky now (H, Fielding).
3. Plurals of letters are usually formed by adding an
apostrophe and s, e.g.:
To have all B ** and A's on a college transcript is exceptional (E.G. Alward, J.A. Alward).
Plurals of figures, signs, symbols, and words taken out of context or referred to as words can be formed either by adding the 's or simply s. Cf.:
The space age started in the early 1960's (E.G. Alward, J.A, Alward).
The space age started in the early 1960s (E.G. Alward, J.A. Alward).
397
You have five and's in this sentence (E.G. Alward, J.A. Alward).
You have five ands in this sentence (E.G. Alward, J.A. Alward).
Nowadays, more and more writers add just s.
Hyphens
The main function of the hyphen is to link words that form compound words. Compounds may be 'open', i.e. written as separate words (e.g.: washing machine), 'hyphenated', i.e. linked by a hyphen (e.g. tax-free), or 'solid', i.e. written as one word (e.g. handkerchief).
Also to be considered are hyphens that attach some prefixes to an existing word to form a new word (e.g. ex-husband).
American English tends to use fewer hyphens than British English.
1. In compounds used attributively (i.e. to modify a following
noun), a hyphen is inserted if it is needed to clarify which words
belong together, e. g.:
A first-class performance (S. Greenbaum).
The hyphen is not needed if the two words do not corne before the noun, e.g.:
Your performance was first class (S. Greenbaum).
It is also not needed if the first word is an adverb ending in -ly and can therefore be recognized as modifying the second word, e.g.:
A tastefully furnished room (S. Greenbaum).
An adverb or adjective preceding an attributive compound is not hyphenated, e.g.:
A very well-known artist (S. Greenbaum).
2. Adjective compounds built on the pattern 'adjective or noun
+ noun + ed suffix' are generally hyphenated if they come after a
noun, but they are also sometimes written solid. Cf:
There 'd be fewer accidents if all road-users were more safety- minded (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).
He's only 24, but he behaves as if he's already middle-aged (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).
Compounds, such as middle-aged, are not written solid, to avoid juxtaposing the vowels.
398
3. Most adjective compounds whose second word is an -ing or
-ed participle are either hyphenated or more usually (especially in
American English) written solid even when they come after a noun.
Cf:
Our teacher is very easy-going; she doesn 't mind if we turn up late (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).
Try one of these homemade cookies (Longman Language Activator).
4. Noun compounds built on the pattern 'verb with an -er or
-ing suffix + adverb' are hyphenated. Cf:
passer-by (A.S. Hornby et al.),
summing-up (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English). If the first word is without these suffixes, the compound may be either hyphenated or not. Cf:
break-in (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English), breakdown (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).
5. Compounds expressing an land' relation are hyphenated.
Cf:
tragic-comic (S. Greenbaum), deaf-mute (S. Greenbaum). 5. Number compounds are hyphenated, e.g.: twenty-one (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English). But:
two hundred miles (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).
Note the use of hyphens for attributive use, e.g.:
a one-day-old baby (S. Greenbaum),
20-odd years (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).
7. Compounds in which the first element is a simple capital
are hyphenated, e.g.:
She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).
8. A hyphen is usual after a few prefixes, e.g.:
my ex-wife (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English). A hyphen is usual if the prefix precedes a capital or a digit. Cf:
pre-1960s (S. Greenbaum), anti-English (S. Greenbaum), un-American (S. Greenbaum).
399
A hyphen is required to distinguish different words. Cf.:
re-form <- form again> (S. Greenbaum).
reform <= improve> (G. Greenbaum).
In British English, a hyphen is sometimes used to prevent mispronunciation, e.g.: co-operation, pre-eminent, but there is an increasing tendency to follow the American practice of writing such words solid.
9. Two or more hyphenated words may be linked. Since the final word of the compound word, in this case, is common to two or more of the preceding parts of the series, the hyphens are referred to as suspending hyphens. Cf.:
He ordered five-, eight-, and ten-penny nails (E.G. Alward, J.A. Alward).
Pro- and anti-Vietnam demonstrations (S. Greenbaum).
CONTENTS
MORPHOLOGY
1. Introduction.................................................................. 3
2. Morphological Units..................................................... 7
3. Grammatical Category, Meaning, andForm................ 10
4. Parts of Speech........................................................... 24
5. The Noun................................................................... 35
6. The Adjective............................................................. 60
7. The Adverb................................................................ 78
8. The Verb.................................................................... 84
9. Non-Finite Forms of the Verb.................................. 124
10. The Pronoun....................................................... ....148
11. The Numeral................................................... ,...... 156
12. Function Words....................................................... 163
13. The Article.............................................................. 179
SYNTAX
1. Types of Syntactic Connection................................. 191
2. Word and Word Form.............................................. 202
3. Word Combination................................................... 203
4. Essence of Predication.............................................. 212
5. Finite Dependent Clauses......................................... 213
6. Non-Finite Dependent Clauses.................................. 222
7. Independent Clauses................................................. 224
8. Non-Predicative Syntactic Units................................ 225
9. Types of Predicative Syntactic Units........................ 225
10. Structural Classifications of Predicative Syntactic
Units....................................................................... 230
11. Sentence Models..................................................... 237
12. The Subject............................................................ 257
13. The Predicate.......................................................... 262
14. The Determiner....................................................... 271
15. The Object............................................................. 272
16. The Adverbial........................................................ 278
17. The Attribute.......................................................... 283
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