G. Penakova - English Morphology

1
Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Word
1.1 Morphemic Structure of the Word
1.2. Categorial Stuctue of the Word
1.. Grammatical Classes and Functional Series of Words
2.. Exercises
Chapter 2. The Noun
2.1. General Characteristics
2.1.1.
Semantic Classification
2.1.2.
Form
2.1.3.
Syntactic Functions
2.2. Semantic Changes Reflected in the Grammatical Form of Nouns
2.3. 2.2.1. Types of Shift
2.4. Proper Noun - Common Noun
2.2.1.1.
Common noun - Proper Noun
2.2.1.2.
Countable noun - Uncountable Noun
2.2.1.3.
Uncountable noun Countable Noun
2.2.1.4.
2.2.2. Linguistic Devices
Bringing About Shifts
2.2.1.5.
Exercises
2.2.1.6.
2.3.
Article
Determination
2.2.1.7.
2.3.1 Structure of the
Noun Phrase
2.3.2.
Grammatical Determiners
2.3.3.
Articles
2.3.3 1. Noun Reference
2.3.3.2.
Articles with Common Nouns Used with Specific Reference
2.3.3.3.
Articles with Common Nouns Used with Generic Reference
Exercises
2.3.3.4.
Articles with Proper Nouns Used with Unique Reference
2.4. Number
2.4.1.
Defining the Category
2.4.2.
Grammatical Markers of Plurality
2.4.3.
Invariable Nouns
2.4.4.
Nouns of Differentiated Plural
2.4.5.
Subject - Verb Concord of Number
Exercises
2.5. Gender
2.5.1. Defining the Category

2.5.1.
Gender Classes
2.5.3. Personification
2.5.4. Gender Bias in the Use of Gender Sensitive Pronouns
Exercises
2.6. Case
2.6.1. Case Theories
2.6.1.1. The Theory of Positional Cases
2.6.1.2. The Theory of Prepositional Cases
2.6.1.3. The Theory of the Possessive Postposition
2.6.1.4. The Limited Case Theory
2.6.3. Structural Types of Genitive Phrase
2.6.4. Semantic Types of Genitive Phrase
2.6.4.1. Specifying Genitive
2.1.4.2. Descriptive Genitiv
Exercises
Chapter 3. The Adjectiv
3.1. Semantics
3.2.3.2. Form
3.3.3.2.1 Word-building Patterns
3.4.3.2.2. Grammatical Paradigm
3.5.3.2.3 Adjectives Can Be Substantivized
3.6.3.3. Structure of the Adjective Phrase
3.7.3.4. Syntactic Function of Adjectives
3.8.3.4.1. Noun Modifier
3.9.3.4.2 Predicative
3.10.
3.4.3 Subject Complement
3.11.3.4.4. Object Complement
3.12.
3.4.5 Verbless Adjective Clause
3.13.
3.4.6. Heads of Noun Phrases
3.14.
3.4.7 Exclamatory Sentences
3.15.
3.5. Order of Adjectives
3.16.
Exercises
Chapter 4. The Adverb 4.1. Semantics
4.2. Form
4.2.1.
Word Building
4.2.2.
Comparison
4.3. Syntactic Functions
4.4. 4.3.1 Adverbial Modifier
4.5. 4.3.1.1 Adjunct
4.3.1.2. Subjunct 4.3.1.3. Disjunct
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4.3.1.4. Conjunct
4.3.2.
Noun Modifier
4.3.3.
Complement of Preposition
4.3.4.
Clause Introducer
4.3.5.
Adverb Particles in Phrasal Verbs
4.3.6.
Exercises
Chapter 5. The Preposition
6.1. Defining the Functional Series
6.2. Prepositional Phrases
6.3. Prepositional Meanings
6.3.4..
Grammaticalized Prepositions
6.3.5..
5.5. Metaphorical Use of
Prepositions
6.3.6..
5.6. Choice of Prepositions
5.7. Prepositions and Adverb Particles Exercises
Chapter 6. The Verb
6.l.l. Lexico-grammatical Classification of Verbs
6.1.2. Semantic Classification of Full Verbs
6.1.3. Word building Patterns
6.1.4. Grammatical Paradigms
6.1.4.1. Finite Verb Forms
6.1.4.2. Non-finite Verb Forms
6.1.5. Syntactic Valency
6.1.6. Syntactic Functions
6.1.6.1. Finite Verb Forms and Phrases
Exercises
6.2. Modality
6.2.1.
Modal Verb Phrases
6.2.2.
6.2.1.1 General Characteristics
6.2.3.
6.2.1.2. Modal Meanings
6.2.4.
Mood
6.2.2.1.
The Indicative
6.2.2.2.
The Imperative
6.2.2.3.
The Subjunctive
6.2.2.4.
Exercises
6.3. Tense
6.3.1.
6.3.2.
Meanings of the Past Tense Form
6.3.2.1.
Verbs of Non-state
6.3.2.2.
Verbs of State
211
6.3.3.
6.3.3.1.
6.3.3.2.
Meanings of the Present Tense Form

Verbs of Non-state
Verbs of State
6.3.4.
Means of Expressing Future Time Reference
6.3.5.
6.3.4.1. Will + Simple Infinitive
6.3.4.2.
Will + Perfect Infinitive
6.3.4.3.
Will + Progressive Infinitive
6.3.4.4.
Shall + Simple Infinitive
6.3.4.5.
6.3.4.5. Shall + Perfect Infinitive
6.3.4.6.
Shall + Progressive Infinitive
6.3.4.7.
Be going to + Infinitive
6.3.4.8.
Present Progressive Forms
6.3.4.9.
6.3.4.9. Present Simple Forms
6.3.4.10.
6.3.4.10. Be about to + Infinitive
6.3.4.11. Be on the point of + Gerund
6.3.5. Tense in Conditional Sentences
6.3.5.1 Zero Conditional
6.3.5.2. First Conditional
6.3.5.3. Second Conditional
6.3.5.4. Third Conditional
6.3.6. Verb Forms and Phrases in Reported Speech
6.3.6.1.
Indicate Mood Forms
6.3.6.2.
Imperative Mood Forms
6.3.6.3.
Subjunctive Mood Forms
6.3.6.4.
Verb Forms and Phrases in Conditional Sentences
Exercises
6.4. Aspect
6.4.1.
Forms and Meanings
6.4.2.
Aspect and Other Categories of the Verb
6.4.3.
Exercises
6.5. Voice
6.5.1. Forms and Meanings
6.5.2. Types of Passive Structures
6.5.3.
Voice Constraints
6.5.4.
Exercises
6.5.5.
Grammatical Meaning of the Non-finite Verb
Forms
6.6. Exercises
Key to Exercises
References
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Chapter 1
The Word
1.1. Morphemic Structure of the Word
The word is decomposable into morphemes. The morpheme is
identifiable only as part of the word. The functions of the morpheme
are constituent functions of the word. For example, the comparative
degree form of the adjective is constructed by means of the
grammatical ending -er. But it is identified as such only when it is
attached to the stem of an adjective. The grammatical form produced in
this way functions in a ternary opposition with the common degree
form (bare stem) and the superlative degree form (built up by means
of the grammatical ending -est):
e.g. fast - faster - fastest
In other linguistic environment, however, the morpheme -er is
identifiable as a word-building suffix. Attached to the stem of a verb,
it helps produce a noun denoting the doer of the verbal action:
e.g. to teach - a teacher
Two positional varieties of morphemes can be distinguished central morphemes (roots) and marginal morphemes (affixes and
grammatical endings). Roots, affixes and grammatical endings
perform different functions, which means that they express different
meanings (in grammar, 'function' is synonymous to 'meaning'). Roots
bear the concrete part of the meaning of the word. Affixes denote
information concerning the grammatical class to which the word
belongs. Grammatical endings express different grammatical
meanings. For example, the word form 'enables' is decomposable into
the following morphemes:
en- - affix producing verbs
-able
- root bearing the concrete part of the
meaning
-s - grammatical ending, present tense, 3rd person
e.g. enables = makes able
When we remove the grammatical ending, what remains is the stem
of the word. Each word contains a root morpheme. Therefore, simple
stems consist of the root morpheme only:
e.g. I speak fast.
Affixes can be subdivided into prefixes, suffixes and infixes
according to their location in relation to the root. Prefixes occupy a
position before the root morpheme: e.g. dislike dis- + -like. Suffixes
are placed after the root morpheme: e.g. widen wid- + -en. Infixes
are inserted into the root morpheme: e.g. stand -n- was inserted into
the Latin root 'sisto'.
Derived stems contain one root morpheme and some affix (es):
e.g. childless, immortal
Compound stems include two or more root morphemes:
e.g. do-it-yourself
The correlation between the form and function of morphemes is

exposed by the 'allo-emic' theory of Descriptive Linguistics. This
theory describes lingual units by means of allo-terms and eme-terms.
Eme-terms refer to the invariant units of language at each level of
language description: phoneme, morpheme, syntagmeme, lexeme.
Allo-terms refer to the variants (specific realizations) of the invariant
units in different environments: allophone, allomorph, allolex. The
allo-emic theory is put into practice through the distributional analysis.
The distribution of a lingual unit is a concept covering the
environments of that unit. Analysing the distribution of a lingual unit
on the morphemic level with reference to form, we have to
discriminate phonemic distribution of morphemes from morphemic
distribution of morphemes. With phonemic distribution of morphemes,
the choice of a morpheme depends on the preceding phoneme: e.g.
hooks, boxes. With mor-phemic distribution of morphemes, the choice
of a morpheme depends on the preceding morpheme: e.g. boxes, oxen.
Three types of distribution of a lingual unit should be distinguished
with reference to function: contrastive, non-contrastive and
complementary. Morphemic units distributionally ncharacterized are
called morphs. Two morphs are in contrastive distribution if their
environments are identical but their meanings (functions) are different,
e.g. loves loved. Such morphs belong to different morphemes: -s
denotes 3rd person singular Present tense, -ed denotes Past tense. Two
morphs are in non-contrastive distribution if their environments are
identical and their meaning (function) is the same. Such morphs are free
variants of the same morpheme: e.g. burned = burnt - Past tense. Two
formally different morphs are in complementary distribution if their
environments are different but their meaning (function) is the same.
Such morphs are considered to be allomorphs of the same morpheme.
A well-know example is the plural morpheme of English nouns with
its allomorphs: books, boxes, oxen, etc. The concept of the
complementary distribution makes it possible to identify grammatical
elments.
1.2. Categorial Structure of the Word
211
Grammatical elements express grammatical meanings. Grammatical

meanings are abstract. They characterize a whole class of words. Each
grammatical form of the word expresses some individual grammatical
meaning, which is compatible with the lexical meaning of the word.
All the grammatical forms of the word constitute its grammatical
paradigm. The individual grammatical meanings of correlated
paradigmatic forms expose categorial meaning through their functional
oppositions. Categorial meanings are most generalized. The
grammatical category is a system of expressing a generalized
grammatical meaning bymeans of paradigmatic correlation of
grammatical forms. This correlation is exposed by the grammatical
opposition (Blokh M., 1983). The grammatical forms functioning in an
opposition have two types of features - common and differential.
Common features serve as the basis of contrast, differential features
express the particular grammatical function. The grammatical forms in
contrast are called members of the opposition. According to the number
of members contrasted, oppositions employed in English grammar are
binary (of two members) and ternary (of three members). According to
their functional character, oppositions can be privative, gradual and
equipollent. In Blokh's wording, the binary privative opposition is
formed by a contrastive pair of members in which one member is
characterized by the presence of a certain differential feature
(mark), while the other member is characterized by the absence of
this feature. The member in which the feature is present is called the
marked, or strong, or positive member and is commonly designated by
the symbol + (plus); the member in which the feature is absent is
called the unmarked, or weak, or negative member and is commonly
designated by the symbol - (minus) (Blokh M., 1983). The grammatical
category of person with notional verbs in the present simple form is
based on a binary privative opposition (3rd p. sg. - 3rd p. sg.).
e.g. works work
The meaning of the unmarked member is general, the mea ning of the
marked member is specific. That is why the unmarked member is used
in larger number of contexts to express more than one meaning,
211
including the meaning of the marked member in case of neutralization

(suspension of otherwise functioning oppositions).
The gradual opposition involves a contrastive group of members that
are distinguished by the degree of the same feature. Based on a gradual
opposition is the grammatical category of comparison:
211

The equipollent opposition involves a contrastive pair or group of
members bearing different positive features. Such is the opposition
existing between the present tense forms of the verb to be:
e.g. am - are - is
The grammatical forms can be synthetical and analytical.
Synthetical forms employ grammatical endings, e.g. large - larger largest or change of the root morpheme (suppletivity), e.g. sing - sang
- sung. Analytical forms employ an auxiliary word, e.g. beautiful more beautiful - most beautiful.
1.3. Grammatical Classes and Functional Series of

Words
Words are divided into grammatical classes, which are discriminated on the basis of three criteria: semantic, formal and functional.
The semantic criterion deals with the most generalized meaning
characterizing all the words in a class. The formal criterion shows
the specific word-building patterns and the grammatical forms of the
words in a given grammatical class. The functional criterion relates
to the syntactic positions of words belonging to a particular class.
On the basis of these criteria, words are divided into notional
grammatical classes and functional series of words. To the notional
(also called lexical) classes belong the noun, the verb, the adjective, the
adverb and the numeral. Notional words are words of full nominative
value with self-dependent syntactic functions. They are
morphologically changeable units of language. Grammatical classes
are open in the sense that they have a large number of members and
can freely add new members.
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To the functional series of words belong the article, the preposition,

the particle, the pronoun, the conjunction and the inter-jection.
Functional words are of incomplete nominative value and non-selfdependent functions in the structure of the phrase or the sentence.
Functional words constitute close systems: they have few members
and resist new additions. Their members are mutually defining from
semantic point of view and mutually exclusive from functional point
of view.
Exerci
ses
I.
1. Complete the sentences below with words from the lists. Label
the lists according to the grammatical class or the functional series
to which the words in the series belong:
- She is ... . She is ... . She has got ... blonde ... .
- He lives ... Bristol. ... sister is ... teacher. He is ... an accountant ...
a lawyer.
- ... dog is in the ... .
- The cat is ... the ... balcony.
- ... entered a ... shop.
- I bought my bike ... .
- He runs ... .
- He is ... runner.
- I thought, ... , this guy can run.
- He ... audiences with his brilliant trumpet playing.
- ... ! That really ... .
- Stop laughing! You will put her ... .
- The machine switches ... automatically.
List 1: English, long, second-hand, fast
List 2: eighteen, first
List 3: second-hand, fast
211
List 4: hair, manager, kennel

List 5: in, on
List 6: his, she
List 7: a, an, the
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List 8: wow, ouch

List 9: wowed, hurts
List 10: either, or
List 11: on, off
2. Circle the words after each sentence that could fill the blank in it:
- I have a ... .
house, always, book, ago, double
- I like the... skirl.
elbow, letter, quickly, green, short
- She spoke ... .
slowly, happy, good, pathetically, quiet
- He ... it.
smiled, will, painted, badly, bought
- ... said that?
somebody, anybody, nobody, who
- The cat is ... the box.
on, in, after, near, behind, below
- I passed ... he failed.
only, just, John, book, but, never
- ...! How are you?
Good night! Bye! Hi! Hello! Fine, thanks.
211
... new car is gray.

a, their, small, the, beautiful
- ... eat frogs in Italy.
she, Kate, cats, they, lakes
II. BUT
1. Paraphrase the following sentences, replacing BUT by synonymous
phrases:
1. I saw him but a moment.
2. You mustn't discuss such matters in front of the girl. She is
but a child.
3. We all but missed the train. He all but died of the wound.
211
4.
5.
6.
7.
Her eyes were but a shade lighter than the cobalt blue of
the sky.
We can but try.
I cannot but admire your decision.
I could not but choose to go/I could not choose but go.
1.
2.
3.
Tom was not there but his brother was.

He is a hardworking but not very intelligent boy.
We tried to do it but couldn't.
1.
2.
3.
5.
I never go past my old school but I think of the headmaster.

No man is so old but he may learn.
Never a month passes but she writes to her old parents.
4. There never is a lax law presented but someone
will oppose it.
She does nothing but cry all day long.
1.
2.
3.
4.
The film was anything but exciting.

He lives in the last house but two.
He was the last but one to come.
Fake the last turning but one on your left.
1.
2.
4.
But for the rain we should have had a pleasant journey.

The children never played but that a quarrel followed.
3. London is a noisy place but then it is also
the place where you get the best
entertainment.
I do not doubt but he will do it.
1.
2.
There is not one of us but wishes to help you.

None came to him but were treated well.
1. No 'buts', please.
2. But me no buts.
2. Give the Bulgarian equivalents of the sentences.
3. Use 'but' in sentences of your own.
4.
Read the sentences aloud. What is the strong form of 'but';

what is its weak form?
5. Identify the word elass to which 'but' belongs in each group
of sentences.
III.
1. Identify the grammatical class or the functional series to which the
words in the following text belong. Complete the charts:
Grammatical class
Functional
series
Article
Noun
VERB
Preposition
Adjectiv
Particle
Adverb
Conjunction
Numeral
Pronoun
Interjectio
n
'So that was John - now! Terribly like John - then! His eyes
deeper, his chin more obstinate - that perhaps was all the difference.
He still had his sunny look; he still believed in things. He still admired her! Yes! The day was surprisingly fine - the first really fine
day since Easter! What should she give them for lunch? ...Shrimp
cocktails? No! English food. Pancakes - certainly! ...Nothing to wait
for in town. A nice warm sun on her neck. A scent of grass - of honeysuckle! Oh! Dear!'
(From 'Swan Song" by J. Galsworthy)
2. Make sentences of your own, using only words from the charts.
Chapter2
The Noun
2.1.1 Semantics
The noun is a class of words denoting entity (a separate unit that is
complete and has its own characteristic). The noun is the central
nominative word class. Nouns can present different properties of
entities and verbal situations as entities in their own right:
e.g. She was a tall attractive blonde.
e.g. Get a move on or we'll miss the flight.
e.g. That visit was a first for me.
The noun class can be subdivided into the following semantic
subclasses:
The basic
division of
the noun class i s i nt o common

nouns and proper nouns. Proper nouns hav e unique reference.
T hey are used to denot e individuals, places, oceans, institutions,
e t c . Most of the proper nouns hav e no pl ural form. Many
proper nouns do not take articles or other grammatical
determiners. Common nouns denot e classes of similar referents
or specific representatives of certain classes:
e.g. The computer is widely used nowadays.
e.g. The computer is on
.
The subclass of common nouns can be subdivided i nt o
countable nouns and uncountable nouns . Countable nouns
hav e two categorial forms of number - singul ar or plural.
Uncountable nouns have onl y one form - ei t her singular or
plural . Both cou ntable and uncountable nouns f al l int o
two semantic vari et i es - concrete and abstract. Concrete nouns
denot e material ref erent s . Abst ract nouns denot e i mmat eri al
referents.
C o un t a b l e nouns concrete c an be di vi ded i nt o i ndi vi dual
nouns and col l ect i ve nouns i m prope r. Indi vi dual nouns
r efe r t o material
wi t h discrete boundaries. Thes e
the desk
entities
nouns m a y be ei t her animate ( denoting beings) or inanimate

( denoting obj ect s). Animate nouns a re of
semantic
varieties - personal (
not i ng human beings ) and no n personal ( denoting other species). The singular form of
individual nouns r equi res singular
forms i n expressing
predication; the plural form of individual nouns requi res plural
verb forms in Subject - Predicate structures:
e. g. The child is singing.
e. g. The children
singing.
Collective nouns improper are t reat ed grammatically as countable nouns (i .e. the y hav e both singular and plural form):
e.g. The class is in the room. The classes are in the
rooms.
Semantically, how ev er, t hey denote groups of people,
constituted on the basis of some common feature. The i mpli ed
plurali-
de
are
two
verb
ty can be formally marked by plural verb forms in Subject - Predicate

structures:
e.g. The class were all clever children.
Plurality can also be marked by plural pronoun:
e.g. The senior class, who had a meeting, decided they would have a
party.
Uncountable concrete nouns fall into two different grammatical
subclasses - mass nouns and collective nouns proper. Mass nouns
denote substances. They require singular verb form in expressing
predication:
e.g. Honey is good for you.
Animate collective nouns proper always combine with plural
words forms:
e.g. Vermin were crawling all over the place.
Inanimate collective nouns proper are treated as singular:
e.g. Fruit is good for you.
Uncountable nouns abstract are always in the singular:
e.g. Hate is a negative feeling.
This well-known classification is based on both semantic and
formal features of nouns. It is meticulous and comprehensive.
However, one should bear in mind the fact that it is a classification of
individual meanings of lexemes rather than lexemes in their generalized
semantic complexity.
2.1.2. Form
A. Word - building
Noun stems can be divided according to their morphemic structure
into the following types:
a. simple stems - they consist of only the root morpheme:
e.g. man, child, book, sound, dog
b. derived stems - they contain one root morpheme and some
affixes:
e.g. freedom, teacher, disbelief, withdrawal

c. compound stems - they combine two or more root morphemes
and, sometimes, an affix:
e.g. man-of-war, mother-in-law , jackpot, jack-in-the-box, munchild,
boyfriend
B. Grammatical Paradigm of the Noun
English nouns distinguish the grammatical categories of number,
gender, case as well as article determination. The grammatical
paradigms of the various semantic subclasses differ in the number of
grammatical forms included in them. Of all the seman tic subclasses of
nouns, the common countable concrete individual animate personal
noun has the most numerous grammatical paradigm.
a.
d.
e.
e.
Nouns can perform the following syntactic functions:

Subject
e.g. The girl is beautiful.
b. Direct object
c. e.g. She made a cake.
Indirect object
e.g. I bought the child a book.
Prepositional object
f. g. Tell me about your holiday.
g. e. Predicative
g. She is a student.
f. Subject complement
g. e.g. He woke up a rich man.
g. Object complement
e.g. She made him a good husband. They elected him
Predent.
h. Premodifier of noun
e.g. The film festival will be held in October.
i.
Adverbial
modifier
e.g. See on next
week.
j. Vocative
e.g. Is that you,
Nick?
In all of these functions the noun exhibits nominal features. In
some contexts, however, nouns may acquire adjectival or adverbial
features:
Adjectival features:
e.g. She isn't much of a cook.
e.g. He would never on his own - he is too much of a coward for that.
e.g. It was considered too much of a safety risk to transport nuclear
fuel by train.
Adverbial features:
e.g. Her hair was ash blonde.
e.g. The brook was ankle deep.
e.g. They were dog tired.
Exercises
I
1. Divide the following nouns according to the morphemic structure
of the stems:
book, thanks, bed, manchild, bitterness, teacher, man. step, box,
egotism, computer, store, passer-by, independence, man-of-war,
jigsaw, step-mother, kitchenette, flight, cat, sister-in-low, news,

building, she-bear, idealist, cook, lord, childhood, girlfriend,
liberation, freedom, toast-and-butter, drawback
2. Identify the suffix its each un:

doggy, kingdom, handful, width, employee, building, modesty,
booklet, musician, kindness, astonishment, union, education, authority,
buccaneer, motherhood, familiarity, arrival friendship, widower,
acquaintance
II.
1. Form nouns from the following words:
jewel
suspend
discuss
grow
active
orphan
pack
occur
escape
free
deal
supreme
child
art
amuse
host
act
real
tend
paint
nun
mountain
million
member
magic
cup
elect
lecture
2. Find the nouns in th following text. What is the syntactic

function of each noun?
'Ini 'Good Morning, Midnight' we see Sasha Jansen revisiting Paris
in 1937, over forty, mistrustful of the man she tries to attract, expecting
insults but unarmed against them, trying to drink herself to death. She
meets a young man who turns out to be a gigolo deceived by her fur
coat into thinking her a rich woman. They embark on a complicat d
relationship.
(Fr. Wyndham's 'Introduction' to Jean Rhys' 'Wide Sargasso Sea').
III.
1. Insert the appropriate verb form in the following sentences:

The team is/are doing their best to win the championship.
- A baseball team consists/consist of nine, players.
The troupe is/are all very good actors. A troupe is/are a company of
actors or of members of a circus
The committee who voted against last week now votes/vote in favour.
A committee was/were appointed yesterday to attend to that
business.
- The police has/have not made any arrests.
- The municipal council is/are discussing the matter tomorrow.
2. Define the semantic subclass of the nouns in the following
sentences:
Miss Marston is a good teacher.
The dog is in the kennel.
He likes steak.
He had a steak for dinner
- - They breed cattle on the farm.
- - They grow barley on the farm.
- - Te band was playing a lovely piece of music
- - What is your job?
- - The furniture was scattered all over the
room.
2.2. Semantic Changes Reflected in the Grammatical

Form of Nouns
Many lexemes are polysemantic - the noun 'head' for example. can
express various meanings:
- part of the body (e.g. Many nobles lost their heads during the
French Revolution.)
- head's length (e.g. The Queen's horse won by a head.)
- person (e.g. 50 dinners at 2 a head)
- intellect (e.g. He made the story up out of his own head.)
- talent (e.g. He has a good head for business.)
- something like a head in form or position (e.g. the head of the pin)
- top (e.g. at the head of the page)
- mass of leaves at the top of a stem or a stalk (e.g. a head of
cabbage; a clover head)
- ruler (e.g. the crowned heads of Europe), etc.
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26
Some common nouns have originated from proper nouns:

sandwich, boycott, wellingtons. These are included in dictionaries as
separate lexemes.
Usually the connection between the various meanings of a le xeme is
obvious.
But it is often the case that the various meanings of a lexeme
belong to different semantic subclasses. And, in practice, one and the
same lexeme exhibits different grammatical features, depending on
context.
2.2.1. Types of Shift
Considering the semantic and formal feature undergoing change,
we can trace the following types of shift.
Proper noun Common noun
Coon noun Proper noun
Countable noun Uncountable noun
Uncountable noun Countable noun
Abstract noun Concrete noun
Concrete noun Abstract noun
Shifts were discussed by '. Mincoff in his 'English grammar'
(1958). Our presentation of the linguistic phenomena in question is
based on that discussion. But we provide an explanation of the va rious
transformations leading to the shift and this is our contribu tion to the
discussion.
Since both countable and uncountable nouns can be subdivided into
concrete and abstract nouns, the shift from uncountable to countable is
often accompanied by a shift from concrete to abstract. That is why
these shifts will be discussed in pairs.
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2.2.1.1. Proper noun Common noun

Proper nouns have unique referents. That is why they are not
normally used in the plural. Most of the proper nouns are not used
with articles, either. However, there are types of semantic change
which result in the necessity to use the noun in the plural or define it
by means of some grammatical determiner.
The following types of phrase can be distinguished:
the + personal name
A personal name in the singular could be determined by the definite
article.
a. The use of the definite article may be due to the defining
relative clause after the name:
e.g. I recognized Brendrith, the Brendrith who had been at
school with me.
b. The define article before a person's name may imply that
the particular person the speaker is referring to is the famous one.
e.g. 'The man's name was Alfred Hitchcock.'
e.g 'Not the Alfred Hitchcock.'
the + personal name plural
The definite article before a plural name implies reference to the
members of a particular family:
e.g. She has been lunching with the Wilsons for nearly three months.
e.g. the Wilsons (= the members of the family of Wilson)
A two-stage transformation of omitting the head noun (members,
family) has taken place in this case.
numeral + personal name plural

A personal name in the plural preceded by a numeral is used to
refer to several people bearing the same name:
e.g. Two Janes work in this office.
The use of the plural is due to the omission of the plural head nouns
together with part of the relative clause:
e.g. Two girls named dune work in this office.
e.
a + personal name singular

a. The indefinite article before a personal name implies reference to one of the members of that family.
e.g. Remember you are an Osborn - it's a name to be proud of.
b. The indefinite article before the name of a famous person
means someone else with similar abilities, appearance, character:
e.g. Already he is being hailed as a young Albert Einstein.
c. The use of the indefinite article may imply that the speaker
doesn't know anything about the referent of the name:
e.g. There is a Mr. Alex Murray asking to see yon.
This structure could be the result of omitting the head noun of
indefinite grammatical status as well as part of the relative clause:
e.g. 'There is a man called Mr. Alex Murray...'
d. The indefinite article before the name of a famous artist
or writer results in a metaphoric use of the personal
name referring to a picture or a book of that person:
g. The gallery has recently acquired a Picasso.
another + proper noun
'Another' before the name of a person , place or event may be used
to mean someone or something else that has similar qualities:
e.g. Music fans are already calling him another Frank Sinatra.
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e.g. There were fears that the war is Bosnia might become another
Vietnam.
the + numeral + geographical name
2.2.1.2.
Parallel geographical names exist. Such names can be used
in the plural and also defined by the definite article:
2.2.1.3.
e.g. the two Americas
2.2.1.4.
Common noun Proper noun

Many proper nouns have originated from common nouns:
e.g. a daisy
Daisy
e.g. brown
Brown
e.g. a bush
Bush
Such nouns are included in dictionaries as separate lexemes.
2.2.1.5.
Countable noun Uncountable noun
The shift from countable to uncountable is often accompanied by a

shift from individual to generalized or from concrete to abstract. These
parallel shifts are formally marked by the lack of an article before the
noun in larger syntactic structures:
e.g. Her husband has been sent to prison for three years.
(The speaker is referring to the institution in general.)
e.g. We went by plane.
(The speaker is talking about a form of transport.)
e.g. The kids are still at school.
(The speaker is referring to the period of one's life when one
goes to school.)
Often the use of the shifted noun is metaphorical:
e.g. Economic success and job creation go hand in hand.
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2.2.1.4. Uncountable noun Countable noun

Uncountable nouns do not form a plural. They do not take the
indefinite article. However, in certain contexts, uncountable nouns
acquire semantic connotations converting them into coun table nouns.
The semantic shifts of uncountable concrete mass nouns to
countable nouns involve shifts from generalized to indi vidualized
meanings.
An uncountable concrete mass noun can be used as a countable
noun in the sense of a particular kind of the substance:
e.g. Cheese is a solid food made from milk, (generalized)
e.g. This shop sells a range of French cheeses.(individualized)
e.g. He was lying full length on the grass. (a common plant)
e.g. I could see various tall flowering grasses. (particular types)
A mass noun can be used as a countable noun in the sense of a
portion (individualized quantity):
e.g. Ice cream is frozen sweet food.
e.g. Would you like an ice cream? (one portion)
A mass word can be used by metonymy to refer to an object made
from the substance:
e.g. Nickel is a hard silver metal.
e.g. A nickel is a coin worth five cents.
e.g. She likes cake. (a sweet food)
e.g. She was making a cake for his birthday. (a particular
product)
Uncountable nouns abstract change into countable nouns,
undergoing a parallel shift from abstract to concrete.
e.g. Beauty is the quality of being very good to look at. (the quality)
e.g. She is a beauty. (a beautiful woman)
e.g. I like cars and this one is a beauty.
(a beauty = a person or an object characterized by the quality)
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e.g. The beauty of working at home is that you don't have to travel.
(advantage)
e.g. Joy is a feeling of great happiness.
e.g. She was a joy to behold. (something which causes the experience
of the feeling)
Sometimes the use of the shifted noun is metaphorical.
e.g. The neighbours said that we were making too much noise.
(literal use)
e.g. She makes all the right noises about economic reform.
(metaphorical use)
(She says things thai make people think that she is interested in it.)
Not all uncountable nouns can undergo such semantic shifts.
However, there are certain other means of achieving individualization and concretization of meaning. One of them is the
partitive phrase. It contains a countable noun head modified by an ofphrase introducing the uncountable noun.
Concrete nouns:
a blade of grass
a piece of candy
a bottle of rum
a bar of chocolate
a glass of milk
a cake of soap
a mug of coffee
a packet of biscuits
a wedge of cheese
Abstract nouns:
a piece of music
a bit of consolation
a word of praise
an item of news
a stroke of good luck
a scrap of good
an article of news
a point of humanity
a hint of advice
an act of revenge
Sometimes individualization is achieved through pairs of nouns the uncountable noun in the pair denotes the substance, the countable
noun denotes the article made from that substance:
e.g. wood tree
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e.g. bread loaf

Similar is the relation between the nouns denoting animals
(countable) and nouns denoting flesh (uncountable):
e.g. pig - pork
e.g. sheep - mutton
e.g. calf - veal
e.g. deer - venison
e.g. cow - beef
2.2.2. Linguistic Devices Bringing about Shifts
Semantic changes reflected in the grammatical form of nouns are
often the result of different linguistic devices, such as metonymy, or
other instances of stylistic transposition of grammatical forms of the
noun.
1. By metonymy a personal name can be used for representing a
nation:
e.g. John Bull a personal name a typical English person,
especially one who is proud and does not like people from other
countries a name used for representing the English people a
name used for representing England
2. By metonymy singular nouns denoting part of the whole can
be used as uncountable nouns referring to the whole:
e.g. She was pretty in a refined way; and her eye was both merry
and kind (O'Henry).
3.
The plural form of countable nouns may be used metaphorically to refer to things that are usually considered
unique.
e.g. A glare brighter than a dozen suits dazzled their eyes. (cited
through Rayevska)
4. Uncountable mass nouns can be used in the plural to denote a
large amount of substance or an area where there is a lot of that
substance (augmentative plural):
e.g. sand sands ( = an area of sand)
e.g. snow snows (= the snow that fall over a period of time)
The first snows of winter are here.
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7.
e.g. water waters (= an area of water that belongs to a particular

place, state, country)
The boat sailed into international waters
fishing waters
the clear waters of the Adriatic sea
e.g. rain the rains (= the large amounts of rain that fall in
tropical regions during a particular season)
the monsoon rains
5. Uncountable abstract nouns can be used in the plural for
stylistic purposes ('emotive' plural):
6. e.g. Grave fears are felt for the safety of the missing climbers.
Proper nouns can have emotive use, too:
e.g. In England, one often comes across Natashas.
Exercises
I.
/. Show whether each noun is countable(c) or uneountable(u) by
writing the letter in the brackets:
He bought a can of beer ( ). Gold ( ) is a metal( ). Money ( )
cannot buy love ( ). 1 like pizza ( ).
He brought a pizza ( ) for dinner. Cattle ( ) were grazing in the
fields. What is his job ( )?
The furniture ( ) in the living room ( ) looked rickety.
II.
I. Complete each sentence with a suitable word from the list:
flight, peal, sheaf, head, piece, flash, set, sheet
A terrible ... of lightning was seen followed by a fearful ... of
thunder.
She took a ... of paper out of a drawer.
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The student was staring helplessly at the blank ... of paper.

I looked in and saw a of steps leading upwards.
She bought two ... of cabbage.
You gave me a good ... of advice.
She has got a lovely ... of cutlary.
2. Complete the following partitive phrases:
an ... of news
a ... of
toast
a ... of coal
a ... of grass
a... of sugar
a... of laughter
a lovely ... of hair
an ... of corn
III.
1. Discuss the semantic class membership of each noun in the
following text:
He soon exhibited what most people considered indubitable to kens of insanity. In some of his moods, strange to say. he prided and
gloried himself on being marked out from the ordinary experience
of mankind, by the possession of a double nature, and a life within a
life. He appeared to imagine that the snake was a divinity -not celes tial, it is true, but darkly infernal - and that he thence derived an
eminence and a sanctity, horrid, indeed, yet more desirable than
whatever ambition aims at. Thus he drew his misery around him like
a regal mantle, and looked down triumphantly upon those whose
vitals nourished no deadly monster. Oftener, however, his human
nature asserted its empire over him in the shape of a yearning for
fellowship. It grew to be his custom to spend the whole day in
wandering about the streets, aimlessly, useless it might be called an
aim to establish a species of brotherhood between himself and the
world. With cankered ingenuity, he sought out his own disease in
every breast. Whether insane or not, he showed so keen a perception
of frailty, error and vice, that many persons gave him credit for
being possessed not merely with a serpent, but with an actual fiend,
who imparted this evil faculty of recognizing whatever was ugliest
in man's heart. (N. Hawthorne, Egotism; or the Bosom Serpent)
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2. Use each of the following nouns in two sentences first as a

countable noun, then as an uncountable noun:
people
life
divinity
error
nature
sanctity
disease
vise
2.3. Article Determination
2.3.1. Structure of the Noun Phrase

The noun phrase structure consists of four positions:
DETERMINER - Premodifier - HEAD - Postmodifier
The head-position can be occupied by a noun or some substantivized word. But, as Quirk et al. say, the noun on its own is only a
lexical item. In order to be included in a phrase, the noun has to
acquire grammatical status (Quirk 1972). This is achieved by means of
a grammatical determiner. Grammatical determiners are obligatory
constituents of the noun phrase:
e.g. She is a teacher. (one of many people practicing that job)
e.g. She is the teacher. (the only teacher in the group)
Even the lack of a determiner in the noun phrase structure is
grammatically meaningful. The lack of grammatical determiners before
uncountable nouns signals indefinite grammatical status:
e.g. They bought furniture but not cutlery.
When words outside the noun class are used in the head posi tion
of a noun phrase they are determined by the definite article:
e.g. You have been good to me. This is the least I can do in
return.
In other words, substantivization is marked by the definite article:
The positions of Premodifier and Postmodifier are optional.
The typical Premodifier is an adjective:
e.g. Astronomers believe that the universe is the result of an
enormous explosion.
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Single participles, too, can function as Premodifiers:

e.g. An explosion shot the concentrated matter and energy in all
directions.
e.g. The expanding universe is the result of an explosion called the
Big Bang.
Nouns in the position of Premodifier are not uncommon:
e.g. Scientists have discovered that the background radiation is
almost the same throughout the entire universe.
he typical Postmodifier is a clause:
e.g. This constant background radiation is one observation that
supports the Big Band theory (finite clause)
e.g. The force of gravity began to affect the matter racing outward
in every direction (non-finite clause).
e.g. ... an enormous explosion called the Big Bang (non-finite
clause).
Prepositional phrases are quite common in the function of
Postmodifier:
e.g. ... the force of gravity began to affect the matter...
e.g. ... all the matter and energy in the universe...
Single adjectives are occasionally used in the position of
Postmodifier:
e.g. This story is about a knight errant.
Adjectives with complementation are always postposed:
e.g. She was carrying a bag heavy with books.
e.g. Days full of joy, days full of sorrow...
2.3.2. Grammatical Determiners
'Grammatical determiners' is a concept related to function. It is
used to make reference to various lingual units belonging to different
word classes or functional series of words. In spite of their being
morphologically different, they all play a part in building up the
grammatical status of the noun. Central among these units
211
are the cuticles. They have no lexical meaning of their own; they have
no function independent of the noun, either. Other grammatical
determiners can be used as independent pronouns. The lingual units
functioning as grammatical determiners constitute a closed system.
It is said in Quirk's 'Grammar of the Contempo rary English' that
'closed' refers to the limited number of these items and 'system ' refers
to their being reciprocally exclusive and reciprocally definable (Quirk,
1972). In addition to the articles, this system includes the following
subclasses of pronouns: possessive (my your, his, her, its, our, their);
interrogative (whose, which, whichever, what, whatever);
demonstrative (this, that, these, those): indefinite (some, any);
negative (no): distributive (every, each, either, neither): quantitative
(much, enough).
Different determiners can co-occur with different semantic
sbclasses of nouns:
e.g. This is a hook on grammar. (countable, sg.)
e.g. This is my book. Those are my books. (countable, sg., pl.)
e.g. This is my furniture. (uncountable)
e.g. This is the book I bought yesterday. (countable, sg.)
e.g. Where are the students? (countable, pl.)
e.g. Where is the coffee? (uncountable)
e.g. There is some coffee in the cup. (uncountable)
e.g. There are some books on the desk. (countable, pl.)
e.g. There are no books on the desk. (countable, pl.)
e.g. There is no cheese in the fridge. (uncountable)
e.g. They have no electricity on the houseboat. (uncountable)
e.g. This book is mine. (countable, sg.)
e.g. This coffee is good.(uncountable)
e.g. Whose book is this? (countable, sg.)
e.g. Whose books are these? (countable, pl.)
e.g. Whose furniture did you dust? (uncountable)
e.g. She gave each child a pound. (countable, sg.)
e.g. There isn't enough time. (uncountable)
211
e.g. There aren't enough chairs in the room. (countable, pl.)

e.g. It was a room with a door at either end. (countable, sg.)
e.g. Neither woman seemed sure of what to say. (countable, sg.)
e.g. These books are interesting. (countable, pl.)
The use of articles will be discussed in detail further in the chapter.
Grammatical determiners can co-occur in the noun phrase structure
with items belonging to two other sets of function words:
Predeterminers and Postdeterminer.
The set of Predeterminers includes all, both, half and multipliers:
e.g. She spends all her spare time window-shopping.
e.g. He now earns double the amount he used to.
The set of Postdeterminers includes ordinal numbers and cardinal numbers.
e.g. the third week of August
e.g. The two children were walking hand in hand along the country
road.
e.g. the first two weeks of September
The structure of partitive phrases involves phrasal quantifiers:
e.g. a large sum of money
e.g. a great deal of research
2.3.3. The Articles
2.3.3.1. Noun Reference
Speakers employ nouns to refer to extralinguistic entities. The entity
which is being referred to by using a particular noun is called 'noun
referent'.
The referent of a common noun can be a specific person, object,
being, etc.
211
e.g. I watched this fairly old woman in her warm scarf and heavy
coat, a bunch of flowers in her hand - I watched her come on. (P.
Theroux)
Such common nouns are said to be used with specific reference.
In other contexts, a common noun can be used to refer to a species
or a class of similar objects in a generalized way:
e.g. Twenty years ago the tiger was in trouble.
e.g. In India its numbers were about 1800.
e.g. Tea is grown in India.
e.g. Lemons grow on trees.
If this is the case, the common noun is said to be used with generic
reference.
Proper nouns are used to refer to unique individuals, places,
institutions, products, calendar items, etc:
e.g. 'Hamlet' was written by Shakespeare.
e.g. We visited the Tate Gallery in July.
Proper nouns are said to be used with unique reference.
Different grammatical rules govern the use of articles depending on
the noun reference.
2.3.3.2 Articles with Common Nouns Used with Specific
Reference
When a noun is used with specific reference, users of English
distinguish between definite and indefinite grammatical status. When
people talk to one another they organize their utterances on the basic of
a certain amount of information they share. To put it in another way, the
speaker always bears in mind the hearer's pos sible knowledge of the
extralinguistic reality concerning the topic of conversation. If the
speaker is positive that the hearer can inter pret the noun referent
correctly, he uses the definite article with the noun. If, however, the
speaker is aware of the fact that the hea
211
rer is not familiar with the background information on the subject

matter, which will make it difficult or even impossible for him to
interpret the noun referent correctly, he uses grammatically inde finite
nouns.
Indefinite grammatical status is expressed in the following ways:
indefinite article + countable noun
sg. e.g. There is a dictionary on the desk.
determiner + countable noun pl
e.g. There are books in my bag.
determiner + uncountable noun
e.g. Maureen spread jam on her
toast.
'some' + countable noun pl.
eg. There are some books in my hag.
'some' + uncountable noun
e.g. Would you like some coffee?
The meaningful absence of grammatical determiner before the
noun implies contrast between the referent of this particular noun and
the referent of other nouns that are possible to use in the same context:
e.g. She spread jam on her toast. (not butter)
The use of the indefinite pronoun 'some' before the noun implies
indefinite quantity or indefinite number of the noun referent:
e.g. Could I have some cake, please?
Definite grammatical status is expressed in the following ways:
the + noun
e.g. The teacher is absent today.
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demonstrative pronoun + noun

e.g. Could you pass me that newspaper?
possessive pronoun + noun
e.g. Where is my bag?
'each' ('every') + noun
e.g. There is a chair in each corner of the room.
The speaker may have linguistic or extralinguistic reasons for
choosing the definite in a particular context. Consequently, we may
speak of linguistic specific reference and extralinguistic (or situational)
specific reference.
Two types of linguistic reference can be distinguished: anaphoric
and cataphoric.
In cases of anaphoric reference, the noun is used with the definite
article, because it has already been introduced in the preceding context
with the same reference:
e.g. A young man dismounted from a taxicab in South Square. He
was so unobtrusively American that his driver had some hesitation in
asking for double his fare. The young man had no hesitation in refusing
it. (Galsworthy, 1972).
In cases of cataphoric reference, the noun is followed by a
Postmodifier which defines the noun referent:
e.g. The young man who, at the end of September, 1929 dismounted
from a taxicab in South Square, was unobtrusively American.
(Galsworthy, 1972).
We have cases of extralinguistic specific reference with nouns
referring to entities that are unique in the cultural situation of the act of
communication :
e.g. She was comfortably seated by the fire, reading the Bible.
e.g. Dark clouds covered the sky.
e.g. For further information contact the project manager.
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The information concerning the use of articles before nouns used

with specific reference can be arranged in a chart. A pattern was set by
D. Spasov (1972), which we have adapted to make it suitable for this
presentation.
Chart 1: Specific Reference
Definite
Noun
subclass
Linguistic
Singular
Countable
Plural
3
I
bought
dictionary. The
dictionary is
bilingual.
Indefinite
Situational
to Because the concept is unique
a Due
sircumstance
One
Post held by I
Turn on
specimen
the
radio, person
We met the
head teacher
yesterday.
please!
The sun is
shilling.
I bought two
Switch on the
dictionaries. The lights, please!
dictionaries are
bilingual.
I bought iceFetch the

cream. The ice- salt,
cream is in my please!
bag.
A man called
at 5. He is a
good man.
Some men
called at 5.
They are all
good men.
Don't lie on
the ground.
'Would you
like some
coffee? 'I'd
rather have
tea.'
2.3.3.2. Articles with Common Nouns Used with Generic

Reference
Countable nouns
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When using countable nouns with generic reference, the speaker

can achieve three different degrees of semantic generaliza-tion.
Accordingly, we distinguish three structural patterns:
the + sg. noun
e.g. The computer stores programmes and in formation in electronic form.
This pattern denotes the most generalized meaning, referring to the
device.
a + sg. noun
e.g. A computer can he used for a variety of processes. This
pattern implies any representative of the class.
determiner + pl. noun
e.g. Computers can he linked to a main network.
This pattern refers to most representatives of the class.
Uncountable nouns
Uncountable nouns take no grammatical determiners when used
with generic reference:
e.g. H writes poetry.
e.g. Their chocolate cakes are pure poetry!
e.g. I prefer tea to coffee.
e.g. People like his poetry. (=humans)
Collective nouns can be used with the definite article, too:
e.g. On this issue, the government has failed to listen to the people.
(=ordinary people)
Substantivized words
Substantivized words are always used with generic reference. They
take the definite article.
e.g. The young have no conversation. (S.Maugham)
e.g. The Spanish like bullfighting.
e.g. One should learn to distinguish between the good and the evil.
The information concerning the use of articles with nouns of generic
reference is arranged in a chart.
211
Chart 2: Generic Reference

Semantic
subclass
Singular
THE
I can use a computer
The computer is the greatest

invention of the 20th century.
He plays the piano.
He always maintained his

belief in the goodness of
man.
(=people in general)
Plural
The Japanese prefer not to

Laptops are easy to carry
work while eating. The
with you.
Germans like to talk business
before dinner.
Clas
s
Honey is good for you.
Abstract
He writes poetry.
Collective
Adj./
sg.
She married into the

People like his poetry.
aristocracy. Government failed
to listen to the people.
They travelled in quest of the

picturesque.
Adj./pl.
The British are cool and

reserved.
Others
It was obvious from the first

that they would win.
211
Exercises
I.
1. Write the following text under dictation:
'This was one of those mornings when the smoke and the Thames
Valley mist decide to work a few miracles for their London and
especially for the oldest part of it, the City. The City, on these mornings,
is an enchantment. There is a faintly luminous haze, now silver, now old
gold, over everything. The buildings have shape and solidity but no
weight; they hang in the air, like palaces out of the Arabian Nights; you
could topple the dome off St. Paul's with a fore finger, push back the
Mansion House, send the monument floating into space. On these
mornings, the old churches cannot be counted; there are more of them
than ever. There is no less traffic than usual; the scarlet stream of buses
still flows through the ancient narrow streets; the pavements are still
thronged with people. Whatever is new and vulgar and foolish contrives
to lose itself in the denser patches of mist. But all the glimpses of
ancient loveliness are there, perfectly framed and lighted.'
(From 'They Walk in the City' by J. B.
Priestley)
2. Underline the noun phrases in the text.
3. What is the structure of each noun phrase:
Example: the scarlet stream of buses
the - central determiner
stream - head
scarlet - Premodifier
of buses - Postmodifier
4. Translate the text into Bulgarian.
5. Arrange each group of words into a noun phrase:
- of two slices thin bread
- slices two fresh of bread

- many clever all students the
- the minutes few last
- sources other three the water of
- uses water chief ground of
6. Complete the following phrases with appropriate quantifiers
from the box:
She took ... of keys out of her bag. She put ... of salt into the soap.
She bought ... of thread. ... people live in Sofia than in Paris. Sofia
has ... population than Paris. I need ... of snowshoes.
a pair a pinch a bunch fewer less ten reels
II.
1. Insert grammatical determiners in the following sentences.
Choose between:
. some / any
1. I'll make ... coffee.
2. ... few days later he received a latter.
3. Would you like ... soup?
4. It's a puzzle that ... intelligent child could solve.
5. Are there ... biscuits left?
6. There weren't ... complaints.
7. She brought me ... flowers.
8. She married ... guy she met in the boat.
9. There aren't ... lessons today.
10. 10. Have you got ... money?
11. Could you lend me ... money?
12. Let me give you ... advice.
13. Is there ... coffee left?
14. I can lend you a map if that's ... help.
15. I want ... more information about language courses.
16. It will take ... little time for her to recover.
b.
1.
2.
3.
4.
each / every / either

On ... side of the street there are shops.
You should take one tablet ... 4 hours.
There stood a vase in ... corner of the room.
A wonderful experience. I enjoyed ... moment of it.
5. Almost one in ... five computers was found
to be faulty.
6. ... student has his or her place in the library.
7. The Leeds team has ... reason to feel proud
after last night's performance.
8. ... request will be given due consideration to.
9. The economy shows ... sign of making a
recovery.
10. 10.
... man hunted alone.
11. We wish you ... happiness in your future life together.
c. what / whatever / which / whichever
1. ... subject are you studying?
2. We'll be ready at ... time you get here.
3. I'll give you ... money I have.
4. ... color do you like best?
5. Customers will choose ... product is cheaper.
6. ... way you look at it, this programme has been a failure.
7. ... team wins on Saturday will go through to the national
championship.
7. I'm sure you'll have a good time ...
cruise you decide to take.
9. ... are we having for lunch?
d. possessive pronoun / article, the, a
1. Her husband has been sent to ... prison for 3 years.
2. Inspectors will be visiting ... school next week.
3. ... average university student
is not very interested in
politics.
4. Children need ... love and ... attention.
5. People have come to depend on ... car as ... only means of
transport.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
We went by ... plane.

He has ... gunshot wound in ... neck.
The next day he flew back to ... Paris.
We shall be interviewing ... Peter Carey, ... author.
Are we attempting to achieve ... impossible?
He lost both ... legs in an accident.
Hello, ... little beauty!
He shook ... head.
They don't believe in ... supernatural.
... car was parked in front of Jim's house.
She took ... child by ... hand.
He punched me on ... eye.
I'd like ... salmon, please.
She plays ... violin.
20. I'd like to start ... own business that's what I'd do if I had ...
money.
2. Insert appropriate grammatical determiners depending on the
semantics of the noun in the following sentences:
- She is ... gossip.
- I bought ... iron.
- She asked me to buy ... paper.
- We drank ... toast to ... happy couple.
- 'She still had ... great quantity of untidy brown hair, ... bright blue
eye, ... rosy cheeks, and ... ripe moist lip. She adored ...
oysters, fish and chips, ... occasional bottle of stout, ...
cheerful gossip, ... hospitality, the whole world of ... food
and ... drink and ... bargaining and ... adventure.'
(J.
Pries
tby)
- I was ready for art adventure after ... college.
- They went to ... university.
- She is still at ... school.

- He spent a week in ... hospital with food poisoning.
3.
Use articles with the proper nouns wherever necessary:

- '... Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography does not include the
last thirty years of his life when in ... England, ... France and ... America
he earned fame as a diplomat.'
(Ralph
Ketcham)
- In 1846 an aristocratic young Bostonian named ... Francis
Parkman set out to experience life among ... Western American Indians.
He had graduated from ... Harvard College two years earlier. In 1847 he
published in ... Knickerbocker Magazine the sketches that he later
collected under the title 'The California and Oregon Trail'.'
(David
Levin)
- 'A great European scholar and critic of ... American literature,
professor Heinrich Straumann of ... University of Zurich begins his
history of American literature in the 20 th century with an important
observation."
(G.
W.
Allen)
- 'I was invited by ... Voice of America Forum Branch of ...
United Stales International Communication Agency to organize and
coordinate a series of presentations on the topic of ... American South
today.'
(Louis
Rubin)
4.
Translate the following sentences into Bulgarian:

- 'Her widowhood was full of the mouse fears and softening
indulgences of the manless.'
(H.
Calishot)
- 'I had read of this feeling, how the bigness and science of
Africa, under the ancient sun, grows dense and takes shape in the mind,
till even the birds seem to call menacingly and a deadly spirit comes out
of the trees and the rocks.'
(D.
Lessing)
- 'They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might
die. Grief, terror, love, longing - these were intangibles but the intan -
211
gibles had their own mass and, specific gravity, they had tangible
weight.'
(Tom
O'Brien)
211
III.
1. Indicate the type of reference of each noun in the text by writing the
appropriate letter: specific (S), generic (G), unique (U):
'The good people of Boston shook their heads and shrugged their
shoulders, but had been so much accustomed to witches and goblins
and tricks of the devil from the first settlement of the colony, that
they were not so much horror struck as might have been expected.
Trustees were appointed to take charge of Tom's effects. .. The very
next day, however, his great house took fire and was burnt to the
ground.'
(From 'The Devil And Tom Walker' by Washington
Irving)
2. Insert appropriate grammatical determiners where necessary:
'Long nights and low temperatures mean one thing to the British
public: 'tis ... season of ... telenovel. Ihe tradition, kept dutifully since
... smashing success of the BBC's 'Pride and Prejudice' in 1995 is to
stick ... lavish productions of ... classic European novels on ...
screen. ... snobs usually shudder at ... thought of sticking ...
European great television productions arguing that it crushes ...
subtlety and mangles ... sentiment.'
(From 'Costume Dramas Made On TV' 'Newsweek',
December 2001)
3.
Write the following text under dictation and then

translate it into Bulgarian:
'A few years ago I made the acquaintance of an elderly lady
whose husband held an official position, both civil and military, in
the colony of New South Wales. Many anecdotes she told me of ce lebrated characters, who had in the words of one of them 'left their
country for their country's good'. With most if not with all these ce lebrities the old lady had come in contact personally. 'One morning',
she began, 'I was sitting in my drawing-room with my two little
children, who are now middle-aged men with large families, when a
gentleman was announced. On his entering I rose from my chair and
greeted him with a bow, which he returned in the most graceful
manner imaginable. His dress was that of a man of fashion and his
211
bearing that of a person who had moved in the highest circles of

society'.
(From 'Australian Short Stories' by John Lang)
2.3.3.4. Articles with Proper Nouns, Used with Unique Reference
Proper nouns can be divided into two groups: given names and
descriptive names. Given names are usually single nouns with no
grammatical determiners. They refer to unique extra-lin guistic entities
without denoting any individual qualities or specific features of the
noun referent. Personal names are the most typical variety of given
names:
e.g. This is John.
Descriptive names are noun phrases which contain Premodifiers or
Postmodifiers that denote, individual qualities or specific features of
the noun referent. Such phrases contain grammatical determiners,
too:
e.g. the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
The group of given names is comprised of the following se mantic
varieties: personal names; names of calendar items; geo graphical names
of countries, towns, lakes and some mountains; names of streets; some
names of buildings.
Personal names
- Single names take no articles:
e.g. This is my sister. Her name is Jane.
- Personal names with titles in apposition do not take articles,
either:
e.g. Mr. John Brown
Dr. Johnson
Queen Elizabeth
President Nixon
Prince Andrew
- Personal names with premodifying adjectives take an article.
If the quality denoted by the adjective is permanent, the
211
noun phrase includes the definitive article:

e.g. the unforgettable Monroe
the Great Gatsby
If the quality denoted by the adjective is temporary and not
typical of the noun referent, the noun phrase includes the indefinite
article:
e.g. A scheming Betsy at home was Andy's biggest worry.
- Adjectives like Senior and Junior etc. are used after a personal name. They take no article:
e.g. the career of Douglas Fairbanks Senior
- Personal names with nicknames usually take the definite
article as part of the nickname:
e.g. Richard the Lion Heart
The same holds true of place names:
e.g. Chicago the Windy City
Calendar names
Names of calendar take no article:
e.g. See you on Monday.
e.g. He was born in January.
e.g. They haven't met since Christmas.
Geographical names
- Names of continents are all given names:
e.g. She lives in Australia.
- Most of the country names are given names. They do not take
articles even with premodifying adjectives:
e.g. South England
- Names of towns do not take articles,
either:
e.g. Manchester
- Names of lakes are used without articles,
too:
e.g. lake Victoria
211
- Names of single mountains and mountain peaks do not take

grammatical determiners:
e.g. mount Everest
211
- Names of streets, squares, etc. take no article, unless they

contain the common noun 'road', in the meaning of 'the road leading
to...':
e.g. Piccadilly Circus
e.g. Oxford Street (in London)
e.g. the Oxford Road (in Reading)
- Some names of buildings also take no articles:
e.g. Buckingham Palace
To the group of descriptive names belong some names of
countries and districts; names of oceans , seas and rivers; names of
buildings and institutions; titles of periodicals, works of art and
literature. Descriptive names take the definite article:
- names of countries
e.g. the Republic of Ireland
- district names, usually in the plural
e.g. the Highlands
e.g. the Balkans
- names of oceans
e.g. the Atlantic Ocean
- names of seas
e.g. the Aegean Sea
- names of rivers
e.g. the (river) Nile
- names of buildings and institutions
e.g. the Natural History Museum
e.g. the Tale Gallery
e.g. the University of London
e.g. the Ritz
- Names of periodicals are used with the definitive article , even
if it may not be printed:
e.g. She bought the Women's Journal of July.
e.g. He was reading the Continent.
- Titles of works of art usually take an article:
211
e.g. Prints of 'Rake's Progress' and 'The Nightshirt Steeplechase '

decorated the wall. (J. Galsworthy)
e.g. 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'
e.g. 'The Great Gatsby'
If the title is preceded by the name of the writer in the genitive
case, the article is omitted:
e.g. Oscar Wilde's 'Picture of Dorian Gray'
e.g. F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'Great Gatsby'
2.4.1.
2.4. Number
2.4.2.
The category of number is based on the functional opposition
of two forms of the noun: singular plural. The singular form is
used to refer to a single referent:
2.4.3.
e.g. I have a sister.
The plural form is used to refer to a group referent of two or more
members:
e.g. I have two sisters. He. has three sisters.
The semantic opposition of one more than one is characteristic
of countable nouns only.
2.4.4.
Grammatical Markers of Plurality
Countable nouns form their plural by means of grammatical

endings or change of the root vowel.
a. The regular -s ending can be attached to most English nouns:
e.g. girl - girls
toy - toys
family - families
idea-ideas
lion - lions
In forming the plural we follow certain spelling rules:
211
b.
- Final - after a consonant changes into -i before the

grammatical ending.
e.g. party - parties
- Final -y does not change in family names.
e.g. the Kennedys
- Abbreviated nouns in -o attach the grammatical ending -s:
e.g. photos, kilos
- Abbreviations attach -s.
e.g. Several VIPs are arriving for the ceremony.
The grammatical ending -es is attached to nouns ending in [s], [z], [],
[t] , [] :
e.g. kisses, vases, bridges, watches,
dishes
It is also attached to nouns ending in -o:
e.g. potatoes, heroes
c. Some nouns, ending in -th -f or -s undergo voicing of the
final consonant in the plural. With -th and -s voicing
affects pronunciation:
e.g. path [pa:] - paths [pa:z]
house [haus] - houses [hauziz]
The voicing of [f] affects not only pronunciation, but spelling as
well:
e.g. 'The merry wives of Windsor'
d. The grammatical ending -en is attached to several nouns:
e.g. ox - oxen
child - children
e. Mutation of the root vowel takes place in several nouns:
e.g. man - men
foot - feet
mouse - mice
- The plural form of some nouns coincides with the singular form
(zero plurals):
e.g. series - series
aircraft - aircraft
211
- Many loan words retain their foreign plural endings:

e.g. phenomenon - phenomena
hypothesis hypotheses
antenna - antennae
genius - genii
poncho - ponchos
tempo - tempi
kibbutz - kibbutzim
chassis [si] - chassis
[siz]
However, many nouns of foreign origin may attach -s ending as
well:
e.g. antenna - antennae (= long thin parts on the insect's head that it
uses to feel things with)
antenna - antennas (TV or radio aerial)
Some animal names have zero plurals:
e.g. salmon, sheep, grouse
Other animal names have both plurals (zero and -s):
e.g. fish - a few fish (cauth by a fisherman)
fish - fishes (in the aquarium)
Numeral, partitive and quantitative nouns have two plural forms:
regular -s and zero plural. The zero plural is used when there is a
premodifier in the noun phrase structure:
e.g. Two thousand people live in that district.
e.g. He's got several head of cattle to breed for the market.
e.g. They need three dozen forks and spoons.
The -s plural form is used when there is no Premodifier in the
phrase:
e.g. thousands of people, heads of cattle, dozens of forks and
spoons.
Compound nouns form their plural in one of the following ways:
- first root marked - e.g. passers-by, men-of-war, spoonsful
- last root marked - e.g. breakdowns, standbys
- both roots marked - e.g. menservants, women doctors
Further information about the formation of plural is available in
'Grammar of Contemporary English'. (Quirk, 1972)
211
2.4.3. Invariable Nouns

Uncountable nouns are invariable. Proper nouns are invariable,
too. These two semantic subclasses of noun have only one form.
However, each lexeme belonging to these subclasses expresses one of
the categorial meanings or number (either singular or plural).
According to their semantics invariable nouns fall into two groups:
singular invariables and plural invariables.
Singular invariable nouns take singular verbs. To this group
belong the following semantic varieties:
- uncountable nouns concrete - milk, copper
- uncountable nouns abstract - anger, safety
- proper nouns - Mount Everest, Shakespeare
- some nouns derived by means of the suffix -s - news linguistics,
Wales
- substantivized words referring to abstract notions - the
picturesque, the good, the evil
Plural invariable nouns take plural verbs. This group is comprised
of the following varieties:
- summation plural nouns (denoting objects made of two identical
parts) - shorts, trousers, pincers
- collective nouns proper - people, police, cattle
- some nouns derived by means of the suffix -s - goods, thanks,
looks
- proper nouns in -s - Niagara Falls
- substantivised words referring to people - the blind, the disabled
2.4.4. Nouns of Differentiated Plural
The plural form of some countable nouns has developed additional
meanings altogether different from the meanings of the singular form.
211
e.g. arm = an upper limb of the human body

arms = weapon; heraldic bearings
e.g. colour = the aspect of things caused by light
colours = flag
Some uncountable nouns have developed meanings different from
the basic ones. Such meanings are marked by the plural form:
e.g. moral = the principle contained in in a fable
morals = rules of conduct
e.g. regard = careful thought or attention
regards = greetings that show respect
e.g. salt = sodium chloride
salts any of various mineral salts
A list of nouns of differentiated plural can be found in 'An En glish
Grammar'. (M. Mincoff, 1958)
2.4.5. Subject - Verb Concord of Number
a.
b.
c.
Three types of concord of number between subject and verb can be

distinguished:
grammatical concord
In cases of grammatical concord singular nouns functioning as
subject take singular verbs:
e.g. The book is on the shelf.
Plural nouns take plural verbs:
e.g. The books are on the shelf.
notional concord
In cases of notional concord the word form agrees with its
subject according to the semantics of the noun rather than its form:
e.g. The committee are discussing a tight budget.
concord on the principle of proximity
211
In this case the verb agrees in number with the noun, that is
immediately before or after the verb:
e.g. Neither the teacher nor the students have answered his question
yet.
e.g. Neither the students nor the teacher has answered his question
yet.
e.g. There is a piano and two chairs in the room.
e.g. There are two chairs and a piano in the room.
Exercises
I.
1. Give the plural form of the following nouns: goose, genius,
box, hypothesis, matrix, beau, kibbutz, businessman, piano, echo,
tempo, cargo, aircraft.
1.
Choose the correct noun form (sg. or pl.) to complete the

following sentences:
arm / arms
He was carrying a parcel under his ... .
She folded her ... across her chair.
They strolled ... in ... by the river.
The British police do not usually carry ... .
Minority tribes took up ... against the new government.
spirit / spirits
She tried singing to keep her ... up.
Each country should honour the ... of the treaty.
Doctors use ... for making things very clear.
work / works
Thank you for all your hard ... .
I walk to ... and take the bus home.
This is a study on the life and ... of Shakespeare.
They're got guns, grenades, rockets, the whole ... .
We passed through the gates of the chemical ... .
211
bearing/bearings
It took her a moment to get her ... in the dark.
His private life has no ... on his competence as a manager.
I was impressed by her proud ... .
compass/compasses
He took out a ... to take a bearing.
You use a pair of ... to draw a circle.
II.
1. Use appropriate verb forms (sg. or pl.) to complete the
1. The blind (be) more inactive than the sighted.
2. The Japanese (eat) a lot of seafood.
3. Linguistics (be) the study of language.
4. Most of our accommodation (be) self-catering.
5. The lightning (be) followed by a clap of thunder.
6. The scissors (be) in the top drawer of the desk.
7. Vermin (be) crawling all over the place.
8. There (be) a bottle of wine and two goblets on the table.
9. There (be) two books and a pair of glasses on the desk.
10. Either John or the girls (keep) tropical fish.
11. (be) either of them at home?
12. Either the girls or John (be) at home.
III.
1. Choose singular or plural verb forms to agree with the collec tive
nouns in the function of subject:
The teaching staff (be) small in number.
The government (be) formed by the party with an over all
majority.
The aristocracy (be) the highest class of society.
The aristocracy (have) money and titles and power.
Over 100 police (be) called to deal with the riot.
The class of 1965 (be) all clever boys.
(do) your family have any history of heart disease?
211
2. Choose singular or plural verb forms to agree with the inva riable
nouns in the function of subject:
Our thanks (go) to the managing director.
The furniture (be) all in disorder.
The unschooled (be) a small minority of the populace.
Dominoes (be) a very old game.
Mathematics (be) my favourite subject.
The Middle Ages (be) full of variety.
2.5. Gender

Gender is a grammatical category of the noun, which reflects the
biological category of sex of the noun referent. Gender distinctions are
not formally marked in the noun or in the article. According to their
lexical semantics, nouns can be divided into neuter, masculine and
feminine. Neuter nouns denote lower animals, objects or abstract
notions. Neuter nouns can he substituted with the personal pronoun
it and the relative pronoun which. Masculine nouns denote human
beings or higher animals of male sex. Masculine nouns can be
substituted with the personal pronoun he and the relative pronoun
who. Feminine nouns denote human beings or higher animals of female
sex. Feminine nouns can he substituted with the personal pronoun
she and the relative pronoun who.
It is obvious, that the personal pronoun he, she, it and the relative
pronouns who, which arc gender-sensitive.
The category of gender can be said to be based on the functio nal
oppositions of three categorial forms. These oppositions can be
presented in the following way:
|
masculine neuter
| feminine
211
2.5.2. Gender Classes

Quirk divides the class of nouns into gender classes depending
on the patterns of pronoun substitutions of singular noun. (Quirk, R.,
1972) We can present these classes in the following way:
Semantic subclass
Gender class
Example
Pronoun
substitution
1. Common animate personal - male

2. Common animate personal - female
3. Common animate personal
4. Common animate personal
5. Common animate personal - collective
masculine
feminine
dual
common
collective
man
woman
student
baby
family
he-who
she-who
he/she-who
he/she-who
it which they who
6. Common animate non-personal
common
lamb
7. Common animate non-personal
collective
flock
masculine
9. Animate non-personal higher animal - female feminine
buck
doe
it - which
he/she-which
it - which theywhich
he/it-which
she/it-which
10. Common - inanimate
higher
ship
11. Common animate - lower animal

12. Common inanimate
organism
neuter
neuter
snail
book
8. Animate non-personal higher animal - male
she/it-which he/itwhich
it-which
it-which
Personal nouns and nouns denoting higher animals can be

organized in pairs or groups according to their semantic relations:
mother
doe
parent <
deer <
father
buck, stag
daughter
| filly
child <
|
mare
horse
<
son
stallion
| colt
Sometimes the nouns in a pair are morphologically marked for
gender. The marker is not considered to be a grammatical ending, but
a derivational suffix:
e.g.
masculine
feminine
actor
actress
hunter
huntress
lion
lioness
hero
heroine
widower
widow
usher
usherette
Nouns of dual class membership usually denote an occupation or
a status of the referent:
e.g.
doctor
student
teacher
nurse
flight attendent
friend
shop assistant
enemy
Sometimes the speaker employs combinations of words to make the
information clear:
noun + noun
e.g. boyfriend - girlfriend
doctor - lady doctor
hen
student - woman student
buck-rabbit - doe-rabbit
turkey-cock - turkey-
adjective + noun
frog - female frog
nurse - male nurse

personal pronoun + noun
she-bear - he-bear
name + noun
billy-goat - nanny-goat
When used as countable nouns, collective nouns improper can be
substituted with the personal pronouns it or they depending on number
and by the relative pronoun which:
e.g. It was a democratically elected government.
e.g. The tax surplus is to he given to local governments to spend as

they fit.
When the speakers refer to the individuals within the group, they use
the personal pronoun they and the relative pronoun who to substitute
collective nouns improper.
e.g. The family, who were hostile at first, had not a word to say
when the woman was introduced to them.
Collective nouns proper animate are substituted with the personal
pronoun they.
e.g: People are gullible. They tend to think that doctors know
everything.
The relative pronoun who can be used with reference to people.
Collective nouns proper inanimate are substituted with the personal
pronoun it.
e.g. It was antique and expensive furniture.
To the gender class of higher organisms belong nouns denoting:
a. names of countries
b. names of vessels, machinery or toys
Nouns of group a. are usually treated as inanimate nouns:
e.g. ... is a small country, but it is thickly populated.
If, however, the country is referred to as a political, cultural or
economic power, it can be substituted with the personal pronoun she:
e.g. Germany managed to stabilize her economy in a comparatively
short period of time.
When the name of the country is used to refer to a sports team, it is
treated as a collective improper noun and is substituted with the
personal pronoun they:
e.g. Italy can be proud of their success.
Nouns of group b. are usually treated as inanimate nouns.
e.g. We were watching a ship in the distance. It was rolling
sluggishly from side to side.
However, some speakers substitute such nouns with personal

pronouns referring to human beings. This is due to some personal
involvement of the speaker with the noun referent:
e.g. Have you seen my sloop, which is in the dock? Isn't she a
beauty?
This phenomenon borders on personification.
2.5.3.
Personification
2.5.4.
The practice of showing particular qualities, emotions or the
elements of Nature in the form of a person makes it necessary to use
gender sensitive pronouns referring to people to substitute non-personal
nouns. When the qualities embodied arc positive, the noun is treated as
feminine:
e.g. Mary Ann has beard a lot about Nature. She is a kind of very
powerful invisible fairly godmother, who is in charge of everything that
happens in the world that's not because of people or machines. (A. Lurie)
When the qualities embodied are negative, the noun is treated as
masculine:
e.g. Thy brother Death
Came and cried:
'Wouldst thou me?' (Shelley)
2.5.5.
Gender Bias in the Use of Gender Sensitive Pronouns
Speaking of gender, we have to remark that the use of gender

sensitive pronouns evinces gender bias in favour of masculine.
The masculine pronouns he, him, his are often used when the
speakers refer to an unspecified or hypothetical individual. Linguistically, masculine is thus the unmarked member of the gender
opposition. This makes it possible to use masculine pronouns to refer to
any human being. To avoid gender bias, English spea-
kers tend to use the group of pronouns he or she when substituting

nouns of common gender informal speech:
e.g. Tell the next person who calls that he or she can make an
appointment.
In spoken English they is used to refer hack to a pronoun:
e.g. What happens if someone changes their mind?
Exercises
I.
1.
What are the feminine counterparts corresponding to these

masculine nouns?
waiter
drum major
lion
nephew
bachelor
gander
hero
bridegroom
drake
widower
brother
peacock
ram
administrator
businessman
2. Substitute the nouns in the following sentences with pronouns:

The government has announced plans to raise the minimum
wage next year.
The old hen likes to nest under the porch.
A coach party were touring the Lake District.
The audience were enjoying themselves.
The crowd was large.
A delegation was sent to the summit meeting.
The class were all clever young men.
The tiger opened his mouth wide.
II.
1. Use appropriate gender sensitive pronouns in the following
sentences:
The class of 1964 all attended ... class reunion at Cornell Uni versity.
The staff were doing ... best to accomplish the work on time.
My cousin ... lives aboard will visit us in September.
The furniture ... was in the room was modem in design.
The animal ... you saw run across the clearing was a squirrel.
- It was the will of the testator that all ... money should be donated to charity.
The actor ... played Hamlet was an elderly man.
The actress looks as if ... is going to faint.
The vixen and ... young went out of sight.
This is the watch ... I received as a birthday present.
1. Translate the following text into Bulgarian:
Mary Ann has heard a lot about Nature. She is a kind of very
powerful invisible fairly godmother who is in charge of everything that
happens in the world that's not because of people or machines. Nature
made trees get yellow and red in October, and turned eggs into chickens
and tadpoles into frogs and all kinds of stuff like that. She decided
beforehand which children would be strong and which ones would be
smart. ('Nature gave you a good brain, and it's up to you to use it.') If
you were sick she could make you well. ('It's only a feverish cold,
Nature will take care of it in a couple of days.')
Advertisements on the radio announced that their cereal was full of
Nature's goodness. Science books told how Nature gave some ani mals
fur coats to protect them against the winter, and made coal out of fern
trees that grew millions of years ago. Sometimes they called her Mother
Nature, especially in stories for little kids, but that might be just to
make them feel safer.
Because Nature has a scary side, she has laws you have to obey, and
a balance that can be upset. If you broke her laws or made her lose her
balance and fall off, naturally she got mad and then everything went
wrong, and people got sick, or hurt or even killed. But it was their own
fault and they should have known better. She is a huge invisible lady
with long streaming grey hair and floaty grey clothes and bare feet
walking along a high invisible wall over the world.
(From 'Only Children' by Alison
Lurie)
75
III.
1. Compare Shelley's poem 'The Cloud' to its Bulgarian translation.
Consider the shift of imagery:
THE CLOUD
I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,
As she dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.
I sift the snow on the mountains below,
And their great pines groan aghast;
And all the night 'tis my pillow white,
While I sleep in the arms of the blast.
Sublime on the towers of my skyey bowers,
Lightning, my pilot sits;
In a cavern under is fettered the thunder,
It struggles and howls at fits;
Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion.
This pilot is guiding me,
Lured by the love of the genii that move
In the depths of the purple sea;
Over the rills, and the crags, and the hills,
Over the lakes and the plains,
Wherever he dreams, under mountain or stream,
The Spirit he loves remains;
And I all the while bask in Heaven's blue smile,
Whilst he is dissolving in rains.
The sanguine Sunrise, with his meteor eyes,

And his burning plumes outspread,
Leaps on the back of my sailing rack,
When the morning star shines dead:
As on the jag of a mountain crag,
Which an earthquake rocks and swings,
An eagle alit one moment may sit
In the light of its golden wings.
And when sunset may breathe, from the lit sea beneath,
Its ardours of rest and of love,
And the crimson pall of eve may fall
From the depth of Heaven above.
With wings folded I rest, on mine aery nest.
As still as a brooding dove.
That orbed maiden with white fire laden,
Whom mortals call the Moon,
Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor,
By the midnight breezes strewn;
And wherever the beat of her unseen feet,
Which only the angels hear,
May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof,
The stars peep behind her and peer;
And I laugh to see them whirl and flee,
Like a swarm of golden bees,
When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent.
Till the calm rivers, lakes and seas,
Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high,
Are each paved with the moon and these.
I bind the Sun's throne with a burning zone,
And the Moon's with a girdle of pearl;
The vollcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim,
When the whirlwinds my banner uhfurl.
From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape,
Over a torrent sea,
77
Sunbeam proof, I hang like a roof, The mountains its columns be.
The triumphal arch through which I march
With hurricane, fire, and snow,
The sphere-fire above its soft colours wove,
While the moist Earth was laughing below.
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but cannot die.
,
!
.
!

.
,
.

;
,
, .
,
;
,
.
-
, ,
,
.
,
;
78

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, ...

,
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79
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2.6. Case
2.6. 1. Case Theories

The category of case of the English noun has been discussed within
the framework of four theories:
2.6.1.1. The Theory of Positional Cases
The theory of positional cases was developed by J. Nesfield, M.
Deutschbein, M. Bryant. Following the grammar of Latin, this theory
distinguishes the so called positional cases: nouns functioning as
Subject are treated as Nominative, nouns in the syntactic position as
Direct object are labelled Accusative, nouns in the position of Indirect
object are treated as Dative, nouns denoting the Addressee are
recognized as Vocative. We cannot adopt this theory because it does not
distinguish between functional syntactic po sitions and morphological
forms of the noun. Actually, the case forms of the noun serve as means
of expressing syntactic functions.
2.6.1.2.
The Theory of Prepositional Cases
The theory of prepositional cases was advanced by G. Curme. This

theory interprets combinations of nouns with prepositions in Object and
Attribute functions as morphological case forms. Thus to + noun and
for + noun are treated as Dative; of + noun is treated as Genitive.
2.6.1.3.
The Theory of the Possessive Postposition
The theory of the possessive postposition was developed by G.

Vorontsova and B. Ilyish. According to this theory, the inflected
genitive case form is treated as a combination of a noun with a
postposition. The apostrophe -'s is given the status of a postpositional
word with a function similar to the functions of prepositions. This
theory is based on the reasoning that -'s is loosely connected with the
noun and can be attached also to a noun phrase as well as to a group of
nouns. However, the -'s is semantically bound to the noun and it is not
an independent word. Its attachment to a phrase or a noun group is a
stylistic device.
2.6.1.4.
The Limited Case Theory
The limited case theory was advanced by H. Sweet, O. Jespersen.

According to the limited case theory, English nouns have two case
forms - genitive case and common case. We adopt this theory because
it is based on the structural approach to language description and
complies with the principle that each grammatical form has its own
grammatical meaning and each grammatical meanings is realized
through a specific grammatical form. Our presentation of the
grammatical category of case is based on the limited case theory.
81

Case is a grammatical category expressing various relations of the
noun to other elements in the sentence structure or in the structure of
the phrase. The category of case is based on the functional opposition
of two sets of forms: common genitive. The common case form is
unmarked. It expresses relations between the noun and the verb in
syntactic structures of various statuses. Each specific relation is further
distinguished by means of word order:
e.g. Tom bought a present for Nelly last week.
S
Od
Oprep
The genitive case form is marked by the -'s grammatical ending.

This ending is attached to nouns in the singular form (the teacher's
pencil), to irregular plural forms (the children's pencils), to larger
syntactic structures (Jack and Jill's adventure). The apostrophe is
attached to regular plural nouns (the students' papers). Proper nouns
in -s can be marked in two ways: either - 's or apostrophe (Burns's
poems or Burns' poems) but the ending should be pronounced [iz] in
both cases.
The genitive case forms express relations between two nouns:
e.g. Jane's brother; my sister's house
The inflected genitive is common with animate nouns:
personal names - e.g. Dr. Brown's students
personal nouns - e.g. my father's watch
collective nouns improper - e.g. the party's political platform
higher animals - e.g. the lion's cage
The inflected genitive is also used with some inanimate
nouns:
geographical names - e.g. Bulgaria's past
- names of institutions - e.g. the Chamber of Trade and Industry's
Premises
temporal nouns - e.g. a two months' holiday
82
nouns of distance - e.g. a three miles' walk

in some set phrases - e.g. at a stone's throw; within arm's reach
2.6.3.
Structural Types of Genitive Phrase
According to the structure of the noun phrase in which the genitive

case form is included, we can distinguish the following types of
phrase:
- the regular genitive phrase - the noun in the genitive case
precedes the head noun - e.g. the Queen's English
- the group genitive phrase - the case marking refers to a group of
nouns or a noun phrase - e.g. the United States' policy
- the double genitive phrase - the relation between the two nouns
is marked twice - by means of case ending and the preposition
of - e.g. a friend of my brother's (=one of my brother's friends)
- the elliptic genitive phrase - the head noun is omitted if the
context makes it possible for the addressee to recover the
relation e.g. Ann's office is larger than Tom's.
- the local genitive phrase - this is a variety of the elliptic type.
The omitted noun refers to buildings or establishments - e.g. at
St. Paul's (Cathedral); at the newsagent's
2.6.4.
Semantic Types of Genitive Phrase
Two semantic types of genitive phrase can be distinguished:

specifying and descriptive.
2.6.4.1. Specifying Genitive
With this semantic type the noun in the genitive case form is used
with specific reference:
e.g. my neighbour's son
83
b.
c.
d.
e.
a.
b.
c.
The relations between the noun in the genitive case form and its
head-noun are various. Accordingly, grammarians distinguish between
the following semantic varieties:
a possessive Genitive
e.g. this man's car (= this man has a car)
The noun in the genitive case denotes the owner; the noun in the
common case denotes the possession.
subjective Genitive
e.g. my friend's visit (= My friend visited us.)
The noun in the genitive case denotes the agent; the noun in the
common case denotes the action.
objective Genitive
e.g. Tom's exmatriculation (= They exmatriculated Tom.)
The noun in the genitive case denotes the Affected; the noun in the
common case denotes the action.
Genitive of origin
g. R. Stevenson's essays
The noun in the genitive case denotes the Agent; the noun in the
common case denotes the product.
The specifying genitive may be replaced by a prepositional phrase
introduced by the preposition of:
e.g. my friend's visit (= the visit of my friend)
Prepositional phrases may express several more meanings:
appositive Genitive - e.g. the city of London
partitive Genitive - e.g. the leg of the chair
Genitive of measure - e.g. the length of the swimming pool
2.6.4.2. Descriptive Genitive
With this semantic type the noun in the genitive case is used with
generic reference. We can distinguish between two semantic
varieties:
a. classifying Genitive
84
e.g. a sailor's uniform (= uniform worn by sailors)

cow's milk (= milk from cows)
a doctor's degree (= a doctoral degree)
The boys' own paper (= a British magazine for boys)
b. Genitive of measure
e.g. an hour's break (= a break of one hour)
a mile's walk (= walking a distance of one mile)
The descriptive genitive is not always possible to be
replaced by an of-phrase. Many descriptive genitive
phrases have become set phrases:
e.g. a spider's web
the bee's sting
Some phrases have idiomatic meaning:
e.g. a giant's task
a child's play
The uses of the 's (inflected) genitive and the of- (periphrastic)
genitive overlap to a considerable degree. But the two structures are not
always interchangeable. The inflected form is common in headlines,
captions and titles. This is due to its brevity and the prominence it gives
to the noun:
e.g. 'Love's Labours Lost'
'Midsummer Night's Dream'
'Uncle Tom's Cabin'
Exercises
I.
1. Mark the apostrophe in the sentences:
a. I called to see the Head Teacher of the Infants Department and
came away quite charmed. I liked the Head Teachers enthusiasm
and quiet efficiency and above all I liked the teacher who was in
85
charge of the five-year-olds class. It seemed that Rogers day at

school would be filled both usefully and happily.
86
b.
c.
She never shared any of her husbands worries. A good wife

should not be regarded as an obstacle in the path of her
partners self-development.
We spend the night at Mark and Janes parents house. The
village was two hours drive from London.
2. Identify the genitive case forms in the following text:

Tom's a very good student. He attends a secondary school in
Manchester. Tom's sister is a doctor. She's twenty-five years old. Her
name's Nelly. Nelly's got a small flat in London. The flat's near
Piccadilly Circus. Tom likes Nelly's place very much.
II.
-
1. Paraphrase by means of prepositional phrases:

Nelly's flat
- Smith and Brown's office
Tom's arrival
- a mile's distance
London University's Library
- an hour and a half's break
Hollywood's Studios
- a miner's wife
goat's milk
- the play's title
the women's journal
- the ship's crew
a lady's maid
2. Paraphrase by means of clauses:

gentleman's agreement
a ladies' man
bachelor's degree
- the Queen's English

- turn Queen's evidence
- an old boys' reunion
III.
-
1. Label the structural type of each genitive phrase:

She looked at the boy's toys and started to cry.
She's going to spend the weekend at her aunt's.
- - You can buy razors at the chemist's.
- - A friend of my sister's visited us on Sunday.
The Prime Minister's speech will be broadcast
live.
- - Bright lights marked the sisters' offices.
87
- On such days you could topple the dome off St. Paul's with a
forefinger.
- My former teacher's name was Mr. Edwards.
- She's reading Jack London's 'Martin Eden'.
2. Label the semantic type of each genitive phrase:
- She looked at the boy's face and sighed with relief.
- She put the boy's toys in order.
- She took us to the children's zoo.
- We were informed of the committee's decision.
- They admire Canada's great mountains.
- The man's weight was surprising.
- We visited the City of Westminster.
- I was pleased with John's approval of my work.
- I read about the girl's kidnap.
Chapter 3
The Adjective
3.1. Semantics
Adjectives relate to nouns. They denote various features of noun
referents:
- quality - e.g. a beautiful picture
- material - e.g. a wooden chair
- colour - e.g. a red rose
- dimensions - e.g. a long story
- state - e.g. was asleep.
- position - e.g. The houseboat was located in downtown St. Paul.
- quantity or number - e.g. many books
Adjectives are semantically bound - they denote information only in
collocations with nouns:
e.g. a beautiful girl (= a girl who is beautiful)
a beautiful dancer (= someone who dances beautifully)
When the head noun in a phrase is missing, adjectives are
accompanied by the prop word one:
e.g. Give me a pen, the reel one, please!
Adjectives can be subdivided into semantic subclasses in the basis of
several semantic oppositions:
qualitative relative
Qualitative adjectives denote qualities of the noun referent that can
be estimated quantitatively. The estimation is formalized by means of
adverbial modifiers:
e.g. She is very young.
This book is rather difficult.
He is old enough to get married.
89
Relative adjectives denote properties determined by the relation of

two material entities:
e.g. a wooden pen-case
silver earring
coloured postcards
dynamic stative
Dynamic adjectives can be used in imperative sentences and after
the verb to be in the progressive:
e.g. Be careful!
e.g. She is being careful today.
Stative adjectives cannot be used in such syntactic contexts. They
can only be used in noun phrases:
e.g. a thin man
gradable non-gradable
Gradable adjectives can be intensified by means of adverbs:
e.g. She is very tall.
Gradable adjectives can express comparison:
tall - taller - tallest
e.g. This was the most grammatical of the suggested topics.
Non-gradable adjectives cannot be intensified or compared:
e.g. nuclear weapons; a silver spoon; a hollow tree
inherent non-inherent
Inherent feature adjectives can be paraphrased in the following
way:
e.g. a new dress (= It is a dress and it is new.)
Non-inherent feature adjectives can be paraphrased as follows:
e.g. He is a good friend. (= He is good as a friend.)
The same adjective can be inherent or non-inherent depending on
the noun it modified.
e.g. inherent: a big circle (= It is a circle and it is big.)
non-inherent: a big mistake (= It is big as a mistake.)
90
3.2. Form
3.2.1. Word Building
According to their morphological structure adjective stems can be
classified into:
a. simple - they contain only root morphemes: good, bad
b. derived - they consist of the root morpheme and same affix. The
following affixes are found with adjectives:
- prefixes: pre-, and-, un-, in-, im-, il-, ir-:
e.g. pre-war, anti-personnel, unhappy, insignificant, immoral,
illegal, irrational
- suffixes: -y, -ic, -en, -ous, -ive, -able, -ible, -most, -like, -less, -al,
-ly, -ish, -ile, -ian, -ary, -ory, -ate, -esque, -some, -ed, -worthy:
e.g. happy, organic, golden, various, passive, comfortable,
convertible, topmost, fishlike, childless, national, manly, childish,
infantile, collonial, military, exclamatory, passionate, statuesque,
troublesome, horned, trustworthy
c. compound - such stems are built of two or more roots and some
affix:
e.g. heart-rending, fair-haired, ice-cold, up-to-date
d.
participials - these are adjectivized participles. They
possess certain features that distinguish them from
participles proper:
e. - their meaning is different from the meaning of the participle:
f. g. a forbidding coast (= a coast that looks dangerous)
g. a forbidding appearance (= a repellent appearance)
h. - there is no participle proper:
i. e.g. an interesting film
j. - they govern different prepositions:
k. e.g. surprised at, worried about
l. - the noun modified by the participial is not the
morphological subject of the verb root:
91
e.g. an astonished glance

3.2.2. Grammatical Paradigm
Gradable adjectives can express the grammatical category of
comparison through a system of grammatical forms. Comparison
gives a relative evaluation of the degree of the quality attributed to the
referent of the modified noun. This category is based on the functional
opposition of three sets of forms: positive, comparative and
superlative. Positive degree forms have no feature of comparison
(e.g. She is a beautiful girl). Comparative degree forms have the
feature of restricted superiority with reference to two entities (e.g.
She is more beautiful than her sister is.). Superlative degree forms
have the feature of unrestricted superiority with reference of a
group (e.g. She is the most beautiful girl in the class.)
Some adjectives have synthetical forms of comparison, others
have analytical forms. The synthetical forms are built up by means of
the grammatical endings -er and -est:
e.g. small - smaller - smallest
One syllable adjectives and two-syllable adjectives ending in -le,
-y, -ow, -er employ grammatical endings:
e.g. gentle - gentler - gentlest
happy - happier - happiest
narrow - narrower - narrowest
clever - cleverer - cleverest
A few more frequently used adjectives of two syllables have
synthetical forms of comparison - polite, complete, common,
pleasant, quiet.
The rest of the two-syllable adjectives and adjectives of more
than two syllables have analytical forms of comparison - they
employ the auxiliary adverbs more and most:
e.g. amazing - more amazing - most amazing
92
Some adjectives have irregular forms of comparison:

e.g. good - better - best
The superlative degree form can express elative meaning (a very
high degree of the respective quality):
e.g. It was the most important problem to discuss.
Comparison can be repeated to suggest continuing change:
e.g. She was growing more and more dissatisfied.
There are other specific forms of comparison, which employ the
auxiliary words less and least. They may be called forms of reverse
comparison:
e.g. She is less beautiful than her sister.
She is the least beautiful of the three sisters.
Various syntactic structures can be used to express meanings within
the semantic field of comparison:
equality
- e.g. She is as clever as her brother.
inequality
- e.g. She is not as clever as her brother.
She is not so clever as her brother.
miscellaneous - e.g. This skirl is twice as long as that one.
He is more good than bad.
This dress is by two inches longer than that
one.
Comparatives can be used in parallel structures with the de finite
article:
e.g. The more people come, the merrier the party will be.
e.g. The more experience he gets, the more efficient his work
becomes.
3.2.3. Adjectives Can Be Substantivized
If the adjective is placed in a nominatively self dependent position,
this leads to its substantivization. Substantivization can be complete or
partial.
93
Completely substantivized adjectives have all the grammatical

features of nouns:
e.g. The car is convertible. He is driving a convertible.
e.g. He is a brave warrior. The painting shows two Indian braves.
Partially substantivized adjectives fall into two types: personal
plural and abstract singular. Partial substantivization is marked by the
definite article. Substantivized adjectives denoting personal qualities
refer to all the people characterized by the respective quality. They
combine with plural verb forms:
e.g. the blind -
the disabled -
Substantivized adjectives denoting evaluation refer to abstract
notions. They combine with singular verb forms:
e.g. the good -
the evil -
the beautiful -
the ugly -
Partially substantivized adjectives function as head of noun
phrases:
e.g. The blind are more inactive than the sighted.
e.g. The beautiful is an aesthetic category.
3.3. Structure of the Adjective Phrase

Adjectives function in phrases. An adjective phrase is a phrase with
an adjective as head. Positive degree forms can he modified by very,
so, so very, quite, fairly, rather, extremely:
e.g. She is very beautiful.
I am so tired.
This book is fairly easy for you to read.
This book is rather difficult for you to read.
94
Comparative degree forms can be intensified by much, so much,

far, a lot, a little.
e.g. This task is much easier than the first one.
Adjectives can he followed by:
- complements:
e.g. Glad to meet you.
- comparative clauses:
e.g. as happy as can be
happier than me
happier than I am
the happiest of all
3.4.
Syntactic
Adjectives
Functions
of
3.4.1. Noun Modifier

There are two types of noun modifier - attributive and postpositive.
Attributives are usually single adjectives premodifying nouns:
e.g. fresh bread, fresh news
Attributives denote permanent features of the noun referent:
e.g. a beautiful girl, a tall girl
Adjectives referring to temporary states are postpositives.
Postpositives often have complementation. They follow the modified
noun:
e.g. The girl, tall on her high-heels...
Most postpositives are reduced relative clauses:
e.g. The girl, who was tall on her high shoes...
Some adjectives are commonly used as postpositives: absent,
present, involved, concerned, etc.
Some adjectives have different meanings depending on the
position they occupy relative to the head noun:
e.g. collective nouns proper (=)
Now is the proper moment to discuss such matters. (= )
95
Adjectives in -able and -ible denote permanent features when

used as attributives (e.g. the visible stars) and temporary features
when used as postpositives (e.g. the stars visible tonight).
3.4.2.
Predicative
Adjectives in predicative function usually denote temporary

states or qualities:
e.g. I was lost and afraid and certain of danger.
Some adjectives can be used only predicatively /after link verbs/:
e.g. He had been asleep for half an hour.
Expressions of measurement function predicatively:
e.g. She is twenty years old.
3.4.3.
Subject Complement
Adjectives in this function denote temporary qualities related to

verbal situations, which are denoted by intransitive verbs:
e.g. She lay awake in her bed. (= She lay in her bed, she was
awake.)
3.4.4.
Object Complement
Adjectives in this function often denote features of the object

resulting from the verbal situation:
e.g. She tore the envelope open.
3.4.5.
Verbless Adjective Clause
An adjective phrase may function as a verbless clause denoting

attendant circumstances (e.g. Tired but happy, she went out for lunch.)
or circumstances in cause and consequence relation to the situation
denoted by the main verb (e.g. Disappointed, she left the meeting.)
96
3.4.6.
Heads of Noun Phrases
Partially substantivized adjectives function as heads of noun

phrases. They have generic reference:
e.g. Only the brave deserve the fair.
3.4.7.
Exclamatory Sentences
Adjectives preceded by 'how' take initial position in exclamatory

sentences.
e.g. How beautiful the flower is!
3.5. Order of Adjectives

Some adjectives denote inherent features of noun referents; others
express the opinion of the speaker. If a noun is modified by a number of
attributes, their order in the noun phrase structure is as follows:
97
An attributive group does not normally include all of these se mantic

types of adjectives. The order of adjectives of the same type depends on
suprasegmental units such as stress and intonation.
Exercis
es
I.
1. a. Identify each adjective phrase:
A young man I know here is at Harvard and he took me round
his University. It is a wonderful place; the rooms were magnificent,
beautifully lighted, sound-proofed and air-conditioned. The furniture,
the carpets, the curtains might have been in a first class hotel. There
are splendid libraries and the laboratories are some of the most up-todate and best equipped in the world.
b. Classify the adjectives according to their morphemic
structure.
2. Put the words in the correct order to make adjective phrases:
- much so determined
- too mad simple go to
- the bushes tall last
- before much than bigger
- once to many see too things at
- level hearth with topmost the
- fire bright a good
- sleepily storm of aware the of the groaning
only sister's faintly offices luminous comparison in the with of
the windows
II.
1. Make a noun phrase from each group of words:
- a, little, giggle, most, nervous, unexpected, pathetic, imbecile
98
a, furious, harsh, noise, and, desire, pain, of, full, and

a, overhang, noise, scuffling, from, the, coming
- the, eyes, of, line, verticular, lit, brightly, kitchens, the,
marking, ward
- a, full, flat, of, warm, flowers, hot-house, weekly, sup plied, a,
by, florist
flabby, arms, her, white, with, splattered, spots, tan, pale
a, given, woman, recollections, to
an, actions, dealing, film, with, imperfect, strangers, of
2. What are the syntactic functions of the adjective phrases in the

- Ruth felt sincerely grateful to her grandfather who had ensured
such comfortable circumstances to his descendants.
- She lay still for a moment, sleepily aware of the groaning of the
storm.
Shirley had stepped out of plausibility into the unknown.
- She began to feel sorry for her own husband, to whom this
narrative has so far been less than generous.
He found the room empty.
Oh good, you remembered to buy the milk.
How good is his English!
III.
1. Put one suitable word in each space:
He remained cool, ... cool as a cucumber.
... beautiful her dress is!
She is more beautiful ... her mother.
He is ... angry than tired.
He is ... tallest boy in his class.
Some men said that she was the prettiest girl ... the word.
Less expensive machines are ... as good or even better.
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2. Paraphrase the following sentences without changing the

meaning:
a. She is not as clever as her brother.
He brother is...................................... .
b. More people live in Paris than in Sofia.
..................... live in Sofia than in Paris.
c. I spent more money on books than on clothes.
I spent ..................................... than on books.
d. I want you to get rid of those people and the sooner, the better.
e. I want you to get rid of those people as ..................................... .
f. I'll do my best.
g. I'll try as .......................................... .
3. Write the following text under dictation and translate it into
Bulgarian:
A carriage pulled by two gleaming black horses and guarded
at each corner by a hefty horseman, rounded the pit heap and drew
up in a cloud of coal dust beside the winding house. The crowd
gasped at the richness of the carriage and the finery of the man and
woman sitting there. Slowly, with rehearsed dignity Percy Lovat
rose to address the gawking faces. Jessop dashed across and stood,
smiling bravely beside him ... He held up his hands for silence but
the crowd already was silent. He put them awkwardly to his side
before nervously fingering his signet ring.
(From 'The Darkness of the Morning' by G.
Parker)
100
Chapter 4
The Adverb
4.1.
Semantics
The adverb is a class of notional words denoting properties of nonsubstantive referents-verbal situations and properties. When speakers
represent verbal situations, it often becomes necessary to specify
circumstances:
e.g. She took the bag inside.
Adverbs express circumstantial meanings. The adverb class falls into
several semantic subclasses.
a.
locative adverbs, denoting position in space (here,
nearby), direction (clockwise, eastward, sideways),
distance (far, away);
b. temporal adverbs, denoting position in time (then, now),
duration (long, shortly), frequency (often, seldom, always,
ever, frequently, sometimes);
c. process adverbs, denoting manner (gently. terribly, well,
wonderfully), means (mechanically, manually);
d.
contingency adverbs, denoting cause and consequence
(consequently, accordingly), condition (if), concession
(nevertheless);
e. degree adverbs denoting amplification (increasingly, much
badly), diminution (little), measure (sufficiently, enough).
4.2.
Form
4.2.1. Word - building

According to their morphological structure adverbs can be classified
into:
a. simple - adverbs containing one root morpheme (now, well,
enough);
101
b. derived - adverbs containing a root morpheme and some affix

(ahead, headlong, slowly, likewise, forward);
c. compound - adverbs containing two root morphemes (anyhow,
somewhere);
d. phrasal - adverbial units containing two or more words
(to and fro, at last, from within);
e. flat adverbs - these are morphologically simple adverbs
coinciding formally with adjectives (hard, near, close,
deep, wide). Formally, flat adverbs coincide with
adjectives, functionally they belong to the adverb class.
4.2.2. Comparison
Some adverbs express comparison by means of grammatical forms.
The grammatical category of comparison is based on the functional
opposition of three forms: common, comparative, superlative. Onesyllable adverbs and the adverb 'early' constitute their forms by means
of the grammatical endings -er and -est:
Most of the adverbs employ the auxiliary words 'more' and 'most':
e.g. frequently - more frequently - most frequently
Some adverbs have irregular forms of comparison. When two
parallel forms exist, they are different in meaning:
e.g.
nearest
farther
farthest
near - nearer
<
far <
next
furthest
further
latest
late - later <
last
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4.3.
Functions
Syntactic
4.3.1. Adverbial Modifier

In accord with their semantics, adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives
and other adverbs. There are four types of adverbial modifiers:
Adjunct, Subjunct, Disjunct, Conjunct. (Jackson H. 1990)
4.3.1.1.
Adjunct
This type of adverbial modifier is governed by the verb. It is

obligatory in the sentence structure: without the adjunct the sentence
would be semantically or even formally incomplete:
e.g. She took the child away.
Verbs of motion require Adjuncts with the semantic role of locative
circumstance:
e.g. She went in to cook the dinner.
Adjuncts with the semantic role of temporal circumstance often
change the meaning of the sentences:
e.g. 'Did he come to your birthday party?', 'Yes, he did. He always
comes to my parties.'
e.g. 'Did he come to your birthday party?', 'Yes, he did. But he came
late. He always conies late.'
4.3.1.2.
Subjunct
This type of adverbial modifier can be subordinate to some sentence

element (e.g. She likes the country, especially in spring.) or it can
modify the whole sentence as comment of the speaker. (e.g. To kiss a
miss is awfully simple but to miss a kiss is simply awful.)
103
4.3.1.3.
Disjunct
Adverbial modifiers of this type refer to the whole sentence. They

are detached from the sentences. They usually occupy the initial position
in a sentence. Disjuncts define the conditions under which the speaker
takes authority for what is being said or reflect the speaker's attitude to
the truth value of the proposition. (Jackson H., 1990):
e.g. She was too much inclined, possibly, to look for worth in
others.
e.g. Frankly, he is not a good man.
4.3.1.4.
Conjunct
It is a type of adverbial modifier that is considerably detached

from the sentence in which it is included. It joins the sentence to the
preceding context and explicates the semantic relation between the
sentence and the context:
e.g. I couldn't believe it of him. However, I was mistaken.
4.3.2.
Noun Modifier
Some adverbs of place and time can postmodify noun phrases:
e.g. The trip there was a pleasant one.
e.g. She is leaving on Monday, and he is arriving the day after.
4.3.3.
Complement of Preposition
Adverbs of place and time can function as complement of a

preposition:
e.g. She must have finished work by now.
104
4.3.4. Clause Introducer

Adverbs are used to introduce the following types of clause:
a. interrogative (special question):
b. e.g. Where do you live?
c. subject, predicative, object:
e.g. Why they had to go is a secret?
e.g. The question is where to go.
e.g. Tell me where they live.
4.4. Adverb Particles in Phrasal Verbs

Adverb particles combine with verbs to produce phrasal verbs. The
function of adverb particles is to change the aspective character of the
verb.
e.g. She was dozing on the sofa. (unlimitive)
e.g. She dozed off. (limitive)
Other particles change the meaning of the verb form from literal,
through figurative to idiomatic:
e.g. I can't put up with her behaviour any longer.
Adverb particles coincide, formally, with prepositions:
e.g. They set off on the next stage of the journey.
Similarities and differences between particles and prepositions will
be discussed in chapter 5.
Exercises
I.
1. Identify the adverbs in the following sentences:

- I wonder who she is and where she comes from.
- They were given orders to find out where the wounded
man was hiding.
- It was getting dark when we started off.
- Have you ever made a speech at a meeting?
105
- I can make friends easily.

- I must have sounded a bit unfriendly over the phone.
- We won't live to their age, perhaps.
- She felt she couldn't stand much more of this discussion.
- He is out at the moment. Could you ring back later?
2. Choose the correct adverb:
- Don't speak so fast/fastly. The post is fast/fastly in the
ground.
- The arrow fell wide/widely of the mark. He was wide/widely
awake. They differ wide/widely in opinions.
- She was standing close/closely against the wall. There is a
bus stop close/closely to the school. He is close/closely upon
fifty. She close/closely resembles her mother. I followed the
argument close/closely.
- All the things were tight/tightly packed together. They were
packed tight/tightly. Hold it tight/tightly.
- He went studying deep/deeply into the night. He is
deep/deeply interested in the subject. The causes of the trouble
are deep/deeply seated.
II.
1. What is the syntactic function of each adverb:
- Admittedly we have too much cats.
She left the book on the chair right here. Before now, hardly
anyone studied Chinese.
- They wanted to know where she lived.
- They made the announcement somewhat reluctantly.
- We haven't met since then.
2. Use the appropriate word to form the usual question:
How few/near is Pleven from Turnovo?
How long/short does it take you to go to Sofia?
- How hard/slow do you work on the project?
How well/bud does she speak Spanish?
- How fast/slow can you run?
III.
1. Translate the following sentences into English:
- ?

?
- - ?
- - ?
- - ?
2. Underline each adverbial and indicate its type: Adjunct, Disjunct,
Conjunct, Subjunct.
- He will consequently be the next President.
- Confidentially, I hear she has obtained a divorce.
- The rent is high, but otherwise the house is satisfactory.
- Plants grow naturally in such a good climate.
- Luckily, the train was late so I just caught it.
- Honestly, that's all the money I have.
- There was no news; nevertheless, she went on hoping.
- So I don't get the job?
- Young people rightly blame their parents for misunderstan dings
between them.
- How many books on Nature have you read?' 'Just a few.'
Chapter 5
The Preposition
5.1.
Defining the Functional Series

The preposition is a functional series of words. Prepositions
relate nouns (or noun equivalents, such as pronouns or gerund forms)
to other sentence elements (such as verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs):
a letter written in ink (verb - preposition - noun)
a book of verse (noun - preposition - noun)
a husked full of fruit (adjective - preposition - noun)
d.
Her arrival caught him completely unaware of the
impeding trouble. (adverb - preposition - noun)
Morphologically, prepositions may be single words (on, at) or
combination of words (noun + preposition+ noun - e.g. in front of;
noun + preposition - e.g. thanks to; conjunction + preposition - e.g.
because of; adjective + preposition - e.g. due to).
a.
b.
c.
5.2.
e.
Prepositional Phrases
Prepositions do not function in isolation. They are commonly

followed by a noun (or a noun equivalent) functioning as prepo sitional complement. The two items (preposition + complement)
constitute a prepositional phrase, the preposition being the head word
of the phrase. Prepositional phrases can be modified by adverbs of
degree or measure:
g. They arrived just before lunch.
Normally the preposition and its complement stand in a contact
position. In some types of clause, however, the complement has to
take the first structural position:
a.
direct special questions:

e.g. What are you talking about?
b. indirect special questions:
e.g. I don't know what you are talking about.
c. prepositional finite passive structures:
e.g. His promotion was very much talked about.
d. prepositional non-finite passive structures:
e. g. He hated to be taken care of by his children.
In some sentences one and the same complement is associated with
two different prepositions but is used only after the second
preposition:
e.g. There were hooks on and. under the desk.
5.3. Prepositional Meanings
b.
c.
d.
In most of their functions prepositions have a lexical meaning of

their own and are the primary realization of the meaning of the
prepositional phrases. Prepositions express circumstantial meanings.
In this book we adapt Quirk's presentation of prepositional meanings:
1. Locative meaning:
a. position - the choice of preposition depends on
the dimensional properties of the noun referent:
e.g. The child is at his desk. (one-dimensional location)
e.g. The book is on the desk. (two-dimensional location)
e.g. The paper is in the drawer. (three-dimensional location)
direction
e.g. Come to the blackboard.
e.g. He came into the room.
e.g. His name got on the list of candidates.
destination
e.g. I dashed behind the hush.
passage
e.g. Tom felt a desire to jump over the creek.

e. orientation
e.
g. the village beyond the fields
f.
pervasive meaning
e.g. Books were scattered all over the place.
2. Temporal
3. e.g. at 3 o'clock
4. in September, in 1936
5. on September, 10th
6. from 5 till 9
7. Cause - purpose
e.g. I am doing it out of duty.
e.g. I wouldn't do it for love or money.
8. Recipient
e.g. He bought flowers for his wife.
He sent flowers to his wife.
Process circumstances:
9. Instrument
e.g. He opened the tin with a knife.
10. Means
e.g. I go to work by bus.
11. Ingredient, material
12. e.g. made of clay
13. e.g. made with milk
14. e.g. filled with brandy
15. Standard or respect
e.g. He's not bad for a beginner.
e.g. He's good at English.
16. Reaction
e.g. They left, much to my surprise.
Many prepositions can express more than one type of circumstance. In phrases with such preposition the semantic inter-pretation
is provided by the prepositional complement or the general context:
e.g. on the table (place)
e.g. on Saturday (temporal)
5.4.
Grammaticalized Prepositions
The prepositions of, by, to and for may be used to express

grammatical relations:
e.g. She was the wife of a miner. (status)
e.g. They were painted by Picasso. (agent)
e.g. I sent a fax to the manager. (the noun denoting the Reci pient
was postponed after the noun denoting the Affected)
e.g. It was impossible for me to believe it. (used to introduce the
Agent of an action denoted by the infinitive)
In such cases the prepositions are said to be grammaticalized.
5.5.
Metaphorical Use of Prepositions
Many prepositions have abstract meanings that are due to

metaphorical use:
e.g. The fanning industry is in extremely dire straits. (= in a very
bad situation)
e.g. I was at a loss to understand what had happened.
5.6.
Choice of Prepositions
The choice of prepositions depends on various factors:
1. The lexical meaning of the preposition:
e.g. The bag is on the chair.
e.g. The bag is under the chair.
2.
The governing word (the lexical meaning of the preposition is weakened):

e.g. covered with snow;
e.g. surprized at her behaviour;
e.g. tired of reading
3.
The prepositional complement the preposition and its
complement are treated as a set phrase):
e.g. in the evening:
e.g. at night;
e.g. by day
5.7. Prepositions and Adverb Particles

Circumstances can be expressed by prepositional phrases and by
adverbs. Within the class of adverbs there is a small group of words
denoting locative circumstances (position and direction) and temporal
circumstances (position): in, out, on, off, up, down, above, below,
before, after. These words are known as adverb particles.
Adverb particles coincide formally with prepositions. As a matter
of fact, adverb particles in some structures can be interpreted as
abbreviated prepositional phrases expressing locative or temporal
circumstances. The missing prepositional complement is recoverable
from the context:
e.g. I took the dog out. ( out of the house)
e.g. We have met before. ( before this meeting)
However, adverb particles have other functions related to verbs.
A particle combines with a verb to compose a phrasal verb. Often the
function of the particle is to change the aspective meaning of the verbal
lexeme: eat eat up. Some phrasal verbs have literal meanings:
e.g. I have to send out some documents.
Other phrasal verbs have idiomatic meanings:
e.g. Don 't let me down!
e.g. The lights went out.
Adverb particles have no function independent of verbs. (Jackson,

H., 1990).
Due to the formal and functional similarities between them,
prepositions and particles are given the common name of P-words by
some grammarians. Prepositions and particles were treated in detail by
(E.M., O'Dowd, 1998). Our presentation focusses on the differences
between particles and prepositions reflected in the structure of phrasal
verbs:
1. Particles may combine with intransitive verbs:
e.g. I woke up at 6 in the morning.
2. Particles may combine with transitive verbs, too:
e.g. I woke up the child at 7 o'clock.
a.
When the object is expressed by means of a
noun, particles may stand before or after the
object:
e.g. I woke up the child.
e.g. I woke the child up.
b.
When the object is expressed by means of a
pronoun, particles may stand only after the
object:
e.g. I woke him up.
3. Prepositions always stand before their complements
to constitute prepositional phrases. Such phrases
function as prepositional object:
e.g. She was looking at the picture.
4. A direct object can be inserted between the transitive
verb and the prepositional object:
e.g. The instructor put me off driving.
5. A phrasal verb with a particle can combine with a
prepositional object:
e.g. I fell back on that money.
Following these features of prepositions and adverb particles, we
can subdivide phrasal verbs into several structural types:
1. Vi + adv. Part. Please, come in!
2. Vi + prep. Object What's happened to them?
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Vi + adv. Part. + prep.Object I'll catch up with you later.

Vt + Od + adv. Part. She showed me out.
Vt + adv. Part. + Od She switched off the light.
Vt + Od. + prep. O She cashed the cheque for me.
Vt + prep.O + Od I explained to him the impossibility of granting
his request.
8. Vt + adv. Part. + Od + prepos. O She switched off the light for
me.
Particles and prepositions should be paid special attention to since
they present learning difficulties.
Exercises
I.
1.
2.
Identify the underlined words as either Particles or Prepo sitions:

a. The room was crowded, the atmosphere overflowing
with goodwill. Around the panelled walls chairs stood
as if patiently waiting to be occupied. They were
modern in design and held a promise of comfort with
elegance as befitted such an influential organization as
the town's Chamber of Trade and Industry, on whose
premises the reception was being held. (L. Peake)
b. Their material and cultural resources will be drawn on
to stave off the threat of downward mobilily that a
declining economy encourages. There is a shift from a
community centred culture in the past to a mass
commercialized culture now. (a newspaper)
c. I saw a little girl carrying a large basket on her head. I
met her eyes and to my astonishment, she screamed
loudly, threw up her arms and ran. The basket fell off. It
was useless to tell myself that I was not far from the
house. I had get back before dark. (J. Rhys)
Insert an appropriate Particle or Preposition:
3.
- How are things getting ... ?
- The man got ... the car and drove ...

.
- How is he getting ... school?
- Food was scarce at that time and ... a ham sandwich you had
to get ... your knees.
- He looked very angry when he said: 'You won't gel ... it!'
- 'Get ...! It's eight o'clock!' Mum said.
- We get ... together.
1.
2.
II.
Insert the appropriate verb:
- Can you ... up the children from school?
- We arrived at the campsite late but managed to ... up a
tent. We waited For them for a long time but they never ... up.
- They ... down my offer.
- Scott had to ... up his mind which of the men he would
choose for the expedition. They ... up the meat and buried it in the snow
so that it would ... food for the return journey. The dogs and some of the
men now ... back but three sledges ... off on the next stage. The snow
was so soft that they often ... to their knees in it and the heavy sledges
were difficult to ... through it. Some of the men ... from snow blindness.
(C. E. Eckersley)
Translate into Bulgarian:
The Englishman prizes privacy, the American prefers sociabi lity.
This same feeling shows itself in the houses in the two countries. The
Englishman's suburban house has its little garden with a hedge or a
fence all round it to shut him off from his neighbours. 'The
Englishman's home is his castle.' The American houses have no hed ges
or fences separating them from the pavement or from each other. There
are none of those shut-off gardens; generally just a strip of grass with
trees in it. The American in his home doesn't object to being seen by
everyone - he actually likes it. And inside the house, instead of the
separate hall, living-room, dining-room so typical of the English house,
the American has the 'open plan' house, just one large room where all
the family activities (usually noisy) go on with, perhaps, a 'dining
recess' or a 'kitchen-breakfast-room'.
(C. E. Eckersley)
III.
1.
2.
Paraphrase the following sentences using phrasal verbs:

- They demolished the old building last week.
- Would you mind completing this application form?
- She removed her shoes.
- I stopped smoking last year.
- They postponed the meeting.
- He invented this story.
- I can't understand.
- They extinguished the fire.
- Check the meaning of the word in a dictionary.
- A teaspoon occupies minimal room in a bag.
Put these words in the right order to make sentences:
- boys side of stood the holding on far bicycles the handlebars
the the.
- was far not this from gates school the.
- they by sixteen the all they time were in famous were school
the.
- loitered trees the beneath girls the very shoulder close each
because to the shoulder of boys to other.
- brim she hat had the of her turned at front up the at the down
and back.
Chapter 6
The Verb
6.1.1. Lexico-grammatical Classification of Verbs
The verb is a grammatical class of words denoting situations and
establishing the relation between the situation reported and the
extralinguistic reality. Therefore, the verb is central in expressing the
predicative function of the sentence.
The class of verbs falls into several subclasses distinguished by
different lexico-grammatical features:
118
Verbs of full nominative value (= notional verbs) denote situations

that are presented dynamically ( developing in time). Verbs of partial
nominative value are characterized by various relational properties.
They serve as markers of predication, establishing 'the connection
between the nominative content of the sentence and reality'.
(Blokh. M., 1983)
Auxiliary verbs can be further subdivided into primary auxiliaries
and modal auxiliaries. Primary auxiliaries are employed in
constituting analytical grammatical forms of notional verbs:
be + -ing participle progressive aspect form
have + -ed2 participle perfect aspect form
be + -ed2 participle passive voice form
do + infinitive interrogative and negative of the simple forms
Analytical verb forms function as simple predicate in the sentence
structure.
119
Modal auxiliaries combine with various infinitive forms of notional verbs to constitute verb phrases. Such phrases function as
compound verbal modal predicate:
e.g. I can swim.
Modal auxiliaries as well as primary auxiliaries are marked by a
set of properties known as the 'NICE' properties (Huddleston, R.,
1976): they do not combine with primary auxiliaries when they
express negation (N), inversion (I), code (C) or emphasis (E).
Auxiliary verbs express negation by attaching the negative particle
not:
e.g. You needn't get up early tomorrow. (negation)
Auxiliary verbs occupy the position immediately before the
subject in structures involving inversion:
e.g. Must I attend the lecture? (inversion)
Modal auxiliaries may stand for an implied modal verb phrase
and its complements and modifiers encoding information:
e.g. I will come to the party, if I must. (code)
110
120
must must come to the party

Emphasis is achieved with auxiliary verbs by stress and intonation:
e.g. Tell Mr. Evans that he can come in now. (emphasis)
To the subclass of modal auxiliaries belong: must, may, can, might,
could, shall, should, will, would, ought, dare, need.
Catenative verbs combine with non-finite forms of notional
verbs to constitute verb phrases. Such phrases function as compound
verbal predicate of phrasal or causative nature:
e.g. It began raining.
e.g. The boy made his father play football with him.
Catenative verbs employ primary auxiliaries in expressing
grammatical meanings:
e.g. It was beginning to ram. (progressive)
e.g. The man was made to accept the job. (passive)
e.g. I had started doing the housework before she arrived. (perfect)
Catenative verbs do not have the 'NICE' properties. They employ
auxiliary verbs.
e.g. They didn't have an electrician to repair it. (negation)
e.g. Did the have an electrician to repair it? (inversion)
e.g. No. they didn't. (code)
didn't didn't have an electrician to repair it
e.g. They did have an electrician to repair it. (emphasis)
To this subclass belong: begin, start, finish, stop, go on,
keep, make, have, etc.
Link verbs combine with adjectives or nouns to constitute
compound nominal predicates:
e.g. She is beautiful.
e.g. He became a dentist.
e.g. She seems unhappy.
e.g. He looks smart.
121
Semantically, link verbs can be subdivided into verbs of being (be,

seem, look, sound...) and verbs of becoming (become, turn, grow,
get). Link verbs take auxiliaries to express grammatical meanings:
e.g. He didn't become a dentist. (negation)
e.g. Did he seem happy? (inversion)
e.g. No, he didn't (seem happy). (code)
e.g. He did become a dentist. (emphasis)
The verb be does not take auxiliaries:
e.g. She isn't a doctor. (negation)
e.g. Is she a doctor? (inversion)
e.g. Yes, she is. (code)
e.g. She is a doctor. (emphasis)
Verbs have two types of grammatical forms: finite and non-finite.
The finite verb forms can express the grammatical categories of tense,
mood, person, number, aspect and voice. The non-finite verb forms
can express the grammatical categories of aspect and voice. In spite of
the fact that finite and non-finite verb forms express different
grammatical meanings, they do not differ in their lexical meanings.
6.1.2. Semantic Classification of Full Verbs
Full verbs denote verbal situations. We can distinguish three types
of verbal situation: state, event, action. (Jackson If. 1990)
Verbs of STATE can be further subdivided into verbs of:
- quality - these denote permanent characteristics of the refe rent
of their subject:
e.g. She is blonde.
e.g. She's got blonde hair.
- temporary state - these denote temporary characteristics of the
referent of their subject:
e.g. He was very happy.
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private state - here belong verbs denoting intellectual state

(know, understand); emotion or attitude (like, bate,
regard); perception (see, hear); bodily sensation (ache,
itch). Verbs of this type refer to states of mind and feeling of
the referent of the subject:
e.g. I know this
man.
e.g. I like apples.
e.g. I see skies of
blue...
e.g. My hack aches.
- stance - they denote the position of someone or something in
space:
e.g. She was sitting by the fire.
Verbs of EVENT refer to situations that take place without an
agent or an instigator. The referent of the subject is involved in the
verbal situation involuntarily:
e.g. He fell to the floor.
e.g. The sun set beyond the horizon.
Four types of event can be distinguished on the basis of two
distinctive features - 'change of state' and 'duration'. These types can
be labeled in the following way:
goings-on (+ durative; - change);
process (+ durative; + change);
momentary event (-durative; - change);
transitional event (-durative; +
change).
- e.g. It is raining.
e.g. She grew pale.
e.g. The latch clicked in the darkness.
e.g. She turned pale.
Verbs of ACTION refer to situations that are performed by
animate agents or else are caused by animate instigators. Actions
are voluntary and intentional. Four types of action can be
distinguished on the basis of the two distinctive features -
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'change of state' and 'duration'. These types can be labeled in the

following way:
- activity (+ durative, - change);
- accomplishment (+ durative, + change);
- momentary act (- durative, - change);
- transitional act (- durative, + change).
e.g. They are playing tennis.
e.g. She ran away.
e.g. He nodded in agreement.
e.g. He went out.
By way of a summary we include H. Jackson's diagram which
shows the semantic classification of situation types (Jackson, H., 1990.
p. 15):
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125
A verb may denote several meanings belonging to different semantic types:

e.g. They could see the crowd in front of the gates. (state)
e.g. They saw the New Year in together. (action)
e.g. The moon went out of sight. (event)
e.g. They went out for dinner. (action)
The semantic classification is grammatically relevant. The situation type to which a verb refers determines its grammatical features
as well as the semantic roles related to the situation:
a. Verbs of state cannot be used in the progressive since STATES
do not develop in time;
b. Verbs of quality and verbs of event cannot be used in the
passive since there is no agent involved in the situation;
c. Verbs of momentary event and momentary act denote
series of similar momentary situations , when used in the
progressive
e.g. The door was banging in the wind.
e.g. The boy was kicking the ball against the wall.
d. Transitional events and transitional acts cannot he
used in the progressive since such situations are not
of durative nature.
The aspective nature of the verbal situation is inherent in some
subsets of verbs (Blokh. M., 1983):
Verbs of ingression - begin, start, resume, etc.;
Verbs of instantaneity - bang, jump, drop, etc.;
Verbs of termination - finish, end, conclude, etc.;
Verbs of duration - continue, last, live, etc.;
Verbs of supercompletion - underestimate, etc.;
Verbs of repetition - rewrite, reconsider, rearrange, etc.
Some of these meanings are expressed by means of prefixes
(over-, under-, re-, etc.)
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6.3.1. Word-building Patterns

Verb stems may be:
a.
simple - such stems contain only one root morpheme:

e.g. go, speak, do
A large number of simple-stem verbs result from conversion of
the 'noun-verb' type:
e.g. a man - to man a factory;
e.g. a house - This building houses the Art Gallery and the Natural
History Museum.
b. sound-replacive - the difference between the noun and the
verb is in the root vowel.
e.g. food - to
feed;
e.g. blood - to
bleed.
c.
stress-replacive - the difference between the noun and the
verb is in the stress pattern:
e.g. mport - to imprt.
d. derived - these are stems that contain some affix apart from
the root morpheme.
Verb-deriving suffixes are: -en (deepen); -ify (classify); -ize
(apologize); -ate (congratulate).
Verb-deriving prefixes are: be- (bewilder); en- (encircle); mis(misunderstand); sub- (submerge); un- (undress); under- (undertake);
out- (outgrow); over- (overtake); re- (retranslate), etc.
e. compound - these are stems that contain two root morphemes:
e. g. blackmail
f. phrasal - two types of phrasal verb can be distinguished.
g. - verb + particle/preposition
h. e.g. eat up
i. - verb + noun
j. e.g. take a walk, give a mile, have a look
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6.1.4.1.
6.1.4. Grammatical Paradigms

Finite Verb Forms
Finite verb forms express the categories of tense, aspect, voice in

the Indicative Mood. The paradigm of the finite verb comprises the
following forms:
Active:
Present simple
speak, speaks
Present progressive
am/are/is speaking
Present perfect
has/have spoken
Present perfect progressive
has/have been speaking
Past simple
spoke
Past progressive
was/were speaking
Past perfect
had spoken
Past perfect progressive
had been speaking
Passive:
Present simple
is/are spoken
Present progressive
is/are being spoken
Present perfect
has/have been spoken
Past simple
was/were spoken
Past progressive
was/were being spoken
Past perfect
had been spoken
6.1.4.2.
Non-finite Verb Forms
English has four types of -finite verb forms: infinitive,

-ing participle, -ed participle, gerund.
The infinitive, the -ing participle and the gerund express the verbal
categories of aspect and voice. Their grammatical paradigms
comprise different number of forms.
Infinitive
Active: Simple
to speak
Progressive
to he speaking
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Perfect
Perfect progressive
Passive: Simple
Progressive
Perfect
Perfect progressive
to have spoken
to have been speaking
to be spoken
to be speaking
to have been spoken
to have been being spoken
-ing participle
Active: Simple
speaking
Perfect
having spoken
Passive: Simple
being spoken
Perfect
having been spoken
Gerund
The paradigm of the gerund coincides formally with the paradigm of the -ing participle.
-ed participle
This participle does not express any of the verbal categories. It has
only one form: spoken.
6.1.5. Syntactic Valency
The combining power of words in relation to other words in
syntactically subordinate position is known as 'syntactic valency' of
the word. (Blokh, M., 1983)
The syntactic valency can be obligatory and optional.
The obligatory valency of the verb must be realized for the
sentence to be grammatically correct:
e.g. They offered me a well-paid job.
Oi
Od
e.g. He placed the book on the desk.
Od
Adv. mod.
e.g. She became a nurse.
Predicative
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The optional valency of the verb is not necessarily realized in

grammatically correct sentences:
e.g. They arrived (in London) (at noon).
Adv. modifier Adv. modifir
of place
of time
e.g. He woke up (a rich man).
Subject complement
According to their syntactic valency verbs can be classified as
follows:
1. Intransitive verbs with no obligatory valency.
They fall into two types:
a. impersonal - these are the verbs that denote natural phenomena without reference to a subject, rain , snow, thaw,
drizzle. etc. They take the pronoun it as their grammatical
subject.
e.g. It has been raining all day.
b. personal - here belong verbs with reference to a semantic
subject: stop, smile, grow, hesitate, etc.
e.g. She smiled.
e.g.
He
has
grown up.
2. Transitive verbs with obligatory objects fall into:
a. monotransitive
b. + Od
e.g. She speaks Japanese. (non-state)
c. + Oprep.
e.g. They sent for the doctor. (non-state)
Vstate + Od
e.g. It costs $20.
- - Vstate + Oprep. e.g. The stream abounds in fish.
- - Have + Od
e.g. She has blue eyes. (state quality)
e.g. I had breakfast at 8. (action)
e.g. Have a look at this postcard.
(phrasal
verb)
b. ditransitive
V + Oi + Od
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e.g. He gave her a wedding ring.

(Oi)
(Od)
- V + Od + Oprep.
e.g. He introduced the girl to his family.
- V + Od + Od
e.g. They always forgive him his rudeness.
- V + Oprep. + Oprep.
e.g. Don't argue with me over trifles.
- V + Oi + Oprep.
e.g. Tell me about yourself.
- V + Od + Adv.modifier
e.g. She laid the baby into the pram.
c. adverbial
- V + Adv. modif. of place
e.g. He is in Paris.
- V + Adv. modif. of time
e.g. Shakespeare lived during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
- V + Adv. modif. of manner
e.g. He behaved like a grown-up boy.
d. predicative
e. - Vlink + predicative
f.
g. She became a film star.
g.
+ Od + Object complement
h. e.g. They made her a film star.
6.1.6.1. Finite Verb Forms and Phrases
The only function of the finite verb forms and phrases is that of
predicate:
e.g. He runs fast.
e.g. They have never been to Italy.
e.g. They must have arrived by now.
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e.g. It began snowing

e.g. She looks tired.
Non-finite verb forms do not express the categories of mood, tense,
person and number - the basic features of predication. That is why they
cannot function as Predicate. But they can per form various other
syntactic functions:
Subject:
e.g. To meet so many people will probably make me feel tired.
e.g. Meeting many people always makes me feel tired.
Object:
e.g. I want to break free.
e.g. I like going to the theatre.
Predicative:
e.g. To see is to believe.
e.g. Seeing is believing.
e.g. The vegetables were canned not fresh.
e.g. She was amazing.
Noun modifier:
e.g. They are at the Learning centre.
e.g. This is my sister-in-law to be.
e.g. It was a badly written letter.
e.g. There was a bird singing in the bush.
Adjectival Complement:
e.g. You are too good to be true.
e.g. She is very fond of playing the guitar.
Adverbial Modifier:
e.g. They kill not to die of embarrassment.
e.g. The Prime minister arrived accompanied by his wife.
e.g. They sat talking for hours.
e.g. You are wrong in not accepting the offer.
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Nexus constructions:
Non-finite verb forms constitute various nexus constructions. A
nexus consists of two parts - verbal and nominal. The verbal part is a
non-finite form. The nominal part denotes the morphological subject of
the non-finite verb. The two parts constitute a unit, i.e. they function
together. Several types of nexus construction can be distinguished:
- Complex Object:
e.g. I sit and watch the children play.
e.g. I found them playing cards.
e.g. I liked Tom's playing the guitar by the river.
e.g. I don j like her dressed in pink.
- Subjectiv Infinitiv/participle:
e.g. He was heard to say that.
e.g. He was heard singing that song.
e.g. The vase was discovered broken into pieces.
This type of structure is the passive counterpart of the complex
object structure.
- Absolute construction:
This construction either denotes attendant circumstances or stands
in cause-and-consequence relation to the main sentence.
e.g. She was sleeping in the arm-chair, the cat purring by her side.
e.g. He had to get back home, with all his money gone.
e.g. They both left the place, each never to return.
e.g. The police found the house empty on their arrival.
- Extrapositional attribute:
e.g. Taking her leave, she left the house without delay.
e.g. Arrived at the second floor, she rang the bell.
- Unrelated participle:
e.g. Given the time, a settlement of the problem can be found.
e.g. To be sure, he is an excellent doctor.
e.g. Generally speaking, the test was quite easy.
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e.g. On entering the room, the picture was the first thing to he
seen.
Exercises
1.
1. Underline the verbal lexemes in the following text:
She turned and went quickly to the door, whence she saw him
standing like a horse that has just been harnessed. She went up to
her room, sat on her bed, began, rubbing her cold feet one against
the other. It was done! Now she had only to confront the feeling that
would henceforth surround her like a wall... What surprised her
most was knowing that her father's words had drawn from her a
secret endorsement which had not made the slightest inroad on her
feeling for Wilfred. Was it true, then, that defects in the loved one
made him the dearer? That seemed borne out by the dislike one had
for the too good people in books... Her father had blacklisted him.
( J.
Galswo
rthy)
2.
Write the stem of each verbal lexeme you have identified.

Classify the stems according to their morphological
structure:
Simple
Derived
Compound
Phrasal
II.
1. Identify all the verb forms and phrases in the preceding text.
Group them under the following headings:
- simple forms;
- analytical forms;
- modal verb phrases;
134
- catenative verb phrases;
135
- link verb + predicative

2. Translate the excerpt into Bulgarian.
III.
1. Write the following text under dictation:
I don't know how long it was before I began to feel chilly. The light
had changed and the shadows were long. I had better get back before
dark. I thought. Then I saw a little girl carrying a large basket on her
head. I met her eyes and to my astonishment she screamed loudly,
threw up her arms and ran. The basket fell off, I called after her, but she
screamed again and ran faster. She sobbed as she ran, a small, frigh tened sound. Then she disappeared. I must be within a few minutes of
the path. I thought, but after I had walked for what seemed a long time I
found that the undergrowth and creepers caught at my legs and the trees
closed over my head. I decided to go back to the clearing and start
again with the same result. It was getting dark. It was useless to tell
myself that I was not far from the house. I was lost and afraid among
these enemy trees, so certain of danger that when I heard footsteps and
a shout I did not answer. The footsteps and the noise came nearer. Then
I shouted back. I did not recognize Baptiste at first. He was wearing
blue cotton trousers pulled up above his knees and a broad ornamented
belt round his slim waist. He did not smile when he saw me. (Jean
Rhys)
2. Identify the verbal situations in the text. Discuss the semantic
type of each situation.
6.2. Modality
Modality is a functional semantic category denoting the relation
between the verbal situation raported in the sentence and the
extralinguistic reality, as represented by the speaker. Modality can be
expressed by three types of means (Vinogradov, V., 1960):
a. lexical - modal adverbs such as perhaps, probably, may be,
certainly, etc.
136
b.
c.
syntactic - modal verb phrases that include modal auxiliaries:

may, can, must, etc.
morphological - the verbal category of mood.
Speakers often employ combinations of lexical and syntactical
means:
e.g. I will certainly help you.
e.g. I shall probably miss the train.
6.2.1. Modal Verb Phrases
6.2.1.1. General Characteristics
Modal verb phrases consist of a modal verb and some form of the
infinitive of a full verb. Perfect infinitives denote past situations:
e.g. They must have arrived by now.
Positive forms sometimes refer to situations that did not take place;
negative forms may refer to situations that took place.
Progressive infinitive forms denote situations referring to the
moment of speaking:
e.g. He must be working in the studio.
Simple infinitive forms denote non-past verbal situations, depending on the lexical meaning of the verbal lexeme:
e.g. She must be in the studio. (present time reference)
e.g. She may come to the party. (future time reference)
Formally, modal verbs are defective - they lack most of the
grammatical forms of the full verbs: need, ought, must, dare have only
one form; can, may, will, shall have two forms - present and past.
Semantically, modal verbs may express two basic types of modality deontic and epistemic (Palmer, F., 1986)
Deontic modality is a microfield of modal meanings presenting the
situation as imposed on reality by the speaker:
e.g. You must read the book by the end of the week. (obligation)
137
e.g. You shouldn't say this to her. (advice)

e.g. You can use my umbrella. (permission)
e.g. You may go to the disco tonight, (permission)
e.g. He should do as I say. (insistence)
e.g. I will help you with the luggage. (promise)
Epistemic modality is a microfield of modal meanings presenting
the speaker's interpretation of the relation between the reported
situation and the extralinguistic reality:
e.g. He must he a doctor. (certainly)
e.g. This should be prof. Williams. (probability)
e.g. You can buy a toothbrush at the chemist's. (possibility)
e.g. We shall be there on time. (prediction)
e.g. They will come back soon. (prediction)
Most of the modal verbs are polysemantic:
e.g. I can use a computer. (ability)
e.g. You can see the film tonight. (possibility)
e.g. Can you buy some juice, please? (request)
The present and past forms of some modal verbs denote different
modal meanings:
e.g. You shall do as I say. (insistence)
e.g. You should ask permission for the parade. (advice)
Could, might and would differ from can, may and will in the
degree of politeness:
e.g. Can I ask you a question?
e.g. Could I ask you a question?
Some modal verbs express different meanings in their positive,
negative and interrogative form:
e.g. You may meet them while you are in London. (possibility)
e.g. May I use the computer tomorrow? (permission)
e.g. You may not go to the disco tonight. (prohibition)
Because of this two verbs may be synonymous in some of their
forms, but not in all of them.
e.g. You can meet them while you are in London (= You may meet
them while you are in London.)
138
e.g. May I use the computer tomorrow? ( Can I use the computer
in your office?)
e.g. You may not use this computer. ( You can't use this computer.
= It is out of order.)
6.2.1.2. Modal Meanings
Each modal meaning within the two microfields of modality
(deontic and epistemic) can he expressed by several modal verbs,
each having specific connotations.
obligation and necessity
These two related meanings can he expressed by must, need,
have to, be to, shall (second and third person):
Must denotes an obligation imposed on the subject by the speaker:
e.g. You must learn these rules of grammar.
e.g. He must be in bed by 10 o'clock.
With reference to first person subjects must denotes strong
determination:
e.g. I must go on a diet.
e.g. We must not be late, must we?
Must in combination with negative forms of the infinitive denotes
an obligation not to act (usually originating from some institution):
e.g. Cars must not be parked in front of the entrance.
e.g. Passengers mustn't lean out of windows.
Need and have to denote necessity, which is due to circumstances:
e.g. Need you go yet?
e.g. A friend is coming for dinner. I have to prepare the meal.
The negative form of need implies that there is no necessity for the
subject to perform the action denoted by the full verb. Needn't is
often used as the negative counterpart of must:
139
e.g. 'Must I attend his lecture?' 'No, you needn't.'

The past tense form of have implies that the ...uated denoted by
the full verb actually took place:
e.g. My colleague was on holiday last week, so I had to do all the
office work.
Be to denotes an obligation which is due to some prearrangemnt:
e.g. Professor Harris is visiting us next week. I am to meet him at
the airport.
In some contexts the meaning of be to can be interpreted as 'order'
or 'instructions':
e.g. I do not object to your going on holiday but you are to be hack
by the end of the month.
In other contexts the meaning of be to is interpreted as 'predestined future':
e.g. In those days a girl was either to become a nurse or teacher, or
to get married.
Shall is used to express obligations in formal style and in archaic
style:
e.g. 'This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by
way of trade or otherwise be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise
circulated without the publisher's prior consent ...'
(A New Dictionary of American Slang, Pan Books)
e.g. You shall say no more!
moral duty
This meaning can be expressed by ought and should.
Ought may denote the connotations of desirability or advisability.
Ought implies future time reference:
e.g. You ought to start at once.
e.g. Such things ought not to be allowed.
In combination with the progressive infinitive ought has present
time reference:
e.g. He ought to be studying for the exam.
140
Ought + perfect infinitive has past time reference:

e.g. You ought to have married her.
e.g. You oughtn't to have said this to her.
Should is used in questions:
e.g. Should he marry her?
Should has present or future time reference:
e.g. You shouldn't be discussing this problem with her. (present)
e.g. You should discuss the problem with your colleagues. (future)
advice, recommendation, reproach
These three related meanings are indicated by should, might and
had better.
Should is used to express what is advisable. It has non-past time
reference:
e.g. You should read these novels in the original.
e.g. You should drink your coffee while it is hot.
In combination with perfect infinitive forms of full verbs should
has past time reference. The phrase expresses the speaker's
assessment of a past situation.
e.g. You should have taken the medicine as prescribed by the doctor.
e.g. You shouldn't have ignored your duties.
Might denotes reproach:
e.g. You might have helped me with the housework.
e.g. You might be more active in class.
Might can be used with present time reference to express
requests.
e.g. You might do me a favour.
Had better expresses recommendation. It is used with non-past
reference:
e.g. You had better take a taxi.
141
When used with reference to the first person , this phrase expresses
the speaker's opinion of what is useful in a particular situation:
e.g. I had better go now.
e.g. We had better postpone the meeting.
permission
This modal meaning can be expressed by may and can. In
affirmative sentences these verbs denote 'giving permission'. In
interrogative sentence they denote 'asking permission'.
e.g. May I come in?
e.g. You may use my computer.
e.g. Can I borrow your pen?
e.g. Yon can smoke in here.
Might and could are used in interrogative sentences to imply greater
politeness:
e.g. Might I join you ?
e.g. Could I borrow your pen?
prohibition
May and can express prohibition in negative sentences:
e.g. You may not smoke in my office.
e.g. You can't go out tonight.
Such modal phrases have non-past time reference.
Must in negative sentence expresses prohibition connected with an
institution:
e.g. Visitors must not feed the animals.
conclusion
This semantic field can be subdivided into 'certainty' and
'probability'. Several modal verbs can be used to denote conclusions of
various degrees of certainty. Must and may can be used in positive
sentences. Must expresses certainty:
142
e.g. They must he doing a test. (present time reference)

e.g. You must he hungry after the journey. (present time reference)
e.g. You must have known the requirements. (past time reference)
May is used to express probability in positive and in negative
sentences:
e.g. That may or may not be true.
e.g. She might have known the requirements.
Can expresses probability in interrogative sentences:
e.g. Can that be true?
e.g. Could she have known the requirements?
Can expresses certainty in negative sentences.
e.g. She can't be his daughter.
e.g. It couldn't have been his daughter.
Might and could imply vaguer probability than may and can:
e.g. She may have missed the train.
e.g. She might have missed the train.
e.g. They can have been delayed by fog.
e.g. A lion escaped from the zoo yesterday - he could he anywhere
by now.
Past time reference is denoted by the perfect infinitive form of the
full verb; non-past time reference is denoted by the simple infinitive
form of full verbs. The progressive infinitive form of verbs of action and
event denotes present time reference:
e.g. He might be still watching sports on TV.
e.g. It must be raining.
The verbs will and would express probability or likelihood:
e.g. This will be the book you are looking for.
e.g. 'I want somebody to help me with the work in the office.'
'Will/Would I do?
143
possibility
This modal meaning can be expressed by the auxiliaries may, can
and be to.
May always implies positive presumption.
e.g. They may be still at home. (= It is possible that they should be
at home.)
e.g. They may not be at home vet. (= It is possible that they
shouldn't be at home.)
Can is used in positive, negative and interrogative sentences:
e.g. It can be very cold here, even in May.
e.g. This 't be true. (= It is not possible that this should be true.)
e.g. What can we do about it?
Might and could in combination with simple infinitive forms of
full verbs denote vaguer positiveness with reference to non-past
situations:
e.g. They might be in Edinburgh
today.
e.g. He could give you a lift.
Might and could in combination with perfect infinitive forms of
full verbs denote past situations dependent upon some condi tions and
circumstances:
e.g. You might have caught the train, if you had taken a taxi to the
station.
e.g. He could have been appointed manager, but he didn't apply for
the job.
Be to implies likelihood:
e.g. Where is the tiger to be found?
e.g. Becky was nowhere to be seen.
ability
This modal meaning is associated with actions. It can be expressed
by can or its substitutes be able to, manage to, succeed in.
Can is used in positive, negative and interrogative sentences with
present time reference:
144
e.g. She can speak Italian fluently.

e.g. She can't use a computer.
e.g. Can she use a fax machine?
Could refers to ability or inability in the past:
e.g. She could read Latin when she was 10.
e.g. After that I couldn't trust him any more.
Was/Were able to, managed to, succeeded in are used to denote
isolated achievements in past time:
e.g. When the boat upset, they managed to swim to the bank.
e.g. I took a taxi, so I was able to get to the station on time.
e.g. She worked hard and succeeded in passing the examination.
Couldn't is used to indicate failure:
e.g. I couldn't get to the station on time.
Was/Here able to is used in sentences with no past time indicated in
order to refer the situation unambiguously to the past:
e.g. He was able to solve those equations. (ability)
The negative counterpart of this sentence is:
e.g. He wasn't able to solve those equations. (inability)
Compare: 1. He couldn't solve those equations. (failure)
2. He couldn't solve those equations even if he tried.
(unreal situation, non-past time reference) (implied condition)
Can/could is used with verbs of sense perception to refer to specific
occasions:
e.g. I can't see any ship in the sea.
e.g. I couldn't see anything in the dark.
e.g. Can you see the date on the stamp?
e.g. I could smell something burning.
Could is used as the past tense of can when it means that someone
had the ability to do something or that something was possible:
145
e.g. New York was a place where anyone could start a

business.
Was/Were implies a successful attempt at something.
Be able to may imply the idea that the subject has enough money,
time or freedom to do something.
e.g. They are able to buy whatever they want.
e.g. She is not able to come today.
Can is used when planning about the near future.
e.g. We can go swimming tomorrow.
Be able to is used to denote ability in analytical forms or in phrases
with auxiliaries.
e.g. He hasn't been able to sleep well.
e.g. I used to be able to play tennis well.
e.g. She will be able to relax in the mountains.
volition
This modal meaning is associated with requests and invitations. It
is expressed by can/could and will/would:
e.g. Can you pass the juice, please?
e.g. Could your bring me an ice cream, please?
e.g. Will you pass the juice, please?
e.g. Would you pass the juice, please?
e.g. Will you dine with me?
willingness
This modal meaning is associated with refusals. It is expressed by
won't and woldn't:
e.g. The doctor knows that I won't be operated on.
e.g. He was wet, but he wouldn't change.
capacity or power
Such meanings are expressed by the modal auxiliaries will and
would. They are associated with inanimate subjects and refer to
146
the qualities or failure of an object to perform its function:

e.g. I want a rope that will go from the lop window to the ground.
e.g. My clothes won't go into this small suitcase.
e.g. I wanted a rope that would go from the top window to the
ground.
e.g. I tried hard but the window wouldn't close.
insistence
Will denotes insistence or determination of the subject to perform
some action:
e.g. 'Damn it!' he thought, 'I will make money'.
e.g. He will have his own way.
Shall denotes insistence of the speaker on the subject's per forming some action:
e.g. He says he won't go but I say he shall.
This meaning can be associated with a promise (e.g. If you work
well, you shall have higher wages.) or a threat (e.g. If you don't
work well, you shall be fired.).
impudence
This meaning is expressed by dare:
e.g. I dare not speak to him.
6.2.2. Mood
The verbal category of mood is a morphological means of
expressing modality. English verbs distinguish three mood forms,
those of the Indicative, the Imperative and the Subjunctive.
6.2.2.1. The Indicative
Indicative mood forms represent the verbal situation reported
147
in the sentence as part of reality. Indicative mood forms are marked for
the categories of tense, person, number, aspect and voice. The true
value of the statement does not affect the grammatical meaning of the
verb form:
e.g. She teaches Spanish.
e.g. She doesn't teach Italian.
'teaches' indicative: present tense, active voice, non-pro gressive,
non-perfect, 3-rd person, singular
'doesn't teach' indicative: present tense, active voice, non progressive, non-perfect, 3-rd person, singular
e.g. The students are doing a test.
'are doing' indicative: present tense, progressive, non-perfect,
active voice, plural
e.g. They have studied English for two years.
'have studied' indicative: present tense, perfect, non-pro gressive,
active voice, plural
e.g. The twins were horn in New York.
'were horn' indicative: past tense, non-progressive, non- perfect,
passive voice, plural
e.g. They have already been examined.
'have been examined' indicative: present tense, perfect, nonprogressive, passive voice, plural
e.g. The have been doing a test for an hour.
'have been doing' indicative: present tense, perfect, pro gressive,
passive voice, plural
The grammatical categories of tense, aspect and voice will be further
discussed in detail.
6.2.2.2. The Imperative
148
Imperative mood forms represent the verbal situation reported in the

sentence as imposed by the speaker upon the extralinguis-tic reality.
Imperative mood forms coincide with the stem of the verb.
They can be used to express commands and requests. Commands
and requests are addressed to the second person. The imperative mood
forms assign the addressee to perform the situation denoted.
e.g. Calm yourself!
e.g. Take a seat!
Markers of politeness can be used in sentences with imperative
mood forms, such as please, will you, won't you.
e.g. Take a seat, please!
e.g. Open the window, will you!
e.g. Won't you sit down?
Negative forms of the imperative employ the auxiliary verb do.
e.g. Don't forget to post my letter!
e.g. Don't mention it in your report!
e.g. 'Prithee, darling, do not cry!'
Emphasis may be achieved by means of:
- the auxiliary do:
e.g. Do come in!
- the personal pronoun you as subject:
e.g. You be quiet!
- some indefinite pronouns as subject:
e.g. Don't anyone open this door!
- some distributive pronouns as subject:
e.g. Everybody stand up!
Commands or invitations addressed to first person or third person
subjects are paraphrased by means of the verb let:
e.g. Let us go now.
e.g. Let me show you on the map.
e.g. Let him do it.
The negative form of let employs the auxiliary verb do.
149
e.g. I didn't like lamb 'Rogan Gosht'. Don't let us have it again!
Informal speech, however, the auxiliary do is not used:
e.g. Let us not consider this request today.
Imperative mood forms have voice distinctions. They employ the
auxiliaries be and get to express passive voice meaning:
e.g. Be seated!
e.g. Get dressed for dinner!
6.2.2.3. The Subjunctive
In contemporary English two forms of the Subjunctive are used.
One of these forms coincides with the stem of the verb:
e.g. Success attend you!
e.g. God save the Queen!
Such simple sentences express wish or desire of the speaker. They
can be treated as linguistic formulae.
Subjunctive mood forms occur in subordinate clauses, too. In such
structures, the governing word in the main sentence implies desire,
suggestion, arrangement, necessity or some other meaning within the
modal field of 'irrealis'. The governing word may be:
- a noun
e.g. I see no reason why she be absent from this meeting.
- a verb
e.g. They agreed that the ceremony need be formal.
- an adjective
e.g. It is necessary that we obtain permission for the football match.
e.g. I find it odd that we discuss monetary matters in the child's
presence.
- a conjunction
150
e.g. He ran away lest he he seen.

In present-day British English this form of the subjunctive mood is
regularly substituted for. People tend to use modal verb phrases that
include the auxiliaries should and may.
e.g. It is odd that we should discuss monetary matters in the child's
presence.
e.g. We were anxious that help should be sent promptly.
e.g. The doctor feared that the patient might die.
In American English, however, this form of the Subjunctive is not
infrequent.
The other form of the Subjunctive is quite common in British
English. Only the verb be has this form: were is used with 1st, 2nd and
3rd person, both singular and plural, to denote situations contrary to
fact. This form is used in subordinate clauses:
e.g. I wish I weren't busy tomorrow.
e.g. If I were you, I would buy a fur coat.
Exer
cises
I.
1. Identify the modal verb phrases in the following sentences:
When we went out that night, Corkey could not find the tim ber he had planted.
He could stop the other men from making any profit out of it.
He could hardly contain his delight.
They won't monkey with me anymore.
We'll have to get out of here.
Sometimes she had to lie down flat after she had hung out the
clothes.
Two hundred yards further down he could see another pile of
timber.
151
She felt she was wasting minutes that might have been spent
with him.
A single step too far and he might be gone from her for good!
152
Ideas can't be left to swap around in the blue.

She told me that she is to have a child.
Forget me, as I must forget you.
No one should put a finger this time in whatever pie she chose
to make.
With their cooperation, much might be done which at present
can't be done.
Mount Vernon is lovely; but you ought to see Richmond!
To get rid of him. she must leave immediately.
- You needn't go with her if you don't want to.
2. Define the modal meaning of the phrases you have just identified.
II.
1. Paraphrase the following sentences using modal verb phrases:
- Be yours a happy marriage.
- Suffice it to say that working with Kevin was not a very plea sant
experience.
- Far be it from me to criticize but aren't you being a little
unreasonable?
- Long live the Republic!
- God save the Queen!
- Confound her!
2. Translate the sentences into Bulgarian.
III.
1. Fill in the blanks with modal verbs to express the meaning
indicated in parentheses:
- I ... not promise you anything. (possibility)
- ... you write with your left hand? (ability)
- You ... use my computer. (permission)
- ... I join you? (a polite request)
- It ... be late as the shops are closed. (conclusion)
- ... you dine with me tomorrow? (invitation)
153
- This ... be the gallery, I believe. (supposition)

- I ... hardly say that I agree with you. (necessity)
-- I wish you ... stop going on about all your problems. (unreal situation)
2. Translate the following sentences into English:
, .
, .
, .
, .
.
, .
180.
.
.
?
. .
, .
- .
:
.
-
6.3. Tense

Tense is a grammatical category of the finite verb forms which
locates the verbal situation in time with reference to a 'tense locus'
(Comrie, B., 1985), usually the moment of speaking in simple sentences
or the time of the situation denoted in the main clause of a complex
sentence:
e.g. I got up at 6 this morning.
e.g. His mother said he had gone out.
154
In English, the category of tense is based on the functional

opposition of two sets of forms: past and non-past. The past tense
form is the marked member of the opposition; the non-past form is
the unmarked member of the opposition. According to the
grammatical marker of the past, English verbs fall into two types:
regular and irregular. Regular verbs employ the grammatical ending
-ed:
e.g. She looked through the magazine and placed it hack on the
shelf.
Irregular verbs retain their past tense forms of previous periods of
the language development.
e.g. I woke up at night and got out of bed.
wake woke
get got
The past tense form is always used with past time reference:
e.g. She spoke to him with affection.
The non-past tense form may be used with present, future or past
time reference.
e.g. She speaks English fluently. (present)
e.g. The show begins at 6 on the river. (future)
e.g. I turned left at the crossroads and who should I see but Ann: she
is wearing red trousers, a yellow T-shirt and a blue cap! Her hear is
pink, her shoes and bag are green! I was shocked. (past)
English verbs have no special morphological form for the expression of future time reference.
6.3.2. Meanings of the Past Tense Form
The past tense form locates the verbal situation reported in a
period of time before the moment of speaking. The past period or
moment of time is usually specified in the sentence by means of an
adverbial modifier of time:
e.g. She visited us in July.
155
e.g. He went to Spain two years ago.

The past moment or period of time may remain unspecified:
e.g. He taught German for three years.
The grammatical meaning of the past simple form depends on the
lexical meaning of the verb.
6.3.2.1.
Verbs of Non-state
a.
The past simple forms of durative verbs usually denote

a situation, which took place over a period of time:
e.g. He lived in Spain in his youth.
e.g. He worked for the Government in 1993.
b.
The past simple form of non-durative verbs may
denote:
c. - a single /momentary action or event
e.g. He closed the door and bolted it.
e.g. The snow thawed.
- a succession of similar situations repeated over a past period
of time
An adverbial modifier of frequency confirms this interpretation:
e.g. He sent a postcard home every weekend.
e.g. It often rained in June.
Without the adverbial modifier of frequency the meaning of the
past simple form will be interpreted as a single/momentary action or
event:
e.g. He sent a postcard home.
e.g. It rained last night.
6.3.2.2.
Verbs of State
a. The past simple form of verbs of quality denotes a situation

over a past period of time; the period can be explicitly stated.
156
e.g. She had dark hair and blue eyes. (when we first met)
b. The past simple form of verbs of temporal state refer to
situations in a past period of time (of various duration).
e.g. She was very happy at school.
e.g. She was certain about the times of departure.
e.g. At that moment he felt very sorry for her.
c. The past simple form of verbs of private state can denote:
- momentary state
Here belong verbs of sense perception:
e.g. I saw him at the corner.
- permanent state
Here belong verbs of intellectual state:
e.g. I know him quite well.
- temporary state of various duration
Here belong verbs of bodily sensation and of emotion/attitude:
e.g. His leg hurt all day long.
e.g. She liked the meal very much.
d. The past tense forms of verbs of stance denote temporary
situations of various duration:
e. g. She was abroad at the time.
f. e.g. She was abroad for a week.
e.g. She was abroad during the academic year.
The past tense form implies that the moment of speaking is
excluded from the period of the time during which the situation takes
place. However, in conditional sentences and in reported speech the
past tense form is usually used with non-past time reference.
6.3.3. Meanings of the Present Tense Form
The basic temporal meaning of the present simple form is that of
present time reference.
157
6.3.3.1. Verbs of Non-state

A. The present tense form of verbs of non-state denotes situations
occurring over a period of time of various duration. Such
situations can be divided into several groups:
a. recurrent situations - sentences with such verbs usually include
adverbial modifiers of frequency.
e.g. It often snows in January.
e.g. He visits his parents every Sunday.
b.
habitual action:
c. e.g. He drives to work.
d. habitual event.
e.g. Rivers run dry in summer.
e. typical feature of the subject:
f.
g. They live in Naples.
e.g. Greece is an European country.
e. innate feature of the subject:
e.g. Oil floats on water
f. ability of the subject:
e.g. He plays tennis very well.
e.g. She speaks Japanese.
g. generalized statement:
e.g. It never rains but it pours.
e.g. Any fool knows that!
h. instructions and directions:
e.g. How do I get to the station?
e.g. You activate the system by voice recognition.
B. The present tense form of verbs of non-state denotes situations
coinciding with the moment of speaking. Such situations can
be divided into the following groups:
a. sports commentaries:
e.g. He shoots the ball straight at the goalkeeper.
158
b.
e.
cases in which the situation reported

and the act of speech are simultaneous
because they are identical (Leech , J.,
1971):
e.g. I swear on my life I was never at that place.
c. exclamations:
d. e.g. Here they come!
demonstrations:
f. g. I click 'save' and close the
document.
g. e. stage directions:
e.g. ... enters an elf ...
6.3.3.2. Verbs of Stale
A. Private state: The present simple form of verbs of sense
perception denotes permanent feature of the subject.
e.g. I don't see well.
Such forms may have figurative meaning:
e.g. I see. (= I understand.)
The present simple form of verbs of bodily sensation denotes
situations taking place at the moment of speaking:
e.g. Ouch! That really hurts!
The present simple form of verbs of emotion and attitude denote
permanent feature of the subject:
e.g. I like apples.
The phrase 'would + infinitive' denotes a single occasion of the
situation:
e.g. I would like a bottle of mineral water, please!
The present simple form of verbs of intellectual state may denote:
a. permanent featre:
e.g. I know this man.
e.g. I believe in love at first sigh.
159
b. situation occurring at the present moment (= the moment of

speaking):
160
e.g.
I
understand.
e.g. I believe
you.
B.
Quality: in the present simple

form such verbs denote permanent state with reference
to a present period of time.
e.g. She has got blue eyes.

C.
Temporary state: these verbs

denote situations at the moment of speaking:
e.g. She is very disappointed with him.
D. Stance: the present simple
form of such verbs denote temporary state covering a period
of time of various duration
and including the moment of
speaking:
e.g. He is in the shower
room.
e.g. He is at school.
e.g. He is in Australia.
In subordinate clauses of time and clauses of condition the
present simple form denotes future time reference:
e.g. He will help me, when he comes.
e.g. If he comes, he will help me.
6.3.4. Means of Expressing Future Time Reference
Future time reference can be expressed by several verb phrases
and verb forms. However, each of them has its own modal meaning
since futurity and modality are blended: the speaker can never be
certain of future situations, so he or she must express personal attitude
towards the relation between the situation reported and the
161
extralinguistic reality. That is why the forms and phrases expressing

future time reference are not interchangeable.
6.3.4.1. Will + Simple Infinitive
This
phrase
is
used
to
make
predictions:
162
e.g. 'Whatever will he, will he; the future is not ours to see ...'
e.g. It will rain tomorrow.
Due to this meaning, the phrase is common in the main clause of
conditional sentences:
e.g. If the rain does not stop soon, the river will overflow its banks.
6.3.4.2.
Will + Perfect Infinitive
This phrase denotes a situation, taking place before a future 'tense

locus':
e.g. By the end of the month Irene will have finished work on this
project.
6.3.4.3.
Will + Progressive Infinitive
This phase can be used to refer to a situation in progress at a fixed

'Tense Locus' in the future.
e.g. This time tomorrow he will be having dinner at home.
The same phrase is used to 'indicate that a predicted event will
happen independently of the will or intention of anyone con cerned'.
(Leech. J., 1971)
e.g. He will be sitting for the exam soon.
6.3.4.4.
Shall + Simple Infinitive
This phase is used with first-person subjects to express prediction:

e.g. 'We shall overcome some day.'
The same phrase is used in elevated style with second- and thirdperson subjects:
e.g. The time shall come when king Arthur and his knights shall
rise to defend England.
163
6.3.4.5.
Shall + Perfect Infinitive
The phrase is used with reference to a first-person subject to

express past-in-future:
e.g. By the end of the month we shall have submitted our diploma
papers.
6.3.4.6.
Shall + Progressive Infinitive
This phrase is used with reference to a first-person subject to

denote a future situation independent of the will of the speaker.
e.g. I shall be spending all day at home: I've got a lot of things to
do.
6.3.4.7.
Be going to + Infinitive
This construction can be used to denote:

future of present intention
This meaning is possible with human subjects:
e.g. Nelly is going to spend Christmas abroad.
The implication is that the intention will be carried out.
future of present cause
The construction is used to denote situations located in the immediate future. It is possible with both human and non-human subjects:
e.g. The sky is overcast: it is going to snow.
e.g. She is going to cry.
6.3.4.8.
Present Progressive Forms
The meaning of these forms can be defined as 'future anticipated

by virtue of a present plan, programme or arrangement'. (Leech, J.,
1971):
164
e.g. Next week I am leaching conditional sentences.

e.g. Professor Miller is delivering a lecture at 3 o'clock; he is having
dinner with Dr. Spencer at 7 o'clock.
e.g. The professor is leaving for London tomorrow afternoon.
This use of the present progressive form is possible with verbs
denoting single actions or events.
6.3.4.9.
Present Simple Forms
This verb form can be said to represent 'future as fact' (Leech, J.,
197l) as the situation reported is treated as certain:
e.g. The school year starts on September, 15th.
e.g. The football match is at 7.
Sentences with present simple verb forms referring to the future
normally contain an adverbial modifier of time denoting future time
reference.
e.g. We launch the project next week.
The present simple form denotes future situations in adverbial
clauses of real condition:
e.g. If it rains, they won't be able to play tennis.
6.3.4.10.
Be about to + Infinitive
This phrase is used to refer to a situation in the immediate future:

e.g. Hurry up! The ceremony is about to begin.
6.3.4.11.
Be on the point of + Gerund
This phrase denotes immediate future time reference:

e.g. Don't interrupt her! She is on the point of telling the truth about
it.
165
Some means of expressing future time reference have past - tense

counterparts, which express 'future-in-past', i.e. situations viewed as
future from a 'tense locus' in the past:
e.g. We were on the point of leaving when the phone rang.
e.g. She believed they would help her.
e.g. I realized that it was going to rain.
e.g. I knew she was dining out that night.
e.g. We arrived when the ceremony was about to start.
6.3.5. Tense in Conditional Sentences
Conditional sentences consist of two clauses: main clause and
subordinate clause of condition. The main clause denotes a situation
the fulfillment of which depends on the fulfillment of the condition
defined in the subordinate clause:
e.g. If it snows in January, the will be able to go skiing.
English verbs lack conditional mood forms. That is why tense
forms in conditional sentences are used with transposed meaning:
past tense forms express modal meanings within the field of 'irrealis'.
The situations reported by means of past tense forms have non-past
time reference:
e.g. If he paid more attention in class, he would achieve better
results.
The past tense form 'paid' denotes a situation, which does not exist
now and is not likely to take place ; the modal verb phrase 'would
achieve' refers to the imaginary results of that unlikely situation.
Past time reference is denoted by perfect forms: perfect combines
with past.
e.g. If the new safety system had been in use, the accident would
never have happened!
166
The past perfect form 'had been' denotes a situation that might have
existed in the past but did not exist; the modal verbphrase 'would have
happened' denotes what might have been the result of the nonexistent past situation.
When we interpret the grammatical meaning of conditional
sentences, we bear in mind two components - temporal and modal.
Conditional sentences fall into four types:
6.3.5.1.
Zero Conditional
Here belong sentences denoting habitual situations dependent on

particular circumstances or general statements. The predicates of the
two clauses are in the present tense form:
e.g. If/when I have too much to eat, I get sleepy.
e.g. If you chop the vegetables, they cook more quickly.
6.3.5.2.
First Conditional
Here belong sentences referring to likely situations and their

results. Likely situations of non-past time reference are denoted by
means of present tense forms. The resultant situations are denoted by
the phrase will + Infinitive:
e.g. If I have too much to eat, I will get sleepy.
First conditional sentences may denote situations of past time
reference. In such cases the subordinate clause states the premise, the
main clause states the deduction. Both clauses employ past- tense verb
forms:
e.g. If he solved that problem, he deserved the excellent mark.
Conditional sentences with present-tense verb forms in the two
clauses imply that the situation of the main clause is likely to exist at
the time of the situation of the subordinate clause:
e.g. If he is in London, he is attending an international conference.
The two situations of a conditional sentence may refer to
167
different periods of time:

e.g. If they left in the morning, they will arrive in the evening.
The conjunction 'if' is used in zero and first conditional sentences to introduce situations that are less certain to happen. The
conjunctive adverb 'when' is used to introduce situations that are more
certain to take place:
e.g. If he comes, I will inform him about the requirements.
e.g. When he comes, I will inform him about the requirements.
The use of modal auxiliaries in conditional sentences implies less
certainty:
e.g. If he should change his mind, he will let us know.
e.g. If he comes, I might inform him about the requirements.
First conditional sentences are traditionally described as sentences with real conditions.
6.3.5.3.
Second Conditional
Second conditional sentences can be best described as senten ces

with unreal conditions referring to non-past situations. This type of
sentence contains the past simple form in the subordinate clause and
the phrase would + infinitive in the main clause:
e.g. If I had a car, I would drive to school.
If-clauses may contain subjunctive mood forms:
e.g. If I were you, I wouldn't go.
e.g. They all like you if this he any comfort.
6.3.5.4.
Third Conditional
168
Here belong sentences with unreal conditions referring to past

situations. They contain past perfect forms in the subordinate
clauses and would + perfect infinitive in the main clauses:
e.g. If she had taken a taxi to the airport, she wouldn't have missed
her flight.
169
The modal auxiliaries may, might and could in the main clause
imply less certainty:
e.g. If she had taken a taxi to the airport, she might not have missed
her flight.
Sometimes the situation in the subordinate clause is represented as
past but the situation in the main clause is represented as non-past:
e.g. If we had left in the morning, we would he there now having
dinner with June.
Some conditional sentences include conjunctive elements such
unless, even if, provided that, on condition that, as long as:
e.g. Unless she takes a taxi to the airport, she will miss her flight.
e.g. You won't be short as long as you plan the expenditure.
6.3.6. Verb Forms and Phrases in Reported Speech
Reporting other people's speech requires specialized verb forms to
dissociate the speaker from the reported situation and to represent it
as subjective. English verbs lack mood forms specialized in expressing
such modal meanings. That is why tense forms are used in reported
speech with transposed meaning. Such transpositions take place
according to a principle known as the sequence offenses. The principle
is that the tense forms of the verbs in the subordinate (mostly object)
clauses must correspond with the tense forms of the verbs in the
main clauses of complex sentences (Mincoff, M. 1958):
e.g. I didn't know that he was out. (past time)
e.g. I was told that they would visit us at the weekend. (future-inpast)
e.g. I wondered if she had been to London before. ('past-before-thepast')
170
e.g. What did you say your name was? (present time).
e.g. Tell her I died blessing her. (past-in-future)(cited through M.
Mincoff).
6.3.6.1. Indicative Mood Forms
The seqence-of-tense principle has an effect in subordinate
clauses reporting someone else's speech or thought, where the
question of subjectivity arises.
The sequence of tenses is obligatory with present non-perfect
forms even in sentences denoting situations that are still true when
the statement is reported:
e.g. I didn't know that she was your sister.
When the reporting is expected to take place in the future, the
situation in the subordinate clause is denoted by means of the past
tense form because it is expected to precede the act of reporting:
e.g. Tell her that she needn't cook because I ordered pizza for
dinner.
The sequence of tenses is obligatory even in sentences where the
reporting verb is only implied:
e.g. When were you going to sit for the exam? (= When did you say
you were going to sit for the exam?)
Transposition takes place in subordinate temporal clauses where
indirect speech is involved, if the situation reported in the subordinate
clause was expected to take place after the moment of making the
statement:
e.g. She asked me to post the letters when I went to town.
The past tense form in a super-ordinated clause requires past
tense form in the subordinate clauses even if it does not denote past
time reference:
e.g. I would rather you told me that you loved me.
The sequence of tenses is not obligatory in the following cases:
171
The statement reported denotes some general truth:

e.g. The teacher explained that water boils at 100C.
- The statement reported includes an adverbial clause, which
defines the 'tense locus' of the situation reported through
some frame situation. The tense form denoting the frame
situation remains unchanged:
e.g. He remembered that he had heard the news while he was waiting
at the train station.
- The 'tense locus' of the situation reported is defined by means of
an adverbial modifier of objective character:
e.g. The tour guide informed us that Leeds castle was built in the 9 th
century.
- The statement reported includes an adverbial modifier
referring to permanent features of the subject:
e.g. He didn't attend the Old Boys' Dinner because he lives abroad.
- The definition of the 'tense locus' at the moment of making the
statement is the same as the definition at the moment of
reporting the statement:
e.g. He said he was at the disco last night.
- The present perfect is used to denote a fact, which is still true at
the moment of reporting the statement:
e.g. The newspapers reported that he has been included in the national
team.
6.3.6.2. Imperative Mood Forms
Sentences in the Imperative are reported by means of imperative
clauses:
e.g. We were asked to leave the premises.
e.g. The soldiers were ordered to attack.
172
6.3.6.3.
Subjunctive Mood Forms
6.3.6.4.
Subjunctive mood forms remain unchanged in reported
speech.
e.g. I insisted that they attend his lecture.
e.g. It was suggested that we visit
Belgium.
6.3.6.5.
Verb Forms and Phrases in Conditional Sentences
The sequence of tenses is obligatory with sentences with real

conditions:
e.g. He said that I could attend the meeting if I wanted to.
Verb forms and phrases in sentences with unreal conditions remain
unchanged in reported speech:
e.g. She said she would send a fax, if she knew the number.
6.3.6.5. Modal Verb Phrases in Reported Speech
The modal verbs must and ought remain unchanged in reported
speech:
e.g. She said she must go.
e.g. She knew she ought to help him.
The sequence of tenses is obligatory with the future auxiliaries
shall and will. When the reported statement undergoes change from 1st
to 2nd or 3"rd person, the same auxiliaries are used in the past form:
e.g. He promised he would help me.
e.g. He thought that he should arrive late in the afternoon.
When the reported statement undergoes change from the 2nd or
3rd person to the 1st person, the auxiliary should is used:
e.g. They wondered if I should be back by 5.
The auxiliaries can and may change into could and might:
e.g. He said he could help me.
173
e.g. He said he might come to the party if he wasn't busy in the

evening.
Exercise
s
I.
1. What type of situation does each present-tense verb form
denote? Complete the following chart:
- The Chicago Bulls plays the Giants in the final tonight.

She likes skiing.
When the teams arrive on the field, the national anthems are
played.
- The players walk onto the field now.
Millions of people watch football on TV.
Every weekend she spends an hour writing letters.
I feel very tired today.
'Love is like candy on a shelf ..."
She plays the guitar very well.
How do I get to the theatre?
174
Women like flowers.

I declare the assembly open.
2. What type of situation does each past-tense verb form

denote? Complete the following chart:
Permanent
situation
Temporary
situation
Situation
Momentary
over a period situation
of time
Single
action/event
Succession
actions/events
- They liked her singing.

- She likes playing tennis.
- He noticed the boy's cap.
- I studied German at school.
- She stood up and put her coat on.
- He sent a letter home once a week.
- She had a sore throat last week.
They spent a week in the mountains.
- It rained all night.
- They visited Paris quite often.
- She burst into laughter.
- She was a tall woman.
- He lived in Paris in his youth.
3. What type of future situation does each verb form and

phrase denote: prediction, past-in-future, situation in progress,
present intention, present cause, plan (programme, arrangement),
future as fact, future-in-past, immediate future?
The film is at 9.
- - She is buying a new car on Friday.
- - It is going to rain in the afternoon.
Call me at 8. I will be watching a film.
They will have gathered the crop by Friday.
176
of
15
- I am going to do aerobics in the morning.

They leave tonight.
The player is about to shoot.
The winter will be mild this year.
- She thought she was going to faint.
I thought they would arrive after 10.
II.
Supply the correct form of the verbs hi brackets:
- Many people (be killed) if the hurricane had hit the coast.
- If I had the money, I (buy) this bicycle.
If it (not to rain), we would have gone for a walk.
- Many people (attend) the rally, if it hadn't been on a weekday.
- I would watch the midnight show, if I (not have to get up) early
tomorrow.
7. - I (do) the shopping for you, but I was very busy in the morning.
8. - 'Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I (be) sixty
four?'
9. - 'When I get older losing my hear many years from now, you still
(send) me a Valentine, birthday greetings, a bottle of wine?'
10. - She (make) a career, if she hadn't married.
11. - She visited us whenever she (come) to town.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Change into sentences of unreal condition :

- I didn't come to the party because she didn't invite me.
- He spoke harsh to me, so I called him names.
She didn't find the book because she didn't open the bag.
He doesn't write to me and I don't write to him.
- I can't knit a sweater as 1 have no wool.
- I have a headache because I had a sleepless night.
- I can't translate this song, I don't know Italian well enough.
He doesn't feel well now because he didn't take his medicine
regularly.
21. - He doesn't know the telephone number, or he will call us, I
178
am sure.
- He makes so many mistakes because he doesn't practice
writing under dictation.
III.
22. Change the following from direct into indirect speech:
23. Interviewer: Tell me about yourself. When were you born?
24. Tom: I was bom in 1973.
Interviewer: What school did you go to?
Tom: I went to a Technical college.
Interviewer: What is your speciality?
Tom: I'm a mechanic.
Interviewer: Are you employed?
Tom: No. I'm not.
Interviewer: How long have you been unemployed?
Tom: For six months now.
Interviewer: What is your previous experience?
Tom: I worked as a mechanic in a garage for five years when I
lived in London. I moved to Leeds six months ago and I have had no
job since then.
25. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct form:
He was in a real hurry now, for he (know) where he (be going)
and he (be willing) to take chances. He (make) his route the shortest
route moving through open country that (be) safe in such poor visibi lity. He knew he (have lost) the men behind him, and he (take) a short
cut down a frozen stream, heading for a lake that (will take) him on a
quick route to the distant ridges of the mountain. Following the stream
(mean) a steep descent, but it (become) a test of his skill on snowshoes, a minor challenge. The weight of his pack (keep) him bent, but
he (not fall) and he (not ease) his pace.
(J. Aldridge)
179
6.4. Aspect

The grammatical category of Aspect is indicated in the morphology
of the verbs but it characterizes the whole sentence.
This category is based on three functional oppositions of forms:
perfect
non-perfect
progressive
non-progressive
habitual
non-habitual
The semantic field of aspectuality can be classified as follows (see
Comrie B. 1976):
Three of these aspectual meanings are expressed by means of the

marked forms, perfect, progressive, habitual. The rest of the meanings
are expressed by means of the unmarked form.
The aspectual meanings involve the semantic features of state/state, durative/non-durative, limitive/non-limitive.
The aspectual meanings can be defined in the following way:
Perfect it makes an explicit reference to the relation between an
implied resultant situation and a previous situation
180
that brought about it.

Four specific varieties of the Perfect can be defined:
Perfect of result
It indicates the persistence of a previous situation at some fixed
moment of time:
e.g. He has retired as chairman of the historical society.
Perfect of experience
It indicates that a situation has taken place at least once in the
previous period of time:
e.g. She has written a novel before.
- Perfect of persistent situation
It reports a situation that started in the past and persists into the
present:
e.g. He has taught German since 1985.
- Perfect of recent past
It denotes a previous situation whose time of occurrence is
specified by means of the adverbs 'recently', 'just', etc.
e.g. They have just left.
Non-perfect it locates the situation in time without referring to
its relation to another situation.
Perfective it presents a situation as a single whole without
distinction of the separate phases that make up the situation:
e.g. He scored several goals last month.
Imperfective it denotes a durative situation of non-state ,
referring to its internal temporal structure, i.e. the successive phases
of which the situation consists.
Habitual a semantic subtype of the Imperfective, representing a
situation as a characteristic feature of a whole period of time; with
verbs of non-state it implies the successive occurrence of instances of
the situation:
e.g. He used to be a teacher in his youth.
e.g. He used to send me postcards but not letters.
e.g. He used to wear a moustache.
181
Continuous a semantic subtype of the Impefective; it represents a durative situation as non-habitual.

Non-progressive a subtype of the Continuous; it represents a
permanent situation of durative non-limitive nature:
e.g. He is silly.
e.g. He lives at 10 Vitosha St.
Progressive a subtype of the Continuous; it represents a
temporary situation of non-state as consisting of successive phases:
e.g. He is decorating the room.
The progressive form has some other specific meanings:
- verbs of state in the progressive form may denote temporary
features of the subject:
e.g. She is being friendly today.
- verbs of state in the progressive form may represent the situation
as a developing process consisting of individual phases of changing
intensity.
e.g. What are you wanting to tell me?
- verbs of non-state in the progressive form may be used to refer
to a habitual situation with an emotive effect:
e.g. He is always teasing me with silly jokes.
The Perfect can be combined with the Progressive. The per fect
progressive form of verbs of non-state denotes a situation developing
in a period of time, which includes the moment of speaking and is
specified in the sentence structure:
e.g. I have been writing this report for a week now.
6.4.2. Aspect and Other Categories of the Verb
The aspectual opposition habitual non-habitual is restricted to
the Past tense:
e.g. He used to travel a lot in his youth.
The non-habitual form can always express habitual meaning:
182
e.g. He travelled a lot in his youth.

The perfect form can represent a present state as being the result of
some past action.
The perfect passive form of transitive verbs predicates a change of
state to the object of an action (Connie, B., 1976):
e.g. He has been awarded a prize.
The perfect non-passive form of intransitive verbs predicates a
change of state of the agent:
e.g. He has received a prize.
Exercises
1.
2.
3.
4.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
I.
Ask as many questions as you can:
They spoke English at the conference in Reading last month.
It has been raining since Monday.
He used to wear a modest coat.
She will be crying with happiness.
5. Picasso created over 6,000 paintings, drawings and sculptures.
II.
Translate the following sentences into Bulgarian:
You are seeing things - there's nobody there!
I am seeing a friend off in the afternoon.
How often do you hear from your sister?
He was feeling about in the dark for the electric-light switch.
How are you feeling today?
She will feel having to sell up her old home.
Fish soon smells in summer if it is not kept on ice.
The cook was smelling the fish.
I like cooking.
10. I like to cook in the evening.
183
III.
Put the verbs in brackets into the correct form:
Trouble With Time
'We don't have much crime on Mars', said the detective. 'That's the
chief reason I (go) back to the Yard. If I (stay) here much longer, I (get)
completely out of practice.'
We (sit) in the main hall of the Spaceport. The rocket that (bring)
us up from Mars (leave) ten minutes ago, and now (begin) the fall back
to Mars. In an hour we (board) the rocket for Earth - a world upon
which most of the passengers never (set) foot, but which they still called
'home'.
'At the same time', (continue) the detective, 'now and then there
(be) a case that (make) life interesting. You are an art dealer and I am
sure you (hear) about that case at Meridian City a few months ago.'
Probably the detective already (look) through the passengers list; I
(wonder) how much he (know) about me, and (try) to reassure myself
that my conscience was, well-clear. After all, everybody (take)
something out through Martian Customs.
'A jewel thief from Earth tried to steal Meridian Museum's greatest
treasure - the Siren Goddess.'
'But that's absurd', I (object).'It (be) priceless, of course, but it (be)
only a piece of sandstone. You (can) not sell it to anyone - you (may)
just as well steal the Mona Lisa.'
The detective (smile). That (happen) once', he said. 'May be the
motive (be) the same. There (be) collectors who (give) a fortune for
such an object, even if they (can) only look at it themselves (agree)?
'That's true. In my business you (meet) all sorts of crazy people',
answered the art dealer.
'Well, this chap - his name (be) Danny Weaver - (be) well paid by
one of them. And if it (not be) for a piece of fantastically bad luck he
(may) have brought it off.'
184
6.5. Voice

Voice is a grammatical category of the verb, which reflects the
semantic role of the verbal subject. This category is based on the
functional opposition of two sets of forms: active passive.
Successive sentences in text present new information associating it
with information, which is already known to the rea der, given either
by preceding context or by the situational context. The information
content of the sentence is organized into Theme-Transition-Rheme.
Theme contains given information. Rheme contains new
information. English is a SVO language and normally Subject
functions as Theme. Object functions as Rheme, the Verb is the
Transition between these two.
The choice of Subject, therefore, depends on the information
content of the sentence. The choice of verb form depends on the
semantic role of the verbal subject: if the Subject denotes the agent
of the verbal situation, the verb form is in the active voice; If the
Subject denotes some other semantic role in the verbal situation, the
verb form is in the passive voice.
The active voice form is the unmarked member of the opposition.
It can express a variety of meanings:
active Jane opened the door for me.
intransitive The train pulled out of the station.
reflexive Jane dressed for dinner.
reciprocal Jane and Tom kissed good bye.
ergative The door opened.
The passive voice form is the marked member of the opposition.
It is formed by means of the auxiliary be and the past participle of the
full verb. The Subject may have various semantic roles:
e.g. The door was opened by Jane. (affected)
e.g. I was offered tea. (recipient)
185
e.g. The event was talked about foe a long time. (verbiage)
The verb get can be used as a passive auxiliary in the
following cases:
- the speaker emphasizes the process:
e.g. I am sick of getting shouted at for things that aren't my
fault.
- the speaker implies disapproval or apprehension of
negative conseqences:
e.g. You should wash that cut - it might gel infected.
- the speaker reports accidents or disastrous events in collo quial
speech:
e.g. The team is determined not to get beaten again.
- the speaker implies that the subject contributes to the result
of the action:
e.g. The child got lost in the park.
- the speaker is unwilling to give information about the Agent:
e.g. Somehow the paper got ripped.
- structures with get may express reflexive meaning:
- e.g. She got dressed for dinner.
- structures with get may express reciprocal meaning:
- e.g. They got married last week.
6.5.2. Types of Passive Structures
Objectivity is the ability of a verb to take an object (direct, indirect, prepositional). Most sentences with objective verbs in the active
voice have passive counterparts. In the active passive pair, the
two sentences are related both semantically and formally: the
participants in the verbal situation have the same semantic roles in
the two sentences and are denoted by the same noun phrases.
However, the noun phrases perform different syntactic functions in
the two sentences:
186
e.g. Many people all over the world speak English.

Subject
Direct object
English is spoken by many people all over the world.
Subject
Object
e.g. The waiter brought me a bowl of soup.
Subject
Indirect object
I was brought a bowl of soup by the waiter.
Subject
Object
e.g. Two celebrities spoke to the crowd.
Subject
Prepositional object
The crowd was spoken to by two celebrities.
Subject
Object
Generally speaking, the Subject function in the passive voice
sentence is performed by a noun phrase, which functions as Object in
the corresponding active voice sentence. Three types of Object can be
distinguished: direct, indirect, prepositional. Accordingly, three types of
passive structures should be distinguished: primary, secondary, tertiary.
Primary passive - a passive voice structure in which the Subject
Junction is performed by the noun phrase that junctions as Direct
Object in the corresponding active voice stricture:
e.g. They built Leeds Castle in the 9 th century. Leeds Castle was
built in the 9th century.
Secondary passive - a passive voice structure in which the Subject
function is performed by the noun phrase that functions as Indirect
Object in the corresponding active voice structure.
e.g. The shop assistant showed me some very beautiful skirts. I
was shown some very beautiful skirts.
Tertiary passive - a passive voice structure in which the Subject
function is performed by the noun phrase that functions as
Prepositional object in the corresponding active voice structure:
e.g. They always take good care of her dog Her dog is always
taken good care of.
187
Sometimes a prepositional phrase of circumstantial semantic

role functions as Theme and occupies initial sentence position,
becoming Subject of a structure which formally resembles the
Tertiary passive structure:
e.g. My spoon has been eaten
with.
e.g. My bed has been slept in.
6.5.3. Voice Constraints
Objective verbs can be used in the passive voice but
passivization is restricted by some semantic and structural features
of the Predicate verb, the syntactic Object and the semantic Agent.
Voice constraints concern the form of the verb, the modal meaning
of the structure, the shift from Object - to Subject - function of the
noun phrase, the possibility of introducing the Agent-phrase into
the passive structure as well as the frequency of use of active and
passive voice forms. (Quirk, R. 1972)
The Verb: Objective verbs denoting states of quality or relations
can be used only in the active voice:
e.g. She has got long blonde hair.
e.g. He resembles his mother.
If the information structure of the sentence requires a passive verb
structure, the predicate should be expanded into a modal verb
phrase or else it should be paraphrased:
e.g. This room seats twenty people.
Twenty people can be seated in this room.
e.g. He owes his success to good luck more than to ability.
His success is due to good luck more than to ability.
Verbs introducing opinion are often used in the passive, in order
to express generalized statements:
e.g. He will be considered a weak leader.
Modal verb phrases undergo partial passive transformation by
changing only the infinitive of the full verb. The sentence in the
188
active voice refers to a particular situation; the sentence in the passive

voice is a generalized statement. Besides, the two sentences express
different modal meanings:
e.g. We can't persuade him to try again. (ability)
He can't he persuaded to try again. (possibility)
Prepositional verbs often occur in the passive in their figura tive
meaning, combining with abstract nouns in the function of Object.
e.g. One quickly gets into bad habits.
Bad habits are quickly got into.
The Object: Sentences containing nominal objects can undergo
passive transformation:
e.g. I ordered Indian food.
Indian food was ordered.
If, however, the nominal object and the subject have the same
reference, passive transformation is impossible:
e.g. She opened her eyes in surprise.
e.g. The boys amused themselves by drawing caricatures.
e.g. Jack and Jill were smiling at each other.
Sentences with clausal objects can undergo passive transformation
only in combination with some other transformations:
e.g. The dean reported that all the students had passed the exam.
It was reported that all the students had passed the exam.
All the students were reported to have passed the exam.
The Agent: The Agent-phrase is optional in the structure of the
passive voice sentence. The Agent is not introduced if it is:
- unknown
e.g. John Brown was mugged last night.
- irrelevant
e.g. What would a student do if he were deprived of his books?
- redundant
e.g. France played Wales at Rugby last night and was beaten.
189
- irrecoverable
e.g. Trains have been replaced by buses.
Passive voice forms are frequently used in the context of mass
media and in scientific texts.
Active voice forms are used predominantly in creative writingpoetry, fiction as well as in colloquial speech.
Exercises
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
I.
Identify the Passive voice forms in the following sentences:
- He has always been a good father to his children.
- The letters haven't been typed yet.
- That fact was well known.
- She was married to a nobleman.
- They will be absent tomorrow.
- The statue will be placed in the square.
- The boat race is held on the Thames in April.
The boat race is being held on the Thames.
- She was operated on two weeks ago.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
Turn the following sentences into the passive:

- They grow roses all over the country.
- She found her dog in a shop.
- I sent a fax two hours ago.
They invited him to a toga party.
The teacher let the students go.
No one has ever shouted at her.
Will many people attend his lecture?
II.
1. Translate into Bulgarian:
- Never has she been insulted so much.
- The clock hasn't been set at 5.
- The boy is being examined by the doctor.
190
The students will be examined tomorrow.

He was asked to leave the place.
Napoleon was born in Corsica.
The monument is washed twice a year.
2. Translate into English using passive voice structures:

- 20 .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
- , .
III.
Complete the sentences using passive voice forms:
The plan (to discuss)
| as a rule twice a year.

| when I was shown into the room
| next week
| at the moment
| by the time I
come back
| before you called
me up
| you are too late
with your proposal
6.6. Grammatical Meaning of the Non-finite Verb

Forms
191
English has four non-finite verb forms: infinitive, gerund, -ing

participle, -ed participle. The paradigms of the non-finite verb forms
are presented in 6.1.4. The infinitive, the gerund and the -ing
participle express the verbal categories of aspect and voice by
means of analytical forms. All the forms in the paradigms constitute a
system. The functional oppositions between the individual forms in the
system reveal the grammatical meaning of the
192
forms. The grammatical meaning of each form can be represented as a

semantic complex consisting of several components. Components are
individual realizations of abstract semantic features. The analysis of the
functional oppositions between the forms of the non-finite verb system
makes it possible to identify the following features: modality,
temporality, aspectuality and voice. The components of these features
are:
realis
Modality <
deontic
irrealis <
epistemic
previousness
Temporality < - simultaneousness
_________________successiveness
perfect
Aspectuality <
perfective
habitual
imperfective <
progressive
active
Voice<
passive
193
The semantic structure of the grammatical meaning of each

non-finite verb form can be described by stating the components of
that meaning:
e.g. I prefer walking to cycling.
walking
> simple gerund realis; simultaneous;
habitual; active
cycling
e.g. Having been bred in that communion was like being born an
Englishman.
having been bred - perfect passive gerund realis: previous:
perfect; passive
being born - passive gerund realis: previous: perfective: passiv
e.g. Having passed the exam made me feel happy.
having passed - perfect gerund realis: previous: perfect: active
e.g. I hate to trouble you.
to trouble you - simple infinitive irrealis: successive: perfective;
active.
e.g. He was reported to be preparing the boat for the voyage.
to be preparing - progressive infinitive realis: simultaneous;
progressive; active
e.g. He was found to have stolen the car.
to have stolen - perfect infinitive realis: previous: perfect; active
e.g. He is a man to be watched.
to be watched - passive infinitive irrealis; successive; perfective;
passive
e.g. To have been bred in that community would have been an
advantage.
194
to have been bred - perfect passive irrealis: previous: per-fect;

passive
e.g. They were found digging a tunnel through the hill.
digging - simple -ing participle realis: simultaneous; progressive;
active
e.g. I wailed, being caught in the very act of stealing.
being caught - passive -ing participle realis; simultaneous;
progressive; passive
e.g. Having settled my plans for the day, I got up.
having settled - perfect -ing participle realis; previous; perfect;
active
e.g. The plans for the day having been settled, I got up.
having been settled - perfect passive -ing participle realis;
previous; perfect; passive
e.g. She was sitting there drooped into a muse.
drooped - -ed participle of intransitive verb realis; previous;
perfective; active
e.g. The smoke drifted away and the camp lay revealed.
revealed - -ed participle of transitive verb realis; previous;
perfective; passive
Having described the grammatical meaning of each non-finite
verb form, we identify specific grammatical categories in the nonfinite verb system: modal representation, temporal representa tion,
aspectual representation and voice representation.
(Penakova G., Doctoral thesis, unpublished)
Exercises
I.
Identify the non-finite verb forms in the following sentences:
Raw herring is good eating.
This water is good to drink.
- - He had the pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes.
195
On finding the door locked, the child began to cry.

Coming to a higher boulder, he lifted his head.
196
Once arrived at the quay, he became alert.

- - He believed her to have visited that place.
Michael felt doom closing in upon him.
The flowers looked limp in the heat, drooping for want of water.
What tired him most was being questioned by correspondents.
- - But this is admitting more than is true.
- - He must be desperate with no one to help him.
She sat still, her hands folded in her lap.
The pile of bills was there, to be sure.
They followed the escaping fish.
- He listened to their whispered conversation.
- Drawing a cape about her, she took his hand.
The doctor, satisfied, made his way out.
- I determined to cure myself.
- To hear him talk, you would think he was a celebrity.
II.
What is the syntactic function of each non-finite verb form you
have identified in Exercise I.?
III.
Translate the sentences in Exercise I. into Bulgarian.
197
Key to Exercises
Chapter I
I. 1. English; eighteen; long; hair; in; his; a; either ... or; the; kennel; on;
-; she; second-hand; second-hand; fast; fast; wow; wowed;
ouch; hurts; off; on/off.
List 1 - adjectives; list 2 - numerals; list 3 - adverbs; list 4 - nouns; list 5
-prepositions; list 6 - pronouns; list 7 - articles; list 8 interjections; list 9 - verbs; list 10 - conjunctions; list 11 particles.
2. house/book; green/short; slowly/pathetically; painted/bought; who; on/in/near/behind; but; Hello/Hi; their/the; they.
II 1. only; only; almost, almost; only; only; only; only; however/only;
however; however; without; that he may not; without; without;
the only thing she does; not at all; two before the last; before
the last one; the one before the last; if it hadn't been for;
without, however; that; who doesn't wish; who were not: don't
say 'but'; don't say 'but' to me;
2. . e
. .
. .
- .
, , .
. ,
. , .
, .
, .
,
. ,
. ,
.
198
,
. ,
. . ,
. .
. .
, .
, .
, ,
- . ,
. ,
. ,
, . , ""!
""
5. group 1 - adverb; group 2 - conjunction;
group 3 - conjunction; group 4 - conjunction;
group 5 - conjunction; group 6 - pronoun;
group 7 - noun; group 8 - verb. noun.
III. nouns - John, eyes, chin, difference, looks, things, day,
Easter, lunch, shrimp, cocktails, food, pancakes, town, sun,
neck, scent, grass, honeysuckle.
verbs - was, had, believed, should, give, wait, admires.
adjectives - deeper, obstinate, sunny, line, English, nice, warm.
adverbs - now, still, terribly, then, more, perhaps, yes, no,
surprisingly, really, certainly.
pronouns - that, his, he, her, them, she, what, nothing.
numerals - first.
prepositions - like, in, since, for, on, of
articles - the, a
predeterminer - all
particles - to
conjunctions - so
interjections - oh; dear
199
Chapter 2
2.1.
I.
1. simple - book, bed, man, step, box, store, flight, lord, cook,
cat.
derived - thanks, bitterness, teacher, egotism, computer,
independence, kitchenette, news, building, idealist, libera tion.
freedom, childhood.
compound - manchild, man-of-war, passer-by, step mother,
sister-in-law, jig-saw, she-bear, toast-and-butter, drawback,
girlfriend.
2. -y, -dom, -ful, -th, -ee, -ing, -y, -let, -ran, -ness, -ment, -on,
-ation, -ity, -eer, -hood, -ity, -al, -ship, -er, -ance
II. 1. jewelry, suspense, discussion, mountaineer, growth, ac tivity,
orphanage, millionaire, package, occurrence, esca pism,
membership, freedom, dealer, supremacy, magician, childhood,
artist, amusement, cupful, hostess, actor, reality, election,
tendency, painter, nunnery, lecturer
2. Sasha Jansen - Subject
Paris - Direct Object
men - Adjectival Complement
insults - Direct Object
death - Adverbial Modifier
a young man - Direct Object
a gigolo - Predicative
fur - Noun Modifier
fur coat - Prepositional Object
a rich woman - Object Complement
a complicated relationship - Prepositional Object
2.2.
I. 1. beer (U); gold (U); metal (C); money (U); love (U); pizza (U); a
pizza (C), cattle (U); job (C); furniture (U); room (C).
200
II. 1. a flash of lightning; a peal of thunder; a sheaf of paper; a

sheet of paper; a flight of steps; two heads of cabbage; a
good piece of advice; a lovely set of cutlary.
2. article, lump, spoonful, head, slice, blade, peal.
III. 1. people - common, uncountable, concrete, animate;
IV.
token - common, countable, concrete, individual
V.
insanity - common, uncountable, abstract
VI.
mood - common, countable, abstract
VII.
experience - common, uncountable, abstract
VIII.
mankind - common, uncountable,
concrete
IX.
possession - common, uncountable, abstract
X.
nature - common, countable, abstract
XI.
life - common, countable, concrete, individual
XII.
snake - common, countable, concrete, individual
XIII.
divinity - common, countable, concrete,
individual
XIV.
eminence - common, countable,
abstract
XV.
sanctity - common, countable, abstract
XVI.
ambition - common, uncountable,
abstract
XVII.
misery - common, uncountable, abstract
XVIII.
mantle - common, countable, concrete,
individual
XIX.
vitals - common, uncountable, concrete
XX.
monster - common, countable, concrete,
individual
XXI.
nature - common, uncountable, abstract
XXII.
empire - common, countable, abstract
XXIII.
shape - common, countable, abstract
XXIV.
yearning - common, countable, abstract
XXV.
fellowship - common, uncountable,
abstract
XXVI.
custom - common, countable, abstract
201
XXVII.
XXVIII.
individual
XXIX.
XXX.
XXXI.
abstract
day - common, countable, abstract

street - common, countable, concrete,
aim - common, countable, abstract
species - common, countable, abstract
brotherhood - common, uncountable,
world - common, countable, abstract

ingenuity - common, uncountable, abstract
disease - common, countable, abstract
breast - common, countable, concrete, individual
perception - common, countable, abstract
frailty - common, uncountable, abstract
error - common, uncountable, abstract
vice - common, uncountable, abstract
person - common, countable, concrete, individual
credit - common, uncountable, abstract
serpent - common, countable, concrete, individual
fiend - common, countable, abstract
faculty - common, countable, abstract
man - common, countable, concrete, individual
heart - common, countable, concrete, individual
2.3.
I. 1/2/3. those mornings
those - central determiner
mornings - head
the smoke
smoke - head
the Thames Valley mist
Thames Valley - noun modifier
mist - head
a few miracles
a - central determiner
few - quantifier
miracles - head
their London
their - central determiner
London - head
203
the oldest part

oldest - noun modifier
part - head
the City
City - head
these mornings
these - central determiner
mornings - head
an enchantment
an central determiner
enchantment - head
a faintly luminous haze
faintly luminous - noun modifier
haze - head
silver
silver - head
old gold
old - noun modifier
gold - head
the buildings
buildings - head
shape
shape - head
solidity
solidity - head
no weight
no - central determiner
weight - head
204
the air
air - head
palaces
palaces - head
the Arabian Nights
Arabian - noun modifier
Nights - head
the dome
St. Paul's (Cathedral)
St. Paul's - noun modifier
a forefinger
forefinger head
the Mansion House
Mansion - noun modifier
House - head
the Monument
Monument - head
space
space - head
these morning
these - central determiner
mornings - head
the old churches
old - noun modifier
churches - head
no less traffic
no - central determiner
less - quantifier
traffic - head
the scarlet stream of buses
scarlet - noun modifier
stream - head
of buses - postmodifier
the ancient narrow streets
ancient - noun modifier
narrow - noun modifier
streets - head
the pavements
pavements - head
people
people - head
the denser patches of mist
denser - noun modifier
patches - head
of mist - postmodifier
4. ,
,
- , .
.
, ,
.
, ; ,
, -
" ";
,
". ",
, .
,
.
,
;
. , ,
, - ;
,
.
5. two thin slices of bread, all the many clever students; the last
few minutes; the three other sources of water; the chief uses of
ground water.
6. a bunch of keys; a pinch of salt; ten reels of thread; fewer
people; less population; a pair of snowshoes.
II. 1. a. some; some; some; any; any; any; some; some; any; any; some;
some; any; any; some; some;
b. either; every; each; every; every; each; every; each; every;
each; every;
c. what; whatever, what; which; whichever; whichever;
whichever; whichever; what;
d. her; the; the; ; ; the; their; ; a; the; ; ; the; the; his; my;
his; the; the; the; the; the; the; the; my; the;
2. a; an; a; a; the; a; a; a; an; ; ; ;
3. ; ; ; ; an; ; the; ; ; ; the; the; the; the;
4.

,
, .
,
,
,

.
,
. , .
- ,
,
.
III. 1. people (s); Boston (u); heads (s); shoulders (s); witches (a);
goblins (a); tricks (s); devil (s); settlement(s);colony (s);
trustees (s); charge (a); Tom(u); effects(s); day(s); house(s);
fire(a); ground(s).
2. ; ; the; the; the; the; the; the; ; the; the: ; ;
3.
, ,
, , .
,
. "
". , ,
. " ", , "
(
),
. ,
,
- ,
. ,
, , ,
- ."
2.4.
I. 1. geese, genera, boxes, hypotheses, matrices, beaux, kibbutzim,
businessmen, pianos, echoes, tempi, cargos/
cargoes, aircraft
2. a. arm, arms, arm in arm, arms, arms;
b. spirits, spirit, spirits;
c. work, work, works, works, works;
d. bearings, bearing, bearing;
e. compass, compasses;
II. 1. are. eat, is, is, was, are, were, was, were, keep, is, is
III. 1. is, is. is, have, were, were, does,
IV.
2. go, is, are, is, is, were
2.5.
I. 1. waitress, spinster, lioness, niece, bride, goose, heroine, sister, duck,
widow,
administratrix,
peahen,
drum
majorette.
businesswoman, ewe 2. it; she it; they; they; it; it; they; he;
II. 1. their, their best, who, which, which, his, who, she, her, which
2. - .
, -,
,
.

,
.
- . (" ,
.") ,
. ("
,
.")
,
.
,
,
.
-,
, , .
.
, ,
.
, ,
,
, .

.

,
.
2.6.
I.
1. a. Infants' Departament; the Head

Teacher's enthusiasm; the five-year-olds'
class; Roger's day
b. her husband's worries; the partner's self-development
c. Mark and Jane's parents' house, two hours' drive
2. Tom's sister; Mary's place
II. 1. the flat of Nelly; the arrival of Tom; the
library of London University; the studios of
Hollywood; milk from goats; a journal for
women; a woman who was the personal
servant of other woman; the office of Smith
and Brown; a distance of one mile; a break
of one hour and a half; the wife of a miner;
the title of the play; the crew of the ship
2. a business agreement in which people trust each other

without a written contract; a man who enjoys spending time
with women; the first university degree you study for; meeting
of men who were students at a particularschool; the form of
spoken and written British English that is considered correct
by most people; if a criminal turns Queen's evidence, they
agree to give information to help the police catch other
criminals.
III. 1. the boy's toys regular
at her aunt's local
at the chemist's local
a friend of my sister's double
the Prime Minister's speech regular
the sisters' offices regular
St. Paul's local
my former teacher's name regular
Jack London's 'Martin Eden' regular
2. the boy's face partitive
the boy's toys possessive
the children's zoo descriptive
the committee's decision origin
Canada's great mountains partitive
the man's weight measure
the City of Westminster appositive
John's approval subjective
the girl's kidnap objective
Chapter 3
I. 1. a. young; wonderful; magnificent; beautifully lighted; soundproofed; air-conditioned; first-class; splendid; most up-to-date;
best equipped
b. simple - young
derived - wonderful, splendid
compound - sound-proofed, air-conditioned, first-class up-todate
participial - lighted, equipped
2. so much determined; too simple to go mad; the last tall

bushes; much bigger than before; too many things to see at
once; good bright fire; sleepily aware of the groaning of the
storm; only faintly luminous in comparison with the windows
of the sisters' offices
II. 1. a most unexpected, imbecile, pathetic,
nervous little giggle;
a noise harsh and furious, full of pain and desire;
a scuffling noise coming from the overhang;
the vertical line of brightly lit eyes marking the ward kitchens;
a warm flat full of hot-house flowers supplied weekly by a
florist;
her flabby white arms splattered with pale tan spots;
a woman given to recollections;
an imperfect film dealing with actions of strangers
2. predicative, noun modifier; predicative, noun modifier,
postniodifier; subject complement, subject complement; head
of noun phrase; noun modifier, predicative; object complement;
exclamation; exclamatory sentence
III. 1. as; how; than; more; the; in; as
2. cleverer than her; fewer people; less
money on clothes; soon as possible;
hard as I can
3. ,

.

,
. , . ,

.
.
,
,
. -
,
.
Chapter 4
I. 1. where; where; when; ever; easily; unfriendly; perhaps; much more;
out; later
2. fast; fast; wide; wide; widely; close; close; close; closely;
closely; tightly; tight; tightly; deep; deeply; deeply
II. 1. adverbial modifier; noun modifier; complement of pre position;
adverbial modifier; clause introducer; adverbial modifier, complement
of preposition
2. how far; how long; how hard; how well; how fast
III. 1. How far is Sofia from Varna?
How long does it lake you to get to work?
How hard do they work on the task?
How well do you speak this language?
How fast can this car go?
2. conjunct; disjunct; disjunct; conjunct; adjunct; disjunct;
disjunct; conjunct; conjunct; subjunct; subjunct
Chapter 5
I. 1. preposition; preposition; preposition; preposition; pre position;
preposition; preposition; particle; particle; preposition;
preposition; preposition; preposition; preposition; particle;
preposition; preposition; particle; particle; particle; preposition
2. on; into, off; on; down on; away with; up; on
II. 1. pick; put; turned; turned; make; cut; went; set; sank;
move; suffered
2. ,
. ,
.
,
,
. "
."
,
.
;
.
.
- .
III. 1. pulled down; filling in; took off; gave up; put off; made up; make
it out; put out; make it out; look it up; takes up
2. The boys stood on the far side of their bicycles holding the
handlebars. The girls could not take off their panama hats. This
was not far from the school gates. By the time they were
sixteen they were all famous in the school. The girls loitered
beneath the trees, shoulder to shoulder, very close to each other
because of the boys. She had the brim of her hat turned up at
the front and down at the back.
Chapter 6
6.1.
I. 1. turned, went, saw, standing, has been harnessed, went, sat, began,
rubbing, was, done, had, to confront, would, surround,
surprised, was, knowing, had drawn, had not made, was, loved,
made, seemed, borne, had, had blacklisted
2. simple - turn, go, see, stand, harness, sit, begin, rub, be, do,
have, will, know, draw, make, love, seem
derived - confront, surround, surprise
compound - blacklist
phrasal - bear out
II. 1. simple forms - turned, went, saw, standing, went, sat, surprised,
knowing, loved, made, had
analytical forms - has been harnessed, had drawn, had not

made, had blacklisted
modal verb phrases - had to confront, would surround
catenative verb phrases - began rubbing
link verb + predicative - was done, was true, seemed borne out,
was knowing
2. ,
- .
,
. , !
,
. ,
- ,
,
-
. , ,
-?
,
...
.
III. 2. don't know - state, private, intellectual
it was long - state, temporary
began to feel chilly - state, private, perception
had changed - event, process
were long - state, quality
gel back home - action, momentary act
saw - state, private, perception
carrying - action, activity
met her eyes - state, private, perception
screamed - action; momentary act
threw up her arms - action; transitional act
ran - action, activity
fell off her head - event, transitional event

called - action, momentary act
sobbed - action, momentary act
disappeared - event, transitional event
be within a few minutes of the path - state, stance
had walked - action, activity
seemed a long time - state, temporary
found = realized => state, private, intellectual
caught at my legs - event, momentary event
closed over my head - event, going-on
decided - action, momentary act
go back to - action, accomplishment
start - action, transitional act
was getting dark - event, process
was useless state, quality
tell myself - action, momentary act
was not far - state, stance
was lost - state, temporary state
was afraid - state, temporary state
was certain of danger - state, temporary state
heard - state, private, perception
did not answer - action, momentary act
came nearer - event, transitional event
shouted back - action, momentary act
did not recognize - state, private, intellectual
was wearing - action, activity
pulled up - action, momentary act
was in his hand - state, stance
the light caught the edge - event, momentary event
did not smile - action, transitional act
saw - state, private, perception
6.2.
I. 1. could not find; could stop; could contain; won't mon-
key; shall have to get; had to lie, could see; might have been
spent; might be gone; can't be left; is to have; must forget;
should put: might be done; can't be done; ought to see; must
leave; needn't go
2. possibility; possibility; ability; insistence; necessity;
necessity; ability; possibility; possibility; advice; predes tined
future; strong determination; insistence; possibility; possibility;
emphasizing the impressiveness; necessity; necessity
II. 1. I wish you a happy marriage. It is enough to say that working with
Kevin was not a very pleasant experience. I don't want to
criticize you, but I think that you are being a little
unreasonable. I express my loyalty to the Republic. I pray that
God will protect the Queen. I express my annoyance with her
behaviour.
2. !
,
. ,
? !
! !
IlI. 1. can; can; may; may; must; will; will; need; would
2. Come September and we are back to school again. If she
were here, I might persuade her to help you. If she was here. I
must have missed her in the crowd. If we are to be there on
time, we must hurry up. It is important that all should be there
on time. We will go on, come what may. The angles of the
triangle must total 180. The angles of the triangle can't total
more than 180. A river can overflow its banks. The river
might have overflown its banks. Why should you be different
from the others? You shouldn't be in a hurry; there is plenty of
time. My sister fell ill, so I had to change my plans. You
shouldn't have
gone out without an umbrella; it's pouring with rain. We didn't

know what to do: the key wouldn't turn and we couldn't go in.
6.3.
I. 1. permanent feature - like, loves
ability - plays the guitar
habitual situation - watch, arrive, are played
recurrent situation - spends
generalized statement - is
instructions - get to
temporary feature - feel
at the present moment - walk, declare
future time - plays
2. permanent situation - was, liked,
3. temporary situation - like her singing;
situation over a period of time - studied, lived, had rained,
spent
momentary situation - noticed
single action/event - burst, stood up, put on
succession of actions/events - sent, visited
4. prediction - will be mild
5. past-in-future - will have gathered
6. situation in progress - will be
watching present intention - am going
to do
7. present cause - is going to rain
plan - is buying
future as fact - is at 9, leave
future-in-past - was going to faint, would arrive
immediate future - is about to shoot
II. 1. would have been killed; would buy; hadn't rained; would
have attended; didn't have to get up; would have done; am; will
you still be sending; would have made; came
220
2. I would have come to the party, if she had invited me. If he

hadn't spoken harsh to me, I wouldn't have called him names.
If she had opened the bag, she would have found the book. If
he wrote to me. I would write to him. If I had wool, I could
knit a pullover. If I hadn't had a sleepless night, I wouldn't have
a headache now. If I knew Italian well enough, I would be able
to translate this song. If he had taken his medicine regularly, he
would feel well now. He would call us if he knew the
telephone number. He wouldn't make so many mistakes, if he
practised writing under dictation.
III. 1. The interviewer wanted Tom to tell her about himself. She
wanted to know when he was born. Tom said he was born in
1973. She asked what school he had been to. He said he had
been to a technical college. The interviewer asked what his
speciality was. He said he was a mechanic. She wanted to
know if he was employed. He said he wasn't. The interviewer
asked how long he had been unemployed. He explained that he
had been unemployed for six months. The interviewer asked
what his previous experience was. Tom said that he had
worked as a mechanic in a garage for live years when he lived
in London. He explained that he had moved to Leeds six
months before and he had had no job since then.
2. knew, was going, was willing, made, was, had lost; took;
would take, meant, became, kept, didn't fall, didn't ease.
6.4.
I. 1. They spoke English at the conference, didn't they?
Who spoke English at the conference in Reading last month?
What did they do at the conference?
What language did they speak at the conference?
221
Where did they speak English?

When did they speak English?
Did they speak English at the conference'?
2. What has been happening since Monday?
3. How long has it been raining?
It has been raining since Monday, hasn't it?
3. He used to wear a modest coat, didn't he?
Who used to wear a modest coat?
What did he use to do?
What did he use to wear?
What coat did he use to wear?
Did he use to wear a modest coat?
4. She will be crying with happiness, won't she?
5. Who will be crying with happiness?
6. What will she be doing?
7. Why will she be crying?
8. Will she be crying with happiness?
9. Who created over 6000 paintings, drawings and sculptures?
What did Picasso create?
How many paintings, drawings and sculptures did Picasso
create?
Picasso created over 6000 paintings, drawings and sculptures,
didn't he?
Did Picasso create over 6000 paintings, drawings and
sculptures?
II. 1. a - .
2. .
3. '?
4. .
5. ?
222
6. ,
.
7. ,
.
8. .
9. .
10. 10. .
III. am going; stayed; would get; were sitting; had broght; left; was
beginning; would be boarding; had set; continued; is; makes;
heard; had looked; wondered; knew; was trying; took;
objected; is; is; cannot; might; smiled; happened; was; are;
would give; could; do you agree; meet; was; had been: hadn't
been; might
6.5.
I. 1. haven't been typed; will be placed; is held;
is being held; was operated on
2. Roses are grown all over the country.
Her dog was found in the shop.
A fax was sent two hours ago.
He was invited to a toga party.
The students were allowed to go.
She was never been shouted at.
Will his lecture be attended by many people?
II. 1.
.
III.

5 .
IV.

.
V.

.
.
.
.
223
2. The computer was invented in the 20 th century. The first

computers were made with vacuum pipes. Her shoes are
buckled. They were married at a monastery. I got acquain-
224
ted with them in Naples. His retirement is talked about by all.

He is not easy to live with. He is said to be a Don Juan.
III. The plan is discussed as a rule twice a year. The plan was
being discussed when I was shown into the room. The plan will
be discussed next week. The plan will have been discussed by
the time I come back. The plan had been dis cussed before you
called me up. The plan has already been discussed; you are too
late with your proposal.
6.6.
I.
II.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
18.
19.
20.
eating; to drink;preaching; finding; to cry; coming; arrived; to

have visited; closing; drooping; being questioned; ad mitting;
be; to help; folded; to be; escaping; whispered; drawing;
satisfied; having informed; to cure; to hear
1. Adjectival complement
Adjectival complement
Postmodifier
Adverbial modifier
Adverbial modifier
Adverbial modifier
Complex object
Complex object
Subject complement
Predicative
Predicative
Absolute construction
Parenthesis
Premodifier
Premodifier
17. Extrapositional attribute
Extrapositional attribute
Adverbial modifier
225
III. 1. .
2. .
3.
,
.
4. , .
5.
-
, .
6. , .
7. , .
8. .
9. , .
10. , -,
.
11. , .
.
12. , .
13.

.
14. .
15. .
16. ,
.
17. ,
.
18. , , .
19.
,
,
.
20. ,
, ,
.
226
References
Bloch M., A Course in Theoretical English Grammar, M.:
, 1983
Bryant M., A Functional English Grammar, N.Y., 1945
Conine B., Aspect. An Introduction to the Study of Verbal Aspect and
Related Problems. Cambridge, 1976
Comrie B., Tense, Cambridge, 1985
Curme G., A Grammar of the English Language, Boston N.Y., 1935
Deutshbein M., System dcr neuenglischen Syntax, Leipzig, 1935
Huddleston R., Some Theoretical Issues in the Description of the Eng lish verb, Lingua 40, 1976
Hyish B., The Structure of Modem English, M.L., 1971
Jackson H., Grammar and Meaning. A Semantic Approach to English
Grammar, Longman, 1990
Jesperson O., The Philosophy of Grammar, London, 1968
Leech G. Meaning and the English Verb, 1971
Mincoff M., An English Grammar, Sofia, 1958
Palmer F., The English Verb. Longman, 1987
Penakova G., - . Doctoral
Thesis. Unpublished.
Quirk R. et ah., A Grammar of Contemporary English. Longman. 1975
Rayevska H., Modern English Grammar, Kiev, 1976
Spassov D., English Articles, Sofia. 1972
Sweet H., A New English Grammar. Oxford, 1955
., . ,
1960
., , :
', A , . .13, . 6. 1954
Dictionaries:
Hornby A., Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English,
Oxford University Press, 1974
Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, 2002
227

G. Penakova - English Morphology

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G. Penakova - English Morphology

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1

2.5.1. Defining the Category

Meanings of the Present Tense Form

The correlation between the form and function of morphemes is

1.2. Categorial Structure of the Word

Grammatical elements express grammatical meanings. Grammatical

including the meaning of the marked member in case of neutralization

e.g. fast - faster - fastest

1.3. Grammatical Classes and Functional Series of

To the functional series of words belong the article, the preposition,

List 4: hair, manager, kennel

List 8: wow, ouch

... new car is gray.

Tom was not there but his brother was.

I never go past my old school but I think of the headmaster.

The film was anything but exciting.

But for the rain we should have had a pleasant journey.

There is not one of us but wishes to help you.

Read the sentences aloud. What is the strong form of 'but';

the noun class i s i nt o common

nouns m a y be ei t her animate ( denoting beings) or inanimate

ty can be formally marked by plural verb forms in Subject - Predicate

e.g. freedom, teacher, disbelief, withdrawal

2.1.3. Syntactic Functions

Nouns can perform the following syntactic functions:

jigsaw, step-mother, kitchenette, flight, cat, sister-in-low, news,

2. Identify the suffix its each un:

2. Find the nouns in th following text. What is the syntactic

1. Insert the appropriate verb form in the following sentences:

2.2. Semantic Changes Reflected in the Grammatical

Some common nouns have originated from proper nouns:

2.2.1.1. Proper noun Common noun

numeral + personal name plural

a + personal name singular

Common noun Proper noun

Countable noun Uncountable noun

The shift from countable to uncountable is often accompanied by a

2.2.1.4. Uncountable noun Countable noun

e.g. bread loaf

e.g. water waters (= an area of water that belongs to a particular

The student was staring helplessly at the blank ... of paper.

2. Use each of the following nouns in two sentences first as a

2.3. Article Determination

2.3.1. Structure of the Noun Phrase

Single participles, too, can function as Premodifiers:

e.g. There aren't enough chairs in the room. (countable, pl.)

rer is not familiar with the background information on the subject

demonstrative pronoun + noun

The information concerning the use of articles before nouns used

I bought iceFetch the

2.3.3.2. Articles with Common Nouns Used with Generic

When using countable nouns with generic reference, the speaker

Chart 2: Generic Reference

I can use a computer

The computer is the greatest

He always maintained his

The Japanese prefer not to

Honey is good for you.

She married into the

They travelled in quest of the

The British are cool and

It was obvious from the first

- slices two fresh of bread

each / every / either