DELTA - Grammar and Vocabulary

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1.

Adjective

a describing word. Many adjectives are formed

from nouns or verbs by addition of AFFIXES.
COMPOUND ADJECTIVES are formed of two
words, while others are derived of PARTICIPLES.

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Article

A DETERMINER placed before a NOUN that tells

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

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Aspect

The speaker's view of an event expressed in a verb

phrase.
PROGRESSIVE and PERFECT aspects exist in
English. Both are formed by AUXILIARY VERBS
and PARTICIPLES.
Progressive = be + present participle (ing)
Perfect = have + past participle (ed (usually))
Difficult to teach because different languages have
different systems of aspect.

Auxiliary
Verb
Modal
Auxiliary
Verb

They have a grammatical function and there are

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

Causative

A passive construction formed with have/get +

noun phrase + ed.
1. Used when someone causes something to be
done - typically a service - by someone else.
2. To talk about experiences.
Also describes verbs used to talk about people
causing events - started the fire, felled the tree
Spoken language more often than written.

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

COMPARATIVE or SUPERLATIVE
When they follow a linking verb they are
PREDICATIVE - The Princess is beautiful.
ATTRIBUTATIVE when precede a noun - the
beautiful princess.
2.

Adverb

Describe VERBS and ADJECTIVES. Often formed

by adding "LY" to an ADJECTIVE. However, it is
an enormous word class and when in doubt it is
said to classify a word as this. Can be
PREMODIFIED by other adverbs.
Meanings include
manner, place, time, degree, frequency
Can also including FOCUSING FUNCTION. - It
was only 3 euros.

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Most an be at beginning, middle or end of a

sentence but many are limited. Never go between
the verb and it's object.
3.

Adverbial

One of five possible elements in a CLAUSE or

SENTENCE. It functions like an ADVERB
1. contributes circumstantial information.
2. comments on what is being expressed
3. links clauses or sentences
Can be single words or adverb phrases
In winter, generally speaking, it freezes. As a
result, the pipes burst.

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Affix
Affixation

Antonym

An element (BOUND MORPHEME) that is added

to a word to change its meaning. A PREFIX or
SUFFIX can change a word to ANTONYM or the
WORD CLASS. Grammatical affixation changes
tense.
A word which is opposite in meaning to another
word. There are degrees of oppositeness and
senses
hot-cold (GRADABLE)
alive-dead (COMPLEMENTARY, NONGRADABLE)
buy-sell (CONVERSENESS)
Opposites also depend on context
dry-wet = weather
dry-sweet = wine

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Clause
Finite and
Non-Finite

Cleft
Sentence

The largest grammatical unit in a sentence and

usually contains a verb with a few exceptions.
Other elements include subject, object,
complement and adverbial.
FINITE = contains a FINITE VERB that is
marked for tense and agrees with the subject
NON-FINITE = has a PARTICIPLE or an
INFINITIVE as its verb.
VERBLESS = ellipsis(?)
A sentence that is split to foreground one
element in a sentence in relation to others.
It was Dorothy who was in the Wizard of Oz
(not Jean). Relates to context.

Cognate
False
Cognate

A word that has a similar meaning in another

language. This is because the word derives
from the same source.
FALSE COGNATE = a word that looks the
same in two languages but have two different
meanings. eg. embarrassed and embarazada.

Collocation

Describes words that occur together more

frequently than normal. (bed and breakfast/
catch and bus). There are strong collocations
and weak collocations, grammatical
collocations (i.e. verb+ preposition) and
lexical collocations ie noun+noun). FIXED
EXPRESSIONS are collocations of words that
rarely or never occur without each other.
narrow escape (lexical/strong)
depend on (grammatical/strong)
narrow path (lexical/weak)
moot point (fixed expression)

Complement

The clause element that follows LINKING

VERBS, such as "be" and "seem" and which
provides further information about the
SUBJECT. e.g. My brother is a nurse.
Can also add more information about the
OBJECT - e.g. some like it hot.

Complex
Sentence

A sentence that contains a main clause and

one or more subordinate clauses e.g. This is
the house - that Jack built.

Compound
Sentence

A sentence that contains only two co-ordinate

clauses. e.g. Jack fell down and broke his leg.

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Concord

In English, this is the agreement between the

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

18.

Conditional

Sentences that express imaginary or

hypothetical situations and usually contain a
modal verb. Consist of two clauses, main and
conditional (subordinate clause) that can be
real or unreal. Unreal conditional clauses are
backshifted in tense. Generally organised into
3 or 4 types for teaching purposes but this does
not include the mixed conditional clauses.
CONJUNCTIONS introduce the conditional
clause = if, provided that, unless.

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Conjunction
Co-ordinating
and
Subordinating

Members of a word class that join words,

phrases, clauses and sentences.
CO-ORDINATING - join to equal clauses
together - and, but, so
SUBORDINATING - join a subordinating
clause to a main clause - if, because, when

20.

Connotation

The good, bad, humorous or other

associations. Often culturally determined so
difficult for Ls to understand. e.g.
propaganda and collaborator have negative
connotations in English but their COGNATE
forms in other languages are not so loaded.

21.

Contraction

When a FUNCTION WORD is reduced and

attached to an adjacent word, e.g. won't.
Most common in spoken language and
informal written texts. Most common
contracts are subject pronoun + auxiliary
and modal auxiliary verbs - but not
contracted when the auxiliary is stressed.

Copular Verb
(Linking
Verb)

Verbs that take an obligatory complement.

The complement can be either a noun
phrase, or an adjective phrase and expresses
a current or resulting attribute. My tailor
became rich. My tailor seems rich. Common
copular verbs are
be, appear, feel, look, seem, smell, become,
get + adjective, go + adjective.

Declarative
Sentence

Takes the form of a statement as opposed to

an interrogative or an imperative. Usually
subject + verb + object. Can be positive or
negative.

Deixis
Deictic
Reference

The language points to spatial, temporal and

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

Determiner

Words that come before nouns such as the,

that, her, many and limit the noun in some
way. The choice of determiner depends on
whether the noun is countable or not. In the
order of elements in a NOUN PHRASE the
determiner always comes first. Many
determiners are also pronouns e.g. Would
you like some?

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Finite Verb
Non-Finite
Verb

Function
Word

FINITE - shows that they are related to the

subject by have PERSON, NUMBER and
TENSE.
She works for her father. They work for their
father. They worked for their father.
NON-FINITE - Infinitive with or without to or
present or past participles. e.g. Before working
for his uncle, Brad used to work for his father.
When there is more than one verb in a a verb
phrase, the finite verb comes first.
Words with a mainly grammatical function
such as auxiliary verbs, determiners,
pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and
some adverbs, such as adverb particles (up,
down, off). They are very common and make up
to 1/3 to 1/2 of text. They carry a great deal of
grammatical meaning because English is not a
heavily inflected language.

28.

Gerund

A verb form that ends in -ing but which is used

in a sentence like a noun. For example,
"Swimming is good for you"

29.

Homograph

Words that are written the same but have

different meanings and pronunciation.
A long and windy road
A dark and windy night.

30.

Homonym

Words written and pronounced the same way

but with a different meaning.
What do you like to eat?
What do you look like?
Great source of jokes! English rich in
homonyms.

31.

Homophone

Words that are written differently and have

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

32.

Hyponym

Describes words that have a relationship with

each other. A mango is a type of fruit.
SUPERORDINATE is the umbrella word for a
word family, eg. fruit

33.

Idiom

A word sequence whose meaning is not literal.

Formulaic in that they are and understood as if
they were a single unit.
Metaphorical - a hot potato
Restricted collocations - pitch black
Phrasal Verbs - pick up
Frozen Similes - as easy as pie
Binomials and trionimals - spick and span
proverbs and catchphrases - waste not want
not
euphemisms - spend a penny
true - spill the beans
Used more often in informal and spoken than
formal texts (ie. horoscopes that have a
conversational tone)

34.

Imperative

Non inflected base form of verb and normally

without a subject. Negatives formed with DO
NOT (DON'T) before the base form. Emphasise
with DO. LET used to express first person plural
meaning (suggestion).
Common in instructions, directions,
suggestions.
Can be face threatening so indirect forms
normally preferred with strangers. TPR is a good
way of practising.

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Infinitive

A non-finite form of a verb with "to" or without

"to" (bare infinitive). Bare infinitive always
follows modal verbs. Can be marked for aspect
and voice. Main uses:
BARE INFINITIVE
follow modal verbs
verbs like help, make, let
verbs of perception - see, hear
TO INFINITIVE
some verbs + reporting verbs - offer, remember
some nouns - It's time to be going
some adjectives - I'm sorry to hear
wh words - We don't know what to do
express purpose - I stopped to look at the flowers
Subject - To err is human
constructions beginning "it + linking verb +
adjective" - (It's easy to forget)

36.

-ing form

Formed by adding the suffix -ing to a verb, noun

or adjective. They always express a sense of
ongoing activity. Used in the following ways:
present participle (non finite) (verbs)
Gerunds (nouns)
Adjectives
preposition
Verb in non-finite clause
participle in complex verb phrases

37.

Intensifier

Adverbs that modify adjectives and verbs by

heightening or lowering their intensity - rather,
absolutely, very. Very common in spoken
language and they signal high involvement on
the part of the speaker.

38.

Inversion

Where two grammatical elements are reversed,

for example in a question. Less common are:
after adverbial expressions of place - here comes
the judge.
reported speech - "You're late" said Terry
certain negative expressions - Seldom have I
been so angry.
substitute for if - Had I known
after (not) only - Only then did I understand
Last three uses are literary.

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Lexical
Item

Any item that functions as a single meaning

unit, regardless of its different derived forms, or
of the number of words that make it up. e.g.
idioms, phrasal verbs.

Lexical
Verb
DeLexicalised
Verb

A content word that has some kind of dictionary

meaning. I came, I saw, I conquered are all
lexical verbs.

Lexical
Word
Content
Word

The main carriers of meaning in written and

spoken texts. They belong to the four main
WORD CLASSES and are the words that remain
when you remove the FUNCTION WORDS.
LEXICAL DENSITY measures the proportion of
lexical words as opposed to function words.
Newspaper reports often have a high density of
lexical words.

Modality

The lexical and grammatical ways speakers

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

Modal
Verb

Modifier

45.

Morphology

Morphology is the area of grammar concerned

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

46.

Negation

There are a variety of ways to express negation:

Not negation - auxiliary + not (usually
contracted)
negative determiner - No thanks
not + time or quantity expression - not now
negative prounouns - nobody, nothing
negative words - never, neither, nor
negative affixes - un, less
Order of Acquisition:
no + verb
not + verb
don`t + verb
operator + not + verb

47.

Noun

Largest word class in English constantly being

added to. Refer to people, places, things, and
abstract entities. Can occur as subject or object
of verb and most have singular/plural forms.
Take 's to indicate possession. Often formed
from affix to verb, adjective or other noun.
PROPER - specific people, places,
COMMON - countable and uncountable concrete/abstract.

Noun
Phrase

One of 5 types of phrase in English and typical

form subject, object or complement of clause.
Consist of a HEAD that is pre-or post-modified
with a determiner, adjective and other nouns.
Post-modified include prepositional phrases
and relative clauses. Structure of noun phrases
differs from language to language and Ls have
difficulty with word order.

Object

The person or thing in a clause that is affected

by the action of the verb. It is usually a NOUN
PHRASE or PRONOUN. Only TRANSITIVE
verbs can take objects - some take two DIRECT
and INDIRECT. I gave the book to Sally.
An OBJECT QUESTION is a question without
the object of the verb. What are you doing later?

A DE-LEXICALISED verb forms the verb

element in a number of multi-word expressions
and have little or no dictionary meaning - take,
get, make and go.

Most common way of expressing modality.

There are 9 pure modal verbs that do not have
infinitive forms, participles or third person "s".
They are placed first in the verb phrase and each
can express two kinds of meaning - extrinsic
and intrinsic. The main meanings are
possibility, volition, permission, ability,
obligation, prediction, prediction, logical
necessity. There are also semi-modal verbs ought to, have to, need to, be able to, used to and
be going to.
Adds further information to or modifies the head
of a noun phrase. It can go before or after the
head (pre-modifier and post-modifier).
Pre-modifier - typical adjective, noun,
possessive
Post-modifier - typically prepositional phrase, of
construction , non-finite clause or a relative
clause.
Typical in journalism, technical and academic
writing to form complex noun phrases to provide
a high lexical density.

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Parsing

The process of analysing sentences into their component parts and was very common in traditional teaching. Used to
describe the unconcious mental process a reader or listener works out the grammatical structure of sentences/utterances.

Phrasal
Verb

A construction which is a combination of a verb and one or two particles. The particle can be an adverb or a preposition or
both, eg. get on, get on with.

Question
Tag

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

Relative
Clause

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

Subject

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